Russian city getting back Stalin's name for war commemorations

VOLGOGRAD, Russia (Reuters) - The Russian city of Volgograd will bear Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's name again on Saturday when it marks the 70th anniversary of the epic battle that turned the tide in World War Two.

Local lawmakers adopted a decision to use the name Hero City Stalingrad at events commemorating the 1942-1943 battle on Saturday and on four other days every year including May 9, when Russia marks the Allied victory over Nazi Germany.

The name can officially be used at public events such as parades and in speeches and reports on those days, a statement on the city government website said. It said the decision was made "at the request of many veterans" of the war.

President Vladimir Putin, who has often appealed to Russian pride in the victory in a war in which some 27 million Soviet citizens died, is expected in the Volga River city on Saturday.

Critics call Stalin a murderer for the millions of deaths in his forced collectivization campaign and Gulag prison camps during his rule. Supporters credit him with transforming the Soviet Union into a great power and winning the war.

Soviet forces drove the Nazis westward to defeat after winning the horrific months-long battle of Stalingrad. Named after Stalin in 1925, the city was renamed Volgograd in 1961, during Nikita Khrushchev's "de-Stalinisation" campaign.

(Reporting by Timothy Heritage; Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russian-city-getting-back-stalins-name-war-commemorations-171716304.html

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The cancer toll from cigarettes

DOZENS of new cases of cancer are being reported among Hartlepool?s smokers each year, a study has shown.

Health experts urged more people to quit after statistics showed 98 new smoking-related cancer cases were reported in the town in 2009 and another 83 in 2010.

Research by Cancer Research UK, as well as studies led by Richard Peto at the University of Oxford, found 28 per cent of deaths from cancer in the UK are caused by smoking.

Figures show 14,813 people in the North-East were diagnosed with new cases of cancer in 2009, with 2,874 cases due to smoking.

Of those, 505 people in Hartlepool were diagnosed with new cases of cancer in 2009, with 98 new cases due to smoking.

The North-East had 2,122 deaths in the region from smoking related cancer in 2010, with 83 deaths in Hartlepool from smoking related cancer.

Professor Sir John Burn, the lead clinician for NHS North East and genetics lead for the National Institute of Health Research, said: ?Most damage is fixed by the body?s own clever repair systems, but if cells continue to be damaged by chemicals every day, DNA damage accumulates.?

Quitting smoking, he said, would stop any new damage from happening.

Ailsa Rutter, director of the anti-smoking group Fresh, said: ?Too many cherished mums, dads and grandparents die before their time every year as a result of smoking related cancers, leaving loved ones behind.

?We need to recognise that smoking is an addiction promoted by an industry with no regard for people?s health, only its profits.?

Anyone wanting to quit smoking can contact:

Stockton and Hartlepool NHS Stop Smoking Service on (01642) 383819.

NHS Smokefree on 0800 0224332, text Smokefree to 80800 or visit www.smokefree.nhs.uk

Details are also available from your local pharmacy or GP surgery.

Source: http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/the-cancer-toll-from-cigarettes-1-5363888

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Actor Jason London arrested after Ariz. bar fight

PHOENIX (AP) ? Authorities say actor Jason London has been arrested on suspicion of assault and disorderly conduct after an Arizona bar fight.

Scottsdale police say London allegedly sneezed on a man who then asked him to apologize, but London refused and instead hit the man in the face.

The Arizona Republic (http://bit.ly/VoULau ) says the two men were escorted out of the bar, but London began pushing and cursing at firefighters trying to treat him and appeared extremely drunk. He was arrested early Monday.

London's Twitter account says "some guy thought I was hitting on his girl" and that several large bouncers beat him, breaking bones in his face. London added, "the truth will win" and "I hate Arizona."

London is best known for the 1993 movie "Dazed and Confused."

___

Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-01-29-People-Jason%20London/id-40a9ed024c6c45429f4e10c3a9d720f3

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Socially acceptable: NCAA rules changes give coaches new way to connect to recruits

College coaches love the new recruiting rule. High school coaches don?t.

In June, the NCAA approved a rule that permits Division-I men?s basketball coaches to send unlimited text messages and make unlimited phone calls to recruits who have finished their sophomore year of high school. The rule also allows college coaches to send private messages to their prospects via Facebook and Twitter. Any public messages about a team?s recruiting efforts are still prohibited.

?I think it?s been a great change in the fact that it allows us as coaches and also the prospects to further develop a relationship,? said Matthew Graves, associate head coach at Butler. ?It?s been a big positive, especially being able to text a recruit after he?s had a big game. It?s more of an immediate response.?

Previously, the NCAA limited the coaches? ability to contact players to just one phone call per month. The NCAA approved the deregulation as part of a new recruiting model intended to help develop stronger relationships between coaches and recruits while limiting the influence of third parties. On Aug. 1, a similar rule will be applied to NCAA football recruiters.

Six months after the rule was put into effect in basketball, coaches at the college level are pleased with the outcome of the rule and how the recruiting process has evolved.

Before the NCAA altered the rules, recruiters? options were limited to sending emails, a hand-written note or relaying a message through a high school or AAU coach, Graves said. Now, recruiters can receive feedback from a player much more quickly after a notable performance by either the recruit or the college team.

Some recruiters use direct messages on Twitter to interact with players, but Graves and Syracuse assistant coach Mike Hopkins said they use Twitter to follow recruits and keep themselves informed of the recruiting spectrum.

Twitter is also useful to build hype around a program, Hopkins said. He pointed to how Kentucky head coach John Calipari has tweeted about his interactions with celebrities such as Jay-Z and Charlie Sheen, tweets that could catch the eyes of a potential Wildcat.

But for one-on-one communication, Graves and Hopkins don?t use Twitter or Facebook. They instead use phone calls and text messaging, two methods that Syracuse commit Ron Patterson said he preferred to be contacted by during his recruiting period.

Hopkins said face-to-face exchanges are optimal, but being able to respond to texts at his convenience makes texting a valuable tool as well. The ability to text more than one recruit at a time is another perk of texting for Hopkins. Even 68-year-old Jim Boeheim texts, Hopkins said.

?I?m telling you, it?s about texting. It?s awesome,? Hopkins said. ?It?s a form of communication where they know you?re still actively recruiting them.?

Hopkins doesn?t like to be an ?overbearing? recruiter, which he thinks can be a positive and negative mentality. When building a relationship with a recruit, he said, it?s important to gauge just how frequently the recruiter should speak with the player.

