Be the police in wild pursuits with Smash Cops for iPhone and iPad

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Smash Cops is an iPhone and iPad game where you get to be the police in wild car chases. You may be weaving through traffic going after runaway felons or even fleeing from a felon attack until backup arrives. The city you work is huge with just as huge graphics and includes over 20 missions and 5 vehicles.



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/mEU2TPl9R8c/story01.htm

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Apple Employee Meeting Reveals More Corporate Kindness From Tim Cook

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With an employee headcount in excess of 45,000, Apple’s ability to manage news concerning its internal machinations sets a benchmark for corporate information control. It’s all described in fascinating detail in recent reporting from Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky. Yesterday, however, CEO Tim Cook held an all-hands meeting for the work force, and a little bit of [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/wV5CNwna2kE/

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Using a Cell Phone in North Korea Is Now a War Crime [North Korea]

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How could living in North Korea be worse? Hmm. Maybe if your dinner caught on fire every night, or clothes were made out of a cactus, or if using a phone potentially earned you the death penalty. Sounds about right! More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/rBJul55WQ-k/using-a-cell-phone-in-north-korea-is-now-a-war-crime

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Medication helps some with mild depression (Reuters)

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) ? People with mild depression may benefit from taking antidepressants, suggests a new analysis of past studies that compared symptoms in people on the drugs to those given drug-free placebo pills.

Some earlier reports had suggested that antidepressants generally only improve mood in people with severe depression.

But that might be because those studies weren’t precise enough to pick up on smaller changes in symptoms that can still make a difference for people with milder forms of the disease, researchers said.

“I think there’s a valid concern… that if someone has not-that-severe depression that hasn’t lasted that long, maybe it will get better itself or with therapy,” said Dr. David Hellerstein, from the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University, who worked on the study.

Still, he said the question of whether or not to prescribe medication shouldn’t necessarily come down to how severe the depression is, but how long symptoms have lasted.

People with “transient depression” that will improve with diet or exercise or after a few weeks of therapy “shouldn’t be taking the risk of being on meds,” he told Reuters Health.

“But people who have more persistent depression should be evaluated for treatment and medicine should be one of the options,” even when the depression is more modest.

Hellerstein and his colleagues collected data from six studies done at the state’s psychiatric institute between 1985 and 2000. Those included 825 people with non-severe, long-lasting depression enrolled in trials that compared symptoms with antidepressant treatment versus a placebo.

In three of the six studies, patients taking an antidepressant improved more on a widely-used scale of depression symptoms and severity than those taking a placebo, and in four studies, a higher percentage of patients taking antidepressants went into remission, meaning they were no longer considered to have clinically-significant depression.

Depending on the particular drug and study, the researchers calculated that between three and eight people with non-severe depression would have to be treated with an antidepressant for one to benefit substantially from it.

That, they wrote in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, is “a range considered by researchers as sufficiently robust to recommend treatment.”

The drugs tested in those studies included Prozac, as well as older and now less-popular medications known as monoamine oxidase inhibitors and tricyclic and tetracyclic antidepressants. It’s hard to know how well the findings would apply for newer antidepressants, the researchers said.

The results don’t mean that everyone with mild depression should be on an antidepressant, a psychiatrist not involved in the study pointed out.

“People with these milder depressions also respond well to counseling and psychotherapy and can respond well to exercise,” said Dr. Michael Thase, from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

“This is basically saying, these antidepressants aren’t that good, and you should also consider other treatment options and don’t just focus on the thing that’s the easiest,” he told Reuters Health.

The researchers said that some combination of antidepressants and talk therapy is considered most effective in depression treatment — but getting therapy is often more expensive and time-consuming than medication.

Talk therapy can run $100 or more per session, while generic brands of antidepressants usually cost about $20 per month. Drugs may come with side effects, including insomnia and stomach aches, but they’re usually minor, according to Hellerstein.

