The Hotel Association of Canada applauds G20 leaders

Travel was included in The Leaders Declaration

The Hotel Association of Canada applauds G20 leaders

Friday, June 29, 2012

For the first time, travel was included in The Leaders Declaration, a document issued at the conclusion of the G20 summit. The Leaders Declaration specifically states in Item 25 under Employment and Social Protection that, ?We recognize the role of travel and tourism as a vehicle for job creation, economic growth and development, and, while recognizing the sovereign right of States to control the entry of foreign nationals, we will work towards developing travel facilitation initiatives in support of job creation, quality work, poverty reduction and global growth.?

?This comes at a pivotal time in Canada with the Canadian Tourism Commission facing critical cuts in their budget?, said Tony Pollard HAC President. ?The Canadian tourism industry supports 1.6 million jobs and has an economic impact of $74 billion. Policies that support travel in Canada support even further economic growth.?

The G20 announcement builds on the Government?s Federal Tourism Strategy released in October 2011. The national strategy was created to help position Canada?s tourism sector for long-term growth and global competitiveness and sets out some 30 initial measures in four priority areas; increasing awareness of Canada as a premier tourist destination, facilitating access and travel to Canada, encouraging development of tourism experiences and fostering an adequate supply of skills and labour.

Tatiana Rokou - Friday, June 29, 2012

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KGB vs. KGB: Putin's crackdown extends to old comrades

Gennady Gudkov is the last person you'd think of as a radical dissident. Yet he's been driven into a dangerous corner, and it looks like the Kremlin has set its sights on destroying him.

A former career KGB officer, Mr. Gudkov and his son, Dmitry, are both Duma deputies with the "loyal opposition" party Just Russia. The Gudkovs both became involved with the street protest movement that erupted last December in order to steer the protesters toward peaceful and constructive engagement with the authorities, the elder Gudkov insists.

But today, amid a wave of government actions that some protest leaders are calling "the shadow of 1937" ? the year mass Stalin-era repressions began ? the Gudkovs find themselves in serious trouble, with their family business all but ruined by a blizzard of state "inspections" and the pro-Kremlin United Russia party moving to expel them and another Just Russia deputy, Ilya Ponomaryov, from the Duma.

RELATED ? Defying Putin: 7 Russians to watch

"I was warned several times, by people who shall remain nameless from high up, who gave me 'friendly advice' to stop all this involvement with the protest movement, and they assured me that if I did my problems would go away," Gudkov says. "The last time was in early June."

Since then, the family business, one of Russia's leading security firms with about 7,000 employees, has been hit with a wave of inspections from the police, fire department, and even the Moscow architectural control committee, which resulted in the suspension of its license to allow its security guards to carry weapons in Moscow.

Inspections are currently going on in most of the other 20 Russian regions where the company, Oskord International, operates. Without the 200 or so guns ? only small pistols and smooth bore rifles, Gudkov says ? in the company's arsenal, its security guards have had to stop working.

Gudkov insists the company, which has worked for the United Nations and Russian law enforcement agencies in the past, has sailed through regular inspections every three months for the past decade and has never experienced a problem with its registered firearms or their method of storage before.

"Now our business in Moscow is all but ruined, and we're being hit in the regions," he says. "I have no doubt that this is punishment directed at me for my civic position and my support of the protest movement. What's happening to me is being repeated all over the country in various ways to hundreds of other people right now, most of them not so well known as me. There is one organizing force behind all this, and that is the Kremlin administration."

Yesterday, Gudkov announced that he will be selling the company at a huge loss, wrecking his retirement plans. "I took the path of Khodorkovsky, and now I am really afraid," he told the Moscow daily Izvestia, referring to the fate of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who defied Putin and subsequently was arrested, his business empire destroyed by selective legal actions. Mr. Khodorkovsky, prosecuted in two trials that most independent experts believe were politically motivated, has spent the past nine years in a Siberian penal colony.

'A DRESS REHEARSAL FOR WHAT MAY BE COMING'

Activists say the crackdown began early this month with passage by the pro-Kremlin Duma majority of a new law that imposes tough penalties on anyone who takes part in a non-sanctioned political gathering and steep fines for organizers if any infractions occur during a permitted one.

Then on June 11, police raided the homes of eight protest leaders, seizing cash, computers and vast quantities of "political literature."

Since then, more than a dozen people have been arrested and charged with involvement in "disorders" that allegedly took place during a mass protest rally on May 6, the eve of Vladimir Putin's inauguration for an unprecedented third term as Russian president.

Other odd occurrences include the flight abroad of investigative journalist Sergei Sokolov, deputy editor of the opposition weekly Novaya Gazeta, after his life was allegedly threatened by the powerful head of the Kremlin's Investigative Committee and Putin protege Alexander Bastrykhin. Mr. Bastrykhin first denied making the threat, but later visited Novaya Gazeta's offices to apologize. "I didn't have the right to explode but I exploded," the pro-government daily Izvestia quoted Bastrykhin as saying.

This week anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, one of the best-known protest leaders, accused the security services of hacking into his cellphone, e-mail and Twitter accounts, using his own computer and iPad that were seized in the earlier raid on his home.

