Tip, Skateboard P and a gaggle of models join Thicke for his chart-topping hit on the BET stage.
By Nadeska Alexis
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1709806/bet-awards-2013-robin-thicke-blurred-lines.jhtml
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"Mommy, why is the sky blue?" "Mommy, why eat dinner? Eddie no want dinner." "Why go bed? But why?" We are officially in the 'Why?' stage.
This morning, my 2-year-old son, Eddie, said he had to make a poopy, so I asked him if he wanted to go on the potty. I could smell that he'd already gone in his pants, but he never tells me beforehand, so I'm left trying to potty train him after the fact, like rushing to catch a school bus that's already departed. Surprisingly, he said he did want to go on the potty.
I carried him into the bathroom and placed him on his little children's toilet and said, "Here," and handed him a book.
"You can read a book while you're on the potty, just like mommy and daddy," I said.
I figured if he reads books on the potty like we do, perhaps he'd poop like we do.
He looked down at the book, "Why?"
"Why, what?" I said.
"Why read potty?"
"Why do we read on the potty?"
"Yeah," he said.
"Hmmm. I don't know," I said. "Because it gives us something to do?"
I didn't want to get into how it takes me a long time to make poopy because I don't drink enough water, but I knew he wasn't going to be satisfied with the answer I gave him.
"Why give something to do?" he asked.
"Because it's boring to just sit there," I said. I picked up one of his books, and said, "Let's read," and I began to read, because sometimes the only way to stop the endless stream of why's is to sever the conversation, like cutting the strands of Play-Doh as they're oozing out of the fun factory.
The interesting thing about responding every time he says "why" is that you begin to see how your thinking doesn't always make sense. This evening, we went to walk a neighbor's dog, and Eddie wanted to hold the dog's leash so my husband handed it to him. Eddie began to run with the dog, pulling on his leash so that the dog would follow, when it seemed like at that moment in time, the dog preferred to just dawdle and sniff.
"Eddie, let the doggie pee," I said.
My son kept pulling on the leash and then started to trot again, as the dog was trying to urinate.
"Eddie, stop. Let him go to the bathroom," I said.
My son stopped for a moment but then began trotting, and the dog began to trot behind him. But the dog soon found a spot on which he wanted to pee, and he tried to stop, but my son kept tugging on his leash.
My husband started to take the leash from my son's hand, but Eddie wouldn't let go.
"I do it," Eddie said.
"Eddie, let daddy do it," I said.
"No, Eddie do it!" my son said, grabbing on to the leash more tightly.
When my husband tried to take the leash away, Eddie began to cry.
"Buddy, let daddy hold the leash," I said.
"Why?" he said, tearfully.
"Because you have to let the dog stop and go to the bathroom," I said.
"Why?"
"Because that's why we're out here. So he can go to the bathroom," I said.
A few minutes later, Eddie managed to get ahold of the leash again. Now, the dog wanted to run and Eddie was trying to hold him back.
"Hey, pal, let the doggie run," I said, knowing I was saying the exact opposite of what I'd just told him.
"Why?" he said.
"Because the doggie hasn't been out for a while, and he wants to run," I said.
"But why?"
"Just because," I said.
Sometimes "why" seems to perform a function, like as a way of keeping the conversation going when he has so few words at his disposal. And then sometimes the "why's" feel like his way of wrestling away control in a relationship where he has so little. My husband sometimes does this on the phone when he detects I want to get off: he'll start asking questions to keep me on, and then when I start answering them, he'll say he has to go.
Sometimes "why" seems almost profound, like today, when I pointed out how someone had put a large plastic fish around the outside of their mailbox. The flap of the mailbox opened inside the fish's mouth.
"Look, Eddie. It's a fish. Their mailbox is a fish," I said, pointing out the car window.
"Why?" he said.
I looked at the mailbox and thought about it. "I have no idea," I said.
I guess we all struggle to understand the things that go on around us. I remember when my husband and I first started dating, he had tickets to see a Red Sox game. The seats were in a corporate box, and he told me he hoped I didn't mind, but it was going to be a "Guys Night Out." Of course I didn't mind, I said -- until he returned home that night and told me his brother and his best friend had both brought their girlfriends. It was basically a party in the corporate box, with food and drinks, and everyone had brought their spouses. I asked him why he didn't think to bring me, and he said, he thought it was going to be just the guys.
"But why did you think that, and they didn't?" I asked.
"I don't know," he said. "I just thought it was going to be the guys."
"But why?" I said.
"I just figured it's a baseball game. It's a guy thing," he said, wishing he'd acted differently.
"But why did you think it was a guy thing, and they didn't?" I asked, wishing he'd acted differently.
"I don't know what to say," he said.
"Maybe you want to hang out with your friends more than you want to hang out with me," I said.
"No, I don't," he said, like a cornered animal.
"But I just don't understand why, when push comes to shove, all things being equal, they thought to bring their girlfriends, and you didn't? I just don't get it," I said.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"I know you're sorry. I know. I just don't understand why you did it," I said.
Sometimes, "Why?" means, "How could you do that to me?"
?
Follow Caren Chesler on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thedancingegg
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/caren-chesler/because_b_3520436.html
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? An Iranian semi-official news agency is reporting the country has confirmed it is detaining an unspecified number of Slovak nationals, saying they have broken the law.
The Sunday report by ISNA quotes Abbas Araghchi, spokesman of Iran's foreign ministry, as saying the Slovaks entered Iran as tourists, "but they had unconventional behavior and instruments. They violated Iran's law."
Araghchi said the case is under judicial investigations and would later be sent to the courts. He said Slovak diplomats have access to the detainees.
Iran did not identify the detainees or give any detail on their numbers.
In February Iran released a Slovak national after weeks after accusing him of spying for the CIA.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-confirms-detention-slovak-nationals-101327445.html
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SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO,Calif. (AP) ? Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Sunday confirmed that it received an unsolicited takeover bid from Amgen Inc. for $120 per share. But the drug developer says it rejected the offer, because it "significantly undervalued" the company.
Onyx also said that other companies have expressed interest in a buyout, and that its board authorized its financial adviser, Centerview Partners, to contact potential suitors.
Onyx reported net loss of $187.8 million, or $2.88 per diluted share, for 2012, on revenue of $362.2 million. That reversed a 2011 profit of $76.1 million, or $1.19 per share, on $447.2 million.
