:: Some bittersweet news for No Doubt fans as the band has canceled their upcoming tour. But, it?s supposedly because they?re feeling ?inspired to write new music? and will spend their time in the studio instead of on the road. [No Doubt]
:: A$AP Rocky talked style and music in his spread with high-end?men?s fashion journal Mr. Porter. The fashionable Harlem rapper revealed he once wanted to be a model. He?s already been in an Alexander Wang ad, so, close enough, right? [Miss Info]
:: Chris Brown says he wouldn?t mind working with Elton John. Apparently Elton has been somewhat of a moral support system for Breezy in the wake of his assault of Rihanna. Hey, it?s worth a shot: Eminem shed his homophobic shell after Elton collaborated with him. [New York Post]
:: Nick Lachey is readying a new lullaby album (with an adorable cover featuring the 98 Degrees star and his baby son, Camden). The album was inspired by his newborn son, and will hit stores March 13. [Reuters]
:: Wynonna Judd?and Kellie Pickler have joined the cast of Dancing With The Stars. The country singers will compete in the show?s sixteenth (!) season, which premieres March 18. [Wynonna Judd]
After the jump, find out which music acts you can catch on TV today.
Music On TV:
:: Late Show with David Letterman (CBS) ? Solange :: Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC) ??Father John Misty :: Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC) ? Gold Fields :: Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC) ? Jason Aldean
A new trend is trickling into real estate decisions, but it?s not just a popular shade of paint or pattern of wallpaper. People around the world are choosing to ?unplug? their digital lives and, in the process, redefine the home.
?When people are looking at a house, they are not thinking, ?Where can I plug in my iPhone?? Dreaming about a home is really based around family,? said Tanya Schevitz, communications coordinator at Reboot,?a think-tank of sorts behind the unplugging movement and other projects inspired by Jewish traditions. ?It?s about envisioning a more relaxed family life that isn?t ?turned on? all the time.?
This Friday marks the fourth annual National Day of Unplugging, a 24-hour hiatus from technology started by Reboot. The group formed in 2002 when founder Dan Rollman was gazing at a sunset in Park City, UT and said to himself, ?I never do this. I never take time to enjoy my surroundings.?
Fast-forward to today, and hundreds of thousands of people from San Francisco to Venezuela and Mumbai are stepping away from their digital devices for the sole purpose of recharging themselves.
?It?s a zeitgeist of living in the moment,? Schevitz said. ?We?re not saying you have to unplug for 24 hours?? just be more aware of your use.?
Schevitz and others have taken a pledge to ditch technology from sundown to sundown March 1-2, but the day promotes a prevailing lifestyle change. As a Silicon Valley-based mom, Schevitz knows this is easier said than done, yet she?s convinced that once you start to unplug, you?ll look at your house differently.
Without any major renovations, Schevitz has refocused spaces in her apartment to help her family spend time together without digital distractions.
The key? Setting guidelines for yourself. Check out these five tips for unplugging your home:
1. Bring back books and board games
Schevitz focuses on getting back to the basics with her family. ?While everything is whirling around you, your home is your respite,? she said. ?If you can sit and surround yourself with books and unplugged activities, life slows down.?
But kids today are so plugged in that it can be hard to compete. For a fun, kid-friendly unplugged idea, check out this bookshelf with a built-in pulley system:
2. Remove TVs from the bedroom
It might sound harsh, but Schevitz is a stickler on this one. While both she and her husband own laptops for work, they have reserved their?bedroom as a quiet escape.
?My husband is always saying we should sit around and read together and turn on classical music,? she said. ?It brings a sense of peace in life.?
Kids? rooms are also a common location for game consoles and gadgets. The contemporary kids? bedroom below provides a compelling alternative with built-in drawers for storing unplugged games and toys.
3. Spend time in the kitchen
Schevitz has friends who have ditched their microwaves for good. While she hasn?t gone that far, she?s an advocate for cooking without modern appliances when possible.
?My son and I love to bake together,? she explained. ?We love to get our hands in the dough without an electric mixer. It?s a bonding experience ? popping something in the microwave is not.?
But what about contemporary homes with the latest cooking appliances already built in?
Schevitz admits the idea of having a completely unplugged house means you have to put more effort into undoing the amenities we?ve become accustomed to. But she argues that you are making your life fuller in the long run.
For inspiration, here?s a kitchen that has maintained an updated look and feel without electric appliances:
4. Dine in the dining room
Juggling her family?s busy schedule, Schevitz knows it?s hard to find time to sit and eat a meal together?? especially without glancing at your smartphone.
?The expectation that people must be reachable all the time has created a society where people are on edge,? she said. ?It starts to affect your relationships because they don?t feel like they are a priority.?
She thinks it?s doable to have dinner completely unplugged. ?I can sit down with my family and pause and really enjoy it,? she explained.
Try designating a space in your home just for meal times to avoid eating in front of the TV or computer.
5. Use your imagination
Schevitz?s boys don?t have any beeping toys. She remembers buying her son a coffee maker because he loves to help her husband make his coffee in the morning.
?It makes no noises,? she explained. ?He has to use his imagination to make them.?
And, imagination seems to be a big part of the National Day of Unplugging. Its website shows people from around the world who have sent in photos saying ?I unplug to_________.?
How would you fill in the blank? Play a life-size game of chess? Take a nap? Reboot is commemorating the day with device-free events in San Francisco and Los Angeles centered around music, arts and relaxation. A student group at the University of California Berkeley is going on a hike.
Schevitz says the goal is to bring people together.?Recalling an ?unplugged party? she hosted for Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife, she argues:??Hey, if the founder of Google can do it, anyone can.?
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels have received advanced weapons aimed at narrowing the arms gap with President Bashar al-Assad's forces and reinforcing a new rebel military command which Western countries hope can dilute the strength of Islamist fighters.
Several rebel commanders and fighters told Reuters that a shipment which reached Syria via Turkey last month comprised shoulder-held and other mobile equipment including anti-aircraft and armor-piercing weapons, mortars and rocket launchers.
