The first iPhone was developed before I was even born!! Check out the first model after the jump.
X
@ShottaDru
The first iPhone was actually dreamed up in 1983. Forget that silly old touchscreen, this iPhone was a landline with full, all-white handset and a built-in screen controlled with a stylus.
The phone was designed for Apple by Hartmut Esslinger, an influential designer who helped make the Apple IIc computer (Apple?s first ?portable? computer) and later founded Frogdesign. The 1983 iPhone certainly fits in with Esslinger?s other designs for Apple. It also foreshadows the touchscreens of both the iPhone and iPad.
Images of the 1983 iPhone have been circling the web for a while but there has been renewed interest in Apple?s early designs and history thanks to a peak inside Stanford University?s massive trove of Apple documents. The archives are a close-guarded secret but Stanford is starting to grant access to select journalists and organizations. The archives were donated in 1997 after Steve Jobs rejoined the company and document much of the design and personnel changes that took place in the 1980s.
The 1983 iPhone is just one of many prototypes buried in Apple?s past. There?s even a device that looks eerily similar to an iPad. Despite the phone?s age, it actually looks like a cool concept that could easily be updated into a modern consumer product by replacing simple stylus screen with an iPad-like interface.
SACRAMENTO, CA - After the Sacramento Kings beat the L.A. Lakers in Monday night's season opener, city officials hope to use the energy to keep the momentum going for a new arena.
At Tuesday morning's weekly news conference, Sacramento Kevin Johnson was visibly excited; saying last night was a big win for the city.
Johnson said he hopes this is a great new start for the team in the city.
"We're in negotiations now with the NBA and the Maloofs and all the parties involved," Johnson said. "So this is a critical juncture for all of us. I'll tell you what, the Maloofs are very very optimistic, they feel that we have a chance to get it done."
The excitement from Monday's game is spilling into Thursday's Kings game against the Chicago Bulls, is a sellout. This is the first time since 2007 that the Kings sold out games back-to-back.
A report from 9to5Mac said tech giant Apple, Inc. will release the much anticipated iPad 3 on Feb. 25 to honor Steve Jobs' birthday.
According to 9to5Mac's report, Apple usually unveils its products on press conferences scheduled on a Tuesday or a Wednesday and makes it available on a Friday or a Saturday. Feb. 24 is a Friday, if Apple will stick to its schedule, the iPad 3 will hit the stores on Steve's birthday but will be unveiled earlier that month.
Earlier this year, iPad 2 was unveiled on March 2 in a media event; however, it hit the stores on March 11. During those times, Jobs' was on medical leave but returned to show off the new tablet saying, "We've been working on this product for a while and I didn't want to miss today."
Like us on Facebook
The first generation of iPad was unveiled on a Wednesday, Jan.27, but hit the stores on a Saturday, April 3.
As expected from Apple, the company is still mum about the next generation of the tablet and many are waiting for the invites from the Cupertino-based company. Whenever the release of the new gadget will be, we will see a lot of rumors surrounding the iPad in the coming weeks. We have seen reports about the early 2012 release, revamped iPad, display shipments, a March launch with a smaller dock, and a cheaper, smaller iPad.
According to the Taiwanese news agency DigiTimes, tech giant Apple, Inc. will be releasing its much-awaited next generation of iPad in the next three to four months.
DigiTimes reported that their sources from the Apple's supply chain said that the production for the iPad 3 ramped up and the production of current generation of iPad decreased. Specifically, the source of the news agency confirmed that OEM production of the iPad 2 will remain high, producing 14 to 15 million units by the fourth quarter of 2011 but will drastically decline to 4 to 5 million units on the first quarter of 2012 to pave the way for the new iPad.
The production of the new iPad 3 is expected to reach up to 9.5 to 9.8 million units in the first quarter of 2012. The new iPad will be equipped with Retina Display and is expected to have its launch on March or April based on Apple's yearly product cycle. Looking back the first iPad went on sale in the United States on April 3, 2010. The iPad 2 became available on March 11, 2011.
The Palestinian Authority in Bethlehem, and Israel, which controls Jerusalem's Old City, adopted the delicate status quo in operation since the British mandate, under which no changes, however minor, can be made without the approval of all three denominations.
The result has been that the Church of the Nativity has fallen into a dangerous state of disrepair.
Last month, after years of arguments, the sects finally reached agreement to replace the church's leaking roof. The renovations, planned for next year, will mark the first major repairs in 150 years.
In a separate development, the Jerusalem municipality has approved the construction of another 130 homes in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Gilo, built over the Green line, on land captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day Arab-Israeli war. The move is likely to anger the Palestinians, who insist that Israel must halt all settlement construction before direct peace talks can resume.
An announcement by Israel earlier this month that it intended to build more than a thousand new homes in West Bank settlements and east Jerusalem was condemned by Britain, , which along with the other EU members of the United Nations Security Council -France, Germany and Portugal ? issued a statement saying they were "dismayed by these wholly negative developments."
They said Israel's move to accelerate the construction of settlements in the West Bank "sends a devastating message" and they called on the Israeli government to cancel the construction.
MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Vladimir Putin is looking increasingly out of touch in Russia after the opposition brought tens of thousands of people out onto the streets of Moscow for the second time in two weeks to demand a parliamentary election be re-run.
But the looming New Year holiday in Russia means there is likely to be a pause in the biggest opposition protests since he rose to power 12 years ago and he will hope they will now at least temporarily lose momentum.
