Near Field Communication (NFC) has only started coming to major smartphones in the last year, and the iPhone is still yet to buy into the technology.
The history to NFC is rather complex, it has been used in many different industries, including transportation and retail. The technology allows users to connect a device to another through near field communication, hence the name.
Most Android smartphones are now coming with NFC and now would be a great time to get to know all about it, how you can set it up and what you can do with NFC enabled on your Android device.
What is the point?
The first thing you will want to know is what NFC is used for on mobile device, well, as the movement to make NFC applications and NFC services grows, you can use your mobile device as a card, image, phone number and a host of other holders.
You then simply transfer to another device with NFC enabled and the transaction works. There is no need to connect through networks or Bluetooth, as NFC is both faster and picks up other traffic a lot less frequently.
With Android Beam, your device can partner with another and share files almost instantaneously, it is incredibly how fast speeds are when the devices are paired.
Does my device have NFC?
To check if your device has NFC, you may want to check the back if the smartphone has a removable back. On the writing on the battery normally declares if this is an NFC enabled phone or not. In some cases, the NFC chip will be visible when you open the back up.
For those of you that don?t know what an NFC chip looks like and don?t want to search the battery text, you can check on your smartphone with these simple steps:
Go to Settings
Go to Wireless Networks
If NFC & Android Beam options are there, you have NFC
Some Tips & Using Android Beam
Make sure when you connect both devices have NFC and both are awake with good battery life. NFC does have a tendency to drain battery life after long usage, so we would advise deactivating it if you are not using it.
When using Beam, you will get a little activation sound telling you the two devices are paired, and then you can share all audio, video and any other file types, assuming they are not covered with DRM.
There is plenty to find when you have a NFC enabled device, and the world is just starting to use the technology. Soon, most shops will allow you to pay through NFC, and you can pay your monthly bill over your phone. Perhaps even one day you could log into accounts by putting the phone on the screen.
The internet is a fabulous market place for entrepreneurs. Hundreds of millions of people browse the web each day and each of them is a potential customer. However, many online businesses don?t post the kind of sales volumes they envision as ideal despite all the potential customers out there. It seems that they are missing something, but what is it? A lot of things go into making successful internet businesses including marketing, SEO and proper Charleston web design. Even after doing all these though you may still find yourself stuck with the same dismal sales. Your predicament could be the result of one mistake that many businesses make ? failing to align your Charleston SC web design with the needs and interests of your customers.
Often, during Charleston web design we don?t think too much about our customers. We are more interested in building cool eye-catching websites replete with amazing graphics and impressive navigation menus. Charleston SC web design experts pay attention to fonts, colors and graphics, which is all fine, but hardly do they pause to think of their work from the customers? viewpoint. The cold reality is that all the effort and ingenuity of a Charleston SC web design pro will not translate into high sales and customer satisfaction unless the website is aligned to the interests of the customer.
Effective Charleston web design is premised on helping customers to achieve what they want with the least effort. The structure of a website should therefore conform to the customers? needs rather than yours. For example, customers want to see all the details pertaining to each product as easily as possible. They also want to know the price of a product and its availability. If you don?t provide all these details within easy reach customers will not break a swear looking for them. Instead they will go to your competitors? sites. A lot of sales opportunities are lost because of lousy checkout systems. If a customer decides to order an item but is faced with a lengthy checkout procedure asking too many questions and requiring too much time, he/she is likely to simply abandon the order.
During Charleston SC web design you should bear in mind what it is that you?d like customers to do on the website and provide easy means for them to do so. If you want customers to call you then clearly and persuasively request them to do so. Provide the phone contact where it is clearly visible so that customers don?t have to search for it and thank the customers for taking their time to call you. If you are asking customers to call you then also make sure that you have people available 24-7 to take those calls. If you aren?t available round the clock then duly indicate on the website the time you are available.
Creating effective customer-centered websites takes experience and a deep understanding of internet business. Coastal Web Team (http://coastalwebteam.com) of South Carolina is a Charleston web design company with a team of experts who can help turn your business around by developing a customer-oriented website.
CHICAGO (AP) ? As a kid rooting around in the attic of his boyhood home, Allan Calhamer stumbled across an old book of maps and became entranced by faraway places that no longer existed, such as the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires.
That discovery and a brewing fascination with world politics and international affairs were the genesis of "Diplomacy," the board game he would create years later as a history student at Harvard University in the 1950s. After its commercial release in 1959, the game earned a loyal legion of fans in the U.S. and elsewhere that reportedly included President John F. Kennedy, Henry Kissinger and Walter Cronkite, among others.