Rebels told Reuters the weapons, along with money for cash payments for fighters, were being distributed through a new command structure, part of a plan by foreign backers to centralize control over rebel units and check Islamists linked to al-Qaeda. However, in a sign of the difficulty in uniting disparate fighting groups, some rebels said they had turned down the arms and refused to submit to the new command.
While not nearly enough to tip the military balance against Assad, who is able to deploy air power, missiles and artillery to devastating effect against rebel areas, any significant arms shipment is a boost to rebels who have long complained about the lack of international support.
The rebels refused to specify who supplied the new weapons, saying they did not want to embarrass foreign supporters, but said they had arrived openly via Turkey "from donor countries".
"We have received this shipment legally and normally. It was not delivered through smuggling routes but formally through Bab al-Hawa crossing," said a rebel commander in Homs province, referring to a rebel-held crossing with Turkey.
"But it is not enough to help us win," he told Reuters by Skype. "Another shipment has arrived in Turkey but we haven't received it yet," he added, saying he believed foreign donors were waiting for the Syrian opposition to form a transitional government to work with the rebel command.
The political opposition will meet in Istanbul on Saturday to choose a prime minister in the transitional government, which is also supposed to choose a civilian defense minister - creating the basic structure for a future state and army.
The Syrian revolt erupted nearly two years ago, starting with peaceful protests for reform but developing into an armed insurgency and then civil war as Assad responded to the uprising with ever-growing force. The United Nations estimates that 70,000 people have been killed in the relentless violence.
Although many countries backed Assad's opponents, few have actively supported arming the rebels, fearing that weapons might end up in the hands of hardline Sunni Muslim militants and lead to a repeat of Western conflicts, such as the wars against the Taliban in Afghanistan and al Qaeda-affiliated groups in Iraq.
So far rebels have relied mainly on light weapons smuggled from neighboring countries, many of them financed or sent from sympathizers in Gulf states, and from supplies seized from captured army bases inside Syria.
But video footage and pictures from across the country appear to support assertions that advanced weapons - with origins as varied as the former Yugoslavia and China - have ended up in rebel hands.
A Reuters photographer in Damascus over the last month saw several Western-built rebel firearms- including U.S. pattern M4 and Austrian Steyr assault rifles - that almost certainly came from outside the country.
STRENGTHENING REBEL COMMAND
Assad's strongest regional supporter has been Shi'ite Muslim Iran, while the leading campaigners for arming the rebels are the Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab powers Qatar and Saudi Arabia, reflecting the strong sectarian currents of the Syrian uprising.
Although Saudi Arabia and Qatar do not discuss specific weapons shipments to the rebels, both countries have been open about their support for arming them in principle.
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal bluntly told a news conference in Riyadh on February 12: "My country believes that the brutality of the Syrian regime against its own people requires empowering the people to defend itself."
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani said last week: "As there is no clear international opinion to end the crisis in Syria...we are supporting the opposition with whatever it needs, even if it takes up arms for self-defense."
Western countries have been more cautious, and have so far committed publicly to sending only "non-lethal" aid, like radios and body armor.
International powers are alarmed by the growing influence of Islamist hardliners in a country which lies at the crossroads of the Middle East between Iraq, Israel, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. They have made efforts to unite Syrian rebels under a clear leadership. A body was formed in December to bring the rebel units, or brigades, together under a unified command.
"One of the reasons for the change in the donors' minds is that they want to empower the new military command. They want to help it organize the weapons and the fighters," said an aide to a rebel commander in a province which has seen some of the heaviest fighting.
"If the brigades join then they get their share of these weapons and also monthly payment for the fighters."
The new military command divides Syria into five fronts - southern, western, eastern, northern and central.
"Each front has received its share. All equally distributed," the rebel said, adding that 'payment' for the weapons would come in the form of post-conflict reconstruction contracts in Syria awarded to countries that helped.
"So basically it's like we have paid in advance. It is funded by the countries that will be involved in reconstruction of Syria," he said.
But in a sign of the continued divisions among Assad's foes, some rebels complain that the "military councils" who received the weapons - and are seen by the West as more likely allies than the hardline Islamists - were the wrong groups to arm.
"There is a dispute in Damascus. The people who received these weapons are not the real fighters. They gave it to the military council which is not fighting," said a rebel commander operating around the Syrian capital. "We are the ones that are on the frontline and we are the fighters."
He said his fighters had rejected an offer of weapons in return for their allegiance to the military councils.
"There was a meeting and they asked for our brigade to join so they will give us between 10 to 20 rockets and armor-piercing ammunition and other stuff," he said. "They wanted everything to be under their supervision, but we refused."
"They are giving these weapons to people to allow them to create a (fighting) presence on the ground. Why don't they give it to people who already have a presence?"
Another commander said he would have no qualms about seizing weapons destined for rebels nominally fighting on the same side as him, if he knew they were passing through his territory.
REBELS NEED "ARMS, NOT MEN"
Several fighters from across the country who spoke to Reuters in February said they feared the ultimate plan of outside powers was to push the rebel Free Syrian Army and other "moderate" Islamist fighters into confrontation with radicals.
Fighters from hardline groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham have waged some of the deadliest attacks in Syria, including car bombings in Damascus, Aleppo and elsewhere. Their ranks have been swollen by jihadi fighters from around the Muslim world.
The chief of staff of the rebel military command, Brigadier Selim Idris, said the presence of foreign fighters was hindering international support for the battle against Assad.
"We call all brothers from all the countries. Please, my brothers: we do not need men. Stay in your own countries and do something good inside your own countries," he told Reuters.
"If you want to help us just send us weapons or funding - or even pray for us. But you do not have to come to Syria. We have enough Syrian men fighting."
Idris denied receiving weapons from donors and said that weapons are still entering Syria through the black market - apparently reluctant to put foreign powers in the spotlight.
