Concordia Captain -- Coward for the Ages (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | I suppose the old maritime tradition of going down with the ship simply doesn't apply anymore. About 20 years ago, we had Capt. Joseph Hazelwood intoxicated at the helm of the Exxon Valdez. I don't think since then we have had as blatant disregard for safety as we have with Costa Concordia Capt. Francesco Schettino.

In what some see as an every man for himself society you could almost always be assured of one thing. If you are on a boat and something went wrong, the captain would be there trying to right what happened. Not Schettino. According to Fox News, an Italian Coast Guard officer was berating him for resisting to return to his sinking ship.

When he signed up to be at the helm of a cruise ship, he knew full well what the responsibility entailed. Being in charge of the safety of his passengers and crew. But at the first sign of trouble he jumped like a rat fleeing the Titanic. According to CNN, 11 people are confirmed dead as of Tuesday morning. Eleven people that aren't going back to their families because of a man wanting to shirk his responsibility when it was needed the most.

The Telegraph is reporting Schettino is facing manslaughter among a slew of other charges. As a former sailor, it's quite difficult for me to imagine the captain of any naval vessel leaving before some of the passengers. The man had a duty if anything went wrong to make sure people didn't get hurt.

To make matters worse, we have all surely heard the statements from passengers on how haphazard the evacuation of the ship was. Perhaps if he would have simply stayed on the boat he was responsible for, people would be touting him as a hero for trying to save lives. Instead, he's going to be forever looked at as a coward that curled up into a ball at the first sign of trouble.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120117/cm_ac/10845397_concordia_captain__coward_for_the_ages

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Lincecum offered record $17M, asks for $21.5M (AP)

NEW YORK ? Tim Lincecum asked San Francisco for $21.5 million in arbitration, just shy of the record for a player, and the Giants offered him a club-record $17 million Tuesday on a dizzying day when 80 players agreed to contracts.

The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner was among 54 players who exchanged figures with their teams, and his request fell short of the record $22 million requested by Roger Clemens from Houston when he became a free agent and accepted the Astros' arbitration offer before the 2005 season.

Interrupting the frenzied focus on money, there were two notable injury announcements.

Detroit said star slugger Victor Martinez could miss the entire season after tearing his left anterior cruciate ligament last week during offseason conditioning.

"After you feel sorry for yourself for a day or so, you move on," general manager Dave Dombrowski said. "We have a good club. We've got a lot of players who will step up."

Boston outfielder Carl Crawford had surgery on his left wrist Tuesday and could miss opening day. He was bothered by the wrist last season, and felt discomfort as he intensified pre-spring training workouts.

"Carl will be our everyday left fielder for the bulk of the 2012 season," new general manager Ben Cherington said. "We're not ruling out opening day, but we're not going to put a timeline on it."

At the exchange of arbitration figures, Lincecum set a mark among players with less than six years in the majors, topping Derek Jeter's $18.5 million submission in 2001. And the Giants' offer broke the 11-year-old club mark of $14.25 million offered by the Yankees to Jeter that winter.

"I'm overall optimistic that we'll find common ground without a hearing room," Bobby Evans, Giants vice president of baseball operations, said before seeing Lincecum's filing numbers. "It's a process that begins long before today in terms of conversations about possible deals that work for both sides. That process has continued in a mutual fashion. At this point we haven't reached a conclusion."

Lincecum is eligible for free agency after the 2013 season.

Boston designated hitter David Ortiz, who became a free agent and accepted Boston's offer of arbitration, had the second-highest request at $16.5 million and was offered $12.65 million by the Red Sox.

Other large amounts involved Chicago Cubs pitcher Matt Garza ($12.5 million vs. $7.95 million), Philadelphia outfielder Hunter Pence ($11.8 million vs. $9 million), Texas World Series star Mike Napoli ($11.5 million vs. $8.3 million), Los Angeles Dodgers NL Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw ($10 million vs. $6.5 million) and Baltimore right-hander Jeremy Guthrie ($10.25 million vs. $7.25 million).

