Amputee's 18-hour ordeal in Ironman triathlon

By Vignesh Ramachandran, NBC News

When Jeff Schmidt completed the Ironman?triathlon?in Hawaii earlier this fall, crossing that finish line after nearly 18 hours on the course meant more than just the end of a race. It signified a positive highlight in a long physical and emotional battle the San Jose, Calif., resident has faced for over a decade.

"It was exciting, because it's a dream," Schmidt told NBCBayArea.com's?Garvin Thomas.

Fifteen years ago, Schmidt was a star player on his Missouri high school soccer team ? a young man dreaming of a college career and then going pro. During the first playoff game of his senior year, he had just finished saving a goal, when another player hit the side of his shin as his leg was in the air.

At that moment, Schmidt's life changed forever.

"I knew instantly my leg was [broken]," Schmidt said. His leg ended up being set and cast in the wrong way, which caused permanent damage. That led to 10 years of constant pain, failed surgeries and not being able to walk very far.

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Schmidt faced depression and thoughts of suicide.

"We didn't know how to handle that kind of stress," his wife, Jenny, told NBCBayArea.com. "It ... caused medical issues, financial issues,?emotional?issues. It was tough. We went through a lot of really, really hard times."

Eventually in 2004, it was suggested that Schmidt should have his lower leg amputated. But the suggestion made him mad.

"I felt like I had fought so hard to keep that foot and ankle that to suggest getting rid of it, to me was like giving up." Schmidt said.

But three years after that suggestion, he went through with the amputation.

"If something in your life is causing you nothing but anguish, and you can?get rid of it, what do you do? You get rid of it," he said.

KNTV

Jeff Schmidt bicycles near his home in San Jose, Calif.

A second chance
At wife Jenny's suggestion, Schmidt, who now has a?prosthetic?leg, soon began training for?triathlons?like she was.

That brings the story back to 2012 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

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On the day of the triathlon, Oct. 13, Schmidt felt good going in to the race, but challenges eventually arose: The run portion turned into a walk for him.

"I don't like to give up," Schmidt told NBCBayArea.com. "It's not something that is really in me to do."

Then, just four miles from the end,?race officials told him he would not make the finish line before the course officially closed at midnight. But that didn't stop Schmidt.

"I had come too far not to finish," he said.

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Nearly 18 hours after the race began, and half an hour past midnight, Schmidt was the last Ironman still going.

But he crossed the finish line, last, to cheers.

"We were in awe, really," said Tal Johnson, president and COO of Berkeley, Calif., race sponsor Goo Energy Labs.?"All of us. You know -- grown men, experienced athletes who were moved to the point of tears."

"Going through everything with my leg and the amputation, and to be able to come and finish at Kona ... to me it's one of the highlights of my life," Schmidt said.

NBC Bay Area's Garvin Thomas contributed to this story.?The 2012 Ironman World Championship was telecast?by NBC Sports on Oct. 27. Next year's Ironman in Kailua-Kona?takes place on Oct. 12, 2013.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/30/15549270-amputees-18-hour-ordeal-in-ironman-triathlon-one-of-the-highlights-of-my-life?lite

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Social Media and Purpose-Brand Promotion by a Business ...

Most people understand that companies operate to sell and make a profit. Their first and primary purpose is not an altruistic charity drive or grant program but in fact to earn a margin of revenue above the cost of production and use that money to grow and expand. However, when that first Maslow Hierarchy-type purpose is immediately met, companies can and often do marry their business function with a particular goal or purpose. With the recent wave of businesses moving online to have presence in social media, the idea of a brand and purpose along with profit is becoming more and more prevalent. However, aside from creating a lot of content for viewers to look at, the question frequently comes up as to how all this effort improves the company?s bottom line.

There is no question that increasing consumer awareness improves brand recognition which can also have an indirect boost on profitability. If done right, name and logo recognition gets associated with various marketing messages, driving consumers to purchase the service or product involved because of the implied or expressed connection. Purpose, beyond the company mission and primary goals for making profit, tends to be a temporary campaign that ultimately is associated with either maintaining a given brand awareness level or improving it.

However, social media has been a bit of quandary to the traditional game book. The format works very well as a platform on which to express messaging and brand marketing virally. It?s practically natural for viewers and readers to share information through Internet connection, spreading the messaging put out on an exponential level. As a result, companies and their marketing managers have dived in wholesale to social media tools. That said, purpose is harder to coalesce and form in the social media environment. Most readers pick up quickly a given business exists to sell a product or service, but if the messaging is not clear, other purposes come out confused and disconnected. Much of the problem has to do with business? strategy towards social media in general.

Social media is typically seen as just another communication tool for many businesses, albeit one that seems to take more time and energy to do properly. The mindset tends to assume that if enough resources are put to the task, some kind of business growth output will occur and purpose will be met. Unfortunately, social media doesn?t work this way; readers don?t necessarily follow a formulaic response to social media posts and chirps. They comment back, they share, they digress, and they even create their own social media pages in response to a business? presence if highly motivated. And 99 percent of that response is uncontrollable for a business.

Instead, before entering social media, a company needs to understand the virtual environment requires an ongoing commitment to make social media tools produce a desired social good with brand awareness. Second, the company needs to have defined purposes that are clearly laid out to readers and followed consistently by those inputting the social media content. Doing so creates consistency and repetition of messaging over time. Eventually, the company?s brand gets associated with the given social good because the relationship is solidified repeatedly to viewers at all levels.

Profitability is not guaranteed by any baseline ratio when using social media, and in some cases specific social media content will have no measurable impact on sales or new revenue production. That said, as a company makes a long-term commitment to a given direction with its social media messaging, people accept over time that a company supports this charity, focuses on that program, helps the community in a given way, etc. The synonymous assumption becomes en-grained, much the same the local street store owner knows everybody in a community, and their parents, and their grandparents. That type of brand awareness becomes as valuable as gold in terms of social currency because it automatically draws like-minded people into a business.

An executive who after spending 26 years in the corporate world in various marketing roles within one of the largest utilities in the nation, grew tired of the grind and sought a new challenge. Randy entered the non-profit market taking the position of Director of Marketing and Corporate Relations for a national organization, overseeing all brand and touch elements; print, web, TV and national convention. In 2010 Randy and his wife, Shalah, also a professional marketer formed bowden2bowden llc, a marketing and brand consultancy firm. Their extensive knowledge of marketing, branding, PR, advertising, promotions, relational & social networking can connect the client to targeted solutions. Clients receive exceptional creative executions and solid branding strategies giving them a real competitive advantage. Randy writes weekly for their bowden2bowden blog.

