Posted by DreamKing23
2 hours, 29 minutes ago
Koei Tecmo's official YouTube channel has uploaded a video to show off this feature.
Director, Yohei Shimbori, has mentioned that there will be other changes in the ver. 1.03 patch but a full update list has not yet been released.Via Siliconera. Tip by RunningWild.
melissa gilbert deadliest catch dwts sean hannity bobby petrino fired buffett rule lollapalooza lineup
Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50328994/
gingrich wife cheryl burke sarah burke mega upload santorum wins iowa archer ibooks 2
Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://www.forexfactory.com/news.php?do=news&id=402564
lawrence o donnell magic johnson jetblue pilot solicitor general neighborhood watch dennis rodman dodgers sale
5 hrs.
Farm-state lawmakers have agreed to a one-year extension of the expiring U.S. farm bill that, if enacted, would head off a possible doubling of retail milk prices to $7.00 or more a gallon in 2013.?
The compromise measure resulted from bipartisan discussions in the House of Representatives' Agriculture Committee and talks with colleagues in the U.S. Senate, Frank Lucas of Oklahoma, the House panel's chairman, said in a statement Sunday.?
"It is not perfect - no compromise ever is - but it is my sincere hope that it will pass the House and Senate and be signed by the President by January 1," Lucas, a Republican, said.?
It was not immediately clear whether House and Senate leaders would bring the measure to a vote soon enough to avoid putting the so-called "dairy cliff" milk price spike into action.?
Separately, lawmakers are working on a last-ditch effort to avert the similarly timed "fiscal cliff," when the biggest tax increases ever to hit Americans are set to start, paired with significant federal spending cuts?
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, in an interview with CNN taped Friday and aired on Sunday, urged Congress to come up with such a solution, if only an extension of the old law that expired nearly three months ago, lest milk prices start rising after Jan. 1, 2013.?
Absent a new bill or an extension of current law, milk prices would revert to rules set in 1949, the last "permanent" farm legislation in the United States. Government price supports would kick in, based on production costs 64 years ago, plus inflation. The potential retail milk price has been estimated at $6.00 to $8.00 a gallon versus current levels near $3.50.?
Lucas said in the statement that time had run out in Congress' current session to enact a new five-year farm bill, as farm-state lawmakers and the dairy lobby had hoped.?
Vilsack told CNN that soaring milk prices - if it comes to that - would ripple throughout all commodities "if this thing goes on for an extended period of time."?
The price of milk will not double on Jan. 1, if Congress fails to act. Instead, prices would rise gradually as supplies are removed from normal markets and land instead in U.S. Department of Agriculture storage facilities.?
With supplies more scarce in normal marketing channels, some milk distributors and dairy product manufacturers could have turned to imported supplies.?
The Department of Agriculture is reviewing a range of options for administering programs should a permanent law become legally effective on Jan. 1, a spokesman said on Friday.?
The Senate passed its new five-year farm bill in June, and the House Agriculture Committee followed with a version in July.?
But the House bill, with large cuts in food-stamp funding for lower-income Americans, has never been brought to a vote by the full House. The Senate and House have for months remained far apart on the issues of food stamps and crop subsidies.?
Lucas said the year-long extension "provides certainty to our producers and critical disaster assistance to those affected by record drought conditions."?
It would also mean another round of the direct subsidies to farmers that cost about $5 billion a year, and that both sides of debate had agreed earlier to eliminate.?
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/dairy-cliff-may-be-avoided-year-least-1C7753064
x factor john kerry eastbay Samantha Steele Dec 21 2012 doomsday Is The World Going To End
There are various sorts of travel backpacks for ladies designed for those who desire to choose backpacking for holiday. Traveling alone isn't just for guys, women these days travel on their own just about everywhere. Nevertheless the majority of individual or the what is known as solo vacation relating to backpacking is usually tailored for men Ladies really are exclusive since we really need to combat unneeded attention particularly when we vacation alone and it may be rather demanding for many people.
Women from time to time opt to vacation alone due to numerous aspects. A few factors which I could picture will probably be somebody who just turned single again, desires to break free on her own for a short period, gain strength and possibly to provide evidence she can get it done on their own, probably looking for religious experience or simply really wants to do things in a different way. Recommended for you would be to go backpacking and find a special constr ucted vacation backpacks for ladies. Schedule your holiday perfectly and exercise lodging safety and always arrange to reach a location during day time. Remember to keep your traveling document secure and also be sure you dress adequately to prevent yourself from undesired notice. Actually do communicate with family members and good friends as you vacation and also a smart and efficient way would be to post your travel and leisure blogs.
A well specially designed holiday backpacks for women should be capable of support the actual shoulder blades pad as women are generally lighter weight compare with males and this will be more ergonomics to manage it. It shall be wiser to decide on light-weight backpacking due to the fact is really a safer choice compare to traditional holiday backpack simply because it helps to reduce chance of injuries for example sprained shoulder joint, back discomfort and knee complications.
A lighter in weight travel backpacks for girls also allow women vacationer to be far more reactive with regards to urgent situation. It's quicker to duck and also run away if you have a less heavy load on your back especially if you encounter natural disaster like mudslide or even crashing branches. Apart from that you can enjoy your vacation and traveling far more distance as well as take pleasure in the mobility and also independence when you vacation light. Single vacationers espe cially ladies require the simplicity and luxury as opposed to struggling with aching muscles and also lower back pain as a result of a sub standard travel and leisure backpack. Therefore, prior to start the journey it's a good idea to search and also look around online backpacks for additional information prior to selecting one.
Single female vacationers face far more danger and also it's imperative to apply essential traveling safeguards. Take a compass and guide of course, if you can invest a Gps navigation that is loaded with the latest map which is extra reliable. Try and stay with a familiar path that's incredibly well visited to make sure that when you are confronted by misfortune aid is available out quicker. Once you have all your travel backpacks for ladies all securely filled you are prepared to enjoy the vacation!
Cloudysky has been travelling around for vacations and is giving tips on how to choose travel backpacks for women. For more infor mation abouttravels backpacks for women please read this review.
???????