Calhamer died Monday at a hospital in the western Chicago suburbs where he grew up, his daughter Selenne Calhamer-Boling said. He was 81.
"He was brilliant and iconoclastic and designed this game that's played around the world, and he's adored by nerds throughout the world," his daughter said by phone Saturday. "But at the end of the day he was a great dad. He was at all the T-ball games and all the screechy, horrible orchestra concerts and all the klutzy ballet recitals. I guess that's how I'll remember him."
Calhamer tested early versions of the game out on Harvard classmates before perfecting it. After its commercial release, Avalon Hill bought the rights and helped make it an international hit. The game is still for sale, and was re-released in 1999 with a colorful new map and metal pieces.
Players represent seven European powers at the beginning of the 20th century and vie for dominance by strategically forging and breaking alliances. Unlike "Risk," there are no dice, and a player's success is largely based on his or her negotiating skills.
Inspiration for the game was also supplied by a Harvard professor who taught a class in 19th-century Europe and wrote a book called "Origins of the World War."
Calhamer said in a 2009 interview with Chicago magazine that reading the book recalled for him the atlas in his parents' attic.
"That brought everything together," Calhamer told the magazine. "I thought, 'What a board game that would make.'"
After graduating in 1953, Calhamer followed a fanciful path, living for a time on Walden Pond because he was fan of Henry David Thoreau's famous work and later working as a park ranger at the Statue of Liberty.
In his late 30s, he met his wife, Hilda, in New York. At her insistence they settled in his hometown of La Grange Park, Ill. Calhamer-Boling said her father then shed his "dilettante" ways and picked up a steady job as a postman, which allowed him pursue hobbies and his art. He tried developing other games, as well, but they never caught on, she said.
Since his death, emails have been pouring in to the family from "Diplomacy" fans around the world who wanted to convey how much the game meant to them, Calhamer-Boling said.
The moving messages were not what she expected.
"I always think of it as such an intellectual game because it's so strategic," she said. "But what I'm seeing over and over again in these emails is that the recurring theme is: 'I was a really really nerdy awkward kid who had trouble relating to people, but because 'Diplomacy' required interpersonal skills and required you to get people to do what you wanted them to do that's how I built my social skills.'"
Calhamer is survived by his wife and two daughters.
Voting signs are posted for the election in a firehouse Nov. 4, 2008 in Selma, Ala. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court hears arguments over whether a key part of the Voting Rights Act?a cornerstone of the civil rights movement?is unfairly targeting southern states for systematic racial bias that no longer exists.
The court's decision on the law, which helped dismantle decades of discriminatory voting restrictions in the South, could hand a victory to the recent conservative-led movement to tighten identification requirements and limit early voting hours at the ballot box. A wave of such laws swept 30 states over the last few years.
Supporters say these laws were designed to combat voter fraud. But they have attracted lawsuits from civil rights groups and the federal government, who argue that the laws disenfranchise minority citizens, who are less likely than white voters to have photo ID. (The Brennan Center estimates that about 11 percent of voting age citizens do not have a government issued photo ID.) The laws also sparked a political argument, with some Democrats accusing Republicans of pushing voter ID laws because they affected constituencies that tended to vote Democrat.
Some of these state photo ID laws in the South have been aggressively fended off by the Justice Department, which argued that states covered by the 1965 Voting Rights Act cannot change election law in this way because it disadvantages minority voters. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, reauthorized by Congress in 2006, gives the federal government the ability to preemptively reject changes to election law in states and counties that have a history of discriminating against minority voters. The law covers nine states and portions of seven more.
The Justice Department used Section 5 of the law to block voter ID laws in Texas and South Carolina last year, and also struck down early voting restrictions in five counties in Florida. (Minority voters are more likely than white voters to vote early in person.)
Justices in the conservative wing of the Supreme Court, including Chief Justice John Roberts, have expressed reservations that the nine Southern states covered by the law still require the same degree of federal oversight that they did 60 years ago. "Voter turnout and registration rates [between blacks and whites] now approach parity," Roberts wrote in a decision in 2009. "Blatantly discriminatory evasions of federal decrees are rare. And minority candidates hold office at unprecedented levels."
