Ethiopia troops enter Somalia, control border town

NAIROBI, Kenya?? Hundreds of Ethiopian troops poured into a western Somalia border town on Saturday, opening a new front against the militant group al-Shabab, which now faces hostile militaries on three sides.

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Resident Mohammed Abdi said hundreds of residents fled Beledweyne on Saturday after hundreds of Ethiopian and Somali troops moved in. Capt. Hashi Nor of the Somali military confirmed that Somali and Ethiopian troops had moved in.

"I saw Ethiopian troops standing at the doors of neighboring homes. Somali soldiers are also searching the homes," Abdi said. "Al-Shabab retreated back to Bulo Burte and also many of the residents fled, and those who remained are in their homes."

The military movement appears to be a third front against al-Shabab, Somalia's strongest militant group. Kenyan troops moved into Somalia in mid-October in a push against the militants in the country's south. African Union troops from Uganda, Burundi and most recently from Djibouti have mostly pushed al-Shabab fighters out of the capital, Mogadishu.

"We are in full control of Beledweyne now and our troops will move forward in the coming hours," Nor, the Somali military officer, said by phone from Beledweyne.

Abdi said the sound of gunfire could be heard in Beledweyne but that he did not believe actual battle was taking place. However, al-Shabab on its official Twitter feed said that a battle that began at 6 a.m. was still "raging" in the city as of midday.

Al-Shabab said that a "majority" of Beledweyne residents joined al-Shabab "to thwart the offensive." It claimed that dozens of Ethiopian troops had been killed, but that was impossible to verify and was likely an exaggerated claim. It later said on Twitter that al-Shabab was executing a planned withdrawal and would surround the city.

Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said in a statement that Somalia's armed forces had taken over "strategic places" from al-Shabab in the central region of Hiran on Saturday. He did not make direct mention of involvement by Ethiopian troops.

"We are officially requesting the international community and the neighboring countries like Ethiopia to stand on our shoulders and help the Somali people and their government for the historic operation to liberate the country from this brutal terror group," he said. "We are also asking the humanitarian aid agencies to reach and help people living in the areas liberated from al-Shabab."

U.S.-backed Ethiopian troops moved into Somalia in 2006 at the invitation of the weak, U.N.-backed Somali government. But the incursion was seen by many Somalis as an unpopular invasion and actually helped give birth to the al-Shabab movement. Ethiopians pulled out in early 2009, and there are fears that a new push by Somalia could be a propaganda coup for al-Shabab.

Ethiopia in November said it was considering whether to contribute troops to the African Union force in Somalia. Kenya's parliament recently voted for its forces to join the AU force. That move is awaiting approval by the United Nations.

The central Somalia town of Beledweyne lies about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the border with Ethiopia. A commercial hub, it lies on a key road that links Mogadishu with northern Somalia. Control of the town has changed hands frequently in recent months as different militias push to seize control of it.

___

A Somali employee of The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45833117/ns/world_news-africa/

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Mayor Bloomberg Announces All-Time Record Low in Traffic Fatalities in 2011

Mayor Bloomberg, Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly today released preliminary statistics showing that New York City will record the fewest annual traffic fatalities since records were first kept in 1910. As of December 27th, there were 237 traffic fatalities in 2011, 40 percent fewer than in 2001. Included in the 2011 numbers were 134 pedestrian fatalities in crashes with vehicles, an all-time record-low and a 31 percent reduction since 2001; 47 senior pedestrian fatalities, a 27 percent reduction since 2001; and a record low of only three child pedestrian fatalities. Bicycle fatalities have held within the same range over the last decade, despite bike ridership quadrupling during that time period.

The new record lows come as the Department of Transportation has undertaken unprecedented safety engineering initiatives and public education efforts and the NYPD has implemented aggressive enforcement programs, all to reduce dangerous speeding, combat drunken driving and calm traffic citywide. The Mayor made the announcement at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, where a new safety redesign was installed in October. The latest improvements at Grand Army Plaza are expected to build on the nearly 40 percent reduction in crashes in the plaza over the last three years due to previous safety upgrades.

"This will be the city?s safest traffic year in the more than 100 years since records were kept," said Mayor Bloomberg. "We?ve made progress in every area of traffic safety due to our willingness to take new, creative approaches to longstanding challenges with safety redesigns and through aggressive traffic enforcement. We?ve focused on making our streets safer for all who use them ? no matter how they decide travel ? and it?s another reason New Yorkers are living longer and another reason our city is safer than ever before."

"The reduction in traffic deaths as a result of our safety engineering means nearly 300 New Yorkers are alive today who would not have been if we had simply sustained the fatality rate of five years ago," said Commissioner Sadik-Khan. "And even as we applaud this accomplishment, the men and women of NYC DOT are working throughout the five boroughs to make our streets even safer."

"NYPD traffic enforcement is aimed at saving lives, and that?s reflected in the million summonses we issue for moving violations annually," said Police Commissioner Kelly. "About a third of the summonses are related to seat belt enforcement and distracted driving, both life and death concerns. It?s also reflected in arrests for DWI. We?ve made 8,500 drunk driving arrests through December 18th, and seized 900 vehicles in the process. On New Year?s Eve, the NYPD will establish check points and have additional roving patrols to enforce laws against drunken driving. Those who drink and drive are at risk of losing their licenses and their cars. Worse, they risk losing their own lives or killing others by driving drunk."

"Nothing is more important than the safety of motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists as they travel on the city?s streets," said Mark Kulewicz, Director of Traffic Engineering and Safety Services at AAA New York. "We?re very pleased with the progress the City has made in reducing the number of travel deaths. It is a remarkable accomplishment given the growth in travel over the past 100 years."

New York City?s traffic fatality rate has dropped from 4.87 fatalities per 100,000 residents in 2001 to 2.8 fatalities per 100,000 residents in 2011.

Traffic calming projects, street redesigns, and safety upgrades installed by the Department of Transportation during the past decade have resulted in improved safety throughout the five boroughs. In the last four years alone, the department has implemented safety improvement projects along 78 corridors and at 72 intersections. In 2011, the department made safety upgrades to 60 miles of streets, including more than 20 miles of street redesigns and implemented the city?s first Neighborhood Slow Zone in the Bronx, creating the first 20 miles per hour speed limit. Additionally, the department introduced new electronic speed boards in all five boroughs that display the speed of passing motorists and expects to bring additional Neighborhood Slow Zones online.

