Saturday, June 30, 2012

Official: Alleged Fort Bragg shooter faced court martial

By By NBC News? Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube

The Army soldier who allegedly shot and killed his battalion commander at Fort Bragg, N.C., on Thursday was facing court martial and possible discharge from the Army on criminal charges, U.S. military officials told NBC News. The Army specialist, whose identity has not been released, was also shot and critically wounded, and is not expected to survive.

According to officials, the specialist walked up to his battalion commander, a Lieutenant Colonel, and without warning pulled a pistol and shot the commander three times in the head and twice in the chest. Other soldiers rushed the shooter, who was shot in the head in the ensuing struggle and critically wounded, officials said. A third soldier also suffered a minor gunshot wound.


Officials said the shooter had been an Army specialist for 8 years, and was accused of stealing a tool box worth $1,700 from Fort Bragg motor pool, and was in line for a special court martial on criminal charges. That specialist had also been a member of the security detail in Afghanistan for the officer killed Thursday.

The soldier shot his commander during a safety brief ? in this case, a 10- to 15-minute lecture about staying safe for the upcoming Fourth of July weekend.

?This is a tragedy for our community,? Col. Kevin Arata, spokesman for Fort Bragg, said?at a press conference. ?We don?t yet know the reasons for the shooting, but are working with the unit and the affected families to help them through this difficult period.?

Special agents from the Army?s Criminal Investigation team were on site Thursday evening.

Msnbc.com's Isolde Raftery contributed to this report.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/29/12479855-alleged-fort-bragg-shooter-faced-court-martial-discharge-officials-say?lite

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Want bigger plants? Get to the root of the matter

Want bigger plants? Get to the root of the matter [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Catie Lichten
leitac@gmail.com
44-777-279-5646
Society for Experimental Biology

Plant scientists have imaged and analyzed, for the first time, how a potted plant's roots are arranged in the soil as the plant develops. In this study, to be presented at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting on 30th June, the team has also found that doubling plant pot size makes plants grow over 40% larger.

From their 3-D MRI root scans, the researchers observed that potted plants quickly extend their roots to the pot's walls. It is likely that the plants use their roots to 'sense' the size of the pot, although the details of how the roots relay the message about the pot's size remain the plants' secret.

They also looked at 65 independent studies across a wide range of species including tomato, corn, pine tree, cactus, wheat, and cotton plants, and found that all species reach larger sizes when grown in a bigger pot. On average, doubling pot size allowed plants to grow 43% larger.

Dr Hendrik Poorter (Forschungszentrum Jlich, Germany) who led the study, said: "There has been commercial interest in seeing how small pots can be, but our aim was to see how big a pot needs to be to avoid affecting plant experiments."

The work is relevant for gardeners too. Poorter added, "After this study, I immediately changed the pot size for all the plants I had in my house."

To understand the pot size effect, the scientists looked at various aspects of the plants' growth. They found that the plants in smaller pots grew more slowly because of a decreased rate of photosynthesis. But, looking for causes for the decrease, the scientists ruled out limitations in water and nutrients and did not find any differences in the thickness of the leaves for plants in smaller pots. It is therefore unlikely that the plants use water and nutrient levels to sense the pot size, supporting the possibility that sensing happens another way, such as by the roots.

###


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?


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


Want bigger plants? Get to the root of the matter [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 30-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Catie Lichten
leitac@gmail.com
44-777-279-5646
Society for Experimental Biology

Plant scientists have imaged and analyzed, for the first time, how a potted plant's roots are arranged in the soil as the plant develops. In this study, to be presented at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting on 30th June, the team has also found that doubling plant pot size makes plants grow over 40% larger.

From their 3-D MRI root scans, the researchers observed that potted plants quickly extend their roots to the pot's walls. It is likely that the plants use their roots to 'sense' the size of the pot, although the details of how the roots relay the message about the pot's size remain the plants' secret.

They also looked at 65 independent studies across a wide range of species including tomato, corn, pine tree, cactus, wheat, and cotton plants, and found that all species reach larger sizes when grown in a bigger pot. On average, doubling pot size allowed plants to grow 43% larger.

Dr Hendrik Poorter (Forschungszentrum Jlich, Germany) who led the study, said: "There has been commercial interest in seeing how small pots can be, but our aim was to see how big a pot needs to be to avoid affecting plant experiments."

The work is relevant for gardeners too. Poorter added, "After this study, I immediately changed the pot size for all the plants I had in my house."

To understand the pot size effect, the scientists looked at various aspects of the plants' growth. They found that the plants in smaller pots grew more slowly because of a decreased rate of photosynthesis. But, looking for causes for the decrease, the scientists ruled out limitations in water and nutrients and did not find any differences in the thickness of the leaves for plants in smaller pots. It is therefore unlikely that the plants use water and nutrient levels to sense the pot size, supporting the possibility that sensing happens another way, such as by the roots.

###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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/2012-06/sfeb-wbp062712.php

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Page Not Found - Yahoo!

Please check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Yahoo!, try visiting the Yahoo! homepage or look through a list of Yahoo!'s online services.

Please try Yahoo Help Central if you need more assistance.

Source: http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/weightloss

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Friday, June 29, 2012

Book Talk: Former Peace Corp volunteer finds Africa changed

[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/book-talk-former-peace-corp-volunteer-finds-africa-091840203.html

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You Could Find Out About Home Businesses Online ...

Achieving success at a home-based business is not everybody?s fortune, but don?t let that prevent you from trying it out. Right now you just need to a computer to set up, for a minimal cost, a business that you can manage from home. The barriers are low: a high speed internet connection which is cheap nowadays, plus a bit of determination to get the necessary research carried out. As opposed to a local brick-and-mortar business, which is costly to set up, and is confined to local customers, your computer business can be world wide. Everyone in the world having internet access is a potential client.

