ivory nonperforming: May 2012

Thursday, May 31, 2012

DutchNews.nl - Phase out mortgage tax relief, Brussels tells the ...

Phase out mortgage tax relief, Brussels tells the Netherlands

Wednesday 30 May 2012

The European Commission is poised to recommend the Netherlands phase out tax breaks on mortgages in order to keep house prices from imploding, according to media reports on Wednesday.

The commission will today publish its recommendations for improving all 27 EU economies. House prices in the Netherlands have been falling steadily for months.

According to the Volkskrant, Brussels believes the high house prices in the Netherlands are partly due to the mortgage tax relief system. In order to head off the risk of a house price implosion, as happened in Spain and Ireland, this ?generous tax treatment? should be phased out, the commission says.

Austerity package

The five-party austerity package drawn up at the end of last month will end the tax break on all new interest-only mortgages but current mortgages are unaffected. However, the central bank and other bodies have already called for reform and the issue is likely to be central to the general election campaign.

In addition, the commission says the government should do more to make sure tenants pay rent which is in line with their income. At the moment, landlords can only put up the rent of social housing by inflation.

Waiting lists for social housing can be up to 10 years in some towns and cities. For example, some 49% of cheaper rent-controlled properties in Utrecht are lived in by people who earn too much, according to city council research.

? DutchNews.nl

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On Thailand trip, Suu Kyi visits Myanmar migrants

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi waves while leaving a community center in Samut Sakhon Province, Thailand on Wednesday, May 30, 2012. Kicking off her first trip abroad in nearly a quarter-century, Suu Kyi offered encouragement Wednesday to impoverished Myanmar migrants whose flight to neighboring Thailand is emblematic of the devastation wrought on her homeland by decades of misrule.(AP photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi waves to the crowd while leaving a community center in Mahachai, Samut Sakhon Province, Thailand on Wednesday, May 30, 2012. Kicking off her first trip abroad in nearly a quarter-century, Suu Kyi offered encouragement Wednesday to impoverished Myanmar migrants whose flight to neighboring Thailand is emblematic of the devastation wrought on her homeland by decades of misrule.(AP photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrives at hotel in Bangkok on Tuesday May 29, 2012. For 24 years, Aung San Suu Kyi was either under house arrest or too fearful that if she left Myanmar, the government would never let her return. Now, in a sign of how much life there has changed, she's back to being a world traveler.(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, center, receives flowers from supporters as she arrives at Yangon International Airport before her departure for Bangkok on Tuesday, May 29, 2012, in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi smiles upon her arrival amid tight security at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand Tuesday, May 29, 2012. Suu Kyi is in Thailand to attend the World Economic Forum on East Asia 2012 to be held May 30-June 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

MAHACHAI, Thailand (AP) ? Kicking off her first trip abroad in nearly a quarter-century, Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi offered encouragement Wednesday to impoverished migrants whose flight to neighboring Thailand is emblematic of the devastation wrought on her homeland by decades of misrule.

"Don't feel down, or weak. History is always changing," she told an exuberant crowd of thousands southwest of Bangkok. Many held signs saying, "We want to go home," and Suu Kyi said her visit was aimed at learning how she could help them.

"Today, I will make you one promise: I will try my best for you," she said.

Suu Kyi, who arrived in Bangkok late Tuesday, left her luxury hotel and the skyscraper-packed capital Wednesday for the nearby town of Mahachai, home to Thailand's largest population of Burmese migrants. Thousands of Myanmar's downtrodden crowded around her and chanted: "Long Live Mother Suu!"

"I had only seen her on TV and in newspapers," said Saw Hla Tun, who left Myanmar's Karen state seven years ago and earns a meager wage carrying heavy salt sacks on his back. "I couldn't hold back my tears when I saw her."

After speaking to the crowd from a fourth-floor balcony at a community center, the Nobel Peace Prize winner met with migrant workers who told her they face mistreatment from employers but lack knowledge of their rights and have no legal means to settle disputes.

Suu Kyi spent 15 of the last 24 years under house arrest. During intermittent periods of freedom, she dared not leave Myanmar ? not even to visit her dying husband ? because she feared the military junta ruling at the time would not allow her to return. Now, in a sign of how much life has changed, the democracy activist and newly elected member of Parliament is traveling across Thailand, where she will speak later this week at the World Economic Forum on East Asia.

She'll return to Myanmar briefly before heading to Europe for a five-country tour in mid-June. Her stops include England, where she'll address the British Parliament, and Oslo, Norway, to formally accept the Nobel Peace Prize she won 21 years ago.

Fixing a battered economy is one of the most crucial challenges facing Myanmar, also known as Burma, as it begins opening up in the wake of 49 years of military governance that ended only last year.

Thailand hosts around 2.5 million impoverished Burmese who have fled here to work low-skilled jobs as domestic servants or in manual labor industries like fisheries and the garment sector.

