Forestwood Featured in Houzz Article | Forestwood Antique Mall

Posted by Administrator in News on Dec 30th, 2012 | Comments Off

First of all, if you haven?t heard of the iPhone app called Houzz, you better download it immediately (it?s free!). Houzz is the leading online platform for home remodeling and design, providing people with everything they need to improve their homes from start to finish ? online or from a mobile device. From decorating a room to building a custom home, Houzz connects millions of homeowners, home design enthusiasts and home improvement professionals across the country and around the world. With the largest residential design database in the world and a vibrant community powered by social tools, Houzz is the easiest way for people to get the design inspiration, project advice, product information and professional reviews they need to help turn ideas into reality.

Now onto our featured article?

A complete overhaul gives a 1940s colonial near Dallas an airy, romantic and feminine aesthetic. Craving a cozy retreat where they could raise their girls, Katie and Steve Aldrich chose this stunning home near Dallas. After they gutted the house and fixed up the exterior, Katie infused the interior with her signature simple and feminine style, accenting with family antiques. ?I just want to create a happy environment for our family,? she says. This included an antique mirror from yours truly, Forestwood Antique Mall. Just click the image below for the full article by Kara Weik on Houzz.com.

Source: http://forestwoodmall.com/forestwood-featured-in-houzz-article/

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Woman charged with murder in NY subway shove death

In this image provided by the New York City Police Department, a composite sketch showing the woman believed to have pushed a man to his death in front of a subway train on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012 is shown. Police arrested Erica Menendez on Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012, after a passer-by on a street noticed she resembled the woman seen in a surveillance video. The attack was the second time this month that a man was pushed to his death in a city subway station. (AP Photo/New York City Police Department)

In this image provided by the New York City Police Department, a composite sketch showing the woman believed to have pushed a man to his death in front of a subway train on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012 is shown. Police arrested Erica Menendez on Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012, after a passer-by on a street noticed she resembled the woman seen in a surveillance video. The attack was the second time this month that a man was pushed to his death in a city subway station. (AP Photo/New York City Police Department)

Commuters walk on the platform as a train enters the 40th St-Lowry St Station, where a man was killed after being pushed onto the subway tracks, in the Queens section of New York, Friday, Dec. 28, 2012. Police are searching for a woman suspected of pushing the man and released surveillance video Friday of her running away from the station. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Commuters watch as a train enters the 40th St-Lowry St Station, where a man was killed after being pushed onto the subway tracks, in the Queens section of New York, Friday, Dec. 28, 2012. Police are searching for a woman suspected of pushing the man and released surveillance video Friday of her running away from the station.(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Commuters wait on the platform as a train passes through the 40th St-Lowry St Station, where a man was killed after being pushed onto the subway tracks, in the Queens section of New York, Friday, Dec. 28, 2012. Police are searching for a woman suspected of pushing the man and released surveillance video Friday of her running away from the station. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

NEW YORK (AP) ? A woman who told police she shoved a man to his death off a subway platform into the path of a train because she has hated Muslims since Sept. 11 and thought he was one was charged Saturday with murder as a hate crime, prosecutors said.

Erika Menendez was charged in the death of Sunando Sen, who was crushed by a 7 train in Queens on Thursday night, the second time this month a commuter has died in such a nightmarish fashion.

Menendez, 31, was awaiting arraignment on the charge Saturday evening, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said. She could face 25 years to life in prison if convicted. She was in custody and couldn't be reached for comment, and it was unclear if she had an attorney.

Menendez, who was arrested after a tip by a passer-by who saw her on a street and thought she looked like the woman in a surveillance video released by police, admitted shoving Sen, who was pushed from behind, authorities said.

"I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I've been beating them up," Menendez told police, according to the district attorney's office.

Sen was from India, but police said it was unclear if he was Muslim, Hindu or of some other faith. The 46-year-old lived in Queens and ran a printing shop. He was shoved from an elevated platform on the 7 train line, which connects Manhattan and Queens. Witnesses said a muttering woman rose from her seat on a platform bench and pushed him on the tracks as a train entered the station and then ran off.

The two had never met before, authorities said, and witnesses told police they hadn't interacted on the platform.

Police released a sketch and security camera video showing a woman running from the station where Sen was killed.

Menendez was arrested by police earlier Saturday after a passer-by on a Brooklyn street spotted her and called 911. Police responded, confirmed her identity and took her into custody, where she made statements implicating herself in the crime, police spokesman Paul Browne said.

The district attorney said such hateful remarks about Muslims and Hindus could not be tolerated.

"The defendant is accused of committing what is every subway commuter's worst nightmare," he said.

On Dec. 3, another man was pushed to his death in a Times Square subway station. A photo of the man clinging to the edge of the platform a split second before he was struck by a train was published on the front page of the New York Post, causing an uproar about whether the photographer, who was catching a train, or anyone else should have tried to help him.

A homeless man was arrested and charged with murder in that case. He claimed he acted in self-defense and is awaiting trial.

It's unclear whether anyone tried ? or could have tried ? to help Sen on Thursday.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday urged residents to keep Sen's death in perspective as he touted new historic lows in the city's annual homicide and shooting totals.

"It's a very tragic case, but what we want to focus on today is the overall safety in New York," Bloomberg told reporters following a police academy graduation.

But commuters still expressed concern over subway safety and shock about the arrest of Menendez on a hate crime charge.

"For someone to do something like that ... that's not the way we are made," said David Green, who was waiting for a train in Manhattan. "She needs help."

Green said he caught himself leaning over the subway platform's edge and realized maybe he shouldn't do that.

"It does make you more conscious," he said of the deaths.

Such subway deaths are rare, but other high-profile cases include the 1999 fatal shoving of aspiring screenwriter Kendra Webdale by a former psychiatric patient. That case led to a state law allowing for more supervision of mentally ill people living outside institutions.

___

Associated Press writer Karen Matthews contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-30-Subway-Push%20Death/id-360aa2d3202d459e99d8c057fdc4a8be

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German trade group predicts record exports in 2013

BERLIN (AP) ? Germany's exports are expected to reach record levels this year and grow again in 2013.

An industry group predicts German exports will rise 4 percent to ?1.103 trillion ($1.45 trillion) in 2012 from ?1.06 trillion the previous year.

The Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services said Sunday that it expects exports to increase by up to 5 percent in the coming year and hit ?1.158 trillion.

Exports as varied as cars, computer chips and chemicals contribute about a third of Germany's gross domestic product.

