Friday, November 30, 2012

Fighting cuts access to Damascus airport, flights suspended

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels battled forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad just outside Damascus on Thursday, cutting access to its international airport, and Dubai-based Emirates airline and EgyptAir stopped flights to the Syrian capital.

The Internet and some telephone lines went down across Syria. Rebels and the government traded blame for the blackout, the worst communications outage in 20 months of conflict.

Rebels fighting to topple Assad have been making gains around Syria by overrunning military bases and have been ramping up attacks on Damascus, his seat of power.

A rebel fighter who identified himself as Abu Omar, a member of the Jund Allah brigade, told Reuters that insurgents fired mortars at the airport's runways and were blocking the road linking it with the capital.

Speaking from the scene of the fighting, he said insurgents were not inside the airport but were able to block access to and from it.

A spokesman for a rebel Military Council in Damascus, Musaab Abu Qitada, said an artillery round was fired at a military site inside the airport and that fighting was now less than a kilometer (mile) away from the complex.

"We want to liberate the airport because of reports we see and our own information we have that shows civilian airplanes are being flown in here with weapons for the regime. It is our right to stop this," he told Reuters on Skype from Damascus.

U.S. and European officials said rebels were making gains in Syria, gradually eroding Assad's power, but said the fighting had not yet shifted decisively in their favor.

Two Austrian soldiers in a U.N. peacekeeping force deployed to monitor the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights were wounded when their convoy came under fire near Damascus airport, Austria's defense ministry said. Syria state television said the soldiers were wounded by gunfire when rebels attacked an army position near the airport road.

The Information Ministry later said the highway to the airport was safe after security forces cleared it of "terrorists." Rebels said fighting in the area was continuing. The ministry said the airport was operating regularly, but there were no flights scheduled to land in the evening.

The accounts of fighting could not be verified immediately because of tight restrictions on media access to Syria.

But many airlines had already halted flights. Emirates suspended daily service to Damascus "until further notice." EgyptAir also said it was suspending all flights to Damascus because of "the deterioration of the security situation" there.

An EgyptAir flight that left at 1:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) landed in Damascus on schedule but the pilot was instructed to take off straight back to Egypt, airport sources in Cairo said.

INTERNET, PHONE LINES DOWN

Residents said the Internet in Damascus crashed in the early afternoon, and mobile and land telephone lines were functioning only intermittently.

A blog post on Renesys, a U.S. company which tracks Internet traffic worldwide, said that at 12:26 pm (1026 GMT), the entire country's Internet connectivity shut down completely.

The government has been accused of cutting communications in previous assaults on rebel-held areas in Syria. Syria's minister of information said "terrorists" were responsible for the Internet shutdown, while the telecommunications minister blamed what he said was a fault in the main communications network.

The past two weeks have seen rebels seizing a series of army bases across Syria, exposing Assad's loss of control in northern and eastern regions despite the devastating air power that he has used to bombard opposition strongholds, killing dozens of civilians as well. More than 40,000 people have been killed since the uprising began, according to opposition groups.

Rebels and activists said the fighting along the road to Damascus airport, southeast of the capital, was heavier in that area than at any other time in the conflict.

"PREPARING FOR MAJOR BATTLE"

Nabeel al-Ameer, from the rebel Military Council, said a large number of army reinforcements had arrived along the road after three days of scattered clashes ending with rebels seizing side streets to the north of it.

He said he hoped the proximity of the rebels to the airport would dissuade authorities from using it to import military equipment, but the priority now was to block the road.

There are several military airports around Damascus that remain under government control.

A Syrian security source told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the army had started a "cleansing operation" in the capital to confront rebel advances.

The source, who is from Assad's elite 4th Armoured Division, said one of the aims of the operation was to seal off the suburbs - where rebels are dominant - from the city center.

Assad is fighting an insurgency that grew out of peaceful demonstrations for democratic reform but has escalated, after a military crackdown on protesters, into a bloody civil war.

Syrian warplanes on Thursday bombed Kafr Souseh, Douma and Daraya, neighborhoods that fringe the center of the city where rebels have managed to hide out and ambush army units.

Activists said the areas were taking one of the heaviest poundings they had seen in months.

A senior European Union official said that Assad - whose family has held power in Syria for 42 years - might be preparing for a military showdown around Damascus by isolating the city with a network of checkpoints.

"The rebels are gaining ground but it is still rather slow. We are not witnessing the last days yet," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"On the outskirts of Damascus, there are mortars and more attacks. The regime is thinking of protecting itself ... with checkpoints in the next few days ... (It) seems the regime is preparing for major battle on Damascus."

A U.S. official said the rebels were "making important tactical gains that could eventually trigger a strategic shift in the conflict."

"They haven't reached that point yet, but the span of regime control is narrowing, and Assad's forces are having greater difficulty beating back the insurgents' progress," said the official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed that view in remarks in a speech in Washington.

"I don't know that you can say that for the entire country it is yet at a tipping point, but it certainly seems that the regime will be much harder pressed in the next months," she said.

WARY BIG POWERS

Most foreign powers have condemned Assad but stopped short of arming rebel fighters as they fear heavy weapons could make their way into the hands of radical Islamist units, who have grown increasingly prominent in the insurgency.

Rebels decry their supporters for not providing them with surface-to-air missiles that they say they need to counter the air force. But recent looting of anti-aircraft missiles from army bases, as well as a slow stream of such weapons believed to be coming from Gulf Arab adversaries of Assad, has allowed them to shoot down some helicopters and jets.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told a Pentagon news conference the United States had not provided anti-aircraft missiles to the Syrian opposition, saying it was focused on nonlethal aid and humanitarian relief.

"Let me say unequivocally that we have not provided any of those kinds of missiles to the opposition forces located in Syria," he said.

Panetta and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak both told the news conference they believed Assad would ultimately fall.

"It's criminal behavior on a global scale what he is doing to his own people, using jet fighters and helicopters and artillery and tanks, killing his own people," Barak said. "The whole world is watching and somehow it's not easy to mobilize enough sense of purpose and unity of action and political will to translate ... our feelings about what happens there into action to stop it."

Peter Bouckeart, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, said the surface-to-air missiles used so far appeared to have been captured from the Syrian military and there was no evidence any of the ones used to date "have come from outside Syria."

He said the number of these missiles in rebel hands was probably over 20 but could rise significantly if rebels continue to capture military bases.

The relatively small number of anti-aircraft missiles looted so far means that many rebel-controlled areas of the country remain vulnerable to air strikes. The Observatory said 15 citizens, including children and women, were killed during a bombing in Aleppo's Ansari district on Thursday.

(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans and Erika Solomon in Beirut; Yasmine Saleh and Edmund Blair in Cairo, Praveen Menon in Dubai, Tabassum Zakaria and David Alexander in Washington, Tarmo Virki in helsinki and Justyna Pawlak in Brussels; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fighting-cuts-access-damascus-airport-flights-suspended-080847692.html

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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Samsung printer hack could let the wrong ones in

Samsung printer hack could let the wrong ones in

Typically, when we think of hacks, our minds conjure images of compromised security systems, personal computers or server farms, but printers? According to Neil Smith, a researcher from the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team, unauthorized access to those devices could be a very real threat -- if you happen to own a Samsung model. Discovered and submitted to the agency this past Monday, the exploit unearthed by Smith takes advantage of an "SNMP backdoor" : an internet protocol that allows for remote network administrative control without authentication. The vulnerability -- which would give hackers access to data sent to the printer, as well as control over it (think: ceaseless printing!) -- affects most units released before November of this year. For its part, Samsung's promised a patch will be forthcoming. But, in the meantime, if you want to avoid exposing any personal data or the possibility of a seemingly possessed printer, it's best you steer clear of rogue WiFi connections.

