Tuesday, April 30, 2013

LG will launch the world's first 55-inch curved OLED HDTV

LG will launch the world's first 55inch curved OLED HDTV

We visited LG's HQ earlier this month and heard that the curved OLED HDTV prototypes it showed at CES are due for release, and now it's official. A Korean press release indicates we can expect the 55EA9800 to launch in the next month, with shipments starting in June. According to the specs, its 4.3mm depth results in a weight of just 17kg, probably thinks to a carbon-fiber reinforced frame. Like an IMAX theater screen, the edges are curved towards the viewer to provide a more immersive feeling. Given the fact that we're still waiting for LG's flat OLED TVs to see a wider release we doubt it will arrive on US shelves any time soon, but until then you can check out our in-person pics from CES below, and a video after the break.

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Source: LG Korea

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/28/lg-curved-oled-hdtv/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Put The History of Time In Context With a Click of Your Mouse

There's nothing to spice up your Monday like getting a feel for how insignificant of a speck you are in the grand scheme of the universe. Here Is Today does just that, but in such a pretty, minimalist way that you won't even mind.

Read more...

    


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/1-w8XhbhGuk/put-the-history-of-time-in-context-with-a-click-of-your-484456466

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Google releases Glass kernel GPL source, lets developers have at it

While our own Tim Stevens is currently adapting to life through Google Glass, developers are going beyond scratching the surface to fiddle with what's inside. Hot on the heels of Jay Freeman rooting Glass, devs will be pleased to know Google's throwing 'em a bone to by publicly releasing the kernel source. Interestingly, Karthik's Geek Center spotted info within the file that points to Glass potentially being equipped for NFC support. If you're up for tinkering, you'll find the temporary location of the tar.zx file itself at the source link.

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Via: Karthik's Geek Center

Source: Google

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/27/google-releases-glass-kernel-gpl-source/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Thursday, April 18, 2013

Small in size, big on power: New microbatteries the most powerful yet

Apr. 16, 2013 ? Though they be but little, they are fierce. The most powerful batteries on the planet are only a few millimeters in size, yet they pack such a punch that a driver could use a cellphone powered by these batteries to jump-start a dead car battery -- and then recharge the phone in the blink of an eye.?

Developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the new microbatteries out-power even the best supercapacitors and could drive new applications in radio communications and compact electronics.

Led by William P. King, the Bliss Professor of mechanical science and engineering, the researchers published their results in the April 16 issue of Nature Communications.

"This is a whole new way to think about batteries," King said. "A battery can deliver far more power than anybody ever thought. In recent decades, electronics have gotten small. The thinking parts of computers have gotten small. And the battery has lagged far behind. This is a microtechnology that could change all of that. Now the power source is as high-performance as the rest of it."

With currently available power sources, users have had to choose between power and energy. For applications that need a lot of power, like broadcasting a radio signal over a long distance, capacitors can release energy very quickly but can only store a small amount. For applications that need a lot of energy, like playing a radio for a long time, fuel cells and batteries can hold a lot of energy but release it or recharge slowly.

"There's a sacrifice," said James Pikul, a graduate student and first author of the paper. "If you want high energy you can't get high power; if you want high power it's very difficult to get high energy. But for very interesting applications, especially modern applications, you really need both. That's what our batteries are starting to do. We're really pushing into an area in the energy storage design space that is not currently available with technologies today."

The new microbatteries offer both power and energy, and by tweaking the structure a bit, the researchers can tune them over a wide range on the power-versus-energy scale.

The batteries owe their high performance to their internal three-dimensional microstructure. Batteries have two key components: the anode (minus side) and cathode (plus side). Building on a novel fast-charging cathode design by materials science and engineering professor Paul Braun's group, King and Pikul developed a matching anode and then developed a new way to integrate the two components at the microscale to make a complete battery with superior performance.

With so much power, the batteries could enable sensors or radio signals that broadcast 30 times farther, or devices 30 times smaller. The batteries are rechargeable and can charge 1,000 times faster than competing technologies -- imagine juicing up a credit-card-thin phone in less than a second. In addition to consumer electronics, medical devices, lasers, sensors and other applications could see leaps forward in technology with such power sources available.

"Any kind of electronic device is limited by the size of the battery -- until now," King said. "Consider personal medical devices and implants, where the battery is an enormous brick, and it's connected to itty-bitty electronics and tiny wires. Now the battery is also tiny."

Now, the researchers are working on integrating their batteries with other electronics components, as well as manufacturability at low cost.

"Now we can think outside of the box," Pikul said. "It's a new enabling technology. It's not a progressive improvement over previous technologies; it breaks the normal paradigms of energy sources. It's allowing us to do different, new things."

The National Science Foundation and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research supported this work. King also is affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology; the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory; the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory; and the department of electrical and computer engineering at the U. of I.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Journal Reference:

  1. James H. Pikul, Hui Gang Zhang, Jiung Cho, Paul V. Braun, William P. King. High-power lithium ion microbatteries from interdigitated three-dimensional bicontinuous nanoporous electrodes. Nature Communications, 2013; 4: 1732 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2747

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/technology/~3/vR8b031rWT0/130416151929.htm

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Analysis: "Naked" CDS ban and euro zone calm

By Mike Dolan

LONDON (Reuters) - The surprising stability of euro government bonds this year owes much to the European Central Bank's powerful pledge of support, but many wonder if regulation to limit speculation also plays a part.

European Union regulators acted last November after two years fretting about financial derivatives called sovereign credit default swaps (SCDS), insurance-like contracts offering protection against the risk governments default, and suspecting they aggravated serial euro government debt crises.

