Texas district attorney, wife found dead at home

KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) ? Two months after an assistant prosecutor was gunned down, the bodies of a north Texas prosecutor and his wife were found in their home, authorities said.

Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were found killed in their home on Saturday, Kaufman County sheriff's Lt. Justin Lewis said.

"Everybody's a little on edge and a little shocked," Forney Mayor Darren Rovell told The Associated Press on Sunday. "It appears this was not a random act."

Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was shot to death in a parking lot a block from his office on Jan. 31. No arrests have been made in his death.

Lewis declined to say how the couple died or whether authorities believe their deaths are linked to Hasse's. Police, FBI agents, Texas Rangers and deputies were all part of the investigation.

Rovell said what's so shocking is that the attack occurred at the district attorney's home, an unincorporated area just outside Forney, which has 15,000 residents within the city limits and about 40,000 in the area. Kaufman County is 33 miles southeast of Dallas.

Kaufman Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh told The Dallas Morning News that the McLellands had been shot in their home, and although investigators didn't know if their deaths were related to Hasse's killing, they couldn't discount it.

"It was a shock with Mark Hasse, and now you can just imagine the double shock and until we know what happened, I really can't confirm that it's related but you always have to assume until it's proven otherwise," Aulbaugh told the newspaper.

Sam Rosander, who lives in the same unincorporated area of Kaufman County as the McLellands, told the AP on Saturday that sheriff's deputies were parked in the district attorney's driveway for about a month after Hasse was killed.

Aulbaugh said recently that the FBI was checking to see if Hasse's killing could be related to the March 19 killing of Colorado Department of Corrections head Tom Clements, who was gunned down after answering the doorbell at his home.

Evan Spencer Ebel, a former Colorado inmate and white supremacist who authorities believe killed Clements and a pizza deliveryman two days earlier, was killed in a March 21 shootout with Texas deputies about 100 miles from Kaufman.

Hasse was chief of the organized crime unit when he was an assistant prosecutor in Dallas County in the 1980s, and he handled similar cases in Kaufman County.

"Anything anybody can think of, we're looking through," McLelland said after Hasse's death.

McLelland graduated from the University of Texas before a 23-year career in the Army, according to the website for the district attorney's office. He later earned his law degree from the Texas Wesleyan School of Law.

He and his wife have two daughters and three sons. One son is a police officer in Dallas.

McLelland and his wife had moved into the home within the past few years ago, Rozell said.

"Real friendly, became part of our community quickly," Rozell said. "They were a really pleasant happy couple."

___

Associated Press writer Michael Graczyk in Houston contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-district-attorney-wife-found-dead-home-045407488.html

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Hr Business Partner - Morgan McKinley - Jobs.ie - Jobs in Ireland ...

Morgan McKinley

Contact: Sarah Crowley

Address: 6 Lapps Quay, Co. Cork

Phone: 353 21 2300300

Morgan McKinley - Hr Business Partner

Location:	Limerick
Salary:	competitive
Job type:	Contract, Full-time

Job description

Our client is looking to recruit a HR Business Partner for this Limerick operation for a contract of 9-12 months in length.

Duties will include, but will not be limited to the following:

• Work with assigned client group across all areas of Human Resources including (but not limited to) employee relations, compensation, benefits, resource and succession planning and career management.
• Responsible for the support, development and implementation of HR related programmes within relevant business groups.
• Partner with management on multiple initiatives within Human Resources. In particular, provide coaching and support to stakeholders on specific functional areas to facilitate the creation of value through people.
• Support and manage the implementation of HR plans and programs related to organizational design, development and change.
• Educate clients on the appropriate application of relevant compensation philosophy, initiatives, strategies, the alternatives, and potential impact on the business.
• Provide group and one-on-one coaching with managers and employees on a variety of human resource related issues.
• Partner with line leaders to grow diverse leadership, talent, and technical capability pipeline
• Provide complex consulting services to business partner client groups and coordinate efforts to ensure equity and consistency in the administration of policies and practices.
• Stay current and monitors changes with regard to legislation and industry practices
• Develop and present various compensation, benefit and other HR management training programs.
• Identify, design and develop programs to support cultures that drive innovation and employee engagement to achieve organizational performance/goals; enable implementation at the local level.
• Provide coaching and support to stakeholders on specific functional areas to facilitate the creation of value through people.

Key skills/Experience

• Essential University degree (or equivalent) in Human Resources or a related discipline.
• 5+ years experience in a full function HR role managing complexity and demonstrate innovation
• Proactive approach to problem solving
• Strong Comp and benefits focus
• Customer Focused
• Culturally Aware Flexible & Team Player
• Good Influencing Skills
• Project Management Skills
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills

Email this job to yourself / a friend

Source: http://www.jobs.ie/ApplyForJob.aspx?Id=1248113

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Are you being persecuted?

If he actually existed, then yes, they persecuted the bejesus out of him

The Daily Mash presents a simple questionnaire to help you work out how persecuted you are:

Are you excluded from high office, such as being prime minister or the Queen, because of your religion?

Are you completely excluded from society even though you believe in miracles?

Are you prevented from worshipping in, let?s say, a church, on, let?s say, a Sunday morning?

Are you prevented from constantly judging complete strangers?

Are you prevented from sticking your nose into other people?s personal lives?

Do you believe that Lord Carey was elected to the House of Lords?

Does the Today programme ban you from boring the shit out of everyone with two minutes of sanctimonious drivel every morning?

Are schools, funded largely by people who do not share your views, banned from telling children about your favourite miracles?

Has an organisation, funded largely by people who do not share your views, stopped making Songs of Praise?

Do some of the country?s biggest newspapers ignore you whenever you object to the slightest little thing?

Does Britain celebrate Christmas because it is the birthday of Isaac Newton?

Are you currently enjoying a long weekend to commemorate the untimely death of Judy Garland?

So, are you being persecuted?

All ?yes?: Britain does not celebrate Christmas because it is the birthday of Isaac Newton. You may actually benefit from some light persecution.

Mostly ?yes?: Perhaps this really is the time of year when you commemorate? Judy Garland. That is deeply fabulous of you. You?re not being persecuted as much as you used to.

50-50: You?re probably always ?50-50? in these kinds of things. You might want to shake it up a bit.

Mostly ?no?: You are probably a Roman Catholic and are subject to some persecution, but only if you really want to be the Queen.

All ?no?: You are an Anglican Christian and you are not being persecuted. Congratulations!

Source: http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/are-you-being-persecuted-2013033064361

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From Basement StartupTo Thriving Business: Glen Koedding, Green ...

It?s been two years since Glen Koedding started Green Sun Energy Services in his Middletown basement.? He?s tapped into a market in New Jersey (second only to California for solar energy) for third party energy supply; high-end solar; energy efficient improvements; and after Hurricane Sandy hobbled the state last year, home generators.

