Mercury discovery boosts alien life search

The discovery of huge amounts of water ice and possible organic compounds on the heat-blasted planet Mercury suggests that the raw materials necessary for life as we know it may be common throughout the solar system, researchers say.

Mercury likely harbors between 100 billion and 1 trillion metric tons of water ice in permanently shadowed areas near its poles, scientists analyzing data from NASA's Messenger spacecraft announced Thursday.

Life on sun-scorched Mercury remains an extreme longshot, the researchers stressed, but the new results should still put a spring in the step of astrobiologists around the world.

"The more we examine the solar system, the more we realize it's a soggy place," Jim Green, the director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said during a press conference Friday.

"And that's really quite exciting, because that means the amount of water that we have here on Earth ? that was not only inherent when it was originally formed but probably brought here ? that water and other volatiles were brought to many other places in the solar system," Green added. "So it really bodes well for us to continue on the exploration, following the water and its signs throughout the solar system." [Latest Mercury Photos from Messenger]

Organics, too?
The observations by Messenger, which has been orbiting Mercury since March 2011, provide compelling evidence that reflective patches first spotted near the planet's poles by the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico two decades ago are indeed water ice, researchers said.

In the coldest parts of Mercury ? permanently shadowed regions where temperatures drop to perhaps minus 370 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 223 degrees Celsius) ? this ice can lie bare and exposed. But Messenger's data also show that much more frozen water is found in slightly warmer areas, buried beneath a strange dark material that acts as an insulator.

This dark stuff is likely a mixture of complex organic compounds, the carbon-containing building blocks of life as we know it, researchers said during Thursday's news conference.

"This organic material may be the same type of organic material that ultimately gave rise to life on Earth," said Messenger participating scientist David Paige of UCLA.

Helping scientists read the book of life
Mercury probably acquired much of its water and organic material the same way Earth did, researchers said ? via comet impacts and asteroid strikes. Ice and organics are common on the frigid bodies in the solar system's outer reaches.

"There's a lot of water out there, as there is a lot of water around other stars, but at substantial distance," said Messenger principal investigator Sean Solomon of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

With its ultra-thin atmosphere and proximity to the sun, Mercury is probably not a good bet to host life as we know it. But finding ice and organics there should still inform the hunt for organisms beyond Earth and aid scientists' quest to learn more about how life took root on our planet.

"The history of life begins with the delivery to some home object of water and of the building blocks, the organic building blocks, that must undergo some kind of chemistry, which we still don't understand on our own planet," Solomon said.

1. Space news from NBCNews.com

   1. Chinese UFO sightings linked to rocket launch

      Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Analysts have concluded that mysterious rays of light observed this month in Chinese skies were sparked by a European rocket stage.

   2. Smithsonian gives space spider a new home
   3. Water ice discovered on Mercury
   4. No organic material found on Mars yet
   5. NASA blasts away at doomsday bunk

"And so Mercury is becoming an object of astrobiological interest, where it wasn't much of one before," Solomon added. "That's not say to say that we expect to find any lifeforms ? I don't think anybody on this table does ? but in terms of the book of life, there are some early chapters, and Mercury may indeed inform us about what's in those chapters."

Follow Space.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwallor Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebookand Google+.

? 2012 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50029213/ns/technology_and_science-space/

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Jigsaw a critical piece of the Notch puzzle

ScienceDaily (Nov. 29, 2012) ? The Notch signaling pathway helps determine cell fate determination, differentiation and proliferative ability of numerous cells. How it accomplishes these tasks has been a puzzle, but researchers led by those at Baylor College of Medicine and the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital have identified a key piece-a specific domain (or part of the receptor) within the Notch receptor that is critical for determining the specific ligand to which the receptor binds. The finding provides researchers with a molecular handle on which to base future studies of this critical protein.

A report on their work appears online in the journal Science.

Misregulation of Notch signaling is seen in various types of cancers and numerous human diseases. The Notch receptor can be activated by binding to two families of ligands, Serrate and Delta. Since different ligands can have different consequences on signal activation depending on the context, understanding how Notch discriminates Serrate and Delta is crucial. Most of the Notch receptor is composed of what scientists call EGF repeats (epidermal growth factor-like repeats). Previous studies have suggested that the key lies within these repeats.

Significance of EGF repeats

"We don't know the function of most of these EGF repeats on Notch," said Dr. Shinya Yamamoto, a former graduate student from the Program in Developmental Biology and currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Hugo Bellen, director of the Program in Developmental Biology and professor of molecular and human genetics and neuroscience at BCM. "There are 36 of them. Some are needed to bind to both of the ligand families, while others are required to bind to only one kind." Indeed, mutations in these repeats have been found in patients with Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL), a hereditary stroke disorder; Alagille syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects the liver, heart, skeleton, eye and other organs; aortic valve disease, and squamous cell carcinoma.

In studies in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), Yamamoto and his colleagues screened for mutated alleles (alternative forms of a gene) of Notch and focused on a mutation that they named Jigsaw. Flies with this mutation have normal bristles on the thorax but defects in the wing. They showed that the Notch gene exhibits defects in its ability to bind to Serrate but not Delta. They also showed that a similar mutation in mouse Notch2 fails to signal in response to Jagged, the mammalian homolog of Serrate.

Jigsaw mutation

"Structural biologists will now have a molecular handle with which to begin investigating the molecular basis of ligand selectivity at the atomic level," said Yamamoto. "Others may consider EGF repeat 8 as a potential drug target for small molecules and monoclonal antibodies."

Others who took part in this study include Wu-Lin Charng; Manish Jaiswal; Vafa Bayat; Bo Xiong; Ke Zhang; Hector Sandoval; Gabriela David and Hao Wang, all of BCM; and Robert Haltiwanger, Nadia Rana and Shinako Kakuda, all of Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY.

