SAN ANTONIO ? Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III wasn't dazzling ? and didn't need to be ? as No. 15 Baylor pulled out a thrilling Alamo Bowl victory in the highest-scoring bowl game in history, beating Washington 67-56 in a record-smashing shootout Thursday night.
If this was RG3's final showcase before jumping to the NFL, it was a gripping goodbye to watch. One of the nation's most electrifying players was upstaged by an even more exciting game that shattering the previous record for points in regulation set in the 2001 GMAC Bowl.
Griffin had an unremarkable night, throwing just one touchdown pass and running for another. But Terrance Ganaway starred ably in his place, rushing for 200 yards and five touchdowns.
His last was a 43-yard run with 2:28 left to seal Baylor's first 10-win season since 1980.
Griffin wasn't the star, but a crowd overwhelmingly in favor of Baylor that was left breathless by five lead changes and three touchdown plays of 50 yards or longer still treated him like one.
"One more year! One more year!" fans chanted as Griffin darted around the field in celebration.
Asked when he'll make his decision on whether to forgo his senior year, the AP Player of the Year said, "Pretty soon here, probably."
The previous bowl record for a regulation game was 102 total points set in the 2001 GMAC Bowl between Marshall and East Carolina. That game went to double overtime and ended with a combined 125 points ? which still stands as the overall bowl record.
Baylor and Washington (7-6) also set a bowl record for total offense in a game with 1,377 yards.
Washington quarterback Keith Price outplayed his Heisman counterpart, going 23 for 27 with 438 yards and four touchdowns. He also ran for another three scores.
Griffin was 24 of 33 for 295 yards ? and his only touchdown throw came on the game's opening drive.
Blown out in four other games against ranked opponents this season, the Huskies finally made one interesting. Not that it started that way after Baylor ran up 245 yards of offense alone in the first quarter ? awful even by the standards of Washington's defense, which is among the nation's worst.
Then the most award-winning QB in the country suddenly stopped looking like even the best one in the Alamodome.
Price, a sophomore who threw a school-record 29 touchdowns in his first year as the starter, began cutting into a 21-7 deficit with a 12-yard scoring strike to James Johnson. Seven minutes later he tied the game when Devin Aguilar somersaulted over the goal line after catching a 1-yard lob.
The overwhelming crowd of Baylor fans ? decked in green-and-gold Heisman shirts and armed with signs such as "Superman wears RG3 socks" ? stood in stunned silenced. That gave way to disbelieving gasps on the next series, when the typically sure-handed Griffin fumbled after getting popped by Andrew Hudson.
After that, it was practically a free-for-all of big plays.
A 56-yard touchdown dash by Polk. An 80-yard touchdown catch by Washington's Jermaine Kearse two plays into the second half. An 89-yard scoring rumble by Baylor's Terrance Ganaway. Kearse again, catching and darting for 60 yards before getting dragged down, setting up Price's fourth touchdown toss the next play.
Back and forth, back and forth. One after another. In all, five plays covered 50 or more yards, three of them for scores.
For an Alamo Bowl short on drama and light on matchups in recent years, it was a thrilling scoring spree that overshadowed the mere novelty of featuring the Heisman winner. And that in itself was a rarity for a bowl of this stature: Not since Ty Detmer took BYU to the Holiday Bowl in 1990 had a Heisman winner played in a bowl before New Year's Day.
Plenty came to see this one.
Anticipating a surge of Heisman gawkers, Alamo Bowl officials added 800 temporary seats and opened up others with obstructed views that required ticket-buyers to sign a form acknowledging the poor sightlines. Those seats sold, anyway, and the announced attendance of 65,256 was the fifth-largest in the bowl's history.
Others had better seats.
That includes Miami Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland, who kicked for Baylor in the late 1980s but was here on business scouting Griffin in case the fourth-year junior enters the draft. Griffin's parents, two sisters and fiancee watched the nail-biter with front-row seats.
Griffin acknowledged this week his parents are looking at his draft prospects but denies having any substantial talks with them.
Win or lose, it was an impressive finale for Washington after stumbling into the postseason losing four of its last six. Particularly against a ranked team after then-Top 25 opponents Nebraska, Stanford, Oregon and USC all crushed the Huskies by an average of 24 points.
Award-winning, hit series ?House? is coming to Oxygen, kicking off its run on the network with a New Year?s Day marathon. The first ten episodes of the first season of the show will air back to back on Sunday, January 1 beginning at 8AM ET/PT with all ten episodes then repeating and ending the marathon [...]
Be sure to watch Mac Miller perform live on 'NYE in NYC 2012' on December 31 at 11 p.m. ET on MTV. By Rob Markman
Mac Miller Photo: MTV News
Mac Miller has had a hell of a year, and the rising rap star from Pittsburgh will cap it all off in Times Square when he rings in 2012 performing on MTV's "NYE in NYC 2012," airing live at 11 p.m. ET/10 p.m. CT on December 31.
There are only a few more days left in 2011, and yes, anything can happen, but when reflecting back on the year in which he became a star, Mac has one event in particular that he considers a highlight: his November 8 debut album release and the fan reaction that landed him atop the Billboard albums chart a week later, after selling more than 144,000 copies.
"The whole album coming out was probably the #1 highlight," Mac told MTV News of his independently released Blue Slide Park. "I remember putting out the album and being really curious about what critics had to say about it because I felt like I made this album from the heart and it was by far my best work."
Unfortunately for Mac, the album reviews did not satisfy his expectations. To him, it seemed that the critics just didn't get it, and he began doubting whether or not he put out the right album. That was until his fans reassured him that he made the right move.
"All people of all different ages everywhere coming up to me and genuinely telling me how much they like the album," Mac recalled. "That's definitely the highlight, seeing this music that I've created and just seeing how much more powerful people are than publications. That's who I make music for."
