Legacy Family Tree offers webinar subscription | The Legal ...

The 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year conference

What if you could attend a year-round genealogy conference with 136 hours of lectures to choose from (and more being added all the time), and it would cost you $50?

What if you could hear Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, Thomas MacEntee, DearMyrtle, Linda Woodward Geiger, Lisa Alzo, Marian Pierre-Louis and many others including (koff koff) The Legal Genealogist in that conference, and it would still only cost you $50?

What if you could hear every one of the lectures, without worrying about missing one because two speakers you wanted to hear were scheduled to speak at the same time, and it would still only cost you $50?

And what if you could attend that conference, with all those speakers and all of their lectures? and never change out of your PJs, and it would still only cost you $50?

Impossible? Not any more.

Legacy Family Tree launched its new Legacy Family Tree Webinars subscription service officially this morning, and here?s what it has to say about it:

Genealogists and family historians can now have anytime, anywhere and unlimited access to the nearly 100 recorded genealogy webinars and more than 350 pages of instructors? handouts that have been part of the Legacy Family Tree Webinar series with their new website at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com.

Access to the complete archives (over 136 hours of classes) is now available through an annual or monthly Webinar Membership at the introductory price of $49.95 (annually) or $9.95 (monthly). Watching the live, weekly webinars continues to be free (36 more are scheduled in 2013), and visitors are free to view recordings for one week after a live presentation. For Webinar Members, new recordings and handouts will be added monthly at no extra cost.

A leader in online genealogy education, the Legacy Family Tree Webinar series has been attended by researchers in more than 100 countries. ?I?m excited to bring quality genealogy education into the homes of genealogists world-wide,? said Legacy Family Tree Webinars host, Geoff Rasmussen. ?Genealogists from the most remote parts of the world have been able to learn from some of genealogy?s finest instructors because of these webinars. It?s been fun to help pioneer this technology for our industry.?

So what will you find if you subscribe?

Well, for starters, if you really are just starting out, try this trio:

???????Genealogy for Novices: Where Do We Begin? with Linda Woodward Geiger
???????Ten Brick Wall Tips for Beginners with Marian Pierre-Louis
???????Ten Brick Wall Tips for Intermediate Researchers with Marian Pierre-Louis

Or, if you?re more advanced, check these methodology presentations out:

???????Building a Family from Circumstantial Evidence with ? um? me
???????Pre-1850 U.S. Research Methodologies with Karen Clifford
???????What is a ?Reasonably Exhaustive Search?? with Michael Hait
???????Plan Your Way to Research Success with Marian Pierre-Louis
???????The 5 C?s for Success in Genealogy Today with Barbara Renick
???????Reverse Genealogy: Finding the Living with Megan Smolenyak

Or, if you?re looking for international genealogy, you can choose from these:

???????Making the Most of Canadian Census Records with Kathryn Lake Hogan
???????Inheritance in Scotland ? Wills, Testaments, and Land Records with Marie Dougan
???????Best Internet Resources for East European Genealogy with Lisa Alzo
???????Researching Your Irish Ancestors: Beyond the Basics with Judith Eccles Wight
???????Researching Your Canadian Ancestors ? an Overview with Claire V. Brisson-Banks
???????The Quest for your English Ancestors with Claire V. Brisson-Banks
???????Researching Your German Ancestors with Kory Meyerink

Or, if your ancestors came to America and you?re still trying to trace them, try these:

???????Beyond the Arrival Date: Extracting More from Passenger Lists with Lisa Alzo
???????Tracing Immigrant Ancestors with Lisa Alzo

Or, if you?re looking for technology-oriented presentations, there are these:

???????Wikis for Genealogists with Thomas MacEntee
???????Preserving Family Photographs: 1839 to the Present with Maureen Taylor
???????Digital Images for Genealogists and Technologists with Geoff Rasmussen
???????Blogging for Beginners with Dear MYRTLE
???????A Closer Look at Google+ with Dan Lynch
???????YouTube Your Family History with Devin Ashby

Or, if you just want to hear some of the best stories of genealogy, don?t miss these:

???????Annie Moore of Ellis Island ? A Case of Historical Identity Theft with Megan Smolenyak
???????Neglected History with Megan Smolenyak

And these are just a sampler.

Now you can still register for individual Legacy Family Tree webinars for free, and you can still catch them for 10 days afterwards, all still free. You won?t get the handouts, and on the 11th day, the webinar isn?t available free any more. But it?s still a great way to access lots of information if you happen to have the time in that 10-day window. So you can still head over to this link to register for individual upcoming webinars. I?ve got three coming up myself this year that you can find on my presenter page:

???????That First Trip to the Courthouse, on April 10
???????How Knowing the Law Makes Us Better Genealogists, on June 26
???????Using Court Records to tell the Story of our Ancestors? Lives, on October 30

But for unlimited access to all of the past webinars ? like my Building a Family from Circumstantial Evidence ? and all the ones to come ? and the handouts, you can head over to this link to subscribe to the new service.

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Disclosure:

I get paid for doing presentations, whether for Legacy Family Tree or anybody else. My cats only let me do genealogy if it doesn?t interfere with my feeding them twice a day, cleaning their litterboxes, and paying the mortgage. And if you subscribe to this service and listen to one of my presentations, I?ll get paid a little bit more.

