Notre Dame Football Recruiting: Vanderdoes' Official Visit to Alabama Is Huge

Ever since 5-star recruit Eddie Vanderdoes decommitted from USC in December, the nation has been buzzing about where the highly coveted defensive tackle will land.

Most people believe it comes down to Notre Dame and Alabama, with USC and UCLA on the outside looking in.

Andrew Hall of SlapTheSign.com noted on Wednesday that Vanderdoes' official visit with Notre Dame over the weekend went well. It doesn't hurt that Vanderdoes' mother is in favor of the Fighting Irish.

Hall wrote:

Notre Dame definitely made a good impression this weekend. The parents are typically in the corner of the Fighting Irish because of what they can offer off of the field to the potential student athlete.?

Vanderdoes, who possesses the size (6'3", 310 pounds), strength, technique and motor to be a handful in college, is still scheduled to make an official visit to Alabama on Feb. 1. He has been adamant that he will make his decision on national signing day on Feb. 6.

The fact that Vanderdoes hasn't canceled his visit to Alabama shows that he's still interested in the Crimson Tide. It's not exactly a surprise, either, given he wants to make the best decision for him with so many options on the table.

Who will land Eddie Vanderdoes?

Who will land Eddie Vanderdoes?

• Alabama

• Notre Dame

• USC

• UCLA

• Other

Total votes: 94

Nick Saban, of course, is a legendary recruiter. He's built the No. 1 recruiting class of 2013 (according to 247Sports.com) and he's had a top-three recruiting class for six years running (per ESPN). His stars this year include running back Derrick Henry, wide receiver Robert Foster and defensive end Jonathan Allen, among others.

On the other hand, Notre Dame's trip to the BCS National Championship Game this past season has boosted the program's credibility. Combined with head coach Brian Kelly's recruiting ability, the Fighting Irish currently have the No. 6 class in the nation, according to 247Sports.com. That includes outside linebacker Jaylon Smith and safety Max Redfield on the defensive side of the ball.

While Notre Dame currently sports Louis Nix III at nose guard in?defensive coordinator Bob Diaco's 3-4 scheme, the Fighting Irish will find a way to get Vanderdoes on the field if he signs with the program, most likely as a defensive end (despite Vanderdoes' size, he does have the athleticism to play on the edge).

Imagining Vanderdoes on the same defense as Nix, Smith, Redfield, defensive end Stephon Tuitt and linebacker Prince Shembo gives you goosebumps just thinking about it.

The folks at South Bend are certainly hoping Vanderdoes won't be swayed by Saban in February.

?

Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1508522-notre-dame-football-recruiting-vanderdoes-official-visit-to-alabama-is-huge

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Private job survey shows stronger job hiring

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A private survey shows U.S. businesses increased hiring in January compared with a revised December reading.

Payroll processor ADP said Wednesday that employers added 192,000 jobs in January. That is more than December's revised number of 185,000, which had initially been reported at 215,000.

The ADP report is derived from actual payroll data and tracks total nonfarm private employment each month. The increase in hiring occurred after Congress and the Obama administration reached an agreement on Jan. 1 to avoid sharp tax increases and across-the-board government spending cuts.

The ADP report showed that most of the gains came from small businesses with 49 or fewer employers. This group of firms added 115,000 jobs in January. Medium businesses, those with 50 to 499 employees, added 79,000 jobs during the month while large businesses cut 2,000 employees.

In a separate report Wednesday, the government said that the overall economy shrank from October through December at an annual rate of 0.1 percent. The weakness came from the biggest cut in defense spending in 40 years, fewer exports and sluggish growth in company stockpiles. The 0.1 percent drop in the gross domestic product in the fourth quarter was a sharp slowdown from 3.1 percent growth in the July-September period.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-30-US-ADP/id-0d9c4ce6aa3c42c7bd973c05ee177c49

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Study demonstrates health benefits of coming out of the closet

Public release date: 29-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: William Raillant-Clark
w.raillant-clark@umontreal.ca
514-343-7593
University of Montreal

"Coming out is no longer a matter of popular debate but a matter of public health," says lead author Robert-Paul Juster

Lesbians, gays and bisexuals (LGBs) who are out to others have lower stress hormone levels and fewer symptoms of anxiety, depression, and burnout, according to researchers at the Centre for Studies on Human Stress (CSHS) at Louis H. Lafontaine Hospital, affiliated with the University of Montreal. Cortisol is a stress hormone in our body. When chronically strained, cortisol contributes to the 'wear and tear' exerted on multiple biological systems. Taken together, this strain is called "allostatic load". "Our goals were to determine if the mental and physical health of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals differs from heterosexuals and, if so, whether being out of the closet makes a difference. We used measures of psychiatric symptoms, cortisol levels throughout the day, and a battery of over twenty biological markers to assess allostatic load," explained lead author Robert-Paul Juster. "Contrary to our expectations, gay and bisexual men had lower depressive symptoms and allostatic load levels than heterosexual men. Lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals who were out to family and friends had lower levels of psychiatric symptoms and lower morning cortisol levels than those who were still in the closet."

Montrealers of diverse sexual orientations were invited to the laboratory of Dr. Sonia Lupien, Director of the CSHS. Lupien's team recruited eighty-seven men and women, all of whom were around twenty-five years of age. Over the course of several visits, the researchers collected psychological questionnaires, asked participants to provide saliva samples to measure cortisol over two days, and calculated allostatic load indices using results from blood, saliva, and urine samples. "Chronic stress and misbalanced cortisol levels can exert a kind of domino effect on connected biological systems," Lupien said. "By looking at biomarkers like insulin, sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, adrenalin, and inflammation together, an allostatic load index can be constructed and then used to detect health problems before they occur."

Stigma-related stress might force LGBs to develop coping strategies that make them more effective at managing future stressors. "Coming out of the closet is a major milestone in lives of LGBs that has not been studied extensively using interdisciplinary approaches that assess stress biomarkers" said co-author Dr. Nathan Grant Smith. These exciting findings underline the role self-acceptance and disclosure has on the positive health and wellbeing of LGBs. In turn, this has important implications for ongoing political debates. "Coming out might only be beneficial for health when there are tolerant social policies that facilitate the disclosure process" said Juster. "Societal intolerance during the disclosure process impairs one's self-acceptance that generates increased distress and contributes to mental and physical health problems."

"As the participants of this study enjoy progressive Canadian rights, they may be inherently healthier and hardier," Juster said. "Coming out is no longer a matter of popular debate but a matter of public health. Internationally, societies must endeavour to facilitate this self-acceptance by promoting tolerance, progressing policy, and dispelling stigma for all minorities."

###

The research was published in Psychosomatic Medicine on January 29, 2013. The University of Montreal is officially known as Universit de Montral.

---

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 29-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: William Raillant-Clark
w.raillant-clark@umontreal.ca
514-343-7593
University of Montreal

"Coming out is no longer a matter of popular debate but a matter of public health," says lead author Robert-Paul Juster

Lesbians, gays and bisexuals (LGBs) who are out to others have lower stress hormone levels and fewer symptoms of anxiety, depression, and burnout, according to researchers at the Centre for Studies on Human Stress (CSHS) at Louis H. Lafontaine Hospital, affiliated with the University of Montreal. Cortisol is a stress hormone in our body. When chronically strained, cortisol contributes to the 'wear and tear' exerted on multiple biological systems. Taken together, this strain is called "allostatic load". "Our goals were to determine if the mental and physical health of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals differs from heterosexuals and, if so, whether being out of the closet makes a difference. We used measures of psychiatric symptoms, cortisol levels throughout the day, and a battery of over twenty biological markers to assess allostatic load," explained lead author Robert-Paul Juster. "Contrary to our expectations, gay and bisexual men had lower depressive symptoms and allostatic load levels than heterosexual men. Lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals who were out to family and friends had lower levels of psychiatric symptoms and lower morning cortisol levels than those who were still in the closet."