The protesters say they are tired of his domination of Russia after eight years as president and now four as prime minister, and suspect the December 4 election, won by his United Russia party, was rigged.
First Putin dismissed the protesters as chattering monkeys financed from abroad, then he backed President Dmitry Medvedev's proposal for gradual political reform and later the 59-year-old leader had a former KGB spy appointed as Kremlin chief of staff.
The gulf between Putin and many of his people has convinced many that he has lost his popular touch and is refusing to take the protests as seriously as many of his closest allies do as he prepares to reclaim the presidency in an election in March.
"They do not understand," one person close to policy makers said of Putin and Medvedev. "One is weak and the other does not want to listen, though people have tried to explain the seriousness of the situation."
That could bode badly for the long-term stability of the world's biggest country and energy producer.
Opponents say Putin's inner circle is a small group of former KGB spies, businessmen and Kremlin officials who have little empathy with the Internet-savvy generation of younger, urban Russians who have come out onto the streets this month.
But Putin's portrayal of the protesters as pawns financed by a foreign power has also contrasted with the conclusions drawn by some of the other men at his court.
Kremlin deputy chief of staff Vladislav Surkov, who helped Putin craft his tightly controlled political system, warned on Friday that some enemies wanted to provoke a revolution but that the protesters were among the best people in society.
PUTIN'S COURT
"The best part of our society, or rather the most productive part, is demanding respect," Surkov, one of Putin's most powerful advisers on domestic policy, told Izvestia. "You cannot simply swipe away their opinions in an arrogant way."
An even closer Putin ally, former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, joined Saturday's protest in Moscow, warning that Russia needed much more serious political reforms to ensure a stable development.
"I came today because I do not believe the elections were fair and I believe we need to hold an investigation and punish those responsible up to and including criminal responsibility," Kudrin, 51, told Reuters at the protest.
"There is a possibility today, without any sort of revolution, to make a transformation to ensure fair elections and real representation in parliament," said Kudrin, who helped Putin get his first job in the Kremlin in 1996.
But Putin has other powerful advisers too.
Nikolai Patrushev, the powerful head of the Russian security council and former head of the FSB state security service, said this month that Russia should impose "rational regulation" of the Internet.
Another former KGB spy, Sergei Ivanov, was appointed Kremlin chief of staff on Thursday and Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, a Putin ally, has voiced concern about the role played by the Internet in the Arab Spring revolts.
Patrushev, 60, Ivanov, 58, and Sechin, 51, are all old friends of Putin and though they may be divided by tactics and court politics, they are ultimately hardliners.
Medvedev, Russia's 46-year-old iPad-carrying president, may have more sense of the anger against Putin but he is weak, sources close to the situation said.
"Medvedev understands this all a little better because he is a person less prone to conspiratorial theories," said a source with close ties to the leadership, adding that Russia's leaders were hoping the protests would burn themselves out.
"Putin has realized his popularity is declining," the source said.
PUTIN'S POPULARITY
For Putin, who has used his popularity to justify his plan to run for the presidency in the March 4 presidential election, that may be a hard thing to accept.
Putin still remains Russia's most popular politician and though his ratings are high by Western standards, they are low according to Putin's own expectations.
Russia's biggest independent pollster, Levada-Center, said 63 percent of Russians approved of his activities as prime minister in a poll carried out on Dec 16-20.
But that is just three percentage points above the lowest level since August 2000, when he was dogged by the botched reaction to a naval disaster that killed all 118 crewmen aboard the submarine Kursk.
"They are worrying and they are nervous," said Mikhail Kasyanov, who served as prime minister under Putin for four years before joining the opposition. "And they really do have something to be worried and nervous about."
CHATTERING MONKEYS?
Putin seems intent on riding out the protests. While tens of thousands turned out for the second time on two weeks on Saturday, he is likely to take comfort from the fact that there was not a huge increase in the numbers.
Tens of thousands protested in cities across Russia on December 10. On Saturday, organizers said they had gathered 120,000 in Moscow though the police put the number at 30,000.
The truth may lie somewhere in between: Russia's Navaya Gazeta opposition newspaper said its reporters counted more than 102,000 while estimates from state news agency RIA put the crowd at about 56,000.
Putin appears to reason that even though the protests are much larger than any he has faced before, it is still a relatively small percentage of the population that is protesting in a country of more than 140 million.
He is counting on the support of the many millions in the provinces who regard him as the man who restored order to Russia after the chaos of the decade that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In a televised question and answer session with the Russian people, Putin used a reference to the chattering monkeys known as "Bandar Log" in Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book to describe the protesters and said he thought the white ribbons which are the symbol of the election protests were condoms.
But Alexei Navalny, the most prominent leader of the divided opposition groups which refuse to negotiate with the Kremlin, turned Putin's comments back against the authorities.
"Hi all of you Bandar Logs and Internet hamsters: You were called Bandar Log but you came here today. But where is the chap who called us that?" Navalny, 35, told tens of thousands of people at the protest in Moscow's Sakharov Avenue.
Navalny's satire may excite the crowds and the thousands who read his blogs but there is still no leader of the fragmented opposition. As if to illustrate that, dozens of different leaders addressed the crowd in Moscow.
United or not, Navalny warned that there were enough people at the protest to take the Kremlin by force, though he quickly added that this was not the plan.
"If the authorities continue to cheat the people and thieves and if those two swindlers continue the usurpation of power - they have stolen it from the people - then the people will come and take it back because it is theirs by rights," he told Reuters.
