Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/21134540/vp/45817197#45817197
barbados resorts the call helen mirren surrogates surrogates james garner veteran
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
Heisman winner Griffin unsure if Alamo Bowl last college game
SAN ANTONIO -- Since winning the Heisman Trophy, Robert Griffin III is often shadowed by a bodyguard of sorts to dissuade autograph seekers, and this week tucked his dreadlocks under a hat in hopes of strolling through Sea World incognito.
"I got a lot of double-takes," the Baylor quarterback said. "If you can get a double-take, you can walk far enough away to where they'll be discouraged to approach you. But it was cool. I didn't mind."
Now it's a question of whether RG3 is about to give college football its last look at him altogether.
The nation's most electrifying player leads No. 15 Baylor (9-3) into the Alamo Bowl against Washington (7-5) on Thursday night while keeping his decision about leaving for the NFL private for now.
Griffin, who says he can't "go to Wendy's and get a cheeseburger without signing 1,000 autographs" since winning college football's top award, reiterated in San Antonio that he's undecided about forgoing his senior year. He said his parents are looking at his draft prospects but denies having any substantial talks with them.
Baylor can hardly feel jilted if this is Griffin's last game.
The fourth-year junior, who also won the Davey O'Brien Award and is the AP Player of the Year, has raised the program's profile to unseen heights. He rescued the Bears from their perennial status as the Big 12's punch line and has Baylor on a five-game winning streak, its longest in 20 years.
A win against Washington would match the school record of 10 wins when Mike Singletary was a senior in 1980, and merely playing in back-to-back bowls is a first for Baylor in two decades. Simply put, it's been a magical season the school doesn't want to see end.
Washington won't exactly say the same.
The Huskies stumbled into a second consecutive bowl game dropping four of their last six and losing badly to all four ranked teams they played this season. That included Stanford and Andrew Luck, the Heisman runner-up to Griffin, who coasted in a 65-21 win that began Washington's second-half slide.
Yet tailback Chris Polk and other seniors still vividly remember going 0-12 just four years ago under Tyrone Willingham. According to the school, Washington is the first BCS program to go from winless to back-to-back bowl appearances in three years since Central Florida in 2004.
"I would have never imagined this," offensive lineman Senio Kelemte said. "It was pretty hard for all of us, the 0-12 season. I'm pretty sure a lot of guys didn't really want to play football anymore or wanted to transfer or just ... just football wasn't fun."
The Huskies have a shot at an eight-win season for the first time since 2001, but it might be a long night against Baylor.
The Huskies will put one of the nation's worst defenses against the Bears, whose offense was the second-best in the country. Baylor averaged more than 570 yards of offense a game behind Griffin, who threw for nearly for 3,998 yards with a Big 12-leading 36 touchdowns and only six interceptions. That made him the nation's most efficient passer.
Baylor averaged 43 points a game. Washington's let opponents score an average of 33.
"We've had a huge challenge this whole year playing against good offenses," Washington defensive coordinator Nick Holt said. "This is good offense and the only difference this time is that we're playing against the best player in the country and a Heisman Trophy winner who has a great supporting cast."
Anything else?
"And, oh yeah," Holt added. "They run an up-tempo, no huddle offense and can score really quickly."
Griffin is the first Heisman winner to play in a bowl game before New Year's Day since Ty Detmer led BYU to the Holiday Bowl in 1990. Two years later, Baylor won its last postseason game in the Sun Bowl.
Ending that drought may be the last thing left for Griffin for do.
"We know why we're here and we came to win our 10th game," Griffin said. "Washington just happens to be in the way."
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cbssportsline/home_news/~3/exfaBuDlwgM/rss
the band perry faith hill cma awards 2011 cma awards 2011 western black rhino western black rhino jefferson county alabama
Seth Rogen Forms 'B Team,' Ryan Gosling Says Noe
Seth Rogen could be doing double duty as both producer and star of a film again, according to a new report. Meanwhile, Bret Easton Ellis stirs up some casting rumors on his Twitter account, and Christina Hendricks picks a new role that will return her to the '60s.
It's December 27, and you're tuning into [...]
It's December 27, and you're tuning into [...]
Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/12/27/seth-rogen-ryan-gosling/
remember the titans wale wale weather denver weather denver ambition dorothy rodham
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Baltimore Sun finds man memorialized on Facebook alive in London
If you followed last week?s internet rumor that a local man had been killed in an Air Jordans-related incident, then you?ll want to read the Baltimore Sun?s interview with the victim.
Actually, The Sun spoke with a 22-year-old Londoner whose photo was supposedly that of ?Tyreek Amir Jacobs.?
Jacobs, according to thousands of people spreading the rumor on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere, was a D.C.-area 18-year-old who had been killed on Thursday or Friday over the new Jordans.
?I?m actually alive,? said Sidney Boahen, whose image appeared on various Facebook and other pages paying tribute to Jacobs.