Graves said text messages have become so popular among recruiters because of the very prospects with which they interact.

?Let?s face it, that?s the way kids like to communicate, via text, and they can do it on their own time,? Graves said. ?And you?re not being overly intrusive and it?s just been a great way to open up another way to communicate.?

The best recruiters, Graves said, will find the best ways to recruit, whether they use hand-written notes or adapt to new technology to communicate. A younger coach doesn?t necessarily have an edge over an older coach, said Jon Boon, the head coach at Bishop Kearney High School in Rochester, N.Y.

Boeheim still lands good recruits, Boon said, and so does Duke?s 65-year-old head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Age isn?t a big factor in how recruiting is communicated, Boon said.

?To be honest with you, it doesn?t really change a whole lot because they don?t contact the high school coaches very much anyway,? said Boon. ?? They have too much direct contact, in my opinion.?

Boon said recruiting violations and ongoing investigations across the country are the results of players and recruiters directly communicating with each other. Nobody is required to inform a high school coach when recruiters contact his players, he said.

Since June, the NCAA has investigated UCLA ? owner of the No. 2 recruiting class in the country ? Central Florida, Tennessee and Saint Mary?s for potential violations.

Cheaters will cheat, Boon said, regardless of how the process works. But violators now have an easier path to do so, since they aren?t required to communicate through anybody else.

Boon said a third person needs to oversee the recruiter-recruit interaction. The procedure would improve for everyone, he said, if it returned to the way it used to operate, when recruiters contacted recruits through the high school.

?I don?t know if there?s a right answer to the whole situation,? Boon said. ?I just think there?s too much direct contact with the kids.?

Recently, there was a football player at Bishop Kearney, Boon recalled, who was overwhelmed by the 30-40 phone calls he received each night from college coaches who were permitted to contact him directly ? there was a brief period where the rule fluctuated.

?He hastily made a decision to go to a school and by his own account, he made the wrong decision. And he had no one to kind of help him,? Boon said. ?But the way the system is set up, it?s not done that way.?

He has issues with the new rules, but Boon admitted he would recruit the same way if he were in that position.

Carl Arrigale, the head basketball coach at Neumann-Goretti High School in Philadelphia, has an issue with college coaches texting players during school hours, distracting them from their classes. It takes away from the recruits? high school experience, he believes.

Still, he recognizes the complexity of the situation.

?To be honest with you, I?m saying there should be restrictions on what you can do, (but) who?s going to know? It?s such a hard thing to monitor,? Arrigale said. ?I mean, coaches get fired when they don?t have winning seasons anymore, so you almost can?t blame them for wanting an advantage. They need players to survive. It?s a catch-22.?

Graves agreed the system isn?t fair, but believes it?s because of a ?staff-to-staff issue,? not an issue with the rules. When Butler?s coaches recruit, Graves said, they keep the high school coaches as involved and informed as possible because they feel it?s the proper way to communicate.

Regardless of whether the NCAA?s rules are flawed, Graves said it?s imperative that recruiters obey them and uphold the standards of the NCAA as they compete against each other for the next generation of student-athletes.

?I think it?s our job as coaches to be responsible,? Graves said. ?To utilize it in a way that will help enhance the process and getting to know not only the recruit, but their whole situation.?

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb

Source: http://blogs.dailyorange.com/2013/01/socially-acceptable-ncaa-rules-changes-give-coaches-new-way-to-connect-to-recruits/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=socially-acceptable-ncaa-rules-changes-give-coaches-new-way-to-connect-to-recruits

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How to Develop Your Life for the Benefit of Everyone | Healthy ...

Webmaster | January 30, 2013 (8 hours ago) | no comments

Let?s start this short article on self-improvement tips with a summary of how to go about improving (and developing) your self ? possibly the best self-improvement advice I could give you, in fact:

?The person who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.? ? Chinese proverb

It is true that, no matter where you find yourself, and no matter where you want to go, it is only by continually taking small steps that you can effectively progress further on your journey.

This is deceptively simple self-improvement advice. But powerful, nevertheless. There is always something you can do today to get you where you want to be tomorrow.

And your journey?s progress will always be smoother, always, if you take each step with a heart of gratitude. If you can accept what today offers you, even if it is ?less? than you would want from it, and if you can instead notice what you do get from this day, then your journey will be a happier one.

Practicing gratitude, like most things self-improvement, is easier said than done, but it is possible.

Perhaps the first step to take in being grateful is to stop and take notice of any of your friends, colleagues or family members who already do this. Model yourself on those people, and imagine how they would react to a certain situation.

By the way, it?s much better to surround yourself with the kind of person you want to be rather than the kind of person you don?t like being?

?Do not listen to those who weep and complain, for their disease is contagious.? ? Og Mandino

Indeed, Og, indeed.

Okay, some other areas of your life that you would benefit greatly from by improving (as would the people in your life) include:

* Anger Management

This doesn?t mean never being angry, nor does it mean being angry all the time. Instead it means a healthy expression of anger, as and when it occurs. Then forget it, and get on with life.

* Assertiveness

Again, this doesn?t mean always getting your way ? no matter the validity of the other person?s position. Instead, and much better, is to aim towards a mutual win-win situation where both parties have been heard, and both parties feel a fair outcome has been reached. Assertiveness is NOT about winning ? that is known as ?bullying?.

* Fear

There are so many fears in the world ? fear of success, fear of failure, fear of dying, fear of living, fear of commitment, fear of intimacy, fear of heights, fear of spiders? And whilst some of these fears may well be understandable, all of them are irrational, and do not serve any of us that well as we strive to lead full lives.

So overcoming these fears, at a deep level rather than at an intellectual level, WILL improve life?s possibilities for you.

Just got to get started, facing these fears, each and every day.

* Love

I bet you didn?t know that love is the opposite of fear.

Yes, a love for life, and how it flows, will always overcome a fear of life. A love for self ? the ?good bits? and the ?bad? ? will always create a person who can love others (and not fear them). A love of everything will always be more enjoyable than a fear of everything.

Love more, fear less, and BE more?

?

So let me finish this short self-improvement tips article, as I started it, with one of those self-improvement inspirational quotes you simply cannot argue with. Ruth Casey?s words are blunt, and to the point, as you?ll see, but never mind?

?It only takes one person to change your life ? you.? ? Ruth Casey

Yes, you are all you need to start improving your life today! And ain?t that a marvellous thing?

