Western Carolina's men will try for their first victory over N.C. State when the Catamounts visit the Wolfpack at 2 p.m. today. The game will be broadcast on ESPN3.
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(Reuters) ? Nearly $300 million in bonus payments have been awarded to 23 states for providing health coverage for children, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Wednesday.
To qualify for the bonuses, states needed to surpass a specified enrollment target under the Medicaid program for low-income Americans and adopt procedures that make it easier for children to enroll and retain coverage under Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
The performance bonus payments are designed help offset costs states incur when they enroll lower income children in Medicaid. They are funded under the 2009 Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act.
Since CHIP was reauthorized in 2009, the number of children with insurance has risen by 1.2 million, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The 23 states eligible for performance bonuses are: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
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Rutten, who took charge at the Philips Stadion in 2009, appeared to confirm his intention to part company with the club in an interview with Dutch newspaper Volkskrant.
"It is time that PSV and I parted company," he said.
PSV is second in the Eredivisie at the winter break, one point behind FC Twente, and has qualified for the last 32 of the Europa League, where it will take on UEFA Champions League drop-out Trabzonspor of
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There are two broad categories of campaign messages: Stories and lists. The list message is the easiest to pull off, and usually the least effective. Put the candidate on a stump, or before a camera, and rattle it off: Less taxes, more growth, less government, more healthcare, less deficit, bigger army, less crime, better education. You know the drill. All good things to all good people. The idea is that if voters listen long enough, they will surely hear what they want to hear. Find their pleasure point, get their vote.
The second kind of campaign message is a story. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. It has a hero and a villain. And it has a moral. The idea is less about hitting pleasure points, than raising hopes, channeling frustration and offering a promise. The list, of course, can make its way into the story, but the story cannot just be the list. It must be bigger. Epic. A fight between the past and the future. Good and evil. Prosperity and decline. (Watch TIME's video "Mark Halperin Interviews Mitt Romney.")
In 2008, Barack Obama mastered the story message, out-narrating the primary and then the general election, first against list-loving Hillary Clinton and then against a befuddled John McCain. The Obama story -- Hope! Change! Aspiration! -- became the very Obama brand. It was what people voted for.
In 2008, meanwhile, Mitt Romney mastered the list message. Just take a look at any of the old stump speeches from 2007 and early 2008, when Romney was still trying to become the Republican nominee by being all things to all people -- a "conservative's conservative," he said at the time, while also claiming to have worked well with Ted Kennedy. He had talking points on everything, health care, taxes, abortion, gays, education, Iraq, etc., and he always somehow squeezed them into a 25 minute address. For some of his list items, he even had PowerPoints, a.k.a. sublists. Romney offered his lists relentlessly. He didn't win. He didn't really even come close.
But this time, for the moment at least, everything has reversed. The new and improved Romney travels the country not with a list, but with a story. "This is an election not to replace a President but to save a vision of America. It's a choice between two destinies," he said a few weeks back in New Hampshire. "This will be a campaign about the soul of America, about American greatness. I'm confident that Americans won't settle for an excuse that 'it could be worse.' " In Romney's new story, he is a proven business wiz battling a liberal optimist in over his head. (Read "Mitt Romney: Mr. Plurality.")
If this arc sounds familiar, that's because it's just a few steps removed from Obama's winning 2008 story. It is about hope for an American future that seems to be slipping away. Just make some substitutions. Replace the war in Iraq with the economy. Replace health care reform with getting deficits under control. Replace the villain George W. Bush with the villain Barack Obama. And then tell the people that the country is in danger, and there is a bright shining hero, full of confidence and smarts, who is ready to save the day. Mitt Romney wants to be that guy. He will never inspire people the way Obama did. But he can at least make them believe he can get the job done.
The irony here, of course, is that for the moment, Barack Obama doesn't have a story to tell. As Romney points out, "could be worse" won't cut it. And the list of Obama's accomplishments -- repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell; health care reform; Wall Street reform; student loan reform; green energy investment, etc. -- is not going to cut it either. Of course, the campaign is still young. Obama has plenty of time to lay out his storyline. If Romney is the nominee, it will no doubt posit him as the villain, a rich financier who benefited from a rigged game that rewards the puppet-masters while laying off workers. Obama will play the hero, fighting valiantly to protect the little guy against a rigged game dominated by Republican congressman and Wall Street henchman. It will posit two visions of the future: Obama's vision of rebuilding the country with investment, and a Republican vision of austerity that falls hardest on Main Street. The script has already been written by Obama's advisers in Chicago and at the White House.
But the difference in 2012 is that Obama's storyline will not stand alone. If Romney wins the nomination, the President will face a narrative far more potent than anything Obama's opponents came up with in 2007 and 2008.
See TIME's Top 10 Everything of 2011.
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BAGHDAD ? An al-Qaida front group in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the wave of attacks that ripped through markets, cafes and government buildings in Baghdad on a single day last week, killing 69 people and raising new worries about the country's path.
The coordinated attacks struck a dozen mostly Shiite neighborhoods on Thursday in the first major bloodshed since U.S. troops completed a full withdrawal this month after nearly nine years of war. They also coincided with a government crisis that has again strained ties between Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites to the breaking point, tearing at the same fault line that nearly pushed Iraq into all-out civil war several years ago.
The claim of responsibility made no mention of the U.S. withdrawal. Instead, it focused its rage on the country's Shiite-dominated leadership, which Sunni insurgents have battled since it came to power as a result of the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
"The series of special invasions (was) launched ... to support the weak Sunnis in the prisons of the apostates and to retaliate for the captives who were executed," said the statement in the name of the Islamic State of Iraq.