Koedding anticipates doubling his already healthy revenue by year end. I?interviewed him about why he?s revamping his website, why there?s no such thing as ?free solar,? utilizing the cloud, and what California is taking from New Jersey (hint: it?s not retirees).

Question: Did you get any sleep during the month Sandy hit?

Glen?s business is succeeding in part because of smart marketing but also because he has a laser focus on his customers and knows what they need.

It wasn?t that bad because we had most of the upfront stuff ready. I took a walk after Sandy with my family and a neighbor asked me if we were doing generators yet. I said ?no, but give me two weeks.?

At home I called my business partner to say we needed to step up this generator thing, which was in the business plan already. I was able to launch a full blitz marketing campaign by the time the lights came back on.

We had the website, our lead capture form was up, pricing models in place, subcontractors contracted, and we sold close to $300,000 worth of in-home generators in about two months.

We did one email blast saying that folks who?d already opted in to our list would get a special price. It?s not something I could do without the Internet or without an understanding of email marketing and how to tie that into a good solid landing page. I can press a button and send emails out with a customized estimate with a contract attached to it. That?s pretty neat.

Question: What?s your biggest challenge in marketing Green Sun?

Misinformation about solar. Solar is the biggest of our four solutions, although whole house emergency backup generators are currently a hot commodity.

Glen knows the ins and outs of the solar business and guides his customers to make educated and beneficial decisions.

Quite a few companies are marketing this thing called ?free solar.? You see kiosks at Home Depot. I haven?t figured out how they haven?t been indicted because it?s really not free?it?s a zero down lease. It?s a bait and switch. My Google ad says, ?Is free solar a scam?? We provide leasing that we?re transparent about. A lease should be lower than your electric payment and then it makes sense.

The other misinformation is cultural. Leasing is viewed as risk-free and cheap. But when you lease anything, it shows up on your credit report as a liability.

Our focus is to leverage the good credit rating of our customers so they can borrow at a much more competitive rate than with a lease and make a profit. I focused on this when starting the company because our state is giving millions away to leasing companies that are mainly in California. Solar is supported by a tiny portion of the rate you pay for electricity. Out-of-state leasing companies take those benefits, which were designed to support New Jerseyans for investing in solar. Consumers don?t understand this.

Question: In business today, how important is it to meet people face to face?

There?s no substitute for face to face. Web gives credibility, depth of research and reach, but in my market I depend upon reputation, so having both makes all the difference.

I get a good deal of business from a couple of business networking groups. They help our online marketing too. We help each other out on Facebook and LinkedIn. I have links on my site to local partners where I?m basically providing an advertising space and a backlink for people who I know have superior service.

Facebook has been the most important social media platform for us. On LinkedIn I have a tremendous amount of contacts, but we haven?t seen that translate into business. What it may do is provide credibility. You can see my connections and my history. But I think Facebook?s where referrals happen.

We do some pay-per-click advertising that?s highly targeted. We post installations, new products and solutions, and photos of clients. Prospects can see that people enjoy interacting with us and can get ideas. Clients post their electric bills! Getting that kind of interaction is huge. We?re building community.

Question: Are you bringing solar to the masses?

Solar may save energy but people also want it to look good. Glen accounts for the architecture of the building to install the most aesthetic ? and energy-saving ? option.

No, we?re a boutique company with a focus on long-term relationships with high-end clients. There?s alot of Kmarts in my industry. We want to be the local Nordstrom?s of solar, generators, third party energy and home energy improvements.

We?re highly segmented, very focused on high-end residential homeowners who want a long-term relationship and care about the aesthetic look and feel of the system?they want it to blend into their homes? architecture. They?re more likely to buy than lease solar because they want a return on investment.

Our other focus is what I call ?owner-occupied small businesses.? Like a home that?s converted into a funeral home, a vet, maybe a small manufacturing facility where they see solar as an investment, to not only reduce energy prices but profit. They?re also seeking that relationship and often, aesthetic appeal. If you go to a funeral home you don?t want to see gaudy solar panels! Architectural precision and tastefulness make a big difference.

Question: Tell us about your upcoming website facelift and what lessons you learned from your first two years.

I?ve learned to balance what I can do myself and what I can outsource. I come from a business, marketing and IT background. The website looked good when I was managing it, but didn?t have all the stuff in the back end right.

We use a third party application, Salesforce.com, for all our operations except finance and to manage our website and client portal. I became a jack of all trades and taught myself HTML. The pages I added were good from a look and feel standpoint and okay on SEO. But I knew the code was dirty, so part of the relaunch was to include our new solution portfolio in a more organized manner, to clean up the code and get it optimized. I did some organic search first time around, but Version 2.0 will be better.

Video has not helped much despite the ton of statistics about how important it is. We have four videos on the homepage that have had less than 100 clicks after almost a year. Two are TV ads we abandoned because they gave us exposure but not conversions. I learned the first place people go to learn about and to buy something complicated is the Web, not TV or the phone book. The other two are a company video and one done by Brookdale?s continuing ed program. I was on the cover of the catalog. I did a 40-hour noncredit training course.

Part of the revamp was to ditch Flash and get a medium that works across all platforms. I can see on Google analytics that we get alot of mobile devices. I?ve limited my advertising to computers and tablets and excluded cell phones, but that?ll change. If the site?s not optimized at minimum for a tablet, you?re losing 50 percent of your potential market. My wife, for example, doesn?t use her laptop anymore.

The average cost to acquire a solar customer is approximately $1,000. For solar, it?s 50 percent referrals, 25 percent pure web leads and the rest is installer referrals. We have a referral bonus program.

We?re poised to double our revenue this year. We?ve got great teams, great subcontractors, all managed remotely. Everything?s in the cloud. It all goes back to the technology.

Koedding?s company can be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Source: http://www.websearchsocial.com/glen-koedding-green-sun-energy-services?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=glen-koedding-green-sun-energy-services

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Protective prion keeps yeast cells from going it alone

Friday, March 29, 2013

Most commonly associated with such maladies as "mad cow disease" and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, prions are increasingly recognized for their ability to induce potentially beneficial traits in a variety of organisms, yeast chief among them.

Now a team of scientists has added markedly to the job description of prions as agents of change, identifying a prion capable of triggering a transition in yeast from its conventional single-celled form to a cooperative, multicellular structure. This change, which appears to improve yeast's chances for survival in the face of hostile environmental conditions, is an epigenetic phenomenon?a heritable alteration brought about without any change to the organism's underlying genome.

This latest finding, reported in the March 28 issue of the journal Cell, has its origins in work begun several years ago in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member Susan Lindquist. In 2009, Randal Halfmann, then a graduate student in Lindquist's lab, identified dozens of proteins in yeast that have the ability to form prions. That research greatly expanded the known universe of prion elements in yeast, but it failed to answer a key question: What function, if any, do these prions actually have?

