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Soundtrack to history: 1878 Edison audio unveiled

John Schneiter, a trustee at the Museum of Innovation and Science, talks about tinfoil phonographs on Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012, in Schenectady, N.Y. Researchers have digitized what experts say is the oldest recording of a playable American voice and history?s first-ever recorded musical performance, along with the first recorded blooper. Recorded on a sheet of tinfoil on a phonograph invented by Thomas Edison, the recording was made in St. Louis in 1878. It contains a short coronet solo of an unidentified song, followed by the voices of a man reciting popular nursery rhymes. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

John Schneiter, a trustee at the Museum of Innovation and Science, talks about tinfoil phonographs on Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012, in Schenectady, N.Y. Researchers have digitized what experts say is the oldest recording of a playable American voice and history?s first-ever recorded musical performance, along with the first recorded blooper. Recorded on a sheet of tinfoil on a phonograph invented by Thomas Edison, the recording was made in St. Louis in 1878. It contains a short coronet solo of an unidentified song, followed by the voices of a man reciting popular nursery rhymes. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

This photo provided by the Museum of Innovation and Science in Schenectady, N.Y., shows Thomas Edison's 1878 tinfoil phonograph. Researchers have digitized what experts say is the oldest recording of a playable American voice and history?s first-ever recorded musical performance, along with the first recorded blooper. Recorded on a sheet of tinfoil on a phonograph invented by Thomas Edison, the recording was made in St. Louis in 1878. It contains a short coronet solo of an unidentified song, followed by the voices of a man reciting popular nursery rhymes. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

Chris Hunter, curator at the Museum of Innovation and Science, plays a 1878 tinfoil recording on a computer on Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012, in Schenectady, N.Y. Researchers have digitized what experts say is the oldest recording of a playable American voice and history?s first-ever recorded musical performance, along with the first recorded blooper. Recorded on a sheet of tinfoil on a phonograph invented by Thomas Edison, the recording was made in St. Louis in 1878. It contains a short coronet solo of an unidentified song, followed by the voices of a man reciting popular nursery rhymes. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

A tinfoil sheet recording made on a phonograph which was invented by Thomas Edison and recorded in St. Louis in 1878 is displayed at the Museum of Innovation and Science on Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012, in Schenectady, N.Y. Researchers have digitized what experts say is the oldest recording of a playable American voice and history?s first-ever recorded musical performance, along with the first recorded blooper. It contains a short coronet solo of an unidentified song, followed by the voices of a man reciting popular nursery rhymes. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

A tinfoil sheet recording made on a phonograph which was invented by Thomas Edison and recorded in St. Louis in 1878 is displayed at the Museum of Innovation and Science on Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012, in Schenectady, N.Y. Researchers have digitized what experts say is the oldest recording of a playable American voice and history?s first-ever recorded musical performance, along with the first recorded blooper. It contains a short coronet solo of an unidentified song, followed by the voices of a man reciting popular nursery rhymes. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (AP) ? It's scratchy, lasts only 78 seconds and features the world's first recorded blooper.

The modern masses can now listen to what experts say is the oldest playable recording of an American voice and the first-ever capturing of a musical performance, thanks to digital advances that allowed the sound to be transferred from flimsy tinfoil to computer.

The recording was originally made on a Thomas Edison-invented phonograph in St. Louis in 1878.

At a time when music lovers can carry thousands of digital songs on a player the size of a pack of gum, Edison's tinfoil playback seems prehistoric. But that dinosaur opens a key window into the development of recorded sound.

"In the history of recorded sound that's still playable, this is about as far back as we can go," said John Schneiter, a trustee at the Museum of Innovation and Science, where it will be played Thursday night in the city where Edison helped found the General Electric Co.

The recording opens with a 23-second cornet solo of an unidentified song, followed by a man's voice reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Old Mother Hubbard." The man laughs at two spots during the recording, including at the end, when he recites the wrong words in the second nursery rhyme.

"Look at me; I don't know the song," he says.

When the recording is played using modern technology during a presentation Thursday at a nearby theater, it likely will be the first time it has been played at a public event since it was created during an Edison phonograph demonstration held June 22, 1878, in St. Louis, museum officials said.

The recording was made on a sheet of tinfoil, 5 inches wide by 15 inches long, placed on the cylinder of the phonograph Edison invented in 1877 and began selling the following year.

A hand crank turned the cylinder under a stylus that would move up and down over the foil, recording the sound waves created by the operator's voice. The stylus would eventually tear the foil after just a few playbacks, and the person demonstrating the technology would typically tear up the tinfoil and hand the pieces out as souvenirs, according to museum curator Chris Hunter.

Popping noises heard on this recording are likely from scars left from where the foil was folded up for more than a century.

"Realistically, once you played it a couple of times, the stylus would tear through it and destroy it," he said.

Only a handful of the tinfoil recording sheets are known to known to survive, and of those, only two are playable: the Schenectady museum's and an 1880 recording owned by The Henry Ford museum in Michigan.

Hunter said he was able to determine just this week that the man's voice on the museum's 1878 tinfoil recording is believed to be that of Thomas Mason, a St. Louis newspaper political writer who also went by the pen name I.X. Peck.

Edison company records show that one of his newly invented tinfoil phonographs, serial No. 8, was sold to Mason for $95.50 in April 1878, and a search of old newspapers revealed a listing for a public phonograph program being offered by Peck on June 22, 1878, in St. Louis, the curator said.

A woman's voice says the words "Old Mother Hubbard," but her identity remains a mystery, he said. Three weeks after making the recording, Mason died of sunstroke, Hunter said.

A Connecticut woman donated the tinfoil to the Schenectady museum in 1978 for an exhibit on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Edison company that later merged with another to form GE. The woman's father had been an antiques dealer in the Midwest and counted the item among his favorites, Hunter said.

In July, Hunter brought the Edison tinfoil recording to California's Berkeley Lab, where researchers such as Carl Haber have had success in recent years restoring some of the earliest audio recordings.

Haber's projects include recovering a snippet of a folk song recorded a capella in 1860 on paper by Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville, a French printer credited with inventing the earliest known sound recording device.

Haber and his team used optical scanning technology to replicate the action of the phonograph's stylus, reading the grooves in the foil and creating a 3D image, which was then analyzed by a computer program that recovered the original recorded sound.

The achievement restores a vital link in the evolution of recorded sound, Haber said. The artifact represents Edison's first step in his efforts to record sound and have the capability to play it back, even if it was just once or twice, he said.

"It really completes a technology story," Haber said. "He was on the right track from the get-go to record and play it back."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-10-25-Edison-Found%20Sound/id-ba7726f867d74e42b7b54cf9098645c0

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Features Of Reputation Management | Marijuana for MRSA

Online reputation of a website is what really matters today, as it helps in creating a credibility and authenticity of the brand in the minds of people. The reputation management service team has to highlight the positive aspects when they know that they cannot correct the negative sides. If you have a good name in the market then you will be able to attract a lot of targeted customers to your company. ORM is done as the need for influencing viewer perception. Sustaining a higher profile blog of one?s website may be a good notion.

Keep in mind that online reputation management can?t be embraced by an automated tool or software. is justified and not against business ethics. But many times, it takes just few words to play with a brand?s reputation. Allow a reputation management team to do an analysis of your online presence and suggest modifications, along with a list of dos and don?ts. The power of search engine optimization could be leveraged to counteract negative publicity.

