Employers hire people they'd like to hang out with

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A new research paper finds employers tend to favor job candidates they want to hang out with.

By Allison Linn, TODAY

Chances are, you?ll never see a job listing like this: ?Help (and friend) wanted???Must share common interests and be fun to spend time with.

But a research paper released Thursday?finds that when it comes to choosing job candidates, employers place a heavy emphasis on finding people who are similar to them, and whose company they enjoy.

Lauren Rivera, an assistant professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University, spent two years interviewing people who were hiring entry-level candidates for several elite law, investment and consulting firms.

She found that the companies did give considerable weight to whether the candidates were qualified for the job, including looking at things like which university they graduated from, what grades they earned and their knowledge of the field.

But she was surprised to find how much importance they placed on finding candidates who were a good ?cultural fit? for the company. That often meant things like sharing a common interest in certain sports or extracurricular activities, or just being the type of person you?d be content to go on a business trip with.

As one consultant she interviewed put it:

?It seems like we?re always at work. We work nights; we work weekends; we are pretty much in the office or traveling. It?s way more fun if the people around you are your friends.?

Rivera also gave evaluators mock resumes listing certain extracurricular activities. She found that some evaluators accepted, or rejected, candidates based on things totally unrelated to job experience and qualifications, such as whether they?d played squash or lacrosse.

Of course, it makes sense that people will hire people that they like. But Rivera said she was surprised by how openly people talked about recruiting candidates in the same terms they might use to discuss finding friends or even romantic partners.

?I expected people to be a bit more guarded, but I think it?s taken for granted (that this is) part of the industry: I need to be able to get along with you,? she said.

There are clear upsides to hiring people you like, because you are more likely to get along with them and work well together. But Rivera noted that, especially at the elite firms she was focused on, the shared interests and extracurricular activities also often signaled a middle- to upper middle-class upbringing.

?There is definitely a bias concern, and I think class bias is definitely an issue,? she said.

She thinks that people from lower economic classes or more diverse backgrounds might be excluded from those jobs simply because they didn?t do certain extracurricular activities, or didn?t know to?put them on their resumes.

?Firms can miss out on great people,? she said.

Rivera said other highly technical industries, such as engineering or neuroscience, may place less importance on finding co-workers they like and more on?the skills needed to do the job. But she does think that in any industry, part of selection process is going to involve looking for people you get along with.

The findings of Rivera?s research didn?t come as a surprise to Comila Shahani-Denning, an associate professor of industrial and organizational psychology at Hofstra University.

Shahani-Denning has done research on how being attractive can affect people?s chances of getting jobs or commanding higher salaries. She?s currently looking at how LinkedIn and other social media sites are affecting hiring decisions.

Because?employers are looking for good cultural fits,?jobseekers should be especially careful about the photos they post on sites like LinkedIn, and about?the extracurricular activities they list and the groups they belong to. Those things can help you make a connection with an employer, but they can also exclude you from a potential job.

Shahani-Denning also?cautioned that by hiring candidates similar to their current staff, employers miss out on people who might bring different perspectives or experiences to the workplace.

?My feeling is that although it?s an attractive kind of tool to use, it can be dangerous,? she said.

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Would you rather work with a person you really get along with, or one who is really great at the job?

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Source: http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2012/11/29/15517520-employers-tend-to-hire-people-theyd-like-to-hang-out-with?lite

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Mexico's fearless woman mayor who survived two drug gang assassination attempts is beaten to death and dumped by the roadside

She had survived two assassination attempts which claimed the life of her first husband and left her with horrific wounds that never really healed.

But despite being a marked woman, Maria Santos Gorrostieta remained defiant to the very end.

With unimaginable courage, the 36-year-old stood up to the drugs gangs that had ravaged Mexico and Tiquicheo, the district where she once served as mayor. When some doubted that she had been shot, Gorrostieta bared the scars that riddled her flesh and swore she would never give in.

It was almost inevitable that she would eventually pay for her bravery with her life.

Gorrostieta's body - stabbed, burned, battered and bound at wrist and ankle - was found dumped by a roadside in San Juan Tararameo, Cuitzeo Township.

She left behind three young sons. Her second husband Nereo Delgado Patinoran, understood to have vanished at the same time she did, is still missing.

Gorrostieta had seen her government security team withdrawn in November last year, and then her police escort in January.

The decision has provoked much soul-searching in Mexico which has been torn apart by brutal drug cartels.

She had become an icon in Mexico for her work against the gangs and had been described as a heroine of the 21st century.

Gorrostieta was elected as mayor of Tiquicheo, a rural district in Michoacan, west of Mexico City, in 2008.

Almost immediately, she received threats. The first assassination attempt came in October 2009 when the car she was travelling in with her first husband Jose Sanchez came under fire from gunmen in the town of El Limone.

The attack claimed his life but Gorrostieta lived. An attempt had been made on Sanchez's life earlier that year, but he managed to escape the armed mob who came after him.

Gorrostieta bravely battled back from her injuries in the face of overwhelming tragedy, but she was not destined to know peace.

The next attempt on her life was just three months later, when an masked group carrying assault rifles ambushed her on the road between Michoacan and Guerreo state. The van she was traveling in was peppered by 30 bullets. Three hit her.

This time Gorrostieta's injuries were more severe, leaving multiple scars and forcing her to wear a colostomy bag. She was left in constant pain.

A reporter was also wounded in the attack, as well as her press officer and brother.

In a famous act of defiance, she posed for pictures showing the extent of her horrifying wounds to draw attention to the brutality the drug gangs routinely mete out to their opponents.

In a statement to the public made at the time, the devout Catholic said: 'At another stage in my life, perhaps I would have resigned from what I have, my position, my responsibilities as the leader of my Tiquicheo.

'But today, no. It is not possible for me to surrender when I have three sons, whom I have to educate by setting an example, and also because of the memory of the man of my life, the father of my three little ones, the one who was able to teach me the value of things and to fight for them.

'Although he is no longer with us, he continues to be the light that guides my decisions.'

She added: 'I struggle day to day to erase from my mind the images of the horror I lived, and that others who did not deserve or expect it also suffered.

'I wanted to show them my wounded, mutilated, humiliated body, because Im not ashamed of it, because it is the product of the great misfortunes that have scarred my life, that of my children and my family.'

'Despite my own safety and that of my family, what occupies my mind is my responsibility towards my people, the children, the women, the elderly and the men who break their souls every day without rest to find a piece of bread for their children.

'Freedom brings with it responsibilities and I dont dare fall behind. My long road is not yet finished - the footprint that we leave behind in our country depends on the battle that we lose and the loyalty we put into it.'

After her ordeal she remarried and ran for a seat in Mexico's Congress of the Union, but failed to gain the backing she needed.

Her family reported her missing on November 14 and her body was found three days later.

A murder hunt has been launched and police are still searching for her missing husband.

Mexico has been torn apart by murderous drug gangs since President Felipe Calderon launched his drug offensive in 2006.

More than 50,000 people have been killed in clashes between rival drug cartels and security forces and about two dozen mayors have been murdered.

The cartels have ruled the streets with fear for years, enforcing their authority with murders, bribery and torture.

