Obama nears deadline on gay marriage decision

President Barack Obama speaks at the Business Council dinner in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama speaks at the Business Council dinner in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The next phase of President Barack Obama's evolving position on gay marriage may come Thursday, the deadline for his administration to weigh in on a landmark Supreme Court case that could determine whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to wed.

Gay rights supporters are pressing the administration to file a friend-of-the-court brief urging the justices to overturn California's gay marriage ban. Obama is not required to file a brief, though he raised expectations in his second inaugural address when he declared that gays and lesbians must be "treated like anyone else under the law."

An administration brief would not be legally binding. But it could offer the clearest insight into Obama's views on gay marriage, which he supports but has said should be governed by the states.

Ahead of Thursday's deadline, dozens of prominent Republicans signed a friend of the court brief asking the justices to declare California's Proposition 8 ballot measure unconstitutional. Among them are former GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman and Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

The Proposition 8 ballot initiative was approved by California voters in 2008 in response to a state Supreme Court decision that had allowed gay marriage. Twenty-nine other states have constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, while nine states and the District of Columbia recognize same-sex marriage.

Gay rights advocates are anticipating the administration filing a broad brief, one that would ask the justices to not only strike down the California measure, but also rule that the Constitution forbids any state from banning same-sex unions. But the administration could also file a narrower brief applying only to California.

Even the latter brief would appear to mark a shift away from the president's contention that states have the right to determine whether to allow same-sex marriages.

While an administration brief alone is unlikely to sway the high court, the government's opinion does carry weight with the justices.

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli would formally file a brief, though he has been consulting with White House officials. And it's almost certain that Obama, a former constitutional law professor, made the administration's final decision.

In his inaugural address, the president said the nation's journey "is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law."

"For if we are truly created equal, than surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well," he said.

Obama has a complicated history on gay marriage. As a presidential candidate in 2008, he opposed the California ban but didn't endorse gay marriage. As he ran for re-election last year, he announced his personal support for same-sex marriage but said marriage was an issue that should be decided by the states, not the federal government.

Public opinion has shifted in support of gay marriage in recent years. In May 2008, Gallup found that 56 percent of Americans felt same-sex marriages should not be recognized by the law as valid. By November 2012, 53 percent felt they should be legally recognized.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Proposition 8 case on March 26. One day later, the justices will hear arguments on another gay marriage case, this one involving provisions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. The act defines marriage as between a man and a woman for the purpose of deciding who can receive a range of federal benefits.

The Obama administration abandoned its defense of the law in 2011 but continues to enforce it. In a brief filed last week, the government said Section 3 of DOMA "violates the fundamental constitutional guarantee of equal protection" because it denies legally married same-sex couples many federal benefits that are available only to legally married heterosexual couples.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-28-US-Obama-Gay-Marriage/id-6678c2081c864f2ab4bb158523d4f55e

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Announcing TechCrunch Disrupt Europe And Hackathon In Berlin ? October 26-29

It's with great pleasure that we can now reveal that TechCrunch's major conference, Disrupt, will be coming to Europe this October. Since TechCrunch started a European operation in 2007 we've been highly conscious of the amazing tech scene developing in this part of the world. Now we've headed the call from our fantastic readers and we're going to create a major, amazing event. "TechCrunch Disrupt Europe: Berlin" will be held - of course - in Berlin, Germany.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/ZR7dWGV-DHI/

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Colo. kids stranded at school overnight by snow

DENVER (AP) ? A snowstorm moving across the Midwest forced about 60 students to spend the night at their Colorado school when a state highway was closed due to dangerous conditions that left some drivers stranded in their cars, as winter weather continued to cause problems for a wide swath of the country.

Tens of thousands remained without power in Michigan, while adverse conditions continued to disrupt flights at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. In eastern Wisconsin, hundreds of vehicles were stranded or ended up in crashes as a winter storm made travel dangerous. And in Kansas, the latest snowstorm to hit the state was being blamed for six deaths.

According to the air traffic tracking website FlightAware.com, about 100 flights in and out of Chicago's airports have been canceled for Wednesday. Flights into O'Hare International Airport are being delayed an average of about an hour.

On the plains in the eastern half of Colorado, wind and snow created whiteout conditions Tuesday afternoon just as buses began taking students home from the Miami-Yoder school district school about 40 miles east of Colorado Springs. The buses turned back to the school and about 60 students, ranging from preschoolers to 12th graders, watched movies, played basketball, ate concession-stand pizza and talked to their parents before bedtime.

The older kids slept on wrestling and gym mats covered with coats, while the younger ones curled up on preschool napping mats, Principal Sharon Webb said.

The school is a large version of a one-room schoolhouse. The students all know each other, and many are related, which Webb said gave it the feel of a sleepover. She said parents were understanding.

"When you live out here in this wide-open country, you know they're where it's the safest," she said of the school.

Daylight showed how powerful the wind had been. Outside, there were drifts up to 4 feet high, but the grass was still visible on the football field.

The blowing snow also temporarily closed a 150-mile stretch of Interstate 70 from just outside Denver to the Kansas line, along with other smaller highways in eastern Colorado, including the one leading to the school. Deputies in surrounding El Paso County responded to about 40 calls for help from stranded drivers or reports of vehicles off the road that might still have people inside. No injuries were reported.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said Wednesday the latest winter storm to hit his state caused six deaths.