German exports have benefited from the low value of the euro compared to other currencies, and strong demand for their goods in the United States and emerging economies like China.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-30-EU-Germany-Economy/id-b9ebbdea78c2483e9fb9569593e95caa

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Wild dolphins in Australia have been seen giving gifts to humans (Americablog)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/273564964?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Russia pushes Syria to hold talks with opposition

NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP-Getty Images

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

By Reuters

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

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

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

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

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

Putin says fate of Assad unimportant to him

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Assad forces accused of using 'poisonous gases'

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

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

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

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Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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

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Pakistan's 'dynastic politics': Bhutto's son launches career

Reuters

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, son of assassinated former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, makes a speech to launch his political career during the fifth anniversary of his mother's death on Thursday.

By Munir Ahmed and Sebastian Abbot, The Associated Press

?

The 24-year-old son of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto launched his political career Thursday with a fiery speech before thousands of cheering supporters observing the fifth anniversary of his mother's assassination.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's speech comes several months before national elections are expected to be held. He is too young to participate in the elections himself ? the minimum age is 25 ? but is likely to be a key asset for the ruling Pakistan People's Party. The party's popularity has plummeted since it took power nearly five years ago as the country has struggled with a weak economy and bloody Taliban insurgency.

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Before dawn on the same day, dozens of militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons attacked two tribal police posts in Pakistan's northwest, killing two policemen, officials said. Twenty-one other policemen are missing and presumed kidnapped.

?

Zardari was made chairman of the Pakistan People's Party after his mother's death but has mainly played a background role until now while he completed his studies at Oxford University in Britain.

"I want to tell you that thanks to God he has completed his studies, but now is the time of his training," his father, President Asif Ali Zardari, told the crowd of supporters Thursday in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh village in southern Sindh province, site of the Bhutto family mausoleum. "He has to study Pakistan, he has to learn from you and he has to work according to your thinking."

AFP-Getty images

Pakistani supporters gather outside the Bhutto family mausoleum in Garhi Dera Bakhsh on Thursday. More than 200,000 people gathered for the occasion, the fifth anniversary of the assassination of former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto.

The Bhutto family has played a prominent role in Pakistani politics for much of the country's 65-year history. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's grandfather, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founded the Pakistan People's Party and served as both the country's president and prime minister in the 1970s. He was eventually hanged in 1979 after Gen. Zia ul-Haq seized power in a military coup.

Benazir Bhutto twice served as prime minister in the 1980s and 1990s but never completed a full term. Her governments were dismissed both times under the cloud of corruption allegations by presidents who were close to the country's powerful army. She was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack on Dec. 27, 2007, shortly after returning from self-imposed exile to participate in national elections.

After her death, the Pakistan People's Party rode a wave of public sympathy to garner the most seats in the 2008 elections, and Asif Ali Zardari was elected president. But the popularity of both the party and the president has fallen significantly since then as the government has failed to address pressing problems, such as Pakistan's shortage of electricity and stuttering economy. The government has also struggled in its fight against the Pakistani Taliban, who have killed thousands of people in attacks throughout the country.

From the archives: A suicide bombing at a political rally kills Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. NBC's Matt Lauer reports.

Rasul Bakhsh Rais, a political science professor at Lahore University of Management Sciences, said it was not a surprise that the Pakistan People's Party unveiled Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in an attempt to boost its fortunes in the upcoming elections, which are expected by June at the latest.

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"This is Pakistan and dynastic politics is the norm," said Rais. "Bilawal is perhaps the only card left in the chest of the Pakistan People's Party."

Archival video, Dec. 27, 2007: Benazir Bhutto was born to lead the fight for democracy in a hard-line Muslim nation. NBC's Chris Clackum looks back at her life.

Both Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his father sought to whip up the emotions of the crowd Thursday by shouting "Long live Bhutto" and "Bhutto is alive." Many of the supporters waved the red, black and green flag of the Pakistan People's Party and held pictures of Benazir Bhutto and her father.

"If you kill one Bhutto, one thousand more Bhuttos will emerge," said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

He took a swipe at the judiciary, which has clashed with the current government, by asking why people arrested for suspected involvement in his mother's murder have yet to be convicted.

But some critics have questioned why Zardari has not done more to push forward the investigation during more than four years as president.

The president at the time of her death, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, blamed the Pakistani Taliban for the attack, and five suspected militants are facing trial for alleged involvement in the killing. The Pakistani Taliban have denied targeting Bhutto.

AFP-Getty images

A Pakistani supporter carries a portrait of former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto outside the Bhutto family mausoleum in Garhi Dera Bakhsh on Thursday.

PhotoBlog: Bhutto's son launches political career on anniversary of mother's assassination

A Pakistani court issued an arrest warrant for Musharraf last year over allegations he played a role in the attack, which he has denied. Arrest warrants were also issued for two senior police officials accused of negligence in the assassination. Prosecutors accused one of the officials of failing to provide proper security for Bhutto and the other of cleaning the crime scene before evidence could be collected.

A U.N. investigation into the assassination said it could have been prevented and blamed all levels of government for failing to provide adequate security. It also accused intelligence agencies and other officials of severely hampering the investigation into those behind her murder.

Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

The attack on the tribal police posts before dawn Thursday took place in the town of Darra Adam Khel in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, government officials said. The town is located near Pakistan's tribal region, the main sanctuary for Taliban militants in the country.

Security forces have launched an operation to try to recover the 21 missing policemen, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion will likely fall on the Pakistani Taliban.

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

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/27/16191403-pakistans-dynastic-politics-bhuttos-son-launches-career?lite

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Drug May Help Women Who Quit Smoking Avoid ... - Health.com

By Carina Storrs
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Dec. 27 (HealthDay News) ? Taking a pill called naltrexone (ReVia) when they stop smoking could help women keep dreaded weight gain at bay, according to new research.

Researchers analyzed two earlier studies that compared the quit rates and weight gain among heavy smokers who received either naltrexone ? a drug used to treat addiction ? or an inactive placebo, along with a nicotine patch and weekly counseling while trying to quit smoking.

Although the groups taking naltrexone had higher quit rates at the end of four- and six-week treatment courses, participants who took the drug were no more likely to remain abstinent after 12 months.

But women who took naltrexone gained significantly less weight six and 12 months after they quit smoking than women who received the placebo, according to the study, published in the December issue of Biological Psychiatry. However, this difference was not observed for men.

?Weight gain is a crucial issue for people, especially women who have societal pressure and can be more discontented with their bodies,? said Andrea King, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago and lead author of the current study.

?Even if naltrexone doesn?t help quit rates, if we could break down that barrier, it could have an impact,? King added.

More than 80 percent of people who quit smoking gain weight, and the average weight gain is between five and 10 pounds, according to the study. However, as many as one-quarter of quitters gain more than 15 pounds.