Still, people on antidepressants should be followed closely by a doctor to see how they’re responding to treatment, he said.

Several of the authors of the current study reported having received funding for other research projects from drug companies that make antidepressants.

One recent study found that some depressed people on the antidepressant Cymbalta did worse than the comparison placebo group — but the majority got some benefit (see Reuters Health story of December 9, 2011).

“I believe the basic finding that drugs are more effective than placebo,” Thase said.

But, “The benefits of antidepressants may not be that dramatic in patients with milder depressions for whom many other (non-drug) strategies can also be considered.”

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/yVBEdk Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, online December 27, 2011.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/hl_nm/us_medication_helps_some_with_mild_depression

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(“Watch Live”)Day 2//Farmers Insurance Open live golf Streaming PGA Tour Online Video Update

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Phoenix golf 2012 live, Phoenix golf online coverage, Scottsdale, TPC Scottsdale, USA, Waste Management Phoenix Open live golf stream, Waste Phoenix Open golf 2012 Click To Watch Live golf online streaming Waste Management Phoenix Open Thursday Feb 2 ? Sunday Feb 5, 2012 PGA Tour 2012 – Waste Phoenix Open TPC Scottsdale :: Scottsdale, Arizona, USA Purse: $6.1 million | Winning Share: $1,098,000 | FedExCup Points: 500 Watch live streaming ”Waste Management Phoenix Open 2012 ” Live Online…Read?Full?Story

Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5819309893&f=378

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Higher oil prices, asset sales boost Conoco profit (AP)

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NEW YORK ? Higher oil prices are making it easier for ConocoPhillips to complete a massive transformation this year.

The Houston energy company said Wednesday that its profit rose 66.1 percent in the fourth quarter even as it produced less oil. Much of that increase came from the sale of pipelines and other assets that became more attractive as the oil they transported rose in price.

ConocoPhillips reported net income of $3.39 billion, or $2.56 per share, for the October-December period, compared with $2.04 billion, or $1.39 per share, a year earlier. Revenue increased 17.2 percent to $62.4 billion.

Excluding special gains, earnings were $2.02 per share. That beat analyst estimates of $1.77 per share on revenue of $45.1 billion.

ConocoPhillips is in the final stages of a three-year overhaul of its worldwide operations that will make it much smaller, and, the company hopes, easier to grow in the future. Since 2010, ConocoPhillips has shed $10.7 billion in assets, including some of its least profitable businesses, and it plans to sell more than $1 billion more by the end of 2012.

It also will spin off its refining business into a separate company, Phillips 66, before June.

The company picked a good time to transform itself. Surging oil prices are supporting revenue even as it produces less. And they helped ConocoPhillips get top dollar for oil field equipment, pipelines and other assets.

“They’re finding a seller’s market right now,” Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov said. “There’s a lot of demand for those assets.”

Oil production declined for ConocoPhillips in the quarter as it closed operations and experienced a series of setbacks around the world. The Libyan rebellion shut down the company’s joint ventures in that country while oil production off the coast of China slowed down while ConocoPhillips dealt with an oil spill.

Altogether, production dropped 13.3 percent in the final three months of 2011. Exploration and production profits fell 5 percent in the quarter, but the decline would have been much worse if not for an increase in oil and natural gas prices.

ConocoPhillips sold crude worldwide for an average of $97.22 in the quarter, up 22.4 percent from the same period last year. It sold natural gas for $5.34 per 1,000 cubic feet, up 4.9 percent from last year.

Chief Financial Officer Jeff Sheets told investors in a conference call that production should drop further this year. The company expects to pump 1.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2012, down from 1.62 million barrels in 2011.

More asset sales should further reduce oil production this year. Also, the company may shut down some natural gas production in North America this year because of low prices, Sheets said.

Meanwhile, refining and market profits soared as the company sold $1.55 billion in pipelines and other refining assets. Altogether, the company’s refining business earned $1.7 billion in the quarter.

