Google Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0): a hands-on screenshot gallery

Hello there, Ice Cream Sandwich! Google and Samsung just took the wraps off of the former's newest mobile operating system here in Hong Kong, and boy -- she's a beauty. Of course, we've known about ICS for months now, but outside of a few sneak peeks courtesy of Mr. Blurrycam, we didn't know precisely what to expect. Strangely, Motorola's recent introduction of the Droid RAZR only delivered the freshest offering of Gingerbread, but the Galaxy Nexus is oh-ficially the first smartphone in the world to launch with Android 4.0. Our test unit was actually running 4.0.1 for reasons unknown, but as we mentioned in our Galaxy Nexus hands-on, it was as smooth as ever. Without question, this is easily the slickest, most polished version of Android yet, and we invite you to take a tour yourself via the hands-on gallery below. Apologies for the quantity, but we wanted to explore every nook and cranny while we had the chance.

Google Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0): a hands-on screenshot gallery originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 01:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/19/google-ice-cream-sandwich-android-4-0-a-hands-on-screenshot-g/

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Hold Off From Cleaning Your Barbecue Grill Until Spring [Grilling]

Hold Off From Cleaning Your Barbecue Grill Until SpringIf you're getting ready to put the barbecue grill away for winter, organization blog Unclutterer suggests leaving the baked-on crust intact on the grill to keep it from rusting.

You still need to wipe down your grill if you're storing it for winter, but if you keep yourself from scrubbing it clean before it gets cold, the coating on the metal grate will ensure no air or water come into contact with it, which keeps it from rusting. Come spring, you can get to the deep cleaning by heating it over an open flame for around ten minutes and then scrubbing the coating off with ease. Photo by Ben Bosma.

Clean your barbecue grill? Might want to wait until spring | Unclutterer

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/Vd4O_5vCgsk/hold-off-from-cleaning-your-barbecue-until-spring

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Inhabitat's Week in Green: Civic hybrid gets driven, AT-AT dog costume gets worn

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.
Incredible feats of green architecture reached for the sky this week as Inhabitat reported that the world's first vertical forest skyscraper is rising in Milan and an outdoor cinema made entirely from refrigerators popped up in London. We also took a look inside a crazy mountain lodge that resembles a hill-like hobbit high-rise and we spotted a Finnish hotel that rents out glass-domed geodesic igloos for viewing the northern lights. We also launched a brand new video that takes an inside look at this year's winning Solar Decathlon homes, we kicked off a contest where you can win one of 25 $600 home energy audits, and we learned that China's coal-powered energy grid negates the green benefits of electric vehicles.

Speaking of green transportation, this week we caught a glimpse of several next-generation electric vehicle technologies as Nissan unveiled a ten minute electric vehicle charger and Chevrolet announced plans to produce a Spark mini EV. We also took Honda's new Civic hybrid for a spin, and we learned that Tesla's new Model S sedan will be powered by highly efficient Panasonic batteries. Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic announced plans to cut its carbon footprint in half by fueling airplanes with waste gas and Germany announced that 100 percent of its trains will run on renewable energy by 2050.

In other news, techy fashion got a jolt of affordability as we spotted an economical LED jacket for night cyclists and runners, and we took a look at the story behind Steve Jobs' iconic black turtlenecks. We also got into the Halloween spirit by bringing you an adorable Star Wars AT-AT costume for dogs, and we showcased a creepy set of "stained glass" windows made from x-rays. Finally, we shined the spotlight on India's solar-powered water ATMs, and we brought you a can't-miss set of tips for recycling e-waste.

Continue reading Inhabitat's Week in Green: Civic hybrid gets driven, AT-AT dog costume gets worn

Inhabitat's Week in Green: Civic hybrid gets driven, AT-AT dog costume gets worn originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/_T5N-xnrs0c/

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Insight: Running Chinese finance, a different kind of banker (Reuters)

HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) ? The chairman of the world's most valuable bank was once a good communist, learning from the peasants in a collectivist commune in Jiangxi province and working to raise coal production as a teenage miner in Henan during the tumult of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution.