Weight gain during smoking cessation is usually modest and not a serious health problem compared to the health benefit of quitting smoking, said Dr. Norman Edelman, chief medical officer of the American Lung Association.

?[But] people, especially young women, would be more likely to get involved in smoking cessation programs if there were some way to control their weight gain so in terms of that, I think [naltrexone] is important,? Edelman said.

People who want to quit smoking and are worried about gaining weight should talk with their doctor about naltrexone, he suggested.

Both issues can be deadly. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States, and obesity is second, the study authors noted.

King pointed out that naltrexone would probably not take the place of the first-line treatments for quitting smoking, which are the antidepressant bupropion (Zyban), in some cases together with a nicotine patch such as Nicoderm or the drug varenicline (Chantix).

However, naltrexone, along with a nicotine patch and counseling, could be an option for those who did not have success with these treatments or who have serious concerns about weight gain, King said.

The side effects associated with naltrexone are generally mild and rare, King said. Nausea, dizziness and fatigue are most common, and often overcome by taking the once-a-day medication with food or at bedtime, she added.

For the current study, King and her colleagues analyzed the results of studies done at the University of Chicago and Yale University in New Haven, Conn.

The Chicago study involved more than 300 adults who smoked between 10 and 40 cigarettes a day for at least the past two years. During the four-week treatment, participants took either naltrexone or the placebo, used Nicoderm and received behavioral and cognitive counseling.

The Yale study had nearly 400 adults who smoked 20 or more cigarettes a day for at least the past year. It was similar to the Chicago study, except the researchers tested a six-week treatment course and three doses of naltrexone along with placebo.

Women who took naltrexone gained an average of about 7.3 pounds and 13 pounds six and 12 months after treatment, respectively, whereas the women who received placebo gained an average of about 12.1 and 16.3 pounds, respectively, the researchers found.

In addition, a slightly smaller proportion of women taking naltrexone increased their body weight by 7 percent or more, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers clinically significant weight gain.

The men in the study gained less weight on average than women, and these gains were a smaller percentage of their original body weight, which could have made it more difficult to detect lower weight gain among men taking naltrexone, King said. More research is needed on this group, she added.

It is not clear why women seem to be more prone to weight gain when they quit smoking than men.

?I think of women smoking more for emotional regulation and management, and potentially without that crutch, they may turn to high sweet and fat foods more than men,? King said.

Naltrexone is thought to block the effects of opioids in the body, which could reduce cravings for sweet and fatty foods, King noted.

In addition, giving up cigarettes leads to drops in metabolism that can cause quitters to put on pounds no matter what they eat, King pointed out.

King encourages people trying to quit to eat sensibly and exercise, which can help reduce the stress of quitting, but not to diet, which can make quitting even more difficult.

?If there are times when you?re going to have a candy bar or a cigarette, a candy bar is better, and don?t beat yourself up about it,? King said.

Naltrexone is not approved by the FDA for smoking cessation and is instead used off-label for this indication. It is approved to help people overcome alcohol and drug addictions.

More information

For help quitting smoking, visit the American Lung Association.

Source: http://news.health.com/2012/12/27/drug-may-help-women-who-quit-smoking-avoid-weight-gain/

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Obama heads home for last-ditch 'fiscal cliff' effort

WASHINGTON/HONOLULU (Reuters) - Efforts to prevent the U.S. economy from going over a "fiscal cliff" stirred back to life on Wednesday with less than a week to go before potentially disastrous tax hikes and spending cuts kick in at the New Year.

In a sign that there may be a way through deadlock in Congress, Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner urged the Democrat-controlled Senate to act to pull back from the cliff and offered to at least consider any bill the upper chamber produced.

President Barack Obama will try to revive budget crisis talks - which stalled last week - when he returns to Washington on Thursday after cutting short his Christmas holiday in Hawaii.

But the White House and Republicans are still far apart, as hopes for legislation to prevent the economy from tumbling off the fiscal cliff switch to the Senate.

Democrats control a majority in that chamber but still need some support from Republicans across the aisle for a likely attempt to raise taxes on the wealthy.

A senior administration official told reporters traveling with Obama in Hawaii that senior Republican leaders in Congress, Senator Mitch McConnell and Boehner, should step up to head off the looming tax and spending hit.

"It's up to the Senate Minority Leader not to block a vote, and it's up the House Republican leader, the Speaker of the House ... to allow a vote," the official said.

Months of congressional gridlock on how reduce the deficit and rein in the nation's $16 trillion federal debt have begun to affect ordinary Americans.

Shoppers might have spent less this holiday season for fear of looming income tax increases and reports of lackluster retail holiday sales added to the urgency for a deal. U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday, dragged lower by shares of retail companies.

TREASURY BUYING TIME

To avoid defaulting on the national debt if the budget crisis spins out of control, the Treasury Department announced measures essentially designed to buy time to allow Congress to resolve its differences and raise the debt borrowing limit.

Obama flies back from Hawaii overnight and is due in the White House on Thursday morning.

Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz is urging workers in the company's roughly 120 Washington-area coffee shops to write "come together" on customers' cups on Thursday and Friday to tell politicians to end the crisis.

"We're paying attention, we're greatly disappointed in what's going on and we deserve better," Schultz told Reuters.

Boehner and his House Republican leadership team said in a statement that "the Senate must act first."

That puts the ball in the court of the Democrats in the Senate, which is likely to base any legislation on a bill it passed earlier this year to continue tax breaks for households with incomes below $250,000.

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued a strongly worded statement calling on Republicans to "drop their knee-jerk obstruction."

"The Senate bill could pass tomorrow if House Republicans would simply let it come to the floor," the spokesman said.

A Senate bill would likely contain an extension of expiring unemployment benefits for those who have been out of work for extended periods.

With the 435 members scattered throughout the country because the House is in recess, House Republican leaders scheduled a conference call for Thursday with members to possibly discuss bringing the chamber back into session to deal with the fiscal cliff.

The budget fight is not just about taxes, however.

The country faces $109 billion in across-the-board spending cuts starting in January unless a deal is reached to either replace or delay them. Democrats want to switch the spending cuts to tax increases for the most part.

House Republicans have passed a bill to stop the military portion of the spending cuts and place the entire burden on domestic activities, including some social safety net programs.

But the main focus is on how to stop tax hikes on January 1.

"This is the (emergency) scenario that we have long believed would rise in probability the closer we go to December 31, which essentially calls for extending all the rates for those individuals making under $200K and households under $250K and does not address the debt ceiling or the deficit," analyst Chris Krueger of Guggenheim Securities wrote in a research note.

Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who is retiring at year's end, told MSNBC that $250,000 "is too low of a threshold" for raising income taxes.

