The Gift of Sex. ~ Jenny Ferry | elephant journal

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?To refuse a gift is to spurn relationship. If gifts create bonds and widen the circle of self, then to refuse to give or receive a gift says, ?I refuse to be connected to you. You are an other in my constellation of being.?? ~ Charles Eisenstein

Rejection stings. Period.

And here I was again. I let him go. Slowly. Reluctantly. Heartbreakingly. After two solid months of creating space to allow him to ?process? his crumbling marriage and erratic behavior, he had taken up commiserating in the arms of another lover (also recently spurned) in the gap I had conveniently created.

Rebound relationships are like that. Drama. Misunderstandings. Totally messy.

Oh, I know messy! I?ve had my fair share of dark descents into the underworld of relationships where broken explicit or implicit agreements, betrayal of trust, plus uncorked and unarticulated desire lurk. Such is the experience of star-crossed lovers. And half-asleep relating.

But why was I here? The answer comes readily to mind. I choose relationships as a crucible for personal development and spiritual growth. And once I transcend the psychological spiel of concocted inner story and press toward viewing my experience through the ontological lens of my higher self, the fog and pain begin to lift.

What awakening bell was sounding? And what wanted to emerge for my understanding and deepening?

There was more to be mined from this interaction.

What was here for me to explore? Was I willing to see, hear and feel the lessons of this fleeting relationship? How might what I?m experiencing benefit the whole?

Here?s what surfaced for me:

The purpose of our lives is to give our gifts in service to something larger than ourselves. In conscious relationship and sexuality, I believe that something else is the third being we co-create. The physical manifestation of that is a child?it?s called procreation.

Infants have a basic way of communicating their needs through crying. In the beginning, a mother attunes to and interprets these pleas for attention and nurtures, in order for the co-created offspring to thrive. As the child grows, it slowly develops more and more autonomy and an expanded ability to communicate and articulate its desires with specificity.

By analogy, this third being is the relationship itself. It has a voice. What is it saying? It has a heartbeat. What is it feeling? It has a body. What is it sensing? Ultimately, what does this third being desire?

This third being co-created in relationship has a soul; it?s sovereign. Whole and complete in and of itself, just like a child. Yet, it?s not seen the full light of our awareness. It?s not been respected, honored or elevated to claim its full birthright in our lives.

In my doomed attempt to create connection with a man who was clearly on the rebound, I viscerally felt the budding third being lose its ground, its centeredness. I heard the voice of the relationship say, ?Please create space for stabilization to occur, Jenny.? I listened and acted according to my experience of this nascent co-creation by requesting a short-term separation. Though agreed upon, my partner?s perception of this fragile voice and nuanced feeling was left unsure and unarticulated. Relationship fail.

In North American culture, we habitually dismiss and neglect this voice, these feelings, and these desires. We disregard the third being?the essence of the relationship itself.

Why? Because we have converted relationship to transaction, we have commodified it. We have reduced it to a transactional service, rather than a gift.

We?ve all been conditioned by transactional relating so that when someone comes along with a gift, we don?t believe it?s given freely. We don?t believe it comes without strings attached. We think it?s a bribe, meant to manipulate us or coerce us. It?s there to seduce us, just like the ubiquitous mass marketing that we?re bombarded with daily.

So we?re caught in a delusion; we think we?re hip to the hype. Yes, we?ve all grown up with it. We think we?re media literate. But are we? Without raising our awareness of this subtle and sly story, we are inextricably wound in the seductive narrative that casts a consumerist glow on our relationships, on our sex.

Do these storylines resonate?

In traditional heterosexual relationship, women think: ?If I give him sex, he?ll love me. Maybe he?ll even marry me.?

This is the classic Disney delusion. An internal narrative that women weave into the fantasy of being rescued and living happily ever after?far from the everyday reality of roll-your-pants-up and wade through the quagmire of uncertainty, instability and deepest abandonment fears. In doing so, we never truly cultivate the courage to assert our voice and request 100 percent of our desire for love, intimacy, connection and?God forbid?sex. Why? So, we don?t have to fear jeopardizing our security and comfort, our personal or social worthiness, including the illusion of perfection.

Men think: ?Oh, if I take her sex, she?ll want to hook me into a real-ationship. Maybe she?ll even rope me into marriage.? This is the story of the archetypal Marlboro Man who doesn?t own anyone and no one owns him. He never has to face his own fear of inadequacy. He refuses to be suffocated by the slow asphyxiation of co-creating specific agreements and heart-centered investments in mindful partnerships. Why? He doesn?t want to hurt her feelings ?or feel his own. He?s free to ride off into the sunset, forever unencumbered. It taps deep into the psychic narrative of our rugged, emotionally detached individualistic culture in North America.

But we?ve completely forgotten the gift. We?ve grossly overlooked the simplicity of basic consideration for each other through respect and honoring the sacredness of our gifts. We?ve forgotten the exquisite value of gratitude and appreciation. Collectively, we?ve dulled the polish of urbane social interaction. We?ve guarded our hearts from fully expressing the healing power of universal caring and compassion.

??people kind of get together and act nice, or maybe they consume together. But joint consumption doesn?t create intimacy. Only joint creativity and gifts create intimacy and connection.? ~ Charles Eisenstein

When we partake in the gift of sex, there?s absolutely nothing to do but say, thank you.

Thank you for being you.
Thank you for sharing your body with me.
Thank you for sharing your most intimate treasure.
Thank you for opening your heart to me.
Thank you for loving me.
Thank you for sharing the gift of yourself.

Collectively, we are being called to return to the gift culture of freely giving and receiving. We are waking up to the voice and feelings of the third being through conscious relationships. We are being called to write a new narrative in intimate relating that doesn?t pin human connection and sexuality to the neoliberal ideology of heartless transaction.

?

?

Jenny Ferry is an emerging leader in the field of conscious sexuality and author of the forthcoming book, Soul Sex: Creating the Conscious Connection You Crave (2013/2014). She facilitates public workshops and private client sessions throughout the U.S. and Canada. She?s passionate about human liberation, in every incarnation ? especially sexual. An eclectic culture junkie, she loves erotic photography, traversing the Salish Sea (preferably by sailboat), and artisan goat cheese on a sturdy gluten-free cracker. For workshop or coaching inquiries, visit jennyferry.com. Friend her on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/jennyferry

~

Ed. Karla Rodas & Brianna Bemel

Like?elephant love & relationships?on Facebook.

Source: http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/12/the-gift-of-sex-jenny-ferry/

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December | ASEE ACC

Posted by Cliff on December 31st, 2012

More than one million domain name registered during first quarter of the year 2010 in Internet, to reach more than 193 million top level domain names (.com and. net) with Internet presence at the end of that period, according to reveals a report by the company VeriSign, global operator for the top-level domains. In relation to the first quarter of 2009, the comparison in the names of top-level domains increase is 11 million records, a growth of 6%. Visit see more for more clarity on the issue. However, the increase of the population recorded in the global network is impressive and to incalculable better, given that other domains of much popularity they gaining ground on the planet Internet. Domains such as .info, .org, .UK & .us, earn thousands of adherents every day on the Internet, mainly in developing and emerging countries, either by lack of availability in first level domains or economic deals, since distributors and operators of hosting services drastically reduced their prices in the packages offered. There are even companies that offer these domains free of charges in its hosting offerings.