The NYPD continues its aggressive enforcement campaigns with a focus on violations that directly relate to serious injuries and death ? speeding, distracted driving, drunk driving, seat belt use and other dangerous behavior. In 2011, more than one million summonses were issued for moving violations. The NYPD?s focus on drunken drivers resulted in more than 8,500 arrests and the seizure of 900 vehicles.

The Department of Transportation also has installed pedestrian countdown signals at nearly 1,100 intersections citywide this year, which has helped drive pedestrian fatalities down to an all-time low. Locations where countdown signals have been installed include: along Grand Concourse, the Bronx; Queens Boulevard; 4th Avenue, Brooklyn; Delancey Street, Manhattan; and on Hylan Boulevard on Staten Island. The department is on course to install pedestrian countdown signals at an additional 2,000 intersections.

The Department of Transportation continues safety campaigns to implement safety engineering changes around schools and in senior-dense neighborhoods with high numbers of serious traffic crashes. The department continues to pair engineering with education and outreach campaigns, examples include this year?s launch of the ?That?s Why it?s 30? ad campaign, which highlights the extreme safety impact of speeding, and the ?Don?t be a Jerk? campaign, which highlights proper cycling behavior.

This year, the City won a long-fought legislative victory with the passage of State legislation mandating improved truck safety mirrors. The City continues to seek traffic safety legislation in Albany to install speed cameras at locations throughout the city, increase the number of red light cameras and increase work zone safety regulations.

Source: http://www.mikebloomberg.com/index.cfm?objectid=8B5736FE-C29C-7CA2-F0EA3E977334BC17

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Is It Time to Overhaul the Calendar?

Egyptian calendar of Kom Ombo temple, in Egypt. Image: Flickr/guillenperez

Forget leap years, months with 28 days and your birthday falling on a different day of the week each year. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland say they have a better way to mark time: a new calendar in which every year is identical to the one before.

Their proposed calendar overhaul ? largely unprecedented in the 430 years since Pope Gregory XIII instituted the Gregorian calendar we still use today ? would divvy out months and weeks so that every calendar date would always fall on the same day of the week. Christmas, for example, would forever come on a Sunday.

"The calendar I'm advocating isn't nearly as accurate" as the Gregorian calendar, said Richard Henry, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins who has been pushing for calendar reform for years. "But it's far more convenient."

New versus old

The trouble with designing a nice, regular calendar is that each Earth year is 365.2422 days long, leaving extra snippets of time that don't fit nicely into a cycle of 24-hour days. If this time isn't somehow accounted for, the calendar "drifts" relative to the seasons, and the next thing you know, Christmas Day is coming after the spring thaw.

The Gregorian calendar deals with this by adding an extra day (Leap Day) to February about every four years, correcting for the seasonal drift. ?

"It's really incredible that in the Middle Ages, they were able to invent a new calendar that was so accurate," Henry told LiveScience. What bothers him about the Gregorian calendar, though, is the frustrating tendency for days of the week to jump around. Because 365 is not a multiple of seven, 7-day weeks don't fit evenly into the Gregorian calendar. That means that each year, dates shift over one day of the week (two during leap years).

"Everybody has to redo their calendars," Henry said. "For sports schedules, for schools, for every damn thing. It's completely unnecessary."

Under the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar (named after Henry and Steve Hanke, a Johns Hopkins economist who also advocates calendar overhaul), every date falls on the same day of the week ? forever.

The calendar follows a pattern of two 30-day months followed by one 31-day month. That means the old rhyme, "30 days hath September, April, June and November," would need to be revised to "30 days hath September, June, March and December."

To account for extra time, Hanke and Henry drop leap years and instead create a "leap week" at the end of December every five or six years. This extra week, dubbed "Xtr", would adjust for seasonal drift while keeping the 7-day cycle on track.

"The new calendar can be fairly often off as much as three days on the seasons, but looking out, could you tell?" Henry said. "Of course you couldn't tell."

The economics of time

For Henry, the new calendar is worth it because of how much time and effort goes into revising the calendar each year. He first got into the idea of calendar reform while having to yet again update lecture dates and syllabi for his students. He quickly discovered that there were calendar-reform advocates with suggestions on how to do away with that problem, he said.

"My heart sank, and I thought, 'Oh my god, I don't want to get involved in calendar reform. It's the stupidest waste of time. It's hopeless,'" Henry said.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=b8d1a91ab53f3ea662b1ef69b318eaa4

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Amy Shiner: My Big, Gay Kinky, Universal Unitarian Christmas Spectacular! (PHOTOS)

Being Universal Unitarian, I am on my own spiritual path, which includes Wicca. My friends and I rotate places where we hold sabbats, and it was my turn this time. A few days before the "official" winter solstice (or Yule), we gathered to give attention not only to the darkest day of the year but also to bringing in more light in the coming six months as that days grow longer. Living in Vermont, that is certainly a big thing, given that it begins to get dark before 4 p.m. Among the differences between my altar and traditional ones is that I do not have lit incense (note the oil burner on the right-hand side of the photo), and it is not on the floor or a lowered table, where we could sit around it. My space is rather small, and it is safer to keep the altar up higher.

Being Universal Unitarian, I am on my own spiritual path, which includes Wicca. My friends and I rotate places where we hold sabbats, and it was my turn this time. A few days before the "official" winter solstice (or Yule), we gathered to give attention not only to the darkest day of the year but also to bringing in more light in the coming six months as that days grow longer. Living in Vermont, that is certainly a big thing, given that it begins to get dark before 4 p.m.

Among the differences between my altar and traditional ones is that I do not have lit incense (note the oil burner on the right-hand side of the photo), and it is not on the floor or a lowered table, where we could sit around it. My space is rather small, and it is safer to keep the altar up higher.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amy-shiner/my-big-gay-kinky-uu-chris_b_1174594.html

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Roethlisberger probable for Steelers vs Browns

PITTSBURGH (AP) ? Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and safety Troy Polamalu each attended a full practice Friday and are listed as probable for the regular-season finale in Cleveland on Sunday.

