রবিবার, ২৭ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

Skin Cancer Problem | Health & Lifestyle

Data on skin cancer are very important to understand how the disease is one of the worst beings around the world and is responsible for more cases of cancer. Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation in excess can lead to severe type of cancer and is also responsible for more than 90% of cases of non-melanoma types of the disease. The severity of the disease is so high that almost killed one person every day of illness and treatment is complicated if a person reaches advanced stages.

This is one of the most common forms of cancer and is responsible for more than 50% of cases of cancer in general. Although the number of cases detected in areas of Asia, Africa and Latin America are low compared to developed regions like North America and Europe, the number of deaths related to the disease is high in those regions. The white race is more vulnerable to disease than other breeds. The possibilities of burns to become cancerous infection are quite high and especially young children are at high risk if subjected to appropriate treatment for burns in children.

This type of cancer, also known as skin cancer is two different types such as melanoma and nonmelanoma. Squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma are two different types of non-melanoma skin cancer. Type of melanoma skin cancer rarely occurs, but is a severe form of the disease is more deadly than non-melanoma types. In addition, skin cancer melanoma spreads at a faster rate than non-melanoma skin types and is highly damaging to the skin cells and tissues.

Facts about skin cancer show that it is very common in people who have a history of medical illness. Further data on skin cancer also indicate that the type of cancer, melanoma is responsible for nearly 75% of deaths from skin cancer. In addition, the survival rate and life expectancy is much lower for the type of melanoma than non-melanoma tumors. Change in skin color, skin ulcers, skin lesions or infections that do not heal with medication and the presence of normal moles are in excess of some important symptoms of the disease. Data on skin cancer can tell if the causes are related to symptoms adequately.

Source: http://www.about-cancer.net/skin-cancer-problem.html

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শনিবার, ২৬ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

Newsmaker: Technocrat "oil man" takes charge of Libya lifeline (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) ? Libya's new oil minister is seen as the right kind of technocrat, deeply experienced yet not too closely tied to the former regime of Muammar Gaddafi, to help restore the OPEC member's economic lifeline after eight months of war.

Abdulrahman Ben Yazza is in his mid-50s and brings experience from both Libya's oil industry and Italian firm Eni, the largest foreign oil producer in Libya before the war.

He worked at Libya's Waha Oil company and at the state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC), culminating in a seat on the management committee. He then headed a joint venture between NOC and Eni.

"He's an excellent oil man," NOC Chairman Nuri Berruien told Reuters. "He's a first-class professional ... The most important (thing) is that he's from the oil patch. It is very important, it is good to work with people who speak your tongue."

A source close to Ben Yazza said the married father of four from Tripoli had been living in Milan for the last few years and traveling frequently to Libya.

"Ben Yazza is an old guy, well known and well liked. He knows Eni very well but that doesn't mean he will be pro-Eni ... he will be pro-Libyan," one Libyan oil industry source said.

"He's more a technocrat politician. Remember this is a transitory government, a bit like the Monti government in Italy ...It doesn't represent the power equilibrium and none of the big shots are in it."

Of all the new appointments in Prime Minister Abdurrahim El Keib's government, set to lead the country to elections next year, analysts and industry sources said Ben Yazza is seen as the most technocratic and least colored by the country's regional politics.

"In meetings he would listen to everyone's opinion," a person who worked with him at the NOC said, describing Ben Yazza as "very respectable."

NEW FACES

Before the February revolt, Libya's oil policy was run by the NOC headed by Shokri Ghanem, who defected in June and is believed to be living in Europe.

Officials have since indicated there will be changes, with plans to split commercial arrangements from policy.

Ben Yazza himself is seen as somewhat independent despite his NOC history, as a man who reportedly clashed at one point with Ghanem and who carries no strong affiliation with the ousted regime.

He is "very competent with a strong personality," one diplomatic source said.

"There were other candidates in the sector who had good international pedigrees, but they were often very closely associated with Col. Gaddafi - or they amplified their connections with Gaddafi in order to increase their prestige," said Geoff Porter, a U.S. independent expert on Libya.

"In the new post-Gaddafi Libya, they are tainted and would have been rejected by the Libyan population and by the hydrocarbon sector workers in particular."

The new set of faces will have to sustain the revival of the industry, which is returning to the international market faster than expected.

Libya holds Africa's largest oil reserves and was pumping 1.6 million barrels per day before the revolt.

Questions remain about the future, with a potential shake-up that would give more power to the oil ministry and carve up the NOC's responsibilities.

Berruien said the oil ministry and NOC would "complement each other."

Ben Yazza's appointment could see a number of former Libyan state oil company executives return to the public sector, according to political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.

"Highly experienced and extremely well-connected, we expect Ben Yazza to announce the recruitment of a number of his former NOC colleagues and friends to the NOC and the ministry," it said.

"The implications for the sector are good. Separating the regulatory and oversight functions from operations will remove some conflicts of interest," it said.

"Ben Yazza (will have) the opportunity to root out some of the more entrenched examples of corruption."

Still, he could encounter opposition from some workers still wary of former NOC officials. Waha Oil workers just recently ended a strike after their demands for a new chairman were met.

"Lack of experienced personnel has long been a retarding factor in the Libyan oil and gas sector and Ben Yazza will see the return of senior officials currently with IOCs (independent oil companies) as important if the sector is to reach its full potential," Eurasia said.

(Additional reporting by Taha Zargoun and Christian Lowe in Tripoli, Stephen Jewkes in Milan, Jessica Donati in London; editing by Jason Neely)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111125/wl_nm/us_libya_oil_minister

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Lawyer: US students held in Egypt freed

A court in Egypt has ordered the release of three American students arrested during the unrest in Cairo, NBC News has confirmed.

Derrik Sweeney, a 19-year-old Georgetown University student, Luke Gates, a 21-year-old Indiana University student, and Gregory Porter, a 19-year-old Drexel University student, were arrested on Sunday on the roof of the American University near Tahrir Square where they were allegedly throwing firebombs at security forces fighting with protesters.

Their release, announced by their lawyer, came as protesters demanding the removal of Egypt's ruling military council observed a truce after five days of deadly street battles in which at least 40 people have died.

Egypt's military also issued a statement on Thursday apologizing for the loss of life and vowing to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of protesters in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square and elsewhere in the country.

Army troops have used metal bars and barbed wire to build barricades to separate the protesters and the police on side streets leading from Tahrir to the nearby Interior Ministry. Most of the fighting has been taking place on those side streets.

The truce came into force around 6 a.m. and was still holding by late morning.

Joy Sweeney said the consul general confirmed around 6 a.m. Thursday that Derrik will be released.

"I was elated, I was absolutely elated," Sweeney told The Associated Press. "I can't wait to give him a huge hug and tell him how much I love him."

She said she hoped her son will head home to Jefferson City, Mo., on Friday.

Sweeney called home late on Wednesday and said he was being treated relatively well under the circumstances but denied doing anything wrong during a protest in Cairo, she said earlier.

She had a 90-second conversation with Derrik at about 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday while he was using the phone of the consul general. She said he told her he had been fed and wasn't being tortured, and that he insisted that he hadn't done anything wrong.

