Margaret Thatcher in UK hospital after operation

 Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is recuperating at a hospital after an operation to remove a bladder growth, a friend said Friday.
The 87-year-old Thatcher went to see her doctor after experiencing some discomfort and subsequently had the growth removed, according to longtime adviser Tim Bell.
The operation was "completely satisfactory," Bell said. He said he couldn't go into detail as to the nature of the growth and declined to name the hospital, saying he did not want it to be inundated with calls.
Thatcher, Britain's first female prime minister, has been in fragile health since she suffered a series of small strokes more than a decade ago. Although she has occasionally appeared at private functions, she has not made public statements for some time.
Thatcher was not well enough to join Britain's queen for a lunch with former and serving prime ministers earlier this year, and two years ago she missed an 85th birthday party thrown for her by Prime Minister David Cameron at his official residence at No. 10 Downing Street. But in October she was well enough to mark her birthday with a lunch out in London with her son Mark and his wife.
Thatcher's declining health was a focus of Oscar-winning biopic "The Iron Lady," which premiered last year.
Thatcher served as prime minister from May 1979 until her resignation in November 1990. She was the first leader to win three consecutive elections, dominating British politics throughout the 1980s.
She was a firm supporter of her American ideological peer, President Ronald Reagan, but is a divisive figure in Britain, where the fruits of her legacy are still debated.

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Pope stresses family values as gay marriage gains

The pope pressed his opposition to gay marriage Friday, denouncing what he described as people eschewing their God-given gender identities to suit their sexual choices — and destroying the very "essence of the human creature" in the process.
Benedict XVI made the comments in his annual Christmas address to the Vatican bureaucracy, one of his most important speeches of the year. He dedicated it this year to promoting traditional family values in the face of gains by same-sex marriage proponents in the U.S. and Europe and efforts to legalize gay marriage in places like France and Britain.
In his remarks, Benedict quoted the chief rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim, in saying the campaign for granting gays the right to marry and adopt children was an "attack" on the traditional family made up of a father, mother and children.
"People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being," he said. "They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves."
"The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man's fundamental choice where he himself is concerned," he said.
It was the second time in a week that Benedict has taken on the question of gay marriage, which is currently dividing France, and which scored big electoral wins in the United States last month. In his recently released annual peace message, Benedict said gay marriage, like abortion and euthanasia, was a threat to world peace. The Vatican went on a similar anti-gay marriage media blitz last month after three U.S. states approved gay marriage by popular vote.
After the peace message was released last week, gay activists staged a small protest in St. Peter's Square. On Friday, gay activists sharply criticized the pope's take on gender theory and insisted that where gay marriage has been legalized, families are no worse off.
Italy's main gay rights group Arcigay called the pope's comments "absurd, dangerous and totally out of synch with reality." And a coalition of four U.S. Catholic organizations representing gay, lesbian and transgender people said the pope had an "outmoded" view of what it means to be man and woman.
"Increasingly Catholics in the United States and around the world see what we see. Catholics, following their own well-formed consciences, are voting to support equal rights for LGBT people because in their churches and communities they see a far healthier, godly and realistic vision of the human family than the one offered by the pope," according to a statement from the groups Call To Action, DignityUSA, Fortunate Families, and New Ways Ministry.
Church teaching holds that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered," though it stresses that gays should be treated with compassion and dignity. As pope and as head of the Vatican's orthodoxy watchdog before that, Benedict has been a strong enforcer of that teaching: One of the first major documents released during his pontificate said men with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies shouldn't be ordained priests.
For the Vatican, though, the gay marriage issue goes beyond questions of homosexuality, threatening what the church considers to be the bedrock of society: a family based on a man, woman and their children.
In his speech, the pope cited Bernheim as lamenting how a new philosophy of sexuality has taken hold, whereby sex and gender are "no longer a given element of nature that man has to accept and personally make sense of: it is a social role that we choose for ourselves, while in the past it was chosen for us by society."
He said God had created man and woman as a specific "duality" — "an essential aspect of what being human is all about."
Now, though, "Man and woman as created realities, as the nature of the human being, no longer exist. Man calls his own nature into question. From now on he is merely spirit and will."
The Vatican's opposition to gay marriage has been falling largely on deaf ears. In addition to the U.S. election gains, the Constitutional Court in largely Roman Catholic Spain upheld the law legalizing gay marriage last month. Earlier this month, the British government announced it will introduce a bill next year legalizing gay marriage, though it would ban the Church of England from conducting same-sex ceremonies.
In France, President Francois Hollande has said he would enact his "marriage for everyone" plan within a year of taking office last May. The text will go to parliament next month. But the country has been divided by vocal opposition from religious leaders, prime among them Bernheim, as well as some politicians and parts of rural France.
The Socialist government's plan also envisions legalizing same-sex adoptions. Benedict quoted Bernheim as denouncing the plan, saying that it would mean a child would essentially be considered an object people have a right to obtain.
"When freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God," Benedict said.

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Pardon for pope's butler who stole papers expected

 The Vatican has summoned journalists for a briefing on what Italian news reports say is an expected pardon for Pope Benedict XVI'S former butler, who stole the pontiff's personal papers and leaked them in a bid to expose the "evil and corruption" in the Catholic Church.
Paolo Gabriele was arrested May 23 after Vatican police found heaps of papal documents in his Vatican City apartment. He was convicted of aggravated theft by a Vatican tribunal on Oct. 6 and has been serving his 18-month sentence in the Vatican police barracks.
The Vatican has made no secret that the pope would pardon Gabriele. The only question was when. A pre-Christmas pardon was widely expected.
Veteran Vatican journalists reported the announcement would come Saturday, and the Vatican press office scheduled a last-minute briefing.

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Russia: Syrian chemical weapons under control

 Russia's foreign minister says the Syrian government has consolidated its chemical weapons in one or two locations amid a rebel onslaught.
Sergey Lavrov says Russia, which has military advisers training Syria's military, has kept close watch over its chemical arsenal. He says the Syrian government has moved them from many arsenals to just "one or two centers" to properly safeguard them.
U.S. intelligence says the regime may be readying chemical weapons and could be desperate enough to use them. Both Israel and the U.S. have also expressed concerns they could fall into militant hands if the regime crumbles.
Lavrov also told reporters on a flight from an EU summit late Friday that countries in the region had asked Russia to convey an offer of safe passage to President Bashar Assad.

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Margaret Thatcher in hospital after operation

 Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the country's first woman elective leader, is in hospital recovering from surgery to remove a growth on her bladder, a source close to the family said on Friday.
After experiencing pain in her bladder earlier in the week, he 87-year-old went to hospital where she underwent a minimally invasive operation, Tim Bell, a public relations executive who once served as image maker to Thatcher, said.
"The operation was completely satisfactory. She's now recovering in hospital and as soon as she's recovered she'll go home," Bell said.
Known as the "Iron Lady," Thatcher, who stepped down in 1990, embraced free market policies, challenged trade unions and privatised many state-owned companies during her 11 years in power, polarising British voters.
Britain's only woman prime minister, who led her country in a war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands in 1982 and was close to the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan, was forced to step down by her own party.
Thatcher suffered a series of mild strokes in late 2001 and 2002, after which she cut back on public appearances and later cancelled her speaking schedule.
She was hospitalised in 2010 for tests relating to a flu illness.

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British retailers start online sales early

 British retailers have brought forward their Christmas clearance sales online in the hope that shoppers will log on to buy bargains and offset lackluster spending in stores.
Marks & Spencer launched its sale online at midday on Monday, it said on its website, while department store John Lewis said it would cut online prices when its stores close at 1700 GMT. Debenhams has already started its online sale.
Retailers in recent years have started sales online on Christmas Day, ahead of the clearances in stores from Boxing Day, but are increasingly launching their online offers before Christmas after delivery deadlines for the day have passed.
Hard-pressed shoppers have been leaving it later to buy presents in the hope that retailers would slash prices, the British Retail Consortium said.
It was forecasting that 5 billion pounds ($8.1 billion) would be spent in the shops on Saturday and Sunday combined, the last weekend before Christmas.
Richard Dodd, the BRC's head of Media and Campaigns, said weekend trading had met expectations.
"Christmas, ultimately once all the final sums are done, will turn out to be acceptable but not exceptional," he said.
He said the sector expected a modest increase in cash spending against a year go, but not necessarily any significant increase in real terms once inflation was stripped out.
Many British families' budgets are stretched, according to a survey from Markit that showed the biggest deterioration in household finances for seven months.
Analyst Howard Archer at IHS Global Insight said the weakening in household finances could not come at a worse time for retailers, and it highlighted why many people appeared to have been careful in their Christmas shopping this year.
"The suspicion has to be that consumers will be especially keen to take advantage of genuine major bargains in the sales to acquire items that they cannot otherwise afford or are reluctant to make at the moment," he said.
"However, we suspect that people will likely to be more careful in buying - or reluctant to buy - items that they don't really want or need in the sales."