Source: http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2013/03/05/legacy-family-tree-offers-webinar-subscription/

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Top GOP senator says senate wants to find solution for low-income uninsured

Kathleen Haughney

1:53 p.m. EST, March 5, 2013

TALLAHASSEE -- A leading Senate Republican said that the Senate is looking for ways to get the more than 800,000 low-income uninsured population, who would qualify for Medicaid if the state expanded the program under the Affordable Care Act, health? care.

"I still think that there are a large number of people out there that are uninsured, that frankly, we need to be serious about and see if we can find a way to do it that protects the taxpayers obviously but also gives us a chance to bring some of the uninsured into a program that gives them insurance," said Sen.<strong> John Thrasher</strong>, R-St. Augustine, the Rules Chairman of the Senate.

The House said Monday that they would not back an expansion of Medicaid, even though Gov. Rick Scott has said he supports a three-year expansion because the federal government picks up 100 percent of the tab.?

The Senate has not yet taken a formal position on the issue.

Regardless, both chambers have said if they can't reach an agreement on Medicaid, they do want to look for alternatives to insure a population that is poor, but just not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid under the current rules.

Watch Thrasher talk to reporters below. Video by Jennifer Curington.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ssjuice/~3/K3o6DkEJmVk/sfl-top-gop-senator-says-senate-wants-to-find-solution-for-lowincome-uninsured-20130305,0,4971648.story

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Facebook adds University of Calif chief to board

MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) ? Facebook says the chancellor of the University of California at San Francisco, Susan Desmond-Hellmann, will join its board of directors.

She will be the second woman elected to the Menlo Park, Calif., company's board, joining Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg. The company named Sandberg to the body last June after criticism that its directors were all men.

Before serving as chancellor, Desmond-Hellmann was an executive at biotechnology drugmaker Genentech, which markets some of the best-selling cancer drugs in the world. She is a doctor with a specialty in treating cancer.

Facebook Inc.'s board also includes Netflix Inc. chief Reed Hastings, entrepreneurs Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel, and Washington Post Co. CEO Donald Graham. Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg is chairman of the board, which now has nine members.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-03-06-US-Facebook-Board-of-Directors/id-94ee2a32487d4a6f87915bed665f0655

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Harrison Ford Joins Anchorman 2 Cast!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/harrison-ford-joins-anchorman-2-cast/

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Demolition continues at scene of missing Florida sinkhole victim

SEFFNER, Florida (Reuters) - Demolition crews resumed work on Monday at a Tampa-area home where a sinkhole opened last week underneath a bedroom, swallowing a man asleep in his bed.

Jeff Bush, 37, was declared "presumed dead" by Hillsborough County officials on Sunday as rescue workers abandoned any hope of recovering his body.

The goal on Monday was to demolish the rest of the house before efforts will begin to stabilize the sinkhole, said William Puz, a spokesman for Hillsborough County. The hole was about 30 feet wide and 60 feet deep and filled with clay and debris. It is unlikely that Bush's body will ever be retrieved, officials said.

Two nearby houses have been evacuated because the sinkhole has weakened the ground underneath them, and their residents probably will never be allowed inside again, said Jessica Damico of Hillsborough County Fire Rescue.

Bush, a landscaper who mowed highway medians for a living, had moved into the four-bedroom home only two months ago which he shared with his brother, Jeremy Bush, 36, and four others.

A wrecking crew on Sunday began the demolition going about its job as carefully as possible to preserve the home's contents for survivors.

Workers recovered a family Bible, flag, military medals, a purse, teddy bears and generations of photos. On Monday they recovered two antique rifles that were family heirlooms.

Bush disappeared into the hole that opened up under his bedroom on Thursday night. The other occupants of the house, which is owned by the family of Jeremy Bush's fiancee, had been preparing for bed when they heard a loud crash and Jeff Bush screaming.

With the sinkhole expanding, engineers placed listening devices, microphones, ground-penetrating radar and other equipment testing the soil on the site to seek a safety zone to work and any sign of life below, which they never detected.

Jeremy Bush said the family was discussing plans for a memorial service and a possible marker at the site.

On Monday he sounded frustrated and upset as he watched the demolition. "I'm the only one who tried to get him out," he said, while begging county authorities to do more to find his brother's body when the lot is cleared.

Sinkholes in Florida are caused by the state's porous geological bedrock, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

As acidic rainwater filters into the ground, it dissolves the rock, causing erosion that can lead to underground caverns, which cause sinkholes when they collapse.

(Editing by David Adams; Editing by David Gregorio)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/florida-home-where-sinkhole-swallowed-man-partially-razed-010935952.html

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MSI shows off its first gaming all-in-one, the AG2712, we go hands-on

MSI has been churning out all-in-one PCs for we don't even know how long, but until now it hasn't marketed any of them toward gamers. And we can see why: all-in-one PCs don't have the modular, expandable design of a tower, and also aren't mobile like a laptop (not that gaming notebooks are portable, per se, but you get what we mean). Nonetheless, MSI is taking a chance anyway, in the hopes that some gamers out there would prefer a slimmer, space-saving machine, even if it meant sacrificing the processing clout you'd get from a full-fledged rig.

