A-Rod fine after treatment on knee, shoulder

NEW YORK (AP) ? The New York Yankees say star third baseman Alex Rodriguez is totally fine after having special treatment on his right knee and left shoulder in Germany earlier this month.

The 36-year-old Rodriguez had plasma-rich platelet injections following a recommendation from Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Wednesday that the team gave its permission after vetting the process.

Rodriguez's treatment was first reported by the New York Post.

Cashman says the therapy is in "complete compliance" with WADA and Major League Baseball regulations. He also said the treatment is performed in the United States. The Yankees say Rodriguez went to the doctor in Germany because he's at the top of this field.

Rodriguez had surgery on his right knee last July and saw his power drop in the second half and postseason. He played in 99 games and hit 16 home runs. He has 629 career homers.

Cashman says Rodriguez is "100 percent" right now and that there are "no red flags" going into spring training. Cashman says he expects Rodriguez to be able to play every day.

The Yankees also said they've reached agreement with 37-year-old lefty Hideki Okajima for a nonroster invite to spring training. Once a staple of the Boston bullpen, he spent most of last year in Triple-A for the Red Sox. The Yankees envision him as a possible lefty specialist.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-28-BBA-Yankees-Rodriguez/id-6fd4361fa03a41e592e3aa7fcc95a6b2

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E&Y auditors investigating massive 'errors' at Olympus (Americablog)

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In the Year 9595

Image: Illustration by Daniel Hertzberg

Watson is the IBM computer built by David Ferrucci and his team of 25 research scientists tasked with designing an artificial-intelligence (AI) system that can rival human champions at the game of Jeopardy. After beating the greatest Jeopardy champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, in February 2011, the computer is now being employed in more practical tasks such as answering diagnostic medical questions.

I have a question: Does Watson know that it won Jeopardy? Did it think, ?Oh, yeah! I beat the great Ken Jen!?? In other words, did Watson feel flushed with pride after its victory? This has been my standard response when someone asks me about the great human-versus-machine Jeopardy shoot-out; people always respond in the negative, understanding that such self-awareness is not yet the province of computers. So I put the line of inquiry to none other than Ferrucci at a recent conference. His answer surprised me: ?Yes, Watson knows it won Jeopardy.? I was skeptical: How can that be, since such self-awareness is not yet possible in computers? ?Because I told it that it won,? he replied with a wry smile.

Of course. You could even program Watson to vocalize a Howard Dean?like victory scream, but that is still a far cry from its feeling triumphant. That level of self-awareness in computers, and the time when it might be achieved, was a common theme at the Singularity Summit held in New York City on the weekend of October 15?16, 2011. There hundreds of singularitarians gathered to be apprised of our progress toward the date of 2045, set by visionary computer scientist Ray Kurzweil as being when computer intelligence will exceed that of all humanity by one billion times, humans will realize immortality, and technological change will be so rapid and profound that we will witness an intellectual event horizon beyond which, like its astronomical black hole namesake, life is not the same.

I was at once both inspired and skeptical. When asked my position on immortality, for example, I replied, ?I?m for it!? But wishing for eternal life?and being offered unprovable ways of achieving it?has been a theme for billions of people throughout history. My baloney-detection alarm goes off whenever a soothsayer writes himself and his generation into the forecast, proclaiming that the Biggest Thing to Happen to Humanity Ever will occur in the prophet?s own lifetime. I abide by the Copernican principle that we are not special. For once, I would like to hear a futurist or religious diviner predict that ?it? is going to happen in, say, the year 2525 or 7510. But where?s the hope in that? Herein lies the appeal of Kurzweil and his band of singularity hopefuls. No matter how distressing it may be when the bad news daily assaults our senses, our eyes should be on the prize just over the horizon. Be patient.

Patience is what we are going to need because, in my opinion, we are centuries away from AI matching human intelligence. As California Institute of Technology neuroscientist Christof Koch noted in narrating the wiring diagram of the entire nervous system of Caenorhabditis elegans, we are clueless in understanding how this simple roundworm ?thinks,? much less in explicating (and reproducing in a computer) a human mind billions of times more complex. We don?t even know how our brain produces conscious thoughts or where the ?self? is located (if it can be found anywhere at all), much less how to program a machine to do the same. Pop rock duo Zager and Evans were probably closer in their 1969 hit song In the Year 2525?s prediction that the biggest milestones would happen between the years 2525 and 9595, their exordium and terminus.

An irony: amid all this highfalutin braggadocio of how close we are to computers taking over the world and emulating human thought, I had to give my talk on the ?social singularity? (progress in political, economic and social systems over the past 10,000 years) early because Rice University computer scientist James McLurkin could not get his small swarm of robots to work. Either someone?s wireless mic or the room?s wireless network was interfering with the tiny robots? communications system, and no one could figure out how to solve the problem. My prediction for the Singularity: we are 10 years away ... and always will be.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=bf739ecfe328cc73ff3c22111969c414

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NBA's return draws big TV ratings on Christmas

NBA fans seem more excited about basketball's return than bitter about the lockout based on television ratings for the league's delayed openers.

The five Christmas games Sunday attracted large audiences, with the Bulls-Lakers matchup drawing the third-highest preliminary rating for a regular-season game on ABC. The 6.5 overnight rating trailed only a 7.3 for last year's highly anticipated Heat-Lakers showdown and a 7.9 for another meeting between Miami and LA in 2004.

Chris Paul's Clippers debut in the nightcap against the Warriors earned a 2.3 overnight, up 77 percent over last year's Portland-Golden State telecast. It was ESPN's highest-rated Christmas prime-time game.

The earlier night game on ESPN - Magic-Thunder - drew a 1.9 overnight, up 36 percent from to last year's Denver-Oklahoma City matchup. The afternoon's finals rematch on ABC, the Heat's rout of the Mavericks, earned a 5.6 overnight, up 6 percent from Boston-Orlando last year.

The Celtics-Knicks game on TNT to open the day drew a 4.1 overnight. The early game on ESPN last year, Bulls-Knicks, had a 2.7 on ESPN.

Ratings represent the percentage of all homes with televisions tuned to a program. Overnight ratings measure the country's largest markets.

Source: http://www.bradenton.com/2011/12/26/3749903/nbas-return-draws-big-tv-ratings.html

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Prince Philip in hospital as royals mark Christmas (omg!)

