Tax filing delays are?another 'fiscal cliff' worry

With some investments already feeling the pain of the looming cliff, millions of Americans are at risk of being affected. The first to consider is the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts, according to CNBC's Jackie Deangelis.

By Allison Linn, TODAY

If you?re the type of person who likes to file your income tax return as soon as possible, then you?ve got another reason to be frustrated by the fiscal cliff stalemate in Washington, D.C.

Most of the tax changes being discussed as part of the fiscal cliff negotiations would go into effect in 2013, meaning that taxpayers would first have to account for them when they went to file those tax returns in early 2014.

But a handful of the provisions under discussion could affect Americans? 2012 taxes. The down-to-the-wire negotiations in the nation's capital could leave the IRS scrambling to adopt the changes in its systems, delaying the agency?s ability to accept some people?s returns.

?Congress oftentimes waits until the last minute to pass legislation, and then that in a turn affects the IRS,? said Bob Meighan, vice president with tax software provider TurboTax.

---

That's definitely been the case this time around. Just a few days before the end of the year, Congress has not been able to come to an agreement over a series of tax increases that are scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1. President Barack Obama said Friday that he was "modestly optimistic" a deal could still be reached to avert going over the so-called fiscal cliff.?

Acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller has already warned that there could be serious filing delays if Congress doesn?t provide a patch for the Alternative Minimum Tax. An IRS spokesman said Friday that the agency did not have any further information beyond the warnings Miller gave to lawmakers in a letter earlier this month.

The AMT is a provision in the tax code that was designed to ensure that wealthy taxpayers have to?pay at least a minimum amount of taxes. It was never indexed for inflation, however, so Congress has had to provide temporary fixes over the years to ensure that lower-income taxpayers aren?t affected.

That hasn?t happened yet this year because of the fiscal cliff stalemate. In the letter to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp earlier this month, Miller, the acting IRS commissioner, warned that if Congress doesn?t provide a patch this year, then the IRS would have to make significant programming changes to account for that.

?In that event, given the magnitude and complexity of the changes needed, I want to reiterate that most taxpayers may not be able to file their 2012 tax returns until late in March of 2013, or even later,? Miller wrote in the Dec. 19 letter.

Miller also warned that as many as 30 million additional taxpayers could be subject to the AMT if a patch isn?t put in place.

For now, Miller said the IRS is acting as if Congress will provide an AMT patch.

Meighan, of TurboTax, said his company also has prepared its software as if a patch will be in place. But he said the company also is ready to?switch gears quickly if it must.

Meighan said a few other provisions under discussion as part of the fiscal cliff negotiation could affect a minority of taxpayers in 2012. Those include a deduction teachers get for school supplies they purchase for their classrooms and a tuition and fees deduction that applies to some students.

"It's really gotten to a point now where you have the ideological divisions in the country overlapped now with the partisan divisions," said CNBC's Chief Washington Correspondent John Harwood.

The IRS has had to ask people to delay filing their returns before. In 2010, Congress passed last-minute tax law changes on Dec. 17. As a result, the IRS said it wouldn?t be able to accept returns with itemized deductions until February of 2011 because it needed time to adjust its systems.

If people are forced to wait to file their tax returns, that would also mean a delay in getting tax refunds. Roberton Williams, a senior fellow with the Tax Policy Center, said that in turn could have some effect on the economy because many people count on that money to pay off debt or buy big-ticket items.

If the AMT isn?t patched at all, he noted, that would be an even bigger economic hit because some taxpayers wouldn?t get their expected refund at all.

?That will have a major effect on the economy,? Williams said. ?It will be pulling a lot of money out of the economy that people are expecting.?

Despite the Congressional deadlock, experts say they are still assuming a deal will be made to put the patch in place.

?For most people, come 2013 they?ll be able to file their taxes, they?ll get their refund and life goes on,? Meighan said.

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When do you usually file your taxes?

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Source: http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2012/12/29/16216387-heres-another-fiscal-cliff-worry-tax-filing-delays?lite

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Mayor Arakawa signs isle plan, 'framework' for future of Maui

WAILUKU - Mayor Alan Arakawa signed the Maui Island Plan on Friday, a week after the Maui County Council passed the guide for island planning by a 5-4 vote.

"We now have the framework which will allow us to move forward, striving as always to balance the many current and future needs of Maui and our people," Arakawa said, following the signing. "To all of those involved in the process, whether they saw eye to eye on every detail of the plan or not, your efforts are much appreciated."

Now, Community Plan Advisory Committees for the county's community plan regions will draft plans for their areas and, depending on the area, those will be reviewed by the Maui, Molokai or Lanai planning commissions.

After years of review, the Maui Island Plan was criticized in its final phases as being too pro-development by allowing too much land to be included in urban-growth boundaries. Critics also were concerned about provisions allowing the Olowalu Town development, which calls for building 1,500 homes on 600 acres both mauka and makai of Honoapiilani Highway. Project supporters were in favor of its affordable housing while opponents were concerned about the development's impact on the reef and other marine life offshore of Olowalu.

Council members voting in favor of the Maui Island Plan were Gladys Baisa, Bob Carroll, Don Couch, Joe Pontanilla and Mike White. Council Members Elle Cochran, Riki Hokama, Mike Victorino and Danny Mateo voted no.

Source: http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/568392.html

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Microsoft's research head Mundie stepping down ahead of 2014 retirement

London, Dec 29 (ANI): As fears grow that the United States is preparing to plunge over the 'fiscal cliff', billionaire investor Warren Buffett has predicted that women will save the American economy, billionaire investor Warren Buffett has predicted.

Source: http://www.aninews.in/newsdetail3/story92021/Microsoft's-research-head-Mundie-stepping-down-ahead-of-2014-retirement.html

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Video released of NYC suspect in fatal subway push

NEW YORK (AP) ? Police searched for a woman who killed a man by pushing him in front of a subway train and released surveillance video Friday of her running away from the station.

Commuters, meanwhile, absorbed the news of the second fatal subway shove in the city this month.

"It's just a really sad commentary on the world and on human beings, period," said Howard Roth, who takes the subway daily. He said the deadly push was food for thought about subway safety, "but I guess the best thing is what they tell you ? don't stand near the edge, and keep your eyes open."

The suspect in Thursday night's killing had been following the man closely on a Queens platform and mumbling to herself, witnesses told police. She got up from a nearby bench and shoved the man, who was standing with his back to her, as the train pulled into the platform. He was pinned under the train as it pulled to a stop, police said.

It did not appear the man noticed her before he was shoved onto the tracks, police said, adding that the condition of the man's body was making it difficult to identify him. The woman was described as Hispanic, in her 20s, heavyset and about 5-foot-5, wearing a blue, white and gray ski jacket and Nike sneakers with gray on top and red on the bottom.

It was unclear whether the man and the woman knew each other. And it's also unclear whether anyone tried to help the man up before he was struck ? or whether there was enough time for anyone to do anything.

The surveillance video was taken at a nearby intersection. It shows a woman dashing from a crosswalk and down a sidewalk.

Asked about the episode at the station on Queens Boulevard in the Sunnyside neighborhood, Mayor Michael Bloomberg pointed Friday to legal and policy changes that led to the release of many mentally ill people from psychiatric institutions from the 1960s through 1990s.

