sylvainmondello: June 2012

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Matt LeBlanc On 'Friends' Reunion: 'I Don't Want To See An Old Joey'

Matt LeBlanc really doesn't want to disappoint people by having a "Friends" reunion.

While promoting his Showtime series "Episodes," LeBlanc touched on the topic every former "Friend" gets asked about: whether there will ever be a reunion.

"I don't want to see old Joey," he told EW.

In the EW interview, LeBlanc said that "Friends" was about a "finite period of time, before you got married and went off to start your life with a family," a time everyone can relate to. He said checking in on the characters now would "disappoint most people."

"Everyone?s going to have different vision of what those characters are like, so to have that materialize is going to disappoint most people," he said. "A couple of people will go, 'That's what I thought!' but for the most part it?s going to let people down. It's better to let them just think."

LeBlanc isn't the only "Friends" star who has shot down reunion hopes. While the actors have worked together on various projects since -- Jennifer Aniston appeared with Courteney Cox on "Cougar Town," David Schwimmer will appear on Lisa Kudrow's "Web Therapy" -- a reunion doesn't seem likely.

"I don't think it will ever happen whether any of us want it to happen or not," Kudrow told E! Online in May 2012. "I don't think any of us would do it unless ['Friends' co-creators] David Crane and Marta Kauffman wrote it and I don't know how they could do it."

Aniston said she can't imagine a "Friends" reunion hitting the big screen. "I can't imagine how you would do it, unless you did it years from now. Then it would be: 'Who are these guys? What are we watching?' I can't imagine what that would be," she told The Hollywood Reporter in February 2012. "It's not normal. 'Friends' is in your living room: 'Friends' is not in a movie theater. It doesn't make sense to me. I think it would be going against its authentic self."

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Romney says Obama's immigration decision will complicate efforts to solve larger policy issue (Star Tribune)

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Privacy breach discovered in Internet address bids

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN, President and Chief Executive Rod Beckstrom, left, and Kurt Pritz, Senior Vice President speaks on expanding the number of domain name suffixes during a press conference, London, Wednesday June 13, 2012. Proposals for Internet addresses ending in ".pizza," ''.space" and ".auto" are among the nearly 2,000 submitted as part of the largest expansion in the online address system. Apple Inc., Sony Corp. and American Express Co. are among companies seeking names with their brands. The expansion will allow suffixes that represent hobbies, ethnic groups, corporate brand names and more. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers announced the proposals for Internet suffixes ? the ".com" part of an Internet address ? in London on Wednesday. Among the 1,930 proposals for 1,409 different suffixes, the bulk came from North America and Europe. (Tim Hales/AP Photos)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The organization in charge of introducing new Internet addresses to rival ".com" briefly suspended access to some of the documents on its website after it discovered a privacy breach.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers said it had mistakenly published the postal addresses of some individuals ? information that was meant to be private. The disclosure was limited to cities and countries in some cases, while full street addresses appeared in others.

The discovery came late Thursday, a day after ICANN revealed nearly 2,000 proposals for new Internet suffixes, including ".joy," ''.barefoot" and ".google." It will be the largest expansion of the Internet address system since its creation in the 1980s.

ICANN posted documents with the proposals to allow the public to comment and raise objections. The documents include bidders' plans for the new names and full contact information for the businesses involved, but they were supposed to list only phone and email information belonging to individuals.

ICANN restored those documents after removing the postal addresses on individuals. It was not immediately clear how long that took; the documents appeared to be inaccessible for no more than a few hours. ICANN did not immediately respond to requests for more information Friday.

This spring, ICANN had to suspend access to its system for letting bidders submit proposals after it discovered technical glitches that exposed some private data. That took more than a month to fix and restore. ICANN also goofed during Wednesday's announcement. It displayed Arabic names left to right rather than right to left, as the language is written.

The latest breach provided more fodder for critics of ICANN and the name expansion. Skeptics have questioned ICANN's ability to run the program smoothly in the long run, given that technical problems have cropped up early on.

"If this weren't all so incredibly serious, one could get quite a laugh over the concept of The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight being in charge of this process," Lauren Weinstein, co-founder of People For Internet Responsibility, said on his Privacy Forum mailing list.

ICANN officials say the names expansion will permit innovation and increase choice. A new suffix could, for instance, be used to identify sites that have a certain level of security protection. It could be used to create online neighborhoods of businesses affiliated with a geographic area or an industry.

Critics say the names will create confusion among Internet users, while providing little benefit in an era where people often find websites by using a search engine rather than typing in the address.

Associated Press

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Friday, June 15, 2012

Romney takes a new tack in tour across 6 states

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Thursday, June 14, 2012

5 reasons gay marriage losing streak may be over

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Federal charges dropped against John Edwards

FILE - In a Thursday, May 31, 2012 file photo, former presidential candidate John Edwards speaks outside a federal courthouse as his daughter, Cate Edwards, left, and father Wallace Edwards, listen after his campaign finance fraud case ended in a mistrial, in Greensboro, N.C. Federal prosecutors on Wednesday, June 13, 2012 dropped all charges against Edwards after his corruption trial ended last month in a deadlocked jury. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) ? A relieved John Edwards said after his mistrial on campaign corruption charges that he believed good things were still in store for him, though image makers and his friends agree that does not include politics.

