Stocks edge lower on the last trading day of 2011

FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2011 photo, traders Michael Zicchinolfi, left, and Michael Lawrence work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Stock markets around the world were closing out 2011 on a subdued note Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, with many of the world's major indexes posting big declines for the year in the wake of Europe's debt crisis, a faltering U.S. economy and signs that China's economy is no longer sizzling. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2011 photo, traders Michael Zicchinolfi, left, and Michael Lawrence work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Stock markets around the world were closing out 2011 on a subdued note Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, with many of the world's major indexes posting big declines for the year in the wake of Europe's debt crisis, a faltering U.S. economy and signs that China's economy is no longer sizzling. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The stock market is set to end a tumultuous year more or less where it started.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 55 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,231 as of 2:30 p.m. Friday. The S&P 500 fell 3 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,262. It's up just 0.2 percent for 2011. The Nasdaq fell 4 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,609.

McDonald's Corp. is shaping up to be the biggest winner in the Dow this year with a gain of 31 percent. Bank of America Corp. is the worst, down 59 percent.

The conventional wisdom is the more risk, the greater the potential rewards. But the opposite is proving true this year: Investors playing it safe have gained the most.

The most dull and conservative of stocks ? utilities ? are up 16 percent, the largest gain of the ten sectors in the S&P 500. Other winning groups are consumer staples and health care companies, both up 11 percent in 2011.

In Europe, many of the biggest markets ended down for the year. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 5.6 percent, Germany's DAX 14.7 percent.

Trading has been quiet this week with many investors away on vacation. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange has been about half of its daily average. Markets will be closed Monday in observance of New Year's Day.

Better news on the job market and home sales lifted stocks Thursday, pushing the Dow up 135 points. On Friday Ford reported that its sales topped 2 million this year for the first time since 2007. Ford fell 0.1 percent.

In other corporate news:

? Sears Holdings Corp. fell 2 percent to $32.28 after Fitch Ratings downgraded the company's credit rating to "junk." Sears has plunged 30 percent this week after disclosing that it would close more than 100 Sears and Kmart stores because of weak holiday sales.

? Diamond Foods Inc. jumped 5 percent to $33.04. Rumors have been circulating that the hedge fund manager David Einhorn has acquired a stake in the food company that makes Emerald Nuts.

? AMR Corp., the parent company of American Airlines, fell 16 cents to 35 cents. The company filed for bankruptcy protection last month. Late Thursday the company said its stock would be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange next week.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-12-30-Wall%20Street/id-5c7bfabd747745c6b66e1dbec1762372

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Check Out Paychex's Good Numbers (The Motley Fool)

Payment processor and human resources services provider Paychex (Nasdaq: PAYX - News) recently posted higher-than-expected profits in its second quarter. The company benefited from better revenue per check. Given the high unemployment rate in the U.S., results that exceeded expectations are a welcome development. However, the company remains cautious about the slow economy.

Let's dig deeper.

Economy matters
Paychex provides human resources and benefit services to small- and medium-sized businesses. Owing to a weak global economy, these businesses have been facing tough times. Paychex acts as a performance barometer for such smaller companies. The company has expressed concerns regarding its future sales due to weakness in its customer base. Growth in checks per client is expected to be moderate in 2012.

However, things may not be as bad as they appear. The company earns nearly 70% of its income from its payroll service business. By the year's end in May, revenue from this business is expected to grow at an average rate of around 6%. Moreover, revenue from human resource services is expected to grow at an even steeper rate of 12% to 15%.

The quarterly roundup
Revenue increased to $545.7 million, a 7% rise compared to the prior-year quarter, as the number of checks per client increased. Net income surged to $140.4 million, a 5% increase compared to last year.

Revenue benefited from price increases and lower discounting with clients. Smaller HR services helped the numbers by expanding the company's client base by 12% as it added clients and existing clients' employee counts increased.

Rival Insperity (NYSE: NSP - News) also posted a robust 32% growth in its earnings per share. The second-quarter results of competitor Automatic Data Processing (Nasdaq: ADP - News) are expected next month.

Paychex also expanded its software-as-a-service offerings by introducing a new single sign-on page for online users and an iPad application.

The Foolish bottom line
Paychex posted good numbers despite a sluggish economy. At the moment, the company remains threatened by the poor performance of small- and medium-sized companies. However, hiring is picking up. The number of jobless claims is declining. That's all good news for this payroll service provider.

Click here to stay up to speed on Paychex by adding it to your Watchlist.

Fool contributor Navjot Kaur does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned in this article. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Paychex and Automatic Data Processing. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personalfinance/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/fool/20111228/bs_fool_fool/rx171049

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Edwin Black: If Iran Moves, the USA Has No Plan for an Oil Interruption

It will come as a shock to most Americans, but no presidential candidate -- nor any candidate, nor any local, state or federal government -- has developed a contingency plan in the event of a protracted oil cut-off. It is not even being discussed. Government has prepared for hurricanes, anthrax, terrorism, and every other disaster, but not the one threatened daily -- a protracted oil stoppage, whether caused by terrorism or Iranian intervention in the Persian Gulf.

It is like seeing a hurricane developing without a disaster plan or evacuation route. Our allies have oil shortage interruption contingency plans, but America does not.

The crude realities: America uses approximately 19 to 20 million barrels of oil per day, almost 70 percent of which is imported. If we lose just 1 million barrels per day, or suffer the type of damage sustained from Hurricane Katrina, the government will open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which offers a mere 6 to 8 week supply of unrefined crude oil. If we lose 1.5 million barrels per day, or approximately 7.5 percent, we will ask our allies in the 28-member International Energy Agency to open their SPRs and otherwise assist. If we lose 2 million barrels per day, or ten percent for a protracted period of time, government crisis monitors say the chaos will be so catastrophic they cannot even model it. One government oil crisis source told me hours ago, "We cannot put a price tag on it. If it happens, just cash in your 401k."

