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Post by Flying Horse on Sept 16, 2012 18:32:01 GMT -5
International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer Good afternoon from Tuxy and me This is the 260th day of 2012 with 105 days left in the year. Rosh Hashanah began at sun down,
Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 4;18 p.m., it's partly cloudy , temp 69ºF [Feels like 69ºF], winds W @ 5 mph, humidity 47%, pressure 30.10 in and falling, dew point 48ºF, chance of precipitation 10%.
Today in History: 1620--the Pilgrims sailed from Plymouth, England, headed for the New World. 1630--the Massachusetts village of Shawmut changed its name to Boston. 1638--France's King Louis XIV, "the Sun King" (1643-1715), was born; died 1715 at age 76 1776--Battle of Harlem Heights restores American confidence as they forced a small British retreat from their positions. 1810--the successful Mexican war for independence from Napoleonic Spain began. 1845--Phineas Wilcox was stabbed to death by fellow Mormons in Nauvoo, Ill., because they believed he was a Christian spy. 1857--the song "Jingle Bells" by James Pierpont was copyrighted under its original title, "One Horse Open Sleigh." 1875--J. C. Penney, American business leader and founder of the chain of stores bearing his name, was born; died 1971 at age 95. 1893--hundreds of thousands of settlers took part in a land run in Oklahoma's "Cherokee Strip." 1908--William Durant formed General Motors in Fling, Mich. 1919--the American Legion was incorporated by an act of Congress. 1924--Lauren "Betty" Bacall, film and stage actress, was born and turns 88. 1925--B.B. King, Hall of Fame blues musician, was born and turns 87. 1932--in his cell at Yerovda Jail near Bombay, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi began a hunger strike in protest of the British decision to separate India's electoral system by caste. 1940--Pres. Franklin Roosevelt approved the first peacetime military draft in US history. 1940--Rep. Samuel T. Rayburn )D-Tex.), the longest-serving House speaker in history, was first elected Speaker. 1960--Christian A. Herter, the US Ambassador in Saigon warns that situation is worsening with the Viet Cong taking over more of the countryside. 1966--the Metropolitan Opera opened its new home at New York City's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts 1969--Pres. Nixon announced the withdrawal of a further 35,000 troops from Vietnam. 1974--Pres. Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War deserters and draft evaders. 1978--a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Iran killing 25,000. 1981--"Sugar" Ray Leonard knocked out Thomas Hearns in the 13th round to unify boxing’s middleweight title. 1982--Phalangist militiamen begin a massacre of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon. 1993--Frasier, a spin-off of the long-running mega-hit sitcom Cheers, made its debut on NBC. 2002--UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced that Iraq had unconditionally accepted the return of UN weapons inspectors. 2004--Hurricane Ivan plowed into the Gulf Coast with 130 mph wind and a major storm surge; blamed for at least 115 deaths, 43 in the US. 2007--a deadly shooting in Baghdad involving the US security firm Blackwater USA left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. 2008--the federal government announced an emergency $85 billion loan to rescue AIG, the world's largest insurance company.
World News Capsules: 1. Two insider attacks kill six coalition members in Afghanistan ....Afghan security forces killed six service members from the American-led military coalition in a pair of attacks in southern Afghanistan this weekend, raising the number of troops killed in such attacks to 51 this year. 2. Anti-Japanese protests continue in China over Pacific islands ....Demonstrations reported in several cities as the government offered mixed signals on whether it would continue to tolerate the sometimes violent outbursts. 3. European bank overhaul meets opposition from finance ministers ....A plan by the European Union to overhaul bank supervision and help troubled lenders hit a roadblock at a meeting of finance ministers. 4. Scandal poses a riddle: Will India ever be able to tackle corruption? ....A brazen brand of crony capitalism has created huge fortunes for a few, at the expense of the nation as a whole, which is falling short in energy infrastructure. 5. Japan won't stop work on reactors, official says ....Yukio Edano, the minister for economy, trade and industry, cast further doubt on whether the resource-poor nation will follow through on a contentious plan to phase out nuclear power 6. Typhoon Sanba hits Manila in the Philippines and Okinawa with heavy rains
....Typhoon Sanba was lashing the Philippines with monsoon rains that flooded parts of Manila before moving on to Okinawa, before heading for South Korea on Monday. 7. South Africa raids houses for weapons of miners ....Police officers swarmed the living quarters of workers at a platinum mine, searching for illegal weapons as part of a new government push to end a series of violent strikes. 8. Opposition makes pick in South Korea ....A former human rights lawyer and close ally of the late Pres. Roh Moo-hyun was chosen as the main opposition Democratic United Party’s candidate for December’s election.
US News Capsules: 1. US is preparing for a long siege of Arab unrest
....The White House is girding itself for an extended period of turmoil that will test the security of American diplomatic missions and Pres/ Obama's ability to shape the forces of change in the Arab world. 2. In prosecutors, debt collectors find a partner ....In exchange for a fee, district attorneys' offices have been allowing debt collectors to use their letterhead when going after people behind on their bills. 3. A firsts: Organs tailor-made with body's own cells ....Tissue engineers have succeeded in making artificial organs that use a patient’s cells to become a living part of the body, with hope for eventual organ regeneration. 4. Decision looms for Chicago teachers
....Chicago teachers will decide Sunday whether to end a strike that has paralyzed the nation's third-largest public school system and left hundreds of thousands of students out of class for a week. POLITICS: 1. Challenged on Medicare, GOP loses ground ....Pres. Obama and his campaign are arguing that the Romney-Ryan approach to Medicare would leave older Americans vulnerable to rising health care costs.
Today's Headlines of Interest:
Drought of 2012 conjures up Dust Bowl memories, raises questions for tomorrow
Some 3.5 million people fled their homes in Oklahoma, Texas, and elsewhere, the bone-dry landscape, blistering heat and choking dust storms unfit for growing and raising the crops and cattle they relied on to survive, Thousands more, many of them children and seniors, could not escape, killed by an infection dubbed "dust pneumonia" and other illnesses tied not just to the extreme weather and poor living conditions but to massive, fast-moving dust clouds. There were suicides, there were bankruptcies, there were people scrapping for whatever they could find to live. And these were not overnight horror stories: They were repeated day after day and year after year, at a time when much of the United States and world was already debilitated by the Great Depression. "If you can imagine what's happening now and multiply it by a factor of four or five, that's what it was like," said Bill Ganzel, a Nebraska-based media producer who interviewed survivors of the 1930s' environmental and economic disaster and penned a book, Dust Bowl Descent. "And it lasted for the entire decade." Nothing in U.S. history can compare to that calamity of eight decades ago, including the historic drought now gripping much of the country. That doesn't mean, though, there isn't considerable suffering and devastation now in most of the United States. Or that dire conditions could well persist for several years, as they did during the 1930s -- compounding negative impacts of drought, thus ruining even more livelihoods and lives despite technological and agricultural advancements of recent years. "Mother Nature holds all the cards," said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center. "You roll the dice ... every year. Nothing will make you quote-unquote drought-proof." Over 63% of the contiguous United States in early September was suffering moderate to exceptional drought, nearly twice the land affected a year ago, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Using July data, the National Climatic Data Center reported that America is in the midst of its most expansive drought since December 1956. The combination of dry conditions and extreme heat -- including hundreds of record-breaking temperatures this summer -- has been unbearable for many. The drought's impact has been seen in ways big and small, from leaves falling early and lawns turning brown to farmers giving up and lakes drying up, exposing hundreds of dead fish. While consumers may be worried about rising food prices tied to the drought, many farmers have seen their incomes all but evaporate because crops won't grow -- finding even irrigated farmlands cannot pump in enough moisture, given the rate it evaporates back into the atmosphere in high heat. It hasn't been easier for those who raising cattle and other animals, at a time of scorched pastures and scanty, costly hay and other feed. Ranchers have been forced to prematurely sell off their cattle, saying they had no other choice because it cost more to feed them than to keep them. Oklahoma ranchers "liquidated" -- meaning slaughtered or sold off, without replacing them with newborns or new purchases -- 14% of their livestock last year, said Derrell Peel, an Oklahoma State University faculty member who works with ranchers and affiliated companies in that state. The only reason rates haven't been similarly high after this summer is because ranchers don't have as many animals to sell, he said. What farmers and ranchers have working in their favor, compared to the 1930s, are new tools, techniques and other developments that help them better manage droughts, storms and other harsh weather realities -- from more effective soil preservation measures to hybrid seeds to the inception of center pivot irrigation. Things like cell phones and computers make it easier for farmers, ranchers and others to understand what's coming, then adjust. If the precipitation picks up, "row farmers" cultivating crops like corn, soy beans and sorghum using modern farming practices should be able to recover next year. "If they have a normal rain pattern, it's basically a zero recovery period," said Rippey. "You are going from a (devastated) 2012 crop to normal." But those raising livestock may feel the effects of this drought for longer, even if there's more rain. Some strained pastureland and hay fields may revive with above average, more sustained rainfalls than ordinary. But other lands may be a lost cause, with replanting the only way to save them. The next one to two months are "critical," as some rain soon may help save these lands so ranchers do not have to start from scratch. Still, even if their pastures improve or hay prices drop, those who sold off many of their livestock in recent years likely cannot afford to buy the same number back, and return to normal, anytime soon. If drought conditions do persist, they can have a steamroller effect. "The suns' rays are more efficient (when) you have parched soils," said Rippey, the USDA meteorologist, adding that it becomes harder for new moisture to make an immediate impact. These droughts, when they tend to go multiple years, it really starts to feed on itself, We haven't got there quite yet, but we could be if more precipitation doesn't fall over the Great Plains and beyond. As they try to predict the drought's future, meteorologists say they will look first to whether this fall and winter are wetter and cooler than last year, hoping that it will saturate soils and rivers and spur a wetter trend that continues into next spring and summer.
As is, some states out west had two straight La Nina winters that has a domino effect on global weather -- leading to more rainfall than normal in some locales and drought in others. But the odds of La Nina (continuing) are very small right now. Still, no one predicted practically a full decade of minimal rain, maximum heat during the Dust Bowl era either. The fact is, for all the forecasts and farming innovations, keeping one's fingers crossed for change in the weather may be as useful as anything else. "Right now, it's just a question of Mother Nature giving us a break," said Derrell Peel, from Oklahoma State.
Thought for Today "The only place where your dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking". --Robert H. Schuller (b. 1926) American reformed church minister, entrepreneur and author
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Post by Flying Horse on Sept 17, 2012 16:47:16 GMT -5
US Constitution Day Good afternoon from Tuxy and me This is the 261st day of 2012 with 14 days left in the year. Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 3:25 p.m., it's mostly cloudy , temp 74ºF [Feels like 72ºF], winds S @ 15 mph, humidity 40%, pressure 30.04 in and falling, dew point 48ºF, chance of precipitation 10%.
Today in History: 1778--Indians and Loyalists under Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant and Cpat. William Cadwell burn German Flats (now Herkimer), New York. 1787--the US Constitution was signed by a majority of delegates attending the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pa. 1796--Pres. George Washington prepared the final draft of his presidential farewell address. 1862--Confederate and Union troops clashed near Maryland's Antietam Creek in the bloodiest one-day battle in American history with 23,100 were killed, wounded or captured. 1884--an Oakland, Calif/ judge disposed 13 cases in one day, setting a record for trying criminal cases. 1916--Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, downed his first plane in World War I. 1920--the American Professional Football Association - a precursor of the National Football League - was formed in Canton, Ohio. 1923--a fire threatened Univ.Calif. @ Berkeley, killing 2 people and causing $10 million in damages. 1934--Maureen Connolly, the first woman to win the tennis Grand Slam, was born; died 1969 at age 34. 1939--in league with Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia invaded Poland. 1947--James V. Forrestal was sworn in as the first US secretary of defense. 1972--the TV comedy series M.A.S.H. premiered on CBS. 1976--NASA publicly unveiled its first space shuttle, the Enterprise, during a ceremony in Palmdale, Calif. 1978--at the US White House, Egyptian Pres. Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords, brokered by Pres. Carter, 1980--former Nicaraguan president Anastasio Somoza was assassinated in Paraguay. 1983--Vanessa Williams became the first black Miss America. 1986--the US Senate confirmed the nomination of William H. Rehnquist as the 16th chief justice of the United States. 1996--Oprah launched her influential book club. 2001--Wall Street trading resumed for the first time since the 9/11 terrorist attacks - its longest shutdown since the Depression; the Dow lost 684.81 points, its worst one-day point drop to date. 2003--New York Stock Exchange chairman Dick Grasso resigned amid a furor over his $139.5 million pay package. 2004--Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for the school siege in Beslan and other terrorist attacks in Russia that claimed more than 430 lives. 2004--San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds hit his 700th career home run, joining Babe Ruth (714) and Hank Aaron (755) as the only players to reach the 700 milestone 2011--a demonstration calling itself Occupy Wall Street began in New York.
World News Capsules: 1. Police contain Afghan rage over film, as protests spread elsewhere
....Hundreds of Afghans burned tires and pelted police in Afghanistan’s first significant spasm of violence over an anti-Islam film that has inflamed parts of the Muslim world. a. Audacious raid on NATO base shows Taliban's reach ....The assault late Friday on one of the best-defended posts in Afghanistan was troubling because the attackers were able to penetrate the base, killing two and causing more than $200 million in damage. 2. Where Daniel the Cuckold and Zig-Zag Clown vie for office ....Do strange nicknames confer an electoral advantage? Some candidates for office in Brazil, including Ladi Gaga, Christ of Jerusalem and several Batmans, seem to think so. 3. Beijing mixes messages over anti-Japan protests
....Demonstrations were reported in several cities as the government offered mixed signals on whether it would continue to tolerate the sometimes violent outbursts. a. Trial begins of police chief in Bo Xtlai scandal ....The police chief, Wang Lijun, attempted to seek refuge in a US Consulate in February, igniting China’s biggest political scandal in a generation, b. US files trade case against China over cars ....The Obama administration accused China of unfairly subsidizing its exports of autos and auto parts, while China filed its own trade case against the US. 4. [Cultural clash fuels Muslims raging at film/u]
....In Egypt, some say that the protests at the American Embassy in Cairo and in about 20 countries over an anti-Islamic video was about more than religious sensitivity. 5. EU plan to put more women on boards runs into opposition ....Legislation to impose sanctions on companies that do not allocate 40% of the seats on their boards to women may be blocked before it is officially proposed. 6. Israeli leader makes case against Iran on US television ....Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went on TV to make his case about Iran even more urgently to a broader American audience. 7. Italian magazine publishes disputed images of Duchess
....Chi, an Italian gossip magazine, run by the daughter of the former Italian premier, became the latest outlet to publish images of the Duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton, sunbathing topless in France. 8. US and Japan agree to deploy advanced missile defense systerm ....The two nations will deploy a 2nd missile-defense radar on Japanese territory, an effort designed to counter the North Korean threat but likely to anger China. a. Japanese companies close facilities in China as tensions rise ....The dispute between Japan and China, over a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea, has led to violent attacks on factories, shops and even cars of well-known Japanese brands. 9. In Lebanon, Pope laments strife in Syria, where the war rages on ....On the final day of his trip to Lebanon, Pope Benedict XVI said a prayer for the victims of the conflict in Syria and appealed to the region and the world to find a solution. 10. As leader prepares for UN visit, Myanmar frees prisoners ....The government said it had released 514 prisoners, many of whom were reported to have been political prisoners. 11. Mideast unrest intensifies on US intervention in Syria
....The attacks on American and European diplomatic posts in recent weeks have roused calls for disengagement from the Arab world. a. UN reports sharp jump in attacks on Syrian citizens ....UN investigators said they have “a formidable and extraordinary body of evidence” against those responsible for an increase in government attacks on civilians.. 12. Report on 2010 Thai riots warns that conflicts persist ....The Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand warned Monday that conflicts in Thai society were still simmering and that the country risked another “escalation to violence.”
US News Capsules: 1. Shell delays Arctic oil drilling until next year
....A testing mishap further delayed the company’s six-year, $4.5 billion effort to drill off the coast of Alaska, although it will not stop preliminary work on several wells in the region this year, 2. Earnings in US are beginning to feel a pinch ....The estimated drop in corporate profits removes what had been an economic bright spot in an otherwise cloudy picture. 3. Teachers union in Chicago to extend strike into 2nd week
....Union leaders said they needed more time to consider a contract deal reached over the weekend, infuriating Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who told city lawyers to seek an injunction to end the strike. a. Chicago school system asks court to end strike
....School officials argued that the walkout, now in its second week, was illegal and represented a danger to public safety. 4. As grocery dies off, down-and-out town lives on, if barely ....After years of watching his Central Valley town grow more and more desperate, a grocery store owner in California decided it was time to close down. 5. Human muscle, regrown on animal scaffolding ....Researchers are using extracellular matrix, a natural scaffolding that underlies all tissues and organs, from animals to engineer the growth of replacement tissue like limb muscle lost in injuries. 6. 'Joseph Anton'
....In Joseph Anton, Salman Rushdie recounts his years in hiding. 7. Report faults military strategies on drug and alcohol abuse
....Despite a well-documented increase in the abuse of alcohol and prescription medications among military personnel over the past decade, the Defense Department's strategies for screening, treating and preventing remains behind the times, a major new report finds. 8. Forest fire research questions the wisdom of prescribed burns ....The US Forest Service uses small fires to reduce the chances of big fires. Scientists are arguing whether this strategy helps or hurts the forests and the creatures that live in them. 9. Scandal at Florida A&M leaves a football season without its soundtrack ....With the school’s band, the Marching 100, on suspension because of a hazing scandal that resulted in a death, the first home football game was notable for what was missing. 10. Online mentors to guide women into the sciences ....By connecting female college students with accomplished women working in science and technology fields, a new program hopes to increase the number going into these fields. 11. The reality of Islamophobia
....US Christians must own up to the reality of evangelical Islamophobia, which often uses downright lies to rail against what it trumpets as the so-called evils of Islam. 12. Judge to hear new testimony on Fatal Vision case[/u] ....One of the most sensational and infamous murder cases in modern U.S. history is returning to a courtroom this week on whether Jeffrey MacDonald, the former Green Beret doctor convicted of killing his family, should get a new trial. POLITICS: 1. Looking, very closely, for voter fraud....Busloads of illegal voters, cited by voter fraud groups like True the Vote, have yet to be seen. But that has not deterred such organizations, which widely support conservative causes. 2. Amid discord, Romney seeks to sharpen message....With an outbreak of finger-pointing signaling trouble in his campaign, Mitt Romney plans to say more clearly what he wants for the country, his aides said. 3. For both campaigns, a need to control the message....The events in the Middle East have forced both campaigns to improvise and abandon the economic playbook they had imagined using. 4. Outside groups foot bill for nearly half of campaign ads....Outside groups, including well-heeled Super PACs, have accounted for almost half of all ad spending during this presidential general election. 5. 150 arrested on Occupy's one-year anniversary....Looking to reignite their movement on its one-year anniversary, several hundred Occupy Wall Street activists protested in lower Manhattan Monday, staging a sit-in near the iconic New York Stock Exchange and swarming through the streets in costumes and toting American flags and signs. Thought for Today"Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government." --[/i]James Madison (1751-1836), 4th US President and father of US Constitution,
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Post by Flying Horse on Sept 18, 2012 18:00:07 GMT -5
Hug a Greeting Card Writer Day
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me This is the 262nd day of 2012 with 103 days left in the year. Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 4:41 p.m., it's mostly cloudy , temp 69ºF [Feels like 71ºF], winds S @ 6 mph, humidity 78%, pressure 29.51 in and steady, dew point 62ºF, chance of precipitation 50%.
Today in History: 1180--Philip Augustus was crowned Philip II, King of France. 1634--Anne Hutchinson, an Englishwoman who would become an outspoken religious thinker in the American colonies, arrived at the Massachusetts Bay Colony with her family. 1709--Samuel Johnson, English critic, biographer, lexicographer, essayist and poet, was born; died 1784 at age 75. 1759--French & Indian War: the French surrendered Quebec to the British . 1793--George Washington laid the cornerstone to the US Capitol building, 1810--Chile declared its independence from Spain. 1812--Napoleonic Wars: Moscow was burned under Count Rastopchin's orders after the Battle of Borodino, destroying an est. 3/4 of Moscow before it ended. 1819--Jean-Bernard Foucault, French physicist and inventor of the "Foucault pendulum," was born; died 1868 at age 48. 1837--Charles Tiffany and Teddy Young founded "Tiffany and Young" (later to become Tiffany & Co.) as a stationery and fancy goods emporium. 1846--the struggling Donner Party sent ahead to California for food. 1850--the US Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed slaveowners to reclaim slaves who had escaped to other states. 1851--the first edition of The New York Times was published by Henry Raymond and George Jones. 1862--Gen. George McClellan let Gen. Lee's Confederate troops retreat from the Antietam battlefield. 1873--the Panic of 1873 was a severe nationwide economic depression in the US that lasted until 1877. 1879--Blackpool Illuminations (an annual lights festival held each autumn that runs for 66 days) is first switched on. 1905--Greta Garbo, the Swedish-born American film icon, was bornl died 1990 at age 84. 1911--Pyotr Stolypin, Prime Minister of Russia. was assassinated at the Kiev Opera House in front of Tsar Nicholas II. 1927--the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System (later CBS) was founded by William S. Pauley with a network of 16 radio stations. 1928--a hurricane that lashed Florida and the West Indies for five days left an estimated 4,000 people dead and $30 million in damage. 1945--Gen. Douglas MacArthur moves his command headquarters to Tokyo for hiis new role as architect of a democratic and capitalist postwar Japan. 1947--the National Security Act, which unified the Army, Navy and newly formed Air Force, went into effect. 1959--Serial killer Harvey Glatman was executed in a California gas chamber for murdering three young women in Los Angeles. 1960--Fidel Castro arrived in New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations. 1961--UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold died in a plane crash near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia. 1970--rock musician Jimi Hendrix died of a drug overdose at age 27. 1974--Hurricane Fifi (a deadly hurricane that caused over 8,000 deaths in Honduras through flash flooding) washed away 14 bridges. 1975--newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was captured by the FBI in San Francisco, 19 months after being kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. 1977--Voyager I, NASA space probe, takes the first picture of the earth and moon together. 1987--an accidental poisoning occurred in Brazil and cesium-137 was removed from an abandoned cancer-therapy machine. 1990--Winnie Mandela, wife of South African black leader Nelson Mandela, was charged with assault and kidnapping in the 1988 abduction and slaying of a 14-year-old boy by her chief bodyguard. 1996--the shuttle Atlantis docked with the Mir space station to pick up astronaut Shannon Lucid, who had set a US record for time spent in space. 2003--Hurricane Isabel slammed into the North Carolina coast, eventually causing a reported 40 deaths and inflicting property damage estimated at $5 billion. 2004--the UN Security Council called for Sudan to put an end to the killings in the Darfur region. 2008--the US House of Representatives joined the Senate in approving a civil rights bill that broadens the definition of disability to include epilepsy, diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis and other illnesses. 2009--Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in defiance of Iran's Islamic leadership, clashing with police and confronting state-run anti-Israel rallies
World News Capsules: 1. ?Coalition sharply reduces joint operations with Afghan troops
....A spike in attacks on international troops by Afghan soldiers and police pushed the American-led military coalition to curb ground operations with their Afghan counterparts. a. Bomber strikes vehicle carrryinng foreigners in Kabul ....A police official said 14 people, including French, South African and Russian citizens, most of whom worked as flight crew members under contract with the United States government and were killed in the attack on a main road near the city's airport. b. Afghan suicide bomber strikes minibus carrying foreigners ....A suicide bomber killed 14 people including 10 foreigners. 2. Protests resume in China over Japan and islands
....China drove home its opposition to Japanese control of a contested group of islands Tuesday, with angry protests in dozens of cities and a warning from its defense minister that “further actions” were possible. 3. 9 foreign ministers call for greater EU integration ....Nine E.U. foreign ministers, led by Germany's Guido Westerwelle, have called for a big increase in economic, political, diplomatic and even military integration within the European Union 4. French court trebukes magazine for photos of royal couple
....The court ordered the publisher of the magazine Closerto hand over all digital copies of images of the Duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton, sunbathing topless in France. 5. Keystrokes in Google bare shocking rumors in Germany ....Bettina Wulff, a former first lady of Germany, has sued the search engine over rumors that she was once an escort, 6, Maverick minister in India is as perplexing as she is powerful
....Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, is praised and maligned in equal measure. But Indians agree that she has the ability to bring down India’s governing coalition. She has angrily announced that she was withdrawing her support for the coalition. 7. Iranian official says blasts targeted nuclear sites ....Iran's top atomic energy official said that explosions were intended to cut power to two uranium enrichment facilities and claimed saboteurs had infiltrated an international inspection agency. 8. Leader of Madrid regional government resigns ....Esperanza Aguirre, the head of Madrid's regional government and one of Spain's most influential and outspoken politicians, resigned on Monday. 9. Civilian attacks rise in Syria, UN says. ....UN investigators said they have “a formidable and extraordinary body of evidence” against those responsible for an increase in government attacks on civilians. 10. Turks sour on leaders' support for Syrian uprising
....Although many Turks at first agreed with their government’s support for the Syrian opposition, many now believe it is undermining Turkey’s economy and security.