According to the SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based organization that monitors jihadist Web traffic, the claim of responsibility was posted late Monday on militant websites.
The group said the attacks were proof that they "know where and when to strike and the mujahedeen will never stand with their hands tied while the pernicious Iranian project shows its ugly face."
The remark was in reference to accusations by Sunni militants that Iraq's Shiite-dominated government has allied itself too closely with neighboring Shiite power Iran, a bitter enemy of Iraq under the regime of Saddam Hussein.
The Baghdad military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, said al-Qaida in Iraq ? no longer focused on fighting U.S. forces ? is hoping to take advantage of the current political tension to re-ignite sectarian warfare.
"It has become a clear scheme to draw Iraq into a sectarian war again," al-Moussawi said. "Al-Qaida in Iraq played a major role in 2005 and 2006 in pushing the county into a civil war and they succeeded."
On Tuesday morning, a car bomb exploded near a police station in the town of Hawija, 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Baghdad, killing two civilians and injuring another, said Kirkuk police commander Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir.
U.S. and some Iraqi officials have warned of a resurgence of Sunni and Shiite militants and an increase in violence after the U.S. troop withdrawal.
Along with the security challenge, Iraq is facing an increase in political tension as Iraq's Shiite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, is engaged in a showdown with the top Sunni political leader in the country.
Al-Maliki's government has issued an arrest warrant for Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi on charges that he ran hit squads against government officials.
Al-Hashemi has denied the charges and said they are politically motivated.
___
Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report.
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NEW YORK ? Several Muslim leaders have declined invitations to the mayor's annual year-end interfaith breakfast, saying they're upset at police department efforts to infiltrate mosques and spy on Muslim neighborhoods.
The imams and activists said in a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg that they're disturbed at his response to a series of stories by The Associated Press detailing New York Police Department intelligence-gathering programs that monitored Muslim groups, businesses and houses of worship.
Bloomberg has defended the NYPD, saying last week it doesn't take religion into account in its policing.
Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser acknowledged Wednesday that about a dozen people turned down the breakfast invitation. But he said "a couple dozen" more said they plan to attend.
The letter to Bloomberg contained the names of several dozen Muslim leaders and organizations and said they believe such police measures "threaten the rights of all Americans, and deepen mistrust between our communities and law enforcement."
"Mayor Bloomberg, the extent of these civil rights violations is astonishing, yet instead of calling for accountability and the rule of law, you have thus far defended the NYPD's misconduct," the letter said.
The Muslim leaders said they appreciate the mayor's staunch support a year ago during an uproar over a planned Islamic center near the World Trade Center site. But they said they were disappointed by what he said after the AP stories since August about the police department's efforts to infiltrate Muslim neighborhoods and mosques with aggressive programs designed by a CIA officer who worked with the department after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The stories disclosed that a team of 16 police officers speaking at least five languages was assigned to use census information and government databases to map ethnic neighborhoods in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Documents reviewed by the AP revealed that undercover police officers known as rakers visited local businesses such as Islamic bookstores and cafes, chatting up store owners to determine their ethnicities and gauge their views. They played cricket and eavesdropped in ethnic cafes and clubs.
The AP stories also revealed that one of the CIA's most experienced clandestine operatives began working inside the police department in July as the special assistant to the deputy commissioner of intelligence.
The CIA is prohibited from spying domestically. Its unusual partnership with the NYPD has troubled top lawmakers and prompted an internal investigation.
Bloomberg in October defended the arrangement, saying it was necessary in a dangerous world.
"There are people trying to kill us," he said. "And if the CIA can help us I'm all for getting any information they have and then letting the police department use it as ? if it's appropriate to protect you and to protect me."
The letter noted that Muslims comprise at least 10 percent of the city's population. It said the Muslims leaders were seeking a meeting with the mayor to discuss the issues raised by the reports.
"We believe it is unequivocally wrong and fundamentally misguided to invest law enforcement resources in religious or racial profiling, rather than investigating suspicious activity," it said. "We seek your clear, unambiguous, public support for the rights and privacy of all New Yorkers, including Muslims; and a condemnation of all policies that profile and target communities and community groups solely based on their religion or the color of their skin."
It also said: "We are deeply disturbed that to date we have only heard your words of strong support for these troubling policies and violations of our rights. We are equally disturbed by (police Commissioner Raymond) Kelly's denials of what we know to be true as verified by the leaked documents."
Kelly, meanwhile, met Wednesday evening at a Bronx mosque with two imams who weren't listed on the letter and with young fans of an NYPD youth soccer league, whose winners were presented with a trophy.
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David Archuleta is about to leave the music business for two years, in order to fulfill a mission for his Mormon church, but he has released one final treat for fans before he departs.
The former American Idol second place finished has completed work on the official video for "Wait," a track of Archuleta's Asian Tour edition of the album "The Other Side of Down." It's based on the loss of a close friend.
Watch now and appreciate the sweet sentimentality of this young singer:
David Archuleta - Wait (Official Music Video)
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/david-archuleta-releases-music-video-for-wait/
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FILE - Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., signs an autograph during a campaign stop at at Tangleberries in Centerville, Iowa, in this Dec. 23, 2011 file photo. After a brief respite for Christmas, the Republicans in search of their party?s presidential nomination return to the campaign trail for a final push ahead of the Iowa caucuses. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
FILE - Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., signs an autograph during a campaign stop at at Tangleberries in Centerville, Iowa, in this Dec. 23, 2011 file photo. After a brief respite for Christmas, the Republicans in search of their party?s presidential nomination return to the campaign trail for a final push ahead of the Iowa caucuses. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks to workers and local residents after touring the TPI Iowa wind blade manufacturing facility, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011, in Newton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks during a campaign stop, Friday, Dec. 23, 2011, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? Three Republican presidential candidates, each claiming to be the truly conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, are launching bus tours Tuesday through this early nominating state.