The AG2712, which was announced a few days ago and is on display here at CeBIT, is a 27-inch desktop that generally looks and runs like any other all-in-one -- you know, one not targeted at the gaming set. On the outside, it has a few too many glossy bits, with a see-through stand 'round back and a wide speaker grille sitting just below the bezel (it makes use of THX audio technology, but there's no subwoofer for accentuating bass tones). On the inside, it runs a mobile Core i7 processor -- Ivy Bridge for now, though a company rep staffing the event here didn't rule out a Haswell refresh later on. For graphics, you've got NVIDIA's 670MX, a laptop-grade GPU announced back in October. As it happens, it's actually standard for all-in-one PCs to pack mobile components. The difference here, though, is that this was built for gamers, and the AG2712 is also kinda thick 'round back, which defeats the purpose of building a desktop with mobile bits in the first place.

On a cheerier note, we appreciate the 27-inch, 1080p touchscreen, which will be offered with a wide-angle matte finish, as pictured above. (Okay, fine, you can get a glossy version instead, if you like.) Otherwise, the remaining specs are pretty standard: HDMI in / out, VGA, Ethernet, a multi-format memory card reader, a tray-loading optical drive, headphone / mic sockets, and six USB ports, two of them USB 3.0. If, on second thought, you don't need all that, MSI is also showing off a 22-inch model, the AG2212, which will have optional discrete graphics and starts with a Core i3, not i5, CPU. Either way, pricing hasn't yet been finalized, so although we're not keen on the idea of a gaming desktop using mobile parts, we'll withhold final judgment until we see how inexpensive it is. For now, enjoy some hands-on photos past the break.

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/GMgfowD4G6k/

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Tips For Locating The Most Effective Credit Card Discounts | AAA ...

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Thompson wins Honda, earns spot in Masters

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) ? Michael Thompson won his first PGA Tour event Sunday at the Honda Classic to earn another trip to the Masters.

Thompson seized control with a 50-foot eagle putt on the third hole. He stayed in control with superb par saves early on the back nine at PGA National. He made birdie from the bunker on the last hole for a 1-under 69, giving him a two-shot victory over Geoff Ogilvy.

The win earns the 27-year-old Thompson a spot in the Masters. He last played at Augusta National in 2008 as the U.S. Amateur runner-up.

Ogilvy birdied two of his last three holes for a 69 to finish alone in second, which moves him into the top 50 and gets him into the World Golf Championship next week at Doral.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/thompson-wins-honda-earns-spot-masters-231152834--spt.html

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Sequester showdown threatens Obama's agenda

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Just hours after across-the-board spending cuts officially took effect, President Barack Obama pressed Congress on Saturday to work with him on a compromise to halt a fiscal crisis that threatens the economy and his broader domestic policy agenda.

The failure by Obama and Republicans to agree to halt the $85 billion "sequester" cuts virtually guaranteed that fiscal issues would remain center stage in Washington for weeks, crowding out Obama's proposals to reform immigration, tighten gun laws and raise the minimum wage.

The economic effects of the spending cuts may take time to kick in, but political blowback has already begun and is hitting Obama as well as congressional Republicans.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Friday showed neither Republicans nor Obama and his fellow Democrats escaping blame.

Obama's approval rating dropped to 47 percent in a Gallup poll on Friday, down from 51 percent in the previous three-day period measured.

While most polls show voters blame Republicans primarily for the fiscal mess, Obama could see himself associated with the worst effects of sequestration like the looming furloughs of hundreds of thousands of federal workers. He signed an order on Friday night that started putting the cuts into effect.

In his weekly radio address on Saturday, Obama appealed for Republicans to work with Democrats on a deal, saying Americans were weary of seeing Washington "careen from one manufactured crisis to another."

But he offered no new ideas to resolve the recurring fiscal fights, and there was no immediate sign of any negotiations.

"There's a caucus of common sense (in Congress)," Obama said in his address. "And I'm going to keep reaching out to them to fix this for good."

At the heart of Washington's persistent fiscal showdowns is disagreement over how to slash the budget deficit and the $16 trillion national debt, bloated over the years by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and government stimulus for the ailing economy.

The president wants to close the fiscal gap with spending cuts and tax hikes, what he calls a "balanced approach." But Republicans do not want to concede again on taxes after doing so in negotiations over the "fiscal cliff" at the end of last year.

The president offered a litany of hardships in his radio address he said would flow from the forced spending cuts.

"Beginning this week, businesses that work with the military will have to lay folks off. Communities near military bases will take a serious blow. Hundreds of thousands of Americans who serve their country - Border Patrol agents, FBI agents, civilians who work for the Defense Department - will see their wages cut and their hours reduced," he said.

'IT'S CALLED LEADERSHIP'

At Yellowstone National Park, a massive and costly annual operation to clear the roads of snow that was scheduled to start on Monday will be postponed due to the cuts,

Park managers have to trim $1.75 million from Yellowstone's $35 million annual budget, which will delay the opening of most entrances to America's first national park by two weeks.

It could mean millions of dollars in lost tourism and tax revenues for small, rural towns in Montana and Wyoming.

"I think it's counter-productive, and I expect a lot of people to be raising hell," said Mike Darby, whose family owns the Irma Hotel in Cody, Wyoming, at the east gate of the park.

Critics said Obama should have held meaningful talks with congressional leaders long before Friday's last-minute meeting at the White House, which failed to prevent the automatic cuts written into law during a previous budget crisis in 2011.

"The president should call the senior representatives of the parties together to Camp David - or any place with a table, chairs and no TV cameras - for serious negotiations on replacing the sequester with firm, enforceable beginnings of a comprehensive long-term debt stabilization agreement," former Republican Senator Pete Domenici and fiscal expert Alice Rivlin said in a statement released on Friday.

