Moroccan Cheaters' Got Talent | Morocco World News

By Youssef Sourgo

Morocco World News

Casablanca, February 26, 2013

Subsequent to the bitter reality that has recently been unveiled by the Moroccan Ministry of National Education, in which the latter disclosed the number of Moroccan baccalaureate students who were spotted cheating during the national exam taken in 2012, Moroccans are now questioning the effectuality of the Moroccan educational system more than ever before.

According to the list that has recently been made public by the Ministry of National Education, 3112 is the number of students found cheating during the national exam of last year. The list also exposes the methods whereby each student attempted to cheat, and even featured the disciplinary board?s decisions towards each student found cheating.

The ministry has made its motif behind the exposure of such deplorable truth crystal-clear, which is to bring what is going on in the soberest corners of Moroccan schools to the forefront of the public opinion, including parents, educators, researchers in the arena of education and pedagogy, politicians, and Moroccan at large.

Furthermore, the list unveiled by the ministry featured a colon entitled ?cheating methods,? thus rationalizing the sort of decision taken towards the student in concern. Having a glance at the myriad of methods that the students recurred to in their attempts to cheat, I feel more like reading the list of contestants participating in a talent show, wherein each of them strives to do it ?the most creative way possible.?

Some of the cheating students found it more practical to stick to traditional methods of cheating, or traditional ?talents,? as might be perceived from their angle. Those in this category resorted to mainstream methods ranging from asking the help of the student sitting the closest to them, to taking out a couple ?7jabat? (minimized versions of texts or summaries of lessons) prepared prior to the day of the exam?perhaps weeks earlier, to exchanging exam papers with other students in the room.

Those who wanted to ?step their game up? resorted to new technologies and other unusual methods of cheating, for they thought teachers might not anticipate having students recur to such methods to cheat during the national exam. Though becoming stepwise a tool that will soon join the list of traditional methods of cheating, the phone figures as one of the methods to which Moroccan cheating students resort the most. Be it via Bluetooth earplugs, or ordinary earplugs (with wires), those students did not mind adding their flavor of creativity to those technologies. The most peculiar, yet creative, of them is putting a skin-color make-up (by both boys and girls) on the top of the earplug wires that find their way along their necks all the way to their ears.

Multitudinous are other alternatives that students recur to in their cheating process that the list unveiled by the ministry did not feature, a thing that can be interpreted as a ?success story? for those students who ?could get away with it?. Now ?where do you think you?re going, dear cheater?? is the question I?d ask anyone of them if I happen to come across him/her. All right, hats off! You managed to successfully pass the baccalaureate exam ?like-a-boss?, but what now! Are you going to cheat in university, if you ever get the chance to enroll in it? Are you going to cheat to make your boss happy with your work, if you ever consider working after you obtain your unmerited certificate? Where do you think you?re going?

Those who resort to cheating under the pretext that the test they are exposed to signals a turning point in their lives, and thus legitimizes their use of unethical methods to pass it, might be partially right in this regard. However, what seems the hardest test today, will look like ?a piece of cake? when one comes across a more challenging one in the future. You all have tremendous talents, dear cheaters, talents that you sadly deploy there where you render them anything but something you can be proud of! What would you tell your kids years later to encourage them to work harder for their exams?something like, ?Work hard dear son/daughter! Do like me when I was your age!? How would you feel when cheating clings to you longer than you ever think?

Dear talented cheaters, if you want a standing ovation at the end of a performance, make sure you sweat enough and put your heart in it. If it had worked on a stage (baccalaureate) once, it doesn?t forcibly mean that it is going to work all across the board. One day, this is in case you maintain cheating your main performance, you will either realize that the theatre is empty at the end of your show, or wind up being the target of trash thrown at you by an audience that has for so long believed in the genuineness of your talent. Think about it!

The views expressed in this article are the author?s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News? editorial policy

? Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

Source: http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2013/02/80112/moroccan-cheaters-got-talent/

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ESM Goh visiting Seoul on Sunday for the inauguration Korean President Park Geun-hye

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Fewer boarded-up homes: Vacancy rate for US housing falls to pre-bust levels

In the final quarter of 2012, the vacancy rate was 1.9 percent of homeowner housing, and 8.7 percent of the rental housing market, according to a new census report.

By Mark Trumbull,?Staff writer / February 20, 2013

In this Jan. photo, a construction worker works at a new home under construction in Chicago.

Nam Y. Huh/AP

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Across America fewer homes are boarded up. And fewer people are ?doubled up,? sharing a tight apartment with friends or parents.

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According to the Census Bureau, vacancy rates for residential housing in the United States have fallen to levels last seen before the peak of the housing boom in 2006 and the subsequent recession.

In the final quarter of 2012, the vacancy rate was 1.9 percent of homeowner housing, and 8.7 percent of the rental housing market. That?s down from rates as high as 2.9 percent (2008) in the owner market and 11.1 percent (mid-2009) for rentals.

The census numbers, released in an annual vacancy report Wednesday, add to other indications of rising strength in the US housing market ? from rising home prices to home-builder enthusiasm and investor activity.

?As long as the economy is adding jobs and growing, housing is going to continue improving,? says Patrick Newport, an economist who follows real estate at the forecasting firm IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Mass.

Two main drivers of progress for the housing market over the past year have been the persistence of low interest rates and the tightening supply of homes available for purchase.

?And since we're not building at normal rates ... the supply keeps getting tighter,? he says.

Of course, rising home prices are a mixed blessing. Owners feel rising wealth, and lenders feel greater confidence about making home loans. But it means the cost of housing, for potential buyers and renters, is going up.

Over time, the market?s tightening should prompt builders to rev up construction of both rental and owner-occupied units. Already, residential construction is adding to the gross domestic product, although it hasn?t been the driving force that it usually is in an economic recovery.