But the growth of the Internet planet is not only the registration of domain names, subdomains, and blogs. This growth is also dragging to the advertising industry. Yet these Internet? Today, online advertising represents 7.5% of all traditional advertising industry, but experts and analysts predict that by 2012 it will reach 40% of the entire industry and growth. This is a jumping giant, but not only by the growth of the Internet population, but because companies and businesses are migrating towards online advertising traditional advertising because it is more effective, more economical, it is directed to specific market niches, more quickly returns investment, among many, many benefits. If you?re still not on the Internet, as a Web presence or through advertising, these losing time, losing market, losing money, losing audience, closing the window to around the world, reality, walking blindly or simply don?t exist. The consequences of being outside the network could be even greater, if you have a traditional business. But if you?re a small business or a small entrepreneur, contact us or advise you of how having a presence online fast, economical and professional, on the other hand, if you?re a freelancer or a natural that you want to be in the cyber space, you can start immediately by opening your blog and a couple of accounts in the major social networks. Why on the Internet? Look at these statistics. According to one of the sites carrying them, there are more than 800 thousand million Internet users as of December 31, 2009, but they predict that for year 2012 there will be close to or slightly less than 3 billion users, which I think is a calculation gigantic if we compare the growth that had the network in the last 10 years. This means that in less than two years, the Internet will grow more or less what has grown in 25 years. Do you still have doubts of being on the Internet?

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Source: http://www.asee-acc.org/december

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House to miss deadline for cliff deal vote

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The House will miss the midnight Monday deadline lawmakers set for voting to avoid the "fiscal cliff."

House Republicans notified lawmakers that the chamber will vote Monday evening on other bills. They say that will be their only votes of the day.

President Barack Obama and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Monday they are near a deal to avoid wide-ranging tax increases and spending cuts ? the fiscal cliff ? that take effect with the new year.

Both men said they were still bargaining over whether ? and how ? to avoid $109 billion in cuts to defense and domestic programs that take effect on Wednesday.

It remained unclear whether the Senate would vote Monday.

Congress could pass later legislation retroactively blocking the tax hikes and spending cuts.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/house-wont-vote-midnight-cliff-deal-211949353--politics.html

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Bolivia expropriates Spanish energy subsidiaries

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) ? President Evo Morales nationalized electricity distribution subsidiaries of the Spanish energy company Iberdrola in a public ceremony on Saturday.

Morales issued a decree allowing the takeover of shares in Empresa de Electricidad de La Paz (Electropaz) and Empresa de Luz y Fuerza de Oruro (Elfeo), which supply energy in the Andean nation.

In the ceremony at Bolivia's government palace, Morales also announced the expropriation of an investment management company and a service provider belonging to the Spanish energy giant.

Morales said he had "been forced to take this step" to ensure that electric service rates remained "equitable" in the regions of La Paz and Oruro. Soldiers guarded the installations of the electricity distribution companies, marked with signs reading: "Nationalized."

The decree read by Morales also calls for Iberdrola to receive indemnification after an independent firm is hired within 180 days to determine the value of the nationalized shares.

Telephone calls and emails seeking comment from Iberdrola in Spain were not immediately answered.

Morales in May also nationalized Transportadora de Electricidad belonging to?Spanish company Red Electrica, which controlled 74 percent of energy transmission in Bolivia.

In his first year in office in 2006, the Bolivian president nationalized the oil industry through a renegotiation of contracts with a dozen oil companies, including Repsol, Petrobras, BG and Total.

In 2009 Morales transferred to state control the country's largest telephone operator, which had been controlled by Italy's ETI, and in 2010 he did the same with the four largest power generators, which had belonged to French-owned Suez,?Rurelec of Britain?and also to Bolivian shareholders.

___

Associated Press writer Harold Heckle contributed to this report from Madrid.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bolivia-expropriates-spanish-energy-subsidiaries-162459554.html

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Navigate Financial Difficulties With These Personal Bankruptcy Tips ...

TIP! Interview several attorneys before you hire one and ask questions about education and experience. There are lots of qualified attorneys from which to choose.

Being in debt can be extremely stressful. Sometimes it happens quite quickly, from some financial problems to losing all control in a matter of weeks or months. Once that happens, solutions may be difficult to find. This article will help you get through your bankruptcy with a minimum of hassle.

TIP! Once you have settled on filing for bankruptcy, learn all there is to learn about your state?s bankruptcy laws. Your future finances are in jeopardy, so you must be prepared and stay proactive by being involved with your attorney and your case.

If your debt problem is mostly in the form of student loans, you might have a hard time filing for bankruptcy. As a general rule, student loans are not forgivable by bankruptcy being filed. In order to discharge student loan debt, you must demonstrate undue and extreme hardship.

TIP! You may have many conversations with lenders before you end up starting the bankruptcy process. It?s important to have any agreements you make with them on paper.

Know that declaring bankruptcy doesn?t always mean that all of your debts will be eliminated. When a Chapter 13 is filed, you will restructure what you owe and pay, thus allowing your creditors to make some of their money back. It is common to think that filing bankruptcy is a cop-out, and that it is irresponsible to not pay your debts. This type of bankruptcy allows people to satisfy their creditors and find relief from a heavy load of debt.

TIP! Before pulling the trigger on bankruptcy, be sure that other solutions aren?t more appropriate for your case. If your debts are really not overwhelming, you may find the assistance you need by consulting a consumer credit counselor.

If you plan to file for bankruptcy within the next year, don?t put your assets in another individual?s name. This is an obvious ploy to hide your assets. As a result, your file could be dismissed. You may be tempted to hand off assets so they?re not seized, but they may not be seized to begin with. In any case, this sort of asset hiding is not allowed, so you might need to delay filing if you?ve transferred any assets recently.

TIP! Make sure you do your research before you file for bankruptcy. Assess your debt to figure out which types can be discharged with bankruptcy.

Be certain that all of the debts you are presenting for consideration in your bankruptcy are actually ones that can be considered. This will save you time and money. Debts like student loans always remain on your report even if you file. You may want to consider consulting a loan consolidation service or credit repair agency instead of filing for bankruptcy.

TIP! Do not pay off debts blindly before you file a personal bankruptcy. The laws regarding bankruptcy most often prevent you from paying back some creditors for up to 90 days before filing, and friends and family for up to one year.

Do not wait before filing for bankruptcy. Waiting to file will not make things easier. Waiting will put more stress on you and will only make the financial situation much worse. The negative effects this can have on your life could be huge. Preceding with the bankruptcy resolutely and concluding the proceedings quickly will bring closure to the entire situation.

TIP! If creditors or harassing you, take advantage of the automatic stay bankruptcy provides to immediately stop the harassment. Debt that you can no longer control can be overwhelming.

Even though many of your debts are eliminated through Chapter 7 bankruptcy, not all debts go away. If you have secured debts, you may be required to create a revised agreement for their repayment. There are some debts that simply are not dischargeable. For instance, you could not discharge child support obligations, court-sanctioned fines or even alimony payments through chapter 7.

