Blackstone drives India private equity shift from home to office

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Blackstone Group LP is driving the migration of private equity money into India's commercial real estate after the global financial crisis cooled the country's once-ardent residential segment and the number of unsold new homes surged.

Since 2005, when India opened its property sector to foreign investors, money has mostly poured into housing because of simpler investment rules while sales of finished homes provide private equity funds a clear exit. But with Indian home prices down between 5 and 30 percent since 2009, some investors are moving into commercial assets that yield steady rental income and limiting their exposure to the volatile residential market.

Despite a limited supply of commercial real estate open to foreign investment and a lack of exit options, many investors such as Morgan Stanley and Rothschild-backed Xander Group Inc are eager to grab a bigger slice of India's property market due to the country's fast-growing economy, the promise of double-digit returns and attractive valuations.

"We waited till valuations got a bit softer and more attractive. And now, we are going aggressive," Akhil Gupta, chairman of Blackstone India, said in an interview. "We have done a few large deals, and are looking to infuse more capital."

Blackstone, the biggest global private equity property investor, is the most active in India and has spent $500 million on about 20 million square feet (1.8 million square metres) of leased assets over the past 18 months.

It is now on the hunt for more.

Most of Blackstone's India acquisitions are made jointly with Embassy Group, a Bangalore-based developer that invests largely in South India.

The duo is in talks to buy a special economic zone in Gurgaon - the booming satellite city outside the capital New Delhi - for about 24 billion rupees ($440 million), two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters earlier this month. That would be India's biggest private equity real estate investment since 2008.

Owned by Unitech Corporate Parks and developed by Delhi-based Unitech Ltd , the special economic zone has 3.7 million square feet of leased offices and potential to develop another 1.8 million square feet, sources have said.

The deal would follow Blackstone's recent agreement, according to a Reuters report, to buy a technology park in Bangalore, along with Embassy and a domestic property fund, for around $367 million.

Blackstone and Embassy declined to comment.

As of last year, investment in Indian property by private equity funds totalled $1.95 billion, with 57 percent of it in commercial assets. That compares with $9.8 billion in 2007, when most of it was in residential projects, according to Chennai-based data firm Venture Intelligence.

LIMITED POOL

The value of commercial property being built in India has risen to around $42 billion today, still just a third of the value of homes under construction, compared with $34 billion in mid-2010, according to property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle.

Not all of this can be bought by overseas funds as Indian rules allow them to invest only in technology parks and special economic zones. Also, foreign property investors cannot sell for three years.

Rising competition for the limited pool of income-producing assets has pushed rental yields - annual rental income divided by the cost of the asset - down to about 10 percent from 12 to 13 percent, investors say.

Exit opportunities for funds are also few, as India does not yet permit publicly listed real estate investment trusts (REITs), although it is considering allowing such vehicles, which pool income-generating assets. That means investors looking to cash out can form private REITs, list the assets as REITs in places such as London and Singapore, or sell to another investor.

Morgan Stanley, which has made several residential property investments in India, is in talks to invest $186 million in its first office development in the country, in Mumbai's Bandra-Kurla financial district, Reuters reported recently.

For residential projects, where returns can be higher, Morgan Stanley will stick to projects where approvals are largely in place and land has been acquired, said Shirish Godbole, managing director at Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing (MSREI) India.

Returns on leased assets are between 14 and 16 percent, compared with residential development projects that return 19 to 21 percent, according to Jones Lang LaSalle.

($1 = 54.4950 Indian rupees)

(Additional reporting by Indulal P.M.; Editing by Tony Munroe and Ryan Woo)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blackstone-drives-india-private-equity-shift-home-office-212355712--sector.html

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Rosa Parks statue unveiled at Capitol

President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio applaud at the unveiling of a statue of Rosa Parks, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio applaud at the unveiling of a statue of Rosa Parks, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

FILE -- In a June 15, 1999 file photo Rosa Parks smiles during a Capitol Hill ceremony where Parks was honored with the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington. Parks will become the first black woman to be honored with a full-length statue in the Capitol?s Statuary Hall on Wednesday Feb. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Khue Bui, file)

President Barack Obama speaks at the unveiling of a statue of Rosa Parks, left, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama, accompanied by, from left, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., applaud at the unveiling of a statue of Rosa Parks, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama speaks in the Capitol Rotunda on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, during the unveiling of a statue of Rosa Parks, second from left. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The nation's most powerful politicians honored Rosa Parks on Wednesday by unveiling her statue in a permanent place in the U.S. Capitol. President Barack Obama praised Parks as an enduring reminder of what true leadership requires, "no matter how humble or lofty our positions."

Parks became the first black woman to be depicted in a full-length statue in the Capitol's Statuary Hall. A bust of another black woman, abolitionist Sojourner Truth, sits in the Capitol Visitors Center.

"We do well by placing a statue of her here," Obama said. "But we can do no greater honor to her memory than to carry forward the power of her principle and a courage born of conviction."

The unveiling brought Obama, House Speaker John Boehner and other congressional leaders together in the midst of a fierce standoff over automatic spending cuts set to go into effect on Friday.

Setting that conflict aside, Obama and Boehner stood on either side of a blue drape, tugging and pulling in opposite directions on a braided cord until the cover fell to reveal a 2,700-pound bronze statue of a seated Parks, her hair in a bun under a hat, her hands crossed over her lap and clasping her purse. Obama gazed up at it, and touched its arm.

At the same time across the street, conservative Supreme Court justices voiced skepticism about the relevance of the Voting Rights Act, one of the major legislative victories of the movement to which Parks devoted her life.

Parks' civil rights movement colleague Jesse Jackson, whose son former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. sponsored the bill to place Parks' statue in the Capitol, said Parks "fought her way into history," and on three occasions, took literacy tests required of blacks who wanted to vote. She passed all three, Jackson said.

Parks' statue is positioned between those of suffragist Frances E. Willard and John Gorrie, considered the father of refrigeration and air conditioning. Boehner, R-Ohio, pointed out that Parks' gaze seems to fall directly onto a statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy.

"Here in the hall, she casts an unlikely silhouette ? unassuming in a lineup of proud stares, challenging all of us once more to look up and to draw strength from stillness," Boehner said.

Parks died in 2005 at age 92. Dozens of her family members, many of them nieces and nephews, attended Wednesday's ceremony and said they were pleased to see their ancestor honored.

"Racism is a continual struggle," said Zakiya McCauley Watts, 28, of Detroit. "We have the laws, but we have to have the mindset to back that up. People see all types of injustice happening and no one is doing anything about it," Watts said.