In the 2013 first quarter, the company posted a net loss of $33.7 million, or 47 cents per share, on revenue of $145.5 million. That was a smaller loss than the $56.2 million, or 88 cents per share, posted for the 2012 first quarter, as revenue more than doubled from $72 million.
Onyx's tablet medication Nexavar, which treats liver and kidney cancer, is approved in more than 100 countries. It brought in $70.3 million in revenue in the first quarter, a slight drop from a year ago.
It also received approval last year from the FDA for an injection medication called Kyprolis, which is for treatment of multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells which accumulate in bone marrow. In the first quarter, sales of the drug reached $64 million.
Stivarga, a pill to treat colorectal cancer pill developed by Onyx and Bayer HealthCare, also got the OK from the FDA last year. Onyx received royalty revenue of $9.2 million in the first quarter for Stivarga.
Onyx CEO N. Anthony Coles said in a statement that the company is "actively exploring the potential to combine Onyx with another company as an option to create additional value for Onyx shareholders."
Reports of the offer late Friday caused Onyx shares to jump 26 percent in after-hours trading to $109.01. The stock closed the regular session at $86.82, up 15 percent for the first half of the year, but down from its peak of $101.57, reached in April.
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| author | Nicolas B. Pierron <nicolas.b.pierron@mozilla.com> |
| Sat Jun 29 19:23:13 2013 -0700 (at Sat Jun 29 19:23:13 2013 -0700) | |
| changeset 185771 | ea6a502ddb74 |
| parent 185770 | ce1079fd143a |
| pushlog: | ea6a502ddb74 |
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Source: http://hg.mozilla.org/try/rev/ea6a502ddb74
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PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) ? President Barack Obama plans to visit privately Saturday with relatives of former South African President Nelson Mandela, but doesn't intend to see the critically ill anti-apartheid activist he has called a "personal hero."
The White House did not disclose any details for Obama's plans to meet the family in a brief statement issued upon Obama's first morning in South Africa during a weeklong tour of the continent. The statement simply said that Obama and his wife would offer their thoughts and prayers at the family's difficult time.
"Out of deference to Nelson Mandela's peace and comfort and the family's wishes, they will not be visiting the hospital," the statement said.
Obama told reporters on the flight to South Africa Friday that he was grateful that he, his wife and daughters had a chance to meet Mandela previously. Obama hangs his photo of the introduction he had to Mandela in 2005 in his personal office at the White House ? their only meeting, when Obama was a senator.
"I don't need a photo op," Obama said. "The last thing I want to do is to be in any way obtrusive at a time when the family is concerned about Nelson Mandela's condition."
Obama will be just a couple miles from the hospital where 94-year-old Mandela has been for three weeks after being admitted with a lung infection. The U.S. president has a bilateral meeting and news conference with President Jacob Zuma at the Union Buildings, where Mandela was inaugurated as the country's first black president in 1994 after 27 years behind bars under racist rule.
Obama has said the imprisoned activist's willingness to risk his life for the cause of equal rights helped inspire his own political activism. Obama said his message during the visit will draw on the lessons of Mandela's life, with a message that "Africa's rise will continue" if its people are unified instead of divided by tribe, race or religion.
"I think the main message we'll want to deliver if not directly to him but to his family is simply a profound gratitude for his leadership all these years and that the thoughts and prayers of the American people are with him and his family and his country," Obama said on his flight into the country.
Obama also is paying tribute to the fight against apartheid by visiting the Soweto area Saturday afternoon for a town hall with students at the University of Johannesburg. At least 176 young people were killed in Soweto township 27 years ago this month during a youth protest against the apartheid regime's ban against teaching local Bantu languages. The Soweto Uprising catalyzed international support against apartheid, and June is now recognized as Youth Month in South Africa.
The university plans to bestow an honorary law degree on the U.S. president, while protesters are planning demonstrations against U.S. policy on issues including the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the war in Afghanistan and global warming. Hundreds marched to the U.S. Embassy on Friday, carrying signs that read: "No, You Can't Obama," a message inspired by Obama's "yes, we can" campaign slogan.
Obama, the son of an African man, has been trying to inspire the continent's youth to become civically active and part of a new democratically minded generation. Obama hosted young leaders from more than 40 African countries at the White House in 2010 and challenged them to bring change to their countries by standing up for freedom, openness and peaceful disagreement.
Obama wraps up his South Africa stay Sunday, when he plans to give a sweeping speech on U.S.-Africa policy at the University of Cape Town and take his family to Robben Island to tour the prison where Mandela spent 18 years.
___
Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-meet-mandela-family-075010890.html
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LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A look at key moments this past week in the wrongful death trial in Los Angeles between Michael Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, and concert giant AEG Live LLC, and what is expected at court in the week ahead:
THE CASE
Jackson's mother wants a jury to determine that the promoter of Jackson's planned comeback concerts didn't properly investigate Dr. Conrad Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter by a criminal jury for Jackson's June 2009 death. AEG's attorney says the case is about personal choice, namely Jackson's decision to have Murray serve as his doctor and give him doses of a powerful anesthetic as a sleep aid. Millions, possibly billions, of dollars are at stake.
WHAT HAPPENED THIS PAST WEEK
?Jackson's eldest son, Michael Joseph "Prince" Jackson Jr., told jurors about his upbringing and for the first time publicly described what he saw on the day his father died. He recounted seeing his father hanging halfway off his bed, eyes rolled up in the back of his head while his personal doctor attempted CPR. Prince, 16, told jurors he was crying the whole time, but tried to comfort his siblings on the car ride to the hospital.
?Jackson's longtime makeup artist showed jurors emails she sent to Jackson's manager, warning him the singer may die and stating that she didn't want him and an AEG executive to be branded as "villains" or "financial victims" if tragedy struck.
WHAT THE JURY SAW
? Jurors watched home videos and photos of Jackson and his children, including footage shot on a Christmas morning in which he quizzed his three children about what they wanted to do when they grew older. His daughter, Paris, told her father she wanted to help the poor.
? Jackson's nephews TJ and Taj Jackson break down on the stand as they described the loss of their uncle Michael and the impact on the singer's children.
QUOTABLE MOMENTS
? "He was grabbing his elbow and looked aggressive to me," Prince testified, describing AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips' demeanor during a discussion with Michael Jackson's personal doctor in the singer's rented mansion.
? "I think out of all of my siblings, she was probably hit the hardest. She was my dad's princess. I think without that, it really hurt her a lot," Prince said of his sister Paris, who probably won't testify in the case, an attorney for Katherine Jackson told a judge.