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"That was just a blessing to hear his voice," she said.

"I said, 'Did you throw anything off a roof?' And he said 'No, I didn't.' And then I said, 'Did you do anything else?' He said, 'No, none of us did.'"

The parents of Sweeney and Gates said that they have been in Cairo since August, studying Arabic at the American University.

Meanwhile an American film maker and journalist was arrested by Egyptian police while documenting clashes in Tahrir Square, she told a colleague by phone.

Video: Protesters throw stones, conflict grows in Cairo (on this page)

Karim Amer, the producer for Jehane Nojaim ? an award-winning film maker of Egyptian ancestry who is best-known for her al-Jazeera TV documentary "Control Room" ? said Nojaim was detained and her camera was confiscated.

Amer said he was separated from her after they both fled from tear gas.

Egyptian-American columnist and activist Mona Eltahawy, who regularly appears on news channels as a self-described "speaker on Arab and Muslim issues" was also reportedly arrested in Cairo.

"Beaten arrested in interior ministry," she posted on her Twitter account overnight.

She tweeted "I AM FREE" at about 5:30 a.m. ET, and then sent several messages saying she had been beaten and sexually assaulted, using strong language to condemn the Egyptian police.

She also said her right hand was "so swollen I can't close it." She posted a picture of her hand. She tweeted she was being taken to hospital.

The U.S. Department of State tweeted early Thursday that it was aware of the reports that Nojaim and Elthawy had been arrested and said the U.S. Embassy in Cairo was "engaging authorities."

First free election in decades
In the first significant pause in violence since Saturday, clashes stopped at midnight in Tahrir Square and elsewhere after protesters agreed with police to stay put.

But the thousands who thronged the square were undeterred in their determination to protest at the deaths of more than 30 people in the violence and reject the army's offer of a referendum on its rule.

"He goes, we won't," declared one banner in a reference to the head of the military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.

In light of the violence, Interior Minister Mansour el-Essawy presented a report to the military council proposing a postponement of the parliamentary election planned for November 28, al-Jazeera television said on Thursday, quoting unnamed sources. It was not immediately possible to verify the report.

Slideshow: Violent clashes in Egypt (on this page)

The election, due to begin on Monday, has been billed as Egypt's first free vote in decades.

The army and the Muslim Brotherhood, which expects to do well in the election, says it must go ahead but many protesters are unwilling to trust the army to oversee a clean vote and hand real control of the country to the winner.

The generals' popularity has waned in the nine months since they nudged President Hosni Mubarak from office and swore to steer the country toward civilian democracy, as suspicion grew that they were maneuvering to stay in power beyond elections.

Tantawi has pledged to bring forward a presidential vote and offered a new interim government but the demonstrators are unconvinced.

"The military council must leave and hand power to civilians. They don't want to leave so that their corruption isn't exposed," said 23-year-old student Ahmed Essam.

He said he joined the protests when he saw riot police raining blows on peaceful demonstrators on Saturday. "Everything is like in Mubarak's time," he said.

The Associated Press, Reuters and NBC News contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45426434/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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শুক্রবার, ২৫ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

FACT CHECK: Hyperbole on terror interrogations (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Michele Bachmann did not intend to be taken literally when she told the Republican presidential debate Tuesday that civil-liberties activists have taken over the interrogation of terrorists from the CIA. But even as a rhetorical point, it didn't hold water.

Her hyperbole on the American Civil Liberties Union was one of the more notable stretches in the national security and foreign policy debate. A look at some of the claims and how they compare with the facts:

___

BACHMANN: "This is one thing we know about Barack Obama: He has essentially handed over our interrogation of terrorists to the ACLU. He's outsourced it to them. Our CIA has no ability to have any form of interrogation for terrorists."

THE FACTS: The CIA still has the ability to interrogate terrorists. President Obama formed the High Value Interrogation Group, which includes the FBI, the CIA and the Pentagon. It centralizes expertise so that when a terrorism suspect is caught, everyone with a stake in the issue is involved in the questioning. The CIA also can sit in on interrogations in other countries, asking questions directly or through officials of the host government.

Whether the policy on interrogating suspects should be tougher is a matter of authentic debate. But the CIA is hardly emasculated. The agency has dramatically expanded its on-the-ground operations worldwide since 2001, and the U.S. killing of a succession of al-Qaida figures in Pakistan ? Osama bin Laden chief among them ? demonstrates the potency of the hunt for terrorists. Moreover, the U.S. killing of an American citizen abroad ? the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki ? is well outside the range of action that would be condoned by civil liberties advocates.

___

MITT ROMNEY: "What they're doing is cutting a trillion dollars out of the defense budget."

RON PAUL: "They're nibbling away at baseline budgeting. ... There's nothing cut against the military. And the people on the Hill are nearly hysterical because they're not going ? the budget isn't going up as rapidly as they want it to."

THE FACTS: Paul was more accurate than Romney in describing what is happening with defense spending. Constraints in the military budget are much more modest than Romney suggested.

Both Romney and rival Rick Perry have been criticizing Obama for looming defense cuts that are triggered by the failure of the deficit supercommittee to act. But the cuts would only slow the rate of growth of Pentagon spending, which has been vastly increased because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, now winding down. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the planned Pentagon budget for 2021 would be some $700 billion, an increase over the current level of about $520 billion. The cuts agreed to last summer plus the automatic reductions would trim the projected 2021 budget by about $110 billion.

Moreover, the spending cuts set in motion by the supercommittee's failure to reach an agreement are not to begin until January 2013, which gives lawmakers time to try again to produce a debt plan. That's what Obama has in mind ? using the threat of defense cuts to push lawmakers to make a deal.

Romney's figure encompasses two sets of Pentagon spending cuts, only one of which was proposed by Obama. The president's budget called for $450 billion in savings from the defense budget; the rest is fallout from the supercommittee, a creature of Congress.

___

RICK PERRY: "When you sanction the Iranian central bank, that will shut down that economy. ... This president refuses to do that, and it's another show of lack of leadership from the president of the United States."

THE FACTS: Obama, like George W. Bush before him, hasn't issued a blanket ban on dealings with Iran's central bank. Perry could try as president, but he'd find himself with some angry allies and perhaps some economic damage for the United States.

U.S. sanctions already severely restrict what contact American and foreign companies can have with Iranian banks. That has made the central bank the primary conduit for purchasing Iranian oil exports.

Blacklisting the central bank entirely would put energy companies and banks from places such as Japan in a dilemma: either find new oil sources, or risk punishment in the United States. The same applies for China, Russia, Turkey and other countries with investments in Iran ? and the rush for new fuel providers could lead to a spike in gasoline prices that hampers the American economic recovery.

In reality, however, it's unlikely the U.S. would be prepared to blacklist Japan's banks for financial transactions with Iran's central bank. So the power of the sanction would be unclear.

___

BACHMANN: "Almost every decision that the president has made since he came in has been one to put the United States in a position of unilateral disarmament, including the most recent decision he made to cancel the Keystone pipeline. That would have not only created jobs, but it would have helped us in energy independence."