RAISING TAX THRESHOLD

She said that in conversations she has had with some Senate Democrats, "they are saying maybe more in the $400,000 to $500,000 category."

Obama himself recently offered to raise the threshold to $400,000, before negotiations with Boehner broke off.

Boehner and other Republican leaders said in a statement that if the Senate sends the House new fiscal cliff legislation, "The House will then consider whether to accept the bills ... or to send them back to the Senate with additional amendments.

"The House will take this action on whatever the Senate can pass, but the Senate first must act."

But even if a handful of Senate Republicans support Democrats on a measure to avoid the worst of the fiscal cliff, time is short. When the Senate returns on Thursday it is due to work on a disaster aid bill to help New York and New Jersey recover from Superstorm Sandy and other measures.

All 191 House Democrats might have to team up with at least 26 Republicans to get a majority if the bill included tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans, as Obama is demanding.

Some of those votes could conceivably come from among the 34 Republican members who are either retiring or were defeated in the November elections and no longer have to worry about the political fallout.

An alternative is for Congress to let income taxes go up on everyone as scheduled. Then, during the first week of January, lawmakers would strike a quick deal to reduce them except on people in the highest brackets.

They could also pass a measure putting off the $109 billion in automatic spending cuts that most lawmakers want to avoid.

Once the clock ticks past midnight on December 31, no member of Congress would have to vote for a tax increase on anyone - taxes would have risen automatically - and the only votes would be to decrease tax rates for most Americans back to their 2012 levels.

(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro in Washington and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles, Writing by Alistair Bell)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/washington-stirs-prevent-fiscal-cliff-obama-heads-home-000154842--business.html

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Living with Migraines - Hive Health Media

I have been living with migraines for the last forty years. They started in my teens and I have spent many pretty horrific days literally writhing in pain in my lifetime. The doctors are pretty much in the dark still about what causes migraines outside of a few theories they have come up with. Different kinds of foods, the weather, stress, medications, sleeping too much, not sleeping enough, hormones gone wild and so on.

When I was a teen and first went to the doctor about my headaches they did a few tests which seem barbaric compared to the tests they have today. One test they gave me was a brain wave test of some sort which they inserted needles under the skin on my scalp to perform. Can I just say ouch? Not a fun test. The other one was not better and even more painful. They shot dye into my bloodstream and x-rayed my brain. They put my head into what looked like a car crusher to hold it still so that they could watch the dye go through. When the dye reached my brain the burning was so intense that the tears literally squirted out of my eyes while I lie there with my head in a vice. Sounds almost like a torture chamber doesn?t it?

The first thing they told me was that they thought I had some rare form of stomach epilepsy because I was getting severely nauseated and then passing out. I do not know to this day what in the world they were talking about but I was a teenager. The doctors began by giving me medicines like Motrin, Naproxen which helped with inflammation and tried many beta-blockers. Nothing helped much and even the pain medications they gave me generally just made me sicker. Generally I would end up in the emergency room several times a year for a migraine that lasted more than two days accompanied by vomiting which intensified everything.

Migraines are a bit of a vicious circle. When you get one you need to get quiet, lay down, and turn off all the lights. If you take pain pills and sleep they can intensify because of the pain pills and the extra sleep but if you don?t lie down and take a pain pill you can not even walk around because of the pain. There is also the nausea that kicks in from the pain I presume. The pain pills do not take them away but they ease the pain, until your body decides enough is enough and the headaches increase because of the pills. You think if you eat something it will help but often times you are not sure what to eat. In my case I knew chocolate was definitely out, along with coffee, sometimes onions too and on and on. The doctors were giving me caffeine pills to help but telling me to stay away from caffeine. Ice packs helped me but sometimes made it worse, I couldn?t even think about heating pads which some people said may help! Then the ice pack ended up burning my face because it was in one place too long as I only got headaches on the right side around my eye and temple area. They usually branched out to other places if I had them too long because I was staying in the same position too long or I was super stressed out because I was so sick. I could go on and on but you get the picture. What a nightmare.

To top all of this off you had a limited selections of neurologists you could talk to. Most knew nothing whatsoever about migraines because they did not study migraines, they only knew neurology which covered a vast amount of territory but usually left out headaches unless you had a brain tumor. Some doctors did not want to fool around with migraine sufferers because they did not know what caused them and quite frankly many doctors had never experienced them and thought that what we had was just a headache and we were cry babies that only wanted drugs. I personally experienced a doctor that was convinced I was addicted to pain pills and refused to give me any and at that time I was on an HMO and he was the only one in my network back then. Ugh. I am as far removed from an addict of pain pills as you can get. I hate them, most make me sick. I just wanted the headaches to go away.

Not only did I suffer with doctors who were unkind but I spent my life dealing with bosses that did not have a clue what a migraine was. I worked for a large corporation and frequently had new managers or supervisors and they all responded differently. My favorites were the ones that would look at me with a sneer and say, ?You have a headache and you need to go home?? At this particular time in my life I attribute most of the migraines to hormones since they seemed to show up about once a month about that same time. I have often wished in my struggle with people understanding migraines that I could simply touch them so that they could get a few moments of the pain I was feeling. Not out of meanness but just so that they would not judge so harshly what they do not understand. I do know that there are people running around out there saying they have migraines when they have a headache who have absolutely no idea what it is to have a migraine. So they do not help the case of a real migraine sufferer much to the unbelievers.

Well, I finally found a neurologist that studied migraines and had all kinds of different things to try. They even did a psychological study on you when you went in to see if you needed anti-depressants or what not. They also offered bio-feedback which was a way they could monitor how you reacted to different situations that may trigger stress related migraines or something like that. I didn?t bio-feedback too well so they quit that one. Another thing they tried was Botox injections in my forehead which caused some pain and no results. I tried all the preventative medications they could come up with and generally ended up on their table getting a pain and anti-nausea injection before it was all done. Suffering and shots seemed to be the answer.

The first time I ever experienced real relief was in the 90?s when the doctor told me about Imitrex shots. They were not covered by insurance and they were like $40 a piece if my memory serves. I remember trying to scrape the money together because I had two young children at the time and not a lot of money. I had to try something. Well, I am not a shot person but they came in the push button form and you did not see the needle if you didn?t want to. For the first thirty plus minutes the nausea was awful and my whole body burned like fire. Then the headache was gone with a left over burning sensation and all over weakness. But I was absolutely thrilled the headache was gone! I would much rather lie in the bed weak with a burning sensation than with all that awful pain.

It is funny;and I use the term funny loosely, what a person will do to get rid of pain. I could take the nausea over the pain in my head because I knew it was short term. It took what seemed like forever for the insurance to acknowledge that people needed this medication and to cover it. It was a step up in medication but not so much help financially.

