বৃহস্পতিবার, ৩০ মে, ২০১৩

Sony Xperia Tablet Z review: the company's best Android tablet yet

Sony Xperia Tablet Z review: Sony releases its best Android tablet yet

It wasn't all that long ago that every month offered up yet another Android tablet for review. While Samsung is still producing plenty, the output of Google-powered slabs has generally slowed, replaced by a steady stream of Windows 8 / RT hardware often from the very same manufacturers that were once all about Android. Sony continues to be pretty discriminating with its launches, however: until now it's released only three Google-powered tablets. The first was the Tablet S, followed by the clamshell Tablet P and the Xperia Tablet S, which improved on the original with a thinner build and improved specifications.

Then there's this, the Xperia Tablet Z. It arrives with a completely new design, although it should be familiar to anyone who's already seen Sony's Xperia Z smartphone. It features the same "OmniBalance" look, uniform thickness and straight edges. The display's resolution has been bumped up to 1,900 x 1,200, while the tablet runs Android 4.1.2 on a quad-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro, with 2GB and 16GB of built-in storage -- all the while weighing in below 18 ounces (1.13 pounds). Like the Sony Xperia Z smartphone, there's also water and dust protection, which makes it a relatively unique property in the tablet market. But priced at $499 and up against the iPad and the pin-sharp Nexus 10, is there enough here to protect itself against the tablet competition? Join us after the break to find out.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/qKeFJP3lj_Y/

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Amanda Bynes? Father Trying To Stage Intervention As Bizarre Behavior Worsens

Amanda Bynes’ Father Trying To Stage Intervention As Bizarre Behavior Worsens

Amanda Bynes wants another nose jobAmanda Bynes’ father, Rick Bynes, is working on staging an intervention to help his troubled daughter. But sadly, the former actress refuses to see him. Rick Bynes is reportedly in New York to in an attempt to reach out to Amanda, who was charged last week for reckless endangerment. A family friend said, “Rick wants ...

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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/05/amanda-bynes-father-trying-to-stage-intervention-as-bizarre-behavior-worsens/

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'Deadliest Catch' crew could lose a man

TV

12 minutes ago

The blue-crab season is coming to an end on the next episode of "The Deadliest Catch," and the event could mark the end of the line for one deck hand on The Northwestern.

A preview from Tuesday's night's episode reveals that just as Edgar Hansen closes his maiden voyage as captain, deck boss Jake Anderson considers leaving his band of brothers behind.

"Nobody got hurt," Hansen is seen boasting after the last of the crabs hit the deck. "We're still alive. Boat's still in one piece. We've got crab on the boat. That's pretty big."

Almost as big? The choice Anderson has to make.

"When I get home, I've got the biggest decision I'll ever make in my whole life," he tells the camera. "I can stay here and work with these guys, work on deck -- which I don't really like anymore."

Or he could jump ship -- literally -- to work on another boat.

Whatever he does, "it's going to make a lot of people unhappy," he adds.

See what lies ahead in this exclusive sneak peek:

"Deadliest Catch" airs May 28 at 9 p.m. on Discovery.


Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/deadliest-catch-crew-could-lose-man-6C10087246

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বুধবার, ২৯ মে, ২০১৩

Childhood bullying increases the propensity to self-harm during adolescence, study finds

May 28, 2013 ? A new study has shown that being bullied during childhood directly increases the likelihood of self-harm in late adolescence.

The analysis, led by researchers from the University of Warwick in association with colleagues at the University of Bristol, highlights that being bullied at primary school age can cause enough distress to significantly increase the risk of self-harming in later adolescence.

Almost 5,000 participants in the Children of the 90s study were assessed for exposure to bullying between seven and ten years of age and later asked whether they had engaged in self-harm at sixteen to seventeen years.

Self-harm behaviours may stem from a desire to relieve tension or communicate stress, and in the most extreme cases may represent a suicidal intent in the individual.

The study found that 16.5% of 16-17 year olds had self-harmed in the previous year, and 26.9% of these did so because they felt as though they 'wanted to die'. Those who were subjected to chronic bullying over a number of years at primary school were nearly five times more likely to self-harm six to seven years later in adolescence.

Professor Dieter Wolke of the University of Warwick explained, "It is further evidence for doing away with the myth that bullying at a young age can be viewed as a harmless rite of passage. I'd like to see clinicians routinely asking children about bullying -- from name calling to more physical acts of abuse. The importance of this early intervention should not be understated. If we were able to eliminate bullying, while other exposures remained constant, there would be a potential to prevent 20% of all self-harm cases."

Dealing with bullying at an early age can reduce suffering for the individual but also long term costs for society.

The research, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, took great lengths to control the study for previous exposure to an adverse family environment; such as domestic violence, parental style or existing childhood mental health problems.

With such controls in place, the outcomes of the study can be used to help identify clear links between being bullied at a young age and self-harm in teenage years; whether that be through an increased risk of depression or by exacerbating the effects of a harmful family environment.

The results also showed that girls were, overall, more likely to engage in self-harm and develop depression symptoms. This supports the common belief that girls are roughly twice as likely to experience problems of this nature, particularly where that means turning their distress inwards, that is, to self-harm.

Professor Wolke added, "Many children suffer in silence and never speak out about being bullied. While bullying also increases the risk of depression, many adolescents in our study self-harmed without being depressed -- so it is important that when children or adolescents show signs of self-harm or indications of non-specific symptoms (such as recurrent headaches, stomach aches, avoidance to go to school), we consider bullying as a possible cause and provide them with support."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/child_development/~3/iI6XIGkGd_Q/130528092120.htm

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Jedi Mind Trick? Brain Thinks It Inhabits Virtual Body

The brain's perception of the body may seem set in stone, but a new study shows the mind can be tricked into taking an entire virtual body for its own.

In 1998, neuroscientists Matthew Botvinick and Jonathan Cohen performed an experiment where they showed people a rubber hand being stroked with a paintbrush, while applying the same strokes to each person's own, hidden hand. This gave people the feeling that the dummy hand was their own.

Scientists have since demonstrated the so-called rubber hand illusion for other body parts ? and even whole bodies. Often this is done by putting people in virtual reality settings.

"It seems the brain, under certain conditions, quite easily accepts the idea that [a virtual body] is your body," said study author Mel Slater, a computer scientist at the University of Barcelona. [Eye Tricks: Gallery of Visual Illusions]

In the new study, Slater and his colleagues investigated whether taking ownership of a full virtual body resulted in neglect of the real body.

Out-of-body experience

Study participants wore head-mounted displays in which they saw a virtual body when they looked down at their real body. Half of the participants experienced a realistic body illusion, where the virtual body's posture and movements matched those of their real body, while the other half experienced an unrealistic one, where the posture and movements didn't match their own.

The researchers had the participants place their hand on a cooling device, and measured participants' sensitivity to small changes in temperature as they experienced a realistic virtual body illusion or an unrealistic one.

