Big Apple? and big tree! Rockefeller Center is all lit up! #Santa Cam just spotted him in NYC: goo.gl/qSwk noradsanta
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RT @noradsanta: Big Apple⦠and big tree! Rockefeller Center is all lit up! #Santa Cam just spotted him in NYC: goo.gl/qSwk
— Northwest Herald (@nwherald) December 25, 2011
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Added energy back into flavored malt beverages via a bottle of concentrated energy drink and Four Loko. Early results are encouraging. Source:
Added energy back into flavored malt beverages via a bottle of concentrated energy drink and Four Loko. Early results are encouraging.
— Jeff Gerstmann (@jeffgerstmann) December 24, 2011
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VIDEO: Who are London's homeless people? - bbc.in/tc2mrM #Homelessness
Sundip Sundip Meghani
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VIDEO: Who are London's homeless people? - bbc.in/tc2mrM #Homelessness
— Sundip Meghani (@Sundip) December 24, 2011
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Carson Palmer didn't stand much of a chance the last time he faced the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Raiders had traded for him just a few days after Jason Campbell went down with a broken collarbone, and thrust him into the game against Kansas City with little preparation. He was part of a combined six-interception performance by Oakland quarterbacks in a frustrating shutout loss.
In some ways, Kyle Orton understands what Palmer was going through.
He was claimed off waivers from the Denver Broncos late last month, after Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel went down with a season-ending injury to his throwing hand. Orton was also thrust into a tough spot last Sunday, making his first start for Kansas City against the unbeaten Green Bay Packers, and came through with a dazzling performance in a surprising victory.
Now, Orton and the Chiefs face Palmer and the Raiders at Arrowhead Stadium today, both teams needing to win to keep their flickering playoff hopes alive.
"They're a different team. We're a different offense now," Palmer said this week. "They're playing a little bit differently now, and we're definitely playing a little bit differently."
The Raiders have plenty of experience facing Orton from his days in Denver, and considering how they've fared against him, they should feel pretty good about their prospects. Orton is 1-3 as a starter against Oakland, completing just a shade over 50 percent of his passes.
But he's coming off a virtuoso performance against Green Bay in which he completed a career-best 74.2 percent of his throws for 299 yards without an interception, one that came despite having little time to grow accustomed to his new teammates and a sore index finger on his throwing hand.
"It'll be a work in progress every week, no doubt about it," Orton said. "I'm excited about the way we played, though. We won the game and hopefully that's just a building block for us. I think we did a lot of good things on offense."
The Raiders have grown more accustomed to Palmer since he took over in late October, though the results have been mixed. They won three straight at one point, only to follow up with a trio of losses that culminated with a meltdown last Sunday against Detroit.
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Matthew Stafford threw a short touchdown pass with 39 seconds left to cap a 98-yard drive, and Ndamukong Suh blocked the potential winning field goal as time expired for the Lions.
"At the end of the day you have to grind it out," Raiders coach Hue Jackson said. "It's been very hard, but at the end of the day, we weren't ready to win that game, because we didn't."
Difficulty putting games away hasn't been Palmer's fault, at least not entirely. He was an incredible 32-of-40 for 367 yards and a touchdown without an interception against Detroit, though he did miss on a couple of passes down the stretch that could have helped wrapped things up.
"It's frustrating, no matter how good or bad you play," Palmer said. "A loss is a loss. When you're winning for 90 percent of the game, if you lose, you lose.
"This team's too good not to finish games out."
Now, the Raiders need to beat the Chiefs and the Chargers in their final two games, and hope Kansas City knocks off the Broncos in Week 17, to squeak into the playoffs. It's not necessarily a long shot, but it's certainly a longer shot than before their three-game slide.
"You can't run from that," Jackson said, when asked whether he talked about to his team about controlling its own destiny. "They know we have let that slip away, but at the same time it's not over. We have to go play as well as we can and change that in our favor."
Kansas City also needs a whole lot of help to make the playoffs.
The defending division champions need to beat Oakland and Denver in their final two games, Buffalo to upset the Broncos today, and the Chargers to lose one of their two remaining games.
