Tunisia expects economy to grow 4.5 pct in 2013: finance minister

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia, which is seeing a pick-up in tourism and other economic sectors as it gradually recovers from last year's political turmoil, expects to cut its budget deficit to below 6 percent of GDP next year as economic growth accelerates.

"Tunisia is looking to limit the budget deficit of the state over the next year to 5.9 percent (of gross domestic product) compared with an expected 6.6 percent this year," Finance Minister Salim Besbes told the state news agency.

"The government plans to achieve a growth rate of??????? ???????4.5 percent in 2013," he added, reaffirming the government's previously stated growth forecast for next year.

The Tunisian government led by the Islamic Ennahda Party, expects the economy to grow 3.5 percent this year.

Besbes said the budget for 2013 will increase by 3.1????? ????? percent from this year.

"According to the draft budget, Tunisia budget will reach 26.342 billion dinars in 2013, compared with 25.401 billion dinars in 2012."

Last month the central bank governor said Tunisia's budget deficit should narrow to 6 percent next year.

Tourism has helped to spur Tunisia's economic recovery after the political upheaval last year that marked the start of the 'Arab Spring', but tourism and other industries that earn foreign currency have been held back by the crisis in the euro zone, the country's major export market.

The North African country has held a steady course on inflation, interest rates and exchange rates even in the turmoil that followed President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's ousting in January last year.

Central bank Governor Chadli Ayari told Reuters last week that the bank could raise interest rates by 25-50 basis points as early as this month and launch new caps on bank lending in the coming days to rein in inflation, now at 5.6 percent, fuelled by rampant consumption.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tunisia-expects-economy-grow-4-5-pct-2013-082143115--business.html

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Breaking Down the Hidden Gems of Professional Golf

Torrey Pines South in San Diego is more celebrated than the North course, but the stunning par-three sixth hole is a visual treat as well as a challenge for all golfers.

It has an ocean view, memorable cliffs and intimidating trees. This is a 208-yard hole that requires the golfer to contend with the whipping wind and all the elements. This is the most difficult hole on the course.

Torrey Pines hosts the Farmers Insurance Open and also was the site of the 2008 U.S. Open.

Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1361828-breaking-down-the-hidden-gems-of-professional-golf

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Read the rest - Tom McAllister

The MFA discussion is one of the common writer arguments (another: genre fiction vs. literary fiction) that invites hysterical and irrational responses online. There is so much misinformation, so many weird conspiracy theories about how admissions work, so many jaded writer-types who lashing out at what they view as the establishment. I understand, to an extent, why it?s so hard for people to be rational about the topic; it adds another layer of maddening subjectivity to the writing life, and, increasingly, it seems to create another barrier between a writer and a potential audience. As MFA programs?and now PhD creative writing programs? proliferate there is a growing class of ?credentialed? writers who, the fear goes, are given the keys to the writing world regardless of merit.

There are real questions to be asked of MFA programs? are some of them just moneymakers exploiting the dreams of people with middling talents? Do they ?standardize? writing and churn out a bunch of cookie-cutter ?safe? stories that lack some fundamental soul? Are they acting as shelters for writers who can?t or won?t get by in the real world? Do they cost to much? Do they encourage nepotism by prioritizing professional connections over craft? Can you even teach creative writing anyway? (my answer: yes, of course you can. But I acknowledge it?s a debate for some)

The list goes on. You can find all the critiques pretty easily if you haven?t heard them before. For some internet people, even the term ?MFA fiction? is a serious epithet reserved for the most tedious of books. And just about every debate I?ve seen online is circuitous and annoying and pointless, even if it follows a well-reasoned article.

It?s one thing to find that stuff on blogs or message boards, though. It?s another entirely when a publication like The Chronicle of Higher Education? self-described as ?the No. 1 source of news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty members and administrators?? runs an article like this, which is about as worthless an attack on MFAs as you?ll find anywhere.

I thought about just posting my thoughts, but I think this one deserves the standard Fire Joe Morgan treatment, a line-by-line breakdown of this article by Henry Adams (a pseudonym)

Click through for the full response:

M.F.A. Fever

?I?m going to grad school,? announced ?Fenimore? as he strode into my office. I knew little about this student except that his adviser had described him as home schooled and emotionally needy.

That?s a weirdly judgmental tone from the start, but, okay, fine, I?m sometimes weirdly judgmental and I guess I can live with it. That is, unless I were a student counting on this guy for respectful advice rather than sneering condescension.

