Your advice for October 2012 - Feng Shui Astrology

Running from 8th?October 2012 - 7th?November?2012 we have the double Heaven Star where the energy of this month matches the energy of the year and, because its ruling element is Metal that means focus, focus and more focus.? You'll experience authority: either giving or receiving it.? Rules and responsibilities will also be high on the agenda.

Add the Wood element to the?East sector of your home this month to improve creativity, opportunties and finances.? Focus for relationships and romance should be on the North. Happy couple pictures here or pairs of ornaments will work well here for this month.

This month's NO GO days are:

• 10th October
• 22nd October
• 3rd November

NO GO days are those where the energy is not favourable for all stars so it's best to avoid important occassions if at all possible. The Chinese call these 'Go Fishing' days!

To understand this advice you must know your I Ching Astrology Birth Star which you can calculate by clicking the 'Find your Star' tab above.? Overall Stars for the year can be found by clicking the 2012 Stars tab above. And, if you'd like to find out a little more about the energy of this month using a combination of Feng Shui Astroloy and Tarot then have a look at my You Tube channel or click on the video showing on the left of this page.

1 Water
You are going to get notice this month Water Star.? I know you often like to work behind the scenes but that's just not going to happen so make everything you do transparent.? Oh, and this month is going to be fast and quick so hold onto your hat.
Best days for Romance: 14th October, 23rd October & 1st November
Best days for Luck:? 16th?October?&?25th October

2 Earth
This month is ideal to plan, to rest, to focus on your intuition and to step in and arbitrate where you're needed.? You often focus on others over yourself Earth Star and you can still do that but treat yourself as well as you treat others. The energy is suggesting you do that.
Best days for Romance: 13th October & 31st October
Best days for Luck:? 15th October, 24th October?& 2nd November

3 Thunder
Another frustrating month for you Thunder Star.? You're still feeling bogged down. You need to act and move but the energy around you is particularly heavy (for a Thunder Star at least).? Focus your energy on relationships as much as you can.
Best days for Romance: 12th October, 21st October & 30th October
Best days for Luck:? 14th?October, 23rd October?&?1st November

4 Wind
Wind Star you have so much ooomph at the moment.? Not only is your creativity in overdrive with so many ideas, which is fairly normal for a Wind Star,?but you also have the motivation to put some of them into action.
Best days for Romance: 11th October, 20th October, 29th October & 7th November
Best days for Luck:? 13th?October?&?31st October

5 Tai Chi
Tai Chi you may be surprised at your creativity but lack the ability to fine tune ideas and plan how to make them a reality.? Keep notes, the time will come when you can do that - just not yet.
Best days for Romance: 19th October, 28th October & 6th November
Best days for Luck:??12th?October, 21st October?&?30th?October

6 Heaven
Everybody's looking to you Heaven Star.? You can draw the right people to you this month but you can also draw the wrong people to you too! If that's the case just tactfully redirect them.
Best days for Romance: 9th October, 18th October, 27th October & 5th November
Best days for Luck:? 11th October,?20th October, 29th?October?&?7th November

7 Lake
Responsibility is still burdening you Lake Star. Not just this month but this year has been a time of growth and progress. It may seem like hard work but you are maturing in so many ways with the challenges coming into your life.
Best days for Romance: 8th October, 17th October, 26th October & 4th November
Best days for Luck:? 19th October,?28th October?&?6th November

8 Mountain
Sometimes the mountain, however stubborn, has to make the move and that time is now Mountain Star. You may not be keen to do what's being asked of you but try not to resist. The term 'Go with the Flow' doesn't sit easy with you but it really is the best thing to do at the moment.
Best days for Romance: 16th October & 25th October
Best days for Luck:? 9th October,?18th October, 27th?October?&?5th November

9 Fire
It's not as bright as you like it Fire Star.? Take care with communication of all sorts as what you say could be misinterpreted. The main message to you is 'Patience'.? Practise it often.
Best days for Romance: 15th October, 24th October & 2nd November
Best days for Luck:? 8th?October, 17th October, 26th October?& 4th November

If you are interested in a personal reading or would like more information on Feng Shui, Feng Shui Astrology, Date Selection or any of my other services visit my?main website: www.jackientoman.co.uk

Until next month enjoy your unique form of energy.

Source: http://fs168fengshuiastrology.blogspot.com/2012/09/feng-shui-astrology-your-advice-for.html

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UCA Honors College Challenge Week 2012: ?Dear Mr. President:?

The University of Central Arkansas Honors College will present Challenge Week 2012 from Oct. 5 - 12. This year's theme, ?Dear Mr. President:,? imagines a letter to the next presidential administration that asks for action on issues that affect all Americans regardless of age, ethnic origin, income level, region of residence or party affiliation.

Presenters will focus on three key areas of national concern: immigration, health care and environmental contamination.

?Challenge Week brings to campus nationally known thinkers to engage the community in a reflective interchange of ideas. Speakers present compelling arguments to UCA students, faculty and staff, and to the broader community, in an effort to inform, educate and thoughtfully address contemporary problems and concerns,? said Dr. Rick Scott, dean of the Honors College. The UCA Student Government Association is co-sponsoring Challenge Week 2012.

All events take place on the UCA campus and are free and open to the public.

Challenge Week schedule of events:

? Friday, Oct. 5 at 3 p.m. in the Presentation Room of Jefferson Farris Jr. Honors Hall. Shastady Williams and Blake Brizzolara, Honors College juniors, speak about their experiences participating in the 2012 Republican and Democratic Parties? presidential nominating conventions. They attended the conventions during academic seminars hosted by The Washington Center.

? Tuesday, Oct. 9 in the College of Business Auditorium at 7 p.m. Mireya Reith, co-founder and executive director of the Arkansas United Community Coalition (AUCC), will present, ?If it?s Broken, Fix It: Immigration Reform in the U.S.? A native of Fayetteville, Arkansas, Reith has worked in international political development across five continents with American nonprofit organizations and the United Nations to engage marginalized communities in democratic processes. Reith served as a municipal development volunteer with the Peace Corps in El Salvador, and currently serves the state as the first Latina appointed by the Governor to the Arkansas State Board of Education.

? Wednesday, Oct. 10 in the Doyne Health Sciences Auditorium at 4 p.m. Dr. Clay Arnold, professor of political science, will present, ?American Politics in the 2010 Affordable Health Care Act.? His scholarship features western water politics and issues in contemporary social and political theory. He has published articles and essays in the American Political Science Review, Politics & Policy, Journal of the Southwest, the SUNY Press series in Environmental Philosophy and Ethics and the MIT Press series in American and Comparative Environmental Policy.

