Did Miley Cyrus Secretly Get Married To Liam Hemsworth? (Photos)

Did Miley Cyrus Secretly Get Married To Liam Hemsworth? (Photos)

There are rumors swirling that Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth may have secretly wed, after family Christmas photos shared online show them both wearing new bands on their left hands. Miley posted her festive photos to her Instagram, leaving fans to speculate she may have tied the knot just before the holidays. One photo featuring ...

Did Miley Cyrus Secretly Get Married To Liam Hemsworth? (Photos) Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2012/12/did-miley-cyrus-secretly-get-married-to-liam-hemsworth-photos/

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Entering The Commercial Real Estate Market | Overseas Property

It?s not as complicated as you may think to begin investing in commercial real estate. You need to make sure you know information about the property before you make a move on it. Read this article to find out more about common tricks and mistakes you should avoid to become a successful investor.

Be sure to enlist the assistance of an excellent real estate attorney to review any contracts or financing documents for your commercial properties. It is best to always be protected by a trustworthy, knowledgeable legal professional who can help you to resolve any issues that may arise.

Always be on the lookout for sellers who are motivated. You have to look for them, especially those who need to sell below the market value. You will achieve nothing in commercial real estate unless you get your hands on a good deal, and that most often will happen as a result of an offer made by an eager seller.

Before you start, find the right financing for your needs. Commercial lenders and real estate are much different than simply buying a home. In many ways a commercial loan is much better for the investor. Commercial properties require huge down payments, but regulations make it possible to avoid responsibility if things go bad. Additionally, banks aren?t as picky about how you come up with the down payment.

Before choosing a real estate broker, you need to know how they negotiate. Inquire as to their training and experience. Ensure that the broker fights tooth and nail to get you the best price on your property, but make sure he or she doesn?t use underhanded tactics. Inquire if they can provide any documentation exampling their previous negotiations, both ones successful and otherwise.

Focus on only one investment at the same time. Your center of attention should be placed on a specific investment, whether it is an office building, land, apartments, retail, etc. Every kind of investment you make should have all of your attention. It is always more advantageous to be great at one thing than sub-par with many.

There are a variety of types of real estate brokers who deal in commercial properties. Some agents will represent only the tenant while a full service broker will represent both parties. You may benefit from using a broker who works exclusively with tenants, due to the singular focus.

Remember that size is everything when you are shopping for a permanent space for a growing business. If you do not want to be looking at properties again soon, it is important to find a commercial space with sufficient room for future expansion.

When choosing between two different types of commercial properties, it?s best to look at things on a bigger scale. The difficulty in securing financing doesn?t increase linearly with the size of the building you are buying. Generally, this is the same situation as if you were buying something in bulk, the more you buy the cheaper the price of each unit.

Social media is an important tool for keeping brokers and investors appraised of your services. After completion of a transaction, you should work to cultivate an online presence.

Know your needs before you even start looking for a commercial real estate. Write down what features are most important to you when you look a piece of property, like the square footage, the number of offices and conference rooms, and bathrooms.

Get your commercial property inspected before you try to sell it. If they should discover even a single issue with the property, repair or resolve it immediately.

Always rent out all the available space in your commercial rental properties. You?re the one who has to pay to keep the building maintained, and if no one?s renting them, you?re wasting your money. If several of your properties are vacant, reexamine your management style and look for ways to fix issues that are keeping tenants away.

Square Footage

Be clearheaded about what amount of square footage is really usable. Commercial real estate properties can be measured by usable square feet, which is where the business would actually take place, or total square footage, which usually involves the walls and uninhabitable spaces. Know how many square feet for both, so that you can can make the process run smoothly.

Inquiring how a real estate agents earns his or her money is a great tip you can use to find an honest broker to deal with. An honest broker will approach this question openly and let you know that interests diverge. Be certain you understand exactly which part of the firm?s transaction with you will be profitable for the firm.

Confirm that basic utility services are already situated at the commercial property. Your business has utility needs of its own, but you will also need water, electric, sewer and maybe even gas.

Buying commercial properties requires plenty of perseverance and calmness. Do not be hasty about making a investment decision. If the property turns out to be wrong for you, you will regret your decision. It may take a year for your needed investment to come about in the market.

One of the most important things you should be aware of is emergency maintenance. One way to develop such a list is to ask current commercial investors who they use in the event of an emergency repair. Keep a list of phone numbers close to you, and make sure you select companies that answer quickly. Protect your employees, customers, merchandise, and even your reputation by having a good emergency plan in place that will allow you to handle unexpected events without chaos.

Add a blog to your website to develop your good reputation. This is a great way to introduce people to your products and services and also which properties you have available for sale or leasing.

Commercial Real Estate

The beginning of the article warned you that commercial real estate is nothing something you should go into without the proper information. The advice you have learned in this article will help you succeed in commercial real estate.

There is no way that one person will ever truly learn every bit of available information about More Information . Ideally, you should learn the most important information. Fortunately, the information in this article has covered all the important aspects.

Source: http://www.davidstanleyredfern.com/general-news/entering-the-commercial-real-estate-market

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Deal reached for stopping spike in milk prices

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, walks to a closed-door GOP caucus as Congress meets to negotiate a legislative path to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and deep spending cuts that could kick in Jan. 1., at the Capitol in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, walks to a closed-door GOP caucus as Congress meets to negotiate a legislative path to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and deep spending cuts that could kick in Jan. 1., at the Capitol in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The top leaders in both parties on the House and Senate Agriculture committees have agreed to a one-year extension of the 2008 farm bill that expired in October, a move that could head off a possible doubling of milk prices next month.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., indicated the House could vote on the bill soon, though House leaders have not yet agreed to put the bill on the floor. In addition to the one-year extension that has the backing of the committees, the House GOP is also considering two other extension bills: a one-month extension and an even smaller bill that would merely extend dairy policy that expires Jan. 1.

Expiration of those dairy programs could mean higher prices at the grocery store within a few weeks. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Americans face the prospect of paying $7 for a gallon of milk if the current dairy program lapsed and the government returned to a 1948 formula for calculating milk price supports.

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said Sunday that Republican leaders had not decided how they would proceed on the farm extension, though a vote could come as soon as Monday. Boehner has pushed back on passage of a new five-year farm bill for months, saying there were not enough votes to bring it to the House floor after the House Agriculture Committee approved it in July. The Senate passed its version of a farm bill in June.