Today, Jiang Jianqing has a somewhat bigger job: running the world's biggest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

But he does the work for an annual salary that might make a hardened socialist nod with approval. He earned $150,000 in 2010, a mere 1.5 percent of Bank of America Corp CEO Brian Moynihan's estimated $10 million pay last year, and half again smaller than the $20 million Jamie Dimon was paid for running JP Morgan.

Like those of his peers at other Chinese banks, Jiang's salary has consistently fallen in the past four years, from about $240,000 in 2008, and he himself said in Hong Kong last year that he hoped his pay cheque would stop shrinking.

"We can't be paid more than the regulators who oversee us," Jiang explained last year when asked about the matter. "If the regulators have to take a pay cut, we will take a pay cut as well."

China's "Big Four" lenders are back in the spotlight as China's economy starts to absorb the impact of a global slowdown.

Last week Central Huijin, a unit of the $400 billion sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp, began buying shares in the banks -- ICBC, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China -- to prop up their share prices and reassure domestic investors.

PARTY JOBS

As Jiang's example shows, China's top bank bosses are a different breed to their Western counterparts. Beneath their coiffured hair and tailored suits, the likes of CCB Chairman Guo Shuqing and ICBC's Jiang are first and foremost Communist Party members appointed to their jobs by the government.

China's biggest financial institutions fall under the supervision of the Communist Party, so the bank heads also sit on the party's Central Committee that is ultimately headed by the country's President Hu Jintao.

As China prepares for a 2012 leadership transition that will see the retirement of Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao from their party posts, many of the bankers will also see themselves rotated into new jobs.

The Party connections of the Big Four executives raise questions about who, exactly, they work for.

"Who are you trying to impress? You're not trying to impress your shareholders, you're trying to impress party seniors," says Patrick Chovanec, associate professor at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management in Beijing.

"After you complete your tour at a bank, you will be assigned to a new tour of duty, usually in a government posting."

That bureaucratic outlook has been fully apparent in the banks' actions over the years. Directed by the state to funnel money into government-linked companies, banks were saddled with non-performing loan ratios exceeding 20 percent by the early 2000s.

Beijing bought out most of those bad loans as the banks prepared for their public listings. They have kept a fairly clean record since, but many, including Credit Suisse and Fitch Ratings, warn that bad loans may soon start creeping up again.

LENDING SPREE

Credit Suisse analyst Sanjay Jain said in a report on Wednesday he now thinks that up to 12 percent of all of China's outstanding loans may go bad and non-performing loans may likely account for all of the banks' equity. Current NPL ratios hover at around 1 percent for the top Chinese banks.

This comes after banks went on a lending spree during the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, spurred on by Beijing's 4 trillion yuan ($627 billion) call to boost the economy.

Much of that money went to the railway ministry, local governments that set up financing vehicles to fund their pet projects and real estate developers.

All three are in potential trouble now, with the China's railway ministry under public pressure after a high profile train crash, local governments largely barred from borrowing from banks and property prices in danger of collapsing.

Despite all that, banks have reported strong earnings in the past year that often beat expectations. This may be a result of them putting less cash into the kitty to prepare for loans that may go sour.

"This is unlike the late 1990s when the government forced the banks to admit to a huge amount of non-performing loans. This time round, the strategy is just to not admit to NPLs," said Victor Shih, a professor at Northwestern University in Chicago who has written a book on China's financial system.

RED BUSINESSMEN

Many of the executives running China's banks may have accepted salaries their Western counterparts would disdain in return for the future political appointments that may further their influence, said Northwestern's Shih.

For example, the current governor of the Chinese central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, and Vice Premier Wang Qishan were both previously head of CCB, the country's No.2 lender.

ICBC's Jiang is rumoured to be in the running to head China's bank regulatory commission, while CCB's Guo is tipped as possibly the next head of the central bank, of which he was previously a vice governor.

"Many of them are aspiring politicians, and being a bank CEO is merely a stepping stone in their careers," Shih said. "Thus, they are willing to accept lower pay."

