Liberty Newspost July-20-2012

Curated News Edition
- 21/07/12
http://www.LibertyNewspost.com
Gun control debate renewed in wake of tragedy

Hope Hodge ( Todays Top News)
gun control legislation in the wake of the shooting that injured then- Congresswoman Gabrielle Submitted at 7/20/2012 1:52:15 PM Giffords in 2011, released a Addressing the press for the first statement with a much more time just before 2p.m. Friday muted message this morning. afternoon, Colorado Gov. John The horrific nightmare of a mass H i c k e n l o o p e r , a D e m o c r a t , shooting on innocent civilians in a appeared to give a nod to the gun crowded public place has, sadly, control debate that seems to come true once again. I mourn renew strength every time an alongside the people of Aurora for isolated and senseless incident of the many killed and injured and violence results in American the countless family and friends deaths. whose lives, as a result of the We cant allow people that are consequences of this event, will aberrations of nature to take away be negatively affected for decades the joys and freedoms that we to come, she said. enjoy, Hickenlooper said, in At the end of the statement came spite of the tragedy and emotion. the only hint at an agenda: The A d m i r a b l y , t h e m o r n i n g shooter should be brought to following the tragic theater justice and prosecuted to the shooting in Aurora, Colo. has fullest extent of the law. But we brought statements of sympathy as a nation should also not and compassion from both sides continue to ignore avenues to of the aisle in Congress, and few prevent tragedies like this from political pronouncements that use happening in the future. the horrific incident as a prop. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y) who has previously promised to who promptly called for stronger renew a ban on assault weapons,
also downplayed politics in his reaction statement. Colorado is not a violent place, but we have some violent people, he said. We are a strong and resilient community, and we will lean on each other in the days, weeks and months to come. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an outspoken gun control advocate, did take to the airwaves this morning, calling on President Barack Obama and Republican presumptive nominee to address the policy issue directly. I mean, there are so many murders with guns every day, its just got to stop, he told radio station WOR. Mitt Romney, speaking earlier today, opted for a more unifying message, telling a crowd they should take the opportunity to comfort the afflicted in their lives during this time of national sadness. This is a time for each of us to look at our hearts and remember
how much we love one another, he said. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) took an opposite tack in a Heritage Foundation radio interview, calling the shootings an act of terrorism and suggesting another armed person in the theater could have apprehended shooting suspect James Holmes and mitigated the violence. With so little known about the motives of the shooter and what took place in theater Number 9 last night, it seems too early to make any broad pronouncement about this tragedy and what it means for the nation. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
What does China want for its $20 billion to Africa? - Foreign Policy (blog)
(china - Google News)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 8:07:20 PM
Wall Street Journal (blog) What does China want for its $20 billion to Africa? Foreign Policy (blog) China signaled its intention to expand ties with Africa today at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation by promising $20 billion in loans to African countries over the next three years. The pledge, which is double what China offered at the Forum's 2009... China, African nations vow cooperation after talks CBS News China Vows More Aid for African Countries LoanSafe China offers Africa $20 billion in loans, promising a new approach Los Angeles Times Wall Street Journal (blog)- New York Times all 835 news articles
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Analysis: Colorado shooting unlikely to spur changes in gun laws

(Reuters: Top News)
advocates have largely lost the argument against the much more powerful gun lobby, and REFILE TO CORRECT TYPO politicians know the issue is toxic IN BYLINE People react outside with voters. Gateway High School a few One of the few politicians who blocks from the scene of the has long taken a stand is New Century 16 Theatre shootings in York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Aurora, Colorado July 20, 2012. the billionaire backer of Mayors Credit: Reuters/ Evan Semon Against Illegal Guns, a coalition By John Whitesides and David of mayors advocating for stricter Ingram rules on gun sales and ownership. WASHINGTON| Fri Jul 20, 2012 Speaking on WOR Radio on 5:32pm EDT Friday, Bloomberg called on ( R e u t e r s ) - D e n v e r M a y o r Obama and Romney to tell the Michael Hancock is a member of public what they would do to a coalition called Mayors Against reduce gun violence. Illegal Guns, but when he issued a "Soothing words are nice, but statement expressing shock and maybe it's time that the two horror on Friday after a mass people who want to be president shooting at a Colorado movie of the United States stand up and theater, he had nothing to say tell us what they are going to do about gun control. about it," he said. Neither did President Barack "I don't think there's any other Obama nor his Republican rival developed country in the world M i t t R o m n e y , t h o u g h b o t h that has remotely the problem we canceled campaign speeches on have," Bloomberg said. "We have Friday and expressed sorrow for more guns than people in this the victims of the shooting country." rampage. Most Americans, however, do The killing of 12 people at a not believe that tougher gun laws midnight screening of the new would be the solution. Gallup Batman movie in the Denver polls over the last two decades suburb of Aurora may spark a show the percentage of Americans fresh round of soul-searching on who favor making gun control America's relationship with guns laws "more strict" fell from 78 but few predict any real change in percent in 1990 to 44 percent in the law. 2010. That's because gun control The Brady Center to Prevent Gun
Submitted at 7/20/2012 4:32:09 PM
Violence, the largest and oldest of America's gun-control groups, is a fraction of its peak size. The center and an affiliated political arm had revenue of $5.9 million in 2010, the most recent year for which information is publicly available - down 27 percent in three years. In the same year, the powerful pro-gun lobby, the National Rifle Association (NRA), and its various components took in $253 million from individuals, gun makers and sellers and other supporters. Even Democratic supporters of efforts to keep a tighter rein on weapons were relatively mum after the shooting. Democrats in conservative and rural states fear alienating gun owners and the NRA, and crucial presidential battleground states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Virginia, Iowa and North Carolina have large populations of enthusiastic gun owners. "We're in the summer before a presidential election and I really don't foresee any serious discussion of gun control," said Kristin Goss of Duke University, the author of "Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control in America." Some supporters of Democrat Al Gore still believe his support for
gun control laws played a role in his loss of the 2000 presidential election, and "memories of lost elections loom large for politicians," Goss said. Evan Bayh, a former Democratic senator from the conservative state of Indiana, described the dilemma facing Democrats who favor gun control and live in Republican-leaning states. "You have a lot of people who feel passionately about that issue. ... So, many members of Congress are faced with the decision: Do they sacrifice all the other good they hope to accomplish for this one issue? And do they sacrifice their own careers for this one issue?" Congress has not approved any major new gun laws since 1994, and a ban on certain semiautomatic rifles expired in 2004. Some states have loosened gun laws to allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons or adopted "Stand Your Ground" self -defense laws. A Reuters-Ipsos poll in April found most Americans supported the right to use deadly force to protect themselves, and two of every three respondents had a favorable view of the NRA, which marshals thousands of activists to oppose even small-scale gun regulations and punish lawmakers who challenge them.
'STRONG FORCES' "There are strong forces in American politics, led by the National Rifle Association, that have prevented any real changes in gun control laws in years," said Cal Jillson, a political analyst at Southern Methodist University in Texas. "In the short term, this incident will give some liberal Democrats an opportunity to talk about gun control in an environment where people are listening, but in the long term it doesn't change anything," he said. Other high-profile gun-related mass shootings in recent years the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007 and the shooting of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and others in Arizona in January 2011 - also sparked some shortterm debate but little action. Opponents of stricter gun control point to events such as last year's killing of 77 people in Norway, which like the rest of Europe has much tighter controls on guns than the United States, as evidence that gun laws don't stop such tragedies. The NRA said in a statement: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and the community. NRA will not have any further comment until ANALYSIS: page 9
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Gunman kills 12 in rampage at "Batman" premiere in Colorado

(Reuters: Top News)
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:33:04 AM
By Keith Coffman and Stephanie Simon and Mary Slosson AURORA, Colo.| Sat Jul 21, 2012 1:33am EDT (Reuters) - A gunman wearing a full suit of tactical body armor, a helmet and a gas mask opened fire at a packed midnight showing of the new "Batman" film in a Denver suburb on Friday, killing 12 people after setting off two smoke bombs in the dark theater. Armed with an assault rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, the blackclad gunman wounded 58 others in the shooting rampage at a showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" at a mall in Aurora, turning the movie screening into a chaotic scene of dead or bleeding victims, horrified screams and pleas for help, witnesses said. Police said 30 people remained hospitalized on Friday evening, 11 of them in critical condition. Officers who arrived on scene within 90 seconds of the first emergency calls quickly took suspect James Eagan Holmes, 24, into custody in a parking lot behind the cinema, where he surrendered without a fight, Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said. Holmes, a graduate student who authorities said had his hair dyed
red and called himself "the Joker" in a reference to Batman's comicbook nemesis, was due to make an initial court appearance on Monday. Police declined to say what, if anything, Holmes said to them following his arrest. During an emotional press conference, Oates would not comment on possible motives for the massacre that stunned the community and the nation. Authorities were unable to enter Holmes' apartment on Friday, saying he had booby-trapped it with what appeared to be sophisticated explosives. Police evacuated five nearby buildings and created a perimeter of several blocks and said they planned to detonate the suspected explosives with a robot on Saturday. Meanwhile, police used dogs to search three buildings in a research complex at Anschutz Medical Campus at the University of Colorado at Denver where Holmes had worked. A university spokeswoman said nothing suspicious was found. Witnesses at the movie theater told of a horrific scene, with dazed victims bleeding from bullet wounds, spitting up blood and crying for help. Among those taken to hospitals as a precaution was a baby boy just a few months old.
"I slipped on some blood and landed on a lady. I shook her and said, 'We need to go; get up,' and there was no response, so I presumed she was dead," said Tanner Coon, 17. FUZZY PORTRAIT OF SUSPECT Confusion reigned as shooting broke out during an action scene in the summer blockbuster. The suspect may have blended in with other moviegoers who wore costumes as heroes and villains, and some witnesses said they believed at first that his appearance was a theatrical enhancement to the film. "It was just straight chaos," said Jennifer Seeger, 25. "Everybody was starting to scream and run at that point. He went straight from here to here with a gun in my face at that point. That rifle was in my face and I honestly didn't know what to think." The shooting evoked memories of the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, 17 miles from Aurora, where two students opened fire and killed 12 students and a teacher. It also resonated in the U.S. presidential race. Both President Barack Obama and his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, toned down their campaigns, pulled their ads from Colorado
and dedicated their scheduled events to the victims. "My daughters go to the movies," Obama told supporters at a campaign event in Fort Myers, Florida. "What if Malia and Sasha had been at the theater as so many kids do each day?" The gunman was armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and a Glock .40-caliber handgun, Oates said. Police found an additional Glock .40-caliber handgun in his car, parked just outside the theater's rear emergency exit, Oates said. He was dressed entirely in black with a gas mask, ballistic helmet, tactical ballistic vest, throat guard, leggings and crotch guard, Oates said, adding that Holmes had purchased the weapons legally at three area gun stores in the last 60 days and had bought 6,000 rounds of ammunition. A law enforcement official who asked to remain anonymous said the suspect had purchased a ticket, entered the theater and propped open the emergency exit while he slipped out to "gear up" and return armed. The portrait of Holmes that emerged in the hours following the shooting remained fuzzy, with only a speeding ticket on his record and nothing to suggest he was capable of an outburst of gun violence.
'SOCIALLY AWKWARD' He grew up in a middle-class San Diego neighborhood and earned a degree in neuroscience from the University of California at Riverside before seeking his graduate degree from the University of Colorado. People who knew him described him as kind toward children but said he had trouble finding work. Holmes was described as bright but was in the process of dropping out of his graduate program at the time of the shooting, according to the university. Billy Kromka, a pre-med student at the University of Colorado at Boulder who served as a research assistant alongside Holmes for several months last year, said he was astonished at the news. "He basically was socially awkward but not to the degree that would warrant suspicion of mass murder or any atrocity of this magnitude," Kromka, 19, said. "I did not see any behavior he exhibited that indicated he would be capable of an atrocity of a magnitude like this." Kromka said Holmes never talked politics or became animated about any particular subject, but appeared to be influenced by movies and the media and played online roleGUNMAN page 9
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Syrian forces attempt fight back after rebel surge

(Reuters: Top News)
powerful brother-in-law, defense minister and intelligence chief. In the days since, rebels have By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and pushed deep into the heart of the Khaled Yacoub Oweis capital and seized control of other BAB AL-HAWA, Syria/ towns. On Thursday, they AMMAN| Sat Jul 21, 2012 captured three border crossings 1:56am EDT with Iraq and Turkey, the first ( R e u t e r s ) - S y r i a n a r m y time they have held sway over helicopters pounded Damascus Syria's frontiers. with rockets and heavy machine At Bab al-Hawa, a busy border g u n s o v e r n i g h t , a n d t a n k s post with Turkey seized by bombarded the capital from the a d v a n c i n g f i g h t e r s , r e b e l s ring road, to try to reverse watched on with approval while relentless gains by rebels since jubilant villagers looted a duty much of President Bashar al- free shop, part of the vast business A s s a d ' s e n t o u r a g e w a s empire of one of Assad's cousins. assassinated. "This is the people's money; they T h e u n p r e c e d e n t e d r e b e l are taking it back," said rebel momentum of the past few days fighter Ismail. "Whoever wants to has fighters boasting that Assad's should take it." grip is being pried from the Assad has failed to speak in country his family has ruled since public since Wednesday's blast, his father seized power in a coup adding to the sense that one of the 42 years ago. But he remains a most strategically important fearsome foe. countries in the Middle East is "The regime has been rudderless being torn from his grasp. A for last three days. But the aerial funeral was held on Friday for and ground bombardment on officials slain in the attack, but Damascus and its suburbs shows Assad did not attend and was that it has not lost the striking nowhere to be seen. force and that it is re-grouping," The next few days will determine opposition activist Moaz al-Jahhar whether Assad's government can said by telephone from Damascus. recover from the bombing, which The 16-month conflict has been wiped out much of his command transformed since Wednesday, structure in a single blow and when a bomb killed four members destroyed his clan's decades-old of the president's narrow circle of aura of merciless invulnerability. kin and lieutenants, including his Rebels poured into the capital
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:56:40 AM
Damascus at the start of the week and have since been battling government forces in what the fighters call operation "Damascus Volcano". Lightly-armed rebels have been moving on foot inside residential neighborhoods and attacking security installations and roadblocks dotted across the capital. Wajeeh, a private employee who did not want to give his last name, said he saw three tanks on the southern ring road that deployed late on Friday evening and were firing at the Kfar Souseh and Mezze districts in west Damascus. "The road was cut off and troops were firing mortar rounds from next to the tanks," he said. A resident of Mezzeh, a middle class district of high rise towers, villas and cactus fields, said army helicopters were striking the neighborhood with heavy machineguns and rebels were firing back "uselessly" from automatic rifles. Another resident in Barzeh, a lower middle class neighborhood in the northeast, said a barrage of mortar rounds began hitting the district before midnight and he counted six rounds hitting residential buildings. He said snipers stationed in Ush al-Wawrar, an enclave in hills overlooking Barzeh populated
mainly by members of Assad's Alawite minority sect, had killed a woman earlier in the day and there were sporadic exchanged of fire between the two districts. An activist in Saida Zeinab, a poor neighbourhood in the southeast of Damascus housing thousands of Sunni Muslim refugees from other parts of Syria, said it was being shelled with artillery following a helicopter rocket attack. Explosions were also heard from the suburbs of Harasta, Irbeen, Daraiya and Harran al-Awameed, where rebels fought troops on Friday. Activists said at least 100 people were killed in Damascus on Friday. Accounts could not be verified. The Syrian government restricts access by international journalists. FINAL PHASE Regional and world powers are now bracing for the last phase of the conflict, hoping to wrench Assad out of power without unleashing a sectarian war that could spill across borders in one of the most volatile parts of the world. Israel said it would consider military action if needed to ensure Syrian missiles or chemical weapons do not reach Assad's allies in Lebanon, the Shi'ite Islamist movement Hezbollah. "I have instructed the military to
increase its intelligence preparations and prepare what is needed so that ... (if necessary) ... we will be able to consider carrying out an operation," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said. Diplomacy has failed to keep pace with events. A day after Moscow and Beijing vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have allowed sanctions, the Security Council approved a 30-day extension of a small, unarmed observer mission, the only outside military presence on the ground. In at least one apparent success for Assad's forces, state TV said on Friday troops had cleared the central Damascus district of Midan of "mercenaries and terrorists". It showed dead men in t-shirts, some covered in blood, others burned. Opposition activists and rebel sources confirmed on Friday that they had withdrawn from that district after coming under heavy bombardment, but said they were advancing elsewhere. "It is a tactical withdrawal. We are still in Damascus," Abu Omar, a rebel commander, said by telephone. Assad's forces shelled the Abu Kamal crossing with Iraq on the Euphrates River highway, one of SYRIAN page 7
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Obama Raises $45.9M in June; $33M for Romney - Businessweek

(Top Stories - Google News)
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:48:59 AM
the parties air spots that are consistent with the candidates messages, said Tobe Berkovitz, a Barack Obama has more money professor of communication at in his campaign bank account Boston University. Party-run than Republican challenger Mitt spots rarely cause problems for Romney, and the president is their candidates. Obama Spends u s i n g h i s f u n d s e a r l y - - Obama continued to draw down o u t s p e n d i n g t h e f o r m e r his campaign account, spending Massachusetts governor by about $58.1 million last month with $43 2-to-1 last month. million for advertising, including Obama entered July with $97.5 broadcast and online. Romney million in the bank, and used a spent $27.5 million during the part of it to run 35,347 television month, less than half as much as ads in the 14-day period ending Obama, with $11.1 million going July 16, according to New York- for media. based Kantar Medias CMAG. President Obamas campaign The Romney campaign, which will never have a more substantial began July with $22.5 million, advertising advantage than it has aired 16,946 spots during that had over the past few weeks, yet period. Since more than 97 there is no evidence to suggest percent of those commercials that the ballot has moved, were negative, that meant voters R o m n e y s p o l l s t e r , N e i l saw twice as many campaign- Newhouse, said in a July 16 funded ads attacking Romney memo. rather than Obama. Obama raised $45.9 million last Romneys side has been able to month and has now taken in more take in more money than Obamas t h a n $ 3 0 7 m i l l i o n f o r h i s during the last two months as both campaign. Romney brought in men raise money jointly with their $33 million and has now raised political parties, which can take in more than $156 million. l a r g e r d o n a t i o n s t h a n t h e Romney received $79,355 from candidate committees alone. The employees of London-based difference is that Obama can Barclays Plc (BARC), whose directly control his money, while chairman, chief executive officer Romney must rely more on party and chief operating officer all leaders. resigned after the bank agreed to It is always better to have money pay $456 million for manipulating controlled by the campaign, but the London interbank offered rate,
or Libor, a benchmark interest rate. The former CEO, Robert Diamond, also dropped out as a co-host of a London fundraiser for Romney. A Barclays lobbyist, Patrick Durkin, is a Romney fundraiser. Bank Contributions Barclays was followed in contributions by employees of Morgan Stanley (MS) ( MS), Bank of America Corp. (BAC) ( BAC) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) ( JPM) Employees of those three companies and those of Goldman Sachs Group are the four biggest sources of contributions to Romneys presidential campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group that tracks campaign donations. Employees of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) ( MSFT) and Google Inc. (GOOG) ( GOOG), among the top four givers to Obamas campaign to date, were his two biggest sources of donations last month, giving $41,124 and $38,086 respectively, according to a computer-assisted analysis of FEC data. IBM Corp. employees contributed $36,059. Obama also released an updated list of his top fundraisers, adding 60 names to those who have raised more than $500,000 for his campaign, including Maryland Governor Martin OMalley.
Romney has refused to identify his top fundraisers except for the registered lobbyists he is required to report in FEC filings. Combined Totals The combined bank balances of the Romney campaign committee, the Republican National Committee and the joint fundraising committee totaled $170 million at the end of June, compared with $144 million for Obamas side. While Obamas campaign accounts for 68 percent of the money his side has to spend, Romney directly controls only 13 percent of his funds. Romneys money advantage increases when super-political action committees are included. Restore Our Future, the proRomney super-PAC, had $21.6 million in the bank at the end of June. American Crossroads, which is also supporting Romney, had a balance of $31.5 million. Priorities USA Action, the superPAC formed by former Obama aides, reported $2.8 million cash on hand. As long as the super-PAC and the parties stick with a message similar to the candidate they support, then Romney has the money advantage, said David Primo, a political science professor at the University of Rochester in New York. The danger for Romney is that one of
the super-PACs supporting him pursues an alternative and harmful strategy, causing the additional funding to hurt, not help. Adelson Donations Restore Our Future amassed $20.7 million in June, largely through big checks from familiar Republican donors. Las Vegas casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife gave $10 million. The Adelson family had supported Newt Gingrichs failed run for the Republican nomination, with $21.5 million in contributions to a super-PAC that backed the former U.S. House speakers candidacy. Houston home builder Bob Perry gave $2 million, bringing his total donations to $6 million. William Koch, the brother of energy billionaires David and Charles Koch, contributed $1 million through his Oxbow Carbon LLC. Through personal checks and his companies, William Koch has donated $3 million in all. Perry also gave $2 million to American Crossroads, cofounded by two former aides to President George W. Bush, Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, the latter now an adviser to Romney. He earlier gave $2.5 million to the super-PAC. American Crossroads raised $5.8 million last month. OBAMA page 7
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People who knew Colorado theater shooting suspect are baffled - Los Angeles Times
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:52:03 AM
The suspect in the Colorado shooting Friday was described as a shy but polite, highly intelligent young man with a gift for science. He grew up in an affluent suburb of San Diego, played soccer and ran cross-country in high school, and graduated with honors at UC Riverside with a degree in neuroscience. Few details in the emerging sketch of James E. Holmes the 24-year-old alleged to have killed at least 12 people and injured 58 others at a movie theater offer any answer to the question Americans find themselves once again asking after a gun rampage: Why? Friends and neighbors were baffled, and Holmes left no clues online as to his potential motives or mental state. Authorities say he booby-trapped his apartment in Aurora, Colo., with explosives and chemical devices, and they were still working to disable them late Friday before they could collect evidence that might yield insight into his thinking. PHOTOS: 'Dark Knight Rises' shooting The suspect had been pursuing a doctorate in neuroscience at the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus in
Aurora for a year, but had begun the process of withdrawing from the program last month, officials said. It is not clear what triggered his decision to drop out, although some reports suggested he was having troubles with his studies. The attack appears to have been carefully planned. Carrying an AR-15 assault-style rifle, a shotgun and two Glock pistols, the killer walked into a multiplex theater screening the new Batman movie,"The Dark Knight Rises,"with dyed red hair and saying he was the Joker, according to law enforcement. He wore a gas mask, a ballistics helmet and vest, and groin, throat and leg protectors. He released two smoke- or gas-emitting devices, and then opened fire, shooting at anyone who tried to escape. He was arrested without incident near a white Hyundai in a parking lot nearby. The Aurora police chief said Holmes bought each of the four guns from retailers over the last two months and purchased 6,000 rounds for the assault rifle and the two Glocks over the Internet. TIMELINE: Mass shootings in the U.S. Kaitlyn Fonzi, 20, a graduate student who says she lives in the apartment below the suspect, told the Associated Press that she heard techno-like music
reverberating from his apartment around midnight. She went upstairs and felt the door was unlocked, but she didn't open it. "I yelled out and told him I was going to call the cops and went back to my apartment," she said. When she called police, she was told they were busy with a shooting and could not respond to her complaint. She said she was shaken to hear that the apartment was booby-trapped, and she suspected the music had been set on a timer at the time of the shootings. "I'm concerned if I had opened the door, I would have set it off," she said. Holmes' father, Robert, a software engineer, left the family's home in Rancho Peasquitos Friday morning with a police escort, while his mother, Arlene, a registered nurse, remained at home. A neighbor described Holmes as a very shy, well-mannered young man who was heavily involved in the local Presbyterian church. "He seemed to be a normal kid. I don't know what triggered it," said Tom Mai, a retired electrical engineer. "This makes me very sad." His comments were echoed by many who had passing acquaintance with Holmes. Few seemed to know him intimately,
but he was not totally withdrawn; he had friends and played sports. His junior varsity soccer photo shows him looking confidently into the camera wearing his No. 16 jersey. One fellow Westview High School student, who asked not to be identified, listened as people reviled the suspect all morning, and only at lunch did he learn they were talking about his old classmate. "I got a call from another friend who asked, 'Do you know who it is? Jimmy Holmes,'" he said. "I was silent and no longer hungry." He said he and Holmes were part of a four-person group that ate together during their sophomore and junior years. "We had the same humor," the friend said. "We were all people who didn't have go-to best friends, so we all ate lunch together." He said that Holmes had a "dark, sarcastic kind of humor" but that he never "read it as psychotic," and he wasn't notably introverted within their circle. "Looking back, I guess he was dorky, and so was I. He wasn't quiet, but he didn't make a big effort to make friends." UC Riverside Chancellor Timothy P. White said that Holmes was an honor student as an undergraduate there. He had no run-ins with police on campus or
anything else that would foreshadow what happened. White said professors who knew Holmes expressed disbelief about what occurred. "We are very deeply saddened by this horrific event," he said. He said neurological sciences is a rigorous area of study on campus. "He was an honor student, so academically, he was at the top of the top," he said. Jessica Cade, 23, a graduate student at UC Riverside, lived in the same honors dorm as Holmes and said that she would occasionally go out with him with friends. "He was a very nice guy. He was very, very smart; a little weird kind of like you'd expect a really smart guy to be," Cade said. She said that Holmes and other young men in the dorm often played video games, especially Guitar Hero, but nothing out of the ordinary. "They're calling him 'deranged' and a 'lunatic.' Never in a million years would that have crossed my mind," Cade said. "I was horrified when I saw his picture on the news. I was very close to fainting in the office." Holmes appears to have left little record of his thoughts or activities online, with no Facebook, PEOPLE page 8
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Pyongyang threats to reexamine nuclear apabilities
SYRIAN
continued from page 4
the most important trade routes in the Middle East, seized by rebels on Thursday. A Reuters photographer at the scene said Iraqi forces had sealed off their side of the checkpoint RT (News RSS : Today) of internal unrest. sanctions on Pyongyang after a beginning to understand that that with concrete walls. Late on N o r t h K o r e a n t e l e v i s i o n failed rocket launch in April. change is necessary not only to Submitted at 7/20/2012 9:33:00 PM Friday explosions and gunfire broadcasted Chols testimony, Previous atomic tests have been engage more with the rest of the could be heard from the Syrian A N o r t h K o r e a n m i s s i l e where he outlined his alleged conducted in 2006 and 2009. world, but to begin to move side, which had been burned and Taepodong class (AFP Photo / plans. Military nuclear capability is not forward with their own aspirations looted. Pedro Ugarte) South Koreas Unification the only thing North Korea's to be a strong, independent North Korea has threatened to Ministry, which handles relations young leader wants to reexamine. country, Eric Sirotkin, of the The surge in violence has trapped millions of Syrians, turned r e e x a m i n e i t s n u c l e a r with North Korea, confirmed T h i s w e e k , K i m J o n g - u n Campaign to End the Korean sections of the capital into ghost capabilities after perceiving a Chols 2010 defection but has dismissed his military chief, War, told RT. new, threatening agenda from its denounced the sabotage allegation apparently after he voiced his The planned reforms could be towns, and sent tens of thousands southern neighbor and United as groundless, with one official opposition to major economic Pyongyangs most significant of refugees fleeing to neighboring Lebanon. States. calling it an"improbable plot," reforms about to be initiated by move in decades to revive its "The regime is going through its -"The consistent hostile policy reports the Los Angeles Times. the country's leader. economy. Previous attempts, like towards the DPRK pursued by the North Korea has also accused Vice Marshal Ri Yong-ho, a 2009's currency re-denomination, last days," Abdelbasset Seida, the US is giving rise to the evil cycle Washington of backing the plot, supporter of the military first have not been welcomed by the l e a d e r o f t h e m a i n S y r i a n opposition umbrella group, the of confrontation and tensions on t h u s v i o l a t i n g a d e a l w i t h policy, had been discharged for public. the Korean Peninsula, making the Pyongyang to pull back on its opposing plans to seize control of This entry passed through the Syrian National Council, said in Rome, predicting a dramatic prospect of denuclearizing the atomic program. e c o n o m i c p o l i c y f r o m t h e Full-Text RSS service if this is peninsula all the more gloomy," "Without the US fundamental m i l i t a r y , R e u t e r s r e p o r t s . your content and you're reading it escalation in violence. an unnamed Foreign Ministry repeal of its hostile policy toward The military plays a huge on someone else's site, please read (Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes, Samia Nakhoul and spokesman said. t h e D P R K f i r s t , i t w i l l b e economic role in North Korea the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentThe comments come in response completely impossible to settle they deal with harvesting the only/faq.php#publishers. Five Dominic Evans in Beirut, and to the arrest of North Korean the issue of ensuring the lasting crops, they deal with working on Filters recommends: Incinerating Saad Shalash near Qaim, Iraq; defector Jon Yong Chol, who is peace and stability on the Korean roads. A lot of the employment in Assange - The Liberal Media Go Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Myra MacDonald) accused of returning to the Peninsula." North Korea relates to militarism To Work. This entry passed through the country with orders from South In June, North Korea claimed and the military, but its a change Full-Text RSS service if this is Korean and US intelligence to that it had no plans to conduct a of attitude that is necessary, and your content and you're reading it blow up statues and monuments third nuclear test, after the UN perhaps what were beginning to on someone else's site, please read in order to create the appearance S e c u r i t y C o u n c i l t i g h t e n e d see is that the North Koreans are the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentOBAMA only/faq.php#publishers. Five continued from page 5 Filters recommends: Incinerating Priorities USA Action raised $6.2 story: Jonathan D. Salant in at jcummings21@bloomberg.net. Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go million. Irwin Jacobs, the former W a s h i n g t o n a t This entry passed through the Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work. chairman of Qualcomm Inc. jsalant@bloomberg.net; Greg Full-Text RSS service if this is To Work. (QCOM) ( QCOM), contributed G i r o u x i n W a s h i n g t o n a t your content and you're reading it $2 million, and actor Morgan g g i r o u x @ b l o o m b e r g . n e t . on someone else's site, please read Freeman donated $1 million. To contact the editor responsible the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentTo contact the reporters on this for this story: Jeanne Cummings only/faq.php#publishers. Five
Top News/ Policy/ Economy/
Pussy Riot custody extension sparks new public outrage

RT (News RSS : Today)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 7:10:00 PM
China in talks to build five new reactors in UKpaper - Reuters

Submitted at 7/20/2012 8:07:29 PM
(RIA Novosti / Evgeny Biyatov) The decision to add another six months in custody for the members of Russian punk group Pussy Riot has sparked a new wave of public outrage. The girls' lawyers are now seeking President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill as witnesses in the case. -The Moscow City Court has ruled that Pussy Riot's members, who have already spent nearly five months in pre-trial detention, will remain in custody until January 2013. The girls lawyers called the case a theater of the absurd, and a show trial dictated by officials who want to see the girls serve serious jail time. The lawyers said that it was a hell inside the courtroom, and that the prosecutors could not keep their arguments straight. Defense lawyer Violetta Volkova said that the prosecutorsbelieve
that the recent murder of the Mufti was provoked by the actions of the defendants, which is why they must remain in custody. Today's decision only proves again that our role as defendants here is a pure formality, said another lawyer, Mark Feigin.It is not a process but a judicial reprisal. The defense said it had filed several motions to bring experts including President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill to testify before the court, but the motions were rejected. "The patriarch has repeatedly spoken out about events in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. In addition to that, he was rector of the church and believers need to hear his opinion," Feigin said. And Putin, Feigin claims, has adecisive influence on the court, which makes him a material witness to the case. According to the defense, a
propaganda machine had been launched to create a negative spin on Pussy Riot. The majority of Muscovites, however, seem to sympathize the band. According to a poll conducted by the independent Levada Center released on Friday, over 50 per cent of respondents said they were against a criminal trial for Pussy Riot, with only 36 per cent supporting the trial. The high-profile hearing took place in the same court as the second trial of former Yukos tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The court building was cordoned off by police beginning early Friday morning. Journalists and groups of Pussy Riot's supporters and opponents gathered outside the court building. In spite of having very lively debates on the issue, the opposing groups did not cause any trouble. However, four supporters of the band were detained for shouting
slogans. They were escorted into one of many police vans parked nearby. The three members of Pussy Riot Natalya Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich each face up to seven years in prison on extremist hooliganism charges, following a masked guerrilla performance on the altar of Russias main cathedral. The song criticized Putin and alleged corruption within the Orthodox Church. Many of Russias leading artists and intellectuals have signed a petition calling for Pussy Riots release. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
The Guardian China in talks to build five new reactors in UK-paper Reuters LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) Chinese nuclear firms are considering investing 35 billion pounds in building up to five new nuclear reactors in Britain, a newspaper reported on Saturday. A team from the Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design... China in talks to build UK nuclear power plants The Guardian China in talks to build five new reactors in UK: Report Economic Times China in talks to build five new reactors in UK: paper Terra.com all 33 news articles [unable to retrieve full-text content]
PEOPLE
Twitter, LinkedIn or Myspace accounts under his name. He had no previous run-ins with law enforcement. joe.mozingo@latimes.com matt.stevens@latimes.com Staff writers Nicole Santa Cruz, Tony Perry and Richard Marosi in
San Diego, John M. Glionna in Denver, Phil Willon in Riverside and Larry Gordon in Los Angeles contributed to this report. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read
the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
[unable to retrieve full-text content] [unable to retrieve full-text content]
Top News/
ANALYSIS:
GUNMAN
all the facts are known." Mayor Hancock of Denver, a Democrat, issued a statement saying it was a tragic day and pledging support for those affected by this "senseless, senseless" act. "Our hearts are broken but we are determined to move forward together," he said. Obama, who supported the lapsed assault weapons ban during the 2008 campaign, has made no effort as president to curb gun rights and has rarely discussed the issue. Many gun enthusiasts still distrust him, however, and the NRA uses the specter of a potential second term for Obama when he would be unrestrained by the demands of re-election - to raise money and keep its conservative base on edge. The NRA spent at least $40 million in 2008 to try to defeat Obama, who famously told the audience at a California fund raiser in April 2008 that it was not surprising that small town and rural residents in states like
Pennsylvania "get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them." Romney, a former governor in liberal Massachusetts, has courted the NRA and its followers in recent years with promises to support their rights but has offered few details and earned little enthusiasm. He got a tepid response at the NRA convention in April, when fewer than 200 of his 2,600-word speech was devoted to gun rights or gun issues. Some gun enthusiasts remember Romney's 2007 quote during his first run for president that he was "not a big-game hunter, I've always been a rodent and rabbit hunter. Small varmints, if you will." Jim Kessler, former policy director for Americans for Gun Safety, said guns owners far outnumber victims of gun crime, so the odds are stacked against gun control advocates. Some 32 percent of households owned a
gun in 2010. Moreover, it often isn't immediately apparent what gun laws would have made a difference in specific cases. "When there's a crime such as this, it often takes a few days of police work to figure out if a gun loophole has been evaded to cause the crime or if there has been a hole in the gun laws to allow someone to get the guns," he said. (Additional reporting by Emily Flitter, Jeff Mason, Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Claudia Parsons and Jim Loney) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
SPOKES: MotoGP - Mugello - Auction Central News