Source: http://amyplund517.blogspot.com/2012/12/travel-and-leisure-back-packs-for-ladies.html
metta world peace suspension apple earnings report john l smith apple earnings the glass castle jennifer hudson trial north korea threat
Source: http://telola.posterous.com/best-seo-tips-travel-and-leisure-back-packs-f
ice t downton abbey new york knicks president day lin j.r. smith espn jeremy lin
Source: http://amyhoarwash.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-seo-tips-travel-and-leisure-back.html
tu pac hologram shuttle pippa middleton space shuttle discovery spacex tupac hologram tupac back
Source: http://dinokoid.posterous.com/best-seo-tips-travel-and-leisure-back-packs-f
amzn white house correspondents dinner phoenix coyotes bruce irvin charlie st cloud celtics nba playoffs
MOSCOW (AP) ? President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a law banning Americans from adopting Russian children, abruptly terminating the prospects for more than 50 youngsters preparing to join new families and sparking critics to liken him to King Herod.
The move is part of a harsh response to a U.S. law targeting Russians deemed to be human rights violators. Although some top Russian officials including the foreign minister openly opposed the bill, Putin signed it less than 24 hours after receiving it from Parliament, where it passed both houses overwhelmingly.
The law also calls for the closure of non-governmental organizations receiving American funding if their activities are classified as political ? a broad definition many fear could be used to close any NGO that offends the Kremlin.
The law takes effect Jan. 1, the Kremlin said. Children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said 52 children who were in the pipeline for U.S. adoption would remain in Russia.
The ban is in response to a measure signed into law by President Barack Obama this month that calls for sanctions against Russians assessed to be human rights violators.
That stems from the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was arrested after accusing officials of a $230 million tax fraud. He was repeatedly denied medical treatment and died in jail in 2009. Russian rights groups claimed he was severely beaten.
A prison doctor who was the only official charged in the case was acquitted by a Moscow court on Friday. Although there was no demonstrable connection to Putin's signing the law a few hours later, the timing underlines what critics say is Russia's refusal to responsibly pursue the case.
The adoption ban has angered both Americans and Russians who argue it victimizes children to make a political point, cutting off a route out of frequently dismal orphanages for thousands.
"The king is Herod," popular writer Oleg Shargunov said on his Twitter account, referring to the Roman-appointed king of Judea at the time of Jesus Christ's birth, who the Bible says ordered the massacre of Jewish children to avoid being supplanted by a prophesied newborn king of the Jews.
A painting depicting the massacre and captioned "an appropriate response to the Magnitsky act" spread widely on the Internet. The phrase echoed Putin's characterization of the ban while it was under consideration.
U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell expressed regret over Putin's signing the law and urged Russia to "allow those children who have already met and bonded with their future parents to finish the necessary legal procedures so that they can join their families."
Vladimir Lukin, head of the Russian Human Rights Commission and a former ambassador to Washington, said he would challenge the law in the Constitutional Court.
The U.S. law galvanized Russian resentment of the United States, which Putin has claimed funded and encouraged the wave of massive anti-government protests that arose last winter.
The Parliament initially considered a relatively similar retaliatory measure, but amendments have expanded it far beyond a tit-for-tat response.
UNICEF estimates that there are about 740,000 children not in parental custody in Russia while about 18,000 Russians are on the waiting list to adopt a child. The U.S. is the biggest destination for adopted Russian children ? more than 60,000 of them have been taken in by Americans over the past two decades.
Russians historically have been less enthusiastic about adopting children than most Western cultures. Putin, along with signing the adoption ban, on Friday issued an order for the government to develop a program to provide more support for adopted children.
Lev Ponomarev, one of Russia's most prominent human rights activists, hinted at that reluctance when he said Parliament members who voted for the bill should take custody of the children who were about to be adopted.
"The moral responsibility lies on them," he told Interfax. "But I don't think that even one child will be taken to be brought up by deputies of the Duma."
Many Russians have been distressed for years by reports of Russian children dying or suffering abuse at the hands of their American adoptive parents. The new Russian law was dubbed the "Dima Yakovlev Bill" after a toddler who died in 2008 when his American adoptive father left him in a car in broiling heat for hours.
In that case, the father was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter and Russia has complained of acquittals or light sentences in other such cases.
The Investigative Committee, Russia's top investigative body, on Friday complained that its attempts to have the acquittals overturned or reconsidered had been ignored by the United States. Under U.S. law, acquittals are final except in rare cases.
Russians also bristled at how the widespread adoptions appeared to show them as hardhearted or too poor to take care of orphans. Astakhov, the children's ombudsman, charged that well-heeled Americans often got priority over Russians who wanted to adopt.
A few lawmakers even claimed that some Russian children were adopted by Americans only to be used for organ transplants or become sex toys or cannon fodder for the U.S. Army. A spokesman for Russia's dominant Orthodox Church said that children adopted by foreigners and raised outside the church will not enter God's kingdom.
___
Mansur Mirovalev and Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this story.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/putin-signs-anti-us-adoptions-bill-100228125.html
Jessica Lange NFL scores week 3 kat dennings Steve Sabol Yom Kippur 2012 Aaron Paul mumford and sons
With over 5 million Twitter followers, UK actor/author Stephen Fry is the closest thing we get to an "Ashton Kutcher", given that he has a big following and occasionally takes an interest in tech startups (sometimes a financial interest). But his choices are hit and miss. One was a startup which allowed you to put virtual post-it notes on websites... But his picks have improved and recently Yplan, a VC-backed startup with real execution credentials, benefitted from his largesse. Like HotelTonight, YPlan [iTunes link] is a way to book events (like plays, shows and concerts) via iOS mobile with literally a couple of clicks. And it's going to come in handy for New Year's Eve and other holiday events in the UK capital.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Jv8kkByTjHM/
leon panetta luck sag awards 2012 nominees sag awards pro bowl 2012 roster yamaguchi road house
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Argentina is asking a US appeals court to reverse an order for the country to pay $1.33 billion to "holdout" creditors who refused to join two swaps for the country's defaulted debt.
Argentine government lawyers said in papers filed late Friday that the order violates the country's sovereignty. The lawyers said the order also threatens service on at least $24 billion of the county's restructured sovereign debt, impairs the rights of third parties and puts global debt markets at risk.
"The Amended Injunctions have no basis in law, are inequitable, and threaten to wreak havoc on countless innocent third parties, which have already suffered losses due to the plunge in their bonds' value provoked by the insecurity that the Amended Injunctions have created in the market for Argentina's New York law-governed bonds," the briefing said.
"This harm to private and sovereign creditors, as well as to New York law and New York as a place to do business, will only grow if the Amended Injunctions are affirmed. "
The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ordered the country on Oct. 26 to pay the holdouts an equal amount whenever it makes payments on other debt that has been restructured since the country's economic collapse 11 years ago.
