Unemployment Extension Fight Heating Up -- Again (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | The unemployment extension reauthorization battle is heating up again. Again, Congress seems to be waiting until the last minute to pass much needed legislation that will ensure that benefits continue to be made available to millions of Americans currently jobless, victims of a sluggish economy and a stagnant jobs market. Again, Congress seems to be setting up battle lines with Democrats pressing for passage of the extensions and Republicans only willing to allow passage if they get some sort of concession for their cooperation. And again, according to OpenCongress.org, there are over two million of the long-term unemployed, those individuals that unemployment extensions are designed to assist, set to watch their benefits expire by mid-February if some form of reauthorization is not hammered out.

Feel like it's deju vu all over again? It is, just a year removed. Only the particulars have changed. The goals of both parties remain the same. Democrats want the unemployment extensions to advance their political agenda. Republicans want some kind of concession to advance their political agenda.

Last year, Republicans held out past the expiration date for extension benefits in early December. Wanting offsets to the extension proposal (not an unreasonable demand) in order for benefits to be paid for, Republicans were also adamant that allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire for America's wealthiest would not be the method of payment (which was unreasonable). In the end, as most knew would happen, the unemployment extension package passed with a 13-month extension (through to the end of 2011), while Democrats allowed the Bush tax cuts to extend for another two years.

Since most things that get done in Washington occur because of leverage, it would appear that Democrats had lost a crucial bargaining tool to offset the unemployment extension reauthorization. But the takeover of Congress by an intractable group of Tea Party Republicans after the 2010 midterm elections forced congressional gridlock in budgetary matters throughout the year and a debt ceiling deal at the end of July resulted in a radical spending cut plan to social programs and the defense budget to be triggered if a bipartisan "super committee" could not agree on $1.2 trillion in cuts.

They could not. They announced last week that they were unable to reach agreement.

So with the Democrats regaining some leverage (defense spending favored by Republicans), Congress is now setting up battle lines as the unemployment extension deadline nears. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has been attempting to put together a package, according to Politico, that allows for the reauthorization of benefits for a year while at the same time targeting and alleviating defense spending cuts, something the more hawkish Republicans can get behind.

Legislators will eventually pass something. Benefits will be reauthorized. The opposing sides just have to play a little partisan politics and blame each other for obstruction for a few weeks.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politicsopinion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111205/cm_ac/10596741_unemployment_extension_fight_heating_up__again

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Dallas ices its kicker, loses

Garrett's timeout nullifies potential game-winning field goal

updated 8:07 p.m. ET Dec. 4, 2011

GLENDALE, Ariz. - The Arizona Cardinals did it again to Dallas.

For the third time in their three meetings since 2008 ? all of in Arizona ? the Cardinals beat the Cowboys in excruciating fashion.

LaRod Stephens-Howling caught a short pass from Kevin Kolb and zipped 52 yards for a touchdown in overtime to give the Cardinals a 19-13 victory Sunday, snapping the Cowboys' four-game winning streak.

"There's something about the Cowboys," Arizona wide receiver Andre Roberts said. "I don't know."

The loss was made more painful because Dallas probably should have won it, but the Cowboys called a timeout a heartbeat before Dan Bailey's 49-yard field goal sailed through the uprights for what would have been the game-winner at the end of regulation.

"The play clock was running down. We just wanted to make sure that he had a real clean opportunity at it," Dallas coach Jason Garrett explained. "It was at about 6 (seconds) and we were still getting settled in, so we banged a time out to give him the opportunity to get the snap, hold and kick as clean as possible."

Bailey's next try was short and to the left, sending the game to overtime.

"The first one, I felt like I hit it good. Obviously it went in," Bailey said. "We called the timeout, but that is my job to regroup and make the next one. I didn't do that. No excuses. I should have made it despite the circumstances."

Bailey earlier missed a 53-yarder, snapping a streak of 26 in a row he had made, dating to Week 2.

"I was glad they iced their kicker so I didn't have to," said Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt, whose team won at home in overtime for the second time this season.

It was simply a typical Cowboys-Cardinals finish.

