Pagano back to coach Colts after cancer treatment

Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano speaks during a news conference Monday, Dec. 24, 2012, in Indianapolis. Pagano returns to the team after undergoing successful leukemia treatment. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano speaks during a news conference Monday, Dec. 24, 2012, in Indianapolis. Pagano returns to the team after undergoing successful leukemia treatment. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Tina Pagano, right, and her daughter Taylor Pagano, listen as Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano speaks during a news conference Monday, Dec. 24, 2012, in Indianapolis. Pagano returns to the team after undergoing successful leukemia treatment. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano hugs his daughter Taylor Pagano following a news conference Monday, Dec. 24, 2012, in Indianapolis. Pagano returns to the team after undergoing successful leukemia treatment. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Indianapolis Colts former interim head coach and offensive coordinator Bruce Arians listens as head coach Chuck Pagano speaks during a news conference Monday, Dec. 24, 2012, in Indianapolis. Pagano returns to the team after undergoing successful leukemia treatment. Arians coached the team while Pagano was on leave. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano speaks during a news conference Monday, Dec. 24, 2012, in Indianapolis. Pagano returns to the team after undergoing successful leukemia treatment. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? Chuck Pagano stepped to the podium Monday, hugged his team owner, thanked his family for its support and wiped a tear from his eye.

He might, finally, turn out the lights in his office, too.

Nearly three months to the day after being diagnosed with leukemia, the Colts' first-year coach returned to a team eager to reunite with a boss healthy enough to go back to work.

"I told you my best day of my life was July 1, 1989," Pagano said, referring to his wedding date. "Today was No. 2. Getting to pull up, drive in, get out of my car, the key fob still worked. I was beginning to question whether it would or not. When I asked for Bruce to take over, I asked for him to kick some you-know-what and to do great. Damn Bruce, you had to go and win nine games? Tough act to follow. Tough act to follow. Best in the history of the NFL. That's what I have to come back to."

The comment turned tears into the laughter everyone expected on such a festive occasion.

For Pagano and the Colts, Monday morning was as precious as anyone could have imagined when Pagano took an indefinite leave to face the biggest opponent of his life, cancer.

In his absence, all the Colts was win nine of 12 games, make a historic turnaround and clinch a playoff spot all before Sunday's regular-season finale against Houston, which they pegged as the day they hoped to have Pagano back. If all goes well at practice this week, Pagano will be on the sideline for the first time since a Week 3 loss to Jacksonville.

Pagano endured three rounds of chemotherapy to put his cancer in remission.

That Pagano's return came less than 24 hours after Indy (10-5) locked up the No. 5 seed in the AFC and the day before Christmas seemed fitting, too.

"I know Chuck is ready for this challenge. In speaking to his doctor multiple times, I know that the time is right for him to grab the reins, get the head coaching cap on and begin the journey," owner Jim Irsay said. "It's been a miraculous story. It really is a book. It's a fairytale. It's a Hollywood script. It's all those things but it's real."

The reality is that he's returning to a vastly different team than the one he turned over to Arians, his long-time friend and first assistant coaching hire.

Back then, the Colts were 1-2 and most of the so-called experts had written them off as one of the league's worst teams. Now, they're ready to show the football world that they can be just as successful under Pagano as they were under Arians, who tied the NFL record for wins after a midseason coaching change.

Pagano also has changed.

The neatly-trimmed salt-and-pepper hair and trademark goatee that were missing in November have slowly returned, and the thinner man who appeared to be catching his breath during a postgame speech in early November, looked and sounded as good as ever Monday.

He repeatedly thanked fans for their prayers and letters, the organization and his family for their unwavering help and promised to provide comfort and support to other people who are facing similar fights. During one poignant moment that nearly brought out tears again, Pagano even recounted a letter sent to him by a 9-year-old child who suggested he suck on ice chips and strawberry Popsicles in the hospital and advised him to be nice to the nurses regardless of how he felt ? and he never even paused.

"I feel great, my weight is back, my energy is back and again, it's just a blessing to be back here," Pagano said.

In the minds of Colts players and coaches, Pagano never really left.

He continually watched practice tape and game film on his computer, used phone calls and text messages to regularly communicate with players and occasionally delivered a pregame or postgame speech to his team.

"He texted me and called me so much, it was like he was standing there in my face every day," said receiver Reggie Wayne, who has been friends with Pagano since the two were working together at the University of Miami.

But the Colts found plenty of other ways to keep Pagano's battle in the forefront.

They began a fundraising campaign for leukemia research, calling it Chuckstrong. Players had stickers with the initials CP on their locker room nameplates, and Arians wore an orange ribbon on his baseball cap during games. Orange is the symbolic color for leukemia. At one point, nearly three dozen players shaved their heads to show their ailing coach they were with him.

That's not all.

Arians and first-year general manager Ryan Grigson decided to leave the lights on in Pagano's office until he returned. Pagano noted the team even installed plastic clips to make sure those lights were not mistakenly turned off while he was gone. Those clips were removed when Pagano arrived Monday morning.

And Arians said nobody sat in the front seat of the team bus.

"He's always been our head coach," Arians said.

So after getting medical clearance from his oncologist, Dr. Larry Cripe, to return with no restrictions, Pagano couldn't wait to get to the office Monday morning.

Arians arrived at 7 a.m., three hours early for the scheduled team meeting. By then, Pagano had already driven past the inflatable Colts player with the words "Welcome Back Chuck" printed on its chest and was back in his office preparing for the Texans.

Players showed up a couple of hours later, and when the torch was passed from Arians back to Pagano, players gave their returning coach a standing ovation that Wayne said was well-deserved.