During the rubber hand illusion, the real hand has been shown to cool down, suggesting the brain pays more attention to the rubber hand. The researchers suspected that if people were neglecting their real body in favor of the virtual one, sensitivity to temperature changes on their real hand would diminish.

But the opposite was true: People remained sensitive to temperature changes when they experienced a strong illusion that the virtual body belonged to them, and became less sensitive when the illusion was unrealistic. In other words, the better the illusion, the more aware people were of temperature changes in their real hand.

The researchers conclude the virtual body and the real body become merged into a single perception. The real body provides a sense of touch and proprioception (sense of where the limbs are in space), and the virtual body provides visual information, which the brain unifies.

?"The virtual body and real body become one," Slater said.

If the virtual body is not synchronized with the real body, the brain still takes ownership of the virtual arm, but at the expense of keeping sensitivity in the real arm. When the illusion was less realistic, "the brain had to do additional work," Slater said.

Fooling the brain

"In bodily illusions, it has always been difficult to say whether the illusory body replaces the real body, whether the visual and proprioceptive bodies co-exist, or whether they are somehow integrated," said cognitive neuroscientist Patrick Haggard, who was not involved in the study. The new findings provide a convincing demonstration that bodily illusions involve integration of the real and virtual bodies, rather than substitution of one by the other, said Haggard, of the University College London.

The findings help get at one of philosophy's oldest questions ? how the brain represents the body. But the experimental techniques could also have clinical applications, Slater said.

In a recent case study, Slater and colleagues put a person with a "locked hand" ? a fist clenched shut due to a movement disorder ? in a virtual reality setup connected to a brain-computer interface. When the patient focused on their hand, the virtual hand would open. While seeing the virtual hand move didn't allow the patient to open their real hand, it did cause a change in the electrical activity of the hand muscle. The technique could prove useful for diagnosing patients with neurological conditions, Slater said.

Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter?and Google+.?Follow us @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jedi-mind-trick-brain-thinks-inhabits-virtual-body-231057661.html

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Palestinians leery of Kerry's promise of prosperity

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday touted economic development in the West Bank as the path to peace between Israelis and Palestinians. But many Palestinians complain they've heard this story before.

By Joshua Mitnick,?Correspondent / May 27, 2013

From left: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and Israeli President Shimon Peres all shake hands during the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa at the King Hussein Convention Centre at the Dead Sea in Jordan, Sunday, May 26.

Jim Young / Pool / AP

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US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday outlined a vague plan to revive the Palestinian economy, and the moribund peace process, through an injection of billions in foreign investment. But his talk of grandiose development projects actually rubbed many Palestinians the wrong way.

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Speaking at the World Economic Forum Middle East conference in Jordan, Mr. Kerry outlined what sounded like a private sector equivalent of the Marshall plan, saying that $4 billion in investment could be found for new ventures that would cut Palestinian unemployment by two thirds over the coming years and boost economic output by 50 percent.

However, the plan is up against 20 years of dashed hopes and blueprints for nation building which have led many Palestinians to conclude that its simply impossible for them to achieve lasting economic development without an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and the establishment of a sovereign state.

?I think is the grandest smoke and mirrors game yet played. We?ve been here before, this is just on a grander scale,? says Sam Bahour, a Palestinian businessman. ?If we read any of the reports that have been issued over the last 10 years from the World Bank we see beyond a serious doubt that no sustainable and no serious Palestinian economy can be built under Israeli occupation???that has been the model of the last 10 years and its failed colossally."

Mr. Bahour was referring to the development program of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who has touted the very opposite proposition: that Palestinians could begin laying the building blocks for statehood before achieving statehood. Despite praise from the international community that the Palestinians were moving in the right direction, the Palestinians in the last year found their government struggling to remain solvent and delays in the payment of public sector salaries.

While the notion of enhanced prosperity contributing to peace seems obvious, Palestinians consider talk of putting the economy first as an Israeli scheme to buy quiescence while the fruits of genuine statehood are delayed. At the outset of his second administration in 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promoted the idea of an ?economic peace? that would lay the groundwork for a final peace.

Sensitive to this reluctance, Mr. Kerry has repeatedly stressed that his economic plan would improve the atmosphere for political talks ? not replace them. At the conference he said that his investment plan would be impossible without progress in negotiations. That didn?t assuage Palestinians. ?

Economic peace?

?Since when is our cause about money?? says a Palestinian negotiator who said was not authorized to speak on the matter publicly. ?It's misleading when people talk too much about the economic package and not the situation on the ground... We are not against economic development but it cannot happen until an end to occupation. Some international players are just waiting to have negotiations for the sake of negotiations.?

Kerry?s initiative dovetailed with the public launch of a Palestinian-Israeli business forum ? ?Breaking the Impasse????which claimed hundreds of members and vowed to lobby for a return to negotiations. But, fearing the initiative would stir up opposition among Palestinians, initiative co-founder Munib Masri declared at the end of a press conference, ?No to economic peace!?

Kerry said that his plan represents the fruits of weeks of brainstorming among international businessmen and consultants and enjoys the support of both Israeli and Palestinian leaders. He pointed to untapped potential for tourism ? noting Syria, Jordan and Egypt outdraw Israel???and suggested that Israel and the Palestinians could swiftly draw new visitors in an atmosphere of peace.

But Palestinians say that Mr. Kerry?s plan sounds like visions of self-sufficiency that have been touted going back to the original establishment of the autonomous Palestinian government in the 1990s, the establishment of a customs union with Israel, and the promotion by Israel of joint industrial zones. (To be sure, the Palestinian Authority allegedly squandered hundreds of millions dollars in aid over the last two decades.)

Now they say they feel they are trapped in a trade regime which is tailored to the Israeli economy and hurts burgeoning Palestinian businesses. They also complain that their economic development is hindered by the lack of access to wide swaths of the West Bank that remain under the control of Israel and physical barriers to movement around the West Bank

?Everybody comes to the conflict with an economic plan,? says Bashar Azzeh, a Palestinian businessman from Ramallah. ?Since the Oslo, Israel has gone from a $70 billion to a $290 billion economy. They?ve benefited from peace, we?ve only gone from a $6?billion to a $9 billion economy. So you can see who is getting the economic benefits of peace.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/-OIYOizHNSE/Palestinians-leery-of-Kerry-s-promise-of-prosperity

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মঙ্গলবার, ২৮ মে, ২০১৩

MacNN | iPhone News: Windows Phone shipments beat BlackBerry, lags behind iOS, Android

?

Shipments for iOS rises for the quarter, market share drops

Shipments of Windows Phone devices have overtaken those of BlackBerry phones for the first time, according to a report. Numbers from IDC places the Microsoft mobile operating system in third place, still a considerable away behind iOS and Android shipments, which are said to make up 92.3-percent of all shipments when combined.