A key argument was that in allowing punters to bet on and profit from a sovereign default without even owning the underlying bonds, the market was prone to speculation and overshoot that had unnerved investors and precipated the very creditor strikes, bailouts and even the defaults being bet on.

For many, it was like taking fire insurance out on a house you didn't own and the uncovered nature of trading in this market introduced more than a little moral hazard.

As a result, the EU banned uncovered or "naked", positions in sovereign CDS, in tandem with other reporting requirements and circuit breakers on "short selling" in other systemic securities such as bank stocks.

The financial industry, perhaps predictably, cried foul and said the ban would distort price information, hit market liquidity in SCDS and ultimately backfire by scaring off potential bond buyers who would feel less comfortable hedging as a result.

Five months on, however, many puzzle at how relatively stable euro zone government bonds have remained through at least two events - Italy's inconclusive elections and the messy Cyprus bailout - that would previously have caused major ructions across the bloc's sovereign debt markets.

That's not to say SCDS markets are not functioning at all. Pricing there still suggests about a 70 percent probability of an eventual sovereign default in Cyprus, for example.

But some point out that SCDS and underlying bond market gyrations in recent hotspots such as Slovenia are much more in step.

For most investors, the announcement last August of ECB's bond-buying backstop, or Outright Monetary Transactions, is the prime protector here. But it may also suggest that the sorts of financial derivatives and trading activity the wider public saw malfunction so spectacularly over of the past decade can be effectively tamed.

But in a surprisingly blunt paper, the International Monetary Fund weighed in strongly against the EU ban last week - saying it found little evidence that SCDS overall had been out of line with bond spreads and that for the most part premiums reflected the underlying country's fundamentals - even if they reflected them quicker than the cash market.

"Overall, the evidence here does not support the need to ban purchases of naked SCDS protection," it said in a special chapter on the subject in its latest World Economic Outlook.

Even though the IMF report said it found signs of overshoot in default insurance premia for "vulnerable European countries in times of stress", it said it couldn't make a direct case for this causing higher sovereign funding costs per se.

For the most part, it endorsed the industry line that the ban would create more distortions than it would resolve and that a drop in CDS volumes and liquidity, which it said was observable this year, may deter bond buyers fearful of less efficient hedging.

The hedge fund industry, represented by the Alternative Investment Management Association, was quick to say the report "essentially vindicated" the industry position.

IMF ADJUDICATION?

The IMF's resolute support of the industry line, not only in its analysis but its recommendations, was starkly clear.

Among those claiming the market had aggravated sovereign funding pressures include Rouen Business School professor Anne-Laure Delatte, whose report last summer looking at Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Spain and claimed SCDS and bank CDS had played a dominant role in driving market sentiment:

"We obtain empirical support of an intuition, often heard from market practitioners, that CDS prices affect market sentiment and serve as a coordinating device for speculation."

Curiously, she reckoned the EU ban itself was flawed in that it excluded bank CDS which often led sovereign speculation and also exempted dealer banks consider to be 'market makers'.

And given that the top 15 dealer banks account for almost 90 percent CDS trading activity, one wonders whether anyone apart from this concentrated group and leveraged hedge funds were really affected much either way.

As the IMF and others point out, the size of notional SCDS outstanding - at about $3 trillion last June - was only about 6 percent of $50 trillion of total government debt. So does it matter to long-term investors?

Scott Thiel, Head of European and Global Bonds at the world's biggest asset manager Blackrock, says he was instinctively against banning financial market activity that reduced price visibility. By changing his view of CDS price signals, he said, it limited his options in managing portfolios.

However, he also said he understood what regulators were trying to do and was equivocal about the overall impact.

"When investors ask me if we have been more or less active in derivatives over the past year, my general answer is 'less active' because of what's happened with regulation," said Thiel, who said he remains particularly bullish on Italian debt regardless.

"It certainly makes portfolio management less efficient but that may have positive and negative effects - we'll see."

(Editing by Ron Askew)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-naked-cds-ban-euro-zone-calm-051218323--sector.html

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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Lion Air jet that crashed into sea must be cut up

BALI, Indonesia (AP) ? A Lion Air jet that slammed into the sea as it tried to land on the Indonesian resort island of Bali over the weekend remains stuck in shallow water and must be cut into pieces for removal, vividly underlining the challenges facing the budget airline as it races to expand in Asia.

Authorities initially planned to tow the Boeing 737-800 aircraft that split in two, but have now determined it is too heavy and must be carved into several parts to avoid the possibility of damaging the area's coral reefs, said Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan.

The tail is perched on top of a reef, making it unsteady when sets of waves hit the wreckage. Divers have also faced difficulties recovering the cockpit voice recorder from the plane's partially submerged rear, a key part of the investigation as officials work to determine what caused the crash. The flight data recorder has already been removed.

All 101 passengers on the domestic flight ? including five foreigners from Singapore, France and Belgium ? and seven crew members survived Saturday's crash, and no one was seriously injured. The plane's belly thumped into the sea short of the runway at Bali's Ngurah Rai airport, fracturing the fuselage.

The accident has raised questions among some analysts about whether Lion Air may be putting growth ahead of safety. Indonesia's largest private airline, which was started in 1999 by two brothers who pooled $850,000, stunned the aviation industry two years ago when it announced the biggest-ever order for Boeing planes ? 230 jets in all ? at an event with President Barack Obama. It made headlines again last month after signing a $24 billion deal to buy 234 planes from Airbus, the French aircraft maker's largest order ever.

Lion Air has about 45 percent of Indonesia's air travel market and hopes to increase that to 60 percent by 2014 as cheap travel continues to boom in the sprawling archipelago of 240 million people. The airline has had seven accidents and incidents since 2002. Most were minor and all but one occurred during landing, according to the Aviation Safety Network's website. The worst crash in 2004 killed 25 people.