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Source: ZDNet


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/JRuYMho2DPM/

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Wednesday, November 21, 2012

New method helps target Parkinson's disease

ScienceDaily (Nov. 20, 2012) ? Health professionals may soon have a new method of diagnosing Parkinson's disease, one that is noninvasive and inexpensive, and, in early testing, has proved to be effective more than 90 percent of the time.

In addition, this new method has the potential to track the progression of Parkinson's, as well as measure the effectiveness of treatments for the disorder, said Rahul Shrivastav, professor and chairperson of Michigan State University's Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders and a member of the team developing the new method.

It involves monitoring a patient's speech patterns -- specifically, movement patterns of the tongue and jaw.

"In Parkinson's disease, a common limitation is that the movements become slow and have a reduced range," said Shrivastav. "We believe we see this pattern in speech too -- the tongue doesn't move as far as it should, doesn't move as quickly as it should and produces subtle changes in speech patterns."

This method is particularly sensitive to Parkinson's disease speech and, Shrivastav said, is effective with only two seconds of speech.

"That's significant in several ways: The detection methodology is noninvasive, easy to administer, inexpensive and capable of being used remotely and in telemedicine applications," he said.

Presently there are no tried-and-true methods for diagnosing Parkinson's. Shrivastav said if a person is showing early symptoms of the disease, which include tremors, slower movements or rigid muscles, he or she is given a drug to treat the disease.

"If the symptoms go away," he said, "then it's assumed you must have Parkinson's disease."

In more advanced cases, he said, symptoms are usually prominent enough that it is fairly easy to diagnose.

Parkinson's disease is a neurological disorder affecting a half million people in the United States, with 50,000 newly diagnosed cases every year. It occurs when nerve cells in the brain stop producing a chemical called dopamine, which helps control muscle movement. Without dopamine, the nerve cells cannot properly send messages, leading to the loss of muscle function.

While there is no cure for Parkinson's disease, early detection is particularly important since the treatments currently available for controlling symptoms are most effective at that stage.

Shrivastav and his colleagues from the University of Florida's Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, recently presented their findings at the Acoustical Society of America Conference.

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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/tvqU6WdY7BI/121120152408.htm

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Lionhearted Andy to get the maximum in The Sheffield Stadium ...

Lionhearted Andy to get the maximum in Sheffield Stadium Sprint

Making predictions for the short-distance races is really a tough thing. Even a less-priced hound, who makes a good start and avoids a nudge from neighbours, can create an upset at 280 metres - the distance the Sheffield Stadium Sprint will be run over.

Among the participants in Tuesday?s event are: Farloe Barracuda, Lionhearted Andy, Fridays Dynamo, Fridays Daryl, Blackstone Buzz and Baby Ice. It is an open event, and carries a handsome prize of 200 pounds. The officials will kick off the proceedings at 20:14 GMT.

According to our calculations, Lionhearted Andy is the one to back. Standing in the sixth trap, the brindle dog is all set to show something special. On his recent return to Sheffield, the A. McKenna-trained demonstrated an outstanding act, claiming the first rank by three and a half lengths by covering the area in just 15.95 seconds.

With a fast start, he can easily bag the big prize from this draw. Any inside crowding will further help his cause. So, one should place him on top of the priority list, when it comes to bet. Almost every runner is in decent form. So, Lionhearted Andy is facing no easy task.

Farloe Barracuda?s flying trials suggest that he is ready to fire. On his fresh solo outing, B. Draper?s charge clocked the distance in just 15.82 seconds. And if he delivers something like the latest, one will have to work really hard to catch him.

Baby Ice drops in trip, but meets some very dangerous fellows. It is going to be a very stiff task for the black bitch, who - despite having the draw in favour - does not turn us on.

Fridays Daryl ran in the Laurels final, thus there is no confidence issue. The black dog is pacey, but unpredictable at the traps. So, the bettors should look elsewhere. Blackstone Buzz travelled well in the fresh trials, but has a very tricky draw to overcome.

Fridays Dynamo has proved his mettle over this distance in the past. He was a winner on the previous outing here. But J. Sharp?s charge needs to improve to tackle the giants in this race.

?Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and do not reflect Bettor.com?s editorial policy.

Source: http://blogs.bettor.com/Lionhearted-Andy-to-get-the-maximum-in-The-Sheffield-Stadium-Sprint-a202728

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Successful Sales Management: Sales Managers Need to Focus ...

We all make the same mistake. As sales managers we're supposed to manage, but it's always ?easier to do the selling instead. When we're short on the number, or that particularly important deal isn't going as well as we'd hoped, or when that new rep needs some help, we step in and take over the selling.

Probably because our own expertise got us the job in the first place. ?Probably because what little training we received focused on sales techniques. ?Probably because we never had a formal business education. The way we can make the biggest difference is by turbo charging the sales effort, doing it ourselves. ?So that's what we do.

That's how the role of sales manager came into existence. In most cases it hasn't changed much since.?

Manufactured goods had been in short supply. Prices were high and quality and service were low. ?Henry Ford got away with telling customers ?'You can have any colour you want, as long as its black.'

But it isn't like that anymore.

As Tomas Friedman explained the world became flat. Anybody could sell anything anywhere, and they did. Competition in almost any market exploded. Prices were driven down, and customer choice, quality and service improved. The old ways somehow didn't work so well anymore.?

Prospects knew more about products than the sales people. They found out about alternatives and customer experience from the Internet. They wanted added value and lower prices, and got both, from new players or from old players who adopted the new rules of business.

From out of nowhere the simple business of selling changed. Now customers were in charge. And selling needs to change, responding to the new reality.

The father of management thinking Henri Fayol, as far back as 1916, explained the role of management is?(1) planning; (2) organizing; (3) leading; and (4) controlling. ?He could just as easily have said 'find out where what you're doing isn't working, and then find ways of doing it so it does'.

That's what Reengineering Sales Management is all about - strategy, organisation, operations. Its about value proposition, sales model, sales process.

And ultimately, its about managing your management - getting the business to do a better job of selling what the customer is buying, as opposed to getting the customer to buy what the business is selling.?

Why doesn?t the traditional approach to selling and sales management work so well any more? What can the modern sales professional do to stay relevant in today?s customer driven markets?? Check out our eBook?Reengineering Sales Management?for ideas on how to embrace the new order of customer driven buyer/seller relationships.

Source: http://successfulsalesmanagement.stevensreeves.com/2012/11/sales-managers-need-to-focus-more-on.html

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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

?Ensemble, bloquons la hausse?: The Rationale Behind the Slogan ...

A $1,625 tuition increase over five years (2012-2017) was announced in the Quebec budget of March 2011 and was scheduled to take effect in September, 2012. Quebec?s student movement organized quickly to oppose the increase, yet local student associations waited for strategic reasons until February of 2012 before voting on mandates for an open-ended general strike (i.e. a strike of indefinite duration that would include a significant number of student unions in Quebec). From there, after the first votes succeeded, the strike movement spread like wildfire. And thanks to the unprecedented determination of the strikers, it ended up being the longest, most widespread, most media-reported (and most repressed) student strike in the province?s history.

Only historians, perhaps, will someday be able to explain this rather incredible alignment of the stars. I, for my part, will present the arguments that CLASSE (the Coalition large de l?Association pour une solidarit? syndicale ?tudiante? the national student association that played the most decisive role in waging this year?s student strike in Quebec) put forward in the tuition debate. CLASSE represented the first local organizations to take the plunge in February and according to the Syst?me d?information sur la gr?ve g?n?rale illimit?e, it represented 53.8% of the strikers until the adoption of Bill 78?the government?s controversial and draconian anti-protest law?on May 17, 2012.