The prospect of higher milk prices has motivated some action. The bipartisan extension also includes disaster assistance to farmers affected by a lingering drought this year, along with extensions to other farm programs that expired in October.

Instead of just extending current dairy policy, the extension bill includes an overhaul of dairy programs that was included in both the Senate and House committee bills. The new dairy programs include a new, voluntary insurance program for dairy producers. Those who choose that new program also would have to participate in a market stabilization program that could dictate production cuts when oversupply drives down prices ? an idea that hasn't gone over well with Boehner.

In July, he called the current dairy program "Soviet-style" and said the new program would make it even worse. Large food companies that process and use dairy products have backed Boehner, saying the program could limit milk supplies and increase their costs.

Stabenow blamed Boehner for getting to the point where an extension is the only option. "The lack of action by the House Republican leadership has put us in a situation where we risk serious damage to our economy unless we pass a temporary extension," she said.

One of the reasons Boehner has balked at bringing up a farm bill is disagreement within his caucus over how much money should be cut from food stamps, which make up roughly 80 percent of the half-trillion-dollar bill's cost over five years. House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., has unsuccessfully pushed his leadership for months to move on the legislation despite the disagreement over food aid.

On Sunday, Lucas said he hoped the extension would pass both chambers quickly as GOP leadership mulled their options.

"It is not perfect ? no compromise ever is ? but it is my sincere hope that it will pass the House and Senate and be signed by the president by Jan. 1," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-30-Fiscal%20Cliff-Farm%20Bill/id-a5cb0adafdce405fa516657d8d3b45e8

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Best Baseball Cleats

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Delhi gang rape victim dies Public outrage all over India

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Source: http://www.newstoday.com.bd/index.php?option=details&news_id=2332888&date=2012-12-30

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25 Writer Resolutions For 2013 (And Beyond) ? terribleminds: chuck ...

?

Tis that time of the year when the year?s just born ? pushed from its temporal womb, squalling and wriggling. That means it?s?also time to put forward a list of upgraded attitudes and mission statements for the year ahead. Some of these are for me. Maybe some of them are for you.

I don?t buy that we should rely on a single day to cleave to shame and fix mistakes ? but I think the first of the year is a nice temporal marker to push ourselves to re-examine, to evolve, and to keep asserting our ability to kick as much ass as we are able and allowed.

With that said, let?s get to it.

1. Level Up, Ding

Up your game. Always. With every paragraph, every chapter, every script scene and blog post, we should be looking to level up our work and ourselves. ?We level up, we gain new weapons in our fight against Shitty Writing (?I HAVE THE ANCIENT SWORD OF THE HAIKU MASTERS, IT IS +1 AGAINST RUN-ON-SENTENCES?) and we face new challenges in the road ahead (?NOW I MUST DEFEAT THE LITERARY AGENT IN BATTLE USING NOTHING BUT A QUERY LETTER AND SOME BAD-ASS DANCE MOVES?). We must never sit on our hands. We must pull our boots out of the mud. We must move forward and improve ourselves and our work.?We must better our shit.

2. Let Art And Entertainment Have A Little Creative Love Baby

Once upon a time I thought,?my goal as a writer is first to entertain. And that remains true, to a point ? but the more I think about it, the more I realize ?entertainment? is a lowest common denominator. If my only true goal was?to entertain, I could achieve that by uploading a series of YouTube videos where various things hit me in the dick (Frisbee! Coconut! Bowling ball! Charging goat! A goat driving a lawnmower!). A good story connects beyond mere amusement; its tendrils sink into deeper earth, winding around the human heart. Let?s aspire to do more than merely entertain. Let us reach for meaning, for connection, let us present stories with purpose and power. (Or, at the very least, we could write porn. HEY PORN COUNTS SHUT UP.)

3. Cleave To The Human Condition

It?s oh-so-easy to get lost in all the fiddly bits of storytelling. All the plotty twists, all the crafty and conjurous worldbuilding, all the clever turns of phrase, all the wonderful ways to describe a?person?s naughty bits (dangle rod love canal wizard?s wand swamp grotto turgid shillelagh lusty sex-pond). Thing is, we write stories for one reason: to talk about people. And we?read stories because we want to?read about people. Every story is a Rosetta Stone attempting to translate the human condition to the humans gazing upon it with knitted-brow and quizzical sneer. When we as writers drift away from that, we lose what?s powerful about stories: we lose the character. Stories are written by people, for people, about people. I mean, at least until the day comes when they?re written by robots, for robots, about murdering all the meatbags.

4. Face The Fear, Best The Beast

(Man, if those aren?t some of the lyrics to You?re The Best Around, then the 1980s has failed me.) Let every tale be a cage match between you and something that scares you. Death, life, rats, clowns, disease, lost love, parasites, credit ratings, God, Satan, the apocalypse, being awake during surgery, Kentucky, the dark, wizards, tiny children with straight razors in their jam-smeared hands, otters ? find a thing that frightens you and write about it. Mine that struggle. Writing with that measure of genuine of?emotion behind it creates a palpable effect: the prose grows stronger, the story becomes richer. Think of it as upgrading the story?s?megapixels. Every page contains so much more when you write with passion and authenticity.

5. Have A Fucking Point

Every story is an argument. Have the argument on the page. Give it to the audience. Make the case for why love conquers all ??or why love can suck a big quivering tube of elf dick. It?s not about being preachy; it?s about threading your fiction with theme and meaning.

6. Embrace The Unanswerable

On the other hand, just as sometimes we go into fiction with an answer already in mind, other times we approach the page with an unanswered question hanging over our heads like a reaper?s sickle.?The ending of the tale, uncertain ? its conclusion both in terms of?event and?theme existing as a Schroedinger?s Cat inside the narrative box, the outcome ever in flux. Can love save the day? What is love? Will human monstrousness win out over selflessness? How do I remove this skin tag? Do bears?really shit in the woods or do they share a series of secret bear toilets?