But after decades of using force to combat the gangs, it is U.S. lawmakers who are the criminals' biggest problem.

Legalisation of marijuana, as recently voted for by Colorado and Washington states, may wipe billions of dollars from the cartels annual profits.

And it has left politicians in Mexico with a tough question: How can they continue to justify spending money and lives fighting drug distribution to America when it will be legal in some states from next month?

Mexico presidential advisor Luis Videgaray said in a radio interview last week: 'Obviously, we cant handle a product that is illegal in Mexico, trying to stop its transfer to the United States, when in the United States, at least in part of the United States, it now has a different status'

From January to September last year, 12,903 people were killed in the country in drug-related crime, ranging from gang members, Mexican military and innocent victims caught up in gun battles.

The Mexican government claim they are winning the war on drugs, but few outside or inside the country believe that.

So corrupt are their police that they are rarely employed in combating the cartels. Instead, the country relies on its army to tackle the gangs while it attempts to rebuild its police forces.

Public support for the drug war continues to fall as the death toll rises and the cartels profits rise.

The business of trafficking drugs from Mexico into the U.S. is estimated to be a business worth between $13billion (8billion) and $49billion (30billion), with 90 per cent of all cocaine used in America originating from the country, according to a U.S. state report.

The U.S. Justice Department considers the cartels as Americas greatest organised crime threat, while conceding that it is U.S. dollars that fund the crime ravaging Mexico.

In 2009 a military assessment predicted that if the drugs war continued for another 25 years, Mexicos government was at serious risk of collapse and the conflict would spread into America.

A year earlier, the U.S. Joint Forces Command suggested a similar time-scale of collapse in Mexico and warned American intervention may be necessary due to the implications for homeland security.

The problem of strengthening the Mexico/U.S. border even prompted President Barack Obama to deploy 1,200 National Guard troops in 2010.

The two major cartels in Mexico are now the Sinaloa Cartel and Los Zetas.

The Sinaloa Cartel was formed when several gangs agreed to join forces in 2006 and is now led by Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman.

He is Mexico's most wanted drug trafficker and is believed to be worth $1billion. Forbes magazing even declared him the 55th most powerful man in the world in 2009.

Los Zetas were originally a mercenary outfit of former elite members of the Mexican army by the Gulf Cartel.

Consisting of Airmobile Special Forces Group and Amphibian Group of Special Forces members, they helped control parts of Mexico for the Gulf Cartel until its leader, Osiel Cardenas Guillen, was arrested.

Los Zetas took the opportunity to seize power for themselves and are now a 300-strong independent drugs and arms trafficking gang under the leadership of Heriberto Lazcano.

BRAVERY, LOSS AND SACRIFICE: THE LIFE OF DR MARIA GORROSTIETA

Gorrostieta was born in 1976 and graduated in medicine from a university in the city of Morelia.

She was elected mayor of Tiquicheo in 2008 and served until 2011. During that time she defected from the Institutional Revolutionary party to the left-wing Democratic Revolution party.

In January 2009 her husband Jose Sanchez Chavez was set upon by an armed group but escaped

In October that year Maria was attacked while she was with her husband as they drove along in El Limone. Jose died that day from gunshot wounds. Maria survived but was taken to a hospital in Morelia, the state capital.

On January 23, 2010, she was attacked by men with machine guns in Ciudad Altamirano Guerrero, on her way to an event at the City Hall. She was severely injured after being hit by three bullets, as well as receiving wounds in the crash after the shooting, and had to use a colostomy bag. She said her wounds left her in constant pain.

On Saturday November 17 her body was found by farm workers from San Juan Tararameo, Cuitzeo Township, who were heading to work. She was discovered on the property known as El Chupadero. The next day she was identified by members of her family.

Source: http://www.republicbroadcasting.org/index.php?cmd=news.article&articleID=4545

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Two Iranian navy ships to visit Sudan again

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Two Iranian navy ships will dock in Sudan this week to refuel, state news agency SUNA said on Monday, the second such visit in a month since Sudan accused Israel of bombing an arms factory.

Sudan blamed Israeli military planes for a huge explosion last month at the Yarmouk plant in Khartoum, the country's biggest small arms and ammunition factory. Four people were killed during the blast, according to Sudan.

Israel has not commented on the accusations but Israeli officials have accused Sudan of funnelling weapons via the Egyptian Sinai desert to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Sudan has good ties with Iran and Hamas.

Sudan's army spokesman al-Sawarmi Khalid told SUNA two Iranian navy ships would dock on Friday at the Red Sea port of Port Sudan to refuel and take "logistical provisions" on board.

"They will stay for three days as part of normal and routine work which the Sudanese navy is undertaking," he said.

SUNA did not mention the ships' names. Last month, an Iranian destroyer and a helicopter carrier docked at Port Sudan.

Sawarmi also said a Pakistani navy ship would dock at the port the day before for refueling.

Iran said in June it had plans to build more warships and increase its presence in international waters, particularly to protect its cargo ships around the world.

Pirates in the Gulf of Aden in January hijacked an Iranian ship carrying 30,000 tonnes of petrochemical products to a North African country.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing; editing by Jason Webb)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/two-iranian-navy-ships-visit-sudan-again-173442675--finance.html

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How a small business can make the most of job interviews ...

Holding job interviews can be a lengthy process, and are often deemed tedious and resource intensive. However, holding carefully prepared job interviews could reduce potential costs in the future.

Treat the recruitment process seriously and prepare thoroughly before the interview process starts. Decide beforehand what skills and behaviours are necessary for the position and create a system which can be used to measure applicants against your expectations. Consider the interview itself, as something slightly different may draw special qualities out of the job candidate. Moving away from a typical format of a job interview may also prevent a candidate sticking to rehearsed answers. You may even consider using social media to find out something about the job candidates; this is a common practice.

To avoid forming an instant impression of a person, prepare questions and techniques carefully for the interview. Although you may be tempted to rush through the interview process, make sure that you have asked the questions which will draw out a person?s true character so that you find the most suitable person for the job. This could save time and money by reducing the chance of having to enter into the recruitment process again in the future and may even reduce the need for training.

Hold the interviews at a venue which is conducive to honest and open discussion; a place which creates a feeling of calm and relaxation. If your place of business is bustling and noisy, consider the short term renting of a serviced office or meeting room to ensure a peaceful environment.

Source: http://www.mwbex.com/industry-news/index.php/2012/11/20/how-a-small-business-can-make-the-most-of-job-interviews/

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Gaza?s Grim Prophecy

The Gaza crisis teeters between the momentum of violence and a cease-fire all sides desperately want but no one can easily stomach. Many lives tragically hang in that precarious balance, but the outcome does not. Israel enjoys such overwhelming military superiority over Hamas militants that a tactical victory has always been assured, as evidenced by the lopsided death toll to date of over 100 Palestinians killed to three Israelis. The only question from the outset of Israel?s launching of ?Operation Pillar of Defense??in response to escalating rocket attacks from Gaza, was at what cost?