All Pagano wants to do now is emulate the success Arians and his players have had this season.

"I asked him (Arians) if he would lead this team and this ballclub and this organization and take over the reins," Pagano said. "What a masterful, masterful job you did Bruce. You carried the torch and all you went out and did was win nine ballgames. You got us our 10th win yesterday and you got us into the playoffs. You did it with dignity and you did it with class. You're everything that I always knew you were and more."

___

Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-12-24-FBN-Colts-Pagano-Returns/id-c78d402d1a9946dd817fe9432bee534f

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Observatory: Fossils of New Species Discovered in England

[unable to retrieve full-text content]A tiny, fossilized crustacean that lived 425 million years ago has been discovered, remarkably intact, in a rock formation in Herefordshire, England.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/science/fossils-of-new-species-discovered-in-england.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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PFT: Texans clinch spot? |? Patriots win AFC East

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Heading into Sunday, five NFL teams had a chance to clinch a playoff berth. Four of them succeeded.

The Patriots, Broncos and Falcons all clinched their divisions on Sunday, while the Texans clinched a spot in the AFC playoffs. But the Ravens, who would have clinched the AFC North if they had won and the Bengals had lost, instead clinched nothing, as they didn?t win, and the Bengals didn?t lose.

Below we provide the state of the playoff race through Sunday?s games, with the six playoff teams that would be in the postseason in each conference if the playoffs started today.

NFC

1. Falcons (11-1): Atlanta officially became the NFC South champions when the Buccaneers lost on Sunday, and the Falcons are also the overwhelming favorites to earn home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

2. 49ers (8-3-1): The 49ers are still holding onto the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, but their chances of catching the Falcons for the NFC?s top spot took a hit with today?s loss to the Rams.

3. Packers (8-4): Green Bay moved ahead of Chicago and into the NFC North lead on Sunday.

4. Giants (7-4): With a win over the Redskins on Monday night, the Giants would all but wrap up the NFC East, and would move ahead of the Packers and into the No. 3 spot in the conference.

5. Bears (8-4): Sunday?s loss to the Seahawks could hurt; it moves the Bears out of the lead in the NFC North.

6. Seahawks (7-5): Seattle now has a one-game lead in the NFC wild-card race.

In the mix: The 6-6 Buccaneers and Vikings could both still catch the Seahawks for the final wild-card spot. The 5-6 Redskins could still make waves in both the wild card race and the NFC East race if they beat the Giants on Monday night.

AFC

1. Texans (11-1): With a two-game lead over the rest of the conference, it looks like the road to the Super Bowl in the AFC will go through Houston.

2. Patriots (9-3): New England owns the tiebreaker edge over the 9-3 Ravens and 9-3 Broncos based on the Patriots? superior conference record.

3. Ravens (9-3): Baltimore drops to No. 3 in the conference after Sunday?s loss to Pittsburgh.

4. Broncos (9-3): If the playoffs started today, Peyton Manning?s old team would come to town for a Colts-Broncos first-round playoff game.

5. Colts (8-4): Sunday?s win over the Lions puts the Colts in the driver?s seat in the AFC wild card race.

6. Steelers (7-5): At the moment, Pittsburgh has the head-to-head tiebreaker over Cincinnati and therefore owns the sixth and final playoff spot.

In the mix: The 7-5 Bengals visit Pittsburgh in Week 16, and the winner of that game will likely win the final AFC wild-card spot. Every other team in the AFC is 5-7 or worse and likely out of contention.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/12/02/texans-clinch-playoff-berth-with-easy-win-in-tennessee/related/

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Freed scientist finds little change or hope in Russia

KRASNOYARSK, Russia (Reuters) - Grey, pale and thin, Valentin Danilov has changed more than the country that jailed him in 2004 for selling state secrets to China.

The 66-year-old Russian physicist, whose face is now criss-crossed with deep wrinkles, could not be blamed for suffering from "deja vu" when he was released on Saturday from a Siberian penal colony on spying charges he says were politically motivated.

President Vladimir Putin, now 60, is back in the Kremlin for a third term, corruption is rife, the unreformed economy is creaking under the weight of its dependence on energy exports, and opponents are still being imprisoned.

Danilov, whose case human rights activists cite as evidence that Putin uses Russia's weak courts to persecute his enemies, sees little hope of rapid change.

"Nothing has changed," Danilov said in an interview, putting some of the blame on Russia's 142 million people.

"The authorities do not descend on us from the moon. They are the choice of the nation. So the authorities reflect the state of the nation," he told Reuters a few hours after his release from the high-fenced penal colony.

News of one major change did reach him during his last year in the colony in a grimy industrial area outside the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, 6,500 km (4,000 miles) east of Moscow - reports that people had taken to the streets to protest.

Demonstrations against Putin in Moscow and other big cities began a year ago, caused by anger over allegations of fraud in a parliamentary election won by the Kremlin leader's party, but they have largely lost momentum and the opposition is divided.

Reflecting on the possibility of free and fair elections, and the possibility of political upheaval, Danilov said: "The nation is not yet ready."

NEW CRACKDOWN?

Dressed formally in a red tie and grey jacket, Danilov was speaking in an apartment in the city where he was born and jailed, and which was once part of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's network of Gulag prison camps.

A researcher at Krasnoyarsk State University, he was first arrested in 2001. He admitted selling information about satellite technology to a Chinese company but he, other scientists and human rights activists said the information had already been available from public sources.

An initial decision to acquit him was overturned and he was sentenced to 14 years in prison in a second trial. A Krasnoyarsk court granted him parole earlier this month, citing good behavior and poor health.