TIP! If you plan to file bankruptcy, do not continue using credit cards. You may be tempted to start buying a lot of things, but the courts may not really like this.

It is possible to obtain new vehicle and home loans while a Chapter 13 case remains active. It is just tougher. You need to speak with your trustee so that you can be approved for a new loan. You need to show them why and how you can handle paying back the new loan. You will always have to let them know why this item needs to be purchased.

TIP! Make sure you hire a good bankruptcy lawyer. This kind of law is popular among inexperienced lawyers.

There are times when the events of life can be quite overwhelming and you can feel quite helpless. Use what you learned from this article to regain control of your financial situation. Apply the advice from this article and you will be on your way to realizing financial freedom.

Source: http://www.sibensiben.com/long-island-injury-lawyer-blog/long-island-bankruptcy-lawyer/navigate-financial-difficulties-with-these-personal-bankruptcy-tips-5

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Gulf firms rework mobility strategies ? 70% of businesses feel global ...

KUWAIT: In a globally connected world, companies both in the Middle East and across the globe, are readdressing their mobility strategies; many surveyed organizations plan to review their global mobility strategies in 2013, says Maya Rafii Zaatari, director, Human Resources, Deloitte Middle East.

Organizations are aware of both the requirements and the current limitations of their global mobility programs; however they are not translating that awareness into improvement and change, according to a new report by Deloitte. This is based on the latest annual survey of almost 200 HR, talent and global mobility professionals from companies around the world, entitled Strategic Moves. Findings in this study are particularly relevant to Middle East companies moving into regionalization structures, and international markets to compete effectively in these new markets and succeed in attracting and deploying employees and leaders to meet their business objectives. ?As more and more companies expand their operations globally, and many companies based in the Middle East begin to operate across the region, the challenge to source the right talent and meet client needs is evidently growing. Many regional firms are seeking candidates with international experience to assume leadership posts in different industries,? said Zaatari. In many Middle Eastern countries, particularly in the GCC, it is integral that strategies to improve global mobility are put into place, to ensure the right expertise is being offered to clients when needed,? she added. Brett Walsh, Global Human Capital leader, DTTL, says: ?The survey results show that organizations recognize the need for a global, mobile workforce to support their business strategies.

However, despite a keen awareness of worldwide mobility issues, there is slow progress to make the relevant improvements. Where organizations are taking steps, they appear to be aligning their international mobility strategies with functional needs, rather than also focusing on developing the next generation of global leaders with international experience required to run the global organizations of the future.? According to the report, a mere 2% of organizations see their global mobility functions as world class, and only 12% perform assessments of their mobility practices and make clear links back to improvement efforts they need to make. The Deloitte survey also highlights that 70% of business and HR stakeholders believe that global mobility in their organizations is underperforming and needs improvement.

Different requirements of global mobility Organizations recognize global mobility as an important tool to support the top strategic business issues and support the business in addressing the top three strategy issues: emerging geographical markets, such as the Middle East (100%), increasing globalization (99%), and increasing competition (98%). However, on average, less than 30% are using mobility to completely address those issues. ?In a globally connected world, companies both in the Middle East and across the globe, are readdressing their mobility strategies. In fact, one third of the organizations surveyed say they are planning on reviewing their global mobility strategies in the next 12 months, including reviewing the alignment with business issues and goals,? said Zaatari. Perception of the global mobility function Survey respondents were asked whether they felt global mobility was a purely administrative function, a strategic value-add, or both. Those in business HR roles were most likely to see it as strategic (42%). However, in stark contrast, those tasked with high-level talent and reward responsibilities and the ability to elevate global mobility to the realm of strategy ? were most likely to see it as just administrative (42%).

Assessment There is a widespread recognition of the need to improve the services that mobility teams provide; however the vast majority of organizations surveyed (88%) are undertaking only a limited assessment of the services that are currently being offered.

The way forward In order to align global mobility strategies with business? issues and goals in the longer term, global mobility will need to support business more effectively by providing global workforce management, where they manage an organization?s global supply and demand of skills and talent. This will require the mobility function to acquire new skills and capabilities. Brett Walsh concludes: ?If positioned appropriately, by adding global workforce management capabilities to its suite of services, global mobility can be the key player in solving an organization?s long-term skill supply-anddemand talent gaps. This will require a departure from the current model and a strong vision of the future. ?Organizations need to make two types of investments in order to achieve this. Firstly, they need to invest in their wider functional HR capabilities such as integrated HR, talent and global mobility technologies to facilitate global standard reporting across various employee metrics. Secondly, this initial investment will then allow them to invest ahead of the talent demand curve to create the required supply of talent to meet their future organization growth aspirations.??Agencies

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Source: http://news.kuwaittimes.net/2012/12/29/gulf-firms-rework-mobility-strategies-70-of-businesses-feel-global-mobility-inadequate-report/

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Parties Set Last-Minute 'Cliff' Talks (WSJ)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/273604119?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Facebook Instagram use dived after photo fiasco: AppData

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc's Instagram lost almost a quarter of its daily users a week after it rolled out and then withdrew policy changes that incensed users who feared the photo-sharing service would use their pictures without compensation.

Instagram, which Facebook bought for $715 million this year, saw the number of daily active users who accessed the service via Facebook bottom out at 12.4 million as of Friday, versus a peak of 16.4 million last week, according to data compiled by online tracker AppData.

The popular app, which allows people to add filters and effects to photos and share them over the Internet or smartphones, experienced the drop over the brief, often-volatile holiday period.

Other popular apps also saw slippage in usage, and some were more pronounced. Yelp, for instance, saw daily active users -- again via Facebook -- slide to a weekly low of half a million on Thursday, from a high of 820,000 one week ago.

Instagram disputed the AppData survey, which was compiled from users that have linked the photo service to their own Facebook accounts, historically between 20 and 30 percent of Instagram members.

"This data is inaccurate. We continue to see strong and steady growth in both registered and active users of Instagram," a spokeswoman said in an emailed statement on Friday.

Looking out over a broader timeframe, Instagram's monthly active users edged up to 43.6 million as of Friday, an increase of 1.7 million over the past seven days, according to AppData.

"We'll have to monitor the data over the coming weeks to gain perspective on trends in Instagram's performance," AppData marketing manager Ashley Taylor Anderson said in an email.

ATTENTION-SEEKING

The sharp slide in activity highlighted by AppData was bound to draw attention on the heels of the controversial revision to Instagram's terms of service that, among other things, allowed an advertiser to pay Instagram "to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata)" without compensation.

The subsequent public outrage prompted an apology from Instagram founder Kevin Systrom. Last week, a California Instagram user sued the company for breach of contract and other claims, in what may have been the first civil lawsuit to stem from the controversial change.

Instagram subsequently reverted to some of its original language.

The move renewed debate about how much control over personal data users must give up to live and participate in a world steeped in social media.

Analysts say Facebook, the world's largest social network, was laying the groundwork to begin generating advertising revenue, by giving marketers the right to display profile pictures and other personal information, such as who users follow in advertisements.

Its shares closed down 13 cents or 0.5 percent at $25.91 on the Nasdaq, in line with the broader market.