It agreed with U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa, who ruled that with more than $40 billion in foreign reserves, Argentina can afford to pay. The ruling gave Argentina a difficult choice: pay all bondholders equally, or pay none of them and risk going into default.
The court then returned the case to Griesa who ordered Argentina to pay the $1.33 billion into escrow for holders of its defaulted debt and banned banks and other third parties from intervening. Griesa based his ruling on the principle of "pari passu," or equal footing, which says debtors can't pick and choose between creditors.
President Cristina Fernandez called Griesa's ruling "judicial colonialism," and Argentina sidestepped the impending economic chaos when the order was suspended by the appeals court on Nov. 28.
But just the threat of the payment deadline set by Griesa had harsh outcomes. In the week after he issued his order, the cost of maintaining Argentina's overall debt soared in trading on U.S. and European bond markets and the cost of insuring those debts spiked.
"A court can arguably enjoin a foreign state from engaging in a commercial activity within the United States. But it cannot issue an order to force or preclude a foreign sovereign to act or not act within the limits of that sovereign's own territory," Argentina's brief said.
"By dictating to Argentina that it cannot pay moneys it owes to the exchange bondholders in a funds transfer in its own country, and commanding that it make a payment (including via escrow) to holdout creditors that it is precluded from paying under its own laws, the Amended Injunctions violate this fundamental principle."
Argentina, however, said it's willing to make concessions. To end the lengthy dispute, government lawyers said the country is willing to ask Congress to give holdout creditors the same treatment as those who joined a 2010 debt swap.
"The only definitive and equitable solution to pari passu claims that would bring legal and economic certainty is to treat plaintiffs and all other similarly situated claimants equitably on the same terms as participants in (Argentina's) 2010 Exchange Offer," the brief said.
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/29/3160281/argentina-to-court-revert-order.html
pauly d project adrienne rich autism cesar chavez day raspberry ketone ron burgundy millennial media
BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian rebels stepped up their siege of a military base in north of the country Friday as government warplanes bombed surrounding areas to support the defenders, activists said.
The fighting around Mannagh airbase near the Turkish border came as foreign ministry officials in Ankara said two Syrian air force generals had defected and crossed the border.
Rebels have been advancing in different areas in northern Syria, capturing several bases in and around the embattled city of Aleppo in recent weeks.
"The fighting did not stop all night around Mannagh airport," said Aleppo-based activist Mohammed Saeed. He added that Syrian military warplanes bombed rebel positions around the camp in an attempt to take the pressure off the base.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels reached the edge of the air base late Thursday and that heavy fighting continued into Friday.
The Observatory and Saeed also reported heavy clashes between troops and rebels in an around the Palestinian refugee camp of Handarat in Aleppo, Syria's largest city and commercial center, which opposition fighters have been trying for six months to capture.
Meanwhile, Russia's foreign minister said Moscow has proposed talks with the main Syrian opposition coalition, even though it had previously criticized Western countries for recognizing the group.
Sergey Lavrov told reporters that Russia has contacted the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces through the Russian Embassy in Egypt and "we expressed readiness to conduct a meeting" with coalition leader Mouaz al-Khatib.
The opposition leader al-Khatib quickly delivered an apparent snub: "If we don't represent the Syrian people why is he inviting us?" He called on Russia to demand that President Bashar Assad step down, "a main condition in any negotiations."
"The Syrian people haven't heard one fair word from Russia to the Syrian people, especially to the children, innocent people and civilians who are killed every day with Russian weapons," al-Khatib said in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV.
Russia has been one of Assad's strongest supporters and used its veto right alongside China at the U.N. Security Council to protect its old ally from international sanctions.
It has increasingly sought to distance itself from the Syrian strongman with top Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, making comments that suggest Russia is resigned to Assad losing power.
However, Russia continues to oppose calls for Assad's ouster, and has criticized Western countries for recognizing the opposition coalition, formed in November, as the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people. Moscow says this runs counter to agreements seeking to promote political transition in Syria.
In Beirut, airport officials said the U.N. envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi left Lebanon to Dubai on his way to Moscow where is expected to discuss the Syria civil war with Russian officials later this week.
In Turkey, foreign ministry officials said Friday that the two defecting generals were "regional Syrian Air Force commanders" and are now in a camp where army defectors stay in the country.
They refused to give the generals' identities or say how they escaped from Syria. They spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to talk to the press.
The defection comes days after the commander of Syria's military police Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal defected to Turkey. Al-Shallal is among the most senior members of Assad's military to defect.
Dozens of Syrian generals have defected since the country's crisis began in March 2011.
In other parts of the country, the Observatory reported fighting and shelling in areas including some neighborhoods of the capital Damascus, its suburbs, the central province of Hama and Homs and the region of Quneitra on the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The Observatory reported heavy clashes in the southern province of Daraa, mostly in the town of Busra al-Harir, and the Tel Shehab area near the border with Jordan.
Syrian rebels are fighting a 21-month-old revolt against President Bashar Assad's regime. Activists say more than 40,000 people have been killed in the crisis, which began with pro-democracy protests but has morphed into a civil war.
____
Associated Press Suzan Fraser contributed to this report from Ankara, Turkey.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebels-step-siege-northern-airbase-131159989.html
sarah palin cbi the shins atomic clock daylight savings time john mccain game changer
Innovation is a common topic of debate and strategies in most businesses (be they new or well established). In the current economic climate, and with the huge potential of the likes of social media data, brands are increasingly looking at innovation (large and small) as a way to beat the competition.
But innovation is often misunderstood. After a recent event debating the topic at the Open University Business School, I left with some insights into what the attendees thought that innovation was, and some misconceptions about what it has to be (but doesn?t):
Ultimately, innovation seems to depend on persistence, belief, adaptability, and relevance to customers and the market. While its success relies on people, behaviour and skills, and spotting and pursuing the opportunity before it?s too late. Undoubtedly money and resources help, but perhaps more of a barrier exists in the minds of employees and cultures of organisations?
luke scott tom benson royals nicole richie lyme disease symptoms esperanza spalding jessica sanchez
NEW YORK (Reuters) - As Marvell Technology Group Ltd embarks on a legal process to void a $1.17 billion damages verdict in a patent dispute with Carnegie Mellon University, it has some reasons to be optimistic.
The verdict was delivered on Wednesday by a jury in Pittsburgh, which found that Marvell had infringed two patents owned by Carnegie Mellon related to how accurately hard-drive circuits read data from high-speed magnetic disks.
