Sunday, September 30, 2012

Overnight Music: Naughty Boy Feat. Emeli Sande - Wonder (Little green footballs)

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Patch 5.0.5 Hotfixes for September 28

A new set of hotfixes have been announced by Blizzard for September 28th. They include various fixes to pet battles, including the repair of a bug that caused pets to inadvertently skip turns, and a fix to get the Win Streak achievement to function as expected.

Hit the break for the full set of hotfixes!


  • Classes
    • Vengeance now ignores overkill damage.
    • Arcane Torrent now returns 2% of base mana (was previously an unintended 6%).
    • Priest
      • Void Shift can no longer be cast on Dominate Mind targets.
      • The priest Season 12 four-piece healer set bonus can now only be consumed by the priest that applied it.
      • The priest Season 12 two-piece healer set bonus should now grant Diamond Soul buff to other players when Power Word: Shield is cast on them.
    • Rogue
      • Blind should always land as intended. Other players should not be able to dodge, block, or parry Blind.
      • A priest's psyfiend's Psychic Terror should no longer affect targets under a Rogue's Smoke Bomb.
    • Warrior
      • Second Wind no longer interrupts a Warrior who is eating or sitting down.
  • Creatures
    • Thieving Plainshawks in Valley of the Four Winds now cast Peck while in combat with players and no longer cast Steal Weapon.
    • The humanoids of Pandaria are no longer devoid of coin, and level 86-90 creatures are now occasionally carrying a Vine-Cracked Junkbox in one of their pockets.
    • The Hozen Diver in Jade Forest now has 271k health as opposed to the 135k he had before.
    • Cheung the Stablemaster should now do the duties of a stablemaster, as expected.
  • Items
    • An appropriate amount of spell power has been added to Masterwork Forgewire Axe, Amber Spine of Klaxxi'vess, Amber Saber of Klaxxi'vess, and Forgewire Axe.
    • Zen Alchemist Stone should now work as intended.
    • Mysterious Camel Figurines should again provide the player with the ability to see Dormus.
    • The Quilen Statuette now has an item level of 463 (was 384).
    • Ancient Pandaren Fishing Charm should work as intended to give the player a chance to catch additional fish.
  • Pet Battles
    • Turn inputs should no longer sometimes be inadvertently skipped, causing only one pet to take action that turn.
    • Conceding in a random PVP Pet Battle should now count as a loss.
    • State-dependent abilities should now properly require that the state be present to gain their bonus effects.
    • Strong and Pristine Traps should now properly be awarded when the corresponding achievement is obtained.
    • The Achievement "Win Streak" should now function as expected, and be awarded to players who win 25 consecutive Pet Battles.
  • Quests
    • Players should be able to complete "Burning Down the House" as expected.
    • "SI:7 Report: Fire From the Sky" should always eject the player from Sully "The Pickle" McLeary's vehicle, and can be completed even if the player dies and returns to camp before completing Sully's event.
    • "Last Toll of the Yaungol" should only provide you with Xiao Tu's companionship while you are in Hatred's Vice.
    • Players who slip and fall from Serpent's Overlook while on the quest "The Seal is Broken" should be able to find their way back to Serpent's Spine by first returning to Grookin Hill or Pearlfin Village. Do watch your step!
    • All of the trainers for both the Horde and Alliance versions of "Battle Pet Tamers: Cataclysm" and "Battle Pet Tamers: Pandaria" now properly apply pet recovery once defeated.
    • "Sha Can Awe" quest NPCs should only apply their Languor effect on players who are currently on that quest.
    • "Gardener Fran and the Watering Can" now includes a bit more guidance for new horticulturists.
  • Bug Fixes
    • Loving a Shore Crab in Azshara ... as you do ... now properly counts towards the Achievement "To All The Squirrels I've Loved Before".
    • The Luck of the Lotus buff should provide a chance to find Plundered Treasure as intended.
    • Crossing a zone boundary while traveling by boat or zeppelin on a multi-passenger mount should no longer result in players being removed from the transport, but may still dismount the passengers from the multi-passenger mount.
    • Players can no longer access different Pandaria daily quests by visiting other realms.
    • Players visiting other realms via RealID or Battletag groups will no longer receive loot from the Salyis's Warband encounter.



It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

Filed under: Hotfixes, Mists of Pandaria

Source: http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/09/29/patch-5-0-5-hotfixes-for-september-28/

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How do i trade my battle pets ?

Quote Originally Posted by Demiano View Post

right click the pet in your list and choose "put in cage" if the option is available, sometimes they need to be healed before you can put in a cage. Then it will be in you inventory and you can do what you want, trade or auction.

Source: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1203943-How-do-i-trade-my-battle-pets

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Saturday, September 29, 2012

Brain-Mind Blog: Benjamin Franklin's System for Self-Improvement

Benjamin Franklin came up with a system for self-improvement.? The first thing that strikes you is the methodical way he sought to improve himself. He made a list of virtues.? Number 1 ("Temperance"): not to pig-out at meals or to get drunk.? Number 2 ("Silence"): not to blabber too much in conversation.? Number 3 ("Order): to become more organized at home and at work. He listed thirteen such virtues, and each week he would focus primarily on one of them.? In thirteen weeks, he noticed great improvement in all of them.? Except for the last - "Humility". The problem was that he found himself taking pride in his own humility.?

Over the years, like Franklin, I've sought to improve myself.? I've never approached it in such a structured manner, but Franklin-esque systems and recipes do appeal to me.? Was Franklin being overly-cognitive in his systematic approach?? There may be some over-thinking here. A more flexible, intuitive approach to life has its appeal as well.? But while Franklin was cognitive and systematic, he was also creative and adventuresome.? He was what Myers-Briggs would call a "Thinker" rather than a "Feeler". (An Extroverted-Intuitive-Thinking-Judger, I imagine).

