Bieber concert is a go for Friday after he fainted
FILE - In this Sept. 30, 2012 file photo, Justin Bieber performs at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Bieber is recovering after fainting backstage at a concert in London on Thursday, March 7, 2013. A spokeswoman for Bieber said that the 19-year-old pop star was given oxygen and took a 20-minute reprieve after fainting backstage at his show at London's O2 Arena. (Photo by Isaac Brekken/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 30, 2012 file photo, Justin Bieber performs at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Bieber is recovering after fainting backstage at a concert in London on Thursday, March 7, 2013. A spokeswoman for Bieber said that the 19-year-old pop star was given oxygen and took a 20-minute reprieve after fainting backstage at his show at London's O2 Arena. (Photo by Isaac Brekken/Invision/AP, File)
FILe - In this Monday, March 4, 2013 file photo, Canadian singer Justin Bieber performs at the O2 Arena in east London. Bieber is recovering after fainting backstage at a concert in London. A spokeswoman for Bieber said Thursday, March 7, 2013, that the 19-year-old pop star was given oxygen and took a 20-minute reprieve after fainting backstage at London's O2 Arena. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - In this March 4, 2013 file photo, Canadian singer Justin Bieber performs at the O2 Arena in east London. Bieber is recovering after fainting backstage at a concert in London on Thursday, March 7, 2013. A spokeswoman for Bieber said that the 19-year-old pop star was given oxygen and took a 20-minute reprieve after fainting backstage at his show at London's O2 Arena. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - In this Monday, March 4, 2013 file photo, Canadian singer Justin Bieber performs at the O2 Arena in east London. Bieber is recovering after fainting backstage at a concert in London. A spokeswoman for Bieber said Thursday, March 7, 2013, that the 19-year-old pop star was given oxygen and took a 20-minute reprieve after fainting backstage at London's O2 Arena. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - In this Monday, March 4, 2013 file photo, Canadian singer Justin Bieber performs at the O2 Arena in east London. Bieber is recovering after fainting backstage at a concert in London. A spokeswoman for Bieber said Thursday, March 7, 2013, that the 19-year-old pop star was given oxygen and took a 20-minute reprieve after fainting backstage at London's O2 Arena. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP, File)
LONDON (AP) ? Justin Bieber says he is "getting better," after fainting backstage at a concert in London, and the venue says Friday's show is scheduled to go ahead as planned.
A spokesman for the O2 Arena said the 19-year-old pop star was treated backstage during Thursday's concert after becoming short of breath, but recovered and finished his set.
"As far as we are concerned everything is on, on, on" for Friday's show, Jeremy King said.
"He was treated by our team of medics and after further examination they didn't find anything more serious or worrying."
A spokeswoman for Bieber said he was given oxygen and took a 20-minute reprieve after fainting backstage at the arena on Thursday.
Bieber later posted a shirtless photo of himself in a hospital bed with the caption: "Gettin better listening to Janis Joplin." Before that on Twitter he thanked "everyone pulling me thru tonight."
"Best fans in the world," he wrote. "Figuring out what happened. Thanks for the love."
Video footage from the concert shows Bieber appearing to fade during a performance of his up-tempo hit, "Beauty and a Beat." He slows down, puts a hand to his head then bends over, resting his hands on knees before walking slowly to the back of the stage.
The AP spoke to 18-year-old journalism student Prithvi Pandya, who shot the footage, to confirm its authenticity.
"When he started 'Beauty and a Beat' you could see he was struggling," said Pandya, who was near the front of the crowd. "He took lots of drinks of water, that seemed unusual, and he was really sweaty, sweating a helluva lot.
"Toward the end of it, he went backstage. We didn't see him fainting. They brought on dancers to entertain, and I knew something was wrong at that point."
Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun, appeared onstage and told the crowd that the singer was feeling "very low of breath" but would come back to finish the show.
Jazz Chappell, a 20-year-old concertgoer who brought her younger sister and her friend to the show, said that In the nearly 30 minutes he was offstage, some fans started to leave. Once his manager announced what had happened, Chappell said many fans in the audience were gasping and crying, while others kept cheering for him to return.
"I thought, 'Give the guy a break. He just fainted. He's not a performing horse. Let him rest a second,'" said Chappell.
Chappell said Bieber, who is in London to perform four concerts at the O2, later returned and performed low-energy renditions of his hits "Boyfriend" and "Baby."
Braun later tweeted "everyone please give him a little space and he will be ok. Im sure he appreciates the support ... Tough kid proud night once again he always finishes the show. Full out. True pro..."
The incident caps a difficult week for Bieber. He was forced to apologize to outraged fans who accused him of taking the stage almost two hours late for his first concert at the O2 on Monday. He insisted he was only 40 minutes late and blamed "technical issues." He took to Twitter to vent his frustrations with the media's portrayal of the incident.
The star's Believe world tour is due to move on to Portugal on Monday, then continue across Europe, the Middle East, South Africa and North America until August.
___
AP writers Jill Lawless and Gregory Katz in London and Derrik J. Lang in Los Angeles and AP Music Writer Mesfin Fekadu contributed to this report.
Gaming in Color Documentary Kickstarter Launches | GamePolitics
A new Kickstarter campaign has been launched to raise $125,000 to create a documentary about the "queer side of gaming," or the LGBTQ presence in the game industry and in the gaming community. The documentary is called "Gaming In Color: Queers and Gaymers of the Pixelated World" and hopes to expose the masses to another side of gaming culture - a side that is often hidden among the dudebros and gamer gurls of the community. The documentary will explore the good and bad side of the culture and show what some in the community are doing to elevate the conversation about inclusion and respecting one another - no matter who you are.
While GaymerConnect (the organizers of the event formerly known as GaymerCon and now called Gaymer X 2013) is not making the new documentary, some of the event's organizers will appear in it.
You can find the Kickstarter campaign here and watch the pitch video to your left.
The organizers are also looking for personal stories about being an LGBTQ gamer or developer, so if you have one to share that is interesting, you can contact kayceATgaymerconnectDotcom.
