The stupid things you do online and how to fix 'em

By Adam Dachis
Lifehacker

The Internet can bring you a lot of joy, but it can also turn into a world of pain the moment you make one stupid mistake. Perhaps you've been feeding the trolls, using "password" as your password, or selling your soul for access to a "free" Web app. Your dumb mistakes can come back to bite you in the rear if you aren't careful. Here's how you can save yourself from yourself online.

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Stupid Thing #1: You undervalue your personal data
Most of the Web has the appearance of being free, but when you sign up for Google services or a Facebook account you're potentially handing over a much more valuable commodity: your personal information. Companies want this information because it can be used to target more relevant ads to you. The more relevant the ads, the more likely you're going to buy. Although advertisements aren't necessarily all bad, because it's often preferable to see ads for things we actually want, it can be a little disconcerting and embarrassing when you do a search for herpes treatments and see nothing but Valtrex ads for a week. You shouldn't stop using the services you love just because they have a hidden cost, but it's important to understand that free services aren't really free. You are paying with your right to privacy, and that can feel a little invasive.

Fortunately, you can have your cake and eat it too. If you don't like targeted ads based on your search history, you can just utilize your browser's Do Not Track options (read this?to learn how to enable them). Facebook now offers lots of ways to set the level of privacy you want to maintain, which is great, but with all the options it can be tough to learn and get just the way you want. Our always up-to-date guide to managing your Facebook privacy?can get you up to speed. One of the first things you should do with Facebook is prevent apps from using your personal data as much as possible. Signing up for an app can provide the developers with much more information than you may realize as the apps will take information they don't necessarily need. To find out what each app is doing and limit its reach, just click the downward-facing triangle in the upper-right hand corner of your Facebook page and choose "Account Settings." From there click the Apps tab and click the "Edit" link next to any app. You'll see a list of what it is allowed to do plus the information it can access. Some stuff will be required for the app to function, but you'll almost always find something that isn't. Click the "Remove" link to revoke the app's permission to access that information.

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Stupid Thing #2: You submit sensitive information over an insecure connection
When you submit sensitive information ? like, say, your credit card number or login credentials ? over an insecure connection, it's not necessarily your fault. Websites worth their salt need to use HTTPS, rather than HTTP, in order to transfer data securely between your computer and their servers. That said, you have to be diligent and look for https:// in the URL bar in your browser (see the image to the right for an example). If you don't see this, chances are you're just using standard HTTP.

This isn't a big deal if you're just reading or watching something, but if you don't see https:// you should avoid sending sensitive information like your credit card number or address. If you'd like to know more about HTTPS, read our guide. Also, the insecurity of HTTP isn't as big of a deal when you're on your password-protected home network, but when you're on a public Wi-Fi connection, anyone can snoop on what you're doing.

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Stupid Thing #3: You feed the trolls
When you feed the trolls?? that is, the moment when you engage a malicious idiot in their hateful, annoying, and pointless discourse ? you do everyone a disservice. You not only involve yourself in an almost endless, useless, and anger-filled debate, but you pollute the Internet with hateful threads of garbage along with the trolls who start them. The Internet is never going to vomit rainbows (at least not all of the time), but we can attempt to create happier, more pleasant communities by avoiding unwarranted fights and flame wars. Unfortunately, it's tough for a lot of people to get past a statement that incites anger but there are a few things that can help.

First, it's important to remember that trolls are not attacking you?they're attacking boredom. They have nothing better to do than say something mean so that's how they've unfortunately chosen to spend their time. If what they're saying isn't going to have much of an impact on anyone, just remember that they're bored, loathsome people and let it go. On the other hand, if they're promoting hate speech and potentially causing harm to others, it's best to avoid engaging them and instead report them to the site's administrator. Many sites offer a means of flagging harmful posts, and commenting systems offer ways for an administrator to ban problematic users. A simple email is often sufficient to take care of a bad person. Engaging with a troll-ish thread is just going to make you angry and potentially get you in trouble, too. If you do fall into the trap of feeding a troll, however, using the principles of cognitive therapy can be a worthy solution. This means responding positively and calmly, while accepting their different opinion. The trolls will likely find it frustrating and even condescending, but it's hard to argue with someone who is accepting your point of view (or even agreeing with you).

For more tips on de-trolling your Internet, read this.

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Stupid Thing #4: You leave private information in your web browser
Nowadays we spend a lot of time in our web browser and that makes it a potential source for embarrassing personal information. If you keep yourself logged into accounts on your computer, anyone casually borrowing your browser for a quick search can stumble onto some pretty personal stuff without even trying. For anyone actually interested in snooping, your web browsing history is a prime target. Even a visit to Amazon can dig up weird products you looked at or even bought.

Keeping your browser activity private can be a lot of work, but there are a couple of things you can do to take the pain out of it. First of all, if you're doing anything particularly private on your computer you can just log out or lock people out with a password. Enabling a guest account can be very useful so when anyone wants to use your computer they won't be entrenched in your embarrassing web activity. If you don't want to password-protect anything, the next best thing you can do is just quit your browser whenever you're done using it and set it to clear your history when you do. On top of that, make sure you log yourself out of any accounts or your browser handles that for you. For the super paranoid, clear your cookies as well. One of our favorite tools for the job is CCleaner (the first 'C' stands for Crap), available for Windows and Mac.

CCleaner will give you a good start, but the fact of the matter is that a determined snoop has a ton of ways to spy on your browsing behavior. To subvert even the most clever snoop, check out our guide to really browsing the web without leaving a trace. For more tips and tricks, read how to protect your privacy when others have access to your computer.

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Stupid Thing #5: You don't keep a backup of online data
You know backing up your computer is important?because it's been hammered into your head by us and virtually everyone who knows a thing or two about computers, but somehow we tend to ignore the importance of online backup. Web services go offline all the time. Most recently, MegaUpload was seized by the U.S. government and now many people have lost their uploaded files. They may be filing a lawsuit to regain access, but the reality is they no longer have their data. You never know what's going to happen to your data, especially when it's out of your possession, so always keep at least one backup.

Some data, like photos and videos, can simply remain backed up on a local hard drive. If you lose your content online, you can always access a local copy and upload it elsewhere. That's all well and good if you create your content locally on your computer, but there is plenty you create online as well and that data is only saved on the server. In the case of Facebook, you can simply download all of your data in one big chunk. All you have to do is go into your account settings and look for the "Download a copy of your Facebook data" link at the bottom of the page. Not all web apps allow a full data download like Facebook, however, and you'll need to employ other services. InSync will handle your Google Docs. Backupify?can back up multiple web services like Google Apps, Twitter, Facebookand more. If you keep any vital data online, be sure you use something to back it up. If you don't, it could be gone tomorrow with no way to get it back.

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Stupid Thing #6: Assuming your posts and comments are anonymous
What you say online is going to be around for a long time, and when you do as much as post a comment on a popular site it's likely going to surface when Web search for your name. I've commented on an article maybe three or four times in my life (prior to working at Lifehacker) and this Steve Ballmer hate rant has managed to stick to my name since the day I was apparently so offended (which was over seven years ago).