US News Capsules: 1. In car country, Obama trumpets China trade case. ....Pres. Obama filed a broad new trade case against China at the World Trade Organization. He announced the action in the industrial battleground of Ohio. 2. Limits placed on immigrants in health care law ....The White House says that those young illegal immigrants who will be eligible for delayed deportation will not be covered under the new health care law. 3. Israeli diplomat is man in middle ....Ambassador Michael B. Oren, who happens to have been born and bred in New Jersey, is representing a prime minister who has infuriated the White House. 4. A faded piece of papyrus refers to Jesus' wife
....A Harvard historian of early Christianity said the papyrus, written in Coptic in the fourth century, contains a phrase never seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife ...’ 5. Striking Chicago teachers meet to consider deal ....Union delegates were expected to vote on whether to accept a tentative contract that was negotiated over the weekend. 6. US Appeals judge grants stay of ruling on detention law ....A ruling blocking enforcement of a law authorizing the infinite detention of terrorism suspects is on hold for now, after an “emergency” stay requested by the Obama administration. POLITICS: 1. Romney says remarks on voters help clarify position ....Facing criticism for characterizing 47% of voters as people who believe they are “victims,” Mitt Romney sought to steer the conversation toward a debate about government’s role in people’s lives,
Thought for Today "The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." --George Orwell (1903-1950) British author
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Post by Flying Horse on Sept 19, 2012 18:03:54 GMT -5
Aaaargh, shiver me timbers but it's the International Talk Like a Pirate Day Good afternoon from Tuxy and me This is the 263rd day of 2012 with 102 days left in the year. Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 2?56 p.m., it's partly cloudy , temp 60ºF [Feels like 60ºF], winds W @ 7 mph, humidity 71%, pressure 30.13 in and rising, dew point 36ºF, chance of precipitation 20%.
Today in History: 1187--Saladin began the siege of Jerusalem. 1356--Battle of Poitiers: an English army led by The Black Prince, son of Edward III, defeated King John II of France at the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years War. 1519--Ferdinand Magellan set sail with about 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe. 1633--Galileo Galilei was tried before the Inquisition for teaching that the Earth orbits the Sun. 1676--Bacon's Rebellion, an uprising in the Virginia Colony led by Nathaniel Bacon, occurred. 1692--Giles Corey was pressed to death for being a witch during the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts Bay Colony. 1777--Generals Nrmrfovy Arnold and Horatio Gates argued about tactics at the 1st battle of Saratoga (NY), also known as the Battle of Freeman's Farm. 1799--a combined Russian and British army under the Duke of York was defeated and forced to withdraw by the French under Vandamme at the battle of Bergen-op-Zoom. 1827--after a duel turns into an all-out brawl, Jim Bowie disemboweled a banker in Alexandria, La., with an early version of his famous Bowie knife. 1862--Union troops under Gen/ Rosecrans defeated a Confederate force under Gen. Sterling Price at Iuka in northern Mississippi. 1870--in the Franco-Prussian War, the Prussians began a siege of Paris. 1876--Melville R. Bissell of Grand Rapids, Mich/ patented the carpet sweeper. 1881--80 days after a failed office seeker shot him, Pres. James A. Garfield died of complications from his wounds. 1893--with the signing of the Electoral Bill by Gov. Lord Glasgow, New Zealand became the 1st country to grant voting rights to women. 1918--the British began an offensive in Palestine during World War I. 1930--actor Adam West (Batman) turns 82 1934--Bruno Hauptmann was arrested in New York and charged with the kidnap-murder of the Lindbergh baby. 1941--the German Luftwaffe bombarded Leningrad. 1952--as result of the US "red scare", comedic actor Charlie Chaplin was denied entry into the US returning from the UK. 1955--Argentine Pres. Juan Peron was deposed in a military coup. 1957--the US conducted its first underground nuclear test, in the Nevada desert. 1959--On his visit to the UN, Nikita Khrushchev was barred from Disneyland. 1962--the TV western The Virginian premiered, 1964--Flipper, a story about a dolphin, had its premiere on TV.. 1970--one of TV's all-time favorite sitcoms, The Mary Tyler Moore Show debuted on CBS-TV. 1983--the TVg ame show Wheel of Fortune premiered in primetime. 1985--the first (magnitude 8.1) of two devastating earthquakes struck Mexico City leaving 10,000 people dead, 30,000 injured and thousands more homeless. 1988--in Seoul, Greg Louganis won Olympic gold in springboard diving just one day after sustaining a head injury. 1991--In Switzerland, Otzi the iceman (well-preserved mummy from circa 3300 BC) was discovered in the Schnalstal glacer by two German tourists. 1994--the popular medical drama series ER made its debut on TV. 1994--US troops entered Haiti to enforce the return of exiled Pres. Jean-Bertrand Aristide. 1995--The New York Times and The Washington Post published a 35,000-word manifesto written by the Unabomber. 2001--the Pentagon ordered combat aircraft to the Persian Gulf in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 2002--Pres. Bush asked Congress for authority to use military force if necessary to disarm and overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein if he did not abandon weapons of mass destruction. 2004--Hu Jintao became the undisputed leader of China with the departure of former Pres. Jiang Zemin from his top military post. 2008--struggling to stave off financial catastrophe, the Bush administration asked Congress for $700 billion to buy up troubled mortgage-related assets from U.S. financial institutions. 2008--AMC's Mad Men became the first basic-cable show to win a top series Emmy award. 2010--The BP oil well that had spilled hundred of millions of oil into the Gulf of Mexico was sealed with a permanent cement plug. 2012--Ganesh Chaturthi (10 day Hindu Festival) begins - the period when the Lord Ganesha is believed to bestow his presence on earth for all his devotees . World News Capsules: 1. Coalition sharply reduces joint operations with Afghan troops ....A spike in attacks on international troops by Afghan soldiers and police pushed the American-led military coalition to curb ground operations with their Afghan counterparts. 2. Testimony implicates Chinese official in cover-up of Briton's death ....In an official account Wang Lijun, a former police chief, essentially accused the disgraced politician Bo Xilai of trying to cover up the murder of a British businessman by his wife. a. In China, Panetta says US focus on Asia isnot threat
(Panetta presented with a plate from the Chinese defense minister, Gen. Liang Guanglie) ....Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta declared that the US was not trying to contain a rising China. 3. Circumcision debate in Europe reflects deeper tensions ....The dispute over ritual circumcision in Germany reflects the secularization of European life that, in the eyes of some religious leaders, has mutated into a form of intolerance. 4. Free speech or incitement? French magazine runs cartoons that mock Muhammad
....France planned to close its embassies in 20 countries on Friday after illustrations in a satirical magazine set off new outrage by Muslims. a. New Islamic galleries at the Louvre ....Ten years in the making, the project was financed in part by the French government, along with Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia. 5. A resignation and protests follow the release of prison abuse videos in Georgia
....The country’s senior official in charge of prisons stepped down after a TV station broadcast graphic footage of inmates being beaten and sodomized by guards. 6. Greenland's unfrozen future ....Greenland's receding ice has exposed vast deposits of valuable oil, gas and minerals and new opportunities for an island in economic decline is causing jockeying among nations. 7. More partners threaten to pull support from India's governing coalition ....Turmoil surrounding India’s government intensified with a former ally calling for the prime minister to seek a fresh electoral mandate. 8. Outsider breathing new ideas into Jakarta elections ....Joko Widodo, the mayor of Surakarta, Indonesia, has a message of change that has propelled him into the upstart contender for leader of Jakarta, one of Asia’s most important metropolises. 9. Japan backs off goal to phase out nuclear power by 2040 ....Japan’s reversal on a plan to eliminate its use of nuclear power came after intense opposition from business groups and communities that host the country’s nuclear plants. 10. Blast near Pkistani air base kills 10 ....A car bomb apparently aimed at a military vehicle killed 10 people and wounded 27 at a busy intersection in Peshawar, as rowdy anti-American protests continued across the country. 11. Russia demands US end support of democracy groups
....The Kremlin views American financial support for a wide range of civil society programs as thinly veiled meddling in the country's internal affairs. a. Russia boots out USAID ....Russia has thrown out the United States Agency for International Development, the U.S. State Department said, claiming that the aid agency has undermined Russia's sovereignty. 12. New voice in South Korean politics enters presidential race ....Ahn Cheol-soo, a 50-year-old graduate school dean whose appeal to disaffected voters has made him a political star, officially declared his candidacy for president of South Korea. 13. As uncertainty about bailout lingers, Spain sells $6 billion in short-term debt ....An auction of short-term debt sold out at slightly lower rates, but uncertainty persisted over whether Spain would ask for aid from its European partners. 14. Rebels are said to defeat Syrian forces in battle at border
....Syria’s civil war again spilled into border areas as rebels reportedly drove government troops from a northern frontier crossing. a. Kerry says Iraq aid could be tied to halting flights to Syria ....Sen. John Kerry said that aid to Iraq might be made contingent on cutting off flights shuttling military supplies from Iran to the repressive regime in Syria.
US News Capsules: 1. Teachers end Chicago strike on 2nd try and children return to class
....Union delegates endorsed a proposed contract, allowing 350,000 children to return to classes on Wednesday. a. Next schoool crisis for Chicgo - pension fund is running dry ....The Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund is paying out more than $1 billion a year — much more than it has been taking in — and experts say the fund could collapse within a few years. 2. Prosecutors deny priest was urged to lie in abuse case ....A motion filed in Philadelphia said that a former clergyman was pressured to falsely admit to abusing a boy as part of the terms of a plea deal. 3. Dallas copes with unpredictability of West Nile virus ....As the West Nile virus outbreak seems to be subsiding, the hardest-hit county in the nation, Dallas County, tries to come to terms with the seeming randomness of the fatalities. 4. Seeking revenue, Post Office plans to deliver more junk mail
....Its first-class mail volume dropping, the Postal Service hopes to substitute marketing material, even as consumers seek ways to block the catalogs and credit card applications. 5. 'Fast and Furious' misguided but not criminal, probe finds
....The Justice Department’s inspector general faulted a group of federal prosecutors and drug agents in the botched gun-trafficking inquiry called Operation Fast and Furious. 6. Education site expands slate of universities and courses ....Coursera, just five months old, has drawn a number of notable institutions into its free online learning system, including Brown, Columbia and Wesleyan. 7. Spinach recall! Spinach recall! Spinach reall!
....The Kroger chain of grocery stores announced Tuesday that it has issued a voluntary recall of bagged spinach on fears of listeria contamination. 8. Housing recovery blossoms
....The U.S. housing industry -- crucial to any jobs recovery -- showed more signs of strength, according to two reports issued Wednesday. POLITICS: 1. Romney says remarks on voters help clarify position ....Facing criticism for characterizing 47% of voters as people who believe they are "victims," Mitt Romney sought to steer the conversation toward a debate about government's role in people's lives. a. Romney's remarks: Bad mistake or brutal truth?
....Were Romney's remarks a gaffe big enough to dent his campaign or a brutal truth others don't want to hear? People share how they're voting after hearing his words b. Wisconsin offers window on hurdles ahead for Romney ....Mitt Romney’s campaign has pointed to a Republican resurgence in Wisconsin, but Mr. Romney trails by six points among likely voters, a new poll found. 2. Republicans push bill to help foreign science graduates stay
....The largely partisan measure would allocate up to 55,000 visas of the current annual pool to graduates with advanced degrees in science and technology.
Thought for Today "Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant." --James Madison(1751-1836), 4th US President, founding father & father of the Constitution.
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Post by Flying Horse on Sept 21, 2012 18:21:45 GMT -5
International Day of Peace Good afternoon from Tuxy and me This is the 265th day of 2012 with 100 days left in the year. Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 7:12 p.m., it's mostly cloudy , temp 70ºF [Feels like 670ºF], winds S @ 8 mph, humidity 68%, pressure 29.92 in and falling, dew point 59ºF, chance of precipitation 70%.
Today in History: 1327--King Edward II of England was murdered in Berkeley Castle and was succeeded by his son Edward III. 1599--William Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar, was performed for the first time by the Lord Chamberlain's Men. 1745--the Battle of Prestonpans, Scotland: the Jacobite army of just over 3,000 under Bonnie Prince Charlie defeated the English Royal forces led by Sir John Cope. 1746--after a short siege the French under Admiral La Bourdonnais took Madras, India, from the English. 1779--Spaniarads with the aide of American troops and militia volunteers captured Baton Rouge. 1780--Gen. Benedict Arnold met with British Maj. John Andre to discuss handing over West Point to the British, in return for the promise of a large sum of money and a high position in the British army. 1784--the US' first daily paper, The Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser, was published. 1792--in revolutionary France, the Legislative Assembly voted to abolish the monarchy and establish the First Republic. 1827--according to Joseph Smith, Jr., the Moroni gave him a record of gold plates, one-third of which Joseph translated intoThe Book of Mormon. 1863--Union forces retreat to Chattanooga after defeat at Chickamauga. 1893--the first successful American-made, gasoline-operated motorcar by Charles and Frank Duryea appeared on the streets of Springfield, Mass. 1897--The New York Sun ran an editorial answering a question from an 8-year-old girl that included the line, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." 1898--Empress Dowager Cixi resumed the role of regent for China and in a coup d'etat took control of the country. 1904--the great Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph, 64, died on the Colville reservation in northern Washington. 1917--Austria-Hungary and Germany made separate replies to the proposal issued by Pope Benedict XV for an immediate armistice between the Allied and Central Powers. 1931--Larry Hagman, actor (I Dream of Jeannie, Dallas), was born and turns 81. 1937--The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien was published. 1938--the Great New England/Long Island Express hurricane, a powerful Category 3 hurricane, slammmed into Long Island and southern New England, causing 600 deaths. 1938--the Czech government agreed to Anglo-French plans to cede the Sudetenland to Germany. 1939--Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt urged repeal of Neutrality Act embargo provisions. 1942--the B-29 Superfortress, the largest bomber used in the war by any nation, made its debut flight in Seattle, Wash. 1943--Jerry Bruckheimer, TV producer (CSI productions), was born and turns 69. 1948--Milton Berle debuted as permanent host of The Texaco Star Theater on NBC. 1949--Mao Zedong outlined the new Chinese Communisst government. 1957--the TV courtroom drama series, Perry Mason, starring Raymond Burr, premiered on CBS. 1964--Malta gained independence from Britain. 1967--troops from Thailand arrived to fight in Vietnam. 1968--Jeannie C. Riley, 23, was the first woman to top the Country and Pop charts simultaneously with "Harper Valley P.T.A." 1970--NFL Monday Night Football debuted on ABC with Howard Cosell, ‘Dandy’ Don Meredith and Keith Jackson. 1973--Henry Kissinger was the first naturalized citizen to be confirmed by the US Senate as Secretary of State. 1981--Sandra Day O'Connor was approved as the first female US Supreme Court justice. 1982--the National Football League players began a 57-day strike. 1983--Interior Secretary James G. Watt described a special advisory panel as consisting of "a black ... a woman, two Jews and a cripple." Watt later apologized and resigned. 1983--the mutilated body of 13-year-old paperboy Danny Joe Eberle was found in Bellevue, Neb. 1985--Western intelligence estimates said the Iran-Iraq war in five years had cost nearly 1 million lives. 1989--Gen. Colin Powell became the first black Joint Chiefs of Staff' chairman. 1989--Hurricane Hugo, a category 5 hurricane, killed 82 people and left 56,000 homeless. 1991--Armenia became the 12th Soviet republic to declare independence. 1991--a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Taiwan caused over 2,000 deaths, 11,000 wounded and destroyed 44,000 houses. 1996--the board of Virginia Military Institute voted to admit women. 1998--Pres. Clinton's videotaped grand jury testimony in the Monica Lewinsky scandal was publicly broadcast. 1998--Olympic gold medal track star Florence Griffith Joyner, 38, died in her sleep after suffering an epilectic seizure. 1999--at least 2,300 people were killed when an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck Taiwan. 2001--the US Congress approved $15 billion to help an airline industry reeling from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 2001--a telecast by top movie stars and musicians raised more than $500 million for survivors of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 2003--the spacecraft Galileo approached the fringes of Jupiter's atmosphere and then was directed to destroy itself in a high-speed plunge. 2005--Texas coastal residents were ordered to evacuate, creating a mass exodus from the Houston and Galveston area as Hurricane Rita became the third-most intense hurricane on record in the Atlantic Basin, with windes near 165 mph.. 2008--Mad Men became the first basic-cable show to win a top series Emmy award. 2008--a pre-dawn gas explosion ripped through a coal mine in China's Henan province, killing a reported 37 miners and injuring seven more.
World News Capsules: 1. Restrictions on religion are tightening, study finds ....Government restrictions on religion around the world were highest in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly in the period before the Arab Spring uprisings, a Pew study found.. 2. Troop surge in Afghanistan ends with little fanfare ....The milestone, which still leaves 68,000 American troops in Afghanistan, went nearly unremarked in the country, with no statement from Pres. Karzai or the US military commander, Gen. John R. Allen. 3. Sleepy islands and a smoldering dispute
....A clash over contested territory has set off worries about the effect on business ties between China and Japan. 4. At the Holocaust Center, Hollande confronts grim chapter for France ....Pres. François Hollande urged the nation to turn to the “transmission,” or passing on, of a difficult history. 5. British regulator declares BSkyB "fit and proper" ....The announcement about Britain's biggest satellite pay-TV group, British Sky Broadcasting, offered a victory for its largest shareholder, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. 6. Indian Prime Minister makes appeal to support his plans ....The prime minister made a rare televised address to defend steps he has taken to revive the economy that have prompted anger and protests. 7. Iranian dissidents convince US to drop Terror label ....The Mujahedeen Khalq, an opposition group that mounted an extraordinary campaign to get off the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations, has succeeded, officials said. a. Iran's top atomic official says nation issued false nuclear data to fool spies ....Fereydoon Abbasi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, did not reveal the nature of the information or say when it was presented or to whom. 8. Israeli soldier killed as attackers breach border with Egypt ....Another soldier was seriously injured, and the Israeli military said it killed the three attackers, whom a spokesman called “well equipped.”. 9. For scandal-weary Italians, another scandal ....Italians who thought they had seen everything when it came to politics were taken aback when photographs were published of regional officials having a “return of Ulysses” party. 10. Japan's beleaguered premier wins party leadership role ....Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda fended off a challenge to his leadership of Japan’s governing party, but his victory may be short-lived. 11. After Libya attack, a fleeting sense of survival
....The assault on American diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, which the White House is now calling a terrorist attack, began as a moblike attack but became a sophisticated ambush. 12. After long absence, a US defense secretary visits New Zealand ....Leon E. Panetta became the first Pentagon chief to visit the country in three decades, an absence prompted by a breakdown in ties after New Zealand prohibited American nuclear warships from its territorial waters. 13. UN presses Pakistan over the fate of 100s of missing people ....A delegation met with Pakistani government officials and relatives of hundreds of people who have disappeared into the illegal custody of the country’s powerful intelligence and law enforcement agencies over the last decade. a. 19 reported dead as Pakistanis protest Muhammad video
....Violent crowds furious over an anti-Islamic video made in the US convulsed Pakistan’s largest cities, leaving more than 160 people injured in a day of government-sanctioned protests. 14. Year after effort at UN, new aim for Palestinians ....Palestinians are returning to the General Assembly next week seeking largely symbolic “nonmember state” status, lamenting a “lost year” of no peace talks, expanding Israeli settlements and deteriorating economic conditions. 15. Putin's Russia hits the 'clear' button on the Medvedev era
....With Vladimir V. Putin president again, the Kremlin is reversing Dmitri A. Medvedev’s policies on everything from civil liberties and elections to daylight saving time. 16. South Korea fires warning shots at fishing boats from North ....The North’s boats fled warning shots in contested waters in the Yellow Sea without casualties, the South Korean military said. a. Viral video gets propaganda treatment ....A South Korean phenomenon behind a dance video called “Gangnam Style” got an even clearer sign of success when North Korea parodied the video. 17. Spain's leader fails to reach deal with Catalonia ....The impasse exacerbates the challenge of a separatist push by Catalonia, the nation’s most economically powerful region. 18. Syrian planes said to strike gas station ....At least 30 people, and as many as 100, were killed in Syria in the northern Raqqa Province, when government warplanes bombed a gasoline station crowded with people, according to activist groups. 19. Turkish court convicts 330 in military coup plot trial ....Military officers, including three former top generals, had been accused of planning to overthrow the government nearly a decade ago.