Montrealers of diverse sexual orientations were invited to the laboratory of Dr. Sonia Lupien, Director of the CSHS. Lupien's team recruited eighty-seven men and women, all of whom were around twenty-five years of age. Over the course of several visits, the researchers collected psychological questionnaires, asked participants to provide saliva samples to measure cortisol over two days, and calculated allostatic load indices using results from blood, saliva, and urine samples. "Chronic stress and misbalanced cortisol levels can exert a kind of domino effect on connected biological systems," Lupien said. "By looking at biomarkers like insulin, sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, adrenalin, and inflammation together, an allostatic load index can be constructed and then used to detect health problems before they occur."

Stigma-related stress might force LGBs to develop coping strategies that make them more effective at managing future stressors. "Coming out of the closet is a major milestone in lives of LGBs that has not been studied extensively using interdisciplinary approaches that assess stress biomarkers" said co-author Dr. Nathan Grant Smith. These exciting findings underline the role self-acceptance and disclosure has on the positive health and wellbeing of LGBs. In turn, this has important implications for ongoing political debates. "Coming out might only be beneficial for health when there are tolerant social policies that facilitate the disclosure process" said Juster. "Societal intolerance during the disclosure process impairs one's self-acceptance that generates increased distress and contributes to mental and physical health problems."

"As the participants of this study enjoy progressive Canadian rights, they may be inherently healthier and hardier," Juster said. "Coming out is no longer a matter of popular debate but a matter of public health. Internationally, societies must endeavour to facilitate this self-acceptance by promoting tolerance, progressing policy, and dispelling stigma for all minorities."

###

The research was published in Psychosomatic Medicine on January 29, 2013. The University of Montreal is officially known as Universit de Montral.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/uom-sdh012513.php

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Bill Gates: Finance tax should aid world's poor - The Local

Bill Gates was the star attraction at a German Social Democratic Party (SPD) meeting in Potsdam on Monday, calling for world hunger to be fought with taxes raised on financial transactions.

SPD lead Sigmar Gabriel said at the meeting he stood behind the European Union plan to invest 0.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in development policies.

Microsoft founder Gates, one of the world's richest men, has long focused his efforts on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which funds health and education projects around the world.

He was invited to the Potsdam meeting of the centre-left SPD leadership meeting to talk with them about the foundation. He called for Germany and Europe not to abandon their contributions, despite the financial crisis.

Speaking ahead of the meeting Gates said the world was on the brink of great victories in the fight against illness and global poverty. "Germany plays a decisive role in enabling us to bank on success," he told the SPD paper Vorw?rts (Forwards).

"Development aid only counts for a fraction of public spending in most donor countries. Cuts in this area will not solve our budgetary problems," he said.

He said that great strides had been made in public health matters over the past 20 years - with the number of children dying before the age of five shrinking from 20 million in 1960 to less than 6.9 million in 2011.

But enormous differences remained. "We still have a long way ahead of us to ensure that every child that is born has the same chance of a healthy life regardless of whether it is born in a rich or a poor country," said Gates.

DPA/The Local/hc

Source: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20130129-47605.html

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Which DSLR Camera Is The Best For 2012?

Photography is a great hobby (and a great profession). It is fun, it is rewarding and it helps exercise your creativity. Still, it is difficult to be creative and have fun with photography if you don't have the right camera. Sure you can accomplish a lot with a basic point and shoot camera and some good photo editing software, but using a DSLR camera is a lot more fun. DLSR cameras are digital cameras that replicate the older manual cameras functions. Figuring out which of the best Digital SLR cameras of 2012 is right for you can be quite difficult. Here are some things that should help you narrow down your options.

The Canon EOS 6D is a great, professional quality digital SLR camera that is a great bridge between the basic model DSLR and the more complicated professional DSLR cameras. This is especially true when it comes to budgeting for a quality Canon camera. You can usually find this model (base only) for between one and two thousand dollars. The biggest problem is that the buttons on the body of the camera are small and hard to find, which can make taking photos quickly a little bit difficult. Features wise, this camera offers a wide selection and can help you do more than you would with a basic DSLR model and definitely more than you would find in a point and shoot model.

When people think of professional or high quality cameras, they usually think of the Nikon or Canon brands. The Olympus E-3, though, is a great and professional quality digital SLR camera. The body of this camera usually costs around fifteen hundred dollars which is great for the budget conscious, especially considering that you will still need to buy lenses to go with the body. One of the best things about this camera is the flexible LCD screen, which can allow you to shoot from angles that might make regular DSLR shooting awkward.

Perhaps the most important thing to think about when you are shopping for your digital SLR camera is your budget. If you are new to this type of photography, you probably aren't going to want to spend the money that you would need to spend on a higher end, professional quality DSLR camera. If you're new, you should start small and work your way up to the more complicated cameras. There are lots of really great digital SLR cameras, though more basic, at lower price points that you can start with. Figuring out your budget will help narrow the field considerably so make sure to give it some thought before you start shopping in earnest.

There are so many different brands and models of Digital SLR cameras out there. In this article we've talked about some of the best digital SLR cameras that you can choose from as well as how to shop for the one that will be the best fit for you. As you keep reading and doing your research you'll be able to narrow your focus even more and, eventually, find the perfect camera for yourself.

And for people who prefer Canon DSLRs, the Canon 6D is a good choice to consider. This camera is not only good for taking photos, it works very well for videos too.

Source: http://articles.submityourarticle.com/which-dslr-camera-is-the-best-for-2012--314093

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Samsung to invest $1.7 billion in Kunshan plant: Xinhua

BEIJING (Reuters) - South Korean electronics giant Samsung plans to invest $1.7 billion in expanding and fitting out its operations in Kunshan, a fast-growing manufacturing hub west of Shanghai, the Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.

Samsung's expansion comes as the world's largest maker of handsets, memory chips and televisions attempts to diversify its clients and exert greater control over its sprawling manufacturing network, which includes 250 supplier factories in China.

The company is already building a $7 billion chip complex in Xi'an, an industrial city in northwestern China.

The Kunshan investment will be used to build workshops, purchase equipment and set up research institutes operated by Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., to support a chip carrier related project, Xinhua said, citing sources with the Kunshan municipal government.

Manufacturing in China is rapidly expanding, with electronics assembly lines displacing low-margin producers of textiles and toys.

Samsung's growing presence in China has earned it the attention of labor activists more accustomed to scrutinizing rival electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn.

Foxconn, the trading name of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry, conducted an internal audit and pledged to address issues at its supplier factories, after a report in 2012 found it had hired underage workers.

The Kunshan plant was originally set up in 2008.

(Reporting By Lucy Hornby; Editing by Alison Birrane)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/samsung-invest-1-7-billion-kunshan-plant-xinhua-174626808--finance.html

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Religious Groups Fight Obamacare Birth Control Mandate

New York Times:

In a flood of lawsuits, Roman Catholics, evangelicals and Mennonites are challenging a provision in the new health care law that requires employers to cover birth control in employee health plans ? a high-stakes clash between religious freedom and health care access that appears headed to the Supreme Court.