?Congratulations,? I said. ?Where have you been accepted??

?Oh, I haven?t yet,? said Fenimore. ?My adviser said I should talk to you about applying.?

In the English department at Locally Known College, I have a reputation for being skeptical about sending students to graduate training in the humanities. I?m also known for being able to look a student in the eye and politely say ?No? to a request. Because of both factors, my colleagues sometimes send their less-promising advisees to me for consultations about graduate school.

Translation: I am widely known for being an unrepentant dick.

I asked Fenimore, ?What do you want to specialize in??

He replied, ?I?m getting an M.F.A. in novel writing.?

Some people develop an irrational desire to buy a vehicle they can?t afford. They have Car Fever. Other people feel driven to connect with stunningly inappropriate partners. They?ve contracted Relationship Fever. Still others become convinced that their lives will be worthwhile if, and only if, they pursue graduate work in creative writing. Those poor souls suffer from M.F.A. Fever.

This seems like as good a place as any for me to clarify that my negative reaction to the article has nothing to do with my own case of MFA fever, or the fact that I have a degree from a well-regarded program. Sometimes that?s the response you get if you try to engage someone who is attacking the MFA; they say ?of course you?re going to defend it,? as if your graduate degree has rendered you incapable of making sound judgments and expressing critical thoughts. I liked my graduate program, but that?s not why I?m responding to H. Adams; I?m responding because I?m much more invested in having an honest conversation than this guy is. He?s just phoning in a column and taking shots at what he perceives to be an easy target.

I admire undergraduates who sincerely want to write, but students plagued with M.F.A. Fever usually prove to be less realistic than those English majors who expect to blaze through a Ph.D. program in literature and step into a tenure-track job. I have encountered several different versions of M.F.A. Fever.

I, of course, have also met a number of students who wanted to go to grad school for creative writing. Some were better equipped than others for it, and some would have been better off waiting to apply. Some know very little about it, besides that it would be cool to keep writing, and they vaguely talk about how they?d like to also be a writer some day. ?Like you,? they say, with such sincerity that I feel badly saying, ?no, you do not want to be like me. At all.?

Anyway, let?s concede that Adams is correct: sometimes naive undergrads have a screwed up vision of what being a writer means and what an MFA program will be like.

Some sufferers refuse to read anything already published in their creative field because they fear that another author will influence their own work too much.

I have been a student (both undergrad and grad) in dozens of writing workshops. I have taught (online and in real life) hundreds of creative writing students, and have conversed with hundreds more writers, both aspiring and accomplished. I have literally never heard anyone say something like this.

But I?m supposed to believe Adams has met so many people?not just one person, but enough that he could generalize and classify them into a subset of a group of troubled students? that he needs to lead with this example. Let?s be ultra-generous here and say Adams isn?t intentionally lying in his example, and he believes he has met At best, I?d argue he is grossly misrepresenting something that one student once said to him.

To such students I say, ?If you don?t read what?s already out there, how can you be sure you aren?t simply reproducing something that?s been done 1,000 times already?? At that point, they often look at me as if they had never considered that possibility.

To such students, I say, ?it is fascinating speaking to someone who does not exist.?

Other young writers believe they?re on the verge of greatness and feel incensed if I suggest otherwise.

These people. I have met these people. Probably I was one of these people.

They envision an M.F.A. program as the place where they will be catapulted into fame and fortune. They expect me, as an undergraduate instructor, to fulfill one function: prepare them for graduate studies by pumping out nothing but praise, praise, praise. To those students I say, gently, ?How will you achieve greatness if no one gives you useful feedback??

Here?s the thing, though: these people exist, but this example seems to presuppose that the MFA is the primary cause, rather than the fact that the people he?s talking to are 21 year old college students who are sometimes incredibly arrogant and naive and confident, and have sometimes spent most of their lives being coddled. How many undergrads are convinced they will be doctors, even though they cannot handle a basic math course? How many undergrads are sure they will be rich and achieve all their dreams even as they make no effort at all to achieve any of them? ?MFA Fever? has nothing to do with it, even though he implies that somehow these students are unique among their peers; it?s a cultural issue. This is what college students do. This is how they think, and how we teach them to think.

Also, there?s an implication here that this problem is incurable. Okay, so they?re delusional. Someday they probably won?t be. They?ll mature, and they?ll later laugh at their past selves.

Some victims of M.F.A. Fever have highly optimistic expectations about how much publishing pays. I once had a new advisee, ?Ernest,? tell me in his first semester of college that he planned to earn an M.F.A. ?I want to write for a living,? he said.