US News Capsules: 1. Hostage-taker surrenders in Pittsburgh, police say
....An armed man, identified as Klein Michael Thornton, age 22, who took a hostage inside a Pittsburgh high-rise building has released his hostage and surrendered, authorities said. 2. Amish sect leader and followers guilty of hate crimes ....A federal jury found Samuel Mullet Sr. and 15 followers guilty of conspiracy and hate crimes in a series of beard- and hair-cutting attacks in Ohio. 3. A family pulled into the fray over an agent's death ....The family of Brian A. Terry, a Border Patrol agent who died in a shootout linked to Operation Fast and Furious, has sought answers after revelations over his death. 4. Coptic scholars doubt and hail a reference to Jesus' wife ....A historian's finding of a fragment of ancient Coptic text in which Jesus is said to utter the words "my wife" has drawn strong reaction from Christian scholars. 5. Behind the scenes, lawmakers lobby to curb bank rules ....In public letters and closed-door meetings, more than 100 lawmakers have appealed to the Federal Reserve and other authorities over the Volcker Rule, records show. 6. Wal-Mart is deleting the kindle from stores ....Retailers have been worried that displaying the new Kindles will encourage customers to browse in stores and then buy from online competitors instead, analysts said. 7. Tax credit in doubt, wind power industry is withering ....The American wind sector has been buffeted by weak demand for electricity, stiff competition from gas and uncertainty over a tax credit that has become a campaign wedge issue. 8. TV: The bodice ripper that started it all ....The rivalries and resentments that animate Homeland and Downton Abbey, among the best-drama nominees at the Emmy Awards, churned within a popular mini-series a decade ago, The Forsyte Saga. 9. To stay relevant in a career, workers train nonstop
[/img] 10. Califoria debt higher than earlier estimates, a task force reports....When Jerry Brown became governor of California he estimated the state’s debt at $28 billion, but that amount is now estimated to be as much as 12 times greater/ POLITICS: 1. Rommney's bad stretch puts a dent in his poll numbers....Recent surveys show Pres. Obama with more of an edge in key states following a series of flubs by his GOP opponent. a. Daunting path greets Romney before debate....There are 46 days left in this presidential race for Mitt Romney to change the dynamic of a campaign that by many indicators is tilting against him. b. Romney releases 2011 tax return....Mitt Romney paid 14.1% in taxes on his 2011 investment income, his campaign said, making good Friday on Mr. Romney’s promise to release his 2011 returns. 2. Obama's journey to tougher tack on a rising China....In the presidential campaign, China has become a focal point encompassing both security and economic concerns and highlighting the nations' complex, tense relationship. 3. For 1st time, gay marriage may win statewide vote....Polls show majorities back same-sex marriage in Maryland, Washington and Maine, and they indicate a tight battle in Minnesota – the four states holding votes on the issue in November. 4. Investigator finds Waters didn't violate ethics rules in bank caseThe findings, which still must be acted on by the Ethics Committee, represent some of the final steps in what has been a three-year investigation into Ms. Waters’s actions during the financial crisis. 5. Brown and Warren spar in tense televised debate over Massachusetts Senae seat....Senator Scott P. Brown and Elizabeth Warren traded accusations in the first of four encounters that could determine one of the hardest fought races in the country. 6. Day of political maneuvering and fights stalls Congress's close....Congress’s expected departure for the campaign trail was held up by the political fortunes of two senators battling for survival. 7. Bill to keep graduates in US fails in the House. ....A Republican bill to provide permanent resident visas for foreigners who graduate from American universities with advanced degrees in science and technology failed to pass the House. Sports Headlines: 1. NFL: Despite risks, NFL leaves helmet choices in players' hands....Even as head injuries have become a major concern, the NFL has not required players to wear helmet models that offer the best protection. a. Understudies play starring roles....Running back Andre Brown, who replaced the injured Ahmad Bradshaw, and receiver Ramses Barden, filling in for Hakeem Nicks, provided welcome support in the Giants' dominant 36-7 victory over the Panthers. b. With usual referees away, players try to stretch the rules....The National Football League's replacement referees struggled to control games in Week 2 more than they did in Week 1, perhaps because players tried to exploit their inexperience. 2. MLB: Melky Cabrera is out of race for batting title....It took a rule change, but Melky Cabrera, who is serving a 50-game suspension, will not be eligible for the National League batting title. 3. NHL: As lockout drags on, owners' resolve could be tested
....Six days into the National Hockey League lockout, a lost season and the prospects of losing the money and publicity from the Winter Classic could induce owners to settle for a deal. Today's Headlines of Interest: Life span drops sharply for least-educated whites....For generations of Americans, it was a given that children would live longer than their parents. But there is now mounting evidence that this enduring trend has reversed itself for the country’s least-educated whites, an increasingly troubled group whose life expectancy has fallen by four years since 1990. The reasons for the decline remain unclear, but researchers offered possible explanations, including a spike in prescription drug overdoses among young whites, higher rates of smoking among less educated white women, rising obesity, and a steady increase in the number of the least educated Americans who lack health insurance. The steepest declines were for white women without a high school diploma, who lost five years of life between 1990 and 2008, said S. Jay Olshansky, a public health professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the lead investigator on the study, published last month in Health Affairs. By 2008, life expectancy for black women without a high school diploma had surpassed that of white women of the same education level, the study found. Thought for Today"[W]hensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force." --[/i]Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), 3rd US President and a foudning father who drafted the Declaration of Independence,
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Post by Flying Horse on Sept 23, 2012 16:27:21 GMT -5
Constitution Week Good afternoon from Tuxy and me This is the 267th day of 2012 with 98 days left in the year. Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 5:27 p.m., it's mostly cloudy , temp 59ºF [Feels like 59ºF], winds WNW @ 9 mph, humidity 39%, pressure 30.07 in and steady, dew point 34ºF, chance of precipitation 20%.
Today in History: 64 BC--Caesar Augustus , 1st Roman Emperor, was born in Rome; died 14 AD at age 49. 1122--Holy Roman Emperor Henry V renounced the right of investiture in the Concordat of Worms. 1459--War of the Roses, the Yorkists defeated the Lancastrians at the Battle of Blore Heath. 1719--Liechtenstein became an independent principality within the Holy Roman Empire. 1779--John Paul Jones, commanding the Bonhomme Richard, beat the British ships Serapis and Countess of Scarborough off the eastern coast of England. 1803--the British under Arthur Wellesley routed Sindhia of Gwalior .s army at Assaye, India, in the 2nd British-Mahratta War. 1806--the Lewis and Clark expedition returned to St. Louis from exploring to and from the Pacific Northwest. 1817--Spain signed a treaty with Britain to end slave trade. 1838--Victoria Clafin Woodhull Martin, women's rights activist who ran for US presidency in 1872, was born; died 1927 age 88, 1845--standardized rules were established for baseball. 1846--German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle at the Berlin Observatory discovered the planet Neptune, becoming the 1sr planet discovered by mathematicl prediction. 1863--after the defeat of the Union army at Chickamauga, Gs., Lincoln planned to send reinforcements to Chattnooga, Tenn. 1875--Billy the Kid was arrested for the first time after stealing a basket of laundry. 1906--Devils Tower, a monolithic volcanic neck in the Black Hills of Wyoming, was declared the first US National Monument by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt. 1912--the first Mack Senett Keystone Kops movie was released. 1916--Aldo Moro, 5-time Italian premier; murdered 1978 at age 61 by terrorists. 1933--Standard Oil geologists arrive in Saudi Arabia to "explore and search for and drill and extract petroleum. 1939--Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, suffering from cancer, died at age 83 by assisted suicide (his friend and doctor administered an overdose of morphine). 1944--Pres. Roosevelt defended his dog, who had recently been the subject of a Republican political attack - "It's not enough they attack me. Now they must attack my small dog Fala." 1952--Republican vice-presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon went on television to deliver what came to be known as the “Checkers” speech as he denied allegations of improper campaign financing. 1957--nine black students who had entered Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas were forced to withdraw because of a white mob outside. 1962--The Jetsons debuted on ABC's Sunday night prime time lineup 1964--the Paris Opera unveiled a stunning new ceiling painted as a gift by Marc Chagall, who spent much of his life in France. 1966--a Rolling Stones concert at England's Royal Albert concert hall was halted temporarily when screaming girls attacked Mick Jagger onstage. 1969--the Chicago 8 trial opened in that city. 1973--Juan Peron was again elected president of Argentina after 18 years in exile. 1981--A two-month manhunt for Jack Henry Abbott, a murdering writer out on parole due to Norman Mailer, came to an end. 1987--Bob Fosse, choreographer married to Gwen Verdon, died from a heart attack at age 60. 1990---raq threatened to destroy Middle East oil fields and attack Israel if other nations tried to force it from Kuwait. 1991--44 UN inspectors were detained in Baghdad after attempting to remove secret Iraqi plans for building nuclear weapons. and releaed five days later. 1992--the worst storm in years struck southeastern France, triggering flash flooding that left 34 people dead and 50 missing. 1993--the Israeli Knesset approved the peace agreement with the Palestinian Liberation Organization. 1994--the movie The Shawshank Redemption, starring Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, made its debut. 1999--the Mars Climate Observer apparently burned up as it was about to go into orbit around the Red Planet. 1999--Russian planes began three days of attacks on various targets in Chechnya, in response to several bombings in Moscow and other Russian cities. 2003--Thai police reportedly foiled an al-Qaida plot to shoot down an El Al passenger jet with a surface-to-air missile at Bangkok's airport. 2004--Hurricane Jeanne struck Haiti causing over 3,000 deaths. 2005--a reported 24 people were killed when a bus carrying Texas nursing home evacuees from Hurricane Rita was destroyed by fire. 2007--Yasuo Fukuda, a long-time political force and son of a former prime minister, was chosen prime minister of Japan. 2008--a 22-year-old male student killed 11 fellow adult students and himself at a western Finland vocational college 205 miles north of Helsinki. 2010--Teresa Lewis, convicted of arranging for the murders of her husband and stepson, became the 1st woman executed by lethal injection in Virginia. 2011--the soap opera All My Children broadcast its final episode on ABC, ending a 41-year run .
World News Capsules: 1. In shark-infested waters, resolve of two giants is tested ....Nationalists in China and Japan have seized on a territorial dispute and placed it at the heart of the debate on the balance of power in the region. 2. Egypt's new leader spells out terms for US-Arab ties
....On the eve of his first trip to the US as Egypt’s president, Mohamed Morsi said the US must fundamentally change its approach to the Arab world. 3. Greenland's unfrozen future ....The surface of Greenland's massive ice sheet has melted this month over an unusually large area, Nasa has said., but the climate change could bring Jobs and prosperity. 4. Iran says nuclear equipment was sabotaged ....It accused the German technology company Siemens of planting tiny explosives inside equipment Iran bought for the disputed program, a charge Siemens denied. 5. Failed efforts and challenges of America's last months in Iraq ....With Iraq, the goal has been to leave a stable, representative government, avoid a power vacuum and maintain sufficient influence, but the Obama administration has fallen short of some of those objectives. 6. Two Islamist militias disband in Libya mid anger over killings ....The groups announced Sthat they were disbanding, bowing to a wave of anti-militia anger that has swept parts of the country since a deadly attack on an American diplomatic mission. 7. A tiny Mediterranean nation, awash in immigrants with nowhere to go ....Malta has the highest ratio of immigrants per capita of any European Union member, but it lacks the resources to house them and by law cannot let them move off the island. 8. In New York, reverence for Myanmar's opposition leader ....Burmese immigrants and visitors from as far away as Miami came to see Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who spoke at Queens College. 9. Pakistani minister offers bounty over anti-Islam video ....A cabinet minister offered a $100,000 reward for the death of the person behind the anti-Islam video made in the US that has roiled Muslims around the world. 10. With aid cutoff, Kremlin recalibrates
....The decision to terminate the US Agency for International Development’s programs marks the end of an extraordinary collaboration between the two cold war enemies. 11. Somali lawmaker slain ....Gunmen fatally shot the lawmaker, Mustaf Haji Mohamed, on Saturday, witnesses said, the first assassination of a member of the war-torn country’s newly appointed Parliament. 12. Rebels announce move of headquarters from Turkey to 'liberated' Syria territory ....The practical effect of a move to “liberated areas” of Syria by the main umbrella group for those fighting Pres. Assad remains unclear, and the new location carries risks. 13. Unlikely joint effort by US and Venezuela leads to a drug lord's arrest ....Venezuela’s national drug police took part in an operation directed from Washington to capture one of South America’s most wanted kingpins.
US News Capsules: 1. Power, pollution and the Internet
....Helping to process the staggering amount of Internet activity that occurs, data centers waste vast amounts of energy, belying the information industry's image of environmental friendliness. 2. Double payments bedevil veterans' pension system ....Technology and practices at the Department of Veterans Affairs that make it hard for some people to collect benefits apparently also result in overpayments. 3. In Kennedy recordings, history's raw materials ....Secret recordings made by Pres. Kennedy, which include Oval Office discussions about Cuba and space exploration, will now be made accessible to the general public. 4. University is uneasy as court ruling allows guns on campus
....Some faculty members warn of a climate of fear and intimidation if concealed weapons are permitted on the University of Colorado campus after a State Supreme Court ruling. 5. CEO's and the pay-'em-or-lose-;'em myth ....The argument that C.E.O.'s will leave if they aren't compensated well, perhaps even lavishly, is bogus, according to a new study. 6. Middle schools add a team rule: get a drug test
....Required screening for participation in athletics or other activities can begin early, despite debate over whether it deters abuse. 7. Tim Burton, at home in his own head ....The director of "Beetlejuice," "Batman" and the new "Frankenweenie" may be cinema's most widely embraced loner. 8. A violin once owned by Goebbels keeps its secrets ....A trail of whispers has followed the Japanese violinist Nejiko Suwa and her violin, a gift from Hitler's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. 9. Genetic study divides breast cancer into 4 distinct types ....New findings are reshaping the understanding of breast cancer, pointing to the use of drugs approved for other cancers. “This is the road map for how we might cure breast cancer in the future,” a researcher said. 10. Panda cub dies at Smithsonian's National Zoo. ....The giant panda cub born a week ago at the Smithsonian's National Zoo has died, officials said Sunday. Veterinarians at the zoo pronounced the cub dead at 10:28 a.m. Sunday, about an hour after volunteers and zookeepers heard its mother honk in distress. POLITICS:
1. An evangelical back from exile, lifting Romney ....Ralph Reed, who turned the Christian Coalition into a powerful political force, is planning a sophisticated, microtargeted get-out-the-evangelical-vote operation for Mitt Romney. 2. With rich donors, a more candid Romney emerges. ....Mitt Romney’s remarks at fund-raisers highlight the differences, both subtle and significant, in how he talks to voters and donors, his two key constituencies. 3. In Ryan country, Obama keeps up attack over '47 percent' remarks ....In Wisconsin, Pres. Obama said Mitt Romney’s vision for the country had no room for the middle class, the elderly, students or veterans
Sports Headlines: 1. NFL: In the NFL, the show goes on and on and on.....
....With two weeks of sluggish games already played, a question that strikes at the core of the NFL's appeal is being raised: Are the replacement officials diminishing the entertainment value? a. As punts get longer, so do returns ....Though punters are booting the ball farther than ever, returners scored 20 touchdowns in 2011, their 2nd-highest season total, and this year already have five 2. NCAAFB: Seminoles stand atop ACC after offense vs. offense duel
....Florida State amassed 667 yards on offense, rallying from a two-touchdown deficit, and beat Clemson in a matchup of top-10 teams to remain the only unbeaten team in the ACC. a. Notre Dame improves to 4-0 for the first time in a decade ....In a game that featured 8 turnovers — 6 by Michigan — and 10 penalties, Notre Dame made more than its fair share of mistakes in winning 13-6, but the Wolverines just made more. 3. MLB: Mets hang on 4-3 to give Dickey his 19th victory ....R. A. Dickey pitched into the ninth inning and strengthened his case for the National League Cy Young Award. a. Relocation of A's has all the plans but no permit ....Lew Wolff, the owner of the Oakland Athletics, said his team needed a new stadium in San Jose, Calif., to keep the club above baseball’s poverty line. 4. NHL: Exploring Europe's options as NHL players seek work ....The NHL may be in the throes of another lockout, but leagues in Europe are up and running, with many players from North America jumping across the Atlantic. a. Boogaard's parents file lawsuit against the NHL Players' Association ....The parents of Derek Boogaard say the union, after initial discussions with them after Boogaard’s death, did not meet a deadline to file a grievance seeking the final three years of his Ranger salary. 5. Horse Racing: At the track, racing economics collide with veterinarians' oath
....Horse-racing veterinarians are both doctor and drugstore; the more drugs they prescribe, the more money they make, 6. Golf: Snedeker grabs a lead; now he'll try to keep it
....Brandt Snedeker shot a six-under-par 64 that catapulted him into a first-place tie at eight-under 202 with the midway leader Justin Rose in the third round of the Tour Championship.
Thought for Today "Try to make people moral, and you lay the groundwork for vice." --Lao-Tzu (570-490 BC) founder of Taoism. Source: Tao Te Ching
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Post by Flying Horse on Sept 24, 2012 17:18:04 GMT -5
National Punctuation Day Good afternoon from Tuxy and me This is the 268th day of 2012 with 97 days left in the year. Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 3:15 p.m., it's partly cloudy , temp 50ºF [Feels like 50ºF], winds SW @ 9 mph, humidity 68%, pressure 30.16 in and steady, dew point 40ºF, chance of precipitation 10%.
Today in History: 622--the prophet Muhammad completed his Hegira, or "flight," from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution. 768--Pepin the Short, King of the Franks and father of Charlemagne, died, 1493--Christopher Columbus' left on his 2nd expedition to the New World. 1664--The Netherlands surrendered New Amsterdam to England. 1755--John Marshall, congressman, secretary of state and the 4th chief justice of the United States, was born in Germantown, Va.; died 1835 at age 79 1776--the Continental Congress prepared instructions for negotiating a treaty with France. 1780--Benedict Arnold escaped to the British after his attempt to betray West Point. 1789--Congress created the US Post Office and passed the First Judiciary Act, which provided for an attorney general and a Supreme Court. 1838--the Anti-Corn-Law League formed to repeal English Corn Law. 1852--Henri Giffard, a French engineer, made the first powered flight in a dirigible. 1869--financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk tried to corner the gold market, sending Wall Street into a panic and leaving thousands of investors in financial ruin. 1890--faced with the eminent destruction of their church and way of life, Mormon leaders reluctantly issue the "Mormon Manifesto" in which they commanded all Latter-day Saints to uphold the anti-polygamy laws of the nation. 1896--F. Scott Fitzgerald, the famed American novelist of the Jazz Age, was born; died 1940 at age 44. 1918--Bulgaria sought a ceasefire with the Allied powers. 1941--the Japanese gathered preliminary data on Pearl Harbor. 1948--the Honda Motor Company was incorporated. 1957--the Brooklyn Dodgers played their last game at Ebbets Field before moving to Los Angeles. 1959--Pres. Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev met at Camp David, Md. 1960--the USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was launched at Newport News, Va. 1961--Bullwinkle J. Moose and friend, Rocket J. "Rocky" Squirrel, were first seen in prime time on NBC-TV in The Bullwinkle Show. 1963--the United States Senate ratified a treaty with Britain and the USSR that limited nuclear testing. 1964--the Warren Commission report on the Kennedy assassination was delivered to Pres. Johnson. 1966--"Last Train To Clarksville" gave the made-for-TV Monkees a real-life pop hit. 1966--Hurricane Inez battered the Caribbean. 1968--60 Minutes, the longest-running newsmagazine on television, premiered on CBS. The counter-culture police television drama, The Mod Squad, debuted on ABC. 1976--newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison for her part in a 1974 bank robbery with her former captors, the Symbionese LIberation Army. 1977--The Love Boat left port on ABC-TV. 1988--Canadian Ben Johnson set a new world record of 9.79 seconds for the 100 meters at the Olympic Games in Seoul. Six days later he was stripped of his medal for taking drugs. 1990--Saturn's Great White Spot (formed by periodic storms large enough to be visible by telescop from Earth) was observed. 1993--Norodom Sihanouk was reinstalled as King of Cambodia after the National Assembly voted to restore the monarchy. 1993--South African black leader Nelson Mandela called for the lifting of remaining international economic sanctions against South Africa. 1994--it was reported that CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames had exposed 55 secret US and allied operations to the Soviet Union. 1995--30 years of Israeli occupation of West Bank cities ended with the signing of a pact by Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. 1995--13 people were killed in the southern French town of Cuers when Eric Borel, 16, ran amok with a rifle a day after he had killed three members of his family. 1996--the US and the world’s other major nuclear powers signed a treaty to end all testing and development of nuclear weapons. 1998--Iran's foreign minister announced that its 1989 call for the death of Salman Rushdie for his The Satanic Verses was dropped. 2002--armed assailants killed 29 people and wounded 75 in an attack on a Hindu temple in Gandhinagar, India. 2006-- Shortly after Katrina, Hurricane Rita came ashore near the Texas-Louisiana state line. 2006--a report said the war in Iraq had fueled global terrorism by fanning Islamic radicalism and creating new types of lethal terror methods. 2007--United Auto Workers walked off the job at GM plants in the first nationwide strike since 1976. (A tentative pact ended the walkout two days later/)
World News Capsules: 1. Belarus votes as Europe keeps a watch for signs that sanctions can end ....The question was not whether President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko’s supporters would continue to dominate Parliament, but whether electoral changes would pass muster with the European Union/ 2. Police chief in Chinese murder scandal convicted and sentenced to 15 years ....The Chinese authorities announced the guilty verdict for Wang Lijun, who exposed the slaying of a British businessman by a senior politician’s wife. a. Foxconn plant closed after riot, company says ....A spokesman said a fight among employees on Sunday night turned into a riot that had to be broken up by thousands of police officers. 3. A melting Greenland weighs perils against potential
....As warming temperatures are upending traditional Greenlandic life, they are also offering up intriguing new opportunities. 4. Iran's president, in New York, says Israelis have no Mideast roots
....Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Israelis have no historical roots in the Middle East and that the existence of Israel is just a passing phase in the region’s long history. 5. Former Israeli premier gets suspended sentence ....Ehud Olmert, a former prime minister of Israel, was sentenced by a Jerusalem court to a one-year suspended jail term and a maximum fine of about $19,000 for breach of trust. a. Israeli defense chief proposes West Bank pullout ....The defense minister, Ehud Barak, called for a unilateral pullout from much of the West Bank, in comments published in the Israel Hayom newspaper, saying Israel must take “practical steps” if peace efforts with the Palestinians remain stalled. b. Sinai group claims role in attack on Israel. ....An obscure militant group based in the Sinai region claimed responsibility for a cross-border attack Friday that killed an Israeli soldier. 6. Deadly attack in Libya was major blow to CIA efforts
....Among personnel pulled from Benghazi after the assault on the American mission were intelligence operatives and contractors who were crucial to surveillance on militants. a. Government issues order to disband Libya forces ....Libya’s interim government ordered the breakup of all militias that do not fall under its authority, and demanded that those militias pull out of military compounds and public property within 48 hours. 7. New Syria envoy gives bleak appraisal as warplanes hit Aleppo
....Lakhdar Brahimi, the new Syria peace envoy, told Security Council diplomats that there was no immediate prospect for a diplomatic breakthrough. 8. Opening of UN General Assembly session ....World leaders gather in New York as the UN General Assembly opens. Pres. Mohamed Morsi of Egypt speaks to The New York Times ahead of his first speech at the United Nations.. 9. Vietnam convicts 3 bloggers for anti-government posts ....A Vietnamese court issued jail sentences ranging from four to 12 years to three bloggers who wrote about human rights abuses, corruption and foreign policy.