The BlackBerry shipments for the first quarter of 2013 have dropped compared to last year, shrinking from 9.7 million shipments to 6.3 million, and makes up just 2.9 percent of the market. Windows Phone shipments more than doubled year-on-year, going from 3 million estimated shipments to 7 million. Despite the increase, it only manages to reach a 3.2-percent market share.

Senior IDC research analyst Kevin Restivo claims the switch of positions "helps vindicate the direction taken by Microsoft and key partner Nokia" in pushing Windows Phone. "Given the relatively low volume generated, the Windows Phone camp will need to show further gains to solidify its status as an alternative to Android or iOS."

Though iOS shipments have increased compared to Q1 2012, rising from 35.1 million to 37.4 million for the quarter, this increase is not reflected in the market share overall. With 162.1 million shipments compared to 90.3 million the year before, the market share for Android increased from 59.1 percent to 75 percent, and forcing iOS to decrease from 23 percent to 17.3 percent overall.

It is worth pointing out that the figures released by IDC are for shipments of stock to retailers and carriers, rather than figures for devices sold to customers. Shipment figures could still be used as a general guideline for sales, though will not be as accurate as a final sales total.


By Electronista Staff

Source: http://feeds.smartphonemag.com/~r/iPhoneLife_News/~3/rSBaG4k-xpM/story01.htm

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সোমবার, ২৭ মে, ২০১৩

Steve Wozniak discusses his dependency on a MacBook Pro and his affinity for transistor radios

Steve Wozniak discusses his dependency on a 17inch MacBook Pro and transistor radios

Every week, a new and interesting human being tackles our decidedly geeky take on the Proustian Q&A. This is the Engadget Questionnaire.

Steve Wozniak pioneered the personal computing industry with the Apple I and II. In a throwback to our 31st issue of Distro, we'll take a very thorough look at the mind and habits of the Woz. Spoiler alert: he has a thing for the bitten fruit.

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Source: Distro Issue 31

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/26/engadget-questionnaire-steve-wozniak/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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High-tech industry big immigration bill winner

WASHINGTON (AP) ? More than any other group, the high-tech industry got big wins in an immigration bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, thanks to a concerted lobbying effort, an ideally positioned Senate ally and relatively weak opposition.

The result amounted to a bonanza for the industry: unlimited green cards for foreigners with certain advanced U.S. degrees and a huge increase in visas for highly skilled foreign workers.

And thanks to the intervention of Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the industry succeeded in greatly curtailing controls sought by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., aimed at protecting U.S. workers.

In exchange, Hatch voted for the bill when it passed the committee, helping boost its bipartisan momentum as it heads to the Senate floor next month. For Durbin and his allies in organized labor, winning Hatch's support was a bitter victory.

"There was an agreement with the tech industry and Sen. Hatch said he wanted more, and that was what it took to get his vote," Durbin said in an interview.

The tech industry "really used Senator Hatch's vote to improve their position in the bill. I understand that," Durbin said. "But I think in fairness now, I hope the industry is satisfied and they will not push this any further."

Hatch countered: "Look, these are companies looking to contribute to the American economy in a way that benefits American workers and American-trained foreign workers."

Even before the Judiciary Committee took up the bill, industry had seen key pieces of its wish list granted. The legislation written by four Democratic and four Republican senators awards a permanent resident green card to any foreigner with a job offer in the U.S. and an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering or math from a U.S. school. It also raised the limit on the H-1B visas that go to highly skilled immigrants from 65,000 a year to as many as 180,000.

But the increase in H-1B visas was accompanied by new requirements aimed at ensuring American workers get the first shot at jobs. High-tech industry leaders say they never agreed to those provisions; Durbin insists they did.

Once the bill language became public last month and tech industry officials began absorbing the details, they turned their attention to the next front in the battle: the Senate Judiciary Committee.

They found their champion in Hatch, whose state is an increasingly significant high-tech employer. Fortuitously, he had maximum leverage. Viewed as the one Republican swing vote on the committee, he was courted by the senators who wrote it, Durbin and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., among them.

Even as the tech industry remained largely supportive of the legislation in public, its lobbyists began working behind the scenes with Hatch's office on a series of amendments he would introduce in the committee to undo key provisions Durbin had pressed for.

The industry objected to using the unemployment rate in determining how much the number of H-1B visas could increase. One Hatch amendment would have taken the joblesss rate out of the equation.

A provision that required tech companies to offer a job to an equally qualified U.S. citizen over an H-1B holder was seen as unworkable by industry. Hatch sought to limit that requirement to companies most dependent on H-1B visas, thereby excluding many major U.S. companies.

The bill sought to bar companies from displacing a U.S. worker within 90 days of filing an application for an H-1B visa. Hatch alao sought to limit that requirement to heavy H-1B hirers.

Durbin objected to the changes. Unions, which had been largely quiet on high-tech issues while focusing on other priorities including a pathway to citizenship and a separate visa program allowing lower-skilled workers into the U.S., also spoke up in opposition.

But the AFL-CIO's opposition never was seen as a serious concern by senators or aides involved. They were confident that labor would not pull its support for a bill offering citizenship to millions over a provision affecting relatively few union workers.

Ana Avendano, assistant to the AFL-CIO president for immigration and community action, acknowledged that the union's strong support for a path to citizenship hampered its leverage on other issues.

"We have not veered from our commitment to the path to citizenship. But we are equally committed to other parts of this bill, and it makes our fight for our priorities more difficult," she said. "Tech was extremely fortunate that they found an ally on the committee that could open up a deal that had been sealed."

There was little opposition from other fronts. The companies that are the heaviest H-1B users ? and would therefore face the brunt of the restrictions under Hatch's proposals ? include technology companies based in India that have scant lobbying presence or constituency in Congress. An organization representing U.S. engineers and tech workers, IEEE-USA, has little clout compared with companies like Microsoft and Facebook.

As the Judiciary Committee began wading through amendments to the bill, Hatch was negotiating with Schumer over his amendments. Schumer wanted Hatch's vote for the bill without alienating Durbin.

Last Tuesday morning, the committee's final day working on the bill, word went out: There was a deal.

When the details emerged, Hatch had won much of what he wanted.

The unemployment rate would no longer be a factor in how high the H-1B visa cap could go up, as long as it was not 4.5 percent or above for the highly skilled professions in question. Only those companies most heavily dependent on H-1B visas would have to offer jobs to qualified U.S. citizens first, although the definition of an H-1B-dependent company was tweaked to make it slightly narrower. And the provision barring displacement of U.S. workers within 90 days was also limited in much the way Hatch sought.

The committee approved the changes, with Durbin voting "yes," though only after making clear his discomfort with the outcome.

The AFL-CIO refused to sign off on the deal, but remained supportive of the overall bill.

The tech industry pledged its support for the bill, and promised not to seek additional changes, according to Scott Corley, executive director of Compete America, which represents high-tech companies including Google, Intel and Microsoft.

