Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/169439346?client_source=feed&format=rss
kate middleton pregnant national book awards jessica sutta houston astros matt barnes sexiest man alive 2011 ruben studdard
Sunday, December 4, 2011
A Triumphant Return
Yup, I'm back. I suspect that a lot of you new kids don't know me. I'm an old-schooler round these parts.
Mostly I'm here to eliminate boredom a bit in the chat. I might also impart some of my wisdom with RPA initiatives.
So I can't make a short post, so I suppose I'll tell you a bit of my history to pad out this post...
I started RPing in 2004 or something, on teenchat.com, totally stumbled upon RP by accident. Stayed there for a bit, came here before it was RPGateway, in 2006. And now I've reached the limit, so it's all you're getting.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/zUVKN0zrEQo/viewtopic.php
bhutan zip code finder zip code finder blackhawks tigers tigers rangers
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Motorola Xyboard tablet says hello to FCC, totes Verizon LTE bands (update: two tablets!)
Could this be the Motorola Xyboard Media Edition with Verizon's LTE making its way through the FCC? The tablet sports LTE band 13 -- Big Red's particular flavor -- as well as CDMA / EVDO. It also technically houses GSM / EDGE / WCDMA functionality, though the government documents state that it's SIM-locked and disabled by firmware. The docs also give us a good healthy diagram of its back, which clearly shows the same outline and angled corners seen on the Xoom 2 Media Edition, as well as the same camera and LED flash configuration (seen in the gallery below). Our prediction: what we're seeing here is Verizon's iteration of the 8-inch Xyboard Media Edition complete with LTE. Hopefully we'll learn soon enough, and we'll keep digging in the meantime to see if we can uncover any other interesting nuggets of info.
Update: Shortly after the 8-inch version cleared the FCC, its 10-inch sibling -- also bearing Verizon LTE -- made it through as well. We're likely seeing the pair of Xyboard tablets that we reported on earlier today.
Update: Shortly after the 8-inch version cleared the FCC, its 10-inch sibling -- also bearing Verizon LTE -- made it through as well. We're likely seeing the pair of Xyboard tablets that we reported on earlier today.
Motorola Xyboard tablet says hello to FCC, totes Verizon LTE bands (update: two tablets!) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink
WirelessGoodness | 
FCC (1), (2) | Email this | Comments
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/ITwHjh6sgIE/
kourtney and kim take new york anne hathaway news channel 5 nathan hale ohio state football kohls coupons joe kapp
Friday, December 2, 2011
Job growth up, but not for quality jobs
By John W. Schoen, Senior Producer
The economy took another step in the right direction last month, when the jobless rate fell to the lowest since March 2009.?
The government's latest job report Friday showed the unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent. It was the first time it has been below 9.0 percent since May 2009.
The November jobs data follows a series of recent economic reports data showing that the economy is gradually getting back on its feet.
"There is some built-in resilience in the American economy," said Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago professor and former White House chief economist. "We keep taking punches, but like the bunny, we're coming back."
U.S. employers added 120,000 new jobs in November, roughly what forecasters had expected. Job growth accelerated from October, and the government bumped up its job counts for September and October by a total of 72,000.
Private employers created 140,000 more jobs than they cut last month, while governments continued to shed workers.?20,000?overall, mostly at the local and state level. Faced with pressure to cut spending, government employers have eliminated roughly half-million jobs in the past year.
The average number of hours worked remained flat in November, while wages fell by 0.1 percent.
More than half the new jobs November were added by retailers, restaurants and bars. Retailers added 50,000 jobs, the sector's biggest gain since April. Restaurants and bars hired 33,000 new workers. The health care industry added 17,000.
"The quality of jobs is not as great as you would like to see," said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities. "A lot of the jobs were probably part-time positions and that is one of the reasons average hourly earnings fell."
The surprise drop in the jobless rate was due in large part to the statistical impact of a sharp contraction in the government's count of the size of the overall workforce. To be counted in the labor force, you have to be actively looking for a job during the week a separate household survey is conducted.
The labor force shrank by 315,000 people last month. That had the effect of lowering the ratio of the number of jobless workers when compared to the overall size of the workforce.
