Raiders owner Al Davis died of heart failure

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? The cause of former Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis' death has been determined to have been heart failure.

The death certificate issued by Alameda County says Davis died at age 82 at 2:45 a.m. on Oct. 8 from an abnormal hearth rhythm, congestive heart failure and a heart muscle disease.

He died at the Oakland Airport Hilton, where he lived during much of the football season.

According to the certificate, Davis also had a form of skin cancer and had undergone throat surgery three days before his death. He also underwent heart surgery in 1996.

The details of the death certificate were first reported by TMZ.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-10-29-FBN-Raiders-Davis-Death/id-e5d3f9882ca14623a6554973137b71f5

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Apache plans $1.5 billion Egypt investments in 2012 (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) ? American oil and gas company Apache Corp (APA.N) plans to increase investments in its Egypt operations by $1.5 billion starting in 2012, Egypt's General Authority for Free-zones and Investments (GAFI) said on Saturday.

This is one of the biggest expansion operations for foreign investments in Egypt since a popular uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in January and left the economy floundering, deterring investments amid political instability.

Apache has operations in the United States, Canada, Egypt, the United Kingdom North Sea, Australia and Argentina.

Coca-Cola Co (KO.N) has also said, according to a GAFI statement, that it plans to double its investments in Egypt by $200 million in 2012.

The company said it will expand its factories in Egypt to become a major regional production center.

Foreign direct investment dropped from $6.2 bln in the 2009/2010 financial year ending in June to $2.1 bln in 2010/2011.

(Reporting By Tamim Elyan; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111030/bs_nm/us_egypt_investments

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What the Flick!? Takes on In Time, The Rum Diary, and Puss in Boots

RT joins Christy Lemire and Alonso Duralde to talk about this week's releases.

This week on What the Flick, I join critics Christy Lemire (AP, Ebert Presents At the Movies) and Alonso Duralde (The Wrap, Linoleum Knife podcast) to review the latest from Justin Timberlake, Johnny Depp, and Dreamworks Animation.

---

36%

Christy, Alonso and I are all pretty lukewarm on In Time. We're a little more positive than most critics, but we all feel like it drops the ball on an otherwise intriguing premise.

---

50%

Christy and I talk about Johnny Depp's latest turn in a Hunter S. Thompson adaption. We both think it's OK, but it could have been better.

---

81%

Christy and Alonso review Puss in Boots on their own, because I hadn't seen the film when we taped this. But they're mostly positive on it, while I mostly sit quietly and lend moral support. (Also, this clip is slightly NSFW, due to me swearing about 3D once or twice).

---

We'll be back with a new batch of reviews next week, and in the meantime, you can see the archive of What the Flick!? reviews here.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1923859/news/1923859/

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PFT: McNabb says he should still be Vikings' starter

Getty Images

We?re trying to look in-depth at every team during their bye week.

The Bears, Jets, Bucs, and Raiders got the treatment earlier this week. Now up: The Packers.

Better than the champs

The Packers offense is better than it was during their Super Bowl season. To put it more precisely: The Packers? 2010 playoff offense has carried over into the 2011 regular season.

Pete Doughtery of the Green Bay Press-Gazette?asked the question?of?the Packers season this week. Do Green Bay?s defense issues matter when the offense is this ridiculous? ?The answer so far is no.

Rodgers easily the MVP?

It?s early, but Aaron Rodgers has been the best player in the league. ?He?s throwing for 9.9 yards-per-attempt. That would tie Kurt Warner for the highest number since the 1950?s. ?Rodgers? accuracy, decision-making, and play-making under duress has been epic.

Yes, the schedule set up well for Green Bay early. Few teams faced an easier early slate. But Rodgers is having a historical season.

More weapons

Jermichael Finley is healthy and catching touchdowns. It says a lot about this offense that Rodgers doesn?t need Finley to be a huge factor each week. ?Jordy Nelson consolidated his playoff success; he?s on pace for 1,000 yards. Randall Cobb isn?t a consistent threat, but he brings a new dimension to the offense. ?Greg Jennings and James Jones are who they have always been.

This is simply a better group than a year ago. Only the Saints have scored more points. ?Almost all the receivers are in their prime and know Mike McCarthy?s system well. Donald Driver?s decline barely matters; he?s the fourth or fifth wideout.

Line has held up

There were concerns in the preseason about the offensive line, but it has held up fairly well despite tackle Chad Clifton?s injury. Marshall Newhouse played well on the left side until facing the Vikings. The interior is strong. There may not be a better guard-center combo in the league than Scott Wells and Josh Sitton. Bryan Bulaga has continued to develop at right tackle.

More of the same from run game

This is not a great running team, but they aren?t as bad as the numbers indicate. The Packers rank 26th in yards?per-carry at 3.8. They were 25th last year. ?But the two key runners are better than that.

James Starks is at 4.5 yards-per-carry and Ryan Grant is at 4.0. Grant isn?t quite his old self and Starks could be more consistent, but it?s not a terrible group. Starks impressively closed out the win over Minnesota.

Defense takes step back

Green Bay?s defense gives up a lot of yards, but they rank tenth in points allowed. Points matter, not yards. ?The Packers are a good red zone defense team. They could stand to get better play from some of their young core cuys.

Clay Matthews has been good so far, but not to his 2010 level. ?The same is true for B.J. Raji. Tramon Williams hasn?t been 100%. Get that trio playing at a higher level, and the Packers defense could surge late in the year like in 2010. So far they have been ordinary.

Schedule gets much tougher

The Packers have benefited from one of the easiest schedules in the league. It gets tougher with road dates against the Chargers, Chiefs, Lions, and Giants. ?The Packers only face one team the rest of the way that currently has a losing record.