?How do you plan to support yourself?? I asked. ?Almost no one makes a living on writing alone.?

?Really?? Ernest said. ?You mean I?ll have to work in a grocery store or something??

I said, ?A grocery store is one possibility.?

?Aw, man, my parents are gonna be so disappointed,? be said. ?I told them I?d get a job writing stories when I finish college.? Ernest left my office that day with a more realistic attitude about M.F.A. programs and writing careers.

If Adams can prove this conversation actually happened, I will eat my MFA diploma and post the video on youtube.

Look, I know some students are incredibly naive. I had a student recently express shock about the fact that the US employs a ?backup President? when I said something about Joe Biden. But there are so many ludicrous elements of this imagined dialogue that I shouldn?t even need to note them.

But okay, maybe Ernest actually did say something like this; many students still think publishing a book definitely leads to a big paycheck, and I?ve had students who thought I?d struck it rich when I published my memoir. But I?m confident that either his mindset is being grossly misrepresented and exaggerated beyond anything resembling reality, OR that Ernest and his parents are idiots, and he is an outlier, not at all a representative of a whole class of students or useful as an indictment of MFA programs.

Sometimes M.F.A. Fever gives students the delusion that a graduate program will accept them automatically, even if they have no portfolio of writing to include in an application.

Honestly, if Adams is actually telling the truth in all of these examples, he probably needs to find work at a better school.

I have a question prepared for such students, a question I asked Fenimore when he announced his graduate-school plans. ?Admission to graduate writing programs is very competitive,? I said. ?What have you written that will make you stand out from hundreds of other bright applicants??

Fenimore grinned. ?I?ve published a novel.

Few things give me more delight than students publishing their work, but fewer things make me more skeptical than undergraduates boasting about having published books. Once a student announced she had written a sword-and-sorcery thriller, but when I asked to see it, she could produce only a single chapter dashed off the night before. Another student declared he?d published a novel. He?d actually written a tale about a family of chipmunks that ignore their brilliant son. The student had run off several copies and given them to his parents and sisters.

Despite those disappointments, I do know a couple of students who?ve completed promising books, so I told Fenimore, ?I?d like to see your novel.?

?I?ll bring you a copy tomorrow,? said Fenimore, and out the door he went.

Some students are liars. And some don?t quite understand the difference between publishing posting something on their own website. Again, this vague anecdotal evidence, though, has nothing to do with what?s wrong with MFA programs?in fact, the reality that these people will never get into an MFA program is a good thing, isn?t it?

I have nothing against well-designed, honest M.F.A. programs, but I often recommend that students with M.F.A. Fever spend a year or two away from formal education. They should read, read, read, and, of course, write on a rigorous daily schedule. They should attend weekend workshops to get critiques of their work, and visit writing conferences to network with editors and other writers. Of course they should also have some adventures to write about. Taking this route may get a person closer to publishing than will pursuing a M.F.A.

This is all fine advice. I went to grad school straight from college and I wasn?t prepared for it. Many students want to stay in school because they know school and they?re afraid to enter the job market with a BA in English, and they just don?t really know what else to do. Many of them would be better off taking a year (or more) to hone their writing and to mature and to read and everything else.

Another option I suggest to students is the low-residency M.F.A., which has a big advantage over a traditional program. Because low-residency students meet face to face only once or twice a year, they can?t hide away in a university cocoon. The students are out in the world interacting with ordinary people most of the year, thus giving them source material for their writing.

There?s nothing wrong with low-res programs. But I do take issue with this notion that if you?re at a traditional MFA program you?re not ?out in the world interacting with ordinary people.? Besides being a bit insulting to writers, it?s also a false dichotomy; if you are alive and you?re not cloistering yourself, then you?re interacting with ordinary people in the real world every day, whether you?re in an MFA program or you work for NASA or you make wicker furniture.

Why can a student in the Temple MFA program, for example, not go to school and interact with the world? What restriction binds him to the university at all hours of the day?

Most students with M.F.A. Fever, however, want the familiar structure of a campus and an academic calendar. They apply for admission to traditional master?s programs with my blessing so long as they will get good feedback on their work, have thorough knowledge about the world of publishing, and receive financial aid.