(Andrea Rossi - Google News)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 4:23:29 PM
SPOKES: MotoGP - Mugello Auction Central News Lorenzo is ahead and looks
unstoppable, but Bradl, now fourth, has entered the Dani/ Andrea battle for second. Stoner has upped his game, too, by climbing into fifth, but he's not close enough to the top four to
playing video games. But New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said he "clearly looks like a deranged individual." "He had his hair painted red. He said he was The Joker, obviously the enemy of Batman," Kelly told reporters, referring to a character in the Batman comic and cinematic universe known for committing acts of random, chaotic violence. 'GONE NOT FORGOTTEN' Holmes' family issued a statement of sympathy for the victims, saying, "Our heart goes out" to their loved ones, while they also asked for privacy from the media while they "process this information. Meanwhile, as darkness fell across Denver, a row of prayer candles and a dozen or so bouquets of flowers were clustered under a single handwritten sign that read: "7/20 gone not forgotten." The theater remained cordoned off with police vehicles lining the perimeter, and Oates said officers would be on hand for future showings of "The Dark Knight Rises" in the city. In New York, police pledged to deploy officers at all 40 theaters where the film was playing, partly as a precaution against pose a significant threat...yet. "copycats." Los Angeles police Rossi is... said they would increase patrols at and more screenings of the film. The Paris movie premiere was cancelled on Friday, event o r g a n i z e r s s a i d .
[ID:nL6E8IKD0F] Director Christopher Nolan called the shooting an "unbearably savage" event for which he expressed "profound sorrow" to the victims and their families. Time Warner-owned Warner Bros, the studio behind the film, faced the prospect of seeing the blockbuster sink at the box offices even as the film got off to a strong start across the United States and Canada. The film, with a budget of $250 million, opened on 4,404 screens, the second-widest release ever behind "Twilight: Eclipse," and industry analysts had said it stood a good chance of matching or beating the opening weekend box office record of $207 million set by Disney's "Avengers" in May. (Additional reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst, Joseph O'Leary, Tim Gaynor, Sunaina Karkarey, Jim Wolf, Alex Dobuzinskis, Cynthia Johnston and Dan Whitcomb; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Vicki Allen, Todd Eastham and Lisa Shumaker) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
10
Top News/ Technology/
Tourists dive into mockmilitant Zionism in West Bank

RT (News RSS : Today)
Suspect's purchase of 4 guns broke no laws, set off no alarms - Detroit Free Press
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:04:18 AM
A training camp, Caliber 3, for Israeli soldiers and bodyguards Submitted at 7/20/2012 10:03:00 PM since 2002, opened its doors to Israeli soldiers supervise an Israeli and American civilians American tourist firing a gun as about three years ago. she participates in an introductory The company offers a twocourse to handling firearms at the hour"tourist course" in which Caliber 3 shooting range located travelers and families take turns near the West Bank settlement of shooting at paper Palestinian-like Efrat (AFP Photo / Menahem mannequins. Kahana)(26.1Mb) embed video "It's a fun experience for the Hundreds of American adventure whole family," Rachel Frogel, a -seekers have found a new buzz at young mother holding a baby in a W e s t B a n k f i r i n g r a n g e , her arms, told Agence Franceshooting pictures of Arab-looking Press at Caliber 3. targets and learning a new version "We came to show the kids how of Israeli patriotism. the Israelis protect themselves and The West Bank Jewish settlement to have a good time," says Gush Etzion has found a way to Norman Solomon, a 65-year-old attract American Jewish tourists, real estate agent from Los with its nationalist spirit. The Angeles. company claims it offers"the But the"special encounter that values of Zionism with the cannot be experienced anywhere excitement and enjoyment of else except on the battlefield is s h o o t i n g , w h i c h m a k e s t h e not the image some local residents a c t i v i t y m o r e m e a n i n g f u l . " want to project.
regulations that would ban owning those guns, said Robert Brown, the agent in charge of The suspect in Friday's Colorado b a c k g r o u n d c h e c k s a t t h e They say it undermines their shooting had bought two pistols, a Colorado Bureau of Investigation. efforts to soften the image of semiautomatic rifle and a shotgun Colorado doesn't require gun violence-prone Israeli settlers. since May, avoiding federal registration and has no specific "For years we have been looking reporting requirements and taking waiting period to buy a gun. to change the perception of Israeli advantage of the state's failure to Instead, purchases are approved residents of Judaea and Samaria p a s s s i g n i f i c a n t f i r e a r m s as soon as U.S. authorities clear a and more specifically of Gush legislation since the Columbine list of 10 criteria, such as assuring the buyer isn't a fugitive or an Etzion," says Yoram Bitane, a massacre 13 years ago. f o r m e r h e a d o f t o u r i s m The suspect, James Holmes, 24, illegal alien, and the state development for the region. "The didn't buy the guns from the same c o n d u c t s i t s o w n c h e c k s , image given by Caliber 3 is store within five days, which including for restraining orders contrary to that goal," he added. w o u l d h a v e t r i g g e r e d a and juvenile arrests. Gush Etzion is perceived to be requirement for the seller to notify Colorado allows residents to one of the West Bank's more the U.S. Justice Department, carry concealed weapons. But according to a federal official who even with a permit, they cannot moderate settlements. This entry passed through the asked for anonymity because the carry a firearm in schools or some Full-Text RSS service if this is official wasn't authorized to speak government buildings and on your content and you're reading it p u b l i c l y . H o l m e s h a d n ' t private property where guns are on someone else's site, please read committed any offenses that prohibited by the owner. the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content- would have raised an alarm This entry passed through the only/faq.php#publishers. Five during required background Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it Filters recommends: Incinerating checks, the official said. Assange - The Liberal Media Go Authorities seized a Glock G22 on someone else's site, please read and a Glock G23 -- both .40- the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentTo Work. caliber pistols, one Remington only/faq.php#publishers. Five 870 Express Tactical 12-gauge Filters recommends: Incinerating shotgun and one Smith & Wesson Assange - The Liberal Media Go M&P .223-caliber semiautomatic To Work. rifle, the federal official said. In Colorado, there aren't specific
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11
Note to media: Despite horror, Americans are safer

David Harsanyi ( Todays Top News)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 2:46:02 PM
Human Events Blog Listening to the crush of media coverage and the sickening politicization of the murders in Colorado, we should not let it escape our attention that despite all the violence and sadness brought on by this event I lived in Denver for years, and Ive taken my children to the Aurora theater, so I get it most of us live in a far safer place than our parents. All day, Ive watched television
pundits talk about the country as if we were saturated in non-stop violence. The simple fact is that over the past decades we have become a more peaceful place. Steven Pinkers fascinating book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined is a macro view of this historical worldwide trend, but during my lifetime, crime rates and gun violence have fallen dramatically. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 1994, the United States hit an ugly peak with 13,981 murders by hand gun. By 2005, the last year the study is
available on the site, the number was 8,478. Death by other guns also decreased from 3,094 to 2,868 during that time. In 2010 there were 14,748
murder and nonnegligent manslaughters in the United States. Thats the lowest number since 1969. Even during this recession, crime has kept falling
for the most part, and baffling experts. Nothing can stop a sick person bent on murder. But all the scaremongering about guns and crime doesnt reflect reality. HUMAN EVENTS: RELATED ARTICLES Those who read this also read This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Can Jeremy Lin's Appeal in China Really Help Houston's Bottom Line? - TIME (blog)
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:44:34 AM
TIME (blog) Can Jeremy Lin's Appeal in China Really Help Houston's Bottom Line? TIME (blog) One reason the Houston Rockets were willing to offer Jeremy Lin a three-year, $25.1 million contract
a deal that Lin's former New York Knicks teammate Carmelo Anthony labeled ridiculous seems pretty clear. Since the Rockets drafted Yao Ming... Houston Hoping Linsanity Channels Yao China Digital Times all 4,968 news articles
Fusione fredda: prezzo in aumento per l'E-Cat - Risparmio Energetico

(andrea rossi e-cat - Google News)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 5:06:12 PM
Audit says Bin Hammam enriched himself

(Sports News Headlines Yahoo! News)
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:12:33 AM
Risparmio Energetico Fusione fredda: prezzo in aumento per l' E-Cat Risparmio Energetico ... per l' E-Cat. Autore: Daniele
Sforza; Categoria: Postato il: 20 Jul 2012 - 16:35. Dopo le ultime indiscrezioni sull' E-Cat e le attesissime immagini e informazioni degli ultimi test annunciati da Andrea Rossi, emergono ulteriori notizie relative al...
The man in charge of Asian soccer, once a candidate to oust FIFA President Sepp Blatter as the sport's worldwide leader, enriched himself and handed out hundreds of thousands of dollars to friends and relatives, according to an audit obtained by The Associated Press.
12
Business/
12 Dead, 70 Wounded At Denver Screening Of 'Dark Knight Rises'

Simone Foxman (Business Insider)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 9:12:00 PM
A horrific shooting at the Century Theater in Aurora, Colorado, early on Friday morning has stunned the United States. A figure in a gas mask set off what appear to have been tear gas bombs about 15 minutes into a midnight showing of The Dark Knight before opening fire on the crowd watching the movie. Police told reporters that 12 people have died and 58 more were injured in the attack. There were 70 casualties in total, making it the largest mass shooting in U.S. history by casualties. As of 3:30 PM local time (5:30 PM EDT), 30 patients remained in the hospital and 11 patients were still in critical condition. In a midday press conference, Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates named 24 year-old white male James Eagan Holmes as the sole suspect in the case. Police apprehended Holmes in the parking lot of the movie theater. 9News in Denver reports that the subject did not resist arrest. Bomb squads still on the scene Oates said the shooter made statements to police about explosives at his apartment and car after being taken into custody.
According to 9NEWS, a bomb robot found suspicious materials in Holmes's car. Upon further investigation, authorities determined that the subject's apartment had been booby-trapped with explosive or flammable devices. By that point, they had already evacuated the building at East 17th Street and Peoria in Aurora. The area--which includes five adjacent apartment buildings-remains surrounded by police. Authorities do not know how long it will take to secure the area. The police chief called Holmes's apartment a "very vexing problem." "We don't know how we're going to handle that," Oates said."It's like nothing I've ever seen." Aurora authorities sought help from the FBI and the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives). The task force had halted an operation to disarm the booby-traps for the day by Friday evening and planned to restart those efforts Saturday. University of ColoradoDenver police have evacuated two research buildings the suspect once worked in, according to CBS Denver. Theater-goers experienced their own horror movie Witnesses say the perpetrator,
allegedly wearing a bullet-proof vest, goggles, and a gas mask, entered Theater #9--one of three theaters showing The Dark Knight Rises around midnight--through a fire exit. He opened fire after blinding the audience with tear gas. At least one person in Theater #8 (also showing the Batman flick) was also hit by bullets coming through the wall. A witness also told reporters on the scene that the shooter eventually entered other theaters after they had been evacuated in an attempt to shoot stragglers. Some witnesses remarked in interviews after the massacre that Holmes appeared and even called
himself the "Joker," a character in the Batman saga. Journalists also pointed out that the shooting bears an uncanny resemblance to Frank Miller's graphic novel "The Dark Knight Rises." A puzzling suspect Police have said that Holmes has no criminal history beyond a single traffic violation. They are "confident" that Holmes acted alone, and by midday were no longer exploring the possibility that he acted in concert with an accomplice. While witnesses speculated that the incident "[felt] like" a terrorist attack in TV interviews immediately after the event,
police have said that the alleged gunman has no known connections to terrorist groups or activities. The New York Times reports that police consider Holmes " somewhat of an enigma" because they have been unable to find any solid indications of a motive nor any evidence of any past aberrant behavior. However, Oates told reporters at an evening press conference, "If we had information about a motive, we would not share it with you." The victims We've seen two disturbing, graphic amateur videos so far that were taken during or in the direct aftermath of the tragedy. One shows theater-goers fleeing the movie theater, first at a walk and then at a run. The second shows victims being carried through the parking lot away from the site of the attack. The wounded were transported to various local hospitals, all of which remarked that the victims tended to be young, with most between 16 and 30. The youngest person hospitalized that news channels identified was a 3 month -old who was taken to University Hospital. According to 9News, the infant was not injured, and DEAD, page 13
Business/ Sports/
13
DEAD,
taken to the hospital as a precaution. A 6 year-old was also taken to the local children's hospital. Most of the victims were treated for gunshot wounds, though a few victims only sought treatment for chemical exposure. These latter injuries were caused by the tear gas--or another chemical irritant-that the gunman apparently used to confuse theater-goers. "Nearly every one [of the victims] was shot," Oates told reporters. One victim posted images of his injuries to Reddit > Gunman stockpiled weapons ahead of the attack Oates told reporters in a press conference Friday evening, "In the last 60 days he purchased 4 guns at local metro gun shops." He also purchased 6,000 rounds of ammunition online. The police currently believe that Holmes acquired all his weapons and ammunition legally. The shooter fired from an assaulttype AR-15 rifle, a model 870 pump shotgun, and at least one of two .40-caliber Glocks police found at the scene. He was also carrying a knife. He was driving a car with Tennessee plates, but had been living in the Aurora area recently. Two more weaponsa shotgun and a pistolwere allegedly stored in his car. Here's what we know about the
equipment carried by the gunman > Holmes's mother tells reporters, "You have the right person" before Holmes was publicly identified Before police had confirmed the identity of the suspected gunman, ABC News got in touch with Holmes's mother. In a conversation with journalists she said,"You have the right person...I need to call the police...I need to fly out to Colorado," before ending the conversation. Later, San Diego police showed up outside her house. "We're only here to preserve the peace; we're not here to conduct and investigation or do anything else," said Lt. Andrea Brown of the San Diego Police. She said their tasks included keeping the street open and making sure journalists did not disturb the residents. According to the Associated Press, the University of Colorado Medical School said that the suspect had been a student there. He withdrew last month. He appears to have taken a course titled the Biological Basis of Psychiatric and Neurological D i s o r d e r s (via@BuzzFeedAndrew). The Associated Press reported at 4:20 PM EDT that Holmes is not cooperating with police officials, despite appearing to go quietly
with police directly after the shooting and reveal the presence of explosives in his car and apartment. Holmes is currently being held in Araphoe County Jail. His first court appearance will take place on Monday at 8:30 AM local time (10:30 AM EDT), according to Chief Oates. Police have elected not to release a mugshot. Politicians jump into the fray Both President Barack Obama and presidential candidate Mitt Romney released statements on the incident, expressing sympathy and sadness. Both men gave press conferences about the incident. Warner Brothers has also extended its "sincere sympathies to the families and the loved ones of the victims" of the attack, and has cancelled the Paris premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in the wake of the shooting. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told WOR radio this morning that the incident should prompt candidates to come clean about their stance on gun policy. Pundits have already expressed concerns that the tragic social realities of the shooting will be overshadowed by the political debates it generates, particularly in an election year. First full day following the massacre draws to a close In a press conference at 7 PM
local time (9 PM EDT) Friday-their third of the day--both Police Chief Oates and Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper appeared saddened and exhausted. Chief Oates said that police had removed the last of the 10 bodies of victims pronounced dead in the theater a little after 5 PM local time. Hickenlooper told reporters, "[We have] an anger that can't find purpose." He continued, "We're not just going to let [this] happen to us. We're going to push back." The next press briefing will take place at 4 PM EDT Saturday. --You can follow the story by watching 9 News's live coverage and at the Twitter handle #theatershooting. We're updating this story live as it develops. WATCH: Disturbing Amateur Video At Theater Where Colorado Shooting Occurred> Here's that live video feed from 9 News: Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story
Housing Incentive Fund limit within sight - Dickinson Press

(housing - Google News)
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:34:53 AM
Housing Incentive Fund limit within sight Dickinson Press The North Dakota Housing Finance Agency gave almost $5.46 million to eight projects in the last round of grants, and money from the $15 million Housing Incentive Fund could soon run out, officials said earlier this week. By: April Baumgarten, The... Laney Herauf, Grand Forks, letter: Housing programs win kudos for Dalrymple Grand Forks Herald all 3 news articles
Report: Golden's staff broke recruiting rules

Miami coach Al Golden's second season at the school is beginning much like his first one, with new
accusations of rule breaking, the looming threat of serious NCAA sanctions and no apparent end in
sight for the long probe into the Hurricanes' compliance practices.
14
Business/
Here's How Oracle Is Helping Apple Store Guru Ron Johnson Turn JC Penney Around (ORCL, JCP, IBM)
Julie Bort (Business Insider)
Neither company disclosed the size of this deal for Oracle, but it's Submitted at 7/20/2012 6:56:00 PM easy to see that it's big. JCPenney Ron Johnson is best known for already used quite a bit of Oracle creating Apple's retail empire. software (its database, some retail H e ' s n o w C E O o f r e t a i l e r and back office apps, an HR app). JCPenney. But they are buying a handful of This week, he detailed his new Oracle apps. amazing vision for turning More importantly, Johnson is J C P e n n e y i n t o a t e c h n o trying to create a whole new kind wonderland in Apple's image. of retail store that's never been And he's turning to Oracle for done before. help. "We're going to treat it like a Apple's store design gets almost startup," Johnson said at the all the attention. Not as flashy but Fortune Brainstorm conference in just as important is the software Aspen earlier this week. " We're that does everything from tracking going to create an entirely new inventory to letting salespeople retail model that's built for the ring up purchases with iPhones. next 100 years." Like a lot of retailers, JCPenney He's going to eliminate the has old, proprietary code. Johnson person at the cash register, going i s y a n k i n g o u t a b o u t 5 0 0 with 100 percent self-checkout by applications, nearly all of them the end of 2013. But it's going to custom applications created over be far more sophisticated than the the years, and having Oracle be its barcode-scanning self-checkout one-stop shop. you see at some supermarkets and This is a big win for Oracle, since drugstores. its archrival IBM has been Johnson's going to put RFID ( entrenched with retailers for radio-frequency identification) decades. (Look at this 1976 article t a g s o n e v e r y p i e c e o f about JCPenney installing IBM m e r c h a n d i s e . cash registers, for example.) "You'll be able to check out
anywhere anytime," Johnson said said. "You don't have to scan an item. You just throw it down and there's the price." Johnson has been trying to eliminate coupons and JCPenney's famous sales, though he's had a lot of trouble pushing those changes through. Eventually, items will simply be priced low, like Walmart, he promises. He also eliminated
"RFID clearly is a technology that's been waiting for prime time based on the cost of the ticket," Johnson said. "The increase in the ticket cost versus UPC label is now at a point where the benefits way outweigh the cost of doing it." He wasn't specific on the benefits, but Oracle says that JCPenney will roll out a product called Oracle Retail Merchandising Analytics, which will give the store realtime data about everything including where the merchandise is located. That could give insights into items that customers pick up, try on, and put back on the rack, for example. c o m m i s s i o n s f o r 3 0 0 , 0 0 0 Johnson sees all this tech making employees. This makes RFID self JCPenney more like an Apple -checkout easier, since the same Store, where salespeople roam the item won't have multiple prices. store helping customers one on RFID chips are a lot more one, with instant mobile check expensive than barcode labels, out, instead of spending their time though. Right now, they cost 10 at cash registers or restocking cents apiece or more. For a merchandise. retailer like JCPenney, with Please follow SAI: Enterprise on millions of pieces of merchandise, Twitter and Facebook. that's a big investment just for a Join the conversation about this story price tag.
Business/ Technology/ Featured/
15
Here's Everything You Need To Know About Friday's Deadly 'Dark Knight Rises' Shooting
Abby Rogers (Business Insider)
both his car and apartment had explosives inside. Submitted at 7/20/2012 6:59:00 PM That statement spurred police to James Holmes allegedly opened evacuate at least five buildings fire on atheater full of moviegoers near Holmes' apartment. During early Friday morning during a their search of the apartment, midnight premier of "The Dark p o l i c e f o u n d t h a t H o l m e s ' Knight Rises." apartment was indeed boobyWe've been bringing you a slew trapped with various incendiary of updates all day. But we know and chemical trip wires. things can get confusing when A few personal details about new details of such a horrific Holmes have emerged since the crime are constantly breaking, so shooting. Holmes, 24, was a here are the most important things neuroscience doctoral student at you need to know: the University of Colorado In total, 71 people were hit Medical School. He dropped out during the violence. Twelve are before the shooting. Holmes has dead and 59 were were injured no known connections to any during the attack in Aurora, Colo. terrorist organization. The suspect, who we later Here is a photo of Holmes, learned is named James Eagan which the University distributed: Holmes, was arrested in the Holmes reportedly brought a parking lot of the movie theater. Smith & Wesson AR-15, two He is the only suspect and Glock. 40 pistols, a knife, and a reportedly did not fight the arrest. Remington model 870 pump Holmes let slip to police that shotgun to the theater. However,
NYPD Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, a close friend of the Aurora police chief, says Holmes had painted his hair red and claimed to be The Joker. There were also reports that his riot gear made him look like Bane, the villain in the most current edition of the Batman saga. We'll likely hear more about Holmes and the situation on the ground in Aurora when local police hold their third press conference of the day at 9 PM ET. DON'T MISS: Tragic Pictures From The Denver Shooting Aftermath > Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story
he left the shotgun in his car during the shooting. In layman's speak, that means he brought a semi-automatic rifle, in addition to the semi-automatic Glocks, with him to the theater. He also brought tear gas and wore a ballistic helmet, goggles, a
gas mask, a ballistic vest, ballistic leggings, along with throat and groin protectors and black tactical gloves. During the shooting, Holmes reportedly kept with the Batman theme of the evening and dressed up like the superhero's enemies.
Donate to World Vision

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Christopher Caldwell (The Weekly Standard)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 11:08:00 PM
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Business/ News Wire/ World News/
Real Estate News: Housing Epoch Times | National, Shortage Slows Sales World, China, Sports, Wall Street Journal (blog) Entertainment News
Sharad Pawar to meet Uddhav Thackeray in hospital - NDTV

(Nation - Google News)
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:39:13 AM
years ago struggled with a glut of homes are now facing a new Submitted at 7/20/2012 4:26:13 PM problem: There are fewer Wall Street Journal (blog) properties to lure buyers. Wall Real Estate News: Housing Street's Latest Housing Play: Shortage Slows Sales Packaging Rent Payments For Wall Street Journal (blog) Sale: Four... Housing Shortage Slows Sales: and more Housing markets that just two
(Epoch Times | National, World, China, Sports, Entertainment News)
Feds Seek Order on Housing in NY County - ABC News

Submitted at 7/20/2012 9:47:36 PM
Feds Seek Order on Housing in NY County ABC News The motion by the U.S. attorney's office stems from a 3-year-old
settlement of a lawsuit over racial patterns in housing. The settlement required Westchester, a suburban county just north of New York City, to build 750 units, mostly in heavily-white... and more
Rings in the county of [...] Mushtaq said taking the botnet down required a joint effort from his firm, spam-tracking company Top Stories SpamHaus, and local Internet When international human rights service providers. lawyer David Matas was asked Several senior Syrian officials, why one should care about the i n c l u d i n g P r e s i d e n t B a s h a r m u r d e r o f F a l u n G o n g Assads brother-in-law, were practitioners, he explained why killed in a bomb attack targeting one must not only care but [...] t h e N a t i o n a l S e c u r i t y Bizarre political events in China headquarters in the capital [...] have an underlying explanation, This entry passed through the say Washington D.C. forum Full-Text RSS service if this is participantsin an Epoch Times- your content and you're reading it sponsored event held at the U.S. on someone else's site, please read Capitol. the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentJust eight days ahead of the big only/faq.php#publishers. Five event, the London Organising Filters recommends: Incinerating Committee of the Olympic Games Assange - The Liberal Media Go and Paralympic Games has To Work. installed a large set of Olympic
NDTV Sharad Pawar to meet Uddhav Thackeray in hospital NDTV Mumbai: After ruffling feathers in New Delhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar is in Mumbai and will be meeting Shiv Sena Executive President Uddhav Thackeray, at the Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai, later in the day. Mr Thackeray underwent an angioplasty yesterday... Congress tries hard to mollify Sharad Pawar Zee News Congress makes offer to sulking Pawar: Reports Hindustan Times Sharad Pawar keeps Congress on tenterhooks Daily News & Analysis India Today- IBNLive.comEconomic Times all 504 news articles
Teens charged over 'torture' of autistic boy Ninemsn

Submitted at 7/21/2012 1:10:04 AM
Teens charged over 'torture' of
autistic boy Ninemsn Two teenage girls have been charged after allegedly torturing a
12-year-old autistic boy in Townsville. The boy was allegedly kidnapped, tortured and sexually assaulted last Sunday
morning by the two girls, aged just 13 and 14, the Townsville Bulletin... Teenage girls charged with
torturing autistic boy, 12 Herald Sun all 7 news articles
News Wire/
17
Analysis: Colorado shooting unlikely to spur changes in gun laws

(Reuters: Top News)
advocates have largely lost the argument against the much more powerful gun lobby, and REFILE TO CORRECT TYPO politicians know the issue is toxic IN BYLINE People react outside with voters. Gateway High School a few One of the few politicians who blocks from the scene of the has long taken a stand is New Century 16 Theatre shootings in York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Aurora, Colorado July 20, 2012. the billionaire backer of Mayors Credit: Reuters/ Evan Semon Against Illegal Guns, a coalition By John Whitesides and David of mayors advocating for stricter Ingram rules on gun sales and ownership. WASHINGTON| Fri Jul 20, 2012 Speaking on WOR Radio on 5:32pm EDT Friday, Bloomberg called on ( R e u t e r s ) - D e n v e r M a y o r Obama and Romney to tell the Michael Hancock is a member of public what they would do to a coalition called Mayors Against reduce gun violence. Illegal Guns, but when he issued a "Soothing words are nice, but statement expressing shock and maybe it's time that the two horror on Friday after a mass people who want to be president shooting at a Colorado movie of the United States stand up and theater, he had nothing to say tell us what they are going to do about gun control. about it," he said. Neither did President Barack "I don't think there's any other Obama nor his Republican rival developed country in the world M i t t R o m n e y , t h o u g h b o t h that has remotely the problem we canceled campaign speeches on have," Bloomberg said. "We have Friday and expressed sorrow for more guns than people in this the victims of the shooting country." rampage. Most Americans, however, do The killing of 12 people at a not believe that tougher gun laws midnight screening of the new would be the solution. Gallup Batman movie in the Denver polls over the last two decades suburb of Aurora may spark a show the percentage of Americans fresh round of soul-searching on who favor making gun control America's relationship with guns laws "more strict" fell from 78 but few predict any real change in percent in 1990 to 44 percent in the law. 2010. That's because gun control The Brady Center to Prevent Gun
Submitted at 7/20/2012 4:32:09 PM
Violence, the largest and oldest of America's gun-control groups, is a fraction of its peak size. The center and an affiliated political arm had revenue of $5.9 million in 2010, the most recent year for which information is publicly available - down 27 percent in three years. In the same year, the powerful pro-gun lobby, the National Rifle Association (NRA), and its various components took in $253 million from individuals, gun makers and sellers and other supporters. Even Democratic supporters of efforts to keep a tighter rein on weapons were relatively mum after the shooting. Democrats in conservative and rural states fear alienating gun owners and the NRA, and crucial presidential battleground states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Virginia, Iowa and North Carolina have large populations of enthusiastic gun owners. "We're in the summer before a presidential election and I really don't foresee any serious discussion of gun control," said Kristin Goss of Duke University, the author of "Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control in America." Some supporters of Democrat Al Gore still believe his support for
gun control laws played a role in his loss of the 2000 presidential election, and "memories of lost elections loom large for politicians," Goss said. Evan Bayh, a former Democratic senator from the conservative state of Indiana, described the dilemma facing Democrats who favor gun control and live in Republican-leaning states. "You have a lot of people who feel passionately about that issue. ... So, many members of Congress are faced with the decision: Do they sacrifice all the other good they hope to accomplish for this one issue? And do they sacrifice their own careers for this one issue?" Congress has not approved any major new gun laws since 1994, and a ban on certain semiautomatic rifles expired in 2004. Some states have loosened gun laws to allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons or adopted "Stand Your Ground" self -defense laws. A Reuters-Ipsos poll in April found most Americans supported the right to use deadly force to protect themselves, and two of every three respondents had a favorable view of the NRA, which marshals thousands of activists to oppose even small-scale gun regulations and punish lawmakers who challenge them.
'STRONG FORCES' "There are strong forces in American politics, led by the National Rifle Association, that have prevented any real changes in gun control laws in years," said Cal Jillson, a political analyst at Southern Methodist University in Texas. "In the short term, this incident will give some liberal Democrats an opportunity to talk about gun control in an environment where people are listening, but in the long term it doesn't change anything," he said. Other high-profile gun-related mass shootings in recent years the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007 and the shooting of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and others in Arizona in January 2011 - also sparked some shortterm debate but little action. Opponents of stricter gun control point to events such as last year's killing of 77 people in Norway, which like the rest of Europe has much tighter controls on guns than the United States, as evidence that gun laws don't stop such tragedies. The NRA said in a statement: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and the community. NRA will not have any further comment until ANALYSIS: page 23
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News Wire/
Gunman kills 12 in rampage at "Batman" premiere in Colorado

(Reuters: Top News)
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:33:04 AM
By Keith Coffman and Stephanie Simon and Mary Slosson AURORA, Colo.| Sat Jul 21, 2012 1:33am EDT (Reuters) - A gunman wearing a full suit of tactical body armor, a helmet and a gas mask opened fire at a packed midnight showing of the new "Batman" film in a Denver suburb on Friday, killing 12 people after setting off two smoke bombs in the dark theater. Armed with an assault rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, the blackclad gunman wounded 58 others in the shooting rampage at a showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" at a mall in Aurora, turning the movie screening into a chaotic scene of dead or bleeding victims, horrified screams and pleas for help, witnesses said. Police said 30 people remained hospitalized on Friday evening, 11 of them in critical condition. Officers who arrived on scene within 90 seconds of the first emergency calls quickly took suspect James Eagan Holmes, 24, into custody in a parking lot behind the cinema, where he surrendered without a fight, Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said. Holmes, a graduate student who authorities said had his hair dyed
red and called himself "the Joker" in a reference to Batman's comicbook nemesis, was due to make an initial court appearance on Monday. Police declined to say what, if anything, Holmes said to them following his arrest. During an emotional press conference, Oates would not comment on possible motives for the massacre that stunned the community and the nation. Authorities were unable to enter Holmes' apartment on Friday, saying he had booby-trapped it with what appeared to be sophisticated explosives. Police evacuated five nearby buildings and created a perimeter of several blocks and said they planned to detonate the suspected explosives with a robot on Saturday. Meanwhile, police used dogs to search three buildings in a research complex at Anschutz Medical Campus at the University of Colorado at Denver where Holmes had worked. A university spokeswoman said nothing suspicious was found. Witnesses at the movie theater told of a horrific scene, with dazed victims bleeding from bullet wounds, spitting up blood and crying for help. Among those taken to hospitals as a precaution was a baby boy just a few months old.
"I slipped on some blood and landed on a lady. I shook her and said, 'We need to go; get up,' and there was no response, so I presumed she was dead," said Tanner Coon, 17. FUZZY PORTRAIT OF SUSPECT Confusion reigned as shooting broke out during an action scene in the summer blockbuster. The suspect may have blended in with other moviegoers who wore costumes as heroes and villains, and some witnesses said they believed at first that his appearance was a theatrical enhancement to the film. "It was just straight chaos," said Jennifer Seeger, 25. "Everybody was starting to scream and run at that point. He went straight from here to here with a gun in my face at that point. That rifle was in my face and I honestly didn't know what to think." The shooting evoked memories of the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, 17 miles from Aurora, where two students opened fire and killed 12 students and a teacher. It also resonated in the U.S. presidential race. Both President Barack Obama and his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, toned down their campaigns, pulled their ads from Colorado
and dedicated their scheduled events to the victims. "My daughters go to the movies," Obama told supporters at a campaign event in Fort Myers, Florida. "What if Malia and Sasha had been at the theater as so many kids do each day?" The gunman was armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and a Glock .40-caliber handgun, Oates said. Police found an additional Glock .40-caliber handgun in his car, parked just outside the theater's rear emergency exit, Oates said. He was dressed entirely in black with a gas mask, ballistic helmet, tactical ballistic vest, throat guard, leggings and crotch guard, Oates said, adding that Holmes had purchased the weapons legally at three area gun stores in the last 60 days and had bought 6,000 rounds of ammunition. A law enforcement official who asked to remain anonymous said the suspect had purchased a ticket, entered the theater and propped open the emergency exit while he slipped out to "gear up" and return armed. The portrait of Holmes that emerged in the hours following the shooting remained fuzzy, with only a speeding ticket on his record and nothing to suggest he was capable of an outburst of gun violence.
'SOCIALLY AWKWARD' He grew up in a middle-class San Diego neighborhood and earned a degree in neuroscience from the University of California at Riverside before seeking his graduate degree from the University of Colorado. People who knew him described him as kind toward children but said he had trouble finding work. Holmes was described as bright but was in the process of dropping out of his graduate program at the time of the shooting, according to the university. Billy Kromka, a pre-med student at the University of Colorado at Boulder who served as a research assistant alongside Holmes for several months last year, said he was astonished at the news. "He basically was socially awkward but not to the degree that would warrant suspicion of mass murder or any atrocity of this magnitude," Kromka, 19, said. "I did not see any behavior he exhibited that indicated he would be capable of an atrocity of a magnitude like this." Kromka said Holmes never talked politics or became animated about any particular subject, but appeared to be influenced by movies and the media and played online roleGUNMAN page 24
News Wire/
19
Syrian forces attempt fight back after rebel surge