An undefeated season is very unlikely, but something around 14-2 sounds about right. That would result in the No. 1 seed in the NFC, a great spot from which to try to win another championship.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/10/29/mcnabb-says-he-should-still-be-the-starter-in-minnesota/related/

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HTC releases Gingerbread kernel source for EVO Shift 4G, Thunderbolt, and Droid Incredible

HTC has made the Gingerbread kernel source for the EVO Shift 4G, HTC Thunderbolt, and Droid Incredible available for download on their developer center website.  As always, unless you're a kernel developer or ROM chef, this won't do too much for you -- other than build anticipation for the awesome new flashables that will be coming soon for these three. 

Devs, have at it.  And don't be afraid to holler at us when you get something good cooked up!

Source: HTC Developer Center

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/lhFFAdoWMmY/htc-releases-gingerbread-kernel-source-evo-shift-4g-thunderbolt-and-droid-incredible

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Intestinal stem cells respond to food by supersizing the gut

Public release date: 27-Oct-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Robert Sanders
rsanders@berkeley.edu
510-643-6998
University of California - Berkeley

Locally released insulin activates stem cells to produce more gut and stem cells

A new study from University of California, Berkeley, researchers demonstrates that adult stem cells can reshape our organs in response to changes in the body and the environment, a finding that could have implications for diabetes and obesity.

Current thinking has been that, once embryonic stem cells mature into adult stem cells, they sit quietly in our tissues, replacing cells that die or are injured but doing little else.

But in working with fruit flies, the researchers found that intestinal stem cells responded to increased food intake by producing more intestinal cells, expanding the size of the intestines as long as the food keeps flowing.

"When flies start to eat, the intestinal stem cells go into overdrive, and the gut expands," said UC Berkeley post-doctoral fellow Lucy O'Brien. "Four days later, the gut is four times bigger than before, but when food is taken away, the gut slims down."

Just as in humans and other mammals, O'Brien added, the fly intestine secretes its own insulin. In flies, intestinal insulin seems to be the signal that makes stem cells "supersize the gut."

"Because of the many similarities between the fruit fly and the human, the discovery may hold a key to understanding how human organs adapt to environmental change," said David Bilder, UC-Berkeley associate professor of molecular and cell biology.

The research will be published in the Oct. 28 issue of the journal Cell.

Stem cells key to adaptability

Many tissues grow or shrink with usage, including muscle, liver and intestine. Human intestines, for example, regrow after portions have been surgically removed because of cancer or injury, and hibernating animals see their intestines shrink to one-third their normal size during winter.

"One strategy animals use to deal with environmental variability is to tune the workings of their organ systems to match the conditions at hand," O'Brien said. "How exactly this 'organ adaptation' happens, particularly in adult animals that are no longer growing, has long been a mystery."

Following the surprising discovery of stem cells in the intestines of fruit flies five years ago, O'Brien and Bilder decided to investigate the role of adult stem cells in normal intestinal growth in hopes of finding clues to their role in vertebrates like us.

"I looked at stained stem cells in the fruit fly intestine, and they are studded throughout like jewels. The tissues were so beautiful, I knew I had to study them," O'Brien said.

O'Brien, Bilder and their colleagues discovered that when fruit flies feed, their intestines secrete insulin locally, which stimulates intestinal stem cells to divide and produce more intestinal cells.

"The real surprise was that the fruit fly intestine is capable of secreting its own insulin," BIlder said. "This intestinal insulin spikes immediately after feeding and talks directly to stem cells, so the intestine controls its own adaptation."

Stem cells can divide either asymmetrically, producing one stem cell and one intestinal cell, or symmetrically, producing two stem cells. The team found that, in response to food, intestinal stem cells underwent symmetric division more frequently than asymmetric division, which had the effect of maintaining the proportion of stem cells to intestinal cells, and is a more efficient way of ramping up the total number of cells, O'Brien said.

"Adaptive resizing of the intestine makes sense from the standpoint of physiological fitness," she said. "Upkeep of the intestinal lining is metabolically expensive, consuming up to 30 percent of the body's energy resources. By minimizing intestinal size when food is scarce, and maximizing digestive capacity when food is abundant, adaptive intestinal resizing by stem cells helps animals survive in constantly changing environments."

###

Bilder and O'Brien's coauthors on the Cell paper are UC Berkeley staff researchers Sarah S. Soliman and Xinghua Li.

The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health and, for O'Brien, by a Genentech Foundation Fellowship of the Life Sciences Research Foundation.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 27-Oct-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Robert Sanders
rsanders@berkeley.edu
510-643-6998
University of California - Berkeley

Locally released insulin activates stem cells to produce more gut and stem cells

A new study from University of California, Berkeley, researchers demonstrates that adult stem cells can reshape our organs in response to changes in the body and the environment, a finding that could have implications for diabetes and obesity.

Current thinking has been that, once embryonic stem cells mature into adult stem cells, they sit quietly in our tissues, replacing cells that die or are injured but doing little else.

But in working with fruit flies, the researchers found that intestinal stem cells responded to increased food intake by producing more intestinal cells, expanding the size of the intestines as long as the food keeps flowing.

"When flies start to eat, the intestinal stem cells go into overdrive, and the gut expands," said UC Berkeley post-doctoral fellow Lucy O'Brien. "Four days later, the gut is four times bigger than before, but when food is taken away, the gut slims down."

Just as in humans and other mammals, O'Brien added, the fly intestine secretes its own insulin. In flies, intestinal insulin seems to be the signal that makes stem cells "supersize the gut."

"Because of the many similarities between the fruit fly and the human, the discovery may hold a key to understanding how human organs adapt to environmental change," said David Bilder, UC-Berkeley associate professor of molecular and cell biology.