"We are not receiving weapons from the Europeans, we do not want to embarrass them, we do not want to embarrass anyone with the weapons issue," he said.
Previous attempts to unify Syria's divided rebels have foundered on local rivalries and competition for money and influence. Some have grown rich and powerful by smuggling weapons, medical supplies, food and diesel, while the lack of civil administration in rebel controlled areas has also encouraged the proliferation of autonomous rebel groups.
Seeking to address those divisions, the military councils hope to pay fighters a symbolic monthly salary of $100, funded in part by donations from the Gulf. The Homs commander said one Gulf state had recently paid $15 million towards their wages.
"They want to organize the rebels and have them all under one command - who joins will be eligible to receive the money and the weapons," he said. "This is all for organization purposes."
"If a brigade joins then it will take its share, if it doesn't, then no weapons. We want to be organized," he said.
First off let me start off by mentioning that I?m a huge fan of the gaming community on YouTube. ?I?ve been apart of it since 2008, and have been making videos nearly every week since 2009. ?I?ve made some great friends, and have had the pleasure meeting up with many gamers who are apart of the community in person. ?I must say it?s actually a really cool experience to meet up with someone in person, and it feels like we?ve known each other for a long time. I?d say that 99% of the people in the gaming community are sincere people who share a great hobby and passion for gaming.
Unfortunately through the years I?ve seen a lot of eDrama as well, and I?ve witnessed channels being shut down and people poked fun of. ?I myself am not immune to the eDrama on YouTube. ?I?ve had ?trolls? make fun of my looks, what I do, and they have made personal attacks not only at me, but my family as well. ?I?ve grown accustomed to it though over the years, and generally look the other way when people make these personal attacks at me. ?It?s hard though when people make attacks at good friends of mine.
Recently some really close friends of mine who have been putting tons of time and effort into their show had asked if anyone would be willing to chip into their show. They are financially struggling and are looking to make their show their full time gig. ?They don?t have the financial resources to purchase tools they need to help make the show better and to help it grow. ?I can appreciate their passion and dedication that they put into their show, and I know that several of their episodes alone have cost them hundreds of hours in editing and time.
Many people think that YouTube Adsense pays the big bucks. ?Unfortunately that?s not true in most cases. ?I personally am fortunate to have a full time day job and have Gamester81 as a hobby that I too hope continues to grow and get bigger. Would I love for it to become full time? Absolutely, but I have a long way to go before it ever gets there, and realize that it may never get to that point. ?Every cent that I make from Adsense for me personally is put back into my show. ?I was able to buy a new camera a year ago, I recently purchased new?lavalier?mics to help with my audio and it helps with my travel expenses for trips like PAX and Classic Gaming Expo in Vegas. ?A lot of my personal money is also put into the show to make it better, because not even my Adsense revenue can cover all of my expenses and time for that matter that I put into my channels.
Recently a video went up on YouTube calling these guys ?eBeggers?. Really?eBeggers? I often feel that the terms ?eBegging? and ?Sellout? are often used with very little understanding what these terms actually mean. ?What?s a ?Sellout?? Just because someone is successful, does that make them a ?Sellout?? ?What?s an ?eBegger?? ?I personally believe that an ?eBegger? is someone who asks for money with no intentions of giving back in return. ?In this situation with my friends, they had asked for donations so that they can put it back into their show. ?Which in returns provides FREE entertainment for thousands of people. ?The way I see it, it?s people?s money and they can donate or not donate if they choose. ?I saw this guy?s video, and he made personal attacks at both of these guys on their show. ?First off, who gives this guy the right to judge others? If people want to help support their show, it?s their business and not his, so he needs to move on and focus on more important matters.
The moral of this post is that eDrama can happen to anyone in the YouTube gaming community. ?I?m sure a lot of it stems from jealousy. ?My advice to anyone who may have been ?trolled? or have had harsh comments in any of their videos is to remain positive, don?t take it personal and always take the high road. ?I consider myself lucky to be apart of the YouTube gaming community, and I truly have made some awesome friends because of it. I?m not going to let some sour grapes ruin it for me or anyone else for that matter. ?Life?s too short after all.
For additional posts by Gamester81:?Click Here
Join the new Gamester81 forums:?http://gamester81.com/forum
John "Gamester81" Lester started playing video games at a very young age. His first ever console that he played was a Colecovision, quickly followed by an Atari 2600, and his passion for video games hasn't stopped. In 2008 John decided to start a video game review show on YouTube called Gamester81 by reviewing rare and retro video game systems and games. His show quickly grew in popularity, and he became friends with many other gamers in the YouTube community.
He is also one of the hosts of the All Gen Gamers Podcast which is a weekly podcast for for people and video games of all generations.
Some of John's other hobbies includes collecting Star Wars memorabilia (YouTube channel Starwarsnut77), playing classic arcade games (YouTube channel Gamester81Arcade), watching sports, and listening to music. John is a big fan of the 80's and 90's and in 2009 started a YouTube channel called NEStalgiaholic where he talks about nostalgic items and memories from his childhood.
To see some of John's video's in 3D visit his YouTube channel Gamester81in3D.
Favorite Systems: Colecovision, Commodore 64, NES, & SNES.
Favorite Games: Donkey Kong Arcade, Atari Star Wars Arcade, Super Mario 3, Final Fantasy II, & Goldeneye 007
I have some land in Undri village, Taluka Haveli, Pune (Survey # 56). - Can anyone advise what the prevailing rates are in the area that I can expect? - Has the area come under Pune Municipal Corporation fully? - Is any major infrastructure project (eg. highway) being planned nearby? - What are the future prospects? Should I hold the land or sell it? - Can you recommend some good property agents for selling the land?
Whenever you are in search for some new and fun change of scenery for within the world of Grand Theft Auto IV, you can try out the new 2000 Ford Crown Victoria: HighWayPatrol Liberty City mod.
After unpacking the archive, you must copy the content in the following path: Rockstar Games/GTA?IV/Models.