LONDON (AP) ? Britain's royal family celebrated Christmas on Sunday with one notable absence ? Queen Elizabeth II's husband Prince Philip, who remains hospitalized following a heart procedure.

The 90-year-old prince was recovering from having a coronary stent put in after doctors determined the heart pains that sent him to the hospital on Friday were caused by a blocked artery.

Buckingham Palace said "he's in good spirits" and family members will visit Philip, also known as the Duke of Edinburgh, in the hospital after lunch.

The royal family's Christmas schedule kicked off with a traditional morning service at St. Mary Magdelene Church, on the queen's sprawling Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

The huge crowds that gathered outside the church got an early peek when the royals made a quick private visit to the church ahead of the services. Less than two hours later, they were back ? in different clothes ? for the Christmas service.

The Queen arrived first ? dressed in a lavender-colored coat and hat ? in a royal limousine, leading the way into the church. Her oldest son, Prince Charles, and his wife, Camilla, trailed behind.

Prince Harry walked in with his brother William and new sister-in-law Kate? now known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Kate, whose style is closely watched around the world and who sends any dress she wears flying off the shelves in Britain, wore an eggplant-colored coat and matching hat.

Among the other royals present was the queen's granddaughter, Zara Philips, who was joined by her new husband Mike Tindall, an English rugby player.

After the service, children lined up to give bouquets of flowers to the queen. Thanking each well-wisher, the queen then handed the bouquets to her granddaughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

Well-wisher Camilla Fitt, 71, said Charles told her that his father, Philip, was "very determined" to get well.

"Charles said he is coming on," said Fitt.

The royal family then traveled back to the house for lunch, an integral part of their celebration.

Another key part of their Christmas festivities is the queen's annual message to the nation, which this year will focus on family and community.

The 85-year-old queen has made a prerecorded Christmas broadcast on radio since 1952 and on television since 1957. She writes the speeches herself, and the broadcasts mark the rare occasion on which the queen voices her own opinion without government consultation.

___

Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_prince_philip_hospital_royals_mark_christmas103634867/44002277/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/prince-philip-hospital-royals-mark-christmas-103634867.html

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The First iPad Stylus With an On-Screen Cursor [Video]

Billed as an "active stylus" for the iPad, the iPen can be recognized by the tablet even when the tip hovers above the display. Allowing for improved stylus accuracy, but also facilitating an on-screen cursor.

That might not seem like a big deal for a device designed to be used with taps and swipes, but anyone who's ever used a Wacom tablet with a PC will appreciate having that visual cue of where exactly the tip of the stylus has been detected.

The peripheral?which attaches to the iPad's dock port?uses the same ultrasonic technology that lets those smart pens capture handwritten notes. But I think it's put to better use here.

As you can see in the video, the iPen allows for extremely detailed and precise pen strokes. Which will be appreciated by artists, and should vastly improve the capabilities of handwriting recognition software. Because it's a third-party peripheral, apps have to be specifically written to take advantage of what the iPen can do. But the company behind it has already lined up considerable support from App Store developers. And since they've more than raised the $35,000 they were seeking through Kickstarter, you might actually be able to buy one in the near future. [Kickstarter via John Nack]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/-T1JbUbsH3c/the-first-ipad-stylus-with-an-on+screen-cursor

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Dan_Martin: RT @NoradSanta: Santa is headed for London!

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Taliban suicide bomber kills 6 Pakistani soldiers (AP)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan ? A Pakistani Taliban suicide bomber rammed a car filled with explosives into a paramilitary camp in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing six soldiers in the second attack in as many days meant to avenge the slaying of a senior commander in a U.S. drone strike.

The attacks came as Pakistan was gripped by tension between the army and the civilian government over a secret memo sent to Washington earlier this year asking for help in reining in the military. Pakistan's prime minister sought to dial down the conflict Saturday, days after he set off alarm with a warning of a potential coup.

The bombing against the Frontier Corps camp in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Bannu town caused part of a building to collapse and wounded at least 19 soldiers, said local police officer Tahir Khan.

A Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to The Associated Press. He said it was meant to avenge the death of commander Taj Gul in a U.S. drone strike in October in the South Waziristan tribal area, a key sanctuary for the militants.

Gul was the Pakistani Taliban's operational commander in South Waziristan and was responsible for many attacks against security forces.

On Friday, around three dozen Pakistani Taliban fighters armed with assault rifles attacked a paramilitary camp in Tank district near South Waziristan before dawn, killing one soldier and kidnapping 15 others.

Ehsan, the Taliban spokesman, said Friday that attack was also meant to avenge Gul's death. The militants targeted the soldiers because of Pakistan's alliance with the United States, he said.

Ehsan pledged they would kill the kidnapped troops, saying "we are going to cut these soldiers into pieces one by one, and we will send these pieces to their commanders."

The Pakistani Taliban has waged a fierce insurgency in Pakistan over the past four years, killing tens of thousands of security personnel and civilians. Their aim is to topple the civilian government, partly because of its alliance with the U.S., and impose Islamic law throughout the country.

Pakistan has launched a series of military offensives against the Pakistani Taliban in the northwest along the Afghan border, including in South Waziristan.

Analysts say the operations, combined with hundreds of U.S. drone attacks, have contributed to a significant decline in violence in Pakistan this year. But militants still carry out attacks almost daily that have killed more than 2,300 people through November, according to the Pak Institute for Peace Studies.

The current political crisis in Pakistan threatens to distract the military from its fight against the militants.

The scandal centers around a memo that was allegedly sent to a senior U.S. military official in May by Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S. at the time, Husain Haqqani, asking for help in averting a supposed army coup in the wake of the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Haqqani has denied the allegations but resigned in the wake of the scandal. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has also denied claims that he was connected to the memo.

Tension spiked this past week when Pakistan's Supreme Court opened a hearing into the scandal and demanded the president submit a response, which he has so far failed to do. The government has claimed there is no need for a judicial investigation since parliament is looking into the matter.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani set pulses racing Thursday when he claimed there was a conspiracy under way to oust the government. He did not specifically point to the military, but he did say the army must be answerable to parliament and cannot act as a "state within a state."

Army chief Gen. Pervez Ashfaq Kayani dismissed the prime minister's allegations Friday, saying the military had no intention of staging a coup and would respect the constitution.