The ex-presidential candidate who turned 59 this week will no longer have to face that future with federal charges hanging over his head after prosecutors on Wednesday dropped their campaign fraud case against him. After a six-week trial in North Carolina, jurors acquitted Edwards May 31 on one count of accepting illegal campaign contributions and deadlocked on five other felony counts. The judge declared a mistrial.

The U.S. Justice Department said in a court order that it will not seek to retry Edwards on the five unresolved counts, leaving some to say the charges shouldn't have been brought in the first place.

Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer, who oversees the agency's criminal division, said prosecutors knew the case, like all campaign finance cases, would be challenging. But he said it is "our duty to bring hard cases" when warranted.

"Last month, the government put forward its best case against Mr. Edwards, and I am proud of the skilled and professional way in which our prosecutors .... conducted this trial," he said, adding that he respected the jury's judgment and decided not to seek a retrial "in the interest of justice."

Edwards left his response to the dismissal up to his attorneys, Abbe Lowell, Allison Van Laningham and Alan W. Duncan. They said in a joint statement that they are pleased with the government's decision not to seek a second trial they believe would have had the same outcome.

"While John has repeatedly admitted to his sins, he has also consistently asserted, as we demonstrated at the trial, that he did not violate any campaign law nor even imagined that any campaign laws could apply," they said. "We are very glad that, after living under this cloud for over three years, John and his family can have their lives back and enjoy the peace they deserve."

Prosecutors accused Edwards of masterminding a scheme to use about $1 million in secret payments from two wealthy political donors to hide his pregnant mistress, Rielle Hunter, as he sought the White House in 2008. He would have faced up to 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines if convicted of all charges. Neither he nor Hunter took the stand.

At trial, the case against Edwards rested largely on the testimony of his former right-hand man, Andrew Young, who initially claimed paternity of his boss' baby and deposited most of the money at issue in the case into his family's personal accounts. But upon cross examination, Edwards' lawyers used inconsistencies from Young's past statements to undermine his credibility and used bank records to show the aide and his wife siphoned off much of the money to help build their $1.6 million dream home.

The trial exposed a sordid sex scandal that unfolded while Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, was dying of cancer, including the most intimate details of his affair with Hunter. But despite recounting the salacious details of his family tragedy, legal experts said the government failed to prove Edwards knowingly violated campaign finance law.

Several jurors said a clear majority within the group after deliberating nine days wanted to acquit Edwards on all charges.

"It was a weak case," Curtis Driggers, a juror from Ellerbe, told The Associated Press last week. "It was all on Andrew Young and he didn't carry much weight with me. If they don't have any more factual information than what they presented, I don't think any other jury would reach a different decision."

Bruce Reinhart, a criminal defense attorney who was a federal prosecutor for 19 years, said the prosecution's theory in this case was "aggressive."

"I think they were trying to plow new ground, but I can't say they were wrong to bring the case," said Reinhart, who spent eight years in the Justice Department's public integrity section, which prosecuted Edwards. "Sometimes you have to bring tough cases, and tough cases are hard to win."

From the start, though, Edwards' lawyers painted the prosecution as politically motivated and several campaign finance experts said that even if he had known about the money flowing to his mistress, he wasn't violating the law.

Melanie Sloan, the executive director for the campaign watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the ex-North Carolina senator never should have been charged. No federal candidate had ever before been tried over payments from a third party that flowed to the politician's mistress.

"It was a colossal waste of time and taxpayer money," Sloan said. "Now maybe the Justice Department can get back to prosecuting people who actually broke the law."

Edwards denied doing anything illegal in his statement after the mistrial but acknowledged he had done much that was wrong.

"There is no one else responsible for my sins," Edwards said, before expressing hope for his future. "I don't think God's through with me. I really believe he thinks there's still some good things I can do."

Likely not in politics, though, with image experts advising he should stay out of the public eye.

"I think John Edwards has no political future. Nada, zip," said Emory University political science professor Merle Black soon after the mistrial.

Experts say he should stay out of the public eye for a time and concentrate on his family, something he said in his statement that he would like to do. He has one grown daughter, 30-year-old Cate, a teenage daughter, Emma Claire, and his youngest son, Jack. His son, Wade, died in a car accident in 1996.

He also indicated he spends time with the daughter, now 4, whom he fathered with Hunter. He called Francis Quinn Hunter "precious."

After two years of public denials, Edwards announced he was the father of Hunter's baby in January 2010. The girl lives with her mother in Charlotte.

Cate Edwards reacted to Wednesday's decision through her Twitter account. She sat behind her father in the courtroom nearly every day of his lengthy trial.

"Big sigh of relief," Cate Edwards tweeted. "Ready to move forward with life."

___

Associated Press writer Pete Yost in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP writer Michael Biesecker at www.twitter.com/mbieseck .

Associated Press

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Young Cancer Survivors Face Later Health Risks

When Amber Masso was 19, she was getting ready to start her sophomore year at Texas A&M University, and her worries were very similar to those of her fellow students -- school, tuition, work and where to live next year.

But things changed dramatically the day she took her brother to their family physician for his sports physical and she asked a casual question about a golf-ball sized mass above her collar bone.

Later that day, she got the news that the lump was lymphoma.

"I couldn't deny what I was looking at. I remember thinking, 'Well, what the heck am I supposed to do about school and work? How do I tell my mom? What was I going to do to be strong for my parents?'" she told ABC News.