Watch MTV's "NYE in NYC 2012," featuring Mac Miller, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and more, live on December 31 at 11 p.m. ET/10 p.m. CT on MTV! Head over to NYE.MTV.com for more info.
?How To Increase Power And Strength To Golf Swings All golfers whether professionals or amateurs know that they have to develop powerful swings to be good at the game. The ability of having good driving distances is an integral part of any golf game and should be the aim of all golfers. Improving the driving distance off the tee or with any golf club requires increased clubhead speed. Clubhead speed is derived from the power in your golf swings and thus increasing the power in your golf swing will improve your clubhead speed. So how can we...
?Improve Golf Swing With Golf Fitness Training There is a great controversy in the golfing community with one side stating that aquiring golf fitness from weight training is beneficial to playing good golf while the other side thinks that it is counter productive to golf swings. If there is such great divide in opinion on this matter, then why is it that the majority of the professional golfers in the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) Tour are including weight training into their golf fitness exercises training programs to improve...
?How To Have Powerful Golf Swing Everyone who plays golf knows the importance of having a good golf swing speed so that they can hit the ball straighter, further and with more accuracy. However, many amatuer and weekend golfers, no matter how hard they try, they can't seem to improve on their swing techniques. The golf swing may look like a simple movement to an observer, but there are many factors involved in order to achieve that all powerful swing speed. For example, you will need great hand-eye coordination, good...
?Do You Need a Golf Fitness Instructor It is sheer common sense that you have to have a certain level of physical fitness in order to participate in any sporting activities. Then playing a good game of enjoyable golf is certainly no exception. There is still this outdated thinking that you can play a good game of golf without being fit which is at best, uninformed history. You are at a great disadvantage if you are unfit and your opponent is and you can bet most likely that you will not be the one winning the beautiful game. You...
?How To Prevent Lower Back Golf Injuries One of the most common injuries golfers can sustain is the lower back injury. This is because playing a game of golf puts massive of strains on the lower back. The strains are caused by the execution body mechanics of the golf swing. The execution of the golf swing alone puts the lower back under immense shearing forces on each and every golf swing. Thus the muscles of the lower back must be strong enough to withstand the forces applied to the lower back. Your muscles are under stress from all...
?How To Avoid Golf Injuries You are such a good golf player and you are destined to win your local hole in one to grab that fantastic prize on offer from golf competitions! So you go to the golf course everyday to practise your driving, putting and swinging skills everyday. That the unexpected happened! When you were executing your most elegant and powerful swing ever, you heard a loud pop followed by an excruciating pain in your lower back which forced you to abandon the game you were enjoying so much. Welcome to the...
?What Are the Benefits of Playing Golf Fed up of going to the gym every other day to keep fit and healthy? Well, have a game of golf then. Do you know that playing golf regularly not only improves your physical health, but mental well being too? Golf is an excellent game to lose weight and tone up your muscles and you can do this leisurely instead of spending hours after hours of gruelling cardio exercises and going on one brutal diet after another. If you care about your health and fitness but dislike working out in a gym, then...
?Want More Clients For Your Personal Trainer Business How many fitness personal trainers do you know who have a bulging tummy, flabby butt, a little arm muscles with scanty knowledge and skills required of a professional fitness personal trainer and yet they are very successful personal trainers? Some of these fitness trainers probably do not even have a qualified personal trainer certification not to say a string of qualifications. I am sure that you have met a few of them if you are in the personal training industry. Why do people trust these...
?How Playing Golf Can Help You Lose Weight You can burn alot of calories and lose weight by playing golf, announced Dr Neil Wolkodoff PhD, a sports scientist and director of the Rose Center for Health and Sports Sciences in Denver, Colorado who conducted the study. So what is new, you may ask, since all golfers already knew that getting out there on the golf courses, swinging the clubs and walking through undulating terrain throughout the game is more than just a leisurely stroll in the neighborhood. Of course we already knew that...
?Liposuction Or Mesotherapy For Spot Reduction Weight Loss Go ask any fitness personal trainer that you want to reduce fat on your tummy or your butt, these fitness instructors will unanimously tell you that there is no such thing as spot reduction. Well, they are correct in a way because by dieting and exercising, fat will come off from all over your body and not on selected body parts. However, let it be known that there are spot reduction methods and procedures.It is only because these spot reduction procedures are out of the realm of fitness...
Making sure that you choose the insurance that you buy properly is a great way to save a lot of money and to be confident that you got your vehicle is covered with the best insurance that is available in the market. But if you failed to do so and fell to the empty promises and attractive ads of some companies, you are on your way to a lot of frustration and hassle especially when you have just experienced a car accident. There is also a great chance that you will be paying more than the normal cost insures the car that you have if you are not wise is choosing car insurance.
The best way to avoid having a bad deal when it comes to buying auto insurance is by making comparisons to the quotes that are being offered to you. The fact that you can get all of the quotes that you want from various companies give you a big advantage. Making auto insurance quote comparison is a common method now to make sure that you get the best deals and also to make sure that you get a good list of options to which company you are going to do business with.
If you are new in buying car insurance and you have no inkling about making car insurance quotes comparison, here are the steps that you can follow.
Contact the car insurance companies that you like ? there might be hundreds of car insurance companies that are operating in your state right now, some are accessible through the internet, so it would not be that hard for you to get in touch with the different auto insurance companies. You can contact then and tell them that you want to get a quote from them. They could ask you to give them some information or they could send an insurance agent to go and visit you. What you need to do is get as much quotes as you can.
Compare the rates of each company ? after you have collected all of the quotes, it is time for you to analyze which quote fits your budget. You might also want to look into the terms and the policies of the provider to make sure that you are really getting a great deal out of the affordable insurance.
Go to car insurance websites ? if the latter options are quite difficult for you to do, you can still get the comparisons online. Doing this is pretty east because all that you need to do is go the site, give them some information, and then you will then see the quotes of different auto insurance companies. And since they would require you to provide your zip code, the offers would be from the companies that are operating close to your area. This method is really popular to potential car insurance buyers because it is really easy and convenient.