Roethlisberger practiced all week after missing last Saturday's 27-0 win over the St. Louis Rams because of a high ankle sprain. The injury occurred three weeks ago in a home win against the Browns, but he played the following Monday in San Francisco and threw three interceptions in a 20-3 loss.

Polamalu (knee) did not practice until Friday but is expected to start Sunday. Center Maurkice Pouncey missed the past two games with a high ankle sprain but said he's going to play.

Linebacker James Harrison (neck) and wide receivers Mike Wallace (ankle) and Emmanuel Sanders (foot) are listed as probable.

LaMarr Woodley (hamstring) is doubtful after not practicing Friday, and Jason Worilds likely will make his seventh start at outside linebacker.

The playoff-bound Steelers need a win and a Baltimore loss at Cincinnati to win the AFC North and earn a first-round bye.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-30-FBN-Steelers-Injuries/id-c73762662e0640ffbd0b5bacbb7ef4eb

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No. 6: Chivas USA coach Robin Fraser

Counting down the top 11 personalities of 2011 in Southern California soccer ...

Those familiar with Robin Fraser -- from his time as a U.S. national-teamer and one of the best defenders ever to play in Major League Soccer to his stint assisting Jason Kreis' rebuild of Real Salt Lake into a powerhouse -- knew what Chivas USA was getting when the club decided last January who would lead its team into the future.

The future looks good.

Fraser represented a do-over for L.A.'s second Major League Soccer club, which had been forced to remake once before, under Bob Bradley, after horrendous missteps in its formation and during the inaugural season.

11 FROM '11

ESPNLA soccer blogger Scott French recounts the top 11 stories and personalities in 2011 from the world of Southern California soccer.
Football Futbol Soccer ?

The Goats were one of the best teams in the league in four seasons under Bradley and Preki, his successor, but Martin Vasquez was left with a virtually empty cupboard -- and none of the team's previous leaders -- when he was put in charge for 2010.

Vasquez, now Jurgen Klinsmann's top assistant with the U.S. national team, was chased off following that season to start a front-office makeover that has evolved into a cultural shift, still progressing (and not entirely painless), within the institution. The appointment of Fraser and of chief assistant coach Greg Vanney gave this new culture definition and identity, and the work they put forth -- no matter the team's on-field struggles -- ought to bring rewards shortly.

Fraser, a former Galaxy star and two-time MLS Defender of the Year who turned 45 earlier this month, is a serious and diligent man, a realist whose cerebral approach guided his season-long (and continuing), piece-by-piece roster upgrade. The team hovered around .500, in the mix for a playoff berth, until a seven-game winless stretch (featuring four straight losses) in August and September took them out of it.

The work isn't finished.

?This is going to be a process,? Fraser acknowledged last spring. ?I think you want the process over yesterday, and the truth is that the process takes a long time. ...

?It's a never-ending process. You're never satisfied. If you think the process is over, then you may as well retire and be done, because you've stopped being open-minded and you've stopped looking for answers, and I think you can never get to that point, because there's always somewhere someone else can be doing it better. Unless you're Pep Guardiola and you're Barcelona, maybe.?

What does it take to build a team the right way?

?It's interesting, because I think the right mix of players is so much more than a talented group. It's the personalities, it's the leadership, it's attacking- vs. defensive-minded players and how they mesh and how many you have on the field of each. There's so many different things.

?And when you're close to being completely satisfied -- and maybe you never actually get to that point -- you've got that good balance of all those things.?

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/soccer/post/_/id/13456/no-6-chivas-usa-coach-robin-fraser

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Science! (Unqualified Offerings)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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King of Leon's Caleb Followill to Be a First-Time Dad!

The band's frontman and his supermodel wife Lily Aldridge are awaiting Baby No.1! See more stars who are expecting

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Leaked Twitter Subpoena Raises Online Privacy Issues (Mashable)

The leaked subpoena sent to Twitter this month by the Suffolk District Attorney's Office in Boston is causing some hoopla on the web and raising the issue of law enforcement's access to online personal data. On Dec. 14, the D.A.'s Office issued a subpoena to Twitter in order to access the account information of two users who tweeted a list of personal information they allegedly obtained by hacking into the Boston Police Patrolmens' Association. The hackers stole identifying information and Tweeted it to followers. The subpoena requests "available subscriber information, for the account or accounts associated with the following information, including IP address logs for account creation."

[More from Mashable: Twitter 2012: Bigger and More Ads]

In the subpoena, assistant D.A. Benjamin A. Goldberger requests that the investigation be kept from the Twitter users as to not impede the ongoing probe. But the information was leaked. We reached out to Twitter for comment, but have yet to hear back.

On Dec. 23 one of the accounts under investigation, @p0isAn0N Tweeted, "Haha. Boston PD submitted to Twitter for my information. Lololol? For what? Posting info pulled from public domains? #comeatmebro."

[More from Mashable: Today?s Top Stories: GoDaddy Woes, Twitter Lawsuit, No-Glasses 3D]

The D.A.'s office requested details of two Twitter users and also listed the name Guido Fawkes, which is the name but not handle listed for one of the accounts under investigation, as well as the hashtags #BostonPD and #d0xcak3.

One of the accounts being probed is listed in the subpoena as @OccupyBoston, however that account appears to be inactive. It's likely they meant @Occupy_Boston, which Tweets about the occupy movement. Targeting this account has lead some to speculate that the police are monitoring the online activity of occupy protestors.

Twitter's website contains an information section for law enforcement. It states that if a subpoena is issued for a user's information, the company will inform that user before they hand the information to the authorities, unless it is prevented from doing so by court order or statute. According to its site, Twitter was following protocol by informing the user of the subpoena, and, perhaps later providing that user's information to the Boston D.A. This isn't the first time Twitter has been reluctant to hand-over user information to law enforcement.

It's possible Twitter does host some personal information about the owners of the accounts who tweeted the hacked materials. At the very least, it might have IP addresses. However, Twitter doesn't verify identities or email addresses of its users, so using Twitter for detective work might be more harmful than helpful to an investigation, especially if the subpoena is leaked. We contacted the Boston District Attorney's Office and are waiting for a reply.