Garza's $4.55 million gap was the largest. All-Star pitchers Chris Perez of Cleveland and Jair Jurrjens of Atlanta submitted the same figures as their teams, a signal a deal already was all but finalized.

Barring agreements, hearings before three-arbitrator panels will be scheduled for the first three weeks of February. Players won two of three hearings last winter, but teams lead 286-212 since arbitration began in 1974. The 119 players in arbitration averaged a 121 percent increase last year, according to a study by The Associated Press.

Among the 142 players who filed last Friday, 98 already have settled, including 10 after figures were exchanged.

There was just one multiyear agreement among Tuesday's deals, with Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval getting a $17.15 million, three-year contract, a deal subject to a physical.

The largest one-year deals went to Philadelphia pitcher Cole Hamels ($15 million), Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier ($10.95 million), Boston outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury ($8.05 million), Milwaukee reliever Francisco Rodriguez ($8 million), San Diego outfielder Carlos Quentin ($7,025,000) and Tampa Bay outfielder B.J. Upton ($7 million).

Among international free agents, the Milwaukee Brewers agreed to a two-year contract with Japanese outfielder Norichika Aoki, a three-time batting champion in Japan's Central League.

Texas had a deadline of 5 p.m. EST on Wednesday to reach an agreement with Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish.

Also, former All-Star pitcher Joe Saunders agreed to a $6 million, one-year contract with Arizona, which cut him loose last month rather than allow him to become eligible for arbitration.

___

AP Baseball Writer Janie McCauley and AP Sports Writers Jimmy Golen and Noah Trister contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bbo_baseball_rdp

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Sudan says oil deal with south depends on security (Reuters)

KHARTOUM (Reuters) ? Sudan will continue to take a share of oil from South Sudan to compensate for what it calls unpaid transit fees and said an oil deal was unlikely without an agreement on border and security issues, its foreign minister said on Wednesday.

South Sudan became Africa's newest nation in July under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war between north and south, but many issues remain unresolved, including oil, debt and violence on both sides of the poorly-defined border.

Tensions escalated last week when Khartoum said it had started confiscating oil from landlocked South Sudan, which exports its crude through Sudan's pipelines to a port on the Red Sea.

Sudan's economy has been badly hit by the loss of two-thirds of oil production to the South, and the country is under pressure to ease the hardships of people already exhausted by years of conflict, inflation and a U.S. trade embargo.

The two sides were meant to conclude an oil agreement that would see them sharing revenues, with the south paying fees to export its oil through the north.

The African Union is sponsoring talks between the two countries this week, but Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti dampened hopes of a quick deal, rejecting the south's criticism of its move as "childish."

"If they are not ready to sit down and conclude an agreement, we will take our right. We will take our entitlements," he told Reuters in an interview.

"Nobody can hamper us from taking our right. This is our entitlement," Karti said.

He said South Sudan's support for rebels in the border states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile was hindering the talks. Juba denies giving support to the insurgents, who fought as part of the southern army during the civil war.

"If you are hosting rebels, preparing them against me, supporting them by munitions, by salaries, by everything, by training, by giving them all facilities. What shall I wait for? What shall I wait for you to do? I'm waiting for war," he said.

"So if you are preparing to instigate war against me, what kind of any other agreement will be useful?"

He said Sudan had monitored conversations that proved Juba was supporting the rebels - known as the Sudan People's Liberation Movement Army (SPLA-N) - by continuing to pay their old salaries.

"We listen to them. They know that we listen to them. What kind of stupidity? You know I'm listening to what you say every day, and you go on talking about salaries, ammunition, supporting us, and bringing more tanks near the borders, and the rest," he said.

Any oil agreement would likely depend on a broader deal that addressed the fighting and other security issues, such as marking the border, Karti said.

"To me, it could be a holistic approach. A piecemeal way of doing things is not enough, and it proved not to be working. It's better to begin with the top issues - the security issue to me is very important - and then the rest will be easy," he said.

DEBT PILE

Sudan and South Sudan have been discussing a transit fee for southern oil exports since Juba's independence, but their positions have remained wide apart. Khartoum wants $1 billion in rear payments plus $36 a barrel to use the export pipeline, roughly a third of the South's export value.