There was a time when I'd have seized enthusiastically upon Franklin's system and set up my list of virtues to work on.? The virtues on my list may not have been identical to Franklin's, but I suppose one could plug in any "virtues" and work away at them Franklin-style. The idea still appeals to me. But nowadays I don't have the appetite to go whole hog on this kind of thing.?? A psychiatrist and researcher, Bruce Wexler, wrote that during our youth, our brains adapt themselves to the environments we find ourselves in. But as adults, we try to shape our environment to complement the way our brains have become. Benjamin Franklin came up with his self-improvement system at a time when his brain was young and highly 'plastic', ready for molding.?? Instead of leaving the molding to chance, Franklin took charge of it himself.?? And of course, as an adult, he played a key role in the American Revolution and the founding of the new government; perhaps shaping his environment to conform to his already-molded brain.

At this point in my life, I'm more or less happy with the brain and behavioral patterns I've acquired.? I don't have the energy for self-improvement lists. I'm not taking part in any revolutions either. But who knows.? There are still some "virtues" I'd like to work on.

Source: http://brain-and-mind.blogspot.com/2012/09/benjamin-franklins-system-for-self.html

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Video: Defense Secretary says Libya attack was terrorism (cbsnews)

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12 DIY Home Improvement Projects for a Creatively Decorated House

If you're looking at a fixer-upper, the Federal Housing Administration rehab loan may be the mortgage for you.

Are you interested in buying a fixer-upper, but don't have the cash to remodel it? Or maybe you have saved money for remodeling and you've found a house you love, but your lender won't allow you to buy it because the house isn't considered habitable without toilets.

?

There are always properties on the market that weren't maintained by cash-strapped former owners, were treated poorly by renters or were deliberately trashed by formers owners before they lost their home to foreclosure. Shouldn't there be a way for someone like you to fix up these neighborhood eyesores and bring them back to life?

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A Gift From the Government

There is, and it's brought to you by the federal government. The Federal Housing Administration's rehab loan product, the The FHA 203(k) Loan was designed for individuals who want to rehabilitate or repair a damaged home so they can live in it as their primary residence. These loans are endorsed by the government to encourage lenders to offer what would otherwise be considered a risky loan product. Because of the risk and expense involved, rehab projects are normally handled by professional real estate investors who can buy properties with cash and therefore don't need any bank to approve the property's condition.

According to the FHA, "All persons who can make the monthly mortgage payments are eligible to apply" for a 203(k) loan. To find a lender in your area who is experienced with FHA 203(k) mortgages, use the search tool at http://www.hud.gov/ll/code/llslcrit.cfm and check the box for 203(k).

You might be surprised by the variety of home repairs and improvements that can be financed with the 203(k) loan. These include, but are not limited to:

  • Painting
  • Room additions
  • Decks
  • Patios
  • Site grading and drainage
  • Bathroom remodeling
  • Kitchen remodeling, including appliances
  • Finishing an attic or basement
  • Structural alterations and repairs
  • Adding or decreasing the number of units in a dwelling (e.g., single family to duplex)
  • New siding
  • Second story addition
  • Elimination of lead-based paint problems
  • Heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVAC)
  • Plumbing
  • Roofing
  • Flooring
  • Energy conservation
  • Disabled access

The FHA does not allow "luxury items" such as tennis courts, swimming pools, hot tubs and barbecue pits to be financed with a 203(k) loan, but some items that you might think of as luxuries, such as whirlpool bathtubs, are actually allowed. Talk to your lender about the specific improvements you want to make to see what you can finance.

?

Applying for an FHA 203(k) Loan

At AmeriFirst Home Mortgage, we are your 203k Specialists. You can find us in several states in the 203k Loan Directory.

Bottom Line

Let us know how we can help, and feel free to download our FREE 203k Survival Guide anytime.

Source: http://blog.amerifirst.com/amerifirst-blog/bid/90020/12-DIY-Home-Improvement-Projects-for-a-Creatively-Decorated-House

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How Obama and Romney Are Furiously Spinning Debate Expectations (Atlantic Politics Channel)

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Friday, September 28, 2012

Rowling launches novel to fanfare, mixed reviews

LONDON (AP) ? After months of hype and anticipation, J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults has appeared, swept into the arms of hopeful booksellers and an army of grown-up Harry Potter fans eager to find out what his creator has done next.

A gritty and darkly humorous tale of ugly realities in a pretty English village, "The Casual Vacancy" seems a long way from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and reviewers gave it a mixed reception. But Rowling said Thursday she wasn't worried about the response.

"I've had my books burnt," said the author, whose magical stories were condemned as Satanist by some Christian groups. "I've got quite a way to go to upset people that much with 'A Casual Vacancy.'"

A story of ambition, envy and rivalry, the novel recounts the civic warfare sparked in the fictional Pagford when the unexpected death of a town official leaves a vacancy on the governing body. Characters set on a collision course range from the affluent lawyer Miles Mollison to the Weedons, a ramshackle clan living in The Fields, the run-down housing project on the edge of town.

Rowling told a 1,000-strong audience at London's Southbank Centre that the idea for the book ? "Local election sabotaged by teenagers, basically" ? came to her on a plane several years ago.

Writing for a more adult readership, she said, had been "freeing" ? though "in other senses it's a challenging book," told from multiple viewpoints.

Rowling said the book's focus on teenagers, the heart of Pagford and of the novel, was not a million miles from her previous work ? although these troubled and profane youngsters are "not Harry, Ron and Hermione."

"They are very different teenagers," Rowling said. "They are contemporary teenagers."

The book's sex and swearing have drawn the most comment so far ? some audience members were startled to hear the F-word pass Rowling's lips during Thursday's reading. But the presence of death is perhaps the book's most adult element, and one that loomed over Harry Potter's world, too.

