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November 2009

Injury-hit England beat South Africa A

Tue, 11/17/2009 - 13:59 — admin

POTCHEFSTROOM, South Africa (AFP) –
Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior took the injury-hit touring England team to a morale-boosting four-wicket win in a 50-overs match against South Africa A in Potchefstroom on Tuesday.

South Africa A made 279 for nine after winning the toss, losing wickets at regular intervals after skipper Hashim Amla and Andrew Puttick gave them a good start with an opening stand of 77.

Despite a fluent 65 off 71 balls by captain Andrew Strauss, England were falling behind the required scoring rate when Trott (78) and Prior (54) came together in a fifth wicket stand of 66 off 64 balls.

With 64 needed off the final seven overs, the pair combined to hit 15 off the 44th over, bowled by Morne Morkel at the start of the final power play. Trott hit a four and a six off successive balls before he was bowled going for another big hit.

But Luke Wright also batted aggressively and the match was virtually decided when he and Prior scored 17 off an over from CJ de Villiers, which ended with Prior being bowled with only three runs needed.

Wright hit the first ball of the next over for four to seal victory.

England were without three front-line bowlers because of injury. James Anderson had a knee injury, fellow fast bowler Stuart Broad was still struggling with a shoulder injury and off-spinner Graeme Swann suffered a side strain in a Twenty20 international last Friday.

With Alastair Cook and Paul Collingwood both having sore backs, the tourists were down to 11 fit men for their final warm-up match before the first of five one-day internationals in Johannesburg on Friday.

It was announced during the match that Durham fast bowler Liam Plunkett would join the squad in Johannesburg on Wednesday as cover for the injured bowlers. Plunkett had originally been selected only for the Test part of the tour which follows the one-day games.

But Graham Onions took two for 46 in nine overs in his first appearance of the tour to show that he had recovered from a back injury.

Amla (37) and Puttick (62) put on 77 for the first wicket before Amla struck Wright firmly to midwicket where he was caught by Strauss, who returned to the side after missing two Twenty20 internationals.

Wright, who conceded 11 runs off his first over, came back well to finish with two for 48 in ten overs.

A growing TV cover-up: Obnoxious pop-up promos

Tue, 11/17/2009 - 07:35 — admin

NEW YORK – Somewhere in the universe of TV viewers, there's got to be a person who actually likes those pop-up, on-screen promotions.
Someone who thinks, "Thank you, network people, for those useful, informative announcements that block what I'm watching to tell me what I'm watching, or tell me what I could be watching next, which will then be blocked by reminders of what I could be watching after that."
This is a happy viewer all right, and maybe he or she exists in some den or family room absorbing those intrusive promos that, for everybody else, undermine what TV networks are ideally in business to do: entertain, not tick off.
TV exists above all as a medium of escape. But how do you escape into a TV show when it's plastered with scene-stealing hype?
At least one Web site, stoptvpopups.com, serves as a sounding board and support group for an outspoken few.
But almost any viewer can cite annoying instances where a pop-up ad has upstaged a show's dramatic climax or obscured vital on-screen information.
Viewers hate the detective hero of "Monk" rising from the bottom left screen for eight or nine seconds of vamping, followed by a ghostly but distracting text line that looms for several long minutes to accommodate even the slowest readers: "Monk All New Tonight 9/8c."
The USA network's motto is "Characters Welcome." Well, that "Monk" message adds up to 21 characters, none of them welcome.
And what about TBS, where "Freakin' Sweet!" is an on-screen message plugging "Family Guy" episodes available on that network's Web site: "Very Funny" is TBS' motto. Nothing funny about those cover-ups for its comedies.
Viewers don't forget. Viewers still cite the giant fireball, complete with a whooshing inferno sound, erupting on the screen to promote FX's firefighter drama "Rescue Me." It makes them mad to even think about it.
That promo hasn't aired in two years, says FX spokesman John Solberg. Since then, the network has moved toward making "our air look cleaner, more theatrical," generally opting for a single line of promotional text that appears on-screen for about 10 seconds.
So maybe all is not lost to the pop-up-razzi.
But across the networks, the pop-up ad is alive and well and inescapable, undermining THIS show to shill for some OTHER show, which, when that show airs, will likely be defaced with promos for yet ANOTHER. And on it goes.
Even cartoon viewers like Marge Simpson get riled.
In a classic scene from "The Simpsons," Marge realizes the TV screen that frames her is cluttered with visual promos. She takes a hand vacuum and sucks up the "American Idol" logo. When a squad of football players plugging "Football on Fox" swarms across the bottom of the screen, she sprays them with insecticide.
"Can't anyone just watch the show they're watching?" Marge sighs.
The short answer to her question, of course, is no. You shelled out hard-earned money for a big, magnificent flat-screen — and the networks seem to be poaching more and more of it!
An industry term for these ads is "one-thirds." More telling terms include "snipes" and "violators." But they began innocently more than two decades ago, when CNN applied a small identifying logo (or "bug") to the bottom right corner of the screen.