The governor said two people died in traffic crashes, two siblings died from carbon monoxide poisoning in Kansas City, Kan., a woman died in southwest Kansas while shoveling snow, and another Kansas City resident was killed while walking in the snow.

The storms that crossed Kansas last Thursday and again this week dropped more than 2 feet of snow in some places and knocked out power to thousands of customers, mostly in eastern counties.

In Michigan, utilities said Wednesday roughly 50,600 homes and businesses lost electrical service after a storm that hit the state starting Tuesday knocked down power lines and tree branches.

Detroit-based DTE Energy Co. said about 40,000 of its customers were without power in the morning, and that Washtenaw County was the hardest hit.

Consumers Energy reported about 10,600 of its customers were without power in Wednesday afternoon. The subsidiary of Jackson-based CMS Energy Corp. said those outages include about 2,624 customers in Jackson County and 2,086 in Calhoun County.

The utilities said crews would work around the clock to restore power.

The National Weather Service said 9 inches of snow were reported in Muskegon, Mich., as of Wednesday morning. Authorities said weather might be a factor in crashes that killed motorists in Sanilac and Monroe counties.

In Wisconsin, there were more than 340 stranded vehicles and crashes in Milwaukee, Kenosha, Ozaukee and Washington counties after heavy snowfall that started Tuesday and continued into Wednesday.

The storm dumped 14 inches in Sheboygan County, where sheriff's Lt. Mark Rupnik said they've had at least 100 calls for stranded vehicles, vehicles in ditches or accidents. He said the main highways were drivable as of Wednesday afternoon but expected the secondary roads to be a problem for the next day.

Several area school districts canceled classes Wednesday, and there were power outages in the Milwaukee area.

Elsewhere, authorities said no one was injured after a train collided with a car that was stuck in snow on railroad tracks in Woodward, Okla., where at least 15 inches of snow fell.

The car's driver tried to drive over the train tracks Wednesday morning but became trapped on the snow-covered road, Oklahoma City television station KWTV reported.

Authorities say the driver was able to exit the car safely but couldn't push the vehicle from the tracks before the train smashed into it. The car was totaled in the collision.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/colo-kids-stranded-school-overnight-snow-162605660.html

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My Husband's Mistress

Emily Yoffe

Photo by Teresa Castracane.

Emily Yoffe, aka Dear Prudence, is on Washingtonpost.com weekly to chat live with readers. An edited transcript of the chat is below. (Sign up here to get Dear Prudence delivered to your inbox each week. Read Prudie?s Slate columns here. Send questions to Prudence at prudence@slate.com.)

Q. My Husband Is Mourning His Dead Mistress: Three months ago, the woman who was having an affair with my husband died suddenly from an accident. I found out about the affair only two days after her funeral. I thought she was simply a co-worker and I was wondering why my husband was so disturbed and emotional. He quit his job, saying it was too traumatic to go to work. She was in the early weeks of pregnancy when she died and my husband doesn't know whether he or her husband was the father. So, on top of everything, he's also grieving for a baby which may or may not have been his. I find it extremely difficult to be emotionally supportive when he wakes up at 3 a.m. crying and trembling?yet I don't have the heart to yell at him like I want to. He says she's dead, so there's no reason for me to feel jealous or threatened, and asks for my understanding as he grieves. We've barely talked these last weeks because I don't know how to respond to my husband when he cries and says he misses her and wishes she were here, then also how much he loves me and that he never intended to leave me. I asked him to visit a marriage therapist together and he said he's "not ready" to work on our marriage, and thinks he needs to see a grief therapist instead. Do I need to give him time to mourn the loss of his mistress? Or should I demand he focus on our marriage?

A: You cannot impose a schedule on someone else's grief. So I think you should let your husband fully experience his?alone. If you are being asked to be an understanding source of solace while he mourns the loss of his mistress, a woman who was possibly the mother of his child, then that is an emotional burden that's simply outside the bounds of what one spouse can ask of another. He's told you flat out he can't work on his marriage because he's too torn up about the death of the woman he loved. So I think you should tell him to move out while you each figure out what you want out of your marriage and life. In addition, I hope he is independently wealthy, or has fantastically in-demand professional skills, because quitting his job over her death indicates he's gone off the deep end. I can't imagine how he's going to explain that departure to potential employers. Of course you're reeling over these events, so if he won't see a counselor with you, consider going alone. And you've left us all wondering: Does the grieving widower have any idea what his wife was up to?

Q. Celebration Overload: I have three sons in their late 20s and early 30s. The oldest is married with a young child and my youngest is engaged. Since it has been quite some time since I went through these rituals, I expected them to change. I just didn't expect them to change quite this much. What used to be nice, simple ceremonies have turned into much longer events. My son and daughter-in-law had professional engagement photos taken, numerous bridal showers, a wedding followed by a reception, professional maternity photos taken, a "gender revealing party," a baptism, professional family portraits, and a first birthday party. Frankly, I think this is celebration overload and, in its own way, detracts from the seriousness of these events. I miss the days of one bridal shower, a ceremony in a church, and cake in the church basement. I know how delicate the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship can be, so I have not said a word about these events and attended them all graciously. But the thought of going through this number of events for two more kids is exhausting. Is this just the trend of celebrations now and I should go along with it? How do I graciously be a part of their lives while inwardly cringing at another over-the-top celebration?