It's not that it's impossible to comment anonymously online ? and we've offered some tips for doing just that?? but most of us don't follow a strict enough set of rules to remain anonymous. Even if you don't use your real name, comments stick. You'll probably use that pseudonym down the line and it will gain its own reputation. Your name may be tied to that pseudonym on as little as one website and people will be able to find out who you are with a simple search. Additionally, you may post a comment on a blog or other page without realizing that you're already logged in via your Facebook account. There are a lot of ways your name can be tied to what you say online, so it's important to remember that your reputation is riding on every post to some extent. Remember to think about what you're going to say before you say it or it may follow you around for much longer than you expect.

Courtesy of Lifehacker

Stupid Thing #7: You let people track your whereabouts
Checking in to sites like Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook is all fun and games until somebody loses an eye ? or, well, any personal belongings that a thief can snatch while s/he knows you're out of the house. A Web app called Please Rob Me demonstrates (with humor) how your check-ins can provide too much information regarding your whereabouts when you share publicly. All you really have to do to solve this problems is share privately. Most check-in sites have this option. Follow these instructions for Foursquare, simply become a private user on Gowalla, and if you're using Facebook you can just tag yourself at a location after the fact so your location isn't disclosed in real-time. That's really all there is to it. Be careful who you share your location with and you've fixed the potential damage.

Courtesy of Lifehacker

Stupid Thing #8: You use an insecure password that you rarely (or never) change?
If you read Lifehacker with any regularity you know we love a good, strong password. That said, most people seem pretty reluctant to let go of their simple passwords in favor of something more complex. But you can have strong yet memorable passwords or just use a multiword phrase to decrease the chances of anyone ever hacking your password. Or better, yet, you can let a password manager like LastPass pick and remember your complex password for you.

But anyone who's using a weak password at this point is likely doing it because they don't want to bother changing every password for every online service they've ever used. While that's understandable, you really just have to get off your butt and take care of it.

Using a service like LastPass is a good option because it can save your existing passwords and automatically detect updates when your passwords change. This way you can change them at your leisure, whenever you log into a site with an old password, and make sure everything is still up-to-date and remembered by a password manager. (Consult this infographic for a condensed look at nearly every tip and method we've posted.)

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Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/30/10272159-the-stupid-things-you-do-online-and-how-to-fix-them

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U.S. Android users use smartphones more in the bathroom, survey shows

Android's No. 1, apparently, when it comes to No. 1 and No. 2. That's right, a survey of 1,000 Americans by marketing agency 11mark has found that Android users are more likely to pick up their phone while in the loo, to the tune of 87 percent. That's three percentage points higher than our BlackBerry brethren, and 10 percentage points higher than iPhone users.

But it's BlackBerry users who are more likely to do business while doing their business, with 75 percent of them taking a call while answering the call. Us Android folk do so 67 percent of the time, and iPhone users take calls 60 percent of the time.

You can check out the full report at the link below. Bonus points if you do so from your phone on the throne.

Download: IT in the Toilet

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/ioVzdMV2yXc/story01.htm

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Google, Facebook, Privacy ? And You

Like millions of other people, I got an email from Google this morning. It was entitled ?Changes to Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service?. The first sentence describes the intent of the changes as shortening 60 policies into one, and improving their readability.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/JaxxfzBvTGI/

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Plan would help military families take leave

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration is proposing new rules to help military families care for service members when they are called to active duty or become injured.

First lady Michelle Obama was set to join Labor Secretary Hilda Solis on Monday to announce the plan that updates the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The proposal would let family members take up to 12 weeks of leave from work to help a service member deployed on short notice. Family caregivers could attend military functions, deal with child care issues, or update financial affairs without fear of losing their jobs.

It would also give family members up to 26 weeks of leave to care for a service member with a serious injury or illness.

Officials also are announcing other efforts to support military families.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-30-Military-Family%20Leave/id-c7da8d2ff4a549a5ba82fe103d00c387

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911 call reveals frantic efforts to help Moore (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? A 911 recording revealed frantic efforts by friends of Demi Moore to get help for the actress who was convulsing as they gathered around her and tried to comfort her.

Moore was "semi-conscious, barely," according to a female caller on the recording released Friday by Los Angeles fire officials.

The woman tells emergency operators that Moore, 49, had smoked something before she was rushed to the hospital on Monday night and that she had been "having issues lately."

"Is she breathing normal?" the operator asks.

"No, not so normal. More kind of shaking, convulsing, burning up," the friend says as she hurries to Moore's side, on the edge of panic.

Another woman is next to Moore as the dispatcher asks if she's responsive.

"Demi, can you hear me?" she asks. "Yes, she's squeezing hands. ... She can't speak."

When the operator asks what Moore ingested or smoked, the friend replies, but the answer was redacted.

Asked if Moore took the substance intentionally or not, the woman says Moore ingested it on purpose but the reaction was accidental.

"Whatever she took, make sure you have it out for the paramedics," the operator says.

The operator asks the friend if this has happened before.

"I don't know," she says. "There's been some stuff recently that we're all just finding out."

Moore's publicist, Carrie Gordon, said previously that the actress sought professional help to treat her exhaustion and improve her health. She would not comment further on the emergency call or provide details about the nature or location of Moore's treatment.

The past few months have been rocky for Moore.

She released a statement in November announcing she had decided to end her marriage to fellow actor Ashton Kutcher, 33, following news of alleged infidelity. The two were known to publicly share their affection for one another via Twitter.

Moore still has a Twitter account under the name mrskutcher but has not posted any messages since Jan. 7.

Meanwhile, Millennium Films announced Friday that Sarah Jessica Parker will replace Moore in the role of feminist Gloria Steinem in its production of "Lovelace," a biopic about the late porn star Linda Lovelace. A statement gave no reason for the change. The production, starring Amanda Seyfried, has been shooting in Los Angeles since Dec. 20.

During the call, the woman caller says the group of friends had turned Moore's head to the side and was holding her down. The dispatcher tells her not to hold her down but to wipe her mouth and nose and watch her closely until paramedics arrive.

"Make sure that we keep an airway open," the dispatcher says. "Even if she passes out completely, that's OK. Stay right with her."

The phone is passed around by four people, including a woman who gives directions to the gate and another who recounts details about what Moore smoked or ingested. Finally, the phone is given to a man named James, so one of the women can hold Moore's head.

There was some confusion at the beginning of the call. The emergency response was delayed by nearly two minutes as Los Angeles and Beverly Hills dispatchers sorted out which city had jurisdiction over the street where Moore lives.

As the call is transferred to Beverly Hills, the frantic woman at Moore's house raises her voice and said, "Why is an ambulance not on its way right now?"

"Ma'am, instead of arguing with me why an ambulance is not on the way, can you spell (the street name) for me?" the Beverly Hills dispatcher says.

Although the estate is located in the 90210 ZIP code above Benedict Canyon, the response was eventually handled by the Los Angeles Fire Department.

By the end of the call, Moore has improved.

"She seems to have calmed down now. She's speaking," the male caller told the operator.

Moore and Kutcher were wed in September 2005.