Other networks fell in line by similarly branding their news telecasts.

Then Fox began accenting its prime-time entertainment with a logo flashed before and after each commercial break. Other networks followed suit.

Then, on Sept. 11, 2001, the day's torrent of news spilled onto a supplementary text crawl on the screens of CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel. It remains, a permanent fixture at all three networks.

After that, with viewers increasingly conditioned to absorb extra data on the screen, many networks asked themselves: Why not take the next step and blast the audience with promos — TiVo-proof and unavoidable — embellishing entertainment shows?

They did. And how!

The only question for the networks after that has been: Just how big, protracted, animated and noisy can we make those promos before viewers flee to places like Netflix and Hulu, and take that one-third back?

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On the Net:

http://www.stoptvpopups.com

Potential for criminal behavior evident at age 3

Tue, 11/17/2009 - 06:42 — admin

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) –
Children who don't show normal fear responses to loud, unpleasant sounds at the age of 3 may be more likely to commit crimes as adults, according to a new study.

Yu Gao and colleagues in the United States and the United Kingdom compared results from a study of almost 1,800 children born in 1969 and 1970 on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius to criminal records of group members 20 years later.

At age 3, the children were tested to gauge their level of "fear conditioning," or fear of consequences. The idea is that children who associate unpleasant sounds or other unpleasant experiences with fear will be less likely to commit antisocial acts because they will link such experiences with punishments for those acts.

Researchers tested the 3-year-olds' responses to unpleasant noises using a lie detector. When they looked at any criminal records among the participants 20 years later, 137 of them (131 male, 6 female) had at least one criminal conviction.

Compared to almost 300 participants with no criminal records, those 137 participants had a much lower response to the noises at the age of 3.

The findings could link previous studies suggesting that psychopaths and children with behavioral problems at the age of 11 have similar abnormalities in a part of the brain called the amygdala. That structure is largely responsible for directing fear of consequences.

Because this study controlled for social factors such as parents' education, number of parents in the home, socioeconomic status, and family size, biology is the likely reason for the "blunted emotions" registered in some of the 3 year olds, study co-author, Dr. Adrian Raine of the University of York in England, told Reuters Health in a telephone interview.

Still, the researchers warn against reading too much into their findings. The results do not offer a biological way to identify future criminals.

"Crime is clearly a complex construct involving multiple interactions between genetic, brain, family and social influences," they write.

But, they conclude, the findings provide some support for the idea that the potential for antisocial and criminal behavior may be hard-wired in young brains - which means that if the results hold, "efforts to prevent and treat this worldwide behavior problem will increasingly rely on early health interventions."

SOURCE: American Journal of Psychiatry, published online November 16, 2009.

Obama Urges China to Heed Commitment on Currency Appreciation

Tue, 11/17/2009 - 05:14 — admin

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama called on
Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao to make good on a commitment to
allow the yuan to appreciate to help prevent trade imbalances
that exacerbated the global economic crisis.

“I was pleased to note the Chinese commitment, made in
past statements, to move toward a more market-oriented exchange
rate over time,” Obama said during a joint appearance with Hu
after a meeting in Beijing today. “Doing so based on economic
fundamentals would make an essential contribution to the global
rebalancing effort.”

America’s trade deficit with China widened to a 10-month
high in September, raising concern that the combination of a
recovering U.S. economy and a fixed yuan exchange rate against
the dollar will worsen global imbalances. China’s dollar
purchases to prevent appreciation swelled its foreign-exchange
reserves to $2.3 trillion in the third quarter, more than twice
as much as any other country.

“There is a continued fierce debate in China” on
revaluation, said Michael Pettis, a Peking University finance
professor and former head of emerging markets at Bear Stearns
Cos. “It seems almost impossible that we’re not going to see
more focus on trade and trade tensions.”

Twelve-month non-deliverable yuan forwards weakened 0.2
percent to 6.6215 per dollar as of 3:31 p.m. in Hong Kong and
were little changed after Obama’s comments. The contracts signal
traders are predicting a 3.1 percent advance in a year. In the
spot market, the currency traded at 6.8266, compared with 6.8270
yesterday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.