US News Capsules: 1. Liking it or not, states prepare for health law ....A handful of states whose Republican governors oppose Pres. Obama's health care overhaul are working to have an insurance exchange ready before the deadline next month to create one. 2. A manager of overseas crises, as much as the world permits ....Gray-suited, meticulous and little known to the public, Tom Donilon is Pres. Obama's national security adviser and central figure in American foreign policy. 3. Data barns in a farm town, gobbling power and flexing muscle ....When Internet factories come to town, they can feel less like their sleek, clean and convenient image and more like old-time manufacturing. 4. referendum may offer answer ....Chicago's fight may be over, but in Idaho, the debate over schools has morphed into a harsh discussion about whom the voters should trust. 5. Television's fall season endures ....The idea of a fall season of TV premieres, originally tied to the model year for cars, has survived changing viewer habits and the constant flow of new cable programs. 6. Apple's feud with Google is now felt on iPhone ....Once the best of friends, Google and Apple are battling in courtrooms and in the consumer marketplace, with iPhone users in the cross-fire after Apple removed Google's maps app and YouTube. 7. Homeland takes emmys for drama[/u] ....At the "Primetime Emmy Awards" on Sunday Showtime's new thriller Homeland ended the Mad Men winning streak for best drama, but ABC's Modern Family maintained its grip on best comedy. a. Cable television casts shadow over networks....The evening was like a cable eclipse of the networks — not a single network show was nominated for best drama. 8. Public television takes role in curbing dropout rates....More than 100 public television stations showed a seven-hour telethon on Saturday that asked viewers to work with community organizations to lower the nation's high school dropout rate. 9. Mobile services and cable TV are unexpected allies....A little-noticed result of Verizon’s $3.9 billion airwave purchase is that cable companies can now use the carrier’s retail presence to sell cable packaged with phone and wireless service. 10. Teachers' unions court GOP....The unions are navigating a delicate political landscape where, after being challenged by old allies, they increasingly pursue friends in unlikely places. 11. Panda cub that died had liver abnormalities....As condolences poured in from around the world, National Zoo officials waited Monday for word on why a 6-day-old panda cub died and lamented a heartbreaking setback to their closely watched breeding program. POLITICS: 1. Obama and Romney offer a possible preview of their first debate....In separate interviews for the CBS News program 60 Minutes, the candidates criticized each other over foreign and domestic policies. 2. More and more, in Obama's corner....Barack Obama split the baby boomer vote in 2008, but recent polls show him leading Mitt Romney in that age group. 3. Running as outsiders, with a catch: They're in....Members of Congress would prefer not to advertise it — they are doctors and cowboys and anything else, while their opponents are Washington insiders. 4. Conservatives want to 'Let Ryan be Ryan' on campaign trail....Rep. Paul D. Ryan’s slow fade into the afterthought role usually played by running mates has given Republicans a new outlet for frustration over the state of the race. Thought for Today"The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity." --[/i]James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) author
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Post by Flying Horse on Sept 26, 2012 19:31:36 GMT -5
Yom Kippur
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me This is the 270th day of 2012 with 95 days left in the year. Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 8:28 p.m., it's cloudy , temp 67ºF [Feels like 67ºF], winds SW @ 6 mph, humidity 73%, pressure 29.98 in and steady, dew point 58ºF, chance of precipitation .0%.
Today in History: 1087--King William II, son of William the Conqueror, was crowned King of England. 1580--English privateer, Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe on The Golden Fleece in 33 months. 1687--the Acropolis in Athens was attacked by the Venetian army trying to eject the Turks, badly damaging the entrance and the Parthenon. 1776--the Continental Congress Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee as agents to negotiate a treaty with France. 1789--Thomas Jefferson was appointed America's first secretary of state and John Jay the first chief justice. 1820--the famous frontiersman Daniel Boone died in Missouri. 1835--Gaetano Donizetti composed Lucia de Lammermoor, one of opera's greatest tragic love stories. 1864--Confederate troops began an attack against Fort Davidson, Mo. 1892--John Phillip Sousa and his band presented their first public concert, playing Sousa's "Liberty Bell March." 1897--Paul VI, Pope of the Roman Catholic Church (1963-1978), was born; died 1978 at age 80. 1907--New Zealand, which had been a colony of Great Britain, became a dominion. 1914--the Federal Trade Commission was established 1918--French and US troops attacked German lines to begin the battle of the Meuse-Argonne Forest in World War I. 1944-- Operation Market-Garden, a plan to seize bridges in the Dutch town of Arnhem, failed, as 1000s of British and Polish troops were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. 1950--UN troops recaptured the South Korean capital of Seoul from the North Koreans. 1957--West Side Story, composed by Leonard Bernstein, opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway, running for 734 performances. 1960--the first televised debate between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy took place in Chicago. 1962--the Soviet Union made an offer to end the Cuban Missile Crisis by taking its missile bases out of Cuba if the U.S. agreed to not invade Cuba. 1962--The Beverly Hillbillies debuted on CBS-TV. 1969--the 13th and final Beatles album Abbey Road was released. 1969--The Brady Bunch, a sitcom that will become an icon of American pop culture, aired for the first time. 1971--Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer won his 20th game of the year, becoming the fourth Orioles pitcher to win 20 games in that season. 1986--William H. Rehnquist was sworn in as the 16th chief justice, while Antonin Scalia joined the Supreme Court as an associate justice. 1996--Shannon Lucid returns to Earth in the shuttle Atlantis following six months in orbit aboard the Russian space station. 2000--Slobodan Milosevic conceded that Vojislav Kostunica had finished first in Yugoslavia's presidential election, but declared a runoff, prompting mass protests leading to his ouster. 2002--a ferry from Senegalsank off the Gambian coast and only 84 out of 1,000+ passengers were rescued, making it one of the worst maritime disasters in history. 2005--Army Pfc. Lynndie England was convicted by a military jury on six counts stemming from the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. 2005--international weapons inspectors announced the Irish Republican Army's full disarmament. 2007--a mistrial was declared in the Phil Spector murder case. 2007--Myanmar began a violent crackdown on protests, beating and dragging away dozens of monks. 2008--screen legend, businessman and philanthropist Paul Newman died.
World News Capsules: 1. After a sputtering start, the Louvre Abu Dhabi project gathers pace ....The global financial crisis bit hard, but the Gulf museum is offering some views before its scheduled completion in 2015. 2. Training Afghan allies, with guard firmly up ....After recent attacks by Afghan forces against Western soldiers and Marines, American military advisers are extremely wary, laying bare the challenge of preparing the Afghans to fight on their own. 3. Turnover at top paralyzes China as it faces economic crisis ....China’s Communist Party appears so distracted by its leadership transition that it is not pursuing the bold agenda that may be necessary to prevent severe economic pain. a. China launches carrier, but experts doubt its worth ....Beijing put its first aircraft carrier into service, a move intended to signal its growing military might. 4. Egypt and Yemen, at UN, urge curbs on free speech
....Two new Middle Eastern leaders, despite being swept to power by popular uprisings, issued rebuttals to Pres. Obama’s defense of Western values at the UN. a. Millionaire's love for art spawns plan for east-west dialogue
....Shafik Gab, the Egyptian millionaire, has financed a series of international panel discussions on themes of “cultural exchange and Orientalism.”. 5. Proposal sets circumcision regulations in Germany ....The proposal comes in response to calls by lawmakers for legal clarity in the wake of a regional court ruling that equated the practice of ritual circumcision with bodily injury to minors. 6. Former Murdoch aides appear in court ....Two of the most senior former executives at newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch, both close at one time to Prime Minister David Cameron, were set to appear in court. 7. European markets jolted amid protests in Greece and Spain
....Trade unions in Greece called a nationwide strike to contest new cuts being discussed by the government, and protesters in Spain surrounded Parliament for a second day over the prime minister’s austerity program. 8. Japan's opposition picks Nationalist ex-premier as leader ....Shinzo Abe won the race to lead Japan’s Liberal Democractic Party, giving him a chance of regaining the nation’s top job. 9. Clinton sees link to Qaida offshoot in deadly Libya ttack ....Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested that an affiliate of Al Qaida in North Africa was behind the attack on the US mission in Benghazi that killed four Americans. 10. Myanmar opposition leader not bitter about past ....Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Myanmar opposition leader and Nobel laureate, said in an interview that she bore no ill will toward the generals who have gradually relaxed their grip on the country. a. In battling mine project in Myanmar, a 'Iron Ladies' rise ....Aye Net and Thwe Thwe Win, the daughters of farmers, have rocketed to national prominence for their defiance of a copper mining project run by the Myanmar military and its Chinese partner. 11. Priest investigated in ivory-smuggling inquiry in Philippines ....The investigation was prompted by an article in National Geographic that quotes Msgr. Cristóbal Garcia as telling an American reporter how to smuggle illegal figurines into the US. 12. South African firebrand is charged with money laundering ....Julius Malema, the former leader of the African National Congress youth wing, is charged in connection with state contracts with an engineering company linked to him. 13. In Spain, austerity and hunger ....As Spain tries to meet its budget targets, it has been forced to introduce one austerity measure after another. a. Protesters take to street in Madrid
....Thousands besieged Parliament as Spain's two largest regions posed challenges to the country's leadership. 14. Correspondent for Iranian TV killed after blasts rock Syrian military site
....Large explosions at a military site in the Syrian capital were followed by a gunfight that left an Iranian television correspondent dead, his station reported. 15. As refugees flood Turkey, asylum system nears breakdown ....A United Nations agency helps some resettle, but many decide instead to fend for themselves.
US News Capsules: 1. UN leader opens General Assembly on somber note ....The secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said conflicts roiling the Middle East were a major concern. 2. Obama tells UN new democracies need free speech
....Pres. Obama used his last major address on a global stage before the November election to deliver a defense of freedom of speech, challenging fledgling democracies to ensure that right. 3. Taxes threaten an island culture in Georgia
....Increasing economic pressures are forcing the saltwater Geechees of Sapelo Island, Ga., to wonder if their fragile community will finally succumb to cultural erosion. 4. Deportation deferrals put employers of immigrants in a bind ....Asked by program applicants to verify a job, farmers and small businesses are worried about exposing themselves to prosecution for hiring illegal workers. 5. Seeking cures, patients enlist mice stand-ins ....In what could be the ultimate in personalized medicine, animal models, referred to by researchers as avatars, are being used to help determine the best treatment for a patient, 6. An electric carmaker struggles as its production lags ....To ease a financial crisis, Tesla, the maker of a high-performance electric car, said it had renegotiated the terms of an energy loan from the government, 7. Home prices rise again, this time on the low end
....The housing market is still gathering strength, new data showed, and the gains appear to be spreading even to the cheapest homes in many cities, 8. Fraternity suspended for alcohol enemas
....The University of Tennessee says it suspended a fraternity chapter indefinitely after a student was hospitalized following an alcohol enema. POLITICS: 1. Test for Obama as deficit stays over $1 trillion ....Pres. Obama and Mitt Romney have very different ideas on reducing the budget deficit, but experts have doubts that either plan is up to the challenge. 2. Polls show Obama is widening his lead in Ohio and Florida ....Mitt Romney's burden is no longer to win over undecided voters, but also to woo back the voters who seem to be growing a little comfortable with the idea of a second Obama term. 3. House panel recommends new rules on ethics ....After concluding its investigation of Rep. Maxine Waters, the panel advocated a tightening of rules to prevent conflicts of interest and to keep partisan politics out of future inquiries, 4. One coalition stays true to Todd Akin: home-schoolers ....Mitt Romney’s burden is no longer to win undecided voters, but also to woo back those who seem to be growing a little comfortable with the idea of a second term for Pres. Obama. 5. A GOP reunion, with plans for more togetherness ....The Republican ticket will start campaigning together more often, which suggests that aides fear that Mitt Romney, on his own, is not generating enough attention and excitement.
Sports Headlines: 1. NFL: NFL and referees are close to a deal
....The NFL and the referees’ union are close to reaching an agreement to end the lockout, but a remaining issue is how quickly the regular NFL referees can return to work. 2. MLB: Sabathia gives Yankees' bullpen a break
....C. C. Sabathia (14-6) struck out 10 in eight solid innings as the Yankees moved closer to clinching the American League East, beating the Twins 8-2. a. Sizing up a crown that is rarely worn ....The Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera is tantalizingly close to doing what Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron could not: enter baseball’s musty triple crown fraternity, which has admitted no new members in 45 years. b. Atlanta Braves early clinch paying dividends
....The Braves will all but certainly play the NL Wild Card game at home and are now in position to set up their rotation as they want, while Joe Posnanski points out that the AL contenders have no such luxury c. CNN or MLB Network? ....Every four years, the nation’s capital is consumed by a presidential race. For the first time since 1933, a baseball team has given journalists, pundits and politicians a second pennant chase to obsess over. 3. Ryder Cup: Out of the pool, Phelps finds hte water at Medinah ....Michael Phelps, the 22-time Olympic swimming medalist, played in Tuesday’s celebrity scramble at Medinah Country Club, where the Ryder Cup will begin on Friday. a. Belgian has come a long way to hit it a long way ....Nicolas Colsaerts’s road to the Ryder Cup was not a straight shot. He qualified for the European Tour at 18, then dropped to 1,305th in the world before becoming the first Belgian to qualify for this week’s tournament.
Thought for Today "Humankind cannot take too much reality." ..'/i]T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) American-born English poet and playwright.
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Post by Flying Horse on Sept 27, 2012 16:49:24 GMT -5
Ancestor Appreciation Day
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me This is the 271st day of 2012 with 94 days left in the year. Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 5:41 p.m., it's fair , temp 63ºF [Feels like 63ºF], winds variable @ 5 mph, humidity 48%, pressure 30.20 in and rising, dew point 4.ºF, chance of precipitation 0%.
Today in History: 1540--the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits--a Roman Catholic missionary organization--received its charter from Pope Paul III. 1590--Pope Urban VII diesd13 days after being elected pope, making his the shortest papal reign in history. 1779--the Continental Congress appointed John Adams to travel to France as minister plenipotentiary in charge of negotiating treaties of peace and commerce with Great Britain. On the same day, John Jay was apppointed minister to Spain. 1822--Jean-Francois Champollion ,(rench classical scholar, announced that he had deciphered the Rosetta Stone . 1825--the first locomotive to haul a passenger train was operated by George Stephenson in England. 1854--sudden and heavy fog caused two ships to collide, killing 322 people off the coast of Newfoundland. 1864--William "Bloody Bill" Anderson's Confederate guerillas sack edCentralia, Mo., killing 22 and wounding over 100 Union troops. 1869--Sheriff Wild Bill Hickok proved too wild for Hays City, Kan. 1920--Jayne Meadows, actress, wife of comedian Steve Allen and sister of fellow actress Audrey Meadows (The Honeymooners), turns 92. 1928--the US recognized the Nationalist Chinese government. 1937--the Bali Tiger (a subspecies of tiger found solely on the small Indonesian island of Bali) was declared extinct. 1938--Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt appealed to Hitler for peace. 1939--Poland surrendered to the German blitzkrieg and invading Soviet forces. 1940--the Tripartite Pact is signed by Germany, Italy, and Japan. 1954--Tonight! hosted by Steve Allen, made its debut on NBC-TV. 1960--Sylvia Pankhurst, British suffragette and international socialist, died in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the age of 78. 1964--the Warren Commission reported that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in assassinating Pres. Kennedy. 1967--a French television network began to broadcast the first (and only) season of the American sitcom My Mother, The Car, which the 2002 TV Guide named the 2nd-worst television show of all time. (First on the list was The Jerry Springer Show.) 1969--Hair (The musical) opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London and ran until July 1973 when a roof collapse forced closure. 1987--mudslides in slum areas of Medellin, Colombia, killed up to 500 people. 1989--Zsa Zsa Gabor, on trial for slapping a police officer, stormsed out of the courtroom in the middle of the district attorney's closing argument. 1991--the US Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked, 7-7, on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. 1994--over 350 Republican congressional candidates signed the "Contract with America," a 10-point platform they pledged to enact if voters sent a GOP majority to the US House. 1996--the F. Scott Fitzgerald stamp was issued by the US Post Office. 1999--operatic tenor Placido Domingo breaks Caruso's record 17 opening-nights at the Metropolitan Opera with his 18th opener. 2003--Pres. Bush and Russian Pres. Putin said they would join forces to oppose nuclear proliferation in Iran and North Korea. 2007--nine people were reported killed and another 100 injured as the Myanmar military junta sought to break up nine days of demonstrations by Buddhist monks and nuns. 2008--a bomb made of more than 400 pounds of explosives killed 17 people near a Shiite shrine in Damascus.
World News Capsules: 1. In Afghanistan, American trainers kep their armor on ....In the field, where small teams of American advisers are now working with Afghan units, even minor misunderstandings are treated as potentially violent confrontations. 2. Chinese scientist finds no evidence of cyanide poisoning in trial testimony
....The government scientist said testimony in the trial of Gu Kailai, the wife of a disgraced politician, did not show that Neil Heywood, a British businessman, was poisoned by cyanide. 3. Europe to seek sanctions against US over Boeing subsidies
....In the latest move in a seven-year dispute, the European Union said it would ask the World Trade Organization for permission to levy up to $12 billion in sanctions. 4. Greek coalition claims progress on austerity talks
....As the country's leaders prepared for negotiations with international lenders, leaders on the left warned that they would oppose across-the-board cuts to salaries and pensions. a. Tensions intensify in Greece ....Clashes erupted in central Athens and across Greece on Wednesday as trade unions called a nationwide strike to contest new salary and pension cuts being discussed by the government and its international creditors/ 5. Netanyahu warns Iran is close to making a bomb
....Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told the UN that he believes Iran’s ability to make an atomic weapon will be irreversible by next spring or summer. a. Israeli foreign ministry calls for more sanctions on Iran ....A leaked report appears to be a rare Israeli acknowledgment that there might be time to halt the Iranian nuclear program without military action. 6. Italian premier says he'd consider another term ....Mario Monti said he would think about leading another Italian government if elections scheduled for next spring do not produce a strong majority for any party coalition. 7. Myanmar leader praises Aung San Sun Kyi at UN ....Presi. Thein Sein of Myanmar said his country has taken irreversible steps toward democracy and paid unprecedented public tribute to opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. 8. Philippine priest facing scrutiny over ivory and abuse ....Msgr. Cristóbal Garcia, accused of ivory smuggling, is also under investigation by the Vatican in connection with unrelated allegations of sexual abuse, a church spokesman said. 9. Russians eagerly participate in medical experiments, despite risks ....Even though tests sometimes go awry, patients in Russia are eager to join drug trials because often they are the only way to receive modern medical care. 10. Spain unveils sweeping budet cuts ....The budget involves an average cut of almost 9% in the spending of each government ministry next year. Civil servants, meanwhile, will have their salaries frozen for a third consecutive year. a. In Spain, austerity and hunger
....As Spain tries to meet its budget targets, it has been forced to introduce one austerity measure after another. 11. Sudan and South Sudan sign cooperation deal
....The agreement signed by the two countries’ leaders should permit oil exports to resume, which its economies desperately need, but leaves important issues unresolved. 12. Rebels make gains in blunting Syrian air attacks
....For the rebels, managing to deny the use of an important airfield has undermined the government’s ability to exert its full authority in some parts of the country. a. UN says Syrian refugee numbers are surging ....The number of Syrians fleeing to neighboring countries for safety and aid is likely to exceed 700,000 by the end of the year, humanitarian agencies said.
US News Capsules: 1. Budget cuts to archives put history out of rach ....As Georgia's state archives prepares to reduce its staff and accessibility drastically next month, archivists worry about a long-term impact on public records nationwide. 2. In Texas conviction, an immigrant rallying cry
....Rosa Jimenez, an illegal Mexican immigrant in a Texas prison for a crime she says she did not commit, has become a cause célèbre for critics of the American criminal justice system. 3. Resort's snow won't be pure this year, it'll be sewage ....Arizona Snowbowl will become the first ski resort in the world to use 100 % sewage effluent to make artificial snow. Members of the Navajo tribe say the snow will ruin sacred ground. 4. Toyota moves to revamp its lexis luxury line ....After falling behind from a product shortage, the automaker is planning to rejuvenate its Lexus brand by making the line more appealing to younger and more adventurous buyers. 5. Two faces of national security on Homeland[/u] ....The second season of Homeland, which begins on Showtime on Sunday, has to pry even deeper into its entwined and deeply damaged protagonists without burning out their mystery. 6. Decorated general charged with violations of military law....Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair, the former deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, has been charged with forcible sodomy, wrongful sexual conduct and other violations. 7. Cyberwarfare emerges from shadows for public discussion by US officials....The federal government’s announcement of a program to enlist contractors to develop technology is seen as a turning point in a long-secret program. POLITICS: 1. Election may decide when interrogation amounts to torture....The future of American government practices when interrogating high-level terrorism suspects appears likely to turn on the outcome of the presidential race. 2. Republicans intensify drive to win over Jewish voters....In battleground states like Florida, Ohio and Nevada, Republicans are trying to persuade Jewish voters who might typically be expected to support Democrats to vote for Mitt Romney. a. Romney ad reaches out to working class....Mitt Romney stepped up his efforts to repair the damage from his “47 percent” comments, trying to reassure voters that he cares about the poor and middle class. 3. 'Super PACs' finally a draw for Democrats....With the election just weeks away, Democratic “super PACs” are finally getting the kind of wealthy donors who have made Republican outside groups a pivotal force in the campaign. Sports Headlines: 1. NFL: The NFL reaches labor deal with referess....With a new 8-year deal in place, regular officials will work Thursday's Ravens-Browns game, and the officials' union will vote Friday to ratify the contract and work Sunday's games. 2. NHL Boogaard lawsuit may shake up hockey....A lawsuit filed by Derek Boogaard's family accuses the players union of squandering a chance at a financial claim. But it also contains serious charges that could be explored. 3. NBA: Barclays Arean rivals the Garden's glow....Big-name performers are adding tour dates at the Nets new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where costs can be lower and profit margins higher than at Madison Square Garden. Today's Headlines of Interest: Rare albino whale puts on a show off Australian coastA rare white whale, nicknamed "Migaloo" by researchers is thrilling Australians off the eastern coast. Albino whales are rare and Migaloo is the only documented all-white humpback adult, according to Peter Harrison, director of marine ecology research at Southern Cross University in Australia. Migaloo was first seen in 1991 when he was a juvenile, Harrison says, and researchers believe he is now in his 20s. The humpbacks are on their annual migration from their breeding grounds along the Great Barrier Reef back to feed in the Antarctic. Migaloo is expected to pass by Cape Byron, the easternmost point in Australia, in the coming hours after passing by Surfer's Paradise, says Oskar Peterson, who runs a website that tracks sightings of white whales. Male humpbacks can travel up to 140 kilometers (87 miles) a day during their migration, according to experts. But they often hang around Cape Byron searching for mates, so whale watchers may see the albino humpback for a few more days, Harrison says. He warns fans to steer clear -- at least 500 meters away at all times -- to ensure the whale's survival. Too much noise and chasing can disturb him and cause him to use precious energy he needs for migration. Whale watchers may be able to enjoy Migaloo for decades. Humpback whales are believed to survive as long as 90 years in the wild, Harrison says. Thought for Today"We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves." ..[/i]Henri Frederic Amiel (1821-1881) Swiss writer.
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Post by Flying Horse on Sept 28, 2012 16:38:54 GMT -5
World Rabies Day Good afternoon from Tuxy and me This is the 272md day of 2012 with 93 days left in the year. Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 5:37 p.m., it's cloudy , temp 54ºF [Feels like 54ºF], winds NNW @ 5 mph, humidity 94%, pressure 30.06 in and steady, dew point 52ºF, chance of precipitation 20%.
Today in History: 48 BC--oafter losing his battle with Caesar, Pompey the Great, Roman general and statesman, landed in Egypt where he was assassinated on the orders of King Ptolemy. 935--Saint Wenceslas, Duke of Bohemia, was murdered by his brother, Boleslaus I of Bohemia. 1066--claiming he had a right to the English throne, William, Duke of Normandy, invaded England. 1542--Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed into present-day San Diego Bay during the course of his explorations of the northwest shores of Mexico on behalf of Spain. 1643--25-year-old English poet John Milton's masque, Comus with its theme of evil vs. good, was performed. 1745--the British national anthem, "God Save the King/Queen," had its first public performance at the Drury Lane Theatre in London. 1781--the last battle of the Amerian Revolution began at Yorktown, Va. 1850--flogging was abolished as a form of punishment in the US Navy. 1863--Union Generals Alexander M. McCook and Thomas Crittenden were ordered to Indianapolis, Ind., to face a court of inquiry following the Federal defeat at the battle of Chickamauga in Georgia. 1891--Herman Melville. author best known for his novel Moby Dick, died at his home in New York City at age 72. 1895--Louis Pasteur, French chemist and microbiologist best known for his Pasteurization process, died near Paris from a series of strokes. 1918--the flu pandemic hit Philadelphia, Pa. 1920--a grand jury indicted eight Chicago White Sox players for throwing the 1919 World Series with the Cincinnati Reds. 1924--two US Army planes landed in Seattle, Wash., having completed the first round-the-world flight in 175 days. 1928--Sir Alexander Fleming noticed a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory discovering what is now known as penicillin. 1941--Ted Williams played the last day of the season and gets six hits in eight trips to the plate, to boost his batting average to .406 and become the first player since Bill Terry in 1930 to hit .400 and the last to do so. 1962--Padding Tram Depot, Brisbane, Australia, iwadestroyed by fire along with 65 trams. 1968--in Vietnam the battle for Thuong Duc began. 1982--reports appeared of deaths in the Chicago area from Extra-strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide. seven died and the unsolved case resulted in tamper-proof packaging for consumer products. 1989--Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos died in exile in Hawaii. 1991--famed jazz trumpeter Miles Davis died. 1994--the Estonia disaster occurred on the ferry's crossing of the Baltic Sea to Stockholm when it takes on water and capsizes with 852 perisheding. 1995--Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat signed phase two of their peace agreement in Washington . 2003--legendary Broadway and film director Elia Kazan died at his home in New York City at the age of 94. 2004--the price of oil topped $50 a barrel for the first time in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. 2006--to boost support for the Afghan government, NATO voted to dramatically expand operations in Afghanistan. 2008--US congressional negotiators and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson agreed on a $700 billion banking industry bailout plan that gave the Treasury unprecedented authority, including the ability to buy a range of troubled financial assets.
