Saturday, December 29, 2012

Nanaimo Concerts | Music, Sports | Recreation | New Years Eve at ...

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Monday, December 31st, 2012
8:00 PM to 3:00 AM

What a better way to ring in 2013 than a party at The Queens with Toy Zebra.
The female duo DJS; The Mewws will be making sure that you're still dancing in between band breaks. Get ready to dance the night away!

There will be party hats and a balloon drop at Midnight

There will be FREE appetizers all night long and FREE Champagne at Midnight.

Source: http://www.harbourliving.ca/event/new-years-eve-at-the-queens-wtoy-zebra/

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Introducing phon.es - our new URL shortener for Android Central and Mobile Nations!

phon.es

We've talked a bit in the past about URL shorteners and how they can save space -- or wreak havoc. It's really all about trust, right? We've used third-party shorteners like bit.ly before, and since then we've been using Google's own shortener, goo.gl. Now we've got our own.

From here on out, if you see a link to phon.es (it's phones, get it?), you can rest assured that it's from us. Actually, it's from any one of the Mobile Nations sites, which comprises Android Central, CrackBerry, WPCentral, iMore and webOS Nation.

So when will you see a phon.es link? Most likely it'll be on a service like Twitter or App.net, where characters are at a premium. So instead of http://www.androidcentral.com/lg-nexus-4-review, you'll see http://phon.es/n4review -- or something even shorter.

Nobody knows phones better the members of Mobile Nations, and phon.es is just one more way we're continuing to improve Android Central, the Mobile Nations network, and life on Earth in general. Enjoy!



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/docXcG8-Cv0/story01.htm

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Nicholas Kristof and the Ups and Downs of Charitable Giving

Had Enough Therapy?: Nicholas Kristof and the Ups and Downs of Charitable Giving

Nicholas Kristof and the Ups and Downs of Charitable Giving


If you miss a Nicholas Kristof column you never feel deprived. True, Kristof?s fulminations occasionally target outrageous practices, but he rarely gets beyond his overwrought emotions. Kristof is not a thinker. His strong suit is reporting. If he ever found himself in the marketplace of ideas he would be lost. Today, Kristof is not crusading against something horrific. He has offered a paean to philanthropic billionaires, like Ted Turner, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. To keep it balanced he includes a couple of gratuitous swipes at a billionaire named Trump whose eleemosynary instincts are, to Kristof, underdeveloped. Kristof thrills to the fact that billionaires have made charitable giving cool. He is ecstatic that they are funding leftist causes?like the United Nations. The prospect of seeing all of those capitalists billions funneled into the hands of leftist do-gooders excites Nicholas Kristof. Just think of how much trouble they can cause for big business. Just think of how much social justice they can engineer. Kristof notes happily that Ted Turner?s billion dollar gift to the United Nations has restored the prestige of the United Nations. But, ask yourself this: what has the UN done lately? Kristof does not raise the issue because he is gaga over the UN, but this same organization, its prestige raised by Ted Turner?s gift, has recently recognized the legitimacy of Palestine. Lest we forget, the UN seems often to be in the business of bashing Israel. Were it not for the fact that New York City profits greatly from having the UN in town, few would notice if it disappeared tomorrow. If Kristof had practiced the intellectual virtue of consistency, he would have recalled one of his best columnar efforts,one in which he, in a rare moment of lucidity, explained that the people of Haiti need more factories and less charity. Obviously, all of those charitable donations are not being and have not been invested in Haitian industry. I don?t need to tell you how that?s working out for the people of Haiti. Today, Kristof devotes his column to the lame idea that Ted Turner has made charitable giving cool again. Forgetting the great philanthropists of the past, Kristof opines: Tycoons used to compete for their place on the Forbes and Fortune lists of wealthiest people. If they did give back, it was often late in life and involved museums or the arts. Tycoons used to compete for their place on the Forbes and Fortune lists of wealthiest people. If they did give back, it was often late in life and involved museums or the arts. They spent far more philanthropic dollars on oil paintings of women than on improving the lives of real women. Turner?s gift helped change that culture, reviving the tradition of great philanthropists like Rockefeller and Carnegie. Turner publicly began needling other billionaires ? including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett ? to be more generous. That was a breach of etiquette, but it worked. Only someone as dense as Kristof would write a sentence like: ?They spent far more philanthropic dollars on oil paintings of women than on improving the lives of real women.? Does Kristof really believe that billionaires collect ?oil paintings of women? instead of helping real women? Does he believe that philanthropists who support the arts are to be condemned for not giving their money to boondoggles like the United Nations? Does he not understand that buying art is an investment? Does he want to explain to all of the female artists whose careers are support by charitable donations that they are not real women? Does he really believe that the United Nations does yeoman work supporting real women around the world? Will he explain how much it is helping the women who are oppressed by Islamist cultures? Is it so distracted by its hatred for Israel that it does not have the time or energy to help those women? Does Kristof really believe that the best way to improve the lives of real women is to give them handouts? Obviously, Kristof did not think about what he was writing. In his columns, it?s a reversion to the mean. ? If you ask why these billionaires like to give money to leftist causes, the reason might lie in the fact that they can count on useful columnists like Kristof to shower them with good press. These people did not make fortunes by being stupid. They are happy to enhance their reputation and shield themselves from the peasants with pitchforks by buttering up the zealots of the mainstream media. My misgivings notwithstanding, Kristof is a star columnist in a newspaper that has seen better days. If you want to know why the New York Times is in something of a death spiral, you should compare and contrast Kristof?s praise of charitable billionaires with a recent article in a reputable newspaper-- the Financial Times. Admittedly, Kristof writes an opinion column. The FT article was reporting news. But, even opinion writers should know the facts and should know better than to allow their fantasies to replace reality. The FT reports the state of charitable giving. It may be cool to give money to charity, but the truth is, charitable giving has fallen off of the cliff. The woes of the global?charity industry?are deepening as donations ? both smaller individual gifts and philanthropy ? continue to contract as demand for the services of non-profit organisations keeps mounting. Charity officials and experts harbour little hope for a meaningful recovery in 2013. Individual donations ? the single biggest source of revenue for most charities ? have shrunk sharply in many western countries. Bigger gifts from philanthropists and endowments have also slumped after the financial crisis took its toll on their assets. Also, the FT reports that: ??philanthropic giving in the US has contracted for five straight years, from a total of $43bn in 2007 to $11bn this year ? the lowest since the list began in 2000.? It may be ?cool? to give money to charity, but, in reality, a drop from $43,000,000,000 to $11,000,000,000 is huge. If it happened to your portfolio you would fire your broker. As for the United Nations, one of its least controversial arms, UNICEF has been receiving less money: ?Unicef, the UN children?s agency, estimates that its income declined 7 per cent to $3.4bn in 2012.? The moral of the story: when you write for today?s New York Times you do not have to bother with the facts.