? Friday Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. in the College of Business Auditorium. Dr. Tyrone B. Hayes, University of California-Berkeley professor of biology, will deliver the keynote address, ?From Silent Spring to Silent Night: A Tale of Toads and Men.? Hayes is a graduate of Harvard and UC-Berkeley and also completed post-doctoral studies at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health and the Cancer Research Laboratories at UC-Berkeley. A recipient of several teaching, scholarly and citizenship awards, Hayes has published and presented widely on the role of environmental factors?particularly agricultural pesticides and herbicides?on growth and development in amphibians. His lecture is sponsored by the Honors College and the UCA chapter of the NAACP.

Founded in 1982, UCA's Honors College engages students in interdisciplinary study of classic thought and contemporary issues, helping them express leadership in the larger world as citizen-scholars.

?

Source: http://uca.edu/news/uca-honors-college-challenge-week-2012-dear-mr-president/

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E.Nigma Facts | "The Website for the Up & Coming Celeb!"

Posted by C.Jay McGruder on Sep 29, 2012 in People On The Move | 0 comments

Facts about E.Nigma

Legal Name: David Edmond
Age: 20
Birthday & Zodiac Sign: Dec. 16th & Sagittarius
Stage Name: E.Nigma
What is your favorite color: Blue & Black
What is your biggest pet peeve: People who can?t hold a conversation or need to control it in order too.?????????????????????????????????? Favorite Basketball Team: Miami Heat
Likes When: I wake up and have another chance to make something happen.
Hates When: People ask me about something just to be nosey? Dont care? Then dont ask.
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
What type of phone do you use: iPhone
Favorite Designer: Dont have one, I rock what I thinks dope.
Favorite Movie: The Five Heartbeats/Shaft (modern)
Guilty Pleasure: Im not guilty about what I take pleasure in.
Unique Talent: I can rap my ass off. Im a unique person so?living?

Frequently used phrase when talking: &-Shit, Yaowa, Wild Crazy and FROST

?

Native of Brooklyn, NY and talented Hip Hop artist, E.Nigma has been perfecting his craft and plotting for a worldwide takeover. Combining his poetic ability with his passion for music, E. brings a breath of fresh air for the music industry, by simply doing what he feels he was born to do, make beautiful music. Surrounded by the arts & entertainment at a young age, Nigma Baby baby (The Nigma so nice, you say the Baby twice!) has grown into an ambitious young man, teaching himself how to produce and present his music efficiently and effectively to an audience. Influenced by his NYC city life and infatuation with southern culture, he channels his emotion and passion into a presence felt like never before through his music. His influence and motivation are drawn from all corners of Hip Hop, with favorites from Ludacris & Twista, to Jay-Z and Kanye to Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg. However his true inspiration simply stems from life; The life he lives, the life he wants and everything in between. ?Through my music I hope to give my listeners, and audience members, a friend and a hope for a positive future for the culture.? -E.Nigma

?

The mixtape link:? http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/e-nigma-frost-season-2-mixtape.56804.html/

Source: http://www.cjmcgruder.com/2012/09/29/e-nigma-facts/

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WHO says only severely ill should be tested for new virus

LONDON (Reuters) - Doctors should only test people for a new virus if they are very ill in hospital with a respiratory infection, have been in Qatar or Saudi Arabia and test negative for common forms of pneumonia and infections, the World Health Organisation said on Saturday.

The newly discovered virus from the same family as SARS has so far been confirmed in only two cases worldwide, one in a 60-year-old Saudi man who died from his infections, and another in a man from Qatar who is critically ill in a London hospital.

In updated guidance issued six days after it put out a global alert about the new virus, the WHO said suspected cases should be strictly defined to limit the need to test people with milder symptoms.

But it added anyone who has been in direct contact with a confirmed case and who has any fever or respiratory symptoms should also be tested.

The WHO said in a statement its new case definition was designed "to ensure an appropriate and effective identification and investigation of patients who may be infected with the virus, without overburdening health care systems with unnecessary testing."

The United Nations health agency said on Sunday a new virus had infected a 49-year-old Qatari who had recently travelled to Saudi Arabia, where another man with an almost identical virus had died.

The virus is from a family called coronaviruses, which also includes viruses that cause the common cold and SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which emerged in China in 2002 and killed around a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.

INTENSIVE CARE

A spokeswoman for Britain's Health Protection Agency, where scientists analyzing samples from the Qatari man found a match with the fatal Saudi case last weekend and reported their finding to the WHO, said on Saturday the 49-year-old was still in intensive care.

He is being cared for at St Thomas's hospital, where he has been connected to an artificial lung to keep him alive.

The WHO says there is so far no evidence to suggest the potentially fatal virus spreads easily from person to person. Scientists say the genetic makeup of the virus suggests it may have come from animals, possibly bats.

The WHO has been collaborating with laboratories such as the HPA and another lab in the Netherlands which were responsible for the confirmation of new virus.

"These laboratories have been working on the development of diagnostic reagents and protocols which can be provided to laboratories that are not in a position to develop their own, and these are now available," it said.

But it stressed only patients who fulfilled strict criteria - including having severed respiratory syndrome, requiring hospitalization, having been in Qatar or Saudi Arabia or in contact with a suspected or confirmed case, and having already been tested for pneumonia.

"The essence is that this is not for people with coughs and colds," WHO spokesman Glenn Thomas told Reuters.

Six suspected cases in Denmark last week turned out to be false alarms and Thomas said it was important "to alleviate the burden of testing" by ensuring health authorities and members of the public understand the criteria for a suspected case. (Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Sophie Hares)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/says-only-severely-ill-tested-virus-183841256.html

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AUTOS: Jaguar Launches The F-Type

AUTOS: Jaguar Launches The F-Type

The long-awaited sports car ? spiritual successor to the fabled E-Type ? debuts prior to the Paris Auto Show.

You've seen it in countless spy photos and even a leaked press shot, but the 2014 Jaguar F-Type sports car was finally unveiled today officially at the Rodin Museum in Paris ahead of the Paris Auto Show, which opens Thursday.

Designer Ian Callum, charged with creating a successor to the hallowed E-type, has penned an unmistakably British roadster that channels elements of the E without succumbing to the temptation to create an actual retro design.

The F-Type was tasked with reviving the energy of the famed E-Type without being retro. (Photo: Jaguar) Jaguar executives remain mum on pricing for the moment, but it's clear they're determined to offer potential Boxster buyers a compelling alternative. The engineers have done their part too: Depending upon trim level, the output and estimated performance of the F-Type lines up closely with Porsche's entry-level convertible.

Let's take a look at the specifics:

All three F-Type trim levels get supercharged engines, either a V6 available in two states of tune or the company's exquisite force-fed 5-liter AJ V8. The 375-horsepower V6 is notable by virtue of having the highest specific output of any Jaguar engine to-date.

The horsepower ratings and Jaguar?s performance figures:

? F-Type: Supercharged 3.0L V6, 335 horsepower, 0-60 5.1 seconds, top speed 161 mph.

? F-Type S: Supercharged 3.0L V6, 375 horsepower, 0-60 4.8 seconds, top speed 171 mph.

? F-Type V8S: Supercharged 5.0L V8, 488 horsepower, 0-60 4.2 seconds, top speed 186 mph.