Even as rockets, guided bombs, and naval artillery continue to crisscross the skies over one of the most densely populated parcels in the region, however, the second Gaza war has already offered a revealing glimpse of a future Middle East in the post-Arab Spring era. The fact that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has cut short her Asian trip with President Obama and rushed to the region to try and stave off an Israeli ground invasion suggests that she grasps the strategic implications of that vision. With the sound of air raid sirens echoing all the way to Tel Aviv and impact clouds blossoming on the horizon, Israeli leaders contemplating that vastly altered Mideast landscape should also find it deeply troubling.

The Gaza conflict has highlighted two powerful trends that have emerged from the Arab Spring revolutions. In country after country, democratic elections have elevated Islamist governments that have strived to more accurately reflect the will of the Arab street, and no grievance more inflames Arab public opinion than the Palestinian cause. The fact that those new governments are not only Islamist but weak (or, in the case of the Syrian government-in-waiting, fighting a violent civil war) has also created far more fertile soil and room to maneuver for violent Islamist extremist groups.?

Gaza offers an early preview of how those trends can conflate disastrously. With Islamist governments giving support and diplomatic legitimacy to Islamic militants who Israel and the United States consider terrorists, the conflict has empowered radicals and marginalized moderates in the Palestinian nationalist movement. Left unchecked, that dynamic has the potential to push nascent governments to the radical right, ensnare Israel in a perpetual cycle of tactical skirmishes with an ever-more-potent opposition, and over time doom the prospects for a negotiated peace. The net result would leave Israel, and by association the United States, increasingly isolated in the region.

?With the backing of Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar in this conflict, the Islamists of Hamas are demonstrating that they are the primary force within the Palestinian movement, and that [Palestinian Authority President] Mahmoud Abbas has no influence over the situation,? said Dennis Ross, formerly President Obama?s special adviser for the Middle East. The new status quo, he said, is thus strengthening radical elements and weakening moderates in the region. ?That?s a very negative trajectory.?

Consider what prompted Hamas to break an uneasy ceasefire and publicly take credit for escalating rocket attacks on Israel. Regionally over the past 18-months, violent jihadi groups have flocked to the fighting in Syria; launched multiple suicide bombings in Iraq; seized territory in Yemen and Mali; and attacked the U.S. consulate and killed four American diplomats in Libya. Likewise, extremist Salafi and jihadi groups have been increasingly active in Egypt?s Sinai and next-door in the Gaza strip.?

?There?s been tremendous tension within Hamas for some time as it attempted to balance its role as the governing power in Gaza with its identity as the face of the Palestinian resistance,? said Matthew Levitt, a senior fellow in counterterrorism at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. With Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Salafi groups increasingly operating inside Gaza in the past year, he said, Hamas felt its power challenged from the radical right. ?The increased rocket attacks were a way for Hamas to reestablish its resistance credibility,? said Levitt. ?

As an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas also rightly calculated that it could depend on far more diplomatic support from Cairo than it had received during the long reign of former President and secular strongman Hosni Mubarak. President Mohammed Morsi, himself a Muslim Brotherhood official, called Israel a ?terrorist nation? because of its actions in Gaza. Not even Hamas leader Khaled Meshal could have anticipated, however, the outpouring of diplomatic support from around the region, which included meetings in Cairo with Morsi, the emir of Qatar, and Turkey?s Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who accused Israel of ?ethnic cleansing? in Gaza. Hamas also received supportive visits to Gaza during the crisis from senior Tunisian and Egyptian officials.

After Israel?s 2008 ?Cast Lead? operation against Hamas that killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza and shattered Israel-Turkish relations, U.S. military officials redoubled efforts to bolster the secular Palestinian Authority by training and equipping Palestinian security forces that have kept the peace on the West Bank ever since. The strategy, U.S. generals said, was to give Palestinians a moderate and secular alternative to Hamas and bolster the peace-making prospects of the Palestinian Authority?s?Abbas, a man who rejects violence and is widely considered the most moderate Palestinian leader ever.

In the intervening four years, however, Israel?s refusal to halt settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a precondition to restart peace talks, despite considerable pressure from the Obama administration, has left Abbas with little to show for his moderation. Later this month, a dispirited Abbas is scheduled to unilaterally go to the United Nations and seek nonmember state status for Palestine in a futile and symbolic gesture that Israel has labeled an act of aggression. Meanwhile, real rockets rain down on southern Israel, Hamas leader Meshal is being feted in Cairo like a head of state, and the lyrics to a new hit song on the West Bank carries a pro-Hamas message that roughly translates to ?give violence a chance.?

In the after-action reviews, Operation Pillar of Defense will inevitably be characterized as another tactical military victory for Israel that dealt a severe blow to Hamas. Viewed strategically, through the prism of a radically altered Middle East landscape, it looks like anything but.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gaza-grim-prophecy-165759142--politics.html

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Sierra Leone: Governing party confident of win

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) ? Sierra Leone's governing party said Monday it was confident that incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma would win the weekend election without the need for a second round.

The announcement came as Sierra Leoneans awaited official results from the country's National Electoral Commission, which legally has 10 days to announce the results from Saturday's vote.

Observers said Monday that the West African nation still recovering from a brutal civil war that ended a decade ago had managed to carry out a largely peaceful and well-conducted election.

Koroma must garner 55 percent of the ballots cast or he will face his main opponent Julius Maada Bio in a second round of voting.

"The electoral laws give NEC 10 days within which to announce the results. We may be lucky that NEC works faster. I do not think there will be surprises," said Victor Bockarie Foh, National Secretary-General of the ruling All Peoples Congress party.

Earlier in the day, chief European Union observer Richard Howitt stressed that it was up to the country's election body to make a decision on when to announce the results.

"Clearly the National Electoral Commission will want to take sufficient time and care to ensure the accurate accounting of the vote but they will want to move as quickly as possible with the announcement of the results before any risks of instability or unrest," Howitt said.

Sierra Leone's chief elections officer Christiana Thorpe said that polling "was reported to be peaceful and orderly in almost all polling stations nationwide."

She, however, noted that polling was disrupted by a swarm of honey bees in ward 135 in the Kambia District.

"The polling station was automatically relocated and polling went on peacefully," she said.

The EU mission noted that there were isolated reports of the governing party distributing cash payments. While the mission was assured that the amount of money involved amounted to a local "handshake," Howitt said in one case there was "a significant amount of money involved."

There also was a report of one polling station where voters who presented ID cards were allowed to vote though they ultimately were not on the voter registry, Howitt said. The ballot boxes in question were under quarantine pending an investigation, he added.

The U.S.-based Carter Center also said Monday that Sierra Leone's vote had been "peaceful, orderly and transparent." Some polled opened late and in some cases there were shortages of election materials, the observers noted.

"These shortfalls were generally addressed by midday and they did not undermine the fundamental integrity of the electoral process," said former Zambian President Rupiah Banda who is with the Carter Center delegation.

The observer mission from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS also noted a few isolated incidents, including the absence of back-up lighting which required party agents to improvise with cellphones and flashlights to enable counting in the dark.

Sierra Leone's presidential race has hinged on which candidate can best uplift this West African country trying to shed its past after a brutal 1991-2002 civil war.