The budget veterans, who lead the Bipartisan Policy Center's Debt Reduction Task Force, called on Obama and congressional Republican leaders to "be willing to tell those on the polar extremes of their parties that a central majority consensus will govern. It's called leadership."

After months of silence on political issues, Obama's Republican opponent in last November's election resurfaced to take a swipe at the Democrat's handling of the sequestration mess. "No one can think that that's been a success for the president," Mitt Romney said in an interview to air on "Fox News Sunday."

The former Massachusetts governor accused Obama of "flying around the country and berating Republicans and blaming and pointing," instead of striking a budget deal.

Twenty-eight percent of Americans blame Republicans for the lack of a deal to halt sequestration, while 22 percent hold either Obama or the Democrats in Congress responsible, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll. Thirty-seven percent blame them all.

The budget standstill has overshadowed Obama's aggressive set of policy goals ranging from boosting pre-school education to fighting climate change and reforming America's immigration system. But Obama vowed on Friday the fiscal troubles would not prevent him from advocating for those proposals.

"I think there are other areas where we can make progress even with the sequester unresolved. I will continue to push for those initiatives," he told a news conference.

(Editing by Alistair Bell and Todd Eastham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spending-cut-showdown-threatens-obamas-second-term-agenda-025029989--business.html

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U.S. offers Egypt budget aid after Mursi assurance on economic reforms

Secretary of State John Kerry pledges $250 million in economic aid if Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi agrees to negotiations over economic reforms.

By Arshad Mohammed and Alexander Dziadosz, Reuters

CAIRO ? The United States said on Sunday it would give Egypt $250 million in budget aid after Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi promised to take the painful economic reforms needed to secure an IMF loan.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced the funding after meeting Mursi and acknowledged Egypt's "extreme needs" as the Islamist government struggles with a slide in currency reserves to worryingly low levels and a soaring budget deficit.

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Cairo says it wants to reopen talks with the International Monetary Fund on a $4.8 billion loan which was agreed in principle last November but suspended at Cairo's request due to violent street protests the following month.

"In light of Egypt's extreme needs and President Mursi's assurance that he plans to complete the IMF process, today I advised him the United States will now provide the first $190 million of our pledged $450 million in budget support funds," Kerry said in a statement at the end of a visit to Cairo.

The $190 million is part of a $1 billion pledge by U.S. President Barack Obama in 2011 after Egypt's popular uprising.

Kerry also said the United States would release $60 million for an Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund, which is designed to support small and medium companies in the private sector.

However, the U.S. diplomat hinted further aid will depend on Egypt carrying out both economic and political reforms.

"The United States can and wants to do more," he said. "When Egypt takes the difficult steps to strengthen its economy and build political unity and justice, we will work with our Congress at home on additional support."

A spur to reform
Kerry described the funds as "a good-faith effort to spur reform and help the Egyptian people at this difficult time". On Saturday he said it was "paramount, essential, urgent" that the economy get back on its feet.

However, the sum is dwarfed by the budget deficit, which is growing rapidly as a slide in the Egyptian pound pushes up the cost of subsidizing energy and food, much of which has to be imported using scarce dollars.

In a reform program which Egypt is sending to the IMF, the government targeted a deficit for this financial year of 189.7 billion Egyptian pounds ($28 billion) or 10.9 percent of economic output. Even this assumes economic reforms are made, and the deficit would hit 12.3 percent of GDP without such action, it forecast.

Egypt's political and economic turmoil has frightened away foreign investors and many tourists - a major source of the foreign currency it needs to pay for wheat and fuel imports.

Two years after the fall of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt is deeply split between the ruling Islamists and the leftist and liberal opposition parties, most of which have announced they will boycott parliamentary elections due to start next month.

On Sunday, a Cairo appeals court ordered that a politically fraught retrial of Mubarak, his sons and top aides should begin on April 23, nine days before the elections are due to begin.

Mubarak, the first Arab ruler to be tried by his people after the uprisings that swept the Middle East and North Africa, was jailed for life for ordering the killing of demonstrators in 2011, but was granted a retrial by a Cairo court in January.

Jacquelyn Martin / Pool via Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) shakes hands with Egypt's President Mohamed Mursi at the Presidential Palace in Cairo March 3, 2013.

As Kerry completed his visit, protesters and security forces clashed in Cairo's Tahrir Square, center of the revolution, as police tried to clear demonstrators and open the square to traffic, a witness said.

Unidentified assailants set fire to a police vehicle outside the nearby Egyptian Museum, where the treasures of Ancient Egypt are on display, the state news agency MENA reported.

Hundreds of people were also injured in the Suez Canal city of Port Said during clashes between police and protesters there, security and medical sources said.

Egypt's armed forces said on its Facebook page one military officer was wounded when he was shot in the leg and one soldier from the security forces was killed when he was shot in the neck by "unknown elements".

April IMF deal?
Finance Minister Al-Mursi Al-Sayed Hegazy was optimistic that an IMF agreement could be sealed before the four-stage lower house poll gets under way on April 22. "I expect and am hopeful this deal can be made before the elections," he told reporters.

Economists are divided between those who see such a timetable as over-optimistic and those that believe Egypt cannot hold out much longer without help.

Foreign currency reserves tumbled to $13.6 billion in January from $36 billion before the fall of Mubarak, and the Egyptian pound has dropped 8.2 percent since the central bank began auctioning dollars at the end of December.

