Tips On Just How To Be Efficient When Improving Your House ...

Performing home improvement does not must be a difficult task. Enhancing your home can be enjoyable and simple, and make your home environment a whole lot more enjoyable. Make-over the areas you like and make them into areas you love. Follow the guidelines below and you will be able to turn your home into your dream home.

Set electrical wire connectors on your tubes of caulking! Those little plastic covers that are included with the tubes often get missing! A commonly had alternative that works of the same quality or a lot better than the original top can be an electrical wire connection. Special colors can be even used by you for special forms of tubes.

An low priced method to give your kitchen a new search without spending thousands on new cabinets would be to give them a facelift. Install new hard ware and recondition them with oil to make them seem new. With respect to the substance of the units, you may be able to paint them too.

To save on energy prices, consider putting a number of small fluorescent lighting fixtures under your cabinetry. On the surface that is ideal for preparing food or illuminating a richly colored counter top or ornamental back dash region these lights eat up less power than your overhead light and can cast a great light.

Try changing the house figures outside your house for many easy home improvement. If the house numbers on your house are old, buy some new ones. Try trying to find contemporary house figures made from stainless, aluminum, or brass. Fit them with the final in your exterior light fixtures for greater curb appeal.

In regards to do-it-yourself, make sure to get prices from at minimum three different contractors. This is crucial as may the grade of work, because prices may differ considerably. Get yourself a good experience for the specialist by sitting yourself down with her or him and discussing your whole approach.

After some initial use, your kitchen cabinets can start to get rid of their appeal. You can shine up kitchen cabinetry by using car wax. Use some car feel liberally to a towel and wash your units down in a circular motion. This will make your units resemble they are new and shiny.

When it?s time for you to make improvements to your residence, engage the services of a reliable general contractor. Look around and make careful comparisons. A competent and sincere, general contractor, can complete home developments professionally. A contractor can also perform do-it-yourself work cheaper than you can control, by carrying it out yourself.

When signing a contract with a contractor doing home improvements, search for a place of business for that contractor. A clear sign that something is not around level with your builder is once they just give you a phone number for a contact and not a stone and mortar building address. It?s super easy for them to just change figures and start shop elsewhere If a problem occurs.

In regards to home improvement, consider putting solar power panels to your house. You may think it is to become a wise investment in comparison to the increasing costs of energy, while the upfront cost may be big. This will save on your monthly electric bills, because the most of your energy will come from the energy you?re saving. This is a great, natural treatment for running your house.

When cracks come in your interior walls or your ceilings, keep these things examined with a building professional as soon as possible. They can reveal greater, far more serious causes, while the most likely cause of such breaks is just a simple failure in the finished floor. You do not want to blithely paint over a break and just forget about it when it is actually showing base negotiation!

Raise the security of your home by adding motion detecting floodlights on the exterior of your house. These lights are ideal for domiciles with large front yards or those situated on dark streets. Mount these lights near your garage or shed. These lights will illuminate the area and decrease the threat of break-ins.

Take the time to look for inspiration in magazines, color swatches and whatever else that you can find, before you begin your next do it yourself project. It is important to plan ahead so that you don?t get stuck trying to do a lot of when it?s time for you to begin your project. This may make the entire process a whole lot more comforting for you personally.

Several things jazz up a residence such as for instance a well-maintained flower bed. Before you undertake a significant remodel, nevertheless, research your options. Find out which flowers are best suited to your home?s climate, soil type, and shaded places. This may ensure that you don?t spend your time or money by planting roses that aren?t appropriate.

Fit your fire extinguisher to the space where it?s being used. Along with could be the same old red but fire extinguishers are considered based on function. School B?s are best suited for the home but Class A?s would probably work well in the remaining portion of the house.

You don?t already have one and if you have a sizable backyard, it could be good for develop a deck before putting your property on the market. potential house buyers look at as an important entertaining space for family and friends a deck to hang out in in is because.

Do not place a television in your kitchen, If you should be creating the building of your dwelling. More time will be then spent by you in the kitchen, if you love television. This can put you in a position where you are convinced more, with the plethora of food around you.

As you can see, do-it-yourself can be quite simple. With the recommendations above, you can accomplish the task of turning your home into your private sanctuary, a place you are proud to call home. What?re you looking forward to? Go ahead and start that home improvement project you?ve been considering. cheap nautical cabinet hardware

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Source: http://culturapopulara.ro/?p=25593

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Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 hands-on: a ruggedized smartphone with Android Jelly Bean onboard

It's gotten a bit drowned out in all the Note 8.0 fanfare, but there's another notable member of Samsung's Galaxy being shown off here at MWC 2013: the Xcover 2. Announced late this past January, the Android Jelly Bean (4.1.2) handset is a 4-inch ruggedized device made for active lifestyles. To that end, it bears IP certification for dust- and water-proofing (up to 30 minutes at a depth of one meter). Understandably, its spec load is modest, with a dual-core 1GHz processor (unspecified), 1GB RAM, 800 x 480 display, 4GB storage (expandable via microSD) and 1,700mAh battery.