The pressure to keep planes flying, coupled with the difficulty of finding enough qualified pilots can create a bad combination, said Tom Ballantyne, a Sydney-based aviation expert.

"It's certainly an issue for fast-expanding airlines," he said.

Indonesia is one of fastest growing air travel markets in Asia, but the country has a troubled past when it comes to air safety. In 2007, the Europe Union banned all Indonesian airlines due to the country's poor record. It has lifted restrictions for some carriers as improvements are made, but Lion Air remains on the blacklist.

Despite efforts to clean up the industry, Indonesia has struggled to find enough qualified pilots, mechanics, air traffic controllers and inspectors. Airport technology and infrastructure also lag behind, highlighted by a 15-minute blackout late last year at Jakarta's international airport that disrupted its 26-year-old radar system.

Indonesia currently needs up to 800 pilots a year, but it can only prepare about 500, Transportation Minister Evert Ernest Mangindaan said at a news conference.

"We have to say that we still lack pilots in the face of this air travel boom," he said. Foreign pilots are now being employed to work for domestic airlines and flight schools are being established, he said.

Alvin Lie, a former Indonesian lawmaker and aviation analyst, said Lion Air's aggressive push to buy more aircraft is likely adding to the burden on its pilots. But he said the Bali crash will likely not affect business in Indonesia. However, the airline has also positioned itself to take on budget carrier AirAsia, which dominates no-frills travel in the region.

"If abroad, that would definitely reduce consumers' confidence," he said of the crash. "But the characteristics of consumers here are different. The most important thing for them is the cheap price."

____

Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia. Associated Press writers Margie Mason and Ali Kotarumalos contributed to this report from Jakarta.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lion-air-jet-crashed-sea-must-cut-055711727--finance.html

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Boston bombs raise worries for Olympics, World Cup

LONDON (AP) ? From London to Sochi to Rio de Janeiro, the deadly bomb attacks on the Boston Marathon raised new concerns Tuesday over safety at major sports events around the world, including the Olympics and World Cup.

The twin bombings near the marathon finish line that killed three people and injured more than 170 people brought into sharp focus the security challenges facing next year's Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the 2016 Summer Games in Rio.

"We are very, very concerned," senior IOC member Gerhard Heiberg of Norway told The Associated Press. "Security is priority No. 1, no question about it."

More immediate is the security planning for this weekend's London Marathon, which attracts more than 30,000 runners and half a million spectators. Organizers said they were reviewing security for Sunday's race ? one of the world's six major marathons ? but the event will go ahead as scheduled in a display of unity with Boston.

"The best way for us to react is to push ahead with the marathon on Sunday, to get people on the streets and to celebrate it as we always do in London," British Sports Minister Hugh Robertson said. "We are absolutely confident here that we can keep the event safe and secure. ... The best way to show solidarity with Boston is to continue and send a very clear message to those responsible."

The London Marathon, which takes in some of the city's most recognizable landmarks, draws many of the world's top marathoners as well as tens of thousands of amateur and "fun" runners who raise money for charity. Prince Harry, patron of the marathon's charitable trust, is scheduled to attend Sunday's race and make the presentations to the winners.

"When you have an event of any nature ? a marathon, parade ? it's only as safe as the city itself," race chief executive Nick Bitel said. "If it's not held in a stadium, you can't do a lockdown like you may do in a building."

Also taking place Sunday is the Bahrain Grand Prix, a Formula One race that faces its own security issues after a series of explosions, including a gas cylinder blast that set a car ablaze in the Gulf nation's financial district.

A Human Rights Watch report alleged that Bahrain authorities rounded up activists living around the track in a bid to "silence" dissent ahead of the race. Protesters, carrying portraits of people killed in the nation's nearly three-year uprising, are calling for a boycott of the race.

Security for the Olympics, meanwhile, has been paramount ever since the attacks by Palestinian gunmen that killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches at the 1972 Munich Games.

The focus now falls on Sochi, a Black Sea resort that will host Russia's first Winter Olympics next February. Security was already a concern because of Sochi's proximity to an Islamic insurgency that spread across southern Russia after separatist wars in Chechnya.

"Naturally, we're beefing up security measures," Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said in remarks carried by the R-Sport news agency.

IOC vice president Thomas Bach, who was on his way to Sochi on Tuesday for an international journalists' conference, said the attacks in Boston reinforced the IOC's policy that safety is paramount for any Olympics.

"I'm sure that this malicious attack will lead the public authorities to have another look at all security measures," Bach told the AP by telephone. "While it is too early to draw any final conclusions, we have full confidence in the Russian authorities. They have already analyzed the overall situation and I'm sure they will take this event into account and take the necessary measures."

Heiberg, who organized the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway, and now chairs the IOC's marketing commission, said security concerns had been heightened since the Sept. 11, 2011, terror attacks in the United States. Since then, Olympics have passed off peacefully in Salt Lake City, Athens, Turin, Beijing, Vancouver and London.

"So far we have been lucky in the Olympics but what happened in Boston reminds us that we cannot take it easy, we have to continue and we have to plan for not only the possible but also the impossible," Heiberg said. "We are taking it extremely seriously in Sochi, working very hard with the Russian authorities."

The Russian Interior Ministry said Tuesday it has fully deployed the police force that will be in place during the Sochi Olympics and has conducted regular checks of all venues to make sure they are protected.

Alexander Konovalov, head of the Institute of Strategic Assessment and Analysis, an independent think-tank, said international terror groups could be encouraged by the carnage in Boston to plot against the Sochi Olympics.

"The terrorists' strategy is to create a sense of panic and leave an impression that they can strike any target, no matter how tightly it's protected," Konovalov said. "The Olympics would make a highly desirable goal for terrorists, offering the maximum publicity."