Reserve figures due out this week are expected to show a continuing slide further below $15 billion - the amount needed to fund three months' imports, economists said.

However, the price of any deal is likely to be high. Egypt is sending projections to the IMF of huge increases in gasoline and diesel prices as it comes under pressure to curb soaring energy subsidies, a cabinet official said on Sunday.

The government plans to continue subsidized fuel prices for the most needy, under a rationing system to be implemented in July. However, Egyptians excluded from this scheme would face a jump in prices that could provoke public fury if implemented.

The official, who is part of the cabinet's economic team, told Reuters the increases would be put to an IMF team once it arrives in Cairo to negotiate the loan. "The new prices are included in the economic reform program that will be presented to the IMF mission," said the official, who requested anonymity.

Petroleum Minister Osama Kamal was quoted by the state news agency MENA as describing the figures as estimates and said that no decisions had yet been made. According to the projections, the commonly used 90 octane gasoline would leap to 5.71 Egyptian pounds ($0.85) a liter from 1.75, while diesel would go up to 5.21 pounds from 1.10.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/03/17170433-us-offers-egypt-budget-aid-after-mursi-assurance-on-economic-reforms?lite

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China's Xi rides high hopes ahead of presidency

LUOTUOWAN VILLAGE, China (AP) ? China's fawning state media, jaded social media commentators and even poor corn and cabbage farmers agree: new Communist Party chief Xi Jinping is off to a good start.

"General Secretary Xi doesn't put on any airs. He talks like an ordinary person," said 69-year-old farmer Tang Rongbin. The new leader visited Tang's sparse, dimly lit farmhouse in Luotuowan village in December, bearing gifts of cooking oil, flour and a blanket.

Xi has styled himself as an economic reformer, an iron-fisted graft-buster, a staunch nationalist and a no-frills man-of-the-people ? spurring expectations for change. But as he prepares to be appointed to the largely ceremonial role of president, pressure will be growing on him to deliver.

China faces rising public anger over endemic corruption, a burgeoning rich-poor gap and the degradation of the country's air, soil and waterways. Slower economic growth and territorial disputes, especially with Japan, add to the tension.

Mounting protests over environmental issues, land seizures and high-handed officialdom point to the underlying social discontent. Days before the party conclave that brought Xi to power last year, thousands of protesters in the eastern city of Ningbo faced off against riot police outside government offices, calling on officials to halt a chemical plant expansion.

"I think there has been a revolution of rising expectations," said Willy Lam, an expert on party politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "People realize they can get away with even demonstrations to make their wills heard."

Joining the clamor for change this past week were dozens of prominent intellectuals who signed a petition urging the government to ratify an international treaty on protecting human rights and the rule of law. Also, a group of about 100 parents of gays and lesbians urged lawmakers to legalize gay marriage.

The annual session of the national legislature, which opens Tuesday, will complete the once-a-decade handover of power that began in November when Xi and his leadership team assumed the top positions in the Communist Party. At the end of the session, Xi will take the title of president from his predecessor as party leader, Hu Jintao.

Deputies to the National People's Congress will rubber-stamp appointments of senior officials to the State Council, or Cabinet, to run economic and foreign policies; Xi and other party leaders finalized the personnel changes at a closed-door meeting last week. The No. 2 party leader, Li Keqiang, will become premier, the country's top economic official.

The legislature gives the Xi administration a high-profile platform to lay out policies to build the prosperous, strong and fairer society he has talked about in his public appearances.

Xi came to power in the wake of a scandal that exposed infighting and corruption in the highest reaches of the party. Exuding a confidence and ease lacking in the remote, wooden Hu, Xi has seized on the public's disgust over graft and its hopes for national greatness to rally support for his leadership.

"He certainly took challenges and made them opportunities," said Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese politics at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "He turned them around into great expectations for him, and great hope."

Xi visited an early testing ground for the market reforms that have transformed China into the world's No. 2 economy to align himself with reform in broad terms, though he has given no indication of the changes he wants to make.

He stopped off at Luotuowan and other farming villages to show his concern for those struggling to get by. And he has played to nationalist sentiments, taking a hard line against Japan in a long-festering territorial dispute, and touring military units to show his commitment to national defense.

Xi has disappointed some who had hoped for greater political freedom. Though he has espoused the virtues of constitutional government and the rule of law, dissidents continue to be harassed, and a crackdown on self-immolation protests in Tibetan areas has only intensified.

It is fighting graft that Xi has made the signature campaign of his first three months ? a popular campaign that so far featured more symbolism than action.

He launched a drive to cut out red carpets, motorcades and other official extravagance. State media touted that he preferred simple meals over the usual banquets leaders are given while on inspection tours. He has vowed to target corruption at high and low levels of power ? both the "tigers" and the "flies."

So far, it's mostly flies that have been swatted. A slew of lower-level officials have been punished after revelations they were keeping mistresses or amassing multiple unaccounted-for properties. Its highest-level victim has been a deputy provincial party chief suspected of influence peddling and dodgy real estate deals.

Many politically minded Chinese aren't convinced that Xi will take the painful steps needed to root out deeply embedded corruption. Eliminating graft would require an overhaul of the patronage-based political culture and restraining the party's unchecked power.

"Will it be like the past when there was great determination expressed in speech, but ultimately no effective efforts followed to control corruption?" said Ren Jianming, an anti-corruption expert at prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing. "We haven't seen much in terms of specific measures."