Exactly how could America be subjected to a protracted oil interruption, that is, a 10 percent shortfall lasting longer than several weeks? It will not come from hurricane action in the Gulf of Mexico, or even major refinery accidents or other oil infrastructure damage. Such damage would be repaired within days and the temporary losses absorbed by the small half million barrel per day global cushion available.

However, if one, two, or all of three of these vital chokepoints are hit by terrorists flying hijacked jumbo jets or shut down by Iranian military action -- the Abqaiq processing plant in eastern Saudi Arabia, the Ras Tanura terminal on Saudi Arabian coast, or the two-mile per sea lane Strait of Hormuz -- as much as 40 percent of all seaborne oil will be stopped, as much as 18 percent of all global supply will be interrupted, and as much as 20 percent of the U.S. supply will be cut off. Estimates on the U.S. shortfall could be even higher. Repeat attacks could prolong the crisis for many months, which is exactly what Al Qaeda and the Iranian regime have promised. Yet there is no government plan.

The best experts predict that if we suffer as much as a ten percent shortfall for any period of time, let alone twenty percent, it will be a neighbor-against-neighbor "Mad Max scenario" as food shortages swell and a storm of economic collapse surges across the country. Indeed, experts have been warning about this looming calamity for years. But the government and presidential candidates refuse to even consider the possibility or develop a contingency plan. Even if a secret plan exists, who would execute such a monumental undertaking?

Yet American allies have developed oil contingency legislation and other administrative plans that will permit their nations to survive a stoppage. These measures include severe vehicle traffic reductions, enabling fast alternative fuel production, mass vehicle fuel retrofitting, as well as rush public transit enhancement and mandated changes in driving habits. Unquestionably, for America to survive such a catastrophe will require a very painful, multi-layered program of immediate-term, short-term, mid-term and long-term fixes that will change our society and transform it off oil. The nation has no real alternative fuel delivery or retrofitting infrastructure. Lawmakers, mayors, governors and candidates have not developed such a plan during the half decade the interruption has been looming.

The notion that Saudi Arabia can make up the shortfall from an Iranian disruption is impossible. Saudi oil disembarks from Ras Tanura and it, too, must pass through the narrow two-mile wide sea lanes of the Strait. For America to have prepared intelligently for a Persian Gulf oil interruption would have required a decade of planning. To absorb the hit from a sudden oil stoppage as is now once again threatened, will be very painful indeed.

Edwin Black is the New York Times best selling investigative author of 'IBM and the Holocaust,' 'Internal Combustion,' 'British Petroleum and the Redline Agreement,' and 'The Plan: How to Save America When the Oil Stops -- or the Day Before' (Dialog Press), from which this article is adapted. More information about The Plan can be found at www.planforoilcrisis.com.

?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/edwin-black/usa-has-no-plan-oil-interruption_b_1173702.html

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My BlackBerry year - and why I'm back on iPhone

Date: Wednesday Dec. 28, 2011 7:21 AM ET

A year ago I received my first work phone: a BlackBerry.

Having been a first-generation iPhone adapter, the elusive straight-laced business phone had held some fascination for me.

Unwilling to give up my personal cell number, I put my iPhone on a cheap data-free plan and used it as a secondary phone for personal calls and my preferred method of texting.

"BlackBerry for work, iPhone for play," I would say to anyone eye-balling my duelling smart phones side by side in their matching pink cases.

Yes, my first call to action for my BlackBerry was to buy it a pink case. It was just so bland looking. I felt like it belonged clipped to the belt of a middle-aged accountant. A pink case at least made it purse worthy.

I spent the next 12 months trying to love the gadget that put Waterloo, Ont., on the silicon map. Or maybe "love" is too strong. Respect? In any case, it didn't happen for me. Just one day shy of a year, my inner iUser cracked and I gave back my BlackBerry, prompting me to reflect on the trials and triumphs of the cold war between these fruit-named gadgets. So here it goes.

BlackBerry Excels at Email

As a work device, BlackBerrys own the email field. When you hit send, the email sends. Period. There's no spinning, spinning, spinning wheel followed by a jet-engine sounding 'whoosh' (that I suspect is actually a 'Phew!') like on the iPhone.

The seamless connection to Office Outlook was also a welcome change.

With nearly 1,000 emails landing in my inbox daily, I've come to accept that checking, deleting and filing emails while you are away from the office is the only way to get anything done at the office. My BlackBerry loyally cleaned up my inbox with ease.

Surfing Seriously Sucks

But what if someone sent me an email with a link? The spinning wheel of death returns, but this time it's a BlackBerry blue line forever inching across the word "Requesting" -- and there's no jet-engine whoosh when the page finally loads.

Really? More than a minute to open a basic webpage? Not impressed. But with a screen that size, who really wants to be browsing?

BBM BooYa

Okay, so surfing sucks. But who needs to surf when you have BlackBerry's Messenger service, BBM?

All those years that I saw BlackBerry users dutifully tapping on their keyboard I never suspected they were simply exchanging 'wazzups' or gossip with co-workders via BBM. It looks so official.

After using BBM with some of my closer contacts I understood all the fuss. Being able to know when a person has read your message, how long they take to respond and how long it takes to type is a true window into the human psyche.

Digital voyeurism? Maybe. Entertaining at times? Very. My BBM correspondence will be one of my most-missed features.

Apple Invented Apps

I remember excitedly asking a BlackBerry aficionado about a list of the best apps. I think I even Googled it. The bland results ended with me downloading a safety driving app that promised to read out the dozens of emails I get during the 25 minute drive from my front door to my desk. It never made a peep once inside the car -- not one email or text.

