Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193388906?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
WordPress - Butterfly Effect: Business & Portfolio | ThemeForest
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Source: http://themeforest.net/item/butterfly-effect-business-portfolio/1469268
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Being Familiar With Term Life Insurance ...
With regards to life plans, there are a variety of different options but probably the most generally purchased is term life insurance plans. There are a number of several types of life insurance but you will find reasons why term life insurance is indeed frequent.
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Camilla Williams, black opera pioneer, dies at 92 (AP)
INDIANAPOLIS ? African-American opera pioneer Camilla Williams has died in Bloomington. She was 92.
Williams' attorney, Eric Slotegraaf, said in a statement that the soprano died Sunday.
Indiana University Jacobs School of Music spokesman Alain Barker said Williams died of complications from cancer.
The school says Williams became the first African-American female to appear with a major U.S. opera company when she debuted on May 15, 1946, with New York City Opera in the title role of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly."
She became the first African-American professor of voice at IU in 1977 and retired in 1997.
Williams was born in Danville, Va., on Oct. 18, 1919, the daughter of a chauffeur. Her grandfather was a singer and choir leader, and by age 8 she was singing in Danville's Calvary Baptist Church.
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In Syria, heavy fighting reaches outskirts of capital
The fighting outside Damascus comes a day after the Arab League announced it was suspending its observer mission to Syria.
Syria?s military sent tanks to neighborhoods on the outskirts of Damascus Sunday in an attempt to quell the most intense fighting yet seen so close to the capital, one day after the Arab League announced it would suspend its observation mission.
Skip to next paragraphThe spike in violence throughout the country ? rights groups say more than 100 people have been killed since Thursday ? comes days before the UN Security Council plans to vote on a resolution calling for President Bashar Al Assad to step down. The UN says more than 5,400 people have died so far in Assad?s crackdown on an uprising against his regime.
The Associated Press reports that nine people died over the last day in clashes on the eastern edges of Damascus. Rights activists said that three people died in fighting in the suburb of Kfar Batna, and reported heavy shelling in that area as well as nearby suburbs. The state news agency, meanwhile, reported that an ?armed terrorist group? bombed a bus carrying army personnel, killing six people and injuring six others. The state news agency said the bomb was a remotely detonated.
The government attack on the suburbs began after the Free Syrian Army, largely made up of defectors from Syria?s military, occupied the area, reports the BBC. According to activists, the assault involved more than 2,000 troops and 50 tanks. Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told the BBC that ?the Syrian regime is trying to finish the uprising militarily now that the case is being taken to the United Nations."
Head of the Arab League Nabil Al Arabi announced yesterday that the League?s observers would immediately suspend their nearly five-week monitoring mission because of ?a severe deterioration of the situation and the continued use of violence.? The mission was intended to observe whether Syria was complying with an Arab League plan adopted in November to end the violence.?The New York Times reports that Mr. Arabi blamed the Syrian government for the violence, saying it had decided to escalate the crackdown. The Times reports that the observers ventured on Saturday to the outskirts of Rankous, which was nearly empty after five days of government shelling and fighting. But they turned back after a warning from army officers that rebels might use explosives.
The monitoring mission has faced criticism of its effectiveness for weeks. Now that it has ended, pressure is increasing for the Security Council to take action. The Syrian National Council, the main opposition group, sent a delegation to the UN to ?demand international protection for civilians,? reports the Financial Times. Adding to the urgency, the conflict in Syria is becoming increasingly militarized, with army defectors and some opposition activists using arms to fight the government in what increasingly looks like a civil war. A member of the Syrian National Council expressed concern Thursday about the armed groups, saying they must work together with the political opposition, reports the Monitor. ?
The Security Council is due to vote on Jan. 31 on a resolution that would affirm an Arab League transition plan. Russia, an ally of Syria, opposes the resolution. Bloomberg reports that a draft resolution discussed on Jan. 27 changed language that had previously called on Assad to step down and for Syria to hold free elections, replacing it with a call for Assad to hand authority to his deputy and the formation of a national unity government.
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29 Chinese missing after militant attack in Sudan (AP)
BEIJING ? Militants apparently captured 29 Chinese workers after attacking a remote worksite in a volatile region of Sudan, and Sudanese forces were increasing security for Chinese projects and personnel there, China said Sunday.
China has close political and economic relations with Sudan, especially in the energy sector.
The Foreign Ministry in Beijing said the militants attacked Saturday and Sudanese forces launched a rescue mission Sunday in coordination with the Chinese embassy in Khartoum.
The Ministry's head of consular affairs met with the Sudanese ambassador in Beijing and "urged him to actively conduct rescue missions under the prerequisite of ensuring the safety of the Chinese personnel," the statement said.
In Khartoum, a Chinese embassy spokesman said the northern branch of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement announced that 29 Chinese workers had been captured in the attack. The spokesman, who asked not be identified, gave no other details and it wasn't clear if the militants had demanded conditions for their return.
Other details weren't given. The official Xinhua News Agency cited the state governor as saying the Sudan People's Liberation Army attacked a road-building site in South Kordofan and seized the workers.
The Sudan People's Liberation Army are a guerrilla force loyal to the southern movement and hail from a minority ethnic group now in control of much of South Sudan, which became the world's newest country only six months ago in a breakaway from Sudan.
Sudan has accused South Sudan of arming pro-South Sudan groups in South Kordofan. The government of South Sudan has called such accusations a smoke screen intended to justify a future invasion of the South.
China has sent large numbers of workers to potentially unstable regions such as Sudan and last year was forced to send ships and planes to help with the emergency evacuation of 30,000 of its citizens from the fighting in Libya.
China has consistently used its clout in diplomatic forums such as the United Nations to defend Sudan and its longtime leader Omar al-Bashir. In recent years, it has also sought to build good relations with leaders from the south, where most of Sudan's oil is located.
Chinese companies have also invested heavily in Sudanese oil production, along with companies India and elsewhere.
___
Associated Press writer Mohamed Saeed contributed to this report from Khartoum.