Just a week before Iowa's leadoff caucuses, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich prepared to rumble through small towns aboard their campaign buses. They're looking for supporters one at a time and hoping to become a roadblock for Romney, who is looking stronger than expected. Romney returns to Iowa on Tuesday after a quick stop in his long-established stronghold of New Hampshire.
Ahead of the Jan. 3 caucuses that officially begin the GOP's nominating calendar, the candidates were returning for a final rush of speeches, meet-and-greet stops and town hall-style meetings. And they are bracing for one last round of advertising, which most observers are expecting to be nasty.
Each campaign has also tried to gauge the level of enthusiasm for Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. The libertarian favorite has built a strong organization here and recent polls suggest he is peaking, a rise that has him tied with or even ahead of Romney ? and drawing more scrutiny for his views.
"There's really three primaries going on here," former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania told reporters in Adel, where he went hunting for pheasant and quail. "There's the libertarian primary, which Ron Paul is going to win. Then you've got the moderate primary, which Gingrich and Romney are scrumming for. And you've got three folks who are running as strong conservatives."
He included himself, Bachmann and Perry in that conservative camp. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman signaled early on he would not compete in Iowa and instead plans to start his campaign in New Hampshire.
But with time ticking down in Iowa, several hopefuls are packing their days with rambling road trips to sparsely populated corners of the state. If history is a predictor, some of these candidates will be former candidates after the first contest.
Bachmann last week began her effort to visit each of the state's 99 counties, an ambitious pace that left her darting into diners and gas stations for quick visits. She was set to return to that pace early Tuesday in Council Bluffs, on the state's western edge. By nightfall, she was slated to have visited another 10 counties.
Perry was set to begin his tour in Council Bluffs several hours later. He planned just four stops during his day.
Gingrich was ready to return to the opposite side of the state, with three stops in Dubuque.
Paul was set to return Wednesday for a late push ahead of the New Year's holiday.
Many of those expected to participate in the caucuses remain undecided, and most of the contenders have seen their fortunes rise quickly and then deflate. Romney and Santorum have remained relatively steady: Romney solidly near the top and Santorum consistently struggling to build support.
Yet Santorum alone has achieved the accomplishment of visiting all 99 counties. With more than 350 campaign events behind him this year, he is hoping the early groundwork ? and a possible late surge ? help him beat expectations.
He was slated to start his day in Fort Dodge, in the deeply conservative far northwest corner of the state.
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By David Liu, ?Ph.D.
Sunday Dec 25, 2011 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new study in the Jan 2012 issue of Molecular Carcinogenesis suggests eating well-done meat may increase risk of pancreatic cancer, one of the most lethal malignancies.
The study shows that those who had highest intake of meat-derived mutagens such as heterocyclic amines and bezo(a)pyrene were 86 percent more likely than those who had the lowest intake to develop pancreatic cancer.
K.E. Anderson and colleagues from University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis, Minnesota conducted a survey of 62,581 subjects who were randomized to screening for cancer in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Screening Trial for their intakes of HCA and BaP. ?During a 10-year follow-up, 248 cases of exocrine pancreatic cancer were identified among the study population. ?
The researchers found preferences for well and very well-done meat were generally correlated with increased risk for pancreatic cancer. ? The risk of pancreatic cancer was found increased in those with upper quintiles of mutagenic activity indexes and mutagens 2-amino-3,4,8-trimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (DiMeIQx) and 2-amino-3,8-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (MeIQx), which are formed in well-done meat cooked at high temperatures.
The findings suggest that eating well-done meat may increase risk of pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic cancer is diagnosed in about 44,030 people in the United States each year and the disease kills an estimated 37,660 people in the country.
Pancreatic cancer causes remain largely unknown, but possible risk factors include diabetes, chronic pancreatitis and smoking, according to the nih.gov. ? ?Early common symptoms of the disease include dark urine and clay-colored stools, fatigue and weakness, jaundice, loss of appetite and weight loss, nausea and vomiting, and pain or discomfort in the upper part of the abdomen.
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Hugh Hefner and his ex-fiancee Crystal Harris are in the midst of a custody battle over their seriously cute pup.
The former couple, who split just days before their nuptials in June, is at odds over who should get to keep their Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Charlie, according to People.
And the Playboy mogul thinks it's only fair he gets the pooch.
MORE: Crystal Harris Puts Hugh Hefner's Engagement Ring Up for Auction
Although Harris previously claimed Hefner let her keep the dog following their split, Hefner said they're still working out where the dog will stay permanently.
"We both love the puppy," Hefner told People. "I told her if she wants to keep the ring and the Bentley, then maybe I can keep the puppy. I [hope] we will work it out."
"The puppy's valuable, but not $100,000 worth," Hefner went on.
Lesson learned: Next time, get a pup prenup.
PHOTOS: Hugh Hefner's Gorgeous Girls
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Yorvit Torrealba shoved an umpire in the face last Friday while playing for his hometown?Leones del Caracas in the Venezuelan winter league. The league announced a 66-game suspension earlier today, which covers the rest of this winter league season and carries into next season.
You can watch video of the attack here.