(Reporting By Edwin Chan; Editing by Leslie Adler and Andrew Hay)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/facebooks-instagram-usage-dived-photo-brouhaha-appdata-194043314--sector.html

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Estate Planning and Guardianship For Your Disabled Child in Long ...

by Albert Gurevich on December 28, 2012

By making prior arrangements for the care and welfare of a disabled child, you have the peace of mind that your child will be taken care of when you are no longer able to do so if you become physically or mentally incapacitated or you are no longer there. A guardianship can be established which may include provisions for caring for your child?s personal and financial needs. Decisions regarding where your child will live, education, medical care and day-to-day living needs as well as management of assets that you may provided for the care of your child should be addressed in the guardianship.

Since most families are unfamiliar with how Long Island guardianships are established, they will usually contact a Long Island estate and guardianship attorney to assist them with the establishment of a guardianship and for other estate planning advice.

Who May Act as Guardian?

Under New York law, a guardian must be at least 18 years of age and a legal resident of the United States. When choosing a guardian, it is important to select the right person to handle such an important task. The guardian should be someone you trust and who is capable and has the time to take on the responsibilities given to them. Guardians can be one of your other family members such as the disabled child?s grandparent, aunt or uncle. Often times, parents choose one of their other adult children to act as the guardian of their disabled child.

A guardian may be appointed to act as the guardian of the person or the property or both. The guardian of the property takes care of the financial matters, investments and paying bills, while the guardian of the person is responsible for the welfare and care of the person on a day-to-day basis. So for example, you may want to give your brother, who is a CPA, the responsibility of being the guardian of the property, and appoint your adult daughter the guardian of the person. It is also a good idea to have backup guardians in case your brother or daughter are unable to take on their responsibility due to poor health, age or other reasons.

Legal Assistance

If you need to establish a guardianship or prepare other estate planning documents such as a will or trust, it is recommended that you speak with a Long Island probate and estate attorney to help you with your financial planning needs. The attorney will sit down with you and strategize about how to maximize your assets so your family gets to inherit more, and you save estate taxes.

If you wish to speak to a Long Island estate attorney, call the Law Offices of Albert Gurevich at (516) 777-0647.

Estate Planning and Guardianship For Your Disabled Child in Long Island

Source: http://longislandestatesattorney.com/2012/12/28/estate-planning-and-guardianship-for-your-disabled-child-in-long-island/

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Why 2012 food health studies are making me sick | Opinionated ...

Coffee is now good for you. According to a research study, it may help prevent Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's, stroke and dementia as well as help you live a little longer. But java lovers know this: Another study says that drinking three or more cups of caffeinated coffee may be linked to a higher risk of glaucoma.

From a study announced last January involving school junk food to the most recent study that demonizes black licorice, 2012 has been a year rich in food health studies.

And while I don't drink coffee and don't concern myself much with the studies mentioned above, the results of a gluttony of other research studies have caused me to not only re-examine my own diet but to make me lose my appetite.

Last May, I learned that a study by German-Swiss researchers found that taking calcium supplements may increase heart attack risk by a whopping 86 percent. As one of the 44 million people who either have osteoporosis or who are at risk for the disease, you better believe I took notice.

Although my doctor ? a prominent bone specialist at the University of Chicago Medical Center ? isn't convinced the study is conclusive, he did advise me to stop popping calcium pills and get my daily dose of calcium from food ? all 1,200 milligrams.

Sounds simple enough. It isn't. Dairy foods are the obvious go-to calcium choice. Of course, I'd prefer to load up on the stuff by chowing down on pizza and ice cream, but, alas, they're both high in saturated fat and come with the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Instead, I've been gulping down so much skim milk, along with other nonfat and low-fat dairy products, I should have my own personal cow. I also ladle plain yogurt on my, yes, salad. But when I can't stomach another spoonful, I gobble up other calcium-dense foods.

Think canned salmon ? with the bones (183 milligrams per serving). Or canned sardines (325 milligrams). Or turnip greens (128 milligrams). How can I describe my average dinner meal? Publican or Slurping Turtle or even McDonald's, it's not.

And just when I'm starting to settle into this mainly white diet, the results of another study sucker-punches me in the abdomen. Rice and rice products, according to a Consumer Reports?investigation, contain potentially dangerous levels of arsenic.

Samples of brown rice were found to contain more arsenic than white rice. And rice grown in the South had more arsenic than rice grown in California, India or Thailand.

But that's not the worst news. Recently a study ? from Mayo Clinic, no less ? found that a diet high in carbohydrates and sugar is associated with dementia and that eating more protein and fat may offer some protection.

Confession: I'm a longtime lover of desserts. If you need proof, just check out my other blog, Sugar Buzz Chicago. Over the years, I have been known to laugh smugly at anyone on Atkins and other low-carb diets. I'm not laughing anymore.

Still, these three studies are leaving me with a buffet of more questions than answers: Can ingesting mass quantities of dairy products ? even nonfat or low-fat ones, lead to dreaded diseases such as cancer?

Should I swap more nutritious brown rice for white rice or should I just give up the grain cold turkey?

Are just simple carbohydrates bad, or are complex carbohydrates now a no-no too?

And the most important question of all: Would someone please tell me definitively what I should eat or, well, just SHUT UP?

The results of these food health studies are very hard to swallow ? even though I've been trying to. And every other day there's another study, leaving me to pick and choose from a menu of sometimes contradictory and confusing information.

I'm willing to bet that if researchers did a study of people who hear about food health studies, they'd discover a population more likely to have anorexia, bulimia, insomnia, depression and general anxiety.

But just when I was about go on a food study fast, along comes an article from the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine that says that the higher a country's chocolate consumption, the more Nobel laureates it produces per capita.

One of the findings of the author, Dr. Franz Messerli of St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital and Columbia University in New York, is that Switzerland, which has led in chocolate consumption, also leads the pack in Nobel Prize winners. Finally, information I could eat right up.

Pass the M&M's.

Source: http://www.chicagonow.com/opinionated-woman/2012/12/why-2012-food-health-studies-are-making-me-sick/

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Blast in Pakistan's Karachi kills six on bus, 48 hurt

Scientologists may be facing their most daunting court case yet, and all it took was for someone to stop calling them a cult. After a years long legal battle, federal prosecutors in?Belgium now believe their investigation is complete enough to charge the Church of Scientology and its leaders as a criminal organization on charges of extortion, fraud, privacy breaches, and the illegal practice of medicine. "The decision follows years of investigation that was triggered by a complaint by the Labour Mediation Service in the Brussels Region. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blast-pakistans-karachi-kills-six-bus-48-hurt-123159946.html

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What happens to you if we go over the fiscal cliff

1 day

Allison Linn , NBC News

Some lawmakers are back in Washington hoping to hammer out a last-minute deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, but so far it seems that there?s more name-calling than deal-making going on.

If no deal is ever reached, it will be more than just a political headache. Americans also could feel considerable pocketbook pain as taxes rise, unemployment benefits are cut off and an array of smaller changes take effect.

The cumulative effect on Americans? wallets could be enough to dent?significantly the already weak economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said the combination of tax increases and spending cuts could be enough to send the nation back into recession.