For more than five years, housing was a locus of economic challenges such as foreclosure and construction layoffs. As the unemployment rate rose, the vacancy rate soared. Homes were being lost to foreclosure, and people were doubling up with others rather than buying or renting.

Those trends aren?t over, but the census numbers suggest they are receding.

The quarterly census numbers on vacancy have some flaws, compared with the more thorough survey that the census does every 10 years, Mr. Newport notes.

Also, the fact that today?s 1.9 percent homeowner vacancy rate is lower than the 2 percent posted at the end of 2005 probably needs an asterisk. Many homes count as occupied today even though the households are financially troubled. Compared with 2005, many more borrowers are delinquent, with foreclosure looming, or are ?underwater? (with a loan balance larger than the value of their homes).

Still, the progress is real, and according to the new numbers, it spans much of the nation.

States that were hard hit by housing busts have seen significant declines in vacancy rates over the past year. These include Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, and Ohio, which have all experienced declines of half a percentage point or more.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Kl_RbJs56LM/Fewer-boarded-up-homes-Vacancy-rate-for-US-housing-falls-to-pre-bust-levels

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Pentagon notifies Congress of likely furloughs

Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, right, talks with Marine Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, left, and assistant Defense Department press secretary Carl Woog, second from left, before boarding a E-4B aircraft at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, before traveling to Brussels for a NATO defense ministers meeting. (AP Photo/Chip Somodevilla, Pool)

Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, right, talks with Marine Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, left, and assistant Defense Department press secretary Carl Woog, second from left, before boarding a E-4B aircraft at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, before traveling to Brussels for a NATO defense ministers meeting. (AP Photo/Chip Somodevilla, Pool)

Secretary of State John Kerry gestures as he delivers his first foreign policy speech, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, in Old Cabel Hall at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Secretary of State John Kerry gestures as he delivers his first foreign policy speech, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, in Old Cabel Hall at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va. Kerry said the greatest challenge to U.S. foreign policy is not emerging China or Middle East instability. It's Congress. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Secretary of State John Kerry gestures as he delivers his first foreign policy speech, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, in Old Cabel Hall at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Congress on Wednesday that if automatic government spending cuts kick in on March 1 he may have to shorten the workweek for the "vast majority" of the Defense Department's 800,000 civilian workers.

They would lose one day of work per week, or 20 percent of their pay, for up to 22 weeks, probably starting in late April.

To dispel the notion that this is mainly a problem for the nation's capital, the Pentagon's budget chief, Robert Hale, told reporters that the economic impact would be felt nationwide. The biggest potential losses, in term of total civilian payroll dollars, would be in Virginia, California, Maryland, Texas and Georgia, according to figures provided by the Pentagon.

Hale said the unpaid leaves for civilian workers would begin in late April and would save $4 billion to $5 billion if extended through the end of the budget year, Sept. 30. That is only a fraction of the $46 billion the Pentagon would have to cut this budget year unless a deficit-reduction deal is reached.

Panetta also said the across-the-board spending reductions would "put us on a path toward a hollow force," meaning a military incapable of fulfilling all of its missions.

In a written message to employees, Panetta said that he notified members of Congress Wednesday that if the White House and Congress cannot strike a deficit reduction deal before March 1 to avoid the furloughs, all affected workers will get at least 30 days' advance notice.

"In the event of sequestration we will do everything we can to be able to continue to perform our core mission of providing for the security of the United States, but there is no mistaking that the rigid nature of the cuts forced upon this department, and their scale, will result in a serious erosion of readiness across the force," Panetta wrote.

Adding his voice to the budget debate, Secretary of State John Kerry said the fiscal impasse is a serious threat to American credibility around the world.

"Think about it: It is hard to tell the leadership of any number of countries that they have to resolve their economic issues if we don't resolve our own," Kerry said Wednesday at the University of Virginia.

House Speaker John Boehner put the blame on Obama and said he agrees with Panetta that automatic spending cuts would devastate the military.

Boehner released a copy of Panetta's letter formally notifying Congress that the Pentagon will have to consider furloughing a large portion of its civilian workforce if sequestration kicks in.

"The furloughs contemplated by this notice will do real harm to our national security," Panetta wrote in his congressional notification letter, adding that it would make troops less ready for combat and slow the acquisition of important weapons.

"Overall, sequestration will put us on a path toward a hollow force and inflict serious damage on our national security," Panetta wrote.

Panetta was flying Wednesday to Brussels to attend a NATO defense ministers meeting. Spokesman George Little told reporters en route that Panetta would tell his counterparts that across-the-board budget cuts will hurt not only the U.S. military but also the ability of NATO to respond to crises.

Little said the Pentagon is also discussing the possibility of not being able to send military units on planned rotations to various places around the world. In anticipation of cuts, the Pentagon has already decided not to send one aircraft carrier back to the Persian Gulf, reducing the U.S. presence there to one carrier.

The Pentagon has begun discussing details of the furloughs with defense worker union officials.

President Barack Obama has exempted military personnel from furloughs.

Obama was continuing to pressure Republican lawmakers to avert the automatic cuts by supporting a Senate Democratic plan that would replace the immediate cuts with a mix of spending reductions and tax increases. He was conducting interviews with local television in eight markets: Boston, Charleston, S.C., Baltimore, Oklahoma City, Okla., Wichita, Kan., San Antonio, Texas, San Francisco, and Honolulu.

"I don't know why it is in this town folks leave stuff to the last minute. You know, there's no other profession, no other industry, where people wait until the 11th hour to solve these big problems," Obama told WJZ, the CBS affiliate in Baltimore.

The only civilian Pentagon workers who would be exempt from furloughs would be Senate-confirmed political appointees such as the defense secretary and deputy defense secretary, as well as a relatively small number of workers deemed essential to protect the safety of defense property and personnel.

Panetta said the administration is still working with Congress to avoid automatic budget cuts by reaching agreement on a deficit reduction plan.

