A Race to the Death! For glory, and for honour!

Alright guys! Here I am again, trying to garner interest for a racing related RP. No it won't be centrally about that, but more about the intense rivalry which occurs in such a setting. The need for speed to win it all, against stiff competition from the fiercest and fittest rivals you've ever known. Much like the concept of the battle to the death in an arena, where it's not only something more than life, but it's also a spectacle to watch and behold! Below will be my explanation of this interesting idea, and I hope that you guys enjoy reading it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZFHcebMVSE A music that hopefully gets your adrenaline kicking while you read on!

There exists a form of professional racing series (Not Formula 1, but somewhat like it) that has existed for a long time. It was founded in the 80s when the worldwide crowd demanded a need for speed on such a grand and spectacular scale. Having such a sport was very dangerous then. During the 80s and 90s a couple of racers died, which has caused safety and technology to be a main focus of the sport.

We now jump straight to the year 2020-2030 (somewhere around that era). These cars are so technologically sophisticated and safe that racing in one has become much more simpler and less risky than before. The focus has returned back to pure hard racing with minimal fear factor, as the driver no longer has to worry too much about managing the car as much as they had to in the 2000's era. That's a bit about the sport. Now the story...

We focus on a racer who started as a rookie in the smaller teams, scrapping his way and racing hard to get the attention of top teams. ?Eventually he got his big break when he was accepted into one of them, and from there on he won a couple of championship titles season after season. Of course with that comes controversy. And for him, it was about how he would stretch the limit of the rules to his as well as the team's advantage and favour. It makes him very unsportsman-like to his other fellow racers and at times teammate as well. But it allowed for him to win those titles in the first place.

Of course that did not last long, when others started bucking up and making his quest to win more titles harder than before. Despite his best efforts for years he was no longer able to win titles. So to save face he decided to retire while still in his prime, but after 3-4 years he decided to come back to the sport, trying to race again for one last time to see if he still has what it takes in the path of greatness. He would have started his career back in 2010, and ended it in 2019. So after years he would return to a sport which has changed dramatically (the safer and more simpler one).

In the past he thrived because when the cars were more of a hassle to manage, he knew how to set his car up for every race, a major factor in his big advantage back then. But now that the level playing field has been more equally closer than before, he would come back to find that most of the advantage he previously had in his prime was gone. He now has to rely more on his racing instincts and less on his stroke of genius.

He now has to race as hard as anyone else, utilising pure skill and talent to challenge others. And by age he is probably near the end of his 30s' or at his early 40s', as these athletes in general tend to be around their 20s' or even below that. It's a young man's sport, where age does matter. But this character was arguably the fittest back then in his prime. Because of this he strongly believes that he can still win a title despite his aging self.

So that's what this character is about. What I like is for the story of this RP to revolve around his intense rivalry with not only a younger and more favoured teammate this time around, but other younger racers who are all also vying for the title from different teams. He's an old dog amongst all of them, vying to reclaim his previous form.

So I hope that this has caught your interest. I know it's not easy to find people who are willing to role play about motor racing, especially one like this. But this doesn't have to be concrete, and I'm open for suggestions from you guys as long as it has motor racing (or something else closely similar to that) as a setting.

Hope to hear from you guys soon! :)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/aFeas-CvH9s/viewtopic.php

paranormal activity 3 trailer oomph oomph cmj olin kreutz olin kreutz au pair

Bay Metropolis Automotive in Milpitas, California ...

Bay Metropolis Automotive in Milpitas, CA will be the site I constantly take my Nissan whenever it wants some maintenance fix. My motor vehicle at this time has 126,000 miles so it truly is absolutely at a stage where exactly it wants lots of fixing. Being a girl I?m constantly weary of just driving approximately any mechanic and obtaining total faith within their recommendations and charges. I?ve felt that during the past mechanics attempted to overcharge me basically considering they presume I really don?t know quite a bit about autos. All of my concerns in relation to mechanics went away the moment I commenced heading to Bay Metropolis Automotive.

The mechanics at Bay Metropolis Automotive are Jim and his assistant site Don. Each are incredibly nice, very well mannered men. Considering that I found Bay Metropolis Automotive two years back I?ve had a number of issues conducted to my motor vehicle. My starter wasn?t operating accurately and Jim fixed that. Not long ago I had a total tune up conducted and my motor vehicle is running great. Jim also observed that one particular of my rotors was off and he advised me this was almost definitely the rationale my motor vehicle was vibrating so violently when I needed to blog brake abruptly. He fixed the rotor and my motor vehicle no more vibrates when I brake. I also like that Jim has not ever billed me just for taking a peek at my motor vehicle. Plenty of mechanics will cost anywhere from 80-100 pounds only to examine the motor vehicle.

The costs at Bay Metropolis Automotive are incredibly fair. Jim and Don?s charges on labor and pieces are incredibly good. I reside in Hayward, CA and Milpitas, CA isn?t really also significantly but while in the mornings I constantly hit a little bit of visitors. For repairs that take for a longer time Jim usually prefers me to deliver in my motor vehicle early in the morning involving 8-9 so he can examine the motor vehicle and have time to repair it in case it wants something. I at the time attempted heading to a couple mechanics close by that my acquaintances had suggested not considering I was not thrilled with all the services at Bay Metropolis Automotive but considering I believed perhaps I could look for anything equivalent closer blog to house. I used to be mistaken. Each site I known as or showed approximately needed to cost me an typical of 100-150 greater than the prices at Bay Metropolis Automotive. I remarkably recommend highly any individual near Milpitas go to Jim at Bay Metropolis Automotive.

This entry was posted in articles by asociacionvalencia. Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://www.asociacionvalencianadeterapiasecuestres.com/articles/bay-metropolis-automotive-in-milpitas-california.php

all saints day bernard madoff ct news hemlock hemlock mark rothko mark rothko

Free Android Wallpaper of the day - Green River at Crystal Geyser

Today's free Android Wallpaper of the Day comes to us from member RETG, who uploaded this pic of the Green River at Cystal Geyeser in Utah. Nice.

Also, the wallpaper gallery just eclipsed 1,000 uploads, all thanks to you folks out there. Keep it up, and be sure to share your favorite wallpapers! Just hit the link below.

 

• Download this wallpaper
• See all new Android wallpapers
• Share your own Android wallpapers

 

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/G4rZvfPU3hM/story01.htm

the weeknd the weeknd payroll tax payroll tax aisha khan alanis morissette r kelly

Expert who foresaw '08 crash warns of tough decade

DAVOS, Switzerland?? Economist Nouriel Roubini, nicknamed "Dr. Doom" for his gloomy predictions in the run-up to the financial meltdown four years ago, says the fallout from that crisis could last the rest of this decade.

Roubini, widely acknowledged to have predicted the crash of 2008, sees tough times ahead for the global economy and is warning that without major policy changes things can still get much worse.

He also warned that a conflict with Iran over its controversial nuclear program could lead to a global recession.