A: Your answer is contained in your question. You just graciously celebrate while inwardly cringing. I agree with you, Mom, that a return to contained and modest celebrations is to be much hoped for. This is the second letter I've gotten about the amazing development of the awful gender-reveal party. As I previously asked, what's next, the baby-making party? You have to accept that the days of the DIY wedding are gone. But I agree that turning marriage into the Normandy Invasion (actually, that took less time to plan and launch than most weddings) is an absurd waste of time and money. Let's face it, usually the bride/mother is the driver behind these events, so as a mother of sons, you want to preserve your relationship with your offspring and their wives. So slap on a smile and be grateful to be included.

Q. Mean Girls: My cousin and I are both in our 40s and grew up together. We live a good distance away, but every few months, my work takes me near her house and I'll visit and stay overnight. Her two children, who are their early teens, are horrible to her. In the few hours I'm there, they insult her looks, her cooking, and her intelligence. First it was the older one, and now her younger sister is doing the same. It seems like anything that comes of out of my cousin's mouth warrants a snide retort from one child or the other. Her husband is part (or the cause) of the problem. He says nothing when they make their comments and occasionally will "joke" along the same lines. Sometimes I will wade in with a neutral comment like "I think dinner is great. If you don't like it, why you try cooking next time?" but that's it. She says nothing to defend herself; occasionally she might protest with a "that's not nice" but it's very mild. I can tell, though, that she's hurt by these remarks. My cousin is a quiet and kind person who has never had a bad word to say about anyone. I am appalled by this developing dynamic. I know teenagers can be trying, but this behavior seems off the charts compared to other kids I've known. I really want to say something to these children, not just for my cousin's sake, but also because they're becoming very mean girls. I feel they're now old enough to be addressed as the young women they're becoming and understand the implications of their actions. But, is it my place (as a family member) and what would I say if I did take them aside?

A: I think you should first talk to your cousin. It's true that most teenagers will test the boundaries of civility and the safest place for them to do it is in their home. But in their home the adults are supposed to explain what is and isn't acceptable behavior. Given the husband's contribution, it also sounds as if a malicious family dynamic is at play here: Martyr mom does everything for us, and in exchange she earns our contempt. Next time you know you'll be in town, tell your cousin she needs a night off and you'd like to take her out to a restaurant for a chance to get some adult time. Then tell her gently but firmly what you've observed. She may be too sunk into this mess to act, but sometimes an outsider's perspective can suddenly shine a mirror on a situation. Then next time you do eat at their house, you should feel free to be more direct to the girls. When they insult their mother, in a neutral tone say, "That's a rude thing to say. Your mother is my friend, so just as I hope you would stick up for a friend who was being treated terribly, I'm going to ask you to stop insulting her."

Q. Re: Celebration Overload: It's not always the bride who wants this huge lavish event. I may be one of few, but I didn't have a bridal shower. We didn't want a religious wedding that could take longer, but my mother-in-law demanded it. My mother and I aren't close so I didn't give in to what she wanted; however, I wanted to make my mother-in-law happy so we caved to whatever she wanted. My husband and I both agree that the wedding is actually about the parents of the groom and bride, and not the actual couple getting married. Please know that the bride may just be railroaded into doing what someone else wants.

A: Ah, no, the wedding is about the couple getting married. It's true that people who foot the bill can make demands. But if you are being railroaded into doing things you don't want to do, then you say no and decline the money. I hope you and your husband can start standing up for yourselves now, before you come to the conclusion that raising your children is really about what the grandparents want.

Q. Husband's Night Terrors: My husband has a pretty good life. He was raised by nice parents, enjoys good physical health, has a job he likes, we have a happy marriage, he has friends and, as far as I know, has never been the victim of any kind of serious crime or trauma. Nevertheless, he wakes up, at a minimum of one night a week, screaming, thrashing, and terrified. It's as if he has PTSD. With our first child expected in a few months, these night terrors have become an almost every-night occurrence, and it's fraying my nerves and causing me to lose sleep. I'm worried about him, although during the day he's one of the happiest people I've ever met. It would seem odd to tell a therapist, "I'm happy and have no real problems, but I have night terrors."

A: I doubt he needs a therapist, but he certainly needs an M.D. First he needs to check in with his internist and explain what's going on. Then if a further diagnosis is needed, he needs to see a sleep specialist. It surely sounds as if he has some kind of sleep disorder and likely it's treatable. Convince him to do this right way before the baby comes and his crying and thrashing is just part of the general background noise.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=855bf1df28a17da1e8f786a126087905

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With an Android backup plan already in place, Samsung says no to Firefox OS

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, was briefly hospitalized due to her bipolar disorder, the actress' spokeswoman said on Tuesday after video emerged of Fisher giving an unusual stage performance. The video came from a show Fisher gave aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean last week, according to celebrity website TMZ, which posted the clip. The clip shows Fisher, 56, singing "Skylark" and "Bridge Over Troubled Waters," at times appearing to struggle to remember the lyrics. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/android-backup-plan-already-place-samsung-says-no-043003690.html

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New Technology Produces Cheaper Tantalum and Titanium

Billy the Mountain writes "A small UK company is bringing new technology online that could reduce the prices of tantalum and titanium ten-fold. According to this piece in The Economist: A tantalising prospect, the key is a technique similar to smelting aluminum with a new twist: The metallic oxides are not melted as with aluminum but blended in powder form with a molten salt that serves as a medium and electrolyte. This technology is known as the FFC Cambridge Process. Other metals include Neodymium, Tungsten, and Vanadium."