The research will be published in the Oct. 28 issue of the journal Cell.

Stem cells key to adaptability

Many tissues grow or shrink with usage, including muscle, liver and intestine. Human intestines, for example, regrow after portions have been surgically removed because of cancer or injury, and hibernating animals see their intestines shrink to one-third their normal size during winter.

"One strategy animals use to deal with environmental variability is to tune the workings of their organ systems to match the conditions at hand," O'Brien said. "How exactly this 'organ adaptation' happens, particularly in adult animals that are no longer growing, has long been a mystery."

Following the surprising discovery of stem cells in the intestines of fruit flies five years ago, O'Brien and Bilder decided to investigate the role of adult stem cells in normal intestinal growth in hopes of finding clues to their role in vertebrates like us.

"I looked at stained stem cells in the fruit fly intestine, and they are studded throughout like jewels. The tissues were so beautiful, I knew I had to study them," O'Brien said.

O'Brien, Bilder and their colleagues discovered that when fruit flies feed, their intestines secrete insulin locally, which stimulates intestinal stem cells to divide and produce more intestinal cells.

"The real surprise was that the fruit fly intestine is capable of secreting its own insulin," BIlder said. "This intestinal insulin spikes immediately after feeding and talks directly to stem cells, so the intestine controls its own adaptation."

Stem cells can divide either asymmetrically, producing one stem cell and one intestinal cell, or symmetrically, producing two stem cells. The team found that, in response to food, intestinal stem cells underwent symmetric division more frequently than asymmetric division, which had the effect of maintaining the proportion of stem cells to intestinal cells, and is a more efficient way of ramping up the total number of cells, O'Brien said.

"Adaptive resizing of the intestine makes sense from the standpoint of physiological fitness," she said. "Upkeep of the intestinal lining is metabolically expensive, consuming up to 30 percent of the body's energy resources. By minimizing intestinal size when food is scarce, and maximizing digestive capacity when food is abundant, adaptive intestinal resizing by stem cells helps animals survive in constantly changing environments."

###

Bilder and O'Brien's coauthors on the Cell paper are UC Berkeley staff researchers Sarah S. Soliman and Xinghua Li.

The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health and, for O'Brien, by a Genentech Foundation Fellowship of the Life Sciences Research Foundation.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/uoc--isc102711.php

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Violence erupts after Tunisian Islamists win vote (Reuters)

TUNIS (Reuters) ? Tunisian electoral officials confirmed the Islamist Ennahda party as winner of the North African country's election, setting it up to form the first Islamist-led government in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings.

But the election, which has so far confounded predictions it would tip the country into crisis, turned violent when protesters angry their fourth-placed party was eliminated from the poll set fire to the mayor's office in a provincial town.

Ennahda has tried to reassure secularists nervous about the prospect of Islamist rule in one of the Arab world's most liberal countries by saying it will respect women's rights and not try to impose a Muslim moral code on society.

The Islamists won power 10 months after Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian vegetable seller in the town of Sidi Bouzid, set fire to himself in an act of protest that led to the fall of Tunisia's leader and inspired uprisings in Egypt and Libya.

"We salute Sidi Bouzid and its sons who launched the spark and we hope that God will have made Mohamed Bouazizi a martyr," said Ennahda leader Rachid Ghannouchi, a soft-spoken Islamic scholar who spent 22 years in exile in Britain.

"We will continue this revolution to realize its aims of a Tunisia that is free, independent, developing and prosperous in which the rights of God, the Prophet, women, men, the religious and the non-religious are assured because Tunisia is for everyone," Ghannouchi told a crowd of cheering supporters.

Announcing the results, election commission members said Ennahda had won 90 seats in the 217-seat assembly, which will draft a new constitution, form an interim government and schedule new elections, probably for early 2013.

The Islamists' nearest rival, the secularist Congress for the Republic, won 30 seats, the commission members told a packed hall in the capital, ending a four-day wait since Sunday's poll for the painstaking count to be completed.

ISLAMIST-LED GOVERNMENT

Ennahda, banned before January's revolution, fell short of an absolute majority in the new assembly. It is expected to broker a coalition with two of the secularist runners-up and, with them, form a government.

The Islamists will get the biggest say on important posts. They have already said they will put forward Hamadi Jbeli, Ghannouchi's deputy and a former political prisoner, for the post of prime minister.

Tunisia's complex election system, which replaced the rigged, one-horse races conducted before the revolution, made it impossible for any one party to win a majority of assembly seats.

Ennahda lies at the moderate and liberal end of the spectrum of Islamist parties in the Middle East. Ghannouchi models his approach on the moderate stance of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

The party's victory is the first for Islamists since the Hamas faction won an election in the Palestinian Territories seven years ago.

It is a result which will resonate in Egypt, where a party with ideological ties to Ennahda is expected to do well in a multi-stage parliamentary poll that starts in November.

REVOLUTION BIRTHPLACE

Thursday night's violence broke out in Sidi Bouzid, the birth-place of the revolution which ousted autocratic leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Protesters there were angry that election officials had canceled seats won by the Popular List, a party led by businessmen Hachmi Hamdi, over alleged campaign finance violations. The party is popular in Sidi Bouzid.

"They have set fire to a large part of the mayor's office, and the police are nowhere to be seen," local resident Mehdi Horcheni told Reuters by telephone from the town.

He said elsewhere in the town, the protesters set fire to an Ennahda campaign office and police used tear gas in a failed attempt to disperse the crowd.

Another witness, Hafed Abdulli, said the crowd was burning tyres in the streets. "People are protesting against the cancellation of the Popular List," he said.