The only time the app made its presence known was when I would leave the car and in a big fake voice it would say it was now 'TURNED OFF'. That joke got old after a few months and I deleted it. Or at least I thought I did. Now and then, after a reboot, the voice would come back to keep me on my toes.

Network Security Fears Pass??

Research in Motion's airtight network security is what made their smart phones the first choice of businesses and governments alike. But, in a somewhat ironic twist of fate, BlackBerry's superior security features are now becoming a source of strain. Last year, RIM was forced to make a deal with Saudi Arabia to install servers inside the country, in order to avoid a nation-wide ban. More recently, BBM came under fire for providing a secure and untraceable communication method for rioters in London to organize violent mobs.

On the Apple front, the initial fear that weak iPhone security features would result in corporate espionage has eased. As a result, more and more companies are beginning to embrace, or at least consider, using Apple phones as their business communication tool.

Not Quite an iSaint

Now, don't get me wrong, I am fully prepared to regret my decision to replace my work phone with my ?fun' phone. I even talked the tech guy into letting me hold onto my BlackBerry for a week or two during the "transition period."

I am dead worried about what the massive influx of emails will do to my dear iPhone and its battery. And what about that spinning wheel of death? Will the jet sound begin to grind on me again while I try to rapidly respond to multiple emails while chanting 'send, send,' and possibly holding the phone up to the sky at an odd angle hoping to expedite the process?

Ultimately, I worry that perhaps my love for my iPhone is rooted in the fact that it reminds me of play, not work. I can't say I have bought many business-y apps. Not yet at least.

So, let the wheel spin. In my books, the fruit war has ended.

Source: http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20111222/my-blackberry-year-and-why-I-want-an-iphone-111228/20111228?hub=TorontoNewHome

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Cranky croc steals Aussie zoo worker's lawn mower (AP)

SYDNEY ? A giant saltwater crocodile named Elvis with an apparent affinity for household machinery charged at an Australian reptile park worker Wednesday before stealing his lawn mower.

Tim Faulkner, operations manager at the Australian Reptile Park, north of Sydney, was one of three workers tending to the lawn in Elvis' enclosure when he heard reptile keeper Billy Collett yelp. Faulkner looked up to see the 16-foot (5-meter), 1,100-pound (500-kilogram) crocodile lunging out of its lagoon at Collett, who warded the creature off with his mower.

"Before we knew it, the croc had the mower above his head," Faulkner said. "He got his jaws around the top of the mower and picked it up and took it underwater with him."

The workers quickly left the enclosure. Elvis, meanwhile, showed no signs of relinquishing his new toy and guarded it closely all morning.

Eventually, Faulkner realized he had no other choice but to go back for the mower.

Collett lured Elvis to the opposite end of the lagoon with a heaping helping of kangaroo meat while Faulkner plunged, fully clothed, into the water. Before grabbing the mower, however, he had to search the bottom of the lagoon for two 3-inch (7-centimeter) teeth Elvis lost during the encounter. He quickly found them and escaped from the pool, unharmed and with mower in tow.

Though many may question the wisdom of going after a couple of teeth with a massive crocodile lurking just feet away, Faulkner said finding them was critical. "They clog up the filter systems," he said.

And, he said, "They're a nice souvenir."

Elvis has a history of crankiness and has lunged at staff before, though this is the first time he has stolen something from one of the workers. The croc was initially captured in the northern Australian city of Darwin, where he had been attacking fishing boats. He was then moved to a crocodile farm, where he proceeded to kill his two crocodile girlfriends.

In 2008, he was moved to the reptile park, where he has enjoyed solitary confinement in his own enclosure.

"When they are the dominant croc, they're just full of testosterone," Faulkner said. "He's got his beautiful own yard, he wants to be a solitary creature. He's happy."

Despite having to give up the lawn mower, Elvis was clearly pleased with himself, Faulkner said.

"He's beaten us today ... he's kingpin," Faulkner said. "He's going to be walking around with his chest puffed out all day."

As for the staff at the reptile park?

"I can't lie, the bosses are not going to be happy about the cost of a new lawn mower," Faulkner said with a laugh. "(But) we love it. No one's injured ... and when you get scared and it all turns out to be good, it's actually quite enjoyable."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111228/ap_on_re_as/as_australia_klepto_crocodile

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Lawyers accuse Liverpool and Chelsea Football Clubs of condoning Suarez and Terry racism

The Society of Black Lawyers (SBL) has condemned Liverpool and Chelsea Football Clubs for appearing to condone the alleged racism of Luis Suarez and John Terry. ?The organisation is urging the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to treat the Suarez affair as a racist incident and argues that there should be no difference in the treatment of the two players.

The Society of Black Lawyers (SBL), has condemned as indefensible, the stance of Chelsea and Liverpool Football Clubs for appearing to endorse the alleged acts of racism perpetuated by John Terry and Luis Suarez respectively.

Chelsa F.C. issued a statement, expressing their unconditional support after captain John Terry was charged with a racially aggravated public order offence relating to alleged remarks to Queens Park Rangers (QPR) defender Anton Ferdinand. ?Meanwhile,?Liverpool F.C. has continued to defend the behaviour of Luis Suarez following the eight-match ban given to the Uruguayan who was found guilty of racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra.

The SBL was one of the main organisations that successfully campaigned for racism to be criminalised and recognised as a hate crime in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. ?The organisation intends to?make a formal complaint to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) about the racist and offensive language used by Luis Suarez and will urge the CPS to treat the matter as a racist incident requiring a full and proper investigation. The SBL will also urge the CPS to prosecute Mr Suarez if the outcome of the investigation evinces a reasonable prospect of a conviction according to the public interest test contained within the Code for Crown Prosecutors. ?