Funding for this work came from the National Institutes of Health; the BCM Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center; the Nakajima Foundation; the Taiwan Merit Scholarships Program of the National Science Council; the Edward and Josephine Hudson Scholarship Fund; the Houston Laboratory and Population Science Training Program in Gene-Environment Interaction of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund; and the Houston Research Education and Career Horizon Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Baylor College of Medicine.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. S. Yamamoto, W.-L. Charng, N. A. Rana, S. Kakuda, M. Jaiswal, V. Bayat, B. Xiong, K. Zhang, H. Sandoval, G. David, H. Wang, R. S. Haltiwanger, H. J. Bellen. A Mutation in EGF Repeat-8 of Notch Discriminates Between Serrate/Jagged and Delta Family Ligands. Science, 2012; 338 (6111): 1229 DOI: 10.1126/science.1228745

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/0G8wSflQeyA/121129143306.htm

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VIDEO: Supermodels Lip-Sync to Justin Bieber

Source:

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Dell's $1,549 Ubuntu-based XPS 13 goes on sale, $50 more than Windows variant

What once was just an internal skunkworks project, Dell's Project Sputnik has taken off with the release of the XPS 13 Developer Edition. The thin and light darling of the Ultrabook crowd is now shipping with a Precise Pangolin Ubuntu build pre-installed, along with feature-complete drivers that ensure maximum peripheral compatibility right out of the box. Also bundled in the XPS 13 are a couple of Project Sputnik's open source tools -- Profile Tool and Cloud Launcher -- that are designed to help developers install and deploy their projects quickly and efficiently. The hardware packs quite a punch, with either an Intel i5 or i7 Ivy Bridge CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256 GB SATA III SSD. All that Linux goodness comes at a cost, however -- the Developer Edition retails for $1,549, which is around $50 more than the Windows equivalent. Still, it might be well worth it for one of the best specced pre-assembled open-source laptops we've seen to date.

Filed under: Laptops, Dell

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Source: Dell, Ars Technica

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/29/dell-xps-13-ubuntu-laptop/

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Senate backs quick withdrawal from Afghanistan

FILE - In this June 27, 2006 file photo, reviewed by a U.S. Department of Defense official, U.S. military guards walk within Camp Delta military-run prison, at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba. The White House is threatening that President Barack Obama would veto the defense bill unless Congress makes changes. The Office of Management and Budget issued a statement Thursday as the Senate debated the $631 billion bill. Specifically, the White House complained about provisions restricting the administration's ability to transfer detainees from the U.S. Naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to foreign countries. The White House also complained about the prohibition on funds to build a detention facility in the US. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)

FILE - In this June 27, 2006 file photo, reviewed by a U.S. Department of Defense official, U.S. military guards walk within Camp Delta military-run prison, at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba. The White House is threatening that President Barack Obama would veto the defense bill unless Congress makes changes. The Office of Management and Budget issued a statement Thursday as the Senate debated the $631 billion bill. Specifically, the White House complained about provisions restricting the administration's ability to transfer detainees from the U.S. Naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to foreign countries. The White House also complained about the prohibition on funds to build a detention facility in the US. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate has voted to accelerate the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

The 62-33 vote on Thursday reflected the nation's war-weariness after more than a decade of fighting.

Although the vote was for a nonbinding amendment to the defense bill, it sent a strong signal about the ongoing conflict. Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon sponsored the measure.

It also set the stage for a fight with the House, which passed a bill in May that calls for President Barack Obama to maintain a force of at least 68,000 troops through the end of 2014.

The House and Senate will have to reconcile their competing versions of the defense policy bill.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-11-29-Defense%20Bill/id-d5bbe5e38e36404297f403e176a82bce

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Recipe: One Bowl Mung Bean Meal Recipes from The Kitchn | The ...

It happens every year at this time and you know it. Whatever your normal ? and hopefully healthy ? eating pattern is, you lose it.

Normally I have a very balanced diet, which not only means it's balanced nutritionally, but it's balanced emotionally: I manage to try everything I want while rarely over-indulging. Then the holidays hit and gatherings fill up the calendar. On one hand I can't complain; I've managed to make a career out of encouraging people to cook and eat together, and it doesn't happen more than at the end of each calendar year. However, these gatherings rarely showcase light, healthy foods. Don't get me wrong: I like a good boozy cup of eggnog and a slice of roast beef as much as the next guy, but everybody needs a break.

Take Tuesday night for example: I went into a dinner party situation wanting to eat light and not drink alcohol. Two blinks of the eye later I found a margarita in one hand and a goat cheese-stuffed, bacon-wrapped date in the other. Pretty soon there were pork loin sandwiches and chile rellenos. There was simply no escape.

All you can do is plan to eat differently when possible. This is a time, more than ever, to retreat to the one-bowl vegetarian meal. Lately, that's meant it's all about mung beans at my house. Sometimes the servings are small, just enough to tide me over.

I'm offering this recipe, like I do with many of my recipes, simply to guide you. Of course, if you are missing any of the ingredients like apples or avocados, replace them with something else: some leftover stir-fried greens, a chopped up boiled egg, sky's the limit. This is a good opportunity to clear the decks and the formula couldn't be easier.

In terms of the sprouted mung beans, they are usually easy to find at any large health food store or Whole Foods. I like them because they don't really require much cooking, and they feel so nourishing. If you can only find regular mung beans, don't fret. Simply cook the beans according to the package's instructions then drain and toss with the other salad ingredients.

The point here is to give your system a break and of course there's no one recipe for this practice. Just allow your system to breathe, and take refuge in a bowl of clean food. We have a whole month of holiday eating ahead, so pace yourself. Have a bowl of mung beans, then brace yourself for the next onslaught of holiday cheer.

One Bowl Mung Bean Meal

Serves 4

1 cup sprouted mung beans
3 cups water or broth
4 chopped green onions, white and pale green parts only
2 ribs celery, trimmed and sliced cross-wise into c-shapes
1 apple, diced
1 ripe avocado, sliced
1/3 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons loosely packed chopped Italian parsley
2 tablespoon lemon juice
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Bring the water to boil in a medium saucepan. Add the mung beans and gently boil for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Cover and let stand for at least 4 minutes and up to 8 minutes, depending on the desired texture. Drain.

Mix the mung beans with the green onions, celery, apple, avocado, almonds, olive oil, parsley, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Toss well. Divide between two bowls and serve.