The greatest help in my life to date for migraines has been the Imitrex pills which I was given access to a while later. They did not make me nearly as nauseated but did take a little longer to work. But I knew they were going to work if I would just take it easy for about thirty minutes or so and I decided to trade in my shots for the pills. The best day was when insurance decided it was necessary, which in the beginning had to be done by letters from your doctor giving them your diagnosis and expressing your great need. It had to be a specialist too. A lot of work went into getting those pills covered by insurance!

And then finally in the last few years they have come out with generic sumatriptan which is even more affordable! I at last can manage my headaches but it comes with much practice. There are still times that I miss the signs or take a little too long to take the medicine and end up suffering more than I should. I have tried a few of the other new medicines they have for migraines but still I stick with this one for now because I know it works for me the majority of the time. I hear there is something new out there on the horizon but I am cautious about switching from tried and true.

If you have what you think may be migraines you owe it to yourself to go to a neurologist but keep in mind while you are looking that they need to have done a little study in this area or they may sneer at you even today. There are so many different kinds of migraines and it is important to diagnose them correctly and get on the right medication for you. I have met people that say sumatriptan does nothing for them. So it may not work for you but I am so thankful it does work for me. Keep trying until you find the medication that works best for you. There is no reason to suffer for two or three days and end up in the emergency room any longer now that there are viable treatments in play today.

Source: http://www.hivehealthmedia.com/living-with-migraines/

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RIM shares jump in Toronto, rebound from sharp decline

TORONTO (Reuters) - Shares of Research In Motion Ltd jumped nearly 10 percent on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday, following similar gains in New York on Wednesday, in a rebound from last week's sharp decline.

Last Friday, the volatile stock plunged more than 20 percent after the company said on an earnings conference call that it was rolling out a new fee structure for its services segment, which some investors fear could pressure the high-margin business.

"It got hit so hard after the conference call," said Ed Snyder, an analyst with Charter Equity Research. "People are still fairly optimistic about (BlackBerry 10) coming out in January, so (the rebound is) really just a value play."

The new fee structure overshadowed stronger-than-expected quarterly results.

RIM shares were up 9.7 percent to C$11.42 in midday trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The company's Nasdaq-listed stock was down 2 percent to $11.60 after big gains on Wednesday, when Canadian equity markets were closed for Boxing Day.

Through the autumn of 2012, RIM rallied as investors grew optimistic about prospects for its new make-or-break BlackBerry 10 devices, to be formally unveiled January 30. On Thursday, the shares were still up more than 80 percent from the year's low, touched in September.

The Wednesday and Thursday gains also came after several websites posted photos of what they said could be the first BlackBerry 10 phone with a physical keyboard.

Evercore Partners analyst Mark McKechnie said the photos boosted RIM's stock, which he said was depressed from last week's selloff, on a quiet trading day.

"There certainly are folks that believe in the new product cycle," he said. "The whole Wall Street community's been trying to handicap how strong that product cycle will be for RIM."

RIM has said it plans to roll out touchscreen-only devices first, a few weeks before it releases a smartphone with the QWERTY keyboard many longtime BlackBerry users rave about. But some analysts believe devices with hard keyboards will not hit the market until spring.

Management has touted BlackBerry 10's new on-screen keyboard, but some see the company's reputation for building solid, usable physical keyboards as an important competitive advantage as RIM fights for market share against Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics .

McKechnie said volatility is not unusual ahead of big smartphone launches.

"There's so much scale involved in this industry, one way or the other. A successful product versus a failure is going to really change the earnings power of a company," he said.

($1 = $0.99 Canadian)

(Editing by John Wallace)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rim-shares-jump-toronto-rebounding-post-earnings-slide-160637396--finance.html

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Why? Obama, Holder Push To Loosen Gun Sale Restrictions for ...

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OBAMA, HOLDER PUSH TO LOOSEN GUN SALE RESTRICTIONS?FOR LEGAL IMMIGRANTS
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by MATTHEW BOYLE

While the shooting at Connecticut?s Sandy Hook Elementary School has prompted a national gun control debate, President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder will still push to allow immigrants to purchase firearms more easily.

Normally, the Department of Justice?s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) requires legal aliens to live in a state for 90 days before buying a gun. The ATF does this through a rule attached to the Gun Control Act of 1968.

Source: http://oneoldvet.com/?p=34717

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Toyota plans to sell 9.7 million vehicles in 2012

In this Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012 photo, Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda smiles as he shows a remodeled Crown sedan in Tokyo. Toyota expects to sell a record 9.7 million vehicles this year, bouncing back by 22 percent from a disaster-struck 2011. It has set an even higher target of 9.91 million vehicles for 2013. The numbers released this week underline Toyota's solid turnaround from supply disruptions caused by the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan in 2011 that had hurt global production and sales. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

In this Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012 photo, Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda smiles as he shows a remodeled Crown sedan in Tokyo. Toyota expects to sell a record 9.7 million vehicles this year, bouncing back by 22 percent from a disaster-struck 2011. It has set an even higher target of 9.91 million vehicles for 2013. The numbers released this week underline Toyota's solid turnaround from supply disruptions caused by the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan in 2011 that had hurt global production and sales. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

TOKYO (AP) ? Toyota expects to sell a record 9.7 million vehicles this year, bouncing back by 22 percent from a disaster-struck 2011. It has set an even higher target of 9.91 million vehicles for 2013.

The numbers released this week underline Toyota Motor Corp.'s solid turnaround from supply disruptions caused by the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan in 2011 that had hurt global production and sales.

They also underline the Japanese automaker's ambitions to move past the woes from massive recalls that began in 2009, especially in North America.

On Wednesday, Toyota said it reached a settlement of more than $1 billion to resolve hundreds of lawsuits from Toyota owners who said the value of their cars and trucks plunged after the recalls involving unintended acceleration problems in Toyota vehicles.

Under the settlement, which still needs approval from a U.S. district judge, Toyota will offer cash payments to people who sold vehicles or turned in leased vehicles between September 2009 and December 2010.

It will also retrofit about 3.2 million vehicles with a brake override system, which ensures a stop when the brakes are applied even if the gas pedal is depressed.

Toyota, which makes the Prius hybrid, Camry sedan and Lexus luxury models, recalled more than 14 million vehicles in 2009 and 2010 worldwide over a variety of defects, including faulty floor mats, sticky gas pedals and braking problems.

Before those safety lapses, which damaged its once pristine reputation for quality, and the financial crisis that hurt overall auto sales in 2008, Toyota had been targeting global vehicles sales of 10 million vehicles.

The latest target shows Toyota is well on track toward reaching its goal. Toyota is also likely to regain its crown as the world's No. 1 automaker this calendar year, dethroning General Motors Co. of the U.S.