When a business has a bad reputation in the market, its existing and prospective clients will soon drift away. You should incorporate this into your Internet marketing strategy today by doing the things that I will suggest in this article. As you work through the choices, you want to learn about the different ways that this type of organization can help you achieve your goals. Here are three of the things an expert in the field will take into consideration as they analyze your current situation and provide solutions for positioning you in a more positive light. However I am slow to buy into anything that has the potential to impact the world for generations to come unless I can be sure the culture is based on a solid foundation of real transparency, respect, and trust.

You?ve responded to the comments quickly and thoughtfully, but they?re still affecting your company?s reputation because they have high search engine rankings. You work hard to establish a positive brand image and trusted reputation among your customers. Once your crisis or PR team is in place, you can have them search the Internet for any bad press or reviews, and handle each one with grace. Hence, be prepared with tested and proven steps to remove negative blog posts using the expert tips offered by seasoned professionals. Issues involving promotion of your site as well as managing the reputation of your business can often present unique problems.

Managing your online reputation and protecting your brand?s image on the web is important as potentially damaging comments on these sites will have a negative impact on your bottom line. All this content from different sources can affect the popularity of a website. But are you covering all your bases? Thus reputation management online has a huge role in the protection and promotion of the online reputation of a business and for business hiring the right reputation defender company is therefore essential. In some cases, it can mean removal of negative comments.

This could be due to unsatisfied customer, competitor?s strategy to give bad fame to your business, or former employees who don?t have good feelings for your company. This assists in increasing popularity, awareness as well as removing the negative content from top search engine ranking positions. But this is not quite common, and it does not have to reach that stage. Simply imagine, if your very first web page of the website if filled with negative reviews and dissatisfied customers do you think any visitor will stay any longer to browse through your website? We are like minded, and are both great at trusting our intuition.

These questions are important in B2C and B2B marketing, because consumers are more likely to listen to each other than they are to react to brand advertising. These tools can be used to build a reputation for the company as well as its products and services. It is well known fact that reputation completely depends on what people do and say. They can even do this anonymously and you?ll never know who is trying to ruin your reputation. It is seen that when a business does not have a reputation in the search engines, the consumers fail to trust them.

Unfavorable posts, negative feedback in blogs, awful testimonials in famous forums, outlandish fraud accusations, and product reviews from fictitious users could possibly put a restaurant out of business. Reputation management helps a seller to get feedback from his customers about their satisfaction with the product. Internet has gained the distinction of becoming the most preferred platform for finding information and the same is provided at lightening speed. Internet gives you a chance to prosper your business and approach the millions of people online to take interest in your business offerings, but internet marketing has its dark sides too. If you are not doing any or all of these things, how has that been working out for you?

People will avoid visiting the site because they are aware of the false claims. Talking about the ways to remove negative blog posts, you should never ignore the fact that the longer they stay in sites like these, they are going to be seen and read by website visitors. Henceforth, they assist businesses to keep up the status. In these days of mass online interaction, trying to assess the volume of information and opinion flying around the ether is as easy as counting the particles of dust in a beam of light. Press releases and testimonials are effective in overshadowing negative posts too.

Online reputation management service means everything in the world of businesses. They will read the positive press and form their opinions.
Andrew McGlinchey

Source: http://cannabismrsacure.letstalkaboutpot.com/features-of-reputation-management-2/

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Nearly 80 million Americans won't need vitamin D supplements under new guidelines

ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2012) ? Nearly 80 million Americans would no longer need to take vitamin D supplements under new Institute of Medicine guidelines, according to a study by Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine researchers.

Results were published Oct. 24, 2012 in the journal PLOS ONE.

The new guidelines advise that almost all people get sufficient vitamin D when their blood levels are at or above 20 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml). Older guidelines said people needed vitamin D levels above 30 ng/ml.

Holly Kramer, MD, MPH and colleagues examined data from 15,099 non-institutionalized adults who participated in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES III). The sample included 1,097 adults who had chronic kidney disease, which has been linked to low vitamin D levels.

In the survey population, 70.5 percent of adults with healthy kidneys had vitamin D blood levels that would be considered insufficient under the older guidelines. But under the newer Institute of Medicine guidelines, only 30.3 percent of these adults had insufficient vitamin D levels.

Among adults with chronic kidney disease, 76.5 percent had insufficient vitamin D under the older guidelines, while only 35.4 percent had insufficient levels under the Institute of Medicine guidelines.

Because NHANES III is a representative sample, researchers were able to extrapolate results to the general population. Kramer and colleagues estimate that a total of 78.7 million adults considered to have insufficient vitamin D levels under the older guidelines would now have sufficient levels under the Institute of Medicine guidelines. "The new guidelines have an impact on a large proportion of the population," Kramer said.

The Institute of Medicine guidelines are based on nearly 1,000 published studies and testimony from scientists and other experts. (The Institute of Medicine committee that wrote the new guidelines for vitamin D and calcium includes Ramon Durazo-Arvizu, PhD, a professor in Loyola's Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology).

The Institute of Medicine committee found that vitamin D is essential to avoid poor bone health, such as rickets. But there have been conflicting and mixed results in studies on whether vitamin D can also protect against cancer, heart disease, autoimmune diseases and diabetes, the Institute of Medicine committee found. Moreover, excessive vitamin D can damage the kidneys and heart, the committee reported.

However, the Institute of Medicine guidelines are controversial. For example, the Endocrine Society continues to endorse the older guidelines. Kramer said that people who are confused about how much vitamin D they need should consult with their doctors.

Kramer is first author of the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health. She is an associate professor in Loyola's Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology and Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension. Her co-authors are Durazo-Arvizu; Guichan Cao, MS; Amy Luke, PhD; David Shoham, PhD; and Richard Cooper, PhD of Loyola's Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology and Chris Sempos, PhD of the National Institutes of Health's Office of Dietary Supplements.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Loyola University Health System, via Newswise.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Holly Kramer, Chris Sempos, Guichan Cao, Amy Luke, David Shoham, Richard Cooper, Ramon Durazo-Arvizu. Mortality Rates Across 25-Hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) Levels among Adults with and without Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate . PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (10): e47458 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0047458

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/health_medicine/nutrition/~3/l7VRY5yToLg/121024175229.htm

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Morgan's play a revelation for US

EAST HARTFORD, Conn. ? It?s very tempting to discuss how big a role the field played in Tuesday?s 2-2 draw between the United States women?s soccer team and Germany. The slick turf at Rentschler Field directly led to Germany?s first goal in the 48th minute and it nearly re-gifted the favor to Abby Wambach 11 minutes later when a through ball skipped through to put her one-on-one with German goalkeeper Nadine Angerer, but Wambach didn?t fool Angerer on the chip.

Alright, enough about the field. Even the result ? a 2-2 draw, which follows Saturday?s 1-1 draw ? is less important than what we saw play out between 18-yard boxes.

The United States looked far more comfortable on the ball on Tuesday and that is directly attributable to the team keeping the ball higher up the field. Germany sat in on Saturday and forced U.S. defenders to play out of the back, which is not a strength of this squad. That led to an opening 45 minutes that went just as planned on Saturday: long balls from the U.S. that the Germans gobbled up and turned the other way.

Tuesday, however, saw Megan Rapinoe and Shannon Boxx, in particular, find the ball far more often, in more advanced and dangerous positions.

(MORE: ?Gulati talks future of U.S. women?s soccer)

Becky Sauerbrunn?s insertion into the starting XI at center back in place of Rachel Buehler played a role in calming down the back line, which played better than the 2-2 score suggests.

