fonz impelled

Friday, November 23, 2012

No. 10 Arizona on a roll headed into break

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) ? Arizona has gotten better with each game this season, the margins of victory growing, its talented freshman becoming more confident and comfortable.

But after rolling over Long Beach State in their last game, the 10th-ranked Wildcats have an eight-day break before their next game.

A potential momentum killer?

Arizona coach Sean Miller doesn't see it that way.

He sees the extended time off as a chance re-iterate what the team has done right, work on the few things it has done wrong.

"I think every team in November is on a quest to get better and continually improve," Miller said after Arizona beat Long Beach State 94-72 on Monday night at home. "We have a great opportunity now to learn through our game experience and now build."

Arizona entered the season with plenty of expectations, thanks to a roster loaded with proven veterans and another stellar recruiting class by Miller.

The Wildcats have lived up to those so far, pulling away from Charleston Southern for an opening 82-73 victory, then rolling over Texas-El Paso 72-51.

Arizona played its best game of the regular or exhibition season Monday night, racing out to a 22-point lead in the first half and shooting 53 percent in the never-in-doubt win over the 49ers.

Through those first three games, the Wildcats' returning players have played well.

Forward Solomon Hill finds a way to fill up the stat sheet whether he shoots well or not, guard Nick Johnson has shown poise in his second season and Kevin Parrom appears to be back to being the player he was before being shots before the 2011-12 season.

Those talented youngsters haven't been bad, either.

Forward Grant Jerrett looked comfortable with the college game right off the bat, opening the season as a starter. Center Kaleb Tarczewski struggled in the opener against Charleston Southern's smaller players, but has played better in stretches the past two games as his teammates have gotten the ball to him down low.

Forward Brandon Ashley earned the start against Long Beach State with his hard work in practice and had a superb debut, hitting all six of his shots while scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

The Wildcats are deep, talented and on a roll to start the season, looking forward to the chance at getting better.

"You don't really get holidays around here, especially when you're playing," Hill said. "It's nice to enjoy (Thanksgiving) as a team ? we're going to get together as a team ? but the goal is to win, so you can only take so many days off."

It hasn't been perfect.

Arizona has had trouble getting the ball into the low post consistently, particularly to the 7-foot Tarczewski, who is far more effective when has the ball around the rim.

Point guards Mark Lyons and Jordin Mayes have combined for 16 assists and 14 turnovers as they try to mesh with a roster that has several new players at key spots.

There also have been times when the Wildcats have fouled too much, particularly late in the shot clock, bailing out shooters at the last second after playing good defense to that point.

The biggest concern is defending the 3-point shot.

Charleston Southern spent most of the opener casting up 3-pointers, shooting 28 ? compared to 22 from inside the arc ? and making 10. Long Beach State also took more than half its shots from 3-point range, making 14 of 32.

Arizona had some trouble defending the 3 in exhibition games, too, and teams are hitting 39 percent of their shots from the arc so far.

"At this break, that's a real big focus for us to be able to take away the three-point shot," Miller said. "That's one of the main things we're going to try to get better at during this break."

The Wildcats will have plenty of time to work on it before their next game, against Northern Arizona on Nov. 28, which is fine by their coach.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/no-10-arizona-roll-headed-break-213823711--spt.html

undrafted free agents braveheart earthquake california earthquake california roy orbison the third man 2012 nfl draft order

Israel, Hamas claim victory amid Gaza cease-fire

Hamas declares a national holiday after the cease-fire with Israel, but sees the halt in fighting as a temporary solution. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

By Ian Johnston and Andrea Mitchell, NBC News

Updated at 6:10 a.m. ET: Israel?s military said it had accomplished the objectives of its airstrike campaign against Hamas by causing ?severe damage? to its military capabilities after a cease-fire was declared late Wednesday.

A statement on the Israel Defense Forces website said Operation Pillar of Defense had ?damaged and destroyed significant elements of Hamas' strategic capabilities? in the Gaza Strip.

?Following eight days of operations, the IDF has accomplished its pre-determined objectives for Operation Pillar of Defense, and has inflicted severe damage to Hamas and its military capabilities,? the ?IDF statement said.?These actions have severely impaired Hamas' launching capabilities, resulting in a decreasing number of rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip,? it added.

Meanwhile, people in Gaza declared victory. "Allahu akbar (God is greatest), dear people of Gaza you won," blared mosque loudspeakers in Gaza, according to Reuters. "You have broken the arrogance of the Jews."

The exiled leader of the Islamist Hamas movement, Khaled Meshaal, said that Israel had been defeated and failed in its "adventure," Reuters reported. "We have come out of this battle with our heads up high," he said.