Toyota sales have been roaring back in recent months, not only in the U.S. market but also in emerging markets such as Indonesia.

Another sign of Toyota's determination to put its woes behind it is the record $17.4 million fine it paid earlier this month, as ordered by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, for failing to quickly report floor mat problems with some of its Lexus models. That follows $48.8 million in fines Toyota paid for three violations in 2010.

But Toyota officials have said the latest fine is not an admission of a defect but a demonstration of its desire to get on with business and avoid prolonged litigation. The company has instituted more careful product development and empowered regional units to respond to complaints and to deal more quickly with quality problems.

The one key market where Toyota has suffered sales declines recently is China, where a territorial dispute flared up earlier this year and set off widespread anti-Japanese sentiment, riots and boycotts.

Wednesday's settlement did not include claims by people who seek compensation for injury and death due to so-called sudden acceleration. The first trial in those lawsuits is set for February.

"Toyota wants to put its unintended acceleration recalls behind, once and for all, and, as costly as it might be, this settlement will allow them to remove most of the lingering financial uncertainty," said Jesse Toprak, auto analyst with TrueCar.com.

"Toyota's outstanding performance this year is a proof that consumer sentiment for the company's products has already recovered to a degree as if nothing ever happened," he said.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-27-Japan-Toyota/id-a48537f2bf03465c8b5c5063e23917ba

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How To Choose An Internet Host Web Hosting Firm | Traffic Secrets

Website hosting venture is blooming across the using the net industry. However hosting isn?t any uncomplicated position. Listed here is regarded as a minimal strategy on how one can start out a right hosting specialist.

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Alike each individual corporation, website hosting online business necessities accurate arranging and implementation. Before starting the world wide web internet hosting service; make sure you have a very suitable idea why you should technique bit by bit and exactly how to execute recommendations. Issues these types of as promotion finances and server preservation must be provided a conscientious thought before starting an online hosting small business. Different types of command panels this type of as cPanel, Directadmin, H-Sphere, Gnupanel are utilized in Hosting. Decide an acceptable panel that satisfies nicely towards your needs.

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The following action may be to purchase a suitable hosting template or retain some specialist developer to create your website. Some reseller host vendors also make available the 100 % free internet hosting template. To catch the customer?s interest come up with a handsome web pages by having an online page consist 3-5 policies of various tags. To appeal to the shoppers quote the cost programs in addition.

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Always make sure for each and every customer you?ve a welcome mail. This builds an intimacy around you and your clients. For brand spanking new indicator ups you?ll be able to give on your first mail couple of functionality like as: an affirmation message for the approach picked, a short lived username and password, control panel backlink, back links on your assist desk, FAQ etcetera.

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Billing software program is essential function which an online host could have; while using billing software programs you can easlily quite simply synchronize your work, customers and orders. Accounts lab pro, Clientexec, Modernbill etc will be the most widely used billing scripts.

Cost:

For accepting internet repayments you will really need to indication up for a Merchant account. In the similar time, an SSL certificate together with a payment specified absent can be used to just accept internet based payments. Authorize.web, Worldpay, 2checkout etc, are a few for the famous repayments gateways.

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Promotion of the business enterprise is considered the essential. Showcase your new corporation by all your family members, friends along with the web-based. Seo, compensated news paper advertising and finding your internet site name in appropriate directories are cost-effective means of promotional your internet site.

Website hosting online business is one of the durable work opportunities until you have the technical knowhow including a strong establishment in laptop or computer product administration. Genuinely this discipline expectations professionals who will furnish devoted help to their shoppers.

Web Hosting Resellers Introduction can present you with most information for Web Hosting Necessities.Be sure to go to the blog post for more details!

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Source: http://traffic-secrets.org/how-to-choose-an-internet-host-web-hosting-firm

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Pilgrims mark Christmas in Bethlehem

At midnight mass in the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, the cradle of Christianity, the message was of peace, love and goodwill to all mankind. NBC's Martin Fletcher reports.

By The Associated Press

Pilgrims and locals celebrated Christmas Day on Tuesday in the ancient Bethlehem church where tradition holds Jesus was born, candles illuminating the sacred site and the joyous sound of prayer filling its overflowing halls.

Overcast skies and a cold wind didn't dampen the spirits of worshippers who came dressed in holiday finery and the traditional attire of foreign lands to mark the holy day in this biblical West Bank town. Bells pealed and long lines formed inside the fourth-century Church of the Nativity complex as Christian faithful waited eagerly to see the grotto that is Jesus' traditional birthplace.

Duncan Hardock, 24, a writer from MacLean, Va., traveled to Bethlehem from the republic of Georgia, where he had been teaching English. After passing through the separation barrier Israel built to ward off West Bank attackers, he walked to Bethlehem's Manger Square where the church stands.

"I feel we got to see both sides of Bethlehem in a really short period of time," Hardock said. "On our walk from the wall, we got to see the lonesome, closed side of Bethlehem ... But the moment we got into town, we're suddenly in the middle of the party."

Bethlehem lies 6 miles south of Jerusalem. Entry to the city is controlled by Israel, which occupied the West Bank in 1967.

Hardock's girlfriend, 22-year-old Jennifer Gemmell of Longmont, Colorado, compared the festive spirit in Manger Square on Christmas Eve, saying "it's like being at Times Square at New Year's."

Boy's Christmas wish: Adoption of little brother caught in US-Russia spat

The cavernous church was unable to hold all the worshippers who had hoped to celebrate Christmas Day Mass inside. A loudspeaker outside the church broadcast the service to the hundreds in the square who could not pack inside.

Paul J. Richards / AFP - Getty Images

In churches and bus stations, on water skis and bicycles, people from the Middle East to middle America celebrate Christmas.

Pope's prayer for peace
Tourists in the square posed for pictures as vendors hawked olive wood rosaries, nativity scenes, corn on the cob, roasted nuts, tea and coffee.

An official from the Palestinian tourism ministry predicted 10,000 foreigners would visit Bethlehem on Christmas Day and said 15,000 visited on Christmas Eve ? up 20 percent from a year earlier. The official, Rula Maia'a, attributed the rise in part to the Church of the Nativity's classification earlier this year as a U.N. World Heritage Site.

Christians from Israel ? Arab citizens and others ? also boosted the number of visitors.

Germany's latest big export: Christmas markets

On Christmas Eve, thousands of Christians from all over the world packed the square, which was awash in light, resplendent with decorations and adorned by a lavishly decorated, 55-foot fir tree. Their Palestinian hosts, who welcome this holiday as the high point of their city's year, were especially joyous this season, proud of the United Nations' recognition of an independent state of Palestine just last month.

