PHOENIX (Reuters) ? Two Arizona parents were arrested by sheriff's deputies after apparently posting pictures on Facebook that showed their children, an infant and a toddler, bound with duct tape, authorities said on Thursday.
Coconino County deputies arrested Frankie Almuina, 20, and Kayla Almuina, 19, on suspicion of two counts of child abuse on Wednesday at their northern Arizona home after being alerted to the photos by an anonymous tip.
The children, a 2-year-old toddler and a 10-month-old infant, were seen online bound with duct tape on their wrists and ankles with their mouths taped shut, Commander Rex Gilliland told Reuters. One of the children was shown hanging upside down on an exercise machine.
The parents told investigators that the photos, posted on the mother's Facebook account, were a joke and that the children were not harmed, Gilliland said.
"It's clear in our minds that these children were placed in a very extreme situation," Gilliland said. "By the look on their faces, they were in sheer terror. I don't know how this could have been a joke."
Authorities were called to the scene after a person who likely knew the couple saw the postings and called the Arizona Child Abuse Hotline, Gilliland said. The caller knew the names of the parents and where they lived.
He said investigators seized about a dozen similar photos, some that were not posted online, from the home north of Williams, Arizona, about 175 miles north of Phoenix.
The couple were being held in a county jail as of late on Thursday. The children have been turned over to another family member, Gilliland said.
(Reporting by David Schwartz; Editing by Steve Gorman and Cynthia Johnston)
The holidays are drawing to a close, and for the political world a new season is dawning: retirement season.
The new year marks the unofficial starting gun of the campaign season and traditionally produces a flurry of announcements from members of Congress that they will not seek reelection in the fall ? and officials from both parties predict this year will be no different.
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It?s already begun. Two days after Christmas, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) announced that he will forgo a third term rather than embark on a bruising reelection campaign ? a decision that likely hands the seat to Republicans. Then, on Friday, Ohio Rep. Steve Austria also bowed out, citing a redistricting plan that pits him against a fellow Republican congressman.
Democratic officials say they are closely monitoring several other party members, including 73-year-old New York Rep. Maurice Hinchey and North Carolina Rep. Brad Miller, who faces a narrow road to a sixth term after Republicans drew him into the same seat as another Democratic incumbent in this year?s redistricting. Rep. Heath Shuler, another North Carolina Democrat in a challenging district, raised questions about whether he would retire after he told a local newspaper that being in Congress ?gets old. You have to keep fighting and keep fighting, and sometimes, people just don?t listen.?
Whitney Mitchell, a Shuler spokeswoman, declined via email to elaborate on the congressman?s comments, saying only that ?Congressman Shuler is currently and actively seeking reelection in 2012.?
Democrats have borne the brunt of most of the retirements this year. Seven Democrats and two Republicans in the Senate are not running again, and 17 Democrats and nine Republicans in the House are stepping aside. But senior GOP officials say three of the party?s oldest House members ? Reps. Bill Young of Florida, Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland and Howard Coble of North Carolina ? could announce departures in the days ahead. Additionally, Reps. Elton Gallegly and Jerry Lewis, both California Republicans, have been noncommittal about their 2012 plans.
If any of those members decide to leave Capitol Hill, history suggests they could make their plans clear in the immediate weeks ahead. During the 2010 campaign, five House members and two senators announced their retirement in the month following Christmas. In the 2008 election, four House members and one senator made public their plans to forgo reelection during the same time period.
?This is the period of time where most party leaders hold their breath,? said Chris LaCivita, a former National Republican Senatorial Committee political director. ?They ask, ?What?s the next shoe that?s going to drop???
The retirements typically mark a critical juncture in the emerging campaign, locking in candidate fields before a rush of springtime filing deadlines and primaries approaches.
Politicos say it?s no accident that members make career decisions around the holidays ? a natural time for self-reflection that?s spent with family. With aides and party leaders ? who are usually invested in seeing a lawmaker carry on ? many miles away, a member can be more easily swayed to ditch Washington for good.
BERLIN (Reuters) ? Flaws in a widely used wireless technology could allow hackers to gain remote control of phones and instruct them to send text messages or make calls, according to an expert on mobile phone security.