Read the whole story at New York Times

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/26/religious-groups-fight-ob_n_2559485.html

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NATO missile defense battery in Turkey operational

BRUSSELS (AP) ? The first of six Patriot missile batteries being deployed to Turkey to protect against attack from Syria was declared operational and placed under NATO command, the international organization said Saturday.

The battery, provided by the Netherlands, is meant to protect the city of Adana by shooting down missiles that could come over the Syrian border. Turkey has become a harsh critic of the regime in Syria, where a vicious civil war has left at least 60,000 people dead.

The United States, Germany and the Netherlands are providing two batteries each of the latest version of the U.S.-made Patriots. The other five Patriot batteries are expected to be in place and operational in the coming days in Adana, Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep.

"This is a clear demonstration of the agility and flexibility of NATO forces and of our willingness to defend Allies who face threats in an unstable world," Admiral James Stavridis, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, said in a statement.

NATO reiterated Saturday that the Patriots are for defensive purposes only. Syria has not fired any of its surface-to-surface missiles at Turkey during its nearly two-year civil war and its government has described the NATO deployment as a provocation.

NATO also deployed Patriot batteries to Turkey during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq 10 years ago. They were never used and were withdrawn a few months later.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nato-missile-defense-battery-turkey-operational-130210789.html

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Don't 'shoehorn' Britain into 'United States of Europe' says PM Cameron

The EU should be open, free, flexible and the UK will be part of it, says the British leader at this week's Davos forum. But?'I don't want a country called Europe,' he adds, as Tory back-benchers push the prime minister to call for a controversial referendum on British participation in the 27-nation union.

By Angela Charlton,?Associated Press / January 24, 2013

In this photo, German chancellor Angela Merkel talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron, during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday. Cameron wants nothing to do with a United States of Europe, an idea that's gaining currency as the countries that use the euro struggle to fix their debt crisis.

Jesco Denzel/Bundespresseamt/AP

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British Prime Minister David Cameron wants nothing to do with a United States of Europe, an idea that's gaining currency as the countries that use the euro struggle to fix their debt crisis.

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But what if it's a choice between a single country called Europe or a splintered continent?

Mr. Cameron is determined to avoid that scary scenario.

A day after he shook up Europe's political landscape by offering British citizens the prospect of a vote on whether to stay in the 27-country European Union, Cameron insisted Thursday he wants Britain to remain a part of the bloc but that more unification would not be the answer.

"To try and shoehorn countries into a centralized political union would be a great mistake, and Britain would not be a part of it," he said at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos.

In an interview with The Associated Press afterward, Cameron insisted said he wanted to make Europe "more open, competitive, flexible ? so that we can secure Britain's place within it." "I think it is eminently achievable," he said.

?Many in the EU, particularly among the 17 countries that use the euro, are on a drive for closer political unification, and that's raised particular concerns recently in Britain, which has often viewed the bloc through a business prism.

"If you mean that Europe has to be a political union, a country called Europe, then I disagree," said Cameron.

On Wednesday, Cameron put an end to months of speculation by revealing he intends to hold a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU, if he wins the next general election, expected in 2015. But many politicians in Europe think closer political ties are exactly what is needed to maintain continental unity in the face of a debt crisis that's laid bare fundamental flaws in the euro.

?The European Union, which last year won the Nobel Peace Prize, effectively started amid the rubble of World War II ? the motivation to avoid future wars. Some even think Europe's end-game has to be to resemble the United States of America.Countries would be so tied together in their economic and social fabric to make war inconceivable.

?After decades of bit-by-bit integration, the links are now so tight that many European leaders refuse to publicly acknowledge that a British exit is a possibility. Several accuse Cameron of putting the bloc at risk to deal with domestic political problems. His Conservative Party has a hardcore element that is highly skeptical of the EU, while an anti-EU party, the UK Independence Party, is gaining ground in the polls most notably at the expense of Cameron's Conservatives.

?Italian Premier Mario Monti said Britain should set aside ideology and look at its membership in the EU with "pragmatism, which should be a British attitude of mind."

?He argued that Britons, for all their hostility to EU regulations and bureaucracy, benefit so much from the single market that they would be scared to leave ? a ready access to markets and over half a billion people would be a gamble too far.

Most of British business appears to want to stay in the EU but out of the integrationist drive ? but the question is whether that can be achieved.

?"The vast majority of businesses across the UK want to stay in the single market, but on the basis of a revised relationship ... that promotes trade and competitiveness," said John Langworth of the British Chambers of Commerce.

?He was among 56 British business leaders who issued a public letter to the Times of London on Thursday complaining about demands from Brussels and calling for "a more competitive, flexible and prosperous European Union that would bring more jobs and growth for all member states."

Growth is certainly something that Europe is craving. The eurozone as a whole is in recession and figures Friday are expected to show the British economy, the EU's third-largest, halfway back to its third recession in four years.

Open Europe, a London-based think tank, says that 48 percent of the UK's goods and services exports are to the EU. The single market keeps down the cost for Britons of doing business with the EU as well as the price of goods imported from the EU for purchase by ordinary British citizens. Membership gives British citizens the right to live and work anywhere in the EU ? unlike citizens of other countries, who must seek complicated and often hard-to-get residency and work permits.

Mark Gray, a spokesman for the EU, said the bloc affects almost all aspects of the lives of Britons, from the quality of the water they swim in at beaches or in pools, to the quality of the orange juice they have for breakfast and the conditions in the offices where they work.

But many Britons ? like citizens elsewhere in the EU ? see the union as a faceless beast imposing rules and spending on needless things and threatening sovereignty.

?Britain's relations with Europe have been strained since the end of World War II. It did not join the European Steel and Coal Community, the forebear of what would later become the European Union, in 1951. Britain later realized there were benefits accruing from joining up with some of its wartime friends and foes, and joined the evolving European bloc in the 1970s. It has stood against many efforts to forge closer ties, notably the creation of the euro, but was at the forefront of the drive to create a single market.?

?Don Melvin in Brussels and Martin Benedyk in Davos, Switzerland, contributed to this report.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/e4AxuzyHujo/Don-t-shoehorn-Britain-into-United-States-of-Europe-says-PM-Cameron

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Don Tapscott: Going Down the Road -- In a Car That Drives Itself

I've just come from an amazing discussion by some brilliant people about how connected vehicles and transportation systems will transform mobility. The discussion focused on how self-driving cars will improve road safety and traffic flow and reduce transportation's carbon footprint.

The idea is that if cars on the roadway can connect with one another and with the roadway itself, there will be fewer accidents and the system will function more efficiently. Cars will drive themselves, and the driver is freed up to do other things. The president of UPS's international division said his drivers typically make 200 deliveries a day. If a UPS truck were smart enough to drive itself, the driver could ready the package for delivery and process the paperwork while enroute. Driver efficiency would rise and fuel consumption would drop.

Imagine your car taking you from your driveway at home to your office's parking lot without you having to touch the wheel. It would be commuter heaven. Long drive times would not be as oppressive now that you could do other things during transit, such as read a book, surf the web, or watch a university lecture. And since the cars of tomorrow will be electric, the concern for exhaust fumes will have gone away.

Europe has been funding research on self-driving cars for more than a decade under a program called Intelligent Co-operative Systems. The project's website catalogues the incredible array of benefits when such a system is fully introduced. They include increased road network capacity, reduced congestion and pollution, shorter and more predictable journey times, improved traffic safety for all road users, and lower vehicle operating costs.

Additional benefits are more efficient logistics, improved management and control of the road network (both urban and inter-urban), increased efficiency of the public transport systems, and better and more efficient response to hazards, incidents and accidents.