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China may require real name registration for internet access

BEIJING (Reuters) - China may require internet users to register with their real names when signing up to network providers, state media said on Tuesday, extending a policy already in force with microblogs in a bid to curb what officials call rumors and vulgarity.
A law being discussed this week would mean people would have to present their government-issued identity cards when signing contracts for fixed line and mobile internet access, state-run newspapers said.
"The law should escort the development of the internet to protect people's interest," Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily said in a front page commentary, echoing similar calls carried in state media over the past week.
"Only that way can our internet be healthier, more cultured and safer."
Many users say the restrictions are clearly aimed at further muzzling the often scathing, raucous - and perhaps most significantly, anonymous - online chatter in a country where the Internet offers a rare opportunity for open debate.
It could also prevent people from exposing corruption online if they fear retribution from officials, said some users.
It was unclear how the rules would be different from existing regulations as state media has provided only vague details and in practice customers have long had to present identity papers when signing contracts with internet providers.
Earlier this year, the government began forcing users of Sina Corp's wildly successful Weibo microblogging platform to register their real names.
The government says such a system is needed to prevent people making malicious and anonymous accusations online and that many other countries already have such rules.
"It would also be the biggest step backwards since 1989," wrote one indignant Weibo user, in apparent reference to the 1989 pro-democracy protests bloodily suppressed by the army.
Chinese internet users have long had to cope with extensive censorship, especially over politically sensitive topics like human rights, and popular foreign sites Facebook, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube are blocked.
Despite periodic calls for political reform, the ruling Communist Party has shown no sign of loosening its grip on power and brooks no dissent to its authority.

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Tajikistan blocks scores of websites as election looms

 Tajikistan blocked access to more than 100 websites on Tuesday, in what a government source said was a dress rehearsal for a crackdown on online dissent before next year's election when President Imomali Rakhmon will again run for office.
Rakhmon, a 60-year-old former head of a Soviet cotton farm, has ruled the impoverished Central Asian nation of 7.5 million for 20 years. He has overseen constitutional amendments that allow him to seek a new seven-year term in November 2013.
The Internet remains the main platform where Tajiks can air grievances and criticize government policies at a time when the circulation of local newspapers is tiny and television is tightly controlled by the state.
Tajikistan's state communications service blocked 131 local and foreign Internet sites "for technical and maintenance works".
"Most probably, these works will be over in a week," Tatyana Kholmurodova, deputy head of the service, told Reuters. She declined to give the reason for the work, which cover even some sites with servers located abroad.
The blocked resources included Russia's popular social networking sites www.my.mail.ru and VKontakte (www.vk.com), as well as Tajik news site TJKnews.com and several local blogs.
"The government has ordered the communications service to test their ability to block dozens of sites at once, should such a need arise," a senior government official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
"It is all about November 2013," he said, in a clear reference to the presidential election.
Other blocked websites included a Ukrainian soccer site, a Tajik rap music site, several local video-sharing sites and a pornography site.
VOLATILE NATION
Predominantly Muslim Tajikistan, which lies on a major transit route for Afghan drugs to Europe and Russia, remains volatile after a 1992-97 civil war in which Rakhmon's Moscow-backed secular government clashed with Islamist guerrillas.
Rakhmon justifies his authoritarian methods by saying he wants to oppose radical Islam. But some of his critics argue repression and poverty push many young Tajiks to embrace it.
Tighter Internet controls echo measures taken by other former Soviet republics of Central Asia, where authoritarian rulers are wary of the role social media played in revolutions in the Arab world and mass protests in Russia.
The government this year set up a volunteer-run body to monitor Internet use and reprimand those who openly criticize Rakhmon and other officials.
In November, Tajikistan blocked access to Facebook, saying it was spreading "mud and slander" about its veteran leader.
The authorities unblocked Facebook after concern was expressed by the United States and European Union, the main providers of humanitarian aid for Tajikistan, where almost a half of the population lives in abject poverty.
Asomiddin Asoyev, head of Tajikistan's association of Internet providers, said authorities were trying to create an illusion that there were no problems in Tajik society by silencing online criticism.
"This is self-deception," he told Reuters. "The best way of resolving a problem is its open discussion with civil society."
Moscow-based Central Asia expert Arkady Dubnov told Reuters that Rakhmon's authoritarian measures could lead to a backlash against the president in the election. "Trying to position itself as the main guarantor of stability through repression against Islamist activists, the Dushanbe government is actually achieving the reverse - people's trust in it is falling," he said.

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Netflix suffers Christmas Eve outage, points to Amazon

An outage at one of Amazon's web service centers hit users of Netflix Inc.'s streaming video service on Christmas Eve and was not fully resolved until Christmas day, a spokesman for the movie rental company said on Tuesday.
The outage impacted Netflix subscribers across Canada, Latin America and the United States, and affected various devices that enable users to stream movies and television shows from home, Netflix spokesman Joris Evers said. Such devices range from gaming consoles such as Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 to Blu-ray players.
Evers said that the issue was the result of an outage at an Amazon Web Services' cloud computing center in Virginia, and started at about 12:30 p.m. PST (2030 GMT) on Monday and was fully restored Tuesday morning, although streaming was available for most users late on Monday.
"We are investigating exactly what happened and how it could have been prevented," Evers said.
"We are happy that people opening gifts of Netflix or Netflix capable devices can watch TV shows and movies and apologize for any inconvenience caused last night," he added.
An outage at Amazon Web Services, or AWS, knocked out such sites as Reddit and Foursquare in April of last year.
Amazon Web Services was not immediately available for comment. Evers, the Netflix spokesman, declined to comment on the company's contracts with Amazon.

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Netflix blames Amazon for Christmas Eve outage

 An outage at one of Amazon's web service centers hit users of Netflix Inc's streaming video service on Christmas Eve and was not fully resolved until Christmas Day, a spokesman for the movie rental company said on Tuesday.
The outage impacted Netflix subscribers across Canada, Latin America and the United States, and affected various devices that enable users to stream movies and television shows from home, Netflix spokesman Joris Evers said. Such devices range from gaming consoles like the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 to Blu-ray DVD players.
Netflix, which is based in Los Gatos, California, has 30 million streaming subscribers worldwide, of which more than 27 million are in the Americas region that was exposed to the outage and could have potentially been affected, Evers said.
Evers said the issue was the result of an outage at an Amazon Web Services' cloud computing center in Virginia and started at about 12:30 p.m. PST (2030 GMT) on Monday and was fully restored before 8:00 a.m. PST Tuesday morning, although streaming was available for most users by 11:00 p.m. PST on Monday.
The event marks the latest in a series of outages from Amazon Web Services, with one occurring in April of last year that knocked out such sites as Reddit and Foursquare.
"We are investigating exactly what happened and how it could have been prevented," Evers of Netflix said.
"We are happy that people opening gifts of Netflix or Netflix capable devices can watch TV shows and movies and apologize for any inconvenience caused last night," he added.
Officials at Amazon Web Services were not available for comment. Evers, the Netflix spokesman, declined to comment on the company's contracts with Amazon.

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Census: US population growth rising slowly