Front from left are Zachary Araki, Alexandra Bowers, Shane Stranderm Gabrielle LaBiche, Ivana Lobue, Madelyn Cohen, Kyndall Clements, Christian McDonald, and Luke Hansen; second row, Liam McCauley, Abigail Araki, Gilberto Cobos, Jack Vonier, Aiden Pradillo, Allie-Grace Greene, Lorelai Mitchell, Susannah Knights, Sydney Stokes, Barbara Elmore, and Emma Pradillo; and third row, James Plaisance, Bailey Jennings, Holly McDaniel, Emily Araki, Olivia Gray, MarIena Ray, Alex Cobos, Mario Rodriguez, Amanda Gordon, Sarah Clifton, and, Brandon Core. Jonathan Hansen
Source: www.nytimes.com --- Wednesday, March 06, 2013 The Arab boycott of Israeli goods is out of date, self-defeating, and hurts only Palestinians. ...
Two Egyptian police officers wear masks as they stand guard during clashes with protesters, not seen, near the state security building in Port Said, Egypt, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Clashes between protesters and police have broken out in this restive Egyptian port city despite efforts by the military to separate the two sides. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Two Egyptian police officers wear masks as they stand guard during clashes with protesters, not seen, near the state security building in Port Said, Egypt, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Clashes between protesters and police have broken out in this restive Egyptian port city despite efforts by the military to separate the two sides. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
An Egyptian protester evacuates a wounded man during clashes between protesters and riot police near the state security building in Port Said, Egypt, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Clashes between protesters and police have broken out in this restive Egyptian port city despite efforts by the military to separate the two sides. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Egyptians cover their faces from tear gas during clashes between protesters and riot police near the state security building in Port Said, Egypt, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Clashes between protesters and police have broken out in this restive Egyptian port city despite efforts by the military to separate the two sides. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Egyptians run for cover from tear gas fired by riot police during clashes near the state security building in Port Said, Egypt, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Clashes between protesters and police have broken out in this restive Egyptian port city despite efforts by the military to separate the two sides. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Egyptians gather next to a burned state security building during clashes in Port Said, Egypt, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Clashes between protesters and police have broken out in this restive Egyptian port city despite efforts by the military to separate the two sides. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
CAIRO (AP) ? An Egyptian court on Wednesday ordered the suspension of parliamentary elections scheduled to begin in April, opening a legal battle likely to delay the vote and deepening the political crisis between the Islamist president and his opponents that has polarized the nation for months.
The new confusion surrounding the election underlined the paralysis gripping Egypt, between political deadlock, infighting among state institutions, a faltering economy and a wave of protests, strikes and clashes against Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood that has spiraled for months around the country.
In the Suez Canal city of Port Said, scene of heavy clashes between protesters and police that have left six dead since Sunday, the violence entered a fourth day, dragging in the military. Protesters hurled stones at police firing tear gas, as army troops struggled to keep the two sides apart.
Morsi's Islamist supporters and some in the public exhausted by the turmoil have viewed the parliamentary elections as a step toward bringing some stability, accusing the opposition of stirring up unrest to derail the voting. But the mainly liberal and secular opposition had called a boycott of the vote, saying Morsi must first find some political consensus and ease the wave of popular anger. Whether or not the opposition boycotts, the Islamists would likely win a parliamentary majority.
The new court ruling is unlikely to defuse the tension, bringing the dispute into the judiciary, which has repeatedly been used by the various sides in Egypt's political battles.
The Cairo administrative court ruled that the Islamist-dominated parliament had improperly pushed through a law organizing the elections without allowing the Supreme Constitutional Court to review it to ensure it conforms with the constitution. The court ordered the law referred to the constitutional court and the election suspended in the meantime. The court annulled a decree by Morsi calling the election.
Morsi's opponents quickly pointed to the ruling as further proof of their accusations that Morsi and his ruling Muslim Brotherhood are mismanaging the country, trying to dominate power without reaching consensus with others or abiding by the law.
"The mess continues courtesy of epic failure of governance," prominent opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei said in a Tweet. He added a jab that ignoring the rule of law "is characteristic of a fascist state."
Morsi's legal adviser, Mohammed Fouad Gadallah, told The Associated Press that the government will respect the court decision to suspend the election and refer the law the constitutional court.
In the meantime, authorities will delay the opening of the application period for candidates, which had been due to start Saturday, Gadallah said. That could push back the entire election process. The multi-phase election was supposed to begin in April 22 and last for nearly two months.
Gadallah also said the state would appeal the administrative court ruling. The aim of the appeal would be to establish the right of the president to call the elections, which the court called into question by annulling the decree.
The president's office later put out a statement saying it supports the rule of law and respects the court ruling, but it made no mention of an appeal.
The opposition had opposed the election law, expressing concerns over gerrymandering by the Brotherhood, which dominates the parliament, and complaining it was not consulted before it was drafted.
In its ruling on Wednesday, the administrative court said parliament had not observed the right of the constitutional court to review the election law, including any revisions in it, to ensure it conforms to the constitution. When the judge read the verdict, lawyers in the court room broke out in chants of "God is great."
"We are regaining the state back," a voice in the room called out, a reference to accusations that Morsi had previously defied the judiciary.
Egypt's political crisis has been mired in various judicial disputes, including an outcry among the opposition following Morsi's decision last November to grant himself immunity from the judiciary's supervision. He later revoked this right, in the face of massive protests, but he had already used the powers to appoint a new chief prosecutor and prevent the courts from blocking Islamists drafting a new constitution.
At the heart of the election dispute is a loosely worded article in the newly adopted constitution that prevents the constitutional court from reviewing election laws after parliament passes them. The administrative court appeared to be arguing that the article means parliament must consult the constitutional court before passing the law.
Initially, parliament sent the draft bill to the constitutional court, which rejected it, asking lawmakers to amend nearly a dozen articles, including the drawing of districts. After some quick revisions, the parliament passed the law without going back to the court to ensure the final version met its recommendations.
Bahey Eddin Hassan, head of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, said the dispute over the election "adds, for the tenth time, a new element of uncertainty for Egypt's future steps."