On Thursday, Marvell said that it would seek to overturn the verdict through post-trial motions at the district court.
Marvell also said that, if necessary, it would appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. That court, which oversees appeals in patent infringement cases, has proven willing to throw out large verdicts in the recent past.
Brian Love, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law who specializes in patent law, said damages awards are reversed about 20 percent of the time on appeal. Further, he said, "the larger a damages award is, the more susceptible it is to attack." The award is one of the largest by a U.S. jury in a patent infringement case.
Other large verdicts have not held up on appeal. In February 2011, Abbott Laboratories, for example, succeeded in overturning a $1.67 billion verdict against it in a patent infringement verdict won by a Johnson & Johnson unit.
That verdict, the largest ever by a jury in U.S. patent infringement litigation, was delivered in 2009 by a jury in Texas which found that Abbott's arthritis drug Humira had infringed the Johnson & Johnson unit's patent. But the Federal Circuit ruled that the patents at issue were invalid and thus could not be infringed.
Microsoft Corp has also successfully cut down big patent infringement verdicts delivered against it. In 2007, it was hit with a $1.52 billion verdict in a case brought by Alcatel-Lucent SA over patents related to digital music technology.
But, after post-trial motions, the judge who oversaw the case set aside the verdict, finding that Microsoft's Windows Media Player did not infringe the patents held by Alcatel-Lucent. The Federal Circuit affirmed his decision.
It's unclear which issues Marvell will raise in its post-trial motions and appeals. In a statement on Thursday the company said it did not infringe Carnegie Mellon's patents and that those patents could not have practically been used in its products.
Legal experts said Marvell's lawyers could attack the jury's damages calculation. Love of Santa Clara Law noted that the award exceeds Marvell's annual profits and is more than one quarter of the company's market capitalization.
"The law of patent damages is fuzzy, and leaves parties leeway to argue for damages amounts that differ drastically, often by 100-fold and sometimes much more," he said.
Because it received precisely what it requested, an amount calculated by an outside expert based on assumptions that could later be questioned, this award may be in "greater jeopardy than usual," Love said.
Marvell may contest the jury's finding that it willfully infringed the patents, which allows Judge Nora Barry Fischer to treble the damages owed to Carnegie Mellon.
In a decision issued in June, the Federal Circuit gave judges discretion in determining whether infringement was willful. Before that decision, willfulness was often left entirely up to juries.
"Typically that is a focal point of post-trial motions," said Donald Dunner, a patent attorney who is not involved in the case.
Marvell may also renew arguments it made in a motion seeking a mistrial earlier this month based on allegedly improper arguments made by Carnegie Mellon's lawyers during closing arguments. Judge Fischer denied the motion, but said she would consider it at the conclusion of the trial "in light of the entire record, argument, and legal authority." (Reporting by Andrew Longstreth; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/marvell-options-faces-1-billion-patent-verdict-235631166--finance.html
kenny powers kenny powers carl hagelin triple play james neal jackie robinson virginia tech
Dec. 27, 2012 ? Researchers from the University of Vigo, in collaboration with the Environmental Services Unit at the Alejandro de Humboldt National Park (Cuba), have discovered two new species of Caribbean orchid.
The Caribbean islands have been natural laboratories and a source of inspiration for biologists for over two centuries now. Suffice to say that the studies by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in the tropical archipelagos contributed to the emergence of the theory of evolution.
In this case, a Spanish research team from the University of Vigo has discovered two new species belonging to the orchid family (Orchidaceae: Laeliinae) in Cuba. They have been called Tetramicra riparia and Encyclia navarroi. The two plants were found in the eastern and western zones of the island respectively.
"The first species described, Encyclia navarroi, is an orchid with considerably large flowers. A year later we discovered the Tetramicra riparia species, with very small flowers. The latter is so named because it grows on the banks of stony streams in the mountains of Baracoa, one of the rainiest and least explored areas in Cuba," as ?ngel Vale explained. Vale is a researcher at the University of Vigo and co-author of the studies published by the journals Systematic Botany and Annales Botanici Fennici.
Darwin was very much drawn to the orchid family, and used it to propose certain hypotheses about the importance of the relations between flowers and pollinators for biodiversity. Between 25,000 and 30,000 species of these plants are estimated to exist. However, the mechanisms that explain this amazing variety are only now being discovered.
"We could highlight their extraordinary capacity to interact with different types of pollinators. Contrary to most plants, many orchids do not produce nectar or other substances to compensate insects and birds that visit them," explained the researcher.
Orchids' deceit pollination
Despite this, floral visitors are attracted by orchids' colours and shapes, which enables the plants' sexual reproduction. This is known as deceit pollination.
The University of Vigo Plant Ecology and Evolution research team, which Vale belongs to, is studying the ecological and evolutionary consequences of deceit pollination in orchids that are endemic to the Greater Antilles: Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. One of the mysteries they aim to solve is if the deceit orchids have a greater taxonomic and genetic diversity than other nectar-producing species.
Vale and his team are drawing up studies in the Antilles not only to reconstruct the evolutionary history of orchids but also to analyse the effect of pollinators in the reproduction of plants, and how this interaction has modelled the colourful aspect of these Caribbean flowers.
"Despite the fact that T. riparia's flowers have a complete central petal, just like other species that make up a subgenre endemic to Cuba; the way they grow is very similar to a more widespread group that seems to have diverged on the neighbouring island of Hispaniola. Our work provides molecular evidence of the greater relationship of T. riparia with these species on the neighbouring island. This is in consonance with the geological history of the Caribbean islands, according to which the eastern end of Cuba was in close contact with that land," pointed out Vale.
Scientists are currently trying to estimate how many millions of years ago this and other Caribbean species saw the light of day. This will enable them to test whether the ancestor of this species was already in Cuba, or if on the contrary, it evolved from an ancestor that colonised the island from neighbouring archipelagos.
"Just as with most orchids, which offer no compensation to their pollinators, Encyclia navarroi and Tetramicra riparia receive very few visits from bees. This is one of the basic reasons that guarantee the survival of these plants, and also help protect the populations of their pollinators," explained the scientist.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Plataforma SINC, via AlphaGalileo.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal References:
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
NASA Robert Bork instagram mark sanchez christina aguilera Mayan End Of The World Olivia Black
MIAMI, Dec. 26, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Automotive Sales Trainer Grant Cardone announced today that Jon Lamb has joined Cardone Training Technologies, Inc. as Chief Marketing Officer. Mr. Lamb will be working with Mr. Cardone in the creation and implementation of automotive marketing strategies to assist automobile dealers and personnel in successfully converting Internet, phone and walk-in traffic utilizing Cardone ON-Demand.