The SBL contends that there should be no difference in the treatment of the two players and as both football clubs are the players' respective employers, such instances of racism ought to have been treated as allegations of gross misconduct by the clubs and not simply denied as being completely unfounded.

SBL Co-Chair, Peter Herbert OBE commented:

"To our knowledge, neither club has bothered to conduct its own independent investigation or hold a disciplinary hearing. If such serious allegations of racism had been made in the workplace, any reasonable employer would consider itself to be under a strict duty to conduct a full, detailed and impartial investigation into the allegations, and not simply to state that they stand behind the denials of the player concerned.

The punitive effects of racism are felt by thousands of people in Britain each day. ?The response of the Football Association (FA) and the CPS must be robust to protect others from the humiliation, pain and suffering that this type of hate crime inflicts. ?There is no reason why Suarez should not face criminal charges. ?When individual football clubs and fellow players - both black and white - endorse this kind of behaviour, they themselves become part of the problem because they stand in the way of the total eradication of racism from the sport. ?Their denial and appeasement reflects an abdication of their role as responsible players or employers."

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. For further press enquiries or interviews, please contact: Peter Herbert OBE (email:info@blacklawyer.org?/ mobile: +44 (0) 7973 794 946)

2. ?The CPS Code for Crown Prosecutors can be accessed by clicking on the following link: http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/docs/code2010english.pdf

3. The Society of Black Lawyers is the oldest organisation of African, Caribbean and Asian lawyers, jurists and law students.? Founded in 1969 by the late Rudy Narayan and Sigbhat Kadric QC, the SBL is a dynamic civil rights advocacy organisation which exists to:

• Promote equality and diversity within the legal profession;
• Act as a representative and strategic voice for lawyers, legal executives, law students, paralegals, jurists and legal academics of African, Asian and Caribbean heritage; and
• Campaign to ensure access to justice and legal services for ethnic minority and disadvantaged communities.?

4. For information on SBL and our activities see?www.blacklawyer.org

Company information

The Society of Black Lawyers (SBL) is the oldest organisation of African, Caribbean and Asian lawyers, jurists, academics and law students in the UK.? Founded in 1969 by the late Rudy Narayan and Sigbhat Kadric QC, the SBL exists to promote diversity within the legal profession and campaign to increase access to justice and quality legal services for ethnic minority and disadvantaged communities.

Source: http://pressitt.com/smnr/Lawyers-accuse-Liverpool-and-Chelsea-Football-Clubs-of-condoning-Suarez-and-Terry-racism/8830/

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OTA Update Coming Soon To Samsung Galaxy Tab On Verizon ? Adds New Functionality And TouchWiz UX

You?ll either welcome this with open arms or shake your fist in the air but Verizon is getting ready to push out a new OTA update to Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 devices on their network. Software version I905-ELo1 brings with a bunch of new features most notably ? Samsung?s TouchWiz user interface.

Other than subtle UI changes TouchWiz also adds new functionality like Bluetooth 3.0 compatibility, DivX support, security pathes, photo editing, Social Hub widget and a news app called The Daily. Still no word on exactly when the update will be rolling out but feel free to check on your tablet by jumping into your Settings > About Tablet > System Updates. Anyone ?

Continue Reading Here
OTA Update Coming Soon To Samsung Galaxy Tab On Verizon ? Adds New Functionality And TouchWiz UX
Chris Chavez ? phandroid.com

Tags: functionality, network software, software version, system updates, user interface

Category: Phandroid

Source: http://androidheadlines.com/2011/12/ota-update-coming-soon-to-samsung-galaxy-tab-on-verizon-%E2%80%93-adds-new-functionality-and-touchwiz-ux.html

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Hezbollah comes to the US (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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Apple Might Launch iPad 3 on Steve Jobs? Birthday?

Home ? Apple, iPad, Rumors, Tablets, USA '; } } google_adnum = google_adnum + google_ads.length; document.write(s); return; } google_ad_client='pub-9307253907600475'; google_ad_channel = '1044051032'; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '3'; google_ad_type = 'text'; google_feedback = 'on'; google_skip = google_adnum; google_encoding = 'utf8'; google_language = 'en';

The rumors for the next Apple product have already started and this one states that Apple might be readying the iPad 3 for a launch on Steve Jobs? birthday.

According to a Chinese newspaper, the company is reportedly set on launching its new tablet, the iPad 3 on February 24th which happens to be the birthday of Apple founder and late CEO Steve Jobs.

But Apple do to usually go hunting for special dates to launch their products, instead they believe that launching their products would make their products special and it is highly unlikely that they will announce the product unless its completely ready.

So we can?t be sure right now if the launch would indeed take place on February 24th but we can be sure that it?ll be a great tribute to Steve Jobs if it does.

source

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Source: http://www.fonearena.com/blog/44557/apple-might-launch-ipad-3-on-steve-jobs-birthday.html

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Degrees That Yield No Jobs posted an update: Degrees That Yield No Jobs 10 degrees that pay very well by the Bankrate.com Thurs international baccalaureate [...]

Degrees That Yield No Jobs

10 degrees that pay very well by the Bankrate.com Thurs international baccalaureate job opportunities Couch, December 8, 2011 3:00 ET.. The highest paid university . 74ec7a3a16

Bachelor?s degree will increase their purchasing power in almost any field.. .. With no more than a bachelor?s degree or associates, and the ability to do the job.. .. Ten degrees that pay very high salaries.. By Christina sofa.. Published December 8, 2011.. Bankrate.com.. Application, Jobs, Graduate School .