OUTSIDE THE COURTROOM
? Fans delivered more than 13,000 roses to the cemetery where Jackson is interred on Tuesday, the fourth anniversary of the singer's death.
? A woman approached two alternate jurors, telling them not to award the Jackson family any money. The statements prompted an inquiry and Katherine Jackson's attorney said the incident was jury tampering.
? Katherine Jackson and other family members were expected at the Saturday night premiere of Cirque du Soleil's permanent Michael Jackson tribute show, "One," at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino in Las Vegas.
? The Jacksons singing group ? made up of Michael Jackson brothers and other family members ? perform Sunday at the BET Awards at LA Live ? an AEG property.
WHAT'S NEXT
?Michael Jackson's nephew Taj Jackson may resume testifying, and additional experts will be called in a week that will be shortened to three days by the Independence Day break.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jackson-sons-testimony-dominates-trials-9th-week-153756434.html
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Building on a foundation that's almost identical to the Editors' Choice Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 710HD, the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 750HD adds one key feature: 3D with full support for video sources like Blu-ray players and FiOS. That easily makes it worth the higher price, especially when you consider that $99 of the difference covers the cost of the one pair of 3D glasses it comes with. It also makes the 750HD Editors' Choice for an inexpensive 3D projector for home use.
Like the 710HD, despite the home cinema in the name, the 750HD is actually meant as a home entertainment, rather than home theater, projector. The giveaway is the 3,000-lumen brightness rating. Home theater projectors, like the Editors' Choice Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 5020UBe, are meant for theater-dark lighting. With the typical size screen for home theaters, however, 3,000 lumens would be far too bright for comfortable viewing in the dark.
Home entertainment projectors have a different role. They're meant to supplement or substitute for a TV in a family room or living room. In that situation, you need a far brighter image to stand up to the ambient light. It also helps for a home entertainment projector to be small and light enough so if you don't install it permanently, you can store it easily when you're not using it or can carry it easily to another room or, for that matter, a friend's house. The 6-pound 750HD fits that requirement too.
Basics and Setup
The connections for image sources on the 750HD's back panel are more typical for a data projector than a home entertainment projector, with only one HDMI port plus the usual VGA, composite video, and S-Video ports. The VGA port also supports component video, which will let you connect to a second HD video source if you have an appropriate adaptor cable. In addition, there's a USB A port, which will let you read files directly from a USB memory key, and a USB B port for direct USB display and for controlling your computer's mouse with the projector's remote.
Setup is standard, with a 1.2x manual zoom offering some flexibility in how far you can put the projector from the screen for a given size image. Simply plug in the appropriate cables, adjust the zoom, and focus.
Brightness, Image Quality, and Rainbows
As I've already suggested, the 750HD is bright enough to throw an appropriately large image even with the typical ambient light in a family room. However, the maximum image size for comfortable viewing will depend on how the bright the room is. I found the projector suitable for the 90-inch diagonal image I used in most of my testing even with the lights on, and even with daylight streaming through the windows. For smaller image sizes or lower light levels, you can adjust the projector brightness by switching to Eco mode or choosing one of the preset modes with lower brightness.
Switching between 2D and 3D can be a problem for projectors, because the 3D glasses cut out a substantial portion of the light going to each eye. I was able to use the same 90-inch image size for both modes, however, by picking the brightest 3D preset for 3D and lower brightness presets for 2D.
For 2D image quality, the 750HD is roughly a match for the 710HD, which translates to being better quality overall than many TVs offer, but not in the same league as a good-quality 1080p home entertainment projector.
The 750HD did a good job with skin tones and with shadow detail (details based on shading in dark areas), although it lost a little detail in scenes that are hard to handle well. Also on the plus side, I didn't see any motion artifacts or posterization (shading changing suddenly where it should change gradually), even in scenes that tend to cause that problem.
I saw some moderately obvious noise with DVDs, but that's not surprising for a sub-$1000 projector. Noise was far less obvious with Blu-Ray discs and with a FiOS connection. It also helps a lot that, as a three-chip LCD projector, the 750HD is guaranteed to be free of rainbow artifacts.
Image quality for 3D is another strong point. I didn't see any crosstalk, and saw only a hint of 3D-related motion artifacts.
Audio and Other Issues
The built-in audio system in the 750HD, with a 2-watt mono speaker, is good enough to be usable, with acceptably high quality and adequate volume for a small room. However, that assumes little to no ambient noise. If you want stereo, or more volume, you'll need an external sound system. And since there's no audio-out port on the projector, you'll have to bypass the projector entirely, rather than control the sound through the projector menus.
One last important feature is a long lamp life, at 4,000 hours in Normal mode or 5,000 hours in Eco mode. That's long enough to run the projector more than 3.5 hours per day every day for three years in the brightest mode or four years in Eco mode. Also helping to keep the cost of ownership down is the replacement lamp cost of only $200.
Keep in mind that you have to add the cost of additional 3D glasses at $99 each if you get them from Epson, although Epson points out that less expensive alternatives are available from other manufacturers. In any case, you'll almost certainly need more than the one pair that comes with the projector.
No 720p projector can match an otherwise equivalent 1080p projector for sharp resolution, but if don't want to spend the money for 1080p, a good-quality 720p projector comes in at a close second. Among 720p models, if you're not interested in 3D, you can save money by getting the 2D Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 710HD. You can also save by choosing a 3D DLP-based model instead. But if you want good image quality in both 2D and 3D, and you also want to avoid any possibility of rainbow artifacts, the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 750HD is the obvious choice. That makes it the clear pick for Editors' Choice as well.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/mX5qaHEfgpE/0,2817,2421067,00.asp
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Originally published June 28, 2013 at 9:37 PM | Page modified June 28, 2013 at 10:26 PM
WASHINGTON ? The Obama administration issued its final compromise Friday for religiously affiliated charities, hospitals and other nonprofits that object to covering birth control in their employee health plans.
The Health and Human Services Department said the final plan simplifies how insurers provide the coverage separately from faith-based groups and gives religious nonprofits more time to comply. However, the changes are unlikely to resolve objections from faith groups that the requirement violates their religious freedom.
More than 60 lawsuits have been filed challenging the rule. The cases are expected to reach the Supreme Court.
The birth-control rule was first introduced in February 2012 as part of President Obama?s health-care law. The original plan exempted churches and other houses of worship, but required faith-affiliated charities, universities and other nonprofits to provide the coverage for their employees.