Russia is also hosting one of the biggest international sports events of 2013 ? the world track and field championships in Moscow on Aug. 10-18.

"Our security measures are tough as they are," said Mikhail Butov, secretary general of the Russian Athletics Federation. "But when it's clear what actually happened (in Boston), we will draw our conclusions."

Guarding the Olympics is a massive operation covering 17 days of competition in numerous outdoor and indoor venues. Not only are sports facilities at risk, but so are the public areas where fans and spectators congregate. At the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, a backpack bomb exploded at Centennial Olympic Park, killing one person and injuring more than 100.

"The balance is not easy," Heiberg said. "Of course, you can provide security but we don't want to show the world pictures of soldiers and police with guns and so on. It's the same for Rio and all the others to come."

Rio organizers, who will be hosting the first Olympics in South America, said they are working with the government to "deliver safe games in 2016."

The city has won kudos for its crackdown on once-endemic drug violence in preparation for hosting the World Cup and Olympics. But safety has been a big topic in Rio recently after an American woman was gang raped and beaten aboard a public transit van while her handcuffed French boyfriend looked on helplessly.

Ahead of next year's World Cup, Brazil is hosting the Confederations Cup in June. The warm-up tournament featuring eight teams will be played in six cities across the country and is seen as a big test for organizers in all areas.

On Sunday, two fans were shot to death on their way to a match meant to test the facilities at a World Cup stadium in northeastern Brazil. Rival supporters were suspected in the killings.

The terror threat was considered high for last year's London Olympics, where overall security costs rose above 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion). London was hit by terrorism in 2005, when 52 people were killed in attacks by suicide bombers on the city's transportation network.

London's huge security operation included thousands of police and military troops and deployment of warships, surveillance aircraft, sniper-carrying helicopters, fighter jets and missile batteries on rooftops.

Denis Oswald, who headed the IOC coordination commissions for the Athens and London Olympics, said the games remain a potential target wherever they are held and the Boston attacks do not radically change the security planning for Sochi or Rio.

"Each case has to be studied," Oswald said. "It could be new ways or new systems put in place. We just have to make sure these types of cases are covered by the security system. We have to be 100 percent vigilant and never neglect any possibility."

___

Associated Press writers Natiliya Vasilyeva, Vladimir Isachenkov and Yelena Yegorova in Moscow, and AP Sports Writer Tales Azzoni in Sao Paulo, Brazil, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boston-bombs-raise-worries-olympics-world-cup-172135917--spt.html

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Monday, April 15, 2013

Coup leader elected president in Central African Republic

BANGUI (Reuters) - The rebel leader who seized power in Central African Republic, Michel Djotodia, was elected president on Saturday by an acting parliament.

Djotodia led thousands of rebel fighters from the Seleka coalition into the riverside capital of the mineral-rich country on March 24, toppling President Francois Bozize.

African heads of state and Western powers had refused to recognize him as the country's legitimate leader and called for the creation of the transitional council to lead the nation to elections within 18 months.

The 105-member transitional council, meeting in parliament in Bangui on Saturday, confirmed Djotodia, the only candidate, by acclamation - paving the way for recognition.

Djotodia has agreed not to seek re-election at the end of the transition.

"I will do as you instruct me to do, and not according to my wishes," Djotodia told the delegates of the council, selected by consensus from political parties and civil society organizations.

Djotodia said the worsening security in the ramshackle capital and across the impoverished nation would be his main concern during the transition period.

International aid organizations have said uncontrolled armed groups including members of the Seleka movement continue to loot, spread chaos and recruit children into their ranks.

"The new Seleka government should assume their responsibility and re-establish control over these armed groups," French aid organization MSF said in a statement.

Seleka, a grouping of five rebel movements, launched its insurgency in early December, accusing former president Bozize of reneging on a 2007 peace deal.

The insurgents came close to capturing the capital before accepting another peace deal in January under which some of their leaders joined the central government.

But they relauched their offensive and seized the capital in March, accusing Bozize of not respecting the deal.

(Reporting by Paul Marin Ngoupana; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Alison Williams)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/coup-leader-elected-president-central-african-republic-213331427.html

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Sunday, April 14, 2013

New bird flu strain found outside eastern China

BEIJING (Reuters) - The Chinese capital reported on Saturday its first case of a new strain of bird flu, state news agency Xinhua said, the first time it has been found in a human outside of eastern China.

The seven-year-old girl is in a stable condition in a Beijing hospital, the report said.

Two people who have had close contact with the child have shown no signs of being infected so far, Xinhua added.

The girl's parents are engaged in the live poultry trade, it said.

The girl developed a fever, cough, sore throat and headache - all flu symptoms - on Thursday morning before she was brought to the hospital, according to the report.

She was given the drug Tamiflu, received intravenous drips on Thursday night, and was transferred to an intensive care unit when her condition worsened, Xinhua said.

Her breathing has improved and temperature dropped, it said.

The website of China's state radio showed a photo of the girl lying in bed, wearing a large blue face mask and with a stuffed doll next to her.

So far 11 people have died of the H7N9 bird flu strain since it was confirmed in humans for the first time last month, with 44 infections in all having been reported to date.

Shanghai and the eastern provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui had been the only confirmed locations of infection until the Beijing case.

The source of infection remains unknown, though the virus has been found in some birds in poultry markets that remain the focus of investigations by China and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

The new virus has caused severe illness in most of the people affected, leading to fears that if it becomes easily transmissible, it could cause a deadly influenza pandemic, though there has been no indication of that happening.