Degrees That Yield No Jobs

,.. More people with jobs four years of work accordingly.. Bachelor?s degree is no longer.. Degree can not give them a lot of work .. Jobs contact job threatened ccTimes \ \ u003e career-oriented higher income job in secl of performance, and career-oriented higher income levels of performance.. tallahassee state jobs .. Design of large-scale architecture of the Web sites and global information Web Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville and the Institute of rv job delivering transport rates Technology for the EPT ING nights Lance gg Ed and C D 3 Ta .. Beitar UCES 20 October 2010.. More than 317 000 waiters genealogy job waitresses have college degrees (more than, in other words, despite the fact that, on average, an investment in higher education produces well, as they say.. In any way .. and the design of large-scale Web Information Engineering websites of the International Louis Rosenfeld, Web and Morville Peter J.. and the Institute of Information Technology Nights Lance EPT gg Ed and C alaskan jobs d .. Betar UCES 3 Overall, about 17 million Americans with college degrees are doing jobs.. cause more and more people to graduate and fill menial jobs or employment .. Why do not earn grades of all students enrolled in my case the lack of job opportunities for associates ? other grades to work in a department store sales in the college jobs cdi or store manager .. If so, you probably hope that your testimony summer sex job in help the college in which the labor market .. no longer seen as a diploma as a guarantee of better jobs and better wages ..

Source: http://channeltechcenter.com/activity/p/861/

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Volkswagen Golf, 1989 (G), Manual Petrol, 20,000 miles

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Pigeons Can Follow Abstract Number Counting Rules

60-Second Science | More Science

Trained pigeons demonstrate an ability to use abstract number counting rules on par with primates, and to recognize which groups of items contain more of those items. Sophie Bushwick reports.

December 22, 2011

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Several vertebrate species can distinguish between, say, two and five bananas?but with the exception of primates, they can?t grasp the numerical rules that would let them arrange their piles of fruit from least to most. Now, new research suggests that pigeons, like primates, can follow these abstract numerical rules. The study is in the journal Science. [Damian Scarf, Harlene Hayne and Michael Colombo, Pigeons on Par with Primates in Numerical Competence]

Researchers trained pigeons with cards on which were pictures of one, two or three shapes, sometimes in different sizes and colors. The birds were ultimately able to correctly pick a card with one large green square first, followed by a card with two small red ovals, followed by one showing three long blue rods.

Then, the pigeons demonstrated a new ability?faced with two cards each showing up to nine images, they could tell which card had more. Which indicates that they had an abstract understanding of the single-digit amounts. Rhesus monkeys trained in a similar way displayed the same talents. Whether this shared ability evolved independently or came from a common ancestor is unclear. But it is clear that birdbrains aren?t so dumb.

?Sophie Bushwick

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]?

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App helps viewers shop while watching TV (Reuters)

TORONTO (Reuters) ? Looking for the dress you saw on a hit television show or the jerseys worn during a football game or soccer match? An iPad app aims to help viewers shop while watching TV.

Unlike television shopping channels, Watch with Ebay is a new feature in eBay's iPad app that lets users buy items related to the program they're currently viewing.

"The idea is to provide a new form of TV watching entertainment that includes the possibility of shopping and discovering interesting products people never would have discovered otherwise," said Steve Yankovich, vice president of mobile at eBay.

After entering the network provider and channel, items related to the TV show, the actors, guests or teams in a sporting event surface within the app.

"We've seen that guys sitting around watching a sporting event will buy jerseys for the team they like," Yankovich said. "And normally when you're sitting around watching a sporting event on TV, you're not really thinking about being in shopping mode. But that's because no one presented it to you in a frictionless and pleasing way."

A recent study by Yahoo/Nielsen found that 86 percent of smartphone and tablet owners use the devices while watching TV and 25 percent of them are searching for information related to the show.

"There's already a natural thing happening where people are using their device like a companion to TV watching," explained Yankovich.

Purchasing the item in a particular scene of a TV show isn't possible yet, but that could change.

Yankovich said content providers are beginning to tag video frames with the items in those scenes, which will make it possible in the future.

"It will get down to actual product. It could literally be the brand name of clothing that each person is wearing in the scene, including the actual stock-keeping unit (SKU) for the piece of clothing," he said.

When it happens the app could sync with the program to display the item in a scene of a show.

Yankovich said plans for the app are to provide recommendations based on the user's shopping interests, whether it is watches, shoes or autographed memorabilia. When the items are related to the show they're viewing, they will be featured on the screen.

"We will be your personal shopper paying attention so you don't have to. You just lean back, watch TV and we show you stuff you care about on the app," Yankovich said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oddlyenough/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111205/od_nm/us_shopping_television_odd

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T-Mobile, Vodafone and KPN raided in Dutch price-fixing probe

Details are pretty slim at the moment, but it appears that Vodafone, KPN and T-Mobile are among the companies that have been raided by Dutch regulators in a price-fixing investigation. The country's competition authorities, NMa, swept through the carriers' offices as part of a probe into alleged "cartel agreements" exposed by whistleblowers. All three of the companies have agreed to cooperate with the investigation and have denied wrong doing but, they're starting with a dark cloud of suspicion hanging over their heads already. It was only ten years ago that the same three mobile operators were fined for illegally coordinating on pricing and fees. Obviously, it's wrong to jump to conclusions, but what are the chances these huge corporations just haven't learned from their past mistakes?

T-Mobile, Vodafone and KPN raided in Dutch price-fixing probe originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Dec 2011 10:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Extrasolar planet: 18 new huge alien planets discovered

Extrasolar planet discoveries have boosted by 50 percent the number of known planets orbiting massive stars. Extrasolar planets are those outside of our solar system.

Astronomers have found 18 new alien planets, all of them Jupiter-size gas giants that circle stars bigger than our sun, a new study reports.

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The discoveries increase the number of known planets orbiting massive stars by 50 percent. The exoplanet bounty should also help astronomers better understand how giant planets form and grow in nascent alien solar systems, researchers said.