THE FACTS: Obama didn't cancel the Canadian oil pipeline. Instead, his administration delayed the decision in order to explore an alternative route to avoid areas of Nebraska that include wetlands and an aquifer providing water crucial to huge swaths of U.S. cropland. Bachmann also overlooked that the delay came under pressure from Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, a Republican. When the pipeline was delayed, Heineman hailed the decision and called it "an exceptional moment for Nebraskans."

___

PERRY: "When you put the no-fly zone above Syria, it obviously gives those dissidents and gives the military the opportunity to maybe disband."

ROMNEY: "They have 5,000 tanks in Syria. A no-fly zone wouldn't be the right military action ? maybe a no-drive zone. ... I mean, this is a nation which is not bombing its people at this point, and the right course is not military."

PERRY: "I think you need to leave it on the table to make sure, because this is not just about Syria. This is about Iran and those two as a partnership, and exporting terrorism around the world. And if we're going to be serious about saving Israel, we better get serious about Syria and Iran, and we better get serious right now."

THE FACTS: As Romney suggested, a no-fly zone by itself wouldn't do much to stop Syrian tanks and bullets from killing civilians. Unlike in Libya, where Moammar Gadhafi used his air force to fire on cities, President Bashar Assad's government has by and large stuck to ground forces. There have been a few cases of helicopters allegedly used, but they are exceptions.

Perry's follow-up argument that a no-fly zone in Syria could help deter Iranian terrorism and save Israel wasn't clear. He seemed to be referring to Iranian and Syrian support for anti-Israel groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, neither of which has air power. Weapons smuggling also can occur by ground or sea.

___

Associated Press writers Bradley Klapper, Matt Apuzzo, Donna Cassata and Kimberly Dozier contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111123/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_debate_fact_check

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৪ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

Study Links Coffee to Lower Risk of Endometrial Cancer (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, Nov. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Women who drink moderate to high amounts of coffee may reduce their risk for endometrial cancer, new research reveals.

The finding stems from what investigators call the largest study to date to explore the impact of coffee and tea on the risk of endometrial cancer, which is cancer that originates in the lining of the uterus.

The study found that women who consume four or more cups of caffeinated coffee per day appear to lower their risk for endometrial cancer by 25 percent, relative to women who drink less than one cup a day.

Drinking fewer than four cups a day did not appear to offer any preventative benefit, however. Nor did drinking tea.

But there was some indication that decaffeinated coffee might be helpful, as drinking two or more cups of decaf daily was linked (although only tentatively) to a 22 percent drop in endometrial cancer risk.

Still, "this study does not prove cause and effect," cautioned study co-author Dr. Edward Giovannucci, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. "But this observation has been suggested previously, and there's strong reason now to believe that this association is real."

Giovannucci pointed to a number of potential explanations. "One is that women with higher levels of estrogen and insulin are at a higher risk for endometrial cancer, and coffee seems to reduce levels of both," he said. "Also women with diabetes also face a much higher risk, and coffee has been associated with a lower risk for diabetes. So there are several factors that could be involved.

"We also think that any risk reduction is probably related to something other than caffeine," he added. "Because coffee is a fairly complex beverage with literally thousands of compounds. In fact, coffee has one of the highest concentrations of antioxidants, and any number of those could have a beneficial aspect."

The findings appear in the current issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

The authors point out that endometrial cancer is currently the most prevalent gynecologic cancer among American women.

In addition to routine exercise and weight maintenance, researchers have theorized that certain aspects of diet might play a role in endometrial cancer prevention.

Coffee has been highlighted as a possible game-changer, given its impact on circulating hormone levels. The authors note that recent studies from Japan and Sweden support this conjecture.

To further explore coffee's potential, the research team analyzed data that had previously been collected by the Nurses' Health Study .

Initially launched in 1976, the study as a whole involved women between the ages of 30 and 55, residing in 11 different states.

The authors focused on the coffee-drinking habits of roughly 67,500 study participants, conducting surveys at two-year intervals to track endometrial cancer incidence over 26 years. Dietary habits were assessed in surveys that were completed once every four years between 1980 and 2002.

The team observed 672 cases of endometrial cancer.

After accounting for a range of factors (such as smoking habits, body mass index and alcohol consumption) the authors found that four or more cups of caffeinated coffee was "significantly" associated with a 25 percent drop in endometrial cancer risk.

That said, the team hesitated to endorse high levels of coffee consumption, noting that the apparent benefit could be negated among those who routinely add cream and sugar to their cup of joe.

Dr. Janice Dutcher, director of immunotherapy at St Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center and Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, suggested the findings should not been interpreted as anything more than an "interesting hypothesis."

"I'm skeptical," she said. "My skepticism comes from the fact that a variety of things have been associated with cancer at one point, and then not associated with cancer later on. Twenty years ago it was thought coffee was the cause of pancreatic cancer. And to isolate one dietary factor from all the other things that people take in is very complicated. So while I'm sure this is a carefully done study with good methodology, I would be very careful about drawing any conclusions."

More information

For more on endometrial cancer, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/cancer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111122/hl_hsn/studylinkscoffeetolowerriskofendometrialcancer

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Gaming Social Media Signals For Fun And Profit | SEOmoz

About two weeks ago I gave a talk at Pubcon titled, "Global Social Media Signals For SEO". During the end of the talk I briefly mentioned several techniques used to "game" social signals. Afterwards it was apparent that many were interested to learn more about gaming these signals. So without further ado, I would like to talk more about how to game social media signals.

Oh wait a second! It looks like I got a little ahead of myself, before we go any further I think we should try to answer one question:

Why should anyone try to game social media signals?

If you are a giant dork (like moi), then gaming social media signals can be fun! However, if you have friends in the real world then I would suggest you try and identify actionable goals with the signals you are gaming, otherwise this might turn into a waste of time. Some actionable goals would be to push content with in networks, increase user "authority", or even game outside channels like search results.

Quick note about, gaming search results with social signals: Social media signals for search are still in its infancy. Over the last several years we have seen the engines employ a variety of different techniques to integrate social signals. However, each of these have had fluctuating significance. Therefore, I would advise that you integrate social signals as a part of a much larger marketing plan that also includes all of the fundamentals of SEO. Social media is not replacing SEO, it's making it better.


Your target here is your audience, and it's important that you understand what they are motivated by to get them to act. Most economists will call these "incentives". However, most of the time we aren't using direct calls to action in social media, so these are more likely akin to dangling a worm in-front of a fish. We aren't telling the fish to bite; we are hoping that the worm looks good enough for the fish to bite on its own.

One of the most well known psychologists of the 20th century on the topic of motivation was Abraham Maslow. Maslow is widely known for his "hierarchy of needs" which he first published in a paper in 1943. Here you can see that Maslow has classified needs into 5 sections: Physiological, Safety, Love/belonging, Esteem, and Self-actualization. Despite the fact that each of these sections clearly articulate an individual need within the human experience, I tend to disagree with the concept a hierarchy because it implies that each are separate of the others. For example I might want self-actualization and crave a cheeseburger at the same time. However, understanding Maslow's theory can help you position your content and your sharing strategy in a way that aligns with an individual's basic needs.