There will be three versions of F-Type, two with supercharged V6 engines and a top model powered by Jaguar's 5-liter supercharged V8. (Photo: Jaguar) F-Type spotters can identify V6 models by their dual center-mounted exhaust pipes versus the V8's quad pipes, arranged two per side.

Each F-Type gets a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission with QuickShift, a strategy that cuts fuel when changing gears for faster shifts. S models also get launch control. V6S models get a mechanical limited slip differential, while V8S trims receive an electronic differential that maximizes traction not just in performance situations, but also in inclement weather.

While we suspect the V8 will thrill thanks to its additional 150 horsepower, Jaguar claims the base V6 F-Type is less than one second slower to 60 than its big brother:

Source: http://automotive.speedtv.com/article/autos-jaguar-unveils-f-type/

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Avoid repeating mistakes you made in the meltdown

By John Wasik, Reuters

CHICAGO -- It's rear-view mirror philosophizing time. As we head into the autumn of this contentious election year, it's a great time to reflect upon what worked and what didn't in the wake of some of the most tumultuous upheavals in American economic history.

You could easily blame Wall Street for the 2008 meltdown, but it's also clear that American families weren't prepared and made mistakes too. A new study from the Consumer Federation of America found that 67 percent of middle class Americans think they made at least one "really bad financial decision," and 47 percent said they had made more than one. The cost? The median was $5,000, but the average cost was $23,000.

Further, the study, entitled "The Financial Status and Decision-making of the American Middle Class," also found that outside of retirement funds and checking/savings accounts, families had few other financial assets. Only 15 percent surveyed held stocks and from 13 to 14 percent held either savings bonds or certificates of deposits.

How could you avoid the same fate? Here are some key ways to avoid the same financial blunders:

1. Failing to gauge portfolio risk

I don't know about you, but I wasn't surprised when the market tanked as much as it did in 2008-2009. I thought it would be worse. Yet I sure was blindsided as to how much it nailed my retirement portfolio, which fell about 40 percent. After all, I was diversified. Wasn't that supposed to be a form of protection?

I didn't know that commodities, stocks and real estate investment trusts would decline in lockstep. They usually don't, but they were highly correlated during the global downturn. There was an easy way to avoid this kind of hit: Add more bonds, which I did. They now comprise more than half of our portfolio.

2. Getting swamped by debt-to-income ratios

Of course, you've heard tales of homebuyers who got mortgages they shouldn't have qualified for just because they had a pulse in the pre-2007 bubble years. The enduring truth is that too much debt can always be toxic.

What's a dangerous level? It's pretty simple: If your short-term debt exceeds your ability to pay it off every month, it's too much. Whenever you get beyond 40 percent of debt-to-income, you're getting into deep trouble. Most middle-class families carried 20 cents in debt payments to every $1 they earned in 2010, the Consumer Federation found. That's not unreasonable, but this is an average discerned by looking at Federal Reserve data; millions of households are in trouble because they owe more than what their homes are worth, which was not explored in this study.

A worthy goal for reining in short-term debt is simply to pay off bills each month -- but that means keeping spending within your income range and saving up for big ticket items. Also, watch your credit rating and try to improve it to obtain the lowest-possible financing rates.

3. Not having a big enough safety net

The typical American middle-class family has about $27,000 in financial assets (excluding pensions), the Consumer Federation found. Is that enough to cover emergencies, long unemployment stretches or unreimbursed medical bills? Probably not.

The rule of thumb is to hold six months' worth of salary in emergency cash in money-market or savings accounts. It's a good place to start, but more of a cushion is needed because of bad financial decisions. And even more for those facing long-term unemployment. How do you stash away more when times are tough? There's no magic answer other than making it a top priority and making some hard decisions about spending.

4. Not carrying enough insurance

There's a basic trade-off with all insurance policies: The more you're willing to pay on a claim out of pocket, the lower the premium. For example, if you get a catastrophic health plan with a high deductible, your monthly premium will be lower.

To figure out what you can afford, look at your monthly cash flow. If you need to reduce insurance premiums, you will need to boost savings to cover the deductibles. You can also save money on auto insurance by dropping coverage for comprehensive coverage if the car is old.

5. Failing to invest

Saving is putting money in a protected place for rainy days. Investing is putting money at risk in exchange for long-term returns. You need to do both to survive the ravages of inflation and financial events beyond your control. Surprisingly, only 21 percent of those middle-class Americans surveyed by the Consumer Federation said they would invest in stocks, bonds and mutual funds - even if they had $1 million to invest.

While I certainly don't admonish anyone for steering clear of market risk after 2008, you can find some balance through the "bucket" method of risk management. Your "safe" yellow bucket should hold money you need in the next few years for emergencies, college, out-of-pocket medical expenses or taxes. A "red" bucket is for money you can risk over decades for retirement and future goals. You adjust the amount of money for each bucket according to your needs, time of life and risk tolerance.

Perhaps the greatest blunder that everyone is guilty of is inaction. We wait for the market to become overheated instead of taking advantage of dips to get better prices. We don't sell our losers and move on. We think we can time the bottom of the real estate and stock markets.

I know I waited too long to add bonds to my portfolio and reduce my stock and commodity market exposure, although it's since bounced back. One essential truth remains: In a society that thrives on spending and consumption, increased saving can help avert financial disaster in the future.?

More money and business news:

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?

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2012/09/24/14073437-5-steps-to-avoid-repeating-mistakes-you-made-in-the-meltdown?lite

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Bikes for Life Bicycle Rodeo Denver CO

Children?s Hospital Colorado and Central Park Recreation Center Host a Free Bicycle Skills Course Event for Children in the Community?

WHEN:?????Saturday, September 22, 2012
9 a.m.-12 p.m.

WHERE:???Central Park Recreation Center
9651 E. Martin Luther King Boulevard,?Denver, CO 80238

WHAT:? ??
A bicycle skills course will be set up in the Central Park Recreation Center?s parking lot for children ages 3-12. The skills course is designed for children to practice balance, riding straight, turning, stopping, dodging objects, and other key bicycle skills.? Children of all ability level can put their bicycle skills to the test on the course.? Trained volunteers will teach children how to ride a bicycle for the first time without training wheels on a separate course.? Helmet and bicycle safety education will also be provided.? The Mountain radio street team will be at the event with bicycle related prizes for winners on their prize wheel.

The bicycle rodeo is part of the Children?s Hospital Colorado and UnitedHealthcare Bikes For Life program first announced last fall to distribute 1,000 bicycles and helmets to kids throughout the state. Children?s Colorado and The City and County of Denver, Denver Parks and Recreation are hosting the bicycle rodeo to get kids throughout the community excited about bicycling as a lifetime activity.

For more information, visit?www.childrenscolorado.org/bikesforlife.

?