Until Europe radically reforms itself and the U.S. gets serious about its own debt mountain, Roubini said, the world economy will continue to stumble along to the detriment of large chunks of the world's population who will continue to see their living standards under pressure, even if they have a job.

Meanwhile, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde ? speaking Saturday at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland ? said Europe was making progress to overcome the euro zone crisis, but need to do more to boost its financial firewall to contain the contagion of the debt crisis and restore trust.

"There is work under way. There is progress as we see it," Lagarde told a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum.

"But it is critical that the euro zone members actually develop a clear, simple, firewall that can operate both to limit the contagion and to provide this sort of act of trust in the euro zone so that the financing needs of that zone can actually be met," she said.

She added that there would be need for IMF funds to help the euro zone.

US economy ended 2011 at a healthy pace

Roubini, a professor of economics and international business at New York University, spoke in an interview this week with The Associated Press at a dinner on the sidelines of the meeting, where he is one of the hotly pursued stars.

Looking at economic prospects this year, he agreed with the International Monetary Fund's latest forecast that the global economy is weakening and said he might be "even slightly more bearish" on its prediction of 3.3 percent growth in 2012.

Video: Haass from Davos: We're looking at little growth in half the world (on this page)

He painted a grim picture of the eurozone in recession and key emerging markets in China, India, Brazil and South Africa slowing down, partly related to weakness in the eurozone.

Roubini predicted that the U.S. economy, the world's largest, will grow by just 1.7-1.8 percent this year, with unemployment remaining high. The government, he added, was "kicking the can down the road" and not taking measures to increase productivity and competitiveness.

"We live in a world where there is still a huge amount of economic and financial fragility," he said. "There is a huge amount of uncertainty ? macro, financial, fiscal, sovereign, banking, regulatory, taxation ? and there is also geopolitical and political and policy uncertainty."

Too little, too late? Factory jobs making a comeback

"There are lots of sources of uncertainty from the eurozone, from the Middle East, from the fact that the U.S. is not tackling its own fiscal problem, from the fact that Chinese growth is unbalanced and unsustainable, relying too much on exports and fixed investments and high savings, and not enough on consumption. So it's a very delicate global economy," Roubini said.

He said the biggest uncertainty is the possibility of a conflict with Iran over its nuclear program that involves Israel, the United States, or both. That could lead oil prices now hovering around $100 a barrel to spike to $150 per barrel, he said, and lead to a global recession.

Almost half of young Spaniards unemployed

Unemployment and economic insecurity have become big issues from the Mideast to the Occupy Wall Street movement in the U.S., and protests from Israel and India to Chile and Russia ? and at the same time there is rising inequality between rich and poor.

"All these things lead to political and social instability," he said. "So we have to reduce inequality. We have to give growth to jobs, skills, education, and increase human capital so workers can compete."

Video: Protesters build igloos at 'Occupy Davos'? (on this page)

Roubini called for a major change in policy priorities.

"We have to shift our investment from things that are less productive like the financial sector and housing and real estate to things that are more productive like our people, our human capital, our structure, our technology, our innovation," he said.

Roubini said slow growth in advanced economies will likely lead to "a U-shaped recovery rather than a typical V," and it may last for another three to five years because of high debt.

"Once you have too much debt in the public and private sector, the painful process could last up to a decade, where economic growth remains weak and anemic and sub-par until we have cleaned up the balance sheet and invested in the things that make us more productive for the future," he said.

Iran warns Europe
On Friday, Iran warned that it may halt oil exports to Europe next week in a move calculated to hurt ailing European economies.

The Tehran government ? grappling with its own economic crisis under Western trade and banking embargoes ? will host a rare visit on Sunday by U.N. nuclear inspectors for talks that the ruling clergy may hope can relieve diplomatic pressure as they struggle to bolster public support.

Since the U.N. watchdog lent independent weight in November to the suspicions of Western powers that Iran is using a nuclear energy program to give itself the ability to build atomic bombs, U.S. and EU sanctions and Iranian threats of reprisal against Gulf shipping lanes have disrupted world oil markets and pushed up prices.

Amid forecasts Iran might be able to build a bomb next year, and with President Barack Obama facing re-election campaign questions on how he can make good on promises ? to Americans and to Israel ? not to tolerate a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic, a decade of dispute risks accelerating towards the brink of war.

The U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday it would send its undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, David Cohen, to Britain, Germany and Switzerland next week to talk about how to enforce sanctions against Iran's central bank.

Those sanctions aim to starve Iran of funds for developing nuclear weapons.

Western diplomats see little immediate prospect that renewed talks between Iran and the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency, scheduled from Sunday to Tuesday in Tehran, would result much in the way of concessions to Western demands.

EU states have given themselves until July to enforce an oil import embargo on Iran.

The EU accounted for 25 percent of Iranian crude oil sales in the third quarter of 2011. But China, India and others have made clear that they are keen to soak up any spare Iranian oil, even as U.S. Treasury measures to choke Tehran's dollar trade make it harder to pay for supplies.

Moayed Hosseini-Sadr, a member of the energy committee in the legislature, said there would be no delay of the kind the EU allowed to its members.

"If the deputies arrive at the conclusion that the Iranian oil exports to Europe must be halted, parliament will not delay a moment," Hosseini-Sadr said. "The Europeans will surely be taken by surprise and will understand the power of Iran."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46172944/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/

kirkwood kathy griffin weather channel road conditions newt gingrich wives weather gina carano

UN nuclear team heads to Iran

VIENNA?? Senior United Nations nuclear inspectors headed to Tehran on Saturday to press Iranian officials to address suspicions that the Islamic state is seeking atomic weapons.

The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency hopes Iran, which has indicated readiness to discuss the issue for the first time since 2008, will end years of stonewalling on intelligence pointing to an intention to develop nuclear arms technology.

"We are trying ... to resolve all the outstanding issues with Iran, in particular we hope that Iran will engage with us on our concerns regarding the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program," IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts told reporters as he prepared to depart from Vienna airport.

But Western diplomats, who have often accused Iran of using such offers of dialogue as a stalling tactic while it presses ahead with its nuclear program, say they doubt Tehran will show the kind of concrete cooperation the IAEA wants.

They say Iran may offer limited concessions and transparency in an attempt to ease intensifying international pressure on the country, a major oil producer, but that this is unlikely to amount to the full cooperation that is required.

The outcome could determine whether Iran will face further international isolation, or whether there are prospects for resuming wider talks between Tehran and the major powers on the nuclear dispute that has sparked fears of war.

The United States and its allies suspect the program has military aims but Tehran says is for peaceful electricity generation.

"The chances of the IAEA's success may depend on how badly Iran wants to avoid harder sanctions," said nuclear expert Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Story: Israel senses bluffing in Iran's retaliation threats

Remarks by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's top adviser on international affairs on Saturday suggested Iran was not in the mood for concessions.

"Iran's stance towards its nuclear issue has not changed in term of fundamentals and principles," Ali Akbar Velayati said, according to the ISNA news agency.