But most worrisome is the creation of a 200-person investigative task force, comprising security officers drawn from all over Russia, to look into the alleged disorders at the May 6 rally.

"We already see a Plan A in action, that involves harassing and putting psychological pressure on various opposition leaders, in the hopes that this will tamp down the protest movement," says Nikolai Petrov, an expert with the Carnegie Center in Moscow. "It's a way of showing that nobody can consider themselves safe if they participate in public rallies...

"But much more serious are the signs that a Plan B is being prepared, which would begin with a large-scale political trial of the people involved in the May 6 rally," he adds. "The creation of a 200-strong investigating team is unprecedented; no criminal act has ever brought together this many resources. This is not being done for nothing, there is some purpose here, and that's what people are worried about. They fear that Putin is preparing to shift to a much more authoritarian state, and this is a dress rehearsal for what may be coming. It does remind a bit of the 1930s."

STRUGGLING TO HOLD BACK

Russian human rights activists say they are not literally comparing the fairly mild police actions they are experiencing with the Stalin-era mass repressions, but they insist that it carries the same whiff of state lawlessness about it.

"Nobody's saying it's 1937 all over again. After all, nobody's getting shot here," says Yury Kostanov, a lawyer with the Independent Judicial Expertise Council in Moscow. "What we're pointing to is the absence of proper legal procedure. Police search and seize first, then begin to formulate a case. Judges follow the scripts written by prosecutors. There is complete arbitrariness about what's happening and we know from our history where that leads. There are good reasons to be worried."

QUIZ ? How much do you know about Russia?

Gudkov says a bigger wave of protests is on the way, probably in the autumn, and it will be powered not only by the middle-class political demands that have brought people into the streets of Moscow so far, but also by growing economic pain across Russia's vast hinterland as inflation inches up and new utility reforms erode working class living standards.

"We need to take steps to prevent radicalization of the protest movement, but how can we do that when the authorities act in such a manner?" he says. "I do not understand the leaders of our country. I'm of the same generation and background as Putin, and I've always been respectful and ready for dialogue. But he's waging war on the younger generation, like my son, Yevgenia Chirikova, Alexei Navalny, Ilya Ponomaryov. All these raids, arrests and different forms of harassment are driving them in a radical direction, and there are no avenues for dialogue other than to take to the streets," he says.

"I'm ready for any possible consequences. Things are flying out of the framework of law. They can strip me of my deputy's mandate, accuse me, wreck me. I don't think this will last long. Putin does not understand how deep the crisis has already become? The main thing is we must prevent the first shot from being fired on any side. If we have bloodshed here, the process will go out of control very fast. It's crucial for the opposition to remain peaceful, and for the authorities to heed this lesson as well," he adds.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kgb-vs-kgb-putins-crackdown-extends-old-comrades-140231804.html

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Exclusive: When did the Waldo Canyon Fire start, and when did the feds know it? (Michellemalkin)

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Food and health - HEALTH, BEAUTY & FITNESS

By doing this you? ll be better outfitted to request questions associated with your donation and it is use. The species that offer probably the most health advantages is Tabebuia heptophylla, a pink flowered tree, which develops mainly in Argentina. Make sure to comprehend the food documents prior to signing them. Companies have to notice that purchasing some good quality whitened office desks, and for instance, will pay by itself over time. Baba Ramdev has additionally engaged themself kinds of natural home remedies. These cover the expense like hospital visits and also the trip to the doctors. When the body? s unhealthy, there is nothing much he could caused by be productive in existence. You may want to undergo a particular certification to become licensed health educator, based on in which you originate from. The folks that require a minimal deductible are individuals that require more face time having a physician, like families with children. You will find diverse techniques how you? ll be able to obtain contemptible health insurance online quotes and very superior basis may be the internet. Remember, natural supplements are meant simply to behave as additional nutrition towards the body, and never because the only food towards the body! Planning yourself against termites is really a serious affair, you have to be thorough, and that? s why food and health its smart to possess a professional available, and somebody that knows exactly what they? re doing. This can limit the appearance of bugs health and rats around the ability. The faster you are able to cope with this and cox also the greater the standard of the treatment, the greater. Similarly info includes demographic data, health background, medicines, allergic reactions, immunization status, laboratory test results, other tests results, radiology imaging and billing information. Public programs from the remaining, that is mainly for low- earnings families and seniors who meet the requirements. Do you want temporary medical health insurance? Furthermore, a sizable population of India is actually British speaking, hence for global cox health springfield mo patient especially in the west it? s very easy to speak throughout their own health checkup in Goa and Kerala 3. How will you find such options? The marketplace is packed with a food and health large range of health plans. When one feels stressed, needs some stress reliever to eliminate that condition or it may offend your mental balance. Its not only a common component in a variety of diet items, but among the crucial elements in springfield a number of health, beauty, and diet- related supplements. This really is additionally towards the above average chance of staying away from pricey medical methods and long- term remedies later on years. Your condition insurance department may also be a tremendous help. You? ll be the individual figuring out your pet health issues, dealing with them, vaccinating creatures against illnesses, carrying out surgery, and counseling your pet proprietors about right feeding and breeding. By having an enormous quantity health of baby seniors entering retirement and also the US population forecasted to develop a minimum of mo 18% over 2 decades these days, and also the population of individuals 60- five and older likely to increase three occasions that rate, the amount of health care companies needed greatly increases.