Andy Hall, a migrant expert and researcher at the Institute for Population and Social Research at Thailand's Mahidol University, said the Burmese migrants ? up to a million of them undocumented ? make up between 5 and 10 percent of the Thai work force, contributing as much as 7 percent of the nation's GDP.

Many are exploited and paid reduced wages. Some have been trafficked; some have had their passports confiscated by employers. Hall said they were nevertheless "the lifeblood of a lot of the Myanmar economy, sending home money to support families who don't have enough money to eat."

"They have no voice, they can never speak up or stand up," Hall said. "So for Aung San Suu Kyi to visit is like a dream come true, someone who finally may be able to bring attention to their suffering."

One of the migrants, a 26-year-old woman named Khin Than Nu, works at a Thai canning factory and dreams of her home in Myanmar's Mon state.

"We left our parents in Burma, and all my brothers and sisters work here to support our parents," she said. "I hope Daw Suu will help develop our country, and bring jobs so we can go home."

___

Associated Press writer Yadana Htun contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Video: WH addresses arming Syrian opposition, engaging Russia (cbsnews)

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SoftLayer says its cloud beats Amazon in online gaming. Here's why ...

It might not be immediately obvious, but online games are a bear on data center infrastructure. ?To keep players interested, games have to be fast and responsive, they are often played simultaneously by hundreds ? if not thousands ? ?of people, and they run flashy, resource-intensive graphics. They?re a pain.

As great as shared cloud infrastructure can be, these workloads often demand dedicated physical servers in addition to heavily virtualized, shared cloud servers. That?s where SoftLayer, the Dallas-based cloud service provider, says it differentiates itself from other big cloud players including market leader Amazon Web Services. SoftLayer, as Derrick Harris reported earlier, may not be a household name, but it runs the?cloud that helps run many household brands?including Tumblr, Cloudant and Citrix and has backed such popular games as OMGPOP and Draw Something, which have since been acquired by Zynga, which is moving more of its internal games onto its Zcloud and off of AWS.

SoftLayer says: hybrid cloud is best for gamers

SoftLayer attacks this online gaming challenge with its own hybrid technology which pairs shared and dedicated infrastructure.

?With gaming either on mobile devices or on Facebook, it?s all about engagement. How much time can you keep players engaged and coming back and what drives all that is the data points collected by the games makers that help them refine and iterate fast,? Marc Jones, VP of product innovation for Dallas-based SoftLayer told me last week. ?One driver from an infrastructure perspective is the sheer volume of data points [from user moves] which ultimately end up in a database, maybe in MySQL or one of many NoSQL options like MongoDB or Hadoop,? Jones said.

That proliferation of data points and the need for fast response drives demand for higher I/O that Jones says is only available from truly dedicated servers. ?With those servers you can configure your drives, the CPU you want, the memory you want up to 10G ? you can use local SSD RAID configurations if you want to get better I/OPS and better I/O,? Jones said.

Meeting the fluctuating demand of gamers

The spiky nature of demand for games is another factor that makes SoftLayer?s hybrid approach effective, added George Karidis the company?s chief strategy officer. When a game launches there is?usually a spike ? the size of which is hard to predict. ??The variability of game play, the time of day and when they launch means they have to leverage their virtual cloud instances and spin up and down fast. ?WIth our private network you can have your cloud instances and your dedicated infrastructure all talking to each other on our private network,? Jones said. That eliminates latency.

Current SoftLayer gaming customers include Kixeye, the San Francisco game company behind Backyard Monsters, Battle Pirates and War Commander.

SoftLayer, other clouds, take aim at Amazon

SoftLayer is getting aggressive in its promotion of itself as a viable ? and oftentimes less expensive ? alternative to the Amazon cloud. ?Our private network is completely free to these users. We only charge for outbound traffic ? inbound and data center-to-data center traffic is all included. On a dollar per dollar basis we?re less expensive than Amazon when you go above their low-end compute offering,? said Jones.

Indeed, other competitors are also getting feisty in positioning themselves against Amazon.?Last week, Steve Tuck, GM for Joyent, another big cloud service provider, took aim at Amazon in a blog post on Computer Business Review?saying it is no longer impossible to imagine competitors (like, um Joyent perhaps?) besting Amazon at its own game, especially as the ?internet of things? comes online.

According to Tuck?s post:

Once upon a time, it was easier for developers, entrepreneurs and IT managers to work with Amazon. That is no longer true today. While Amazon remains the dominant cloud provider, its customers are beginning to see cracks in the Amazon Cloud foundation.

Clearly, SoftLayer, with its 13 data centers worldwide and 100,000 servers under management, feels the same way. Paul Santinelli, general partner at VC firm North Bridge Venture Partners, who watches this space closely, agreed that Amazon is by no means invulnerable to scrappy competition.