People leave the labor force, as defined by the government survey, when they retire, go back to school or get discouraged and stop looking for a job.
Some of those discouraged workers have recently exhausted their unemployment benefits. As of November, some 5.7 million workers were unemployed for 27 weeks or more, more than five times pre-recession levels.
Though the pace of job creation is picking up, it's still too sluggish to continue to drive the jobless rate even lower, boost consumer confidence and prompt businesses to pick up the pace of hiring.
"People don't feel good about the economy unless they feel good about the job market," said Stanford University economist Ed Lazear. "So we need to get that back on track. But at least it's moving in the right direction."
CNBC's Steve Liesman has the analysis on the jobs data.
The pace of hiring by new small businesses is also picking up. But while the rate of new business formations is accelerating, it still lags?the levels seen before the?recession. Some economists believe that's because the collapse of the housing market has eliminated a major source of funding that drove start-ups during the housing boom.
"People took out a home equity lines of credit to start a new business, or they used their credit cards," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Finanical. "They don't have those options now. People never really relied on banks for small business loans."
Despite the recent pickup in the economic recovery, most forecasters, including the Federal Reserve, see the pace of growth slowing again next year. Those forecasts are clouded by uncertainty about a variety of government policies that remain stalled by political division in Washington. Those include two current programs, a payroll tax cut and extended jobless benefits, that are set to expire at the end of the month. Failure to renew them could knock as much as a full percentage point from next year's gross domestic product.
Much also depends on whether European leaders can resolve a widening financial crisis that has already tipped the euro zone into a recession. Despite two years of talks and a series of proposed solutions, nervous investors have pushed up government borrowing costs and European banks are tightening credit. So far, Europe's central bank has been unwilling or unable to contain the crisis.
"The U.S. seems to have its act together," said Eric Lascelles, RBC Global Asset Management chief economist. "We just have to cross our fingers now that Europe doesn't go horribly wrong, because of course that could very quickly snuff out the kind of recovery we're witnessing now."
Related stories:
Fed sees modest growth, but not many jobs?
Central banks move to shore up global financial system
?
uekman uekman music awards music awards giants eagles bcs rankings week 13 bcs rankings week 13
FACT CHECK: GOP field flubs, big and small
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at Tommy's Ham House, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011, in Greenville , S.C. (AP Photo/ Richard Shiro)
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at Tommy's Ham House, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011, in Greenville , S.C. (AP Photo/ Richard Shiro)
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at Tommy's Ham House, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011, in Greenville , S.C. (AP Photo/ Richard Shiro)
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain speaks during his first stop of an Ohio bus tour at the Cincinnati Marriott North in West Chester, Ohio, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011. Cain claimed Wednesday that he has experienced a "groundswell of positive support" from backers who are ignoring the most recent charge of a 13-year extramarital affair. (AP Photo/The Enquirer, Tony Jones) NO SALES, MANDATORY CREDIT
FILE - In this Oct. 4, 2011 file photo, Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks at a town hall meeting in The Villages, Fla. While others focus on Iowa's caucuses or New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary, Mitt Romney is set to spend the day in Florida _ and it's the only early voting state he's visiting this week, just five weeks before voting begins. (AP Photo/Reinhold Matay, File)
GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) ? Newt Gingrich didn't know when he would take office if he wins the presidency. Rick Perry got the voting age and the date of Election Day wrong. Herman Cain didn't realize the president does not sign amendments to the Constitution.
In ways large and small, Republican presidential hopefuls are proving on multiple occasions to be "factually challenged," as Gingrich rather haughtily described a rival, despite getting some things wrong himself.
Campaigns are long and tough, candidates are often tired and flubs happen. But they are adding up and at some point could give Republican voters pause as they look for the candidate best able to take on the highly polished ? though hardly factually infallible ? President Barack Obama.
In submitting to what is, in effect, America's toughest job interview, there may be only so much leeway in getting matters of current affairs and history plain wrong.