I do want to note, too, that there is a benefit to interacting with writers daily and always being reminded that a) writing is a real job other people are doing all the time, and b) it?s a worthwhile pursuit. If you?re a young writer, being exposed to all the other serious students could be enormously beneficial, and you won?t necessarily get that same experience at a low-res program (which, again, I don?t have any problems with, I just think Adams could acknowledge the counter argument)

I also encourage students to attend only programs that warn them upfront not to expect a full-time teaching job.

A couple of years ago I was visiting a distant city when I learned that a tiny institution, ?Charles Ponzi College,? was holding an open house to promote a new traditional M.F.A. program.

MFA Programs are exactly like Ponzi schemes, Henry Adams thinks. Although, actually that doesn?t make much sense at all, not really. Henry Adams pauses, scratches out his last sentence. He snaps his fingers, says I know! Instead of addressing that point, I?ll just do like Dave Barry and sneak a dumb little gag in there, and so he does. And now there?s the implication that MFA Programs are scams, based only on the evidence of his fictional encounters with invented students.

On the off chance that it would be a good fit for my students, I attended the event. I enjoyed mingling with the program?s potential students but felt puzzled because the glossy pamphlet I picked up at the door did not mention financial aid or what a person might do with this degree.

The program director gave an enthusiastic talk but provided no more enlightenment than the pamphlet did. During the Q&A session I asked, ?Will your students learn how to publish their material??

?Of course,? Program Director said. ?They?ll meet visiting professors and guest speakers in the field.?

I said, ?But what?s built into the program to prepare students to get an agent, network, and build a readership??

Program Director frowned. ?They?ll have the support of their fellow students and share what they discover with each other.?

?Your pamphlet doesn?t mention assistantships or scholarships,? I said. ?How will your students support themselves??

Program Director shook his head at my ignorance. ?While they?re in the program they?ll take out loans and have regular jobs like everyone else. When they?re done they can move into the world of publishing. They could teach, too.?

The PD?s answers seem fine to me. Adams is right to wonder about the logistics; any serious applicant needs to think about the finances, the long-term plans, etc. But what?s the problem with the PD talking about improving the craft? If he?s invested in writing and teaching, then his passion isn?t for bureaucracy and dental plans, but rather for the writing itself. This is what the serious applicant is interested in, because an MFA program is not a work release program or a refrigerator repair school. It is a place where people can invest in their writing and try to become better at the craft. It?s great if the degree helps you get a job, and schools should offer some more post-grad support to their MFAs, who are often adrift.

But this implication that the PD is a snakeoil salesman because he?d rather talk about improving their writing than post-grad job placement? That?s dishonest, and it?s a repetition of the pattern by which Adams gets to set up strawmen then smugly mock them for being so weak.

At this point Program Director, the other faculty members, and the potential students glared at me. Clearly I was the only one in the room not infected by M.F.A. Fever. I decided I?d learned all I needed to know about Charles Ponzi College.

I?ll be this guy unironically uses the word ?sheeple.?

When Fenimore came to my office the next day, he did indeed bring a copy of his novel. The cover looked bright, but the binding seemed a bit iffy. I said, ?How did your agent choose this publisher??

Fenimore laughed. ?I don?t have an agent.?

I asked, ?How did you get this press to publish your book??

Fenimore said, ?My mom paid for it.?

There is nothing about the Fenimore case that is representative of students at large, and nothing to be learned about MFA programs.

Now I understood why my colleague had sent this student to me.

We already knew why; because you are a dick.

Fenimore?s mother, having protected and home schooled him, thought she was doing her son a further favor by paying some outfit to place Fenimore?s words between covers. I said, ?A handful of people self-publish and self-promote like fiends, eventually making their work attractive to a regular publisher. How many copies have you sold??

Fenimore shrugged. ?My closet is full of copies.?

?A novel that you paid to publish won?t get you into an M.F.A. program,? I said as gently as I could. ?It may even hurt your chances.?

I?m not sure about the last line; if the book were really well written, it would probably not matter that he has a weirdly indulgent and overprotective mother.

Overcome by M.F.A. Fever, Fenimore felt sure that I didn?t know what I was talking about, and that his mother, who had never attended college, could get her son into an M.F.A. program. He rose to leave, and I wished him well.

The next time one of my fellow professors sends me a student with M.F.A. Fever, I think I?ll charge that colleague a consulting fee.

The problem here, is this: Fenimore, assuming he?s a real person, seems like a dolt with a misguided mother who has pampered and sheltered him. This has nothing to do with ?MFA fever? or problems with MFA programs or anything at all.