Since the Xcover 2's meant to be taken outdoors, its body is rife with notches and grips -- so it won't slip out of your hand. The dimpled plastic back, similar to that on the Galaxy Nexus -- has a wrap-around illusion and can only be pried off by turning the lock at its base. Ports for microSD, SIM and 3.5mm headphone jack are all covered by protective flaps, as you'd imagine.

We couldn't get confirmation on the exact CPU inside the Xcover 2, but take our word for it: performance is sluggish. Effect any of the hard Android navigation keys on the bottom and you'll notice a bit of lag before the OS kicks into action. It's to be expected for a device of this nature -- most users eyeing the Xcover 2 likley aren't keen on top-end specs and high-performance. Samsung still hasn't clarified just where or when we'll be seeing the handset crop up, so stay tuned. In the meanwhile, check out our gallery below and brief video demo after the break.

Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Samsung

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/LSljk3HyCRg/

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Talk of peace with Pakistan Taliban angers victims

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) ? Hazratullah Khan, who lost his right leg below the knee in a car bombing, answers immediately when asked whether the Pakistani government should hold peace talks with Taliban leaders responsible for attacks like the one that maimed him.

"Hang them alive," said the 14-year-old, who survived the explosion on his way home from school. "Slice the flesh off their bodies and cut them into pieces. That's what they have been doing to us."

Khan, who is from the Khyber tribal region, pondered his future recently at a physical rehabilitation center in Peshawar.

"What was my crime that they made me disabled for the rest of my life?" he asked as he touched his severed limb.

In recent weeks, the Pakistani government and Taliban forces fighting in northwestern tribal areas have expressed an interest in peace talks to end the years-long conflict. An estimated 30,000 civilians and 4,000 soldiers have died in terrorist attacks in Pakistan since Sept. 11, 2001 ? many at the hands of the Pakistani Taliban.

To many victims of Taliban violence, the idea of negotiating with people responsible for so much human pain is abhorrent. Their voices, however, are rarely heard in Pakistan, a country where people have long been conflicted about whether the Taliban are enemies bent on destroying the state or fellow Muslims who should be welcomed back into the fold after years of fighting.

The Associated Press spoke with victims of terrorist attacks in Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta and the tribal areas and their families to find out how they felt about negotiating peace with the Taliban.

Khan's classmate, Fatimeen Afridi, who was also injured in the same bombing in Khyber, said he would be happy to see negotiations with the militants ? but only after those who maimed him were punished. Afridi's left leg was amputated below the knee, shattering his dream of becoming a fast bowler on Pakistan's cricket team.

"If I find them, I will throw them in a burning clay oven," he said.

The push for peace talks gained momentum in December when the leader of the Pakistani Taliban offered to negotiate. The government responded positively, and even hinted that the militants would not need to lay down their weapons before talks could begin. That would be a reversal of the government's long-held position that any talks be preceded by a ceasefire.

So far, there have been few concrete developments, and it's unclear whether Pakistan's powerful military supports negotiations.

Skeptics doubt the militants truly want peace and point to past agreements with the Taliban that fell apart after giving militants time to regroup. Others say negotiations are the only option since numerous military operations against the Taliban have failed.

The biggest question ? especially for many of the Taliban's victims ? is whether the Taliban will have to pay any price for the people they are believed to have killed and wounded. The government hasn't said whether it would offer the Taliban amnesty for past offenses.

Many of the victims feel forgotten, saying no one has asked their opinion about holding peace talks. They have to fight for what little health care they can obtain, and there's almost no assistance for dealing with psychological trauma caused by the attacks.

Dr. Mahboob-ur-Rehman runs a private medical complex in Peshawar, a large facility that houses a prosthetic workshop and a therapy school, where both Khan and Afridi are being treated. Rehman said the Pakistani army has a state-of-the-art facility to treat its soldiers while there is little help for civilians. He estimated that roughly 10,000 civilians have been permanently disabled after losing limbs in Pakistani Taliban attacks.

In the southern city of Karachi, 12-year-old Mehzar Fatima was shot in the back when a gunman killed her father, a Shiite Muslim. The sectarian groups often accused of carrying out such attacks are closely aligned with the Pakistani Taliban. The gunshot left her unable to move her legs and feet and she fears she might never use them again.

Her mother, Kishwar Fatima, said she's being pressured to leave the hospital where the girl is being treated because there's no government assistance to help pay her bills.

Those wounded in the violence feel further victimized because many Pakistanis don't even agree on who is to blame for their suffering.

Despite the huge loss of life and property, the views of many Pakistanis are influenced by right-wing, anti-American propaganda that spawns conspiracy theories about the terrorist attacks. Fellow Muslims could never commit acts of violence against their own people, they say, so someone else must be to blame. Some theories suggest U.S. and Indian intelligence agencies support the Taliban and other militant groups to destabilize Pakistan.