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Video: Buried Secrets, Part 4
Dateline NBC
'Dateline NBC,' the signature broadcast for NBC News in primetime, premiered in 1992. Since then, it has been pioneering a new approach to primetime news programming. The multi-night franchise, supplemented by frequent specials, allows NBC to consistently and comprehensively present the highest-quality reporting, investigative features, breaking news coverage and newsmaker profiles.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032600/vp/46168616#46168616
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Nokia clarifies battery update on Lumia 800, promises audio / camera fixes soon
Nokia already came clean about the Lumia 800 battery bug, but evidently that just wasn't enough to appease the masses. A community manager in the outfit's own forums has just responded to pages upon pages of comments regarding the most recent update, partly to (re)set the record straight regarding the battery, and partly to address more fixes that are just around the bend. The latest update (1600.2483.8106.11500) was meant to "enhance standby time as well as to bring an improvement to the issue reported by some customers in December," and according to Nokia, said update does indeed address those problems. However, folks that still have concerns regarding audio and camera settings aren't being ignored; those quirks will be worked out in "a series of future updates." Eager to learn more? The full reply is embedded just after the break.Continue reading Nokia clarifies battery update on Lumia 800, promises audio / camera fixes soon
Nokia clarifies battery update on Lumia 800, promises audio / camera fixes soon originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Obama seeks to rally Democrats to election-year fight (Reuters)
CAMBRIDGE, Maryland (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama vowed on Friday to push back hard against Republicans who try to obstruct his election-year proposals on taxes and jobs, as he sought to rally congressional Democrats and move past a period of strained relations.
Wrapping up a cross-country tour to promote a populist agenda laid out in this week's State of the Union address, Obama hammered home a reelection campaign appeal for greater economic fairness and called on fellow Democrats to close ranks with him.
Obama, who must convince voters to give him a second term despite a fragile economy and high unemployment, used his speech to a Democratic lawmakers' retreat in Maryland to turn up the heat on their Republican opponents.
Republicans accuse him of pursuing the "politics of envy" and have assailed his State of the Union proposals, including higher taxes on wealthier Americans.
"Where they obstruct, where they're unwilling to act, where they're more interested in party than they are in country ... then we've got to call them out on it," Obama said to loud applause. "We've got to push them. We can't wait. We can't be held back."
The White House believes that by casting Obama as a champion of the middle class, he can tap into voter resentment over income inequality and Wall Street excess, while painting the Republicans as the party beholden to the rich.
But Obama's economic proposals are unlikely to make headway in a deeply divided Congress, where Republicans control the House of Representatives and the president's legislative agenda remains stalled.
Pledging to "push hard" for his proposal that people earning more than $1 million a year pay a minimum of 30 percent in tax, Obama dismissed Republican criticism this was class warfare.
"Nobody envies rich people. Everybody wants to be rich ... the question is, are we creating opportunity for everybody?"
Relations between Obama and Democratic lawmakers suffered after Republicans won the House in the 2010 congressional elections, with some Democrats complaining Obama had made too many concessions to his political opponents.
But ties have improved in recent months as Obama has taken a more combative line toward Republicans over taxes and jobs and has drawn a stark contrast with Republican presidential hopefuls vying to face him in the November election.
Starting his appearance with a standing ovation from the audience, Obama thanked the House Democrats for giving him a compact disc in which they all performed a rendition of Al Green's 'I'm So In Love With You.'"
(Additional reporting by Alister Bull and Matt Spetalnick in Washington and Thomas Ferraro in Cambridge, Maryland; Editing by Eric Walsh)
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Britain says Afghan withdrawal must be carefully phased (Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) ? Foreign troops must carefully phase their withdrawal from Afghanistan ahead of an end-2014 deadline, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Saturday, after France suggested giving Afghan forces full responsibility for security in 2013.
"I don't want to see some sort of cliff edge in 2014 when all of the remaining troops come out at once," Cameron said during talks in London with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
"But clearly, between now and 2014, the rate at which we can reduce our troops will depend on the transition to Afghan control in the different parts of Afghanistan..."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday France would pull its combat troops out at the end of 2013, a year before an end-2014 deadline fixed by the United States and its NATO allies for handing over responsibility for security to Afghan forces.
"We have decided, in agreement with President Karzai, to call on NATO to give some serious consideration to the Afghan army taking full charge of NATO combat missions in the course of 2013," Sarkozy said at a news conference with Karzai in Paris.
He said he would raise this at a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels on Feb 2 and 3.
However, some foreign troops, Sarkozy said, would stay on after 2013 to train the Afghan army - which western countries are building up with the aim of making it strong enough to maintain security without outside help after the end of 2014.
Foreign countries are already handing over responsibility for security in parts of Afghanistan to Afghan forces.
The idea of speeding up that transfer has been floated in the past, in part to provide a cushion to Afghan forces to take charge of security at a time when foreign troops would still be available to help in an emergency.
It was unclear whether Sarkozy's suggestion was meant merely to feed into this debate, or whether he was expecting the United States and its allies to agree to a serious acceleration in handing over to Afghan forces.
In Washington, U.S. defence officials said the United States, which has the lion's share of foreign troops in Afghanistan, was standing by NATO's goal of gradually handing over security responsibilities to Afghan forces by 2014.
"That transition has begun, and we have made considerable progress toward this goal over the past year, thanks to the gains of the military surge and the development of Afghan security forces," Pentagon press secretary George Little said.
Consultations on transition would continue at the meeting in
Brussels next week, he said, ahead of a NATO summit due in Chicago in May.
A U.S. defence official said that, "U.S. forces continue to plan to transition through to the end of 2014. Our policy has not changed."
In Brussels, a NATO spokeswoman echoed the Pentagon's comments, saying "transition is well on track to be completed by the end of 2014, as we all agreed."
SUPPORT AFTER 2014
Foreign countries have promised to support Afghanistan with aid and advice for years after combat troops leave.
But they have scaled back their ambitions for Afghanistan to seek a minimum level of stability that would prevent the country from again becoming a haven for al Qaeda.