Another argument against Section 5's constitutionality is that it's unclear whether minority voters in Southern states are more likely to face discrimination at the polls than they are in other states. Voter ID laws, for example, have passed in states such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Indiana. Since those states do not have a history of voter discrimination?and are not covered by the act?their voter ID laws did not have to first pass federal inspection. That said, southern states covered under the act were much more likely to pass a voter ID law than other states. Seven of the nine states covered in full under the act adopted such a law, compared to 19 states overall.
If Roberts and at least four other justices decide to strike down the part of the law that singles out the southern states, civil rights advocates will have few places to go in challenging voter ID laws. The Supreme Court upheld Indiana's photo ID law in 2008, suggesting that without Section 5, voter ID laws will prevail in the courts.
Rick Hasen, an expert on voting law at the University of California at Irvine, said it would be "tough" to win a case against a voter ID law without Section 5.
Wendy Weiser of the non-profit Brennan Center, which has challenged some voter ID laws as discriminatory, says Section 5 is a "potent tool" against the laws. "It's a much heavier litigation burden," without Section 5, she said.
Are you a Jewish grandparent navigating your relationship with your child, their partner, and your grandchild? Are you the adult, sandwiched between your parent and your young child, respecting the one who raised you and hoping they will respect your choices in raising your own family? I am curious what works (and what doesn?t work). Please comment below and join me as we start a dialogue about the role of grandparents!
I believe step one should be to have a conversation. The grandparent should sit down with their adult child and discuss how each sees the other?s role. Share thoughts, feelings, hopes, and dreams. Respect each other. Recognize that this can be easier said than done!
But then what? Grandparents: what do you do (have you done) that has worked really well? What didn?t work so well that you would do differently next time? Children, what have your parents done that worked (or didn?t)? What do you wish they would do?
I have five ideas to get us started; I?m interested to hear if you think these will be well received.
Celebrate a Jewish holiday with the other grandparents. For example, invite them to the Passover seder (along with your child?s family). Include them in your religious/cultural celebrations. Help them better understand Judaism and its rich traditions.
Ask your child if they need support, resources, or guidance from you. Offer to assist them in the choices that they make. Being active in the Jewish community can be expensive; if you are in a position to help, offer to pay for religious school or summer camp (if your assistance would be appreciated).
Offer to babysit, but make sure you?re transparent with your plans. Tell your child that you?d like to invite your grandchildren over for dinner on Friday night, light Shabbat candles, say the blessings, and enjoy a wonderful meal together. Attain quality time with your grandchildren and give their parents the night off for their own quality time together!
Be visible in your grandchild?s life. Visit often if you can. Use modern technology like Skype to see and talk to your family if they live far away (or even if they are around the corner).
Keep the dialogue open.
What would you like to add to this list?
Comments
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Good bacteria may expunge vancomycin-resistant bacteria from your gutPublic release date: 27-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jim Sliwa jsliwa@asmusa.org 202-942-9297 American Society for Microbiology
Probiotic possibilities loom
Too much antibiotic can decimate the normal intestinal microbiota, which may never recover its former diversity. That, in turn, renders the GI tract vulnerable to being colonized by pathogens. Now researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, and Centro Superior de Investigacin en Salud Pblica, Valencia, Spain, show that reintroducing normal microbial diversity largely eliminated vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) from the intestinal tracts of mice. The investigators showed further that the findings may apply to humans. The research is published in the March 2013 issue of the journal Infection and Immunity.
The reduced diversity of microbiota wrought by antibiotics "allow[s] VRE to invade and thrive in the intestine, suggesting that bacterial species that are wiped out by antibiotics are key to preventing colonization by VRE," says first author Carles Ubeda of the Centro Superior de Investigacion en Salud Publica, Valencia, Spain. "We hypothesized that repopulating the mice' intestines with the missing bacteria would promote clearance of the VRE."
In the study, the researchers treated mice with antibiotics. They then gave the mice fecal transplants from untreated mice, or aerobic or anaerobic cultures from the fecal transplants. Following the latter treatments, mice receiving the fecal transplant or the anaerobic culture were able to clear the VRE, while those receiving the aerobic culture failed to do so. The researchers compared the microbiota in each group. The big difference: the mice that had cleared the VRE contained bacteria from the anaerobic genus, Barnesiella, while those that had failed to clear the VRE did not.
The researchers then analyzed the fecal microbiota from human patients who had received bone marrow transplants, who were at high risk of being colonized by vancomycin-resistant enterococci. "The presence of Barnesiella in fecal samples was associated with protection against VRE, suggesting that in humans, Barnesiella may also confer protection against dense VRE colonization," says Ubeda.