Source: http://denverbucketlist.com/bikes-for-life-bicycle-rodeo-denver-co/

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Egypt jihadi groups say behind deadly Israeli border attack

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - An Islamist militant group based in Egypt's Sinai has claimed reponsibility for a cross-border attack that killed an Israeli soldier in the restive peninsula where jihadi groups have gained a foothold.

Three gunmen were also killed in Friday's attack, which the group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdes said was in response to an anti-Islam film that has sparked worldwide protests and violence. A second Israeli soldier was wounded in the attack.

There have been at least four such cross-border raids in just over a year in the area where security lapsed after the uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak last year.

Egypt's army and police launched a security sweep after a raid that killed 16 Egyptian border guards in August.

In a statement on an Internet site often used by jihadi groups, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdes said it had named the operation as an "attack to discipline those insulting the beloved Prophet", a reference to the film that mocked Prophet Mohammad.

The group accused Jews of involvement in the film, but did not explain how. Though the film was made in the United States, Israel is often viewed by militants as a proxy agent for U.S. policy in the region because it is a close ally of Washington.

CNN reported that Jewish groups denied some reported allegations that there was any Jewish backing for the film.

The U.S. government has condemned the film and said it had no role in it, but said it could not act against the production because of its commitment to freedom of expression.

Many Muslims view any portrayal of the Prophet as blasphemous.

Ansar Bayt al-Maqdes, which means "supporters of the holy place", a reference to Jerusalem, pledged to carry out another operation, at an unspecified time, in revenge for what it said was the killing of a member in Sinai with the help of Israel.

It was not immediately clear what help it believed Israel had given in the death of Ibrahim Oweidah. Egyptian authorities had said his death in September was due to a landmine accident.

The group has previously claimed an attack on a pipeline delivering gas to Israel and rocket attacks targetting Israel.

(Reporting by Yusri Mohamed; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-jihadi-groups-behind-deadly-israeli-border-attack-084557023.html

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Characteristics of the population eligible for and receiving publicly funded bariatric surgery in Canada

If you are trying to access an article published in a BioMed Central journal, please note all articles are also available from SpringerLink and from mirror sites, such as PubMed Central.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to our authors and reviewers trying to submit their manuscripts and reports. The site should be available shortly; please come back soon.

Source: http://www.equityhealthj.com/content/11/1/54

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Going for the record: Can anything stop 2012 from being warmest ever?

For super-warm 2012 to end up as an average year in the lower 48 states would require an astonishing, and record-breaking, cold snap over the final 4 months. That's not in the forecast.

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / September 20, 2012

An underdeveloped ear of drought-stricken corn sits in a field at Sunburst Dairy near Belleville, Wisconsin, September 6.

Darren Hauck/Reuters

Enlarge

As the US heads into the final three months of the year, 2012 is likely to end up as the warmest year on record for the lower 48 states, according to an analysis from the federal government's National Climatic Data Center.

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That would mark the fourth time in the last 14 years that annual average temperatures for the continental US either set records or flirted with them ? a cluster unmatched since the 1930s.

Since January, year-to-date temperatures for the continental US have consistently run well above the 20th-century average with each passing month ? reaching a maximum of 6 degrees Fahrenheit above average for the period ending March 31, then declining steadily to 4 degrees F above the 20th-century average for the period ending August 31.

Still, that 4 degrees is at least a full degree higher than January-to-August averages in any of the five warmest years on record.

"That's quite a jump," says Jake Crouch, a climate researcher at the center, located in Asheville, N.C.

The year's unusual warmth for the US results from a one-two punch, many researchers say. Normal swings in large-scale climate features, such as El Nino and La Nina, are superimposed over a longer-term world-wide warming trend triggered by the build-up of atmospheric greenhouse gases that come from burning fossil fuels, as well as from land-use changes,?researchers say.

Even if year-to-date temperatures were to fall back to the 20th-century average by the end of the year, 2012 would still be a record buster, Mr. Crouch says.

To pull off that feat of cooling, he explains, September through December would have to rank among the 20 coldest final four months on record ? highly unlikely given the historical record as well as seasonal forecasts for the final four months of 2012.

Most of the continental US ? from the Southwest up into the Rockies and eastward into Maine ? is forecast to see warmer-than-normal temperatures throughout this final period, notes Huug van den Dool, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center in College Park, Md.

The eastern third of the US is expected to see the drought easing ? particularly between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains and in the Southeast.

One key reason is the apparent shift in conditions from two consecutive years of La Nina to a weak El Nino this coming winter. La Nina and El Nino represent opposite states in sea-surface temperatures and wind patterns along the equatorial Pacific. Both can affect atmospheric circulation patterns well beyond the tropics.

For the US, La Nina tends to push average storm tracks across the continent father north than usual, while El Nino tends to drive them farther south. The onset of El Nino is expected to bring welcome rainfall to the Southeast and Mid Atlantic states. But the more southerly path for storms could lead to a dearth of precipitation farther north in sections of the country already hard hit by drought.

As a result, forecasters are calling for drought to continue through the end of the year for much of the western two-thirds of the US, with drought conditions likely to extend into the Pacific Northwest.

Globally, June through August posted the third warmest temperatures on record for that three-month period. January through August was the ninth warmest first eight months on record.

Of keen interest has been the dramatic decline in summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, which this melt season hit a record low of 1.3 million square miles ? 18 percent below the previous record set in 2007 and 51 percent below levels in 1979, when consistent satellite measurements of sea ice began.

Less ice means more open ocean to absorb sunlight during the summer, energy released as heat in the fall and winter. The decline not only affects local Arctic weather patterns in the fall ? found in forecasts of warmer than normal temperatures along northern Alaska ? but researchers are beginning to uncover ways in which the heat being released deeper into an Arctic fall and winter can affect atmospheric?circulation patterns at lower latitudes.

Indeed, the decline in summer ice has occurred far faster than models of global warming's effect on the top of the world predicted. For seasonal-forecasting purposes, this is prompting forecasters to rely even more heavily on their computer-based forecasts than they might otherwise, suggests Dr. van den Dool.

"The reliance on models will probably increase, because what is happening right now in the Arctic appears to be so fast that we hardly have any time to take data points and declare that we now know what is going on in the present climate," he says.

Intuition and sound judgment will remain key features of forecasts, he adds, "but it's a challenging situation."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/1ZrsjDEcBww/Going-for-the-record-Can-anything-stop-2012-from-being-warmest-ever

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SocialBlade: @SamHarris_ you're as bad as me. lol. At least w/ my android phone I can keep a spare battery in my wallet =]

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Tajikistan attracts more Chinese funds

Asia Times Saturday 22nd September, 2012

By Alexander Sodiqov On June 7, Tajikistani President Emomali Rahmon returned home from a week-long tour of China that included a five-day state visit followed by his participation in the 12th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Beijing. Following the trip, the Tajik president's office announced that 10 new deals signed in Beijing would bring Tajikistan about US$1 billion in new Chinese investment, loans and aid. Ex...