A decade after the war's end, Sierra Leone remains one of the poorest countries in the world despite its diamonds and other riches. Several recent offshore oil discoveries, though, are raising hopes for economic development.

Most of the country's nearly 6 million people live on less than $1.25 a day, and it remains among the deadliest places in the world for women to give birth. Earlier this year, the capital was hard-hit by a cholera outbreak.

While Sierra Leone already had held two mostly peaceful votes since the war's end, experts said Saturday's vote would be a crucial test of whether those gains were irreversible.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised Sierra Leonean voters for the "peaceful and largely orderly elections.

"The high voter turnout and the remarkable calm displayed by the country's citizens as they cast their votes are a clear manifestation of their desire for peace, democracy and development," said a statement released by his spokesperson.

The incumbent president, Koroma, has pointed to his accomplishments during his first term, pleading with voters in his campaign signs: "I Will Do More."

He faced eight opponents including leading opposition figure Julius Maada Bio, a retired brigadier-general who calls himself the "father of democracy" after his brief three-month tenure at the country's helm in 1996.

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Associated Press writer Krista Larson contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-governing-party-confident-win-190523406.html

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Food Labeling: How to Identify Conventional, Organic and GMO ...

What can you tell from those numbers on fruit and vegetable stickers?

The price look-up (PLU) code system used by most produce distributors has the side benefit of allowing consumers to identify conventional and organic produce at the grocery store. Even though the defeat of Proposition 37 means that genetically engineered information will not be added to labels at this time, PLU codes do have the potential to identify genetically engineered produce. This video shows you how to read PLU codes to unlock the information that is already right at your fingertips.

Using Price Look-up Codes (PLUs), the Nutshell:
• PLU codes are four digit numbers that identify different types of produce. For example, #4011 is the code for a standard yellow banana.
• The number 9 prefix added to a PLU signifies that an item is organic. For example, #94011 is the code for an organic yellow banana.
• A number 8 prefix added to a PLU signifies that an item is genetically engineered (GE). For example, #84011 is the code for a genetically engineered yellow banana.
• PLU codes and their organic prefixes are in wide use but GE codes are rare at best.

Related posts

Tags: featured, Food Labeling, GE, genetically modified organisms, GMOs, labeling, organic

Category: food and drink, food trends and technology, health and nutrition, politics, activism, food safety, tv, film, video, photography

Source: http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2012/11/20/food-labeling-how-to-identify-conventional-organic-and-gmo-produce/

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MObile Nations Movember Week 2 Update - Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow!

Mobile Nations Network Movember Funds Raised so far: $6,639 (USD)

Welcome to our second Mobile Nations Movember update. We'll be bringing you these updates every Sunday throughout the month of Movember (formerly known as November) as we grow out our moustaches and raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer research and men's mental health issues.

Our Mobile Nations effort has grown to 95 individuals from around the world taking part and together we have already raised over $6,000 for the cause. We want to end the month with over $10,000 raised, so while we are on track we still need your support! Donations can be made easily over the web. Simply jump over to our Mobile Nations Network page, click on the name of any of the individuals listed as part of the network, and hit the donate button. All funds donated to an individual will pass through to the network total.

We're now 11 days into Movember, which means for most of us our moustaches have sprouted nicely, but are still a long way off from that luxurious full bloom look we seek. Some of us are having more success than others. For myself, my moustache is still looking pretty pathetic, so just yesterday followed Nick Offerman's How to Grow a Moustache Advice (and Derek Kessler's dare) and ate a raw onion to fuel my moustache growth. Watch the video above to see how that all played out.

Keep reading for more on Movember and to see some great moustache photos from the team!

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What is Movember?

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The League of Extraordinary Moustaches

If you troll youtube this Movember, you'll find lots of videos popping up. Movember participants are extraordinary and do extraordinary things. We loved this video.

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Week 2 Photos from the MO-bile Nations Movember Network

Click on the names to jump over to the user's page on Movember.com for more photos and to donate!

Adam Zeis, he may not have electricity but he has a powerful moustache!

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Our man James Richardson in the UK has a mighty moustache underway.

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For being a giant of a man, our own Simon Sage's moustache is growing slow...

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Darren Robertson in Australia has a good start!

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Jay Harker in Canada... ready to grow mo!

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Mark Kashman shows off his classy 'stache.

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Tim O'Brien with the before and after shots!

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Tommy Thompson with a look of fierce determination.

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Jeffrey Smith shows off his growth so far.

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Daniel Kollehn, 10 days in and looking spec-stache-ular!

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Graeme Flack shows off his dapper mo-stache in the UK.

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Paul Johnson puts his best 'stache forward in the US.

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Props to all the Mo Bros for posting their mugs to the web for a good cause (and props to all the Mo Sistas for supporting their men). Be sure to visit our Mobile Nations Movember Network page for more photos from all our team members. You can click through to any team member's name to see their Mo Space pages and to donate to them. All donations made to individuals show up in the Mobile Nations Network totals.

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Note to Mobile Nations Movember participants: Be sure to update your Mo Space with updates, photos and videos. And send us an email at movember@mobilenations.com with your favorite photos and other details. We want to tell your story and help spread the the Mo Love!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/DIdDR_x_SH4/story01.htm

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Stereoscopic mammography could reduce recall rate

Public release date: 13-Nov-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Linda Brooks
lbrooks@rsna.org
630-590-7762
Radiological Society of North America

OAK BROOK, Ill. A new three-dimensional (3-D) digital mammography technique has the potential to significantly improve the accuracy of breast cancer screening, according to a study published in Radiology.

Two-dimensional (2-D) x-ray mammography, the current primary screening method for early detection of breast cancer in women, is a valuable tool but has some limitations. Surrounding normal tissue can mask lesions, and 2-D views do not provide direct information about the volumetric appearancemeaning the three-dimensional physical shapeof a detected lesion.

A novel technique called stereoscopic digital mammography (SDM) addresses these limitations by mimicking the way that human eyes work together to form a 3-D image. The technique uses digital mammography equipment that's been modified to allow the X-ray tube to move separately from the cassette. The resulting images are viewed on two monitors mounted one above the other.

"Our eyes see the world from two slightly different perspectives," said Carl J. D'Orsi, M.D., from the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine and the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University, both in Atlanta. "In this technique, the X-ray tube functions as the eyeball, with two different images providing slightly different views of the internal structure of the breast."

By using a unique workstation and polarizing lenses, SDM has the ability to identify lesions at different depths within the breast volume, potentially reducing both false positive findings and recalls while enabling more accurate diagnosis.

Dr. D'Orsi and colleagues recently compared SDM to 2-D digital mammography in 779 patients at elevated risk of developing breast cancer because of personal or family history. Patients received both exams in a single visit, and two experienced radiologists independently interpreted the final total of 1,298 exams. Imaging findings were correlated with results of one-year follow up or biopsy.

SDM significantly improved the accuracy of cancer detection. The specificity of 91.2 percent was better than the 87.8 percent rate for 2-D digital mammography; and the accuracy of 90.9 percent, compared with 87.4 percent for 2-D digital mammography, was also a statistically significant improvement.