(Reuters) - Warren Buffett and Brazilian financier Jorge Paulo Lemann are teaming up to buy ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co for $23.2 billion, in what could be the first step of a wave of mergers for the food and beverage industry.
Analysts and people close to the deal said Heinz could be a good starting point to consolidate similar staple food companies, particularly given the larger ambitions of Lemann's private equity firm 3G Capital.
Including debt assumption, Heinz valued the transaction, which it called the largest in its industry's history, at $28 billion. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway
and 3G will pay $72.50 per share, a 19 percent premium to the stock's previous all-time high.
Heinz shares initially rose slightly above the offer price, although Buffett cautioned he had no intention of raising his bid and the stock fell back below that mark by midday. The stock has been on a tear, almost doubling over the last four years, though analysts said the price seemed fair.
They also said the deal could be the first step in a broader wave of mergers for the food and beverage industry.
"Maybe for the consumer staples group in general this may start some talk about consolidation. Even corporate entities are flush with cash, interest rates are low, it would seemingly make sense," Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo said.
Companies like General Mills and Campbell Soup - itself long seen as a potential Heinz merge partner - rose on the news.
Any acquisition could help Heinz further diversify and broaden its international profile. It already dominates the ketchup business, with a nearly 26 percent share of the global market and a 59 percent share domestically, according to Euromonitor International.
The company actually generates the largest portion of its sales in Europe, though its traditional North American consumer products business is the most profitable.
But its real growth engine has been the Asia/Pacific region, where sales increased nearly 11 percent in the last fiscal year, in part on demand for sauces and infant foods in China.
BUFFETT HUNTING GROWTH
The surprise purchase satisfies, at least in part, Buffett's hunt for growth through acquisition. He was frustrated in 2012 by the collapse of at least two unnamed deals in excess of $20 billion and said he might have to do a $30 billion deal this year to help fuel Berkshire's growth engine.
In a regulatory filing late on Thursday, Berkshire said it was providing $12.12 billion in equity, including common stock, warrants and preferred shares with a liquidation preference of $8 billion and a 9 percent dividend.
Barclays Capital's Jay Gelb the deal's valuation appeared high at 19 times Heinz's expected 2014 earnings per share, but that it would enhance Berkshire's consumer portfolio.
Berkshire Hathaway already has a variety of food assets, including Dairy Queen ice cream chain, chocolatier See's Candies and food distributor McLane. Buffett, famed for a love of cheeseburgers, joked he was well acquainted with Heinz's products already and that this was "my kind of deal."
It does represent an unusual teaming of Berkshire with private equity, though; historically, Buffett's purchases have been outright his own. He and 3G founder Jorge Paulo Lemann have known each other for years, and Buffett said Lemann approached him with the Heinz idea in December.
One Berkshire investor said he had mixed feelings about the deal because of the limited growth prospects domestically.
"We're a little hesitant on the staple companies because they don't have any leverage in the United States," said Bill Smead, chief investment officer of Smead Capital Management in Seattle. But at the same time, he said, Buffett was likely willing to accept a bond-like steady return even if it was not necessarily a "home run."
A second investor, Michael Yoshikami of Destination Wealth Management in Walnut Creek, California, said he liked the purchase because it provided cash flow for other deals.
"This is a better use of cash than current money market instruments," said Yoshikami, the firm's CEO and chairman of its investment committee.
3G EXPANDS
For 3G, a little-known firm with Brazilian roots, the purchase is something of a natural complement to its investment in fast-food chain Burger King , which it acquired in late 2010 and in which it still holds a major stake.
Historically, 3G was more of an investor than an acquirer. Its biggest shareholdings include Delphi Automotive , Newell Rubbermaid and Anadarko Petroleum .
Lemann, a globe-trotting financier with Swiss roots, made his money in banking and gained notoriety for helping to pull together the deals that ultimately formed the beer brewing giant AB InBev. Forbes ranks him as the world's 69th-richest billionaire, with a fortune of $12 billion.
3G's Alex Behring runs the fund out of New York. He appeared at a Pittsburgh news conference on Thursday with Heinz management to discuss the deal - and to reassure anxious local crowds that the company will remain based there and will continue to support local philanthropy.
But at the same time, Behring said it was too soon to talk about cost cuts at the company. Unlike Berkshire, which is a hands-off operator, 3G is known for aggressively controlling costs at its operations.
PITTSBURGH ROOTS
Also to be determined is whether CEO Bill Johnson would stay on. Only the fifth chairman in the company's history, Johnson is widely credited with Heinz's recent strong growth.
"I am way too young to retire," he told the news conference, adding that discussions had not yet started with 3G over the details of Heinz's future management.
The company, known for its iconic ketchup bottles, Heinz 57 sauces as well as other brands including Ore-Ida frozen potatoes, has increased net sales for the last eight fiscal years in a row.
Heinz said the transaction would be financed with cash from Berkshire and 3G, debt rollover and debt financing from J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo. Buffett told CNBC that Berkshire and 3G would be equal equity partners.
That would imply roughly $6 billion to $7 billion of new debt needs to be raised.
Heinz shares soared 19.9 percent, or $12.02, to $72.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.
A week ago the stock hit a long-term high of $61 a share - near records it set in 1998 - having risen almost 5 percent this year and nearly 12 percent since the beginning of 2012.
The Heinz Endowments, a pillar in Pennsylvania philanthropy, said the sale of the company would have virtually no impact on their work. Heinz shares represent just over 1 percent of the endowment's $1.4 billion in holdings.
The deal is also a potential boon for new U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, whose wife, Teresa, is the widow of H.J. Heinz Co heir John Heinz. Kerry's most recent financial disclosures from his time in the U.S. Senate show a position in Heinz shares of more than $1 million, although the precise size is unclear.
Centerview Partners and BofA Merrill Lynch were financial advisers to Heinz, with Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP the legal adviser. Moelis & Company was financial adviser to the transaction committee of Heinz's board and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as its legal adviser.