Related: More Uses for Mung Beans

(images: Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan)

Source: http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-one-bowl-mung-bean-mealrecipes-from-the-kitchn-180912

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Crowdsourcing Malaria Parasite Quantification: An Online Game for

Original Paper

Crowdsourcing Malaria Parasite Quantification: An Online Game for Analyzing Images of Infected Thick Blood Smears

Miguel Angel Luengo-Oroz^1,2, PhD; Asier Arranz³, MEng; John Frean^4,5, MBBCh, MMed

¹Biomedical Image Technologies group, DIE, ETSI Telecomunicaci?n, Universidad Polit?cnica de Madrid, CEI Moncloa UPM-UCM, Madrid, Spain
²Biomedical Research Networking Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine, CIBER-BBN, Madrid, Spain
³Nebutek Soluciones SL, Vizcaya, Spain
⁴National Institute for Communicable Diseases, National Health Laboratory Service, Johannesburg, South Africa
⁵School of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Corresponding Author:
Miguel Angel Luengo-Oroz, PhD

Biomedical Image Technologies group
DIE, ETSI Telecomunicaci?n
Universidad Polit?cnica de Madrid, CEI Moncloa UPM-UCM
ETSIT, Av. Complutense 30
Madrid, 28040
Spain
Phone: 34 913366827
Fax: 34 913367323
Email:

---

ABSTRACT

Background: There are 600,000 new malaria cases daily worldwide. The gold standard for estimating the parasite burden and the corresponding severity of the disease consists in manually counting the number of parasites in blood smears through a microscope, a process that can take more than 20 minutes of an expert microscopist?s time.
Objective: This research tests the feasibility of a crowdsourced approach to malaria image analysis. In particular, we investigated whether anonymous volunteers with no prior experience would be able to count malaria parasites in digitized images of thick blood smears by playing a Web-based game.
Methods: The experimental system consisted of a Web-based game where online volunteers were tasked with detecting parasites in digitized blood sample images coupled with a decision algorithm that combined the analyses from several players to produce an improved collective detection outcome. Data were collected through the MalariaSpot website. Random images of thick blood films containing Plasmodium falciparum at medium to low parasitemias, acquired by conventional optical microscopy, were presented to players. In the game, players had to find and tag as many parasites as possible in 1 minute. In the event that players found all the parasites present in the image, they were presented with a new image. In order to combine the choices of different players into a single crowd decision, we implemented an image processing pipeline and a quorum algorithm that judged a parasite tagged when a group of players agreed on its position.
Results: Over 1 month, anonymous players from 95 countries played more than 12,000 games and generated a database of more than 270,000 clicks on the test images. Results revealed that combining 22 games from nonexpert players achieved a parasite counting accuracy higher than 99%. This performance could be obtained also by combining 13 games from players trained for 1 minute. Exhaustive computations measured the parasite counting accuracy for all players as a function of the number of games considered and the experience of the players. In addition, we propose a mathematical equation that accurately models the collective parasite counting performance.
Conclusions: This research validates the online gaming approach for crowdsourced counting of malaria parasites in images of thick blood films. The findings support the conclusion that nonexperts are able to rapidly learn how to identify the typical features of malaria parasites in digitized thick blood samples and that combining the analyses of several users provides similar parasite counting accuracy rates as those of expert microscopists. This experiment illustrates the potential of the crowdsourced gaming approach for performing routine malaria parasite quantification, and more generally for solving biomedical image analysis problems, with future potential for telediagnosis related to global health challenges.

(J Med Internet Res 2012;14(6):e167)
doi:10.2196/jmir.2338

KEYWORDS

Crowdsourcing; Malaria; Image Analysis; Games for Health; Telepathology

Crowdsourcing methodologies leveraging the contributions of citizen scientists connected via the Internet have recently proved to be of great value to solve certain scientific challenges involving ?big data? analysis that cannot be entirely automated [1]. In the GalaxyZoo project, citizen scientists classified imagery of hundreds of thousands of galaxies drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Hubble Space Telescope archive [2]. Crowdsourced contributions can be achieved with different motivation strategies, such as micropayments or games. The ?serious games? concept refers to an intention not only to entertain users, but also to train or educate them [3]. The ?gamification? [4] of the crowdsourcing approach enables a higher motivation of the participants and, using the Internet as a vehicle, untaps an underexploited resource for scientific research [5,6]: it is estimated that 3 billion hours per week are spent playing computer and videogames worldwide [7]. For instance, Fold-It, an online game where players solve 3-dimensional puzzles by folding protein structures, has resulted in several breakthrough scientific discoveries [8-10]. Another recent growing trend is the use of crowdsourcing techniques for participatory health research studies in which individuals report in real time a variety of health conditions [11], providing a promising complement to traditional clinical trials. Considering crowdsourced image analysis, collective processing has been recently explored for earthquake damage assessment from remote sensing imagery [12]. However, this methodology has not yet been mainstreamed for biomedical image analysis.

In this context, analysis of microscopic images of malaria-infected blood samples is an appealing goal. Worldwide, there are more than 200 million malaria cases and approximately 800,000 deaths annually, mainly in children [13,14]. Careful optical microscopic examination of a well-stained blood film remains the gold standard for malaria diagnosis [15]. Confirmation of a negative diagnosis is ultimately dependent on the technician?s expertise and can take up to 20 minutes. In addition, as malaria prevalence decreases in one specific place over time, microscopy technician skills may now be needed in other regions. Fast, cheap, ubiquitous, and accurate diagnosis is a priority in the Agenda for Malaria Eradication [16]. Although automated processing methodologies have been used extensively for the analysis of digitized blood smears [17,18], currently there are no completely automated image processing systems that can achieve perfect parasite recognition [19-24]. The main problem in computer-aided malaria diagnosis is that algorithms are usually not very robust with respect to the variable appearance of the parasites and changing image acquisition conditions.

The goal of this research was to test the feasibility of a crowdcomputing approach for malaria parasite quantification in which nonexperts count parasites in digitized thick blood smears through an online game (crowdsourcing) and a decision algorithm combines the data generated by several players in order to achieve a collective detection with a higher accuracy rate than an individual analysis. This idea?gaming for distributed malaria image analysis?has been also explored in a recent study by Mavandadi et al [25], in parallel to and independently of this study. These researchers designed a video game and a processing pipeline to investigate whether nonexperts can assess if a single-cell image extracted from a digitized thin blood sample is infected with malaria or not. Although this study and the present research share a similar vision and goal, the research questions posed and solutions adopted differ substantially in terms of the data analyzed, the nature of the participants, the main task required of them, and the processing methodologies.