For the next six months, Masso underwent chemotherapy and radiation. She completed her courses online and moved back with her parents. Now, at age 26, she works with children and adolescents living with the disease.

But while much progress has been made in the field of cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment as whole, these same trends are not evident in cancer among young adults. The National Cancer Institute reports survival rates in young adults have not improved significantly over the years, and a new study by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that young adult and adolescent cancer survivors are at higher risk for developing chronic diseases, engaging in risky health behaviors such as smoking and having mental health problems.

Rise in CT Scans Increases Radiation Exposure Watch Video

The study authors analyzed data from the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a nationwide, ongoing phone survey that monitors risky behaviors and health problems.

They compared data from 4,054 adolescent and young adult survivors with more than 300,000 people who never had cancer and found that more young cancer survivors smoked, were obese, had chronic medical conditions such as hypertension and asthma and also suffered from more mental health problems.

"I think it illustrates that this population, which is already vulnerable because of their prior cancer, is continuing to engage in behaviors that lead to long-term outcomes, which can lead to problems down the road for them," said Dr. Eric Tai, the study's lead author and a medical officer with CDC's Cancer Prevention and Control division.

There is evidence from other studies, the authors wrote, that certain risky behaviors such as smoking and drinking may be linked to an increased risk of secondary cancers later on.

Significantly more young cancer survivors also reported having heart disease, high blood pressure, asthma and diabetes compared with those with no cancer history.

"This is consistent with late effects of cancer treatment, including cardiac and pulmonary complications, among childhood cancer survivors," they said.

Tai added that young survivors struggled much more with their psychological well-being, which suggests they may benefit from counseling and care that revolves around promoting healthy behavior after cancer.

They may also benefit from interventions that address their risky behaviors, such as smoking cessation programs.

Masso learned from her own experience that finding inner strength can help in the battle to survive and thrive.

"The one area that I didn't have a lot of growth in was self advocacy. I was always the quiet one and going through what I went through helped me tremendously in the area of self-confidence and advocating for myself," she said.

She also encourages others to reach out and find support, such as through social media.

"You can actually form and become part of a community you can relate to," she said. "You need to realize that 'I do need help. I do need support.

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Got mass? Scientists observe electrons become both heavy and speedy

ScienceDaily (June 13, 2012) ? A Princeton University-led team of scientists has shown how electrons moving in certain solids can behave as though they are a thousand times more massive than free electrons, yet at the same time act as speedy superconductors.

The observation of these seemingly contradictory electron properties is critical to the understanding of how certain materials become superconducting, in which electrons can flow without resistance. Such materials could dramatically increase the efficiency of electrical power networks and speed up computers.

The concept of "heavy" electrons seems counterintuitive. The tiny particles flit through silicon chips to process information rapidly in digital electronics, and they flow with ease through copper wires carrying electricity to your desk lamp. But the Princeton research has revealed that a hard-to-measure process known as quantum entanglement determines the mass of electrons moving in a crystal and the delicate tuning of this entanglement can strongly alter the properties of a material.

Cool the electrons to far below room temperature in certain types of solid materials, and these flighty particles gain mass, acting like much heavier particles. Surprisingly, further cooling close to absolute zero makes these solids become superconducting, where the electrons, despite their heaviness, make a kind of perfect fluid that can flow without wasting any electrical power.

In a study to appear in the June 14 issue of the journal Nature, the Princeton-led team, which included scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the University of California-Irvine, used direct imaging of electron waves in a crystal. The researchers did so not only to watch the electrons gain mass but also to show that the heavy electrons are actually composite objects made of two entangled forms of the electron. This entanglement arises from the rules of quantum mechanics, which govern how very small particles behave and allow entangled particles to behave differently than untangled ones. Combining experiments and theoretical modeling, the study is the first to show how the heavy electrons emerge from such entanglement.

Observations made over the last 30 years indicate that electrons in certain solids behave as particles with masses hundreds to thousands of times larger than that of electrons moving freely in a vacuum. Until now, however, researchers had been unable to understand how this happens and lacked the tools to explore the connection between this process and the superconductivity of heavy electrons.

The published study comes after several years of setting up the precise experimental conditions needed to visualize these heavy electrons. The team employed a custom-designed cryogenic scanning tunneling microscope (STM), which allows visualization of electron waves in a crystal. The researchers used the STM to look at crystals prepared in such a way that their surfaces contained a few atomic imperfections. As they lowered the temperature in the experiment, the researchers saw the emergence of patterns of electron waves spread around the defects in a way similar to how ripples of water form around rocks in a pond.

"It is remarkable to watch electrons moving in a crystal evolve into more massive particles as we cool them down," said Ali Yazdani, a professor of physics at Princeton and head of the team that conducted the study.

Making this groundbreaking observation of electrons as they transition from light to heavy particles is only part of the story. The researchers also showed how the process can be understood based on quantum theories of electron behavior. Subatomic particles such as electrons can exhibit strange behavior because of quantum entanglement, which can mix diametrically opposite behaviors together. By comparing the data with theoretical calculations, the study shows that heavy electrons emerge from entanglement of two opposite behaviors of electrons, one in which they are localized around individual atoms and the other in which they are hopping freely from atom to atom in the crystal.

"This is the first time we have a precise picture of formation of heavy electrons, thanks to our ability to probe them with high resolution," Yazdani said.