The first section of this article deals with the rationale behind CLASSE?s position against rising tuition, while the second section summarizes what CLASSE actually proposes as an alternative to the increase, including the ways in which we could eventually implement free post-secondary education in Quebec.

CLASSE and IRIS: silencing the siren song of the free market

Two documents describe the main arguments used by CLASSE in its campaign against a tuition increase. The first is CLASSE?s official ?argumentaire? for 2011?2012. The second is a brochure written by a progressive research institute in Quebec called l?Institut de recherche et d?information socio?conomiques (IRIS), that explains in eight simple arguments why ?no? should be the answer to the question, ?do we really need to raise tuition fees?? These documents refute the three key pro-increase arguments:

Argument 1: A fee increase is the only way to bail out the universities so that they can maintain quality education.

First, according to CLASSE and IRIS, underfunding is not a problem for universities in Quebec. Indeed, CLASSE points out that since 2003-2004, the annual operating subsidies paid by the government to universities actually increased from $1.9 billion to $2.9 billion. That said, as IRIS writes, ?[t]he amount of grants and research contracts allocated to universities has more than doubled from 1995?1996 to 2005?2006, swelling from $721 million to $1.276 billion in constant 2006 dollars.? More money goes into universities than ever, IRIS concludes, but that money is spent mainly on research activities, especially in the flourishing sector of commercially-oriented research. Universities therefore do not suffer from underfunding, IRIS and CLASSE argue, but are actually misallocating their funding (transferring funds within universities to the detriment of teaching and operating budgets).

Second, for IRIS and CLASSE, higher tuition does not necessarily mean higher quality education. In fact, since a tuition fee increase means students incur more debt and must spend more time doing paid work, higher tuition is likely to reduce the overall time students spend studying. Teachers may consequently have to lower their evaluation standards to maintain acceptable grade point averages in their classes. Far from improving the quality of education, rising tuition may have the exact opposite effect.

Argument 2: Higher tuition will have no impact on university participation.

IRIS argues that this is patently false, estimating that increasing tuition to match the Canadian average (which roughly corresponds to the announced increase), would deny 30,000 students access to university studies. IRIS also points out the internal contradiction inherent in the Quebec government?s claims that increased hydro-electricity fees will help to reduce energy consumption, but that an increase in tuition fees will not affect higher education participation rates.

IRIS also says that students should not count on the government?s financial assistance program to offset the increase for all students. A startling 83% of students will be ineligible for the program, even when initial improvements proposed by the government are taken into account. In an attempt to satisfy the strikers, the government did grant additional funds for financial assistance; this, however, did not impress the Advisory Committee on the Financial Accessibility of Education(or the student strikers), which expressed concerns that this assistance would primarily consist of new loans, thereby increasing student debt.

Furthermore, CLASSE and IRIS point out that in addition to its negative effect on university participation, the tuition increase may transform the socio-economic composition of the student population, as it may lead to an underrepresentation of lower-income individuals in post-secondary education. IRIS points out that many students will agree to go into more debt in order to pay their tuition, but this will likely influence their career choices?they will increasingly be forced to choose programs based on employment prospects rather than personal preferences.

Argument 3: Higher tuition fees will ensure that students pay their fair share in tuition.

This is, without a doubt, the main argument used by the government to defend the tuition increase. In the government?s A Fair and Balanced University Funding Plan, the Minister of Finance explained that, ?the tuition fee increase [would] bring these fees to the level they were at in 1968, if inflation were taken into account.?

From the outset, IRIS challenged that notion of ?fair share? by asking why an increase in tuition would necessarily be fairer than low tuition or even free education. As for the choice of 1968 as a year of reference to establish today?s ?fair share,? IRIS finds it rather arbitrary. The public network of universities in Quebec was only founded in 1969. IRIS notes that if we consider the increase in the proportion of the provincial budget dedicated to university funding that resulted from the creation of public universities, ?it is no surprise that the share of funding provided by tuition fees has fallen over the years.? That said, IRIS proposes another method to evaluate the fairness of tuition for students: instead of comparing past and present tuition rates, we should compare the number of working hours at minimum wage that would be necessary to pay for tuition in the past as compared to the present. IRIS calculates that, ?with the expected increase, students will have to work twice as long as students in the 1970s to pay off their education.? Needless to say, IRIS believes the assumptions behind the government?s ?fair share? argument are misleading at best.

Moreover, CLASSE notes that the ?fair share? argument suggests that the freezing of tuition fees in Quebec from 1968 to 1990 and from 1994 to 2007 was a historical mistake to be corrected. The Liberals seemed to suggest that every government in power over that period had somehow ignored the fact that the share paid by students in tuition was not a fair one. Such a dishonest argument must be denounced, CLASSE argued, as it failed to acknowledge the social choice that was explicitly made in Quebec in the 1960s (see, for example, the famous Parent Report) to consider education a common good to be funded collectively through taxes to ensure accessibility for all. CLASSE concludes straightforwardly: ?for us, the answer to, ?What is the students? ?fair share??? is simple: ?to devote themselves to their studies seriously, then, when entering the labour market, to participate in the collective financial effort at the height of their financial capacity through the tax system.?

In short, IRIS and CLASSE reject the ?fair share? argument by affirming it is nebulous, based on misleading assessments and, most of all, carries an individualistic and consumerist conception of education which runs contrary to the spirit of post-secondary education in Quebec since the 1960s.

Taken together, the counter-arguments presented in these three points form the vision of education and society advocated by IRIS and CLASSE. According to this vision, the primary purpose of education is not solely to serve the labour market and national economic competitiveness. Rather, education should develop citizens who can think critically, and develop professionals with a broad education who are not shackled by overspecialization. For Iris and CLASSE, people?s principles and values should determine their economic choices, and not the other way around. Not only is this model desirable, but it is also economically feasible.

CLASSE?s solution: free tuition

On April 27th, 2012, the Quebec government introduced a ?package deal? of proposals in an attempt to resolve the student conflict, which at that point had already gone on for more than two months. Notably, it

offered to spread the tuition increase over seven years instead of five and to implement modest improvements to the financial assistance program. CLASSE considered this offer to be insufficient with regard to the movement?s demands and leverage and rejected it, alongside all of Quebec?s national student unions. CLASSE then responded with a counter-offer.

First, CLASSE proposed transferring $142 million in commercially-oriented research funding to teaching, without affecting basic research funding. CLASSE expected that this would serve to effectively reduce the private sector outsourcing of research and development to universities that has been on the rise since 2000. CLASSE believes that as a consequence of this reallocation of funds, universities would be allowed to once again honour their core mission of freely imparting knowledge through teaching.

Second, CLASSE observed that, as a result of the growing competition between universities, universities dedicate considerable portions of their budgets to advertising campaigns. CLASSE estimates that over the last five years, universities in Quebec invested a total of $80 million in advertising. If such commercial expenses were banned, CLASSE argues, universities could annually invest $18 million in teaching instead.

CLASSE thus calculates that these two measures combined would make available a sum of $160 million?the same amount of funds expected to be raised through the tuition increase, making the policy unnecessary.