The United States also began talks with Taliban insurgents in late 2010 in a slow-moving process to try to reach, or at least begin to shape, a political settlement by the end of 2014.
With the western troop presence becoming increasingly unpopular inside Afghanistan, some officials have said the withdrawal of troops might make it easier to reach a settlement with insurgents - who use their opposition to foreign forces to rally support.
Cameron plans to pull out 500 British soldiers this year but has not yet set out a timetable for further withdrawals.
He made clear, however, that British combat troops would stay to the end of 2014 - though Britain has said it will not expand its area of operations in southern Afghanistan to fill in for departing troops from other countries.
"We ... want to have a long-term relationship with Afghanistan, long after our combat troops come home, and that will happen at the end of 2014," he said.
Britain has some 9,500 troops in Afghanistan as part of the 130,000-strong NATO-led force. U.S. forces number some 90,000. France has 3,600 troops in Afghanistan.
Karzai and Cameron signed a partnership agreement setting out how their countries would work together after 2014.
Karzai said the agreement "will take us into a future where Afghanistan will benefit from the assistance and cooperation and help of Britain towards becoming a fundamentally strong democratic state." The Afghan president was asked no questions at a tightly controlled media event.
(Additional reporting by Tim Castle in London, David Alexander in Washington, John O'Donnell in Brussels; Editing by Myra MacDonald)
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Hi.
Twenty-seven? Yikes, you're actually older than me, but you're not the oldest member of the site, if that makes you feel any better. We have a few people in their thirties, namely AzricanRepublic and Entity of Sin, and Skallagrim is old enough to have kids that are on here. (He doesn't, but he's in his forties, so it's still true.)
I'm sure your life experience means you have a dozen stories waiting for people to help you tell them, so you've come to the right place.
The only people that extol the virtues of war are those that calculate its cost in material things.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/ivpxWztLoZ0/viewtopic.php
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Source: http://www.thecalculus.org/?p=142
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Research suggests business directors more likely to use Apple ...
Forrester Research recently conducted a survey of close to 10,000 workers in 17 countries to determine which workers are more likely to own and use Apple products. The New York Times has published the results, which show that "business directors" -- in other words, bosses -- are the employee group most likely to own one or more Apple products and use them at work.
Here's a breakdown of the survey results.
Who uses Apple products:
- 43 percent of people earning $150,000 or more per year -- 87 of 200 respondents
- 27 percent of people earning $100,000 - $149,999
- 23 percent of people earning $50,000 - $99,999
- 19 percent of people earning $49,999 or less -- 1300 of 6800 respondents
21 percent of all 9912 respondents in Forrester's survey said they used one or more Apple devices for work.
The New York Times notes that the increasing penetration of Apple products into the workplace, often driven by people bringing in and using their personal devices, is wearing down traditional IT department hostility toward the Mac, iPhone, and iPad. However, as Ars Technica notes, the research also shows that while 50 percent of firms in "mature markets" offer Macs, only 30 percent of respondents said their companies support them, leaving many Mac users to fend for themselves at work.
Coupled with reports like Good Technology's quarterly results on device activations, it seems that the old practice of business and enterprise environments shunning Apple products is shifting quite rapidly. Forrester's claim that "Windows' dominance is at an end" is premature, however; while Microsoft's share of the enterprise pie is no longer as big as it once was, it's still claiming the majority of users in that sphere.
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Source: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/01/26/research-suggests-business-directors-more-likely-to-use-apple-pr/
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Stock index futures point to lower open (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Wall Street is set for a slightly lower open on Thursday, giving back some of the gains from the previous session, when the Federal Reserve boosted equities by saying it was likely to keep interest rates near zero until at least late 2014.
At 4:21 a.m. ET, futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq 100 were down between 0.1 and 0.3 percent.
The FTSEurofirst 300 (.FTEU3) index of leading European shares was up 0.3 percent at 1,042.50 points, with miners higher on stronger copper prices, which were boosted by the Fed's statement, as were oil prices.
The euro was near five-week highs at $1.3110 though little changed on closing New York levels.
U.S. initial jobless claims are seen correcting up to 370,000 from 352,000 the week before, mostly from the smaller seasonal factor in the week ended January 21 after a reading where claims sunk to a nearly 4-year low. Claims just dropped 50,000 as they worked their way back from a reading that historically sees a rise in the first week of a new year. The data is due at 8:30 a.m ET.
The transportation sector could be a big wildcard for December durable goods, but is seen exerting only a modest drag, pulling the headline down to a 2.0 percent gain from 3.7 percent the month before, according to a Reuters poll of 69 economists.
Starbucks (SBUX.O), the world's biggest coffee chain, reports quarterly results and may offer an early read on the success of its lightest yet "Blonde" roast coffee and an update on its recently introduced K-cups for Green Mountain's (GMCR.O) popular Keurig one-cup brewers.
Other companies reporting include Caterpillar (CAT.N), the world's largest maker of earth-moving equipment and telecoms heavyweight AT&T (T.N).
Big profits from Apple (AAPL.O) and a promise from the Federal Reserve to keep rock-bottom rates for at least two more years powered the U.S. stock market higher on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) rose 0.7 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.9 percent, the Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) ended 1.1 percent higher.
Stanley Black and Decker (SWK.N) shares slipped 1 percent after the bell following the release of its results.
(Reporting by Brian Gorman. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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Nadal tops Federer in Australian Open semifinal (AP)
MELBOURNE, Australia ? Rafael Nadal outlasted Roger Federer 6-7 (5), 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-4 in an Australian Open semifinal on Thursday night, the longtime rivals playing with the intensity normally displayed when meeting in a Grand Slam final.
The stars who met in eight Grand Slam finals were on the same side of the draw for the first time at a major since 2005.
Two weeks ago, Nadal injured his right knee and wasn't sure he'd be able to start the tournament. Now, he can barely believe he's in the final.
"If you tell me that two Sundays ago, I really cannot imagine," Nadal said. "For me, it's a dream to be back in a final of the Australian Open."