The regulation became an election-year issue as Roman Catholic bishops, evangelicals and some religious leaders lobbied for a broader exemption. The Obama administration offered a series of accommodations, leading to the final rules released Friday.
Under the compromise, administration officials said they simplified the definition of religious organizations that are fully exempt from the requirement. The change means a church that also ran a soup kitchen would not have to comply.
Other religious nonprofits must notify their insurance company that they object to birth-control coverage. The insurer or administrator of the plan will then notify affected employees separately that coverage will be provided at no cost. The insurers would be reimbursed by a credit against fees owed the government.
Michael Hash, director of the health-reform office of the Health and Human Services Department, said the final regulation spells out in more detail the buffer between religious charities and contraceptive coverage. Faith-based groups were given another reprieve ? until Jan. 1 ? to comply.
Judy Waxman, of the National Women?s Law Center, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., said her organization could accept the plan. ?It?s fair,? she said.
However, Eric Rassbach, an attorney with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a law firm challenging the contraception-coverage rule, said: ?It doesn?t really change the overall way they?re trying to do this.? The Becket Fund represents many of the organizations challenging the regulation in federal court.
Lawsuits against the requirement are split almost evenly between nonprofit plaintiffs ? including several Roman Catholic dioceses ? and for-profit businesses, which say the rules go against their religious beliefs. For-profit businesses are not included in the accommodation released Friday.
Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby Stores is the largest and best-known of the businesses that have sued. On Thursday, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver allowed the lawsuit to move forward on religious grounds. The judges said the portion of the law that requires Hobby Lobby to offer certain kinds of birth control to employees is particularly onerous and sent the case back to a court in Oklahoma.
On Friday, the lower court granted Hobby Lobby a temporary injunction against full enforcement of the law. Businesses that fail to comply potentially face fines based on the number of workers they employ and other factors. The amount for Hobby Lobby could reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Neither the Catholic Health Association, a trade group for hospitals, nor the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had an immediate reaction Friday, saying the regulations were being studied.
Source: http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2021291582_healthcontraceptivexml.html
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By Vladimir Soldatkin
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Zoya Danilina, who owns some 700 shares in Gazprom
Danilina remembers when her shares were worth over 300 roubles each. Now they fetch about 100 roubles.
"There have been much better days, when tables were served with black and red caviar," she said on the sidelines of Gazprom's annual general meeting in Moscow on Friday, looking at a plate of boiled buckwheat, a popular staple food in Russia.
In the caviar era, Gazprom head Alexei Miller, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, was overseeing a company with the world's third-largest market value at $360 billion. In 2007, he promised to boost it to $1 trillion.
Fast forward several years and Gazprom, still the world's largest gas producer and holder of 15 percent of global gas reserves, is worth $77 billion and could fall further as it faces a series of setbacks.
The biggest blow came from a shale gas revolution that has unlocked vast reserves in the United States.
U.S. prices have crashed, closing America as a prospective market for Gazprom, diverting cheaper liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes not needed in the United States to Europe, undermining Gazprom's position in its core market.
Europe, tied to Gazprom by a Soviet-built pipeline network, has balked at its contracts that tie gas prices to more expensive oil.
Last year, Miller was forced to offer billions of dollars in what Gazprom described as "rebates" to European buyers.
On Thursday, Germany's RWE
Gazprom expects its 2013 earnings to fall by 10 percent, marking a second yearly decline.
The stock market now values Gazprom - the world's third-biggest company by earnings behind ExxonMobil
LNG, HOME PRICE SETBACKS
Investors could possibly forgive those setbacks if they were confident Gazprom could expand in the fast growing global LNG markets, while charging rising prices at home.
"Our goal is to control around 15 percent of the global market for liquefied natural gas," Miller, 51, told the annual general meeting on Friday.
But such hopes were dealt heavy blows over the past month.
Putin signaled last week the gradual end of Gazprom's monopoly on exports of LNG and opened the way for rivals Novatek
"We offer to lower restrictions gradually on liquefied natural gas exports," Putin said in a speech at an economic forum in St Petersburg, both his and Miller's hometown.
Putin also said that monopolies would be able to raise prices only in line with inflation, reducing hopes for much higher returns on the domestic market.
Gazprom's domestic industrial customers pay $114 per 1,000 cubic meters - little more than half of the $201 it receives for exports after being adjusted for transportation and duties.
"Investors are structurally underweight Gazprom as they do not believe in significant change at the company," said Kingsmill Bond, chief strategist at Sberbank Investment Research in Moscow.
POLITICAL TOOL
Under Miller, hired by Putin in 2001, Gazprom often served as a Kremlin political tool, as described by EU officials.
"The Kremlin has decided that Gazprom is part of Russia's national security and geopolitics - not a commercial company," said Chris Weafer, founder of Macro Advisory, a Russia-focused consultancy.
"We are going back to Soviet days, when Gazprom was a government ministry. The market is valuing it like a ministry."
Using Gazprom as a weapon has proved to be a double-edged sword, poisoning relations with Ukraine, the transit route for most of Gazprom's Europe-bound gas, after several pricing disputes, which cut gas flows to Europe during several winters.
Gazprom is now investing billions of dollars in new export routes to circumvent is ex-Soviet neighbor - Nord Stream to Germany and the still-to-be built South Stream to Italy.
Investors fear those projects may never pay out.
Finally, Gazprom has failed to sign a supply deal with China, the world's largest energy market, despite first signing a memorandum of understanding as long ago as 2006.
Should the deal be signed before the end of the year, it may still not be enough to revive the appetite of investors, who have long criticized Gazprom's for overspending.
"The mega-projects will guarantee rapid growth in costs, while future revenues are absolutely uncertain," said Mikhail Korchemkin of consultancy East European Gas Analysis.
(Corrects to one trillion dollars from one billion in fourth par)
(Additional reporting by Denis Pinchuk and Douglas Busvine; Editing by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Jane Baird)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gazproms-1-trillion-dream-fallen-apart-181422124.html
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CAIRO (AP) ? Thousands of supporters and opponents of Egypt's embattled Islamist president are holding rival sit-ins on the eve of what are expected to be massive opposition-led protests aimed at forcing Mohammed Morsi's ouster.
The demonstrations early Saturday follow days of deadly clashes in a string of cities across the country that left at least seven people dead, including an American, and hundreds injured.