So does he plan a revolution?
"It is not a revolution," he said. "The revolution, the illegal takeover of power, was implemented by Putin and Medvedev. Here there will be a legal return of power to the people."
Twitter / Casey: The #GOP speaking on behal ...The speaking on behalf of the American people is like Ted Bundy speaking on behalf of abused women. 5:14 PM Dec 9thvia TweetDeck
BALTIMORE ? Joe Flacco threw two touchdown passes, and the Baltimore Ravens beat the Cleveland Browns 20-14 on Saturday to move one step closer to winning the AFC North.
Ray Rice ran for 87 yards and caught a TD pass for the Ravens (11-4), who led 17-0 at halftime and held on against the bumbling Browns. Baltimore completed its first unbeaten season at home (8-0).
The Ravens would win the AFC North by defeating Cincinnati on the road next week. That would also give them a first-round bye and a home playoff game.
Josh Cribbs had a career-high 84-yard punt return for Cleveland (4-11). But the Browns generated very little offense and were victimized by questionable play calling, bad clock management and untimely penalties in their fifth straight loss.
(No. 390 - December 23, 2011 - 10:15 a.m. ET) Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today announced new sanctions on Syria?s Assad regime in response to its ongoing and escalating repression of Syrians:
?Despite increased international condemnation, the senseless violence against the Syrian people continues to claim lives.
?Canada is therefore continuing to step up its pressure on the regime and those who support it by introducing additional targeted sanctions.
?These measures prohibit all imports, with the exception of food, from Syria; all new investment in Syria; and the export to Syria of equipment, including software, for the monitoring of telephone and Internet communications. Canada is also imposing an assets freeze and prohibiting economic dealings with additional individuals and entities associated with the Assad regime.
?Canada stands with the Syrian people in their efforts to secure for themselves a brighter future. We look forward to a new Syria that respects the rights of its people and lives in peace with its neighbours.
?Canada remains committed to working with our international partners to bring pressure to bear on the Assad regime.
?Sanctions imposed by like-minded partners, including the United States and the European Union, and recently by the Arab League are having an impact in isolating the regime.?
On December 15, 2011, Canada announced a voluntary evacuation of its citizens in Syria and expedited efforts to help them leave the country as soon as possible. We continue to urge all Canadians in Syria to leave immediately, while commercial means are still available.
For more information, please visit Regulations Amending the Special Economic Measures (Syria) Regulations.
- 30 -
A backgrounder follows.
For further information, media representatives may contact:
Foreign Affairs Media Relations Office Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada 613-995-1874 Follow us on Twitter: @DFAIT_MAECI
Effective immediately, the amendment to the Special Economic Measures (Syria) Regulations prohibits all imports, with the exception of food, from Syria; prohibits all new investment in Syria; prohibits the export to Syria of equipment, including software, for the monitoring of telephone and Internet communications; and imposes an assets freeze and a prohibition on economic dealings with additional individuals and entities associated with the Assad regime.
The additional individuals and entities announced today, and named below, bring the total of those targeted by Canada?s sanctions to 81 individuals and 31 entities.
Individuals
Tarif Akhras
Issam Anbouba
Emad Ghraiwati
Jumah Al-Ahmad (Major-General)
Lu?ai Al-Ali (Colonel)
Jasim Al-Furayj (Lieutenant-General)
Aous Aslan (General), (a.k.a. Aws Aslan)
Ali Abdullah Ayyub (Lieutenant-General)
Ghassan Belal (General)
Abdullah Berri
George Chaoui
Zuhair Hamad (Major-General)
Amar Ismael
Mujahed Ismail
Saqr Khayr Bek
Wajih Mahmud (Major-General)
Kifah Moulhem
Nazih (Major-General)
Bassam Sabbagh
Fu?ad Tawil (Major-General)
Mustafa Tlass Tala, (Lieutenant-General)
Ibrahim Al-Hassan (Major-General)
Fahid Al-Jassim (Lieutenant-General)
Mohammad Al-Jleilati
Mohammad Nidal Al-Shaar (Doctor)
Mohammad Al-Shaar
Khald Al-Taweel
Ali Barakat (Brigadier)
Ghiath Fayad
Nazih Hassun (Brigadier)
Maan Jdiid (Captain)
Talal Makhluf (Brigadier)
Khalil Zghraybih (Brigadier)
Entities
Al Furat Petroleum Company
Al Watan
Business Lab
Centre d??tudes et de Recherches Syrien (CERS)
Cham Press TV
Handasieh - Organization For Engineering Industries
Industrial Solutions
Mechanical Construction Factory (MCF)
Syria Trading Oil Company
Syronics-Syrian Arab Co. for Electronic Industries
For more information on Canada?s sanctions against Syria, please see Syria.
Context
On May 24, 2011, Canada announced targeted sanctions against the Syrian regime and some designated individuals and entities in response to the ongoing violent crackdown by Syrian military and security forces against Syrians peacefully protesting for democracy and human rights. These measures, which remain in place, were a blend of administrative measures and actions taken under the authority of the Special Economic Measures Act and were consistent with initiatives taken by like-minded partners, including the United States and the European Union.
On August 13, 2011, Canada expanded sanctions by seeking to freeze the assets of four additional individuals and two additional entities associated with the Syrian regime and to ensure that those people believed to be inadmissible to Canada would be prevented from travelling to Canada. Measures implemented by Canada included a prohibition on dealing in the property of listed individuals and entities?including the provision of financial services and making property available for their benefit?and travel restrictions.