And while he said Hamas would respect the truce if Israel did, Meshaal also sounded a warning. ?If it [Israel] does not comply, our hands are on the trigger," he told a news conference in Cairo.

Israel and Hamas agree to Gaza cease-fire

Even after the cease-fire came into force at 9 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET) Wednesday, a dozen rockets from the Gaza Strip landed in Israel, all in open areas, a police spokesman said. And in Gaza, witnesses reported an explosion shortly after the truce, but there were no casualties and the cause was unclear.

Some residents of Israel close to Gaza say deals brokered with Hamas in the past have fallen through, and they worry this one will, too. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

A top U.S. official involved in the negotiations that led to the cease-fire told NBC News that making it work was going to be a "complicated process."

Speaking for the administration, the senior official said: "The cease-fire is a big step toward trying to put in place more enduring relationships."

The official said it was ?significant? that Egypt had "stepped up and is playing a crucial role" in the peace talks.
Asked whether Hamas had been strengthened by the outcome, the official said that Israel got what it wanted, referring to the damage to Hamas? rocket-firing capabilities.

Ashraf al-Qedweh, a spokesperson for the Gaza-based health ministry, told NBC News that 162 people had died in Gaza during the conflict, including 42 children and 11 women, with 1,225 wounded.

Shot dead, dragged through the streets: The fate of an alleged spy in Gaza

The IDF statement said five Israelis had been killed and 240 injured.

It listed the military successes of Pillar of Defense, saying the IDF had ?targeted over 1,500 terror sites including 19 senior command centers, operational control centers and Hamas' senior-rank headquarters, 30 senior operatives, damaging Hamas' command and control, hundreds of underground rocket launchers, 140 smuggling tunnels, 66 terror tunnels, dozens of Hamas operation rooms and bases, 26 weapon manufacturing and storage facilities and dozens of long-range rocket launchers and launch sites.?

Americans tied to Israel caught in the chaos of Gaza conflict

It said that 1,506 rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israel during the period of the operation with Israel?s ?Iron Dome? defense system intercepting 421 of the missiles.

Tension remained high Thursday with two sirens heard in southern Israel, but no reports of rocket strikes.

Israeli forces said they had seized 55 suspected Palestinian militants in the West Bank Thursday, Reuters reported.

Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

The detainees were from various armed Palestinian factions and included "senior operatives," the army said in a statement, adding that it would "continue to maintain order ... and prevent the infiltration of terrorists into Israeli communities."

The West Bank is under the sway of U.S.-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah movement, but many of its residents are sympathetic with his Hamas rivals.?

NBC's Lawahez Jabari and Reuters contributed to this report.

More world stories from NBC News:

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/22/15370222-after-8-days-of-gaza-violence-israel-declares-mission-accomplished-hamas-claims-victory?lite

Olympics Live Mens Gymnastics Allison Schmitt Olympic Schedule Kyla Ross Ryan Lochte Montenegro

Thursday, November 22, 2012

FDA took 684 days to warn plant tied to meningitis

By Tim McLaughlin,?Reuters

BOSTON -?The U.S. Food and Drug Administration took 684 days to issue a warning letter after uncovering serious issues at the pharmacy at the center of the deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak, newly released documents showed.

The New England Compounding Center (NECC) chastised the FDA for taking so long, telling the agency its response time was nearly 18 months longer than the FDA's average response, according to letters released by a Freedom of Information Act request from Reuters.

Since the FDA's December 2006 warning letter to NECC, both sides have come under intense scrutiny. State and federal regulators, including the FDA, are being asked why they didn't move sooner against NECC, given a long history of concerns about the family-owned pharmacy's operations.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 34 people have died and 490 have been injured after Framingham, Massachusetts-based NECC shipped thousands of fungus-tainted vials of methylprednisolone acetate to medical facilities throughout the United States. The steroid was typically used to ease back pain.

On Tuesday, defense lawyers for NECC's owners told a U.S. District Judge in Boston there was nothing to show they had a direct hand in the cause of the meningitis outbreak.

But the newly released documents reveal a combative side to NECC chief pharmacist, Barry Cadden, and his brother-in-law, Greg Conigliaro, the recycling entrepreneur who helped him launch the specialty pharmacy.

Inspectors said Conigliaro became indignant during a September 2004 inspection by the FDA and Massachusetts regulators, documents showed. At one point, Cadden told his brother-in-law, "Don't answer any more questions!" according to a 2005 FDA memorandum.