Gilani welcomed Kayani's comments Saturday, saying "the clarification from the army chief yesterday is extremely well-taken in the democratic circles."

"It will certainly improve the situation," Gilani told reporters in Islamabad.

Analysts have speculated that the army may try to force Zardari out of office over the memo scandal, rather than actually stage a coup.

Kayani said Friday that talk of a military takeover was a distraction from "real issues," a comment perceived by some to apply to the president's alleged role in the scandal.

___

Mahsud reported from Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan. Associated Press writer Asif Shahzad contributed to this report from Islamabad.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111224/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan

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5,000 turn out for Chino Hills boat parade

Celeste Casillas, 5 from Chino Hills waves to a passing boat Friday night December 23, 2011 during the annual Chino Hills Christmas Boat Parade. (Will Lester/Staff Photographer)

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Photo Gallery: Chino Hills Christmas Boat Parade

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CHINO HILLS - Most people are used to the typical holiday parade that include marching bands, floats and carolers.

But for more than two decades this city has been participating in holiday parade with a little twist.

Sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Chino Hills, about 5,000 parade-goers on Friday watched as boats decked out in an arrangement of holiday lights cruised down some of the city's main streets.

"When it originally went through just the neighborhoods I would take my daughter out to our front yard and we would watch them pass through the streets," said Leonora Olmos, who has participated in almost every parade.

"It's fun and different and it's about feeling the Christmas spirit of bringing people together."

The parade started about 20 years ago by a few residents wanting to spread some holiday cheer by decorating their boats.

And as the years went on it grew larger and larger, said Bill Taylor, coordinator of the parade and five-year member of the club.

"It's kind of kooky," Taylor said. "Even though we're landlocked we still like to have a good time."

For those who couldn't make it out to Friday's parade, or even for those to wanted to enjoy the show twice, the boats toured the city streets in what the Kiwanis

called the "neighborhood parade" on Thursday.

Taylor said 17 boats participated on Thursday, while 60 did on Friday.

Friday's parade kicked off from Chino Hills Community Park traveled north on Peyton Drive, through Boys Republic Road, and finally exiting on Eucalyptus Avenue.

Just as the first boat by the Kiwanis Club turned the corner onto Boys Republic Drive the crowd started to clap and cheer.

"They're coming, look they're coming," said one spectator.

The boats may have come in different shapes and sizes but they all came spreading the holiday cheer with thousands of blinking lights.

Those in the boat threw candy and glowing bracelets out to the crowd and yelled "Merry Christmas."

Spotted on some of the boats were a quartet of saxophone players, the Grinch, a snowmen water skiing, the leg lamp from "A Christmas Story" and a number of trees.

Like any holiday parade, this parade wasn't complete without an appearance by Mr. Claus himself.

And for 6-year-old Stevie Escareno that was her main reason for attending the parade.

"I'm excited to see Santa on a boat," she said.

Students from various clubs at Ayala and Chino Hills High schools sold hot chocolate, cookies, and holiday desserts to parade spectators at "Parade Village" at Ayala High's parking lot.

Chino Valley Community Church hosted an after-party and some of the boats from the parade were also on display for the crowd to admire.

"It's really a chance for our city to come together in the holiday spirit and it's wonderful to feel that so close to Christmas," Taylor said.

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Reach Canan via email, call her at 909-987-6397 ext. 425, or find her on Twitter @ChinoValleyNow.

Source: http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_19614397?source=rss

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As If You Needed Another Reason to Hate F*cking GoDaddy [Sopa]

GoDaddy, proud supporter of internet censorship bill SOPA, has responded to those questioning its motives. Surprise! They're bullshit, just like the rest of the company. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/jcxqH7--4Go/as-if-you-needed-another-reason-to-hate-fcking-godaddy

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Democracy for New Mexico: NM-1: Communications Workers of ...

? NM State Rep. Moe Maestas and DPNM Chairman Javier Gonzales Blast House Republicans' Vote to Raise Taxes on 160 Million Americans, GOP's Failed Leadership for the Middle Class | Main | Democracy for America is Proud to Endorse Eric Griego for Congress NM-CD1 ?

Friday, December 23, 2011

NM-1: Communications Workers of America (CWA) Endorses Eric Griego for Congress

Following is an announcement from the Eric Griego for Congress Campaign.

On Monday Dec. 19th, Democrat Eric Griego announced his endorsement by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The CWA endorsement was made by both the union?s state council comprising all of the local unions and the international union.

The endorsement is significant because the union represents 6,000 members in New Mexico, including more than 4,000 in the First Congressional District, and is one of the largest unions within the AFL-CIO.

This latest union endorsement joins those by AFSCME, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, District 1199NM National Union Hospital and Healthcare Employees Union and the Bakers, Confectionaries, Tobacco Workers and Millers Union (BCTGM) Local 351.? Collectively, these unions represent nearly 20,000 members in New Mexico.

?The livelihood of working families are under attack by a Congress that is beholden to a 1%-only agenda, and we need a real fighter for the middle class more than ever in Washington,? said?Michael Salazar, president of the CWA New Mexico State Council.? ?CWA is proud to endorse Eric Griego for Congress because he has always been a steadfast champion for working families, and we?re going to work hard to make sure he?s our next Congressman.?

?We need to send more elected representatives to Washington who isn?t afraid to stand up to the 1%-only agenda and their powerful backers,? said?Richard Toledo, president of CWA Local 7011.? ?Eric Griego has always shown that he has the courage to stand up for working families even when going gets tough, and we will stand with him as he has stood with us.?

?As State Senator and Albuquerque City Councilor, Eric has always sided with working families on issues such as increasing the minimum wage and savings jobs,? said?Michelle Lewis, president of CWA Local 7076.? ?Eric Griego is that rare politician who says what he believes, and actually does what he says.?

CWA joins a growing coalition of local and national progressive, labor, environmental and Democratic supporters.? Griego?s endorsers include progressive and Hispanic leaders such as Congressman Ra?l Grijalva, the Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus; national progressive grassroots groups such as the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and MoveOn.org Political Action; labor unions such as CWA, AFSCME, Teamsters, and the nurses and bakers unions; environmental groups such as Conservation Voters New Mexico, League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club; and more than two dozen current and former local and state elected officials.