Nadal will have the opportunity to win another championship on Sunday night when the Spanish left-hander plays the winner of the semifinal Friday between defending champion Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.
Earlier Thursday, Maria Sharapova overcame Petra Kvitova to advance to the women's final against Victoria Azarenka. Sharapova broke Kvitova's serve in the last game to finish off a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 victory and the third-seeded Azarenka beat defending champion Kim Clijsters 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 to set up a Saturday night final at Rod Laver Arena that will decide the No. 1 ranking.
Nadal, who holds a 6-2 edge in Grand Slam finals against Federer, made the key service break in the ninth game of the fourth set, making an incredible cross-court forehand winner from well behind the baseline, then watching as Federer hit a backhand wide to give Nadal a 5-4 lead.
Serving for the match, Nadal moved two points away from the win when Federer sent a backhand long. He won on his second match point when Federer floated a forehand long.
At the end, Nadal smashed a ball up high in the stadium, almost clearing the roof. He then applauded along with the crowd when Federer walked off.
The 25-year-old Spaniard won the 2009 Australian title but lost in the quarterfinals in his next two trips to Melbourne Park. Federer hasn't added to his record 16 Grand Slam titles since he won the 2010 Australian Open.
"I thought Rafa played well from start to finish," Federer said. "It was a tough match physically as well. I'm disappointed, but it's only the beginning of the season. I'm feeling all right, so it's OK."
When the often enthralling play was suspended for 10 minutes late in the second set for an Australian Day fireworks display, Federer seemed to be affected most. Nadal led 5-2 at the time, and Federer lost his serve in the next game to give the Spaniard the set. In all, the Swiss dropped 11 points in a row.
"It's tough, it's not helpful, that's for sure," Federer said of the break for the fireworks. "They told us before, so it was no surprise. But I knew it was a lot of points in a row that I lost."
The capacity, 15,000-strong crowd was evenly split in its support, with the names seeming to blur after the R in rival chants.
Each time somebody called out for Rafa, it was met by a response for Roger. The cheers were just as loud for Nadal's scrambling, sometimes astonishing, passing shots as for Federer's deft winners.
With the players on serve in the second set, Nadal went so far wide on a Federer return that he was near the side wall of the arena. Incredibly, he stretched wide and returned the ball crosscourt for a winner. That set up three break points and Nadal clinched the game to take a 4-2 lead in the second set.
Federer saved a set point in the 11th game of the third set that eventually forced a tiebreaker. But Federer made three unforced errors in the tiebreaker to give Nadal a 6-1 lead, and the Spaniard eventually clinched the set on his last opportunity of five set points.
"Please win the point, that's all," Nadal recalled when asked what he was telling himself at 6-5 in the tiebreaker. "I was very, very nervous at that moment. Losing four set points in a row is tough, especially when you play the toughest in history."
Both players were asked if they bring out the best in each other.
"I don't know if it's true ... it's my assumption," Federer said. "I feel he plays really good against me. He's also got a winning record against me which maybe gives him extra confidence. I think he has a clear plan and he follows that one very well."
Nadal said that's not the case.
"I don't play my best tennis because it's Roger in front, I play my best tennis because I am ready to play my best tennis," Nadal said. "It's true I played a lot of good matches against him during my career ... but I believe that he played a few fantastic matches against me, too."
Clijsters was in the crowd, only hours after her title defense ended. And Ivan Lendl was at Rod Laver Arena for a second night, scouting opponents again as Murray's coach. So were former Australian greats Laver, Ken Rosewall and Pat Rafter.
Sharapova lost to second-ranked Kvitova in the Wimbledon final last year, her first major final since returning from an injury layoff following a shoulder operation in 2008. She has won three majors, but none since the 2008 Australian Open.
"In the third set, I felt she always had the advantage because I was always down on my serve," said Sharapova, who served five double-faults in the third set and 10 in the match. "I just told myself 'You just gotta go for it, don't let her finish off the points like she likes to.'"
Azarenka won the first semifinal after twice recovering from periods when a resurgent Clijsters seemed to have the upper hand, to secure victory in only her second appearance in a major semifinal.
"I felt like my hand is about 200 kilograms and my body is about 1,000 and everything is shaking, but that feeling when you finally win is such a relief. My God, I cannot believe it's over. I just want to cry," Azarenka said as she choked back tears, then buried her face in a towel.
Clijsters is popular in Australia, where she's widely known as "Aussie Kim" after dating Lleyton Hewitt years ago. She had most of the backing from the crowd on the national holiday in what is likely to be her last Australian Open.
Azarenka held her nerve despite the crowd and playing against a proven big-match player. Clijsters has won four majors and has defended a Grand Slam title ? winning the U.S. Open in 2009 and '10. To reach the semifinals, the Belgian saved four match points despite a sprained ankle to beat French Open champion Li Na in the fourth round and beat top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki in the quarterfinals.
"I guess before you all thought I was a mental case," Azarenka said in a courtside interview. "I was just young and emotional. I'm really glad the way I fight, that's the most thing I'm really proud of. I fight for every ball."
Wozniacki will vacate top spot in next week's rankings after her quarterfinal loss, leaving either No. 3 Azarenka and No. 4 Sharapova a chance to move to the top.
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Book Talk: The fall and rise of a North Korean Everyman (Reuters)
TOKYO (Reuters) ? Pak Jun Do is a dutiful North Korean. Raised in an orphanage, he follows orders to become a soldier, a kidnapper of Japanese citizens and an intelligence officer, once submitting to being bitten by a shark to prove his loyalty.
But after Jun Do, hero of the novel "The Orphan Master's Son," is sent to a brutal labor camp, he returns to life by impersonating a powerful member of late leader Kim Jong-il's inner circle, trying to claw out an identity of his own in a world of propaganda where only the state can win -- or does it?
To write the book, his first novel, Adam Johnson immersed himself for years in information about the secretive totalitarian state and visited the capital, Pyongyang, fascinated and saddened by North Korea's brutal absurdities.
Johnson spoke of who gets to write the stories and the indomitable Jun Do, whose name echoes "John Doe" and whose adventures take him both to Texas and meetings with Kim Jong-il.