They could use the vulnerability in the GSM technology -- which is used by most telecom operators globally and by billions of people -- to make calls or send texts to expensive, premium phone and messaging services in scams, said Karsten Nohl, head of Berlin-based Security Research Labs.
Nohl is a well-regarded expert on mobile security who last year identified a bug in GSM technology that makes calls vulnerable to tapping. He says he is calling attention to these flaws to pressure the industry into beefing up the security of their products.
Mobile security is a hot issue because hackers are paying unprecedented attention to the devices as smartphone sales have outpaced sales of PCs.
Only a few flaws have been found in GSM technology - which stands for Global System for Mobile Communications - over its 20-year history. Industry lobby group GSMA said on Tuesday it did not expect the new findings to affect its views on the security of the technology.
"The GSMA and its mobile network operator members are confident in the security of existing 2G GSM networks and real attacks on real networks against real customers are most unlikely," it said in a statement, adding that newer technologies are safer and not impacted by the new research.
GSMA's statement "on anticipated GSM security announcements" did not make clear whether the industry group had actually seen Nohl's latest research.
Security experts have previously identified a small number of viruses designed to infect smartphones, allowing hackers to take control of the devices and force them to make calls or send text messages. But Nohl said he has discovered a way to leverage previously disclosed vulnerabilities in GSM technology that could potentially threaten hundreds of thousands of phones.
"We can do it to hundreds of thousands of phones in a short time frame," Nohl told Reuters ahead of a presentation on the topic at a hacking convention in Berlin on Tuesday.
SECTOR IN FOCUS
Smartphone malware is popping up at an unprecedented rate as people put more and more valuable information on the devices, using them to hold corporate secrets, conduct banking and function as digital wallets.
GSM became the dominant mobile technology globally in the late 1990s and even though new, faster mobile networks have been rolled out across the world, operators have stuck to their GSM networks to support older phones and to offer service when new networks fail.
The Berlin convention takes place just days after U.S. security think tank Strategic Forecasting Inc (Stratfor) said its website had been hacked and that some names of corporate subscribers had been made public. Activist hacker group Anonymous claimed responsibility.
Attacks on corporate landline phone systems are fairly common, often involving bogus premium-service phone lines that hackers set up in countries in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.
Fraudsters make calls to the numbers from hacked business phone systems or mobile phones, then collect their cash and move on before the activity is identified.
The phone users typically do not realize the problem until after they receive their bills, and telecommunications carriers often end up footing at least some of the costs.
Even though Nohl will not present all details of possible attacks at the conference, he said hackers will usually replicate the code needed for attacks within a few weeks.
T-MOBILE, SFR LEAD NEW RANKING
Mobile networks of Germany's T-Mobile and France's SFR offer their clients the best protection against online criminals wanting to intercept their calls or track their movements, according to a new ranking Nohl will unveil at his presentation.
The new ranking, at gsmmap.org, is conducted by security researchers, who hope this will heighten the awareness of operators and consumers on the vulnerability of their mobile communications.
Researchers reviewed 32 operators in 11 countries and rated their performance based on how easy it was for them to intercept the calls, impersonate someone's device or track the device.
"None of the networks protects users very well," Nohl said.
The sample is set to grow from 32 carriers dramatically next year as the tool enables anyone to participate in data gathering
by downloading measuring software to their phones.
Nohl said mobile telecom operators could easily improve their clients' security, in many cases by just updating their software.
Researchers reviewed operators in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Morocco, Slovakia, Switzerland and Thailand.
(Additional reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Matt Driskill, Vinu Pilakkott and Matthew Lewis)
LONDON ? Britain's government says experts are considering developing a bespoke iPad app that would deliver key data straight to Prime Minister David Cameron's tablet computer.
Officials said Wednesday that the idea is being discussed, though Cameron's Downing Street office declined to comment on the details.
The Times of London newspaper reported the app could include statistics and information from government departments, real time news and Twitter updates.
Cameron has previously discussed his affection for his iPad, but acknowledged he needed "a little bit of help from someone in IT" to set up the gadget.