?That space is just heating up. The frustration with Amazon on the customer side is reliability. ?You tell me I have servers but they may not be reserved for me and they may be in a distant data center so latency is problematic.? If you, as a customer, want dedicated instances, reliability and lower latency, it?s highly likely you?ll go to a smaller cloud provider, ? he said.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

United Behavioral Health Sued For Denying ... - Health and Fitness

Mary R. Kennedy?s Death Teaches What United Behavioral Health Forgets: Depression Kills

Todd Essig
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Two interesting developments took place after writing last week about United Behavioral Health deploying policies and guidelines based on a profoundly dangerous misunderstanding of clinical depression. The first is the large number of emails I?ve received from stakeholders across the spectrum of people involved in outpatient mental health care with similar?and even worse?stories. More on that in a subsequent post. Here I want to share news about UBH being sued for they way they ration care for profit, a suit that might hold them accountable for denying needed care.

I recently learned that this month a class-action lawsuit has been filed against California United Behavioral Health (UBH), along with United Healthcare Insurance Company and US Behavioral Plan, alleging these companies improperly denied coverage for mental health care.

According to the class action lawsuit, United Behavioral Health violated California?s Mental Health Parity Act, which requires insurers to provide treatment for mental-health diagnosis according to ?the same terms and conditions? applied to medical conditions. Specifically, the insurer is accused of denying and improperly limiting mental health coverage by conducting concurrent and prospective reviews of routine outpatient mental health treatments when no such reviews are conducted for routine outpatient treatments for other medical conditions.

via United Healthcare Mental Health Coverage Class Action Lawsuit

Furthermore, writes Michael Cohen of Cohen Mckeon LLP, Los Angeles-based class-action trial lawyers who filed the law suit along with Meiram Bendat, founder of the mental health insurance-advocacy service, Psych-Appeal:

Defendants are also accused of violating the Unruh Act, by discriminating against a class of persons with mental disabilities and psychiatric conditions; violating California?s law prohibiting unfair competition, breaching the terms of its own insurance contract with policyholders, and the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

via Class Action: United Healthcare Denies Mental Health Coverage

The lead plaintiff in the case is reported to be a woman who was improperly denied coverage. While receiving 4 weekly psychotherapy sessions she was abruptly told that she would have coverage for one session per week for one month ? just like the case I described last week.

And as I?ll post in a couple of days, based on information I?ve received from other clinicians, UBH employees, and those who work on the employer-based benefit side, UBH does seem to have a business model in which they put people?s lives at risk by making care decisions loosely connected to clinical realities. Why they do it is a question that gets to the heart of the matter: Is managed care, aka, care rationing for profit, even necessary for outpatient mental and behavioral health care?? Might it be the case that there is just not enough waste in outpatient mental and behavioral health care to justify the cost of the services they provide? Might the rationing they do only generate sufficient profit by denying care to people who should be receiving it??And perhaps most important of all: If your mental health treatment is subject to UBH?s rationing procedures, is there anything you can do?

[FULL DISCLOSURE: I currently own 8.5 shares of UNH across two mutual funds.? United Behavioral Health also operates under the brand name OptumHealth Behavioral Solutions. Both United Behavioral Health and OptumHealth Behavioral Solutions are business units of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH).]

Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddessig/2012/05/28/united-behavioral-health-sued-for-denying-needed-care/

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Online Car Rental Services To Tirupati And Pondicherry From ...

Cab from Bangalore to Mysore is in huge traffic. Mysore is the popular tourist destination in Karnataka state. The advent of IT and BPO firms are growing and the Mysore is around 140 km from Bangalore. Book online taxi for hire is the best choice to visit the city and can see the nearby places like Srirangapatna. Mysore is one of the weekend tourist destinations and one can hire online car rental services for a preplanned trip.

Coorg is one of the hill stations located in the southern state of Karnataka. As it is well connected by road from Bangalore it is better to hire a Bangalore to Coorg car rental to visit this Coorg or Kodagu district. The Cauvery Sankaramana is the famous festival that held around Cauvery River. Nagarhole National park and Omkareshwara Temple are the main tourist attractions in Coorg.

Bangalore is being largest exporters in the IT industry people from various places do visit Bangalore. the online cab bookings in travel industry stands in front row. As it being the IT hub of India more numbers of travellers visit Bangalore at the same time it is also a tourist destination in Karnataka state. Munnar, Nandi hills, Mysore, Coorg and Goa are the mail attractive places to see in and around Bangalore

Chennai is one of the largest city in Tamil Nadu state and is the second largest exporter in the IT industry. Most of the travellers from Bangalore do visit Chennai mainly for the business visit. Cab from Bangalore to Chennai will say much about this. The online bookings are done heavily and Chennai is also one of the tourism places. Chennai attracts numbers of travellers with its beach.

Tirupati one of the most popular holiest places in India. The taxi service booking done heavily for weekend trip. Tirupati is famous for Lord Venkateswara temple. The online cab bookings are popular to Tirupati as it is the holiest place and can also see the nearby places. One need not wait for the travel agents to book a taxi. One can hire taxi from Bangalore to Tirupati. People from Chennai can also hire a taxi service to Tirupati or can book Chennai to Tirupati car hire.