Canadian Measures
Travel restrictions: Canada ensured that persons associated with the Syrian government who are believed to be inadmissible to Canada are prevented from travelling to Canada.
An asset freeze: Canada imposed an asset freeze against people associated with the current Syrian regime and entities involved in security and military operations against the Syrian people.
A ban on specific exports and imports: Canada placed a ban under the Export and Import Permits Act on the export from Canada to Syria of goods and technology that are subject to export controls. These items include arms, munitions, and military, nuclear and strategic items that are intended for use by the Syrian armed forces, police or other governmental agencies.
A suspension of all bilateral cooperation agreements and initiatives with Syria.
The measures announced are consistent with Canada?s foreign policy priority to promote freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law around the world. Canada stands with the Syrian people in their calls for a brighter future for Syria.
A news release announcing the May 24 sanctions can be found at PM announces sanctions on Syria.
For more information on the August 13 announcement, please visit Statement by Minister Baird on Situation in Syria.
On October 4, 2011, Canada imposed the following additional measures:
A prohibition on the importation, purchase or transportation of petroleum or petroleum products from Syria.
A prohibition on new investment in the Syrian oil sector.
A prohibition on the provision or acquisition of financial services for the purpose of facilitating the importation, purchase or transportation of Syrian petroleum or petroleum products.
A prohibition on the provision or acquisition of financial services for the purpose of investing in the Syrian oil sector.
For information on the October 4 announcement, please visit Canada Expands Sanctions Against Syria.
For today only, and in store only, Best Buy is offering qualified buyers last year’s iPhone 4 at 32 GB capacity on BOGO (buy one, get one free) on either the Verizon or AT&T networks.
Buy the Apple? iPhone? 4 32GB and get one FREE. Choose from
Latest data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, a leading research organisation focusing on consumer knowledge and insights on consumer products, shows that Apple has increased its share of the UK smartphone market to 30.9 per cent in the past 12 weeks of sales. Its share in the same period last year was 21.4 per cent.
ComTech releases these figures after tracking purchase, source of purchase, mobile phone bills/airtime and phone usage.
Apple iPhone looks like the preferred item this Christmas among Britons. ?However, consumers in Germany and France are not adding an iPhone to their Christmas shopping list.
"In Great Britain, the US and Australia, Apple's new iPhone continues to fly off the shelf in the run up the Christmas, reversing the share losses seen during much of 2011.? However, this trend is far from universal, with sales in Germany and France somewhat underwhelming.? In fact, in Germany, Android achieved a dominant underwhelming.? In fact, in Germany, Android achieved a dominant 61% share of smartphone sales in the latest 12 weeks, with the Samsung Galaxy S II the top selling handset," says Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director. ??
Like us on Facebook
The UK's smartphone market is highly competitive, sales have gone up by 71.5 per cent in the past 12 weeks. This means 47.3 per cent of the British population now owns a smartphone.?
Different brands are luring consumers to push their sales and increase their market shares.
Android, Google's operating system, has the highest market share in the UK (almost 50 per cent). The second and third top competitors are BlackBerry (22.5 per cent) and Apple (18.5 per cent).
Across Europe, Android is the number one market leader, but the handset manufacturers are fighting out to push their sales. ?Android is used by Samsung, HTC and host of other brands.
Due to their attractive price range, HTC smartphones are the most popular Android devices in the UK. ?HTC has maintained a market share of 44.8 per cent of Android sales in the past 12 weeks.
Samsung is catching up with sales of Galaxy SII and Ace handsets. Sony Ericsson handset is squeezed in the competition with sales dropping to 8.5 per cent between September- October this year. Last year, during the same period, its share was 20.5 per cent.
"Typically Christmas gifting in the mobile market doesn't really get started until December.? Last year just under a third of all phones bought were given as presents and this figure rose to 46 per cent in December 2010.? Blackberry handsets were the most popular, making up 40 per cent of the smartphones bought as gifts last December.? We think this trend will be repeated in 2011. In fact, 55 per cent of Blackberrys sold this November were bought as gifts," says Sunnebo.
The study also notes that the smartphone competition is getting stronger in fast-growing economies like Brazil.
The late Apple CEO will be given a Trustees Award mainly due to iTunes and the iPod
Tributes to the late?Apple executive keep pouring in a couple of months since he passed away. After a?Mythbusters style documentary, an?80-minute tribute video, an?iPad 2 snowboard, and a?7' tall bronze statue, comes a posthumous Grammy award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS).
Jobs was recently named a recipient of the Trustees Award that's given to people who've made "outstanding contributions to the industry in a nonperforming capacity." He's the sole awardee this year who's not directly involved in the creation of music. Steve's influence convinced record labels to start selling on?iTunes during the store's early days, which immensely contributed to the current popularity of digital music purchases. Not all musicians are happy with what's done, though ??Bon Jovi, for instance,?thinks that one day, people will say that Steve Jobs is responsible for killing the music business.
By granting Jobs the Trustees Award, members of NARAS demonstrate that they believe differently. In fact, he's being recognized at the Grammy's for changing the way we consume not just music but also?movies, books, and?TV. "A creative visionary, Jobs' innovations such as the iPod and its counterpart, the online iTunes store, revolutionized the industry and how music was distributed and purchased," the official announcement says.
A separate ceremony from the main Grammy's event will be held for all special awardees on February 11, 2012 in Los Angeles.