"The courts or the law have changed and said, no, you can't do that unless they're a danger to society; our laws protect you. That's fair enough," Bloomberg said on "The John Gambling Show with Mayor Mike" on WOR-AM.

On Dec. 3, 58-year-old Ki-Suck Han was pushed in front of a train in Times Square. Apparently no other passenger tried to help Han.

A photograph of him on the tracks a split second before he was killed was published on the front of the New York Post the next day, causing an uproar and debate over whether the photographer, who had been waiting for a train, should have tried to help him and whether the newspaper should have run the image.

A homeless man, 30-year-old Naeem Davis, was charged with murder in Han's death and was ordered held without bail. He has pleaded not guilty and has said that Han was the aggressor and had attacked him first. The two men hadn't met before.

Being pushed onto the train tracks is a silent fear for many commuters who ride the city's subway a total of more than 5.2 million times on an average weekday, but deaths are rare.

Among the more high-profile cases was the January 1999 death of aspiring screenwriter Kendra Webdale, who was shoved by a former mental patient. The man, Andrew Goldstein, was convicted of murder after unsuccessfully arguing he was too mentally ill to understand what he was doing.

The case prompted the state Legislature to pass Kendra's Law, which lets mental health authorities supervise patients who live outside institutions to make sure they are taking their medications and aren't threats to safety.

Earlier this year, restaurant cook Jose Rojas was convicted of assault for shoving a woman into the side of a moving train in 2010. His lawyers argued he simply stumbled into her in a drunken accident. The victim was seriously hurt but survived.

Like many subway riders, Micah Siegel follows her own set of safety precautions during her daily commute: stand against a wall or pillar to keep someone from coming up behind you, watch out when navigating a crowded or narrow platform to avoid being knocked ? even accidentally ? onto the tracks.

"I do try to be aware of what's around me and who's around me, especially as a young woman," Siegel, a 21-year-old college student, said as she waited at Pennsylvania Station on Friday.

So does Roth, who's 60.

"It sounds a little wimpy if you're like, 'Who's going to push me?' But it's better to be safe than sorry," he said.

___

Online:

Video: http://apne.ws/RWeSyO

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-12-28-US-Subway-Push-Death/id-1e82fb9f6db743b09fa7653bab9e01d0

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Three Afghans dead in new blast at U.S. base in Afghan east

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed three people in an attack on a U.S. base in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the same base where a suicide bomb attack killed seven CIA employees three years ago.

The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in the eastern town of Khost, saying they had sent a suicide bomber driving a van packed with explosives to the base.

"The target was those who serve Americans at that base," said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

Afghanistan's NATO-led force said the bomber did not get into the base nor breach its perimeter. Police said the three dead were Afghans who were outside the base, which is beside a military airport.

The al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, widely regarded as the most dangerous U.S. foe in Afghanistan, is active in Khost province, which is on the Pakistani border.

After more than a decade of war, Taliban insurgents are still able to strike strategic military targets, and launch high-profile attacks in the capital, Kabul, and elsewhere.

Three years ago, an al Qaeda-linked Jordanian double-agent killed seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence officer in a suicide bombing at the same base in Khost, known as Forward Operating Base Chapman.

It was the second deadliest attack in CIA history.

Afghan police official General Abdul Qasim Baqizoy, the Khost police chief, said no CIA agents were hurt on Wednesday.

Afghan authorities are scrambling to improve security across the country before the U.S. combat mission ends in 2014.

Besides pressure from the Taliban, U.S.-led NATO forces also face a rising number of so-called insider attacks, in which Afghan forces turn their weapons on Western troops they are supposed to be working with.

On Monday, an Afghan policewoman killed a U.S. police adviser at the Kabul police headquarters, raising troubling questions about the direction of the war.

It appeared to be the first time that a woman member of Afghanistan's security forces carried out such an attack.

On Tuesday, Afghan officials said the woman has an Iranian passport and moved to Afghanistan 10 years ago. There was no suggestion that Iran was involved in the attack on the American.

Officials suspect she may have been recruited by al Qaeda or the Taliban, and had intended to also kill Afghan police officials.

(Reporting by Elyas Wahdat; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/three-afghans-dead-blast-u-afghan-east-025409441.html

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Hang Up and Listen: The Pesca and the Pelicans Edition

Listen to "Hang Up and Listen" with Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

In this week?s episode of?Slate?s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen, Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca take listeners? questions in a special, year-end, call-in show. Topics covered include whether the sports bubble is about to burst; the appeal of Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth; the long-term impacts of global warming on sports; who would win an event in which races of every Olympic distance were combined; and whether the pros of fandom outweigh the cons.

Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned on the show:

Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned on the show:

Podcast production and edit by Mike Vuolo. Our intern is Eric Goldwein.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=5bb5e8cecb16939dece9d5e46f07ece4

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Longterm Engagement Can Lead to Longterm Problems | Chocolate ...

So with the TV series of ?Marrying the Game? ending, I started thinking about long-term engagements and I wondered why people stay engaged for long periods of time. No one should rush to propose but once you?re engaged, why lag?

The average engagement period in this country is between 1-1 1/2 years. What in the world takes so long to tie the knot? Sure, your dream wedding venue might be booked, you need to save money or other things come up but really ? a year and a half engagement? It seems to me that the longer you take to plan the wedding, the more expensive it becomes. I know from personal experience the more time you give me to plan an event, the more things I?ll find to spend money on. Anyone who is engaged for longer than a year must not want to get married. If you are spending more time fussing over having the perfect venue or the cost of the wedding, than you are focusing on the wrong things.

But getting back to my point?on the television show ?Marrying the Game?, the couple Tiffney and Jayceon were engaged to be married after dating on & off for 8 years. On the show, there were some issues that Tiffney felt needed to be addressed before walking down the aisle but at the end of the series the future of their relationship was unclear. It?s one thing to date for years & years on end but after breaking off an engagement there is no point in maintaining that relationship even with the purpose of ?working on things?. Why call off an engagement unless you?re ready to call off the relationship?? Even if you think that your situation will change with time, people don?t change.

I think that long term engagements are ridiculous: Are you really hoping that your relationship will improve because you?ve changed the date of your wedding?

This entry was posted in African American Men, African American Women, Dating, Marriage, Uncategorized and tagged African American men, African American Women, Dating, Engagement, Love, Marriage, Relationships on December 25, 2012 by Chocolate Vent.

Source: http://chocolatevent.wordpress.com/2012/12/25/longterm-engagement-can-lead-to-longterm-problems/

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Insight: Security fears dogged Canada debate on China energy bid

OTTAWA (Reuters) - In September, two months after China's state-owned CNOOC Ltd made an unexpected $15.1 billion bid for Canadian energy company Nexen Inc, Canada's spy agency told ministers that takeovers by Chinese companies may threaten national security.

The rare warning from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which was disclosed to Reuters by intelligence sources, did not stop the takeover. That was approved by Canadian authorities earlier this month.

But the intervention and an influential U.S. lawmaker's warning in October that Canadian companies should be careful about doing business with Chinese telecom equipment companies Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp made the approval process for the deal more difficult than initially expected.

"CSIS did not like the Nexen bid and thought it was a bad idea for Chinese firms to be investing in the oil sands. It all played into their greater fears about firms like Huawei," said one person familiar with the agency's concerns. "They do not want to wake up one day and realize a crucial sector of the economy is under the control of foreign interests."