This article poses as a takedown of MFA programs, but it offers nothing substantial; it?s just a series of cheapshots based on strawmen and anecdotal evidence. Probably you?re thinking I didn?t need to spend so much time on it, and maybe you?re right, but the fact is The Chronicle is widely read and has a certain authority, which means printing a lazy article like this is abject irresponsibility on the part of a publication that actually shapes the opinions of people in academia. It makes it more likely that I have to apologize for my MFA when I?m in a room full of PhDs. It does nothing at all to advance useful discussion of the changing role of writers in our culture.

Source: http://tom.mcallister.ws/?p=760

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Smallest and fastest-known RNA switches provide new drug targets

ScienceDaily (Oct. 7, 2012) ? A University of Michigan biophysical chemist and his colleagues have discovered the smallest and fastest-known molecular switches made of RNA, the chemical cousin of DNA. The researchers say these rare, fleeting structures are prime targets for the development of new antiviral and antibiotic drugs.

Once believed to merely store and relay genetic information, RNA is now known to be a cellular Swiss Army knife of sorts, performing a wide variety of tasks and morphing into myriad shapes.

Over the past decade, researchers have determined that most of the DNA in our cells is used to make RNA molecules, that RNA plays a central role in regulating gene expression, and that these macromolecules act as switches that detect cellular signals and then change shape to send an appropriate response to other biomolecules in the cell.

While RNA's switching function has been well-documented, Hashim Al-Hashimi and his U-M colleagues report online Oct. 7 in the journal Nature a new class of switches that are significantly smaller and orders of magnitude faster than the other known class of RNA switches.

Al-Hashimi calls these short-lived structures, which were detected using a new imaging technique developed in his laboratory, micro-switches.

"We're finally able to zoom in on these rare, alternative forms of RNA that exist for just a split second and then are gone," said Al-Hashimi, the Robert L. Kuczkowski Professor of Chemistry and Biophysics. "These things are so difficult to see because they exist for roughly 1 percent of the time and for only a microsecond to a millisecond."

In biology, a molecule's three-dimensional shape determines its properties and affects its function. RNA molecules are made of single chains that can remain stretched out as long threads or fold into complex loops with branching, ladder-like arms.

The micro-switches described by the U-M researchers involve temporary, localized changes of RNA structure into alternative forms called excited states. The structural change is the switch: the shape shift transmits biological signals to other parts of the cell.

"These excited states correspond to rare alternative forms that have biological functions," Al-Hashimi said. "These alternative forms have unique architectural and chemical features that could make them great molecules for drugs to latch onto. In some sense, they provide a whole new layer of drug targets."

In their Nature report, the U-M researchers looked at transient structural changes in three types of RNA molecules. Two of the RNAs came from the HIV virus that causes AIDS and are known to play a key role in viral replication. The third is involved in quality control inside the ribosome, the cellular machine that assembles proteins.

The newly found excited states of all three of these RNAs provide potential targets for drug development: antiviral drugs that would disrupt HIV replication and antibiotics that would interfere with protein assembly in bacterial ribosomes.

Evidence for the existence of these tiny RNA switches has been mounting for years. But until now, they're evaded detection because they are simply too small and too short-lived to be captured by conventional imaging techniques, Al-Hashimi said.

To make their discovery, the team used a modified form of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, along with a strategy for trapping and capturing the transient RNA structures. In a finding reported last year in Nature, the researchers used similar NMR techniques to catch the rare instances when bases in the DNA double helix roll back and forth.

In recent years, Al-Hashimi and his co-workers have also used NMR to create "nanovideos" that revealed in three dimensions how RNA molecules change shape -- twisting, bending and rotating about their structural joints.

In addition to Al-Hashimi, authors of the Nature report are U-M's Elizabeth Dethoff, Katja Petzold, Jeetender Chugh and Anette Casiano-Negroni. Al-Hashimi is an adviser to, and holds an ownership interest in, Nymirum Inc., an RNA-based drug discovery company in Ann Arbor.

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and by a Rackham Graduate Student Research Grant awarded by the University of Michigan. The authors of the Nature paper acknowledge the Michigan Economic Development Cooperation and the Michigan Technology Tri-Corridor for the support of the purchase of a 600 MHz spectrometer used in the study.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Michigan, via Newswise.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Elizabeth A. Dethoff, Katja Petzold, Jeetender Chugh, Anette Casiano-Negroni & Hashim M. Al-Hashimi. Visualizing transient low-populated structures of RNA. Nature, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nature11498

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/top_news/top_environment/~3/HEHnfTSRVLQ/121007134725.htm

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2,000?lost in Afghanistan: Is?US taking note?