According to Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Torrealba issued a statement earlier today apologizing for his actions.
?I wanted to express my sincere apologies to all parties for my actions during the Venezuelan Winter League game on Friday. I have extended an apology to the Rangers organization as well. I am embarrassed for my conduct, and personally relayed that feeling to the umpire after that night?s game. On the field, I strive to be an example for children, especially those in my native Venezuela, and I regret my actions. I understand the reactions to the incident and will make every effort to set a positive example in the future.
Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said Saturday that he was looking into the matter, but it?s not clear if Torrealba will face any discipline from the team.
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Click through the slideshow to look at photos from the Faith House Manhattan Tour Bus:
?? BACK TO ARTICLE
The sacred services we visited on our "Tour Bus" were experiences for our whole mind, body and soul. The photos in this slideshow are from the Tour and other Faith House events with the participating communities. All pictures by Sean McGinn, a member of Faith House Manhattan who has worked for over 15 years on numerous TV and documentary productions. He currently serves as the senior editor at odysseynetworks.org and has received an Emmy award for photography.
We are coming to a realization that religious zealots cannot be fought with indifference. Extremists of all nationalities and religious persuasion feeding on prejudice, legislating exclusion, and resorting to violence cannot be prevailed upon by people with less passion. Telling them to "cool down" and to "be moderate" will not do it. We must allow fires greater than theirs to arise. Our passion for a whole and interdependent word must rise above their passion for a segregated and zero-sum world.
In Faith House Manhattan, a non-profit inter-religious "community of communities," we believe that the time of isolated faith is over. We believe that to know who I am, I must also know who you are. For three years now we have hosted more than 60 Living Room gatherings where people can experiences the practices of another religion (or path, including atheism). We invite all to join our "co-laboratory" of interdependence: "Experience your neighbor's faith, deepen your own."
Our call is to get radical. Very radical. We hold that in today's world, religious people have to remap their reality to include -- in tension and in gratitude -- 'the other.' While our ancestors may have fought for independence, ours is the great struggle for interdependence. 'The other' is not over there, but all around us. While we have been conceiving of the world in vertical terms (whose party is better, whose institution is larger, whose nation is stronger, whose god is bigger), the world is becoming increasingly horizontal, and wonderfully so. Can we learn to be a part of the whole?
This past year, Faith House started a new program with four religious communities in Manhattan, who were part of a "Tour Bus" with reciprocal visits to each of our main religious gatherings. We brought people together to trespass imaginary boundaries while preserving the real ones. From an experience of worship at a Hindu temple, to a Jewish Shabbat service, to a Sufi Zikr, to midweek "Space for Grace" at a major Protestant church -- either as "Interfaith 101? or an opportunity for seasoned pilgrims to be hosts or guests in their own setting -- this seven-week adventure was a unique New York City experience.
One of the participants, Bhakti Center monk and teacher, Chris Fici, summarized the experience this way:
Experience Your Neighbor's Faith, Deepen Your Own. This is a personal revelation a lot of us have shared recently on the Faith House Bus Tour, as the different sounds, colors, tastes and waves of devotion we have experienced together in our different houses of faith have made a deep communal resonance in our souls.Too often (at least from my own perspective) our own practice can become caught in the mechanical. Living as a monk, in an intense and insulated environment, I often see how my consciousness during our morning meditation is directed towards how tired I am, or how I might be upset with this monk or that monk. The beautiful essence of our prayers and singing and dancing together remains lost to me.
As I was soaking up the whirling sanctity at our wonderful Bus Tour event at the Dergah of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order, the pain of my own disconnection in my own practice became manifest, and that void was quickly filled by the wonderful and mystical people I saw around me, deeply absorbed in the love and vision of the Divine. I came to realize that what they were experiencing was something I had access to every day, if I chose to. I saw very clearly how we were all pearls on the same thread of God's mercy. I returned to my own community and practice with a sense of renewal that has stayed with me ever since.
The interfaith experience is very important for me, and I think for all of us as a common human family. The turbulence of our age calls for a communication between peoples of faith that transcends our superficial differences and allows us to drink from the immense well of wisdom God has given us, to give solace and take profound action to help cure our shared ills.
This turbulence also calls from us a tremendous maturity from our humility, from a recognition that we cannot possibly have the exclusive answers, that the pieces of the puzzle we need come from our brothers and sisters in faith. In Thomas Merton's journals of his final and fateful journey to India and Indonesia, where he breathed deeply of the eastern faiths that had always intrigued and inspired him, he related a realization in this regard that has deeply touched me.
He says that those who are mature in their faith are able to enter into the experience, philosophy, and practice of another faith and gain a practical wisdom which they can take back into their own renewed and strengthened spiritual life. This is the essence of my own personal adventure in interfaith. To be able to see of and hear of and speak about and taste of and move within the common thread of our faiths together is one of the most profound experiences I have ever had in my life. It links me to the maturity needed to answer the spiritual call of our time, and I imagine it may do so for you as well.
I am always eager to point out to others that New York City is a deeply spiritual place. I want to encourage others to develop the vision of the great rivers of faith which run through this town, which are not always visible beyond the surface tumult and loosely organized chaos.
Read articles and reflections about each stop on the Faith House tour here.
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Follow Samir Selmanovic on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SamirSelmanovic
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samir-selmanovic/faith-house-manhattan-tour-bus_b_1169505.html
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BEIJING (Reuters) ? China will try a veteran dissident, Chen Xi, on charges of "inciting subversion" for pro-democracy essays he published online, his wife said on Sunday, days after another dissident was jailed for nine years on similar charges.