The British chief has frequently championed the country's technology sector and hailed the so-called Silicon Roundabout cluster of digital companies in east London.
POCATELLO, Idaho -- Jenni Lake gave birth to a baby boy the month before her 18th birthday, though she was not destined to become just another teenage mother.
That much, she knew.
While being admitted to the hospital, she pulled her nurse down to her at bed level and whispered into her ear. The nurse would later repeat the girl's words to comfort her family, as their worst fears were realized a day after Jenni's baby was born.
"She told the nurse, `I'm done, I did what I was supposed to. My baby is going to get here safe,'" said Diana Phillips, Jenni's mother.
In photographs, the baby's ruddy cheeks and healthy weight offer a stark contrast to the frail girl who gave birth to him. She holds the newborn tightly, kissing the top of his head. Jenni, at 5 feet and 4 inches tall, weighed only 108 pounds at the full term of her pregnancy.
A day after the Nov. 9 birth, Phillips learned that her daughter's decision to forgo treatment for tumors on her brain and spine so she could carry the baby would have fatal repercussions. The cancer had marked too much territory. Nothing could be done, Phillips said.
It was only 12 days past the birth ? half spent in the hospital and the other half at home ? before Jenni was gone.
Even so, her family and friends insist her legacy is not one centered in tragedy, but rather in sacrifice.
This month, her family gathered at their ranch style home in Pocatello, where a Christmas tree in the living room was adorned with ornaments picked out just for Jenni, including one in bright lime green, her favorite color. She had passed away in a bedroom down the hall.
Recalling Jenni's infectious laugh and a rebellious streak, her mother held the baby close, nuzzling his head, and said, "I want him to know everything about her, and what she did."
___
The migraines started last year, when Jenni was a 16-year-old sophomore at Pocatello High School. She was taken to the family doctor, and an MRI scan found a small mass measuring about two centimeters wide on the right side of her brain.
She was sent to a hospital in Salt Lake City, some 150 miles south of Pocatello, and another scan there showed the mass was bigger than previously thought.
Jenni had a biopsy Oct. 15, 2010, and five days later was diagnosed with stage three astrocytoma, a type of brain tumor. With three tumors on her brain and three on her spine, Jenni was told her case was rare because the cancer had spread from her brain to another part of her body with no symptoms.
Her parents, who are divorced, remember they were brought into a room at the hospital and sat down at a long table as doctors discussed her chances of survival.
"Jenni just flat out asked them if she was going to die," said her father, Mike Lake, 43, a truck driver who lives in Rexburg, north of Pocatello.
The answer wasn't good. With treatment, the teen was told she had a 30 percent chance to make it two years, Lake said. While he was heartbroken, Lake marveled at how strong she seemed in that moment. "She didn't break down and cry or anything," he said.
But her mom recalled Jenni did have a weak moment that day.
"When they told her that she might not be able to have kids, she got upset," said Phillips, 39.
Jenni started aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatments, while also posting videos on a YouTube site titled "Jenni's Journey," where she hoped to share her story with updates every other day. She managed to upload only three videos, though, as her treatments left her tired and weak.
On her second video, posted Nov. 20, 2010, Jenni appears distraught while a family friend records her having lunch with her mom.
"Last night, like, I was just lying in bed and I was thinking about everything that was going on and it just like, it just hit me, like everything, and I don't know, it made me cry," Jenni says on the video.
Her mom is shown burying her face in her hands. "Do you know how hard it is to be a mom and know that she's sick and there's nothing you can do," she says, before collapsing into tears.
Jenni persists: "It's hard. It's like, I don't know how long this is going to last and I just want it to go away ... I feel like this is holding me back from so much ..."
By March of this year, the tumors had started to shrink, the family said.
In a picture taken at her prom in early May, Jenni is wearing a dark blue strapless dress and gives the camera a small smile. There's a silver headband in her hair, which is less than an inch long. Chemotherapy took her shoulder-length blond tresses.
Her boyfriend, Nathan Wittman, wearing a black dress shirt and pants, is cradling her from behind.