Guo Shuqing, chairman of the world's No.2 lender China Construction Bank, is a philosophy graduate who completed his Master's degree in the 1980s in one of the more fashionable areas of study at that time: Marxist and Leninist theory.

His career path typifies the circuitous route of the senior Chinese bureaucrat/businessman -- he was previously vice-governor of Guizhou province, head of Central Huijin, director of the State Administration on Foreign Exchange and a deputy governor of the central bank before being named head of CCB.

Many of these executives were given their jobs after political appointments -- Guo in Guizhou and Bank of China Vice Chairman Li Lihui who was vice-governor of the southern island province of Hainan.

Others also had regulatory roles, with AgBank's low-profile Chairman Xiang Junbo having once worked at the National Audit Office and Bank of China's Li at a local branch of the country's central bank.

The irony is not lost on China-watchers, some of whom say that for all of China's claims of being a market-oriented economy, many of its biggest companies retain strong relationships with the government.

"It's all decided by the personnel department of the Communist Party," said Tsinghua's Chovanec.

"These postings should be seen as precisely that, they are postings to give them experience and put them in management roles," he said. "These are not traditional banking paths."

And unlike most other executives where job-hopping between companies is common, few top Chinese executives have ever made the jump from the world of state-backed lending to foreign-run banks or financial services companies, despite the promise of higher salaries.

"It could make a lot of sense if knows the American system," said a former senior Chinese banker who knows CCB's Guo personally.

"But I think when you're that high in the system and then have to work for a foreigner -- I don't think China's ready for that kind of switch yet."

(Editing by Don Durfee and Alex Richardson)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111017/bs_nm/us_china_banks

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Private schools win legal fight over charity status | eSchool News

Private schools on Friday won a long-running legal battle with the Charity Commission over what schools must do to justify their charitable status, the AFP reports. The Independent Schools Council (ISC), an umbrella body representing more than 1,000 schools, had challenged tighter rules affecting how private schools qualify for the status, which comes with tax breaks. The changes, introduced in 2006, meant private schools in England and Wales had to prove they benefit children who cannot afford their fees in order to keep their charitable status?

Click here for the full story

Source: http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/10/17/private-schools-win-legal-fight-over-charity-status/

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Digital communications: The evolution of the new news cycle Author ...

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Tags: Ben Smith, communications, digital communications, DNAinfo, Facebook, government, howard-wolfson, media, Michael Kempner, Michael Mandelkern, MWW Group, news, news cycle, Nick Judd, Nicole Bode, NY1, online, Pat Kiernan, Personal Democracy Forum, Politico, social media, techPresident, twitter

By City Hall

In the first panel of a four-part series sponsored by City Hall and AT&T, six panelists?Ben Smith of Politico, New York City Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson, NY1 morning anchor Pat Kiernan, MWW Group CEO Michael Kempner, DNAinfo editor Nicole Bode and Nick Judd of the Personal Democracy Forum?s techPresident blog?weighed in on the opportunities and challenges facing media and government as they struggle to master the digital tools of the future.

What follows is an edited transcript.

?

City Hall: Can anyone control a message any more?

?

Ben Smith, reporter, Politico: The White House constantly gets derailed. It?s both the day in and day out. They?ve ended the practice of just trying to put out one message and stick to it. They?ve given in to the idea that there?s just endless incoming and you are just giving out files. A small thing can always get magnified into a big thing.

?

CH: Given the new forms of instant media, how do public relations firms keep track of the various different news accounts that media outlets release all day and night?

Michael Kempner, CEO, MWW Group: So much of it is out of your control, but so much is in your control, as well. It has always been speed to market. It was always about the first 24 hours. Now it?s closer to the first 24 seconds. How do you communicate across all screens, pretty much at the same time, pretty much before someone else has the opportunity to set the debate? The control isn?t what it used to be, but more so than what people would assume.

?

CH: Howard, did you make a conscious decision to turn your Twitter feed into a medium to confirm or refute the factual accuracy of stories?

?

