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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.
"Seeing Double"

This is where we will try to keep our OOC discussions; here, not in IC, please. Oh, and if you find any mistakes that I made, feel free to correct me.

"Well you don't have to be kicked to be bruised, no/And you don't have to be hit to be abused/Evangeline you're a hard one/Your denial is bolstered by your dreams/Thinking love is gonna save you/But it ain't love if it's mean/Evangeline"

Making a new rp...will have the link here when it's finally done...more than willing to tell people about it...once I figure out what it's about. :P

Crystal Flamedance

Member for 2 years

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Florida highway pileup kills at least 10 people

Firemen hose down a commercial carrier truck on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., after it was involved in a multi-vehicle wreck which killed at least 9 people in the early hours of Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)

Firemen hose down a commercial carrier truck on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., after it was involved in a multi-vehicle wreck which killed at least 9 people in the early hours of Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)

Firemen spray foam on a truck that was part of a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)

Wrecked vehicles sit along the road at the scene of a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)

Firemen watch as cleanup crews work on vehicles that were involved in a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)

A small passenger vehicle sits lodged beneath a semitrailer after a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) ? A long line of cars and trucks collided one after another early Sunday on a dark Florida highway so shrouded in haze and smoke that drivers were instantly blinded. At least 10 people were killed.

When rescuers first arrived, they could only listen for screams and moans because the poor visibility made it difficult to find victims in wreckage that was strewn for nearly a mile, police said.

Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup south of Gainesville on Interstate 75, which had been closed for a time before the accidents because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire that may have been intentionally set. At least a dozen cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flames.

Steven R. Camps of Gainesville said he and some friends were driving home several hours before dawn when they were drawn into the pileup.

"You could hear cars hitting each other. People were crying. People were screaming. It was crazy," he said. "If I could give you an idea of what it looked like, I would say it looked like the end of the world."

Photographs of the scene taken hours later revealed an aftermath that resembled a Hollywood disaster movie. Twisted, burned-out vehicles were scattered across the pavement, with smoke still rising from the wreckage.

Cars appeared to have smashed into the big rigs and, in one case, a motor home. Some cars were crushed beneath the heavier trucks.

Reporters who were allowed to view the site saw bodies still inside a burned-out Grand Prix. One tractor-trailer was burned down to its skeleton, charred pages of books and magazines in its cargo area. And the tires of every vehicle had burned away, leaving only steel belts.

Before Camps hit the fog bank, a friend who was driving ahead of him in a separate vehicle called to warn of the road conditions. The friend said he had just seen an accident and warned Camps to be careful as he approached the Paynes Prairie area just south of Gainesville.

A short time later, Camps said, traffic stopped along the northbound lanes.

"You couldn't see anything. People were pulling off the road," he said.

Camps said he began talking about the road conditions to a man in the car stopped next to them when another vehicle hit the man's car.

The man's vehicle was crushed under a semi-truck stopped in front of them. Camps said his car was hit twice, but he and another friend were able to jump out. They took cover in the grass on the shoulder of the road.

All around them, cars and trucks were on fire, and they could hear explosions as the vehicles burned.

"It was happening on both sides of the road, so there was nowhere to go. It blew my mind," he said, explaining that the scene "looked like someone was picking up cars and throwing them."

Authorities had not released the names of victims Sunday evening, but said one passenger car had four fatalities and a "tour bus-like" vehicle also was involved in the pileup.

At least 18 people were taken to a hospital.

All six lanes of the interstate ? which runs virtually the entire length of Florida ? were closed most of Sunday afternoon as investigators surveyed the site and firefighters put out the last of the flames.

The northbound lanes of I-75 were reopened around 5:30 p.m. EST, but the southbound lanes remained closed.

"Our standard operating procedure is to get the road open as quickly as possible but let's not forget we have 10 people who are not with us today," said Lt. Patrick Riordan, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman. "So we are going to take our time assessing the situation."

It was not clear when the highway would fully reopen because part of the road melted, police said.

At some point before the pileup, police briefly closed the highway because of the fog and smoke. The road was reopened when visibility improved.

Riordan said he was not sure how much time passed between the reopening of the highway and the first crash.

Traffic was being diverted much of Sunday onto U.S. 301 and State Road 27, Riordan said.

A spokeswoman for the Florida Forest Service, Ludie Bond, said the fire began Saturday, and investigators were trying to determine whether the blaze had been intentionally set. She said there were no controlled burns in the area and no lightning.

Bond also said the fire had burned 62 acres and was contained but still burning Sunday. A similar fire nearby has been burning since mid-November because the dried vegetation is so thick and deep. No homes are threatened.

Four years ago, heavy fog and smoke were blamed for another serious crash.

In January 2008, four people were killed and 38 injured in a series of similar crashes on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Tampa, about 125 miles south of Sunday's crash. More than 70 vehicles were involved in those crashes, including one pileup that involved 40 vehicles.