Cardone ON-Demand is the auto industry's leading cloud based conversion solution providing new and used car operations and their personnel with real time strategies to assist them in converting direct mail, radio, TV and print opportunities.
"Jon Lamb has a great understanding of the challenges auto dealers face today and we share a passion for working with dealerships and OEM's to ensure that dealers are more successfully converting advertised traffic into sold and satisfied customers," said Grant Cardone, CEO, Cardone Training Technologies, Inc.
Mr. Lamb was most recently president at Moore & Scarry Advertising guiding the company?from a regional mid-sized?agency into one of North Americas largest firms with over 90 million in capitalized billings and 93 employees. With over ten years of industry experience, he has established relationships with automotive titans including Dealer.com, Asbury, AutoTrader, Google Automotive, Haystack, Cobalt and almost every manufacturer.
"The two biggest expenses for the dealer are ad spend and personnel and we have created a solution for both," said Jon Lamb. "It is a privilege to be working with Grant Cardone and his organization to continue the company's tradition of bringing the most innovative and effective training solutions to the automotive industry."
About Grant Cardone
Grant Cardone?is a?New York Times?best-selling author, star and executive producer of the reality TV show?Turnaround King,?host of the Cardone Zone radio show?and is regularly seen on?Fox Business,?NBC and?Business Insider. He was named the Top Sales Expert and a Top 10 Business Coach?to follow?on Twitter. He is a regular contributor to a wide variety of publications including Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, and INC Magazine.
A self-made multi-millionaire that literally created himself from nothing, Mr. Cardone is the founder and CEO of three multi-million dollar companies who first hit the sales scene in the car industry by revolutionizing automotive sales and marketing training approaches and dealership processes. He quickly expanded his business consulting and sales training services to a wide range of organizations including Fortune 500 companies, small and medium-sized businesses as well as success minded individuals and entrepreneurs.
Mr. Cardone has written five books (Sell to Survive, The Closer's Survival Guide, If You're Not First You're Last, The 10X Rule, and Sell or Be Sold) since the 2008 financial crisis which provide the principles and techniques individuals must follow to flourish and win.
Follow him on Twitter @grantcardone.
Contact information:
Fred Tanaka
323-246-7468
fred@grantcardone.com
This information was brought to you by Cision http://www.cisionwire.com
http://www.cisionwire.com/cardone-enterprises/r/grant-cardone-hires-auto-marketing-and-advertising-veteran-jon-lamb-as-chief-marketing-officer,c9352782
the last waltz earth day activities mel gibson splunk dark shadows iau msft
By: Money_Morning
William Patalon writes:
Gold bullion, gold stocks or no gold at all?
I put that question to Real Asset Returns Editor Peter Krauth last week.
You see, there's a lot of interest in investing in gold right now. Or perhaps I should say that there's a lot of interest in what gold might do.
And you can certainly understand why.
From its November 2008 market lows, the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD) - the No. 1 proxy for the "yellow metal" - rose as much as 158%, reaching its peak in September 2011. But it's down about 13% since that time (though it's up 5% year to date), and a lot of folks are wondering what gold is worth, and how they should play it.
Wall Street has grown more tepid on gold, with many of the investment banks ratcheting back just a bit on their target prices. But most also see prices heading up to and beyond the $2,000 level in 2013, meaning they see a potential gain of 22% or better.
Peter's target price is a bit more aggressive: He sees gold trading as high as $2,200 an ounce - 34% above current prices in the $1,640 range.
I've worked with Peter for several years now, and admire the way he works.
He based himself in resource-rich Canada in order to be closer to the many companies that he covers. And he's made a number of truly superb market calls: In September 2010, for instance, when silver was trading at $19 an ounce, Peter told investors the metal was a "Buy" - and we then watched it soar to a high of $48 (a 153% windfall).
So when I decided to bring you the latest insights on gold - and some recommendations, as well - I went to Peter.
Insights on Investing in Gold
His answer: Physical bullion remains a top play; the physical metal is a vehicle for profit, and will serve as an excellent hedge against inflation and the many problems that remain in both the global and domestic U.S. economies.
But gold miners are so cheap that they, too, deserve a look.
Well, at least some of them do.
"Bill, you'll see statements from some of Wall Street's big guns that gold miners are cheap right now," Peter told me during a telephone chat last week. "And that's true. They are cheap on a numerical [fundamental] basis, especially compared with historical valuations. But gold miners are cheap in another way, too - a way that Wall Street's either not telling us about, or just doesn't understand."
Needless to say, that last statement grabbed my attention. And I told him so.
Peter laughed, and then went on with his commentary.
"Over the last decade or so, the best of these companies have aggressively expanded their reserves. They've done so organically - that is, developed properties themselves. And they've done so by purchasing small development-stage, or production-stage players," Peter said. "Investors don't realize just how much it costs to add reserves - especially if a company is doing so by itself. That's particularly true today, with all the regulations and public protests boosting environmental and compliance costs."
Statistics Peter provided bear this out. In 1991, there were 11 gold discoveries. Twenty years later - in 2011 - there were three. And companies spent $8 billion looking for new strikes that same year.
"So you see, Bill, that the miners that already added reserves had tremendous foresight," Peter said. "Having spent a number of years just growing their reserves, all it will take to reap the payoff will be some event that kicks off a mania in gold prices. And we're not talking about longshot odds for that to happen. All you need is the "right' set of events, either domestically or globally, to cause gold prices to rise. When that happens, gold-mining stocks will be off to the races."
Gold prices have suffered of late because of a strong U.S. dollar. That surprising strength (in the face of the whole "fiscal-cliff" mess) stems from the fact that worries about Europe have transformed the dollar into a "safe-haven" investment.
Gold and the dollar are negatively correlated because gold is priced in dollars, but most of the buyers aren't in dollar-based economies. (Because these buyers are Swiss, Indian or Chinese, just to name a few, they look at the price of gold in Swiss francs, Indian rupees or Chinese renminbi. And if the U.S. dollar is strong, the price of gold in dollars is weak - even if the native currency price remains the same.)
So the rise we've seen in the dollar has been accompanied by a sell-off in gold.
Investing in Gold Stocks
Naturally, that sell-off in gold has affected gold stocks.
Over the past three months Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM) is down about 21% and Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX) is down about 20%, but the SPDR Gold Shares ETF is down only about 5%.