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5 dos and don'ts when dealing with a mechanic

With the average age of vehicles currently on the road reaching an all-time high of 10.8 years according to the market research firm R.L. Polk in Southfield Mich., cost-conscious consumers are choosing to keep their existing cars and trucks running rather than trade them in for new models. Unfortunately, as a Consumer Reports survey revealed, that also means many drivers are postponing needed repairs or maintenance as a money-saving measure.

Unfortunately, delaying service not only represents false economy, it can compromise a car?s safety. The car-care experts at AAA Motor Club in Heathrow, Fla. believe the best way to save money over the life of a vehicle is to choose a high-quality, full-service repair shop (or dealer?s service department) and allow them do all of the necessary maintenance and repair work. ?This helps prevent breakdowns, and often saves money by allowing drivers to make a small repair now rather than a much bigger one later,? says John Nielsen, AAA?s director of automotive repair.

But making the decision to bring in a car for service is only half the battle. To get the most for their maintenance and repair dollars consumers need to know how to best deal with an automotive technician so that a trip to the shop won?t ultimately turn sour. According to an informal survey of independent mechanics and repair experts conducted by the online auto-service resource AutoMD.com, here?s a list of do?s to follow and don?ts to avoid when taking a car in for maintenance or repairs.

1. Communicate properly
The better a consumer is able to convey to a mechanic what?s wrong with his or her vehicle the easier it is for a technician to diagnose and fix the problem. It?s a good idea to write down ahead of time what ails your ride, noting specific sounds, sensations, leaks and smells, and when and how often they occur. What happened just before the car stopped running; how did it function the day before it didn?t start? Also note when the vehicle was last brought in for service, as today?s problem may be related to last month?s repairs.

Here?s a list of terms that can help explain common auto symptoms that can also serve as a checklist for a vehicle that?s headed for the repair shop:

• Backfire. A gunshot-like sound that comes from the engine or tailpipe.
• Bottoming: Excessive noise or harshness that?s usually felt through the steering wheel or passenger compartment when going over bumps.
• Bucking: This is felt when the engine hesitates or the transmission slips as it changes gears and the vehicle lurches.
• Dieseling: What occurs when an engine continues to burn fuel and runs briefly after the car has been switched off.
• Hesitation: A brief loss of power upon acceleration.
• Knocking: Also known as ?detonation,? this is a rapid rattling that?s heard upon acceleration.
• Misfire: Hesitation that occurs when fuel in one or more of an engine?s cylinders fails to ignite properly.
• Shimmy: A side-to-side motion that can be felt through the tires and/or steering wheel.
• Sluggish: How a car feels when it?s not accelerating smoothly or strongly enough.
• Surge: A sudden, usually upward, change in the engine?s speed.

2. Set realistic expectations
When it comes to auto repairs, quick, cheap and good are usually mutually exclusive terms. Plan to leave a car in the shop for the better part of a day to obtain necessary service and be prepared to pay the going rate for parts and labor. Even if it?s a quick fix realize there may be several other cars ahead of yours in the mechanic?s service queue. Ask up front how long the car will need to be in the shop and arrange for transportation to and from the repair facility. And always get a cost estimate before allowing the mechanic to proceed with repairs or service.

3. Don?t drop off a dirty or cluttered vehicle
Not only is this common courtesy, it can affect the quality of a repair. Tidy up your ride before bringing it in for service and be sure to clear out the back seat and trunk of items like strollers, golf clubs and construction equipment. The mechanic may need to remove them to access a part or perform a specific repair, or they may weigh down the vehicle to the extent it affects its performance.

4. Make yourself available
Be sure to leave phone numbers with the shop where you can be reached and respond promptly. If the technician isn?t able to contact you to approve a repair, the car will sit and remain unattended for that much longer. Likewise, you?ll want to know that the car is ready and how much the service will cost before heading back to the shop.

5, Leave the technician alone
Just about every mechanic AutoMD.com conducted in the course of its service survey disliked customers hovering over him or her while they worked. While it?s appropriate to spend time with your car and the mechanic to explain the problem, it?s distracting and can be dangerous. If you?ll be hanging around for a diagnosis or quick service, take a seat in the waiting room, grab a cup of coffee and let a professional do his or her job.

More from Forbes.com

? 2012 Forbes.com

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47921818/ns/business-forbes_com/

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The Particular Secret Of Utilizing The Web | Plumcares

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U.S. seizes cargo ship in search for stowaways

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Screening horticultural imports: New models assess plant risk through better analysis

Public release date: 28-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: J.P. Schmidt
jps@uga.edu
706-613-8483
University of Georgia

Model asks if importing a plant is worth the risk of environmental damage, economic costs

Athens, Ga. Weedy plants, many introduced to the U.S. for sale through plant nurseries, are responsible for extensive environmental damage and economic costs. Although legislation restricts the introduction of certain species, the procedures used to select species for inclusion on the restricted list are haphazard and out of date.