7. Stop Letting Passion Ferment Into Poison

Passion can be a paintbrush ? or it can be a gun. It can be a warm cup of go-go juice or an icy syringe jacked up with blowfish toxin. Passion is a horse that either carries you racing across the sunlit plains or stomps you bloody into the mud. Creators are passionate people; they have to be. Passion drives us to do what we do. But that passion easily goes septic and next thing you know, instead of pointing it toward our work and our desires, we?re instead letting it fuel some bullshit argument or be the rope that binds us into some crass emotional tangle. Writing the next great story from the deep of your heart is so much more valuable than EGADS SOMEONE IS WRONG ON THE INTERTUBES I WILL EXPEND MY CREATIVE ENERGON CUBES ASSERTING MY SUPERIORITY.

8. Lock The Bastards In A Box

We will forever meet those who don?t believe in us, whose apparent goal is to hold our heads underwater rather than teach us to swim. Those are our?bastards, and fuck every last one of those human speedbumps. Don?t engage. Shut them out. Close the door and lock it. Let this be the year we populate our lives with people who challenge us and help us be better, not punch us in the balls (or lady-parts) and leave us groaning and gasping in a pile of?canine excrement.

9. Read Widely

Our reading habits are creatures of comfort: we know what we like (urban fantasy novels where bad-ass were-dolphin girls wage war against a parliament of sexy demon-priests) and so we hew to those books we know will please us. But again, look beyond the boundaries of entertainment. As we challenge ourselves with our writing, so too should we seek similar challenge in our reading. Read that which you would not normally read. Seek new input. Don?t let your mind grow indolent and complacent, a sluggy psychic blob covered in mental Dorito dust.

10. Know More Shit, You Clod-Headed Ignorasaurus

If we are to assume that?write what you know has any value at all (it does, in a sense, and more on that in a moment), then we can also assume that it is our mission as?official penmonkeys to?know more shit. Your mission: learn more, read more, do more.

11. Dig Into The Dirt Of Your Own Experience

Let?s talk a little about that last one: ?do more.? When we write, we tend to write more effectively when we milk the udders of our own experience rather than come to the page cold and unaware. That?s not to say we must?literally write what we know ? otherwise, every story would be a biographical transcript. Rather, our experiences are filtered through the various?sieves and?strainers of fiction: we translate and teleport the events of our lives, finding those sensory moments, those essential elements (or elemental essentials), those core authentic ?truths.? What that means is: strive to bring yourself to the page. And further, it means to?do more. Have more experiences. Travel. Eat new foods. Try new things. Apply it to your fiction. (?Hey, honey, I went to a gangbang last night with a bunch of strangers. Don?t worry, it?s just me bringing?authenticity to my novel. Yes, I smell like lube: a detail for my fictions.?)

12. Find Comfort In Discomfort

Fuck safety. Jump, then stitch the parachute on the way down. Comfort is the enemy of good fiction. As an author, seek some measure of discomfort ? put it into your work, try new things, challenge yourself to take the difficult path because?that is the path that will yield greater reward. Hell, break a drinking glass and pepper your office chair with the shards so that you?re?experiencing constant enlightening buttock pain. *receives note from the official terribleminds lawyer* Oh, umm, wait, yeah, don?t do that last part. Just do the other things.

13. Find Opportunity In Change

The winds have shifted. The earth trembles beneath our feet. Genres warp and mash together. Age ranges for reading spawn hydra heads (Middle Grade! Young Adult! New Adult! Adult Zero! Pre-Adult! Post-Toddler! Geriatric Erotica!). The shift to digital is a change. The fact that big publishers are glomming onto big publishers and creating some kind of?drug-resistant super-mecha publisher-kaiju is a change. The rise of self-publishing is ? drum roll please ??a big-ass change. And more unseen changes are surely on the way in the coming year. Each change is bad for those who cannot adapt, and great for those who can. So, adapt. Find opportunity and challenge instead of difficulty and misery. Surf the turning tide.

14. Find Signal In Noise

We can either fill our lives with meaning, or bog it down with distraction. The latter is easier, frankly: it?s so much simpler to lose ourselves to the Internet or video games or stupid arguments or Russian elk porn. But a life of writing requires focus. It demands that we tune out the noise and zero in on the signal. Signal will save us. Noise will drown us.

15. Stop Pooping In The Temple

They say the body is a temple; mine is probably a back alley pawn shop. (?Want to buy a cassette player and an off-brand Samurai sword??) Just the same, I shouldn?t be savaging the architecture of my flesh with gross indolence and needless diet. The mind and the body are inextricably linked ? it?s time to stop dragging down the mind with the negligence of the body.

16. Stop Defining Yourself By What Other People Think

Everybody wants you to be something. Some people want you to be nothing. None of that matters. The tiger in the cage doesn?t think, ?The zookeeper wants me to wear this jaunty hat.? He just eats the zookeeper and then pees on that hat. Be the Most Awesomest You-Version that you want to be, and let everyone fall in line behind your ideals. Don?t fall in line behind theirs.

17. Love What You Write, Write What You Love

The thing about writing is, it?s easy to get caught up in work that isn?t ?for? us ? rocking out some freelance word count, or maybe in a pitch meeting you pitched something on a lark and under pressure (?Uhh, something-something astronaut family sitcom in a future world owned by robots who have not yet learned to love?) and you really don?t like the thing you pitched but now, here you are, writing it for money. You find it miserable and that misery translates.?It always translates. The miserable threads wind around each word like a choking vine or a pubic hair caught in your teeth. Here?s how to fix this: first, make sure to save projects Just For You. Write projects that speak to you. But you can also reverse that: you can bring your love to the project at hand even if that project is not one you enjoy. There?s always a way ?in.? Always an angle. Always a way forward that you don?t hate. Find that path through. You?ll feel better for it.

18. Be Inspired By All The Crazy Penmonkey Motherfuckers Out There

Jealousy is an ugly thing: it?s bitey like a plague monkey, empty like a mummy?s scrotum. The way we see other writers is sometimes through lenses smeared with the greasy unguent of envy, or worse, we think, ?They did it, but I can?t, and now I?m just going to lay down and take a thousand-year-nap on this pillow soggy with my tears.? ?Going forward, let your proper response to other writers be awe. Let it be?inspiration. Let the collective efforts of a thousand penmonkeys be the fist of wind that punches your sails.

