Florida County Judged Continue to Reject Challenges to Red-Light ...

August 31st, 2012

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Sarasota, FL ?The latest legal challenges to red-light safety cameras in Florida have been rejected by county judges in both Sarasota and Polk counties. Recent rulings in two separate cases upheld the constitutionality of the state?s red-light camera law each finding that the statute meets the requirements for due process and allows authorities to ticket the vehicle owner, regardless of who was driving the vehicle at the time of the violation.

In a Aug. 30^th order denying a motion to dismiss a red-light running ticket, Sarasota County Court Judge Kimberly Bonner, of the 12^th Judicial Circuit, affirmed that Florida?s Mark Wandall Traffic Safety Act, authorizes police to issue red-light running tickets to vehicle owners, and that the identification of the driver isn?t necessary for the citation to be issued.

?The one who may be held responsible for the vehicle violating a red light is the owner or one in custody of the vehicle. The owner or one in custody of the vehicle may not have been the driver. Therefore, determining the identity of the driver is not necessary when a violation is issued pursuant to Florida statute,? Judge Bonner wrote.

Judge Bonner also found that the statute does not shift the burden of proof to the Defendant, and does not violate due process in that it does not automatically deem the Defendant guilty upon issuance of the notice of violation or the issuance of the citation.

In an August 17^th ruling, Polk County Judge Timothy Coon, of the 10^th Judicial Circuit Court, rebuffed eight separate challenges against the Wandall Act, finding that the claims were either groundless or failed to meet the burden of proof required by law. Amongst the Wandall Act?s provisions upheld by Judge Coon was its compliance with due process requirements, and the allowance of fines for red-light runners without assessing points against the driver?s license.

In the same ruling Judge Coon found the contract between ATS and the city of Haines to be legal and its provisions for fixed costs and flexible payment schedules to be helpful to cities because it is free of any pressure to raise revenues. ?This is a very positive result of the flexible plan, and also helps in keeping those cameras in place to protect the public from the danger of death or injuries from red light cameras,? the judge wrote.

George Hittner, vice president and general counsel for ATS, said, ?These rulings are consistent with previous decisions from across the state. ?Both further validate the Mark Wandall Traffic Safety Act, which continues to provide communities with an unprecedented opportunity to enhance road safety.?

About American Traffic Solutions:

ATS is proud to be the market leader in road safety camera installations in North America. ATS has more than 3,000 installed red-light and speed safety cameras serving more than 30 million people. ATS is the largest road safety camera program service provider in North America with awards or contracts with nearly 300 local jurisdictions in 21 states and Washington, D.C. ATS Currently operates more than 70 red-light safety camera programs in Florida including, Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Sarasota, Tampa, St. Petersburg and more. For more information, please visit us online at www.atsol.com.

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Source: http://www.atsol.com/florida-county-judged-continue-to-reject-challenges-to-red-light-safety-camera-law/

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Getting Auto Insurance For Less | ArticlePDQ.com

Purchasing car insurance, house insurance and locating a specialist to assist you along the way can seem expensive and frustrating. However, if you are looking for any type of insurance including auto coverage there are a methods you usually takes to make sure you get optimum savings. Keep reading to discover how you can buy insurance and lock in low prices for your coverage.Your first step in shopping for insurance, regardless of whether it is for your car, home or any other kind of coverage is to shop around. The web has made buying auto insurance simpler than before. So long as have to call individual one to organizations at any given time. Instead, there are online sites that can give you a free online quotation from numerous insurance companies with one input of your private information. This may help you save yourself both time to you and money.Once you?ve your insurance there is nothing that says you can not check back in along with your organization every month or two for potential savings. For example, many automobile insurance companies will give driver?s which have not acquired any violations inside a particular timeframe a discount on their insurance policies. Maintain your insurance so that you don?t overlook any possible savings.Throughout Canada what the law states requires that individuals who drive vehicles have automobile insurance. The prices charged insurance depends on several different elements. For case, driving history, age, gender, location, where you park your car overnight and for what reasons you?ll be utilizing your car all have an effect on your insurance premium rates.Insurance companies will look at driving history to be able to establish the likelihood you?ll be in an incident or receive a driving violation. If you?ve a history of going violations or accidents your premiums will be higher because you?re more of a possibility for the insurance company to address. Age can also be essential. Newer and newer drivers will have higher insurance rates compared to their older counterparts.The sort of car you drive will also affect your insurance rates as well. A sports car could be more expensive to cover than a family car. Why? Due to the fact people operating sports vehicles are more likely than those that get larger and better cars.Each province throughout Canada handles car industry slightly differently to speed. For example, in certain provinces insurance is managed by the federal government. In other places, you?ll find that insurance is managed by the private sector. Some places have a hybrid design where both government and private groups are participating with car insurance.Car insurance can be bought from a number of different qualified settings. Insurance agents are independent insurance providers. You can find expert advice that will help you establish your coverage needs. Insurance agencies are similar to brokers but policies are sold by them on behalf of a particular business. Having auto protection is needed by law to safeguard customers against financial ruins in case there is an incident. While there are many preferred insurance plans, if you?re on a budget you will find more basic insurance which makes sure while you are on the street you are abiding the law.

Come to our website for more details about online discount

Source: http://articlepdq.com/health-fitness/getting-auto-insurance-for-less/

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Navy pioneers military 'career intermission' concept

From time to time, military members who plan to serve full careers are driven by unforeseen circumstances to leave active duty, perhaps to support the family business at a critical time or to care for an ailing parent.

Other careerists, particularly those in high-tempo units or with high-demand skills, want to take break and do something else, perhaps to have a child or finish that degree or just slow down their lives for a while.

But if they do, will they ever return and resume their careers???And how will that break in service impact opportunities for promotion or future assignments?

The Navy has been experimenting with a more flexible career path for these servicemembers, and perhaps for careerists in other branches of service as well.??It?s called the Career Intermission Pilot Program (CIPP).

Lt. Cmdr. Richard Witt, a special warfare officer, likes the idea.??He has been deployed for at least half of his 12-year career, which is no surprise given operational demands on SEAL teams since 9-11.??Witt?s goal is to command one of those teams, which would take him past the 20-year mark.

But Witt, 36, has a young family now, including two children under age four.??After recently completing an executive officer tour for a special warfare support unit in the Middle East, Witt said this an ideal time to leave active duty, spend quality time with family and also earn a graduate degree, a personal goal interrupted a decade ago when he became a SEAL.?

Learning about CIPP, he applied four months ago for one-year sabbatical.??Today, as a civilian, he is enrolled in a master?s degree program in public administration at Harvard University?s prestigious Kennedy School of Government.??He began his studies last month.

Witt is using his Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, with its monthly stipend tied to local military housing allowances, to cover much of his education costs.??Also, because of CIPP, he and his family keep their military health care coverage and the Navy paid to move them to Boston.??They also are eligible to shop in base stores if any are nearby.??And Witt draws a stipend equal to one-fifteenth of monthly basic pay for his rank and years of service.

The career intermission program, he said, ?was the best way for me to go to Harvard now and earn a master?s degree, and be able to go back right into the SEAL Teams as soon as I am done here.?

Cmdr. Angela Katson, director of Navy?s office of diversity and inclusion, is program manager for the CIPP.??It may be a harbinger of how any service career path can be made less rigid. But so far the CIPP is a small program.??Only 19 enlisted sailors and 18 naval officers have participated since it began in 2009.??Every service branch has legislative authority to try it.??For now they only are monitoring how the Navy program operates.