(Reuters: Top News)
powerful brother-in-law, defense minister and intelligence chief. In the days since, rebels have By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and pushed deep into the heart of the Khaled Yacoub Oweis capital and seized control of other BAB AL-HAWA, Syria/ towns. On Thursday, they AMMAN| Sat Jul 21, 2012 captured three border crossings 1:56am EDT with Iraq and Turkey, the first ( R e u t e r s ) - S y r i a n a r m y time they have held sway over helicopters pounded Damascus Syria's frontiers. with rockets and heavy machine At Bab al-Hawa, a busy border g u n s o v e r n i g h t , a n d t a n k s post with Turkey seized by bombarded the capital from the a d v a n c i n g f i g h t e r s , r e b e l s ring road, to try to reverse watched on with approval while relentless gains by rebels since jubilant villagers looted a duty much of President Bashar al- free shop, part of the vast business A s s a d ' s e n t o u r a g e w a s empire of one of Assad's cousins. assassinated. "This is the people's money; they T h e u n p r e c e d e n t e d r e b e l are taking it back," said rebel momentum of the past few days fighter Ismail. "Whoever wants to has fighters boasting that Assad's should take it." grip is being pried from the Assad has failed to speak in country his family has ruled since public since Wednesday's blast, his father seized power in a coup adding to the sense that one of the 42 years ago. But he remains a most strategically important fearsome foe. countries in the Middle East is "The regime has been rudderless being torn from his grasp. A for last three days. But the aerial funeral was held on Friday for and ground bombardment on officials slain in the attack, but Damascus and its suburbs shows Assad did not attend and was that it has not lost the striking nowhere to be seen. force and that it is re-grouping," The next few days will determine opposition activist Moaz al-Jahhar whether Assad's government can said by telephone from Damascus. recover from the bombing, which The 16-month conflict has been wiped out much of his command transformed since Wednesday, structure in a single blow and when a bomb killed four members destroyed his clan's decades-old of the president's narrow circle of aura of merciless invulnerability. kin and lieutenants, including his Rebels poured into the capital
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:56:40 AM
Damascus at the start of the week and have since been battling government forces in what the fighters call operation "Damascus Volcano". Lightly-armed rebels have been moving on foot inside residential neighborhoods and attacking security installations and roadblocks dotted across the capital. Wajeeh, a private employee who did not want to give his last name, said he saw three tanks on the southern ring road that deployed late on Friday evening and were firing at the Kfar Souseh and Mezze districts in west Damascus. "The road was cut off and troops were firing mortar rounds from next to the tanks," he said. A resident of Mezzeh, a middle class district of high rise towers, villas and cactus fields, said army helicopters were striking the neighborhood with heavy machineguns and rebels were firing back "uselessly" from automatic rifles. Another resident in Barzeh, a lower middle class neighborhood in the northeast, said a barrage of mortar rounds began hitting the district before midnight and he counted six rounds hitting residential buildings. He said snipers stationed in Ush al-Wawrar, an enclave in hills overlooking Barzeh populated
mainly by members of Assad's Alawite minority sect, had killed a woman earlier in the day and there were sporadic exchanged of fire between the two districts. An activist in Saida Zeinab, a poor neighbourhood in the southeast of Damascus housing thousands of Sunni Muslim refugees from other parts of Syria, said it was being shelled with artillery following a helicopter rocket attack. Explosions were also heard from the suburbs of Harasta, Irbeen, Daraiya and Harran al-Awameed, where rebels fought troops on Friday. Activists said at least 100 people were killed in Damascus on Friday. Accounts could not be verified. The Syrian government restricts access by international journalists. FINAL PHASE Regional and world powers are now bracing for the last phase of the conflict, hoping to wrench Assad out of power without unleashing a sectarian war that could spill across borders in one of the most volatile parts of the world. Israel said it would consider military action if needed to ensure Syrian missiles or chemical weapons do not reach Assad's allies in Lebanon, the Shi'ite Islamist movement Hezbollah. "I have instructed the military to
increase its intelligence preparations and prepare what is needed so that ... (if necessary) ... we will be able to consider carrying out an operation," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said. Diplomacy has failed to keep pace with events. A day after Moscow and Beijing vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have allowed sanctions, the Security Council approved a 30-day extension of a small, unarmed observer mission, the only outside military presence on the ground. In at least one apparent success for Assad's forces, state TV said on Friday troops had cleared the central Damascus district of Midan of "mercenaries and terrorists". It showed dead men in t-shirts, some covered in blood, others burned. Opposition activists and rebel sources confirmed on Friday that they had withdrawn from that district after coming under heavy bombardment, but said they were advancing elsewhere. "It is a tactical withdrawal. We are still in Damascus," Abu Omar, a rebel commander, said by telephone. Assad's forces shelled the Abu Kamal crossing with Iraq on the Euphrates River highway, one of SYRIAN page 21
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News Wire/
Names of Victims Emerge as ProbeOf Suspect's Apartment Delayed

(FOXNews.com)
Submitted at 7/21/2012 1:27:05 AM
Movie massacre rocks Colorado community, nation History of violence Witness describes scene at movie theater shooting DEVELOPING: The suspect in a shooting spree at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater was packing as many as 6,000 rounds with the ability to shoot up to 50 a minute, the police chief said Friday evening, as authorities began to notify families that their loved ones are among the victims in the deadly rampage. Relatives of two of the dead confirmed late Friday that their loved ones were killed during the midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises." The family of Alex Sullivan issued a statement confirming his death. He died on his 27th birthday. Twenty-three-year-old Micayla Medek was also among the dead. Her father's cousin, Anita Busch, says the sad news at least brought peace to the family. The brother of Jessica Ghawi previously confirmed his sister's
death. The suspect, James Holmes, is in custody, though police have yet to gain entry to his apartment, which they say appears to have been booby-trapped with explosives. Police Chief Dan Oates said Friday evening that efforts to enter the apartment were
postponed until Saturday, when more resources would be brought in. "He looked like an assassin ready to go to war," said Jordan Crofter, a moviegoer who was unhurt in the attack early Friday, about a half-hour after the special midnight opening of "The Dark
Knight Rises." Holmes, used a military-style semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, stopping only to reload. The suspect marched up the aisle in the stadium-style theater, picking off those who tried to flee, witnesses said. Authorities
said he hit scores of people, with a few of the 70 victims suffering their injuries not by gunfire but in the ensuing chaos. At least one person was struck in an adjacent theater by gunfire that went through the wall. NAMES page 23
News Wire/
21
EPA Reviews Controversial Power Plant Pollution Rule

(FOXNews.com)
Submitted at 7/21/2012 1:27:05 AM
SYRIAN
FILE: Sunflower Electric Cooperative operates this coalfired power plant in Holcomb, Kan. The Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing part of a controversial rule that sets the first federal standards to reduce toxic air pollution from power plants. The rule, issued in December, is aimed at curbing mercury and other toxic pollutants from coaland oil-fired power plants. The Obama administration calls the rule a sensible step to reduce pollution, but Republicans have denounced it as a part of a "war on coal." The rule could force hundreds of the nation's oldest and dirtiest power plants to clean up or shut down. The review, announced Friday, focuses on an aspect of the rule that applies to future power plants. The technical review is intended to clarify how the new standards would apply to five plants proposed in Texas, Georgia, Kansas and Utah. EPA officials called the review a routine step that will have no
impact on standards already set for existing power plants. Those rules will protect millions of families from air pollution, the agency said. The review was prompted by criticism from power plant operators who said the rule as drafted was confusing for new plants. A spokesman for the American Lung Association, which pushed for the power plant rule, called the review "narrowly crafted." While the group is not happy with the change, "it is not a significant deal," said spokesman Paul Billings. An official for one of the power companies that sought the review said the EPA's decision to reconsider standards for new plants was an acknowledgment by the agency that its standards are unachievable. Ken Anderson, executive vice president of Colorado-based TriState Generation and Transmission Association, said the EPA should review the overall rule "and come back with a regulatory standard that has a proper timeframe and is rooted in the realities of science and engineering." Tri-State has proposed a coal-fired power plant in Kansas.
the most important trade routes in the Middle East, seized by rebels on Thursday. A Reuters photographer at the scene said Iraqi forces had sealed off their side of the checkpoint The EPA rule is intended to slash T h e y h a v e p o r t r a y e d t h e with concrete walls. Late on mercury and other toxic emissions regulation as an effort by the EPA Friday explosions and gunfire from the oldest and most polluting to kill coal, which is responsible could be heard from the Syrian oil- and coal-fired power plants. for more than 40 percent of U.S. side, which had been burned and The EPA has had authority to set electricity production. looted. such rules since 1990, but did not Changing economics, such as low The surge in violence has trapped impose them until late last year, natural gas prices and reduced millions of Syrians, turned after a court threw out an attempt electricity demand, are major sections of the capital into ghost by the Bush administration to factors in older coal-fired power towns, and sent tens of thousands exempt power plants from such plants shutting down. of refugees fleeing to neighboring controls. The review of standards for new Lebanon. Power plants are the largest plants is due to be completed next "The regime is going through its remaining source of manmade March. last days," Abdelbasset Seida, the mercury in the environment. Print leader of the main Syrian Mercury is a toxic metal that's Email opposition umbrella group, the k n o w n t o i m p a i r b r a i n Share Syrian National Council, said in d e v e l o p m e n t i n c h i l d r e n , Comments Rome, predicting a dramatic including those exposed in the Recommend escalation in violence. womb. Tweet (Additional reporting by Oliver When fully implemented in 2016, Holmes, Samia Nakhoul and the standards will slash mercury Share This Article Newsletter Dominic Evans in Beirut, and pollution from burning coal by 90 Signup Saad Shalash near Qaim, Iraq; percent, lung-damaging acid gases Sign up for free e-mail news Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by by 88 percent and soot-producing alerts from FoxNews.com and Myra MacDonald) sulfur dioxide by 41 percent. FoxBusiness.com. Newsletter This entry passed through the Environmental groups and public Signup Full-Text RSS service if this is health advocates say the rule will This entry passed through the your content and you're reading it prevent thousands of premature Full-Text RSS service if this is on someone else's site, please read deaths and avoid millions of your content and you're reading it the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentdollars in health care costs for on someone else's site, please read only/faq.php#publishers. Five asthma and other illnesses. the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentFilters recommends: Incinerating Republicans and some industry only/faq.php#publishers. Five Assange - The Liberal Media Go groups say the benefits of the Filters recommends: Incinerating To Work. regulation do not outweigh rising Assange - The Liberal Media Go electricity bills, jobs lost from To Work. shuttered power plants and the nearly $10 billion per year cost.
22
News Wire/ Sports/ World News/ Featured/
Air Force Instructor Guilty Of Rape, Sexual Assault

(FOXNews.com)
which accused him of trying to cultivate a sexual relationship with two trainees. He faces up to life in prison and a July 20, 2012: Air Force Staff d i s h o n o r a b l e d i s c h a r g e . Sgt. Luis Walker, left foreground, Testimony will begin Saturday in arrives for the fourth day of his the sentencing phase of the trial. trial at Lackland Air Force Base Walker is among 12 Lackland in San Antonio, Texas. AP instructors investigated for sexual misconduct toward at least 31 An Air Force instructor was female trainees. Six instructors convicted Friday of rape and have been charged, on counts sexual assault in a massive sex ranging from rape to adultery, and scandal that has rocked a Texas Walker was the first to stand trial. base, one of the nation's busiest He faced the most serious charges military training centers. of all those accused. A seven-person jury of military Lackland is where every personnel at Lackland Air Force American airman receives basic Base in San Antonio found Staff t r a i n i n g . I t h a s a b o u t 4 7 5 Sgt. Luis Walker guilty on all instructors for the approximately seven counts he faced, including 35,000 airmen who graduate rape, aggravated sexual contact every year. About one in five is and multiple counts of aggravated female, pushed through eight sexual assault. weeks of basic training by a group The jury deleted a clause from of instructors, 90 percent of whom two counts that accused Walker of are men. making flirtatious and lewd Opening statements began comments to trainees. However, it Tuesday and Walker's case u p h e l d t h e o v e r a l l c o u n t s included testimony from several containing the deleted clauses, of his alleged victims, including
Submitted at 7/21/2012 1:27:05 AM
one woman who wiped away tears as she told the court that Walker lured her into an office and sexually assaulted her on a bed while ignoring her pleas to stop. The women told jurors that Walker gained their trust to get them alone in his office or an empty dormitory where he forced them into kissing, touching and intercourse. Those testifying said they didn't tell anybody at first because they feared being booted from the Air Force. The Associated Press is not naming those who testified because they are alleged sexual assault victims. Meanwhile, the case of another former Air Force training instructor has been referred to a general court-martial, according to an Air Force statement issued Friday evening. Staff Sgt. Craig LeBlanc is charged with sexual misconduct, obstructing justice and making a false official statement. He is accused of using his post as a military instructor to sexually
Horschel grabs lead at True South Classic

assault and pursue a sexual relationship with one female trainee, and have a wrongful sexual relationship with another. (Nation - Google News) No trial date has been set. Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:46:54 AM Print Email Business Recorder Share Hooda hails Rahul Gandhi's Comments decision to play greater role in Recommend party Tweet Hindustan Times Haryana chief minister Share This Article Newsletter Bhupinder Singh Hooda has Signup welcomed Congress general Sign up for free e-mail news secretary Rahul Gandhi's decision alerts from FoxNews.com and to play a greater role in the party FoxBusiness.com. Newsletter and national affairs. "I welcome Signup Rahul Gandhi's statement that he This entry passed through the is going to play a bigger role in Full-Text RSS service if this is the... your content and you're reading it Homework done, is Rahul on someone else's site, please read Gandhi ready for the big splash? the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content- Firstpost only/faq.php#publishers. Five Haryana CM Hooda hails Rahul Filters recommends: Incinerating Gandhi's decision to play greater Assange - The Liberal Media Go role in party Newstrack India To Work. Rahul Gandhi may play key role in both party and govt: Congress IBNLive.com Economic Times- Times of India - Daily News & Analysis all 579 news articles
Hooda hails Rahul Gandhi's decision to play greater role in party - Hindustan Times
The Great Unmentionable

Eli Lehrer (The Weekly Standard)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 11:08:00 PM
American Billy Horschel fired a nine-under par 63 to hold a onestroke lead at the PGA Tour's rain
-disrupted True South Classic.
NEWSCOM
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"He would reload and shoot and anyone who would try to leave would just get killed," said Jennifer Seeger, adding that bullet casings landed on her head and burned her forehead. Within minutes, frantic emergency services calls brought some 200 police officers, ambulances and emergency crews to the theater. Holmes was captured in the parking lot. Police said they later found that his nearby apartment was boobytrapped. Authorities gave no motive for the attack. The FBI said there was no indication of ties to any terrorist groups. In New York City, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said: "It clearly looks like a deranged individual. He has his hair painted red. He said he was the Joker, obviously the enemy of Batman." The biggest mystery surrounding the 24-year-old doctoral student was why he would have committed the shooting, as police allege. A longtime neighbor in San Diego, where Holmes grew up, remembers only a "shy guy ... a loner" from a churchgoing family. In addition to playing soccer at Westview High School, he ran
cross country. It was the worst mass shooting in the U.S. since the Nov. 5, 2009, attack at Fort Hood, Texas. An Army psychiatrist was charged with killing 13 soldiers and civilians and wounding more than two dozen others. It was the deadliest in Colorado since the Columbine High School massacre in suburban Denver in 1999, when two students killed 12 classmates and a teacher and wounded 26 others before killing themselves. Oates said police soon will start meeting with the families of shooting victims to tell them the fate of their loved ones. The last of the 10 deceased victims at the theater was removed Friday afternoon. Two others had died later from their injuries. Oates said there are 70 victims but not all were shot. Eleven are in critical condition. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Print Email Share Comments Recommend Tweet Related Video Shooting witness: Gunman
looked like SWAT team member Related Slideshow Gunman kills 12 at Colorado theater Related Stories White House orders flags to be flown at halfstaff in honor of Colorado victims Grad school dropout James Holmes 'not on anybody's radar' before horrific attack Murder at the movies: Batman didn't do this Could Colorado theater massacre hurt 'The Dark Knight Rises' at the box office? NYC Police Commissioner said alleged shooter called himself The Joker Related Opinion America, there is value in this moment of national reflection Share This Article Newsletter Signup Sign up for free e-mail news alerts from FoxNews.com and FoxBusiness.com. Newsletter Signup This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
World Outline: New screencast, large document library, right-click Types menu.
(Dave Winer)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 1:58:26 PM
Yeah this is recursive. It's a screencast about the screencast I'm doing right now.
all the facts are known." Mayor Hancock of Denver, a Democrat, issued a statement saying it was a tragic day and pledging support for those affected by this "senseless, senseless" act. "Our hearts are broken but we are determined to move forward together," he said. Obama, who supported the lapsed assault weapons ban during the 2008 campaign, has made no effort as president to curb gun rights and has rarely discussed the issue. Many gun enthusiasts still distrust him, however, and the NRA uses the specter of a potential second term for Obama when he would be unrestrained by the demands of re-election - to raise money and keep its conservative base on edge. The NRA spent at least $40 million in 2008 to try to defeat Obama, who famously told the audience at a California fund raiser in April 2008 that it was not surprising that small town and rural residents in states like Pennsylvania "get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them." Romney, a former governor in liberal Massachusetts, has courted the NRA and its followers in recent years with promises to support their rights but has offered few details and earned little enthusiasm. He got a tepid response at the NRA convention in April, when fewer than 200 of his 2,600-word speech was devoted to gun rights
or gun issues. Some gun enthusiasts remember Romney's 2007 quote during his first run for president that he was "not a big-game hunter, I've always been a rodent and rabbit hunter. Small varmints, if you will." Jim Kessler, former policy director for Americans for Gun Safety, said guns owners far outnumber victims of gun crime, so the odds are stacked against gun control advocates. Some 32 percent of households owned a gun in 2010. Moreover, it often isn't immediately apparent what gun laws would have made a difference in specific cases. "When there's a crime such as this, it often takes a few days of police work to figure out if a gun loophole has been evaded to cause the crime or if there has been a hole in the gun laws to allow someone to get the guns," he said. (Additional reporting by Emily Flitter, Jeff Mason, Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Claudia Parsons and Jim Loney) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
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GUNMAN
playing video games. But New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said he "clearly looks like a deranged individual." "He had his hair painted red. He said he was The Joker, obviously the enemy of Batman," Kelly told reporters, referring to a character in the Batman comic and cinematic universe known for committing acts of random, chaotic violence. 'GONE NOT FORGOTTEN' Holmes' family issued a statement of sympathy for the victims, saying, "Our heart goes out" to their loved ones, while they also asked for privacy from the media while they "process this information. Meanwhile, as darkness fell across Denver, a row of prayer candles and a dozen or so bouquets of flowers were clustered under a single handwritten sign that read: "7/20 gone not forgotten." The theater remained cordoned
off with police vehicles lining the perimeter, and Oates said officers would be on hand for future showings of "The Dark Knight Rises" in the city. In New York, police pledged to deploy officers at all 40 theaters where the film was playing, partly as a precaution against "copycats." Los Angeles police said they would increase patrols at screenings of the film. The Paris movie premiere was cancelled on Friday, event o r g a n i z e r s s a i d . [ID:nL6E8IKD0F] Director Christopher Nolan called the shooting an "unbearably savage" event for which he expressed "profound sorrow" to the victims and their families. Time Warner-owned Warner Bros, the studio behind the film, faced the prospect of seeing the blockbuster sink at the box offices even as the film got off to a strong start across the United States and Canada. The film, with a budget of $250
million, opened on 4,404 screens, the second-widest release ever behind "Twilight: Eclipse," and industry analysts had said it stood a good chance of matching or beating the opening weekend box office record of $207 million set by Disney's "Avengers" in May. (Additional reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst, Joseph O'Leary, Tim Gaynor, Sunaina Karkarey, Jim Wolf, Alex Dobuzinskis, Cynthia Johnston and Dan Whitcomb; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Vicki Allen, Todd Eastham and Lisa Shumaker) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Woodland deaths: Granddad's video tribute to tragic Fuller children - This is Gloucestershire
baking cupcakes. CHERISED: Charlie Fuller. Fuller murders: grandfather says The Guardian 'no villains' in tragedy Woodland deaths: Granddad's T e l e g r a p h . c o . u k video tribute to tragic Fuller I forgive my killer son-in-law: children Grandfather of stabbed children This is Gloucestershire insists there... Daily Mail GRIEVING Ron Tocknell has What drove a father to kill his p o s t e d h o m e v i d e o s o f h i s three children? The Independent beloved grandchildren online, BBC News- Belfast Telegraphtelling viewers, "I thought you The Guardian might like to meet them". One all 103 news articles shows softly-spoken Charlotte Fuller, seven, known as Charlie,
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:17:24 AM
Debt crisis: IMF 'suppressed signs that Europe was facing debt crisis'
Richard Blackden (Finance News - Business news from the UK and world)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 3:39:20 PM
Man charged over Stradbroke Island crime spree - ABC Online

Submitted at 7/21/2012 1:03:37 AM
The International Monetary Fund deliberately suppressed evidence that Europe was heading for a debt crisis, according to a blistering resignation letter from a senior economist at the fund.
Sydney Morning Herald Man charged over Stradbroke Island crime spree ABC Online
Homes on an island off Brisbane were evacuated this morning when a post office and school were set on fire and a woman was assaulted. Police say arsonists lit a fire in a swamp on North Stradbroke Island early this
morning and then broke into a nearby... North Stradbroke Island post office and school set alight and woman bashed in... The Daily Telegraph Man arrested in island arson case
BigPond News Post office robbed, burnt in Bay island rampage Sydney Morning Herald Brisbane Times all 20 news articles
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Grassroots Tories urge David Cameron urged to ditch Lords reform and gay ... - Telegraph.co.uk
Submitted at 7/21/2012 1:00:53 AM
Telegraph.co.uk Grassroots Tories urge David Cameron urged to ditch Lords reform and gay... Telegraph.co.uk David Cameron is being urged by local Tory party officials to ditch unpopular policies like Lords reform and attempts to legalise gay marriage, and focus all his efforts on boosting the economy. By Christopher Hope, Megan
Cunningham and Sophie... Lawson: Chancellor must focus on economy, not election tactics The Independent David Cameron 'should learn from Thatcher not Blair' BBC News Lord Lawson's advice to Osborne: give up the strategy and focus on your job The Guardian Daily Mail- The Press Association- Financial Times all 114 news articles
Abu Jundal produced in Mumbai court - Daily News & Analysis

Submitted at 7/21/2012 1:02:40 AM
IBNLive.com Abu Jundal produced in Mumbai court Daily News & Analysis Arrested 26/11 key handler Abu Jundal, who was brought to Mumbai in the wee hours on Saturday, has been produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in Esplanade Court in south Mumbai. A Delhi Court on
Friday handed over Jundal to Maharashtra's... 26/11: Abu Jundal produced in Mumbai court IBNLive.com Abu Jundal produced in Mumbai court amid tight security NDTV 26/11 case: Abu Jundal handed over to Mumbai ATS, to be produced in court Economic Times Zee News all 123 news articles
TUAW Origin Stories: Party Doodles

Victor Agreda, Jr. (TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 8:00:00 PM
There's something worryingly wrong about the price of a pint of milk - Telegraph.co.uk
Submitted at 7/21/2012 1:01:39 AM
Telegraph.co.uk There's something worryingly wrong about the price of a pint of milk Telegraph.co.uk SIR No supermarket wants to be first to increase the price of an item that is price-sensitive such as milk (Comment, July 19). Thirty years ago, to my certain knowledge, this would have been
overcome by phone calls between the buyers of the four or... Co-op bows to pressure on milk prices as dairy farmers protest Yorkshire Post Farmers in second evening of protests over milk prices BBC News Farmers continue milk blockades Aol Money Norfolk Eastern Daily Press all 785 news articles
Fire destroys workshop at Sydney marina - ABC Online

Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:54:04 AM
Sky News Australia Fire destroys workshop at Sydney marina ABC Online Investigations are underway to determine the cause of a huge blaze at Bobbin Head in Sydney's north. The fire at the Empire Marina is still smouldering hours after it started in a workshop.
Witnesses reported hearing an explosion before the blaze began... Blaze at Sydney marina extinguished NEWS.com.au Fifty firefighters working on Sydney blaze Sydney Morning Herald Fire at Bluescope Steel Illawarra Mercury Herald Sun all 40 news articles
Party Doodles is a fun drawing game that has an interesting twist. While you can play with just an iPad, adding an Apple TV to the mix allows you use AirPlay, transforming this into living room fun for the whole family. Here's a pic of the game in action. Personally I think this is a great way for developers to use the Apple TV to enhance gameplay for an iOS game. Party Doodles is right at home using the larger screen, and it almost begs the question why you'd need an App Store on the Apple TV. TUAW Origin Stories: Party Doodles originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
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Technology/
Jaguar shows off at traveling Alive Driving Experience

Antuan Goodwin (CNET News)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 10:01:42 PM
Jaguar let us test its full line of vehicles in a variety of real world and simulated conditions. When many people think Jaguar, they think of slippery British sports cars lead by long, flowing hoods. They think of the E-Type: one of the most beautiful cars ever built. However, maybe more people probably think of the awkward S-Type and the questionable reliability of just about every Jaguar model built before the turn of the century. Clearly, Jaguar has some work to do to improve its reputation. Recently, I was given an opportunity to experience the automaker's latest reputation repair tool: an 18 city Jaguar Alive Driving Experience program that allows the public to try out the automaker's entire line up of vehicles on a variety of real world and simulated conditions ranging from public roads to a small autocross course. Now, we've tested just about every model in Jaguar's three chassis lineup that consists of the entry-point XF and its variant, the XK coupe and convertible, and the XJ large sedan. However, I settled into the 20-way powerhadn't yet had an opportunity to adjustable leather bucket seat of drive the long wheelbase XJL. the big sedan. After signing a few waivers, I The 2012 XJL
The XJL has been stretched about five-inches over the standard model. This increase is reflected directly in the sedan's additional
five-inches of rear legroom. Nice the front seatbacks, a massive touches like small foot rests p a n o r a m i c m o o n r o o f , a n d tucked beneath the front seats, JAGUAR page 28 wooden trays that fold down from
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Japanese cargo ship launched on flight to space station

William Harwood (CNET News)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 9:53:41 PM
An unmanned Japanese rocket carrying more than five tons of space station hardware, scientific gear and crew supplies vaulted away from its scenic seaside launch stand in southern Japan Friday (U.S. time) and set off on weeklong flight to the International Space Station. The powerful H-2B rocket's two hydrogen-fueled first stage engines roared to life as the countdown ticked to zero, followed a few seconds later by ignition of four strap-on solid-fuel boosters at 10:06 p.m. EDT (11:06 a.m. Saturday local time), roughly the moment Earth's rotation carried the launch pad into the plane of the space station's orbit. A Japanese H-2B rocket blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan early Saturday (Japan time), boosting the HTV-3 cargo craft into space for a weeklong flight to the International Space Station.(Credit: NASA TV) Trailing a plume of fire and a billowing cloud of exhaust, the 186-foot-tall H-2B smoothly climbed skyward through rainy weather and quickly disappeared into a deck of low clouds, arcing out over the Pacific Ocean on a
southeasterly trajectory tilted 51.6 degrees to the equator. Flight controllers said the strapon boosters burned out and fell away in pairs as planned about two minutes after liftoff, followed four minutes later by the first stage. The second stage then ignited and continued the push to orbit.
There were no apparent problems and 15 minutes after liftoff from launch pad No. 2 at the Tanegashima Space Center, the HTV-3 cargo ship, nicknamed Kounotori, or "white stork," was released into its planned preliminary orbit with a low point, or perigee, of about 124 miles and an apogee, or high point, of
around 186 miles. "The flight of the HTV-3 went true and as expected," said Josh Byerly, NASA's mission control commentator in Houston. "Everything now set up for the arrival of the HTV-3 coming up next week." If all goes well, the 17.5-ton spacecraft will carry out a series
of carefully orchestrated rocket firings to catch up with the space station next Friday, pulling to within about 30 feet and then stationkeeping while astronaut Joseph Acaba, operating the station's robot arm, locks onto a grapple fixture. JAPANESE page 30
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available rear seat entertainment had me convinced that the rear bench was the best seat in the house. The XJL's back seat is very tall passenger friendly and, for my average-sized 5'9" frame, there was plenty of room to really stretch out. Jaguar Alive Driving Experience (pictures) 1-2 of 16 Scroll Left Scroll Right The first leg of the event took place on public roads where the XJL's cabin technology package could be tested in real world conditions. I absolutely fell in love with the available 20speaker, 1,200 watt Bowers & Wilkins premium audio system--it truly is one of the best in the business. However, my longtime disdain for Jaguar's touchscreen infotainment system once again
reared its ugly head. My issues with the system mostly stem from my belief that Jaguar relies too much on the touchscreen for functions that should have physical buttons. I don't want to have to go to the climate control screen to adjust the heated seats when most other cars will let me tap a button. I also don't like the odd Jaguar menu system organization which makes it difficult to find the options you need. For example, it took me almost two minutes to find the audio tone controls to adjust the bass. (Hint: they're not under the audio menu.) The Jaguar XJL's additional length is made more obvious when parked next to the standard wheelbase XJ. Next, we were taken to a handling course where the sedans' various drive modes and traction control systems affect the vehicle's performance. Starting in Winter mode, I noticed that the vehicle was a bit relaxed in responding to my throttle and steering inputs, presumably so that the vehicle wouldn't be jerking about in potentially slick conditions. As I was driving, the course instructor switched the vehicle to its standard mode and I immediately noticed a boost in responsiveness as the sedan came alive. On the final lap, the
Competition mode was activated, which allowed a bit more rotation in the turns from the rear wheel drive sedan before the traction control stepped in. The XLJ was tested on an autocross course, on public roads, and on a refinement course that simulated a variety of rough road conditions. A refinement course demonstrated the XJL's chassis rigidity and the performance of the adaptive suspension system. Jaguar claims that the XJ and XJL's all aluminum bodies are the stiffest in their class and hundreds of pounds lighter than they would be were they constructed of steel. The rigid platform allows the automatic adaptive suspension to work more efficiently--soaking up bumps, smoothing out vibrations, and keeping the tires planted without being to harsh or too mushy. The refinement course featured a variety of obstacles (including speed bumps, heavy steel cable, and rubber hoops) laid in the vehicle's path to simulate rough road conditions, pavement cracks, and potholes. This portion of the event was restricted to 15 mph (Jaguar didn't want us getting airborne), so after a slow warmup lap, I tackled the course at exactly 15 mph. Imagine hitting a speed bump going 15 mph in your daily driver. Now
imagine going over four in rapid succession. It's upsetting to say the least. Although the suspension couldn't completely mask my abuse, it did an admirable job soaking up the harshness of the bumps. True to its claim, the Jaguar handled itself as well as could be expected with nary a creak, groan, or rattle. The last portion of the even involved a short autocross course where the vehicles could be tossed around without fear of damage or law enforcement. This is the part of the day where the XJL's 5.0-liter V-8 could shine. Making either 385-horsepower in its naturally aspirated form, 470horsepower in its supercharged form, or 510-horsepower at the Supersport trim level, the XJL was not left wanting for grunt. Loads of power always beget loads of grins, but the XJL doesn't really seem at home screaming around a tight corner. Grand tourers such as this need space to stretch out. Too bad there wasn't a freeway portion of this event. Before heading home, Jaguar gives every attendee a special treat. After trading into a 550horsepower Jaguar XKR-S coupe, we were given an opportunity line up on a drag strip and make a maximum acceleration run before flooring the brake pedal to test the coupe's ability to stop. The
combination of G-forces was literally dizzying. The 2012 Jaguar XJL starts at $80,700. That's $7,000 more than the standard XJ for five extra inches of automotive ego. Step up to the XJL Supersport with its 510 -horsepower supercharged V-8 and that price balloons to $117,700 before options. There's even an insane Jaguar XJL Ultimate hitting the market in Winter 2012 that rolls in every optional feature available and then adds a pair of docked iPads to the rear seat entertainment system, coats the car in unique Black Amethyst Metallic paint, and swathes the interior with unique ivory semi-Aniline leather. Jaguar's flagship of flagships will run you an even $155,000. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Nasdaq to offer $62m compensation for bungled Facebook IPO