World News Capsules: 1. Ousted from party in China, Bo Xilai faces prosecution
....Beijing officials announced Friday that the disgraced politician had been expelled from the Communist Party and would be prosecuted on criminal charges. The state news agency also said the party congress was scheduled for Nov. 8. a. China alters its strategy in diplomatic crisis with Japan ....There are hints that the government was tacitly encouraging the nationalistic demonstrations against a former enemy, and has now decided to rein them in. 2. White House move to give Egypt $450 million in aid meets resistance ....Lawmakers in Congress wary of foreign aid in general, and of Egypt’s new leadership in particular, protested the infusion of cash. 3. Hollande's new budget focuses on cutting France's deficit ....Although he was elected on a pro-growth platform, the first budget from Pres. François Hollande instead emphasizes freezing government spending and raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy. 4. Merkel's former finance minister to run agains her
....Many Germans remember Peer Steinbrück as a quick-witted and effective finance minister in the early days of the euro zone debt crisis. 5. Greece agrees on new package of budget cuts and taxes ....The Greek government’s proposal — $15 billion in cuts and $2.6 billion in new taxes — could set off a new wave of protests. 6. Iran envoy is assaulted by protesters near the UN ....A spokesman for the Iranian Mission at the UN was shoved and shouted at by a small group of Iranian exiles protesting a speech at the General Assembly by Iran’s president. 7. Militants attack Iraqi prison and kill 15 police officers ....A group of militants laid siege to a prison near Tikrit and an ensuing gun battle left at least 15 police officers dead and more than 80 prisoners on the loose, officials said. 8. Netanyahu's bomb diagram stirs confusion in Israel
....Did the “90 percent” on the prime minister’s cartoonish bomb drawing refer generally to Iranian progress or specifically to levels of uranium enrichment? Interpretations differed. 9. Osaka mayor's radical message has broad appeal in a weary Japan ....The charisma of Toru Hashimoto, Osaka’s new mayor, has made a new party a feared force in Japanese politics, seemingly overnight. 10. Kenya says it has captured last Islamist bastion in Somalia
....The capture of the port town of Kismayu, if confirmed, would spell an end to the Shabab’s ability to control large tracts of territory and the start of a guerrilla phase of fighting. 11. Security fears hobble inquiry on Libya attack
....Unable to safely investigate in Benghazi, the FBI is trying to piece together a deadly attack from more than 400 miles away, and it’s facing “a cavalcade of obstacles,” one American official says. 12. At UN, Myanmar leader highlights steps to reform ....Pres. Thein Sein, saying his country was leaving behind five decades of authoritarian rule, paid public tribute to the country’s opposition leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. a. In battle over Myanmar mine, folk heroines emerge ....In a sign of how things are changing in Myanmar, two village women have won national prominence for defying a copper mine project backed by the military. 13. Plane going to Mount Everest region crashes, killing 19
....A small plane carrying 19 people struck a bird and crashed soon after takeoff in Katmandu, killing everyone on board, officials said. 14. Not in script for Kremlin: a eal race for governor ....The Russian region of Ryazan seemed primed for a real race until an insurgent candidate was removed from the race. 15. Despite public protests, Spain's 2013 budget plan includes more austerity ....The budget involves an average cut of almost 9% in the spending of each government ministry next year. Civil servants, meanwhile, will have their salaries frozen for a third consecutive year. 16. Syrian rebels announce big offensive in Aleppo
....The number of Syrians fleeing to neighboring countries for safety and aid is likely to exceed 700,000 by the end of the year, according to the UN and humanitarian agencies. a. Aleppo fight intensifies, as UN warns of rising flow of refugees ....The UN’ human rights body voted to strengthen and extend the term of the commission gathering evidence of abuses in Syria. 17. Vatican says papyrus referring to Jesus' wife is probably a fake
....The Vatican called the fragment of a Coptic text “problematic and controversial,” and most likely an “inept forgery.” 18. Why did the tourist cross the road? The real riddle is 'how' ....A decade or so of capitalist fervor has transformed Hanoi’s once-quiet tree-lined boulevards and side streets into roaring rivers of rubber and steel.
US News Capsules: 1. Tim Cook apologizes for Apple's maps
....Complaints and jokes about Apple's new maps have not stopped since the company released iOS 6 last week, a software update that replaced Google's maps with its own. Now the company's chief executive, Tim Cook, is apologizing. 2. US is tightening web privacy rule to shield young ....Federal regulations intended to curb the collection of data from youngsters without their parents' permission might cause companies to stop creating child-centric sites. 3. Man tied to anti-Islam video held on probation charge ....The man suspected of making the anti-Islam video that set off deadly protests across the Muslim world is accused of violating an order in a bank fraud case that restricted his use of the Internet. 4. A flood of applications, with a trickle of approvals ....A little more than two dozen immigrants nationwide have received approval for a two-year deferral of deportation under a program that Pres. Obama announced in June. 5. Veterans wait for benefits as claims pile up
....A crushing inventory of claims for disability, pension and educational benefits has overwhelmed the Department of Veterans Affairs. 6. mmunition for a trade war between US and Mexico ....The Department of Commerce took steps to end a 16-year-old agreement with Mexico that makes Mexican tomatoes a bargain in American supermarkets. 7. US economy still weak, but feel more secure ....A closely watched measure of consumer confidence surged to its highest level since February, even as job growth and the overall economy had weakened. 8. Nostalgic for thet giant 1970s machine? It may be here
....The Computer History Museum, which opened in 2011, has a 25,000-square-foot permanent exhibition: “Revolution: First 2,000 Years of Computing.” 9. Raising frogs for freedom, prison project opens doors
....Washington State’s Sustainability in Prisons program enlists inmates to help rescue imperiled species like the Oregon spotted frog. POLITICS: 1. Obama fills in blanks of Romney's plans, and GOP sees falsehoods ....The Obama campaign is taking advantage of the unknown details of Mitt Romney’s policy proposals by filling in the blanks, but some charges are more specific than the facts warrant 2. September, November: 40 precious days to spend on early vote ....A stream of voters arrived at election offices across Iowa to cast their ballots, and waves of absentee ballots have started landing in mailboxes in 30 other states. 3. An enduring ritual of politics loud and close ....Pres. Obama and Mitt Romney crisscrossed Ohio, speaking to supporters at events essentially unchanged since the days of Andrew Jackson.
Sports Headlines: 1. MLB: Dickey wins 20th game for the Mets ....The Mets' bullpen survived a two-run ninth inning and eventually saved R. A. Dickey's win, making him the first Mets pitcher since Frank Viola in 1990 to win 20 games. a. The dertiest part of a catcher's job
....Examining the decisions a catcher makes while bracing for a potential collision at home plate, through the eyes of Russell Martin of the Yankees. 2. NFL: Referees feel the love, at least for one game
....With an agreement to end the lockout reached, regular N.F.L. officials were unanimously celebrated and praised as they returned to the field on Thursday night. a. The powerful NLF is humbled ....The NFL's debacle with replacement referees proves that the league is not invincible. 3. NHL: Preseason canceled: Labor talks to resume ....The league’s commissioner and the head of the players union will meet Friday in the first formal negotiations since Sept. 12. 4. RYDER CUP: US and Europe tied after morning matches
[/img] ....After the European team surged early, the Americans battled for a 2-2 tie in the morning foursomes. Tiger Woods struggled as he and Steve Stricker lost their opening match. 5. Horse Racing: Inquiry faults racing officials in horse fatalities at Aquaduct....A New York State report says a spike in horse fatalities at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens might have been prevented had racing authorities more closely monitored the use of prescription drugs. a. Breakdown: The lab race....At a time when the racing industry is in crisis over the widespread doping of racehorses, testing laboratories play a vital role in cleaning up the sport. Thought for Today"The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again; and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered." --[/i]Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Irish-born British statesman, parliamentary orator & political thinker
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Post by Flying Horse on Sept 30, 2012 14:54:43 GMT -5
Banned Books Week & Gold Star Morther's Day Good afternoon from Tuxy and me This is the 274th day of 2012 with 91 days left in the year. Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 4:12 p.m., it's heavily raining , temp 52ºF [Feels like 52ºF], winds WNW @ 5 mph, humidity 94%, pressure 29.84 in and steady, dew point 50ºF, chance of precipitation 60%.
Today in History: 1399--Henry Bolingbroke of Lancasster was proclaimed King Henry IV of England upon the abdication of King Richard II. 1776--Washington blamed the Patriot reliance on the militia as the chief root of his problems in the devastating loss of Long Island and Manhattan to the British. 1788--the Pennsylvania Legislature elected the first two members of the U.S. Senate - William Maclay of Harrisburg and Robert Morris of Philadelphia, 1791--Mozart's opera The Magic Flute premiered in Vienna, Austria. 1864--Battle of Poplar Springs Church in a failed attempt to cut the last train line into Petersburg, Va. by Union forces. 1868--the virst volume of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women was published. 1889--Wyoming legislators wrote the first state constitution to grant women the right to vote. 1924--Truman Capote, author (Breakfast at Tiffany's, In Cold Blood) was born in New Orleans; died 1984 at age 60. 1927--Babe Ruth hit his 60th home run of the season. 1928--Elie Wiesel, authr and Nobel laureate, turns 84. 1938--British and French premiers appeased Hitler by allowing Nazi Germany to occupy sections of the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia. 1946--an international military tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany, found 22 top Nazi leaders guilty of war crimes. 1949--the Berlin Airlift officially ended after 15 months and more than 250,000 flights--one of the greatest logistical feats in modern history. 1954--the first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus, was commissioned. 1955--movie star James Dean died at age 24 in a car crash on a California highway. 1962--in Oxford, Miss., federal troops escorte James H. Meredith onto the University of Mississippi campus, setting off a deadly riot that was quelled by more than 3,000 federal soldiers. 1964--the first large scale anti-war deomonstration was staged at the University of California at Berkeley. 1966--the Republic of Botswana declared its independence from Britain 1968--Hubert Humphrey announced that if elected president, he would end the bombing of North Vietnam. 1982--the situation comedy Cheers premiered on NBC-TV. 1991--the military in Haiti overthrew Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country's first freely-elected president. 1993--a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck southern India, killing an estimated 10,000 people. 1997--France's Roman Catholic Church apologized for its silence during the systematic persecution and deportation of Jews by the pro-Nazi Vichy regime. 1999--large doses of radiation were released at Japan's Tokaimura nuclear plant due to worker error; 1 person killed, 49 injured. 2004--Merck & Co. pulled Vioxx, its heavily promoted arthritis drug, from the market after a study found it doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes. 2005--cartoons featuring the Prophet Muhammad were published in a Danish newspaper, offending many Muslims worldwide.
World News Capsules: 1. 5 dead after clash between US and Afghan troops ....The incident killed two Americans and three Afghans, just days after Pentagon officials confirmed that joint operations between American and Afghan forces were returning to normal. 2. Bahrain faces riots after boy dies in protest ....The riot police sought to subdue protesters hurling stones as a funeral march for a young demonstrator killed the day before turned violent. 3. Muslim protesters torch Buddhist temples and homes in Bangladesh
....100s of Muslims in Bangladesh burned at least four Buddhist temples and 15 homes after complaining that a Buddhist man had insulted Islam, police and residents said. 4. Elite and deft, Xi aimed high early in China
....An early move to rural China offers a window on the political savvy of Xi Jinping, who is on the cusp of taking over as China's supreme leader. 5. A 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Colombia ....The quake was centered 28 miles (45 km) south of Popayan, Colombia, close to the Ecuador border. 6. Better off than they were in Years past, Georgian voters ask: At what cost? ....The parliamentary election has become a referendum on the trade-offs of the so-called Rose Revolution. 7. More children ill from food malady ....German health authorities said that 8,400 children had fallen ill after eating food from school cafeterias and day care centers. 8. Potentially deadly virus related to SARS appears to be not easily spread ....The World Health Organization issued an initial alert last Sunday saying that researchers had discovered the new virus in a 49-year-old Qatari man visiting London. 9. Another wave of bombings across Iraq
....Sunday’s attacks were the latest instance in which insurgents coordinated attacks in multiple cities in a single day, apparently intending to rekindle sectarian conflict. 10. Tension, though no violence, as Protestants parade in Belfast ....A parade to commemorate a 1912 accord that helped lead to the partition of Ireland was watched over by a heavy police presence. 11. Islamist rebels flee key port city in Somalia ....The withdrawal from Kismayo, the last major stronghold of the Islamist rebels, came a day after Kenyan troops invaded and marched toward the city center and seaside port. 12. Ex-South Korea leader haunts presidential bid ....Park Geun-hye, seeking the presidency as the candidate of the New Frontier Party, is riding on her father’s residual popularity but also carrying the burden of his more negative legacy. 13. Bound to sea but buried in debt, Spain's fishermen blame bloc's policies
....A decline in fish stocks, rising operating costs and a sharp economic downturn have devastated much of Spain’s coastal economy and intensified criticism of subsidies. a. Tornado and flooding pound southern Spain ....A tornado damaged several rides and cut electricity in a temporary fair set up in the main square of Gandia on Friday, according to its town hall Web site. 14. In Syria's largest city, fire ravages ancient market ....A vast and well-preserved labyrinth of storehouses, schools and courtyards in Aleppo was damaged as fierce clashes between security forces and insurgents continued. a. Away from cities, a life laced with violence for Syrians ....Residents of the Idlib countryside endure a wearying grind punctuated, in flashes and roars, by moments of spectacular and often indiscriminate assaults. 15. Ukraine ex-premier airs video ....Yulia V. Tymoshenko lashed out against Pres. Viktor F. Yanukovich, widely viewed as responsible for her imprisonment, and urged voters to defeat his party in parliamentary elections next month. 16. Pope's former butler on trial in theft of personal papers ....The trial of Paolo Gabriele comes as the Roman Catholic Church is racked by a pedophilia scandal, internal disputes and challenges to preserve its moral authoritativeness within rapidly changing societies..
US News Capsules: 1. US Supreme Court faces weighty cases and a new dynamic ....The new term will probably include major decisions on affirmative action in higher education admissions, same-sex marriage and a challenge to the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 2. Longshoremen's lament ....Automation and large machines have cut deeply into the human workforce on the waterfront, loading and unloading the millions of containers that enter the Port of New York and New Jersey, 3. After decades in institutions, a bumpy journey to a new life
....100s of severely disabled citizens in Georgia are being reintegrated into society amid pressure from the Justice Department to end discrimination against the cognitively and physically impaired. 4. Political and class issues complicate a Coloradoland dispute ....Bill Koch's effort to acquire some public land, including a piece that cuts through his 4,500-acre ranch, has run into hostility from his neighbors. 5. A guitar maker aims to stay plugged in
....Fender, the guitar company made famous by the likes of Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, is facing big challenges amid the fickle tastes of Wall Street and the music industry. 6. Turning up the volume on global poverty
....The Global Citizen Festival to combat poverty drew more than 60,000 people to Central Park for a concert featuring Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Foo Fighters, the Black Keys, Band of Horses and K’Naan. 7. San Francisco's new archbishop worries gay Catholics ....Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, who will be installed as the leader of the San Francisco Archdiocese, led the fight against same-sex marriage in California. 8. Science: So far unfruitful, fusion project faces a frugal Congress ....Physicists eager to achieve controlled fusion with a giant laser at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will have to offer Congress some explanations if they are to get more money to keep the project alive. 9. New Mexico offers look at US elections of the future ....The unique demographics of New Mexico are significant for both campaigns, which have been there trying to engage Latino voters — eyeing both the November vote and others to come. 10. "Carmageddon II" bridge collapse not in the plan
....A massive Southern California highway project dubbed saw an unscripted moment when a section of a bridge unexpectedly collapsed, narrowly missing construction crews, officials said. 11. Lottery winne charged with welfare fraud, found dead
....An autopsy has been completed on the Lincoln Park woman who was cut off from state food assistance after it was revealed that she had won $1,000,000 in the Michigan Lottery. POLITICS: 1. The new stars in Republican commercials attacking Obama: babies ....Attack ads from Republicans are using babies to target politically independent women with an emphasis on what effect the deficit will have on their children. 2. Romney shifted right on nergy as presidential politics beckoned ....Mitt Romney is more apt today to talk about his support for oil drilling than about the environmental policies that he advocated while governor of Massachusetts. 3. More suspicious voter forms are found ....Irregularities have been found in 10 Florida counties on registrations submitted by a company working for the state Republican Party. 4. Christie: Romney debate performance will change course of presidential race
...."Come Thursday morning, the entire narrative of this race is going to change," the Republican New Jersey governor tells Dave Gregory on Meet the Press. a. McCain expects a debate for the history books
....Sen. John McCain -- who has debated both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney -- said today he expects Wednesday's presidential debate to draw historic numbers.
Thought for Today "Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” --Truman Capote (1924-1984) novelist, short-story writer & playwright.
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Post by Flying Horse on Oct 1, 2012 15:14:49 GMT -5
Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me This is the 275th day of 2012 with 90 days left in the thyear. Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 12:37 p.m., it's cloudy , temp 62ºF [Feels like 62ºF], winds W @ 13 mph, humidity 62%, pressure 29.89 in and steady, dew point 49ºF, chance of precipitation 10%. Sunrise: 7:05 a.m., sunset: 6?47 p.m.
Today in History: 959--Edgar the Peaceful, younger son of Edmund I of England, became King of England. 1189--Gerard de Ridefort, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was killed at the battle of Acre. 1207--Henry III, King of England (1216-72), was born; died 1272 at age 65 1776--Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris learn that the French were purchasing arms and ammunition to send to the West Indies for use by the Americans. 1800--the territory of Louisiana, encompassing the entire region of the Mississippi-Missouri river valleys, was ceded by Spain to France in the secret treaty of San Ildefonso. 1864--Confederate spy Rose O'Neal Greenhow drowned off the North Carolina coast when a Yankee craft runs her ship aground. 1880--the US Marine Corps Band named a new director, John Philip Sousa. 1881--William Boeing, aeronautical engineer & businessman, was born; died 1956 at age 74. 1887--Baluchistan. was declared to be British territory and was merged with India 1890--an act of Congress created Yosemite National Park. 1896--the US Post Office established Rural Free Delivery, with the first routes in West Virginia. 1903--Vladimir Horowitz, the Russian-born pianist considered one of the most accomplished players of the 20th century, was born; died 1989 at age 86. 1903--the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Boston Americans 7-3 in the first ever World Series game. 1905--The Julliard School of Music was founded in New York City. 1908---the Ford Motor Company unveiled the Model T., costing $825. 1910--Bonnie Parker, part of the bank robbing pair of Bonnie and Clyde, was born; killed 1934 at age 23. 1914--Turkey closed the Dardenelles to the allies in World War I. 1918--Lawrence of Arabia led a combined Arab and British force and captured Damascus. 1920--the magazine Scientific American reported that radio would soon be used to transmit music to the home. 1924--Jimmy Carter. former Pres. of the US & Nobel Peace Prize iwnner, turns 88. 1928--Stalin's first Five-Year Plan which set targets for every industry, factory and workshop went into operation in the Soviet Union. 1936--Gen. Francisco Franco was named head of the rebel Nationalist government in Spain. 1939 Winston Churchill described the Soviet Union as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma" during a radio broadcast. 1943--After a month-long battle, allied soldiers captured Naples. 1944--the first of two sets of medical experiments involving castration are performed on homosexuals at the Buchenwald concentration camp. 1946--Mensa International was founded. 1946--12 high-ranking Nazis were sentenced to death by the International War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg. 1949--Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China. 1955--the sitcom The Honeymooners debuted on CBS, starring Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows and Joyce Randolph. 1960--the Federation of Nigeria achieved independence within the Commonwealth. 1961--Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit his 61st home run of the season, breaking Babe Ruth's record set in 1927. 1961--South Vietnam requested a bilateral defense treaty with the US. 1962--Johnny Carson made his debut as the Tonight Show host. 1964--Japan's "bullet train" from Tokyo to Osaka made its first journey.. 1965--a communist coup against Indonesian Pres. Sukarno was crushed by Gen. Mohammed Suharto, the Indonesian army chief of staff. 1970--Abdel Nasser's funeral in Egypt resulted in scores of mourners being crushed or battered to death in the crowd. 1971--Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Fla. 1982--Sony began selling the first commercial compact disc player in Japan. 1987--an earthquake in Whittier, Calif., the largest since 1971, killed 6 people and injured 100 more. 1988--Mikhail Gorbachev became head of the Supreme Soviet. 1993--Polly Klaas, 12, was abducted from her Petaluma, Calif., home during a slumber party and murdered. (Her case inspired California's three-strikes law.) 2001--the US Supreme Court suspended former Pres. Bill Clinton from practicing before the high court. 2001--about 40 people were killed when a militant Muslim group attacked the legislative assembly building in the Indian province of Jammu and Kashmir. 2005--suicide bombers struck three restaurants in two tourist areas on Bali, a popular resort area, killing 22 and injuring more than 50 others. 2007--Vladimir Putin, ineligible to seek another term as Russian president after eight years in the post, indicated to lawmakers his desire to become prime minister. 2008--a $700 billion financial industry bailout won lopsided passage in the Senate, 74-25, after it was loaded with tax breaks and other sweeteners. 2008--documents believed to belong to missing US aviation adventurer Steve Fossett were found in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. 2008--the US Senate voted to end the ban on trading nuclear fuel with India, allowing India to buy nuclear fuel on the world market for civilian purposes.
