US Navy sends in carriers to help in wake of Sandy

The U.S. Navy is sending three helicopter carrier ships to the coast off New York and New Jersey to help rescue and recovery operations in the wake of superstorm Sandy, officials told NBC News.

Navy officials said USS Wasp, USS Carter Hall, and USS Mesa Verde had been ordered to head to the area to provide landing platforms for Coast Guard, National Guard and civilian agency helicopters if needed.

The Atlantic Fleet command made the decision in the name of "prudent planning," officials said.

With six days to go before the Nov. 6 elections, President Barack Obama will visit flood-ravaged areas of the New Jersey shore, where the storm made landfall on Monday.

As his guide, he will have Republican Governor Chris Christie, a vocal backer of presidential challenger Mitt Romney who has nevertheless praised Obama and the federal response to the storm.

"Tomorrow recovery begins. Today was a day of sorrow," Christie told a news conference late Tuesday. "There's nothing wrong with that. So long as sorrow doesn't replace resilience, we'll be just fine."

Millions across the Northeast were stricken by the massive storm with ongoing power and mass transit outages around New York for several more days. However, Wall Street, airports and some businesses were reopening Wednesday.

Sandy was responsible for the deaths of at least 47 people in the United States, NBC News reported Wednesday, after killing 68 in the Caribbean. Some 6.6 million were still without power.

Footage from a helicopter flying over the New Jersey coastline showed fires raging among storm-damaged homes, with TODAY's Natalie Morales reporting that she counted some 25 separate points of flame.

She speculated that fractured natural gas pipes or downed electrical lines could have caused the fires. Emergency dispatchers in Bricktown, N.J., told NBC News they were dealing with fires in the area.

Boats that Morales said had been "tossed as if toys" could be seen piled up next to wrecked houses in the area.

Meanwhile, Sandy pushed inland, dumping several feet of snow in the Appalachian Mountains -- nearly 30 inches was recorded in Red House, Md. -- and then headed into Canada Wednesday.

Sandy by the numbers

BreakingNews.com's coverage of Sandy

The National Weather Service said "remnants of Sandy continue to weaken over Pennsylvania," in a 5 a.m. Wednesday update.

However, it said gale warnings and small craft advisories were in place for parts of the Great Lakes.

"Flood and coastal flood watches, warnings and advisories are in effect over portions of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast states," the notice said.

Winter storm warnings and advisories remained in effect for parts of southwest Pennsylvania, western Maryland, West Virginia, eastern Tennessee, eastern Kentucky, and extreme western North Carolina. A further 2 to 4 inches of snow were expected in the mountains of West Virginia into western Maryland and southwestern Pennsylvania.

And dangerous surf condition were expected to continue from Florida to New England for the next couple of days, the NWS added.

Video: Fire rages on Sandy-stricken Jersey Shore (on this page)

Sandy caused waves up to two-stories high in the Great Lakes Tuesday, forcing massive cargo ships -- some longer than three football fields ? to seek shelter.

"We don't stop for thunderstorms and flurries," said Glen Nekvasil, spokesman for the Lake Carriers' Association, which represents U.S.-flagged cargo ships on the Great Lakes. "The lakes don't have to be perfectly flat. It has to be a significant weather event for ships to go to anchor or stay in port. But this was just too much."

Sandy leaves trail of destruction, disbelief in its path

Subway tracks and commuter tunnels under New York City, which carry several million people a day, were under several feet of water. The lower half of Manhattan remained without power after a transformer explosion at a Con Edison substation Monday night.

Slideshow: Sandy slams into East Coast (on this page)

Hit with a record storm surge of nearly 14 feet of water, New York City likely will struggle without subways for days, authorities said. Buses were operating on a limited basis.

Officials with New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority said they would release a timetable of their recovery plans sometime on Wednesday.

Sandy leaves NYC subway system, infrastructure licking its wounds

Officials planned to reopen financial markets on Wednesday and on Broadway, most shows ?will go on,? Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of The Broadway League, said in a statement on its website.

Video: Entertainment for stranded tourists in Times Sq. (on this page)

Two of the area's three major airports -- John F. Kennedy International in New York and Newark Liberty International -- planned to reopen with limited service on Wednesday.

New York's LaGuardia Airport was flooded and remained closed. Nearly 19,000 flights have been canceled since Sunday, according to flight tracking service FlightAware.com.

Sunday?s New York Marathon is still on, but weather.com pointed out that ?flying in runners from out of town will be tricky, and there may not be a subway to get everyone to the starting line.?

In New Jersey, Christie took a helicopter tour of the Jersey shore on Tuesday and saw boats adrift, boardwalks washed away, roads blocked by massive sand drifts and other destruction. He stopped in the badly damaged resort towns of Belmar and Avalon.

"I was just here walking this place this summer, and the fact that most of it is gone is just incredible," he said at one stop.

Christie said it could be seven to 10 days before power is restored statewide. He said residents could not yet return to homes on the shore's battered barrier islands.