Frequent flubber Michele Bachmann's suggestion many months ago that the Revolutionary battles of Lexington and Concord took place in New Hampshire was an opening shot, of sorts, in a volley of misfires by the candidates. Those battles were fought in Massachusetts in 1775.
And on Wednesday, she offered another: She would support the United States shutting down its embassy in Tehran ? but there is no U.S. Embassy in Iran's capital.
Never mind the facts, her top spokeswoman said. "Congresswoman Bachmann is a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence and is fully aware that we do not have an embassy in Iran and have not had one since 1980," Alice Stewart said in a statement.
It's the latest but hardly the worst.
Cain promoted Chile's retirement system as one that gives workers the option of having private accounts, when in fact they have no choice. Mitt Romney accused Obama of "peacetime spending binges" as if there were no wars going on. Bachmann accused Obama of canceling a Canadian pipeline project that has only been delayed.
On Wednesday, Gingrich told voters packed into Tommy's Country Ham House in Greenville, S.C., that he would sign legislation repealing health care and Wall Street overhauls when he takes office on Jan. 21, 2013.
"My intent will be to ask the new Congress to stay in session when they are sworn in on Jan. 3 and to pass ? and hold at the desk until I'm sworn in on the 21st ? to pass the repeal of Obamacare and the repeal of Dodd-Frank and the repeal of Sarbanes-Oxley so that I can sign them on the 21st," Gingrich told the packed restaurant.
One problem: the Constitution that Gingrich constantly cites during his presidential campaign says the transition of power after an election takes place on Jan. 20.
Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said Gingrich would assume powers at noon on Jan. 20, 2013, following the 20th Amendment of the Constitution. Because that day is a Sunday, the Inauguration's festivities would be scheduled on Jan. 21 of that year. Ronald Reagan followed a similar schedule for his second inaugural on Monday, Jan. 21, 1985.
Even so, Gingrich was wrong to say "I'm sworn in on the 21st."
A day earlier, Texas Gov. Rick Perry suggested the voting age is 21 and got the date wrong for Election Day.
"Those of you that will be 21 by November the 12th, I ask for your support and your vote," he told students at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire.
The voting age is 18. And New Hampshire is scheduled to be the first state in the nation to host a Republican presidential primary on Jan. 10; the general election is scheduled for Nov. 6, 2012.
And Cain said he would back an amendment to the Constitution to ban abortion.
"If we can get the necessary support and it comes to my desk, I'll sign it," he told the Christian Broadcasting Network.
Except presidents don't sign amendments. Congress passes them and the states ratify them. The president could champion them, but the Constitution doesn't give him or her any formal role.
Since the campaign's start, each candidate has had a turn explaining errors as either the side effects of an exhausting schedule or simple foot-in-mouth syndrome. Under the intense media scrutiny, each misstep or error draws questions whether each candidate is up for the job.
Romney, too, stepped in it. The former Massachusetts governor said Obama engaged in "one of the biggest peacetime spending binges in American history." He overlooked the United States' role in conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
Yet not all errors are created equal, said Eric Dezenhall, an aide in the Reagan administration and now an image consultant who has worked with everyone from Hollywood stars to business moguls.
"The key factor in whether a gaffe catches on is whether or not it validates a pre-existing prejudice," he said.
"When Perry says that the voting age is 21, it validates the pre-existing suspicion that he's not in command of the basics," he said. "When Newt or Obama say something that is either misguided or incorrect, it doesn't resonate because everybody knows they are smart guys, so they get a break."
And it's not as if Obama hasn't had his doozies. For instance, Obama said during the 2008 campaign that he had visited 57 states. The United States only has 50.
"The flubs that stick are those that fit with a storyline about the candidate," said Doug Hattaway, a Democratic consultant who helped Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential bid. "Gingrich isn't a flubber. He's known for being full of himself and making wacky statements, not flubbing the facts. So the misstatements are less likely to stick to him."
And voters might not care about factual details, Hattaway said.
"Best case of that is George W. Bush, who couldn't pass a civics quiz to save his life. Emotional intelligence is more important in politics than factual knowledge," Hattaway said.
Gingrich might be playing that to his own political advantage.