Chen, a human rights campaigner in Guiyang city in Guizhou, southwest China, was arrested last month and will be tried for "inciting subversion of state power," a charge often used against critics of the ruling Communist Party, said his wife Zhang Qunxuan.
"They accused him because of 36 essays he published at home and overseas," Zhang told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"I don't know exactly what the charges are, because the court and prosecutors wouldn't show me the indictment. They said there are rules against showing that to family members," she said, adding that one of Chen's lawyers told her about the subversion accusations.
Chen, 57, is sure to maintain that he is innocent, but is certain to be found guilty and jailed by China's party-controlled judiciary, Zhang said.
"He's definitely going to fight the charges," she said, citing her discussions with his defense lawyers. She was told of the trial date on Friday, she added.
"But it looks certain that he'll be convicted. That's what courts always decide."
Chen was arrested last month after being released from a week-long detention triggered by his campaigning for independent candidates seeking to win places on China's party-controlled People's Congress assemblies, said Zhang.
Police confiscated his computer, she added.
"Then on November 29, the police called him and said he could come and get his computer," she said. "Instead, they lured him to the public security bureau and arrested him."
Calls to the Guiyang People's Intermediate Court were not answered on Sunday, a rest day in China,. Another human rights activist, Lu Yongxiang, told Reuters he also knew of the trial on Monday through Chen Xi's friends and supporters.
The trial will come after a court in Sichuan province, also in southwest China, convicted rights advocate Chen Wei and sentenced him to nine years in jail after a brief trial on Friday -- the stiffest punishment in a crackdown on dissent this year.
Chen in a common family name in China, and the two men are not related.
Chen Wei's wife, Wang Xiaoyan, and lawyers said he was jailed as punishment for essays that he had published on overseas Chinese websites.
China uses a "firewall" of Internet filters and blocks to prevent citizens from reading websites abroad that are deemed to be politically unacceptable or socially unsound.
Chen Wei's sentence was the third-longest term ever handed down for inciting subversion after Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo, who has been serving an 11-year sentence since 2009, and Liu Xianbin, who was jailed for 10 years in March this year.
Earlier this year, Chinese police held hundreds of dissidents, rights activists and protest organizers in a crackdown on dissent this year, when the ruling Communist Party sought to prevent potential protests inspired by anti-authoritarian uprisings across the Arab world.
Many of those detained have been released but remain under police watch. But officials appeared determined to "make an example" of Chen, said Huang Qi, a human rights advocate in Chen's home Sichuan province and a long-time friend of his.
Chen Xi, who faces trial on Monday, is a former soldier and factory worker who was jailed for three years for his support for the 1989 pro-democracy protests across China that ended after troops crushed demonstrations, said his wife.
He was again jailed in 1996, but since his release in 2005 has been an organizer of a citizens' human rights forum in Guiyang.
(Editing by Yoko Nishikawa)
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Find yourself something Apple-flavored underneath the Christmas tree yesterday? Need some gentle coaxing into using iTunes? Well, you're in luck; Cupertino's annual download giveaway starts today and runs through January 6th. The free gifts kick off with some Coldplay tracks and videos from the band's latest Apple-sponsored festival appearance. But don't let that put you off; we expect to see more music, some apps and even books over the next few days. Each one's available for just 24 hours, so it could be worth checking the dedicated app daily. It's up for grabs at the link below.
Apple kicks off 12 Days of iTunes, offers a dozen freebies to last into 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Dec 2011 08:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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This article about Sumally was written for WIRED Japan, and I had the opportunity to translate it to English. Sumally has been covered before on PO, so consider this an update of sorts to the previous article. Sumally is an encyclopedia of all products. People can Want or Have any product that they come across online and archive them in a single unified format. The total number of Wants and Haves on Sumally has exceeded one million, and the number of items archived has surpassed 200,000.
Here is the article below, with comments from me indicated by italics.
Sumally, the new online service where Tokyo?s top creative talent are sharing their Wants and Haves, started from a desire to create an all-encompassing online encyclopedia of products. Here is what the four leading members of this exciting new service have to say.
Sumally is a new social networking service aiming to become the ?Encyclopedia of Products.? Kensuke Yamamoto, the CEO of Sumally, left his position as a magazine editor to become an entrepreneur and to pursue his vision of creating a place where users can catalog every product they ever wanted or had. He was joined by well-known web designer Yugo Nakamura, and together with Nakamura?s employees, design director Hideki Oowa and software engineer Keita Kitamura, they are working hard to create an online experience that will be successful at an international level. As the team prepares to release the next milestone for their service, which will allow users to buy and sell products on the site, our WIRED editorial team sat down with the Sumally team to share and discuss their ideas, hoping to find out how Sumally will help shape the technology driven future.
The entire interview lasted more than an hour, split between serious discussions about Sumally?s vision, hardships the team endured, creative solutions to get around them, and plenty of laughter.
Original article on Wired Japan
Kensuke Yamamoto (left center, see Wired photo)
President and CEO of Sumally. Graduated from Hitotsubashi University. After starting his career at Dentsu Inc., Mr. Yamamoto joined Conde Nast Publications Japan as an editor for GQ JAPAN. Resigned in September of 2009 to found Sumally in April, 2010.
Yugo Nakamura (right)
CEO and Designer of tha*?. Web designer, interface designer, and screen image director. Graduated University of Tokyo graduate school with a degree in engineering. Associate professor at Tama Art University. Became involved in interactive design in 1998, and founded design studio tha ltd. in 2004 to direct, design, and develop websites as well as video art. Won the grand prize at Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, and has received the Tokyo Interactive Award, the TDC Award, and the Mainichi Design Award.