Google is also leading the way in research. Google-designed self-driving cars are used in the search engine giant's street-level photos of cities around the world. The project was put in motion by former Google vice-president Sebastian Thrun, now director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View. He was one of the session's panelists.

Google's driverless cars have logged more than 480,000 kilometres without the technology ever being responsible for an accident. One car had an accident while a driver was controlling the vehicle, and a second car was hit from behind at a stoplight.

Technology journalist Jeff Jarvis in the audience asked what the timeline is for self-driving cars, and Mr. Thrun said within five years. Mr. Thrun, a great evangelist for self-driving cars, said the first time in the vehicle is exhilarating. Within 10 minutes people are willing to trust the car totally. In normal driving the car's controls are better than the best human drivers. Passengers feel uncomfortable when the human driver takes over.

But accidents will be sure to happen, and the question that was put to the Davos audience was: Would the citizens of your country accept some level of fatalities in accidents caused by "technology failure" attributed to a centrally controlled system, in exchange for fewer overall transportation fatalities provided by reduced human error? Only 46 percent said yes, while 54 percent said no. This prompted an interesting discussion on technology failures on planes and trains.

The audience was also asked: Autonomous transportation systems require a free flow of information between transportation providers. Will governments accept facilitating and/or managing the process and liabilities associated with this information exchange? The audience was divided between 53 percent Yes and 47 percent No.

Don Tapscott is an adjunct professor at the Rotman School of Management and the author of 14 books. He just released a TED book (with Anthony D. Williams) called Radical Openness: Four Unexpected Principles for Success. You can follow him on Twitter @dtapscott.
Originally published in TheGlobeandMail.com

?

Follow Don Tapscott on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dtapscott

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-tapscott/going-down-the-road-in-a-_b_2554361.html

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Bend, Oregon, Home for Sale Is a Contemporary ... - AOL Real Estate

A clink of the glass to @discovercrc and @PronghornClub for proving that the great state of Oregon has some serious real estate chops. They're our crowned champions of this week's #housepornthurs contest, submitting this astounding contemporary gem in Bend, Ore. (We'd also like to give a shout-out to runner-up @PartnersTrust for giving it a good shot with this beautiful Bel Air estate. Better luck next time!)

The wonderful Oregon home -- "an architectural marvel," as the listing calls it -- is completely custom-made. Its exposed timber frame makes it look like a grand lodge regally rising above the mountainside treetops. Sprawling across 5,280 square feet, the home has three bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms and a three-car garage.

Our favorite part of the home is the gorgeous stone fireplace, a centerpiece of the home. Grab your family or a group of friends and cozy up. This is the sweetest home, sweet home. Pronghorn Residential has the listing.

Find other homes for sale in Bend, Ore., or search listings in your area.

The #housepornthurs contest is a weekly Twitter conversation hosted by @aolrealestate. Tweet listings every Thursday to AOL Real Estate with the hashtag #housepornthurs for a chance to have one of your submissions featured as a House of the Day the following week.

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
See celebrity real estate.

Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2013/01/24/bend-oregon-home-for-sale/

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Brooke Shields To Join Lifetime's 'Army Wives' And More Casting News

Broken

"In the premiere episode, "Broken," reality and myth begin to merge as the fairytale characters awaken from Evil Queen Regina's broken curse and remember who they were. But to their dismay, they aren't transported back to fairytale land. To make matters worse, Rumplestiltskin - aka Mr. Gold - in an effort to gain the upper hand in his power struggle with Regina, has introduced magic into the town. In fairytales magic has its place, but in our world it can have unfathomable consequences. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale land, Prince Phillip awakens his sleeping beauty, Aurora (Sarah Bolger, "The Tudors"), but discovers that he and his traveling companion, Mulan (Jamie Chung, "Sucker Punch," "The Hangover Part II"), will soon have to face a deadly foe, on the Season Premiere of "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network."

Broken

"In the premiere episode, "Broken," reality and myth begin to merge as the fairytale characters awaken from Evil Queen Regina's broken curse and remember who they were. But to their dismay, they aren't transported back to fairytale land. To make matters worse, Rumplestiltskin - aka Mr. Gold - in an effort to gain the upper hand in his power struggle with Regina, has introduced magic into the town. In fairytales magic has its place, but in our world it can have unfathomable consequences. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale land, Prince Phillip awakens his sleeping beauty, Aurora (Sarah Bolger, "The Tudors"), but discovers that he and his traveling companion, Mulan (Jamie Chung, "Sucker Punch," "The Hangover Part II"), will soon have to face a deadly foe, on the Season Premiere of "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network."

Broken

"In the premiere episode, "Broken," reality and myth begin to merge as the fairytale characters awaken from Evil Queen Regina's broken curse and remember who they were. But to their dismay, they aren't transported back to fairytale land. To make matters worse, Rumplestiltskin - aka Mr. Gold - in an effort to gain the upper hand in his power struggle with Regina, has introduced magic into the town. In fairytales magic has its place, but in our world it can have unfathomable consequences. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale land, Prince Phillip awakens his sleeping beauty, Aurora (Sarah Bolger, "The Tudors"), but discovers that he and his traveling companion, Mulan (Jamie Chung, "Sucker Punch," "The Hangover Part II"), will soon have to face a deadly foe, on the Season Premiere of "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network."

Broken

"In the premiere episode, "Broken," reality and myth begin to merge as the fairytale characters awaken from Evil Queen Regina's broken curse and remember who they were. But to their dismay, they aren't transported back to fairytale land. To make matters worse, Rumplestiltskin - aka Mr. Gold - in an effort to gain the upper hand in his power struggle with Regina, has introduced magic into the town. In fairytales magic has its place, but in our world it can have unfathomable consequences. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale land, Prince Phillip awakens his sleeping beauty, Aurora (Sarah Bolger, "The Tudors"), but discovers that he and his traveling companion, Mulan (Jamie Chung, "Sucker Punch," "The Hangover Part II"), will soon have to face a deadly foe, on the Season Premiere of "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network."

Broken

"In the premiere episode, "Broken," reality and myth begin to merge as the fairytale characters awaken from Evil Queen Regina's broken curse and remember who they were. But to their dismay, they aren't transported back to fairytale land. To make matters worse, Rumplestiltskin - aka Mr. Gold - in an effort to gain the upper hand in his power struggle with Regina, has introduced magic into the town. In fairytales magic has its place, but in our world it can have unfathomable consequences. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale land, Prince Phillip awakens his sleeping beauty, Aurora (Sarah Bolger, "The Tudors"), but discovers that he and his traveling companion, Mulan (Jamie Chung, "Sucker Punch," "The Hangover Part II"), will soon have to face a deadly foe, on the Season Premiere of "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network."

Broken

"In the premiere episode, "Broken," reality and myth begin to merge as the fairytale characters awaken from Evil Queen Regina's broken curse and remember who they were. But to their dismay, they aren't transported back to fairytale land. To make matters worse, Rumplestiltskin - aka Mr. Gold - in an effort to gain the upper hand in his power struggle with Regina, has introduced magic into the town. In fairytales magic has its place, but in our world it can have unfathomable consequences. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale land, Prince Phillip awakens his sleeping beauty, Aurora (Sarah Bolger, "The Tudors"), but discovers that he and his traveling companion, Mulan (Jamie Chung, "Sucker Punch," "The Hangover Part II"), will soon have to face a deadly foe, on the Season Premiere of "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network."