Read the full story at Asia Times

Source: http://www.kazakhstannews.net/index.php/sid/209406455/scat/929bcf2071e81801

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2014 Acura RLX to debut at LA Auto Show

North American Highlights of Mid-Year Speech by Honda Motor Co., Ltd. President & CEO Takanobu Ito

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. President & CEO Takanobu Ito today (September 21,
2012) outlined the company's global and regional business goals in a mid-year speech in Japan.

On a global basis, he revealed that in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017, Honda expects to earn 39 million customers for its automobile, motorcycle and power equipment products. This annual sales mark would include 25 million motorcycles, 8 million power equipment products and 6 million automobiles. As a point of reference, in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012, Honda earned more than 23.9 million customers around the world including: 15 million motorcycles, 5.8 million power products and 3.1 million automobiles.

For a complete summary of the speech, please click here. Following is a summary of key announcements related to North America.

Automobile Business

Acura Brand

The production model of the all-new Acura RLX sedan will debut at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show, November 28, 2012.

Honda Sub-Compact Vehicles

Within two years after the initial global market introduction of the all-new Fit starting in 2013, Honda will globally roll-out Fit, City and a new compact SUV model. Honda will begin producing Fit and a derivative model at the new plant in Mexico that will become operational in spring 2014.

New Fuel Cell Vehicle

Honda will launch an all-new fuel cell electric model in the U.S., Japan and Europe starting in 2015. This new fuel cell vehicle will showcase further technological advancement and significant cost reduction that Honda has accomplished.

Hybrid Technology

Honda will further advance its "Earth Dreams Technology" in the coming years, with the introduction of three new hybrid systems based on one-motor, two-motor and three-motor hybrid configurations.

One-motor: a lightweight and compact one-motor hybrid system will deliver expanded EV driving range through the improvement of motor output and battery performance as well as the combination with a newly-developed transmission. Honda will strive to achieve number one fuel economy among all hybrid vehicles by improving the efficiency of regenerative energy recovery.

Two-motor: following the U.S. introduction of the Accord Plug-in Hybrid Electric (PHEV) model in early 2013, a two-motor hybrid Accord will be introduced in the U.S., followed by Japan and other regions.

Three-motor: as previously announced, the Sport Hybrid SH-AWD? (Super Handling All Wheel Drive) system, a highly efficient and high-output three-motor hybrid system, will be applied to the Acura RLX Sport Hybrid model and the Acura NSX to realize both a high level of sporty handling and fuel economy.

Increased Regional Product Development of Automobiles Honda will pursue "concurrent development by all six regions," where each region participates in product development concurrently and at the same level from the early stage of the development. Introducing the same model in all regions within a short period of time will enable Honda to achieve adequate production volume on a global basis from an earlier stage of the product introduction, while significantly reducing the cost of parts sourcing.

NOTE: in August of this year, Honda announced that the company's U.S. R&D operations will lead development of the North American version of the next generation Honda Civic.

Motorcycle Business

The first of a new series of large-sized models based on a new concept for both daily commuting & weekend touring will go on sale next year on a global basis, beginning from North America. Key characteristics will include stylish design, a "torqueful" engine, low seat height for a comfortable ride and high stability in maneuvering.

Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2012/09/21/2014-acura-rlx-to-debut-at-la-auto-show/

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Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 now available in Canada

After a few hints of an impending launch, Samsung has announced that the Wi-Fi version of the Galaxy Note 10.1 is now available at a variety of retailers across Canada starting at $499. The Android tablet includes all of the good stuff you'd expect, like the dual-screen multitasking, the S Pen accessory, and 50 GB of DropBox storage.

Online stores like Best Buy and Future Shop are still showing preorder status and an expected release in five days, but with any luck that may change before the end of the day. Pop in to your local store to see if they have stock, and let us know in the comments. An LTE model for Rogers, Bell, and TELUS may find its way to shelves before the end of the year, but no official word on that just yet. 

Full specs for the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 are tucked away below in the press release. Any Canadians considering getting one of these? Our review had a few criticisms of the tablet, some of which may be deal-breakers for you. 

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/LqMqdwB4DFo/story01.htm

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Apes Enjoy Slapstick Humor

Link Information - Click to View

Apes Enjoy Slapstick Humor
Tripping on a banana peel is the oldest sight gag in the book, but it can be enough to get apes giggling.

Source: Discovery Channel News
Posted on: Thursday, Sep 20, 2012, 8:39am
Views: 2

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/123658/Apes_Enjoy_Slapstick_Humor

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Analysis: 'Manufactured' fury behind Muslim protests

Akhtar Soomro / Reuters

Protests ignited by a controversial film that ridicules Islam's Prophet Muhammad spread throughout Muslim world.

By Jim Maceda, NBC News

News analysis

CAIRO ? It's been just over a week since hundreds, perhaps a thousand, angry and offended Egyptians gathered outside the U.S. Embassy's gates in Cairo. They carried Islamist banners and chanted, "The only God is God and Muhammad is his Prophet.''

At one point perhaps two dozen of the more brazen protesters scaled the wall and breached the embassy grounds. They lowered and destroyed the U.S. flag and raised a black, Islamic flag in its place. They fled when security guards (not the Egyptian police) fired warning shots over their heads.

This amounted to little violence, but the act itself was the psychological equivalent of taking a beachhead. Within hours reports emerged that a similarly sized group had stormed the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Some were calling it a copy-cat protest, but it was much more perilous: Four Americans were killed in the melee, including the U.S. ambassador. Within 48 hours the world would witness similar scenes unfolding at U.S. embassies, businesses and symbols of power in more than 20 countries.

Protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and pulled down the American flag during a protest over what they said was a film produced in the United States that insulted the Prophet Muhammad. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

This paroxysm of protest ? and violence ? had begun in Cairo. But what, really, began there?

Much of the mainstream media has played it as a spontaneous reaction to a disgusting film clip which denigrated Muslims and happened to be made and promoted in the USA.

But New York Times editorialist Ross Douthat argued it had nothing to do with a "genuine popular backlash," but everything to do with old-style power politics. For Jim Clifton, chairman of the pollster Gallup, it wasn't about religion or politics, but rather the desperate expression of young Arab males, deeply humiliated because they couldn't find jobs.

'Political manipulation'
Egyptian analysts seem to be more in agreement: Many protesters outside the U.S. Embassy were genuinely offended by the film. But the real driving force behind the protest ? in Cairo and Benghazi ? were radical Islamist groups who know how to exploit rage for political gain.

Actors and the assistant director of the film "Innocence of Muslims" told NBC News that the original spoken lines in the screenplay were dubbed over without their knowledge. NBC's Mike Taibbi reports.

"There are still a lot of questions that need to be answered," said Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian journalist. "For instance, why after two months of being on YouTube did this film suddenly explode on the anniversary of 9/11? That is political manipulation and manufactured outrage that the right wing is all too happy to use.''