Katson said interest does appear to be climbing.??The Marine Corps, she said, is considering its own pilot.??And Congress has extended the original three-year pilot authority by another three years through 2015.

?This is a tool to help with the retention of people who are looking at a way to balance personal lives with getting the mission done,? said Katson.

Applicants are asked what they will do on sabbatical but their plans aren?t screened for appropriateness.??If an applicant simply wants to travel, for example, that would be okay.

?We ask for their motivation but we do not say, ?Well, that is not a good enough reason,? ? Katson explained.

In return for accepting a CIPP offer, participants agree to serve an additional two years for every one year on sabbatical.??Navy also guarantees inactivation occurs ?without penalty? to their career, Katson said.

The career clock is frozen while on the break so that, when participants return, officers will compete for promotion and enlisted sailors or advancement with peers who have same amount of active duty experience.

For example, if an officer?s peer group for promotion has been officers commissioned in June 1999, after a two-year sabbatical that same officer?s peer group will shift to those commissioned in June 2001.??In that way, the timeout period becomes invisible to promotion boards, except to the extent members have gain more education or had civilian experiences that improve their overall performance or strengthen their commitment to serve.

Signing the maximum of 20 officers and 20 enlisted to the CIPP every year ?would be a nice number,? Katson said. ?But it definitely depends on the needs of the military and the needs of the member.?

Not every applicant is approved, she said.??They must be good enough performers to win the endorsement of their commands, for example.

While on sabbatical, participants are members of the non-drilling Individual Ready Reserve and must contact the CIPP manager once a month.??IRR status and the small basic pay stipend allow the Navy to keep names and records in their personnel system to ease transition back to active duty.

An Air Force spokesman said his service knows about the CIPP but so far has not decided to use this authority.??The Army also is on the sidelines.

An Army spokesman said his service already ?offers numerous opportunities for professional development beyond normal career training and schooling.? These include fully funded graduate degrees through its Advanced Civil Schooling program, and developing of state-of-the-art industrial practices through its Training With Industry (TWI) program.??Army fellowship and scholarship programs offer additional opportunities.

The Navy has similar programs.??But it also likes being able to offer careerists an easy ?off ramp? and ?on ramp? to active duty when they need to rebalance demands of their professional and personal lives.

When top performer face ?with conflicting desires,? said Katson, it shouldn?t be a barrier to completing careers.

?We know that being flexible like this allows us to show them the commitment we have in the member, that there is a balance and that they will come back,? Katson said.??If they return with more education or a family issue resolved, she added, ?it makes them more prepared to serve and therefore increases our operational readiness.?

To comment, write Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, or send email?to?milupdate@aol.com
?

Source: http://www.stripes.com/news/navy-pioneers-military-career-intermission-concept-1.187444?localLinksEnabled=false

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Hire a Denver Attorney Who Can Explain Your Confusing Divorce to ...

Hire a Denver Attorney Who Can Explain Your Confusing Divorce to You

[Posted on August 29]

Written by: David Johnson

Any divorce matter can be quite confusing, regardless of what state it is taking place in, because of all of the intricate details that are involved in the separation of assets. When you are involved in the divorce itself, it is hard to step back and see the situation objectively, and it is easy to get overwhelmed by all of the details and not understand many aspects of your divorce agreement. By hiring a Denver Attorney from the Johnson Sauer Legal Group, LLC, you will be kept straight on the details surrounding your divorce so that you are not surprised by the results.

We have been representing people in their Colorado divorces for many years and have built up a great deal of experience as well as a superb reputation with all of our clients. In fact, you can even read reviews about each of our Denver attorneys on our website so that you know what the opinions of our previous clients might be.

To check out all of our attorneys and choose the one that might be right for you, you can visit us on our main website, where you can also learn a lot of information about Colorado divorce laws so that you will have a better understanding of the process that your divorce will go through. When you are ready, simply give us a call and we will schedule your free consultation to get you on the right track.

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Source: http://www.denverfamilies.com/denver-attorney-082/

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Crafts & Hobbies, Successful Antique Hunting Secrets Revealed ...

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://ecommerce.matrix-e.com/eshops/65-crafts-hobbies/13816-crafts-hobbies-successful-antique-hunting-secrets-revealed-ebook.html

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Sofia Vergara not planning wedding

Sofia Vergara is too busy to plan her wedding.

The 40-year-old actress has confirmed recent speculation that she and partner Nick Loeb got engaged on a recent holiday to celebrate her birthday but she insists she is in no hurry to wed as she is tied up with her commitments to 'Modern Family'.

She told Celebuzz: ''I haven't started planning anything because everything has been very recent.

''I am kind of, you know, working a lot - I just started the 'Modern Family' season - so I don't know yet [when I will get married]. No plans.''

Sofia and Nick, 36, were joined by around 90 friends - including 'Modern Family' stars Julie Bowen, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Sarah Hyland - for the birthday trip to the Mayan ruins in Chichen Itza, Mexico, and the brunette beauty had a wonderful time.

She said: ''It was amazing!''

Sofia - who has 20-year-old son Manolo with first husband Joe Gonzalez - also admitted she is thinking of starting a family with Nick.

The actress - whose 'Modern family' character Gloria is pregnant - said: ''It's something that maybe one day I'll do again. I wouldn't mind...

''I mean, I think I can still do it. But you know, when you want to do something like that, you want to do it right, at the right moment, so I am taking it easy, so maybe when I have a little less work.''

Source: http://www.exposay.com/v/62084/sofia-vergara-planning-wedding

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Apple awarded patent for geo-fencing profile changes to stop you texting in the theater

Now that the patent trial of the decade is over bar the shouting, everyone's back to ensuring they've called shotgun on enough of tomorrow's technology. Cupertino has won a patent to enforce policies when your wireless device enters a specific location. Dry as that may sound, it means that your smartphone could automatically switch to silent and disable its display as soon as you enter a movie theater. Of course, it's as likely to remain in Bruce Sewell's bottom drawer as it is to be a feature in the next iPhone, but as perpetually-annoyed cinema-goers we'd pay good money to see it retrospectively installed in every handset from the last decade.

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Internet, Mobile

Apple awarded patent for geo-fencing profile changes to stop you texting in the theater originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 16:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/E-mg_anoqmY/

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Diabetes Symptoms In Men | ArticlePDQ.com

As and when, one continues aging, the dangers of the fatal maladies like that of Diabetes or Diabetes mellitus keep looming large. This is the health related complication in which the body is rendered incapable in keeping a balance on the amount of glucose that continues being secreted in to the blood stream. If, we are in ability to perform our routine activities, the credit behind it goes to the ceaseless production and circulation of glucose across our body.

The entire procedure of how our body gets the essential energy is as follows:

Whatever we eat, reaches ultimately into our liver. Liver converts it into glucose. Thus this cycle continues i.e. we go on eating and glucose continues being generated, keeping us mobile and up in the energy level. There is one more body part that is of great significance in our abdomen, which is termed as pancreas. Pancreas is the organ that is located between the liver and the stomach and has the vital roles in secretion of insulin. Insulin is the hormones that are very essential from standpoint of keeping the balance in the amount of glucose in our body. Those suffering from diabetes, either, have inability in making the insulin production up to the required degree or even if they produce, somehow they do not make their proper absorption and use. Whatever may be the nature of diabetes, it is very important for us to be aware of all Diabetes Symptoms In Men and women.