Lazard served as lead financial adviser. J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo also served as financial advisers to the investment consortium. Kirkland & Ellis LLP was legal adviser to 3G Capital, and Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP was legal adviser to Berkshire Hathaway.
(Additional reporting by Olivia Oran and IFR's Stephen Carter in New York and Drew Singer in Pittsburgh; Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Leslie Gevirtz)
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has undergone surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatment since June 2011 for an undisclosed type of pelvic cancer. Key moments in his medical treatment have included:
- June 30, 2011: Chavez says on television from Cuba that he had a cancerous tumor removed from his pelvic region. He later says the tumor extracted was the size of a baseball.
- July 4, 2011: Chavez returns to Venezuela, but later travels to Cuba periodically for chemotherapy and medical tests.
- Sept. 23, 2011: Chavez says he completed chemotherapy and calls the treatment successful. Says later that tests show no reappearance of cancer cells.
- Feb. 21, 2012: Chavez says his doctors found a new lesion in the same place where the tumor was previously removed, and announces plans to return to Cuba for surgery.
- Feb. 26, 2012: Chavez undergoes operation that removes the tumor from the same location in his pelvic region. Says later that follow-up tests showed the tumor was "recurrence of the initially diagnosed cancer."
- March 24, 2012: Chavez travels to Cuba to begin radiation therapy.
- April 14, 2012: Chavez travels to Cuba for second round of radiation treatment.
- April 26, 2012: Chavez returns to Venezuela following cancer treatment in Cuba, saying his latest round of therapy was successful.
- July 9, 2012: Chavez says at a news conference that tests show he is "totally free" of cancer.
- Oct. 7, 2012: Chavez wins re-election to another six-year term, beating challenger Henrique Capriles.
- Nov. 27, 2012: Chavez announces he will travel to Cuba for more medical treatment. He says doctors have recommended he "begin special treatment consisting of various sessions of hyperbaric oxygenation."
- Dec. 9, 2012: Chavez announces that cancerous tumor reappeared and that he must travel to Cuba for another operation. He says the surgery could be complicated and that if he is unable to stay on as president, Vice President Nicolas Maduro should run in an election to take his place.
- Dec. 10, 2012: Chavez travels to Cuba and undergoes surgery the next day.
- Jan. 10, 1013: Chavez misses his scheduled swearing-in ceremony, which was indefinitely postponed by lawmakers. Supporters stage symbolic inauguration in the streets of Caracas, swearing themselves in in their leader's place.
- Jan. 20, 2013: Maduro says he is optimistic that Chavez will return to Venezuela "sooner rather than later."
- Jan. 22, 2013: Information Minister Ernesto Villegas says no date has been established for Chavez's return.
- Feb. 13, 2013: Maduro says Chavez is undergoing "extremely complex and tough" treatments.
- Feb. 15, 2013: Government shows first photos of Chavez in more than two months, says he is breathing through a tracheal tube.
If you want a career in personal training you need to have a business plan setup. Without a plan your business is guaranteed to fail within the first year if you are lucky. ?What else should you do to start working for yourself? ?You need basic knowledge of business operation, sales, and obtain a personal trainer certification. ?Do you really need to have a personal trainer certification? Yes and no. ?If you want to be employed by a gym as a personal trainer then yes you need an accredited certification. Most gym will take either an exercise or health degree if you are not certified yet. However, there are so many organizations out there getting a certification like ACE, NASM, ACSM, NSCA is fairly simple. If you want to work for yourself you aren?t required to have a certification to become a personal trainer. It is highly recommended that you get yourself certified anyways. Consider your personal trainer certification your proof to your potential clients that you are an expert in your field. You would not get a lawyer to defend you if they did not pass the bar, right? You would not want a surgeon who could not pass their MCAT operating on you, right? Your potential clients are thinking the same thing too. Luckily they don?t know the differences between the personal trainer certifications.
Personal trainer certifications not only add credibility to your name, but it will help protect your business in the event of your client getting accidentally injured. The last thing you ever want is to deal with a big negligence lawsuit. ACE is a certification that is big on protecting trainers with a liability insurance plan that they offer for a monthly fee. Whichever personal trainer certification you choose to pursue make sure you dedicate the time to study. Get all of the required personal trainer certification books you need to pass the exam so you can start making money. If you want to be known as the best personal trainer in your area be sure to continue your education and expand your knowledge.?
Study: Behavioral therapy for children with autism can impact brain functionPublic release date: 14-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Shelly Leachman shelly.leachman@ia.ucsb.edu 805-893-8726 University of California - Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, Calif. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for before-and-after analysis, a team of researchers including a UC Santa Barbara graduate student discovered positive changes in brain activity in children with autism who received a particular type of behavioral therapy.
Work completed at Yale University's Child Study Center used fMRI as the tool for measuring the impact of Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) therapy pioneered at UCSB by Lynn Koegel, clinical director of the Koegel Autism Center on both lower- and higher-functioning children with autism receiving PRT for the first time. fMRI allows researchers to see what areas of the brain are active while processing certain stimuli in this case human motion. Comparing pre- and post-therapy data from the fMRI scans of their 5-year-old subjects, the researchers saw marked and remarkable changes in how the children were processing the stimuli. Findings from their study, "Neural Mechanisms of Improvements in Social Motivation After Pivotal Response Treatment," are published in a recent issue of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
"The cool thing that we found was that these kids showed increased activation in regions of the brain utilized by typically developing kids," explained Avery C. Voos, first-year graduate student at the UCSB-based Koegel Autism Center, and one of the lead authors of the Yale study. "After four months of treatment, they're starting to use brain regions that typically developing kids are using to process social stimuli.
"We can say that we have shifted the way these children are processing low-level social stimuli, and that's what we want," she added. "There's a social deficit in autism, so any improvement toward social interaction really helps with development. That's what makes this very exciting, and it speaks to the promise and success of PRT."