December 23, 2011 at 07:54 AM in Candidates & Races, Eric Griego, NM-01 Congressional Race 2012, Unions | Permalink

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Source: http://www.democracyfornewmexico.com/democracy_for_new_mexico/2011/12/nm-1-communications-workers-of-america-cwa-endorses-eric-griego-for-congress.html

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How Is the Rise in Christmas? Popularity Being Handled in Israel?

Foreign migrant workers from the Philippines Celebrate an annual Christmas-Hannukah party in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Dec 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) ? The founders of Neve Shaanan, a neighborhood in southern Tel Aviv, planned their streets in the shape of a seven-branched candelabra ? a symbol of their Jewish faith. Ninety years later, the streets are full of Christmas decorations, reflecting a flowering of Christianity in Israel?s economic and cultural capital.

Tens of thousands of Christian foreigners, most of them laborers from the Philippines and African asylum seekers, have poured into the neighborhood in recent years. They pray year-round in more than 30 churches hidden in grimy apartment buildings. But in late December, their Christian subculture emerges in full force in the southern streets of Tel Aviv, whose founders called it the ?first Hebrew city.?

On the Saturday before Christmas, the center of festivities was the city?s central bus station, a hulking seven-story maze of concrete. A plastic green fir spewed fake snow from its top in a shop near the main entrance. Christmas carols blasted from storefronts full of rice and noodles. Giggly young Filipino women took photographs with a Santa Claus figure to send to their friends and parents.

A few blocks north of the station, pastor Ruby Austria held her arms up and led prayers for 80 worshippers, most of them Filipino women, at a makeshift church on the third floor of an apartment building.

Women wept, clutching small children and singing along to Austria?s prayers and a keyboard accompaniment. Nearly all of them were in Israel illegally because they lost their work permits when they had children.

?God is embracing us,? Austria said. ?May we see the true meaning of Christmas, that each of us will be able to see it in our lives and family.?

Romeo Moralit, 35, arrived in Israel five years ago to work as a caregiver. He planned to buy a musical Santa Claus statue to bring cheer to his home, he said. Tel Aviv?s Christmas celebrations paled in comparison to Manila?s. ?In the Philippines you see decorations everywhere, twinkling lights, and songs playing in all the shopping malls,? he said.

For some, the holiday punctuates the divide between parents and children.

Nancy Domingo, who arrived in Israel 14 years ago from the Philippines, said her eldest daughter did not plan on eating traditional Filipino Christmas food. The 7-year-old, like the other children of migrant workers here, has grown up steeped in Israeli Jewish culture. The girl speaks Hebrew, learns about Jewish holidays in school and is familiar with Jewish dietary laws, such as the ban on pork.

?If I cook pork she won?t eat it because in school they tell her pork is not clean,? Domingo said. ?She doesn?t know Christmas, only Hanukkah.?

Nearby, a mostly African church called Lift Up Your Head, runs an annual trip to Jerusalem?s Old City and Bethlehem. Tour organizer Anthony Stephens, a Nigerian asylum seeker, said 150 people have signed up.

?People from all over the world spend a lot of money to come here, but for us it is like a gift because we are in the land,? said Stephens.

Lift Up Your Head is sandwiched between two other African congregations on the first and third floors of an apartment building. These churches offer African-inflected gospel music, dancing in the aisles and fiery preaching that holds together an impoverished group far from home. On Saturday, pastor Jeremiah Dairo howled into a microphone between songs.

?Today you are in the right place and God will see you through, in the mighty name of Jesus!? Dairo said.

Not all Israelis are pleased to see the rising profile of Christmas, which to some symbolizes religious assimilation and to others a religion with a history of hostility to Jews. Moshe Avisar, 67, on his way back to Jerusalem, said the decorations in the bus station bothered him.

?I go to the Central Bus Station and I don?t feel like I?m in Israel, even though it?s my country,? he said. Of the decorations, he said, ?I don?t want to see this in the Jewish State. Then all the Jewish people get carried away with it and start celebrating too.?

The foreigners are not the only Christians in the city. Jaffa, a historically Arab town that is now the southern quarter of Tel Aviv, has churches dating back hundreds of years.

Nationwide, Israel has about 110,000 Arab Christian citizens. A wave of 1 million immigrants from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s included between 50,000-80,000 practicing Russian Orthodox. And thousands of other Russian-speaking Jews celebrate a secular version of Christmas.

But unlike these groups, the foreign workers and asylum seekers have little way to gain citizenship.

The workers, who receive temporary permits, often overstay them, living illegally and in fear of the immigration police. For these people, the churches are alternate institutions that help them navigate the uncertainty of their lives on the margins of Israeli society.

Social worker Tamar Schwartz directs Mesila, an aid organization for foreigners funded partially by the Tel Aviv municipality. The church is a key meeting place for the foreign community, she said.

Each year the organization throws a Christmas-Hanukkah party to help bridge between the migrants? foreign backgrounds and the Jewish culture their children absorb.

?They learn only about Hanukkah in school, and then they get home to parents who don?t speak Hebrew and they hear that Christmas is the most important holiday,? she said. ?A child like this grows with a split identity.?

The top Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land even warned of the migrants drifting away from their faith by living in a Hebrew-speaking Jewish society.

?We must redouble our pastoral efforts to provide religious services and to ensure their integration into the local church,? Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal said Wednesday in his annual pre-Christmas address.

Gift shop owner Daniel Seah said that when he first arrived in Tel Aviv from Singapore 15 years ago he brought his own Christmas tree because he wondered whether he could find one in Israel. A week before Christmas he produced an annual Christmas show on the fourth floor of the Central Bus Station, with singing, dancing and a gift basket lottery.

?In the mind of the people who come to Israel, it?s the birthplace of Christianity and they really thought Christmas would be a big deal everywhere,? he said. ?They were disappointed. They expect it to be a little more exuberant.?

Source: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/culture-clash-rising-prominence-of-christmas-in-israel-leads-to-split-identity-for-some/

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Debra Ollivier: Thinking About Sex: How Men And Women Differ (Or Not)

Do men think about sex every seven seconds? What about women? Are you an erotophile or an erotophobe? These are a few questions implicitly raised in a research study that generated some recent buzz and got me thinking about the curiosities of research. Published in the Journal for Sex Research, it's called: "Sex on the Brain? An examination of Frequency of Sexual Cognitions as a Function of Gender, Erotophilia and Social Desirability," by Terri D. Fisher, Zachary T. Moore and Mary-Joe Pittenger.