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/V1vbNgKt_4E/story01.htm

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Warming climate could cut labor capacity by 10 percent, study finds

US scientists warned that heat stress-related labor capacity losses will double globally by 2050 if the Earth's temperature rises?by another 1.8 degrees F.

By Deborah Zabarenko,?Reuters / February 25, 2013

A contractor wipes sweat from his eyes while he and a crew of fellow road workers repaie heat-related damage to the asphalt on Southbound Interstate 55, in July 2012 in Memphis, Tenn.

The Commercial Appeal, Jim Weber/AP

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Earth's increasingly hot, wet climate has cut the amount of work people can do in the worst heat by about 10 percent in the past six decades, and that loss in labor capacity could double by mid-century, U.S. government scientists reported on Sunday.

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Because warmer air can hold more moisture than cooler air, there's more absolute humidity in the atmosphere now than there used to be. And as anyone who has sweltered through a hot, muggy summer knows, it's more stressful to work through hot months when the humidity is high.

To figure out the stress of working in hotter, wetter conditions, experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration looked at military and industrial guidelines already in place for heat stress, and set those guidelines against climate projections for how hot and humid it's likely to get over the next century.

Their findings were stark: "We project that heat stress-related labor capacity losses will double globally by 2050 with a warming climate," said lead author John Dunne of NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton.

Work capability is already down to 90 percent during the most hot and humid periods, Dunne and his co-authors wrote in the journal Nature Climate Change. Using a middle-of-the-road projection of future temperature and humidity, they estimate that could drop to 80 percent by 2050.

A more extreme scenario of future global warming, which estimated a temperature rise of 10.8 degrees F (6 degrees C), would make it difficult to work in the hottest months in many parts of the world, Dunne said at a telephone briefing.

Labor capacity would be all but eliminated in the lower Mississippi Valley and most of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains would be exposed to heat stress "beyond anything experienced in the world today," he said.

Bahrain-on-the-Hudson?

Under this scenario, heat stress in New York City would exceed that of present-day Bahrain, while in Bahrain, the heat and humidity could cause hyperthermia - potentially dangerous overheating - even in sleeping people who were not working at all.

Humans are endothermic creatures, which means they give off heat. If they can't get rid of it faster than they create it, they go into hyperthermia. Typically, humans cool off by doing less heat-producing activity, but it may get so hot and humid that even a sleeping person wouldn't be able to dissipate heat fast enough.

"This planet will start experiencing heat stress that's unlike anything experienced today," said Ronald Stouffer, a co-author of the study.

The only way to retain labor capacity, Dunne said, is to limit global warming to less than 5 degrees F (3 degrees C).

Global average temperature has risen by about 1.2 degrees F (0.7 degree C) compared to pre-industrial times. It is likely to rise another 1.8 degrees F (1 degree C) by mid-century, Dunne said.

The way some workers already adapt to heat stress - taking a siesta during the hottest hours of the day, working outdoor jobs like construction at night when temperatures drop or ceasing work entirely during periods of peak heat and humidity - could migrate to places where heat stress is increasing.

The U.S. West Coast and Northern Europe are likely to be two of the regions that will be affected last by the trend toward more hot and humid climate, the scientists said.

Part of the issue is how well-adapted certain regions are to extreme heat stress, Dunne said.

As an example, he noted that some 70,000 people were killed during a disastrous 2003 heat wave in Europe, where heat stress was highly unusual. However, the same kind of stress was normal for a place like India, where a similar heat wave killed 3,000.

"It's very regionally dependent and highly determined by adaptation," Dunne said.

(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/4q5p_SCndFA/Warming-climate-could-cut-labor-capacity-by-10-percent-study-finds

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Razer Edge pre-orders begin March 1st, price starts at $999

If you were intrigued by the Razer Edge's impressive ability to transform from a tablet, to a laptop, to a gaming console and you have a spare $1k lying around, it might be time to reach for your wallet. Razer has just announced its versatile Windows 8 device will be available for pre-order from its online store starting March 1st at 12:01am PST, with units shipping later that month. You can opt for the base Razer Edge with its Intel i5 processor and 64GB SSD or the higher-end Edge Pro with its Intel i7 processor and the option of either a 128GB or 256GB SSD. Accessories like the gamepad controller, home console dock and extended battery packs will be available for pre-order as well. However, those yearning for the optional keyboard dock will have to wait until "later this year in Q3" according to the press release. Pricing starts at $999 for the base model and may climb upwards of $1,500 if you decide to go for a maxed out Pro.

Filed under: Gaming

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Source: Razer Zone

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Oscars 2013: The Real Winners And Losers

James Bond killed while the orchestra hit a sour note.
By Amy Wilkinson

Kristen Stewart at the 2013 Oscars
Photo: Christopher Polk/ Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702532/oscars-2013-winners-losers.jhtml

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GM selects AT&T LTE for future car connectivity

AT&T and General Motors have just announced plans to bring LTE to a wide range of its cars starting in 2014. The partnership will enable GM to provide a whole host of new connected car services through its subsidiary, OnStar, across models from Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac. The connectivity will be built in at a basic level of the car, integrated into the electrical system and wired to an external antenna to provide better coverage and speeds. Some car models -- usually in the higher end -- have had this functionality for some time, but not on the wide scale that GM is targeting.