"The findings could be very useful for development of novel probiotics," says Ubeda. Additionally, "scientifically, this is a major finding that will help us to understand how the microbiota confer resistance against intestinal colonization by pathogens, an important question that remains incompletely answered."
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(C. Ubeda, V. Bucci, S. Caballero, et al. Intestinal microbiota containing Barnesiella species cures vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium colonization. Infect. Immun. 81:965-973)
Infection and Immunity is a publication of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). The ASM is the largest single life science society, composed of over 39,000 scientists and health professionals. Its mission is to advance the microbiological sciences as a vehicle for understanding life processes and to apply and communicate this knowledge for the improvement of health and environmental and economic well-being worldwide.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
Good bacteria may expunge vancomycin-resistant bacteria from your gutPublic release date: 27-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jim Sliwa jsliwa@asmusa.org 202-942-9297 American Society for Microbiology
Probiotic possibilities loom
Too much antibiotic can decimate the normal intestinal microbiota, which may never recover its former diversity. That, in turn, renders the GI tract vulnerable to being colonized by pathogens. Now researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, and Centro Superior de Investigacin en Salud Pblica, Valencia, Spain, show that reintroducing normal microbial diversity largely eliminated vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) from the intestinal tracts of mice. The investigators showed further that the findings may apply to humans. The research is published in the March 2013 issue of the journal Infection and Immunity.
The reduced diversity of microbiota wrought by antibiotics "allow[s] VRE to invade and thrive in the intestine, suggesting that bacterial species that are wiped out by antibiotics are key to preventing colonization by VRE," says first author Carles Ubeda of the Centro Superior de Investigacion en Salud Publica, Valencia, Spain. "We hypothesized that repopulating the mice' intestines with the missing bacteria would promote clearance of the VRE."
In the study, the researchers treated mice with antibiotics. They then gave the mice fecal transplants from untreated mice, or aerobic or anaerobic cultures from the fecal transplants. Following the latter treatments, mice receiving the fecal transplant or the anaerobic culture were able to clear the VRE, while those receiving the aerobic culture failed to do so. The researchers compared the microbiota in each group. The big difference: the mice that had cleared the VRE contained bacteria from the anaerobic genus, Barnesiella, while those that had failed to clear the VRE did not.
The researchers then analyzed the fecal microbiota from human patients who had received bone marrow transplants, who were at high risk of being colonized by vancomycin-resistant enterococci. "The presence of Barnesiella in fecal samples was associated with protection against VRE, suggesting that in humans, Barnesiella may also confer protection against dense VRE colonization," says Ubeda.
"The findings could be very useful for development of novel probiotics," says Ubeda. Additionally, "scientifically, this is a major finding that will help us to understand how the microbiota confer resistance against intestinal colonization by pathogens, an important question that remains incompletely answered."
###
(C. Ubeda, V. Bucci, S. Caballero, et al. Intestinal microbiota containing Barnesiella species cures vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium colonization. Infect. Immun. 81:965-973)
Infection and Immunity is a publication of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). The ASM is the largest single life science society, composed of over 39,000 scientists and health professionals. Its mission is to advance the microbiological sciences as a vehicle for understanding life processes and to apply and communicate this knowledge for the improvement of health and environmental and economic well-being worldwide.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
It can't just be the United States Postal Service that's having a hard time staying afloat. Email and social networking is available all around the world, but maybe the USPS should take a hint from the clever Belgians who've created a collection of stamps that celebrate—and actually smell and taste like—chocolate. More »
"The Walking Dead" has treated us to some truly horrific visuals in its three seasons. Who can forget Rick and Glenn smearing themselves with zombie guts or Daryl disemboweling a walker to find evidence of a Sophia snack?
This week, Andrea moved up the grisly leaderboard with her "adoption" of a pet walker.
Hey, some people declaw and neuter cats, so maybe it's not fair to judge Andrea, or Michonne before her, too harshly for neutralizing the danger of their own special "best friends." In the post-apocalyptic zombie landscape, that means literally disarming the walkers and treating them to some special Abominable Snowman/Hermey-style dentistry.
For use on external sites w/exclusive video premieres.
Warning: It's best to watch this scene from "I Ain't a Judas" -- in which Andrea takes a hatchet to a walker's arms and smashes his face against a rock -- on an empty stomach.
You've been warned.
How does Andrea's zombie pet rank among "The Walking Dead's" most gruesome scenes? Tell us on our Facebook page!