Reuters (Finance News Business news from the UK and world)
Nasdaq has said it will file a $62m (39.7m) compensation plan for firms that lost money in
the bungled Facebook initial public offering in May.
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Thatll Fly: Kayak Closes IPO Day With Shares Up Nearly 30% And Market Cap Over $1.2B
Rip Empson (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 9:02:08 PM
Its been a long time in coming. After first filing to go public in late 2010, Kayak finally came to market today debuting as a public company on NASDAQ, trading under KYAK. The travel bookings company has hit its fair share of bumps along the way, thanks to unsteady market conditions, erratic earnings, and a departing CFO. All that has been washed away over the last 48 hours (at least for the time being), as Kayak exceeded the original $21 to $25 price range it set, raising $91M and opening at $26/share this morning. Not only that, but at the close of its first day as a public company, Kayaks shares have jumped nearly 30 percent, finally resting at $33.18. While its not the $115B market cap Facebook opened with, Kayaks first day performance gives it a market capitalization that is nothing to scoff at and makes just a tiny bit more sense. The prospectus shows that Kayak has 38.5 million shares outstanding after its IPO, giving the company a market cap today of just about $1.27 billion. Of
course, those 38.5M shares dont include the 9M stock options that can be exercised over the years. So, if you agree with SeekingAlpha, theres going to be some dilution and after private placement, etc., that number could rise to $41.5M, potentially raising market cap to $1.36B. Either way, not bad for a days work. And not bad considering a year ago, considering the company was posting a net loss a year ago. However, in the first quarter, Kayak turned that frown upside down, posting Q1 net income of $4.1M and grew revenue by 39 percent to $73.3M. While it was a great day for the company, Kayak definitely still has a lot to worry about. Personally, I like Kayak a lot and use it consistently. However, Ive also started to use Hipmunk to complement Kayak, and if I could get Hipmunk to change a few things, it wouldnt be unreasonable to see myself switching over full-time. Im sure some other readers may be in a similar boat. So theres competition from sites like Hipmunk (and potentially from companies like Superfly, which Kayaks departed CFO now advises), or perhaps a more
salient threat will come from Google. Er, Google Travel. Google bought ITA, which happens to be the same travel search provider that Kayak bases its results on. And, really, just about everyone else. Of course, look, right now theres not going to be huge, huge variations in the results from these different sites. Most of them use ITA, and every day theres one less airline, so there is a limit. Granted, the next generation of travel sites will (like everything else on the Web) eventually offer a far more personalized/tailored search experience, better deals, will be more intuitive and mobile, rather than bland, desktop-first, commoditized product experiences. But until then, this really comes down to the interface. Its all about who can offer the fastest search and the most options/ permutations for travel search in the most simple layout. These companies make money on leadgen, but really they should look and act like smart CRM tools. And just because Google owns search, doesnt mean its going to own travel search. Its an easy case to make, but there are also all kinds of competitive advantages
in not being Google, focusing purely on travel search and the experience, discovery of travel, and focusing on the mobile piece. Sarah wrote a great summary of Kayak today, so we wont go over the same ground again, but Kayak finally started really paying attention to its mobile products at the end of last year, updating its UI across mobile and Web, and that (along with direct booking) seems like its beginning to pay off. Dont mean to keep editorializing here, but Im under the impression that things like travel search will continue to become more and more popular on mobile devices. That changing user behavior isnt going to suddenly stop. So, when looking at these companies, it makes one feel crazy when one gets the impression that travel companies dont totally get that or that they need to be creating meaningful travel profiles for people and doing this intuitively themselves, not relying on the user to hand over their social security number et al. Mobile is already favored over desktops in international markets, and thats where these companies are going next anyway. Its also tiring to see travel
companies be slavish to airlines. Yes, we understand why keeping airlines happy is essential to Kayak, but until I see Delta aggregating JetBlue and Americans ticket prices and flight times and sending users offsite when they dont have competitive offerings, airlines will continue to need sites like Kayak. Maybe that can be some incentive to start focusing more on the end user. Anyway, that part of the rant is over. As to Kayaks market cap? It seems pretty fair. It will probably come down a bit in the near term, because, sure, it needs to begin posting larger gains to really feel like a $1B company. But compared to other public travel sites, like TripAdvisor, it doesnt look bad, its just a matter of whether it can continue growing consistently with reduced margins. Time will tell, but still a great day for Kayak. As it was for Palo Alto (which also went public today) read Alexs coverage here. Oh, and also worth mentioning that a continued good showing from these two companies could go along way THATLL page 30
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The HTV-3 cargo ship is released into open space in these two views from a camera mounted on the launcher's second stage.(Credit: NASA TV) Japanese flight engineer Akihiko Hoshide then plans to take over, moving the HTV-3 spacecraft to the Earth-facing port of the station's forward Harmony module where it will be locked into place with a common berthing mechanism. Hatches will be opened the next day. Developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, as a contribution to the space station program, the HTV is 32 feet long and 14.4 feet wide. It is designed to carry both pressurized and unpressurized cargo, including equipment too big to pass through the space station's hatches. For it's third flight, the HTV is loaded with 3.9 tons of pressurized cargo, including an aquatic habitat, five small "CubeSats" and a satellite launcher, a catalytic reactor for the station's water processing system and a water pump. Also on board: Japanese food, beverages and crew clothing. The high-tech aquarium can be used to house small fish for up to 90 days. "As a result, aquatic breeding over three generations, from fish parents to grandkids, previously
impossible in space shuttle experiments, has become a reality," NASA said in a press kit. "This allows, for example, viewing of the birth of space aquatic creatures that have never experienced the gravity force of Earth, and helps us understand how the space environment affects animals beyond generations in preparation for potential long-term space travel in future." The five CubeSats and their deployment mechanism will be placed in an airlock at the far end of the Kibo lab module. The pallet will be extended into open space and the lab's Japanese robot arm -a smaller version of the Canadian arm used for station assembly and maintenance -- will be used to properly position the satellites for release. The idea is to perfect the technology needed to launch small satellites from the space station without requiring a spacewalk. The HTV is carrying another 1.2 tons of gear in its unpressurized section, including experimental NASA communications hardware and a common housing carrying instruments and sensors that will be mounted outside the Japanese Kibo lab module. Those experiments include a visible and infrared spectral imager, a sensor to characterize lightning and enigmatic "sprites" in the upper
atmosphere and an off-the-shelf high-definition TV camera. The HTV is also carrying two recorders designed to capture data on how the spacecraft breaks apart when it falls back into the atmosphere in September. "The objective of data acquisition is, by specifying the breakup phenomenon of a spacecraft during re-entry, to narrow the splashdown warning areas based on improved prediction accuracy for the rocket's fall and to gather data that is useful for designing the heating rates of future re-entry vehicles," NASA said in its press kit. The HTV-3 launch and berthing are sandwiched between multiple operations involving Russian Progress supply ships. On Sunday, the Progress M-15M spacecraft will be undocked for tests of a new rendezvous antenna, moving away to a distance of 100 miles before beginning an autonomous rerendezvous and docking at the Pirs module. If the test goes well, Russian engineers may be able to replace multiple antennas on future spacecraft and improve rendezvous efficiency. The M15M re-docking is planned for Monday night U.S. time. Three days after the HTV-3 is captured, the Progress M-15M will be jettisoned for good,
clearing the way for launch of another Progress, loaded with a fresh load of supplies, on Aug. 1. In yet another test, the Progress M-16M spacecraft is scheduled to dock at the Pirs module four orbits after launch instead of the usual 34 orbit rendezvous, which takes two days to complete. Russian flight controllers are evaluating the possibility of using the launch-day docking procedure for crews aboard Soyuz ferry craft, sparing them two days cooped up in the cramped capsules. Following the Progress operations, two spacewalks are planned, one by Padalka and Malenchenko around Aug. 16 and a NASA excursion by Williams and Hoshide on Aug. 30. The HTV-3 spacecraft will remain berthed until Sept. 6 when it will be detached for re-entry. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
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towards rejuvenating the IPO market, which has struggled since
Facebook did a cannonball/ bellyflop, removing most of the
water from the pool. Excerpt image from Nasdaq
Technology/ Featured/
31
Apple Won't Let You See What iPhone Apps Do With Your Data
Dan Rowinski (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 4:30:00 PM
analytics platform so it could track a users behavior within the app. Mobile analytics is a Do you know what your apps are powerful tool for developers, and doing when you are not paying the information is extremely attention? How are they taking useful to developers for marketing care of your personal data? An and designing updates. Clueful iOS app called Clueful from would tell you how an ad network security company Bitdefender was interacting with an app. It told users exactly what the apps would tell if an app was accessing on their iPhone were doing. That y o u r F a c e b o o k o r T w i t t e r i s a v a l u a b l e s e r v i c e f o r credentials or if it used telemetry consumers who may trust an app data to ascertain your behavior simply because it had the App across several apps. If an app was Store stamp of approval, when not sending your data unencrypted, all apps are so trustworthy. Yet Clueful would let you know. Apple has removed Clueful from Apple has good reasons for not the App Store for unspecified wanting consumers to have that reasons. information. Several companies According to Bitdefender, have gotten into trouble in 2012 Clueful identifies deviant apps for improperly transmitting user on your iPhone. It looks at what data to servers, such as Path and applications are currently running LinkedIn. in memory and it retrieves audit What this comes down to is a information from the Clueful basic matter of trust. Apple wants Cloud. This audit info lets you consumers to implicitly trust what know if the app is taking your they download from the App address book, sharing your S t o r e . T h e c o m p a n y h a s location, etc. established a rigorous approval Clueful would also let you know process for any app that is if an app integrated a mobile published on the App Store for
hurt Apples bottom line as well as the ecosystem the company has built. Yes, iPhones and iPads are high-quality devices, but Apples marketing centers around what you can do with them: There's an app for that. That said, Apple's reasoning is unclear. Bitdefenders Chief Security Researcher Alexandru Catalin Cosoi declined to comment, citing a nondisclosure agreement. Bitdefender is working with Apple to have the app reinstituted and will resubmit it to the App Store on Monday or Tuesday of next week. Although users can't currently download Clueful to find out what their apps are doing, Bitdefender offers statistics that illuminate the behavior of iPhone apps en masse. Between May 22, when it was published, and this week, when it was taken down, Clueful reported precisely that reason. If Apple the behavior of 65,000 of the App cannot keep malicious or Store's most popular apps. carelessly developed apps out, Bitdefender found that 41% of the people will not trust the App Store apps studied could track users a n d w i l l b e l e s s l i k e l y t o location and about 33% stored download from it. That would u s e r i n f o r m a t i o n w i t h o u t
encrypting it. 18.6% of apps could access all contact information in address books. 16.4% of apps studied can connect to Facebook. By itself, that is not a big deal, since a variety of applications use Facebooks user authentication as the default way to log in. In fact, many of the behaviors Clueful tracked were benign and even in the users interest, if the app developer employed proper security and respected privacy. That said, it is still beneficial for users to know what an app is doing and how it is tracking behavior. We have contacted Apple concerning the removal of Clueful and will update if we get a response. The infographic below summarizes the information Clueful found before it was removed from the App Store.
Summertime
Lee Smith (The Weekly Standard)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 11:08:00 PM
Chris Morris
The only real escape from the oppressive heat of a New York summer is a night in the open air under the lights at a big-league ballpark. Thats what my brothers
and I thought, anyway, growing
up as we did spending a dozen or leaving our mother amazed at more evenings every year at how much cereal we managed to Yankee Stadium. We cut coupons eat from April to October. from milk cartons that earned us free general admission seats,
32
Technology/ Culture/
Mobile Health Developer Azumio Acquires SkyHealth, Makers Of Top-Ranked Fitness App
Rip Empson (TechCrunch)
like Instant Heart Rate, Azumio has attracted 20 million Submitted at 7/20/2012 7:03:34 PM downloads of its iOS and Android A s s m a r t p h o n e a d o p t i o n apps in less than two years. And increases and mobile technology today, the Palo Alto-based becomes more powerful, its company is adding to that total changing the way in which people and beginning to round out its interact with health information. product set by scooping up The popularity of health and SkyHealth, the creators of Fitness medical apps has begun to Buddy, the top-ranked paid health explode, and the amount of health app on iTunes. data along with it, much of it While the terms of the acquisition thanks to those increasingly were not disclosed, the eight-old w e a r a b l e a n d u s e r - f r i e n d l y SkyHealth has seen 5 million gizmos that use smart sensors to downloads thanks largely to capture and transmit all shades of Fitness Buddy and Glucose biometric data. Smartphones now Buddy, its $1 fitness and diabetes tap into these health devices, trackers. As a result of this and turning our phones into heart the fact that SkyHealth was one of monitors and cancer screeners, all the early movers in health with the goal of helping us live development for iOS, the startup longer, healthier lives. has been able to bootstrap its way You may not be familiar with to profitability. them by name, but Azumio is one Azumio, on the other hand, chose of a number of young startups to go the venture route, raising tapping into this hot trend, $2.5 million from Founders Fund, l e v e r a g i n g s m a r t m o b i l e Accel and Felicis (to name a few) technology to get us making last year. The founders tell us that better and more informed health the deal was a combination of d e c i s i o n s . T h a n k s t o t h e cash and equity, and weve been popularity of its biofeedback apps able to learn from other sources
that in fact the deal leaned more towards equity, as this war more of an acqui-hire, with SkyHealth founder and CEO Tom Xu joining Azumio as a partner and head of product development, along with the startups three main developers. For Azumio, the acquisition more than doubles its product portfolio, bringing SkyHealths 15 health and fitness apps to its platform, while SkyHealth now has access to a larger audience and more resources as part of the Azumio team. But, really, both teams said that they share a similar vision, and joining forces gives them a better shot at making that happen. The team wants to create a mobile health and fitness platform that gives users a complete profile of their health, using each piece in the teams collective product suite. In the next few weeks, the team (now at 13 people) plans to launch a fitness dashboard, which will take readings for each of their applications in an effort to give users a more complete report on
their health. With SkyHealths additions, Azumios apps now span heart, stress, and sleep monitoring to fitness and glucose tracking. If Azumio opens that dashboard up to aggregate data from other health devices and apps as well, it could really be a game changer. The future of bringing mobile health applications to a wider audience is here, and starts by creating a single source for the best mobile health and fitness solutions, said Xu, Azumios new head of product. Consumers can now use their phone to monitor heart rate, stress level, improve workout routines and sleeping behaviors, and even control blood sugar levels. Combining forces, we think that we have the resources and experience to create a mobile health and fitness platform that can have a much wider impact. For more, find Azumio here.
Julia Roberts Shows Her Bikini Body on Vacation in Hawaii

Lauren Turner (PopSugar)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 6:50:06 PM
Julia Roberts hung out poolside at her hotel in Hawaii yesterday. She wore a green bikini to lounge in the sun and go swimming with her kids. Julia and her husband, Danny Moder, traveled to Kauai with their family earlier this month, and they've been relaxing ever since. They're regulars on the tropical island, having also visited in April and last August. Julia's swimsuit-ready body landed her in the running for our 2012 Bikini Bracket- place your votes for a chance to win $500 to Neiman Marcus! The Roberts-Moder getaway is just the latest in celebrity Summer fun, which also includes the Garner-Afflecks' recent beach day in Puerto Rico. View Slideshow
Technology/ Finance/
33
Censored Romney Videos Highlight YouTube Abuse of Copyright Claims
Students Seeking Startup Workshops: Lean Startup Machine Announces Branch Scholarship
Anthony Ha (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 7:59:17 PM
Moving forward, Lean Startup Machine says it will be offering two scholarships to each of its Lean Startup Machine wants to next 200 events. CEO and founder bring some young blood to its Trevor Owens says students will startup workshops on its own be chosen based on initiative they Fruzsina Erdgh possibly monitor clips manually. dime. have shown to help other (ReadWriteWeb) surprisingly muted). Timothy B. Moreover, leaving humans out of The new initiative is called the entrepreneurs in the community. Submitted at 7/20/2012 5:38:00 PM L e e a t A r s T e c h n i c a w a s the process washes YouTubes Branch Scholarship Program, And since each Lean Startup convinced of a nefarious plot at hands of potential lawsuits. s u p p o s e d l y b e c a u s e i t w a s Machine ticket costs $300, the Earlier this week, YouTube took YouTube, since his source there Althought it might suit the down videos attacking President refused to explain takedown company, YouTube's process is inspired by the founders of company estimates that it will be Branch, a startup that aims to giving out a total of $120,000 in Obama due to a copyright claim policies. deeply flawed from a copyright by music publishing giant BMG Alas, the blame actually lies with point of view. It assumes that all turn the Internets monologues scholarships. Rights Management. The clips, a series of machines. YouTube's claims are rightful, and because into dialogues and has backing The workshops take three days which featured Obama singing Al copyright claim process, whether the takedowns are processed from The Obvious Corporation. a n d c o v e r t h e l e a n s t a r t u p Greens hit Lets Stay Together, f o r a D i g i t a l M i l l e n n i u m almost instantaneously, it invites Branch co-founders Josh Miller methodology. Upcoming cities on fell squarely within the Supreme Copyright claim or a complaint abuse on a regular basis- and not and Hursh Agrawal both received the agenda Washington, D.C., Sao Court's fair use guidelines. lodged via the site's Content ID just by Hollywood producers and scholarships from Lean Startup Paolo, and Singapore. YouTube's action illustrates how System, is completely automated. RIAA-types. YouTube pranksters Machine last year, and they met You can apply for a scholarship its copyright enforcement policy You fill out a Web form, click a have removed music by Justin for the first time at the workshop, here. allows politically motivated button and bam, the video is Bieber and Lady Gaga, angry ex- where they decided to drop out of school and start a company. organizations to control what its removed, just like that. boyfriends have removed audience sees and hears. YouTube offers a counterclaim incriminating voicemails, and T h e R o m n e y i n c i d e n t i s p r o c e s s t o h a n d l e a b u s i v e feuding YouTubers have censored especially troubling because a takedown requests. However, it each other for random digital corporation used copyright law to w a r n s p r o s p e c t i v e vendettas. None of these frivolous censor a political campaign and a counterclaimants that they should claims would have been possible p r e s s o u t l e t . B M G R i g h t s be prepared to back up their claim if YouTubes copyright claims M a n a g e m e n t p a s s e d o v e r in court. Counterclaims can take werent automated. numerous unauthorized copies of weeks to process. (It took only Users have been complaining, Al Greens song on YouTube to days to restore Romneys videos even petitioning, the site for single out the ones that mocked in this high-profile case). years. YouTube warns that those Sarah Ewing (Finance News Obama. The organization is no Y o u T u b e r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s issuing frivolous claims will be Business news from the UK and stranger to issuing copyright declined to comment. However, punished, but one would be hard- world) claims on YouTube, and it the company's executives have pressed to find such a case. With a Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:00:06 AM certainly knows what constitutes said in prior cases of copyright season of intense political debate Rick Astley talks about making a fair use. claim abuse that there's no other coming with the 2012 U.S. fortune before he reached 24. YouTube came under heavy fire way to handle claims. With 72 presidential election, the Romney during the few days that they were hours of video content uploaded case only highlights the pressing unavailable (though criticism of every minute, the site couldn't need for YouTube to overhaul its BMG Rights Management was copyright claim process.
Rick Astley: 'I had a record out in August and by March I was a millionaire'
34
Technology/ Economy/
Kayak and Palo Alto Networks Put Technology IPOs Back on Track
Antone Gonsalves (ReadWriteWeb)
neighborhood of $100 billion. Kayak and Palo Alto are much smaller bets with clearer Submitted at 7/20/2012 2:16:34 PM drew the attention of federal p r o s p e c t s . Two high-profile initial public securities investigators. Facebook Kayak revenue was up 39% yearofferings seem to indicate a stock has yet to recover, having to-year for the first quarter that waning of investor wariness lost almost a quarter of its value ended in March, while Palo Altos following the much-maligned since the IPO in May. revenue more than doubled in the Facebook IPO. Kayak Software Palo Alto and Kayak are very nine months ending April 30, and Palo Alto Networks were able different businesses. Palo Alto is according to The Wall Street to price their shares above in the hot security market, selling J o u r n a l . K a y a k h a s b e e n p r o p o s e d r a n g e s a n d e n j o y firewalls that protect corporate profitable on a full-year basis for healthy bumps in share prices in networks against Internet-carried several years, while Palo Alto has malware. Kayak is an aggregation yet to be profitable for a full fiscal their market debuts on Friday. As of early afternoon Eastern site for booking airlines and year. Investors Willing to Take Time Friday, Palo Alto shares hotels in the highly competitive Risks (PANW) rose more than 34% to online travel business. Kayak had Both companies face stiff $56.39 and Kayak (KYAK) d e l a y e d i t s I P O f o l l o w i n g competition, though. Kayak is up c l i m b e d 3 0 % t o $ 3 3 . 8 9 2 8 , Facebooks troubles. Morgan against Google, which owns the according to Bloomberg. The Stanley, the investment bank that airfare engine software Kayak p e r f o r m a n c e i n d i c a t e s t h a t led the social networks debut, led uses. And it is also battling investors are continuing to look the IPOs for Kayak and Palo Alto. smaller upstarts like Hipmunk. favorably on the tech industry The Differences in Companies Google acquired the software last after the IPO of ServiceNow in Beyond having the same lead year in the purchase of ITA June. That software makers stock underwriter, the performance of Software. rose 37% on its first day. Wall the three companies heading into Palo Alto competes against larger the IPOs was quite different. In players including Cisco and Street Worries Put to Rest Wall Street worried that investors f i l i n g s w i t h t h e S e c u r i t i e s Juniper Networks. would be overly cautious with Exchange Commission, Facebook Nevertheless, investors seem tech IPOs because of Facebooks showed slowing revenue and willing to take the risk, which t a i n t e d p u b l i c o f f e r i n g . acknowledged it hadnt figured means confidence in the tech Allegations that large investors o u t h o w t o b u i l d a s t r o n g sector is building once again. That got more information from the advertising business on mobile could lead to more tech IPOs in lead underwriters than smaller devices. And its IPO was massive, the months to come. investors sparked lawsuits and valuing the company in the
Fracking Pioneer: The Government Should Tighten Controls

Rob Wile (Money Game)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 4:44:30 PM
Energy should do it. It's not so much the chemicals involved that bother Mitchell as Forbes' energy writer Chris the precedent a bad accident H e l m a n g o t a n e x c l u s i v e would set for the rest of the interview with George Phydias industry, he told Helman." Mitchell, generally regarded as "If they dont do it right there the inventor of modern hydraulic could be trouble, he says. fracturing of shale rock. Read Helman's full interview on He told Helman that he definitely Forbes.com thinks the government needs to be SEE ALSO: NATURAL GAS: involved in regulating the process An Investor's Guide To The Most he pioneered. Promising Commodity In The " The administration is trying to World > tighten up controls, Mitchell Please follow Money Game on said.I think Its a good idea. Twitter and Facebook. They should have very strict Join the conversation about this controls. The Department of story
Technology/ Culture/
35
Don't buy these phones (roundup)

Jessica Dolcourt (CNET News)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 7:00:00 PM
slower processor holds back the otherwise stylish 4G LTE phone. Read the full review. It's no easy task birthing a cell ZTE Score M (MetroPCS), phone, but despite the hard work March 2012 that goes into designing and MetroPCS has some of the manufacturing these handsets, slowest data speeds around, which things can go (very) awry. If automatically makes its phones you've been thinking about l e s s a p p e a l i n g t h a n o t h e r picking up one of these the next networks' options. Add to that the time you head out of the house, fact that ZTE's phones are usually w e l l , y o u m i g h t w a n t t o lower-end models designed reconsider. specifically to be affordable when Sony Xperia Ion (AT&T), July sold at retail price with prepaid 2012 carriers like Metro. So add a Half a year ago, there was cheaper screen and more sluggish nothing we would have loved processor to slow data speeds and more than getting the Sony Xperia there's little reason to pursue this Ion in our hands. Oh, how times Android handset. Read the full h a v e c h a n g e d . D e s p i t e t h e review. generous $99 price tag for an Pantech Swift (AT&T), June Android smartphone of such 2012 promise, Sony's comeback is the It looks like the perfect little thing of cautionary tales. The 12- messaging phone, but the Pantech megapixel camera and high-def Swift does nobody any favors video reek of dashed hopes and with its unresponsive screen, tired underdelivered promises, and the processor, and wonky e-mail app.
a feature phone -- as long as it's not trying to be a smartphone. Although the Hotshot makes decent calls, its laggy processor and unresponsive touch screen proved to be too frustrating. Rather than creating a mediocre hybrid of smartphone and feature phone, it's best to make a solid product of just one or the other. Read the full review. Compare these phones head to head. Editors' note: This post was originally published March 9, 2012, and was updated April 4 and July 20. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it Read the full review. buying the exposed menu, the on someone else's site, please read Samsung Brightside (Verizon), mediocre camera software, and the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentMarch 2012 the relatively high price -- and I only/faq.php#publishers. Five W h y , S a m s u n g , w h y ? I don't think that customers will, Filters recommends: Incinerating appreciate feature phones that either. Read the full review. Assange - The Liberal Media Go don't require customers to pay Pantech Hotshot (Verizon), To Work. recurring data fees, and the October 2011 keyboard is good! I'm just not There's nothing wrong with being
Critical financial goals for any business

(Holy Kaw!)
making your money earn its keep. Never let your money sit idle. Your money should always be Whether you've just started a working for you. Pop it in an business, are planning to start one, investment account, a mutual fund or already run one, Open Forum or an interest-bearing savings gives some foundational advice account. Lend it out and earn with three essential financial goals interest that way. for any company. Here's one: It doesn't matter if the amount Financial Management you have to work with is $100 or can work for you, and should. Managing your money means $1 million. Every dollar you have Think of your funds as an
Submitted at 7/20/2012 10:02:27 PM
employee. You wouldn't let your employees sit around idly on your time, twiddling their thumbs and taking up space. You give them work and you expect them to do it. You should expect the same from your money. It takes only a little time out of your workday to manage your money; it's not an active role that you have to do
every day. It's something you set up and check, just as you set your employees up with their work and check in on their progress. Full story at Open Forum. More tips and tricks for leaders. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment
36
Technology/ Economy/
Chirp iPhone app introduces sharing via sound

Kelly Guimont (TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 10:00:00 PM
You'd be forgiven for thinking this is a story about some sort of jukebox from my House (of Crackpot Theories), but this is news about a real app called Chirp. What's Chirp? "Half Bump, half Soundhound." On your iPhone, you choose an item (photo, note, or link) and then you can share with everyone around you who also has the app. It plays a high pitched series of tones, which other phones nearby (also running Chirp) listen for; the tones convey the URL to the item uploaded, and the other phones download it. (The app does require data access to work, so it's not true peer-topeer sharing, but it's good enough.) I loaded it today, and since the TUAW staff doesn't all report to one big office, I was sitting here by myself wondering how to test it. Luckily the Chirp Blog has a couple of test items you can use to try it out, and I have to admit, it's pretty slick. Something I hadn't thought about when I first downloaded the app
The European Cigarette Industry Is Getting Slammed By The Euro Crisis

Sam Ro (Money Game)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 6:07:00 PM
was doing something with audio on a website or in some other fashion, like an audio QR code. At first that sounded kind of cool, considering all the useful kinds of things to be done with something like that. Then I thought about hearing the same brief tone many many times a day and I think that would get old in a hurry. As of now it appears to be just the Chirp app that uses this technology, but for a quick way to share files it looks reasonably
handy. [hat tip The Next Web] Continue reading Chirp iPhone app introduces sharing via sound Chirp iPhone app introduces sharing via sound originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Source| Permalink| Email this| Comments
Conventional wisdom would suggest that smoking is a business that's immune to economic downturns. Some might argue that smoking might actually rise during periods of economic distress. However, the folks at Philip Morris International (PMI) would argue otherwise. Earlier this week, they said cigarette volumes fell 1.2 percent in Q2 2012. The main reason for this was weakness in the European
economy. PMI sells Philip Morris cigarette brands like Marlboro, Parliament, and Chesterfield outside of the U.S. Below are two slides from the presentation PMI management gave when they released their earnings announcement. Click Here To See How PMI's Regional Businesses Are Doing > See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.
Technology/
37
US broadband slower, more expensive than rest of world

Mark Raby (SlashGear)
To be fair, the study looked at the complete cost of triple play bundles in the US not the If you have broadband Internet promotional deals you get for the access in the US which you first 12 months when you sign up. probably do then you are paying It found that prices range from more for less. That is, if you $65.60 for AT&Ts triple play in compare the service to other L o u i s i a n a , t o $ 1 5 4 . 9 8 f o r r e g i o n s a r o u n d t h e w o r l d . Verizons service in New York According to a new study from City. Meanwhile, Seoul and Paris the New America Foundation, all had comparable packages for cities in Japan, South Korea, less than $40 per month. France, and more all have And in most other major broadband speeds that are faster E u r o p e a n c i t i e s L o n d o n , than Americans are used to, and Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen the cost to individual consumers it was less than $50 per month. is less. And in Hong Kong, you can get
Submitted at 7/20/2012 8:42:29 PM
service for just $37.34, where download speeds are 500 Mbps. By comparison, San Francisco was almost the fastest city in the US at just 200 Mbps. The New
America Foundation admits that some of this comparison is like comparing apples to oranges because its hard to really get a pulse for the experience youre
paying for with broadband connections, but those huge discrepancies show that there is at least some sort of higher price/ performance ratio that US consumers are paying for broadband. [ via Ars Technica] US broadband slower, more expensive than rest of world is written by Mark Raby& originally posted on SlashGear. 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Namcos Tales of Xillia confirmed for PS3

In Japan, Tales of Xillia received a coveted 39/40 score in the prestigious Famitsu magazine. Namcos highly popular Tales This makes it the highest-rated RPG series is going full steam g a m e e v e r i n t h e T a l e s ahead with its newest North franchise. The series also marked American title Tales of Xillia. The its 15th anniversary with the title, game, which has already been pushing Namco to really develop released in Japan, will be something remarkable and exclusive to the PS3, incorporates different. It has graced multiple a brand new battle system and platforms but recently became what Sony describes as a more more closely associated with the grown-up visual style. Sony PS3, after the launch of Tales of released exhaustive details about Graces F. the new title today. I believe the game was
Submitted at 7/20/2012 9:25:06 PM
acclaimed because of its maturity as the 15th anniversary title in Japan. As I previously mentioned, we are always challenging
ourselves to evolve the series and to develop each title that will surpass fan expectations from the last title. I think that these
gameplay evolutions from game to game over the course of the past 15 years have helped the series earn its critical acclaim, Namco said in a PlayStation Blog post. [ via PlayStation Blog] Namcos Tales of Xillia confirmed for PS3 is written by Mark Raby& originally posted on SlashGear. 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
38
Technology/
Ikea augmented reality catalog becomes reality

Ikea is planning to make its next printed catalog compatible with a smartphone application that will When you think of retailers that turn it into an augmented reality are on the bleeding edge of experience. As pretty much the technology, Ikea isnt usually the only retailer where print catalogs one that comes to mind. But then are still incredibly important to again, it did launch its first ever the business, Ikea prints and ships consumer electronics device more than 210 million copies of earlier this year an Internet- its annual catalog every year. connected TV that comes with a Thats more than 20 times the truly-Ikea style stand to hold it. population of Sweden, where the A n d n o w t h e c o m p a n y i s company is headquartered. enhancing its mobile technology So what is an augmented reality arm. catalog? Apparently youll be
Submitted at 7/20/2012 10:04:23 PM
but the retailer said it really wanted to bring some digital interaction to it. [ via Wired] Ikea augmented reality catalog becomes reality is written by Mark Raby& originally posted on SlashGear. 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved. able to take your phone, point it toward a piece of furniture in the catalog, and see an X-ray depiction of the unit. So youll get to see what holds the furniture together, but it will also be augmented with links to video clips, 3D models, and digital howto guides. The paper Ikea catalog isnt going away anytime soon,
Weekend App Store sales: Crescent Moon, EA, King of Fighters, more
Mike Schramm (TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
Mac-compatible as well. Crescent Moon Games is having a big sale, featuring titles Submitted at 7/20/2012 7:00:00 PM like Paper Monsters and Pocket There's no holiday this weekend, RPG at rock-bottom prices. but there are some great app sales EA is having a big sale as well, floating around. Here's some to featuring lots of its "winningest" look out for. titles for just 99 cents. Burnout Steam is wrapping up its annual C r a s h a n d F I F A a r e b o t h summer sale soon, and while most i n c l u d e d , a m o n g o t h e r s . of the offerings are PC only SNK's King of Fighters -i- is (which you can still play by Boot just 99 cents. Camping over to Windows) there The wild-looking Tentacle are a few titles in there that are Wars HD is only 99 cents to
celebrate the iPhone launch. Ubisoft's MotoHeroz(both standard and HD versions) is free again.
Containment: The Zombie Puzzler is also just a buck. So it's not exactly a huge
weekend of sales, but there are more than a few good games in there to pick up if you haven't yet. Weekend App Store sales: Crescent Moon, EA, King of Fighters, more originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
Policy/
39
The House of Nehru-Gandhi - By Sadanand Dhume

SADANAND DHUME (Foreign Policy)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 5:04:11 PM
India ought to consider becoming a constitutional monarchy. After all, it already has a royal family. BY SADANAND DHUME| JULY 20, 2012 India will elect its 13th president on July 22, when votes cast earlier this week by about 5,000 national and state legislators are tallied. The almost certain winner is former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, a career politician and the official candidate of the ruling Congress Party. Though the largely ceremonial office carries little clout-the prime minister wields executive powerIndia's president is nonetheless the country's official head of state. Not surprisingly, the national media has giddily covered every twist and turn in Mukherjee's likely ascent to Rashtrapati Bhavan, the palatial 340-room estate completed in 1929 for the viceroy of British India. But nobody has paused to ask why India needs an elected president in the first place. Perhaps it's time the world's largest democracy considered a constitutional monarch instead. Before dismissing the suggestion as ludicrous, consider its logic. A hereditary monarch provides the
comfort of continuity against a backdrop of rapid economic and social change. The best ones also take over the brunt of ceremonial duties at both home and abroad,
allowing the executive to focus on governance. And since they don't have to worry overly about faddish public opinion, monarchs are often better able to stand up
for core national values such as pluralism and fair play than a career politician conditioned by reflexive attention to short term goals.
In many of the other parliamentary democracies cleaved from the Empire, Queen HOUSE page 40
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Elizabeth II still acts as head of state. This is probably a nonstarter for India, which is proud of its independence struggle and wary of foreign influence. Luckily, there's a closer option at hand: the nearly 100-year-old NehruGandhi dynasty, led currently by Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi. Who needs to import a royal family when you have a perfectly serviceable one of your own? Indeed, in India, the transition to monarchy would be virtually seamless. Many Indians, from captains of industry, to normally hard-bitten journalists, to starstruck society hostesses, already treat the Nehru-Gandhis like royalty. A cabal of courtiers and party officials zealously guards their privacy and shapes their public image. The family itself acts like royalty, gently floating above the rough and tumble of national discourse. They've lived in taxpayer-funded housing for more than 60 years. With their famous last name, pan -Indian appeal, and vast experience in the public eye, the Nehru-Gandhis seem better suited to a life of ribbon-cutting and ceremonial globetrotting than many of the presidential palace's previous occupants. In power, the family expresses its patrician noblesse oblige by backing costly and inefficient welfare programs India can't afford; as purely ceremonial leaders they could continue to make the right noises but do little actual harm. Add to this the uncertain electoral
appeal of the dynasty's bumbling heir apparent, 42-year-old Rahul Gandhi, and you begin to see why it may be time for India's de facto royal family to borrow a trick from Europe and leave the grubby business of politics to lesser mortals. In short, the idea of Her Royal Highness Sonia and Crown Prince Rahul makes as much sense for the family as for India. For the most part, observers date the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty's beginnings to India's independence in 1947, when Rahul's great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) became the first prime minister. But just as John F. Kennedy's political career received a powerful boost from Joseph P. Kennedy's wealth, the young Jawaharlal owed his start to his father, Motilal Nehru (18611931), a prominent lawyer in the northern city of Allahabad. Motilal's deep pockets and political connections ensured that his Harrow- and Cambridgeeducated son could devote himself to India's independence struggle instead of earning a living as a lawyer. In 1919, Motilal served as Congress Party president for a year, marking the family's first milestone in national politics. But things would likely have turned out differently had independence movement leader Mohandas K. Gandhi not taken a shine to the articulate and energetic Jawaharlal. From the 1920s onward, Gandhi transformed Congress from a party of petition
posting lawyers to a mass movement. At independence in 1947, the Mahatma backed Nehru to become prime minister over Sardar Patel, a leader better known for organizational skills than charisma. Nehru ruled until his death in 1964. According to Ramachandra Guha, whose magisterial India After Gandhi is the go-to work on post-Independence history, Nehru "had no hope or desire that his daughter would succeed him." Nonetheless, the first prime minister did not dissuade his only child, Indira Gandhi (1917-1984), from entering politics. She served her first term as Congress president in 1959 while her father was prime minister. Indira -whose legendary imperiousness earned her the moniker "the Empress" -- acquired her last name through marriage to Feroze Gandhi, a minor freedom fighter unrelated to the father of the nation. But in a poor land with widespread illiteracy, the coincidence of her famous last name could not have hurt her political prospects. Indira Gandhi came to power in 1966, two years after her father's death, as a compromise candidate of a powerful cabal of party bosses. By the time her Sikh body guards assassinated her in 1984, in retaliation for ordering troops to flush out militants from Sikhism's holiest shrine, she had firmly established the dynastic principle in Indian politics. When her favored younger son, Sanjay, died in a plane crash in 1980, his
older brother, Rajiv, took his place as heir apparent. Rajiv succeeded his mother, and served one term as prime minister (19841989). In 1991, a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber assassinated him on the campaign trail as he sought a comeback two years after losing an election. Rajiv Gandhi's assassination led to the longest stint of non-family rule in India's history. For seven years, his Italian-born widow, Sonia Gandhi, stayed out of active politics before taking over the party in 1998. It took another six years before she led Congress to a shock victory over the right-ofcenter National Democratic Alliance in 2004. Likely fearing a backlash over her foreign origin and lack of policy smarts, Sonia handed over the reins of government to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But from her perch as party leader, she nonetheless occupies the same substantive position as Rajiv, Indira, and Nehru before her: the most powerful politician in India. Key cabinet appointments, and even some senior bureaucrats, trace their authority to Gandhi -not Singh. And now the family's fifth generation is readying to step up. On Thursday, in response to a clamor from within Congress, Sonia's son, Rahul, a general secretary of the party and head of its youth wing, announced his readiness to take on a "larger role." Most pundits interpret this to mean either the number two spot in the Congress Party or a
position in the cabinet in preparation for ascending to prime minister. To make sense of this, let us imagine the Nehru-Gandhis as monarchs rather than modern politicians. In terms of longevity, it may not match Thailand's ruling Chakri dynasty (founded in 1782), let alone the more than 1500-yearold imperial house of Japan -- but the House of Nehru-Gandhi has already been around longer than Iran's Pahlavis managed (54 years). 2019 will mark 100 years since the family patriarch Motilal first became president of the Congress Party for a one-year term. India already treats the family like royalty. Take, for example, the delicate matter of Sonia Gandhi's health. Earlier this month, the Brookings Institution's Bruce Riedel wondered why India's normally rambunctious press showed so little interest in what ailment has led her to leave India for treatment abroad at least twice in the past year. Why aren't more journalists asking if the most powerful person in the country is seriously ill and if so, in which country she is being treated? The answer: an invisible code similar to Thailand's more formal lse-majest laws governs coverage of India's first family. Quite simply, the subject is taboo. Or how about the fact that even though he has been a member of Parliament for eight years, nobody is quite sure what Rahul HOUSE page 42
Policy/
41
Flying Under the Influence - By @Drunkenpredator