GM envisions streaming media content available in back seat entertainment devices, real-time navigation updates and application downloads for infotainment systems. The embedded LTE connection will not only bring a whole host of integrated car services online, but also provide Wifi hotspot functionality for other devices that users bring with them to the car. Hopefully as this service hits the main stream other car makers can follow suit.

Source: AT&T; GM

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/4kck6w3qlxk/story01.htm

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The Best Late Night Clips Of The Week: Obama?s Golf Trip, McCain?s Hypocrisy, Biden?s Shotgun And More

Sunday, February 24th, 2013 at 12:08am Mediaite

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Source: Mediaite

Source: http://www.politifreak.com/the-best-late-night-clips-of-the-week-obamas-golf-trip-mccains-hypocrisy-bidens-shotgun-and-more/

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Protest votes raise uncertainty in close Italy election

ROME (Reuters) - Polls in Italy opened for the second and final day of voting on Monday, with a surge in protest votes increasing fears of an unclear outcome that could hamper economic reforms.

"I'm sick of the scandals and the stealing," said Paolo Gentile, a 49-year-old lawyer from Rome who said he had voted for the 5-Star Movement, an anti-establishment group set to make a huge impact at this, its first general election.

"We need some young, new people in parliament, not the old parties that are totally discredited."

Opinion polls give the center-left coalition led by former Industry Minister Pier Luigi Bersani a narrow lead but the race has been thrown open by the prospect of a huge protest vote - most of it going to 5-Star - against austerity and a wave of corporate and political scandals.

A bitter campaign, fought largely over economic issues, has been closely watched by financial markets, still wary after the debt crisis that took the whole euro zone close to disaster and brought technocrat prime minister Mario Monti to office in 2011.

For the euro zone, the stakes are high. Italy is the third largest economy in the 17-member bloc and the prospect of political stalemate could reawaken the threat of dangerous market instability.

"There are similarities between the Italian elections and last year's ones in Greece, in that pro-euro parties are losing ground in favor of populist forces," said Mizuho chief economist Riccardo Barbieri.

"An angry and confused public opinion does not see the benefits of fiscal austerity and does not trust established political parties."

Voting ends at 3 p.m. (1400 GMT), with the first exit polls due shortly afterwards. Projections based on the vote count will be issued through the afternoon and the final result should be known late on Monday or early Tuesday.

Italian bond markets remained sanguine on Monday morning, quickly reversing modest early losses. Later on Monday Italy will offer 4.25 billion euros of bonds in a further test of market sentiment.

The result is likely to be the most fragmented in decades, with the old left-right division disrupted by the rise of 5-Star, led by comic Beppe Grillo, and by the decision by Monti to run at the head of a centrist bloc.

"It will be a vote of protest, maybe of revolt," said Corriere della Sera, Italy's largest newspaper, on Monday.

It is unclear how Grillo's rise will influence the result, with some pollsters saying it increases the chances of a clear win for the center-left, led by Bersani's Democratic Party (PD), because 5-Star is taking votes mainly from Berlusconi.

After the first day of voting on Sunday about 54 percent of voters had cast their ballots, a sharp fall on the level of 62.5 percent seen at the same stage in the last election in 2008.

Bad weather hampered the turnout in Italy's first post-war election to be held in winter.

The 5-Star Movement, backed by a frustrated younger generation increasingly shut out of full-time jobs, could challenge former premier Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) party as Italy's second largest political force.

"Come on, it isn't over yet," was Monday's front page headline in Il Giornale daily, owned by Berlusconi's brother, a call to arms to voters not to give up.

The 76 year-old Berlusconi has pledged sweeping tax cuts and echoed Grillo's attacks on Monti, Germany and the euro in a media blitz that has halved the lead of the center-left since the start of the year.

Support for Monti's centrist coalition meanwhile has faded and he appears set to trail well behind the main parties.

SENATE RACE

Monti helped save Italy from a mounting debt crisis when he replaced a discredited Berlusconi in November 2011, but with the economy in its longest recession for 20 years analysts fear an electoral stalemate could spark renewed market pressure.

"I voted for the PD because a PD win is the only way to have a stable government and we need stability or we will end up like Greece," said Viola Rossi, an 80 year-old pensioner from Rome.

Whatever government emerges will inherit an economy that has been largely stagnant for much of the past two decades and problems ranging from record youth unemployment to a dysfunctional justice system and a bloated public sector.

The credibility of the political system has been hit by corruption scandals and criminal investigations affecting state-controlled defence group Finmeccanica and Italy's third-largest bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

If Bersani wins, it is far from clear that he will be able to control both houses of parliament and form a stable government capable of lasting a full five-year term.

Italy's electoral laws guarantee a strong majority in the lower house to the party or coalition that wins the biggest share of the overall national vote.

However the Senate, elected on a region-by-region basis, is more complicated and the result could turn on a handful of regions where results are too close to call, including Lombardy in the rich industrial north and the southern island of Sicily.

Many politicians and analysts believe Bersani and Monti will end up in an alliance after the vote, despite a number of spiky exchanges during the campaign and Monti's insistence that he will not join forces with Bersani's leftist allies.

For his part, Bersani, who has pledged to maintain the broad reform course set by Monti while doing more to help growth, says he would seek support from other parties and would be ready to offer the former European commissioner a job in his government.