___

Associated Press Writer Freida Frisaro in Miami contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-29-US-Deadly-Interstate-Crash/id-b5169d9310534455a2127879875d5037

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Super Bowl brings business to town | WLFI - Lafayette, Indiana

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - With Super Bowl 46 just a week away, some Lafayette businesses are preparing for extra crowds to come to town.

Buffalo Wild Wings Manager Michael Jones said he and his staff are expecting big crowds for Super Bowl 46. He said normally for Super Bowl weekends, Buffalo Wild Wings has a packed dining room and is constantly busy with take-out orders for parties. That's why he said his restaurant is extra prepared for this year's big game to take place a little closer to home.

"We get extra wings, boneless. You know, the sides: celery, bleu cheese, ranch. We get extra bottles of the sauce and the seasoning so that way people pre-ordered a day in advance and that way they can bring it home, reheat it themselves, and add their own sauce," said Jones.

Jones said he and his staff are not only preparing for the Super Bowl but also for two other events taking place weekend.

"Saturday is the Purdue/I-U game so we should have a big crowd for that. Then afterwards we have the UFC paperview," said Jones.

Amanda Gordon of the Lafayette and West Lafayette Convention and? Visitors Bureau in late December said since Lafayette was chosen as a Super Celebration Site by? the NFL, local hotels are also expecting to be busy next weekend.

"Up to three hours out from the actual location of the Super Bowl, people will see hotel rooms and guests will stay in those areas. Because of our accessibility off the interstate, we were obviously a natural site," said Gordon.

Gordon said having the Super Bowl so close to the Lafayette area will really help boost business for the local for hotels and restaurants. Kick off is at 7 p.m. next Sunday.

Source: http://www.wlfi.com/dpp/news/local/super-bowl-brings-business-to-town

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Myanmar shift to democracy not over, more reforms ahead:minister (Reuters)

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) ? Myanmar has already done a lot to reconnect with the international community and win investment, but the return to democracy is not complete and more political and economic reforms are needed, its trade minister said on Saturday.

Myanmar has opened up to the outside world with astonishing speed since a civilian government took office last March after five decades of army rule, releasing political prisoners and launching democratic reforms.

The prospect of the end of Western sanctions imposed for human rights abuses has prompted a surge of interest from investors who view the former Burma as one of Asia's last "frontier markets."

But asked whether he thought Myanmar has done enough to get U.S. sanctions lifted, U Soe Thane told Reuters Television:

"A lot of things we have done, but many more we have to do in the near future. The democratic process is not finished yet."

"We have a lot of things to reform and lots of things have to change: laws, regulations and institutions, not only in the political sector but also in the economic sectors. But sanctions are up to them."

U Soe Thane, who leads Myanmar's first official delegation at the World Economic Forum after five decades of isolation, said he was encouraged by dozens of meetings with leaders and executives at the annual gathering.

"I met a lot of people here, other ministers and CEOs, more than 20, and we discussed co-development," he said.

"Our location, our market and resource potential are very important for them so they are willing to invest in our country."

Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said in video address to the forum earlier this week that the minister's presence was a sign of positive changes in the country.

She said that the nation has not yet reached its "great transformation," but an election in April could bring that point closer and preparations for the polls kept her from attending the summit.

Years of economic mismanagement by the military coupled with U.S. and European sanctions have left the economy in tatters with infrastructure that is rudimentary at best and about a third of its 60 million people living on a dollar a day.

But its rich gas deposits and other natural resources, large and young workforce, and a potential as a tourism destination barely touched by development are making it an attractive target for companies seeking to grow while mature economies struggle.

Japan's trade minister led a group of executives at the start of the year and a similar delegation of U.S. businesses is expected to visit the country next month.

Myanmar's energy minister earlier this week told Reuters energy companies from Norway, Brazil, Russia and Japan were all interested in investments in the sector.

In Davos, Starwood Hotels & Resorts - which runs chains such as Westin, Sheraton and Le Meridien - and Marriott International both expressed interest in running hotels in Myanmar.

(Writing by Tomasz Janowski; Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/wl_nm/us_davos_myanmar

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Afghans blast French plan to withdraw troops early

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, center, France's Defence and Veterans Minister Gerard Longuet, left, and French General and Paris military governor Bruno Dary, right, pay tribute to the Unknown soldier's tomb, at the Arc of Triomphe, in Paris, Friday Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Lionel Bonaventure, Pool)

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, center, France's Defence and Veterans Minister Gerard Longuet, left, and French General and Paris military governor Bruno Dary, right, pay tribute to the Unknown soldier's tomb, at the Arc of Triomphe, in Paris, Friday Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Lionel Bonaventure, Pool)

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai arrives prior to laying a wreath on the Unknown soldier's tomb, at the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris, Friday Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Lionel Bonaventure, Pool)

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, second from right, France's Defence and Veterans Minister Gerard Longuet, third from right, and French General and Paris military governor Bruno Dary, fourth from right, pay tribute to the Unknown soldier's tomb, at the Arc of Triomphe, in Paris, Friday Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Lionel Bonaventure, Pool)

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, front right, and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, second from left, sign a friendship and cooperation treaty at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Philippe Wojazer, Pool)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? France's plans to withdraw its combat troops from Afghanistan a year early drew harsh words Saturday in the Afghan capital, with critics accusing French President Nicolas Sarkozy of putting his re-election campaign ahead of Afghans' safety.