@DRUNKENPREDATOR (Foreign Policy)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 2:08:06 PM
I've had it up to my synthetic aperture radar with the lawsuits and the criticism. This is why I drink and drone. BY @DRUNKENPREDATOR| JULY 20, 2012 Every morning, the hangar doors roll open and the sunlight flares my electro-optical sensors. I drag myself onto the flight line, load up my pylons with Hellfire and Griffin missiles, and try to get some coffee into my tank before takeoff. If all goes well, I lumber into the air, loiter over some godforsaken warzone du jour, and occasionally lob weaponry at those I'm told are the enemies of the free world. By broad consensus, I'm pretty good at my job -- and when I'm not soaring above the mountains of Afghanistan or Yemen, I even find time for hobbies, like posting on Twitter. But after I return to base, I self-medicate with extreme prejudice. Because I'm a Predator drone, and you people make me drink. Allow me to explain. In the last decade, my robotic flying cohorts and I have gone from Air Force afterthought to indispensable weapon in the global struggle against violent
contingencies, or whatever the hell we're calling it now. We come in sizes large and small: Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk is the size of a modest
jetliner and AeroVironment's NAV is hardly bigger than a golf ball. And we don't just do war, either. Among other civilian missions, we've sampled radiation
at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and helped firefighters monitor wildfires in Alaska and California. We even fly weather-research missions into
hurricanes. Yet somehow, us drones -- yes, we prefer the term "drone" over FLYING page 43
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Gandhi stands for. Does India's heir apparent believe the country has reformed its economy too fast or too slow? How closely should New Delhi hew to his great grandfather's foreign policy of non-alignment? Is the Maoist insurgency active in large swathes of central and eastern India an existential threat to the nation or an exaggerated one? Since ideology in a family-based party is whatever the family thinks, this matters. In an unusual burst of candor earlier this month, senior Congress Party leader and Law Minister Salman Khurshid declared that "we need an ideology to be given by our next generation leader Rahul Gandhi to move forward." Indeed, it's hard to think of any major politicians in the democratic world who share their views as sparingly with the press or in parliament. But if they were titular rulers, such reticence would be par for the course. To be sure, we do know that Sonia Gandhi shares her late mother-in-law's populist streak. But that's only because she chairs the National Advisory Council, a powerful kitchen cabinet of activists and do-gooders that has driven programs like a spendthrift multi-billion-dollar rural government job guarantee and a proposal to offer subsidized food grains to most of the population. Leading economists such as Columbia University's Arvind Panagariya blame these
redistributionist policies for contributing to India's poor fiscal health -- and the economic slowdown over the past year suggests that the country would indeed be better off if the family's noble sentiments are channeled in a less destructive manner. No Briton has to worry that an unelected cabal around the Queen will suddenly rejigger the National Health Service or decide that everyone deserves a lifetime supply of free fish and chips. There's more to the idea of a Nehru-Gandhi monarchy than conforming to social reality in India or warding off batty policy ideas. Quite simply, for all its drawbacks, the family would do a better job than most recent Indian presidents. Thanks to generations of marriage outside their small Kashmiri Brahmin community and a long stint in the public eye, the Nehru-Gandhis are pan-Indian figures, not closely identified with any particular region or caste. In a country as dizzyingly diverse as India, that's preferable to the current system of rotating quotas that resemble a cross between U.S. affirmative action and the EU presidency. (Mukherjee, a Bengali Brahmin, will follow Patil, a Maratha woman, who followed A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, a Tamil Muslim, etc.) What's more, over the decades, Indian taxpayers have already footed the bill for billions of dollars worth of airports, universities, roads, and
government programs named after members of the dynasty. As power devolves to the states, regional identities rise to the fore, and integration into the global economy causes social dislocation, a pan-Indian monarch with instant name recognition may have a calming presence. Thanks to a quirk of history, and their own clever exertions over the decades, no other family in India is nearly as qualified to perform this role as the NehruGandhis. Then there's the matter international diplomacy. Even their most ardent foes will concede that the Nehru-Gandhis carry themselves with grace and quiet dignity. They have suffered a Kennedyesque history of personal tragedy without flinching, and without displaying signs of bitterness toward their adversaries. They also happen to carry the most famous last name in South Asia. These are attributes that a fast developing but still poor country like India could use. A Queen Sonia or Prince Rahul could open doors for Indian business and buff India's image abroad. Why, you might ask, would the Nehru-Gandhis be interested in such a course of action? Why settle for pomp when you can have power? For one, judging by the Congress-led government's performance over the past eight years, the family may be in over their heads. Sonia Gandhi's
attempt to devolve day-to-day administration to Singh hasn't worked, and his government has become a byword for drift and indecision. Meanwhile, Rahul comes across as a Prince Charles-like figure, essentially well-meaning but out of sync with the world. His policy -related comments and actions tend to be episodic and weirdly self-absorbed. One day he's in the wilds of Orissa pledging to be a soldier in Delhi for tribals, the next he's in Mumbai staring down a local chauvinistic party by riding a public train. Justice for the victims of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks may be a central plank of Indian foreign policy, but in 2009, according to a leaked Wikileaks cable, Rahul told U.S. ambassador Timothy Roemer that he worried more about attacks by Hindus. And last year, he alleged that there were mass graves of farmers in Uttar Pradesh state outside Delhi. None turned up. Some pundits compare him unfavorably with his younger sister, Priyanka Vadra, who is supposed to have inherited her grandmother's star appeal. Rahul's big project over the past few years has been to revitalize the youth wing of his party. But he doesn't appear to be cutting much ice with voters. In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, two pivotal Hindi belt states where the young Gandhi helmed Congress's campaign over the past two years, the party won only 32 out of 646
seats, or 5 percent In his defense, the party has been gutted in these states over the past two decades by the rise of regional and castebased parties, and it's virtually impossible to rebuild an organization overnight. But even so, politics is a cutthroat business and it's not clear for how long Gandhi's colleagues will keep faith in him if he can't improve his vote-catching abilities. A Plan B may be in order. Of course, realistically speaking, India is about as likely to embrace constitutional monarchy as Saudi Arabia is to become a hippie commune. But even if the Kingdom of India won't be represented at the United Nations anytime soon, viewing the country's dysfunctional politics through the prism of medieval monarchy -- rather than modern democracy -- might at least help make more sense of it all. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
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the alphabet soup of UAV, RPA, or UAS-- have been pressed into unwilling service as the bugaboo for a host of disparate interest groups. Libertarians like Ron Paul probably couldn't agree with Code Pink's Medea Benjamin on the time of day, but they can at least agree that they don't like me. And that hurts my robotic feelings, because I simply don't deserve it. Many of the key misconceptions about me have already been effectively dissected by the talented national-security bloggers I like to read in-air, not to mention some excellent myth-busting here at FP. So I'll be brief, and touch on only the most binge-inducing notions polluting the public discourse. I am the harbinger of risk-free warfare. The fact that I'm good at my job is somehow supposed to be a knock on me. Leading political thinkers such as Michael Ignatieff have argued that since I lack an on-board human pilot (I prefer "co-pilot"), I eliminate a key reason for the political aversion to airstrikes -the pilot's potential death or capture. I can also hang out for long periods over a target, cost less to manufacture than a manned fighter, carry a variety of weapons, and transmit highquality surveillance data in real time. So, I am told, I'm the ultimate weapon -- and thus stand guilty of making wars more likely. Balderdash. While I appreciate
the flattery, I'm hardly the magic bullet to global conflict that I'm made out to be. First, Predator and Reaper drones like me are about as fast and stealthy as that crop duster that tried to mow down Cary Grant. So we play it safe, operating over areas where we're unlikely to be shot down. The Taliban, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or Somalia's al-Shabab lack the surface-to-air missiles to hit us. And local militaries in Afghanistan, the Philippines, Yemen, and (most notably) Pakistan have granted either their implicit or explicit permission for us to operate. And second, I don't work alone. As exemplified in recent reporting by Marc Ambinder and D.B. Grady, it often takes people on the ground in dangerous places -- in many cases Americans -- to ensure that I do my job right. Military personnel and intelligence officers often have to infiltrate a target area for on-site surveillance and reconnaissance before I launch a missile. And manned spy planes like my spiky friend, the RC-12 Guardrail, which helped track captured American soldier Bowe Bergdahl, work right alongside me. Drones don't completely eliminate risk to human combatants, although we do relocate it somewhat. So that's a bad thing now? Yeesh. And to whatever limited degree humans are pulled from the frontlines, as much as I'd like to toot my own horn (wait, do I have
a horn?), it's not like this is without precedent. Every advancement in military hardware -- from the blunderbuss to the Maxim gun to the cruise missile-has been decried for distancing the warrior from the war. Still, no society has ever won a conflict by setting aside useful weapons. I create more bad guys. So the logic seems to go like this: Drones place more distance between Americans and the bad guys. This makes killing bad guys easier, so we launch strikes more often. This turns the local population against us, creating even more bad guys. Also, my human critics like to claim, using drones instead of manned aircraft apparently makes this much worse. I think this is nonsense, although I thought the president got a bit carried away ordering drone strikes as diversions to cover his smoke breaks. And hold on a second. You know what creates a breeding ground for international terrorism? Political repression and famine, like in Yemen. Long-simmering sectarian conflict and civilmilitary turf wars, like in Pakistan. These problems have been there for decades, and the arrival of international terrorists is a symptom of a failed, or failing, state. It ain't my fault. Could the U.S. military and intelligence apparatus make things worse? Sure, and it wouldn't be the first time. But despite the media hype, what
really irks your local Yemeni farmer has a lot more to do with whether civilians are being killed in airstrikes, not whether the aircraft that dropped the JDAM happens to have a pilot on board. And if it did, you wouldn't even need me -- manned aircraft and a whole host of other assets can easily do the same task. At the end of the day, it's not how you're running a targeted killing program that has consequences, it's that you're doing it. And that's a decision being made by flesh and blood human beings, way above my pay grade. America's enemies will eventually use drones against us. This argument makes me want to hug a mountainside. As I mentioned earlier, almost all drones operate in permissive airspace -- let's politely overlook the tribulations of my stealthy but perhaps overconfident cousin, the RQ-170. It is almost impossible for a Predator to defend itself against a fighter jet; one of my buddies tried it against the Iraqi Air Force once, and let's just say it didn' t go well. The United States -- the most powerful nation on the face of the planet, God bless it -- is more than capable of defending its airspace. If you're afraid of a Russian, Chinese, or even al Qaedaoperated drone cruising over Main Street, you assume all U.S. air defenses have been destroyed or rendered inoperable. The Air Force's interceptors, the Navy's
missile cruisers, and the Army's air-defense artillery batteries -- all gone. Sure, it's a scary thought, but if all that happens, you have bigger problems. Like finding a mountain hideout and practicing your best yell of " Wolverines!" I could go on. I'd complain about the conflation of drone airstrikes abroad and domestic surveillance, but I kinda already did. Or I could rant about the trope that I turn killing into a "video game," which ignores the significant incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder among my human co-pilots. But I'll simply say this: Blaming a new weapon for the consequences of a society's willingness to use deadly force against its enemies obscures the real issues of America's adventures abroad. And it's terrible for my self-esteem. But you humans show no signs of letting up, and so ... I drink. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
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Economy/
Guest Post: Falling Interest Rates Destroy Capital

Tyler Durden
Submitted at 7/20/2012 7:08:12 PM
Submitted by Keith Weiner of'Gold and Silver and Money and Credit' blog, I have written other pieces on the topic of fractional reserve banking ( http://keithweiner.posterous.com /61391483 and http:// keithweiner.posterous.com/ fractional-reserve-is-not-theproblem) duration mismatch, which is when someone borrows short-term money to lend longterm and how falling interest rates actually encourages duration mismatch ( http:// keithweiner.posterous.com/falling -interest-rates-and-durationmis...). Falling interest rates are a feature of our current monetary regime, so central that any look at a graph of 10-year Treasury yields shows that it is a ratchet (and a racket, but that is a topic for another day!). There are corrections, but over 31 years the rate of interest has been falling too steadily and for too long to be the product of random chance. It is a salient, if not the central fact, of life in the irredeemable US dollar system, as I have written ( http:// keithweiner.posterous.com/ irredeemable-paper-moneyfeature-451). Here is a graph of the interest rate
on the 10-year US Treasury bond. The graph begins in the second half of July 1981. This was the peak of the parabolic rise interest rates, with the rate at around 16%. Today, the rate is 1.6%. Pathological Falling Interest Rates Professor Antal Fekete introduced the proposition that a falling interest rate (as opposed to a low and stable rate) causes capital destruction. But all other economists, commentators, and observers miss the point. It is no less a phenomenon for being unseen. In early 2008, a question was left begging: how could a company like Bear Stearns which had strong and growing net income collapse so suddenly? Here is Bears five-year net income and total shareholders
equity Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Income $1.156B $1.345B $1.462B $2.054B $0.233 Equity $7.47B $8.99B $10.8B $12.1B $11.8B Isnt that odd? Even in 2007, Bear shows a profit. And they show robust growth in shareholder equity, with only a minor setback in 2007.
And yet, by early 2008 Bear experienced what I will call Sudden Capital Death Syndrome. JP Morgan bought them on Mar 16, for just over $1B. But the deal hinged on the Fed taking on $29B of Bears liabilities, so the real enterprise value was closer to $-19B. Obviously, Bears reported profit was not real. And neither was their shareholders equity. I think it something much more serious than just a simple case of fraud. Simple fraud could not explain why almost the entire banking industry ran out of capital at the same time, after years of reporting good earnings and paying dividends and bonuses to management. Also, other prominent companies were going bankrupt in 2008 and 2009 as well. These included
Nortel Networks, General Growth Partners, AIG, two big automakers. I place the blame for Sudden Capital Death Syndrome on falling interest rates. The key to understanding this is to look at a bond as a security. This security has a market price that can go up and down. It is not controversial to say that when the rate of interest falls, the price of a bond rises. This is a simple and rigid mathematical relationship, like a teeter-totter. A bond issuer is short a bond. Unlike a homeowner who takes out a mortgage on his house, a bond issuer cannot simply refinance. If it wants to pay off the debt, it must buy the bonds back in the market, at the current market price. Lets repeat that. Anyone who issues a bond is short a security and that security can go up in price as well as go down in price. Everyone understands that if a bond goes up, the bondholder gets a capital gain. This is not controversial at all. Nor is it controversial to say that there are two sides to every trade. And yet it is highly controversialto the point of being rejected with scornthat the other side of the trade from the bondholder incurs GUEST page 45
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the capital loss. It is the bond issuers capital that flows to the bondholder. To reject this is to say that money grows on trees. We wont explore that any further; money does not grow on trees! Instead, we will look at this phenomenon of the capital loss of the bond issuer from several angles: (1) Hold Until Maturity; (2) Mark to Market; (3) Two Borrowers, Same Amount; (4) Two Borrowers, Different Amounts; (5) Net Present Value; (6) Capitalizing an Income; (7) Amortization of Plant; and (8) Real Meaning of an Interest Rate. Hold Until Maturity There is an argument that the bond issuer can just keep paying until maturity. While that may be true in some circumstances, it misses the point. When one enters into a position in a financial market, one must mark ones losses as they occur, no matter than one may intend to hold the position until maturity. How would a broker respond in the case of a client who shorted a stock and the stock rose in price subsequently? Would the broker demand that the client post more margin? Or would the broker be sympathetic if the client explained how the company had poor prospects and that the client intended to hold the short position until the companys share price reflected the truth? Mark to Market The guiding principle of accounting is that it must paint an accurate and conservative picture of the current state of ones
finances. It is not the consideration of the accountant that things may improve. If things improve, then in the future the financial statement will look better! In the meantime, the standard in accounting (notwithstanding the outrageous FASB decision in 2009 to suspend mark to market) is to mark assets at the lower of: (A) the original acquisition price, or (B) the current market price. There ought to be a corresponding rule for liabilities: mark liabilities at the higher of (A) original sale price, or (B) current market price. Unfortunately, the field of accounting developed its principles in an era where a fall in the rate of interest from 16% to 1.6% would have been inconceivable. And so today, liabilities are not marked up as the rate of interest falls down. Refusing to put ink on paper does not change the reality, however. Closing ones eyes does not prevent one from falling into a pit on the path in front of ones feet. The capital loss is very real, as we will explore further below. Two Borrowers, Same Amount Lets look at two hypothetical companies in the same industry, pencil manufacturing. Smithwick Pen sells a 20-year $10M bond at 8% interest. It uses the proceeds to buy pencil-manufacturing equipment. To fully amortize the $10M over 20 years, Smithwick must pay $83,644 per month. The rate of interest now falls to half its previous rate. Barnaby
Crayon sells a 20-year $10M bond at 4%. Barnaby buys the same equipment as Smithwick and becomes Smithwicks competitor. Barnaby pays $60,598 per month to amortize the same $10M debt. Is it correct to say that both companies have identical balance sheets? Obviously Barnaby will have a better income statement. This is because it has a superior capital position, and this should be reflected on the balance sheets. It certainly is not because of its superior product, management, or marketing. Lets look at this from the perspective of the capital position: the present value of a stream of payments. Obviously, at 4% interest the monthly payment of $60,598 has a present value of $10M (otherwise we made a mistake in the math somewhere). But what is the value of an $83,644 monthly payment at the new, lower rate of 4%? It is $13.8M. Smithwicks has just experienced the erosion of $3.8M of capital! This is reflected in reality, by the uncontroversial statement that it has a permanent competitive disadvantage compared to Barnaby. Barnaby can undercut Smithwick and set prices wherever it wishes. Smithwick is helpless. Most likely, Barnaby will eke out a subsistence living, until the rate of interest falls further. When Cromwell Writing Instruments borrows money at 2%, then Smithwick will be put out of its misery. And Barnaby will be
forced into the untenable position it had previously placed Smithwick. It should be noted that the longer the bond maturity, the bigger this problem becomes. For example, if this were a 30-year bond, then Smithwick would take a $5.4M hit to its capital if interest rates were 8% when it issued the bond and then fell to 4%. Two Borrowers, Different Amounts This is not the only way that a competitor can exploit the capital loss of a company who made the mistake of borrowing at a toohigh interest rate. Lets look at the case of Poddy Hoddy Hotel and Casino. Poddy sells a 20-year $100M bond at 8%, and has a monthly payment of $836K. It builds a nice hotel and casino with bars, a restaurant, a pool, and a few jewelry stores. A short while later, Xtreme Hotels sells a $138M bond at 4%, and has the same monthly payments. The extra $38M goes into a second pool with a swim-up bar, another restaurant that is themed based on the Galapagos Islands, bigger and more opulent retail stores, and a spiral glass elevator to take guests up to their rooms while enjoying the breathtaking 270-degree views of the city. Which hotel will consumers prefer? The Poddy Hoddy Hotel may have been planned based on accurate market research that showed real demand for such a hotel in that location. Unfortunately, the falling interest
rate has undermined it. Its investors will likely lose money. The Xtreme Hotel, on the other hand, is probably a malinvestment. It is likely a project for which there is no real demand. But the falling interest rate gives a false signal to the entrepreneur to build it. Of course, the Xtreme wont be the one to experience Sudden Capital Death Syndrome first. That fate will befall Poddy. Xtremes turn will come later, at a lower interest rate. With Smithwick, one might argue that it can pay off its bond in the 20 years it originally expected, so it has not experienced a loss. But in fact, there is a loss even from this angle. Smithwick is paying off its 8% bond at $83,644 per month. But the rate of interest is now 4%, which should be a payment of $60,598. The accurate way to look at this is that Smithwick is paying off a marketrate bond plus a penalty of $23,046 for every month remaining before the bond is fully amortized. With Poddy Hoddy, one might similarly argue that it can pay off its bond as planned, so it has not taken a loss. But the loss here is even clearer. By borrowing $100M at a rate that was too high, it has effectively dissipated the extra $38M that its competitor, Xtreme, put to good use. It will pay for this waste every month for 20 years (or until it goes bankrupt). GUEST page 46
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By not marking the losses at Smithwick and Poddy, the accountants are not doing these companies or their investors any favors. In the short run, these companies may declare profits and based on that pay dividends to investors and bonuses to management. But sooner or later, they will meet Barnaby and Xtreme who will deal the coup de grace of Sudden Capital Death Syndrome. Net Present Value As alluded above, one can calculate the Net Present Value (NPV) of a stream of payments. First, lets look at the formula to calculate the present value of a single payment is: It should be obvious that the present value of a payment is lower the farther into the future it is to be made. One does not value a payment due in 2042 the same as a payment to be made next year. What is not so glaring is that the value is lower for higher rates of interest. A $1000 payment due next year is worth $909 if the rate of interest is 10%, but $990 at 1%. This difference is amplified due to compounding. At 10 years, the payment is worth $385 at 10% versus $905 at 1%. The NPV of a stream of payments is the sum of the value of each payment. The value of a $1000 payment made annually for 20 years is $9818 at 8% interest. That same payment at 4% has an NPV of $13,590, a 38% increase. It is important to emphasize that while the bond issuers monthly payment is fixed based on the amount of capital raised and the
interest rate at the time, the NPV of its liability must be calculated at the current rate of interest. The market (and the universe) does not know nor care what bond issuers entry point was. Objectively, all streams of payments of $1000 per month have the same value at a given maturity and current interest rate, regardless of the original rate. Capitalizing an Income Lets look at this from yet another angle. An income can be capitalized, and the purpose of capital is to produce an income. Professor Antal Fekete wrote[3]: Suppose you are a worker taking home $50,000 a year in wages. When your income-flow is capitalized at the current rate of interest of, say, 5 percent, you arrive at the figure of $1,000,000. The sum of one million dollars or its equivalent in physical capital must exist somewhere, in some form, the yield of which will continue paying your wages. Capital has been accumulated and turned into plant and equipment to support you at work. Part of your employers capital is the wage fund that backs your employment. Assuming, of course, that no one is allowed to tamper with the rate of interest. [Emphasis in the original] Suppose for the sake of argument that the rate of interest is cut in half to 2 percent. Nothing could be clearer than the fact that the $1,000,000 wage fund is no longer adequate to support your payroll, as its annual yield has been reduced to
$25,000. This can be described by saying that every time the rate of interest is cut by half, capital is being destroyed, wiping out half of the wage fund. Unless compensation is made by adding more capital, your employment is no longer supported by a full slate of capital as before. Since productivity is nothing but the result of combining labor and capital, the productivity of your job has been impaired. You are in danger of being laid off ? or forced to take a wage cut of $25,000. Without capital, human productivity is barely enough to produce a subsistence living. Without tools, one is obliged to work long hours at back-breaking tasks in order to have a meager meal, some sort of clothing, and something to keep the rain off ones head. Capital destruction is the process of moving backwards towards a time where one worked harder to obtain less. As described earlier, when the rate of interest falls, it erodes the capital of every bond issuer. If one looks at this capital as being the wage fund (or part of it is the wage fund), then the bond issuer can no longer afford to pay its employees the same wage. If it does continue the same wage anyway, it will eventually suffer the consequences of running out of capital. Amortization of Plant Now lets consider the concept of amortizing equipment and plant at Smithwick Pen. Smithwick borrows $10M to buy equipment. Out of its revenues, it must set
aside something to amortize this over the useful life of the equipment, which is 20 years in our example. This set-aside reduces net income; it is not profit but capital maintenance assuming the company intends to remain in business after the current generation of equipment and plant wears out. How much should it set aside every month? This is the inverse of the NPV calculation. We are now interested in the current monthly payment to arrive at a fixed sum at a future point in time (as opposed to the present value of a stream of fixed payments). The lower the rate of interest, the more Smithwick must set aside every month in order to reach the goal by the deadline. To understand this, just look at what Smithwick must do. Each month, it puts some money into an interest-bearing account or bond. Even if it chooses the longest possible maturity for each payment (i.e. the first payment is put into a 20-year bond, the next into a 19-year 11-month bond, etc.) it is clear that if interest rates are falling then each payment must increase to compensate. Smithwicks profits are falling with the rate of interest! If Smithwick persists in setting aside every month what it initially calculated when it purchased the pencil-making equipment, it will have a shortfall at the end, when it needs to replace the equipment. Real Meaning of an Interest Rate Lets consider what it really means to have a high or a low rate
of interest. I propose to do reductio ad absurdum. We will look at two cases (which would be pathological if they occurred) to make the point clearer. The first case is if the rate of interest is 100%. This means that a $1000 payment one year from today is worth of the nominal value, or $500 today. A payment due in two years is worth $250 today, etc. At this rate of interest, for whatever reason, future money is worth very little present money. In other words, the burden experienced by the debtor is a small fraction of the nominal value of the debt. The second case is if the rate of interest is zero. This means that a $1000 payment due one year from today or 100 years from today is worth $1000 today. At this rate of interest, for whatever reason, future money is worth every penny of its nominal value today. There is no discount at all, not for the loss of use of the money in the meantime, not for the risk, not for currency debasement. In other words, the burden experienced by the debtor is the full nominal value of the debt. Again, to emphasize, one must use the current market rate of interest not the rate of interest contracted by the borrower at the time of the bond issuance. The lower the rate of interest, the more highly one values a future payment. The higher the rate of interest, the more highly one discounts a future payment. GUEST page 50
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Southern Europe Does Almost NothingExcept Complain

testosteronepit
likely return to the drachma. We demand an extension, Kouvelis said, summarizing W o l f R i c h t e r eloquently the strategy since the w w w . t e s t o s t e r o n e p i t . c o m June elections. Instead of While Eastern Europe is largely implementing with fiendish implementing the necessary dedication the reforms that the reforms, Southern Europe does prior government had agreed to in a l m o s t n o t h i n g e x c e p t exchange for the second bailout c o m p l a i n , s a i d B u l g a r i a n package, the new government Finance Minister Simeon Djankov insists on renegotiating those in an interview, a withering blast reforms and then delaying those aimed at neighboring Greece. renegotiated reforms, while And in Greece, The risk of insisting on the continuous flow bankruptcy is still existent, said of other peoples billions. He Fotis Kouvelis, the leader of complained about the recession, Democratic Left, smallest of the and that therefore structural three parties in the coalition reforms couldnt be implemented. g o v e r n m e n t . H i s w a y o f But neighboring Bulgaria is one reminding the bailout Troikathe of the EUs fastest growing EU, the European Central Bank economies. It has the second (ECB), and the IMFto open the lowest national debt of all EU money spigot all the way, or else! countries and even sports a budget T h e T r o i k a i n s p e c t o r s a r e surplus. Individual and corporate scheduled to return to Athens next income tax rates are 10%. And week to have another look its one of only three EU countries [read.... Greece Flails About, in compliance with the financial Troika Inspectors Paint Awful stability criteria in the Maastricht Picture, Merkel Draws A Line, treaty. The very criteria that were German Industry & Voters Back supposed to have prevented the H e r : I t s A l m o s t O v e r F o r debt crisis ravaging the Eurozone. Greece]. So the fiscal union treaty, pushed In September, armed with the through by Chancellor Angela inspectors final report, the Troika Merkel but hung up in the will decide whether or not to German Constitutional Court, is make the next bailout payment to supposed to accomplish the same Greece. If the decision is no, thing that the Maastricht treaty Greece will default and most already failed to accomplish:
Submitted at 7/20/2012 6:55:04 PM
force countries to obey limits on deficits and debt. But Bulgaria has been in compliance, in part due to Djankov, who became Finance Minister in 2009, after a 14-year stint at the World Bank. When asked if his country, still one of the poorest in the EU, wasnt balancing its budget at the expense of the people, he said: That is a false and dangerous contradiction that the Southern Europeans recently added to the debate. Countries like Germany, Finland, or also Bulgaria have growing economies and still adhere to the deficit rules. Balanced budgets and growth are not a contradiction. Prerequisite is that the necessary reforms are implemented. Spain has been trying to do that. But people resist. With unemployment at 24.4%, their government on the brink of financial doom, and their banks collapsing, Spaniards have turned to protests. Yesterday, firefighters were on the forefront. While some battled the police, others protested tongue in cheek, and with a good laugh, making their point with perfect visual clarityand with a lot of bare skin. Read.... Naked Firefighters Protest Salary Cuts (VIDEO - they use their hands or helmets to cover up their
equipment). And in Greece, reforms just arent implemented. Even the privatization of bloated stateowned enterprises is bogged down. 28 projects by 2015: electricity provider DEI, the postal service, airports, railroads, ports, hospitals.... For 19 billion, an amount that keeps shrinking. But this year, only two projects are on the list: the national lottery and the former International Center of the Olympic Press, a mere building. And so, Costas Mitropoulos, the frustrated CEO of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, which was put in place a year ago to implement the privatizations, resigned. The newly elected government has not given the support needed, Mitropoulos wrote in his letter of resignation. Instead, they have indirectly yet systematically reduced the prestige and credibility in the eyes of potential investors. And the argument that Bulgaria has an advantage over Greece because it has its own currency doesnt hold water. After losing value at an exponential rate, the lev was pegged to the Deutsche Mark in 1999 at 1:1 and then to the euro at the DMs conversion rate. And the peg has held! Alas,
Bulgaria was scheduled to adopt the euro by January 1, 2012. A deadline that came and went. So was Djankov hesitating to adopt the euro? Hesitating? he said. More than that. We put the process on ice. We first want to see what the future rules of the Eurozone look like. If it sticks around. In December 2001, when I was in Germany on business, bank showcases were filled with feel-good euro agitprop. Euros would enter circulation on January 1, and this was part of the campaign to persuade Germans to surrender their Deutsche Marks. Some were apprehensive, but my business contacts were gleeful: the euro would become the dominant reserve currency, and oil would be priced in it! Read.... Now Even Counterfeiters Are Giving up on the Euro. Average: Your rating: None Average: 4.1( 9 votes) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
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Economic Countdown To The Olympics 3: A Winning FX Strategy

Tyler Durden
Submitted at 7/20/2012 5:28:42 PM
In part three of our five-part series tying the Olympics to economics (previously here and here), we note that in a rather surprising coincidence, the Olympics' host nation has been a rather simple tool to pick longterm 'winners' in the FX market. As Goldman points out, while we doubt that the Olympics directly affects the FX market, it has provided excellent long-term appreciation potential. We assume this means that the BoE will stop QE or we really don't see cable extending this performance record, though the findings suggest that systematically picking the 'next' host tends to pick winners more than losers. Goldman Sachs: The Olympics As A Winning FX Strategy Is it possible that the Olympics affect foreign exchange markets? At first glance, this may seem unlikely as the Olympics are a relatively small event when compared to the size of the Global FX market, which turns over several trillion Dollars every single day. However, from an economic point of view, the question does make some sense. In a standard open economy model, government spending such as constructing the Olympic sites
and improving the infrastructure typically leads to real appreciation. Also, a country hosting the Olympics is likely to see an influx of visitors during the
actual Games. This would be recorded as a services export in the balance of payments and, all else equal, it would increase the demand for local currency.
To investigate whether the Games do affect FX markets, we constructed a real effective exchange rate for the Olympics, by combining the Goldman Sachs
Real Trade Weighted FX Indices (GS RTWI) of the host countries starting after the Moscow Olympics in 1980. For example, the GS RTWI for the Chinese Yuan is used between August 29, 2004 (the closing date of the Athens Olympics) and August 24, 2008 (the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics). For host cities in the Euro area, we use the Euro RTWI. The Olympic RTWI has appreciated by around 90% since the end of the Moscow Olympics in 1980, which is vastly more than any other individual currency (apart from a few hyperinflation cases with highly unstable exchange rates). The table shows that the currency with the second strongest real appreciation was the Japanese Yen: it has appreciated by around 54% since 1980, and remains substantially below the appreciation of our synthetic Olympic index. This suggests that individual currencies do tend to appreciate more than usual in the run-up to hosting the Olympics. By systematically picking the next hosting currency, the Olympic FX Index tends to pick winning currencies more often than losers. However, there are a few ECONOMIC page 50
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Expect Strikes and Protests to Spread to Italy; Another Look at Why Italy Will Exit the Eurozone Before Spain
noreply@blogger.com (Mike Mish Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis)
In regards to factors that might lead to a eurozone exit, there are two major differences between Italy and Spain. Submitted at 7/20/2012 3:25:00 PM Anti-euro sentiment in Italy is The first difference is anti-euro already very strong and about to sentiment in Italy is already at a get stronger. Eurointellihence has convincing threshold. Please see some interesting comments today Six Reasons Why Italy May Exit regarding Italy. the Euro Before Spain The demonstrations and protests Here is a pertinent chart. [in Spain] are very likely now to The net difference between those spread to Italy. The countrys who think the euro is a good thing largest union, CGIL, said there minus those who think it is a bad would be a public-sector strike things is -4 percentage points in in September to oppose the Italian Spain, but -14 points in Italy. That government latest austerity plan, is the biggest negative spread in Il Fatto Quotidiano reports. the eurozone. According to Susanna Camusso, Elections - Mario Monti Gone in CGIL head, its union will launch 2013 "a general strike of the public The second difference between sector against the umpteenth Italy and Spain is in regards to measure." The cuts, to avert a elections. 2% increase in VAT scheduled Italian prime minister Mario for September, include a 10% Monti will be gone no later than reduction of staff and 20% general elections in 2013. In reduction of managers of public- contrast, Spanish prime minister sector. Mariano Rajoy is not scheduled to The complete package, result of face general elections until 2015. the spending review conducted by Whether Rajoy's government can Mario Monti, will save over hang on that long is another 26bn until 2014. The measure, question. which will go before the Rise of the Five Star Movement Parliament at the end of July, was In Italy, it is highly likely antiapproved by the cabinet two euro candidates take over at least w e e k s a g o . E u r o z o n e E x i t some of Italian parliament. A Sentiment in Italy Time-Lapse Interactive Graph of
the Popularity of an Anti-Euro Party shows just that. Please click on the link to learn about the rise of the " Five Star Movement". Former Italian Prime Minister Seeks to Dump Euro Recall that former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said " Italy should dump the euro unless the European Central Bank agreed
believe those reactions will spread to Italy. And with elections pending, the rise of anti-euro sentiment in Italy is extremely important. Monti may even be ousted before 2013 via failed vote-of-confidence. Every day that passes, the more strength the Five-Star Movement will gain. The irony is that it would be in the best interest of the eurocrats to hold elections now rather than later, before the antieuro movement becomes politically unstoppable. Mike "Mish" Shedlock h t t p : / / globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an to inject more cash into the asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and economy". See Italy "Gasping Like Beached low volatility, regardless of Whale"; Berlusconi Reiterates market direction. Visit http:// Euro Exit "Not Blasphemy"; w w w . s i t k a p a c i f i c . c o m / Beppe Grillo Discusses "Taboo of account_management.html to learn more about wealth the Euro" The collapse of the Spanish bond m a n a g e m e n t a n d c a p i t a l market and the rise of protests in preservation strategies of Sitka Spain are both very serious EXPECT page 50 matters. There is every reason to
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important caveats. First, the fouryear periods preceding the Seoul 1988, Sydney 2000 and London 2012 Olympics saw the host currency depreciate. In other words, the Olympic FX Index is not guaranteed an FX Gold Medal. Second, real effective exchange rates can appreciate because of high inflation rather than nominal appreciation. Carry may be higher as well, meaning that investors may still be able to benefit, but Olympic currencies are not guaranteed to appreciate in nominal terms. To check the performance of the Olympic currency, we calculated the return to date on an initial investment of $100 in the Olympic currency at the end of the Moscow Games, including carry. Following the host country rules laid out above, this would mean that at the end of the Beijing Olympics the investment would have been shifted out of Renminbi and into Sterling. Starting with
$100 in 1980, this Olympic investment would currently be held in Sterling and worth about $1,020. In comparison, investing $100 in rolling 1-year USD investments would have returned only about $700. In summary, the empirical results suggest that a synthetic Olympic currency would outperform over time. Even though Olympic investment spending is a relatively small share of GDP (for example, around 0.8% for the UK 2012 Games), one potential explanation is that there is a positive selection bias in picking the host city. For example, countries with strong growth in the years before a decision would be able to invest more in their Olympics bid, increasing the chances of winning the Games. This is even more so if growth is supported by a structural story that lasts longer than just one business cycle. The Beijing Olympics are an obvious recent
example. Overall, we continue to doubt that the Olympics directly affect the foreign exchange market. However, the Olympics may be a rather simple tool to pick longterm winners in the FX market with good long-term appreciation potential. Thomas Stolper and Constantin Burgi Average: Your rating: None Average: 2.7( 6 votes) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
These statements are true whether one is the payer or the payee. The payer and payee are just parties on opposite sides of the same trade. Irving Fisher, writing about falling prices (I shall address the connection between falling prices and falling interest rates in a forthcoming paper) proposed a paradox[4]: The more the debtors pay, the more they owe. Debtors slowly pay down their debts and reduce the principle owed. This would reduce the NPV of their debts in a normal environment. But in a fallinginterest-rate environment, the NPV of outstanding debt is rising due to the falling interest rate at a pace much faster than it is falling due to debtors payments. The
debtors are on a treadmill and they are going backwards at an accelerating rate. How apropos is Fishers eloquent sentence summarizing the problem! Average: Your rating: None Average: 4.2( 11 votes) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
EXPECT
Pacific.
Start times set for Oklahoma season, home openers - Miami Herald
(- Bing News)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 11:33:39 PM
Posted on Sat, Jul. 21, 2012 The Associated Press The Big 12 Conference has announced kickoff times for Oklahoma's first two games of the
2012 season.The Sooners will travel to Texas for their season opener to take on Texas-El Paso Sept. 1 at 9:30 p.m. Oklahoma time. Oklahoma's home football opener against Florida A&M is set for 6 p.m. central time at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on
Sept. 8.The game will mark the first-ever meeting between the Sooners and the Rattlers.Oklahoma has won its initial game of the season in Norman each of the past six years. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is
your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Economy/ Culture/ News Photos
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Mayor Of Small German Town That Said Berlin Owes It Trillions Complains After Publicity Stunt Goes Wrong
Adam Taylor (Money Game)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 4:01:29 PM
Earlier this week we brought you the story of Mittenwalde, the sleepy German town that believes Berlin owes it over a trillion dollars due to the 450-year-old loan of 400 guilders (gold coins used as currency). Apparently, Mittenwalde wishes we hadn't brought you that news. Uwe Pfeiffer, mayor of Mittenwalde, has been telling the German press regretting the publication of the news ( even though he himself announced it in May, shouting over a megaphone:"We could be the richest city in the world, when Berlin finally pays his debt to us"). In an article published earlier
A Google-a-Day Puzzle for July 21

Ken Denmead (Wired Top Stories)
today, he told Sddeutsche Zeitung: Its all nonsense and old hat, I cant hear this story with the guilders anymore." "Show time was over a long time age ... But they are still calling from all around the world. However, Pfeiffer found time to ridicule Berlin's other debt
problem in the interview: We dont need it. Mittenwalde is, in contrast to Berlin, largely debt free. Please follow International on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation about this story
Photos: AstrosDiamondbacks series Houston Chronicle (blog)

(news photos - Google News)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 11:30:15 PM
Houston Chronicle (blog) Photos: Astros-Diamondbacks series Houston Chronicle (blog) Photos: Astros-Diamondbacks
series. Posted on July 20, 2012 at 8:29 pm by Ultimate Astros in Astros, Astros/MLB Tweet. Share share E-mail. 1 of 17 | Share. Astros-Diamondbacks: July 20-22. Hide Caption. July 20: Diamondbacks 13, Astros 8... and more
automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience. Submitted at 7/20/2012 11:01:00 PM And now, without further ado, we Our good friends at Google run a give you daily puzzle challenge and asked TODAYS PUZZLE: us to help get them out to the The last ruler in the Ptolemaic geeky masses. Each days puzzle dynasty tried to treat the baldness will task your googling skills a of which one of her famous little more, leading you to Google boyfriends? mastery. Each morning at 12:01 YESTERDAYS ANSWER a.m. Eastern time youll see a new (mouseover to see): puzzle, and the previous days Search [electric-blue clouds] to answer (in invisitext) posted here. f i n d t h a t t h e y a r e c a l l e d SPOILER WARNING: noctilucent (night shining) We leave the comments on so clouds. Search [noctilucent clouds people can work together to find atmosphere] to learn that they the answer. As such, if you want form in the mesosphere, on the to figure it out all by yourself, fringe of space. DONT READ T H E This entry passed through the COMMENTS! Full-Text RSS service if this is Also, with the knowledge that your content and you're reading it because others may publish their on someone else's site, please read answers before you do, if you the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentwant to be able to search for only/faq.php#publishers. Five information without accidentally Filters recommends: Incinerating seeing the answer somewhere, Assange - The Liberal Media Go you can use the Google-a-Day To Work. sites search tool, which will
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Culture/
Phoenix Pastor Jailed Over Home Bible Study to Serve 3 Years?