Profit at ConocoPhillips’ chemicals unit increased 32.2 percent to $156 million and its midstream business increased earnings 30 percent to $118 million.

For the full year, ConocoPhillips said its net income rose to $12.4 billion, or $8.97 per share, compared with $11.4 billion, or $7.62 per share, in 2010. Annual revenue increased 26.5 percent to $251.2 billion.

ConocoPhillips is the first major oil company to report financial results for the fourth quarter. Chevron Corp. plans to release its quarterly figures on Friday, followed by Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell next week. Occidental Petroleum Corp. on Wednesday reported a 35 percent jump in quarterly profits as it increased production and sold crude for higher prices.

ConocoPhillips shares fell 63 cents to close at $69.98 on Wednesday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_conocophillips

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John Chadima Resignation: UW Athletic Official Accused Of Grabbing A Student’s Crotch At A Party

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MADISON, Wis. ? A University of Wisconsin student alleged that an athletic department official grabbed his crotch at an alcohol-fueled party during the football team’s trip to the Rose Bowl, according to an independent report released by the school on Tuesday night.

The report says the student alleges former senior associate athletic director John Chadima put his hand down the student’s pants at the end of a party in Chadima’s suite at a Los Angeles hotel on Dec. 31.

The student ? identified only as John Doe in the report ? said he was “shocked and frightened” and slapped Chadima’s hand away.

Chadima was put on administrative leave on Jan. 6 and resigned the same day. He previously had issued an apology for a “lapse in judgment,” and issued another statement through his attorney Tuesday.

“I make no excuses and have come to the realization that over the past few months, alcohol had controlled and consumed my life,” Chadima said. “I am taking steps to correct that problem in my life at this time. I will take full responsibility for my lack of judgment and actions that evening.”

The report said its findings were based on interviews with 23 people, including students and professional staff ? but they were “not able to arrange an interview” with Badgers football coach Bret Bielema.

Three student employees of the athletic department declined to be interviewed.

The report also reviewed information from Chadima’s office computer and school-issued cell phone.

Chadima declined to speak with the panel.

The report said Chadima hosted a bowl game party for staff and student employees for at least the past four years. The most recent party began Dec. 30 and lasted into the early morning hours of Dec. 31, at Chadima’s hotel suite. According to the report, Chadima provided “alcohol, beer and mixers” and guests were invited to serve themselves. Some of the guests were under age 21.

Sometime between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m., the alleged victim was leaving along with the last few people left at the party when he said Chadima asked him to “stay here and have a drink with me.” The alleged victim said he and Chadima both had several more drinks and “probably were intoxicated,” but were coherent and in control of their physical movements.

According to the report, Chadima then said he thought the student was gay, and said some of the other student employees thought he was gay. The student said it made him “uncomfortable and defensive.”

The student then said Chadima reached over and removed the student’s belt, putting his hands inside the student’s pants and touching his genitals. The student said he slapped Chadima’s hand away and swore at him.

At that point, the student said Chadima said he thought the student liked it, asking “What are you going to do about it?” and saying, “I could have you fired.”

The student said he quickly left the room, and Chadima seemed to want to gloss over the incident as “just joking around.”

The report said the student then went to the hotel room of his immediate supervisor, whose name is redacted in the report, and related the incident. The student said at the time he didn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize the team’s Rose Bowl preparations.

The student then told a consistent version of the story to three fellow student employees. The report says the student was “pleased and satisfied” with the supportive response he received from the supervisor and fellow students.

The student traveled on the team charter flight back to Madison on Jan. 3.

According to the report, the two unidentified officials called UW police lieutenant Jason Whitney on the morning of Jan. 4; Whitney had traveled with the team to the Rose Bowl.