World News Capsules: 1. Suicide bomber attacks joint patrol in Eastern Afghanistan
....A suicide bomber walked into the crowded city center in Khost City on Monday, killing 19 people and injuring dozens. 2. Beijing blocks dissident's art company ....Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer friend of the artist Ai Weiwei, said that Chinese officials had revoked the business license of Mr. Ai’s art production company. a. Disgraced Chinese official's son defends him ....Bo Guagua, 24, made his most explicit defense of Bo Xilai, a former Communist Party official in China, since a sordid political scandal involving the entire Bo family broke in the spring. 3. Ride-sharing services grow popular in Europe ....One of the side effects of the European economic crisis is a surge in carpooling, as people from many walks of life seek to shrink their outlays on travel. a. In Europe, speed cameras meet their technological match ....The smartphone is being honed into a highly effective - and controversial - mobile radar detector. 4. Georgia challenger draws strong support, exit polls show
....This is the first formidable challenge Pres. Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia has faced since taking power in the peaceful Rose Revolution nine years ago. a. Fearing rigged vote, Georgians prepare for elections ....The leader of the country's Orthodox Church has warned against vote fraud by the government, and opposition voters are preparing to take to the streets. 5. Right-wing extremists' popularity rising rapidly in Greece ....With anger rising over austerity measures, the popularity of the extremist Golden Dawn party is growing, even as it undertakes a campaign of vigilantism. 6. Plan for charater city to fight Honduras poverty loses its initiator ....Paul Romer, an expert on economic growth, is out of his own project, tripped up by the sort of opaque decision making that his plan was supposed to change. 7. On India's border, a changing of the guards ....In 2009, Poulomi Basu learned that India was recruiting women for its patrol of the border with its arch-nemesis, Pakistan. Inspired, she followed this new paramilitary force through training and after, resulting in the project, "To Conquer Her Land.". 8. Iran court finds Reuters journalist guilty of 'spreading lies' ....The news agency’s bureau chief in Tehran was convicted by a special media court and awaits sentencing. 9. Another wave of bombings across Iraq ....Sunday’s attacks were the latest instance in which insurgents coordinated attacks in multiple cities in a single day, apparently intending to rekindle sectarian conflict. 10. Proudly bearing elders' scars, their skin says 'Never Forget:
....Some descendants of Holocaust survivors are having their concentration-camp numbers tattooed on their arms, a practice that provokes mixed reactions and a lot of conversation. 11. As Kenyan forces press militants across border, a church is attacked back home ....The attack on a church in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, came two days after Kenyan forces invaded the last major stronghold of the Shabab militant group in Somalia.. 12. US sends new aircraft to Okinawa, despite fierce opposition ....Islanders are worried that the accident-plagued Osprey could crash, a prospect that could threaten the huge American military presence on Okinawa. 13. Moscow court postponesRiot hearing i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120817015350-(oh you're in trouble now)-riot-story-top.jpg[/img] ....One of the three members of the punk protest band said she wanted to fire her lawyers because of disagreements, and an appellate court pushed the hearing back to Oct. 10. 14. Residents: Syyrian forces bulldoze homes....Residents in the Syrian city of Hama say that government forces are forcing thousands to flee and then bulldozing their homes. 15. Seeking return of art, Turkey jolts museums....Turkish officials are demanding ancient artifacts from Western museums, and aren’t timid about doing so. The museums say their mission to display global art treasures is under siege. 16. Two supporters of a challenger are killed as Venezuela's election nears....Gunfire erupted at a confrontation between supporters of Pres. Hugo Chávez and his main rival, Henrique Capriles Radonski. 17. Millions are facing food crisis in Yemen, UN agency says....More than 5 million cannot afford food, and another 5 million are on the edge as political instability has compounded a surge in global food and fuel prices US News Capsules: 1. US may have put mistaken faith in Libya site's security....Defenses at the American mission in Benghazi have become a major issue as the Obama administration struggles to explain what happened there and how Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens ended up alone. 2. 50 years after integration, Ole Miss grapples with history....The University of Mississippi is commemorating the 50th anniversary of racial integration on campus, but some say it is not doing enough to recognize the school's painful history. 3. A gnome is home, but more travel beckons....Travelocity is giving away a trip around the world as part of a marketing campaign featuring Roaming Gnome. 4. California is first state to ban gay 'cure' for minors....Gay rights advocates say disputed therapies to "overcome" homosexuality have caused emotional harm to teenagers. 5. Postal Service defaults on a $5.6 billion benefits payment....The post office, which has missed two deadlines on future retiree health benefits, said it expected net operating losses to be $15 billion for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. 6. For New Orleans, a daily that's no longer daily....Many in New Orleans are wondering what life will be like now that The Times-Picayune has gone from a daily to a newspaper that will appear three times a week. 7. Health care case is seen as helping law but hurting court....The Supreme Court bolstered public support for Pres. Obama’s health care law while hurting its own reputation, a circumstance that the study said put it “in a public opinion class by itself.” POLITICS: 1. Payroll tax cut unlikely to survive into next year....A tax break for wage earners for which the White House campaigned hard last winter now finds little support in Washington, as Congress struggles with deficits. 2. Debates can shift a race's outcome, but it's not easy....History shows that candidates have different ways to score in presidential debates and change voters’ minds, but only twice have debates appeared to alter the election’s result. 3. As candidates drill for debates, more jousting on Libya....Pres. Obama and Mitt Romney prepared for their debate, with the Obama administration fending off questions about its handling of the Benghazi attack. 4. Now entering the month of surprise....As Pres. Obama and Mitt Romney make their final appeals to voters, it remains to be seen whether October will offer an unexpected pivotal moment as in past campaigns 5. Whistle-blower lawyers throw support behind Obama.....Attorneys who represent whistle-blowers have made millions as the Obama administration cracks down on corporate fraud, and are now donating heavily to the president’s re-election campaign.. Sports Headlines: 1. MLB: A good week to be a fan, and to have multiple TVs....In the final week of the regular season of Major League Baseball, 15 three-game series remain and only five have no bearing on the postseason. a. For Yankees, a plyoff berth and unfinished business....After beating the Blue Jays 9-6 on Sunday, the Yankees clinched a playoff spot when the Rangers split a doubleheader with the Angels, but the Yankees still have their sights set on the division title. b. Orioles' party is put off, but only for a few hours....The Orioles won their final home game of the regular season, and an Angels loss in Game 2 of a doubleheader helped Baltimore clinch its first playoff berth since 1997. c. Davey Johnson's monumental feat in Washington....Manager Davey Johnson’s tough, old-fashioned style has helped transform the Washington Nationals into contenders in the National League. 2. NFL: With regular officials, a return to normalcy with a few hiccups....All Sunday afternoon, games moved crisply as the NFL’s regular officials behaved authoritatively and with confidence. But the day was not without a few missed calls. a. It goes unsaid: Maning should have known better....Coach Tom Coughlin wasn’t about to call out Eli Manning for a throw that cost the Giants a makable field goal attempt at the end of a 19-17 loss to the Eagles. b. A 34-0 by the 49ers rout leaves the Jets hurting and cursing....For the second straight week, the Jets’ impotent offense was overshadowed by a critical player going down, this time Santonio Holmes, whose left foot buckled after he made a catch in the fourth quarter. 3. NCAAFB: Perfect storm for Smith's Heisman bid....West Virginia’s Geno Smith, who had 656 passing yards against Baylor on Saturday, has emerged as the presumptive front-runner to win the Heisman Trophy. 4. GOLF: Europeans retain Ryder Cup....The European team rallied from a four-point deficit to beat the United States (14 1/2 - 13 1/2) in one of the most unpredictable and irresistible competitions in professional sports. Thought for Today"[In the case of] dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states, who are parties thereto, have the right, and are duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil." --[/i]James Madison (1751-1836), 4th US President and "Father of the US Constitution."
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Post by Flying Horse on Oct 2, 2012 18:16:48 GMT -5
Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, Good afternoon from Tuxy and me This is the 276th day of 2012 with 89 days left in the year. Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 7:16 p.m., it's cloudy , temp 67ºF [Feels like 67ºF], winds S @ 6 mph, humidity 79%, pressure 29.93 in and steady, dew point 50ºF, chance of precipitation 10%.
Today in History: 86 BC--Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army, entered in Athens, removing the tyrant Aristion who was supported by troops of Mithridates VI of Pontus. 589--Saint David, patron saint of Wales, died. 1187--the Siege of Jerusalem ends as Saladin (Sultan of Egypt and Syria) took control of the city that had been under crusader rule for 88 years. 1452--Richard III, King of England, was born; killed in battle 1485 at age 32. 1562--over 1,000 Huguenots were massacred by Catholics, marking the start of the French Wars of Religion. 1692--Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Mass., beginning the Salem witch trials. 1780--British Major John Andre, age 31, was hanged as a spy by American military forces in Tappan, NY. 1800--Nat Turner, American slave, was born; hanged 1831 at age 31 for leading violent slave uprising. 1835--the first shots of the Texas Revolution agasint Mexico were fired in the Battle of Gonzales. 1836--Charles Darwin returned to England, aboard the HMS Beagle, ending a five-year surveying expedition of the southern Atlantic and Pacific oceans. 1864--Confederates scored a victory at the Battle of Saltville, Va., securing their main source of salt, used as a preservative for army rations. 1869--Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Indian nationalist leader whose philosophy of nonviolence influenced movements around the world, was born; died 1948 at age 78. 1870--in a plebiscite the Papal States voted for union with Italy and the country's capital moved from Florence to Rome. 1919--Pres. Woodrow Wilson suffered a massive stroke that left him partially paralyzed and was hidden from the public. 1928--the Prelature of Opus Dei (a controversial prelature of the Catholic Church) was founded by Josemaria Escriva. 1935--Italian forces invaded Abyssinia and remained until 1941. 1937--the 26-year old Ronald Reagan made his acting debut with the Warner Brothers release of Love is in the Air. 1941-- the Germans began their surge to Moscow, led by the 1st Army Group and Gen. Fedor von Bock, called Operation Typhoon. 1944--Nazi troops crushed the two-month-old Warsaw Uprising, during which 250,000 people were killed. 1948--checkered flag waved at fthe first postwar US road race in Watkins Glen, NY. 1950--the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz was first published. 1953--Edward R. Morrow, a lit cigarette in hand, premiered the interview program Person to Person that would establaish him as a TV icon. 1955--Alfred Hitchcock gave millions of CBS viewers his brand of suspense with Alfred Hitchcock Presents. lasting 10 years. 1958--Guinea declared its independence from France. 1959--Rod Serling's science-fiction anthology, The Twilight Zone, debuted on CBS. 1963--Hurricane Flora crashed into Haiti, killing 1000s of people. 1967--Thurgood Marshall sworn in as the first African American Supreme Court justice. 1968--California's Redwood National Park was established. 1968--St Louis Cardinals' pitcher, Bob Gibson, struck out 17 Detroit Tigers in the World Series, breaking Sandy Koufax’s record for the most strikeouts in a Series game. 1985--actor Rock Hudson, 59, becomes the first major U.S. celebrity to die of complications from AIDS. 1990--Xiamen Airlines Flight 8301 was hijacked and crash landed at the former Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport with a total of 128 fatalities. 1996--former Bulgarian prime minister Andrei Lukanov was shot dead outside his Sofia home in an apparent contract killing. 2000--the International Space Station got its first residents as an US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts arrived aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule for a four-month stay. 2002--a man was shot and killed in a grocery store parking lot in Wheaton, Md., the first victim in a series of sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C. area that left 10 dead. 2003--the Ethan Allen (a 40-foot, glass enclosed tour boat on Lake George) capsized and sank just south of Cramer Point. NY. 2006--the Amish School Shooting occured when Charles Carl Roberts shot and killed five school girls before killing himself.
World News Capsules: 1. US abandoning hopes for Taliban peace deal ....Once ambitious American plans for ending the war in Afghanistan are now being replaced by the far more modest goal of setting the stage for Afghans to work out a deal among themselves. a. Suicide bomber on foot attacks joint patrol in eastern Afghanistan, ....A suicide bomber walked into the crowded center of Khost City on Monday, killing 19 people and injuring dozens. 2. 7 crew members detained in Hong Kong ferry disaster that killed dozens ....A boat packed with revelers on a long holiday weekend collided with a ferry and sank off Hong Kong, killing at least 38 people and injuring dozens. 3. Georgia's president concedes defeat in parliamentary election ....Pres. Mikheil Saakashvili said that the opposition had the lead in Georgia’s hotly contested parliamentary race and should form the new government, news agencies reported. 4. Lawyers seek to block Muslim cleric's extradition to the US ....Lawyers in Britain argued that a Muslim cleric, Abu Hamza al-Masri, wanted in the US on terrorism charges was physically unfit to be extradited. 5. Greek government proposes deep cuts in bid to please foreign leaders
....Greece’s draft budget of $10 billion in spending cuts and savings is expected to face deep revisions in order to meet approval by the country’s foreign lenders. a. Lean times in Greece as government cuts more spending ....The Greek government presented its 2013 budget to Parliament on Monday, which contained millions of Euros in spending cuts 6. Iran president ties currency drop to sanctions
....In a dramatic address to the nation after a 40% fall in the value of Iran’s currency over the past week, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country is facing a “psychological war” waged by the US. a. Iran engaged in 'severe clampdown' on critics, UN says ....The UN human rights office said Iran was engaging in a broad pattern of arrests and actions against journalists and human rights advocates. 7. Israe's Iran policy appears to shift further toward more sanctions ....Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel plans to travel to Europe before the end of the year to press for a toughening of sanctions against Tehran, Israeli officials said. 8. Benghazi attack investigation continues ....A breakdown of the attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi. The investigation picks up steam as the State Department and the Pentagon search for answers. a. US said to be preparing potential targets tied to Libya attack ....The detailed information being prepared could be used to kill or capture some of the militants suspected in the deadly attack on the American mission in Benghazi. b. Requests for bolstered security in Libya were denied, Republicans say 9. Malaysian court rules that publishing a newspaper is a basic right ....Although the Internet has remained relatively free in Malaysia, most major newspapers are either owned by the government or linked to it. 10. Border patrol agent is killed in Arizona ....Federal authorities said Nicolas Ivie, 30, was killed in a shooting early Tuesday in Naco, Ariz. 11. Gunmen kill at least 26 students at Nigerian college ....Assailants shot and stabbed the students in an attack overnight on their college residence in northeast Nigeria, a college spokesman said. 12. Spanish regions agree to deficit plan ....Seventeen regional governments agreed to stick to budget deficit targets set by the central government. 13. Syrian state TV lashes out at Hamas leader
....The extraordinary reproof was the government’s first broadside against Hamas since the group distanced itself from President Bashar al-Assad earlier this year. a. Fighting and chaos spread through Syrian city, as services vanish ....In a striking contrast from six weeks ago, battles in Syria's largest city, Aleppo, are spreading into once sheltered neighborhoods and threatening to open new rifts among ethnic groups. 14. Pope's former butler admits in court to leaking confidential documents ....The former butler, Paolo Gabriele, insisted that his motives had been pure and declared himself innocent of aggravated theft, the charge against him.
US News Capsules: 1. Experts see signs of El Niño, but a weak one
....A season of warmer ocean waters that has been expected to produce a Niño episode and perhaps bring relief from the drought may turn out to be a bit weaker than advertised 2. Texas fishing oontests lure competitors and fraud ....With competitions offering up to $500,000 in prizes, allegations of cheating are routine in multiple states as some catch fish in advance or artificially boost their weight. 3. Hey, @seattlepd: what's the latest? ....The Seattle Police Department has begun 51 hyper-local Twitter accounts to provide crime reports. 4. JPMorgan unit is sued over mortgage securities pools ....New York's attorney general, under the aegis of a federal mortgage task force, filed a civil suit against Bear Stearns, now part of JPMorgan Chase, asserting that it defrauded investors who purchased mortgage securities. 5. Surprise grants transforming 23 more lives. ....Fields as diverse as teaching, ecology and filmmaking were represented among the winners of the latest round of MacArthur Fellows. 6. Sites that pay the shopper for being a seller
....Social media shopping sites are offering payments to shoppers who post product links that drive Web traffic and sales. 7. Justices begin term by hearing case again ....The Supreme Court opened its new term by hearing arguments in an important human rights case it first considered in February. 8. SCIENCE: Hubble's 13.2 billion light-year squint.
....This is the farthest that the Hubble Space Telescope will ever see. Some of the flecks of light in this photo are infant galaxies as they existed only half a billion years after the Big Bang. a. With limited budgets, pursuing science smartly ....To one physicist, exploring space with remote technology like the Mars rover seems more worthwhile, and more exciting, than human spaceflight. b. Skulls engineered for hard knocks
....Creatures that do violent things to their heads, like wild pigs and woodpeckers, have very dense skulls, small brains and little fluid to reduce the chance of damage. POLITICS: 1. US Senate leaders at work on plan to avoid 'fiscal cliff' ....A bipartisan group of senators is coalescing around an ambitious three-step process to avert automatic tax increases and deep spending cuts facing the country in January. 2. Offshore tactics helped increase Romney's wealth ....Offshore arrangements made through Mitt Romney's former company, Bain Capital, were part of tax-avoidance strategies that have enhanced his income. 3. Key part of voter ID law in Pennsylvania delayed for election ....A judge on Tuesday said Pennsylvania voters could be asked to produce the newly required photo IDs, but they could vote even if they did not have them. 4. GOP aims to remake the Florida Supreme Court ....Republicans are asking voters to oust three justices and give the legislature more power over the court.
Sports Headlines: 1. MLB: Undersize crowds love their underdog A's
....Although the Athletics are playing in an expectation-defying run, they have failed to draw as many as 22,000 for any game in this dramatic homestand a. Yankees rout Boston to take one-game lead ....The Yankees took a one-game lead over Baltimore with two games left after a nine-run second inning outburst capped a decisive victory over the Red Sox Monday. b. Loss to Rays shrinks Orioles' margin for errors ....Balitmore gave up three unearned runs in Monday's loss to the Rays, and while they've already clinched a playoff spot, they now trail the Yankees in the American League East. c. August changes sent Dodgers and Giants in unexpected directions ....The Dodgers have lost more than they’ve won since a big trade with Boston, while the Giants have gone on to win the N.L. West despite losing Melky Cabrera to a suspension. 2. [[uNFL: Wheb real life intrudes[/u] ....The news that Indianapolis Colts Coach Chuck Pagano was diagnosed with leukemia was a sobering reminder to keep sports in perspective. a. Even with referees back, Monday's game was tough to watch....With the NFL referee lockout over, we had to settle for the quarterback train wreck battle between Dallas’s Tony Romo and Chicago’s Jay Cutler, which Romo won in a landslide with 5 interceptions. b. For Jets, two quarterbacks but no easy answers....The day after a blowout loss, the Jets made two personnel moves, which were signs of limitations in their roster that cannot be solved by replacing quarterback Mark Sanchez with Tim Tebow x. Saints' scandal puts big burden on Brees....Bill Polian, the former N.F.L. executive, says the fallout from the Saints’ bounty scandal has strained the franchise and put the heaviest burden on quarterback Drew Brees. Thought for Today"We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society." -- Hillary Clinton (b. 1947) US Secretary of State (2009-), US Senator (NY-Dem) & former First Lady. [/i][/size][/color]
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Post by Flying Horse on Oct 3, 2012 17:29:02 GMT -5
Crime Prevention Month Good afternoon from Tuxy and me This is the 277th day of 2012 with 88 days left in the year. Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 3:47 p.m., it's cloudy , temp 70ºF [Feels like 71ºF], winds NNE @ 6 mph, humidity 81%, pressure 30.05 in and rising, dew point 64ºF, chance of precipitation 20%.
Today in History: 1781--French and American troops cut off British supplies at Gloucester, Va.. across the river from British-occupied Yorktown. 1862--the North and South clashed at the 2nd Battle of Corinth, Miss. 1863--Pres. Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in Novermber as Thanksgiving an official holiday. 1873--the US Army hanged four Modoc Indians for the murder of a Civil War hero, Gen. Edward Canby, during the Modoc War in Oregon. 1917--the US Congress passed the War Revenue Act, increasing income taxes to raise more money for the war effort. 1929--the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes changed its name to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. 1932--Iraq won its independence from a British mandate of 17 years and centuries of Ottoman rule. 1941--Adolf Hitler declared in a speech in Berlin that Russia had been "broken" and would "never rise again." 1942--Nazi Germany conducted its first successful V-2 rocket test. 1952--Great Britain successfully tested an atomic bomb. 1951--Bobby Thomson hit the "shot heard 'round the world" – a walk-off 3-run home run in a playoff game off Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers to send the NY Giants into the World Series. 1955--Captain Kangaroo premiered on CBS and The Mickey Mouse Club premiered on ABC. 1960--The Andy Griffith Show premiered on CBS. 1961--The Dick Van Dyke Show premiered on CBS. 1961--the UAW (United Auto Workers)walked out of labor talks with the Fprd Motor Co. and went on strike. 1967--in Vietnam, Operation Wallowa began. 1974--the Cleveland Indians hired Frank Robinson as major league baseball's first black manager. 1981--a hunger strike by Irish nationalists at the Maze Prison in Belfast in Northern Ireland was called off after seven months and 10 deaths. 1990--East and West Germany were reunited after 45 years. 1995--O.J. Simpson, former football star and Heisman Trophy winner, was acquitted of the double murder of his wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman. 2002--five people were killed in random shootings in the Washington, D.C., area within a 14-hour period. by the "Beltway Sniper." 2003--a tiger attacked magician Roy Horn of the duo "Siegfried & Roy" during a performance in Las Vegas, leaving him partially paralyzed. 2005--Hurricane Stan bore down on Mexico. 2011--Amanda Knox's conviction for the murder of her roommate was overturned in Italy.
World News Capsules: 1. Alarm grows in São Paulo as more police officers are murdered ....The increase in murders of police officers, up almost 40% in a year, has led to fears that a powerful criminal organization is restarting a war of retaliation. 2. Egypt struggles to pay oil bill ....Industry executives estimate that the government is $6 billion to $7 billion behind in payments to foreign companies for oil and natural gas they have produced and delivered to Egypt. 3. EU's nuclear reactors need repair or upgrades ....It could cost up to $32 billion to make needed repairs, upgrades and safety improvements to the more than 130 active nuclear reactors in the European Union. 4. Clashes and protest over Iran currency plunge hit Tehran
....It was the first instance of a violent intervention over the money-changing business in Tehran since the value of the national currency, the rial, dropped to a record low. a. Iran's master of Iraq chaos still vexes US ....Qassim Suleimani, a general in the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, is linked to many aspects of both war and diplomacy in classified documents. 5. Rift gorws between Israeli leaders over relations with US ....Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister, Ehud Barak, are at odds as Mr. Barak tries to turn Mr. Netanyahu’s tension with Washington to his political advantage. 6. A new tech generation defies the odds in Japan
....While Japan’s aging technology giants continue to falter, Japanese entrepreneurs are forming start-ups despite difficulties with financing and a culture that discourages risk-taking. 7. US is tracking killers in attack on Libya mission
....Military and counterterrorism teams are preparing dossiers in the first step toward preparing for orders from Pres. Obama. 8. Some protesters in Middle East regret anti-US outbreaks ....Liberal activists who started the Arab Spring revolts are taking to social media to express their dismay that a contentious film could generate more outrage than a bloody oppression. 9. Human Rights Watch report critical of Hamas justice system in Gaza
....The group says the system is rife with arbitrary arrests, torture and unfair trials, but Hamas officials challenged Human Rights Watch’s work. 10. New internet law gets hostile reception in Philippines ....Critics say the new law could lead to imprisonment for simple activities like sharing Facebook and Twitter posts. 11. Battling the retail Goliaths in South Korea ....Superstore chains run by the chaebol, the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate the country's economy, are meeting resistance from small-business owners. 12. Turkey fires artillery at Syrian targets in retaliation for civilian deaths
....A strike by a Syrian shell killed five Turkish civilians, including three children, in a border town earlier in the day.
