intercessor adar

Monday, December 5, 2011

UN official to AP: pledges to cut CO2 will go on (AP)

DURBAN, South Africa ? The top U.N. climate official said Saturday she is confident industrial countries will renew their pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions after their current commitments expire next year.

Further commitments under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an unshakable demand by poor countries, would avert a feared derailment of U.N. negotiations, but would mark little advancement toward the goal of a rapid and steep drop in worldwide carbon emissions blamed for climate change.

The protocol's future has been in doubt because rich countries have conditioned its continuation on an agreement by nations such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa to also accept binding emissions targets for themselves in the future.

"Countries are here these two weeks exactly talking about how they are going to go into a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol," U.N. official Christiana Figueres told The Associated Press.

"The discussion this week is not about the 'if,' it's about the 'how.' That doesn't mean that we are out of the thick of it," she said. Delegates are discussing participation, the legal form of the rules and all of the conditions that will define the second commitment period, she said.

Figueres, who is executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, spoke to AP to mark the halfway point of the two-week meeting in South Africa's eastern city of Durban.

Conference chairmen were also compiling the first draft of an agreement that will be given to government ministers arriving next week for the final four days of talks. Among them are 12 heads of state or government and ministers from more than 130 nations.

Outside the conference hall, several thousand activists, South African village women, and trade union members paraded through this port city for a march billed as a "global day of protest."

"It's all about our future. It's calling for a sustainable future. We've got to act and we've actually got to act urgently, so that we put this planet back onto a sustainable path," said Bishop Jeff Davies, Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute. "At the moment, we are destroying our very life support systems."

Figueres said that talks were in "good shape" in preparation for the more senior delegates.

One reason for an uptick in optimism may be a signal from China that it will in the future set absolute caps on its emissions, perhaps as early as 2020. Until now, China has spoken of emissions controls purely in terms of energy intensity, or the amount of energy it uses per unit of economic production.

The signal from Beijing came from Xu Huaqing, a senior researcher for China's Energy Research Institute, who was quoted Friday in the semiofficial China Daily. His remarks were confirmed privately by one of China's top climate negotiators, Su Wei, on the sidelines of the talks in South Africa.

China is the world's largest emitter of heat-trapping greenhouse gas and a main foil of industrial countries in the U.N. negotiations. Virtually every statement, even semiofficial comments, is parsed by delegates seeking departures from its public positions.

"It's part and parcel of a growing realization that all countries can contribute to the solution, that every one of them has to do it, of course, according to their respective capabilities," Figures said.

The 27 members of the European Union provide the bulk of those countries falling under Kyoto's targets. In return for signing up to another round of pledges, the EU wants all major polluters to agree to a legally binding regime for everyone to be negotiated by 2015.

The United States refused to join the Kyoto regime, which it said unfairly exempted major developing countries from any emissions constraints.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111203/ap_on_sc/af_climate_conference

work of art iphone update iphone update blackberry outage blackberry outage seal beach ca seal beach

Russia's Putin and party suffer election blow (Reuters)

MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Russian voters have dealt Vladimir Putin's ruling party a heavy blow by cutting its parliamentary majority in an election that showed growing unease with his domination of the country as he prepares to reclaim the presidency.

Incomplete results showed Putin's United Russia was struggling even to win 50 percent of the votes in Sunday's election, compared with more than 64 percent four years ago. Opposition parties said even that outcome was inflated by fraud.

Although Putin is still likely to win a presidential election in March, Sunday's result could dent the authority of the man who has ruled for almost 12 years with a mixture of hardline security policies, political acumen and showmanship but was booed and jeered after a martial arts bout last month.

United Russia had 49.94 percent of the votes after results were counted in 70 percent of voting districts for the election to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. Exit polls had also put United Russia below 50 percent.

"These elections are unprecedented because they were carried out against the background of a collapse in trust in Putin, (President Dmitry) Medvedev and the ruling party," said Vladimir Ryzhkov, a liberal opposition leader barred from running.

"I think that the March (presidential) election will turn into an even bigger political crisis; disappointment, frustration, with even more dirt and disenchantment, and an even bigger protest vote."

Putin made his mark restoring order in a country suffering from a decade of chaos following the collapse of the Soviet Union. He moved quickly to crush a separatist rebellion in the southern Muslim Chechen region, restored Kremlin control over wayward regions and presided over an economic revival.

He has maintained a tough man image with stunts such as riding a horse bare chested, tracking tigers and flying a fighter plane. But the public appears to have wearied of the antics and his popularity, while still high, has fallen.