Egypt issues arrest warrants for Terry Jones, Coptic Christians over anti-Islam video

By "right-wing" Eltahawy means ultra conservatives ? often called Salafists ? who practice a strict, puritanical form of Islam and make up the fastest-growing Islamic political and social movement in the world. On the night of the Cairo embassy attacks, the Salafists saw an opportunity to flex their muscles.

"A lot of people went to the U.S. Embassy not just because of the film, and after the film died down, it wasn't about the film anymore," Eltahawy explained. "They went because of anti-U.S. sentiment, because they know in this region how easy it is to fan the flames of anger."

Government officials asked the magazine, which specializes in satire, not to print the drawings which portray Muslim prophet Mohammed as a naked man. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

Dr. Gamal Abdel Gawad, a highly respected Egyptian political analyst, agrees.

"I don't think it was spontaneous," he told NBC News. "People were gathering in one place at a certain time of day, so there was some mobilization behind it.''

Actress sues, says she was fooled into appearing in anti-Muslim movie

And it's clear to Gawad who did the mobilizing. "Radical Salafist groups orchestrated it to express their views and embarrass the [more moderate] Muslim Brotherhood because of competition between Islamic groups."

Post Arab-Spring power play
What's enfolding in Egypt ? and to a large extent in Libya ? is not just a series of isolated power plays. In both countries the leaders who emerged from the Arab Spring are struggling to eke out a political center in order to govern their new democracies, while under extreme pressure from more radical Islamist ? sometimes jihadist ? forces. Everything is still at stake.

This has led some Egyptians ? like Eltahawy ? to worry that their 18-month-old revolution will be hijacked by the extremists.
"I'm hoping that this right-wing drive of the past days is the dying pangs of a group that understands that the revolution was started by us, the majority, and we remain very much the majority."

Crowds of angry protesters showed up in Kabul, Afghanistan and Jakarta, Indonesia. The violent uprising followed a deadly weekend marking the deaths of eight International Security Assistance Force members. NBC's Atia Abawi reports.

Gawad is more sanguine about the future. "The revolution is over. The president is in power, and Egyptian political parties are busy preparing for elections and campaigns. The radical groups can't get significant numbers elected," he said. Still, as dramatic scenes over the past week have shown, those groups ? often armed ? can wreak havoc.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi seemed to give ground to the Salafists, even leaving the country at the height of a standoff between stone-throwing protesters and riot police for diplomatic meetings abroad.

Finally, last Saturday, he gave the order to clear out the protesters and appeared on TV calling on Muslims to protect foreign citizens and property. Some called it a turning point.

Now that a Paris-based satirical magazine has published cartoons of a naked Prophet Muhammad, will Egyptians respond with silent indignation, peaceful marches or be the first to storm their French Embassy?

Jim Maceda is an NBC News foreign correspondent based in London and currently on assignment in Cairo. He has covered the Middle East since the 1970s.

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/20/13978780-analysis-manufactured-outrage-behind-middle-east-protests?lite

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NASA Mars rover targets unusual rock enroute to first destination

ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2012) ? NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has driven up to a football-size rock that will be the first for the rover's arm to examine.

Curiosity is about 8 feet (2.5 meters) from the rock. It lies about halfway from the rover's landing site, Bradbury Landing, to a location called Glenelg. In coming days, the team plans to touch the rock with a spectrometer to determine its elemental composition and use an arm-mounted camera to take close-up photographs.

Both the arm-mounted Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer and the mast-mounted, laser-zapping Chemistry and Camera Instrument will be used for identifying elements in the rock. This will allow cross-checking of the two instruments.

The rock has been named "Jake Matijevic." Jacob Matijevic (mah-TEE-uh-vik) was the surface operations systems chief engineer for Mars Science Laboratory and the project's Curiosity rover. He passed away Aug. 20, at age 64. Matijevic also was a leading engineer for all of the previous NASA Mars rovers: Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity.

Curiosity now has driven six days in a row. Daily distances range from 72 feet to 121 feet (22 meters to 37 meters).

"This robot was built to rove, and the team is really getting a good rhythm of driving day after day when that's the priority," said Mars Science Laboratory Project Manager Richard Cook of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The team plans to choose a rock in the Glenelg area for the rover's first use of its capability to analyze powder drilled from interiors of rocks. Three types of terrain intersect in the Glenelg area -- one lighter-toned and another more cratered than the terrain Curiosity currently is crossing. The light-toned area is of special interest because it retains daytime heat long into the night, suggesting an unusual composition.

"As we're getting closer to the light-toned area, we see thin, dark bands of unknown origin," said Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "The smaller-scale diversity is becoming more evident as we get closer, providing more potential targets for investigation."

Researchers are using Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) to find potential targets on the ground. Recent new images from the rover's camera reveal dark streaks on rocks in the Glenelg area that have increased researchers' interest in the area. In addition to taking ground images, the camera also has been busy looking upward.

On two recent days, Curiosity pointed the Mastcam at the sun and recorded images of Mars' two moons, Phobos and Deimos, passing in front of the sun from the rover's point of view. Results of these transit observations are part of a long-term study of changes in the moons' orbits. NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which arrived at Mars in 2004, also have observed solar transits by Mars' moons. Opportunity is doing so again this week.

"Phobos is in an orbit very slowly getting closer to Mars, and Deimos is in an orbit very slowly getting farther from Mars," said Curiosity's science team co-investigator Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, College Station. "These observations help us reduce uncertainty in calculations of the changes."

In Curiosity's observations of Phobos this week, the time when the edge of the moon began overlapping the disc of the sun was predictable to within a few seconds. Uncertainty in timing is because Mars' interior structure isn't fully understood.

Phobos causes small changes to the shape of Mars in the same way Earth's moon raises tides. The changes to Mars' shape depend on the Martian interior which, in turn, cause Phobos' orbit to decay. Timing the orbital change more precisely provides information about Mars' interior structure.

During Curiosity's two-year prime mission, researchers will use the rover's 10 science instruments to assess whether the selected field site inside Gale Crater ever has offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.

For more about Curiosity, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl. You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity.

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/y4WTxiUu07w/120919201958.htm

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Space station crew lands safely after shortened mission (+video)

An American and two Russian astronauts landed safely in Kazakhstan after 123 days aboard the International Space Station. Is the Russian space program back on track?

By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya,?Reuters / September 17, 2012

Ground personnel carry International Space Station (ISS) crew member U.S. astronaut Joseph Acaba shortly after landing near the town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan Sept. 17, 2012. Acaba is one of three astronauts who returned to Earth.

(AP Photo/Shamil Zhumatov, pool)

Enlarge

A Russian Soyuz capsule landed on the Kazakh steppe on Monday, delivering a trio of astronauts from a four-month stint on the International Space Station.

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An international three-man crew onboard a Russian-made Soyuz capsule touched down successfully on the cloudless central Kazakhstan steppe Monday morning after 123 days at the International Space Station.