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Source: http://www.healthylifestyleplus.com/spirit/how-to-develop-your-life-for-the-benefit-of-everyone/

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Bryan Singer Talks X-Men: Days of Future Past

We?re not even a month through 2013 yet, but Bryan Singer?s X-Men: Days of Future Past is probably one of the most-anticipated films of 2014.? He?s been wielding his Twitter account to release casting news, and a couple days ago he revealed that Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, and Shawn Ashmore will be joining a massive cast that already includes James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and Hugh Jackman.? Speaking to Empire, Singer said, ?It?s epic. I don?t think people realize how big this movie?s going to be.?? Oh, we realize it, Mr. Singer.? We realize it indeed.

Hit the jump for what Singer had to say about managing the time-travel, adapting the comic, and considering the previous X-Men movies.? X-Men: Days of Future Past is due out July 18, 2014.

For those unfamiliar with the comic, it involves a post-apocalyptic future where giant robots called Sentinels have almost completely exterminated all mutants.? Through the power of fellow mutant Rachel, an adult Kitty Pryde is able to switch minds with her younger self so she can warn the X-Men of an assassination that would trigger a chain of events leading to the horrible future.

Singer tells Empire that they?ve managed to come up with the time travel rules that will allow the X-Men: First Class characters cross with the original X-Men characters:

?We?ve cracked it in a way that it makes sense. I had a two-hour conversation with James Cameron about time travel, string theory, multiverses and all that. You have to create your rules and stick wtih them. That?s why Terminator and Back To The Future work so well. And there are certain mechanisms in X-Men, certain powers, perceptions, and characters that make this possible.?

Does this mean that Rachel will be in the movie?? It sounds like Singer is headed in that direction since he says that they will be drawing from the comic:

?It has a lot of aspects of the comic. The actual comic of Days Of Future Past had a whole ton of stuff going on, so it?s like any of these things; you have to distill it. But I think the fans will be pleased that some of the most exciting parts of Days Of Future Past are going to be connected to this movie.?

By the time Days of Future Past opens, it will be the seventh X-Men movie, and Singer says that he?ll be taking all of the previous films into consideration, although there will be some ?clean-up? as well:

?I?m taking into account every movie ? I?m not just grabbing my first two movies and First Class and smashing them together. I?m taking into account the entire universe as it?s been laid out so far on the screen, and really respecting it and trying to work with that. People took things in various directions, so there?s some clean-up. But ultimately I?m not just ignoring them either.?

Still excited?? I know I am.

?

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1926738/news/1926738/

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Tiger Woods in control at Torrey Pines

SAN DIEGO (AP) ? Due to the fog that wiped out an entire day of golf, the Farmers Insurance Open was never going to end on Sunday.

Tiger Woods just made it look as if it was over.

Hands thrust in the pockets of his rain pants, Woods walked off Torrey Pines in the chill of twilight with a six-shot lead and only 11 more holes standing in the way of winning on the public course along the Pacific Ocean for the eighth time in his pro career.

He drove the ball with superb control in the third round on his way to a 3-under 69 to build a four-shot lead after three rounds. He lost control with his driver in the fourth round and still managed three birdies in seven holes.

"All we can do tomorrow is go out and try to make him think about it a little bit and see what happens," said Nick Watney, one of two former winners at Torrey Pines who faced the tough task of trying to make up six shots on Woods.

The other was defending champion Brandt Snedeker.

"I've got a guy at the top of the leaderboard that doesn't like giving up leads," Snedeker said. "So I have to go catch him."

Woods was at 17-under par for the tournament and will resume his round on the par-3 eighth hole. CBS Sports wants to televise the Monday finish ? no surprise with Woods in the lead ? so play won't start until 2 p.m. EST.

Snedeker played 13 holes of the final round. Watney played eight holes. Both were at 11-under par.

Woods played 25 holes. He started with a two-shot lead and tripled it before darkness suspended the final round.

"It was a long day ... and I played well today," Woods said. "Overall, I'm very pleased that I was able to build on my lead."

Thick fog washed out all of Saturday, forcing players to go from sunrise to sunset Sunday. They finished the third round, took about 30 minutes for lunch and went right back onto the golf course.

Woods finished 54 holes at 14-under 202 and was four shots ahead of Canadian rookie Brad Fritsch. It was the 16th time in his PGA Tour career that Woods had a 54-hole lead of at least four shots.

If that wasn't enough to make the outcome look inevitable, everything was going his way in the final hour.

His tee shot was so far left on No. 2 that the ball finished in the first cut of rough in the sixth fairway. He still saved par. Woods made a birdie putt of about 10 feet on No. 3, and then wound up well right of the cart path and blocked by a tree on the fourth hole. He carved a punch shot around the tree, safely in front of the green, and his chip banged into the pin and dropped for birdie.

Two holes later, from a mangled lie in the right rough, he smashed a 5-wood that ran onto the green and set up a two-putt birdie.

Snedeker was seven shots behind after three rounds, the same deficit he faced a year ago. Only now he's trying to chase down Woods, already a seven-time winner at Torrey Pines with a daunting record from in front. Woods is 38-2 on the PGA Tour when he has the outright lead going into the last round.

"I've got to make some more birdies," Snedeker said. "I've got a long way to go. I did a great job today of staying patient and playing good golf."

Woods didn't bother wearing red Sunday, knowing the tournament wouldn't end until the next day.

In some respects, though, it had the feeling of being over. Fritsch birdied the last hole of the third round for a 70 to finish on 206. Erik Compton finished birdie-eagle for a 71 and was alone in third through 54 holes, five shots behind. When someone asked him about chasing Woods, Compton started laughing.

"I'm trying to chase myself," he said.

Woods has won seven times at Torrey Pines as a pro, including a U.S. Open, and another win Monday would give him the most wins on any course. He also has seven wins at Bay Hill and Firestone. Sam Snead won the Greater Greensboro Open eight times, but only four times on one course.

Woods attributed his lead to "the whole package."

"I've driven the ball well, I've hit my irons well, and I've chipped and putted well," he said. "Well, I've hit good putts. They all haven't gone in."

Woods had superb control of his tee shots and was rarely out of position on a day that began under a light drizzle and soon gave way to patchy clouds and clear views of the Pacific surf below the bluffs.

Starting with a two-shot lead, he stretched that quickly with a tap-in birdie on the second hole and a beautiful tee shot to a left pin on the downhill par 3 to about 4 feet. The South Course played even longer with the soft conditions, and only seven players broke 70. Aaron Baddeley had the lowest score of the round with a 68.