There are numerous opportunities you might be interested in trying, if you are serious about giving a web business a go. To make a start you most certainly don?t need to be an IT nerd, but being familiar with using a computer would be helpful. Quite often, making money online has nothing to do with your technical skills, but with how much you know about the things you love doing. A good example of a web business for folks who are good at writing would be doing copy writing. As they say, content is king, so individuals with writing skills can readily become freelance writers for those who aren?t any good at writing. The secret, if you could provide a particular skill, like content in our writer?s example, is to find people who have a need for it and sell it to them. Put together a few samples of what you can do, advertise yourself, and in no time at all you could be making money. Stroke By Stroke

There are online auction sites that are making big money for many people. You can purchase goods at wholesale value and sell them at retail, or you may already have products suitable for selling on the internet. The hard work of getting shoppers to see your offers is carried out by the online auction sites, like eBay. All you need to do, is figure out a price for your item, list it on the market, and then wait until a buyer chooses your product. Once the customer makes the purchase, you will receive the payment and then complete the purchase by sending the purchaser their product. click here

Life is starting to be easier in lots of ways through the improvements in technology. The computer has given average people the opportunity to own their own business. Not only does the internet have lots of products to sell, but there is enough information online to show you how to sell them. If you could identify a business model that appeals to you and apply it to your own start-up business, that would be great.

If you are merely interested in making a little extra money in your free time, you will be able to do that effortlessly on the Internet. Connect your computer up to the Internet and you will be able to find huge amounts of information about putting up a business on the web. Get started on your research and you could soon begin making money. buy Chopper Tattoo

Source: http://roxburygreenpower.com/you-could-find-out-about-home-businesses-online

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Google puts Chrome on iPhone and iPad (update 2: it's out!)

Google puts Chrome on iPhone and iPad

Google just did what many thought wasn't possible -- it just put mobile Chrome on iOS. Both iPad and iPhone users will get the app, either with incognito browsing, syncing and that unique tabbed browsing interface intact. The company hasn't said what's changed versus the Android build, but it's likely the main differences are matters of integration -- Apple's app rules won't let Google bring in its own WebKit rendering engine tweaks or change the default browser. Whether or not that switch is a dealbreaker, Chrome should be available later today in the App Store for those who want a break from the Safari norm.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012's developer conference at our event hub!

Update: No download just yet, but Google is teasing us with a video that you can find after the break. The iOS port shows up at the 43-second mark.

Update 2: It's available! Hit the source link to get your copy.

Continue reading Google puts Chrome on iPhone and iPad (update 2: it's out!)

Google puts Chrome on iPhone and iPad (update 2: it's out!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceApp Store  | Email this | Comments


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/jgQkX-1HOgM/

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Thursday, June 28, 2012

BofA's Michelle Meyer's Presentation On The US ... - Business Insider

BofA Merrill Lynch just had its 2012 mid-year press conference with a line-up of some of their top macro analysts.

Michelle Meyer, senior U.S. economist, presented her outlook on the U.S. economy.

Here are the key talking points on GDP growth, Fed action, housing:

  • GDP: Meyer is holding on to BofA's below-consensus forecast and expects this recovery to be slow. Consensus forecast is for GDP to mid to low-2% growth in the second half of the year. The house view however is 1.3% in Q3 and 1.0% in Q4.
  • Three reasons for below-consensus growth (i) This is a very different business cycle because it was a balance-sheet recession, credit markets aren't operating like they normally do, housing isn't contributing to recovery; (ii) the 'Fiscal Cliff' - What's crucial to growth is not the size of the cliff, but the reaction to the coming cliff. The uncertainty that will filter into business and consumer decisions will likely cause a slowing in corporate spending and slow the pace of hiring. (iii) Spill-over from Europe.
  • Monetary Policy: "The Fed will re-engage. We don't think the Fed will sit idle in this environment". The next move will be to extend the cautious forward guidance, as early as August, but more likely in September. Low interest rates could be extended to mid-2015 or late-2015 depending on data.
  • "QE3 is a real possibility". QE3 could be about $500 billion and be concentrated in mortgages and could come in the September FOMC meeting.?
  • Fiscal Cliff: The total size of the 'Fiscal Cliff' is about 4.5 percent of GDP ($720 billion). The measures in the fiscal cliff that are very contentious or what Meyer refers to as the "Battleground" include the payroll tax cut, extended unemployment, debt ceiling #2 (sequester), Bush tax cuts, and Obamacare taxes. Most of the struggle will be with the sequester and Bush tax cuts.
  • The Actual Fiscal Cliff: Lame duck Congress will likely enact stop-gap measures that should prevent the 4.5 percent fiscal tightening. The actual shock to the economy should be about 2 percent.
  • Housing: There are some signs of life in the housing market but we can't depend on it to save the economy. "We can look to the housing market to at least stop contracting from growth and start to add in certain sectors".?
  • Home Prices: Home prices have bottomed at a national level but bottoming is different from a strong, sustained recovery. It is going to be a "bumpy bottoming" and a "true turn" will come in 2014 and 2015 once more foreclosures have been cleared, and once the economy is stronger. Housing starts will gradually increase this year and the next. The overall level of housing starts is at a historically low level and therefore account for a smaller share of the economy. For there to be a significant impact, there needs to be a real bounce. Construction will add 0.2 percentage points to GDP this year.

Don't Miss: SocGen's Huge Presentation On The State Of The U.S. Economy >

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SEO or PPC? | Netregistry Blog

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), PPC (Pay Per Click) ? digital marketing is an acronym-heavy minefield that businesses can spend precious resources attempting to decode. That?s why it?s helpful to understand the pros and cons of each marketing strategy before determining the one that?s right for you and your business objectives.

Although the most effective marketing plans integrate both strategies, maximising ROI (Return On Investment) depends on your understanding of the characteristics of each. Our roundup of digital marketing facts will help you on your way.

PPC is better for conversions; SEO is the biggest driver of traffic

It?s true that pay per click (PPC) advertising is a powerful conversion tool ? the context-sensitive nature of the model sparks more clicks than its search engine optimisation (SEO) counterpart. However, SEO accounts for 88 per cent of all web traffic, while PPC generates a modest 12 per cent. These are important statistics to consider when deciding on a specific online marketing technique that is in line with your priorities.

PPC is easier to customise

It?s important that your online marketing techniques are agile enough to adapt to changing business needs, such as new customer subsets and products you?re interested in highlighting. PPC is the obvious winner in this department, allowing marketers to change a campaign?s keywords in moments. Conversely, SEO keywords are usually incorporated into titles, headings and unique quality content ? a fact that makes implementing change a risky and labour-intensive affair.