Fujitsu's Stylistic S01 isn't the company's only attempt to cater to an older audience. It's also experimenting with a rather ingenius (and super glossy) take on the classic cane, that looks like something out of a sci-fi film. Inside the two-toned elliptical head-piece are a pile of electronics, including Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi and a cellular radio. And at the front of the grip is a small display, consisting of an array of multi-color LEDs. Those little bulbs light up, primarily in red or green, to communicate through simple pictographs. The primary function is to offer directions using the GPS. The LEDs tell you which way to head with simple green arrow animations and alert you to upcoming turns by flashing a red exclamation point. While we understand and appreciate the simplicity, the combination of relatively dim LEDs and the glossy design made it a bit difficult to make out direction under the harsh lights of the Fujitsu booth -- we can only imagine things would only get worse under a glaring mid-day sun.
This isn't just a dumbed-down guidance device, however. The GPS can also be used to track movement, while other sensors on board can monitor temperature, humidity and heart rate. There's a small pad at the top where you place your thumb to get a BPM readout. Should the heat get cranking and grandpa's heart rate start to climb, a loved one could set a destination for him remotely and lead him to the nearest place to cool off. Fujitsu reps said the current prototype is capable of lasting between two or three hours on a charge, though we imagine much longer battery life will be needed for it to become a practical, everyday solution. There's no telling if or when this futuristic walking stick will hit the market, but we wouldn't be surprised to see some form of it in the next year or two. Technology moves quick and the healthcare industry is one of the quickest growing markets for the cutting edge. If you'd like a glimpse of how the system might work, check out the video after the break.
This really has been an entire month of the strange. We had Boeing's Dreamliner sidelined for batteries that catch fire. We had Tesla locking horns with the NYT. We had Sony announce its new game system nearly nine months before it would be available -- but not actually show it. Biggest of all, despite Chromebooks failing to sell in the $250 range, we had Google offer a refresh priced at $1,500.
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) affects more than 90 percent of the population worldwide and was the first human virus found to be associated with cancer. Now, researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have broadened the understanding of this widespread infection with their discovery of a second B-cell attachment receptor for EBV.
The new findings, which currently appear on-line in Cell Reports, reinforce current directions being taken in the development of a vaccine to guard against EBV, and raise important new questions regarding the virus's possible relationship to malaria and to autoimmune diseases.
"Our discovery that CD35 is an attachment receptor for EBV helps explain several previously unsolved observations," explains the study's senior author Joyce Fingeroth, MD, a member of the Division of Infectious Diseases at BIDMC and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
First discovered in the early 1960s, EBV is one of eight viruses in the human herpesvirus family. The virus affects nine out of 10 people at some point in their lifetimes. Infections in early childhood often cause no disease symptoms, but people infected during adolescence or young adulthood may develop infectious mononucleosis. EBV is also associated with several types of cancer, including Hodgkin's lymphoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and has been linked to certain autoimmune disorders.
"EBV was the first human virus that was discovered to be a tumor virus," explains Fingeroth. "In fact, individuals who have had infectious mononucleosis have a four times increased risk of developing Hodgkin's disease." After the initial infection, the EBV virus remains in a person's body for life.
To gain entry, viruses must first attach to their host cells. For herpesviruses, receptors on the viral envelope become connected to complementary receptors on the cell membrane. In the case of EBV, the virus gains access to the immune system by attaching to primary B cells.
Nearly 30 years ago, Fingeroth and her colleagues discovered that this attachment occurs via the CD21 protein, which until now was the only known B cell attachment receptor for EBV. The recent finding that B cells from a patient lacking CD21 can be infected and immortalized by EBV had indicated that an alternative attachment receptor must exist. The identification of this second receptor -- CD35 -- by Fingeroth's team, led by first author Javier Ogembo, PhD, of BIDMC and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, not only underscores an important finding regarding primary infection but also underscores the importance of EBVgp350/220, (the virus protein that has been found to bind to both attachment receptors) for the development of a vaccine against EBV.
"The EBV glycoprotein gp350/220 is the most abundant surface glycoprotein on the virus," notes Fingeroth, adding that these results further suggest the virus fusion apparatus is the same for both receptors. "An EBV vaccine might be able to prevent infection or, alternatively, greatly reduce a person's risk of developing infectious mononucleosis and EBV-associated cancers, without necessarily preventing the EBV infection itself."
Interestingly, she adds, whereas a human has now been identified to be lacking the CD21 receptor, no persons are known to lack CD35.