A much more recent study [PDF] published by the Journal of Marketing Research looked at what types of content are more likely to go "viral". They concluded that content that invoked high physiological arousal was more likely to be shared or engaged.


Recently Matt McGee showed us data that reveals that images draw more Facebook interactions than any other posting type. Remember that interactions aren't the same as content consumption. For example Its clear that video consumption on the web is constantly rising. But the nature of social media relies on metrics that tend to have quick shelf life. In other words, users might watch a video or read a blog post, but when done they are ready to move on to the next piece of content, not click "like" or +1. Images are quick and can be consumed without a click through, which keeps the user close to the "share", "retweet", "like" buttons.

While images are ruling Facebook, animated images are killing it on Google+. Some of you might find them annoying, but it has become increasingly apparent that these zany GIFs are very popular with "shares" and "+1"'s. Just a few days ago I got over 200 shares in less than 12 hours with an animated GIF. Check out GIFBin and browse the top rated or top tagged for animated GIFs that will work well with in Google+.

If blog posts are your cup of tea, you should learn to embed viral factors to increase on page sharing. Things like uniform image sizes and emphasizing white space can motivate more social clicks.

Images (both animated and not) can get a lot of traction, but other content types can be just as successful. The trick is finding (or creating) what works. What I typically do is troll other networks like reddit or digg looking for content that is already trending. Then I re-post on other networks. I used to call this "Retweet Bait", but it can be applied anywhere that inner-network sharing is available.


Share/Spread Signals:

  • Retweets
  • Facebook shares
  • Google+ shares

Authority Signals:

  • Relationship ratios.
  • Mentions
  • Inbound activity

Simple Quantitative Signals:

  • Google +1
  • Facebook likes.
  • "Up/Down votes"

Discussion Signals:

  • Comment threads
  • In stream mentions.

Share/Spread Signals - Gaming these signals can help not only distribute content to the widest audience, but will also put your name in-front of other users, increasing relationship metrics and improving authority. If you are a "breaking" news publisher you are going to want to focus on these metrics to influence Google's recent freshness update and trip the query deserves freshness signal. For best results you are going to want to use clear straightforward calls to action like, please retweet, "please share", or any other appropriate variant.

Simple Quantitative Signals - These have got to be the simplest social signals available. They are great for measuring content quality and act as a baseline for other metrics. You can easily game these by including clear straight forward calls to action. "Please support us by liking this post!" If you are using WordPress, you are going to want to check out the WP Greet Box it allows you to include a custom call to action above or below the post based on the referring URL. So if a user comes to your blog from Google+ you can include a call to action similar to: "Hey there! If you enjoy this post please +1 it!"

Authority Signals - Search engines and social networks are constantly trying to judge authority. These signals are vital to having strength in social media. The most obvious authority metric is relationship ratios on asymmetrical networks like Twitter. With asymmetrical networks we can judge authority [PDF via] by looking at the ratio to following and followers. Facebook recently added the subscribe feature which will give the ability to use this same type of analysis. Authority can also be weighted by inter-network mentions and even inbound activity.

Discussion Signals - When users comment on your content they are effectively sending a signal that your content holds value. Content that starts dialog generally also gets shared. To game this signal you are going to want to ask open-ended questions that inspire debate or dialog.


Getting a handful of Facebook likes or +1's can be a good start. But to see real traction you have to make the signals "pop". It's hard to tell exactly what is needed to get each signal to register on the various networks, but one starting place is taking a second look at Facebook's EdgeRank. EdgeRank is responsible for pushing the most popular content with in each Facebook social stream. From what we know, Facebook is using three main factors to influence EdgeRank:

  • Affinity Score - This is a relationship metric that measures how close you are to others. If a user visits another's page often, or sends them multiple messages the score is higher. If a user has a high affinity score with another they are more likely to show up in their social stream. You can game this score by getting users to regularly visit your Facebook page.
  • Edge weight - Every time a user engages content with in the social stream, the content is given an "edge" over other less popular content. Comments, likes, and shares all count towards "edge". You can game this metric [PDF] by asking open ended questions with an inherent bias. Here's an example: "How badly do you think the republicans will do in this election?" Democrats will "like" (or +1) this question because of the inherent bias. Republicans will comment on it, because of the inherent bias. As a result we are gaming two of the needed metrics to influence Edge weight.
  • Time decay - Fresher content is more likely to be included in the social stream. The best way to game this metric is to develop evergreen content that you can re-share periodically.

While EdgeRank is exclusive to Facebook, other networks have similar systems of ranking internal content. It is clear that Google+ is using something analogous to EdgeRank, but with two main differences: Google+ doesn't filter content in the social stream, it just reorders it. Also, it appears that Google+ doesn't put as much weight on affinity as Facebook does.


In marketing (and life) I often execute what I call the kitchen sink strategy. Basically this entails throwing "everything but the kitchen sink" at a problem and seeing what works. Gaming social signals are no different. Which is why when I promote content I try to include as many of the tactics described above as possible.

For example, not long ago we launched a small site to test various marketing strategies. When it came time to test Google+ I wanted to attack the signals from all corners. Therefore, I embedded the OpenGraph image meta tag to pull a large version of our logo into the social stream. Then I designed a question with direct calls to action embedded into multiple choice answers. Coaxing the user to engage with multiple choice questions is an example of manipulating inherent cognitive biases. The result? We get basic feedback about a design and gamed Google+'s social stream with all the elements needed to make the signals "pop".


Social media signals are gaining significance every day. However, as information sharing changes and the various social channels rise and fall in popularity, there is no set methodology you should follow now or in the future. Instead, it is important to constantly test new strategies and ideas. Good luck gaming!

Source: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/gaming-social-media-signals-for-fun-and-profit-14368

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Luncheon offers legal-career tips for students | Clocking In | a mySA ...

The San Antonio chapter of the Federal Bar Association is sponsoring a luncheon to encourage young men attending the Fox Tech Law and Research Magnet Program to consider a career in the legal field.

Fifty students from the program will learn about legal career options at the luncheon from men who work in legal-related professions.

Lawyers from?law firms, the military and government agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the FBI, will be in attendance.

The luncheon will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 pm. Tuesday at the Adrian Spears Judicial Center at 643 E. Cesar Chavez Blvd.

? Patrick Danner

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The San Antonio chapter of the Federal Bar Association is sponsoring a luncheon to encourage young men attending the Fox Tech Law and Research Magnet Program to consider a career in the legal field. Fifty students from the program will learn about legal career options at the luncheon from men who work in legal-related professions. [...]

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Source: http://blog.mysanantonio.com/clockingin/2011/11/luncheon-offers-legal-career-tips-for-students/

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US firm: 3-9 trillion cubic feet of gas off Cyprus (AP)

NICOSIA, Cyprus ? A top official with United States firm Noble Energy said on Tuesday that a field it is conducting undersea exploratory drilling in off the coast of Cyprus may yield between 3 to 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Noble Senior Vice President Susan Cunningham says there is a 60 percent chance it will successfully reach the deposit.