Kutcher became a stepfather to Moore's three daughters ? Rumer, Scout and Tallulah Belle ? from her 13-year marriage to actor Bruce Willis. Moore and Willis divorced in 2000 but remained friendly.

Moore can be seen on screen in the recent films "Margin Call" and "Another Happy Day." Kutcher replaced Charlie Sheen on TV's "Two and a Half Men" and is part of the ensemble film "New Year's Eve."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_en_mo/us_people_demi_moore

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Lazio defender Dias banned for 3 Cup matches

Associated Press Sports

updated 10:45 a.m. ET Jan. 27, 2012

MILAN (AP) -Lazio defender Andre Dias has been banned for three Italian Cup matches for taking a swipe at the head of AC Milan midfielder Mark van Bommel.

The referee missed the incident during the second half of Milan's 3-1 quarterfinal win on Thursday, even though Van Bommel ended up on the ground.

The league judge also banned Inter Milan coach Claudio Ranieri for one match for insulting the referee during a 2-0 loss to Napoli on Wednesday.

Since Lazio and Inter have already been eliminated, Dias and Ranieri will serve out their bans next season.

Milan faces Juventus in one semifinal, and Napoli meets Siena in the other.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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US women qualify for Olympics

The U.S. women's soccer team booked their way to London on Friday night with a 3-0 victory over Costa Rica in the semifinals of the CONCACAF qualifying tournament.

Kuyt to the rescue

??Liverpool reached the 5th round of the FA Cup, beating rival Manchester United 2-1.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46163291/ns/sports-soccer/

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Justice Dept. turns over docs in Fast and Furious (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Newly released Justice Department emails sent to Capitol Hill for a congressional inquiry into a gun-smuggling operation indicate that the head of the department's criminal division suggested letting some illicit "straw" weapons buyers in the U.S. transport their guns across the border into Mexico where they could be arrested.

According to the emails turned over to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Friday night, the Justice official, Lanny Breuer, made the suggestion to Mexican officials because it "may send a strong message to arms traffickers."

Mexico has stringent gun control laws with long prison terms as opposed to the U.S., where small-time "straw" buyers working for major arms traffickers seldom face jail time.

Breuer made the remarks in February 2011, around the time that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were telling congressional investigators that the ATF had allowed hundreds of illicitly purchased guns in the operation known as Fast and Furious flow into Mexico ? a controversial tactic known as "gun-walking" aimed at following gun buyers to major traffickers.

In Fast and Furious, the ATF lost track of the guns and many were eventually recovered from crime scenes in the U.S. and Mexico, including one location near Nogales, Ariz., where U.S. border patrol agent Brian Terry was slain on Dec. 14, 2010. Two guns found at the murder scene were connected to Operation Fast and Furious.

The documents on Breuer were among 486 pages of material turned over to the House committee chaired by Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California.

Also among the documents are Justice Department emails involving a former top aide to Attorney General Eric Holder. The emails show that then-deputy chief of staff Monty Wilkinson was notified by then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke the day after Terry was slain that guns found at the murder scene were connected to an investigation that Burke and Wilkinson had planned to discuss. The emails did not identify the investigation, but it was Operation Fast and Furious.

In a letter to the committee, the Justice Department said that Wilkinson does not recall a follow-up call with Burke and that Wilkinson does not recall discussing this aspect of the matter with the attorney general. According to the letter, the department has been advised that Burke has no recollection of discussing this aspect of the matter with Wilkinson.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mexico/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_re_us/us_fast_and_furious

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13 killed in clashes in Russia's volatile Caucasus (AP)

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia ? Russian officials say an Islamist warlord, seven militants, four officers and one civilian have been killed in three separate incidents in Russia's violence-plagued southern Caucasus region.

Russia's Anti-Terrorist Committee spokesman Nikolai Sintsov said the leader of Islamist separatists in the province of Ingushetia was killed in a shootout Friday in the village of Ekazhevo along with two other militants.

Also Friday, police spokesman Vyasheslav Gasanov said four Russian military officers and five militants were killed in the neighboring province of Dagestan.

In another restive Russian province, Kabardino-Balkariya, three masked militants stormed into a school and stabbed a volleyball player in the gym, police spokesman Andrey Ushakov said.

An Islamic insurgency has spread across Russia's southern Caucasus region since two separatists wars against Russia were fought in Chechnya beginning in the 1990s. The insurgents now launch regular attacks on authorities who they blame for the abductions, torture and extra-judicial killings across the region.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_caucasus_violence

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AP IMPACT: Delhi ignores own quake peril warnings (AP)

NEW DELHI ? The ramshackle neighborhoods of northeast Delhi are home to 2.2 million people packed along narrow alleys. Buildings are made from a single layer of brick. Extra floors are added to dilapidated buildings not meant to handle their weight. Tangles of electrical cables hang precariously everywhere.

If a major earthquake struck India's seismically vulnerable capital, these neighborhoods ? India's most crowded ? would collapse in an apocalyptic nightmare. Waters from the nearby Yamuna River would turn the water-soaked subsoil to jelly, which would intensify the shaking.

The Indian government knows this and has done almost nothing about it.

An Associated Press examination of government documents spanning five decades reveals a pattern of warnings and recommendations that have been widely disregarded. Successive governments made plans and promises to prepare for a major earthquake in the city of 16.7 million, only to abandon them each time.

The Delhi government's own estimates say nine out of every 10 buildings in the city are at risk of moderate or significant quake damage, yet the basic disaster response plan it had promised to complete nearly three years ago remains unfinished, there are nearly no earthquake awareness drills in schools and offices and tens of thousands of housing units are built every year without any earthquake safety checks.

Fearing many buildings could lie in ruins after a quake, the Delhi government began work in 2005 with U.S. government assistance to reinforce just five buildings ? including a school and a hospital ? it would need to begin a rudimentary relief operation to deal with the dead, wounded and homeless. Six years later, only one of those buildings is earthquake-ready.

"At the end of the day, people at the helm of affairs are not doing anything," said Anup Karanth, an earthquake engineering expert.

In its attitudes to disaster preparedness India is like many other poor nations ? aware of the danger but bogged down by both sheer inertia and more immediate demands on its resources.

But Delhi faces immense earthquake risks. Last September, two minor jolts sent thousands of scared residents into the streets, and experts say a big one looms on the horizon.

As far back as 1960, after a moderate quake cut power and plunged Delhi ? then a city of 2.7 million ? into darkness, the Geological Survey of India advised that all large buildings in the capital needed to have a plan for earthquake safety.

A series of reports by other agencies have expanded on that conclusion in recent years, but both the city and national governments have ignored almost all of the recommendations.

Some reports were ignored because of sheer apathy, others because of shifting priorities. In a city and country growing at lightning speed with huge problems of poverty and hunger that need more immediate solutions, earthquake preparedness has simply never been at the top of the list. Some plans begun with good intentions simply fell by the wayside.

That's what happened to the 2005 plan to prepare five important buildings in the capital for an earthquake.

Government engineers were sent to California to train. But the following year ? with only the school made earthquake ready ? all the engineers were taken off the project. They were reassigned to build stadiums for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, an athletic competition held in Delhi, said M. Shashidhar Reddy, the vice chairman of India's National Disaster Management Agency.