Germany forward Dzsenifer Marozsan scored her first goal in the 48th minute on rain-induced mistake by Christie Rampone and Marozsan scored her second equalizer in the 85th minute on a left-footed upper-90 strike which Solo could do nothing about.

Both U.S. goals ? Wambach?s in the 44th minute and Tobin Heath?s in the 67th minute ? came from well-worked combinations in which Alex Morgan earned the assist.

So what do the U.S. women take from this match?

?The takeaway for me is that when we are played in and we?re fit, we?re a better team, obviously,? Wambach said. ?And that?s good news because that?s on the horizon for us.?

That reliance on fitness and physical play isn?t anything new ? it?s always been a staple of the U.S. and there is no reason to think that it will change soon (and as I noted in an earlier post, why fix what isn?t broken?).

But speaking of physical play, we did see yet another element of Morgan?s game come out in these two matches against Germany.

She is blazing fast, but we knew that from the start of her emergence with the national team. Then she started scoring late game-winning and game-tying goals before quickly establishing herself as a starter following the 2011 World Cup. This year her progression has been as a playmaker ? those two assists give her 18 this calendar year.

Morgan, however, has only recently added a physical element to her game. She is going to need to be as defenses around the world try to chip away at her and get under her skin. Germany did that from the opening whistle on Tuesday and Morgan was ready to push back straight from the start.

?You have to expect the physicality that the Germans bring to this game,? Morgan said. ?We?ve played them and now we know that if you take too many touches on the ball, they are going to tackle you, they are going to put some pressure on you, they are going to put a body on you.?

So, as we?ve alluded to previously, the feelings over these two draws is pretty mixed given the transitional nature of this squad. Two draws against world No. 2 Germany are nothing to scoff at (17-4-6 against Germany all-time), but interim coach Jill Ellis will now hand over the keys to the U.S. to Pia Sundhage?s permanent replacement. What comes once that change happens is anyone?s guess.

As Christie Rampone said postgame, the U.S. didn?t want to lose. Though that?s not quite the mentality you would expect from the No. 1 team in the world.

Source: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2012/10/23/another-draw-a-little-more-possesion-for-u-s-women-in-2-2-draw-with-germany/related

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North American Palladium to invest $116m to further develop the Lac des Iles mine in Canada

EBR Staff Writer
Published 22 October 2012

Precious metals producer North American Palladium (NAP) will continue expansion of its flagship Lac des Iles mine (LDI) in Ontario, Canada.

The company will invest $116m to execute the development activities that include - commissioning the service hoist, auxiliary hoist and related power systems.

The company has commenced mining of the first Offset Zone stope, while the shaft sinking is currently in progress.

NAP has now completed surface construction at the mine site with shaft commissioning expected to begin by December 2012.

Meanwhile stope development, critical to achieving the 2015 annual production rate of 250,000oz of palladium, remains on schedule.

NAP vice president and chief operating officer Greg Struble commented, "With the significant development milestones accomplished to date, we have considerably reduced the risk of the project and remain confident in our ability to achieve the long-term production plan."

The LDI mine produced 37,908oz of palladium in the third quarter of 2012 and is expected to produce 150,000 to 160,000oz of palladium by December for the entire year.

Source: http://nuclearfuels.energy-business-review.com/news/north-american-palladium-to-invest-116m-to-further-develop-the-lac-des-iles-mine-in-canada-221012

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Orionid meteor shower: Watch for fireballs during weekend peak

One of the more spectacular meteor showers of the year peaks overnight Saturday, with perhaps 60 visible meteors an hour. Fireballs ? any meteor brighter than Venus ? are likely as Orionids plunge into the atmosphere at 148,000 miles per hour.

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / October 19, 2012

Streaking fireballs light up California skies Oct. 17, the first night of the annual Orionid meteor shower, which runs through Oct. 25.

Phil Terzian/AP

Enlarge

Skywatchers in the northern and southern hemispheres are in for a treat overnight Saturday, when the annual Orionid meteor shower ? an intimate encounter with remnants of comet Halley?s tail ? is expected to peak.

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Weather willing, at least 25 meteors an hour should be visible in the predawn hours Sunday morning. By then, a crescent moon will have set, allowing a larger number of fainter meteors to stand out against the night sky.

But NASA?s all-sky cameras already are detecting meteor rates that suggest the show could be better, perhaps approaching 60 meteors an hour, says Bill Cooke, a meteor specialist at the NASA?s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and head of the agency?s Meteoroid Environment Office.

?I?m cautiously optimistic,? he says of the shower, which began Oct. 17 and runs through Oct. 25 at a sky above you.

As if on cue, a fireball visible throughout much of central and southern California streaked across the sky Oct. 17, shortly before 8 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. Observers reported three sonic booms tied to the fireball after it disappeared.

However, the event may have had little to do with the meteor shower. Long-time meteor observers, including Mike Hankey with the American Meteor Society, point out that meteors from comets tend to be tiny grains of ice and dust. This reflects the composition of the comets that shed the detritus as they make their closest approach to the sun and heat up. This material vaporizes at very high altitudes.

The object that plunged to Earth Wednesday evening ? which some witnesses said broke into fragments as it plunged ? was more likely a chunk of asteroid. The sonic booms people heard indicate that it reached the lower atmosphere.

Even so, Orionid meteoroids generate fireballs as well, Mr. Cooke says, owing to the high speeds at which they enter the atmosphere. At 148,000 miles an hour, these meteoroids are outpaced only by meteoroids associated with the Leonid shower, which appears each November.

?If I?m blazing into the atmosphere fast, I don?t have to be very big to leave a brilliant mark in the sky,? he says.

The fireballs the Orionids generate occur at altitudes of about 60 miles. A fireball is defined as any meteor brighter than Venus. NASA has logged at least two Orionid fireballs so far during this month?s shower.

The shower takes its name from the constellation Orion. The shower?s radiant ? the region of the sky from which the meteors appear to emerge ? appears just to the left of Orion?s right shoulder, marked by Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star and one of the largest, brightest stars in the night sky.

Part of the shower?s appeal lies in its radiant?s classy location. It sits surrounded by some of the most recognizable constellations in the night sky: Gemini; Orion, with his belt and sword; and Canis Major, Orion?s hunting companion. Canis Major hosts the double star Sirius. At 8.6 light-years from Earth, Sirius A, the brightest of the two, outshines all the other stars visible to the naked eye.

So while you wait for a meteor, you still have other cosmic eye candy to enjoy.

Beyond the beauty, Cooke adds, is the fact that the meteors are from Halley?s comet, providing an annual show that outclasses the last appearance of Halley itself in 1986, which he witnessed, and is likely to outclass Halley?s next appearance in 2061.