Source: http://stuartschneiderman.blogspot.com/2012/12/nicholas-kristof-and-ups-and-downs-of.html

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Russia pushes Syria to hold talks with opposition

NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP-Getty Images

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left, speaks with his visiting Egypt counterpart Mohamed Amr as they meet on the Syrian crisis in Moscow on Dec. 28.

By Reuters

Russia urged the Syrian government on Friday to act on its stated readiness for dialogue with its opponents, throwing its weight behind a diplomatic push to end a 21-month-old conflict in Syria.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had urged Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Makdad to emphasize his government's openness to dialogue with the opposition during talks in Moscow on Thursday.

"We actively encouraged ... the Syrian leadership to make as concrete as possible its declared readiness for dialogue with the opposition," Lavrov told reporters after talks with his Egyptian counterpart Mohamed Kamel Amr in Moscow.

He said the Syrian government should stress its readiness for talks on the widest possible range of matters, in line with an international agreement in Geneva last June calling for a transitional government.

"I think a realistic and detailed assessment of the situation inside Syria will prompt reasonable opposition members to seek ways to start a political dialogue," added Lavrov, who last week said that neither side would win by force.

Putin says fate of Assad unimportant to him

Russia expects to meet a senior U.S. diplomat on Syria next month to discuss with international Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi his plans to end the civil war there, the Kremlin's envoy to the region said earlier on Friday.

Brahimi will visit Moscow on Saturday for talks on the results of his negotiations with Syrian President Bashar Assad and his opponents during a five-day trip to Damascus in which he called for political change to end the bloodshed.

"We will listen to what Lakhdar Brahimi has to say about the situation in Syria, and after that, probably, there will be a decision to hold a new meeting of the 'three Bs'," Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told the RIA news agency -- in a word play on the first letter of the diplomats' last names.

Bogdanov, U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns and Brahimi, the joint special representative of the United Nations and the Arab League, agreed that a political solution to the crisis was necessary and possible in talks earlier this month.

Bogdanov, the Kremlin's special envoy for Middle East Affairs, said the three would meet again in January after the holidays.

Russia has also invited the head of the internationally-recognized, opposition Syrian National Council, Moaz al-Khatib, to talks, he said, in comments that appeared underline Moscow's commitment to helping Brahimi seek a way out of the crisis.

Brahimi, who has called for a transitional government to rule until elections, is trying to broker a peaceful transfer of power in Syria, where more than 44,000 people have been killed in a revolt against four decades of Assad family rule.

Past peace efforts have floundered as what began as peaceful protests in March 2011 turned into civil war. The conflict has become an increasingly sectarian struggle between mostly Sunni Muslim rebels and Assad's security forces, drawn primarily from his Shiite-rooted Alawite minority.

Assad forces accused of using 'poisonous gases'

World powers think Russia, which has given Assad military and diplomatic aid during the uprising, has the ear of Syria's government and must be a central player in any peace talks.

Moscow has tried to distance itself from Assad in recent months and has denied it is propping him up. But it maintains Assad's exit cannot be a precondition for talks and has repeatedly said Western powers should not impose solutions on Syria.

Lavrov warned on Thursday that time was running out to find a peaceful solution to the conflict and halt a descent into "bloody chaos".

More world stories from NBC News:

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Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/28/16209381-russia-pushes-syria-to-hold-talks-with-opposition?lite

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Friday, December 28, 2012

ROOFING CALCULATOR app for Android & iPhone - Home ...

27Dec

Download for iPhone / iPad: itunes.apple.com Download for Android: play.google.com Roofing Calculator ? www.roofingcalculator.org ? Roofing Calculator app is made for roofing contractors and sales people to help you quickly estimate roofing cost, roof size, and roofing materials amount and?

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Source: http://www.cohocton.org/176-roofing-calculator-app-for-android-iphone-estimate-any-roof-and-sell-more-jobs

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Thursday, December 27, 2012

Having Fun with SNOW ? Motherhood Support

We had a wonderful Christmas!! We had tons of fun getting in the holiday spirit and Cody?s school Christmas Party was on thursday. That was just about the CUTEST thing I have ever seen. They had an amazing chapel, the kids sang us Christmas songs, we had a FEAST with everyone?s favorite holiday dishes and then the kids had a book exchange. It ended with the kids giving us presents they have been making for us over the month. It was ADORABLE! I am more and more impressed with his school and I loved that the day was mostly about Jesus with a much less emphasis on Santa. Yes, I love the magic of Santa, but it is also good that the kiddos know what the REAL meaning of Christmas is all about :) As the weekend arrived, we finished up with making cookies for Santa, cooking lots of food for our family parties and going to church to celebrate the BIRTHday of Jesus! Church had a gazillion boxes of donuts to give out so we took 4 boxes and delivered them to a local hospital. It was nice talking to Cody about giving back at Christmas. I feel so blessed and I want my kids to be appreciative of what they have and know that there are others less fortunate and it is our job to give back as much as possible. I would love to start volunteering with Cody? any good ideas on where and what age is good for the kiddos to start?

boys on christmas

We have Christmas Eve at our house and family over Christmas morning for breakfast so it was busy and exhausting, but SO fun! The boys had so much fun running around with their cousins Monday night and it was just great seeing all the fam. They had a great time opening up their gifts from Santa and it was the first Christmas that Grayson was really into it! Cody helped him open his gifts which was so adorable and then Cody let him help with his! It was fun watching them both together! We hung out in our p.j.?s the rest of the day and played with their presents. We put the kids to bed at 6:30.. they were exhausted and so were WE!