Howard Wolfson, deputy mayor for governmental relations and communications: It?s sort of a conscious decision. You have a different role and responsibility in government than you do on a campaign. Your voice on a campaign can be a little edgier, a little more confrontational. When you work in the government and you are paid by the taxpayer, you have a different sense of obligations and responsibilities.

?

CH: Pat, how representative is a conversation on Twitter of the city?s general sentiments on current issues?

?

Pat Kiernan, anchor, NY1: We can be fooled into thinking the conversation on Twitter is a proxy for the feelings of the electorate. This group that is actively engaged in this 24-second news cycle is not necessarily representative of the audience out there. Most of the feedback I get back from viewers is on social media. The sample is skewed.

?

CH: Nicole, you work for an entirely online news organization, yet television and print publications have based their reports on your stories. How have you built that following, and what impact do you think your organization has on the news industry?

?

Nicole Bode, senior editor, DNAinfo: If you influence the influencers, if you make information available to the people who make information available to the rest of the people, then you build your credibility through the credibility of other people who trust you enough to share your information. It?s almost like a mini newspaper, just on Twitter.

?

CH: Do you think Twitter could have the same impact that community newspapers did 40 years ago?

?

Bode: It?s so stunning how people have reached out and been so desperate and thirsty for news. People tell us we are the CNN of Washington Heights and Inwood. It?s just because there are particular kinds of street areas where they weren?t getting that sort of coverage before.

?

CH: Nick, who is using this technology but aren?t considered insiders?

?

Nick Judd, associate editor, Personal Democracy Forum?s techPresident blog: People of color are more likely to be on social media. You have the real-people conversations people are having on Twitter about things tangentially related to politics. They are talking about their paychecks; they are talking about rent; they are talking about where they are going out at night and chatting with their friends, but they aren?t necessarily part of the insiders? group.

?

Smith: There?s a huge audience of people that know as much as the insiders. There are no real insiders. You could probably put anyone in this room on CNN or one of the morning shows, and they would know as much as any random commentator out there.

?

CH: Pat, how do you decide what to air on television within the limited amount of broadcast time available?

?

Kiernan: I have 15,000 followers on Twitter, and over the course of a weekday morning over one million people will tune in to me on NY1 at a given point. When you?ve got them for 15 or 30 minutes, you have to make the right decisions on what they need to get out the door. Twitter alerts you to stories. It?s an instant method of feedback in your balance of a particular story.

?

CH: Michael, how do you reach out to a mass audience through the multiple forms of new media?

Kempner: It?s less about the tools of the moment, because they will change, than about how people use the tools. People like Ben; to those that follow him and read him, I would say he has a big role in influencing the influencers. Those who are credible sources to other people are magnified. For us it?s a combination of relevancy of trust and influencing the influencers.

?

CH: Are bloggers the new filter of media? What forms of media do communications apparatuses worry about?

?

Wolfson: You have to be beyond just the people who are reading the newspaper. There?s enough capacity to worry about anything. We don?t have a New York City version of Politico yet. With the exception of NY1, we don?t have a version of a 24/7 cable industry devoted to covering politics in New York in the way that MSNBC is doing on a national level. If this is what you do, and you love it, consider us lucky to be in the last city in America?probably forever?that has four daily newspapers covering us on a daily basis.

CH: Nicole, do you get higher-quality interviews from community-board meetings than from monitoring chat rooms?

?

Bode: There is no news without the community-board meetings. I don?t think that has changed in politics. You have to be at a place with a person to get news. Once you have that foundation, then you can get into the instant forms of communications. Being on the ground matters.

?

CH: Ben, how important is it to go past the group think among those engaged in the political conversation and stay rooted in basic reporting?

?

Smith: Twitter isn?t a new conversation; it?s just taking place there. It shapes this consensus, and everyone is talking about the same thing. If you are outside of the conversation, it doesn?t fit. Introducing facts into an argument already so shaped by partisanship doesn?t tend to change people?s mind.

?

CH: Does the conversation start with people who are influential in social media or traditional news outlets?

?