Source: http://leaderswest.com/2012/11/30/social-media-and-purpose-brand-promotion-by-a-business/

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There's not as much deep sea life as thought

There's life deep under the sea, but not as much as we thought.

Scientists looking at the abundance of microbes in the sediments under the seafloor ? the so-called deep biosphere once thought to be teeming with more than 300 billion tons of life ? have found that the vast subterranean world is not quite so crowded.

The new research followed up on landmark findings from 15 years ago, when researchers from the University of Georgia estimated that subseafloor sediments housed 35.5 x 10^29 microbes (that's 1 followed by 29 zeroes), comprising 334 billion tons (303 x 10^12 kilograms) of carbon.

The new study calculates that a mere 4.1 x 10^29 microbes, made up of 4.5 billion tons (4.1 x 10^12 kilograms) of carbon, live in the subseafloor. The new tally is 92 percent smaller than the earlier estimate, but still indicates a significant amount of subseafloor microbial biomass.

Low levels of life
The difference comes from a larger sampling of ocean sediment environments, the researchers say.

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"Basically all the sites that were used in the previous studies were in high-productivity areas, so all estimates had to be skewed towards higher values," said Jens Kallmeyer, a geomicrobiologist at the University of Potsdam in Germany, who led the study. "The earlier cell counts are correct ? we also used them for our model ? but they do not cover the whole range of conditions in the world's oceans."

Sediments in upwelling zones ? where nutrient-rich waters from greater depths circulate into upper ocean layers ? and areas near the shore typically house the greatest number of microbes because they are the most nutrient-rich areas of the ocean floor. Farther from shore, however, fewer nutrients reach the bottom of the sea and microbial cell counts are typically much lower ? up to five times lower, Kallmeyer's team found. [ Strangest Places Where Life Is Found on Earth ]

As much as 40 percent of the ocean floor can be classified as ultra-oligotrophic, or extremely nutrient-poor, Kallmeyer said. In these areas, ocean sediments contain oxygen throughout their entire depth. Since microbial metabolism typically removes oxygen from ocean sediments, high oxygen levels are a telltale sign of very low levels of microbial life.

Really small, hard to count
Microbial cells found in deep subsurface environments are often extremely small ? close to the theoretical limit of how small such lifeforms can be ? thanks to extremely limited levels of nutrients, Kallmeyer said, which makes counting them difficult. His team had to sample large volumes of sediment to find enough microbes to count under the microscope.

"There isn't much life down there," Kallmeyer told OurAmazingPlanet.

According to the team's findings, detailed online Aug. 27 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the subseafloor houses about the same number of microbes as the planet's soil and seawater environments, though Kallmeyer thinks researchers may soon be spurred to re-examine those numbers.

"Given how drastically we changed the subseafloor sedimentary cell abundance by using just a larger dataset, I can't help but ask myself how well the numbers for other environments are actually constrained," he said.

Follow OurAmazingPlanet for the latest in Earth science and exploration news on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and? Google+.

? 2012 OurAmazingPlanet. All rights reserved. More from OurAmazingPlanet.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50029660/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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EU plan could push up access costs for broadband challengers

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Smaller telecoms providers may have to pay more to rent space on networks owned by former monopolies as part of efforts to boost the fiber broadband rollout, a European Commission document seen by Reuters showed.

The Commission's recommendation came after strong criticism from major operators, such as Telecom Italia SpA, forced it to backtrack from an initial proposal to cut such access charges to legacy copper networks.

The proposal underlines EU concerns that economic growth in the 27-country European Union could lag behind the United States and Asia because of a lack of broadband connectivity.

Under the new plan, which is subject to scrutiny by national telecoms regulators and could still be modified, monthly rental access prices per customer would have to range between 8 and 10 euros by the end of 2016.

If the range is adopted, it could lead to higher charges in 10 EU countries including the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Hungary and Estonia, which currently offer rates below 8 euros.

For example, the rent in Slovakia would double from the 4.20 euros charged in October 2011, the Commission's data showed.

On the other hand, Ireland, which currently has the highest monthly cost at 12.41 euros, Finland, Britain and Luxembourg would have to bring their prices down.

Incumbent operators such as Deutsche Telekom AG, Telefonica SA, France Telecom SA and Telecom Italia, inherited copper-based networks when they were privatized in the 1990s.

The former monopolies have said they need the cash from rents to invest in costly fiber broadband which can deliver much higher speeds than traditional copper lines.

The EU document also said that new fiber broadband networks would not be subject to regulation. The EU executive had floated the idea in July, saying a regulatory holiday would be valid as long as there was enough competition in the market.

"The national regulatory authority (NRA) should not maintain or impose price control obligations, including obligations for cost-orientation," the document said.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Robert-Jan Bartunek and Helen Massy-Beresford)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eu-plan-could-push-access-costs-broadband-challengers-180952552.html

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Game Ready To Fire Back After 50 Cent's 'My Life' Dis

Compton MC likens Fif to a zombie during Power 106 interview: 'No matter how many times you shoot 'em, they just keep on.'
By Rob Markman

Game and 50 Cent
Photo: Getty Images: Johnny Nunez/Chris McKay

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1698094/game-50-cent-my-life-dis.jhtml

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Producer sues Pythons over 'Spamalot' royalties

LONDON (AP) ? A producer of the film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" is suing the comedy troupe over royalties from the hit stage musical "Spamalot."

Producer Mark Forstater wants a bigger share of proceeds from the show, which is based on the 1975 movie spoof of the legend of King Arthur.

Python members Eric Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Jones are to give evidence during a five-day hearing that began Friday at London's High Court.

Forstater is suing the trio and fellow Python members John Cleese and Terry Gilliam.