That?s the worst-case scenario, and despite the considerable gridlock, most experts expect that Congress and the president will eventually come to some sort of deal. Experts also say that even if no deal is reached by Jan. 1, retroactive fixes and other dealmaking could prevent the most harmful effects from ever hitting most Americans.

Related: Consumers, businesses brace for fiscal cliff impact

Still, the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank, says that nearly 90 percent of households?would be affected if we go over the fiscal cliff completely and no deal is reached.

A stalemate would have very specific effects on certain groups of taxpayers, such as students, parents and married couples who have benefited over the past decade?from certain tax law changes passed under the Bush and Obama administrations.

But the Tax Policy Center says that on average, taxes would go up for every income group, from the poorest taxpayers to the most wealthy:

• Americans in the lowest 20 percent of the income scale could pay an average of about $400 more in taxes.
  
• Middle-income households could pay about $2,000 more in taxes, on average.
  
• The top 20 percent of taxpayers could pay about $14,000 more a year in taxes, on average.
  
• The 1 percenters could pay an average of $120,000 more in taxes.
  

Here?s a look at some of the biggest issues likely to affect the largest groups of taxpayers if Congress cannot make a deal.

Tax rates will go up: If no deal is made, taxpayers can expect their tax rate to rise no matter what income group they fall in, said?Roberton Williams, senior fellow with the Tax Policy Institute. That?s because previously passed rate cuts would expire.

?Everyone who has taxable income will see a tax increase because of the rates,? Williams said.

Payroll taxes: For the past two years, the employee?s share of taxes paid for Social Security has been set at 4.2 percent instead of the previous level of 6.2 percent. That temporary tax cut would expire without a new deal, meaning almost everyone?s taxes would rise by 2 percentage points.

Translation: Your paycheck would be a little bit smaller.

?That?s the thing that people will see first,? Williams said.

Alternative Minimum Tax:? The Alternative Minimum Tax? was originally designed so that wealthy taxpayers would be forced to pay a minimum level of taxes no matter what. But because it was not created to account for inflation, over the years it has threatened to affect an ever-bigger group of people.

Congress has previously passed temporary ?patches? to keep lower-income households from having to pay more taxes. If no deal is reached this year, the latest patch would expire and the Internal Revenue Service says around 30 million additional taxpayers would become subject to the AMT.

Of course, every taxpayer?s individual circumstances are different. To see how your family?s tax rates could be affected, you can check out the Tax Policy Center?s individualized tax?calculator.

Taxes aren?t the only pocketbook problem Americans could face if a deal isn?t reached, because so much government spending is tied up in reaching a deal. But the most widespread effect would probably be on people who have been unemployed for a long time.

Unemployment benefits: About 2.1 million unemployed Americans are scheduled to lose federally funded unemployment compensation if Congress can?t reach a deal to extend the benefits plan by the end of the year. President Obama has said he?d like to see those benefits extended as part of a fiscal cliff deal.

The federally funded unemployment benefit extensions were introduced in 2008 while the country was in the depths of the recession. The extended benefits kick in after an unemployed person has exhausted his or her 26 weeks of state benefits. The exact amount of additional compensation depends on the unemployment rate in the person?s home state.

The unemployment rate has fallen sharply in recent months, but long-term unemployment remains a major?problem. About 4.8 million people, or 40 percent of the total number of people who were unemployed in November, had been jobless for 27 weeks or more.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/heres-what-happens-you-if-we-go-over-fiscal-cliff-1C7753059

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Venezuelans obsess: Will Chavez live or die?

A snapshot of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is surrounded by a trio of religious prayer cards and a sign that reads in Spanish; "Merry Christmas" on a red background hanging at a state-run market in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Dec. 28, 2012. The obsessive, circular conversations about Chavez's health dominate family dinners, plaza chit-chats and social media sites in this country on edge since its larger-than-life leader went to Cuba for emergency cancer surgery more than two weeks ago. The man whose booming voice once dominated the airwaves for hours at a time has not been seen or heard from since. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A snapshot of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is surrounded by a trio of religious prayer cards and a sign that reads in Spanish; "Merry Christmas" on a red background hanging at a state-run market in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Dec. 28, 2012. The obsessive, circular conversations about Chavez's health dominate family dinners, plaza chit-chats and social media sites in this country on edge since its larger-than-life leader went to Cuba for emergency cancer surgery more than two weeks ago. The man whose booming voice once dominated the airwaves for hours at a time has not been seen or heard from since. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A vendor wearing a T-shirt with an image of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez sells vegetable at a state-run market in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Dec. 28, 2012. The obsessive, circular conversations about Chavez's health dominate family dinners, plaza chit-chats and social media sites in this country on edge since its larger-than-life leader went to Cuba for emergency cancer surgery more than two weeks ago. The man whose booming voice once dominated the airwaves for hours at a time has not been seen or heard from since.(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Iconic T-shirts styled with images of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez are displayed for sale next to a T-shirt of Venezuelan musician Ali Primera, in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Dec. 28, 2012. The obsessive, circular conversations about Chavez's health dominate family dinners, plaza chit-chats and social media sites in this country on edge since its larger-than-life leader went to Cuba for emergency cancer surgery more than two weeks ago. The man whose booming voice once dominated the airwaves for hours at a time has not been seen or heard from since.(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Portraits of Venezuela's independence hero Simon Bolivar, left, and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez are exhibited for sale on folding easels in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Dec. 28, 2012. The obsessive, circular conversations about Chavez's health dominate family dinners, plaza chit-chats and social media sites in this country on edge since its larger-than-life leader went to Cuba for emergency cancer surgery more than two weeks ago. The man whose booming voice once dominated the airwaves for hours at a time has not been seen or heard from since.(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? He's getting better. He's getting worse. He's already dead. The whole thing is a conspiracy and he was never sick in the first place.

The obsessive, circular conversations about President Hugo Chavez's health dominate family dinners, plaza chit-chats and social media sites in this country on edge since its larger-than-life leader went to Cuba for emergency cancer surgery more than two weeks ago. The man whose booming voice once dominated the airwaves for hours at a time has not been seen or heard from since.

His lieutenants have consistently assured Venezuelans over the last week that Chavez is slowly on the mend and will be back at the helm of the country he has dominated for 14 years. But when will he be back? Will he be well enough to govern? What type of cancer does he have? Is it terminal? If so, how long does he have to live?

Government officials have not answered any of those questions, leaving Venezuelans to their own speculations. The wildest conspiracy theories run the gamut from those who say there is no proof Chavez is even still alive to those who believe his illness is a made-up play for sympathy.

"Everything has been a mystery. Everyone believes what they want about the status of his health," said Ismael Garcia, a leftist lawmaker who belonged to the Chavez movement until a falling-out a few years ago.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro read out a New Year message from Chavez to Venezuelan troops on Friday, but for the fourth day in a row offered no updates on the president's health. Maduro had announced Monday night that Chavez was walking and doing some exercises.

The uncertainty comes with a sense of urgency because Chavez is scheduled to be sworn in for a new six-year term Jan. 10. The government and opposition disagree on what should happen if Chavez can't show up, raising the threat of a destabilizing legal fight. Beyond that, nobody knows if Chavez's deputies, who have long worked under his formidable shadow, can hold the country together if he dies.