"CD35 is a latecomer in evolution and in its current form, exists only in humans," says Fingeroth. "We know that it is often targeted in autoimmune diseases and was recently identified as a malaria receptor. Our new discovery may, therefore, reveal new avenues for the exploration of unexplained links between EBV, autoimmune diseases, malaria and cancer."
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Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center: http://www.bidmc.harvard.edu
Thanks to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, right, receives a letter regarding the appointment of Interior Minister Ali Larayedh to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali from Ennahda ruling party's leader Rached Ghannouchi prior to a meeting at the presidential palace in Carthage near Tunis, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki on Friday has asked incumbent Interior Minister Ali Laarayedh from the ruling Ennahdha to form a new government in two weeks, according to the presidential office. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi)
Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, right, receives a letter regarding the appointment of Interior Minister Ali Larayedh to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali from Ennahda ruling party's leader Rached Ghannouchi prior to a meeting at the presidential palace in Carthage near Tunis, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki on Friday has asked incumbent Interior Minister Ali Laarayedh from the ruling Ennahdha to form a new government in two weeks, according to the presidential office. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi)
FILE - This Dec. 24, 2011, file photo shows Tunisian Interior Minister Ali Larayedh putting his hand on the Koran while taking the oath of office during a swearing-in ceremony at the presidential palace in Carthage near Tunis, Tunisia. Tunisia's ruling Islamist party has chosen its hardline interior minister to form the North African nation's new government, a top official said Friday. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi, File)
President Moncef Marzouki, right, listens to Ennahda ruling party's leader Rached Ghannouchi prior to a meeting at the presidential palace in Carthage near Tunis, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki on Friday has asked incumbent Interior Minister Ali Laarayedh from the ruling Ennahdha to form a new government in two weeks, according to the presidential office. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi)
FILE - This Dec. 22, 2011, file photo shows newly appointed Tunisian Interior Minister, Ali Larayedh, standing during the presentation of the new coalition government to the assembled members of the constituent assembly in Tunis, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011. Tunisia's ruling Islamist party has chosen its hardline interior minister to form the North African nation's new government, a top official said Friday. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi, File)
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) ? Tunisia's ruling Islamist party named an interior minister seen as a conservative loyalist to form a new government Friday, in a signal the party is unlikely to back down to opposition demands to try to smooth over the country's political crisis.
Ali Larayedh, accused of failing to stem violence by ultraconservative Muslims when he was in charge of Tunisia's security as interior minister, said he would start immediate consultations on forming a new government, according to the state news agency TAP.
He said after his first Cabinet meeting that the new government should represent different layers of society, including the secular media and arts worlds and preachers, TAP reported. He has 15 days to present a new government.
The killing of an opposition leader last month plunged Tunisia into its deepest political crisis since it started the Arab Spring uprisings two years ago. It led to violent protests against the Islamist-led government and demands for a crackdown on extremist violence.
The governing Ennahda party appointed Larayedh to take over after former Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali who resigned because the party rejected his proposal to form an apolitical government of technocrats in response to the protests.
The split between the party and Jebali was seen as a deep disagreement between the party's hardline and moderate wings.
Larayedh, who has been widely criticized by the opposition for failing to ensure stability, is believed to come from the wing of the party that has been less willing to compromise with secular parties. His nomination could make the task of finding consensus and building a coalition with Tunisia's other political parties more difficult.
The party chose Larayedh, 57, in an overnight meeting, Moadh Ghannouchi, the son of Ennahda's leader, told the Associated Press.
Larayedh spent 15 years in prison under the previous regime and has attempted to reform the police force which was widely hated as the enforcer for dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Security, however, has been a problem under his watch, especially with regular attacks by extremist Islamists over the past year against targets they deem impious, culminating in the Sept. 14 assault on the U.S. embassy over an amateur film made in the United States attacking the Prophet Muhammad.
Larayedh also announced late Thursday the arrest of several suspects in the assassination of opposition lawyer Chokri Belaid, saying "rapid progress" had been made in the investigation.
He gave few details, however, and could not confirm whether those arrested were the suspected killers or say who was behind the assassination.
Belaid was shot four times outside his home on Feb. 6, provoking days of unrest as many Tunisians held the government responsible for his death.
HAVANA (AP) ? Cuban President Raul Castro has unexpectedly raised the possibility of leaving his post, saying Friday that he is old and has a right to retire. But he did not say when he might do so or if such a move was imminent.