Do you think Twitter should surrender user information for hackers? Please tell us in the comments.

Image courtesy of Flickr, eldh

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/security/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/mashable/20111228/tc_mashable/leaked_twitter_subpoena_raises_online_privacy_issues

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Tornado alarm interrupts wedding

08:30 AEDT Wed Dec 28 2011

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A wedding in the US took an ominous turn when a tornado alarm sounded at the worst possible moment.

The video shows the couple just moments away from being wed.

"If there is anyone here who has just cause why this couple should not be joined in holy matrimony speak now or forever hold your peace," the minister says.

At that moment a loud tornado alarm begins sounding, causing the group to erupt in uneasy laughter.

It is unclear when or where the video was filmed, but it was uploaded to social news website Reddit today.

User Mr_Rawrr posted it with the message saying he was the one who filmed the video.

The video prompted another user to share a similar story.

"Years ago at my cousin's wedding something similar happened," user Plumhawk wrote.

"The altar they were standing on had a lattice with white roses intertwined overhead. As the pastor said the 'speak now' portion of the ceremony, a rose broke off and bounced off the pastor's head.

"Everyone laughed. Within a few years, they were divorced."

Source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8395618/tornado-alarm-interrupts-wedding

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Access Hollywood section

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

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/7358550/ns/today-entertainment/

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Free Live All Sports: WaTcH Philadelphia 76ers vs Portland Trail Blazers Live Stream FREE online NBA HD broadcast 26 DEC

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Menachem Wecker: Only "Fuzzy" Factors Can Predict Iconic Images, New Book 'From Christ to Coke' Suggests

Particularly in this era of YouTube and Flickr, it's worth pondering what makes an image or a video clip iconic -- or "go viral," to use the social media lingo?

If the question had an easy answer, of course, Hollywood film companies and marketing and public relations firms wouldn't be throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at it.

But, Martin Kemp should be commended for trying to work his way through what's at stake in an image becoming an icon in his new book, Christ to Coke: How Image Becomes Icon.

A professor emeritus of the history of art at Oxford University, Kemp tackles 11 important images and figures in his book: Christ, the cross, the heart, the lion, the Mona Lisa, Che, a Vietnam War photo of napalmed children, the American flag, Coca-Cola, DNA, and the equation E=MC?.

Kemp devotes one chapter to each of the themes, symbols, or figures, and some of the chapters reflect particularly interesting research and little-known facts. Anyone who has seen Kemp's Wikipedia page won't be surprised at his wide repertoire, but it bears reiterating. In Christ to Coke, Kemp easily navigates high art and kitsch, and complicated scientific discoveries and sociology and cultural history.

But as dazzling as Kemp's individual chapters are in their information about the first heart transplant (in South Africa, and the Jewish patient's wife worried about her husband's new gentile heart) and who really invented Coca-Cola's semi-erotic-shaped bottle, there is no overarching lesson about icons.

"There is no absolute predictability -- just a series of extraordinary stories about images that exhibit varied kinds of shared and individual characteristics," Kemp writes.

Kemp allows that though only two of his chapters address literally religious subject matter -- Christ and the cross -- the heart has a "conspicuous religious dimension." And if the definition of 'religion' is extended to "embrace devotion that accords a value to something that transcends all its apparent physical existence," he adds, "then the other eight all exhibit either religious or quasi-religious dimensions."

One wonders why Kemp abandons this approach when he seeks larger governing patterns. He calls the American flag "probably the most religious of the apparently secular images" -- as it is a "kind of sacramental object through both law and custom" -- and notes that lions can convey divine majesty, and "No one who has witnessed the elbowing crowds in front of the Mona Lisa can doubt that 'she' is the subject of cultural worship and journeys of pilgrimage."

But after arguing that it'd be tough to characterize the Coca-Cola bottle as religious "without debasing the term 'religious' to embrace such things as the worship of material consumption," Kemp dismisses religious, or quasi-religious, identity as a defining feature of icons. "We all tend to accord value to things that transcend any kind of financial and utilitarian worth," he says.

So apparently transcendence won't do as a contributing factor to icon status, though of course all successful icons are necessarily transcendent, in that they distinguish themselves from the pack of would-be icons. Perhaps identifying transcendence as a prerequisite to achieving iconic status would be a tautology, but it's actually a bit of a deep point.

A Che Guevara portrait isn't necessarily going to be successful because of it's subject matter. The photograph actually needs to be greater than the competition, just like Christ's majesty doesn't mean every crucifixion is going to be great art. Iconic themes certainly don't imply that every treatment of the themes deserve a reward. So Kemp is no doubt onto something in noticing at least some religious aspect to the icons he examines -- even the non-religious ones.

It's no wonder, then, that Kemp's first chapter on the "true icon" is arguably his most interesting one. In his treatment of Jesus' appearance, Kemp carefully traces the history of the acheiropoietos, or image not made by human hands. The sudarium (or Veronica's Veil) literally claimed iconic status by virtue of their divine creators.

Kemp doesn't suggest it, but perhaps all the 11 icons he addresses can be viewed in this light. Viewers are of course interested in Mona Lisa because they are fascinated by the image's creator, Leonardo da Vinci, and the model, Mona Lisa. But I'd argue that the painting has become iconic at least in part because it's so easy to "get lost" in the work and to forget the literal content and the creator. I'd submit that this type of transcendence might be common to all icons. The ones that have so much depth that they can hold our attention in their own right are the ones that we will cling to for many generations.

Of course this won't help us diagnose and predict which images are likely to go "viral," as it's always easier to predict the past than the future when it comes to qualitative judgments like this, but it might still be a useful template to use when we pose the very provocative question of what makes certain images become icons.

This article originally appeared in Houston Chronicle.

?