Some Chinese want the party to allow its anti-corruption watchdogs to operate independently, and to require officials to declare assets publicly. A system in place since 2010 requires some officials to report income, real estate holdings and other wealth to their superiors ? not the public ? but that has done little to stanch graft. A few areas in Guangdong have recently been named as testing grounds for public asset declaration.

Still, resistance to full disclosure is high within the bureaucracy and perhaps even the leadership. Bloomberg News reported in June last year that Xi's extended family has amassed assets totaling $376 million, though it said none was traced to Xi himself.

"I believe that Xi should take the lead," said Wang Yukai, an anti-corruption expert at the Chinese Academy of Governance, which trains provincial and ministerial-level civil servants. "Politburo Standing Committee members also need to declare information about their spouses and children. This will pave the way for future declarations."

Many experts advocated an asset declaration mechanism when they attended a meeting called by Wang Qishan, the party's new anti-corruption agency chief, in late November, according to Ren, who was one of the participants. Ren said Wang noted that more research needed to be done but otherwise stayed noncommittal.

"There's now a lot of public expectation about anti-corruption work, and as the leading cadre in charge of this work, he must remain calm and rational," Ren observed. "It's easy to raise public expectations, but if you're unable to meet them, then you'll end up disappointing everyone."

___

Follow Gillian Wong on Twitter: http://twitter.com/gillianwong

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-xi-rides-high-hopes-ahead-presidency-053258313.html

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US may face inevitable nuclear power exit

Mar. 1, 2013 ? In a 2012 report, the Obama administration announced that it was "jumpstarting" the nuclear industry. Because of the industry's long history of permitting problems, cost overruns, and construction delays, financial markets have been wary of backing new nuclear construction for decades. The supposed "nuclear renaissance" ballyhooed in the first decade of this century never materialized. And then came Fukushima, a disaster that pushed countries around the world to ask: Should nuclear power be part of the energy future? In the third and final issue in a series focused on nuclear exits, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE, turns its attention to the United States and looks at whether the country's business-as-usual approach may yet lead to a nuclear phase-out for economic reasons.

The Obama administration injected significant funding into two new nuclear reactor projects in Georgia in 2012. But this investment -- the first of its kind in three decades -- belies an overall dismal US nuclear power landscape. Where Japan and many European countries responded to the Fukushima disaster with public debate and significant policy shifts in the nuclear arena, the US has scarcely broached the subject. According to former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Commissioner Peter Bradford, current market forces challenge the economic viability of existing nuclear power plants, with new reactors representing an extremely unattractive investment prospect.

Allowing existing reactors to simply run out their licensed lifetimes in the current scenario, nuclear power may simply disappear, he writes. "Absent an extremely large injection of government funding or further life extensions, the reactors currently operating are going to end their licensed lifetimes between now and the late 2050s," Bradford concludes. "They will become part of an economics-driven US nuclear phase-out a couple of decades behind the government-led nuclear exit in Germany."

Also in this special issue, Sharon Squassoni, a non-proliferation expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, writes that a US nuclear phase out will have only minor international implications. Governmental attempts to buoy the US commercial nuclear industry for national security reasons run the risk of blurring the distinction between civilian and military nuclear programs, undermining public backing for both, she adds.

The Bulletin canvassed opinion on the economic and environmental implications of a US phase from leading institutions. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) experts Henry D. Jacoby and Sergey Paltsev modeled a number of scenarios, focusing particularly on the effects of greenhouse gas regulations. They also looked at the impacts of a nuclear phase out on greenhouse gas emissions, electricity prices, and the national economy. They conclude that a US exit from nuclear power would impose costs on all three.

Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Institute chairman and chief scientist, Amory Lovins, says that as the US electricity system ages, most of its power plants and transmission grid must be replaced by 2050. The cost will be roughly the same, whether the rebuilt system is fed by new nuclear power plants and "clean coal" facilities or centralized and distributed renewable energy plants: "The inevitable US nuclear phase-out, whatever its speed, is [?] just part of a far broader and deeper evolution from the remarkable electricity system that has served the nation so well to an even better successor now being created," he writes.

The earlier issues in this Nuclear Exit series looked at neighbors France and Germany. Germany is a trailblazer for countries considering an exit from commercial nuclear power, embarking on an ambitious Energiewende, or energy turnaround, that includes a quick nuclear phase-out and an enthusiastic embrace of renewable energy. Just next door, France is taking a more cautious approach, and is currently carrying out an extensive, multi-stakeholder debate on the country's energy future. With three-quarters of France's electricity derived from nuclear power, a rapid or total exit seems unlikely.

The breadth and depth of the data and analysis presented by the authors in all three Nuclear Exit issues make clear that this question has no simple, one-size-fits-all answer. They make something else clear: The question deserves a serious, considered answer in every country with a commercial nuclear power industry.

Further information:

"The US Nuclear Exit" by John Mecklin published 01 March 2013 in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

"How to close the US nuclear industry: Do nothing "by Peter. A. Bradford published 01 March 2013 in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

"The economics of a US civilian nuclear phase-out" by Amory b. Lovins published 01 March 2013 in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

"The limited national security implications of civilian nuclear decline" by Sharon Squassoni published 01 March 2013 in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/jWkghumuVcI/130301122927.htm

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Lego for girls: Building profits by catering to girls

Lego for girls: The Lego Friends, a Lego product line designed for girls, is a big hit. The new Lego blocks boosted sales by 25 percent in 2012.