Cunningham told an analyst conference at Noble's Houston headquarters ? broadcast live through the company's Website ? that firm results from the 'Cyprus A prospect' would impact other possible exploratory drilling in the area.

It is the first time Noble has given an estimate on the size of the deposit which lies inside the Mediterranean island's exclusive economic zone about 115 miles (185 kilometers) off its south coast.

By comparison, Noble said an Israeli field discovered nearby in 2010 had an estimated 16 trillion cubic feet of gas ? the world's largest offshore gas discovery that year.

Cyprus officials have said they would formally announce drilling results early next month, while Commerce Minister Praxoulla Antoniadou said the government will invite tenders for more exploratory drilling inside Cyprus's 17,000 square-mile (51,000 square-kilometer) EEZ before the end of the year.

The island's President Dimitris Christofias said Monday that the government envisions turning the island into an energy hub.

Israeli energy company Delek, which is part of a Noble Energy-led consortium exploiting Israel's offshore natural gas finds, has proposed a partnership with Cyprus to build a facility on the island to process and export gas.

But Cyprus' gas exploration has ratcheted up regional tensions after Turkey condemned the drilling as ignoring the rights of breakaway Turkish Cypriots on the ethnically split island.

Cyprus was divided into an internationally recognized Greek speaking south and a breakaway Turkish speaking north in 1974 after a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, but only the south enjoys membership benefits.

Turkey doesn't recognize the southern government as the island's sole representative and considers a Cypriot-Israeli deal demarcating their maritime borders as invalid. It has sent a warship-escorted research vessel to look for gas deposits in the area and has also signed its own maritime border accord with the Turkish Cypriots.

Ankara has also warned that drilling could harm ongoing reunification talks. But Christofias said it could act as an incentive to expedite a peace accord since Turkish Cypriots would share in any gas riches.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111115/ap_on_re_eu/eu_cyprus_gas_exploration

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Lossmaking UniCredit seeks $10.3 billion, axes 6,150 jobs (Reuters)

MILAN (Reuters) ? Italian bank UniCredit (CRDI.MI) is to ask shareholders for 7.5 billion euros ($10.3 billion) in new capital, cut 6,150 jobs and retreat from key business areas in a bid to repair its ravaged balance sheet and return to profit.

Revealing a 10.6 billion euro third-quarter loss along with plans for Europe's largest rights issue in the banking sector for over a year, it scrapped its dividend payment for 2011 and joined other banks in aiming to cut back on its lending.

UniCredit, the only Italian name in a list this month of the most important global banks, is the country's most internationally exposed lender, operating in 22 countries.

But it is bearing the brunt as the euro zone's third-largest economy is sucked ever deeper into the region's debt crisis.

UniCredit holds 40 billion euros of Italian government bonds and its shares have lost half of their value this year, leaving its fundraising representing half of its value and making it painfully dilutive for investors.

Its shares closed down 6.2 percent at 0.77 euros, valuing it at just under 15 billion euros.

Some 5,200 of the jobs will go in its home base of Italy, now in the eye of the euro zone's crisis storm. Another 2,000 will go in western Europe, including 800 in Austria, partly offset by new jobs in eastern Europe. About 62,000 of the bank's 160,000 staff are in Italy, with 51,000 in central and eastern Europe.

The third-quarter loss included 9.8 billion euros of writedowns, of which 8.7 billion were linked to ill-timed takeovers in eastern Europe in the past few years. Goodwill from deals in Ukraine and Kazakhstan was entirely written off. It also announced writedowns on its Greek bond holdings and on a number of brands, including Germany's HVB and Bank Austria.

"It looks like a kitchen sink job ... a massive hatchet job across the business," said one analyst who did not want to be named. Another said the refocusing on Italy and eastern Europe made sense given the bank's strong presence, in contrast to the sub-scale areas it will leave.

"The macro-economic conditions in which banks operate have changed completely ... Our balance sheet is now much more in line with current valuations, it's more solid and doesn't hold surprises for the future," CEO Federico Ghizzoni said.

The writedowns are an accounting move that will not eat into capital but even stripping them out the bank made a third-quarter net loss of 474 million euros, wiping out a profit of 334 million euros a year ago and worse than analysts' expectations of a 6 million-euro profit.

ROCK SOLID?

UniCredit, Italy's biggest bank by assets, said on Monday it aims to save 1.5 billion euros in annual costs and will retreat to its core operations, confirming many details that emerged over the weekend.

By strengthening its capital base, reducing investment banking and refocusing on more stable retail and corporate banking in Italy, Austria, Germany, Poland, Turkey, Russia and the Czech Republic, Ghizzoni hopes to reduce volatility and stabilize profits.

Sources close to the matter said it will exit its London-based equity sales and trading business, but the bank plans to keep a leading role in central and eastern Europe.

The capital increase, to be launched in the first quarter of 2012, will lift the bank's core Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio to 10.35 percent of risk-weighted assets.

Ghizzoni wants to be on the safe side of the 9 percent core capital requirement set for Europe's banks.

"We want to be a rock-solid European commercial bank focused on our franchise with customers, households and small and medium businesses, with a conservative risk profile ... What is not core to our business will be abandoned," he said.

UniCredit refused, unlike Italian peer Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI), to tap the market when conditions were more favorable, and now must raise funds in a tough market.

SHRINKING ASSETS

UniCredit said it will sell or run off 48 billion euros of risk-weighted assets, joining rivals like BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) in shrinking in the face of higher capital and funding costs.

But the scale of deleveraging could choke off economic growth at a time when companies need extra credit to be pumped into the economy, industry critics say.

UniCredit's profitability ranks among the lowest in the industry, with return on tangible equity (RoTE) of just 3.6 percent last year. The bank said its turnaround plan should lift RoTE to over 12 percent and net profit to 6.5 billion euros in 2015.

Disposal of minor assets in eastern European countries where UniCredit is not the market leader are also being considered, although the bank said it has no intention of selling its profitable Turkish and Polish units.

Ghizzoni needs to persuade shareholder foundations -- which together hold around 13 percent of UniCredit -- to back the bank's third capital increase since 2009 and its biggest since the start of the financial crisis.

He said that the capital increae had received unanimous support, and he expected most shareholders to underwrite it.

The bank was in talks with potential new investors from China and Qatar but these parties had not made any commitment to be part of the deal so far, sources familiar with the plan told Reuters at the weekend.

A further problem is the 7.5 percent stake held in UniCredit by Libya's central bank and sovereign wealth fund, which is technically still frozen because of the international sanctions imposed during the country's civil war.

The rights issue eclipses the near-5 billion-euro fundraisings undertaken by both Intesa and Germany's Commerzbank (CBKG.DE). Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) raised 10.2 billion euros in a rights issue in October 2010.

Mediobanca (MDBI.MI) and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BAC.N) are leading a consortium of banks managing the Unicredit offer.