PPC achieves a higher ranking in SERPS

Because paid ads create higher profits for search engines, PPC ads are displayed at the top and along the right hand side of a search page, boding well for the online visibility of your business. However, SEO?s capacity to draw long-tail traffic equates to greater longevity in terms of search.

SEO?s higher barriers to entry create a stronger competitive advantage

Using SEO as your primary online marketing strategy demands extensive keyword research and a considered approach to quality content creation. But this means that nailing good SEO practices from the onset and maintaining these as your business evolves is likely to generate traffic and conversions over the long haul. Mastering good SEO can give you a ranking that?s consistently higher than your rivals ? an attribute that gives you a powerful competitive edge.

If there is one point that online businesses must take away, it is that SEO and PPC both have a significant place in the digital marketing landscape. Dependent upon what you are trying to achieve online, your budget and your current business goals, SEO and PPC have different attributes that can help you achieve your goals.

In this fast pace digital world, it can be confusing and difficult to know what the best practice is; you might need to have a chat with an SEO or SEA expert who would be able to provide you with a more guided outline of your next digital step.

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7 trillion degrees Fahrenheit: Atom-smashing physicists break temperature record

An atom smasher at Brookhaven National Laboratory?has attained a Guinness World Record for highest manmade temperature, generating heat that is 250,000 times warmer than the sun.

By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Managing Editor,?LiveScience / June 27, 2012

An ordinary proton or neutron (foreground) is formed of three quarks bound together by gluons, carriers of the color force. Above a critical temperature, protons and neutrons and other forms of hadronic matter "melt" into a hot, dense soup of free quarks and gluons (background), the quark-gluon plasma.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Enlarge

A giant atom-smashing racetrack of sorts has just broken a Guinness World Record by reaching the highest man-made temperature ever recorded, scientists announced Monday (June 25).

Skip to next paragraph

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How hot? 250,000 times hotter than the center of the sun.

This scorching achievement happened inside the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), which is a 2.4-mile (3.9 kilometers) underground track where particles smash into one another under conditions that existed about a millionth of a second after the Big Bang.

The new feat, at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., occurred when gold nuclei (the positively charged part of the atom made of protons and neutrons) were sent speeding around RHIC at near light-speed until they crashed into each other. When the ions collide, the enormous energy released is so intense it melts the neutrons and protons inside the gold nuclei into their constituent parts, namely quarks and gluons. [Album: Behind the Scenes at RHIC]

This soup of quarks and gluons formed nearly friction-free primordial plasma thought to resemble the stuff that filled the universe just after the Big Bang created it some 13.7 billion years ago. (This matter would have cooled and condensed to form the protons and neutrons that make up the matter here today.)

RHIC physicists have measured the temperature of this quark-gluon plasma, finding it reaches around 7.2 trillion degrees Fahrenheit (4 trillion degrees Celsius).

"There are many cool things about this ultra-hot matter," physicist Steven Vigdor, who leads Brookhaven's nuclear and particle physics program, said in a statement. He added that while they expected to reach such super-hot temperatures, "we did not at all anticipate the nearly perfect liquid behavior."

This friction-free liquid occurs at both ends of the temperature spectrum, the researchers said.

"Other physicists have now observed quite similar liquid behavior in trapped atom samples at temperatures near absolute zero, ten million trillion times colder than the quark-gluon plasma we create at RHIC," Vigdor said.

RHIC may not hold onto its hot record for long. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland smashes lead ions together at near light-speed; one experiment there dubbed ALICE (a large ion collider experiment) may be in a position to trump RHIC's record.

"The energy density at the LHC is a factor of three higher than at RHIC," said CERN physicist Despina Hatzifotiadou in a statement. "This translates to a 30-percent increase in absolute temperature compared to the value achieved by RHIC. So I would say that ALICE has the record!"

Not so fast. ALICE researchers have yet to publish an official measure of the temperature for its quark-gluon plasma.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Figure Out How To Get In Shape Without Having A Health and fitness

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Establishing credit as a youngin'? | Wall Street Oasis

I don't understand how hard it is to own a credit card and use it responsibly. It honestly BLOWS my mind that people think they can charge things to the card and not be able to pay for it in full by the end of the month. Unless you fall into hard times and HAVE to pay for something urgent, like medical bills or whatnot, there simply is no fucking excuse to have shitty credit and credit card debt.

I opened a credit card when I was a freshman in college in 2007 and paid it off FULLY each and every single month. It's just common fucking sense that you can't spend more than what you have/make.

I almost never ever carry cash and use my credit card for all my purchases whenever possible, which is pretty much everything I ever buy. I have excellent credit (750+) and my credit limits are pretty damn high.

When I hear my friends say they're scared to use one and only use debit cards, I just don't understand how they can rationalize this. These are smart kids too.

Fucking get a credit card, use it, and pay it off in FULL every month. How hard is that?!

I don't care how smart you are, how much money you make, or anything. If you can't handle a credit card responsibly, you are fucking retarded. It's not rocket science.

There is absolutely no freaking way I can fuck myself by charging so much to my credit card to extend a lifestyle that would crush me were I to lose my job because I live below my means, have saved up a good chunk of change, and USE MY CREDIT CARD RESPONSIBLY!

OP: get a Visa/Mastercard and use it for necessary purchases and pay it off in full every single month. Once you graduate and land a job, get an Amex. Those things are fucking amazing when it comes to purchase protection, warranty extensions, fraud protection, everything!

Because of this goddamn recession and the credit crunch, it's going to be so much more advantageous and important to have 'EXCELLENT' credit. Start early, aka, NOW.

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Video: Time to Buy Oil on the Sell-Off?

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USA Payday Forever Announces New Payday Loan Guide For ...

(PRWEB) May 26, 2012

Recently, USA Payday Forever announced that they have worked to create a new financial guide for their payday loan customers. This new guide for payday loan customers contains specific information about how they can take more control over their finances, as well as how to handle cash advance services properly. USA Payday Forever has said that the guide is still being edited, and also that a release date has not yet been announced.

USA Payday Forever as a part of their overall customer service campaign for cash advance customers has created the new payday loan guide. This campaign, while not fully implemented, has included the training of their cash advance customer service representatives, new personal finance services, and will soon launch a social media campaign for their cash advance website.