NY Times via?Contra Costa Times
This article was written by Mariella Moon and originally appeared on Tecca
WASHINGTON ? Continuing a tax cut of up to $40 a week for workers and unemployment benefits for millions of jobless hit a wall Tuesday as the House rejected a two-month extension of both, and President Barack Obama blamed Republicans for the stalemate.
"The clock is ticking, time is running out," Obama said shortly after House voted 229-193 to request negotiations with the Senate on renewing the payroll tax cuts for a year.
House Speaker John Boehner, told that Obama had sought his help, replied, "I need the president to help out." His voice rose as he said it, and his words were cheered by dozens of Republicans lawmakers who have pushed him and the rest of the leadership to pursue a more confrontational strategy with Democrats and the White House in an already contentious year of divided government.
This time, it wasn't a partial government shutdown or even an unprecedented Treasury default that was at stake, but the prospect that payroll taxes would rise on Jan. 1 for 160 million workers and long-term unemployment benefits end for millions of jobless victims of the worst recession since the 1930s.
Yet another deadline has been entangled in the dispute, this one affecting seniors, but the administration announced it had finessed a way around it. Officials said paperwork for doctors who treat Medicare patients in the early days of the new year will not be processed until Jan. 18, giving lawmakers more time to avert a 27 percent cut in fees threatened for Jan. 1.
Whatever the stakes, there was little indication that Republicans would get their wish for negotiations with the Senate any time soon. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., issued a statement saying he would be happy to resume talks on a yearlong measure ? "but not before" the House ratifies the two-month bill and sends it to Obama for his signature.
Given Obama's remarks and Reid's refusal to negotiate, it was unclear what leverage Republicans had in the year-end standoff. It appeared likely the partisan disagreement could easily persist past Christmas and into the last week of the year.
The standoff was sowing confusion in business, running out of days to adapt to any new payroll tax regimen. Even the Senate's proposed two-month extension was creating headaches because it contained a two-tiered system geared to ensuring that higher-income earners paid a higher rate on some of their wages, according to a trade group.
"There's not time enough to do that in an orderly fashion," said Pete A. Isberg, president of the National Payroll Reporting Consortium trade group. "We're two weeks away from 2012." He wrote a letter to congressional leaders this week warning that the Senate bill "could create substantial problems, confusion and costs."
Democrats pounced on Republicans for rejecting the Senate bill, emboldened by polls finding Obama's approval rising and that of the congressional Republicans fading. They noted that several lawmakers whom Boehner appointed to negotiate a compromise had recently criticized an extension of payroll tax cuts.
Democrats also introduced legislation in the House to ratify the two-month bill that passed the Senate.
Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the second-ranking House Democrat, asked Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., if he was "prepared to bring that bill to the floor" if no compromise was in sight by year's end.
Canter dodged the question, responding that if Democrats wanted to do their part, they could appoint negotiators.
They didn't.
For his part, Boehner sent a letter to the president, noting he had requested a yearlong extension of the tax cut and the House had approved one. "There are still 11 days before the end of the year, and with so many Americans struggling, there is no reason they should be wasted," he wrote, asking Obama to call the Senate back from its year-end vacation.
In his appearance before White House reporters, Obama said Republicans would be to blame for the consequences of a standoff. "Right now, the recovery is fragile, but it is moving in the right direction," he said. "Our failure to do this could have effects not just on families but on the economy as a whole." Obama requested the extension of the payroll tax and unemployment benefits in the fall as part of his jobs program.
As recently as Friday, it appeared a compromise was in sight on the legislation.
After efforts to agree on a yearlong extension sputtered, Senate Republicans and Democrats agreed on the two-month renewal, with the bill's estimated $35 billion cost to be covered by an increased fee on mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That assured deficits wouldn't rise, a key Republican objective.
Republicans also prevailed on their demand to require Obama to decide within 60 days the fate of a proposed Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that promises thousands of construction jobs. The president's political supporters are divided on the Keystone XL project, with environmentalists generally opposing it and blue collar unions in favor, and Obama had hoped to avoid making a decision until after the 2012 elections.
The measure quickly cleared the Senate on a vote of 89-10, with 39 of 46 Republicans in favor. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the GOP leader, said he was optimistic the House would go along.
Not so.
On a telephone conference call on Saturday, numerous GOP lawmakers told Boehner and the leadership they opposed the Senate-passed measure.
While House Republicans quickly developed their plan ? reject the Senate bill and seek negotiations on a compromise ? there were undercurrents of dissent.
One Republican, Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, told fellow lawmakers at a closed-door meeting Monday night that he had been inaccurately quoted in an email from an unidentified GOP aide that described the contents of a private conference call, making it appear that the leadership itself was divided. Two lawmakers said details from the email found their way into print quickly after the conference call.
"It implied the speaker (Boehner) was in one place and the rest of leadership in another," Cole said in an interview Tuesday. "That wasn't the conversation."
Other Republicans said Boehner bristled in Monday night's meeting when asked whether he had given his blessing to the 60-day Senate compromise, replying that he had not and challenging one questioner to get his facts correct. They spoke on condition of anonymity, noting the events had occurred behind closed doors.
At the end of their first year in office, there was no doubt about the ability of dozens of first-term Republicans to flex their muscle.
As late as Monday night, several officials said, Cantor outlined a plan for the House to vote down the Senate bill, then vote separately to seek negotiations with the Senate.