Woods managed to stretch his lead with pars, though he was always on the attack because of his position in the fairway.

He missed a downhill birdie putt from 4 feet on the par-5 ninth, and then came back with a wedge that landed near the hole at No. 10 and spun back next to the cup before it settled 4 feet away for a birdie putt that he made.

He led by as many as six strokes in the third round until Fritsch birdied the last hole and Woods, playing in the group behind, ran into trouble. His tee shot rolled up near the lip of the bunker, and he advanced it 70 yards into deep rough. He swung hard through the thick, wet grass into a greenside bunker, and then missed his 8-foot par putt.

Still, it was an ominous sign.

One week after he missed the cut in Abu Dhabi ? thanks to a two-shot penalty he received after his round for taking relief from an embedded lie on the fifth hole when the rules didn't allow for it ? he looked as good as ever.

"As I said, I didn't play that poorly," Woods said of his short week in the Middle East. "I played well enough to be there on the weekend, and could have gotten two more rounds competitively, but I didn't really play poorly. I thought I did a lot of good things. Just wanted to continue that this week, and I have."

Woods has a 49-4 record on the PGA Tour when he has at least a share of the 54-hole lead, and it's even more daunting when the lead is his alone. The only two players to come from behind to beat him over the final 18 holes were Ed Fiori in the Quad City Classic in 1996 when Woods was a 20-year-old rookie, and Y.E. Yang in the 2009 PGA Championship a Hazeltine.

In worldwide events, Thomas Bjorn (Dubai), Lee Westwood (Germany) and Graeme McDowell (Chevron World Challenge) have made up deficits against him on the last day.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tiger-woods-control-torrey-pines-011416076--spt.html

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Pronoun-Antecedent Reference and Agreement | Barron's Test Prep ...

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By Dave Bezaire & Susi Havens-Bezaire (Flickr: Crab Traps 1) CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0), via Wikimedia Commons

Look at these crab traps, think about how each one is perfectly designed to lure its bait,?structurally?engineered for an easy entrance, but a nearly impossible exit, dropped in places where the crabs will easily find them, and enough traps to ensure that the fishermen will get their just reward. Now, imagine that you are the crab, and the test makers are the fisherman, intent on serving you for dinner. But instead of setting traps with string, metal, netting, and buoys, they use sentences, phrases, and words. One favorite trap of theirs involves pronouns and their antecedents.

THE RULE

A pronoun replaces a noun and must be consistent with the noun in number and gender. In grammar-speak, this consistency is known as agreement. Although a seemingly straightforward rule, errors involving pronouns and antecedents occur often, and usually in causal conversations. Test makers love to exploit these discrepancies between speech and formal writing in order to test a student?s actual knowledge of grammar rules.

HOW TO CORRECT THE ERROR

INCORRECT:?Each of the elephants lounged lazily in the sun while they sucked trunk-sized amounts of mud and water out of the marsh to spray on their backs.

1. Change the pronoun (a common way to fix the problem on the test)

CORRECT:?Each?of the elephants lounged lazily in the sun while?it sucked trunk-sized amounts of mud and water out of the marsh to spray on?its backs.

2. Change the antecedent

CORRECT: All the elephants lounged lazily in the sun while?they?sucked trunk-sized amounts of mud and water out of the marsh to spray on?their?backs.

3. Rewrite the sentence

CORRECT:?Sucking trunk-sized amounts of mud and water out of the marsh to spray on?their?backs, the elephants lounged lazily in the sun.

ON THE GMAT, ACT, & SAT

When the portion of an underlined sentence contains a pronoun, you will need to run through a mental checklist of common pronoun-antecedent errors (luckily I have a list below for you ). To begin with, practice with a list near you of the common errors so you can actually run through a checklist, but as you progress, you will need the list less and less.

1. Ignore Modifying Phrases:?Test makers lay traps for students, but their traps are standardized, repeated, and ultimately, easy to spot. One common trap is to disguise the true antecedent by placing a modifying phrase between it and the pronoun. Unfocused, tired, and novice students identify a plural noun in the?modifying?phrase or fail to find an antecedent at all. Thus, ignore?modifying?phrases?when checking for pronoun-antecedent agreement.

2. Clarify Ambiguous Pronouns:?Perhaps no error is more loved in grammar by testmakers than ambiguous pronoun reference. When a sentence contains more than one word that the pronoun can refer to, confusion occurs. This error is made in casual speech, which makes it difficult to identify unless students know the rule.

3. Beware of?Possessive?Pronouns:?Another way to confuse test takers is by using a possessive noun, like Doug?s or Aki?s. Always look past these possessive pronouns?an antecedent cannot be implied in a sentence and must be stated explicitly?to the word modified by the?possessive?pronoun: Doug?s bicycles?or Aki?s jellyfish.

4. Beware Indefinite Pronouns:?Indefinite pronouns are tricky. In casual conversation, many people mistakenly use indefinite pronouns as if they were plural. As a?result, your inner ear might be compromised by the casual speech of podcasts, songs, announcers, anchors, and friends. Make sure that you know the indefinite pronouns and make sure that you choose an answer that treats them as singular.

Possessive Pronouns: anybody, anyone, anything, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, neither, nobody, no one, somebody, someone, something

5. Beware of Collective Nouns:?Collective nouns are loved by test makers and loathed by test takers. These nouns, which refer to collections or groups as a whole, are sometimes treated singular, sometimes plural, and so test makers have many options to ensnare and befuddle students.?Your only recourse is to determine the intended meaning of the sentence: is the group acting together or are the members in the group acting individually within the group??Often, though, test makers will write faulty sentences by treating the collective noun as singular when it should be plural.

Common Collective Nouns:?party, committee, class, audience, crowd, troop, family, council, assembly

6. Nouns Combined with?and, or, & nor:?Test makers lay traps with and, or, and nor not only involving verbs, but also involving pronouns. The rules for subject-verb agreement apply here?nouns joined by and are plural; the last noun in a sequence or pair joined by or and nor will dictate whether it is singular or plural. Do a quick check to make sure the pronoun properly agrees with these combined nouns in the sentence.

7. this, that, which, and it:?As pronouns, this, that, which, and it cannot replace entire sentences, ideas or concepts. Check to make sure that an antecedent is in the sentence for these words to refer to, not just implied. To resolve, look for answer choices that add an antecedent to the sentnence.