A representative for USA Payday Forever stated that they hope to release the new personal finance guide at the start of their social media campaign. He said that the idea is to be able to help customers to get back on their feet, since thats why they seek personal loan services to begin with. The goal is to make sure they wont need to continuously get stuck using cash advance services.

The company recently reported that their personal finance social media campaign is still on hold. They had made the announcement that their company was undergoing some major changes. These major changes include a new company name, as well as a brand new personal finance website. According to USA Payday Forever, this new website is currently under construction at the new domain, which is yet to be revealed.

About USA Payday Forever USA Payday Forever is an online personal finance company that helps consumers to find and obtain payday loan services. For more information, please visit their website at http://www.usapaydayforever.com.

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Rio Summit? More like the absolute nadir

SOME things defy parody. Leila Lopes - Miss Universe - came to last week's Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro to help celebrate World Desertification Day. Thus a treaty to hold back the deserts - one of the signature outcomes of the first Earth Summit 20 years ago, agreed at a time when world leaders seemed to have real ambition to save the planet - was reprised in 2012 as a celebrity photo-op.

There were no new treaties signed this time, no new pledges that countries could be held accountable to. Even a much-heralded plan to start talks on a treaty to protect the high seas fell victim to a bizarre alliance of the US and Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.

I was in Rio for the first Earth Summit. Most of the world's leaders came too. They negotiated treaties on climate change, biodiversity and desertification. The story was headline news for two weeks. Reporting for this magazine, I felt part of history.

This time the final mealy-mouthed "declaration" was stitched up by civil servants the day before the modest crew of often second-tier politicians arrived. There was not even a place on the agenda for ministers to discuss the declaration, so they didn't. They spent three days reading prepared speeches and went home. By lunchtime on the final day, the place was emptying. There was nothing to stay for.

An assembly of 45,000 participants to discuss saving the world would seem like environmental profligacy at the best of times. When the outcome is so minimal, the absurdity is amplified. What on Earth did we think we were all doing here?

Nobody turned up expecting miracles, but even the most modest hopes were dashed. NGOs that are usually adept at finding crumbs of comfort at the end of long conferences seemed dumbstruck.

The natural scientists were the angriest. "What I have seen at this summit has utterly appalled me," said oceanographer Alex Rogers of the University of Oxford after the ocean treaty debacle. He headed back to the Indian Ocean to resume observation of sea mounts being trashed by trawlers.

A lot of things have been trashed in the past two decades, not least aspirations of sustainability. We are using resources twice as fast as in 1992. Carbon dioxide emissions are up 40 per cent. Some say at least we know better how to handle the mess. Green economics is maturing and may soon provide the figures to show that, as Sam Fankhauser of the London School of Economics put it here, "environmental protection is an investment, not a cost" (see "Earth Summit signals move to give nature a price tag").

Greens understandably fear market forces. But we can and must harness them to reignite the aspirations of 20 years ago, and technology does have the power to transform the way we do business. There are already signs that consumption has peaked in the industrialised world. Optimism is possible.

We should be in no doubt about the urgency, however. We are tampering with Earth's life-support systems. What is most dismaying is that the gap between what we could achieve and the political will to do so is growing dramatically larger. This is how civilisations end - like last week's conference, not with a bang but with a whimper.

Profile

Fred Pearce is New Scientist's environment consultant. He reported on the original Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992

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Old peace formulas proven wrong | Reporting on the Middle East ...

June 25, 2012 Monday 5 Tammuz 5772 12:15 IST jpost

Print Edition

Photo by: Brett Weinstein / Wikimedia Commons (CC)

By MARTIN SHERMAN
21/06/2012

When both reason, reality fail to impact on two-staters, Arab-appeasers, Muslim-mollifiers, perhaps all that remains is ridicule.

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.
? Euripides
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
? George Orwell

I must admit to a growing sense of exasperation and impatience with the imbecility (or iniquity) of the Israeli Left and the impotence (or insincerity) of the Israeli Right. So if my frustration expresses itself more intemperately than usual ? my apologies.
The crumbling edifice

But when confronted with such infuriating dogmatism on the one hand, and inept dereliction on the other, everyone has his limit when it comes to courtesy and decorum.
And there are indeed limits ? a limit to how long one can extend the benefit of the doubt to those who insist on advancing a consistently failed policy and still continue to believe they are doing so in good faith.
Or a limit on continuing to believe that those who ostensibly oppose this policy, but refrain from offering any real alternative, are sincere in their opposition to it.
The entire edifice of conventional wisdom regarding the Arab-Israel conflict is collapsing. The bedrock upon which the traditional approaches to a resolution of Middle East hostilities are based is crumbling, the fabric of accepted thinking unraveling.
The folly of a deal on the Golan with the Assad regime, the absurdity of an agreement with the unelected Fatah regime, the myopia of reliance on the durability of the peace with Egypt are all becoming increasingly obvious.
Yet to judge from the public discourse on developments in the Middle East it seems that nothing has changed.

?