For starters, if your eyes glazed over on that subtitle, here's some help: In layman terms it might as well read: "A look at how often men and women think about sex based on their gender, how sexually uptight they are (or not), and where they fall on the social register." (And for those of you stumped by the sexy research language: According to Wikipedia, erotophiles talk about sex more openly, feel less guilt about it, and have "more positive attitudes toward sexually explicit material." Erotophobes, on the other hand, feel guilty and fearful about sex, have it less frequently and with fewer partners, and don't like the explicit stuff.

The gist of the study, according to Dr. Fisher, was partly to examine "the crazy old myth that men think about sex every seven seconds." That's a lot of sex on the brain. According to Fisher, "no research has ever found anything even remotely approaching that magnitude." Well, that's reassuring. Because if men did think about sex that often, they'd have little space left in their mental hard drives to think about anything other than, well, their hard drives.

To debunk this every enduring (and endearing) myth, research participants were given a tally-counter to click every time they had a thought about sex. The results weren't surprising: Basically, there's not that big a disparity between men and women when it comes to frequency of thinking about sex. (Those interested in the fine points can read a research extract here.) Men thought a bit more about food and sleep, though that could be connected to sex, too, when you think about it. Have Sex. Eat. Sleep. Not necessarily in that order.

It's also not surprising that erotophiles thought about sex less than erotophobes -- at least they clicked less, which doesn't mean they were telling the truth. And that's the problem with research, isn't it? It stands to reason that if you're an erotophobe, even if you think about sex you might not feel comfortable clicking about it. Then again, it's possible that erotophobes secretly think about sex more often than erotophobes, or in stranger ways, precisely because they have issues with it.

Which brings me to a problematic point about research studies. Seems to me we Americans are more obsessed than any nation on earth with quantifying things. That's not based on empirical data, of course. I'd have to do a research study to confirm it. But every month there seems to be a new study about the "science" of love and sex that generally either proves the obvious, tries to quantify the unquantifiable, or leads me, personally, to wonder: So what? Does it matter what chemicals go off in your brain when you're in love or having sex? What are we supposed to do about bio-behavioral modes designed to quantify romantic love and "passion love scales"? Isn't trying to quantify the vast grey zones of subjective human behavior a little like trying to slip a mold of jello through a keyhole and have it come out the other end intact?

I was compelled to contact Dr. Fisher after reading a recent review of "Sex on the Brain" in the New York Times. It concluded that Fisher and her colleagues were unsuccessful getting "older Americans" to follow-up with their research. Turns out "older" Americans simply meant people older than 25. Getting non-college students to participate without compensation -- meaning anyone over, say, 30 -- was a challenge. When it came to the gender of those who participated, however, women were a resounding majority. " Now, what to make of that?," the Times reporter asked.

Yeah, what about that? Replied Fisher: "I would guess that it has something to do with the fact that women have menopause as a signal that they've entered a new phase of life and men don't have a comparable signal like that. Therefore men are perhaps able to self-delude that they're young, whereas women have to recognize the signs."

The signs, of course, are bleeped out daily and pervasively by a multi-billion dollar anti-aging industry that's focused primarily on women. Hard not to be reminded of aging, even if you're only 21, when anti-aging has become something of a crusade in America. Meanwhile, it's safe to conclude that we all, men and women, think about sex on and off, for various reasons and to various degrees, whether we're having sex or not (philes and phobes alike). And somewhere along the way, we want to eat and sleep.

?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/debra-ollivier/thinking-about-tags_b_1161406.html

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Astronauts plan space station holiday bash (Video)

The addition of three more spaceflyers on Dec. 23 will double the population of the orbiting lab, bringing it back up to full operational strength after a month at skeleton-crew levels.

Astronauts on the International Space Station are planning a big holiday bash to welcome three new crewmates, who are slated to arrive just before Christmas.

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The addition of three more spaceflyers on Dec. 23 will double the population of the orbiting lab, bringing it back up to full operational strength after a month at skeleton-crew levels. That's good news for scientists keen to maximize thespace station's research potential, and it'll make the holidays a little less lonely 240 miles (386 kilometers) above the Earth's surface.

"We'll celebrate the holidays in great fashion after they get here," station commander Dan Burbank of NASA said in a?space holiday video message. "We've already put up decorations, and we've gathered together all the cards and gifts that our friends and families have sent to us, and we're planning a couple of big meals. That'll be great."

Skeleton crew will get beefed up

Burbank and his two cosmonaut colleagues, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin, are the only residents aboard the International Space Station (ISS) at the moment. They arrived on Nov. 16 and have been alone up there since Nov. 21, when three other crewmembers departed for Earth. [Holidays in Space: An Astronaut Photo Album]

But things should change this week. A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three spaceflyers ? one American, one Russian and one Dutch ? is slated to blast off from Kazakhstan on Dec. 21 and arrive at the station two days later, rounding out the station's current Expedition 30 to its full complement of six crewmates.

Burbank is eager for the new group to come aboard, and not just for professional reasons.

"With their arrival, ISS will be back at full strength, but we'll also have three good friends to join us," he said. "We'll also have them just in time for the holidays."

A holiday message for Earth

Burbank also sent home holiday greetings to the seven billion people living and working on Earth, hundreds of miles beneath his feet.

"On behalf of the Expedition 30 crew aboard the International Space Station, we wish everyone on planet Earth a happy, safe and ? most of all ? peaceful holiday season," he said.

Burbank added that his month in space has been "very busy but wonderful," and that seeing Earth from space is an incredible experience. He described the events of one night in particular, when he looked out and saw?the northern lights?bracketed by city lights on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

"This planet is unimaginably beautiful, and it's peaceful and it's serene when you look at it from space," Burbank said. "And that night pass to us seemed like a holiday greeting card, the most beautiful one you could imagine."

If you'd like to send holiday wishes to Burbank and his fellow space station crewmembers, NASA makes it easy. You can choose among several electronic "postcards" at the following website:http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/postcard/

You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter:?@michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter?@Spacedotcom?and on?Facebook.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/KxLY5b63pxU/Astronauts-plan-space-station-holiday-bash-Video

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Key witness excused from testifying in U.S. leaks case (Reuters)

FORT MEADE, MD (Reuters) ? A key witness was excused from testifying in the case against Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning on Sunday after he invoked his right against self-incrimination at a hearing about the largest leak of classified documents in U.S. history.