Boahen told The Sun that ?he was getting home from his job as a pharmacist trainee and saw in his Facebook inbox that a friend had seen the report. ?It?s you!? they said.
?Boahen said the photo was taken five years ago without his permission by a teacher. He remembers the photos being taken - but didn?t know they would eventually be sold and made available as stock images. ?This is a legal issue now, because I was only 17 at the time and he didn?t have my parent?s permission.??
Boahen was not amused by what appears to be a hoax. Police know of no such incident.
?Maybe there?s a person out there that [actually] died,? he told The Sun. ?No one should be killed over sneakers. But his picture should be up there, not mine.?
Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=c49a38b250fd987dc43e3a352230265b
cleveland cavaliers cleveland cavaliers war horse k cups best buy we bought a zoo we bought a zoo
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Boehner: Obama should make Senate bargain on taxes (AP)
WASHINGTON ? House Speaker John Boehner says it's time for President Barack Obama to help end Congress' impasse over renewing the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits.
The Ohio Republican said Tuesday that he wants Obama to call on the Democratic-led Senate to return to Washington and bargain with the House over a compromise plan. He said at a news conference, "I need the president to help out."
The Senate has passed a bipartisan plan to extend those expiring tax cuts and unemployment benefits for two months, giving negotiators time to agree to a year-long plan.
The GOP-run House has rejected the Senate plan and wants to start bargaining now. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he won't negotiate until the House approves the Senate's two-month package.
coraline coraline jacqueline laurita mcfadden mcfadden ponder ponder
Monday, December 19, 2011
Tom Cruise reprises his role in 'Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol': movie review
Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt and his team go rogue in the latest 'Mission Impossible' escapade, 'Ghost Protocol,' one of the best in the series.?
?Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol,? the latest installment in the 16-year-old series, is one of the best. It marks the live-action debut of director Brad Bird, the highly imaginative mind behind those animated marvels ?Iron Giant,? ?The Incredibles,? and ?Ratatouille.? He makes the transition smoothly, perhaps because so many of the highflying stunts in this film are essentially out of "The Incredibles? playbook. The movie, although it will be available in standard formats, is best enjoyed in IMAX, where the big death-defying hijinx and the panoramas of places like Dubai, United Arab Emirates, are literally eye-popping.
Skip to next paragraphRelated stories
Topics
Recent movie reviews
Tom Cruise is, of course, back as Ethan Hunt, who we first see breaking out of a Russian prison with the help of Simon Pegg?s computer whiz Benji Dunn, another holdover from the previous escapade. Soon joining in are no-nonsense Jane Carter (Paula Patton) and agent William Brandt (Jeremy Renner). When a secret mission inside the Kremlin goes terribly wrong and part of the edifice is blown away, the IMF team is declared ?ghost protocol? by the US president ? i.e. they?re on their own.
Even without any official backup, the impossibilists have a ready arsenal of space-age hardware at their disposal. They?ll need it. They are attempting, after all, to bring down a mad genius (Michael Nyqvist) who wants to reboot the world by triggering a nuclear winter.
The film?s centerpiece stunt is Ethan?s clinging with suction gloves to the side of Dubai?s tallest building, 123 stories up. Cruise reportedly did his own stunt work. If so, I can only imagine what the insurance on this film cost.
Some of the action gets repetitive, and the Mumbai sequences would have been better if Mumbai, and not just the interiors of a zillionaire?s fancy hotel, had been utilized. But ?Ghost Protocol? is a very good thrill ride and Cruise is better than he?s been in a long time. Despite all the calisthenics, he seems relaxed ? even while dangling sky high.?Grade:?A- (Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence.)
newt gingrich chicago bears margarito margarito horton hears a who horton hears a who cotto margarito
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Insurance Australia to acquire New Zealand's AMI Ltd. in $286 ...
The Insurance Australia Group Ltd, the nation?s largest home and auto insurer, has announced that it will be acquiring New Zealand?s AMI Ltd, one of the largest property insurers in New Zealand. The $286 million deal is already underway, but will require the approval of New Zealand?s insurance regulators before Insurance Australia can begin taking over policies. This is good news for those affected by the devastating earthquake that struck New Zealand in February of this year, as they will soon be able to enjoy policies from a larger, more capable insurance group.
New Zealand?s Canterbury County was most affected by the quake earlier this year. The city of Christchurch, in particular, saw widespread damage that cost the country?s insurance industry more than $3 billion. In the wake of the quake, many of the nation?s insurers fled, leaving the government to handle the financial burden of the damage. Insurance Australia will not be taking over claims from the event, as the government has already reached a deal with several homeowners regarding the matter.
AMI has been waiting for an injection of funds from the government for several months. The government, however, has been slow to act due to the severity and nature of the disaster. Insurance Australia decided to step in due to its ties in New Zealand?s business world. If the nation continued to suffer in the wake of the catastrophe, the insurance industry would have suffered a grievous blow that would have extended to the industry in Australia.