After two centuries of boom and bust, America's population growth may finally be leveling off.
In all, the U.S. population is now increasing a bit faster, thanks to an improving economy, but not enough to lift growth above its lowest level since the Great Depression.
The nation is getting older and is less likely than before to be married, with women waiting longer to have children, if at all. Immigration from other countries is on an upswing after years of sharp declines during the recession but may never return to the peak level it reached in the early 2000s.
New 2012 estimates released Thursday by the Census Bureau offer the latest snapshot of the U.S. population, showing signs of revival and change in pockets of the U.S., especially in Sun Belt states hard hit during the recent recession.
"After decades of wars, a depression, immigration surges, baby booms, boomlets and busts, we are entering a new era of modest growth," said William H. Frey, a demographer at Brookings Institution who analyzed the numbers. "This is a result of our aging population, lower fertility rates and immigration levels that will probably not produce sharp population spikes."
As a whole, the U.S. population grew by 2.3 million, reaching 313.9 million people. That growth rate of 0.75 percent was higher than the 0.73 percent rate in 2011, ending five years of slowing growth rates. Nevertheless, the rate of growth remains stuck at historically low levels not seen since 1937, restrained by reduced childbirths.
Over the last year, the economy has shown improvement, with the unemployment rate declining modestly and U.S. migration edging up after hitting a record low in 2011. As a result, states including Texas, North Dakota, Colorado, Oregon and Virginia posted population growth increases as many young adults moved out from their parents' homes, seeking to test the job market in areas with thriving economies in energy or technology.
Still, the nation continues to get older, due to aging baby boomers and fewer people in their child-bearing years. Newly released census projections now show that U.S. growth may have largely peaked, barring a significant and sustained increase in new immigrants. The numbers put U.S. growth in the next year or two at just under 0.8 percent, before flattening and gradually falling to rates of about half a percent, a level unseen in more than a century.
U.S. growth reached a high in 1950 of more than 2 percent, lifted by the post-World War II baby boom.
Immigration to the U.S. was on the uptick in 2012 after falling significantly during the downturn, although it remained far from the level seen during the mid-2000 housing boom. Congress is expected to debate an overhaul of immigration law next year.
"We will now need to cope with population challenges that past growth has left us — notably, the needs of a large aging baby boom population which will require resources for its medical care, and the social and economic integration of first- and second-generation immigrants," Frey said.
The Census Bureau released state population estimates as of July 1, 2012. The data show annual changes through births, deaths, and domestic and foreign migration.
The data suggest that the impact of the recession on formerly fast-growing Sun Belt states may be waning. Nevada had more residents move into the state this year after suffering migration losses in previous years. Arizona and Florida, two other housing boom-and-bust states, also showed renewed migration gains after seeing their growth drop off sharply at the end of the last decade.
In all, 26 states grew faster this year compared to the previous year, of which 19 are in the South and West region.
"These gains remain far smaller than those each state experienced during the economic boom, but reflect considerable improvement over the situation at the depths of the recession," said Kenneth Johnson, a sociologist and senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire, referring specifically to Arizona, Nevada and Florida.
In contrast, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey saw more residents move away compared to the previous year.
North Dakota grew faster than any state in the nation, climbing by 2.2 percent from July 2011 to July of this year. The District of Columbia was next-fastest growing, followed by Texas, Wyoming and Utah.
Two states lost population: Rhode Island and Vermont.
Kimball Brace, president of Election Data Services, said if the 2010 census had been held this year, Minnesota would have lost a seat in the House of Representatives and North Carolina would have picked up one due to the shifting population figures. Based on continuing losses, Rhode Island is now on track to lose one of its two seats with just 33,000 people to spare — potentially to the gain of Oregon, which is about 59,000 people away from gaining a sixth seat.
California remained the most populous state, followed by Texas, New York, Florida and Illinois.

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Woman sentenced to 1 year for export violations

A judge has sentenced a woman to one year in prison for conspiring to ship material to Pakistan for a nuclear reactor.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan on Thursday also ordered Xun Wang to pay a $100,000 fine and perform 500 hours of community service.
Wang, a former managing director of PPG Paints Trading Co. of Shanghai, admitted helping send three shipments of high-performance epoxy coatings from the U.S. to Pakistan through China without the required export license.
She pleaded guilty in November 2011. As part of the plea, Wang agreed to cooperate with the government's investigation.
The Justice Department says her cooperation led to this month's guilty plea by the China Nuclear Industry Huaxing (Wa-ZING) Construction Co. for conspiring to violate nuclear export restrictions on Pakistan.

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Assange addresses supporters at Ecuadorean Embassy

 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange emerged for a rare public address Thursday, praising jailed U.S. soldier Bradley Manning in an address delivered from the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.
Addressing supporters on a cold and wet English evening, the 41-year-old Australian looked fit and healthy despite half a year spent in trapped inside the small apartment he shares with Ecuador's diplomatic staff.
He gave no hint that he would end the standoff, which has seen him spend six months as a fugitive from European justice, saying he was holed up at the embassy for fear of the U.S. investigation into his activities.
"While this immoral investigation continues, and while the Australian government will not defend the journalism and publishing of WikiLeaks, I must remain here," he said.
While the U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation into WikiLeaks' spectacular disclosures of U.S. secrets, Assange is currently wanted by police over allegations of sexual assault stemming from a trip to Sweden in mid-2010.
Many WikiLeaks supporters have suggested that the allegations are a ploy to extradite Assange, first to Sweden and then to the U.S. The Swedish government and Assange's alleged victims deny it, saying they are simply seeking justice.
Assange's address name-checked a series of jailed figures, including Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab and alleged Anonymous hacker Jeremy Hammond. But the biggest cheers came when he praised Bradley Manning, the alleged source of WikiLeaks' most earth-shaking revelations.
He said the 25-year-old "has maintained his dignity after spending more than 10 percent of his life in jail, some of that time in a cage, naked and without his glasses."
Manning, who was arrested in 2010, currently faces trial on 22 charges, including aiding the enemy. Testimony in pre-trial hearings has recently focused on the conditions under which he was detained — including times at which he was forced to strip naked and at least one incident in which he says he was made to stand at attention while nude.

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Judge allows evidence against man in GPS case

A federal judge is allowing prosecutors to use evidence in a drug conspiracy conviction that had been overturned because police used a global positioning system without a warrant.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle in Washington said in a ruling Thursday that Antoine Jones had not established that police would not have discovered the house in Fort Washington, Md., allegedly used to stash money and drugs but for the GPS. She ruled that, "to the contrary," police had identified the property as a likely "stash house" before the GPS was attached to his car.
In 2010, an appeals court reversed Jones' conviction because police used the GPS to track him. The Supreme Court affirmed, agreeing to bar police from installing GPS technology to track suspects without getting a judge's approval.

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Groups urge probe of $12 million mystery donation

Two election watchdog organizations on Thursday urged the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission to investigate more than $12 million in campaign contributions that were mysteriously funneled through two little-known companies in Tennessee to a prominent tea party group. The origin of the money, the largest anonymous political donations in a campaign year filled with them, remains a secret.
The watchdog groups said routing the $12 million through the Tennessee companies appeared to violate a U.S. law prohibiting the practice of laundering campaign contributions in the name of another person. They also said the lawyer in Tennessee who registered the companies, William S. Rose Jr. of Knoxville, may have violated three other laws by failing to organize each company as a political committee, register them as political committees and file financial statements for them with the government.
Rose did not return a telephone message, text message and email from The Associated Press and could not otherwise be reached immediately for comment. He previously told AP that his business was a "family secret" and he was not obligated to disclose the origin of the $12 million routed through Specialty Investments Group Inc. and Kingston Pike Development Corp. Business records indicate that Rose registered Kingston Pike one day after he created Specialty Group, in the final weeks before Election Day. Rose previously complained that phone calls and emails from reporters were irritating.
The watchdog organizations, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21, said a criminal investigation by the Justice Department was necessary "because the integrity of U.S. elections depends on the effective enforcement of the nation's campaign finance laws." They noted that, although the FEC traditionally enforces campaign finance laws and imposes civil fines for violations, the Justice Department can conduct criminal investigations of "knowing and willful" violations under the 1971 Federal Election Campaign Act. Violations could carry up to five years in prison. The groups separately urged the FEC to investigate.
The contributions "raise serious questions about whether this was an illegal scheme to launder money into the 2012 elections and hide from the public the true identity of the sources of the money," said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21. He said no one should be permitted to "launder huge, secret contributions through corporate shells into federal elections."
The money went to the tea party's most prominent "super" political committee, FreedomWorks for America, which spent it on high-profile congressional races. The $12 million accounted for most of the $20 million the group raised this year. A spokeswoman for the FreedomWorks organization, Jackie Bodnar, did not return a telephone message left with her. FreedomWorks has previously declined to identify who was behind the donations to its super PAC or discuss them further.
The contributions represent a glaring example of the murkiness surrounding who is giving money to politicians in modern elections, shaped by new federal rules allowing unlimited and anonymous donations. The law has allowed wealthy executives, corporations and other organizations to establish shell companies and mail drops to disguise the source of the money they give to political groups and politicians. But the mysterious donations linked to Rose by far eclipse any suspicious money sent to support the campaigns of President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney.
More than half the $12 million in contributions was routed through Rose's companies in the final days before the election even as the AP and Knoxville News Sentinel were jointly investigating $5.2 million in suspicious donations traced to one of the companies during October. That company, Specialty Group Inc., filed incorporation papers in September less than one week before it gave FreedomWorks several contributions worth between $125,000 and $1.5 million each. Specialty Group appeared to have no website describing its products or services. It was registered to a suburban Knoxville home.
Rose subsequently renamed the company Specialty Investments Group Inc. That firm and Kingston Pike Development Corp. — which Rose also registered and owns — were used to steer $6.8 million more in contributions to FreedomWorks. Among other amounts, FreedomWorks spent more than $1.8 million of the money on Connie Mack's unsuccessful Senate campaign in Florida and a similar amount opposing Tammy Duckworth, who was elected to Congress in Illinois.
Under U.S. law, corporations can give unlimited sums of money to outside groups supporting candidates, but not if their sole purpose is to make campaign contributions.
"These companies appear to have been created to hide the identities of one or more donors that pumped millions of dollars into a super PAC anonymously in the final weeks before an election," said the senior counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, Paul S. Ryan. He said such contributions could allow foreign governments, companies or citizens — all of whom are prohibited from donating to U.S. politicians — to launder money into American elections using similar practices.
Rose said in a statement last month that he formed Specialty Group to buy, sell, develop and invest in a variety of real estate ventures and investments. He declined interview requests from the AP over three weeks and complained in his statement that reporters had contacted his ex-wife and business colleagues. He also disputed any characterization that his company was "shadowy."
"The business of Specialty Group is my family secret, a secret that will be kept — as allowed by applicable law — for at least another 50 years," Rose said in his statement.