The Popular List was running in fourth place in the election, according to preliminary results, before its seats were canceled. The party's leader used to support Ben Ali and during the election ran a populist campaign heavily promoted on the British-based television station he owns.

The violence appeared confined to Hamdi's supporters, as the three main secularist parties have already accepted defeat.

There have been none of the clashes that were predicted involving hardline Islamists who are more radical than Ennahda or the secularists who believe the election result will threaten their liberal lifestyles.

Ghannouchi and his party officials have issued a carefully-choreographed series of announcements designed to reassure skeptics that there is no need to fear an Islamist government.

They have said there will be no ban on foreign tourists -- a vital source of revenue for Tunisia's spluttering economy -- drinking alcohol or wearing revealing beachwear.

The party has also reached out to anxious investors by saying it will not impose Islamic banking rules and that it is inclined to keep the finance minister and central bank governor in their posts when it forms the new government.

(Additional reporting by Abdelaziz Boumzar; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Ralph Gowling)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111027/wl_nm/us_tunisia

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In India, SELCO blazes an entrepreneurial trail to bring solar power to the people

Harish Hande wants to make solar power available to all Indians ? even the poorest street vendors.

Harish Hande is democratizing electricity. In India, nearly half of all households lack power. Mr. Hande has made it his life?s work to change that, and he?s doing it with affordable, sustainable technology.

Skip to next paragraph

Hande is the managing director of SELCO, a social enterprise in Bangalore, India, that develops sustainable technology to improve the lives of India?s underprivileged masses. In the past 10 years, Hande says, SELCO has increased Indian fuel efficiency, enhanced the financial power of India?s rural banks, and improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of low-income Indians.

In a September talk at MercyCorps in Portland, Ore., sponsored by the Lemelson Foundation, Hande told SELCO?s story to an enthusiastic audience. It was a glimpse into the potential of sustainable technology and the difficulties of motivating charitable service in a profit-oriented culture.

SELCO works to customize products for underprivileged consumers, using sustainable values to cut costs and improve lives. In India, ?sustainability is not getting subsidized," Hande explained. "Sustainability is subsidizing other industries.?

SELCO "subsidizes" the work of India?s poor, he said, by providing sustainable technology that boosts productivity and income for poor workers.

For example: Most street vendors in India use kerosene lights, which leave a substantial carbon footprint. Perhaps more importantly, kerosene costs about 15 rupees (30 cents) per day. So SELCO offers these street vendors solar lighting for about 10 rupees a day: a 33 percent personal savings. Those savings can make all the difference for many of SELCO?s clients.

SELCO?s recent success belies the difficulty it had in getting off the ground. According to Hande, his venture is quite unique, making it difficult to gain traction in Indian culture.

First, how do you convince entrepreneurs that values are more important than sales?

Most salespeople ?sell up,? meaning they sell to clients who are of a higher socioeconomic standing than they are. But SELCO's sales team ?sells down? to people with little expendable income, and Hande feels it's ethically unacceptable ? contrary to SELCO's business model, in fact ? to sell clients products they don't need. This complicates SELCO's worker training, and in a caste system like India?s, these relationships are all the more difficult.

Another challenge for Hande: recruiting young employees. How do you convince economically minded parents that joining a not-so-lucrative industry is a solid decision? As Hande explains, his ?biggest question is, 'How do we convince our parents?? ? India?s economy is growing fast, developing a success-oriented culture that prioritizes profitable career choices over service-minded work.

And once you?ve convinced the parents, how do you get urban youths to think and care about the rural poor? Satisfying these conditions is key for recruiting what Hande calls "holistically oriented" salespeople who care about what they do and whom they do it for.

Yet despite these difficulties, SELCO is bringing sustainable technology to India?s underprivileged classes, improving their lives, and helping the environment with more than 115,000 new solar-energy systems in the last 15 years. Overcoming the cultural barriers, Hande has found a ready supply of holistically minded entrepreneurs. SELCO?s base has grown quickly in recent years, and the r?sum?s keep coming in.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/_XZH31sZyJE/In-India-SELCO-blazes-an-entrepreneurial-trail-to-bring-solar-power-to-the-people

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Ashton Kutcher Breaks Down During Speech

Ashton Kutcher had to fight back tears during a recent public appearance -- but the marital problems he's rumored to be having with wife Demi Moore were not the cause. Global sex trafficking was. Kutcher was being honored for his charity work at the GQ Gentlemen's Ball in New York City Oct. 26, when he took the stage to speak on the topic of trafficking and sexual exploitation -- and he had a tough time holding it together. Watch the video below.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/ashton-kutcher-breaks-down-gq-gentlemens-ball/1-a-397191?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aashton-kutcher-breaks-down-gq-gentlemens-ball-397191

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Anti-Wall Streeters inspire Halloween costumes (Providence Journal)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/153220207?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Iraq war vet injured during Oakland protests (AP)

OAKLAND, Calif. ? The clash between Oakland police and Occupy Wall Street protesters left a Marine veteran who served two Iraq tours in critical condition Wednesday after he was struck by a police projectile, a veterans group said.

Scott Olsen, 24, suffered a fracture skull Tuesday as he marched with other protesters toward City Hall, said Dottie Guy, of the Iraq Veterans Against the War. The demonstrators had been making an attempt to re-establish a presence in the area of a disbanded protesters' camp when they were met by police officers in riot gear.

Several small skirmishes broke out and officers cleared the area by firing tear gas.

It's not known exactly what type of object struck Olsen, Guy said. It's also uncertain whether Olsen, currently a systems network administrator in Daly City, will need surgery, she added.

"It's still too early to tell," Guy said. "We're hoping for the best."

Curt Olsen, a spokesman for Highland Hospital in Oakland, confirmed that the veteran was in critical condition but could not release any more information.