Thousands of residents of Hoboken, N.J., just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, were stranded in their homes due to flooding, the mayor said.

Dawn Zimmer, mayor of Hoboken, said half the city remained flooded Tuesday night.

"We have, probably, about 20,000 people that still remain in their homes, and we're trying to put together an evacuation plan, get the equipment here," Zimmer told MSNBC TV.

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NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49619068/ns/weather/

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Toadally Easy Layout Using Silhouette Cameo - Cut At Home

I love scrapbooking, but I must love taking pictures more, because I have literally HUNDREDS of photos still waiting to be put on pages, which makes this ?Toadally? easy layout using the Silhouette Cameo wonderful, since I just don?t have the time to create fancy pages all of the time. I mean, who really does? Maybe a feature page once in a while, but heck, I would rather have my photos in books where the memories can be looked at instead of tucked away unnoticed in a box somewhere!

If you are in the same boat as I am, then I highly recommend getting together with some of your neighbors, friends or family to have a scrapbook exchange! I have mentioned this before, but I am telling you again, that it is very beneficial because you only have to come up with one idea, duplicate it times the number of people in your group. My group currently has 9, so when we exchange, I come away with 9 different ideas (including the one I did)! It?s great!

There have been a couple of women in our group who don?t really scrapbook, but they want to do their books, so their pages have been pretty simple. That is okay because I can always add embellishments if I want to spice them? up a little more! The whole point is to share ideas, layouts and each others company for a couple hours every 3 months!You can determine with your group how often you want to meet.

For my pages I used my Silhouette Cameo and purchased the Frog, Log and Dragonfly from the Silhouette Store. Total cost for those images was $2.97.? Not to shabby. I love that I can just purchase the images I want!

I purchased the pattern paper at our local Scrapbook Expo last month in packs of 25 from Doodlebug Design. I LOVED the frogs and had my layout epiphany when I spotted it. Unfortunately, I just did not have the time to do EVERYTHING I had planned for the layout, but that is just how life goes. I can add? to it later (if I remember). For the exchange, I don?t usually go all out anyway, because it?s a lot of work for that many pages.

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I was so excited to receive my designer samples of the Die D-Lites from Spellbinders because low and behold, there were the S2-002 Cattails! PERFECT to use with my layout! I also used Spellbinders S4-385 Little Leaf Set on the log. Add a little ink, some eyes and red card stock behind the mouth as well as some photo mats to break up the pattern, and I called it good! In the end, all I really want is something fun to feature my ?Toadally? cut grandkids!

Thanks and Happy Scrappin?!

Carrie

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About Marcie Mower

I love Scrapbooking, Rubber Stamping, and Card Making Ideas and Projects,which is why I started CutAtHome.com! I enjoy offering the Best products,ideas, & videos for Spellbinders,Sizzix,Provo Craft,Quickutz,Graphic 45,DCWV,Hero Arts,Making Memories and much more!

Related posts:

1. Silhouette Cameo Butterfly Layout
2. Silhouette Cameo For Paper Crafting And Vinyl Cutting!
3. Silhouette Cameo Update!
4. Silhouette Cameo Machines Are Shipping!
5. We Have Exciting Products For The Silhouette Cameo!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2012 at 10:59 am and is filed under Cut@Home News, Silhouette, Spellbinders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://ucutathome.com/blog/2012/10/31/toadally-easy-layout-silhouette-cameo/

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Google Nexus 4 vs. Samsung Galaxy S3 - News - Know Your Cell

With Google's LG Nexus 4 finally unveiled, some nerds are already saying it's the best Android smartphone on the market due to Android 4.2. All this without a single review out there at all.

While there?s no escaping the fact that the Nexus 4 is likely a great smartphone, we wanted to see how it stacks up to other good ones on the market, especially the Galaxy S3. Is it better? Is the software better? Does it have a better screen?

Read on below for the full comparison!

Design

The design of both the Nexus 4 and the Galaxy S3 is very similar, but let's start with the S3. The S3 is super thin and extremely light. It is really all display in a single unibody and not much bezel. It's colorful and almost cartoonish in nature

The Google LG Nexus 4, meanwhile, features the same design as the Galaxy Nexus. It has a considerable amount of bezel and a light, unibody frame. It's looks very cheap, though it has a nice sparkly bag that is bound to draw attention.

Winner - LG Nexus 4. The Nexus 4 simple looks more mature than the Galaxy S3 and black is always sexier than blue.

Specs

LG's Nexus 4 runs on a quad-core S4 Pro processor. This cortex A15 is a huge deal and blows almost everything out of the water besides the A6x CPU found on the new iPad. The device also has a great GPU, which delivers solid gaming performance.

The Nexus 4 comes in two flavors: 8GB and 16GB, but offers no support for removable memory. That means if you need a lot of storage, your going to want to probably pass on Nexus.