Watts' cousin Faye Jenkins, 28, of Cincinnati, Ohio, said she volunteers with inner-city youth providing counseling, helping teenage moms and working with the homeless. She said the statue of Parks will tell the younger generation "to always just do the right thing."

On Dec. 1, 1955, Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man in segregated Montgomery, Ala. She was arrested, touching off a bus boycott that stretched over a year.

Her act of disobedience, and the masses of protesters who walked for months on end rather than break the boycott, are the reason "that I stand here today," the president said.

"It is because of them that our children grow up in a land more free and more fair, a land truer to its founding creed," Obama said. "And that is why this statue belongs in this hall ? to remind us, no matter how humble or lofty our positions, just what it is that leadership requires."

Some at the event echoed Obama's sentiment.

"The struggle goes on. The movement continues. The pursuit is not over. To honor Rosa Parks in the fullest manner each of us must do our part to protect that which has been gained," said Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C.

Dorthula Green, 58, took an early train from New Haven, Conn., to join a line of ticketholders waiting in the Rotunda to see the statue on its debut.

"When I heard that this was happening, I said, 'I gotta be here,'" Green said. "I grew up in South Carolina. I knew the history and the kinds of things she went through."

___

Follow Suzanne Gamboa at http://twitter.com/APsgamboa

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-27-Black%20History-Rosa%20Parks%20Statue/id-b826f730d11f4bb98f6861401013c378

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Pope Benedict XVI and the road not taken (+video)

At one point, the young?Joseph Ratzinger looked like a budding church reformer. By the time he abdicated as pope this week, he had become one of the stoutest defenders of Catholic tradition.

By Robert Marquand,?Staff writer / February 13, 2013

Pope Benedict XVI attends Ash Wednesday mass at the Vatican Wednesday. Thousands of people are expected to gather in the Vatican for Pope Benedict's Ash Wednesday mass, which is expected to be his last before leaving office at the end of February.

Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters

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By the time Pope Benedict XVI made his surprise announcement to abdicate, his image had become fixed as one of the stoutest defenders of tradition and an arch-enemy of change, liberality, and the reforming intent of the Vatican II council. But at the start of his career, he looked as if he might be a budding reformer himself. ?

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Worshippers crowded in to get a glimpse of Pope Benedict XVI at his last public mass at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

The pope, then Joseph Ratzinger, collaborated on changes during Vatican II with Karl Rahner, a Jesuit star from Munich who in the 1970s was talked about as pope material in liberal circles. Mr. Rahner advocated women?s ordination, supported seekers in churches outside the Catholic faith, and his theology arced more toward a universal spirituality than institutional rules, emphasizing ?a?human search for meaning ? rooted in the unlimited horizon of God?s own being experienced within the world.?

The young Ratzinger in the 1960s was brought to Tubingen University partly by Catholic theologian Hans Kung (later censored for views bordering on heresy) and taught in a progressive Protestant-Catholic faculty.?

Ratzinger's first faculty lecture at Tubingen, eagerly awaited and still remembered today, stressed the importance of the interpretation of the Bible via church fathers of the pre-medieval era, at a time of relative excitement in scholarly circles over new "subjective" and "spiritual" interpretations of scripture. Mr. Kung was disappointed, his colleagues remember.?

Later in the mid-1960s Ratzinger experienced student campus protests firsthand. For a shy scholar whose vision of church was hewn in the clean and well-ordered Alpine villages of Bavaria ? the experience deeply soured him on change as well as the often excessive experiments of Vatican II to open the church up "to the modern world," as the saying went.?

Vatican II was heady days at a time of ferment, but neither Ratzinger nor the church he eventually led, ever made the leap. Faced with a changing world, Benedict opted for a church of greater purity and reliance on past traditions ??even as his tenure will be marked by a priestly child abuse scandal that two years ago was described as the biggest challenge faced by Rome since the Reformation.

Yesterday Vatican officials affirmed the outgoing Benedict will not personally direct the choice of his successor. But the outgoing pontiff has been so instrumental in shaping the policies and personnel of the Roman Catholic church that his presence won?t matter, analysts say.

For 24 years Benedict, as Cardinal Ratzinger, ruled the roost in the Vatican as Pope John Paul II?s enforcer, the powerful head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and he has overseen a tightening, not a loosening, of church doctrine.

Since 2005 he further consolidated power as pope. So the conclave of cardinals and bishops meeting in Rome next month are there precisely due to their loyalty to Benedict?s vision of the Roman church.

The effect of Benedict?s reign as pope in this sense cannot be understated.

To take one example: In recent years under direct Vatican influence one of the largest Benedictine training schools in the US has, against the sentiment of its teaching clergy, been forced to disallow males and females to study in classes together. So the "Benedict effect" is not something found only in books and encyclicals; it has had an effect?"on the ground," as one Benedictine theologian reports, off the record.?

In a church still quite divided on moral issues, sexuality, modernity, the concept of priest, and so on, it is unclear whether the pope?s resignation, itself an unusual break from the past, may lead to other changes.

Benedict oversaw a 2,000-year-old church with an all-male hierarchy that struggled to respond to a child abuse and pedophilia scandal that reached new excesses two years ago on both sides of the Atlantic during the "year of the priest."

The German pope did not create what some hoped would be a ?Benedict generation? with his robust defense of church doctrines and a controversial return to a more traditional liturgy. While?some conservative religious orders have seen some new applicants in the US, the overall numbers remain a far-cry from those before 1960. Instead, church issues among youth seem pressing, at least in the post-modern West that Benedict had hoped to appeal to with a new Catholic moment. If that moment never comes, says?one New York-based Jesuit, ?The church is going to go one way and the rest of us are going to go another.?

The child abuse scandal, which many dissidents in the church say is a result of the policies of all-male clergy and celibacy (the Vatican denies this) did allow, however briefly, space for different voices to be heard, and for issues treated by church fathers as settled for all time, to be raised.

The issues run from sex and gender to spiritual authority inside the church. They track the shrinking of Mass attendance in the West, the sharp downturn of youth desiring to be priests, and the angry reaction of females (again in the US and Britain) who see roles as clergy closed off when in many churches they are the most faithful.

In the midst of the priestly child abuse scandal, the church issued a circular that put women?s ordination into the same category of disciplinary crimes as heresy, pedophilia, and promoting schism.?Benedict was given credit for suggesting that wearing a condom is acceptable in certain odd cases, such as that of a male prostitute. But with many Catholics no longer even following church teaching on condoms, and with the pope visiting Africa and talking about abstinence and no wearing of condoms, many can?t relate.