And after listening to the spy service, which usually keeps a low profile, Canada drew up surprisingly tough foreign investment rules that were unveiled when approving the Nexen deal, China's biggest-ever successful foreign takeover. In a clampdown on companies it deems influenced by foreign governments, Canada will block similar purchases in the future.

CSIS has been silent about what it said to Ottawa on the Nexen transaction, and it declined to comment for this story. It didn't specifically recommend the CNOOC deal be blocked, but rather warned more generally about such deals with Chinese entities, the person said.

In reality, the government was unlikely to want to block the CNOOC bid, given a high-profile push by Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier in the year to boost ties with China, and given that a lot of Nexen's assets are outside Canada, and it has underperformed other energy companies.

SPECIFIC WORRIES

By pushing back aggressively, CSIS ensured that it got foreign investment policy tightened significantly to deter similar such takeovers by companies under the sway of foreign governments.

"I think people at CSIS and elsewhere are going 'Good. That was a very good response by the government'," said Ray Boisvert, a former CSIS assistant director of intelligence, who retired this year after almost three decades at the agency.

"It did reflect some of those deep strategic concerns that practitioners have had about this kind of investment."

Specific worries include theft of Canadian intellectual property, espionage, computer hacking and foreign companies gaining too much influence over crucial sectors of the economy, said the person familiar with the agency's views.

The government could, in theory, nationalize assets if it thought foreign control was problematic. But the pro-business Conservatives would likely find it politically unpalatable to take such a step.

"To be blunt, Canadians have not spent years reducing the ownership of sectors of the economy by our own governments, only to see them bought and controlled by foreign governments instead," Harper said as he announced the new investment rules.

In October, the U.S. House of Representatives' Intelligence Committee urged U.S. firms to stop doing business with Huawei and another Chinese telecom equipment company ZTE on the grounds that Beijing could use products made by the two companies to spy.

The House Intelligence Committee's chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, urged Canada to take a similar stance, and two days later, the Canadian government indicated it would not let Huawei help build a secure government communications network because of possible security risks.

"The Huawei business caused a lot of political complications for the CNOOC bid," another person familiar with the CNOOC deal said of the U.S. committee's report.

Both Huawei and ZTE have repeatedly denied the allegations in the report, and China's foreign ministry dismissed as "baseless" the idea that security concerns could impede commercial ties.

"We hope that the relevant party can objectively and justly treat Chinese companies' overseas investment and cooperation plans, and stop actions which harm Chinese companies' image and do more to benefit the promotion of bilateral trade and business cooperation," said ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.

CLANDESTINE SUPPORT

In its annual report, released in September, CSIS noted risks that included espionage and illegal technology transfers, and said some foreign state-owned enterprises had "pursued opaque agendas or received clandestine intelligence support for their pursuits" in Canada.

The agency did not give details, but added: "When foreign companies with ties to foreign intelligence agencies or hostile governments seek to acquire control over strategic sectors of the Canadian economy, it can represent a threat to Canadian security interests."

CSIS, hit by controversy in 2010 after its head suggested China had too much influence over some Canadian provincial politicians, did not mention any country or firm in its report.

It is unclear how much, if any, influence the United States had on the Canadian authorities' foreign investment policy.

Fen Hampson, head of the global security program at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ontario, said he had learned that a U.S. official visited Ottawa in the last few months to discuss mutual concerns about foreign state-owned enterprises.

U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson told Reuters he was not aware of such a meeting, but he noted that officials from the two countries met constantly. "I would be surprised if almost any issue you could think of has not come up in one or more of those conversations," he said. "The United States has not sought to influence Canada's decision with respect to that (CNOOC's bid)... We respect that decision."

The Canadian government did not respond to a request for a comment.

Chinese companies have bought up smaller Canadian energy firms before, but the July 23 bid for Nexen was their first attempt to buy one of the larger players.

Nexen has assets in Canada, the North Sea, Nigeria and the Gulf of Mexico. Technology that Nexen and its partners use for deep sea drilling could interest CNOOC. [ID:nL4N09N3R5]

Asked about the CSIS concerns, a spokeswoman for Industry Minister Christian Paradis replied: "The government has the authority to take any measures it considers necessary to protect national security."

Yet two people close to the deal noted that the Canadian government did not exercise its option to do a separate review of the potential security risks of the CNOOC-Nexen bid, again signaling its concerns were tied to overall Chinese investment rather than to this particular deal.

Under the new rules, which Paradis is responsible for enforcing, foreign state-owned enterprises can no longer buy controlling stakes in assets in the oil sands, the biggest reserve of crude oil outside Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

Such enterprises can buy minority stakes in the oil sands, or majority stakes in companies outside the oil sands. Companies deemed to have strong government links will be treated with particular caution wherever they propose to invest.

"When it comes to our security and intelligence services, they would rather pull up the drawbridge than let it down," said Hampson, co-author of a report on trade ties between Canada and emerging nations that he discussed with Harper in June.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Janet Guttsman, Martin Howell and Jan Paschal)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/insight-security-fears-dogged-canada-debate-china-energy-212128215--finance.html

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Oil prices fall as US 'fiscal cliff' approaches

BANGKOK (AP) ? Oil prices fell Monday, just eight days before the U.S. arrives at the "fiscal cliff" deadline without a budget agreement in place.

If no deal is reached by Jan. 1, steep tax increases and government spending cuts will automatically take effect that will jar the U.S. economy and potentially throw it into recession, economists have warned.

Benchmark oil for February delivery fell 14 cents to $88.52 per barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.47 Friday to finish at $88.66 per barrel in New York, the contract's lowest point in three weeks. It dropped to $87.96 per barrel at one point Friday.

Oil prices tend to drop when a major world economy is threatened by a downturn, which more often than not leads to reduced demand for energy.

It was little more than a week ago when news emerged that President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner had significantly narrowed their differences and appeared within striking distance of an agreement. Since then, however, negotiations have stalled with Obama and Congress on a short holiday break.

Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, fell 6 cents to $108.91 per barrel in London.

In other energy futures trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange:

? Natural gas lost 2 cents to $3.43 per 1,000 cubic feet.

? Heating oil rose marginally to $3.0124 a gallon.

? Wholesale gasoline fell 2 cents to finish at $2.7355 a gallon.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-23-Oil%20Prices/id-49944567a3ef440694c19bae34044af5

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Manning's 3 TDs lead Broncos to 34-12 win

Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning (18) gets a high five from Denver Broncos center Dan Koppen (67) after Manning threw a touchdown pass against the Cleveland Browns in the first quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, in Denver. (AP Photo/Joe Mahoney)

Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning (18) gets a high five from Denver Broncos center Dan Koppen (67) after Manning threw a touchdown pass against the Cleveland Browns in the first quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, in Denver. (AP Photo/Joe Mahoney)

Denver Broncos outside linebacker Wesley Woodyard (52) reacts after a defensive play against the Cleveland Browns in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Cleveland Browns quarterback Brandon Weeden (3) is sacked by Denver Broncos defensive end Elvis Dumervil (92) in the third quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, in Denver. (AP Photo/Joe Mahoney)

Denver Broncos wide receiver Eric Decker (87) reacts after scoring a touchdown against the Cleveland Browns in the third quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Denver Broncos wide receiver Eric Decker (87) spikes the ball after catching a touchdown pass against the Cleveland Browns in the second quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, in Denver. (AP Photo/Joe Mahoney)

DENVER (AP) ? By his own estimation, Peyton Manning is not the quarterback he used to be.