Yet CLASSE did not stop there. To ensure that this $160 million would not be reallocated to anything other than access to education and teaching, it proposed three other measures. First, it demanded a freeze on university executives? wages, which have exploded in recent years. CLASSE believes the increase in Quebec Universities (UQ ) executives? wages by 83% between 1997 and 2004, is excessive. Second, CLASSE demanded a moratorium on the construction of university satellite campuses, which have mushroomed in recent years. Although they generate substantial costs, CLASSE claims that there is no evidence that they have a positive effect on university participation. Third, echoing the claims of many teacher unions in Quebec, CLASSE asks that national ?tats g?n?raux on education be convened with various civil society representatives. On the occasion of such a meeting, CLASSE would advocate for the introduction of free tuition fees at all school levels. This would be paid for by the introduction, over five years, of a 7% tax on capital for financial institutions only. In Quebec, financial institutions actually pay less in taxes than all other types of corporations, despite making record profits in recent years. For CLASSE, that new tax would allow the state to recover $410 million, which is exactly the cost of free education according to l?Institut de recherche en ?conomie contemporaine (IREC).

Basically, CLASSE believes that Quebec has the financial means necessary to completely abolish tuition fees for education, and that the government should urgently do so to preserve the core mission of education and ensure greater social justice.

Conclusion: for they know what they do

It is quite possible, for various reasons, to disagree with the positions defended by CLASSE during the strike of 2012. However, no one can accuse CLASSE of not having shown constant concern to document, articulate and popularize its positions on rising tuition fees in Quebec. The authors of the IRIS document referred to above, namely Simon Tremblay Pepin and ?ric Martin, actually presented their arguments against the increase at dozens of conferences throughout Quebec prior to the strike. ?ric Martin even elaborated upon those arguments in a short book entitled, Universit? Inc., that he wrote with Maxime Ouellet, also from IRIS, and which has reached a fairly large readership in Quebec. CLASSE, for its part, in addition to the workshops it regularly holds for students, spent the whole summer of 2012 traveling across Quebec with its Nous sommes avenir popular education tour.

In this regard, and despite having been the target of a de-legitimization campaign by some media, CLASSE made it possible for the 2012 student strike to build deep ideological opposition to the tuition increase. For many students, the strike was the first time in their lives that they were given the opportunity to consider seriously their political values and choose a side. And while it may not have been fully grasped by all, this rise in political consciousness has been felt throughout Quebec and may transform the political history of the province in ways we have not yet imagined.?

Martin Robert has been active in the Association pour une solidarit? syndicale ?tudiante (ASS?) ? which became CLASSE for the 2012 student strike ? where he was elected to the research and publications committees. He is pursuing a master?s degree in History?the Universit? du Qu?bec ? Montreal (UQAM).

Source: http://www.academicmatters.ca/2012/11/ensemble-bloquons-la-hausse-the-rationale-behind-the-slogan/

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Arizona' s Revolving QB Door - Grantland

The Cardinals coaches can't make up their minds, and the rest of the Week 11 news

By Bill Barnwell on

The Matt Ryan?for-MVP bandwagon might be charitably described as empty after Atlanta's narrow victory over Arizona on Sunday. The 23-19 win came about despite a shocking five-interception day from Ryan, who had just seven picks in nine games before he fell apart at home. Several of the interceptions were tipped passes that were turned into tip-drill picks by an opportunistic Arizona defense, but Ryan made his fair share of poor decisions on the day. You don't have a five-interception day through luck alone.

Even more amazing than Ryan's dismal day is that the Falcons were still able to pull out a victory. Ryan became the 38th player since the merger to finish a day with zero touchdowns and five picks, and in those 37 previous games, the quarterback having the truly bad game lost 37 times. No quarterback had won a zero-touchdown, five-interception game since Bart Starr did it for the Packers in 1967.

Of course, just as Ryan and the Falcons tried to throw away the game, the Cardinals were shockingly unwilling to take it. If you plug the starting field position and game situation for each Arizona drive into Brian Burke's point probability estimator, the Cardinals "should" have scored an average of 24 points from their drives. In addition to Atlanta's six turnovers, the Cardinals got a 65-yard kick return from William Powell and a 52-yard run to start a drive by LaRod Stephens-Howling. Even if 24 points represents a low estimate for Arizona's scoring, hitting that total would have been enough to give the Cardinals a one-point win.

Instead, the Cardinals bungled their way through opportunities and scored their only touchdown on their opening drive of the day, one that began on the Atlanta 9-yard line after Ryan's first pick. They had four other drives begin between the Falcons' 16-yard line and 35-yard line, a set of possessions that should produce an average of just under 15 points, but they mustered only two field goals. They lost their final possession of the game on downs after starting from the Atlanta 32-yard line, and actually managed to punt on a drive that began just three yards away from that one in the second quarter. That's where the Cardinals lost the game.

Why were the Cardinals unable to produce on those drives? Well, you can probably start with the decision made by Ken Whisenhunt to bench starter John Skelton. Benching the inaccurate Skelton isn't unwise in a vacuum, but consider the circumstances surrounding the benching. Arizona was coming off their bye week, giving them a two-week stretch where they chose to do nothing about Skelton's middling play and continued to give the former Fordham quarterback the first-team reps in practice. Yet after a 2-for-7 start at the beginning of the game against Atlanta, Whisenhunt chose to bench Skelton ? who had a 13-0 lead at the time ? for rookie sixth-rounder Ryan Lindley, who proceeded to go for 9-for-20 for 64 yards while losing a fumble that was recovered for a (bizarre) touchdown.

Whisenhunt's decision is almost comically short-sighted on both ends. For one, benching Skelton after seven passes without an interception is absurd. If Whisenhunt is going to cycle through his quarterbacks on whims that quickly, he's going to end up with three quarterbacks who have absolutely no confidence, something that has happened to him and his team in virtually every season that didn't involve Kurt Warner holding the job all year. And if Skelton's leash was really only seven bad passes long, Whisenhunt should have realized that before the bye and made the move to Lindley in advance, giving the rookie a week of practice (and two weeks of mental preparation) before unleashing him into a key game on the road against a playoff team.

As it was, he handed the ball over to an overmatched quarterback with no hope of succeeding. The cumulative performance for sixth- and seventh-round picks as true rookies since 2000 is terrifying: 434-for-819 (53.0 percent), 4,082 yards (5.0 yards per attempt), and 21 touchdowns against 40 interceptions. That's not a shot in the arm for your team; that's a snuff film. It's even worse when you figure that some of those guys at least had practice reps to get somewhat familiar with the starters before their entry into the lineup; Lindley came in cold off the bench with no notice. This was the same Ryan Lindley whom Whisenhunt shot down as a viable option as recently as Halloween. Could anybody really have expected him to do much better than Skelton? Was Whisenhunt the only one?

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the move pulled the breaks on whatever offense they had and might have cost them even their outside shot of making the playoffs. After a 4-0 start that brought Arizona to an 11-2 record in their previous 13 games, the Cardinals have lost six in a row and still have road games against the Seahawks and 49ers to come. That streaking Cardinals team went 10-1 in games decided by a touchdown or less; since the 4-0 start, Arizona's played three games that were decided by seven points or fewer and obviously lost them all. Their hot streak roughly coincided with the time Kevin Kolb spent in the lineup before getting injured, but don't get correlation and causation confused. Had Kolb stayed healthy, Whisenhunt would probably have found a reason to bench him, too. If this once-promising Arizona season continues to fall apart ? la last year's Buccaneers or Bills and Whisenhunt ends up paying for it with his job, his inability to handle the quarterback position will have been his downfall.

A Problem Not Even Breakfast Sandwiches Can Solve

That yelping moan you heard from the Northeast just before the Sunday-night game kicked off was New England's collective response to the news that star Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski had reportedly suffered a fractured forearm, an injury that will keep Gronk out for a minimum of four weeks and likely prevent him from doing this for far longer. Patriots fan or not, I think we can all agree that a world without Rob Gronkowski fist-pumping is one that's a little colder and sadder than it otherwise would be.