The proposed system in this study provides a new tool for parasite counting, but not malaria diagnosis, which is a more complex problem [26]. For this purpose, the microscopist protocol will need to be translated completely into a gaming protocol, including assessing the presence or absence of parasites, the parasite species, and growth stages and prognostic markers, such as schizonts or gametocytes, or pigment load. In the long run, crowdsourced remote telediagnosis from images acquired with optical microscopy and distributed worldwide through the Internet and possibly with systems that integrate the microscope into mobile phones [27,28], might have a potential impact for malaria-endemic countries because diagnosis availability and its cost could be optimized. However, in addition to the need for conventional laboratory processing and imaging equipment to prepare the material to a sufficiently high standard, this kind of analysis will require a communications infrastructure with enough bandwidth to distribute the images over the Internet and a critical number of online participants in order to ensure timely analysis of the images.

This work presents a proof-of-concept system that explores the feasibility of an online game-based, crowdsourced solution for malaria parasite quantitation in digitized images of thick blood smears.

We selected an image database of malaria-positive blood films that had been previously analyzed by experts to generate gold standards. These images were then incorporated into an online game. The player?s task was to click on the parasites. When a player found all the parasites present in 1 image (constituting a level) within a limited amount of time, the game continued by presenting a new image. Otherwise, the game was over. All the players? clicks were registered in a database. After 1 month, all the collected data was preprocessed in order to group all the clicks that players placed around the different objects in the image: parasites, white blood cells (leukocytes), and background noise. Finally, an algorithm that combined the different games to increase accuracy was developed and evaluated.

Ethics Statement

The malaria images used in this research were previously used to evaluate automated image analysis methods [20]. Original blood samples and resultant test images were collected and used with ethical approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee (Medical), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa (protocol number M051126). No new ethical review board approval was required since the digital images used in our work were not linked to any patient data or diagnosis and were digitally shared for microscopic training evaluation purposes. The data analyzed in this research were anonymously produced by online volunteers who agreed to play an Internet game. The participants were informed of the research purposes of the game on the game webpage.

Image Database

The image database was compiled from 28 Giemsa-stained thick films made from blood infected with malaria (Plasmodium falciparum) parasites, acquired using a 50? objective in a conventional laboratory optical microscope. Medium to low parasitemia images were selected for the game because of its design (1-minute games) and the fact that discrepancies between automatic counting methodologies and manual expert counting tend to be greater in low parasitemia cases. A gold standard mask image was generated for each of the 28 images to evaluate player performance.

Game Architecture

The objective of the MalariaSpot game was to tag as many parasites as possible in an image in 1 minute. The instructions?what is a parasite and what it is not?were briefly explained in the splash screen of the game website (Figure 1a). During the game, if the player found all the parasites in 1 image in the allowed time, a new image was presented (Figure 1b). Therefore, a player could analyze several images (levels) in a single game. In order to reinforce the game?s addictive nature, the players were given continuous feedback: each click was compared with the gold standard and an icon was placed immediately at the tag position to indicate a correct or incorrect selection. In addition, if the player misidentified an object and clicked in a wrong location (eg, on a leukocyte), the player was penalized by reducing the remaining time available to solve the level. Players were confronted with different, randomly selected test images. The difficulty of the levels increased as the time penalty for wrong tags grew with each level. As a motivation strategy, at the end of the game players were invited to register and provide their name, email address, and country in order to be included in the table of high scorers depicting the top daily, weekly, and monthly players.

Source: http://www.jmir.org/2012/6/e167/

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Google acquires coupon-focused Incentive Targeting for undisclosed sum

Google is no stranger to the business of discounts and special offers, but it looks like it's decided to reach outside the company to further bolster its offerings. The company confirmed today that it has acquired the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based marketing firm Incentive Targeting for an undisclosed sum. While not offering too much in the way of specifics, Google said in a statement that "we look forward to working with Incentive Targeting in our ongoing efforts to help consumers save time and money and enable retailers deliver relevant discounts to the right customers." For its part, Incentive Targeting has said that it "set out to do for retail couponing what Google had done for online advertising: make it simple, relevant, measurable, and effective," and to that end it has developed a variety of tools for retailers and manufacturers alike, all designed to deliver coupons and discounts in a more targeting manner. You can find the company's full statement on its website.

Filed under: Misc, Internet

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Source: Incentive Targeting

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/hdClT1gnP4w/

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Microsoft prices Pro version of Surface at $899

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Microsoft's Surface tablet running a full version of Windows 8 Pro will start selling in January for $899 and up, the company said Thursday. But you'll have to pay more if you want a keyboard cover and the popular Office suite of software.

The current Surface uses the slimmed down Windows RT operating system. As a result, it runs only specially designed applications from Microsoft and others sold through the company's online store. The Pro version of Surface will also run regular Windows applications written for desktops and laptops.

"It's a full PC AND a tablet," Surface general manager Panos Panay wrote in a blog post Thursday.

The Surface represents Microsoft's first foray into manufacturing its own general-purpose computer. In doing so, the company is competing with some of its partners, the manufacturers of PCs and tablets.

The announced price is in line with Microsoft Corp.'s earlier statements that the Pro version would cost about the same as slim, lightweight laptops known as ultrabooks.

The price includes a stylus and software that disregards touches from one's palm while writing on the touch screen. But the detachable touch-sensitive keyboard cover is sold separately. The Touch Cover with keys printed on it costs $120, while the Type Cover with depressable keys is priced at $130.

The Pro version of Surface will come with Intel's Core i5 processor, which Microsoft said gives it a graphics boost compared with the RT version.

The $899 version will come with 64 gigabytes of memory, while $999 gets you 128 GB of memory. It was not immediately clear how much memory would be used up by the operating system and pre-installed apps. For the RT versions, the 32 GB model has only 16 GB of usable memory, while the 64 GB model has 45 GB available.

The RT version of Surface, which starts at $499, comes with the popular Office programs Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote included. The Pro version does not, according to the specifications listed on a Microsoft website. The cheapest version of Office available is priced at $120.

The RT versions went on sale Oct. 26, the same day Windows 8 was out.

The RT versions are available only at Microsoft's stores and websites. The Redmond, Wash., did not say whether the Pro versions will be sold elsewhere as well.

All versions of Surface come with a slot to expand memory and a USB port for peripherals. The Pro version of Surface comes with a newer, faster USB 3.0 port, while the RT version has 2.0.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-11-29-Microsoft-Surface/id-f95e1ba2745f4b0ba750f373ba757ec2

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wealth building, net worth development, wealth ... - DINKS Finance ...

?