"Regardless of whether the elections are held or not, Egypt appears to be heading toward more chaos," he said.
Protests and violent clashes have spread in recent days in Cairo, Port Said and other provinces, and increasingly the rage has been directed at the police. Many protesters say the security forces have been using excessive force against them and that Morsi has backed them in their abuses.
Violence in Port Said, at the Mediterranean end of the Suez Canal, has left three civilians and three policemen dead and hundreds injured since Sunday. Army troops have repeatedly gotten caught in the middle as they try to keep the two sides apart ? dragging the military into the conflict to an extent unprecedented since the army handed over power to Egypt's first democratically elected president in June.
On Wednesday, troops moved to clear a sit-in that protesters have been holding in front of the city's main government complex for weeks. Soldiers took down tents, banners and pictures of civilians recently killed in clashes with police. The military police opened the area to traffic for the first time in weeks.
Nevertheless, clashes erupted, with protesters hurling stones at police at the nearby security headquarters, prompting volleys of tear in response. Troops lined up between them, but fighting continued. "Morsi is the enemy of God," protesters lined up in front of the troops chanted.
Furious at the president and the security forces, residents of Port Said have been waging campaign of protests and strikes amounting to an outright revolt against the central government.
The turmoil began Jan. 26, after a Cairo court issued death sentences against 21 defendants ? mostly Port Said residents ? for involvement in a deadly soccer riot in the city in February 2012 that killed 74 people, mostly fans of a rival Cairo soccer club, Al-Ahly. Many in the city saw the verdicts as politicized.
Violent protests over the verdicts killed more than 40 people, mostly at the hands of police.
Clashes erupted again on Sunday after word emerged that the defendants in the court case were removed from a city prison, ahead of a Saturday court session, in which the death sentences are to be confirmed, and new verdicts in the soccer case to be announced, including against police officers.
Many fear that violence could on Saturday after the verdict.
Cairo has already been struck by a wave of protests by soccer fans of Al-Ahly club directed at the police also ahead of the verdict, where they held a rally outside a main security headquarters and set a security vehicle on fire. Hundreds of others clashed for a fourth straight day with police near the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic missions near Tahrir Square.
Actor Bob Hope owned a collection of homes in Palm Springs and the L.A. area, and two have hit the market ? both snagging buyers within a month of listing. But the real prize of Hope's homes is the John Lautner-designed property, an architectural treasure that hit the market in late February for $50 million.
Architect John Lautner was well-known for his dramatic designs, and his biggest piece was a custom home for Bob and Dolores Hope. Perched in the private neighborhood of Southridge, the estate dominates a corner lot with sweeping views of the Coachella Valley.
Hope's 23,366-square-foot home was designed in 1973 by Lautner to resemble a volcano. The modernist structure is built of concrete and glass, with an undulating copper roof that rises to an open semi-circle at its center.
The home was used primarily as a second residence for the Hope family and was where they entertained most often, inviting friends such as crooner Tony Bennett and country music singer Glen Campbell to enjoy the views from the house.
Listed by Ann Eysenring of Partners Trust in Beverly Hills along with Patrick Jordan and Stewart Smith of Windermere Real Estate in Palm Springs, the home has six bedrooms and 12 baths. Outdoor spaces include a pool, pond, tennis court and outdoor fireplace.
The Lautner home is just the latest of the Hope estates to be listed; the final property, a custom home in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles used by the Hopes as their primary residence, has yet to be listed.
Sidebar Is a Smart, Customizable App Switcher for Android
Android: Sidebar is an application switcher that lives on the side of your screen, ready to launch your favorite apps or just switch you between currently running ones with a single swipe. It's fast, flexible, and lets you customize the apps in the drawer so it's not cluttered with shortcuts you don't need.
Check out the video above to see Sidebar in action. The premise is simple?just swipe in from the side of the screen to open up Sidebar's app drawer, which displays currently running applications so you can easily switch among them. Hold any icon and drag it out of the sidebar to remove that app. Alternatively, you can toggle over to your favorite apps, and use Sidebar as a quick way to get to the apps you want to use without having to go back to the home screen or page through your complete list of apps. Additionally, you can use Sidebar to get quick access to your phone's settings, from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to rotation, sound, and brightness.
If Sidebar looks familiar, it's because it looks a lot like previously mentioned Swapps, only much more minimal, faster, and a bit easier to use without it getting in the way of the currently-running app. Perhaps best of all, Sidebar support Android phones running Froyo and higher, so even if you don't have Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean's native app switcher, you can get something just as good (if not better.) It's free, but the $2 pro version lets you add more than 8 apps to the sidebar and opens up some additional customization options.
Sidebar Lite (Free) | Google Play
Sidebar Pro ($2) | Google Play via xda-developers and XDA Developer TV
Why Self-Defense Products Don't Always Work | Jackie's Women's ...
Related eBooks
This may come as a surprise to you since there?s so much talk about how effective nonlethal self-defense products are but they don?t work sometimes. In this article we?re going to discuss what works and what doesn?t work and why. Read on to learn more about this topic.
Source:Why Self-Defense Products Don't Always Work
Related Reading:
The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense at WorkObscenities, ethnic and sexist epithets, cutting jokes, subtle put-downs -- whether shouted, said with a smile, or sent via e-mail -- are all verbal abuse. For many it is the everyday language of doing business. Suzette Haden Elgin, nationally recognized linguistics expert and author, applies her acclaimed techniques for combating verbal violence to common on-the-job situations. Forceful yet nonthreatening, her proven strategies will empower workers of every level to recognize verbal abuse, gently defuse it, and replace it with courteous and effective communication.
Citing examples grabbed from the headlines, Dr. Elgin reveals the cost of demeaning and destructive language to any business. Step by step, she shows how to identify, and conquer the verbal toxins at the root of workplace hostility and tension. Readers will learn how to avoid "malpractice of the mouth" and sexual harassment; communicate sensitively and clearly with non-native English speakers; come across as strong, straightforward, and truthful; and take complete control of any verbal confrontation -- calmly. Workout sections throughout the book provide plenty of opportunities for practice.