Now, you don't need me to tell you how the Patriots are going to be affected by this injury. They're going to suffer in the red zone, where Gronkowski remains a freakishly effective target. They're better situated to handle his absence in the passing game than they were in the Super Bowl last year (when Gronk suited up but was a shell of his normal self), thanks to the addition of Brandon Lloyd and the dramatic improvement in their running game. An offense with Lloyd, Wes Welker, the multi-headed rushing attack, and eventually a returning Aaron Hernandez is still going to be very good. The absence of Gronkowski's dominance as a blocker might slow the running game some and create pressure on right tackle Sebastian Vollmer to do better work. But you can figure all that out yourself.

What I did want to bring up was the absurd discussion that's surrounded the nature of the Gronkowski injury. The Patriots have come in for criticism because Gronkowski reportedly fractured his forearm on New England's final extra point of the game on Sunday, one that gave them a 59-24 lead over the Colts with 3:55 to go in the fourth quarter. Because the game was out of hand, critics say, a valuable property like Gronkowski shouldn't have been on the field to block for an extra-point try.

It's a shortsighted opinion driven entirely by hindsight and outcome. How many times do you see a blocker get hurt on an extra-point play? If it ever happens, it's an injury that occurs once or twice a season. Teams almost always leave their regular personnel on the field for extra-point plays for that exact reason; it's a play with virtually no risk and the tiny reward of developing timing as a unit. It's more dangerous for a valuable asset like Gronkowski to line up for a drive on offense, and the Patriots knew that; they had sat Gronkowski for the entirety of the drive leading up to that extra point. Nobody would have batted an eye at the risk of having Gronkowski be out there for the final extra point had he made it through without an injury. In fact, the play itself was so innocuous that Gronkowski made it onto and off the field without the announcers mentioning his presence or the fact that he'd just broken a bone in his arm on the play.

Furthermore, the Patriots were once lauded for their all-for-one attitude as a team that would throw their starters out on special teams to make plays. Tedy Bruschi, for one, was still playing on special teams as a 32-year-old linebacker in 2005. If you thought that the Patriots fostered a team spirit and improved their special teams by using their starters as special teams assets, well, you don't get to have it both ways. The Patriots didn't do anything wrong by sending Gronkowski in to protect on that final extra point. They just got unlucky.

Thank You for Not Coaching

Ron Rivera did it again, guys! Regular TYFNC readers might remember Rivera's ridiculous decision to pass on a game-sealing fourth-and-inches on the road against the Falcons in Week 4, turning over the ball to his dismal pass defense while suggesting that his $75 million backfield couldn't pick up a few inches with the game on the line. Considering the context, it was ? and is ? the single worst decision a coach has made this year.

On Sunday, Rivera faced a similar situation and did the same thing. It came back to haunt him. This time, his Panthers were up 21-13 and had a fourth-and-1 waiting for them on the Tampa Bay 49-yard line with 1:09 remaining. With zero timeouts for the Buccaneers, a yard from Cam Newton and company would have been enough for the Panthers to seal their second home victory of the year and hammer the playoff hopes of a division rival. Rivera didn't think about that; he instantly threw his punt team onto the field and produced a touchback, picking up just 29 yards of field position while turning the ball back over to the Buccaneers. Tampa Bay promptly drove the length of the field for a touchdown and converted the two-pointer. After a Newton kneel-down to end regulation, the Buccaneers won the coin toss and drove down the field again to score a game-winning touchdown. Rivera turned the game over to his pass defense for a second time, and for a second time, he got burnt.

Now, let's be fair. This decision wasn't quite as egregious as Rivera's choice in Atlanta. In that game, the Falcons needed only a field goal to win; in this one, the Buccaneers needed to drive for a touchdown and hit a two-point conversion merely to tie. In this situation, Brian Burke's fourth-down calculator suggests that the Panthers win 99 percent of the time if they convert fourth down, 91 percent of the time if they don't, and 96 percent of the time if they punt. Mash up those possibilities and Burke's calculator finds that Carolina needs to convert on fourth-and-1 63 percent of the time to make the decision to go for it a palatable one. Carolina is 20-for-26 (76.9 percent) converting third or fourth down with a yard to go since Cam Newton arrived in town.

Even if you think that oversells Carolina's ability to convert, at what point do you just say that you're in the middle of a season going nowhere and risk it in an aggressive attempt to win a game? Is it really that much better to punt and try to avoid losing? That's why I liked Mike Mularkey's decision to try to convert a fourth-and-10 from the Houston 47-yard line with 2:36 left in overtime. Yes, it was obviously a risky call. So what? Jacksonville's offense had enjoyed a banner day, repeatedly moving the football down the field under replacement quarterback Chad Henne, and their exhausted defense had failed to force a punt in the second half, only managing to stop the Texans via forcing turnovers. If they punted, they would likely never see the ball again, and Jacksonville would have to either create their first punt of the day or force another turnover to stop Houston from getting a shot to win the game. A conversion, meanwhile, would put Jacksonville at the edge of Josh Scobee's range and likely prevent the Texans from getting another possession in overtime. And even if you don't believe in any of the numbers, is Jacksonville really going to leave Houston elated about a tie? Their season's over. If anything's going to be satisfying, it's a win over arguably the league's top team in their house in a game in which you were 16-point underdogs. Henne couldn't come up with the conversion, and Jacksonville lost on a long touchdown pass to Andre Johnson, but at least they tried to win the game when it mattered most.

Finally, with the game winding down and his Steelers trailing by three points, Mike Tomlin faced what appeared to be a difficult clock-management decision during the fourth quarter on Sunday night. With one timeout left in the bag, Tomlin's team faced a new set of downs from the Ravens with just 2:51 left in the game.

In making his decision, Tomlin needs to assume that he's going to get a pair of stops and try to leave as much time on the clock as possible. While the Steelers ended up committing an offsides penalty that cost them 40 key seconds, you can't assume that your veteran defense is going to take an incredibly ill-timed penalty. You have to plan for the best-case scenario, because there's virtually no way you can win with anything worse.

On first down, the Ravens ran the ball with Ray Rice and gained three yards, taking about two seconds in the process. With 2:49 left, the Steelers had about a two-second window during which they could have called timeout and forced the Ravens to run two plays before the two-minute warning. A timeout at exactly 2:49 forces the Ravens to run the ball on second down, taking about four seconds off the clock, which would then wind the clock down to 2:05 before the Ravens had to act on third down. There, the Ravens would have likely called timeout just before the play clock hit zero and then run a play to try for the first down; with no need to burn clock (since a punt would come across the two-minute warning anyway), the Ravens could choose to throw on third down as opposed to relying upon their moribund running game. If the Steelers came up with a stop, the punt would come right at 2:00 and they'd take over with about 1:56 or so left to go.

What the Steelers chose to do instead wasn't all that much different. They let the clock run after the first-down handoff, let the Ravens run for no gain and take five seconds off the clock, and then called a timeout at 2:04. The Ravens then would have had the opportunity to throw (or run) the ball with 2:04 left before a stop would have forced them to punt at or just after the two-minute warning. The Steelers ended up taking that unfortunate offsides penalty and then forced a sack of Joe Flacco (likely by design, with coach John Harbaugh insisting that Flacco take an easy completion or be sacked to run clock) on the other side of the two-minute warning, costing Pittsburgh 40 seconds in the process. Without the offsides, though, the timeout usage at either 2:49 and 2:04 wouldn't have resulted in a significantly different process. In both cases, Pittsburgh's getting the ball right around 1:55.