Some people who support the militants think the Taliban are better than many of Pakistan's corrupt politicians who have failed to deliver good governance. Many Pakistanis also say the militant problems in the tribal areas are a result of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and when the U.S. leaves, the Pakistani Taliban will also stop fighting.

Even some of the victims aren't sure who is to blame.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for a Feb. 2 suicide attack that killed 23 people in the northwestern city of Lakki Marwat. But Mohammad Shafi, whose 24-year-old son was among nine soldiers killed in the explosion, isn't convinced the attackers were members of the Taliban. He says Muslims would never hurt a fellow Muslim.

Instead, Shafi thinks his son ? a boxer who never lost a fight before he was shot seven times during the attack on an army post ? was killed by Hindu agents that archrival India sent, with U.S. assistance, to destabilize Pakistan. He said Pakistan should sever ties with the U.S. to abolish terrorism.

"If my son was killed by infidels, he has been martyred and will go to heaven," he said.

Confusion over who is responsible for the deadly violence also has some victims wondering if the Pakistani government makes peace with the Taliban, will it also make peace with other militant groups.

Will the government, for instance, hold talks with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a group linked to al-Qaida that is accused of killing more than 175 Shiite Muslims during the past two months in the southwestern city of Quetta?

Ghazanfar Ali lost his 24-year-old son in one of these attacks on Jan. 10 in Quetta. Another of his sons survived the same attack after three major surgeries.

Ali broke down in tears as he recalled sifting through rubble and identifying his son's body by the ring he had on his finger because his head and face were wounded beyond recognition.

"There can't be peace with the Taliban," he said. "They slaughter a son in front of his father and then chant 'God is great!'"

__

Associated Press writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar; Zaheer Babar in Lahore; Abdul Sattar in Quetta; and Adil Jawad in Karachi, Pakistan contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/talk-peace-pakistan-taliban-angers-victims-062726055.html

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The Mac daddy of problems: Can an Apple owner be a gamer ...

Becoming a member of the Apple club is no easy investment. Whatever Apple product you?ve just purchased will be out-of-date within the next year, the weekly updates quickly get annoying, and the Mac-specific spinning rainbow of doom is? aggravating, to put it lightly. All that said, these issues aren?t impossible to live with; you?ve likely got a Mac or an iPod and you?re probably happy about it. For the most part, you knew what you were getting into, but soon enough, the afterthoughts start pouring in, and it?s really the afterthoughts that make or break owning an Apple product. Unfortunately, for a lot of people, gaming on a computer can be one of those afterthoughts.

No respectable gamer, whatever your preferred format, would invest in a Mac as a gaming computer. If anything, most invest in a Mac because they need a specific program to work with (for me, it was Final Cut). All the annoyances aside, Macs are great, durable computers, and they?re the best investment for more artistic workloads. So chances are you became a gamer who owns a Mac because console games were more your thing and, again, you needed a specific set of tools. Then, and only then, maybe because fate is cruel, you took the time to discover Steam.

Steam has a great selection of games for the Mac, and it only continues to grow. But for every Mac game released, it feels as though five new PC games have followed suit. The fact that there are games that can run on both PC and Linux now and not Mac is bile inducing. Macs are, again, excellent computers, and the more up to date your Mac is, the better it can run newer games. So why then in the minds of Mac purchasers and thus Apple is gaming an afterthought?

This afterthought has caused many Apple product users to fall into the trap laid out by most iOS games. There are some fantastic iOS games out there, games where you pay once and have a legitimately fun addition to your library. Unfortunately most iOS games are credit card traps. Whether your game was free or cost you a buck, chances are you?ve had to deal with investing larger sums of money to keep playing or straight up quit, which in any case must make you a god of some sort.

iOS games are like the fast food of the gaming world. You?re on the go, but you?re craving something cheap that can be pumped out in seconds. Like scarfing down a meal from McDonald?s, your craving has been satisfied, and for the time being you can get on with the rest of your life.

That doesn?t necessarily make all iOS gamers ?casual gamers? (many iOS-based review sites can attest to that). But it does send a confusing message to Apple, one that repeats the phrase every McDonald?s employee has been programmed with: somewhere out there, a customer is hungry, feed them. Of course, users eat whatever is handed to them up like potato chips, and in no time we?re stuck with even more pumped out garbage. This ideology is the reason Apple hasn?t taken the time to reach out to developers and make gaming on Mac a priority. Because they?d rather you went through the drive through for some fast food instead.

But back to the big Macs (ba-zing!), it?s not the worst decision in the world own a Mac and game on it, but don?t count on getting the best of the best out of that decision either. If you?re really excited for a game that apparently doesn?t run on the Mac, odds are you?re going to purchase it anyway in the hopes that it will eventually be released (I?ve had varying degrees of luck with this system). The fact is actually quite sad, but that seems to be how it?s going to say unless Mac owners or people interested in owning a Mac speak up about the issue. Being an Apple product owner and a gamer doesn?t have to be the butt end of every joke, but until more people speak up, the thought of running something like say L.A. Noire on the Mac is going to be hilarious to the rest of the gaming world.