Try telling that to the Cleveland Browns.

Manning threw for a season-high 339 yards and three touchdowns, two of which he zinged into impossibly tight windows to well-covered receivers, that pushed the Denver Broncos into a first-place tie in the AFC standings with a 34-12 win over the Browns.

The 36-year-old quarterback recorded his 72nd career three-touchdown game Sunday as Denver (12-3) won its 10th straight. Manning has 34 touchdowns and 4,355 passing yards this season ? second-most touchdowns he's thrown in his 14 seasons and 203 away from second-most yards, as well.

Yet, when asked if he's playing as well as he did in his prime, Manning didn't hesitate: "I don't. I do not. I don't," he said.

"A 36-year-old quarterback coming off a year and a half off, playing on a new team, I'm trying to be as good as I possibly can in this scenario," he said in an unusually candid news conference. "It's a different kind of body I'm playing in and just a different kind of quarterback play for me."

Yes, Manning says, it takes more time with the trainer, more time in the weight room and there's more mystery because of the injury. But when he hits the field, he looks like the quarterback who has a record four Most Valuable Player awards and is in the running for a fifth.

His first two touchdown passes, to Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker, were Exhibits A and B of his prowess on a breezy, warm day the quarterback used to test out an orange glove. He may use it when the weather gets colder come playoff time.

The throw to Thomas was a 22-yarder lobbed to the back of the end zone. The 10-yard touchdown to Decker was more of a laser. Like the Thomas touchdown, it was thrown in leaping range of the receiver where only he could catch it.

"People call that the Dwight Clark throw," Manning said of the iconic Joe Montana-to-Dwight Clark touchdown that won the 1981 NFC title game for San Francisco.

Browns cornerback Sheldon Brown had blanket-tight coverage on both balls. Sometimes the other guy is simply better.

"I've seen him do a lot of special things," said receiver Brandon Stokley, who also played with Manning in Indianapolis. "It would be hard, at this point, for anything he does to surprise me."

Manning's mastery opens things up for the Denver defense to get aggressive, and it did ? finishing with six sacks, all in the second half.

Von Miller was in on two, the second of which knocked quarterback Brandon Weeden out of the game with an injury to his right shoulder. Late in the fourth quarter, Browns running back Trent Richardson was carted off the field, with trainers looking at his left ankle. Coach Pat Shurmur offered no additional information on the injuries.

Cleveland (5-10) lost its second straight after winning three in a row.

"Our record (stinks) and everybody is disappointed," defensive back Joe Haden said. "Every week it seems like you lose a game and you try to explain why it happened, that you just lost. We need to do better. We just need to win. We can't keep coming here talking all the same."

As good as the Broncos were, there were frustrations. Denver finished with a season-high 11 penalties; Manning threw an interception that ended a long second-quarter drive inside the Cleveland 10; Broncos kick returners bobbled the ball twice, but recovered both; Browns lineman Billy Winn plowed guard Zane Beadles into Manning, altering the trajectory of the pass 30 feet into the air for an incompletion. Manning pounded his fist into the turf after that one.

Imperfections like that have helped the Broncos stay remarkably focused on next week ? in this case, a regular-season finale against Kansas City (2-13) ? instead of a playoff road that seemingly looks easier after every win. This week, it was Houston falling at home, 23-6 to Minnesota, dropping the Texans into a tie for the first spot in the AFC. Houston holds the tiebreaker against Denver, but has a much tougher game ? at Indianapolis (10-5).

"We see it," Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey said of the standings. "But it doesn't distract us."

Miller's 1? sacks gave him 17? for the season, topping Elvis Dumervil's franchise record by ?.

"Individual accomplishments are great, but I think it just says the type of defense that we play here," Miller said.

Denver put this game away during an eight-minute stretch in the third quarter after Cleveland cut its deficit to 14-6.

Manning led a 91-yard touchdown drive, highlighted when he threw a dart that slammed off Decker's hands and dropped into Stokley's. Just another Broncos first down ? and another sign this was not Cleveland's day. Two plays later, Manning hit Decker for an 8-yard touchdown, and three plays after that, Miller knocked Weeden out of the game.

Denver reached 30 points for the 10th time this season, yet another benchmark of success for Manning, a quarterback who insists age and injury have turned him into someone much different than what he once was.

"The ramifications of the (injury) is part of it, and part of it is probably being 36, and part of it is probably playing with a new team," he said. "You can probably add them all together. I'm just trying to kind of be the best I can be in this role."

Notes: With his 53 yards, Richardson has 950, surpassing Jim Brown for the franchise rookie record. ... Denver's 10-game win streak matches the second longest in franchise history, in 1984, when John Elway was quarterback. ... Manning passed Elway and Jake Plummer for second most yards passing in a season for the Broncos. Manning needs 172 to break Jay Cutler's record.

___

Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-12-23-Browns-Broncos/id-52c2aa3ba7fd454d8696716a1e122ad4

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Manning's 3 TDs lead Broncos to 34-12 win

Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning (18) gets a high five from Denver Broncos center Dan Koppen (67) after Manning threw a touchdown pass against the Cleveland Browns in the first quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, in Denver. (AP Photo/Joe Mahoney)

Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning (18) gets a high five from Denver Broncos center Dan Koppen (67) after Manning threw a touchdown pass against the Cleveland Browns in the first quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, in Denver. (AP Photo/Joe Mahoney)

Denver Broncos outside linebacker Wesley Woodyard (52) reacts after a defensive play against the Cleveland Browns in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Cleveland Browns quarterback Brandon Weeden (3) is sacked by Denver Broncos defensive end Elvis Dumervil (92) in the third quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, in Denver. (AP Photo/Joe Mahoney)

Denver Broncos wide receiver Eric Decker (87) reacts after scoring a touchdown against the Cleveland Browns in the third quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Denver Broncos wide receiver Eric Decker (87) spikes the ball after catching a touchdown pass against the Cleveland Browns in the second quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, in Denver. (AP Photo/Joe Mahoney)

DENVER (AP) ? By his own estimation, Peyton Manning is not the quarterback he used to be.

Try telling that to the Cleveland Browns.

Manning threw for a season-high 339 yards and three touchdowns, two of which he zinged into impossibly tight windows to well-covered receivers, that pushed the Denver Broncos into a first-place tie in the AFC standings with a 34-12 win over the Browns.

The 36-year-old quarterback recorded his 72nd career three-touchdown game Sunday as Denver (12-3) won its 10th straight. Manning has 34 touchdowns and 4,355 passing yards this season ? second-most touchdowns he's thrown in his 14 seasons and 203 away from second-most yards, as well.

Yet, when asked if he's playing as well as he did in his prime, Manning didn't hesitate: "I don't. I do not. I don't," he said.

"A 36-year-old quarterback coming off a year and a half off, playing on a new team, I'm trying to be as good as I possibly can in this scenario," he said in an unusually candid news conference. "It's a different kind of body I'm playing in and just a different kind of quarterback play for me."

Yes, Manning says, it takes more time with the trainer, more time in the weight room and there's more mystery because of the injury. But when he hits the field, he looks like the quarterback who has a record four Most Valuable Player awards and is in the running for a fifth.

His first two touchdown passes, to Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker, were Exhibits A and B of his prowess on a breezy, warm day the quarterback used to test out an orange glove. He may use it when the weather gets colder come playoff time.