The Samsung Galaxy S3, on the other hand, is powered by the Exynos 4212 quad-core CPU, clocked to 1.4GHz. Its Mali-400MP GPU offers superb gaming performance and the device rocks 1GB RAM. It's without a doubt a beast.

Like the Nexus 4, the Galaxy S3 also features 8GB and 16GB variants, but also offers 32GB, and 64GB versions. The S3 also sports a micro SD slot, which supports cards up to 64GB capacity.

Winner ? Samsung Galaxy S3, hands down! The availability of the micro SD card slot gives the S3 a slight advantage.

Screen

The LG Nexus 4 features a larger 4.7-inch HD ISP display which is extremely bright. In terms of brightness it blows away the display on the S3.

From what we can tell, the new screen also has better colors than the Super AMOLED HD display found on the Galaxy and photos just look better. Overall, the Nexus 4 display is a real winner, sorry Samsung.

Winner ? LG Nexus 4

Software

The LG Nexus 4 is powered by Android 4.2 Jelly, Google's all new Android OS. Similar to Android 4.1, the new OS offers new quick setting access, a new version of Google Now and a better camera app.

The S3 only runs Android 4.0, which is almost a year old right now. In comparison to Android 4.2, it is light years behind. The newest version of Android will win almost every single time.

Winner ? LG Nexus 4

And the overall winner is...

LG Nexus 4

The devices are, in most areas, evenly matched, but the Nexus 4 seems to have just more polish so far. Again, this is just from what I can tell thus far. No review has been done yet.

While the 4 might be better, the choice between the two devices is largely subjective. They both offer an excellent experience, so don't discount the Galaxy S3 just yet.

What smartphone will you be buying? The LG Nexus 4 or the Samsung Galaxy S3?

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Source: http://www.knowyourcell.com/news/1656171/google_nexus_4_vs_samsung_galaxy_s3.html

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Chinese think tank urges end to one-child policy

A Chinese woman plays with her grandchild at the Ritan Park in Beijing Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012. A government think tank says China should start phasing out its one-child policy immediately and allow two children for every family by 2015. It remains unclear whether Chinese leaders are ready to take that step. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

A Chinese woman plays with her grandchild at the Ritan Park in Beijing Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012. A government think tank says China should start phasing out its one-child policy immediately and allow two children for every family by 2015. It remains unclear whether Chinese leaders are ready to take that step. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

A Chinese woman performs a morning exercise next to a family members having a light moment with their infant at the Ritan Park in Beijing Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012. A government think tank says China should start phasing out its one-child policy immediately and allow two children for every family by 2015. It remains unclear whether Chinese leaders are ready to take that step. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Kindergarten teachers play with children during an outdoor activity at the Ritan Park in Beijing Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012. A government think tank says China should start phasing out its one-child policy immediately and allow two children for every family by 2015. It remains unclear whether Chinese leaders are ready to take that step. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Chinese women bring their children to the Ritan Park in Beijing Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012. A government think tank says China should start phasing out its one-child policy immediately and allow two children for every family by 2015. It remains unclear whether Chinese leaders are ready to take that step. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

BEIJING (AP) ? A Chinese government think tank is urging the country's leaders to start phasing out its one-child policy immediately and allow two children for every family by 2015, a daring proposal to do away with the unpopular policy.

Some demographers see the timeline put forward by the China Development Research Foundation as a bold move by the body close to the central leadership. Others warn that the gradual approach, if implemented, would still be insufficient to help correct the problems that China's strict birth limits have created.

Xie Meng, a press affairs official with the foundation, said the final version of the report wil be released "in a week or two." But Chinese state media have been given advance copies. The official Xinhua News Agency said the foundation recommends a two-child policy in some provinces from this year and a nationwide two-child policy by 2015. It proposes all birth limits be dropped by 2020, Xinhua reported.

"China has paid a huge political and social cost for the policy, as it has resulted in social conflict, high administrative costs and led indirectly to a long-term gender imbalance at birth," Xinhua said, citing the report.

But it remains unclear whether Chinese leaders are ready to take up the recommendations. China's National Population and Family Planning Commission had no immediate comment on the report Wednesday.

Known to many as the one-child policy, China's actual rules are more complicated. The government limits most urban couples to one child, and allows two children for rural families if their first-born is a girl. There are numerous other exceptions as well, including looser rules for minority families and a two-child limit for parents who are themselves both singletons.

Cai Yong, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, said the report holds extra weight because the think tank is under the State Council, China's Cabinet. He said he found it remarkable that state-backed demographers were willing to publicly propose such a detailed schedule and plan on how to get rid of China's birth limits.

"That tells us at least that policy change is inevitable, it's coming," said Cai, who was not involved in the drafting of the report but knows many of the experts who were. Cai is currently a visiting scholar at Fudan University in Shanghai. "It's coming, but we cannot predict when exactly it will come."