From Chennai the cab services are more to Pondicherry. Pondicherry is one of the busiest centres in Tamil Nadu and Chennai to Pondicherry taxi service is in good volume. Pondicherry is one of the union territory of India.

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One Acre Near Minnedosa | Sutton Harrison Real Estate Brandon ...

This one acre lot in the country near Minnedosa has a mobile home and a barn with horse stalls,tack room and a parking space. Enjoy the peaceful surroundings and the sheltered yard. The adjacent 1.4 acre lot is also for sale. MLS# 1120649. Check it out.

Price: : $119,000

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Visiting Resorts In Jamaica | Travel and Leisure Blog

Jamaica is one of the most popular vacation destinations in the world. There is good reason for that. This tropical island is home to pristine beaches, incredibly clean water, mouthwatering cuisine, a world of amenities and friendly people. What more could you ask for when traveling? The most difficult aspect of traveling to Jamaica is choosing the right place to stay. That being the case, we will look at the best resorts in Jamaica and lead you in the right direction.

When it comes to the best resorts in Jamaica, you have to go with a Sandals property. There are seven of them to choose from. They each offer something different so pay careful attention, heed the advice given and you will be well on your way to the best vacation of your entire life.

Beaches is one of the top resorts in Jamaica. This has everything to do with amenities. Here you will find pools, beaches, tennis courts, an outdoor restaurant, indoor fine dining, a romantic pier with a bench to enjoy sunset views, boating activities and more. Another good option is Wyndham. However, this is a very basic hotel. The outdoor fountains, balconies, outdoor pool and outdoor bar are the biggest selling points. Just don?t expect to be blown away. Iberstor Rose Hall is quality. The beach, pool, staff and food are all impressive. At the same time, there is nothing overly memorable about this location.

Moving to the north side of the island, we have Sandals Royal Plantation. This property is near the St. Ann Mountains and the Ocho Rios Rivera. This is the perfect place to stay if you don?t like crowds and you enjoy nature and exploring. There are 77 suites here. Every single one of them comes with an ocean view.

If you?re looking for romance, then go straight to Sandals Negril. This property is located on the famous seven-mile beach, which means a lot of space when you?re looking to suntan as well as beauty as far as the eye can see when you?re looking out over the water. This is an environmentally friendly resort with unique architecture.

Sandals Grand Rivera is the prettiest of all the Sandals resorts. That?s because it?s set on a 110-acre preserve that?s part of a rainforest. Therefore, you have mountain views to one side and the beach to the other. There are also gardens, streams and 100 pools to enjoy.

Sandals Montego Bay has been around forever and people still flock to it. That?s because it has the largest beach and the cleanest water on the island. There are also roofed huts on the beach for guests to enjoy.

Finally, we have the Sandals Carlyle, which is best suited for couples. This is one of the smaller resorts in Jamaica. While it has all the basic amenities, two great features are that it?s home to two gourmet restaurants and it?s only five minutes from the airport.

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Brother of blind Chinese activist goes missing: lawyer

Skip to comments.

Brother of blind Chinese activist goes missing: lawyer
Reuters ^ | Sat May 26, 2012 4:07am EDT | Sui-Lee Wee

Posted on 05/26/2012 9:21:22 AM PDT by Olog-hai

The brother of blind activist Chen Guangcheng has gone missing, a lawyer said on Saturday, days after he fled his village in northeastern China to seek help for his son who has been detained in a case that has become a rallying point among rights activists.

Chen Guangfu, the eldest brother of Chen Guangcheng, fled his home in Shandong province and arrived in Beijing on Wednesday to seek legal help for his son, Chen Kegui, who is being held on an attempted murder charge.

He appears to have become the latest target of the government's reprisals against Chen Guangcheng's family in the wake of the blind activist's escape from his village in late April after 19 months of detention at home.

Chen Guangcheng took refuge in the U.S. embassy, where he stayed for six days and sparked a diplomatic crisis between China and the United States. That crisis, which overshadowed a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was finally defused last Saturday when China allowed Chen to fly to the United States to study.

Chen Guangfu did not return to his hotel room in Beijing on Friday night, Shandong-based lawyer Liu Weiguo told Reuters.

Zhao Wei, a Shandong supporter of Chen Guangcheng's family, was the last person to have contact with Chen Guangfu before they parted ways on Friday afternoon, Liu said.

"As of now, there's still no news on Brother Guangfu," Liu said. "We're not optimistic. Guangcheng is also very worried. He's contacting friends to look (for him)."

The news of Chen Guangfu's disappearance comes three days after the 55-year-old farmer and odd job laborer recounted to Reuters details of his own torture and reprisals by authorities since his brother's escape. ?

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...

TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: chenguangcheng; communism; redchina; totalitarianism

1 posted on 05/26/2012 9:21:36 AM PDT by Olog-hai

To: Olog-hai

?days after he fled his village in northeastern China to seek help for his son who has been detained in a case that has become a rallying point among rights activists. Chen Guangfu, the eldest brother of Chen Guangcheng, fled his home in Shandong province and arrived in Beijing on Wednesday to seek legal help for his son, Chen Kegui, who is being held on an attempted murder charge.?

Days after who fled whose village to seek help for whose son? sheesh, why can?t the writers write?

2 posted on 05/26/2012 9:52:47 AM PDT by yldstrk ( My heroes have always been cowboys)

To: yldstrk

Prediction. On January 1, 2013 this family will cease to exist. I will be as if this family never existed.

3 posted on 05/26/2012 10:19:03 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (ABO 2012)

To: Olog-hai

4 posted on 05/26/2012 10:20:32 AM PDT by bgill

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Brother of blind Chinese activist goes missing: lawyer

Skip to comments.

Brother of blind Chinese activist goes missing: lawyer
Reuters ^ | Sat May 26, 2012 4:07am EDT | Sui-Lee Wee

Posted on 05/26/2012 9:21:22 AM PDT by Olog-hai

Chen Guangfu did not return to his hotel room in Beijing on Friday night, Shandong-based lawyer Liu Weiguo told Reuters.

Zhao Wei, a Shandong supporter of Chen Guangcheng's family, was the last person to have contact with Chen Guangfu before they parted ways on Friday afternoon, Liu said.

"As of now, there's still no news on Brother Guangfu," Liu said. "We're not optimistic. Guangcheng is also very worried. He's contacting friends to look (for him)."

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...

TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: chenguangcheng; communism; redchina; totalitarianism

1 posted on 05/26/2012 9:21:36 AM PDT by Olog-hai

To: Olog-hai

Days after who fled whose village to seek help for whose son? sheesh, why can?t the writers write?

2 posted on 05/26/2012 9:52:47 AM PDT by yldstrk ( My heroes have always been cowboys)

To: yldstrk

Prediction. On January 1, 2013 this family will cease to exist. I will be as if this family never existed.

3 posted on 05/26/2012 10:19:03 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (ABO 2012)

To: Olog-hai

4 posted on 05/26/2012 10:20:32 AM PDT by bgill

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Monday, May 28, 2012

U.N. says over 92 killed, 32 of them children, in Syria attack

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Sunday, May 27, 2012

Android 5.0 Nexus Devices: Good for Google, Bad for Customers

You are here: Home ? News ? Android 5.0 Nexus Devices: Good for Google, Bad for Customers

galaxy nexus

We were telling you about Android fragmentation problems and how annoying they can get and, apparently the tech behemoth has somewhat revised the complaints. New information has surfaced, according to which, Google plans to launch the next version of Android OS to five different Nexus-branded smartphones.

Android 5 Nexus Devices: Google?s Reconciliation Tactic

The devices will be made available to the public via the Google Play online store in a shaky attempt to uniform the offer. Fragmentation of Android software has led to huge disadvantages in the app sector because most of the devices present in circulation actually do not run the latest android version making it impossible for apps to work properly.

?Google will work with as many as five manufacturers at a time to create a portfolio of Nexus lead devices that include smartphones and tablets.?

At the moment, 54% of Android devices are running version 2.3 (Gingerbread) while the latest version Android 4 or better known as Ice Cream Sandwich is found on a meager 5% of all existing devices, despite being launched with the flashy Samsung Galaxy Nexus back in November.

But, is fragmentation the only reason behind Google?s strategy? Maybe the fact that the Nexus series is expected to come packed with ?pure and clean? Android OS without added tweaks added to the salad, might appeal to some die-hard Android fans. But, maybe I don?t want Nexus smartphones! Isn?t this a shady strategy to increase sales for Google?s own devices?

Buy Nexus if You Want the Latest Android Version

So what does Google have to win with this implementation? As you might be aware, Google has acquired Motorla Mobility for the price of $12.5 billion and it has been given the green light in the US as well as in the European Union and China. But won?t Google be accused now android jelly bean of favoritism? Not if it goes ahead with the above mentioned plan.

Producing Nexus flagship phones for each company in part and sprinkling on top the latest and juiciest version of Android would of course please all manufactures and persuade them to coexist in a state of perpetual heaven.

Users will probably benefit too from having the ?pure? Android smartphones delivered at their doorstep. The diversity would probably be appealing and we should not forget the fact that since its launch the Nexus phones have been offered the appreciation of the connoisseurs? Nevertheless the sales don?t actually reflect that, for some reason.

?The market proved Google wrong at that point. Consumers in the U.S. are used to subsidies on phones. They?re not used to paying $600 for an iPhone, or $500 for a Galaxy S III. They want to walk into a store and pay $100 or $200 for a new phone, and they want it to be a high-end phone. But there are a limited number of consumers who are willing to spend the extra money for an unlocked phone.?

said Charles Golvin of the Forrester.

Android Update Cycle ? Similar to iOS?