"Death obsesses me," Rowling said. "I can't understand why it doesn't obsess everyone. Think it does. I'm just a little more 'out.'"

Five years after the last Potter book appeared, Rowling remains the world's most successful living writer. The lines were shorter and the wizard costumes missing, but "The Casual Vacancy" appeared to some of the same fanfare that greeted each Potter tome, with stores wheeling out crates of the books precisely at 8 a.m. as part of a finely honed marketing strategy.

And Rowling retains the intense loyalty of Potter fans. In contrast to the tight security that preceded the book's release, the atmosphere at Thursday' reading was warm; it felt like a reunion. Several audience members asked Potter-related questions, which Rowling answered at length. One young man, wearing a "Rowling is our Queen" T-shirt, asked if her could give her a present. Rowling accepted it graciously.

Many in the crowd were young adults who had grown up on Harry Potter and we keen to follow her wherever she wanted to go.

"She's been such an inspiration to everyone," said 18-year-old university student Milly Anderson. "She's not just influenced people's childhoods ? she's molded them."

Anderson said she was loving "The Casual Vacancy" ? once she'd got over the change from stories of the boy wizard and his Hogwarts chums.

"There's swearing and sex," she said. "It's a bit of a shock."

"The Casual Vacancy" is already at No. 1 on Amazon's U.S. chart, and bookmaker William Hill put 2-1 odds on it outselling "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which shifted 2.6 million copies in Britain on its first day.

Reviews have been mixed. The Associated Press judged it a challenging but rewarding read full of emotion and heart.

However, The New York Times' influential critic, Michiko Kakutani, was damning.

"The real-life world she has limned in these pages is so willfully banal, so depressingly cliched that 'The Casual Vacancy' is not only disappointing ? it's dull," she said.

The Guardian newspaper's reviewer, Theo Tait, said it was "no masterpiece, but it's not bad at all: intelligent, workmanlike, and often funny."

The Independent's Boyd Tonkin found the sometimes "long-winded and laborious" writing soared when Rowling focused on her teenage characters.

Others, though, felt the lack of likable characters might alienate readers and Daily Mail reviewer Jan Moir slammed Rowling's stark focus on Pagford's haves and have-nots as the work of a "left-leaning demagogue" painting "a bleak and rather one-sided vision of life in modern England."

Technical problems also arose Thursday. Kindle readers and other e-book users in the U.S. complained that the font was so small they could hardly read it. The American publisher, Little, Brown and Company, issued a statement late Thursday afternoon acknowledging "there were issues with that file, including the adjustability of font color and size and adjustability of margins." The publisher said the problem had been fixed and that those with a flawed text should ask retailers to send a new one. Some readers also were unhappy with the e-book's list price, $17.99, although that didn't keep the digital version from topping the Kindle charts.

It's likely nothing Rowling publishes will ever match the success of the Potter books, which have sold more than 450 million copies around the world.

But booksellers are confident "The Casual Vacancy" will be one of the year's best-sellers, whatever reviewers say.

"A lot of children have grown up with Harry Potter. They're now adults who love books," Susan Sinclair, divisional manager for the Foyles bookstore chain, said.

"I think it's going to be a really big seller at Christmas. It'll be an easy gift ? but also a good one."

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

___

AP National Writer Hillel Italie in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rowling-launches-novel-fanfare-mixed-reviews-193122300.html

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Thursday, September 27, 2012

Two categories of multiple sclerosis patients defined

ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2012) ? There are approximately 400,000 people in the United States with multiple sclerosis. Worldwide, the number jumps to more than 2.1 million people. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach to treating the millions with multiple sclerosis, what if doctors could categorize patients to create more personalized treatments? A new study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) may one day make this idea a reality in the fight against the debilitating autoimmune disease.

A research team led by Philip De Jager, MD, PhD, BWH Department of Neurology, senior study author, has found a way to distinguish patients with multiple sclerosis into two meaningful subsets. The ability to categorize patients with multiple sclerosis may open new doors for treatment development.

The study will be electronically published on September 26, 2012 in Science Translational Medicine.

"Our results suggest that we can divide the multiple sclerosis patient population into groups that have different levels of disease activity," said De Jager. "These results motivate us to improve these distinctions with further research so that we may reach our goal of identifying the best treatment for each individual who has multiple sclerosis."

De Jager and his team extracted RNA -- key molecules involved in making proteins from the instructions found in the DNA sequence -- from blood cells of patients with multiple sclerosis. After analyzing the samples, they found distinct sets of RNA molecules among the patient samples. These unique sets formed a transcriptional signature that distinguished two sets of multiple sclerosis patients -- MSa patients and MSb patients -- with those in the MSa group having a higher risk for future multiple sclerosis relapse.

According to the researchers, knowing the category a person with multiple sclerosis is in may help doctors make more informed treatment decisions. For instance, since a patient who falls into the MSa category is more likely to experience relapse, her doctor may consider a stronger treatment for the patient.

In light of the discovery, the researchers remain cautious about the findings.

"Our study is an important step towards the goal of personalized medicine in MS, but much work remains to be done to understand under which circumstance and in combination with which other information this transcriptional signature may become useful in a clinical setting," said De Jager.

However, from the pre-clinical perspective, the researchers recognize that the findings are essential because they build on earlier studies that had suggested that this structure might be present.

"The study will further enable the community of MS researchers to build upon this transcriptional signature with other data in order to enhance patient care in the future," said De Jager.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brigham and Women's Hospital, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Linda Ottoboni, Brendan T. Keenan, Pablo Tamayo, Manik Kuchroo, Jill P. Mesirov, Guy J. Buckle, Samia J. Khoury, David A. Hafler, Howard L. Weiner, and Philip L. De Jager. An RNA Profile Identifies Two Subsets of Multiple Sclerosis Patients Differing in Disease Activity. Sci Transl Med, 26 September 2012 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3004186

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/xdkeF9drOkA/120926141659.htm

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4 Post-Divorce Checkpoints: Are You Ready To Date? | Catholic ...