To meet the need for more systematic weed risk analysis, researchers at the University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology and the University of California, Davis have developed a "cost-sensitive" model to determine when importing a given plant is worth the risk. Their work was published in the May edition of the journal Ecosphere.

Although the problems caused by invasive plants are well known, Odum School postdoctoral associate J.P. Schmidt, the lead scientist on the study, said the U.S. has historically placed very few restrictions on the import of plants.

According to UC Davis economist and study co-author Mike Springborn, "our approach represents a shift from the current practice of scrambling to address invasives only after they are already established. In this paper, we develop tools for making informed decisions ahead of time about which plants have an acceptable level of risk given their anticipated benefits. We now have the combined biological and economic tools to take an informed look before we leap with trade in new species."

The model uses statistical procedures to assess how likely a plant is to become a weed. To do this, it compares the estimated probability with the average costs of a new weed and the expected losses from foregone sales of non-weed species that are presumably safe. Using the model as a screening tool, the researchers say, would provide a net economic benefit of at least $80,000 to $140,000 per species assessed, which could translate into tens of millions of dollars in total.

Had the proposed screening system been in place historically, they calculatedusing just low-end estimates of invasive species damagesthat one third of the most noxious species could have been excluded. To realize this benefit, only 15 percent of potential introductions would need to be prohibited.

At its core, the model consists of two parts. First, the researchers sought to identify a small number of plant traits that could be used to predict invasiveness.

"Amazingly, we found that just four traits could discriminate pest from non-pest species with an impressive degree of accuracy," Schmidt said. "Namely, pest species tend to have some combination of the following traits: seeds that are in the mid-range of seed sizes, that have higher chromosome counts than their close relatives, that have affinities for both wetland and upland habitats and that have large native ranges."

"Second," said co-author John Drake, an associate professor at the Odum School, "we asked where to draw the proverbial line-in-the-sandin this case the line between probable pests and probable non-pestswhich requires accounting for the value of the ornamental plant trade and the costs associated with weeds. The economically optimal decision rule is the one that settles that line where it exactly balances the costs from invasion with the benefits from trade."

Schmidt explained that the cost of mistakenly keeping out a non-invasive plant was far lower than the cost of mistakenly allowing an invasive plant in.

To make these results equally accessible to scientists, decision-makers and the interested public, the researchers then encapsulated the resulting decision rule in a series of four graphics. Every plant species can be placed somewhere on these diagrams. The location on the diagram indicates the economically optimal policyeither to admit or deny import.

Although these methods were developed to aid decision-making about potential plant pests, the techniques used may be helpful for other problems in environmental management, for instance in prioritizing rare species for conservation.

Results from the analysis inspired a companion study by Schmidt, Drake and Odum School assistant research scientist Patrick Stephens, in the journal Ecological Applications, which contrasts invasive and rare plants of North America.

Using a much larger data setthe roughly 15,000 species native to the U.S. and Canadathis second study developed predictive models to distinguish species classified as pests together with rankings developed by the Nature Conservancy concerning extinction vulnerability.

"In summary, decisions about allowing plants into the U.S. are being made every day," Schmidt said. "Our models could help to better guide those decisions, potentially saving tens of millions to billions of dollars in costs associated with plant invasions."

###

The full text of the Ecosphere article is available at http://www.esajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1890/ES12-00055.1. The full text of the Ecological Applications study is available at http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/11-1915.1.

---

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 28-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: J.P. Schmidt
jps@uga.edu
706-613-8483
University of Georgia

Model asks if importing a plant is worth the risk of environmental damage, economic costs

Athens, Ga. Weedy plants, many introduced to the U.S. for sale through plant nurseries, are responsible for extensive environmental damage and economic costs. Although legislation restricts the introduction of certain species, the procedures used to select species for inclusion on the restricted list are haphazard and out of date.

To meet the need for more systematic weed risk analysis, researchers at the University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology and the University of California, Davis have developed a "cost-sensitive" model to determine when importing a given plant is worth the risk. Their work was published in the May edition of the journal Ecosphere.

Although the problems caused by invasive plants are well known, Odum School postdoctoral associate J.P. Schmidt, the lead scientist on the study, said the U.S. has historically placed very few restrictions on the import of plants.

According to UC Davis economist and study co-author Mike Springborn, "our approach represents a shift from the current practice of scrambling to address invasives only after they are already established. In this paper, we develop tools for making informed decisions ahead of time about which plants have an acceptable level of risk given their anticipated benefits. We now have the combined biological and economic tools to take an informed look before we leap with trade in new species."

The model uses statistical procedures to assess how likely a plant is to become a weed. To do this, it compares the estimated probability with the average costs of a new weed and the expected losses from foregone sales of non-weed species that are presumably safe. Using the model as a screening tool, the researchers say, would provide a net economic benefit of at least $80,000 to $140,000 per species assessed, which could translate into tens of millions of dollars in total.