Last Christmas, Arizona beat Dallas 27-26 on Jay Feely's 48-yard field goal with 5 seconds to play. In 2008, the Cardinals won in overtime 30-24 on a blocked punt.

Stephens-Howling, who stands just 5-foot-7, dodged a host of would-be Cowboys tacklers to scamper in with the score.

"It was supposed to be a screen, but the linemen couldn't get out because the D-line was pressuring us," he said. "I saw the end zone when I turned around, I knew I had to go, and we had a lot of guys downfield helping me."

Kolb completed 16 of 25 passes for 247 yards in his first game in five weeks.

Tony Romo was 28 for 42 for 299 yards for the Cowboys.

Arizona (5-7), which has won four of five, beat a team with a winning record for the first time this season. The Cowboys (7-5) remained alone in first in the NFC East because the New York Giants (6-6) lost to undefeated Green Bay.

Each quarterback was sacked five times.

The Cardinals won the toss and got the ball for the first and only possession in overtime.

Kolb's 16-yard pass to Roberts, who had six catches for 111 yards, advanced the ball to the Dallas 47, but a false start penalty moved it back to the Arizona 48.

On first-and-15, Kolb threw a short swing pass to Stephens-Howling. The play easily got the first down, but the diminutive back stayed on his feet, avoided would-be tacklers and made a couple of nifty cuts en route to the end zone.

"LaRod felt it all get bottled up because the pressure came strong side, then he just kicked it out wide," Kolb said. "I tried to hold on as long as possible to give him enough room to make a play and then he does what he does best and that's making people miss in the open field. It was an exciting day and one I'll never forget, for sure."

Kolb was thinking field goal, not touchdown, as Stephens-Howling ran downfield.

"As soon as he broke for 20 (yards), I'm screaming behind him 'Go down! Go down!'" he said. "But when those guys get a chance, they're not going to, and I'm glad he didn't now."

Kolb, out with turf toe and bruise on the side of his right foot since Oct. 30, was rusty early, but after halftime, he was 9 of 14 for 203 yards.

Bryant had eight catches for 86 yards, but DeMarco Murray managed just 38 yards on 12 carries. Beanie Wells gained 67 yards on 20 attempts, including a 5-yard touchdown run.

Kolb directed a quick six-play, 79-yard touchdown drive early in the fourth quarter to tie it at 13. The big plays were his passes of 40 and 22 yards to Roberts. Wells' TD run up the middle tied it with 13:08 remaining.

The Cardinals had to punt from the end zone late in the game after Early Doucet dropped a third-down pass that would have given Arizona a first down. Bryant returned the punt to the 22, but an illegal block in the back penalty against Orlando Scandrick pushed it back to the Dallas 40

"Of course I think it was a bad call," Bryant said.

On third-and-11 from the Cardinals 46, Romo threw 15 yards to Bryant to the Arizona 31 as time slipped away. That set up Bailey's missed field goal.

As usual, there was a huge contingent of white-jerseyed Dallas fans, a fact apparent not only from the color of their apparel but from the loudness of the cheering when the Cowboys did something good.

But the team could not cash in on early opportunities. The Cowboys were in Arizona territory six of the seven times they had the ball in the first half, yet led only 10-3 at the half.

On Dallas' second possession, Bailey tried a 53-yarder, his longest since coming to the NFL, but was wide right, just his second miss in 28 attempts this season. Later in the first half, Bailey's 50-yard attempt bounced off the right upright and through to tie it at 3.

Arizona, meanwhile, was mired in awful field position most of the first half.

Dallas finally got the first touchdown late in the opening half. DeMarcus Ware's 15th sack of the season pinned the Cardinals at their own 2 and Bryant's 14-yard punt return put Dallas at Arizona's 33. Romo found Jason Witten over the middle for 28 yards to the Arizona 5, then threw to a wide-open Bryant for the touchdown. That put Dallas up 10-3.

"There were a lot of mistakes out there today," Romo said. "We can look at a lot of different areas. We are going to be very disappointed in some of the things we did as a football team."

? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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A natural dye obtained from lichens may combat Alzheimer's disease

ScienceDaily (Dec. 2, 2011) ? A red dye derived from lichens that has been used for centuries to color fabrics and food appears to reduce the abundance of small toxic protein aggregates in Alzheimer's disease. The dye, a compound called orcein, and a related substance, called O4, bind preferentially to small amyloid aggregates that are considered to be toxic and cause neuronal dysfunction and memory impairment in Alzheimer's disease. O4 binding to small aggregates promotes their conversion into large, mature plaques which researchers assume to be largely non-toxic for neuronal cells.

Further research with animal models is needed to determine whether this new approach by Dr. Jan Bieschke (Max Delbr?ck Center for Molecular Medicine, MDC, Berlin-Buch), Dr. Martin Herbst (Charit? -- Universit?tsmedizin Berlin) and Professor Erich Wanker (MDC) in Berlin, Germany, will be useful for therapy development.

Protein misfolding is considered to be the cause of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and also Huntington's disease. In a multistep process, proteins misfold and accumulate into large extra- or intracellular plaques. Researchers assume that small misfolded protein aggregates that are precursors of mature plaques are toxic for nerve cells and are the reason why they are eventually destroyed.

Dye from the Canary Islands

The dye orcein is isolated from lichens that grow on the Canary Islands, among other places. Lichens have been used for centuries to color fabrics and food. Eight years ago Professor Wanker screened hundreds of natural compounds to find potential candidate drug molecules for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Among those substances he found orcein, a compound made up of about 14 small molecules. As these molecules might have different biological effects, the researchers in Berlin began to search for pure chemicals with similar properties. They identified the substance O4, a blue dye, which is structurally very similar to one of the 14 molecules. Moreover, they showed that O4 stimulates the formation of large, non-toxic protein plaques from small toxic protein assemblies.

New Mechanism

A few years ago Professor Wanker and his colleagues discovered that EGCG (Epigallocatechin-3-gallate), a natural chemical compound found in green tea, renders toxic protein assemblies non-toxic. With orcein and O4 the researchers have now found another mechanism to eliminate small toxic protein aggregates. However, instead of remodeling protein plaques, the dyes reduce the abundance of small, toxic precursor protein assemblies by accelerating the formation of large plaques, as the researchers could now show in their laboratory.

"This is a new mechanism," Professor Wanker explained. "Up to now it has been considered to be very difficult to stop the formation of small toxic protein assemblies. If our hypothesis is correct that the small aggregates, which are precursors of plaques, indeed cause neuronal death, with O4 we would have a new mechanism to attack the disease."

The synthetic dye methylene blue is currently being tested in clinical trials. This dye also seems to stimulate the formation of large plaques in a way similar to O4. Other therapeutic approaches tested in clinical trials which aim at eliminating small precursor aggregates have so far not led to a significant improvement of disease symptoms.

However, it still remains to be seen whether the blue dye O4 can also be effective against small amounts of misfolded proteins in the brains of Alzheimer's patients and whether the accelerated formation of larger plaques can indeed reduce the signs and symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in humans. Further studies will be necessary to address the question whether the accelerated formation of large plaques can be a therapeutic approach. "We hope that our findings will stimulate research activities in this direction, especially in drug discovery," Professor Wanker said.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Jan Bieschke, Martin Herbst, Thomas Wiglenda, Ralf P Friedrich, Annett Boeddrich, Franziska Schiele, Daniela Kleckers, Juan Miguel Lopez del Amo, Bj?rn A Gr?ning, Qinwen Wang, Michael R Schmidt, Rudi Lurz, Roger Anwyl, Sigrid Schnoegl, Marcus F?ndrich, Ronald F Frank, Bernd Reif, Stefan G?nther, Dominic M Walsh, Erich E Wanker. Small-molecule conversion of toxic oligomers to nontoxic ?-sheet?rich amyloid fibrils. Nature Chemical Biology, 2011; DOI: 10.1038/NCHEMBIO.719

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/hVAewOE2BTw/111202155519.htm