By Staff,?Associated Press / February 28, 2013

A consumer touches the face of a Lego Friends sculpture of "Stephanie" at Toy Fair 2013 in New York. Lego Friends is the new Lego for girls toy line that has boosted sales by 25 percent.

REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/Insider Images

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Lego's sales soared 25 percent last year thanks in part to its new series of building blocks designed for girls.

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The privately owned company said Thursday that on revenue of 23.4 billion kroner ($4.2 billion) its net profits grew 38 percent, to 5.6 billion kroner ($1 billion).

The company, based in western Denmark, said the Lego Star Wars and Lego Ninjago series remained among the more popular, but it was a novel rollout for girls, Lego Friends, that sold better than expected ? to the extent that production units were unable to keep pace with demand.

In the United States, Lego Friends surpassed early projections, with its sales eventually increasing three times more than expected, Lego said.

The new line, which includes mini-figures in pink, a dream house with a pool, and a beauty shop, was criticized by some U.S. consumer groups as reinforcing gender stereotypes.

Until now 90 percent of Lego sales have been for boys. But as Market Watch notes, other companies that have had success with boys have found a way to broaden their market to the other gender.

Lego is not the first toymaker to give a popular product a sex-change operation in an effort to boost sales. Nearly half a century ago, toymaker Hasbro found a way to sell dolls to boys: call them something else. ?G.I. Joe? and Star Wars dolls were dubbed ?action figures.?

Many manufacturers are also increasingly going beyond traditional gender roles, says Laurie Schacht, co-publisher of TheToyInsider.com. For example, Mattel launched ?Mega Bloks Barbie Build ?n Style? last December, the first time in its 50-year history that Barbie has dirtied her hands in construction. ?Construction has traditionally been a category for boys,? Schacht says, ?but it?s good for the development of all children.? Mega Bloks Barbie also sticks with Lego?s pink color scheme and neighborhood themes like pool parties and aspirational mansion-style homes.

Lego said its share of the total U.S. toy market has quadrupled in five years. As of the end of 2012 it was 7.9 percent, up 1.6 percentage points from the previous year.

Markets in North America, Asia and Europe delivered "impressive" sales results, the toy maker said, while growth in some southern European markets were "more moderate but still in healthy single digits."

The company, which sells products in more than 130 countries, expects sales to continue to climb in 2013, but at a slower rate due to global economic uncertainty.

Lego is not publicly listed but has published earning reports since 1997. It does not release quarterly figures.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/hT_uYHVif4g/Lego-for-girls-Building-profits-by-catering-to-girls

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Netizen holdings inaugurates speeed.com for automotive and motor ...

This partnership was completed after the transformation of the previously named Arabmotors.tv into Speeed.com, to better align the partnership's expertise in the world of internet, development and investment to match with the newly redesigned and improved changes introduced through the website's services.

This transformation has reached the content, interface, design, interaction, and ease of surfing.

Speeed.com is considered the first of its kind in covering news and updates for the huge spread of the automotive and motor sports sector.

The launching has resulted from the uplifting of the old Arabmotors.tv in line with the growing audience needs for a specialty hub that gathers local and global contents in Arabic, in addition to providing world-class service and quality of interactive content through videos, photos and other services that best accommodate the readers' ambitions.

The agreement ceremony held at Netizen offices in Dubai was signed by Mr. Khaled Al Dosari; CEO of Netizen WLL and founder of kooora.com the international sports' website, and Mr. Mousub Shashaa; GM of Arabmotors.tv.

The agreement unveiled a strategic website refresh and further supported the takeoff for Speeed.com with the company's expertise and technical capabilities. Netizen WLL is considered one of the leading names in the world of investment within the internet sector, content development, telecommunications and mobile phones, e-commerce, social networking, games and entertainment, mobile phone applications and global forums.

Netizen also has ownership of one of the largest global sports websites; kooora.com, in addition to virtual football game "Fantasy Football" and Goalzz.com. Kooora.com is one of the top sources for information and news concerning the sports field in the Arab world.

It not only features rare photos and videos for various sports' activities, it also gives a comprehensive media coverage for key sporting events for all its users. Kooora.com offers a complete database of information and records related to football teams and famous players, with a range of over one billion logins per month in the Arab world.

"The launching of Speeed.com is a product of our extensive research for what the public needs through the internet, those researches have clearly resulted in favor of the automotive and motors' global news and updates," said Mr. Khaled AlDosari, CEO of Netizen.

"Therefore, based on the distinctive success of Arabmotors.tv and its remarkable login figures and reputation, a partnership and collaboration with Netizen was instantly proposed in order to launch Speeed.com. We will build a massive fans and visitors' base for this new website through the largest youth platform for sports in the Arab world," he added.

"We anticipate a significant success for Speeed.com, especially with all the expertise put in it in such a short period of time. God willing, the website will reach the target group as soon as possible and will achieve the results we aspire. Add to that our constant belief to continuously offer the best for our visitors using contemporary methods and techniques," AlDosari concluded.

Mr. Mousub Shashaa, GM of Speeed.com (previously Arabmotors.tv) added, "We are pleased with this collaboration; the launching of Speeed.com in partnership with Netizen is in fact a great beginning and a proof of the successes that Arabmotors.tv has accomplished in line with our vision in order to reach to the transformation into Speeed.com."