Had the proposed screening system been in place historically, they calculatedusing just low-end estimates of invasive species damagesthat one third of the most noxious species could have been excluded. To realize this benefit, only 15 percent of potential introductions would need to be prohibited.

At its core, the model consists of two parts. First, the researchers sought to identify a small number of plant traits that could be used to predict invasiveness.

"Amazingly, we found that just four traits could discriminate pest from non-pest species with an impressive degree of accuracy," Schmidt said. "Namely, pest species tend to have some combination of the following traits: seeds that are in the mid-range of seed sizes, that have higher chromosome counts than their close relatives, that have affinities for both wetland and upland habitats and that have large native ranges."

"Second," said co-author John Drake, an associate professor at the Odum School, "we asked where to draw the proverbial line-in-the-sandin this case the line between probable pests and probable non-pestswhich requires accounting for the value of the ornamental plant trade and the costs associated with weeds. The economically optimal decision rule is the one that settles that line where it exactly balances the costs from invasion with the benefits from trade."

Schmidt explained that the cost of mistakenly keeping out a non-invasive plant was far lower than the cost of mistakenly allowing an invasive plant in.

To make these results equally accessible to scientists, decision-makers and the interested public, the researchers then encapsulated the resulting decision rule in a series of four graphics. Every plant species can be placed somewhere on these diagrams. The location on the diagram indicates the economically optimal policyeither to admit or deny import.

Although these methods were developed to aid decision-making about potential plant pests, the techniques used may be helpful for other problems in environmental management, for instance in prioritizing rare species for conservation.

Results from the analysis inspired a companion study by Schmidt, Drake and Odum School assistant research scientist Patrick Stephens, in the journal Ecological Applications, which contrasts invasive and rare plants of North America.

Using a much larger data setthe roughly 15,000 species native to the U.S. and Canadathis second study developed predictive models to distinguish species classified as pests together with rankings developed by the Nature Conservancy concerning extinction vulnerability.

"In summary, decisions about allowing plants into the U.S. are being made every day," Schmidt said. "Our models could help to better guide those decisions, potentially saving tens of millions to billions of dollars in costs associated with plant invasions."

###

The full text of the Ecosphere article is available at http://www.esajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1890/ES12-00055.1. The full text of the Ecological Applications study is available at http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/11-1915.1.

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Gold inches up ahead of European Union summit

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Chris Weigant: Popular Vote Speculation Interlude

You'll have to forgive me for opening with a joke, but there's been a "song" running through my mind all week. It's from an old comedy routine I heard decades ago, so I have no idea which comedian to credit. The comedian was suggesting new lyrics for our national anthem, with a practical interpretation based on when we usually actually sing it. So, everyone sing along with me, in your collective heads:

"As we stand here waiting / For the ball game to start..."

Don't know why that's been running through my head... heh. Actually, that's a lie. I'm just as interested as the next pundit in what the Supremes are going to say tomorrow about Obamacare, but I just don't think it's worth talking about here until it happens, that's all. Instead, I'd like to take a summertime flight of electoral fancy.

Once or twice per presidential election, I like to engage in the sheerest of blue-sky speculation about possible interesting outcomes that could happen. Four years ago, I engaged in idle speculation about a 269-269 tie in the Electoral College. This time around, the scenario I've been hearing bandied about is that Barack Obama wins the Electoral College vote, but Mitt Romney wins the popular vote. Barring Supreme Court cases, this would mean a second term for Barack Obama, of course.

In recent history, we've already had one such election, as Al Gore got hundreds of thousands more votes than George W. Bush did. This would merely turn the tables on the 2000 outcome, to put it one way.

The Republicans would certainly howl about such an outcome. It is debatable which side of the political aisle is more effective at such howling (and which side does a better job of such yowling and outrage), but it's fairly certain that we would look back at all the birther nonsense as being a walk in the park compared to what conservatives would be saying about Obama, should this scenario actually play out.

Howling and yowling aside, though, there would likely also be an interesting (and more concrete) effect should Obama win his second term in this fashion -- Republicans would suddenly discover an effort which has been quietly building steam ever since the 2000 election. I speak of the "National Popular Vote" effort.

This organized effort is, at its heart, an end-run around trying to get a constitutional amendment. According to the National Popular Vote organization, this does not mean it is an unconstitutional effort, though (a major distinction worth making).

The idea is simple, at its heart. The Constitution says that each state may allocate its electoral vote as it sees fit. The "NPV" effort aims to convince enough states to change their electoral laws so that whichever candidate wins the national popular vote will be guaranteed the White House.

Nine states, to date, have approved this NPV scheme by passing identical laws. These laws state that the entire delegation of state electors will vote for the nationwide winner of the presidential vote no matter what the actual vote result is in each state. Say you lived in California, for instance. The state votes overwhelmingly for Obama, but when it comes time for the Electoral College to vote, all 55 votes are cast for Mitt Romney (to use the Obama/Romney election as an example).

Be advised, however, that there's a "trigger" built in to this law -- it will not go into effect in any state until enough states have passed the same NPV law so that their electoral votes add up to the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to win the election. So the whole scheme wouldn't come into play until it was actually meaningful (and fair) to the ultimate result.