1. Only on msnbc.com

   1. Meet 'Rosie' and 'Ken': 2 chimps, many experiments
   2. Gingrich funder brings additional baggage
   3. The twisty road to US-Pakistan re-engagement
   4. Sources: No rescue planned for kidnapped American
   5. Domestic abuse charges dog new SF sheriff
   6. School bans Locks of Love teen for too-long hair
   7. Spinner of romantic lies, 'Rockefeller' set for murder trial

"One important principle is that Iran would not relinquish or withdraw from its peaceful nuclear activities."

The six-member IAEA team of senior officials and experts, headed by Nackaerts, was due to arrive in Tehran early on Sunday.

The three-day visit comes at a time of soaring tension between Iran and the West. The IAEA issued a report in November with details of suspected research and development activities in Iran relevant to nuclear weapons.

The West has seized on the report to ratchet up sanctions aimed at Iran's lifeblood oil exports. Iran hit back on Friday warning it may halt oil exports to Europe next week.

'Appearing to cooperate'
The IAEA team is expected to seek explanations to the issues raised in the report, including information that Iran appears to have worked on a nuclear weapon design, and demand access to sites, officials and documents relevant to the agency's probe.

The IAEA says Iran, which has rejected the allegations as forged and baseless, has not engaged with the agency in a substantive way on these issues since August 2008 and that it keeps receiving intelligence data adding to its concerns.

"There were a huge number of questions raised by the November report. They will be seeking to answer those questions, and it's incumbent on Iran to be supportive," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said this week.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano has called on Iran to show a "constructive spirit" in the meeting and Iran has said it is willing to discuss "any issues" of interest to the U.N. agency, including the military-linked concerns.

Video: Exclusive: tensions flare near crucial oil chokepoint

Iran's Press TV state television said on its website the IAEA visit was aimed at bolstering cooperation between the two sides "by resolving ambiguities," language Tehran has also used in the past.

The English-language station cited Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, as saying the main objective was to "thwart plots by enemies who are leveling unfounded allegations" against Iran and to prove its nuclear transparency.

Hibbs said Amano would want to see a "significant step" from Iran, for example by agreeing to more intrusive IAEA inspections or by explaining issues related to the weapons suspicions.

"I'm not very optimistic," Hibbs said. "Iran's track record is of appearing to cooperate whenever they are threatened by penalties."

Meanwhile, European oil companies that are owed oil by Iran could lose out if Iran imposes a ban on crude exports to the EU next week, a measure currently before the Iranian parliament, the head of Iran's state oil company said Saturday.

"Generally, the parties to incur damage from the EU's recent decision will be European companies with pending contracts with Iran," Ahmad Qalebani, head of the National Iranian Oil Co., told the ISNA news agency.

"The European companies will have to abide by the provisions of the buyback contracts," he said. "If they act otherwise, they will be the parties to incur the relevant losses and will subject the repatriation of their capital to problems."

The EU banned imports of oil from Iran Monday and imposed a number of other economic sanctions, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at deflecting Tehran's nuclear development program.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46174915/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

etta james super bowl the vow evans vs davis pro bowl fast times at ridgemont high fast times at ridgemont high

Selig expects expanded playoffs to start this year (AP)

NEW YORK ? Commissioner Bud Selig expects baseball to expand its playoffs this season.

Players and owners have already agreed to add an additional wild-card team in each league, but are still deciding whether it would take effect this year or in 2013. Selig said there are scheduling issues to be worked out ? once they are, the new 10-team format would begin with a one-game playoff.

"I really believe we'll have the wild card for 2012, this year," Selig said Friday night in Chicago at a White Sox fan festival. "Clubs really want it. I don't think I've ever seen an issue that the clubs want more than to have the extra wild card this year."

"We're working on dates right now. That'll all take place. It looks to me like we'll have it because I've told everybody we have to have it. It'll be exciting. One-game playoff, it will start the playoffs in a very exciting manner," he said.

A little more than two months before opening day, Major League Baseball hoped to put an end to uncertainty.

Add a bat or an arm to compete for that extra wild card? No telling whether that makes any sense.

"That's the last thing on my mind," Cleveland Indians manager Manny Acta said this week. "I'm trying to win my division and I can't be concerned about that stuff. But the more the merrier.

"It gives us and everybody else a better chance to make the playoffs. But it's not on my mind because you don't build a system or build a team counting on the commissioner is going to change the playoff format," he said.

MLB and the players' association have reached a consensus that ties for division titles will be broken on the field under the new playoff format, a person familiar with the talks told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because a deal hadn't been finalized.

Since 1995, head-to-head record has been used to determine first place if both teams are going to the postseason. But with the start of a one-game, winner-take-all wild-card round, the sides agreed that the difference between first place and a wild-card berth is too important to decide with a formula and a tiebreaker game would be played.

Negotiators plan to talk again next week and decide by March 1 on whether the extra round will begin this year.

"I think most clubs at this point no matter who you are are focused on trying to win a division," Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski said. "If that doesn't work, then you make your adjustments."

Under the new format, whenever it begins, the non-division winners in each league with the two-best records will be the wild-cards, meaning a third-place team could for the first time win the World Series.

Being able to finish third and still go to the postseason could create more of an opportunity in the AL East for teams other than the rich New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, or in the AL West, where the two-time champion Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels have spent big bucks to improve.

In the AL Central, Kansas City general manager Dayton Moore watched Dombrowski add Prince Fielder to his already formidable batting order this week.

"We're focused on putting the best team on the field we can to compete to win the Central. That's the first goal," Moore said. "If that appears to be unattainable, we'll evaluate what we need to do to improve the team to continue to strive for that goal. If it becomes apparent that's not going to happen, you begin to focus on the wild card. You want to get in the playoffs any way you can and take your chances there."

___

AP Sports Writers Rick Gano and Tom Withers contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bbo_expanded_playoffs

nancy shevell weezer weezer slavoj zizek paul mccartney adam savage adam savage

Grandmas Are Awesome! (talking-points-memo)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/192071687?client_source=feed&format=rss

live oak mark kelly mark kelly jeff goldblum uc berkeley ohio state basketball annie

Video: Navy SEALs rescue US hostage in Somalia

U.S. military forces launched a dramatic raid in Somalia that freed an American and a Dane held hostage. NBC?s Jim Miklaszewski reports.

>> rescue was carried out a short time before president obama delivered the state of the union address .

>> the president appeared to have referenced the raid before the speech when he said "good job" to leon panetta .

>> this morning he released a statement thanking special operations forces for their, quote, extraordinary courage and capability. we want to go to jim miklaszewski at the pentagon for more on this. good morning.

>> reporter: good morning, ann. score another one for u.s. special operations forces who rescued these two hostages. remarkably, this mission was, indeed, still unfolding even during the president's state of the union speech . and it was, in fact, the president who dropped a hint that something was going down. president obama himself tipped off the world to the rescue when he openly thanked leon panetta before his speech.

>> good job tonight.