His lawyer, Tom Weisselberg, said under an agreement made when the film was produced, "for financial purposes Mr. Forstater was to be treated as the seventh Python." But the lawyer said Forstater had not received his fair share of royalties.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-11-30-Britain-Spamalot/id-f481e9f0fe1f4192aae6e3d8ead3db72

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Erkek Paketi Wants To Be The ?Manpacks Of Turkey? With Subscription Service For Mens Socks, Underwear & More

Strikingly similar to U.S. startup Manpacks, Turkey's Erkek Paketi offers a subscription e-commerce service that delivers men underwear, socks, t-shirts, shaving products and condoms on a monthly, two monthly or three monthly schedule. Like its North American inspiration, it's tapping into the preconception that men don't enjoy shopping -- at least not for dull purchases that need to be made on a semi-regular basis.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/mRImIb9XXXQ/

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10 Free Facebook Cover Photos Full of Holiday Cheer

Mitt Romney can take some solace in his devastating loss on Nov. 6: at least he won the voters who really count. That's the thesis anyway of top adviser Stuart Stevens, who penned an op-ed in the Washington Post on Wednesday arguing that by winning wealthier and whiter voters, Romney secured the moral victory over Obama. "On Nov. 6, Mitt Romney carried the majority of every economic group except those with less than $50,000 a year in household income," Stevens wrote. "That means he carried the majority of middle-class voters. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/10-free-facebook-cover-photos-full-holiday-cheer-190242284.html

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Netflix Ireland, UK score deals to carry previous seasons of key Warner-distributed shows

Hot on the heels of a deal for Canada, Netflix and Warner Bros. have spread their newfound affection for each other to a multi-year, exclusive agreement for Ireland and the UK. Both island nations are getting streaming access to past seasons of four Warner-distributed TV shows, with availability staggered over the next several months. The Vampire Diaries is first out of the gate, with three seasons coming to Netflix on December 1st; five seasons of Gossip Girl follow on March 1st, while less definite schedules have all of Chuck and four seasons of Fringe appearing sometime in 2013. The arrangement isn't quite as ideal as it would be if episodes appeared as they aired, but it's a welcome expansion for a young regional service that's still locked in a battle for supremacy.

Continue reading Netflix Ireland, UK score deals to carry previous seasons of key Warner-distributed shows

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/29/netflix-ireland-uk-score-deal-to-carry-seasons-of-warner-shows/

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Brad Pitt Opens Up About Fatherhood And Getting Older

Posted: November 28, 2012

Brad Pitt may thoroughly enjoy being a mega movie star, but there is something he loves even more ? being a dad. The Killing Them Softly star opened up about his thoughts on fatherhood and aging during an interview with Good Morning America.

Angelina Jolie, 37, and Pitt, 48, are raising six children together. Their longstanding relationship will result in a trip the alter soon, but the power couple is staying mute about the details, according to Entertainment Weekly. The Pitt-Jolie brood includes Maddox, 11, Pax, 8, Zahara, 7, Shiloh, 6, and a pair of 4-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox.

During the interview with Good Morning America, Pitt noted that becoming a parent ?turns everything on its head? and stated emphatically twice how much he loves being a father. The large family splits their time between several homes, but reportedly spent a lot of their days in the birthplace of jazz ? New Orleans. Brad and Angelina also have a home in Los Angeles, which comes in handy when either one are working on a new film. A home in Europe is also part of the family?s future plans.

Pitt had this to say when discussing spending time a home in Europe:

?They [the children] get more sense of normalcy there. We?re not as hounded at certain places there. France, especially. They have rules about photographing kids. And I think they?re more sensitive to it after the Diana incident. We?re not being bothered.?

The handsome actor turns 49 next month and is already thinking about the big 5-0 looming on the horizon. Pitt had this to say about chalking up another birthday:

?I?ve given a lot of thought to it. You become very aware of time. I think also being a father, you become very ? everything?s time allocation for me now ? spending my time wisely and doing the things that are important to me.?

Source: http://www.inquisitr.com/415497/brad-pitt-opens-up-about-fatherhood-and-getting-older/

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Chinese AIDS patients fight hospital rejections

BEIJING (AP) ? Wang Pinghe wants the tumor in his liver removed before it becomes life-threatening. But the 28-year-old Chinese villager knows it will be hard to find a hospital that will do the operation ? because he has AIDS.

In China, hospitals routinely reject people with HIV for surgery out of fear of exposure to the virus or harm to their reputations. After years of denying AIDS was a problem in China, the country has significantly improved care for patients, but the lingering stigma sets back those advances.

"In my hometown, not a single hospital is willing to operate on people infected with HIV," said Wang, who traveled to Beijing from Runan county in the central province of Henan to try to draw the attention of central authorities to the issue by speaking to the foreign media.

"This is not discrimination by one single person but by an entire country," he told The Associated Press.

The stigma against people with HIV runs especially deep in China, from being unofficially barred from government jobs to being expelled from school.

Now, as more people rail against the myriad inequalities that plague Chinese society, people with HIV are becoming increasingly willing to assert their right to fair treatment.

One man recently claimed the spotlight by altering his medical records to hide his HIV-positive condition so he could get surgery for lung cancer. The man, who went by the pseudonym Xiaofeng, told state media he had been turned away by two hospitals.

His story sparked a firestorm of criticism directed at both the hospitals for rejecting him and the patient for exposing medical staff to risks they were not aware of.

"Xiaofeng was smart. When he felt that his life was in danger, he found a way to save himself," said Li Hu, a Tianjin-based activist who helped Xiaofeng and later publicized the case online. "But this way isn't good for anyone, be it the patient or medical workers. Now the question is: Can we find a way that is favorable for everyone?"

The incoming premier, Li Keqiang, was prompted to issue a statement saying that health facilities must not discriminate against people with HIV. During a meeting Monday with a dozen activist groups, he said such discrimination would be severely punished, according to Li Hu.

The disease is a sensitive issue for Li Keqiang, who was governor of Henan province in 1998 when tens of thousands of people contracted HIV from state-sponsored blood-buying rings with unhygienic practices. Activists have urged Li to acknowledge the government's responsibility for the disaster and provide compensation, with little success.

China has made significant strides in tackling the epidemic, with the AIDS mortality rate falling 64 percent from 2002 to last year. The government last year increased HIV treatment by 50 percent ? reaching three-quarters of the adults and children who require it, according UNAIDS.

An estimated 780,000 people have HIV in China. There has been an increasing trend of cases transmitted through sex rather than intravenously, with sex workers and gay men considered most at risk, said Guy Taylor, a communications officer for UNAIDS.

About 70,000 new cases were reported in the first 10 months of this year, largely through sexual transmission, as compared with about 93,000 for all of last year, the Health Ministry announced this week at a news conference ahead of World AIDS Day on Saturday.

With improved access to lifesaving drugs, people with HIV in China are living longer, which means more are seeking treatment for other ailments.

Chinese law bars medical facilities from refusing to treat people with HIV, but activists say discrimination continues because the law spells out no serious punishments. Many patients cannot afford the time and expense of taking hospitals to court.

In interviews with patients, their spouses and activists, The Associated Press found a half-dozen cases of people with HIV being turned away by doctors as soon as they declared their HIV-positive status or it turned up in routine pre-operation tests.

In Henan province, a county hospital refused to operate on wheat farmer Zhu Weidong's 45-year-old wife, who had cervical cancer. Zhu, who spoke on condition that his wife remain anonymous, said he had to take her to the provincial capital. Including travel and other expenses, the procedure cost 40,000 yuan ($6,500) ? a third more than at a local facility ? which Zhu had to borrow from relatives and friends.