Adding to the uncertainty is a once-in-a-decade leadership transition that kicks off Nov. 8 that will see a new slate of top leaders installed by next spring. Cai said the transition could keep population reform on the back burner or changes might be rushed through to help burnish the reputations of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao on their way out.

There has been growing speculation among Chinese media, experts and ordinary people about whether the government will soon relax the one-child policy ? introduced in 1980 as a temporary measure to curb surging population growth ? and allow more people to have two children.

Though the government credits the policy with preventing hundreds of millions of births and helping lift countless families out of poverty, it is reviled by many ordinary people. The strict limits have led to forced abortions and sterilizations, even though such measures are illegal. Couples who flout the rules face hefty fines, seizure of their property and loss of their jobs.

Many demographers argue that the policy has worsened the country's aging crisis by limiting the size of the young labor pool that must support the large baby boom generation as it retires. They say it has contributed to the imbalanced sex ratio by encouraging families to abort baby girls, preferring to try for a male heir.

The government recognizes those problems and has tried to address them by boosting social services for the elderly. It has also banned sex-selective abortion and rewarded rural families whose only child is a girl.

Many today also see the birth limits as outdated, a relic of the era when housing, jobs and food were provided by the state.

"It has been thirty years since our planned economy was liberalized," commented Wang Yi, the owner of a shop that sells textiles online, under a news report on the foundation's proposal. "So why do we still have to plan our population?"

Though open debate about the policy has flourished in state media and on the Internet, leaders have so far expressed a desire to maintain the status quo. President Hu said last year that China would keep its strict family planning policy to keep the birth rate low and other officials have said that no changes are expected until at least 2015.

Wang Feng, director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy and an expert on China's demographics, contributed research material to the foundation's report but has yet to see the full text. He said he welcomed the gist of the document that he's seen in state media.

It says the government "should return the rights of reproduction to the people," he said. "That's very bold."

Gu Baochang, a professor of demography at Beijing's Renmin University and a vocal advocate of reform, said the proposed timeline wasn't aggressive enough.

"They should have reformed this policy ages ago," he said. "It just keeps getting held up, delayed."

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Associated Press researcher Flora Ji in Beijing contributed to this report.

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Follow Alexa Olesen on Twitter: http://twitter.com/alobeijing

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-10-31-China-One%20Child/id-f81df08045f249eab635cb36221024b8

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With Nearly 1M Users, SohoOS is On Its Way to Crossing Its Chasm

It was nearly a year ago that SohoOS announced a second round of financing to the tune of $8M. The company has since been quiet on the PR front, so I I decided to check in with Ron Daniel (CEO) to see why. The one-word answer: Growth. Micro-businesses using the platform have exploded to 940,000, with 1500 being added every day. Let me jot your memory: SohoOS offers a collection of business tools for micro-businesses, the most popular being Invoicing, Web Presence and Contact Management. What are micro-businesses? Typically, these are businesses with 1-5 employees that make an annual revenue of ~$60,000. In SohoOS's case, we're talking businesses that are mostly in English-speaking countries. There are a couple of reasons behind this year's explosive growth: The first is the company hunkered down on marketing, using their funding for user-acquisition. The second, is product.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/V8FoBKp6BnU/

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// Chasing Dreams ? Our baby shower, part 1: Showered with lots of ...

It all began with my husband wanting to throw me a surprise baby shower with our church family, except that he couldn?t handle the pressure of the preparations so he ended up spilling the beans to me himself. I love that he tried, really, but I was glad that he told me because?I didn?t want a surprise! If anything, I wanted to be able to pick what we?re?going to wear (LOL) and be part of the preparations. Everything turned out well, after all. :)

So I did as much as I could?designing invites, giveaways and stickers; ordering paper straws; browsing Pinterest for ideas; hand-lettering labels, you know, stuff I can do within the confines of my laptop and desk.?But my involvement was little compared to my dear?fairy godmothers? labor of love.

I don?t know how to pull off throwing a party without?Mae. She?did a great job organizing the whole thing?making sure that we get the items in my wish list, inviting loved ones and friends, putting the program together, and filling the venue with pinterest-inspired paper pompoms, cupcake labels, japanese lanterns, and buntings. Hands down! It was the prettiest baby shower ever.

Fresh (of Josiahs? Catering), who once did magic on our wedding day, got carried away once again and made a little desert heaven out of our little party. There were too many deserts?cupcakes, macarons, eclairs,?meringues, cream puffs?I wasn?t even able to taste everything! That is, besides the fact that my husband was watching out my sugar and calorie intake, LOL.

Ivy?helped with souvenir print outs and setting up my baby registry.

And then there were games, and opening of gifts, and prayer & thanksgiving, and Titos & Titas giving their advises, and the wackiest set of hosts!

We couldn?t be any happier spending this night with these people who share our joy and excitement as we welcome our darling twins to this world! :) Thank you, guys.