Of course, the way this season has gone, they'll take whatever the odds might be.
There have been devastating injuries to star players like Jamaal Charles and Eric Berry, a three-game losing streak that was among the worst in NFL history, and a four-game winning streak that put them in a brief tie atop the division. There was another losing stretch that culminated in the firing of Todd Haley last week, and a buoyant victory over the Super Bowl champion Packers last Sunday.
If it's been a nauseating rollercoaster ride for Oakland, it's been more so for the Chiefs.
"This Raider team, they're in the same situation we are, they need to win like we need to win, so they'll be ready to go," said the Chiefs' Romeo Crennel, who was elevated to interim coach last week and whose calming influence has helped stabilize a team in disarray.
"We have to put the best effort out there," Crennel said. "We really have to play our best game of the year, so that's what I talked to them about, and try to get that done. Hopefully they listened, they took that in and they'll apply it in their preparation."
Source: http://www.rgj.com/article/20111224/SPORTS/112240317/1018
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BEIRUT (Reuters) ? World powers argued about the details of a U.N. resolution on Syria, after suicide car bombers lent a grim new face to its conflict by killing 44 in Damascus.
European and U.S. officials want the Security Council to impose an arms embargo and other sanctions on Syria's government because of its nine-month-old crackdown on protesters, which U.N. officials say has killed thousands.
Western powers say government security forces have been responsible for most of the violence. But Russia, an old ally of Damascus, wants any resolution to be even-handed.
"If the requirement is that we drop all reference to violence coming from extreme opposition, that's not going to happen," U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin said in New York after Russia submitted a revised draft resolution to the council.
"If they expect us to have arms embargo, that's not going to happen," he said. "We know what arms embargo means these days. It means that - we saw it in Libya - that you cannot supply weapons to the government but everybody else can supply weapons to various opposition groups."
German Ambassador Peter Wittig said the latest Russian draft did not go far enough.
"We need to put the weight of the council behind the Arab League," he said.
"That includes the demands to release political prisoners, that includes a clear signal for accountability for those who have perpetrated human rights violations."
The first batch of 50 Arab League monitors will head to Syria on Monday to assess whether Damascus is abiding by an Arab peace plan, Egypt's state news agency reported on Friday.
Sudanese general Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi will lead the mission, the agency said.
CARNAGE IN CAPITAL
The suicide bombs, aimed at two security buildings, sent human limbs flying and streets in Syria's capital were littered with human remains and the blackened hulk of cars.
President Bashar al-Assad has used tanks and troops to try to crush nine months of street protests inspired by other Arab uprisings this year. Such mainly peaceful rallies are now increasingly eclipsed by an armed insurgency against his security apparatus.
But Friday's blasts signaled a dramatic escalation.
"It's a new phase. We're getting militarized here," said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert at the University of Oklahoma who felt Friday's bombs were a "small premonition" of what may come in a country that some analysts see slipping towards civil war.
"This is when the Syrian opposition is beginning to realize they are on their own," he added, referring to Western reluctance to intervene militarily in Syria.
The interior ministry spokesman said 166 people were wounded by the explosions. It broadcast footage of mangled bodies being carried in blankets and stretchers into ambulances a row of corpses wrapped in sheets lying in the street.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdesi said the attacks were carried out by "terrorists (trying) to sabotage the will for change" in Syria, and followed warnings from Lebanon that al Qaeda fighters had infiltrated Syria from Lebanese territory.
The United States condemned the attacks, saying there was "no justification for terrorism of any kind" and that the work of the Arab League should not be hindered.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Al Qaeda are Sunni Muslim militants. Assad and Syria's power elite belong to the Alawite branch of Shi'ite Islam while the majority of Syrians, including protesters and insurgents, are Sunnis.
"THEY'LL KILL US ALL"
"I'm defending my people," Ali, 45, an Alawite factory worker issued by police with a gun which he has used against protesters in the city of Homs, said in comments passed on to Reuters.
"We can't let them topple the regime, they'll go after us and kill us all."
Some of Assad's opponents said the suicide attack could have been staged by the government itself.