Tom Pennington / Getty Images

Residents of Tolar, Texas, attend a candlelight vigil Wednesday at the old Tolar High School football field to honor hometown Army Special Forces soldier Sgt. 1st Class Riley G. Stephens.

By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

When No. 2,000 fell last weekend in Afghanistan, journalists were keeping count. But is the nation keeping up?

Sunday marks the 11-year anniversary of the first American missile strikes against terrorist and Taliban targets inside Afghanistan. The U.S. military death toll has ticked ever slowly upward from the war's launch?in October 2001 as a globally watched counterattack to 9/11 through the height of the Iraq War when service members in Afghanistan darkly dubbed their own battleground ?Forgot-istan.?

Last Saturday, Sgt. 1st Class Riley G. Stephens, 39, was shot and killed by an Afghan National Army soldier at a highway checkpoint in Wardak Province. The Airborne Special Forces member had three children and a wife. Residents in his tiny hometown, Tolar, Texas, gathered Wednesday night on the local high school football field, burning candles in his honor.

According to The Associated Press, Stephens was the 2,000th U.S. service member killed in Afghanistan, the type of historic landmark that gets the media?s notice.


/ USASOC News Service

Sgt. 1st Class Riley G. Stephens

But if the simple cold arithmetic of his?passing?didn?t get?your attention, you?ve got company. Although 68,000 U.S. troops remain in that war zone, the majority of Americans have mentally moved along, military experts say, to the point where such tragic notches rarely rate a mention at the supper table and barely raise more than a momentary blip in the Twitter-sphere.

?I don?t think it ranked very high? in the nation?s consciousness, said Michael O'Hanlon, senior fellow with the?21st Century Defense Initiative and director of research for the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. ?Thoughtful people ? even if they have made up their minds about the war ? they just want to commemorate it the same way we commemorate Veterans Day or Memorial Day. It merits a little bit of response in that regard. But beyond that, it elicits almost no new policy debate whatsoever."

?A 2,000th fatality does not affect people's (personal) calculus on mission feasibility or the desirability of one policy option over another. It?s just going to be a sad milestone,? O?Hanlon said.

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Perhaps that?s partly?because America?s lengthiest war has not generated the?fatal pace of past?military conflicts. While 181 U.S. service members have been killed, on average, per year in Afghanistan,?the annual death rates for American troops in three previous wars were higher to exceedingly higher ? Iraq: 498 per year, Vietnam: 4,850 per year, and Korea: 12,300 per year.

The U.S. military plans to finish a withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

?Of course, 2,000 fatalities these days really means 20,000 wounded because we?re keeping so many wounded people alive,? said O?Hanlon, who describes himself as ?a supporter of the mission? in Afghanistan. ?So, I think the numbers are pretty high in many ways."

?The fact that the country has sort of tolerated them, even though we?re still unhappy about still being in this war, is a testament to the fact that they are not huge,? he added. ?Most people are not losing sons and daughters and brothers and sisters in this war. And that may explain why we?re still all sort of more or less against it and yet tolerating it. We have a presidential campaign in which there?s no real pressure to get out and yet everybody wants to get out.?

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Beyond that, giving special commemoration to the 2,000th service member to die in Afghanistan seems somewhat disrespectful to the 1,999th U.S. troop to die there -- someone whose life story and profound sacrifice may get?far less acclaim. Meanwhile, the first casualties of the conflict get shoved deeper into the nation's collective memory, said?Paul?Rieckhoff, chief executive officer and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a nonprofit group with more than 200,000 members.?

"The larger concern we have is with that general disconnect," Rieckhoff?said. "Obviously somebody was just killed in action there and that person should be remembered and celebrated.?But we?ve also got to remember there are widows who have been dealing with this since 2001. They still need support and their families need care and their kids need to figure out how they?re going to school. The price those families pay impacts generations."?

"Most Americans aren't constantly thinking about Afghanistan. It?s not always in the papers. It?s at the end of very few news broadcasts. Maybe there is some fatigue in the general population," Rieckhoff said. "But I also think there?s some paralysis: They don?t know what to do about it. So, what we simply try to tell them is just make sure you remember the families."

?

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/05/14227158-2000-gone-in-afghanistan-did-you-notice-the-death-of-sgt-riley-stephens?lite

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?