A wider proposal by Sarkozy for NATO to hand over all security to Afghans by the end of next year also came under fire, with one Afghan lawmaker saying it would be "a big mistake" that would leave security forces unprepared to fight the Taliban insurgency and threaten a new descent into violence in the 10-year-old war.

Sarkozy's decision, which came a week after four French troops were shot dead by an Afghan army trainee suspected of being a Taliban infiltrator, raises new questions about the unity of the U.S.-led military coalition.

It also reopens the debate over whether setting a deadline for troop withdrawals will allow the Taliban to run out the clock and seize more territory once foreign forces are gone.

"Afghan forces are not self-sufficient yet. They still need more training, more equipment and they need to be stronger," said military analyst Abdul Hadi Khalid, Afghanistan's former minister of interior.

Khalid said the decision by Sarkozy was clearly political. The French president is facing a tough election this year, and the population's already deep discontent with the Afghan war only intensified when unarmed French troops were gunned down by a supposed ally Jan. 20 at a joint base in the eastern province of Kapisa.

Sarkozy announced France's new timetable on Friday alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was in Paris for a previously planned visit. He also said Karzai had agreed with him to ask for all international forces to hand security over to the Afghan army and police in 2013, a plan he would present it at a Feb. 2-3 meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. He said he would call President Barack Obama about his plan on Saturday.

Afghan lawmaker Tahira Mujadedi said Afghan security forces will not be ready in time for any early NATO withdrawal, saying the current timetable already is rushing the training of national forces.

"That would be a big mistake by the Afghan government if they accept it," she said of Sarkozy's plan. "In my view, they should extend 2014 by more years instead of cutting it short to 2013."

She said she sympathizes in the matter of the French soldiers' deaths, but argued that they present no logical reason for France to deviate from the U.S. timetable for NATO to hand over security by 2014.

"When military forces are present in a war zone, anything can happen," Mujadedi said. The French troops "are not here for a holiday," she added.

France now has about 3,600 soldiers in the international force, which is mostly made up of American troops.

Afghan forces started taking the lead for security in certain areas of the country last year and the plan has been to add more areas, as Afghan police and soldiers were deemed ready to take over from foreign forces.

According to drawdown plans already announced by the U.S. and more than a dozen other nations, the foreign military footprint in Afghanistan will shrink by an estimated 40,000 troops at the close of this year. Washington is pulling out the most ? 33,000 by the end of the year. That's one-third of 101,000 U.S. troops that were in Afghanistan in June, the peak of the U.S. military presence in the war, Pentagon figures show.

Sarkozy also said France would hand over authority in the province of Kapisa, where the French troops were killed this month, by the end of March. Karzai's office confirmed that decision Saturday, saying it was made at the French president's request.

The NATO coalition has started to hand over security in several areas of Afghanistan, aiming to transfer about half of the country in the coming months. But Kapisa was not one of the provinces earmarked for handover, according to U.S. Navy Lt. James McCue, a coalition spokesman.

Kapisa lawmaker Mujadedi argued that Afghan forces in her province particularly are not ready to go it alone in fighting the Taliban insurgency, which is especially strong in several of the province's districts. She warned that if NATO forces do pull back from Kapisa, it could also destabilize nearby Kabul.

"We have had so many attacks, ambushes and also suicide attacks in Kapisa," Mujadedi said. "Unfortunately, our national police and army, while present in Kapisa, are unable to provide good security for people."

France's early withdrawal announcement could step up pressure on other European governments like Britain, Italy and Germany, which also have important roles in Afghanistan ? even if the U.S. has the lion's share by far.

Karzai, who praised the role of France and other NATO allies, didn't object at Friday's joint news conference when Sarkozy said the 2013 NATO withdrawal timetable was sought by both France and Afghanistan.

However, the Afghan leader appeared to suggest that it was a high-end target.

"We hope to finish the transition ... by the end of 2013 at the earliest ? or by the latest as has been agreed upon ? by the end of 2014," Karzai said.

Nick Witney, a senior policy fellow at the Paris-based European Council on Foreign Relations, said public support of the war in Europe started sliding fast after the coalition agreed to end the combat mission in 2014.

"It has become more and more difficult to justify every single casualty, since it's now clear that these are wasted lives," said Witney, a former head of the European Defense Agency.

"Most European policymakers realize that on a purely cost-benefit assessment, we would all leave Afghanistan tomorrow," Witney said.

___

Associated Press writers Kay Johnson in Kabul and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-28-AS-Afghanistan/id-5a8d5770fe4e419fb5f8e9e53b958cca

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The amygdala and fear are not the same thing

ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2012) ? In a 2007 episode of the television show Boston Legal, a character claimed to have figured out that a cop was racist because his amygdala activated -- displaying fear, when they showed him pictures of black people. This link between the amygdala and fear -- especially a fear of others unlike us, has gone too far, not only in pop culture, but also in psychological science, say the authors of a new paper which will be published in the February issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Indeed, many experiments have found that the amygdala is active when people are afraid. But it also activates at other times, for example in response to pleasant photographs and happy faces.