(Additional reporting by Sophie Sassard, Steve Slater and Sarah White in London and Mike Shields in Vienna; Editing by Andrew Callus, Jane Merriman and David Cowell)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111114/bs_nm/us_unicredit

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Huntsman Super PAC going on air in New Hampshire

Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, Former Governor of Utah, speaks at the CBS News/National Journal foreign policy debate at the Benjamin Johnson Arena, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011, in Spartanburg, S.C. The debate covered foreign policy, which has gotten little attention from the GOP candidates in recent weeks. When they have touched on it, they've criticized Obama's handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, his support for NATO's intervention in Libya and his treatment of China's currency, among other issues. (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)

Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, Former Governor of Utah, speaks at the CBS News/National Journal foreign policy debate at the Benjamin Johnson Arena, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011, in Spartanburg, S.C. The debate covered foreign policy, which has gotten little attention from the GOP candidates in recent weeks. When they have touched on it, they've criticized Obama's handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, his support for NATO's intervention in Libya and his treatment of China's currency, among other issues. (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)

(AP) ? Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman is getting a boost in New Hampshire from outside supporters who are paying for television ads to begin airing Tuesday that promote his two terms as Utah governor and service as U.S. ambassador to China.

The Our Destiny PAC, which supports Huntsman, on Monday ordered cable and broadcast advertising buys for a minute-long spot promoting Huntsman's biography and branding his better known rivals as "phony."

The ad is the first from a so-called super PAC in New Hampshire and it signals that Huntsman's deep-pocketed friends are willing to open their wallets to help a campaign that's struggling to gain traction.

"The world is literally collapsing and no one has shown up we can trust as a conservative, who actually has a chance to win, and not some phony who tells me one thing and you another. Where's that guy?" voters say in the ad.

It echoes the rhetoric of Huntsman's campaign and could give it a lift.

In the first few months after Huntsman returned from Beijing, he promoted himself as someone who could break the gridlock between Democrats and Republicans given his service in three Republican administrations and under President Barack Obama.

But his post-partisan luster quickly faded and he has remained at the back of the pack, stuck in single digits in the polls.

Although Huntsman hails from a wealthy family and has a sizeable fortune of his own, he has struggled to raise money and was forced to pour some of his own dollars into the campaign to make payroll. He shed consultants and staff ? including his top New Hampshire aide ? and moved his campaign headquarters from Orlando, Fla., to Manchester, N.H., in a reflection of the state's central plank in his strategy for winning the GOP presidential nomination.

Even before that move, though, Huntsman was a regular presence here. When he returns Tuesday for another three-day swing, his first event ? a town hall meeting in Portsmouth ? will be Huntsman's 100th New Hampshire campaign appearance.

"We've been aggressive. One hundred events is a good milestone, but there will be a lot more before primary day," spokesman Michael Levoff said. "New Hampshire is our top priority."

While Huntsman's campaign has yet to spend money on the airwaves, the super PAC investment helps address his greatest weakness here. Despite an aggressive campaign schedule, he still isn't particularly well known. The campaign has acknowledged a need to boost name recognition, and it was long assumed that Huntsman would be among the first candidates to buy television advertising to raise his profile.

Tuesday's ad was a first step toward that.

"The president's failed. The economy is worse. The stock market's a wreck. Are we the next Greece?" the ad says. "Our government is flabby, bloated and week. Health care reform? Toss it. Got a job? Sure you'll have it next week?"

The group behind it, Our Destiny political action committee, has no formal connection to Huntsman's campaign and is freed from traditional fundraising limits, meaning Huntsman's billionaire father could bankroll the spot as much as he wants. Like other similar groups, this one will not be required to disclose its donors until Jan. 31, well after the lead-off contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Super PACs stem from a recent Supreme Court decision that allows corporations, unions and individuals to spend unlimited amounts on campaigns as long as they don't coordinate with the candidates.

Such groups are expected to play a major role in next year's election, with seven of the eight Republican presidential candidates and Obama having super PACs dedicated to spreading their messages. Just last week, an organization dubbed Solutions 2012 was established to aid former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Some candidates, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, have multiple super PACs.

One Perry super PAC, Make Us Great Again, has aired ads in Iowa and South Carolina and has pledged to raise as much as $55 million. Restore Our Future, the super PAC behind Mitt Romney, raised $12 million in the first six months of this year.

There has been no sign to date of the negative advertising war that some feared. But with voting set to begin in New Hampshire and Iowa in less than two months, the super PACs could become very active very quickly.

___

Elliott reported from Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-11-14-Huntsman-Super%20PAC/id-2734aac4c49e458aa397f40badc67007

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Doctors: Test all kids for cholesterol by age 11 (AP)

CHICAGO ? Every child should be tested for high cholesterol between ages 9 and 11 so steps can be taken to prevent heart disease later on, a panel of doctors urged Friday in new advice that is sure to be controversial.

Until now, major medical groups have suggested cholesterol tests only for children with a family history of early heart disease or high cholesterol and those who are obese or have diabetes or high blood pressure. But studies show that is missing many children with high cholesterol, and the number of them at risk is growing because of the obesity epidemic.

The recommendation is in new guidelines from an expert panel appointed by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

They also advise diabetes screening every two years starting as early as 9 for children who are overweight and have other risks for Type 2 diabetes, including family history. One third of U.S. children and teens are obese or overweight, fueling a boom in diabetes.

Autopsy studies show that some children already have signs of heart disease even before they have symptoms. By the fourth grade, 10 percent to 13 percent of U.S. children have high cholesterol, defined as a score of 200 or more.

Fats build up in the heart arteries in the first and second decade of life but usually don't start hardening the arteries until people are in their 20s and 30s, said one of the guideline panel members, Dr. Elaine Urbina, director of preventive cardiology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

"If we screen at age 20, it may be already too late," she said. "To me it's not controversial at all. We should have been doing this for years."

Elizabeth Duruz didn't want to take that chance. Her 10-year-old daughter, Joscelyn Benninghoff, has been on cholesterol-lowering medicines since she was 5 because high cholesterol runs in her family. They live in Cincinnati.

"We decided when she was 5 that we would get her screened early on. She tested really high" despite being active and not overweight, Duruz said. "We're doing what we need to do for her now and that gives me hope that she'll be healthy."

Doctors recommend screening between ages 9 and 11 because cholesterol dips during puberty and rises later. They also advise testing again later, between ages 17 and 21.

The guidelines say that cholesterol drugs likely would be recommended for less than 1 percent of kids tested. Most children found to have high cholesterol would be advised to control it with diet and physical activity.

And children younger than 10 should not be treated with cholesterol drugs unless they have severe cholesterol problems, the guidelines say.

"We'll also continue to encourage parents and children to make positive lifestyle choices to prevent risk factors from occurring," said Dr. Gordan Tomaselli, president of the American Heart Association, which praised the guidelines and will host a presentation on them Sunday at its annual conference in Florida.

Cholesterol tests cost around $80 and usually are covered by health insurance.

Several doctors on the guidelines panel have received consulting fees or have had other financial ties to makers of cholesterol medicines, and the new advice raises concerns about overtreating children with powerful drugs without long-term evidence about potential effects from decades of use.

Typically, cholesterol drugs are used indefinitely but they are generally safe, said Dr. Sarah Blumenschein, director of preventive cardiology at Children's Medical Center in Dallas.