Q: What got this story going?
A: "First I became interested just as a general reader. Once I started reading the testimonials of defectors, I went from being kind of fascinated with the absurdity of Kim Jong-il and the North Korean thought experiments, to really feeling profoundly moved and saddened by the fates of all those people.
"I also tried to find books by North Korean writers, but there was just a complete void there... Even the Russions got their novels out of the gulag, but as far as I know, no one has dared to write a literary novel that has made it out of the country without government approval in 60 years. That means it's a nation without literary art as we would imagine it, to investigate the human tradition. That means no one has read a real book about a real person in North Korea for generations.
"A lot of the non-fiction I turned to was about geopolitical things and military things, the human dimension seemed really lacking. I think that's what literary fiction can do, fill in that emotional, human core that non-fiction can't get to."
Q: How did you make the leap to the book?
A: "I didn't know I was writing a book for a long time, until I realized how much time I was investing in research and sketches and voices. I think it's the most difficult place on Earth to be fully human. That's my job, to make people human.
"Before I went to Pyongyang, I researched Koryo Airlines, (said to be) the most dangerous airline in the world...They said it wasn't because of the ageing fleet. It wasn't because of the bad maintenance. It was that several accidents occurred because the co-pilot didn't feel able to point out an error that a pilot had made. They couldn't break ranks to call attention to a mistake and instead silently went down with the plane...This is a world in which it is dangerous to point out anything, in which it is dangerous to do anything spontaneous.
"Who are you in a land where to reveal your heart is dangerous, makes you vulnerable? Who are you when you are trained not to communicate your own personal thoughts and feelings? How do you risk important things to communicate to your family? Those ideas were central."
Q: How did you come up with Jun Do?
A: "One of the things that fascinated me about North Korea as a writer is the idea that the stories that we tell in the West -- and I'll say America specifically, because I have greater knowledge of that -- are stories in which there's a central character, and he or she is the main character in their own lives and stories. I think in our Western narratives, people have yearnings and desires, and they're encouraged to cultivate them and to follow them forward, towards attaining something that will complete them. To do this, people must overcome obstacles and face conflict, they must look inward or into the past to overcome these challenges and move forward to the end, where they've probably changed, or grown, or come to some deep understanding.
"When I studied North Korea, it was just the opposite. There was one national story, it was written by the Kims, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, and those two respectively were the central character. There were 23 or 24 million secondary characters.
"My character Jun Do starts off as the perfect model citizen. But along the way, he meets Americans in the Sea of Japan, and starts to see there's a different life. Because of his post as a listening operator he begins to hear narratives from other people in the world and starts to think life could be different. But it's not until North Korea proves they don't care about him, that he's utterly disposable, that he seeks to rewrite his story. In the second half, he becomes a Western character. I'm biased, I think that's a better character, because you're allowed to find your own humanity, form your own identity."
Q: How much of your North Korea is factual?
A: "There's a ton of fact in it, but the truth of the place is much more elusive....One of the problems was that the true absurdities of North Korea I couldn't even put in, because it was unbelievable. Non-fiction can be non-believable because it's true, but fiction must be believable. I had to leave the darkness out of the book.
"You'll notice that my character goes into prison and it goes blank. You flip the page and it says 'one year later.' I don't think the Western reader can handle a real portrait of life there. I read a narrative of abortion day in Camp 14, in which all the unauthorized pregnancies in the camp were ended ... That's an image in my head forever, but it's too much to put in the book. It would keep people from moving forward...
"It ended up being a very challenging and satisfying book to write. I don't know that I told the truth of the lives of North Koreans, I don't know if that was my aim, but I think it's given a lot of people the occasion to reconsider their own realities, their own identities, and the unfortunate fates of others who live in countries where they can't be themselves."
(Reporting by Elaine Lies, editing by Paul Casciato)
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
People lie more when texting
ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2012) ? Sending a text message leads people to lie more often than in other forms of communication, according to new research by David Xu, assistant professor in the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University.
Xu is lead author of the paper, which compares the level of deceit people will use in a variety of media, from text messages to face-to-face interactions.
The study will appear in the March edition of the Journal of Business Ethics. The other co-authors are professor Karl Aquino and associate professor Ronald Cenfetelli with the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia.
How the study worked
The study involved 170 students from the Sauder School performing mock stock transactions in one of four ways: face-to-face, or by video, audio or text chatting.
Researchers promised cash awards of up to $50 to increase participants' involvement in the role play. "Brokers" were promised increased cash rewards for more stock sales, while "buyers" were told their cash reward would depend on the yet-to-be-determined value of the stock.
The brokers were given inside knowledge that the stock was rigged to lose half of its value. Buyers were only informed of this fact after the mock sales transaction and were asked to report whether the brokers had employed deceit to sell their stock.
The authors then analyzed which forms of communication led to more deception. They found that buyers who received information via text messages were 95 percent more likely to report deception than if they had interacted via video, 31 percent more likely to report deception when compared to face-to-face, and 18 percent more likely if the interaction was via audio chat.
The fact that people were less likely to lie via video than in person was surprising, Xu said, but makes sense given the so-called "spotlight" effect, where a person feels they're being watched more closely on video than face-to-face.
Xu said this kind of research has implications for consumers to avoid problems such as online fraud, and for businesses looking to promote trust and build a good image, Xu said.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/n_ydVpMPxTI/120125131120.htm
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New U.N. showdown with Russia over Syria looms (Reuters)
DAMASCUS (Reuters) ? Britain and France joined forces with Arab allies on Wednesday to push the U.N. Security Council to back an Arab League call for Syrian President , Bashar al-Assad to step aside, setting the stage for a showdown with Syria's ally Russia.
"The U.N. Security Council must support the Arab League's courageous decisions which are trying to end the repression and violence in Syria and find a solution to the political crisis," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.
The Security Council could vote as early as next week on a new draft resolution, which delegates from Britain and France are crafting in consultation with Qatar, Morocco, the United States, Germany and Portugalenvoys said. The new resolution replaces a Russian draft Western diplomats said was too weak.