Across America, there has been increasing number of people getting victimized by the hazardous disease like Diabetes. The ugliest side of these maladies is that it becomes far difficult for the victim and his kith and kin to make the early detection of the disease till it reach the more dangerous stages.

These diseases are of 2 kinds viz. Type 1 and Type 2. When one is stricken by type 1 Diabetes, then his pancreas fail to generate the required degree of insulin or even in many cases they do not produce the insulin at all. In case one develops the type 2 diabetes then his or her body finds it difficult to make the proper utilization of the insulin despite producing them in plenty.

Following are the signs that are usually seen cropping up among the people who suffer from Diabetes:

Tiredness: Feeling of exhaustion is another symptom that is included in the list of Diabetes Symptoms In Men. After one grows diabetic, as the excessive amount of sugar piled in body do not get absorbed appropriately, body does not get the sufficient amount of energy. Because of this reason the feeling of tiredness continues reigning supreme as to get the required amount of energy, the body continues to metabolize the fat from body.

Continued loss in weight inexplicably: Other vital Diabetes Symptoms In Men are seen in form of continued loss in weight without any conspicuous reasons. The prime cause behind this sort of development lies in the inability in making the proper conversion of the foods that we gulp down into form of energy. Also, superfluous amounts of sugar and water get wasted when people suffering from diabetes urinate and this also leads to the constant weight loss.

Condition of polydipsia: In the course of urine formation, kidneys of the victim usually begin mal-functioning. They are rendered incapable in making the proper absorption of sugar in the blood while its in the process of getting filtered. The heaps of sugar go on rising in body. In the process of weakening it, there is increased feeling of thirst experienced by the patient. Also, diabetics have the greater degree of frequency than normal people, when it comes to urinating and doing so, greater magnitude of water is lost. In order to replenish the body again with the water that got lost in frequent urinations, there is increased felling for the thirst is experienced.

The condition of polyuria: Those suffering from diabetics are seen frequenting the lavatory for the purpose of urinating. They feel like going for urination, more frequently as compared to normal people which is in fact a strategy adopted by the body to evict the glut of sugar out of body.

The condition of polyphagia:

This happens as a result of excessive level of insulin hormones that are generated in the body to control the influx of glucose. Also, in myriad cases, despite adequate production of insulin, the body fails to make their optimum utilization. The glut production of insulations generates greater magnitude of hunger pangs that are frequently experienced by diabetic, despite unabated weight loss. Just click here to achieve the necessary related information.

With an aim to spread the in-depth awareness regarding Diabetes and Diabetes Symptoms In Men , the online web site named diabetes symptoms in-men is all geared for. One can find gluts of info from their online web sites.

Source: http://articlepdq.com/health-fitness/diabetes-symptoms-in-men/

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International VRS-4200RD 15-Inch Red Half Locker Side Cabinet ...

International VRS-4200RD 15-Inch Red Half Locker Side Cabinet with 1 Adjustable ShelfReviewed by Admin777 on Aug 29Rating: 4.5

detail and more images see here

We have found most affordable price of International VRS-4200RD 15-Inch Red Half Locker Side Cabinet with 1 Adjustable Shelf from amazon.com. It offers Fast and Free Shipping. Once again! Don?t forget to compare price on amazon.com before you buy. Check out now while Stock Last to Avoid Disappointment!

Features:

• Fits on all 18-Inch Deep Tool Cabinets
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful This review is from: International VRS-4200RD 15-Inch Red Half Locker Side Cabinet with 1 Adjustable Shelf (Tools & Home Improvement) The box is very useful. Matches my Kennedy very close. I suggest they include a handle. My only real gripe. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews? This review is from: International VRS-4200RD 15-Inch Red Half Locker Side Cabinet with 1 Adjustable Shelf (Tools & Home Improvement) got this for my box at work,was good price,first one was dented ,had no troble returning and getting good one,so I was very happy about that,keeps me shopping at amozon,and this box is working out great,and if I needed another or some I know I would tell them to take a look at this one or some of their other one ones Help other customers find the most helpful reviews? This review is from: International VRS-4200RD 15-Inch Red Half Locker Side Cabinet with 1 Adjustable Shelf (Tools & Home Improvement) Nice quality box. Solid and adds lots of storage room. Could have used one more adjustable shelf though. Beside the additional shelf, the only improvement I?d make is a more secure door latch. Overall, 9 out of 10. The price varied quite a bit at different web sites, some by as much as 0. Amazon had the best price and I got it 6 days after ordering. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews?

??See all 3 customer reviews?

International VRS-4200RD 15-Inch Red Half Locker Side Cabinet with 1 Adjustable Shelf

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Source: http://tools48.3owl.com/international-vrs-4200rd-15-inch-red-half-locker-side-cabinet-with-1-adjustable-shelf/

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5 Things You Didn't Know About Circumcision

A new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is likely to throw fuel on the fiery controversy surrounding male infant circumcision.

The AAP's statement touts the medical benefits of circumcision while stopping short of recommending the procedure, which opponents decry as painful and unnecessary. For instance, new research has found that circumcision lowers the risk of acquiring sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, genital herpes, human papillomavirus and syphilis.

Circumcision seems to be on the decline in the United States (a 2005 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality study put the rate at about 56 percent), but the practice has long religious and cultural roots. Here are five circumcision facts that may come as a surprise.

1. It was once touted as a cure for paralysis

In the late 1800s, doctors turned to circumcision to "cure" an array of ailments, from childhood fevers to brass poisoning to paralysis. This era was a boom time for genital surgery ? women were losing their ovaries to the knife in the name of curing hysteria ? but it was an 1870 case that shone the spotlight on circumcision.

Writing in the journal Transactions of the American Medical Association, Lewis Sayre, a professor of orthopedic surgery at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, told the tale of being called to the bedside of a 5-year-old boy whose knees were flexed and paralyzed, preventing him from walking.

During his examination, Sayre discovered that the boy's foreskin had contracted, causing the child great pain. Speculating that the foreskin problem could be the source of the boy's "physical prostration and nervous exhaustion," Sayre conducted a circumcision the next day. In less than two weeks, Sayre reported, the boy was walking again.

Whatever the cause of the boy's paralysis and miraculous cure, the foreskin can occasionally become trapped over the head of the penis, a condition called phimosis. Modern cures include circumcision, manual stretching of the foreskin, or preputioplasty, an operation to widen the foreskin. [Macho Man: 10 Wild Facts About His Body]

2. The foreskin is more complex than you might think

The foreskin isn't just skin. Think of it as more like an eyelid for male genitals. On the inside, the foreskin is made up of mucous membrane, analogous to the inside of the eyelid or the inside of the mouth. It's this moist environment that seems to be responsible for the foreskin's association with sexually transmitted infections. The foreskin also contains a large number of Langerhans cells, a type of immune cell targeted by HIV infection.

Women have a foreskin equivalent, too: the clitoral hood, which protects the clitoris much as the foreskin covers the glans. The foreskin and the clitoral hood, known in gender-neutral terms as the prepuce, evolve from the same tissue in the womb. [10 Odd Facts About the Female Body]

3. The first-recorded circumcision happened in Egypt

As far as we know from the historical record, the land of the pharaohs pioneered circumcision. The earliest reference to the procedure dates back to around 2400 B.C. A bas-relief in the ancient burial ground of Saqqara depicts a series of medical scenes, including a flint-knife circumcision and a surgeon explaining, "The ointment is to make it acceptable," likely referring to some form of topical anaseptic.