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Elijah Wood's A 'Maniac,' Robert Rodriguez Talks More 'Predators'

We recently brought you news about "Lord of the Rings" star Elijah Wood headlining a remake of William Lustig's sleazy horror classic, "Maniac." It did seem strange that the sweet and gentle Frodo would be playing a perverse psychopath hunting women in his spare time, but we were ? dare we say ? kind of [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/12/01/elijah-woods-a-maniac-robert-rodriguez-talks-more-predators/

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Airplane Food Finally Kills Someone, Says Lawsuit [WTFriday]

A woman and her daughter is suing American Airlines and flight catering company Sky Chefs for one million dollars, claiming that their airplane food killed her husband. I would sue Sky Chefs for crimes against humanity and good taste. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/KMExc2a6Noo/airplane-food-finally-kills-someone-says-lawsuit

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BlackBerry Carrier IQ - Business Insider

We have a statement from RIM regarding the use of Carrier IQ on BlackBerry phones.

Carrier IQ is a piece of tracking software that has the potential to record and report everything you do on your phone. Check out our full Carrier IQ explainer here.

RIM tells us it does not preinstall Carrier IQ on BlackBerry phones, nor does it authorize carriers to add the software later.

This contradicts what security researcher Trevor Eckhart found last month. Eckhart claims Carrier IQ can be found on Android and BlackBerry phones. To its credit, RIM says it is investigating Eckhart's claims.

Here's the full statement from RIM:

RIM is aware of a recent claim by a security researcher that an application called ?CarrierIQ? is installed on mobile devices from multiple vendors without the knowledge or consent of the device users. RIM does not pre-install the CarrierIQ app on BlackBerry smartphones or authorize its carrier partners to install the CarrierIQ app before sales or distribution. RIM also did not develop or commission the development of the CarrierIQ application, and has no involvement in the testing, promotion, or distribution of the app. RIM will continue to investigate reports and speculation related to CarrierIQ.

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Digital Business Cards? Don't hold your breath

The Palmpilot was probably the first commercially available gadget that let you transfer vCards over thin air. It used Infrared, and later Bluetooth, to transfer information from device to device. Most people who owned a Palm device tried it at least once, for the cool factor, but the process was awkward and slow so it never really took off.

Since then however there have been many declarations of ?the death of the business card!?. I?m pretty sure even this blog wrote similar posts in the past. Every 6 months another company launches that seems to promise to ?revolutionize? the business card business. Still, most people I know still carry around lots of paper and I don?t see that changing very soon.

Why?

There are a couple of good reasons for that too. Let me sum it up for you real quick so the next time someone tells you that one day we won?t need paper anymore and that it is cool to have a shotcode on your businesscard or some other seemingly futuristic idea you can explain to them how that isn?t going to happen.

First of all most business card revolutionaries aren?t revolutionary enough. Simply converting the business card to a digital format isn?t going to cut it. The reason why that is is because there is more to it than just exchanging information. That is the basic error most people make.?Or at least it is about more than exchanging the information printed on the card!

The whole ?exchanging business cards? process is a cultural phenomena that contains a few subtle meta layers of information that you can?t just digitize. Sure, a digitally exchanged business card can contain a date and GPS coordinates. That?s cool, but not cool enough.

Imagine being in an airport; you sit down somewhere, drop your wallet, the guy next to you picks it up and hands it to you, you look at each other and you realize its Bill Gates. Hot damn! You thank him, he asks you where you are going, you start talking, pitch your company and at a certain point he says ?That sounds awesome, give me your card so I can have my people contact your people?.

Now you have two options: you can reach into your jacket pocket (0,2 seconds), grab a card (0,05 seconds) and hand it over, with the text on the card facing him (0,25 seconds). This whole process shouldn?t take more than a second, it won?t distract you from the conversation and it won?t require any action from Bill except sticking out his hand, an action which Bill is familiar with.

Then the magic happens; Bill looks at the card. He examines the quality of the paper between his thumb and index finger. He glances over the beautifully designed company logo and then reads your title, or the lack of one, and without effort or even being conscious about it he will form an opinion on you and make a mental note which will make him remember your name. Then he takes out his pen and quickly scribbles 2 words at the back of your card.