?This is my consolation,? Cook says with a chuckle. ?If I can?t see a good Halley?s comet, at least I can see pieces of it burning up in the atmosphere.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/BE49HT0gmJU/Orionid-meteor-shower-Watch-for-fireballs-during-weekend-peak

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George McGovern dies; lost 1972 presidential bid

FILE - In this July 14, 1972 file photo, Sen. George S. McGovern makes his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach. At left is his running mate, Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton of Missouri, and at right, convention chairman Lawrence F. O'Brien. A family spokesman says, McGovern, the Democrat who lost to President Richard Nixon in 1972 in a historic landslide, has died at the age of 90. According to the spokesman, McGovern died Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012 at a hospice in Sioux Falls, surrounded by family and friends. (AP Photo)

FILE - In this July 14, 1972 file photo, Sen. George S. McGovern makes his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach. At left is his running mate, Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton of Missouri, and at right, convention chairman Lawrence F. O'Brien. A family spokesman says, McGovern, the Democrat who lost to President Richard Nixon in 1972 in a historic landslide, has died at the age of 90. According to the spokesman, McGovern died Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012 at a hospice in Sioux Falls, surrounded by family and friends. (AP Photo)

FILE - In this July 14, 1972 file photo, Sen. George S. McGovern with his wife, Eleanor, and Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton with his wife, Barbara Ann, stand before the Democratic National Convention delegates who chose them to try to capture the White House from President Richard Nixon in Miami. A family spokesman says, McGovern, the Democrat who lost to President Richard Nixon in 1972 in a historic landslide, has died at the age of 90. According to the spokesman, McGovern died Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012 at a hospice in Sioux Falls, surrounded by family and friends. (AP Photo)

FILE - In this undated file photo, Sen. George McGovern sits in the cockpit of a training plane. A family spokesman says, McGovern, the Democrat who lost to President Richard Nixon in 1972 in a historic landslide, has died at the age of 90. According to the spokesman, McGovern died Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012 at a hospice in Sioux Falls, surrounded by family and friends.(AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 23, 1984 file photo, Rev. Jesse Jackson, left, and former Sen. George McGovern both gesture during the Democratic presidential debate in Manchester, N.H. A family spokesman says, McGovern, the Democrat who lost to President Richard Nixon in 1972 in a historic landslide, has died at the age of 90. According to the spokesman, McGovern died Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012 at a hospice in Sioux Falls, surrounded by family and friends.(AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this March 10, 1969 file photo, Rosalie Bryant holds her two year old son, Gregory Michael as she talks to Senators George McGovern, D-S.D., right and Jacob Javits, R-N.Y., in Immokalee, Fla. A family spokesman says, McGovern, the Democrat who lost to President Richard Nixon in 1972 in a historic landslide, has died at the age of 90. According to the spokesman, McGovern died Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012 at a hospice in Sioux Falls, surrounded by family and friends.(AP Photo/Jim Bourdier, File)

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) ? George McGovern once joked that he had wanted to run for president in the worst way ? and that he had done so.

It was a campaign in 1972 dishonored by Watergate, a scandal that fully unfurled too late to knock Republican President Richard M. Nixon from his place as a commanding favorite for re-election. The South Dakota senator tried to make an issue out of the bungled attempt to wiretap the offices of the Democratic National Committee, calling Nixon the most corrupt president in history.

But the Democrat could not escape the embarrassing missteps of his own campaign. The most torturous was the selection of Missouri Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton as the vice presidential nominee and, 18 days later, following the disclosure that Eagleton had undergone electroshock therapy for depression, the decision to drop him from the ticket despite having pledged to back him "1,000 percent."

It was at once the most memorable and the most damaging line of his campaign, and called "possibly the most single damaging faux pas ever made by a presidential candidate" by the late political writer Theodore H. White.

After a hard day's campaigning ? Nixon did virtually none ? McGovern would complain to those around him that nobody was paying attention. With R. Sargent Shriver as his running mate, he went on to carry only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, winning just 38 percent of the popular vote in one of the biggest losses in American presidential history.

"Tom and I ran into a little snag back in 1972 that in the light of my much advanced wisdom today, I think was vastly exaggerated," McGovern said at an event with Eagleton in 2005. Noting that Nixon and his running mate, Spiro Agnew, would both ultimately resign, he joked, "If we had run in '74 instead of '72, it would have been a piece of cake."

A proud liberal who had argued fervently against the Vietnam War as a Democratic senator from South Dakota and three-time candidate for president, McGovern died at 5:15 a.m. Sunday at a Sioux Falls hospice, family spokesman Steve Hildebrand told The Associated Press. McGovern was 90.

McGovern's family had said late last week that McGovern had become unresponsive while in hospice care, and Hildebrand said he was surrounded by family and lifelong friends when he died.

"We are blessed to know that our father lived a long, successful and productive life advocating for the hungry, being a progressive voice for millions and fighting for peace. He continued giving speeches, writing and advising all the way up to and past his 90th birthday, which he celebrated this summer," the family said in the statement.

A public viewing is planned Thursday at First United Methodist Church in Sioux Falls. Funeral services will be Friday at Mary Sommervold Hall at the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science in Sioux Falls.

A decorated World War II bomber pilot, McGovern said he learned to hate war by waging it. In his disastrous race against Nixon, he promised to end the Vietnam War and cut defense spending by billions of dollars. He helped create the Food for Peace program and spent much of his career believing the United States should be more accommodating to the former Soviet Union.

Never a showman, he made his case with a style as plain as the prairies where he grew up, often sounding more like the Methodist minister he once studied to become than the longtime U.S. senator and three-time candidate for president he became.

And he never shied from the word "liberal," even as other Democrats blanched at the word and Republicans used it as an epithet.

"I am a liberal and always have been," McGovern said in 2001. "Just not the wild-eyed character the Republicans made me out to be."

McGovern's campaign, nevertheless, left a lasting imprint on American politics. Determined not to make the same mistake, presidential nominees have since interviewed and intensely investigated their choices for vice president. Former President Bill Clinton got his start in politics when he signed on as a campaign worker for McGovern in 1972 and is among the legion of Democrats who credit him with inspiring them to pursue public service.

"I believe no other presidential candidate ever has had such an enduring impact in defeat," Clinton said in 2006 at the dedication of McGovern's library in Mitchell, S.D. "Senator, the fires you lit then still burn in countless hearts."

George Stanley McGovern was born on July 19, 1922, in the small farm town of Avon, S.D, the son of a Methodist pastor. He was raised in Mitchell, shy and quiet until he was recruited for the high school debate team and found his niche. He enrolled at Dakota Wesleyan University in his hometown and, already a private pilot, volunteered for the Army Air Force soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Army didn't have enough airfields or training planes to take him until 1943. He married his wife, Eleanor Stegeberg, and arrived in Italy the next year. That would be his base for the 35 missions he flew in the B-24 Liberator christened the "Dakota Queen" after his new bride.

In a December 1944 bombing raid on the Czech city of Pilsen, McGovern's plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire that disabled one engine and set fire to another. He nursed the B-24 back to a British airfield on an island in the Adriatic Sea, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross. On his final mission, his plane was hit several times, but he managed to get it back safety ? one of the actions for which he received the Air Medal.

McGovern returned to Mitchell and graduated from Dakota Wesleyan after the war's end, and after a year of divinity school, shifted to the study of history and political science at Northwestern University. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees, returned to Dakota Wesleyan to teach history and government, and switched from his family's Republican roots to the Democratic Party.

"I think it was my study of history that convinced me that the Democratic Party was more on the side of the average American," he said.

In the early 1950s, Democrats held no major offices in South Dakota and only a handful of legislative seats. McGovern, who had gotten into Democratic politics as a campaign volunteer, left teaching in 1953 to become executive secretary of the South Dakota Democratic Party. Three years later, he won an upset election to the House; he served two terms and left to run for Senate.

Challenging conservative Republican Sen. Karl Mundt in 1960, he lost what he called his "worst campaign." He said later that he'd hated Mundt so much that he'd lost his sense of balance.

President John F. Kennedy named McGovern head of the Food for Peace program, which sends U.S. commodities to deprived areas around the world. He made a second Senate bid in 1962, unseating Sen. Joe Bottum by just 597 votes. He was the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from South Dakota since 1930.