The misconception came from how scientists first approached studying the brain. A lot of people came to the amygdala from the study of fear, says Wil Cunningham of Ohio State University, who co wrote the new paper with Tobias Brosch of New York University. "It's a great emotion to study because it's very important, evolutionarily, and we know a lot about fear in animals," Cunningham says. Almost every study of fear finds that the amygdala is active. But that doesn't mean every spark of activity in the amygdala means the person is afraid.

Instead, the amygdala seems to be doing something more subtle: processing events that are related to what a person cares about at the moment. So if you're in a scary situation or have an anxious personality, the amygdala might be activated by a frightening image. But hungry people have increased amygdala activity in response to pictures of food and people who are very empathetic have an amygdala response to seeing other people.

"When we're studying emotion, people want to find specific brain parts that are associated with different emotions," Cunningham says. Especially in the early days of neuroscience, scientists hoped that soon it would be possible to use MRI and other brain-imaging techniques "to get under the hood and find out what people are really thinking." A lot of the time, people really don't know, or won't say, what they're thinking, and it would be nice to be able to look at a picture of their brain and know the answer. But the brain is too complicated for that. Cunningham also thinks many scientists have gotten too attached to a rigid definition of emotions -- anger, fear, sadness, happiness, and so on.

However you may feel, it seems that many different parts of the brain are involved. "Emotion is going to be distributed across the brain," Cunningham says.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/hVv745SKUYQ/120127162755.htm

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In Northeast Greenhouse Gas Group, Many Unsold Allowances

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The Greenhouse Gas Initiative involving Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states has cut the number of allowances power companies can use to offset emissions.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=28048d0ff43c2ad66b7435333f22fc0a

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Working Too Much Can Give You the Blues (HealthDay)

THURSDAY, Jan. 26 (HealthDay News) -- People who work overtime are at much greater risk for depression, according to a new study.

Researchers followed roughly 2,000 middle-aged British government workers and after taking other risk factors for depression into account, found that workers on the job for 11 hours or more each day are twice as likely to suffer from depression as those who work just seven to eight hours daily.

The study was published online Jan. 25 in the journal PLoS ONE.

"Although occasionally working overtime may have benefits for the individual and society, it is important to recognize that working excessive hours is also associated with an increased risk of major depression," said study Dr. Marianna Virtanen of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and University College London in a journal news release.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health provides more information on depression.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120127/hl_hsn/workingtoomuchcangiveyoutheblues

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Oil price climbs above $100 a barrel (AP)

NEW YORK ? The price of oil is higher after new reports on jobs and manufacturing show a steadily improving U.S. economy that will need more oil and gas.

Benchmark oil on Thursday rose $1.10 to $100.50 per barrel in New York. Brent crude rose $1.13 to $110.94 in London.

The Commerce Department said orders for long-lasting, durable goods rose in December, and a private survey showed a range of economic indicators got stronger at the end of 2011.

The jobs market appears to be improving, even after a modest increase in unemployment claims last week.

Also on Thursday the Energy Department said that natural gas supplies dropped more than expected last week, though they're still well above the five-year average.

Meanwhile, retail gasoline stayed at a national average of $3.38 per gallon.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices

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'Tacos' comment in profiling case draws outrage

By James Eng, msnbc.com

One blunder on top of another?

The mayor of East Haven, Conn., came under a torrent of criticism Wednesday for telling a TV reporter ?I might have tacos? when asked about how he would support the Latino community in the aftermath of the arrest of four town police officers accused of racially profiling and bullying Latino residents.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy called Mayor Joseph Maturo's comments "repugnant" and "unacceptable." An attorney for some Latinos suing the town police department called the comments ?appalling.? Some residents said the mayor should step down.

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?Maturo sought to backtrack Wednesday, issuing a statement of public apology.

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East Haven Mayor Joe Maturo

?My sincerest apologies go out to the East Haven community and, in particular, the Latino community for the insensitive and off-color comment that I made to WPIX reporter Mario Diaz yesterday regarding the recent events affecting our community and our police department,? the statement said.? ?Unfortunately, I let the stress of the situation get the best of me and inflamed what is already a serious and unfortunate situation. I regret my insensitive comment and realize that it is my job to lead by example. ?

Maturo did not return a telephone call from msnbc.com for additional comment.

The public fiasco began Tuesday with the announcement by federal officials that the FBI had arrested four East Haven police officers on charges that they conspired to deprive some residents, particularly Latinos, of their constitutional rights. The charges include multiple counts of excessive force, false arrest, obstruction and conspiracy.

?

Latinos make up about?10 percent?of East Haven's population of the town's population of about 28,000. Yet out of a police force of 50, only one speaks Spanish, according to local media reports.

WPIX reporter Mario Diaz?later interviewed the mayor about the arrests.