>> reporter: the president got word that jessica buchanan and paul fisted were rescued in the raid in somalia. two teams of u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s in helicopters landed near the compound where the two hostages were held. as the s.e.a.l.s approached they came under intense fires. nine kidnappers were killed. no americans were wounded. the s.e.a.l.s grabbed the hostages, loaded them into choppers and flew them to an undisclosed location outside somalia. buchanan and fisted were working for the danish council providing relief for so mali refugees when they were kidnapped in october. in a white house photo released minutes ago president obama is seen on the telephone immediately after that state of the union speech last night telling jessica buchanan 's father that his daughter had been rescued. neither one of the hostages was hurt during the raid. they are getting medical examinations in that region before heading home bringing the three-month-old

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/46128878/

flight 93 flight 93 al qaeda infiniti empire state building amazing grace wtc

Another Outdoor App, Another Review

Source: http://www.getoutdoors.com/goblog/index.php?/archives/4355-Another-Outdoor-App,-Another-Review.html

tim thomas oral roberts les paul saul alinsky detroit tigers fred thompson fred thompson

Manila seizes shipment feared bound for drugs gang (AP)

MANILA, Philippines ? Philippine customs authorities waited a month to see who would claim the suspicious shipment of "kitchen equipment" from Taiwan. The unclaimed items seized Tuesday appeared to have been meant for cooking something illegal.

A Chinese drug syndicate is suspected to have arranged the shipment to use the drumloads of chemicals, heating equiment and other items to produce large quantities of methamphetamine in the Philippines, officials said.

After a tip-off from an informant, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission secretly monitored the arrival of the shipment as part of a new crackdown to prevent foreign-based drug syndicates from setting up clandestine drug laboratories and secret warehouses in the country, specially in the capital, said Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., who heads the commission.

The five containers were declared by the shipper as carrying kitchen equipment. It had refrigerators, laboratory glass containers and pipes, plus 80 drums of sulfuric acid and more than 400 bags of caustic soda to make meth, Deputy Customs Commissioner Danilo Lim said.

Anti-narcotics agents were trying to find the sender and would-be recipient of the shipment, Lim said. The seized equipment strongly resembled items found in a drug-manufacturing hideout raided recently in an upscale Manila enclave, he added.

Methamphetamine is known locally as "shabu."

The Philippines continues to face an alarming drug problem despite efforts to disrupt major trafficking syndicates and dismantle clandestine labs. Corruption among law enforcers and officials and vast stretches of unpatrolled coastline make the country an attractive narcotics source and transshipment point.

Illegal drug production in the Philippines carries a maximum prison term of 40 years.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_re_as/as_philippines_drugs_crackdown

scare tactics dancing with the stars season 13 cast tay sachs tay sachs watch the walking dead giuliana and bill giuliana and bill

Sen. Rand Paul has run-in with TSA

The Kentucky senator was detained by TSA officials at the Nashville airport after setting off the alarm on a full body metal detector, then refusing to be patted down. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports.

By NBC News and msnbc.com news services

Updated at 4:25 p.m. ET: Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., clashed with the Transportation Security Administration at a Nashville airport on Monday morning and says that was was "detained" by the government agency.

NBC News reported that he set off a full-body scanning machine while going through airport security. Paul reportedly raised his right pant leg, which may have set off the scanner. Paul, according to aides, said it was ?clearly a glitch? and asked to proceed through the machine a second time. The TSA demanded a full-body pat-down, which Paul refused.

"I was told I couldn't leave, that kind of sounds like you are being detained," Paul told NBC News. "I was put into a small cubicle and told not to leave."

NBC News' Tom Costello reports that, according to sources at the TSA, Paul was not detained, but was escorted by police out of the checkpoint.

In a statement to NBC News, TSA spokesman Greg Soule said, ?When an irregularity is found during the TSA screening process, it must be resolved prior to allowing a passenger to proceed to the secure area of the airport. Passengers who refuse to complete the screening process cannot be granted access to the secure area in order to ensure the safety of others traveling.?

Paul was eventually permitted through airport security, according to Soule. ?The passenger has since rebooked on another flight and was rescreened without incident,? he said in a statement at about noon on Monday.

Paul, who has previously called for the TSA to be abolished, told NBC News that passengers should not be subjected to pat-downs.

"I really think no American should have to go through all of this," he said. "I think if the screener goes off and you don't want to have a pat down search, you ought to be able to go back through the screener." Paul says he was sent back through the screener when he went to board his re-booked flight.

Related stories:

Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10216573-sen-rand-paul-has-run-in-with-tsa

comedy central hawaii five o don t ask don t tell repeal michelle le steve o greg giraldo greg giraldo

Dolphins talk in their sleep ? in whale songs

A group of five captive dolphins in France have been recorded making whale-like noises late at night ? despite the fact that they have only heard whale sounds as recordings during their daytime dolphin shows.

If the sounds are confirmed to be mimicking whales, it would be the first example of dolphins "saving up" a sound to practice later. And since the whale sounds are only uttered at night, it's possible the whale sounds are a dolphin version of sleep-talking.

The dolphins, all of whom were born in captivity, have never had the opportunity to hear a whale sing except on the soundtrack to their daily shows at the French aquatic park Planete Sauvage. Amid music, bird cries and other marine sounds, that 21-minute soundtrack features a couple of minutes of whale song.

1. More science news from msnbc.com

   1. Stephen Hawking's cosmic curios explained

      Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: The cosmic curios of the world's best-known physicist go on display at a science museum, chronicling the amazing 70 years of Stephen Hawking's life.

   2. Monkey long believed extinct found in Indonesia
   3. Evidence found for oldest popcorn in South America
   4. Leap second lives on after tiff over time

The dolphins have never been heard mimicking that whale song during or after shows, but when researchers recorded all of the dolphin vocalizations for nine days and eight nights between November 2008 and May 2009, they heard 25 instances of dolphin sounds never heard before. Though rare ? about 1 percent of all the dolphin noises recorded ? the sounds sounded strikingly like whale calls. These strange sounds occurred only at night during dolphin "rest periods," mostly between midnight and 3 a.m.

To make sure they weren't hearing things, the researchers played slowed-down and regular-speed audio of the calls to 20 volunteers, along with regular dolphin whistles, slowed-down dolphin whistles, and real whale songs. They found that the volunteers correctly identified dolphin whistles as dolphin whistles and whale song as whale song 88 percent to 99 percent of the time. But 72 percent of the time, the listeners misconstrued the dolphin's whale-like whistles as real whale song.

Dolphins, like birds, are known copy-cats, but their mimicry has always been confined to the time right after hearing an odd sound, at least as far as anyone knew. The Planete Sauvage dolphins, however, only make the whale sounds at night, most likely when they're sleeping or at least resting. This suggests that they could be rehearsing their daily shows in their minds at night, the researchers reported online in the journal Frontiers in Comparative Psychology Dec. 29, 2011.? It's possible the dolphins are even asleep as they make the whale-like noises, meaning they are essentially sleep-talking in "whale."