In his first year in office, McGovern took to the Senate floor to say that the Vietnam War was a trap that would haunt the United States ? a speech that drew little notice. He voted the following August in favor of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution under which President Lyndon B. Johnson escalated the U.S. war in the southeast Asian nation.

While McGovern continued to vote to pay for the war, he did so while speaking against it. As the war escalated, so did his opposition. Late in 1969, McGovern called for a cease-fire in Vietnam and the withdrawal of all U.S. troops within a year. He later co-sponsored a Senate amendment to cut off appropriations for the war by the end of 1971. It failed, but not before McGovern had taken the floor to declare "this chamber reeks of blood" and to demand an end to "this damnable war."

President Barack Obama remembered McGovern in a statement Sunday as "a statesman of great conscience and conviction."

"He signed up to fight in World War II, and became a decorated bomber pilot over the battlefields of Europe," the president said. "When the people of South Dakota sent him to Washington, this hero of war became a champion for peace. And after his career in Congress, he became a leading voice in the fight against hunger."

McGovern first sought the Democratic presidential nomination late in the 1968 campaign, saying he would take up the cause of the assassinated Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. He finished far behind Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, who won the nomination, and Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy, who had led the anti-war challenge to Johnson in the primaries earlier in the year. McGovern later called his bid an "anti-organization" effort against the Humphrey steamroller.

"At least I have precluded the possibility of peaking too early," McGovern quipped at the time.

The following year, McGovern led a Democratic Party reform commission that took power previously held by party leaders and bosses at the national conventions and gave it to voters instead. The result was the system of presidential primary elections and caucuses that now selects the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees.

In 1972, McGovern ran under the rules he had helped write. Initially considered a longshot against Sen. Edmund S. Muskie of Maine, McGovern built a bottom-up campaign organization and went to the Democratic national convention in command. He was the first candidate to gain a nominating majority in the primaries before the convention.

It was a meeting filled with intramural wrangling and speeches that verged on filibusters. By the time McGovern delivered his climactic speech accepting the nomination, it was 2:48 a.m., and with most of America asleep, he lost his last and best chance to make his case to a nationwide audience.

McGovern did not know before selecting Eagleton of his running mate's mental health woes, and after dropping him from the ticket, struggled to find a replacement. Several Democrats said no, and a joke made the rounds that there was a signup sheet in the Senate cloakroom. Shriver, a member of the Kennedy family, finally agreed.

The campaign limped into the fall on a platform advocating withdrawal from Vietnam in exchange for the release of POWs, cutting defense spending by a third and establishing an income floor for all Americans. McGovern had dropped an early proposal to give every American $1,000 a year, but the Republicans continued to ridicule it as "the demogrant." They painted McGovern as an extreme leftist and Democrats as the party of "amnesty, abortion and acid."

While McGovern said little about his decorated service in World War II, Republicans depicted him as a weak peace activist. At one point, McGovern was forced to defend himself against assertions he had shirked combat.

He'd had enough when a young man at the airport fence in Battle Creek, Mich., taunted that Nixon would clobber him. McGovern leaned in and said quietly: "I've got a secret for you. Kiss my ass." A conservative Senate colleague later told McGovern it was his best line of the campaign.

Defeated by Nixon, McGovern returned to the Senate and pressed there to end the Vietnam War while championing agriculture, anti-hunger and food stamp programs in the United States and food programs abroad. He won re-election to the Senate in 1974, by which point he could make wry jokes about his presidential defeat.

"For many years, I wanted to run for the presidency in the worst possible way ? and last year, I sure did," he told a formal press dinner in Washington.

After losing his bid for a fourth Senate term in the 1980 Republican landslide that made Ronald Reagan president, McGovern went on to teach and lecture at universities, and found a liberal political action committee. He made a longshot bid in the 1984 presidential race with a call to end U.S. military involvement in Lebanon and Central America and open arms talks with the Soviets. Former Vice President Walter Mondale won the Democratic nomination and went on to lose to Reagan by an even bigger margin in electoral votes than had McGovern to Nixon.

McGovern talked of running a final time for president in 1992, but decided it was time for somebody younger and with fewer political scars.

After his career in office ended, McGovern served as U.S. ambassador to the Rome-based United Nation's food agencies from 1998 to 2001 and spent his later years working to feed needy children around the world. He and former Republican Sen. Bob Dole collaborated to create an international food for education and child nutrition program, for which they shared the 2008 World Food Prize.

Clinton and his wife, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said in a statement Sunday that while McGovern was "a tireless advocate for human rights and dignity," his greatest passion was helping feed the hungry.

"The programs he created helped feed millions of people, including food stamps in the 1960s and the international school feeding program in the 90's, both of which he co-sponsored with Senator Bob Dole," they said, adding, "We must continue to draw inspiration from his example and build the world he fought for."

McGovern's opposition to armed conflict remained a constant long after he retired. Shortly before Iowa's caucuses in 2004, McGovern endorsed retired Gen. Wesley Clark, and compared his own opposition to the Vietnam War to Clark's criticism of President George W. Bush's decision to wage war in Iraq. One of McGovern's 10 books was 2006's "Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now," which he wrote with William R. Polk.

In early 2002, George and Eleanor McGovern returned to Mitchell, where they helped raise money for a library bearing their names. Eleanor McGovern died there in 2007 at age 85; they had been married 64 years, and had four daughters and a son.

"I don't know what kind of president I would have been, but Eleanor would have been a great first lady," he said after his wife's death in 2007.

One of their daughters, Teresa, was found dead in a Madison, Wis., snowdrift in 1994 after battling alcoholism for years. He recounted her struggle in his 1996 book "Terry," and described the writing of it as "the most painful undertaking in my life." It was briefly a best-seller and he used the proceeds to help set up a treatment center for victims of alcoholism and mental illness in Madison.

Before the 2008 presidential campaign, McGovern endorsed then-Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination but switched to Obama that May. He called the future president "a moderate," cautious in his ways, who wouldn't waste money or do "anything reckless."

"I think Barack will emerge as one of our great ones," he said in a 2009 interview with The Associated Press. "It will be a victory for moderate liberalism."

___

Online:

McGovern Center for Leadership and Public Service: http://www.mcgoverncenter.com

___

EDITOR'S NOTE ? Walter R. Mears, who reported on government and politics for The Associated Press in Washington for 40 years, covered George McGovern in the Senate and in his 1972 presidential campaign.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-10-22-Obit-McGovern/id-36f7cf721c264b78b46d58b833ef3534

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Castro publishes article criticizing health rumors

This picture released by Cubadebate on its website early Monday Oct. 22, 2012 shows Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Habana, Cuba Sunday Oct. 21, 2012. Castro has written Sunday an article in state-media criticizing those who spread rumors he was on his death bed. Persistent rumors circulated last week that the former Cuban leader was on his deathbed or had suffered a massive stroke.(AP Photo/Alex Castro, Cubadebate)

This picture released by Cubadebate on its website early Monday Oct. 22, 2012 shows Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Habana, Cuba Sunday Oct. 21, 2012. Castro has written Sunday an article in state-media criticizing those who spread rumors he was on his death bed. Persistent rumors circulated last week that the former Cuban leader was on his deathbed or had suffered a massive stroke.(AP Photo/Alex Castro, Cubadebate)

This picture released by Cubadebate on its website early Monday Oct. 22, 2012 shows Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Habana, Cuba, Sunday Oct. 21, 2012. Castro has written Sunday an article in state-media criticizing those who spread rumors he was on his death bed. Persistent rumors circulated last week that the former Cuban leader was on his deathbed or had suffered a massive stroke.(AP Photo/Alex Castro, Cubadebate)