Broken

"In the premiere episode, "Broken," reality and myth begin to merge as the fairytale characters awaken from Evil Queen Regina's broken curse and remember who they were. But to their dismay, they aren't transported back to fairytale land. To make matters worse, Rumplestiltskin - aka Mr. Gold - in an effort to gain the upper hand in his power struggle with Regina, has introduced magic into the town. In fairytales magic has its place, but in our world it can have unfathomable consequences. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale land, Prince Phillip awakens his sleeping beauty, Aurora (Sarah Bolger, "The Tudors"), but discovers that he and his traveling companion, Mulan (Jamie Chung, "Sucker Punch," "The Hangover Part II"), will soon have to face a deadly foe, on the Season Premiere of "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network."

Broken

"In the premiere episode, "Broken," reality and myth begin to merge as the fairytale characters awaken from Evil Queen Regina's broken curse and remember who they were. But to their dismay, they aren't transported back to fairytale land. To make matters worse, Rumplestiltskin - aka Mr. Gold - in an effort to gain the upper hand in his power struggle with Regina, has introduced magic into the town. In fairytales magic has its place, but in our world it can have unfathomable consequences. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale land, Prince Phillip awakens his sleeping beauty, Aurora (Sarah Bolger, "The Tudors"), but discovers that he and his traveling companion, Mulan (Jamie Chung, "Sucker Punch," "The Hangover Part II"), will soon have to face a deadly foe, on the Season Premiere of "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network."

Broken

"In the premiere episode, "Broken," reality and myth begin to merge as the fairytale characters awaken from Evil Queen Regina's broken curse and remember who they were. But to their dismay, they aren't transported back to fairytale land. To make matters worse, Rumplestiltskin - aka Mr. Gold - in an effort to gain the upper hand in his power struggle with Regina, has introduced magic into the town. In fairytales magic has its place, but in our world it can have unfathomable consequences. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale land, Prince Phillip awakens his sleeping beauty, Aurora (Sarah Bolger, "The Tudors"), but discovers that he and his traveling companion, Mulan (Jamie Chung, "Sucker Punch," "The Hangover Part II"), will soon have to face a deadly foe, on the Season Premiere of "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network."

Broken

"In the premiere episode, "Broken," reality and myth begin to merge as the fairytale characters awaken from Evil Queen Regina's broken curse and remember who they were. But to their dismay, they aren't transported back to fairytale land. To make matters worse, Rumplestiltskin - aka Mr. Gold - in an effort to gain the upper hand in his power struggle with Regina, has introduced magic into the town. In fairytales magic has its place, but in our world it can have unfathomable consequences. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale land, Prince Phillip awakens his sleeping beauty, Aurora (Sarah Bolger, "The Tudors"), but discovers that he and his traveling companion, Mulan (Jamie Chung, "Sucker Punch," "The Hangover Part II"), will soon have to face a deadly foe, on the Season Premiere of "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network."

Broken

"In the premiere episode, "Broken," reality and myth begin to merge as the fairytale characters awaken from Evil Queen Regina's broken curse and remember who they were. But to their dismay, they aren't transported back to fairytale land. To make matters worse, Rumplestiltskin - aka Mr. Gold - in an effort to gain the upper hand in his power struggle with Regina, has introduced magic into the town. In fairytales magic has its place, but in our world it can have unfathomable consequences. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale land, Prince Phillip awakens his sleeping beauty, Aurora (Sarah Bolger, "The Tudors"), but discovers that he and his traveling companion, Mulan (Jamie Chung, "Sucker Punch," "The Hangover Part II"), will soon have to face a deadly foe, on the Season Premiere of "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network."

Broken

"In the premiere episode, "Broken," reality and myth begin to merge as the fairytale characters awaken from Evil Queen Regina's broken curse and remember who they were. But to their dismay, they aren't transported back to fairytale land. To make matters worse, Rumplestiltskin - aka Mr. Gold - in an effort to gain the upper hand in his power struggle with Regina, has introduced magic into the town. In fairytales magic has its place, but in our world it can have unfathomable consequences. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale land, Prince Phillip awakens his sleeping beauty, Aurora (Sarah Bolger, "The Tudors"), but discovers that he and his traveling companion, Mulan (Jamie Chung, "Sucker Punch," "The Hangover Part II"), will soon have to face a deadly foe, on the Season Premiere of "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network."

Broken

"In the premiere episode, "Broken," reality and myth begin to merge as the fairytale characters awaken from Evil Queen Regina's broken curse and remember who they were. But to their dismay, they aren't transported back to fairytale land. To make matters worse, Rumplestiltskin - aka Mr. Gold - in an effort to gain the upper hand in his power struggle with Regina, has introduced magic into the town. In fairytales magic has its place, but in our world it can have unfathomable consequences. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale land, Prince Phillip awakens his sleeping beauty, Aurora (Sarah Bolger, "The Tudors"), but discovers that he and his traveling companion, Mulan (Jamie Chung, "Sucker Punch," "The Hangover Part II"), will soon have to face a deadly foe, on the Season Premiere of "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network."

Broken

"In the premiere episode, "Broken," reality and myth begin to merge as the fairytale characters awaken from Evil Queen Regina's broken curse and remember who they were. But to their dismay, they aren't transported back to fairytale land. To make matters worse, Rumplestiltskin - aka Mr. Gold - in an effort to gain the upper hand in his power struggle with Regina, has introduced magic into the town. In fairytales magic has its place, but in our world it can have unfathomable consequences. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale land, Prince Phillip awakens his sleeping beauty, Aurora (Sarah Bolger, "The Tudors"), but discovers that he and his traveling companion, Mulan (Jamie Chung, "Sucker Punch," "The Hangover Part II"), will soon have to face a deadly foe, on the Season Premiere of "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network."

Broken

"In the premiere episode, "Broken," reality and myth begin to merge as the fairytale characters awaken from Evil Queen Regina's broken curse and remember who they were. But to their dismay, they aren't transported back to fairytale land. To make matters worse, Rumplestiltskin - aka Mr. Gold - in an effort to gain the upper hand in his power struggle with Regina, has introduced magic into the town. In fairytales magic has its place, but in our world it can have unfathomable consequences. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale land, Prince Phillip awakens his sleeping beauty, Aurora (Sarah Bolger, "The Tudors"), but discovers that he and his traveling companion, Mulan (Jamie Chung, "Sucker Punch," "The Hangover Part II"), will soon have to face a deadly foe, on the Season Premiere of "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network."

Broken

"In the premiere episode, "Broken," reality and myth begin to merge as the fairytale characters awaken from Evil Queen Regina's broken curse and remember who they were. But to their dismay, they aren't transported back to fairytale land. To make matters worse, Rumplestiltskin - aka Mr. Gold - in an effort to gain the upper hand in his power struggle with Regina, has introduced magic into the town. In fairytales magic has its place, but in our world it can have unfathomable consequences. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale land, Prince Phillip awakens his sleeping beauty, Aurora (Sarah Bolger, "The Tudors"), but discovers that he and his traveling companion, Mulan (Jamie Chung, "Sucker Punch," "The Hangover Part II"), will soon have to face a deadly foe, on the Season Premiere of "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network."

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/24/brooke-shields-army-wives_n_2546920.html

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Nashville, Season 1

Sylvia Jefferies as Jolene Barnes and Connie Britton as Rayna Jaymes.

Every week in?Slate?s?Nashville TV club, Katy Waldman will have an IM conversation with a different?Nashville?fan. This week, she rehashes episode 1.11 with June Thomas,?a Slate culture critic.