South Sudan has offered to sell oil to Khartoum at discounted prices and give financial aid, but Karti said some southern officials had taken a "sarcastic" approach.

"Even some of them, sarcastically, they tell us that they are donors and they will give us some tens of millions, and they will be spending those millions on humanitarian issues, and trying to solve problems in the needy areas," he said.

"They talked to us like donors, whereas we are calling for them to sit down at a table to talk seriously," Karti said.

"(Saying we are) taking their oil, stealing their oil - this is childish," he said. "This is our right. If this does not (suit) them, let them block the oil. It is their oil. We will not at all fight for the oil to come through our pipeline."

He said a debt pile of almost $40 billion for which Juba refuses to share responsibility was weighing on the economy but rejected some analysts' forecasts that Sudan's economy is headed for a severe crisis.

"It is not bad. I will not accept this word," he said. "We are trying our best to emerge as a country that has good resources, and as a country that should be supported."

Most Western firms have shunned Sudan since the United States put a trade embargo in place in 1997 for the country's role in hosting prominent militants like Osama bin Laden.

Karti said Gulf Arab states were increasing their investments but Sudan would not ask for any outside help to overcome economic difficulties.

"We are not begging from anybody, we have our resources," he said.

(Additional reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120118/wl_nm/us_sudan_south

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California's Rogers Family Company Launches New Organic Coffee Line - "Rare Find" - to Help Wild Cat Conservation Group Panthera Protect Iconic Jaguars

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Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5767858106&f=378

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Gadgets Week in Review: To Go

1522Here are some of the past week’s posts on TechCrunch Gadgets: IK Multimedia Adds MIC Cast, STOMP and MIX to their iRig Line TC/Gadgets Interview: Up Close With The Lytro LG Styler Refreshes Your Stinky, Wrinkly Clothes With Steam New Pocket Projectors From 3M Pump Up The Lumens EV Mini Sport: Mini Electric Sports Car From Japan (Video) Bre Pettis Of Makerbot: ?The Future Is Already Here?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/7DdnXfnwWPk/

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2-timing and hybrids: RUB researchers look back on 100 million years of evolution

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 17-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Dr. Dominik Begerow
dominik.begerow@rub.de
49-234-322-7212
Ruhr-University Bochum

Smut fungi can mate with other species despite great genetic differences

Two-timing is nothing out of the ordinary for them: for about 100 million years, grass smut fungi have been breeding in a three-gender system. This was discovered by Dr. Ronny Kellner and Prof. Dr. Dominik Begerow of the RUB Geobotany Laboratory in cooperation with colleagues from the Heinrich Heine Universitt in Dsseldorf. Using genetic analysis, they showed that the structure of the responsible regions in the genome has hardly changed since then. In the journal PLoS Genetics, the team also reports that the fungi in the experiment not only mate within their own species, but also form hybrids with other species and that after millions of years of separate evolution. "If you look at the time periods, it is almost as if mice could mate with humans" Begerow illustrates.

Gathering and genetically analysing fungi

Grass smut fungi live as parasites on plants such as corn, wheat, and grasses and cause various plant diseases. For the study, the researchers tested 100 species, which they partly gathered themselves in Ecuador, Mexico, or Germany. For all the species they decoded the area of the genome that contains the genes for pheromone receptors. These make it possible to distinguish one's own species from others. "What makes the work special is the successful synthesis of biodiversity research and functional genetics, which was made possible by the collaboration with Prof. Michael Feldbrgge and with Dr. Evelyn Vollmeister of the University in Dsseldorf" says Kellner.

How genes change over 100 million years

The researchers analysed ten species especially thoroughly using complex sequencing technologies. Instead of the usual 1,000 DNA building blocks (base pairs), they sequenced 20,000 base pairs. "In this way, we were able to gain entirely new insights" explained Begerow. "Although the actual gene structure has changed little in the last 100 million years, within the structure, the genetic information has changed dramatically. That should really mean that different species can no longer mate with each other".