Yesterday, we awoke to the ?blizzard?! It was actually freezing rain for several hours and then on and off snow all day. In honor of the snow (and waiting for daddy to get home from work to take them out to play in it :)!), we made snow paint! Equal parts white glue and white shaving cream. It dries fluffy! It was pretty cool actually because once it dries it looks like fluffy snow! Cody had fun using some foam shapes I had to stick on his masterpiece and Grayson didn?t last too long as he wanted to eat it :)

snow paint

I like keeping all of my plastic containers that can?t be recycled to use for crafts like this.
That way I don?t have to use any of my dishes :)

snow paint

After that, I got some snow from outside, threw down a towel and let them go to town. They had fun playing with it for a good half hour or so. O.k. yes, so I love playing in the snow, BUT just the thought of getting us ALL dressed to go out and play made me want to take a nap so I compromised :)

bring the snow indoors

Here you can totally see the personality of my boys. Cody needed gloves because his hands were cold? whereas, Grayson dug right in, shoving snow in his mouth with no complaints. Talk about complete opposites!

my boys in the snow

So daddy did take them out for a bit when he got home from work. Cody came inside pretty quickly from being cold, but we had to bring Grayson in kicking and screaming after being out there FOREVER! His little cheeks were beat red, but he was SO mad that he had to come in! Hilarious!

After dinner, we made snow ice cream!!!? I have had this on the list for the last few years and looked at several different recipes. You can?t go wrong with Paula Deen and let me tell you it was NO disappointment! It was AMAZING! Very sweet, but delicious! It did melt quickly so we all went from spoons to straws and drank it like a shake :) You MUST try this! Cody thought it was the coolest thing that we made ice cream out of snow!

snow ice cream

snow ice cream

Lastly, we had some leftover shaving cream so we made bath tub paint. Easy, quick and fun. Wipes right off the walls, but adds a little something special to bath time! I will say the red and blue do stain the skin so you may want to go with the lighter colors if the kids are going to paint themselves :) For a more natural coloring, you could use juices from fruits to dye the shaving cream. The boys had a BLAST with this! The water looked nasty after and we did have to drain it and give them a shower, but it was worth the smiles and laughs!

bath tub paint

If you are looking for other ideas to keep your kids happy while indoors, check out this list with some other great ideas! How was your Christmas?! Did you have fun playing in the snow? if you got any?!

Retailers pull stocks lower on poor holiday sales

Barclays Specialist Geoffrey Friedman looks at his computer screen at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Barclays Specialist Geoffrey Friedman looks at his computer screen at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Daniel Kryger, left, and Kevin Lodewick Jr., right, follow trading from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Floor traders check their handheld computers at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

(AP) ? Retailers pulled stocks lower Wednesday as U.S. markets reopened following the Christmas holiday.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 49 points to 13,090 as of noon. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell seven to 1,419 and the Nasdaq composite lost 19 to 2,993.

Trading was quiet. European markets were still closed.

Major U.S. retailers fell following a glum report on U.S. holiday sales. Macy's and Urban Outfitters lost 3 percent. Sears Holdings fell nearly 5 percent.

The MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse report found that sales of electronics, clothing, jewelry and home goods increased just 0.7 percent in the two months before Christmas compared with the same period last year.

That's well below the growth of 3 to 4 percent growth that analysts had expected and the worst performance since 2008, when spending shrank during the Great Recession. Last year sales climbed 4 to 5 percent during November and December, according to ShopperTrak.

The disappointing holiday sales figures outweighed the latest hopeful indicator on the U.S. housing market.

Home prices rose in most major U.S. cities in October compared with the same month a year ago, according to the latest Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller national home price index. Sales rose at the same time the supply of available homes declined. The index increased 4.3 percent, the largest year-over-year jump in two and a half years, when a homebuyer tax credit temporarily boosted sales.

Retailers and other consumer discretionary stocks led the market lower. Macy's gave up $1.05 to $36.48, Target fell 73 cents to $58.81, Urban Outfitters fell $1.21 to $38.09 and Sears Holdings fell $1.80 to $38.47. Coach, the luxury handbag maker, sank $3.20 to $54.32, a decline of 6 percent, the biggest in the S&P 500 index.

Traders were also watching to see if a budget agreement materializes in Washington. President Barack Obama cut short his Christmas vacation in Hawaii and was returning to Washington later Wednesday to resume budget talks with Congressional Republicans.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note edged down to 1.75 percent from 1.77 percent Monday. Trading was closed Tuesday for the Christmas holiday. Oil prices rose. Benchmark crude gained $2.37 to $90.98 a barrel.

Japanese stocks hit a nine-month high as a pro-business government prepared to assume leadership. The Nikkei 225 index surged 1.5 percent to 10,230.36.

Japan's new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has put pressure on the Bank of Japan to raise its inflation target. The goal is to extricate the country from two decades of deflation, or declining prices, which has deadened the world's third-largest economy.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-26-Wall%20Street/id-35054c2b23d8478b93a2a2f51e80406a

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Rewind 2012: In film, reality takes a vacation

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Quvenzhane Wallis' performance in Beast of the Southern Wild wasn't enough to pick up a Golden Globe.

Photograph by: Jess Pinkham

From Bond to Batman, Hushpuppy to Django, film turned to fantasy in 2012, and fantasy got a reality check. It?s in the blurring of the lines in between that movies find their magic.

I?m not (just) talking hocus-pocus, but the je ne sais quoi that makes a film resonate, excite and enthrall. Movies have long been celebrated for their ability to sweep us away. But if that?s all there was to it, we?d get bored quick.

Which is what made some of the year?s biggest blockbusters stand out. The Hunger Games introduced an alternate universe where kids battle to the death for reality TV-style entertainment, but gritty establishing scenes of life in the district where heroine Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) is from gave the film a crucial dose of serious.

The Dark Knight Rises closed Christopher Nolan?s Batman trilogy with a brooding, quasi-apocalyptic touch. Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) begins the film beaten down and depressed, hiding from the world as he struggles with his inner demons. Even when Batman emerges to fight for justice, Nolan doesn?t lift the oppressive weight resting on his protagonist?s shoulders. It makes for a better film; in fact, it makes the film.

Much like Sam Mendes?s revitalized James Bond epic, Skyfall. Taking considerable time to delve into 007?s backstory, Mendes imbues the mythical secret service agent with a crucial element of edge.

What fun is a hero who shows no sign of weakness? In Skyfall, Daniel Craig?s Bond is downright unfit for duty in the early stages, while the film?s climactic third act has him returning to face his painful past.

Stripped of modern gadgets and gimmicks, the grand finale is a statement about the timelessness of good old tried-and-true drama over explosions and special effects ? though we get our share of those, too.