Source: http://www.steamgamefans.com/the-mac-daddy-of-problems-can-an-apple-owner-be-a-gamer-3115.html

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Ireland: Plant sent horse labeled 'beef' to Czechs

DUBLIN (AP) ? An Irish slaughterhouse has been caught labeling horse meat as beef and shipping it to a company in the Czech Republic, Ireland's government announced Friday in the most clear-cut finding by any country since the European-wide scandal began a month ago.

No other government across Europe has pinpointed a single slaughterhouse that was mislabeling horse meat as beef. Until now, any companies found selling meat products containing hidden amounts of horse have insisted they were duped by others, while suspected slaughterhouses have insisted they either did not handle horses or labeled all horse-meat exports correctly.

But Ireland says its fraud detectives have identified the practice at B&F Meats, a small slaughterhouse in the County Tipperary town of Carrick-on-Suir that is licensed to debone both cows and horses, and immediately shut down the facility.

Ireland's Agriculture Department said in a statement that detectives had discovered that B&F Meats was shipping horse meat "to a single customer in the Czech Republic ... using a label in the Czech language which, when translated, refers to beef." Officials said the mislabeling was happening in the plant and not later in the supply chain, which included a British-based meat trader.

No officials at the plant were arrested, and Irish officials declined to specify the volume of horse meat involved or the Czech company that imported it.

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney said he was "seriously concerned about this development."

B&F is the oldest slaughterhouse licensed to process horse meat in Ireland, and its product is legally sold to Irish and British makers of pet food as well as to customers in France, where horse meat is widely available for human consumption.

Nobody answered the telephone Friday at B&F, and company director Ted Farrell also did not pick up his telephone.

The scandal began in Ireland in mid-January when the country's Food Safety Authority announced the results of its first-ever DNA tests on beef products. It tested frozen beef burgers taken from store shelves and found that more than a third of brands at five supermarkets contained at least a trace of horse. The sample of one brand sold by British supermarket kingpin Tesco was more than a quarter horse.

Such discoveries have spread like wildfire across Europe as governments, supermarkets, meat traders and processors began their own DNA testing of products labeled beef and have been forced to withdraw tens of millions of products from store shelves. More than a dozen nations have detected horse flesh in processed products such as factory-made burger patties, lasagnas, meat pies and meat-filled pastas. The investigations have been complicated by elaborate supply chains involving multiple cross-border middlemen.

In the latest such move Friday, frozen food maker Birds Eye withdrew three microwave-ready dishes ? spaghetti Bolognese, shepherd's pie and lasagna ? from all supermarket shelves in Britain and Ireland because it suspected that the products might contain horse meat. A DNA test on another Birds Eye-branded product on sale in Belgium, a chili con carne dish, determined it contained 2 percent horse. All four products were made by one of Birds Eye's subcontractors in Belgium, a maker of ready meals and kebab meats called Frigilunch.

Ireland previously had found no evidence to show that any horses slaughtered in the country ended up in the human food chain. The initial discovery of horse in Irish-made burger patties for sale in Ireland and Britain was linked to suppliers in Poland. Polish authorities insisted they could find no evidence of wrongdoing there.

Similarly, French authorities have identified the meat processor Spanghero as a source of horse meat in the human food chain, but that company insists it was duped by foreign suppliers stretching from Luxembourg to Romania. And Romanian authorities insisted in reply that any of its horse meat sold for export was correctly labeled as horse.

The profit motive is obvious for fraudsters.

Horse meat might fetch prices of ?600 to ?700 ($800 to $950) a ton, while beef costs around ?4,000 ($5,500) a ton. And without DNA testing ? rarely done until recent days because horse meat is not dangerous to eat ? the chances of detection are remote.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-22-Europe-Horse%20Meat/id-a510beaba4bb48d0bb36ca4f08455be3

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Inventor Spills Wine Secret: Put It in a Blender

BOSTON ? Decanting wine is a common tactic among some oenophiles, and involves pouring the drink through an aerator or into a special container to let it "breathe." But inventor and amateur chef Nathan Myhrvold has an even better and faster way: Put it in the blender.

This agitates the wine and makes it react with air more quickly, performing the same role as decanting but faster, Myhrvold said in a speech here at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Saturday (Feb. 16).

But the real reason to do it? "The looks on people's faces," Myhrvold said. "If you do this with a wine expert in the room ? it's as if you committed some deeply unnatural act."

"But it's food," he continued. "Why is it okay with daiquiris and not with Bordeaux?"