Similarly, a 31-year-old civil servant in the central city of Chongqing said his doctor recommended a liver biopsy after he reported severe lower back pain, but declined to carry it out once he tested positive for the virus. The man ? who would only give his nickname, Xiaobai, out of concern he might lose his job ? said it was a year later when he finally was able to get a biopsy in Shanghai, and it showed he had lost half his liver function.

"I can't help but wonder if I could have found out a year ago and saved more of my liver," he said. "I worry about what I would do if one day I needed dialysis. What if I need a liver transplant?"

The China Alliance of People Living with HIV/AIDS, a Beijing-based network, said that a survey last year found dozens of patients being turned away by facilities throughout the country ? in some cases even leading to deaths.

"I feel that if a doctor refuses to treat a patient who is HIV positive, it is a crime akin to murder," said the group's coordinator, Meng Lin, who recounted being denied a CT scan by a Beijing doctor in September, after he told him he had AIDS.

Dr. Wu Zunyou, who leads the government's HIV/AIDS center, said he believes attitudes will change. He said Chinese health workers report about 700 cases of accidental contact with the every year and none have resulted in infections. He welcomed the public debate the Tianjin case triggered.

"The debate causes medical workers to think about the issue and health facilities to improve their management, so there should be fewer chances for such things to happen in the future," Wu said.

___

Follow Gillian Wong on Twitter: http://twitter.com/gillianwong

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-aids-patients-fight-hospital-rejections-072254392.html

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Applied Materials puts two non-core units under one chief

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Applied Materials, the top manufacturer of equipment for chip makers, on Wednesday named a new executive to head up two poorly performing non-core businesses - solar and display - though it said the business groups are not themselves being combined.

Applied Materials said it hired KLA-Tencor veteran Ali Salehpour to head the two groups.

Chipmakers worried about the global economy and wrestling with declining PC sales have been spending less on new manufacturing equipment sold by Applied Materials.

Applied Materials' non-core businesses have also performed poorly, and the company said in October it would cut its work force by 6 percent to 9 percent to reduce costs.

The solar panel industry has more than enough capacity to meet demand, and manufacturers of displays for TVs and other devices also face supply gluts.

Although Salehpour will head the two business groups, they will remain separate, said Applied Materials spokesman Matt Ceniceros.

Shares of Applied Materials slipped 2.26 percent in after- hours trade, after closing 2.3 percent higher at $10.60 on Nasdaq.

(Reporting By Noel Randewich; Editing by Bernard Orr and Leslie Adler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/applied-materials-combines-non-core-businesses-215147386--finance.html

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Egypt crisis raises fears of 'second revolution'

In this Friday, July 13, 2012 photo, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi holds a joint news conference with Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, unseen, at the Presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt's Islamist president may look like he's running out of options as he faces an appeals court strike and massive opposition protests over decrees granting himself near absolute power. Will he back down now? Most likely not. Mohammed Morsi's next move may be to raise the stakes even higher. Signs are growing the constitutional panel at the heart of the showdown could vote on a draft this week despite a walkout by liberal and Christian members. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

In this Friday, July 13, 2012 photo, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi holds a joint news conference with Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, unseen, at the Presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt's Islamist president may look like he's running out of options as he faces an appeals court strike and massive opposition protests over decrees granting himself near absolute power. Will he back down now? Most likely not. Mohammed Morsi's next move may be to raise the stakes even higher. Signs are growing the constitutional panel at the heart of the showdown could vote on a draft this week despite a walkout by liberal and Christian members. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Egyptian protesters clash with security forces near Tahrir square, in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. Egyptian state television says the country's highest appeal court has decided to suspend its work nationwide to protest the president's decrees giving himself nearly absolute powers. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)

Egyptian protesters clash with security forces near Tahrir square, in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. Egyptian state television says the country's highest appeal court has decided to suspend its work nationwide to protest the president's decrees giving himself nearly absolute powers. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)

In this Friday, July 13, 2012 photo, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi holds a joint news conference with Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, unseen, at the Presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt's Islamist president may look like he's running out of options as he faces an appeals court strike and massive opposition protests over decrees granting himself near absolute power. Will he back down now? Most likely not. Mohammed Morsi's next move may be to raise the stakes even higher. Signs are growing the constitutional panel at the heart of the showdown could vote on a draft this week despite a walkout by liberal and Christian members. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

In this Friday, July 13, 2012 photo, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi holds a joint news conference with Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, unseen, at the Presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt's Islamist president may look like he's running out of options as he faces an appeals court strike and massive opposition protests over decrees granting himself near absolute power. Will he back down now? Most likely not. Mohammed Morsi's next move may be to raise the stakes even higher. Signs are growing the constitutional panel at the heart of the showdown could vote on a draft this week despite a walkout by liberal and Christian members. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

CAIRO (AP) ? Faced with an unprecedented strike by the courts and massive opposition protests, Egypt's Islamist president is not backing down in the showdown over decrees granting him near-absolute powers.

Activists warn that his actions threaten a "second revolution," but Mohammed Morsi faces a different situation than his ousted predecessor, Hosni Mubarak: He was democratically elected and enjoys the support of the nation's most powerful political movement.

Already, Morsi is rushing the work of an Islamist-dominated constitutional assembly at the heart of the power struggle, with a draft of the charter expected as early as Thursday, despite a walkout by liberal and Christian members that has raised questions about the panel's legitimacy.

The next step would be for Morsi to call a nationwide referendum on the document. If adopted, parliamentary elections would be held by the spring.

Wednesday brought a last-minute scramble to seize the momentum over Egypt's political transition. Morsi's camp announced that his Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists will stage a massive rally in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the plaza where more than 200,000 opposition supporters gathered a day earlier.

The Islamists' choice of the square for Saturday's rally raises the possibility of clashes. Several hundred Morsi opponents are camped out there, and another group is fighting the police on a nearby street.

"It is tantamount to a declaration of war," said liberal politician Mustafa al-Naggar, speaking on the private Al-Tahrir TV station.

Morsi remains adamant that his decrees, which place him above oversight of any kind, including by the courts, are in the interest of the nation's transition to democratic rule.

Backing down may not be an option for the 60-year-old U.S.-educated engineer.

Doing so would significantly weaken him and the Brotherhood at a time when their image has been battered by widespread charges that they are too preoccupied with tightening their grip on power to effectively tackle the country's many pressing problems.

Morsi's pride is also a key factor in a country where most people look to their leader as an invincible figure.