On Monday evening, Pope Benedict XVI prayed that Israelis and Palestinians live in peace and freedom, and asked the faithful to pray for strife-torn Syria as well as Lebanon and Iraq.

He urged people to reflect upon what they find time for in their busy, technology-driven lives.

A family's Christmas wish: Healthy heart for girl

"The great moral question of our attitude toward the homeless, toward refugees and migrants takes on a deeper dimension: Do we really have room for God when he seeks to enter under our roof? Do we have time and space for him?" the pope said.

"The faster we can move, the more efficient our time-saving appliances become, the less time we have. And God? The question of God never seems urgent," Benedict lamented.

Later Tuesday, the world's Christmas focus will shift to Vatican City, where the pope will deliver his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" speech ? Latin for "to the city and the world" ? from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica to thousands of pilgrims, tourists and Romans gathered in the piazza below.

More world stories from NBC News:

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

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/25/16141352-like-times-square-at-new-years-pilgrims-mark-christmas-in-bethlehem?lite

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College Basketball Rankings: Duke Still No. 1 In AP Poll, Syracuse Drops To 9th

Amile Jefferson #21, Josh Hairston #15, Quinn Cook #2, Tyler Thornton #3 and Alex Murphy #12 of the Duke Blue Devils huddle during a stop in play against the Elon Phoenix at Cameron Indoor Stadium on December 20, 2012 in Durham, North Carolina. Duke defeated Elon 76-54. (Photo by Lance King/Getty Images)

Duke and Michigan remain the top two teams in The Associated Press' college basketball poll while Syracuse drops from third to ninth after its first loss.

The Blue Devils received all but two of the first-place votes Monday from the 65-member national media panel. Michigan got the others.

Arizona, Louisville and Indiana all moved up one place to third through fifth. Kansas, which won at Ohio State, moved from ninth to sixth. Missouri, which beat Illinois, jumped from 12th to seventh. Cincinnati advanced from 11th to eighth. Syracuse, which lost to Temple, and Ohio State complete the top 10.

Pittsburgh and Kansas State are the newcomers to the poll at 24th and 25th. They replace New Mexico and North Carolina, which dropped out from 16th and 23rd after losses to South Dakota State and Texas.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/24/college-basketball-rankings-duke-still-no-1-syracuse_n_2360274.html

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How to cope with a slow connection away from home

15 hrs.

Whitson Gordon, Lifehacker

Q. ?I'm going home for the holidays, and my parents have a very slow connection. Do you have any tips for getting my work done effectively when everything's moving slower than molasses??

Separate your Internet-heavy work and postpone it?
A.?Before you start making tweaks to your browser and computer, it's a good idea to take stock of what work you have and separate it into two categories. GigaOM explains:

Divide your tasks into bandwidth-heavy and bandwidth-light. Evaluate your routine web tasks and see which ones you can do with a slow connection, and which ones require a faster, more reliable one. This is especially important if your mobile Internet provider charges based on bandwidth usage instead of time. Aliza Sherman did something similar in a previous post, to help her work around bandwidth limits.

This is particularly useful if you know you're going to be stuck on a slow connection, but even if you get yourself in a bind, you can still do some re-prioritization quickly. If you have some Internet-heavy tasks that can't wait, you should delegate them to someone else if you can???heck, even offer to pick up some of your co-workers' Internet-light load if they can help you out.

Tweak your browser for low-speed connections
Chances are, your browser isn't exactly primed for slow Internet speeds. So, we recommend grabbing a second browser that you can tweak to work better with slow connections. Opera is a great choice, because it has a Turbo Mode that optimizes the Web for faster loading, but no matter what, there are a number of tweaks you can make to speed up your browser, like:

With these few tweaks in place, you should find things run a little smoother and you won't be stuck waiting for pages quite as long.

Use mobile, HTML or other low-footprint sites
These days, a lot of websites load up their pages with junk that isn't really a problem when you have a normal high-speed connection, but can really bog things down when your connection is limited. Some of them have alternatives in place.?

Gmail, for example, has a handy HTML version that you can use to cut down on the crap when you need to get into your email quicker. You can also see if a specific site has a mobile version, designed for smartphones. Most mobile sites will only load if you're actually on a mobile device, though, so you'll want to change your browser's user agent to make sites recognize you as a smartphone.

Work outside your browser whenever possible
The?more you stay in your browser, the longer you'll be waiting for pages to load. Travel website Gadling recommends transferring as much of that work outside your browser as possible. For example, if you write on a blog or do any work in Google Docs, transfer that to a desktop app like Microsoft Office or LibreOffice for the time being. Heck, you can even compose an email in Notepad while you wait for it to load???don't waste any time watching a progress bar when you could be doing something else.

When you do have to work in your browser, try not to put too much stress on it. Open one tab at a time, so you aren't trying to load a bunch of pages at once (since it'll take them longer, and you can only read one at a time). Close tabs you aren't using often, as they can often take up bandwidth even if you aren't looking at them.

Turn off bandwidth-sucking background apps?
With all the focus on your browser, you may forget that other apps like Dropbox might be taking up precious bandwidth in the background. Close any and all of those you don't need to do your work, or put them into offline mode so they aren't constantly checking if they need to sync. Some apps may require some foresight for this to work: Notational Velocity and ResophNotes will work fine without a connection, for example, but Evernote will require you to go into its settings and download your notebooks before it'll work in offline mode.

When all else fails, find better Wi-Fi?
No one wants to rush around all day trying to find better Internet, but if what you're using is just too slow, look elsewhere. Free Wi-Fi is everywhere, and if at first you don't succeed, find a faster hotspot. You won't be able to do this all day if you have work to get done, but you should be able to find something that's somewhat workable for the time being.

More from Lifehacker:

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/how-deal-slow-internet-connection-away-home-1C7660214

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Merry Christmas from My Family! - Southern Hospitality

This week is going to be a relaxed one.? Lauren is home with her hubby, Philip and we?ll all gather at my sister?s house for Christmas Day and her husband?s extended family will be there too.? It will be a nice day of enjoying family, eating (as usual!), and being thankful for another blessed year.

Here are a few shots of what has been going on with my parents over the weekend. I know you love to see them!? With Lauren home, they love to have her around as much as possible so I took some pics while Lauren and Mom made cheese straws, a Southern delicacy.? I?ll have to see if the lady we got the recipe from will let me share it with you and I can do that later.? Cheese straws are at every Southern wedding.

They mixed up the cheese dough with the KitchenAid mixer.

Mom had an ancient cookie press that they used to squeeze them out.

After a little trial and error on which tip to use, they finally got it right.

Filling the press.