There are several possible explanations for why decanting, or blending, improves the taste, said Myhrvold, who holds nearly 250 technology-related patents and recently wrote a tome about the science of cooking, entitled "Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking" (The Cooking Lab, 2011). The practice could lead to the oxidization of certain flavor compounds, vent pent-up gases like sulfur dioxide or release other volatile components from the wine, he said. [Science You Can Eat: 10 Odd Facts About Food]

Myhrvold performed his magic for a Spanish duke, one of the top winemakers in Spain, throwing the royal's favorite red wine into the blender. The duke did a blind taste test and preferred the blended one, but didn't believe Myhrvold afterward. If he'd "been a duke from years of old he would have run me through with his sword right there," said Myhrvold, who was once the chief technology officer for Microsoft and now the CEO of the patent company Intellectual Ventures.

Myhrvold shared several other secrets from his investigations into the science of cooking. Among them:

• Cucumbers are less solid than milk. The former are 95 percent water, while milk is 88 percent water.
• Charcoal grills work via radiant energy, which leads to uneven cooking. To greatly improve a grill's efficiency, layer the inside with aluminum foil, which reflects these electromagnetic waves.
• If you put ground peas into a laboratory-grade centrifuge and spin it for about an hour, you will eventually get three layers of pea sediment. The middle layer yields "pea butter," a most delicious substance that contains no fat.

Reach Douglas Main at dmain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @Douglas_Main. Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook& Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/inventor-spills-wine-secret-put-blender-120011900.html

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AP, you made a mistake on same-sex marriage. Now correct it. (Americablog)

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GOP senators urge Obama to pull Hagel nomination

Republican Chuck Hagel testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Jan. 31, 2103. (J. Scott Applew??Fifteen Republican senators, including potential 2016 White House contender Marco Rubio, urged President Barack Obama in a letter released on Thursday to withdraw Chuck Hagel's nomination as defense secretary. But the Republican former senator's chances of confirmation also got a big boost when another GOP lawmaker, Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, said he would support it.

Shelby told the Decatur Daily that he would back Hagel, who now appears to have the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster?barring some last-minute surprise. "He's probably as good as we're going to get," Shelby said.

The White House last week denounced Senate Republicans? unprecedented filibuster of the Hagel nomination (no Cabinet-level post dealing with national security had ever before faced a successful one). In the letter, the lawmakers argued in effect that this was Hagel's own fault.

?It would be unprecedented for a Secretary of Defense to take office without a broad base of bipartisan support and confidence needed to serve effectively in this critical position,? the senators, led by John Cornyn of Texas, said in the message to Obama. "While we respect Senator Hagel?s honorable military service, in the interest of national security, we respectfully request that you withdraw his nomination."

In addition to Rubio and Cornyn, Republican Sens. James Inhofe, Lindsey Graham, Roger Wicker, David Vitter, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Pat Toomey, Dan Coats, Ron Johnson, James Risch, John Barrasso, Tom Coburn and Tim Scott signed the letter. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but it has flatly dismissed similar calls in the past, noting that Hagel has more than the 51 votes needed for confirmation.

In the letter the senators also denounced Hagel?s ?erratic record and myriad conversions on key national security issues? and openly doubted ?his basic competence to meet the substantial demand of the office.?

They charged that he ?proclaimed the legitimacy of the current regime in Tehran.? During his wobbly confirmation hearing performance, Hagel had said America?s allies consider that regime ?an elected, legitimate government, whether we agree or not.?

They also accused Hagel of showing ?a seeming ambivalence about whether containment or prevention is the best approach, which gives us great concern.?

In the hearing, Hagel mistakenly broke with Obama?s policy of preventing Iran from develop nuclear weapons and suggested he favored ?containment? instead. He tried to correct himself after being handed a note by an aide, but it was ultimately Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., who fixed the gaffe. Hagel also struggled to explain his past opposition to imposing unilateral economic sanctions on Iran.

?If Senator Hagel becomes Secretary of Defense, the military option will have near zero credibility,? the senators said in the letter. ?This sends a dangerous message to the regime in Tehran, as it seeks to obtain the means necessary to harm both the United States and Israel.? (There?s another possibility: Maybe Hagel means war with Iran is actually more likely.)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/15-republican-senators-obama-withdraw-hagel-162909926--politics.html

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Ronda Rousey doesn?t want to even touch the UFC championship belt before fighting

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- When Ronda Rousey was named the UFC women's bantamweight champion, critics said she didn't deserve the belt and that she should have to fight for it. It turns out she agrees with her critics.

"I don't deserve it. I won't even touch it until I win," Rousey said of the gold and leather belt in sitting in front of her on the table.

[Related: Liz Carmouche never planned to be a role model, but now is relishing the job]

After the press conference, Rousey faced off with Liz Carmouche, her opponent at UFC 157 on Saturday. Traditionally, the champion holds the belt during these pictures, but Rousey held true to her word. Finally, UFC president Dana White draped the belt over her shoulder, much to Rousey's dismay.