Folks,

This is just a quick retrospective on the process of our wealth building. ?Briefly, we are on the road to?achieving?a net worth of $4,000,000 by the time we retire, if not sooner. ? One of the things we?ve?commuted?to doing is taking periodic snapshots of our progress by sitting down and calculating our assets and liabilities. ?In a nutshell, we?ve managed to increase our net worth pretty significantly over time, but we?ve also seen a great deal of fluctuation.

Here are a few snippets from years past if you are interested in seeing how our net worth had progressed. Just after we started blogging, and just before we were married, in April 2006 our?net worth was at $303k. We saw a quick 9% gain by the next month, in?May 2006 to $330k,?February 2007 at $308k?- due to student loans and wedding expenses,?March 2008 at $311k,?April 2007 at $329k,?June 2007 at $359k,?October 2007 at $383k,?May 2008 at $393k, then we finally broke?$400k in June 2008!

With the crash of the economy in 2008, our stocks also took a thrashing and by April 2009 we down to?$313k.?? However, the rebound was pretty quick and by December 2009 we were back up to?$389k. ?As you can see from our progress, we?ve both experienced steady gains in many ways, as well as taken the hits that life throws at you. We weren?t tracking our finances as closely in 2010 and 2011 as James was in Afghanistan working for the Army. ?That said, our most recent update reflected an influx of family money as well as investment in several rental properties, bringing our total wealth to just over 850k.

Folks, as always, if you have any ideas about how to build your wealth more quickly, we would love to hear about it.

Cheers,

Miel & James

Source: http://www.dinksfinance.com/2012/11/roadmarks-on-the-way-to-four-million/

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Source: http://chancellorhaley.typepad.com/blog/2012/11/wealth-building-net-worth-development-wealth-dinks-finance.html

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Take the money: Why we make better financial decisions for strangers than family

ScienceDaily (Nov. 29, 2012) ? People make more rational economic decisions on behalf of strangers and distant relatives than they do for close family members or themselves, new psychology research has shown.

The ability to turn down an immediate reward in anticipation that greater spoils will come later is known as 'deferred gratification' and is an important component of civilised society as it restrains people from acting on basic "me, now" impulses. There is even evidence that young children's willingness to forego one sweet on the understanding they will receive two sweets a few minutes later is an indicator of future academic performance.

Researchers from the universities of Lincoln and Nottingham asked undergraduate students to choose whether to accept a small amount of money immediately or a larger sum later, on the basis that the beneficiary would be either themselves, or someone other than themselves.

The test was constructed so the researchers could measure how the closeness of the relationship between the decision maker and the imagined recipient affected choices.

Participants were asked to press one of two keys, which determined whether they would accept a specific amount of money now, or would prefer to wait for a larger pay-off.

The researchers set scores (coefficients) to define the degree of family relatedness between the decision maker and the recipient -- ranging from self, to parents and siblings, to aunts and uncles, then cousins, nephews and nieces, to best friends, and finally, complete strangers. They also staggered the size of the rewards and the time intervals between them, to identify where the tipping point came when the future reward was too small or too far off to justify the wait.

They found participants were more likely to select a smaller immediate reward than delay for a larger pay-off both for themselves and for beneficiaries they were more closely related to. The decisions got progressively less impulsive and steadily more rational as the family connection became more distant. The most rational economic choices were made on behalf of complete strangers.

The study, published in the online journal PLOS ONE, is the first to show that decisions taken on behalf of others are affected systematically by the closeness of the relationship as measured on a family tree.

The experiment was carried out by Dr Fenja Ziegler from the School of Psychology at the University of Lincoln and Dr Richard Tunney from the School of Psychology at the University of Nottingham.

Dr Ziegler said: "The decision to wait for the larger reward is often the more rational choice economically, yet people do not always make rational choices, especially when emotions are involved. An immediate reward carries with it emotional gratification but a delayed reward does not. When we care about the people affected by our decisions, we tend to be more impulsive. Therefore in tests such as this, we are more inclined to accept a smaller immediate reward than to delay the gratification, even if this impulsive choice means our loved-ones actually receive less in financial terms."

This latest study is significant because it is the first to show systematically that the identity of the third party in relation to the decision maker is a crucial consideration. Most previous research in this area has treated the third party, or 'other', as a homogenous group.

Dr Ziegler concluded: "Our experiment confirmed that the closer the decision maker is to the imagined beneficiary, the less rational their decisions were. This is the first empirical evidence that social distance, as measured by relatedness on a family tree, has a systematic influence on decision-making.

"It is also important to note that we are principally capable of making rational choices, as shown by decisions we make for strangers. However, rational economic concerns can be outweighed by emotional components.

"This question of how relatedness affects the rationality of our decisions is not just of interest to academics. It may also have profound implications for instances where difficult decisions must be made by proxy, such as when family members and medical professionals are discussing end-of-life choices for terminally-ill patients."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Lincoln.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Fenja V. Ziegler, Richard J. Tunney. Decisions for Others Become Less Impulsive the Further Away They Are on the Family Tree. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (11): e49479 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0049479

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/consumer_behavior/~3/_nSrUsZpvWs/121129093411.htm

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Syria: Twin car bombs in Damascus kill 34 people

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? Twin car bombs ripped through a Damascus suburb on Wednesday, killing at least 34 people and leaving dozens critically wounded, according to state media and hospital officials.

The state news agency, SANA, said two cars packed with explosives detonated early in the morning in the eastern Jaramana suburb, a district that is mostly loyal to President Bashar Assad. The area is populated mostly by Christians and Druse, a minority sect.

A series of blasts have struck regime targets in Damascus and elsewhere since last December, raising fears of a rising Islamic militant element among the forces seeking to topple Assad.

Wednesday's car bombs went off in a parking lot located between two commercial buildings. They were detonated within five minutes of one another as groups of laborers and employees were arriving to work.

The blasts shattered windows in nearby buildings, littering the street with glass and debris. Human remains were scattered on the pavement, amid pools of blood.

There were conflicting reports about the death toll, however.

Two hospital officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said at least 30 bodies were brought to two nearby hospitals. Activists with the Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights say 29 people were killed. The activist group relies on reports from the ground.

The different tolls could not immediately be reconciled. Syria restricts independent media coverage.

The conflict in Syria started 20 months ago as an uprising against Assad, whose family has ruled the country for four decades. The conflict quickly morphed into a civil war, with rebels taking up arms to fight back against a bloody crackdown by the government. According to activists, some 40,000 people have been killed since March 2011.