On the flip side, several of the year?s most engaging movies borrowed freely from the land of make-believe. Benh Zeitlin?s spectacular Beasts of the Southern Wild was, on the one hand, a devastating reality-based tale about a young girl named Hushpuppy (Quvenzhan? Wallis) who lives with her drug-addicted father in the hurricane-prone backwaters of the Louisiana bayou. Told through her eyes, the film uses prehistoric animals called aurochs as a recurring motif, along with a heart-swelling soundtrack to give her journey a larger-than-life feel. The combination made for the most mesmerizing movie experience of the year.

While he didn?t indulge in fantasy, Quebec director Kim Nguyen allowed for some respite in Rebelle, his tough tale of child soldiers in sub-Saharan Africa. The violence of the film is unflinching, but Nguyen elevates his story via the romance between protagonist Komona (Rachel Mwanza) and fellow child soldier Magicien (Serge Kanyinda). He brings nuance to his story by contrasting the intolerable cruelty suffered by these children with glimpses of the carefree life they should be living.

The balance resonates. Rebelle has racked up accolades internationally, winning best actress (Mwanza) and a special mention from the ecumenical jury at the Berlin International Film Festival; taking best film and best actress at New York?s Tribeca Film Festival; and earning a spot on the nine-film short list for the Oscar for best foreign-language film (the five nominees will be announced Jan. 10).

Quentin Tarantino didn?t let the facts get in the way of a good time as he mined another shameful historical period (following his Nazi Germany remix, Inglourious Basterds) in Django Unchained. Taking inspiration from blaxploitation flicks and spaghetti westerns, his delightfully outlandish revenge fantasy finds a freed slave (Jamie Foxx) and a German bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) pulling off a guns-blazing rescue mission in the pre-Civil War deep south.

And yet, rooting the story beneath the tomfoolery are the very real indignities suffered by black people a mere century-and-a-half back. That tension ? and the fearless breaking of the social codes of the time ? is at the heart of the film?s twisted humour and giddy appeal.

There is very little reality beyond the awkward idealism of childhood in Wes Anderson?s awesome Moonrise Kingdom. And yet by sticking tightly to the deadpan determination of his young protagonists, he captures a different kind of truth.

When the dismissal of realism is so complete, a story can play by its own rules. The catch is that it has to hook us somewhere along the way; we have to believe it, even if only according to its own skewed internal logic.

Which is the premise of another of the year?s big movies, Ang Lee?s fantastical adaptation of Yann Martel?s Life of Pi. The nature of storytelling is at the heart of Martel?s tale, and Lee?s effects-laden film gives substance to its most outlandish elements. When all is said and done, the truth is still up for grabs.

?I can only tell my story,? says the grown-up Pi. ?After that, you will decide what you believe.?

Sarah Polley put her finger on it with Stories We Tell, her fascinating documentary revealing a long-hidden family secret. Interviewing family members and friends, one by one, the Canadian director shows the truth to be a slippery sucker.

Somewhere in the midst of her interviewees? diverging accounts of events, we get a piecemeal collage of what happened. It?s precisely in that grey area, where things are uncertain, that the story is most intriguing.

Leave it to a documentary to teach us a lesson about our individual need for fiction ? our tendency to make things up, to imagine or remember events as best suits our needs.

In the end, fact and fantasy are equally necessary. The best stories, and the best films, strike a balance.

tdunlevy@montrealgazette.comTwitter:@tchadunlevy

? Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

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Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Rewind+2012+Film+reality+takes+vacation/7748847/story.html

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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

California real estate trends - Real Estate Agent in La ... - La Jolla Light

California real estate trends

California real estate trends show consumers and builders leaning in a new direction when it comes to housing design.

By Vicki Johnson

In the wake of the housing market crash, the heyday of the inflated California suburban tract home may be a thing of the past. According to a recent report from the Mercury News, both national and California real estate trends are shifting in favor of more practical designs catering to baby boomers looking to downsize, first-time homeowners on a budget and growing or multigenerational families in need of flexible living spaces.

The report notes that home builders throughout the state are beginning to focus on homes that are more energy efficient, compact and closer to work and entertainment centers. In addition, some homes are being built with multiple generations in mind, and including separate quarters, cottages or detached units for aging parents or adult children who need a place to stay but also wish to maintain some degree of privacy and autonomy. In today?s economy, both of these options make sense ? for buyers on a budget, and also for those who simply prefer smaller, more customized living environments to large luxury homes. For example, some baby boomers are choosing to downsize in order to reduce the time and money spent on maintaining a big house, yard, pool and other amenities. Instead, they may choose to live closer to entertainment, shopping, restaurants and other amenities in their community, or to spend their discretionary funds on travel.

Changing times, changing home designs

Kevin Carson, president of the California-based New Home Company, tells the News that recent poll results show many homeowners eager to reduce energy bills through greater energy efficiency over the next few years. Those polled also showed an interest in ?more windows, downstairs bedrooms and proximity to jobs and shopping? ? priorities that Carson sees as signs of the times.

As Southern California home builders begin work on new developments to showcase these features, it is important for local homeowners to examine their own priorities and see what type of home makes sense for them. Here in San Diego County, we are surrounded by a diverse array of neighborhoods, communities and housing styles: and whether you are looking to move into a smaller home while maintaining a touch of luxury, or to find a larger property that will house a growing family, an experienced real estate agent can help you achieve your real estate goals. To learn more about real estate trends in San Diego, discuss your plans to buy or sell a home in the area or consult new listings, contact me, Vicki Johnson, at www.vrjrealestate.com.

Related posts:

  1. Housing market FAQ: how to decipher real estate market updates
  2. Seize the season: make the most of autumn opportunity in the San Diego real estate market
  3. Decoding the 3.8% investment income tax: a guide for La Jolla real estate owners
  4. Making housing affordable: how today?s market offers opportunity for potential buyers
  5. Rental market boost bodes well for housing market recovery

Short URL: http://www.lajollalight.com/?p=99261

Source: http://www.lajollalight.com/2012/12/25/california-real-estate-trends-downsizing-baby-boomers-and-multi-generation-families-seek-small-efficient-and-versatile-homes/

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Storm delays thousands of fliers; tips to get home

NEW YORK (AP) ? A massive winter storm is disrupting travel plans for fliers trying to get home after Christmas. Snow, thunderstorms, sleet, tornados and high winds have grounded planes in the nation's midsection and are expected to slow operations on the East Coast.