19. Forge Partnerships In The Raw Metals Of Awesome

Time to get shut of the notion that we do this thing alone. The author is always the tip of the iceberg: beneath the hoarfrost waters is forever an unseen pyramid of supporters. Editors! Agents! Book designers! Artists! Other writers! This year, go out. Find one other person in your creative ecosystem. Press your two magic artist rings together ? bwing! ? and form a partnership. Use that creative energy ? and yes, sometimes, creative agitation ? to?be the fist of wind that? what? I already used that metaphor? Fine. Use that energy to?get shit done.

20. Create Before You Consume

We often gain our desire to tell stories from consuming the stories told by others. This often becomes our default mode: we read! We watch! We play! The problem is when it remains our default mode and we never switch tracks from?consumer to?creator. That?s not to say we shouldn?t still hungrily stuff our mind-mouths with the narrative meals cooked by others ? but there comes a time to give our own work that priority. Both in terms of time and in terms of regurgitating staid, tired tale-telling. Your story comes first. All other tales trail after.

21. Write Fiction Red In Tooth And Claw

Punch. Kick. Grab.?Bite. Fuck passivity. We don?t get to be paid penmonkeys and crackerjack creators by lying on the ocean floor like a bloated sea cucumber letting food glom onto his turd-blob body. You?re not a morbidly obese shut-in who can order opportunity?and?creativity from Amazon (delivered with Prime Shipping to your double-wide trailer!). You are shark. You are wolf. You are?shark-wolf hybrid with machete-flippers and fire-eyes and a deep and unabiding creative hunger. Creators must take aim at their goals. They must sniff out opportunity and stab it with their steely knives. You want that pound of flesh? You want your novel on shelves, your script on a screen? Move, motherfucker. Or get out the way.

22. Realize: Yesterday?s Gone And Tomorrow?s Too Late

Today is what you have, so use it. Don?t even?think about what you didn?t do yesterday. And fuck putting aside things for tomorrow. It?s today. It?s Right Goddamn Now ? a sharp dagger stuck in the pages and maps of this very moment. Grab the knife. Start cutting words off the block. Start arranging them into sentences, and start shoving those sentences together to make a story. Don?t look back. Don?t wait. Now is the only time you are promised. Now is the time to create.

23. Just Keep Swimming

Regret is for assholes. Hell, regret?is?an asshole ? a giant flappy asshole that works opposite as it should, vacuuming up instead of purging out, suctioning up optimism and motivation and light and also, the cat. (Poor cat.) It?s easy to get caught in this mode, to have the thought running laps in your head that says,?I fucked up, I did something wrong, that thing will haunt me. A query letter with a typo, some pissing match with another author, a book that nobody bought, a self-published tale with a cover so ugly it should be on trial for war crimes. Forget regret. Aim?to?repair. Seek?to?reclaim. (And other re- words!) Very little you do will mark you as a Permanent Dickhole or Forever Dumbshit provided you are earnest about moving forward and upping your game. Stop getting caught on the carousel of remorse. Stop turning in circles.

24. Fuck Good. Go Great.

Perfection is the enemy of the good. But does that mean we shouldn?t aspire to be better? Hell no. It doesn?t mean we can?t push ourselves and reach a little further. It damn sure doesn?t mean that we cannot seek to elevate that thing we do beyond the realm of merely ?good? and ? one hopes ? into the stratosphere of ?great.? (?THIS MONKEY NEEDS A PROPELLOR. THIS ICE CREAM NEEDS BACON! THIS BACON NEEDS CHOCOLATE! THIS TOASTER NEEDS A PINK FLOYD LASER LIGHT SHOW AND A BELT PUNCH AND THE INTERNET.?) I don?t know what makes something great. More of this? Less of that? A stronger flourish? A simpler elegance? Nobody knows. But that?s no reason not to try, is it?

25. Know Thyself

The biggest and bestest resolution going forward? Know who you are as a writer. This is, I find, the curse-iest curse that plagues us ? and it doesn?t just plague us at the beginning of our journey. Oh, if only. It?s a nettling, nibbling, nattering imp riding on our shoulders years into the great egress from our old, uncreative lives. Find your process. Uncover what works for you. Find your voice. Find what you like. Discover why you tell stories. Discover your desires. Find your frailties. Find yourself in your fiction and find your fiction in you. The faster we can start to figure out who we are, how we work, and what we want, the faster we can move forward telling the kinds of stories we want to tell ? and the more confident we become in doing it. So ring in the new year by? if not?answering these questions then at least?asking them, having them staple-gunned to the front of your cerebral cortex. Let your work and career be less of a question mark, and more of an exclamation point. And now for?

26. Shh, The Not-So-Secret Secret Resolution

Write till your fingers bleed.

Want another hot tasty dose of dubious writing advice aimed at your facemeats?

500 WAYS TO TELL A BETTER STORY:

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500 WAYS TO BE A BETTER WRITER:

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500 MORE WAYS TO BE A BETTER WRITER:

$2.99 at Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), B&N, PDF

250 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT WRITING:

$0.99 at Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), B&N, PDF

CONFESSIONS OF A FREELANCE PENMONKEY:

$4.99 at Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), B&N, PDF

REVENGE OF THE PENMONKEY:

$2.99 at Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), B&N, PDF

Source: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/12/31/25-writer-resolutions-for-2013/

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Israel eases blockade on Gaza, allows building materials through

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Source: http://www.debka.com/newsupdate/3328/

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Republicans Set to Cave? (Powerlineblog)

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Chinese fishing boat detained in Japan - Xinhua

BEIJING | Sun Dec 30, 2012 3:17pm GMT

BEIJING (Reuters) - Japan's coastguard detained a Chinese fishing boat within Japanese waters on Sunday evening, China's Xinhua news agency said, citing the Chinese consulate general in Fukuoka, a city in south-western Japan.

The captain of the boat, registered in the south-eastern Chinese province of Fujian, and two crew members have been brought to the southern Japanese city of Kagoshima for questioning, Xinhua said.

It said the captain had admitted he was in Japanese waters.

The incident comes just months after anti-Japanese protests erupted in many Chinese cities over disputed islands near Taiwan, known as the Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese. Those tensions have cooled but could flare up if stoked by nationalists on either side.

A spokesperson for the Japanese embassy in Beijing could not be reached for comment late on Sunday evening.

The Chinese fishing fleet tends to range far into the waters east of China to offset depleted stocks closer to shore.

(Reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Alison Williams)

Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/12/30/uk-china-japan-fishing-idUKBRE8BT06K20121230?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

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2012 Christmas Classic golf tournament photo gallery added

? December 29, 2012Posted in: Hackers, Miscellaneous

I just uploaded a gallery of images to the Hooked On Golf Blog photo gallery of the annual Christmas Classic, 2012 edition. ?The Christmas Classic is a Christmas Day tournament that only takes place when our home course, River Oaks, is closed on December 25th. ?Last year we had a mild season so the tournament was ?cancelled due to favorable weather.?

Left to right: Tony Korologos (me), Rex Jacobs, Bryant Jacobs, Dan Crookston, Kevin Croft ? click for more

Video

I?m wrapping up the finishing touches on the video of the 2012 Christmas Classic. ?Stay tuned as it will likely be featured in the next post.

About Tony Korologos a.k.a. mediaguru

Tony Korologos is one of golf's original bloggers, covering golf since 2004. Also known as "MediaGuru," Tony is one of the internet's top experts in golf social media and golf social networking. Tony is also apparently very good at writing about himself in the third person... :-)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hookedongolfblog/kkFm/~3/5CgifR7hWYc/2012-christmas-classic-golf-tournament-photo-gallery-added

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Huge dino handover shakes up the market

A fossil dealer's guilty plea has set the stage for what is most likely the largest dinosaur fossil repatriation in history, according to an attorney representing the president of Mongolia ? the country that will receive most of the fossils that federal officials are seizing from fossil dealer and preparer Eric Prokopi.

On Thursday, Prokopi pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to smuggling fossils and agreed to forfeit a small menagerie of dinosaurs to federal officials. All but one of the dinosaurs in question came from Mongolia, where law makes fossils state property, and among them is a high-profile skeleton that received a $1.05 million bid at auction.

"We have looked into this, and we can't find any instance anywhere when one country has returned to another a lot of dinosaurs this large and this significant that have been looted or smuggled," said Robert Painter, attorney for Mongolian President Elbegdorj Tsakhia.

The outcome has set precedent in other ways, according to observers and others who are involved in the case. In particular, some believe it will send a message to those involved in the black market for fossils, particularly those taken from Mongolia, which have been widely available for sale.

A long list of dinosaurs
In May, Prokopi put his 8-foot-tall and 24-foot-long (2.4 meters by 7.3 meters) Tarbosaurus bataar specimen up for auction. President Elbegdorj and several paleontologists objected, saying the dinosaur was almost certainly pilfered from Mongolia. The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office became involved and sought legal possession of the dinosaur with the intent of returning it to Mongolia. Later, Prokopi was arrested on federal smuggling charges. [See Images of the Smuggled Tarbosaurus Skeleton]

In a plea deal, Prokopi pleaded guilty to three felony counts and agreed to give up his claim on this dinosaur, plus fossils from two other Tarbosaurus bataars, which are Asian relatives of the better-known Tyrannosaurus rex; one Saurolophus or duck-billed dinosaur; and two birdlike Oviraptors. In September, federal officials seized another Saurolophus that Prokopi had sold to California-based gallery and auction house I.M. Chait. A small four-winged Microraptor from China was taken by federal officials before this case began. One of the Tarbosaurus fossils is believed to be in Great Britain.

"We are pleased that we can now begin the process of returning these prehistoric fossils to their countries of origin," Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.

Prokopi's prospects
After pleading guilty to charges of smuggling, making false statements on customs forms and dealing in fossils he knew to be illegal, Prokopi faces a maximum of 17 years in prison and a substantial fine. However, his defense attorney Georges Lederman said he believes it is highly unlikely Prokopi will receive anything close to the maximum sentence.

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"We are confident that the sentence imposed will be a fair and reasonable one and will take into account all the proactive measures my client has made," Lederman said, noting that Prokopi has cooperated with investigators and, as part of his plea deal, will continue to do so.

The outcome of the case disappointed David Herskowitz, an independent natural history consultant. While employed by the auction house Heritage Auctions, Herskowitz arranged for the sale of Prokopi's Tarbosaurus.

"I know Eric, and I know he is not a criminal," Herskowitz said. "I don't believe he knowingly broke any laws, and I believe the only reason why he had to cop a plea was financial and the pressures [of being involved in a court case]."

Prokopi spent a year preparing the Tarbosaurus fossils, which were once rough fossils that made up about 75 percent of a skeleton, to create a complete, mounted specimen with the intent of selling it at auction, Herskowitz said. But the $1 million sale was never completed.

Since releasing a statement in June, in which he described himself as "just a guy in Gainesville, Florida, trying to support my family, not some international bone smuggler," Prokopi has been silent.

At roughly the same time federal officials seized the Tarbosaurus bataar, fossils of probable Mongolian origin were easily found in auction catalogs and on eBay. Herskowitz noted that he has seen Mongolian fossils for sale during the 20 years he has been working in the field.

"Mongolia never stepped forward to do anything about the buying and selling of Mongolian fossils, and that was the reason why everyone felt it was legal and OK," Herskowitz said.

A legal question
With the deal still fresh, not everyone agrees about its legal implications. An important issue in the case was the relationship between Mongolian law ? which Prokopi?s civil attorneys said did not clearly make fossils state property ? and U.S. law. This is important because prosecutors were basing the claim that the fossils were stolen on Mongolian law; however, Prokopi was being prosecuted under U.S. law.

From Herskowitz?s perspective, the plea deal doesn?t resolve this issue, but the ambiguity will likely change the market.

"I would believe that no one should be selling Mongolian fossils until this whole thing is resolved," he said.

Ricardo St. Hilaire, an attorney who practices cultural law, disagreed, saying that the deal created a foundation for using Mongolian law on cultural property to invoke U.S. law on stolen property.

"This conviction should signal to those of us in the legal community and to anybody in the collecting community that Mongolian law has served as the basis to trigger the National Stolen Property Act," St. Hilaire said. Prokopi pleaded guilty to one count of violating this law. [Faux Real: A Gallery of Art Forgeries]

The case and its outcome signal the willingness of the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office to pursue cultural property cases, said St. Hilaire, who has been following the case and writing about it on his blog.

Robert Painter, the attorney for the Mongolian president, put the significance in more blunt terms: "Smugglers like Eric Prokopi used to think they could do this with impunity. Now they realize this is very serious."

The Mongolian reaction
Mongolian officials have announced plans to establish a temporary facility in the central square of the capital, Ulaanbataar, to display the dinosaurs once they return, Painter said.