The inspectors had concerns about how NECC was compounding and dispensing Trypan Blue, a dye sometimes used in eye surgery. Inspectors also expressed concern about how NECC was repackaging Avastin, highlighting the threat of contamination when the pharmacy opened sterile containers of the cancer drug.

The FDA's eventual warning letter to NECC in December 2006 was based on an inspection that began in September 2004 and ended on January 19, 2005, according to the documents.

"This prolonged gap between inspection and warning letters does not comply with FDA's procedures," Cadden, NECC's chief pharmacist, wrote in a January 5, 2007 letter to FDA compliance officer Ann Simoneau.

In follow-up correspondence, FDA officials apologized for the "significant delay" in correspondence time between the inspection and the warning letter. While the FDA conceded the gap was unusual, it in no way diminished the regulator's "serious concerns" about NECC's pharmacy operations, documents showed.

Like Lifehacker on Facebook for our Top Stories in Your Feed

Like Lifehacker on Facebook for our Top Stories in Your Feed Every day, we post our best stories on Facebook so you can stay up to date and share with friends. We also post polls and other fun extras on occasion. But don't worry! We only post a selection of our top stories and we space out those posts so that we don't overwhelm your news feed. If you haven't joined our Facebook community yet, what are you waiting for? Just like the Lifehacker Facebook page to get in on the fun.

Follow Your Favorite Lifehacker Writers

As long as you're on Facebook, go ahead and subscribe individually to your favorite Lifehacker writers, too. You can liven up your feed by seeing what kinds of things we get up to in the off hours, what we're reading on other sites, and sometimes even pick up extra tips and tricks. Here's where you can find us:

Not a Facebook Fan?

You don't have to be! We've got ways for you to keep up with us on other social networks, too.

Rather Just Visit Us?

Feeling antisocial? We hear you. If you'd rather visit us here, we have some easy ways for you to stay on top of things.

Whatever way you choose to keep up with us, we're happy to have you join us!

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/iCSsDXRp1Ns/like-lifehacker-on-facebook-for-our-top-stories-in-your-feed

Veterans Day 2012 News Nate Silver stock market stock market Google News Obama Acceptance Speech 2012

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Green Blog: Q. and A.: In a Blackout, Solar Exceptions

As I reported this week in The Times, many homeowners with solar panels on their roofs found themselves without electricity along with their conventionally powered neighbors when Hurricane Sandy knocked out power along the coasts of New Jersey, Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island. But in Bayonne, N.J., a school with an unusual coupling of a solar array and a backup diesel generator found itself chugging along through the storm and its aftermath, allowing more than 50 residents to spend the night that Sandy hit on cots in a heated, dry and well-lighted community room.

At the heart of the system, designed and installed by Advanced Solar Products at the Midtown Community School, a designated evacuation center, is a special inverter with software that allows electricity from the panels to stop flowing out into the grid when it goes down.

It?s a standard safety mechanism that protects line workers from electrocution during repairs. But in this case, the electricity goes to fuel critical systems in the building. The inverter keeps the emergency generator humming at a much lower level while the sun is shining and brings it back up to the necessary level when it is too cloudy or when night falls.

The set-up has its own vulnerability in that if the generator runs out of diesel, the whole system shuts down, a weakness that the company is addressing with a new design that incorporates batteries as well.

?We already have residential-sized solar systems that can incorporate solar panels, batteries and generators, all in a single inverter, but that has not existed in commercial-sized systems until now,? said Lyle Rawlings, chief executive of the company, based in Flemington, N.J..

That approach, one of many that various designers and companies are pursuing, is helping to light a path toward a more resilient energy future, one in which relationships between consumers and the grid are more dynamic. My own house, a tiny bungalow built in the 1910s near the ocean in Rockaway Beach, took a beating along with the rest of my neighborhood, where many of us were flooded and are still without power.

But we were lucky on my block to get a solar charging station in the community garden through Solar One, a nonprofit and educational group, and Power Rockaways Resilience, a group that is raising money to bring more mobile solar generation to the area.

I was curious to learn more about how people in the Northeast and elsewhere in the United States might be better prepared for disasters like Sandy ? or run-of-the-mill summer blackouts. I asked Mr. Rawlings to explain how new and developing technologies, especially batteries and inverters, are being put to use and how they might help ease growing strains on the grid going forward. Following are excerpts, edited for brevity and clarity.

What kind of solar system might homeowners want to install if they were clobbered by Sandy and are thinking, ?I don?t ever want that to happen to me again??