The recordings are "the first report of mimicries of sounds heard during special events produced by dolphins in a resting/sleeping context," the researchers wrote in the journal. "This finding opens very large perspectives for future investigations on dolphin learning processes and 'mental representations.'"

You can follow LiveScience senior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

? 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46107587/ns/technology_and_science-science/

brownback salvia cybermonday deals cybermonday deals steve johnson norman reedus norman reedus

Searching for Roleplay Partners

LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO DO THE IDEAS RIGHT NOW!

Preferences

• Post a minimum of THREE PARAGRAPHS, I understand about writer?s block and can tolerate posts that aren?t as long, but even when our characters are interacting there are more things to say than just what their response is, like thought and things the character notices. I don?t want three sentences spaced out as paragraphs either, I don?t count those as paragraphs. The more I get the more I feel like I need to give back, and if I can?t give you back the same amount of paragraphs, I will as close as I can. Don't say you can give me three paragraphs and that be your maximum, I don't like getting into a roleplay giving someone a lot of hard work and getting three lines back that are just spaced out, those aren't paragraphs those are glorified sentences.
• I am fine with blood and gore but I don?t go into detail about sex, and I won?t do that, not saying that it can't happen between our characters, I just don't want details.
• I don?t want any love at first sight kind of things going on, there are times where characters already know each other and have hidden crushes, but I would like to bring out the hidden crush thing, instead of within the first few posts they?ve already decided to date.
• Put the word "Banana" at the end of your reply (either PM or thread) so I know you've read this.
• If you have any ideas for the role-play or you want to say ?Hey, how about we do this?? I?m not going to tell you it?s a bad idea, I might even add on to that idea, or we can work something out, I want this to be fun for both of us.
• I am excited to start any role-plays so if you are interested please either PM me or post in the thread and I?ll get back to you as soon as I see that you?ve replied.
• I am still a student, so there are times where I won?t be able to respond, and there are times I won?t be able to get to my computer, and I know you?re going to have times like that too, so we?ll both have to be patient, even if it is an exciting part in our role-play, but please if you are going to be gone for an extended time tell me and I'll do the same for you.
• In your reply to this thread, please say if you have any questions and where you would like to role-play this (PMs, threads or email. I?m fine with any of them.)
• If there is anything else you want to know please feel free to ask me, I don?t bite.
• I will do multiples of any roleplay or do multiple roleplays with one person and I am willing to give any other ideas a shot too.
• I will roleplay as female or male

Pairings for non fandoms
VampirexVampire (No sparkling allowed)
VampirexWerewolf
VampirexVampire Hunter
WerewolfxWerewolf
Angelxhuman
AngelxFallen Angel
AngelxAngel
Fallen AngelxFallen Angel
TeacherxStudent
MagexMage
WarriorxMage
WarriorxWarrior
PrincessxServant
PrincexServant
and it kind of just goes on from there, any ideas you have, I will take into concideration.

Fandoms
Ouran Highschool Hostclub (I really want to do one of these, but please be alright with a MxM pairing for this)
Inuyasha
Summer Wars
Full Metal Alchemist
Gentleman's Alliance Cross
Trigun
Fushigi Yugi
Alice in Wonderland
Final Fantasy VII or X (Only ones I have completed so far)
Batman (based on comics, video games, or animated series)

Ideas
(of course these will need work but they are just ideas that pop into my head and make a good roleplay. This will be edited as the ideas come to me.)

• A highly recognized school for magic students (could be changed to just about any other kind of supernatural creature or whatever) is abusing its power by using the graduating students as slaves. One clueless student, ends up stumbling upon a rebellion that was controlled by many students, some in their graduating year and some under classmen and one unknown teacher. The student ends up getting involved and falls in love with one of the graduating and mentoring students.
• A questionable illness going around in both the demon and angel dementions, it basically makes Angels evil and Demons good of course there can be more effects on the demons and angels other than that. Our story would start with a young human meeting a demon (most humans can't even see demons or angels), this demon had come down with this illness while trying to look for a cure. He forgets that he is there for finding a cure for this illness and decides that he would fallow around this human, since this human must be special. They go on to her teenage years were she starts to fight demons and angels, with this demon by her side.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/Wvmt02pkL2k/viewtopic.php

westboro stevejobs stevejobs steve jobs commencement speech sarah palin espn body issue ijustine

Warfare in 1912: A Look in Scientific American 's Archives [Slide Show]

Web Exclusives | Technology

Images of weapons technology from a century ago, two years before World War I broke out in Europe.

By Daniel C. Schlenoff ?| January 21, 2012

Image: Scientific American

These implements of warfare were developed to fill a perceived need or follow a specific doctrine. Some, such as the development of artillery, became a central facet during the Great War, the first ?total war? that involved all of its citizens, industries and scientific ingenuity.

? View the 1912 Weapons Technology Slide Show

Articles You Might Also Like

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=8a599f833ea660058dd72a7a48eec5f1

all my children online sly and the family stone sly stone the bling ring facebook news facebook news boardwalk empire

Video: Tracking Google's Impact

Is Google dragging down the Nasdaq? Warren Meyers, DME Securities, with the trade on the stock ahead of the closing bell, the outlook on housing, and what investor need to watch on Monday.

Related Links:

Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46075633/

new jersey plane crash ohio state kobe bryant wife bonjovi dead amber portwood sam shepard sam shepard

Taun-taunts: Damion Schubert teases future SWTOR vanity pets ...

Recently, Star Wars: The Old Republic blog Inquisitor's Roadhouse got in touch with BioWare Lead System Designer Damion Schubert to talk about the game's "other" companions: vanity pets. While they may not be the fifth pillar of gameplay, vanity pets in SWTOR are desired by many collectors -- and Schubert has word that more are on the way.

While Schubert admits that vanity pets, such as the Hutt Observer and Mouse Droid, weren't at the top of BioWare's priority list in beta, he said the team knew they wanted them as part of the launched game. There are only a handful of pets in the game at this time, but more are to come in SWTOR's next big update. "I don't want to give out too big a hint, but they smell kinda bad on the outside," Schubert teased.

He confirmed that currently pets are not limited by faction, although there are some that are restricted to dark and light side players. Schubert said that BioWare will be using vanity pets as rewards for many aspects of gameplay, including the social and legacy systems.

Getting them in the future may be more complicated in a good way, however: "One of the things we want to do a lot more of is adding items that take a bit of communal exploration to discover ? we're well aware of how popular datacrons and the magenta lightsaber crystal are ? and minipets is one place where we've identified adding fun things like that could really pay off."

Source: http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/01/20/taun-taunts-damion-schubert-teases-future-swtor-vanity-pets/

nascar news emmys 2011 emmys 2011 emmy nominations 2011 knowshon moreno knowshon moreno dennis hopper

Len Berman: Top 5 Sports Stories

Happy Thursday everyone, here's my Top 5 for January 19, 2012 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.