Wolfson: If you are below the age of 40, you are much more likely to get your news online. You can bet that as those people age, they?re going to decide to become avid TV watchers like their parents, or you can bet that they?ll decide to stay online, and their nightly audience will shrink. I?ll take the bet that they?re going to stay online. People are getting their news elsewhere. There are other means and platforms that have risen in importance.

?

CH: Ben, has a modern-day reporter?s news judgment changed?

?

Smith: Some of the reporting is observational but isn?t interesting. You used to have to imagine your audience. It?s nice when you don?t have to imagine the audience because you know exactly who they are. You know a lot of them personally; you hear from them directly.

?

CH: Michael, how hard was it to keep up with the changes in technology?

?

Kempner: It seems like this is some massive revolution, but it?s really a fast evolution. I think some industries are better than others in trying to figure it out. I thought it was the dumbest thing in the world, and then I use it and still think it?s kind of dumb, but I use it because I need to, and then I learned why it?s not dumb.

?

Audience member: How does a news organization?s budget impact how much news they are able to cover?

?

Kiernan: This is the discussion of a lot of blogging. It is still often originating its content off of old media. In terms of the number of journalists working at those enterprises versus the traditional, it?s a fraction. I don?t think anybody has come up with a business model yet.

?

Smith: Is The New York Times a business? Is NY1 a business? The media hasn?t always been the greatest business, but it?s always managed. I know local blogging is a great business.

?

Bode: There are plenty of places that are happy to just get some kid out of school. In terms of the legacy of where this is going to end, I don?t think we?ll really know for another 5 or 10 years yet. I think time will tell.

?

Audience member: How much energy do you spend focusing on Twitter while reporting or working for a public relations firm?

?

Smith: My job as a reporter has changed. What was once a publisher?s job has become a big part of a reporter?s job. I email out my story; I put it on Twitter; I engage with people in various ways. This used to be a function carried out by guys lugging stacks of paper around.

?

Wolfson: I can have that conversation with you publicly and say, ?Hey, you got this wrong.? That is an escalation of what was frequently a private conversation, but it is more and more the case that people who are written about have recourse in a public way.

-->

Source: http://www.cityhallnews.com/2011/10/digital-communications/

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Cain's 'impossible dream' resonates with voters (AP)

JACKSON, Tenn. ? Herman Cain is firing up the crowd at a tea party rally in this West Tennessee town when the generator powering his sound system shudders to a halt.

Cain stands awkwardly for a few moments then suddenly begins to sing. Slowly at first but gaining in speed, he belts out "Impossible Dream" in the rich baritone he's honed in church choir.

"You know, when it's your rally, you can do what you want to do!" Cain says as he finishes with a raucous laugh. The 500 or so supporters who have jammed the strip mall parking lot to hear the Republican Party's newest star speak roar their approval.

Momentum restored, Cain launches into a pitch for his signature 9-9-9 tax plan, and the crowd is right there with him, chanting 9-9-9 along with the Georgia businessman.

The 65-year-old's improbable campaign for the presidency is all about momentum right now. How does he maintain the wave he's riding in recent polls that have catapulted him from an also-ran in the GOP race to the elite top tier?

There are many reasons his bid could fade as quickly as it rose. He acknowledged Friday that he will trail former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry significantly in fundraising. Cain has never held elected office and could wilt under the rigors of the campaign trail and the withering scrutiny coming his way.

But Cain's moment is right now, and the former Godfather's pizza chief executive is marketing himself with practiced skill, banking on his charisma and the notion that the messenger is as important as the message.

His everyman image is resonating.

"In the field right now, he's the most like me," said Jimmy Hoppers, a 60-year-old physician from Jackson, who was hoping to meet Cain so he could hand deliver a $1,000 donation to his campaign. "He's run a business and paid the bills. He's authentic."

On Friday night Cain, who is African-American, drew about 2,000 people ? some in workshirts and overalls and nearly all white ? to a feed barn in rural Waverly, Tenn.

This is a socially conservative country and Cain ? ever the salesman ? knows his audience. He closes by invoking God and singing the hymn "He Looked Beyond My Faults."