Assad blames the revolt on a conspiracy to destroy Syria, saying the uprising is being driven by foreign "terrorists" ? a term the authorities use for the rebels ? and not Syrians seeking change.

Analysts say most of those fighting Assad's regime are ordinary Syrians and soldiers who have defected, disenchanted with the authoritarian government. But increasingly, foreign fighters and those adhering to an extremist Islamist ideology are turning up on the front lines. The rebels try to play down the Islamists' influence for fear of alienating Western support.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday's bombings.

Rebels fighting to topple Assad are predominantly members of the Sunni Muslim majority. In their push to take Damascus, they have frequently targeted state institutions and troops around the country. They have also often hit districts around the capital with the country's minority communities, perceived to be allied with Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot Shiite group that dominates the regime.

Downtown Damascus ? the seat of Assad's power ? has seen scores of car bombs and mortar attacks, targeting state security institutions and troops, as well as areas with homes of wealthy Syrians, army officers, security officials and other members of the regime.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-twin-car-bombs-damascus-kill-34-people-105701699.html

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Fiat 500e Rounds Out Cinquecento Lineup With EV Tech

Fiat hasn't quite out-Mini'd mini (yet) with their newfound lineup diversity, but the brand's Cabrio, Abarth, Abarth Cabrio, Turbo, L, and L Trekking variants have bolstered the brand's credibility here in the US market after initially ambitious (and admittedly naive) sales goals were missed.

Now that Fiat has sold over 50,000 500s nationwide, they're hoping a techy EV model will attract the attention of environmentally savvy drivers.

The 500e shown here at the LA Auto Show uses a 111 horsepower electric motor whose battery recharges in less than 4 hours with an onboard, 240 volt charging module. Range is estimated at more than 80 miles on the highway or 100 miles in city driving, and 60 mph will be achieved in a respectable 9 seconds.

The Fiat 500e hasn't received an official price yet; sales will start in California Fiat showrooms during the second quarter of 2013.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/auto-blog/fiat-500e-rounds-out-cinquecento-lineup-with-ev-tech-14795310?src=rss

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Red Bull Racing dismiss rumours regarding Sebastian Vettel's - Bettor

Red Bull Racing dismiss rumours regarding Sebastian Vettel?s contract ? Formula 1 news

Red Bull Racing have dismissed all the rumours which stated that their driver, Sebastian Vettel?s contract is until the end of 2016 Formula 1 season.

Vettel has performed amazingly well in this season and has tremendously claimed his third consecutive world championship title with the Milton Keynes based team. Moreover, he has been deemed as one of the most talented drivers in the history of the sport.

The veteran German driver has signed the deal with Red Bull until 2014, but there have been many speculations that he has extended his contract for two more years.

However, the team advisor, Helmut Marko said that they have not made any kind of extension in their deal with the 25-year-old and discharged all the ongoing rumours.

?Total nonsense!? Marko told Germany?s Sport Bild. ?I don?t even know the journalists who wrote it, or the news portal. Vettel?s contract is to 2014, full stop.?

There are many who believe that the three-time world champion is not one of the great drivers in the sport as he has attained success only because of his most competent car which has been developed by the chief technical officer, Adrian Newey.

It will be important to mention that Red Bull struggled with their car?s design during the opening few races because of the amendments in the rules and regulations by FIA. Nevertheless, Newey kept on working hard along with his other team members to make the car competitive enough to challenge their main rivals and came out triumphant in the end.

Therefore, Mark Webber has praised the genius engineer for all his relentless efforts and has called him their beacon of success.

?You have Adrian on the drum kit who's a big beacon for the team here in terms of design and philosophy of where the car needs to be,? Webber said. ?Because when you strip it all down that's what it's about; for all smoke and mirrors and that stuff it's racing car, let's make it as quick as possible to go to every different track around the world and do the business in qualifying and the race.?

Source: http://blogs.bettor.com/Red-Bull-Racing-dismiss-rumours-regarding-Sebastian-Vettels-contract-Formula-1-news-a204512

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What If?: Insurance and The Law of Attraction ? Just Wondering ...

by Jane Olivier

Contributor

I don?t have insurance. Of any kind whatsoever. No medical insurance, no householders insurance, no life insurance, no death insurance, no social insurance? nothing. I haven?t had any since 1997 and arrogantly adopted the meme of my then partner: ?I don?t insure anything I cannot afford to lose.? And yes, we had money?lots of it.

We had a few houses, a farm, boats, many cars, several aircraft and a lodge next to the sea. We travelled a lot, sailed and dived and flew. Things broke, got stolen, sank and crashed and were replaced and repaired or not. We got ill, sometimes hospitalized, tested, tweaked and put back together again in some semblance of working order. Our lifestyle attracted, and it wasn?t the good stuff.

During the almost three decades of my first marriage, we had all the insurances that life expected?medical, house owner?s, householder?s, life, death, old age, car?you name it, we had it. What we had, we insured. And we got ill, we lost, broke, had stolen, filled in the forms, argued the points, dealt with assessors, squirmed at the settlement figures?but that is what life expected, not so? Not only expected?it was demanded? by law!

Then, almost nine years into a troubled relationship, the day came that I had to make a choice: Stay with the money and most probably lose my life through means foul, or walk away from it all and learn to live again. I walked away.

I had made a small investment that would earn interest for my lifetime allowing me to live without concern?IF I made the correct choices.

For a year, I disappeared. No one knew where I was?not my friends, not my children or any of my family? ?The Lam? would describe it well. It was a year of re-evaluating: What are my needs, my wants? Making lists titled ?Keep? and ?Lose.?

But first there was the list titled ?Find? and it had only one item, ?me.? I had to find me?the me I had misplaced. The me who believed we are created perfect, we have immense ability to heal ourselves and others; we can do anything if we put our minds to it; we were put on this planet to explore and learn and do good things for our fellow man; the power of our intent moves things to and away from us?the choice is ours.

And so, for a year without family, old friends or medical relief and with only the clothes on my back and other minimal stuff (my computer and camera are necessities!), I rented a house next to the sea and spent the days confronting some extremely aggressive opponents: Anger, pain, sorrow, bitterness, shock, horror, loss, drug and alcohol abuse?were faced alone. There was no other way, as only I could fix me?not all the medication, consultation, counselling, booze or drugs?only me.