In a bid to calm public jitters over the virus, Chinese authorities have detained a dozen people for spreading rumors about the spread of bird flu.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Terril Yue Jones; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/beijing-reports-first-suspected-case-bird-flu-strain-010730629.html

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Vi Ripken Kidnapping Tip Leads To Dead End; Police Still Do Not Know Who Kidnapped Cal Ripken Jr.'s Mother, Or Why

Detectives in Aberdeen received a tip they hoped would be their big break: A prisoner seeking leniency said he knew the man who abducted the mother of Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr.

But nearly nine months after the bizarre kidnapping, no suspect has been identified and police still don't know of a motive in the case, in which Violet R. Ripken was taken from her home by an unknown assailant and safely returned nearly 24 hours later.

Michael Wayne Molitor claimed last year to know what happened and gave police a name; in return, police helped persuade a judge to grant him bail after a string of drug offenses. But after several weeks of detective work to follow up on that tip, detectives came to a dead end and now say Molitor wasted their time.

Molitor, a 41-year-old Port Deposit man, is back in prison on a probation violation. And the investigation into the Ripken kidnapping continues.

Police say they are actively searching for answers in Ripken's kidnapping from her modest white vinyl-sided home on a quiet Aberdeen street where she raised her children with her late husband, longtime Orioles coach and manager Cal Ripken Sr. The tips continue to come in, but not as frequently, and the Molitor case underscores the difficulty in sifting through the information.

Dave Henninger, a Bel Air-based criminal lawyer who represented Molitor, said his client was just passing along information he had heard. And it's possible the lead may still prove valuable, he said.

"You don't want a case to turn cold," he said. "When it goes cold, it's not on anybody's mind, leads dry up and it's harder to solve."

Detectives have released few details on the abduction.

The suspect, a medium-build white man seen in surveillance video from an Anne Arundel County Walmart, forced Ripken at gunpoint into her 1998 Lincoln Town Car after hiding in her garage, according to authorities. He tied her up, drove her around Central Maryland and dropped her off, unharmed, less than half a mile from her home.

The Ripken family declined Friday through a spokesman to comment on the case.

"At this time, the case is still active," said Aberdeen police Detective John Divel.

Divel, the lead detective on the case, said officers did chase down the Molitor tip. They looked through phone records, caught up with the alleged suspect in Pennsylvania and researched his record. The man Molitor claimed was the kidnapper was an old accomplice with whom Molitor had had a falling out, Divel said.

"We take every tip that comes in seriously, and we work it to the fullest," Divel said.

But when the information didn't prove helpful, Divel testified against Molitor during his probation violation hearing last week, when he was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison for failing a drug test and failing to report to his probation officer.

The detective warned would-be tipsters: "If it turns out to be bogus, you're going to get prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Henninger said he has no reason to believe Molitor "simply fabricated" the allegation. He said that Molitor was beaten up by people who may have been associated with the alleged suspect for telling police what he'd heard.

"When Mr. Molitor passed it along, he thought it was true," Henninger said. "He passed along what he had heard, which is sometimes very good information on the street, and sometimes it's not very good information."

Doug Colbert, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law, said the Ripken case has left the community uneasy, especially because there has been no resolution. The case has proved equally frustrating for police, he said, because they must rely on citizen informants while also being wary of their motivation and veracity.

"In the law, any type of a citizen's tip must be examined to see if the information is reliable and if the informant is credible," Colbert said.

"Many citizens will cooperate and provide information because that's part of being an involved citizen," he added, "but when someone is asking for law enforcement's help on their own criminal cases, that's immediately reason to give the highest scrutiny."

Given the amount of time that has passed since Ripken was kidnapped, the family and police should consider increasing the $2,000 reward that's been offered, Colbert said.

"A reward can generate leads, particularly in a troubled economy," Colbert said. "If you want to generate more citizens' involvement, often money becomes the incentive, but great care has to be exercised. Credibility is key."

Divel testified at Molitor's probation violation hearing April 3 in Harford County Circuit Court before Judge Angela M. Eaves, who sentenced Molitor to nearly seven years in prison.

Molitor tested positive for a cocktail of illegal drugs on July 20, 2011, failed to report to any subsequent meetings with his probation officer and didn't show for court appearances, prosecutors said in court records.

The case stemmed from his conviction of cocaine possession and giving a false name to police in July 2010. He served about a year in prison and had been given probation in lieu of the remainder of his eight-year sentence.

Police first learned of Molitor's claim in August, about a month after the abduction. Divel said in exchange for the information, police petitioned the Harford County state's attorney's office to seek bail for Molitor, who was back in jail on the probation violation charge. Divel said Molitor requested bail, which was granted, so he had time to get "get his affairs in order."

By early October, Divel said, the police had ruled out as a suspect the man Molitor claimed was Ripken's kidnapper. "Through interviews and other investigation, we exonerated" the man, Divel said. "We completely ruled him out."

Divel then contacted Harford County prosecutors, and Divel was called to testify. The judge ultimately revoked Molitor's probation.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/14/vi-ripken-kidnapping-_n_3074819.html

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Obama budget 'compromise?' No way, says the GOP (+video)

In the Republican radio address Saturday,?Rep. Jackie Walorski (R) of Indiana called President Obama's proposed budget for 2014 'a blank check for more spending and more debt.'

By Brad Knickerbocker,?Staff writer / April 13, 2013

House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., holds a copy of President Obama's 2014 budget proposal as he questions Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Friday.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

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The budget President Obama delivered to Congress this week was presented as a compromise package, a path to some sort of ?grand bargain? involving taxes and spending.

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?I don't believe that all these ideas are optimal,? the president acknowledged. ?But I'm willing to accept them as part of a compromise if and only if they contain protections for the most vulnerable Americans.?