"President Elbegdorj and Mongolians are so grateful for what the U.S. government has done, there is just a tremendous amount of excitement," he said.

The dinosaur's saga from auction block to courtroom has captured Mongolians' attention: A Mongolian media company, Shuud.mn, named the dinosaur's story the top event of the year, said Bolorsetseg Minjin, a Mongolian paleontologist who has advocated for the return the dinosaur.

"It is not only on the news, just talking to the people in Mongolia, they really want to know what is going on with the whole case," Minjin said.

Mongolian officials are investigating the illicit trade within their own borders as well, Painter said.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

? 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50324236/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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FCC streamlines rules for aircraft broadband, promotes widespread ...

FCC ADOPTS RULES TO PROMOTE DEPLOYMENT OF INTERNET SERVICES ONBOARD AIRCRAFT

Washington, D.C. ? The Federal Communications Commission has adopted a Report and Order establishing rules to help speed the deployment of Internet services onboard aircraft. The Commission's action enables broadband providers to meet increasing consumer demands and promotes the economic growth and job-creating impacts of ubiquitous broadband. This action also continues the FCC's efforts to update and streamline regulatory requirements across the agency. Since 2001, the Commission has authorized a number of companies, on an ad hoc basis, to operate Earth Stations Aboard Aircraft (ESAA), i.e., earth stations on aircraft communicating with Fixed-Satellite Service (FSS) geostationary-orbit (GSO) space stations. Installed on the exterior of the aircraft, the satellite antenna carries the signal to and from the aircraft, providing two-way, in-flight broadband services to passengers and flight crews. The Report and Order formalizes ESAA as a licensed application in the FSS and establishes a regulatory framework for processing applications while ensuring other radio service operations are protected from harmful interference. Rather than have to license on-board systems on an ad hoc basis, airlines will be able test systems that meet FCC standards, establish that they do not interfere with aircraft systems, and get FAA approval.
By reducing administrative burdens on both applicants and the Commission, the new rules should allow the Commission to process ESAA applications up to 50 percent faster, enhancing competition in an important sector of the mobile telecommunications market in the United States and promoting the widespread availability of Internet access to aircraft passengers.
Action by the Commission, December 20, 2012, by Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Report and Order (FCC 12-161).

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/28/fcc-streamlines-rules-in-flight-wifi/

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Issue for the week of January 12th, 2013

Scientists may be on the brink of identifying a mysterious form of matter (p. 18)

Synthetic biologists reinvent nature with parts, circuits (p. 22)

The Hubble telescope spies stars lighting up the cosmic dawn. (p. 5)

Adolescents who use cigarettes seem to accumulate less bone mineral than those who don?t. (p. 8)

While all patients in a new study could discriminate between sounds early on, those whose ability improved during the first 48 hours wound up recovering. (p. 8)

Chemical tests of currency help reveal where New World riches flowed. (p. 9)

The ancient Nazca culture?s celebrated desert drawings include a labyrinth meant to be strolled, not seen. (p. 9)

A nonlinear analysis explains how negotiations often turn on seemingly insignificant details. (p. 10)

Researchers at the meeting, held December 5-7 in Santa Fe, N.M., offer insight into spam blocking and sick leave. (p. 10)

Leisure activities make or break job applicants at major banking, legal and consulting outfits. (p. 11)

Coordinated motion in debris from lead-proton collisions may yield clues about quark-gluon plasma. (p. 12)

Clumps of alpha-synuclein move through dopamine-producing cells, mouse study finds. (p. 13)

Model representing 2.5 million neurons performs calculations, issues instructions for a behavior, and then expands its decision into action. (p. 13)

An abundance of antioxidant-producing microbes seems to keep plaques from breaking free and causing heart attacks and stroke. (p. 14)

Healing broken hearts, tracing Romani migration using genes, and how insulin irregularities may be linked to obesity. (p. 14)

Disputed dating of rock erosion pegs the ancient chasm as 70 million years old. (p. 15)

Recreational fishing may be inadvertent evolutionary force, favoring cautious fish over better caretakers of the young. (p. 16)

The latest milestone in a 35-year journey may signal an impending passage to interstellar space. (p. 17)

Frozen material at the planet?s poles likely came from comet or asteroid impacts. (p. 17)

Review by Alexandra Witze (p. 30)

Review by Allison Bohac (p. 30)

(p. 30)

(p. 30)

(p. 30)

(p. 30)

(p. 30)

(p. 4)

(p. 4)

(p. 4)

(p. 31)

Contest brings out the biohackers (p. 32)

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/issue/id/347308/title/Issue_for_the_week_of_January_12th_2013

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RECIPE: Strawberrylucious Poppers | Black and Married With Kids ...

Photo Credit: Utokia Langley

I?ve got strawberries and I?ve got fruit dip but there is NO double dippin here baby! We?re bringing the fruit dip to the strawberry! Not only do these strawberrylucious poppers look appetizing, they also taste so freakin frat good that they are addictive! The strawberry is sweet and juicy and the fruit dip is rich, creamy and sweet! The perfect combination for anytime, be it a holiday event, a gathering, a snack or dessert after a good meal, these poppers will always please! You can also make the fruit dip separate and serve with a plain fruit salad for dipping! But I couldn?t resist this beautiful arrangement of strawberry and fruit dip! For the PERFECT POPPER COMPLIMENT try our SWEET POTATO POPPERS!

Photo Credit: Utokia Langley

Photo Credit: Utokia Langley

STRAWBERRYLUCIOUS POPPERS

INGREDIENTS:
2-3 dozen large fresh strawberries
1 8oz frozen round tub of COOL WHIP whipped topping
1 16 oz. container of sour cream
1 3.4 oz. box of vanilla pudding (we are using the powder not making the pudding)

READY, SET GO:

• Clean all strawberries
• Slice small piece from bottom of strawberries so they can stand on their own without falling over
• Cut top off strawberries
• Core and make a well in the strawberries with a small melon baller or small knife (be careful not to cut yourself)

NOW LETS MAKE THE FRUIT DIP

• Add whipped topping, sour cream and powder from box of vanilla pudding in a bowl and whisk together until you have a smooth whipped consistency
• Add fruit dip to piping bag with a star tip at the end (cut end of bag so tip sticks out of course)

LET?S FINISH THE STRAWBERRIES

• Pipe fruit dip in the well of the strawberries and swirl a few times at the top so you have a small hill of fruit dip on top of the strawberries
• Plate and serve or just pop a few in your mouth!!