In the aftermath, Durbin and labor officials accused the tech industry of taking advantage of Hatch's position on the committee in order to reopen a done deal, to the detriment of U.S. workers. But Corley insisted that the tech industry never had agreed to the restrictions in the original bill and was only trying to ensure the H-1B program would be workable for an industry that's good for American workers and the U.S. economy.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/high-tech-industry-big-immigration-bill-winner-122335675.html

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So you have found an interesting old family tree - Hertfordshire ...

Recently Glen asked me about the origins of William Costain of St Stephens, St Albans, 1754-1827, as he had recently inherited a family history drafted by a great uncle, and this reminded me of my early days researching my ancestors. Finding old family histories can lead to important breakthroughs in your research - but there are also pitfalls - so you should always check against modern online records.
My Grandfather Walter Richard Locke (1867-1957) had acquired the family history researches of his eldest sister Eliza Mary Locke (1850-1926). She had inherited the extensive family history notes of her uncle, Robert Gibbs (1816-1893), who wrote The History of Aylesbury. His papers included a family history in verse written in about 1820 by his great uncle, John Rolls (1756-1838). A significant part of Robert Gibbs' papers were of significant local history interest and fortunately my grandfather donated the collection to what is now the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies. If he had not done so they would almost certainly have ended up in the rubbish when he died.

Of course the find was a gold mine and as a beginner I lapped it up and transferred hundreds of names to my family tree on the assumption that everything was correct.. In particular some branches of the family were non-conformists and the records of the relevant chapels have not survived. The problem was that while there was invaluable material in the old family records there was also some real problem areas when I looked more closely.?

For instance John Rolls had recorded an incident during the Civil War involving a direct ancestor - but when I tracked down the appropriate parish records I found William Rolls was too young to have been involved in the way described. The story might have applied to William's eldest brother, Ralph, who John failed to mention. In addition, while in some of his records John mentioned large numbers of relatives he may well have met during his lifetime there were few dates or places to tie them down precisely.

In his researches Robert Gibbs had tried to find out even earlier Rolls ancestors, writing to vicars (including a "donation") to ask whether the registers contained the details he was seeking - and much of this now appears to have been mere speculation. He had also documented the genealogy of the Gibbs family of Winslow where six sons all married and had large families. Virtually all the boys were named either their father, their paternal grandfather or an uncle - so there were many identically named children of about the same age. His family tree might have sorted out which one was which - but on the main ancestral line there are two copies - which are different. Which was the draft and which was the corrected version we may never know.

Eliza Mary Locke's notes were interesting in that she had tried to explore some of the lines - but getting access to the records 100 years ago clearly limited what she could do. However one thing she could have easily done was missing. She would undoubtedly have known her paternal grandfather William Speed Locke (1796-1873) but he is omitted from her notes. I eventually found the reason for this omission - She was a prim and proper Victorian lady - and her grandfather was illegitimate.?

The important lesson to learn is that old family records should be cherished - but they should also be looked at critically. Reminiscence type records are extremely useful, but can be uncertain about dates, and can be very selective - with the disreputable side being omitted. The old documents may well have been a draft which included speculations which the original author never checked out. In addition they may include information from original documents that no longer exist. But remember that your ancestors had far less access to key records than we have today. So if you come across old family history research remember that it should be thoroughly checked against modern indexes to verify the genealogy. Not only will the result be more relaible, but you may also make significant new discoveries on the way.

Source: http://hertfordshire-genealogy.blogspot.com/2013/05/so-you-have-found-interesting-old.html

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শনিবার, ২৫ মে, ২০১৩

'Behind the Candelabra': Before the HBO movie, what did America think of Liberace?

Liberace biographer Darden Asbury Pyron discusses the entertainer's legend.

By Randy Dotinga / May 24, 2013

In 'Behind the Candelabra,' Michael Douglas (l.) portrays Liberace and Matt Damon (r.) plays his boyfriend Scott Thorson.

Claudette Barius/HBO/AP

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He went by one name, but everything else about Liberace came in magnificent multiples: furs and jewels, pianos and candelabras, mansions and pompadours. More than a quarter century after his death from complications of AIDS, Liberace is still an enduring legend of American pop culture. But he's more than that. Bracelet yourself for this revelation: He's one mighty complicated character.

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On one hand, he was a conservative Midwesterner who looked askance at the liberties unleashed by the 1960s. And this is a man custom-made for looking askance at things.

At the same time, he was a gay man with lovers galore. But he hid that part of his life from the public through a haze of denials, bamboozling legions of fans who lived in pleasant denial or simply failed to comprehend the message of his grand fabulosity.

"Behind the Candelabra," a new film about Liberace by director Steven Sodenbergh, debuts Sunday on HBO. Starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, the movie has spawned a debate over the meaning of this sequined success story.

Darden Asbury Pyron, a history professor at Florida International University in Miami, explored Liberace's life in a deeply thoughtful and scrupulous 2000 biography titled "Liberace: An American Boy."

This week, I asked Pyron to ponder this most unusual entertainer.
?
Q: I'm sure some people think of Liberace as a joke today. Why do you take him seriously as a performer?
?
A: All of his contemporaries did. Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, all of these guys admired him enormously.

He is the absolute consummate performer, the definite article. He's extremely intelligent, and besides being intelligence, he has a sixth sense about what appeals to people, how far to push things.

He calculated that if people couldn't get things, he'd get them and he'd fulfill them, give them this sense of being in a different world, of getting a brief chance at being rich.

When I was working on the book, I was at my local bank in Miami and talked to a woman about what I was working on. Liberace had been dead for years, but she looked at me with this faraway look and said, "Oh, I always wanted to have a candelabra."
?
Q: What did he think about his style of performance?
?
A: He himself talks about how people see art, not just in his performance but art in general, as a way of transcending their own limitations. Art is about introducing you to another kind of world.

Nothing was realistic about him, nothing. He didn't believe in realism or naturalism. His sense about performance was something entirely different. I've never talked to anybody who saw him perform ? straight, gay, men, women ? who didn't come away just delighted.
?
Q: Wasn't he corny, though?
?
A: Someone said that he does the same act all the time and tells the same jokes. When was he going to do new material? His response: When they stop laughing at the old material.
?
Q: Years ago, I wrote a story about the Village People and was shocked to find that many readers had no idea they were gay icons. This was so obvious to some people, but others were oblivious because they didn't pick up on a kind of cultural language.

Do you think some of Liberace's fans failed to see what seems so clear to us today ? that he represents just about every stereotype of a swishy gay man?
?
A: In contemporary culture, you're gay or you're not, and there are clear divisions. That didn't apply in the '50s, '60s or even in the 1970s. He was able to play with ambiguity and, believe it or not, subtleties of identity.