Whichever method you choose, just make sure that you really take your time in choosing so that you would not end up regretting in the long run. Auto insurance is really important so you need to work with a company that doesn?t just offer cheap rates but also quality service.
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JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Ultra-orthodox Jews and Israeli police clashed in Beit Shemesh on Monday, injuring a police officer.
A police officer was injured and several black-robed protesters taken into custody in the disturbances that erupted after a public outcry over televised footage of an eight-year-old Israeli girl complaining of verbal abuse from black-robed Orthodox men while on her way to school.
"Nazis, Nazis," religious protesters in the town of Beit Shemesh shouted at Israeli officers escorting them from the scene, Israeli television footage showed.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said one of the protesters was arrested on suspicion of throwing a rock that slightly injured a police officer. Three other ultra-Orthodox men were being questioned, he said.
He said Israeli police were also investigating complaints that some of the Orthodox men had spat at and spoken "disrespectfully" at girls en route to an elementary school, where Naama Margolese, 8, whose spotlight television interview was aired on Friday, also attended class.
Police have reinforced their presence in Beit Shemesh where the dispute flared at the weekend, and when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded a crackdown on the zealots some have accused of spitting at or harassing women they see as immodest.
Israeli television crews filming in the town complained rocks were thrown at them in Beit Shemesh on Monday, where ultra-Orthodox men angry at the removal of a sign urging women to avoid certain streets, threw stones.
"We have increased our presence in the town to keep it calm," Rosenfeld said.
The dispute in Beit Shemesh underscores a widening fault-line in Israel between religiously devout and a majority of non-observant Jews, a dispute often exacerbated by the powerful role of ultra-Orthodox political parties in Israeli governments.
Though numbering only 10 percent of Israel's mostly Jewish population of 7.7 million, ultra-Orthodox voting patterns give them considerable clout, helping to secure them welfare benefits and wider influence.
Rabbis condemn violence
But many rabbis have insisted the incidents in Beit Shemesh were the acts of a fringe minority. Some rabbis, among them members of Netanyahu's leading ultra-Orthodox coalition partner, the Shas party, have joined him in condemning the violence.
Netanyahu intervened in the festering dispute as the public began venting outrage at attempts by zealots to spread their practices of gender segregation, embraced by many Orthodox communities citing religious teachings, into the wider public domain.
"In a Western, liberal democracy, the public realm is open and safe for all, men and women both, and neither harassment nor discrimination have any place there," Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday.
Israeli women have complained for years of black-robed religiously fervent men forcing them to sit separately at the back of public buses.
More recently, and largely in Jerusalem, some rabbis have taken to demanding that businesses avoid posting photographs of women or employ them in any of the shops they patronize.
But the controversy Israelis have now dubbed "exclusion of women" burst into the headlines only recently after an incident involving a military base where Orthodox male soldiers walked out of a ceremony in protest of a performance by female singers.
With the focal point having moved to Beit Shemesh, activists have made plans to hold a larger rally there on Tuesday.
Some in the city fear the dispute may scar relations among an already delicate mix of religiously observant immigrants living alongside Israelis embracing a more modern lifestyle.
Matti Rosensweig, a spokesman for Beit Shemesh told reporters there that the mayor was "working overtime to try and calm the atmosphere."
BEIJING (Reuters) - China launched a super-rapid test train over the weekend which is capable of travelling 500 kilometers per hour, state media said on Monday, as the country moves ahead with its railway ambitions despite serious problems on its high-speed network.
The train, made by a subsidiary of CSR Corp Ltd, China's largest train maker, is designed to resemble an ancient Chinese sword, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
It "will provide useful reference for current high-speed railway operations," it quoted train expert Shen Zhiyun as saying.
But future Chinese trains will not necessarily run at such high speeds, CSR chairman Zhao Xiaogang told the Beijing Morning News.
"We aims to ensure the safety of trains operation," he said.
China's railway industry has had a tough year, highlighted by a collision between two high-speed trains in July which killed at least 40 people. Construction of new high-speed trains in China has since been a near halt.
In February, the railways minister, Liu Zhijun, a key figure behind the boom in the sector, was dismissed over corruption charges that have not yet been tried in court.
(Reporting by Sabrina Mao and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Yoko Nishikawa)
Nearly a year away from the 2012 election, we?ll talk to the president?s 2008 campaign manager, now White House Senior Adviser, David Plouffe. Then author of the definitive new biography on the late Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson; Author of the new book ?The Time of Our Lives,? NBC News Special Correspondent, Tom Brokaw; Former Governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm; and Republican strategist, Mike Murphy.
PARIS ? France's government says it will not arrest the former spokeswoman for the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, convicted for revealing confidential decisions during the trial of Slobodan Milosevic.
Florence Hartmann, a French national, was convicted of contempt of court in July and fined in the case, which involved disclosures she made in a 2007 book.
The U.N. court's appeals panel last month converted the fine into a seven-day prison term, and asked French authorites to find and arrest Hartmann.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Monday that it would be impossible to fulfill the court's request.
He said judicial agreements between France and the court apply only to "the serious crimes that the tribunal is charged with prosecuting" ? and not with such offenses as contempt of court.
? Rushing Wind Biker Church, 5715 East Pike.: Christmas services Friday will begin at 7 p.m.
? Trinity Full Gospel, 535 Munson Ave.: Christmas Eve Candle Light Service, 5 to 6 p.m. For more information, call (740) 452-8478.
? Central Trinity United Methodist Church, 62 S. Seventh St.: The Christmas Eve candlelight service at 4:30 p.m. will feature the Children's and Wesleyan Choirs, vocal solo by Emily Miller and the Christmas Isn't Christmas Choir.