The scale of the problem "really hasn't sunk into the minds of the people," Reddy said.

Just last year, a Delhi government agency ordered all new home buyers to get a building safety certificate that would mark their homes as structurally sound before registering property. But it later withdrew the order, saying there weren't enough engineers trained to conduct such inspections.

"That's like saying let's not have any traffic rules because we don't have enough policemen," said Hari Kumar, who heads Geohazards India, an organization that promotes earthquake awareness.

India, a still developing country plagued by corruption, isn't alone in being unprepared. More than 80 percent of deaths from building collapses in earthquakes in the last three decades occurred in corrupt and poor countries, according to a 2011 study published in the science journal Nature.

The study by Roger Bilham, a geologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Nicholas Ambraseys, a civil and environmental engineer at Imperial College London, compared the loss of life in two magnitude 7.0 earthquakes in 2010. In Haiti, 300,000 died; in New Zealand none did, though a subsequent 6.1 quake there in early 2011 killed 182.

New Zealand, a developed nation, tied for first as the least corrupt in Transparency International's most recent Corruption Perceptions Index. Much poorer Haiti came in 175th out of 178 countries.

In Turkey, which ranked 61st, a 2010 report revealed that the earthquake-prone nation had failed to enforce stricter building codes put in place after a 1999 earthquake killed 18,000 people. Last year, two earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 5.7 flattened some 2,000 buildings, killed 644 people and left thousands homeless.

In contrast, Japan, which was 14th on the corruption scale, requires that all structures meet a 1981 building code and offers subsidies to retrofit buildings to meet more stringent guidelines set in 1995. About 75 percent of homes and public buildings meet the newer standards.

In India, which ranked 95th, contractors routinely flout regulations, use substandard material and add illegal floors to buildings, while bribing government inspectors to look the other way, said Reddy, the disaster management official. A 2001 quake in the western state of Gujarat killed more than 13,000.

Delhi, which sits near a highly seismically active area, is ranked four out of five on a seismic threat scale used in India.

Geologists believe the Central Himalayan Gap, a 310-mile (500 kilometer) stretch between Nepal and India, is ripe for a major quake. A 6.8 quake along the fault in March 1999 damaged many buildings in Delhi, just 125 to 300 miles (200 to 500 kilometers) from the gap.

Studies show such a large buildup of energy that a shifting of the tectonic plates could cause an 8.7-magnitude earthquake, Bilham said.

Experts also fear the potential damage from a smaller quake closer to the capital. The city lies between two fault lines, and a 4.2 quake in September woke up residents, with many fleeing their buildings. The same month, a magnitude 6.8 quake in India's remote northeast was also felt in the capital.

Either type of quake would cause moderate damage to an estimated 85.5 percent of Delhi's buildings and severe damage to another 6.5 percent, Delhi's disaster management authority said in a 2010 vulnerability assessment. It could also open cracks in the ground several centimeters wide and spread "fear and panic," the report said.

It was India's Department of Meteorology that found northeast Delhi particularly vulnerable in a never-released 2005 study obtained by the AP. That "microzone" study divided the city into nine segments to evaluate the possible impact of an earthquake in each.

While the microzone study is a positive step, the report is only rudimentary and most builders haven't even heard of it, said earthquake engineering expert Karanth, who as a student lived through the Gujarat quake.

India has developed national standards for constructing earthquake-resistant buildings, but they are not mandatory and widely ignored, said Kumar of Geohazards.

Meanwhile, many residents don't realize the danger, or wrongly believe they are safe from it.

When Karanth decided to buy an apartment in 2010, he picked a builder who promised to deliver an earthquake-resistant building. He visited the site often, took photographs of the construction and talked to the engineers in charge.

Last year, he realized the project had none of the promised earthquake safety features. "This is not one or two apartments that I'm talking about. These are thousands of apartment units being constructed," he said.

He complained and demanded an explanation.

Instead, the construction company offered to give him back his deposit.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_as/as_india_quake_nightmare

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Pelosi hints, then denies she has Gingrich secrets (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Does House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi know some dark secrets about GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich? Twice, she offered tantalizing hints that she does. And then said she doesn't. Gingrich said Wednesday that the House Democratic leader should come out with it or shut up.

The latest back-and-forth in the contest of two former House speakers came in a CNN interview Tuesday night, when host John King suggested to Pelosi that she "could come back here next January or next February with a President Gingrich?"

"Let me just say this. That will never happen," Pelosi said.

When King asked, "Why are you so sure?" Pelosi responded: "There's something I know. The Republicans, if they choose to nominate him, that's their prerogative. I don't even think that's going to happen."

On Wednesday, Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said: "The `something' leader Pelosi knows is that Newt Gingrich will not be president of the United States. She made that clear last night."

Hammill's statement, however, acknowledged that this wasn't the first time that Pelosi hinted that she knows something about Gingrich that she hasn't revealed.

In December, Pelosi reminded an interviewer that she served on the ethics panel that investigated Gingrich's use of tax-exempt organizations. That case ended with a reprimand by the House and a $300,000 penalty against the then-speaker for misleading the committee and prolonging its investigation.

Pelosi said last month: "One of these days we'll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich. I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff."

Hammill repeated the explanation provided after those comments.

"Leader Pelosi previously made a reference to the extensive amount of information that is in the public record, including the comprehensive committee report with which the public may not be fully aware," the spokesman said.

Gingrich said Wednesday that Pelosi should come out with her information or stop talking.

"Look, I think if she knows something she ought to say it. If she doesn't know something she ought to quit saying it. But this is baloney. I don't think any Republican is going to be threatened by Nancy Pelosi. Frankly, I'd rather have her threaten me than endorse me. So I feel pretty good about it. If she has something, bring it out," he said.

Mitt Romney, Gingrich's chief rival for the GOP presidential nomination, has asked that all records from Gingrich's ethics investigation be released. In January 1997, when the case ended, the committee did make public its final report as well as exhibits ? which amounted to a comprehensive account of the committee's findings.

The chairman of the ethics committee during the Gingrich investigation, former Republican Rep. Nancy Johnson, said the committee traditionally does not publicly release investigative documents.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_el_pr/us_pelosi_gingrich

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Discovery Communications to Report Fourth Quarter and Full Year ...

(Silver Spring, Md.) Discovery Communications (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) will report fourth quarter and full year 2011 results on Thursday, February 16, 2012, at 7:00 a.m. EST. The company will host a conference call at 8:30 a.m. EST to discuss the results. To access the conference call in the U.S.?

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Source: http://www.magnaglobal.com/global-2/discovery-communications/discovery-communications-to-report-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2011-results-on-thursday-february-16-2/

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Marine faces 3 months in brig for Iraqi deaths (AP)

CAMP PENDLETON, California ? Military prosecutors worked for more than six years to bring Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich to trial on manslaughter charges that could have sent him away to prison for life.

But only weeks after the long-awaited trial started, they offered Wuterich a deal that stopped the proceedings and could mean little to no jail time for the squad leader who ordered his men to "shoot first, ask questions later," resulting in one of the Iraq War's worst attacks on civilians by U.S. troops.