Like everything else in this fiercely divided country, what people believe usually depends on where their political loyalty lies. Chavez opponents are mostly convinced that the president has terminal cancer, has known it for a long time and should not have sought re-election in October. His most fervent supporters refuse to believe "El Comandante" will die.

"Chavez is going to live on. He is a very important man. He has transformed the world with his ideology," said Victor Coba, a 48-year-old construction worker standing outside a Caracas church as government officials held a Mass to pray for the leader. "Anyone of us will die first before Chavez."

Coba scurried off to a street corner where officials were handing out a book of photographs of Chavez's recent presidential campaign. The comandante's grinning face looked out from the cover, alongside the slogan "Chavez, the heart of my country."

The same image looms from billboards erected all over Caracas, from freeway medians to the low-income apartment towers being built with Venezuelan oil wealth. Such services for the poor have helped Chavez maintain a core of followers despite high inflation, rampant gun violence, trash-strewn cities and other problems he has failed to fix.

For many, the attachment to Chavez borders on religious reverence. His supporters wish each other "Feliz Chavidad" rather than "Feliz Navidad," or Merry Christmas. Government officials have started talking about Chavez like an omnipresent deity.

"Chavez is this cable car. Chavez is this great mission. The children are Chavez. The women are Chavez. The men are Chavez. We are all Chavez," Maduro said recently while inaugurating a cable car to bring people down from one of the vast slums that creep up Caracas' hillsides. "Comandante, take care of yourself, get better and we will be waiting for you here."

Crowds of red-clad supporters roar their approval each time Maduro reassures them. But on the streets, confusion reigns.

"People say he's going to get better," said Alibexi Birriel, an office manager eating at a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Day.

Her husband Richard Hernandez shook his head. "No. Most people say Chavez is going to die and that Nicolas Maduro is going to take power."

Birriel paused, chiming in, "Well, some think this whole thing is theater and that there's nothing wrong with him."

Hernandez, who described himself as a Chavez supporter but "not a fanatic," shrugged. "The opposition thinks that if Chavez died they are going to win the elections. That is not going to happen."

There have been some official details. Chavez, 58, first underwent surgery for an unspecified type of pelvic cancer in Cuba in June 2011 and went back this month after tests had found a return of malignant cells in the same area where tumors had already been twice removed. Venezuelan officials said that following a six-hour surgery Dec. 11, Chavez suffered internal bleeding that was stanched and a respiratory infection that was being treated.

Just five months earlier, Chavez had announced he was free of cancer. But he acknowledged the seriousness of his illness earlier before flying to Cuba this month by designating Maduro as his successor and telling his supporters to vote for the vice president should new elections be necessary. Outside doctors have said that judging from the information Chavez has provided, his cancer is likely terminal, though the government has never confirmed that.

On Christmas Eve, Maduro surprised Venezuelans by saying he had spoken to Chavez by telephone and that the president was up and walking. With no other details, that only set off another round of furious speculation.

"I don't think he can be standing up walking," said Dr. Gustavo Medrano, a lung specialist at the Centro Medico hospital in Caracas. "Unless ... there are a lot of lies in this and the surgery was not six hours ... but something else much simpler, much simpler, maybe a half-hour operation, or two hours, something like that and that he is now recovering. That is possible."

Chavez supporters tweeted their relief and joy. Opponents tweeted incredulity. They traded insults in the comment sections of newspaper websites. Some posters demanded to know where the proof was that the president was even still alive. Others wondered if he had ever been sick in the first place. Chavez supporters shot back that the rumor-mongering should stop.

One Chavez foe finally posted on the Ultimas Noticias newspaper website, "Bla, bla, bla ... He's getting better, he's dying, he has nothing, he's strong as a bull, he can't get of bed, all the hypotheses are valid because there is no proof of anything."

Amid the raging rumors, Chavez's daughter, Maria Gabriela Chavez, sent out a Twitter message from Havana last week pleading for it all to stop.

"Respect for my family and especially respect for my people. Enough lies! We are with papa. ALIVE, fighting and recovering. WITH GOD," she wrote.

Teresa Maniglia, a press officer at the presidential palace, has kept up a steady stream of cheerleading tweets.

"CHAVEZ all the time."

That's for sure.

______

Follow Alexandra Olson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/alexolson99

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-28-LT-Venezuela-In-The-Dark/id-2b7a4f4ce2ba4c949cc52917160e4c27

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5 issues facing small businesses in 2013

40 min.

JOYCE M. ROSENBERG , Associated Press

In 2013, small business owners will contend with many of the same issues that made it hard to run their companies over the last 12 months.

They're also heading into the new year with a lot of uncertainty. It's unlikely that negotiations in Congress will resolve all of lawmakers' disagreements over tax and budget issues that affect small businesses. And there are still many questions about the implications of the health care law for small companies.

That points to continued caution ? and perhaps slow hiring ? among the nation's small companies.

"Uncertainty is the bane of every small business," says Scott Shane, a professor of entrepreneurship at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management in Cleveland. "Their only rational response is to pull in their horns and slow down."

Small businesses aren't likely to get much encouragement from the economy. It's expected to grow by no more than 3 percent in 2013, according to the Federal Reserve. That's a moderate pace, better than the 1.7 percent that the economy grew during the first three quarters of 2012. But it's also far from robust.

Here's a look at some of the issues facing small businesses in the coming year:

Taxes
Lawmakers are still haggling over what's called the fiscal cliff, the combination of billions of dollars in tax increases and budget cuts. Even if Congress reaches an agreement, small business owners won't have the certainty they need, according to Todd McCracken, president of the National Small Business Association, a group that lobbies on behalf of small companies.

"It almost surely won't be comprehensive enough that we won't be revisiting it next year," McCracken says. He's concerned that there'll be another fiscal cliff in six months ? which would mean more negotiations and more uncertainty.

Many small business owners are worried about their personal tax rates. Sole proprietors, partners and owners of what are called S corporations, all report the income from their businesses on their individual Form 1040 returns. That means their companies are in effect taxed at personal rates, which can be higher than corporate rates.

One of the most important tax provisions for small businesses, what's known as the Section 179 deduction, will shrink to $25,000 next year from $125,000 in 2012. The deduction, which applies to equipment purchases, was $500,000 in 2011. Congress can increase the deduction at any time, even after 2013 has begun. But for the time being, business owners can't count on getting a big break.

"It's a huge change for companies planning on making investments," McCracken says.

It's not known if Congress will extend the 2 percentage point payroll tax cut that workers have had for two years. If it doesn't, consumers will have less money in their paychecks to spend, and that is likely to affect retailers and any other small businesses that sell directly to the public.

Health care
Health care has been another source of uncertainty for small business owners. The new year will bring some, but probably not all, of the answers to questions about how the new health care law will affect them. Many will have to devote some time to understanding the law ? or hire someone to help them do it.

"They'll have to get their arms around the law, look at their options, learn more about the exchanges," says John Arensmeyer, CEO of Small Business Majority, a lobbying group.

Under the law, companies with 50 or more employees will be required to provide affordable health care insurance for their employees starting Jan. 1, 2014. During 2013, federal and state health insurance exchanges will be set up, and owners will be able to see how much it will cost them to buy insurance. As the year begins, however, many small business owners don't know whether their states will be creating exchanges, or whether they'll have to go into the national system ? and they don't know what that will mean for their costs.