He was keen to this. After the hippie revolution, he spoke about what we were losing. He didn't put it exactly like this, but he meant losing subtleties of dress and identity.
?
Q: Did you end up liking the guy?
?
A: He charms everybody, and he charmed me. He was always a kind of little boy eager to please, who's really smart and can calculate how to charm and please people.
?
Q: He turned to much younger men as he grew older, and the relationships didn't last. And of course, he had to devote energy to hiding a big part of his life. What do you make of his choices?
?
A: He has gay critics who focus on the fact that he was not ever an openly gay man, even in his final days. But he was a Midwestern conservative Republican Catholic. He had multiple identities, and that was part of his genius.

Randy Dotinga is a Monitor contributor.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/DiLuNKhVvMg/Behind-the-Candelabra-Before-the-HBO-movie-what-did-America-think-of-Liberace

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Winter Park Web Design | Lawyer Directory

manlogo
If there?s one thing we learned after years of providing web design services to the city of Winter Park, it?s that there are many things that make a website count. Many say it?s all in the content, others put it on the design and navigability of the website or the trust rankings of a website. However, we believe that if every one of these plays on the right tune, any website will do well.

We know that, we?re actually doing it, in fact you found us because were good at SEO as well.

If you need a reliable and professional web design service around the Winter Park Area, then you?ve got to have us. We?re not only one of the leading web design and development companies in the area, but the whole world. Businesses have come to us for advice and help for over 13 years to promote their websites online.

Our expertise on website development fields like Web Design, Social Marketing and Search Engine Optimization will make your website succeed. At ManageMySite.com, we specialize in Search Engine Optimization and article marketing.

However, we also offer custom e-commerce websites, effective social marketing campaigns, and custom graphics to help boost your company?s web identity. We?re also offering our custom Winter Park FL web design packages. For your basic local business website, we offer our $697 web design package, yes that?s all we charge and we do not have any upgrades or upsells, it includes everything a local winter park business needs.

This package includes up to 5 pages of tried-and-tested web design and layout, an easy-to-use Admin system, attractive, custom graphics that would help establish your web identity, and more. It?s everything you would basically need in a website.

Besides offering Winter Park web design services, we?re also offering affordable domain name and web hosting solutions to small business wanting a more professional presence online. Having a .com name helps a lot in establishing a reputable company online, that?s why we?re offering this service to our business clients in Winter Park.

We can make arrangements and plan campaigns to successfully establish your company?s presence online with an informative and highly visible website. Besides the start-up, we can also perform maintenance and article marketing thru InPressRelease.com, depending on your web design and marketing needs. Let our dedicated team of web developers help you in bringing your website to the next frontier of businesses: the Internet.

Article and Press Release Marketing by InPressRelease.com

Source: http://www.anycitylawyer.com/?p=79

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Vote on gay Scouts comes at emotional moment

Matthew Ray, 15, of North Richland Hills, Texas, holds signs near where the Boy Scouts of America are holding their annual meeting Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Grapevine, Texas. Delegates to the meeting are expected to address a proposal to allow gay scouts into the organization. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Matthew Ray, 15, of North Richland Hills, Texas, holds signs near where the Boy Scouts of America are holding their annual meeting Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Grapevine, Texas. Delegates to the meeting are expected to address a proposal to allow gay scouts into the organization. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Former scout maser Mark Noel, of Hanover, NH, holds up a new merit badge of inclusion during a press conference at the Equal Scouting Summit being held near where the Boy Scouts of America are holding their annual meeting Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Grapevine, Texas. Delegates to the Boys Scouts of America meeting are expected to address a proposal to allow gay scouts into the organization. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

John Stemberger, center, leads a press conference backed by people against the proposed change in the Boy Scouts of America gay policy Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Grapevine, Texas. Delegates to the Boys Scouts of America meeting nearby are expected to address a proposal to allow gay scouts into the organization. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Boys Scout Alex Derr speaks out against anit-gay rules during the Equal Scouting Summit Press Conference being held near where the Boy Scouts of America are holding their annual meeting Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Grapevine, Texas. The boxes in front of Derr hold petitions calling for the Boy Scouts of America to end its anti-gay policies. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Former Boys Scout leader Jennifer Tyrrell, center, is greeted as her son and current Boy Scout Cruz Burns, 8, bottom, looks on during the Equal Scouting Summit being held near where the Boy Scouts of America are holding their annual meeting Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Grapevine, Texas. Delegates to the Boys Scouts of America meeting are expected to address a proposal to allow gay scouts into the organization. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

(AP) ? The Boy Scouts of America's national leadership will vote Thursday on whether to allow openly gay Scouts in its ranks, a critical and emotionally charged moment for one of the nation's oldest youth organizations and its millions of members.

About 1,400 voting members of BSA's national council are to cast ballots Thursday on a resolution to end a policy that allows youth Scouts to be excluded based only on sexual orientation. The ban on gay adult leaders would remain in place.

The vote is taking place at a resort in Grapevine, Texas, not far from BSA's headquarters, during the national council's three-day annual meeting. The results are expected to be announced shortly after 5 p.m. CDT Thursday.

Gay-rights supporters and opponents have waged impressive campaigns to win support for their arguments in the months leading up to the vote.

Supporters of allowing gay scouts used a political consulting firm and targeted about 120 local Scouting councils where they thought the most votes could be won. Opponents cited Texas code to obtain the names and addresses of voting members from BSA officials so they could send out mailings, and held rallies across the country last week.

Scouting was established in 1910 and claims 2.6 million youth members, in addition to thousands of leaders and volunteers. Its board of directors includes executives and community leaders, and President Barack Obama is its honorary president.

Obama urged the organization to reverse the ban before a national executive board meeting that took place in February, and two high-profile board members ? the CEOs of AT&T and Ernst & Young ? said they would work from within to change the policy.

The national executive board decided instead to leave the final decision to a national council vote, and the BSA launched a listening tour of surveys and focus groups. BSA President Wayne Perry called on voters to approve the resolution overturning the ban in an opinion piece for USA Today published online Wednesday.

Findings that BSA published on its website illustrate the difficult balancing act it faces.

It said a majority of "adults in the Scouting community" support the current ban, but a majority of current Boy Scouts and Venture scouts do not, according to the findings. About 48 percent of parents of current Scouts support the policy, down from 57 percent three years ago.

One estimate suggested a policy change could cause as many as 100,000 to 350,000 Scouts to leave. And it could also affect donors ? just more than half of local councils reported to BSA that their donors supported the current ban.

Of the more than 100,000 Scouting units in the U.S., 70 percent are chartered by religious institutions. While these sponsors include liberal churches opposed to any ban on gays, some of the largest sponsors are relatively conservative denominations that have previously supported the broad ban ? notably the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Southern Baptist churches.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced in April that it supports the new proposal. Leaders of some smaller, conservative denominations have opposed it.