The throw to Thomas was a 22-yarder lobbed to the back of the end zone. The 10-yard touchdown to Decker was more of a laser. Like the Thomas touchdown, it was thrown in leaping range of the receiver where only he could catch it.

"People call that the Dwight Clark throw," Manning said of the iconic Joe Montana-to-Dwight Clark touchdown that won the 1981 NFC title game for San Francisco.

Browns cornerback Sheldon Brown had blanket-tight coverage on both balls. Sometimes the other guy is simply better.

"I've seen him do a lot of special things," said receiver Brandon Stokley, who also played with Manning in Indianapolis. "It would be hard, at this point, for anything he does to surprise me."

Manning's mastery opens things up for the Denver defense to get aggressive, and it did ? finishing with six sacks, all in the second half.

Von Miller was in on two, the second of which knocked quarterback Brandon Weeden out of the game with an injury to his right shoulder. Late in the fourth quarter, Browns running back Trent Richardson was carted off the field, with trainers looking at his left ankle. Coach Pat Shurmur offered no additional information on the injuries.

Cleveland (5-10) lost its second straight after winning three in a row.

"Our record (stinks) and everybody is disappointed," defensive back Joe Haden said. "Every week it seems like you lose a game and you try to explain why it happened, that you just lost. We need to do better. We just need to win. We can't keep coming here talking all the same."

As good as the Broncos were, there were frustrations. Denver finished with a season-high 11 penalties; Manning threw an interception that ended a long second-quarter drive inside the Cleveland 10; Broncos kick returners bobbled the ball twice, but recovered both; Browns lineman Billy Winn plowed guard Zane Beadles into Manning, altering the trajectory of the pass 30 feet into the air for an incompletion. Manning pounded his fist into the turf after that one.

Imperfections like that have helped the Broncos stay remarkably focused on next week ? in this case, a regular-season finale against Kansas City (2-13) ? instead of a playoff road that seemingly looks easier after every win. This week, it was Houston falling at home, 23-6 to Minnesota, dropping the Texans into a tie for the first spot in the AFC. Houston holds the tiebreaker against Denver, but has a much tougher game ? at Indianapolis (10-5).

"We see it," Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey said of the standings. "But it doesn't distract us."

Miller's 1? sacks gave him 17? for the season, topping Elvis Dumervil's franchise record by ?.

"Individual accomplishments are great, but I think it just says the type of defense that we play here," Miller said.

Denver put this game away during an eight-minute stretch in the third quarter after Cleveland cut its deficit to 14-6.

Manning led a 91-yard touchdown drive, highlighted when he threw a dart that slammed off Decker's hands and dropped into Stokley's. Just another Broncos first down ? and another sign this was not Cleveland's day. Two plays later, Manning hit Decker for an 8-yard touchdown, and three plays after that, Miller knocked Weeden out of the game.

Denver reached 30 points for the 10th time this season, yet another benchmark of success for Manning, a quarterback who insists age and injury have turned him into someone much different than what he once was.

"The ramifications of the (injury) is part of it, and part of it is probably being 36, and part of it is probably playing with a new team," he said. "You can probably add them all together. I'm just trying to kind of be the best I can be in this role."

Notes: With his 53 yards, Richardson has 950, surpassing Jim Brown for the franchise rookie record. ... Denver's 10-game win streak matches the second longest in franchise history, in 1984, when John Elway was quarterback. ... Manning passed Elway and Jake Plummer for second most yards passing in a season for the Broncos. Manning needs 172 to break Jay Cutler's record.

___

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Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-12-23-Browns-Broncos/id-52c2aa3ba7fd454d8696716a1e122ad4

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Germany plans to clone the perfect Christmas tree, break Charlie Brown's heart

We've seen Christmas trees built out of spare car parts, discarded SCSI drives, OLED panels, and quadrocopter stacked boxes, but Germany? Their taking the old tannenbaum back to its roots -- and tweaking its genetic code. With the aide of a government grant, scientists in Germany are trying to develop a method of tree cloning suited to Nordmann Fir. The native pine is popular for yuletide trimmings, but can be difficult to grow -- as much as 40 percent of trees grown for the season wind up the wrong shade of green or have their growth stunted by frost. Plant biologists hope to have a healthy stock of cloned trees ready by 2016, assuming nothing goes terribly wrong. Perfectly cultivated clones or not, we still prefer 'ol Chuck Brown's charming twig.

Comments

Source: PhysOrg

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/23/germany-plans-to-clone-the-perfect-christmas-tree/

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Smith & Wesson Broke Clinton-Era Gun Safety Pledge To Boost Profits

In the early 2000s, Smith & Wesson desperately needed its tough guy mojo back.

The storied gunmaker, which armed Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry character with his signature .44 Magnum, was under boycott from pro-gun groups for breaking ranks with other firearms makers and signing a gun safety agreement with the Clinton administration in exchange for immunity from pending litigation.

In the agreement, Smith & Wesson pledged that any new firearms would not take a magazine holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition, and that dealers would be required to more aggressively apply background checks to buyers. The Clinton administration called the deal the beginning of an "unprecedented partnership" between government and the gun industry.

But pro-gun advocates saw the agreement as a rank betrayal, and the National Rifle Association said the company had "run up the white flag of surrender." Under pressure from the boycott, sales fell 40 percent, and Smith & Wesson closed two factories. In 2001, Tompkins PLC, its British owner, sold the company to a U.S. buyer for $15 million, a fraction of the price it had paid for it just a few years earlier.

Yet in just a few years, Smith & Wesson was back on its feet and well on its way to regaining its position at the top of U.S. gun manufacturers. A key element of its strategy was openly repudiating the terms of the Clinton gun safety deal and introducing a new line of high-capacity pistols and its first-ever, assault-style rifle, which became top-sellers for the company. The turnaround was facilitated by the Bush administration, which failed to enforce the terms of the gun-safety deal and aided Smith & Wesson with major new federal contracts, according to Jon Cowan, former president of Americans for Gun Safety.

"The Bush administration was deeply in the pocket of the NRA and decided not to enforce this agreement," said Cowan, who worked on the deal while serving as chief of staff to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo during his tenure as the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. "Frankly, if there had been a Gore administration, this would have been actively and aggressively enforced."

Smith & Wesson and the National Rifle Association did not respond to requests for comment. Alphonso Jackson, the Bush administration's first HUD secretary, who had responsibility for enforcing the gun-safety agreement, did not return a message left at his home requesting comment.

But Smith & Wesson officials and a Bush administration official at HUD told the Wall Street Journal in 2001 that the Clinton deal was considered non-binding. "HUD is not enforcing it," the official told the Journal. "In fact, HUD is not doing anything with it."

By 2010, the company that had been broadly viewed as "knuckling under" to pressure from the Clinton administration was selling more than 100,000 assault-style rifles a year and earning record revenues and profits.

James Gregory, president of CoreBrand, a marketing consulting firm, worked with Smith & Wesson to resuscitate the company's image. "That boycott was devastating to them," Gregory said. "They were in a downward spiral."

Its new product thoroughly rehabilitated its image among gun owners, said Kristen Rand, legislative director for the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C. "It was brilliant of them to come out with an assault rifle," Rand said. "That's the hot trend."