Hideki Oowa (right center)
Design Director for tha*. ?Born in Tokyo 1972. Received a BFA degree in the United States. Participated in design projects of all sizes in various locations, including San Francisco, Chicago, New York, London, and Sydney. Returned to Japan in 2002, working at Business Architects, as well as a freelance web director. Went back to the United States to become senior art director at Method and AKQA. Became design director for Yugo Nakamura?s design studio ?tha ltd.? in November, 2010.
Keita Kitamura (left)
Programmer and Technical Director for tha*. Born in 1983, Kitamura dropped out of high school, and started working at Business Architects, Inc. After studying abroad, he joined design studio ?tha ltd.? as a founding member in 2004. Built an image bookmark service called ?FFFFOUND!? in 2007, which remains very popular among designers all over the world. Won awards for Japan Media Arts Festival, Tokyo Interactive Award, and ARS Electronica.
Kensuke ? While I was an editor for a magazine, I started thinking about creating a ?Wikipedia for Products?. Not only am I in love with products of all sorts, but I also realized that even mainstream products, such as Leica cameras, Nike sneakers, Louis Vuitton bags, Comme des Garcons clothes, are not cataloged in an openly available format. This is a serious loss for our society, and it was clear to me that I had to create a universal format for archiving product meta data.
So, instead of creating a magazine, I moved on to creating an encyclopedia of all products. And instead of just having a picture and description of the product, like any modern encyclopedia in year 2010 should have, I decided that it was important that information such as who wants it, who has it, and who is selling it was also included. Furthermore, a system had to be in place to make the cataloging process simple.
Users have pulled down different products from different places online. Some of the commonly seen websites include Amazon, and fashion websites such as Mr.Porter and ZozoTown. I came across products from Esty too.
Yugo ? Many online services are started by ?geeks?, or some sort of specialist involved in the domain of the service. They start small, and gradually become big. It was exciting to see an editor of magazine, someone in a completely different field, to want to start a new web-based online service. He was all smiles when he first came to talk to me, and announced ?I want to be the Japanese Zuckerberg.? At first I was speechless, but the idea seemed interesting, and thought that his idea just might work. I then spread the word to Hideki and Keita, both of whom were involved in creating UNIQLOOKS, and we all decided to give it a shot.
Hideki ? While we did pretty well with UNIQLOOKS, I had a gut feeling that we could go further in terms of designs and structure. That?s when the idea of Sumally came along. The fact that it was a startup and not a big enterprise was appealing, and Kensuke?s passion convinced me that the project was indeed feasible. Despite the hardships that comes with it, building a new online service from scratch is really exciting in a different way from creating advertisements.
Keita ? While our design work at tha is mostly for advertisements, I have always wanted to create an online service as well. So, Keita?s proposal came at the perfect timing. I was excited that I will finally be able to build my own online service. As Hideki mentioned, with advertisements, once it?s finished it is out in the open, and that is the end of it. On the other hand, building an online service allows to continually attract and build up a customer base, which is what I was looking for. I actually feel that suites my character better!
When investors make the judgement to support a startup, they look at the idea or the potential market size, but more importantly, they look at the team. The Sumally team is unique in the sense that they are not from the high tech industry which gives them a fresh eye. The uniqueness of the team can be confirmed by looking at the simple and sleek design of the website and its newly released iphone application.
Yugo ? Advertisement is a one-shot deal like creating a short film or a movie. An online service, on the other hand, continues even after it?s released, more like a soap opera. Of course, not everyone can contribute to both kinds of website development. While developing an online service is interesting to me, I tend to lose focus when working on one project for a long time. Hideki and Keita prefer developing an online service though.
Hideki ? The line between an advertisement and an online service is becoming increasingly thin, especially since modern online advertisements require an interactive social networking feature. The difference lies in the amount of time the content needs to be relevant, and much higher level of passion and vision is required to maintain an online service that will disappear like one-shot advertisements. Furthermore, while advertisement projects come with a budget, building your own online service requires us to attain funding. Fortunately for us, Kensuke, with his passion and determination, has been able to deliver the funding we have needed.
Sumally has just started its journey. There are many online services that have succeeded in getting the attention upon release, but had difficulty maintaining user interest. Each and every decision they make will either engage users more possibly make them lose interest.
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Kensuke ? My saying that I want to change, not just Japan, but also the world, is a bit of an exaggeration, something I?ve been saying to stand out from the crowd. But I have always been passionate about and have great respect for brands that can make it in the global market. So yes, I do want to build an online service that can succeed outside of Japan. One of the things that I feel might have a chance at succeeding on the international level is the way Japanese people, and especially people living in Tokyo, create brands for specific product categories. A simple combination of a ten dollar t-shirt together with a five dollar skirt and perhaps a twenty dollar pair of shoes is enough to be branded as a specific ?style?, which seems amazing to me. This ability to quickly create recognizable name for a specific product category that represents context as well as interests is something unique to Japan, and something I think we should be proud of. And I am hoping that it will be relevant throughout the world.
Hideki ? Building content that is only relevant in Japan wasn?t what the tha team is about either, so ?Going global? was one of the key elements in deciding to create Sumally together.
Hideki ? Definitely. Of course, since most of our users are Japanese, we have to choose the words we use carefully. We are looking to strike the perfect balance between keeping the site user friendly for Japanese users and making sure that the site is viable in the international market.
Kensuke ? I want our online service to be just as user friendly for non-Japanese users as it is for Japanese users, while making sure that we keep our roots in Japan.