With a look at communication skills crucial for e-mail, voice mail, and the Internet, as well as the special challenges facing homebased and virtual businesses, The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense at Work is the definitive guide to effective and humane communication on the job.
Personal Defense for Women
Fight back?with Personal Defense for Women.
Statistics show that violent crimes against women are at an all-time high. Don't be the next victim! In Personal Defense for Women, author Gila Hayes shows you how to build awareness to avoid confrontations?and how to fight back when necessary. If you're concerned about your personal safety and security in your home, in your car, in your workplace and on the campus, there's no better guide than Personal Defense for Women.
It's all here! Common-sense, practical advice on
Avoiding conflict
Personal defense techniques
Safe, responsible use of pepper sprays, Tasers, handguns, revolvers and shotguns
And more!
Don't take chances with your safety?or your family's. Personal Defense for Women gives you everything you need!
Chemicals emitted during volcanic eruptions might have helped reduce the effects of global warming, suggests new research. A larger volcano could have a much bigger cooling effect.?
By Megan Gannon,?LiveScience / March 1, 2013
A new study indicates emissions from moderate volcanoes around the world, like the Augustine Volcano in Alaska, shown here, can mask some of the effects of global warming.
U.S. Geological Survey
Enlarge
Volcanic eruptions, even small and moderate ones, might counter some of the effects of global warming, new research suggests.
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The planet didn't heat up as much as scientists expected it to from 2000 to 2010 (though it?was still the?warmest decade on record), and a new study finds that chemical compounds spewed during modest eruptions around the globe could be behind the trend.
When sulfur dioxide emitted by a volcano rises up to the?stratospheric aerosol layer?of the atmosphere, it undergoes chemical reactions, forming particles that reflect sunlight back into space instead of letting it get to the surface of the planet. This has a cooling effect on Earth that can help mitigate the impacts of heat-trapping?greenhouse gasses.
Scientists observed an increase in these sun-scattering aerosols in the atmosphere from 2000 to 2010. Some studies suggested that emissions from rapidly developing countries in Asia could be largely to blame ? India and China, for example, are thought to have ramped up their sulfur dioxide output by about 60 percent over the decade through coal burning. But other studies pointed to volcanoes, which are also an important source of sulfur dioxide.
The authors of the new study used computer simulations to see which changes in the stratospheric aerosol layer could be attributed to coal burning in Asia and worldwide volcanic emissions from 2000 to 2010. The results suggested that moderate volcanic eruptions were behind the increases of aerosols in the atmosphere.
"This new study indicates it is emissions from small to moderate volcanoes that have been slowing the warming of the planet," Ryan Neely, who led the research as part of his doctoral thesis at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said in a statement.
The findings imply scientists should pay more attention to these types of eruptions when studying changes in Earth's climate, said study researcher Brian Toon, a professor at CU-Boulder, though he cautioned that in the long run, volcanoes won't be able to counterbalance global warming.
"Overall these eruptions are not going to counter the greenhouse effect," Toon said in a statement. "Emissions of volcanic gases go up and down, helping to cool or heat the planet, while greenhouse gas emissions from human activity just continue to go up."
Toon added that larger volcanoes can have a much bigger effect. For example,?Mount Pinatubo, a volcano in the Philippines?that erupted in 1991, ejected so much sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere that the planet cooled by 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.55 degrees Celsius) and stayed slightly cooler for more than two years.
The new research was detailed online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Follow LiveScience on Twitter?@livescience. We're also on?Facebook?&?Google+.
Copyright 2013?LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Senate committee set to vote on Obama's CIA choice
FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2013 file photo, CIA Director nominee John Brennan testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. said Thursday the panel is scheduled to vote early next week on John Brennan's nomination to be director of the CIA. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2013 file photo, CIA Director nominee John Brennan testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. said Thursday the panel is scheduled to vote early next week on John Brennan's nomination to be director of the CIA. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to vote on President Barack Obama's pick to lead the CIA after weeks of wrangling with the White House over access to top-secret information about the use of lethal drone strikes against terror suspects and the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.
The committee's chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said the panel would move ahead Tuesday with John Brennan's nomination to lead the spy agency even as Republicans said they were frustrated with the Obama administration's reluctant disclosure of all the records. Feinstein would not describe the material the committee has received because it is classified.
"Certain documents have been made available to members," she said Monday.
Brennan's nomination has been held up as Democrats and Republicans on the intelligence panel have been pressing the Obama administration to provide them with a series of classified Justice Department legal opinions that justify the use of unmanned spy planes to kill terror suspects overseas, including American citizens. The senators have argued they can't perform adequate oversight without reviewing the contents of the documents.
Key Senate Republicans have said they will oppose Brennan's nomination unless they get classified information, including emails among top U.S. national security officials, detailing the Obama administration's actions immediately following the Sept. 11, 2012, attack in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., the Intelligence Committee's vice chairman, said, "We're making progress" on the documents but left open the possibility he might ask Feinstein to delay Tuesday's vote.
Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, said "no and no" when asked whether he was satisfied with the material the White House had provided. "They need to give us everything that's out there," said Risch, who is a member of the committee.
Brennan so far has escaped the harsh treatment that former Sen. Chuck Hagel, the president's choice to lead the Defense Department, received from Senate Republicans even though Brennan is one of Obama's most important national security aides and the White House official who oversees the drone program.
Brennan also served as a senior CIA official during President George W. Bush's administration when waterboarding and other forms of "enhanced interrogation" and detention practices were adopted. Brennan has publicly denounced the use of these tactics, but the cloud hasn't gone completely away.
Brennan's stance on waterboarding and torture is inconsistent, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has said. Although Brennan has decried these methods, he also has said they saved lives, according to McCain, who said he is awaiting an explanation from Brennan. McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are also leading the charge for the Benghazi records.
"All we want is the answers," McCain said Monday. "I'm not threatening anything. I just think we deserve the answers."
Senate Republicans put Hagel through a bruising confirmation process. They labeled their former Republican colleague as a political turncoat for attacking the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq, and cast him as hostile toward Israel, soft on Iran and unqualified for the job.