Asked how he felt about finally stepping outside the prison walls, he said "there were no feelings", but added that he had no regrets and that he regarded himself as a political prisoner.

At the time of Danilov's trial, Putin's opponents said the president was clamping down on academics who had contacts with foreign countries. They say his release showed that the Kremlin no longer regarded the physicist as a threat.

Opposition members see similarities between what happened to Danilov and the pressure being put on them now in Moscow.

Citing legal cases such as the sentencing of members of the Pussy Riot punk band over an anti-Putin protest in a Russian Orthodox Church, they say the Kremlin is using the legal system to smother dissent.

Putin denies this but several opposition leaders face criminal charges and the parliament has adopted a slew of laws over the last half year which opponents say could be applied against them.

These include tightening checks on lobby and campaign groups that have foreign funding, forcing them to register as "foreign agents", and broadening the definition of treason.

"As for President Putin, I guess everybody would be the same as him in his place. The court makes the tsar," Danilov said, avoiding direct criticism of the president but condemning the circle around him.

"The problem is not one of law but of how the judging is done."

He read widely about Russia's legal system during his time in prison, and said the judiciary was still open to political manipulation.

NO PLANS TO ENTER POLITICS

After nearly a decade behind bars, including in colonies populated by murderers, Danilov's brown eyes are still penetrating and his wits sharp. He deflects questions about his health but is not a broken man.

He does not want to look back, refusing to go into detail about his life in prison or his health.

"It's like serving in the army, only that a man in the army has fewer rights. By taking the military oath, a soldier gives up some of his rights. While in prison, the prisoner can at least call in a lawyer and make complaints about abuse of rights," he said.

Among people he admires, he listed several Putin critics - opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, former world chess champion Garry Kasparov and human rights campaigner Lyudmila Alexeyeva.

He praised the entry into politics of Mikhail Prokhorov, a rich tycoon who challenged Putin in the March presidential election while denying accusations of being a "Kremlin stooge".

Beyond retirement age, and worn down by his years in prison, Danilov signals that a new fight with the state or taking on a role in opposition is the last thing on his mind.

He wants to go back to work soon to try out ideas he developed while he had time on his hands in jail. He also says he is ready to play an advisory role on how to reform Russia's outdated penal system.

He aims to rebuild his strength and family ties with his daughter, granddaughter and wife of 41 years who lives in Novosibirsk, also in Siberia.

Danilov said he had no plans to flee Russia or deal with space research again. He plans to keep in touch with people he met behind bars, including a man sentenced for murder whom he helped to obtain higher education.

Putting a positive spin on his years in jail, he said: "They say that to get to know a country well, one must visit its cemeteries and prison. I used to visit cemeteries often and now I've been to prison too.

"So you can really believe me when I say I know perfectly fine now what Russia is," he said.

He paused for a moment and, smiling, switched to English to quote the title of a Shakespeare play: "All's well that ends well."

(Writing by Gabriela Baczynska and Timothy Heritage; editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/freed-scientist-finds-little-change-hope-russia-095624183.html

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Did global warming cause superstorm Sandy?

Climate scientists warn that global warming is likely to increase the incidence of serious events like Hurricane Sandy. Warming water and rising sea levels may be contributing to what New York politicians are calling their 'new reality.'?

By Seth Borenstein,?Associated Press / October 30, 2012

This NOAA satellite image taken Tuesday, shows superstorm Sandy slowly moving westward while weakening across southern Pennsylvania.

AP Photo/NOAA

Enlarge

Climate?scientist Michael Oppenheimer stood along the Hudson River and watched his research come to life as Hurricane Sandy blew through New York.

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Just eight months earlier, the Princeton University professor reported that what used to be once-in-a-century devastating floods in New York City would soon happen every three to 20 years. He blamed global warming for pushing up sea levels and?changing?hurricane patterns.

New York "is now highly vulnerable to extreme hurricane-surge flooding," he wrote.

For more than a dozen years, Oppenheimer and other?climate?scientists have been warning about the risk for big storms and serious flooding in New York. A 2000 federal report about global warming's effect on the United States warned specifically of that possibility.

Still, they say it's unfair to blame?climate?change?for Sandy and the destruction it left behind. They cautioned that they cannot yet conclusively link a single storm to global warming, and any connection is not as clear and simple as environmental activists might contend.

"The ingredients of this storm seem a little bit cooked by?climate?change, but the overall storm is difficult to attribute to global warming," Canada's University of Victoria?climate?scientist Andrew Weaver said.

Some individual parts of Sandy and its wrath seem to be influenced by?climate?change, several?climate scientists said.

First, there's sea level rise. Water levels around New York are a nearly a foot (0.3 meters) higher than they were 100 years ago, said Penn State University?climate?scientist Michael Mann.

Add to that the temperature of the Atlantic Ocean, which is about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (.8 degrees Celsius) warmer on average than a century ago, said Katharine Hayhoe, a?climate?scientist at Texas Tech University. Warm water fuels hurricanes.

And Sandy zipped north along a warmer-than-normal Gulf Stream that travels from the Caribbean to Ireland, said Jeff Masters, meteorology director for the private service Weather Underground.

Meteorologists are also noticing more hurricanes late in the season and even after the season. A 2008 study said the Atlantic hurricane season seems to be starting earlier and lasting longer but found no explicit link to global warming. Normally there are 11 named Atlantic storms. The past two years have seen 19 and 18 named storms. This year, with one month to go, there are 19.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/P7jnT6k7ov8/Did-global-warming-cause-superstorm-Sandy

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U.S. economists win Nobel for applying match-making

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Life-saving kidney exchange programs and ways for schools to select students are just two practical applications of the market-matching theories for which U.S. economists Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley won the Nobel prize for economics on Monday.