I meditated, walked the beach, climbed rocks, wrote poetry and music and even started writing a book about my life which I deleted after page 220. It was a hard year, a wonderful year and I emerged from a cocoon battered but with an astounding inner beauty. Wings torn and ragged, light bright.

The lists were easy once everything was in the correct order: Find ? me; Lose ? stuff; Keep ? me. And me includes my health and what I need to get where I am going and do what I must do, which is again, only me.

And I made a deal with the Universe: You look after me and I will look after you.

Aged 54, I set out on a journey across the world with a suitcase, backpack, laptop and camera. I have kept flying to the minimum as I don?t like airports and, except for take-off and landing, flying is beyond boring. I travel by road?bus, minibus, foot. I sometimes put my head on pillows that have to be beaten into submission to stop them crawling away.

Into less than seven years I squashed many countries for anything up to two years: India, Thailand, Mexico, Laos, Uganda, Cambodia, Switzerland, South Africa, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, U.S., Philippines, Kenya, Malawi and Greece.

I?ve had my ?fright nights? with close calls on things like air disasters, tuk-tuk crashes, diving miscalculations, malaria (many times), luggage going astray (always returned intact), computer failure, forgetting where I put things and leaving them behind? little irritations and a few big scares.

But no insurance?nothing.

Do I take care of my health? If that means drinking bottled water, washing fruit and vegetables before eating, covering my face with a protective mask against dust and fumes, washing my hands every time I touch something questionable, using antibacterial unguents, having flu shots and vaccinations, having meals only from trusted restaurants, buying food from stores?good lord, no.

I drink the water on tap, eat from street vendors, buy fruit in markets and eat it on the way home, walk cities filled with all manner of fumes and smog, and tramp dusty roads that throttle the breath from trees. Clothes are shopped for in markets?preferably secondhand. I get cuts and bruises and even broke a bone in my foot. I hug beggars, cradle HIV/AIDS infected babies, touch the sick, repair the wounded? without surgical gloves!

Nature thought of everything. We have hair in our noses and ears and around our eyes to trap dust and harmful particles; the capillaries of our hearts, lungs and other organs (never forgetting the skin is our largest organ) adapt to all sorts of circumstances if we give them the time to do so. Our bodies have mechanisms to cope with all manner of bacteria and germs, strengthening our immune systems. When last have I had a scan or smear or examination? Is it 10 years now?

?But, what if something is wrong, wouldn?t you want to know so it can be caught in time??

?Nothing is wrong.?

?How can you say that? Are you a doctor??

?Because I know and yes, I am my own doctor.?

I have had malaria (recurring) more times than I care to think about?the last time almost two years ago. My health is my gauge of the road I am walking. If I have taken a wrong turn, my health suffers and all manner of lurgy attach themselves. Then I put the universe on notice that I intend moving back to the correct path when I heal. I heal.

Computers and cameras break and I repair or replace them. Fortunately this hasn?t been often. The only time I misplace things is when my thoughts are scattered?note to self: unscatter yourself.

Recently, under pressure (you are not getting any younger, you know) from an acquaintance, I looked into getting health insurance. It felt wrong. I saw him get sick, or have something bother him and even with insurance (Medicare/Medicaid?the difference still confuses me) he wouldn?t go to a doctor as it wouldn?t be covered. I saw things break that couldn?t get fixed as the excess payable under the cover, was more than the repair. Everything he had was owned by the insurers: House, cars, health, disability, death, travel.

Insurance supposedly covers the ?what if.? What if I get sick, what if I have an accident, what if I lose something, what if something gets stolen?

What if you/it doesn?t?

The Law of Attraction is a powerful law, but it works both ways. To pay ridiculous amounts of money to insure against ?what if? attracts exactly that. It changes a mindset from ?I will not lose; I will not get sick, I will only walk in light and abundance? to ?it?s OK if I get sick and lose things, break things. I pay insurers to cover that. As long as I pay my premiums, have my annual check-ups, I am covered.?

And with that mentality, we move exactly those things to us and at great cost. We are surprised when insurers point us to the clause written in fine print that absolves them of the need to pay.

I refuse to fall into the same pit. To insure against ?what if?? beckons it. Many times I have been asked:

?What if you get sick or have an accident??

?I won?t.?

?How do you know that??

?Because I said so.?

?What if you get old and frail and need to be put in a hospice to die gracefully??

?I won?t. I will never get old, I will never get sick, I will never die. When it is my time to leave this planet, I will simply disappear?Poof! And I will be gone.?

?Do you mean to say that you can think yourself well??

Yes, that is exactly what I mean. Think yourself well, think yourself whole, think yourself cared for, think yourself a being of perfection with the ability to heal, mend and walk with courage. Think of yourself in abundance.

What if your umbrella was a more stable law and, on jumping, you flew?

+++

ZenGardner.com

?

Source: http://www.zengardner.com/what-if-insurance-and-the-law-of-attraction/

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Syria launches air strikes as combat rages in Damascus

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian war planes attacked towns in the country's north and east and killed at least five civilians in a strike on an olive oil press as fighting raged in the capital Damascus on Tuesday, opposition activists said.

Rebels battled government forces in the Damascus suburb of Kfar Souseh, on the edge of the center of the capital, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group.

The latest fighting followed recent battlefield gains by the rebels in their struggle to topple President Bashar al-Assad although it was far from clear if a strategic breakthrough was likely any time soon.

Syrian state television said that two people were killed and four wounded in a "terrorist suicide car bomb" in Artouz, near Damascus. The Observatory said the explosion was caused by a car bomb next to a military police checkpoint.

Near the Old City, a second car bomb killed one person and blew the legs off another man, according to opposition activist Samir al-Shami. He said it was unclear if the car, a white Toyota, was rigged by Assad loyalists or rebels.

The rebels also shot down a military helicopter on Tuesday, according to video footage posted on YouTube which showed a missile hitting the aircraft.

The Local Coordinating Committee opposition group said the Free Syrian Army had downed a helicopter near the Sheikh Suleiman army base, 30 km (20 miles) northwest of the contested city of Aleppo.

Combat also took place in the Baba Amr district of Homs city, an area that was overrun by government troops in February, as well as in Aleppo, Deir al-Zor, Deraa, Idlib province and Hama province, the Observatory said.

A government jet dropped barrel bombs - cylinders packed with explosives and petrol - at the Abu Hilal olive oil press, 2 km (1.2 miles) west of Idlib city, activist Tareq Abdelhaq said.