In attacking Hagel, who served two terms from Nebraska, the GOP settled old political scores and won points with its conservative base by challenging Obama's nominee so aggressively. The Senate confirmed Hagel last week to replace Leon Panetta as defense secretary on a 58-41 vote, with four Republicans joining the Democrats in backing the contentious choice.
Criticism of Brennan, by contrast, has been less intense. He was grilled for more than three hours during his Feb. 7 confirmation hearing before the Intelligence Committee, but also won praise from several lawmakers as the best qualified candidate to lead the CIA. Brennan, 57, is a veteran of more than three decades of intelligence work.
Former Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., who spent eight years on the House Intelligence Committee, said she expects Brennan to be confirmed by a comfortable margin. Senate Republicans took Hagel's nomination personally, she said, and they're unlikely to take a similar approach with Brennan.
"I don't think they're going to try the same play twice and really seriously wound Obama's national security team at a time when it's very important that we project strength," said Harman, president of the Wilson Center in Washington.
Brennan vigorously defended the use of drone strikes during his confirmation hearing. He declined to say whether he believes waterboarding, which simulates drowning, amounted to torture. But he called the practice "reprehensible" and said it should never be done again. Obama ordered waterboarding banned shortly after taking office.
Drone strikes are employed only as a "last resort," Brennan told the committee. But he also said he had no qualms about going after U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in September 2011. A drone strike in Yemen killed al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, both U.S. citizens. A drone strike two weeks later killed al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, a Denver native.
Graham, one of Hagel's most acerbic critics, said last month that the Obama administration deserved an "A-plus" for its drone program and he rejected an idea floated by Feinstein and other senators to establish a special court system to regulate drone strikes.
"I'm 100 percent behind the administration," Graham said. "I think their program has been legal, ethical and wise."
But Graham, along with McCain, said the failure to turn over the Benghazi records is a dealbreaker. Graham said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation" that he and McCain "are hell-bent on making sure the American people understand this debacle called Benghazi."
Brennan spent 25 years at the CIA before moving in 2003 from his job as deputy executive director of the agency to run the Terrorist Threat Integration Center. He later worked as interim director of the center's successor organization, the National Counterterrorism Center.
When Bush's second term began in 2005, Brennan left government to work for a company that provides counterterror analysis to federal agencies. After Obama took office in 2009, he returned to the federal payroll as the president's top counterterrorism adviser in the White House.
If confirmed by the full Senate, Brennan would replace Michael Morell, the CIA's deputy director who has been acting director since David Petraeus resigned in November after acknowledging an affair with his biographer.
___
Associated Press writer Donna Cassata contributed to this report.
Missing Soviet war veteran lives as healer in Afghanistan
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Soviet war veteran reported missing in action during fighting in Afghanistan 33 years ago has been found living as a local healer in the province of Herat, news agency Ria reported.
The soldier, who was rescued by Afghans after being wounded in the first months after the Soviet Union's invasion in 1979, was tracked down by a Moscow-based group of war veterans.
A native of the former Soviet Central Asian state of Uzbekistan, he now goes by the name of Sheikh Abdullah and has adopted the local dress and profession of the healer who nursed him back to health.
The deputy head of the Afghan war veterans' committee said Abdullah, whose given name is Bakhretdin Khakimov, mostly had forgotten the Russian language and never tried to contact his relatives after suffering severe head trauma in the fighting.
Alexander Lavrentyev, who met with Abdullah in Herat last month, said the veteran, who was 20 when he went missing, still bore the scars of his injury. His face is creased by a nervous tic and his hand and shoulder shake.
"He was just happy he survived," Lavrentyev was quoted by Ria as saying at a presser in Moscow on Monday.
The committee says it has found 29 of 264 soldiers still listed as missing from the bloody decade-long conflict. It said seven of those it contacted chose to stay in Afghanistan.
Some 15,000 Soviet troops were killed in the fighting that followed the Soviet Union's incursion to support a communist vassal government in Kabul against Islamist mujahideen fighters armed by the United States.
(Writing By Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Michael Roddy)
Facebook Admits Likes Are Down For Some Celebrities? Posts, But Claims Up 34% For Most
Facebook today confirmed dwindling engagement with public posts to subscribers cited by The New York Times' Nick Bilton, other journalists, and I, but calls us isolated cases, noting public figures with more than 10,000 fans are now getting 34% more Likes and comments than a year ago. While Facebook often changes the news feed to improve the user experience, the inconsistency is irksome.
International consortium builds 'Google Map' of human metabolism
International consortium builds 'Google Map' of human metabolismPublic release date: 3-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Catherine Hockmuth chockmuth@ucsd.edu 858-822-1359 University of California - San Diego
Building on earlier pioneering work by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, an international consortium of university researchers has produced the most comprehensive virtual reconstruction of human metabolism to date. Scientists could use the model, known as Recon 2, to identify causes of and new treatments for diseases like cancer, diabetes and even psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Each person's metabolism, which represents the conversion of food sources into energy and the assembly of molecules, is determined by genetics, environment and nutrition.
The researchers presented Recon 2 in a paper published online March 3 in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
Doctors have long recognized the importance of metabolic imbalances as an underlying cause of disease, but scientists have been ramping up their research on the connection as a result of compelling evidence enabled by the Human Genome Project and advances in systems biology, which leverages the power of high-powered computing to build vast interactive databases of biological information.
"Recon 2 allows biomedical researchers to study the human metabolic network with more precision than was ever previously possible. This is essential to understanding where and how specific metabolic pathways go off track to create disease," said Bernhard Palsson, Galletti Professor of Bioengineering at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.
"It's like having the coordinates of all the cars in town, but no street map. Without this tool, we don't know why people are moving the way they are," said Palsson.
He likened Recon 2 to Google mapping for its ability to merge complex details into a single, interactive map. For example, researchers looking at how metabolism sets the stage for cancerous tumor growth could zoom in on the "map" for finely detailed images of individual metabolic reactions or zoom out to look at patterns and relationships among pathways or different sectors of metabolism. This is not unlike how you can get a street view of a single house or zoom out to see how the house fits into the whole neighborhood, city, state, country and globe. And just as Google maps brings together a broad set of data such as images, addresses, streets and traffic flow into an easily navigated tool, Recon 2 pulls together a vast compendium of data from published literature and existing models of metabolic processes.