? Somerset United Methodist Church, 141 E. Main St., Somerset: Christmas Cantata, "Emmanuel," will be at 7 p.m. and carols and candlelight service will be at 11 p.m.
? Brighton Presbyterian Church, 771 Lexington Ave.: Christmas Eve candlelight service will begin at 11 p.m. Worship will include music, sermon, Holy Communion and conclude with lighting of candles.
? Nashport-Irville United Methodist Church, 7941 O'Bannon Road, Nashport: Christmas Eve service candlelight and cantata will begin at 9 p.m.
? North Terrace Church of Christ, 1420 Brandywine Boulevard: The church is offering two identical Christmas Eve services this year, at 5 and 6:30 p.m. The church will collect a Christmas Eve offering for Zanesville's Heartbeat Family Center, the local pregnancy support center, during both services. For more information, call (740) 453-2951.
? Coburn United Methodist Church, 3618 N. Maple Ave.: Christmas Eve candlelight service and worship will be celebrated at 7 p.m.
? Rolling Plains Church, 3350 Moxahala Park Road: Christmas Eve services will be at 5:30, 7:30 and 11 p.m.
? First Christian Church, 3000 Dresden Road: Family worship will be at 5 p.m.; candlelight communion service with cantata begins at 10 p.m.
? Iliff United Methodist Church at 3992 Flint Ridge Road, Crooksville: Christmas Eve cantata entitled "Memories of a Merry Christmas." The service, which includes a candlighting, starts at 7 p.m.
Software that can take dictation from your voice isn?t exactly new, but with the popularity of Apple?s voice-controlled personal assistant software Siri in its iPhone 4S, the idea of using your voice to control your devices has become cool again.
And the voice-control technology in the iPhone 4S is actually pretty impressive. It?s that technology that?s leveraged by a new app called Vocal. It uses the iPhone 4S and your voice to enact commands or take dictation on your Mac ? in a way, bringing Siri-like capabilities to other computers. The app?s primary function is to let you speak to your iPhone and then sends the transcript of your dictation to your computer using a local Wi-Fi connection, but it has other uses as well.
As Macworld explains, Vocal uses a companion program you?ll need to download and run on your Mac to work. Once you?ve got that, firing up Vocal on your iPhone should allow the two devices to connect to one another, and you?re off.
Vocal uses the same dictation capabilities that your iPhone 4S has built in system-wide, but it operates a little differently than Siri, which is designed to cut out if you pause for too long while dictating an email or text message. Unlike Siri, you can?t activate Vocal with your voice, you have to hit a button to start and stop dictation or issuing commands. But once you hit the ?Done? button, your command or text is transferred automatically.
And the voice control elements of Vocal are pretty deep. The app can let you speak to control iTunes, dictate tweets on social networking site Twitter, or send emails, among other things like searching the Internet, starting a print job or using Mac apps like Dictionary. These are things Siri can do on your iPhone 4S, but if you want to use your Mac?s capabilities for those services, Vocal is the bridge you need.
Siri and the iPhone 4S aren?t without their issues, even if the voice recognition software is impressive. That?s why Siri is still a ?beta? release. Apple is working out the kinks with the software to make it better. So don?t expect Vocal to work flawlessly; voice recognition software has come a long way, after all, but it still has a long way to go. But Vocal does take one of the coolest features about Apple?s latest smartphone and give you the power to use it with your computer. That?s certainly cool, and it?ll only run you $2.
BEIRUT (Reuters) ? The United Nations expressed grave concern about twin suicide car bombings in Damascus and condemned the attacks that killed 44 people and lent a grim new face to the uprising in Syria.
With world powers arguing about details of a U.N. resolution on Syria, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate end to the bloodshed and urged the Syrian government to implement a peace plan proposed by the Arab League.
The first batch of 50 Arab League monitors will head to Syria on Monday to assess whether Damascus is abiding by an Arab peace plan, Egypt's state news agency reported on Friday.
European and U.S. officials want the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms embargo and other sanctions on Syria's government because of its nine-month-old crackdown on protesters against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, which U.N. officials say has killed more than 5,000 people.
The suicide bombs, aimed at two security buildings, sent human limbs flying and streets in Syria's capital were littered with human remains and the blackened hulk of cars.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdesi said the attacks were carried out by "terrorists (trying) to sabotage the will for change" in Syria, and followed warnings from Lebanon that al Qaeda fighters had infiltrated Syria from Lebanese territory.
Some of Assad's opponents said the suicide attacks could have been staged by the government itself.
The U.N. Security Council condemned the "terrorist attacks."
"Terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and ... any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable," its statement said.
"EXTREME OPPOSITION"
Western powers say government security forces have been responsible for most of the violence in Syria. But Russia, an old ally of Damascus, wants any resolution to be even-handed.
"If the requirement is that we drop all reference to violence coming from extreme opposition, that's not going to happen," U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin said in New York after Russia submitted a revised draft resolution to the council.
"If they expect us to have arms embargo, that's not going to happen," he said. "We know what arms embargo means these days. It means that - we saw it in Libya - that you cannot supply weapons to the government but everybody else can supply weapons to various opposition groups."
German Ambassador Peter Wittig said the latest Russian draft did not go far enough. "We need to put the weight of the council behind the Arab League," he said.
"That includes the demands to release political prisoners, that includes a clear signal for accountability for those who have perpetrated human rights violations."
Assad has used tanks and troops to try to crush the street protests inspired by other Arab uprisings this year. Such rallies are now increasingly eclipsed by an armed insurgency against his security apparatus.
But Friday's blasts signaled a dramatic escalation.
"It's a new phase. We're getting militarized here," said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert at the University of Oklahoma who felt Friday's bombs were a "small premonition" of what may come in a country that some analysts see slipping towards civil war.
"This is when the Syrian opposition is beginning to realize they are on their own," he added, referring to Western reluctance to intervene militarily in Syria.