Sergeant First Class Paul Adkins invoked his right against self-incrimination as he began answering questions at a proceeding to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to court-martial the 24-year-old Manning on charges including aiding the enemy, which carries life imprisonment.

Manning is charged with downloading massive data files from the military's classified network when he was a U.S. Army intelligence analyst in Iraq, and providing them to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

The defense has portrayed Adkins, at the time a master sergeant in charge of security at the facility where Manning worked, as someone who should have recognized the private's troubled emotional state and acted to revoke the security clearance that gave him access to classified U.S. documents.

Manning's attorney, David Coombs, argued that Adkins should not be excused because he was not under criminal investigation in the case, but the prosecution declined to grant him immunity to testify and he was excused.

A second intelligence analyst who worked with Manning, Warrant Officer 1 Kyle Balonek, also invoked his right against self-incrimination and was excused from testifying on Sunday. He was one of the most experienced analysts in the unit.

Coombs argued on Saturday that Manning had displayed warning signs of emotional instability before his alleged wrongdoing and struggled with his gender identity.

In one incident, Manning "got furious and upset, flipped a table during the outburst" and sent a computer crashing to the ground, Coombs said. Manning had to be restrained over fears he was headed for a weapon.

Captain Casey Fulton, an Army intelligence officer who worked in the same secure facility as Manning, testified that another time she saw him curled up on the floor with his arms around his knees as Adkins spoke to him.

SHOULD HAVE BEEN DENIED ACCESS

Fulton also testified that later that night she overheard a commotion in which Manning allegedly struck a female superior, which was also reported to Adkins and resulted in Manning being moved to work in the supply division.

As it cross-examined prosecution witnesses on Sunday, the defense team continued to suggest that Manning should not have had access to classified documents, given his emotional state.

Fulton, who used Manning in her work preparing for the Iraqi election, rejected suggestions that supervision of lower-level analysts like Manning was lax.

"It's impossible to supervise 100 percent of the time," she said. "There's a limited amount of supervisors and you can't supervise everyone at every second of the day. (You) trust that they'll safeguard the material the way they've been taught."

Sergeant Chad Madaras, who worked in the same facility as Manning during the day and used the same computer, acknowledged that soldiers regularly used classified computers to play music, movies and video games.

Those recordings, movies and video games were kept on a classified network drive - where Fulton testified first seeing a helicopter gunsight video released by WikiLeaks last year.

The video shows a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists. U.S. investigators say they have found a rewritable CD with that video in Manning's possession.

Captain Thomas Cherepki, an information systems manager who oversaw networks at Manning's facility, said intelligence analysts like Manning had to have the ability to copy information from their classified machines onto discs to share data with each other and with locals.

DEFENSE FOCUS ON MENTAL STATE

"There was no technical restriction put in place by me or any of my soldiers to prevent that from happening," he said. "The only thing that would prevent that, in my view is trust that the soldier would do what's right."

The prosecution has portrayed Manning as a well-trained analyst who understood his responsibilities but violated them. The defense has tried to sidestep the question of blame and focus instead on his mental state.

Manning's brigade chief, Captain Steven Lim, on Saturday testified that Adkins had received an email in April 2010 in which Manning said he suffered from a gender identity disorder that was affecting his life, work and ability to think.

The email included a photo of Manning as a woman. Lim said Adkins did not tell him about the email until after Manning's arrest. Manning, it was disclosed during the proceedings, has created a female alter-ego online, Breanna Manning.

Manning was arrested last year after disclosing his data thefts to former hacker Adrian Lamo, who turned him in to U.S. authorities.

In Internet chats with Lamo, Manning said he would bring CDs to his workplace and load them with downloaded data from the military's Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, known as SIPRNet, Lamo told Reuters in a previous interview.

In his Web chats with Lamo, Manning appeared to acknowledge giving materials to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

He wrote to Lamo: "I'm a high profile source ... and I've developed a relationship with Assange," according to details of the chats confirmed by Lamo to Reuters.

(Writing by David Alexander; editing by Vicki Allen and Todd Eastham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111218/us_nm/us_usa_defense_manning

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Scientists may be able to double efficacy of radiation therapy

ScienceDaily (Dec. 16, 2011) ? Scientists may have a way to double the efficacy and reduce the side effects of radiation therapy.

Georgia Health Sciences University scientists have devised a way to reduce lung cancer cells' ability to repair the lethal double-strand DNA breaks caused by radiation therapy.

"Radiation is a great therapy -- the problem is the side effects," said Dr. William S. Dynan, biochemist and Associate Director of Research and Chief, Nanomedicine and Gene Regulation at the GHSU Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics. "We think this is a way to get the same amount of cancer cell death with less radiation or use the same amount and maybe cure a patient that could not be cured before."

Radiation therapy capitalizes on radiation's ability to kill cells by causing double-strand breaks in DNA. But the fact that varying levels of radiation are essentially everywhere -- food, air, the ground, etc. -- means all cells, including cancer cells, have internal mechanisms to prevent the lethal breakage.

GHSU scientists are targeting the natural defense mechanisms by packaging a piece of an antibody against one of them with folate, which has easy access to most cells, particularly cancer cells. Many cancers, including the lung cancer cells they studied, have large numbers of folate receptors so that cancer cells get a disproportionate share of the package.

Previous efforts to destroy cancer cells' ability to avoid radiation damage have focused on receptors on their surface, said Dr. Shuyi Li, molecular biologist, pediatrician and corresponding author on the study in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology.

To get a more direct hit, the scientists took advantage of folate receptors as a point of entry by chemically binding folate with the small piece of their antibody, ScFv 18-2. The package heads straight for the cell nucleus where a different chemical environment breaks the bond, freeing ScFv 18-2 to attack the regulatory region of DNA-dependent protein kinase, an enzyme essential to DNA repair.

"We are joining a targeting molecule with a cargo," said Dynan. "This strategy targets one of the key enzymes so it's harder to repair," Li said. This makes cancer cells more vulnerable to radiation.

Dynan and Li say the approach could be used to deliver any number of drugs directly inside cancer cells. Future studies include looking at other cell entry points as well as other targets to ensure they have the most effective package. Studies to date have been in human lung cancer cells in culture, so next steps also need to include animal studies.