Pairing up employers with job seekers - for instance doctors and lawyers taking up their first appointments - are other examples of how Roth, 60, and Shapley, 89, have separately applied game theory to daily life.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the 8 million crown ($1.2 million) prize, called their work an outstanding example of economic engineering.

Roth and other economists who study market design are essentially exploring how matching procedures can be improved to produce better results for all concerned.

Speaking to Reuters over an early-morning cup of coffee from California, Roth gave the example of Stanford, his alma mater, to which he recently returned after a long spell at Harvard.

Stanford competes for students with the likes of Harvard and Princeton, and who is admitted does not depend solely on price. Stanford keeps its tuition costs low enough to attract plenty of applicants and selects among them.

"So there is choice going on, on both sides. It's a little like getting married. Taking a job is like this too," Roth said.

"And it turns out that, to some extent, getting an organ for transplantation is a little like it. So there are a lot of things that you get in life that you can't just choose. You also have to be chosen. And that's what we study. We study matching."

MATCHING MARKETS, SAVING LIVES

Roth, in a series of empirical studies, built on separate work much earlier by Shapley, an emeritus professor at the University of California Los Angeles, who had used game theory to compare various matching methods and make sure the matches were acceptable to all counterparts.

Roth, who was sleeping when Stockholm came on the phone and missed the first call to inform him of his prize, described his work as studying "courtship" of many kinds.

"You can't just have what you want; you also have to do some courtship and there is courtship on both sides and we study the marketplace processes by which those types of courtship are resolved."

The economics prize, officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was established by Sweden's central bank in 1968. It was not part of the original group of awards, for sciences and promoting peace, that was set out in dynamite tycoon Nobel's 1895 will.

"This is very much what economics is about," said Tore Ellingsen, a Nobel committee member and a professor at the Stockholm School of Economics. "How to allocate scarce resources as well as possible, to economize."

Roth has applied market design theory to the public schools admissions process in New York and Boston.

He is also a co-founder of the New England Program for Kidney Exchange, www.nepke.org, which draws on his work on matching markets to bring together pairs of compatible kidney donors and recipients.

"Here is an economic theorist who hasn't just made things more efficient. He has actually saved lives. It is unclear whether it is the economics Nobel he deserved or the Nobel prize for medicine," Joshua Gans, a professor of strategic management at the University of Toronto, wrote on www.digitopoly.org.

(Additional reporting by Patrick Lannin and Niklas Pollard in Stockholm and Edward Krudy and Ros Krasny in Boston; Writing by Alan Wheatley; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/americans-roth-shaply-win-nobel-prize-economics-110737894.html

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Barely A Blog ? Who Will Be Our 'Massa'? The Mormon Or The ...

We all live on the ?plantation?; we are all ?moocher-hiddeen,? says Barely A Blog contributor, Myron Pauli.

Who Will Be Our ?Massa?? The Mormon Or The Mulatto?
By Myron Pauli

Unless you are hiding in the Unabomber?s Montana shack and consuming rabbits and berries, we all give to and take from the government. However, some give more than they take and some take more than they give.

Just how large is the sector that depends upon government?

Children and the elderly have become virtual wards of the state ? so that 50% already falls into the ?moocher-hiddeen? (to use an Islamic term!). That leaves the ?working age population? of roughly 25 to 65 supporting the rest. Of course, if ?Joe the Plumber? has kids or elderly parents, then the government acts as a conduit from him to his extended family. Even addressing just those working age people with neither children nor parents ? are they the ones who pay more than they receive? Maybe.

Remove government employees and the government contractors from that. Then you have the governmental corporations such as Fannie Mae and academia who are funded via government largesse. And what to make of GM, Chrysler, the bailed-out-financial sector, etc., kept afloat by government? Public utilities are governmentally regulated monopolies. Automobile Dealers function only thanks to governmentally legislated monopoly. Pharmaceutical firms, publishers, and the entertainment industry function on patents and copyright for their financial status. Sectors in agribusiness, health care, insurance, energy, and transportation (Amtrak!) are so heavily regulated that those employees are de-facto governmental workers even if there is a semblance of profit. The less said about lawyers and lobbyists, the better!

Truly private workers such as waiters, plumbers, and preachers are quite independent of government; but in locations like metropolitan Washington DC, nearly all their customers come out of the ?oink sectors.? Even worse is that when Americans invest their money, the Roth?s, IRA?s, 401k?s, 529?s, HSA?s, ?cafeteria plans? are so controlled by governmental rules that one wonders who owns the money ? you or the government ? or is that even a distinction?

The sad and pathetic truth is that we are all living on a large plantation with a quadrennial democratically elected ?Massa? and a bureaucracy of overseers. It is to the credit of racial and religious tolerance that we can have a Mormon vs. mulatto fighting for the job of ?Massa?.

The fact is that government has entangled itself from cradle to grave like a metastasizing cancer. Rhetorical flourishes aside, the only government programs downsized in the last 40 years was transportation deregulation under Carter and welfare reform under Clinton (nothing eliminated under Republican presidents), and the budget was in near-balance (ignoring raids on the ?Social Security Trust Fund!?) by Clinton. I mean, this not as an endorsement of the unabashed big government Obama but merely to point out that the odds of Romney downsizing the Federal Government is smaller than the odds that the Chinese politburo will make Yom Kippur a Chinese holiday!

So when ?Tea Party Conservatives? start bitching about Obama endangering their Medicare, it is because the addiction to government is nearly universal. Some of us on the plantation may be more productive than others, but we all live under the rules and, regrettably, most inhabitants (or inmates) generally support the system.