As a multi-scale representation of the human metabolic network, Recon 2 provides essential context for data being reviewed by researchers. Palsson and other scientists in the field have already successfully demonstrated the utility of such models in simple organisms such as yeast and E.coli. As a result, they have been able to engineer these organisms in the lab to improve the efficiency of ethanol production and predict drug resistance in bacteria.
One of the most promising applications for the network reconstruction is the ability to identify specific gene expressions and their metabolic pathways for targeted drug delivery. Large gene expression databases are available for human cells that have been treated with molecules extracted from existing drugs as well as drugs that are in development. Recon 2 allows researchers to use this existing gene expression data and knowledge of the entire metabolic network to figure how certain drugs would affect specific metabolic pathways found to create the conditions for cancerous cell growth, for example. They could then conduct virtual experiments to see whether the drug can fix the metabolic imbalance causing the disease.
Palsson's Systems Biology Research Group at UC San Diego built the first virtual reconstruction of the human metabolism network, known as Recon 1, in 2007 with a six-person team. It featured more than 3,300 known biochemical reactions documented in over 50 years of metabolic research. Recon 2, which contains more than 7,400 reactions, was built by bringing together researchers from dozens of institutions around the globe in a series of "jamboree" meetings to refine and consolidate the data used in the reconstruction. Palsson said this jamboree approach helped the group establish common standards to build a consensus reconstruction, simplify its usability for biomedical researchers, and increase its transparency. Recon 2 will facilitate many future biomedical studies and is freely available at http://humanmetabolism.org.
Recon 2 is already proving its utility, according to Ines Thiele, a professor at the University of Iceland and UC San Diego alumna, who led the Recon 2 effort. Thiele earned her Ph.D. in bioinformatics as a student of Palsson's and was part of the original Recon 1 team. Several other UC San Diego alumni, and former Palsson students, participated in the consortium from their new institutions, including Neema Jamshidi (Ph.D., 2008, M.D., 2009), who is now interning at UCLA; Jason Papin (Ph.D., 2004), a professor at the University of Virginia; and Nathan Price (Ph.D., 2005), who is a professor at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Wash.
Thiele said Recon 2 has successfully predicted alterations in metabolism that are currently used to diagnose certain inherited metabolic diseases.
"The use of this foundational resource will undoubtedly lead to a myriad of exciting predictions that will accelerate the translation of basic experimental results into clinical applications," said Thiele. "Ultimately, I envision it being used to personalize diagnosis and treatment to meet the needs of individual patients. In the future, this capability could enable doctors to develop virtual models of their patients' individual metabolic networks and identify the most efficacious treatment for various diseases including diabetes, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases."
As much as Recon 2 marks a significant improvement over Recon 1, there is still much work to be done, according to the research team. Thiele said Recon 2 accounts for almost 1,800 genes of an estimated 20,000 protein-coding genes in the human genome. "Clearly, further community effort will be required to capture chemical interactions with and between the rest of the genome," she said.
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The international consortium includes researchers from the following institutions: University of Vienna, Austria; Charit Universittsmedizin Berlin, Germany; Jacobs University Bremen, Germany; Center for Systems Biology, University of Iceland; Okinawa Institute Science and Technology, Japan; Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine; University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre, the Netherlands; Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Netherlands Consortium for Systems Biology; Institute of Cell Biophysics, Moscow region, Pushchino, Russia; Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden; University of Manchester, United Kingdom; Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, UK; Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, UK; European Bioinformatics Institute, UK; Babraham Institute, Cambridge, UK; University of Warwick, UK; University of Edinburgh, UK; University of Sheffield, UK; University of California, San Diego; University of Virginia; Virginia Tech; Centre for Advanced Discovery and Experimental Therapeutics (CADET), University of North Texas; Genome Designs, Inc., Walnut Creek, Calif.; California Institute of Technology; and Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, Wash.
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International consortium builds 'Google Map' of human metabolismPublic release date: 3-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Catherine Hockmuth chockmuth@ucsd.edu 858-822-1359 University of California - San Diego
Building on earlier pioneering work by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, an international consortium of university researchers has produced the most comprehensive virtual reconstruction of human metabolism to date. Scientists could use the model, known as Recon 2, to identify causes of and new treatments for diseases like cancer, diabetes and even psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Each person's metabolism, which represents the conversion of food sources into energy and the assembly of molecules, is determined by genetics, environment and nutrition.
The researchers presented Recon 2 in a paper published online March 3 in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
Doctors have long recognized the importance of metabolic imbalances as an underlying cause of disease, but scientists have been ramping up their research on the connection as a result of compelling evidence enabled by the Human Genome Project and advances in systems biology, which leverages the power of high-powered computing to build vast interactive databases of biological information.
"Recon 2 allows biomedical researchers to study the human metabolic network with more precision than was ever previously possible. This is essential to understanding where and how specific metabolic pathways go off track to create disease," said Bernhard Palsson, Galletti Professor of Bioengineering at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.
"It's like having the coordinates of all the cars in town, but no street map. Without this tool, we don't know why people are moving the way they are," said Palsson.
He likened Recon 2 to Google mapping for its ability to merge complex details into a single, interactive map. For example, researchers looking at how metabolism sets the stage for cancerous tumor growth could zoom in on the "map" for finely detailed images of individual metabolic reactions or zoom out to look at patterns and relationships among pathways or different sectors of metabolism. This is not unlike how you can get a street view of a single house or zoom out to see how the house fits into the whole neighborhood, city, state, country and globe. And just as Google maps brings together a broad set of data such as images, addresses, streets and traffic flow into an easily navigated tool, Recon 2 pulls together a vast compendium of data from published literature and existing models of metabolic processes.