But there were consequences. In August 2012, James Holmes, a disturbed graduate student, allegedly opened fire on a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colo., with a Smith & Wesson assault-style rifle, killing 12 and injuring 58. The rifle was fitted with an "ultra-capacity" magazine holding 100 rounds.

Smith & Wesson-made assault weapons are also increasingly fueling drug-related violence south of the border, Rand said. "We started seeing them showing up in seizures in Mexico," she said.

The company, like the rest of the U.S. gun industry, now faces intense scrutiny and an uncertain future in the aftermath of the massacre of 20 children and six adults in an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. last week. To a degree unmatched by any other recent mass shooting, the slaughter in Newtown galvanized political pressure, including from President Barack Obama, to tighten the nation?s gun laws.

Smith & Wesson stock dropped nearly 20 percent in the wake of the shooting, reflecting market fears that new gun controls could eat into the company sales, analysts said. Smith & Wesson, like much of the rest of the gun industry, is highly reliant on the sale of military-style, semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity handguns to drive growth, said Rommel Dionisio, a securities analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities who follows the gun industry.

In a statement earlier this week, Liz Sharp, a spokeswoman for Smith & Wesson said it was "inappropriate" to comment on gun control legislation in the aftermath of Newtown. "Our hearts go out to those impacted by this terrible tragedy," Sharp said.

In a press conference Friday, Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's chief lobbyist, called for armed guards in every school to prevent future school shootings, but did not take any questions or offer new proposals to restrict gun sales.

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," LaPierre said.

In May this year, Smith & Wesson was inducted into the National Rifle Association's "Golden Ring of Freedom," an honor for those who have given the group cash or assets of $1 million or more.

"Smith & Wesson is a valued corporate partner in NRA's fight to preserve the 2nd Amendment," LaPierre said at a press conference announcing the award.

Smith & Wesson response to the latest calls for tightened regulations is unclear. But on the Smith & Wesson Facebook page, fans of the brand urged the company not to buckle under pressure from gun control advocates.

"I hope you will assist the gun community in this fight against tyranny," said one commenter, a young man who held an assault rifle in his Facebook profile photo. "I hope you will stand by your customers."

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/21/smith-wesson-clinton-bush-nra_n_2348503.html

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Hawaiian Islands are dissolving from within, study says

Dec. 21, 2012 ? Most of us think of soil erosion as the primary force that levels mountains, however geologists have found that Oahu's mountains are dissolving from within due to groundwater.

Someday, Oahu's Koolau and Waianae mountains will be reduced to nothing more than a flat, low-lying island like Midway.

But erosion isn't the biggest culprit. Instead, scientists say, the mountains of Oahu are actually dissolving from within.

"We tried to figure out how fast the island is going away and what the influence of climate is on that rate," said Brigham Young University geologist Steve Nelson. "More material is dissolving from those islands than what is being carried off through erosion."

The research pitted groundwater against stream water to see which removed more mineral material. Nelson and his BYU colleagues spent two months sampling both types of sources. In addition, ground and surface water estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey helped them calculate the total quantity of mass that disappeared from the island each year.

"All of the Hawaiian Islands are made of just one kind of rock," Nelson said. "The weathering rates are variable, too, because rainfall is so variable, so it's a great natural laboratory."

Forecasting the island's future also needs to account for plate tectonics. As Oahu is pushed northwest, the island actually rises in elevation at a slow but steady rate. You've heard of mountain climbing; this is a mountain that climbs.

According to the researchers' estimates, the net effect is that Oahu will continue to grow for as long as 1.5 million years. Beyond that, the force of groundwater will eventually triumph and the island will begin its descent to a low-lying topography.

Undergraduate student Brian Selck co-authored the study, which appears in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. Unfortunately for him, he joined the project only after the field work in Hawaii took place.

Instead, Selck performed the mineralogical analysis of soil samples in the lab back in Provo. The island's volcanic soil contained at least one surprise in weathered rock called saprolites.

"The main thing that surprised me on the way was the appearance of a large amount of quartz in a saprolite taken from a 1-meter depth," Selck said.

After he graduates from BYU, Selck will pursue a career in hydrogeology. BYU geology professor David Tingey joins Nelson and Selck as a co-author on the new study.

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Journal Reference:

1. Stephen T. Nelson, David G. Tingey, Brian Selck. The denudation of ocean islands by ground and surface waters: The effects of climate, soil thickness, and water contact times on Oahu, Hawaii. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 2013; 103: 276 DOI: 10.1016/j.gca.2012.09.046

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/iIgbOTg7c0U/121221114044.htm

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Russia-EU summit to focus on energy, Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected charges of authoritarianism and lashed out at the United States in his annual marathon news conference. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected charges of authoritarianism and lashed out at the United States in his annual marathon news conference. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. Putin says a draft bill banning U.S. adoptions of Russian children is a legitimate response to a new U.S. law that calls for sanctions on Russians deemed to be human rights violators. But he has not committed to signing it. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)

BRUSSELS (AP) ? Russian President Vladimir Putin is in Brussels for a summit with European Union leaders that is expected to focus on energy disputes and the Syrian crisis and could be marred by EU concerns about the Kremlin's clampdown on dissent.

For Putin, the main issue in Friday's talks is EU energy market regulations intended to boost competition, which Moscow has described as discriminatory against Russia's state-controlled Gazprom gas company.

European officials have warned Gazprom that it would have to allow third-party gas producers to use the prospective South Stream pipeline to comply with its new regulations. The EU's Third Energy Package bans suppliers from owning transit facilities such as pipelines.

Gazprom is also facing an EU probe to determine whether it violated competition rules by linking gas prices with prices for oil.

Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign affairs advisor, said that the energy discussions will dominate the summit. He said Putin raised the issues related to the Third Energy Package during his talks last month with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, voicing hope that she and other European leaders would grow more receptive to Russian arguments.

"We hope that the discussion with top EU officials will be constructive and help find a way out of the deadlock," Ushakov said at a briefing.

Russia has argued that South Stream, which will run under the Black Sea and circumvent the US- and the EU-backed Nabucco pipeline project, should be exempt from the market regulations. The pipeline's construction began earlier this month.

Europe gets about two-fifths of its gas from Russia. South Stream, along with the already-operating Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea, would allow Russian gas to bypass Ukraine and avoid the repetition of supply cutoffs to Europe that came amid Russia-Ukraine pricing disputes.

Alexander Konovalov, the head of the Institute for Strategic Assessment and Analysis, an independent Moscow-based think tank, said Putin is unlikely to win any concessions for Gazprom as the EU's effort to diversify routes of supply has reduced Moscow's room to maneuver.

"The EU already has done a lot to diversify sources of energy supply, and it will continue doing so," he said. "Moscow will find it increasingly difficult to use gas as an instrument of political and economic pressure."

Another hotly contested subject at the negotiations would be Russia's increasingly impatient push for visa-free travel with EU countries. While the EU has argued that Russia's porous frontiers with its ex-Soviet neighbors make visa-free travel impossible just yet, the Kremlin has criticized EU officials for dragging their feet on the issue for years.

Syria is expected to dominate the discussion of international issues.

Russia has backed its last Middle East ally since an uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad began in March 2011, using its veto power along with China at the U.N. Security Council to block three resolutions containing sanctions against Damascus.

But shortly before leaving for Brussels, Putin told a news conference that Russia recognizes the need for change in Syria. That did not appear to herald a change in policy, but added to the perception that Russia regards Assad's days as numbered.