Looking ahead, the U.S. Federal Reserve's plan to continue printing money (and that of the European Central Bank (ECB), or the new stimulus plan we're likely to get from the Bank of Japan (BOJ) should be very good for gold.
And a jump in gold prices will be even better for gold miners.
The reason for that is called "leverage."
When gold prices jump, a gold-producer sees its earnings accelerate at a faster pace than the price of the actual metal.
I saw a hypothetical in a recent edition of USA Today that explains this perfectly.
For example, if you own a mine that can produce gold for $1,100 an ounce, but gold is trading at $1,200, you're making a profit of $100 an ounce.
But what if gold jumps from that $1,200 price level to, say, $1,500? That's a price increase of $300, or 25%. For the gold miner, however, profits have jumped from $100 to $300 - a 200% gain.
Two miners to consider are Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM) and Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX).
"One of the ones that I like is Newmont," Peter told me. "It has a very good dividend yield of nearly 3.2%. It's well-diversified geographically. The stock has gone sideways for a very long time and now the company is making a very concerted effort to keep its costs down."
Then there's the Toronto-based Barrick, the world's biggest gold producer.
"Barrick, like other miners, has seen that investors are not exactly thrilled with the performance of their shares," Peter said. "The reason for that is that the company spent a number of years just growing its reserves. But it did so by using its own stock as currency to buy the smaller companies that we talked about earlier. That was very dilutive."
But Barrick has suddenly gotten religion - of the shareholder variety. In June, it fired CEO Aaron Regent after less than four years on the job: Board members were apparently peeved that the company's share price didn't move during that period, despite the huge run-up in gold prices.
"Going forward, just from the signs or evidence that I've seen, the company has adopted a much more investor-attentive attitude - and the ouster of the CEO is just one bit of that evidence," Peter said. "The company is trying to focus on keeping its costs in line. And it's trying to produce the hell out of what it already has in the ground. The odds are high that we'll have a pretty good six to 12 months to come."
Barrick's 2.4% dividend isn't bad either - especially because of the current "zero-interest-rate-policy" (ZIRP) environment.
If you want the full lowdown on what's to come in the natural-resources sector - which we believe will have a big year in 2013 - take some time to see everything that Peter is looking at by clicking here.
Source :http://moneymorning.com/2012/12/27/your-2013-guide-to-investing-in-gold/
Money Morning/The Money Map Report
?2012 Monument Street Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Protected by copyright laws of the United States and international treaties. Any reproduction, copying, or redistribution (electronic or otherwise, including on the world wide web), of content from this website, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of Monument Street Publishing. 105 West Monument Street, Baltimore MD 21201, Email: customerservice@moneymorning.com
Disclaimer: Nothing published by Money Morning should be considered personalized investment advice. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized investent advice. We expressly forbid our writers from having a financial interest in any security recommended to our readers. All of our employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication, or after the mailing of printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation. Any investments recommended by Money Morning should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.
? 2005-2012 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.
Source: http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article38232.html
kirk cameron news 10 hillary rosen j.k. rowling j.k. rowling axl rose google earnings
BANGUI (Reuters) - Rebels in Central African Republic seized the central town of Kaga Bandoro on Tuesday despite the presence of foreign troops meant to support the government, a government official said.
The fall of the town, 333 km (207 miles) north of the capital Bangui, came hours after the Seleka rebel alliance said they would suspend their push and means they now have a firm grip on the north and east of the fragile nation.
"They took the town after a short battle despite the surprising lack of action from the Chadian (soldiers)," Rigobert Enza, who works in Kaga Bandoro's mayor's office, told Reuters after he fled to Sibut, the next town to the south.
Foreign soldiers in Kaga Bandoro include Chadians dispatched in the last few weeks to help Bangui tackle the latest rebellion as well as members of a regional stabilization force made up of soldiers from across Central Africa.
Neither rebel nor government officials were available for comment. But the daughter of a second local government official in the town said she had received a call from her father confirming the town had been occupied by rebels.
CAR, a mineral-rich but land-locked former French colony, has been plagued by insecurity since independence in 1960.
President Francois Bozize came to power in 2003 after a brief war and has won two elections since then.
But facing several internal rebellions and the spill-over from conflicts in neighboring Chad and Sudan, he has struggled to stabilize the nation.
"The situation has become very serious," a senior official in the president's camp told Reuters, asking not to be named.
The rebels are made up of fighters from several previous rebel groups and complain that Bozize has failed to stick to the terms of a 2007 peace deal.
(Reporting by Paul-Marin Ngoupana; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/car-rebels-seize-central-town-defying-foreign-troops-194831130.html
gia la riots new jersey devils torn acl derrick rose injury st louis news utah jazz
[Information Inside]
Owner:
Game Masters:
This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?War For The Gods?. Anything posted here will also show up there.Topic Tags:
Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.All reservations and questions may be placed here :]
Someone once told me 'trust those who seek the truth, but to doubt those who say they've found it'. I guess they were right. - [partial quote from Dexter]
I'd like to reserve the second female vessel. I'll have a bio up soon. ^^
RolePlayGateway is a site built by a couple roleplayers who wanted to give a little something back to the roleplay community. The site has no intention of earning any profit, and is paid for out of their own pockets.
If you appreciate what they do, feel free to donate your spare change to help feed them on the weekends. After selecting the amount you want to donate from the menu, you can continue by clicking on PayPal logo.