Delays racked up from Dallas to New York. By 9 a.m. Wednesday, more than 400 flights nationwide had been scrapped with more cancelations likely throughout the day.

Passengers are pretty much at the mercy of Mother Nature and the airlines. But there are a few things they can do to improve their odds of getting home quickly.

? If you miss your connection, the airlines will automatically rebook you on the next available flight. However, with flights at near capacity, the next open seat could be several days away. Two years ago, some Christmas fliers had to wait nearly a week to get home.

? If you're unhappy with your rebooked flight, get in line to speak to a customer service representative. But also, pick up the phone and call the airline directly, go onto the airline's website and even consider sending a Tweet.

? Consider buying a one-day pass to the airline lounge. It's a nice place to relax away from the crowd and there are usually free drinks and small snacks. But the real secret to the lounges is that the airline staffs them with some of its best ? and friendliest ? ticket agents. The lines inside will be much shorter and these agents are magically able to find empty seats where nobody else can. One-day passes typically cost $50.

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Scott Mayerowitz can be reached at http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/storm-delays-thousands-fliers-tips-home-150746546--finance.html

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Russian ruling party official shot dead in Caucasus

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Two gunmen shot dead a ruling party official on Tuesday in Russia's North Caucasus, where the Kremlin is fighting to subdue an Islamist insurgency, investigators said.

Unknown assailants burst into Boris Zherukov's office in Nalchik, capital of the province of Kabardino-Balkaria, and shot him twice in the head, Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement.

Zherukov was head of President Vladimir Putin's ruling United Russia party faction in the local parliament. He was also rector of the local State Agricultural University.

Insurgents fighting to carve an Islamic state out of a patchwork of mainly Muslim regions in Russia's mountainous south stage near-daily shootings and bomb attacks targeting officials and police.

The violence - fuelled by discontent over joblessness, corruption and police brutality - is mostly limited to the North Caucasus, where the Kremlin fought two wars against separatist rebels in Chechnya since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

But insurgents have also struck the Russian heartland, claiming responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 37 at Moscow's busiest airport in 2011 and twin bombings on the Moscow metro that killed 40 in 2010.

(Reporting by Nastassia Astrasheuskaya; Editing by Alissa de Carbonnel and Pravin Char)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russian-ruling-party-official-shot-dead-caucasus-131313157.html

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Tuesday, December 25, 2012

The Gregory doctrine (Powerlineblog)

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Gunman who ambushed firefighters killed grandma in '80

Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering says the gunman, who he identified as William Spengler, was a convicted felon who served 17 years in prison for killing his grandmother more than three decades ago.

By Jason White, NBC News

Monroe County Sheriff's Office

Undated booking photo of William Spengler, who shot and killed two firefighters Monday.

The gunman who ambushed four volunteer firefighters, killing two, in upstate New York had spent 17 years in prison for beating his grandmother to death with a hammer in 1980, police said.

William Spengler opened fire on the volunteers as they responded to a blaze just before 6 a.m. ET in a small cluster of homes along Lake Ontario in Webster, N.Y., police said, rocking this close-knit community.

The 62-year-old convicted felon had apparently set a trap, luring in first responders and then firing on them from atop an earthen berm.

"It does appear that it was a trap that was set,"?said Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering,?his voice breaking at times.??People who get up in the middle of the night to fight fires, they don?t expect to get shot and killed."


Pickering lost a colleague in the incident: Police Lieutenant?Michael Chiapperini, who was a volunteer firefighter. The other firefighter killed by Spengler was?Tomasz Kaczowka.

Despite being shot, one of the injured firefighters was able to flee from scene under his own power. But the others remained pinned down on the narrow strip of land between Lake Ontario and Irondequoit Bay until a SWAT team arrived.

Webster Police Lt. Michael Chiapperini.

As police closed in, Spengler took his own life with a gunshot wound to the head, Pickering said. He was convicted of manslaughter in 1981 after the death of his grandmother, Rose Spengler, and was paroled in 1998.

Spengler's 67-year-old sister Cheryl Spengler is unaccounted for, Pickering said. Spengler lived in the house with his sister and mother, Arline, who died in October.

Prior to Monday's shooting, Webster police had not had any run-ins with Spengler since he was paroled, they said.

Police would not say what kinds of guns Spengler used, but as a convicted felon, he could not legally own firearms.

Firefighter Tomasz Kaczowka in an undated photo.

The two injured firefighters, Theodore Scardino and?Joseph Hofstetter,?were being treated for "significant injuries," according to Dr. Nicole Stassen, a surgeon at the?University of Rochester Medical Center. She said both were awake and alert and not on ventilators.

An off-duty police officer was also injured when he was hit by shrapnel after his car took bullets to the windshield and engine block, according to the?Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. His condition is unclear at this time.

After the shooting, the fire grew to engulf at seven homes and one motor vehicle.?

?These firemen are part of our family. You go into a fire with these guys. To see them go down with something like this is totally unexpected. We are in shock,? Billy Gross, fire commissioner for West Webster, told the?Democrat and Chronicle.

Dozens of area residents were evacuated, with police searching them as they left, the newspaper reported.

"Miserable thing to happen this time of year," Mark Johns, a state assemblyman who represents the area, told?local NBC station WHEC. Johns said he knew some of the firefighters who were shot.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a statement after the shooting, offering his "deepest condolences."

?All of our thoughts and prayers go to the families and friends of those who were killed in this senseless act of violence," Cuomo said.??New York's first responders are true heroes as they time and again selflessly rush toward danger in order to keep our families and communities safe."

NBC's Tom Winter and Rosanna Arlia contributed to this report.

Volunteer firefighters responding to a massive house fire Monday morning were fired on by a gunman who had spent 17 years in jail for killing his grandmother with a hammer. NBC's Ron Mott reports.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/24/16125861-gunman-who-ambushed-firefighters-killed-grandmother-in-1980-police-say?lite

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Mark Cuban's Advice On Success - Business Insider

Mark Cuban has taken to Reddit to answer questions on everything from the NBA, to his famous?confrontation with ESPN talking head Skip Bayless, to his unconventional ideas on tax policy.?

He also gave advice on what made him famous before he became the high profile owner of the Dallas Mavericks and?his incredible success as an entrepreneur. ?

When asked what people should know before starting a business, he responded:?

"It's not about the idea, it's about how prepared you are. Everyone has ideas, most don't do the work required to get the job done. The 2nd thing you need to know is that sales are the most important aspect of a small business. No sales, no company."