As you can see, this sort of thing would be much better handled by an actual constitutional amendment that abolished the Electoral College and simply decreed that the national vote was the ultimate arbiter. But since constitutional amendments are almost impossible to get passed, the National Public Vote folks are trying to incrementally build support for the national vote being final.

The problem with this effort -- up until now -- is the unbalanced nature of the states that have passed such laws. The nine states where this is now election law are: California, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, Washington, and Washington, D.C. You'll immediately note that these states are mighty blue indeed -- nary a red state among them. Chalk this up to the aftermath of the 2000 election. But also please note that this means that a total of 132 state electoral votes have now signed up for the scheme -- which is roughly half of the 270 needed.

Fast-forward to 2013, when President Obama is sworn in with less than a majority of the popular vote. Among the howling from conservatives, there will likely be an effort to do something about the problem. I can easily see quite a few red Republican states suddenly discovering the NPV effort, and moving legislation in their respective statehouses. If Texas led the way and passed NPV first, then only 100 more electoral votes would be needed to make the plan a reality, to put the situation in perspective.

Move even further forward in time, to the next election where the Electoral College vote didn't match the national popular vote, and we'd be in for one whale of a court fight (which would make Bush v. Gore look tame, indeed).

The interesting thing, however, is if the Obama scenario plays out, and if the National Popular Vote folks get their wish with the addition of a pile of red states (two mighty big "ifs," to be sure) -- the result would be an almost evenly-divided bipartisan effort between blue states and red. This would tend to give it more legitimacy with the public, one assumes. If only blue (or near-blue) states totaling 270 electoral votes passed the NPV law, and then a subsequent election were determined by the scheme, it would look a lot different than if the states were evenly mixed between blue and red.

The truth of the matter is that if we ever did get to the point of having an electoral majority of states pass such a law, then likely the public would be a lot more open to an actual constitutional amendment which solved the problem more simply, by just abolishing the Electoral College once and for all.

But that doesn't stop me from my idle summertime speculation, as we stand here waiting for nine players to take the field (so to speak), and the Obamacare ball game to start.

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Chris Weigant blogs at:

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
Become a fan of Chris on The Huffington Post

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Follow Chris Weigant on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ChrisWeigant

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Toshiba Satellite U845W Hands On: Super-Wide Mutant Ultrabook for Movie-Lovers and Multitaskers [Ultrabooks]

If nothing else, Toshiba seems determined to not be lumped in with the MacBook clones and iPad ripoffs. Its new Satellite U845W falls in line with its other recent holy crap why does it look like that gear. Which is a good thing! To a point. More »

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Rare virus linked to rodents kills two in Utah

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Obama a socialist? Many scoff, but claim persists

NEW YORK (AP) ? When President Barack Obama's re-election campaign unveiled its new slogan, some conservative critics were quick to pounce.

"Forward," they asserted, is a word long associated with Europe's radical left. Its choice reaffirmed their contention that Obama is, to some degree or other, a socialist ? a claim that surfaced early in the 2008 campaign and has persisted ever since, fueling a lively industry of bumper stickers and books..

"New Obama slogan has long ties to Marxism, socialism," read a headline in The Washington Times. A column by Russian immigrant Svetlana Kunin, for Investor's Business Daily, said Obama seeks to move America forward to "total government involvement in people's lives."

This is far from a new phenomenon ? the use of "socialist" as a political epithet in the U.S. dates back to pre-Civil War days when abolitionist newspaper editor Horace Greeley was branded a socialist by some pro-slavery adversaries. In the 20th century, many elements of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal ? including Social Security ? were denounced as socialist. So was Medicare when it was created in the 1960s.

But to many historians and political scientists ? and to actual socialists as well ? the persistent claim that Obama is a socialist lacks credence.

He's widely seen as a pragmatist within the Democratic Party mainstream who's had ample success raising campaign funds from wealthy Wall Street capitalists. Even some of his strongest critics acknowledge that his administration hasn't sought one of the classic forms of socialism ? government control of the nation's means of production.

Terence Ball, a political scientist at Arizona State University, said "socialist' has gained currency as an anti-Obama slur because "the 'L' word (liberal) has lost it shock value."

"I grow weary of Obama and the Democrats being called socialist," said Ball, who has written about ideologies. "If you talk to any real socialist, they disown them very, very quickly."

Full-fledged U.S. socialists are relatively scarce these days ? three socialist-oriented presidential candidates received about 21,000 votes among them in 2008. And current socialist leaders don't share the right-wing view that Obama is a fellow traveler.

"It makes absolutely no sense," said Greg Pason, national secretary of the Socialist Party USA. Obama's health care overhaul "is anything but socialist. It's bailing out for-profit companies."

Yet Pason has been pleased by the "socialist" rhetoric.

"We've had an opportunity to talk to people, and that's been a blessing," he said. "People have actually researched socialist organizations."

One tidbit they might learn: The Pledge of Allegiance ? the epitome of American patriotism ? was written in 1892 by a socialist clergyman, Francis Bellamy.