Registered users: Adantas, Arcayne*, Arch_Demon666, AugmentationAudit, Augustinsect*, AwesomeAshlyn, bandgeek*, Binsetsu*, bkwrm1222*, Caelus, CalleighElizabeth, ceh12, Celaradith*, ChaoticMarin*, CherryRed, Cloasse*, CNAGamer, code6435*, CoffeeLorencia, Colonel_Masters*, Cordero, Crooked Thoughts*, DarkCookie97*, delfiler, Demon of Bereavement, Digital_Muse*, Dmitrij Rosha, DuBois_Scarlett, Ereandrill*, Fabricator*, Floorgan*, FreeRunner*, fullmetal642*, Gamer_Templar*, Google [Bot], Google Adsense [Bot], Google Feedfetcher, GotDraggedIntoThis*, Guilty Carrion, HansenetteHeart, Hazezon*, hellgirl**, Holy|Orders*, HugeRoach, Jabberwocky*, JacintoRain*, jackrules158*, jukuma*, Kanade Yuuki*, Kestrel, kexia, KittyKLL, KulasLightShadow*, Kurumi Ryuusaki, Layla*, Leon21*, Life-Owner*, Lloyd999, Mac the Impaler*, Mayadasi, Mela*, Michaelis_xXx_Elly, Mr_Doomed*, MSNbot Media, Nekohina*, Nightmaric_Angel, ninjavanish, nisse91*, No-one-special, OrphicTrumpeter*, OurStars*, Patcharoo*, Porecomesis*, Princess Awinita*, PsychoticChrono*, punkwithflute*, RacoonMoon()*, Raidose*, ReaperGirl4, RedWolfe*, Rem?us*, RichterGotz*, ROFLMAO FTW*, Runika*, Rylie Renae*, Ryuu Takeshi, shadereen*, Shiki29*, Something?*, Sorella*, Sunlite, T1ra, TaniaSoulEater, TemplarWarden, Terrus*, The*Lucky*Teacup*, tina3003*, TnevdaNai*, tornadofan2*, Two, VitaminHeart*, ViviOrunitiaFF9, WalterF, Whispers..x*, wolfoftheage*, XavierDantius32, xfaithyx123, ZacharyTC*, zeno3111*, Zero Reaper*, zody, Zonethehedgehog*
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/T1uI0za1tVU/viewtopic.php
Jessica Ghawi People Water Fred Willard Emmy nominations 2012 Ramadan 2012 Michelle Jenneke batman
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/OcpXjjuRHbc/cozy-up-to-an-8+bit-yule-log
Jessica Ghawi People Water Fred Willard Emmy nominations 2012 Ramadan 2012 Michelle Jenneke batman
bachelor jeremy lin espn sassafras mardi gras 2012 the secret world of arrietty cee lo allen iverson
Getty ImagesWith 11 NFL games played simultaneously early Sunday afternoon, there were half a dozen big ones with playoff implications. The Vikings pounded the Texans. The Bengals snatched the final AFC playoff spot away from the Steelers. The Redskins held on to beat the Eagles. The Cowboys lost a thriller to the Saints. The Colts clinched a return to the playoffs in Kansas City. The Patriots struggled to put away the pesky Jaguars.
Those were all good games, so you can be forgiven if you overlooked the Packers? 55-7 blowout of the Titans, a snoozer that was over a few minutes after it began. But for my money, the Packers made a stronger statement about their status as a Super Bowl contender than any of the teams in those other games I mentioned.
Yes, the Titans are a bad team, but even against the bad teams, you can be impressed with the way a good team plays. And I have to be impressed when I see Aaron Rodgers go 27-for-38 for 342 yards, with three touchdowns and no interceptions. I have to be impressed when I see three wide receivers ? James Jones, Randall Cobb and Greg Jennings ? all catch touchdown passes, while tight end Jermichael Finley had his best game of the season, with 70 receiving yards. I have to be impressed when running back Ryan Grant, last year?s starter who just re-signed in Green Bay three weeks ago, gained 80 yards and scored two touchdowns.
But we already knew the Packers would be fine on offense, as long as Rodgers is around. Even more importantly, I was impressed with a Green Bay defense that saw six different players ? A.J. Hawk, Brad Jones, Clay Matthews, Mike Neal, Dezman Moses and Sam Shields ? sack Titans quarterback Jake Locker. And I was even impressed by the special teams ? which had been the biggest weakness of the Packers this season ? stepping up on Sunday. Jeremy Ross had a 58-yard punt return, while Mason Crosby finally settled down and made both of his field goal attempts, although his 48-yarder bounced off the upright before falling through.
Does all that add up to the Packers being the best team in the NFL right now? I don?t know. If I had to pick a best team right now I?d probably go with Seattle, which pounded San Francisco on Sunday night for its third straight blowout win. But I?m not sure how relevant the title of ?best team? is at this time of year. We often see that the universally recognized best team in the league in late December isn?t still standing in early February ? as the Packers found out the hard way last year.
What I do think that is that if I were a fan of a playoff team, the Packers ? who have now won four straight and nine of their last 10 ? are the team I?d least want to be playing when the postseason starts. This Green Bay team is really, really good, and remember: If we have a rematch of that Seahawks-Packers ?Fail Mary? replacement ref debacle in the postseason, the rematch will most likely be at Lambeau Field. A Seahawks-Packers playoff rematch would be a matchup of the two NFC teams that are playing their best football right now, and in Green Bay, I?d pick the Packers.
That 55-7 Packers score was what really made me sit up and take notice on Sunday. Here are the other items that caught my eye:
The NFL?s schedule makers dropped the ball with Sunday afternoon?s slate. Putting 11 games in the 1 o?clock kickoff slot and only three games in the 4 o?clock kickoff slot is a dumb way to divide up the afternoon games. With a bunch of good games in the early window, it was hard to follow all the action. And with three lousy games in the late window, the end of the day felt like a letdown.
Jamaal Charles tops Jim Brown. Charles didn?t just rush for 226 yards in the Chiefs? loss to the Colts. He also broke Jim Brown?s half-century old record for the highest career yards per carry average for a running back. In the official NFL Record and Fact Book, a player needs 750 career carries to qualify for the all-time record, and among running backs, Jim Brown?s career average of 5.22 yards per carry has always been the gold standard. But on Sunday, Charles got his 750th career carry and jumped ahead of Brown in the record book. Charles now has 770 career carries for 4,483 yards, an incredible career average of 5.82 yards a carry. Any time a running back tops Jim Brown, he has done something special. To top Jim Brown?s longstanding record average by more than half a yard per carry is stunning.
Janoris Jenkins has had a remarkable rookie season. Jenkins entered this year?s NFL draft widely regarded as one of the most talented players available, but also as an off-field problem child who could turn out to be more trouble than he?s worth. Well, the Rams drafted Jenkins in the second round, and he has had some off-field trouble ? Rams coach Jeff Fisher benched him for one game for missing curfew ? but no one could possibly argue that Jenkins is more trouble than he?s worth anymore. Jenkins has been a fantastic cornerback on an improving St. Louis defense, and on Sunday he scored his fourth defensive touchdown of the season. Do you know how hard that is to do? Deion Sanders is the best defensive player I ever saw at making plays after turnovers, and even Deion never scored four defensive touchdowns in a season. Jenkins is one of only three players in NFL history to have three interception returns for a touchdown in his rookie season, and the other two ? Lem Barney and Ronnie Lott ? are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. If Jenkins can steer clear of off-field trouble, then Fisher is going to look back on drafting Jenkins as the single most important decision he made in his first year as the Rams? coach.