Cairo, which saw large pro- and anti-Morsi rallies on Friday, was uncharacteristically quiet Saturday despite the sit-ins as the city braced for more potentially violent opposition protests.
Opposition groups have vowed to bring out millions Sunday to force Morsi from office. The rallies are timed to coincide with the anniversary of Morsi's taking power as Egypt's first freely elected leader.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-edge-ahead-more-protests-105228905.html
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The link between cancer and obesity may be related to changes in gut fauna, at least in obese mice with liver cancer. Pictured: Clostridium difficile Image: Flickr/AJ Cann
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
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The gut bacteria of obese mice unleash high levels of an acid that promotes liver cancer, reveals one of the first studies to uncover a mechanism for the link between obesity and cancer. The research is published today in Nature.
?Obesity in general has many different types of cancer associated with it,? says Eiji Hara, a cancer biologist at the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research in Tokyo and one of the study authors. But in the case of liver cancer, he says, ?I never expected the microbiome was linked.?
Hara and his colleagues initially set out to study how dying cells influence obesity-linked cancers. Cells that are irreparably damaged or pre-cancerous can become senescent ? meaning that they stop dividing for overall health of the organism. But before senescent cells die, they can spew out chemicals that may cause inflammation and promote cancer development.
To examine whether senescent cells are involved in obesity-induced cancers, Hara and his colleagues worked with genetically engineered mice whose cells emit light upon becoming senescent. They then primed the mice by exposing them to a carcinogenic chemical, a process that Hara says may be similar to humans? exposure to environmental toxins, such as air pollution. Researchers then fed the mice either a normal diet or a high-fat diet.
After 30 weeks, only 5% of the lean mice developed cancer ? in their lungs ? whereas all the obese mice developed liver cancer.
Although the results showed that cell senescence was involved in obesity-linked cancer in the mice, Hara and his colleagues did not initially understand why the liver became a hotbed for tumors. But when they compared the blood serum of the two groups of mice, they found that the obese mice had much higher amounts of deoxycholic acid (DCA), a chemical that causes DNA damage and can induce cell senescence.
Deliver to the liver
DCA is a by-product of metabolism in intestinal bacteria. In the gut, certain types of microbes convert bile acids ? which aid in fat digestion ? to the more harmful DCA, which is then absorbed into the bloodstream and delivered to the liver.
The researchers found that obese mice had a greater number of DCA-producing Clostridium bacteria, and that obese mice given antibiotics to clear intestinal bacteria developed fewer liver tumors.
Peter Turnbaugh, a systems biologist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, says that the data provide a clear example of how the metabolism of gut microbes links obesity and cancer. ?They?ve uncovered a nice story,? he says.
This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on June 26, 2013.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/sciam/basic-science/~3/sKyfrH6BAQQ/article.cfm
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The Wall Street Journal reported today that Google is developing an Android-powered game console, saying that "people familiar with the matter" have provided details to the newspaper. Google declined to comment. According to the WSJ, Google is "reacting in part to expectations that rival Apple will launch a videogame console as part of its next Apple TV product release." Apple also declined to comment on the matter.
Google would launch the device this fall, along with a second version of its Nexus Q media-playing device and an Android-powered smartwatch. The next release of Android, code-named Key Lime Pie, is said to give manufacturers like Samsung more freedom to use Android in devices beyond smartphones and tablets. Previously, while Google has allowed this to happen, manufacturers weren't allowed to use the Android name to promote such Android-based devices.
Google has been watching the release of Ouya, GameStick and GamePop to see how Android-powered consoles are being accepted. Certainly Google and other technology companies would not want to see Apple grab the lion's share of a new device marketplace, as Apple has done with the iPad. Releasing a Google console could be seen as a pre-emptive move to prevent that.
Apple has not been signaling any intentions to release an upgraded Apple TV that includes an App Store, but the newest version of iOS (iOS 7) does include support for game controllers. Apple stock has been taking a beating lately, as investors wonder if Apple can still introduce new category-defining hardware.
While these reports of possible game consoles from Google, Apple, and Amazon still fall into the category of rumors, it's worth noting that Google did hire veteran game designer Noah Falstein a few months ago. Why would they do that if they didn't have some interest in the gaming market?
Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-06-28-google-said-to-be-developing-game-console
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The Brother TD-4100N label printer is almost identical to the Brother TD-4000 that I recently reviewed, except that it adds an Ethernet connector. As we've seen with other label printers, that makes a big difference in speed, with the TD-4100N coming in significantly slower than the TD-4000 on some of our tests. More important, however, is that it turns the TD-4100N into a shared printer. That, in turn, makes its heavy-duty capability more appropriate for more offices, since everyone on your network can use it.
Like the Brother TD-4000, the TD-4100N is a distant cousin to the Editors' Choice Brother QL-700 and it's network-ready variation, the Brother QL-720NW. However, it doesn't offer the same variety of label types or the same ability to print stamps as the QL models. Instead, it concentrates on speed and also adds the ability to print labels as large as four-inches wide. That translates to less versatility than the QL models but heavier duty capability.
Basics
Because it can handle rolls as large as four-inches wide, the TD-4100N is necessarily wider than printers like the Brother QL-700 or QL-720NW that are limited to smaller sizes. However it's not much bigger otherwise, coming in at the same 6.2 by 6.8 by 9.0 inches (HWD) as the TD-4000. As with its near twin, that makes it small enough to fit on a desk easily and gives it a smaller footprint than the Editors' Choice Dymo LabelWriter 450 Twin Turbo.
Key features for the TD-4100N include an automatic cutter and the ability to switch label rolls easily. That's important, because swapping out rolls with most label printers is just hard enough to discourage switching labels very often. With the TD-4100N it took me only about 30 seconds to switch rolls without rushing, and it was easy enough that you're unlikely to consider it an issue unless you have to switch rolls repeatedly every day.
Unfortunately, as with the TD-4000, there aren't all that many types of rolls to switch to with the TD-4100N. Brother says that it will work with thermal paper rolls from other manufacturers, but Brother's own paper labels for the printer come in only one color?white?and a choice of five sizes, 2 by 1 inches, 3 by 1 inches, 4 by 1.97 inches, 4 by 6 inches, and a 4-inch-wide continuous format.
Brother's label rolls range from $144 to $225 (street) for boxes of 12 rolls, with 3,372 to 18,528 labels per box, depending on the label size. That works out to about 1 cent per label each for the 2 by 1 and 3 by 1 labels, 2.2 cents for the 4 by 1 labels, and 4.3 cents for the 4 by 6 labels. The continuous roll price is 12.9 cents per foot.