In a meeting that afternoon, Whitney presented a Dec. 13, 2011, memo from UW-Madison police department chief Susan Riseling which emphasized that any employee witnessing or receiving a report about a sexual assault is required to report it to the Dean of Students office. According to the report, Whitney emphasized the importance of acting promptly.

But the report said the unidentified officials felt “uneasy” about reporting the incident without alerting officials in the athletic department. They described the incident to Holly Weber, the athletic department’s human relations director.

Weber said she would discuss it with senior university legal counsel John Dowling, and asked them to wait until she got back to them to contact the dean. That meeting happened Jan. 6, where the unnamed officials who called Whitney were told to stop the athletic department’s investigation of the incident and that the chancellor’s office would decide how to proceed.

According to the report, the chancellor and Athletic Director Barry Alvarez determined Chadima would be placed on administrative leave. The chancellor decided to appoint a committee to conduct the investigation.

Chadima did not specifically address any of the report’s allegations in his statement.

“I have learned a very hard lesson through this process, am paying a difficult price for my actions, and I hope that a lesson can somehow be learned by all from this situation,” he said. “I also hope that my apologies will be accepted, and forgiveness given.”

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/25/john-chadima-resignation-_n_1230424.html

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Insurance against sunsets: Munich Re steps in if your solar panel …

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With solar panel manufacturers dropping like Arkansas blackbirds, Germany?s Munich Re is coming to the rescue.?It is now selling insurance that protects solar park operators in the event that their panel provider goes bankrupt.

In partnership with Deustsche Bank, Munich Re will?indemnify the operator after the manufacturer tanks, should panels deteriorate below guaranteed performance. It will also ?provide the financing to compensate for the reduced output,? according to a press release announcing the product.

The insurance in effect picks up where the manufacturer?s warranty leaves off after bankruptcy voids it. The optional coverage applies to utility scale solar projects, or anything over 20 megawatts. It is not available for the average home installation.

Without such insurance, banks may refuse to lend the capital necessary to build solar farms, Munich Re notes in the release.?Solar panel output is key to investors calculating rates of return on large scale projects.

?Our aim in developing and marketing the optional coverage was to further facilitate solar park investment by assuming the risk of the module manufacturer?s insolvency,? says Munich Re board member Thomas Blunck. ?Coverage of such risks makes it easier to calculate stable, secured cash flows for solar parks.?

Munich Re has sold the optional coverage to a solar park in southern Italy, financed jointly by Deutsche Bank and Rabobank, according to the release which did not name the operator.

A raft of solar manufactures have filed for insolvency in recent months, victimized by among other factors pricing pressure applied in part by low cost Chinese suppliers. Solon, Solar Millennium, SpectraWatt, Evergreen, Solyndra and others have all gone under.

For insurance companies like Munich Re, there?s an extra incentive to support renewables. Insurers face large pay outs after natural disasters like the floods and hurricanes that are on the increase amid global warming.

Munich Re believes that renewable energy like solar will cut CO2 emissions associated with fossil fuels and help mitigate man-made climate change.?It has an active presence in renewables. For instance, it?s a charter member of the Desertec Industrial Initiative, the group that aspires to furnish 15 percent of Europe?s electricity by 2050 using solar power from northern Africa and the Middle East.

For solar to remain in flight as a large scale alternative to fossil fuels, more companies like Munich Re will have to take risks beyond the nest of their normal milieu.

Photo by MarkHalperJournalist

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Source: http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/insurance-against-sunsets-munich-re-steps-in-if-your-solar-panel-provider-goes-bust/12537

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Chipmaker AMD expects lower revenue in weak PC market (Reuters)

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(Reuters) ? Advanced Micro Devices Inc forecast lower quarterly revenue as a shortage of hard drives and a shaky economy hurt PC makers, sending its shares lower in after-hours trading.

The PC chipmaker’s fourth-quarter adjusted earnings beat expectations, but revenue for the quarter just ended and revenue projections for the current quarter came in a bit below many analysts’ expectations.