Related posts:
- Global insurance industry may be in for change as regulators come together to draft new rules
- China to open its auto insurance market to foreign insurers next year
- China State Council may discuss allowing foreign auto insurance companies into the country
- Virginia legislators move to draft laws for a health insurance exchange despite Governor?s wishes
- The price of equality to women?s auto insurance premiums in the U.K.
Tags: ami, australia insurance industry, australia insurance market news, australian auto insurance, Australian government, auto insurance australia, Christchurch earthquake 2011, global insurance news, home insurance australia, Insurance Australia, Insurance Australia Group, insurance industry in Australia, insurance news, international insurance, largest home and auto insurer, new zealand business news, New Zealand insurance, new zealand insurance regulators
uss arizona memorial d day fun. words with friends words with friends roy orbison red solo cup
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Romney picks up S.C. governor's endorsement (tbo)
Daily Crunch: Automatic
Here are some of yesterday’s posts on TechCrunch Gadgets: Autom The Diet Robot Now Shipping In Time Nog Season Hands-On With WowWee?s AppGear AR Gaming Toys Google Granted Patent For Driverless Car ?Landing Strip? Bye Bye Netbooks: Dell Kills The Mini 10 As It Shifts Focus To ?Thin And Powerful? Fly Or Die: The Leapfrog LeapPadSource: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/DoZXmMRFsWw/
berkman berkman new beavis and butthead game 7 anya ayoung chee peru earthquake peru earthquake
Friday, December 16, 2011
Rick Santorum Pleads With Anti-Abortion Iowans To Vote For Him
DES MOINES, Iowa -- As his poll numbers continue to languish, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum pleaded with a room of anti-abortion voters on Wednesday to support him in the Iowa caucus if they truly wish to end abortion.
"I know the other candidates have said they need your help and support. They're lying. I need your help and support," he said. "If you want to send a message [that] the issues you care about are still important in this election, you know what to do."
Four Republican candidates had gathered in Des Moines for the premiere of an anti-abortion film, all seeking to prove themselves to be the strongest on abortion issues. The film, "The Gift of Life," was created by the conservative group Citizens United and is narrated by onetime GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, a potential kingmaker who has yet to issue an endorsement.
Huckabee said he would not endorse a candidate Wednesday evening. But he told the crowd of about 1,000 Iowa voters to take note of which Republican hopefuls made time for the event -- Santorum, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry -- and which did not.
"I do want you to take note there are four candidates who cleared their schedules and made this a priority event," Huckabee said. "That ought to be very important for you as you consider."
Santorum tried to paint himself as the most pro-life GOP candidate; he was the only one of the four Republicans to criticize the rest of the field. He said that although the other candidates say they "believe life begins at conception," he considers it to be an absolute truth. "Why say you believe something if it's a fact?" he asked.
When Santorum talked about why Republicans should not concede a "truce" on social issues -- something other GOP politicians have proposed -- a baby in the crowd started to cry.
"I agree," he said.
But even some voters who said they supported him noted that they doubt he will win in Iowa. Bachmann and Santorum are the strongest on abortion issues, said Marshalltown, Iowa, resident John Egnew, who added, "I don't know if they're going to win it or get the nomination or be electable."
"I don't know if Santorum has a chance," said Patricia Aust, a Des Moines resident who plans to support either Santorum or Gingrich. "We'll see."
Another candidate had more to prove to the crowd about his anti-abortion bona fides. Gingrich came under criticism earlier this month for distinguishing between fertilization and implantation in his definition of the beginning of life. It's a distinction that would allow for scientific research on embryonic stem cells.
Rep. Bachmann, often held up as another strong social conservative, attacked him in a Dec. 2 press release, saying his definition showed that he is inconsistent on abortion.
At the Wednesday event, fliers were placed on some cars calling Gingrich "a pro-life fraud."
Gingrich promised Wednesday that if elected president, he would immediately prohibit government funding of abortion and redirect money from Planned Parenthood to adoption services. He added that Congress could act to define the 14th Amendment to ban abortion in a way that could not be blocked by the Supreme Court.
"If the state can decide you're only a person when the state declares it, why stop at Roe v. Wade?" Gingrich said. "Why not go to euthanasia? Why not decide if you aren't 'appropriate' at 14 or 12 or 10?"
The biggest criticism at the Des Moines event was saved for Democrats, particularly President Barack Obama. Bachmann attacked the administration's decision last week to prohibit over-the-counter sales of Plan B One-Step, an emergency contraception pill. While that choice angered many abortion rights advocates, Bachmann said Obama does not truly believe that access to emergency contraception should be limited.
Instead, she said, it was a political calculation.
"President Obama is so tied up in his reelection, even he knew this was one step too far," Bachmann told the crowd. "But too far for now, before his reelection. ... If that would happen, then you know within a nanosecond Plan B would be available on the grocery store aisles. But we aren't ever going to allow that to happen."
'; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/15/rick-santorum-abortion-iowa-voters_n_1149987.html
lsu football miguel cotto vs antonio margarito terminator salvation terminator salvation rockefeller center how the grinch stole christmas baylor
TeleNav launching free HTML5-based turn-by-turn GPS service
TeleNav, one of the largest back-end providers of GPS navigation services for smartphones and other in-car turn-by-turn navigation systems, has announced the upcoming release of a free HTML5-based voice-guided GPS navigation service that works on your iPhone through the Safari Mobile Browser. 
?This is an enormous amount...
 |  |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/Ex6X6kikqjs/story01.htm
bowl projections bedlam bedlam cotto vs margarito 2 rose bowl cotto vs margarito cotto vs margarito
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Nielsen admits error in kids' viewership numbers (Reuters)
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Reuters - Nielsen says it erred when it told The Wall Street Journal that childrens' viewership is up this season even as Nickelodeon's ratings are down -- but still stands by its Nickelodeon numbers.
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111205/tv_nm/us_nielsen
gabby gabby marcel the shell with shoes on ecu john wooden mirror mirror tanuki
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
From the streets: Russian voices on the election (Reuters)
MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Following are comments from Russians across the world's biggest country as they voted in Sunday's parliamentary election.
Tamara Alexandrovna, pensioner, Moscow:
"I voted against United Russia to support some kind of opposition in the country. I've seen a one-party system and we cannot go back to that.
"As far as Putin goes, I'll vote for him in March because he brought order to Russia during the years he was in power."
Valentina, 73, pensioner, Moscow:
"I voted for United Russia ... Why? I don't really know. We are already used to Putin and Medvedev."
Pyotr, 20, journalism student, Moscow:
Voted for liberal Yabloko party because he wants "real qualitative reforms. They are a real alternative, so they are more interesting. Although we don't agree with all of their program, of all the candidates they are the closest to us." .
Yekaterina Makarova, 24, event manager, Yekaterinburg:
"It is time for something to change so I am going to vote for (Vladimir Zhirinovsky's nationalist party) LDPR. So far this seems to be the only party that can resist United Russia."
Rasul Usmanov, 56, Grozny:
"I have never voted before, but today I did it to please (Chechen leader) Ramzan (Kadyrov). I voted for United Russia as I know he is in this party, and our future president Putin is in this party."
Zoya Makhutina, late 60s, pensioner, Moscow:
"I voted for socialism as I am against capitalism. I like that the Just Russia party wants to raise the income tax for the rich."
Artyom, 22, public relations manager, Moscow:
"I voted for Just Russia. First of all, they will win seats, and second, they are not United Russia."
Natalia, 50, tailor, St Petersburg:
"I decided to vote for (Grigory Yavlinsky's liberal party) Yabloko. I know that they won't get any seats, but I won't vote for the others, it makes no sense."
Nikolai, 69, pensioner, Moscow:
"I voted for the Communists for the first time. I am fed up of this mess, this wild capitalism."
Marina, 32, Grozny:
"I did not go vote because I am not participating in this circus. Such open hypocrisy has never been so blatant."
Nikolai, 33, customs officer, Vladivostok:
"I support United Russia. I like Putin. He is the strong leader we need in our country."
Alexander Rybchenko, 52, taxi driver, Yekaterinburg:
"I don't know whom to vote for, there are no solid people or parties ... They are all swindlers, they all lie, I am not going to the elections, it's just a farce."
Vladimir, 34, welder, Moscow:
"I am voting for (LDPR leader Vladimir) Zhirinovsky. I've voted for him all my life ... Nothing will change without him."
(Compiled by Reuters reporters across Russia)
stanford oregon joe paterno velasquez vs dos santos velasquez vs dos santos manny pacquiao vs. juan manuel marquez manny pacquiao vs. juan manuel marquez cain velasquez vs dos santos
Monday, December 5, 2011
Singer McCready's son found safe with mother
Law enforcement in Arkansas and U.S. Marshals have 5-year-old Zander McCready in their custody and say that he is safe, according to officials with the Childrens Network of Southwest Florida, NBC station WBBH reported late Friday.
Officials say that his mother, country singer Mindy McCready, was hiding in a closet with him when law enforcement entered the Heber Spings, Ark., home of McCready's boyfriend.
Gayle Inge, Zander's grandmother and McCready's mother, was tearful when she talked about the news Friday night with The Associated Press.
"I'm real excited that he's safe," she said. "But I can't explain what this is like. We feel for Mindy and we feel for Zander."
Inge said her son ? McCready's half brother ? texted McCready, who responded with a text that said her mother would never see her again.
Right now, they don't know what will happen with Zander, but they are happy he is safe.
Florida Department of Children and Families spokeswoman Terri Durdaller said in an email Friday night that her agency was working with Arkansas officials to bring the boy back to his legal guardian in Florida, his maternal grandmother.