For some owners, that information will help them decide whether they will buy insurance, or whether they'll decide it's cheaper to not provide coverage and just pay the government a $2,000-per-employee fine. For those who have close to 50 workers, they may decide to not hire more workers in order to remain outside the law's jurisdiction.

Lending
Don't look for the small business lending climate to get easier in 2013. Owners who are uneasy about the economy, taxes and health care aren't expected to significantly increase their borrowing, especially as many have been paying down debt since the recession. But even those who are ready to borrow are expected to find it's still hard to get a loan. Bankers are unlikely to be more liberal in their lending policies.

Depressed lending levels may be with us well beyond 2013, says James Schrager, a professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

The problem isn't just that banks are cautious about small business loans. Schrager notes that home equity loans, a traditional source of money for people starting or expanding a business, remain difficult to get, the result of the collapse in the mortgage market in 2008.

Small Business Majority's Arensmeyer is hopeful that a bill introduced in Congress this year to allow credit unions to make more loans to small businesses will get more traction when the new Congress convenes. That bill would more than double the amount of total assets that credit unions can use to lend to small businesses to 27.5 percent.

But he's also not expecting major changes in lending next year.

"Sadly, I don't think we're going to increase our access to capital overnight," he says.

Onshoring
A trend that's expected to gain speed in 2013 is what's calling onshoring. That's the term for manufacturing that had been done overseas, and that's now taking place back in U.S. factories. Apple Inc. earlier this month said it would move production of some of its Mac computers to the U.S. from China next year ? but many small businesses have already been making the switch. While Apple is an example of a big company moving in this direction, the majority of U.S. manufacturers are small businesses.

There are several reasons behind the trend. As China becomes more of a middle-class country, wages for its workers are rising, and that is lessening some of the appeal of manufacturing there for U.S. companies, says Steven Kaplan, a professor of entrepreneurship and finance at Chicago's Booth School. Over the past two decades, it was the cheaper labor in China that prompted businesses of all sizes to have everything from computers to clothes to food ingredients made in China.

The rising cost of fuel, which has made transporting goods more expensive, is another factor in onshoring.

"Manufacturing in the U.S. is relatively more attractive than it has been in 20 years," Kaplan says.

Skilled worker shortage
While companies' caution has weighed on the job market, many company owners who actually want to hire say it's hard to find workers to fill some positions.

It's becoming more difficult to find people who have the skills they need, these owners say. Many new manufacturing jobs require high-tech skills. They include positions at factories where computers are used to create products like airplane parts and machinery. And some require several years of training, says Shane, the Case Western Reserve professor. For example: A company that makes metal molds which are in turn used to create automobile dashboards. That takes a machinist who knows cutting-edge processes to make the molds.

"You cannot take someone off the street to do it," Shane says.

Because of changing technology, owners are struggling to find qualified workers in 2013.

"There's a whole level of work that's going to require skills that weren't needed in traditional jobs," says Arensmeyer. He notes that community colleges around the country are offering courses that will help train workers to fill these jobs. But training takes time, and the demand for jobs may continue to outstrip the supply of qualified workers.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/5-issues-facing-small-businesses-2013-1C7660251

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Tensions hit French Embassy in C. African Republic

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) ? Angry protesters carrying clubs threw rocks at the French Embassy in Central African Republic on Wednesday, criticizing the former colonial power for failing to do more to stem a rapid rebel advance as fears grew that the insurgents aim to seize the capital.

The demonstrations began earlier in the day outside the U.S. Embassy before about 100 protesters then took to the French Embassy, carrying pieces of cardboard with messages that read: "No to war! No to France!"

"It's France who colonized us ? they should support us until the end. Unfortunately, they have done nothing. In this case, we are merely asking purely and simply that they leave our country," shouted one young demonstrator in front of the French mission in Bangui.

The protesters then began stopping cars to verify whether any foreign nationals were inside.

"These people have taken down the French flag from its pole and removed it," said Serge Mucetti, the French ambassador to Central African Republic. "They have carried out stone-throwing in the area of the embassy and have broken windows. This kind of behavior is unacceptable."

Air France confirmed Wednesday that its once-a-week flight to Bangui turned back because of protests at the French Embassy. The decision was made independently by Air France, and the French government did not make the request, said an airline spokeswoman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because company policy did not authorize her to speak on the record.

The French foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the armed attacks, saying they "gravely undermine the peace agreements in place and the efforts of the international community to consolidate peace" in the country, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

The U.N. chief appealed to all parties to refrain from any acts of violence against civilian and to respect human rights, he said.

The secretary-general welcomed the conclusions of the heads of state summit of the Economic Community of the Central African States in Ndjamena, Chad, on Dec. 21 and urged all parties to abide by the decisions "which provide a basis for a peaceful resolution of the dispute," Nesirky said.

But many fear that Bangui, a city of about 600,000 people, could be the scene of a battle between government forces and the rebels. The fighters already have seized at least 10 towns, meeting little resistance from soldiers.

Rebel Col. Djouma Narkoyo said Wednesday that his forces have continued taking towns in recent days because government forces are attacking their positions. But, he insisted via phone: "Our intention is not to take Bangui. We still remain open to dialogue."

Bangui residents were skeptical of the insurgents' intentions.

"We are afraid by what we see happening in our country right now," said Leon Modomale, a civil servant in the capital. "It's as if the rebels are going to arrive in Bangui any moment now because there are too many contradictions in their language."

The rebel advance began earlier this month, with a push by the Union for the Democratic Forces for Unity, known by its French acronym of UFDR. The group signed an April 13, 2007, peace accord, which paved the way for the fighters to join the regular army, but the group's leaders say the deal was never properly implemented.

Central African Republic is a desperately poor, landlocked country that has suffered numerous rebellions since independence from France. Despite the nation's wealth of gold, diamonds, timber and uranium, the government remains perpetually cash-strapped.

U.S. special forces troops have deployed to Central African Republic among other countries in the region in the hunt for Joseph Kony, the fugitive rebel leader of the notorious Lord's Resistance Army.

___

Associated Press Writer Lori Hinnant contributed to this report from Paris.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tensions-hit-french-embassy-c-african-republic-225148800.html

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Essay Writing Guide | Online Education Blog

Writing essay is a common assignment given by teachers to expand students? comprehension of certain topic. However, getting good essay score is quite difficult because most teachers evaluate the essay carefully and thoroughly. Therefore, you have to do the right ways in writing essay. Make sure you follow the guidance of writing each part of the essay below.

Introduction

A good essay should have a good start. First impression is one of the main things that determine your essay result. All readers including your teachers certainly will be attracted and decide to continue reading or not based on their first impression when reading your essay.

Therefore, you have to create attractive introduction by giving a good argument or an engaging statement about the topic that is going to be discussed. Furthermore, to avoid making boring and flat introduction, you can quote experts? quotations. For example is if you are going to write essay about health, you can quote ?A fit, healthy body?that is the best fashion statement? from Jess. C. Scott or ?The first wealth is health? from Ralph Waldo Emerson, etc.