The 31-year-old Marine, who was originally accused of unpremeditated murder, pleaded guilty Monday to negligent dereliction of duty for leading the squad that killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha in 2005 during raids after a roadside bomb exploded, killing a fellow Marine and wounding two others.

Wuterich who was indicted in 19 of the 24 deaths now faces no more than three months in confinement.

It was a stunning outcome for the last defendant in the case once compared to the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. The seven other Marines initially charged were exonerated or had their cases dropped.

Military judge Lt. Col. David Jones will hear arguments from both sides Tuesday at Camp Pendleton, Calif., before sentencing him.

Legal experts say the case was fraught by errors made by investigators and the prosecution that let it drag on for years. The prosecution was also hampered by squad mates who admitted they had lied to investigators initially and later testified in exchange for having their cases dropped, bringing into question their credibility.

In addition, Wuterich was seen as taking the fall for senior leaders and more seasoned combat veterans, analysts say. It was his first time in combat when he led the squad on Nov. 19, 2005.

Brian Rooney, an attorney for another former defendant, said cases like Haditha are difficult to prosecute because a military jury is unlikely to question decisions made in combat unless wrongdoing is clear-cut and egregious, like rape.

"If it's a gray area, fog-of-war, you can't put yourself in a Marine's situation where he's legitimately trying to do the best he can," said Rooney, who represented Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, the highest-ranking Marine charged in the case. "When you're in a town like Haditha or Fallujah, you've got bad guys trying to kill you and trying to do it in very surreptitious ways. Marines understand it's a crazy environment. You've got to do the best you can with what you've got."

Marine Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Joseph Kloppel said the deal was not a reflection or in any way connected to how the prosecution felt their case was going in the trial.

The Haditha incident is considered among the war's defining moments, further tainting America's reputation when it was already at a low point after the release of photos of prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison.

It still fuels anger in Iraq today.

Kamil al-Dulaimi, a Sunni lawmaker from the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi, called the plea agreement proof that "Americans still deal with Iraqis without any respect."

"It's just another barbaric act of Americans against Iraqis," al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press. "They spill the blood of Iraqis and get this worthless sentence for the savage crime against innocent civilians."

Wuterich, the father of three children, had faced the possibility of life behind bars when he was charged with nine counts of manslaughter, which now will be dropped. Besides now facing a maximum of three months in confinement, he could also lose two-thirds of his pay and see his rank demoted to private when he's sentenced.

.Wuterich, his family and his attorneys declined to comment Monday after he entered the plea. Prosecutors also declined to comment on the plea deal.

During the trial before a jury of combat Marines who served in Iraq, prosecutors argued he lost control after seeing the body of his friend blown apart by the bomb and led his men on a rampage in which they stormed two nearby homes, blasting their way in with gunfire and grenades. Among the dead was a man in a wheelchair.

In the deal, Wuterich admitted that his orders misled his men to believe they could shoot without hesitation and not follow the rules of engagement that required troops to positively identify their targets before they raided the homes.

He told the judge that caused "tragic events."

"I think we all understood what we were doing so I probably just should have said nothing," Wuterich told the judge.

He said his orders were based on the guidance of his platoon commander at the time, and that the squad did not take any gunfire during the 45-minute raid.

Many of his squad mates testified that they do not believe to this day that they did anything wrong because they feared insurgents were inside hiding.

Haditha prompted commanders to demand troops be more careful in distinguishing between civilians and combatants.

Former Navy officer David Glazier said the case shows such rules are essential to helping the United States prevail in an armed conflict.

"The reality is that this incident has had significant consequences for the U.S. in Iraq," said Glazier, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. "It probably fueled the resistance and so it probably ended up costing additional soldiers and Marines their lives later on."

___

Associated Press writers Barbara Surk and Mazin Yahya in Baghdad, and Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Raquel Dillon in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_re_us/us_marines_haditha

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Blossom's Jenna Von Oy Is Pregnant (omg!)

Blossom star Jenna Von Oy is pregnant.

The actress is due in June with her and husband Brad Bratcher's first child. She broke the news to him on their one-year anniversary in October.

"We agreed on no presents, but I told him that I had something that was very, very small, which it was ? at the time it was the size of an appleseed," Von Oy tells People. "I handed him a handmade card and when he opened it up, it said, 'You're going to be a daddy,' and it had the EPT test underneath. It was the most beautiful evening!"

Blossom's Jenna Von Oy gets married

Von Oy, 34, and Bratcher, a computer data consultant, always thought they were having a girl and learned this week that their intuition was correct.

"Brad is so cute because the other night I said to him, 'She's going to have you wrapped around her finger,'" Von Oy says. "He gave me this wonderfully defeated look and said, 'I think she already does.' I can tell he's looking at me like I'm a little more fragile because there's a girl in there!"

Related Articles on TVGuide.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_blossoms_jenna_von_oy_pregnant153900408/44254989/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/blossoms-jenna-von-oy-pregnant-153900408.html

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Danica Patrick won't run Indy 500 this year

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) ? Danica Patrick will not run the Indianapolis 500 this season.

Patrick will instead compete in the Coca-Cola 600, which is NASCAR's longest race of the year.

She announced the addition to her 2012 NASCAR schedule Monday.

Patrick has left IndyCar for a full-time move to NASCAR. She's running a full season in the second-tier Nationwide Series for JR Motorsports and 10 races in the elite Sprint Cup Series with Stewart-Haas Racing.

Patrick says she'd like to return to the Indy 500 in the future and would be interested in running both events on the same day. She says she just couldn't make it work this season.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-23-CAR-IndyCar-Indy-500-Patrick/id-7acd7e0c81ce4591b245b7a47fb8ba2d

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Video: NPG CEO: We Are in A Gas Bubble

Discussing why he thinks the demand for natural gas will increase, with Ken Hersh, NGP Energy Capital Management CEO.

Related Links:

Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46071939/

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Helicopter crashes in Venezuela, 5 killed (AP)

CARACAS, Venezuela ? A helicopter has crashed during a tour of the tabletop mountains of southern Venezuela, and an official says five people have been killed.

Col. Julio Fuentes tells Venezuela's state news agency that the helicopter crashed Wednesday into Auyantepui mountain in the Canaima National Park.

Auyantepui is a popular tourist destination. The world's tallest waterfall, Angel Falls, cascades down its sheer rock faces.

Fuentes says a pilot and four passengers were aboard the Bell 206 Long Ranger helicopter. Their nationalities haven't been released.

Fuentes says authorities believe the helicopter may have crashed because of rough weather. He says a team reached the crash site Thursday after it was initially spotted by a plane.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_venezuela_helicopter_crash

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Forecast: Seattle weather could stay eventful in next three months

Forecasters looking at temperature and precipitation trends are calling for cooler and wetter conditions than normal in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle weather this week has consisted of snow and ice storms.

If this week's snow and ice storms have left you sleepless in Seattle, break out the waders, if not the snowshoes.

Skip to next paragraph

Federal forecasters looking at temperature and precipitation trends over the next three months are calling for cooler and wetter conditions than normal in the Pacific Northwest.