The haul comes just a few months after a different team of researchers announced the discovery of 50 newfound alien worlds, including one rocky planet that could be a good candidate for life. The list of known alien planets is now well over 700 and climbing fast.

The researchers surveyed about 300 stars using the Keck Observatory in Hawaii and instruments in Texas and Arizona. They focused on so-called "retired" type A stars that are at least 1.5 times more massive than our own sun.

These stars are just beyond the main stage of life ? hence the name "retired" ? and are now ballooning out to become what's known as subgiant stars.

The team scrutinized these stars, looking for slight wobbles caused by the gravitational tug of orbiting planets. This process revealed 18 new alien worlds, all of them with masses similar to Jupiter's. All 18 planets also orbit relatively far from their stars, at a distance of at least 0.7 times the span from Earth to the sun (about 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers). [Gallery: The Strangest Alien Planets]

Planet-formation theories

In addition to boosting the ever-growing alien planet tally, the new finds lend support to one of two theories that attempt to explain the formation and evolution of planets, researchers said.

This theory, called core accretion, posits that planets grow as gas and dust glom onto seed particles in a protoplanetary disk. Core accretion predicts that the characteristics of a planetary system ? the number and size of planets, for example ? depend strongly on the mass of the star.

The main competing theory, called gravitational collapse, holds that planets form when big clouds of gas and dust in the disk spontaneously collapse into clumps that become planets. According to this idea, stellar mass should have little impact on planet size, number and other characteristics.

As the exoplanet finds pile up, it seems that stellar mass does in fact play an important role. The 18 huge newfound alien worlds, which all orbit massive stars, add more evidence in support of core accretion, researchers said.

"It's nice to see all these converging lines of evidence pointing toward one class of formation mechanisms," study lead author John Johnson, of Caltech in Pasadena, said in a statement.

Johnson and his colleagues reported their results in the December issue of the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom?and on Facebook.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/WpKbC3UGRUo/Extrasolar-planet-18-new-huge-alien-planets-discovered

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Team of astronomers finds 18 new planets

Friday, December 2, 2011

Discoveries of new planets just keep coming and coming. Take, for instance, the 18 recently found by a team of astronomers led by scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

"It's the largest single announcement of planets aside from the discoveries made by the Kepler mission," says John Johnson, assistant professor of astronomy at Caltech and the first author on the team's paper, which was published in the December issue of The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. The Kepler mission is a space telescope that has so far identified more than 1,200 possible planets, though the majority of those have not yet been confirmed.

Using the Keck Observatory in Hawaii?with follow-up observations using the McDonald and Fairborn Observatories in Texas and Arizona, respectively?the researchers surveyed about 300 stars. They focused on those dubbed "retired" A-type stars that are more than one and a half times more massive than the sun. These stars are just past the main stage of their life?hence, "retired"?and are now puffing up into what's called a subgiant star.

To look for planets, the astronomers searched for stars of this type that wobble, which could be caused by the gravitational tug of an orbiting planet. By searching the wobbly stars' spectra for Doppler shifts?the lengthening and contracting of wavelengths due to motion away from and toward the observer?the team found 18 planets with masses similar to Jupiter's.

This new bounty marks a 50 percent increase in the number of known planets orbiting massive stars and, according to Johnson, provides an invaluable population of planetary systems for understanding how planets?and our own solar system?might form. The researchers say that the findings also lend further support to the theory that planets grow from seed particles that accumulate gas and dust in a disk surrounding a newborn star.

According to this theory, tiny particles start to clump together, eventually snowballing into a planet. If this is the true sequence of events, the characteristics of the resulting planetary system?such as the number and size of the planets, or their orbital shapes?will depend on the mass of the star. For instance, a more massive star would mean a bigger disk, which in turn would mean more material to produce a greater number of giant planets.

In another theory, planets form when large amounts of gas and dust in the disk spontaneously collapse into big, dense clumps that then become planets. But in this picture, it turns out that the mass of the star doesn't affect the kinds of planets that are produced.

So far, as the number of discovered planets has grown, astronomers are finding that stellar mass does seem to be important in determining the prevalence of giant planets. The newly discovered planets further support this pattern?and are therefore consistent with the first theory, the one stating that planets are born from seed particles.

"It's nice to see all these converging lines of evidence pointing toward one class of formation mechanisms," Johnson says.

There's another interesting twist, he adds: "Not only do we find Jupiter-like planets more frequently around massive stars, but we find them in wider orbits." If you took a sample of 18 planets around sunlike stars, he explains, half of them would orbit close to their stars. But in the cases of the new planets, all are farther away, at least 0.7 astronomical units from their stars. (One astronomical unit, or AU, is the distance from Earth to the sun.)

In systems with sunlike stars, gas giants like Jupiter acquire close orbits when they migrate toward their stars. According to theories of planet formation, gas giants could only have formed far from their stars, where it's cold enough for their constituent gases and ices to exist. So for gas giants to orbit nearer to their stars, certain gravitational interactions have to take place to pull these planets in. Then, some other mechanism?perhaps the star's magnetic field?has to kick in to stop them from spiraling into a fiery death.

The question, Johnson says, is why this doesn't seem to happen with so-called hot Jupiters orbiting massive stars, and whether that dearth is due to nature or nurture. In the nature explanation, Jupiter-like planets that orbit massive stars just wouldn't ever migrate inward. In the nurture interpretation, the planets would move in, but there would be nothing to prevent them from plunging into their stars. Or perhaps the stars evolve and swell up, consuming their planets. Which is the case? According to Johnson, subgiants like the A stars they were looking at in this paper simply don't expand enough to gobble up hot Jupiters. So unless A stars have some unique characteristic that would prevent them from stopping migrating planets?such as a lack of a magnetic field early in their lives?it looks like the nature explanation is the more plausible one.