___

Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, Lolita C. Baldor and Bradley Klapper contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-20-Budget%20Battle/id-e5f71510e7b4498aa229045e00b3ec1c

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Trash Talkin? Tuesday

Trash Talkin’ Tuesday

Emma Stone Going For the Batman Look??[The Frisky] Vendors Serving Up Vegetarian at Morrissey Concert?[HollyWire] Hugh Grant a Dad Again?[Right Celebrity] Britney Spears Dating a New Man?[The Celebrity Cafe] Hayden Panettiere Poses for Nylon?[The Blemish] Kate Middleton Slammed By Author?[The Huffington Post] Clive Davis Comes Out in New Book?[Pop Crunch] Gwyneth Paltrow is Bored with ...

Trash Talkin’ Tuesday Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/02/trash-talkin-tuesday-83/

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Kate Upton ? Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2013 BTS ? 1080i HD Screencaps

If you bought the 2013 SI Swimsuit issue, then I?m sure you skipped over the page that advertised the SI Swimsuit BTS Special that aired on the Travel Channel last night (as opposed to last year when it aired on VH1). Well, if you missed it, then you?re screwed but becuz I like you, I?ll post the best moments of Kate Upton and Jessica Gomes from the special.

And, for the record, the fact that Kate Upton gets paid MILLIONS of dollars to do what she does and yet I have to hear her constantly bitch and moan about doing a photoshoot in the icy cold tundra? You get no sympathy from me, darling. Just shut the EFF up and POSE!

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Would Hagel at Defense make war with Iran more likely?

Republican former Sen. Chuck Hagel testifies before a Senate committee in January. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)Would Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel help set the stage for a war with Iran? Or would the Republican former senator, who seems on track to be confirmed late this month, put the brakes on a possible military confrontation with Tehran over its nuclear program?

The answer -- to both questions -- is yes, some veteran observers of U.S. foreign policy say.

It's a question that reaches far beyond speculative inside-the-Beltway parlor games. There are signs that President Barack Obama?s second-term foreign policy and national security team?and his recent signals to Iran?are part of a final push on the diplomatic front before using military force.

The theory runs something like this: Secretary of State John Kerry is a staunch believer in diplomatic engagement. Hagel has repeatedly expressed deep skepticism about the effectiveness of war with Iran (he even opposed unilateral economic sanctions a decade ago). Both voted in favor of war with Iraq, then turned sharply critical of the conflict. Both men, decorated Vietnam War veterans, aren't likely to rush the country into another overseas occupation.

"These are exactly the people who could make an assault on [Iran] politically sellable," explains Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine. "They may be the smiley face painted on the tip of a bunker-buster."

Ibish said Obama is purposely assembling a team positioned to say two things simultaneously to the Iranian government.

?One is ?We want to make a deal with you, and you will get the best deal out of us that you?ll ever get from any U.S. administration, so take it,'" Ibish told Yahoo News. ?And two, 'If you don?t take it and you cross the red line, you?ll face military action by a group of people who are also in a perfect position to lead the world into a conflict without being vulnerable to the charges of recklessness or warmongering.'"

Ibish may have pioneered the theory, but it can also be heard among influential lawmakers.

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, recently told Yahoo News he believes the Obama administration's diplomatic outreach may be laying the groundwork in the event that talks fail.

"The more we are out there diplomatically, doing everything we can to, in a rational way, negotiate with the Iranians, I do think we are building world support should something else have to occur," Corker said.

Vice President Joe Biden, in remarks at an international security conference in Germany, recently offered Iran direct talks. Tehran refused.

"They (the Obama administration) seem like they are checking the boxes of diplomacy," said one foreign policy analyst, who requested anonymity to offer a candid appraisal of that offer.

Hawkish Republicans opposed to confirming Hagel don't see it that way.

GOP senators led by John McCain of Arizona have repeatedly and forcefully denounced their former colleague as insufficiently tough on Iran?casting him as a defense secretary who might gaze on impotently while the Islamic republic develops an atomic arsenal. They've pointed to Hagel's criticisms of imposing unilateral economic sanctions a decade ago, as well as his open skepticism of the effectiveness of military action.

"Can we expect Sen. Hagel to advance and support policies to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapons capability when he has opposed economic sanctions and military intervention?" said McCain, one of his party's top voices on national security.

McCain also dinged Hagel for saying in his confirmation hearing that he backed "containment" of a nuclear Iran?an apparent slip of the tongue on Hagel's part later corrected by the panel's chairman, Democratic Sen. Carl Levin.

?Sen. Hagel?s opposition to the use of sanctions; his apparent confusion about administration policy and its implications; and his apparent incomprehension of the threat a nuclear-armed Iran poses to international stability is alarming and would cause other nations to doubt the credibility of the president?s commitments," McCain charged.

At the White House, officials note that Obama has repeatedly said he won't shy away from using force to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon, even though he wants to exhaust diplomatic efforts first. The Democratic president has even embraced the diplo-speak phrase "all options are on the table" that refers to going to war.

?This president has shown time and again that he means what he says?on Iraq, on Afghanistan, on Osama bin Laden,? said National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor. ?Republicans should look over here and realize that's true on Iran.?

That may be the biggest problem with the notion that Hagel, or even Kerry, will have a decisive impact on foreign policy.

"It doesn?t matter what John Kerry thinks about Iran. It doens't matter what Chuck Hagel thinks about Iran," said Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert who has served in Republican and Democratic administrations. "This president has no intention of being the president on whose watch Iran either acquires the capacity to produce a nuclear weapon or a weapon itself."

Obama may successfully cut a diplomatic deal in which Iran bows to demands to halt its uranium enrichment in return for some concessions, perhaps an easing of crippling economic sanctions, said Miller, a vice president at the Wilson Center.

Or, "with great reluctance and some trepidation, the president will use military force" that may not end Iran's nuclear program, Miller said.