MANGLED BODIES
The interior ministry spokesman said 166 people were wounded by the Damascus explosions. It broadcast footage of mangled bodies being carried in blankets and stretchers into ambulances, a row of corpses wrapped in sheets lying in the street.
The United States condemned the attacks, saying there was "no justification for terrorism of any kind" and that the work of the Arab League should not be hindered.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Al Qaeda are Sunni Muslim militants. Assad and Syria's power elite belong to the Alawite branch of Shi'ite Islam while the majority of Syrians, including protesters and insurgents, are Sunnis.
"I'm defending my people," Ali, 45, an Alawite factory worker issued by police with a gun which he has used against protesters in the city of Homs, said in comments passed on to Reuters. "We can't let them topple the regime, they'll go after us and kill us all."
Syria has generally barred foreign media from the country, making it hard to verify accounts of events from either side.
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 15 civilians were killed outside the capital on Friday, eight of them in Homs.
The Arab League peace plan stipulates a withdrawal of troops from protest-hit cities and towns, release of prisoners and dialogue with the opposition.
Damascus says more than 1,000 prisoners have been freed since the Arab plan was agreed and the army has pulled out of cities. Anti-Assad activists say no such pullout has occurred.
Syrian Oil Minister Sufian Alao said on Saturday that his country's oil production had fallen by about 30 to 35 percent as a result of sanctions imposed on Syria over its crackdown.
The European Union has stepped up its sanctions against Syria's oil industry, including blacklisting state-owned firms. The Arab League has also imposed sanctions on financial and other dealings with Syria.
(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans and Louis Charbonneau; Writing by Andrew Roche; Editing by Peter Millership)
Remember Linaro? How could you forget, right? The non-profit engineering organization that formed back at Computex 2010 has been plugging away for over 1.5 years now, and its most recent development involves everyone's fav-o-rite build of Android: Ice Cream Sandwich. The company has just released ICS builds supporting accelerated graphics on two of its member's low cost development boards: the Samsung Origen and ST-Ericsson Snowball. The outfit already displayed videos of Android 4.0.1 running on TI's PandaBoard and Freescale's i.MX53, and the accelerated graphics support that has been made available today makes use of the ARM Mali-400 processor. For those unaware, developers are able to create optimized Linux-based devices with the support of Linaro, and if you're in one of those member groups, you'll also enjoy DS-5 with Gator and libjpeg-turbo support. Head on past the break for a smattering of videos.
It looks like the housing market isn?t going to get any worse.
Five years into the worst housing depression since the 1930s, the latest monthly data from the Census Bureau indicate that the homebuilding industry is slowly coming back to life. Housing starts jumped 9.3 percent in November to an annual rate of 685,000, the highest reading in 19 months. Starts were up in the Northeast, South and West but were down in the Midwest. New housing permits, which offer a fairly reliable forecast of future building activity, jumped 5.7 percent to the highest level in 20 months.
Much of the construction activity and new permit volume was for multifamily housing, as the heavy pace of foreclosures sends displaced households looking for homes to rent. Rental vacancy rates have been falling and rental prices rising, spurring investors to break ground on more multifamily units.
"The single-family market is finally getting off the mat,? said Patrick Newport, a housing economist at IHS Global Insight. ?The multifamily segment is continuing to make small strides, and we should expect good housing starts numbers in the upcoming months.?
The November data follow a series of reports showing gradual but steady improvement in new home construction. Record low mortgage rates have made those homes more affordable. And a slow improvement in the job market has created more paychecks to cover those mortgage payments.
Home builders ? those that survived?the housing bust ? have reported in surveys that they?re getting more optimistic about the market. A survey released Monday found that builder sentiment edged up in December for the third month in a row to the highest level in a year and a half. ?
?The (housing starts) increase, coupled with the improvement in home builder sentiment over the past few months, suggests the housing market may finally be breaking out of the ?bounce along the bottom? environment that housing has been stuck in since early 2009,? said Nomura Ellen Zentner.
But that bottom was so deep the housing industry has years of rebuilding ahead of it.
After peaking at 2.3 million in January 2006, the annual pace of housing starts crashed to less than 500,000 in April 2009. By way of comparison, housing starts had averaged roughly 1.6 million a year during the five decades before the housing bubble burst in 2007. Even if the current recovery holds, housing starts won?t cross the 1 million mark before 2015, according to housing economist Paul Diggle at Capital Economics.
There are multiple, strong headwinds that will hold back that recovery. The biggest is the long pipeline of housing foreclosures?glutting the market with houses owned by banks looking to unload them at bargain prices. The steady pace of new foreclosures?feeds that pipeline. And historically high rates of mortgage defaults and delinquencies, precursors to future foreclosures, have created a ?shadow inventory? of homes that have yet to hit the market.
?There are more than four million vacant or soon to be foreclosed homes that will come onto the market over the next few years,? said Diggle. ?Although foreclosures are not perfect substitutes for new builds, home builders will continue to struggle to compete on price with forced foreclosed sales.?
Those foreclosures continue to push home prices lower.
After leveling off this summer, prices began falling again this fall ? down 7.5 percent, on average, in the third quarter. Even if those prices begin to stabilize again soon, it will be many years before buyers begin to see the kind of price appreciation usually associated with a healthy housing market.
In the US, housing starts increased 1.1 percent to a 10- month high of 635000 at an annual rate in November, with CNBC's Rick Santelli.
Though low mortgage rates and better job prospects have helped, several forces continue to depress demand for housing. Falling prices have left some buyers waiting for convincing signs of a price floor.
Falling prices have also sidelined an estimated 15 million homeowners who now owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth. Unless they can get their lender to agree to forgive the difference, they?re unable to move up or move out without turning over a large chunk of savings to the bank.
The housing bust and weak economy have also put a big dent in the pace of new household formations, which slowed to a crawl in 2008, according to Census data. High levels of unemployment have forced some families to double up; younger potential home buyers have postponed forming new households. ?