This picture released by Cubadebate on its website early Monday Oct. 22, 2012 shows Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Habana, Cuba Sunday Oct. 21, 2012. Castro has written Sunday an article in state-media criticizing those who spread rumors he was on his death bed. Persistent rumors circulated last week that the former Cuban leader was on his deathbed or had suffered a massive stroke.(AP Photo/Alex Castro, Cubadebate)

This picture released by Cubadebate on its website early Monday Oct. 22, 2012 shows Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Habana, Cuba Sunday Oct. 21, 2012. Castro has written Sunday an article in state-media criticizing those who spread rumors he was on his death bed. Persistent rumors circulated last week that the former Cuban leader was on his deathbed or had suffered a massive stroke.(AP Photo/Alex Castro, Cubadebate)

This picture released by Cubadebate on its website Monday Oct. 22, 2012 shows Cuban leader Fidel Castro holding a copy of Friday's Oct. 19, 2012 edition of the newspaper Granma in Habana, Cuba. Persistent rumors circulated last week that the former Cuban leader was on his deathbed or had suffered a massive stroke.(AP Photo/Alex Castro, Cubadebate)

(AP) ? Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro said he doesn't even suffer from a headache in an article he published in state-media Monday criticizing those who spread rumors he was on his death bed.

The article is accompanied by photos taken by son Alex Castro that show the 86-year-old revolutionary icon standing outside near some trees wearing a checked shirt and cowboy hat, including one in which he is seen reading Friday's copy of the Communist Party newspaper Granma.

"I don't even remember what a headache feels like," Castro claims, adding that he was releasing the photos to show "how dishonest" the rumor mongers have been.

The article was published on the state-run Cubadebate Web site early Monday. It is the latest evidence the former Cuban president is alive and seemingly well after more than a week of intense speculation he was seriously ill.

Twitter and other social media sites have been abuzz with claims of Castro's demise.

On Sunday, a visiting former Venezuelan vice president released a photo of a meeting he said he had the previous day with Castro, and a hotel manager also present for part of the meeting claimed Castro's health was "magnificent."

In the article Monday, Castro says he has been dealing with disinformation about Cuba since the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961.

He criticized Western media he said are in the pocket of the rich, and singled out Spain's ABC newspaper for publishing comments by a Venezuelan doctor who claimed to have information that Castro had suffered a stroke and had weeks to live.

Castro has been out of the public eye since March, when he received visiting Pope Benedict XVI. He also stopped writing his once constant opinion pieces, called "Reflections," the last of which was published in June.

Former Venezuelan Vice President Elias Jaua said he met with Castro for five hours and showed The Associated Press photos of the encounter, quashing persistent rumors that the former Cuban leader was on his deathbed or had suffered a massive stroke.

Jaua also confirmed that Castro personally accompanied him to the Hotel Nacional after their encounter Saturday, in which they talked about politics, history, culture and tourism.

"He had the courtesy of bringing me to the hotel," Jaua said Sunday, adding that Castro looked "very well."

In the article Monday, Castro explains that he chose to stop the opinion pieces of his own accord, not because he was too sick to continue them.

"I stopped publishing Reflections because it was really not my role to take up pages in our press which are needed for other work the country requires," he wrote.

Castro stepped down in 2006 following a severe illness, handing power to his brother Raul.

___

Follow Paul Haven on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/paulhaven

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-10-22-Cuba-Fidel%20Castro/id-e9fdfdb099634d10bd8218ab78633ab7

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Like girls, U.S. boys may be hitting puberty earlier

NEW YORK | Sun Oct 21, 2012 12:28am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Boys in the United States may be entering puberty earlier than in generations past, a new study has found, suggesting it's not just girls who are developing at younger ages.

In comparisons with decades-old data, boys who were seen for well-child visits between 2005 and 2010 were maturing six months to two years sooner, based on their genital development.

The finding is significant for researchers seeking to understand why the age of puberty may be creeping down.

The discovery is also important for parents, who have to know how and when to discuss changing bodies with their children, according to the lead author of the study published online Saturday by the journal Pediatrics.

For the full study, see bit.ly/jsoh2P

"They need to talk to their boys earlier than they would have thought about puberty and sexual development and all of those related issues," said Marcia Herman-Giddens at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Recent studies from the United States and elsewhere have shown that girls are maturing at a younger age, with many starting to develop breasts as early as age 7 or 8.

Doctors haven't necessarily thought the same early puberty trend applied to boys. Some doctors blame estrogen-like chemicals in the environment for girls' earlier development. Those same chemicals would be expected to delay sexual maturation in boys.

But even if boys are developing earlier than in the past, that doesn't mean they are more mature socially and psychologically at younger ages, researchers said.

"Now there's probably a bigger disparity between their physical maturation and their psychosocial maturation," said Dr. Frank Biro, head of adolescent medicine at Cincinnati Children's Medical Center, who wasn't involved in the new analysis.

"People are going to interact with them like they're older," he told Reuters Health.

CHANGE MAY NOT BE HEALTHY

Data for the new study came from 144 U.S. pediatric practices and included 4,131 boys age 6 to 16.

Based on the so-called Tanner stages of development - a technique doctors use to measure how far along in puberty a young person is - genital changes in boys started around the age of 9 or 10, and pubic hair appeared between age 10 and 11 1/2, on average.

Testicle size hit a common measure for the start of puberty just before age 10 and full sexual maturity happened at 15 to 16.

In general, African-American boys developed earlier than their white and Hispanic peers, Herman-Giddens and her colleagues reported.

A study from the 1950s through 1970s of white boys in England - for which the Tanner scale is named - found boys started genital development at age 11.6, on average. Other data through the 1970s also put the start of genital changes between age 11 and 12, and pubic hair development typically between 12 and 13 - about two years later than in the new study.

Despite strong evidence showing girls are developing breasts and getting their periods at younger and younger ages, Herman-Giddens said it is still not clear why boys may also be hitting puberty sooner than in years past. One possible explanation is high rates of obesity, which alters the body's hormone levels.

"The reasons it is happening may not be healthy," she told Reuters Health.

The new study wasn't designed to be representative of what is happening across the country. Biro said he thinks puberty is indeed coming earlier in U.S. boys in general, though other researchers may not agree.

Regardless of general trends, it is important for parents to pay attention to their own child's development, researchers said, and to know when to start talking to them about sexual activity, he said.

"Parents need to monitor both their daughters and their sons a little more closely than they would have before," Biro said.

(Editing by Christine Soares, Michele Gershberg and Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/foSoH0Ogchc/us-usa-health-puberty-idUSBRE89J02S20121021

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Bell dealt to D-backs, who trade Young to Oakland

In this July 29, 2012, photo, Miami Marlins' Heath Bell pitches during a baseball game against the San Diego Padres in Miami. The Marlins traded Bell to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

In this July 29, 2012, photo, Miami Marlins' Heath Bell pitches during a baseball game against the San Diego Padres in Miami. The Marlins traded Bell to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

In this Sept. 10, 2012, photo, Oakland Athletics shortstop Cliff Pennington tips his helmet during the Athletics' baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, Calif. The Athletics traded Pennington to the Arizona Diamondbacks for outfielder Chris Young on Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

In this June 15, 2012, photo, Arizona Diamondbacks center fielder Chris Young gestures during the Diamondbacks' baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, Calif. The Diamondbacks traded Young to the Oakland Athletics on Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012, for infielder Cliff Pennington. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

(AP) ? Heath Bell became the latest player jettisoned by the Miami Marlins when he was dealt Saturday to the Arizona Diamondbacks, who also acquired infielder Cliff Pennington from the Oakland for outfielder Chris Young.