"He will accept a messy conclusion, plunging stock markets, inflated oil prices and more regional instability, rather than be the potted plant of American power on this particular question," Miller said. "So Kerry and Hagel may be helpers in that enterprise, but they will not be shapers of it."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/hagel-confirmation-war-iran-more-likely-205057684--politics.html

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Bill Blum: Targeted Killings: A Legal History - Truthdig

Targeted Killings: A Legal History

Posted on Feb?14,?2013

By Bill Blum

Unless you are an unquestioning hawk in the war on terror, ?scary? doesn?t begin to describe the breathtaking expansion of executive authority called for in the Justice Department?s ?white paper? on ?targeted killing,? published this month by NBC News. In 16 pages of dense single-spaced legal prose, the paper lays out a justification under both international and domestic law for the president or other unspecified ?informed, high-level? administration officials to order the execution of U.S. citizens abroad who are deemed to be senior operational leaders of al-Qaida or forces ?associated? with the terrorist network.

When all the legalese is stripped away, the paper offers a stark and simple bottom line: Because America is at war, all that?s needed for a kill order to proceed is evidence that a targeted individual is ?continually involved in planning terrorist attacks against the United States.? An attack need not be imminent or immediate, and the supporting evidence need never be made public because a targeted kill order, according to the paper, is beyond the scope of judicial review, either pre- or post-execution.

Since the white paper?s release, constitutional scholars and political commentators have picked apart the memo?s legal reasoning, decrying the administration?s position as a wholesale violation of due process, and an audacious power grab that, if allowed to stand, will insulate Obama and future presidents from the accountability and openness that are the bedrocks of democracy.

But as sweeping and disturbing as the white paper may be, it is not without historical precedent. Minus the drone technology involved, we as a nation have been down this road before, although for the most part covertly. Indeed, according to Harvard Law School professors Gabriella Blum and Philip Heymann, targeted killings, or ?assassinations? as they were more bluntly called before the newspeak of post-9/11 politics, have long been regarded as a basic element of foreign relations that largely remained in the dark, unspoken of but widely practiced in response to perceived threats to national security.

In 1975, the Senate select committee chaired by the late Frank Church, D-Neb., famously broke through the secrecy, reporting that it had uncovered evidence linking the CIA to at least eight assassination plots, involving such world figures as Fidel Castro, the corrupt South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem and Chilean Gen. Rene Schneider, who was killed in 1970 after he refused to block the election of Salvador Allende. And while secrecy remained the norm thereafter, a handful of subsequent operations that were too big to go unnoticed entered the public domain, including the 1986 airstrike ordered by President Reagan on Moammar Gadhafi?s residence, and the 1998 bombing of Osama bin Laden?s Afghanistan headquarters, undertaken by the Clinton administration.

After the 9/11 attacks, the number of kill orders, now directed against al-Qaida and its allies, increased exponentially, expanding beyond the Afghan battlefields under the authority of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Act, one of the principal legal sources cited in the white paper on the current targeted kill program. Since 2004, drone strikes in Pakistan alone have resulted in as many as 3,468 deaths. Three U.S. citizens?the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and his son, along with Samir Khan, the editor of al-Qaida?s English-language Web magazine Inspire, have been killed, all in Yemen.?

Seen in an even wider historical context, the Justice Department?s white paper also can be understood as an outgrowth of America?s long and often lamentable history of combating purported domestic threats to national security. As Yeshiva University history professor Ellen Schrecker?considered by many the foremost authority on McCarthyism?reminds us, political repression at home is ?as American as apple pie.?

Although each period of repression, from the subjugation of the Native American population to the red scare of the mid-20th century and the Islamophobia afoot today, has its unique character, according to Schrecker, they share at least two core parallel features. First, the enemy is dehumanized and demonized by politicians and the press as an alien outside force bent on destroying the country, its citizens and its values. Second, there is a precipitating crisis, usually in the form of a hot or cold war, that drives the demonization and serves to validate the curbs on civil liberties that repression brings.

The red scare is particularly instructive, both to our understanding the present crisis and for pointing a way out of it. Then, as now, the U.S. found itself in the throes of a protracted struggle against a foreign enemy?the Soviet Union and later, China?that in the rhetoric of the day threatened the American way of life. Then, as now, those in power responded with increased surveillance of suspected subversives, the compilation of security indexes and enemy lists, arrests, imprisonment, and in the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, execution.?

Then, as now, there also was a determined effort to limit the state?s overreach, both through political organizing and the courts. As a young lawyer, I worked as an associate in a Los Angeles law firm that long before my arrival had helped litigate some of the landmark lawsuits that eventually made their way to the Supreme Court and changed the face of constitutional law, clarifying that mere advocacy of political ideas could not be criminalized and that only speech that reasonably and intentionally threatens actual imminent harm may be proscribed.

Following in that tradition, the ACLU and the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights have filed a federal lawsuit (Al-Aulaqi v. Panetta) in Washington, D.C., to have the targeted kill program declared unlawful.

Whether the ACLU?s case succeeds, of course, remains uncertain, as is true of all lawsuits. But regardless of the outcome of any single case, one truth with any luck and enough perseverance will ultimately prevail: In exercising its legitimate right of self-defense, our government will remain bound by the Constitution, and its acts, for better or worse, will remain subject to thorough judicial review.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama promised ?to engage with Congress to ensure not only that our targeting, detention and prosecution of terrorists remains consistent with our laws and system of checks and balances, but that our efforts are even more transparent to the American people and to the world.? These are bold words and, if believed, reassuring. Judging from the Justice Department?s white paper, however, the president has an enormous amount of rethinking to do before we can take his promise at face value.

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Small business owners still feeling 'fiscal cliff' pinch

Heesun Wee , CNBC.com ? ? ? 40 min.