What happens next? Nothing. Bill Gates doesn?t give you his card. That is not his style and that is not how things work when you meet Bill. People introduce themselves to Bill, Bill doesn?t have to introduce himself to people. People give Bill business cards, Bill doesn?t hand out cards. If there will ever be a meeting again between you and Bill the initiative will come from Bill.

The other option?

Well, there really isn?t one. You can reach for your iPhone, Android (seriously, in front of Bill?) or Windows Phone and launch any of the current Business card replacement apps and ask Bill to do the same. But seriously, are you going to waste precious minutes trying to convince Bill to install an app so you can exchange business cards? No way in hell. Bill doesn?t exchange anything! You?ve got 30 seconds to make a lasting impression and you won?t do it by staring at your phone trying to find the LinkedIn app and then asking Bill to dictate you his email address.

This is all so obvious I?m surprised I still have to explain it to people. As long as the digital business card exchange format isn?t a lot richer, unless you can do it without looking at your phone, unless you can do it one way and unless you are pretty sure it is compatible with almost everybody in the world, this isn?t going to work out. Paper business cards are here to stay.

Tips for digital enhancements

Of course, there are exceptions and easy ways to enhance the whole information exchange process. A few tips:

- My personal business card contains just my name and email address, nothing more. If a contact is worth following up on all you basically need is those two pieces of information. In fact, you can also learn the company name and website from looking at the email address so that makes it 4 pieces of information with just 2 information sets. And the less information on the card the bigger the chance that people will take the trouble to follow up.

- Keep your card readable and easy to scan. A lot of people use scanners or phone cameras and Apps with character recognition to input data. Using weird fonts and combined horizontal and vertical text placement doesn?t make it easier to read.

- Shotcodes are cute but hardly anyone can read them. Use for innovativeness (not a word but you know what I mean)?but not for usefulness, yet.

Apps that are useful

Then there are a few apps that are cool and useful. Lets look at three of them:

I often use Business Card reader to quickly scan business cards as soon as I get them. Sometimes I?ll scan the card while we are talking and then hand it back after I scanned it so they can re-use it.

Be careful not to appear unthankful or uninterested and make sure to mention you have all their data copied to your phone now.

The other service I regularly use is Cardcloud.?I don?t often bring my paper business cards to meetings (because I?m like Bill Gates, right?) and love how their app focusses on sharing your card instead of the whole information exchange dance. If the other person has Cardcloud too you can beam the card to the other person, and Cardcloud scans

your location for other people using the app, but I mainly use it as an easy way to share my contact details, if I want to. And that makes all the difference.

I will be talking to 20 people at an event and they will likely all give me their card. They don?t ask me if I want one, they just give it to me. Maybe with 1 or 2 of those I will feel like also sharing my data with them. In those cases I will ask for their card or email address and enter it directly into the Cardcloud app. Then I can choose if I email them my personal card or my business card.

Then there is CardFlick. It is trying to recreate the experience of seeing a beautifully designed card. It might be too early to tell if the app will turn into something that will replace or enhance your paper card as I found the process of sharing the cards inconvenient and the choice of designs limited.

Still, at least they are trying to add some feeling and beauty to the scene and for that I?m thankful.

Conclusion

The focus for many ?business card killers? is too much on replacing paper business cards with a digital equivalent. The opportunity lies much more with enhancing analog meetings; annotating, adding notes, recording locations and adding other meta layers could be useful. But there really isn?t a need to kill anything, especially as it is performing so well.

There is still a future for paper business cards but I do see digital information exchange apps becoming more popular and growing alongside paper.

But complete replace paper? Well, don?t hold your breath?

Steve Jobs? Business Card:

Mark Zuckerberg Business Card:

Larry Page Business Card:

Bill Gates Business Card:

Jerry Yang Business Card:

Steve Wozniak Business Card:

Source: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/12/01/digital-business-cards-dont-hold-your-breath/

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