In search of an answer, Halfmann, now a fellow the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and colleagues in the Lindquist lab attempted to exploit the fact that several of the prion-forming proteins they had identified acted to modify transcription of yeast genes. It stood to reason that if they could identify which genes were being regulated, they might be able to determine the prions' function.

"We looked at the five transcriptional regulators that are known to be prions in yeast, and we found that in fact, only one gene in the entire yeast genome was regulated by all five transcription factors," says Halfmann.

That gene, as it turns out, was FLO11, a key player in multicellularity in yeast. Indeed changes in FLO11 expression have been shown to act as a toggle, switching yeast from spherical to filamentous form. Halfmann notes that FLO11, which has been shown to be regulated by epigenetic elements, is also highly responsive to environmental stress. Knowing that the prion form of a protein is essentially a misfolded form of that protein, and that stressful conditions increase the frequency of protein misfolding and prion formation, the scientists began to consider the possibility that the prions themselves might be among the epigenetic switches influencing the activity of FLO11.

The group focused on one transcription factor known as mot3, finding that yeast cells containing the prion form of this factor, [MOT3+], acquired a variety of multicellular growth forms known to require FLO11 expression. This was a clear indication that prion formation was causing the differentiation of the cells and their subsequent cooperation. But what about the stress aspect of the hypothesis?

By testing yeast cells against a variety of stressors, the scientists discovered that exposure to a concentration of ethanol akin to that occurring naturally during fermentation increased [MOT3+] formation by a factor of 10.They also found that as the cells exposed to ethanol shifted their metabolism to burn surrounding oxygen through respiration, the prions reverted to their non-prion conformation, [mot3-], and the yeast returned to the unicellular state. In essence, prion formation drove a shift to multicellularity, helping the yeast to ride out the ethanol storm.

"What we have in the end is two sequential environmental changes that are turning on a heritable epigenetic element and then turning it off," says Halfmann. "And between those two changes, the prion is causing the cells to acquire a multicellular growth form that we think is actually important for their survival."

Lindquist, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, has long argued that prions have played a vital role in yeast evolution and has amassed a body of strong supporting evidence.

"We see them as part of a bet-hedging strategy that allows the yeast to alter their biological properties quickly when their environments turn unfavorable," Lindquist says. She also theorizes that prions may play such roles beyond yeast, and her lab intends to take similar approaches in the hunt for prions and prion-like mechanisms that are potentially beneficial in other organisms.

For Lindquist lab postdoctoral scientist Alex Lancaster, who is also an author of the new Cell paper, these latest findings hint at a potentially novel approach to understanding basic mechanisms underlying the complexities of human diseases, including cancer, whose hallmarks include protein misfolding, epigenetic alterations, metabolic aberrations, and myriad changes in cell state, type, and function. Lancaster likens the opportunity to that of opening a black box.

"It's exciting to think that this could become another tool in the toolbox in the study of multicellularity," Lancaster says. "We know that some tumors are a heterogeneous population of cells and we know that tumor cells can evolve within in their environments to help ensure their own survival. This system could help us further understand the role of epigenetic inheritance within tumors and how it might be influencing cell-cell interactions and even affecting the effectiveness of drug therapies."

###

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research: http://www.wi.mit.edu/index.html

Thanks to Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 51 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127516/Protective_prion_keeps_yeast_cells_from_going_it_alone

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Kansas Couple: Indoor Gardening Prompted Pot Raid ? CBS St. Louis

File photo of a garden. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

LEAWOOD, Kan. (AP) ? Two former CIA employees whose Kansas home was fruitlessly searched for marijuana during a two-state drug sweep claim they were illegally targeted, possibly because they had bought indoor growing supplies to raise vegetables.

Adlynn and Robert Harte sued this week to get more information about why sheriff?s deputies searched their home in the upscale Kanas City suburb of Leawood last April 20 as part of Operation Constant Gardener ? a sweep conducted by agencies in Kansas and Missouri that netted marijuana plants, processed marijuana, guns, growing paraphernalia and cash from several other locations.

April 20 long has been used by marijuana enthusiasts to celebrate the illegal drug and more recently by law enforcement for raids and crackdowns. But the Hartes? attorney, Cheryl Pilate, said she suspects the couple?s 1,825-square-foot split level was targeted because they had bought hydroponic equipment to grow a small number of tomatoes and squash plants in their basement.

?With little or no other evidence of any illegal activity, law enforcement officers make the assumption that shoppers at the store are potential marijuana growers, even though the stores are most commonly frequented by backyard gardeners who grow organically or start seedlings indoors,? the couple?s lawsuit says.

The couple filed the suit this week under the Kansas Open Records Act after Johnson County and Leawood denied their initial records requests, with Leawood saying it had no relevant records. The Hartes say the public has an interest in knowing whether the sheriff?s department?s participation in the raids was ?based on a well-founded belief of marijuana use and cultivation at the targeted addresses, or whether the raids primarily served a publicity purpose.?

?If this can happen to us and we are educated and have reasonable resources, how does somebody who maybe hasn?t led a perfect life supposed to be free in this country?? Adlynn Harte said in an interview Friday.

The suit filed in Johnson County District Court said the couple and their two children ? a 7-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son ? were ?shocked and frightened? when deputies armed with assault rifles and wearing bulletproof vests pounded on the door of their home around 7:30 a.m. last April 20.

?It was just like on the cops TV shows,? Robert Harte told The Associated Press. ?It was like ?Zero Dark Thirty? ready to storm the compound.?

During the sweep, the court filing said, the Hartes were told they had been under surveillance for months, but the couple ?know of no basis for conducting such surveillance nor do they believe such surveillance would have produced any facts supporting the issuance of a search warrant.?

Harte said he built the hydroponic garden with his son a couple of years ago. He said they didn?t use the powerful light bulbs that are sometimes used to grow marijuana and that the family?s electricity usage didn?t change dramatically. Changes in utility usage can sometimes lead authorities to such operations.

When law enforcement arrived, the family had just six plants ? three tomato plants, one melon plant and two butternut squash plants ? growing in the basement, Harte said.

The suit also said deputies ?made rude comments? and implied their son was using marijuana. A drug-sniffing dog was brought in to help, but deputies ultimately left after providing a receipt stating, ?No items taken.?

Pilate said no one in the Harte family uses illegal drugs and no charges were filed. The lawsuit noted Adlynn Harte, who works for a financial planning firm, and Robert Harte, who cares for the couple?s children, each were required to pass rigorous background checks for their previous jobs working for the CIA in Washington, D.C. Pilate said she couldn?t provide any other details about their CIA employment.

Pilate said any details gleaned from the open records suit could be used in a future federal civil rights lawsuit.

?You can?t go into people?s homes and conduct searches without probable cause,? Pilate said.

Leawood City Administrator Scott Lambers said Friday that he couldn?t comment on pending litigation. The sheriff?s office also had no comment.

?Obviously with an ongoing lawsuit we are not able to talk about any details of it until it?s been played out in court,? said Johnson County Deputy Tom Erickson.

(? Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Source: http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2013/03/29/kansas-couple-indoor-gardening-prompted-pot-raid/

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OT/Birthdays? | Step Talk

I was raised a Jehovah's Witness, so I never had a birthday. Never went to a birthday party. Everything I've learned about birthday procedure I've picked up by going to birthday parties my daughters were invited to.

My exBF teased me one time because I didn't have ice cream at my D6's birthday party. I didn't know that was a requirement.

Anyway, at what age do you phase out the traditional birthday party for kids? My eldest will be turning 15 this year, and since I've been divorced I've usually done a small party for her- invited a couple of her friends over for pizza and cake, that sort of thing.

I'm thinking as she gets older she won't want a party and maybe I'd take her out for dinner instead. Would this be age appropriate for her birthday?

Source: http://www.steptalk.org/node/128794

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Golds, banks pull TSX lower on weak data, Cyprus; RIM gains

By John Tilak

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index fell on Thursday, led by declines in gold shares that followed the bullion price lower and in financial stocks, as weak U.S. economic data and worries about spillover effects of the Cyprus crisis deepened investor gloom.

A rise in BlackBerry after the smartphone maker reported a surprise quarterly profit offset some of the losses.

Cypriots queued calmly at banks as they reopened on Thursday under tight controls imposed on transactions to prevent a run on deposits after the government was forced to accept a stringent EU rescue package to avert bankruptcy.

The banking crisis in Cyprus has weighed on investors for about a week, and some worry that it is an indication of shortcomings in the broader euro zone.

"Cyprus continues to be a problem. The question is, what's the fallout going to be?" said Fred Ketchen, director of equity trading at ScotiaMcLeod.

"Until there's clarification, the worries are the banking industry there will continue to struggle and have a negative effect on the market for a while," he added.

Investors also tracked data that showed a rise in U.S. jobless claims and a sluggish expansion of the U.S. economy in the fourth quarter of 2012.

"It's a mixed picture. We are in a period of stagnation" Ketchen said. "There's more negative emotion in the market than positive."

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index <.gsptse> was down 32.06 points, or 0.25 percent, at 12,667.59. Six of the 10 main sectors and the index were higher.

Financials, the index's weightiest sector, lost 0.6 percent, with Royal Bank of Canada giving back 0.8 percent to C$60.23.

The materials sector, which includes mining stocks, was down 0.5 percent, with the price of gold declining. Goldcorp Inc fell 0.6 percent to C$34.06.

Shares of BlackBerry gained 2 percent to C$15.09 and helped the information technology sector rise 0.9 percent.

"There's some relief. The attitude of the market is, maybe this is a sign of a turnaround," Ketchen said.

(Reporting by John Tilak)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tsx-may-open-higher-eye-volatile-blackberry-122723420--finance.html

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Gyft opens up to developers, offers sign-up page for APIs

Gyft, the mobile platform that lets users buy, send and store virtual gift cards, is now giving developers a crack at its APIs. Launched late last year on Android and iOS, the service currently counts its retail partnerships in the hundreds and is looking to extend its reach to other applications, websites and, most importantly, the realm of mobile gaming. Gyft CEO Vinny Lingham, hopes mobile game devs will embrace the platform as a means of facilitating in-app purchases -- a move that would help to eliminate external charges from other billing services. Already, devs are lining up to use Gyft's APIs, with the first integration live on Yappem, a B2B social network, and "about 10 more" planned to go live next month.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile

Comments

Source: TechCrunch, Gyft

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/27/gyft-offers-apis-to-developers/

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Three easy, small herb garden ideas | MNN - Mother Nature Network

Photo: Creative Cain Cabin/Hometalk.com

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Building a small herb garden is a great way to get started with gardening. Vertical herb gardens don't take up much space, and they are fairly low-maintenance. If you start early enough, you can?start your herb garden from seeds. Don't worry if you get a later start on your vertical herb garden. You can still transplant starter plants, which you can buy at a nursery. I recently saw herb starter plants at my local farmer's market for about $3 per plant. That's more than the cost of seeds, but reasonable for a few plants. Remember that small containers need to be watered often. Since there is so little soil and water inside the containers, the sun can quickly dry out the plants. Be sure to water your small vertical herb garden daily. Ready to get started? Here are three ideas for vertical herb gardens that DIY-ers of any level can make.

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Mini kitchen herb garden with bunting: The lovely Dawn from?Creative Cain Cabin?posted this project, which is an attractive kitchen herb garden in an enameled metal tub. To make an herb garden like hers, thickly plant herbs in a rectangular trough, place the trough on a small plastic container in a large metal tub. That's it! Make sure that your garden gets plenty of sun. Rotate to expose all sides of the plants to equal amounts of sun.

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Shoe bag vertical garden: An over-door shoe rack or magazine holder makes a perfect "frame" for a vertical garden. Fill the pockets with potting soil, and tuck plants into the soil. This is a very space-efficient way to grow a garden, and the idea for using an over-door magazine holder comes from?Two Succulent Sisters via Crafts a la Mode.

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Whether you are?remodeling?your deck and want to create an herb garden on it, or if you are starting a garden on your kitchen windowsill, you can use these three ideas for small herb gardens to maximize your space while growing delicious herbs.

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Related gardening stories on MNN:

Source: http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/stories/three-easy-small-herb-garden-ideas

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Nelson Mandela back in hospital with lung infection

By Brian Homewood March 28 (Reuters) - Swiss champions FC Basel, renowned for their youth development programme, face a constant battle to stop teenage players moving to English, Spanish and Italian clubs. President Bernhard Heusler told Reuters in an interview that parents often do not listen to the club when warned against taking their sons elsewhere. "We get enormous pressure from outside, including English clubs," said Heusler before adding Basel were powerless to stop their youngsters leaving before the age of 16. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/africas-mandela-back-hospital-070540290.html

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Hamill: I'd return to another season of 'DWTS'

By Michael Maloney, TODAY contributor

Craig Sjodin / ABC

Dorothy Hamill (seen here with her former partner Tristan MacManus) would return to the ballroom bash in a future season, if invited.

Dorothy Hamill is coming back to "Dancing With the Stars" next week, but it won?t be as a contestant.?

?I?m going to be in the audience,? Hamill told The Clicker after the show Tuesday night. ?I have friends from Baltimore who are coming and we?re having a mother-daughter evening here at the show. It?ll be fun.?

As viewers saw on the first results show of the season, the former Olympic figure skater dropped out of the reality dance competition after consulting with a surgeon about a cyst that left her in intense pain.

?I wasn?t getting better,? Hamill sighed. ?In fact, I was getting maybe a tiny bit worse.?

Hamill felt it was unfair to the show, the other celeb participants and, especially, her pro partner, Tristan MacManus to continue on in the show. There was also the potential for lasting nerve damage, too.