Small-business owners' confidence was virtually flat in January, as entrepreneurs failed to recoup losses sparked by December's scare about the so-called "fiscal cliff."

That's the finding of a monthly survey by the National Federation of Independent Business. The group said Tuesday that its small-business optimism index edged up just 0.9 points to 88.9 last month from 88 points in December 2012.

While a fiscal deal was reached in January on tax increases and spending cuts, benefits have remained elusive for much of Main Street ? a traditional driver of new jobs during past economic downturns. (Read More: Amid 'Fiscal Cliff' Stalemate, Main Street Deteriorates)

"The only good news is that it 'budged' up, not down. If small businesses were publicly traded companies, the stock market would be in shambles," said NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg. "While corporate profits are at record levels as a share of GDP, small businesses are still struggling to turn a profit," he sad in a prepared statement.

The latest monthly reading among small-business owners also showed low expectations for future growth ? clearly not a good way to kick off 2013.

Expectations for improved business conditions remained overwhelmingly low. Actual job creation and job creation plans improved nominally, but still not enough to keep up with population growth.

The NFIB also noted sales trends remain overwhelmingly negative for small employers, with more owners reporting declining sales.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/small-business-owners-still-feeling-fiscal-cliff-pinch-1C8340258

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Christopher Dorner Scuba Gear Purchase: Caught on Tape

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/christopher-dorner-scuba-gear-purchase-caught-on-tape/

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Bluetooth Music Receiver for Your Docking Station ? Supports iPod Touch, iPhone 3G/3GS/4/4S iPhone 5, iPad 2/3 Dock

Place the Bluetooth Music Receiver next to your dock and keep your phone with you.

Don?t spend money on expensive accessories to fit your new iPhone with your existing dock, simply place the Bluetooth connector on the dock and play your music via the Bluetooth connection.

3 simple steps to the perfect music experience:

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3. After successful pairing, you can now listen to your music without annoying wires.

Now you?ve got your brand new phone don?t worry about spending money on a new docking system or cables to connect it, this simply enables any phone to work with your existing dock without any hassle!

Source: http://deals.discountvouchers.co.uk/deal/31495/bluetooth-music-receiver

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US withdrawal from Europe-based missile shield will impact Israel's defense

DEBKAfile Special Report - Feb 11, 2013
DEBKAfile

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Sunday, Feb. 10 echoed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini?s ?rejection of direct talks with the US four days ago which he said were on the grounds that they ?would solve nothing? because, "You are holding a gun against Iran.?

Ahmadinejad added its own rider to this dismissal: ?God willing, soon Iran?s satellite will be located in orbit at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers, next to others from four or five advanced powers and it will relay a message of peace and fidelity to the world,? he said.

The boast that Iran would soon be the world?s sixth space power came two weeks after Tehran claimed to have put a monkey in orbit around earth, although it did not report bringing back to earth either the space capsule or the monkey.

Indeed, US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland, pouring a healthy dose of skepticism on the very existence of the project, commented: ?The Iranians said they sent a monkey, but the monkey they showed later seemed to have different facial features.?

Tehran is again caught wandering at ease through its favorite terrain between fact, hyperbole and fiction about its achievements, whether in space or its nuclear program.
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In recent weeks, reelected Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed he wants a broad government coalition for the critical objective of preventing Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.

The question is how does he propose to achieve this when tough US and European sanctions have not just failed to stop Iran in its tracks but accelerated its nuclear progress. Iran is now estimated to be within four months of a nuclear bomb capacity from the moment a decision is taken to build one.

Those months are critical: On February 25 the five UN Security Council?s permanent members plus Germany sit down with Iran in Kazakhstan for a fresh round of negotiations. Former rounds in this format led nowhere and no breakthrough is expected this time either beyond, at best, a date for a continuation.

On March 20, President Barack Obama arrives in Israel for the first foreign trip of his second term. The purpose of his visit is plain, except to Netanyahu?s domestic rivals: Facing a 50 percent cutback in military spending, the Obama administration cannot credibly threaten to go to war against a recalcitrant Iran. But the US president may still wave the Israeli military option in Tehran?s face.

Not that the ayatollahs are likely to be impressed. Khomeini and Ahmadinejad have both dismissed talks with Washington "with a gun" at their head, meaning that they are not scared of the Israeli gun the Americans are putting to their heads.

In fact, the Islamic rulers of Tehran are reported by DEBKAfile?s intelligence and Iranian sources to be fully confident that they are home and dry as a nuclear power after a secret US Pentagon research study was leaked that ?casts doubt on whether the multibillion-dollar missile defense system planned for Europe? (originally by the Bush administration) ?can ever protect the US from Iranian missiles as intended.?

Clearly the missile shield against Iran, which aroused ire in Moscow, will likely fall under the U.S. defense budget axe.

The missile shield in Europe was also designed to defend Israel and Turkey against Iranian ballistic missile attack. Leaving it unfinished because of ?flaws? exposes both those countries to such attack.

President Obama will no doubt tell Netanyahu that the system for intercepting medium-range Iranian missiles is to be scrapped. However, he will have to take into account that if the Iranians do finally manage to put a capsule in orbit at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers, they will be able to fire a ballistic missile at any point on earth as well, including the United States. Even if they did fail to put a primate in space, they will keep on trying and advancing until they get there.

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Unity Coalition for Israel 3965 W. 83rd. Street #292 Shawnee Mission, KS 66208
Phone: 913.648.0022 I Fax: 913.648.7997
Website copyright ? 2006-2013. http://unitycoalitionforisrael.org.