The degree of such entanglement appears to be the key to understanding what the heavy electrons do once they are formed and cooled even further. Adjusting the crystal composition or structure can tune the degree of entanglement and the heaviness of electrons. Make the electrons too heavy and they freeze into a magnetized state, stuck at each atom in the crystal while spinning in unison. But tweaking the crystal composition so that the electrons have just the right amount of entanglement turns these heavy electrons into superconductors when they are cooled.

"What is neat, and our studies confirm this, is that you really need to be on the verge of these two kinds of behaviors -- sluggish and speedy -- to get superconductivity," Yazdani said. "That is the circumstance most favorable to occurrence of heavy electron superconductivity."

Understanding superconducting behavior of exotic electrons is at the forefront of research in physics, where there are many examples of magnetic materials that turn superconducting with subtle changes in their composition or crystal structure.

The experiments may help physicists unravel the mysteries of high-temperature superconductivity, said Subir Sachdev, a theoretical physicist at Harvard University who was not involved with the work. Many physicists have argued that understanding this transition between magnetism and superconductivity, known as a quantum critical point, could help explain why the materials are superconducting. But physicists have lacked experimental evidence to prove their ideas.

"We have been waiting for observations like this for many years, so it is very exciting that such a beautiful experimental system has been found and characterized so well," Sachdev said.

The research was primarily supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Basic Energy Sciences program. Additional support came from the National Science Foundation's Materials Research Science and Engineering Center program through the Princeton Center for Complex Materials; the W.M. Keck Foundation; and the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund at Princeton.

In addition to Yazdani, Princeton scientists on the team included postdoctoral scientist Pegor Aynajian and graduate students Eduardo da Silva Neto and Andr?s Gyenis. The team also included Ryan Baumbach, Joseph Thompson and Eric Bauer from LANL and Zachary Fisk from UC Irvine.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Princeton University. The original article was written by Catherine Zandonella.

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

Journal Reference:

Pegor Aynajian, Eduardo H. da Silva Neto, Andr?s Gyenis, Ryan E. Baumbach, J. D. Thompson, Zachary Fisk, Eric D. Bauer, Ali Yazdani. Visualizing heavy fermions emerging in a quantum critical Kondo lattice. Nature, 2012; 486 (7402): 201 DOI: 10.1038/nature11204

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Charlize Theron Shaves Her Head!

Charlize Theron is one of the most beautiful women in the world - and she's testing the boundaries of that beauty with a new look.

The Oscar winner was photographed in Los Angeles yesterday (holding adorable son Jackson), donning a hat that could not fully cover up the obvious: she has gone all Willow Smith on us!

Sources confirm that Theron, who is ruling the box office these days with Snow White and the Huntsman and Prometheus, shaved her head for a role in Mad Max: Fury Road. It starts shooting next month in Africa.

Compare her new look with her old one now and vote on your favorite:

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Republicans want outside prosecutor to probe leaks

Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 12, 2012, before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing looking into national security leaks. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday fended off Republican demands that he appoint a special counsel outside of the Justice Department to look into national security leaks.

Holder said both he and FBI Director Robert Mueller have already been interviewed by the FBI as part of a fast-moving Justice Department leak investigation.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said they want the attorney general to appoint a special counsel to look into the leaks, rather than Holder's choices, U.S. Attorneys Ron Machen and Rod Rosenstein, who hold political appointments.

Graham and Grassley were referring to a procedure by which a special counsel appointed from outside the Justice Department conducts the leak investigations.

Holder praised the two U.S. attorneys as experienced and highly respected.

"We have people who have shown independence, an ability to be thorough and who have the guts to ask tough questions," Holder told the committee. "And the charge that I've given them is to follow the leads wherever they are, whether it is ? wherever it is in the executive branch or some other component of government. I have great faith in their abilities."

Machen and Rosenstein were appointed to oversee investigations into who leaked information about U.S. involvement in cyberattacks on Iran and an al-Qaida plot to place an explosive device aboard a U.S.-bound flight.

Holder pointed out that Rosenstein was appointed by a Republican president, George W. Bush. Rosenstein also worked for Independent Counsel Ken Starr in the investigation and prosecution of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton's real estate partners, helping to win convictions of both.

Not far from where Holder was testifying, Sen. John McCain, President Barack Obama's 2008 rival and the harshest critic of the White House over the leaks, introduced a nonbinding resolution calling for a special counsel. He was joined by more than a dozen GOP senators in pressing for the measure.

McCain called it the "almost unprecedented release of information which directly affects our national security. I can't think of any time that I have seen such breaches of ongoing national security programs as has been the case here."

At the Senate committee hearing, Holder pointed out that the Obama administration has brought more leak prosecutions than any other administration. The Obama administration has charged six people under the Espionage Act for the alleged mishandling of classified information.

Holder told the committee that speed in carrying out the leak probes was an important factor in appointing the two prosecutors.

Holder cited the quick interviews of him and Mueller as one illustration of that speed.

"That interview was not some kind of pro forma take-it-easy interview. I mean, these were serious ? a serious interview that was done by some serious FBI agents," said Holder. "The same thing happened to the director of the FBI as well because we were people who had knowledge of these matters," that were the subjects of the leaks.

Holder estimated that about 100 interviews have already been completed.

Finding a special counsel would take time, he said, and it would take more time to get an outside appointee up to speed on the details of the ongoing probe.