Ancient Egyptian circumcisions were not done in infancy, but instead marked the transition from boyhood to adulthood. The Greeks saw their Mediterranean neighbors' tradition as rather bizarre. In the fifth century, Herodotus made his opinion known in his work "The History of Herodotus."

"They practice circumcision for the sake of cleanliness," he wrote of the Egyptians, "considering it better to be cleanly than comely."

4. It may have caught on as a status symbol

An increase in hospital births and a perception of circumcision as promoting cleanliness certainly contributed to the rise of the procedure in the United States. But the procedure may have been a status symbol as well.

Writing in the University of Cincinnati Law Review in 2003, Seton Hall University law professor Sarah Waldeck points out that Sayre and his circumcision-promoting colleagues came onto the scene just as hospital births were becoming more common. The wealthy were more likely to go to the hospital and have a physician-attended birth; thus, circumcision became a marker of class. The need to circumcise essentially became a social norm, Waldeck writes. It was what "good" parents chose. As more and more parents made the choice, it became odder and odder not to, which then put more pressure on parents to choose circumcision so their child would be "normal."

5. Circumcisions leave unique marks???????????

Most circumcisions in the United States are done with one of three devices: the Mogen Clamp, the Plastibell and the Gomco clamp. The Mogen clamp is a scissorlike device consisting of two flat blades used that are clamped over the foreskin, cutting off blood flow. A scalpel is then used to slice away the tip of the foreskin.

The Plastibell is a plastic device that is placed over the head of the penis, under the foreskin. The doctor or nurse then ties a string around the foreskin, cutting off circulation. The string may be used as a guide for the surgical removal of the foreskin, or the Plastibell may be left on for a week or so, after which the dead foreskin will fall off on its own.

The Gomco clamp is also inserted between the head of the penis and the foreskin. Again, the surgeon clamps the device over the foreskin, cutting off circulation. After about five minutes, the blood around the clamp will begin to clot, and the surgeon uses a scalpel to cut away the foreskin. This method sometimes leaves a distinctive light brown scar on the head of the penis.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas?or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.?

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/5-things-didnt-know-circumcision-121207406.html

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How Bain Capital execs lower their taxes - The ... - Fortune Finance

FORTUNE -- There has been lots of talk over the past few days about how Bain Capital executives have used management fee waivers?to effectively lower their tax payments (a tactic that is not unique to Bain). Some academics have argued that such waivers are an illegal dodge, while private equity tax attorneys I've spoken with call it "aggressive but accepted by the IRS."

Here is the basic structure: Bain officially charges 2% management fees to investors in its private equity funds. The idea is to cover overhead, such as salaries, office leases, electric bills, etc. ?But Bain has lots of other business lines (venture capital funds, hedge funds, etc.) that generate sufficient cash flow, so it "waives" the PE fund management fees. Well, sort of. Limited partners still pay the 2%, only it flows directly into the fund, as part of Bain's general partner commitment (which is between 10% and 15% of Bain's total PE fund capital, an unusually high percentage).

By doing so, Bain partners don't pay ordinary income taxes on their management fees. Instead, they pay at capital gains rates if/when the deals generate profit (because it's now considered carried interest). It appears that the partners irrevocably waive their rights to the returns if the deal returns less than par, although I don't have access to the LPAs that would spell it out more exactly. That said, sources do tell me that Bain partners cannot take waiver-related capital loss on failed transactions.

Sources sympathetic to such structures cite an IRS ruling (93-27) that specifically seems to allow such waivers, under a notion of partnership risk. Critics say that rule is being perverted, because the risk of loss is so low.

I'm not well-versed enough in IRS minutia to render legal judgment, but do feel that such structures should be banned going forward. Management fees are a fee for service. As such, they should be taxed as ordinary income. If Bain wants to eliminate management fees altogether, then move to a 0-and-32 structure.

To be sure, I have no problem with fund managers pushing some of their fees into funds. I think it's a good thing, as it's a tighter alignment of interests. But I don't see why their capital should be cheaper than that of the high-net-worth investors in their funds (who paid taxes on their pre-commitment monies). Doing so, in fact, depresses that alignment.

Tax law is a funny thing, because certain?strategies aren't black and white. They're subject to interpretation. When I asked a PE tax attorney if what Bain is doing is allowed, she told me that "allowed" and "not allowed" isn't always the right way to think about it. Okay, understood. But some things are explicitly permitted (treating carried interest as capital gains, for example) and other things are explicitly prohibited (taking deductions for work expenses for which I was reimbursed). So let's just add this one to the latter list.

Sign up for Dan's daily email newsletter on deals and deal-makers:?GetTermSheet.com

Source: http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/08/28/how-bain-capital-execs-lower-their-taxes/

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Sutherlands Voted Casper's Best Home Improvement Store

Sutherlands - Casper Wyoming

When I ask these questions, I usually don?t have an opinion. Whatever you guys decide is usually good enough for me. Today, I think the poll results are wrong.

But, that?s why we ask the questions. We all have different experiences at certain stores, and it?s very easy to forget that not everybody feels the same way. With over half of the votes going to Casper?s own Sutherlands, I?ll keep my mouth shut, and just offer a ?Kudos!? to the west side home-improvement store.

Agree with the results? Disagree? Tell us about in the comment section?

Source: http://rock967online.com/sutherlands-voted-caspers-best-home-improvement-store/

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Health logo - HEALTH, BEAUTY & FITNESS

The healthy youth should obtain a private health plan so they don? t have to suffer when they get sick. The component regarded as essential for stopping cancer of the lung is health quercetin, an antioxidant bioflavonoid. About the writer Author Jerry Cahill has written extensively about fitness health solutions. Surprising Cures Provided by Common Health Aides Right now you most likely know precisely which item inside your medicine cabinet does what. Advice How You Can Say Fit A seem mind resides inside a seem community health article body and obliviously if you? re psychologically strong and aware you are able to rock the planet in your tips. The self- employed medical health insurance deduction enables self- employed worker to subtract the price of monthly medical health insurance rates when calculating their tax. Practicing while impaired by alcohol, drugs, physical disability, or mental disability. A price reduction medical card program assures the network of companies is checked completely which each offers evidence of their qualifications to become incorporated within the listing of professional healthcare companies. In 1965, AARP required a number one role to find health insurance providers that will accept insure upon the market persons. To be able to make certain you? re in great shape, you should use these health monitoring systems on the regular, even regular basis, after which go to your physician when the results don? t accumulate. Take a look at our schools. With article merely a 10% full recovery rate for stroke sufferers the therapeutic advantages of game titles can? t be overlooked. Around the mental part, someone with no proper diet necessary for mind wouldn? t manage to upper mental processes, so the necessity of obtaining a healthy health logo mental disposition but also community becomes not even close to achievement. Oh, it is also extremely effective for dealing with constipation! This Year, about 17. two million of individuals purchasing their very own insurance had high- deductible plans. Consuming an excessive amount of alcohol over a long time period can result in various health issues. And also hardwearing . Usually, a poll of ten approximately female buddies let you know if something is common or perhaps an problem you ought to be worried about. However, the couple of that do exercise each day let you know how advantageous it? s towards the health logo body. You? re frequently because of the choice to renew temporary health insurance plans once only. This kind plan is an extremely affordable group logo insurance policy. The Act is anticipated to create $ 409. 2 billion within the next ten years in tax revenues. This excellent fruit jam- full of wealthy phyto- nutrition that within the true sense are health indispensable for optimal health and wellness. This law alone will considerably reduce the amount of people who are not able to acquire medical health insurance. Affordable medical health insurance in Virginia implies that the customers are becoming the amount of medical care coverage based on their demands when they pay an inexpensive cost for the similar.