As a multi-scale representation of the human metabolic network, Recon 2 provides essential context for data being reviewed by researchers. Palsson and other scientists in the field have already successfully demonstrated the utility of such models in simple organisms such as yeast and E.coli. As a result, they have been able to engineer these organisms in the lab to improve the efficiency of ethanol production and predict drug resistance in bacteria.
One of the most promising applications for the network reconstruction is the ability to identify specific gene expressions and their metabolic pathways for targeted drug delivery. Large gene expression databases are available for human cells that have been treated with molecules extracted from existing drugs as well as drugs that are in development. Recon 2 allows researchers to use this existing gene expression data and knowledge of the entire metabolic network to figure how certain drugs would affect specific metabolic pathways found to create the conditions for cancerous cell growth, for example. They could then conduct virtual experiments to see whether the drug can fix the metabolic imbalance causing the disease.
Palsson's Systems Biology Research Group at UC San Diego built the first virtual reconstruction of the human metabolism network, known as Recon 1, in 2007 with a six-person team. It featured more than 3,300 known biochemical reactions documented in over 50 years of metabolic research. Recon 2, which contains more than 7,400 reactions, was built by bringing together researchers from dozens of institutions around the globe in a series of "jamboree" meetings to refine and consolidate the data used in the reconstruction. Palsson said this jamboree approach helped the group establish common standards to build a consensus reconstruction, simplify its usability for biomedical researchers, and increase its transparency. Recon 2 will facilitate many future biomedical studies and is freely available at http://humanmetabolism.org.
Recon 2 is already proving its utility, according to Ines Thiele, a professor at the University of Iceland and UC San Diego alumna, who led the Recon 2 effort. Thiele earned her Ph.D. in bioinformatics as a student of Palsson's and was part of the original Recon 1 team. Several other UC San Diego alumni, and former Palsson students, participated in the consortium from their new institutions, including Neema Jamshidi (Ph.D., 2008, M.D., 2009), who is now interning at UCLA; Jason Papin (Ph.D., 2004), a professor at the University of Virginia; and Nathan Price (Ph.D., 2005), who is a professor at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Wash.
Thiele said Recon 2 has successfully predicted alterations in metabolism that are currently used to diagnose certain inherited metabolic diseases.
"The use of this foundational resource will undoubtedly lead to a myriad of exciting predictions that will accelerate the translation of basic experimental results into clinical applications," said Thiele. "Ultimately, I envision it being used to personalize diagnosis and treatment to meet the needs of individual patients. In the future, this capability could enable doctors to develop virtual models of their patients' individual metabolic networks and identify the most efficacious treatment for various diseases including diabetes, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases."
As much as Recon 2 marks a significant improvement over Recon 1, there is still much work to be done, according to the research team. Thiele said Recon 2 accounts for almost 1,800 genes of an estimated 20,000 protein-coding genes in the human genome. "Clearly, further community effort will be required to capture chemical interactions with and between the rest of the genome," she said.
###
The international consortium includes researchers from the following institutions: University of Vienna, Austria; Charit Universittsmedizin Berlin, Germany; Jacobs University Bremen, Germany; Center for Systems Biology, University of Iceland; Okinawa Institute Science and Technology, Japan; Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine; University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre, the Netherlands; Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Netherlands Consortium for Systems Biology; Institute of Cell Biophysics, Moscow region, Pushchino, Russia; Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden; University of Manchester, United Kingdom; Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, UK; Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, UK; European Bioinformatics Institute, UK; Babraham Institute, Cambridge, UK; University of Warwick, UK; University of Edinburgh, UK; University of Sheffield, UK; University of California, San Diego; University of Virginia; Virginia Tech; Centre for Advanced Discovery and Experimental Therapeutics (CADET), University of North Texas; Genome Designs, Inc., Walnut Creek, Calif.; California Institute of Technology; and Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, Wash.
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PFT: Broncos reportedly will cut ties with LB Williams
AP
This week?s flurry of reports regarding quiet curiosity and not-so-quiet interrogation of incoming NFL players on the issue of sexuality represents an obvious symptom of a deeper problem.
Football teams, which notoriously fear the unknown in any shape or form, at best want to know whether there?s a chance that their locker room will be the first one to host an openly gay player.? At worst, one or more football teams possibly don?t want any gay players in the building, openly or closeted.
Although sexual orientation is not yet a protected class under federal law, multiple states shield employees who are gay or suspected to be gay from co-worker hostility or tangible job action (e.g., getting fired, not getting hired, or being passed over for a promotion).
The applicable laws have slightly less meaning in this context, because NFL policy expressly prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Regardless of the laws or rules that would be broken, for the issue to be teed up in a court of law or in a grievance proceeding under the labor deal or anywhere else, someone has to complain.? The pool of potential plaintiffs consists not of people walking off the street and filling out an application but only of a relatively small group of individuals who already have worked their way through the lower levels of a similar locker-room mentality.
By the time the remaining 330 players or so are being questioned at the Scouting Combine, they?re each the product of the football machine.? And even if they?re troubled by questions about sexuality, what are they going to do about it?
They just want to play football, and to finally get paid for it.? If they?re not among the 256 or so who will get drafted, they?ll want to be among the 2,800 or so who will have a chance to win roster spots or practice-squad assignments after offseason workouts, training camp, and the preseason.
Besides, even if a player believes he has been blackballed based on his actual or perceived sexuality, how will he prove that the decision to cut him was influenced by anything other than his actual or perceived football skills, or lack thereof?? Evidence like inappropriate questions will help, but a player who doesn?t get a job ultimately will have to persuade a jury that he was better at football than someone who did.
The various factors add up to the reality that litigation, which has forced positive change over the past five decades in so many other workplaces, will likely never happen in the NFL.? (If you don?t think litigation effects change, you haven?t noticed the link between the NFL?s effort to protect current players from concussions and the 4,000 or so former players who claim the NFL didn?t do enough to protect them.)
Thus, for change to occur, it will need to come without the expense, annoyance, and worry caused by lawsuits.? And that will require, as Jason Whitlock of FOXSports.com argued earlier this week, real leadership from Commissioner Roger Goodell.