The pedophile cases also sparked what many Catholics say is a need for a greater spiritual awakening in a church that has placed a great emphasis on institutional authority; they placed a critical focus on old assumptions that male priests, through the act of their ordination, are holier or more spiritually endowed than ordinary members of the laity.

The British newspaper The Guardian pointed out in an editorial that it could not find a single current liberal candidate for pope, and quoted from Carlo Maria Martini, a cardinal, who said before passing last year that, ?The church is tired in Europe and America. Our culture has aged, our churches are large, our religious houses are empty, and the bureaucracy of the church climbs higher, our rituals and our clothes are pompous?[the church] must recognize her mistakes and must follow a path of radical change, starting with the pope and the bishops.?

Yet many following the daily operations of the Holy See feel there is unlikely to be any revolutionary ?Papal Spring.? Some reform-minded Catholics and many who have left the church say the Vatican is so deeply into the wrong questions, and has been relying so heavily on those who are not interested in questioning in the first place, that any positive reforms will only be on the margins.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/Xi3En-sq4ow/Pope-Benedict-XVI-and-the-road-not-taken-video

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LOCUS-T, Google Adwords Certified Partner Launches ...

LOCUS-T is a reputed internet marketing solutions provider. It successfully aims at providing the best of Google Adwords campaigns for higher ads rank and higher click through rate.(PRWEB) February 21, 2013 LOCUS-T is an ISO 9001 QMS Certified Company offering advanced internet marketing strategies across Malaysia. It is the first homegrown internet marketing company in the country. LOCUS-T has over 12 years of experience in providing the best of web development solutions to online businesses irrespective of size and complexity. LOCUS-T is a Google AdWords Certified Partner, Yahoo Search Marketing (SEA) Authorized Reseller, and the official PayPal partner in Malaysia.This on-demand internet marketing solutions provider aims at expanding its business in the whole Asia-Pacific region. LOCUS-T promises to deliver world-class online e-commerce, web development, and internet marketing services to its clients. For years, the company is functioning in Malaysia and Singapore with great profitability and offering utmost customer satisfaction. LOCUS-T has an experienced Research & Development (R&D) team that continuously works towards understanding the needs of the target audience and accordingly helps the web design and development team to come up with a range of high-quality, business oriented solutions. For years, LOCUS-T is engaged in making people aware of the benefits of Google AdWords and increased internet marketing to reach out to more potential audience on a global scale. Online advertising provides a unique way of arousing the curiosity of maximum people towards a specific product or solution. Perhaps the best way of online advertising is via Google AdWords. Both small and large organizations can use the Google platform to promote their products, solutions or events free of cost. Google charges a company only when a potential buyer clicks on the ads. According to various studies, every 8 out of 10 Malaysian customers check online ads to make a purchase. Pay Per Click (PPC) ads on Google and Yahoo helps a business get higher traffic to their website leading to increased products sale and ROI. Being a certified PPC company, LOCUS-T helps a business successfully plan and promote online internet marketing campaigns. With the assistance of the company's expert consultants, organizations can see their web/landing pages performing exceptionally within a short span of time. Google AdWords remain live 24/7 and organizations have complete control over their ads to change it or remove at anytime. As a solution provider, LOCUS-T works closely with the customers to customize various web or e-commerce services to meet their urgent business requirements. The company tries to exceed its customers? expectations by creating simple, user-friendly e-commerce and web development solutions. LOCUS-T follows a money back policy for its Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Web Development projects in case a customer is not satisfied with the end-result. To get more information about this company and services offered, click on http://www.locus-t.com/ppc/ About LOCUS-T LOCUS-T is a leading ISO 9001 Quality Management System certified and the first homegrown internet marketing company in Malaysia. The company is also a Google AdWords Certified Partner and Yahoo! Search Marketing (SEA) Authorized Reseller. LOCUS-T is offering world-class internet marketing, e-commerce, and web development solutions in Malaysia and Singapore for the last 12 years. Contact Company Name- LOCUS-T Telephone Number- 603-7118 2173 Fax Number- 603-7118 2176 Email Address- sales.my(at)locus-t(dot)com Website Address- http://www.locus-t.com Deric WongLOCUS-T ONLINE SDN BHD603-71182173Email Information

Originally posted here: LOCUS-T, Google Adwords Certified Partner Launches Comprehensive Internet Marketing Package This entry was posted in Email marketing, Home based Business, Internet income Basics and tagged certified, click, company, google, helps, Internet, malaysia, marketing, online, product, search. Bookmark the permalink.

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New therapy for breast cancer

Herald Globe (IANS) Saturday 23rd February, 2013

Breast cancer patients will now have an effective and less toxic therapeutic option.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the go-ahead to a new drug therapy for patients with HER2-positive - particularly aggressive form of breast cancer.

On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the new treatment drug, Kadcyla (trastuzumab emtansine), also known as TDM-1, which combines Traztuzumab, also called Herceptin, with the powerful chemotherapy drug emtansine.

The drug therapy is developed by Roche-owned Genentech, which funded the study.

Results from clinical trials of the drug TDM-1, known as "Super Herceptin," showed that it was more effective and less toxic than the standard regimen for this type of tumour.

The medication kept patients free of disease for longer than the standard chemotherapy regimen.

HER-2 positive breast cancer patients have been found to be positive for carrying a protein that promotes the growth of cancer cells.

TDM-1 is taken directly to cells that have the HER2 protein on the membrane, such as the cancer cells, while sparing normal cells. This results in less toxicity from the chemotherapy drug, reports Science Daily.

"TDM-1 works like the original drug Herceptin by hunting down and interfering with the cancer cells," said Melody Cobleigh, director of the Comprehensive Breast Centre at Rush centre, Illinois and lead investigator of the TDM-1 clinical trials at Rush.

Source: http://www.heraldglobe.com/index.php/sid/212775168/scat/2411cd3571b4f088

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Boxer - Delaney - Medium - Young - Female - Dog | Vermillion ...