He may not be ready to stomach another public humiliation after backing down twice since taking office in June. His attempt to reinstate parliament's Islamist-dominated lower chamber after it was disbanded in July by the Supreme Constitutional Court was overturned by that same court. Last month, Morsi was forced to reinstate the country's top prosecutor just days after firing him when the judiciary ruled it was not within his powers to do so.

Among Morsi's first acts after seizing near-absolute powers last week was to fire the prosecutor again.

Unlike last year's anti-Mubarak uprising, calls for Morsi's ouster have so far been restricted to zealous chants by protesters, with the opposition focusing its campaign on demands that he rescind his decrees, disband the constitutional panel and replace it with a more inclusive one, and fire the Cabinet of Prime Minister Hesham Kandil.

"There is no practical means for Morsi's ouster short of a coup, which is very, very unlikely," said Augustus Richard Norton, a Middle East expert from Boston University.

Still, the opposition, whose main figures played a key role in the anti-Mubarak uprising, may be tempted to try to force Morsi from office if they continue to draw massive crowds like Tuesday's rally, which rivaled some of the biggest anti-Mubarak demonstrations. They will also likely take advantage of the growing popular discontent with Morsi's government and the fragility of his mandate ? he won just 51 percent of the vote in a presidential election fought against Mubarak's last prime minister.

With the country still reeling from the aftershocks of the 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak's 29-year regime, activists and analysts warn that any escalation carries the risk of a second, and possibly bloody, revolution ? pitting Islamists against non-Islamists, including liberals, women and minority Christians.

Ominous signs abound. Anti-Morsi crowds have attacked at least a dozen offices belonging to the Brotherhood across the nation since last week. Clashes between the two sides have left at least two dead and hundreds wounded.

The violence and polarization has led to warnings from some newspaper columnists and the public at large of the potential for "civil war."

"As opposed to seeking face-saving compromises, (escalation by Morsi) would indicate starkly that Egypt's leaders have increasingly come to understand the current moment in zero-sum terms," said Michael W. Hanna, an Egypt expert from the New York-based Century Foundation.

"Beyond the political dangers it poses, the move will increase the risks that the contests for power will spill over into the streets, with civil strife a real possibility."

While potentially destabilizing, Morsi's tug-of-war with the liberal opposition pales in comparison to his battle with the powerful judiciary, which considers the president's decrees an unprecedented assault on its authority.

On Wednesday, judges of the nation's highest appeals court and its lower sister court went on strike to protest the decrees, joining hundreds of other judges who have not worked since Sunday.

The Supreme Constitutional Court, which is to rule Sunday on the legality of the constitutional panel and parliament's upper chamber ? both dominated by Morsi's Brotherhood and other Islamists ? admonished the president for accusing it of trying to bring down his government.

The loss of the judiciary's goodwill could prove costly for Morsi.

Already, the judges are warning that, unless their demands are met, they will not assume their traditional role of supervising a referendum on a new constitution or the parliamentary elections that would follow. Without them, the legitimacy of any vote would be in question.

"This is the highest form of protest," said Nasser Amin, head of the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession. "The judges felt that the constitutional declaration has taken away from them the dearest and most important mandates" ? oversight of government decisions.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-11-28-Egypt-Second%20Revolution?/id-276cb9e938b2485e83f37be2316e923b

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Slickdeals' best in tech for November 28th: 17-inch Lenovo IdeaPad and 73-inch DLP HDTV

Looking to save some coin on your tech purchases? Of course you are! In this round-up, we'll run down a list of the freshest frugal buys, hand-picked with the help of the folks at Slickdeals. You'll want to act fast, though, as many of these offerings won't stick around long.

The mid-week blues may have already hit your desk in full force, but this smattering of tech deals could be just the thing to get things lookin' up. Today's group includes three camera options (point-and-shoot, DSLR and camcorder), a 17-inch laptop and a massive 73-inch HDTV. All of the details and requisite links lie just beyond the break, but don't delay, because these offers are likely to disappear quickly.

Continue reading Slickdeals' best in tech for November 28th: 17-inch Lenovo IdeaPad and 73-inch DLP HDTV

Filed under: Cameras, Home Entertainment, Laptops

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

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Video: Obama looks for public support in fiscal cliff negotiations

>>> welcome back. in a couple of hours the president is expected to sit down once again with business leaders as part of what politico calls his outside in strategy when it comes to the fiscal cliff negotiations. instead of meeting with republicans behind closed doors the president urging the public to apply pressure on the gop. earlier today, the president met with middle class americans at the white house and urged house republicans to extend tax cuts . democrats say would benefit 98% of americans and 97% of small businesses .

>> today, i'm asking congress to listen to the people who sent us here to serve. i'm asking americans all across the country to make your voice heard. it's too important for washington to screw this up.

>> and just a few hours ago we found out the president will be hosting mitt romney for lunch at the white house tomorrow. it will be their first face to face since the last presidential debate and since governor romney accused the president of essentially buying the election. meanwhile, speaker boehner trying to keep the party's message united with taxes and pushing back against statements of gop congressman cole for republicans to fall in line with the president.

>> i told tom earlier in our conference meeting that disagreed with him. you won't grow the economy if you raise tax rates on the top two rates. it will hurt small businesses , hurt our economy.

>> so let's bring in the political panel on this topic for today. erin mcpike back with us and david goodfriend , democratic strategist and contributor. thank you for sticking around. let's bring in the element of tom cole , a republican of oklahoma. doesn't get more red than oklahoma. let's play what he said regarding support and passing the middle class tax cut .

>> in my view, we all agree we won't raise taxes on people making less than $250,000. we should take them out of this discussion right now.

>> what is the issue with that?

>> well, what congressman cole has really shown is that there's an imminent amount of good logic and sense in preserving the current tax rates for 98% of americans for a lot of reasons. one of which is the gdp dependent on consumer spending . 0% of the economy is consumer spending . if you take $2,000 on average out of pockets of consumers, it's going to hurt the economy so right away you have a low tax good economic rational behind it but there are politics here, too, of course, and that is the republican party just got she lacked in an election and learning that the only way to expand their popularity, expand their base is if they stop being perceived as the party of wealthy white people and start being perceived as more appeal and i think that congressman's statement goes to the fact that we need to separate the tax rates for the top 2% as an issue from the tax rates of everybody else. that's so-called decoupling is really important and it's something that i think the republican party increasingly sees as necessary for its own image.

>> erin , our first read team puts it this way. this is how they address it. house republicans right now don't have the upper hand in negotiations and going to have to grapple with raising rates at least in the short time and cole is actually giving them a way out of this box short term which is to do the decouple as we heard david refer to on rates and live to fight another day. why is it that more republicans at least at this point not vocalizing same things we have heard from cole , you think?