Setup and Software
Setup is mostly standard for a label printer, except that you have the choice of connecting by USB, RS-232, or Ethernet. For my tests, I used the Ethernet connector.
The automated setup routine installs Brother's P-touch Editor version 5 label printing software plus a standard printer driver. The software also lets you add shortcuts to the Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook toolbars or Ribbons (depending on the Microsoft Office version). Each shortcut lets you send text directly to P-touch Editor, with the text automatically inserted into a label format and ready to print. That makes it easy to turn a single address in a Word document into an envelope label or instantly turn any or all of your Outlook contact entries into a ready-to-print mailing list.
One minor issue the TD-4100N shares with the TD-4000 is that although the printer can recover from errors gracefully, the manual doesn't explain the process well. All you need to do, however, is tap on the power button without holding it for long enough to turn the printer off, then choose the Trashcan button from the popup that shows on your computer screen to delete the print job from the queue.
Another minor issue that that the TD-4100N shares with the TD-4000 is that if you use the cloud-based options for Fed Ex or UPS, there's no easy way to print labels for either. According to Brother, however, UPS's downloadable UPS WorldShip, which runs in Windows, will let you print UPS labels without problems.
Speed
The TD-4100N was significantly slower than the Brother TD-4000 on some of our tests. Brother rates it at the same 4.3 inches per second (ips), but using a network connection slows it down for continuous print jobs, like printing 100 labels. I timed both printers at roughly 3 seconds for printing a single label with a three-line address plus a Postnet code. But where the TD-4000 managed to print 50 labels in 18.5 seconds and 100 labels in 34 seconds, the TD-4100N took 1 minute 22 seconds for 50 labels, and 2:42 for 100 labels.
Interestingly, when I set both printers to automatically cut the roll after each label instead of cutting just once at the end, they came out to essentially the same speed for 50 labels, at 1:44 for the TD-4100N and 1:41 for the Brother TD-4000.
As may be obvious, if you print just a few labels a day and don't need a 4-inch-wide label, a less expensive choice, like the QL-720NW, should be all you need. Beyond that, given the Brother TD-4100N's higher price compared with the TD-4000, and its slower speed for some tasks when using a network connection, there's no reason to choose it over the TD-4000 if you can make do with a USB connection. If you need a label printer you can share on a network, however, and also need the heavy-duty print capability, the ability to print four-inch-wide labels, or both, the Brother TD-4100N may well be the printer you want.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/OeMvfCrWBPQ/0,2817,2421068,00.asp
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Ford Tremor is the little brother of the F-150 SVT Raptor. Ford Tremor's mileage is 16 miles per gallon in the city, 22 m.p.g. on the highway.
Ford Motor Company introduces it's newest member of the F-Series family, the F-150 Tremor, to members of the media in Dearborn, Mich., on Thursday, June 27, 2013. The Ford Tremor is the first sport truck powered by an EcoBoost engine.
Courtesy of Ford Motor Co.
EnlargeFord?s universally popular F-150 SVT Raptor now has a little brother in the form of the all-new 2014 F-150 Tremor. The newcomer is the Ford Motor Company?s [NYSE:F] first EcoBoost-powered F-150 with the short-wheelbase, regular-cab design, and is aimed at buyers looking for a potent sport?truck?with decent fuel economy.
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Under the hood is the familiar 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6, which combines direct injection, variable cam timing and turbocharging technologies to help deliver 365 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque. Our favorite attribute is the torque band: 90 percent of peak torque is available from 1,700 to 5,000 rpm.
Fuel economy?is said to be 16/22 mpg city/highway, for the rear-wheel-drive model. Opting for all-wheel drive will diminish those figures slightly.
The engine is paired with a six-speed automatic and a launch-optimized 4.10 rear axle--the shortest final drive ratio offered in an EcoBoosted F-150. An electronic rear differential is also fitted as standard.
Applicants at the assistant, associate, and full professor levels will be separated by the depth and breadth of their research, publication, and teaching record. Compensation is competitive and commensurate with experience and qualifications.
The University and the Department are interested in qualified candidates who can contribute, through their research and teaching to the diversity and excellence of the academic community.
Summer and winter teaching opportunities are available.
The Frank G. Zarb School of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and has received a special accreditation in Accounting from AACSB. The Frank G. Zarb School of Business offers the B.B.A., M.B.A., and a variety of specialized M.S. programs.
Hofstra University is the largest private college on Long Island and is located twenty-five miles east of New York City. The University hosted presidential debates in 2008 and 2012. Hofstra University is fully committed to academic freedom and to the transmission, advancement, and preservation of knowledge for its own academic community and for the community at large.
Hofstra University is an equal opportunity employer, committed to fostering diversity in its faculty, administrative staff and student body, and encourages applications from the entire spectrum of a diverse community.
Please send a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, evidence of teaching excellence and scholarly work, and the addresses and telephone numbers of three references to:
Dr. Elizabeth K.
Venuti, Chair
Department of Accounting, Taxation, and Legal Studies in Business
Hofstra University
Frank G. Zarb School of
Business
134 Hofstra University
Hempstead, NY 11549-1340
Review of applications will continue until the position is filled.
Hofstra University is an equal opportunity employer, committed to fostering diversity in its faculty administrative staff and student body, and encourages applications from the entire spectrum of a diverse community.
Source: http://www.higheredjobs.com/details.cfm?JobCode=175768894
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Starting on Monday, Facebook's going to start stripping out ads from the more unsavory
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Posted on28 June 2013.
From Chelsea Rinnig. Email her at chelsea[AT]borderstan.com.
Some healthy tips for your summer cooking. (Chelsea Rinnig)
Healthy meal tips to keep you on track this summer
Barbecues, picnics, beach and beer ? all a recipe for fun activities this summer. But frankly, I begin to feel it after a weekend of drinking beer all day; all of a sudden, a beach weekend becomes a looming fear where you wished you?d toned up a little more and drank a little less.
So, here are a few tips and past articles that may allow you to indulge a little in the outdoor events while staying healthy and looking good!
So have a beer for being good all week and enjoy the best your local markets have to offer this summer!
Get an?RSS Feed for all Borderstan stories?or?subscribe to Borderstan?s daily email newsletter.
chelsea - who has written 45 posts on Borderstan.