Source: http://www.unitycoalitionforisrael.org/news/article.php?id=9013

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'Being Mandela:' Granddaughters dish on show

In this Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013 photo, Swati Dlamini, left, and Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway, granddaughters of Nelson and Winnie Mandela, speak during an interview in New York. The sisters are stars of the new reality show "Being Mandela," produced by COZI TV for NBC. The 30-minute weekly show premieres on Sunday, Feb. 10 at 9 PM ET and will follow the next generation of Mandela family through the experiences of sisters Zaziwe and Swati and their families. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

In this Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013 photo, Swati Dlamini, left, and Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway, granddaughters of Nelson and Winnie Mandela, speak during an interview in New York. The sisters are stars of the new reality show "Being Mandela," produced by COZI TV for NBC. The 30-minute weekly show premieres on Sunday, Feb. 10 at 9 PM ET and will follow the next generation of Mandela family through the experiences of sisters Zaziwe and Swati and their families. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

In this Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013 photo, Swati Dlamini, left, and Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway, granddaughters of Nelson and Winnie Mandela, pose during an interview in New York. The sisters are stars of the new reality show "Being Mandela," produced by COZI TV for NBC. The 30-minute weekly show premieres on Sunday, Feb. 10 at 9 PM ET and will follow the next generation of Mandela family through the experiences of sisters Zaziwe and Swati and their families. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

In this Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013 photo, Swati Dlamini, left, and Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway, granddaughters of Nelson and Winnie Mandela, pose during an interview in New York. The sisters are stars of the new reality show "Being Mandela," produced by COZI TV for NBC. The 30-minute weekly show premieres on Sunday, Feb. 10 at 9 PM ET and will follow the next generation of Mandela family through the experiences of sisters Zaziwe and Swati and their families. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The newest reality television show is in some ways like any other: mother and daughters, sibling rivalry, family gossip and talk of Big Grandpa, who is very strict but loves it when his great-grandchildren are around making a racket. But that's where the twist comes in: Big Grandpa is Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid legend.

"Being Mandela," a new series premiering Sunday on COZI TV, invites U.S. audiences into the lives of Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway and Swati Dlamini, the fashionable, 30-something granddaughters of Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. The 94-year-old former South African president, who recently was treated for a lung infection and had surgery to remove gallstones, does not appear in the series but his controversial ex-wife ? "Big Mommy" to her grandchildren ? does and seems to relish it.

If the Mandela clan seems like an odd subject for a reality show, the granddaughters make no apologies.

"We get asked this question a lot. Is this not going to tarnish the name and is this not going to be bad for the name?" Swati Dlamini said in an interview with The Associated Press in New York, where she and her sister were promoting the show. "But our grandparents have always said to us, this is our name too, and we can do what we think is best fitting with the name, as long as we treat it with respect and integrity."

The 13-episode first season follows the two women as they try to carry on the family legacy while juggling motherhood in Johannesburg.

The sisters, who spent most of their childhood in exile in the United States, make an emotional visit to the prison on Robben Island where their grandfather spent 18 of the 27 years he was imprisoned by South Africa's white-ruled government. Swati works on publishing the prison diaries that her grandmother wrote but now cannot bear to read.

Swati, whose full name is Zamaswazi, was smuggled onto Robben Island in 1980, when she would have been less than a year old, wrapped in blankets that grandmother Winnie Madikizela-Mandela pretended she needed as protection against the cold.

Let in on the secret, prison guard Christo Brand recalls initially refusing to allow Mandela to see his grandchild, according to his memoir at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory.

Then, Brand says, he gave in, though he feared he might lose his job. "I gave him the baby, he had tears in his eyes while he held her ..." he says. "Mandela never told anyone about this. When we walked back to the prison section, he told me how important the moment was, to touch something small."

The sisters, along with two brothers, also become the latest famous names to launch a fashion line, called "Long Walk to Freedom" in honor of their grandfather's autobiography. Their lives are special and glamorous and they know it. They hope that U.S. audiences ? COZI TV is a new network launched by NBC Owned Television Stations ? will see a vibrant and modern side of South Africa through their eyes.

They also bicker. The family, especially Madikizela-Mandela, loves to gossip about when Swati, the single mother of a 4-year-old daughter, is going to get married. Swati is furious when Zaziwe, despite being sworn to secrecy, blurts to their grandmother that her sister is dating someone. Zaziwe, 35, is married to an American businessman and has three children.

The sisters are the daughters of Zenani Mandela and Prince Thumbumuzi Dlamini of Swaziland. But parents everywhere will delight in seeing that being royal doesn't help them face toddler tantrums or get older children out of bed and into school uniforms.

Big Grandpa and Big Mommy are into the show, the sisters insisted.

Mandela will definitely watch it, they said. The Nobel Peace Prize winner apparently sort of likes reality TV.

"You'll be interested to know that he loves Toddlers and Tiarras," said Swati, laughing in reference to the TLC series about child beauty pageants.

"Because of the kids! He just loves children," Zaziwe added quickly.

The sisters said their grandfather is "happy and healthy."

Zaziwe showed a Feb. 2 photograph of Mandela at home, flashing his familiar smile, with his youngest great-grandchild on his lap ? Zaziwe's one-year-old son. The picture is a rare public image of Mandela, whose last appearance on a major stage was during the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament in South Africa.

Mandela, who always lamented his long separation from his family during his imprisonment, is happiest these days when his offspring are running around being loud, his granddaughters said.

"We're in and out of the house. We're loud and he loves the noise," Zaziwe said.

The granddaughters say their grandfather ? to the world, a symbol of integrity and magnanimity ? holds the family to high standards and sets rules for when the children should be home and when dinner should start.

"He's a very strict person. Most people wouldn't think that but he really, really is," Zaziwe said.

The sisters are closer to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who divorced Mandela in 1997. Their adoring description of their grandmother as the doting matriarch stands in contrast with her checkered public image. Beloved by many poor urban blacks, Madikizela-Mandela also faces accusations that she and her bodyguard unit committed 18 killings in the 1980s. She denies it.

"She's fun. She never says no to us. I don't think I've ever heard my grandmother say no to us," Zaziwe said.