Syria has generally barred foreign media from the country, making it hard to verify accounts of events from either side.
The United Nations says Assad's forces have killed more than 5,000 people in their crackdown on the protests, which erupted in March instigated by uprisings that have toppled autocratic leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya over the course of the year.
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 15 civilians were killed outside the capital on Friday, eight of them in Homs.
The Arab League peace plan stipulates a withdrawal of troops from protest-hit cities and towns, release of prisoners and dialogue with the opposition.
Damascus says more than 1,000 prisoners have been freed since the Arab plan was agreed and the army has pulled out of cities. Anti-Assad activists say no such pullout has occurred.
(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans and Louis Charbonneau; Writing by Andrew Roche; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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Eva Gabrielsson, the longtime partner of 'Dragon Tattoo' author Stieg Larsson, says that the buzz around the new movie should call attention to violence against women, not merchandise.
The longtime partner of late Swedish crime writer Stieg Larsson says he wouldn't have approved of merchandise being linked to this week's release of a Hollywood adaptation of his bestselling novel, "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo."
Skip to next paragraphEva Gabrielsson said Monday that Mr. Larsson would have instead used the buzz around his work to call attention to violence and discrimination against women.
"We would never have sold any rights for merchandising," Ms. Gabrielsson said. "It has nothing to do with books."
H&M has released a Dragon Tattoo Collection, created by costume designer Trish Summerville, that it says is inspired by Lisbeth Salander ? the tattooed anti-heroine of Larsson's books and the film which opens Wednesday in the United States.
Gabrielsson and Larsson were a couple for more than 30 years, but never married. Larsson didn't leave a will, so his brother and father inherited the rights to his works when he died of a heart attack at age 50 in 2004.
The two have rejected Gabrielsson's suggestions that they are using Larsson's legacy for profit, and say they will donate their earnings to causes he supported, including an anti-racism magazine that he worked for as a journalist.
Still, Gabrielsson expressed concern that the political dimension of Larsson's books, including the feminist undertones, would be overlooked by the film's hype. She claims Larsson wanted to show that gender imbalances exist even in Sweden, one of the world's most egalitarian societies.
"The oppression of women exists everywhere, this incomprehensible discrimination," she said.
In Larsson's trilogy, Salander and journalist Mikael Blomqvist team up to solve serial killings and sex trafficking scandals. Rooney Mara plays Salander and Daniel Craig plays Blomqvist in the David Fincher directed film.
Mara suggested at a news conference last month that Salander isn't a feminist, and doesn't see herself as part of any group or subculture.
"Does she know what film she has been in?" Gabrielsson said, disbelievingly. "Has she read the books? Has she not had any coaching?"
Salander doesn't fit neatly into any category, "but she is still part of a movement," Gabrielsson said. "Her entire being represents a resistance, an active resistance to the mechanisms that mean women don't advance in this world and in worst case scenarios are abused like she was."
Gabrielsson said the feminist theme had been partly lost with the creation of the English title, which she thinks sounds like "a children's book."
She said the original Swedish title is "Man som hatar kvinnor," ? men who hate women. "In his (Larsson's) world that was also the basic theme for these books," she said.
Gabrielsson published her own book last year about her life with Larsson.
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LISA PEMBERTON | Staff writer Modified December 18, 2011
With the touch of a finger, students in Jody Underwood?s classes at Olympia High School can work on assignments, watch foreign films and connect with people from around the globe whose native language is French.
Instead of hardback textbooks and supplemental materials, the Olympia School District recently purchased 36 Apple iPads for her classroom.
At nearly $20,000 ? about $5,000 more than the cost of a new set of textbooks and supplemental materials for Underwood?s 150 students ? it wasn?t a small investment, but it?s one that school officials think will pay off in a big way.
?Textbooks have really great things, but they?re also very limiting,? said Underwood, who is in her 24th year of teaching at Olympia High. ?Our kids are digital kids. They respond very well to this kind of tactile environment, where they can get immediate feedback.?