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The Case of the 2 Billion Missing Youtube Views

Youtube released its view counts earlier this week for its biggest channels, and people who watch these things noticed that some major record companies had their numbers drop by a whopping 2 billion views. So, where the heck did they all go?
RELATED: Major Record Labels Are Suing a YouTube Downloading Site
The Daily Dot reports Universal was the biggest loser in the case of the missing views. Their channel lost about about a billion views in comparison to where their numbers were before the recount. Sony/BMG lost 850 million, with RCA accounting for the rest. A lot of people were theorizing that Youtube caught them juicing their view counts -- doing something unseemly to make themselves look more popular than they are. The real answer is much more boring. And has nothing to do with Gangnam.
RELATED: Beware the Fake YouTube Site That's Sabotaging Syria's Uprising
Billboard's Alex Pham reports the reason the views disappeared, mostly, is because of Vevo. "The company recently decided to remove view counts for videos that are no longer live on the channel, or so-called 'dead videos,'" Pham explains. "For Universal and Sony, that meant thousands of music videos that over the past three years slowly have migrated to the VEVO channel, which is jointly owned by the two companies." Vevo is the music video-specific channel on Youtube started in conjunction with the record companies back in 2009. So, because all the music videos the companies used to host on Youtube are now under the Vevo umbrella, their views don't count anymore. They happened, sure. They just count somewhere else now.

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Developing Minds Want to Know: Q&A with Quinton Alsbury of Roambi

Roambi provides polished business analytics tools and financial expertise to a wide range of companies. Through Roambi Analytics and Roambi Flow, their unparalleled services also available on iPhone and iPad, they make it a cinch for clients to monitor important business statistics.

Quinton Alsbury, co-founder and president of Product Innovation at Roambi, shared his thoughts on inspiration, innovation, and the misconception that apps are exclusively microware. He also provided a short history of his company, the services they offer, and dishes out advice for aspiring app developers.

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Key Company Facts

Name and Title: Quinton Alsbury, co-founder and president of Product Innovation

Company: Roambi

Location: San Diego, CA

Size (Revenue and/or Employees): 150 Full-time employees

Primary Apps/Platforms: Roambi Analytics, Roambi Flow (both iOS Only)

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APPOLICIOUS: What inspired you to become an app creator?

Quinton Alsbury: When the first iPhone came out it was obvious to us that a tectonic shift in computing and software was about to occur. With a completely different screen size, and interface paradigm, along with a huge leap in hardware specs from other "smart phones" on the market, we believed that traditional software would have to be completely rethought, redesigned, and reinvented. Having come from an enterprise software background, we decided to try and reinvent the category for the new world.

APPO: How long have you been developing apps, and what is the most significant difference between now and when you began?

QA: We formed our company in November 2007, five months before Apple announced the native SDK. We felt so strongly that the path forward would be to open the platform to true native software development that we took a huge gamble at the time and started hiring hackers to open up iOS so we could experiment with bringing some of our ideas to life. The biggest difference was the evolution of the platform, in contrast to those early days when it was purely experimental.

APPO: What apps (outside of those that you develop) inspire you the most and why? Where do you see the most innovation in the app sector?

QA: Since we are in the enterprise world, the biggest inspiration has been to look to the world of consumer applications as a model for how a mobile business app should look, feel, perform, and engage. One of the biggest shifts in application development from the traditional PC world to mobile is the counterintuitive concept (especially to enterprise software) of simplifying functionality. We are also focusing on building highly engaging user experiences that lead to recurring usage of business-related tools on the phone, instead of just waiting to get to a desk, hotel room, office, etc.

APPO: How do you harness that innovation in your own titles?

QA: We use all of the above from the ground up. We milk every ounce of functionality we can out of the hardware and software innovations coming out of Apple. These devices are far too powerful to be considered a dumb terminal to a server. They are becoming the primary device for millions and your product needs to respect that.

APPO: In such a crowded space, explain how you generate awareness and drive downloads to your applications.

QA: In many ways I like to equate the App Store to the iTunes music store. Marketing, PR, and promotional activities are an important component of any awareness strategy, but I believe at the end of the day, the quality of the experience is the critical success factor. The habit-forming usage of mobile devices breeds a highly viral environment where people that love an app will continuously use it, show and share it with peers, friends, and family. If you build something special, and get it into people’s hands, they become the best advocates for your app.

APPO: What are the biggest technical constraints that exist today in the app sector? How do you (or will you) make money from your application?

QA: As the hardware continues to increase in processing power and other hardware specs, we’re seeing that constraints are becoming abstracted. You truly are only limited by your imagination! If you approach mobile as a checkbox for an existing PC application, or a cheap marketing utility, you will never fully realize all opportunities it presents. Every couple of decades we see a huge leap in technology that forces the development world to change: the first was the PC, then the web, and now mobile. To fully take advantage you must embrace the nuances and the opportunity of the new technology.

We monetize our application by selling a backend server that is used by companies to extract data from their major data warehouses and business intelligence tools.

APPO: What advice do you have to those working on their first applications?

QA: Design your product. That means going beyond the UI, all the way to the architecture that in the end drives how your app looks, feels, moves, and performs. The margin for adoption in mobile is razor thin. Most people don't need mobile apps, but they download, buy, and use applications that give them an amazing experience and provide an invaluable service. They'll delete it from their phones, or abandon it to the back page and never open it again, literally within minutes of using it. Apps are like singles in music, they are the equivalent of the perfect three-minute song.

APPO: Where do you see the app sector one year from now? Five years from now?

QA: It will be interesting to see how the evolution of HTML5 begins to affect how people perceive apps both from the developer side and the consumer side. Will there be backlash against a unique app for every individual task, service, or destination? It looks to me like the app concept, instead of morphing back into the traditional PC model, is actually beginning to permeate back into PCs as OSX begins to look more and more like iOS, with the same being true for Windows 8. I can see a day where developing "apps" isn’t a term that’s specific to a small piece of a microware especially made for mobile devices.

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Top 10 Twitter Pics of the Week

1. R.I.P.
A "Rest in Peace" picture dedicated to the 26 victims of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. on Friday, Dec. 14. - Tweets_Below Photo stats: 10,917 retweets
Click here to view this gallery.
[More from Mashable: Psy and Bieber Face Off as ‘Gangnam Style’ Hits a Billion Views]
Barack Obama, Justin Bieber and the Newtown tragedy are among the topics covered in this week's edition of top Twitter pics.
Photo-organizer Skylines sorted through 32,980,627 unique images from the past week, and compiled the most-shared and retweeted on the microblogging site. Click through the gallery, above, to see the top 10.

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Mark Zuckerberg Put Some Very Personal (and Creepy) Touches on the Poke App

Mark Zuckerberg usually leaves the coding to the plebes. He's a CEO now, b- you know the rest. Anyway, he's CEO now. But it turns out he put some very personal touches on Facebook's new Poke app, his company's answer to Snapchat.
RELATED: How Many More Banks Does Facebook Need for Its IPO?
TechCrunch reports the CEO came down from his throne to actually code some of Poke himself. "Poking," as originally included in Facebook 1.0, was a Zuckerberg original idea. Facebook tried to buy Snapchat but were rebuffed, so Zuck decided to do it himself. The app was thrown together in less than two weeks. This is what they decided on for a sound alert:
RELATED: Mark Zuckerberg: Super Hero?
RELATED: The Big Reason for Facebook's Fizzled IPO: Advertising Pains
Which is, according to TechCrunch, Zuckerberg's actual voice. He recorded it on his phone and the whole team thought it was hilarious, ran it through some filters, and put it in the app.