Follow Menachem Wecker on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mwecker

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/menachem-wecker/only-fuzzy-factors-can-pr_b_1150011.html

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JXD releases S7100 Android-based gaming tablet, manages to steal from everyone

If you're going to steal, steal from the best. JXD has just released its S7100, a fairly conspicuous 7-inch Android-powered gaming tablet marketed towards playing old-school arcade games. The device features a D-pad, face buttons, an 800 x 480 capacitive touchsceen, ARM Cortex A9 CPU, Mali 400 GPU, 512MB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, 0.3 megapixel front camera, 2.0 megapixel rear camera and HDMI-out. A video trailer shows the unit playing a variety of touchscreen games and classic ROMs including Metal Slug, Mario Kart 64, Angry Birds, Plants Vs. Zombies and Fruit Ninja HD. Not to be undone, the device also features the actual PlayStation button icons on its own buttons (sound familiar?), while the marketing website for the device sports icons from Apple, Google, Microsoft and others. If you're thus far undeterred, there's a must-watch promotional vid hosted just after the break -- nothing justifies a $140 price tag like Bieber, right?

Continue reading JXD releases S7100 Android-based gaming tablet, manages to steal from everyone

JXD releases S7100 Android-based gaming tablet, manages to steal from everyone originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/27/jxd-releases-s7100-android-based-gaming-tablet-manages-to-steal/

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China to start work on world's highest airport (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? China will start work on the world's highest airport next year, in Tibet's Nagqu county, state media said on Tuesday, which will be about 100 meters (328 ft) higher than the existing record holder in another part of the remote and restive region.

Nagqu airport will be at an altitude of 4,436 meters (14,553 ft) above sea level, slightly higher than the airport in Qamdo town at 4,334 meters (14,219 ft), Xinhua news agency reported.

The airport will cost 1.8 billion yuan ($280 million) and is expected to open in three years, Xinhua added.

Tibet already has five civilian airports, at least two of which are only open for a few months of the year because of extreme weather which makes flying impossible the rest of the time.

China has embarked upon a multi-billion-dollar program in recent years to revamp old airports and build new ones, especially in the country's remote west, as a way of boosting the economy.

The government has also poured billions of dollars into Tibet, hoping to win hearts and minds in a region the Communist Party has run with an iron grip for six decades.

The government says that the new airports, roads and a railway to Tibet will promote development and help raise living standards.

But Tibet activists say the new links will speed up the pace of Chinese migration there and dilute Tibetan Buddhist culture.

($1 = 6.3364 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Ed Lane)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111227/ts_nm/us_china_tibet_airport

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Sony, Samsung dissolve panel joint venture

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's Sony and South Korean rival Samsung are dissolving their joint venture in liquid crystal display panels as Sony tries to stanch years of losses in its TV business.

Sony Corp. said Monday that Samsung Electronics Co. will buy all of Sony's shares in the joint venture for about 1.08 trillion Korean won ($935 million) subject to a final agreement.

The joint venture called S-LCD was set up in 2004. Sony, which fell behind in flat panel TVs, invested in a Samsung panel factory to ensure a steady supply of panels for its LCD TVs.

Sony's TV operation has lost money for seven straight years and the company is straining to return that key business to profit.

The prices of TVs as well as panels have been dropping so it makes more sense to buy panels at the market rate than to invest in production.

Sony, which makes Bravia TV sets, does not make its own LCD panels.

It said it will enter a new partnership with Samsung to buy panels, and will also continue buying panels from other manufacturers.

Sony said it will suffer a loss of 66 billion yen ($846 million) for the third quarter of this fiscal year, which ends later this month, because of the declining value of investment in S-LCD.

Getting out the production venture will produce substantial savings after January 2012, when the deal is completed, according to Sony.

It was still unclear how Sony's profit forecast for the fiscal year through March 2012 will be affected, said company spokesman Takashi Uehara.

---

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_SONY_SAMSUNG?SITE=MAHYC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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Internet Scams Trick Vacationers With Fake Home Rentals

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP) ? A family from Suriname was the first of a string of guests to arrive at Steve Chase's million-dollar South Florida home expecting a vacation ? only, Chase didn't invite any of them.

All had paid thousands of dollars and had rental contracts for the Fort Lauderdale house. They were the victims of a growing number of scams that post occupied homes as available on vacation rental websites.

"I said, 'I hate to say it to you, but this house is not for rent. You've been scammed,'" Chase recalled telling the family.

"It's so sad," Chase told the South Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper. "These were good people that had good intentions, and they were just shocked."

Experts say Chase's would-be houseguests probably never get their money back or see the scam artists punished because the fraud crosses international borders, making investigation and prosecution difficult.

Websites offering vacation home rentals act as clearinghouses where homeowners can list their properties. Prospective renters then connect with the owners independently of the websites.

Scam artists are increasingly taking advantage of that arrangement, falsely listing properties and requiring unsuspecting renters to pay upfront by wiring the money or sending a check to a post office box, experts say.

Chase's neighbor, 85-year-old June Beard, also has received multiple visits from people who believed they had rented her beachfront home. Beard neither listed the property nor collected the rent.

"The poor people who have come and expect to rent our houses, it's a shame," she said.

Fort Lauderdale police say they have been stymied in efforts to locate, arrest and prosecute the culprits.

"Our problem is that the victims are from Canada and other countries," said Sgt. Steve Scelfo, head of the Fort Lauderdale police's Economic Crimes Unit. "The money's not actually coming through Fort Lauderdale. We don't have standing jurisdictionally to investigate it."

Further complicating the cases is the fact that the homeowners such as Chase are not being victimized.

"He's not out financially or really the victim of the crime," Scelfo said.

Such cases are the province of the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a federal Department of Justice clearinghouse that analyzes online fraud, he said. Few of these cases, though, see prosecution.

In addition to the family from Suriname, Chase has had to turn away a couple from Quebec and a local man who wanted to inspect the property on behalf of a New Jersey banker interested in renting the home for six adults, four children and two dogs.

The banker, Michael McKenna of Pine Beach, New Jersey, withdrew his offer and now says he only works with real estate agents on vacation rentals. "They're definitely more trustworthy than going off those Internet sites," he said.

Chase has had two fake listings in his beachfront neighborhood pulled from four websites, and he's fighting for more accountability for vacation rentals.

"I'm trying to push for some legislation to hold these websites accountable for the information they post," he said. "I'm making a lot of noise."

___

Information from: South Florida Sun Sentinel, http://www.sun sentinel.com

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/26/internet-scams-trick-vaca_n_1169414.html

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Charity hails East Africa appeal

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UK NEWS

Britons have given more than seven million pounds to Save the Children's East Africa appeal

Save the Children said its East Africa emergency appeal has become the most successful in the charity's history after Britons donated more than ?7 million in six months.