After peaking above 7 million in 2005, the annual rate of existing home sales remains stuck below 5 million, according to the National Association of Realtors. It remains to be seen just how far below that level the pace has fallen. Some 10 months after housing industry analysts challenged the trade groups numbers, the NAR conceded that its data was flawed and had overstated the pace of sales since 2007.
The NAR is set to release revised data on Wednesday.
Steve Jobs had a lot of secrets in his personal life, but among his "Secrets of Life" for success were some inspiring words, shared in a video by that name, now available on a pay-per-view basis by the Santa Clara Valley Historical Association.
The non-profit group, whose mission is to "research and record the Silicon Valley phenomenon," interviewed Jobs in 1995 when the Apple co-founder was at NeXT Computer, another company the young entrepreneur started after being ousted from Apple (of course, he later returned).
The 29-minute film costs $9.99 to watch, with proceeds benefiting the association, which has established the Steve Jobs: Secret of Life website for the video.
In this snippet shared above, Jobs is passionate (what else?) about life and how one should live it, saying the average guidance most of us get is to "live your life inside the world ... try not to bash into the walls too much."
Not so, he says:
Life can be much broader ... once you discover one simple fact, and that is everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.
And the minute that you understand that you can poke life ... and actually ... if you push in, something will pop out the other side ... you can change it, you can mold it. That's maybe the most important thing, is to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you're just going to live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it. I think that's very important.
And however you learn that, once you learn it ... you'll want to change life and make it better, cuz it's kind of messed up in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again.
Inspirational words, to be sure; and words Jobs did live by until his death in October.
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New York ? The British Prime Minister will not go along with changes to the European Union treaty that require member countries to submit their national budgets to bureaucratic oversight.
Prime Minister David Cameron has ?proved he is no pushover,? said the London Times in an editorial. He has ?out-Thatchered Margaret Thatcher? by becoming the first British leader to veto a European Union treaty. The French and the Germans last week came up with a plan to save the imperiled euro by changing the EU treaty to provide for oversight of national budgets for all members, including those, like Britain, that do not use the euro currency. Cameron threatened to veto the change unless it included a clause exempting Britain?s financial sector from EU regulations. So now the rest of the EU is pressing ahead with a new pact. The French and the Germans?as well as the pro-Europe camp here at home?view Britain?s decision to opt out as a betrayal. But in fact the prime minister has delighted most of his countrymen by preserving British sovereignty.
Don?t think for a moment that Cameron?s position comes from strength, said Peter Mandelson in The Guardian. Even Thatcher operated under the principle that we ?should never vacate a table at which a decision was being taken that affected British interests.? Cameron has done just that, not because he chose to, but because he lacks the authority to stand up to the anti-Europe camp in his party. Now Britain will be left out of whatever new body arises to govern Europe?s fiscal health. We have lost influence and gained nothing?not even the exemption from regulation that Cameron was insisting on. And that exemption was not even worth fighting for, said John Lichfield in The Independent. Cameron wanted Britain ?to become a kind of Cayman Islands within the EU: enjoying the benefits of being part of a European single market for financial services but not subject to EU oversight or regulation.? No wonder the other leaders couldn?t accept that.
The rest of Europe may be saddened at Britain?s behavior, but it shouldn?t be surprised, said the Paris Le Monde. The British ?do not believe in the idea of Europe.? They never have. They have always been interested ?in just one thing: the single market.? The rest of the European project of closer integration has always drawn British ?indifference, if not outright hostility.? There should be no lamenting what happened last week in Brussels. The British have always been an island, separate from Europe. Now they are ?more insular than ever.?
Those poor Continentals, said Boris Johnson in the London Telegraph. They?re understandably put out at being proved so very wrong about the euro. For years, Britain wisely resisted the lure of the common currency, warning that monetary union wouldn?t work without an anti-democratic political union. Now here we are in a euro crisis, and the Europeans are scrambling to create a sort of ?Supra National And Fiscal Union??let?s call it SNAFU?whose leaders are unaccountable to any electorate and whose rules aren?t likely to be heeded any more than the old EU treaty?s were. Britain is much better off keeping its distance from a project so ?intellectually, morally, and democratically bankrupt.?
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BEIJING?-- "Batman" star Christian Bale was roughed up by?security guards who stopped him visiting a blind activist living under house arrest in China.
Video footage of the scuffle was shot by a camera crew?traveling with the Hollywood actor as he promoted a film he has made in the country.
CNN posted scenes of the confrontation between Bale and the guards on its website Friday.
The run-in and publicity is likely to cause discomfort in China's government-backed film industry, which hopes Bale's movie "The Flowers of War" will be a creative success at home and abroad.
The star's actions are sure to focus attention on the plight of Chen Guangcheng, guarded around the clock by plain-clothed and uniformed workers who have blocked dozens of reporters and fellow activists trying to see him in the past.
Bale was to leave China on Friday and his representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.
Mark Ralston / AFP - Getty Images
Oscar-winning actor Christian Bale and his wife Sibi are escorted by security guards as they arrive for the premiere of the "Flowers of War" in Beijing on Dec. 12.
Bale, who won a best supporting actor Oscar for last year's "The Fighter," traveled Thursday with a crew from CNN to the village in eastern China where Chen, the blind lawyer, lives with his family in complete isolation.
They were stopped at the entrance to Dongshigu village in Shandong province by unidentified men.
'An inspiration' The video footage shows Bale asking to see Chen, with a CNN producer providing interpretation, but being ordered by one of the guards to leave. He then asked why he was unable to pass through. The guards responded by trying to grab or punch a small video camera Bale was carrying.
"What I really wanted to do was to meet the man, shake his hand and say what an inspiration he is," Bale was quoted as saying by CNN.
Chen's case has been raised publicly by U.S. lawmakers and diplomats, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, all to no response from China.
CNN said Bale first learned of Chen from news reports when he was in China filming "The Flowers of War," China's official submission this year for best foreign language film Oscar.