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Boeing engineers use spuds to improve in-air Wi-Fi

If the wireless Internet connection during your holiday flight seems more reliable than it used to, you could have the humble potato to thank.
While major airlines offer in-flight Wi-Fi on many flights, the signal strength can be spotty. Airlines and aircraft makers have been striving to improve this with the growing use of wireless devices and the number of people who don't want to be disconnected, even 35,000 feet up.
Engineers at Chicago-based Boeing Co. used sacks of potatoes as stand-ins for passengers as they worked to eliminate weak spots in in-flight wireless signals. They needed full planes to get accurate results during signal testing, but they couldn't ask people to sit motionless for days while data was gathered.
"That's where potatoes come into the picture," Boeing spokesman Adam Tischler said.
It turns out that potatoes — because of their water content and chemistry — absorb and reflect radio wave signals much the same way as the human body does, making them suitable substitutes for airline passengers.
"It's a testament to the ingenuity of these engineers. They didn't go in with potatoes as the plan," Tischler said.
Recapping the serendipitous path that led to better onboard wireless, Tischler said a member of the research team stumbled across an article in the Journal of Food Science describing research in which 15 vegetables and fruits were evaluated for their dielectric properties, or the way they transmit electric force without conduction.
Its conclusions led the Boeing researchers to wonder if potatoes might serve just as well as humans during their own signal testing. Despite some skepticism, they ended up buying 20,000 pounds of them.
Video and photos of the work, which started in 2006, show a decommissioned airplane loaded with row upon row of potato sacks that look like large, lumpy passengers. The sacks sit eerily still in the seats as the engineers collect data on the strength of wireless signals in various spots.
The Boeing engineers added some complicated statistical analysis and the result was a proprietary system for fine tuning Internet signals so they would be strong and reliable wherever a laptop was used on a plane.
Boeing says the system also ensures Wi-Fi signals won't interfere with the plane's sensitive navigation and communications equipment.
"From a safety standpoint, you want to know what the peak signals are, what's the strongest signal one of our communications and navigation systems might see from a laptop or 150 laptops or 350 laptops," Boeing engineer Dennis Lewis explains in a video.
In a nod to the humor in using a tuber to solve a high-tech problem, researchers dubbed the project Synthetic Personnel Using Dialectic Substitution, or SPUDS.
The company says better Wi-Fi signals can be found already on three Boeing aircraft models flown by major airlines: 777, 747-8 and the 787 Dreamliner.

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Ofwat backs down on water licence changes

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's water regulator Ofwat backed down over controversial changes to make water company licences more flexible after the firms affected rejected the original proposals.
Ofwat, which oversees Britain's water and sewage operators, is trying to change licences to increase the flexibility it has over controlling water prices, but on Friday compromised on some of those changes.
Pennon Group and United Utilities Group both welcomed the move which means that any future amendments to licenses will have to go through a separate process.
"It's a compromise by Ofwat and its going to be received very positively by the markets," said Dominic Nash from Liberum Capital, who has a "buy" rating on United Utilities and Pennon.
Shares in British water companies gained and were amongst the top risers in Britain's bluechip index. Severn Trent was up 1.4 percent, United Utilities was up 1.4 percent and Pennon rose 0.6 percent in mid-morning trading.
The UK water sector has fallen 10 to 20 percent since the October announcement, according to Nash.
In a bid to increase efficiency and transparency at Britain's water companies, Ofwat gave water companies four weeks in October to accept proposals to make price-setting more flexible or be referred to competition authorities.
The majority of firms, 16 out of 25 written responses received by Ofwat, rejected the idea, saying that it created unnecessary uncertainty for investors.
Currently Ofwat sets five-year price limits by targeting how much revenue firms can make according to a formula which accounts for inflation.
The coalition government committed to opening up competition on the retail side of water companies in its draft water bill published in July.

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Pope takes anti-gay marriage stance to new level

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The pope took his opposition to gay marriage to new heights Friday, denouncing what he described as people manipulating their God-given gender to suit their sexual choices — and destroying the very "essence of the human creature" in the process.
Benedict XVI made the comments in his annual Christmas speech to the Vatican bureaucracy — one of his most important speeches of the year. He dedicated it this year to promoting family values in the face of vocal campaigns in France, the United States, Britain and elsewhere to legalize same-sex marriage.
In his remarks, Benedict quoted the chief rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim, in saying the campaign for granting gays the right to marry and adopt children was an "attack" on the traditional family made up of a father, mother and children.
"People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being," he said. "They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves."
"The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man's fundamental choice where he himself is concerned," he said.
It was the second time in a week that Benedict has taken on the question of gay marriage, which is dividing France after proponents scored big electoral wins in the United States last month. In his recently released annual peace message, Benedict said gay marriage, like abortion and euthanasia, was a threat to world peace.
After the peace message was released last week, gay activists staged a small protest in St. Peter's Square.
Church teaching holds that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered," though it stresses that gays should be treated with compassion and dignity. As pope and as head of the Vatican's orthodoxy watchdog before that, Benedict has been a strong enforcer of that teaching: One of the first major documents of his pontificate said men with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies shouldn't be ordained priests.
For the Vatican, though, the gay marriage issue goes beyond questions of homosexuality, threatening what the church considers to be the bedrock of society: a family based on a man, woman and their children.
But the Vatican's opposition has been falling on deaf ears. Under then-Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the largely Roman Catholic Spain legalized gay marriage. Earlier this month, the British government announced it will introduce a bill next year legalizing gay marriage, though it would ban the Church of England from conducting same-sex ceremonies.
In France, President Francois Hollande has said he would enact his "marriage for everyone" plan within a year of taking office last May. The text will go to parliament next month. But the country has been divided by vocal opposition from religious leaders, prime among them Bernheim, as well as some politicians and parts of rural France.
The Socialist government's plan also envisions legalizing same-sex adoptions. Benedict quoted Bernheim as denouncing that in his view, under the plan, a child is now essentially considered an object people have a right to obtain.
"When freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God," Benedict said.

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UK High Court blocks drone intelligence challenge

LONDON (AP) — Britain's High Court on Friday blocked a legal bid for an inquiry into the possible role of the country's spy agencies in aiding covert CIA drone strikes in Pakistan's northwest tribal region.
Noor Khan, a 27-year-old whose father was killed by a drone strike in northwest Pakistan in March 2011, had asked the High Court to examine whether Britain intelligence officials assisted the action and whether they may be liable for prosecution.
High Court judges on Friday refused to allow Khan to bring a legal challenge, saying his lawyer's arguments had been an "attempt to shroud" a real goal of getting the court to publicly denounce U.S. drone strikes.
"The real aim is to persuade this court to make a public pronouncement designed to condemn the activities of the United States in North Waziristan, as a step in persuading them to halt such activity," judge Alan Moses said, adding that Khan's lawyer "knows he could not obtain permission overtly for such a purpose."
Law firm Leigh Day & Co., which is representing Khan along with legal aid charity Reprieve, said it was disappointed by the ruling and that Khan planned to appeal.
Khan's lawyers had claimed that civilian staff at Britain's electronic listening agency, GCHQ, could be "secondary parties to murder" for providing "locational intelligence" to the CIA in directing its drone attack program.
The ruling was a victory for the British government, whose lawyers had said that ties between Britain, the U.S. and Pakistan could be jeopardized if a judge granted Khan's request.
Khan's father, Malik Daud Khan, was attending a meeting of local elders in Datta Khel, in North Waziristan, when it was hit by a missile fired from an unmanned drone, killing around 40 people.
Since 2004, CIA drones have targeted suspected militants with missile strikes in the Pakistani tribal regions, killing hundreds of people. The program is controversial because of questions about its legality, the number of civilians it has killed and its impact on Pakistan's sovereignty.

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UK told to add break-up threat to bank reform

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain needs to introduce legislation that could break up banks if standards slip because current reform proposals fall short of what is needed, an influential parliamentary panel said.
The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards also said on Friday the government could set tougher rules for how much leverage banks were allowed, adding that the committee itself would consider whether to propose banning proprietary trading.
Britain, going further than most countries in pushing through change, is forcing banks to separate, or "ring-fence", their domestic retail arms from riskier investment banking.
"The proposals, as they stand, fall well short of what is required. Over time, the ring-fence will be tested and challenged by the banks," PCBS chairman Andrew Tyrie said.
"That is why we recommend electrification. The legislation needs to set out a reserve power for separation; the regulator needs to know he can use it."
The Treasury said Chancellor George Osborne will consider the proposals and respond when reforms are brought to Parliament early next year.
Osborne appears unlikely to go as far as the PCBS wants. A previous Commission, led by John Vickers, said a full break-up of banks was not needed, and Osborne may decide that if the ring-fence plan proved to be flawed, the Treasury could then introduce fresh legislation to strengthen it.
Britain wants to prevent a repeat of the need for taxpayers to bail out lenders, as happened in 2008 with a 65 billion pound ($106 billion) double rescue of Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.
The PCBS, asked to assess government plans before their introduction, said legislation should be introduced now because banks had to be discouraged from gaming the new rules for the ring-fence to succeed.
"All history tells us they will do this unless incentivised not to," Tyrie said, adding politicians could be lobbied to put holes in the ring-fence too.
"Additional powers are essential to provide adequate incentives for the banks to comply not just with the rules of the ring-fence, but also with their spirit," the Commission said in its 146-page report.
Bank shares fell up to 2.5 percent, underperforming a 1.1 percent lower European bank index.
"I would be concerned ... that a future, politically-motivated government or regulator could take draconian action with impunity. It would be putting in place a simple mechanism for banks to be picked on and to be broken up," Investec Securities analyst Ian Gordon said.
"One could argue that threat is there anyway and could be implemented," he said, adding the PCBS had added to uncertainty about reforms.
The threat of break-up would be most damaging to Barclays - whose shares fell 2.5 percent - and to a lesser degree to HSBC and RBS, analysts said.
In a concession to most banks, the PCBS said banks should be allowed to sell simple derivatives within their ring-fenced operation, which had been a point of contention.
"MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE"
The PCBS was set up after Barclays was fined for rigging global interest rates and banks were slammed for a series of mis-selling scandals.
Tyrie said the market rigging and corruption shown this week at Swiss bank UBS "beggar belief. It is the clearest illustration yet that a great deal more needs to be done to restore standards in banking.
Among plans to rein in risk-taking is a cap on leverage, which Britain plans to set at 33 times banks' capital - weaker than an original proposal for a maximum of 25 times.
The PCBS said it was "not persuaded by the government's relaxation" of that leverage rule, adding the future regulator, the Financial Policy Committee, should set the leverage cap.
Tyrie said it may also be appropriate for Britain to block banks from any proprietary trading - known as the Volcker Rule in the United States - and the PCBS will take evidence on that early next year.
The cross-party commission, which includes Justin Welby, the next Archbishop of Canterbury - the Church of England's most senior bishop - has spent the past three months deliberating the reform plans, taking evidence from the bosses of major banks as well as regulators, politicians and central bankers.
It said it was concerned too many reforms will be left to the discretion of the future regulator, and said the power to force bondholders to take losses when a bank hits trouble should be included in primary legislation.