A few libertarian ?nutcases? like Paul or Johnson may point the other way, but even most billionaires are as happy to have the Warfare-Welfare state as the poor. Who do you think pays for the TV commercials and the spin doctors and the political ?think tanks? ? Christian coalminers and Hispanic gardeners, or guys named Koch, Adelson, Soros, and Spielberg?

Nothing short of a major non-violent libertarian revolution? (Constitutional restoration) is needed ? but until then, we can all stick our hand out for our share of the public gruel.

******
Barely a Blog (BAB) contributor Myron Pauli grew up in Sunnyside Queens, went off to college in Cleveland and then spent time in a mental institution in Cambridge MA (MIT) with Benjamin Netanyahu (did not know him), and others until he was released with the ?hostages? and Jimmy Carter on January 20, 1981, having defended his dissertation in nuclear physics. Most of the time since, he has worked on infrared sensors, mainly at Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC. He was NOT named after Ron Paul but is distantly related to physicist Wolftgang Pauli; unfortunately, only the ?good looks? were handed down and not the brains. He writes assorted song lyrics and essays reflecting his cynicism and classical liberalism. Click on the ?BAB?s A List? category to access the Pauli archive.

Source: http://barelyablog.com/who-will-be-our-massa-the-mormon-or-the-mulatto/

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They have been the majority of within the most simple internet site flaws undergone by website visitors regarding the web page. A particular actually must stay away from finishing up these issues to be able to make a considerably better loving relationship employing its buyers. Merely talking, online businesses may want to purchase blog development products within just the experienced webdesign specialist to ensure the perfection on its website design and style.

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Source: http://www.hugohosting.com/are-cost-effective-internet-hosting-deals-certainly-low-priced.html

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New NASA mission to take first look deep inside Mars

ScienceDaily (Aug. 20, 2012) ? NASA has selected a new mission, set to launch in 2016, that will take the first look into the deep interior of Mars to see why the Red Planet evolved so differently from Earth as one of our solar system's rocky planets.

The new mission, named InSight, will place instruments on the Martian surface to investigate whether the core of Mars is solid or liquid like Earth's, and why Mars' crust is not divided into tectonic plates that drift like Earth's. Detailed knowledge of the interior of Mars in comparison to Earth will help scientists understand better how terrestrial planets form and evolve.

"The exploration of Mars is a top priority for NASA, and the selection of InSight ensures we will continue to unlock the mysteries of the Red Planet and lay the groundwork for a future human mission there," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "The recent successful landing of the Curiosity rover has galvanized public interest in space exploration and today's announcement makes clear there are more exciting Mars missions to come."

InSight will be led by W. Bruce Banerdt at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. InSight's science team includes U.S. and international co-investigators from universities, industry and government agencies. The French space agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, or CNES, and the German Aerospace Center are contributing instruments to InSight, which is scheduled to land on Mars in September 2016 to begin its two-year scientific mission.

InSight is the 12th selection in NASA's series of Discovery-class missions. Created in 1992, the Discovery Program sponsors frequent, cost-capped solar system exploration missions with highly focused scientific goals. NASA requested Discovery mission proposals in June 2010 and received 28. InSight was one of three proposed missions selected in May 2011 for funding to conduct preliminary design studies and analyses. The other two proposals were for missions to a comet and Saturn's moon Titan.

InSight builds on spacecraft technology used in NASA's highly successful Phoenix lander mission, which was launched to the Red Planet in 2007 and determined water existed near the surface in the Martian polar regions. By incorporating proven systems in the mission, the InSight team demonstrated that the mission concept was low-risk and could stay within the cost-constrained budget of Discovery missions. The cost of the mission, excluding the launch vehicle and related services, is capped at $425 million in 2010 dollars.

"Our Discovery Program enables scientists to use innovative approaches to answering fundamental questions about our solar system in the lowest cost mission category," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. "InSight will get to the 'core' of the nature of the interior and structure of Mars, well below the observations we've been able to make from orbit or the surface."

InSight will carry four instruments. JPL will provide an onboard geodetic instrument to determine the planet's rotation axis and a robotic arm and two cameras used to deploy and monitor instruments on the Martian surface. CNES is leading an international consortium that is building an instrument to measure seismic waves traveling through the planet's interior. The German Aerospace Center is building a subsurface heat probe to measure the flow of heat from the interior.

JPL provides project management for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Discovery Program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver will build the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more information about InSight, visit: http://insight.jpl.nasa.gov .

For more information about the Discovery Program, visit: http://discovery.nasa.gov .

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov .

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

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120820202248.htm

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The Stigma on Traditional and Indigenous African Religions ?

Africa is a continent that has long been cloaked in a shroud of misunderstanding and stigma. The general misconceptions about Africans are widespread and attack nearly every aspect of African culture and societies including religion. The stigma placed on the pagan beliefs and religions that are intrinsic to African cultures has in my opinion, left the continent devoid of one of the factors that adds to its ?mystical allure.?

Adequately defining African religions in their totality would be an arduous task with results riddled with error. Nonetheless, if I had to give a grossly general definition, I would say that ancient African religious beliefs are complex, intricately developed systems that gracefully intertwine the values of a people, with a love for the land and ancestors. Though African religions vary greatly by region, country, and even within the same ethnic groups, there are some concepts that remain constant. Many African religions focus on perpetuating the well being of a people through the appeasement of a deity, a group of ancestors or the land. This appeasement often involves systems of ritual and sacrificial practices. Another common strand is the interrelatedness of religion and government. In many religions, the ruler or figurehead is viewed as the link between the people and the supernatural entities of that religion and are revered as spiritual custodians. Though they differ greatly in the particulars of their rituals, beliefs and mythology, African religions are deeply rooted in ancestral worship, great concern for the land that is inhabited and spiritualism. There is an undeniable beauty in the dynamic mystery of African religions that is displayed in folklore, music, art, dance and other characteristic components of African cultures. Contemporary African cultures exist with a conspicuous imprint of ancient religions and practices.