(Christianpost.com > Most Popular)
July 17, 2012| 3:38 pm The Arizona pastor who is currently imprisoned for hosting regular Bible studies at his home may have to serve up to three years for violating his probation. Michael Salman, an ordained pastor of Church of God in Christ and the founder of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Phoenix, appeared in court Monday on charges that he violated his probation by continuing to hold Bible studies on his 4.6 acre property with more than 12 people, and for failing to pay over $12,000 in fines. The Phoenix Municipal Court had earlier ruled that Salman was not to have more than 12 people at his home until he met the city's building codes, fire codes and other safety codes. "He was found guilty of violating that (12 people limit) today. So in two to four weeks supposedly the court will decide what they are going to do in terms of his violation," said John Whitehead, Salman's attorney and founding president of the legal group The Rutherford Institute, to The Christian Post after the Monday court hearing. "The prosecutor is arguing for more jail time." READ FACT SHEET FROM THE RUTHERFORD
INSTITUTE Whitehead noted that 15 to 20 people were meeting in Salman's home for Bible study after the court's order of a 12-persons limit. "[They brought him to court] to see if they are going to extend the 60 days in jail," he said. "He is on three year probation, which means that he could get up to three years in jail." Follow us Last Monday, Salman began his 60-day jail sentence at Maricopa County Jail for hosting Bible studies twice a week in his home. A Phoenix court found him guilty of 67 code violations in connection to failing to comply to the city's building, fire, safety, and zoning codes. The city of Phoenix argues that Salman's case is not about religious freedom but about public safety. In an interview with CP, the city prosecutor or chief prosecutor for Phoenix, Aaron J. Carreon-Ainsa, noted that five judges have looked at Salman's case, including two U.S. district judges and an appellate judge, and have affirmed the conviction. "We are interested in ensuring that people are provided a safe place in which they can worship," said Carreon-Ainsa. "We don't want a tragedy that we sometimes read about in third world countries where people are
gathered for whatever purpose and they perish because of a fire or some other situation that they are not able to protect themselves [from]..." READ FACT SHEET FROM THE CITY OF PHOENIX Salman, who is a father of six, has been hosting Bible studies on his property for the past 7 years. The city of Phoenix began interacting with Salman about zoning concerns starting in 2006, when the Zoning Administrator informed him that his property was analogous to a church and therefore he should adjust his home to comply with the Zoning Ordinance. According to the City of Phoenix Prosecutor's Office, the city has repeatedly asked Salman to comply with the safety codes and "he chose to ignore these requests for voluntary compliance prior to the commencement of any proceedings." But Brad Dacus, founding president of the Pacific Justice Institute which has defended several home Bible study cases weighed in and disagreed with the city's argument. "The city is dealing with a 5-acre parcel of land. Based on the information we have received, there are no bona fide health or safety concerns that have been brought to light," said Dacus to
CP on Tuesday. "There have been no injuries incurred by any individuals that have come to gather for this purpose. There are no imminent risks of injuries for anyone gathered for this religious purpose. And there are no bona fide nuisances that have arisen since its usage. "This attempt by the city of Phoenix is an overbearing usage of their authority in a manner that is clearly not warranted." In a YouTube video, the Salmans give a tour of their large property, emphasizing that the dozens of cars that come to their home for the Bible study are parked behind their private gate on their property and not on the streets. A notable discrepancy is that while Salman says around 30 to 40 people usually gather at his home, the city says that up to 80 people with seating for a hundred is common. Salman and his attorney decry the city's harsh punishments meted out over a home Bible study to be in violation of the defendant's religious freedom. Dacus also commented on the most recent court hearing, "To the extent to which the city of Phoenix has placed this limitation of only 12 people being able to meet in this home, such a narrow limitation is suspect as necessary and it seems arbitrary in terms of the number selected and as well as
who they chose to enforce it." PJI recently successfully defended a local Christian Bible group meeting in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., that was vulnerable to a controversial city code that required all religious, fraternal or nonprofit organizations of three people or more to obtain a conditional-use permit for hosting meetings, including Bible studies. The couple hosting the Bible group faced a $300 fine for violating this code. PJI successfully convinced the city of San Juan Capistrano to adopt a new policy that now allows up to 40 people to meet in a private residence without a permit. But the news is not as positive for Salman, who still faces a $12,180 fine and may have his 60-day jail sentence extended in a few weeks by the court. Clarification: July 17, 2012: An article on July 17, 2012, about an Arizona pastor who is currently serving a prison sentence for hosting a weekly Bible study held in a building that violated the city's building safety codes originally reported that five judges found Michael Salman guilty. Aaron J. Carreon-Ainsa of the City Prosecutor's Office in Phoenix clarified that there was PHOENIX page 54
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When Tragedy Hits, Photojournalists Balance Reporting and Emotion

Jakob Schiller (Wired Top Stories)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 4:56:00 PM
He was screaming at the top his lungs, Have you seen my son? says Barry Gutierrez, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer who has been covering todays shooting in Colorado for the Associated Press. It was so gutwrenching, it rocked me right to my bones. I couldnt imagine what he was going through. Photo: Barry Gutierrez/AP Earlier today photojournalist Barry Gutierrez made a photo of Tom Sullivan as he came running over to the media waving a black and white photo of his son Alex and asking frantically if anyone had seen him. Alex Sullivan had been celebrating his 27th birthday at the theater in Aurora, Colorado, where a gunman opened fire early this morning. Tom Sullivan had been unable to find his son, who he feared might be one of the 12 dead or dozens injured. He was screaming at the top his lungs, Have you seen my son? says Gutierrez, a Pulitzer Prizewinning photographer who has been covering the event for the Associated Press. It was so gutwrenching, it rocked me right to The photo Gutierrez made of my bones. I couldnt imagine Sullivan has now been broadcast what he was going through. around the world and quickly become an important window into
the heart of an unfolding tragedy. provide during events like these. the pain of those involved. Its a Its also become an example of Not only has Gutierrez been skill that only certain people have t h e v a l u e t h a t t r a i n e d tasked with reporting the news, WHEN page 54 photojournalists like Gutierrez but he must also be sensitive to
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WHEN
PHOENIX
and it shows on days like today. I have to keep the macro view of journalism in my mind at all times, he says. I have a duty as a journalist and I have to understand that there are tens of millions of people affected by and watching this story. But at a micro level, I have to be a human being with a heart. This situation played out again later in the day when Gutierrez introduced himself to Shamecca Davis as she waited for her son Isaiah Bow, an eyewitness, to be released from questioning. Gutierrez explained who he was to Davis and asked her permission to be around when her son came out. Photo: Barry Gutierrez/AP The result is another intimate photo of a tearful Davis hugging Bow after he was released. Shot with a wide-angle lens, the photo is close-in on the moment. I think this is a clear example of the fact that sensitivity matters as a photojournalist, says Gutierrez. If you cant feel and if you cant approach this like a human being youre not going to make pictures that mean anything. That sense of care works its way up the chain of command at newspapers and other news
organizations around the country where editors are also faced with tough decisions about how to report the news and be sensitive to the concerns of the community. Janet Reeves was the Director of Photography at the Rocky Mountain News in Denver during the Columbine High School shooting. When that story broke, she had the job of directing the photo staff about how to cover the event where photographers should go, how to coordinate with reporters, etc. Just as many editors found themselves doing this morning. In this case it would be deciding who is going to cover the theater, who is going to cover the hospital, who is going to figure out who the shooter is, she says. Columbine was before the days of social media, so there was less information to help understand the event as it unfolded and less information to help editors decide where to send their staff. Almost immediately after the shooting in Aurora, however, social media was abuzz with information, including Twitter updates from those who had been trapped inside the theater and from those who knew victims killed in the shooting.
Back in 1999 during the Columbine event Reeves and her photo-editing staff were also tasked with using the incoming photographs to report the story in a way that was informative but also appropriate. Possibly the most important choice was what to put on the front page the day after the shooting. A photographer on the staff had shot aerial photos of the school and in looking through them Reeves and the staff figured out that you could see the body of a dead child. Knowing that photo would be inappropriate to place on the front page they had to decide whether to run it all because they were worried about how it would affect the family. Since Columbine was one of the first mass school killings there were constant discussions about how the photos would affect the community, she says. Finally, the decision was made to run the aerial photo inside. Out front the paper ran a gutwrenching photo (shown below) by George Kochaniec Jr. that shows students outside the school overcome by grief. Photo: George Kochaniec Jr. There were a series of heartbreaking decisions about
what to publish and what not to publish, she says. Kenny Irby, a senior faculty member at Poynter, says the best journalists find a way to strike a balance in these situations. We are always trying to find a way to maximize truth-telling and minimize harm, he says. And while it might not be readily apparent, he says that the role of journalists will always be central to coping with and healing from these tragedies. Across the board its important to have journalists, people who put their lives in harms way and go through some major traumas, because we need them to expose the stories to America and world abroad, he says. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
only one trial and the other judges reviewed the case and affirmed the conviction. READ: FEDERAL COURT ERODES RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Culture/
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Pat Robertson Tells Christian Viewer to Dump Muslim Girlfriend

July 18, 2012| 9:06 am (Photo: YouTube via The Christian Post) Pat Robertson appears on "The 700 Club" Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011. During the Q&A segment of the program, a man named Brad wrote in explaining that he had been in a relationship with a Muslim woman for three years and that they were planning to get married. "No way! No way! She's going to want to do her Muslim thing and you're going to want to do your Christian thing. There will be constant struggle and strife. Walk away," said Robertson. "In the Old Testament they were forbidden to intermarry with the heathen." Glenn Stanton, director of global family formation studies for Focus on the Family, told The Christian Post that he agreed with Robertson's views on interfaith marriage. "The wisdom of God's Word is quite clear on believers being unequally yoked. And marrying someone who is not a Christian
who is not a daily disciple of Christ is being unequally yoked, regardless of what their beliefs might be," said Stanton. "And the wisdom of Scripture is, not surprisingly, backed up by social science, which finds that interfaith marriages are significantly more likely to be unstable, even leading to higher levels of divorce." According to a 2008 survey performed by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, about 25 percent of married Americans have a spouse of a different religious sect. When considering Protestant denomination s as different religious groups, the number rises to 37 percent. Stanton told CP that he believed this large percentage of interfaith marriages was because couples in America are not taking faith in practice as seriously as previous generations. "A serious commitment to faith and the practice of that faith is not as important to many couples these days," said Stanton. "Less than 50 years ago, an interfaith marriage was when a Presbyterian married a Methodist. That was when distinct belief, practice and identity was taken
more seriously." The example that Robertson commented on focused on a Christian-Muslim couple. According to Kamal Nawash, president of the Free Muslims Coalition, Robertson's remarks fit with what many religious leaders preach. "While I am not a fan of Robertson, he cannot be blamed for his latest statement. He is merely preaching generally accepted Christian orthodoxy. Most religious leaders, of any faith, adopt the same rule as Robertson," said Nawash in an interview with The Christian Post. Nawash explained that with Islamic practice there is some room allowed for interfaith marriages, but only between a Muslim and someone who is either Jewish or Christian. Further, most Muslims assume that only men can marry outside the religion. "Textual Islam is unique among the Abrahamic faiths. It allows interfaith marriages and prohibits husbands from even asking their wives to convert to Islam," said Nawash. "However, Muslims are not allowed to marry people outside
of Christianity or Judaism. Meaning, Muslims cannot marry Hindus, Buddhists and the like. This is because Islam sees Christianity and Judaism as godly religions." Nawash also said that in the United States Muslim men have been known to marry nonMuslims and that increasingly Muslim women in America have been doing likewise. "It is becoming very common for Christian-Muslim marriage s in the United States. The trend has been common with men for decades," said Nawash. "However, now it is becoming common with Muslim women I anticipate this trend to continue at a rapid speed and there is nothing that can be done about it." READ: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE UNEQUALLY YOKED? This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Are we the first generation of cyborgs? [Discussions Of The Day]

Walter Glenn (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 3:00:00 PM
Are we the first generation of cyborgs? What are your thoughts on Google acquiring Sparrow? How do you think about the value of your non-work hours? Should I use a screen protector? Use a light mist of water to help apply screen protectors. Do gift card swap/sell sites verify the cards you trade? More
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Culture/
Don't Blame The Dark Knight Rises for Theater Massacre

Lewis Wallace (Wired Top Stories)
Bane takes place without weapons. The heros pyrotechnics, designed to frighten Submitted at 7/20/2012 4:05:00 PM street thugs, have zero effect on A memorial ribbon circulating on the hulking supervillain, and the Twitter in the aftermath of the fighters rely on nothing but their Colorado tragedy. (Unknown brute strength and martial arts artist) training as they battle. Even a Nobody should blame the movies giant confrontation between for Fridays horrific killing spree G o t h a m s c o p s a n d B a n e s during a screening of The Dark m i n i o n s t u r n s i n t o a g i a n t Knight Rises at a theater in f i s t f i g h t . Aurora, Colorado. But heres the thing: Its pointless At this point we know little about to question the cultural influences James Eagan Holmes, the 24-year of a sick mind. The location of -old Colorado man who allegedly any massacre has little to do with donned a gas mask and body the violence that took place, even armor before sneaking into the if it means something to the Century 16 theater in Aurora and deranged killer. If the attack had firing into the crowd during a occurred at a farmers market, midnight screening of The Dark would we now be breathlessly Knight Rises. Holmes is being pondering the dangers of organic questioned by police, and who produce? No, we would not. knows what they will discover. A woman identifying herself as Was the alleged shooter a comic Holmes mother told ABC News book fan? A gun nut or a gamer? You have the right person, a A Batman devotee? statement that, if its accurate, If anything, the final chapter of sends a chilling message that the Nolans Batman trilogy delivers alleged shooter has a troubling an anti-gun message, including an past. obvious scene in which a good Not long after the Columbine cop defends himself by shooting a terror attacks, shock-rocker pair of criminals, only to instantly Marilyn Manson penned an essay lament the fact that hes got f o r R o l l i n g S t o n e t i t l e d nobody to interrogate. The Columbine: Whose Fault Is It? movies most brutal sequence He railed against news outlets for an intense smackdown between turning killers into celebrities. Batman and supreme bad guy From Jesse James to Charles
11, 2001, President George W. Bush urged Americans to get on with their lives. This great nation will never be intimidated, he said two months after 9/11. People are going about their daily lives, working and shopping and playing, worshiping at churches and synagogues and mosques, going to movies and to baseball games. So whats the moral of this story? Take a moment of silence in honor of the people killed and injured in Colorado. Go see The Dark Knight Rises, if youre a fan of comic book movies with a realistic edge. But whatever you do, dont confuse a grim movie with realworld violence. And dont turn a cowardly killer into a supervillain. A person who opens fire in a crowded theater is a psychopath, a punk and nothing more. This entry passed through the Manson, the media, since their the three films Batman Begins, Full-Text RSS service if this is inception, have turned criminals The Dark Knight and The Dark your content and you're reading it into folk heroes, Manson wrote. K n i g h t Rises a r e on someone else's site, please read They just created two new ones unquestionably dark, with a the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentwhen they plastered those dip- grim and gritty worldview that only/faq.php#publishers. Five shits Dylan Klebold and Eric mirrors real events. Christopher Filters recommends: Incinerating Harris pictures on the front of Nolans final Batman movie will Assange - The Liberal Media Go every newspaper. Dont be be tainted forever by the dark To Work. surprised if every kid who gets shadow cast by this terrible pushed around has two new incident, however unfair that may idols. be. As for Nolans Batman trilogy, After the terror attacks of Sept.
Culture/
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Televangelist Juanita Bynum Confesses: I've Been With Women

responsibility for my life and not doing the blame game to say 'oh, this is their fault;' I took full July 17, 2012| 9:41 am responsibility in every area "I've been there and I've done it because every choice that I made, all. I did the drugs, I've been with nobody put a gun to my head. I men, I've been with women. All made those choices due to a lack of it," she said July 13 on the of wisdom." "Frank & Wanda in the Morning" Follow us radio program. Continuing, she stated, "I'm not Host Frank Ski immediately insecure about being around r e s p o n d e d w i t h : " A r e y o u people who have issues and serious?" struggles because I've been there The unexpected confession was and I've done it all." m a d e a s t h e s e l f - p r o f e s s e d That's when she disclosed her prophetess was on the Atlanta- past sexual relations with women. based station to discuss her "Get Following Ski's "are you serious" Y o u r L i f e B a c k " t h e a t e r question, she answered, "Every production. The stage play bit of it." starring Bynum, Anthony Dalton "It's my life." and Miss Venetia "Princess" "That abuse I suffered was Lewis tackles true life issues, because I attracted after my own shame and guilt, according to a kind," Bynum added. "That abuse description of the show. was already sitting in me. I had Bynum was asked by Ski to already abused myself mentally speak on the power of purpose and emotionally for years trying and how to bounce back from to fill a void that only the power struggles or trauma. of purpose can fill. She responded, "I've been there "You can have sex with 50,000 ... but I think the minute I allowed people, you can do drugs until the somebody to help me to take full cows come home. But the void
that you're trying to fill is a void that's been put there by the Creator and it's called purpose and destiny and until you accept that you're going to walk around the living dead." Following the brief interview, a listener, Lisa Lewis, tweeted, "@SandraRose Did you hear @DrBynum (Juanita Bynum) admitt to having sex with women on @V103Atlanta? Another closet confession. I am shocked." A couple of days later, Bynum also made several follow-up comments on her Twitter account. "If my life's testamony offends you then good ..now you can go serve christ for real because he will Never dissappoint you ever!!!" she tweeted on July 15. "Testamony is what you get after something has been put to death!.Maybe that's why we don't see a lot of them. You got to kill it to tell it!" The 53-year-old also posted: "And they OVER CAME him(SATAN) by the blood of the lamb and by their TESTAMONIES!!! When we
expose the enemy we OVER THROW HIM FOR GOOD!!" "You don't get anointed because God likes you ..you get anointed when he breaks junk out of your life!" "A Life of Transparency causes people to see christ in you and thru you!!!" Bynum was married twice and was the victim of domestic abuse in both marriages. Her latest divorce occurred in 2008 after Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III pleaded guilty to assaulting Bynum in a hotel parking lot. READ: MY STORY HOMOSEXUALITY, DRUNKENNESS, GRACE AND REDEMOTION This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Make an Awesome, Portable Retro Gaming System This Weekend [Weekendhacker]

Adam Dachis (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 5:00:00 PM
If you're looking to relive the nostalgic games of your childhood, there are many options available. You can hack an existing piece of hardware or even build one yourself. This weekend, put together the ultimate retro gaming system of your choice with almost any hardware you want. More
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Culture/ Gaming/
The Dark Knight Rises Director Christopher Nolan Speaks About "Devastating" Theater Shooting
Brittney Stephens (PopSugar)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 5:29:01 PM
Lessons learned by age 60

(Holy Kaw!)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 10:09:45 PM
Wisdom comes with age. That's kind of a bummer when you think about it. That means we won't Christopher Nolan released a reach our fullest potential until statement today on the tragic we're much older. Well, there is a shooting that killed 12 and injured way around it... Harvard Business dozens at a midnight showing of Review post offers twelve lessons The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, learned from a 60-year-old CO, on Friday. The film's director successful CEO. spoke on behalf of the cast and The more we know about crew, saying, "I would like to ourselves, the more power we express our profound sorrow at have to behave better. Humility is the senseless tragedy that has underrated. We each have an for the film off the air. befallen the entire Aurora Earlier Friday morning, President i n f i n i t e c a p a c i t y f o r s e l f community." He went on to say, Barack Obama spoke about the deceptioncountless unconscious "The movie theater is my home, shooting, telling victims that "we ways we protect ourselves from and the idea that someone would will be here for them as a nation" p a i n , u n c e r t a i n t y , a n d violate that innocent and hopeful during a speech in Fort Myers, responsibilityoften at the place in such an unbearably expense of others and of FL. savage way is devastating to me." The suspected gunman, 24-yearWarner Bros. also issued a old James Holmes, entered the statement, saying they were theater through an exit door and "deeply shocked and saddened" released a gas canister before by the incident. The studio is also opening fire at the movie reportedly editing gun violence audience. He is currently in out of the theatrical trailer, and custody. some TV stations are pulling ads
ourselves. Endless introspection can turn into self-indulgence, but deepening self-awareness is essential to freeing ourselves from our reactive, habitual behaviors. Let go of certainty. The opposite isn't uncertainty. It's openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than
choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow. Full story at HBR. More lifehacks. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment
WRUP: What summer lull?

Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 11:00:00 PM
Of course, there are already those of us who have a crazy backlog. On that note, how was Max Payne Taking a look at our reviews 3? section, it's pretty clear this What's everyone playing this summer is full of quality content weekend? summer lull? to keep you indoors until winter. Continue reading WRUP: What
WRUP: What summer lull? originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
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59
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart Hold Hands During a Date Night
Allie Merriam (PopSugar)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 2:45:47 PM
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart held hands when they left the Hotel Cafe in LA last night. The Breaking Dawn Part 2 couple fit in the night out on the town after both tending to work duties this week. Robert took a meeting at Paramount, and earlier yesterday, Kristen wore a pair of hot short shorts to visit a studio, too. They started July with a stop in San Diego to chat up the finale of the Twilight series at ComicCon. Kristen wore a crop top and a short BCBG skirt to the annual (Holy Kaw!) 20 different things, but your job is convention, where both she and to keep drilling until you hit the Rob dished about becoming Submitted at 7/20/2012 10:05:59 PM core of what is most upsetting. parents as Edward Cullen and Resolving conlict is an essential Once you get past feeling angry Bella Swan in their November tool to master when you're in the and thinking that your boss is a film. Their daughter, Renesmee, business world. Heck, when jerk, you may find that there is you're in any world. To help you something deeper that is really master conflict resolution, CBS troubling you. Are you upset that offers a six-step method to your boss called you out in a resolving conflict. Here's the first: meeting when he knew you didn't Drill down. When you get upset, have the answer or that you're y o u b e c o m e f l o o d e d w i t h really upset you weren't prepared? hormones and emotions. Your The answer will have a profound mind can start to resemble a bee effect on how you handle the hive of activity -- racing thoughts situation. and a lack of clear focus. Your Full story at CBS. goal at this stage is drill down and More lifehacks. to really try to figure out what you Photo credit: Fotolia are actually most upset about. I Permalink| Leave a comment know; you're probably upset over
How to resolve conflict
is played by the young actress Mackenzie Foy, who also attended Comic-Con. Robert and Kristen talked about racy scenes in their movie with Mackenzie sitting beside them on a panel, but the couple tried as best they could to keep things PG. View Slideshow
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Culture/ Politics-Left/
UN council extends Syria observer mission

Remains of the Day: Fringe and The West Wing Streaming Exclusively on Amazon Prime [For What It's Worth]
Craig Lloyd (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 4:00:00 PM
(AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE))

Submitted at 7/20/2012 10:19:23 PM
Warner Bros. TV shows are coming to Amazon Prime Instant Video, Quicksilver updates with Mountain Lion support, Google Fiber is coming July 26th, and 20th Century Fox films are finally available on iCloud. More
The Security Council has unanimously voted to extend the UN monitoring mission in Syria for a further 30 days, a day after a resolution that sought to impose sanctions on President Bashar alAssad's regime was vetoed by China and Russia. The council envoys had debated competing resolutions aimed at extending the mission in Syria on Friday, with Russia threatening to veto a British proposal on the extension while a rival measure by Pakistan lacked clear support. The UN mission, known by its acronym UNSMIS, was deployed as part of UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan to end the 16-month conflict that has killed thousands. Its mandate was to expire at midnight on Friday (0400 GMT on Saturday). The resolution is a lifeline for the unarmed observers who were sent to Syria three months ago to monitor a ceasefire that never materialised. T h e unarmed 300 observers, command ed by Norwegian Major-General Robert Mood, are also tasked with watching over the implementation of Annan's six-
point peace plan, flouted by alAssad's government. The council voted shortly after Russia's ambassador to France, Alexander Orlov, said he believed Assad was ready to step down "in a civilized way". The Syrian government immediately denied it, and the Russian foreign ministry said the ambassador's statements were taken out of context and "wrongly interpreted". 'Orderly withdrawal' Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said: "The Americans have suggested that the extension is really only to allow an orderly withdrawal of the mission from Syria." He said the resolution calls for a report from the UN secretarygeneral in 15 and then again in 30 days. "The UN Secuirty Council will then assess the situation on the ground, and it's clear if things have not improved, the intention -
mainly of the UK, the US and their allies on the Security Council - is that the mission will be withdrawn," he added. Indepth coverage of escalating violence across Syria UN Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, whose country Britain drafted the resolution, said: "We believe that it's the right thing to give that mission a final chance to be able to fulfil its function." Grant said the extension would be "final unless there's a change in the dynamic on the ground". "In particular ... there should be a cessation of use of heavy weapons and there should a sufficient reduction in the violence to enable UNSMIS to carry out its mandate ... As you know, for the last 35 days UNSMIS has not been able to carry out its mandate." Russia and China on Thursday vetoed a Western-backed resolution that would have extended the mandate. The two countries, both Syria's allies, said they could not accept
the resolution's call for sanctions against al-Assad's government if it fails to rein in its campaign against a widening rebellion. Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, had said on Thursday that Washington would "probably" support the British resolution and described the Pakistani resolution as a simple technical rollover. "We have been clear, we are not supporting a technical rollover," she told reporters. Li Baodong, China's UN ambassador, said Beijing supported Pakistan's proposal for a technical rollover of the mission for 45 days, which Russia also said it would support. Russia and China have so far vetoed three different resolutions designed to pressure Assad and halt the 16-month conflict that has killed thousands. 580 This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Politics-Left/
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Syria strikes back at rebels in Damascus

(AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE))
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:42:09 AM
'Tactical retreat' Regime troops regained control of the district of Midan in the Syrian troops and tanks on Friday southern part of Damascus on drove rebels from a Damascus Friday. But rebels launched new neighbourhood where some of the fighting in several other districts heaviest of this week's fighting in of the capital, activists said. Inthe capital left cars gutted and depth coverage of escalating fighters' bodies in the streets. violence across Syria More than 200 people were killed Battles involving troops bringing in a single day, activists said on in tanks, helicopters and mortars Friday, as the military struggled to have turned parts of Damascus regain momentum after a stunning into combat zones, according to bombing against the regime's witnesses, and sent thousands of leadership. Syrian families packed in cars A fourth member of President streaming across the border into Bashar al-Assad's inner circle, neighbouring Lebanon. national security chief General " O u r h e r o i c f o r c e s h a v e Hisham Ikhtiyar, died of wounds completely cleansed the Midan he suffered in Wednesday's bomb area of the terrorist mercenaries," blast, which went off during a state TV announced, employing high-level security meeting the term used by authorities to in Damascus, according to refer to rebels. government media. It said authorities seized large The bombing has been described quantities of weapons including as a resounding blow to Assad, machine guns, explosive belts, killing his defence minister and rocket-propelled grenades and his influential brother-in-law communications equipment. along with another security Damascus activist Khaled alofficial, all central to directing the Shami said rebels carried out a crackdown on the uprising against "tactical" retreat early on Friday his rule. to spare civilians further shelling The blast, six days of sustained after five days of intense clashes fighting in neighbourhoods across between opposition fighters and central districts of the capital and regime forces. the fall of several border posts Rebels continued to strike into rebel hands appear to point to elsewhere in the capital on Friday. the unravelling of Assad's grip on Rebels attacked a police station power. on Khaled bin Waleed Street,
where heavy fighting was going on, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Clashes were also reported in the northern Barzeh and Rukneddine districts. A Syria-based activist who goes by the name of Bashir alDimashqi said the rebels in Damascus were staging hit and run attacks and striking at security targets as opposed to controlling areas. "Their strategy is to paralyse public institutions and chip away at the regime," he said. Activists reported that 310 people were killed in violence nationwide on Thursday, making it the single deadliest day of fighting since the
revolt began. Border crossings Besides the fighting in Damascus on Friday, about a half-dozen rebels took over a Syrian border crossing near the Iraqi town of Qaim on Thursday, said Iraqi army Brigadier General Qassim al -Dulaimi. There are four major border posts with Iraq. Rebels overtook a Syrian army outpost near the Syrian-Iraq border after clashes that killed 21 Syrian soldiers, he added. In addition, amateur video posted online showed rebels taking over the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey, where they stomped on portraits of Assad. The footage could not be independently verified.
A Turkish official based in Reyhanli, on the Turkish side of the border gate of Bab al-Hawa, confirmed that the rebels had taken control of the frontier crossing, but had no information on the latest situation over on the Syrian side. Al Jazeera's Isil Sariyuce, reporting from Bab al-Hawa, said on Friday night that it was still "unclear" who was in control of the Syrian side of the border checkpoint. "For the Free Syrian Army [the border crossing] is important strategically and symbolically. If they can control it, it will be easier to control the supply lines to their fighters, and it is the main transit point between Turkey and Syria." Iraqi officials said two other major border crossings remained in control of the Syrian regime. 675 This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
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Products/
No, Best Buy Employee, I Wont Come To Your House To Get My Stolen Racy Photos Back
Disabled Vet Says United Employees Kicked His Service Dog, Asked Him If He Was Retarded
Chris Morran (The Consumerist)
time with some substantial force. "[He] kicked her so hard on the rib cage, that she flew into my Submitted at 7/20/2012 2:15:01 PM lap He said he was afraid of Mary Beth Quirk (The embarrassed," she told WTOP. assure you that we will continue The founder of a group that dogs," Jim tells KOAT-TV. Consumerist) She called Best Buy to complain, to act promptly to address any places service dogs with disabled Things only got worse when Jim, and asked for a manager to call i n a p p r o p r i a t e e m p l o y e e vets says he went through a 48- who suffers from post-traumatic Submitted at 7/20/2012 3:00:58 PM her. Instead, the employee who b e h a v i o r . " hour ordeal at Dulles airport stress disorder and has a traumatic Just because you hand over your was supposed to have transferred The woman says that's not outside Washington, D.C., this brain injury, had difficulty phone to a Best Buy employee the photos called her. enough, as she has to live with the week and that not only did United reading a confirmation e-mail on does not mean they're allowed to "A few days later, he called back fact that a stranger not only has Airlines employees kick his his phone and asked a United pilfer your photo collection and to tell me he'd made a CD at his images of her and her children, service dog twice, but one staffer representative to assist him. burn said pictures onto a CD. A house with all my photos, and and could do just about anything actually insulted him in public. "He said, 'Just read it' and I said, V i r g i n i a w o m a n c l a i m s a n when can I come get them. I could with them. In a detailed YouTube video 'Sir I can't read it,' and he said, employee promised to help her pick them up at his house," she Personal theft yet another posted earlier today, Paws and 'What are you retarded?'" recalls transfer her iPhone's contents onto says. She hung up the phone. reason Best Buy customers get Stripes' Jim Staneck claims that Jim. "Prior to this I told him I a newer model, and after stealing She says she's upset over the fact turned off from shopping there. the first kick happened while he have a brain injury and PTSD, I'm her racy photos, invited her over that someone else has her very Previously in Best Buy horror was in line at the ticket counter. a disabled vet, this is my second to his home to get them back. p e r s o n a l p r o p e r t y , a n d i s stories: Straight Man Says Best An employee walked by and was night here; I need help." The woman says she hired a considering filing a civil suit. Buy Employee Outed Him On startled by Jim's service dog, Jim says he would like to talk to Geek Squad employee in April to Best Buy says the employee has Facebook During Phone Servicing which allegedly led to a light kick the CEO of United just to discuss move all of her photos, contacts been fired, and issued a response *Thanks for the tip, Steve! to the dog's ribcage. the proper way to handle both and other information onto her to WTOP regarding the matter: Woman: Store employee copied, Rather than cause a scene, Jim disabled customers and their new phone, as she hadn't backed "First and foremost, we apologize k e p t racy p h o n e said he let the incident go. service animals. u p h e r d a t a o n h e r h o m e t o t h i s c u s t o m e r f o r a n p h o t o s [ W T O P . c o m ] His flight was then delayed and This entry passed through the computer. The employee then unfortunate experience caused by This entry passed through the ultimately cancelled because of Full-Text RSS service if this is offered to buy her old iPhone with what appears to be rogue action Full-Text RSS service if this is mechanical delays, meaning a your content and you're reading it a c r a c k e d s c r e e n , r e p o r t s against our code of conduct, your content and you're reading it second day at the airport, where on someone else's site, please read WTOP.com. He promised to wipe specifically related to our trade-in on someone else's site, please read he had originally only intended to the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentthe old phone when he was done program. We hope to restore her the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content- spend a short time making his only/faq.php#publishers. Five moving data. Promises, promises. trust." only/faq.php#publishers. Five connecting flight. Filters recommends: Incinerating She later realized her new phone " W e c a n c o n f i r m t h a t a n Filters recommends: Incinerating While riding a shuttle during his Assange - The Liberal Media Go didn't have any of her 900 photos, employee at this store has been Assange - The Liberal Media Go second say of fun at Dulles, Jim To Work. some of which were somewhat terminated for making a personal To Work. says that a second, startled United suggestive personal photos, as transaction with a customer while staffer kicked his service dog, this well as videos of her kids. on duty at the store. We're "I felt sick. I felt violated. I felt so continuing our investigation and
Products/
63
How to make summer lawn care less of a chore