ENJOY, ENJOY, ENJOY

Utokia ~
Sizzle Sizzle Baby

About the author

Utokia Langley is the video cooking mean machine and blogger behind She?s Got Flavor, a written and video blog created to Sass up your kitchen experience and assist you in creating flavorful dishes that will surely please! She,s Got Flavor is developing a seasoning line that will help intensify the flavor in your food and make life easier and less cluttered in the kitchen for you, stay tuned. Above all Utokia is a child of God, a wife, mother of two beautiful children who think Mom?s videos and food are da bomb and a true friend to many.

Source: http://blackandmarriedwithkids.com/2012/12/recipe-strawberrylucious-poppers/

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BC's York breaks NCAA hockey win record with 925

Story Published: Dec 29, 2012 at 8:01 PM MST

Story Updated: Dec 29, 2012 at 8:01 PM MST

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ? Boston College coach Jerry York became the NCAA hockey career victory leader Saturday, directing the top-ranked Eagles to a 5-3 win over Alabama-Huntsville on Saturday in the Mariucci Classic.

York has 925 victories in 41 seasons to move past former Michigan State coach Ron Mason for the record. In 19 seasons at Boston College, York is 458-223-61.

York began his career as a 26-year-old head coach at Clarkson in 1972, then took over for Mason at Bowling Green before heading to Boston College. He has won four national titles with the Eagles to go with one at Bowling Green.

Cam Spiro scored his first college goal 2:53 into the game, and the Bill Arnold and Danny Linell added goals for the Eagles in the opening period. Brendan Silk and Steven Whitney also scored for BC (12-2-1), and Parker Milner made 26 saves.

Jeff Vanderlugt and Craig Pierce scored for Alabama-Huntsville (3-15-1).

Source: http://www.kulr8.com/sports/local/185182602.html

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What's Closed On New Year's Day In LA 2013?

Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013 schedule

Government: City, county, federal and state offices, animal shelters, courts and libraries will be closed.

Mail: The U.S. Postal Service will not deliver mail.

Schools: Schools will be closed.

Transit: Buses and subway services in Los Angeles will run on a Sunday schedule. Antelope Valley Transit, Santa Clarita Transit and Ventura County's Gold Coast Transit buses will not run. Metrolink trains will not run except the Antelope Valley line,which will be on a limited holiday service, and the San Bernardino line, which will run on a modified Sunday schedule.

Banks: Banks and financial markets will be closed.

Trash: Trash pickup will be delayed by one day in Los Angeles and Glendale. Trash will be picked up on a regular schedule in Burbank.

Stores: Most grocery stores and malls will be open; some with holiday hours.

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/29/closed-on-new-years-day-la_n_2380685.html

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Fox News 2012 Highlights: The Nine Most Insane Quotes

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/12/fox-news-2012-highlights-the-nine-most-insane-quotes/

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Senate Approves Warrantless Phone Tapping for Next Five Years

By a vote of 73 to 23, the US Senate just voted for the warrantless surveillance of American citizens until 2017. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/7RuVPoVu5XQ/senate-approves-warrantless-phone-tapping-law

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Azerbaijan frees activists, journalists in New Year amnesty

BAKU (Reuters) - The president of Azerbaijan has pardoned 87 people, including journalists, rights activists and opponents jailed in cases the opposition says were evidence of shrinking political freedoms, state media reported on Thursday.

Rights groups accuse President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father in 2003, of clamping down on dissent and rigging elections but say Azerbaijan's role as energy supplier to Europe and transit route for U.S. troops in Afghanistan has cushioned him from strong Western criticism.

Among those pardoned in a New Year amnesty was Aidyn Janiyev, a reporter for an opposition newspaper sentenced to three years in prison in November 2011 for hooliganism.

Prominent human rights activists, members of opposition Popular Front Party and people who protested against a ban on schoolgirls wearing Islamic dress were also freed.

The government says Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic of about 9 million people, sandwiched between Russia, Iran and Turkey, enjoys full freedom of speech and a free press.

One of the pardoned journalists was Anar Bayramli, a reporter for Iran's Sahar TV and the Fars news agency, who was arrested in February 2012 after police found him in possession of a small amount of heroin. He was sentenced to two years in prison in June.

Tensions between Iran and Azerbaijan have risen this year, with each side accusing the other of meddling in its affairs.

Iran has accused Azerbaijan of assisting Israel in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists. Azerbaijan has arrested dozens of people this year on suspicion of links to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, and of plotting attacks, including on the Israeli ambassador to Baku. Each country denies the other's accusations.

(Writing by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/azerbaijan-frees-activists-journalists-amnesty-150600984.html

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HackageDB: family-tree-0.3.0.2

A family tree library for the Haskell programming language. Uses Control.Lens for modification and Data.Binary for serialization.

Properties

Versions	0.1, 0.1.1, 0.1.2, 0.2, 0.3.0.0, 0.3.0.1, 0.3.0.2, 0.3.0.3
Dependencies	base (?4.3 & <5), binary (<0.7), containers (?0.4.2 & <0.6), intervals (<0.3), lens (?3.7 & <3.9), text (0.11.*), time (<1.5), unordered-containers (0.2.*)
License	BSD3
Author	Nathan "Taneb" van Doorn
Maintainer	nvd1234@gmail.com
Category	Data, Genealogy
Home page	https://github.com/Taneb/family-tree
Source repository	git clone git://github.com/Taneb/family-tree.git
Upload date	Thu Dec 27 15:16:30 UTC 2012
Uploaded by	NathanVanDoorn
Build failure	ghc-7.6 (log)

Modules

Downloads

Source: http://hackage.haskell.org/package/family-tree-0.3.0.2

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Couple loses adoptive daughter after Russia signs ban

After a roller coaster week, Kendra Skaggs sat down to vent on her blog. She had used that space to document her 13 month journey of adopting a young girl named Polina from Russia. But now, with that dream just weeks away from fulfillment, she described her frustration, fear and anger as she watched it being snatched away.