US News Capsules: 1. Modern Alamo battle over plan to display letter
....The 1836 “Victory or Death” letter from the doomed fortress has been exhibited outside Austin just three times between 1936 and 2006. 2. Meningitis cases are linked to steroid injections in spine ....Health officials suspect that a contaminated drug is to blame for the outbreak that has killed two people and sickened a dozen others. 3. Inquiry cites flaws in counterterrorism offices ....One of the nation's biggest counterterrorism programs has provided no useful intelligence, a report says. 4. US agent is killed and another is injured in shooting at Mexican border ....Federal authorities said Nicholas Ivie, 30, was killed in a shooting early Tuesday in Naco, Ariz. 5. Wright masterwork is seen in a new light: A fight for its life ....Frank Lloyd Wright’s home for his son David, in Phoenix, is in danger of being demolished by developers. 6. Out on the prairie, moon, music and lectures, too
....Hundreds of people, some from as far away as Tokyo, came to the Prairie Festival in Salina, Kan., to sleep under the stars and hear lectures on subjects like sustainable agriculture. 7. Fan sites settle children's privacy charges ....Federal authorities had accused Artist Arena, the operator of Web sites for stars like Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez, of illegally collecting information on thousands of children. 8. TV anchor takes on viewer who complains about her weight ....A local television anchor in Wisconsin used a complaint from a viewer about her weight to take a public stand against bullying. 9. DNA text for babies pinpoints mutations, speeding diagnosis ....A new method for analyzing newborns’ genetic histories sped the process of zeroing in on a disease-causing mutation from weeks or months to a couple of days. 10. Late at night, comedy gets pointed and political
....The comedians Lewis Black and W. Kamau Bell demonstrate how a polarized political culture has changed late-night television. POLITICS: 1. Stakes are high in first presidential debate
....After months of waiting, the world will finally see Barack Obama and Mitt Romney go toe-to-toe in a TV debate. It might be great theater but will the debate sway voters and determine who enters the White House? 2. Voter ID rules fail court tests across country ....A Pennsylvania ruling was the latest and most significant in a series of legal victories for those opposed to laws that they charge would limit access to polls in this presidential election. 3. Right-wing media coordinate releaseof old Obama video
....On the eve of the debate, conservative media outlets claim to have uncovered "exclusive" and "curious" video of then-candidate Barack Obama, but the 5-year-old speech was covered by CNN and other media. 4. Ads attack Wall Street ties, no matter how flimsy ....In elections across the country, candidates are flooding the airwaves with ads linking their opponents to bankers and bailouts.
Today's Headlines of Interest: Found: A parrot-headed, big-fanged, porcupine dinosaur. Really.
Nature does pretty and nature does ugly. And sometimes it does really, really ugly. And that was true more than 200 million years ago when the [/i]Pegomastax africanus was walking — or scurrying — the Earth. The critter was a whole new kind of homely, but judging by a paper just published simultaneously in the online journal Zookeys and on the National Geographic Society website, it was a whole new kind of cool too. The little cat-sized beast is a vivid example of how evolution can sometimes assemble the most unlikely body types out of what amounts to off-the-shelf parts — and make them work improbably well together.
Before the new paper was released, the Pegomastax species had never been named or even fully described, but that doesn’t mean that the discovery of its remains is remotely new. The first specimen of the animal was found in a rock outcropping in Africa in the 1960s. It was dug out and shipped to the US, where it spend the better part of the past five decades in the paleontology collection at Harvard University. The fossil seemed like nothing special — the remains of just one more small, scurrying herbivore that inhabited a world in which the thundering allosaurs and Tyrranosaurs were the true stars. It wasn’t until last year that Paul Sereno, a professor of paleontology at the University of Chicago and National Geographic explorer in residence at Harvard, got a look at the fossil, and realized he had something unusual in his hands.
The animal had a head like a vulture and a beak like a parrot, with tall, sharp teeth near the back of its mouth. The beak was apparently designed for plucking fruit and the teeth for slicing and tearing leaves and other plant matter. Wear patterns on both the top and bottom teeth indicate that they scraped against each other as the jaw opened and closed, which may or may not have been pleasant for the Pegomastax —whose name, appropriately, means “thick jaw” — but it did keep the teeth freshly sharpened at all times. This kind of jaw design is not uncommon for small herbivorous dinosaurs, but the Pegomastax had one feature that set it apart from most of the others: a pair of stabbing canine teeth in front of the slicing teeth — standard equipment for a meat-eater sure, but definitely not for a birdlike plant-eater. One thing that did not survive the long-ago fossilization process but was likely a part of the living Pegomastax was a covering of bristles, very much like those of a porcupine. A recent fossil unearthed in China bears a close enough similarity to the Harvard specimen that it is thought to be the same species or at least closely related. Those bones were found buried deeply in lake sediment and that provided enough protection that the bristle coat remained.
Despite its apparent toughness, the Pegomastax and its larger genus were not built for survival. The most advanced Heterdontosaurs vanished about 150 million years ago, Sereno says, just as the Jurassic period was ending. “Perhaps they were too specialized for their own good,” he speculates. “Changing climate and plant life may have done them in.” And in the case of these animals, dead really does mean dead. Many species that survived up to the great dinosaur die-off 65 million years ago were at least able to push their genes across the extinction boundary, where they were partly subsumed into the genome of modern birds. Not the Heterodontosaurs. The parrot’s beak and the porcupine’s quills may resemble those of the old Pegomastax , but they were in fact tricks evolution had to learn all over again. The progenitor animal — as clever as it was ugly — is gone forever.
Thought for Today "Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either.” --Gore Vidal (1925-2012) novelist, playwright & essayist
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Post by Flying Horse on Oct 4, 2012 17:14:34 GMT -5
Domestic Violence Awareness Month
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me This is the 278th day of 2012 with 87 days left in the year. Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 4:47 p.m., it's partly cloudy , temp 74ºF [Feels like 73ºF], winds WSW @ 12 mph, humidity 45%, pressure 30.08 in and falling, dew point 51ºF, chance of precipitation 10%.
Today in History: 1289--Louis X, King of Navarre (1305-14) and King of France (1314-16), was born; died 1316 at age 26. 1535--the first complete English translation of the Bible was printed in Zurich, Switzerland. 1626--Lord Richard Cromwell, English lord protector (1658-9) & son of Lord Oliver Cromwell, was born; died 1712 at age 85. 1777--American forces under Gen. George Washington were defeated by the British in a battle at Germantown, Pa. 1824--the republic of Mexico was proclaimed. 1830--Belgium formed itself into an independent state, having been part of the Netherlands since 1815. 1853--The Crimean War: Turkey declared war on Russia. 1854--Abraham Lincoln made his first political speech while at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. 1878--the first Chinese embassy opened in the US. 1890--Mormons in Utah renounced polygamy. 1895--the first US Open golf tournament was held, at the Newport Country Club in Rhode 0slandI. 1895--Buster Keaton, comic actor of silent films, was born. was born; died 1966 at age 70. 1887--the first issue of the International Herald Tribune was published as the Paris Herald Tribune. 1931--the comic strip Dick Tracy by Chester Gould made its debut. 1933--Exquire was published for the first time. 1937--Jackie Collins, English author, turns 75 1940--Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini conferred at Brenner Pass, where the Nazi leader sought Italy's help in fighting the British. 1946--Susan Sarandon, actress , turns 66. 1952--the first pacemaker to control the body's heartbeat, developed by Dr. Paul Zoll of Harvard University, was fitted externally to David Schwartz. 1957--Jimmy Hoffa was elected president of the Teamsters Union. 1957--Leave It to Beaver" premiered on CBS. 1957--the Space Age began as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, into orbit. 1958--the first trans-Atlantic passenger jetliner service was begun by British Overseas Airways Corporation with flights between London and New York. 1965--Pope Paul VI arrived at Kennedy International Airport in New York on the first visit by a reigning pope to the US. 1966--Lesotho, formerly the British colony of Basutoland, achieved its independence within the Commonwealth. 1970--rock singer Janis Joplin, 27, was found dead of an accidental heroin overdose. 1976--Barbara Walters Walters became the first female anchor of a network evening newscast. 1980--Islamic representatives from 38 nations moved to have the UN General Assembly call for Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. 1989--Art Shell was hired by the Oakland Raiders as the first black head coach in the modern NFL. 1989--Secretariat, the first Triple Crown winner since Citation in 1948, died on this date at the age of 19. 1990--the struggling FOX network launched one of its most successful shows on this date - Beverly Hills 90210. 1990--German lawmakers held the first meeting of the reunified country's parliament in the Reichstag in Berlin. 1991--the US and 23 other countries signed an agreement banning mineral and oil exploration in Antarctica for 50 years. 1992--an El Al 747 cargo plane crashed into an apartment building on the outskirts of Amsterdam, kiling at least 250 people. 1992--the Mozambique government and RENAMO rebels signed a historic peace accord, ending 16 years of civil war in the southeast African nation. 1993--dozens of cheering, dancing Somalis dragged the body of an American soldier through the streets of Mogadishu. 2001--authorities said a man in Boca Raton, Fla., had contracted the inhaled form of anthrax; he died the following day. 2001--a Siberian Airlines jetliner exploded and plunged into the Black Sea, killing all 64 passengers and 12 crew members after being hit by a missile fired from Ukraine. 2002--John Walker Lindh, the so-called "American Taliban," was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a federal judge . 2002--Richard Reid pleaded guilty in a federal court to trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives hidden in his shoes. 2003--a suicide bomber killed herself and 19 others in an attack on a crowded restaurant in the northern Israeli port of Haifa. 2004 --paceShipOne, the first privately funded rocket to reach the edge of space, flew to an altitude above 62 miles over the California desert. 2004--Gordon Cooper, one of the first astronauts, who logged more than 225 hours in space, died at his Calif. home. at age 77. 2006--Pres. Bush signed into law a bill allocating funds for a 700-mile bridge on the US-Mexico border to help control immigration. 2007--the US Justice Department issued a secret, so-called torture memo endorsing harsh interrogation techniques. 2008--the Labor Department announced the US lost 159,000 jobs in September, the most in five years. 2010--the US Supreme Court began a new era with three women serving together for the first time as Elena Kagan took her place at the end of the bench.
World News Capsules: 1. Coptic boys accused of defiling Koran in Egypt ....The detention of the two Egyptian youths, ages 9 and 10, is part of a spate of cases involving accusations that people have insulted Islam. 2. Merchants reopen in Tehran, as police watch ....Witnesses said that protests did not resume over the devaluation of the currency, the rial, and black-market money traders and prospective customers stayed away. 3. Rights group says Moscow employee is threatened ....A Human Rights Watch staff member received threats of an attack focused on her pregnancy. 4. Cajoling, drugging and more as rebels try to draw defectors ....Without defections, the Syrian rebels say the opposition cannot hope to grow, never mind prevail in its battle with the government of President Bashar al-Assad 5. With approval of Parliament, Turkey presses strikes in Syria
....A Turkish motion authorizing further military action against Syria raised tensions on Thursday, as Turkey resumed shelling targets within Syria in retaliation for a mortar attack that killed five civilians. 6. Chavez ends electoral campaign ....In his final rally before Sunday's presidential election, Hugo Chavez says he needs a third six-year term to promote social reforms and eradicate poverty.
US News Capsules: 1. Drought leaves cracks in way of life ....Lost amid the withered crops and dehydrated cattle that symbolize the most widespread drought in decades has been the toll on families that depend on farming. 2. Infant DNA tests speed diagnosis of rare diseases ....A new method for analyzing newborns' genetic histories sped the process of zeroing in on a disease-causing mutation from weeks or months to a couple of days. 3. In outbreak, meningitis is reported in 5 states ....The outbreak of a type of meningitis linked to back pain injections has spread, with over 30 cases, four of them fatal, in Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, Virginia and Maryland. 4. A United Nations of music ....A new federally sponsored program called OneBeat has brought together 32 musicians from 21 countries to write, produce and record original music and take it on the road. 5. Facebook passes one billion users
....Social networking site Facebook now has over one billion users logging on every month, founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced. 6. US charges 91 over Medicare fraud ....Ninety-one people are arrested in seven cities across the US for their alleged participation in a $430m Medicare fraud scheme, the justice department said. POLITICS: 1. Obama and Romney, in first debate, spar over fixing the economy ....Mitt Romney aggressively pressed President Obama on the economy, jobs and health care in a debate that avoided the kind of one-liners that sometimes emerge from such high-stakes face-offs. 2. A clash of philosophies ....In the first presidential debate, Pres. Obama argued that government plays an essential part in economic growth, while Mitt Romney contended it should get out of the way. a. Before a broader audience, Romney changes his tone ....Mitt Romney presented himself as a reasonable pragmatist, a departure from the conservative rhetoric of the Republican primary debates. 3. In fallout, after debate, Obama asks, which Mitt was that?
....The Obama campaign came out swinging, including stronger rhetoric, a new television ad and a conference call questioning Mr. Romney’s truthfulness.
Thought for Today "God is not dead but alive and well and working on a much less ambitious project. " --Anonymous,
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Post by Flying Horse on Oct 5, 2012 19:29:02 GMT -5
Emotional Wellness Month
Good evening from Tuxy and me This is the 279th day of 2012 with 86 days left in the year. Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 5:17 p.m., it's fair . Sunset at 6:42 p.m., temp 59ºF [Feels like 59ºF], winds S @ 5 mph, humidity 78%, pressure 30.08 in and steady dew point 52ºF, chance of precipitation 10%.
Today in History: 877--Charles the Bald , King of the Franks, died at age 54 while crossing the pass of the Mont Cenis en route back to Gaul. 1143--Alfonso VII, King of Leon, recognised Portugal as a n independent Kingdom. 1285--Philip III of France died of the plague and was succeeded by Philip IV (the Fair). 1511--Pope Julius II formed the Holy League between Aragon, Venice and the Papacy to defend the church and drive the French out of Italy. 1582==the Gregorian calendar was introduced in Italy and other Catholic countries. 1775--Gen. Washington wrote to the Continental Congress of the espionage of Dr. Benjamin Church, surgeon general of the Continental Army. 1789--the Women's March on Versailles in the French Revoltion)was to confront Louis XVI about his refusal to promulgate the decrees on the abolition of feudalism, demand bread, and have the King and his court moved to Paris. 1796--Spain declared war on Britain in the Napoleonic Wars 1813--at the Battle of the Thames near Ontario, Canada, Tecumseh, the Shawnee chief who organized intertribal resistance to the encroachment of white settlers was killed. 1864--the Union scored a victory over Gen. John Bell Hood and his army at the Battle of Allatoona Pass, Ga. 1877--Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians surrendered to Gen. Miles in the Bear Paw mountains of Montana. 1882--Robert Hutchings Goddard, US rocketh scientist, was born; died 1945 at age 62. 1892--the Dalton gang attempted to rob two banks simultaneously in Coffeyville, Kansas, but meets resistance and four of the five bandits were killed. 1895--Walter Bedell Smith, US Army chief of staff in Europe during World War II, was born; died 1961 at age 65. 1902--Ray A. Kroc, the American businessman who built the McDonald's fast food empire, was born; dued 1984 at age 81. 1908--Bulgaria proclaimed its independence from the Ottoman Empire. 1910--Portugal was declared a republic after a successful revolt against King Manuel II. 1915--in World War I, Britain and France committed troops to operation in Salonika, Greece. 1919--Enzo Ferrari made his debut as a race car driver/ 1930--a British dirigible on its first flight crashed in Beauvais, France, killing 49 people. 1937--Pres. Roosevelt called for a "quarantine" of aggressor nations. 1941--former Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, the first Jewish member of the nation's highest court, died at age 84. 1942--America’s ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’, George M. Cohan, died at age 64. 1945--Hollywood Black Friday: a 6-month strike by set decorators boiled over into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Bros studios. 1947--Pres. Truman made the first-ever televised presidential address from the White House, asking Americns to cut back on the use of grain to help starving Europeans. 1948--the Ashgabat earthquake (magnitude 7.3 ) in Turkmenistan, the Soviet Union, leveled the area causing more than 176,000 deaths. 1950--comedian Groucho Marx's zany quiz show, You Bet Your Life, debuted on NBC. 1952--After 11 years on ABC radio, Inner Sanctum, the mystery series, was heard for the last time. 1953--Earl Warren was sworn in as the 14th chief justice of the United States, succeeding Fred M. Vinson. 1953--the NY Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers to win their fifth World Series in a row. 1955--the World War II drama, The Diary of Anne Frank, opened on Broadway. 1962--The Beatles' first hit, "Love Me Do," was released in the United Kingdom. 1966--the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Power Plant on the shore of Lake Erie in Michigan suffered a partial meltdown. 1969--a Cuban defector landed a Soviet MiG in Miami, Fla. 1969--Monty Python's Flying Circus debuted on BBC-TV. 1978--Yiddish writer Isaac Basheva Singer won the Nobel Prize for Literature. 1981--Egyptian Pres. Anwar Sadat was shot to death by extremists while reviewing a military parade. 1983--Solidarity founder Lech Walesa was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. 1986--American Eugene Hasenfus was captured by Sandinista soldiers after the Contra supply plane he was riding in was shot down over Nicaragua and the Iran-Contra scandal unraveled. 1988--Democrat Lloyd Bentsen lambasted Republican Dan Quayle during their vice-presidential debate, telling Quayle, "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy." 1989 --ajury in Charlotte, N.C., convicted former PTL evangelist Jim Bakker of using his TV show to defraud followers. 1989--the 14th Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize for his struggle to liberate Tibet from China. 1990 --a jury in Cincinnati, Ohio acquitted an art gallery and its director of obscenity charges over an exhibit of sexually graphic photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe. 1999--the Ladbroke Grove Rail crash occurred at Ladbroke Grove Junction ,2 miles west of London Paddington Station, killing 31. 2000--Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic was ousted from office after losing an election by huge mobs in Belgrade. 2005--the US Senate voted 90-9 to approve an amendment that would prohibit the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" against anyone in US government custody. 2007--US track star Marion Jones pleaded guilty to lying when she said that she hadn't taken steroids. 2010--Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani immigrant who'd tried to detonate a car bomb in Times Square, was sentenced to life in pirson by a federal judge in New York. 2011--Steve Jobs, a founder & CEO of Apple, Inc., died at age 56 of pancreatic cancer in his Palo Alto, Calif. home.
World News Capsules: 1. Karzai accuses US of duplicity in fighting Afghan enemies ....The Afghan president said the US was playing a “double game” by not taking the fight against insurgents to Pakistan and by not supplying his country with weapons. 2. Glut of solar panels poses a new threat to China ....Although global demand for solar panels and wind turbines has grown rapidly in recent years, China’s manufacturing capacity grew faster, creating an oversupply and a price war 3. Winning coalition in Georgia demands vote recounts ....The country’s fragile postelection calm was shaken Thursday, with some coalition members calling for punishing officials from the departing government, 4. After German court ruling, chauch says tax is linked to sacraments ....The court had ruled that Catholics are free to leave the church, thus avoiding a tax that is collected by the government. 5. British judges approve extradition of Muslim cleric ....A Muslim preacher, Abu Hamza al-Masri, lost an appeal Friday against extradition to the US. a. Last speaker of a Scots dialect dies
....The Cromarty fisherfolk dialect appears to be the only descendant from the Germanic linguistic world in which no "wh" pronunciation existed. "'Where' would just be 'ere'," according to linguist Robert Millar. 6. India moves again to ease way for foreign investment ....In its 2nd major effort to revive a flagging economy, the Indian cabinet proposed letting foreign investors take a bigger stake in insurance and pension companies, but passage of the measure by Parliament is far from certain. 7. As Iran's currency keeps tumbling, anxiety is rising ....In the Iranian capital, all anyone can talk about is the rial, and how lives have been turned upside down during a week in which the currency’s value plunged by 40%. a. Iran offers plan, dismissed by US, on nuclear crisis ....With sanctions contributing to major protests in Iran, officials have drawn up a plan to defuse the nuclear crisis with the West, but it requires many concessions. 8. Political and market forces hobble Israel's pack of ink-stained watchdogs
....Newspapers like Haaretz and Maariv are being squeezed by the pressures of the global digital age and a small, crowded Hebrew-language market that is undergoing convulsions of its own. a. New York man, fired from Israeli hotel, kills co-worker ....The man, William Hershkovitz, who was participating in an internship and Hebrew study program at a hotel in Eilat, was then fatally shot by the police. 9. Fight over rocky islets opens old wounds between South Korea and Japan ....The dispute over the Dokdo/Takeshima islets reflects Seoul’s anger over its treatment when Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colonial power. 10. FBI agents scour ruins of attacked US diplomatic compound in Libya ....Security fears had kept the agents from traveling from the American Embassy in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, to collect evidence in Benghazi. 11. In Myanmar's makeover, politics is just the beginning ....Myanmar has begun to search for a national identity defined by its people, not the cloistered vision imposed by military governments that took power in 1962 and only relinquished control last year. 12. FBI says Russians smuggled out US microchips ....The scheme described by law enforcement focused on microchips and other electronic components that circulate freely in the US market, but still require a license to export. a. Rights group says its researcher in Moscow is threatened ....Human Rights Watch says that a staff member received repeated threats this week of an attack focused on her pregnancy. 13. Private army formed to fight Somali pirates leaves troubled legacy ....Hundreds of half-trained and well-armed members of an army for hire, now stranded in Somalia, offer a lesson in the risks of outsourced wars. 14. 12,000 striking miners are fired in South Africa
....The dismissals were apparently an attempt by the company, Anglo American Platinum, to stem the tide of wildcat strikes that have unsettled Africa’s biggest economy. 15. Man accused of planning omb attack in Spain ....The police said the man had written blog posts expressing admiration for the two teenagers who carried out an attack at Columbine High School in 1999. 16. Syrian warplanes strike Homs as rebels claim to capture base
....Government forces pounded parts of the central city of Homs, while rebels said they took a defense base outside Damascus with a cache of missiles, news reports said. 17. Turkey detains 2 in connection with killins in Libya ....Two Tunisians were held in connection with the killing of an American ambassador and three others in Libya on Sept. 11. It was not clear if they were considered suspects or witnesses. a. Turkey's parliament backs military measures on Syria ....The measure authorizes further military action against Syria, as Turkey began its 2nd day of shelling targets across the border in response to a mortar attack that killed five civilians. 18. Global food prices on the rise, UN says ....Heat and drought in the United States, Russia and Europe led to record highs in the prices of corn and soybeans, the United Nations food agency reported 19. Fears persist among Venezuelan voters ahead of election ....Many Venezuelans are anxious about casting ballots against President Hugo Chávez because of a widespread belief that the government retaliates against dissenters
US News Capsules: 1. In a drug linked to a deadly meningitis outbreak, a question of oversight
....The growing outbreak of meningitis was a calamity waiting to happen - the result of a lightly regulated type of drug production that had a troubled past colliding with a popular treatment. 2. Cheerleaders with Bible verses set off a debate
....In a small Texas town, cheerleaders' writing of Bible verses on banners has led to a lawsuit and questions about religious expression at public school events. 3. When job-creation engines stop at just one ....Constrained by scarcer financing but aided by better technology, new businesses have fewer employees than they did a decade ago, posing a worrying trend for employment. 4. A factory's closing focuses attention on tort reform ....The closing of Blitz USA, a maker of gasoline cans, inspired commercials about abusive lawsuits, but the ads duck the complexities of product liability cases. 5. Shopping list: tuna, detergent, a Warhol ....http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/10/06/arts/design/06costco-1/06costco-1-sfSpan.jpg ....Costco, the giant discount retailer, is returning to the art market after a six-year hiatus prompted by the sale of two disputed Picasso drawings online. 6. Jobless rate falls to 7.8%, loswest level of Obama's term
....While employers added only a modest number of jobs, the unemployment rate dropped below 8% for the first time since Pres. Obama took office, 7. Home teest for HIV as a screen of partners ....An unadvertised use for the OraQuick test may become popular and even help slow the AIDS epidemic, experts said. 8. Los Angeles to cease tansferring some immigrants ....The police will soon stop turning over illegal immigrants arrested for low-level crimes to federal immigration officials for deportation, Police Chief Charlie Beck said. 9. Unlikely, and large, marijuana crop is found in a Chicago industrial park ....A helicopter officer discovered a patch of 1,500 plants growing in an industrial park on the city’s far South Side. 10. FBI: Friendly fire likely in border agent killing
....This week's fatal shooting of a US Border Patrol agent and the wounding of another in Arizona was likely the result of friendly fire, the FBI said Friday night. 11. 52 hurt in multiple-vehicle crash in Florida
....At least 46 vehicles collided Friday afternoon in the southbound lanes of I-75 at about the time a thunderstorm struck, said Lt. Chris Miller with the Florida Highway Patrol.. POLITICS: 1. Cmpign gains a new intensity in debate's wake ....Pres. Obama and Mitt Romney confronted what one feared and the other hoped was an altered campaign after a debate in which the president's performance was widely panned. 2. GOP operative long trailed by allegations of voter fraud ....A Florida voter registration scandal involving Nathan Sproul, a highly paid Republican operative, is just the latest case in which questions have been raised about his methods. 3. Entering stage right, Romney moved to center
....During Wednesday’s presidential debate, Mitt Romney used striking new language to describe his policy proposals in ways that may be sowing confusion about how he would govern. 4. In Iowa and beyond, redrawn districts test favorites of Tea Party ....Rep. Steve King’s troubles show the liability of a national profile built largely on Tea Party credentials and incendiary statements.