Yugo ? When we say global, we are not talking about the geographical transition from Japan to the rest of the world. Our challenge is whether Sumally can become an infrastructure for people when they talk about products. Online services such as Twitter and Facebook provide infrastructure, while advertisements function on top of such infrastructure. And we are an infrastructure type service.
Kensuke ? Making something fashionable is simple, if I am allowed to say so. But going beyond fashion and reaching sophisticated simplicity that can be appreciated objectively across the board is a totally different matter. That?s why I wanted to team up with Yugo Nakamura who can achieve this both in terms of programing and user interface design. Things have to work whether the product is an animation figure, golf club, or a teapot in order for our online service to be considered an infrastructure.
Kensuke ? Magazines are segmented into categories such as street fashion, animation, or Internet related. ?Universal? is when you abandon that categorization based on taste. Until about 5 years ago, people were talking about how mass media would someday become segmented media. My thought at that time was that after segmented media would be ?micro-media collectives?. The ?2ch? online service, which I consider to be one of the best built media, is already structured this way.
In the 2ch system, there are 100 or so top level categories, and under them are 200 or so threads in each category, which makes it highly likely that every visitor will find something interesting. The fact that this simple aggregation of content is functioning as a single medium makes 2ch very powerful. It is my belief that such a platform, where the currently separate worlds of street fashion, animation, and gadgets can coexist, is the required structure for any successful media. This is what I mean by wanting to create something ?universal?.
Hideki ? This concept of being universal is something we have in common with the design concepts at tha. It isn?t the container of content that needs to stand out. Through our designs, we ensure that the content that stands upon the container shines through and looks good.
Kensuke ? That is why we need to build something that is more than just fashionable.
Kensuke ? We?re still in our invite-only beta phase, hoping to start out with mostly influential users with a strong interest in products, and then gradually spreading out the user base. This makes it unlikely that the service is being used universally, but we are accumulating quite a collection of products across a wide range of categories, which is exactly what we were aiming for.
Yugo ? What I found interesting was how much effort Kensuke poured into attracting beta users for the service during the launch. Even many of my colleagues, many of them famous and very influential in their industry, have started to use the service. I really liked the idea of ?start building the people network first?.
Kensuke ? This part is similar to how we start up a magazine.
Keita ? While many people who can develop the system, the type of content you accumulate depends mostly on the people you attract to your service. It was a smart idea to start out by gathering many interesting people. It would be difficult for other startups to do what Kensuke did.
While many popular services penetrate from tech savvy people to mainstream, Kensuke has leveraged his network from his career as a magazine editor. Just by looking through Sumally products, one can meet fashionable and famous stylists and celebrities in different fields. It is similar to the marketing strategy of Ameba, the biggest blogging service in Japan. They succeeded in attracting all sorts of famous celebrities to blog use the service, which in turn brought in the mainstream users. In the case of Sumally, it is mostly because of the passion that Kensuke has that these well-known people have tried out the service.
Kensuke ? A new feature we have in mind is to be able to sell products on Sumally. Most e-commerce works by creating a list of what to sell. We believe that it would be a better user experience if it was the other way around, and users were able to shop from a list. Both real and virtual stores are separate establishments, giving more power to the merchant. Using a universal catalog of products, consumers will be able to indicate and share their wants, and instead of going to buy a product, merchants will come to sell the product. From the merchant?s perspective, instead of having to spend energy on attracting customers to the store, they can simply go to the consumer who is ready to buy. We would then receive a cut of the sale.
Kensuke ? To be honest, I am a bit uncomfortable with the phrase ?Social Commerce?. In my opinion, it is more like ?Social with Commerce?. There are many catalogs that are made to look like a magazine, but everyone can tell that it?s still just a catalog. It is obvious when something is being pitched to you as a sale instead of when they are presented because they are good. Just like we all know that Takuya Kimura, a very famous actor and featured in commercials for the Toyota Carola, does not really drive that car in real life.
Since ?Social Commerce? services are based on the old e-commerce model, I believe that they are limited to just that: what the seller wants to sell. Sumally, on the other hand, is about sharing everything that is interesting. Rather than categorizing the products that are on sale, it is closer to adding an e-commerce feature to the Tumblr service. This is why I feel that ?Social with Commerce? would be a better description of what we are trying to do, than ?Social Commerce?.
The Sumally iPhone application is worth trying out. There is a feed tab where users can see all items shared by people they follow. On my Sumally tab, users can browse through products that they have Wanted or Haved. The Activity tab can be used to find people who have similar tastes as yourself, because you can see who else have Wanted or Haved the products that you have archived on Sumally.
BEAMS T on Sumally
Kensuke ? The most important thing is to have our users keep on using our service. An iPhone app, which is coming soon, will be the first. We also plan to add a feature similar to Facebook Pages for brands and stores. Users would be able to follow a brand and find out about new product arrivals and everything else about that brand. There are many other features that we?re considering, but we will take it one step at a time.
Hideki ? Since the concept of connecting people to products is at the core of Sumally, we want to make it easy for our users to discover other people and other products. New recommendations should flow by constantly, yet painlessly, and we aim to design and implement a best of breed system to make that possible.
Kensuke ? Being able to buy and sell products on Sumally is definitely on the top of our to-do list.
Kensuke ? Since people are sharing what they want, merchants would be able to sell to those particular users who want the products. If there are 5 people who wants a 1,000 dollar Star Wars figure, toy stores all over the world would want to sell there. If 100 people indicated that they want the same pair of sneakers that Kayne West has, Nike would want to sell there.