?I?ve got some nerve problems right now,? she revealed. ?If I don?t take care of it, it could be permanent. That?s not a smart risk to take.?

MacManus knew something was up when he received a text from Hamill prior to the results show that said they needed to speak. ?I was relieved, but not in a negative way,? he said. ?It was the right decision and I was happy that somebody made it for her. It would have been too selfish for me to think about anyone other than Dorothy.?

While the news was sad -- Hamill was a favorite among the other celebrities and pro dancers -- the last-minute revelation that she was opting to drop out made for some dramatic live television. Low-rated contestants Victor Ortiz and Lisa Vanderpump were seconds away from learning which of them was going home, but Hamill?s voluntary exit prevented that from happening.

?I was in shock more than anything,? Ortiz said after the show. ?I know what it?s like to be forced out of a competition.?

Ortiz and Vanderpump are paired with two pro newcomers to the ballroom ? Lindsay Arnold and Gleb Savchenko. Did that play a role in them landing in the bottom two?

?Honestly, there are so many factors that go into it,? Arnold said. ?It comes down to the audience liking what they see -- and then voting! If you like a couple, you have to vote!?

Fans may get to see Hamill dance again. If she?s medically cleared for it, she?ll return for the season finale in May and perform once again with MacManus.

Would she come back again as a contender in a future season if invited? ?Absolutely,? Hamill said without hesitation. ?I?d do it in a heartbeat!?

Do you think Hamill should give the ballroom bash another try when she's feeling better? Tell us on our Facebook page.

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Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/03/27/17484957-dorothy-hamill-id-return-to-another-season-of-dancing-with-the-stars-in-a-heartbeat?lite

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Seven sexes!? Scientists figure out how these microbes juggle mates

The ASSET Program / Cornell

An image produced by a scanning electron microscope shows two Tetrahymena cells in the act of mating.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

Biologists have known for decades that there are up to seven sexes of the single-celled organism known as Tetrahymena thermophila ? but they didn't know exactly how those different sexes "did it." Until now.

When it's time for Tetrahymena to mate, two organisms of different mating types recognize each other and get together to swap DNA. The results of the hookup are totally random. One critter may be mating type No. 1, the other may be mating type No. 3, and the two resulting progeny may turn out to be, um, mating type No. 6. How do they do that?

In the journal PLOS Biology, researchers report that the hooked-up organisms almost literally roll the genetic dice to determine what the sex of the progeny will be.

---

The researchers say the key to Tetrahymena's sexual proclivities lies in its double genome: Every cell has a "somatic" genome that manages its everyday life, plus a "germline" genome that serves a function similar to that of the ovaries or testes in humans. The germline genome contains incomplete gene pairs for each of six or seven sexes, depending on the cell line. (In this case, the cells came in six sexual flavors.)

Random sex
When two microbes hook up, the progeny's newly created somatic genome latches onto one of those incomplete gene pairs, producing one complete sex-specific gene pair. The other sexy bits from the germline genome are wiped out. The random rearrangement leaves the resulting cells with exactly one complete sex-specific gene pair ? and one mating type.

"It's completely random, as if they had a roulette wheel with six numbers, and wherever the marble ends up is what they get," senior researcher Eduardo Orias, a research professor emeritus at the University of California at Santa Barbara, explained in a news release. "By chance they may have the same mating type as the parents ? but it's only by chance. It's a fascinating system."

Most of the time, Tetrahymena reproduces asexually, simply by having a parent cell divide into two progeny cells. But the organisms tend to pair up sexually when food is scarce, apparently as part of an evolutionary mechanism that takes advantage of genetic diversity. Sex-specific proteins on the surface of the cells serve as a signal that mating is likely to result in more diverse progeny. That's how two cells of the same mating type avoid pairing up with each other.

This type of mating process doesn't by itself increase the Tetrahymena population: Two cells hook up, and after recombining DNA, two cells separate again. "This is sex without reproduction," Orias said during a telephone interview. After mating, the recombined genetic information is passed down from parents to progeny through asexual reproduction ??until it's time for the next hookup.

What it means for humans
Although the process sounds totally alien to us two-sex types, the lessons from Tetrahymena could have implications for human health.

"Tetrahymena has about as many genes as the human genome," Orias said in the news release. "For thousands of those genes, you can recognize the sequence similarity to corresponding genes in the human genome with the same biological function. That's what makes it a valuable organism to investigate important biological questions."

For example, Tetrahymena may reveal new tricks relating to the methods that cells use to recognize friend vs. foe. That could have implications for studying human immune response. Also, the way that the organisms rearrange their DNA may point to new strategies for fighting cancer, which often results from the faulty rearrangement of genetic material.

"The hope is that at some point, there may be useful applications for medicine," Orias told NBC News.

More about microbial marvels:

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In addition to Orias, the authors of "Selecting One of Several Mating Types Through Gene Segment Joining and Deletion in Tetrahymena Thermophila" include Marcella D. Cervantes, Eileen P. Hamilton, Jie Xiong, Michael J. Lawson, Dongxia Yuan, Michalis Hadjitomas and Wei Miao.

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2a066514/l/0Lcosmiclog0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C260C174759480Eseven0Esexes0Escientists0Efigure0Eout0Ehow0Ethese0Emicrobes0Ejuggle0Emates0Dlite/story01.htm

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Ex-Florida GOP chair gets 1? years for stealing

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) ? The former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida was sentenced Wednesday to one-and-a-half years in prison for stealing $125,000 in party funds, marking the fall of a man who once was one of the most powerful political figures in the state.

Jim Greer, 50, was sentenced in an Orlando courtroom, more than a month after he pleaded guilty to four counts of theft and a single county of money laundering. The guilty pleas in February ended Greer's trial before it started.

Circuit Judge Marc Lubet handed down a sentence Wednesday that was less severe than the three-and-a-half years in prison requested by prosecutors. Lubet explained that he went with a more lenient sentence because Greer had already paid $65,000 in restitution to the Republican Party of Florida and because Greer's former right-hand man, Delmar Johnson, had committed the same crimes but hadn't been charged.

Johnson had been scheduled to be prosecutors' star witness and was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony. He didn't return a phone call seeking comment on Wednesday.

"I feel that this crime deserves prison," Lubet told Greer. "You egregiously violated a position of trust."

After the hearing, Greer was led from the courtroom in handcuffs. His attorney, Damon Chase, said Greer had entered the guilty pleas to avoid the risk of a jury convicting him and getting a lengthy prison sentence.

"Mr. Greer did fall on his sword for this one," Chase said. "He did what he felt was best for his family. He feels good about it ... Next year, he will be spending time with his family and everything will be fine."

An attorney for the Republican Party of Florida said he received a $65,000 wire transfer representing Greer's restitution from Jacksonville attorney Hank Coxe on Monday. Stephen Dobson said he didn't know how Greer came up with the money, given that the former chairman has reported being financially strapped since his arrest in 2010. Chase refused to answer questions about where the money came from and Coxe didn't return a phone call and email Wednesday afternoon.