The capsule, carrying U.S. astronaut Joseph Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, parachuted through a blue sky and touched down in a cloud of dust as its soft landing engines ignited at 8:53 local time (0253 GMT).

"Bull's eye landing," a NASA TV commentator said as the capsule lay on its side in the Kazakh steppe circled overhead by approaching search-and-recovery helicopters.

RECOMMENDED: Are you scientifically literate? Take the quiz

Veteran mission commander Padalka, who has logged 711 days in orbit to make him the world's fourth most experienced astronaut, was the first out of the cramped descent capsule.

"I feel great," said Padalka, wrapped in a blue blanket, sipping hot tea and smiling, enjoying the balmy steppe air under the early morning sunlight as medical personnel wiped sweat from his brow.
"This was my fourth flight, and so it is nothing of the extraordinary already," he said, looking relaxed.

During his stay at the orbital station, Padalka conducted a six-hour spacewalk on Aug. 20 to relocate a crane, launch a small science satellite and install micrometeoroid shields on the space station's Zvezda command module.

He and fellow crew members Acaba and Revin were carried over to autograph the Soyuz, scorched black by re-entry, to be displayed in a Russian provincial museum.

The crew returned after spending 123 days in orbit aboard the International Space Station, a $100 billion research complex involving 15 countries and orbiting 240 miles (385 km) above Earth.

The mission was shorter than the usual six months after launch delays in order to ready a new spaceship to replace the initial Soyuz craft, which was cracked during pressure tests.

Moscow hopes Monday's smooth landing will help to ease concerns over relying solely on Russia to service the ISS following a string of recent mishaps in its space programme.

"Everything is to cheer today," Russian space agency chief Vladimir Popovkin told reporters at Mission Control in Moscow.
"Padalka, Revin and Acaba are feeling well, and they will all go home today."

Three other International Space Station crew members - veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide - remain in orbit.

They are scheduled to be joined by another trio - Kevin Ford, Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin - due to blast off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan next month.

That mission was scheduled to launch on October 15 but will be delayed by about a week due to a technical glitch with equipment aboard the Soyuz, Popovkin said.

"We've had a worry over one of the devices. We decided to change it, test it again and so the launch has been put off by one week," Popovkin said.

The Soviet Union put the first satellite and the first man in space, but Russia's space programme has suffered a series of humiliating set-backs in recent months that industry veterans blame on a decade of crimped budgets and a brain drain.

While none of the mishaps have threatened crews, they have raised worries over Russia's reliability, cost billions in satellite losses and dashed Moscow's dreams to end a more than two-decade absence from deep-space exploration.

Since the retirement of the U.S. space shuttles last year, the United States is dependent on Russia to fly astronauts at a costs to the nation of $60 million per person.

RECOMMENDED: Are you scientifically literate? Take the quiz

(Writing by Alissa de Carbonnel and Robin Paxton, Additional reporting by Dmitry Solovyov in Almaty; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/T4TDqzOOp0Q/Space-station-crew-lands-safely-after-shortened-mission-video

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Benetton's new ads seek 'unemployees of the year'

Bennetton

Benetton's new ad campaign focuses on unemployed young people with aspirations.

By Paul Casciato, Reuters

LONDON?- Alessandro Benetton is on a mission to find a cure for the ailing global economy and he's asking 100 million or so jobless young people to chip in with ideas.

The 48-year-old chairman of Benetton Group launched the family business's latest "UNHATE" advertising campaign on Tuesday, highlighting the plight of unemployed people under 30 who are striving to find meaningful work every day.

Benetton believes the generation appearing in a market-place where the old economic models are not providing them with the kinds of opportunities that kept their fathers in work for decades need to be tapped for ideas.

"In the history of the world ... the great inventions, great leadership, the great differences were always made by people under 30 years old," the slender scion of one of Italy's best known family retail brands told Reuters.

"Now I don't think we can look into this unknown future unless we talk to these people."

The ads and video which show determined young people at protests, in work attire waiting for interviews or at the unemployment office are bound to be less controversial than Benetton's last campaign.

That resulted in the company agreeing in May to make a donation to a Catholic charity to end a legal dispute with the Vatican over an advertisement that showed Pope Benedict kissing an imam on the lips.

The latest global campaign will consist of posters, t-shirts, a film and a contest to choose 100 "unemployees of the year" who will each receive 5,000 euros ($6,600) for their pet projects.

Contestants must be between 18 and 30 years old and unemployed. They must submit their story and project idea to www.unhatefoundation.org and will be chosen by an online poll of their peers on the same site. The contest lasts until October 14.

Economic model
Benetton said he believes the post World War Two economic model of growth based on a relentless rise in Gross National Product (GNP) to deliver prosperity has been rendered obsolete by the rapid-fire changes of the late 20th and early 21st centuries with the explosion in computer power and the Internet.

"What we need to do is think," he said in an interview at Benetton's flagship UK store in the swanky central London district of Knightsbridge. "We need to accept that GNP is not the only unit that we shall use."

That means that the children of the baby boomers who brought us free love in the 1960s, disco in the 1970s, "greed is good" in the 80s and the boom and bust of the Internet bubble in the 90s, will have to forge a very different path for themselves.

Benetton said the campaign was inspired both by a team of 50 Benetton experts who presented him statistics showing that more than 100 million people between the ages of 15 and 29 were unemployed around the world and also a recent trip to Japan.

He said it dawned on him in a Tokyo restaurant that a workable example of the economic future could be Japan, which survived a massive crisis in the late 1990s and an economy that has shrunk over the last 20 years.

"At the same time they were able to make it a cleaner economy," Benetton said. "You go to Tokyo and you see that you have low noise, electric cars and no pollution or at least less pollution."

Family business
As a father of three children under the age of 13, Benetton is not surprisingly interested in the future his offspring will inherit from this jobless generation, and as a son who has inherited the top job in the global family empire from his own father he knows that it may be time to try new things.

"It is a little bit like the company I have inherited which needs to be re-focused," Benetton said.

Half a century after the knitwear group was founded by his father Luciano, the heir to the Benetton empire was officially entrusted in April with reviving a brand that has fallen out of fashion from its 1980s heyday.

Benetton, one of Italy's best known brands with more than 6,500 stores in 120 countries and a reputation for bold colors and controversial advertising, has suffered from the emergence of more flexible rivals like Inditex's Zara and Sweden's H&M.

A graduate of Boston University, with an MBA from Harvard, Alessandro, who was described in a recent Elle magazine article as "almost impossibly good-looking", also regularly updates his Facebook fanpage and a blog in English with reflections on contemporary art, sports and philosophy.

His business experience spans a stint as an M&A analyst at Goldman Sachs and creating private equity boutique 21 Investimenti in 1992, which now boasts more than 1.2 billion euros of investments.

Supporters say he will bring an international outlook and welcome jolt of energy to the 2-billion-euro fashion house, whose sales have remained flat for a decade.