Hideki ? I really want Sumally to be used all over the world. We are currently still in our beta phase, and most users are still from Japan. The key is how we would expand into markets outside of Japan. Just like we count many influential and taste-leaders from Tokyo as our users, we will have to attract the same kind of users from all over the world, and make it possible for anyone anywhere to take a peek into their closets.
Sumally
[Original article, Text by?Hiroki Maruyama, Translated by Yukari Mitsuhashi, Oct 31, 2011]
Sumally has also released brand pages and more than 50 brands have joined already. It works sort of like a Facebook page where brands can share newly available products with their core fans who have decided to follow. Very famous brands which have joined include Colette from Paris, Cibone, and Moma Design Store, and they have over 400 followers at present.
The next feature planned to be released is a smaller categorization of Wants and Haves. Users will be able to categorize their wants to something like ?Things I want for my next birthday? or ?Things I?m giving away? or ?My interior goods?. This should make the discovery process a bit easier.
Since Sumally began it has been invite-only in its beta phase in Japan. Most of the current users are from Japan with only 10 percent from outside Japan. Now that it are officially available to everyone, it aims to gain more users from Asia and the United States.
Source: http://www.penn-olson.com/2011/12/26/sumally-wired/
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60-Second Science |
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Trained pigeons demonstrate an ability to use abstract number counting rules on par with primates, and to recognize which groups of items contain more of those items. Sophie Bushwick reports.
December 22, 2011
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Several vertebrate species can distinguish between, say, two and five bananas?but with the exception of primates, they can?t grasp the numerical rules that would let them arrange their piles of fruit from least to most. Now, new research suggests that pigeons, like primates, can follow these abstract numerical rules. The study is in the journal Science. [Damian Scarf, Harlene Hayne and Michael Colombo, Pigeons on Par with Primates in Numerical Competence]
Researchers trained pigeons with cards on which were pictures of one, two or three shapes, sometimes in different sizes and colors. The birds were ultimately able to correctly pick a card with one large green square first, followed by a card with two small red ovals, followed by one showing three long blue rods.
Then, the pigeons demonstrated a new ability?faced with two cards each showing up to nine images, they could tell which card had more. Which indicates that they had an abstract understanding of the single-digit amounts. Rhesus monkeys trained in a similar way displayed the same talents. Whether this shared ability evolved independently or came from a common ancestor is unclear. But it is clear that birdbrains aren?t so dumb.
?Sophie Bushwick
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]?
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Roy Williams had no problem disposing of Texas when he coached at Kansas, as proven by his 6-1 record against the Longhorns.
But at his alma mater, Williams has struggled, going 0-3 against Rick Barnes and Texas as the North Carolina head coach. But that all came to a close Wednesday night.
In an 82-63 final, the No. 5 Tar Heels defeated the only team Williams had not beaten which he had faced more than once while at UNC.
Of course, the Longhorns lacked an intimidating post presence and experience they had possessed in the three previous meetings with Williams? Tar Heels. The Rick Barnes-led group had depended on solid, experienced play in the paint in the past, but severely lacked that on Wednesday.
?Our problems started on the offensive end because we aren?t disciplined and that?s my fault,? Barnes said. ?Not to take anything away from North Carolina, but we never gave ourselves a chance from the beginning.?
UNC (11-2) exploited that weakness early, recording 18 points in the paint in the first half alone compared to a paltry six for the visitors.
The lack of a steadfast big man allowed UNC to spread the ball around the halfcourt, disorienting the young Longhorns (9-3) and allowing seven Tar Heels to score in the game?s opening eight minutes. UNC would finish with 22 offensive rebounds compared to Texas? 17 defensive rebounds.
Texas pulled the game to 24-16 early, but any momentum the Longhorns had gathered was stymied by P.J. Hairston and the best dunk in the Smith Center this season.
On a fast break with six minutes left in the half, Kendall Marshall swung a pass to Hairston near midcourt, who exploded down the sideline toward an open paint. Texas guard Julien Lewis slid over and attempt to draw a charge under the circle as Hairston began liftoff from the low block that would end with a fully extended, one-handed jam.
Lewis didn?t get the charge. Hairston made the highlight reel.
?I think I enjoyed it more than the fans,? a grinning John Henson said after the game.
Texas went into the locker room having scored the fewest points in the first half all season long with just 23 points. But while the Tar Heels raced out to the 16-point halftime lead, they would cool in the second half.
With less than eight minutes left in the game, Texas had three players in double figures while UNC had only Harrison Barnes in that category ? a testament to the depth of the team as it had eight players with at least four points.
Barnes snapped out of his slump to score 26 points for UNC, his season high. The sophomore forward had back-to-back nine point performances in the two previous UNC games, going 4-for-12 in both outings.
?The points are nice, but I was happy with the fact that I was able to get 10 rebounds,? said Barnes, who recorded his fourth career double-double and first of the season.
Perhaps more important than his double-double was the zero in the turnover column for Barnes. He entered the game with more than two times as many turnovers to assists, but mitigated that Wednesday by limiting his drives to the basket and using his body to create space for quality shots on the perimeter.
The two single-digit games were the eighth and ninth such performances of his UNC career. Barnes went to the Smith Center on Wednesday afternoon and waited for nearly two hours on Texas? shoot-arounds before taking the floor at 1:45 p.m. to practice his shot.
?I?ve had some awfully good players that when things didn?t go well one game or two they were going to bounce back against a better team,? Roy Williams said.
?He?s going to pay the price and give you the effort.?
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