Katy Waldman: Hey there, June! I hate to start with the last scene, but I?m so glad circumstances have finally thrown Deacon, Juliette, and Rayna together in a confined space.

June Thomas: And at the crack of butt, no less.

Waldman: With Deacon as Juliette?s new guitarist, the Red Lips/White Lies tour seems destined to become the hot, melodramatic mess we?ve long hoped it would be. But what were your impressions of tonight?s episode?

Thomas: I feel a bit churlish saying this, since You Win Again had very few of the plot threads that bore me (For instance, Rayna's daddy?OK, pretty much everything except Rayna, Juliette, and Deacon), but my enjoyment was a little marred by the episode?s ridiculous on-the-noseness. I mean, it's enough to show Liam and Callista doing their best impression of the snake in the Garden of Eden, tempting Rayna to try something new. They don't also need to turn Liam into a patchy-facial-hair-twirling bad guy who states flat out that Edgehill is like her marriage, "stale, old, and boring." Give us a little credit, bad boy.

Waldman: I knew Liam was naughty, but I was surprised and saddened to see him become a straight-up adversary. He seemed more interesting as a bargaining chip, or a prize for Juliette and Rayna to wrangle over. (Some critics even thought he?d make a good love interest for Juliette!) And I agree that the parallel between Rayna?s marriage and her career at Edgehill felt too easy, as did Liam?s equation of ?stable? with ?stale.? Which one is Teddy, do you think? Marshall Evans?

Thomas: Those two, Marshall and Teddy, are only bad for Rayna in that they limit her future options. She'll be just fine if she sticks with them both. It's unpredictable, melancholy dudes like Deacon and Liam that have the potential to burn down her beautiful house. I'm sorry that Liam messed up Rayna's potential alliance with Callista. Rayna spends so much time dealing with people who are at very different places in their lives (Juliette looking at Rayna's longevity with contempt, Deacon looking at her happy home life with envy, and Teddy being such a drain on her) that I liked the idea of those bread-winning moms each supplying the thing the other needed.?

Waldman: I wonder whether this TV Club hasn?t overlooked friendship as a major theme on Nashville. More than a love interest, so many characters seem to need at least one true, loyal friend who has their best interests at heart. Even the main romances on the show are grounded in a deep sense of companionship?with desire functioning, sometimes, as a damaging complication.

Thomas: Well, Scarlett and Gunnar tested out another kind of alliance this week, when they joined up with TJ and the rest of Avery's old band. They formed with the explicit intention of winning one for the good guys. They're like the Justice League with guitars.

Waldman: Yes! It?s the Super Friends vs. Avery, the narcissistic loner.

Thomas: They love to play with duality in this show--even though we know that Rayna and Juliette are actually sisters under the skin, for the moment we're supposed to see them as polar opposites. So maybe Avery's the other side of friendship?

Waldman: Back that truck up. What makes Rayna and Juliette so similar, besides profession?

Thomas: Rayna and Juliette both have a difficult, damaged relationship with a parent. They're both shouldering more responsibilities than is fair. They're both single-minded, hard-working, charismatic, and of course talented. At first I thought the path the series was taking was leading Juliette to accept Rayna as a mother figure. Now I think the path is toward recognizing each other's shared qualities.

Waldman: Another thing Rayna and Juliette have in common is a fierce sense of independence: Neither wants to be beholden to anybody! That said, Juliette's animosity toward Rayna has always puzzled me. For someone as savvy as she is, wouldn't it make more sense to play nice with a reigning country music queen? I wonder if her mommy issues have affected the way she relates to musical "mother" figures?the women who paved the way for her career.

Thomas: It would be one thing if we made life choices based on cold calculation, but this is the emotional world of country music. Juliette definitely has some major mama issues, yet she's also blinded by pride. She clawed her way up to the top without anyone else's help; she doesn't need to play nice to the queen of Belle Meade.

Speaking of her real mom, I found the rapprochement between Juliette and Joleen tonight surprisingly moving. As a good Brit?a working-class Brit, to boot?I was so glad to see class make an appearance. I?ve been thinking for a long time that Juliette?s issues with her mom aren?t only about the pain her mom?s addiction has caused, but also that Juliette is embarrassed by her mom?s inability to fit in with the middle and upper-class folks that Juliette mingles with these days.

Waldman: It will be interesting to see if improvements in the Juliette-Joleen relationship translate into some sort of detente for Juliette and Rayna. But yeah, I agree with you about the class dimension. Perhaps that?s why Deacon was so wise to link himself to Joleen when he spoke to Juliette. He forced her to confront that the musical hero she so wanted in her band had a lot in common with her mortifying mom.

Thomas:?Yes! Juliette knows how to read Deacon, whereas she's too close to see her mom clearly, but he made that connection. And it was almost as though Joleen allowed Juliette to see all the hurdles she'd had to leap over to get to where she is today. That was really lovely.

Waldman: Right, and in Juliette?s eyes, Rayna never had to lift a finger for her stardom. She?s just hanging around gobbling up all this unearned attention. (I love jealous Hayden Panettiere!)

Thomas: Juliette thinks it's time for Rayna to retire her tour bus and leave the business to the next generation. Sometimes I think Rayna would like that, too, but her family needs the money that only her music career can generate. And with Teddy's in public office, that need isn't going away any time soon.

Waldman: True. Songwriting is still very much a job for all of them (with the possible exception of Gunnar and Scarlett, for whom it's basically foreplay. I kid, sort of.) Nashville is so interesting in that it doesn't sentimentalize music?it's a show about the music?business?but the songwriting and the performances are also so genuine, often the most emotionally affecting parts of the show.

Thomas:?I agree. We often see people sitting down and writing songs. They don't make it seem easy peasy lemon squeezey, but when they really apply themselves, they can all do it. That's an amazing achievement, and ultimately it's because they've all got something to say. I can't think of a single time when any of the songwriting shown on Nashville has seemed cynical.

Waldman: Before we part, what do you make of Gunnar?s fugitive brother? Is this plotline plausible? Irritating?

Thomas: JASON! That boy's a heartbreaker. Too bad it's his kid brother's heart he's breaking.

Waldman: I hope he steals Avery?s fancy new car.

Thomas: I do have one last thought, before I leave you in Tennessee and head back to Yorkshire. Every time Nashville cut to a commercial break, I was aware that everyone in the promos for other NBC shows seemed so much happier than the folks on Nashville. There doesn't seem to be much joy on this show. And when there is, it's fleeting: Rayna and Liam's special connection turned into betrayal and breakup in the blink of an eye. Will we ever see adoring looks that last longer than the time it takes to sing a love song?

Later This Week: Further analysis of Episode 11.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=9092308e1735e74a54e75033b66b73f5

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Burger King drops supplier linked to horsemeat

A sign hangs at a branch of Burger King in central London, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013. Burger King says it has stopped buying beef from an Irish supplier whose patties in Britain and Ireland were found to contain traces of horsemeat. Officials say there is no risk to human health, but the episode has raised food security concerns. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

A sign hangs at a branch of Burger King in central London, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013. Burger King says it has stopped buying beef from an Irish supplier whose patties in Britain and Ireland were found to contain traces of horsemeat. Officials say there is no risk to human health, but the episode has raised food security concerns. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

FILE - This Wednesday June 20, 2012 file photo shows a Burger King sign in Richardson, Texas. British and Irish burger fans could face a Whopper shortage after Burger King announced Thursday Jan. 24, 2013, it has stopped buying beef from an Irish meat processor whose patties were found to contain traces of horse DNA. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

A sign above a branch of Burger King in central London, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013. Burger King says it has stopped buying beef from an Irish supplier whose patties in Britain and Ireland were found to contain traces of horsemeat. Officials say there is no risk to human health, but the episode has raised food security concerns. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Pedestrians pass by a branch of Burger King in central London, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013. Burger King says it has stopped buying beef from an Irish supplier whose patties in Britain and Ireland were found to contain traces of horsemeat. Officials say there is no risk to human health, but the episode has raised food security concerns. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

LONDON (AP) ? British and Irish burger fans could face a Whopper shortage. Burger King has stopped buying beef from an Irish meat processor whose patties were found to contain traces of horsemeat.