(Additional reporting by Stefano Bernabei and Gavin Jones; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/protest-votes-add-uncertainty-close-italy-election-070325879.html

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God's Name on Israel's Mountains

your friend Jacob, on 23 February 2013 - 11:21 PM, said:

But to add to the discussion, is there biblical reference to this???

What Do You Think?

And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. 2 Kings 21:4

But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel. 2 Chronicles 6:6

Also he built altars in the house of the LORD, whereof the LORD had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever. 2 Chronicles 33:4

And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever: 2 Chronicles 33:7

Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. Revelation 3:20

Source: http://www.worthychristianforums.com/topic/162348-gods-name-on-israels-mountains/

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Only the Tories have a grip on energy

Reliant on generous subsidies financed by hidden charges on household energy bills, turbines do not produce enough energy to justify the expense. They are almost comically unreliable. As Christopher Booker notes in his column, during a period of low wind last Monday, all 4,300 of our turbines working together provided just 0.1 per cent of the nation?s electricity. Ironically, when wind fails to do its job, consumers have to fall back on the very fossil fuels that it was designed to replace.

Nor are wind farms as environmentally friendly as their supporters think. The turbines can be a blot on the landscape. Andrew Gilligan reports that thousands of turbines actually create more greenhouse gases than they save; when they are constructed in upland areas on peat soil, large amounts of carbon can be released into the atmosphere.

What Britain really needs to do is press ahead with building gas-fired power stations, encourage firms to start exploiting shale gas deposits ? potentially a rich source of cheap energy ? and support nuclear. Alas, not all the parties grasp this. During its time in power, Labour turned its back on coal and nuclear to allay understandable fears about environmental damage. Instead, it signed the country up to ambitious targets for cutting CO2 emissions and committed us to wind as a way to plug gaps in energy supply. As Mr Huhne?s predecessor at the Department for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband backed a Climate Change Bill that legally bound the UK to cut CO2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

As part of the Coalition, the Lib Dems have aped Labour?s approach and brought to it new levels of naivity. It is true that even Mr Huhne conceded that nuclear must play a significant role in Britain?s future, but he seemed far more excited by the promises of wind power. The Lib Dems pushed the Coalition into backing even higher EU emissions targets, which would be very difficult to achieve in today?s economic climate. This is why some European countries are ignoring those targets and returning to coal.

Fortunately, George Osborne seems to have a firmer grip on reality. The Chancellor has recently indicated that he would prefer to water down emissions targets in order to increase Britain?s exploitation of gas. After years of chasing the green vote the Conservatives are waking up to the full implications of the energy gap. To get his way within the Coalition, Mr Osborne needs and deserves the moral support of the voters.

Mr Huhne?s colourful record, the by-election in his former constituency and the troubling news about our growing energy gap, ought to clarify the politics for people as they make their choice: on one side we have Labour and the Lib Dems stuck in an outdated mindset, when bold emissions targets and wind power seemed feasible; on the other, the good news is that the Tories understand that while protecting the environment is important, so is getting the economy moving. The voters of Eastleigh have a splendid opportunity to send a message that green fundamentalism is unaffordable in an age of austerity.

Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568387/s/28e44777/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Ccomment0Ctelegraph0Eview0C98891480COnly0Ethe0ETories0Ehave0Ea0Egrip0Eon0Eenergy0Bhtml/story01.htm

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Samsung cuts down Galaxy camera prices

Samsung cuts down Galaxy camera prices

New Delhi: Samsung India has slashed the price of its Galaxy Camera which is an Android-powered camera , making? it more affordable to the people.

Within less than two months of its launch in India the company has slashed the price of the camera. The camera now costs Rs 26,520, down Rs 3,880 from its launch price. The manufacturer is also offering a free battery charging kit with the device in the country.

Galaxy Camera has a 4.8-inch touchscreen and is compatible with all the apps available on Google Play marketplace. It is powered by a 1.4GHz quad-core processor coupled with 1GB RAMS and boasts of a 1,650mAh battery. The gadget supports sim-card for 3G connectivity and can also access the internet over Wi-Fi.

This Wi-Fi+3G capable device was made available to the Indian consumers in November 2012 at Rs 29,900. The Samsung Galaxy camera's Wi-Fi-only rival Nikon S800c is priced at Rs 20,950.

Further the new version of the camera has done away with the cellular signal. The new cam, Samsung said, is basically the same as seen before, this time minus the 3G and 4G connectivity options.

Source: http://www.mynews.in/News/samsung_cuts_down_galaxy_camera_prices_N542923.html

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EU offers banks chance to cut fines in rate-fixing probe: sources

PARIS (Reuters) - The European Commission wants to conclude its investigation into the fixing of lending benchmarks Euribor and Libor this year and has offered several banks under suspicion the possibility of a settlement to reduce hefty fines, sources said.

If the banks were to agree to such a settlement, it would allow the EU's antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia to wrap up his investigation as soon as this year and before his term as antitrust commissioner draws to a close in late 2014.

"Almunia wants decisions on the cases by the end of the year," said one of the sources familiar with the investigation.

The offer comes almost 18 months after the Commission raided a number of banks suspected of Euribor rate rigging. It later widened its investigation to other benchmarks.

The move signals that there is a prospect of reduced fines from Brussels in return for ending any activities that could lead price-fixing of Euribor, the euro interbank-offered rate, and its larger counterpart the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor).