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Rebuilding your life after divorce can be quite challenging. For many people, it involves not just adjusting to the change emotionally, but moving to a new area, finding an entirely different set of friends, finding a new parish, etc.

If you?re reading this, you are likely a member of CatholicMatch and on your way to finding like-minded people who share your experiences and are looking for friendships and romance.

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But are you ready for romance? Beyond the obvious question of ?do you have a decree of nullity?? which means you are free to date, there are some important checkpoints that can help you determine your state of readiness for another relationship:

?

1. Are you working too much in order to avoid being alone? Do you feel that being busy is better than being alone? If so, this is an area you will want to work on before you date. Why? Because if you?re not comfortable being alone and able to enjoy your own company, you might get into a relationship for the wrong reasons. You might not be able to get out of a relationship that doesn?t work because you dislike being alone.

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Resolution: Plan a day out by yourself. Block off a specific amount of time and have a specific place to go. Splurge if you can and even if you can?t because funds are tight, make sure you go somewhere you can enjoy. If admission to a museum is too much, why not browse the art at the local street festival? Whatever you do, remember the goal is to get comfortable in your own skin and enjoy being you with or without a significant other. This is something you can do multiple times.

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2. Have you worked to overcome your faulty behavior that contributed to your divorce or are you still blaming your ex for everything? If you?ve gone through the annulment process, it?s highly likely that you?ve got this one tackled. The annulment process digs deeply and reveals all kinds of truths about your divorce, your spouse, and yourself. But if you acknowledge you need some help in this area, you should address it thoroughly before you date.

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Resolution: Take a personal inventory. If you search the internet, you will undoubtedly find various personal inventories you can take and these will be helpful. But you need to address the specific issues that contributed to your divorce. Write down the things you know about yourself that were problematic in your marriage and directly across from those, write an action that will help you change that behavior. Look at it every day and make these actions daily habits.

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5. Are you confident in the good things you can bring to a new relationship or are you feeling doubts about your self-worth? If you want to be in love, but aren?t confident in your own gifts, talents and strengths then you need to take a different kind of personal inventory. Remind yourself of your many good points.

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Resolution: Take some time to reflect on your life from childhood to today and make note of all the good things about you. Your list should be more than 3 or 4 entries long and if it?s not, you are being too hard on yourself; another detriment to having a successful relationship.

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4. Do memories of your marriage and ex-spouse hurt briefly and then life goes on or are you still having ?bad days?? It?s important to acknowledge that if you are divorced, there will always be painful reminders of the past. You are not alone in that but how those painful reminders affect you is up to you.

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Resolution: If you hear a song, find an article of clothing or experience something else that stirs the pain all over again, the best thing you can do is let it come and then let it go. Don?t stuff it down inside and put a lid on it. Don?t ignore it or try to avoid it. Acknowledge it for what it is and then let it pass. Then, say a brief prayer of thanks for your blessings. This is how you can turn bad days into bad moments that don?t last very long.

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My prayer for you is that you will find a loving, permanent relationship with someone. Having been divorced, annulled and remarried myself, I offer these suggestions to you in hopes you will prepare yourself for an incredible future. As always, you can reach me at asklisa@catholicmatch.com.

Source: http://www.catholicmatch.com/blog/2012/09/4-post-divorce-checkpoints-are-you-ready-to-date/

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Paul Ryan Receives First Intelligence Breifing; Romney Visits CIA Building

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European cargo fails to undock from space station

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Weather Channel heads to swing states for election

(AP) ? Snowstorms, hurricanes and tornados are what usually put The Weather Channel's news team in motion. This November it will mobilize for the election.

The network, which commissioned a study on how many people might be dissuaded from going to the polls by bad weather, said Wednesday it plans to send some of its meteorologists out into the field on Election Day to monitor the weather's impact on voting.

The study, done in August, found that 25 percent of eligible voters said bad weather would have an impact on their ability or desire to get to the polls on Nov. 6. Among people who said they were undecided between President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney, 35 percent said weather might make a difference in whether they vote.

Obama's supporters should be hoping for clear skies: Twenty-eight percent of people who said they plan to vote for Obama said weather would have a significant or moderate impact on their decisions to vote, while 19 percent of Romney supporters said it would.

Paul Walsh, vice president of weather analytics for The Weather Channel, said he was surprised at the number of people who suggested rain or shine could be the deciding factor in whether they vote, particularly among the undecided voters.

"In a close election, that becomes daunting," Walsh said. "The weather can become a really pivotal thing."

The Weather Channel will base reporters in swing states on Election Day. It will decide closer to the election whether to pre-empt its regular programming, as is often done during major weather stories, said Jennifer Rigby, the network's multimedia content director.

Icy road conditions will affect potential voters more than any other condition, the survey said.

Different weather in different locales also will make a difference, as populations more accustomed to hazardous weather conditions will better be able to shake them off, Walsh said.

"If it's going to snow an inch in Buffalo, that's like a walk in the park," Walsh said. "That's not going to move the needle. But if it snows an inch in New York City, that's going to change a lot of minds."

Asked which of the two candidates they'd prefer to be stranded with in a snowstorm, 54 percent of respondents answered Obama. A majority of voters also said that Obama would be better at providing aid to a city following a hurricane.