Indeed, over the next 14 days, the western United States is expected to be the country's ground zero for a range of hazardous conditions ? from heavy snow in the northern Rockies to high winds throughout most of the region to heavy rains for the Pacific Coast, from just north of San Luis Obispo, Calif., to Seattle and beyond.

For the rest of the country, up to two-thirds of the Lower 48, from Arizona to the East Coast, is expected to be warmer than normal. Much of the Upper Midwest and Ohio River Valley is in the wetter-then-normal zone, while drier than normal remains the order of the season for the southern tier ? already experiencing severe, prolonged drought.

Does this have a vaguely familiar ring to it? It's a general pattern the country experienced last winter, as La Ni?a also made its presence felt. La Ni?a is the cool half of a periodic swing in ocean-surface temperatures across the tropical Pacific.

While the effects of La Ni?a, and its warm alter ego El Ni?o, are most acute in the tropics, these changes affect atmospheric circulation patterns at higher latitudes as well.

La Ni?a tends to force the average track that storms take across North America farther north than usual, drying out the southern US while dumping rain and snow across the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, and Northeast.

Currently, forecast models indicate La Ni?a will weaken "as we get into the middle of spring," notes Ed O'Lenic, who heads the operations branch at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Md.

Those forecasts came as NOAA unveiled its initial weather-and-climate year in review for 2011.

Record tornado outbreaks last spring; searing summer temperatures and withering drought in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Louisiana; and torrential downpours from hurricane Irene and tropical storm Lee helped rack up more than $55 billion in damage in 2011.

"2011 was an extraordinary year," said Kathryn Sullivan, assistant secretary of Commerce for environmental prediction, at a briefing Thursday. Moreover, tropical storm Lee and a severe-weather outbreak in July in the Rockies and Upper Plains have only recently been added to the list of events that inflicted more than $1 billion in damage last year.

Officials are looking at last Halloween's snowstorm in the Northeast to see if it also needs to be added, she said.

While NOAA officials are reluctant to attribute the various outbreaks of severe weather in 2011 to global warming, longer-term temperature patterns are emerging that they say are consistent with model projections of a warming climate as carbon-dioxide emissions from human industrial activities and land-use changes increase.

Last year marked the 15th consecutive year with a national average temperature for the year above normal, with much of the warmth coming from increases in nighttime low temperatures.

"That's consistent with the increase in temperatures" globally, said Thomas Karl, who heads NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville, N.C.

The data also show that the proportion of the country affected either by extremely dry or extremely wet conditions in a given year has expanded.

Since a 20th-century low of about 3 percent in 1970, the extent of the country affected each year by either of these two conditions has climbed unsteadily to a record 58 percent last year. The average for the 20th century is just over 20 percent.

Globally, 2011 tied 2008 as the second coolest year so far this century, which still boasts nine of the 10 warmest years on record ? including the warmest (2005 and 2010). But measured against the 20th-century records, 2011 would find itself in a tie as the second-warmest year on record. It ties for the 11th warmest since 1880.

Climate researchers have noted that a generally warming climate will still have its natural swings, such as the El Ni?o and La Ni?a cycles. But their effects would be superimposed over the longer-term warming trend.

That pattern emerges in NOAA's data tracking temperatures during El Ni?o and La Ni?a years, as well as during what Deke Arndt, who heads the NCDC's climate monitoring branch, dubs the "La Nada" years, when conditions are neutral.

Since the 1980s, El Ni?o years have undergone their own warming trend, as have La Ni?a years.

As the US heads into midwinter, at least one climate factor has kept last year's deep chill from the Deep South again. The Arctic Oscillation, another kind of natural climate swing, has been in a strong positive phase so far ? generating pole-circling winds strong enough to keep cold arctic air from plunging deep into the continental interior.

For now, forecasters expect the Arctic Oscillation to remain positive, bringing temperatures a bit warmer than normal to the north-central US, says Mr. O'Lenic.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/x68TYIQqgnI/Forecast-Seattle-weather-could-stay-eventful-in-next-three-months

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Larry Page Is Super Excited To Announce That Google+ Has 90M Users [Update: Engagement+?]

The official numbers are in for Google's new social network, Google+. Beating out most previous third-party estimates that we've seen, the company said today that it now has 90 million users worldwide. Presumably this means monthly uniques visitors given that the earnings release says "now," but we'll try to get more clarification around engagement numbers when we get on the quarterly call in a few minutes.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/4Wsmxqiy7O0/

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IBM 4Q earnings beat estimates, revenue falls shy

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? IBM Corp.'s fourth-quarter earnings handily beat Wall Street's expectations on Thursday, helped by higher revenue and profit margins in the technology icon's lucrative software and services segments.

The results and IBM's stronger-than-expected outlook for this year sent IBM's stock up more than 2 percent after hours. The company offered a welcome sign of stability amid the global economic turmoil that's prompting worries about a slowdown in technology spending by businesses and governments, who are IBM's customers.

One sore spot was revenue, which fell short of analyst expectations; the rise in software and services revenue wasn't enough to offset a decline in hardware. Also, the stronger dollar is squeezing overseas revenue.

IBM earned $5.49 billion, or $4.62 per share, in the three months that ended Dec. 31. That's up 4 percent from $5.26 billion, or $4.25 per share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings were $4.71 per share, easily surpassing analysts' expectations of $4.61 per share.

Revenue grew 2 percent to $29.49 billion from $29.02 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected slightly higher revenue of $29.7 billion.

IBM said currency shifts since its last quarterly report in October lowered fourth-quarter revenue by about $300 million. The deepening economic crisis in Europe, along with the continuing weakness in the U.S. economy and signs of a slowdown in emerging markets are prompting worries about global companies like IBM.

But IBM has long said its long-term contracts insulate it from economic swings, and its full-year forecast is bright. IBM expects adjusted earnings of at least $14.85 per share, above the $14.77 per share that analysts are predicting.

New CEO Ginni Rometty said IBM is "well on track" toward its long-term goal of hitting at least $20 per share in adjusted earnings in 2015 ? a rare example of a long-term earnings target disclosed publicly by a such a large company.

Revenue rose at two of IBM's three largest divisions ? software by 9 percent and services by 3 percent. Hardware revenue fell 8 percent. In the third quarter, IBM's services revenue grew 8 percent, its software revenue climbed 13 percent and its hardware revenue rose 4 percent.

By geography, IBM said revenue from the Americas grew 3 percent in the fourth quarter. Revenue from Europe, the Middle East and Africa combined was up 1 percent and revenue from Asia increased 2 percent.

IBM said its new contract signings were $20.4 billion in the fourth quarter, slightly above analysts' expectations. The company's services backlog at the end of the year was $141 billion, up by $4 billion from the end of the third quarter. Services backlog refers measures the value of work under contract that the company expects to book as revenue in future quarters.

For all of 2011, IBM earned $15.86 billion, or $13.06 per share, up 7 percent from $14.83 billion, or 11.52 per share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings were $13.44 per share, above analysts' expectations of $13.36 per share.

Revenue was $106.92 billion, up 7 percent from $99.87 billion in 2010. Wall Street was expecting $107.08 billion.