How It Works:

Vitamin D comes in two forms: D2 and D3. Of the two, D3 is more bioactive. The body synthesizes vitamin D3 from?cholesterol and sunlight; which makes it difficult to obtain adequate amounts of vitamin D during cloudy or winter months.? In the body, vitamin D is responsible for maintaining normal blood levels of calcium and phosphorus, and helping to build strong bones. Vitamin D may also contribute to the overall health of the cardiovascular system. It works with other vitamins, minerals and hormones to promote bone mineralization. Research shows that vitamin D may help support a healthy immune system by regulating lymphocyte function, cytokine production and macrophage activity. Studies also show that Vitamin D may improve seasonal mood disorders.

Ingredients:

2,000 IU Vitamin D3 per tablet (500% Daily Value).

Recommended Use:?

Take 1?2 tablets daily with a meal.

Source: http://wildworkoutswellness.blogspot.com/2012/10/october-special-save-100-on-vitamin-d3.html

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Beware of Rental Scams on Craigslist ... - Wellington FL Real Estate

by Michelle Gibson, REALTOR? on October 3, 2012

Online Rental Scams have been commonplace for a long time especially on websites like Craigslist, so I was not surprised to receive a call from a prospective tenant inquiring about one of my listings because they were ?finding conflicting information online.?

In this recent rental scam, the scammer has taken my listing pictures along with a portion of my property description and posted it on Craigslist for almost half the list price. ?In my opinion this was an obvious scam based on the price alone, but not all prospective tenants know what the going rental rate is for certain neighborhoods or cities.

Craigslist Rental Scams - Wellington Florida Real Estate

Here are a few Red Flags for this particular Craigslist Scam:

Red Flag #1: The Price is Unrealistic
This scammer listed the property for $1,100 a month, when the actual rent is $2,100 a month.

Red Flag #2: No Contact Information
There is no contact information listed for the owner or real estate agent in the ad. The pictures being displayed are branded with a real estate web address, but contact information for the real estate brokerage is not listed. This prospective tenant was smart enough to go to the web address listed on the pictures and saw the property listed for?another price, which made her pick up the phone and call me.

Red Flag #3: Can?t Meet the Landlord
Most scammers make up an excuse why they are unable to meet a prospective tenant in person, which is exactly what this scammer did, they said they?ve been relocated out of state because of a job transfer. In my experience an out of area landlord will not try renting a property on their own, instead they will hire a local real estate agent to do so for them.

Red Flag #4: Wire Funds
Every rental scam I have read about or been party to the scammer required the tenant to wire funds.

If you are looking to rent a home I highly recommend hiring a real estate professional to make sure you are not scammed. Find out today if we are able to assist you with your rental needs by filling out our Online Rental Questionnaire Below:

Source: http://wellingtonhometeam.com/beware-of-rental-scams-on-craigslist/

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Film Review: Taken 2 | Sassi Sam Girlie Gossip Files

Directed by: Olivier Megaton
Starring: Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace, Rade Serbedzija
Sassi?s Star Rating: 4/5

If you have been waiting with baited breath ever since Kim (Grace) was taken 4 years ago and Neeson literally kicked some serious butts as retired CIA agent Bryan Mills, then wait no more. He has made his little phone speech famous beginning with ?They are going to take you?? and then later on with the abductors ?I have a special set of skills??. Well, he breaks out those skills all over again in Taken 2. This time, the family is on holiday together in Istanbul and unknowingly are tracked by the families of the men Mills killed when saving his daughter last time.

The attackers are planning to take them all but only manage to get the parents and it is the daughter who must be guided to help save her family. Mills (Neeson) still has his ?special set of skills? and they have uniquely written this story to be able to give it a fresh look but maintain the original concept. Here?s the thing though, when the first movie is SO good, then it is hard to top it right? The cinema was full and we all were so excited to see this movie, unfortunately, some of the lines made it a little cheesy, so there was some giggling. What I liked about that though, was that it wasn?t too serious. It made it really enjoyable.

There was lots of action and drama which was just fantastic and the acting matched the first series. Luc Besson (Writer) has confirmed that there are to be no more sequels, this is it, however, you never know?

If you want to get ?taken? again, the get to the cinemas from today!

Love
Monique

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Tags: movie reviews

Category: Film & TV

Source: http://sassisamblog.com/2012/10/04/film-review-taken-2/

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Onset of Flu Season Raises Concerns About Human-to-Pet ...