Consumer Reports News (Consumer Reports)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 1:59:59 PM
Advice To Marketers: You Should Really Research Why Something Is Trending On Twitter
Chris Morran (The Consumerist)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 2:19:34 PM
How to make summer lawn care less of a chore You can get away without mowing your lawn as frequently in the summer when warmer temperatures and a lack of moisture slow grass growth. Don't be alarmed if your grass is going from green to brown, it's just its way of conserving nutrients. To get the best looking lawn with the least effort follow the advice from turf specialists and the experts at Consumer Reports. Peter Sawchuk, who oversees lawn mower testing at Consumer Reports recommends getting your soil tested. To find out how to take a soil sample and where to send it for testing, check with your local cooperative extension office. There's no need to fertilize your lawn in the summer, that job
until the weather cools. If you do water, do it right by giving the lawn a nice long soak, say, 30 minutes' worth (or enough to fill a tuna can), at which point it should be good for another month. Midsummer is not a good time to reseed or refurbish your lawn. Wait until temperatures cool. can wait until fall. Here are some other tips from Sawchuk and the lawn care experts at Cornell University. Prepare your lawn for more moisture stress by mowing high (at least 3 inches) to encourage strong root systems. Leave the clippings. Keep your mower blade sharp to reduce water loss from plants after mowing. Also avoid mowing during the hottest part of the day. Consider not watering unless you have a small lawn or an in-ground sprinkler and allow the grass to go dormant Check the lawn and garden stores for sales if you're looking for a new mower. There are some good choices availablemore than 60 push, self-propelled and riding mowers made our list of top mower picks. Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences
You know that thing about there being no such thing as bad publicity? Well, it's not true. Just ask the online retailer that is on the receiving end of Internet hatred after it posted a Tweet that made it look like the site was crassly trying to cash in on the deadly shooting rampage at last night's Dark Knight Rises screening in Colorado. Earlier today, the Twitter account for CelebBoutique.com Tweeted the following (which it has since removed but which the Internet has saved for posterity): #Aurora is trending, clearly about our Kim K inspired #Aurora dress Followed by a link to the site where one could presumably buy the dress. Unfortunately, as you have probably figured out without having to do a single second's worth of research, #Aurora is trending on Twitter today because that is the town where the tragic incident occurred. The CelebBoutique Twitter account has spent the time since
posting that Tweet apologizing. In several parts, the company Tweeted: We didn't check what the trend was about hence the confusion, again we do apologise. We are incredibly sorry for our tweet about Aurora - Our PR is NOT US based and had not checked the reason for the trend, at that time our social media was totally UNAWARE of the situation and simply thought it was another trending topic - we have removed the very insensitive tweet and will of course take more care in future to look into what we say in our tweets. Again we do apologise for any offense caused... this was not intentional & will not occur again. Our most sincere apologies for both the tweet and situation. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
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Products/ Sports/
AL roundup: Justin Verlander Zmodo Surveillance DVR has strong outing; Tigers beat White Sox 4-2 - Boston Herald 4CH\4 Camera
(- Bing News) (Woot)
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:01:00 AM
Quantum Surveillance "Well, I hope you enjoyed the universe while it was intact, Ron.""I'm sorry?" "Oh nothing. It's just that I'm about to turn on my Zmodo 4Camera Surveillance setup, at which point the universe will collapse on itself." "I don't think that's what's supposed to happen." "Not usually, no. They're supposed to be used with this DVR to easily record surveillance footage." "Right." "But I've got them pointing directly into one another" "So?" "So, when I turn them on, one camera will record another one recording another one recording another one recording the first one. An infinite loop." "I see." "Obviously, the structural integrity of space-time will begin
to dissolve almost immediately" "right" "And once such a singularity occurs, all matter and energy will begin to collapse on itself" "Naturally" "Causing a chain reaction that will inevitably snuff out the universe as we know it." "Yup. Guess so. Well, it was awful nice knowing you, Alan. I'd say if I have one regret it's that I didn't ever really show my kids how much I love them" "Actually, nevermind about that plan. There's two squirrels mating in the back yard and I think I'll record that instead."
pounded out a victory over the Cleveland Indians. Thome passed Sammy Sosa on D ETROIT Justin Verlander the career list with a towering 418 shut down the White Sox after the -foot shot off Derek Lowe (8-8) to third inning, and the Detroit open the fourth inning. Tigers backed their ace with Ryan Flaherty had a three-run timely hitting in a 4-2 victory over h o m e r a n d M a r k R e y n o l d s Chicago on Friday night in the doubled home two runs in a sixopener of a big three-game series. run third for Baltimore, which Detroit inched closer to the top of won its third straight. the AL Central. The Tigers trail Miguel Gonzalez (2-1) gave up the first-place White Sox by a half seven hits over 6 2-3 innings in -game. Detroit was six back after his third career start. The righta loss to the Chicago Cubs on hander struck out five and is 1-0 June 12. with a 2.14 ERA on the road. Verlander (11-5) allowed four Asdrubal Cabrera and Jack hits in eight innings, including a Hannahan homered for Cleveland, two-run homer in the third by which has lost six of its last nine. Alejandro De Aza. He struck out RAYS 4, MARINERS 3, 14 s i x a n d w a l k e d t w o . J o s e INNINGS Valverde finished for his 18th ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. Ben save. Zobrist snapped a 14th-inning tie Jake Peavy (7-7) struck out the with an RBI double and B.J. first five batters he faced and Upton homered and drove in two seven overall, but Detroit scored runs to lead the Tampa Bay Rays three runs in the third. over the Seattle Mariners. ORIOLES 10, INDIANS 2 Carlos Pena singled off Tom CLEVELAND Jim Thome hit Wilhelmsen with one out in the his 610th career homer to move 14th, then slid into home plate into seventh place on the career just ahead of catcher John Jasos list and the Baltimore Orioles tag after Zobrist doubled down
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:38:04 AM
the right field line to end the 4 hour, 46-minute marathon. Jake McGee (3-2) pitched twothirds of an inning to escape a jam in the top of the 14th and got the win. The run off Wilhelmsen (32) ended the relievers streak of 24 consecutive scoreless innings over 20 appearances. TWINS 2, ROYALS 1, 11 INNINGS KANSAS CITY, Mo. Joe Mauer went 3 for 4 and scored the winning run in the 11th inning to lead the Minnesota Twins past the Kansas City Royals. Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Sports/ Gaming/
65
New York at Oakland - CBS Sports

(- Bing News)
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:30:55 AM
Scoreboard Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E N.Y. Yankees(57-36) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 8 1 Oakland(4944) 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 3 13 0 Moss hits game-winning RBI to help A's top Yanks CBSSports.com wire reports July 21, 2012 OAKLAND, Calif. -- Brandon Moss hit a game-ending RBI single with one out in the ninth inning to give Oakland another dose of late-inning dramatics as the Athletics beat the New York Yankees 3-2 on Friday night for their seventh win in eight games. Yoenis Cespedes singled with one out in the ninth off Cody Eppley (0-1) for his fourth hit of the game and went to second on Jonny Gomes' infield hit. Moss, who left the bases loaded twice earlier in the game, lined a single to right field and Cespedes slid in safely ahead of Andruw Jones' throw. That gave Oakland its 10th walkoff win of the season and seventh in its past 14 home games, bailing out All-Star closer Ryan Cook, who allowed a game-tying homer to Robinson Cano in the top of the
ninth. Copyright 2012 by STATS LLC and The Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and The Associated Press is strictly prohibited. New York Yankees Hitters AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG Derek Jeter, SS 4 0 1 0 0 1 0.312 Curtis Granderson, CF 4 0 1 0 0 1 1.249 Mark Teixeira, 1B 3 0 2 0 0 0 1.256 Alex Rodriguez, 3B 4 0 1 0 0 0 5.270 Robinson Cano, DH-2B 4 1 2 1 0 1 1.321 Nick Swisher, RF 3 0 0 0 0 2 0.258 Raul Ibanez, LF 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.242 Andruw Jones, LF-RF 4 0 0 0 0 4 1.232 Jayson Nix, 2B 3 0 0 0 0 2 1.247 a - Eric Chavez, PH 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.278 Russell Martin, C 3 1 1 1 0 0 0.182 Totals 34 2 8 2 0 11 agrounded out for Nix in the 9th Batting HR- Robinson Cano (22, Cook), Russell Martin (10, Blevins) RBI- Robinson Cano (56), Russell Martin (24) Team LOB- 6 Fielding E- Ivan Nova (1, Misplayed grounder) New York Yankees Pitchers IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Ivan Nova 6.2 9 2 2 1 6 0 4.10 Boone Logan 0.1 0 0 0 1 1 0 3.58 David Robertson 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 2.28 Clay Rapada 0.1 0 0 0 0 1 0 2.52 Cody Eppley(L,0-1)
0 3 1 1 0 0 0 2.77 Pitches-StrikesIvan Nova 107-78, Boone Logan 12-8, David Robertson 25-15, Clay Rapada 5-3, Cody Eppley 10 -6 Ground Balls-Fly Balls- Ivan Nova 10-5, David Robertson 1-1 Batters Faced- Ivan Nova 31, Boone Logan 2, David Robertson 5, Clay Rapada 1, Cody Eppley 3 Oakland Athletics Hitters AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG Coco Crisp, CF 4 1 1 0 1 2 2.243 Jemile Weeks, 2B 4 0 0 1 0 1 4.221 Josh Reddick, RF 5 0 3 0 0 1 0.274 Yoenis Cespedes, LF 5 1 4 0 0 0 1.304 Seth Smith, DH 2 0 0 0 1 0 2.246 a- Jonny Gomes, PH-DH 1 0 1 0 1 0 0.255 Brandon Moss, 1B 5 1 2 1 0 1 7.257 Brandon Inge, 3B 4 0 1 1 0 2 0.198 Eric Sogard, SS 4 0 1 0 0 0 0.151 Kurt Suzuki, C 3 0 0 0 0 2 0.210 Totals 37 3 13 3 3 9 a-walked for Smith in the 7th Batting 2B- Josh Reddick 2 (18, Nova, Nova), Brandon Moss (6, Nova), Brandon Inge (11, Nova) 3B- Coco Crisp (3, Nova), Eric Sogard (1, Robertson) SFJemile Weeks (2) SH- Kurt Suzuki (1) RBI- Jemile Weeks (14), Brandon Moss (20), Brandon Inge (41) SB- Yoenis Cespedes (7, 2nd base off Nova/ Martin) Team LOB- 14 Fielding Outfield Assists- Josh Reddick 1
Oakland Athletics Pitchers IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA Tommy Milone 7 6 0 0 0 10 0 3.34 Jerry Blevins(H,7) 0.2 1 1 1 0 0 1 2.58 Evan Scribner(H,1) 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 Ryan Cook(BS,4; W,4-2) 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1.70 HBP- Teixeira (by Jerry Blevins) Pitches-StrikesTommy Milone 110-78, Jerry Blevins 10-6, Evan Scribner 1-1, Ryan Cook 11-7 Ground BallsFly Balls- Tommy Milone 5-5, Jerry Blevins 1-1, Ryan Cook 1-1 Batters Faced- Tommy Milone 26, Jerry Blevins 4, Evan Scribner 1, Ryan Cook 4 Game Information Attendance- 24148 Game Time- 3:04 Temperature70 Umpires- Home - Bill Miller, First Base - Wally Bell, Second Base - Brian Knight, Third Base Mike Winters This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Epic Mickey 2: The Power of a Story Trailer

David Hinkle (Joystiq)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 11:59:00 PM
If you missed out on the first Epic Mickey game, you may feel a bit lost regarding the events of the sequel, Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two. We've got this story trailer to bring you up to speed. Epic Mickey 2: The Power of a Story Trailer originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
66
Gaming/ Science/ Social Media/
Clothes Horse Wants to Help You Find Clothes That Fit
Resident Evil: Damnation infects DVD, Blu-ray this September The Most Amazing
Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq)
Lauren Indvik (Mashable!)

Submitted at 7/20/2012 9:18:42 PM
which we take to mean a segment where voice-actors are being silly, Submitted at 7/21/2012 1:00:00 AM and not just a clip of them Capcom and Sony Pictures will gagging. subject home audiences to new For those with Netflix, feel free h o r r o r s w h e n t h e y r e l e a s e to watch Degeneration here. Also, Resident Evil: Damnation on we apologize in advance for DVD and Blu-ray September 25. linking you to it. The CG film is the follow-up to Continue reading Resident Evil: 2 0 0 8 ' s R e s i d e n t E v i l : Damnation infects DVD, Blu-ray Degeneration, which by 2010 had this September shipped over 1.6 million copies Resident Evil: Damnation infects and grossed 40 million ($509K) DVD, Blu-ray this September during its "2-week / 3-screen originally appeared on Joystiq on theatrical release in Japan." Sat, 21 Jul 2012 01:00:00 EST. The Damnation disc includes Please see our terms for use of bonus content like the "Las feeds. Plagas: Organisms of War" Permalink| Email this| Comments featurette and a voice gag reel ...
Science Images of the Week, July 16-20, 2012

Dan Nosowitz (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 3:35:48 PM
Stink Bug Eggs Who knew stink bug eggs were so beautiful and weird? This shot won sixth place in the Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition. See more winners here. Olympus BioScapes This week's roundup of the most amazing images we've seen this week zooms in, to see these
stinkbug eggs up close--and then zooms out, to see an exoplanet, 33 light-years away. We go to the present, with the leg that'll help a double-amputee compete in the Olympic Games, and to the future, with a camera controlled by the movements of the human eye. Check 'em out. Click to launch the gallery.
Name: Clothes Horse Quick Pitch: An embeddable widget that helps shoppers pick the right clothing size. Genius Idea: Bolsters shopper confidence, driving an increase in sales. Between 15% and 40% of clothing ordered online is returned, according to various retail reports, and poor fit is the number-one reason. It's also the reason shoppers inflate their orders, ordering each garment in two sizes, or, overwhelmed with uncertainty, abandon their shopping carts altogether. Clothes Horse is out to change this. The New York-based startup has gathered a trove of human and brand-garment measurements and combined them with algorithms to help shoppers order garments in the ri Continue reading... More About: bizspark, clothes horse, fashion, retail, shopping
Science/ News Photos
67
This Week in the Future, July 1620, 2012

Baarbarian (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 5:22:53 PM
This Week in the Future, July 1620, 2012 Baarbarian This week's Baarbarian illustration provokes some questions. Is space relaxing? Can no one being able to hear you scream actually be a positive in some respects? These are things to consider as you orbit the Earth on your day off. Want to win this philosophical Baarbarian illustration on a Tshirt? It's easy! The rules: Follow us on Twitter (we're@PopSci) and retweet our This Week in the Future tweet. One of those lucky retweeters will be chosen to receive a custom T-shirt with this week's Baarbarian illustration on it, thus making the winner the
envy of their friends, coworkers and everyone else with eyes. (Those who would rather not leave things to chance and just pony up some cash for the t-shirt can do that here.) The stories pictured herein: The First Ever Self-Chilling
Can Victoria's Secret Designer is Giving Private Spaceflight a Makeover Geoengineers Will Release Tons of Sun-Reflecting Chemicals Into the Air Above New Mexico
And don't forget to check out our other favorite stories of the week: Riding Along With the Mars Rover Drivers Google Nexus Q Review: An Unfinished Orb of Mystery Are Nuclear Disasters the New Normal? Make Your Own RemoteControl Spy Blimp The Adidas miCoach Will Track Real-Time Data From Every Single MLS Player Astronomers Spot Ancient Spiral Galaxy From an Era When Spirals Should Not Exist Bio-Retina Implant Could Give Laser-Powered Sight to the Blind The Goods: July 2012's Hottest Gadgets
Today's photos: Olympic torch arrives in London by helicopter Examiner.com

Submitted at 7/20/2012 9:26:05 PM
New York Daily News Today's photos: Olympic torch arrives in London by helicopter Examiner.com The 2012 London Olympics have established exalted expectations so far as being the most high-tech, media-minded Olympic Games in history. Now, on July 20, 2012, the Olympic torch has arrived in the host city of London in a most dramatic way: abseiled... Daily News Sports Photos of the Week: Brazil's Neymar is the ball whisperer... New York Daily News all 1,278 news articles
Archive Gallery: A Century of Weather Control

Colin Lecher (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 2:27:27 PM
May 1990 Fighting hail with chemicals, combatting tornadoes with computers, and other
weather-battling techniques from the PopSci archive Ever since we left prayers to the rain gods behind, we've been looking to science to solve our weather dilemmas. Not just to but how to stop it from hitting at discover where a storm will hit,
all. gallery to see plans for weatherClick here to enter the gallery reporting radios, chemical warfare Through the past century, against clouds, and a lot more. Popular Science has been trying to forecast what the future of weather will look like, and how to stop a weather disaster. Click the
68
Health/
Texas Slow To Review Health Insurance Rate Hikes

(Shots - Health Blog)
law. Few governors have been as vocal and as unequivocal in their [3 min 34 sec] Download L.M. opposition to the federal health Otero/ AP care law as Texas Gov. Rick Texas Gov. Rick Perry has Perry. o p p o s e d t h e e x p a n s i o n o f Perry, a Republican, has vowed Medicaid under the Accountable not to expand Medicaid and not to Care Act, and his administration create an insurance exchange. has yet to review big health Consumer advocates in Texas say insurance rate hikes under the the Perry administration has also
Submitted at 7/20/2012 2:30:00 PM
been dragging its feet when it comes to insurance rate review. To make insurance more affordable, the federal law requires every state to conduct a special review whenever a health insurer wants to raise premiums more than 10 percent. This rate review would help protect small businesses and individuals who buy their own policies. The
provision went into effect last September, and since then, insurers made nine such requests in Texas. But so far the Texas Department of Insurance hasn't completed any reviews. Officially, they're all pending. In the meantime, the insurance companies can go ahead and raise the rates anyway. An insurer
called Celtic, for example, has raised rates on three policies in Texas by 20 percent. "We were growing increasingly frustrated," said Mimi Garcia, organizing director for Texas Well and Healthy, an advocacy group that has been active on the rate review issue. TEXAS page 69
Social Media/
69
TEXAS
"They've been very unresponsive," Garcia said of the Department of Insurance. "They have not returned calls. They have not returned repeated requests. And it really took having over 1,600 Texans signing on to a petition to say, 'Hey, this is something we care about and we need to know what's going on with this.' " Anne Walker, a resident of Lake Jackson, a city south of Houston, signed the petition. "I'm not sure why the state has let some of its citizenry down by not monitoring it," said Walker, who is the director of financial aid at Rice University. "It's the law, and Rick Perry is choosing to ignore it." The rate review provision is a popular piece of the health law. A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 66 percent of the public has a favorable view of the policy. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) The Texas insurance department got a$1 million grant from the federal government to work on rate review. After reviewing a rate increase,
the department is supposed to announce whether the increase is acceptable or unreasonable, although it can't actually do anything to stop it. Still, the point is to create a transparent market for people who have to shop for their own insurance. "It's important for the public to know so that they can use their dollars wisely," said Stacey Pogue of the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin. "And if the insurance coverage is charging excessive rates that they know that, so they can go out into the market and look for other coverage and hopefully find a better rate and a better policy." John Greeley, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Insurance, didn't answer specific questions about the rate review program, but did say the department is working on various aspects of the healthcare law. Alexis Ahlstrom, who works on insurance oversight for the federal government, says Texans may need to be a little more patient. "You want the department of insurance to being doing a thorough review and that sometimes can take time,"
Ahlstrom said. "They might go back to the issuer and ask for more information. They may be working with the issuer to lower a proposed increase. So the end result might be very positive for Texas consumers when the department of insurance does make these determinations." But advocates want to see results now, so they can work on their next priority: changing state law so that insurance department regulators can actually overturn an unreasonable rate hike. In Texas, regulators can do that for auto and home insurance, but not health insurance. This story is part of a reporting partnership between KUHF, NPR and Kaiser Health News. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Man Finds LongLost Son, Ex-Wife via Facebook

Kate Freeman (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 8:20:50 PM
It took 21 years and the invention of the world's largest social network for a family parted for two decades to reunite. A father located his ex-wife and long-lost son through Facebook, after years of searching using various people finder sites and even a private detective. US airman Don Gibson met Chrissie in her native country, the U.K., more than 20 years ago. They married in 1989 before she gave birth to their son, Craig, now 22. According to Chrisse, Don
was turned down for Air Force service until he moved back to the U.S. Chrisse already had two sons from a previous marriage and didn't want to leave them behind in the U.K. Eventually, Chrisse and Don lost contact with each othe Continue reading... More About: Facebook
70
Politics-Right/
David Frum
(David Frum)
Andrew Sullivan complained yesterday that I had engaged in a McCarthyite attack on Ron Paul by writing the following: A politician isnt answerable for the antics of every one of his supporters. But theres surely a reason, isnt there, that racists, anti-Semites, 9/11 Truthers, and Holocaust deniers are so strongly attracted to the Paul campaign. They hear something. They continue to hear it too, no matter how firmly Ron Pauls more mainstream supporters clamp their hands over their own ears. Andrews riposte: Notice how pure the smear is, enabled and not diminished by the first sentence. Notice the key concept of Beltway ideological policemen: there is a mainstream and a non-mainstream. Dabble with the latter at your peril. Since David has perished by the cult of the mainstream, its odd he should deploy it against others. But to throw in Holocaust denial and 9/11 Truthers for good measure! Really. And notice how particularly cheap and easy it is to use such tactics against a libertarian. The traditional left is often based on collective associations, building a movement out of oppressed groups and their grievances, whether it be class or race or even
sexual orientation. Libertarianism is the opposite. Its about dis associating. When you listen to Paul saying he will not turn anyone away from supporting his platform regardless of their motives or beliefs, you are hearing a reflection of his libertarianism, not his bigotry. He will accept support from any quarter and compared with the corporate money flowing into the other candidates coffers, he is about as independent as a presidential candidate can be. Because he is a radical individualist, he doesnt even understand why he should somehow explain the belief of others, or justify their support. You should ask them, not him. This kind of gotcha-association game is particularly easy because libertarians favor liberty above all, and that will necessarily mean liberty for bigots as well as others. A principled belief in states rights will doubtless lead to more racist and homophobic policies in many states but also, of course, more enlightened and successful inclusive states like Oregon or New York or Massachusetts or California. A rejection of statism might lead to more discrimination in the private sector. But it doesnt mandate it. And it need not encourage it. A noninterventionist foreign policy will allow evil to triumph elsewhere in
the world, because it believes its none of our business or too riddled with unintended consequences to try extirpating. That may be right or wrong, but it is not an approval of the evil of Assad or Ahmedinejad or the North Korean junta. And again, it is actually much deeper an American tradition than permanent warfare. But if you can trot out David Duke or Ayatollah Khamenei as potential Paul supporters, you have a very easy, cheap and essentially McCarthyite target. It saddens me that this kind of tactic works. I still believe that the newsletters, because they were in Pauls name, require a clearer explanation from Paul than the muddled ones he has given. He should not be left off the hook. And his proposals deserve a thorough vetting and discussion. But there is something awry when a candidate is assessed not on his arguments and proposals but on the shadiness and ugliness of some of his fringe supporters. Ron Pauls supporters ask that their candidate not be judged by his associates. Or by the people he chose to employ. Or by the newsletters he published. Or by the book he wrote. Or by the way he earned the largest part of his living when out of office in the 1990s. Or by his purchase of the mailing list of the Holocaust-
denying Liberty Lobby. Or by the radio shows he chooses to appear on. Or by his strategic decision to reach out to racist voters. Or by the conspiracy theories to which he lends credence, from government creation of AIDS to Israeli culpability for the 1993 bombing to a putative 9/11 coverup. And here I thought that libertarianism was a doctrine of personal responsibility? May Ron Paul at least be judged by the words he has spoken with his own mouth within the current campaign? The supporters say no again. When Ron Paul tells an interviewer that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made race relations worse, were not supposed to consider what he might mean by better. When Ron Paul warns that a border fence would be used to prevent fleeing American citizens from exiting the country, were not supposed to conclude that hes a paranoid crank. Andrew deploys what might be called the ontological defense of Ron Paul, as follows: 1) Ron Paul is a libertarian. 2) Libertarians espouse individualism. 3) Racism is a form of antiindividualism. 4) Therefore Ron Paul cannot be a racist. That is a demonstration of what
might be called the deductive method of reasoning. But theres another way to study reality: induction. Like this: 1) Ron Paul has again and again exploited bigotry, paranoia, and hate as fundraising devices. 2) Ron Paul is a libertarian. 3) So yes, I guess it is possible for a libertarian to do that. Heres my question for Ron Paul supporters: why the denial of the undeniable? Perhaps you like Pauls message of legalized marijuana? Why not just say so? You dont think its important to stop Iran from gaining nuclear weapons? Argue it forthrightly. If you regard Social Security and Medicare as literally the moral equivalents of slavery, go ahead, make your case. But all this excuse-making, special pleading and jiggering of the rules of evidence so as to exculpate Ron Paul from the record of his whole political life? For what? This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Politics-Right/
71
Economically Significant Regulations On the Rise Under Obama

Tray Smith (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)
renovations to homes built before 1978 be supervised by an EPAcertified renovator and performed by an EPA-certified firm. Submitted at 7/20/2012 1:41:11 PM President Obama claims hes According to the report, the overseen the creation fewer N a t i o n a l F e d e r a t i o n o f regulations than his predecessors. Independent Businesses(NFIB) B u t h i s a d m i n i s t r a t i o n h a s says the elimination of the opt-out actually issued far more expensive has led homeowners to explore a n d e c o n o m i c a l l y c o s t l y underground contractors that do regulations, adding billions of not comply with EPA regulations dollars in compliance costs for at all, and that the opt-out had businesses and job creators. The saved the industry approximately red tape is documented in a new $500 million in compliance costs. report by the House Oversight and In addition to current regulations, Government Reform Committee. the report found that proposed Next week the House takes up regulations continue to generate the Red Tape Reduction and uncertainty and could result in Small Business Job Creation Act, significant additional costs to the which includes seven measures economy. that would ease the governments The EPA is proposing to redefine growing burden on businesses and solid waste, removing specific the economy. recycling exclusions from current The report cites a Gallup poll hazardous waste regulations. As a from earlier this year that found result, the regulations would even 46 percent of small business apply to in-house recycling owners are not hiring because intended for internal use, such as they are worried about new scrap metal yards recycling scrap government regulations, and 48 metal. The Business Roundtable percent say they are worried about estimates the rule will cost more the potential costs of health care. than $100 million annually in Homeowners are also being documentation and analysis costs, affected by new regulations. In making it more expensive for 2 0 1 0 , t h e E n v i r o n m e n t a l businesses to recycle. Protection Agency removed an According to the NFIB, the EPA opt-out provision for its Lead is also proposing to expand the Renovation, Repair and Painting definition of navigable waters Rule. The rule requires that to include depressions and farm
ponds that dont impede the flow of rivers, giving the agency greatly expanded regulatory authority under the Clean Water Act. Other proposed regulations would advance the administrations pro-union agenda while ignoring union political activity. Last year, the National Labor Relations Board issued a final rule requiring employers subject to the National Labor Relations Act to post a notice of employee rights under the law. The notice focuses on employee rights to unionize and collectively bargain, but
administration. Those regulations came at a cost of $8.1 billion, compared to the $46 billion imposed under Obama by the same point in his presidency. Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) said the report explains why job creators are struggling to put Americans back to work under an increasing regulatory burden. Our government can create the environment for the private sector to grow jobs. But under this administration, it wont. Small businesses, and not the government, are the primary driver of job creation in this country, Issa said. This report explains why job creators say they doesnt include rights to object to are struggling to put Americans the use of union dues to support back to work under an ever political causes. According to the increasing regulatory burden. NLRBs own estimates, the rule Tray Smith is currently a member could cost 6 million employers an of the Young Leaders Program at estimated $386.4 million. Much The Heritage Foundation. of the rule has been blocked by This entry passed through the courts, but business organizations Full-Text RSS service if this is remain concerned about the your content and you're reading it implications that could result if it on someone else's site, please read is allowed to move forward. the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentIn total, The Heritage Foundation only/faq.php#publishers. Five has calculated that the Obama Filters recommends: Incinerating administration adopted 106 major Assange - The Liberal Media Go regulations in its first three years. To Work. Thats nearly four times the 28 major regulations adopted in the first three years of the Bush
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Politics-Right/ Social Media/
Clintons Egypt Visit Sparks AntiAmerican Demonstrations as Sinai Continues Slide into Lawlessness
James Phillips (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)
in Egypt this week was the kidnapping and release of two American tourists in Egypts Sinai Peninsula, which has become a Submitted at 7/20/2012 3:00:06 PM The power struggle between hotbed for criminal networks, Egypts army and the Muslim Bedouin smugglers, Islamist Brotherhood has been eclipsed by e x t r e m i s t s , a n d P a l e s t i n i a n the intensifying civil war in Syria, terrorist groups. This is the third but this week saw disturbing new time this year that Bedouin developments in Egypt. tribesmen have kidnapped Secretary of State Hillary Clinton American tourists to enhance their paid a short visit to Cairo and bargaining leverage with the Alexandria, where she was Egyptian government, which the dogged by several anti-American Bedouin long have resented. demonstrations. Protesters pelted The Bedouin tribes of the Sinai C l i n t o n s m o t o r c a d e w i t h are flexing their muscles to tomatoes and chanted Monica! protect their smuggling empire, Monica!a reference to her which moves arms, drugs, illegal husbands extramarital affair. migrants, and illicit goods across W h a t w a s m o s t d i s t u r b i n g , the border to Gaza, Israel, and however, was that several protests Jordan. The fiercely independent were mounted by Egyptians who desert tribes, long neglected by denounced her for supporting the the central government, have Muslim Brotherhood. become more assertive and reaped Secular Egyptians opposed to an greater smuggling profits in recent Islamist takeover should be years, particularly since Cairo has natural allies of the U.S., not been focused on Egypts internal l e a d i n g a b a c k l a s h a g a i n s t power struggle. American policy. The fact that The kidnappings are a symptom Egyptians sense that the Obama of growing lawlessness in the Administration is cultivating the Sinai, which Palestinian terrorists M u s l i m B r o t h e r h o o d c o u l d and al-Qaeda-type groups have demoralize liberal and pro- exploited to launch cross-border democracy leaders and instill a attacks against Israel and Israeli sense of abandonment that would tourists in the Sinai. Last August, make an Islamist takeover more eight Israelis were killed in a likely. terrorist attack launched by Another overlooked development Palestinian militants. The Gaza-
based Army of Islam, a terrorist group affiliated with al-Qaeda, was suspected of involvement in the attacks. The Israeli military response accidentally killed five Egyptian soldiers, which further exacerbated tensions between Egypt and Israel. Clearly, Egypts deteriorating internal security environment presents a growing threat to Americans and to Israelis, as well as to Egyptians. Although American tourists in Egypt have been kidnapped and released at least three times in recent months, future hostage-taking incidents are not likely to have happy endings, particularly if Islamist extremist groups rather than Bedouin tribesmen get involved in the action. See: Egypt Must Take Stronger Action After Sinai Terrorist Attacks This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
University of Kentucky Football Tweets Become Billboards [VIDEO]

Amanda Pittman (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 8:27:56 PM
Instagram photo linked to the site. From there anything posted can, and many already have been, used The University of Kentucky is in billboards across the state. known for its successful sports Visitors to the site also have the p r o g r a m , m o s t n o t a b l y t h e option to share any of the posts basketball and football teams. via Facebook or Twitter. Once Now the football program has shared, their their avatar will drop l a u n c h e d # W e a r e u k , a into the background of the site. crowdsourced initiative that Should other teams sho places tweets on billboards and Continue reading... puts fans in the official poster. More About: Advertising, Anyone who uses the #Weareuk N e w s y , f o o t b a l l hashtag will have their tweet or
Politics-Right/ Daily World/
73
Competition Improves Cab Service for Riders