Before he seemed to reschedule the constitutional transition of power, he criticized Bachmann for stretching the facts about his record on abortion.
"Some people are just factually challenged and it's unfortunate," Gingrich told reporters. "In the eyes of a teacher, occasionally I'd have a student who couldn't figure out where things were, or what things were, or what the right date was. When that happens, you feel sorry that they're so factually challenged."
Associated Pressflorida marlins ncaa basketball boise state football boise state football jack and jill uss carl vinson holly marie combs
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Clinton seeks to embolden reformers in Myanmar talks (Reuters)
NAYPYITAW (Reuters) ? Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began her first substantive talks with Myanmar's new leaders on Thursday in a meeting Washington hopes will embolden reformers in the reclusive country where entrenched military interests still loom large.
Clinton, whose landmark visit to the country also known as Burma marks a tentative rapprochement after more than 50 years of estrangement with the West, began a series of meetings with President Thein Sein, Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin and top officials from parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar's new capital.
"I am here today because President Obama and myself are encouraged by the steps that you and your government have taken to provide for your people," Clinton told Thein Sein as the two sat down for talks in Myanmar's ornate presidential palace.
Thein Sein welcomed Clinton on a visit he said would be a "milestone." "Your excellency's visit will be historic and a new chapter in relations," he said before the start of the closed-door meeting.
Clinton will head to the main city of Yangon later in the day for a private dinner with Aung San Suu Kyi, her first face-to-face meeting with the veteran pro-democracy leader.
Suu Kyi told reporters on Wednesday she fully backed Washington's effort to gauge reforms that Myanmar had enacted since the military nominally gave up power to civilian leaders following elections last year.
"I think we have to be prepared to take risk. Nothing is guaranteed," Suu Kyi told reporters in Washington in a rare public video call from her home in Yangon, where she was held in detention for 15 of the last 21 years before being released in November last year.
But Suu Kyi - a Nobel peace laureate and towering figure for Myanmar's embattled democracy movement - said the United States must remain watchful that the new army-backed civilian government does not halt or roll back political and economic reforms which have gained pace in recent months.
"If there are again arrests of those who are engaging in politics, then I think you would need to speak out loud and clear," she said.
Suu Kyi confirmed she would run in upcoming by-elections. Her National League for Democracy swept elections in 1990 but the military ignored the result.
The party boycotted last year's polls but will contest the by-elections - another sign of the rapid change unfolding -- and hopes to open offices across the country and start a newspaper, she said.
U.S. EXPECTATIONS, CHINESE FEARS
Clinton - the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Myanmar since 1955 - is expected to lay out clear U.S. expectations for the future of reforms.
Analysts say the process could eventually lead Washington to ease sanctions which have strangled the country's economy and driven it closer to China, its main political backer and the regional economic powerhouse which is watching warily as the United States steps up its Asian engagement.
Clinton is also considering what reciprocal steps the United States may take to encourage the reform process, which could include upgrading its representation in Myanmar to full ambassador or supporting more international aid.
Among the U.S. benchmarks will be further releases of political prisoners and genuine government efforts to resolve conflicts between the military and rebellious border-area ethnic minority groups, which rights groups say have spurred some of the country's worst human rights abuses.
Clinton will also urge Myanmar to halt what U.S. officials say are illicit contacts with North Korea.
The United States is concerned about Myanmar's efforts to acquire North Korean missile technology, and have also voiced fears of fledgling nuclear ties between Myanmar and North Korea, whose own nuclear program has drawn international sanctions and led to fears across Northeast Asia.
Among its demands, the United States wants Myanmar to sign additional protocols with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that will expand the nuclear watchdog's ability to monitor and inspect in the country, U.S. officials said.
Following her meeting with Thein Sein, who like many of Myanmar's new civilian leaders is a former army general, Clinton will meet parliamentary leaders, some of whom represent military hardliners skeptical of both the pace and scope of the reforms.
"There are elements that are more interested in certain aspects of reform, others that are considered to be corrupt or have ties to other countries that cause some concern," one senior U.S. official said, saying Clinton would make a clear case for the economic and political benefits of greater engagement with the West.