The Cuban leader is scheduled to be named by parliament to a new five-year term Sunday, and Castro urged reporters to listen to his speech that day.
"I am going to resign," Castro said at a joint appearance with visiting Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, an enigmatic smile on his face. It was not clear whether he was joking.
"I am going to be 82 years old," Castro added. "I have the right to retire, don't you think?"
When reporters continued to shout questions about his plans for the next five years, Castro replied: "Why are you so incredulous?"
He said to listen carefully on Sunday.
"It will be an interesting speech," he said. "Pay attention."
Castro's tone was light and his comments came in informal remarks at a mausoleum dedicated to soldiers from the former Soviet Union who have died around the world.
The Cuban leader has spoken before of his desire to implement a two-term limit for all Cuban government positions, including the presidency. He has also alluded to the limited time he has left to overhaul the island's weak Marxist economy.
That has led many to speculate that this upcoming term would be his last, though term limits have never been codified into Cuban law.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland had no comment on Castro's remarks.
Most Havana residents had not heard about the comments, which were not shown on Cuban television, although other footage from his appearance with Medvedev was shown. Many reacted with skepticism.
"Who would they put in?" asked Marta Alvarez, a 45-year-old housewife walking through Old Havana. "But I don't think it would be now. It would happen in five years."
Castro will be 86 when his next term ends in 2018. Up until now, all eyes had been on who would emerge as Castro's first and second vice presidents during Sunday's proceedings. The positions are currently occupied by two loyal octogenarians who fought in the 1959 revolution.
Putting someone younger in one of those roles would be the first sign that Castro was settling on a potential next-generation successor, something he and his brother Fidel have never done, even as many comrades have succumbed to old age.
As far back as December 2010, Castro began to reflect on his responsibility, and that of his aging generation, to right Cuba's economy, noting that the actuarial tables leave them few remaining years.
"The time we have left is short, the task is enormous," he told lawmakers in his year-end speech that year. "I think we have an obligation ... to set (the country) on the right course."
When Raul Castro does leave the political stage, it would end more than a half century of unbroken rule by the two brothers, who came to power in 1959 at the head of a revolution against U.S.-backed strongman Fulgencio Batista.
Armando Gutierrez, a 78-year-old Cuban-American lawyer in Florida and veteran of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, said he hoped Castro wasn't joking about retiring, but doubted that whoever follows would bring true political change.
"Can you imagine 54 years?" Gutierrez said. "Not even the Roman emperors lasted that long."
Relations with the United States have been sour since shortly after the revolution. One of the key provisions of the 51-year U.S. economic embargo on Cuba stipulates that it cannot be lifted while either of the Castros is in power.
Castro has implemented a series of economic and social reforms since taking over from his ailing brother in 2006, but the island is still ruled by one party. Fidel Castro is 86 and retired, and has seemed increasingly frail in recent appearances.
The elder Castro was also visited by Medvedev, Cuban state-run media reported. Communist Party newspaper Granma reported that the two countries signed an agreement on restructuring more than $20 billion in Soviet-era debt Cuba owes.
The terms of the restructuring weren't announced. The debt has been a point of contention between Cuba and Russia for years. It was originally built up in rubles to pay the Soviet Union for services provided in the 1980s, and Cuba has questioned how much it should be worth today.
___
Associated Press journalists Camilo Losada and Anne-Marie Garcia in Havana and Christine Armario in Miami contributed to this report.
___
Follow Paul Haven on Twitter: www.twitter.com/paulhaven
Posted at 3:45 PM on February 22, 2013 by Tim Pugmire (0 Comments) Filed under: MN Legislature, Mark Dayton
Another effort is underway to organize state-subsidized child care providers.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 5 is holding a State Capitol news conference Monday to announce the Child Care Collective Bargaining Act. An advisory from the union said legislation will be introduced that day to authorize child care providers to collectively bargain with the State of Minnesota.
Sen. Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, and Rep. Michael Nelson, DFL-Brooklyn Park, will attend along with child care providers.
A previous attempt to organize the same group of in-home providers failed last year when a Ramsey County judge blocked a unionization vote in response to a lawsuit from union opponents. The judge ruled that Gov. Mark Dayton had exceeded his authority when he scheduled the vote with an executive order.
Separate legislation was introduced this week to allow a unionization vote among subsidized personal care assistants who provide self-directed home health care to the elderly and disabled. The Service Employees International Union is leading that effort.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? John Fox has some bad news for the other 31 NFL teams: Peyton Manning could be even better in 2013.