U.S. President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday that Assad would "soon discover that the forces of change can't be reversed."
It remains unclear whether Russia - which together with China vetoed a European-drafted resolution in October that condemned Syria and threatened it with sanctions over its 10-month crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators - is prepared to once again to block council action on Syria.
"We hope Russia won't use its veto against the Arab League, which is what it would be this time," a U.N. envoy said. "They'll put up a fight. There will be negotiations. We'll see."
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his country remained opposed to sanctions on Syria and reiterated its opposition to military intervention. But the Western-Arab draft, obtained by Reuters, calls for neither military action nor sanctions, but for the council to support the Arab League.
'TERRORISTS'
The head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in the northern town of Idlib was shot and killed on Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said, in an attack which Damascus blamed on "terrorists."
State news agency SANA also said a priest was killed by "terrorists" while helping a wounded person in the city of Hama.
The government says it is fighting foreign-backed Islamist "terrorists" who have killed 2,000 soldiers and police. SANA said 30 more were buried in the last two days.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said seven other people were killed on Wednesday. One was killed by soldiers surrounding the Bab Qabli district of Hama and a woman died after a shell landed on her house near the town of Qusair, 10 km (6 miles) from the Lebanese border, it said.
It also reported clashes between army deserters and state soldiers in the rebellious province of Idlib that disabled three armored vehicles and killed or wounded six soldiers.
The revolt in Syria was inspired by other uprisings that have toppled three autocratic Arab leaders over the past year and the bloodletting has battered Assad's standing in the world.
The Arab League has suspended Syria's membership.
Russia, one of Syria's few allies, continues to sell weapons to Damascus, which European and U.S. officials have criticized. Iran, at loggerheads with Western powers over its disputed nuclear ambitions, is also a strong ally of Assad.
GULF ARAB MONITORS LEAVE SYRIA
More than 50 Arab League observers from Gulf Arab states left Syria on Wednesday after their governments said they were certain "the bloodshed and killing of innocents would continue."
Their colleagues in Damascus, about 120 strong, pledged to continue the monitoring mission, now extended until February 23, to verify Syria's compliance with an earlier Arab peace plan.
"The departure of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries will not have an impact on the mission's work. We are all professionals here and we can do the job," said a senior Arab monitor, who asked not to be named.
"We need more monitors of course and more will come soon to replace those who left," the monitor said.
Syrian opposition groups have accused the observer mission, which began on December 26, of giving Assad diplomatic cover to pursue a crackdown on protesters and rebels in which more than 5,000 people have been killed since March, by a U.N. tally.
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby and Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who heads the League's committee on Syria, wrote jointly to U.N. chief Ban, setting out their plan for a political solution in Syria and requesting a chance to brief the Security Council soon.
British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told reporters in New York that the Arab League briefing could take place as early as Monday. Council diplomats said a vote on the new draft resolution could follow shortly thereafter.
The new draft resolution says the Security Council "supports ... the League of Arab States' initiative ... to facilitate a political transition leading to a democratic, plural political system ... including through the transfer of power from the President and transparent and free elections."
It falls short of making compliance with the Arab plan legally binding. But it does ask U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report to the council every 15 days on Syria's compliance with the resolution, which would formally put it on the Security Council's agenda.
Russia has repeatedly said it does not want Syria to become another Libya, where Moscow contends that NATO misused a Security Council mandate to protect civilians as a vehicle for "regime change."
But Western diplomats said that Russia might find it difficult to use its veto against a resolution that is simply intended to provide support for the Arab League initiative.
(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair and Ayman Samir in Cairo, John Irish in Paris, Dominic Evans in Beirut and Louis Charbonneau in New York; Writing by Alistair Lyon and Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Robert Woodward and Xavier Briand)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/wl_nm/us_syria
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Filipinos unfazed by US aiming to bring back jobs (AP)
MANILA, Philippines ? Call center operators in the Philippines who serve mostly U.S. clients on Wednesday shrugged off President Barack Obama's initiative to bring outsourced jobs back home.
The Business Processing Association of the Philippines that groups 250 companies said that outsourcing has allowed U.S. companies to survive the global financial crunch by lowering costs and to expand ? thereby creating more jobs for Americans.
The Philippines is the world's top supplier of call center operators and is second to India in non-voice services such as accounting, engineering and medical billing. The U.S. accounts for 70 percent of the Philippines' business outsourcing market.
In his State of the Union address, Obama urged American businesses to bring jobs back to the U.S. Last week, he said he wants to eliminate tax breaks for companies that outsource.
Martin Crisostomo, BPAP spokesman, said outsourcing is inseparable from globalization and a business model that helps companies cut costs.
He said industry members are monitoring developments in the U.S. including proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress to discourage outsourcing jobs, but believes market forces will dictate the industry's future.
"At the end, it will not be politics but it will be the bottomline," Crisostomo said.
He pointed out that last quarter employment figures in the U.S. had improved even with outsourcing.
Still, Philippine companies will strengthen efforts to get clients other than Americans.
They include English-speaking countries like Britain, which now accounts for 10 percent of the business process outsourcing industry in the Philippines, and Australia, which accounts for 7 percent of the Philippine call-center market.
Marketing efforts for Philippine-based companies will also be increased in Western Europe, particularly for non-voice services like accounting, data encoding, transcription, engineering design, animation and game development.
Martin Conboy, editor of the Australian-based outsourcing news service "The Sauce" and director of FooBoo, an outsourcing company, said that the U.S. government's offer of incentives against offshoring "completely misses the point" and only masks "an inefficient labor market."
"If companies can access talented and less expensive labor in somewhere like the Philippines, why would a business pay more for the same thing in their own country?" he said in an email.
The Philippines has an English-speaking work force and employs some 600,000 workers in the business process outsourcing industry.
BPAP chairman Alfredo Ayala has said that the Philippines hopes to raise the number of outsourcing workers to 1.3 million by 2016 and revenues to $25 billion from around $11 billion in 2011.