When the 2012 Republican presidential campaign was still competitive, three of the leading candidates ? Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann ? depicted Obama as a socialist. Mitt Romney, the eventual winner, declined to go that far.

"I don't use the word 'socialist,' or I haven't so far," Romney told CNN in an interview last year. "But I do agree that the president's approach is government-heavy, government-intensive, and it's not working."

In one of the GOP debates, Romney asserted that Obama "takes his political inspiration from Europe, from the socialist-democrats in Europe."

Radio host Rush Limbaugh was among several conservatives who chided Romney for his reluctance to call Obama a socialist outright.

"You know, I keep forgetting, the fact that Obama is black, is why we can't call him a socialist," Limbaugh said on one of his shows. "That had slipped my mind because when I look at Obama, I don't see black. I see a socialist. I see a Marxist."

A slew of books have been written by conservative authors trying to out Obama as socialist. Among the more ambitious, in terms of research, was "Radical in Chief" by Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative Washington think tank. Delving into Obama's years as a student and a community organizer, Kurtz contended that Obama is part of a coterie of "stealth socialists."

"Over the long term, Obama's plans are designed to ensnare the country in a new socialism, a stealth socialism that masquerades as a traditional sense of fair play, a soft but pernicious socialism similar to that currently strangling the economies of Europe," Kurtz wrote.

In much of today's world, socialism lacks the contentious overtones that it has in America.

The new French president, Francois Hollande, is a Socialist, and most of Western Europe adheres to socialist-style policies that endure under a variety of governing parties.

Canada, which resembles the U.S. in so many ways, has a universal health care system and its main opposition party, the New Democrats, is union-backed and has socialist roots.

One of the few contemporary U.S. politicians to embrace the socialist label is Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. He formally lists himself as an independent, but throughout his career ? including stints as a mayor and House member ? he's described himself as a democratic socialist.

"Branding someone as a socialist has become the slur du jour by leading lights of the American right from Newt Gingrich to Rush Limbaugh," Sanders said in 2009. "If we could get beyond such nonsense, I think this country could use a good debate about what goes on here compared to places with a long social-democratic tradition like Sweden, Norway and Finland, where, by and large, the middle class has a far higher standard of living than we do."

The roots of socialism in America can be traced to the arrival of German immigrants in the 1850s, according to Rutgers University professor Norman Markowitz, who teaches the history of socialism and communism.

The Socialist Party of America grew significantly in the early 20th century under the leadership of union organizer Eugene V. Debs, electing a congressman and dozens of mayors. Debs ran for president five times, getting more than 913,000 votes in 1920 ? the party's high-water mark. (At the time, Debs was in prison on charges that he had urged resistance to the draft during World War I.)

The party's following eroded during the 1920s, and Debs was succeeded as leader by Norman Thomas, a Presbyterian minister in New York. During the Great Depression, Thomas received 892,000 votes in the 1932 presidential election as Franklin Roosevelt won the first of his four victories.

After World War II, the anti-communist crusade led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the broader tensions of the Cold War relegated organized socialism in the U.S. to the political margins. The term "creeping socialism" emerged, used by conservatives to denigrate various policy proposals and initiatives that involved a role for the government.

After the Cold War's end, use of "socialist" as a political insult also receded. Markowitz believes its recent revival relates directly to the animosity toward Obama that is shared by a certain segment of Americans.

"There's this hysterical outbreak of abuse to prove that the president is not American, that he's a secret Muslim, that policies that past Republican administrations would have adopted are part of a socialist, communist conspiracy," Markowitz said.

Due in part to the multiple definitions of socialism, some conservatives wrestle with semantics as they seek appropriate terms for Obama's ideology.

"Instinctively, the president is a collectivist," said Ken Blackwell, former Ohio secretary of state and now a conservative commentator. "My fundamental belief is that he wants to transform our market economy into a government-controlled economy ? not far afield from European-style socialism."

Steven Hayward, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of a two-volume biography of Ronald Reagan, said Obama is not a socialist under the strict definitions of that term ? central economic planning and government control of production.

"However, socialism has a secondary meaning that is harder to explain ? government regulations, supervision of the private economy," Hayward said. "The problem now with Obama is, 'What does he really think?'"

Ezra Klein, a blogger and columnist for The Washington Post, tackled the issue recently in a posting headlined "Barack Obama: Worst. Socialist. Ever."

Klein cited data indicating that the government sector of the economy shrank during the past three years.

"If President Obama is truly a socialist," Klein wrote, "then he's not a very good one."

___

David Crary can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CraryAP

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Sales Pro: Area Sales Manager - Serviced Office Solution Sales

Job ID: 72471

Job Views: 21

Location: Bolton, Greater Manchester

Job Category: Field Sales

Employment Type: Full time

Salary:

Posted: Mon Jun 04

Keywords (tags):

Job Description

Area Sales Manager - Managed Office Solution Sales
26-32k Base; 45k OTE plus Excellent Benefits?
Preston/Bolton

Our client; a leading provider of managed office solutions with close to 1000 locations in 400+ cities spanning more than 70 countries worldwide. Founded some 20 years ago they now employ in excess of 2000 people globally and due to continued growth they are currently recruiting an Area Sales Manager to target corporate business in and around Preston/Bolton
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As an Area Sales Manager you will be responsible for generating profitable business that meets territory objectives through meeting and exceeding established sales budgets/targets and through developing corporate business within the territory to use our clients' products and services; locally; nationally and/or globally. This role will involve elements of both new business sales generation and strategic account management.