"You have to start early. It's much easier to change children's behavior when they're 5, or 10, or 12" than when they're older, said Blumenschein, who treats many children with high cholesterol and supports the screening advice.

A different group of government advisers, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, concluded in 2007 that there's not enough known about the possible benefits and harms to recommend for or against cholesterol screening for children and teens.

One of its leaders, Dr. Michael LeFevre, a family medicine specialist at the University of Missouri, said that for the task force to declare screening beneficial there must be evidence that treatment improves health, such as preventing heart attacks, rather than just nudges down a number ? the cholesterol score.

"Some of the argument is that we need to treat children when they're 14 or 15 to keep them from having a heart attack when they're 50, and that's a pretty long lag time," he said.

The guidelines also say doctors should:

_Take yearly blood pressure measurements for children starting at age 3.

_Start routine anti-smoking advice when kids are ages 5 to 9, and counsel parents of infants not to smoke in the home.

_Review infants' family history of obesity and start tracking body mass index, or BMI, a measure of obesity, at age 2.

The panel also suggests using more frank terms for kids who are overweight and obese than some government agencies have used in the past. Children whose BMI is in the 85th to 95th percentile should be called overweight, not "at risk for overweight," and kids whose BMI is in the 95th percentile or higher should be called obese, not "overweight ? even kids as young as age 2, the panel said.

"Some might feel that `obese' is an unacceptable term for children and parents," so doctors should "use descriptive terminology that is appropriate for each child and family," the guidelines recommend.

They were released online Friday by the journal Pediatrics.

___

Marchione reported from Milwaukee and can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

___

Online:

Guidelines: http://tinyurl.com/7csojas

NHLBI panel: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/cvd_ped/index.htm

Cholesterol info: http://tinyurl.com/23dtxvo

and http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/index.htm(hash)chol

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111111/ap_on_he_me/us_med_kids_cholesterol_tests

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রবিবার, ১৩ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

Learn a Foreign Language on Your iPad ? with Help from Your Friends

Learning a foreign language on your own can be difficult because it’s almost impossible to tell if you’re pronouncing words correctly. ?The Hello-Hello World iPad app offers language courses for 11 different languages, and it has a social aspect that can help you learn better and faster. ?You can connect with friends who speak the [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/11/12/learn-a-foreign-language-on-your-ipad-with-help-from-your-friends/

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শনিবার, ১২ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

Mexican drug cartel tries to silence Internet

(AP) ? Mexico's hyperviolent Zetas drug cartel appears to be launching what may be one of the first campaigns by an organized crime group to silence commentary on the Internet.

The cartel has already attacked rivals, journalists and other perceived enemies. Now, the target is an online chat room, Nuevo Laredo en Vivo, that allows users to comment on the activities of the Zetas and others in the city on the border with Texas.

Already, three apparent site users have been slain, and a fourth victim may have been discovered Wednesday, when a man's decapitated body was found with what residents said was a banner suggesting he was killed for posting on the site. Chat room users said they could not immediately confirm the victim's identity, because people all post under aliases.

Despite such precautions, users are highly vulnerable, and the Zetas could be tracking them from clues they leave online, experts said Thursday.

A female chat room user was found decapitated in September with a similar message as the one found Wednesday and at the exact same spot, with a message signed with the letter "Z," which refers to the Zetas. Residents couldn't fully read the latest message, because the dead man's body was laid on top of it, in what appeared to be a more hurried execution.

"I don't know of anything like this having happened anywhere else in the world," said Jorge Chabat, an expert in safety and drug trafficking at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics in Mexico. "It is certainly new and worrisome ... it is a frontal confrontation against the public; it is not just a confrontation with the government anymore."

Drug cartels in Mexico have frequently attacked traditional print newspapers, by tossing explosives at their offices or killing, kidnapping or threatening reporters. Violence against journalists in Tamaulipas state, where Nuevo Laredo is located, has led local media to censor themselves, leaving residents on their own to separate fact from pervasive rumors spread on social networks.

Juan Carlos Romero, who helps lead the press freedom group Article 19, said local newspapers have often stopped publishing crime reports out of fear, leading residents to turn more to the Internet for information like that posted Thursday on Nuevo Laredo en Vivo: where gunshots have been heard, where vehicles suspected of carrying cartel lookouts have been seen, which streets are safe to travel.

"What are people doing in the face of the lack of information, the kind of information you need to make decisions: Where can I drive? Can I leave the house?" said Romero. "People are forging new channels of communication on the Internet, social networks, Twitter, blogs, Facebook."

Drug cartels appear to have learned that such Internet sites reach far more readers than northeastern Mexico's small regional newspapers and have adjusted their attacks accordingly.

"We are witnessing a new behavior of criminal forces in the country," said Erick Fernandez, a communications professor at the IberoAmerican University in Mexico City. "We are in a new phase."

Romero agreed. "It appears to me that organized crime is trying to get common citizens to stop real-time coverage of violence," he said, saying that "the intimidation is having a multiplier effect."

Some of the site users vowed to forge on despite the two decapitations and the September slayings of two other people whose bodies were found hanging from an overpass in Nuevo Laredo with a message threatening: "This is what will happen" to trouble-making Internet users. That message was also signed with a "Z."

"I am ready to lay down my life for the cause, if the soldiers take heed of my reports ... (if) the risk (serves) for something," said one user who posted under the tag "Anon5182."

Despite heightened security awareness among the site's users Thursday, with warnings not to share personal information with anyone, they remain tremendously vulnerable, said Matt Harrigan, chief executive of the San Diego, California-based security firm Critical Assets.

A trail of information like cookies, server addresses, login and account information was easy visible for some users.

"I know enough about (one user) that I'm uncomfortable with how much I know about (him) just from visiting the site," said Harrigan. "Just from having looked up information about him, the number of things I know about the guy is pretty staggering."

Harrigan said it would be relatively easy, with the money the Zetas have from running drugs, to track down posters.

"If you're a Mexican cartel with hundreds of millions of dollars, there certainly are security experts in Mexico or former hackers, or whoever they are, that I'm certain they're for hire," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-10-LT-Drug-War-Mexico-Bloggers/id-2d9c7fcf27454ef5b56e746392dc5f3f

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Turkish quake death toll rises to 19 (AP)

VAN, Turkey ? The death toll from the second earthquake to hit eastern Turkey in about two weeks rose to 19 on Friday as several rescue teams clawed through heaps of concrete to search for two journalists believed trapped in the rubble of a collapsed hotel.

Colleagues of the two reporters from Turkey's Dogan news agency were among dozens of people anxiously waiting for news outside the wreckage of the Bayram Hotel, one of the two hotels that fell apart when the 5.7-magnitude quake hit the eastern city of Van late Wednesday.

"In our profession we always come across disasters," Dogan agency's general manager, Ugur Cebeci, told The Associated Press as he watched rescuers in red overalls search through the debris of the once five-story hotel. "But we are grappling with helplessness here."