If you?re building PV [photovoltaics] for the first time, it?s pretty simple: you choose an inverter that?s capable of working with batteries and you?re putting in the batteries. And you would take your critical loads and put them in a separate panel, an emergency panel. The bad news is that this is fairly costly ? anywhere from $7,000 to $12,000, and that?s a very rough estimate. That?s on top of the cost of a typical PV system, which is probably at this time maybe $22,000 to $30,000. It?s quite an add-on.

But, on the other hand, that?s going to operate reliably and silently during a storm. People aren?t going to have to wait in line to fill up their gas cans and listen to a generator all night, and the cost of an automatic permanently installed generator is probably as much or more than that. It might cost a bit more to do it as a retrofit, but it should be close to the same.

What are some of the newer technologies that are making this possible?

Battery technology is advancing, and the inverters that can work with those batteries are becoming commercially available. Interestingly enough, the main motivation that?s bringing this to market is not emergency power, it?s a different issue altogether. We?ve got to start thinking now of how our electric grid is going to handle higher penetration of renewable resources that are intermittent ? sun and wind.

You?ve got to ask what happens when the clouds roll over or when the winds stop blowing, and part of the answer to that is battery storage so that you don?t get sudden changes that overwhelm the capability of controlling the grid and start to get the grid destabilizing and have blackouts or brownouts. Another important thing that the batteries can do is help control the frequency of the electric power.

So frequency regulation is a service that solar power systems can start to offer to the grid and actually get paid for it by PJM, which is the independent system operator in this region. So that economic incentive is getting people to install these battery-scale inverters.

What has happened in the world of batteries that?s allowing this suddenly to go forward?

It?s driven by that perception that solar is coming and wind is coming ? they?re getting larger and larger ? and apart from renewables, the grid needs stabilization. We?ve seen the fragility of the grid in this storm, in the Northeast ice storm, and in Irene and in the snowstorm of Halloween last year. At the same time, the need for electric cars has been driving battery research, and so all these things have gone together and big companies have been pouring money into it.

What do you think could be a kind of game changer for a place like New York, to make us a little more resilient?

The incentives that exist in New Jersey for batteries connected to PJM ? those kind of frequency-regulating services ? those don?t exist in N.Y.I.S.O., the grid operator in New York. So that should be instituted as quickly as possible. A smart thing to do would be for New York State to have some incentive for batteries because of this recognition that they?re not just helping people with emergency power but they can do a lot of other things.

They?ll be vital once we get to the point where the penetration of PV and wind in the grid are higher. The future of energy is going to be more complicated than in the past ? it?s going to have wind, it?s going to have solar, it?s going to have demand-side management and energy efficiency, and the people trying to keep the lights on, the grid operators, are going to need to think differently and batteries are going to be a big part of that change.

New Jersey seems to be pretty far ahead in laying the groundwork for this very complicated energy future that you?re talking about.

New Jersey is by a lot of measures the leading state in the nation in developing solar power: it?s the fastest-growing solar market, in absolute size it?s second only to California, and it?s catching up. Just three or four years ago, California was about six to seven times the size of the Jersey market, but last year New Jersey was 60 percent the size of the California market, even though California is four and a half times the size of New Jersey population-wise.

And sometimes it?s ahead in making the mistakes that other states can learn from. We?re leading the way in terms of lessons learned, and what not to do as well.

Source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/21/after-the-storm-a-solar-reckoning/?partner=rss&emc=rss

between two ferns ihop statins chardon sean young juan pablo montoya free pancakes at ihop

Black Friday walkout: Why Walmart is focus of labor's struggle

Walmart's low-cost recipe for success is under attack from the threatened Black Friday walkout as workers protest low wages and benefit cuts. The retailer is fighting back, accusing organized labor of making trouble.

By Gloria Goodale,?Staff writer / November 21, 2012

A worker pulls a line of shopping carts toward a Walmart store in North Kingstown, R.I., Nov. 13. Walmart employees have threatened a Black Friday walkout to protest low wages and benefits cuts.

Steven Senne/AP

Enlarge

As the hottest shopping day of the retail calendar looms, the world?s largest retailer, Walmart, is embroiled in a battle to defend its image, even its formula for success. A growing number of employees, protesting low wages and benefit cuts, is vowing to walk out on Black Friday.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Walmart charges that outside union agitators with the United Food and Commercial workers union (UFCWU) are making trouble. Both sides have filed grievances with the National labor Relations board (NLRB).

Coming alongside the failure of talks between labor and management at yet another iconic American company, Hostess Brands Inc., Walmart?s travails have put a sharp focus on working conditions following the worst post-Depression recession in the nation?s history, say both labor and business experts.