1. Quick Hits

• The Texas Rangers and Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish agree on a six-year $60 million deal. The Rangers paid an additional $51 million for the right to negotiate with Darvish.
• It turns out Denver quarterback Tim Tebow played the second half against the Patriots with torn cartilage in his ribs and a bruised lung.
• Andy Roddick retired due to an apparent leg injury in the third set of his second round match with Lleyton Hewitt at the Australian Open. Hewitt was leading two sets to one.
• Reportedly the next NHL Winter Classic will feature Detroit and Toronto at the University of Michigan's football stadium next New Year's Day. The Big House seats nearly 110,000 for football.

2. Fan Fare

Is it getting too ugly to go to sports events? The physical abuse is well chronicled, from opening day at the Dodgers game to the Winter Classic in Philadelphia. Subscriber A.C. passed along this letter to the San Francisco Chronicle written by a Saints fan. He and his teenage daughters were verbally assaulted both inside and outside Candlestick Park. I'm sure this is not an isolated incident. Is it all about alcohol, or is there more to this?

3. I Love a Parade

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie thinks if the Giants win the Super Bowl the parade should be in New Jersey. His reasoning: they play and train in the Garden State. Did the governor actually see the celebration for the Giants when they won their first Super Bowl? No parade. They dumped a fake cooler of Gatorade, shredded paper, over Bill Parcells outside Giants Stadium. That was the highlight. And the first time the Devils won the Stanley Cup, they staged a dopey "parade in the parking lot." I understand the geographic implications of the governor's suggestion, but the Patriots don't stage their parades in Foxboro. The "New York" football champs deserve the Lower Broadway ticker tape treatment.

4. Causing a Racket

Under the heading of a poor workman blames it on his tools, Marcos Baghdatis took it out on his tennis rackets after dropping the first two sets of his second round match at the Australian Open. I believe that breaking four rackets in one sitting is a Grand Slam record, but I could be wrong. And yes, he wound up losing the match.

5. Tweet Tweet

The Twitter universe was sent reeling yesterday when none other than actor and Colts fan Rob Lowe tweeted that Peyton Manning was all set to retire. He talks about it on today's Ellen DeGeneres Show. Of course there were denials all around. Colts owner Jim Irsay had the final word when he tweeted "My sources tell me Rob will star in an epic remake of 'Deep Throat' with aging porn stars and 4 finger circus clowns!" A part of me hopes that Lowe is right. Being an "NFL Insider" has become a cottage industry. Wouldn't it be funny to see an NFL outsider break the story?

Happy Birthday: Giants Super Bowl XXV M.V.P O.J. Anderson. 55.
Bonus Birthday: Dolly Parton. 66.

Today in Sports: Notre Dame beats UCLA 71-70 ending the Bruins 88 game winning streak. 1974.
Bonus Event: 75 years ago today. Howard Hughes sets a cross-country record, flying from Los Angeles to New York City in seven hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds. (Or roughly the length of the Super Bowl pregame show.) 1937.

For those of you in the Bay area, I'll be on KNBR radio tomorrow morning, Friday, January 19th at 7:20 AM.

To sign up for Len's free daily Top 5 email click here.

?

Follow Len Berman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lenbermansports

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/len-berman/top-5-sports-stories_321_b_1216085.html

zombie boy zombie boy harvard yale joe paterno lung cancer joe paterno lung cancer john tucker must die uk basketball

If I'd had any inkling, I'd have been scared to do it

Sean O'Neill, contributor

Sue Savage-Rumbaugh is a primatologist who works at the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, where she explores the mental and linguistic skills of our primate cousins.

As a graduate, you were all set to do a postdoc in psychology at Harvard University. What happened?

Yes, I was due to go to Harvard to work with behaviourist B. F. Skinner and his famous pigeons. But before I left I happened to sit in on a class by primate researcher Roger Fouts, who brought a chimpanzee named Booee to class. Roger held up objects like a hat, a key and a pair of shoes, and Booee would make what Roger said were signs for those objects. I saw a chimpanzee doing what seemed to be a symbolic task and I was hooked. I said to myself: "Wait a minute, people are teaching chimpanzees human language, and I'm going to Harvard to study pigeons? You need to stay here, this is where it's at if you are interested in the origins of the human mind." I have worked with apes ever since.

Your work on the linguistic capabilities of apes has taken you into uncharted territory...

Yes, for better or for worse, I have gone to a place that other researchers have not. If I had had any inkling into the huge degree of linguistic, conceptual and social similarity between ourselves and bonobos when I started the work I would have been scared to death to do it.????

You believe that language is not unique to humans and that apes are capable of learning it. How do you respond to the criticism this has drawn from some linguists?

The linguists who are criticising what I do are looking at language from the point of view of a society that has lots of written content, so they analyse a sentence as a written entity. But many languages don't have that, and the people who live in those societies often don't think of language in that way. People can use gestures, glances, intonation and common knowledge of the shared context to convey meaning. What linguists often overlook is that non-human primates can use those things in context to convey meaning.

Bonobos can do things once assumed to be the preserve of humans. Who is better at Pac-Man, you or Kanzi, your star bonobo?

Kanzi has to be encouraged and needs verbal guidance, like "oh, go get 'em". He understands that he's doing it at the request of a person. If they leave he'll stop, because he doesn't care about catching all the ghosts.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/1bf5868a/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cbigwideworld0C20A120C0A10Cif0Eid0Ehad0Eany0Einkling0Eid0Ehave0Ebeen0Escared0Eto0Edo0Eit0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

reggie bush ufc 137 boston news matilda new jersey weather halloween movies halloween movies

After Laying Off 60 People, RueLaLa Raises $22 Million

Members-only shopping site RueLaLa, a former subsidiary of GSI Commerce (before the eBay acquisition) just cut roughly 60 positions from its workforce of 550 employees, but an SEC filing published yesterday afternoon reveals that the flash sales company also recently completed a $22 million financing round.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/tVQhJmtEL0M/

draya michele draya michele ozzie guillen ozzie guillen washington monument demarcus ware terra nova

Rocky markets hurt Goldman profits in 4th quarter

FILE - This June 29, 2011 file photo, shows the headquarters building of Goldman Sachs, in New York. Goldman Sachs said Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, its income fell 58 percent in the last three months of last year because of lower investment banking income in a quarter marked by choppy markets. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

FILE - This June 29, 2011 file photo, shows the headquarters building of Goldman Sachs, in New York. Goldman Sachs said Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, its income fell 58 percent in the last three months of last year because of lower investment banking income in a quarter marked by choppy markets. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Wall Street isn't used to being underwhelmed by Goldman Sachs.

But even the powerhouse investment bank, which usually posts stellar results that leave its rivals in the dust, wasn't immune to the rocky financial markets at the end of last year.

The bank's net income for the last three months of the year fell 58 percent from a year earlier because of lower investment banking fees. The results beat Wall Street expectations but put Goldman in line with what it would consider ordinary banks.

In the last three months of the year, fear about the European debt crisis made the stock and bond markets volatile, and clients of all the major banks shied away from mergers and acquisitions and public offerings of stock.