Journalists and relief workers ? who had rushed to the region in the aftermath of a more powerful earthquake that hit the region on Oct. 23 ? themselves became victims when the hotel, weakened by the earlier temblor, collapsed Wednesday. The fatalities include a Japanese relief worker who had come to distribute aid to quake survivors.

It was not known Friday how many people remained buried in the rubble of the two collapsed hotels.

"We are not able to hear any voices," said Disaster management official Askit Dayi. "But still we are removing layers of concrete in a way as if there are survivors." He said the search efforts at both sites could end by midnight Friday.

Recep Salci of the rescue group Akut told NTV television that freezing temperatures at night were also posing a threat to any possible survivors.

Rescue teams were using an emergency evacuation plan to determine possible escape routes within the pancaked building, said Bulent Gunduz of the Siemens private rescue team. "We can see all escape routes and fire stairs," said Gunduz. "The emergency floor plan has become like a compass for us."

Angry residents protested in Van, accusing authorities of failing to properly inspect the buildings following the Oct. 23 quake that killed more than 600 people. Police responded with pepper spray.

Those protests spread to national TV when one anchorman, Mustafa Yenigun of Flash TV, covered his mouth with a black tape Thursday evening as he held a banner that read: "people are under the rubble because of uncompleted tasks" ? a reference to the failure to fully inspect damaged buildings.

Rescue worker Ramazan Demiregen said the steel rods in the columns of the collapsed Bayram Hotel were too thin.

Turks paid tribute to the dead Japanese aid worker, Atsushi Miyazaki, calling him a benefactor on Twitter and lamenting that he died in a relatively weak earthquake compared to the massive one and tsunami that devastated Japan in March.

President Abdullah Gul sent a message of condolence to Japan's Emperor Akihito, saying Miyazaki and an injured colleague would be remembered with gratitude by the Turkish people.

"His name is Atsushi, his surname is human," wrote Ertugrul Ozkok, a columnist for Hurriyet newspaper on Friday. "A great Samurai."

Miyazaki had helped distribute meat to quake survivors in Van province during Eid al-Adha, the Muslim feast of sacrifice. Other Japanese workers said they were thankful for Turkey's aid workers who came to help Japan in March, local media reported.

Miyazaki's 32-year-old female colleague, Miyuki Konnai, was rescued alive from the wreckage and was in stable condition.

___

Associated Press writers Selcan Hacaoglu and Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed.

(This version CORRECTS Updates death toll, corrects quake's magnitude to 5.7, adds details. Updates the photos and the AP Video. For global distribution.)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111111/ap_on_re_eu/eu_turkey_quake

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Republican debate in South Carolina tests Rick Perry and Herman Cain once again (Washington Post)

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Draft Billy? Draft Kermit? Oscars have job opening (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Maybe the Academy Awards need to launch a "Draft Billy" movement. Or even a "Draft Kermit" campaign.

A return to the Oscar stage by Billy Crystal would be a true Hollywood ending after this week's debacle that started with Brett Ratner's resignation Tuesday as producer of the show over a gay slur, followed by his pal Eddie Murphy's departure Wednesday as host.

The most popular host of the Oscars in recent years, Crystal could be a real white knight if he returned to run the show for the first time since 2004.

"There would be cheers across Hollywood for Billy's return," said Tom O'Neil, editor of the awards website GoldDerby.com. "That could be the happy ending for this story."

Murphy's replacement is the talk of the town, with people in Hollywood speculating whether other past hosts such as Steve Martin or Jon Stewart might return or whether a first-timer such as Tina Fey or Neil Patrick Harris could get the job.

There are even pages on Twitter and Facebook pushing Kermit the Frog and his Muppets pals as Oscar hosts, a truly clever notion that could be just the sort of rainbow connection to bring some fresh magic to Hollywood's big night.

With the Feb. 26 Oscars still more than three months off, organizers have plenty of time to replace Murphy, so there's not likely to be much fallout for the show itself. Just hours after announcing Murphy's exit, organizers signed up Brian Grazer, the Oscar-winning producer of "A Beautiful Mind," to fill the producing slot vacated by Ratner.

Grazer is a class-act choice compared to Ratner, who is best known for directing the "Rush Hour" flicks and drew the scorn of comic-book fans for "X-Men: The Last Stand," widely considered a feeble finale to that superhero franchise trilogy.

It's now up to Grazer and Don Mischer, who is co-producing and directing the Oscar show for the second straight year, to find a replacement for Murphy.

Ratner departed the show because of the uproar over a pejorative term for gay men he uttered during a question-and-answer session at a screening of his new comedy, "Tower Heist." Coincidentally, Grazer is a producer on the movie.

Murphy, who stars with Ben Stiller in "Tower Heist," was picked by Ratner for the Oscar gig, a choice that puzzled and intrigued awards watchers who wondered if he would be up to the challenge as host of one of the most widely watched TV events of the year.

The once cutting-edge star of "Beverly Hills Cop" has lapsed into bland or outright dreadful family comedies in recent years, and unlike the beloved Crystal, he's not exactly known around town as a people person.

Murphy already had a shaky history with the Oscars, where he was the front runner the one time he earned a nomination, as supporting actor for 2007's "Dreamgirls." He showed bad sportsmanship that night, notoriously leaving the Oscars early after losing to Alan Arkin for "Little Miss Sunshine."

There also were homophobic overtones from Murphy's early career, when crude gay jokes were part of his standup routine.

"I'm afraid of gay people. Petrified. I have nightmares about gay people," Murphy joked in his 1983 comedy special "Delirious."

Finding the right talent willing to take on the often thankless job of playing master of ceremonies at Hollywood's biggest party is arguably the toughest task for Oscar overseers. They want a host who is edgy but not offensive, irreverent yet lovable. Someone who is liked by the stodgy Hollywood establishment but has prospects of bringing hip younger audiences to the broadcast. A star who can mock and embrace in the same breath.

Who knows if Murphy could have pulled that off? But academy overseers have been willing to try new things to renew interest in the Oscars, whose TV ratings have been on a general decline the last couple of decades.

It paid off three years ago, when "X-Men" star Hugh Jackman made good use of his song-and-dance skills as Oscar host. It backfired last season when Anne Hathaway was teamed with leaden co-host James Franco.

If he's interested in returning to host for a ninth time, Crystal seems like an obvious go-to guy, though at 63, he's no longer the sort of fresh face likely to lure younger viewers.

Sasha Stone, editor of AwardsDaily.com, suggested Oscar organizers aim for fresh blood with people such as Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Colbert or even a pairing of "Bridesmaids" co-stars Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy, who reunited recently on "Saturday Night Live."

"When I saw them together on `SNL,' I thought they were like Hope and Crosby," Stone said. "They had such great charisma and knew each other so well. I would love to see them on the Oscars. They could definitely have the ability to draw the higher ratings."

No matter who is chosen, though, the host likely will draw the ire of at least some Oscar viewers.

"It's a lose-lose situation for them. No matter what they do, people are going to complain," Stone said. "It's a show everyone loves to watch and everyone loves to hate."

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Online:

http://www.oscars.org

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111110/ap_en_mo/us_oscars_who_s_the_host

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