The Armonk, New York-based company's stock rose $4.53, or 2.5 percent, to $185.05 after hours. The stock had closed down 55 cents at $180.52.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-19-Earns-IBM/id-011b455bcbbf4d20a5eed409cc0d53e6

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Oil rig to begin Cuba exploration

19 January 2012 Last updated at 16:46 ET

A large oil rig has arrived off the coast of Cuba to begin searching for offshore oil deposits.

Several international companies will use the rig to drill exploratory wells in deep water in the Florida Strait, which separates Cuba from the US.

Cuba is hoping to confirm estimates that it has billions of barrels of oil in offshore fields.

But there is concern in the US that a deep water spill could devastate the coast of Florida.

The Chinese-built rig - known as Scarabeo 9 - could be seen from the Cuban capital Havana as it moved slowly west.

First to use it will be the Spanish oil company Repsol YPF, which plans to drill an exploratory well around 100km (62 miles) from the Florida Keys.

Other foreign companies are also planning to hire the rig.

Environmental concern

Cuba already produces some oil from small onshore and coastal deposits, but depends for most of its fuel on subsidised imports from its ally, Venezuela.

If confirmed, the estimated offshore deposits could turn Cuba into an oil exporter and transform its troubled socialist economy.

But the project has caused anxiety in the US, particularly following the 2010 leak at BP's Deepwater Horizon rig, which dumped millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Scarabeo-9 will be drilling in even deeper waters, and sea currents mean that any spill would threaten the Florida coast.

But the US trade embargo against Communist Cuba would limit the ability of US companies and government agencies to respond to any environmental disaster.

Repsol has said that its operations will comply with all US safety regulations, and the rig has been inspected by US officials.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-latin-america-16642286

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Soiya Gecaga: Being the Change That I Wish To See In the World

As I think about the year that has just gone by, I am filled with immense gratitude for all that I experienced in 2011. In many ways, 2011 was a life changing year for me. Most importantly, it was the year that my work with "We the Change" Foundation (in the field of early childhood education and care) started in earnest. Mahatma" Gandhi once said that "we must be the change that we wish to see in the world" and ever since I first heard these words quoted, they have strongly influenced me and the choices that I have made in my life. So much so, that I named the foundation with Gandhi's quote in mind.

Starting in January, my work really took off. It was the culmination of a long personal voyage of discovery, of transformation and of deep introspection. In the wake of the post-election violence that rocked Kenya in 2007-2008, I quit my job as a lawyer working in London and travelled to Kenya, where I was born. My goal was two-fold. Firstly, to get to know and to reacquaint myself with the country that I called 'home;' secondly, I was determined to find a meaningful way in which to give back to communities in my country that lacked opportunity.

I had sat at my desk in London, watching the devastation unfold on my computer screen and could not believe what I was witnessing. My fellow countrymen were killing and harming each other in ways that I previously could not have fathomed. Like many other Kenyans at the time, I found myself confused and perplexed at just how something this terrible could have happened. Question after question flooded my mind. Where was the hatred coming from? Why were communities that had previously lived in harmony now killing each other? Why were those in power not doing anything to stop the violence? I found myself looking to those in authority for answers. However, it was ordinary Kenyans who provided inspiration. One by one, I heard stories about my fellow Kenyans who were each taking action and doing what they could to play their part. (There were the Kenyan students living in America who raised money through concerts, parties and comedy shows. There was the group of concerned Kenyan citizens who came from a cross section of society and who met every other day to co-ordinate relief efforts and to disseminate information. There was the Kenyan photographer who risked his life to document the violence and who later used his photographs to promote peace.)

Story by story, I was inspired and moved into action. Rather than looking to other people, I realised that I needed to look within and question myself about what my response was going to be. I had always talked about the importance of Gandhi's words and what they had meant to me but now the time had come to "walk my talk." To an outsider, it might have seemed somewhat baffling at first. That I would be willing to give up my life and career in London in order to 'return' to a country that I hadn't lived in for over 20 years. However, to me, it made perfect sense. I have often described the pull that I felt then as an inexplicable inner-knowledge that this was the right (and indeed the only) path for me.

When I first returned to Kenya, I visited camps for internally displaced people, spent time with prisoners in a number of Kenya's prisons and got to know (and ultimately became friends with) various incredibly inspiring people living in some of Africa's largest urban slums. These profound experiences shaped my thoughts and transformed my previously conceived ideas about how best to be of service to the very communities that I was trying to help. As it was the post-election violence that precipitated my return to Kenya, I had initially thought that I would get involved in peace and reconciliation activities. However, as I spent more time in Nairobi's urban slums (Mathare slum in particular) I couldn't help but notice and be concerned by the hundreds of very young children that I saw running around unsupervised on a daily basis.

Most of these children (many of whom live on less than the proverbial "2 dollars a day") are either orphans or come from one-parent families. Their primary care givers are unable to afford childcare or to send them to pre-school. Primary school education in Kenya is free, however pre-school education is not. This means that many young children, below the age of six and who live in marginalised communities, are forced to fend for themselves whilst their caregivers go to work each day.

The first few years of a child's life are critical in terms of human development. Growing up in a stable environment and being properly cared for will mean that a child is more likely to fully develop his or her thinking, language, emotional and social skills, and to suffer less from disease. Having received this kind of support, a child is then able to take these valuable foundations with them when they start primary school. Whilst the years after early childhood are bound to be fraught with difficulty and challenge for many children living in marginalised communities, their journeys in life would be that much harder (if not nearly impossible) without a good and solid start in life. A recent article written by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times references a policy statement issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics which states that: "Protecting young children from adversity is a promising, science-based strategy to address many of the most persistent and costly problems facing contemporary society, including limited educational achievement, diminished economic productivity, criminality, and disparities in health." For children growing up in extreme poverty and deprivation, solid foundations in early childhood are very rarely developed. Many young children living in such environments are exposed to multiple risks, including poverty, malnutrition and poor health, all of which detrimentally affect their cognitive, motor, and social-emotional development.

As I got to know some of the young children in Mathare, the more I started thinking about ways in which to address the issue of providing good quality early childhood education and care to children living in this community. I started thinking about just how inspiring and empowering it would be to create a centre for excellence in this field, to have the centre based in Kenya and to have it serve those most in need. So this is exactly what I have set out to achieve.

We currently support 30 children between the ages of 2 and 7 in our pilot program in Mathare. However, it is our aim to progress our work further and to create a centre for excellence that will comprise of two model schools (one in Mathare and the second in a rural dry land setting). The model schools will be backed up by a dedicated teacher training and research centre based at one of the top universities in Kenya (Kenyatta University). The urban slums and the rural dry land areas are where the most marginalised communities in Kenya live. Although, there are many similarities between these two communities, it is critical for their different needs to be taken into account when designing and developing an education program. This is why we plan to have a model school in each community. Our ultimate aim is to develop a model school system that can be replicated both nationally and then later, throughout the rest of Africa.
Rather tragically, early childhood education and care is traditionally not given much attention globally by education policy makers in various governments. Therefore, it is also my hope that through this work we will be able to raise awareness about the importance of education in this field and to transform education policy where we can. A report produced by the Centre on the Developing Child at Harvard University outlines the potential benefits of investing in early childhood education by explaining that, "extensive analysis by economists has shown that education and development investments in the earliest years of life produce the greatest returns. Most of those returns, which can range from $3 to $16 per dollar invested, benefit the community through reduced crime, welfare, and educational remediation, as well as increased tax revenues on higher incomes for the participants of early childhood programs when they reach adulthood."