The clash Tuesday came as officials complained about what they described as deteriorating safety, sanitation and health issues at the dismantled camp.

Olsen, who was discharged last year, participated in the protest because he felt corporations and banks have too much influence on the government, Guy said.

A vigil for him is scheduled to be held Wednesday evening near the Oakland City Hall, she said. Multiple attempts to reach Oakland police Wednesday by The Associated Press were unsuccessful, but the department was scheduled to take part in a news conference at 4:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, Oakland demonstrators vowed on Wednesday to return to their protest site just hours after police ? who were met as they moved in by pelted rocks, bottles and utensils ? cleared hundreds of people from the streets with tear gas and bean bag rounds.

A Twitter feed used by Oakland's Occupy Wall Street movement called on protesters to return to downtown at 6 p.m. for another round, and some demonstrators vowed to return as soon as possible.

Max Alper, 31, a union organizer from Berkeley, gathered with a handful of other protesters Wednesday at the scene of Tuesday night's clash.

"As soon as these barricades are moved, hundreds of people are going to come back. These actions by police were wrong, but they're just going to strengthen the movement," Alper said.

Alper was arrested Tuesday morning when he went to witness the police raid on the Occupy Oakland encampment outside City Hall, he said. He said his arm was injured when baton-swinging police descended on him and other protesters.

Police estimated that there were roughly 1,000 demonstrators at the first clash following the march.

City officials say that two officers were injured. At least five protesters were arrested and several others injured in the evening clashes.

____

Associated Press reporters Jason Dearen and Marcus Wohlsen contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111026/ap_on_re_us/us_occupy_wall_street_oakland

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Orlando Jones: Liberals Need to Kill Sarah Palin!

The death of Moammar Gadhafi set off a string of celebrations throughout Libya, concerns among the international community ... and absurd comments on Twitter.

An instant, harmless classic: “Lunch with Gadhafi, cancelled.” - Steve Martin.

On Saturday, though, actor Orlando Jones went in a different direction:

“Libyan Rebels kill Gaddafi, if American liberals want respect they better stop listening to Aretha & kill Sarah Palin (:” wrote the star ... drawing a harsh rebuke.

Palin has not responded on Twitter to Jones’ remarks, but supporters have.

An account called Tennessee4Palin (@TN4P) wrote, “Why does @TheOrlandoJones think it’s funny to call for Sarah Palin to be murdered? #palin #liberaltolerance”

Jones' response, “No I don’t. I think it’s funny you are so upset about my inane tweet.”

Another user then tweeted at him, “You are obviously a big fat moron. How about someone talked about killing your mother or sister. Is that Funny-ha, ha?”

Jones' response to that one: “Yay! Name calling. I’m a moron that’s working on the big and fat part. Maybe you could buy me food & complete the trifecta (:”

What do you think? Did Orlando Jones go too far?

He admits he was "inane," yes, but telling people to KILL her? Really? And likening Palin to Gadhafi ... is that any different than Hank Williams' Obama-Hitler comparison?

Tell us what you think by commenting and voting below ...

Whose side are you on?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/10/orlando-jones-liberals-need-to-kill-sarah-palin/

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Exclusive: National Security Agency helps banks battle hackers (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The National Security Agency, a secretive arm of the U.S. military, has begun providing Wall Street banks with intelligence on foreign hackers, a sign of growing U.S. fears of financial sabotage.

The assistance from the agency that conducts electronic spying overseas is part of an effort by American banks and other financial firms to get help from the U.S. military and private defense contractors to fend off cyber attacks, according to interviews with U.S. officials, security experts and defense industry executives.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also warned banks of particular threats amid concerns that hackers could potentially exploit security vulnerabilities to wreak havoc across global markets and cause economic mayhem.

While government and private sector security sources are reluctant to discuss specific lines of investigations, they paint worst-case scenarios of hackers ensconcing themselves inside a bank's network to disable trading systems for stocks, bonds and currencies, trigger flash crashes, initiate large transfers of funds or turn off all ATM machines.

It is unclear if hackers have ever been close to producing anything as dire, but the FBI says it has already helped banks avert several major cyber attacks by helping identify network vulnerabilities.

NSA Director Keith Alexander, who runs the U.S. military's cyber operations, told Reuters the agency is currently talking to financial firms about sharing electronic information on malicious software, possibly by expanding a pilot program through which it offers similar data to the defense industry. He did not provide further details on his agency's collaboration with banks.

Alexander said industry and government were making progress in protecting computer networks, but "tremendous vulnerabilities" remained. The four-star Army general noted companies that have suffered damage from hackers, such as Google Inc, Lockheed Martin Corp and Nasdaq OMX Group, had among the best security systems in the world.

"If they're getting exploited, what about the rest? We have to change that paradigm," Alexander said.

NSA, which has long been charged with protecting classified government networks from attack, is already working with Nasdaq to beef up its defenses after hackers infiltrated its computer systems last year and installed malicious software that allowed them to spy on the directors of publicly held companies. A Nasdaq spokesman confirmed the investigation into the attack continues, but declined to give further details.

OFFICIALS WORRIED

Hackers have targeted Wall Street investment banks for more than a decade, but recent attacks have been more sophisticated, coordinated and deliberate.

That makes security experts suspect the hackers were backed by countries such as China, and fueled concerns that cyber terrorists might someday use malware to wipe out crucial data and cripple networks across the financial sector.

China has repeatedly said it does not condone hacking, but experts say the evidence continues to mount against Beijing. In June, Google blamed China for an attempt to steal the passwords of hundreds of email account holders, the second major breach the Internet giant has blamed on the Chinese.

Earlier this year, security firm McAfee said hackers working in China broke into the computer systems of five global oil and gas companies to steal bidding plans and other critical proprietary information.