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Study of freakish mystery illness finds no cause
FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2006 file photo, Verna Gallagher, who claims to be suffering from a rare infliction called, Morgellons, points to a sore on her skin that she believes bugs related to the condition emerged from, at her Roseville, Calif., home. Like others with the condition, Gallagher, 48, said she has a crawling sensation on her skin, that is caused by bugs that emerge from the skin but do not act like they are alive. Results of Centers for Disease Control study released Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 conclude that Morgellons exists only in the patients' minds. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2006 file photo, Verna Gallagher, who claims to be suffering from a rare infliction called, Morgellons, points to a sore on her skin that she believes bugs related to the condition emerged from, at her Roseville, Calif., home. Like others with the condition, Gallagher, 48, said she has a crawling sensation on her skin, that is caused by bugs that emerge from the skin but do not act like they are alive. Results of Centers for Disease Control study released Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 conclude that Morgellons exists only in the patients' minds. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
ATLANTA (AP) ? Imagine having the feeling that tiny bugs are crawling on your body, that you have oozing sores and mysterious fibers sprouting from your skin. Sound like a horror movie? Well, at one point several years ago, government doctors were getting up to 20 calls a day from people saying they had such symptoms.
Many of these people were in California and one of that state's U.S. senators, Dianne Feinstein, asked for a scientific study. In 2008, federal health officials began to study people saying they were affected by this freakish condition called Morgellons.
The study cost nearly $600,000. Its long-awaited results, released Wednesday, conclude that Morgellons exists only in the patients' minds.
"We found no infectious cause," said Mark Eberhard, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official who was part of the 15-member study team.
The study appears in PLoS One, one of the Public Library of Science journals.
Sufferers of Morgellons (mor-GELL-uns) describe a variety of symptoms, including fatigue, erupting sores, crawling sensations on their skin and ? perhaps worst of all ? mysterious red, blue or black fibers that sprout from their skin. Some say they've suffered for decades, but the syndrome wasn't named until 2002, when "Morgellons" was chosen from a 1674 medical paper describing similar symptoms.
Afflicted patients have documented their suffering on websites and many have vainly searched for a doctor who believed them. Some doctors believe the condition is a form of delusional parasitosis, a psychosis in which people believe they are infected with parasites.
Last May, Mayo Clinic researchers published a study of 108 Morgellons patients and found none of them suffered from any unusual physical ailment. The study concluded that the sores on many of them were caused by their own scratching and picking at their skin.
The CDC study was meant to be broader, starting with a large population and then went looking for cases within the group. The intent was to give scientists a better idea of how common Morgellons actually is.
They focused on more than 3 million people who lived in 13 counties in Northern California, a location chosen in part because all had health insurance through Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, which had a research arm that could assist in the project. Also, many of the anecdotal reports of Morgellons came from the area.
Culling through Kaiser patient records from July 2006 through June 2008, the team found ? and was able to reach ? 115 who had what sounded like Morgellons. Most were middle-aged white women. They were not clustered in any one spot.
That led to the finding that Morgellons occurred in roughly 4 out of every 100,000 Kaiser enrollees. "So it's rare," Eberhard said.
Roughly 100 agreed to at least answer survey questions, and about 40 consented to a battery of physical and psychological tests that stretched over several days.
Blood and urine tests and skin biopsies checked for dozens of infectious diseases, including fungus and bacteria that could cause some of the symptoms. The researchers found none that would explain the cases.
There was no sign of an environmental cause, either, although researchers did not go to each person's house to look around.
They took fibers from 12 people, which were tested at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Nothing unusual there, either. Cotton and nylon, mainly ? not some kind of organism wriggling out of a patient's body.
Skin lesions were common, but researchers concluded most of them were from scratching.
What stood out was how the patients did on the psychological exams. Though normal in most respects, they had more depression than the general public and were more obsessive about physical ailments, the study found.
However, they did not have an unusual history of psychiatric problems, according to their medical records. And the testing gave no clear indication of a delusional disorder.
So what do they have? The researchers don't know. They don't even know what to call it, opting for the label "unexplained dermopathy" in their paper.
But clearly, something made them miserable. "The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence," said Felicia Goldstein, an Emory University neurology professor and study co-author.
She said perhaps the patients could be helped by cognitive behavioral therapy that might help them deal with possible contributing psychological issues.
The study is not expected to be the last word on the subject.
Among those with additional questions is Randy Wymore, an Oklahoma State University pharmacologist who for years was the most reputable scientist to look into it and who has concluded Morgellons is not a psychiatric disorder.
On Wednesday, Wymore said he had not seen the CDC paper and was unable to comment on it. But when the study began, he questioned whether Kaiser patients with Morgellons would participate, especially if they were unhappy with how they were previously handled by their Kaiser doctors.
"There is always the question: How many of the study participants actually have Morgellons Disease?" he said, in an email.
The CDC is not planning additional study, however. The agency's expertise is in infectious diseases and environmental health problems, and the researchers saw no evidence of that.
"We're not mental health experts," one CDC spokeswoman said.
___
Online:
PLoS One: http://www.plosone.org/home.action
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Jackson's 'Hobbit' doubles film speed to 48 frames (AP)
PARK CITY, Utah ? Peter Jackson is making his hobbits and dwarves march double-time in his "The Lord of the Rings" prequel, which he's shooting in a faster film speed than the Hollywood standard.
Jackson hopes the 48-frames-a-second rate ? twice the 24 frames that has been the custom since the 1920s ? will help bring about a gradual transition to faster speeds that can bring more life-like images and action to the screen.
Digital cameras allow for shooting at 48 frames or faster, reducing the blurry effect known as strobing that can come with 24-frame filming.
Jackson said he hopes there will be a fair number of theaters equipped with digital projectors that can handle the faster film speeds by December, when Warner Bros. will release "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," the first chapter in his two-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy classic.
"You shoot at 48, project at 48 and you get an illusion of life that's remarkable. You don't realize just how strobing and how flickery 24 frames is," Jackson said at the Sundance Film Festival, where he presented the documentary "West of Memphis," produced by him and his wife, "Hobbit" co-writer Fran Walsh. "You look at something at 48 frames, and it looks gorgeous. It looks like real life. It's amazing."