Their approach mimics a natural process called endocytosis in which cells engulf proteins and other substances they want to let inside but can't fit through normal doorways.

Folate receptors already are being used as direct entry points for chemotherapeutic drugs, including clinical studies of a new strategy for ovarian cancer. GHSU is participating in clinical trials of a therapy that pairs an agent too toxic to be delivered through the bloodstream with folate to better target one of the most deadly cancers.

Dynan is the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Molecular Biology. Dynan and Li are both faculty members in GHSU's Medical College of Georgia. Dynan also is a faculty member in the College of Graduate Studies.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Georgia Health Sciences University. The original article was written by Toni Baker.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111216174446.htm

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Video: Golden Globe nominations are out

>>> the golden globe nominations are out. cloony got three nominations, gosling got two. and maybe audio is overrated. the first silent film in years in genre lease, "the artist" got the most nominations. "the descendants" and "the help" did well. it is the annual curtain raiser for the oscars.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/45690681/

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Apple makes it legal to port Siri to an iPhone 4 (Digital Trends)

Apple?s Siri voice assistant stands as one of the primary selling points of the iPhone 4S, which is the only device that includes the feature. Yes, many hackers have tried to put Siri on other Apple gadgets, but they have so far been unstable and otherwise severely flawed. But that is all about to change.

As Alex Heath at Cult of Mac reports, Apple has released now released iOS 5.0.1, which includes the Siri code unencrypted, making it possible ? and legal ? for hackers to port Siri to older versions of the iPhone.

The notable change to iOS 5.0.1 was first uncovered (publicly) by well-known iPhone hacker MuscleNerd, who posted the information to Twitter. MuscleNerd notes that iOS 5.0.1 is ?the first public 4S ipsw where the main filesystem keys are obtainable (due to non-encrypted ramdisks).? By un-encrypting the Siri code, Apple has made it possible to port the feature to other devices without violating Apple?s copyright.

It is entirely possible that Apple will close this loophole soon ? in fact, we?d wager that that is a highly likely scenario ? when it releases iOS 5.1. For now, however, those of you who have stuck with the iPhone 4, and choose to jailbreak your device, could very soon have Siri all to yourself.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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Apple takes control over iPhone porn domain names

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/security/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20111216/tc_digitaltrends/applemakesitlegaltoportsiritoaniphone4

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Beverly Macy: Top 3 Reasons for Executive Social Media Training in 2012 (Huffington post)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/174581313?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Penn State figures accused of lying head to court

Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach charged with sexually abusing boys, leaves the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011, after waiving his preliminary hearing. The decision moves him toward a trial on charges of child sex abuse. At least some of his 10 accusers had been expected to testify at Tuesday's hearing. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach charged with sexually abusing boys, leaves the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011, after waiving his preliminary hearing. The decision moves him toward a trial on charges of child sex abuse. At least some of his 10 accusers had been expected to testify at Tuesday's hearing. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Jerry Sandusky, left, the former Penn State assistant football coach charged with sexually abusing boys, arrives with his wife, Dottie Sandusky, at the Centre County Courthouse for a preliminary hearing, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011, in Bellefonte Pa. Shortly after arriving, Sandusky waived his preliminary hearing, a decision that moves him toward a trial on charges of child sex abuse. At least some of his ten accusers had been expected to testify at the hearing. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Jerry Sandusky, left, the former Penn State assistant football coach charged with sexually abusing boys, arrives with his wife, Dottie Sandusky, at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011. Sandusky has waived his preliminary hearing, a decision that moves him toward a trial on charges of child sex abuse. At least some of his 10 accusers had been expected to testify at the hearing. The move was announced as the hearing began Tuesday. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Attorney Joe Amendola speaks outside the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011, after his client, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, waived his preliminary hearing on charges of sexually abusing boys. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) ? Jerry Sandusky's decision Tuesday to waive his preliminary hearing shifts the focus in the child sex-abuse scandal to two Penn State administrators accused of failing to properly report suspected abuse and lying to the grand jury investigating Sandusky.

Tim Curley and Gary Schultz face their own pretrial hearing on Friday in Harrisburg, and although the charges are much different, with far less severe potential penalties, their cases could hinge on a man also expected to be a prime witness against Sandusky: assistant football coach Mike McQueary.

McQueary testified that he happened upon "rhythmic, slapping sounds" in the football team locker room showers in March 2002, and looked in to see a naked boy being sodomized by the former defensive coordinator, according to a grand jury presentment.

McQueary, then a 28-year-old graduate assistant, reported what he saw to then-football coach Joe Paterno, the grand jury said. Paterno called Curley, the university's athletic director, the next day, and a week and a half later McQueary met with Curley and Schultz ? who oversaw university police in his position as a vice president.

What precisely was said at those meetings, and what Curley and Schultz did or didn't do afterward is at the heart of the government's case against them.

Their lawyers have declined recent requests for comment, but previously have said the two men deny the allegations and indicated they will contest the facts alleged by the attorney general's office and dispute how the particular offenses have been applied to them.

Also at issue are statements McQueary has made in emails that may contradict his grand jury testimony. Last weekend The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reported that McQueary's story changed when speaking to Dr. Jonathan Dranov, a family friend. The newspaper report cited a source said to be familiar with Dranov's testimony.

"If this information is true, and we believe it is, it would be powerful, exculpatory evidence and the charges against our clients should be dismissed," said the lawyers for Curley and Schultz, Caroline Roberto and Thomas Farrell, respectively, in a statement.

The Associated Press was unable to reach Dranov at his home and office for comment. No one answered the door at McQueary's home Tuesday. His father, John, declined comment to the Associated Press.

Sandusky's lawyer, Joe Amendola, called McQueary the centerpiece of the prosecution's case, and said shifting stories were helping his client.

"If anyone is na?ve enough to think for a minute that Tim Curley, Joe Paterno and Gary Schultz, and for that matter, Graham Spanier, the university president, were told that he observed Jerry Sandusky having anal sex with a 10-year-old-looking kid in a shower room at Penn State, on Penn State property, and their response was simply to tell Jerry Sandusky that 'don't go in the shower anymore with kids,' I suggest you dial 1-800-REALITY because that makes absolutely no sense," Amendola said.

That number connects to a phone sex line touting gay and bi-curious sex for men.