"We found that the stereoscopic technique could significantly decrease the need for calling women back for additional exams," Dr. D'Orsi said.

Dr. D'Orsi and colleagues are expanding their research to study

SDM with a lower radiation dose in the general screening population. The radiation dose used in the study was approximately double the standard dose for mammography.

"In this study, we used a high-risk population to get an adequate number of cancers, and we acquired each of the images comprising the stereo pairs with a full standard X-ray dose," he said. "Now that we know the technique is worthwhile, we're repeating the study in the general population with a dose comparable to routine screening mammography."

###

"Stereoscopic Digital Mammography: Improved Specificity and Reduced Rate of Recall in a Prospective Clinical Trial." Collaborating with Dr. D'Orsi were David J. Getty, Ph.D., Ronald M. Pickett, Ph.D., Ioannis Sechopoulos, Ph.D., Mary S. Newell, M.D., Kathleen R. Gundry, M.D., Sandra R. Bates, M.D., Robert M. Nishikawa, Ph.D., Edward A. Sickles, M.D., Andrew Karellas, Ph.D., and Ellen M. D'Orsi, R.T. (R)(M).

Radiology is edited by Herbert Y. Kressel, M.D., Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., and owned and published by the Radiological Society of North America, Inc. (http://radiology.rsna.org/)

RSNA is an association of more than 50,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists, promoting excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research and technologic innovation.

The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org)

For patient-friendly information on breast imaging, visit RadiologyInfo.org.

---

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 13-Nov-2012
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Contact: Linda Brooks
lbrooks@rsna.org
630-590-7762
Radiological Society of North America

OAK BROOK, Ill. A new three-dimensional (3-D) digital mammography technique has the potential to significantly improve the accuracy of breast cancer screening, according to a study published in Radiology.

Two-dimensional (2-D) x-ray mammography, the current primary screening method for early detection of breast cancer in women, is a valuable tool but has some limitations. Surrounding normal tissue can mask lesions, and 2-D views do not provide direct information about the volumetric appearancemeaning the three-dimensional physical shapeof a detected lesion.

A novel technique called stereoscopic digital mammography (SDM) addresses these limitations by mimicking the way that human eyes work together to form a 3-D image. The technique uses digital mammography equipment that's been modified to allow the X-ray tube to move separately from the cassette. The resulting images are viewed on two monitors mounted one above the other.

"Our eyes see the world from two slightly different perspectives," said Carl J. D'Orsi, M.D., from the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine and the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University, both in Atlanta. "In this technique, the X-ray tube functions as the eyeball, with two different images providing slightly different views of the internal structure of the breast."

By using a unique workstation and polarizing lenses, SDM has the ability to identify lesions at different depths within the breast volume, potentially reducing both false positive findings and recalls while enabling more accurate diagnosis.

Dr. D'Orsi and colleagues recently compared SDM to 2-D digital mammography in 779 patients at elevated risk of developing breast cancer because of personal or family history. Patients received both exams in a single visit, and two experienced radiologists independently interpreted the final total of 1,298 exams. Imaging findings were correlated with results of one-year follow up or biopsy.

SDM significantly improved the accuracy of cancer detection. The specificity of 91.2 percent was better than the 87.8 percent rate for 2-D digital mammography; and the accuracy of 90.9 percent, compared with 87.4 percent for 2-D digital mammography, was also a statistically significant improvement.

"We found that the stereoscopic technique could significantly decrease the need for calling women back for additional exams," Dr. D'Orsi said.

Dr. D'Orsi and colleagues are expanding their research to study

SDM with a lower radiation dose in the general screening population. The radiation dose used in the study was approximately double the standard dose for mammography.

"In this study, we used a high-risk population to get an adequate number of cancers, and we acquired each of the images comprising the stereo pairs with a full standard X-ray dose," he said. "Now that we know the technique is worthwhile, we're repeating the study in the general population with a dose comparable to routine screening mammography."

###

"Stereoscopic Digital Mammography: Improved Specificity and Reduced Rate of Recall in a Prospective Clinical Trial." Collaborating with Dr. D'Orsi were David J. Getty, Ph.D., Ronald M. Pickett, Ph.D., Ioannis Sechopoulos, Ph.D., Mary S. Newell, M.D., Kathleen R. Gundry, M.D., Sandra R. Bates, M.D., Robert M. Nishikawa, Ph.D., Edward A. Sickles, M.D., Andrew Karellas, Ph.D., and Ellen M. D'Orsi, R.T. (R)(M).

Radiology is edited by Herbert Y. Kressel, M.D., Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., and owned and published by the Radiological Society of North America, Inc. (http://radiology.rsna.org/)

RSNA is an association of more than 50,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists, promoting excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research and technologic innovation.

The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org)

For patient-friendly information on breast imaging, visit RadiologyInfo.org.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-11/rson-smc110712.php

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Holly Petraeus "Beyond Furious" With David Petraeus Affair, Spokesman Says

Source:

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The Integrated Wood Desk Workspace

Today's featured workspace was once a walk-in closet. Now it's a small study featuring a beautiful, long and narrow dark wood desk (just enough space for a laptop).

The long lines of the bookcase mirror the suspended desk, and the matching file cubes also add to the aesthetically pleasing geometric design of the space.

The workspace is part of a small apartment in a San Francisco 1880s house. You can see more of the home in the NY Times slideshow below.

If you have a workspace of your own to show off, post them to #workspaceshowcase. Make sure any photos you include are at least 640x360. Keeping them to 16:9 helps, too! Include a little text about the stuff you used, how you came up with the design, and any other relevant details. If your clever organization and good design sense catches our eye, you might be the next featured workspace.

In San Francisco, Design as Conceptual Artwork | The New York Times via Peace = That was the other name for home

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/NfJFvZOFLrc/the-integrated-wood-desk-workspace

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Poll problems cropping up in spots around US

Gov. Rick Scott, right, chats with his family and fellow voters while they wait in line to vote at St. Ann's Catholic Church, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, in Naples, Fla. (AP Photo/Naples Daily News, Scott McIntyre) FORT MYERS OUT

Gov. Rick Scott, right, chats with his family and fellow voters while they wait in line to vote at St. Ann's Catholic Church, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, in Naples, Fla. (AP Photo/Naples Daily News, Scott McIntyre) FORT MYERS OUT

Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, presents a photo id as he gets his ballot to vote, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, at Ronald Reagan Lodge in West Chester, Ohio. After a grinding presidential campaign, Americans head into polling places across the country. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

Under the lights of a generator, voters wait in line outside of a tent serving as a polling site in the Midland Beach section of Staten Island, New York, on Election Day Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012. The original polling site, a school, was damaged by Superstorm Sandy. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Don Dunkelburger, of Seaside Heights, N.J., takes a smoke break outside a shelter and polling station at Toms River East High School Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012. Dunkelburger, who lost his home and was staying in the shelter, said he was not clear on where he was supposed to vote Tuesday. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Early morning voting is underway at Bishop Molloy Recreational Center on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, in Point Lookout , N.Y., one of several voting locations that were created as a result of Superstorm Sandy. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Sporadic problems were reported Tuesday at polling places around the country, including a confrontation in Pennsylvania involving Republican inspectors over access to some polls and a voting machine that lit up for Republican Mitt Romney even when a voter pressed the button for President Barack Obama.