Boxer - Delaney - Medium - Young - Female - Dog

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Mali radicals recruited child soldiers at schools

In this photo taken Monday, Feb. 18, 2013, children attend a class in a madrassa in Gao, northern Mali. Nearly a month after the al-Qaida-linked militants were driven out of Gao and into the surrounding villages, students are now returning to the city's Quranic schools. Many classrooms, though, are still half full, as tens of thousands of people fled the fighting and strict Islamic rule imposed by the extremists. However, other pupils left Gao not with their families but with the Islamic fighters when they retreated, say human rights activists and local officials. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

In this photo taken Monday, Feb. 18, 2013, children attend a class in a madrassa in Gao, northern Mali. Nearly a month after the al-Qaida-linked militants were driven out of Gao and into the surrounding villages, students are now returning to the city's Quranic schools. Many classrooms, though, are still half full, as tens of thousands of people fled the fighting and strict Islamic rule imposed by the extremists. However, other pupils left Gao not with their families but with the Islamic fighters when they retreated, say human rights activists and local officials. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

In this picture taken Monday Feb. 18, 2013, children gather at the door of Mohamed Salia's madrassa in Gao, northern Mali. Nearly a month after the al-Qaida-linked militants were driven out of Gao and into the surrounding villages, students are now returning to the city's Quranic schools. Many classrooms, though, are still half full, as tens of thousands of people fled the fighting and strict Islamic rule imposed by the extremists. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

In this photo taken Monday, Feb. 18, 2013, Mohamed Salia teaches in his Madrassa in Gao, northern Mali. Nearly a month after the al-Qaida-linked militants were driven out of Gao and into the surrounding villages, students are now returning to the city's Quranic schools. Many classrooms, though, are still half full, as tens of thousands of people fled the fighting and strict Islamic rule imposed by the extremists. However, other pupils left Gao not with their families but with the Islamic fighters when they retreated, say human rights activists and local officials. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

A Malian schoolgirl listens to her teacher as schools reopen in Gao, northern Mali, Monday Feb. 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

A Malian schoolgirl stands at the blackboard as schools reopen in Gao, northern Mali, Monday Feb. 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

GAO, Mali (AP) ? The radical Islamic fighters showed up at Mohamed Salia's Quranic school, armed with weapons and demanding to address his students.

The leader, named Hamadi, entered one of the classrooms, took a piece of chalk and scrawled his message on the blackboard.

"How to wage holy war," he wrote in Arabic. "How to terrorize the enemy in combat," the lesson plan continued.

Then his mobile phone rang, and he stepped away to answer. Salia urged his students to pose some questions of their own when he returned: Where had he come from and what did he want with a bunch of young people?

Hamadi told the students that people didn't ask questions like that where he was from. Islam knows no nationality, he replied and then left ? and did not return before the French-led military operation ousted him and his fighters from power last month.

"I told my students to be careful: that these men may be well-versed in the Quran but their Islamic point of view is not the same as ours," the teacher recalled.

Nearly a month after the al-Qaida-linked militants were driven out of Gao and into the surrounding villages, students are now returning to the city's Quranic schools.

Many classrooms, though, are still half full, as tens of thousands of people fled the fighting and strict Islamic rule the extremists.

However, other pupils left Gao not with their families but with the Islamic fighters when they retreated, say human rights activists and local officials.

The experience of the Gao schools illustrates how the extremists used madrassas in northern Mali to indoctrinate young people and to recruit child soldiers.

The Islamic radicals attacked Gao several times this week, their second assault on the strategic city since they retreated in the face of French and Malian military, and their young recruits appear to be part of the strategy of MUJAO, or Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa.

"MUJAO took many of the students from the Quranic schools because they speak Arabic and are easier to convert and manipulate," Gao Mayor Sadou Diallo told The Associated Press. "Between 200 and 300 children have disappeared with the jihadists."

"The schools were all complicit. They didn't have a choice ? if you didn't collaborate with MUJAO you died," Diallo said.

An untold number of children are believed to have been killed in the January fighting in central Mali, he said, and when jihadist strongholds were bombed in Gao during the military intervention last month.

Dozens of child soldiers were believed to be living in a government customs building that was later bombed during the military offensive, residents say. The Islamic fighters took away their wounded before it could be determined how many casualties there were at the site.

The rubble of the building is littered with tiny children's shoes, and notebooks and pieces of wood on which the children copied Quranic verses. The children's writing in pen on notebook paper depicts verses seeking protection from evil.

Imams and directors of the Quranic schools in Gao say it was here that the youths were radicalized, while the existing schools continued their regular curriculum.

Students who were plucked from classrooms in Gao and the surrounding communities came to the customs building to study and prepare for war.

At the Adadatou Alislamiatou madrassa in Gao, pupils are now back in class after the disruptions caused by the fighting and a Feb. 10 attack when the militants re-invaded the city in a show of force before being forced back into the bush by French and Malian forces.

As the afternoon sun bakes the ground outside the classroom hut, 10-year-old Abdoulaye Ousmane leads his classmates in reciting Quranic verses while their teacher attends prayers at the nearby mosque.

Sporting a soccer jersey and flip-flops, Abdoulaye sings out the words as he traces the Arabic script in chalk with his pointer, and an exuberant group of nearly 50 other children loudly sing back to him loudly.

They sit cross-legged on mats on the sand floor of the thatched hut ? the girls on one side all wearing headscarves with some carrying Hannah Montana backpacks, too.

As these students return to school after the MUAO occupation, their teachers say many have been traumatized by the gunfire and fighting. Religious instructors are also confronted with how best to guide their students who have been exposed to the extremist ideology of al-Qaida-linked militants.

During the reign of the MUJAO, the Islamic fighters amputated hands of suspected thieves in public squares. Billboards displayed around town ordered women to cover themselves in public.

The Islamic militants capitalized on the city's poverty, offering sign-on bonuses and monthly salaries to those who joined their cause, imams said.

Abdourhamane Maiga, assistant director of the Adadatou Alislamiatou madrassa, recalls one student who dropped out of school after being asked to repeat a grade.

The next time Maiga saw the pupil, he was wielding a firearm with the Islamic fighters at their police headquarters downtown.

"They didn't come here to practice Islam," he says of the extremists. "The prophet never would have accepted a child of 10 years old waging jihad and taking up arms."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-23-Mali-Child%20Soldiers/id-971030a2938543578605d5ce6fda298d

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Study reveals new clues to Epstein-Barr virus

Friday, February 22, 2013

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) affects more than 90 percent of the population worldwide and was the first human virus found to be associated with cancer. Now, researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have broadened the understanding of this widespread infection with their discovery of a second B-cell attachment receptor for EBV.

The new findings, which currently appear on-line in Cell Reports, reinforce current directions being taken in the development of a vaccine to guard against EBV, and raise important new questions regarding the virus's possible relationship to malaria and to autoimmune diseases.

"Our discovery that CD35 is an attachment receptor for EBV helps explain several previously unsolved observations," explains the study's senior author Joyce Fingeroth, MD, a member of the Division of Infectious Diseases at BIDMC and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

First discovered in the early 1960s, EBV is one of eight viruses in the human herpesvirus family. The virus affects nine out of 10 people at some point in their lifetimes. Infections in early childhood often cause no disease symptoms, but people infected during adolescence or young adulthood may develop infectious mononucleosis. EBV is also associated with several types of cancer, including Hodgkin's lymphoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and has been linked to certain autoimmune disorders.