Despite this, the arrival of foreign religions and recent film propaganda has cast a dark shadow over indigenous religions. Because of the fact that indigenous religions tend to be rooted in spiritualism, ritual and sacrifice, they have been made to seem malicious, satanic and evil. The beliefs that once governed the lives of a people are now detested and regarded as taboo my most. This makes me wonder if an amicable balance can be found.

Can foreign religions such as Christianity be practiced while maintaining the values of past religions? Can the stigma of ancestral worship be lifted? Can it instead be replaced with pride in a charismatic and mystical past? And more importantly, why must such a vital fragment of history be regarded as evil? With the progression of time comes new concepts which are developed and adopted, but I believe the test of a dynamic society is its ability to embrace innovation while keeping the successes of the past on a pedestal. In my opinion the key to finding a healthy balance is finding a pride in the past.

-Joy Otibu

Tagged: africa, african religions, christianity, religion

Source: http://africaisdonesuffering.com/2012/07/21/the-stigma-on-traditional-and-indigenous-african-religions/

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Snuggie Simulation: Beyonce Fan Recreates "Countdown" Video

Let there be no doubt now over the biggest Beyonce fan on the planet.

We don't know this young man's name, but a kid has recreated the artist's entire "Countdown" video, shot for shot, move for move... all while donning a Snuggie. For what reason?

Perhaps as an odd tribute to Blue Ivy. All we can say for certain is that the guy has some impressive moves. And maybe too much time on his hands.

 

Beyonce Fan Recreates "Countdown" Video

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/07/snuggie-simulation-beyonce-fan-recreates-countdown-video/

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foodsafetynews: RT @AVMAvets: The @US_FDA has updated their FAQ on chicken jerky treats from China http://t.co/zXCG0LYj

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://twitter.com/foodsafetynews/statuses/225701528915308544

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Palestinian ex-officer dies after 'fall' in custody

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-ex-officer-dies-fall-police-custody-172712593.html

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Rwanda gorillas prosper despite guerrillas next door

Baby gorillas roll around as their mothers tuck into juicy plant shoots: mountain gorillas are highly endangered, but the 27 members of the Agashya family are well protected.

The dense misty forests of the Virunga mountain chain straddling Rwanda, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo are home to over half of all mountain gorillas, but the jungles also host rebel fighters across the border into Congo.

Yet despite the threats, the population of these threatened primates has been rising for the past decade.

The total world population is estimated at 790, 480 of whom live here in the Virungas, the remainder in Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

The positive trend, which comes in spite of protracted unrest on the Congolese side of the border, is largely due to progress made in curbing poaching, Rwandan authorities say.

Poaching "is declining every year" largely due to awareness campaigns in local communities, according to Telesphore Ngoga, who heads the conservation department at Rwanda Development Board.da

"There is no longer a situation where baby gorillas are poached," he said.

Augustin Basabose, acting director at the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP), says that while poachers no longer really target the gorillas per se, they do still get caught in snares set for other wildlife such as antelopes.

Eating the mountain apes is taboo here, but they were previously targeted, with their hands used for grim trophies, while baby gorillas were seized for private illegal zoos.

Basabose is one of 20 people chosen by the Rwandan authorities this year to name 19 babies and one adult in the annual gorilla naming ceremony, which was first held in 2005.

Attended by members of the international community based in Kigali, but not by the primates themselves, the naming is supposed to create awareness about the need for mountain gorilla conservation and to promote tourism.

Tourism here is an important foreign currency earner, having brought in some $250 million in 2011.

A foreign visitor not resident in the region pays $750 for a permit to spend one hour in the company of the primates.

Once inside the park, a ranger welcomes the day's visitors -- never more than eight per group of habituated gorillas -- to guide them through the undergrowth lining the steep and slippery path.

The guide reminds the visitors of the rules to be obeyed while they observe the gorillas in the forests.

If an ape comes too close the visitor must move back, both out of prudence -- as the primates tower over the visitors and can weigh as much as 200 kilograms (440 pounds) -- and in order to respect their environment.

"We want to keep them as wild as possible," explained the guide, Francis Bayingana.

He is armed with a Kalashnikov rifle -- but more in case the group encounters an aggressive buffalo, than because of the security situation on the other side of the border.

The Congolese flanks of the Virunga mountains have been hard hit by the recent wave of violence on that side of the border.

In May army mutineers "crossed the park to arrive in the gorilla sector," said Emmanuel de Merode, director of the DR Congo's Virunga national park.

The Congolese park has been closed to tourists for the past several weeks, Merode said, adding that three rangers were killed in May, when they were ambushed on a road where they were protecting civilians.

In early June two other rangers received bullet and bayonet wounds, and the gorilla sector patrols in Congo were suspended.

Since then rangers have not managed to re-establish contact with two of the park's six gorilla families, who have taken refuge "in inaccessible zones," Merode added.

However, on the Rwandan side of the mountains, it is business as usual.

The only recent change of note is that joint patrols of Rwandan and Congolese rangers have come to a halt. At the end of the last such patrol the DRC rangers had difficulty making it back to their homes because of the fighting.

Some observers wonder if the gorillas in DRC will not cross over the border to escape the fighting.