___
Jenni started dating Nathan a couple of weeks before she received her diagnosis. Their adolescent relationship withstood the very adult test posed by cancer, the treatments that left her barely able to walk from her living room to her bedroom, and the gossip at school.
"The rumors started flying around, like Nathan was only with her because she had cancer," said Jenni's older sister, Ashlee Lake, 20, who tried to squelch the mean-spirited chatter even as the young couple ignored it.
They were hopeful, and dreamed of someday opening a restaurant or a gallery.
Jenni had been working as an apprentice in a local tattoo shop. "She was like our little sister," said the owner, Kass Chacon. But in May, Jenni's visits to the shop grew less frequent.
She had been throwing up a lot and had sharp stomach pains. She went to the emergency room early one morning with her boyfriend and when she returned home, her family members woke up to the sound of crying. "We could hear Jenni just bawling in her room," said her sister, Kaisee, 19.
She had learned that she was pregnant, and an ultrasound would show the fetus was 10 weeks old.
Jenni's journey was no longer her own.
From the start of treatment, she was told that she might never have children, her mother said, that the radiation and chemotherapy could essentially make her sterile.
"We were told that she couldn't get pregnant, so we didn't worry about it," said Nathan, 19.
Jenni, the third of her parents' eight children, had always wanted to be a mom. She had already determined to keep the baby when she went to see her oncologist, Dr. David Ririe, in Pocatello two days after she found out she was pregnant.
"He told us that if she's pregnant, she can't continue the treatments," Phillips said. "So she would either have to terminate the pregnancy and continue the treatments, or stop the treatments, knowing that it could continue to grow again."
Dr. Ririe would not discuss Jenni's care, citing privacy laws, but said, generally, in cases in which a cancer patient is pregnant, oncologists will consider both the risks and benefits of continuing with treatment, such as chemotherapy.
"There are times during pregnancy in some situations, breast cancer being the classic example, where the benefits of chemotherapy may outweigh the risk to mother and baby," Ririe said. "There are other times where the risk outweighs the benefits."
There was no discussion about which path Jenni would choose. Her parents didn't think of it as a clear life or death decision, and Jenni may not have, either. They believed that since the tumors had already started to shrink earlier, she had a strong chance of carrying the baby and then returning to treatment after he was born.
"I guess we were just hoping that after she had the baby, she could go back on the chemotherapy and get better," her mother said.
___
Jenni and Nathan named the baby Chad Michael, after their dads. Nathan has legal custody of the child, who is primarily cared for by Nathan's mother, Alexia Wittman, 51.
"Nathan will raise him," she said. She brings the baby to Jenni's house to visit her family whenever they ask.
Jenni didn't show regret for her decision, not in the final weeks of her pregnancy as she grew weaker, and not when she started to lose her vision as the cancer took its course, her family said.
Jenni's last words were about her son as he was placed beside her a final time, her father said. As she felt for the baby, she said: "I can kind of see him."
While being admitted to the hospital, she pulled her nurse down to her at bed level and whispered into her ear. The nurse would later repeat the girl's words to comfort her family, as their worst fears were realized a day after Jenni's baby was born.
"She told the nurse, `I'm done, I did what I was supposed to. My baby is going to get here safe,'" said Diana Phillips, Jenni's mother.
In photographs, the baby's ruddy cheeks and healthy weight offer a stark contrast to the frail girl who gave birth to him. She holds the newborn tightly, kissing the top of his head. Jenni, at 5 feet and 4 inches tall, weighed only 108 pounds at the full term of her pregnancy.
A day after the Nov. 9 birth, Phillips learned that her daughter's decision to forgo treatment for tumors on her brain and spine so she could carry the baby would have fatal repercussions. The cancer had marked too much territory. Nothing could be done, Phillips said.
It was only 12 days past the birth ? half spent in the hospital and the other half at home ? before Jenni was gone.
Even so, her family and friends insist her legacy is not one centered in tragedy, but rather in sacrifice.
This month, her family gathered at their ranch style home in Pocatello, where a Christmas tree in the living room was adorned with ornaments picked out just for Jenni, including one in bright lime green, her favorite color. She had passed away in a bedroom down the hall.