Mixing with other species

Nevertheless, in the experiment the team proved that grass smut fungi of different species can mate. Now they want to investigate whether this phenomenon also occurs in nature. "This is a fascinating discovery", says Kellner. "The hybrid formation would have far-reaching ecological consequences." A new species of fungus could, for example, be more harmful than its two predecessor species because it infests several different host plants. Leaps to new hosts would also be conceivable. "It's like in the current debate surrounding the bird flu virus, which could combine with another strain of the virus" explained Begerow. "Here, new 'super parasites' could emerge whose properties are completely unpredictable. If different species of fungi did actually mate, that would speed up evolution enormously."

###

Bibliographic record

Kellner R., Vollmeister E., Feldbrgge M., Begerow D. (2011): Interspecific Sex in grass smuts and the genetic diversity of their pheromone-receptor system, PLoS Genetics, doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002436

Further information

Prof. Dr. Dominik Begerow, Geobotany Laboratory, Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology at the Ruhr-Universitt, 44780 Bochum, Germany, Phone: +49/234/32-27212 dominik.begerow@rub.de

Click for more

Geobotany Laboratory http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/geobot/en/geobot/index.html

Figures online

Figures related to this press release can be found online at http://aktuell.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/pm2012/pm00014.html.en

Editor

Dr. Julia Weiler


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


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


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 17-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Dr. Dominik Begerow
dominik.begerow@rub.de
49-234-322-7212
Ruhr-University Bochum

Smut fungi can mate with other species despite great genetic differences

Two-timing is nothing out of the ordinary for them: for about 100 million years, grass smut fungi have been breeding in a three-gender system. This was discovered by Dr. Ronny Kellner and Prof. Dr. Dominik Begerow of the RUB Geobotany Laboratory in cooperation with colleagues from the Heinrich Heine Universitt in Dsseldorf. Using genetic analysis, they showed that the structure of the responsible regions in the genome has hardly changed since then. In the journal PLoS Genetics, the team also reports that the fungi in the experiment not only mate within their own species, but also form hybrids with other species and that after millions of years of separate evolution. "If you look at the time periods, it is almost as if mice could mate with humans" Begerow illustrates.

Gathering and genetically analysing fungi

Grass smut fungi live as parasites on plants such as corn, wheat, and grasses and cause various plant diseases. For the study, the researchers tested 100 species, which they partly gathered themselves in Ecuador, Mexico, or Germany. For all the species they decoded the area of the genome that contains the genes for pheromone receptors. These make it possible to distinguish one's own species from others. "What makes the work special is the successful synthesis of biodiversity research and functional genetics, which was made possible by the collaboration with Prof. Michael Feldbrgge and with Dr. Evelyn Vollmeister of the University in Dsseldorf" says Kellner.

How genes change over 100 million years

The researchers analysed ten species especially thoroughly using complex sequencing technologies. Instead of the usual 1,000 DNA building blocks (base pairs), they sequenced 20,000 base pairs. "In this way, we were able to gain entirely new insights" explained Begerow. "Although the actual gene structure has changed little in the last 100 million years, within the structure, the genetic information has changed dramatically. That should really mean that different species can no longer mate with each other".

Mixing with other species

Nevertheless, in the experiment the team proved that grass smut fungi of different species can mate. Now they want to investigate whether this phenomenon also occurs in nature. "This is a fascinating discovery", says Kellner. "The hybrid formation would have far-reaching ecological consequences." A new species of fungus could, for example, be more harmful than its two predecessor species because it infests several different host plants. Leaps to new hosts would also be conceivable. "It's like in the current debate surrounding the bird flu virus, which could combine with another strain of the virus" explained Begerow. "Here, new 'super parasites' could emerge whose properties are completely unpredictable. If different species of fungi did actually mate, that would speed up evolution enormously."