"Chen Guangcheng is a newsworthy figure ... and as such it is in the interest of CNN's global viewers to hear from him," CNN said in a statement. "Mr. Bale reached out to CNN and invited us to join him on his journey to visit Chen."
Chen, a self-taught lawyer who was blinded by a fever in infancy, angered authorities after documenting forced late-term abortions and sterilizations and other abuses by overzealous authorities trying to meet population control goals in his rural community. He was imprisoned for allegedly instigating an attack on government offices and organizing a group of people to disrupt traffic, charges his supporters say were fabricated.
Although now officially free under the law, he has been confined to his home in the village eight hours' drive from Beijing and subjected to periodic beatings and other abuse, activists say.
While Bale's visit focuses new attention on Chen's case, CNN's role raises questions about activism and advocacy among reporters, said David Bandurski, editor of the China Media Project website at the University of Hong Kong.
"It made me instantly uncomfortable, wondering how it all came together. It raises questions about where the lines are drawn," Bandurski said.
Politically sensitive subject The incident also drew strong interest ? most of it highly positive ? on social networking sites such as Twitter and its Chinese equivalent, Weibo.
Having their star's name pinging across the Internet in connection with such a politically sensitive subject puts promoters of "The Flowers of War" in a bind. The film opens in China on Friday and next week in the United States.
Directed by the renowned Zhang Yimou, it is also the most expensive Chinese movie ever made, at $94 million, some of which came from the state-owned Bank of China.
The movie centers on the 1937 sacking of the eastern city of Nanjing, a central event in China's pre-revolutionary "century of humiliation" and has been described by some critics as hewing to official propaganda portraying Chinese as heroic victims and Japanese as one-dimensional cartoon villains.
While China has the world's third-largest film industry ? both in box office and output ? it has made relatively little global impact. Story lines are often heavily influenced by the ruling Communist Party, whose culture commissars must approve scripts and have final say over whether a film gets released.
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The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff?contributed to this report.
NASA eyes power in Tropical Storm Washi, warnings in the PhilippinesPublic release date: 15-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Rob Gutro Robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov 443-858-1779 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA's TRMM satellite measured heavy rainfall and powerful towering thunderstorms as Tropical Depression 27W intensified into Tropical Storm Washi today. Now, warnings are up in areas of the Philippines as Washi heads in that direction.
Now that Tropical Depression 27W strengthened into a tropical storm, it has been given two names: Washi and Sendong. Tropical cyclones within each ocean basin are named in six year lists, but some countries will also assign their own names to a storm, so following a storm can get a little confusing. Low pressure areas that form into a depression are given a number and Washi's was 27W, for the twenty-seventh tropical depression in the western North Pacific this season. Once it strengthens into a tropical storm it gets a name.
Tropical Storm Washi, or Sendong as it is known in the Philippines has residents there on guard as it continues to strengthen upon its approach.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) Weather Forecasting Section, Weather Division is responsible for forecasts of tropical cyclones affecting the Philippines. PAGASA noted in a bulletin today, December 15 at 5 p.m. local time (0900 UTC or 4 a.m. EST): "Tropical Storm 27W (called "Sendong" in the Philippines) is expected to make landfall over Surigao del Sur early tomorrow (Friday) afternoon and by Saturday afternoon, at 220 km East Northeast of Puerto Princesa City. By Sunday afternoon, it will be at 260 km West Northwest of Puerto Princesa City."
As a result of Washi's (Sendong) approach, PAGASA has posted warning signals. Signal One is in effect for Mindanao and Visayas. Mindanao is the second largest and easternmost island of the Philippines. It is one of the three island groups in the country, the others being Luzon and the Visayas.
Included in the warning in Mindanao is the province of Surigao Del Norte including Siargao Island, Surigao Del, Sur and Dinagat Province, Agusan Provinces and Misamis Oriental. Included in the warning in Visayas are the provinces of Eastern Samar and Western Samar, Leyte Provinces, Camotes Island, and Bohol. Heavy rains and gusty winds are expected. Rainfall may cause flooding and mudslides.
On Dec. 15 at 0900 UTC, Tropical Storm Washi had maximum sustained winds near 35 knots (40 mph/65 kmh). It was about 140 nautical miles (161 miles/259 km) west of Palau near 7.7 North and 131.5 East. It was moving quickly to the west at 20 knots (23 mph/37 kmh).
When the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed over Washi early today, Dec. 15 at 0205 UTC (Dec. 14 at 9:05 a.m. EST) a "hot towering" thunderstorm was seen in the southwestern quadrant of the storm topping 10 miles (16 kilometers) high. Research done at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. has shown that tropical cyclones are likely to intensify within six hours of a "hot tower" being spotted in a tropical cyclone.
Multispectral satellite imagery showed the banding of thunderstorms wrapping into the center of circulation - another indication that the storm is strengthening. The storm is strengthening because the wind shear is light (only 10 knots/11 mph/18 kmh) and the sea surface temperatures are very warm at about 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 Celsius) which is about 8F warmer than the minimum temperature needed to maintain a tropical cyclone.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center expects Washi to make landfall on Friday, Dec. 16 and then re-emerge over water in the Sulu Sea. In the meantime, residents of Minandao and Visayas need to prepare for Washi's arrival.
###
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NASA eyes power in Tropical Storm Washi, warnings in the PhilippinesPublic release date: 15-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Rob Gutro Robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov 443-858-1779 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA's TRMM satellite measured heavy rainfall and powerful towering thunderstorms as Tropical Depression 27W intensified into Tropical Storm Washi today. Now, warnings are up in areas of the Philippines as Washi heads in that direction.