Ushakov insisted that Russia won't change its "honest and principled" position on Syria and wouldn't allow the "repetition of the Libyan scenario," but he added that Putin's talk about Syria with the EU leaders could be "quite interesting."

The EU officials will likely raise issues related to a tough course on dissent Putin has taken since his inauguration in May for a third presidential term, which included arrests and searches of opposition activists and repressive laws aimed against protesters and non-government organizations.

Konovalov said Russia's rights record has adversely affected its ties with Europe.

"The lack of trust doesn't help encourage business activities and develop contacts," he said.

In a move that appears to reflect Moscow's desire to avoid further criticism at the summit, the Kremlin-controlled lower house postponed a debate on a controversial bill that would introduce sanctions for providing minors with information on homosexuality, which it termed "homosexual propaganda." Similar laws passed by regional legislatures in several Russian provinces caused dismay in the EU.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-21-Russia-EU/id-fb640f742e2741878a73aad22391fa77

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Everything On the Internet is True: Credibility Online in 2012 ...

?Bonjour!?

Welcome to the Internet in 2012, where everything your read online is true, because they can?t write things that aren?t true online, right? Isn?t it wonderful?

Fantasy worlds and State Farm commercials aside, unfortunately this isn?t the reality we face each time we connect to the web. Instead we face an environment where we must be ever cognizant of the credibility of information we consume online. But we also need to be more aware of our own credibility online, and what it means for our companies and organizations.

Last week on this blog, our CEO Bill Shander wrote about the perceived information overload and the importance of quality content. The credibility of your content is key because even the best produced content cannot overcome a fundamental lack of credibility from the source.

Unfortunately, the net isn?t exactly a place that supports credibility.

Just the other day I read a blog post about tagging taxonomies; it made a few interesting points, so I ran a Google search with some of the phrases the blog post used and found three similar blog posts, all using the same phrasing.

As it turns out, the phrasing was taken from a PBS style guide. Each of these three blog posts I found used the exact phrasing from the PBS document? but never linked back to or cited PBS. What?s more, each of the blog posts used the PBS document as the basis for their own guidelines, each of which were vastly different, and often contradictory. Immediately the credibility of all three sets of guidelines were thrown into question.

All those things you learned in school about writing? They still apply.

Remember playing the telephone game as a kid, where you?d get into a circle and someone would whisper a message to the person to their right and you tried to pass the message around the circle? Remember laughing at what came out at the end of the circle?

That?s what the web is like. People are repeating what they hear and building a chain. Eventually, twenty degrees of separation from the original source, the content has been disfigured and turned into something completely different than originally intended.

With that in mind, there are four very simple things to do to build out, and maintain your credibility online.

1) Link to other credible sources

If any of the posts I read had simply linked to the original PBS document, I could have seen where the idea came from, and seen the differences and disparities between them. Instead, I found myself comparing three similar but altogether different documents and wondering which to trust. In the end, I didn?t trust any of them.

By citing credible organizations you establish credibility in your own content and the information contained therein. Not to mention you avoid the legal issues associated with plagiarism.

2) Make clear what is a quote and what is paraphrase? and what is interpretation

Any time you are analyzing someone else?s work or using it as the basis or inspiration for your own interpretation, you need to make sure the audience clearly knows where the information is coming from. If it is a direct quote, put it in quotation marks. If it is paraphrasing, frame it as such by attributing the information (i.e. ?According to the report??).

This is also where writing for credibility and good writing overlap. In writing for the web, you should always use short paragraphs. This helps break up the wall of text, gives readers place markers, and keeps the message succinct. It also helps in keeping attribution clear. While you will often be using quotes to set up your analysis, keeping those quotes clearly separated from your own contribution will help maintain credibility and clarity in the mind of the reader. If you?re keeping paragraphs short, there is no reason not to separate the quote from your interpretation.

3) Sell to your audience, don?t sell your audience

While a large portion of the web is funded by advertising, and in some cases it is a necessary evil of doing business online, selling ad space or sponsored links on your website can compromise your credibility.

Personally I can say that any time I?m reading an article, and an ad pops up when I hover over an in-text link, I cringe and question the credibility of the source. You may be selling something to your audience, but don?t sell your audience out.

If you must have sponsored links, avoid the kind that appear in the text of your content itself and favor the more common right-side bar type. Also, it can help if you explain the presence of such ads? much like PBS did for their website.

4) Your content is just as important as your functionality

This may seem obvious to some, but it is important to apply the same standard of quality assurance to your content as you do to the functionality on your website. This goes beyond proofreading for spelling and grammar, although those are absolutely essential. You need to ensure that the reader has absolute confidence in your credibility.

Check your content to ensure the messaging is correct, fact-check for accuracy and make sure any external information is properly cited. In short, all those things you learned in school about writing? They still apply.

Whenever you publish something online, you face the same scrutiny as all other web content, and unfortunately that means having to hold up to a constant examination of credibility. Not everything on the web is true, and not everyone is a French model. Take care to maintain your organization?s credibility online.

Source: http://beehivemedia.com/think-it-do-it/everything-on-the-internet-is-true-credibility-online-in-2012

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Scientists decode three bacterial strains common to grapevines and sugarcane

Dec. 17, 2012 ? Scientists at Rochester Institute of Technology have published the whole genome sequence of bacteria associated with Jamaican sugarcane and Riesling grapevines in the September and November issues of the Journal of Bacteriology, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology.

Andr? Hudson and Michael Savka, professors in RIT's Thomas H. Gosnell School of Life Sciences within the College of Science, isolated and identified three bacteria belonging to the genus Enterobacter from Jamaican sugarcane stalk tissue and Methylobacterium and Novosphingobium from grapevines.

These genomes -- genetic instructions that make up individual organisms -- include one of the first to be associated with Jamaican sugarcane, according to Hudson. The scientists deposited the whole genomes at GenBank, a repository maintained by the National Institutes of Health. Hudson and Savka are the first RIT professors to sequence and annotate genomes.

Basic research like their work provides the scientific community with data to apply to the prevention or management of diseases afflicting crops. Sequencing deconstructs an organism's genetic makeup. It deciphers nucleic acids, commonly known as nucleotides -- or the "building-block" molecules: DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (ribonucleic acid). The specific arrangement of nucleotides, or the genotype, determines the genetic instructions and denotes an organism's genus/species in addition to its phenotype, or observable characteristics.

"This study is important because, as the world's population increases, food production and protection will be a big issue," says Hudson, assistant professor of biological sciences at RIT. "There is a lot of emphasis from the USDA and other federal and private agencies that are interested in studying the effects of organisms on crop production and ultimately food production since 30 or 40 percent of most crops are lost due to pests and pathogens."

Hudson and Savka collaborated with alumnus and lead author on all three manuscripts Han Ming Gan '08 (biotechnology), Sean McGroty '11 (bioinformatics) and Larry Buckley, professor in RIT's Thomas H. Gosnell School of Life Sciences. Ming's collaborators include professors Teong Han Chew from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and Kok Gan Chan from University of Malaya.

Gan, Savka's former student, is a research scientist at ScienceVision SB in Selangor, Malaysia, with access to the high-through put sequencing and data management technology necessary to sequence and annotate nucleotides. Each bacterium they have studied consists of approximately 5 million to 6 million nucleotides.