Many voters, fed up with widespread corruption, refer to United Russia as the party of swindlers and thieves and resent the huge gap between the rich and poor. Some fear Putin's return to the presidency may herald economic and political stagnation.

PUTIN SAYS OPTIMAL RESULT

Putin and Medvedev, who took up the presidency in 2008 when Putin was forced to step down after serving a maximum two consecutive terms, made a brief appearance at a subdued meeting at United Russia headquarters.

Medvedev said United Russia, which had previously held a two thirds majority allowing it to change the constitution without opposition support, was prepared to forge alliances on certain issues to secure backing for legislation.

"This is an optimal result which reflects the real situation in the country," Putin, 59, said. "Based on this result we can guarantee stable development of our country."

But there was little to cheer for the man who has dominated Russian politics since he became acting president when Boris Yeltsin quit at the end of 1999 and was elected head of state months later.

His path back to the presidency may now be a little more complicated, with signs growing that voters feel cheated by his decision to swap jobs with Medvedev next year and dismayed by the prospect of more than a decade more of one man at the helm.

"It's the beginning of the end," political analysts Andrei Piontkovsky said. "It (the result) shows a loss of prestige for the party and the country's leaders."

COMMUNIST GAINS

Two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the communists were the main beneficiaries, their vote almost doubling to around 20 percent, according to the partial results.

"Russia has a new political reality even if they rewrite everything," said Sergei Obukhov, a communist parliamentarian.

Many of the votes were cast in protest against United Russia rather than in support of communist ideals because the Party is seen by some Russians as the only credible opposition force.

"With sadness I remember how I passionately vowed to my grandfather I would never vote for the Communists," Yulia Serpikova, 27, a freelance location manager in the film industry, said. "It's sad that with the ballot in hand I had to tick the box for them to vote against it all."

Opposition parties complained of election irregularities in parts of the country spanning 9,000 km (5,600 miles) and a Western-financed electoral watchdog and two liberal media outlets said their sites had been shut down by hackers intent on silencing allegations of violations.

The sites of Ekho Moskvy radio station, online news portal Slon.ru and the watchdog Golos went down at around 8 a.m. even though Medvedev had dismissed talk of electoral fraud.

Police said 70 people were detained in the second city of St Petersburg and dozens were held in Moscow in a series of protests against alleged fraud.

Opposition parties say the election was unfair from the start because of authorities' support for United Russia with cash and television air time.

Independent political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin said a separate analysis showed that United Russia fell even further in cities -- where it had between 30-35 percent of the votes and the Communist have 20-25 percent.

"This is a bad climate for Putin. He has got used to the fact that he controls everything, but now how can he go into a presidential campaign when United Russia has embittered people against their leader?" he asked.

Putin has as yet no serious personal rivals as Russia's leader. He remains the ultimate arbiter between the clans which control the world's biggest energy producer.

The result is a blow also for Medvedev, who led United Russia into the election. His legitimacy as the next prime minister could now be in question. ($1 = 30.8947 Russian roubles)

(Writing by Timothy Heritage, Editing by Ralph Boulton)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111204/wl_nm/us_russia_election

plane crash plane crash kelly ripa reno wildfire reno wildfire osu osu

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Newfound Alien Planet Hot Enough to Melt Iron (SPACE.com)

Astronomers have found an alien planet not much bigger than Earth, but so blisteringly hot that life has no shot of gaining a foothold there.

The exoplanet, known as Kepler-21b, is just 1.6 times bigger than our home planet, making it a so-called "super Earth." But it orbits so close to its parent star that astronomers estimate its surface temperature to be about 2,960 degrees Fahrenheit (1,627 degrees Celsius) ? hot enough to melt iron.

Researchers found Kepler-21b using NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope. Kepler spots alien worlds using what's called the "transit method," which looks for telltale dips in a star's brightness caused when a planet crosses in front of the star's face from Kepler's perspective, and blocks some of its light.

Astronomers then confirmed Kepler-21b with the help of telescopes at Arizona's Kitt Peak National Observatory.

Kepler-21b is located 352 light-years from Earth. Its mass is no more than 10 times that of our home planet, researchers said, but it sits just 3.7 million miles (6 million kilometers) from its host star and takes 2.8 days to complete one orbit. Earth, for comparison, zips around the sun at a distance of 93 million miles (150 million km).

Kepler-21b's parent star, known as HD 179070, is 1.3 times more massive than the sun. HD 179070 is a little hotter and brighter than our star, researchers said, and a little younger, too. Astronomers estimate its age at 2.84 billion years, compared to 4.6 billion years for the sun.

HD 179070 cannot be seen by the unaided eye, but a small telescope can easily pick it out, researchers said.