"My team all over the Arab Gulf area will commit to guarantee a full comprehensive coverage for all automotive events including motor shows, launches, or any related sporting events," Mr. Shashaa added, "In addition to recruiting onsite reporters and specialists, with an experience exceeding three years in media coverage and automotive field, in order to deliver news and reports of all current events for our audience at Speeed.com," he concluded.

Furthermore, Arabmotors.tv is a specialized automotive company, founded in 2009 and started its journey as a TV channel specialized in media coverage then transformed into a large leading website with large-scale social platforms that met the exact needs of its audience at the time and delivered news and reports in record timing. Arabmotors.tv has reached up to 350,000 followers on Twitter, Facebook and Google+, in addition to more than 10 million viewers on YouTube.

Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/netizen-holdings-inaugurates-speeedcom-automotive-motor-331581

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Metal ions regulate terpenoid metabolism in insects

Friday, March 1, 2013

Max Planck scientists in Jena, Germany, have discovered an unusual regulation of enzymes that catalyze chain elongation in an important secondary metabolism, the terpenoid pathway. In the horseradish leaf beetle Phaedon cochleariae a single enzyme can trigger the production of two completely different substances depending on whether it is regulated by cobalt, manganese or magnesium ions: iridoids, which are defensive substances the larvae use to repel predators, or juvenile hormones, which control insect's development. Insects unlike plants do not have a large arsenal of the proteins called isoprenyl diphosphate synthases. Therefore they may have developed another efficient option to channel metabolites into the different directions of terpenoid metabolism by using metal ions for control. (PNAS, Early Edition, February 25, 2013, DOI:10.1073/pnas.1221489110)

Natural products: 40,000 terpenes

Apart from the primary metabolism which produces substances that ensure the survival of the cells, there are additional biosynthetic pathways in all organisms. Their products may be less important for a single cell, but they can nevertheless be essential for the whole organism. These pathways are summarized as secondary metabolism. One of them is the terpenoid pathway: with more than 40,000 different known structures it generates one of the largest classes of natural products. Terpenoid molecules have diverse functions and can act as components in molecular signaling pathways, as toxins, fragrances or hormones.

The basic unit of all terpenes is a simple molecule containing five carbon atoms that can be joined to chains of different length. There are monoterpenes (C10 units, 2 x C5), sesquiterpenes (C15, 3 x C5), and even polymers, such as natural rubber, which comprises several hundred C5 units. Special enzymes mediate chain elongation. These enzymes have attracted the curiosity of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, and the Leibniz Institute for Plant Biochemistry in Halle. They studied mechanistic alternatives of how chain elongation is regulated.

Metal ions instead of specialized enzymes

Enzymes involved in chain elongation belong to the group of isoprenyl diphosphate synthases. Such an enzyme was isolated from larvae of the horseradish leaf beetle Phaedon cochleariae. It raised the interest of Antje Burse, project group leader in the Department of Bioorganic Chemistry at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology.

Experiments with larvae in which the enzyme encoding gene was silenced showed that the protein was involved in the formation of the C10 monoterpene chrysomelidial that larvae produce to defend themselves against predators. The larvae accumulate this monoterpene in special glands and release it as a defensive secretion when they are attacked by their enemies, such as ants.

However, surprising results emerged after comprehensive biochemical characterization of the enzyme. "After we had conducted an in vitro analysis of the protein, including measurements of product formation in the presence of different metal ions as co-factors, we were surprised to discover that only geranyl diphosphate (C10), a precursor for the defensive substance chrysomelidial, was produced after addition of cobalt and manganese ions. On the other hand, adding magnesium ions resulted in the formation of farnesyl diphosphate (C15), a potential precursor for juvenile hormones, which is 5 carbon atoms longer," says the scientist. All three metals were found in larval tissue, leading to the assumption that enzyme catalysis is directed by the different metal co-factors in the larvae, whichever is predominant in amount: Towards toxin or hormone ? physiologically a major difference.

Sequence comparisons cannot replace a thorough biochemical analysis

How the different metal ions modify the product range of the enzyme is still unclear. It is very likely that the varying atomic radii of the metal ions involved in the catalysis effect changes in the spatial structure of the enzyme, which prevent or allow the admission of a third C5 unit and hence result in the production of C10 or C15 molecules.

"Our experiments provide two important findings," says Wilhelm Boland, director at the Max Planck Institute. "First, the directing influence of metal ions on the product formation of isoprenyl diphosphate synthases is a novel "control element" in the regulation of the terpene metabolism which should be included in future experimental settings. And secondly: The diversity of terpenoid molecules cannot be attributed solely to the broad substrate specificity of some enzymes in the last steps of the metabolic pathway, but is in fact already inherent in early biosynthetic steps." Nature continues to provide interesting answers to the question how organisms manage to produce tens of thousands of different secondary metabolites. [JWK/AO]

###

Sindy Frick, Raimund Nagel, Axel Schmidt, Ren R. Bodemann, Peter Rahfeld, Gerhard Pauls, Wolfgang Brandt Jonathan Gershenzon, Wilhelm Boland, Antje Burse: Metal ions control product specificity of isoprenyl diphosphate synthases in the insect terpenoid pathway. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Early Edition, February 25, 2013, DOI:10.1073/pnas.1221489110 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1221489110

Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology: http://www.ice.mpg.de

Thanks to Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127068/Metal_ions_regulate_terpenoid_metabolism_in_insects

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