Hu Silent on Yuan

Hu, in his remarks, made no mention of the yuan peg to a
weakening dollar, which has forced central banks across Asia to
sell their currencies to limit appreciation and maintain export
competitiveness with China. The Indonesian rupiah gained 11
percent against the yuan in the past six months, and the Korean
won rose 9.4 percent.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the
International Monetary Fund, said today in Beijing that a
stronger yuan would be in the interests of China and the world.

The yuan has been pegged at about 6.83 to one U.S. dollar
since July 2008. Maintaining the peg has also helped make China
the biggest foreign holder of U.S. government debt, with $797.1
billion in August, up 10 percent from Jan. 1, Treasury data show.

Fighting Protectionism

Hu said China and the U.S. “need to oppose and reject
protectionism in all its manifestations.” He told Asia-Pacific
leaders in Singapore last week that China’s hadn’t foreseen the
number of protectionist measures it would face this year
including U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made steel and tires.

Obama said the two leaders “agreed on maintaining open
markets and free flows of commerce.”

Controlling currency levels is a form of protectionism,
Gempachiro Aihara, the incoming chair of the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation’s Business Advisory Council, said last week.

China and the U.S. agreed to address trade imbalances,
including spurring more domestic demand in China, Obama said.
The deepest U.S. recession in decades triggered a collapse in
world trade as demand for Asian imports slumped. At the height
of the crisis in February, Japan’s exports to the U.S. plunged a
record 58 percent.

Obama’s speeches during his first trip to Asia as president
have focused on the importance of increasing U.S. exports to
achieve greater balance with a region that sells far more goods
to the U.S. than it buys from American companies.

PBOC Signal

China’s central bank last week said foreign-exchange policy
will take into account global capital flows and changes in major
currencies, and scrapped language in a previous report to keep
the yuan “basically stable.” The Chinese economy expanded by
8.9 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier.

Finance ministers gathered for the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation forum called for “market-oriented exchange rates
that reflect underlying economic fundamentals” in a statement
last week. China and the U.S. are both APEC members.

China’s partnership has been critical to battling a global
recession, Obama said today. The two leaders discussed the next
steps to sustain a recovery, he said.

For Related News and Information:
Top Stories: TOP
China’s currency: CNY GP
Top foreign exchange stories: TOP FX
Currency analysis: NI ANAFX BN
Currency comments: NI FXVOICE

IPOD Speakers

Tue, 11/17/2009 - 02:46 — admin

IPOD Speakers

A subwoofer is a woofer driver used only for the lowest part of the audio spectrum: typically below 100-120 Hz. Because the intended range of frequencies in these is limited, subwoofer system design is usually simpler in many respects than for conventional loudspeakers, often consisting of a single subwoofer driver enclosed in a suitable cabinet or enclosure.

To accurately reproduce very low bass notes without unwanted resonances (i.e., from cabinet panels), subwoofer systems must be solidly constructed and properly braced; good ones are typically heavy. Many subwoofer systems include power amplifiers and electronic filters, with additional controls relevant to low frequency reproduction. These variants are known as "active subwoofers". Passive subwoofers require external amplification.

Report: Goldman Sachs looks to buy tax credits

Tue, 11/03/2009 - 05:06 — admin

NEW YORK – Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is reportedly in talks to buy tax credits from Fannie Mae, a government-controlled mortgage financier.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday the credits, tied to incentives to boost investments in low-income housing, would allow Goldman to lower its tax bill.
A spokesman for Goldman Sachs declined to comment on the report. Its shares rose $1.46 to $171.63 in premarket trading, while Fannie Mae shares were stead ay $1.08.
Goldman has quickly recovered from the peak of the credit crisis last fall and is again reporting multibillion dollar quarterly profits. The New York-based investment bank earned $3.03 billion during the third quarter.
Goldman has been under the microscope for its resilience as stock and credit markets bounce back faster than the consumer banking sector and the broader economy.
It received $10 billion in government aid last fall and changed its regulatory status to access government funding. It quickly repaid the $10 billion this year as its profits bounced back.
Fannie Mae, which was taken over by the government last fall at the peak of the credit crisis, is still in a dire situation. It continues to need funding from the government and its operations are closely monitored by its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Because Fannie Mae continues to lose money, it has been unable to take advantage of the credits to reduce its tax burden.
Selling the credits would enable Fannie Mae to pocket some much-needed cash and reduce the amount it has to borrow from the Treasury Department, the Journal reported. It could also provide Fannie Mae with fresh resources to finance more mortgages, according to the report.
Fannie Mae and fellow mortgage giant Freddie Mac were taken over by the government last fall and the pair own or back most mortgages in the U.S. As the housing market collapsed and mortgage defaults skyrocketed, the companies faced billions of dollars in losses and were unable to remain afloat without major government support.