Indeed, his budget did draw immediate sniping from Obama?s liberal base as well as from Republican lawmakers. A particular affront to the left is the tweaking envisioned for Medicare, revealed Friday in congressional testimony by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

The Obama budget also would change the way inflation is figured for Social Security recipients, and it raises taxes on higher-income households.

But ?compromise?? No way, the GOP charged in its Saturday radio/Internet address.

Speaking on behalf of her party, freshman Rep. Jackie Walorski (R) of Indiana called it ?a blank check for more spending and more debt.?
?
??Even when the president?s budget offers signs of common ground ? like modest entitlement reforms ? he says he won?t follow through unless he can impose more tax increases,? Rep. Walorski said. ?Worst of all, the White House says the president?s budget never balances ? ever, failing to meet the most basic principle of budgeting for every family and small business.?

?The president?s budget isn?t a compromise; it?s a blank check for more spending and more debt,? she said. ?If that were the answer, millions of Americans wouldn?t be leaving the workforce and asking ?where are the jobs???

Walorski, who?s a member of the House Budget Committee, hammered Obama?s plan for its alleged tax impact: more than $1 trillion in new taxes, in addition to $1 trillion in new taxes from ObamaCare and more than $600 billion in tax hikes the president secured in January.

And she touted the House budget plan, including the claim that it would produce a balanced budget in ten years.

?First, our balanced budget seizes opportunities to support our nation of builders and get Americans back to work, through popular energy projects like the Keystone XL pipeline,? she said. ?Second, our balanced budget repeals ObamaCare so we can address the problems it is causing ? like making it harder to hire and driving up health care costs ? and work towards patient-centered reforms.?Finally, our balanced budget lays the groundwork for a fairer, simpler tax code.?Closing loopholes and lowering tax rates for everyone would mean more jobs and higher wages.?

In releasing his budget, Obama claimed that he?d ?already met Republicans more than halfway.?

?So in the coming days and weeks, I hope that Republicans will come forward and demonstrate that they?re really as serious about the deficits and debt as they claim to be,? he said.

To which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sniffed that Obama?s budget amounted to a ?left-wing wish list.?? House Speaker John Boehner warns that Obama?s entitlement adjustments are being ?held hostage? to more taxes.

With that kind rhetoric, any budget ?compromise? could be a long way off.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/MOHqVK5P8Ag/Obama-budget-compromise-No-way-says-the-GOP-video

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Minneapolis trades council makes early mayoral endorsement (Star Tribune)

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Ex-AP writer McArthur, who covered Vietnam, dies

This April 28, 1972 file photo shows once-and-future bureau chiefs at The Associated Press' Saigon bureau, from left, George Esper (1973-75), Malcolm Browne (1961-64), George McArthur (1968-69), Edwin Q. White (1965-67), and Richard Pyle (1970-73). McArthur, a former AP foreign correspondent who reported all over the world and spent years in Saigon covering the Vietnam war, has died. He was 88. His wife, Eva Kim McArthur said he died Friday night, April 12, 2013 in a hospice in Fairfax County, Va., of complications from a stroke. (AP Photo)

This April 28, 1972 file photo shows once-and-future bureau chiefs at The Associated Press' Saigon bureau, from left, George Esper (1973-75), Malcolm Browne (1961-64), George McArthur (1968-69), Edwin Q. White (1965-67), and Richard Pyle (1970-73). McArthur, a former AP foreign correspondent who reported all over the world and spent years in Saigon covering the Vietnam war, has died. He was 88. His wife, Eva Kim McArthur said he died Friday night, April 12, 2013 in a hospice in Fairfax County, Va., of complications from a stroke. (AP Photo)

FILE - This 1963 file photo shows George McArthur, Chief of Bureau in Cairo for The Associated Press. McArthur, a former AP foreign correspondent who reported all over the world and spent years in Saigon covering the Vietnam war, has died. He was 88. His wife, Eva Kim McArthur said he died Friday night, April 12, 2013 in a hospice in Fairfax County, Va., of complications from a stroke. (AP Photo)

FILE - In this April 11, 1969 file photo made by George McArthur, a South Vietnamese militiaman, wearing a handkerchief to ward off the odors, probes the rubble to free a body from the ruins of the Tay Ninh Provincial military headquarters area after an area of about nine city blocks was leveled when Viet Cong rockets blew up a 200-ton ammunition dump. McArthur, a former AP foreign correspondent who reported all over the world and spent years in Saigon covering the Vietnam war, has died. He was 88. His wife, Eva Kim McArthur said he died Friday night, April 12, 2013 in a hospice in Fairfax County, Va., of complications from a stroke. (AP Photo/George McArthur)

FILE - In this circa 1968-69 file photo, AP Saigon staffers, correspondent Peter Arnett, left; photo chief Horst Faas, second left; Chief of Bureau George McArthur, second right; and Edwin Q. White, right, pose for a photo with Jean Ottavi, owner of the Royal Hotel in Saigon. McArthur, a former AP foreign correspondent who reported all over the world and spent years in Saigon covering the Vietnam war, has died. He was 88. His wife, Eva Kim McArthur said he died Friday night, April 12, 2013 in a hospice in Fairfax County, Va., of complications from a stroke. (AP Photo)

Born in the Deep South and caught up in the romance of journalism at an early age, George McArthur was not one to let social taboos or politics interfere with a good story.

As a campus reporter for the local newspaper, covering civil rights and racial tensions at the University of Georgia, he was called a "communist" by the state's segregationist governor, Herman Talmadge. McArthur replied, with typical sarcasm, that he felt honored.

Later, while reporting for The Associated Press from Seoul during the Korean War, and from the Arab world and Indochina, McArthur cultivated Soviet and other communist-state reporters as friends, and the trust paid off with exclusive bits of inside information from the ongoing peace talks at Panmunjom.