"EBV was the first human virus that was discovered to be a tumor virus," explains Fingeroth. "In fact, individuals who have had infectious mononucleosis have a four times increased risk of developing Hodgkin's disease." After the initial infection, the EBV virus remains in a person's body for life.

To gain entry, viruses must first attach to their host cells. For herpesviruses, receptors on the viral envelope become connected to complementary receptors on the cell membrane. In the case of EBV, the virus gains access to the immune system by attaching to primary B cells.

Nearly 30 years ago, Fingeroth and her colleagues discovered that this attachment occurs via the CD21 protein, which until now was the only known B cell attachment receptor for EBV. The recent finding that B cells from a patient lacking CD21 can be infected and immortalized by EBV had indicated that an alternative attachment receptor must exist. The identification of this second receptor -- CD35 -- by Fingeroth's team, led by first author Javier Ogembo, PhD, of BIDMC and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, not only underscores an important finding regarding primary infection but also underscores the importance of EBVgp350/220, (the virus protein that has been found to bind to both attachment receptors) for the development of a vaccine against EBV.

"The EBV glycoprotein gp350/220 is the most abundant surface glycoprotein on the virus," notes Fingeroth, adding that these results further suggest the virus fusion apparatus is the same for both receptors. "An EBV vaccine might be able to prevent infection or, alternatively, greatly reduce a person's risk of developing infectious mononucleosis and EBV-associated cancers, without necessarily preventing the EBV infection itself."

Interestingly, she adds, whereas a human has now been identified to be lacking the CD21 receptor, no persons are known to lack CD35.

"CD35 is a latecomer in evolution and in its current form, exists only in humans," says Fingeroth. "We know that it is often targeted in autoimmune diseases and was recently identified as a malaria receptor. Our new discovery may, therefore, reveal new avenues for the exploration of unexplained links between EBV, autoimmune diseases, malaria and cancer."

###

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center: http://www.bidmc.harvard.edu

Thanks to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126972/Study_reveals_new_clues_to_Epstein_Barr_virus

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Stash of stem cells found in a human parasite

Feb. 22, 2013 ? The parasites that cause schistosomiasis, one of the most common parasitic infections in the world, are notoriously long-lived. Researchers have now found stem cells inside the parasite that can regenerate worn-down organs, which may help explain how they can live for years or even decades inside their host.

Schistosomiasis is acquired when people come into contact with water infested with the larval form of the parasitic worm Schistosoma, known as schistosomes. Schistosomes mature in the body and lay eggs that cause inflammation and chronic illness. Schistosomes typically live for five to six years, but there have been reports of patients who still harbor parasites decades after infection.

According to new research from Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator Phillip Newmark, collections of stem cells that can help repair the worms? bodies as they age could explain how the worms survive for so many years. The new findings were published online on February 20, 2013, in the journal Nature.

The stem cells that Newmark?s team found closely resemble stem cells in planaria, free-living relatives of the parasitic worms. Planaria rely on these cells, called neoblasts, to regenerate lost body parts. Whereas most adult stem cells in mammals have a limited set of possible fates?blood stem cells can give rise only to various types of blood cells, for example ?planarian neoblasts can turn into any cell in the worm?s body under the right circumstances.

Newmark?s lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has spent years focused on planaria, so they knew many details about planarian neoblasts ?what they look like, what genes they express, and how they proliferate. They also knew that in uninjured planarians, neoblasts maintain tissues that undergo normal wear and tear over the worm?s lifetime.

?We began to wonder whether schistosomes have equivalent cells and whether such cells could be partially responsible for their longevity,? says Newmark.

Following this hunch, and using what they knew about planarian neoblasts, post-doctoral fellow Jim Collins, Newmark, and their colleagues hunted for similar cells in Schistosoma mansoni, the most widespread species of human-infecting schistosomes.

Their first step was to look for actively dividing cells in the parasites. To do this, they grew worms in culture and added tags that would label newly replicated DNA as cells prepare to divide; this label could later be visualized by fluorescence. Following this fluorescent tag, they saw a collection of proliferating cells inside the worm?s body, separate from any organs.

The researchers isolated those cells from the schistosomes and studied them individually. They looked like typical stem cells, filled with a large nucleus and a small amount of cytoplasm that left little room for any cell-type-specific functionality. Newmark?s lab observed the cells and found that they often divided to give rise to two different cells: one cell that continued dividing, and another cell that did not.

?One feature of stem cells,? says Newmark, ?is that they make more stem cells; furthermore, many stem cells undergo asymmetric division.? The schistosomes cells were behaving like stem cells in these respects. The other characteristic of stem cells is that they can differentiate into other cell types.

To find out whether the schistosome cells could give rise to multiple types of cells, Newmark?s team added the label for dividing cells to mice infected with schistosomes, waited a week, and then harvested the parasites to see where the tag ended up. They could detect labeled cells in the intestines and muscles of the schistosomes, suggesting that stem cells incorporating the labels had developed into both intestinal and muscle cells.

Years of previous study on planarians by many groups paved the way for this type of work on schistosomes, Newmark says.

?The cells we found in the schistosome look remarkably like planarian neoblasts. They aren?t associated with any one organ, but can give rise to multiple cell types. People often wonder why we study the ?lowly? planarian, but this work provides an example of how basic biology can lead you, in unanticipated and exciting ways, to findings that are directly relevant to important public health problems.?

Newmark says the stem cells aren?t necessarily the sole reason schistosome parasites survive for so many years, but their ability to replenish multiple cell types likely plays a role. More research is needed to find out how the cells truly affect lifespan, as well as what factors in the mouse or human host spur the parasite?s stem cells to divide, and whether the parasites maintain similar stem cells during other stages of their life cycle.

The researchers hope that with more work, scientists will be able to pinpoint a way to kill off the schistosome stem cells, potentially shortening the worm?s lifespan and treating schistosome infections in people.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

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Journal Reference:

1. James J. Collins III, Bo Wang, Bramwell G. Lambrus, Marla E. Tharp, Harini Iyer, Phillip A. Newmark. Adult somatic stem cells in the human parasite Schistosoma mansoni. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature11924

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/top_news/top_health/~3/Xe6KtB0k22k/130222143142.htm

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Obama urges Congress to head off spending cuts

FILE - In this Feb. 15, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in Chicago. The president and congressional Republicans each seem content with the political ground they hold and are prepared to let across-the-board spending cuts take effect on March 1, unlike during earlier rounds of budget brinkmanship that saw last minute frantic dealmaking. This time, there is no market-rattling threat of a US. default to force the two sides to compromise, no government shutdown on the short-term horizon and no year-end deadline to prevent a tax increase for every working American. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 15, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in Chicago. The president and congressional Republicans each seem content with the political ground they hold and are prepared to let across-the-board spending cuts take effect on March 1, unlike during earlier rounds of budget brinkmanship that saw last minute frantic dealmaking. This time, there is no market-rattling threat of a US. default to force the two sides to compromise, no government shutdown on the short-term horizon and no year-end deadline to prevent a tax increase for every working American. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama says a little compromise is all Congress needs to turn off automatic, across-the-board budget cuts set to kick in a week from now.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says the cuts will slow the economy and hurt the middle class. He says thousands of teachers will be laid off and air traffic controllers will be forced into unpaid leave, leading to airport delays. He says almost 800,000 defense workers will also face furloughs.