One Florida elections office mistakenly told voters in robocalls the election was on Wednesday.

Although the majority of complaints were simply extremely long lines, the Election Protection coalition of civil rights and voting access groups said they had gotten some more serious calls among more than 40,000 received on a toll-free voter protection hotline.

"It's already started and it's busy," said Barbara Arnwine, president of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

In Philadelphia, the Republican Party said 75 legally credentialed voting inspectors were blocked from polling places in the heavily Democratic city, prompting the GOP to obtain a court order providing them access. Local prosecutors were also looking into the reports. Democratic Party officials did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Also in central Pennsylvania, officials said the voting machine that switched a person's vote from Obama to Romney has been recalibrated and is back in service.

Pennsylvania Department of State spokesman Ron Ruman says the Perry County voter notified elections officials of the problem after trying to cast his ballot Tuesday. Video of what Ruman called a "momentary glitch" was widely viewed on YouTube.

Pennsylvania was also the scene of what a state Common Cause official called "widespread" confusion over voter ID requirements. The state this year enacted a new photo ID requirement but it was put on hold for Tuesday's election by a judge amid concern many voters would not be able to comply on time.

Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause in Pennsylvania, said election workers in many places were demanding IDs even though they are not required. It was unclear, however, just how many voters may have been turned away or discouraged.

"There seems to be a lot of confusion about voter ID. Apparently the poll workers were not adequately trained," he said.

Also in Philadelphia, a judge ordered a mural of President Barack Obama covered up after a Republican election worker snapped a picture of it at a school polling place, according to a statement from the Republican Party.

The battleground state of Ohio was the scene of yet another court battle, this one involving a lawsuit claiming voting software installed by the state could allow manipulation of ballots by non-election board officials. A judge, however, flatly dismissed a lawsuit seeking to stop use of the software.

The Florida robocall glitch occurred in Pinellas County, location of St. Petersburg and Tampa Bay. Officials said the calls intended for Monday were wrongly recycled Tuesday, telling possibly thousands of voters they had until "7 p.m. tomorrow" to vote, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Nancy Whitlock, spokeswoman for the county's supervisor of elections, said officials immediately stopped the calls Tuesday morning when the problem was discovered and a second message went out telling voters to disregard the previous call.

Elsewhere, the Election Protection coalition reported problems with ballot scanners in the Ohio cities of Cleveland, Dayton and Toledo; late-opening polling places in minority neighborhoods in Galveston, Texas; and some precincts in the Tampa, Fla., area where voters are being redirected to another polling place where they must cast a provisional ballot.

Meanwhile, voters in several storm-ravaged areas in New York and New Jersey expressed relief and even elation at being able to vote at all, considering the devastation from Superstorm Sandy. Lines were long in Point Pleasant, N.J., where residents from the Jersey Shore communities of Point Pleasant Beach and Mantoloking had to cast their ballots due to damage in their hometowns. Many people still have no power eight days after Sandy pummeled the shore.

"Nothing is more important than voting. What is the connection between voting and this?" said Alex Shamis, a resident of hard-hit Staten Island, gesturing to his mud-filled home.

Any voting problems are being closely monitored after months of legal and political battles over more voter ID restrictions and other laws, mostly fruitless hunts for supposedly ineligible people on voting rolls in many states and sustained claims that black and Hispanic voters are being targeted for intimidation and suppression.

Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, said even in states where the restrictive laws have been blocked or delayed, many people still think they are in effect.

"The laws were struck down but the confusion remains," Waldman said.

Many of these issues could resurface in the courts after Tuesday, particularly if the race between Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, is too close to call or heads for a recount in states such as Ohio or Florida.

The Justice Department will have at least 780 observers at key polling places in 23 states to ensure compliance with the 1965 Voting Rights Act and look into any allegations of voter fraud.

Provisional ballots were the latest legal skirmish in the critical battleground state of Ohio, where Secretary of State Jon Husted's decision on how they can be cast was challenged in federal court. Advocates and lawyers for labor unions contend Husted's order would lead to some provisional ballots being rejected improperly because the burden of recording the form of ID used on a provisional ballot is being placed on voters, not poll workers as in the past.

A provisional vote allows a person to have his or her say, but the ballot is subject to review and verification of eligibility. A court hearing was set for Wednesday on issue. Provisional ballots cannot be counted in Ohio before Nov. 17.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers A.J. Connelly in New York, Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus, Ohio, and Patrick Walters in Philadelphia.

___

Follow Curt Anderson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Miamicurt

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-11-06-Voting%20Troubles/id-5c049075b7154a9cbe39f1d131189317

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Burn Fat, Build Muscle, Get Six-pack Abs and Combat Aging, with ...

Burn Fat, Build Muscle, Get Six-pack Abs and Combat Aging, with No Equipment, At Home, in 19 Minutes a Day. Look Great Naked at Any AgeReviewed by Arieftheo on Nov 7Rating:

Click Image To Visit SiteThat?s right, I spend 19 minutes a day to look like this at age 58 61. You are just minutes away from discovering how you can too. Read on to find out how to get it all for free. In fact, you can have all this, starting RIGHT NOW:

You don?t need an expensive membership at some high tech gym, and you don?t need bulky, expensive equipment cluttering up your home.

If you?re more than 28 years old, nature is working against you and the clock is ticking relentlessly. Are you battling any of these problems yet ? love handles, cellulite, fat thighs, pot belly, droopy chest, droopy butt, floppy arms, saggy skin, stiff joints, low energy, poor digestion, poor sleep, poor mental focus, reduced sex drive? If you?re not, you will be.

Not a pretty picture, is it? If you said yes to anything in that list, you can do something about it, and I can teach you how. The answer isn?t flushing your hard earned dollars down the drain on yet another useless exercise gadget, or a fancy gym membership you don?t use, or an overpriced personal trainer.

Look Great Naked At Any Age is a comprehensive anti-aging health and fitness system. Yes, anti-aging is real, (I?m living proof) and no, you don?t have to spend tons of money on unsafe hormone injections to accomplish it.

Research has proven again and again that certain exercise modalities trigger your body to release youthful levels of your own Human Growth Hormone and testosterone (and yes, you need it too, ladies!), while improving flexibility and maintaining bone density. The Look Great Naked At Any Age system is designed to do all that and more.

So who am I and why should you listen to me? Only one reason ? real world results, as you?ll see in the pictures and video clips on this site. (By the way, if you?re a beginner, don?t be intimidated by what you see in these video clips. They?re just to show you what?s possible by using my system.) I?ve been interviewed on numerous live radio and web radio shows, I?ve hosted my own show where I interviewed fitness legends like Clarence Bass, and I?ve written feature articles that appeared in Ms Fitness Magazine, etc. But let me tell you a little about the path that got me to age 58 61, looking the way I do.