Rousey's unwillingness to touch the belt isn't alone in sports. In the NHL, teams who win the Eastern and Western conferences usually won't touch the Prince of Wales Trophy or Clarence S. Campbell Bowl, respectively. With the ultimate goal of lifting the Stanley Cup, many players view picking up these trophies as bad luck. The Philadelphia Flyers touched the Wales trophy before ultimately losing to the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup finals, proving that Rousey may be on to something.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ronda-rousey-doesn-t-want-even-touch-ufc-000025302--mma.html

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Enticing India-Australia series could be overwhelmed by Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar scored only 112 runs against England before Christmas but is back for more against Australia. Photograph: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images

There is a whiff of deja vu about the build-up to the Test series between India and Australia, which starts on Friday morning. It was only last November when England breezed into Ahmedabad, declaring that they would stick to their original plans of playing a solitary spinner, Graeme Swann, a balance of attack they have always preferred, albeit on a surface devoid of live grass. Then they were thrashed by nine wickets. Then they had a rethink ? and a most productive one it was, too.

Now the Australians are in Chennai with a four-Test series on the horizon and they are bullish. Their coach, Mickey Arthur, sounding more Australian than the Australians, has declared "we'll play against their spinners aggressively". He has already indicated the make-up of his side.

Nathan Lyon will be the lone spinner alongside three pacemen and a fast-bowling all-rounder, Moises Henriques, who is set to make his debut. We do not know the India side yet. But rest assured they will have three spinners in their line-up. It is hard to imagine the Chennai groundsman watering his pitch in the next 24 hours.

For Englishmen looking on, this is an unfamiliar Australia side ? for the moment. We will know most of them intimately soon given that there are going to be three Ashes series within the next three years. In any case we always have to keep an eye on the Aussies, wherever they are. This series offers a measure of the standing of the two nations, not necessarily an accurate one but an irresistible one. England managed to win 2-1 in India before Christmas. How will the Australians do now? The sneaking suspicion is: not quite so well.

There is no longer Ricky Ponting in the Australia side and no Mike Hussey.

Michael Clarke stands out like a beacon at No5; he has batted quite brilliantly since his appointment as captain. Often he has had to in order to keep his side in the game. At the top of the order David Warner, converted one-day basher but a rare talent, is preparing to bat with a splint on a thumb. Alongside him Ed Cowan blocks diligently; then there is Phillip Hughes, humbled in England in 2009 but now remodelled and renascent.

Shane Watson, the chameleon, has another role. The erstwhile all-rounder turned belligerent opening batsman is for this series a non-bowling No4. He is now the vice-captain; he can look sublime at the crease; but he still averages only 37 in Test cricket. At the age of 31, he is still searching for his identity as a Test cricketer.

Matthew Wade is at No6; like Adam Gilchrist before him he is a wonderfully aggressive keeper/left-handed batsman. Yet the awesome Gilchrist batted at No7. That is where Henriques, probably the first Portuguese-born Test cricketer ? his parents moved to Sydney when Moises was 18 months old ? is likely to bat.

The burden on Lyon, the off-spinner and the twelfth tweaker to be tried by Australia since the retirement of Shane Warne, will be immense. He has done well in his 19 Tests, taking 61 wickets at 32 apiece. Clearly he is a conscientious and improving spinner. Equally clearly he is no Warne; he is no Swann either. But he is the best bet.

Australia's determination to stick with the solitary spinner route is, in fact, more understandable than England's decision in November.

Alastair Cook had a credible alternative in Monty Panesar, whom he soon selected after the Ahmedabad defeat. The options for Clarke are bleaker and highlighted by the fact that Australia originally shipped out spinners galore to India before this Test. They have Xavier Doherty there; they took Ashton Agar, a 19-year-old who had played just two games for Western Australia (though he has now gone back home) plus the part-timers Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell. Australia are still thrashing around for their spinners.

For this reason India will surely stick to the plan that did not work so well against England. They will rely on their spinners (two from Pragyan Ojha, Ravi Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh, plus Ravindra Jadeja) for their wickets even though they were chastened by English batsmen not so long ago.

And their runs? This is where the sense of deja vu returns. Gautam Gambhir has been dropped. From the old guard Virender Sehwag survives. And then there is Sachin Tendulkar, whom they cannot drop. All through the series against England, in which Tendulkar scored only 112 runs and a solitary half-century, we wondered when he would go. We waited in vain for a signature innings to allow him to bid farewell with a smile. All that speculation and all those half-penned cricketing epitaphs resurface in a soap opera that threatens to diminish a most intriguing series for Indians, Australians and Ashes-pondering neutrals.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2013/feb/20/india-australia-first-test-chennai

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Humongous Near-Earth Asteroids Don't Look So Scary in a Time-Lapse

Most of us got a little distracted from uneventful passing of near-Earth asteroid DA14 after that unrelated meteorite decided to slam into Russia. Photographer Colin Legg keep his eyes—and camera—on DA14 though, and put together this time-lapse of its flyby that makes it seem like an insignificant little dot. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/vb-8mIVvQuE/humongous-near+earth-asteroids-dont-look-so-scary-in-a-time+lapse

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3 British men convicted in terrorist bomb plot

LONDON (AP) ? They were very ordinary would-be terrorists, with big plans but bad luck.