"There are clearly people around the president leaking stories that involve highly classified information" favorable to the Obama administration, Graham told Holder. If there is "ever a need" for an outside special counsel, it is now.

Graham said it was correct for the administration of former President George W. Bush to appoint a special counsel to investigate officials for leaking the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame.

The Plame leak was investigated by a U.S. attorney, "the same thing I have done here," Holder replied. The attorney general was referring to the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, Patrick Fitzgerald, who led the investigation and prosecuted Bush White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Sen. John Cornyn said Machen, a contributor to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, was too politically partisan to handle the leak probes.

Republicans interspersed their criticism of Holder about the leak probes with criticism of his failure to turn over more documents to a House committee investigating a flawed gun-smuggling probe in Arizona, Operation Fast and Furious.

Regarding Fast and Furious, Cornyn called on Holder to resign. He said the attorney general had misled Congress in February by embracing a letter to Congress denying there were problems. Hundreds of illicitly purchased weapons wound up south of the border, many of them at crime scenes.

Holder offered to sit down with Republicans and reach an accommodation to avoid what the attorney general characterized as an impending constitutional crisis over Justice Department documents the attorney general says involve highly sensitive law enforcement investigations and prosecutions.

Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have scheduled a June 20 vote on a proposed contempt of Congress citation directed at Holder for not turning over the material.

On the Senate floor, Graham said that not appointing a special counsel would set a "precedent that will haunt the country and this body and future White Houses in a way that I think is very disturbing."

McCain's move to get swift Senate passage of his resolution was blocked by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, who said the effort was premature.

Associated Press

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Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The World's Biggest Natural Gas Powerhouses - Business Insider

Unconventional gas reserves, including shale gas and coal seam methane, are now at least as abundant as conventional reserves, according to the International Energy Agency.?

It is also getting cheaper and easier to exploit previously inaccessible resources. The result has been a long decline in natural gas prices.

Those low prices aren't good news for everybody. Major natural gas exporters, some of whom have made significant capital investment to exploit gas reserves, will see lower profits and less government revenue. For countries whose economies depend heavily on gas exports, low prices could put pressure on their finances.

The countries in the following list of natural gas exporters are ranked by natural gas rents as a percentage of GDP. Natural gas rent?is the difference between the value of natural gas production at world prices and total costs of production.? Data is from 2010 unless otherwise noted.

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Video: Obama's Spending Problem?

One of the greatest periods of prosperity in the U.S. happened during one of the largest spending cuts in modern times. Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University professor & 2001 Nobel Prize Winner, and Arthur Laffer, Laffer Associates, discuss President Ob...

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China auto sales up 16pc in May

A model stands next to the new Morgan Aero Coupe, after its launch at the China Luxury exhibition in Beijing June 8, 2012. ? Reuters pic

SHANGHAI, June 11 ? Vehicle sales in China rose 16 per cent year-on-year in May to 1.61 million units, according to industry data Saturday, indicating a strengthening recovery in the world?s biggest auto market.

In April total vehicle sales rose 5.2 per cent to 1.62 million units, although from a higher base.

Sales of passenger vehicles accelerated by 22.6 per cent year-on-year in May to 1.28 million vehicles, from 12.5 per cent in April, according to figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers quoted by Dow Jones Newswires.

A total of 6.33 million passenger vehicles were sold in China in the January-May period, up 5.48 per cent from a year earlier.

For the first five months of the year, total auto sales rose 1.7 per cent over the same period last year to 8.02 million units, Xinhua news agency said.

China?s auto sales slowed sharply in 2011 after the government rolled back incentives and some cities imposed tough restrictions on car numbers to ease chronic traffic congestion and pollution.

Last year, vehicle sales rose just 2.5 per cent to 18.51 million units in 2011, compared with an increase of more than 32 per cent in 2010.

Foreign manufacturers in China have generally fared better despite the slowdown, helped by brand recognition and perceptions of higher quality, analysts say.

The first foreign manufacturer in China, US auto giant General Motors said last Tuesday that its China sales for May surged 21.3 per cent year-on-year to hit a record 231,183 vehicles.

GM sold more than 2.5 million vehicles in China last year.

According to state media, policymakers are considering reviving favourable policies for the auto sector by offering subsidies to buyers of smaller vehicles in rural areas to help boost consumption and spur the economy.

The move should particularly benefit Chinese manufacturers, which are strongest in this sector of the market. ? AFP/Relaxnews

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Monday, June 11, 2012

Get in the Game! Biopharma IT Managers Must be Immersed in ...

I recently had the opportunity to project manage the implementation of a new change management module, which was part of a QMS upgrade for one of our biopharma clients. ?We wisely moved away from customization, but systems are so configurable these days, clients can?t review every option to determine their best course. The key is to let business process requirements drive the decisions.

To accomplish this, the real work lies in gaining a deep understanding of the business process you are trying to automate. ?While one could get a good picture of what this might be like through interviewing the process owner(s), unless you ?get in the game?, you will have only scratched the surface. ?Getting on the same page as the client with regards to the details of the business process will surely put you and ultimately them in a good position for a successful implementation.

Software vendors can typically pick up a good understanding of their customer?s business processes in the onsite sessions which are then presented in the requirements specification. ?While this is helpful, I submit that a few days onsite is generally not sufficient to capture all the nuances within complex biopharma business processes. ? It is rare, especially in a process that crosses multiple areas of expertise, that one or two people can effectively and accurately represent the needs of the players outside of their department.