At one point in the exchange, Diaz asked Maturo: ?What are you doing for the Latino community today??

The mayor replied on camera: ?I might have tacos when I go home. I?m not quite sure yet.?

Later, Diaz said, the mayor came over to him and apologized, saying his comments were out of context.?Maturo explained that he had a long day of interviews, and that he meant no harm by what he called a "flippant" remark.

On Wednesday, Maturo sought to?limit damage from the incident. In addition to publicly apologizing, his statement said his administration has already taken steps to ?begin that healing process.?

He said he recently commissioned a new advisory panel to recommend policy and procedure changes to the Board of Police Commissioners. And he said he appointed Jose Velasquez, a community volunteer and native of Puerto Rico, to the new panel.

?I apologize, again, for my insensitive comments yesterday and recognize that they are a hindrance to the progress that must be made in our community,??Maturo said. ?I am dedicated to the principles of tolerance and acceptance of all and will do all that I can to foster those principles in the daily execution of my duties as mayor.?

Malloy called Maturo?s ?tacos? remarks ?repugnant.?

"They represent either a horrible lack of judgment or worse, an underlying insensitivity to our Latino community that is unacceptable. Being tired is no excuse,? the governor said in a statement.

David Rosen, an attorney representing several Latino residents and business owners suing the East Haven police department for alleged civil rights violations, said Maturo?s comments were ?appalling.?

?It just makes your heart sink to hear it and to see it. I can only hope that it will be a wakeup call to the townspeople of East Haven who are finding themselves represented this way by their elected officials and elements of their police department,? Rosen told msnbc.com in a?telephone interview.

As to whether the mayor should resign, Rosen said:? ?I think it?s up to the people of East Haven what the mayor?s future should be.?
?
Resign is exactly what some East Haven residents want the mayor to do.

A Facebook was started Wednesday titled ?East Haven Taxpayers Calling For Mayor Maturo to Resign.?

Matt DeRienzo,?group editor of Journal Register Company?s publications in Connecticut, including the New Haven Register, Middletown Press, Register Citizen and Connecticut Magazine, wrote in a column Wednesday that Maturo?s ?blatantly racist, ignorant and arrogant slur? was ?an embarrassment to the community.

?Let?s not mince words,? DeRienzo wrote.

?The thin translation of Maturo?s taco comment is, ?I am a full human being and you are less than one.??

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

?

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/25/10235074-conn-mayors-tacos-comment-in-latino-profiling-case-draws-outrage

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Driving America: Henry Ford Museum Redefines Automotive History

Dearborn Patch:

One year and $8 million worth of renovations will finally be revealed to the public Sunday, Jan. 29, at the Henry Ford Museum with the opening of Driving America.

Making up the majority of the museum's main floor, the collection of cars, artifacts, interactive displays and personal accounts is the historic location's most comprehensive redesign in more than 25 years.

Read the whole story: Dearborn Patch

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/driving-america-henry-for_n_1227427.html

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Dramatic Turnaround (talking-points-memo)

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US into semifinals with 13-0 rout of Guatemala

Associated Press Sports

updated 9:42 p.m. ET Jan. 22, 2012

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - Abby Wambach scored twice in the first half to move into third on the career goals list for women's international soccer, and the United States beat Guatemala 13-0 on Sunday to clinch a berth in the semifinals of the CONCACAF qualifying tournament for the London Olympics.

A left-foot tap in the 12th minute and a header in the 14th gave Wambach 129 goals for the U.S. team, moving her past Germany's Birgit Prinz (128). She trails Mia Hamm (158) and Kristine Lilly (130).

The 31-year-old striker's exploits added some meaning to another suspense-free rout for the Americans, who have outscored their opponents 27-0 so far in Olympic qualifying.

Sydney Leroux, earning just her second cap, tied a U.S. record with five goals as Wambach's substitute in the second half.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46095190/ns/sports/

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Mobile Miscellany: week of January 16, 2012

This week may not have been incredibly packed with news in the mobile world, but it was still easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of January 16, 2012:

Continue reading Mobile Miscellany: week of January 16, 2012

Mobile Miscellany: week of January 16, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/22/mobile-miscellany/

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Egypt army pardons 1,959 detainees, prominent activist (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) ? Egypt's military ruler has pardoned 1,959 people convicted by military courts in the year since President Hosni Mubarak's ouster, including activist Michael Nabil whose hunger strike had brought him close to death.

The state Al Nil television channel said the convicts had been pardoned by Hussein Tantawi, head of the military council that has ruled Egypt since Mubarak's removal in February 2011 in the midst of the Arab Spring protests that swept the region.

The pardon comes just four days before the first anniversary of the 18-day Egyptian uprising which began on January 25, though it was not clear if any of the detainees had yet been released.

Nabil, jailed by a military court for defaming the army, had his prison term reduced to two years from three in December following criticism from international human rights groups.

The 25-year-old was arrested in March and began a hunger strike to protest against his conviction for posting remarks saying the army had tried to quell the uprising against Mubarak.