Since its launch in March 2009, the $600 million Kepler spacecraft has identified 1,235 alien planet candidates. Kepler-21b is just the 26th of these to be confirmed by follow-up observations, but Kepler scientists have estimated that at least 80 percent of the instrument's finds will end up being the real deal.

If that turns out to be the case, Kepler's discoveries will more than double the number of known alien planets, which currently stands at about 700. Astronomers think our Milky Way galaxy likely harbors billions of alien planets, though most are so far away that they'll be difficult for us to detect.

Researchers report the discovery of Kepler-21b in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20111201/sc_space/newfoundalienplanethotenoughtomeltiron

kim kardashian and kris humphries kim kardashian and kris humphries chris morris chris morris mike stoops mike stoops end of the world

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Bon Iver: From A Log Cabin To The Grammys

Wisconsin singer/songwriter's four major Grammy nominations had some music fans saying, 'Who?'
By Gil Kaufman

Bon Iver
Photo: JSN Photography/ WireImage

A lot of people probably woke up Thursday morning (December 1) to read the list of Grammy nominees and asked a very relevant question: Who is Bon Iver?

So, first things first: Bon Iver is not a "he." It's the stage name adopted by solitary Eau Claire, Wisconsin, folkie Justin Vernon in 2007, after he shut himself into a rural hunting cabin that year to record what would become his band's acclaimed 2008 debut, For Emma, Forever Ago.

And the reason he's on everyone's lips now is that his second pastoral album — a self-titled effort that earned rave reviews for its Beach Boys harmonies-meet-falsetto English folk lullabies — got unexpected nominations for a quartet of major Grammy Awards on Wednesday night.

Think Beyoncé and Britney Got the Grammy Cold Shoulder? Sound Off!

His gently undulating "Holocene" is up for Record and Song of the Year, and the relatively unknown-to-the-general-public singer is up against such pop acts as the Band Perry, J. Cole, Nicki Minaj and Skrillex for Best New Artist. (He also got a nod for Best Alternative Music Album.)

Yes, Bon Iver debuted at #2 in June on sales of just under 104,000, but his total album sales to date (just over 304,000) equal the units shifted by Adele every two weeks in the U.S.

So here's a brief primer on the mysterious Mr. Vernon: The former All-State high school football star and World Religion college major began his career playing in the jazzy party band Mount Vernon, which transitioned into DeYarmond Edison, formed with some old high school pals who all moved to North Carolina in 2005 to spread their musical wings. A year later, things fell apart with his band and his girlfriend, just as he was laid low by a vicious bout of mono, driving Vernon back to Eau Claire for some physical and psychic healing.

He holed up in isolation in a deer-hunting log cabin built by his dad in the woods in Northwestern Wisconsin and began writing the high and lonesome songs that would become For Emma. After months spent drinking and watching "Northern Exposure" DVDs, he alighted on the name Bon Iver, which is a French phrase used as a greeting in the show that translates to "good winter."

The tunes he recorded were intended as a demo, but once they got some blog love, he was signed to indie Jagjaguwar, and For Emma was released in May 2008. The album became an indie sensation, and its mix of acoustic folk and manipulated, Auto-Tuned vocals not only landed him on the "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" soundtrack, but also on a number of songs from Kanye West's Grammy-nominated My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Even as his star was rising, Vernon kept collaborating with a number of other artists, lending his voice to the indie supergroup Gayngs, playing in the side project Volcano Choir and hooking up with English singer James Blake recently on the song "Fall Creek Boys Choir."

Bon Iver continued to be his main focus, so Vernon built his own cabin to record his self-titled project, again just outside of Eau Claire, turning what used to be an indoor pool into a recording studio where he tracked the songs mostly by himself. (The live version of the band includes a drummer, guitarist and bassist.) The denser, 10-track album featured help from a number of collaborators, including renowned session player and pedal steel maestro Greg Leisz, as well as a number of percussionists and horn and string players.

Which brings us to his Grammy triumph. It's hard to say if Vernon's nominations are a further example of the youth the Recording Academy is trying to inject into the sometimes-staid awards or if the younger members of the Academy are slowly but surely beginning to pull their weight and check boxes for more of their own. But much like Arcade Fire's unanticipated leapfrog over Eminem at last year's Grammys to take the Album of the Year honors, come February 12, Vernon has a shot at becoming one of the biggest outsider artists to ever crash music's big night.

Do you think Bon Iver will take home some gold at the Grammys? Let us know in comments below.

Related Videos

The Grammy Nominee Concert Live!