Rinnig moved to Borderstan in Fall 2011 from Baltimore and hails originally from Los Angeles. Her dedication to the local food movement and commitment to eating simply and nutritiously have led her to both develop her culinary skills and write about her tasting new dishes both in her new city as well as her own kitchen. You can find Rinnig working downtown on weekdays, selling stone fruits and berries at the Dupont Farmers market on Sundays and splurging at fine restaurants here and there in-between. Email her at chelsea[AT]borderstan.com.
Source: http://www.borderstan.com/06/tips-to-lighten-up-your-summer-cooking/
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Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/06/28/the-knife-fork-spoon-a-new-take-on-an-old-problem/
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Demi Lovato Speaks Of Father’s Death & Mental Illness (VIDEO)
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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/06/demi-lovato-speaks-of-fathers-death-mental-illness-video/
Songza for iPhone is a streaming music service that takes a different approach to discovering music than traditional apps such as Pandora. Songza comes complete with your own personal concierge. Just tell Songza what you're doing or what kind of mood you're in and you'll instantly be served with playlists curated by experts based on what you've specified.
Let's not forget that Songza also has the most beautiful and easy to use interface of any streaming service we've used thus far.
Upon launching Songza you'll be asked to either create a Songza account or log in with Facebook. After that you'll be taken directly to the concierge page. Here you can choose times of day and the activities your performing and you'll be given choices of playlists based on those activities. You can also auto-generate playlists based on your mood.
If you aren't one to listen to curated playlists without specifying at least an artist or genre that you like, you can do that as well. Searching for an artist will bring up playlists that contain tracks by them. Choosing a playlist will automatically start streaming it, typically starting off with the artist you specified. Just like other popular services such as Slacker, Pandora, and Spotify, you can vote songs up or down and add playlists to your favorites for easy access later.
While Songza doesn't seem to specify how large their music library is, they do seem to have a rather large collection with tracks spanning almost every genre I could think of. I listen to a lot of electronica and I've always had issues finding streaming services that actually have good selections outside of mainstream titles. I've found that Songza actually has a very good selection for electronica that allows me to discover new music and artists that I enjoy. And sometimes that's hard to do with more obscure genres. If you find a song you like and that you want to purchase, tapping on the shopping cart icon will instantly take you to that track in iTunes for purchase.
Another neat feature I really like about Songza is that high quality audio doesn't seem to be limited to just premium subscribers. You can actually customize it in settings to your exact model of headphones as well. There are lots of brands supported and I have no trouble finding the most common ones including manufacturers such as Bose, Harman/Kardon, iHome, JBL, Beats, Sennheiser, and more. You can also create playlists on the web version that other users can listen to. Due to licensing restrictions, you won't be able to listen to them yourself which is a bit of a letdown, but it is a way to add more value to the community.
As for a premium subscription to Songza (referred to as Club Songza), it'll cost you $0.99 a week so about $4 a month. With that you'll get no ads on the iPhone app as well as the web version. When it comes to song skips, you are limited and it seems to be about 10 tracks an hour or so.
Songza is not only the most gorgeous music streaming app I've ever come across, it also works amazingly well. If you're looking for custom song searches and the ability to make your own playlists, Songza isn't for you and you'll be happier with a service like Spotify but be aware the price tag will be much higher for the privilege.
But if you're looking for a way to discover new music instead of simply streaming what you already know, Songza is a perfect option. The playlists are well put together and the iPhone app is a joy to use. If music discoverability is your number one desire, give Songza a try. You'll be glad you did.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/SOMTyOgAaoo/story01.htm
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At its Build developer conference today, Microsoft announced that it has added support for Bootstrap, the popular framework for responsive websites that was launched out of Twitter in 2011. Visual Studio 2013's project templates will use Bootstrap by default when you want to build a web app in Microsoft's ASP.NET now. If you were already tired of seeing too many Bootstrap-based sites, chances are you will now encounter even more of them.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Gvx-_BLq2_g/
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KABUL, Jun 26 (IPS) - Despite impressive advancements in enrolment rates, media reports of gas attacks on girls' schools, shoddy books, and a lack of classroom facilities continue to mar the reputation of the education system in Afghanistan.
Students at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. Credit: Shelly Kittleson/IPS
Many locals feel that landmark developments such as the enrolment of roughly eight million children ? 37 percent of whom are girls - compared to the 900,000 exclusively male students enroled under the Taliban go largely unreported.
Other, less obvious changes, such as the gradual removal of references to war and violence from school textbooks, have also escaped media attention, said former human rights commissioner Nader Nadery.
Nadery, current chairman of the Free and Fair Elections Foundation, told IPS that between 1996 and 2001, boys-only schools functioning under the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan studied material that actively promoted violence.
In mathematics classes, for example, he said word problems included such scenarios as: "If you shoot a gun and the bullet travels at X speed towards a soldier standing 500 metres away, how long does it take to kill him?"
According to Nadery, tireless work by human rights bodies led to a revision of these texts between 2006 and 2007 to include, among other things, gender-sensitive references that replaced such passages as: "The boy was playing football while the girl was carrying water and washing dishes."
Education Minister Spokesman Amanullah Eman told IPS that youth now learn about hitherto taboo subjects like tolerance and the dangers and diseases associated with drug-use.
English and computer skills are also taught in government?funded religious schools, which Eman says about two percent of children attend, including some 15,000 girls.
And whereas "religious instruction was given in Arabic under the previous regime, we have now translated all the books into the two national languages: Dari and Pashto," he added.
The past few years have also seen rapid growth in the number of private institutes of both basic and higher education.
One of the best known is the Kardan Institute of Higher Education, which was founded in 2003 by four Afghans in "a single room when there were no other private institutions in the country," said Hamid Saboory, a legal expert and consultant to the university.
This alternative to traditional institutions like Kabul University offered short courses in finance, management and business administration and is now one of the most highly respected of the "over 70 private institutions registered with the ministry," he told IPS.
In rural areas, however, educational facilities and services can be difficult if not impossible to access. Some remote areas rely on lectures transmitted through TV to compensate for the lack of qualified vocational trainers, Nadery said.
Meanwhile, in the northeastern province of Kapisa, at Al-Biruni University, a number of girls in the law faculty complained to IPS of frequent power outages, and going days without running water in the dormitories.
Still, the presence of so many young women in the law faculty, hailing from such far-flung provinces as Farah in the west to Jowjzan in the north and in many cases coming with the blessings of their fathers, is an encouraging sign of slow but sure change.