The telephone survey was conducted by global market research company Ipsos between Aug. 21 and 24, with 1,683 registered voters participating. Its margin of error was 3 percentage points.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-09-26-TV-Weather-Politics/id-b89c2b7e60d64fb9a0a889924973b6df

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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Lab encodes collagen: Program defines stable sequences for synthesis, could help fight disease, design drugs

ScienceDaily (Sep. 25, 2012) ? The human body is proficient at making collagen. And human laboratories are getting better at it all the time.

In a development that could lead to better drug design and new treatments for disease, Rice University researchers have made a major step toward synthesizing custom collagen. Rice scientists who have learned how to make collagen -- the fibrous protein that binds cells together into organs and tissues -- are now digging into its molecular structure to see how it forms and interacts with biological systems.

Jeffrey Hartgerink, an associate professor of chemistry and of bioengineering, and his former graduate student Jorge Fallas, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington, wrote a new computer program that predicts the most stable structures of nanometer-sized collagen. In nature, these small structures link into chains that serve as connective tissue in the body. Hartgerink and Fallas followed up the computer research by making and testing the collagen detailed in their calculations.

Their success, reported September 25 in the online journal Nature Communications, will be of interest to physicians and scientists who work in reconstructive surgery, cosmetics and tissue engineering as well as to researchers investigating collagen protein interactions that could lead to new treatments for cancer and other diseases.

"Collagen is an odd protein. On one hand, it's the most abundant protein in the human body," said Hartgerink, who in a previous work unveiled a new way to synthesize self-assembling collagen. "It basically is the connective fiber that holds cells together; without it you'd turn into a big puddle.

"By mass, collagen is the most common protein there is. But it's different from almost any other you might look at," he said.

Hartgerink likened collagen to DNA with a structural twist, as it has not two but three intertwining peptide strands. "Watson and Crick, when they were first trying to understand DNA, figured out the underlying code for how all the base pairs fit together," he said. "Collagen is similar, except there are three strands. In this paper, we've started to crack the code of which amino acids go with what others to stabilize the structure."

While scientists have made a great deal of progress defining the structures of other proteins, "only a small group of us have been interested in collagen. And because of that, our understanding of it has lagged behind," he said.

In their new work, Hartgerink and Fallas analyzed charged interactions between amino acids that attract one strand to another (and in this case, yet another) to form the triple helix. "We look at positively charged and negatively charged amino acids and where they need to be aligned to result in stabilization," Hartgerink said.

In the same way three-color images must be properly aligned for a viewer to see a complete picture, the three strands of a collagen protein must be in register for the protein to carry out its function.

"Collagen does more than hold cells together," he said. "It also binds other proteins that have interesting functions. Those proteins will attach to collagen, and then cells come along and bind to those proteins. Based on that interaction, a cell will then 'decide' how to behave or differentiate into a different type of cell."

Hartgerink said that property makes collagen especially valuable for biological scaffolds, materials that are under intense study as a way to grow new body parts -- even entire organs -- to replace damaged ones.

Hartgerink said strand alignment also determines a collagen helix's stability. The computer program designed by Fallas and Hartgerink calculates the stability of each possible alignment of a given set of peptide strands -- 27 in all -- to find the best matches of positively and negatively charged amino acids. It then assigns each set a score, based on the net positive or negative charge of the entire helix.

"If we have a positive charge in a peptide sequence, it will destabilize the triple helix, and we score that as a minus 1," he said. "If we have a negative charge, that also destabilizes the helix and we also score that as a minus 1. But if those charges line up in what we call the axial geometry, it negates the destabilization. This triple helix would have a score of 0, which is good.

"We create huge, theoretical populations of collagen sequences and score all of them," he said. "We find out which are closest to this magical score of 0 and throw out all the other ones." That tells the researchers which sequences are likely to self-assemble into the most stable helixes. "The math looks complicated, but a personal computer can generate one of these sequences in one or two minutes of processing time. It's not super sophisticated." He said the code will be available on his group's home page for other researchers to try.

Hartgerink's lab, based at Rice's BioScience Research Collaborative, has the unusual capacity to carry out both theoretical and experimental sides of the work. While the program generates test sequences in minutes on a desktop computer, synthesis and analysis of actual collagen takes much more effort.

"Once you have a sequence, you want to test it to see if it actually works," he said. "The math is useless if it's not predicting reality. Our proof-of-principle showed the computer code can be used to design a triple helix that folds properly. Now that we know how to do this, we can think about making collagen biomaterials for things like scaffolding, or to test protein/collagen receptor interactions, which people have been trying to demonstrate for a long time."

>He said the new work could help researchers decipher collagen's role in the metastasis of cancer. "Cancer cells need to be able to degrade collagen in order to move from organ to organ. We need to understand the structure of collagen to learn how they do that," Hargerink said. "Blood clots happen because specific proteins recognize a collagen sequence. If we don't understand the structure, we can't assist clotting to heal a wound or help people who have overclotting problems.

"All these targets are critical but they're very difficult to approach when we don't fundamentally understand collagen structure," he said. "We're not solving all those problems here, but this is a good first step."

The work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Robert A. Welch Foundation and the Norman Hackerman Advanced Research Program of Texas.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rice University. The original article was written by Mike Williams.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Jorge A. Fallas, Jeffrey D. Hartgerink. Computational design of self-assembling register-specific collagen heterotrimers. Nature Communications, 2012; 3: 1087 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2084

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/ydq0DxokZo4/120925143755.htm

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Chris Brown Breaks Up With Karrueche Tran, Makes Out With ... Nicole Scherzinger?!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/09/chris-brown-breaks-up-with-karrueche-tran-makes-out-with-dot-dot/

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A Tax Shelter Mitt Romney Could Love | POTUS NEWS

Mitt Romney seems to have used a tax strategy that involves S corporations.Jim Wilson/The New York TimesMitt Romney seems to have used a tax strategy that involves S corporations.