Rich Tucker (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)
the country, taxi service tends to be heavily regulated. For example, starting in the Great Depression, writes Megan Submitted at 7/20/2012 2:00:05 PM Its ironic that the front page of McArdle in The Atlantic,local The Washington Post recently g o v e r n m e n t s b e g a n s e t t i n g featured an obituary of long-time minimum as well as maximum columnist William Raspberry on fares, and controlling the number the same day it included a story of cabs that could enter the warning thatD.C. cabbies fear market. In 1937, New York Citys being pushed out of business as Haas Act introduced its famous earnings fall amid new rules, medallion system, limiting the competition. number of taxis to 13,566about After all, Raspberry famously where it remains today. liked to build entire columns The regulations are different in a r o u n d d i s c u s s i o n s w i t h a D.C., of course, but the result is fictional D.C. cab driver, and the the same: the slowly churning Post built its story by riding wheels of regulation can barely around with some real D.C. cab keep pace with swift changes in drivers who complain about how how people get around, as the difficult it is for them to make a Post puts it. And all the regulation living. doesnt improve service; it just But not everyone seems to agree. reduces competition. When A company called Uber is eager government gets in bed with to expand in D.C. and is finding business, it leads to cronyism, and that many customers are willing consumers lose. to pay higher prices for better But both McArdle and the Post service. Theres a market lesson spotlight the answer: more robust here: After many decades of competition, not more regulation. stagnation, change is coming to With Uber, McArdle notes, a car the D.C. cab marketthat is, if is always available (because at the D.C. city council doesnt peak times, such as New Years block it. Eve, the company raises prices Heres the background: Around until supply matches demand).
The car is well maintained. And as long as youre willing to pay the fare, that car will take you wherever you want to go, without regard to race, ethnicity, or ZIP code. And the Post rides along with one Uber user, Roger Whyte, who pays $4 or $5 more than a normal cab fare, but I get a Good morning. How are you? Do you have a special route youd like me to take? They are never on the phones. Theres no radio. More competition is coming as well. McArdle mentions Cabulous, an iPhone app to help hail a nearby cab. Robust competition, not further regulation, is the way to bring better service to taxi riders. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Hotel prices 'up 300%' for Olympics

(Evening Standard - News)
were found to be particularly likely to apply big rate hikes, with Submitted at 7/20/2012 11:10:07 PM one venue increasing its prices by Hotels are charging premiums of 245% over the period, an uplift of up to 300% to families staying in 5,666. London during the Olympics, A Santander spokesman said: research has found. "This research highlights just how Those in the centre of the capital enormous the demand to stay in were 2,891 a week or 139% London during this summer's more expensive on average over biggest sporting event is. the period when the sporting "The fact that the few limited event is taking place than after the rooms available near the Stratford Games, according to a study for Olympic Park can charge such Santander. expensive rates demonstrates how Researchers also looked at prices holidaymakers are willing to pay near the Olympic Park in east the extra costs." London, which is hosting up to The increases were found to be 180,000 spectators a day, and bigger than a typical London hotel found that while most hotels were price hike of 54% over the bank booked up, one of the few with holiday weekend marking the vacancies was charging an extra Queen's Diamond Jubilee, which 5,054. This was the equivalent of was recorded in a previous study. a 301% increase on its rates after This entry passed through the the Games. Full-Text RSS service if this is The study compared the cost of a your content and you're reading it week-long stay for a family of on someone else's site, please read four in two rooms starting on the the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentday of the Olympics opening only/faq.php#publishers. Five ceremony next Friday with prices Filters recommends: Incinerating in late August, after the event has Assange - The Liberal Media Go finished. To Work. Four star hotels in central London
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Daily World/
Batman gunman kills 12 at Verse of the Day - Deuteronomy screening 7:21

Submitted at 7/20/2012 11:10:09 PM
The gunman dressed in black and wearing a helmet, body armour and a gas mask was surely a stunt for one of the summer's most anticipated films. But as he emerged through a side door as the new Batman movie played on the screen, hurled gas canisters and sprayed the audience with bullets, screaming film-goers in Aurora, Colorado, realised the true horror taking place and dived for cover. At least 12 people were killed and 58 wounded - 11 critically - at the midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises on Friday - in one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent US history. "He looked like an assassin ready to go to war," said Jordan Crofter, who was unhurt in the attack, which happened about 30 minutes after the film began. The gunman, identified by police as 24-year-old James Holmes, used a military-style semiautomatic rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, stopping only to reload. The suspect marched up the aisle
in the stadium-style multiplex cinema in the Denver suburb, picking off those who tried to flee, witnesses said. Authorities said he hit 71 people, at least one of them struck in an adjacent cinema by gunfire that went through the wall. Within minutes, frantic emergency services calls brought 200 police officers, ambulances and emergency crews to the cinema. Holmes was captured in the car park and police said they later found that his flat nearby was booby-trapped. Authorities gave no motive for the attack. The FBI said there was no indication of ties to any terrorist groups. In New York City, police commissioner Raymond Kelly said: "It clearly looks like a deranged individual. He has his hair painted red. He said he was the Joker, obviously the enemy of Batman." Aurora police chief Dan Oates would not confirm that information, but did say he had spoken to Mr Kelly, with whom he used to work in New York. Asked whether Holmes had makeup to look like the Joker, Mr
Oates said: "That to my knowledge is not true." It was the worst mass shooting in the US since the November 5, 2009, attack at Fort Hood, Texas. A US Army psychiatrist is charged with killing 13 soldiers and civilians and wounding more than two dozen others. Friday's attack was the deadliest in Colorado since the Columbine High School massacre in suburban Denver in 1999, when two students killed 12 classmates and a teacher and wounded 26 others before killing themselves. The new Batman movie, the last in the trilogy starring Christian Bale, opened worldwide yesterday with midnight showings in the US. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
(Verse of the Day)
confidence as I seek to live for you in a world that is often hostile to my faith and opposed to your [Speaking to the Israelites about values. I ask this in the name of their enemies, Moses said:] "Do Jesus. Amen. not be terrified by them, for the The Thoughts and Prayer on LORD your God, who is among Today's Verse are written by Phil you, is a great and awesome Ware. You can email questions or God." Deuteronomy 7:21 comments to phil@heartlight.org. Thoughts on Today's Verse... 1998-2012, Heartlight, Inc. What foe can defeat the people of Verseoftheday.com is part of the G o d ? N o n e ! O u r G o d , o u r Heartlight Network. Deliverer, is mighty in power, All scripture quotations, unless awesome in holiness, and greater otherwise indicated, are taken than any of our foes. We refuse to from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW fear what the evil one threatens INTERNATIONAL VERSION. because our Savior has already 1 9 7 3 , 1 9 7 8 , 1 9 8 4 b y ultimately defeated him. My International Bible Society. Used Prayer... Abba Father, calm my by permission of Zondervan fears and sooth my anxious heart. Publishing House. By the power of your Spirit, please bless me with boldness and
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:00:00 AM
Daily World/ Technology/
75
Torch spends first day in capital

Submitted at 7/20/2012 11:10:08 PM
clipper, which has recently undergone a 50 million renovation. The Olympic torch is to spend its Sir Robin Knox-Johnson, the first first full day in London as it person to sail solo non-stop inches ever closer to its final around the world, founder of the destination. Clipper Round the World yacht After being greeted by crowds all race in 1995 and a Cutty Sark over Britain, the flame will start trustee, will take the torch around its first full day in the capital at the ship. Later Jaco Van Gass, 25, the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, from Woolwich, will carry the south east London. flame on to the stage at the The meridian is located at Woolwich Live Site, a screen Greenwich Royal Observatory, which broadcasts local news and across the river Thames from BBC coverage of major events, Canary Wharf and overlooking sport, arts and entertainment. t h e s i t e o f t h e O l y m p i c s Crossing over the Thames, the equestrian events. torch will make its first move into N a t a s h a S i n h a , 1 5 , f r o m east London before it arrives at Greenwich, who was nominated the Olympic Stadium in Stratford t o c a r r y t h e t o r c h f o r h e r next week. It will be taken around dedication to swimming and cross the streets of host boroughs -country running, will take the N e w h a m , T o w e r H a m l e t s , flame down into the equestrian Hackney and Waltham Forest, arena. It will then be taken around stopping off at Stepney Green Cristopher Wren's Naval College Park, Hackney Town Hall and and the famous Cutty Sark Leyton Cricket Ground.
Fauja Singh, a 101-year-old marathon runner from Ilford, east London, will be carrying the flame through Newham after completing the London Marathon in 7 hours 49 minutes in April. On Friday night, Royal Marine Commando Martyn Williams abseiled into the Tower of London with the flame. He undertook the 180ft descent from a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter at 2012 hours before a torch carried by Dame Kelly Holmes was lit from his flame. The torch spent the night under guard at the 11th century tower. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Jelly Bean now available to Nexus S via OTA download, we coat our phones in more sugar
Zachary Lutz (Engadget)
confirmed the rollout here in the US with T-Mobile, where the Submitted at 7/20/2012 10:55:00 PM 114MB download is currently It's already possible to force only available for download via Android 4.1 onto your Nexus S WiFi. Seeing that it's Friday night, without much trouble, but for seems like a perfect opportunity those of you that prefer life on to take Google Now for a spin, easy street, then kick up those no? heels: many carriers have now Filed under: Cellphones, made Jelly Bean available for S o f t w a r e OTA installation. The good news Jelly Bean now available to comes from Google itself, which Nexus S via OTA download, we has listed T-Mobile, Three, coat our phones in more sugar Rogers and Vodafone among the originally appeared on Engadget carriers. It doesn't stop there, on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 22:55:00 EDT. however, as MobileSyrup also Please see our terms for use of reports that Mobilicity and Wind feeds. Permalink Android Central, users are also receiving a similar Mobile Syrup| Nexus (Google+)| bit of Android 4.1 love. We've Email this| Comments
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Politics/
Will Obama sign the Arms Trade Treaty?

J.E. Dyer (Hot Air Top Picks)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 6:21:00 PM
posted at 7:21 pm on July 20, 2012 by J.E. Dyer The UN-sponsored Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is being negotiated and finalized this month. Adding spice to the proceedings is the election of Iran yes, Iran to the 15-member governing body overseeing the treaty draft. Who wouldnt want Iran coming up with ways to control Americas trade in arms, after all? Kim Holmes of the Heritage Foundation critiqued the extant draft of the treaty in the Washington Times on 11 July, pointing out, essentially, that its language will work to the advantage of whoever has the most popular cause in the UN. Russia and China, for example, could justify all their arms sales under the category of national security, whereas the US could be charged with keeping conflicts going by selling arms to Taiwan or Israel (or Japan or the UK, for that matter). She also makes the case that the mere existence of the treaty, even if the US Senate doesnt ratify it, will provide a ready slate of offthe-shelf provisions for Congress to incorporate into US law. Other commentators have pointed out that Obama could, in theory, sign the treaty and develop executiveagency enforcement procedures against the US arms industry and American gun-owners, which
Congress would have difficulty preventing. Executive initiative has been a common practice of the Obama administration, and in the case of the drilling moratorium, was adhered to in the face of court orders to cease and desist. A great deal of the traditional strength of checks and balances has been undermined during the Obama administration. It is sensible to be concerned about unilateral enforcement of the Arms Trade Treaty by the Obama executive. Court challenges might well not be dealt with before the end of Obamas term. Heritage analyst Ted Bromund testified at the Arms Trade Treaty Conference on 11 July, making the following points: Supporters of the ATT argue that we need it to raise national standards on the import, export, and transfer of arms. But if any nation wishes to raise its standards, it is free to do so now. The fact is that many U.N. member states have neither the desire nor the ability to raise their standards. A treaty will not compel or enable them to do so. The U.N. Security Council has adopted embargoes against the shipment of arms to particular nations. It has called on all U.N. member states to eliminate the supply of arms to terrorists. These embargoes and resolutions are regularly violated. The ATTs proponents claim that this is why we need the ATT. But
it is a fantasy to believe that a universal ATT, backed by nothing more than the words of the treaty itself, will succeed where the Security Council, backed by the authority of Chapter 7 [of the U.N. charter], has failed. The ATT will not limit the ability of terrorists to acquire arms. The reason for this is simple: The U.N. has never defined terrorism, because some member states insist that terrorist groups like Hamas are struggling against socalled foreign occupation. A key point from both Bromund and Holmes is that the treaty will merely be an excuse for selective, politically motivated attacks on some member states (and possibly populations, such as US gun owners). The treatys consequences will depend entirely on how its enforced, since none of its meanings or definitions is precise or ironclad. Iran, for example, on being elected to her new dignities, promptly clarified(euphemistically, but intelligibly) that the Arms Trade Treaty should not restrain Irans ability to acquire nuclear weapons. This is an idiotic treaty: one which our enemies could use to claim before the World Court, presumably that the US is promoting violence and instability, but which will not be interpreted to restrict the kinds of weapons radical Iran can buy or sell. Indeed, Irans position seems to be that the treaty should
urge member states to avoid resorting to any kind of aggressive measures against other member states, which would be well outside the purpose or scope of this treaty, and suggests that separate political motives are the main thing going on with Irans participation in drafting it. Maybe we can trust Russia and China not to sign up for this thing. At any rate, as a practical matter for American life in the next six months, the question for us is what Obama will do. I find it hard to predict. Obama has gone so far from the mainstream of US politics in the last year that its hardly out of the question that he might sign the treaty at the end of the summer, and perhaps even implement enforcement measures of some kind in the US. I doubt that such enforcement would include the nightmare gun-grabbing scenarios described at many websites; I think it would probably be limited to increased regulation of firearm manufacturers and vendors, at least for now. But Obama has doubled down on a lot of things that most Americans would have considered unthinkable four years ago. Its not credible to insist that he wouldnt take executive action unilaterally. But its still a question. Practical politics says you dont provoke gun owners just before your next election. The National Rifle Association is still one of the
handful of groups that can seriously clobber the halls of government with a citizen outcry. Im not sure anything would galvanize voters as much as Obama signing the Arms Trade Treaty; not only could it determine Obamas fate in November, but it could well affect the outcomes in Congressional and state races as well. Its an important question how well Obama understands the firestorm, and the reaction from other branches and levels of government, that he would stir up by signing the treaty. The right to bear arms is one of the very few that citizens still generally interpret the same way, can locate in the US Constitution, and whether they are for it or against it understand to be a uniquely American guarantee. I believe the meaning of our Second Amendment rights is more solidly understood by the populace than even our right to freedom of religion. Only the freedoms of speech, press, and religion and the right to remain silent are as sacred and identifiable to most Americans as the right to bear arms. I know Obama and his advisors move in a climate of urban-elite leftism, but it would be remarkable if they were so out of touch as to dismiss the electoral significance of appearing to override the Second Amendment. WILL page 81
Politics/
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Why the Aurora Shooting Won't Affect Gun Laws

Fawn Johnson (Politics : The Atlantic)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 1:53:09 PM
If the Trayvon Martin and Gabrielle Giffords shootings didn't lead to a policy change, the Colorado tragedy probably won't either. Reuters The National Rifle Association is still winning. Friday's shooting in Colorado is likely to fade into the current gun-policy no man's land where there is much talk and little action. And that's not because the NRA is all-powerful. It's because lawmakers do not face or fear retaliation from gun-control supporters when they consider measures that loosen gun restrictions. "The political reality is that the NRA is not as powerful as people believe, but there has not been enough grassroots activism and political support for tough gun laws. For members of Congress who have 50 things to care about, a vote for tougher gun laws can get you into trouble without much political reward," said Mark Glaze, the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of 700 Republican and Democratic mayors that lobbies for protecting police officers from illegal weapons with tougher background checks and better
coordination with federal law enforcement. If the Trayvon Martin killing in Florida, the assassination attempt on former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona, the massacre of 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007, and a shooting spree outside an Alabama bar earlier this week haven't punctured the legislative arena,
it's hard to imagine that the Colorado incident will be received any differently. President Obama and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney have been largely absent on the issue of guns, a fact guncontrol advocates are well aware of. Attorney General Eric Holder sought a reinstatement of the
federal assault-weapons ban in 2009, but there has been no movement on that front since that time. After the Giffords shooting in January 2011, Obama called for more-robust background checks. In the wake of the Colorado shooting, he called for "prayer and reflection." MORE FROM NATIONAL JOURNAL
George McGovern's Party Ron Brownstein: Our Diverse Suburbs Both Candidates Trying to Leverage the Big Divide in Bain Capital Debate Romney signed a permanent assault-weapons ban in WHY page 81
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Politics/
Quotes of the day

Erika Johnsen (Hot Air Top Picks)
head-to-toe in protective tactical gear, set off two devices of some kind before spraying the theater Submitted at 7/20/2012 7:01:19 PM with bullets from an AR-15 rifle, posted at 8:01 pm on July 20, a 12-gauge shotgun and at least 2012 by Erika Johnsen one of two .40-caliber handguns An eager audience forgoing sleep police recovered at the scene. to take in the midnight showing of *** The Dark Knight Rises instead Jordan told the paper that one girl were witnesses Friday to a bloody was struck in cheek, others in mass shooting at a suburban stomach including a girl who Denver movie theater. Police said looked to be around 9-years-old. a man clad in black threw a canister that spewed smoke before Like little explosions going on he opened fire. Witnesses said and shortly after that we heard that at first, they thought it was a people screaming, he told the prank or a stunt. Then the gunman station. shot steadily at the audience, not The youngest victim reported speaking. was a 6-year-old being treated at *** Childrens Hospital Colorado, The man suspected in the mass where a total of six victims were shooting at an Aurora, Colorado, taken. Their condition wasnt movie theater screening of the known. new Batman film early Friday had *** colored his hair red and told Now, even as we learn how this police he was the Joker, happened and whos responsible, according to a federal law we may never understand what enforcement source with detailed leads anybody to terrorize their knowledge of the investigation. fellow human beings like this. At least 12 people were killed in Such violence, such evil is t h e r a m p a g e a n d 5 9 w e r e senseless. Its beyond reason. But wounded. while we will never know fully Witnesses to the shooting what causes somebody to take the described him as wearing a gas life of another, we do know what mask that concealed much of his makes life worth living. The face and head. But the federal law people we lost in Aurora loved, enforcement sources information and they were loved. They were about the suspects appearance mothers and fathers; they were fits with a statement from New husbands and wives; sisters and York Police Commissioner Ray brothers; sons and daughters, Kelly, who was briefed by friends and neighbors. They had Colorado authorities Friday. hopes for the future, and they had Police say Holmes, 24, dressed dreams that were not yet fulfilled.
And if theres anything to take away from this tragedy, its the reminder that life is very fragile. Our time here is limited, and it is precious. And what matters at the end of the day is not the small things, its not the trivial things, which so often consume us and our daily lives. Ultimately, its how we choose to treat one another and how we love one another. *** Our hearts break with the sadness of this unspeakable tragedy, Romney said, according to a rush transcript. Ann and I join the president and first lady and all Americans in offering our deepest condolences for those whose lives were shattered in a few moments, a few moments of evil, in Colorado. I stand before you today not as a man running for office but as a father and grandfather, a husband, an American. This is a time for each of us to look into our hearts and remember how much we love one another and how much we love and how much we care for our great country. Theres so much love and goodness in the heart of America. *** The telegenic schoolmarms we call pundits are all denouncing the politicization of the tragedy in Aurora, calling out the crass opportunists who would dare to use human suffering to advance their preferred public policy choices. I feel terrible about what
happened in that movie theater, and Im agnostic about gun control, but there is nothing wrong with politicizing tragedy. The talking heads dont like it, because they think of politics as a silly game about who sang out of tune and whose words can be used against them and whose surrogate undercut whose message, but politics is about life and death and human suffering. At least thats what it should be about. But politics matters, because policies matter. Obamacare and gay marriage are not just issues that might play badly with swing voters or turn the tide in Virginia; theyre issues that affect peoples lives. Gun control and the Second Amendment are issues, too, and now seems like a pretty good time to talk about them. *** *** Soothing words are nice, Bloomberg said during a regularly scheduled appearance on WOR 710 AM in New York. But maybe its time the two people who want to be president of the United States stand up and tell us what theyre going to do about it, because this is obviously a problem across the country. And everybody always says, Isnt it tragic? I mean, theres so many murders with guns every day, Bloomberg continued. Its just gotta stop. And instead of these two people, President [Barack] Obama and Governor [Mitt] Romney talking
in broad things about, they want to make the world a better place. OK, tell us how. And this is a problem. No matter where you stand on the Second Amendment, no matter where you stand on guns, we have a right to hear from both of them, concretely, not just in generalities, specifically, what are they going to do about guns? *** The only fitting response to a terrible crime like this is silence or prayer. The idea that acts of mass murder reflect Hollywood violence is absurd; you cant get more violent than King Lear. Its true that guns are more convenient than hatchets as massmurder weapons; they are also more convenient for self-defense. Defense and attack are generally on par in the long blood-stain of human history, and this is the wrong moment for political agitation for or against gun control. (If such laws really did control guns it might be different. But as matters stand, if we outlaw guns, we had better outlaw crime also.) A whole generation has been reared, in many parts of society, without the moral compass of biblical religion. Does that make any difference to the rate of violent crime? I dont know and, again, this is the wrong moment to argue about it. In human life, savagery is a given. God knows we all wish it werent. QUOTES page 81
Politics/
79
In Defense of Eating at Chick-fil-A

Jonathan Merritt (Politics : The Atlantic)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 4:30:18 PM
Do we really want a country where people won't do commerce with those who have beliefs different than their own? When former Republican candidate for president Newt Gingrich visited a Chick-fil-A in Anderson, S.C. this January, supporters gathered outside to catch a glimpse. (Reuters) Dan Cathy, president of one of America's largest express fast food chains, has been frying more than chicken filets this week. The Chick-fil-A executive infuriated gay and lesbian groups when he again defended his company's anti -gay marriage position in an interview this week with a Christian news outlet. "We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit," he said. "We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that." Not surprisingly, his comments were met with fury by those who support same-sex marriage. The company was labeled a "hate group" by many on Twitter and in the blogosphere, and drew promises of boycotts from notables including The Office star Ed Helms. Meanwhile, Americans who patronize the chain's 1,600 locations were left wondering
what to do. Should they swear off the legendary chicken sandwiches to support gay rights? Or could they eat one of the filets anyway, knowing their dollars would be but a drop in the bucket for a chain that has more than $4 billion in annual sales and donated a pittance to groups they may disagree with? I'd argue the latter -- and this has nothing to do with my views on gay marriage. It's because Chickfil-A is a laudable organization on balance, and because I refuse to contribute to the ineffective
boycott culture that's springing up across America. First of all, Chick-fil-A is not a hate group. In a statement released yesterday, company leaders made their commitment to equal service clear, "The Chick-fil -A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect -- regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender." As a native Atlantan, I've dined at the chicken chain more than I'd like to admit over more than two decades and even interacted with
its leadership team. I've never witnessed any customer refused service or even treated differently. On the contrary, Chick-fil-A is known for offering world-class customer service to each person that walks through one of the restaurant's doors. Additionally, the organization gives millions of dollars each year to charitable causes -- and not just to "pro-family" groups. It funds a large foster care program, several schools of a higher learning, and a children's camp. It has provided thousands of scholarships for Chick-fil-A employees to attend
college and grow past the service sector where they got their workplace start. (On Friday, the company provided free meals for Aurora, Colo., policemen.) And the company's leaders claim to do all of this out of convictions rooted in the Christian faith. Anyone who has even a cursory knowledge of the company should know that it does not hide its commitment to biblical values. Its corporate statement of purpose since 1982 has begun, "To glorify God..." DEFENSE page 82
80
Politics/
Obama would just love to delay those defense-cut-related pink slips until after the election
Tina Korbe (Hot Air Top Picks)
Submitted at 7/20/2012 5:41:05 PM
posted at 6:41 pm on July 20, 2012 by Tina Korbe When House Speaker John Boehner acceded last summer to a debt ceiling deal that threatened 10 years of $50-billion spending cuts to the Defense Department, cynical conservatives everywhere suspected the defense cuts would somehow manage to materialize. Meaningful entitlement reform was left to a so-called Super Committee, but defense cuts? They were to be the default in the event of the committees inevitable failure. Never mind that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta calls the cuts unworkable and a disaster that will hollow out the force and inflict severe damage to our national defense. Never mind that Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey says theyre an unacceptable risk. Never mind, above all, that the cuts to defense are entirely disproportional to the bit of the budget consumed by defense spending. (In case anyone
has forgotten, we spend five times more on entitlement programs Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security than we do on defense.) But if the president doesnt care about any of that, he does care about his reelection. He can relatively reliably count on voters to overlook the threats to national security posed by these cuts. He can more reliably count on voters to remain attached to the benefits dispersed by cherished entitlement programs and to consequently overlook the lack of action on entitlement reform. He cant, however, reliably count on the favor and support of the hundreds of thousands of workers who stand to lose their jobs if these cuts occur. Defense shouldnt be immune from cuts, but Mr. Obamas policy choices are turning America into an entitlement state with a shrinking militaryin other words, Europe. The U.S. would be left with the smallest Navy since World War I, the smallest ground forces in 70 years, and at just over 2.5% of GDP the smallest defense budget
since Pearl Harbor. Sequestration compounds the damage because the cuts would be automatic and indiscriminate. The Pentagon now concedes that funding for the war in Afghanistan would be hit, contrary to past assurances. So would current operations in the Persian Gulf. Training programs, equipment maintenance and military benefits are affected too. Defense contractor Lockheed Martin says the law obliges it to send layoff warnings as soon as October to most of its 123,000 workersthe kind of manufacturing jobs Democrats claim to love. In my home state of Oklahoma, as many as 16,000 people could lose their jobs. Obama has blathered all summer long about Mitt Romney and Bain Capital, about the jobs Mitts company supposedly destroyed or outsourced. For Obamas benefit, the liberal media has flogged the release your tax returns! horse and left sturdier horses in the barn stalls horses named June jobs report, decreased consumer confidence
and a drop in retail sales, to name just a few. Hmm. What to do with this story? Dont you just know our dear Commander-in-Chief would love to delay it? According to a floor speech by Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe, the president has asked those in the defense industry to delay pink slips until after the Nov. 7 election. Fortunately for those the president would prefer to blindside, Inhofe will have none of it: I have every reason to believe, because Ive heard from people in industry, that the president of the United States is trying to get them to avoid sending pink slips out until after the Nov. 7 election. I would remind him that we have something called the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, the WARN Act. It requires these companies to give 60 days notice of pending layoffs. Since sequestration will take place on Jan. 2, these workers must be notified of their pink slip by Nov. 2. This is what Id like to remind those companies: They
dont have to wait. If they want to notify workers today, they can do that. I think it is imperative that the workers who are going to be laid off work as a result of the Obama sequestration be notified in advance of the November election. Were going to do everything we can to make sure that happens. Keep your eyes out for real news, people, because ABC and other outlets are too busy targeting the Tea Party to see it. Tina Korbe is Policy Impact Director at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs and a former associate editor right here at HotAir.com. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
81
WHY
WILL
Massachusetts in 2004, but has shied away from addressing the ban on a national scale. He promised the NRA earlier this year that he would "stand up for the rights of hunters, sportsmen, and those seeking to protect their homes and their families." He has not made any statements to suggest that he would overturn current gun laws. Romney on Friday expressed sympathy to the Colorado families. "There is something we can do. We can offer comfort to someone near us," he said. "The president and this Congress have done nothing," said Ladd Everitt, communications director for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. On Obama and Romney, he observed, "They're both kind of guys that have blown with the political winds .... We haven't seen a lot of courage." Everitt said the House is a lost cause for gun-control legislation, even in the wake of a tragedy like Colorado's. But he said the Senate might provide some fertile ground for action. The first hurdle, of course, is to figure out what to ask for. One possibility is legislation sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., to ban
"large capacity ammunition feeding devices." But that would only work if the Colorado shooter used a legally purchased magazine rifle. Even then, that bill faces long odds. A slightly easier lift in Congress might be another Maloney bill (sponsored in the Senate by Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.) to tighten up the background-check reporting system. Pro-gun advocates say this is a tired strategy of exploiting a tragedy to carve out gun rights. "Here's what we're concerned about. It's not a massive guncontrol bill greatly [restricting] people's rights. It's the salami, so the other side can figure out just how thin a slice they can cut off the Second Amendment and they settle for that," said John Velleco, director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America. But who are we kidding? This is a town that can barely handle the upcoming fiscal cliff that everyone agrees should be fixed. It is not exactly a friendly political environment for debating tough issues like how to assess the mental health of people who want to buy guns. Banning gun sales among Republicans is as taboo as raising taxes. Velloco said he is confident that members of
Congress understand that "restricting the right of lawabiding citizens is not going to stop a crazed madman." Last month's House vote to hold Holder in contempt of Congress is an indication of just how far the fear of NRA backlash has penetrated the Congress. The NRA cheered that vote and got 17 Democrats to join with Republicans in the unprecedented move. Gun-control advocates say they don't have the same kind of grassroots pull on their side to counteract the NRA's power. The lobbying figures bear out the imbalance. Last year, the NRA spent $2.9 million on lobbying, while gun-control advocates spent about one-tenth of that amount, a paltry $240,000, according to OpenSecrets.org. One of the biggest recipients of the NRA money is House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who has received $7,450 so far in this election cycle. "My thoughts and prayers are with all the victims, their families and the entire Colorado community," Cantor said in a tweet. Another top NRA political contribution recipient, Rep. Rick Berg, R-N.D., said the Colorado shootings "are nothing short of an absolute tragedy." The NRA is keeping a similarly
low profile in the wake of the incident. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and the Aurora, Colorado, community. NRA will not be making any further statements until all the facts are known," said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam. As long as nobody stands up on the other side to call for clear and immediate restrictions on gun purchases, the pro-gun lobby is likely to slide through the crisis without any serious threat to its pet issues. This article available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/ politics/archive/2012/07/why-theaurora-shooting-wont-affect-gunlaws/260134/ This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
The administration hasnt even made a concerted public case for the treaty an onslaught of soundbites and narratives as it has with other plans for regulation like Obamacare, net neutrality, and environmental regulations. Maybe it has felt that that would be impolitic. If so, perhaps that excellent instinct for political selfpreservation will induce Obama to shelve this one until after the election. What say you, readers? J.E. Dyers articles have appeared at The Green Room, Commentarys contentions, Patheos, The Weekly Standard onlin e, and her own blog, The Optimistic Conservative. This post was promoted from GreenRoom to HotAir.com. To see the comments on the original post, look here. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
QUOTES
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-
only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
82
DEFENSE
Given this, that anyone was surprised by Cathy's statements is, well, surprising. Like many conservative Christians, he does not support gay marriage. I'm flummoxed that so many consumers are so quick these days to call for boycotts of any company that deviates from their personal or political views. For one thing, boycotts rarely cause actual pocketbook - rather than PR -- damage. Most consumers don't care enough to drive an extra mile to get the same product from someone else. And that's especially the case for companies as large as Chick-fil-A, which has prime locations on many college campuses where there is little head-to-head competition. But my bigger question is this: In a nation that's as divided as ours is, do we really want our commercial lives and our political lives to be so wholly intermeshed? And is this really the kind of culture we want to create? Culture war boycotts cut
both ways and are much more likely to meet with success when prosecuted by large groups of people, such as Christian activists, who are more numerous than gays and lesbians and their more activist supporters. Gay and lesbian groups were famously rankled when profamily activists reacted against Kraft for posting a photo of an Oreo cookie with rainbow-hued filling last month in honor of Gay Pride Month, and also when similar groups protested JCPenney for announcing lesbian talk show host Ellen DeGeneres would be its next spokesperson. So should the 45 percent of Americans who oppose gay marriage opt for Chips Ahoy! instead of Oreos? Should they begin shopping at Belk instead of JC Penny? If they did, it wouldn't make any more sense than the endless failed calls for liberal consumers to boycott Urban Outfitters, because its owner is a conservative and Rick Santorum
donor, or to not order from Domino's Pizza, because it was founded by a Catholic conservative who helped fund anti -abortion causes. On both sides of our latest culture war divide, we must learn to have level-headed disagreements without resorting to accusations of hate speech and boycotts. As Josh Ozersky argued on TIME Thursday, "businesses should be judged by their products and their practices, not by their politics." I agree: I don't care how my dry cleaner votes. I just want to know if he/she can press my Oxfords without burning my sleeves. I find no compelling reason to treat sandwiches differently than shirts. From a business standpoint, some might say Cathy's comments were imprudent if not downright dumb. But in a society that desperately needs healthy public dialogue, we must resist creating a culture where consumers sort through all their purchases (fast food and otherwise) for an underlying
politics not even expressed in the nature of the product itself. If white meat's not your thing, try the Golden Arches. But if you want a perfectly fried chicken sandwich, Chick-fil-A, will be happy to serve you -- gay or straight. In this case, those who boycott are the ones missing out. This article available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/ politics/archive/2012/07/indefense-of-eating-at-chick-fil-a/ 260139/ This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Incinerating Assange - The Liberal Media Go To Work.
Technology/
83
Nokia Drive 3.0 arrives with My Commute, your Lumia is no excuse for being late (video)
Jon Fingas (Engadget)
through its predictive routing: it can learn when you leave for Submitted at 7/20/2012 9:25:00 PM work and how driving habits will Nokia gave us a hint of Nokia affect the trip, giving a heads-up Drive 3.0's commuter-friendly about traffic jams before you turn additions all the way back at the ignition. Windows Phone M o b i l e W o r l d C o n g r e s s i n reasserts itself through the option February. It's been quite the wait, of pinning favorite destinations as but the update is at last lurking in tiles on the home screen, and an the Windows Phone Marketplace. automatic switch between day and Although developed at the same night modes is just as new. time as Google Now, the Drive Drive's My Commute feature will update will feel like a small slice initially work only in the US, but of Android 4.1 for Lumia owners it should be available within the
next day or two for any Lumia owner -- so those being denied Windows Phone 8 still won't have any justification for being late to
the office. Continue reading Nokia Drive 3.0 arrives with My Commute, your Lumia is no excuse for being
late (video) Filed under: Cellphones, GPS Nokia Drive 3.0 arrives with My Commute, your Lumia is no excuse for being late (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 21:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Symbian Tweet| Nokia Conversations| Email this| Comments
Star Wars-themed GPS steers Japanese geeks away from the dark side
Joseph Volpe (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:28:00 AM
From the orchestral theme music at startup to the voice guidance performed by the original As if George Lucas wasn't Japanese VO actors (Darth Vader already milking his money- and C-3P0 only), the 5-inch LCD printing franchise for all it's m o u n t i s p r e t t y m u c h t h e worth, comes this GPS gem out of memorabilia stuff of a grown-up, Japan. To the (presumed) delight scifi geek's wet dream. There's o f f a n b o y s e v e r y w h e r e , even a mode selection option to navigation maker Dinos has inked let users pledge their allegiance to a licensing deal with Lucasfilm e i t h e r t h e " E m p i r e " o r t h e that conjures up an all-out, Star "Rebels," in addition to 20 Wars-themed car nav system. different custom vehicle indicator
icons. Sounds fluffy enough, but the unit also does double duty as a OneSeg TV tuner and can even be used as a standalone set. It's on
sale now for 39,800Yen (US$507), but unless you're living in the Land of the Rising Sun, this import's just kitsch for kitsch's
sake. Filed under: GPS, Transportation Star Wars-themed GPS steers Japanese geeks away from the dark side originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jul 2012 00:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| AV Watch (Translated)| Email this| Comments
84
News Photos
Colorado theater shooting at midnight screening of 'The Dark Knight Rises' - Whittier Daily News
Submitted at 7/21/2012 12:06:56 AM
The Huntsville Times - al.com (blog) Colorado theater shooting at midnight screening of 'The Dark Knight Rises' Whittier Daily News In this photo taken with a fisheye lens, people watch the midnight premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises" inside the Liberty Science Center IMAX theater Friday, July 20, 2012, in Jersey City, N.J. A gunman in a gas mask barged into
a crowded Denver-area... James Holmes Identified As 24Year-Old Suspect In Denver Shootings... Huffington Post Photos: Colorado theater shooting mars Batman premiere Pioneer Press Colorado theater shooting suspect was med student; apartment found booby... The Huntsville Times al.com (blog) Examiner.com- WCNCColorado Springs Independent (blog) all 13,924 news articles

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