Having an effective project manager onsite to bridge the gap between business process and the software solution helps, but it is imperative that he/she engages all players in the design effort, particularly in the conference room pilot leading up to the User Acceptance Testing. ? The project manager must be immersed in the full manual process, by walking through it with all players in the various departments and learning the value of every step in each phase of the workflow.

Intimately knowing the business process, and the various players in it, will give you a solid foundation from which you can effectively represent your clients? needs and will lead you to a successful implementation of the solution.

Antonio Narciso

Tags: IT Solutions, Operational Excellence, Project Management

This entry was posted on Monday, June 11, 2012 at 3:33 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site, or Forward ?Forward

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Senior Business Analyst - Northampton, Northamptonshire

Senior Business Analyst - Northampton, Northamptonshire - a Senior Business Analyst is required to join an industry leading client. My client is looking for a Senior Business Analyst with solid change management experience to join them in working on some exciting and cutting edge projects / programmes. The suitable candidate will be responsible for identifying, quantifying and controlling all business design and analysis related activity on change projects in order to support the high performance delivery of change projects. The suitable candidate, alongside the obvious demonstrable Business Analysis track record will have solid Business Change Management experience alongside some Financial Services Industry Experience (Credit-card, Payments, Digital Payments, mobile payments or Retail Banking being particularly desirable) or Telecoms Industry. A good understanding of various Business Analysis tools / Processes etc with some UML experience being advantageous. You will have solid Stakeholder management experience alongside strong Negotiation, communication and interpersonal skills. Any experience of mentoring / leading more junior Analysts would also be a distinct advantage. You will be able to draw on your knowledge of business and enterprise architecture as well as retail banking and card management. With all this experience you will be ready to embark on some of the most exciting and biggest change projects around - and one of the biggest change management roles. Any ISEB, CBAP or TOGAF qualification would be a distinct advantage. Apply immediately if this sounds like you. Commutable from Milton Keynes, Bedford, Bedfordshire, Luton. Leicester, Rugby, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire northamptonshire etc

Location:	Northampton
Publish Date:	11/06/2012
Job Type:	Permanent
Start Date:	ASAP
Contact:	Luke Radford
Contact Number:	0121 329 1400
Reference Number:	49231.32

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James, Heat find their way back to NBA finals

Miami Heat's LeBron James smiles during the trophy presentation following the Heat's 101-88 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 7 in the NBA basketball playoffs Eastern Conference finals, Saturday, June 9, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade, left, and LeBron James stand together during the trophy presentation following the Heat's 101-88 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 7 in the NBA basketball Eastern Conference Finals playoff series, Saturday, June 9, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Miami Heat's LeBron James walks the court during warm-ups for Game 7 in the NBA basketball playoffs Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics, Saturday, June 9, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Miami Heat's LeBron James, right, and Dwyane Wade a post game news conference after Game 7 of the NBA basketball playoffs Eastern Conference finals, Saturday, June 9, 2012, in Miami. The Heat defeated the Celtics 101-88. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Miami Heat's LeBron James dunks over Boston Celtics' Rajon Rondo (9) during the first half of Game 7 of the NBA basketball playoffs Eastern Conference finals, Saturday, June 9, 2012, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

MIAMI (AP) ? Several weeks before this season even started, LeBron James and Kevin Durant were competing against each other.

Hell Week, they called it, a four-day series of grueling workouts.

Starting Tuesday, they'll meet again. They'll call that the NBA finals.

Neither was playing at the level they are now when James invited Durant to work out with him during the NBA lockout in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. Now as James tries to win his first ring, fittingly, it's Durant in his way.

"It's only right. It's only right," James said. "We look forward to the challenge. It's going to be a big test for us."

James played at a rarely seen level in the Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics. According to STATS LLC, James became the first player since Shaquille O'Neal in the 2000 finals to have six 30-point games in a playoff series. In the one contest where James didn't score 30, he finished with 29 in Game 4, fouling out in overtime.

His series averages against the Celtics: 33.6 points and 11 rebounds per game on 53 percent shooting. He had five games with at least 30 points and 10 rebounds in the entire regular season ? then did it five times in the series against Boston alone.

"He was absolutely brilliant this series, and we all know it," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "He's playing at an historic level during the playoffs, driving us with his will. We do not take his talent or his will or his competitiveness for granted. And we need every single bit of it. He is pushing himself beyond his limits, and he's pushing the rest of the team as well."

Said Heat guard Dwyane Wade: "He's amazing."

There were many moments for the Heat to celebrate on Saturday night, when they punched their ticket back to the NBA finals by ousting Boston 101-88 in Game 7.

Heat owner Micky Arison couldn't have gotten his hands off the East trophy fast enough, since that isn't the one he wants anyway. James felt the same way. The Heat star left the floor in a cap and T-shirt, one arm raised in joy.

Behind him, the celebration continued. By then, he was already thinking about what's next.

"I really thought he in particular played a very smart, aggressive game," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "He kind of let the game come to him, and then down the stretch he took the game over. That's what great players do."

They don't do it alone, though.

Criticized last season for deferring too often in crucial situations, James went into the offseason driven by the pain of failing in the NBA finals. And even during the lockout, he did anything he could to improve ? two-a-day workouts, studying with Hakeem Olajuwon, yoga, boxing, beach sprints, even asking Durant to come to Akron for a few days for some training.