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Significance uva Electronic health recordkeeping technology is at devote about 14 % of yankee hospitals and doctors? offices in through the finish from the It? s possible, based on what triggered the problem the Grand Duke had, he could have to be on medication for that expected future. The majority of the Mass Health handled care organizations also provide online assets to find a physician links for their Internet sites can be Quercetin, a flavonoid that forms the backbone of numerous other flavonoids, might have results in combating or preventing various sorts of cancer, including prostate. They? re an ideal way and also hardwearing . Both Mr Boden and Mr smoking Holland presently contain the NEBOSH General, Construction, and Fire

Source: http://curryrecipe-jp.net/health-2/health-logo/

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What's Your Unprotected Sex Protocol? | Frank Love on Relationships

Monday, Aug. 27th 2012 1:02 AM

To use a condom, or not to use a condom? This is a question that eventually comes up in most intimate relationships. Even if both parties agree to safe sex in the beginning, there usually comes a point when one or both partners want to skip the prophylactic. After all, most people agree that sex feels better without it.

?

I recently asked a friend who occasionally has more than one partner if and when he has unprotected sex. His response: ?I just can?t have sex without a condom. There is no way.?

As I write this blog, I?m sitting in a bar. I just asked my waiter the same question. His answer:
?After being in a relationship for three to four years, I would feel comfortable having unprotected sex.? I asked whether HIV and/or other STD testing would be a prerequisite. ?No,? he said. ?Just three to four years together.?

I asked a woman sitting at a nearby table for her opinion. She said that her mate could skip the condom ?after the establishment of trust,? which would come from conversations and getting to know one another over time. There was no set time limit for her.

As you can see, the answers can vary dramatically from person to person.

I have consistently felt that, before having unprotected sex with someone for the first time, it is wise to ask:

1. When was your last HIV test?
   

2. Are you HIV positive?
   

3. Do you currently have any other STDs that you know about?
   

4. When was the last time that you were checked for STDs?
   

?

Also, pay attention to how soon your partner is willing to have unprotected sex with you, and to his/her attitude about the issue. He/she has likely used the same decision-making process with past partners. And this is useful information for you to have.

If you really want to play it safe, you could go to a doctor together, get tested for the gambit of STDs, and openly share your results. Even then, there?s a possibility that you?ll miss something, because it takes a while for the HIV antibodies to present themselves. And you can?t know for sure whether your partner will continue risking it with other people, potentially catching something. But it?s still a great step towards protecting yourself.

Hey, they?re your genitals; you can protect them as you see fit. But a Powerful Person in a Partnership looks out for him/herself ? and that means taking steps to stay healthy.

So, what are your thoughts? How do you determine if or when to have unprotected intercourse with a sexual partner?

Keep Rising,

Frank Love

www.FrankLove.com

?

SYNOPSIS: When are you comfortable with unprotected sex?

?

E-MAIL TEXT:

Greetings!

In this week?s edition of Frank Love, ?What?s Your Unprotected Sex Protocol??, I examine the determining factors that different people use when deciding whether or not to use a condom.

Watch the video or read the full-text.

Keep Rising,

Frank Love

www.FrankLove.com

PS: To become a Frank Love sponsor you can make a one-time contribution or contribute monthly by clicking on the amount you?d like to donate each month: $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $35, $50, $75, $100, $200 or $500.

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Source: http://franklove.net/2012/08/27/whats-your-unprotected-sex-protocol/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=whats-your-unprotected-sex-protocol

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Hongxing Sand Maker is the Top Priority in the Construction Industry ...

Keeping in line with the current economic and policies circumstances, mining industry ushers in an unprecedented opportunity. Taking hold of this opportunity, Hongxing took the first step in the occupation of the broad market. Since our government increases the construction of high way, affordable housing and water conservancy, sand maker showed its own unique style and made a great contribution to the nation-building.

To enable Chinese to live a comfortable life, government focus its time and energy on economic development, thereby, people?s living standard has been raised and higher demands have been put on the production technology in sand making industry. Machine manufacturers not only continuously improves the production technology level but also develops towards networking in business practice. With the good support from government, more investors switches to machinery manufacturing industry, forming far stiffer competition in market. Only by putting the clients? interests in the first place, producing high-quality products and making more contribution to mining machine industry, business opportunities will continuously emerge.Henan Hongxing Mining Machinery Co., Ltd is the professional manufacturer of complete sets of mining machinery, for example,stone jaw crusher,flotation separator Welcome all of you to visit our official website.mineral impact crusher:http://www.hx-china.com/3.html

High quality gravel aggregate produced by sand maker has become the most important building material by replacing natural sandstone. There is great connection between artificial sand and sand maker, the increasing demands for artificial sand will promotes the demands for sand maker. The frequently-used building materials in construction industry are gravel aggregate and cement. The artificial sand has been widely used in the concrete industry due to its good gradation. There are two kinds of sand making method up to now: dry type sand making and wet-type sand making. The dry type sand making method is proper for our country because water resource has been save to avoid the damage to ecological environment. Moreover, in the process of transportation, the transportation expenses have not been increased because of the extraweight caused by the excessive water in the sand.

Source: http://www.welcometocoastcity.org/hongxing-sand-maker-is-the-top-priority-in-the-construction-industry.php

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Founder Steve Perlman Is Leaving OnLive

Cloud gaming company OnLive has announced that the company's founder, president, and CEO Steve Perlman is "departing to work on his myriad of other projects."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Se2Kt_BXJFU/

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Very best Auto Insurance - Consumer Electronics Blog

These days big numbers of ?

Auto insurance coverage is an insurance policy purchased by the auto owner to protected guard his/her car against theft, accident and any other loss incurred. You can get auto insurance coverage for any of your auto mobile such as car, truck or bus. Auto insurance coverage not only covers insured car and insured celebration, but some times it covers third parties also. Diverse auto insurance policies have diverse terms, norms and conditions below which, these things are covered.

Right now huge numbers of auto insurance policies are accessible in the marketplace and it is truly extremely difficult task to purchase the greatest auto insurance coverage for the safeguard of your automobile.

Here are some suggestions, which can be utilized to discover the greatest auto insurance for your black boomer.

1. To find greatest auto insurance, you are requested to make a search on your own. 1st of all go to local auto insurance providers. Evaluate auto insurance coverage quotes provided by them. Most of auto insurance providers have their websites, you can go there and request for auto insurance quotes on the web, if you personal a vehicle. Compare their quotes and discover best auto insurance for your automobile. Always keep in mind that bargaining is the important to acquire low-cost auto insurance.

2. Immediately after comparing auto insurance coverage quotes apply for the greatest one particular for you and your vehicle. Although applying offered them specifics as considerably as you can such as your name, address, zip code, your marital status, cars annual commuting miles and safety characteristics due to the fact as default they can provide you high quotes without having any precise benefits. Therefore, to acquire a low-cost and greatest auto insurance coverage constantly give full particulars about you and your car.