A targeted technique meant to improve social engagement among children with autism spectrum disorders, PRT forgoes the focus on specific skills, like block-building, to concentrate instead on so-called "pivotal areas," such as motivation, in hopes of inducing a cascading effect with similar impact across multiple areas.
"For instance, if you're orienting to people, socially it may appear more acceptable, but you're also getting rich information from those people, which will affect the way you're interacting with people more broadly," Voos explained. "Say a child wants to draw, and asks for a red crayon while she has her back to me. I say, 'I can't understand what you're asking if you're not looking at me.' Once she orients toward me, we provide a contingent response in this case, giving her the red crayon and ideally she begins to understand, 'Hey, me looking at you and asking for what I want gets me what I want.' Ultimately, the social interaction becomes the reward on its own, which is the ultimate goal."
The Yale study involved two children, who each received the same amount of therapy eight to ten hours each week, for four months bookended by fMRIs looking at predetermined regions of the brain. Small by design, according to Voos, the project was meant to show that PRT does impact processing, and is not simply inspiring learned behavioral changes. It was also intended as impetus for further, more comprehensive study.
"The logical next step is to assess a larger group of children that are the same age as these two, to see whether these improvements were unique to these kids," Voos said. "We also want to know if the changes we saw remain after treatment. Long-term, it would be amazing to do this with hundreds of kids, in different age groups, to see what differences there may be. I would postulate that the younger we start these kids in treatment, the more improvement we will see in the way that they process social stimuli."
And therein lies the larger message of this study, according to Voos.
"Early intervention is wonderful," she said. "It can make serious improvements not only in overt behavior, but potentially in the way children are processing the world around them and the way they're processing your interaction with them on a daily basis. Even if they're only minor changes, the fact that they have those shifts, and are potentially processing social stimuli in a more 'typical' manner for the rest of their lives, is pretty powerful to think about."
"Traditional neuro-imagers will say you can't do MRI with single subjects," she acknowledged. "This is still giving us a lot of useful information. It might be a different way of using the technology, but we think it's beneficial. And we don't think these are random findings. They make sense to us, and it's exciting."
###
Voos's partners at Yale, in both the research and the recent publication, were Kevin A. Pelphrey, Jonathan Tirrell, Danielle Z. Bolling, Brent Vander Wyk, Martha D. Kaiser, James C. McPartland, Fred R. Volkmar, and Pamela Ventola. Her Yale colleagues are still running the study.
Voos recently applied for a training grant that she hopes will allow her to continue this work at UCSB.
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Study: Behavioral therapy for children with autism can impact brain functionPublic release date: 14-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Shelly Leachman shelly.leachman@ia.ucsb.edu 805-893-8726 University of California - Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, Calif. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for before-and-after analysis, a team of researchers including a UC Santa Barbara graduate student discovered positive changes in brain activity in children with autism who received a particular type of behavioral therapy.
Work completed at Yale University's Child Study Center used fMRI as the tool for measuring the impact of Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) therapy pioneered at UCSB by Lynn Koegel, clinical director of the Koegel Autism Center on both lower- and higher-functioning children with autism receiving PRT for the first time. fMRI allows researchers to see what areas of the brain are active while processing certain stimuli in this case human motion. Comparing pre- and post-therapy data from the fMRI scans of their 5-year-old subjects, the researchers saw marked and remarkable changes in how the children were processing the stimuli. Findings from their study, "Neural Mechanisms of Improvements in Social Motivation After Pivotal Response Treatment," are published in a recent issue of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
"The cool thing that we found was that these kids showed increased activation in regions of the brain utilized by typically developing kids," explained Avery C. Voos, first-year graduate student at the UCSB-based Koegel Autism Center, and one of the lead authors of the Yale study. "After four months of treatment, they're starting to use brain regions that typically developing kids are using to process social stimuli.
"We can say that we have shifted the way these children are processing low-level social stimuli, and that's what we want," she added. "There's a social deficit in autism, so any improvement toward social interaction really helps with development. That's what makes this very exciting, and it speaks to the promise and success of PRT."
A targeted technique meant to improve social engagement among children with autism spectrum disorders, PRT forgoes the focus on specific skills, like block-building, to concentrate instead on so-called "pivotal areas," such as motivation, in hopes of inducing a cascading effect with similar impact across multiple areas.
"For instance, if you're orienting to people, socially it may appear more acceptable, but you're also getting rich information from those people, which will affect the way you're interacting with people more broadly," Voos explained. "Say a child wants to draw, and asks for a red crayon while she has her back to me. I say, 'I can't understand what you're asking if you're not looking at me.' Once she orients toward me, we provide a contingent response in this case, giving her the red crayon and ideally she begins to understand, 'Hey, me looking at you and asking for what I want gets me what I want.' Ultimately, the social interaction becomes the reward on its own, which is the ultimate goal."
The Yale study involved two children, who each received the same amount of therapy eight to ten hours each week, for four months bookended by fMRIs looking at predetermined regions of the brain. Small by design, according to Voos, the project was meant to show that PRT does impact processing, and is not simply inspiring learned behavioral changes. It was also intended as impetus for further, more comprehensive study.
"The logical next step is to assess a larger group of children that are the same age as these two, to see whether these improvements were unique to these kids," Voos said. "We also want to know if the changes we saw remain after treatment. Long-term, it would be amazing to do this with hundreds of kids, in different age groups, to see what differences there may be. I would postulate that the younger we start these kids in treatment, the more improvement we will see in the way that they process social stimuli."
And therein lies the larger message of this study, according to Voos.
"Early intervention is wonderful," she said. "It can make serious improvements not only in overt behavior, but potentially in the way children are processing the world around them and the way they're processing your interaction with them on a daily basis. Even if they're only minor changes, the fact that they have those shifts, and are potentially processing social stimuli in a more 'typical' manner for the rest of their lives, is pretty powerful to think about."