Happy Mommy & Daddy <3

So..the theme of the party happened to be the names we?re giving our babies (which explains the clouds, and the sun, and the raindrops), and we took that night as an opportunity to officially announce their names:?Dawn & Rain.?How we end up with those names is a story for another post. :)

More pics here.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 12th, 2012 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Family & Friends, Love, Married Life, Mommyhood, Photo Dump. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://www.chasingdreams.net/2012/10/our-baby-shower-part-1-showered-with-lots-of-love-calories/

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Western intel: 'Small signs of wavering' on Iran nuke policy

By Keir Simmons, NBC News

LONDON -- Western intelligence has begun to detect tension within the Iranian regime over the country?s nuclear program, officials told NBC News on Friday.

Even so, the European Union on Friday provisionally approved substantial new economic sanctions against Tehran.

The new sanctions will have to be formally approved on Monday at an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg before coming into effect.

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The sanctions, aimed at trying to change policy in Tehran, will target areas such as shipping, banking and trade in parts that could be used to build a nuclear weapon. Measures already in place include an oil embargo that is causing serious economic woes and leading to protests on the streets.

Tehran denies its nuclear work has any military intentions and says it wants nuclear power for electricity supplies and medical needs.

Despite stalled talks between Iran and a six-country alliance of Western powers, including the United States, a Western diplomatic source said contact with Iranian officials has been sustained consistently, including during the months since the summer.

Western official: 'Tension within the Iranian regime'
The official told NBC News there are some signs of ?tension within the Iranian regime? over the issue.

"We?ve picked up some small signs of wavering on the nuclear policy," the official, who did not want to be named, said. "But I don?t want to exaggerate it."

He added that so far there is ?no sign Iran is prepared to move? making renewed sanctions necessary.

Any change in policy from either side is only likely to emerge after the U.S. presidential election: If Iran is prepared to negotiate, it will want to know whether it is talking to an Obama administration or a Romney administration.

The United States has so far led the way on sanctions against Iran.

Even so, in Thursday?s vice presidential debate, Republican candidate Mitt Romney?s running mate, Paul Ryan, accused the Obama administration of not doing enough. Ryan warned that Iran is ?moving faster toward a nuclear weapon.?

Complete Middle East & North African coverage on NBCNews.com

He warned that if Iran is able to attain nuclear weapons it could ?trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.?

In this assertion, Ryan appeared closer to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who dramatically told the United Nations in September that Israel was drawing a ?red line? for Iran?s nuclear program and claimed the country could be on the brink of a nuclear weapon in less than a year.

In an attempt to convey what he sees as a threat to Israel's existence, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a cartoon to illustrate how close he says Iran is to developing a nuclear weapon. In a speech at the United Nations General Assembly he asked the world to help stop them. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

With Iran issue simmering, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu calls early elections

EU steps up pressure
On Friday, the Western official said the chief purpose of the sanctions is to ?slow down Iran?s nuclear program? and that the aim is not to target the Iranian people.

The trade and finance measures mark a major step-up of European pressure on Tehran, amid growing concerns over its nuclear program, foundering diplomacy and threats of attack on Iranian installations by Israel.

The EU is also targeting Iran's shipping industry, in an effort to curb Tehran's ability to sell oil to obtain funds and hard currency. It banned imports of Iranian oil earlier this year.

Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

New measures will ban European companies from providing shipbuilding technology and oil storage capabilities, as well as flagging and classification services to Iranian tankers.

At schools, in shops, and on the streets of big cities and small towns, daily life plays out in Iran.

But some worry that whatever the intent, the effect is a dramatic cut in living standards for ordinary Iranians that may inflame anger against the West and fuel Iranian defiance.

In a speech broadcast on state television on Wednesday, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei labeled the sanctions "barbaric."

Reuters contributed to this report.

More world stories from NBC News:

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/12/14396298-western-intelligence-sees-small-signs-of-wavering-on-iran-nuclear-policy?lite

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'Invisibility' could be a key to better electronics: Visual 'cloaking' technology enables more efficient transfer of electrons

ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2012) ? A new approach that allows objects to become "invisible" has now been applied to an entirely different area: letting particles "hide" from passing electrons, which could lead to more efficient thermoelectric devices and new kinds of electronics.

The concept -- developed by MIT graduate student Bolin Liao, former postdoc Mona Zebarjadi (now an assistant professor at Rutgers University), research scientist Keivan Esfarjani, and mechanical engineering professor Gang Chen -- is described in a paper in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Normally, electrons travel through a material in a way that is similar to the motion of electromagnetic waves, including light; their behavior can be described by wave equations. That led the MIT researchers to the idea of harnessing the cloaking mechanisms developed to shield objects from view -- but applying it to the movement of electrons, which is key to electronic and thermoelectric devices.

Previous work on cloaking objects from view has relied on so-called metamaterials made of artificial materials with unusual properties. The composite structures used for cloaking cause light beams to bend around an object and then meet on the other side, resuming their original path -- making the object appear invisible.