Obama says he wants a balanced plan to deal with the deficit that mixes spending cuts with more tax revenue.

In the Republican address, Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota says Obama should approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada to Texas, as a way to create jobs and grow the economy.

___

Online:

Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: http://www.youtube.com/gopweeklyaddress

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-23-Obama/id-b2d6851bc9a5410e83cb9b0e74559d7a

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2/22 WPSD Sports Podcast: 'The Sideline Show'

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Sony announces PlayStation 4: Is it 'The Future of Play'?

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Sony?s PlayStation 4 Officially Announced: Is it ?The Future of Play??

?PlayStation wants to win the war against reality.? Alongside a montage of the company?s biggest video game icons, that mantra was how Sony kicked off its massively hyped PlayStation event from New York City on Wednesday. To win that war, Sony officially announced the PlayStation 4, the most advanced video game?...?[Read More]

Amidst Recent Hacks, Twitter Calls for Stronger Passwords

Amid the ongoing epidemic of hacks and account breaches at major companies and online services, Twitter officials are once again reminding users how to beef up the security of their passwords. A blog post published Tuesday night by Twitter Director of Information Security Bob Lord came a day after the official Twitter account?...?[Read More]

Square?s ?Business in a Box? Gives Stores Hardware

Square plans to sell a ?Business in a Box? package that includes two Square Readers, an iPad stand, a cash drawer, and an optional receipt printer, it announced Wednesday. The items will all work together to allow business owners to accept credit card purchases, furthering the company?s mission of simplifying payments.?[Read More]

New App from Harvard Helps Doctors Monitor Concussions

When diagnosing neuromuscular problems in patients ? when they age or get a concussion, for example ? doctors typically make conclusions based on information that is qualitative, or subjective. But a tablet app developed by researchers at Harvard University?s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering may be able?...?[Read More]

Shelly's Blog

Microsoft?s Surface Pro Review: A Windows 8 Ultra Tablet

Is Microsoft?s Surface Pro an Ultrabook or a Tablet? Matt Tweety Tverberg, one of Microsoft?s Biz Dev guys in NY, calls it an Ultra Tablet. When you play with one, you?ll see his point. The Surface Pro tablet is a personal interface for Windows 8 that changes your relationship with the Windows programs you use through touch. It is profoundly different than using Windows 8 on an Ultrabook, laptop or desktop computer.?[Read More]

Shelly Palmer Digital Leadership Podcast Episode #25 ? Joe Atkin, President & CEO of Goal Zero

Goal Zero offers portable solar power for just about any device in your home. Listen Now or Get it on iTunes

?Shelly Palmer Digital Living Book Series
? A New Book
Digital Wisdom
Thought Leadership for a Connected World
By Shelly Palmer

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Former Meteorologist Loses Fight with Bone Cancer

By KBJR News 1

Former Meteorologist Loses Fight with Bone Cancer

February 22, 2013 Updated Feb 22, 2013 at 5:53 PM CST

Duluth, MN (NNCNOW.com) - A former Northland Television Meteorologist passed away this morning after a battle with advanced bone cancer.

Chris Snider used be a weather intern at KBJR 6 & Range 11 and went on to become Chief Meteorologist at FOX 21, before starting missionary work in the southern United States.

A Facebook message from his sister said they'd like to personally thank everyone who donated or took the time to send a message or video of support to Chris.

Snider just turned 29 years old.

The family has setup a benefit account:

Chris Snider
Benefit Account
c/o US BANK
130 West Superior Street
Duluth, MN 55802

Kevin Jacobsen
Bio - Facebook - Twitter - E-Mail

Source: http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/news/local/Former-Meteorologist-Loses-Fight-with-Bone-Cancer-192601661.html

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USM campus loses 75 trees in tornado

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?Bruised and faint?: Brazeau turns poet in Twitter return after sexual assault charges

For the first time since he was suspended from the Senate after being charged with assault and sexual assault, Patrick Brazeau returned to Twitter Thursday night with a cryptic poem.

?I?m wounded not, but I?m not slain. I?m brusied [sic] and faint they say Just let me lie and bleed awhile; I?ll not be long this way,? reads a Tweet sent at 7:37 ET from @TheBrazman, Mr. Brazeau?s official Twitter account.

The passage, notwithstanding several errors (it should read ?wounded now? not ?wounded not?) is lifted from the poem Wounded But Not Slain.

Of unknown author and origin, the poem can be found in poetry anthologies dating back to at least the 1960s. Four stanzas long, it concludes with the vow ?Today I?m strong; my fears are gone/ Today I fight again? ? although Mr. Brazeau did not get that far.

The 38-year-old Conservative senator from Quebec was arrested at his Gatineau, Quebec home on February 7 after police received a domestic violence call.

Mr. Brazeau was known for being active on social media prior to the incident ? particularly in the final hours before his arrest when he sent more than 60 Tweets, many of them attacks against the CTV for a story they broadcast about the Senator?s alleged financial improprieties.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NP_Top_Stories/~3/yYSEXzjYydo/

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USA Today: U.S. Catholics split on church direction under new pope

While the world waits to find out when the Catholic Church will choose the next pope and who it will be, a new survey shows that U.S. Catholics are divided on the direction the church should take.

Pope Benedict XVI made a shocking announcement Feb. 11 that, because of age and declining health, he would be the first pope in 600 years to step down.?

Read the complete story (Some news sites require registration)

Source: http://www.pewforum.org/Press-Room/Pew-Forum-in-the-News/US-Catholics-split-on-church-direction-under-new-pope.aspx

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New study on hepatitis C drug treatment in vivo and in vitro

Feb. 18, 2013 ? Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection affects about 4 million in the United States and is the primary cause of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Current therapy against HCV is suboptimal. Daclatasvir, a direct acting antiviral (DAA) agent in development for the treatment of HCV, targets one of the HCV proteins (i.e., NS5A) and causes the fastest viral decline (within 12 hours of treatment) ever seen with anti-HCV drugs. An interdisciplinary effort by mathematical modelers, clinicians and molecular virologists has revealed that daclatasvir has two main modes of action against HCV and also yields a new, more accurate estimate of the HCV half-life.