This tip worked much better and these looked really pretty and tasted great.? They did have a bit of trouble getting them to get done and had to bake them longer than the recipe called for (that?s why I hesitate to pass it on).

Dad loves to supervise in the kitchen, even though he is definitely NOT a cook.? He will offer his opinion on how things can be improved upon, just ask him.? Or better yet, don?t ask him, he?ll tell you anyway.

He?s so happy his baby granddaughter is home for Christmas, sitting in his lap as she has been doing since she was born 30 years ago.

Merry Christmas to all of you, my readers!? I?m so, so grateful for every one of you who take the time to come by and visit me every week.? I love talking to you all and sharing my life with you and I?m so glad you find this family interesting!

May this season fill your hearts with joy and peace and remember who we celebrate this time of year.? Jesus is truly the reason for the season!? Be blessed!

I?ll be back on Wednesday with a post and Thursday with the Best Projects of 2012 party, so I hope you?ll link up with me.

Source: http://southernhospitalityblog.com/merry-christmas-from-my-family/

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Subdued mood on the last holiday shopping weekend

In this Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012 photo, people walk through the Fashion Island shopping center in Newport Beach, Calif. A confluence of factors has led to a muted approach to holiday shopping in 2012 - bad news for retailers, which can make up to 40 percent of annual sales during November and December and were counting on the last weekend before Christmas to make up for lost dollars earlier in the season. The Saturday before Christmas was expected to be the second biggest sales day behind the Friday after Thanksgiving. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

In this Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012 photo, people walk through the Fashion Island shopping center in Newport Beach, Calif. A confluence of factors has led to a muted approach to holiday shopping in 2012 - bad news for retailers, which can make up to 40 percent of annual sales during November and December and were counting on the last weekend before Christmas to make up for lost dollars earlier in the season. The Saturday before Christmas was expected to be the second biggest sales day behind the Friday after Thanksgiving. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

In this Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012 photo, people walk through a mall in Orlando, Fla. A confluence of factors has led to a muted approach to holiday shopping in 2012 - bad news for retailers, which can make up to 40 percent of annual sales during November and December and were counting on the last weekend before Christmas to make up for lost dollars earlier in the season. The Saturday before Christmas was expected to be the second biggest sales day behind the Friday after Thanksgiving. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Last-minute Christmas shoppers crowd the Willowbrook Mall searching for gifts, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, in Wayne, N.J. This holiday season, Americans have a lot on their minds on top of the now familiar job worries. (AP Photo/The Record (Bergen County NJ), Chris Pedota) ONLINE OUT; MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET OUT; NO ARCHIVING; MANDATORY CREDIT.

Last-minute Christmas shoppers crowd the Willowbrook Mall searching for gifts, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, in Wayne, N.J. This holiday season, Americans have a lot on their minds on top of the now familiar job worries. (AP Photo/The Record (Bergen County NJ), Chris Pedota) ONLINE OUT; MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET OUT; NO ARCHIVING; MANDATORY CREDIT.

ATLANTA (AP) ? Christmas shoppers thronged malls and pounced on discounts but apparently spent less this year, their spirits dampened by concerns about the economy and the aftermath of shootings and storms.

Talk about more than just the usual job worries to cloud the mood: Confidence among U.S. consumers dipped to its lowest point in December since July amid rising economic worries, according to a monthly index released Friday.

Marshal Cohen, chief research analyst at NPD Inc., a market research firm with a network of analysts at shopping centers nationwide, estimates customer traffic over the weekend was in line with the same time a year ago, but that shoppers seem to be spending less.

"There was this absence of joy for the holiday," Cohen said. "There was no Christmas spirit. There have been just too many distractions."

Shoppers are increasingly worried about the "fiscal cliff" deadline ? the possibility that a stalemate between Congress and the White House over the U.S. budget could trigger a series of tax increases and spending cuts starting Jan. 1

The recent Newtown, Conn., school shooting also dampened shoppers' spirits atop the fall's retail woes after Superstorm Sandy's passage up the East Coast.

The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, which account for 24 percent of retail sales nationwide, were tripped up by Sandy when the enormous storm clobbered the region in late October, disrupting businesses and households for weeks.

All that spelled glum news for retailers, which can make up to 40 percent of annual sales during November and December. They were counting on the last weekend before Christmas to make up for lost dollars earlier in the season.

The Saturday before Christmas was expected to be the second biggest sales day behind the Friday after Thanksgiving.

After a strong Black Friday weekend, the four-day weekend that starts on Thanksgiving, when sales rose 2.7 percent, the lull that usually follows has been even more pronounced. Sales fell 4.3 percent for the week ended Dec. 15, according to the latest figures from ShopperTrak, which counts foot traffic and its own proprietary sales numbers from 40,000 retail outlets across the country. On Wednesday, ShopperTrak cut its forecast for holiday spending down to 2.5 percent growth to $257.7 billion, from prior expectations of a 3.3 percent rise.

Online, sales rose just 8.4 percent to $48 billion from Oct. 28 through Saturday, according to a measure by MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse. That is below the online sales growth of between 15 to 17 percent seen in the prior 18-month period, according to the data service, which tracks all spending across all forms of payment, including cash.

At the malls, overall promotions were up 2 to 3 percent from last year heading into the pre-Christmas weekend, after being down 5 percent earlier in the season, according to BMO Capital Markets sales rack index, which tracks the depth and breadth of discounts.

Attempting to drum up enthusiasm, retailers have expanded hours and stepped up discounts.

At The Garden State Plaza, teen retailer Aeropostale discounted all clothing and accessories by 60 percent. Charles David, Cachet and AnnTaylor had cut prices by 50 percent of all merchandise. At AnnTaylor, racks of discounted clothes had been marked down by an additional 25 percent. One dress, originally priced at $118, was marked down to $49 but with the additional 25 percent, it cost $21.30.

But the deals at the mall failed to impress Wendy McCloskey, 35, of Lebanon, Ind., who started her holiday shopping Sunday at the Castleton Square Mall in Indianapolis. A snow storm that blustered through the Midwest this week delayed her shopping plans, and a busy schedule with her children also got in the way.

"I was so surprised. I figured they'd have better deals," she said.

And at The Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J., Linda Fitzgerald said she didn't feel like shopping this season, facing a sister's cancer diagnosis atop worries about the economy and the Connecticut shooting.

"It's so hard to put yourself in the mood," said Linda Fitzgerald, a 51-year-old nurse from Yonkers who went out weekend shopping with her 17-month-old granddaughter in tow.

___

Anne D'Innocenzio reported from New York. Tom Murphy in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-24-AP-US-Holiday-Shopping/id-c8581c31c7094f8780f55acffe32bd2e

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