I personally think that these mobile operating systems are being released far too quick on the market and releasing Android 5.0 will create further confusion. Obviously, this move is meant to shift attention towards Google branded devices and you can?t help wondering ? couldn?t the same thing happen with Motorola-Google devices??On the other hand, releasing 5 different Nexus devices with all major manufacturers would make peace with all of them.

?With Google buying Motorola, working with all of the leading hardware partners to develop a Nexus line of what?s on the leading edge makes more sense. If they get everyone involved in developing, nobody will be able to point and say Motorola is getting something they?re not.?

the same Golvin further commented. After all, I don?t think it is possible to close Android to everybody else besides Google?s Motorola. Instead, maintaing the same strategy of pushing with every major Android update a fresh new Nexus line could become profitable for Google. Somehow, it?s similar to Apple?s strategy, albeit on a much smaller scale.

Competition leads to innovation.

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Syria 'massacre' raises pressure for international response

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Saturday, May 26, 2012

Chris Matthews a little tired of ?horse?s ass right-wingers? mocking the thrill up his leg (Michellemalkin)

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The Book Nook: ?Sparky and Me? by Ron Kaplan and ?A Wedding in Haiti? by Julia Alvarez

Wednesday May 23, 2012

Ever craved a good book and just not been inspired by anything you see? Or felt annoyed that you bought a book that was merely so-so? Or closed a book and JUST wanted to talk about it? Or wished you had a place to discover new books?

The Book Report Network aims to solve these reader dilemmas, with thoughtful book reviews, compelling features, in-depth author profiles and interviews, excerpts of the hottest new releases, contests and more every week. The organization can be found online at bookreporter.com.

Now, the Book Report Network is bringing its insight to The Advocate! Every week, The Advocate?s website, advocateweekly.com, will feature two or three reviews from the Book Report Network. Reviews will be posted every Thursday morning. Up this week:

* "Sparky and Me: My Friendship with Sparky Anderson and the Lessons He Shared About Baseball and Life" by Daniel Ewald, reviewed by Ron Kaplan

A caveat before we begin.

When I first started as a freelancer, I was asked to do an interview with Sparky Anderson following the publication of his 1998 memoir, "They Call Me Sparky," which happened to be written with the assistance of Dan Ewald, a sportswriter who worked as public relations director for the Detroit Tigers for almost 20 years; he co-authored two other

books with Anderson as well and eventually became his business manager. They developed a friendship that lasted until Anderson?s death in November 2010.

As this was my first celebrity encounter, I was fairly nervous. Why should Anderson waste his time with a nobody like me, writing for a scholarly baseball journal? But I committed to the project and made the phone call.

Anderson, the former manager of the Tigers and Cincinnati Reds, could not have been nicer or more generous with his time. We spoke for almost an hour, and after reading "Sparky and Me," Ewald?s deeply emotional memoir, I find much of his philosophy reinforced.

Anderson -- who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000 -- never believed his status merited him special treatment, nor was he overly impressed by the celebrity of others. As Ewald writes (and as Anderson said in our conversation), he believed that the sportswriter with a small-market outfit was worthy of the same courtesy and consideration as members of the national media.

Anderson was the friend of the caddy, the parking valet, the grocery cashier. He probably could have run for public office if he had chosen, but he wouldn?t have won. A cynical electorate would think him too good to be true, like a character out of a Frank Capra movie.

"Sparky and Me" is basically set during the three-day visit Ewald made to Anderson?s home in California when he learned his friend was dying. They spent the time reminiscing about the good times and realistically considering what lay ahead.

According to Ewald, Anderson was not necessarily a formally religious man. But like many good people, he lived by the Golden Rule: treat others the way you would want to be treated. There are dozens of anecdotes the author shares that serve as examples of such a lifestyle.

It must have been a heartbreaking experience for them both, but Anderson?s bravery shines through, even as they shed tears together. When Ewald left, he had plans to come back in a couple of weeks? time; unfortunately, Anderson passed on before he had that chance. At least they were able to have those three days. We all should be so lucky to have that kind of friendship at least once in our lifetime. * "A Wedding in Haiti" by Julia Alvarez, reviewed by Jana Siciliano

Julia Alvarez has always seemed quite comfortable with reality. Even in her other books, filled with the stories of intertwining relationships between people and the government, there is the sense, the hope, that someday things will work out. Torture and corruption may be on the menu today, but tomorrow it could be filled with cooperation and strength. "A Wedding in Haiti" is a memoir, but it follows the same trajectory; even amidst the rubble of destruction, there is a chance for redemption and rebuilding.

When Alvarez and her husband first bought and then built up a larger coffee plantation in the Dominican Republic, from where the novelist hails, they had no clue that one worker on their land would turn out to be the reason they experience the adventures put forth in this remarkable memoir. A young man named Piti is a great help on the farm and is filled with a joy of life that compels everyone around him to love him. At some point, so taken is he with Alvarez and her husband that he tells her he will be expecting them at his wedding someday. She puts it out of her head until one day, back in Middlebury, Vt., where the couple lives most of the year, she receives a call from Piti, claiming that his wedding has been arranged and she and her husband should come down for it.