"We know adversaries have full unfettered access to certain networks," Shawn Henry, executive assistant director of the FBI, said without identifying the adversaries.

"Once there, they have the ability to destroy data," he said in an interview. "We see that as a credible threat to all sectors, but specifically the financial services sector."

The FBI has helped banks avert several potential attacks by alerting them to vulnerabilities in their computer networks, and by flagging possible hackers before they struck, he said.

Security experts interviewed by Reuters declined to identify any banks that may have data compromised, citing promises of confidentiality to clients, colleagues and employers that they would not to discuss the matter publicly.

Representatives of Wall Street's biggest banks including Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co either declined to discuss security issues or were not available to comment.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111026/tc_nm/us_cybersecurity_banks

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[OOC] War of the samurai

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Pete Seeger enters 9th decade as an activist

Tao Rodriguez-Seeger was halfway through Friday night's march down Broadway to support the Occupy Wall Street movement, a guitar strapped over his shoulder and his grandfather Pete Seeger at his side. Suddenly a New York City police officer stepped from the crowd and grabbed his elbow.

"Are you Tao Seeger?" the officer asked tersely. "Was this your idea? Did you think of this?"

Rodriguez-Seeger, a New Orleans-based musician, was certain arrest was imminent. The officer reached for his hand and he readied for the cuffs. Then something unexpected happened.

"He shook my hand and said, 'Thank you, thank you. This is beautiful,'" Rodriguez-Seeger said. "That really did it for me. The cops recognized what we were about."

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That moment affirmed the message that his grandfather has preached tirelessly across nine decades. The causes and movements have changed from time to time over 75 years, but his message has always been the same: Song is the key to understanding and change.

"Music does something to you," Rodriguez-Seeger said. "It can cross rivers of meaning that entire books can't get across. ... You take any one of Bob Dylan's songs and you get to the heart of the matter where it took Homer volumes and volumes of books to get to the same point."

Today, Pete Seeger is approaching the far end of a life lived walking hand in hand with American history, often at odds with the government that runs things. It failed to shut him up. The courts had no chance. Changing tastes and values? Never. Even time seems to have taken a step back in deference to the musical rabble-rouser's resolve and determination.

This time around, the 92-year-old Seeger was carried along by two canes, not the sound of his banjo. But his presence, in a crowd of nearly 1,000 with guitar players and chanting sign-holders and police swirling around, gave the new protest movement something it seemed to lack over the last month.

A momentary clarity, longtime friend Guy Davis thinks. A purpose. A direction.

"It's his humanity," Davis said.

Seeger's voice first rose in the 1930s against Hitler. He met Woody Guthrie, Alan Lomax and Lead Belly, and began to advocate for migrant workers and miners in the 1940s. He stared down Sen. Joseph McCarthy and endured a blacklisting he simply shrugged away. In middle age, he was a key figure in the folk revival that produced Dylan and, later, the protests that helped shape modern America.

Seeger still takes delight in lending his presence to important things, even if his voice doesn't carry like it used to. He found himself attracted to the studied inorganization of the Wall Street protesters.

"Be wary of great leaders," he said Sunday in a phone interview full of songs and stories when asked what he identifies with in the Occupy Wall Street message. "Hope that there are many, many small leaders."

Other than the canes and snowy beard, Seeger hasn't changed much since he began singing out against fascism in the mid-1930s after dropping out of Harvard in frustration.

"The sociology professor said, 'Don't think that you can change the world. The only thing you can do is study it,'" Seeger said. "... But this was 1937 and Hitler had taken power. He was murdering people and was ready to go to war."

You could say Seeger inherited his activism. His great-great grandfather came to America seeking self-determination after reading the Declaration of Independence. His great-grandfather was an abolitionist. His father was a socialist who spoke out against World War I.

His views didn't always make him popular. He was a member of the Communist Party, something he later apologized for. He was initially for staying out of World War II, but changed his mind when Hitler broke his nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union. He also spoke out against the war in Vietnam, a move that got him censored on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," and visited North Vietnam in 1972.

Seeger's influence is incalculable, however. He's the rare artist whose music and message transcends time, speaking to his children and their children and on and on.

The son of a musicologist and a violinist, he began leading others in song at 8 and was introduced to protest music around 12. Early on, he saw beauty and possibility in traditional songs often considered regional hokum or race records unfit for an upstanding white audience.

His message found an eager audience in the young generation of kids who would go on to define rock 'n' roll, changing American and world culture in myriad ways. He introduced Martin Luther King Jr. to "We Shall Overcome." In his hands, songs like "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)" and "Turn, Turn, Turn!" became galvanizing anthems.

He remains a voice for the disenfranchised ? the poor of Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta and victims of racism and greed.

Kira Moyer-Sims, a 19-year-old participant in the Occupy Wall Street movement, was introduced to Seeger's music on mix CDs from her high-school social studies teacher. Those songs, from a time that seems far away in the age of the iPod, spoke to her with modern urgency and helped push her into the protest ranks.

"Hearing this new music for me was huge and made me realize totally the importance of our nation's history and the fact that we can change it if we want to," she said. "Seeing Pete Seeger there in solidarity with the thing I've been living the past 38 days ... was phenomenal for me."

The idea of protesting for progressive change seemed to have gone out of vogue in the U.S. ? or at least disappeared from public view. After the flower children moved on to mid-life and minivans, Americans turned their focus inward. Fewer people had time for simple songs with complex meanings.

Rodriguez-Seeger said he was attracted to the nascent Occupy Wall Street movement when he joined a support march two weeks ago in Las Vegas. He was drawn to the anti-establishment message but noticed immediately that something was missing.