Suicide bomber kills 35 near Pakistan's capital

Tue, 11/03/2009 - 02:25 — admin

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan – A suicide bomb killed 35 people near Pakistan's military headquarters Monday while a second blast wounded several police, continuing a wave of terrorism that prompted the United Nations to suspend long-term development work near the Afghan border.
The rash of attacks by Islamist militants has killed at least 300 people across Pakistan over the past month — including 11 U.N. workers — and threatened to destabilize the nuclear-armed nation.
The violence has grown bloodier since the government launched an anti-Taliban offensive in mid-October, pushing into the impoverished and underdeveloped tribal region of South Waziristan. The U.N. decision to suspend non-emergency aid could weaken efforts to counter the appeal of extremism by improving ordinary people's daily lives.
The first suicide bomber Monday killed 35 people outside a bank near Pakistan's military headquarters in Rawalpindi, just a few miles (kilometers) from Islamabad.
Most of those waiting in line were from the military and were there to cash paychecks, said Mohammad Mushtaq, a wounded soldier.
"I was sitting on the pavement outside to wait for my turn," said Mushtaq, who suffered a head injury. "The bomb went off with a big bang. We all ran. I saw blood and body parts everywhere."
Four soldiers were killed in the attack and nine were wounded, said the army's chief spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas. In total, 35 people were killed, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said.
No group claimed responsibility for the bombing, though suspicion immediately fell on the Pakistani Taliban.
Hours later, another suicide bombing ripped through a police checkpoint on the outskirts of the eastern city of Lahore. At least seven policemen were wounded and two were in critical condition after a car with two men inside blew up as police went to search it.
"By putting their lives in danger, our men have saved the city from enormous sabotage," Lahore Police Chief Pervaiz Rathor told reporters at the scene.
Police checkpoints, where cars are forced to drive slowly past officers looking inside, have become common sights in Pakistan.
Pakistan's president and other top officials condemned the blasts but vowed to press on with the South Waziristan offensive. Taliban militants have de facto control in many of the semiautonomous tribal areas.
The U.S. has reportedly provided technical support to the South Waziristan offensive, seeing the rugged mountain area as a haven for Islamist extremists involved in attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan.
The government has sealed off the battle zone to outsiders, making confirmation of military reports impossible to confirm, but officials insist the offensive is going well.
On Monday, Abbas said the army had captured the Taliban town of Kaniguram and killed 12 militants in the past 24 hours.
Washington, which has long provided massive military assistance to Pakistan, has stepped up its efforts to use development aid in a broader battle against the spreading militancy. The U.S. government recently approved $7.5 billion in aid over five years to improve Pakistan's economy, education and other nonmilitary sectors.
But the U.N. decision to suspend long-term development work in Pakistan's tribal areas and its North West Frontier Province could complicate international efforts to win hearts and minds.
The world body will reduce the level of international staff in Pakistan and confine its work to emergency, humanitarian relief, and security operations, and "any other essential operations as advised by the secretary-general," the organization said in a statement.

The U.N. made its decision after losing 11 personnel in attacks in Pakistan this year, including last month's bombing of the World Food Program's office in Islamabad that killed five people, said U.N. spokeswoman Amena Kamaal. "All of the decisions are being made in light of that."

The U.N. has been deeply involved in helping Pakistan deal with refugee crises resulting from army offensives against militants — work that will apparently continue — but Kamaal said the organization was still determining which programs would be suspended and how many staffers would be withdrawn. Staff that remain in the country will be assigned additional security.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said Pakistan understood the U.N.'s decision, but said he hoped the organization would resume its work after the military completes the South Waziristan offensive.

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Associated Press writers Zarar Khan and Nahal Toosi in Islamabad and Babar Dogar in Lahore contributed to this report.

Christening Gift

Mon, 11/02/2009 - 17:50 — admin

In Orthodox theology the baptismal robe symbolizes the "Garments of Light" (i.e., the fullness of Divine grace) with which Adam and Eve were clothed in the Garden of Eden before the Fall of Man. Baptism is believed to cleanse the believer of all the sinful defilements both of original sin and personal sins and the white garment is symbolic of this. During the ektenia (litany) before baptism, the deacon prays "That he (she) may preserve this (her) baptismal garment and the earnest of the Spirit pure and undefiled unto the dead Day of Christ our God...", referring not so much to the material garment as to the spiritual cleansing it represents.

A wide variety of practices are found in the spectrum of Protestantism. Some main-stream Protestant churches practice infant baptism, and thus make use of the christening gown; while others encourage or practice exclusive adult baptism. In some of the latter churches, special white clothing may be worn by both the person being baptized and the person performing the baptism.

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