In one case, McArthur recalled recently, his source made the deal in exchange for a box of condoms from the PX.

For nearly three decades, McArthur was the quintessential foreign correspondent as he reported from the boulevards of Paris to the sands of the Middle East and jungles of Vietnam, for the AP and later the Los Angeles Times. He died Friday night at age 88 in a hospice in Fairfax County, Va., of complications from a stroke 17 days earlier, his wife, Eva Kim McArthur, said.

When Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett, an avowed communist, hosted American anti-war advocate Tom Hayden at his home in Cambodia, his friend McArthur was the only western reporter invited to their news conference.

"As I left," McArthur recalled years later, other reporters were standing outside, asking: "'What did he say? What did he say?' I went past them and headed for the phone."

Born July 15, 1924, in Valdosta, Ga., George A. McArthur III said he was first inspired to become a foreign correspondent at age 9, when he read a book by Richard Harding Davis, a famous globe-trotting reporter in the early 20th century.

At age 20 in October 1944, McArthur served aboard the Navy hospital ship USS Bountiful, witnessing from a distance the World War II Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines.

While the Japanese military was notorious during World War II for mistreatment of enemy prisoners and otherwise ignoring the rules of war, he said the mercy ship ? operating alone, and painted white with large red crosses illuminated at night to mark its noncombat status ? was never attacked or threatened by the Imperial Navy.

"In our case, the Japanese respected the laws of war and left us alone," he said.

After the war, McArthur attended the University of Georgia while working for a local newspaper. He was hired by the AP in Atlanta in 1949 to cover sports and write radio news copy ? a typical start for a wire service career path that could lead anywhere.

In his case, that was Korea. In 1951, McArthur was one of several youthful AP staffers who volunteered to replace the aging ex-World War II retreads first dispatched to Seoul after communist North Korea's invasion of South Korea in July, 1950.

It was a new experience for McArthur and his colleagues, who were dubbed the "boy correspondents." But he recalled the remark of a veteran United Press reporter, Bob Vermillion, that "if you can't cover war, you can't cover anything."

Rewarded after Korea with a choice of AP assignments, McArthur opted for Paris, where he spent six years, then moved to Cairo as AP's bureau chief, living in a houseboat on the Nile. In 1963, he moved from there to Manila, Philippines, again as bureau chief.

McArthur polished an elegant writing style in those years that he said was patterned after that of his boyhood hero Davis, and lived the life of a foreign correspondent and bon vivant, a heady, Hemingway-esque mix of glamor, drama and danger.

Sent to cover a Paris news conference by visiting U.S. Vice President Lyndon Johnson, McArthur took along a comely French girlfriend named Domino. "LBJ immediately spotted her, pumped her hand and rattled on for about 60 seconds before realizing she didn't speak a word of English," McArthur recalled in a 2005 interview. "Afterward, Domino asked, 'Who was that man?'"

He later survived a tense moment in Sudan when a street demonstration flared out of control. McArthur said he fled to the U.S. embassy, scrambling under the front security gate seconds before it slammed down.

In 1964, McArthur began making reporting trips from Manila to Vietnam and a year later joined the AP Saigon staff full-time. He was named bureau chief in 1968, and in late 1969 he left the AP to join the Los Angeles Times, continuing to cover the Vietnam war.

He also met, and later married, Eva Kim, a diplomatic secretary to U.S. ambassador Ellsworth Bunker and his successor, Graham Martin.

When Saigon fell to invading North Vietnamese troops on April 30, 1975, Martin and key aides were on one of the last Marine helicopters to leave the U.S. embassy roof. Martin carried the embassy's folded flag; McArthur, accompanying his wife Eva, carried the ambassador's tiny terrier, Nit Noy, on his lap, having saved it from being left behind.

In later years, McArthur and his wife lived in Washington and northern Virginia.

Edith Lederer, who is now AP's chief United Nations correspondent, first met McArthur in Vietnam. "George's courage, keen eye and story-telling skills gave readers around the world a front-row seat on major events of the 20th century," she said.

"He was a role model for many who followed, including me."

In a 2005 interview, McArthur said his career had been more rewarding than he could have imagined as a small-town boy in south Georgia.

Going on home leave from Paris, he crossed the Atlantic on the ocean liner United States, and was invited to dine at the captain's table.

"Nobody from Valdosta, Ga., dresses for dinner or eats at the captain's table," he said in the interview.

___

Pyle, a former Saigon bureau chief for The Associated Press, reported from New York.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-13-Obit-George%20McArthur/id-1f988773c72d4ce7b4a0283483d605db

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Saturday, April 13, 2013

Mercedes' Hamilton takes pole for F1 Chinese GP

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain waves to the crowd after winning the qualifying session for the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix in Shanghai, China, Saturday, April 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain waves to the crowd after winning the qualifying session for the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix in Shanghai, China, Saturday, April 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, centre, of Britain waves to the crowd after winning the qualifying session for the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix in Shanghai, China, Saturday, April 13, 2013. Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen, right, of Finland finished second and Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso of Spain third. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

(AP) ? Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton took the pole position for Formula One's Chinese Grand Prix.

Hamilton's best time Saturday at the Shanghai International Circuit was 1 minute, 34.484 seconds, qualifying a quarter of a second ahead of Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso will start third in Sunday's race.

"It's an incredible feeling, so happy to have our first pole for some time," Hamilton said. "I'm just ecstatic really, the lap was great."

"I can't answer (critics) with one result but bit by bit, as we progress and improve, they will have to stand corrected. I am so grateful because it could have gone the other way. It was such a big choice for me and a big step for me but I made the right call."

A cat-and-mouse qualifying session allowed all drivers to restrict their time on the track to preserve their tires for the race, with all of the top 10 having only one flying lap in the final stage of qualifying.