Several Republicans objected, noting that would allow House Democrats an opportunity to go on record in favor of a payroll tax cut extension. The plan was changed, and in proceedings during the day, there was no opportunity for a straightforward yes-or-no vote on the Senate-passed bill that Democrats and the White House favor.
___
Associated Press writers Ben Feller, Alan Fram, Laurie Kellman, Larry Margasak, Andrew Taylor and Paul Wiseman contributed to this report.
Doctors have long known that people who survive one melanoma have a markedly higher risk of developing another of these aggressive skin cancers. Now, for the first time, a study has found that survivors of non-skin cancers also may have an increased risk of melanoma.
The risk was most pronounced among survivors of breast cancer, prostate cancer, lymphoma, and leukemia. Women who developed breast cancer before age 45 and recovered, for instance, were 38% more likely than women in the general population to develop melanoma later in life.
Excessive exposure to UV radiation from sunlight (or tanning lamps) is the biggest risk factor for melanoma. The apparent link between melanoma and other cancers, however, may be explained in part by an underlying genetic susceptibility to multiple types of cancer, the researchers say.
People who have had a non-melanoma cancer should be especially vigilant about avoiding sun damage and checking their skin for moles, says senior author Jeremy S. Bordeaux, M.D., director of the melanoma program at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland.
Health.com: Is it a mole...or skin cancer?
"If they notice a new dark spot or a changing dark spot, they need to have that looked at by a dermatologist," Bordeaux says. And if they haven't already, he says, cancer survivors may want to see a dermatologist to get a baseline checkup. (Melanoma survivors should already have a set schedule with their skin doctor.)
Using a nationwide registry maintained by the National Cancer Institute, Bordeaux and his colleagues analyzed data from 70,819 people whose first cancer was melanoma and 6,353 who received a melanoma diagnosis after a previous cancer. Their findings appear this week in the Archives of Dermatology.
Health.com: Six cancer-fighting superfoods
As expected, melanoma survivors were up to 12 times more likely than people in the U.S. population as a whole to receive a melanoma diagnosis (a second one, in their case).
The melanoma risk associated with several other cancers was much lower, yet still notable. Compared to the general population, prostate-cancer survivors had a 58% higher risk and lymphoma survivors had a 79% higher risk if they received their first cancer diagnosis before age 45.
Across the board, younger cancer survivors were more likely than people initially diagnosed after age 45 to develop melanoma down the road, perhaps because cancers that develop early in life are more likely to have a genetic basis, the study notes.
Health.com: Sun-proof your skin from A to Z
In the older age group, the risk of melanoma was elevated by 40% among survivors of thyroid cancer, 34% among lymphoma survivors, and 79% among leukemia survivors. Women who'd had breast cancer had a 12% higher risk.
Melanoma risk was just 8% higher in men who'd had prostate cancer after age 45, but that's not negligible because so many men will develop the cancer during their lifetime, Bordeaux says. "Even though the risk was kind of small, the incidence [of prostate cancer] is so high it would affect a lot of people."
The warning signs of melanoma include moles or dark spots larger than a pencil eraser and spots that are asymmetrical or unevenly colored. Regardless of their cancer history, people are at increased risk of melanoma if they have fair skin or a lot of moles, or if they've spent a lot of time in the sun.
"If melanoma is caught early, it's 100% curable," Bordeaux says. "But once it's more advanced and spreads to other parts of body, it's one of - if not the - most aggressive cancers and can be very, very fatal."
Forum rules This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.
Please post all "Players Wanted" threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!
This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Valley Reform Academy?. Anything posted here will also show up there.
Topic Tags:
Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup. Girls:
RolePlayGateway is a site built by a couple roleplayers who wanted to give a little something back to the roleplay community. The site has no intention of earning any profit, and is paid for out of their own pockets.
If you appreciate what they do, feel free to donate your spare change to help feed them on the weekends. After selecting the amount you want to donate from the menu, you can continue by clicking on PayPal logo.
Here are some recent posts on TechCrunch Gadgets: 2011 Gift Guide: Best Stuff For Luddites Review: Krups EA82 Automatic Espresso Maker Makes You Love To Love It Samsung Releases Extended Battery Bundle (With Cover) For Your New Galaxy Nexus Little iPads, Little Pixels, And Resolution Independence (An Apple Rumor Medley) TC Gadgets Weekly Webcast: The iPad Mini, CES, And A Coffeemaker
FILE - In this May 11, 2011 file photo, singer Britney Spears, right, and Jason Trawick arrive at an Evening of "Southern Style" in Beverly Hills, Calif. Trawick announced Friday, dec. 16, 2011, on ?Access Hollywood? that he and Spears are engaged. The two have been dating since 2009. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file)
FILE - In this May 11, 2011 file photo, singer Britney Spears, right, and Jason Trawick arrive at an Evening of "Southern Style" in Beverly Hills, Calif. Trawick announced Friday, dec. 16, 2011, on ?Access Hollywood? that he and Spears are engaged. The two have been dating since 2009. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Britney Spears is ready to walk down the aisle for the third time. The 30-year-old pop star has agreed to marry her longtime boyfriend and former agent Jason Trawick.
Trawick announced Friday on "Access Hollywood" that he and Spears are engaged. The two have been dating since 2009.
Spears hinted at the big news with a tweet Friday morning that read, "OMG. Last night Jason surprised me with the one gift I've been waiting for. Can't wait to show you! SO SO SO excited!!!!"