###

Bibliographic record

Kellner R., Vollmeister E., Feldbrgge M., Begerow D. (2011): Interspecific Sex in grass smuts and the genetic diversity of their pheromone-receptor system, PLoS Genetics, doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002436

Further information

Prof. Dr. Dominik Begerow, Geobotany Laboratory, Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology at the Ruhr-Universitt, 44780 Bochum, Germany, Phone: +49/234/32-27212 dominik.begerow@rub.de

Click for more

Geobotany Laboratory http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/geobot/en/geobot/index.html

Figures online

Figures related to this press release can be found online at http://aktuell.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/pm2012/pm00014.html.en

Editor

Dr. Julia Weiler


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


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


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/rb-tah011712.php

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Father of Calif. killings suspect is also homeless

Itzcoatl Ocampo's dress uniform, government military photo, dog tags and a religious medallion that went to war with him lie on display at Ocampo's home in Yorba Linda, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Ocampo, 23, who saw combat duty in Iraq, has been named as a suspect in a series of killings of homeless men in Orange County, Calif. Family members declined to be photographed. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Itzcoatl Ocampo's dress uniform, government military photo, dog tags and a religious medallion that went to war with him lie on display at Ocampo's home in Yorba Linda, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Ocampo, 23, who saw combat duty in Iraq, has been named as a suspect in a series of killings of homeless men in Orange County, Calif. Family members declined to be photographed. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

This Dec. 2011 photo provided by the family shows Itzcoatl Ocampo, a former Marine who saw combat in Iraq, in Yorba Linda, Calif. Ocampo has been named, Jan. 15, 2012, as a suspect in a series of killings of homeless men in Orange County, Calif. (AP Photo/Ocampo Family)

This photo provided by the Anaheim Police Dept. shows Itzcoatl Ocampo. Investigators are "extremely confident" that Ocampo a man in their custody is responsible for all four recent killings of homeless men in Orange County, Anaheim Police Chief John Welter said Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Anaheim Police Dept.)

In this photo provided by the family, Itzcoatl Ocampo, a former Marine who saw combat in Iraq, stands at left with an unidentified person in this electronic device photo during a 2011 visit to the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, Calif., seen at the family's Yorba Linda home Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Ocampo has been named as a suspect in a series of killings of homeless men in Orange County, Calif. (AP Photo/Courtesy Ocampo Family

A relative holds a government military photo of Itzcoatl Ocampo, a former Marine who saw combat in Iraq, in Yorba Linda, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Ocampo has been named as a suspect in a series of killings of homeless men in Orange County, Calif. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

YORBA LINDA, Calif. (AP) ? Just days before being arrested, a Marine veteran suspected in the deaths of four homeless men in Southern California visited his father, who is himself homeless, warning of the danger of being on the streets and showing him a picture of one of the victims.

"He was very worried about me," Refugio Ocampo, 49, told The Associated Press on Sunday. "I told him, 'Don't worry. I'm a survivor. Nothing will happen to me.'"

The father also said his son came back a changed man after serving in Iraq, expressing disillusionment and becoming ever darker as his family life frayed and he struggled to find his way as a civilian.

The father said he lost his job and home, and ended up living under a bridge before finding shelter in the cab of a broken-down big-rig he is helping repair.

His 23-year-old son, Itzcoatl Ocampo, is awaiting charges in connection with the serial killings of four homeless men since late December.

He was arrested Jan. 13 after a locally known homeless man, John Berry, 64, was stabbed to death outside a Carl's Jr. restaurant in Anaheim. Bystanders gave chase, and police made the arrest.

Refugio Ocampo said that on Jan. 11 his son came to him with a picture of the first victim, 53-year-old James Patrick McGillivray, who was killed on Dec. 20.

"'This is what's happening,'" the father quoted his son as saying.

Itzcoatl Ocampo had been living with his mother, uncle, and younger brother and sister in a rented house on a horse ranch surrounded by the sprawling suburbs of Yorba Linda. At the humble home, his mother, who speaks little English, tearfully brought her son's Marine Corps dress uniform out of a closet and showed unit photos, citations and medals from his military service.

The son followed a friend into the Marine Corps right out of high school in 2006 instead of going to college as his father had hoped. Itzcoatl Ocampo was discharged in 2010 and returned home to find his family in disarray, the father said.