Gayle Inge, and Mindy McCready's stepfather, Michael Inge, had been waiting for four days to hear the whereabouts of Zander.
Mindy McCready disappeared with him Tuesday after she took him from her dad's house in Cape Coral.
A Florida judge signed an order on Thursday allowing authorities to take custody of country and bring him back to Florida if they could find him.
The order came a day after Florida officials said a missing person's report had been filed for Zander and that McCready had been ordered to return the boy. But the singer had countered that her son was safe with her.
-
More Entertainment stories
-
E!'s Giuliana Rancic to have double mastectomy
The news anchor tells Ann Curry about the next step in her treatment to beat breast cancer.
- 'SNL' lights up with Miley Cyrus drug parody
- Stars come out for 'New Year's Eve'
- Year of the Hunk: Can Clooney, Pitt save Oscars?
- Kardashians fire back at 'Teen Mom' Farrah
-
E!'s Giuliana Rancic to have double mastectomy
The singer said Thursday she would not bring her son back from Tennessee to Florida, despite violating a custody arrangement and a judge's order.
It's not yet clear whether she could face criminal charges.
"I'm doing all this to protect Zander, not stay out of trouble," McCready wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Thursday. "I don't think I should be in trouble for protecting my son in the first place."
McCready, who turned 36 Wednesday, said she could not travel because she's nearly seven months pregnant with twins.
Representatives for the singer said on Wednesday that Zander has been with her for more than 30 days, and that he was safe and healthy, adding that law enforcement officials spoke with Zander and saw him on Tuesday via the online video conferencing program Skype.
McCready and her mother have had a long custody battle over the boy. Until recently, the boy was living with McCready's mother. Her mother was awarded guardianship in 2007. McCready says her son has suffered abuse at her mother's house; Gayle Inge denies the abuse allegations.
Ex: McCready not a fit mother, right nowDurdaller said any criminal charges would come at the discretion of law enforcement or the Lee County (Fla.) State Attorney's office.
McCready provided a series of e-mails to the AP with Lee County Judge James Seals' ruling to return the boy and correspondence with her attorney. Seals wrote to McCready's lawyer that once the boy is back in Florida "we'll pick up the pieces."
"Mom has violated the court's custody order and we are simply restoring the child back into our custody," the judge wrote. "Nothing more. Nothing less. The court makes no judgment about whether Mom will or will not competently care for the child while in her custody. It only wants the child back where the court placed him."
McCready was born in Florida and found fame in Nashville as a singer in the mid-1990s, including a No. 1 hit, "Guys Do It All the Time." She has lived a complicated life in recent years.
In August, she filed the libel suit in Palm Beach County against her mother and the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., over a story published in the tabloid newspaper that quoted Inge.
In July 2007, she was accused of scuffling with Inge and resisting arrest at her mother's home in Florida. She was sentenced to jail for 60 days for a probation violation and released; she served 30 days in jail. She also lost custody of her son.
And in 2008, McCready was admitted to a Nashville hospital after police said she cut her wrists and took several pills in a suicide attempt.
During the TV show "Celebrity Rehab 3" in 2010, McCready came off as a sympathetic figure, and host Dr. Drew Pinsky called her an angel in the season finale.
Also in 2010, police went to Inge's home for a report of an overdose, and McCready was taken to a Florida hospital. However, neither the hospital nor McCready's publicist would say why the singer was hospitalized.
McCready also fought the release of a tape in which she reportedly talked about former Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, with whom she had an affair as a teenager.
NBC station WBBH, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45532312/ns/today-entertainment/
tom bradley penn state grace potter grace potter ryan mathews the band perry faith hill cma awards 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Many older Floridians have no backup plan after hanging up their keys
ScienceDaily (Dec. 2, 2011) ? Florida is home to one of the highest percentages of residents ages 65 and older in the United States, but very few of them have thought ahead to a time when they will no longer be able to drive a vehicle safely or considered how they will get around without a car, according to a new survey developed by Florida State University and the Florida Department of Transportation.
In fact, 13 percent of survey respondents indicated they would not stop driving at all, with 3 percent expressing the opinion that they would die before they would stop driving.
The findings reflect a serious issue in Florida -- and across the nation -- that older drivers are at a disproportionate risk for being involved in a fatal vehicular crash, according to John Reynolds, the Eagles Professor of Sociology at Florida State and director of the university's Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy.
John Reynolds
To address the problem, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has awarded the Pepper Institute grants totaling $475,000 to assist it in establishing and implementing a statewide coalition to create a statewide Aging Road User Strategic Safety Plan.
"The bottom-line measure of success for the grant from the DOT is that we reduce the number of fatalities, injuries and crashes that involve older adults in Florida," Reynolds said. "However, in doing so we'll be making the roads safer for all Floridians and hopefully serving as a national model for other states."