Clinton has said it is too early to discuss removing U.S. sanctions, which in many cases would require approval by Congress where many lawmakers remain deeply suspicious of Myanmar and alarmed by persistent reports of human rights and other abuses.
Clinton's trip follows a decision by President Barack Obama last month to open the door to expanded ties, saying he saw "flickers of progress."
Officials said the United States - which dismissed last year's election as a sham - was increasingly persuaded that the changes on the ground are real.
"Even though the election itself we felt was deeply and fundamentally flawed, we have seen at least the beginning of debate and divisions much more openly expressed among key players around a whole host of issues," the U.S. official said.
(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell in WASHINGTON; Editing by Robert Birsel)
cory smoot x factor results x factor results do a barrel roll jimmy kimmel tilt do a barrel roll.
Census finds 1 in 8 Americans are seniors ??an all-time high
Newly released 2010 Census figures show that seniors make up a larger share of the American population than ever before. The trend will only gain steam in the years ahead.
Senior citizens now represent a larger share of the US population than they have at any point in the nation's history, and with the first baby boomers hitting 65 this year, the trend is likely only to accelerate in the years ahead.
Skip to next paragraphOn April 1, 2010, some?40.3 million people age 65 and older lived in the United States ? 13 percent of the total national population, according to a new brief by the Census Bureau. In 1900, by contrast, seniors made up only 4.1 percent of the US population.?
Moreover, between 2000 and 2010, the number of senior citizens grew 15.1 percent, while the total US population grew 9.7 percent. That's a reversal of what happened between 1990 and 2000, when the growth of the older population was slower than the growth rate for the US population as a whole.?
One factor bolstering the growth of seniors is the increased longevity of American men. In 2000, there were 70 men for every 100 women age 65 and over. In 2010, that number had risen to 76 men per 100 women.?
The group of Americans age 85 to 94 also grew rapidly ? from 3.9 million in 2000 to 5.1 million in 2010.?
The graying of America will have a profound impact on the country, says?William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institute in Washington.
?The fact that they?re growing so rapidly and people are living longer brings up all kinds of issues of how we?re going to deal with our older population in the future,? Mr. Frey says. ?It?s kind of a ticking time bomb; 20 years down the road they?re going to have other needs to be taken care of.??
The 65- to 69-year-old age group is expected to grow most rapidly in the years ahead as more baby boomers hit that threshold. Over time, that could create serious financial stresses.?
?What we?ve been predicting is now coming to pass,? says Alicia Munnel, the director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. ?We?ve had this confluence of the aging baby boomers with the financial collapse, and this group is going to be drawing on their savings, their pensions, and their Social Security and Medicare, which means those systems will be under pressure.?
In the years ahead, aging baby boomers will sharpen competition for America's resources.
?Even if they?re a positive economic force, the baby boomers will still have different kinds of needs than the younger population does," says Frey. "That dichotomy may bring up contentious issues in elections: Should resources go toward schools and affordable housing for younger people or should it go toward senior services??
Geographically, seniors are most heavily concentrated in the South, where 14.9 million people 65 and older live. The Midwest, which comes in second, has only 9 million.
Among states, Florida ranks No. 1 in concentration of seniors. Some 17.3 percent of Floridians are 65 and over.?
?We are seeing a permanent shift of people moving to warmer climates, especially in the older population,? said Carrie Werner, a statistician in the Age and Special Populations branch at the US Census Bureau.
Other states with high senior populations were West Virginia (16 percent), Maine (15.9 percent), Pennsylvania (15.4 percent), and Iowa (14.9 percent).
The West had the fastest growth of seniors, with the 65-and-older population increasing from 6.9 million to 8.5 million.?
No matter where the seniors are, the time to prepare for the future is now, experts say.
?More than anything, what this headlines is that we?re having an enormous number of people entering retirement," says Ms. Munnel. ?If they?re not provided for, we?re going to have hordes of people with inadequate resources, which begs the question, will they be able to live adequately? It?s a complicated time.?
verlander patriots new england patriots justin verlander pepper spraying cop pepper spraying cop somaya reece
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)