That same month, Itzcoatl Ocampo's friend, Cpl. Claudio Patino IV, 22, of Yorba Linda, was killed in combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

"Once he received the news he was never the same," said the suspect's younger brother, 17-year-old Mixcoatl Ocampo. He said his brother visited Patino's grave twice a week.

Refugio and Mixcoatl both described a physical condition Itzcoatl suffered in which his hands shook and he suffered headaches. Medical treatments helped until he started drinking heavily, both said.

"He started drinking like crazy, too much, way too much," the father said.

A neighbor who is a Vietnam veteran and the father both tried to push Itzcoatl to get treatment at a Veterans hospital, but he refused. Refugio Ocampo said he wanted his son to get psychological treatment as well.

"He started talking about stuff that didn't make any sense, that the end of the world was going to happen," he said.

While Refugio Ocampo lives away from his family, they remain close. He saw his children every day, and his wife brings food to the parking lot where the truck is located in the city of Fullerton. He and his two sons went to get haircuts together just a day before the arrest, the father said.

Refugio Ocampo, who said he was educated as a lawyer in Mexico, immigrated with his wife and Itzcoatl in 1988 and became a U.S. citizen. He described building a successful life in which he became a warehouse manager and bought a home in Yorba Linda. In the past few years he lost his job, ran out of savings, lost his house and separated from his wife.

Standing near the truck where he sleeps, the father fought back tears as he described the changes he saw in his son in the year since returning home.

"Before, he had the initiative to do things, the desire. But after the military, he didn't have any of that," he said.

That was far from the son who in high school was a polite and motivated student, he said.

A school friend, Brian Doyle, portrayed Itzcoatl Ocampo as a fun-loving teen who liked to hit on girls when he joined the military. After he was discharged and returned home he became isolated and trusted no one, Doyle, 23, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Doyle had difficulty describing the change he saw in his friend from high school.

"He went from being a tall, geeky kid, really fun-loving...," he said, trailing off.

Doyle said he once offered his friend a self-help book based on Eastern philosophy that he had found useful but Itzcoatl Ocampo rejected it.

Doyle said he tried to find out what was going on with his friend but didn't press it, never imagining something like the serial killings.

"Everyone's got their issues, you know," he said.

Refugio Ocampo said investigators came to him on Friday night and showed him surveillance photos from a crime scene, but he did not recognize his son as the person in the images.

"If he did it, it wasn't right, obviously. But there's something wrong with him," he said.

In addition to Berry and McGillivray, Lloyd Middaugh, 42, was killed near a riverbed trail in Anaheim on Dec. 28; and Paulus Smit, 57, was found dead outside a Yorba Linda library on Dec. 30.

Anaheim Police Chief John Welter has said investigators are confident they have the man responsible for the string of murders that struck fear into Orange County's homeless since Dec. 20. Prosecutors have yet to file charges.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-16-Homeless%20Homicides/id-860b0c30e1c544f7ac1abaf6b828a373

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Steve Bell: An Attack Ad So Ridiculous, Even the Cynical Among Us Must Complain

Wisdom demands that we not expect too much from political candidate advertising. "Mis-leading" seems almost complimentary for most of them.

But, once in awhile an advertising attack campaign just simply is so ridiculous that even the cynical among us must complain.

Thus, we enjoy the spectacle of advertisements being run in Florida against Sen. Rick Santorum by the Super PAC funded by Mitt Romney supporters. 'Enjoy" because almost no other ads this season achieve the level of irony and cognitive dissonance of these spots.

Romney's Super PAC ad intones, "Santorum voted to raise the debt ceiling five times, increasing spending and debt by $3 trillion."

As a factual matter, voting to raise the federal debt ceiling has nothing to do with increasing spending. It is merely allowing the government to pay the debt it has already run up and owes to millions of creditors. Increasing the ceiling has nothing to do with increasing the debt. The debt is created by the mis-match between revenues and spending outlays. One could increase the debt ceiling by $10 trillion, but if Congress didn't authorize policies increasing deficits in future years by that $10 trillion, it would be a debt ceiling without real meaning. Paying your already-incurred debt cannot increase potential debt you might run up in the future.

You might say, "that's kind of a budget geek observation." Pleading guilty.