Thought for Today "Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.” ..Denis Diderot (1713-1784), French philosopher & encyclopedist
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Post by Flying Horse on Oct 5, 2012 19:33:00 GMT -5
>:(I keep getting the "timed out" message eveertyime I post my daily bulletin. I'm getting might tired of checking to see if it has actually been posted .
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Post by Flying Horse on Oct 7, 2012 15:00:12 GMT -5
World Communion Sunday
Good afternoon from Tuxy and me This is the 281st day of 2012 with 84 days left in the year. Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 3:07 p.m., it's overcast , temp 49.5ºF [Feels like 50ºF], winds W @ 3 mph, humidity 72%, pressure 60.33 in and rising, dew point 38ºF, chance of precipitation 60%.
Today in History: 1571--the Battle of Lepanto: Don Juan of Austria and his Christian forces of 316 ships defeated the Turkish navy under Ali Pasha with 250 galleys om the last great confrontation between oared ships. 1763--George III of Great Britain issued the Proclamation of 1763, closing lands in North America north and west of the Alleghenies to white settlement. 1765--the Stamp Act Congress convened in New York to draw up colonial grievances against England's Stamp Act taxes. 1780--patriot militia defeated Loyalist militia at the Battle of King's Mountain in North Carolina. 1799--the Lutine's bell was salvaged off the coast of Holland and presented to Lloyds of London, where it has been rung ever since to mark a marine disaster. 1816--the first double-decked steamboat, the Washington, arrived in New Orleans. 1825--the Miramichi Fire was a massive forest fire in New Brunswick, Canada that destroyed over 1000 homes and killed 300 people. 1849--author Edgar Allan Poe died at age 40 in Baltimore, Md. 1864--Union troops turned back Gen.l Robert E. Lee's assault at the Battle of Darbytown near Richmond, Va. 1868--Cornell University was founded in Ithaca, N.Y. 1871--the most devastating fire in US history was ignited in Wisconsin in which 1,200 people were killed and 2 billion trees were destroyed. 1879--a German-Austrian dual alliance was formed under which they agreed to come to each other's aid if either was attacked. 1885--Niels Henrik David Bohr, Danish-born American nuclear physicist, was born; died 1962 at age 77. 1897--Elijah Muhammad, the American leader of the Black Muslim movement from the 1930s to the 1970s, was born; died 1975 at age 77. 1900--Heinrich Himmler, German Nazi politician, administrator and military SS commander, was born; died 1945 at age 44. 1913--Henry Ford's entire Highland Park, Mich. automobile factory iwa run on a continuously moving assembly line, a revolutionary industrial technique, for the first time. 1916--in the most lopsided football game on record, Georgia Tech humbled Cumberland University, 222-0. 1919--KLM Airlines was founded, making it the oldest carrier in the world still operating under its original name. 1940--German troops entered Romania to take control of strategic oil fields. . 1943--the Japanese executed nearly 100 American prisoners on Wake Island. 1949--the Democratic Republic of Germany or East Germany was proclaimed within the Soviet occupation zone. 1950--the UN General Assembly passed a resolution that that approved a US-led force to advance north of 38th parallel into North Korea. 1952--American Bandstand premiered on a Philadelphia television station. 1954--Marian Anderson became the first black singer hired by New York's Metropolitan Opera. 1956--a US House of Representatives subcommittee started investigations of television quiz shows that were allegedly rigged. 1959--Luna-3, a USSR Probe, provided the 1st pictures of the far side of the moon 1960--presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon debated Cold War foreign policy. 1963--Pres. Kennedy signed the documents of ratification for a nuclear test ban treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union. 1968--the Motion Picture Association of America adopted a film-rating system. 1975--a New York judge reversed John Lennon's deportation order. 1981--Egypt's parliament named Vice Pres. Hosni Mubarak to succeed the assassinated Anwar Sadat. 1982--the musical Cats opened on Broadway, beginning its record run of 7,485 performances. 1983--Sean Connery stars in Never Say Never Again as the British secret service agent James Bond, a role he last played in 1971 and said he would never play again. 1984--Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton became the NFL’s all-time rushing leader, breaking the record Cleveland’s Jim Brown set in 1965--12,400 yards, 88 more than Brown. 1985--four Palestinian terrorists hijacked the Achille Lauro, an Italian cruise ship, shortly after it left Alexandria, Egypt. 1993--the Great Flood of 1993 ends in St. Louis (103 days after it began) when the Mississippi River finally falls beneath flood stage. 1995--New York's Central Park was transformed into a giant open-air cathedral as Pope John Paul II celebrates Mass before a flock of 250,000. 1996--Fox News Channel made its debut. 1996--IRA guerrillas bombed Britain's army headquarters in Northern Ireland, injuring 31 people and shattering an uneasy two-year peace in the province. 1998--Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was beaten, robbed and left tied to a wooden fence post outside Laramie, Wyo., dying five days later. 2001--the U.S.-led attack on the Taliban of Afghanistan and the training bases for al-Qaida began. 2001--Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants wrapped up his record-breaking season with his 73rd home run. 2003--actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California, the most populous state in the nation. 2006--Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who had chronicled Russian military abuses against civilians in Chechnya, was found shot to death in Moscow. 2008--the Federal Reserve annouced a radical plan to buy massive amounts of short-term debt, known as commercial paper, to get credit markets moving again.
World News Capsules: 1. Slow-burning challenge to Chile on Easter Island ....Inspired by other parts of Polynesia that have obtained political autonomy or are seeking independence, leaders of the Rapanui people are mounting a rebellion against Chile. 2. British soil is battlefield over peat, for bogs'sake ....While many gardeners regard the partially decomposed plant matter as an elixir, environmentalists say taking peat from centuries-old bogs disturbs vital ecosystems. 3. Israel shoots down unidentified drone
....The Israeli air force shot down a drone after it crossed into southern Israel, the military said, but it remained unclear where the aircraft had come from. 4. Political Islam and the fate of two Libyan brothers ....One brother, after 16 years in Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's prisons, is a lawmaker. The other became Al Qaida's No. 2 and was killed in an American drone strike in Pakistan. 5. Pakistan halts drone protest led by ex-cricketer Imran Khan
....Pakistani security forces blocked a convoy carrying 1000s of Pakistanis and a small contingent of US anti-war activists from entering a lawless tribal region along the border with Afghanistan to protest American drone strikes. 6. Citing US fears, Arab allies limit Syrian rebel aid ....Officials in Saudi Arabia and Qatar said they were withholding heavier weapons in part because of worries by the US that they could end up in the hands of terrorists. 7. Chavez's socialist rule at risk as Venezuelans vote
....Venezuelans vote on Sunday with President Hugo Chavez facing the biggest electoral challenge yet to his socialist rule from Henrique Capriles, a young rival tapping into discontent over crime and cronyism.
US News Capsules: 1. SpaceX's Dragon craft ready to make ice cream delivery
....Commercial spaceship due for launch to space station with frozen treats and other cargo - the first under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA that calls for a dozen resupply flights by SpaceX, essential in the post-shuttle era. 2. Life and climate change on a rocky island
....Tatoosh Island, off the coast of Washington State, has seen a decline across species and could prove to be a bellwether for oceanic change globally. A married team of scientists, their mentor and a rotating cadre of graduate students have been observing disturbing declines in wildlife on the tiny island. 3. Gas prices roar to California record, hitting average of $4.614 per gallon
....Gas prices have gone up 47 cents in the past week - a refinery shortage and a recent power outage at a plant in Torrance were to blame for the recent fuel price spikes. 4. Emory confronts a legacy of bias against Jews ....The evidence of bias against Jewish students in Emory University's dental school has long been known, but until now the university had neither admitted the bias nor apologized for it. 5. Student loans, backed by government, crush many families
....Much attention has been focused on students burdened with loans throughout their lives. The recent growth in the Parent Plus program highlights another way the societal burden of paying for college has shifted to families. It means some parents are now saddled with children's college debt even as they approach retirement. 6. The seeds that federal money can plant ....At a time of looming budget cuts, advocates of government financing of technology research argue that it is an investment in the nation's future. 7. Plot to bomb 48 churches in Oklahoma uncovered ....Gregory Arthur Weiler II, a 23-year-old Illinois man, has been arrested after the discovery of bomb-making materials and notes about destroying 48 churches in Oklahoma, but family members say he suffers from mental illness. 8. Scant oversight of drug maker in fatal meningitis outbreak ....The rising toll has cast a harsh light on the loose regulations that legal experts say allowed a company to sell an unsafe drug to pain clinics. 9. Gaming faces its archenemy: financial reality
....Video-game retail sales are faltering. Will Nintendo’s coming Wii U prove the industry’s salvation? 10. A master of improv, writing Twitter's script
....A comic’s heart beats inside Dick Costolo, the nonconforming chief executive of Twitter who may well hold the key to the company’s success. POLITICS: 1. With 30 days to go, Romney and Obama campaigns look to next debates
....A spokesman for Obama vows that the president won't allow Romney a repeat performance in their second showdown. Mitt Romney is fighting to earn a new look from voters with 30 days remaining until the election, as President Barack Obama looks to close the window on his Republican challenger.. 2. Error and fraud at issue as absentee voting rises ....Nationwide, mailed ballots now account for nearly 20% of votes, yet such ballots are more likely to be compromised, and contested, than those cast in person, statistics show. 3. Voters in Florida are set to weigh in on two contentious ballot questions ....Among 11 proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution, No. 6 would ban state money for abortions, and No. 8 would remove language barring religious institutions from receiving state money.
Thought for Today "Camping is nature's way of promoting the motel business." --Dave Barry (b. 1947) humorist & writer
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Post by Flying Horse on Oct 7, 2012 15:01:20 GMT -5
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Post by Flying Horse on Oct 8, 2012 17:42:15 GMT -5
Happy Thanksgiving Canada Good afternoon from Tuxy and me This is the 282nd day of 2012 with 83 days left in the year. Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 3:57 p.m., it's cloudy , temp 54ºF [Feels like 54ºF], winds variable @ 5 mph, humidity 49%, pressure 30.20 in and falling, dew point 35ºF, chance of precipitation 10%.
Today in History: 1778--A group of Continental Army soldiers attacked Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant's home village of Unadilla on the Susquehanna River in southern New YOrk. 1862--Union troops stopped the Rebels invasion of Kentucky at the Battle of Perryville. 1869--Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the US, died in Concord, N.H., at age 64. 1871--the Great Chicago Fire began and went on to kill 250 people, leave 100,000 people homeless and destroy thousands of buildings. 1890--Edward V. Rickenbacker, the World War I flying ace who went on to lead Eastern Airlines for thirty years, was born; died 1973 at age 82. 1895--Empress Myeong-Seong of Korea (the first official wife of King Gojong) was murdered in her palace by sword-bearing Japanese assassins. 1918 American Army Sgt. Alvin York almost single-handedly killed 25 German soldiers and captured 132 in the Argonne Forest in France, winning the Congressional Medal of Honor. 1941--Jesse Jackson, African American preacher and civil rights leader, turns 71 1944--The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet debuted on CBS Radio. 1945--Pres. Truman announced that the secret of the atomic bomb would be shared only with Britain and Canada. 1952--rail disaster at Harrow and Wealdstone (a double collision involving 3 trains) results in 112 people dying and 340 injured. 1956--Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in a World Series as the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 2-0 in Game 5. 1959--Margaret Thatcher was first elected to the British Parliament as a Conservative representing the north London suburb of Finchley. 1967-- Che Guevara was defeated, captured, and executed the next day by a special detachment of the Bolivian army. 1968--US and South Vietnamese navies commence Operation Sealords. 1970--Soviet author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wpm the Nobel Prize in literature. 1982--all labor organizations in Poland, including Solidarity, were banned. 1985--the hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro killed American passenger Leon Klinghoffer and dumped his body and wheelchair overboard. 1990--at least 17 Muslims were killed by Israeli police in rioting on the Temple Mount, the third holiest site in Islam. 1991--a US federal judge in Anchorage, Alaska, approved a $1 billion settlement against Exxon for the Valdez oil spill. 1992--former West German chancellor Willy Brandt died at age 78 of intestinal cancer in his house outside Bonn. 1998--the US House of Representatives voted 258-176 to begin impeachment hearings against Pres. Clinton. 2001--the UN and Secretary-General Kofi Annan shared the Nobel Peace Prize. 2001--former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge was sworn in as director of the new Office of Homeland Security. 2001--US transport planes dropped 37,000 meals into areas of Afghanistan where mass starvation was feared imminent. 2004--lifestyle guru Martha Stewart reported to prison to begin serving a sentence for lying about a stock sale. 2004--for the first time the Nobel Peace Prize went to an African woman, Dr. Wangari Maathai, an environmental activist from Kenya. 2005--a major 7.6-magnitude earthquake flattened villages on the Pakistan-India border, killing an estimated 86,000 people. 2007--British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that half of the 5,000 British troops stationed in Iraq would be removed by the end of 2008. 2007--a second U.N. observer mission was sent into a town in Sudan's troubled Darfur region that was burned and looted while under government control. 2008--a Nepal Yeti Airlines plane, carrying a dozen German tourists and others on a flight from Kathmandu to Lukla, crashed near Mount Everest, killing 18 people. 2009--three people died and more than a dozen others were hospitalized following a botched sweat lodge ceremony run by motivational speaker/author James Arthur Ray in Arizona. 2011--Al Davis, the Hall of Fame owner of the Oakland Raiders, died at age 82. 2012--Shemini Atzeret (Jewish Holiday) 8th day of Sukkot where sentiments of gratitude and devotion are stored up and prayers for rain are made.
World News Capsules: 1. From discontent to violence at Kabul college ....Rival groups clashed over the decision by the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to change the name of a teacher-training university in the capital. 2. Canada puts spotlight on War of 1812, with US as villain
....The Canadian government’s enthusiasm for the conflict has puzzled and angered many in the country, where shows of patriotism are more subdued than they are south of the border. 3. US panel calls two Chinese firms 'national security threat' ....The House Intelligence Committee said telecommunications equipment from Huawei Technologies and ZTE could be used for spying in the US. 4. With affirmative action, India's rich gain school slots meant for poor ....India’s caste-based affirmative action policy has transformed the taint of “backwardness,” as those of means benefit from a program meant to uplift the less fortunate. 5. Strict new procedures for Iran currency trading after protest ....The police moved to arrest unlicensed currency dealers and increase patrols in Tehran to prevent unofficial trading from disrupting new official exchange rates for Iran’s currency, the rial. 6. Israel launches airstrikes after attacks from Gaza ....Israeli warplanes responded to rocket fire from Gaza by launching airstrikes, in a flare-up that began Sunday when Israel fired missiles against two suspected members of jihadist groups. 7. Corruption is seen as a drain on Italy's south ....A 300-mile highway in Calabria has yet to be finished after decades of work, and critics see it as the rotten fruit of a jobs-for-votes culture. 8. In bid to end crisis, Kuwait's parliament is dissolved ....Kuwait’s ruler dissolved Parliament, a step toward ending political gridlock and calling the second elections this year that could again swing in favor of Islamist-led opposition groups. 9. Lebanon says Israeli planes circled its airspace for an hour ....The morning after the Israeli Air Force shot down an unidentified drone, the Lebanese government said that four Israeli warplanes spent an hour illegally circling in its airspace. 10. Libya's Prime Minister is dismissed ....Parliament voted out Mustafa Abu Shagour, the newly elected prime minister, after rejecting his attempt to form a Cabinet and government. 11. In Pakistan, drone protest takes detour for safety ....A demonstration against American drone strikes inside Pakistan’s tribal belt was abandoned after the military warned of “imminent danger,” but 1000s rallied at a safer location. 12. US and Philippines start training exercise ....The two militaries will train together on disaster relief, humanitarian assistance and maritime security. a. Philippine rebel group agrees to peace accord to end violence in south ....The deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has fought a war of independence for more than three decades, is expected to reduce the violence in the predominantly Muslim southern island of Mindanao. 13. Happy birthday, Mr. President: Putin turns 60, and Russians pay notice
....For leaders of the Kremlin, turning 60 is a milestone heavy with history and symbolism, sometimes marked by elaborate ceremony and sometimes not. 14. US agrees to let South Korea extend range of ballistic missiles ....The agreement was part of a pact that tries to balance fears in the US of a regional arms race and South Korea’s concern over military threats from North Korea. a. Families of South Korean sailors held by pirates ask Seoul for helpd ....The families of four South Korean sailors held hostage by Somali pirates for more than 17 months appealed to the government to intervene on their release. 15. Cloning and stem cell discoveries earn Nobel in medicine
....The landmark discoveries in cell development by scientists in England and Japan came 40 years apart. 16. Syria ccuses Turkey of imperialist delusions as bordr shelling resumes ....Both insurgent sympathizers and the Syrian government described an extremely violent day in the nearly 19-month-old uprising in the country, with unverified accounts of killings and destruction. 17. Chávez wins new term in Venezuela, holding off surge by opposition
....Pres. Hugo Chávez won re-election, facing down the strongest electoral challenge of his nearly 14 years in office and gaining a new mandate to deepen his socialist revolution. 18. Nguyen Chi Thien, whose poems spoke truth to power, from a cell, dies at 73 ....Mr. Thien, a dissident writer who wrote poetry opposing the Communist government in Vietnam, endured prolonged imprisonment, torture and solitary confinement.
US News Capsules: 1. For software, cracks in the patent system ....When the nation's patent system was born, many inventions were mechanical. Some say the patent system is ill suited for today's digital world, where innovations like software are often based on abstract concepts. 2. A guided path through customs blocked
(Alireza Mahdavi was approved for the Global Entry program several years ago, but said he inexplicably lost those privileges.) ....Some applications for Global Entry and other trusted traveler programs have been rejected for a minor brush with law enforcement or customs inspectors. 3. Fighting for a cause with soap and suds ....In Phoenix, carwashes raise money for funerals and deaths, struggling churches and cheerleading squads, for children of murder victims and for sick children. 4. Marijuana only for the sick? A farce, some Angelenos say
....While the federal government cracks down on dispensaries of medical marijuana, Los Angeles repealed a recent ban on them. 5. As military suicides rise, focus is on private weapons ....The Pentagon and Congress are working on policies to separate at-risk service members from personal weapons, but gun-rights advocates and many veterans are opposed, 6. YouTube to serve niche tastes by adding channels ....YouTube, now carrying more polished output, will announce more original channels to the 100 it has introduced in the last year. 7. Lured in by a family just being itself on TV ....Duck Dynasty, the A&E reality show about a Louisiana family that makes duck calls, is growing in popularity/ 8. Online, a genome project for the world of art
....Art.sy is trying to map the “genome” of world art to create a comprehensive browsing tool. 8. Study shows children with autism tend to stray ....Those at greatest risk of wandering off were autistic children with severe intellectual deficits and those who do not respond to their names. 9. California moves to reduce gas prices ....Gov. Jerry Brown requested an increase to the supply of fuel by allowing refineries to immediately transition to a blend of gasoline that is typically not sold until November. 10. Deadly meningitis outbreak increases to 91 cases ....Health officials on Sunday reported an additional 27 cases in a fungal meningitis outbreak linked to steroid injections that has killed seven people and now infected 91 in nine states POLITICS: 1. Romney strives to stand apart in global policy ....Mitt Romney has yet to explain how he would conduct policy toward the Middle East, or to resolve deep ideological rifts within the Republican Party. a. Pew Poll shows Romney advancing after debate ....Mitt Romney’s strong debate performance has wiped out President Obama’s eight-point lead in the latest national poll conducted by the Pew Research Center. 2. Campaigns use social media to lure younger voters ....If the presidential campaigns of 2008 were dipping a toe into social media like Facebook and Twitter, their 2012 versions are well into the deep end. 3. Wives take the campaign to newsstands ....Coverage of Michelle Obama and Ann Romney - and sometimes their husbands - in women's and celebrity magazines is eagerly sought and closely watched. 4. In Congress, a shrinking pool of moderates ....A combination of redistricting, retirements and campaign spending by special interests is pushing out moderate Democrats and Republicans.
Sports Headlines: 1. [MLB Playoffs: Marting and Yanks are bettter late/u]
....Yankees catcher Russell Martin broke a 2-2 tie with a towering home run in the ninth inning, sparking a late rally as the Yankees beat the Orioles 7--2 in Game 1 of an A.L. division series/ a. Arroyo shuts down Giants as Reds take 2-0 series lead ....Bronson Arroyo stymied and stunned San Francisco with his array of pitches, allowing only one hit in seven innings in the Reds' 9-0 victory over the Giants. b. Nationals edge out Cardinals 3-2 with late rally
....Pinch-hitter Tyler Moore hit a two-run single in the 8th inning to help the Washington Nationals hold on against the St. Louis Cardinals in a tight and tentative contest. c. Kiss evolkes era when a Tigers pitcher only talked to the ball
....Tigers pitcher Al Alburquerque kissed the baseball before throwing to first in a crucial situation, a move that evoked memories of Mark Fidrych’s antics in the 1970s. d. October fortunes seem beyond Oakland's reach ....Oakland has lost five playoff series since 2000, and unless the Athletics sweep three games from Detroit starting Tuesday, they will fall again. 2. NFL: A sluggish start, but a rousing response
....The Browns took advantage of an early Giants fumble to take a 14-0 lead before Ahmad Bradshaw, Eli Manning and Victor Cruz turned things around, leading the Giants to a 47-27 win. a. Patriots play keep-away for victory over Manning and the Broncos 31-27 ....Peyton Manning faced off against Tom Brady for the first time as a member of the Broncos, but it was Brady’s Patriots that managed to suffocate Denver’s defense to win. 3. Ethiopians sweep Chicago Marathon ....Tsegaye Kebede became the first Ethiopian to win the men’s race, while Atsede Baysa was victorious in a thrilling finish, winning the women’s division by a step. 4. NCAAFB: As SEC sees power shift, Spurrier just has to smile
....Coach Steve Spurrier’s South Carolina football team jumped to No. 3 after Saturday’s thorough beating of Georgia while Florida, which beat longtime powerhouse L.S.U., rose to No. 4. .5. WNBA: Amid success, WNBA is still facing challenges
....The WNBA — the most successful women’s league in American history — continues to fly under the radar even as it prepares for its 16th finals this week.
Thought for Today "A man's admiration for absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him." --[/i]Alexis de Tocqueville [Alexis Charles Henri Maurice Clerel, le Comte de Tocqueville] (1805-1859) French historian
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