Greer also has agreed to drop a civil lawsuit against the Republican Party of Florida. The lawsuit accused the party of failing to pay him a severance.

"Eighteen months in prison for somebody like Jim Greer," Dobson said. "I don't think anybody thought a couple of years ago that he'd go to prison like this."

The trial had threatened to expose the underbelly of Florida's dominant political party and its formerly high-spending ways. Some of Florida's most powerful politicians were scheduled as witnesses, including former Gov. Charlie Crist, former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and several state House and state Senate leaders.

Topics covered in pretrial depositions included allegations of prostitutes at a state GOP fundraiser in the Bahamas, the drinking habits of Crist and intraparty strife.

Prosecutors said Greer funneled almost $200,000 to a company he had formed with Johnson. He kept $125,000 of the money funneled to Victory Strategies for himself.

Greer was vice mayor of the small central Florida town of Oviedo when Crist surprisingly picked him to be the state party chairman after he led local efforts to help Crist get elected governor in 2006. He previously was the president and CEO of a company that provides training to the hospitality industry on how to comply with alcohol laws.

The plea arrangement was reached at the last minute. Jury selection was set to begin early last month, but neither Greer nor prosecutors had appeared in the courtroom an hour after the trial was supposed to start.

Until he entered his guilty pleas, Greer had contended that party leaders, including Crist, knew about the financial arrangement that gave Greer's company a cut of party money in exchange for fundraising efforts. Greer had said he was targeted because of his support for Crist, who later defected from the GOP to run as an independent for U.S. Senate but lost to Rubio.

Crist denied ever knowing about the arrangement.

___

Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ex-florida-gop-chair-gets-1-years-stealing-182352639.html

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Ashley Judd says she won't seek Senate seat

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/ashley-judd-run-2016-photo-230812230--abc-news-politics.html

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Scientists confirm first two-headed bull shark

Mar. 25, 2013 ? Scientists have confirmed the discovery of the first-ever, two-headed bull shark.The study, led by Michigan State University and appearing in the Journal of Fish Biology, confirmed the specimen, found in the Gulf of Mexico April 7, 2011, was a single shark with two heads, rather than conjoined twins.

?There have been other species of sharks, such as blue sharks and tope sharks, born with two heads. This is the first record of dicephalia in a bull shark, said Michael Wagner, MSU assistant professor of fisheries and wildlife, who confirmed the discovery with colleagues at the Florida Keys Community College.

"This is certainly one of those interesting and rarely detected phenomena," Wagner said. "It's good that we have this documented as part of the world's natural history, but we'd certainly have to find many more before we could draw any conclusions about what caused this."

The difficulty of finding such oddities is due, in part, to creatures with abnormalities dying shortly after birth. In this instance, a fisherman found the two-headed shark when he opened the uterus of an adult shark. The two-headed shark died shortly thereafter and had little, if any, chance to survive in the wild, Wagner added.

"You'll see many more cases of two-headed lizards and snakes," he said. "That's because those organisms are often bred in captivity, and the breeders are more likely to observe the anomalies."

The shark was brought to the marine science department at Florida Keys Community College. From there, it was transported to Michigan State's campus for further examination.

Wagner and his team were able to detail the discovery with magnetic resonance imaging. Without damaging the unique specimen, the MRIs revealed two distinct heads, hearts and stomachs with the remainder of the body joining together in back half of the animal to form a single tail.

As part of the published brief, Wagner noted that some may want to attribute the deformed shark to exposure to pollutants.

"Given the timing of the shark's discovery with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, I could see how some people may want to jump to conclusions," Wagner said. "Making that leap is unwarranted. We simply have no evidence to support that cause or any other."

Wagner's research is supported in part by MSU AgBioResearch.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Michigan State University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. C. M. Wagner, P. H. Rice, A. P. Pease. First record of dicephalia in a bull sharkCarcharhinus leucas(Chondrichthyes: Carcharhinidae) foetus from the Gulf of Mexico, U.S.A.. Journal of Fish Biology, 2013; DOI: 10.1111/jfb.12064

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/b0jOdWohmWQ/130325184016.htm

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Latest genomic studies of wheat sheds new light on crop adaptation and domestication

Mar. 25, 2013 ? The advanced online publication version of Nature today presents two manuscripts that provide an unprecedented glimpse into the adaptation and domestication of wheat. The two projects sequenced and analyzed two ancestral wheat genomes of Triticum urartu and Aegilops tauschii, respectively, throwing light on the biology of the world's primary staple crop and providing valuable new resource for the genetic improvement of wheat.

Wheat is a globally important crop due to its enhanced adaptability to a wide range of climates and improved grain quality for the production of baker's flour. Major efforts are underway worldwide to increase its yield and quality by increasing genetic diversity and analyzing key traits related to its resistance to cold, drought and disease. However, the extremely large size and polyploid complexity of the wheat genome has to date been a substantial barrier for researchers to gain insight into its biology and evolution.

These achievements are the results of joint efforts led by the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), and BGI.

The first manuscript, led by teams at IGDB and BGI, presents the genome of Bread wheat (T. aestivum, AABBDD), the progenitor of the Wheat A genome. Using a whole-genome shotgun strategy and Next-generation sequencing (NGS), researchers identified a large set of gene models (34,879) and abundant genetic markers with the potential to provide a valuable resource for accelerating deeper and more systematic genomic and breeding studies. For example, they found the T. urartu homolog of OsGASR7 might be a useful candidate for improving wheat yield. The discovery of 2,989,540 SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) is useful for the future development and characterization of genetic markers. The researchers also reported genomic evidence of the role of repeat expansion in the enlargement of genome size during the evolution of the Triticeae tribe of grasses.

Ae. tauschii (DD), also known as Tausch's goatgrass, is a diploid goat grass species which has contributed the D genome of common wheat. Around 8,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, it crossed with the tetraploid wheat T. turgidum (AABB) in rare hybridization events that resulted in the hexaploid wheat T. aestivum. However, the modern strategy of breeding for hybrid vigor has been accompanied by marked changes in patterns of gene expression.

The second manuscript, led by teams at CAAS and BGI, focuses on the genome sequencing and analysis of the wild diploid grass Ae. tauschii. They found that more than 65.9% of the Ae. tauschii genome was composed of 410 different transposable element (TE) families, and the expansion of the Ae. tauschii genome was relatively recent and coincided with the abrupt climate change that occurred during the Pliocene Epoch. They also found the expansion of the micro-RNA miR2275 family may contribute to Ae. Tauschii' s enhanced disease resistance. Remarkably, a higher number of genes for the cytochrome P450 family were identified in Ae. tauschii (485) than sorghum (365), rice (333), Brachypodium (262) and maize (261). This family of genes has been found to be important for abiotic stress response, especially in biosynthetic and detoxification pathways.