"Gorillas are sensitive to the sound of bullets and do move from one country to another in search of food," said Basabose, who was unable to say whether such movements have been observed recently.

Rwandan conservationists say that in 2005 a gorilla family did cross into Rwanda from DRC and has been here ever since. They speculate that it might have been in order to escape instability in eastern DRC.

Back in the park, the Agashya family has finished its break. The head of the family, an imposing silverback, tells everyone -- visitors included -- that it's time to leave.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rwanda-gorillas-prosper-despite-guerrillas-next-door-055745221.html

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THE SOFT MACHINE Third music review by smartpatrol

After a few weeks of putting it off, I listened to Third, my first Soft Machine album. These guys have taken jazz fusion and canterbury, fused them together, and contorted, twisted, and bent them into this wild hot pot of psychedellic jazz (I'm getting very creative on the adjetives this time). The 80 minutes that I spent with the album were very exciting and interesting. My only grief with the album is the third track, "Moon in June", the only album with vocals, which are delivered by the band's drummer, Robert Wyatt. Now, he has a fine voice, and I enjoyed his preformance, however, it completely threw me off. It just seemed out of place. But, anyway, great album. If you like jazz fusion and/or psychedellic rock, I'd give it a listen. 3.5/5

smartpatrol | 4/5 | 2012-6-30

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Source: http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=779875

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Beyond primates: What do dolphins and dogs know?

WASHINGTON?? It's not just man's closer primate relatives that exhibit brain power. Dolphins, dogs and elephants are teaching us a few lessons, too.

Dolphin brains involve completely different wiring from primates, especially in the neocortex, which is central to higher functions such as reasoning and conscious thought.

Dolphins are so distantly related to humans that it's been 95 million years since we had even a remotely common ancestor. Yet when it comes to intelligence, social behavior and communications, some researchers say dolphins come as close to humans as our ape and monkey cousins.

Maybe closer.

"They understand concepts like zero, abstract concepts. They do everything that chimpanzees do and bonobos can do," said Lori Marino, a neuroscientist at Emory University who specializes in dolphin research. "The fact is that they are so different from us and so much like us at the same time."

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In recent years, animal researchers have found that thought processes in critters aren't a matter of how closely related they are to humans. You don't have to be a primate to be smart.

Dolphin brains look nothing like human brains, Marino said. Yet, she says, "the more you learn about them, the more you realize that they do have the capacity and characteristics that we think of when we think of a person."

These mammals recognize themselves in the mirror and have a sense of social identity. They not only know who they are, but they also have a sense of who, where and what their groups are. They interact and comprehend the health and feelings of other dolphins so fast it as if they are online with each other, Marino said.

Animal intelligence "is not a linear thing," said Duke University researcher Brian Hare, who studies bonobos, which are one of man's closest relatives, and dogs, which are not.

"Think of it like a toolbox," he said. "Some species have an amazing hammer. Some species have an amazing screwdriver."

For dogs, a primary tool is their obsessive observation of humans and ability to understand human communication, Hare said. For example, dogs follow human pointing so well that they understand it whether it's done with a hand or a foot; chimps don't, said Hare, whose upcoming book is called "The Genius of Dogs."

Then there are elephants.

They empathize, they help each other, they work together. In a classic cooperation game, in which animals only get food if two animals pull opposite ends of a rope at the same time, elephants learned to do that much quicker than chimps, said researcher Josh Plotnik, head of elephant research at the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation in Thailand.

They do even better than monkeys at empathy and rescue, said Plotnik. In the wild, he has seen elephants stop and work together to rescue another elephant that fell in a pit.

"There is something in the environment, in the evolution of this species that is unique," he says.

More about animal intelligence:

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Mariah's Challenge: Grieving Father Leo McCarthy Offers Teenagers Money For Not Drinking

In memory of his young daughter, a grieving father is offering teens thousands of dollars to not drink, CNN reports.

Five years ago, Leo McCarthy's 14-year-old daughter, Mariah, was killed when a 20-year-old drunk driver hit her as she was walking home with two friends in Butte, Mont.

In the days immediately after her death, McCarthy said he watched as his daughter's young friends struggled to deal with their grief.

?They were all fumbling and bumbling about," he told Mariners Magazine in 2009. "I told them they needed to look beyond the death and toward something more hopeful. As I was doing the eulogy, I wanted to talk to that group of kids and let them know that there is more to the world.?

So at Mariah's funeral, McCarthy issued an unusual challenge -- Mariah's Challenge -- to Butte's teenagers.

"If you stick with me for four years," he said during his daughter's eulogy. "Don't use alcohol, don't use illicit drugs but give back to your community, work with your parents and talk to your parents, I'll be there with a bunch of other people to give you money."

McCarthy has kept his promise.

Together with Jimm Kilmer and Chad Okrusch, the fathers of Mariah's two friends who survived the accident, McCarthy, 52, started a non-profit which has raised and given out more than 140 $1,000 scholarships to Butte high schoolers over the years

"I wanted to give them encouragement and to tell them that...you can be better and always be greater in the situation," McCarthy told CNN.

To be eligible for the Mariah's Challenge scholarship, teens must sign a pledge to not drink until they are 21 and not get into a car with someone who has been drinking. In their senior year of high school, they can submit a scholarship application -- as long as they haven't been convicted of underage possession of alcohol or drugs.

"Mariah is forever 14. I can't get her back," McCarthy said. "But I can help other parents keep their kids safe."

This year, more than 40 high school seniors were awarded scholarships, MTStandard.com reports. At the emotional awards banquet, Butte citizens expressed their pride towards the student winners and lauded the positive paradigm shift that has occurred within the city thanks to McCarthy's challenge.