When it comes to the mentality and antics of the locker room, not enough credit is given to the ability of players to change on their own and/or the ability of teams to change them.? The players should be held to a higher standard of conduct and discourse in the locker room, and the teams should be expected to enforce it.
The fact that no gay player in any of the NFL?s 32 workplaces has felt sufficiently comfortable to declare his sexuality means that change hasn?t happened, yet.
Change has happened in countless other workplaces.? Thanks in large part to litigation.? Litigation the NFL most likely will never face on this issue.
The NFL also will likely never face a backlash from its customers for not creating an environment in which closeted gays will feel sufficiently comfortable to come out.? If anything (and based on plenty of the comments posted and emails and tweets we?ve received this week), a team that welcomes an openly gay player could alienate a significant percentage of its fan base.
Thus, the challenge for the league will be to change without a financial incentive to do so.? To change not because it?s the expedient thing to do, but because it?s the right thing to do.
Goodell often explains that his staunch willingness to stand on principle comes from his father?s willingness to sacrifice his position as a U.S. Senator in opposing the Vietnam War.
It?ll be interesting to see whether Goodell, who has been silent to date on the subject, is willing to take a stand on this topic, too.
Clint Eastwood and gay marriage: Political tipping point for conservatives?
Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood has joined a large group of Republicans arguing for same-sex marriage in the US Supreme Court. Prominent conservatives and many of the largest US corporations now favor gay marriage as well.
By Brad Knickerbocker,?Staff writer / March 2, 2013
Actor Clint Eastwood addresses the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., Aug. 30, 2012. Mr. Eastwood has joined other conservatives in supporting same-sex marriage.
Charles Dharapak/AP
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Movie icon Clint Eastwood ? who famously mocked Barack Obama at the Republican convention last summer ? has joined the President in supporting same-sex marriage.
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No, Mr. Eastwood ? he of that empty chair used as a prop in Tampa, Fla. ? has not shucked his generally conservative ways. But he has joined with more than 100 other conservatives and Republicans who recently came out for gay marriage, among them former governors, GOP administration senior officials, and prominent right-leaning pundits.
In fact, as Mike Flynn at Breitbart.com pointed out in first reporting Eastwood?s move, the actor and Oscar-winning director is as much a political libertarian as anything else.
But the news does indicate an important shift among conservatives on this hot-button social issue, particularly among younger voters for whom same-sex marriage is no big deal ? a political demographic the GOP badly needs to woo. Or as the Pew Research Center puts it, ?Millennials are almost twice as likely as the Silent Generation to support same-sex marriage.?
And if nothing else, it may signal a tipping point in public attitudes just as the US Supreme Court is about to decide two critical cases: the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California?s Prop. 8 banning gay marriage.
Polls indicate that the country is ?evolving? on the issue at least as rapidly as Obama last year said he was. In California, a new Field Poll has California voters approving of same-sex marriage by a margin of nearly two-to-one (61-32 percent).
?This represents a complete reversal in views about the issue from 1977, when The Field Poll conducted its first survey on this topic, and is the highest level of support ever measured by the poll,? the organization reported this week. ?Approval of allowing marriage between two people of the same gender includes majorities of men and women, voters in all racial and ethnic groups, and Californians living in each of the major regions of the state. The only subgroups where majorities remain opposed are registered?Republicans and voters who classify themselves as conservative in politics.?
Self-help and motivational books, finding the right one for you ...
pic: defenderofthemiddleclass.com
Motivation, some of us are born with this attribute. While?for others it is learned, from?a parent, family member, friend or maybe from a book. Motivation or what we believe to be motivation, is subjective especially when we are evaluating ourselves. To be critical of ourselves is not easy and lets face it admitting to oneself ?we are lax? or have been approaching some aspect of our lives wrong? How many of us can actually say we have evaluated ourselves honestly??Self improvement does not need to be?a horrifying journey of reflection, action and attempted change. Improving ourselves and achieving lasting improvement, all about opening our minds to new ideas/sources.
Finding the right source, to suggest one specifically would imply that we all are the same which we are not. With plenty of material out there to choose, from Dr. Phil to old school sources like Norman Vincent Peale?s ? The Power of Positive Thinking?, the self-improvement resource part is rather easy. Getting through that resource and learning from it, that?s the hard part! For the love of books, I find myself most often at the used book store and thrift stores. Pricing has something to do with it sure but the search for a surprise?good read is what I love about these stores the most. Nothing in mind when I go there so if I find a book, I buy it, if I don?t I leave empty-handed.?The most recent purchase I made?for $1.00, Pat Croces? ?I Feel Great and you will too? published in 2000.?The book about his journey of success and life story on how he achieved success. Owner of Physical Therapy Centers around the country he was also the former owner of the Philadelphia Seventy Sixers. Being from the area I? knew something about him, I am a Sixer fan so ?why not?. (Note: was not in the market or belief I needed motivation)
The book was?a relaxing, funny read and also as stated in the title ??.and you will too!? Feeling Great and saying it, a simple philosophy which was reinforced throughout the entire book. As I stated I was not in the belief I needed or was in the market for a motivational book but after reading it, I DID NEED IT! How we think most certainly impacts everything we do and how well we do it. I plan on keeping this book even if only to look at the title as a reminder. Searching for motivation or changing how we approach our lives, if we task ourselves to do this I believe makes it?far more difficult. Nothing against Dr. Phil, ?Norman Vincent Peale?or the many others who write self-improvement, but motivation and becoming motivated can be learned/improved a heck of a lot easier when we aren?t looking for it.
Android: Sidebar is an application switcher that lives on the side of your screen, ready to launch your favorite apps or just switch you between currently running ones with a single swipe. It's fast, flexible, and lets you customize the apps in the drawer so it's not cluttered with shortcuts you don't need. 
Facebook today confirmed dwindling engagement with public posts to subscribers cited by The New York Times' Nick Bilton, other journalists, and I, but calls us isolated cases, noting public figures with more than 10,000 fans are now getting 34% more Likes and comments than a year ago. While Facebook often changes the news feed to improve the user experience, the inconsistency is irksome.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 3-Mar-2013
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