The sequencing process breaks an organism down into its basic genetic component and lays the parts side-by-side for scientists to interpret and make useful.

"It's like having a book with no spaces in between the words and you have to find where the words begin and end," says Savka, professor of biological sciences at RIT. "That's what it's like to annotate a genome."

Advancements in sequencing technology helps Gan, Savka and Hudson connect the dots to understand host-bacteria interactions.

"We assembled millions of short DNA sequences into long sequences and made biological sense out of them," Gan says. "Having the near complete genetic information from a bacteria will bring us to a new level of research."

"We can tease out information based on the genome of the organism that live inside the plant," Hudson adds. "The question is, why are these bacteria living in the plants? Are they destroying the plants or are they providing a benefit? Are they providing nutrients that are helping the plant grow, like plant hormones, phosphorus or nitrogen? Is it a mutualistic relationship where the plant and bacteria are both benefiting?"

To answer these questions, the team scoured the nucleotides for proteins -- chains of amino acids that replicate DNA. They found approximately 4,000 to 6,000 proteins in each of the three genomes Gan sequenced.

Experiments Hudson and Savka are designing explore a bacterial communication system known as "quorum sensing" -- or when small molecules act like genetic switches turning on bacterial growth and regulating its pathogenicity. Quorum sensing begins when bacteria grow and produce small molecules until a threshold population is met. With its army in place and ready for orders, the small molecule regulates a coordinated cellular response by the bacteria.

"The bacteria can be coordinated to destroy the plant by producing enzymes that degrade cellulose, lignins or other structures that are important for plant growth and development," Hudson says.

Quorum sensing is Savka's long-term interest and complements Hudson's focus on enhancing nitrogen metabolism in plants.

Sugarcane

Hudson studies the genome of the bacterium Enterobacter, an endophyte -- or an organism that lives inside a plant -- to identify proteins involved in plant growth and development, and which might improve biomass for biofuel production.

Savka and Hudson are looking at Enterobacter to determine if the bacterium uses quorum sensing to coordinate activity and whether it is pathogenic to the plant, in addition to its potential role in nitrogen fixation. They are creating genetic mutants of the bacterium to identify genes involved in quorum sensing. Their work is partially supported by a National Science Foundation grant awarded to Hudson.

"The majority of my family works in the sugar industry in Jamaica," Hudson says. "There are a lot of countries where sugarcane is vital to the economy, like Brazil and India. They do a lot of research, but not so much in Jamaica because it's a third-world country and it doesn't have a lot of the scientific infrastructure. But it has the same problems. I am hoping to find new genes for nitrogen metabolism."

Grapevines

The team's Riesling grapevine research could lead to novel applications for improving disease resistance to organisms that attack the xylem, or vascular system, of grapes.

Sap-feeding insects create wounds and doorways for bacteria to enter a plant's xylem. Pathogenic endophytes weaken a wide variety of economically important crops like grapes, citrus, plum, peach and coffee, among others. Savka began exploring grape endophytes in 2006 while on sabbatical at the New York State Agricultural Experimental Station, an extension of Cornell University in Geneva, N.Y.

Few studies have characterized bacteria from xylem fluids of grapevines, says Savka. The strain he is looking at produces proteins that exhibit the coordinated communication signaling that might influence the spread of pathogenic bacteria. Savka and undergraduate students in his lab made a genetic mutant of a protein from Methylobacterium that doesn't produce quorum sensing signals. Savka and Gan will continue this line of research in future studies.

"Ming has access to the technology to do the global studies," Savka says. "We have formed a collaboration with Ming to determine the whole genome picture, a global picture of what genes are regulated by the small quorum sensing molecules. It is a very powerful tool to have."

The third bacterium the team decoded colonizes a plant tumor disease in grapevines, stone fruits, nut trees, pommes, woody ornamentals and fruit canes. Novosphingobium spreads the disease caused by a Nopaline bacterium associated with crown gall tumors. The disease causes uncontrolled tissue growth at the site of the bacterial infection and can significantly decrease crop yields, Savka says. The sequenced strain of bacteria that helps spread the disease was isolated from a tumor affecting a Hungarian Riesling grapevine. The strain was shown to produce the cell-signaling communication that mobilizes molecules.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rochester Institute of Technology.

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Journal Reference:

1. H. M. Gan, T. H. Chew, A. O. Hudson, M. A. Savka. Genome Sequence of Methylobacterium sp. Strain GXF4, a Xylem-Associated Bacterium Isolated from Vitis vinifera L. Grapevine. Journal of Bacteriology, 2012; 194 (18): 5157 DOI: 10.1128/JB.01201-12

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/x0CF_kC8EdI/121217162438.htm

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PFT: Skins up, Giants down in playoff hunt

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With two weeks remaining in the NFL season, the Redskins and Vikings are in surprisingly good shape in the NFC playoff race, while losses suffered by the Bears and Giants on Sunday raised big questions about whether they can still limp into the playoffs.

Below we provide the state of the playoff race, with the six playoff teams that would be in the postseason in each conference if the playoffs started today.

NFC

1. Falcons (12-2): Atlanta only needs to win one more game to clinch home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.

2. 49ers (10-3-1): San Francisco put a beating on New England and stayed ahead of Green Bay for the first-round playoff bye.

3. Packers (10-4): Green Bay clinched the NFC North with Sunday?s win at Chicago.

4. Redskins (8-6): Washington is one of the hottest teams in the NFL and is now has the tiebreaker edge in the three-way NFC East battle.

5. Seahawks (9-5): Two straight blowout wins have the Seahawks looking like perhaps the most dangerous team in the NFL.

6. Vikings (8-6): If the playoffs started today, the Vikings would be in. But the Vikings? final two games are against the Texans and Packers, which means Minnesota still has an uphill battle to reach the postseason.

In the mix: The 8-6 Cowboys and 8-6 Giants are both on the outside looking in right now, but they both control their playoff destiny: Win their final two games, and they?re both in. The 8-6 Bears do not control their playoff destiny, but the good news for Chicago is that the Bears have the easiest remaining schedule of any of the playoff contenders, with the Cardinals and Lions in the final two weeks. So don?t count the Bears out.

AFC

1. Texans (12-2): The Texans have clinched the NFC South and are close to clinching home-field advantage. The road to the Super Bowl in the AFC is going through Houston.

2. Broncos (11-3): Denver moved a game ahead of New England and now needs two more wins to earn a first-round playoff bye.

3. Patriots (10-4): Sunday night?s loss to the 49ers moves the Patriots below the Broncos in the AFC.

4. Ravens (9-5): Baltimore has clinched a playoff berth, but the Ravens aren?t playing like a playoff team. If they don?t turn things around in a hurry, the Ravens will be one-and-done.

5. Colts (9-5): Indianapolis hasn?t actually clinched, but there are very few scenarios left under which the Colts don?t get to the playoffs.

6. Bengals (8-6): Cincinnati is now the leader of the pack for the final AFC playoff berth, but the Bengals must win at Pittsburgh next week if they want to stay head of the pack.

In the mix: The 7-7 Steelers still control their playoff destiny: Beat the Bengals and Browns the next two weeks, and they?re in. And the 6-7 Jets aren?t out of it; if they win out and Sunday?s Bengals-Steelers winner loses in Week 17, the Jets would go to the playoffs.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/12/17/redskins-and-vikings-up-bears-and-giants-down-in-nfl-playoff-race/related/

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