Refusal to recognize realities
As if living in an alternative universe, pundits prattle on about the importance of the preservation the peace agreement with Egypt ? which, at best, was no more than a non-belligerence accord ? apparently oblivious to the fact that it has become little more than a nostalgic figment of the past, totally discordant with the prevailing mood across the land of the Nile.
As this week?s rocket attacks indicate, Sinai will either become a hotbed of jihadist terror, which even the sturdiest of hi-tech fences with not impede for long, or it will be remilitarized. It might become both. For recent calls from Israel for Egypt to ?exercise its sovereignty? to thwart such attacks constitute an invitation for the deployment of additional Egyptian troops in the demilitarized peninsula. Without such deployment Cairo can always claim it is incapable of combatting renegades forces that have taken control of much of the area.
However, given the less than amicable sentiments in Cairo toward Israel, it is in no way improbable that these reinforcements will have neither the resolve nor the inclination to reign in the activities of the anti- Israeli gangs. Or that they will be less than meticulous in preventing their own arms and equipment from falling into jihadist hands ? whether via theft or mutually profitable trade.
The failure to control the terrorists will in all likelihood be followed by demands to increase Egyptian military capabilities in Sinai even more. Given the paramount importance ascribed to the dead-letter peace accord, these will doubtless be agreed to by Israel.
Clearly this process will lead to increasing erosion of the demilitarization of Sinai ? the principal, arguably the only, benefit Israel derived from the 1979 peace treaty.
No Sinai, no peace, no demilitarization
Accordingly, it is far from implausible that soon Israel will face an openly hostile regime ensconced in Cairo, a significant and potentially belligerent military force deployed in Sinai, and active radical terrorist groups operating against its southern front ? from Gaza to Eilat ? either aided or unhindered by Egyptian regulars.
It would therefore be no more than self-evident prudence for Israeli strategic planners to adopt as their working assumption that the reality Israel will soon have to confront will be one of Three No?s: No Peace, No Sinai, No Demilitarization. Yet there seems little evidence that such dour realism is driving the agenda of the strategic discourse.
If anything, quite the opposite is true. It appears that the seismic shifts in the region have barely impacted the discussion concerning Israel?s policy options and imperatives.
Apparently impervious to the strategic significance of the tectonic changes that have swept through the region, figures who shape the debate seem welded to the past, clinging to the hopelessly unrealistic notions such as a two-state resolution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, acceptance of Israel by the Arab world and the reconstitution of the Turco-Israeli alignment.
Only ridicule remains
The dogmatic intransigence of committed two-staters, Arab-appeasers and Muslim- mollifiers seems immutable by means of reason or rational argument. Unwilling to admit error ? or even the possibility thereof ? they appear incapable of bringing themselves to concede that their noxious brew of delusion and hubris has created a situation of mortal peril.
No matter how frequently the facts disprove their doctrinaire perspective, they never admit to it being discredited ? stubbornly hoping against forlorn hope that somehow reality will eventually realize its mistake and see things their way.
It is becoming increasing difficult to avoid the conclusion that they are persisting in their proposal for a two-state solution and nearly unreserved accommodation of Arab demands, not because they think it is a formula that can provide a stable solution, but because they feel that if they admit it cannot, they will irreparably undermine their professional standing and personal prestige.
So if these folks can?t be reasoned out of their untenable positions, perhaps they can be ridiculed out of them by underscoring ? brusquely ? how ludicrous and unrealistic, how disingenuous and hypocritical, how counter-productive and self-obstructive their proposals are. Or alternatively how subversive and seditious they are.
For in light of the recurring failure of their prognoses, there are only two explanations for their obduracy ? malice or idiocy. And whatever the truth is, it must be exposed.
Stupid or subversive?
Take for instance Dennis Ross?s latest ?contribution? at this week?s Presidential Conference in Jerusalem ? where he prescribed that Israel should not only undermine its security, but its economy as well, ?to restore belief in a two-state solution.?
Predictably, Ross studiously disregarded the fact, once so compellingly conveyed by his host Shimon Peres, that ?if a Palestinian state is established, it will be armed to the teeth. Within it there will be bases of the most extreme terrorist forces, who will be equipped with anti-tank and anti-aircraft shoulder-launched rockets, which will endanger not only random passersby, but also every airplane and helicopter taking off in the skies of Israel and every vehicle traveling along the major traffic routes in the Coastal Plain.?
Ross suggested that the first step Israel should take to demonstrate that it is serious about a Palestinian state in the ?West Bank? is to publicly announce that the government will provide financial compensation to settlers who are prepared to leave their homes and to move to ?Israel proper.?
Of course Ross, who today serves as a counselor for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and was a senior director in Barack Obama?s National Security Council, offered no assurances that what is sweeping through the Arab world would not sweep through ?Palestine? or what occurred in Gaza would not occur in Ramallah. Nevertheless, he suggested that the government go ahead and plan not only to bring millions more Israelis within the range of weapons being used today from territory Israel ceded to the Palestinians, but it should take measures that would increase both the demand (and hence the price) of housing in country, and the unemployment. Stupid or subversive?
Validating population resettlement
Of course Ross?s proposal did have one positive element ? it validated the notion of financing population relocation to achieve political ends.
For unless he subscribes to blatant double standards, how could he object to applying his suggested methodology to the Palestinians as well? After all, if there is nothing wrong with Israeli government financing voluntary resettlement of Jews to set up what is highly likely to be a failed, unsustainable micromini- state and a haven for Islamist terror, why should there be anything wrong with the Israeli government funding voluntary Palestinian resettlement to prevent the establishment of a what is highly likely to be a failed, unsustainable micro-mini state? Indeed, one might think that there are far more compelling reasons to pursue the later course than the former ? especially for anyone mindful of the security of Israel and the safety of Israelis.
Dummy or dhimmi?
But Ross?s counsel on Turkey is if anything even more outrageous. Ross said that it was in Jerusalem?s long-term strategic interest to try to patch up the relationship, even at the cost of issuing an apology over the Mavi Marmara incident, as Ankara has demanded.
Quite apart from the fact that if any apology is forthcoming it should be from Ankara to Jerusalem, for allowing its citizens to create the violent confrontation with Israeli forces; quite apart from the fact that it is more than a little offensive to suggest that Israel should have to apologize for its soldiers? use of deadly force to prevent themselves being disemboweled, the logic behind his suggestion is as impaired as the morality behind it.
Ross waxes delusional, stating: ?Turkey and Israel have an enormous common stake in Syria. Is it difficult to make an apology? Yes, I don?t dismiss that. But how does that weigh against wider strategic interests you have in Syria and a region undergoing tremendous upheaval?? He goes on to claim that restoration of the relationship would have an impact on the whole region, and suggests imagining what a sobering affect this type of rapprochement would have on ascendant players such as the Muslim Brotherhood.
What planet does this guy inhabit? Can he really be unaware that Turkey has undergone a fundamental transformation, that it is no longer a Western-oriented secular state but a Islamic-oriented theocratic one, that its relations with Israel are a far more a function of what it has become, than of what Israel does ? or doesn?t do.
Of course one might well wonder: If there are so many strategic interests in common between Turkey and Israel, why doesn?t Ross suggest that Ankara forgo its childish demand for an apology? Is that his ?soft racism? of low expectations showing? Or is it the dhimmi in him that feels the need for submission to the Muslim demands? Or perhaps just the dummy?
Presidential perfidy?
And if we are still on the Presidential Conference, we need to ask a trenchant question: Can presidents be perfidious? For it would seem that there are elements of this conference that severely undermine the foreign policy of the elected government of Israel. Indeed it seems in some respects to seems to have out-?J?-ed J Street.
For whatever the motivations behind the invitation of individuals such Peter Beinart who publicly advocate BDS measures (albeit partial) against the products of the nation, it cannot but be interpreted internationally as presidential endorsement of the proposal.
Why otherwise extend the invitation to someone who not only undermines important elements of Israeli diplomacy but whose proposals have also been repudiated by far-left organizations ? including J Street itself.
But this is not the only troubling element on the invitation list.
Noam and Norman next?
Among the invited speakers was also Saeb Erekat who openly advocates the ?right of return? which in effect would end the existence of Israel as the Jewish nation-state and obviate the essence of the Zionist endeavor.
In December 2010, Erekat the wrote the following in the British Guardian: ?Today, Palestinian refugees constitute more than 7 million people worldwide ? 70% of the entire Palestinian population. Disregarding their legitimate legal rights enshrined in international law to return to their homeland, would certainly make any peace deal signed with Israel completely untenable.?
So one invitee advocates BDS; another the ?right of return.? Who can we expect next?
Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein?
Imbecility and impotence
A grim picture indeed.
But perhaps the only thing more distressing than the imbecility of the Israeli Left is the impotence of the Israel Right, for not effectively combatting this lunacy; for in effect being guilty of totally unwarranted intellectual surrender; for in fact adopting the policy of their political rivals ? not because their previous criticisms proved wrong but despite them being proved right.