The Denver coach says Thursday at the league's annual scouting combine that with another offseason to heal and to fine-tune his comfort with Denver's offense, the four-time MVP and reigning Comeback Player of the Year could have a more impressive second season in the Mile High City.
Fox says a year ago the Broncos were doing homework on Manning. They saw a dramatic improvement in Manning's workouts last offseason at Duke, and then with the quarterback's passing in the second half of the 2012 season. Manning led Denver to the AFC's best record, 13-3.
While some of us try to avoid mainstream media and the accompanying Things You Should Be Afraid Of Today reporting, sometimes we need a place to go for 24/7 coverage of a disabled cruise ship, and CNN is always there. Now it's there on Android too, after launching live streaming of both CNN and HLN on iOS back in 2011 a new update for its Android phone app has brought the feature (and the classic "This is CNN" greeting by James Earl Jones) to the platform. You'll still need to be a subscriber to a participating cable TV service to actually watch the feed, but getting your dose of Anderson Cooper on the go is as simple as inputting your account details, and then you're set. Feature parity -- who doesn't love it? (Android tablet owners, Windows 8 users, Symbian...)
Coldwell Banker Real Estate has been ranked No. 3 among organizations from all industries for its Coldwell Banker University training platform in the annual Training Top 125 by Training magazine, the training industry?s premier publication. This marks the fourth consecutive year Coldwell Banker Real Estate appeared on the annual Training Top 125 list, improving on last year?s No. 9 ranking and repeating as the best training organization in the real estate industry. Coldwell Banker? was joined by Verizon, Jiffy Lube, Farmers Insurance and CHG Healthcare Services in the top five.
?We are extremely honored to see our training programs ranked as best in the real estate industry, and it is rewarding to see Coldwell Banker recognized as one of the top three training organizations in the world among all industries,? said Budge Huskey, president and CEO of Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. ?We recognize the growing importance of exceptional training programs in today?s evolving real estate industry and have further developed our Coldwell Banker University program to continue to provide our network with the tools and resources they need to reach their personal and professional best.?
Coldwell Banker University continues to emphasize performance based courses, innovation and new platforms to train the brand?s agents and managers. It now offers cloud-based content, facilitation of informal learning, video streaming and mobile learning, with the BlueViewSM agent portal now accessible on iPad.
Additional advancements to Coldwell Banker University include:
Investing in a standardized, cross-industry benchmarked quality measurement system that has helped document increased revenue as a direct outcome of courses
Expanding course offerings that demonstrate tangible business results
Enabling the sharing of best practices across the brand?s network of 82,000 sales agents
Developing course content that managers can use at the local level to directly train their agents
This is Training magazine?s 13th annual competition that evaluates organizational learning programs and judges companies on a range of qualitative and quantitative factors. The ranking also considers how closely such development efforts are linked to each organization?s business goals and objectives.
Arkansas Senate Passes Bill Banning Abortions After 20 Weeks Of Pregnancy
Alamy
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Feb 18 (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled Arkansas state Senate approved a measure on Monday to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy except in the case of rape, incest or to save the mother's life. The Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act passed the Senate, 25-7, with amendments that allowed for the exemptions in the case of rape or incest. An earlier version of the bill that passed the Republican-controlled House allowed exemptions only for pregnancies that threatened the mother's life. The bill, which shortens the existing limit of 25 weeks, now returns to the House for consideration of the Senate amendment. Democratic Governor Mike Beebe has not said whether he would sign the bill into law. Seven U.S. states have laws that restrict or ban abortion after the 20-week mark and similar laws approved in Arizona and Georgia are facing legal challenges. Late-term abortions remain relatively rare. Most of the recent state laws banning most abortions after 20 weeks are based on hotly debated medical research suggesting a fetus feels pain starting at 20 weeks of gestation. (Reporting by Suzi Parker; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Dale Hudson)
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Feb 18 (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled Arkansas state Senate approved a measure on Monday to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy except in the case of rape, incest or...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Feb 18 (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled Arkansas state Senate approved a measure on Monday to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy except in the case of rape, incest or...
Near Field Communication (NFC) has only started coming to major smartphones in the last year, and the iPhone is still yet to buy into the technology.
Are you the adult, sandwiched between your parent and your young child, respecting the one who raised you and hoping they will respect your choices in raising your own family? I am curious what works (and what doesn?t work). Please comment below and join me as we start a dialogue about the role of grandparents!
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Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
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