Recalling Jenni's infectious laugh and a rebellious streak, her mother held the baby close, nuzzling his head, and said, "I want him to know everything about her, and what she did."
___
The migraines started last year, when Jenni was a 16-year-old sophomore at Pocatello High School. She was taken to the family doctor, and an MRI scan found a small mass measuring about two centimeters wide on the right side of her brain.
She was sent to a hospital in Salt Lake City, some 150 miles south of Pocatello, and another scan there showed the mass was bigger than previously thought.
Jenni had a biopsy Oct. 15, 2010, and five days later was diagnosed with stage three astrocytoma, a type of brain tumor. With three tumors on her brain and three on her spine, Jenni was told her case was rare because the cancer had spread from her brain to another part of her body with no symptoms.
Her parents, who are divorced, remember they were brought into a room at the hospital and sat down at a long table as doctors discussed her chances of survival.
"Jenni just flat out asked them if she was going to die," said her father, Mike Lake, 43, a truck driver who lives in Rexburg, north of Pocatello.
The answer wasn't good. With treatment, the teen was told she had a 30 percent chance to make it two years, Lake said. While he was heartbroken, Lake marveled at how strong she seemed in that moment. "She didn't break down and cry or anything," he said.
But her mom recalled Jenni did have a weak moment that day.
"When they told her that she might not be able to have kids, she got upset," said Phillips, 39.
Jenni started aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatments, while also posting videos on a YouTube site titled "Jenni's Journey," where she hoped to share her story with updates every other day. She managed to upload only three videos, though, as her treatments left her tired and weak.
On her second video, posted Nov. 20, 2010, Jenni appears distraught while a family friend records her having lunch with her mom.
"Last night, like, I was just lying in bed and I was thinking about everything that was going on and it just like, it just hit me, like everything, and I don't know, it made me cry," Jenni says on the video.
Her mom is shown burying her face in her hands. "Do you know how hard it is to be a mom and know that she's sick and there's nothing you can do," she says, before collapsing into tears.
Jenni persists: "It's hard. It's like, I don't know how long this is going to last and I just want it to go away ... I feel like this is holding me back from so much ..."
By March of this year, the tumors had started to shrink, the family said.
In a picture taken at her prom in early May, Jenni is wearing a dark blue strapless dress and gives the camera a small smile. There's a silver headband in her hair, which is less than an inch long. Chemotherapy took her shoulder-length blond tresses.
Her boyfriend, Nathan Wittman, wearing a black dress shirt and pants, is cradling her from behind.
___
Jenni started dating Nathan a couple of weeks before she received her diagnosis. Their adolescent relationship withstood the very adult test posed by cancer, the treatments that left her barely able to walk from her living room to her bedroom, and the gossip at school.
"The rumors started flying around, like Nathan was only with her because she had cancer," said Jenni's older sister, Ashlee Lake, 20, who tried to squelch the mean-spirited chatter even as the young couple ignored it.
They were hopeful, and dreamed of someday opening a restaurant or a gallery.
Jenni had been working as an apprentice in a local tattoo shop. "She was like our little sister," said the owner, Kass Chacon. But in May, Jenni's visits to the shop grew less frequent.
She had been throwing up a lot and had sharp stomach pains. She went to the emergency room early one morning with her boyfriend and when she returned home, her family members woke up to the sound of crying. "We could hear Jenni just bawling in her room," said her sister, Kaisee, 19.
She had learned that she was pregnant, and an ultrasound would show the fetus was 10 weeks old.
Jenni's journey was no longer her own.
From the start of treatment, she was told that she might never have children, her mother said, that the radiation and chemotherapy could essentially make her sterile.
"We were told that she couldn't get pregnant, so we didn't worry about it," said Nathan, 19.
Jenni, the third of her parents' eight children, had always wanted to be a mom. She had already determined to keep the baby when she went to see her oncologist, Dr. David Ririe, in Pocatello two days after she found out she was pregnant.
"He told us that if she's pregnant, she can't continue the treatments," Phillips said. "So she would either have to terminate the pregnancy and continue the treatments, or stop the treatments, knowing that it could continue to grow again."