Save the Children said its East Africa emergency appeal has become the most successful in the charity's history after Britons donated more than ?7 million in six months.

The appeal, which was launched in July, has surpassed the previous record of ?6.8 million raised for Asian tsunami victims.

Save the Children's chief executive Justin Forsyth said the money was spent on providing food, clean water and healthcare to 1.7 million children affected by the drought in East Africa.

"Even when times are tough at home, this shows that British people care deeply about the world's most vulnerable children," Mr Forsyth said.

"They know that their help - however small - can be the difference between life and death for children facing unimaginable suffering."

One such child is Umi, a baby girl found by Save the Children outreach staff in a remote village in rural Kenya. Mr Forsyth said Umi had life-threatening malnutrition but made a full recovery after the charity intervened.

But he said the scale of the food crisis was enormous and thousands of other children, particularly in Somalia, urgently needed help.

An estimated 250,000 people are in urgent need of assistance in Somalia, he said, just days after International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell announced Britain was providing more than 9,000 tonnes of food supplies and medicines to drought-ravaged regions in the Horn of Africa.

Mr Mitchell told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Somalia was a direct threat to the UK's security because it was one of the "most dysfunctional countries in the world". He said aid made "the difference between life and death" as millions across the region "face a fight for life".

The Government will host a conference on Somalia in London on February 23, Prime Minister David Cameron announced last month. Mr Cameron said Somalia was a failed state during a speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet on November 14.

Source: http://uk.express.feedsportal.com/c/33338/f/565859/s/1b42905f/l/0L0Sdailyexpress0O0Cposts0Cview0C2919540CCharity0Ehails0EEast0EAfrica0Eappeal0C/story01.htm

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Paul builds campaign on doomsday scenarios (Reuters)

WASHINGTON, Iowa (Reuters) ? The man who might win the Republican Party's first presidential nominating contest fears that the United Nations may take control of the U.S. money supply.

Campaigning for the January 3 Iowa caucuses, Ron Paul warns of eroding civil liberties, a Soviet Union-style economic collapse and violence in the streets.

The Texas congressman, author of "End the Fed," also wants to eliminate the central banking system that underpins the world's largest economy.

"Not only would we audit the Federal Reserve, we may well curtail the Federal Reserve," Paul told a cheering crowd of more than 100 in this small Iowa city last week.

Paul, 76, is facing questions for racist writings that appeared under his name two decades ago, which he has disavowed as the work of "ghost writers."

But Paul's dark-horse presidential bid ultimately could founder, analysts and others say, because of increasing questions about how his unorthodox vision of government would work in the real world.

Republican rivals criticize his anti-war, isolationist approach to foreign policy as dangerously naive, and object to his plans to slash the Pentagon's budget and pull back U.S. troops from overseas.

Non-partisan analysts say his economic proposals - drastic spending cuts, elimination of the Federal Reserve and a return to the gold standard - would plunge the country back into recession.

"Paul appeals to people whose knowledge of major issues is superficial (and) he sees conspiracies where there are none," said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Potomac Research Group, an analysis firm. "If he does well in Iowa, which is likely, it will be an enormous embarrassment to the Republicans."

However, Paul's calls for a dramatically limited government and a hands-off foreign policy are resonating among voters who have grown deeply alienated from Washington after a decade of war and nearly five years of economic malaise.

"Obama got into office and I can't tell the difference between him and Bush," said Deanna Pitman, a homemaker from Bloomfield, Iowa, citing President Barack Obama's support for policies such as the Wall Street bailout and the war in Afghanistan that began under George W. Bush.

Polls show Paul jockeying for the lead in the Iowa caucuses, and political observers say his organization in the state is unmatched. His campaign stops draw hundreds of enthusiastic supporters, along with undecided voters who are giving him a look.

On the campaign trail, he reaches out to Tea Party supporters on the right and Occupy Wall Street supporters on the left.

Some potential supporters from the left have been put off by Paul's uncompromising support for the free market.

At a campaign stop in this small city of about 7,000, Paul told breast cancer survivor Danielle Lin that insurance companies should not be required to offer coverage to people who are already sick.

"It's sort of like me living on the Gulf Coast, not buying insurance until I see the hurricane," said Paul, whose Galveston-based district was devastated by a hurricane in 2008. "Insurance is supposed to measure risk."

The response left Lin in tears. While her insurance covered her treatment, she said, several of her friends were not so fortunate.

"I watched three friends die because they didn't have insurance," said Lin, a registered Democrat who is looking for a Republican candidate to support this time.

"Nobody can afford private insurance, nobody can. And they're dead."

APOCALYPTIC SCENARIOS

Paul can wax apocalyptic as he warns of the dangers of a diluted currency and a deeply indebted government. His doomsday scenarios often are incomplete, leaving listeners room to fill in the blanks.

He draws parallels between the current situation in the United States and that of the former Soviet Union, whose economy collapsed amid the union's breakup and civil unrest in 1991.

Paul acknowledges that his proposal to avoid that outcome - an immediate, $1 trillion spending cut that would slash the federal budget by more than one-third and eliminate the departments of Education, Energy, Commerce, Interior, and Housing and Urban Development - could have some unpleasant side effects.

"I'm afraid of violence coming," he told a crowd of more than 600 in Bettendorf, Iowa. "When you see what the government is preparing for, and the arrests and military law, and the demonstrations in the streets, some people aren't going to be convinced so easily that you don't owe them a living."

At the earlier stop in Washington, he said the Federal Reserve was poised to "bail out" the Euro zone, a move that he said ultimately would cause the United States to surrender control of its own currency to the United Nations.

"This monetary crisis is well known by the international bankers. They want the U.N. to come in and solve this problem," he said. "The dollar will probably eventually disintegrate and be taken over. But I don't want the U.N. issuing that currency."

Economists note that Paul's long-standing proposal to return the dollar to a gold standard would force the United States to relinquish control of its currency.

"We would still have monetary policy - it would be set by gold miners in South Africa and Uzbekistan, rather than bureaucrats in Washington," said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist with JPMorgan Chase.

"If you like what OPEC means for oil prices, you'd love what the gold standard would do to financial markets."