In establishing a baseline for the development of the coalition and the safety plan, Reynolds analyzed the responses of more than 900 Floridians who participated in the 2011 Florida Aging Road User Survey, which was conducted this past spring and summer. Of those survey participants, half ranged in age from 50 to 64 years old, while the other half were 65 and older. Their responses provide some insights into the perceptions of older drivers regarding the mobility and safety challenges that they may one day face.
Among the findings:
- Most older drivers don't plan for a future day when they may be unable to drive safely. Eighty-three percent of survey respondents ages 65 and older, and 92 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds, reported that they have no "transportation retirement plan." When asked to describe how they might transition from driving in the future, many indicated they would rely on family, friends or neighbors (23 percent), but many more replied that they did not know or had not ever thought about it (36 percent). About 13 percent said they would not stop driving at all, with some of those (3 percent overall) expressing an opinion that they would die before they needed to stop driving. Very few -- slightly under 4 percent -- of respondents stated that they planned to use a community driver program or paratransit service such as Dial-A-Ride.
- Many aging road users see no alternatives to driving in their communities. When asked about ways they get around besides driving a car, 40 percent of respondents ages 65 and older replied that they ride with family or friends, 26 percent said they walk, and 15 percent said there was no other way to get around other than driving. (For 50- to 64-year-olds, the percentages were 38 percent, 29 percent and 16 percent, respectively.)
Responses to the Florida Aging Road User Survey also revealed that overall, older drivers consider roads in the state to be fairly safe. Seventy-eight percent of respondents ages 65 and older said Florida's roads are very safe (21 percent) or somewhat safe (57 percent). For those between the ages of 50 and 64, 75 percent rated roads in the state as either safe or very safe.
"Though many aging drivers in Florida view our roads as very or somewhat safe, we found a lot of concern about the other drivers who are on them," Reynolds said. "People responding to the survey voiced frustration, and sometimes anger, at other drivers who are talking on their phones, texting, or are otherwise being careless while they drive. This concern is being heard all around the country."
Residents ages 65 and older make up almost 18 percent of the Sunshine State's population, and the Census Bureau projects that number to grow to 27 percent over the next two decades. In 2008, 447 older adults were killed in automobile crashes on Florida roads, making up about 15 percent of all crash fatalities in the state.
Working with Gail Holley of the FDOT, the Pepper Institute supports the activities of the Safe Mobility for Life Coalition, which is composed of representatives from 28 organizations and agencies located throughout the state. The coalition was established to improve safety, mobility and access for Florida's aging road users in several key areas, including prevention and education; assistance in making the transition from driving to other means of transportation when necessary; promotion of aging in place; licensing; roadway improvements; advocacy and policy reform; and safety for non-drivers, including those who walk, bike or ride a bus.
"There are so many groups and agencies throughout the state that are committed to making our roads and communities safer for older adults," Reynolds said. "The coalition brings these groups together to work as a team on the objectives and goals identified in the strategic safety plan."
Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:
Other bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Florida State University.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
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.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111202155529.htm
big ten acc challenge scott disick kourtney kardashian kourtney kardashian lipitor lipitor kourtney kardashian pregnant again
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Geoengineering could save Earth _ or destroy it
DURBAN, South Africa (AP) ? Brighten clouds with sea water? Spray aerosols high in the stratosphere? Paint roofs white and plant light-colored crops? How about positioning "sun shades" over the Earth?
At a time of deep concern over global warming, a group of scientists, philosophers and legal scholars examined whether human intervention could artificially cool the Earth ? and what would happen if it did.
A report released late Thursday in London and discussed Friday at the U.N. climate conference in South Africa said that ? in theory ? reflecting a small amount of sunlight back into space before it strike's the Earth's surface would have an immediate and dramatic effect.
Within a few years, global temperatures would return to levels of 250 years ago, before the industrial revolution began dumping carbon dioxide into the air, trapping heat and causing temperatures to rise.
But no one knows what the side effects would be.
They could be physical ? unintentionally changing weather patterns and rainfall. Even more difficult, it could be political ? spurring conflict among nations unable to agree on how such intervention, or geoengineering, will be controlled.
The idea of solar radiation management "has the potential to be either very useful or very harmful," said the study led by Britain's Royal Society, the Washington-based Environmental Defense Fund and TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world based in Trieste, Italy.
Environmentalist Silvia Ribeiro, of the Canada-based ETC-Group, said geoengineering should be outlawed before it gets off the ground.
"Solar radiation management technologies are high-risk and extremely dangerous and they should be treated under international law like nuclear weapons ? except, unlike nuclear weapons, we have an opportunity to ban their testing and their proliferation before the technology is fully developed, rather than trying to prevent their proliferation after the fact," she said.
The final report grew out of three days of talks in a quiet country retreat last March, the climax of a yearlong dialogue spanning experts in 22 countries.
It was prompted in part by the failure of a 20-year U.N. negotiating process to take decisive action to curb greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, responsible for climate change.