As flu season approaches, people who get sick may not realize they can pass the flu not only to other humans, but possibly to other animals, including pets such as cats, dogs and ferrets.

This concept, called ?reverse zoonosis,? is still poorly understood but has raised concern among some scientists and veterinarians, who want to raise awareness and prevent further flu transmission to pets. About 80-100 million households in the United States have a cat or dog.

It?s well known that new strains of influenza can evolve from animal populations such as pigs and birds and ultimately move into human populations, including the most recent influenza pandemic strain, H1N1. It?s less appreciated, experts say, that humans appear to have passed the H1N1 flu to cats and other animals, some of which have died of respiratory illness.

There are only a handful of known cases of this phenomenon and the public health implications of reverse zoonosis of flu remain to be determined. But as a concern for veterinarians, it has raised troubling questions and so far, few answers.

Veterinary researchers at Oregon State University and Iowa State University are working to find more cases of this type of disease transmission and better understand any risks they pose to people and pets.

?We worry a lot about zoonoses, the transmission of diseases from animals to people,? says Christiane Loehr, an associate professor in the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine. ?But most people don?t realize that humans can also pass diseases to animals, and this raises questions and concerns about mutations, new viral forms and evolving diseases that may potentially be zoonotic. And, of course, there is concern about the health of the animals.?

The researchers are surveying flu transmission to household cat and dog populations, and suggest that people with influenza-like illness distance themselves from their pets. If a pet experiences respiratory disease or other illness following household exposure to someone with the influenza-like illness, the scientists encourage them to take the pet to a veterinarian for testing and treatment.

The first recorded, probable case of fatal human-to-cat transmission of the pandemic H1N1 flu virus occurred in Oregon in 2009, Loehr said. Details were published in Veterinary Pathology, a professional journal. In that instance, a pet owner became severely ill with the flu and had to be hospitalized. While she was still in the hospital, her cat ? an indoor cat with no exposure to other sick people, homes or wildlife ? also died of pneumonia caused by an H1N1 infection.

Since then, researchers have identified a total of 13 cats and one dog with pandemic H1N1 infection in 2011 and 2012 that appeared to have come from humans. Pet ferrets have also been shown to be infected, and some died. All of the animals? symptoms were similar to that of humans - they rapidly develop severe respiratory disease, stop eating and some die. Serological studies suggest there is far more exposure to flu virus in cats and dogs than previously known.

?It?s reasonable to assume there are many more cases of this than we know about, and we want to learn more,? Loehr said. ?Any time you have infection of a virus into a new species, it?s a concern, a black box of uncertainty. We don?t know for sure what the implications might be, but we do think this deserves more attention.?

Natural and experimental transmission of the H3N2 influenza virus from dogs to cats in South Korea showed the potential for flu viruses to be transmitted among various animal species, Loehr said. It?s unknown if an infected cat or other pet could pass influenza back to humans.

The primary concern in ?reverse zoonosis,? as in evolving flu viruses in more traditional hosts such as birds and swine, is that in any new movement of a virus from one species to another, the virus might mutate into a more virulent, harmful or easily transmissible form.

?All viruses can mutate, but the influenza virus raises special concern because it can change whole segments of its viral sequence fairly easily,? Loehr said. ?In terms of hosts and mutations, who?s to say that the cat couldn?t be the new pig? We?d just like to know more about this.?

Veterinarians who encounter possible cases of this phenomenon can obtain more information from Loehr or Jessie Trujillo at Iowa State University. They are doing ongoing research to predict, prevent or curtail emergent events.

Source: OSU College of Veterinary Medicine

Source: http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/news/2012/10/onset-of-flu-season-raises-concerns-about-humantopet-transmission.aspx

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NY man buys 19th century Va. woman's scrapbook | WSLS 10

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) The 19th century scrapbook of a Confederate general's niece in Virginia has been sold at auction to a New York man.

Henrietta Magruder Turner's leather-bound scrapbook includes a hand-drawn map of the 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg.

Rick Stattler with Swann Auction Galleries tells The Free Lance-Star (http://bit.ly/QX4VLE) that the scrapbook was sold Tuesday for $4,400 to Kevin F. Kelly of New Palz, N.Y.

Turner compiled the scrapbook from 1852 to 1875. She was a niece of Confederate Gen. John Bankhead Magruder.

___

Information from: The Free Lance-Star, http://www.fredericksburg.com/

Source: http://www2.wsls.com/news/2012/oct/03/ny-man-buys-19th-century-va-womans-scrapbook-ar-2254858/

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