Blair Walsh has had a remarkable rookie season, too. Never before in NFL history had anyone kicked more than eight 50-yard field goals in a season. Walsh, Minnesota?s rookie kicker, booted his ninth field goal of 50 yards or longer when he connected from 56 yards against the Texans on Sunday. Everyone knows the Vikings are playoff contenders because they have the NFL?s best running back in Adrian Peterson. But don?t overlook the importance of having the NFL?s best kicker in Walsh.
The Broncos are doing it at the right time. We that the six AFC playoff teams will be the Texans, Broncos, Patriots, Ravens, Colts and Bengals. But the only one of those six teams that really looks like it?s playing its best football late in the season is Denver. The Texans got pushed around by the Vikings on Sunday, the Patriots followed a loss to the 49ers last week with an ugly win over the Jaguars this week, the Ravens played well on Sunday but have struggled through most of the last month, and the Bengals and Colts barely squeaked by in their wild-card clinching wins on Sunday. I see big question marks about those five AFC playoff teams, but no major questions about the Broncos, who played great offense and great defense in pounding the Browns on Sunday. How does Peyton Manning leading the Broncos to the Super Bowl against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers sound?
Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/12/24/nfl-morning-after-dont-overlook-the-packers/related/
taio cruz Winter Olympics 2014 powerball numbers freddie mercury Horshack Beady Eye david bowie
WASHINGTON (AP) ? A U.S. Army brigade will begin sending small teams into as many as 35 African nations early next year, part of an intensifying Pentagon effort to train countries to battle extremists and give the U.S. a ready and trained force to dispatch to Africa if crises requiring the U.S. military emerge.
The teams will be limited to training and equipping efforts, and will not be permitted to conduct military operations without specific, additional approvals from the secretary of defense.
The sharper focus on Africa by the U.S. comes against a backdrop of widespread insurgent violence across North Africa, and as the African Union and other nations discuss military intervention in northern Mali.
The terror threat from al-Qaida linked groups in Africa has been growing steadily, particularly with the rise of the extremist Islamist sect Boko Haram in Nigeria. Officials also believe that the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, which killed the ambassador and three other Americans, may have been carried out by those who had ties to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
This first-of-its-kind brigade assignment ? involving teams from the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division ? will target countries such as Libya, Sudan, Algeria and Niger, where al-Qaida-linked groups have been active. It also will assist nations like Kenya and Uganda that have been battling al-Shabab militants on the front lines in Somalia.
Gen. Carter Ham, the top U.S. commander in Africa, noted that the brigade has a small drone capability that could be useful in Africa. But he also acknowledged that he would need special permission to tap it for that kind of mission.
"If they want them for (military) operations, the brigade is our first sourcing solution because they're prepared," said Gen. David Rodriguez, the head of U.S. Army Forces Command. "But that has to go back to the secretary of defense to get an execute order."
Already the U.S. military has plans for nearly 100 different exercises, training programs and other activities across the widely diverse continent. But the new program faces significant cultural and language challenges, as well as nagging questions about how many of the lower-level enlisted members of the brigade, based in Fort Riley, Kan., will participate, since the teams would largely be made up of more senior enlisted troops and officers. A full brigade numbers about 3,500, but the teams could range from just a few people to a company of about 200. In rare cases for certain exercises, it could be a battalion, which would number about 800.
To bridge the cultural gaps with the African militaries, the Army is reaching out across the services, the embassies and a network of professional organizations to find troops and experts that are from some of the African countries. The experts can be used during training, and the troops can both advise or travel with the teams as they begin the program.
"In a very short time frame we can only teach basic phrases," said Col. Matthew McKenna, commander of the 162nd Infantry Brigade that will begin training the Fort Riley soldiers in March for their African deployment. "We focus on culture and the cultural impact ? how it impacts the African countries' military and their operations."
Thomas Dempsey, a professor with the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, said the biggest challenge will be the level of cultural, language and historical diversity across the far-flung continent.
"How do you train for that in a way that would be applicable wherever they go?" said Dempsey, a retired Army colonel. He said he's not sure using a combat brigade is the right answer, but added, "I'm not sure what the answer is. The security challenges differ so dramatically that, to be honest, I really don't think it's feasible to have a continental training package."
The Pentagon's effort in Africa, including the creation of U.S. Africa Command in 2007, has been carefully calibrated, largely due to broad misgivings across the continent that it could spawn American bases or create the perception of an undue U.S. military influence there. As a result, the command has been based in Stuttgart, Germany, rather than on the African continent.
At the same time, many African nations are eager for U.S. training or support, as they work to build their militaries, battle pirates along the coast and shut down drug trafficking, kidnapping and other insurgent activities.
McKenna acknowledged the challenge, but said the military has to tap its conventional fighting forces for this task because there aren't enough special operations forces to meet the global training needs. He said there will be as many as a dozen different training segments between February and September, each designed to provide tailored instruction for the particular teams.
The mission for the 2nd Brigade ? known as the "Dagger Brigade" ? will begin in the spring and will pave the way for Army brigades to be assigned next to U.S. Pacific Command and then to U.S. European Command over the next year. The brigade is receiving its regular combat training first, and then will move on to the more specific instruction needed for the deployments, such as language skills, cultural information and other data about the African nations.
Dagger Brigade commander Col. Jeff Broadwater said the language and culture training will be different than what most soldiers have had in recent years, since they have focused on Pashtun and Farsi, languages used mostly in Afghanistan and Iran. He said he expects the soldiers to learn French, Swahili, Arabic or other languages, as well as the local cultures.
"What's really exciting is we get to focus on a different part of the world and maintain our core combat skills," Broadwater said, adding that the soldiers know what to expect. "You see those threats (in Africa) in the news all the time."
The brigade will be carved up into different teams designed to meet the specific needs of each African nation. As the year goes on, the teams will travel from Fort Riley to those nations ? all while trying to avoid any appearance of a large U.S. military footprint.
"The challenge we have is to always understand the system in their country," said Rodriguez, who has been nominated to be the next head of Africa Command. "We're not there to show them our system, we're there to make their system work. Here is what their army looks like, and here is what we need to prepare them to do."
Rodriguez said the nearly 100 assignments so far requested by Ham will be carried out with "a very small footprint to get the high payoff."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/army-teams-going-africa-terror-threat-grows-082214765.html
gavin degraw gavin degraw alec time 100 bob beckel anna paquin warren buffett