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Record-breaking quarter for Eastleigh, says Duport

New company formations reached a record level during the third quarter of the year in Eastleigh, according to figures in the latest Duport Business Confidence Report.

UK (PRWEB UK) 22 December 2012
Eastleigh: The July - September period saw a record number of company formations in Eastleigh, with more new companies registered than any other third quarter on record for the town.
There were a total of 171 company formations during this period. Not only is this a record-breaking number, it also represents a 10% rise on the previous year’s figure.
Net company growth also rose during the third quarter of the year, from 39 in Q3 2011 to 64 in Q3 this year.
These positive statistics suggest a return to prosperity after the economic downturn. Eastleigh has always had a strong economy, thanks to the presence of major employers such as Fortis Insurance, B&Q and GE Aerospace. It is also home to Southampton International Airport and benefits from other major transport links, including the M27, M3, Port of Southampton and a rail link direct to London Waterloo.
Managing Director of Duport.co.uk, Peter Valaitis said:
“Eastleigh has many unique assets that have helped it recover from the effects of the recession more quickly than other areas.”
“The strong jobs market and excellent transport links will help pull in more and more businesses, which will, in turn, help protect the area from future economic shocks.”
The Duport Business Confidence Report for Eastleigh provides fascinating data on a range of economic indicators, helping to give an overview of the business landscape. More information can be found at http://www.duport.co.uk/eastleigh.
Duport Business Confidence Reports are generated and released by Duport Associates Ltd. The data contained in these reports is assimilated and analysed by Duport using public record data from sources including Companies House, Office for National Statistics and Ordnance Survey. Duport Associates Ltd is a leading UK company formation agent, established in 1997 and registering around 10,000 new companies each year through its Companies House approved software.

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Matt Szymanowski and Team Launch Indiegogo.com Fundraising Effort for Sundance Lab Finalist Feature Film "The Purple Onion"

San Francisco Filmmaker Matt Szymanowski is announcing his Indiegogo.com fundraising effort for the original San Francisco Film Society sponsored film "The Purple Onion," which tells the tragicomic story of the most unfortunate amateur comedian you have never heard of, who gets a surprise visit when his immigrant mother suddenly moves in after a foreclosure. This unique micro-budget film needs your support in preparing for initial production funds.

San Francisco, CA, December 20, 2012 (PRWEB) December 22, 2012
San Francisco Film Director Matt Szymanowski and his award winning team are reaching out to art and film supporters to participate in an Indiegogo.com fundraising campaign for the upcoming feature film "The Purple Onion." The campaign has already seen great success in its first month by raising nearly 50% of its $30,000 goal by January 06, 2013.
With recognition from the prestigious Sundance Screenwriting Lab and development support from the San Francisco Film Society, filmmaker Matt Szymanowski’s The Purple Onion is bound for wide recognition and critical praise. Set in San Francisco and named after the recently closed historic comedy club, this tragicomic story was first drafted while at the MacDowell Artist’s Colony shortly after participation at the Berlinale Talent Campus.
With the Bay Area comedy scene as its backdrop, The Purple Onion follows hapless, amateur comedian Johnny Lee at his dead-end job as a restaurant dishwasher as he attempts to move up to serving. Clashing to no end with his now live-in, estranged mother, who suddenly moves in after losing her house to foreclosure, and at his wits end, the comedian is prepared to leave everything behind. When his mother finds solace in a lonely and oddball neighbor, the comedian realizes he’s pushed away the one person who cares the most; the sad clown must reevaluate his priorities and stand-up for what really matters before he loses everything.
The cast stars Edwin Li (Sketchfest, Las Vegas Comedy Festival) and Golden Rooster Award nominee Kechun Li (Who’s the Third Party, Dam Street), with executive producing by Andrew Trapani (The Haunting in Connecticut) written and directed by Matt Szymanowski (History of Solitude, Slovakia) with cinematography by Bartosz Nalazek (War Horse, Lincoln) and musical score by Los Angeles Balkan gypsy band, The Petrojvic Blasting Company.
Executive Producer Andrew Trapani:

Andrew Trapani, of Nine/8 Entertainment, is an entertainment producer who has worked on numerous high profile video game, television and film projects including The Haunting in Connecticut, Tamara and the forthcoming Wallace.
Writer/Producer/Director Matt Szymanowski:

Matt Szymanowski is an acclaimed filmmaker whose work in film, television and video production includes producing content for CBS’ award-winning CHOW.com, media agency MKSHFT’s clients Toyota, Gizmodo and HTC, the documentary Nine Days That Changed the World and music videos for The Holdup, Jhameel and Overhood. His short film, History of Solitude, made while at the National Polish Film School in Lodz, Poland, played at international festivals in Poland, France, Albania and at the San Francisco International, in addition to winning the Jury Award in Paris at The European Independent Film Festival in 2009.

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Grief Expert Says "We Don't Die" and Offers Free Aid to Mourners

Sandra Champlain, author 'How to Survive Grief' courageously tells her story learning that life after death is real. Now author of 'We Don't Die - A Skeptic's Discovery of Life After Death,' she gives free information on grief and the first chapter of her book to help comfort others.

Byfield, Massachusetts (PRWEB) December 22, 2012
Author Sandra Champlain has long held a secret and feels it is now the right time to share it with people. She said, “I have found the truth about life after death, but more importantly, I can help people heal from the pain caused by grief.”
Sandra suffered a terrible fear of dying in 1996, one that set in motion a fifteen-year journey of discovery. She studied with doctors, scientists, a physicist, mediums, and a ‘spirit artist.’ She felt all of these people had credible evidence that our souls survive physical death. "I even took a course in mediumship," Champlain stated. "I somehow could accurately describe deceased people. Imagine my surprise when I would see a picture of someone’s loved one and it was the same person I just saw in my mind!"
Fear kept her from sharing this important discovery with people. She resumed her dual career as owner of a small business in Connecticut and traveling as a chef with race car teams. "This may sound silly, but although I was no longer afraid of death, I was afraid of what people would think of me if they heard my story,” Sandra explained. “I used to make fun of people who believed in that stuff. How could I tell anyone that I believe in it now?”
In 2010, everything changed. Sandra's father got diagnosed with cancer and five months later he died. She then shared, "I felt the most devastating pain when Dad died. I was scared, alone, angry, sad, guilty and my body was so sore from crying. My memory was awful, I couldn't concentrate, fights were at an all-time high with my siblings, although we had rarely fought before he became ill. I have never been one to contemplate suicide, but my life was so dark, I could see how some people experiencing that amount of pain would believe suicide to be a good option."
Sandra, normally a happy, upbeat, positive person knew something was wrong. She began an investigation into the world of ‘grief.’ Sandra found that there are over a million suicides a year due to grief and depression, almost fifty percent of siblings stop talking after a parent dies, and over eighty percent of marriages end in divorce after a child dies. Armed with this important information, Sandra Champlain created a free, sixty-minute audio to help others, called it 'How to Survive Grief,' and posted it on http://www.survivegrief.com.
“Grief is not taught to us in school and people don’t understand how the brain functions during the grieving process. When we love someone it is almost as if we are addicted to them, as neurotransmitters in our brains form bonds with them. When they die, that bond is broken and grief is similar to being in withdrawal from an addictive drug.”
Sandra continued, “Within a year of sharing my grief audio, three thousand people in fifteen countries had heard it. The emails I received were amazing. Then, I received my first message from a man who chose not to commit suicide after listening to it. He wrote that when he listened to my audio, he knew that there was nothing wrong with him. He realized that the emotions and thoughts he was experiencing were normal symptoms of grief. When I found out doctors and suicide prevention agencies were recommending people to my website, I knew it was time to write a book,” said Champlain.
“Information about grief is something every human being should know,” shared Sandra. “It dawned on me that a book about grief would probably not be a bestseller. However books about life after death often are.”
Best-selling author, Bernie Siegel, M.D. wrote the foreword and Morgan James Publishing quickly supported Sandra with her mission, expressing that this book will help heal millions of lives. Just nine months after she signed the contract with them, and during the same week as the Newtown shooting, her book ‘We Don’t Die - A Skeptic’s Discovery of Life After Death’ became available at online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Sandra Champlain has sent many cases of her ‘How to Survive Grief’ CDs to the Newtown community hoping they will find their way into the right hands. She requests that anyone who feels the pain from this tragedy, or has had any other personal loss, please take advantage of the free audio download and read the first chapter of ‘We Don’t Die.’ She then confidently declared, “The audio and the pages from my book will make a profound difference in people’s lives, I can promise that.”