www.martinsherman.net??????

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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Video: Zynga: Game On!

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

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Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures Blu-ray set hits shelves September 18th

Indiana Jones The Complete Adventures Bluray set has a release date, September 18th

Fans of the Indiana Jones series already got the good news in March that the flicks are finally coming to Blu-ray this year, and now we know when. Paramount has set September 18th as the release date, and also finally revealed cover art for the set, seen above... yeah, that's really it. No matter how cartoony it is (or how mind-numbing Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was) we're sure some will still be lining up when it ships. For their trouble, they can expect a "meticulously restored" edition of Raiders of the Lost Ark, after a process supervised by director Steven Spielberg and sound designer Ben Burtt. This has included a 4K scan of the original negatives, as well as a revisiting to the original audio mix, with music tracks and sound effects that had previously only been used in mono upgraded to stereo surround for the 5.1 DTS-HD MA track. Check after the break for a press release with more details on the restoration and a trailer for the boxed set, or head to Amazon where the price is currently sitting at $90 to preorder.

Continue reading Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures Blu-ray set hits shelves September 18th

Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures Blu-ray set hits shelves September 18th originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jun 2012 23:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rental Market is the newest real estate boom | Apartment for Rent in ...

The demand on rental properties is always mounting as people experienced home prices and sales on flat, therefore it increases the percentage of renters. It is a good indicator that the rental market is on its peak nowadays.?

Renting is the future of housing. Renting can make a good business sense. It gives the potential buyers several good reasons to take as response to ever increasing value of homes.? Below are some good reasons of renting premises wherein buyers can enjoy.?

  • ?Financially speaking, renting requires less capital than buying. Renting can provide more flexibility with regards to length of lease inquire or breaking the clause included in the lease agreement.
  • Renting is less potential from unexpected financial shocks. This is because it is not that much exposed to interest rates rises, although rental may rise periodically depending on rental reviews (click here to see a sample review).
  • Renting provides less responsibility for building premises. Looking after at repairs and maintenance is the main responsibility though external maintenance is more likely attached as landlord?s responsibility.?

These indicators is more likely a strong evidence that the rental industry in on rise and some real estate experts are taking response to it and believe that its growth will rapidly increase over the next succeeding years. They see apartment/condominium building constructions as solution to the growing demand for rental housing. Moreover, real estate experts see more advantages of having rentals properties they are as follows:

It provides good stream of income

A rental property has big possibility to take positive cash flow this is mainly because of the housing demand. If your mortgages are fixed and rent can be raised, then that is a good indication of a positive cash flow. Assembling a stable property over the time, will let you provide a wonderful income.

?Area appreciation is an advantage?

This term refers to increase in value that can be experienced as time passes by. It is said that owning a property in a stable area (say for example in a main city) will probably subject to increase its value over the time and its location makes it acquire strong demand.

Enjoying several tax benefits?

This is the greatest advantage of all. Owning a rental property lets you enjoy number of tax benefits such as capital gains and so called deferred exchange or switching. First let?s talk about capital gains, this is a term used for profits arising from the sale of assets like rental properties. They are also taxed lower rates as compare to regular income. Another term is the deferred exchange or switching, it is usually the process of selling the property then reinvesting into another asset.?

In any kind of investment there?s always its own set of advantages and disadvantages. So before making any commitment, better to understand the aspect of business you wanted to engage into. Educating yourself will lead to a clean drive towards success.

?


For Further Reading,

rental properties

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Show Extras ? The Ups And Downs | Shopping and Product reviews ...

A film added is an actor who appears inside the background within a film. This background actor appears on a non-significant capacity in scenes like an individual inside a crowd, a busy street, and so on. This role demands extremely tiny acting experience if any. Other abilities like reliability, punctuality and capability to comply with directions take precedence to talent. Extras are needed in both motion pictures and television series.

For one particular who wants to be a movie additional, the factor to place in mind is that this is a risky way of living. This can be simply because an additional will only appear in single scenes within the course of getting on set to get a lengthy time; occasionally 24 hours or far more. This can take place no matter whether an added is hired to get a entire film or an whole tv series. It truly is difficult to carve a normal living from this form of employment. This really is simply because a full-time added will function along people that have other vocations. The other individuals could possibly be anything from college students to self-employed or retired folks. These individuals organize their other workload to have space for occasional extra perform. Movie extras can be any individual, but this line of work cannot pass to get a typical job having a steady income. Wages for background actors differ. Independent film organizations and firms like BBC perform about set equity rates of pay applied for movie and Tv extras. Info from Equity rates as of August 2007, tells us that an extra can earn from as low 67 pounds to more than 135 pounds.