Many banks are reluctant, however, to settle with the Commission because they believe the charges are unfounded, they said.

If they resist and the Commission later finds them guilty of manipulation, they would face a fine equivalent to 10 percent of their annual revenue. That could rise to three times as much if individual banks are prosecuted for rigging three benchmarks. By settling, the fines would be reduced.

A spokesman for Almunia declined to comment on the prospect of any settlement.

Heavy penalties already loom in other regions. The United States and Britain will by mid-year levy more fines against those alleged to have been involved in interest rate rigging, sources close to the probe said.

U.S. and UK regulators have fined three banks to date - RBS, Britain's Barclays and Switzerland's UBS - a total of $2.6 billion for allowing traders to game Libor interbank rates in a global scam.

Earlier on Friday, Almunia said he had widened his investigation of suspected unfair fixing of lending benchmarks such as Euribor and Libor to interest rate products for the Swiss franc.

Euribor and Libor are the key gauges of how much banks pay to borrow from each other, and are used as reference points for swathes of financial products from Spanish mortgages to derivatives contracts sealed in London.

Both are set using interbank borrowing rates submitted by banks.

(Writing by John O'Donnell; Editing by Will Waterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eu-suspects-cartels-involved-fixing-lending-benchmarks-083201731--sector.html

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6 underground nuclear tanks leaking

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) ? Six underground tanks that hold a brew of radioactive and toxic waste at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site are leaking, federal and state officials said Friday.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said the leaking material poses no immediate risk to public safety or the environment because it would take a while ? perhaps years ? to reach groundwater.

But the leaking tanks raise new concerns about delays for emptying them and strike another blow to federal efforts to clean up south-central Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation, where successes often are overshadowed by delays, budget overruns and technological challenges.

Department of Energy spokeswoman Lindsey Geisler said there was no immediate health risk and said federal officials would work with Washington state to address the matter.

State officials just last week announced that one of Hanford's 177 underground tanks was leaking 150 to 300 gallons a year, posing a risk to groundwater and rivers. So far, nearby monitoring wells haven't detected higher radioactivity levels.

Inslee traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to discuss the problem with federal officials. He said Friday that he learned in meetings that six tanks are leaking waste.

"We received very disturbing news today," the governor said. "I think that we are going to have a course of new action and that will be vigorously pursued in the next several weeks."

The federal government built the Hanford facility at the height of World War II as part of the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. The remote site produced plutonium for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, and continued supporting the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal for years.

Today, it is the most contaminated nuclear site in the country, still surrounded by sagebrush but with Washington's Tri-Cities of Richland, Kennewick and Pasco several miles downriver.

Hanford's tanks hold some 53 million gallons of highly radioactive waste ? enough to fill dozens of Olympic-size swimming pools ? and many of those tanks are known to have leaked in the past. An estimated 1 million gallons of radioactive liquid already leaked there.

The tanks also are long past their intended 20-year life span ? raising concerns that even more tanks could be leaking ? though they were believed to have been stabilized in 2005.

Inslee said the falling waste levels in the six tanks were missed because only a narrow band of measurements was evaluated, rather than a wider band that would have shown the levels changing over time.

"It's like if you're trying to determine if climate change is happening, only looking at the data for today," he said. "Perhaps human error, the protocol did not call for it. But that's not the most important thing at the moment. The important thing now is to find and address the leakers."

There are legal, moral and ethical considerations to cleaning up the Hanford site at the national level, Inslee said, adding that he will continue to insist that the Energy Department completely clean up the site.

He also stressed the state would impose a "zero-tolerance" policy on radioactive waste leaking into the soil.

Cleanup is expected to last decades and cost billions of dollars.

The federal government already spends $2 billion each year on Hanford cleanup ? one-third of its entire budget for nuclear cleanup nationally. The Energy Department has said it expects funding levels to remain the same for the foreseeable future, but a new Energy Department report released this week includes annual budgets of as much as $3.5 billion during some years of the cleanup effort.

Much of that money goes toward construction of a plant to convert the underground waste into glasslike logs for safe, secure storage. The plant, last estimated at more than $12.3 billion, is billions of dollars over budget and behind schedule. It isn't expected to being operating until at least 2019.

Given those delays, the federal government will have to show that there is adequate storage for the waste in the meantime, Inslee said.

"We are not convinced of this," he said. "There will be a robust exchange of information in the coming weeks to get to the bottom of this."

Inslee and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber have championed building additional tanks to ensure safe storage of the waste until the plant is completed. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said earlier this week that he shares their concerns about the integrity of the tanks but he wants more scientific information to determine it's the correct way to spend scarce money.

Tom Carpenter of Hanford Challenge, a Hanford watchdog group, said Friday it's disappointing that the Energy Department is not further along on the waste treatment plant and that there aren't new tanks to transfer waste into.

"None of these tanks would be acceptable for use today. They are all beyond their design life. None of them should be in service," he said. "And yet, they're holding two-thirds of the nation's high-level nuclear waste."

Wyden noted the nation's most contaminated nuclear site ? and the challenges associated with ridding it of its toxic legacy ? will be a subject of upcoming hearings and a higher priority in Washington, D.C.