Shancen Zhao, Project Manager of BGI, said, "Genetic improvement of crops is the key output of breeding research. The genomic data provides a valuable resource for botanists and breeders to comprehensively understand wheat's genetic diversity and evolutionary history.The two studies also represent a major step forward for improving this vital crop in the face of global climate change, growing human population, and bio-energy. " Providing the global agricultural community with these resources new resources for crop improvement and in keeping with the scientific community's goals of making all data fully and freely available, the huge amounts of data (1.5 terabytes) are available in the GigaScience database, GigaDB, in a citable format (see: http://dx.doi.org/10.5524/100050 and http://dx.doi.org/10.5524/100054), and are available as raw reads in the NCBI SRA database (Accession # SRP005973 and SRP005974).

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BGI Shenzhen.

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---

Journal References:

1. Jizeng Jia, Shancen Zhao, Xiuying Kong, Yingrui Li, Guangyao Zhao, Weiming He, Rudi Appels, Matthias Pfeifer, Yong Tao, Xueyong Zhang, Ruilian Jing, Chi Zhang, Youzhi Ma, Lifeng Gao, Chuan Gao, Manuel Spannagl, Klaus F. X. Mayer, Dong Li, Shengkai Pan, Fengya Zheng, Qun Hu, Xianchun Xia, Jianwen Li, Qinsi Liang, Jie Chen, Thomas Wicker, Caiyun Gou, Hanhui Kuang, Genyun He, Yadan Luo, Beat Keller, Qiuju Xia, Peng Lu, Junyi Wang, Hongfeng Zou, Rongzhi Zhang, Junyang Xu, Jinlong Gao, Christopher Middleton, Zhiwu Quan, Guangming Liu, Jian Wang, Huanming Yang, Xu Liu, Zhonghu He, Long Mao, Jun Wang. Aegilops tauschii draft genome sequence reveals a gene repertoire for wheat adaptation. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature12028
2. Hong-Qing Ling, Shancen Zhao, Dongcheng Liu, Junyi Wang, Hua Sun, Chi Zhang, Huajie Fan, Dong Li, Lingli Dong, Yong Tao, Chuan Gao, Huilan Wu, Yiwen Li, Yan Cui, Xiaosen Guo, Shusong Zheng, Biao Wang, Kang Yu, Qinsi Liang, Wenlong Yang, Xueyuan Lou, Jie Chen, Mingji Feng, Jianbo Jian, Xiaofei Zhang, Guangbin Luo, Ying Jiang, Junjie Liu, Zhaobao Wang, Yuhui Sha, Bairu Zhang, Huajun Wu, Dingzhong Tang, Qianhua Shen, Pengya Xue, Shenhao Zou, Xiujie Wang, Xin Liu, Famin Wang, Yanping Yang, Xueli An, Zhenying Dong, Kunpu Zhang, Xiangqi Zhang, Ming-Cheng Luo, Jan Dvorak, Yiping Tong, Jian Wang, Huanming Yang, Zhensheng Li, Daowen Wang, Aimin Zhang, Jun Wang. Draft genome of the wheat A-genome progenitor Triticum urartu. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature11997

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/wDyDhBmn6bc/130326112310.htm

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FC Dallas signs Mexico U-18 keeper Gonzalez

[HOMEGROWN WATCH] Jesse Gonzalez became the 10th homegrown signing for FC Dallas when the Mexican under-18 keeper signed with the MLS club.

Gonzalez, who was born in Edenton, N.C., has started eight games this season for the FC Dallas U-17/18 team that is first in its division in the Development Academy. He played for its U/15-16 team last season.

Another homegrown signing, Richard Sanchez, is the starting goalie for Mexico's U-20 national team.

Source: http://www.socceramerica.com/article/50914/fc-dallas-signs-mexico-u-18-keeper-gonzalez.html

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Money Monday: Are You Being Cheated at the Supermarket? | Black ...

Photo Credit: 401(K) 2013 via Flickr

Everyone is trying to take our money, from credit card companies to cable providers. But did you know your local grocery store could be cheating you every time you pay for groceries?

According to a report by ABC?s Good Morning America, consumers lose up to $2.5 billion dollars every year as a result of scanner errors. The most common problems involve scanners that are not programmed with the correct sales price information, scales that weigh and charge for the packaging in addition to the food, and stores that charge tax on non-taxable items.

In California, the state even took the unusual step of suing Safeway and its Vons stores for frequently overcharging customers. Similarly, in Los Angeles, Ralph?s Grocery Co. agreed to pay more than $1.1 million in civil penalties, costs and restitution to settle allegations that it overcharged customers on deli and other weighed food products.

In New York City, inspectors visiting 2000 city stores found price overcharges on one third of the products they tested. The problem was so bad that New York City Consumer Affairs commissioner Jonathan Mintz considered proposing legislation which would require grocery stores to pay customers 10 times the amount of the overcharged item.

Unfortunately, supermarket overcharges aren?t always insignificant. I, for instance, once purchased frozen dinners at a major Chicago grocery chain. The sale price was 5 for $10. Instead, I was charged full price on all five frozen meals, creating an overcharge of nearly $11 dollars.

With scanner errors being relatively common, there are a few ways to protect yourself. Keep a mental running account of your grocery tab as you shop. Better yet, bring along a calculator or smartphone to tally your total. If your tab doesn?t come close to the cashier?s result then you know you have a problem.

Alternatively, watch the checkout register like a hawk as your items are checked out. When in doubt, always check your receipt before you leave the store. Remember, many stores offer a ?right at the register or it?s free? policy. If you catch an overcharge you get the item for free.

BMWK ? Do you take the time to check your supermarket receipts? If you catch an error do you challenge it or let it slide?

About the author

Alonzo Peters is founder of MochaMoney.com, a personal finance website dedicated to helping Black America achieve financial independence.

Source: http://blackandmarriedwithkids.com/2013/03/money-monday-are-you-being-cheated-at-the-supermarket/

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Calgary woman dies in motorcycle crash in Mexico

SHUTTERSTOCK

Report an error

CALGARY?-?

Reports are coming from media in Mexico of the death of a young city woman Friday while on vacation.

Mexican newspaper Diario de Quintana Roo reported Laura Dawn Penton, 26, struck her head in a motorcycle wreck on the island of Cozumel,

She died at the scene.

Diario de Quintana Roo reported the crash happened when the motorcycle went out of control and skidded.

Online, on Facebook, messages of mourning have begun appearing.

Angela Alanko Leavitt publicly posted, "The world got a little dimmer this week as my good friend and fellow boot-camper Laura Penton left this world a lot sooner than we all would have liked."

"I am grateful to of had her in my life. I will forever appreciate her friendship and zest for life. She will be sorely missed," her post read.

"Laura was a shining light in any room she entered, her quick wit and indomitable spirit made her a joy to know and to work with," she said in another post.