Like larger rival Intel Corp, AMD has been wrestling with slow demand for chips as consumers increasingly buy Apple Inc’s iPad instead of laptops.

Also hurting sales of processors, PC manufacturers have been struggling to obtain enough hard drives to meet production targets after flooding last year ruined factories and sensitive machinery in Thailand, the world’s No. 2 exporter of the components.

Intel beat scaled-back quarterly earnings expectations last week after warning that the hard drive shortage was hurting PC production. It also warned of lower revenue in the current quarter.

AMD depends more on sales of PC processors for its revenue than does Intel, which sells proportionally more chips for servers. It grew its PC chip revenue 2 percent sequentially in the fourth quarter, while Intel’s PC chip business dipped slightly during the same period.

“They did slightly better than Intel in Q4 in their PC business but they have to show that consistently over a few quarters for investors to give them credit,” said CLSA analyst Srini Pajjuri.

Chief Executive Rory Reid said AMD has corrected a problem with the production of its 45 nanometer chips that hurt output in recent quarters and expects a rebound in production in the current quarter.

Also on Tuesday, programmable chipmaker Altera posted quarterly results above analysts’ estimates but its weak first-quarter outlook sent shares down 3 percent after the bell.

With PC sales suffering, AMD and Intel have failed to find a foothold in smartphones and tablets, where processors based on ARM Holdings’ power-efficient chip designs are widely used.

Apple became the largest buyer of semiconductors last year, overtaking Samsung Electronics and Hewlett-Packard Co as sales of iPads and iPhones outpaced PCs and other consumer gadgets, according to market research firm Gartner.

Dogged by concerns the PC chipmaker is being left behind in the fast-growing mobile market, shares of AMD have fallen about 13 percent over the past year.

AMD said revenue in the fourth quarter rose 2 percent from the year-ago period, to $1.69 billion.

But it said revenue in the quarter ending in March would fall 8 percent from the previous quarter, plus or minus 3 percentage points, to around $1.504 billion to $1.606 billion.

Analysts on average expected fourth-quarter revenue of $1.716 billion and March-quarter revenue of $1.595 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Non-GAAP earnings in the quarter were $138 million, compared with $106 million in the year-ago period. Non-GAAP earnings per share were 19 cents, compared with 14 cents in the year-ago quarter. Analysts on average expected earnings per share of 16 cents.

AMD shares were down 2.7 percent at $6.35 in extended trading after closing up 0.15 percent at $6.53.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Matthew Lewis and Andre Grenon)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/semiconductor/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/bs_nm/us_amd

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Danny Pudi Welcomes Twins James and Fiona

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“The ? Indian, ? Polish, ? Irish twins are keeping us busy and we’re loving every minute of it,” the Community star says.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/dvUMtK04uXU/

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‘Velvet Revolution’ icon Vaclav Havel dead at 75

PRAGUE?? Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright who wove theater into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia and become a hero of the epic struggle that ended the Cold War, has died. He was 75. Havel died Sunday morning at his weekend house in the northern Czech Republic, his assistant Sabina Dancecova [...]

Get 19% Stronger in 1 Day! ? Bodybuilding, Sports, Fitness, Summer …

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Chinese drug exec given suspended death sentence

BEIJING (AP) ? A Shanghai court handed the former chief executive of a large state-owned pharmaceutical company a suspended death sentence for corruption that enabled him to amass more than 50 million yuan ($8 million), an official said Wednesday. Wu Jianwen, the former head of Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group Ltd., was convicted of accepting bribes, embezzling [...]

`Underworld’ sinks teeth into box office with $25M (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Kate Beckinsale is back with a vengeance, with her latest “Underworld” movie opening at No. 1 this weekend. “Underworld Awakening” made an estimated $25.4, distributor Sony Screen Gems reported Sunday. This is the fourth film in the vampire action saga. Beckinsale starred in the first two movies as the warrior Selene, then [...]