The fast food chain said Thursday it had dropped Silvercrest Foods as a supplier for its U.K. and Ireland restaurants as a "voluntary and precautionary measure."

Last week Silvercrest, which is owned by ABP Food Group, shut down its production line and recalled 10 million burgers from supermarket shelves in Britain and Ireland after horse DNA was found in some beef products.

Burger King said the decision to drop the supplier "may mean that some of our products are temporarily unavailable." It stressed that "this is not a food safety issue."

The company added that there was "no evidence to suggest any of the Silvercrest product supplied to Burger King was affected" by the horsemeat contamination.

Rival McDonald's said it does not buy beef from Silvercrest or other affected suppliers.

The presence of horsemeat in beef is a sensitive issue in Britain and Ireland, which do not have a tradition of eating horses. The British tabloid The Sun reported the Burger King story under the headline "Shergar King," a reference to a famous racehorse.

Products from another Irish firm and one in Britain also were contaminated by horsemeat. Most had only small traces, but one burger of a brand sold by the British supermarket chain Tesco contained 29 percent horsemeat.

Irish food officials say an ingredient imported from an unspecified European country and used as filler in cheap burgers is the likely source of the horsemeat contamination.

Burger King says its patties are made from 100 percent beef.

Officials say the horsemeat poses no risk to human health, but the episode has raised food security worries.

More concern arose Thursday when lawmaker Mary Creagh, environment spokeswoman for Britain's opposition Labour Party, said that several horses slaughtered in the country last year had tested positive for phenylbutazone, an anti-inflammatory drug given to horses that can cause cancer in humans.

"It is possible that those animals entered the human food chain," she said.

The Food Standards Agency confirmed that meat from five horses had tested positive for the drug, but said none had been approved for sale in Britain. It said the relevant food safety authorities were informed in cases where the meat was exported to other countries.

The agency said no horsemeat in the current scandal contained phenylbutazone.

Very little horsemeat is sold in Britain but the country sends thousands of horses a year abroad to be killed for meat.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-24-Britain-Horsemeat-Burger%20King/id-25a4a12e72994ec29d8f8316b75d2c71

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Putting the squeeze on cells: By deforming cells, researchers can deliver RNA, proteins and nanoparticles for many applications

Jan. 23, 2013 ? Living cells are surrounded by a membrane that tightly regulates what gets in and out of the cell. This barrier is necessary for cells to control their internal environment, but it makes it more difficult for scientists to deliver large molecules such as nanoparticles for imaging, or proteins that can reprogram them into pluripotent stem cells.

Researchers from MIT have now found a safe and efficient way to get large molecules through the cell membrane, by squeezing the cells through a narrow constriction that opens up tiny, temporary holes in the membrane. Any large molecules floating outside the cell -- such as RNA, proteins or nanoparticles -- can slide through the membrane during this disruption.

Using this technique, the researchers were able to deliver reprogramming proteins and generate induced pluripotent stem cells with a success rate 10 to 100 times better than any existing method. They also used it to deliver nanoparticles, including carbon nanotubes and quantum dots, which can be used to image cells and monitor what's happening inside them.

"It's very useful to be able to get large molecules into cells. We thought it might be interesting if you could have a relatively simple system that could deliver many different compounds," says Klavs Jensen, the Warren K. Lewis Professor of Chemical Engineering, professor of materials science and engineering, and a senior author of a paper describing the new device in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT, is also a senior author of the paper. Lead authors are chemical engineering graduate student Armon Sharei, Koch Institute research scientist Janet Zoldan, and chemical engineering research associate Andrea Adamo.

A general approach

Biologists have previously developed several ways to get large molecules into cells, but all of them have drawbacks. DNA or RNA can be packaged into viruses, which are adept at entering cells, but that approach carries the risk that some of the viral DNA will get integrated into the host cell. This method is commonly used in lab experiments but has not been approved by the FDA for use in human patients.

Another way to sneak large molecules into a cell is to tag them with a short protein that can penetrate the cell membrane and drag the larger cargo along with it. Alternatively, DNA or proteins can be packaged into synthetic nanoparticles that can enter cells. However, these systems often need to be re-engineered depending on the type of cell and material being delivered. Also, with some nanoparticles much of the material ends up trapped in protective sacs called endosomes inside the cell, and there can be potential toxic side effects.

Electroporation, which involves giving cells a jolt of electricity that opens up the cell membrane, is a more general approach but can be damaging to both cells and the material being delivered.

The new MIT system appears to work for many cell types -- so far, the researchers have successfully tested it with more than a dozen types, including both human and mouse cells. It also works in cells taken directly from human patients, which are usually much more difficult to manipulate than human cell lines grown specifically for lab research.

The new device builds on previous work by Jensen and Langer's labs, in which they used microinjection to force large molecules into cells as they flowed through a microfluidic device. This wasn't as fast as the researchers would have liked, but during these studies, they discovered that when a cell is squeezed through a narrow tube, small holes open in the cell membrane, allowing nearby molecules to diffuse into the cell.

To take advantage of that, the researchers built rectangular microfluidic chips, about the size of a quarter, with 40 to 70 parallel channels. Cells are suspended in a solution with the material to be delivered and flowed through the channel at high speed -- about one meter per second. Halfway through the channel, the cells pass through a constriction about 30 to 80 percent smaller than the cells' diameter. The cells don't suffer any irreparable damage, and they maintain their normal functions after the treatment.

Special delivery

The research team is now further pursuing stem cell manipulation, which holds promise for treating a wide range of diseases. They have already shown that they can transform human fibroblast cells into pluripotent stem cells, and now plan to start working on delivering the proteins needed to differentiate stem cells into specialized tissues.

Another promising application is delivering quantum dots -- nanoparticles made of semiconducting metals that fluoresce. These dots hold promise for labeling individual proteins or other molecules inside cells, but scientists have had trouble getting them through the cell membrane without getting trapped in endosomes.

In a paper published in November, working with MIT graduate student Jungmin Lee and chemistry professor Moungi Bawendi, the researchers showed that they could get quantum dots inside human cells grown in the lab, without the particles becoming confined in endosomes or clumping together. They are now working on getting the dots to tag specific proteins inside the cells.

The researchers are also exploring the possibility of using the new system for vaccination. In theory, scientists could remove immune cells from a patient, run them through the microfluidic device and expose them to a viral protein, and then put them back in the patient. Once inside, the cells could provoke an immune response that would confer immunity against the target viral protein.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The original article was written by Anne Trafton.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. A. Sharei, J. Zoldan, A. Adamo, W. Y. Sim, N. Cho, E. Jackson, S. Mao, S. Schneider, M.-J. Han, A. Lytton-Jean, P. A. Basto, S. Jhunjhunwala, J. Lee, D. A. Heller, J. W. Kang, G. C. Hartoularos, K.-S. Kim, D. G. Anderson, R. Langer, K. F. Jensen. A vector-free microfluidic platform for intracellular delivery. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1218705110

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/sMbVCnJHjZ0/130123133717.htm

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Insubordinate employee ? or not? ? Business Management Daily ...