"I saw a lot of people getting angry at us for marching, getting out of their SUVs and giving us the finger and screaming obscenities" and using anti-gay slurs, Rodriguez-Seeger said. "I thought, if we were singing right now my gut tells me they'd be less inclined to behave like that because it's very difficult when you're hearing music to get that angry."

Davis, a 59-year-old Bronx bluesman who has been friends with the Seegers for 50 years, saw more than a little something of the grandfather in the grandson when he looked over at the pair Friday night. Rodriguez-Seeger helped organize the march, which came together in 30 hours and was driven for the most part by social-media sites like Twitter, Facebook and now YouTube, where dozens of videos mark the night.

"Pete is seeing his life come to fruition," Davis said. "He is seeing the fruits of his labors. All the years he invested in Tao, all the years I used to see him take Tao around when Tao was just a teenager, have paid off beautifully."

And the grandfather doesn't mind the fact that a new generation of Seegers is lifting its voice, even as he gladly slides into the background. Pete Seeger, in fact, says he's a little bemused by all the attention.

"Of course it's a great honor, but I'd just as soon be anonymous," he said. He would like to go down to Zuccotti Park, the heart of the movement, but he hopes he can just do it on the sly without the star power. Maybe next week on Halloween. "I won't be recognized," he muses. "Everybody will be in costume."

___

Online:

http://taorodriguezseeger.com/fr_home.cfm

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45010988/ns/today-entertainment/

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Boom times fuel Argentine president's re-election (AP)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina ? President Cristina Fernandez has been re-elected with one of the widest victory margins in Argentine history by persuading voters that she alone, even without her late powerbroker husband, is best able to keep spreading the wealth of an economic boom.

Fernandez had nearly 54 percent of the votes cast in Sunday's election, with nearly 97 percent of polling stations reporting nationwide. Her nearest challenger got just under 17 percent.

"We need everyone to comprehend ... that because of the popular will and this political decision, you can count on me to continue deepening this national project for the 40 million Argentines," she vowed in her victory speeches, first before hundreds and then thousands of supporters Sunday night.

The goal of this "project" is to profoundly change society by using Argentina's resources to raise incomes, create jobs, restore the country's industrial capacity, reduce poverty and maintain an economic boom that has seen the country grow and reduce poverty.

Since she and her predecessor as president, husband Nestor Kirchner, first moved into Argentina's presidential palace in 2003, the income gap between the country's rich and poor has been reduced by nearly half. Meanwhile, according to the International Monetary Fund's numbers for 2002-2011, Argentina's real GDP has grown 94 percent, the fastest in the Western Hemisphere and about twice the rate of Brazil, which also has grown substantially, economist Mark Weisbrot said.

U.S. President Barack "Obama could take a lesson from this," said Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. "It's an old-fashioned message of democracy: You deliver what you promise and people vote for you. It's kind of forgotten here in the U.S."

Fernandez noted that she is Latin America's first woman to be re-elected as president, but described the victory as bittersweet, since Kirchner, who died of a heart attack last Oct. 27, wasn't there to share it.

"This man who transformed Argentina led us all and gave everything he had and more," she said. "Without him, without his valor and courage, it would have been impossible to get to this point."

Thousands of jubilant, flag-waving people crowded into the capital's historic Plaza de Mayo to watch on a huge TV screen as she spoke from a downtown hotel, where her supporters interrupted so frequently with their chants that she lectured them as a mother would her children: "The worst that people can be is small. In history, you always must be bigger still ? more generous, more thoughtful, more thankful."

Then, she showed her teeth, vowing to protect Argentina from outside threats or special interests.

"This woman isn't moved by any interest. The only thing that moves her is profound love for the country. Of that I'm responsible," Fernandez said.

Later, she appeared in the plaza as well, giving a rousing, second victory speech, her amplified voice echoing through the capital as she called on Argentina's youth to dedicate themselves to social projects nationwide.

Fernandez was on track to win a larger share of votes than any president since Argentina's democracy was restored in 1983, when Raul Alfonsin was elected with 52 percent.

Her 36-point-plus lead over Gov. Hermes Binner, who finished second, was wider than any in history save the 1973 victory of her strongman hero, Juan Domingo Peron ? if you count, as many Peronists do, both the 30-point margin he won on the Peronist ticket with his wife Isabel and an additional 7 percent Peron won on a second ticket with a different vice presidential candidate, said Leandro Morganfield, a historian at the University of Buenos Aires.

Fernandez's political coalition also appeared to gain strength in Congress, where it will need to form new alliances to regain the control it lost in 2009. At play were 130 seats in the lower house and 24 in the Senate. Most of the nine governor's races contested Sunday also went to her party.

Fernandez overcame high negative ratings early in her presidency by softening her usually combative tone and proving her ability to command loyalty or respect from an unruly political elite. But she also did it by persuading voters that she will stay the course she and her husband began taking eight years ago.

Fernandez, 58, chose her 48-year-old, guitar-playing, hoodie-wearing economy minister, Amado Boudou, as her running mate and potential successor.

Together, they have championed an Argentine solution to countries facing a debt crisis: nationalize private pensions and use central bank reserves to increase government spending rather than impose austerity measures, and force bondholders to suffer before ordinary citizens.

The candidates debated over how prepared Argentina is for a global slowdown. Declining commodity and trade revenue will make it harder to raise incomes to keep up with inflation. Argentina's central bank is under pressure to spend reserves to maintain the peso's value against the dollar, while also guarding against currency shocks that could threaten Argentina's all-important trade with Brazil.

Fernandez's opposition accused her of failing to contain inflation and crime, of manipulating economic data and using government power to quell criticism.