Gov. Mitt Romney?s 2011 tax return highlights the use of a questionable tax planning technique that may have avoided Medicare tax liability on up to $2 million of services income derived from his past employment at Bain Capital.

When Mr. Romney formally left Bain Capital in 2002, he entered into a severance agreement that covered the period from 1999, when he left Bain to work for the Olympics, until 2009. The severance agreement entitles him to receive a percentage of the profits, or ?carried interest,? from Bain funds organized during that period, as well as cash payments equal to a percentage of capital committed to the Bain funds. The severance agreement technically ended in 2009, but continues to pay out additional amounts.

The notes to Mr. Romney?s financial disclosures in June reported what it called ?ordinary course true-up? payments totaling just over $2 million in income in 2011. These payments were from management companies that provided investment advisory services to the Bain funds: Bain Capital Inc., Bain Capital II, Bain Capital NY and Bain Capital L.L.C.

It has not been disclosed how much Mr. Romney earned through his severance agreement in previous years. It is also unclear what ?ordinary course true-up? payments are, as it is not a common legal term. The term most likely refers to payments based on a formula that, for some reason, could not be calculated accurately when the agreement ended in 2009, and pursuant to the agreement can now be calculated and paid out to Mr. Romney.

In short, Mr. Romney continues to receive cash payments from the companies that manage Bain Capital?s funds. A couple of weeks ago in this column, I described how private equity firms like Bain Capital convert management fees, which would normally generate ordinary income, into investments that yield capital gain.

R. Bradford Malt, the trustee who manages Mr. Romney?s Bain holdings, has stated that Mr. Romney did not participate in the fee conversion program. One might have logically inferred, then, that Mr. Romney?s share of the management fee income would be reported as wage income on Mr. Romney?s tax return.

Not so. Instead, the payments are reported on Schedule E of the return as distributions from S corporations ? the largest being $1,961,325 from Bain Capital Inc. The distinction between wage income and an S corporation distribution is meaningless from a business standpoint, but it?s important for tax purposes.

Current law imposes a 2.9 percent Medicare tax on all wages and self-employment income. To avoid this tax, taxpayers have an incentive to characterize as much labor income as they can as investment income (like carried interest) or as a distribution from an S corporation.

Most corporations are classified as C corporations and are taxed under Subchapter C of the tax code. But under Subchapter S of the tax code, corporations can elect to be taxed on a pass-through basis, avoiding one layer of tax. Only certain corporations with a limited number of individual shareholders can make the election.

Normally, the benefit of the S corporation is that it avoids the ?double tax? on corporate earnings; instead, when the corporation makes distributions to its shareholders, the income flows through and is reported on the shareholder?s return.

In the case of a closely held service business like a law firm, the corporate ?double tax? can be easily avoided by organizing as a partnership or sole proprietorship. Here, the main benefit of organizing as an S corporation is to avoid employment taxes.

Imagine a trial lawyer who makes $10 million in a particular year, after expenses. That $10 million in wage income would generate $290,000 in Medicare tax liability.

But rather than providing legal services directly, the trial lawyer incorporates his legal practice as an S corporation, becoming its sole shareholder. The corporation pays the lawyer a minimum wage salary, and the lawyer pays employment taxes on that salary. The S corporation is the nominal provider of legal services and pays expenses, distributing what?s left (almost $10 million) to the lawyer as its sole shareholder.

That $10 million retains its character as ordinary income, but because it is treated as a shareholder distribution rather than wage or self-employment income, the distribution avoids the Medicare tax, and saves the trial lawyer nearly $290,000 in tax liability.

This strategy, more or less, was made famous by the trial lawyer and former presidential candidate John Edwards, giving rise to what is sometimes known in tax policy circles as the Edwards Loophole. (It has been employed more recently by Newt Gingrich, who has provided speaking and consulting services through an S corporation.)

The I.R.S. has challenged this abuse of S corporations, finding some success in the courts. In Spicer Accounting Inc. vs. United States, for example, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that ?regardless of how an employer chooses to characterize payments made to its employees, the true analysis is whether the payments are for remuneration for services rendered.?

The problem is that the line between return on human capital and return on investment capital is difficult to draw. By paying themselves a (modest) salary, the owners of S corporations put the I.R.S. in the difficult position of having to estimate what a reasonable wage is.

In a recent article, the law professor Richard Winchester noted that under current law, the government can rightfully attack these distributions ?as being nothing more than disguised compensation.? But because the government is ill equipped to perform the kind of audits that would help detect all potential instances of disguised compensation, Mr. Winchester notes that ?the vast majority of these cases probably go unchallenged.?

The use of the S corporation as a tax shelter is widespread. A 2002 Treasury inspector general report stated that of 84 S corporation returns under audit, the average shareholder wage was only $5,300, while the average shareholder distribution was nearly $350,000. Obviously, in many of these cases the wage portion is being deliberately understated.

In the case of Mr. Romney, the issue of his Medicare tax liability is complicated because he no longer provides services to Bain Capital. Some portion of the payment represents payment for past services rendered, but perhaps some amount could be attributed to nonwage income.

Existing case law gives the I.R.S. ample authority to challenge at least some amount of the ?true up? payments as remuneration for services rendered. If the entire amount were attributed to past services, then Mr. Romney?s use of the S Corporation avoided $58,000 in Medicare taxes. Without knowing the terms of the severance agreement, however, determining Mr. Romney?s proper tax liability is difficult.

In reality, the $58,000 in Medicare taxes is small beer for Mr. Romney, who voluntarily paid an extra $250,000 in taxes in 2011 to keep his effective federal income tax rate above 13 percent. The Medicare taxes avoided on earlier severance payments might have been much greater. But more important, from a tax policy perspective, it highlights one of the many ways that partnerships and S corporations can be manipulated to help business owners avoid the taxes that normal wage earners pay.