3. Occasionally insurance organizations supply certain delivers. Thus usually look for gives, as they can deduct your premium from $200 to $400.

four. Just before signing your application kind read each and every and each and every point of fine print, as they can guard your appropriate.

With keeping these straightforward tips in mind you can uncover finest auto insurance policy.

To check out more, please go to: website

Source: http://blog.ilove3c.com/2012/08/26/very-best-auto-insurance-how-to-uncover-it-the-correct-way/

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The Art of Living at Home | BC Family

Judging by the conversations on social media websites and across cafe tables, you would think that nobody cleans, cooks, gardens, sews, does crafts or other household arts. You might see a photo from time to time on your Facebook homepage of a special meal that someone has created or you might see a photo of flowers in someone?s garden. What you probably won?t see or hear too often are updates about the day-to-day activities that keep a home operational.

This silence is surprising when you consider how much time we devote to scrubbing our homes, doing clothes, caring for balconies and gardens, fixing our house/apartment infrastructure, shopping for food and making three meals a day. When both parents work outside of the home, much of this work is jammed into tight timelines before and after the work day. Meanwhile parents who are at home full-time can expect that their efforts to run a household and further the art of living at home will go unnoticed or unappreciated.

When you consider the types of updates, comments and photos that stream through social media sites like Facebook, is there a place for conversation about everyday activities at home? The focus of such a conversation does not need to be exclusively about the repetition and effort. It can also be about details such as choices that are made when planting a garden or successful outcomes when trying new meals. Part of the problem is that the design of the main social media site ? Facebook ? is fussy. Inevitably updates end up streaming to all contacts, many of whom do not want to read your everyday content. On Twitter users can set up an online presence that can accommodate these comments, albeit 140 characters at a time.

For most of her adult life, Martha Stewart has been teaching the offspring of former hippies and their children about the art of living. In her younger years a focus on the household arts was lost as attention was given to other social movements and interests. She has capitalized on the desire people have to create, enjoy and feel inspired in their home environments. As a parent of young children it can feel like the cleaning and organization cycle never ends. Martha and many spinoff experts have helped to add some inspiration to this process.

How?s your weeding coming along? How do you keep the chaos under control?
Did you plant any new annuals or perennials this year?
Did you make any changes in your vegetable garden?
How are you coping with food prices?
Where do you shop for your food?
What are your favourite brands?
What are your favourite farmer?s markets?
We don?t necessarily have the skills to cook up lavish dinners for 15, but we might have found ways to put together home cooked and Whole Foods provided offerings into attractive meals.? What are your favourite entertaining tricks?
How do you balance cost with a desire for healthy and sustainable food choices?
Do you have a vegetable garden or patch?
What are your favourite household cleaning tips?
What tricks do you use to organize the clutter in your home?
How do you make laundry an easy and enjoyable experience?
How?s your balcony looking this summer?
Where are you finding recipes?
Do you still use favoured cookbooks?
How do you stay enthused about cooking?
Are you trying any new cuisines?
Do you have any favourite food stores that cater to specific ethnic groups?
Do you make any of your own clothes, toys or other household items?
Where do you buy your sewing and craft supplies at an affordable rate?
What kinds of crafts do you do at home?
How are you learning about home repair and maintenance?
How do you balance the needs and wants on the home front with other social and work priorities?
How are your children involved in the cycle or work and creativity at home?
Do you share this type of information with your family and friends?
What do you remember about these types of activities from your childhood?
What do you remember about how people talked about these topics when you were younger?
How do advertisements reinforce certain ideas about home life?
What are your favourite online and hard copy resources for information that help you at home?
How do your friends and colleagues talk about their efforts at home?
How satisfied are you with the extent to which people in your circle value your contributions on the home front? (Rated on a scale of 1, being not at all to 10, being completely satisfied.)
Are there any local initiatives that support these efforts? For example, do you take courses at local community centers? Do you take part in online communities for people with specific interests? Do you attend local, free courses about gardening?

We all know that people don?t tend to comment, very often, about online comment. (Save for incendiary stories on top media sites.) Still, it?s worth saying that we?d love to hear from you so don?t be shy! You can comment about this posting using the comment function below or visit us at our Facebook page.

Related

This category could produce endless links! Here?s some random offerings.

Seven lost household arts for going green

Forgotten Household Arts, by John Seymour*

Zakka Sewing: 25 Japanese Sewing Projects for the Household*

Martha Stewart?s Homekeeping Handbook*

Don?t forget to check out YouTube for any topic that interests you.? As an example, there are fabulous videos about how to make specific crafts.

Martha Stewart?s vast and informative website includes useful articles and videos about topics such as ?how to fold a fitted sheet?.

*BCFamily.ca is a member of the Amazon Associates referral programme

Source: http://bcfamily.ca/the-art-of-living

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Maturing online traders eye Asia | Stuff.co.nz

BEN HOLGATE AND ANDREW CLEARY

Maturing online businesses in New Zealand and Australia are eyeing emerging markets for future growth.

Trade Me is looking to expand beyond its home base of New Zealand to find growth as its online auctions business matures.

"We'll always keep an eye out for international opportunities," chief executive Jon Macdonald said after last week's annual results announcement.

"In the long term there's going to be a time when we'll expand offshore in one way or another."

International ventures were likely to be in developing markets, such as Asia, rather than Australia, which had a sophisticated market with established players, he said.

In Australia, Wotif.com chief executive Robbie Cooke expects a high dollar will be "situation normal" for some time, forcing the online travel agent to prioritise new business ventures targeting overseas travellers.

Reporting a 14 per cent increase in full-year profit last week, Cooke said Wotif was also open to acquisitions within Australia or abroad to add to its purchases of the Lastminute and AsiaWebDirect websites. "We're absolutely looking to build our product range outside Australia and New Zealand," the CEO said. "Lastminute has been nicely integrated into the business. The right acquisitions make sense, whether onshore or offshore."

Wotif said it would spend the next 12 months developing a package holiday product to compete with bricks and mortar travel agents such as Flight Centre and Jetset, in response to the growing appetite of Australians to holiday overseas.

Net profit rose to A$58 million from A$51m in the prior year, boosted by strong growth in international flight bookings and the uptake of its mobile phone and tablet applications. That was marginally ahead of previous company guidance for earnings in the range of A$55.5m to A$57.5m. Revenue rose 5 per cent to A$145m, and a final dividend of A13.5? was announced.

Wotif said it sold $110m worth of flights over the year, with the two-year-old business unit contributing 9 per cent of the total value of all bookings sold. Bookings for domestic and international flights should continue to grow in the current financial year while reservations in the core Australian accommodation business will remain challenged, Cooke said.

"It's still a challenging market out there, particularly in the domestic space. We sell a lot of domestic accommodation, and the leisure side of that has been absolutely tougher with a stronger dollar while business travel hasn't been impacted," the CEO said.

Wotif has also launched a new service for booking holiday rental accommodation, a unit which Cooke said could grow to be as large as the flights division. The company has also doubled the number of staff dedicated to its Arnold booking platform targeted at the corporate market.

Another source of growth in the year ahead should be the company's mobile phone and tablet application, which combined accounted for 14 per cent of visits and 9 per cent of room night sales in 2012.

Trade Me's general items marketplace division showed signs of maturation in the 2012 financial year, with revenue rising 5 per cent to $62m. General items revenue contributed 44 per cent of total revenue, which grew 14 per cent year-on-year to $142m - about $4m below Bloomberg consensus forecasts.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) increased 8 per cent to $107m, in line with market expectations.