(Editing by David Lindsey)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/un/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111226/ts_nm/us_usa_campaign_paul

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Chris Paul, Clips beat Warriors 105-86 in opener

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? Chris Paul could nitpick everything the Clippers didn't do in his much-hyped debut ? and he boldly referred to the rebounding as "horrendous."

Los Angeles' prize acquisition would rather envision how special his team might be once everybody's clicking and has more than 10 days together.

Paul had 20 points and nine assists, Blake Griffin added 22 points and seven rebounds and Los Angeles beat the Golden State Warriors 105-86 on Sunday night to spoil Mark Jackson's opener as a first-time coach.

"While we try to figure each other out and learn guys' hot spots and stuff like that, we want to win at the same time," Paul said. "We just keep talking about 'We've just got to find a way to win, regardless of how it looks, how ugly the game is, we've got to find ways to win.'"

Monta Ellis had 15 points and eight assists after his grandmother's death earlier in the day in Mississippi, and David Lee added 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Warriors, who cut the Clippers' lead to a point at 78-77 with 9:35 left on Brandon Rush's 3-pointer before Los Angeles pulled away.

It was hardly a spectacular opener for CP3 and Co., though coach Vinny Del Negro certainly will take methodical any day. These new-look Clippers hope to shine as Los Angeles' other NBA team, perhaps no longer the Lakers' stepchild.

"We grinded it out defensively when we needed to," Del Negro said. "We controlled the tempo in the fourth quarter. I just know we can play better."

Paul ? who nearly wound up with Kobe Bryant and the Lakers before the NBA nixed the trade ? teamed with Chauncey Billups and Griffin for the first time since joining the Clippers in a Dec. 14 trade from New Orleans.

Billups scored 21 points and hit a key 3-pointer late for Los Angeles, which plays at San Antonio on Wednesday night before returning for four in a row and seven of eight at Staples Center.

Paul had a quiet first half: seven points on 1-for-6 shooting in 19 minutes. But he came on with several clutch baskets in the waning minutes to finish 7 for 12.

"Just try to manage the game. It's not my first rodeo, it's seven years," Paul said. "This is the first year I think I've had as many options as I do."

Each time the Warriors got close, Los Angeles found an answer.

Andris Biedrins scored on a running hook with 6:51 left to cut the Clippers' lead to a point again at 82-81, then Mo Williams came through moments later. Caron Butler's 3-pointer with 4:55 remaining in the third quarter gave the Clippers the first double-digit lead at 63-53.

Many fans among the sellout crowd of 19,596 at revamped Oracle Arena wore Warriors Santa hats, while the Clippers got into the holiday spirit with bright green socks to go with their bright red uniforms. Billups added matching green shoes to his game ensemble.

Jackson, who hadn't coached at any level after a successful playing career, appreciated longtime friends Chris Mullin, Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Breen handling the broadcast for the final opener on Christmas.

Van Gundy and Breen pulled off a remarkable double dip after beginning their day in Dallas calling the Heat's 105-94 win over the Mavericks before hopping a charter flight to the Bay Area for the nightcap.

Jackson, with his defense-focused approach, guaranteed the Warriors will be a playoff team after making the postseason just once since 1994. Golden State has been building around the theme "Big Things are Coming," and turned that to "Big Things are Here" for the long-awaited, lockout-delayed opener.

"We are a team right now that plays in spurts. The great teams don't do that, it gets you in trouble," Jackson said. "There are times we look like we really understand what we're trying to accomplish and then there are times ... we look like a lost basketball team."

Jackson's Warriors face a quick turnaround with Chicago in town Monday night.

Point guard Stephen Curry started for Golden State despite being questionable after he sprained his surgically repaired right ankle in an exhibition game at Sacramento last Tuesday night. Curry ? who warmed up extensively on the ankle and wore a special padded sleeve and brace ? was 2 for 12 for four points.

"We understand this is the night when the lights turned on, it didn't feel like we were unprepared or anything, we just didn't have our best performance in the fourth quarter," Curry said.

Biedrins, bulked up by 15 pounds to 256 and determined for a comeback season, had 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots as the Warriors held a 48-43 advantage on the boards.

"I think the biggest thing that killed us was our rebounding," Paul said. "Our rebounding was horrendous. Our defense wasn't as nice as we'd have liked it to be. We were good in spurts. It's a tough environment."

Klay Thompson, the Warriors' rookie first-round pick, scored seven points in 19 minutes off the bench in his first game with Golden State. Owner Joe Lacob predicted Thompson will be in the running for Rookie of the Year.

Dorell Wright's 3-pointer 4:36 before halftime pulled Golden State within 36-35, then Ellis scored on a driving fast-break layin the next time down to give his team the lead and cap a 9-0 run. The Warriors led 43-41 at halftime after closing with a 15-5 run. They went 2 for 10 from long range to the Clippers' 3 for 12.

"A win like that, we'll take it, especially the first one," Griffin said. "We've had practice for about a week now together. It's going to take some time."

Notes: The Warriors paid tribute before tipoff to Ellis' grandmother, Mary Cole, who died Christmas morning at age 89. Last week, a sexual harassment lawsuit was filed against Ellis by a former Warriors employee. The team has said their relationship was consensual. ... Clippers C DeAndre Jordan might have wound up with the Warriors had Los Angeles not matched Golden State's four-year, $42.7 million offer earlier this month. "It would've been great to play with Monta and Stephen and those guys but the Clippers matched and I'm happy I'm here and I'll be grateful to those guys (Warriors front office) the rest of my career," said Jordan, who scored in the first quarter on a pretty alley-oop dunk off a pass from Butler. Jordan had eight blocks, six points and five rebounds. He was 4 of 12 from the free-throw line.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-26-Clippers-Warriors/id-633c7ba6572a42ccbcb80d9b31683b9b

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Christmas Penguin Parade

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William and Kate Attend Homeless Charity Event in London: PHOTOS

Prince William and wife Kate stepped out Wednesday night to share and give back to the Centrepoint homeless charity in south London which William's mother, the late Princess Diana strongly supported.

Kate Middleton dressed casually in a hunter green turtleneck dress by Ralph Lauren, and a wide black belt clinching her tiny waist, paired with black tights and knee-high black suede at the charity event. While William wore corduroy and a royal blue pullover sweater.