Still, the series shows Big Mommy clearly taking charge of the family. She marches into the hospital room where Zaziwe gave birth to Zen with a list of possible names for the baby boy.

The sisters say it was only after Mandela retired from public life that they started to get to know their grandfather.

"Our grandfather always told us that he belongs to the country and he's of service to the country and he doesn't belong to us as a family. And that's the sacrifice he's made for the country and that what he's told us as far as I can remember," Swati said.

____

AP Entertainment Writer Lauri Neff contributed to this story.

____

On the Internet:

www.cozitv.com

http://www.nelsonmandela.org/images/uploads/Nelson_Mandelas_Warders.pdf

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-02-08-Being%20Mandela's%20Granddaughters/id-022ad82ec9924e4b8cca781923a72eaf

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UK 'phone-sat' ready for orbit

7 February 2013 Last updated at 05:02 ET

Artist's rendition of the satellite in orbit and how the phone is fitted inside

The world's first "smartphone-sat" is ready for launch.

Known as Strand-1, the British-built spacecraft will be fully controlled by a Google Nexus device during part of its six-month mission in orbit.

The project has been led from the Surrey Space Centre (SSC) and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), both in Guildford.

Strand-1 was packed off to India this week for a rocket launch that is likely to occur at the end of the month.

The Nexus One has not been physically modified in anyway and will be an interesting test of everyday consumer electronics, says Dr Chris Bridges, SSC's lead engineer on the venture.

"We haven't gutted the Nexus. We've done lots and lots of tests on it; we've put our own software on it. But we've essentially got a regular phone, connected up the USB to it and put it in the satellite," he told BBC News.

"This is about looking at the latest technologies that are out there and seeing whether they are up to the harsh challenge of space."

Thrusting approach

The smartphone will fly pressed up against a side panel of the 30cm-long, 4.3kg "cubesat".

This will allow its 5-megapixel camera to look out through a hole and take pictures of the Earth and the Moon.

Strand is an acronym that stands for Surrey Training Research and Nanosatellite Demonstration. It is part of a quest to find new thinking and new technologies.

SSTL, which is a world leader in the production of small commercial spacecraft, hopes some of the Strand lessons can filter through to its more traditional products.

For the first part of the mission, the satellite will be controlled by a new high-speed Linux-based cubesat computer developed at SSC, which is part of the University of Surrey.

An important goal during these early weeks will be to test two innovative propulsion systems.

One uses the ejection of a water-alcohol mixture to provide thrust. The system is tiny but has a grand name - Warp Drive (Water Alcohol Resisto-jet Propulsion De-orbit Re-entry Velocity Experiment).

The second propulsion technology on Strand is its pulsed plasma thrusters. These use an electric current to heat and ablate a material, producing a charged gas that can then be accelerated in one direction in a magnetic field to push the cubesat in the other direction.

Both propulsion systems produce only small amounts of thrust but are very efficient in terms of how much "propellant" they consume.

Scream App

Assuming the mission goes well, the team wants eventually, gradually to turn the operation of Strand-1 over to the Nexus.

Although phones, or parts of phones, have been sent into space before, running an entire satellite through such a device has not been tried previously.

The Strand Nexus also carries a number of "apps" for science and outreach.

One of them has garnered quite a bit of publicity already. This is the "Scream in Space" app suggested by Cambridge University students.

It will see the Nexus phone play videos of people screaming to test the famous Alien movie poster statement that "In space, no-one can hear you scream". A camera looking at the phone's own display will record the likely silent screaming faces in the videos.

This alternate camera will also show the satellite's telemetry rolling across the screen for another App, and there is a simple experiment also to sense the magnetic environment in space using the Nexus' own onboard magnetometer.

"It's not likely that we are going to pick up a smartphone, as is, and put it at the core of our $30m satellites," said SSTL's head of science, Doug Liddle.

"But what is likely is that we'll pick up the approach we've used. This could be some of the phone's components, such as its wi-fi chip or Arm processor; we might be able to re-use those.

"Consider also the Android Apps (open-source) approach to developing software - that might be something that could be transplanted into our way of doing things in the future.

"It would mean that instead of having a small, niche group of spacecraft flight-software developers, you could suddenly call on a global community of app developers to help you design control or telemetry-handling systems for spacecraft."

Kinect docking

Strand-1 is booked to fly on the Indian space agency's (Isro) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on 25 February.

It is a piggyback passenger on the rocket. The main payload is a prestige Franco-Indian altimetry mission, Saral, which will measure sea-surface height. SSTL also has one of its larger platforms aboard called Sapphire, which will do space surveillance for the Canadians.

The Strand-1 cubesat will be pinged out from a spring-loaded pod mechanism at an altitude of 785km once the rocket's main business has been completed.

The terms of its UK Space Agency licence mean Strand must be brought out of the sky at the end of its mission in a timely fashion to avoid adding to the junk in orbit.

A Strand-2 is already in development. This will see two cubesats use the motion-sensing technology in Microsoft's XBox Kinect devices to locate each other in space and dock together.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21361204#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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US service firms grew more slowly in January

In this Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013, photo, a waitress brings a cart of dim sum to a table of customers at Chatham Square Restaurant in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York. Growth at U.S. service companies slowed slightly in January behind weaker new orders and business activity. But hiring improved, a bright sign for the economy. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

In this Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013, photo, a waitress brings a cart of dim sum to a table of customers at Chatham Square Restaurant in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York. Growth at U.S. service companies slowed slightly in January behind weaker new orders and business activity. But hiring improved, a bright sign for the economy. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Growth at U.S. service companies slowed slightly in January behind weaker new orders and business activity. But hiring improved, a bright sign for the economy.

The Institute for Supply Management said Tuesday that its index of non-manufacturing activity dipped to 55.2 in January. That's down from 55.7 in December, which was the highest level in nearly a year. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion.