Source: http://barronstestprep.com/blog/pronoun-antecedent-reference-and-agreement/

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Report: Pentagon to boost cybersecurity force fivefold

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon plans to assign significantly more personnel in coming years to counter increasing threats against U.S. government computer networks and conduct offensive operations against foreign foes, a U.S. defense official said on Sunday.

The plan, which would increase both military and civilian staffing at U.S. Cyber Command, comes as the Pentagon moves toward elevating the new command and putting it on the same level as the major combatant commands.

The official said no formal decisions had been made on the expanding staffing levels or changing Cyber Command into a "unified" command like U.S. Strategic Command, which currently oversees cyber command and the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal.

Any changes to the combatant command structure would be made based on strategic and operational needs, and take into account the need for efficient use of taxpayer dollars, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

The Pentagon was working closely with U.S. Cyber Command and the major military commands to develop "the optimum force structure for successfully operating in cyberspace," the official said.

The Washington Post, quoting senior defense officials, reported late Sunday that the Pentagon had decided to expand Cyber Command's current staffing level of 900 to 4,900 in coming years.

The official confirmed that Cyber Command planned to expand its force significantly, but said the specific numbers cited by the Post were "pre-decisional."

The newspaper said senior Pentagon officials had agreed to increase the force late last year amid a string of attacks, including one that wiped out more than 30,000 computers at a Saudi Arabian state oil company. it said

The plan calls for creating three types of force under the Cyber Command, said the defense official.

"National mission forces," would protect computer systems that undergird electrical grids and other kinds of infrastructure. "Combat mission forces," would help commanders abroad execute attacks or other offensive operations, while "cyber protection forces," would focus on protecting the Defense Department's own systems.

Details were still being worked out, the official said.

(Reporting by Sarah Lynch and Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pentagon-boost-cybersecurity-force-fivefold-report-034248436.html

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10 Things to Know for Monday

A protester throws a tear gas canister back at riot police during clashes near Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. Clashes continued for the fourth successive day between protesters and police near Tahrir square, birthplace of the 2011 uprising. Police used tear gas, while the protesters pelted them with rocks. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

A protester throws a tear gas canister back at riot police during clashes near Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. Clashes continued for the fourth successive day between protesters and police near Tahrir square, birthplace of the 2011 uprising. Police used tear gas, while the protesters pelted them with rocks. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Police investigators inspect the entrance of the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria city, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. Flames raced through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing more than 230 people as panicked partygoers gasped for breath in the smoke-filled air, stampeding toward a single exit partially blocked by those already dead. (AP Photo/Nabor Goulart)

Actresses Freida Pinto, left, and Jessica Chastain arrive at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Monday:

1. WHY THE TOLL WAS SO HIGH IN BRAZIL

More than 230 were killed in Santa Maria when smoke engulfed a crowded club and panicked partiers headed for a single exit.

2. WHERE NEWS OF THE FIRE HIT HOME IN THE US

Memories are still fresh in Warwick, R.I., the scene of a pyrotechnics-sparked nightclub blaze that killed 100 in 2003.

3. MORSI'S ANGRY CALL FOR CALM IN EGYPT

Taking to TV, the president warns he'll do whatever is necessary to quell three days of unrest that has left more than 50 dead.

4. THE STARK NUMBERS ON AMERICAN ELDER ABUSE

As many as 1 in 10 seniors may suffer some form of injury, exploitation or neglect, a number that could climb as Baby Boomers age.

5. THE SURPRISING REACH OF ACTIVITY IN THE WORLD'S CITIES

Heat rising up from New York, Paris and Tokyo might be remotely warming up winters far away as Alaska, Canada, and Siberia.

6. WHO'S MAKING A SCORE ON GAS DRILLING

Private landowners are reaping billions in royalties from the U.S. boom, transforming lives and livelihoods in more than a dozen states.

7. HOW SOME KIDS ARE BEING TAUGHT BETTER IN REVERSE

In the technology-driven "flipped learning," classroom lectures become the homework and school time is for practice.

8. IT'S OK TO USE YOUR PHONE IN THESE THEATERS

As long as you're in the "tweet seats," a growing number of venues, including some on Broadway, are good with real-time uses of social media.

9. "ARGO" PICKS UP TOP SAG HONOR

The CIA thriller won for top overall cast performance, boosting its Oscar prospects.

10. THE TWO FACES YOU COULD SEE THE MOST ON SUPER SUNDAY

Jack and Jackie Harbaugh, parents of the opposing coaches in the Ravens-49ers matchup, will be sought after by CBS-TV's parent cam.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-27-10%20Things%20to%20Know-Monday/id-a30235859863445ab3e7139397be76a5

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Fog delays 3rd round at Torrey Pines

SAN DIEGO (AP) ? Tiger Woods is going to have to wait to pursue a seventh win at Torrey Pines.

Three players completed one hole Saturday before fog wiped out virtually the entire day at the Farmers insurance Opens. Players are to resume the round Sunday morning and play as long as daylight allows, and then finish Monday.

Woods, who had a two-shot lead over Billy Horschel, never came to the golf course.

Players spent most of the day hitting shots on the range that they couldn't see land. The only golf that was played was after a three-hour delay in the morning.

It will be the second of four PGA Tour events this year that went an extra day. The Tournament of Champions was reduced to 54 holes and completed on Tuesday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fog-delays-3rd-round-torrey-pines-193339141--golf.html

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Dogs and Humans Co-Evolved, Evidence Mounts Dogs and Wolves ...

It's clear dogs evolved alongside people. The evidence continues to mount. New research suggests dogs can digest carbohydrates far better than wolves can, and gaining that ability may have been an important step in taming the animals, as discovered by evolutionary geneticist Erik Axelsson of Uppsala University in Sweden and his colleagues report online January 23 in?Nature. Axelsson said that their findings show that the digestive system of dogs have adapted to be able to live on a diet similar to ours.

Comparing dog to wolf DNA, the authors pinpointed several changes in starch and sugar-processing genes that was presumably adapted early dogs to better able to digest the scraps they scarfed at the edge of human settlements.

And that's how it happened. Lots of evidence by those who study this sort of thing had suggested that a long lost relative of today's dog (a relative of today's wolf) began to take interest thousands of years ago in human settlements because they ate the trash which?bordered?these places. The clean-up crew benefited the humans. What's more they'd howl to warn of predators, big, giant sabre-toothed types, who were dangerous to people as well.

"Ah ha," said those early people, "This early warning is an inexpensive security system."