Alvarez takes him up on it and finds herself, days later, taking a nine-hour trek through the Dominican Republic to Haiti to experience Piti?s big day. He also asks them to be the godparents to his 4-month-old daughter, a stunner named Ludy. It is love at first sight, but the rough tides in Haiti sweep them into strange and exotic and often frighteningly sad situations. Piti?s relatives take good care of their visitors, and years later, when the earthquake strikes in January 2010, Alvarez once again becomes enmeshed in the lives of her friends in Haiti.

Their families OK because they lived so far from the epicenter, Piti and Eseline draw Alvarez into a detour to Port-au-Prince, where the devastation is experienced firsthand. She fills her story with the amazing resolve and strength of the survivors there as well as pictures of the before-and-after days of the island. And, as Haiti continues to rebuild and redefine its life in so many ways, Alvarez uses this as a way to also examine the experiences of her aging parents, both suffering from Alzheimer?s, struggling in and out of the waves of lucidity like the tumultuous waves of the Haitian seaside.

A heartfelt and pointed look at a world where good and bad are constantly in a lock for the title, "A Wedding in Haiti" is so much more than a love story. Still, that love story -- the one between life and death, between hope and giving up -- is the soul of Alvarez?s life experiences. No one will walk away from this book without having had a compelling and memorable trip to the brink of death and back, a journey actually made fascinating by the beautiful language and open heart of Julia Alvarez, one of the world?s great novelists.

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Rotator Cuff Pain Symptoms and Management ... - Health and Fitness

Rotator blow pain is among the more debilitating ailments we can undergo because we use our shoulders for almost everything we do. Unitedly with weakness and inflammation, shoulder penalty is the most commonly reported symptom of a rotator blow injury.

The great news is that in all but the greatest in quantity severe cases, pain can be reduced or eliminated by normal adherence to a rotator cuff exercise program.

How do I perceive if my pain is associated with rotator blow injury?

It can be very hard to describe penalty in the cuff. It may exist merely as a dull aching. Yet even such mild pain may be indicative of the onset of impingement. Impingement, over time, can unfold into a full-blown tear.

Penalty from early onset impingement usually sole occurs during exertion of the arm, particularly if this has involved raising the arm above. If left untreated, the impingement is likely to worsen, as power of determination the pain.

As the degree of pain increases, so power of determination the duration of episodes, and the anatomical distribution of the penalty, radiating from the front of the shoulder from the top to the bottom of the affected arm. If inflammation is also present in the tendons, this may be felt as a fiery sensation within the shoulder.

The most rigid pain arises from a full-the third dimension cuff tear, entailing detachment of the sinew from the humerus. The pain is severe and unexpected in onset. It may diminish over time, but power of determination not disappear. This contrasts with inveterate injuries, where the pain is the result of an ongoing, persevering insult, and is likely steadily to increase.

That which if the cuff actually tears?

If the injury to your projection should develop into a full-swollen tear, the experience of pain is significantly distinct from lower levels of injury. At the time a tear occurs, the sensation of tearing is frequently palpable. You will feel ? again athwart the front of the shoulder, and usually down the arm as well ? an close pain.

This pain will grow with continued use of the limb. In particular, lifting the arm absent from the body or above the head power of determination greatly exacerbate the pain. While the penalty from a tear can diminish over more months, the underlying weakness, unless treated, power of determination persist.

Treatment

Recovery from a rotator blow injury and permanent freedom from rotator blow pain; will be greatly aided by the rectify use of exercise. The significant advantage of exercise is that it is entirely of nature. Exercise builds on the shoulders natural row of motion whilst at the same time developing power.

Steve Kaiser has used exercise to use his own rotator cuff symptoms. Learn how you could do the identical at Rotator Cuff Therapy Exercises

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Friday, May 25, 2012

'American Idol' Finale Ratings Plummet

While Phillip Phillips' win drew a record 132 million votes, ratings were down 30 percent.
By Gil Kaufman

Phillip Phillips, Jessica Sanchez and Ryan Seacrest on 'American Idol'
Photo: Getty Images

It was the best of times and the worst of times for "American Idol" this week. Yes, a record 132 million votes came in on Tuesday night to help Phillip Phillips  take home the top prize. But when the ratings for the finale were tallied up, well, nobody was popping corks or firing up the confetti cannons anymore.

Ponder this: Ratings for the season 11 finale were half of what they were during the 2003 season when Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken duked it out in front of 38 million viewers. Half is still 21.5 million, but that number is way down (27 percent) from the 29.3 million who saw Scotty McCreery take home the crown last year.

In fact, according to final Nielsen Co. figures, Wednesday night's "Idol" viewership is the smallest ever for the show's finale. Not only was the tune-in number an all-time low, but the show's 6.4 rating among the coveted adults 18-49 demographic was down 30 percent from last year as well.