"I love him," gushed truck driver James Bland after Cain spoke. "He doesn't talk down to you. I think he gets the working man."

"And it makes me so happy that he's put God back into things," chimed in Bland's wife, Karen.

In a year of anti-government fervor, Cain is casting himself as the anti-politician Main Street candidate who would bring common-sense business know-how to the bureaucratic thick of Washington. The former conservative radio show host is brash and straight-talking, saying that "stupid people are ruining America." He mimics liberals with a high-pitched whiny voice.

"Well, he doesn't have foreign policy experience," he says to laughs. "And the guy we have in there now does?"

Cain doesn't ignore the race issue, saying that some critics have called him "a racist" and an "Oreo" for leaving the "Democrat plantation."

"I have grown up telling it like it is and I am going to continue to tell it like it is," he said at a campaign rally in a suburb of Memphis, where he was born. "I don't talk politician."

Voters are responding

He drew large and enthusiastic crowds Friday as he kicked off a two-day bus tour in Tennessee, hopscotching to a trio of tea party events across the state.

Tea party activists make up the backbone of Cain's support and he speaks their language fluently. "My fellow patriots," he begins some sentences. References to freedom and liberty pepper his remarks.

He dives into an anecdote about the Constitution and takes a jab at President Barack Obama.

"You know what? I kinda like my guns and my Bible," he says.

And at every turn, he stresses his business background, noting that at a recent debate fellow Republican candidates dismissed his 9-9-9 tax plan as politically dead on arrival.

"Politicians put together things that will pass. Businessmen put together plans that solve the problems," he said.

Indeed, Cain's 9-9-9 plan seems to have put him on the map.

Following the rally in Jackson, Cain bolted off the stage and shook hands with onlookers, including Linda Fowler-Cole, who had wandered over after a shopping trip to Lowe's and was wearing a T-shirt with an oversized picture of Obama

"I heard the 9-9-9 guy was here and I came to take a look," the Democrat said. "I like Obama, but that 9-9-9 is catchy."

In Bartlett, Tenn., Cain drew a number of black supporters who were excited at the prospect of a conservative African-American of his stature.

"To me he represents what Martin Luther King was talking about when he talked about his dream," Reginald Tooley, a 49-year-old physical therapist from Memphis, said. "With hard work and self-reliance you can do anything you want."

Cain says he has been buoyed by support from regular folks.

"You just don't know how much this encourages me, the fact that you all came out tonight," he said in Waverly.

"You see, this is what the folks in D.C. don't get because they don't come out here to meet with you."

___

Follow Shannon McCaffrey at http://www.twitter.com/smccaffrey13

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111015/ap_on_el_pr/us_cain_on_the_trail

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New iPhone launch turns into remembrance for Jobs

Customers are welcomed by Apple employees outside the Apple Store in Covent Garden, as they arrive to buy the new iPhone 4S, which went on sale in London, Friday, Oct. 14, 2011. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Customers are welcomed by Apple employees outside the Apple Store in Covent Garden, as they arrive to buy the new iPhone 4S, which went on sale in London, Friday, Oct. 14, 2011. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

A customer jumps into the arms of an Apple employee outside the Apple Store in Covent Garden, to celebrate his purchase of the new iPhone 4S, which went on sale in London, Friday, Oct. 14, 2011. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak holds up his new Apple iPhone 4S at the Apple store in Los Gatos, Calif., Friday, Oct. 14, 2011. Woziak waited 20 hours in line to be the first Apple customer at the Los Gatos Apple store to buy the new iPhone 4S. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

People wait in line buy the new iPhone 4S outside the Apple store, on New York's Upper West Side, Friday, Oct. 14, 2011. A faster iPhone with better software and an improved camera went on sale in seven countries on Friday as hundreds of buyers camped out for hours to be among the first to get one.(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Employees of the Apple Store greet those who wait in line to purchase the new iPhone 4S in Omaha, Neb., Friday, Oct. 14, 2011. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

NEW YORK (AP) ? It wasn't just the latest iPhone that drew people to Apple stores Friday.