Results of the NS5A study are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on February 18th, 2013.

"Ultimately, our study will help design better DAA drug cocktails to treat HCV," said Loyola University Health System (LUHS) and Stritch School of Medicine (SSOM) mathematical modeler Harel Dahari, Ph.D, who co-led the study. Dahari is one of five members of the Division of Hepatology at Loyola headed by Scott Cotler, MD who authored the study along with Thomas Layden, MD, HCV virologist Susan L. Uprichard, Ph.D and Dr. Uprichard's Ph.D graduate student Natasha Sansone. The study was co-led with Jeremie Guedj (Institut National de la Sant? et de la Recherche M?dicale) and conducted with Drs. Alan Perelson (Senior Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory), Libin Rong (Oakland University) and Richard Nettles (Bristol-Myers Squibb).

The new study documents HCV kinetic modeling during treatment both in patients and in cell culture that provides insight into the modes of action of daclatasvir. In addition, the study suggests a more accurate estimate of HCV clearance from circulation previously estimated in 1998 by Drs. Dahari, Layden, Perelson and colleagues in Science.

"Our modeling of viral kinetics in treated patients predicts that daclatasvir not only blocks the synthesis of the viral RNA within infected cells but also blocks the secretion of infectious virus from the cells," explained Dahari. This prediction was confirmed in Dr. Uprichard's laboratory using cultured liver cells that support the entire life cycle of HCV infection. Drs. Dahari and Uprichard are directors of a new program for experimental and translational modeling recently established at Loyola to promote the type of interdisciplinary research exemplified in this publication.

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Singer Mindy McCready dies in apparent suicide

HEBER SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) ? Perhaps there was one heartbreak too many for Mindy McCready.

The former country star apparently took her own life on Sunday at her home in Heber Springs, Ark. Authorities say McCready died of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot to the head and an autopsy is planned. She was 37, and left behind two young sons.

McCready had attempted suicide at least three times since 2005, as she struggled to cope amid a series of tumultuous public events that marked much of her adult life.

Speaking to The Associated Press in 2010, McCready smiled wryly while talking about the string of issues she'd dealt with over the last half-decade.

"It is a giant whirlwind of chaos all the time," she said of her life. "I call my life a beautiful mess and organized chaos. It's just always been like that. My entire life things have been attracted to me and vice versa that turn into chaotic nightmares or I create the chaos myself. I think that's really the life of a celebrity, of a big, huge, giant personality."

This time it seems the whirlwind overwhelmed McCready.

Her death comes a month after that of David Wilson, her longtime boyfriend and the father of her youngest son. He is believed to have shot himself on the same porch of the home they shared in Heber Springs, a small vacation community about 65 miles north of Little Rock. His death also was investigated as a suicide.

It was the most difficult moment in a life full of them. McCready issued a statement last month lamenting his death. And she called him her soul mate and a caregiver to her sons in an interview with NBC's "Today" show.

"I just keep telling myself that the more suffering that I go through, the greater character I'll have," she said, according to a transcript of the interview.

Like so many times before, McCready showed a little toughness in the midst of a personal storm, again endearing herself to her fans. But as usual, the brave face for the camera hid a much more complicated internal struggle that surfaced publicly time and again over the last 10 years.

This time, along with her remembrances of finding Wilson as he lay dying, she also answered questions about whether they'd argued earlier that evening about an affair and if she'd shot him.

"Oh, my God," the "Today" transcript reads. "No. Oh, my God. No. He was my life. We were each other's life."

It's unclear what circumstances led to McCready taking her own life, but it appears she was struggling again with twin issues that have persisted for years: substance abuse and the custody of her children.

She checked into court-ordered rehab and gave her children up to foster care earlier this month after her father asked a judge to intervene, saying she'd stopped taking care of herself and her sons, and that she was abusing alcohol and prescription drugs.

It's unclear why McCready was out of rehab.

Billy McKnight, McCready's ex-boyfriend and the father of her oldest son, said the children remain in foster care. Arkansas Department of Human Services spokeswoman Amy Webb could not confirm their whereabouts, citing agency rules.

McCready's relationship with McKnight was one of the more difficult periods of her life. McKnight was arrested in 2005 on charges of attempted murder after authorities say he beat and choked her. And the two continued to struggle over their son with McKnight recently filing for custody in light of McCready's latest sting in rehab.

McCready made headlines in April 2008 when she claimed a longtime relationship with baseball great Roger Clemens. Published reports at the time said she met the pitcher at a Florida karaoke bar when she was 15 and he was 28 and married. Clemens has denied the relationship.

On Monday, Clemens handed a written statement to reporters at the Houston Astros spring training facility in Kissimmee, Fla., where he is serving as a special instructor for the team.

"Yes, that is sad news. I had heard over time that she was trying to get peace and direction in her life. The few times that I had met her and her manager/agent they were extremely nice."

McCready also was engaged to actor Dean Cain in 1997, but their relationship fell apart as well.

Her troubles weren't just romantic. Over time she was arrested for fraudulently obtaining prescription drugs, probation violation, misdemeanor assault of her mother Gayle Inge and other problems.

In 2010, after a stint on Dr. Drew Pinsky's "Celebrity Rehab 3" where she was treated for "love addiction," she told The Associated Press she may have finally found love and the strength to get her life back on track.

Pinsky, who had no comment Sunday, called McCready an "angel" in the season finale and expressed hope she would continue to seek treatment in a later interview. McCready suffered a seizure in one of the show's scarier moments. Tests showed she had suffered brain damage, something she attributed to her abuse at the hands of McKnight.

McCready is the fifth celebrity to pass away since appearing on Pinsky's show and the third from Season 3. Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr and "Real World" participant Joey Kovar both died of overdoses.

She entered her relationship with Wilson, a producer and musician who was 34 when he died last month, a short time later. She'd just met Wilson and talked openly about their relationship in the 2010 interview. Wilson declined to speak on the record.

With a publicist, reporters, cameras, makeup artists and musicians swirling around her during a press day for her last album, "I'm Still Here," McCready fended off questions about a sex tape and said she and Wilson started out as friends.

"And I've never had a relationship like that before where we started completely as friends," she said. "It turned into friends really caring about each other and then it turned into love and I've never had that happen before."