Problem: An employee with bipolar disorder becomes angry with you during a meeting in which you provide some constructive criticism of her work. When she gets up to leave the meeting, you tell her that she cannot leave until you are finished discussing her work.? She curses at you and leaves anyway.?You fire her, the same punishment given to any em??ployee who is insubordinate.?If the employee?s behavior was caused by her bipolar disorder, is the termination a violation of the Americans with Dis??abil??ities Act?

Answer: No. Employees with disabilities may be held to work rules that are job-related and consistent with business necessity, even if their disability caused them to violate the rule.?Guidelines issued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission state that ?[c]ertain conduct standards that exist in all workplaces and cover all types of jobs will always meet this standard, such as prohibitions on violence, threats of violence, stealing or destruction of property.?Similarly, em?ployers may prohibit insubordination towards supervisors and managers...?

Since the employee had not requested an accommodation for her disability prior to the termination decision, the termination can stand.?Even if the employee requests a reasonable accommodation for the future (e.g., permission to leave the premises if she feels that the stress may cause her to engage in inappropriate behavior), the ADA does not require employers to rescind a termination decision that was made prior to the accommodation request.

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Jennifer Lawrence as Saturday Night Live Host: Grade Her!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/01/jennifer-lawrence-as-saturday-night-live-host-grade-her/

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HBT: Report: Cincinnati to host 2015 All-Star Game

According to John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Reds will host the 2015 All-Star Game. MLB commissioner Bud Selig is expected to make the announcement when he?s in Cincinnati on Wednesday.

This will be the first All-Star Game at Great American Ballpark and the first in Cincinnati since 1988 at Riverfront Stadium. Many speculated that the Nationals would host the 2015 Midsummer Classic, but the decision to give it to the Reds likely takes them off the board until 2017.

This year?s All-Star Game will take place at Citi Field, home of the Mets, while the 2014 All-Star Game will be hosted by the Twins at Target Field.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/21/report-the-2015-all-star-game-will-be-in-cincinnati/related

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Algeria attack poses fresh security issues

Algerian firemen carry a coffin containing a person killed during the gas facility hostage situation at the morgue in Ain Amenas, Algeria, Monday, Jan. 21, 2013. At least 81 people have been reported dead, including 32 Islamist militants, after a bloody, four-day hostage situation at Algeria's remote Ain Amenas natural gas plant. (AP Photo/Anis Belghoul)

Algerian firemen carry a coffin containing a person killed during the gas facility hostage situation at the morgue in Ain Amenas, Algeria, Monday, Jan. 21, 2013. At least 81 people have been reported dead, including 32 Islamist militants, after a bloody, four-day hostage situation at Algeria's remote Ain Amenas natural gas plant. (AP Photo/Anis Belghoul)

A truck loaded with empty coffins waits at the main entrance of the hospital where the bodies of persons killed during the hostage situation in a gas plant are gathered in Ain Amenas, Monday, Jan. 21, 2013. At least 81 people have been reported dead, including 32 Islamist militants, after a bloody, four-day hostage situation at Algeria's remote Ain Amenas natural gas plant. (AP Photo/Anis Belghoul)

Algerian firemen unload a refrigerated truck with bodies killed during the hostages taking in a gas plant while police officers look on at the morgue in Ain Amenas, Monday, Jan. 21, 2013. At least 81 people have been reported dead, including 32 Islamist militants, after a bloody, four-day hostage situation at Algeria's remote Ain Amenas natural gas plant. (AP Photo/Anis Belghoul)

LONDON (AP) ? The deadly attack on an Algerian natural gas complex will do little to discourage the drive for lucrative energy exploration in northern Africa, experts say, but it is forcing companies to increase security after largely ignoring the risks of operating in the remote desert region.

Spanish, Norwegian and British oil companies quickly evacuated workers from Algerian energy facilities in the wake of the well-coordinated hostage taking by Islamic militants, which ended in bloody chaos in an Algerian raid. Energy companies are loath to discuss the issue, but experts say the financial bounty is too high to scare away firms like gas giant BP and Norway's Statoil for long.

"The risks are never going to be so much that they outweigh the rewards from working in these environments," Alison Lyall, a security analyst at Harnser Risk Group in Norwich, England, said Monday.

Lyall, author of a recent report for the European Commission on evaluating the costs of security, say companies in the exploration and production industry ? even those operating in risky areas ? have simply paid little attention to the issue.

"There is a strong enterprise culture which prides itself on taking risks," she said. "I can show you that the percentage spent on security on very high-value assets is shockingly low."

The assault last Wednesday on Algeria's Ain Amenas gas complex by a multinational band illustrates the danger posed by Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and its offshoots, who have grabbed power propelled by long-simmering ethnic tensions in Mali and the revolution in Libya. In the wake of the violence, energy companies will have to study operations for possible flaws and upgrade contingency plans with information gleaned from the shock attack.

Ian McCredie, former vice president of corporate security for Royal Dutch Shell, said the threat had obviously been underestimated.

"There will need to be reassessment," said McCredie, now CEO of Forbes Research Group in the United States.

Nigel Inkster, a former senior British intelligence officer who heads a risk-analysis unit at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said the incident raised questions both for oil companies and Algeria.

"The boardrooms of oil companies looking to work in Algeria are going to be convulsed by this, and uncertain of how to proceed," Inkster said. "It raises all sorts of concerns about all sorts of economic activity ... (including) uranium mines in Niger, which are pretty important to the global economy."

Algeria has taken a strong tack against the terrorists, rejecting offers of help from Britain, the U.S. and other to go it alone in a typical tough and uncompromising response. BP and Statoil were compelled to entrust their employees lives to the Algerian security forces, and that won't change ? at least immediately. Algeria insists that it has the know-how to assure the security of energy plants.

"We are going to reinforce the security and we will rely first of all on our own means," Algerian Energy Minister Youcef Yousfi said on Sunday, according to state news agency APS. "There is no question of accepting outside security forces."

BP and Royal Dutch Shell, whose employees in Nigeria have been the targets of gangs of kidnappers and militants, would not comment on security arrangements in Algeria. But Ted Jones, the CEO of specialist evacuation company Northcott Global Solutions in London, noted companies alarmed by the attack are scaling up their physical security, moving from unarmed to armed operations, and shifting nonessential staff to safer locations.

Companies can become complacent after a period of safe operation, he said, then change course when something terrible occurs.

"Suddenly something like this happens and they realize they're much closer to the danger ... and there's a sort of panic response, which is perfectly natural," he said.

The energy industry is not a new target. McCredie recalled that significant changes in security followed terror attacks in Saudi Arabia, including a 2004 hostage-taking incident at oil industry compounds at Khobar which ended in the deaths of 22 people.

"There have been all sorts of attacks in other places, Yemen, Syria, Iraq. These attacks are not unusual. What's unusual about this one is it was a big surprise. It shouldn't have been," McCredie said. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb "had been making these threats for a long time. No one thought they had the capacity."

But, he said there are limits to what even extra security forces could accomplish in the battle against terrorists.

"They are mobile, it's a huge vast area, very, very difficult to police, and difficult to keep up surveillance, so a small number of people can have the element of surprise," McCredie said. "Security forces can't patrol the whole area."

___

AP reporters Gregory Katz, Jill Lawless and Cassandra Vinograd in London and Greg Keller in Paris contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-21-Algeria-Security/id-3bb80f6dc23e4ef698686c3cee012b99

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