Okay - maybe they didn't put it in those words....but what happened from there - pretty quickly, over hundreds of years, some bold individuals began to go inside the human settlements (where they may have received extra food and protection) and had their puppies there. Those pups grew up to be trusted friends who would eventually accompany men on hunts, and provide further protection of the settlement. The relatives of dogs received food, and the symbiotic association between people and dogs began - and, of course, continues to this day. People thousands of years ago were even?buried?with dogs - suggesting the human/animal bond isn't a new?phenomenon.

According to Axelsson, the food our?ancestors?fed the early dogs wasn't exactly Royal Canin, it was a combination of roots, porridge and possibly bread. Of course, dogs chomped on bones of whatever they helped people to catch, and likely were fed scraps of meat.

No one knows for sure when or where the first true dogs came into being, likely their appearance even pre-dates Larry King, experts suggest around 12,000 years ago. ?Of course, over time, the relationship continued and some dogs bred?specifically?bred for various tasks, to hunt and to guard were likely the first, and later to herd, and eventually just to be our devoted friends.

So when a handful of dog trainers (like Cesar Millan) and others compare dogs and wolves, it's really no different than comparing people and gorillas.

(This post was suggested by Facebook friend Howard Miller)

Source: http://www.chicagonow.com/steve-dales-pet-world/2013/01/dogs-and-humans-co-evolved-evidence-mounts-dogs-and-wolves-more-different-than-we-think/

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Begin Using These Colin Kaepernick Jersey Ways To Create Your ...

? Posted by FavorsKatelin921 on Jan 26, 2013 in STEP UP News | Comments Off

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Source: http://stepupsite.com/begin-using-these-colin-kaepernick-jersey-ways-to-create-your-self-improvement-profitable/

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Jill Lepore: How Much Military Is Enough?

The New Yorker:

SSixty-two legislators sit on the House Armed Services Committee, the largest committee in Congress. Since January, 2011, when Republicans took control of the House, the committee has been chaired by Howard P. McKeon, who goes by Buck.

Read the whole story at The New Yorker

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/26/jill-lepore_n_2558158.html

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Brand New Unopened Wireless Microsoft Touch Mouse Portland ...

Home ? Computer ? Brand New Unopened Wireless Microsoft Touch Mouse Portland Computers Hardware hardware technology

Brand new, unopened wireless Microsoft Touch Mouse with BlueTrack technology. This mouse has a multi-touch surface that lets you use 1, 2, and 3-fingers gestures to navigate in Windows PCs. It?s 60 dollars at Staples; I?m selling it for $48. No need to pay for shipping or waiting for it to arrive, just send me an email and it?s yours.

A few key features:

??? Exclusively for Windows 7 ? Touch Mouse takes advantage of the enhanced features of Windows 7 to make you more productive

??? BlueTrack Technology ? BlueTrack Technology allows this multitouch mouse to go virtually anywhere

??? Plug-And-Go Nano Transceiver ? Leave the Nano Transceiver plugged in when you?re on the go, or stow it in the mouse

??? Contoured shape ? Superior comfort that?s designed to fit your hand

??? One Finger ? Scroll, flick, or pan any direction for quick navigation. Sweep your thumb to go forward or back

??? Two Fingers ? Snap to see your windows side by side, or maximize and minimize

??? Three Fingers ? Show all open windows or reveal your desktop

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/products/touch-mouse/microsite/

Categories: Computer Tags: AllInOne, Computers, Copier, Hardware, Haute, Printer, Scanner, Terre

Source: http://www.ceprot.com/brand-new-unopened-wireless-microsoft-touch-mouse-portland-computers-hardware-hardware-technology/

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Should You Ever Deviate from your Customer Service Systems ...

Nina L. Kaufman, Esq.

An award-winning small business attorney in New York City, Nina is a sought-after professional speaker and Entrepreneur Magazine online contributor. She is the go-to counsel for knowledge economy and creative companies, delivering legal services and educational resources that save them time, money, and aggravation.

Posted on January 26, 2013 in All Systems Go!

On a recent trip to Santa Monica, my husband and I stopped into 24 Hour Fitness Express. Armed with a free three-day pass and dressed to sweat, I was ready to climb the Stairmaster and pretend to work off the previous night?s dark chocolate lava cake dessert.

Only there was a problem?I hadn?t carefully read the fine print (my inner lawyer had obviously accepted this time as vacation), which clearly stated the special offer was open to ?Local residents only.? ?No way midtown Manhattan could be ?local? to Los Angeles.

Membership Counselor James Sandoval took this all in stride, smiling like he could have been Manti Te?o?s twin brother (if he had one).? ?Let me talk to my manager,? he said.

James reported back within a matter of minutes.? 24 Hour Fitness Express was prepared to honor the three-day pass nonetheless?not just for the first day, but for all three days.? Wow!? I had steeled myself for paying the gym?s day rate. Gratefully, I accepted this unexpected gift?a real bright spot in my morning.

From a customer service systems perspective, though, did this make sense?? Clearly, the Club had systems for membership. Systems for marketing to local residents.? In-gym systems for welcoming people. If systems = efficiency, what would make a company deviate from their systems?

After my workout, I asked James and the Club?s Manager, Ivana Spasic. If we weren?t local, why be so generous?? They shared several important facets of the Club?s philosophy?and their approach to customer service:

• We recognize it?s hard to work out and simple to?walk out; let?s make it easier for people to stay
• We?re committed to helping people get fit and healthy in a friendly and welcoming environment
• We see ourselves as ambassadors for the whole network of 24 Hour Fitness clubs

When have you made exceptions to your customer service systems rules? How did that work out for you?

Tagged as: 24 Hour Fitness Express, business systems, customer service, customer service systems

Source: http://askthebusinesslawyer.com/blog/2013/01/26/deviate-customer-service-systems.html

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RebelMouse Hires Former CNNMoney And VaynerMedia Talent To Build Out Its Content And Partnerships