What if the Steelers had chosen to use their timeout after the two-minute warning? Well, let's see. The Ravens would have run the ball at 2:09, just as they did in the real game, pushing the clock to the two-minute warning. When they came back to third down, they would have needed to run the ball to ensure that the clock kept moving while forcing the Steelers to take their final timeout with about 1:56 to go. A punt would then give the Steelers the ball with about 1:51 or so left.

Tomlin's timeout situation, then, left him with a tradeoff. By taking the timeout before the two-minute warning, Tomlin traded an extra four to five seconds of game time for the ability to induce a run from the Ravens on third down. Had he taken the timeout after the two-minute warning, he would have done the opposite, forcing a third down run while costing his team five seconds or so. I don't think it's clear that one option is better than the other, and in the long run, Pittsburgh's offsides penalty ended up making the whole thing irrelevant.

Source: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8651590/arizona-confusing-quarterback-situation-rest-week-11-news

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Get Your Kicks With Time-Lapse of Route 66

Can't get much more Americana than Route 66. The iconic highway -- one of the first established in the U.S., back in 1926 -- stretches more than 2,000 miles between Chicago and Los Angeles.

[More from Mashable: Handball Player Drops Shorts in Extreme Meltdown [VIDEO]]

Over the summer, a guy named Brian DeFrees drove and videotaped the whole dang route in his 2009 Honda Civic, starting in Chicago. Afterwards, he merged the footage into a three-minute video-lapse.

SEE ALSO: Stunning Time-Lapse Video Shows Beauty of Our World

[More from Mashable: This Is George Takei?s First Tumblr Post]

The western-bound video is filled with historic American sights like the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and red granite bluffs in Arizona -- of course, the occasional Route 66 road sign can be seen as well. The bottom left corner indicates what state DeFrees is cruising through during each segment of the clip.

Take your own quick trip across America by clicking play above.

What other journeys, either by vehicle or foot, would you like to see video-lapsed? Tell us your ideas below.

1. KONY 2012

Invisible Children, a movement seeking to end the conflict in Uganda, created the film Kony 2012. They hoped it would accelerate the arrest of Lord?s Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony, who has been kidnapping and abducting Uganda?s youth for nearly three decades. With more than 100 million views in six days, Kony 2012 became the most viral video in history. The movement, however, ended quite strangely. The video's creator, Jason Russell, was detained in the Pacific Beach neighborhood, with charges of public drunkenness and lewd behavior.

Click here to view this gallery.

Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, cm_hartman

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kicks-time-lapse-route-66-203614503.html

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Latest Research: Exercise, appetite and weight management ...

Published on November 19, 2012 by FASTERSally ????? 2 Comments

Exercise, appetite and weight management: understanding the compensatory responses in eating behaviour and how they contribute to variability in exercise induced weight loss

This paper [1] was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in March this year (2012). Unlike some of the research papers we?(Fitness Newspaper) have?summarised before, this article doesn?t report on a single study but instead provides a comprehensive review of a number of different studies that have all investigated how energy intake (EI) changes as a result of exercise. There?s an awful lot of information in this paper ? far too much for us to cover fully here. However, we felt that there were some important take-home points from his article that were worth mentioning?

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Exercise, weight loss and Compensatory Eating

The paper starts off by summarising research that has investigated how exercise contributes to weight loss ? Exercise is often used (and recommended) as a means of controlling weight. However, the evidence suggests that, even when exercise is closely monitored and supervised, there is significant variability in weight change ? some individuals lose a lot of weight, some don?t lose any, and some even gain weight!

The authors note that although compliance to an exercise programme is an important issue (obviously if people aren?t doing the recommended exercise they?re unlikely to lose any weight), an issue of perhaps even greater importance (and interest)?is the issue of ?compensatory responses? ? i.e. changes in physiology and behaviour which undermine the ability of exercise to promote weight loss:

Compensatory Responses that Might Affect the Amount of Weight Lost Through Exercise

1. Gastric emptying

Exercise can have an impact on the rate of gastric emptying (the rate at which food passes through the stomach), and this in turn can have an impact on feelings of hunger or satiety (fullness). It?s possible that physical activity increases the rate of gastric emptying and therefore increases hunger, and consequently results in greater energy intake. However, exercise of different intensities and durations has been shown to have different effects on the rate of gastric emptying, and other factors also influence the rate of gastric emptying (such as meal content, meal frequency etc.) so it?s hard to disentangle the exact effects of exercise.

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2. Appetite Peptides

Appetite peptides are molecules that stimulate or inhibit eating. For example, Ghrelin is a peptide secreted from the stomach which increases appetite and stimulates eating, whereas Cholecystokinin (CCK) and polypeptide YY peptides decrease appetite and inhibit eating. Like gastric emptying, the evidence of the effects of exercise on the secretion of these peptides is limited, and habitual diet (what people normally eat) can also have a significant impact on the proportions of these peptides that are produced.Consequently, what people are eating might undermine any beneficial effects of exercise on appetite control.Furthermore, gastric emptying may also have an impact on peptide secretion! So basically, gastric emptying, exercise and diet can all impact on appetite peptides, and the how these three factors interact is not fully understood.

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3. Substrate Oxidation

In this context, substrate oxidation essentially refers to whether the body is relying on fat as it?s prime energy source or on carbohydrate (glycogen). It is though that a greater reliance on fatty acid oxidation increases feelings of fullness (satiety) after eating and hence lowers energy intake, and research has shown that greater carbohydrate oxidation can increase energy intake. Again, however, the effect of exercise on substrate oxidation (whether the body relies more on oxidising fat or carbohydrate) is not well understood, as the evidence out there is limited and contradictory ? with some research showing that it increases carbohydrate oxidation and some showing that it increases fat oxidation. Furthermore, again, habitual diet can also impact on the substrate oxidation, and the how exercise and diet interact to affect substrate oxidation is unclear.

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4. Food and Taste Preferences

Yet again, the research in this area is mixed, with some studies finding that exercise does affect taste perception and others that it doesn?t. However, these mixed findings could be the result of individual differences between the participants in the studies ? with exercise making food taste better to some individuals (and hence leading to them eating more after exercise), but less good to others.

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5. Behavioural Traits

There is evidence to suggest that aspects of people?s personalities can influence their eating response to exercise. For example, people who report that they engage in ?emotional eating? (i.e. eating in response to negative affect/emotion) tend to overcompensate for the energy expended during exercise by eating too much. Conversely, people who report opportunistic eating (i.e. eating just because food is available) tend to show a reduction in energy intake after exercise.

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So What?

So what does this all tell us? Basically there are three take-home points from this research paper:

1. Not everyone loses weight with exercise ? some people lose a lot of weight, some lose very little and some actually gain weight, and the difference in weight lost is likely a consequence of the degree to which each individual engages in ?compensatory eating?.

2. A number of factors can affect compensatory eating in response to exercise - gastric emptying, appetite peptides, substrate oxidation, taste preferences and behavioural traits can all influence the effect that exercise has on an individual?s appetite and eating behaviour.

3. Exercise is still worthwhile - finally, and perhaps most importantly, the authors of this paper note that the beneficial effects of exercise on health (such as improved blood pressure, blood glucose tolerance, blood cholesterol, VO2max, etc.) are evident even when they do not coincide with weight loss!

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Ultimately, everyone will experience significant health benefits by increasing their activity. However, some people might find it harder to control their appetite / eating if they engage in too much exercise and/or exercise of the ?wrong? intensity (whatever that might be). Therefore, until research sheds more light on what kind of exercise and how much is ?best?, anyone trying to lose weight would probably be wise to keep a close eye on their diet, make a note of how their appetite changes in response to exercise, and adjust what they do as best they can so that they can reap the health benefits of an active lifestyle without overeating.