"Ultimately we can't anticipate how people will vote but we do know that the result will not match everyone's personal preference," said Deron Smith, BSA's national spokesman.

____

On the Web: BSA Membership Standards Resolution: http://bit.ly/185yyXk

Crary reported from New York.

Follow David Crary on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/craryap

Follow Nomaan Merchant on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/nomaanmerchant

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-23-US-Boy-Scouts-Gays/id-2f3e2ffc81df44a09dcb3b99bf0aeed9

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#3: Sony DSC-HX50V/B 20.4MP Digital Camera with 3-Inch LCD Screen (Black)

Ever since the HX5V, the HX handheld series has seen improvement year after year. The HX50V is no exception. It now features 30X zoom, 400 battery shot life and retains the amazing video quality.

I am a gadget geek, so I like buying the new version when it gets released. This year I was waiting for the new HX series and usually Sony announces something in March at the latest. But this year they announced the HX50V in late April. By that time I had already purchased the new Panasonic ZS30 which is the Panasonic's version of a compact long zoom camera which competes with the HX series. After receiving the HX50V and doing some comparisons, the ZS30 is no where near the image quality of the HX50V (Or even my older HX20V for that matter). IQ on the ZS30 looked out of focus and fuzzy when you compare the image of the HX50V. The HX50V images were sharp and more detailed.

I am definitely what you call a pixel peeper (Pixel peeper is someone who opens up images in full and looks for every pixel detail). I was worried with the increased pixel count that IQ would suffer. While IQ hasn't improved, I can happily say the IQ on the HX50V vs the HX20V are the same.

Pros:

- Image quality. Image quality is still sharp and crisp. I compared the images to the Panasonic ZS30 and the HX50V images look sharper. You can also see more image details in the HX50V. Outdoor images look sharp and colorful (I would describe it as life like and not overly saturated). Indoor images look good also. With the improved SteadyShot, I was able to take less shaky indoor low light images.

- 30X zoom (720mm). The extra zoom does make a difference. I was able to zoom further away. With the older HX20V I was able to zoom to the farthest mail box down the street. Now I am able to read the numbers on the mail box with the 30X zoom!

- Video quality. The video on the HX50V shoots in HD camcorder quality. I have compared video with my Sony CX560V camcorder and the HX50V video is better because my videos look smoother with less shake in them. When I shot a video with the HX50V and walked around, their was minimal shake in the video. When I did the same test with my CX560V camcorder, lots of shaking occurred in the video (As I expected). Sound capture remains crisp and Hi-Fi just like the HX20V. I am still blown away at how good the video is on the HX50V. The HX50V captures video at 28Mbps 1080P/60p just like my CX560V camcorder. I will now leave my camcorder home and only take this when I'm on vacation for video. The only time I will bring the camcorder is when I need the "NightShot" feature.

- 360 Panorama. I probably won't be using this feature much, but it was fun taking a 360 panorama.

- Build quality. Not only does the HX50V look like an expensive camera, but it also feels like one. It feels solid and the black metal body looks great. When I took some shots, I felt like I was holding a real camera and not a plastic toy.

- No touch screen! I absolutely hate touchscreens on cameras. I especially hate it when you can't turn it off. When I had the Panasonic ZS30, it was very annoying when I accidently touch the LCD screen with my thumb while taking a shot. Touching the LCD screen would "focus" on to the subject (Just like on a smartphone). Touch screens on most cameras are a gimmick in my opinion and only add frustration. It made me take some bad shots unknowingly. I am happy to report the HX50V does not have a touchscreen. Sony if you are reading this, please please please DON'T EVER implement this feature!

Cons:

- No improvement on image quality. While the IQ is on par with the previous model (HX20/30V), Sony should have not increased the Mega Pixel count. I think most consumers who purchase this type of camera are informed enough to know more MP doesn't equal increased IQ.

- The HX50V can not display battery life left in minutes. With the previous HX20/30V model you were able to view how much battery life you had left in minutes displayed on the screen (As long as you used the FG1 "InfoLITHIUM" batteries). The HX50V uses the BX1 batteries which do not have the "InfoLITHIUM" feature. All you get on the HX50V are 4 bar battery meters. I will miss that feature on my HX20V because I could always prepare to preserve battery life right down to the exact minute!

- It's a little on the pricey side but keep in mind it does include wi-fi picture transfer.

- Size. The HX50V is slightly bigger and heavier. I can definitely feel a difference when I use a camera neck strap. My HX20V felt lighter (As it should since it weighs slightly less than the HX50V).

- LCD screen is almost useless in bright sunlight. When I compare the LCD screen from the HX20V, they are identical.

- Battery door is still flimsy and cheap. If you don't handle the battery door like The Hulk, it should be fine though.

Wishlist for next years HX series upgrade:

- NightShot for video. I wish Sony would add the NightShot feature on this camera. I know it probably won't happen since Sony has been removing the NightShot feature from its camcorder line up (Unless you fork over $$$$ to buy the top of the line model).

- Produce a "InfoLITHIUM" battery for the HX50V so that battery life can be viewed in minutes.

- Lower cost model. Sony could add a lower model and remove the wi-fi feature for those who don't need or want it and knock off $50-$100 bucks.

Overall this camera is a great improvement from last year's HX20/30V and a great upgrade for anyone who is a fan of the HX handheld series. 30X zoom and longer battery life is what sold me and I'm glad I upgraded. This camera makes me feel confident I won't miss a shot and able to take a good shot no matter how far the subject is. A wonderful vacation camera. I have purchased the HX5V, HX9V and HX20V each year they came out. This is the best handheld zoom camera to buy. It takes sharp pictures and amazing video. I have since sold my Panasonic ZS30 and kept the HX50V as my main camera. The HX50V is the clear winner and takes the crown of best handheld zoom camera to date.

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Sony-DSC-HX50V-20-4MP-Digital-Camera/dp/B00CDIK48U/ref=pd_zg_rss_nr_p_photo_3

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৩ মে, ২০১৩

The Baby Bachelor Returns: Will You Accept This Dinosaur?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/the-baby-bachelor-returns-will-you-accept-this-dinosaur/

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Verizon Galaxy S4 Release Date: Best Buy Confirms May 23 Release Date for Verizon?s Galaxy S4 Variant

By Brian Fulcher?|?05/22/2013

Verizon Galaxy S4 Release Date: Best Buy Confirms May 23 Release Date for Verizon?s Galaxy S4 VariantPrior to this week, it wasn?t sure whether all third-party retailers will be offering the Verizon Samsung Galaxy S4 on May 23, following the carrier?s announcement that the device will be out on that date, rather than on May 30. However, according to Gotta Be Mobile, the Verizon Galaxy S4 will be out on May 23 on one of those third-party retailers offering the handset, Best Buy.

This confirmation further clears up confusion over the Galaxy S4?s release date on Verizon, as potential buyers had to deal with quite a lot in previous weeks. For one, Verizon announced a release schedule much later than that of other carriers, and it didn?t help matters at all by being ambiguous on an exact release date, or even a release week.