The ideal candidate will be of graduate caliber and able to demonstrate a proven track record of 2-3 years structured sales experience. You will be comfortable selling a conceptual product; and be able to identify buying signals. You will possess highly developed social skills with the ability to network at high levels; be approachable; presentable and professional with high energy levels and the initiative to drive your business forward.

The successful candidate can expect a negotiable base salary circa 26-32k with an uncapped OTE of 45k plus an executive benefits package.?

Certus is an established and experienced specialist sales recruitment and marketing recruitment consultancy, providing sales and marketing recruitment services to the business to business marketplace throughout the UK. We are experts in the recruitment of internal and external (field sales) sales professionals from Graduate & Sales Trainee through to Sales Manager and Sales Director levels. With specialist Sales divisions covering: Commercial Sales, FMCG, Information, Financial, Medical and Pharmaceutical, IT/Technology (Software, Hardware, Telco and Services), Media, Rec2Rec and a Marketing division covering everything from Marketing Executives through to PR Managers and Marketing Director level positions; we are well positioned to deliver cost effective recruitment solutions in a timely manner. To find out more about Certus, please visit http://www.certussales.com and http://www.certusmarketing.com ?????

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Contact Details

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Shape-shifting shell

Monday, June 4, 2012

Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have for the first time uncovered the detailed structure of the shell that surrounds the genetic material of retroviruses, such as HIV, at a crucial and potentially vulnerable stage in their life cycle: when they are still being formed. The study, published online today in Nature, provides information on a part of the virus that may be a potential future drug target.

Retroviruses essentially consist of genetic material encased in a protein shell, which is in turn surrounded by a membrane. After entering a target cell ? in the case of HIV, one of the cells in our immune system ? the virus replicates, producing more copies of itself, each of which has to be assembled from a medley of viral and cellular components into an immature virus. "All the necessary components are brought together within the host cell to form the immature virus, which then has to mature into a particle that's able to infect other cells" says John Briggs, who led the research at EMBL. "We found that when it does, the changes to the virus' shell are more dramatic than expected."

Both the mature and immature virus shells are honeycomb-like lattices of hexagon-shaped units. Using a combination of electron microscopy and computer-based methods, Briggs and colleagues investigated which parts of the key proteins stick together to build the honeycomb of the immature shell. These turned out to be very different from the parts that build the mature shell. This knowledge will help scientists to unravel how the immature virus is assembled in the cell and how the shell proteins rearrange themselves to go from one form to the other.

Findings such as these may one day prove valuable to those wanting to design new types of anti-retroviral therapies. Many anti-retroviral drugs already block the enzyme that would normally separate components of the immature shell to allow it to mature. But there are currently no approved drugs that act on that shell itself and prevent the enzyme from locking on.

Although the virus shells imaged in this study were derived from the Mason-Pfizer monkey virus and made artificially in the laboratory, they closely resemble those of both this virus and HIV ? which are very similar ? in their natural forms.

"We still need a lot more detailed information before drug design can really be contemplated," Briggs concludes, "but finally being able to compare mature and immature structures is a step forwards."

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European Molecular Biology Laboratory: http://www.embl.org

Thanks to European Molecular Biology Laboratory for this article.

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Twitter Tracker To Put Fans At Center Of Movie Awards Action

Social media tools like Timeline Tracker and All Access Live will give fans minute-by-minute coverage on what is making people talk.
By Kara Klenk

MTV Movie Awards 2012 Twitter Tracker
Photo: MTV

The 2012 MTV Movie Awards are just around the corner, and this year there are even more ways that viewers can get in on all the star-studded action. Whether it's Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr, you won't have to look very far to find out about the jaw-dropping Movie Awards moments.

The 2011 Video Music Awards broke records, and we're bringing back our Twitter Tracker to capture the millions of tweets that will roll in this Sunday night. The tracker will chart who's blowing up the Twittersphere and what moments are causing the most buzz, and will allow users to share photos directly to their followers. Additionally, the tracker will provide details about trends so users aren't left wondering why #KStewRules is trending, they'll have access to photos or video clips of what happened.

Of course, Facebook doesn't want to be left out of the fun. This year a new tracking tool called Timeline Tracker will be available to fans through the MTV Facebook page, allowing users to track what Movie Awards moments are getting "liked" and shared the most.

While viewers watch the show at home they can also jump on their computer or mobile device to check out the All Access Live feature on MTV.com. There will be six different camera views showing the audience, the red carpet, backstage and more, which users can watch and share while chatting with one other.

MTV's Tumblr will also host plenty of animated GIFs of celebrities on the red carpet that will be must-share content for fans.

Head over to MovieAwards.MTV.com to vote for your favorite flicks now! The 21st annual MTV Movie Awards air live Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET.

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