Body

Don?t be rushed to start writing essay body because you have to understand the topic first. You should do research about the topic first before writing. Thus, based on your knowledge got when doing research, you have to make outlines by expanding the main topic.

Then, you also have to make sub points because each point must be equipped with several supporting sentences. Bear in mind to stay focused on writing to keep it relevant with the main topic.

Conclusion

Writing conclusion should be the easiest part if you created good essay?s introduction and body. You only need to make a brief summary of the main topic discussed in your essay. In addition, you can also ask readers to take action after reading your essay. Conclusion shouldn?t be too long, just make it clear and rational.

Well, isn?t writing essay quite easy? If you are still confused of writing essay well, you should not worry because there is custom essay writing service available on the internet that overcomes this problem because there are experts who write essay for you.

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Source: http://www.snuglies.com/2012/12/essay-writing-guide/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=essay-writing-guide

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Business hotel introduces world's first smart hotel key | CNN Travel

This is one hotel key you don?t want to lose.

A new business hotel in Seoul has started using smartphones for hotel keys that also allow guests to surf the Internet and control room lights, television and temperature.

Hotel Skypark Central in Seoul?s financial district launched the smart-key service on December 26, changing the locks and room controls in 16 of its rooms.

Guests pick up the smartphone when they check in at the front desk.

Smart buildings

?We wanted to do more technological advancement with smart buildings, so working with a hotel was a new initiative for us,? said Dong-hui Lim, public relations representative for LG CNS, the IT service provider that developed the technology.

?It?s convenient for guests, as they can control the room from outside the hotel, as well. For example, in winter, they?d be able to have the room heated before they came back to the hotel.?

Although a number of hotels around the world have placed tablets in rooms with similar capabilities for controlling room features, LG CNS and Hotel Skypark Central say this is the first time this particular technology has been used in a hotel anywhere in the world.

New tech

Dubbed Near-Field Communication (NFC), the new technology also allows hotels to monitor the environment of all rooms via a single management screen.

?We plan on implementing the service at two more hotels that we are planning on opening,? said Hotel Skypark Central marketing representative Woo Hye-yeon.

?We had a brief testing period before we officially launched the service, and the users liked it a lot. They found it very useful.?

Actual phone services aren't enabled on the smartphone keys, but Wi-Fi is provided by the hotel at no extra charge.

Asked if guests would be worried about losing the smartphone key (the hotel won't say what it will charge for a lost key), Lim said that may be the case for a short period, but added that in the future guests will be able to download an app on their own smartphones in order to use the service.

Skypark Central Hotel, Myeongdong 9-gil 16, Jung-gu, Seoul; +82 2 752 0092; rooms from ?200,000 (US$187); www.skyparkhotel.com

More on CNN: Hacking demo at conference may have inspired hotel break-ins?

Source: http://travel.cnn.com/introducing-worlds-smartest-hotel-key-356796

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Telescope-toting balloon lifts off from Antarctica

A giant helium balloon is slowly drifting above Antarctica, about 22 miles (36 kilometers) up. Launched on Tuesday from the National Science Foundation's Long Duration Balloon facility on Earth's southernmost continent, it carries a sensitive telescope that measures submillimeter light waves from stellar nurseries in our Milky Way.

"Christmas launch!" officials with NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, which oversees the agency's balloon research program, wrote in a Twitter update on Tuesday. "BLAST launched today from McMurdo Station, Antarctica."

This is the fifth and final mission for BLAST, short for the Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Submillimeter Telescope, and mission designers hope it will reveal why so few stars are born in our galaxy.

On Dec. 12, BLAST was still in one of the two giant Payload Assembly Buildings at the Long Duration Balloon facility, a short distance from the U.S. research center McMurdo Station. Principal investigator Mark Devlin of the University of Pennsylvania and a group of graduate students were mounting a giant sunshade on the telescope, to ensure that the ultra-cold detectors won't heat up during the flight.

"The detectors are cooled to 0.3 degrees above absolute zero, using liquid helium," said Devlin. "If they were any warmer, they wouldn't be able to register the faint submillimeter radiation of cold interstellar dust clouds at just 30 degrees above absolute zero."

Star mystery
After test flights in 2003 in New Mexico and in 2005 in Sweden, BLAST's third flight, in 2006 from Antarctica, was a "mind-boggling" success, Devlin said. The instrument revealed beyond doubt that in the most distant galaxies, new stars were being born at a prolific rate. By measuring the star formation rate in galaxies more than 7 billion light-years away, the researchers determined that over half of the stars in the universe were born within the first 5 billion years after the Big Bang.

"But there's an unsolved problem," added co-principal investigator Barth Netterfield of the University of Toronto, who was assisting the BLAST team with the launch preparations. "BLAST found lots of so-called dark cores in our own Milky Way ? dense clouds of cold dust that are supposed to be stars-in-the-making. Based on the number of dark cores, you would expect our galaxy to spawn dozens of new stars each year on average. Yet, the galactic star formation rate is only some four solar masses per year."

So why is the stellar birth rate in our Milky Way so low? Astronomers can think of two ways in which a dense cloud of dust is prevented from further contracting into a star: turbulence in the dust, or the collapse-impeding effects of magnetic fields. On its new mission, BLAST should find out which process is to blame. [Images: Life at Antarctica's Concordia Station]

The idea is straightforward: Magnetic fields tend to bring electrically charged, elongated dust particles into alignment. If dust particles have a preferred orientation, they will slightly polarize the submillimeter radiation from the cloud. Using polarimeters, BLAST can detect if the radiation is indeed polarized, and if it is, determine the direction of the magnetic field. "If there's no polarization present," said Netterfield, "turbulence must be the reason" why so few dark cores collapse into new stars.

Final mission?
In 2010, on its fourth mission, BLAST was already equipped with polarimeters. However, according to Devlin, "that flight did not do so well because of a melted filter. We have some data, but we know we can do better."

Luckily, repeating a balloon-borne experiment is much easier and much cheaper than re-launching a scientific satellite. After each flight, most of the payload is recovered and can be used again. The BLAST camera has been recovered every single time.

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BLAST's fifth flight will probably last between 12 and 14 days. While Devlin, Netterfield and their colleagues are celebrating Christmas and New Year's Eve, the 4,000-pound (1,800-kilogram) stratospheric telescope will observe selected star-forming regions in the constellations Vela and Lupus.

And if senior graduate student Tristan Matthews of Northwestern University Illinois has his way, this may not be BLAST's final mission after all. Depending on the results and the recovery success of the current flight, Matthews hopes to fly BLAST in its present configuration for a sixth time, in the Arctic. "That would give us access to a well-studied and nearby star-forming region in Taurus," he said.

Meanwhile, Devlin has received a $5 million grant from NASA over a period of five years to develop a larger version of BLAST, with a 2.5-meter mirror, compared with the current 1.8-meter aperture. That would vastly increase the number of stellar nurseries that could be studied. "We could fly SuperBLAST in 2016 or so," he said.

Dutch astronomy writer Govert Schilling visited McMurdo Station and the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station as a selected member of the U.S. National Science Foundation's 2012/2013 media visit program. Follow Space.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also onFacebook and Google+.

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

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50297788/ns/technology_and_science-space/

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