Goldman's investment banking business took in 43 percent less in the fourth quarter than a year earlier. That was about the same as at Citigroup, Goldman's much weaker competitor, where fees declined 45 percent. JPMorgan Chase reported a smaller decline of 39 percent.

In the quarter before, Goldman had lost money for only the second time since it went public in 1999.

"Goldman is best in breed," said Keith Davis, an analyst at the investment firm Farr, Miller & Washington LLC and a Goldman shareholder. "But even they are being careful in seeking out profits because of the uncertainty out there."

The investment bank said Wednesday that it made $1 billion, or $1.84 per share, from October through December. The results beat the estimate of $1.28 per share from analysts surveyed by FactSet, a provider of financial data.

Goldman's revenue in the quarter fell 30 percent to $6 billion. For the year, Goldman made $4.4 billion, 47 percent less than in 2010, on revenue of $28.8 billion, down 26 percent from the previous year.

Goldman's typical clients are large hedge funds and multinational corporations that need to hedge their bets on foreign currencies, fluctuating interest rates and commodities.

The bumpy financial markets hurt revenue in those parts of Goldman's business. Revenue from client services fell 16 percent to $3.06 billion for the quarter. Transactions in commodities, currency and fixed income fell 17 percent.

Besides trading for those clients, Goldman has made big profits trading for itself ? especially when markets are volatile. In 2009, as the country grappled with a financial crisis and a deep recession, Goldman turned a record $13.4 billion profit. But regulations taking effect this year will reduce Goldman's ability to make those trades for the firm.

Stock traders played down concerns about Goldman Sachs' earning potential and sent the stock sharply higher. Goldman closed up 6.8 percent. Other big banks with large investment banking divisions followed Goldman higher.

Bank stocks took a hit on Friday when JPMorgan Chase led off the earnings season with disappointing results. Even if Goldman isn't the world-beater it was several years ago, it at least beat expectations.

Goldman's chief financial officer, David Viniar, gave investors another reason to hope: Even though the year is barely two weeks old, he said, corporate clients appear to be more willing to take risks than they were last year.

"The first two weeks of January certainly felt a lot better than the December and November period," Viniar told investors in a conference call to discuss the financial results.

Traders also bought Goldman because they want to profit if the investment bank buys back a chunk of its stock soon.

Goldman bought back 47 million shares of its own stock last year, including 9.2 million in the fourth quarter. The Federal Reserve has given the firm permission to buy back 63.5 million more shares.

Companies sometimes buy back their own stock when they have plenty of cash sitting around and few good ideas on where to invest it and make it grow. It can also be a sign that a company believes the stock is worth more than its current price.

Goldman paid an average of $128 for what it has bought so far. On Wednesday, the stock closed at $104.31.

In a figure watched carefully by Wall Street competitors and Occupy Wall Street alike, the bank said that it paid its 33,300 employees $12.2 billion in 2011, or 21 percent less than in 2010.

That averages out to $367,000 apiece, although the average can be misleading: Goldman's top investment bankers and executives earn multiple millions, but administrative staff doesn't usually earn six figures.

Analysts said they expected last year's payout to be lower and more in line with the 26 percent drop in revenue.

During its heyday, before the financial crisis of 2008, the average was closer to $500,000, and some Goldman bankers made $50 million bonuses.

CEO Lloyd Blankfein said concerns about the global economy made Goldman's clients less inclined to take risks in 2011. He said the firm saw "encouraging signs" that the economy and financial markets are improving.

Other signs don't look as healthy. The firm's investment banking transaction backlog, an indicator of future revenue and profit, decreased from the quarter before, though it was slightly higher than a year earlier.

Goldman is preparing for a tougher year not just by reducing risk but by cutting staff. While some of its top traders have recently quit because the tough regulatory environment has made it difficult for them to make profitable trades, Goldman also cut staff 7 percent in 2011, with 900 jobs cut just in the last three months.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-18-Earns-Goldman%20Sachs/id-8e7eb10221d2405da76a36289820cb9a

naacp cheryl cole x factor freetown freetown nicole scherzinger modern family troy davis

Wells Fargo net rises on deposits, lending growth (AP)

NEW YORK ? A steadier mortgage business, higher commercial lending and an increase in deposits lifted Wells Fargo & Co.'s fourth-quarter profit by 20 percent.

The San Francisco-based bank reported Tuesday that the amount of mortgages it wrote in the last three months of 2011 jumped 35 percent compared with the third quarter, to $120 billion.

Overall loan balances rose to $769.6 billion, up 2 percent from a year ago. Wells Fargo, which is the largest consumer lender in the U.S., reported a 2 percent increase in commercial loans, to $5.6 billion, reflecting both direct lending and the purchase of portfolios from other lenders.

Most of that growth came from new business, Chief Financial Officer Tim Sloan said in an interview. "We've been seeing good opportunities to grow the commercial loan business for a long time," he said. "We think there's a lot of opportunity there, and we think it will continue."

Commercial loans now make up 40 percent of Wells' overall portfolio, helping to balance out its income and spread its risk.

The bank also benefited as more of its customers paid their bills on time. Wells Fargo wrote off $2.6 billion in loans as uncollectible, including $2.17 billion in consumer loans. That was down from $3.84 billion last year, but did represent a slight increase from the third quarter.

"That's something we're going to watch," said Paul Miller, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets. While the figure shows gains from a year ago, he said, the improvements in overall credit quality slowed down considerably toward the end of the year, he said.

Loans considered past due and likely to default ended the year at $25.6 billion, compared with $32.4 billion last year.

The improvement in Wells Fargo's loan portfolio allowed the bank to release $600 million from its reserves to cover uncollected loans. That money flowed directly to the bank's bottom line.

Wells Fargo's net income for the quarter rose to $4.11 billion, or 73 cents per share, compared with $3.41 billion, or 61 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Revenue slipped 4 percent to $20.61 billion from $21.49 billion a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, were expecting profit of 72 cents per share, on total revenue of $20 billion, according to data provided by FactSet.

The results contrasted with other major banks, particularly Citigroup Inc., which posted disappointing results early Tuesday. Citi and other large banks depend more heavily on Wall Street trading operations and overseas business, and were stung during the quarter by market volatility and the European debt crisis. Wells, whose business is concentrated in the U.S., benefited from the slowly improving domestic economy and a brighter consumer outlook.

CFO Sloan said that Wells Fargo has minimal exposure to Europe ? about $14 billion, very little of which is sovereign debt. "We just have a different kind of risk picture relative to our peers," Sloan said.

"As we think about Europe, what we worry about is the impact that a European recession, which seems like it's going to happen, has on the US economy, because Europe is our biggest trading partner," Sloan said.

Wells thinks that most of the risk of a European recession is already factored into growth projections for the U.S. He said Wells Fargo expects to see opportunities to acquire certain U.S.-based assets from faltering European banks in the months ahead.

Wells Fargo's stock gained 38 cents, more than 1 percent, to $29.99 in midday trading.