The school district has made major improvements to its wireless infrastructure, and began introducing mobile devices, such as tablet computers and portable media players, to classrooms about two years ago, said Ron Morsette, instructional technology director for the 9,400-student district.
In the neighboring Tumwater School District, some principals use iPads, but the wireless devices aren?t in the hands of students yet, said spokeswoman Kim Howard.
And South Sound?s largest school district, North Thurston Public Schools, hasn?t used iPads because they don?t work with the district?s technology system, said spokeswoman Courtney Schrieve.
So far, the Olympia School District has purchased about 160 iPads, at about $600 each.
They?re lighter, more mobile, less expensive and have a longer battery life than laptops, Morsette said. They require wireless Internet systems, so as the district upgrades its technology infrastructure, it likely will expand the program, he said.
?There?s great potential for them, and I think we?re going to see the numbers increase in our schools,? Morsette said.
District officials are closely watching Underwood?s program ? the first classroom to have a set of dedicated iPads ? as well as a pilot program at Olympia High where students in an intensive college readiness course known as AVID were issued district-owned iPads to use throughout the year for note-taking, research and organization.
Olympia High principal Matt Grant said both programs are using the iPads to help meet the school?s emphasis on ?differentiated instruction.?
?We?re really trying to get our teachers to meet the needs of the learner, and the iPads are able to accommodate that for different learning styles,? he said. ?I think the benefit is you walk in and the students are much more active learners than they might be with a textbook. They?re the technology generation.?
The district is still training many teachers on how to incorporate the use of mobile devices in their classrooms, Morsette said.
Recently, Capital High School received 30 iPads that teachers can reserve for their classes.
Boston Harbor and McKenny elementary schools each have 10 iPads for staff members to use. And across the district, about 25 students in the special education program are using iPads as assisted learning devices.
Morsette recently helped set up an iPad to help a visually impaired student view ? and magnify ? information that was being projected from the teacher?s laptop screen and document camera. ?It was one of the most rewarding moments I?ve had this school year, to watch the student light up,? Morsette said.
In addition, several schools also are using iPods, which can play music, videos, audio books and other media.
?I think ultimately we?re going to see mobile devices that are going to become the single most important computing device that kids will be using in our classrooms,? Morsette said.
And it?s likely the district will apply for some grant funding to help pay for those devices, he added.
On a recent morning, students in Underwood?s fourth-year class listened to a French audio version of ?Harry Potter? on iPads while reading hard copies of the book.
In the past, an audio book on CD would have been played for the entire group, while students read along. With iPads, they can listen to the story with headphones.
?You can kind of go at your own speed,? said senior Alice Henderson, 17.
Several students said they enjoy the iPad?s game applications, which can be used to practice vocabulary words in a fun and interactive format. They said they also like translating tools that are quicker and easier than looking words up in a paper English-French dictionary.
Senior Holley Hughes, 17, said she likes the environmentally friendly element that iPads can have in education. ?We used to have huge packets of worksheets, and now we can do it on here,? she said.
Of course, the iPads have a few drawbacks. They need to be kept charged, and sometimes, like any computer system, they crash or don?t work the way they?re supposed to.
And at first, they were a distraction while students were getting used to using tablet computers that have plenty of built-in gadgets.
All 150 of Underwood?s students usually use the iPads once a day, sometimes for the entire class period and sometimes for just a portion.
?The cool part about the iPads is the amount of apps,? said senior Peter Lindgren,17. ?It?s in many ways an unlimited textbook.?
Underwood said the students have taken extremely good care of the iPads ? something she worried about when they were issued to her classroom.
?They put them back where they?re supposed to,? she added. ?They never put French books back where they?re supposed to.?
Lisa Pemberton: 360-754-5433
Source: http://www.theolympian.com/2011/12/18/1918639/with-ipads-olympia-students-have.html
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POSTED: 6:24 pm MST December 22, 2011
UPDATED: 6:25 pm MST December 22, 2011
Snow Hits All Over New Mexico
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The latest winter blast hits Rio Rancho, Sedillo Hill, Grants, Santa Fe and Taos.
Source: http://www.koat.com/video/30059632/index.html
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