For further reading on using business entities to avoid employment taxes, see Richard Winchester, ?The Gap in the Employment Tax Gap,? Stanford Law and Policy Review (2009).


Victor Fleischer is a professor at the University of Colorado Law School, where he teaches partnership tax, tax policy and deals. His research focuses on how tax affects the structuring of venture capital, private equity, and corporate transactions.

Article source: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/a-tax-shelter-mitt-romney-could-love/

from your own site.

Source: http://potusnews.net/2012/09/a-tax-shelter-mitt-romney-could-love/

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Monday, September 24, 2012

Blog Post: ^FB^Watch Tennessee Titans vs Detroit Lions NFL live stream online HD football TV

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Source: http://www.gameinformer.com/blogs/members/b/paglumla47_blog/archive/2012/09/23/fb-watch-tennessee-titans-vs-detroit-lions-nfl-live-stream-online-hd-football-tv.aspx

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Sunday, September 23, 2012

Understanding Early Launch Anti-Malware (ELAM) technology in Windows 8

Windows 8 introduces a new security feature?called Secure Boot,?which protects the Windows boot configuration and components, and loads an Early Launch Anti-malware (ELAM) driver. This driver starts before other boot-start drivers and enables the evaluation of those drivers and helps the Windows kernel decide whether they should be initialized. By being launched first by the kernel, ELAM is ensured that it is launched before any other third-party software. It is therefore able to detect malware in the boot process itself and prevent it from loading or initializing.

Windows Defender takes advantage of Early-Launch Anti-Malware and you therefore see that it no longer loads after the start-up process is complete, but early on during boot process.

Third-party antivirus software too are able to take advantage of the ELAM technology. To do so, they will have to integrate the same Early Launch Anti-Malware (ELAM) capability in their own software. To help security software vendors get started, Microsoft has released a whitepaper?that provides information about developing Early Launch Anti-Malware (ELAM) drivers for Windows operating systems. It provides guidelines for anti-malware developers to develop anti-malware drivers that are initialized before other boot-start drivers, and ensure that those subsequent drivers do not contain malware. Several antivirus companies, who have released their updated solutions for Windows 8 already incorporate this technology.

The Early Launch Antimalware boot-start driver has classified the drivers as follows:

  1. Good: The driver has been signed and has not been tampered with.
  2. Bad: The driver has been identified as malware. It is recommended that you do not allow known bad drivers to be initialized.
  3. Bad, but required for boot: The driver has been identified as malware, but the computer cannot successfully boot without loading this driver.
  4. Unknown: This driver has not been attested to by your malware detection application and has not been classified by the Early Launch Antimalware boot-start driver.

By default, Windows 8 loads those drivers which have been classified as Good, Unknown and Bad but Boot Critical; ie 1, 3 and 4 above. Bad drivers are not loaded.

While this setting is best left at its default value, if you wish, you can change this setting via your Group Policy Editor. To do so, open the WinX menu > Run > gpedit.msc > Hit Enter. Navigate to the following policy setting:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates >? System > Early Launch Antimalware

elam w8 Understanding Early Launch Anti Malware (ELAM) technology in Windows 8

In the right pane, double-click on? Boot-Start Driver Initialization Policy to configure it.

elam 2 Understanding Early Launch Anti Malware (ELAM) technology in Windows 8

You will see the default configuration of Not Configured. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, the boot start drivers determined to be Good, Unknown or Bad but Boot Critical are initialized and the initialization of drivers determined to be Bad is skipped.

If you Enable this policy setting you will be able to choose which boot-start drivers to initialize the next time the computer is started.

If you are using Windows 8, you want to check if your anti-malware software includes an Early Launch Antimalware boot-start driver. If it doesn?t, all boot-start drivers will be? initialized, and you will not be able to take advantage of this new ELAM technology.?

If you have liked this post, you might want to check out some more, on topics like Features, Security, Windows 8.

Source: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/earlylaunch-antimalware-elam-technology-windows-8?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=earlylaunch-antimalware-elam-technology-windows-8

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Iranian group MEK coming off US terror list: Unrelenting campaign pays off

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton informed Congress Friday that she would remove a controversial Iranian opposition group from the US list of terrorist organizations, drawing to a close a dogged de-listing campaign by the group and its high-profile advocates that stretches back to the Bush administration.

The de-listing of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) was not unexpected, since Secretary Clinton was under court order to decide by Oct. 1 whether to remove the group from a list it had been on since 1997.

Clinton had said her decision would be guided in part by the group?s cooperation in relocating hundreds of its adherents from a refugee camp in Iraq, and in recent weeks the State Department had signaled that the relocation process was proceeding toward resolution.

Obama vs. Romney 101: 3 ways they differ on Iran

Under President Bill Clinton the MEK was placed on the terrorist list for the killing of six Americans in Iran in the 1970s and for a botched attack against the Iranian mission to the United Nations in 1992. Some Republican foreign-policy hawks charged the Clinton administration with listing MEK as a terrorist group in an effort to curry favor with the Iranian regime, but the group?s efforts at winning de-listing from the George W. Bush administration were unsuccessful.

The unrelenting de-listing campaign that began under Bush intensified under President Obama, with a number of prominent former officials from the Bush administration, including former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, taking up the group?s cause. Some prominent Democrats and former heavyweights from the Obama administration, including a former national security adviser, James Jones, also lent their name to the group?s cause.

The MEK began as a leftist organization opposed to the rule of the shah, and it initially supported the Iranian revolution. But many of its followers fled to Iraq after suffering under the revolution?s repression, and the group then sided with Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war ? a move that many Iranians have never forgiven.

The MEK has renounced violence and its members in the US insist that members and supporters inside Iran have been instrumental in providing useful and sometimes blockbuster information on the Iranian government?s covert activities, particularly its nuclear program.