Wells said its average deposits rose 9 percent to $864.9 billion. That reflected a 3.2 percent jump in consumer checking accounts and a 12 percent rise in checking and savings deposits from last year.

The growth in deposits at Wells Fargo came as the bank's customers set aside more money as a precaution against uncertainty in the economy.

In another bright spot, the bank reported an improvement in its net interest margin, or the difference between the money Wells earns on interest and that which it pays out. The measure improved to 3.89 percent, from 3.84 percent in the third quarter, an increase during a period when many banks are seeing their net interest margin narrow because of low interest rates. Wells said the increase reflected lower deposit costs, less long-term debt and positive results from short-term investments.

FBR's Miller said the strong increase in net interest margin was surprising. "We would expect it to continue to feel pressure in this interest rate environment," he said.

Noninterest income, or earnings from fees and charges, fell 7 percent to $9.7 billion. Card fees dropped 28 percent from last year, largely because of a new law limiting the fees banks can charge merchants for processing debit card transactions.

For the full year, Wells Fargo posted net income of $15.87 billion, or $2.82 per share, up from $12.36 billion, or $2.21 per share, for 2010.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_wells_fargo

jessica sutta sexiest man alive 2011 ruben studdard ruben studdard black friday sales 2011 black friday sales 2011 whitney duncan

UH Case Medical Center publishes study on novel treatment for skin lymphoma

Public release date: 16-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Alicia Reale
alicia.reale@uhhospitals.org
University Hospitals Case Medical Center

CLEVELAND: Promising findings on a novel combination treatment approach for a chronic type of skin lymphoma are being published today (embargoed for 4 pm) in JAMA's Archives of Dermatology by clinical researchers from Seidman Cancer Center at University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

The article outlines findings from a first-of-its-kind study showing that O6-benzylguanine is successful in treating cutaneous T-Cell lymphoma by enhancing the efficacy of topical chemotherapy (carmustine).

"Current therapy for cutaneous T-Cell lymphoma is suboptimal and this new study shows that adding O6-benzylguanine to carmustine is more effective and less toxic to the skin, allowing for more optimal treatments," says Kevin Cooper, MD, Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at UH Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. "This treatment essentially weakens the cancer cells to make the lymphoma more vulnerable to topical chemotherapy and has a lot of potential in alleviating patients' disease burden in this chronic and progressive disease."

Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma is a form of lymphoma which affects the skin and typically relapses and becomes increasingly challenging to treat. The new drug combination offers a potential new option for patients using skin-directed treatments, before the need to undergo systemic chemotherapy.

Clinical researchers at UH Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University have been investigating O6-benzylguanine over the past decade and were participants in the original research into its mechanism of action as a cancer treatment potentiator. This study, funded by National Cancer Institute grants to Case Western Reserve University in conjunction with Keryx Pharmaceuticals Inc., is the first to explore the drug's efficacy to intensify treatment for skin lymphoma.

When used alone, carmustine attaches to the DNA in the patient's cancer cells during the replication process, causing the cancer cells to die. Problems sometimes occur when an enzyme clips off the treatment from the DNA, allowing the cancer cells to replicate. O6-benzylguanine inhibits the enzyme from clipping off the carmustine from the DNA, so the drug can complete its mission and kill the cancer cells.

"By adding O6-benzylguanine, we can effectively lower the dosage of the topical treatment, carmustine, and render it less toxic on healthy cells but more effective at killing cancer cells," says Dr. Cooper. "This combination treatment has had excellent initial clinical results and we are following it up with additional ongoing studies."

###

Dr. Cooper was senior author of the study and the first author was Narin Apisarnthanarax, MD. Dr. Cooper has ongoing studies on this NCI-funded research.

About University Hospitals

University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of hospitals, outpatient centers and primary care physicians. At the core of our health system is University Hospitals Case Medical Center. The primary affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, University Hospitals Case Medical Center is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research centers of excellence in the nation and the world, including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopedics and spine, radiology and radiation oncology, neurosurgery and neuroscience, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, organ transplantation and human genetics. Its main campus includes the internationally celebrated UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation; UH MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; and UH Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University. For more information, go to www.uhhospitals.org

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Public release date: 16-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Alicia Reale
alicia.reale@uhhospitals.org
University Hospitals Case Medical Center

CLEVELAND: Promising findings on a novel combination treatment approach for a chronic type of skin lymphoma are being published today (embargoed for 4 pm) in JAMA's Archives of Dermatology by clinical researchers from Seidman Cancer Center at University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

The article outlines findings from a first-of-its-kind study showing that O6-benzylguanine is successful in treating cutaneous T-Cell lymphoma by enhancing the efficacy of topical chemotherapy (carmustine).

"Current therapy for cutaneous T-Cell lymphoma is suboptimal and this new study shows that adding O6-benzylguanine to carmustine is more effective and less toxic to the skin, allowing for more optimal treatments," says Kevin Cooper, MD, Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at UH Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. "This treatment essentially weakens the cancer cells to make the lymphoma more vulnerable to topical chemotherapy and has a lot of potential in alleviating patients' disease burden in this chronic and progressive disease."

Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma is a form of lymphoma which affects the skin and typically relapses and becomes increasingly challenging to treat. The new drug combination offers a potential new option for patients using skin-directed treatments, before the need to undergo systemic chemotherapy.

Clinical researchers at UH Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University have been investigating O6-benzylguanine over the past decade and were participants in the original research into its mechanism of action as a cancer treatment potentiator. This study, funded by National Cancer Institute grants to Case Western Reserve University in conjunction with Keryx Pharmaceuticals Inc., is the first to explore the drug's efficacy to intensify treatment for skin lymphoma.

When used alone, carmustine attaches to the DNA in the patient's cancer cells during the replication process, causing the cancer cells to die. Problems sometimes occur when an enzyme clips off the treatment from the DNA, allowing the cancer cells to replicate. O6-benzylguanine inhibits the enzyme from clipping off the carmustine from the DNA, so the drug can complete its mission and kill the cancer cells.

"By adding O6-benzylguanine, we can effectively lower the dosage of the topical treatment, carmustine, and render it less toxic on healthy cells but more effective at killing cancer cells," says Dr. Cooper. "This combination treatment has had excellent initial clinical results and we are following it up with additional ongoing studies."

###

Dr. Cooper was senior author of the study and the first author was Narin Apisarnthanarax, MD. Dr. Cooper has ongoing studies on this NCI-funded research.

About University Hospitals

University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of hospitals, outpatient centers and primary care physicians. At the core of our health system is University Hospitals Case Medical Center. The primary affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, University Hospitals Case Medical Center is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research centers of excellence in the nation and the world, including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopedics and spine, radiology and radiation oncology, neurosurgery and neuroscience, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, organ transplantation and human genetics. Its main campus includes the internationally celebrated UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation; UH MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; and UH Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University. For more information, go to www.uhhospitals.org

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/uhcm-ucm011612.php

neil degrasse tyson neil degrasse tyson bears lions bears lions heavy d heavy d taser gun