"I have no control. I'm on the other side of the world and I can't hold and comfort my daughter as I wait to hear if we will forever be separated," she wrote in a passionate entry

Her writing seemed to speak for hundreds of American parents whose hopes of adopting a Russian orphan were dashed today when Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a controversial ban on adoptions to the United States. The move is part of Russia's retaliation for a set of human rights sanctions passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Obama earlier this month. Critics, including the U.S. State Department, say the adoption ban is playing politics with the lives of children.

Russia is the third most popular country for Americans to adopt from, but in recent years the issue has become a political football in Russia. Americans have adopted over 60,000 Russian children since the fall of the Soviet Union, but Russian officials have seized on the cases of 19 children who died after being adopted by Americans.

Soccer Player Kick-Starts New Career After Viral Video Watch Video

In 2010, a 7-year-old adopted boy named Artyom was put on a plane back to Russia alone by his adoptive mother from Tennessee with little more than a note saying she did not want him anymore. The case touched off a wave of fury in Russia and adoptions to the United States were nearly halted.

Just a week ago Kendra and her husband visited Polina at her orphanage outside Moscow. The bubbly 5-year-old suffers from spina bifida, a condition that has left her numb from the waist down and unable to walk. They showed Polina photos of her new bedroom and told her about her new family. They played together, hugged each other, and promised to see each other soon when they returned in January to bring her home to Arkansas.

The adoption ban legislation, meanwhile, had just been introduced by Russian lawmakers. Kendra had hoped their case, which was nearly completed, would sneak in under the wire. She held out hope again after a Moscow court approved her adoption on Monday. All that was needed was a 30 day waiting period before they could bring Polina home.

It appears even that was too late. The law goes into effect on Jan. 1, but Russian officials have said even cases of 52 children who are within weeks of traveling to the United States are now frozen. Authorities have pledged to find new homes for them in Russia.

For the Skaggs family, it is agonizing to be so close to bringing her home, yet so far. Kendra fears Polina will think she was abandoned again.

"It's the fear of what she is going to think, that we forgot her," she said in an interview with ABC News.

"She's out there and I can't take care of her," she said, crying softly. "I can't help her. I can't tell her I love her. So it's really hard."

She also worries what will happen to Polina in Russia, a country with scarce accommodations for the handicapped.

"Russia really isn't set up for people with disabilities. You can't get into the metro even to get around because it's just levels and levels of stairs that you have to go up and down and there's no handicapped access to the buildings," Kendra said.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/International/putins-adoption-ban-makes-american-mom-cry/story?id=18082631

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56% of female university students get drunk in record time, Spanish study suggests

Dec. 28, 2012 ? Researchers from the HealthyFit group at the University of Vigo have studied university students' lifestyles; their analysis, which includes alcohol and illegal drug consumption habits, sport and food, concludes that most students indulge in unhealthy behaviour. One of the main results of the study points to the high consumption of alcohol.

"The amount drunk per unit of time is higher among women. In other words, even though male students drink more often, females do so more intensively in shorter periods of time, which is known as binge drinking," explained Jos? M? Cancela Carral, co-author of the study published by the Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Researchers randomly selected 985 students from different degree courses and in different years at the University of Vigo.

Of the females interviewed, 51.2% lead a sedentary lifestyle, while the percentage in males is 41.7%. When analysing students who maintain an appropriate level of physical activity, 38.6% of males do physical exercise, as opposed to only 20.9% of women.

"We were also surprised by the high consumption of illegal drugs among university students -- 44.9% of men and 30.9% of women -- which we understand could lead to significant future health problems, mainly related to the nervous system," underlined the researcher.

Anomalous attitudes to food were more evident among women (16.6%), although also present among men (8.8%). "However, the statistical analysis showed that this parameter depended on the degree the student was studying for," added Cancela. Such attitudes were much more common among those studying degrees related to education (19.2%) than among those studying courses related to health (6.3%).

Health network

Spanish universities set up a Healthy University Network in 2008, a project for healthy living for universities from all over Spain, the Spanish University Rectors' Association, the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport and some regional public health entities.

In the researcher's opinion, at many universities this network was nothing more than "a simple first step to get on the list and nothing else"; hence transversal content should be implemented in study plans related to food, physical exercise and healthy habits.

"In the light of the results, training and information courses are required in these areas, together with healthy leisure -- not just sports facilities -- to set up university guidance services for a healthy student lifestyle," concludes Cancela.

Genetic predisposition

A recent study published in the PNAS journal argues that the gene called RASGRF2 could be related to a predisposition to getting drunk.

According to scientists, this gene regulates the predisposition to drink excessive amounts of alcohol as it influences mesolimbic dopamine neuron activity, which is one of the ways dopamine is taken from one region of the brain to another.

Gunter Schumann, one of the main authors of the study, explained that even though we should not consider said gene to be the main cause -- as there are many environmental factors and other genes involved -- the study thereof helps to explain why some people are more vulnerable to alcohol than others.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Plataforma SINC, via AlphaGalileo.

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

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Journal References:

1. Ver?nica Varela-Mato, Jos? M. Cancela, Carlos Ayan, Vicente Mart?n, Antonio Molina. Lifestyle and Health among Spanish University Students: Differences by Gender and Academic Discipline. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2012; 9 (8): 2728 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph9082728
2. D. Stacey, A. Bilbao, M. Maroteaux, T. Jia, A. C. Easton, S. Longueville, C. Nymberg, T. Banaschewski, G. J. Barker, C. Buchel, F. Carvalho, P. J. Conrod, S. Desrivieres, M. Fauth-Buhler, A. Fernandez-Medarde, H. Flor, J. Gallinat, H. Garavan, A. L. W. Bokde, A. Heinz, B. Ittermann, M. Lathrop, C. Lawrence, E. Loth, A. Lourdusamy, K. F. Mann, J.-L. Martinot, F. Nees, M. Palkovits, T. Paus, Z. Pausova, M. Rietschel, B. Ruggeri, E. Santos, M. N. Smolka, O. Staehlin, M.-R. Jarvelin, P. Elliott, W. H. Sommer, M. Mameli, C. P. Muller, R. Spanagel, J.-A. Girault, G. Schumann. RASGRF2 regulates alcohol-induced reinforcement by influencing mesolimbic dopamine neuron activity and dopamine release. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; 109 (51): 21128 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1211844110

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/JCkJkf4_4pY/121228084029.htm

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