In those sessions, they pushed each other to the limit.

"Me and KD, man, just tryin' to get better," James said in a video of one workout posted online.

And look at them now, two superstars set to fight for one ring.

"I envisioned it every day we worked out," James said. "I understood what his passion was. I understood what his drive was."

They both understood the other perfectly.

James and the Heat lost to Dallas in last season's finals. Durant and the Thunder lost to Dallas in last season's Western Conference finals. This probably couldn't have been scripted any better. Maybe the two best players in the world, scarred by similar disappointment, trying to make the other better.

And when the final series of the season begins Tuesday night in Oklahoma City, they'll each have a close-up view of how far the other has come.

"It's going to be a battle," Durant said.

The Heat and Thunder split two games during the regular season, both winning at home. Durant scored the most points in the NBA this season at 1,850, James was second with 1,683. James won the MVP award, Durant finished second in that balloting. And in these finals, one will finish first again, the other will finish second again.

"It's not about Kevin and LeBron," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "It's not about any other thing other than playing good basketball against a very good team. ... Individually, they're the best players in the league.

"They have many ways that they score and many ways that they help their team win. They make winning basketball plays, they're both defensively very good, they both get rebounds, they both pass. But it's always about the Thunder against the Heat."

There's probably little argument that James and Durant have been the premier players in this postseason. James is averaging 30.8 points, 9.6 rebounds and 5.1 assists, while Durant is at 27.8 points, 7.9 rebounds and 4.2 assists. But while Durant is celebrated for what he's doing as a 23-year-old on the rise in a small market, James gets the constant reminder of how he's a 27-year-old without a championship despite moving to Miami.

"LeBron James, I just have a feeling a lot of people are just waiting to pin failure on him versus objectively evaluating his game," ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy said during the East finals. "I mean, think about it. ... James has an every-night pressure that no one else has. I don't understand what people don't like about him."

It seems no matter what James does or how well he plays, some can't get past The Decision ? that infamous televised special where he announced he was signing with Miami in 2010. If he passes, he should have shot. If he shoots, he is being selfish. If he puts up 45 points and 15 rebounds, like in Game 6 of the East finals, some ask why he doesn't do that every night. If the Heat win, the reminders come that they didn't win it all last season.

Those around James say the scrutiny drives him.

James, for his part, says he does his best to ignore it all.

"I can't worry about what people say about me, about my game, about who I am as a person,", James said. "I can't get involved in that. People can have their own opinions, and rightfully so. They can have their own opinions. For me I just go out and play at a high level, and do whatever it takes for us to win. And I can be happy with that."

___

AP Sports Writer Jeff Latzke in Oklahoma City contributed.

___

Follow Tim Reynolds on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ByTimReynolds

Associated Press

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Sunday, June 10, 2012

Police report: megachurch pastor choked daughter

This Friday, June 8, 2012 photo provided by the Fayette County Sheriff's Office shows megachurch pastor Creflo Dollar. Dollar has been arrested after authorities say he slightly hurt his 15-year-old daughter in a fight at his metro Atlanta home. Fayette County Sheriff's Office investigator Brent Rowan says deputies responded to a call of domestic violence at the home around 1 a.m. Friday. Rowan says the 50-year-old pastor and his daughter were arguing over whether she could go to a party when Dollar "got physical" with her, leaving her with "superficial injuries." (AP Photo/Fayette County Sheriff's Office)

In this Sunday, Nov. 11, 2007 photo, Rev. Creflo Dollar delivers his second sermon of the day at World Changers Church International, in College Park, Ga. Dollar has been arrested after authorities say he slightly hurt his 15-year-old daughter in a fight at his metro Atlanta home. Fayette County Sheriff's Office investigator Brent Rowan says deputies responded to a call of domestic violence at the home around 1 a.m. Friday, June 8, 2012. Rowan says the 50-year-old pastor and his daughter were arguing over whether she could go to a party when Dollar "got physical" with her, leaving her with "superficial injuries." (AP Photo/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Pouya Dianat) MARIETTA DAILY OUT; GWINNETT DAILY POST OUT; LOCAL TV OUT; WXIA-TV OUT; WGCL-TV OUT

ATLANTA (AP) ? The 15-year-old daughter of megachurch pastor Creflo Dollar told authorities her father choked and punched her, and hit her with his shoe during an argument over whether she could go to a party, according to a police report.

Dollar's 19-year-old daughter corroborated most of her sister's story, but Dollar disputed it, telling a sheriff's deputy he was trying to restrain her when she became disrespectful. When she began to hit back, he wrestled her to the floor and spanked her, according to the police report.

Dollar is one of the most prominent African-American preachers based around Atlanta. His World Changers Church International has 30,000 members in the Atlanta area, and the ministry has satellite churches across the U.S.

Dollar faces misdemeanor charges of simple battery and cruelty to children. He has been released from jail and his lawyer said he is expected to preach Sunday.

Dollar said in a statement Friday he loved his children and would never hurt them.

Around 1 a.m. Friday, his 15-year-old daughter called 911. She told a Fayette County sheriff's deputy that she and her father argued when he said she couldn't go to a party Saturday night, according to the report.

She went into the kitchen with her older sister. When her father asked why she was crying, she told him, "I do not want to talk right now," the report said.