Later, Amendola told the AP that "I've been using that line for years when people have said things that make no sense. It's analagous to 'get a life.' I had no idea that was a real number, let alone what it actually is. I will not be using that line in the future!"

But Amendola's statement about the case was only a recent example of how McQueary's credibility, and the details of his testimony, may prove critical to proving or disproving the allegations against the three defendants.

The Friday preliminary hearing is meant to establish whether there is sufficient legal grounds to send the allegations to Dauphin County Common Pleas Court for a full trial, a relatively low standard and one that strongly favors the prosecution.

Curley, 57, was placed on leave by the university after his arrest. Schultz, 62, returned to retirement after spending about four decades at the school, most recently as senior vice president for business and finance, and treasurer.

Both men were released on unsecured bail. The perjury charges against them are felonies, while the charges of failure to report under the Child Protective Services Law are summary offenses, less serious than misdemeanors.

Biographies released by a spokeswoman for their lawyers on Tuesday said Curley, a State College native, was named athletic director in 1993, working his way up through the sports department after being a walk-on football player for the Nittany Lions. Schultz started working for Penn State, in 1971 after receiving an undergraduate engineering degree. He retired in 2009, then returned earlier this year on an interim basis after his successor as vice president took another job.

Amendola said Tuesday Sandusky opted to waive his preliminary hearing out of concerns it would present a one-sided view of the facts. After the brief proceeding, he stood in freezing temperatures at a podium in front of the courthouse and answered questions for an hour or more from the hundreds of reporters assembled for what had been expected to be a daylong proceeding.

A prosecutor said about 11 witnesses, most of them alleged victims, as well as McQueary, were ready to testify at the hearing.

Sandusky pleaded not guilty and requested a jury trial, saying he would "stay the course, to fight for four quarters."

Amendola said prosecutors agreed to give early warning of any further charges and to keep Sandusky's bail at $250,000.

A spokesman for the attorney general's office said Sandusky's bail conditions were adequate and that an agreement to share discovery information would result in a trail sooner.

"Sandusky waived his rights today. We waived nothing," said the spokesman, Nils Frederiksen.

Despite the hearing waiver, both sides said there had not been talks of a plea bargain.

"There will be no plea negotiations," Amendola said. "This is a fight to the death."

Sandusky was accompanied to court by his wife, Dottie, some of their adopted children and alumni of The Second Mile, an organization that he founded in 1977 to help struggling children. The grand jury report said he used the charity to meet and lure his alleged victims.

The first known abuse allegation was in 1998, when the mother told police Sandusky had showered with her son.

Accusations surfaced again in 2002, the incident involving McQueary.

The grand jury probe began only in 2009, after a teen complained that Sandusky, then a volunteer coach at his central Pennsylvania high school, had abused him.

The teen told the grand jury that Sandusky first groomed him with gifts and trips in 2006 and 2007, then sexually assaulted him more than 20 times in 2008 through early 2009.

___

Associated Press writers Maryclaire Dale and Genaro C. Armas in Bellefonte contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-14-Penn%20State-Abuse/id-d9658219e2a54bbeb018b20209d5616f

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Japan's Olympus hid up to $1.7 billion (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? An investigative panel has found Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp hid up to $1.67 billion in losses from its investors, but is likely to say there is no evidence of involvement by organized crime in the cover-up, a source said Monday.

The panel will also stop short of recommending criminal charges against executives involved in the accounting scandal, presenting only the facts and leaving Olympus to pursue this aspect, said the source familiar with the panel investigation.

"That is up to the company," he said.

The panel's report is due to be released as soon as Tuesday, almost two months after Olympus's sacked chief executive, Englishman Michael Woodford, went public with his concerns over its dubious accounting for a series of murky acquisitions.

The maker of cameras and medical equipment has since lost more than half its market value and risks being delisted from the Tokyo stock exchange, a sanction that would cut it off from equity markets and put it under pressure to sell core assets.

But it may be able to avoid that humiliation if there is no proof of the much-rumored link between the cover-up and Japan's "yakuza" gangsters -- and if Olympus can meet a December 14 deadline to iron out its books and report its second-quarter results.

Olympus shares firmed 3 percent on the news, though investors remain on tenterhooks for not only the panel's official findings but also the outcome of a separate, joint investigation by police, prosecutors and the market regulator.

The source said the panel found that former executive vice president Hisashi Mori and ex-internal auditor Hideo Yamada had led the cover-up of losses, which amounted to 130 billion yen ($1.67 billion) at its peak.

The panel has found Mori and Yamada then informed former president Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, the source added. Kikukawa at first publicly rejected the accusations of a cover-up when the scandal broke in October, but he later quit and the company conceded it had hid investment losses stretching back as far as two decades.

CRIMINAL COMPLAINTS

Current President Shuichi Takayama has said the firm is prepared to take legal steps, including filing criminal complaints, against those responsible for the cover-up.

Olympus has so far said that it used some of $1.3 billion in acquisition payments and advisory fees to aid in the cover-up of the losses on its securities investments. It has declined to give details until the panel hands down its report.

The panel was appointed by Olympus and includes a former supreme court judge.

Olympus remains under joint investigation by Tokyo police, prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission. The official investigations include a police unit dedicated to fighting organized crime.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange has placed Olympus on a watch-list as a possible prelude to delisting. Even if the firm meets the December 14 reporting deadline, the exchange can still delist the stock depending on the scale of its past misreporting or if it is found to have knowingly done business with organized crime.

Woodford, who blew the whistle on accounting tricks at the company after his sacking from the top job in October, has launched a campaign to oust the current board and replace it with his own team of candidates led by him as nominated CEO.

That has set up a battle between Woodford, who was a rare foreign CEO in Japan, and Takayama, who plans to stay on, at least in the short term, to try to get the firm back on track.

The Olympus affair has fanned doubts about corporate governance generally in Japan as well as revived concerns about ties between yakuza and companies. Yakuza have a long history of trying to extort money from companies, sometimes threatening to release information that firms would like to keep secret.

Attention will also focus on the panel's findings over the role of auditors who signed off on Olympus' books, as well as outsiders such as Akio Nakagawa, a banker with lengthy ties to Olympus and whose firm Axes received a huge advisory fee related to the 2008 takeover of UK medical equipment maker Gyrus.

(Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Mark Bendeich)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111205/ts_nm/us_olympus

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