"I think about the culture change we have in Butte now, with a program like this," said Brian Morris, Montana's Supreme Court Justice, at the event. "I'm so proud that it's coming from Butte, Montana and spreading throughout the Northwest -- and I think to myself, if we can change the culture of alcohol in a place like Butte and we have people like you growing up, we can change anything in the world."

According to CNN, Montana routinely ranks in the top five per capita for drunken-driving fatalities.

McCarthy said he hopes that by adopting Mariah's Challenge, the teenagers of Montana will slowly change this statistic.

Watch the highlights from the 2012 Mariah's Challenge scholarship banquet in this YouTube video:

Related on HuffPost:

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New Songza iPad app curates music to suit your mood

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RolePlayGateway?

Introduction

A body laid in the midst of the forest, bloody and broken. This body appeared to belong to a 17 year-old boy, lean framed, longish blond hair, curled slightly and as bright as sunlight. The boy was presumed dead by the police but by the time the FBI was called in to investigate, the body was gone. Disappeared. No one knew who he was or where he'd come from but this mysterious occurrence was certainly enough to spark a certain fear.

Suddenly, children began to go missing. Ranging in age from 12 to 17, all races, all genders. No body had any clue what was going on, they thought all this might link to a kidnapper or serial killer, that is, until sightings of a large creature with black wings started to be reported. The creature appeared human but with large wings roughly fourteen feet in wingspan.

The people who'd been seeing him began to refer to this creature as Lucifer, the fallen angel, fearing the end was upon them.

Lucifer

They call me Lucifer. But I can tell you right now I am not the Lucifer. I am not the beast with the number 666, I am not the fallen archangel cast away from Heaven. I am a thing. Or at least, that is how I was referred to when I was created. I was not made by some sort of God, I was made in a lab. They stole a child from an orphanage and strung it's DNA up with that of several animals. I am winged, my eyes are golden brown like a hawk's and my ears are pointed and as acute as a bat's I have claws, sharp as a leopard's. I am a weapon. They tried to force me to kill, to take down enemies. They tortured me until I have in. I had to. I think about killing a lot. I struggle to control myself.

I escaped, though. I knew there were others, maybe not like me but others who were tortured, others who needed help. So I rescued them. I am not a kidnapper, they all come willingly. We train. We will fight when we are ready. We will have our revenge.

There are more in that lab, from before me. There are some with telepathic minds, some with amazing stamina or strength. They were created after me. No one experimented with more animal DNA, the occasional one-animal splice but not as many as they put into me. They called me a mistake when I brutally mauled something they called "an enemy". Was I not meant to kill? Why were they torturing me for doing well?

So I attacked them. I attacked them and grabbed the others, as many as I could... all so young... all younger than me.I hated the scientists. I couldn't stop myself from killing them all.

I took the others and left. And I found more. Abused children, beaten children. All my age or younger. They needed help. So I provided it.

And we will have our revenge.

The Army

My Army are the children and adolescents that I have saved. They are trained in combat and weaponry. Crossbows, swords, spears, bow and arrows, rapiers, staffs, even the occasional gun we can get our hands on. Anything to take down our enemies, those who have wronged us. I do not like guns, I much prefer weapons we can make ourselves, I trust them better but if the police, SWATT, the FBI or any other organization becomes involved, we will need as much firepower as we can get.

The Army is growing continuously. I have many on the look-out for new members, new children or adolescents who have lost their way, who have been abused. Those abused sexually, beaten by their parents, I've even known parents to try to "beat the gay" out of their kids if they are homosexual or bisexual, parents who will starve or neglect their children if they do not conform to 'traditional' gender roles. I've known people to kill others or not believing in the "right" god, to torture their children if they do not conform. I've known parents who've forced their kids to follow a set path, living through their kid. I've seen parents inject their kids with drugs to enhance performance, to force them to train day and night for some pointless sport the child doesn't even enjoy.

It all sickens me.

Here, all are accepted, all are equal, all are free to be who they want to be. If they do not wish to fight, I will not force them. I know they will want to join eventually. The Army is for justice. For freedom.

Rules

1 ) M/M, F/F and F/M are all aloud and encourages. I enjoy diversity.
2 ) No OOC fighting.
3 ) No God-Modding.
4 ) Please have at least 2-3 paragraphs per post.
5 ) Every character must have weaknesses. There should be an equal number of humans and lab-experiments.
6 ) Romance is fine but that is not the whole plot. Remember that. Though it can be added for drama.
7 ) Swearing is fine. Just don't go overboard.
8 ) Write "I Follow the Fallen" if you read the rules.
9 ) Please remain active. At very least one post every two to three days. Preferably more often than that.

Form

Code: Select all

[font=comic sans ms][b][color=black]Name:[/color][/b]

[b][color=black]Age:[/color][/b]

[b][color=black]Gender:[/color][/b]

[b][color=black]Sexuality:[/color][/b]

[b][color=black]Human or Lab-Experiment:[/color][/b]

[b][color=black]Hair Colour:[/color][/b]

[b][color=black]Eye Colour:[/color][/b]

[b][color=black]General Appearance:[/color][/b]

[b][color=black]Personality (At least five sentences):[/color][/b]

[b][color=black]History (At least six sentences):[/color][/b]

[b][color=black]Family:[/color][/b]
[color=black]Parents-[/color]
[color=black]Siblings-[/color]
[color=black]Other-[/color]

[b][color=black]Skills:[/color][/b]

[b][color=black]Weapon of Choice:[/color][/b]

[b][color=black]Other:[/color][/b]

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

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