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CAD Lights Aquariums Announces New Mini Series

CAD Lights Aquariums has created smaller systems perfect for the casual hobbyist or consumer.

Port of Seattle (PRWEB) December 22, 2012
CAD Lights Aquariums proudly announces the launch of their new Starefire Mini Series. This new series of nano and pico aquariums are perfect hobbyists, casual consumers, or anyone who isn’t looking for a large reef system. The mini series are available in 4, 8, and 20-gallon tanks.
The new mini series by CAD Lights Aquariums are made with the finest materials, as all products from CAD Lights Aquariums are engineered and made in the United States. Despite their size, the mini displays are fun, beautiful, and simplistic. The filtration design is especially innovative considering the smaller size of the aquarium.
Though saltwater reef systems are by far the most popular ones in demand, CAD Lights Aquariums has listened to the requests of many consumers and has designed a mini display that is meant specifically for freshwater. The freshwater performance package from CAD Lights Aquariums combines both beauty and performance. The sleek design allows the reef system to enhance any room and the innovative technology keeps the system clean from nitrates, phosphates and slime algae that can visually ruin the display.
CAD Lights Aquariums boasts that their mini series displays are made from a high StarFire glass that is a seamless single panel with stunning clarity that allows the observer to clear see the contents inside. Whether the freshwater or saltwater system is ordered, CAD Lights Aquariums guarantees that the mini series are made from quality components that include a new LED Lighting system that exceeds competitors and is perfect for live plants in the tank.
When it comes to smaller displays, many people worry that the aquariums can become “top heavy” and tip over. However, CAD Lights Aquariums has designed their mini series so that the center of gravity has been widened and the mini displays are sturdy. In fact, the entire mini series has furniture options available either for display or for sturdiness. CAD Lights Aquariums is based in Ontario, CA, where they continue to improve their existing products and lead the reef system industry by raising the accepted standard.

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Progressive Dental Marketing Expansion Continues as Florida Office Moves to Accomodate New Team Members

Progressive Dental Marketing is expanding their team and just moved into a new office this week. Previously located in Palm Harbor, FL, they have outgrown their current location. The new office is located in the neighboring town of Dunedin, FL.

Dunedin, FL (PRWEB) December 22, 2012
This week Progressive Dental Marketing expanded their Florida team, moving from Palm Harbor to the neighboring town of Dunedin. Having outgrown their previous location, they have moved to a larger office.
Along with the new office, PDM is proud to invite new faces to the team, improving their marketing services for dentists and periodontists nationwide. With the new office, PDM will have the ability to provide faster and more efficient services to their cross-country clients.
Currently marketing for dental professionals in 23 out of the 50 states, Washington, D.C. and British Columbia, PDM plans to continue expansion well into 2013. There are presently approximately 1,500 laser gum surgery specialists in the United States, which has been the focus of PDM so far. Although they are open to marketing for dental professionals who do not perform laser gum surgery, they do plan on keeping their market within the dental field.
With a new office and new employees bringing fresh ideas to PDM’s marketing platform, they have high hopes for rapid improvement and growth in 2013. Marketing is limited in each region, so call today to find out if you are a dentist or periodontist that qualifies!
Progressive Dental Marketing has practiced several marketing strategies to bring dental professionals online visibility. Bart Knellinger, the founder of Progressive Dental Marketing, was born and raised in Palm Harbor, FL, and grew up in his father’s dental office. Combining his personal experiences with his widespread involvement in sales, he brings extensive clinical information to his marketing firm. Based out of Dunedin, FL, Progressive Dental Marketing offers periodontal and dental offices successful promotion approaches in radio, TV, direct mail, billboard and internet marketing. Focusing on dental professionals across the country, Progressive Dental Marketing aims to increase their visibility regardless of location or demographic. To learn more about Progressive Dental Marketing, visit their website, http://www.progressivedentalmarketing.com and call (888)-600-4996.

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Obama's pollster: Republicans have a tolerance problem

Much has been made of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s catastrophic performance last month among Latino voters – just 27 percent to President Obama’s 71 percent.
Now at 10 percent of the American electorate, Latinos are the nation’s fastest-growing minority. Suddenly, Republicans are suing for peace on comprehensive immigration reform, an issue they have long resisted out of fear it could lead to “amnesty” for those in the country illegally.
But to Joel Benenson, Mr. Obama’s campaign pollster, the GOP’s problem is bigger than Latinos and immigration.
“The Republican Party has a tolerance problem,” Mr. Benenson told reporters Wednesday at a session hosted by Third Way, a centrist Democratic group. “I think when you define people who look differently than you as illegal aliens, and use that term over and over again, and talk about self-deporting them, that’s a tolerance issue.”
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The “looking different” issue, Benenson adds, also helps explain why Asian-Americans voted for Mr. Obama over Mr. Romney by an even wider margin than Latinos, 76 percent to 23 percent. He suggests that the Obama campaign’s message on investment – in education, in building a future through hard work –also won Asian-American votes.
But the tolerance issue, he says, goes beyond race and ethnicity – it goes to issues.
“When you call people who believe in global warming ‘job-killers,’ you have a tolerance problem,” Benenson says.
“When you want to deny gay people, who want to make a lifetime commitment to each other, just as their parents did, because they want to spend a life together, and you want to deny them that life aspiration, you have a tolerance problem,” he says.
In addition, Benenson frames Republican attacks on contraception and Planned Parenthood as intolerance toward women.
A piecemeal approach to fixing the party’s demographic challenges won’t work, he suggests.
"If they think they can solve all their problems by picking off any one of those groups and saying, ‘Oh, we’ll fix our problem here or there,’ this goes to whether you have core beliefs that are in line and in touch with the vast majority of Americans,” the pollster says.
For most of the campaign, Obama led Romney by 10 percentage points on the question of whether his views and policies were in line with mainstream Americans. Only in the period immediately after the first Obama-Romney debate did the Republican nominee come close to even on that question.
The Republicans have embarked on a period of soul-searching, including a party-led task force that is reviewing the results of the 2012 election and brainstorming a path forward on how to widen the party’s appeal. And there’s no time to lose. Public acceptance of gay marriage, for example, is growing rapidly, as older Americans who are most resistant to the idea die off and younger people, who are broadly accepting, reach voting age.
Look at voters under age 40, says Benenson. “How do you redefine yourself now with what is almost half the electorate? They’re hearing a very strident, intolerant point of view on specific issues.... I mean, they have become a party of orthodoxy.”
He also points out that Romney won the white evangelical vote by the same margin as President George W. Bush in 2004 – 57 percentage points. But he lost the remaining three-quarters of the electorate by 23 points, 60 percent to 37 percent. Mr. Bush lost those voters by 13 points.

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The CW to Send People to the Woods to Die