Related Photos

2012 Grammy Nominees

Related Artists

Bon Iver

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1675243/grammy-nominations-bon-iver.jhtml

lsu alabama earthquake when is daylight savings 2011 what time is it lsu vs alabama cain gingrich debate andy rooney dies

Cain plows ahead but says yet again: reassessing (AP)

DAYTON, Ohio ? His campaign's survival in question, Herman Cain plowed ahead Wednesday in an effort to move past a woman's allegation that they had a longtime affair. But he acknowledged the toll was rising and said he would decide by next week whether to drop out of the Republican race.

Publicly, there were no signs that the former pizza company executive was calling it quits in his campaign for the presidential nomination. In fact, it was just the opposite: Aides were moving ahead with plans for events in New Hampshire, Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia and prepared to launch a fresh round of TV ads in Iowa.

And Cain himself, on a one-day bus tour of Ohio, insisted he was seeing "a groundswell of positive support" after the latest allegation threatening his campaign. Still, he acknowledged "we are re-assessing and we are re-evaluating" in light of the woman's account, which followed accusations of sexual harassment by other women in recent weeks.

In an interview on Fox News late Wednesday, Cain said the controversy has taken an "emotional toll" on his wife, Gloria.

"I've got to think about my family first, especially my wife," Cain said. "This is why we are reassessing."

He said he would exit the race if the price proved too high and he would make a decision by the middle of next week at the latest.

At his campaign stops, he renewed what has become a familiar defense: that he is the victim of attacks by liberals and the establishment, who are threatened by his outsider appeal.

"They want you to believe that with another character assassination on me that I will drop out," a defiant Cain told a crowd of about 200 in Dayton. The boisterous crowd greeted him with shouts of "no!" and "boo!"

"One of the reasons they are trying to shoot me down and tear me down is the strength of my message that resonates with the American people," he said.

Cain drew enthusiastic crowds in three appearances in the state. Though there were signs that some in early voting Iowa and New Hampshire were reconsidering their support ? and political veterans were beginning to suggest his campaign's days were numbered ? some backers here said they were deeply skeptical of the mounting allegations.

"I absolutely trust the character of the man. No man is perfect, but I just don't believe it," said Pauline Clark, 80, from Xenia, Ohio. She urged Cain to "tough it out."

George Phillips, of Beavercreek, said he was sticking with Cain because of his ideas and management experience, saying: "I just like him, and he certainly seems to understand the economy." He added: "It seems funny that every time a candidate rises up, something pops up against him."

And Jim Stansbury, who drove two hours to West Chester from his home in Louisville, Ky., to show his continued support, suggested that Cain's enemies were behind the allegations surfacing and called them "an orchestrated event." Though Stansbury said Cain's base of support remains solid, he allowed that the accusations could make it more difficult to persuade undecided voters to get behind the candidate.

Cain's latest turmoil comes just five weeks before the first votes are cast in the state-by-state march to the nomination. He's spent a month battling several sexual harassment accusations, which took a toll on both his standing in polls and, supporters say, his fundraising. Prominent conservatives who rushed to his defense when the first allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior surfaced were all but silent after the affair accusation. At least one New Hampshire backer ? state Rep. William Panek ? switched his allegiance to a Cain rival. And Cain's campaign has lost some precinct-level supporters in the leadoff caucus state of Iowa.

"His campaign is strong enough to survive the allegations," argued Michael Farren, 31, an Ohio State University doctoral student in economics, from Pataskala, Ohio.

Among political operatives, however, the perception was setting in that Cain's troubles were causing irreparable harm to his bid.

"I don't see how they walk away from the damage that's been done and emerge as a viable primary candidate," said Rick Wilson, a longtime GOP consultant based in Florida. "All these things about Herman Cain keep coming out drip, drip, drip, and they're not handling it well. And now conservative Republicans have another place to go: Newt Gingrich."

Dan McLagan, a veteran GOP strategist based in Atlanta, agreed, saying: "Cain is like a zombie at this point: he's dead but he does not appear to have noticed and has kept on walking. His support is all moving to Gingrich and, at some point, he's going to look back and see that he is grand marshal of a one-man parade."

Indeed, former House Speaker Gingrich has been the beneficiary ? in polls, at least ? of Cain's slide in the month since it was disclosed that the National Restaurant Association paid settlements to two women who claimed Cain sexually harassed them while he was president of the organization. A third woman told The Associated Press that Cain made inappropriate sexual advances but that she didn't file a complaint. A fourth woman also stepped forward to accuse Cain of groping her in a car in 1997.

Cain has denied wrongdoing in all cases.

The latest furor came Monday when Atlanta-area businesswoman Ginger White, 46, accused Cain of a consensual sexual relationship that spanned more than a decade and ended this year before he became a White House candidate.