Many consumers waited in lines for hours ? sometimes enduring chilly temperatures and overnight thunderstorms ? to remember Steve Jobs, Apple's visionary who died last week.

The company's first iPhone release since Jobs' death turned into another tribute. Some customers even joked that the new model 4S stood "for Steve."

Tony Medina, a student from Manhattan, stood outside Apple's flagship store on New York's Fifth Avenue for nine hours, waiting through rain. He had originally planned to order the phone online but decided to join a crowd of about 200 people to honor Jobs.

"For loyalty, I felt I had to do the line," he said. "I had to say thank you."

The new phone, which went on sale Friday in seven countries, is faster than the previous model and comes with better software and an improved camera. Yet the unveiling comes at a time when Apple is finding it difficult to maintain the excitement of previous iPhone introductions.

For starters, the phone is more widely available than in the past. In addition to Apple stores, it's also sold by three wireless carriers: AT&T Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless. Some Best Buy, Target and Walmart stores also carry the phones, as do authorized resellers.

Buyers were also able to preorder the phone on Apple's website and have it shipped to their homes or offices.

Many die-hard Apple fans and investors were disappointed that Apple did not launch a more radically redesigned new model ? an iPhone 5. It's been more than a year since Apple's previous model was released.

That also may have contributed to smaller gatherings at some Apple locations.

"People are not as excited about this version as they might have been" if an iPhone 5 came out," said Charles Prosser, a retired teacher and computer technician from Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Even so, hundreds of buyers camped out in front of stores for hours to be among the first to get an iPhone 4S.

Steve Wozniak, who created Apple with Jobs in a Silicon Valley garage in 1976, was first in line at a store in Los Gatos, Calif., having arrived on his Segway the afternoon before.

Wozniak, who typically waits in line for new Apple products, said he barely slept Thursday night as he was busy chatting with Apple fans, taking photos and giving autographs. Wozniak pre-ordered two new iPhones. He bought two more Friday.

"I just want to be part of an important event, so I feel it more deeply," he said.

Many said the event resembled a remembrance to Jobs, who died a day after Apple Inc. announced the new phone.

Emily Smith, a Web designer, checked in to the line in New York on the location-centric social network Foursquare. She got a virtual Steve Jobs badge that read: "Here's to the crazy ones. ThankYouSteve."

In Chicago, Nicole Pacheco dragged her brother and a friend out to buy Apple's latest gadget.

"I wanted to see how it was, to come out here for once," she said as she looked at the line that stretched past her. "We're kind of a memory for Steve Jobs. It's one of his last inventions. It kind of motivated me to get the next one."

Apple and phone companies started taking orders for the iPhone 4S last Friday. Apple said Monday that more than 1 million orders came in, breaking the record set by last year's model, which was available in fewer countries and on fewer carriers.

And a representative for AT&T said Friday that as of 4:30 EDT, it had activated a record number of iPhones and was on track to double its previous single-day record for activations.

Jobs' death could be helping sales. Marketing experts say products designed by widely admired figures such as Jobs usually see an upsurge in sales after their death.

The base model of the iPhone 4S costs $199 in the U.S. with a two-year contract. It comes with 16 gigabytes of storage. Customers can get 32 gigabytes for $299 and 64 gigabytes for $399. The phones come in white or black.

The phones also debuted Friday in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Britain. They are coming to 22 more countries by the end of the month.

Besides a better processor and camera, the new phone has a new operating system that allows users to sync content without needing a computer. It also includes a futuristic, voice-activated service that responds to spoken commands and questions such as "Do I need an umbrella today?"

The new features appealed to Dina Nguyen, who came to the Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif., the same location where Jobs was known to show up on sale days. She and her brother, Kennedy, picked up four iPhones for their family.

The siblings said it was a bit sentimental to get the phones now, right after Jobs' death.

"He left a good legacy. He had a good life. He wanted to make people happy," Kennedy Nguyen said. "It's good to support that."