Payvand Seyedali, former executive director of Aid Afghanistan for Education (AAE), echoed this observation, but stressed the need to change a law that bans anyone who is married from enroling in the public school system.
"This has serious implications," she pointed out, "for girls who are married at 13,14, 15...who are essentially (forced) to drop out of school."
However, AAE schools that cater specifically to this population found that many husbands, brothers and fathers were often the ones encouraging their female relatives to stay in school, "sometimes even making that a condition of the marriage," she told IPS.
A researcher on ethnic bias in Afghan textbooks who asked not to be named sounded a word of caution about the complexities of creating an "inclusive" education system in a country of 35.2 million people, of whom 42 percent are thought to be Pashtun, 27 percent Tajik, nine percent Uzbek and nine percent Hazara.
He found that?100 percent of the references to people, groups or dynasties in eighth-grade textbooks are all Pashtun, a pattern that is repeated in other grades as well.
Other inconsistencies in the curriculum include gaping holes in national history. For instance, the last 40 years of the country's history were left out of high school social science textbooks, a decision supposedly motivated by the desire to "promote national unity", according to the government.
Asked about this move, Technical Education and Vocational Training (TVET) Deputy Minister Mohammad Asif Nang said that all parties to the bloodiest part of Afghan history could be impacted by mention of the 32 years of war.
"People from the Communist regime, from the Taliban regime, from the Mujahedeen" are still alive, and their children could end up fighting one another, he said.
The deputy minister stressed, "Every day we build five schools. Every day we have activities for teachers (to gain more skills)."
He lambasted an overly critical media that jumps on flaws in the system and exaggerates their impact.
What the country needs during this phase of state-building, he said, is more support, correction of mistakes and adjustments to and reform of the system, a process that risks being derailed by negative media.
? Inter Press Service (2013) ? All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
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Education in Afghanistan ? the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Inter Press Service, Wednesday, June 26, 2013 (posted by Global Issues)
Source: http://www.globalissues.org/news/2013/06/26/16913
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A version of this story first appeared in the July 19 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
?As a matter of cosmic history it has always been easier to destroy than to create,? observed Mr. Spock back in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, when the only actor who played him was Leonard Nimoy. But in the modern landscape of CGI-driven event moviemaking, the possibilities for both creation and destruction have become almost limitless. Suddenly, the imaginative landscapes of science fiction and fantasy that fired our imaginations as children -- from Tolkien?s Middle-earth and the futuristic battle school of Orson Scott Card?s Ender?s Game to, well, The Avengers?-- have become possible to realize on the big screen in all their breathtaking scope and detail.
Given that potential, it?s a little depressing to see how to an increasing extent Hollywood seems only interested in taking the collected talents of screenwriters, directors, animators, and previsualization artists and using it to ? blow stuff up.
To be sure, destruction always has been on the menu in moviemaking?-- explosives were a special-effects staple decades before the first computer rolled off the line -- but this summer in particular the urge to explode, implode, and collapse real and imaginary landscapes seems to have crowded out all the other forms of large-scale storytelling. We?ve already seen half of tomorrow?s San Francisco plowed through by a starship in Star Trek Into Darkness; central London get destroyed in G.I. Joe: Retaliation; Krypton, Smallville and Metropolis go boom in Man of Steel; and human civilization fall to hordes of antlike zombies in World War Z.
PHOTOS:?'This is The End' Premiere: The Apocalypse Gets Funny
Even comedies are getting in on the act, with This Is the End and the upcoming The World?s End alike playing Armageddon for laughs. In a 2013 movie, if you see a wide shot of a beautifully rendered cityscape, be assured that it?s about to get violently wrecked for your viewing pleasure.
So why has destruction become the default mode in constructing a summer event movie? Some of it is certainly on the filmmakers themselves. Any kid who?s knocked over a sibling?s block tower knows that it?s just fun to destroy things. And a $200 million tentpole film? Well, they don?t call them blockbusters for nothing.
And, yes, it?s an easy storytelling shortcut to creating ?stakes? for the hero. All too often, widespread devastation is the very manifestation of throwing money at a perceived storytelling problem. If the audience -- or, more likely, the studio exec -- isn?t feeling a sense of escalation, of big-bigger-biggest, the solution is to pummel with rubble. Though, paradoxically, the more destruction you see, the more hollow it feels.
But truth be told, a lot of it comes down to audiences and what they?re consistently paying to see. Summer after summer, American and global audiences have been rewarding bloated, thinly told movies where stuff blows up real good while rejecting flawed but interesting movies like The Lovely Bones or What Dreams May Come, where the CGI toolkit was used to create imagery to be savored rather than incinerated.
Certainly the earnest predictions that post 9/11, audiences would reject lighthearted scenes of urban destruction that felt too much like real life are looking more absurd with each film that features falling skyscrapers, crushed urban infrastructure, and dazed, ash-covered survivors and strikes it rich at the box office.
PHOTOS: 26 of Summer's Most Anticipated Movies: 'Man of Steel,' 'Wolverine,' 'The Lone Ranger'
Still, I have to think that the pendulum is about to swing away from monotonous mayhem on an industrial scale, if for no other reason than because it?s become so repetitive. Are there any major American cities or landmarks that haven?t yet been subjected to the stunt-pyrotechnics-CGI wrecking ball? And how many different ways are there to show a skyscraper falling over, anyway?
My fondest hope is that filmmakers and studios will try to get out ahead of the market and try harder to fill their big movies with grand vistas and imagery that invoke awe and wonder in their audiences. All of us who grew up reading science fiction and fantasy can think of amazing images that we?d love to see realized onscreen: the telepathic dragons of Anne McCaffrey?s Pern books, the dolphin-crewed starship of David Brin?s Startide Rising, or the 90-million-mile-long inhabited ribbon of Larry Niven?s Ringworld.
It?s one reason the film I?m most excited for this summer is Elysium. Writer-director Neill Blomkamp already showed a great ability to marry striking imagery with rich storytelling in District 9, and his upcoming tale of futuristic class warfare in a beautifully realized orbital habitat looks to be both visually stunning and intellectual provocative.
Let?s just hope he can restrain himself from blowing that space station up.
With his writing partner Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz co-wrote the films Thor and X-Men: First Class, wrote and produced for television shows such as Fringe and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and wrote the young-adult novel Colin Fischer.
Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1927749/news/1927749/
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