Cuban's advice is all about being pragmatic. People toss around terms like "disruption" and "innovation," then go and make products that nobody wants to buy, or don't actually do the work required to make their idea work as a business.

When it comes to his personal success, he takes a similar tack. When asked about passion versus hard work and how he motivated himself he wrote:

"I daydreamed for motivation. I didn't lie to myself and talk about my passions and how if I was passionate enough about something i could be successful at it.

I was lucky. I grew up knowing that hard work and smart work?[has]?a greater impact on results than being passionate about something."?

So work hard, and be prepared.?

NOW READ: 16 People Who Worked Incredibly Hard To Succeed

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-cubans-advice-on-success-2012-12

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Monday, December 24, 2012

Understanding cell organization to tackle cancer

Dec. 23, 2012 ? Scientists at The University of Manchester have identified how cells know which way up they need to be. The discovery could help in the fight against cancer because in the early stages of the disease the cells become disorganised.

Professor Charles Streuli and Dr Nasreen Akhtar of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell-Matrix Research have conducted new research that leads to a better understanding of cell polarity. Properly organised tissues are vital to maintaining functional organs and a healthy body. Part of being organised includes cells being in the correct position within the tissue and the right way up, because the top and bottom of cells have different functions.

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a layer of protein rich material that surrounds tissues and helps to design and shape all of our organs. Previous studies have demonstrated that the ECM sticks to the cells and guides them into the right position. What hadn't been identified is how the ECM communicates that message.

To understand this better Professor Streuli and Dr Akhtar looked at epithelial cells, which make up the majority of tissues within the body. They studied epithelial cells of the breast, which make milk. These cells also form the linings of mammary ducts to carry milk towards the nipple. It's vital that these cells are organised correctly in order to make milk accessible for the baby. One of the first signs of cancer is that the epithelial cells become disorganised.

Breast epithelial cells connect to the ECM through receptors called integrins. In experiments using mice Professor Streuli and Dr Akhtar removed one of the genes responsible for integrins. They found that without that gene, the cells were both the wrong way round and in the wrong place so the breast tissue became disorganised. They then tried removing integrins in cultured cells from the breast, which produced the same effect of disorder.

Further study revealed that within the cell the integrin receptors connect to the protein ILK. This protein then links to microtubules, a network that forms the transport machinery of the cell. Integrins and microtubules ensure that inside the cell the correct proteins are transported to the top and the bottom of the cell.

The findings have been published in the journal Nature Cell Biology. Commenting on the research Professor Streuli says: "What we identified is a vital interplay between the transport machinery and the integrin receptors which makes sure that proteins are transported to the correct area of the cell. Without this interplay the proteins end up in the wrong place, and this can lead to cells becoming disorganised."

He continues: "What's really interesting is that when we compared breast tissue from our experiments with tissues of patients with early forms of breast cancer, they looked very similar. The cells were upside down and disorganised so they couldn't carry out their functions. We hope that our work to better understand cell polarity could ultimately lead to better diagnosis for cancer patients."

Whilst Professor Streuli and Dr Akhtar only looked at epithelial cells within the breast, they are confident their findings will translate to other organs. The accuracy of their experiments was greatly increased through the use of special 3D cultures to grow the cells, where they form tiny organs that look remarkably similar to real breast tissue.

Dr Akhtar explains: "Growing the breast cells so that they can form 3D structures rather than on hard petri dishes means they develop in a way that is much more akin to how they grow in the body. We were one of the first groups in the UK to be using this technology and we've been really pleased with the results."

Dr Akhtar has been working on this research for five years. She says: "I've been touched by cancer in my own family so I'm really passionate about understanding this devastating disease better. Over 90% of cancers come from epithelial cells, which is why we chose to study them. It's fundamental to understand how healthy cells work properly in order to fully appreciate why they go wrong when cancer develops, and how best to combat the disease."

The next stage of the research will be to investigate the link between altered levels of integrin and cancer, to determine whether this causes the disorganised nature of cells seen in the early stages of the disease.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Manchester.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Nasreen Akhtar, Charles H. Streuli. An integrin?ILK?microtubule network orients cell polarity and lumen formation in glandular epithelium. Nature Cell Biology, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/ncb2646

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/bGVz8MTIJx0/121223152622.htm

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Five Success Tips for Step-Families

Step-families are not a new phenomenon, but they are getting more common these days. And there is no doubt that step-families present some challenges. While there are no perfect formulas or guarantees for success, there are some things you can do to up your chances at success. Here are five success tips for step-families.

1. Be Patient

If your new spouse or partner doesn?t immediately love your kids like they love their own, don?t despair. It?s pretty hard to love someone instantly! Building loving relationships takes time. Your partner doesn?t have the history with your kids that you do. And if you?re on the other end of things ? trying to build a relationship with your step-children ? then you?ll also need some patience. They just may not respond right away ? love isn?t like a light-switch.

2. Be Realistic

All step-families can?t be the Brady Bunch. It pays to be realistic about the step-family relationships. Holding on to a fantasy about how it?s supposed to be can lock you into a critical mindset, or keep you from appreciating what you do have because you have unrealistic expectations. The reality is, experts remind us, that your step-children may not respond the way you hoped or imagined they will (or think they should).

3. Respect Biological Relationships

Whether you like the biological parent of your step-kids isn?t really the point. The fact is, the biological parent is loved by your step-kids, and unless he or she is abusive or dangerous, it?s good to respect and foster that relationship between your step-kids and their biological parents.

4. Discuss Parenting Styles

Before you get married or move in together as step-parents, make sure you agree on parenting style. This may involve compromise on your part or your partner?s, but it?s important to present a united front. Otherwise, your step-kids (and biological kids) may get confused, and learn to pit one of you against the other.

5. Try to Keep It Equal

This can be tricky, especially when the biological parent ?spoils? your step-kids and you don?t do the same for your kids. What can you do if your step-daughter comes home after visiting with her mom, and she?s carrying all kinds of new toys? What about your son getting that trip to an amusement park while he visits with his dad?

While you can?t control what happens during visitation, you can set rules in your own home. You might try setting a rule that toys and gifts stay at the home of the giver. And in your own home, you can make sure that all your kids ? biological and step ? are subject to the same rules and privileges.