Dr. Ririe would not discuss Jenni's care, citing privacy laws, but said, generally, in cases in which a cancer patient is pregnant, oncologists will consider both the risks and benefits of continuing with treatment, such as chemotherapy.
"There are times during pregnancy in some situations, breast cancer being the classic example, where the benefits of chemotherapy may outweigh the risk to mother and baby," Ririe said. "There are other times where the risk outweighs the benefits."
There was no discussion about which path Jenni would choose. Her parents didn't think of it as a clear life or death decision, and Jenni may not have, either. They believed that since the tumors had already started to shrink earlier, she had a strong chance of carrying the baby and then returning to treatment after he was born.
"I guess we were just hoping that after she had the baby, she could go back on the chemotherapy and get better," her mother said.
___
Jenni and Nathan named the baby Chad Michael, after their dads. Nathan has legal custody of the child, who is primarily cared for by Nathan's mother, Alexia Wittman, 51.
"Nathan will raise him," she said. She brings the baby to Jenni's house to visit her family whenever they ask.
Jenni didn't show regret for her decision, not in the final weeks of her pregnancy as she grew weaker, and not when she started to lose her vision as the cancer took its course, her family said.
Jenni's last words were about her son as he was placed beside her a final time, her father said. As she felt for the baby, she said: "I can kind of see him."
___
Below, photos of Jenni Lake's family and newborn son: "Chad Michael was born on 11/9/11 at 5:21 p.m. He was 6 pounds 3 ounces and 19 inches long. And, as you can see, perfect and beautiful. :)" -Jenni's Facebook page "Chad Michael was born on 11/9/11 at 5:21 p.m. He was 6 pounds 3 ounces and 19 inches long. And, as you can see, perfect and beautiful. :)" -Jenni's Facebook page
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(WHITE HOUSE) - The President and First Lady tape a holiday message in the Roosevelt Room, White House Photo, Lawrence Jackson, 12/16/11
(WHITE HOUSE - December 26, 2011) - Michelle and I send our warmest wishes to all those celebrating Kwanzaa this holiday season. Today marks the beginning of the week-long celebration honoring African American heritage and culture through the seven principles of Kwanzaa -- unity, self determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.
We celebrate Kwanzaa at a time when many African Americans and all Americans reflect on our many blessings and memories over the past year and our aspirations for the year to come. And even as there is much to be thankful for, we know that there are still too many Americans going through enormous challenges and trying to make ends meet. But we also know that in the spirit of unity, or Umoja, we can overcome those challenges together.
As families across America and around the world light the red, black, and green candles of the Kinara this week, our family sends our well wishes and blessings for a happy and healthy new year.
Tags: 2011, December 26, Kwanzaa, michelle, US President Barack Obama, white house
Statement by the President and First Lady on Kwanzaa 2011: Michelle and I send our warmest wishes to all those celebrating Kwanzaa this holiday season. Today marks the beginning of the week-long celebration honoring African American heritage and culture through the seven principles of Kwanzaa -- unity, self determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. Read in Full >> "Empower Me" Business Summit to feature Cindy Freland of Maryland Secretarial Services: Maryland Secretarial Services, Inc. began in 1997 after Founder, Cindy Freland, completed a successful career developing documents and reports for a major health insurance company in Washington, D.C. With more than 25 years of experience, Ms. Freland saw the need and decided to become proficient in many software programs to offer word processing, data entry, desktop publishing and transcription. Read in Full >> "Empower Me" Business Summit to feature Natasha Pierre:
Natasha A. Pierre is an award-winning speaker, and corporate trainer for small and medium ?sized businesses.? She also shares her 15 plus years of branding and marketing experience through private coaching, seminars and webinars and a variety of live and online events.?
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Her diverse background includes corporate branding, drafting standard operating procedures for Fortune 500 companies, public relations, and promotions.? Her specialty is crafting strong corporate identities that build brand recognition and equity.