"The slow progress of international climate negotiations has led to increased concerns that sufficient cuts in greenhouse gas emissions may not be achieved in time to avoid unacceptable levels of climate change," the report said.
But geoengineering is not an alternative to climate action, said John Shepherd, a British oceanographer from the University of Southampton who was a lead author of the report.
"Nobody thought this provides a justification for not reducing carbon emissions," Shepherd said in a telephone interview from London.
"We have to stick with Plan A for the time being, and that could be a very long time indeed," he said. "This would buy time for people to make the transition to a low-carbon economy."
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change foresees temperatures rising as much as 6.4 degrees Celsius (11.5 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100, swelling the seas with melted glacial water and disrupting climate conditions around the globe.
Releasing millions of tons of sulfur dioxide in the upper atmosphere would mimic the cooling effects of a volcanic eruption, lowering global temperature about 0.5 Centigrade (0.9 Fahrenheit), which can last for a year or two when it occurs naturally.
But deliberately tinkering with nature to counter global warming can only be a stopgap measure, and is fraught with danger, the report said.
Action such as spraying sulfur into the air or brightening clouds with sea water to reflect more sunlight would have to be sustained indefinitely because "there would be a large and rapid climate change if it were terminated suddenly," the report said.
Hazy skies could alter weather patterns and agriculture, replacing one source of climate change with another.
Years of study are required to calculate the environmental impacts, but the bigger questions are political.
Who would decide where and when to conduct experiments, and where to set the global thermostat? What would happen if a country acted on its own without an international agreement? Would it discourage efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions?
Notions of manipulating the climate to impede global warming have been on the fringe of scientific discussion for some time, but is moving increasingly toward the mainstream.
In the United States, a group of 18 U.S. experts from the sciences, social sciences and national security unveiled a report in October urging the federal government to begin research on the feasibility and potential effectiveness of geoengineering.
"The United States needs to be able to judge whether particular climate remediation techniques could offer a meaningful response to the risks of climate change," said that report sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Shepherd said the 65-page Thursday's report was intended to start the conversation.
"No government asked us to do this. The U.N. didn't ask us," he said.
"I hope it can be continued in a more formal and mandated framework, because eventually somebody will have to take some decisions."
Associated Pressmarcel the shell with shoes on ecu john wooden pujols mirror mirror tanuki mirror mirror trailer
Striking UK state workers take on government (Reuters)
BIRMINGHAM (Reuters) ? Teachers, nurses and border guards protesting over pension reform staged Britain's first mass strike for more than 30 years Wednesday in a confrontation with the government over its austerity measures.
Prime Minister David Cameron played down the impact of the strike, calling it "something of a damp squib," saying 40 percent of schools were open and the main London airports were working properly.
As many as two million public sector employees had been expected to walk out over reforms that unions say will force them to work longer before they can retire and pay more for pensions that will be worth less.
Union anger has been fuelled by new curbs on public sector pay and hundreds of thousands of additional job cuts outlined Tuesday when the Conservative-led coalition government cut economic growth forecasts and said its tough austerity program would last until 2017.
The power of Britain's trade unions was curbed by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government in the 1980s, but the public sector remains one of their strongholds.
Unions are threatening further strikes next year if the dispute is not resolved but analysts say a repeat of the 1979 "Winter of Discontent" that helped Thatcher sweep to power is not on the cards.
BRINK OF RECESSION
"Why are the government picking on us in the public sector?" asked Kevin Smith, 54, picketing in pale winter sunshine outside parliament in London, where he works as a security officer.
"We had no rise the last two years, before that we were getting lower than inflation rises. So how long is it going to last?"
Inflation stands at five percent, far outstripping pay rises for public and private sector workers in a squeeze on living standards that is depressing consumer spending.
Fears of long delays at London's main Heathrow airport proved unfounded after the government flew home embassy staff to help out and recruited volunteers from other departments to carry out passport checks.
However, underground rail services were not running in Scotland and there were no trains or buses in Northern Ireland.
The government, trying to turn around a debt-laden economy teetering on the brink of recession, says reform is needed as people are living longer and public service pensions are unaffordable.
The strikes mirror protests in other European countries where governments are trying to juggle budget deficits with the needs of an aging population.
A coalition of 30 trade unions are taking part in the strike, billed as the biggest walkout since 1979.
"We are striking because the government is cutting the pensions, they are telling us to work more hours and they are cutting jobs at our schools," said Hasina Carroll, a UNISON union member and support worker at St. Matthew Academy school in the London suburb of Blackheath.
Speaking before a rally in the central English city of Birmingham, the leader of Britain's main union umbrella group told Reuters more strikes could follow.
"We will have to see, we want to resolve these negotiations by the end of the year, the government's self-imposed deadline," said TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber.
"I hope it will be possible to resolve it but if not there is then the prospect of further action including days of this sort," he added.
Sympathy was in short supply from some workers in the private sector.
"Get back to work and get a maths teacher to give you a lesson. There is no money," said Benedict Crabbe, 38, an investment manager from central England in London on business.