>> republicans are angry with cole up here on capitol hill because the last piece, raising the rates on the last 2% is the last bargaining chip they have and i've talked to many republicans saying privately by the end of the negotiations they may very well have to give on that but they want democrats to come to the table with entitlement reform at least on medicare and they don't want to give up rates until they get that so we're going to see a lot of hand wringing over this cole comment for a couple of days.

>> david , there's also hand wringing over what senator dick durbin said in the speech at the center for american progress and we have this, dick durbin , not what he said but didn't say and preparled remarks he said progressives should be willing to talk about ways to ensure the long-term viability of the social security , medicare and medicaid but those conversations should not be a part of a plan to avert the fiscal cliff and prepared remarks. he didn't say that in the speech. you have a lot of republicans on the -- excuse me, democrats on the left greatly concerned about what will happen to medicare and quite honestly not ready to put that conversation on the table.

>> well, i think that's correct. you're speaking about a certain percentage of democrats. i would include in that list bernie sander who is sent out an e-mail blast today saying medicare , medicare and social security should all be off the table. now, in reality, i think social security really can be and should be off the table because it's not a contributor to the federal deficit. it's well funded for decades ahead but if you look at medicare , here's what the president has to say about that. the president says look at the budget i originally submitted to congress and you will see i have put in excruciating detail cuts to the medicare program that i think we can afford so the president has put that forward. there are those in his party to his left who would like to push back on that. but what we have missing from this discussion right now i think is that same level of specificity coming from the republican side on any of the cuts that they have talked about. i mean, that the nuts and bolts of a negotiation over budget deal so, yes, you have laid out this sort of landscape of the politics and where the cuts would come from and in particular the fact that the administration put forward medicare reforms but what we don't see from the other side is specificity on revenues. the republicans say, yes, we need more revenues but they're not willing to exactly spell out what that means and that's missing from their side of the discussion.

>> let's move to the hot topic of tomorrow. mitt romney visiting the white house as i've pointed out first face to face since the final debate. also since the remarks of governor romney revealing he believes the president won essentially because he gave out what he called gifts to portions of his base. david , to be a fly on the wall , what is the point, first of all, to have mitt romney there? i get it with senator mccain , a senator at the time. mitt romney doesn't hold a position and many turned against him.

>> well, here's what i think this is about. the president believes in his heart and i can tell you this i think as a long-time supporter of his i believe this firmly. the president wants to get a deal done. he really does. he does not want to send the country over the fiscal cliff.

>> he needs mitt romney to do that?

>> he needs republicans to cooperate with him, yes. and i think if mitt romney were to come forward and say, we need a deal, we shouldn't go over the cliff, should be give and take on both sides, that would have tremendous impact because, you know, close to 50% of the country voted for guy. he does represent a large swath of the american population that voted for him and he can come forward and say, let's put politics aside. rise above as my friends at cnbc say and get a deal done.

>> erin , i think there are a lot of people that just gasped listening to david because the other side of that -- i'm going to be honest -- people believe that those who are republicans were not voting for mitt romney . they were voting against president obama . before that vote, we did not have the tape of mitt romney saying that many of the people who voted for the president just wanted gifts and that would apply to a large group of people right now worried about entitlement reform in addition to that, erin , we saw republicans turn on mitt romney in droves right after that comment. so what influence does he have if he said, come on, can't we all get along, who would listen?

>> no one really. mitt romney lost a lot of ka shay with the rest of the --

>> david --

>> that made me feel bad.

>> checked by erin . that's a spanking right there on national tv .

>> this meeting is just about making --

>> spectacular.

>> just want to make nice after a very difficult election and these debates uncomfortable for a lot of viewers. they have just engaged in a long campaign. they want to make nice.

>> should mitt romney bring a gift?

>> that's a good question. maybe so.

>> we'll see. maybe we'll pose it as a gut check tomorrow. thank you, guys, for your time. david , you can call erin and take up your issue with her. thank you.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/49998128/

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Wis. on pace to set export record for year

MADISON, Wis. (AP) ? The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation says Wisconsin is on pace to set a record for state exports this year.

Through the first three quarters of 2012, Wisconsin businesses exported $17.4 billion worth of products.

Lora Klenke, vice president of International Development with WEDC, says if exports continue to grow at this pace during the final quarter, they would total $23.5 billion. That would break last year's record of $22 billion.

Wisconsin exports during the first three quarters of 2012 grew faster than total U.S. exports. Wisconsin exported 6.4 percent more in the first three quarters of 2012 than in 2011, compared with 5 percent growth for the United States during the same period.

The top three markets for Wisconsin exports from January through September 2012 were Canada, Mexico and China.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wis-pace-set-export-record-211834759--finance.html

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General Dynamics IT to outfit four military hospitals

November 27, 2012 4:22 PM

General Dynamics Information Technology has received three task orders to provide outfit four military hospitals.

Under the task orders, General Dynamics will plan, purchase, deliver and install medical and information technology equipment and furniture at the facilities. The new hospitals include Fort Riley, Kan., Fort Benning, Ga., and new clinics at Camp Carroll and Camp Humphreys in South Korea.

The task orders are worth $100 million over 28 months.

General Dynamics previously has provided similar health-care facility support services to the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., and the new Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in Fort Belvoir.

General Dynamics IT is a Fairfax-based business unit of General Dynamics.

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Source: http://www.virginiabusiness.com/index.php/news/article/general-dynamics-it-to-outfit-four-military-hospitals/

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India: Christian Pastor Talks To Muslims About Christ, Islamists Severely Beat Pastor, Attempt To Destroy Churches

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> Radical Islam > India: Christian Pastor Talks To Muslims About Christ, Islamists Severely Beat Pastor, Attempt To Destroy?Churches

AsiaNews ? ?Mumbai (AsiaNews) ? This year, 39 attacks were perpetrated against the Christian community in Karnataka, this according to the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCICI), the latest reported last Friday in two separate locations in the state. In Bellary District, Muslim fundamentalists attacked an Anglican clergyman and tried to destroy Christian churches and Christian-run facilities. In Kolar District, Hindu nationalists from the Bajrang Dal disrupted the ceremony consecrating a Pentecostal church. In both cases, GCIC President Sajan George noted, ?fears in Karnataka have been reignited in the hearts of Christians.?

In Hospet (Bellary District), a Muslim mob attacked Rev Lewis Mascarenhas, a pastor in the (Anglican) Church of South India (CSI), and badly beat him because he had visited some Muslims who had asked him to talk about Jesus and Christianity. After he arrived, another group of Muslims came and beat him up.