Read in Full >> "Empower Me" Business Summit to feature Dwauna Maura: Motivational Speaker/Entreprenuer Dwauna Maura Dwauna Maura was born in Baltimore, Maryland and she is an independent entrepreneur in the skin care and beauty industry where she is recognized as a top producer!? She is a powerful and energetic speaker who speaks with passion and belief with the ability to transfer vision and victory to motivate and inspire audiences to achieve their goals.? Read in Full >>
Samsung Galaxy S II I9100 has just got another Android ICS 4.0.1 ROM, this time its the BETA 2 release. This ROM was made by samsung on 8,December and was leaked today by Sammobile.com, We tried it on our Galaxy S II and it seems alot faster than the BETA 1 version (exactly as sammobile states) that was released last week.
However, it has a lot of new bugs in addition to the BETA 1 old bugs that was not fixed yet.
The Official final ICS 4.0.1 ROM is said to be releaed by the end of january,2012 in a series of Updates to the Galaxy S II users all over the world
As much fun as Panthers management is having watching their team lead the Southeast Division and compete for their first playoff berth since 2000, they really can?t wait for their future.
A good number of players who will likely star for the Panthers in the coming years will be on display starting Monday in the World Junior Hockey Championships being held in Alberta, Canada.
?This has always been the plan,?? assistant general manager Mike Santos said. ?I?m glad we?re having success this year, and a lot of that comes from the players we signed last summer. But the plan is to draft well and then develop them. And that comes by not rushing them, leaving them in college or junior hockey. We don?t want to rush players into the NHL. This is still a three-, four-year plan. We think we have a real good organization, especially when those players are developed.??
Florida has five players competing for the United States and Canada alone. All five of those players ? led by Canada?s Jonathan Huberdeau and Quinton Howden, as well as center Nick Bjugstad of Team USA ? could be on the Panthers roster within the next two seasons.
The Panthers have a total of seven top prospects competing in the 10-day tournament. Erik Gudbranson would have played for Canada as well, but he has played in 27 games with the Panthers.
?If you have seven guys in that tournament, it means your scouts did a pretty good job,?? general manager Dale Tallon said. ?Our future looks very bright. These are all very good players who are playing on the world stage. This is good for them. It?s a tough tournament to play in, and it?s tough to make these teams. We?re real pleased with the development process and our depth chart.??
One player the Panthers have extreme interest in watching is Bjugstad, a sophomore at the University of Minnesota. Florida took the 6-4 center with the 19th overall pick in 2010 and is expecting him to become a top-two-line player for the Panthers in the next couple of seasons.
Bjugstad, 19, has 16 goals and 11 assists for the Gophers this season but has been slowed by an undisclosed injury and missed the first two exhibition games for Team USA leading into Monday?s opening game against Denmark. Bjugstad is expected to be paired with Minnesota linemate Kyle Rau ? whom Florida took in 2011.
Florida fans may have the most interest in watching Huberdeau, the third overall pick in the 2011 draft.
Huberdeau, 18, led the Panthers in scoring during the preseason ? although, to be fair, he played in more games than most of the regulars.
Florida management said Huberdeau played well enough to make the Panthers out of training camp this summer, but they sent him back to his junior team in Quebec for not only more seasoning but physical maturity.
Huberdeau has missed time this season with a broken foot but has been medically cleared to play.
Howden missed all of Panthers training camp after sustaining a concussion in a rookie game against Nashville and has been out after having similar symptoms after being hit by Team Canada teammate Brett Connolly during a scrimmage. Like Huberdeau, Howden has also been cleared to play.
The Panthers don?t plan on doing much scouting at the tournament since most of the players have already been drafted. Director of amateur scouting Scott Luce and a number of his scouts will be there, although Santos and Tallon don?t plan on attending. ?It?s more of a place to be seen than anything else,?? Santos said.
That doesn?t mean Tallon and Santos won?t be watching. The tournament is now televised in the U.S. on NHL Network where in years past, the tournament could only be seen in Canada ? where it is as revered as the NCAA basketball tournament is in the States.