Arizona obtained Pennington and minor league infielder Yordy Cabrera from Oakland for Young and cash, then sent Cabrera to the Miami Marlins for Bell. The Marlins will pay $8 million of the remaining $21 million Bell is owed.

Earlier in the day, Arizona exercised a $6.5 million option on closer J.J. Putz.

The 35-year-old Bell has 151 saves the past four seasons. He signed a $27 million, three-year contract with Miami last offseason but lost his closer's job in July. He finished with 19 saves in 27 chances and a 5.09 ERA in in 73 games.

After failing to contend in the first season of their new ballpark, the Marlins traded former NL batting champion Hanley Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers in July and sent pitcher Anibal Sanchez and infielder Omar Infante to the Detroit Tigers.

Arizona general manager Kevin Towers said Bell provides a right-handed power arm to help set up Putz and Pennington adds the team experience at shortstop and second base.

Towers, who was general manager in San Diego when Bell was the setup man for Trevor Hoffman, believes the pitcher will benefit from a return to the NL West.

"I think he's excited to kind of be able to clean the slate," Towers said.

Bell contract calls for $9 million in each of the next two seasons and includes a $9 million club option for 2015. Miami will pay $1.5 million next year, $3.5 million in 2014 and the $3 million deferred signing bonus he is owed.

Young, Arizona's center fielder for six seasons, was the odd man out in a crowded outfield with the team expecting young Adam Eaton, called up from Triple-A Reno late this season, to play center and be the Diamondbacks' leadoff hitter. But Towers said the job is automatically Eaton's. Gerardo Parra and A.J. Pollock also will compete for the spot.

Young will be reunited with Bob Melvin, who was his manager in Arizona.

"It caught me off guard a little bit, I'm not going to lie," Young said. "It's all settled in a couple hours now. I got an opportunity to talked to Billy (Beane) and got to talk to BoMel. I'm excited to help. It's a new opportunity, a fresh start for me personally."

Pennington, 28, played in 125 games for the A's. He had 93 appearances at shortstop but was shifted to second base in last August. A switch hitter, Pennington hit .215 last season, including .168 against left-handers, and had 28 RBIs.

"He had a down year. That happens. Guys have down years," Towers said. "Heath had a down year. That's why we were able to make these deals."

He said he believes Pennington can be an everyday shortstop plus fill in behind Aaron Hill at second. The team also has Willie Bloomquist and John McDonald at short.

Towers said that Bell may have been uncomfortable with his high-profile signing in the Miami makeover.

"Maybe a lot of it had to do with the pressure, his first big contract," Towers said, adding that Bell "was really the first big signing" the Marlins had in the offseason.

The Arizona general manager believes his bullpen ? led by Putz, David Hernandez, Brad Ziegler and now Bell ? "is as good a bullpen as there is if not in the National League but in baseball."

With considerable money invested in the bullpen, Towers said it's particularly important to have a strong group of relievers while Arizona's young starting rotation. He said Arizona still needs a late-inning left-handed reliever and perhaps a veteran starter.

This could be a sign Beane, the A's general manage,might try to move center fielder Coco Crisp, who signed a $14 million, two-year contract in January that includes a $7.5 million club option for 2014 with a $1 million buyout. Beane, however, said he plans to keep Crisp, though he realized there would be speculation otherwise.

" I really like our outfield," Beane said. "Everybody knows how important this guy is to this team and also has the benefit of being a personal favorite of mine."

Oakland already acquired shortstop Stephen Drew from the Diamondbacks this season and he helped them down the stretch. The A's overtook Texas on the final day of the regular season to win the AL West and returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2006. They lost in five games to the World Series-bound Detroit Tigers.

Beane said the day after the season ended he planned to keep his young team intact as much as possible. Last offseason, Oakland traded three top pitchers: Trevor Cahill to Arizona, Gio Gonzalez to Washington and closer Andrew Bailey to Boston.

The 29-year-old Young, a popular player in the Arizona clubhouse, has had three 20-homer, 20-steal seasons. He injured his right shoulder crashing into a wall while making a catch early this season and struggled at the plate after. A quadriceps injury in early September sent Young to the bench in favor of Eaton.

___

AP Baseball Writer Janie McCauley and AP Sports Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-10-20-Diamondbacks-Athletics-Marlins%20Trades/id-f4edf58d724c416c9c6285865df17686

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Video: Boy Scout ?perversion files? go public

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Factors That Influence Disability Disability Concepts Measured in ...

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Video: Maria's Market Insight: Google Down About 8%

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WNYT.com - Kittens ready to be adopted

Posted at: 10/18/2012 12:05 PM | Updated at: 10/18/2012 12:36 PM
By: WNYT Staff

TROY - Puddles, Thunder and Lightning are ready to be adopted.

They are three male kittens, found abandoned in Troy last month.

The Mohawk Hudson Humane Society in Menands has been caring for the kittens and they say the kittens are healthy enough to be adopted.

If you're interested, contact the Humane Society.


Source: http://wnyt.com/article/stories/s2803579.shtml?cat=300

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How To Do The Right Thing, For Sinners Like You And Me | Thought ...

Growing up in a culturally mainstream (but non-religious) family, sinning wasn?t something I thought about much. It was something the church people dealt with and talked about.

But I did sin and still do. I now see myself as someone who sins on a regular basis, and I?m working on that.

The word means something different for me than it does in contemporary culture. As a child I learned (and you probably did too) that to sin is to do something really bad. If you look it up you?ll find it usually refers to a violation of a religious code of conduct.

So by this definition if you?re not religious, you can?t really sin, because you have no religious code of conduct to violate.

But I still think it?s a useful concept to the non-religious. As I?ve mentioned before, I think religions are essentially self-improvement methodologies that have lost track of themselves. They?re philosophies and mythologies meant to help us navigate human life in such a way as to cause the least harm possible, to ourselves and others.?[For a more thorough explanation of why I think so, read?this.]

Christianity?s infamous ?Seven Deadlies,? for example, aren?t different in purpose than Buddhism?s prohibitions of sexual acts that cause harm, or lying, or stealing. They are all clear warnings that certain categories of behavior lead almost invariably to suffering for you and others, and so if you?re not into suffering you might want to avoid doing those things. The well-defined sin exists to create a red flag in your mind when you?re about to do something harmful. They can be pretty helpful, as a tool for becoming a better person.

The word got a bit loaded somewhere along the line though, and the S-word became a word to use almost exclusively in indictments of other people, as I?ll explain. Sinners!

It?s becoming more commonly known that the word?sin?derives from a word that meant ?to miss the mark.? Not to do something?bad?per se, but to make a mistake. In modern terms, maybe the closest phrase to the original meaning of?sin?is ?to fuck up.?

It doesn?t have to have such dire moral baggage strapped to it, even though it does imply that you?ve done something that causes harm. And whenever we cause harm, you could say there is a moral issue at play somewhere. Morality is nothing but the consideration of the harm caused by a particular action, right?

But I think instead of regarding sins as something ?against the rules?, which we?ll be punished for (by Whoever or Whatever invented these rules) it?s more useful to think of sins as moral transgressions against?ourselves.