On Thursday, a London jury convicted the three young British men of being ringleaders of an al-Qaida-inspired plot to explode knapsack bombs in crowded parts of Birmingham, England's second-largest city. The men had pleaded not guilty, but were recorded discussing plans for attacks that one said would be "another 9/11."

The trial exposed how the trio ? Ashik Ali, 27; Irfan Khalid, also 27; and 31-year-old Irfan "Chubbs" Naseer ? were foiled by a mix of police intelligence, personal incompetence, and lousy luck as they tried to spread terror.

They attempted to recruit others to their cause, but four young men they dispatched to Pakistan for training were sent home within days when the family of one man found out. Those four have since pleaded guilty to terrorism-related offenses.

The plotters initially raised cash as street collectors for Muslim charities. But when Rahin Ahmed, an alleged co-conspirator described as the cell's "chief financier," tried to boost the group's budget on the financial markets, he lost the bulk of the funds through his "unwise and incompetent" trading, prosecutor Brian Altman said.

Among the pieces of evidence at the four-month trial was a sports injury cool pack, which prosecutors said Naseer had mistakenly believed would contain ammonium nitrate, a key bomb-making ingredient.

The group considered a variety of outlandish attacks, including tying sharp blades to the front of a truck and driving it into a crowd. Naseer was heard talking about the possibility of mixing poison into creams such as Vaseline or Nivea and smearing them on car handles to cause mass deaths.

Despite the amateurish nature of some of their efforts, officials said the group was serious about sowing chaos.

The men were "the real deal" and, if successful, would have perpetrated "another 9/11 or another 7/7 in the U.K.," said Detective Inspector Adam Gough, the case's senior investigating officer, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, which killed nearly 3,000 people, as well as the July 7, 2005, London transit bombings, which killed 52 commuters.

Prosecutors described the men as a home-grown terror cell inspired by the anti-Western sermons of U.S.-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in Yemen in a U.S. drone strike in September 2011.

Among evidence found by investigators was a partially burned note written by Naseer detailing how to make what an expert witness said would have been a viable bomb ? although no evidence of such an explosive was recovered.

Prosecutors said the men ultimately gravitated toward a plan to detonate up to eight knapsack bombs ? either on timers or in suicide attacks ? in a bid to bring mass carnage to Birmingham.

Judge Richard Henriques told the men they face life in prison when sentences are imposed in April or May. "It's clear that you were planning a terrorist outrage," he said at London's Woolwich Crown Court.

Police said the terrorist conspiracy was the most significant uncovered in Britain since a plot to blow up airliners in mid-air was foiled in 2006. However, no specific targets had been chosen and no bombs built when the men were arrested in a police swoop in September 2011. Twelve suspects were arrested in all, several of whom have pleaded guilty to terrorism offenses.

Prosecutors traced the plot's origins to Naseer and Khalid, who had traveled to Pakistan for terror training and learned details of poisons, bomb-making and weaponry. The pair also made "martyrdom videos" justifying their planned attacks.

On their return to England in July 2011, prosecutors said they began their recruitment and fundraising drive, and also began experimenting with chemicals, aided by Naseer's university degree in pharmacy.

Fatally for the plot, by mid-2011 the men were under surveillance by police and the intelligence services. Their car was followed and their safe house bugged.

Naseer was recorded talking about knapsack bombs going "boom, boom, boom everywhere," while Khalid said the attack would be "revenge for everything, what we're doing is another 9/11."

On the recordings, the trio spoke of themselves as martyrs and jihadi warriors ? but also, tellingly, compared themselves to the hapless protagonists of the 2010 British comedy film "Four Lions," which tells the story of four clueless jihadists whose attempts to wage holy war degenerate into farce.

Ali was recorded saying to his ex-wife: "Oh, you think this is a flipping 'Four Lions.' We're one man short."

Raffaello Pantucci, a terrorism expert at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said the foiled plot bore the hallmarks of a decentralized al-Qaida, in which local cells operate independently, often after receiving rudimentary training.

He said that "the time spent training foreign fighters by al-Qaida or affiliated networks is now being constrained because there is the threat of drone strikes" on the Pakistan-Afghan border.

"The command and control element is drawing back," he said. "It has a negative impact on their capacity to launch attacks because people aren't being trained as well. There is sometimes a clownish element to it."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/3-british-men-convicted-terrorist-bomb-plot-131529518.html

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Legislature appeals Florida redistricting ruling

By BILL KACZOR | The Associated Press
Published: February 18, 2013 Updated: February 18, 2013 - 12:00 AM

TALLAHASSEE ? The Republican-dominated Legislature has asked the Florida Supreme Court to throw out a legal challenge to its 2012 redistricting plan for the state Senate.