I studied classical music with some of the greatest performers and conductors in the world. Then I put that training to use while touring the world as a multi-instrumentalist and singer with pop icons including Etta James on tour with The Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa, Stevie Nicks, Michael McDonald, and as Musical Director for Bette Midler. I?ve composed for TV shows like ?Cybill? and ?Baywatch,? performed with Paul McCartney, Sting, Chuck Berry, Bonnie Raitt, Boz Scaggs, and recorded with Prince, The? Read more?

Source: http://fefeclub.com/burn-fat-build-muscle-get-six-pack-abs-and-combat-aging-with-no-equipment-at-home-in-19-minutes-a-day-look-great-naked-at-any-age/

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Discovering Superb Lower price Assistive hearing aids is a lot ...

We hope to provide you with useful information on hearing aids as well as components if you suffer from hearing problems or hearing difficulties. Very first, in case you are trouble hearing, we propose you visit your audiologist to check an entire check up. If it is determined that the need 1 or 2 assistive hearing devices, you will find considerable info on assistive hearing aids on the internet such as where to locate low cost assistive hearing aids. Hearing aid prices can vary coming from 100?s of dollars to be able to lots of money depending on the sort as well as get you noticed choose. So if you?re within a strict budget, you can find excellent at wholesale prices assistive hearing aid prices online or even for sale from top stores. Remember, cheap assistive hearing aids do not imply bad quality.

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Source: http://www.healthuse.com/discovering-superb-lower-price-assistive-hearing-aids-is-a-lot-easier-than-you-believe.html

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Gary Johnson: Obama Will Win Reelection

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/11/gary-johnson-obama-will-win-reelection/

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APNewsBreak: Budweiser seeks removal from 'Flight'

FILE - This publicity film image released by Paramount Pictures shows Denzel Washington portraying Whip Whitaker in a scene from "Flight." Washington plays an airline pilot who, despite being hung-over, drunk and coked-up, manages to bring down a rapidly deteriorating plane in a daring emergency landing on what should have been a routine flight between Orlando, Fla., and Atlanta. Alcohol plays a prominent role in ?Flight,? but Anheuser-Busch says it wasn?t consulted beforehand and is asking the filmmakers and Paramount Pictures to remove the Budweiser logo and any other trademarks from the film.(AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Robert Zuckerman)

FILE - This publicity film image released by Paramount Pictures shows Denzel Washington portraying Whip Whitaker in a scene from "Flight." Washington plays an airline pilot who, despite being hung-over, drunk and coked-up, manages to bring down a rapidly deteriorating plane in a daring emergency landing on what should have been a routine flight between Orlando, Fla., and Atlanta. Alcohol plays a prominent role in ?Flight,? but Anheuser-Busch says it wasn?t consulted beforehand and is asking the filmmakers and Paramount Pictures to remove the Budweiser logo and any other trademarks from the film.(AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Robert Zuckerman)

This undated publicity film image released by Paramount Pictures shows Denzel Washington as Whip Whitaker in the Paramount Pictures film, "Flight." Alcohol plays a prominent role in ?Flight,? but Anheuser-Busch says it wasn?t consulted beforehand and is asking the filmmakers and Paramount Pictures to remove the Budweiser logo and any other trademarks from the film. (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Denzel Washington's character in "Flight" drinks a lot throughout the film, but his portrayal of a highly functioning alcoholic pilot isn't going down well with brewing company Anheuser-Busch or the distributor of Stolichnaya vodka.

Anheuser-Busch said Monday that it has asked Paramount Pictures Corp. to obscure or remove the Budweiser logo from the film, which at one point shows Washington's character drinking the beer while behind the wheel.

Budweiser is hardly the only alcoholic beverage shown in "Flight," which earned $25 million in its debut weekend and is likely to remain popular with audiences. Washington's character frequently drinks vodka throughout the film, with several different brands represented. William Grant & Sons, which distributes Stolichnaya in the United States, also said it didn't license its brand for inclusion in the film and wouldn't have given permission if asked.

Although product placement, where companies pay producers to have their brands seen on-camera, have become ubiquitous in movies and television, experts say studios are not obligated to get permission before featuring a product in their work.

Rob McCarthy, vice president of Budweiser, wrote in a statement to The Associated Press that the company wasn't contacted by Paramount or the production company of director Robert Zemeckis for permission to use the beer in "Flight."

"We would never condone the misuse of our products, and have a long history of promoting responsible drinking and preventing drunk driving," McCarthy wrote. "We have asked the studio to obscure the Budweiser trademark in current digital copies of the movie and on all subsequent adaptations of the film, including DVD, On Demand, streaming and additional prints not yet distributed to theaters."

A spokesman for Zemeckis referred questions to Paramount, which did not return an email message seeking comment.

James Curich, a spokesman for Stoli distributor William Grant & Sons, said the company has a strict code for how the vodka is portrayed in films and is committed to marketing it responsibly. "Considering the subject matter of this film, it is not something in which we would have participated," he wrote in an email.

Despite the companies' dissatisfaction with their inclusion in the film, experts say there is little they can do about it legally.

Trademark laws "don't exist to give companies the right to control and censor movies and TV shows that might happen to include real-world items," said Daniel Nazer, a resident fellow at Stanford Law School's Fair Use Project. "It is the case that often filmmakers get paid by companies to include their products. I think that's sort of led to a culture where they expect they'll have control. That's not a right the trademark law gives them."

Jay Dougherty, a professor at Loyola Law School, said the use of brands in films has generally been protected by the courts, even when the companies aren't pleased with the portrayals.

"It wouldn't have been as effective a film if they used a bunch of non-generic brands," said Dougherty, who is also the director of the school's Entertainment & Media Law Institute. "In a normal situation, if the alcohol were just there as a smaller part of the movie, they might have created an artificial brand for it."

Other vodka brands, including Absolut and Smirnoff, are also included in the film. Representatives of those companies did not return messages seeking comment.

Paramount has some experience with a company upset with its inclusion in a film. In 2003 the studio won a case after the makers of the "Slip 'N Slide" sued over the use of the product in the film "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star."

In that case, a court found that requiring Paramount to alter the film and its marketing would "generate more hardship than it alleviates."

Dougherty and Mark Partridge, a Chicago intellectual property lawyer, also noted that a court rejected an effort to get by Caterpillar Inc. to get its logo removed from tractors driven by the villains in 2003's "George of the Jungle 2." The company had argued its trademark was harmed by having its product associated with the film's villains.

Partridge said with the explosion of product placement in recent years, a company might try to make an argument that by the brand appearing in a film, the audience assumed it had granted permission. "You'd have to have proof that people actually making an association and believing it was authorized," he said.

"It might be a different world," he said, adding, "I still think it's an uphill haul."

___

AP Entertainment Writers Christy Lemire in Los Angeles and Jake Coyle in New York contributed to this report.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-11-05-Film-Flight-Booze%20Brands/id-e9fd597b32904a2886be65a80cf83007

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Video: Gov. Christie gives emotional account of N.J. damage from Sandy (cbsnews)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/259500496?client_source=feed&format=rss

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November 1, 2012 - Bill Mullins' Weblog ? Tech Thoughts

Welcome to the New Era of Personal Computing ? These are remarkable times to be a gadget lover. Between the iPad mini, Windows 8, and the forthcoming Windows Phone 8 and new Android tablets, personal computing has been revolutionized in a matter of weeks.