?Walmart has become the poster child for all the issues surrounding labor right now,? says Scott Testa, a Philadelphia-based business consultant and blogger who has studied Walmart?s business practices extensively. The company has implemented aggressive anti-union measures, he notes, closing a store in Canada rather than negotiate.

The issues at stake are not peripheral, says Mr. Testa, adding that they go to the very soul of Walmart?s business model. The Arkansas-based company, founded a half-century ago by Sam Walton, lives and dies by its ability to cut costs, he says.

Testa notes that Walmart has evolved over the years by dwelling on the fringes of urban areas.

?Many of the municipalities where Walmart has thrived were happy to give the company big open spaces of under-used land, where there was no development,? he says, adding that employees in hard-hit regions have been grateful for the jobs.

But now that the company is expanding into major urban areas such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston, ?they are experiencing a kind of worker pushback that they have largely been able to avoid,? adds Testa.

Walmart is not unionized. But?for the first time in the company?s 50-year history, dozens of workers in Southern?California stores went out on strike on Oct. 4. They were not calling for unions, but for?better working conditions and the elimination of retaliatory practices by management. In the past six weeks, the?work stoppages have spread around the country.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/wcWNXCivimU/Black-Friday-walkout-Why-Walmart-is-focus-of-labor-s-struggle

alabama football danielle fishel dow jones Bbc News Selena Gomez ariel winter Paige Butcher

94% Looper

All Critics (231) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (216) | Rotten (15)

The reasoning behind all this may not reward prolonged inspection, but Johnson is smart enough to press onward with his plot, leaving us with neither the time nor the desire to linger over the logic ...

Writer-director Rian Johnson establishes himself as an original talent who clearly believes storytelling must prevail.

A mind-bending ride that is not afraid to slow down now and again, to explore themes of regret and redemption, solitude and sacrifice, love and loss. It's a movie worth seeing and, perhaps, going back to see again.

Looper has more heart than Brick and the 2008 con-man flick The Brothers Bloom. Both fine achievements, they could also be described as viscerally cerebral.

I'm a sucker for time-travel movies.

Looper felt to me like a maddening near-miss ...

Looper is among the cleverest, most skillfully crafted and entertaining sci-fi thrillers of the past 20 years.

The smartest, most stylish and most outright entertaining science-fiction film of the year.

A thought-provoking, heart-pounding take on the applications and ethics of time travel which, oddly enough, doubles up as a lesson in the importance of good parenting.

This is one of those rare genre movies (like the original TERMINATOR) that reminds us that Sci-Fi can be smart. It's much more than just a bunch of special effects and explosions. It's what all movies should aspire to be.

While it sometimes feels like it's trying to do much, Looper manages to be a creditable and exciting sci-fi flick that homages the past while carving out a unique identity.

Much as he did in Brick, Johnson creates a carefully drawn world in Looper that exists by its own particular set of rules.

... has an irresistible energy and a don't-give-a-damn unpredictability ...

Beautifully crafted, acted and written.

Anchors high-concept thrills and captivating ideas in a world of challenging morality and intricate personal consequences.

Truly imaginative but all the twists and turns make the overall film difficult to follow. Plus Gordon-Levitt has not reached leading man status yet.

Kind of a reverse-"Terminator" without any of James Cameron's wit (or wisdom),

An endlessly creative mind-blowing film that captures everything right about the movie going experience. Johnson conjures up the most imaginative action/science fiction film since 'Inception.'

Part science fiction, part mob movie, and with a nice infusion of dark comedy at just the right moments, Looper is Johnson's best movie yet, and manages to be hugely entertaining, affecting, and thought-provoking.

takes us far beyond the film's high-concept premise into the kind of emotional terrain that too often escapes even the best genre filmmakers

Doesn't quite reach the heights of the lofty ideals that it so ardently seeks to expound, but makes up for this with the sheer thrill of the journey Rian Johnson takes us on.

Ingenious with a fine performance by Emily Blunt, but far too much cold-blooded violence.

Engaging, exciting, and successfully cross-breeding elements of Terminator and even Pet Sematary, Looper is a solid work of palatable science-fiction.

Looper's super. An action-thriller that bothers to have a brain.

Looper may not take us back to the future as satisfyingly as Robert Zemeckis' Marty McFly trilogy or James Cameron's Terminator franchise, but writer-director Rian Johnson does enough right to all but guarantee that he has a future cult film on the books.

The best time travel films play on emotion rather than logic, and once Looper realises this and drops all the tail-chasing about how time travel works it settles into the engrossing action/drama about destiny it should have been from the get go.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/looper/

greystone sidney crosby at the drive in alternative minimum tax modeselektor gran torino gloria steinem