McLaren's Jenson Button and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel both elected to do their flying lap on the harder of the two tire compounds, sacrificing grid position so they can have a longer stint at the beginning of the race. Button qualified eighth and Vettel ninth.

Of the top three, Hamilton is likely going to have to pit first, as the Mercedes has quickly degraded the soft tires throughout the weekend and his times are likely to start dropping after as few as two or three laps.

He is putting faith in his team's decision to start on the soft tires and not follow the example of championship leader Vettel in settling for a lower grid spot but a longer first stint on Sunday.

"I have really good strategists and I just trust them and their decisions and stand by it," Hamilton said. "No matter what strategy you are on everyone will struggle on the option tire, whether it's high or low fuel."

Red Bull's Mark Webber had a fuel pressure failure in the second sector of qualifying, putting him 14th. He will start from the back of the grid, however, if there is not enough fuel in the car to provide a sample to stewards.

"We'll have to see what the rules are," Webber said upon his return to the garage. "Double-whammy, maybe."

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, last year's winner, qualified in fourth, ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa, Lotus' Romain Grosjean and Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso. Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg was 10th.

Raikkonen came up just short of his first pole in five years, set when he was with Ferrari.

"Second is not too bad. It's the best I've achieved with the team. I would rather be in first place but we don't have the speed," Raikkonen said.

The Finn won the season-opening race in Australia by having one less pit-stop than his rivals. If he can nurse his tires again Sunday, he will be hard to beat.

"It's a big question mark because we were pretty happy (Friday), but the car is not the same as then," Raikkonen said. "Hopefully it will turn out to be good tomorrow, but it will be pretty close and whoever gets it exactly right will make a difference.

Alonso edged Massa by about a tenth of a second to avoid qualifying behind a teammate for a fifth straight race, which has never happened in his career.

"The car has been competitive from Friday and this morning we made changes and the car responded well," Alonso said. "We have a good setup for the race, which is the most important thing. Tomorrow, if everything goes well, we should fight for the podium with both cars."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-13-CAR-F1-Chinese-GP/id-5c708ea152d64e9ba7b1dc1e0391617e

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Friday, April 12, 2013

Huawei G510 heads to Vodafone UK, puts Jelly Bean on a budget

Huawei G510 heads to Vodafone UK, puts Jelly Bean on a budget

Huawei's G510 isn't what you'd call a screamer. In fact, the handset's more of what the Chinese market refers to as a "1,000 yuan" phone, or as we so benignly call it: a budget device. Formerly available in Asia-only, the G510's now making the trek to the UK on Vodafone for £130 outright or £13 monthly. Despite its lower-end leanings, the Android Jelly Bean device packs a reasonably large 4.5-inch WVGA display, dual-core Cortex-A9 clocked at 1.2GHz, 5-megapixel rear camera, NFC and a 1,750mAh battery. It's also the first of Huawei's UK releases to ship with its custom skin, the Emotion UI. It's a questionable bragging right, we admit. But we'll let it slide for now.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/11/huawei-g510-heads-to-vodafone-uk-puts-jelly-bean-on-a-budget/

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Bialik happy with 'nonsexual' 'Big Bang' romance

CBS

Sheldon tries to nurse a sick Amy back to health on "The Big Bang Theory."

By Drusilla Moorhouse, TODAY contributor

Are Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler ever going to get past second base on "The Big Bang Theory"? Not if Mayim Bialik, who plays the nerdy neurobiologist on the CBS hit, has any say.

"I kind of like us the way we are," she told TODAY.com.

"Sheldon made a comment that he could picture the two of them having coitus (and) honestly, I was surprised that the producers were ready to have his character say that," shared the former "Blossom" star.

"I think it's really sweet that we depict an as-yet nonsexual romantic intimate relationship that is very sweet. But anything can happen on our show."

That includes some kinky spanking, the unforgettable moment that fans can enjoy (or cringe about) again on Thursday's rebroadcast of "The Fish Guts Displacement."

Originally, viewers weren't intended to actually see Sheldon deliver the corporal punishment to his "very bad girl" girlfriend.

"The naughty was (originally) supposed to be off-camera," Jim Parsons revealed at PaleyFest last month, adding: "It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do -- because I found it tremendously amusing."

But Bialik paid the price for the her co-star's repeated attempts "to get the sound we wanted": "There was some redness," she admitted.

"One thing I like about Amy is that she's very honest almost to a fault" -- except when she's tricking Sheldon, Bialik told us. "She's not afraid to bend the rules in terms of what's expected of her, or what people think she should act like, dress like, be like (or) have a relationship like."

Unfortunately, Bialik didn't share any screen time with legendary comedian Bob Newhart, who is guesting on the show May 2.

"I'm not in (the) episode sadly, so I did not get to meet him," said the chagrined actress. "It's really a bummer. I've been a huge 'Newhart' fan and spent many -- I don't know if they were lonely teenage years, but many appropriate teenage years watching ''Newhart' late at night."

When we asked Bialik what other series she'd like to guest on herself, she confessed, "I don't watch television. I've heard of shows. I was a huge fan of 'Northern Exposure' 20 years ago. I actually was seated next to (its star) Rob Morrow at this Alzheimer's benefit the other night and I was geeking out in my head the whole time. I've heard that 'Downton Abbey' is a good show and I sometimes look good in period pieces, so that might be fun."

(Maybe Lady Edith can interview famous scientist Marie Curie for her newspaper column?)

As to where "Big Bang" is headed, Bialik is completely in the dark.

"We know nothing" about the upcoming sixth-season finale, she told us. "(The writers) sort of go where their passion takes them!"

Do you hope Amy and Sheldon find passion on "Big Bang"? Tell us on our Facebook page!

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