At least five people were killed and five wounded in the attack, the Observatory said. Abdelhaq said at least 20 were killed and 50 wounded.

The victims were civilians waiting to press their olives for oil, according to activists, who acknowledged rebel fighters were in the area.

An estimated 40,000 people have been killed in Syria since March last year when protests inspired by the Arab Spring broke out against Assad, whose family has ruled autocratically for four decades. Assad has relied on fighter jets, helicopters and artillery to subdue the revolt, which started peacefully but has become a full-scale civil war.

Rebels have captured at least five army and air force installations in the past 10 days, putting pressure on Assad's forces in Aleppo and Idlib and the eastern oil region of Deir al-Zor.

The opposition are calling for international military aid, particularly against air attacks, but Western powers who support the uprising are wary of radical Islamist units among the rebels.

However, some anti-aircraft equipment has been seized from captured army bases.

AIR STRIKES

The government also launched air strikes on Deir al-Zor city and on the strategic town of Maraat al-Numan in Idlib province on Tuesday.

The rebel takeover of Maarat al-Numan last month effectively cut the main north-south highway, a route for Assad to move troops from the Damascus to Aleppo, Syria's largest city where rebels have taken a foothold.

Most foreign powers have condemned Assad, and Britain, France and Gulf countries have recognized an umbrella opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, as the sole representative of the Syrian people.

But Assad has been able to rely on his allies, especially regional powerhouse Iran, to withstand the international challenge. Russia and China have also vetoed three United Nations Security Council resolutions that condemn Assad.

Nonprofit news website ProPublica reported yesterday that Russia sent 240 tonnes of banks notes to Damascus this summer. U.S. and European sanctions include a ban on minting Syrian banknotes.

(Editing by Jason Webb and Angus MacSwan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-jets-bomb-rebel-bases-near-turkey-border-032620562.html

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What student loans, college financing, and Duff Beer have in - AEIdeas

The New York Fed:

Outstanding student loan debt now stands at $956 billion, an increase of $42 billion since last quarter.? However, of the $42 billion, $23 billion is new debt while the remaining $19 billion is attributed to previously defaulted student loans that have been updated on credit reports this quarter.¹?As a result, the percent of student loan balances 90+ days delinquent increased to 11 percent this quarter.

And as I blogger earlier, some sort of student loan bailout might be getting more likely.

All of this is an example of what I call the Duff Beer Phenomenon, named after Homer Simpson?s beverage of choice, which he once called ??the?cause of and solution to all of life?s problems.?

In the case of financing college, government is Duff Beer.?Since 2000, tuition at public four-year colleges has risen by an inflation-adjusted 72%, or nearly 6% a year. At the same time, the real average earnings for workers aged 25 to 34 with only a Bachelor?s degree have declined nearly 15%, according to Citigroup.

This raises two questions: First, are taxpayers getting value for the $65 billion a year in annual student aid and $100 billion in government subsidized loans? Second, could it be that student aid itself has a role the rise in tuition? Maybe, says a new Citigroup report:

Back in 1987, former Secretary of Education William Bennett suggested that ?increases in financial aid in recent years have enabled colleges and universities blithely to raise their tuitions, confident that Federal loan subsidies would help cushion the increase. ? Federal student aid policies do not cause college price inflation, but there?s little doubt that they help make it possible.??This has since become known as the so-called ?Bennett Hypothesis.?

Indeed, analysis from Stephanie Riegg Cellini of George Washington University and Claudia Goldin of Harvard finds a 75% difference in tuition between federal aid-eligible and ineligible for-profit colleges,?notes AEI?s Andrew Biggs.?That?s an amount comparable to average per-student federal assistance. Riegg and Goldin also find that that aid-eligible institutions ?charge much higher tuition ? across all states, samples, and specifications? which suggests ?institutions may indeed raise tuition to capture the maximum grant aid available.?

Some colleges may also take advantage of federal aid by reducing their own assistance. One study found that roughly four-fifths of the benefit students receive from tuition tax credits is lost through reduced student aid provided by colleges. Another found that ?institutions capture 16 percent of all Pell Grant aid? with selective private colleges clawing back 79%, Biggs writes.

There?s already plenty of incentive to attend college. The average student loan balance is $25,000, while the average Bachelor?s degree holder will earn $1 million more over his lifetime than a high school-only graduate Given how easily colleges can capture student aid from students who would go to college anyway, maybe it?s better to focus student aid on the truly poor.

Another option is using the venture capital model for student financing. ?Milton Friedman was in favor of ?human capital contracts.? As I wrote for U.S.News & World Report back in 2006:

A?student in need of college financial aid would go to a venture capital market and obtain investors in his education. In return for that equity-like financing, the student would pledge a specific percentage of his future income?as opposed to a loan?s fixed interest rate?over a specified period of time to be paid to the investor.

Eventually, human capital contracts could be combined into investment pools so the default risk could be spread over a large number of students. And as economist Gary Wolfram explains in?a study, ?As the market for these contracts developed further, shares in the funds would be traded in the same way that individuals purchase shares in such things as real estate investment trusts. This would create an economically efficient way to finance higher education that would allow students to graduate without having to fear that their future earnings would not be sufficient to pay their student loans.?

A radical idea? Only by the narrow standards of Washington policymaking.

Source: http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/11/what-student-loans-college-financing-and-duff-beer-have-in-common/

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Angus T. Jones Apologizes for 'Two and a Half Men' Slam

Spoke to soon? Perhaps Angus T. Jones had a change of heart or maybe he realized that you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you -- either way, the 19-year old star has issued an apology for encouraging people to stop watching Two and a Half Men. Yes, the very show that pays him a reported $350,000 per episode.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/angus-t-jones-apologizes-slamming-two-and-half-men/1-a-504821?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aangus-t-jones-apologizes-slamming-two-and-half-men-504821

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Opening Your Mind To Spirituality ? Self Improvement - Bryan ...

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Source: http://burris2274.typepad.com/blog/2012/11/opening-your-mind-to-spirituality-self-improvement.html

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Source: http://contrenasselwin95.typepad.com/blog/2012/11/opening-your-mind-to-spirituality-self-improvement-bryan.html

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Source: http://gorczycakmarlena.typepad.com/blog/2012/11/opening-your-mind-to-spirituality-self-improvement-bryan.html

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