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References

[1] King et al. (2012) Exercise, appetite and weight management: understanding the compensatory responses in eating behaviour and how they contribute to variability in exercise induced weight loss. Br. J. Sports Med. 46, pp315-322.

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Related posts:

Source: http://www.fitnessnewspaper.com/2012/11/19/latest-research-exercise-appetite-and-weight-management/

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James Bond Actor Daniel Craig Pays a Surprise Visit to U.K. Troops in Afghanistan

November 19, 2012 03:40:42 GMT
The husband of Rachel Weisz gives a surprise visit to British servicemen in Afghanistan before the screening of his new film 'Skyfall'.

English actor paid a pleasant surprise visit to British troops stationed at Camp Bastion base in Afghanistan on Sunday, November 18. He also gave a special introduction for the screening of his latest Bond film, "".

More than 800 British soldiers welcomed the Bond actor as he gave a speech and talked about the film before its screening. Craig then went on to tour the camp, met hospital patients at Bastion Role 3 Hospital, which specializes in treating trauma patients, and then engaged in friendly conversations with the soldiers.

According to the Ministry of Defence, the 44-year-old actor also got a chance to fire a couple of machine guns used by the British troops in Afghanistan and saw what kinds of trainings the soldiers need to undergo before being deployed to forward operating bases.

"It was really good morale for everyone - it's a decent thing for him to take time to come out and visit everyone here," commented Private Scott Craggs, who works as a medical technician in the camp. Another soldier, Rob Ingham said, "We get quite a lot of visitors here, but having James Bond was special."

"Skyfall" is the 23rd official James Bond movie and has reeled in $669 million, making it the highest-grossing installment in the 50-year-old franchise. Craig has taken the role of James Bond in the last three Bond movies.

? AceShowbiz.com




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Source: http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00055603.html

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Sex and the Single Girl: Permission to Want ? August McLaughlin's ...

If you?d asked me what I wished for before to Los Angeles, I would?ve rattled off numerous dreams. Never did I imagine that sex-as-a-single-girl would become one of them.

I was in my mid-20s and had moved to the film mecca from Miami, where I?d transitioned from full-time model to model/actress and from married/lonely to single/fulfilled. Prior to that, I?d been a serial monogamist, dating serious boyfriend after serious boyfriend since high school. More recently, I?d overcome a severe eating disorder. A confidence comes from stepping into yourself and feeling passionately connected to your path after years of murky grey. Acting had felt like the reward for hardships overcome, fulfilling me in a way nothing previously had. I no longer needed therapy, vices or, I?d decided, men.

?I won?t marry again until I?m at least 40,? I told friends, not desiring a relationship for what seemed like the first time ever. I could do single, I thought. And adore it. But while passionate career and creative pursuits provide a lot, they don?t supply everything. (Take sex, for example?)

My enthusiasm paired with luck landed me a meeting with a mega theatrical agency within days of my arrival to Tinsel Town. They took me on and invited me to a dinner party?10 celebrities, an esteemed screenwriter, two agents and little ?ol barely-had-a-headshot me.

The party I attended just before moving to LA was a far cry from Hollywood glam. (I wanted to use photos from that night but my GB supervisor said no. Blah!

)

The entire evening seemed surreal, from wining and dining with Hollywood elite to talking shop with actors who?d ?made it? as we hopped from one hot spot to the next. Cassie,* a woman I met that night, remains a dear friend today. ?What do you mean you went home after? You know you could?ve had any one of them, right?? she asked during a phone chat the next day.

Huh? Had them, as in?sex? Sleeping with virtual strangers, much less their interest in the notion, hadn?t crossed my mind. I laughed Cassie?s question off, but didn?t forget it.

As time passed, history began to repeat itself. I sensed a void, a longing for companionship. But I didn?t want a boyfriend? Did I? Closing my eyes, I imagined what I actually wanted. If I could wave a magic wand, I would... Cassie?s words resurfaced: ?You know you could?ve had any of of them??

Woah.

I wanted SEX.

A virtual room-full of lightbulbs flashed on, illuminating my track record of relationships gone by: the accountant I had to be tipsy to have fun with, the chain-smoking rocker with opposite-me values, the man I barely knew, yet had married. I?d met a variety of men during times of longing, and ended up in lackluster relationships. Being the good girl I?d perceived myself to be, sex had always required a relationship.

What would happen if I prioritized pleasure and self-honesty over being ?good?? I decided to find out. (For those of you wondering about the M-word, stay tuned for another post.)

A short time later, I arrived to a casual lunch date with sex on the brain. I found myself sitting up taller, flirting uncontrollably with my eyes, imagining what I hoped would unfold. Within hours, it did. He took me to his hotel room and?took me in a way I?d never experienced. The intoxicating unfamiliarity and our mutual passion inspired overwhelming physical want and play. We were friends fulfilling each other?s needs, caught up in the now, giving and receiving without expectations of more. I left feeling whole again, enlivened and surprisingly relieved.

That marked the beginning of an empowering, pleasure-filled single time. Giving myself permission to enjoy sex minus emotional ties or commitment changed everything socially. The slightest glance or verbal exchange could send my Girl Boner reeling. Subtle touches, alluring cologne, strong arms, soulful eyes and choice conversations became aphrodisiacs paving the way to foreplay. For the first time I understood what it must feel like to be a young man, expected?arguably encouraged?to see breasts, butts and opportunities more prominently than souls, spirits or relationship potential. I also learned the importance of moderation and that even in a sex-driven climate like Los Angeles nightlife, feelings can be hurt?men?s, too.

While I don?t believe that sexually explorative single time is important for all women, I?m grateful for the experience and what it taught me:

  • When we?re secure in our bodies and happy in our lives, sexual desire and confidence are practically inevitable.
  • Sexual pleasure?derived from safe behavior?is an important aspect of physical and emotional health, whether we?re single or not.
  • Our bodies are capable of insanely awesome, gratifying and intoxicating experiences.
  • Adventurousness and curiosity enhance sex if we let them.
  • Assuming we?re healthy, it?s perfectly fine to desire sex however we prefer it, as seldom or frequent as we see fit.
  • Encouraging ourselves to desire and enjoy sexual pleasure is a beautiful, empowering gift.

?The pursuit of pleasure is the central force that motivates sexual behavior,? says Terri Conley, a researcher and assistant professor of psychology and women?s studies at the University of Michigan. She came to this conclusion after analyzing recent studies on sexuality and gender, which also showed that men and women are equally likely to desire and engage in casual sex, given the opportunity.

Similarly, if we aren?t comfortable pursuing or savoring sexual pleasure, we won?t be motivated to seek it. When it becomes available, a disinterest in pleasure can keep us from growing aroused. Think about that for a moment: a disinterest in pleasure. The fact that humans are made to want to experience sexual pleasure goes to show how intensely negative emotions, beliefs and attitudes can function as barriers.

As we near Thanksgiving, I?m intensely grateful for Girl Boners. (Shocker, I know. ;) ) I?m also grateful for everyone who embraces them, and for the freedom to discuss them openly here. We are blessed to live in a day and culture in which female sexuality can be accepted and celebrated. The more we take advantage of these gifts, the more abundant they?ll become. If sexual freedom or all-things-Girl Boner make your ?I?m grateful for?? feast proclamation this year, I?d love to hear about it.

If this is your first time visiting my Girl Boner series, feel free to check out Girl Boner: An Introduction and Girl Boner: The Female Body, Turned ON for more details.