The generals now ruling Egypt say the army took no part in a police crackdown on protesters and have pledged to hand over to civilian rule by June.

Activists say Nabil's case highlights the Egyptian army's heavy-handed approach to dissenters who criticize its top generals for using tactics reminiscent of Mubarak's regime.

"We can only say the revolution has succeeded when they release all activists, besides Michael, who are still being held in military courts and retry all civilians who have been prosecuted by courts they shouldn't have been prosecuted by," Nabil's brother Mark told Reuters.

No To Military Trials, a pressure group set up after the uprising, says at least 12,000 cases have come before the military courts since February. The group says sentences are often handed out swiftly behind closed doors and without proper legal representation.

It is not clear exactly how many activists and protesters convicted by military courts in the past year remain in jail.

The pardon comes as youth groups plan to hold major demonstrations to mark the anniversary of a revolt they say will not be complete until the generals hand power to civilians.

"The family has only received word of the decree but Michael is still in custody and they are waiting to hear of his movements," Mark Nabil said.

"The revolution must continue as long as any civilian is still being held unjustly in a military prison."

(Reporting by Lin Noueihed and Dina Zayed; editing by Myra MacDonald)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/usmilitary/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120121/wl_nm/us_egypt_military_pardon

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Seal & Heidi Klum Going Separate Ways (omg!)

Another Hollywood power couple bites the dust. ET has confirmed that Seal and Heidi Klum are ending their six-year marriage.

The couple released a joint statement reading, "While we have enjoyed seven very loving, loyal and happy years of marriage, after much soul-searching we have decided to separate. We have had the deepest respect for one another throughout our relationship and continue to love each other very much, but we have grown apart. This is an amicable process and protecting the well-being of our children remains our top priority, especially during this time of transition. We thank our family, friends, and fans for their kind words of support. And for our children?s sake, we appreciate you respecting our privacy."

Heidi, 38, and Seal, 48, were last seen together on December 26, when the Project Runway star tweeted a picture of herself with her Grammy winning husband vacationing in Aspen.

Heidi, an avid tweeter, hasn't posted any personal messages to her account since the Golden Globe Awards, which she attended without her husband.

On January 20, Seal took to his Twitter account, writing, "The End" along with a picture of a tattoo.

The couple, who wed in Mexico on May 10, 2005, has four children together including Heidi's seven-year-old daughter from a previous relationship whom Seal adopted.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_seal_heidi_klum_going_separate_ways050000949/44269142/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/seal-heidi-klum-going-separate-ways-050000949.html

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Carbon dioxide is 'driving fish crazy'

ScienceDaily (Jan. 20, 2012) ? Rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous system of sea fishes with serious consequences for their survival, an international scientific team has found.

Carbon dioxide concentrations predicted to occur in the ocean by the end of this century will interfere with fishes' ability to hear, smell, turn and evade predators, says Professor Philip Munday of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

"For several years our team have been testing the performance of baby coral fishes in sea water containing higher levels of dissolved CO₂ -- and it is now pretty clear that they sustain significant disruption to their central nervous system, which is likely to impair their chances of survival," Prof. Munday says.

In their latest paper, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, Prof. Munday and colleagues report world-first evidence that high CO₂ levels in sea water disrupts a key brain receptor in fish, causing marked changes in their behaviour and sensory ability.

"We've found that elevated CO₂ in the oceans can directly interfere with fish neurotransmitter functions, which poses a direct and previously unknown threat to sea life," Prof. Munday says.

Prof. Munday and his colleagues began by studying how baby clown and damsel fishes performed alongside their predators in CO₂-enriched water. They found that, while the predators were somewhat affected, the baby fish suffered much higher rates of attrition.

"Our early work showed that the sense of smell of baby fish was harmed by higher CO₂ in the water -- meaning they found it harder to locate a reef to settle on or detect the warning smell of a predator fish. But we suspected there was much more to it than the loss of ability to smell."

The team then examined whether fishes' sense of hearing -- used to locate and home in on reefs at night, and avoid them during the day -- was affected. "The answer is, yes it was. They were confused and no longer avoided reef sounds during the day. Being attracted to reefs during daylight would make them easy meat for predators."

Other work showed the fish also tended to lose their natural instinct to turn left or right -- an important factor in schooling behaviour which also makes them more vulnerable, as lone fish are easily eaten by predators.

"All this led us to suspect it wasn't simply damage to their individual senses that was going on -- but rather, that higher levels of carbon dioxide were affecting their whole central nervous system."

The team's latest research shows that high CO₂ directly stimulates a receptor in the fish brain called GABA-A, leading to a reversal in its normal function and over-excitement of certain nerve signals.

While most animals with brains have GABA-A receptors, the team considers the effects of elevated CO₂ are likely to be most felt by those living in water, as they have lower blood CO₂ levels normally. The main impact is likely to be felt by some crustaceans and by most fishes, especially those which use a lot of oxygen.

Prof. Munday said that around ₂.3 billion tonnes of human CO₂ emissions dissolve into the world's oceans every year, causing changes in the chemical environment of the water in which fish and other species live.