Spears was previously married to Kevin Federline, with whom she has two sons: 6-year-old Sean Preston and 5-year-old Jayden James. The couple divorced in 2006. Spears also briefly wed childhood friend Jason Alexander in 2004, but the marriage was annulled after 55 hours.
A black hole's dinner is fast approachingPublic release date: 14-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Richard Hook rhook@eso.org 49-893-200-6655 ESO
VLT spots cloud being disrupted by black hole
During a 20-year programme using ESO telescopes to monitor the movement of stars around the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy (eso0846 - http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0846/) [1], a team of astronomers led by Reinhard Genzel at the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, Germany, has discovered a unique new object fast approaching the black hole.
Over the last seven years, the speed of this object has nearly doubled, reaching more than 8 million km/h. It is on a very elongated orbit [2] and in mid-2013 it will pass at a distance of only about 40 billion kilometres from the event horizon of the black hole, a distance of about 36 light-hours [3]. This is an extremely close encounter with a supermassive black hole in astronomical terms.
This object is much cooler than the surrounding stars (only about 280 degrees Celsius), and is composed mostly of hydrogen and helium. It is a dusty, ionised gas cloud with a mass roughly three times that of the Earth. The cloud is glowing under the strong ultraviolet radiation from the hot stars around it in the crowded heart of the Milky Way.
The current density of the cloud is much higher than the hot gas surrounding the black hole. But as the cloud gets ever closer to the hungry beast, increasing external pressure will compress the cloud. At the same time the huge gravitational pull from the black hole, which has a mass four million times that of the Sun, will continue to accelerate the inward motion and stretch the cloud out along its orbit.
"The idea of an astronaut close to a black hole being stretched out to resemble spaghetti is familiar from science fiction. But we can now see this happening for real to the newly discovered cloud. It is not going to survive the experience," explains Stefan Gillessen (MPE) the lead author of the paper.
The cloud's edges are already starting to shred and disrupt and it is expected to break up completely over the next few years [4]. The astronomers can already see clear signs of increasing disruption of the cloud over the period between 2008 and 2011.
The material is also expected to get much hotter as it nears the black hole in 2013 and it will probably start to give off X-rays. There is currently little material close to the black hole so the newly-arrived meal will be the dominant fuel for the black hole over the next few years.
One explanation for the formation of the cloud is that its material may have come from nearby young massive stars that are rapidly losing mass due to strong stellar winds. Such stars literally blow their gas away. Colliding stellar winds from a known double star in orbit around the central black hole may have led to the formation of the cloud.
"The next two years will be very interesting and should provide us with extremely valuable information on the behaviour of matter around such remarkable massive objects," concludes Reinhard Genzel.
###
Notes
[1] The black hole at the centre of the Milky Way is formally known as Sgr A* (pronounced Sagittarius A star). It is the closest supermassive black hole known by far and hence is the best place to study black holes in detail.
[2] The observations were made using the NACO infrared adaptive optics camera and the SINFONI infrared spectrograph, both attached to the ESO Very Large Telescope in Chile. The centre of the Milky Way lies behind thick dust clouds that scatter and absorb visible light and must be observed at infrared wavelengths where the clouds are more transparent.
[3] A light-hour is the distance that light travels in one hour. It is a little more than the distance from the Sun to the planet Jupiter in the Solar System. For comparison the distance between the Sun and the nearest star is more than four light-years. The cloud will pass at less than ten times the distance from the Sun to Neptune from the black hole
[4] This effect well known from the physics of fluids and can be seen when for example pouring syrup in a glass of water. The flow of syrup downwards through the water will be disrupted and the droplet will break apart effectively diluting the syrup in the water.
More information
This research was presented in a paper "A gas cloud on its way towards the super-massive black hole in the Galactic Centre", by S. Gillessen et al., to appear in the 5 January 2012 issue of the journal Nature.
The team is composed of S. Gillessen (Max-Planck-Institut fr extraterrestrische Physik [MPE], Germany), R. Genzel (MPE; Department of Physics, University of California [UC], USA), T. Fritz (MPE, Germany), E. Quataert (Department of Astronomy, UC, USA), C. Alig (Universittssternwarte der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt [LMU], Germany), A. Burkert (MPE; LMU), J. Cuadra (Departamento de Astronoma y Astrofsica, Pontificia Universidad Catlica de Chile, Chile), F. Eisenhauer (MPE), O. Pfuhl (MPE), K. Dodds-Eden (MPE), C. Gammie (Center for Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Illinois, USA), T. Ott (MPE).
ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive astronomical observatory. It is supported by 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world's largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. ESO is currently planning a 40-metre-class European Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky".
Links
- Research paper in Nature: http://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1151/eso1151.pdf
- MPE web page on the Galactic Centre: http://www.mpe.mpg.de/ir/GC/index.php
- Images of Paranal: http://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/category/paranal/
Contacts
Stefan Gillessen
Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
Garching, Germany
Tel: +49 89 30000 3839
Email: ste@mpe.mpg.de
Reinhard Genzel
Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
Garching, Germany
Tel: +49 89 30000 3281
Email: genzel@mpe.mpg.de
Richard Hook
ESO, La Silla, Paranal, E-ELT & Survey Telescopes Press Officer
Garching bei Mnchen, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Cell: +49 151 1537 3591
Email: rhook@eso.org
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
A black hole's dinner is fast approachingPublic release date: 14-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Richard Hook rhook@eso.org 49-893-200-6655 ESO
VLT spots cloud being disrupted by black hole
During a 20-year programme using ESO telescopes to monitor the movement of stars around the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy (eso0846 - http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0846/) [1], a team of astronomers led by Reinhard Genzel at the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, Germany, has discovered a unique new object fast approaching the black hole.