"Idol" can take some solace in easily beating the finale ratings for such up-and-coming rivals as "The Voice" (11.93 million viewers, 4.4 rating) and "X Factor" (12.59 million viewers, 3.8 rating). The ratings decline this year was expected, since season 10 got a bit of a boost when Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler were added into the mix following the departure of former lead judge Simon Cowell.

Though it came into the season with the bragging rights as the #1 show on TV, "Idol" shed nearly 25 percent of its audience this year, falling below 20 million viewers for the first time since 2003. According to reports, the steepest drop-off was among viewers 18-49, the most sought-after demographic among networks.

The other shoe to drop on Thursday was that for the first time in eight years, "Idol" will not finish the season as the top-rated primetime program. According to The Hollywood Reporter, NBC's "Sunday Night Football" finished the 2011-2012 season as the dominant primetime program in total viewers and in all key audience demographics. "Football" averaged 20.7 million viewers this season and an 8.0 rating in the 28-49 demo.

The Wednesday night "Idol" performance broadcasts averaged 19.7 million viewers and 18.3 million on Thursday for the season, along with a 6.2 rating on Wednesday's.

Get your "Idol" fix on MTV News' "American Idol" page, where you'll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions.

Related Videos

'American Idol' Season 11 Finale Highlights

Phillip Phillips Had 8 Surgeries During 'American Idol'

The road to American Idol victory wasn't just about out-singing his fellow contestants for Phillip Phillips; he also had to overcome serious health issues during the competition. All throughout the season, the American Idol winner battled severe chronic kidney problems that required a total of eight surgeries.

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Thursday, May 24, 2012

The Final Six Disrupt NYC Startups: Ark, Babelverse, gTar, Open Garden, Sunglass, Uberconference

It has been a wild week so far at this year's TechCrunch Disrupt in New York City. Rainstorms and traffic jams couldn't stop nearly 2,000 people from making it to our big weekend hackathon, and our last two days of interviews, panels and startup presentations over at Pier 94 in Hell's Kitchen. Tomorrow is going to be the grand finale.

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Romney shifting focus from economy to education

FILE - In this May 8, 2012 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks in Lansing, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Mitt Romney is wading into a new policy arena ? the nation's education system ? as he broadens his focus to appeal to general election voters still getting to know President Barack Obama's likely opponent.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who has been reluctant to stray far from economic issues, is expected to outline a proposal for improving education in a speech Wednesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington.

Romney has offered few details for his plans on several key policy areas ? foreign policy, health care and education among them. He attacked Obama's education policy while speaking to donors in New York City on Tuesday evening, previewing themes likely to play prominently in his speech Wednesday.

"This president receives the lion's share of funding from organized labor, and the teachers' unions represent a massive source of funding for the Democratic Party," Romney said. "The challenge with that is when it comes to actual reform to make schools better for our kids, they talk a good game, but they don't do it."

He continued, "If I'm president of the United States, instead of just giving lip service to improving our schools, I will actually put the kids first and the union behind in giving our kids better teachers, better options and better choices for a better future."

The message is consistent for the Romney campaign, which regularly heaps criticism on the Democratic president's policies but offers only a vague road map for what Romney would do.

Romney's regular criticism of labor unions comes with some risk because it threatens to alienate voters in Rust Belt states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania where a close election may be decided.

In advance of the speech, Romney announced Tuesday a team of education policy advisers that includes former Education Secretary Rod Paige and other officials from President George W. Bush's administration. Paige is among several prominent opponents of teachers' unions on the panel. As education secretary in 2004, he labeled the National Education Association a "terrorist organization."

Romney's positions on education have evolved over time. He once supported abolishing the Education Department but reversed that position as a presidential candidate in 2007. At the time, he said he came to see the value of the federal government in "holding down the interests of the teachers' unions" and putting kids and parents first.

Romney also changed his position on the Bush-era education overhaul known as "No Child Left Behind." He said he supported the law as a candidate in 2007, but he has since generally come out against the policy many conservatives see as an expansion of the federal government.

Romney continues to support the federal accountability standards in the law, however. And he has said the student testing, charter-school incentives and teacher evaluation standards of Obama's "Race to the Top" competition "make sense," although the federal government should have less control over education. The campaign in recent days has emphasized his support for charter schools while governor of Massachusetts, a theme likely to play out in Wednesday's address.

The speech represents Romney's first public event in four days. Working to close Obama's cash advantage, he's coming off a three-day fundraising swing in the New York area that his chief finance aide said netted $15 million. A single finance event in Manhattan on Tuesday evening generated $5 million.

Still, the campaign is eager to drive a positive message as many voters tune into the presidential contest for the first time.

The education speech follows a relatively quiet phase for the Romney campaign, which has focused on fundraising but usually delivers one major address a week. Most of his recent speeches, however, have focused on the economic themes that have so far defined his campaign.

Associated Press

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