RebelMouse, a content aggregation and curation site that lets users set up a profile and pull in content from their social networking accounts, as well as other sources, has hired some key former employees from CNNMoney and VaynerMedia. Since launching to the public last June, RebelMouse has had 240K sites created and is hitting 1.5 million unique monthly visitors to its landing pages. The company tells us that it has seen a big demand from publishers, and has partnered with TIM magazine for its person-of-the year campaign. Additionally, it worked with C-Span for the presidential inauguration, will power an ESPN Magazine online experience for the Super Bowl and continues to bring in movie and television properties to create their own “portals.” To help RebelMouse build out these partnerships and plans for the future, it has hired former CNNMoney social product lead Niketa Patel as Director of Content and Stephanie Bagley from VaynerMedia as Director of Partnerships. This is an interesting hire since Gary Vaynerchuk, founder of VaynerMedia, is an investor and advisor in RebelMouse. Both will report to Sam Epstein, RebelMouse’s VIP of Platform, who previously worked at Google and HuffingtonPost. Yes, this is the beginning of a power team in content curation and distribution. In addition to these roles, the RebelMouse development team is now at 24, and has added both iOS and Android specialists to build out its mobile offerings. I spoke with RebelMouse CEO, Paul Berry, about where the company is now and what we can expect from it in the future. TC: What direction do you see RebelMouse heading? Berry: RebelMouse is solving a core problem with publishing on the realtime and social web. Everyone’s efforts are fragmented working on each network, and everyone needs to bring it all together to show who they are and highlight their efforts and the best of their community. We believe enterprise and individuals are increasingly using the same tools and this is a perfect example for that. Big publishers and brands will use RebelMouse to power more and more sections of their websites. RebelMouse will stick with a freemium model where rebelmouse.com/You is always going to be free, but you can pay as you use RebelMouse to power your domain and engage with more sophisticated features. RebelMouse should be the solution everyone uses, from companies with massive revenue or traffic to small companies. We believe we can apply a

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/DmoRyS6uq5A/

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What Blank Tapes Did You Use?

A decade ago, even after CD burners were ubiquitous, mixtapes were still the jam. It really mattered what kind of tapes you used. If you went cheap, it meant you didn't care about what was recorded on them. Shame on you. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/HWYI3UXepCo/what-blank-tapes-did-you-use

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RSA Launches Business Continuity, Mobile App | Channelnomics

RSA, the security division of EMC Corp. is taking business continuity and disaster recovery offerings to a new level ? the mobile platform.

The release comes as two-fold ?addition to its RSA Archer product suite that includes Archer Business Continuity Management and Operations solution, and the RSA Archer BCM Mobile App.

RSA?s Archer Business Continuty Management and Operations Solutions, derived from the Archer platform the company acquired in 2010, is a business continuity solution, which also incorporates disaster recovery and crisis management. But it also features integrations into other GRC mechanisms such as risk, incident ?and third-party management capabilities.

Among its highlighted features are a risk register, business impact analysis capabilitis, and centrally managed business continuity and disaster recovery plans, as well as enhanced crisis management and response and tighter integration with other RSA Archer GRC mechanisms.

This time, the latest version includes the addition of a mobile component, RSA Archer BCM Mobile app, which equips iPhone and iPad users with a spate of tools contained in the physical Archer solutions intended to get users up and running in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency.

The mobile app comes as an extension of the physical solution, designed to enable rapid response during a crisis situation by offering yet another window into business continuity or disaster recovery plans that often includes strategies, calling trees and other requirements.

If the data is not available, the mobile app provides high availability that allows users to obtain offline access to resources from the time the app was last synced. Additional capabilities include a Mobile App Toolkit, which allows customers to create and design custom applications that include questionnaires and assessments to better future releases.

?Today nearly every business process depends on a digital infrastructure, but aligning business continuity and disaster recovery planning to the needs and risk levels of the business has been very challenging for IT professionals,? said Martin Goulet, RSA director of product marketing. ?By offering a broad solution that covers the entire process from designing and testing to mobile access, we?re working to make it easier to align risk and criticality with business continuity plans. This lets IT deliver greater business value, and helps businesses better manage digital risks and deliver more trusted services to their internal and external customers. Tight integration with enterprise GRC processes helps ensure better alignment of business continuity management efforts with overall business risk and business strategies.?

For the channel, the two new launches provide a deeper avenue into governance, risk and compliance markets, which are anticipated to grow in light of increasingly punitive compliance mandates.

A Dec. 11 Forrester report maintained that vendors are beginning to focus their efforts on comprehensive platforms that customers can tailor to meet their own needs. Among other things, GRC customers are increasingly requiring functions such as workflow flexibility, user-interface flexibility, data model extensibility, and the ability to support new and changing market requirements. And some of that desired flexibility will potentially include the ability to extend GRC to the mobile front down the road.

With that in mind, RSA?s mobile app might give solution providers a bit of a competitive edge by extending some of those capabilities to a mobile GRC market, still a nascent and largely unchartered channel territory.

For the most part, RSA has remained on the outside of the mobile security and backup space. While mobile security by all reports is slated for exponential growth, the same doesn?t necessarily apply to mobile backup, business continuity, GRC or other data protection solutions.?That could likely change, as more solutions are built out to include mobility and other disruptive technology platforms.

Source: http://channelnomics.com/2013/01/24/rsa-launches-mobile-business-continuity-app/

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Obama picks Mary Jo White to lead SEC

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama will nominate Mary Jo White to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, tapping an attorney with broad experience in prosecuting white-collar crimes to lead an agency that has a central role in implementing Wall Street reform.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Obama would announce White's nomination during a ceremony in the State Dining Room Thursday afternoon.

"She's got an incredibly impressive resume," Carney said. "The president is very pleased to be able to nominate her."

At the same event, Obama will renominate Richard Cordray to serve as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a White House official said. The president used a recess appointment last year to circumvent Congress and install Cordray as head of the bureau. That appointment expires at the end of this year.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the nomination before the president announces it.

White spent nearly a decade as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, building a reputation as a tough prosecutor with an expertise in pursuing white-collar crimes and complex securities and financial fraud cases. White House officials say that experience makes her well-positioned to implement Obama's Wall Street reform legislation.

While serving as U.S. attorney, White also won convictions related to the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

If confirmed by the Senate, White would take over the helm at the SEC from Elisse Walter, who is serving out the rest of former SEC chairwoman Mary Schapiro's term. Schapiro resigned in December.

In 2000, White led the criminal prosecution of more than 100 people ? including members of all five New York crime families ? accused of strong-arming brokers and manipulating prices of penny stocks. The action was called one of the biggest crackdowns on securities fraud in U.S. history at the time.

White's office also won a record $606 million in restitution from the securities arm of the Republic New York Corp. bank in 2001. That year, the bank pleaded guilty to conspiring with an investment adviser to hide hundreds of millions of dollars in losses from Japanese investors.

Cordray has run the consumer bureau since last year, when Obama used a recess appointment to install him in the job. Senate Republicans had opposed Cordray, as well as the concept of the consumer bureau.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., first conceived of the idea of a consumer protection bureau. Obama considered naming her to lead the bureau, but her nomination would likely have run into deep opposition on Capitol Hill.