But look at the source. Of all the candidates for the Republican nomination for president, no one knows the private sector, business, uses of debt, and the difference between the national debt ceiling and future spending better than Romney. He worked in some of the most rarefied financial atmospheres in the world. He used debt, all of which he told his creditors would be paid back, in literally scores of transactions in his private equity days.

Yet, he allows his supporters to cynically attack Santorum for voting to allow the government to pay its bills.

Does Romney know better. Of course. Can he respond innocently, "Oh, well you know that I cannot have anything to do with that Super PAC. It is completely independent and my campaign never coordinates or contacts them."

If he so responds, Romney will be taking the mealy-mouthed way out.

Why not just simply say, "take that ad off the air. I know the difference between the national debt ceiling and future spending. And, as President, I intend to guarantee that the debt of the United States will paid in full and on time, no matter what political pressures are brought upon me.

One hopes that in the upcoming South Carolina debate, the moderators asks the erstwhile Governor of Massachusetts, "Under what circumstances would you refuse to ask Congress to raise the national debt ceiling?" And perhaps a follow up: "As a very sophisticated investor who has used debt to buy scores of businesses, can you say that you don't know what would happen if the United States failed to pay it sovereign debt in full and on time?"

Indeed, every candidate for the presidency should answer that question.

The global investment community would listen to the answer very carefully.

?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-bell/an-attack-ad-so-ridiculou_b_1206291.html

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Ultra-harsh Alaska winter prompts fuel shortages (AP)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska ? Living in Alaska's outer reaches is challenging enough, given the isolation and weather extremes, but at least three remote communities also have experienced weather-related late deliveries of fuel so crucial to their survival during an especially bitter winter.

The iced-in town of Nome and the northwest Inupiat Eskimo villages of Noatak and Kobuk faced fuel shortages that illustrate the vulnerability of relying solely on deliveries by sea or air, potentially subjecting communities to the mercy of the elements. The villages, which just received their fuel, are especially vulnerable, unable to afford more additional storage tanks for gasoline and heating oil, which can run as high as $10 a gallon.

Compounding a problem with no easy answers, temperatures dipping as low as minus 60 over the past few weeks means air deliveries are delayed at the same time people are consuming more fuel more quickly. Some people in both villages also use wood-burning stoves for supplemental heat, but diesel is the critical commodity.

"It's been pretty tough," Noatak resident Robbie Kirk said of life in the community of 500, which finally received a fuel delivery on Tuesday, three days after the village store ran out of heating oil. "We usually have a nice reserve of fuel. Now we're just playing catch-up."

Nome missed its pre-winter delivery of fuel by barge when a huge storm swept western Alaska. In a high-profile journey, a Coast Guard icebreaker is cutting path in thick sea ice for a Russian tanker delivering 1.3 million gallons of fuel to the community of 3,500.

Without a fuel delivery, Nome would likely run out of certain petroleum products before the end of winter and a barge delivery becomes possible in late spring.

Until recently, the situation was much more dire for the smaller communities of Noatak and Kobuk, located farther north above the Arctic Circle, where relentless extreme cold prevented fuel deliveries by plane until this week, residents say.

Before the new supply of fuel arrived in Noatak, the village store borrowed some heating oil from the village water and sewer plant, said store manager Connie Walton. But filling the store's two 23,000-gallon tanks has diverted any potential crisis.

"We're good for another month and a half," Walton said.

Residents in Kobuk also were highly relieved by an air shipment of heating oil that arrived Wednesday in the village of 150 people about 175 miles to the east. It's been too cold for people to use their snowmobiles much, so gasoline isn't as much of a concern, said City Clerk Sophia Ward. Running low on the diesel used to warm homes was another matter.

"I'm glad that it came in today," Ward said Wednesday. "It'll keep our elders warm."

In Noatak, residents once had fuel shipped by barge on the Noatak River, but that has long been impossible since the river shifted and became shallow there.

Two years ago, residents began tapping into another source of fuel, thanks to the Red Dog zinc mine 40 miles to the northeast. The mine in 2009 began a program to sell gasoline and diesel to Noatak and another close neighbor, the village of Kivalina. The fuel is sold at cost, said mine spokesman Wayne Hall.