"Traditional neuro-imagers will say you can't do MRI with single subjects," she acknowledged. "This is still giving us a lot of useful information. It might be a different way of using the technology, but we think it's beneficial. And we don't think these are random findings. They make sense to us, and it's exciting."
###
Voos's partners at Yale, in both the research and the recent publication, were Kevin A. Pelphrey, Jonathan Tirrell, Danielle Z. Bolling, Brent Vander Wyk, Martha D. Kaiser, James C. McPartland, Fred R. Volkmar, and Pamela Ventola. Her Yale colleagues are still running the study.
Voos recently applied for a training grant that she hopes will allow her to continue this work at UCSB.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
ROME (Reuters) - A visibly moved Pope Benedict tried to assure his worldwide flock on Wednesday over his stunning decision to become the first pontiff in centuries to resign, saying he was confident that it would not hurt the Church.
The Vatican, meanwhile, announced that a conclave to elect his successor would start sometime between March 15 and March 20, in keeping with Church rules about the timing of such gatherings after the papal see becomes vacant.
"Continue to pray for me, for the Church and for the future pope," he said in unscripted remarks at the start of his weekly general audience, his first public appearance since his shock decision on Monday that he will step down on February 28.
It was the first time Benedict, 85, who will retire to a convent inside the Vatican, exchanging the splendor of his 16th century Apostolic Palace for a sober modern residence, had uttered the words "future pope" in public.
Church officials are still so stunned by the move that the Vatican experts have yet to decide what his title will be and whether he will continue to wear the white of a pope, the red of a cardinal or the black of an ordinary priest.
His voice sounded strong at the audience but he was clearly moved and his eyes appeared to be watering as he reacted to the thunderous applause in the Vatican's vast, modern audience hall, packed with more than 8,000 people.
In brief remarks in Italian that mirrored those he read in Latin to stunned cardinals on Monday he appeared to try to calm Catholics' fears of the unknown.
He message was that God would continue to guide the Church.
EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE
"I took this decision in full freedom for the good of the Church after praying for a long time and examining my conscience before God," he said.
He said he was "well aware of the gravity of such an act," but also aware that he no longer had the strength required to run the 1.2 billion member Roman Catholic Church, which has been beset by a string of scandals both in Rome and round the world.
Benedict said he was sustained by the "certainty that the Church belongs to Christ, who will never stop guiding it and caring for it" and suggested that the faithful should also feel comforted by this.
He said that he had "felt almost physically" the affection and kindness he had received since he announced the decision.
When Benedict resigned on Monday, the Vatican spokesman said the pontiff did not fear schism in the Church after his decision to step down.
Some 115 cardinals under the age of 80 will be eligible to enter a secret conclave to elect his successor.
Cardinals around the world have already begun informal consultations by phone and email to construct a profile of the man they think would be best suited to lead the Church in a period of continuing crisis.
The likelihood that the next pope would be a younger man and perhaps a non-Italian, was increasing, particularly because of the many mishaps caused by Benedict's mostly Italian top aides.
Benedict has been faulted for putting too much power in the hands of his friend, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. Critics of Bertone, effectively the Vatican's chief administrator, said he should have prevented some papal mishaps and bureaucratic blunders.
ILL-SERVED POPE
"These scandals, these miscommunications, in many cases were caused by Pope Benedict's own top aides and I think a lot of Catholics around the world think that he was perhaps ill-served by some of the cardinals here," said John Thavis, author of a new book The Vatican Diaries.
Benedict's papacy was rocked by crises over sex abuse of children by priests in Europe and the United States, most of which preceded his time in office but came to light during it.
His reign also saw Muslim anger after he compared Islam to violence. Jews were upset over rehabilitation of a Holocaust denier. During a scandal over the Church's business dealings, his butler was accused of leaking his private papers.
"When cardinals arrive here for the conclave ... they are going to have this on their mind, they're going to take a good hard look at how Pope Benedict was served, and I think many of them feel that the burden of the papacy that finally weighed so heavy on Benedict was caused in part by some of this in-fighting (among his administration)," Thavis told Reuters.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi urged the faithful to remain confident in the Church and its future.
"Those who may feel a bit disorientated or stunned by this, or have a hard time understanding the Holy Father's decision should look at it in the context of faith and the certainty that Christ will support his Church," Lombardi said.
Lombardi said that on his last day in office, Benedict would receive cardinals in a farewell meeting and after February 28 his ring of office, used to seal official documents, would be destroyed just as if he had died.
Later on Wednesday, an Ash Wednesday Mass that was originally scheduled to have taken place in a small church in Rome, has been moved to St Peter's Basilica so more people can attend.
Unless the Vatican changes the pope's schedule, it will be his last public Mass.
(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Giles Elgood)
Asteroid worth $195B: Asteroid miners say that?asteroid 2012 DA14, which will buzz past our planet on Friday could contain a jackpot of valuable metals.
By Mike Wall,?SPACE.com / February 13, 2013
An artist's conception of the Feb. 15 flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14.
NASA
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The space rock set to give Earth a historically close shave this Friday (Feb. 15) may be worth nearly $200 billion, prospective asteroid miners say.
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The 150-foot-wide (45 meters)?asteroid 2012 DA14?? which will zoom within 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometers) of Earth on Friday, marking the closest approach by such a large space rock that astronomers have ever known about in advance ? may harbor $65 billion of recoverable water and $130 billion in metals, say officials with celestial mining firm Deep Space Industries.
That's just a guess, they stressed, since 2012 DA14's composition is not well known and its size is an estimate based on the?asteroid's brightness.
The company has no plans to go after 2012 DA14; the asteroid's orbit is highly tilted relative to Earth, making it too difficult to chase down. But the space rock's close flyby serves to illustrate the wealth of asteroid resources just waiting to be extracted and used, Deep Space officials said. [Deep Space Industries' Asteroid-Mining Vision in Photos]
"While this week's visitor isn't going the right way for us to harvest it, there will be others that are, and we want to be ready when they arrive," Deep Space chairman Rick Tumlinson said in a statement Tuesday (Feb. 12).