Soon after, they dragged the bleeding clergyman to a nearby police station accusing of conducting forced conversions. Police eventually took the reverend to B.C. Acharya Hospital but kept him in their custody.

Meanwhile, other Muslims attacked churches and Christian facilities in Hospet, bent on destroying them. Warned, police moved in quickly to protect the buildings to avoid further attacks.? Read more.

Flashback: India: Police Detain, Beat Converts from Islam to Christianity in Muslim-Majority Kashmir Valley?? ?Police in India?s Kashmir Valley detained and beat converts from Islam and were expected to arrest Christian workers after Muslim leaders alleged that Muslim youth were being ?lured? to Christianity. Police in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley picked up seven converts who were recently baptized in All Saints Church in Srinagar, a local Christian who spoke to the converts after their release on Nov. 2 told Compass? The source, who requested anonymity, said police beat the converts and asked if Christians had given them money for their conversion. Most of the converts were from Budgam district, about 18 miles from Srinagar, and pastors there fearful of being arrested were in hiding, he added.??Read more.

Source: http://midnightwatcher.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/india-christian-pastor-talks-to-muslims-about-christ-islamists-severely-beat-pastor-attempt-to-destroy-churches/

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From Canada, a tough economist for Bank of England

TORONTO (AP) ? Naming the first foreigner to serve as governor of the Bank of England since it was founded in 1694 might have been expected to cause a fuss. Yet the appointment of Canadian Mark Carney has won bipartisan praise in Britain.

That's because few people in the world have Carney's qualifications.

The Bank of Canada governor is a highly-educated economist with Wall Street experience who is widely credited with helping Canada dodge the worst of the global economic crisis. He gained a reputation along the way as a tough regulator who stood up to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.

Moving to the top job at Canada's central bank just before the global financial crisis hit in 2008, Carney slashed interest rates to historic lows and was the first central banker to commit to keeping them at a historic-low level for a definite time, a step the U.S. Federal Reserve would follow.

Canada was spared a mortgage meltdown or subprime lending crisis, and its banks, more regulated and less leveraged than Europe's, are rated among the world's soundest. Britain, however, has endured a decade of economic turbulence, and seemed ready for a foreigner to shake up its central bank.

Besides his job as a central banker, Carney, 47, also heads the G-20's Financial Stability Board, a global supervisor of regulatory changes in the financial system. Carney's championing of stiffer regulation was highlighted in a run-in last year with Dimon. The Bank of Canada chief stood his ground in a closed-door meeting in Washington when Dimon directed a diatribe toward Carney over what the JPMorgan Chase chief called "anti-American" global reforms against banks.

"When there was pushback on the regulatory front he dug in his heels and made his case that, no, we shouldn't slow down, we should be pushing forward," said Craig Alexander, a Toronto-Dominion Bank economist.

"This is the sort of thing that makes him qualified to take on the challenge of the Bank of England because he's going to be materially involved in shaping regulatory reform of the financial system in London," he added. "So the fact that he would stand up for the regulatory regime is exactly the characteristic one would be looking for."

The transnational appointment is a mark of today's globalized world, while also echoing a past in which Canada was a part of the British Empire.

Like other central bankers, Carney is a former Goldman Sachs executive. He worked for 13 years in London, Tokyo, New York and Toronto, before being appointed deputy governor of the Bank of Canada in 2003. He has both financial industry and government regulatory credentials.

"He looks and sounds the part," CIBC World Markets economist Avery Shenfeld said. "He has the academic background, the gravitas and the experience to withstand the fray of central banking in a city like London."

Carney, from the remote northern town of Fort Smith in the Northwest Territories, gained a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University in 1988, and master's and doctoral degrees in economics from Oxford University. Like many Canadians, he played ice hockey, serving as a backup goalie for Harvard.

He lived in London for a decade and his wife and children are dual nationals. British Treasury chief George Osborne, announcing the surprise choice to the House of Commons on Monday, said Carney will apply for British citizenship. He takes up the new position July 1, succeeding Mervyn King, who has headed the bank since 2003.

Before Monday's announcement the frontrunner for the job was widely seen to be Paul Tucker, the bank's deputy governor. But Tucker was likely bypassed because of his embroilment in the Libor-fixing scandal. In July, he was forced to testify to lawmakers after emails emerged showing he had communicated with Bob Diamond, the ex-chief of Barclays, over the setting of the inter-bank interest rate.

Carney's appointment won bipartisan praise in Britain. Ed Balls, the opposition Labour Party's economics spokesman, called it "a good choice," while Osborne said Carney was "quite simply the best, most experienced and most qualified person in the world to do the job."

Although Osborne said it was the first time the Treasury advertised the governor's job, Carney said he hadn't applied. "I didn't apply as part of the formal process to the position. These discussions really only intensified in the last two weeks," Carney said at a news conference in Ottawa.

Carney said he initially turned down the job but British officials kept after him. He said he changed his mind because his term as governor of the Bank of Canada was ending soon, the London job was a big opportunity and the fate of the British economy was critical.

"It's very important for the global economy that the U.K. does well, that it succeeds in this rebalancing of their economy, that the reform of the British financial system is completed, " he said.

Carney said he would take the job for five years instead of the usual eight, and many Canadians are speculating that Carney may return to Canada to run for prime minister. The opposition Liberal Party of Canada had eagerly courted him, but Carney said this month he would remain a central banker for some time.

___

Associated Press writer Sylvia Hui contributed from London.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/canada-tough-economist-bank-england-211805197--finance.html

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Obama hails Mexican president-elect in WH meeting

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama hailed an "ambitious reform agenda" set forth by the incoming president of Mexico as he and President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto met Tuesday at the White House.

Obama said it was fitting that the men were meeting even before Pena Nieto takes office on Saturday, calling it a sign of the close relationship between the two countries.

"What happens in Mexico has an impact on our society," Obama said before the Oval Office meeting, which also included Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Obama said he had forged a close working relationship with outgoing Mexican President Felipe Calderon and was confident he could establish a similar "close personal and professional relationship" with Pena Nieto, leader of Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Obama said he was confident Mexico and the United States will be able to strengthen longstanding economic and trade ties, as well as increase security along their common border.

He also said he would press ahead with comprehensive immigration reform and looked forward to cooperation from Pena Nieto in longstanding U.S. efforts to stem illegal immigration from Mexico.

Pena Nieto congratulated Obama on winning a second term and said he was looking forward to strengthening already close relations between the countries.

Pena Nieto noted that both he and Obama are former legislators in their respective countries ? giving them a deeper understanding of politics ? and said both men were focused on job creation as their top priority.

Pena Nieto praised Obama's calls for immigration reform and said he would work with U.S. officials to create "a safe, modern, connected ... legal border" between the two countries.