However, reported ebitda, which included a $3.3m one-off gain from the sale of its AutoBase investment on April, rose 11 per cent to $110m. Trade Me reported an inaugural 8 per cent increase in net profit after tax to $75.6m. The company, which is 51 per cent owned by Fairfax Media, was spun out from Fairfax as a separately listed company in December.

Macdonald said group buying site Treat Me came in below "a bullish forecast". "We view group buying as a young and uncertain industry, but one that still has potential," he said.

Deutsche Bank analyst Arie Dekker said "the underlying result was strong and the performance of the key growth driver, classifieds, very encouraging".

Macdonald warned that the short-term outlook for the sluggish New Zealand economy was "frustratingly more of the same".

Trade Me shares fell 3 per cent yesterday to close at $3.01.

AFR

- ? Fairfax NZ News

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/7549001/Maturing-online-traders-eye-Asia

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Space elevator visions are on the rise again

This is the LiftPort Group's basic model for its proposed Lunar Space Elevator Infrastructure, also known as LSEI or "Elsie." LiftPort says the system can be constructed within eight years using commercial technology.

By Alan Boyle

The space elevator concept has had its ups and downs ? but this year, it looks as if the concept's proponents are definitely trying to push the ?up? button again.

There?s a new Kickstarter project, aimed at setting the stage for a lunar space elevator. Space-elevator backers are trying to restart a competition for ultra-strong tethers. And a Japanese company has pledged to get the thing built ? by 2050.

But veterans of the movement say one big thing is required: a revolution in materials science, and specifically carbon nanotubes. Or maybe boron nitride nanotubes.

"The materials are still the long pole in the tent, and I don't see the government getting interested in it," Bryan Laubscher, the founder and president of Odysseus Technologies, told me today. "That's disappointing to me."

Laubscher and other space-elevator advocates will take stock of the past year's ups and downs at the annual International Space Elevator Conference, running from Saturday through Monday at Seattle's Museum of Flight.

---

Railway to the sky
The idea of building a "railway to the sky" has tantalized dreamers for decades: Just send a satellite up to geostationary orbit, 22,000 miles up (36,000 kilometers up). Send one line back down to Earth, and another line up to an altitude of about 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) with a counterweight at the end. Secure Earth's end of the line so it's rock-solid, then start sending robotic climbers up and down the line, carrying cargo and passengers.

If the idea can be executed, advocates say it could reduce the cost of access to orbit from its current level of $10,000 or so a pound to $100 a pound?? revolutionizing space travel and potentially opening the solar system to human settlement. That's the vision brought to life in science-fiction novels ranging from Arthur C. Clarke's "The Fountains of Paradise," published in 1979, to this year's opus by Kim Stanley Robinson, "2312."

Clarke once joked that the space elevator would be built "about 50 years after everybody quits laughing." Several years ago, LiftPort Group founder Michael Laine set up a countdown clock that predicted the "first lift" would come even sooner, in 2018. Today, six years seems way too soon, but at least people have stopped laughing.

The key sticking point has to do with the tethers, or cables, or ribbons that would be required to connect a terrestrial liftport with the elevator's orbital destination. Whatever they're made of, that connecting material would have to be stronger than any material that's manufactured today. A synthetic polymer called Zylon ranks among the strongest available, and space-elevator advocates measure its strength per unit of density at 3.9 megayuris. (The "yuri" is an unofficial measurement unit that was named after Russian space-elevator pioneer Yuri Artsutanov.) The specific strength of steel is about 0.5 megayuris. But the stuff of space elevators would have to be on the order of 30 to 100 megayuris?strong.

For years, NASA offered $2 million in prizes to encourage the development of 5-megayuri material, but that challenge expired after last year's contest. The International Space Elevator Consortium is trying to revive the prize program at a lower level, but that won't happen in time for this year's conference.

"I'm confident there's going to be a well-attended strong-tether challenge next year," Ted Semon, the consortium's president and director, told me. "It's our numero-uno mission."

Who's going to build it?
Laubscher thinks it's going to take a government-backed development effort on the scale of the telecommunications revolution of the 1960s to create the materials required for building space elevators.?"I actually think that the first space elevator will be built by the U.S. Department of Defense," he said. "The first one to build the space elevator owns space."

Carbon nanotubes are a good candidate, but lots of technical obstacles will have to be overcome in order to produce long, wide ribbons of carbon nanotubes that are strong enough and resilient enough to do the job. David Horn, the chairman of this weekend's conference, says boron nitride nanotubes offer 75 percent of the theoretical strength of carbon nanotubes and may be easier to manufacture.

"We haven't seen that it can't be done," Horn said of the space elevator concept. "But we really need to get this competition going to give people a financial incentive to do it."

Whether they're made of carbon or boron nitride or polymer, stronger materials will produce a payoff long before the elevator gets built ??in the form of lighter, more fuel-efficient automobiles, airplanes, boats and, yes, even spacecraft. Cheaper, safer, easier access to space would make a big difference in the financial calculations underpinning the space elevator dream. "The world that we'll have with carbon nanotubes will demand that we build a space elevator," Laubscher said.

Here are some of the developments along the road to the space elevator:

• Liftport Group founder Michael Laine has just begun a Kickstarter campaign to raise $8,000 as the first step in what could be a multimillion-dollar effort to build a lunar space elevator, which is theoretically possible using existing technology. Liftport ran into financial and legal difficulties in 2007, and today Laine admits that "things went south for us" back then. This campaign, he says, marks Liftport's return to the fray after five dark years. "About six months ago, we had a fundamental breakthrough ... and we want you to be a part of it," Laine says in his Kickstarter video. It's debatable whether the lunar elevator concept will get off the ground, but Laine is optimistic. His current countdown clock calls for "first lift" ... presumably from the moon ... by Jan. 1, 2020.
• In February, the Tokyo-based construction company Obayashi Corp. unveiled plans to transport goods and passengers in a space elevator as early as 2050, according to a report from Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun. The trip to an orbital station would take seven and a half days. "At this moment, we cannot estimate the cost for the project," an Obayashi official was quoted as saying. "However, we'll try to make steady progress so that it won't end up as simply a dream." Although there haven't been any progress reports lately, Laubscher said "the Japanese are way ahead of America" in their enthusiasm for the space-elevator vision.
• Other places to watch for space elevator developments: One of the leading U.S. forums for carbon nanotube researchers is the Nanotechnology Materials and Devices Workshop, sponsored this year by the University of Cincinnati, the University of Dayton and the Air Force Research Laboratory. This year's workshop is set for Nov. 5-6 at the University of Dayton. Also, The New York Times reported last November that space elevators are on the agenda for the secretive Google X lab. "Google is collecting the world's data, so now it could be collecting the solar system's data," Rodney Brooks, an MIT professor emeritus and founder of Heartland Robotics, told the Times.

How realistic are these visions? Feel free to share your views in the comment space below. And if you're in the Seattle area, you might want to head on over to the Museum of Flight on Saturday. Even if you can't attend the three-day technical program for the International Space Elevator Conference, you can check out what's happening at the Family Science Fest.

Past chapters of the space elevator saga:

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Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/24/13460684-space-elevator-ideas-rising-again?lite

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Older dads may raise risk for autism, schizophrenia in kids - 8 News ...