Most film organizations will pick extras from where the movie set takes place. This is simply because the film corporations try their very best to help keep travelling fees to a minimum. It can be for that reason, unlikely that the film organization will use precisely the same extras if they select to alter web site. More typically than not background actors will not undergo an interview or an audition for any role. Age is technically not a problem unless an acting license is needed for all those above the law?s age limit. Most film studios will favor to make use of student actors as extras as a stepping stone for them.

It isn?t worthwhile to view operating as an extra as a dependent technique to carve a constant living. One particular could be lucky to earn a considerable amount soon after securing a element inside a series, an whole length of a movie or night-time filming. That is nevertheless, not common and will be disappointing for one particular to count on this to happen frequently. Others may possibly uncover it worthwhile from the thrill of appearing next to a well-known celebrity or huge movie. It is also worthwhile if one is looking for acting encounter or to create up one?s ability inside the field.

We present the most effective info about how to be a movie extra and how to be movie extra. For further details please go to the supplied links.

Looking to find the best deal on movie extras casting, then visit www.movie-extras.net to find the best advice on how to be movie extra for you.

Related posts:

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Missing link for wonky-eyed flatfish found

The face of a flounder, sole, halibut or other flatfish looks like a hodgepodge of mismatched puzzle pieces forced together, with eyes that don't seem to match one another nor the orientation of the animal's mouth.

This is because, as these fish mature, one eye migrates over the top of the fish's head, coming to rest above the other eye, so both are on the same side of the head. A new fossil discovery has shed light on how this strange trait came about.?

Matt Friedman, a paleobiologist at University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, found a sort of flatfish missing link in a drawer of unidentified fish fossils in the Natural History Museum of Vienna, Austria. [ Image Gallery: Freaky Fish ]

The left eye of this single specimen, a 50-million-year-old fish called Heteronectes, has migrated toward the top of the skull, but not all the way over. The eye's position places this fish in between the modern, asymmetrical flatfishes and their distant ancestors, which had symmetrical faces with eyes on opposite sides of the face. ?

There are about 600 species of flatfish, many of which are caught and eaten by humans. Scientists know why these fish have two eyes on one side of their faces. As free-swimming larvae, these fish have eyes on both sides of their heads. But as adults, they lie on the seafloor. By shifting one eye up and over their body's midline, flatfish avoid pointing one eye down toward the sediment.

But how this arrangement emerged has caused debate among scientists, since no living fishes show any intermediate form. At one point, flatfishes were among the examples some critics used to attack gradual evolution and natural selection that occurs over many generations, in favor of dramatic changes that could occur within a single generation, Friedman said.

"What this fossil does is it provides a clear example of precisely that intermediate morphology," Friedman told LiveScience.

This discovery indicates that asymmetric faces were among the first features associated with living flatfishes to evolve, Friedman writes in the July issue of the journal Vertebrate Paleontology.

Researchers have known about another ancestor to modern flatfish, called Amphistium, for some time, however, its fossils have not been studied in detail, as Friedman has done with Heteronectes.

The Heteronectes skeleton was excavated from Bolca in northern Italy at a fossil fish-rich site that contains the remains of an ancient coral reef.

FollowWynne Parry on Twitter @Wynne_Parryor LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook? and Google+.

? 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

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Fires spread to Colorado tourist centers

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) ? Wildfires moved in on some of Colorado's most popular summer tourist destinations over the weekend, destroying nearly two dozen homes near Rocky Mountain National Park and emptying hotels and campgrounds at the base of Pikes Peak.

A wildfire near Colorado Springs erupted Saturday and grew out of control to more than 3 square miles early Sunday, prompting the evacuation of more than 11,000 residents and an unknown number of tourists.

On Saturday, a blaze destroyed structures near the mountain community of Estes Park, where many visitors stay while visiting the park. The Larimer County Sheriff's Office said Sunday that 22 homes and 2 outbuildings had been burned.

The two fires are among eight burning in Colorado a week before the Fourth of July, a key time for family vacations to national parks and other destinations. A statewide ban on open campfires and private fireworks has been in place for more than a week.

"We're used to flooding and tornadoes, nothing like this," said Amanda Rice, who recently moved to the area from Rock Falls, Ill. Rice, her husband, four children and dog left a Manitou Springs hotel late Saturday.

Rice, scared when she saw flames, took her family to the evacuation center before she was told to go.

"It was just this God-awful orange glow. It was surreal. It honestly looked like hell was opening up," Rice said Sunday.

With Colorado midway through its worst wildfire season in a decade, travelers have seen some of their favorite sites closed to the public, obscured by smoke and haze. Some travelers were awoken with evacuation orders.

Plumes of gray and white smoke poured from the mountains Sunday, obscuring at times Pikes Peak, the most-summited high-elevation mountain in the nation and inspiration for the song "America The Beautiful." Winds were pushing smoke away from Colorado Springs, but residents and tourists watched nervously as haze wrapped around the peak.

Families planning whitewater rafting trips or visits to the stunning red-rock formations in Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs were instead spending their vacations passing out bottled water and setting up cots in evacuee centers.

They included Mark Stein of Morristown, N.J., whose family arrived after midnight Sunday at their Manitou Springs hotel for a week of whitewater rafting and sightseeing.

"We were sleeping for 15 minutes when they started knocking on the door ? a day from hell," Stein said of the day of travel. With his wife and two sons, Stein spent the first night of his vacation setting up cots for more than 200 evacuees who slept at the school.

"I think it's the best vacation ever. This is what the real world is about. There's a lot of people that need help," Stein said.

Also Sunday, a brushfire that began near Elbert, about 50 miles southwest of Denver, quickly spread to about 60 acres, forcing the evacuation of about 100 residents.

Half the nation's firefighting fleet is now battling fires in Colorado, said Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. He said C-130 military transport planes from Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs would begin assisting on Monday.

With eight wildfires burning ? including a two week-old fire that has scorched more than 118 square miles and destroyed at least 191 homes near Fort Collins ? Colorado is having its worst wildfire season in a decade.

"People recognize this is going to take a big push" to extinguish, Hickenlooper said Sunday from a Colorado Springs grocery store, where volunteers were passing out burritos, sandwiches and drinks to 350 firefighters working near Pikes Peak.