The couple also took part in a session on healthful cooking and attend a talent show at the charity, which helps homeless young people. Kate and William donned white Centrepoint aprons and baked mince pies for the residents.

The national charity Centrepoint provides housing and support to improve the lives of homeless young people aged 16 to 25. Prince William famously spent the night on the streets of London in 2009 Christmas to deepen his understanding of homelessness.

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/271834/20111222/william-kate-attend-homeless-charity-event-london.htm

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Bristol-Myers? liver cancer drug fails to meet main goal of phase 3 study ? Proactive Investors USA & Canada

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Spectacular Photos: Astronaut Sees Dazzling Comet From Space Station (SPACE.com)

An astronaut living in space has captured an unprecedented view of a comet from orbit in a jaw-dropping set of photos taken over a nighttime Earth.

The amazing images show comet Lovejoy, which survived a trip through the sun's atmosphere last week. They were snapped by veteran NASA astronaut Daniel Burbank, who is currently commander of the International Space Station.

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And even for a seasoned spaceflyer, the sight was amazing to behold.

It was "the most amazing thing I've ever seen in space," Burbank said in a NASA video. "And that's saying an awful lot because every day is filled with amazing things."

Burbank took about 100 photographs of comet Lovejoy as it rose above Earth at night on Wednesday (Dec. 21). At the time, the space station was sailing 240 miles (386 kilometers) above Tasmania, Burbank said. Then the long, bright tail of the comet began rising up from the Earth's horizon.

"I had no idea what it was; it was a long green glowing arc," Burbank said in the video, which was recorded in an interview with WDIV-TV in Detroit. "It turns out that it ended up being a comet." [Astronaut's amazing comet photos and video]

Burbank is in the middle of a six-month mission to the International Space Station. He leads a three-man crew (two Russian cosmonauts round out the team) and is preparing to welcome three more astronauts on Friday (Dec. 23). A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying the new crewmembers launched on Wednesday.

Comet Lovejoy was discovered on Nov. 27 by Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy. The comet was estimated to be about 660 feet (200 meters) wide, larger than two football fields, when it was first seen.

The comet was quickly identified as a so-called Kreutz comet, a comet on a path that flies extremely close to the sun. Then, on Dec. 15, comet Lovejoy plunged into the sun's outer atmosphere.

The comet zoomed within 87,000 miles (140,000 kilometers) of the sun's surface, and many astronomers predicted it would not survive such a close solar encounter. But comet Lovejoy defied the odds and re-emerged on the other side of the sun. The event stunned astronomers and was captured by several sun-watching observatories in space.

The swing near the sun did rip comet Lovejoy's tail clean off, but over the last week the comet has grown a new tail of gas blown back by the solar wind.

"When it disappeared behind the sun, I think astronomers thought it would not appear again, it would probably burn up," Burbank said. "But it's probably the most spectacular thing that you can imagine."

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter?@tariqjmalik.?Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter?@Spacedotcom?and on?Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20111222/sc_space/spectacularphotosastronautseesdazzlingcometfromspacestation

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Gusty Santa Ana winds hit Southern California

A 100 year- old Pine Tree came down in the high winds this morning on Burritt Way near New York Av in LaCresenta, Ca. The tree, according to Glendale firefighters, who were there, before it came down, came down very slowly and gracefully, taking out a gas line and causing the evacuation of one or two homes. There were no injuries. (Photo by Mike Meadows)

LaCresenta, Ca 12-22-11 A 100 year- old Pine Tree came down in the high winds this morning on Burritt Way near New York Av in LaCresenta, Ca. The tree, according to Glendale firefighters, who were there, before it came down, came down very slowly and gracefully, taking out a gas line and causing the evacuation of one or two homes. There were no injuries. (Photo by Mike Meadows) (Mike Meadows)

The latest round of gusty winds to hit California toppled trucks and trees and fanned a small brush fire on Thursday.

Gusts of Santa Ana winds topped 70 mph in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles, but by midafternoon the region had escaped without a repeat of the millions of dollars of damage and huge blackouts caused by hurricane-force blasts three weeks earlier.

The brush fire was reported in a rural foothill canyon area near Santa Paula, said Ventura County fire Capt. Ron Oatman.

The blaze, believed to have started in a grove of avocado trees, spread across 12 to 15 acres but was not threatening any homes, he said. Several fire trucks and bulldozers were dispatched.

The National Weather Service said the Santa Anas, generated by a strong high-pressure system over the Great Basin, would continue through today in Southern California, but no "red flag" warnings for fire danger would be issued because fuel conditions were not at critical levels.

Gusts faster than 70 mph were recorded at Warm Springs and Chilao in the Angeles National Forest.

Several tractor-trailers blew over on wind-prone routes in the inland region east of Los Angeles and video cameras recorded a huge tree in Glendale losing its hold on the earth and collapsing across a street. Another tree fell on a residential building in Santa Ana, KCAL Channel 9 reported.

Weather was also blustery in other parts of California.

During a Nov. 30 Southern California windstorm with gusts approaching 100 mph, trees were toppled, power poles and traffic light standards snapped, homes and cars were damaged, and electricity was cut to nearly 650,000 homes and business.

Most of that damage occurred east of Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley. No injuries were reported amid the blizzard of flying debris, but some homes lost power for a week, triggering complaints against utilities.

On Thursday, work crews were on standby in Pasadena, where the last windstorm covered nearly all of the 325 miles of city streets in debris that still is being cleared.

"It's a big, big job," city spokeswoman Ann Erdman said. "It's slow and steady. Crews continue to work night and day getting it done."

By early afternoon no damage had been reported.

"We're anticipating some gusts from time to time in Pasadena but they absolutely will not even begin to hold a candle to what happened here three weeks ago," Erdman said.

Still, she added, "we do encourage all our residents to be prepared, batten down the hatches."

Online:

Southern California Edison: www.sce.com/

www.Twitter.com/SoCalEdison

www.Facebook.com/SoCalEdison

Source: http://www.dailynews.com/ci_19600381?source=rss_viewed

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Michelangelo Signorile: Cold-Blooded on the Campaign Trail (Huffington post)

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