By Carina Storrs
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Men who have kids later in life may pass on more new genetic mutations to their offspring, possibly raising their child's risk of disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, new research suggests.

New mutations arise in the sperm cells of men near the time of conception instead of being passed down through generations. They have been associated with relatively rare cases of non-hereditary autism.

Researchers in Iceland searched the genomes of 78 families for new mutations as they first appeared and looked at how the number of these mutations in children was related to the age of their parents. In most of the families, the child had either non-hereditary autism or schizophrenia.

The study, which was published Aug. 22 in the journal Nature, found that every year a man ages, he is predicted to pass on more than two additional new (or "de novo") mutations. More than 97 percent of these new mutations in children were explained by having an older dad.

"The father is an incredibly important contributor to mutations, and even if de novo mutations happen randomly, the more mutations you have, the more likely you will have one in a gene that matters," said study author Dr. Kari Stefansson, CEO of deCODE Genetics, a genome analysis company based in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Previous research has linked higher rates of spontaneous mutations to older dads based on the sequence of select regions of the genome; this study is the first to make the connection based on data from the entire genome of parents and their children, Stefansson said.

"This study further establishes that paternal age is a risk factor for [non-hereditary] autism," said Daniel Smith, senior director of discovery neuroscience at Autism Speaks, an autism research and advocacy organization.

Although it is not known how many cases are autism are non-hereditary, it is so far only thought to be less than 1 percent of autism cases, Smith said.

The rate of autism spectrum disorder in the United States has been steadily climbing and is now estimated to affect one in 88 children, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Whether [paternal age] accounts for the increased prevalence of autism by itself is very unlikely," Smith said. "It's definitely in the mix as an important risk factor."

The current study of 78 families in Iceland included 44 children with an autism spectrum disorder and 21 children with schizophrenia. In most cases, the parents were not affected by these disorders.

Stefansson and his colleagues analyzed the entire genomes of the parent-child sets for a specific type of mutation called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), which essentially are typos that affect a single letter in the DNA code.

The team found that the number of new mutations was strongly associated with the age of the father, whereas the relationship between mutation rate and maternal age was not statistically significant.

In addition, the data suggest that the age of the father is linked to a steady increase in mutations, instead of reaching a "tipping point" age after which mutations were more likely, Stefansson said.

Men are probably more likely to transmit new mutations to their offspring as they age because their reproductive cells divide and produce sperm throughout their lifetime, and every cell division is an opportunity for genetic errors to be made. In contrast, women are born with their full set of eggs.

The team uncovered new mutations in several genes that have been implicated in autism and schizophrenia, as well as nervous system development and behavioral changes.

The role of new mutations in disease risk is not limited to autism and schizophrenia, and they could contribute to other diseases that have non-hereditary cases, such as epilepsy, Stefansson noted. "It is beginning to look like there is a fairly large number of diseases where the contribution of de novo mutations is going to be significant," he said.

In addition to spontaneous mutations, environmental factors could play a part in non-hereditary autism cases, Smith said, explaining that unknown environmental factors, which older men have had more time to be exposed to, could promote genetic errors during sperm production.

Even though the rate of new mutations increases in children with age of the father, this should not be an argument for older men to avoid procreating or for younger men to freeze their sperm, Stefansson said.

"We don't know how large a percentage of cases of autism and schizophrenia are caused by de novo mutations," he explained. "The risk is not huge."

"On a grander scale, in the context of our species, the increasing mutation rate increases diversity when we are evolving," Stefansson said. "Getting rid of extra mutations might make us as a species less fit to survive the next natural disaster."

"This study should not be used as guidance for parents," Smith said. "Many cases of autism are from parents in their 20s."

More information

For more about the signs and symptoms of autism, visit Autism Speaks.

Copyright ? 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.8newsnow.com/story/19343223/older-dads-may-raise-risk-for-autism-schizophrenia-in-kids

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Louie, Season 3

Jonah, I think you got Jeanie?s motivations to a T: She wants a vicarious thrill, and sees in Louie a chance to get it. And how she gets it. That Park Slope self-pleasuring made Allison Williams? autoerotic moment on Girls seem downright decorous. (And it was far more convincing than Meg Ryan?s famously persuasive put-on at Katz?s.) Chlo? Sevigny is, like nearly every guest star this season, terrific?she looks genuinely spent as she brushes past Louie, her goal for the afternoon accomplished.

And the part she played highlighted one of the great virtues of this show. On a more conventional series, or in a standard Hollywood rom-com, Jeanie would exist to further the ends of our hero. She would find his lost love, or fall for him?do something to advance the narrative arc of his life. That?s not how real life works, obviously, and it?s not how this show operates either. Whether it?s the aggressive Melissa Leo or the disappointed Maria Bamford or the self-absorbed Sevigny, the characters Louie encounters are independent entities, with their own lives and their own interests. They don?t usually coincide with his.

I agree, too, that Posey?s Liz haunted the second half of the episode as much as she did the first?and not only because Lilly is developing in just the way Liz said she would. Recall that ?Daddy?s Girlfriend? began not with fantasies about some woman saying ?I love you,? but with idyllic, black-and-white images of parenthood shared: a blanket in the park with books, a happy stepmom reading to her stepdaughters. On the afternoon of ?Lilly Changes,? Louie could have used some help?this may be the most flustered he?s been as a father in nearly three full seasons of the series. A few weeks back, Allison said that C.K. generally presented his character as a pretty great dad, but that wasn?t the case here. First, he replies ungenerously to a teacher who, alluding to ?budgets cuts,? asks if he can help carry some chairs. (The request comes from someone Louie considered, in one of those black-and-white daydreams, as a possible stepmom?before deciding, it seemed, that he just didn?t find her attractive enough.) His carousel-and-ice-cream solution to Lilly?s brooding also seemed unusually simple-minded. (Though I?m sure it was also meant to highlight Lilly?s new grown-upness; these childish pleasures are not enough for her anymore.)

But the most notable of Louie?s parental failures was his refusal to call his ex-wife when Lilly went missing. His fear of her rebuke beat back his concern for the safety of his child?which is a fairly dark thought to have about yourself. And it?s a thought he returned to in the stand-up segment at the end, when he said he wouldn?t put seat belts on his daughters in cabs because he was afraid to dig through those dirty seat cushions to find their buckles. ?So my kids get in a cab and they just hurtle through space at a speed determined by the profit motive of an exhausted man from another country where life is shit-cheap, where kids die all day and it?s boring.?

But then this episode began with some very dark thoughts. ?I was having trouble sleeping, like we all should,? he says, in a stand-up excerpt that opened the episode. Then he characterized life in general: ?Buy some shit, use it, it breaks. Try to fuck somebody, hope your shits don?t hurt too bad.? Calculating his dwindling years on Earth, he described it as ?happy math.? This is par for Louie?s course: Just last week, he described his life as ?boilerplate misery, alone in the world, might as well be a maggot sucking a dead cat?s face, what?s the point.?

There?s something cathartic in this, to be sure, putting words to your grimmest thoughts. I?m brought to mind again of Maria Bamford?s comment, that there might be some relief in creatively facing your worst fears. And surely losing a child in the manner depicted tonight must be one of a parent?s absolute worst fears. But has the note of misery sharpened lately? Or am I just too young to understand the happy math?

Taxis are magic, nobody dies,

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=5c8f77b90745a20be1b27bddde1fe86b

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