"We were inspired by this idea," says Chen, the Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering at MIT, who decided to study how it might apply to electrons instead of light. But in the new electron-cloaking material developed by Chen and his colleagues, the process is slightly different.

The MIT researchers modeled nanoparticles with a core of one material and a shell of another. But in this case, rather than bending around the object, the electrons do actually pass through the particles: Their paths are bent first one way, then back again, so they return to the same trajectory they began with.

In computer simulations, the concept appears to work, Liao says. Now, the team will try to build actual devices to see whether they perform as expected. "This was a first step, a theoretical proposal," Liao says. "We want to carry on further research on how to make some real devices out of this strategy."

While the initial concept was developed using particles embedded in a normal semiconductor substrate, the MIT researchers would like to see if the results can be replicated with other materials, such as two-dimensional sheets of graphene, which might offer interesting additional properties.

The MIT researchers' initial impetus was to optimize the materials used in thermoelectric devices, which produce an electrical current from a temperature gradient. Such devices require a combination of characteristics that are hard to obtain: high electrical conductivity (so the generated current can flow freely), but low thermal conductivity (to maintain a temperature gradient). But the two types of conductivity tend to coexist, so few materials offer these contradictory characteristics. The team's simulations show this electron-cloaking material could meet these requirements unusually well.

The simulations used particles a few nanometers in size, matching the wavelength of flowing electrons and improving the flow of electrons at particular energy levels by orders of magnitude compared to traditional doping strategies. This might lead to more efficient filters or sensors, the researchers say. As the components on computer chips get smaller, Chen says, "we have to come up with strategies to control electron transport," and this might be one useful approach.

The concept could also lead to a new kind of switches for electronic devices, Chen says. The switch could operate by toggling between transparent and opaque to electrons, thus turning a flow of them on and off. "We're really just at the beginning," he says. "We're not sure how far this is going to go yet, but there is some potential" for significant applications.

Xiang Zhang, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley who was not involved in this research, says "this is very exciting work" that expands the concept of cloaking to the domain of electrons. The authors, he says, "uncovered a very interesting approach that may be very useful to thermoelectric applications."

This research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) through MIT's Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion center, a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The original article was written by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office.

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. Bolin Liao, Mona Zebarjadi, Keivan Esfarjani, Gang Chen. Cloaking Core-Shell Nanoparticles from Conducting Electrons in Solids. Physical Review Letters, 2012; 109 (12) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.126806

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/matter_energy/electronics/~3/VgQ1XmpgPnc/121012122646.htm

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Today Marks the 50th Anniversary of the Opening of Vatican II - Jesuit

Today, October 11, 2012, marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, a historic event ?animated by a spirit of reform,??according to church historian Jesuit Father John O?Malley.

The council?s four sessions and 16 landmark documents modernized the liturgy, renewed the priesthood and religious life, enhanced the role of lay Catholics, opened dialogue with other churches and non-Christians and identified the church as the ?people of God? attuned to the problems and hopes of the world, according to Catholic News Service.

One Jesuit who had a ?starring role? at the council, which ran from Oct. 11, 1962, to Dec. 8, 1965, was Cardinal Augustin Bea, the Jesuit rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, who eventually headed the Secretariat for Christian Unity. Cardinal Bea had been deputized by Pope John to ensure the council said something bold on the Catholic relationship with Jews and world religions. The result was one of the most important documents of the Second Vatican Council, ?Nostra Aetate? (?In Our Era?) on the relationship of the church to non-Christian religions.

There were also several Jesuit ?periti,? or experts, who had a role at the council:

• Jesuit Father Henri de Lubac: A French Jesuit silenced from 1950 to 1956, Fr. De Lubac was a prolific scholar associated with the ?nouvelle theologie? (new theology) school. At the council, he promoted the idea of ?ressourcement,? which is a return to the sources of Christian wisdom and a deepening of the church?s understanding of itself. Pope John Paul II made him a cardinal in 1983.
• Jesuit Father Karl Rahner: This German Jesuit?s ideas are everywhere in the council documents. His conception of the Trinity, the idea of anonymous Christians, the pilgrim church and his rejection of the counter-reformation practice of developing positions by condemning other positions helped shape Vatican II.
• Jesuit Father John Courtney Murray: An American Jesuit theologian, he was one of the chief architects of the ?Dignitatis Humanae.? The council basically adopted as official church teaching Fr. Murray?s theology of church-state separation and of religious freedom as a human right that the state is required to protect.