Things didn't remain calm for long, though. Unhappy with custody arrangements, McCready took her older son from her mother, the boy's legal guardian, in late 2011. She fled to Arkansas without permission over what she called child abuse fears. Authorities eventually found McCready hiding in a home without permission and took the boy into custody.

She and Wilson had their son in April 2012, and she regained custody of Zander in December. But Wilson's death appears to have led to another dark period.

"I met Mindy at 23 coming off of a big record, and from knowing her as personal as I did back then, sometimes being famous can hurt you," McKnight said in a phone interview Monday from Tampa, Fla. "I think she was too young. I think that she was having some personal issues in her life and her family anyways, and when she got famous ... she started mixing booze and pills and the negativity, it took the best of her."

___

Music Writer Chris Talbott reported from Nashville, Tenn. Sports Writer Noah Trister, in Kissimmee, Fla., contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott: http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/singer-mindy-mccready-dies-apparent-suicide-042201275.html

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LIve$##Watch Liverpool vs Swansea Live Streaming Online - Internet

The NFL is one of the most popular sports leagues on the planet. Millions of people tune in every week to see their favorite teams go head to head. I mean, even Jets fans still turn on their TV to watch their team play, even after this:

And as online video continues to become more and more popular the NFL has made sure to include streaming to help bolster their fan base even more. It used to be impossible to watch any major sporting event without a television and cable contract, but these last few years, the Super Bowl and even the Olympics have been available online.

According to the NFL communications page, "Last year?s live stream of the Super Bowl in the United States attracted 2.1 million users, making it the most-watched, single-game sports event ever online." And this year will be no different. Not only will the Super Bowl be live streamed, but so will the Wild Card games.

This season's Wild Card race is as tight as ever with so many teams still in the hunt. So the games are set to be pretty epic. The Wild Card Playoff Games will air in a double header on January 5th on NBC. First, it's the AFC with the Cincinnati Bengals at Houston Texans at 4:30 p.m. ET. Then you can watch NFC's Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers at 8 p.m. ET.

Both of these games will also be available for live streaming online and on your Verizon smartphone.

Source: http://internet.wonderhowto.com/forum/live-watch-liverpool-vs-swansea-live-streaming-online-barclays-premier-league-0142722/

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Help! My Kid Is a Picky Eater and I Am Freaking Out!

Troy Patterson

Photo by Christina Paige

Please send your questions for publication to gentlemanscholarslate@gmail.com. (Questions may be edited, or wholly invented.)

My 2-year-old is a super-picky eater, and my wife and I are freaking the fuck out about his intake of vitamins and minerals. What do you recommend?

Consult a physician, but it should set your mind at ease for the kid to take half of a Flintstones chewable multivitamin each day and for you and the missus each to take half of a 2mg Xanax ASAP.

The short answer is brand loyalty.

What?s the long answer?

Giving you a long answer will require summarizing the first chat my kid and I had about Fred Flintstone, and you know what it?s like trying to talk to someone whom you are actually trying to talk some sense into. You say to the 2-year-old, ?How old are you?? and he stonewalls, pretending to absorbed in his choo-choo. You say, ?How old did you turn on your birthday?? and he says, ?I want cake.? I?ll give you the long answer after you take the Xanax.

Are you back? Once upon a time?some weeks ago, late in the morning and the year, out running errands in the mass-marketplace?I was ambushed into sentience by television, to use a John Leonard phrase. I?d walked into the pharmacy remembering that we had nearly run out of vitamin supplements for the baby, so I pivoted to the correct shelf, stooped to survey the dropper bottles?and only then realized that we had completely run out of baby. We had aged out of the baby-bird business of the dropper bulb, and our toothsome child was ready for exciting new challenges.

I cast a fresh eye at the shelf. There were chewables and there were gummies, and there was a cartoon cavalcade of licensing deals?a Pixar Cars convoy and a Disney princess clique, a poor depressive Pooh and a poriferous manic SpongeBob, an old-school minimalist Mickey and a panderingly contemporary skateboarding Bugs. There was, on the box of the perfectly decent value brand?a product as worthy as many of the above and marketed with more integrity than some?a motley menagerie of non-celebrity critters begging for love with the blank eyes of plush toys. But most of all there was no contest here.

Flintstones Complete vitamins

Courtesy of Bayer/Amazon

Fronting a box of Flintstones Complete Chewables?his arms lifted in a vigorous V and all eight fingers splayed to tickle unknown recesses of memory?Fred Flintstone is a figure of soaring fun. On the drugstore aisle it seemed he had leapt to deliver a flying tackle of a fond hug. His expectant gaze warned he?d be let down if I did not reciprocate the embrace. I knew in my heart that it was a sales pitch?but also that Fred and his colleagues had installed in that heart a love for a pitch in itself.

I proceeded to checkout with Marty O?Donnell?s vintage jingle playing in one part of my head (?We are Flintstones kids?10 million strong and growing!?) while in another I reflected on that jingle and the 1987 commercial it rode in on: An unseen children?s chorus evokes a collectivist ethos that would not be out of place in North Korean propaganda, and its mewling coerciveness exemplifies the cultural bullying George W.S. Trow describes as ?the aesthetic of the hit? (?It?s a Hit! Love it! ... It loves you because you love it because it?s a Hit!?). All the while, the child actors featured at bowling alleys and in batter?s boxes and behind the double bass are awfully darn cute. In its combination of authoritarianism and kitsch, the old Flintstones ad campaign is in the style of Hummel-figurine fascism, I decided, while swiping my credit card.

That evening, as his dinnertime approached, I said to the kid, ?Hey, kid, do you know who Fred Flintstone is??

He raised his lake-wide eyes from the project of re-undismantling a toy car and not very convincingly said, ?Yes.?

?Oh, do you really? Tell me who Fred Flintstone is.?

?Um,? said the boy, ?a rabbit.?

I saw we had a lot of work to do. I said, ?No, Fred Flintstone is a cartoon caveman by Hanna-Barbera. He used to have a TV show.?

He said, ?I want to watch Elmo,? giving me what I deserved for putting the issue of television on the table. Years ago, I assessed Elmo as ?a symbol of innocent joy peddled with the utmost cynicism?; now I regard him as a reliable accomplice for stealing 10 minutes for a shower.

?No, not tonight, but I ought to show you the opening of The Flintstones later,? I said, and continued to babble about how The Flintstones began in the early ?60s as an ABC prime-time show inspired by The Honeymooners. ?Fred?s catchphrase is yabba dabba doo.?

He said, ?I want to watch Yo Gabba Gabba,? referring to a current program, the success of which I attribute to its superficial funkiness, which allows parents to believe that they and their progeny are absorbing something less uncool than Dora the Explorer.

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