"We've now established it isn't simply the acidification of the oceans that is causing disruption -- as is the case with shellfish and plankton with chalky skeletons -- but the actual dissolved CO₂ itself is damaging the fishes' nervous systems."

The work shows that fish with high oxygen consumption are likely to be most affected, suggesting the effects of high CO₂ may impair some species worse than others -- possibly including important species targeted by the world's fishing industries.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies.

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. G?ran E. Nilsson, Danielle L. Dixson, Paolo Domenici, Mark I. McCormick, Christina S?rensen, Sue-Ann Watson, Philip L. Munday. Near-future carbon dioxide levels alter fish?behaviour by interfering?with neurotransmitter function. Nature Climate Change, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1352

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/~3/vJrmiN-YJNc/120120184233.htm

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New Genetic Clues to Breast Cancer? (HealthDay)

SUNDAY, Jan. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have identified three new genomic regions they believe are linked with breast cancer that may help explain why some women develop the disease.

All three newly identified areas "contain interesting genes that open up new avenues for biological and clinical research," said researcher Douglas Easton, a professor of genetic epidemiology at the University of Cambridge in England.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, with about 1 million new cases annually worldwide and more than 400,000 deaths a year.

Scientists conducting genome-wide association studies -- research that looks at the association between genetic factors and disease to pinpoint possible causes -- had already identified 22 breast cancer susceptibility loci. Locus is the physical location of a gene or DNA sequence on a chromosome.

"The three [newly identified] loci take the number of common susceptibility loci from 22 to 25," said Easton.

However, the three new susceptibility loci might explain only about 0.7 percent of the familial risks of breast cancer, bringing the total contribution to about 9 percent, the researchers said.

Michael Melner, scientific program director for the American Cancer Society, said this current research adds some important new clues to existing evidence, but he agreed that the number of cases likely associated with these three variants is probably low.

"So the total impact in terms of patients would be fairly small," Melner said.

The study is published online Jan. 22 in Nature Genetics.

To find the new clues, Easton's team worked with genetic information on about 57,000 breast cancer patients and 58,000 healthy women obtained from two genome-wide association studies.

The investigators zeroed in on 72 different single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A SNP -- pronounced "snip" -- is a change in which a single base in the DNA differs from the usual base. The human genome has millions of SNPs, some linked with disease, while others are normal variations.

The researchers focused on three SNPs -- on chromosomes 12p11, 12q24 and 21q21.

Easton's team found that the variant on the 12p11 chromosome is linked with both estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer (which needs estrogen to grow) and estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer. The other two variants are only linked with ER-positive cancers, they said.

One of the newly identified variants is in an area with a gene that has a role in the development of mammary glands and bones. Easton said it was already known that mammary gland development in puberty is an important period in terms of determining later cancer risk. "But these are the first susceptibility genes to be shown to be involved in this process," he said.

One of the other SNPs is in an area that can affect estrogen receptor signaling, the researchers found.

Melner, noting some of the research is "fine tuning" of other work, said in his view the new understanding of the signaling pathways and their genetic links is the most important finding.

"When you delineate a pathway, you bring up new potential targets for therapy," he said. "The more targets you have, you open up the potential for having multiple drugs and attacking a cancer more easily, without it becoming more resistant."

Overall, Melner added, the results underscore the complexity of the different mechanisms involved in breast cancer development.

More information

For more about the genetics of breast cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120122/hl_hsn/newgeneticcluestobreastcancer

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Solar Swan Song: NASA Satellite Witnesses a Comet's Plunge into the Sun

News | Space

A sun-watching spacecraft has for the first time tracked a comet's path all the way into the solar atmosphere

By John Matson ?| January 19, 2012

COMETARY CATACLYSM: Imagery from the Solar Dynamics Observatory documents the demise of a comet plunging toward the sun. The comet streaked in from the right of the image. Image: ? Science/AAAS

As dramatic exits go, it's on par with Major T. J. "King" Kong riding a falling nuclear bomb like a rodeo bull at the end of Dr. Strangelove. A NASA spacecraft has documented a comet's demise as it plunged toward the sun at 600 kilometers per second, broke apart and vaporized inside the solar atmosphere.

The comet, known as C/2011 N3 (SOHO), met its fiery fate on July 6. The object's official name designates that it was discovered in early July 2011 by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. Many comets meet a similar end, but astronomers and solar physicists have never been able to track a comet's trajectory all the way into the depths of the solar corona, the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere.

With the help of another spacecraft?NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which was launched in 2010?a group of scientists were able to witness the final minutes of the comet's existence. The observations of C/2011 N3 as it broke apart allowed the researchers to estimate the comet's mass and the size of its nucleus; similar events in the future may provide clues about the origins of comets as well as probe conditions near the sun that are otherwise difficult to explore. The team of researchers published their findings in the January 20 issue of Science.