___

Associated Press writer Dina Cappiello in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gov-6-underground-hanford-nuclear-tanks-leaking-224021112.html

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Vonn ahead of schedule after knee surgery

FILE - In this Jan. 19, 2012 file photo, Lindsey Vonn speaks to young athletes during the first winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria. Vonn is on the mend after surgery to repair two shredded knee ligaments from a crash at the world championships in Austria. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 19, 2012 file photo, Lindsey Vonn speaks to young athletes during the first winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria. Vonn is on the mend after surgery to repair two shredded knee ligaments from a crash at the world championships in Austria. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 23, 2012 file photo, Lindsey Vonn, of the United States, reacts during a press conference for the women's World Cup ski races in Aspen, Colo. Vonn is on the mend after surgery to repair two shredded knee ligaments from a crash at the world championships in Austria. (AP Photo/Nathan Bilow, File)

Lindsey Vonn's right knee is healing quicker than her feelings over a world championship race she says should have been called off.

The four-time overall World Cup champion remains unhappy about how she sustained a season-ending injury ? two shredded ligaments and a broken bone ? at the world championships in Schladming, Austria. She believes organizers should have postponed the super-G race on Feb. 5 because of deteriorating course conditions.

In a conference call Friday, Vonn said she "did not think it was safe" to race on the soft snow and that "athletes safety should come first."

"I do not think the jury made the right call," said Vonn, who underwent surgery to repair the ACL and MCL nearly two weeks ago. "It was definitely not safe to run with that fog."

The start of the super-G was delayed by 3 1/2 hours because of fog hanging over the course. During that time, conditions dramatically changed, said Vonn, who noted that she inspected the hill early in the morning.

Soon after her crash, Atle Skaardal, women's race director for the International Ski Federation, defended the decision to go ahead with the event, saying, "I don't see that any outside factors played a role in this accident."

Vonn disagreed. She hit a jump along the course faster than anyone else and flew a lot farther, landing in a patch of snow that was much softer. Her right ski abruptly stopped and then buckled as she flipped over her ski tips.

"I feel like that loose snow was 100 percent the reason why I crashed," she said.

As she lay in the snow, in pain and waiting for a helicopter to lift her off the mountain, Vonn called U.S. women's head coach Alex Hoedlmoser and told him to inform race officials to stop the competition.

"They apparently didn't do that," Vonn said. "I was definitely disappointed they decided to run the race."

Organizers eventually did stop the event, though not immediately after Vonn's crash. With conditions varying from racer to racer and the light fading, the race was halted after only 36 of the 59 skiers had come down the hill.

"I hope in the future they really think hard about running races and what the conditions are like," Vonn said.

Vonn is on pace to return to the slopes for the beginning of the World Cup season in late November. That's her aim, anyway.

"But that could be a month or two earlier or it could be a month later," she said. "It's all dependent upon how my knee responds. So far, I'm ahead of schedule ? the swelling looks great, everything looks great.

"I'm not concerned about when I'm going to be back. I just want to make sure when I do get back on snow, that my knee is 100 percent. It doesn't take a lot of training for me to be ready to race again."

Already she's setting up to be the comeback story of the 2014 Sochi Games, when Vonn will defend the downhill title she won in Vancouver. She even joked this injury makes her "the underdog now."

"That will help ease the pressure a little bit," Vonn said. "I have no doubt I'm going to be back and be able to ski the same, if not better, than I did before. It's just going to take some time."

Comebacks are hardly anything new for Vonn, who has been plagued by injuries at her last six major championships ? from a thumb she sliced on a champagne bottle at the 2009 worlds in Val d'Isere, France, to a bruised shin that she treated with the unorthodox remedy of Austrian cheese at the Vancouver Olympics.

She's attacking rehab with the same vigor as if it were a course, going as fast as she's allowed. She's attending physical therapy sessions for her knee twice a day, seven days a week. Most of the work involves simple tasks, like moving her knee cap around to gain back motion. She's also working on her upper body strength, vowing to come back stronger than ever.

"I'm channeling most of my energy into workouts," she said.

In between sessions, she's hanging out with her sister, Laura, and watching movies. She's trying to enjoy the down time she's never really had.

"It's a change of pace. But it's hard for me to sit around," Vonn said. "I feel pretty helpless sometimes. Going to the gym and staying active, that makes me feel a lot better."

Although Vonn was open about all things concerning her accident and recovery, she didn't want to address the rumors that she was dating golfer Tiger Woods. That topic was off limits.

"I'm only two weeks out from the worst injury I've had in my career," Vonn said. "At this point, I'm not going to talk about my personal life."

As for her emotional state, she said it's steadily improving. She had a hard time after the accident, especially with her bus so close to the finish line ("I could hear everyone cheering," she said). But once she arrived in Vail, Colo., and had the procedure to fix her knee, she's quickly perked up.

"I'm in a pretty good state. I'm taking it one day at a time," she said. "It's important for me to be really patient. It's going to be a long process. I'm really looking forward to Sochi and I'm going to do everything I can to be stronger than I was before. That's definitely keeping me positive at this point."

So are all the well-wishers. She's talked to her teammates, along with exchanging emails with friend and rival Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany.

"It's just the ACL, which is bad enough, but for sure she will be back," said Hoefl-Riesch, who is planning a trip to Vail to visit Vonn. "I'm looking forward to seeing her back next winter."

___

AP Sports Writers Jerome Pugmire and Andrew Dampf contributed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-02-22-SKI-Vonn-Recovery/id-43762a75ecfa4426b2367e0a1c5a055c

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