"We fully support your proposal," Pena Nieto told Obama, in remarks that were translated from Spanish. "We want to contribute. We want to be part of this."

Pena Nieto invited Obama to visit Mexico at any time, an offer Obama said he would consider. Obama joked that he was "jealous" of Biden, who is leading a U.S. delegation to attend Pena Nieto's inauguration on Saturday.

About two-thirds of the more than 50 million Hispanics in the United States self-identify as being of Mexican descent, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

___

Reach Matthew Daly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-hails-mexican-president-elect-wh-meeting-224214674.html

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Is Powerball a Mug's Game?

Wednesday?s $500 million (and growing) Powerball jackpot will have ticket holders in 42 states holding their breath. If you buy a lottery ticket this week in hope of hitting it big, are you a foolish romantic or a canny statistician? Back in 2001, mathematician Jordan Ellenberg used pencil and paper to defend his own choice to buy tickets for a $280 million Powerball drawing. His original article is reprinted below.

Were you stupid not to play?

I don't have to ask myself; I played. My father and his Ph.D. in statistics put me in for a 20 percent share of his four tickets. But I got enough razzing from friends and neighbors that I thought it was worth explaining why, from a mathematician's point of view, last Saturday's drawing wasn't necessarily dumb.

The question to ask is: What is the expected value of a lottery ticket? If the expected value is more than a dollar, and the ticket costs a dollar, you should buy a ticket. If the expected value is less than a dollar, you should keep your money.

"Expected value" doesn't just mean "what do you expect?" After all, you probably expect the ticket to be worth nothing. Yet people don't think lottery tickets are worthless; if they did, they wouldn't buy them. "Expected value" as I mean it here is a mathematical definition that assigns a fixed value to an object whose true value is subject to uncertainty.

Suppose an object might be worth either V₁ or V₂ dollars, and suppose the probability is P₁ that it is worth V₁, and P₂ that it is worth V₂. Then the expected value is defined to be

For instance, suppose you place a bet on a horse that has a 1/10 chance of winning, and the bet pays $100. Then the probability is (1/10) that your ticket will be worth $100 and (9/10) that your ticket will be worth nothing. So, the expected value of the ticket is

(1/10) x $100 + (9/10) x 0 = $10.

Why is $10 a good definition of the value of the ticket? Because if you spent a week at the track and bought, say, 250 such tickets, you'd probably end up winning about 25 times; you'd make $2,500, or $10 per ticket. So, if you were paying more than $10 for each ticket, you'd be a loser; less, and you'd be a winner.

So, what's the expected value of a Powerball ticket? Here's a wrong argument I heard a lot. People who knew the jackpot odds figured: "I've got a 1 in 80 million chance at $280 million, so the expected value is

(1/80 million) x $280 million + (79,999,999/80 million) x 0 = $3.50.

The problem with that argument is that we weren't playing for the $280 million. We were playing for our share of the $280 million, thanks to the possibility of multiple winners. If I win the Powerball, the chance is pretty good that somebody else is going to win, too. Already my jackpot's down to $140 million. And the more people who play, the more the prize will tend to divvy up. If, as happened in real life this week, four people win, you're looking at just $70 million.

So how many people could you expect to share the prize with? I worked this out (requires Adobe Acrobat). The chance of no winner is about 8 percent; of one winner, 21 percent; of two, 26 percent; of three, 21 percent; of four, 13 percent; of five or more, 9 percent. So Saturday's fourfold victory was a bit of a surprise but not a real shocker. A Powerball enthusiast suggested to me that people are especially fond of picking lucky 21 on the red ball and that this could explain the large number of winners. But in fact, Powerball records show that the number of people who picked 21 on the red ball was only half a percentage point greater than would have been expected by chance. That's not enough to make a serious difference.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=7cc19a3c44139466f79a20c72c9a3c26

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British farmer hunts buried Spitfires in Myanmar

LONDON (Reuters) - A British farmer and flying enthusiast who has spent the past 16 years scouring the jungles of Myanmar believes he has finally found what he was searching for - a horde of buried Spitfire fighter planes dating back to World War Two.

Rumours of a huge treasure trove of buried aircraft in Myanmar have circulated for years but now geological surveys of one specific site have lent credibility to the idea and David Cundall plans to start digging as soon as possible.

"I've been digging up dumpsites and crashed military aircraft for 35 years, but this is something else," Cundall, 62, told reporters.

Why an estimated 36 planes - and possibly more - should have been buried in the tropics of southeast Asia, is a source of much speculation.

But what is known is that after four years of brutal battles against the occupying Japanese forces, the victorious British buried much of their inventory in 1945.

And at Mingaladon airfield, just outside the former capital city of Yangon, Cundall thinks he's found the exact location.

Cundall first caught wind of the tales of buried British airplanes in the late 1990s.

He spent two years grappling with visa restrictions, and after amassing eight matching eyewitness accounts of the exact location where U.S. and British servicemen had dug a massive trench, he devoted himself to the project.

Long encumbered by unhelpful local bureaucrats and beaten to the initial contract by an Israeli bid, a thaw in the West's relations with Myanmar - formerly known as Burma - facilitated the excavation process.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is believed to have discussed the recovery of the aircraft during a trade visit to Myanmar earlier this year.

In the event, with a 50 percent share in whatever is dug up, Myanmar's cooperation is not entirely altruistic.

There are only about 40 airworthy Spitfires left in the world, and with models in good condition commanding prices of several million pounds each, Cundall is potentially sitting on a fortune.

However, what condition the haul will be in after decades immersed in tropical soil remains to be seen.

"Unlike some aircraft which suffered terribly from the heat and humidity, Spitfires had a very good reputation for reliability," said John Delaney, collections manager at Britain's Imperial War Museum in Duxford, eastern England which has several vintage military aircraft.

"But what kind of condition they're in now depends on how well they were packed."

Cundall says he's unconcerned by their exact state.

"It's like opening a can of 67-year-old beans. It's not going to be at its best, but if you're hungry, you'll eat it."

Project archaeologists are at pains to point out that no physical evidence has been uncovered yet.

Neither is there any obvious reason why an air force should take the trouble to pack and bury a near-obsolete model of aircraft.

Even lead archaeologist Andy Brockman concedes it might all turn out to be an elaborate wild goose chase.

"It's a story that needs investigating," he said.

The monsoon season rains ended in late October, and after a two month hiatus to allow the water table to drop, Cundall and his team hope to start digging in earnest in early January.

(Reporting by Peter Schwartzstein, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/british-farmer-hunts-buried-spitfires-myanmar-174216081.html

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