Other digital pioneers are making the same push for higher film speeds. "Avatar" creator James Cameron has said he will shoot the sequel to his science-fiction blockbuster at 48 or 60 frames a second.
At the CinemaCon convention for theater owners in Las Vegas last March, Cameron showed footage he shot at 24, 48 and 60 frames a second. The faster speeds noticeably reduced or eliminated blurriness in action sequences or when the camera panned and dollied down the length of a crowded banquet table.
As Hollywood moved into the digital age, movie makers generally have stuck with the 24-frame speed at which celluloid film moves through cameras and projectors. "The Hobbit" will show that it's an outdated way to shoot films, Jackson said.
"I'm hoping it'll be just the first gentle step into changing film rates because we can change them, especially with all the digital technology now," Jackson said. "Twenty-four is irrelevant. It doesn't mean anything anymore. It's just a traditional thing. It's far from the best visual way to present a film."
"The Hobbit" has had a hard road to the screen after Jackson's blockbuster "Lord of the Rings" trilogy," whose 2003 finale, "The Return of the King," swept the Academy Awards with 11 trophies, including best picture and director.
Jackson planned only to co-write and co-produce "The Hobbit," but he stepped in to direct after Guillermo del Toro dropped out because of delays caused by the bankruptcy of MGM, which owned half of the project.
"It's actually been a reasonably joyous thing to do," said Walsh, who returned as a co-writer and co-producer. "I'm surprised to say that because I thought it would be very hard. Certainly, it was a difficult birth of this film. It was protracted and fought. ... But it's surprisingly pleasant, if I can use that word. Pleasant. So far. So I hope I haven't jinxed it."
The two films are being shot simultaneously in 3-D, with the second one, "The Hobbit: There and Back Again," due in theaters in December 2013.
British actor Martin Freeman stars as Bilbo Baggins, the hobbit who acquires the evil ring that sets the action of "The Lord of the Rings" in motion. Cast members returning from that trilogy include Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving and Andy Serkis.
Jackson joked that the snowy mountains surrounding Sundance's home in the ski resort of Park City remind him of the heavy workload still ahead on "The Hobbit."
"We have a hundred days of shooting to go, which still feels like we're at the bottom of a mountain. I kind of don't like being in Park City because I look up the mountain, and I kind of think, well, `The Hobbit's' at the top of that mountain. I've got to kind of climb this. It looks pretty daunting," Jackson said.
Yet Jackson said he's having a great time revisiting Tolkien's Middle-earth.
"If I show up at work every day happy to be there and excited about what we're shooting, to me, that's always a good sign," he said. "So I think we're making a couple of pretty entertaining movies."
___
Online:
http://www.sundance.org
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Video: Atkins family saved at sea
>>> finally the story of a sight-seeing trip that went terribly wrong for a texas family visiting an island near honduras and the amazing stroke of luck that came just in the nick of time . this was how it was supposed to be. texas lawyer and any adkins took the same sea plane on a sight-seeing tour just two months ago. but returning last week with his wife jenny and 4-year-old son logan along for the ride, something went terribly wrong. the plane's engine failed.
>> crashed into the ocean and flipped over. we're stuck under water.
>> reporter: larry was on a nearby boat and witnessed the crash.
>> the timing was impeccable. we were just at the right place at the rice time, less than two minutes till we were on the scene and in the water.
>> reporter: only moments before, the plane's pilot helped andy get to the surface. but at first there was no sign of his wife or son.
>> i dove back under looking for them. i just came up and i had logan in my arms. by the time i got to the surface, jenny was also at the surface with the pilot holding her.
>> reporter: then another remarkable break. a second tourist boat arrived. it happened to have two doctors onboard. one a u.s. navy physician. they immediately began caring for the victims.
>> i'm not sure what the outcome would have been without those doctors. i shoulder to think.
>> reporter: the family spent days in a hospital before returning home to texas thursday night.
>> it reaffirms your faith in people and humanity that so many people stepped in to help that didn't have to.
>> reporter: we are happy to say the family is home safe
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46107938/
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Evanescence's 'My Heart Is Broken' Video: The Haunting
Brand-new clip finds the band trapped within a nightmare of its own invention.
By James Montgomery
Evanescence's Amy Lee on the set of their "My Heart Is Broken" video
Photo: Matt Elias/MTV News
After nearly a month spent touting its various ethereal qualities, on Tuesday (January 24), Evanescence premiered their video for "My Heart Is Broken," a dark, dreamlike thing that pushes Amy Lee's claustrophobic musings to the next level. And somewhere beyond that too.
As Lee told MTV News back in December, the look and feel of the "Broken" clip was very much influenced by the British fantasy/horror flick "Paperhouse," about a young girl who creates vivid dream worlds to escape the harsh reality of everyday life, only to eventually realize she's stuck in those dreams — inspiration that certainly resonates with the song's lyrics, which are very much about being trapped in a dark, desolate place and trying to free one's self despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
Working with director Dean Karr, and aided very much by fiber-optic technology, Evanescence have created a video that is both haunting and haunted. It opens with Lee suspended in an inky void, a single light projecting from her finger. While her bandmates bash away in the blackness, she slowly begins to fill her emptiness by creating a dream world — a fallow field, a sea of stars, a crumbling room — until she eventually realizes that, in spite of her attempts, she is just as trapped as she was before.
At clip's end, the viewer is left to wonder whether she has the power to escape (though a cracked mirror seems to indicate she can), which, in a way, only further connects the video to the song itself: Like Lee sings, each of us have within ourselves the ability to free ourselves from any situation; whether we do or not is largely our decision. The first step seems to be realizing that the walls we surround ourselves with are largely of our own creation. The rest is up to us.
What do you think of the "My Heart Is Broken" video? Share your reviews in the comments!
Related ArtistsSource: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677810/evanescence-my-heart-is-broken-video.jhtml
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