Originally confirmed for May 30, the Verizon Galaxy S4 release date was moved up to May 23, and now it looks like at least a few third-party retailers will be doing the same.

Before Best Buy, Staples also announced a May 23 release date for the Galaxy S4, although at this point, both RadioShack and Wal-Mart remain coy on the Samsung flagship?s release schedule. In any event, this still leaves Verizon as the last big-name carrier to release the Galaxy S4, as the May 23 release date still falls close to a month after most other carriers released their S4 variants.

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular all made the Galaxy S4 available in late April, about a month and a half after the device?s official launching in New York.

Source: http://gadgetinsiders.com/verizon-galaxy-s4-release-date-best-buy-confirms-may-23-release-date-for-verizons-galaxy-s4-variant/1209883/

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Retail sales flat in March at $39.5 billion, Statistics Canada says

OTTAWA - Canadian shoppers bought more, but benefited from lower prices in March as retail sales were flat for the month, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.

Retail sales for the month amounted to $39.5 billion, the same as a revised figure for February, as lower prices, especially for gasoline, offset a 0.7 per cent increase in sales volumes.

The results compared with expectations by economists for sales to rise 0.2 per cent.

"Challenged by sluggish income gains and unwilling to significantly grow non-mortgage debt, Canadians have been reluctant spenders at the stores of late," CIBC chief economists Avery Shenfeld said in a note.

"But a big drop in gasoline prices enabled retail volumes to jump 0.7 per cent in March, despite an overall flat level of expenditures."

Shenfeld estimated that retail sales for the first quarter of the year came in at an annual pace of 1.8 per cent, double the rate in the final quarter of 2012.

Statistics Canada said higher sales were reported in six of 11 subsectors, representing 47 per cent of total retail sales.

The largest increase in sales was a 3.1 per cent rise at clothing and clothing accessories stores, while sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers rose 0.7 per cent for a third consecutive monthly gain.

Gasoline station sales decreased 1.3 per cent in March, mainly reflecting lower prices at the pump.

Sales at motor vehicle and auto parts dealers rose 0.7 per cent, helped by increased sales of recreational vehicles, motorcycles and boats and new cars and trucks.

Furniture and home furnishings stores gained 0.3 per cent, helped by stronger furniture sales. Building material and garden equipment and supplier sales edged up 0.1 per cent.

Retail sales rose in six provinces in March, with Ontario reporting the largest increase of 0.4 per cent in dollar terms.

TD Bank economist Dina Ignjatovic said the increase in first-quarter retail sales from the end of last year will help boost GDP for the quarter.

"Indeed, consumer spending is now tracking 2.0 per cent in Q1, which will help lift real GDP to the 2.0-2.5 per cent range during the quarter," Ignjatovic wrote.

"Going forward, consumer spending growth is likely to remain just shy of 2 per cent, as employment growth is expected to be lacklustre and households work to rein in their debt."

Source: http://feeds.canada.com/~r/canwest/F7477/~3/rzA59cjnHH4/story.html

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Convicted abortion doc gets life in prison

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? A Philadelphia abortion doctor convicted of killing three babies born alive at his grimy clinic was spared a possible death sentence Tuesday in a deal with prosecutors.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell gave up his right to appeal and in return will spend life in prison. Gosnell, 72, was found guilty Monday of first-degree murder in a case that became a flashpoint in the nation's abortion debate.

Former clinic employees testified that Gosnell routinely performed illegal abortions past Pennsylvania's 24-week limit, that he delivered babies who were still moving, whimpering or breathing, and that he and his assistants dispatched the newborns by "snipping" their spines, as he referred to it.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty because Gosnell killed more than one person, and his victims were especially vulnerable given their age. But Gosnell's own advanced age had made it unlikely he would ever be executed before his appeals ran out.

Prosecutors instead agreed to two life sentences without parole, and Gosnell was to face further sentencing Wednesday: in the death of the third baby, an involuntary manslaughter conviction in the death of a patient and hundreds of lesser counts.

Gosnell has said he considered himself a pioneering inner-city doctor who helped desperate women get late-term abortions. Defense lawyer Jack McMahon said before the sentencing deal that his client's bid for acquittal was a battle.

"The media has been overwhelmingly against him," McMahon said. "But I think the jury listened to the evidence ... and they found what they found."

The gruesome details of Gosnell's operation came out more than two years ago during a grand jury investigation of prescription drug trafficking. Authorities raiding Gosnell's clinic for drugs instead found bags and bottles of fetuses, including jars of severed feet, along with bloodstained furniture, dirty medical instruments and cats roaming the premises.

Prosecution experts said one of the babies was nearly 30 weeks along when the abortion took place, and was so big that Gosnell allegedly joked the baby could "walk to the bus." A second baby was said to be alive for about 20 minutes before a clinic worker snipped the neck. A third was born in a toilet and was moving before another clinic employee severed the spinal cord, according to testimony.

A fourth baby let out a whimper before Gosnell cut the neck, prosecutors alleged. Gosnell was acquitted in that baby's death, the only one of the four in which no one testified to seeing the baby killed.

Gosnell's attorney argued that none of the fetuses was born alive and that any movements were posthumous twitching or spasms.

Pennsylvania authorities had failed to conduct routine inspections of all its abortion clinics for 15 years by the time Gosnell's facility was raided. In the scandal's aftermath, two top state health officials were fired, and Pennsylvania imposed tougher rules for clinics.

Partisans on both sides of the nation's polarized abortion debate were quick to weigh in after the verdict. Abortion foes said the case helped to illustrate the disturbing reality of abortion.

"This has helped more people realize what abortion is really about," said David O'Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee. He said he hopes the case results in more states passing bills that prohibit abortion "once the unborn child can feel pain."

Supporters of legalized abortion said the case offered a preview of what poor, desperate young women could face if abortion is driven underground with more restrictive laws.

"Kermit Gosnell has been found guilty and will get what he deserves. Now, let's make sure these women are vindicated by delivering what all women deserve: access to the full range of health services including safe, high-quality and legal abortion care," said Ilyse G. Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.

During the trial, Gosnell proved a solitary figure from beginning to end, with no friends or relatives in the courtroom, despite the fact he's been married three times and has six children, nearly all of them adults.

Gosnell did not testify, and called no witnesses in his defense. But McMahon branded prosecutors "elitist" and "racist" for pursuing his client, who is black and whose patients were mostly poor minorities.

"I wanted to be an effective, positive force in the minority community," Gosnell told The Philadelphia Daily News in a 2010 interview. "I believe in the long term I will be vindicated."

Gosnell was also convicted of infanticide, racketeering and more than 200 counts of violating Pennsylvania's abortion laws by performing third-term abortions or failing to counsel women 24 hours in advance.