Here are some resources from the Jesuit world in honor of the anniversary:

Conferences & Symposia

• Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., is hosting ?Vatican II After 50 Years: Dialogue and Catholic Identity? on Oct. 11-12, 2012.
• Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles is hosting the Vatican II at 50 Symposium: ?The Church in the Third Millennium: Identity and Mission? on Oct. 11, 2012.
• Loyola Marymount is also hosting Western Conversations 2012: Jesuit Education in the Spirit of Vatican II on Oct. 12-14, 2012.
• The Woodstock Theological Center is hosting the symposium ?What Role Did the Jesuit Scientists Play at Vatican II?? on Oct. 16, 2012, at Georgetown University.
• Fordham University in New York is hosting the lecture ?50th Anniversary of Vatican II: Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy ? Sacrosanctum Concilium? on Nov. 10, 2012, in Tarrytown, N.Y.
• The Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University (Santa Clara, Calif.), along with the Department of Religious Studies at Santa Clara University and the Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology, present ?Vatican II: Recalling Our Past, Looking to Our Future,? which will include a number of events over the next three years, including year-long series of public lectures by speakers from across the country.
• The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs hosted Catholic Perspectives on Religious Liberty?at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. last month and offers the following videos from the event:

Books, Publications & Websites

• Fifty distinguished authors, including theologians, journalists, spiritual writers, pastoral leaders and many Jesuit contributors, offer insights about the meaning of the council in ?Vatican II: 50 Personal Stories,? drawing from personal experiences as witnesses or participants.
• Edited by Jesuit Fathers Jim Corkery and Gerry O?Hanlon along with Dr. Suzanne Mulligan, ?Reaping the Harvest: Fifty Years after Vatican II? examines the impact of the teachings of Vatican II on the church at the time and its continuing effects today.
• Edited by Jesuit Father Walter M. Abbott, ?The Documents of Vatican II With Notes and Comments by Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Authorities? provides translations of all 16 council documents in English, along with introductions and commentaries by noted Roman Catholic bishops and council experts and essays by Protestant and Orthodox clergy and scholars.
• Two books by Jesuit Father John W. O?Malley: ?What Happened at Vatican II? gives a brief, readable account of the council from its start to its conclusion and ?Vatican II: Did Anything Happen?? provides a collection of analyses of the council.
• Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education magazine devotes its latest issue to ?After 50 Years: The Living Spirit of Vatican II?.
• America magazine:
• The Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University offers a Vatican II website with resources, including links to council documents.

[Catholic News Service]

Source: http://www.jesuit.org/2012/10/11/today-marks-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-opening-of-vatican-ii/

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Obama campaign winning ad war in key battleground states: study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ads for President Barack Obama's reelection campaign dominated TV airwaves in key states in September, despite Republican challenger Mitt Romney's powerful "Super PAC" backers, according to an academic analysis released on Wednesday.

Republican Super Political Action Committees and tax-exempt advocacy groups - which can raise and spend unlimited funds - had been widely expected to give Romney an advantage in the campaign for the November 6 election, as they focus almost exclusively on advertising, a crucial way to reach voters.

However, the new study by the Wesleyan Media Project found that the Obama campaign, not including spending by the weaker Democratic outside-financing groups, has aired more ads in swing states than Romney and his top outside backers together.

The study found that from April 25 to September 30, the Obama campaign spent $163.8 million on 363,010 ad airings, while the Romney campaign spent $57.3 million on 126,748 ads.

Top Republican outside financing groups, which have to pay more for ads than candidates themselves, helped Romney bridge the gap - though not completely - spending another $129.2 million on a total 181,578 ads.

The study, based on data provided by ad-tracking firm Kantar Media/CMAG, analyzed broadcast and national cable spots run from September 9-30, as well as totals run since late April, when Romney first emerged as the likely Republican nominee.

Obama has made gains against Romney in the polls in several key battleground states and the Wesleyan project co-director Erika Franklin Fowler said advertisements may have helped.

Obama and his allies have aired more ads than Romney and his backers in 14 out of 15 media markets attracting the most political advertising in the past three weeks, including in the key states of Colorado, Ohio, Virginia and Florida.

Republicans aired more ads since September 9 in only one place, Las Vegas, the market seeing the second-highest number of ads.

Other top saturated markets in September were Denver, Cleveland and Tampa, the analysis showed.

The top outside spenders helping the Republicans were the tax-exempt non-profit Crossroads GPS and its Super PAC sister American Crossroads, both run by Karl Rove, a former aide to President George W. Bush; Americans for Prosperity, backed by conservative billionaire Koch brothers; and Restore Our Future, a Super PAC devoted purely to electing Romney.

The only outside Democratic group among the top ten spenders was Priorities USA Action, a Super PAC run by former Obama aides. Since late April, it has spent $14.6 million on a total of 31,707 ad airings.

The Republican National Committee has also helped Romney with 49,920 ads, spending $33.6 million up until the end of September. The Democratic National Committee, together with Obama, spent $15.3 million on 7,210 advertisements.

(Reporting by Alina Selyukh; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-campaign-winning-ad-war-key-battleground-states-200006978.html

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Great Barrier Reef declining faster than ever, coral cover could be 5 percent in a decade (+video)

Globally, reefs are being assailed by myriad threats, particularly rising sea temperatures, increased ocean acidity and more powerful storms, but the threat to the Great?Barrier?Reef?is even more pronounced, a study published on Tuesday found.