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Source: http://www.mommyland.com/five-success-tips-for-step-families

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Home Improvement Contractor | Larson Family of Companies

December 24, 2012 by Doug

Since 1964,??Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer has been the foundation of the annual Christmas television specials on CBS.? In the show, Rudolph meets many interesting characters, however, no one, in my opinion, tops the enduring faith of a loud prospector by the name of Yukon Cornelius.??His faith-filled dreams of striking silver and gold should be the prototype to the life we all dream to achieve.??

Just like each of us, Cornelius faced countless roadblocks.? (Although most of us have not had to deal with the Abominable Snow Monster, The Island of Misfit Toys, or ?the storm of the century.?)? But Yukon, filled with never-ending self confidence and a rock solid belief that he would indeed, one day, ?be rich with the biggest silver strike this side of Hudson Bay,? never stopped focusing on his goal.? The distractions were numerous, time consuming, and frustrating, but nothing?prevented the bearded one from pressing on.

Rudolph and his friends should be inspirations to all of us, as each and everyone of us will face our own version of a foggy Christmas eve, or a temporary stop at the island of misfit toys.??But, if we keep the faith of Yukon Cornelius, we will persevere, and succeed!

As our 45th year of business in Hutchinson slowly comes to a close, we are humbled by the continual faith that families of central Minnesota place in us.? That trust is the cornerstone to our success and is something that no one at Richard Larson Builders takes for granted.?

Happy Holidays!

Source: http://www.larsonbuilders.com/everyone-needs-a-little-yukon-cornelius/

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Air strike kills dozens of Syrians waiting to buy bread

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Dozens of people were killed and many more wounded in a Syrian government air strike that hit a bakery where a crowd was queuing for bread on Sunday, activists said.

If confirmed, the attack on Halfaya in central Syria, which was seized by rebels last week, would be one of the deadliest air strikes of Syria's civil war.

Videos uploaded by activists showed dozens of bloodstained corpses lying amid rubble and shrapnel. An adolescent boy with both his feet blown off lay flailing in the middle of a road.

"When I got there, I could see piles of bodies all over the ground. There were women and children," said Samer al-Hamawi, an activist in the town. "There are also dozens of wounded people."

Residents of Halfaya told Reuters they estimated 90 dead. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group with a network of activists across Syria, counted 60 killed.

"The number is likely to rise because there are dozens of wounded being treated in the area and nearby hospitals, among them 50 in critical condition," it said.

Activists say more than 44,000 people have been killed in the 21 months since protests erupted against President Bashar al-Assad, inspired by the Arab Spring revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere.

Amid the latest carnage, United Nations-backed crisis mediator Lakhdar Brahimi arrived for more talks in Syria. He had to drive from neighboring Lebanon because fighting around Damascus International Airport has effectively shut it down.

"TIME IS GETTING SHORT"

The uprising has grown into civil war, with death tolls regularly topping 100 people a day as the army hits back at rebels who have made a string of advances across the country, including around the capital. According to the Observatory, more than 180 Syrians, civilians and fighters, died on Sunday.

A force of 200 rebel fighters seized the 135 Infantry Brigade base in the village of Hawa, a mostly Kurdish area in northern Aleppo province, rebels said on Sunday, as they showed journalists the base.

After overcoming about 150 soldiers in the raid on Saturday, they seized weapons including two field guns, three anti-aircraft guns and dozens of boxes of Kalashnikov assault rifles, they said.

In defiant remarks, Syrian Information Minister Umran Ahid al-Za'bi said rebels and their foreign allies should "forget" trying to topple Assad.

He appeared to move away from the conciliatory tone of the Syrian vice president, who said last week that neither side could win the war and called for a national unity government.

"These military efforts to try to topple the government, of getting rid of the president, of occupying the capital ... Forget about this," al-Za'bi told a news conference in Damascus.

"I have general advice to those political powers that reject dialogue: time is getting short. Hurry and move on to working on a political solution."

Brahimi, who replaced Kofi Annan after the former U.N. chief failed to get Assad and world powers to agree on a way to end the conflict, was expected to meet the president on Monday.

Western powers and some Arab countries have repeatedly demanded that Assad step down.

BREAD SHORTAGE

Witness Hamawi said more than 1,000 people had been queuing at the bakery in the town of Halfaya. Shortages of fuel and flour have made bread production erratic across the country, and people often wait hours to buy loaves.

"We hadn't received flour in around three days so everyone was going to the bakery today, and lots of them were women and children," Hamawi said. "I still don't know yet if my relatives are among the dead."

New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned army air strikes on bakeries earlier this year, arguing that in some incidents the Syrian military was not using enough precision to target rebel sites, and in other instances it may have intentionally hit civilians.

In video from the attack site, women and children cried and screamed as men rushed with motorbikes and vans to carry away victims.

There was no independent media access to the scene, as the government restricts press access in Syria.

In one video, the cameraman could be heard sobbing as he filmed. "God is great, God is great. It was a war plane, a war plane," he cried.

One man was seen stopping to pick up half a corpse lying in the street, wrapping it up in his own jacket and carrying it away. Residents were using their bare hands to dig for bodies underneath blocks of concrete.

"Where are the Arabs, where is the world?" shouted one man. "Look at all of these bodies!"

(Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Hawa.; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Stephen Powell and Jason Webb)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/air-strike-kills-dozens-syrians-trying-buy-bread-162222977.html

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SocialSafe, The Social Media Back-Up Tool, Raises $400K To Out-Archive Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

socialsafe_-_your_digital_journalSocialSafe, the social media back-up tool co-founded by Julian Ranger's iBundle and 1minus1, has announced that it's raised ?250,000 (~$400k) in what's being called a Series A round. That's because Ranger, who is a prominent angel investor in the UK, has already funded the startup to the tune of ?300k, bringing the total raised by SocialSafe to ?550k (~$885k).

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Kol5k5W0SZo/

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Saturday, December 22, 2012

Cardinal: Teacher who gave her life is 'like Jesus' - U.S. News

Craig Ruttle / AP

The casket of teacher Anne Marie Murphy, who was killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, is lifted from St. Mary Of The Assumption Church after a funeral service in Katonah, N.Y., on Thursday.

By Tracy Connor and Andrew Mach, NBC News

A Sandy Hook Elementary School teacher who died cradling a special-needs student in her arms was laid to rest Thursday, with one of the nation?s top religious leaders speaking about how the world was ?awed? by her sacrifice.

Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral for Anne Marie Murphy, 52, a married mom of four, in Katonah, N.Y., where she lived before moving to Newtown, Conn.

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who presided over the Mass at St. Mary of the Assumption Roman Catholic Church, compared Murphy?s sacrifice to that of Jesus Christ.

"Like him, she has brought together a community, a nation, a world, now awed by her own life and death,? Dolan said, according to the Associated Press.?


"Like Jesus, Annie laid down her life for her friends," Dolan said. "Like Jesus, Annie's life and death brings light, truth, goodness and love to a world often shrouded in darkness, evil, selfishness and death."

When Adam Lanza?s rampage at Sandy Hook was over, authorities found 6-year-old Dylan Hockley ?wrapped in the arms? of Murphy, his special-education teacher, the child?s parents said in a statement.

"We take great comfort in knowing that Dylan was not alone when he died,? they said. ?Dylan loved Mrs. Murphy so much and pointed at her picture on our refrigerator every day."

A statement from Murphy?s family, read by her brother-in law Thomas Newman across the street from the white-steepled church, expressed sympathy for the loved ones of all 20 children and six staffers killed in Friday?s massacre.

?[We] pray for all the families touched so terribly, that God may help these feelings of such great pain and grief pass quickly, that they may be replaced with only happy thoughts and joyous memories of those we have lost,? they said.

There was another wave of wakes and funerals in Newtown and surrounding towns with poignant scenes including Boy Scout leaders lining the path to Trinity Episcopal Church, where 6-year-old Benjamin Wheeler?s tiny casket was carried by his uncles.

Seth Wenig / AP

Herb Pontow, left, and Tony Tipton, both from Maryland, try to clean and organize an overflowing memorial for the shooting victims in the Sandy Hook village of Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 20.

The Rev. Kathleen Adams-Shepherd told the crowd the crime was ?inexplicable in human terms,? according to the Stamford Advocate.?Benjamin?s life was cut too short by a "sick young man with access to weapons that should never, ever be in a home," she said.

Trees outside the Sacred Heart Church in Southbury were festooned with green balloons, because that was 6-year-old Allison Wyatt?s favorite color.

"She was goofy," the Rev.?Walter L. Pitman said, according to the Stamford Advocate.? "She was funny. She had her two grandfathers wrapped around her finger and she knew it."

At St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Newtown, 6-year-old Catherine Hubbard was eulogized by her mother, Jennifer, who recalled how the little redhead asked Santa for animals every Christmas.

The priest, Msgr. Robert Weiss, said Catherine?s brother, Freddy, worried how he would know he was on the right school bus without his kid sister around.

?Just look up and she?ll give you a wink,? Weiss said, according to the Middletown Press.

?Oh she already did? She got there fast.?

Services were also held for Lauren Rousseau, 30, a full-time substitute teacher at Sandy Hook, and Jesse Lewis, 6, a first-grader who loved horses.

A public memorial for Emilie Parker, 6, who was born in Utah, was held Thursday evening in Ogden, Utah, NBC station KSL reported.?Nearly 1,000 people attended.

"It means a lot," Robbie Parker said, according to KSL. "We love you guys. Thank you for being here."

He said he remembered going for walks with Emilie. "We could never make it very far because she always had to stop and pick all of the flowers," he said.

A private funeral service for Lanza?s mother was held in New Hampshire, and about two dozen relatives attended, a police source told NBC News. Nancy Lanza was shot multiple times in the head before her son stormed the school.

It wasn?t clear if anyone was prepared to claim Adam Lanza?s body.

/

A nation mourns after the second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history at Sandy Hook Elementary, which left 20 children and six staff members dead.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/21/16040904-cardinal-teacher-who-gave-her-life-is-like-jesus

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Black piranha, megapiranha have most powerful bites of fish living or extinct, finds GW researcher

Black piranha, megapiranha have most powerful bites of fish living or extinct, finds GW researcher

Friday, December 21, 2012

The black piranha and the extinct giant piranha, or megapiranha, have the most powerful bites of carnivorous fishes, living or extinct, once body size is taken into account, finds researchers in a paper recently published in Scientific Reports. The research paper, Mega-Bites: Extreme jaw forces of living and extinct piranhas, highlights the piranhas' specialized jaw morphology, which allows them to attack and bite chunks out of much larger prey.

Guillermo Ort?, the George Washington University Louis Weintraub Professor of Biology in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, is one of the authors of the paper. His research focuses on the evolution of fishes in general, but specializes on Amazonian fishes, to unravel evolutionary relationships based on DNA sequence data. In 2010, Dr. Orti along with other researchers participated in an expedition to the Xingu and Iriri rivers in Amazonia to collect the data on the fish.

Piranhas' aggressive nature, relatively small size and accessible populations make them a suitable group of predatory vertebrates in which to study the evolution of extreme biting capabilities. Even at their small body sizes, diet studies indicate that piranhas will attack and bite chunks of bony fins and flesh from prey many times larger than themselves. In spite of their reputation, no quantitative data or empirical estimates regarding the piranhas biting abilities were available.

The paper reports the first bite-force measurements taken from wild specimens of the largest species of carnivorous piranha in the Amazon, the black piranha, and describes the underlying functional morphology of the jaws that allows this creature to bite with a force more than 30 times greater than its weight. The powerful bite is achieved primarily due to the large muscle mass of the black piranha's jaw and the efficient transmission of its large contractile forces through a highly modified jaw-closing lever.

The expedition was organized and filmed by National Geographic. A subsequent program called Megapiranha aired on the National Geographic Channel featured the expedition and focused on the creature that existed millions of years ago.

"It was very exciting to participate in this project, travel one more time to the Amazon to be able to directly measure bite forces in the wild," said Dr. Orti. "I learned a lot of biomechanics from my colleagues while collecting valuable specimens for my own research." The authors also reconstructed the bite force of the megapiranha, showing that for its relatively diminutive body size, the bite of this fossil piranha dwarfed that of other extinct mega-predators, including the whale-eating shark and the Devonian placoderm. Research at the Ort? lab at GW continues to focus on reconstructing the genealogical tree of fishes including piranhas based on genomic data.

Scientific Reports is a primary research publication from the publishers of Nature, covering all areas of the natural sciences.

###

George Washington University: http://www.gwu.edu

Thanks to George Washington University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126063/Black_piranha__megapiranha_have_most_powerful_bites_of_fish_living_or_extinct__finds_GW_researcher

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