The candidate has denied any such affair, and in a letter addressed to "patriots and supporters" called her allegations "completely false" and labeled her "troubled."

"It's very disappointing that he would call me troubled and, you know, it's unfortunate," White said Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

As Cain was greeted warmly at stops in Ohio, top aides huddled privately to map out a strategy to get past the allegations. Cain has told his top supporters that his campaign must determine whether he will have the financial and grassroots support to move ahead.

He was holding an event in Manchester, N.H., Wednesday evening and planned to campaign in Tennessee on Thursday. A rally was planned Friday in Rock Hill, S.C. And an email to supporters said Saturday's planned opening of a new campaign headquarters in Atlanta to house volunteer efforts was still on.

"He's going to be here a lot going forward," Cain's South Carolina state director William Head said, adding that the Cain campaign had sent no signal it was in retreat.

"I think the most effective thing is for people here to get some time with him. When people hear Mr. Cain, they are reassured," Head said.

In Iowa, Cain's state chairman Steve Grubbs said he was preparing a busy December schedule beginning with a Dec. 10 debate in Des Moines. And Grubbs said Cain, who has not aired any campaign ads in Iowa since last week, will resume advertising Friday with a new spot that asserts that electing Cain would mean putting a veteran CEO in the White House, not a politician.

"The campaign has authorized us to go back on the air," Grubbs said, "and that is a very big signal to everyone who is concerned about the viability of the campaign."

___

McCaffrey reported from Atlanta

___

Associated Press writers Ann Sanner in Columbus, Tom Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, and Kasie Hunt in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_on_el_ge/us_cain

kurt busch storage auctions storage auctions les miles les miles beyonce dance for you video beyonce dance for you video

Friday, December 2, 2011

Crystal Palace knocks out Man U

updated 7:46 p.m. ET Nov. 30, 2011

MANCHESTER, England - Manchester United was knocked out of the League Cup quarterfinals by Crystal Palace, with Glenn Murray scoring in the eighth minute of overtime to give the second-tier club a 2-1 victory Wednesday night and its first win at Old Trafford since 1989.

Former Premier League midfielder Darren Ambrose put Palace ahead in the 65th minute when he scored on a 35-yard free kick. United, fielding a mostly second-string lineup, tied the score four minutes later on Federico Macheda's penalty kick.

Glenn Murray then headed Ambrose's free kick past goalkeeper Ben Amos to earn Palace a semifinal matchup against fellow League Championship club Cardiff.

Liverpool and Manchester City will meet in the other semifinal.

Crystal Palace had 10 losses and three draws against United since a 3-0 home league win in May 1991. Palace had been winless at Old Trafford since December 1989, losing eight and drawing two.

"We've had a quiet period in the season but we came here in confident mood and the spirit is fantastic," Ambrose said. "We've got a great team spirit, it's a lot different from last year: we can beat anyone, and we showed that tonight.

___

PAOK Thessaloniki scored twice in the first 13 minutes against Tottenham before defending with 10 men for almost two-thirds of the match to win 2-1 and clinch a place in the next round of the Europa League.

Dimitris Salpingidis and Stefanos Athanasiadis scored before Konstantinos Stafylidis was ejected for handball. Luka Modric converted the resulting penalty kick, but the defeat left Spurs facing elimination.

Five other clubs also progressed to the knockout rounds ahead of their final group games.

Atletico Madrid, the 2010 champion, advanced with a 1-0 win at Glasgow Celtic. Metalist Kharkiv clinched the point it needed with a 0-0 tie against Austria Vienna, Braga beat Birmingham 1-0 and Standard Liege and Hannover also qualified for the second round.

PAOK has 11 points from five Group A matches, one more than second-place Rubin Kazan. With Tottenham three points farther back, Spurs need a big win at Shamrock Rovers on Dec. 15 and for PAOK to beat Rubin.

Atletico winger Arda Turan scored with a powerful shot after half an hour in Glasgow to end Celtic's 10-game unbeaten streak and ensure progress from Group I. Udinese is in second place after a 0-0 draw at Rennes ? which is eliminated ? and can advance if it avoids defeat against Celtic in its final game.

Metalist won Group G despite failing to win for the first time in five matches, leaving AZ Alkmaar needing to win its game against the Ukrainian team to be sure of finishing in second place and progressing ahead of Austria Vienna.

AZ drew 0-0 at Malmo on Wednesday.

More newsVeejay Villafranca / AFP - Getty Images

Beckham lends a hand

Away from fans' prying eyes, David Beckham took time out from soccer to share his experiences and listen to Filipino children struggling to rebuild their broken lives.