Several members of Congress were quick to laud Clinton?s decision ? and to portray the group as transformed from a onetime opponent to a vital asset for the US in its dealings with Iran.

?The MEK long ago renounced violence, and in recent years has been actively working with US intelligence agencies to get information on activities inside Iran,? said Rep. Ted Poe (R) of Texas in a statement. ?Recently, we have seen that the real terrorists are the mullahs of Iran and the tiny tyrant in the desert, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, not the freedom fighters hoping for a democratic Iran.?

His colleague, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R) of California, bemoaned the group?s original listing as ?a misguided attempt by the Clinton administration to gain favor with the government in Tehran.? He characterized the MEK as ?Iranians who desire a secular, peaceful, and democratic government. Nothing threatens the mullah dictatorship more,? he added, ?than openness and transparency.?

Just how the MEK is viewed inside Iran remains the subject of debate. Members and some high-powered supporters echo Representative Poe?s characterization of them as ?freedom fighters,? but other Iranian opposition groups that have formed in the US in recent years insist that the group is intensely disliked in Iran and widely distrusted.

The years-long removal under UN auspices of more than 3,000 MEK members from Camp Ashraf in Iraq is almost complete, with the goal of moving the Iranian refugees to third countries.

Obama vs. Romney 101: 3 ways they differ on Iran

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Read this story at csmonitor.com

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iranian-group-mek-coming-off-us-terror-list-233757309.html

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Saturday, September 22, 2012

Nokia stacks up its maps next to Apple's and Google's, politely suggests it comes out on top

Nokia stacks up its maps next to Apple's and Google's, politely suggests it comes out on top

You might have noticed a brouhaha over map accuracy in iOS 6. Nokia undoubtedly did, as it's using the iPhone 5 launch to remind us that its strategy has been all about location lately. The crew in Espoo has pitted Nokia Maps from the Lumia 920 against both Apple's equivalent as well as Google Maps -- and to no one's surprise, Nokia's own platform comes out on top. In practice, it's a relatively frank comparison that doesn't try to win on every point. Nokia tends to use a liberal definition of the term "3D" that includes augmented reality, but it's otherwise willing to emphasize its advantages in offline mapping and the sheer scope of its mapping coverage. Apple's very young mapping effort struggles, while Nokia is willing to accept that it doesn't have as much traffic coverage as Google. There is, however, the slight problem of the Lumia 920 not yet shipping: unless you've been blessed with a prototype of the Windows Phone 8 device, Apple and Google are the only ones that have their latest navigation software on a phone you can actually buy. Hit the source for the full, very tall chart as well as a few sly jabs at Nokia's competitors.

Filed under: , ,

Nokia stacks up its maps next to Apple's and Google's, politely suggests it comes out on top originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 09:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink AllThingsD  |  sourceConversations by Nokia  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/21/nokia-stacks-up-its-maps-next-to-apple-and-google/

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Friday, September 21, 2012

Watch: Malnourished Teen Says Parents Locked Him Up

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expressInstall : "http://cdn.kaltura.org/apis/seo/expressinstall.swf",
wmode: "transparent"
},
{ // flashvars (double-quote the values)
externalInterfaceDisabled : "false",
jsInterfaceReadyFunc : "jsInterfaceReady",
contentType: "video",

//"restrictUserAgent.restrictedUserAgents": "GoogleTV",
referer : "http://abcnews.go.com/Health/video/malnourished-teen-says-parents-locked-him-up-17289411",
"omniture.videoViewEventEvar15Value" : "player|videoindex",
"omniture.videoViewEventProp18Value" : "player|videoindex",
"omniture.videoViewEventProp16Value" : jsvideoViewEventProp16Value,
"omniture.videoViewEventEvar20Value" : jsvideoViewEventEvar20Value,
"omniture.adStartEvar15Value" : "player|videoindex",
"omniture.adStartEvar20Value" : jsvideoViewEventEvar20Value,
"closedCaptionActive" : closedCaptionActiveValue,

noThumbnail: true,
"abcnews.displayEndCard":false,
"shareBtnControllerScreen.enabled" : "true",
"outbrainKalturaVideo.plugin": "true","outbrainKalturaVideo.isDebug": "true","outbrainKalturaVideo.relativeTo": "PlayerHolder","outbrainKalturaVideo.path": "http://widgets.outbrain.com/fl/outbrainKalturaVideo.swf","outbrainKalturaVideo.position": "lastChild","outbrainKalturaVideo.idx": "1","outbrainKalturaVideo.playerSrcId": "ABCNewsKaltura","outbrainKalturaVideo.widgetId": "VP1","outbrainKalturaVideo.displayWidget": "true","outbrainKalturaVideo.sendStats": "true",

//"video.stretchThumbnail":true,
//"volumeBar.initialValue":0.75,
//"volumeBar.forceInitialValue":true,
debugMode: true

}
)
},
onFail : function() {
alert("FLASH EMBEDDING FAILED");
},
getEntryIdFromUrl : function() {
if(location.hash.indexOf(kdp_embed_default.url_param_name) != -1) {
// get the entry id from the url document fragment (aka hash):
return location.hash.split("#")[1].substring((kdp_embed_default.url_param_name.length+1));
}
else if(location.search.indexOf(kdp_embed_default.url_param_name) != -1) {
// get the entry id from the url parameters (aka querystring):
return location.search.split("?")[1].substring((kdp_embed_default.url_param_name.length+1));
}
else {
// use the default video defined in "fallback_entry" below:
// return kdp_embed_default.fallback_entry;
return false;
}
},
getEntryIdFromDataAttr : function() {
var data_attr_val = document.getElementById(this.placeholder_id).getAttribute("data-entryid");
if(data_attr_val && !(data_attr_val

Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=2f565cba143a80478882480b2185f86d

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