Deep Space Industries wants to use?asteroid resources?to help humanity expand its footprint out into the solar system. The company plans to convert space rock water into rocket fuel, which would be used to top up the tanks of off-Earth satellites and spaceships cheaply and efficiently.
Asteroidal metals such as iron and nickel, for their part, would form the basis of a space-based manufacturing industry that could build spaceships, human habitats and other structures off the planet.
The idea is to dramatically reduce the amount of material that needs to be launched from Earth, since it currently costs at least $10 million to send 1 ton of material to high-Earth orbit, officials said.
"Getting these supplies to serve communications satellites and coming crewed missions to Mars from in-space sources like asteroids is key if we are going to explore and settle space," Tumlinson said.
Deep Space Industries is just one of two asteroid-mining firms that have revealed their existence and intentions in the past 10 months. The other is Planetary Resources, which has financial backing from billionaires such as Google execs Larry Page and Eric Schmidt.
Deep Space aims to launch a phalanx of small, robotic prospecting probes called Fireflies in 2015. Sample-return missions to potential targets would occur shortly thereafter, with space mining operations possibly beginning around 2020.
Planetary Resources also hopes its activities open the solar system up for further and more efficient exploration. The company may launch its first low-cost prospecting space telescopes within the next year or so.
Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter?@michaeldwall?or SPACE.com?@Spacedotcom. We're also onFacebook?and?Google+.?
Copyright 2013?SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
'Dateline NBC,' the signature broadcast for NBC News in primetime, premiered in 1992. Since then, it has been pioneering a new approach to primetime news programming. The multi-night franchise, supplemented by frequent specials, allows NBC to consistently and comprehensively present the highest-quality reporting, investigative features, breaking news coverage and newsmaker profiles.
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) ? A Syrian government official warned Wednesday of rampant trafficking in antiquities from his country and appealed for U.N. help in halting the illicit trade that has flourished during the nearly 23-month-long civil war.
Syria's turmoil has increasingly threatened the country's rich archaeological heritage but the issue of smuggling artifacts has taken a back seat to more dramatic images as some of the most significant sites got caught in the crossfire between regime forces and rebels.
President Bashar Assad's troops have shelled rebel-held neighborhoods, smashing historic mosques, churches and souks, or markets. Looters have stolen artifacts from archaeological excavations and, to a lesser extent, museums.
Maamoun Abdulkarim, head of the government's antiquities department, warned of the smuggling at a UNESCO-sponsored workshop in Amman, Jordan, which brought together regional antiquities directors, customs and police officials, as well as international protection agencies.
He expressed hope that the Security Council would issue a resolution that would ban trading in stolen antiquities from Syria, and underscored that his nation's cultural heritage must be preserved without taking political sides in the conflict.
"We want a united front to stop the destruction," Abdulkarim told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the gathering. "These acts are not only attacks on Syria's heritage, they are attacks on the world's heritage."
Among the artifacts stolen from Syria is an 8th century B.C. Aramaic bronze statue with gold overlay taken from the Hama museum and now listed by Interpol. Byzantine mosaics from the Roman city of Apamea near Aleppo were bulldozed and removed.
Meanwhile, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Culture Francesco Bandarin said in Paris on Friday that he has "information that some (Syrian cultural) items are beginning to appear on the market . it has already been a few months." He did not elaborate.
Experts consider Syria home to some of the most important cultural sites in human history, with six of them designated World Heritage sites by UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural and educational agency.
The Jordan workshop focused on a plan to help safeguard the Syrian antiquities, according to Anna Paolini, UNESCO's representative to Jordan. She said the plan included better training of antiquities and border personnel and coordination with the local community.
Paolini pointed to an archaeologist working via Skype and online with Syrian staff to assess damages, pack and label material for removal to secure spaces as a model that could be repeated to "mitigate damages and loss." She did not wish to name the archaeologist, because of security concerns.
Abdulkarim acknowledged that fighting between the regime and rebels has damaged some of the country's most iconic treasures.
World Heritage site Crak des Chavaliers near the Lebanese border, one of the most important military castles in history dated between 11th and 13th century, has been exposed to shelling and gunfire. Shelling also has reportedly caused extensive damage to historic houses in the ancient city of Bosra in the south, once the capital of the Roman province of Arabia.
Aleppo, one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities, has witnessed some of the conflict's most brutal destruction. Its 12th century Ummayad mosque and 13th century citadel gatehouse have been caught in the crosshairs of the conflict.
These monuments can all be repaired, Abdulkarim said, unlike those seven ancient markets incinerated in Aleppo's storied centuries-old covered souk during fierce fighting last October. The fire burnt 500 shops, tearing through wooden doors and scorching stalls and vaulted passageways.
Because of the fighting, most Syrian museums have removed their priceless treasures, storing them in "safe places," Abdulkarim said, without elaborating.
Still unearthed treasures, however, are under constant threat because of the ongoing violence, he said.
The antiquities chief was careful neither to blame government troops nor rebels for looting, which ranged from what he called small-scale "tomb robbing" to the bulldozing of Byzantine mosaics in the Roman city of Apamea near Aleppo. He instead blamed "mafias" of sophisticated smugglers familiar with the location of the country's numerous treasures.
Abdulkarim praised Jordanian police for their recovery over the weekend of Syrian artifacts and called on other neighboring countries to tighten controls. He said the stolen items included clay pottery, figurines and other undated artifacts.
He also asked UNESCO to appeal to Turkey and Iraq to enact stricter measures to prevent the smuggling of artifacts across their borders. Turkey has strained ties with the Assad regime, while Iraq's porous frontier with Syria is difficult to monitor.
Abdulkarim warned against his country becoming like another Iraq, where the Baghdad Museum and many archaeological sites were plundered following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein.
"We don't want the world to go through the Iraq experience again," Abdulkarim said.
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