But most voters didn't seem to care. When Fernandez is inaugurated Dec. 10, her Front for Victory coalition will become the first political bloc to begin a third consecutive presidential term since 1928, when President Hipolito Yrigoyen of the Radical Civic Union took office, only to be toppled by a military coup two years later, Morganfield said.

Fernandez said "we have to think of a different country, where whoever comes builds on top of what's already been done. That's the Argentina I dream of, where we have continuity of national political projects for the country."

___

Michael Warren can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/mwarrenap

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111024/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_argentina_election

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Panel: Boys should get HPV vaccine given to girls

FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 28, 2006 file photo, a doctor holds the human papillomavirus vaccine Gardiasil in his hand at his Chicago office. The controversial HPV shot given to girls should also be given to boys, in part to help prevent the spread of the virus through sex, a government medical panel said Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 28, 2006 file photo, a doctor holds the human papillomavirus vaccine Gardiasil in his hand at his Chicago office. The controversial HPV shot given to girls should also be given to boys, in part to help prevent the spread of the virus through sex, a government medical panel said Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

ATLANTA (AP) ? A vaccine against cervical cancer hasn't been all that popular for girls. It may be even a harder sell for boys now that it's been recommended for them too.

A government advisory panel on Tuesday decided that the vaccine should also be given to boys, in part to help prevent the cancer-causing virus through sex.

Public health officials have tried since 2006 to get parents to have their daughters vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes most of the cervical cancer in women.

They have had limited success, hitting a number of hurdles. Some parents distrust the safety of vaccines, especially newer products. Others don't want to think about their daughters having sex one day, or worry that the vaccine essentially promotes promiscuous behavior.

Tuesday's vote by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices' was the first to strongly recommend routine vaccination for boys since the vaccine was first approved for them two years ago. Officials acknowledged the low rate in girls encouraged them to take a new, hard look.

Experts say a key benefit of routinely vaccinating boys could be preventing the spread of the virus to others through sex ? making up somewhat for the disappointing vaccination rate in girls. But the recommendation is being framed as an important new measure against cancer in males.

"Today is another milestone in the nation's battle against cancer," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention administrator who oversees the agency's immunization programs.

Federal health officials usually adopt the panel's recommendations and ask doctors and patients to follow them.

The vaccine has been advised for girls since 2006. Just 49 percent of adolescent girls have gotten at least the first of the three HPV shots. Only a third had gotten all three doses by last year.

"Pretty terrible," Schuchat said.

Schuchat attributed the low rates for girls to confusion or misunderstanding by parents that they can wait until their daughter becomes sexually active. It works best if the shots are given before a girl or boy begins having sex.

Some conservatives argue the vaccine could promote promiscuous behavior. It has come up in the GOP presidential campaign. Texas Gov. Rick Perry came under attack for a 2007 executive order requiring adolescent girls to get the vaccine (with an opt-out clause). When conservative lawmakers rebelled, he backed down.

An estimated 75 to 80 percent of men and women are infected with HPV during their life, but most don't develop symptoms or get sick, according to the CDC. Some infections lead to genital warts, cervical cancer and other cancers, including of the head and neck.

The HPV vaccine is approved for use in males and females ages 9 to 26; it is usually given to 11- and 12-year olds when they get other vaccines. The committee also recommended that males 13 to 21 years get vaccinated.

Tuesday's vote follows recent studies that show the vaccine prevents anal cancer in males, and may work against a type of throat cancer. A study that focused on gay men found it to be 75 percent effective against anal cancer.

While anal cancer has been increasing, it's still fairly rare. Only about 7,000 U.S. cases in men each year are tied to the strains targeted in the HPV vaccine. In contrast, about 15,000 vaccine-preventable cervical cancers in women occur annually.

Preventing a cancer that's primarily associated with gay men may not be much of a selling point, said Dr. Ranit Mishori, a family practice doctor in Washington, D.C. and an assistant professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.

Some parents may say "'Why are you vaccinating my son against anal cancer? He's not gay! He's not ever going to be gay!' I can see that will come up," said Mishori, who supports the panel's recommendation.

Schuchat indicated the CDC is ready for that kind of argument: "There's no data suggesting that offering a vaccine against HPV will change people's subsequent sexual behavior," she said.

So far, the threat of genital warts hasn't been persuasive: Some data suggest that less than 1.5 percent of adolescent males have gotten the vaccine over the past two years.

Meanwhile, some feel it's unlikely that most parents will agree to get their sons vaccinated primarily to protect girls. A survey of 600 pediatricians last year found that nearly 70 percent of doctors thought families would deem vaccination of their boys as unnecessary.

Experts at the committee meeting noted an earlier analysis that showed vaccinating boys would not be cost-effective if the female vaccination were high.

"If you do reach high coverage of females, will you stop vaccinating males?" asked Dr. David Salisbury, director immunization for the United Kingdom's Department of Health.

There are two vaccines against HPV, but Tuesday's vote applies only to Merck & Co.'s Gardasil, which costs $130 a dose. The other vaccine wasn't tested for males.

The committee's recommendation ? and the greater insurance coverage of the vaccine that is expected to follow ? will make it easier for more boys to get the shots, said Dr. Mark Feinberg, chief public health and science officer for Merck Vaccines.

Merck officials bristled at the idea that males would see the vaccine as mainly meant for gay men, noting that HPV-caused anal cancers can occur in heterosexual men.

Maura Robbins of Chicago said she's likely to have her 12-year-old son, Cole, vaccinated against HPV ? but probably not until he's a little older. "I would just like to see some long-term testing and long-term results," she said.

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner in Chicago contributed to this report.

___

Online:

HPV info: http://www.cdc.gov/hpv/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-10-25-HPV%20Vaccine-Boys/id-a7559886a7e3408098116a515eb9ebb9

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