By David Fogarty,?Reuters / October 2, 2012

The population outbreak of the coral eating starfish Acanthaster planci on the Great Barrier Reef is seen in this undated handout photo released on October 2. The world's largest coral reef - under threat from Australia's surging coal and gas shipments, climate change and a destructive starfish - is declining faster than ever and coral cover could fall to just 5 percent in the next decade, a study shows.

Katharina Fabricius/Australian Institute of Marine Science/Reuters

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The world's largest coral?reef?- under threat from?Australia's surging coal and gas shipments, climate change and a destructive starfish - is declining faster than ever and coral cover could fall to just 5 percent in the next decade, a study shows.

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A spiny starfish, climate change and shipping are killing coral and threatening to destroy Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Researchers from the?Australian Institute of Marine Science?(AIMS) in the northeastern city of?Townsvillesay?Australia's?Great?Barrier?Reef?has lost half of its coral in little more than a generation. And the pace of damage has picked up since 2006.

Globally, reefs are being assailed by myriad threats, particularly rising sea temperatures, increased ocean acidity and more powerful storms, but the threat to the Great?Barrier?Reef?is even more pronounced, the AIMS study published on Tuesday found.

"In terms of geographic scale and the extent of the decline, it is unprecedented anywhere in the world," AIMS chief John Gunn told Reuters.

AIMS scientists studied data from more than 200 individual reefs off the?Queensland?coast covering the period 1985-2012. They found cyclone damage caused nearly half the losses, crown-of-thorns starfish more than 40 percent and coral bleaching from spikes in sea temperatures 10 percent.

The starfish are native and prey on the reefs. But plagues are occurring much more frequently.

Ordinarily, reefs can recover within 10 to 20 years from storms, bleachings or starfish attacks but climate change impacts slow this down. Rising ocean acidification caused by seas absorbing more carbon dioxide is disrupting the ability of corals to build their calcium carbonate structures. Hotter seas stress corals still further.

Greens say the 2,000 km (1,200 mile) long?reef?ecosystem, the centre-piece of a multi-billion tourism industry, also faces a growing threat from shipping driven by the planned expansion of coal and liquefied natural gas projects.

Those concerns have put pressure on the authorities to figure out how to protect the fragile?reef.

Falling fast

The researchers say the pace of coral loss has increased since 2006 and if the trend continues, coral cover could halve again by 2022, with the southern and central areas most affected.

Between 1985 and 2012, coral cover of the?reef?area fell from 28 percent to 13.8 percent.

"Coral cover on the?reef?is consistently declining, and without intervention, it will likely fall to 5 to 10 percent within the next 10 years," say the researchers in the study published in?the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences?journal. They called for tougher curbs on greenhouse gas emissions as a crucial way to stem the loss.

Shipping and new ports on the?Queensland?coast are another major threat,?Greenpeace?says.

Coal is one of?Australia's top export earners and the state of?Queensland?is the country's largest coal-producer. It also has a rapidly growing coal-seam gas industry for LNG exports.

Earlier this year,?Greenpeace?estimated port expansion could more than triple?Queensland's coal export capacity by 2020 from 257 million tonnes now. That would mean as many as 10,000 coal ships per year could make their way through the Great?Barrier?Reef?area by 2020, up 480 percent from 1,722 ships in 2011, according to the group.

The?Queensland?and national governments, which jointly manage the?reef, have launched a major review of managing the risks facing the UNESCO-listed?reef?and its surrounding marine area. The review will look at managing the threats from increased shipping to urban development.

Gunn said better management was all about buying time and improving the?reef's resilience to climate change. A key area was improving water quality from rivers flowing into the?reef?area, with studies suggesting fertiliser-rich waters help the crown-of-thorns starfish larvae rapidly multiply.

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/_RcC8jYFjLk/Great-Barrier-Reef-declining-faster-than-ever-coral-cover-could-be-5-percent-in-a-decade-video

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Lohan's 'Liz & Dick' airs on Lifetime next month

NEW YORK (AP) ? Lindsay Lohan's campaign for a career comeback will take another step when her new film, "Liz & Dick," airs next month.

Lifetime network says the film will premiere on the network on Nov. 25.

Lohan plays screen diva Elizabeth Taylor in this story of her quarter-century love affair with celebrated leading man Richard Burton, whom she married and divorced twice. They met on the set of the film "Cleopatra," with Taylor in the title role.

Grant Bowler, whose credits include the TV series "True Blood" and "Lost," plays Burton.

The 26-year-old Lohan has been plagued by legal and substance abuse problems in recent years. During filming of "Liz & Dick," she crashed her Porsche into a dump truck. A week later she was treated by paramedics for exhaustion and dehydration.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lohans-liz-dick-airs-lifetime-next-month-180513467.html

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2012 Presidential Debate Schedule: Candidates to Square Off Four Times Starting Wednesday

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/10/2012-presidential-debate-schedule-candidates-to-square-off-four-/

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