I?d LOVE to hear your thoughts. Have you enjoyed sexually explorative single time? Or learned similar lessons I did another way? What sex-related experience or advice are you most thankful for? All respectful thoughts and beliefs are welcome. ?

Source: http://augustmclaughlin.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/sex-and-the-single-girl-permission-to-want/

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Monday, November 12, 2012

A Wise Woman Builds Her Home: When Motherhood Comes ...

It is easy to get bogged down by the great number of things that we as mothers juggle all of the time.

We can manage to keep it all going some of the time, but for all of us, there comes a time where it all crashes.

We can't keep the schedule working, or we aren't getting healthy food on the table regularly. Our laundry threatens to consume us...


When Jesus said that we should take no thought of tomorrow , He said it for us. He meant it for today. The needs of this day are enough to handle. How are you handling stress today? ?

Give your concerns to Jesus."

- Jackie Wellwood, One Hundred and One Devotions for Homeschool Moms?

As a young mom homeschooling several young ones I found two honest books that encouraged me through the daily grind and sacred work of being a mother. I don't think I have shared these in the past so here they are:


Some of the chapters in this one include:

Bone-Tired
A Time for Order
Distracted by Too Much
Let's Quit
I Need Support
Passing the Wisdom Test
Mothers Aren't Supposed to Be Sick
A Bit Overwhelmed?
Home Sweet Home
Yes, Mommy is Crying
A Peaceful Mom

and her follow up to this is her second book:





Jackie is a mom to seven children and has also authored another book that I have enjoyed:
Her books are honest and simple--straight from a mother's heart. I hope you will be encouraged by her as I was. ?Some of these books are being sold for just a penny (used) on Amazon, so be sure to check it out! ?Are you encouraged here? I personally invite you to subscribe and get the latest posts sent to your inbox. Also, connect with us on Facebook and Twitter and get updates that are not posted here on the blog.

************


Source: http://proverbs14verse1.blogspot.com/2012/11/when-motherhood-comes-crashing-down.html

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'Skyfall' earns $87.8M for biggest Bond opening

By Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter

Sam Mendes' James Bond pic "Skyfall"?easily seduced the North American box office with a potent $87.8 million debut, bringing its worldwide cume to $518.6 million.

The film's four-day domestic total is $90 million, including $2.2 million earned in exclusive Thursday runs in IMAX and other large-format theaters.

More from THR: How the Bond Franchise Almost Died

Returning Daniel Craig in the role of 007 for a third time, MGM and Sony's "Skyfall"?nabbed the biggest domestic opening for a James Bond pic. It also marked Sony's ninth No. 1 opening this year.

"Quantum of Solace" debuted to a series-best $67.5 million in mid-November 2008, and "Casino Royale" -- marking Craig's first turn as 007 -- opened to $40.8 million in November 2006.

"Skyfall" is doing massive business overseas, where it grossed $89 million during the weekend for an international total of $428.6 million. The pic began rolling out two weeks ago overseas.

The 23rd installment in the Bond franchise is certain to surpass the $586.1 million earned by "Quantum of Solace" and the $594.2 million grossed by "Casino Royale" in their entire worldwide runs.

Photos from tHR: The Making of 'Skyfall': Bond is Back, Better Than Ever

"It's been a wild, fantastic ride," Sony president of worldwide distribution Rory Bruer said. "The holds have been extraordinary and people will want to see this film again and again."

Domestic box-office revenue was up an impressive 27 percent over the same weekend a year ago thanks to "Skyfall"?and a strong crop of holdovers including "Wreck-It Ralph," "Flight," "Argo"?and "Taken 2."

"Skyfall"?generated stellar numbers for IMAX theaters, which took in $13.1 million, the best debut for a nonsummer opening. IMAX's worldwide weekend number is expected to come in at $15.8 million for a $28 million cume.

Produced by Bond house EON Productions, "Skyfall's"?domestic opening was buoyed by an A CinemaScore and stellar reviews. The film skewed older, with 75 percent of the audience over age 25. Males made up 60 percent of those buying tickets.

This time out, cinema's most famous spy must save both M -- again played by Judi Dench -- and MI6 from former operative-turned-villain Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem). The movie also stars?Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Berenice Lim Marlohe and Albert Finney.

"Skyfall"?cost about $200 million to make after rebates.

Video from THR: 'Skyfall's' Daniel Craig on Bond: 'He Has to Face Up to a Few Demons'

Opening in only 11 cities before it expands nationwide Nov. 16,?Steven Spielberg's?"Lincoln" likewise earned an A CinemaScore and strong reviews. The DreamWorks film is distributed domestically by Disney.

"Lincoln," starring Daniel Day Lewis as the 16th president, grossed $900,000 for a pleasing location average of $81,818.

"The King's Speech" posted a per-screen average of $88,863 in its opening weekend in 2010, though that film debuted in just four theaters.?"Black Swan" debuted in 18 theaters that year, posting a screen average of $80,212.

Disney Animation Studios' "Wreck-It Ralph" continued to be a box-office hit, falling a narrow 33 percent in its second outing to come in No. 2 for the weekend, grossing $33.1 million for a domestic cume of $93.7 million. The 3D toon earned another $11.2 million overseas for a global total of $120 million.

Paramount's awards hopeful "Flight," directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Denzel Washington, came in No. 3 in its second weekend, grossing a pleasing $15.1 million for a domestic total of $47.8 million.

Ben Affleck's?"Argo"?stayed high on the chart, grossing $6.7 million to place No. 4. The Warner Bros. pic has earned $85.7 million domestically.

"Taken 2," from 20th Century Fox and EuropaCorp,?placed No. 5, earning $4 million for a domestic total of $131.2 million.

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Source: http://entertainment.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/11/15090221-skyfall-has-biggest-bond-opening-ever-in-us-with-878-million?lite

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Sunday, November 11, 2012

CHICAGO Chicago VI music review by stefro

2 stars The first nine Chicago albums all have their moments, some more than others. Whilst the first two, 1969's debut 'Chicago Transit Authority' and follow-up 'Chicago II', arguably showcase the group at both their most dynamic and experimental, latter albums would feature a different approach, with such seminal pop nuggets as 'If You Leave Me Now', as found on 'Chicago X', and this album's stirring ballad 'Feelin' Stronger Every Day' adding yet another dimension to Chicago's sound. 'Chicago VI' would be the outfit's second single-album after 'Chicago V', and, as illustrated, mark another step away from the 1960's influenced sound of their earlier material. Commercially, Chicago would now go through the roof, becoming one of the most popular American rock acts of the century, attracting a huge new fanbase uninterested in guitar solos and experimental jazz suites and slowly homogenising their sound as the 1980's approached. Whatever your feelings on their gradual change, there is no denying that despite the steady and impressive tide of slick hit singles being produced, their albums were now much less impressive for those fans who enjoyed the groups more esoteric early material. 'Chicago VI' is undoubtedly the weakest of their first seven albums - follow-up 'Chicago VI' would see a brief return to the style of their debut dusted with an even stronger jazz influence than usual - making for an uncharacteristically dull listen. The rather beautiful strains of 'Feelin Stronger Every Day' apart, this is an album with little that is new, and little that is exciting. STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2012

stefro | 2/5 |

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Power Rankings: Nov. 10, 2012

All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. ? 2012 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the U.S., subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country. WrestleMania XXIX (NY/NJ) logo TM & ? 2012 WWE. All Rights Reserved. The Empire State Building design is a registered trademark and used with permission by ESBC.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/inside/power-rankings/power-rankings-nov-10-2012

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