The high court put the case on a fast track Monday, setting tight deadlines for additional filings. Former Justice Raoul Cantero submitted the petition on behalf of the House and Senate on Friday. Cantero argued that only the Supreme Court can decide legislative redistricting cases and that the justices already have done so.

He's asking the high court to order a trial judge to dismiss a challenge to the Senate map lodged by the League of Women Voters of Florida, Common Cause, National Council of La Raza and several individual plaintiffs. The justices ordered the plaintiffs to respond by Feb. 28 and gave the Legislature until March 5 to reply.

Circuit Judge Terry Lewis rejected the Legislature's claim last month in Tallahassee and ordered the case to proceed. Lewis wrote that the Legislature's argument "flies in the face of case law." He cited prior Supreme Court and appellate rulings that said trial courts have jurisdiction over redistricting challenges.

The pending lawsuit alleges the Senate map violates an anti-gerrymandering amendment to the Florida Constitution by favoring incumbents and the GOP.

Information that has emerged in connection with the lawsuit, as well as a similar challenge to a new congressional map, includes emails showing top GOP officials met in late 2010 to brainstorm redistricting with political consultants and legislative staffers involved in the remapping process that's done every 10 years.

The state's "Fair Districts" amendment also requires that redistricting maps protect the ability of minorities to elect candidates of their choice and follow city and county or natural boundaries whenever possible.

A similar amendment imposes the same requirements on congressional redistricting. The challenge to the map lawmakers drew for Florida's 27 congressional districts will not be affected by the Supreme Court's ruling in the Senate case.

That's because the Florida Constitution requires the justices to automatically review only legislative maps, which is the crux of the Legislature's appeal.

"The constitution's express grant of jurisdiction to this court removes such cases from the jurisdiction of circuit courts," Cantero wrote.

Lewis disagreed, pointing out that the Supreme Court itself wrote that it conducted only a "facial review" while the lawsuit plaintiffs contend they are mounting a more detailed "as applied" challenge.

Cantero argues the Supreme Court "did not conduct a mere facial review" even though he acknowledged it had used that term. He cited the justices' use of various computer software programs and registration and elections data to analyze Senate and House maps to show the high court's review was more detailed.

The justices initially upheld the House plan but ruled the Senate map violated the Fair Districts requirements. The Legislature then revised the Senate plan and the Supreme Court upheld the second map.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tbo/politics/~3/7nkfj2tyNpA/

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Supreme Court Narrows Scope Of Previous Immigration Ruling

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court says there can be no retroactive application of its ruling that lawyers have to tell their clients if pleading guilty to a crime could cause their deportation.

The high court's 7-2 ruling came Wednesday in the case of Roselva Chaidez.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that immigrants have a constitutional right to be told by their lawyers whether pleading guilty to a crime could lead to their deportation. Chaidez had already been convicted for mail fraud and was in a deportation proceeding. She then asked the courts to allow her to take advantage of the new ruling.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the 2010 ruling was a new rule, so it doesn't apply to convictions that came before. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/supreme-court-immigration_n_2725403.html

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UK patient dies from SARS-like coronavirus

LONDON (AP) ? A British hospital says a patient being treated for a mysterious SARS-like virus has died.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham says the coronavirus victim was an outpatient being treated for "a long-term, complex unrelated health problem" who had a compromised immune system.

A total of 11 people in Britain have been identified with the disease, which was first identified last year in the Middle East. Most had traveled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Pakistan, but the person who just died is believed to have caught it from a relative in Britain.

Of 12 cases around the world to date, six people have died.

The coronavirus is part of a family of viruses that cause ailments including the common cold and SARS, which killed about 800 people worldwide in 2003.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-patient-dies-sars-coronavirus-110739376.html

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Celebrating President's Day with the Redlands Lions Club

Grand Junction, Colo. (KKCO) ? Monday was President's Day, and there are those who wanted to help make a very public display while celebrating the holiday.

For many who live in the Redlands celebrating President's Day by displaying our nation's flag has become a tradition. The Redlands Lions Club offers a flag service for several holidays throughout the year including Presiden't Day.

They put out American flags in front of their customer's homes and say the tradition is a way to display patriotism for our country. The club puts out the flags for 9 holidays each year for a donation of $30. "To drive down the streets and see the American flags being portrayed and demonstrated to the world that we are proud of what we have and what this country is about. The Lions Club uses this as a fundraiser but yet it also provides a show of support of patriotism to the United States," says David Mcilnay, who is with the Lions Club.

Club members started putting theflags up this morning at 7 and are taking them down that same night. They put flags out for about 600 customers.

Source: http://www.nbc11news.com/home/headlines/Celebrating-Presidents-day-with-the-Redlands-Lions-Club--191769161.html

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