(Additional reporting by Michael Holden and Keith Weir; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
westboro baptist church kurt warner kurt warner st. croix st. croix threadworm nick swisher
Friday, December 2, 2011
Analysis: Banks' contribution overstated, but retreat painful (Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) ? Banks' contribution to the economy may be hugely overstated, underscoring anger about the scale of taxpayer rescues and resultant government cutbacks, but a sharp retreat of banking worldwide looks painful for all and needs calibrating.
As sovereign debts and austerity bite across the West, spurring popular protest over rising inequality and malfunctioning capitalism, governments have been under pressure to act tough on the outsized and risky banking that was deemed too big to fail.
With everyone now on the hook for shoring up those banks and severe economic hardship being felt across the North Atlantic countries, the debate about "socially useless" aspects of banking has been intense.
Since 2007, the regulatory backlash has included forcing banks to build higher capital buffers; separating retail banking
from global investment finance; curbing excessive pay; and taxing transactions and speculative activity.
But one eye-catching angle on the reassessment came from Bank of England economists this month.
In a paper for the VoxEU think tank, the Bank's executive director for Financial Stability, Andrew Haldane, and economist Vasileios Madouros claimed British and U.S. national accounts have significantly overestimated the "value added" provided by financial services firms before and since the crisis began.
The essence of their argument is that in calculating gross domestic product, government statisticians give far too much weight to banking activity that merely involves creating and bearing risk in lending and asset holdings.
Under the current system, the paper points out that the value added ascribed to U.S. financial intermediaries was as much as $1.2 trillion last year -- some 8 percent of GDP and a fourfold increase in its share of GDP since World War Two. In Britain the equivalent in 2009 was even higher at 10 percent.
To justify those huge gains, the economists argue that the productivity of bank capital and staff would need to have soared too -- in part justifying the huge rises in pay and bonuses. But the precipitous collapse of many of these banks in 2007 and 2008 questions whether the scale of those efficiency gains was anything more but smoke and mirrors.
"High pre-crisis returns to banking had a much more mundane explanation. They reflected simply increased risk-taking across the sector," Haldane and Madouros wrote, insisting that risk taking such as credit expansion to complex products leveraged by short-term borrowings does not amount to value added.
But national accounts blur the distinction between this unproductive "risk bearing" and productive "risk management," where banks provide valuable services of broking, credit screening or intermediation that helps firms and households grow, save and invest.
As a result, the gigantic balance sheet expansion of global banks in the decade prior the credit crisis was wrongly accounted for as increased value added. Households investing in a bond or taking out a mortgage, for example, also bear credit and liquidity risk but this is not seen as value added in GDP.
"If risk-making were a value-adding activity, Russian roulette players would contribute disproportionately to global welfare," Haldane and Madoura concluded.
The paper cites studies that showed adjusting accounts for this error would reduce the estimated economic output of euro zone banks by up to 40 percent. And applying that to UK banks would have cut their 2009 contribution to GDP from 10 percent to as low as six percent -- or an error of some 55 billion pounds.
A bigger distortion is that the hundreds of billions of dollars of public subsidies or bailouts to ailing banks meant many of these firms didn't even have to bear the very risks incorrectly flattering their output, productivity and pay.
"Instead it has been borne by society. That is why GDP today lies below its pre-crisis level. And it is why government balance sheets, relative to GDP, are set to double as a result of the crisis in many countries," Haldane and Madouros said.
ROLLING BACK BANKS
The calculations go some way to quantifying how far out of kilter banking was from the real economy. But it also shows that resolving the "too big to fail" dilemma that forced the bailouts will also involve some reversal of the balance sheet explosion.
The problem right now is that banking retreat is unleashing a double-whammy on an already austerity-squeezed global economy.
Uncertainty about the future shape of banking and another world downturn mean new capital for banks is scarce, forcing them to cut lending to meet more stringent capital ratios, such as the 9 percent base required of euro zone banks by mid-2012.
European banks alone are expected to ditch up to 3 trillion euros of loans next year to meet new capital rules.
U.S. investment banking giants too are cutting back assets and activities and openly talking about a secular downsizing of the industry [ID:nN1E7AE1WW]. And the world's ten largest banks involved in capital markets are estimated to have have lost about $250 billion of market capitalization since March.
Though wary of being deflected by banking lobbies into abandoning reforms, policymakers are recognizing that too much, too soon could dangerous.
Bank of England governor Mervyn King said on Monday euro bank deleveraging was already showing signs of a credit crunch.
"These are enormous challenges and it will not be easy to get through this," he said. "There will I think need to be a significant amount of rationalization of debts and credits in the world before we are finally to emerge from the end of this."
Finding a way to let the air out of the balloon slowly may be the big challenge of 2012 and beyond.
(Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
hope solo hope solo texas high school football fugazi fugazi indiana jones and the last crusade nba lockout
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)