The defense also contended that the 2009 death of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar of Woodbridge, Va., a Bhutanese immigrant who had been given repeated doses of Demerol and other powerful drugs to sedate her and induce labor, was caused by unforeseen complications and did not amount to murder, as prosecutors charged.

Bernard Smalley, a lawyer for the woman's family, said he now hopes to bring "some sense of justice and quiet to this family that's been through so much."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/convicted-pa-abortion-doctor-gets-life-prison-201005368.html

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'Dancing With the Stars' to lose results shows

TV

10 hours ago

Image: Mirror ball trophy

ABC

Tired of the filler on the "Dancing With the Stars" results shows each Tuesday? Seems like ABC might be as well.

In a press release about its 2013-2014 TV schedule, the network revealed that it is cutting the ballroom bash down to just a two-hour Monday show.

" 'Dancing with the Stars' will now air from 8-10 p.m. on Mondays, integrating the performance show and results show into one night and making each episode action-packed event television," states the press release.

"We want to focus it in by taking the results show and building it into the two-hour block on Mondays to really drive viewership," Paul Lee, president of ABC's entertainment group, told reporters.

ABC has not yet revealed how the results would be integrated into the performance shows.

Taking the place of "Dancing's" results shows on Tuesday nights this fall are comedies "The Goldbergs" at 9 and "Trophy Wife" at 9:30.

During the ABC upfronts presentation Tuesday, the network poked fun at the ballroom bash. "They're not really stars. We picked them up at the bus station," late-night host Jimmy Kimmel joked, referring to a common fan complaint that the celebrities are rarely truly stars.

What do you think of cutting the show to just one night a week? Tell us in the comments!

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/dancing-stars-lose-results-shows-1C9910477

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Obama slams GOP focus on Benghazi as politics

WASHINGTON (AP) ? House Republicans pushed ahead Monday with their investigation of the deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year as President Barack Obama asserted that GOP charges of a cover-up are baseless.

The latest Republican focus is the independent review that slammed the State Department for inadequate security at the installation before the twin nighttime attacks that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans on Sept. 11, 2012.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, asked the two authors of the investigation ? veteran diplomat Thomas Pickering and retired Adm. Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ? to meet privately with committee staff to answer questions about their review. Democrats countered that if Congress wants to talk to them, Issa should hold a full open hearing.

Republicans insist that the Obama administration misled Congress and the American people in the immediate aftermath of the attack, trying to play down an act of terrorism that would reflect poorly on Obama weeks before the 2012 presidential election.

Emails disclosed Friday showed that State Department and other senior administration officials pushed for references to prior warnings and al-Qaida to be deleted from the talking points used by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice five days after the attack. One email suggested that Congress could use those issues as ammunition against the State Department.

At a White House news conference, Obama dismissed the GOP focus on the talking points as a politically driven "sideshow," pointing out that he said "act of terror" on Sept. 12 and the talking points assessment was similar to the daily presidential briefing he had received.

He also noted that Matt Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told Congress that Benghazi was a terrorist attack with potential links to al-Qaida three days after Rice's appearance on five Sunday talk shows.

"So if this was some effort on our part to try to downplay what had happened or tamp it down, that would be a pretty odd thing that three days later we end up putting out all the information that in fact has now served as the basis for everybody recognizing that this was a terrorist attack and that it may have included elements that were planned by extremists inside of Libya," the president said. "Who executes some sort of cover-up or effort to tamp things down for three days?"

While Obama did refer to Benghazi as an act of terror, the president also cited protests over an anti-Islamic video in several interviews days after the attack, as did Rice on several Sunday news shows. He said Monday that "nobody understood exactly what was taking place during the course of those first few days."

The emails comprising the inter-agency discussion on how to best describe the events in Benghazi were shared with Congress as a condition for allowing the nomination of John Brennan for CIA director to move forward.

The general counsel for the office of the Director of National Intelligence briefed members and staff from the Senate Intelligence panel and leadership on the emails on Feb. 15 at a session in which staff could take notes. A similar briefing took place on March 19 for the House Intelligence panel and leadership staff, according to a senior administration official.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the individual was not allow to publicly discuss the process.

New details on the emails emerged last week. Obama argued that lawmakers had reviewed them several months ago but suddenly they were treated as fresh revelations.

"There's no 'there' there," the president said.

At the State Department, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said her agency didn't review the talking points until the night of Friday, Sept. 14 ? "after the reference to al-Qaida had actually been removed."

The succession of revisions to the talking points only partly backs up that statement. A sentence ascribing some of the blame for the attacks to al-Qaida was stricken at 4:42 p.m. on Sept. 14, according to documents published by ABC News. But a reference to previous attacks in the region by al-Qaida-linked extremists remained in the talking points at 6:52 p.m.

Former State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland then complained at 7:39 p.m. and the paragraph was eliminated in the next revision at 8:59 p.m.

Although the talking points were heavily edited, Rice still referred to al-Qaida and extremists when she appeared on the Sunday shows.

"It's clear that there were extremist elements that joined and escalated the violence; whether they were al-Qaida affiliates, whether they were Libyan-based extremists or al-Qaida itself, I think, is one of the things we'll have to determine," she said.

Issa has argued that Congress needs to get the facts. He wants to hear from Pickering and Mullen about their investigation and he asked that they turn over documents, communications, lists of witnesses, notes and other material by Friday.

He pointed to the testimony of three State Department witnesses last week who criticized the Accountability Review Board's work as incomplete and flawed.

"The White House and the State Department have touted the ARB's report as the definitive account of how and why the Benghazi attacks occurred," Issa said in separate letters to Pickering and Mullen. "It is necessary for the committee to understand whether the criticisms of the ARB's work that we heard from witnesses on May 8, 2013 are valid."

But the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, told Issa that he should bypass private depositions from the two men and go directly to an open hearing on May 22. Issa said to Pickering and Mullen that they would work out a hearing for their public testimony at a later date.

Their blistering report found that "systematic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels" of the State Department meant that security was "inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place." They absolved former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, faulting lower level State Department officials.

Four State Department officials were reassigned or resigned in the wake of the Pickering-Mullen report.

"We knew where the responsibility rested," Pickering, a career Foreign Service officer who has worked for Republican and Democratic administrations, said Sunday.

For all the Washington furor, a Pew Research Center survey out Monday found the public paid limited attention to last week's House hearing in which a State Department official who was in Tripoli described his helplessness and frustration as the assault unfolded in Benghazi.

The survey found that 44 percent of Americans said they were following the hearings very or fairly closely, about the same percentage as in late January when Clinton testified on Capitol Hill. The number is down from the 61 percent who said they were following the initial stages of the investigation in October.

The survey of 1,000 adults found a split over whether the Obama administration is being honest about the attack and how Republicans are handling the issue, with partisanship affecting opinions. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

___

Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-slams-gop-focus-benghazi-politics-195951415.html

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