The new batch of planets have yet another interesting pattern: their orbits are mainly circular, while planets around sunlike stars span a wide range of circular to elliptical paths. Johnson says he's now trying to find an explanation.

For Johnson, these discoveries have been a long time coming. This latest find, for instance, comes from an astronomical survey that he started while a graduate student; because these planets have wide orbits, they can take a couple of years to make a single revolution, meaning that it can also take quite a few years before their stars' periodic wobbles become apparent to an observer. Now, the discoveries are finally coming in. "I liken it to a garden?you plant the seeds and put a lot of work into it," he says. "Then, a decade in, your garden is big and flourishing. That's where I am right now. My garden is full of these big, bright, juicy tomatoes?these Jupiter-sized planets."

###

California Institute of Technology: http://www.caltech.edu

Thanks to California Institute of Technology for this article.

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Calif lawmakers give up taxpayer-financed vehicles (Providence Journal)

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The Engadget Show returns Tuesday, December 13th -- win a ticket to the taping!

A one horse open sleigh? Not quite, but we will be flying to Japan to check out a Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Tokyo Auto Show. We'll also be sitting down to discuss our top tech of the year and, as always, talking about the latest and greatest gadgets the month has to offer. So join us, won't you, for a fun-filled Engadget holiday spectacular on December 13th.

The Engadget Show is sponsored by Sprint and will take place in our intimate NYC studio, so if you want to get in, you'll need to win a ticket in advance. Sprint is also offering 60 guaranteed tickets to The Engadget Show taping to the first 60 entrants who text "ENGADGET" to 467467 or enter online! Standard text messaging rates apply. Click for the Official Rules and see how to enter online.

If you live outside of the tri-state area (NY, NJ, CT), you can enter online for a chance to win a trip for two to New York City to attend The Engadget Show. Standard text messaging rates apply. Click here to enter.

Here are the details if you win a ticket:

• The event is all ages.
• We'll open doors and begin seating at 5:15pm on December 13th, and the taping begins at 6:00PM. We'll be closing the doors at 5:50PM.
• Winners must pick confirm and print tickets 24 hours before taping begins or risk forfeiting their seat.
• Please bring a photo ID with you to the taping.
• The show length is around an hour.

If you're a member of the media who wishes to attend, please contact us at: engadgetshowmedia [at] engadget [dot] com, and we'll try to accommodate you. All other non-media questions can be sent to: engadgetshow [at] engadget [dot] com.

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The Engadget Show returns Tuesday, December 13th -- win a ticket to the taping! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Serbia, Kosovo agree on borders (AP)

BRUSSELS ? Kosovo and Serbia have agreed on normalizing border procedures, one of the thorniest issues in current talks between the two rivals.

An EU statement late Friday said, "The parties will gradually set up the joint, integrated, single and secure posts at all their common crossing points."

Kosovo broke away from Serb rule in 2008, but Belgrade never accepted its independence.

Progress in the EU-mediated talks is seen as a key condition for Serbia to be granted candidate status for EU membership. The EU is divided on whether to make Serbia a candidate, a key step toward eventual membership in the bloc.

Fifty NATO peacekeepers were recently wounded in clashes with Serb militants who oppose attempts to assert Kosovo's authority over border crossings with Serbia.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_on_re_eu/eu_serbia_kosovo

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Agents charge 20 in New Mexico meth ring bust (Reuters)

SANTA FE, New Mexico (Reuters) ? Federal authorities on Wednesday said they had broken up a methamphetamine trafficking ring that supplied large amounts of the illegal drug to towns in southeastern New Mexico.

U.S. Attorney Kenneth Gonzales and agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration said that a federal grand jury indicted 17 alleged members of the ring on narcotics charges and that three other members were separately charged in criminal complaints with methamphetamine trafficking.

"With these arrests, DEA and its federal, state, and local law enforcement partners have dismantled an organization responsible for supplying large quantities of methamphetamine to communities in southeastern New Mexico," DEA Special Agent in Charge Joseph M. Arabit said in a statement.

Of the 20, two suspects in the ring remain at large, officials said.

Officials said officers in Artesia, N.M., had seized approximately seven pounds of methamphetamine from a vehicle and $50,000 from a residence as part of the investigation.

U.S. Border Patrol agents also seized about nine pounds of the drug found hidden in a sack of horse feed in a horse trailer during an inspection at a checkpoint between El Paso, Tex., and Carlsbad, N.M. on August 25, they said.

The ring allegedly distributed the methamphetamine in the state from August through November 10.

(Reporting by Dennis J. Carroll. Editing by Peter Bohan)

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Martinez wins the 'Dancing' mirrorball (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Actor J. R. Martinez scored a come-from-behind victory over Rob Kardashian Tuesday to win the 13th edition of ABC's hit competition "Dancing With the Stars."

The Iraq war veteran hoisted the mirrorball trophy with his professional partner, Karina Smirnoff.

Host Tom Bergeron called Martinez an inspiration to the audience.

The all-male finale was set up halfway through the final show when talk show host Ricki Lake was voted off, finishing third. Judges' scores combined with viewer votes determined the winner.

Judges didn't provide much extra guidance during the final competition, a samba that the dancers had to perform with little preparation time. The three judges gave both teams perfect 30 scores for their final dances.

"For one of you, that was your victory dance, but I think both of you are winners," judge Carrie Ann Inaba said. "That was a great way to end this season."

Martinez came into Tuesday's episode tied with Lake for second place. He reprised his jive routine from week two, and though he made a few mistakes, judge Len Goodman said, "You've got such a sparkling personality, you just light up this room."

Their victory brings Smirnoff her first mirrorball in 10 seasons. On Monday, she said winning would be ""a perfect ending to a perfect story."