In the case of that celebrity high-diving show, the argument could be made that at least those people are celebrities, and thus in some sense must know what they're getting themselves into, because they have managers and agents and things advising them. Right? But now something really dangerous is happening. The CW is sending regular folks into a very likely deadly situation for the delight of home viewers, and that just seems cruel. In an attempt to capitalize on The Hunger Games, which is a nonfiction series about Darfur, The CW has ordered a reality show called The Hunt, on which "12 teams of two are provided no food, water or shelter but must compete in a game where they rely on their physicality, survival skills and hunting skills to endure their conditions, capture one another and ultimately win a cash prize." Oh, great. Running around the woods, crazed from starvation and dehydration, trying to "capture" each other for money. Terrific. I mean, I guess it accurately depicts the state of things in the nation today, so there's that, but yikes. This sounds destined to go horribly, horribly awry. That said, if you want to go die in the woods for The CW, give 'em a call. I'm sure they'd love to have you. [The Hollywood Reporter]
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All right, here's some civilized TV news to wash out the taste of all that tree bark and human blood. Margo Martindale, longtime actress turned Emmy-winning Justified superstar, has been cast in a long arc on FX's upcoming Cold War thriller The Americans. That's the one with Keri Russell and some dude pretending to be normal Joe and Jane Americano in New Jersey, when they're secretly super-embedded Soviet spies. The show looks promising, and now Margo Martindale is going to be on it, which makes it a near-about must watch. She'll be playing "a KGB illegal living in the U.S. who delivers assignments." Which is intriguing! She's good when she's got a little villainy to play. Well done, Americans! Which, sigh, is likely the last time we'll be saying that today. [Deadline]
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Speaking of terrible America, HBO is planning a sequel to its award-winning movie about the 2008 presidential campaign Game Change, presumably based on the 2012 election followup to the Game Change book that's currently being written. So it's not exactly a sequel, in that it won't include a lot of the same characters, but it's a continuation of the theme and style, I guess. Like, presumably Julianne Moore won't be back playing Sarah Palin, unless there's one weird single scene of Sarah Palin wandering around Wasilla while sad music plays, looking at things and half-smiling in the cold, thin sun. Actually, can there be that scene? I'll direct the second unit if you guys don't want to go out to Alaska. As for the actual main characters, who should play Mitt Romney? Richard Jenkins maybe? If they fancied him up a bit? Could work. And, oh boy... What about Ann?? That's going to be the exciting role. Let's Mary Kay Place. And Paul Ryan... What about Paul Ryan... Oh, duh. Jason Schwartzman. Done. It's practically a wrap. Cut, print. [Vulture]
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Normally we don't cover music in this here column, because what is music these days, really, but this feels like worth noting: Bruno Mars currently has the number-one single in America, that annoying "Locked Out of Heaven" ditty, which is his fourth number-one song. That gives him "the fastest collection of a male artist's first four No. 1s in exactly 48 years." Forty-eight years! Meaning, longer than Paul Ryan has been alive. Sure that's kind of a weird, busy statistic, like best opening for a non-holiday R-rated comedy in the end of March, but still. Bruno Mars, setting big records. I didn't know that many people even knew who Bruno Mars was! Apparently they do, though. Apparently you've all been listening to Bruno Mars while over here the old Annie Lennox CD plays again and again and no one says a thing. Thanks a lot, guys. Leaving a friend out in the cold like that. What else aren't you telling me? Is Jennifer Paige still making music? Well? Is she?? [Billboard]
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This is the time of year for lists — best things, worst things, great things, sad things — but only one list truly matters. We didn't even know it mattered until we saw it, but then, suddenly, there it was, a new knowledge, a new list at the top of the Best List list. It's "Best and Worst Nudity of 2012," and it must be savored and cherished. If only for the bizarre phrase "Worst Nudity." Yikes. How would you like to wind up in the "Worst Nudity" category? You basically got naked for nothing. And not only did your nakedness serve no purpose, it was some of the worst nakedness of the whole year. It took away from the world, your nakedness. You were really bad at being naked this year. Just really terrible. So you get Worst Nudity, while some others get Best. Your nudity was bad, theirs was good. That's just how the world worked this year. Awful nudity, you. You were really, really bad at being naked this year. [Entertainment Weekly]
RELATED: At Long Last, CW Shows Whenever You Want Them
CBS has released a new trailer for its midseason drama Golden Boy and it looks kinda good? The show is about a young New York cop who rises to the ranks of police commissioner remarkably quickly, possibly through dirty/morally questionable means. It looks to be set in the future with flashbacks to the past/our present, which is sometimes interesting. It stars this guy, which ain't a problem, and I dunno, for normally squishy CBS it looks like it could be a little sharp. We'll give it a look. Which, ha, is exactly the point of this tease, so well done, tease people. You've done your jobs admirably. You may go home now.

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Taxman to Middle Class: ‘Bend Over'

President Barack Obama in 2008, and again during the 2012 election, promised absolutely, positively no tax hikes on the middle class. The rich, however, must pay more: "It's not me being stubborn, it's not me being partisan — it's just a matter of math."
How does Obama intend to pay for our cradle-to-grave welfare state? Why, by charging the dastardly "millionaires and billionaires" who "can afford to pay a little bit more." No more extending the Bush-era tax rates for the rich. To do so, Obama tells us, would "cost" $700 billion — over 10 years. So this "break" for the rich "costs" $70 billion a year — or a mere 6 percent of the trillion dollar annual deficits that Obama has rung up since he became president.
This leaves us short about $930 billion per year — just for the annual deficit, never mind paring down the ever-growing national debt. From where is the shortfall to be made up?
Lots of deluded Obama voters no doubt truly believe "the mess we're in" is due to "two unpaid for wars and irresponsible tax cuts for the rich." End the wars and slap the rich with Clinton-era tax rates, and voila, watch the deficit and debt go poof! But with Obama safely re-elected, some Democrats now speak the truth: The middle class, contrary to Obama's promise, will see substantial tax increases in order to pay for the welfare state the voters once again signed on to by re-electing Obama.
Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, appearing on MSNBC, said: "The only problem is — and this is, a little, initially going to seem like heresy from a progressive — the truth is everybody needs to pay more taxes, not just the rich. That's a good start. But we're not going to get out of this deficit problem unless we raise taxes across the board — to go back to what Bill Clinton had and his taxes. And if we don't do that, the problem is the pressure is going to be on spending even more."
Obama, however, still insists that any budget deal include tax rate hikes on the top 2 percent — a violation of the anti-tax-increase pledge most Capital Hill Republicans signed. He's winning the argument. Several Republicans now repudiate the pledge.
The "controversial" pledge states that the signer promises to his/her constituents and the American people to: "ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates."
But with post-election polls showing that Americans support raising taxes on the rich, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, now places "revenue on the table" — meaning the GOP accepts the election returns as a referendum for a "balanced approach" to dealing with our deficits and debt. By "revenue," Boehner means closing "loopholes" and "capping deductions" used by "the rich" to pay less in taxes. And more recently, fiscal conservative Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., now says he would accept a hike in tax rates, provided the Democrats present a plan to reform entitlements.
Polls show that if Congress and the President fail to come to a deal to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff," Republicans will be blamed. And as the Democrats pin blame, expect their friends in the media to assist with joy and enthusiasm.
The Media Research Center tells us that ABC, NBC and CBS have a distorted view of the term "balance." After the election, those networks spent way more time on the issue of tax hikes than on the issue of spending cuts. ABC, says MRC, was the worst: "In the three weeks following President Obama's re-election, 'World News' devoted more than 10 minutes, 18 seconds to talk of tax hikes and just 35 seconds to spending cuts (a 17-to-1 margin)." So much for the balanced approach.
But the problem remains how to get rich people to pay for all the things voters want: insurance companies that are forbidden from turning away people with pre-existing illnesses; federal disaster relief; the placing of millions of uninsured on Medicaid; "world-class education"; "investments" in "green jobs of the future"; regulations to combat "climate change"; extending unemployment benefits again; etc.
In 1900, government spending at all three levels — local, state and federal — amounted to about 10 percent of national income. Government spending today amounts to 40 percent — or 50 percent, if one places a dollar value on the unfunded mandates imposed on states and businesses by Washington. The voters re-elected a President who increased the national debt faster and by a greater amount than any previous administration. And there are simply not enough rich folks to pay for it.
Obama, on Nov. 6, won the political argument to continue to expand government. But the election did nothing to change "the math." Memo to the middle class: Get ready, you're next.

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Kerry Nomination Could Create Musical Chairs in the Senate

News that Amb. Susan Rice withdrew her name from consideration for Secretary of State may have brightened the days of both senators from Massachusetts.
Prior to Rice's withdrawal, she was considered one of the top two contenders for the job- the other is Sen. John Kerry, and with Rice out of the running, Kerry is "all but certain" to get the nomination, according to ABC's Jake Tapper. That means a vacant seat and a special election, which could benefit out-going Sen. Scott Brown, who lost his bid for reelection to Elizabeth Warren in November.
Brown is widely expected to seek out his old job and he would be viewed as a strong contender, particularly in a special election to fill Kerry's vacancy. Republicans have a tendency to perform better in special elections, which draw many fewer voters.
But it would be at least six months - assuming that Kerry is indeed nominated as Secretary of State and assuming that Brown wins a special election - before he could re-join the Senate.
Massachusetts law dictates that a special election cannot take place sooner than 145 days from the time an out-going Congress member's resignation is effective, meaning that at least 145 days must pass between the date that member actually leaves their job and the date that the special occurs. At this juncture in time, even if Kerry is nominated tomorrow and has an incredibly quick confirmation at the beginning of the next Congress, the earliest conceivable date to reach this mark is in June, 2013.
INFOGRAPHIC: 2013 Cabinet Outlook
The special cannot occur more than 160 days from the time that the resignation is effective.
Brown's victory in a special election would not be a sure thing. Although he leaves office with high approval ratings- exit polls from the 2012 election showed him with a favor-ability rating of 60 percent- but Massachusetts is a solidly Democratic state, and there are many Democrats in elected office in the state who could challenge Brown.
In an odd twist of political gamesmanship, the law requiring a special election instead of an appointment from the Governor in the event of a vacant seat was passed by Democrats passed in Massachusetts in 2004 in case Kerry resigned if he won the presidency. He did not. But Democrats at the time were trying to take the appointment power away from the sitting Republican governor- Mitt Romney.

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