Everyday sinning

We all cause harm in the way we live, particularly to ourselves. We overreact at the same everyday things, to nobody?s benefit. Traffic, long lineups, certain people?s habits. We procrastinate even when we?ve learned again and again that it?s so much easier just to roll up our sleeves and do it.

That is a very human thing to do, to harm yourself senselessly. I wonder how other animals do so little of it. Since the idea of?sin?arose as a response to the obvious tendency for human beings to cause harm, once we drop all of its religious baggage, we can use the concept of?sin?in our own lives to recognize those instants when we?re about to do the dumb thing, the bad thing, the lazy thing, the self-defeating thing, and do something else instead.

Each of our lives is different, and so our typical sins are different too. Some of my most common sins are:

  • putting things off when there is no intelligent reason to
  • backing away from interactions where I risk social pain (like rejection or awkwardness)
  • indulging in gratifying, zero-risk behavior that offers no long-term benefit (such as open-ended web-surfing sessions)

Maybe your sins are:

  • opening the fridge when you?re bored
  • giving your partner the silent treatment when you?re frustrated about something
  • leaving dishes in the sink when you go to bed

Sins tend to undermine attempts to improve yourself, to change patterns, to escape cycles. Being aware of where the sin occurs in your behavioral cycles is like finding the slip-joint in the ring, the one place you can yank yourself free and avoid going around again. Knowing your sins is fertile ground for huge breakthroughs in life.

Traditional religious sins try to reduce all these specific self-defeating behaviors into much broader, one-word categories of no-no behavior, such as ?greed? or ?pride? but those don?t give us enough clues as to how else to go about things. I think if we want to make real changes in our lives, and sin less often, we need to get more specific, and more personal.

Who the Devil really is

I know that one of my perennial sins is convincing myself that I can work out tomorrow instead of today. The reasoning is always the same slippery lie ? my daily workouts are short and intense, and I could definitely do two in a day, so I can reasonably skip today?s and do it tomorrow. Of course, the next day I feel like avoiding it again, and it?s twice as tempting to avoid, because I have to do two not one. So I?m off the wagon.

It?s almost like there is an evil part of me in there somewhere, a trickster trying to undermine all that is good and virtuous. It?s not unreasonable to want to give this trickster a name. How about ?Satan?? He tricks me and makes me sin. Sometimes I believe he isn?t there at all, and that?s when he?s most dangerous.

It should be obvious that it would be easy to project a religious narrative onto all of this. You could regard the fearful, deceptive part of your mind as the Devil. You could regard the virtuous, intuitive, noreactive part of your mind as God, and you could see your personal struggles as a conflct between good and evil.

Sinning causes us to experience the same pain repeatedly, locking us in a cycle of pain which manifests itself in people?s lives as?Hell. The Hell of addiction, the Hell of self-loathing, the Hell of procrastination.

Hell is what you create when you sin. It?s not a place you go once you die if you ended up with a bad score in life. I?m convinced that personal, self-created cycles of suffering were all that Hell was ever supposed to be, by the sages who wrote our religious scriptures. And if you?ve ever experienced the agony of writhing in a cycle of life?s great pain (you have) then you know it?s Hell enough.

I don?t think it?s an unreasonable picture to paint, these mythological narratives, but then we run the risk of cartoonifying the whole thing, making these helpful concepts into concrete entities that supposedly fight outside of us in the world at large.

But even if that war were real, the only point of influence you have in that war ? and therefore, the only point of concern for you ? is how you conduct yourself. And that?s all religion was ever about. The names, the events, the fables, the creation stories ? all of it is only allegories and stage-setting to help a human being understand how to live without falling into Hell.

In other words, viewing sin as anything but a concern for?your?conduct is an escape chute away from personal responsibility. You can take the spotlight off of yourself, off of the suffering you are creating, by concentrating on faults in the behavior of others.

And that lends us an extraordinary sensation of relief ? to be able to feel ?okay? with yourself for once, because you see that someone else is sinning much worse. Think about it. All of us have been trying to get ourselves to do certain things forever! It?s a lifelong battle, and we don?t get many breaks, except when we preoccupy ourselves with the mistakes others are making.

It?s far easier, and far more appealing, to rag on the ?sins? of others than it is to concentrate on overcoming our own demons, and I think somewhere along the line that became a more prominent theme in spiritual practice than did self-reflection and self-development. Sin became about judgment, rather than personal growth.

Know your sins

Religions all have their list of sins. There are certain behaviors that appear to be unwise ones ? universally ? for anyone who doesn?t like suffering. Greed, laziness, envy, lust, fury, and so on. You know what they are. And they are true, generally. Most people are prone to hurting themselves and other people by indulging in greed, envy, lust, gluttony or the others.

The problem is that they are too general, and there?s no clear point at which to apply them to your behavior. When I go anywhere where there are a lot of people on a hot summer day, I?m going to see dozens of gorgeous women wearing halter tops and short shorts. I am going to experience lustful feelings. Am I sinning? Am I hurting myself or others? Where?s the danger? What am I supposed to do?

Perhaps there is some danger there (especially if there?s a beer tent). I could make people feel uncomfortable or unsafe by staring at cleavage. I could step on someone?s toes by hitting on an unavailable woman. I could lose my wits and get drawn into an impulsive sexual encounter that causes enormous suffering for my girlfriend or wife. Clearly it?s worthwhile to acknowledge the forcefulness of lustful feelings and learn how to make sure I don?t cause any harm in response to them.

But if the sin is prescribed to me by a holy book as simply, ?Lust? then there?s no accounting for how I might respond, given that the danger seems to be everywhere. In some cultures, the men insist that the women not be allowed to show their bodies at all, otherwise they are provoking sinful behavior. So they must wear cloth bags outside.

This is insane, and it?s what happens when the idea of sin leaves the sphere of personal responsibility and reflection, and becomes an instance of dogma ? where all reflection on?why?is deemed to have been dealt with centuries ago. Self-inquiry about how one ought to live should never be considered ?over with.?

?Knowning my sins? in this case might mean knowing that flirting with someone might be okay, but unprotected sex is definitely something that risks harm to myself or others. If I?ve made that transgression in the past, I should reflect on exactly where I might feel that temptation to sin, and what I would do instead.

The sins each of us are susceptible to are going to be different. For you it may be hitting the snooze nine times and skipping your morning meditation. For me it may be surfing Reddit while I drink my morning coffee, instead of making a lunch to take to work.

Each sin has a moment of truth wherein you have a chance for redemption. Instead of hitting the snooze the second time, you sit up and get your feet on the floor before the Devil takes over. Instead of clicking one more interesting/infuriating link, I snap the laptop shut, and go get out the tupperware.

I don?t suggest sitting down and attempting to inventory all your sins and then making a list of ?Fred Smith?s sixteen deadly sins.? You need to be able to recognize them as they?re happening. You need to know what it feels like to be in that moment when you could do the wrong thing, again.

You need to decide what you?re going to do instead. Once you do, to get yourself to do it, you just have to move your body in spite of what you feel like doing. Sit up, get your feet on the floor.

Knowing what you need your body to do in that moment is crucial. Then you have to just throw your body into it and get the moment of temptation behind you, or the Devil will descend on you. In the moment of truth where I notice I?m trying to convince myself to delay my workout, I know I need to take my pants off, move the coffee table aside, pick up the kettlebell and start warming up.

Move your body before the Devil does, and never let him convince you that you aren?t a sinner too.?TC Mark

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This piece was originally published at RAPTITUDE.


Source: http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/how-to-do-the-right-thing-for-sinners-like-you-and-me/

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