The wildfire near Rocky Mountain National Park destroyed vacation cabins and closed the most commonly used entrance to the park. Clouds of smoke blew toward the 102-year-old Stanley Hotel that inspired Stephen King to write "The Shining."

Carolyn Baty and her husband, Darrell, vacationing from Fort Worth, Texas, were evacuated from their cabin Saturday afternoon.

"I smelled smoke coming from both directions, and then I heard the knock on the door," Darrell Baty told The Denver Post.

Some evacuees were allowed home Sunday from the fire burning near Fort Collins. That blaze has become among the largest and most expensive in Colorado history.

Elsewhere in the West, firefighters made progress against wildfires in Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

? In Utah, a 15-square-mile blaze around Fountain Green in Sanpete County was threatening more than 359 permanent structures and 213 mobile homes and travel trailers in four rural subdivisions, forcing about 1,000 people to flee. BLM says the human-caused fire erupted Saturday afternoon. Officials report progress on a 9-square-mile wildfire around Saratoga Springs, about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City.

? In California, a wildfire about 60 miles north of Los Angeles triggered evacuations of campgrounds around an off-road recreation area on Saturday. Officials said the fire has blackened at least 1,000 acres in the Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area, along the Interstate 5 corridor in Gorman.

? In New Mexico, a lightning-caused wildfire that destroyed 242 homes and businesses is 90 percent contained. The 69-square-mile fire near Ruidoso began June 4. Meanwhile, the largest wildfire in state history was 87 percent contained, having burned more than 464 square miles after two blazes merged on May 16.

? In Montana, two wildfires were burning in the southwest part of the state, including the fast-moving Antelope Fire, which started Saturday afternoon about 10 miles north of Whitehall and had grown to 462 acres on Sunday. About 100 firefighters were battling that blaze.

? In Arizona, the U.S. Forest Service said Sunday that containment against the Poco Fire, just outside of Young, is up to 50 percent and remains under 12,000 acres. Officials say many of the firefighting resources are being released to their home units or to other fire assignments.

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Monday, June 25, 2012

Greece launches drive to win over skeptical lenders

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's new leaders announced a trans-Atlantic roadshow on Monday to try to persuade skeptical lenders to give them more time to repay the country's massive debt, as hopes faded for any real progress on the issue at this week's European summit.

Unexpected medical problems will prevent Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and incoming Finance Minister Vassilis Rapanos attending the June 28-29 summit in Brussels. The problems also forced the postponement on Monday of the first meeting between the new government and Greece's "troika" of international lenders.

Samaras's government, an unlikely alliance of right and left that emerged from a June 17 election, has promised angry Greeks it will soften the punishing terms of a bailout saving them from bankruptcy in exchange for deep economic pain.

Euro zone paymaster Germany has already rejected major concessions.

Berlin signaled on Monday that Europe would wait for the troika's report on Greece before taking any decisions on how to adjust the bailout package to compensate for weeks of political paralysis and a deeper than expected recession. A new date for the troika visit has not been set.

Samaras, 61, emerged from hospital on Monday with a bandage over one eye, two days after undergoing surgery to repair a damaged retina. He was under orders not to fly or make the long road trip to Brussels, doctors said.

Rapanos, a mild-mannered banker reported by Greek media to have a history of ill-health, will be discharged on Tuesday after being rushed to hospital on Friday, before he could be sworn in, complaining of abdominal pain, nausea and dizziness.

The 64-year-old underwent a gastroscopy and colonoscopy, an official at the Hygeia Hospital told Reuters on condition of anonymity. The tests, "showed everything is completely normal."

Speaking to Mega TV, government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said Rapanos had told Samaras on Friday, after being offered the job, that he had a "chronic situation" that he had learned to live with and that it would not effect his ability to do the demanding and stressful job.

The government said Samaras and the leaders of his two coalition allies would take their case for renegotiating the bailout conditions to Europe and the United States as soon as the prime minister was well enough.

EMBOLDENED GREEK OPPOSITION

"We discussed with Mr Samaras that it would be meaningful, irrespective of the one-to-one discussions we have with our counterparts or with other crucial people, to also organize a common appearance at the decision-making centers," said Evangelos Venizelos, leader of the Socialist PASOK party.

"These are Brussels, Frankfurt, but also Washington because of the International Monetary Fund, and of course the capitals of the big European countries which take part in discussions on the euro zone's future," he told reporters.

At the two-day EU summit starting on Thursday, Greece will be represented by Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos and outgoing Finance Minister George Zanias in a delegation headed by President Karolos Papoulias.

Avramopoulos and Zanias met on Monday to discuss tactics, working from a government program that calls for tax cuts, extra help for the poor and unemployed, a freeze on public sector lay-offs and two more years to bring Greece's deficit under control.

Much of this program, agreed by the coalition over the weekend, would unravel basic elements of a bailout agreement reached with lenders as recently as March.

It is a wish-list that Germany will almost certainly reject and the new government is keenly aware that there is a mountain to climb in winning a softening of the bailout terms.

"We have facts and data to show the medicine is not working," a government official, who declined to be named, said after the Avramopoulos-Zanias meeting. "The recession is very deep and unemployment (at almost 23 percent) is very high."

He warned of "long and tough" negotiations. "Our primary aim will be to reinvigorate the economy and provide relief to the sectors of society that are hurting the most."

The coalition of Samaras's conservative New Democracy, PASOK and the small Democratic Left party faces an emboldened opposition committed to tearing up the terms of the bailout if it ever gets into power.

Critics and much of the population argue that the terms are only driving Greece ever deeper into recession and fraying the edges of society. But Germany is unsympathetic, frustrated by the slow pace of reform in Greece.

The debt crisis that began in Athens in 2009 is now engulfing Italy and Spain, the single currency's third and fourth largest economies.

EU trust in Harvard-educated Samaras is at a low ebb, after he opposed Greece's first bailout of 110 billion euros in 2010 and only reluctantly backed the second.

"The most important task facing new Prime Minister Samaras is to enact the program agreed upon quickly and without further delay instead of asking how much more others can do for Greece," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told Bild am Sonntag.

($1 = 0.7977 euros)

(Additional reporting by Lefteris Papadimas, Harry Papachristou, Karolina Tagaris and Tatiana Fragou; Writing by Matt Robinson; editing by Barry Moody)

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