The modest decline from December's strong reading suggests the industry was not greatly hampered by an increase in Social Security taxes that reduced take-home pay for most Americans.

Companies didn't single out the rise in payroll taxes in the survey, Anthony Nieves, chair of the ISM's survey committee, said during a conference call with reporters.

The report measures growth in industries that cover 90 percent of the work force, including retail, construction, health care and financial services.

Overall, economists were encouraged by the steady reading in the services index, as well as a sharp jump in the Institute's January manufacturing index released last week. The reports suggest economic growth is rebounding the January-March quarter after shrinking in the October-December quarter.

A gauge of hiring in the services report rose to its highest level in nearly seven years. That's consistent with the solid job gains reported by retailers, construction companies and other service firms in the government's January employment report, released last week.

Service firms and construction companies have added an average of nearly 195,000 jobs per month in the past three months. The increase in the employment gauge suggests the solid hiring will continue.

Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics, blamed the dip in the overall index on the Social Security tax increase.

"But this blow has been small and cushioned by stronger demand in other sectors, namely construction," he said.

Last month Congress and the White House reached a deal to prevent income taxes from rising on most Americans.

The agreement did not extend a temporary cut in Social Security taxes, which expired on Jan. 1. The two percentage point increase means a person earning $50,000 a year will have about $1,000 less to spend in 2013. A household with two high-paid workers will have up to $4,500 less.

Most economists expect the tax increase could trim the economy's growth by about one-half a percentage point this year.

Consumers spent more in December, according to a government report last week, though the increase was slower than in November. Consumer spending drives about 70 percent of the economy.

There have been other signs that Americans have been willing to open their wallets. Consumer spending rose 2.2 percent in the October-December quarter, up from 1.6 percent in the previous quarter.

That wasn't enough to bolster the economy, which contracted in the fourth quarter for the first time in 3 ? years. But the weakness resulted from one-time factors, such as a sharp drop in company stockpiles and a steep fall in defense spending.

The ISM reported last week that its separate index for manufacturing surged on faster growth in new orders and hiring. The index rose to its highest level since April.

Service companies have been a key source of job growth this year. They have created about 90 percent of the net jobs added since January. Still, many of the new service jobs have been low-paying retail and restaurant positions.

__

Follow Chris Rugaber on Twitter at https://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-05-Economy-Services/id-c4bd73e60e2143d8b30fa048d444a686

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Voodoo priestess: Curse didn't cause Superdome blackout

The Super Bowl was delayed in the 3rd quarter for more than 30 minutes due to a power outage at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. MSNBC's Milissa Rehberger reports.

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

The powers-that-be are blaming an "abnormality" for the half-hour blackout that delayed the Super Bowl. But on Twitter, at least, they have another term for it: The Curse.

Legend has it that New Orleans' Superdome is vexed by the angry spirits of the poor souls once buried beneath the stadium, their remains uprooted by backhoes during construction in the early 1970s.

The Superdome became, of course, the site of many losses for the New Orleans Saints and later the misery of thousands of Hurricane Katrina refugees who sheltered there.

Perhaps it's only natural -- well, supernatural, anyway -- to suggest that the alleged curse was working again Sunday night in a city that loves its superstitions as much as its football.

Voodoo priestess Miriam Chamani was once enlisted by a radio station to bless the Superdome, using a live python and a pumpkin, before the Saints faced off against the Cleveland Browns in 1999.

So what does she think zapped the juice in the third quarter as the Baltimore Raves sacked the San Francisco 49ers' quarterback?Colin Kaepernick?

"I think any time you put that much tension on the circuits in a short time, something is bound to happen," Chamani said Monday.

Mystical tension? Beyond-the-grave type tension?

"No, just a lot of people using power," she said.

But Superdome officials said the stadium was actually using less electricity than it does during a typical Saints game. None of its equipment, all upgraded since Katrina in 2005, failed.

And you can forget the Curse of Beyonce because her half-time show used its own generators.

The investigation is ongoing. For now, all officials will say is an "abnormality" at the point where power company Entergy's feed intersects with the arena's equipment prompted a circuit breaker to make the Superdome go dark.

Courtesy Miriam Chamani

Miriam Chamani, a voodoo priestess, doesn't think the Superdome is cursed -- more than any other place in New Orleans.

Bob Remy, the statistician for the Saints, who was at the game, agrees the outage was "strange."

"But it's hard to believe it's a curse," he said, pointing to the Saints' 2009 Super Bowl championships and some winning seasons by the New Orleans Hornets, who play in an arena adjacent to the Superdome.

The stadium is built over the old Girod Cemetery, where 30,000 people, including many victims of cholera and yellow fever epidemics, were buried.

The dilapidated graveyard was deconsecrated in 1957 and many of the remains relocated. But when Superdome construction began, many more were dug up, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

The Saints opened their first season there with a 2-12 record and did not have a winning season until 1987 -- and the idea of a curse was born.

"I guess if you're a true believer in voodoo you might might take it seriously," said Tulane University professor Lawrence Powell, a local historian. "Most people talk about it tongue-in-cheek. At least in the circles I move in."

But the Saints themselves bought into the curse enough to hire a voodoo priestess, Ava Kay Jones, to perform rituals before two games in 2000 and 2001. Her record: 1-1.

Chamani's own ritual resulted in a Browns victory, she said, casting further doubt on the idea of a curse.

Maybe she isn't the best expert to consult, though. After all, she admits that when the lights went out Sunday, her own lights were already out.

"I went into a snooze," she said.

"I guess sometimes life is a curse itself."

Related:

Follow the money: Real Super Bowl winners
Too risque? Beyonce's clothes take heat

This ad for Bud Light, featuring Stevie Wonder and his hit song "Superstition," aired during the second quarter of Super Bowl XLVII.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/04/16839098-voodoo-priestess-curse-didnt-cause-superdome-blackout?lite

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