SOHO has discovered more than 2,000 comets near the sun, most of them thanks to the help of unpaid amateur astronomers who comb through imagery from the spacecraft. Most of the sun-grazing comets, like C/2011 N3, belong to the Kreutz family, which is thought to have originated from a single progenitor that broke apart within the past few thousand years. The smallest of these comets are destroyed by the sun before they draw too close, so C/2011 N3 was rather sizable for a Kreutz-family comet, with a nucleus 10 to 50 meters across.

"It must have been on the large side," says lead study author Carolus Schrijver, a solar physicist at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif. The comet's size contributed not only to its survival deep into the solar atmosphere but also to its receiving close scrutiny during the sunward plunge. "This was noted as a particularly bright one," Schrijver says. "That morning as it was approaching the sun I said, 'Well, let's see if we can see it.'"

An atmospheric imaging camera on SDO was indeed able to track the inbound comet, watching it bear down on the sun in an ultraviolet streak that lasted about 20 minutes before it disappeared. By that time the comet was only about 100,000 kilometers above the solar surface and had broken into a number of fragments, further hastening its vaporization.

"The temperatures [at that point] are so high that things are evaporating," says astronomer Matthew Knight of Lowell Observatory and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, who did not contribute to the new study. "Not just gases and ices, but heavy elements."

The comet's total obliteration in the solar atmosphere let Schrijver and his colleagues estimate how much material was lost in the process. "Because it vanished, we could actually measure its mass," Schrijver says. The researchers estimate that the comet may have shed as much as 60 million kilograms of material in its plunge?about the mass of the Titanic. But the comet's composition is less clear. "We're still trying to understand what was glowing," he says. The imager used to track C/2011 N3 is most sensitive to iron, but Schrijver notes that the glow could also have been produced by carbon or oxygen.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=fcb17ee905ce5cab249f2b259206e097

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Jon Voight: Hollywood should fear Jolie-Pitt kids

Are Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt really raising the next generation of Academy Award winners? According to Jolie's father Jon Voight, that might not be too far-fetched.

PHOTOS: How the Jolie-Pitt kids have grown

Voight, 73, tells E! News he has "a feeling" that the six Jolie-Pitt kids follow in their parents' footsteps and become actors when they grow up. "I have no doubt."

PHOTOS: Brad Pitt's sexiest hairstyles

According to Voight, the globe-trotting siblings -- Maddox, 10, Pax, 8, Zahara, 7, Shiloh, 5, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 3 -- are a force to be reckoned with.

"Hollywood should be afraid of them!" he explains. "These guys are really something."

VIDEO: Angelina Jolie meets with refugees in Malta

Should any of the Jolie-Pitt children choose to purse a different profession, Voight will stand behind them. "I try to give them support as Brad and Angie do," he says. "They really let these kids be who they are."

Copyright 2012 Us Weekly

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46055294/ns/today-entertainment/

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China's economy expands at the slowest rate in 21/2 years

Reporting from Beijing?

In the final quarter of 2011, China?s economy grew at its slowest pace in 2? years because of shrinking exports, tighter bank lending and a cooling real estate market.

Compared with the same period a year earlier, the country?s gross domestic product grew by 8.9% in the fourth quarter of 2011, down from 9.1% in the previous quarter, China?s National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.

For the year, the world?s second-largest economy expanded by 9.2%, off from 10.4% in 2010.

Though blazingly high by international standards, China?s economic growth is likely slipping uncomfortably fast for the country?s leadership.

Quarter-on-quarter growth slowed to 8.2% between the third and fourth quarters compared with 9.5% between the second and third quarters.

Many analysts expect conditions to worsen as Europe, China?s biggest export market, shows no signs of stabilizing. Consensus is growing that China?s growth could falter further, to around 7.5%, in the first quarter of this year.

That would mark a significant decline because China?s communist government has traditionally eyed 8% as the rate necessary to maintain social stability.

Fears of widespread unrest abounded after China?s economic growth slumped to 6.8% during the depths of the 2008 financial crisis and an estimated 20 million migrant workers were out of jobs.

Beijing responded to that crisis by introducing an unprecedentedly large stimulus package that ultimately fueled the property bubble and high rates of inflation that bind policymakers today.

Inflation grew at a 15-month low in December, but still remains above the government?s target.

With little room for more aggressive stimulus, the central government will likely target policy with greater efficiency to blunt the effects of any serious global economic slump, experts say.

That may include lowering taxes, boosting loans to the private sector and investing more in social services such as healthcare -- in short, anything to wean China off investment as a major engine of growth and to rebalance toward consumption.

"At this juncture, the challenge for policymakers is to implement measures that boost domestic demand without setting back progress made in curbing inflation," said Jing Ulrich, chairman of Global Markets for JP Morgan.

Such reform will require an acceptance of slower growth in a country that still considers itself in the early stages of development. At $7.4 trillion, China?s economy is still half the size of the United States'.

RELATED:

China housing bubble losing air

Inflation in China eases in December

Apple halts iPhone 4S release in China stores after near-riot

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/asia/~3/IcEW4lGQ4NI/la-fi-china-economy-20120118,0,2749077.story

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