Her father charged at her, put his hands around her throat, began to punch her and started hitting her with his shoe, she told the deputy. The deputy noted a scratch on her neck.

Dollar told the deputy he wouldn't let his daughter go to the party because of poor grades.

The deputy also interviewed Dollar's 19-year-old daughter, who said her father grabbed the younger girl's shoulders and slapped her in the face and choked her for about five seconds. She said her sister tried to break free, but did not fight back. When her father threw the 15-year-old on the floor, the older girl ran to get her mother.

The deputy also spoke to Dollar's wife, Taffi, who said she did not see the fight.

After interviewing Dollar and the two girls, the deputy asked for written statements. The older daughter initially wrote a statement that contradicted what she had told the deputy and was more in line with what Dollar said. When the deputy confronted her about the discrepancies, she told him it was because her parents were with her. Later, when separated from her parents, she wrote what she initially told him.

The 50-year-old Dollar leads the Creflo Dollar Ministries and is the pastor for World Changers Church International in the Atlanta suburb of College Park. World Changers Church-New York hosts over 6,000 worshippers each week.

Satellite churches are also in Los Angeles, Indianapolis, Washington, Cleveland, Dallas and Houston.

He and his wife, a co-pastor at the church, have five children, according to the church's website.

Dollar is a native of College Park and says he received a vision for World Changers Ministries Christian Center in 1986. He held the first service in front of eight people in an elementary school cafeteria.

His ministry grew quickly and the church moved into its present location, an 8,500-seat sanctuary, on Dec. 24, 1995.

Dollar said in a 2007 interview with The Associated Press that he renounced his church salary, and his income only comes from personal investments, including a real estate residential property business and horse breeding company called Dollar Ranch. He's also published more than 30 books, focusing mostly on family and life issues, including debt management.

He said he also sometimes got up to $100,000 for a single appearance on his packed schedule of speaking engagements.

Along with Bishop Eddie Long, Dollar is one of the most prominent African-American preachers based around Atlanta who have built successful ministries on the prosperity gospel, which teaches that God wants to bless the faithful with earthly riches. Ministers in this tradition often hold up their own wealth as evidence that the teaching works.

Long and Dollar were among six televangelists investigated by Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley from 2007 to 2010, following questions about personal use of church-owned airplanes, luxury homes and credit cards by megachurch pastors and their families. The report did not find any definitive wrongdoing, but it expressed concern about the lack of financial oversight at such large ministries.

___

Associated Press writer Jonathan Landrum Jr. contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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'Mad Men' Fans Angered By Slate Writer, Tom Scocca's Assertion Don Draper Does Not Exist

Bad news for "Mad Men" fans who thought they were watching a five-season documentary -- Don Draper is not a real person. We know, we know -- your mind has been blown.

On June 8, Tom Scocca's Slate article, "Don Draper?s Shocking Secret: He Doesn?t Exist," blew the lid off that secret for good, and managed to anger some of the show's fans.

Twitter user Eric Thurm called the article "one of the most condescending things" he'd ever read, while Dov Friedman, called it "aggressively awful."

In the article, Scocca explains that "Don Draper is a made-up person inside your television set. He is a pattern of lit-up dots moving in front of your eyes for one hour, on Sundays, during the season run of the Mad Men program, which mercifully ends this weekend."

Though viewers of the AMC drama are more than aware that Draper, his family and advertising company Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce are all born out of the mind of the show's creator Matt Weiner, Scocca is not convinced because of how often the show is referenced in the news. He says he is perplexed by how often other writers have chosen to use a pop culture reference to help explain a concept or event.

"What's wrong with 'Mad Men' isn't that it makes you boring. What's wrong with 'Mad Men' is that it also makes you stupid," he wrote, before listing an excerpt from a 2011 column in the business section of The New York Times:

As more and more women have come into the work force, corporate America has made significant, if agonizingly slow, progress in making sure its attitudes and the conduct of its leadership reflect those changes. It's no longer a ''Mad Men'' world where women are expected to fetch coffee and whiskey and service their bosses in other ways.

Much to Scocca's chagrin, "Mad Men" has become synonymous with the '60s and Don Draper its foremost figure -- but what he's really angry about his the fact that fans and writers won't shut up about it.

After listing five articles that reference the show he explains:

"What's remarkable -- almost miraculous -- about these 'Mad Men' references is how universally, completely meaningless they are. I belong to the 99 percent of the American public that does not watch 'Mad Men,' yet there's nothing about the Don Draper comparisons that is lost on me."

It's true "Mad Men" is not the country's most watched program -- that title belongs to NBC's Sunday Night Football, which averaged 20.7 million viewers each game this season. But no one seemed to explain to Scocca that a football analogy doesn't quite work when writing about slow changes to the sexist attitudes in corporate America.

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Sunday, June 17, 2012

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Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Monday, June 11, 2012

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Do people take 'Mad Men' too seriously?

PhGeek Podcast

Tom Birkenstock

Paul Page

Daniel Linehan

Eric Thurm

Dan M.

Michael Ferguson

Silpa Kovvali

Dov Friedman

Ray Subers

starfishncoffee

A. Rascal

John Warrender

Dianna Anderson

Dianna Anderson

Dianna Anderson

Angus Johnston

Glenn Kenny

Tom Lee

Mara Wilson

MARIA AMANTE