Over the last seven years, the speed of this object has nearly doubled, reaching more than 8 million km/h. It is on a very elongated orbit [2] and in mid-2013 it will pass at a distance of only about 40 billion kilometres from the event horizon of the black hole, a distance of about 36 light-hours [3]. This is an extremely close encounter with a supermassive black hole in astronomical terms.
This object is much cooler than the surrounding stars (only about 280 degrees Celsius), and is composed mostly of hydrogen and helium. It is a dusty, ionised gas cloud with a mass roughly three times that of the Earth. The cloud is glowing under the strong ultraviolet radiation from the hot stars around it in the crowded heart of the Milky Way.
The current density of the cloud is much higher than the hot gas surrounding the black hole. But as the cloud gets ever closer to the hungry beast, increasing external pressure will compress the cloud. At the same time the huge gravitational pull from the black hole, which has a mass four million times that of the Sun, will continue to accelerate the inward motion and stretch the cloud out along its orbit.
"The idea of an astronaut close to a black hole being stretched out to resemble spaghetti is familiar from science fiction. But we can now see this happening for real to the newly discovered cloud. It is not going to survive the experience," explains Stefan Gillessen (MPE) the lead author of the paper.
The cloud's edges are already starting to shred and disrupt and it is expected to break up completely over the next few years [4]. The astronomers can already see clear signs of increasing disruption of the cloud over the period between 2008 and 2011.
The material is also expected to get much hotter as it nears the black hole in 2013 and it will probably start to give off X-rays. There is currently little material close to the black hole so the newly-arrived meal will be the dominant fuel for the black hole over the next few years.
One explanation for the formation of the cloud is that its material may have come from nearby young massive stars that are rapidly losing mass due to strong stellar winds. Such stars literally blow their gas away. Colliding stellar winds from a known double star in orbit around the central black hole may have led to the formation of the cloud.
"The next two years will be very interesting and should provide us with extremely valuable information on the behaviour of matter around such remarkable massive objects," concludes Reinhard Genzel.
###
Notes
[1] The black hole at the centre of the Milky Way is formally known as Sgr A* (pronounced Sagittarius A star). It is the closest supermassive black hole known by far and hence is the best place to study black holes in detail.
[2] The observations were made using the NACO infrared adaptive optics camera and the SINFONI infrared spectrograph, both attached to the ESO Very Large Telescope in Chile. The centre of the Milky Way lies behind thick dust clouds that scatter and absorb visible light and must be observed at infrared wavelengths where the clouds are more transparent.
[3] A light-hour is the distance that light travels in one hour. It is a little more than the distance from the Sun to the planet Jupiter in the Solar System. For comparison the distance between the Sun and the nearest star is more than four light-years. The cloud will pass at less than ten times the distance from the Sun to Neptune from the black hole
[4] This effect well known from the physics of fluids and can be seen when for example pouring syrup in a glass of water. The flow of syrup downwards through the water will be disrupted and the droplet will break apart effectively diluting the syrup in the water.
More information
This research was presented in a paper "A gas cloud on its way towards the super-massive black hole in the Galactic Centre", by S. Gillessen et al., to appear in the 5 January 2012 issue of the journal Nature.
The team is composed of S. Gillessen (Max-Planck-Institut fr extraterrestrische Physik [MPE], Germany), R. Genzel (MPE; Department of Physics, University of California [UC], USA), T. Fritz (MPE, Germany), E. Quataert (Department of Astronomy, UC, USA), C. Alig (Universittssternwarte der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt [LMU], Germany), A. Burkert (MPE; LMU), J. Cuadra (Departamento de Astronoma y Astrofsica, Pontificia Universidad Catlica de Chile, Chile), F. Eisenhauer (MPE), O. Pfuhl (MPE), K. Dodds-Eden (MPE), C. Gammie (Center for Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Illinois, USA), T. Ott (MPE).
ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive astronomical observatory. It is supported by 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world's largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. ESO is currently planning a 40-metre-class European Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky".
Links
- Research paper in Nature: http://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1151/eso1151.pdf
- MPE web page on the Galactic Centre: http://www.mpe.mpg.de/ir/GC/index.php
- Images of Paranal: http://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/category/paranal/
Contacts
Stefan Gillessen
Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
Garching, Germany
Tel: +49 89 30000 3839
Email: ste@mpe.mpg.de
Reinhard Genzel
Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
Garching, Germany
Tel: +49 89 30000 3281
Email: genzel@mpe.mpg.de
Richard Hook
ESO, La Silla, Paranal, E-ELT & Survey Telescopes Press Officer
Garching bei Mnchen, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Cell: +49 151 1537 3591
Email: rhook@eso.org
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Here are some recent posts on TechCrunch Gadgets: 2011 Gift Guide: Best Stuff For Luddites Review: Krups EA82 Automatic Espresso Maker Makes You Love To Love It Samsung Releases Extended Battery Bundle (With Cover) For Your New Galaxy Nexus Little iPads, Little Pixels, And Resolution Independence (An Apple Rumor Medley) TC Gadgets Weekly Webcast: The iPad Mini, CES, And A Coffeemaker![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 14-Dec-2011
Share ]