2012 Top Scary Trends in Tech - Yes, it?s Halloween season of 2012, and we?re here to revisit the technologies that are so frightening, they?ll make you evacuate from multiple ?interfaces?.

Your Windows 8 Super Guide ? Here?s everything, and we mean everything, you need to know about Microsoft?s Windows 8.

Rumor says Facebook may create classified ads ? again ? Rumblings suggest the social network is considering a new classified-ad service for jobs, apartments and item sales. Of course, Facebook?s last foray in this direction didn?t end well.

Add three helpful Gmail mouse gestures with Chrome extension ? Windows users can use the Gmail Mouse Gestures extension to navigate more effectively in their Gmail inbox.

Boxee TV to arrive at Walmart stores, retail for $99 ? Walmart stores across the U.S. on Thursday will start carrying the Boxee TV set-top box just in time for a holiday showdown with competitors such as Apple TV, Roku, and the Xbox 360. Announced in mid-October, the $99 Boxee TV includes the typical apps you find in most set-top boxes including Netflix, Pandora, YouTube, and Hulu Plus.

Free online tutorials can teach you almost anything ? Want to learn how to walk in heels? There?s a video for that. Need to know how to switch out your graphics card? There?s a video for that. Heck, do you want to learn how to make a how-to video? There?s a video for that, too. But be warned: Watching a 10-minute video tutorial doesn?t make you an expert, especially not in areas that require years and years of schooling.

Five virtual appliances useful for business - The virtual appliance is one of those tools that not a lot of businesses are taking advantage of ? though they should be. Not only do virtual appliances make it easy to get a specific system up and running, they allow this to be done in a cost effective and reliable way. Simply download the virtual appliance suited for your virtualization technology, boot it up and you are ready to go. In some cases you can run the appliance continually from the ?live? appliance. In other cases you can do a complete virtual installation and have a permanent virtual system. Either way, the road to success is quick and painless.

Football game in 59 minutes? ? By time-shifting football games with a DVR, you can watch a game in a third of the time. Here?s how to do it.

iStat for iOS now monitors Windows machines, too ? Want to keep an eye on a ?crazy amount of detail? about running Macs and Windows machines? iStat 2 lets people with iOS devices do so remotely.

Calling Foul on the Political Football That is Do Not Track ? It looks like it?s time for a do-over for DNT. The oft-maligned specification has become-like many other standards efforts before it-a political football. Parties with interests on both sides of the issue have their own agendas, cannot agree on semantics and ignore, in this case, what should be the heart of the issue for users-a clear personal choice about browsing privacy.

Security:

Free iPad Mini scam spreads via Facebook rogue application ? Facebook users are being targeted in a scam that offers them the opportunity to get their hands on a free iPad Mini.

Malware infects 13 percent of North American home networks ? Some 13 percent of home networks in North America are infected with malware, half of them with ?serious? threats, according to a report from cyber-security company Kindsight Security Labs.

Hurricane Sandy spams lead to survey scams ? As usual online scam artists have latched onto the interest in Hurricane Sandy to attempt to lure people into their traps. It is only spam and survey scams at the moment, but be on the lookout for further attacks.

Costs of tools and activities in the Russian cybercriminal underground ? A new Trend Micro research paper describes a broad offering of tools and activities that can be bought and sold on underground forum shopping sites. It examines the prices charged for various types of services, while also providing examples of information shared among cybercriminals.

Georgia outs Russia-based hacker with photos ? A dark-haired, bearded hacker peers into his computer?s screen, perhaps puzzled at what?s happening. Minutes later, he cuts his computer?s connection, realizing he has been discovered.

Data breach victims could get damages from careless firms ? Courts are becoming open to holding companies liable for damage their customers suffer in data breaches caused by careless security efforts.

Company News:

Microsoft Sued Over Windows Live Tiles ? Days after launching Windows 8, Microsoft has run into some legal trouble with the revamped operating systems

BlackBerry 10 begins carrier testing for 2013 launch ? Thorsten Heins, RIM?s president and CEO, said in a statement that BlackBerry 10 has entered lab testing with more than 50 wireless carriers around the world. This puts the first BB10 devices on track to launch in the first quarter of 2013.

Nexus 7 Sales Approach 1 Million Per Month ? Google?s Nexus 7 device is selling about 1 million units a month, according to Asus, which produces the device.

Huawei working hard on its image ? Chinese telecommunication equipment giant Huawei is working hard on proving to the Australian government that the use of their products will not pose a threat to national security.

Webopedia Daily:

Data Center Consolidation ? IT Consolidation - The phrase data center consolidation (also called IT consolidation) refers to an organization?s strategy to reduce IT assets by using more efficient technologies. Some of the consolidation technologies used in U.S. data centers today include server virtualization, storage virtualization, replacing mainframes with smaller blade server systems, cloud computing, better capacity planning and automation tools. Data center consolidation is a common consideration for organizations that plan to reduce the size of a single facility or merge one or more facilities in order to reduce overall operating costs and reduce IT footprint.

Off Topic (Sort of):

East Coasters Share Startling Hurricane Sandy Pics ? Here are a few of the photos ? taken by people like you ? that we think help illustrate Hurricane Sandy

Social Media Users Have High Expectations ? We all know how much influence social media users have on an organization?s reputation. That means your company will do itself a big favor by effectively addressing consumers who reach out about product and services concerns via social media channels, according to a new study from NM Incite. The research focuses on the term ?social care,? which refers to individuals reaching out to a business via social media rather than a phone.

World?s fastest number game wows spectators and scientists ? Flash Anzan, in which contestants add up numbers with an imaginary abacus, reveals the astonishing potential of the human brain ? and makes for a breathtaking spectacle too. (recommended by Michael F.)

What does the enterprise expect from Windows 8? ? An interview with Kevin Gemmel, whose job it is to move people from Windows 7 to Windows 8. He talks about platform integration, the closing windows for XP support, and the hurdles those migrating to Windows 8 will face.

Spot the ?Wreck-it Ralph? video game references ? Here?s what you need to know before watching Disney?s animated love letter to video games.

Intel?s 48-core supercomputing smartphone CPU is less than a decade away ? It?s clear that dumbphones are on the way out, and our current smartphones will look like dunces in the next decade. Intel has been working hard on an impressive 48-core mobile processor for a few years now, and it?s looking like it could be ready for prime time in a mere five-to-ten years and inside of our mobile devices ? not just servers.

Today?s Quote:

?Being a woman is a terribly difficult task since it consists principally in dealing with men.?

-????? Joseph Conrad

Today?s Free Downloads:

DiskCryptor ? DiskCryptor is an open encryption solution that offers encryption of all disk partitions, including the system partition.

CCleaner Slim ? CCleaner is the number-one tool for cleaning your Windows PC. It protects your privacy online and makes your computer faster and more secure. Easy to use and a small, fast download.

Source: http://billmullins.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/tech-thoughts-daily-net-news-november-1-2012/

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