___

Associated Press writers Barbara Rodriguez in Chicago, Brooke Donald in Palo Alto, Calif., and Rachel Metz in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-10-14-Apple-New%20iPhone/id-8844a77770d34443a47aa846d7422e63

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Should Baseball Players Be Allowed To Drink Beer, Eat Food & Play Video Games In The Clubhouse During Games?

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If you?re a starting pitcher for a Major League Baseball team, you?ve got a pretty good gig. While playing just about any other position on a baseball team requires you to be ready to play every single game of the season, starting pitchers usually get four or five days off between their starts, if not more. It?s intense when they do have to pitch. But between starts, they?ve got the cushiest jobs in all of Major League Baseball.

But we didn?t know just how cushy they had it until we read a recent Boston Globe piece about what several Boston Red Sox starting pitchers did during their off days this season. Rather than sit and watch their teammates play or, better yet, sit and study the other team, Red Sox pitchers Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and John Lackey allegedly hung out in the clubhouse during crucial games in September drinking beer, eating fried chicken and playing video games. That?s right. While the Sox were in a playoff hunt and trying desperately not to lose a 10-game lead in the wild card race to the Tampa Bay Rays, Beckett, Lester, and Lackey were kicking it back in the clubhouse and having a good old time.

Outside of the fact that it shows blatant disrespect for your teammates when you?re not actively involved in a game, the situation with the Red Sox brings up an interesting question: Should baseball players even be allowed to hang out back in the clubhouse during games? And, further, shouldn?t Major League Baseball be enforcing a rule that requires all players to be either in the dugout or the bullpen during games?

I?d argue that players should be forced out of the clubhouse during games, unless an ejection or some other circumstance forces them from the playing field, if for no other reason than that baseball fans are spending their hard-earned money on game tickets to see their favorite players at the ballpark. Even if a starting pitcher isn?t expected to pitch, he should be required to be somewhere out near the playing field so that fans can get the full experience of a baseball game. I don?t know how this makes other fans feel, but as a New York Mets fan, if I paid 50 bucks for a ticket to a Mets fan and later found out that every starting pitcher for the Mets outside of the one that was pitching that day was back in the clubhouse during the entire game, I?d feel cheated. I?d feel as though the Mets didn?t care about their fans enough to force all of their players to at least pretend like they were interested in the game that day. And if they aren?t interested, why should I be?

It?s why ?Major League Baseball has to step in here and do something about what could potentially become a bigger problem. Clearly, there are guys hanging around in the clubhouse during baseball games and not actively engaging themselves in the games that are going on. It sounds like this has been going on for years now and it sounds like players have never really felt like it was all that big of a deal. But it is a big deal and, as a fan of Major League Baseball, I think Commissioner Bud Selig has to step in here and do something. These guys are making millions of dollars every year to play baseball. The least they could do is come out of the clubhouse and pretend like they enjoy doing it.

These guys already have pretty cushy jobs to begin with. Instead of working everyday like the average American, starting pitchers get to lounge around for the majority of the week before they have to get up off their ass to do some work. So while they?re doing it, they should be forced to do it out where we all can see them. If they absolutely must be back in the clubhouse during games, let it be for something progressive. Let it be to study tape or, at the very least, to watch the game on a monitor while they work out, talk to the training staff, or study the team that they?re facing. But don?t let it be to drink beer, eat fast food, and play video games.

When players do that, they?re cheating their teams, they?re cheating their fans, and, most importantly,? they?re cheating the game of baseball. So please, Major League Baseball: Do something about this. Get guys out of the clubhouse and back into the game. We, the fans, deserve better. Starting next season, something?has to be done.

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Source: http://live.drjays.com/index.php/2011/10/14/should-baseball-players-be-allowed-to-drink-beer-eat-food-play-video-games-in-the-clubhouse-during-games/

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Video: Bringing real change to America

Mastectomy and the single girl: A bucket list for boobs

Most people rage at the universe when they're diagnosed with breast cancer. Me? I scheduled a pin-up shoot. While my family focused on saving my life, to me, it was all about my boobs. I liked them, and, as a single woman, I felt they still came in handy.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/44909594#44909594

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