White, 65, currently heads the litigation department at law firm Debevoise & Plimpton.

She was the first woman to hold the position of U.S. attorney in Manhattan, one of the most prestigious positions in federal law enforcement. During her tenure from 1993 to 2002, White won convictions of white-collar criminals, drug traffickers and international terrorists. The most notable was Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

She also led the prosecution of mob boss John Gotti when she was acting U.S. attorney in Brooklyn in 1992. Gotti died in prison in 2002.

If confirmed by the Senate, White would be the first prosecutor to head the 79-year-old SEC. Most SEC chairmen traditionally have come from Wall Street or the ranks of private securities lawyers. The choice of White is likely intended to bolster the agency's enforcement profile in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

White's background differs sharply from that of Schapiro, who stepped down last month after guiding the agency in the four years after the crisis. Schapiro worked at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the securities industry's self-policing organization. Some consumer advocates have said that Schapiro's experience as CEO of FINRA made her more likely to seek compromise and less likely to aggressively pursue misconduct.

During Shapiro's tenure, the SEC reached major settlements with the biggest banks on Wall Street, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citibank. But critics said the penalties were small compared with the banks' revenues. And they complained that no senior executives were held accountable.

White would be expected to give high priority to expanding the enforcement efforts.

At the same time, much of the pressing work facing the agency involves writing new rules. The SEC is seeking stricter rules for money-market mutual funds and must get into shape the so-called Volcker Rule, which would bar banks from making certain trades for their own profit.

As head of litigators at Debevoise & Plimpton, White has represented a number of financial institutions likely to have crossed swords with the SEC in enforcement cases. Her clients also included former Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, whom she represented in a 2010 civil lawsuit by then-New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo accusing Lewis of misleading shareholders in the bank's merger with Merrill Lynch.

White also represented the largest U.S. hospital chain, HCA, in the insider-trading investigations by the SEC and the Justice Department of former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, whose family owned HCA. The investigations were closed in 2007 with no charges filed against Frist.

___

Associated Press writer Marcy Gordon in Washington and Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-picks-mary-jo-white-lead-sec-155446076--finance.html

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Could North Korea hit the US with a missile?

Could North Korea hit the United States with a ballistic missile? Could it mount a nuclear warhead on the tip of that missile?

The short answers to these questions are ?in theory maybe, in practice probably not? and ?no, not yet.? Longer answers revolve around the fact that experts in and outside the US intelligence community have struggled for decades to understand North Korea?s weapons programs and geopolitical intent.

Yet North Korea?s current and future military capabilities are among the most profound national-security issues facing the US. They?ve taken on a new urgency this week in the face of renewed threats from the secretive Pyongyang regime. A launcher-rattling statement from North Korea on Thursday described the US as its ?sworn enemy? and announced plans for a third nuclear test and more tests of long-range missiles in the months ahead.

RECOMMENDED: Kim 101: How well do you know North Korea's leaders?

?Settling accounts with the US needs to be done with force, not with words as it regards jungle law as the rule of its survival,? said the statement from North Korea?s National Defense Commission.

When it comes to ballistic missile capabilities, official US intelligence comments about North Korea tend to be fairly bland.

?North Korea continues to pursue the development, production and deployment of ballistic missiles with increasing range and sophistication,? judges a 2012 unclassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to Congress on threatening technology developments, for instance.

Get our FREE 2013 Global Security Forecast now

Yet sometimes top officials sound more concerned in their public statements. In January, a few weeks after North Korea had successfully placed a satellite in orbit with the Unha-3 space-launch variant of its longest-range missile, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told American troops, ?North Korea just fired a missile. It?s an intercontinental ballistic missile, for God sakes. That means they have the capability to strike the United States.?

Secretary Panetta?s predecessor, Robert Gates, before he left office, warned that North Korea would have missiles capable of reaching the continental US by 2015 or 2016. US officials have also talked about a new, road-mobile North Korean missile that may or may not have intercontinental capabilities.

In theory, a ballistic missile based on the Unha rocket would be able to deliver a nuclear warhead-sized payload as far as Alaska, Hawaii, or part of the Lower 48, according to an analysis from the Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California.

But previous launches of Unha-based rockets in 2006 and 2009 failed, raising questions about the technology?s reliability, CNS points out. In addition, it is a liquid-fueled rocket. This means it has to stand on the launchpad for hours, indeed days, for fueling. During that time it would be a sitting duck for attack.

?Although the Unha is clearly a step toward such a capability, it does not in itself represent a reliable system capable of delivering a nuclear weapon to the continental United States,? CNS judges.

North Korea has carried out two nuclear weapons tests and now says it is planning a third. The ability to produce a nuclear explosion, however, is not nearly the same thing as the ability to produce a device small enough to fit on the top of a missile.

As noted in a recent Congressional Research Service report, it is possible that Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan provided North Korea with the same Chinese-based design for a small nuclear weapon that he provided to Libya and Iran. But most experts judge that North Korean scientists have yet to shrink their nuclear technology into a package small enough for missile delivery.

North Korean officials have long talked with bellicosity unmatched in geostrategic circles. Some say that when it comes to their nuclear missile programs, this chest thumping is largely a bluff ? pro wrestling drama translated for an international stage.

Their past missile tests have been maximized to give the appearance of performance, and they have never exploded an actual nuclear warhead design, according to RAND analyst Markus Schiller.

Thus concerns about their missile tests are overblown, wrote Mr. Schiller in a lengthy 2012 report on North Korea?s missile programs.

?Every launch further depletes the limited North Korean arsenals, and North Korea gains no real experience from these events. Since the purpose of the launches seems to be political, the United States and other nations should downplay or even ignore them,? he writes.

Not all experts are so sanguine.

For instance, the South Korean Navy has managed to retrieve first-stage debris from North Korea?s December Unha-3 launch, and certain aspects of the space junk appear to reflect novel North Korean use of foreign-obtained technology.

The engine, for instance, appears to have new and slightly unexpected technological additions, such as the ability to steer with small auxiliary engines instead of jet vanes.

The United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday condemning December's rocket launch.

North Korea is not Iraq, whose ballistic missiles turned out to be cruder than US intelligence expected, points out Jeffrey Lewis, director of the CNS East Asia Nonproliferation Program, on the Arms Control Wonk blog.

?There has been a tendency to underestimate what North Korea can do in the space and missile field, and possibly with technology in general,? Mr. Lewis writes.

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