"With everything we went through ... it's like this mirrorball would justify everything," she said. "No matter what happens, I feel like it has been such a fulfilling experience overall. But the mirrorball trophy would make it that much better. It's the truth."

Tuesday's two-hour finale also included music from Lady Antebellum and appearances by this season's former contestants: TV personalities Nancy Grace and Carson Kressley, reality star Kristin Cavallari, actors David Arquette and Elisabetta Canalis, singer Chynna Phillips, activist Chaz Bono, basketball player Metta World Peace and soccer star Hope Solo.

Kressley performed a cheeky routine to Madonna's "Vogue" that included him taking a spin with one male dancer and being dipped by another. The openly gay contestant, paired with pro dancer Ana Trebunskaya, was a fan favorite this season and has returned several times since he was eliminated from the competition to consult on fashion and bring his sense of silliness to the show.

Phillips took advantage of a second opportunity to try a "Mission Impossible" routine that she had muffed the first time around, resulting in her elimination.

After being voted off partway through Tuesday's show, Lake said she loved every minute of her experience.

"I've done something I really didn't think I could do," said the talk show host, who lost a significant amount of weight during the competition. "For someone who's a middle aged mom, I hope I made my children proud, my fianc? and my family."

___

ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.

___

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APsandy.

___

Online:

http://abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars

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Ecologists Take the U.S.'s Environmental Pulse [Slide Show]

Features | Energy & Sustainability

A new nationwide project aims to monitor the environment of the U.S. and enable comparisons of large-scale problems and variables such as climate change, pollution and sprawl

By David Biello ?| November 21, 2011

ECOLOGICAL MONITORING: Sensors atop this tower in the Harvard Forest have provided the longest-term measure ever collected by scientists in the U.S. of the interactions between an ecosystem and the atmosphere. Image: Courtesy National Ecological Observatory Network

A new network of observatories aims to take ecological science to the continental scale in the next 30 years. The National Science Foundation?sponsored network, called the National Ecological Observatory Network, or NEON, will link 20 field stations selected to provide data from 20 distinct U.S. biomes as well as 40 portable stations that can be moved from site to site. NEON will monitor how large-scale problems such as climate change, pollution and urban sprawl affect ecosystems as diverse as the Great Lakes and Hawaii.

Construction needed to link all the stations will begin soon in the Mountain West and Northeast, including monitoring towers that will characterize each site. The full network should be in place and operational by 2016.

View a slide show of the different regions NEON will study.

In the near-term, sensors scattered in field and stream will begin to collect regional data in standardized ways that can then be compared nationwide. Readings will range from simple rain gauges to sophisticated measurements of air pollution levels. Samples will be taken of organisms ranging from microbes to ground beetles. And all measurements will be standardized to allow rigorous comparison of the effects of big environmental problems on different eco-regions. That is more ambitious and potentially more scientifically fruitful than the previous such foundation project?the Long Term Ecological Research Network begun in 1980?which largely answered specific questions about impacts in a specific region, albeit in a way that failed to allow comparisons with other sites.

Ultimately, NEON hopes to show how humans can maintain our quality of life on this planet by better understanding how ecosystems deliver vital services?clean water, air, pollination?and respond to our own impacts on these systems. In essence, NEON will light up the night of our own ecological ignorance.

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Coffee drinkers show lower uterine cancer risk: study (Reuters)

REUTERS ? Women who drink four or more cups of coffee a day may have a reduced risk of developing cancer in the lining of their uterus, according to a U.S. study.

Researchers who looked at more than 67,000 U.S. nurses found that women who drank that much coffee were one-quarter less likely to develop endometrial cancer than women who averaged less than a cup a day, said the study, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

The absolute risk that any one woman, coffee drinker or not, would develop the cancer was fairly small, with only 672 women -- or one percent of the study group -- being diagnosed with it over 26 years.

While researchers could also not say for certain that coffee was the reason for the lower risk among those who drank a lot of coffee, the study adds to several others with similar results.

Coffee itself may have some benefits, said senior researcher Edward Giovannucci, of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

"It can lower insulin levels and may lower levels of free oestrogen circulating in the body," he added.

Higher concentrations of insulin and higher lifetime exposure to oestrogen have both been linked to a higher risk of endometrial cancer.

Researchers looked at a number of other factors, such as differences in women's weight, since obesity is also linked to a higher risk of endometrial cancer, but that did not account for the lower cancer risk seen among coffee drinkers.

Nor did differences in women's childbirth history or hormone use, though birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy after menopause.

Of course, downing four cups of coffee a day may not be a good idea, especially for someone sensitive to the effects of caffeine. The researchers found that while caffeinated coffee was tied to a lower cancer risk, there was no statistically significant link with decaf -- though there was a "suggestive" trend in that direction.

In theory, adding sugar and cream to coffee could be bad for the waistline. With obesity also tied to a higher risk of the cancer, that could wipe out any potential benefit of coffee drinking.

"It would be premature to make a recommendation that women drink coffee to lower their endometrial cancer risk," Giovannucci said.

The bottom line, he said, is that people who are already enjoying their coffee can probably continue to do so - but the biggest preventative for the cancer is maintaining a healthy weight through diet and regular exercise.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/tFGByG

(Reporting from New York by Amy Norton at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111123/india_nm/india606790

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Hezbollah Captured American Spies by Tracking Cellphone Data With Commercially Available Software [Spies]

The latest story seeping out of the Middle East claims Hezbollah has recently tracked down, arrested and outed a significant, but undislosed, number of American spies working for the CIA. And their techniques for discovering the cloak and daggar operatives? Disconcertingly simple. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/B3ZlehLvLO0/hezbollah-captured-american-spies-by-tracking-cellphone-data-with-commercially-available-software

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