Benetton would not be drawn on specific details of any disposals or his strategy to reinvigorate the company, but said he did not intend to scale back its vast product line or sell off any of real estate.

"Life is not always what you would like it to be and it's the same thing for the company," he said. "It's a matter of product which we've always had, also perception of the consumer, layout of the stores, communication of the window displays ... it's an overall action."?

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Source: http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/18/13937189-benettons-new-ads-seek-unemployees-of-the-year?lite

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Syrian war looms over UN meeting of world leaders

UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? Hovering over this month's annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations is the international community's failure to end the escalating war in Syria that is starting to spill over into a fragile and divided region.

The Syrian conflict has bitterly divided the most powerful members of the Security Council, paralyzing the only U.N. body that can impose global sanctions and authorize military action.

It frustrated former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan, who quit his high-profile role as special envoy to the country last month, giving reasons that amounted to scathing criticism of world powers for failing to unite to stop the chaos in the Arab state.

There will be a flurry of meetings on the sidelines of the VIP gathering at the General Assembly that begins Sept. 25, including a ministerial meeting of the Security Council's five veto-wielding members and lots of behind-the-scenes discussions among the more than 130 heads of state and government coming to New York. But frustrated diplomats don't expect any breakthrough on Syria, and outside observers agree.

This "means we're heading into a very dark time in Syria ? more violence and a slow grinding conflict that's going to test everyone's limits on non-intervention," Andrew Tabler, a senior fellow and Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday.

"I think it's the elephant in the room in the sense that it's a lightning rod issue," Tabler said. "It's a crisis the U.N. is unable to deal with. And so, basically what happens is that you're going to have a lot of speeches ... but unless you get the Security Council agreeing I don't see anything happening."

Since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011, the division among the five powerful permanent council nations has deepened.

The United States, Britain and France have tried unsuccessfully to get the council to put pressure on President Bashar Assad's government to halt the fighting and pull back its heavy weapons.

Russia, Syria's key protector, and China, which is supporting Moscow, are demanding equal pressure on the opposition and say the West's real goal is regime change, which could lead to a takeover of Syria by Islamist radicals. Russia is the major arms supplier to Syria and has a base in Tartus. It is Russia's only naval base outside the former Soviet Union that serves Russian navy ships on missions to the Mediterranean.

Russia and China have vetoed three Western-backed resolutions, the latest in July which included the threat of non-military sanctions.

France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud said Monday that the Security Council "has never been as paralyzed as it is today since the end of the Cold War."

France is now working with the U.S., Britain, Turkey, Arab friends and the Syrian opposition in its fight against the Assad regime, he said.

"It is essential that we support the democratic opposition in Syria," Araud said. "Some believe it is possible to choose between Assad and the Islamists. We tell them, 'If you keep blocking, you'll get Assad and then the Islamists.'"

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the council's failure to support efforts by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Annan to end the violence is "reprehensible and has only intensified the suffering of the Syrian people. "

"I am not optimistic in the short term that the dynamic in the council is going to change," she said. "However, the United States is not allowing that to block our efforts to speed the day when Assad departs, through sanctions and political and nonlethal support for the opposition."

President Barack Obama has called for Assad to step down, but the United States wants to ensure that whatever government replaces his regime is a democracy that respects the rights of all Syrians, particularly religious minorities and women.

Annan has been replaced with former Algerian foreign minister Lakhdar Brahimi, a highly regarded diplomat and mediator who met Assad in Damascus on Saturday, but gave no indication of a breakthrough.

Many countries are hopeful that Brahimi can get the government and opposition to peace talks, but he has called his mission "nearly impossible."

He has said he is still holding talks with key players and does not have a plan yet.

"I will go to New York for the occasion of the General Assembly, to meet the Security Council and foreign ministers and representatives of countries that have interest, influence or both concerning Syria," Brahimi said.

The Security Council has given its support to Brahimi, but its division is so deep now that members couldn't even agree on a statement last month on the humanitarian crisis. The conflict has left some 3 million Syrians inside and outside the country in need of food and other assistance.

Michael Weiss, research director at the London-based Henry Jackson Society think tank, said no breakthrough is likely at the General Assembly because Russian President Vladimir Putin has done nothing "to repudiate Assad." Also, he added, Obama is reluctant to intervene in the Middle East as he fights for reelection on a record of ending the U.S. military role in Iraq and setting a 2014 deadline to withdraw from Afghanistan.

"All you are going to see for the next six months or longer is this continuing state of civil war," Weiss said. "The rebels may assassinate members of the Assad regime, but until they have parity of weaponry and forces, Damascus will not fall."

The West has hesitated to arm the rebels for fear that costly and lethal equipment could fall into the hands of extremists like al-Qaida, or get lost. The rebels have received weapons delivered via Turkey, Iraq and elsewhere, according to activists and diplomats. Some of the arms, activists say, are purchased with Saudi and Qatari funds.

At the opening of the 67th session of the General Assembly on Tuesday, Ban said "the deteriorating situation in Syria will ... be foremost in our minds" when world leaders gather next week.

The Syrian conflict, which began as a protest against four decades of dictatorship by the Assad family, was spawned by the Arab Spring, the pro-democracy wave of uprisings across the Middle East that began when Tunisians rose up in January 2011 against their longtime dictator.

The changes in the Arab world since then are the theme of a ministerial-level meeting of the Security Council on Sept. 26 on the sidelines of the General Assembly speeches.

Germany U.N. Ambassador Peter Wittig, the current Security Council president whose foreign minister will be presiding at that meeting, said "there will be council members who will speak out on Syria." But he said the focus of the meeting will be the emergence of the Arab League as a key player in the Middle East with "a lot more clout."

Supporters of a democratic government in Syria ? the "Friends of Syria" ? are also scheduled to meet on Sept. 28 at a session chaired by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Their last meeting in Paris in July brought together some 100 nations including the U.S., its European and Arab partners, as well as the fractious Syrian opposition, all looking to turn up the heat to force Assad from power.

Britain's U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said "Syria will be at or near the top of the agenda at most of the key bilateral meetings."

There will also be a meeting of foreign ministers and development ministers "to galvanize support for refugees and those displaced within Syria," he said.

Earlier this month, the United Nations nearly doubled its humanitarian appeal for Syria to $347 million, even though the original appeal for $180 million is only half-funded. The secretary-general has urged donors to increase their contributions.

Another issue certain to make headlines during the General Assembly is the dispute over Iran's nuclear intentions.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who insists his country's nuclear program is peaceful, will address the assembly on Sept. 26. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has accused Iran of trying to build a nuclear arsenal, takes the podium on Sept. 27.

And on that day political directors from the six countries trying to get Iran to suspend its nuclear enrichment program ? the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany ? will meet behind closed doors, possibly followed by a ministerial session.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-09-18-UN-General%20Assembly-Syria's%20Shadow/id-0b013970f69647d9b1e9f47c0cc80b06

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Fed's Bullard says would not have voted for QE3

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