It is my hope that, by providing young children in Kenya with good quality pre-school education, we will help to alter their life trajectories and to provide them with opportunities that would otherwise have eluded them. As a girl born in Kenya over 30 years ago, I am acutely aware of the fact that my life trajectory would have been very different without the healthcare and educational opportunities that were given to me in early childhood and beyond. In fact, without the opportunities given to me by my parents, it is unlikely that I would have made it past my 5th birthday. I believe wholeheartedly in the notion of the "accident of birth" and in my mind, all that separates my 4 year old self and Mary (a 4 year old girl in our program in Mathare) is this concept. I could very easily have been born as Mary and Mary could have been born as me. However, the reality is that we weren't. Given that I was born who I am and given the chances in life that have been made available to me, Gandhi's words take on a much deeper meaning. When I read them, I am reminded about my role in this world and the sense of personal responsibility that I feel on a daily basis to do all that I can to play my part as a member of our global community. As Robert Kennedy once said; "Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Soiya Gecaga is a Creative Activist Member at Creative Visions Foundation. Click here for more information about We the Change, a pre-school for orphans and vulnerable children in Mathare Slum in Kenya.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soiya-gecaga/kenya-children_b_1211745.html

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Emily Maynard as The Bachelorette: Sort of Confirmed!

It looks like America's sweetheart is going back to the franchise that made her a quasi-star. Emily Maynard will be the star of The Bachelorette, according to reports!

"It's official, Emily is the new Bachelorette," an insider close to Emily tells Life & Style, which is not really official at all, but still. It's been reported previously as well.

Moreover, in order to accommodate "ABC is even going to move filming to Charlotte [North Carolina, Emily's hometown]. It won't be in Los Angeles at all."

It's been reported that ABC asked her to star in the next season of the series, despite her reluctance in early discussions, in large part based on her daughter.

She had fans convinced she wasn't interested. Just last summer Emily Maynard wrote: "I don't want to be The Bachelorette." Perhaps she changed her mind?

Since ending her engagement with that stiff Brad Womack in May, the North Carolina stunner has been linked to Jeremy Shockey and Matt Nordgren.

She's denied dating both ... and has yet to confirm or deny that she's going back on The Bachelorette this time. Stay tuned for an official confirmation. Probably.

Emily Maynard as The Bachelorette?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/emily-maynard-as-the-bachelorette-probably-confirmed/

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Pakistani court orders contempt notice against PM

CORRECTS DATE - In this Monday, Dec. 5, 2011 photo, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani pauses during an interview with the Associated Press at his residence in Lahore, Pakistan. A political crisis gripping Pakistan could take a decisive turn Monday when its embattled government appears before the Supreme Court, which is ordering it to reopen a stalled graft probe against the president or face dismissal. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

CORRECTS DATE - In this Monday, Dec. 5, 2011 photo, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani pauses during an interview with the Associated Press at his residence in Lahore, Pakistan. A political crisis gripping Pakistan could take a decisive turn Monday when its embattled government appears before the Supreme Court, which is ordering it to reopen a stalled graft probe against the president or face dismissal. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

CORRECTS DATE - In this Monday, Dec. 5, 2011 photo, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani gestures during an interview with the Associated Press at his residence in Lahore, Pakistan. A political crisis gripping Pakistan could take a decisive turn Monday when its embattled government appears before the Supreme Court, which is ordering it to reopen a stalled graft probe against the president or face dismissal. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

ISLAMABAD (AP) ? Pakistan's Supreme Court ramped up the pressure on the nation's beleaguered government Monday, beginning contempt proceedings against the prime minister for failing to carry out its order to reopen a corruption case against the president.

The court ordered Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to appear before the bench on Thursday to explain his refusal to reopen the case, injecting fresh uncertainty into the crisis threatening to engulf the country.

If the court convicts Gilani of contempt, he could serve up to six months in prison and be disqualified from holding office.

The government already is locked in a bitter conflict with the army, and Monday's Supreme Court ruling boosted the sense the administration could fall, squeezed between the court and Pakistan's powerful generals. The government is also grappling with an ailing economy and a violent Taliban insurgency.

The escalating political crisis is likely a concern for the U.S., which is worried about instability in the nuclear-armed country and also needs the government's help on the war in neighboring Afghanistan.

The Supreme Court has ordered the government to ask Swiss authorities to reopen a corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari that dates back to the 1990s and involves the jurisdiction of the Swiss courts. The government has refused, saying Zardari has immunity, and supporters say the court is pursuing a vendetta against the country's civilian leadership.

The government also is at odds with the army over an unsigned memo delivered to Washington last year offering the U.S. a raft of favorable security policies in exchange for its help in thwarting a supposed military coup.

The army was outraged by the memo and pushed the Supreme Court to open an inquiry into the scandal against the government's wishes. Some observers believe the court's pressure on the graft case is being orchestrated by the military to put maximum strain on the government.

Pakistan has long been plagued by tension between the civilian government and the army, which has seized power in three coups since the country was founded in 1947. The government has given the generals control over foreign and security policy, but the civilian leadership and the top brass have never seen eye-to-eye since Zardari and Gilani took office in 2008.

The head of the Supreme Court, Mohammad Iftikhar Chaudhry, has also clashed with Zardari.

The court initiated contempt proceedings against Gilani on Monday after the government failed to respond to an order outlining a series of punitive options the judges could take if the government did not reopen the case against Zardari. Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq told the court he had not received instructions from the country's leaders on how to respond to the order.

Federal Law Minister Maula Bakhsh Chandio said the government would review the court's action against Gilani and "obey the law and the constitution."

"This is not a small or an ordinary thing," he said outside the court. "This is a Supreme Court order."

The government has vowed to see out its term, scheduled to end in 2013, and oversee elections ? the first time in the country's history that power would be handed over via the ballot box. But the crisis threatens to upend that, and some lawmakers in Zardari's party speculate that elections could be called earlier to try to soothe tensions.

Gilani criticized the army last week for cooperating with the Supreme Court probe into the memo scandal. He has said the standoff is nothing less than a choice between "democracy and dictatorship." Gilani's comments followed a warning from the generals of possible "grievous consequences" ahead.

Zardari has been vulnerable to prosecution since 2009 when the Supreme Court struck down an amnesty granting him and other leading political figures immunity from past graft cases. The court deemed the amnesty, which was granted in 2008, unconstitutional.

The court has zeroed in on one corruption investigation taken up by the Swiss government against Zardari that was halted in 2008 when Pakistani prosecutors, acting on the amnesty, told Swiss authorities to drop the case.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-16-AS-Pakistan/id-04f99de2d2e848ba90b136caa750cef6

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