"This is strictly for what we can do to help out our closest community members," he said. "Energy and heating costs are one of the biggest costs to families in this region."

The program lets individuals buy fuel on Saturdays every three weeks at a staging area about 23 miles from the village. This winter, they can buy gas in 55-gallon drums calculated at $4.89 a gallon. Villagers also bring their own drums to fill with diesel fuel at $4.35 a gallon.

The latest Red Dog fuel day for Noatak took place on the day the village store ran out of diesel. So villagers formed a convoy of about 30 snowmobiles and freight sleds, and headed out in weather marked by temperatures of 47 below and, for the first 10 miles, dense fog, said Kirk, who regularly takes advantage of the sales.

"It basically cuts my heating fuel in half," he said. "It's pretty critical for me."

The state also helps lower the soaring cost of electricity in Alaska's rural areas, spending almost $32 million in fiscal year 2011 through its Power Cost Equalization program, which subsidizes residential electric rates and the power bills of community buildings. Power in most villages is diesel-generated.

Running low on fuel is an occasional challenge faced by rural communities in Alaska, and sometimes the weather plays a significant role in air deliveries, said Rob Everts, owner of Everts Air Cargo, whose planes deliver fuel to both Noatak and Kobuk. But there can be other factors as well, such as waiting until the last minute to place orders, he said, stressing that he was speaking generally and not pointing fingers at any particular community.

"Weather is not always bad," he said. "It's about planning in some cases, anticipating what's coming in the dead of winter."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120114/ap_on_re_us/us_alaska_fuel_shortages

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Don Kraus: What Would Dr. King Think of Ron Paul's "Peace" Platform?

This year as we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King's 83rd birthday, I'm struck by the vast difference between his beliefs and today's "peace candidate", Representative Ron Paul. In New Hampshire, Paul received 47 percent of the under 30 vote compared to 25 percent for Mitt Romney. It's easy to understand Paul's youth appeal. He would avoid "long and expensive land wars," would immediately withdraw from Afghanistan, has railed against the draft and supports legalizing marijuana.

But let's be clear: Ron Paul is no Martin Luther King. While Dr. King most likely would have supported Paul's call for bringing troops home from Afghanistan, King's understanding of what peace means is almost the opposite of Paul's.

2012-01-12-ronpaul2012peacesignthreecolor_design.pngPaul's vision of peace is based on individualism and isolationism. He believes that "the greatest chance for peace comes from a society respectful of individual liberty." But there is a world of difference between being anti-war and pro-peace.

King believed that, "If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties... must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective."

Representative Paul, year after year, has offered legislation to pull the U.S. out of the United Nations and other international organizations.

Dr. King believed that, "It is not enough to say, 'We must not wage war.' It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but on the positive affirmation of peace."

2012-01-12-RonPaulPeaceYard.jpgPaul consistently votes against funding to offer help to the world's needy and poor, and if elected, would do away with all foreign aid. He voted against funding peacekeeping to help end the genocide in Darfur. Paul's philosophy is based on turning our back on the world and just taking care of our own.

Dr. King understood, even back in 1964 when he won the Nobel Peace Prize, how irrevocably interconnect our world is. In his acceptance speech he said, "We must now give an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in our individual societies."

Despite the T-shirts, bumper stickers, psychedelic peace-signs, videos and other campaign swag that Paul's supporters are distributing, he is not a peace candidate. His vision of peace is as clear as an ostrich with it head stuck in the sand. Paul would have us turn our back on violence, conflict and suffering. Doing so might cost us less in the short term, but like that ostrich, it would leave us very vulnerable. Working for peace cooperatively with other nations is the only way to create a just, safe and sustainable world.

Written on the walls of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial are these words: "True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice." Justice takes hard work, common laws, and engagement.

For me, I'll take the vision of peace offered by the only person to be honored with a memorial on the National Mall who was not a president. Happy Birthday Dr. King.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-kraus/ron-paul-peace_b_1202875.html

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