Diana MacEachern posted in reply, "So sorry to hear this ... she was such a funny girl and super sweet when I was in the bootcamp with her."

damien.wood@sunmedia.ca

On Twitter: @SUNDamienWood

Source: http://www.torontosun.com/2013/03/24/calgary-woman-dies-in-motorcycle-crash-in-mexico

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Speed of light may not be fixed after all, but rather fluctuates: Ephemeral vacuum particles induce speed-of-light fluctuations

Mar. 25, 2013 ? Two forthcoming European Physical Journal D papers challenge established wisdom about the nature of vacuum. In one paper, Marcel Urban from the University of Paris-Sud, located in Orsay, France and his colleagues identified a quantum level mechanism for interpreting vacuum as being filled with pairs of virtual particles with fluctuating energy values. As a result, the inherent characteristics of vacuum, like the speed of light, may not be a constant after all, but fluctuate.

Meanwhile, in another study, Gerd Leuchs and Luis L. S?nchez-Soto, from the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Light in Erlangen, Germany, suggest that physical constants, such as the speed of light and the so-called impedance of free space, are indications of the total number of elementary particles in nature.

Vacuum is one of the most intriguing concepts in physics. When observed at the quantum level, vacuum is not empty. It is filled with continuously appearing and disappearing particle pairs such as electron-positron or quark-antiquark pairs. These ephemeral particles are real particles, but their lifetimes are extremely short. In their study, Urban and colleagues established, for the first time, a detailed quantum mechanism that would explain the magnetisation and polarisation of the vacuum, referred to as vacuum permeability and permittivity, and the finite speed of light. This finding is relevant because it suggests the existence of a limited number of ephemeral particles per unit volume in a vacuum.

As a result, there is a theoretical possibility that the speed of light is not fixed, as conventional physics has assumed. But it could fluctuate at a level independent of the energy of each light quantum, or photon, and greater than fluctuations induced by quantum level gravity. The speed of light would be dependent on variations in the vacuum properties of space or time. The fluctuations of the photon propagation time are estimated to be on the order of 50 attoseconds per square meter of crossed vacuum, which might be testable with the help of new ultra-fast lasers.Leuchs and Sanchez-Soto, on the other hand, modelled virtual charged particle pairs as electric dipoles responsible for the polarisation of the vacuum.

They found that a specific property of vacuum called the impedance, which is crucial to determining the speed of light, depends only on the sum of the square of the electric charges of particles but not on their masses. If their idea is correct, the value of the speed of light combined with the value of vacuum impedance gives an indication of the total number of charged elementary particles existing in nature. Experimental results support this hypothesis.

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Journal References:

1. Marcel Urban, Fran?ois Couchot, Xavier Sarazin, Arache Djannati-Atai. The quantum vacuum as the origin of the speed of light. The European Physical Journal D, 2013; 67 (3) DOI: 10.1140/epjd/e2013-30578-7
2. Gerd Leuchs, Luis L. S?nchez-Soto. A sum rule for charged elementary particles. The European Physical Journal D, 2013; 67 (3) DOI: 10.1140/epjd/e2013-30577-8

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/OKTioXXFUZ8/130325111154.htm

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Rebels enter C. African Republic capital

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) ? Hundreds of rebels penetrated the capital of Central African Republic on Saturday, posing the gravest threat to President Francois Bozize's government in a decade.

The rebels, who signed a peace agreement in January that was to allow Bozize to stay in power until 2016, have threatened to overthrow the country's leader unless he meets their demands.

The rebels come from several different armed groups that have long challenged the government. They are now accusing Bozize of failing to abide by the terms of the latest deal signed two months ago, with the help of mediators from neighboring countries.

Fighters rapidly seized a dozen towns in December and January but never entered the capital of Bangui before agreeing to negotiations.

Guy Moussa, who lives in the PK12 neighborhood on the north side of the city, told The Associated Press that hundreds of rebels had entered the city around 6 p.m.

Panicked residents cowered in their homes, many shrouded in darkness after rebels took out a power station supplying parts of Bangui.

Earlier in the afternoon, non-essential United Nations personnel taking a bus to the airport were stopped by a group of angry youths.

"No one leaves this country. You will stay here. If we die, we all die together," the youths shouted, according to U.N. employee Debonheur Deotar.

The unrest is the latest threat to the stability of Central African Republic, a desperately poor nation of 4.5 million that has long been wracked by rebellions and power grabs. The president himself took power in 2003 following a rebellion, and his tenure has been marked by conflict with myriad armed groups.

Bozize's whereabouts late Saturday were not immediately known. On Friday, state radio announced that he had returned from South Africa where he was meeting with that country's president, Jacob Zuma.

South Africa has sent troops and equipment to support Central African Republic forces.

The rebels insist the foreign troops leave, and, as part of their demands, they want their own fighters integrated into the national army.

On Friday, the rebels seized Damara, which had been the boundary line drawn up by regional forces before the January peace accord was signed.

The move marked a serious escalation by the rebels, who went on to take the town of Bossembele early Saturday, said military spokesman Lt. Evrard Tekremoyen.

The insurgents then drove to the neighboring town of Boali and took control of three power plants that serve the town and the capital, residents said.

The rebels also cut off the electrical grid, plunging some of Bangui into darkness, Elisabeth Kofio, the director of Central African Republic Energy, said on the radio.

Earlier in the week, Bozize had offered to release some political prisoners, but the rebels said the gestures were too little, too late.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rebels-enter-c-african-republic-capital-181734866.html

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The Windows Store Crosses 50,000 Available Apps For Windows 8 And Windows RT

It's been said that there aren't many apps available for Windows 8. I've said that on occasion. But that's not entirely true. According to the MetroStoreScanner.com, there are now more than 50,000 apps available for Windows 8 and Windows RT, effectively making me a liar.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/mzDTs9DmFMs/

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'DuckTales' cult NES classic gets HD redux for Xbox, PS3,?Wii U

Devin Coldewey , NBC News ? ? ? 12 hrs.

One of the most well-loved NES games of all time, "DuckTales," is being resurrected in high definition, Capcom announced today. "DuckTales: Remastered" will be coming to Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U this Summer.

Gamers old enough to have had an NES will likely remember the original "DuckTales," a creative and challenging platformer with catchy music and memorable level design. The new version features highly detailed graphics based on the original, as well as new levels and improved boss fights.

The game was announced at the PAX East gaming convention, along with non-HD releases of the classic Dungeons & Dragons series of arcade beat-em-ups. Capcom has been highly successful with its retro re-releases, producing popular and acclaimed versions of "Mega Man," "Blaster Master" and "Bionic Commando" among others in the last few years.

No word on exact release date, but "DuckTales: Remastered" will cost $14.99 or the equivalent amount in Microsoft's MS points.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/29e37c7e/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Cingame0Cducktales0Ecult0Enes0Eclassic0Egets0Ehd0Eredux0Exbox0Eps30Ewii0E1C90A33699/story01.htm

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