Now that Tropical Depression 27W strengthened into a tropical storm, it has been given two names: Washi and Sendong. Tropical cyclones within each ocean basin are named in six year lists, but some countries will also assign their own names to a storm, so following a storm can get a little confusing. Low pressure areas that form into a depression are given a number and Washi's was 27W, for the twenty-seventh tropical depression in the western North Pacific this season. Once it strengthens into a tropical storm it gets a name.
Tropical Storm Washi, or Sendong as it is known in the Philippines has residents there on guard as it continues to strengthen upon its approach.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) Weather Forecasting Section, Weather Division is responsible for forecasts of tropical cyclones affecting the Philippines. PAGASA noted in a bulletin today, December 15 at 5 p.m. local time (0900 UTC or 4 a.m. EST): "Tropical Storm 27W (called "Sendong" in the Philippines) is expected to make landfall over Surigao del Sur early tomorrow (Friday) afternoon and by Saturday afternoon, at 220 km East Northeast of Puerto Princesa City. By Sunday afternoon, it will be at 260 km West Northwest of Puerto Princesa City."
As a result of Washi's (Sendong) approach, PAGASA has posted warning signals. Signal One is in effect for Mindanao and Visayas. Mindanao is the second largest and easternmost island of the Philippines. It is one of the three island groups in the country, the others being Luzon and the Visayas.
Included in the warning in Mindanao is the province of Surigao Del Norte including Siargao Island, Surigao Del, Sur and Dinagat Province, Agusan Provinces and Misamis Oriental. Included in the warning in Visayas are the provinces of Eastern Samar and Western Samar, Leyte Provinces, Camotes Island, and Bohol. Heavy rains and gusty winds are expected. Rainfall may cause flooding and mudslides.
On Dec. 15 at 0900 UTC, Tropical Storm Washi had maximum sustained winds near 35 knots (40 mph/65 kmh). It was about 140 nautical miles (161 miles/259 km) west of Palau near 7.7 North and 131.5 East. It was moving quickly to the west at 20 knots (23 mph/37 kmh).
When the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed over Washi early today, Dec. 15 at 0205 UTC (Dec. 14 at 9:05 a.m. EST) a "hot towering" thunderstorm was seen in the southwestern quadrant of the storm topping 10 miles (16 kilometers) high. Research done at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. has shown that tropical cyclones are likely to intensify within six hours of a "hot tower" being spotted in a tropical cyclone.
Multispectral satellite imagery showed the banding of thunderstorms wrapping into the center of circulation - another indication that the storm is strengthening. The storm is strengthening because the wind shear is light (only 10 knots/11 mph/18 kmh) and the sea surface temperatures are very warm at about 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 Celsius) which is about 8F warmer than the minimum temperature needed to maintain a tropical cyclone.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center expects Washi to make landfall on Friday, Dec. 16 and then re-emerge over water in the Sulu Sea. In the meantime, residents of Minandao and Visayas need to prepare for Washi's arrival.
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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.
ScienceDaily (Dec. 14, 2011) ? A Wayne State University study published in the January 2012 issue of the journal Epidemiology points out that two influential early studies of cellphone use and crash risk may have overestimated the relative risk of conversation on cellphones while driving.
In this new study, Richard Young, Ph.D., professor of research in Wayne State University's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences in the School of Medicine, examined possible bias in a 1997 Canadian study and a 2005 Australian study. These earlier studies used cellphone billing records of people who had been in a crash and compared their cellphone use just before the crash to the same time period the day (or week) before -- the control window.
Young said the issue with these studies is that people may not have been driving during the entire control window period, as assumed by the earlier study investigators.
"Earlier case-crossover studies likely overestimated the relative risk for cellphone conversations while driving by implicitly assuming that driving during a control window was full time when it may have been only part time," said Young. "This false assumption makes it seem like cellphone conversation is a bigger crash risk than it really is."
In Young's new study, his research team used Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) data to track day-to-day driving of more than 400 drivers during a 100-day period. He then divided the days into pairs, with the first day representing the "control" day and the second day representing the "crash" day in the earlier studies. Overall, the team found little driving consistency in any given clock time period between the two days -- driving time on the control day was only about one-fourth of the driving time on the crash day, during any specific clock time period.
"This underestimation of the amount of driving in the control windows by nearly four times could reduce cellphone conversation time in that control period," Young said. "It makes it appear that there is less cellphone conversation in control periods than in the time just before a crash, making the relative risk estimate appear greater than it really is."
Young found that when the cellphone conversation time in the control window was adjusted for the amount of driving, the amount of cellphone usage in the control window was about the same as in the minutes before a crash. He concluded that the crash risk for cellphone conversation while driving is one-fourth of what was claimed in previous studies, or near that of normal baseline driving.
Young added that many well-controlled studies with real driving show that the primary increase in crash risk from portable electronic devices comes from tasks that require drivers to look at the device or operate it with their hands, such as texting while driving. Five other recent real-world studies concur with his conclusion that the crash risk from cellular conversations is not greater than that of driving with no conversation.
"Tasks that take a driver's eyes off the road or hands off the steering wheel are what increase crash risk," said Young. "Texting, emailing, manual dialing and so forth -- not conversation -- are what increase the risk of crashes while driving."
The National Transportation Safety Board has recommended that all 50 states and the District of Columbia ban the non-emergency use of portable electronic devices for all drivers. Young said this recommendation goes beyond the data from newer studies, including his, because it would ban cellphone conversations while driving.
"Recent real-world studies show that cellphone conversations do not increase crash risk beyond that of normal driving -- it is the visual-manual tasks that take the eyes off the road and the hands off the wheel that are the real risk," said Young.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wayne State University, Division of Research.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Richard A. Young. Cell Phone Use and Crash Risk. Epidemiology, 2012; 23 (1): 116 DOI: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e31823b5efc
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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Software that can take dictation from your voice isn?t exactly new, but with the popularity of Apple?s voice-controlled personal assistant software Siri in its iPhone 4S, the idea of using your voice to control your devices has become cool again.
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Public release date: 15-Dec-2011
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