I watched TRON: Legacy a few nights ago and an idea started to form into my head. A sandbox (free roam) based roleplay about the city of the grid. Set about 20 years (like, 150 cycles..?) after TRON: Legacy so a lot of the tech is updated but not much so as to keep with the TRON universe and not go overboard. I hope I can snag somebody who is rather versed with TRON to help me along with the tech and story as I'm no expert. Although things will be different since its set in the future and I don't have a story set yet. With hope, we can collaborate on how to form the overall story and not make it "just another empty sandbox". So far, I have an idea about a "Rise of the hackers" but thats about it actually.
Hopefully, with all luck, almost any weapon you can think of, from the chakram Identity disk to a claymore to a pistol to a machinegun. A lot of free expression to go along with your characters will be allowed too. As long as you can back it up, it can be done.
Instead of some useless quote, I'm putting my dawning Roleplay ideas here in my Sig. If you see something you like. Message me and we'll talk.
Hmm, digital world, light cycles, users. TRON. Ideas are sprouting my friends
When Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature shifted responsibility for thousands of state prisoners to county jails, some authorities said it would mean more offenders on the streets breaking the law.
Few saw another possible peril: the loss of more than 1,500 inmate firefighters.
Since World War II, the state has relied on nonviolent offenders serving time for such crimes as burglary, drug possession and welfare fraud to help clear brush, cut fire lines and stop infernos from spreading.
Fire officials say the prisoners, selected from a pool of those who exhibit ideal behavior in custody, can be as much as half the manpower assigned to a large fire.
"When things get busy, it's the first thing we run out of," said Andy McMurry, deputy director of fire protection for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Now, the realignment of inmate custody, developed to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court decision that overcrowding must be reduced in state lockups, is expected to keep thousands of those low-level offenders in county jails, where many could be released early because space is scarce.
Fire officials say they can sustain the number of inmate crews for now, but their forces will begin to shrink in 2013. The reduction, if fully implemented, would cut the inmate firefighting ranks by nearly 40%, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which operates the program jointly with Cal Fire.
State corrections and fire officials are working with local governments to head off that scenario with a separate training program for county inmates. But at a legislative hearing this month, county and local law enforcement representatives balked at the price tag ? $46 per inmate per day.
Rather than stockpiling nonviolent offenders in county jails, some sheriff's departments are considering cheaper alternatives, such as releasing them with electronic monitoring.
"Some sheriffs feel they can get a better bang for their buck," Curtis Hill, a lobbyist for the California State Sheriffs' Assn., said at the hearing.
In addition, he said, some jurisdictions would rather have offenders doing manual labor than waiting around for a fire. Losing county inmates to fire crews would hurt "the capability of local communities to use that population for their own projects."
The issue is of particular concern to the Republican lawmakers who represent some of the state's most rural areas, which are more prone to wildfires.
State Sen. Doug La Malfa (R-Richvale) wondered whether there would even be enough eligible inmates left in county prisons to volunteer for fire crews.
"If our lowest-level offenders have been ankle-braceleted and are out, how do we get them to come back?" he said at the hearing.
State officials countered that nonviolent offenders would continue to receive two days off their sentences for each day spent in a fire camp.
Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries (R-Riverside) said in an interview that maintaining inmate firefighting ranks is critical to public safety. Without them, he said, large fires would be likely to burn longer, causing more damage and increasing personnel costs.
"There really are no other resources," said Jeffries, a former volunteer fire captain in Riverside County for nearly three decades. "It's boots on the ground that put fires out. If you go beyond the utilization of inmates, the price tag goes up dramatically."
Fire officials pledged to find a solution, arguing that the program's benefit is significant to both the state and the prisoners.
"For a lot of them, it's the first time they've done anything real positive in their lives," said McMurry, the Cal Fire deputy. "It's hard to put a dollar-and-cents figure on that."
All Critics (49) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (47) | Rotten (2)
Sciamma pictures the story in dappled sunlight and wooded fields that, though not far from dull apartment blocks, have an out-of-time seductiveness.
Open-minded and open-ended, Tomboy is a portrait of pubescence on the brink of chrysalis.
There are nevertheless some marvelous moments.
Coming-of-age tale tackles gender confusion with humor and heart.
Tomboy reveals a side of pre-adolescence rarely (if ever) depicted on the big screen, yet it never feels like a curiosity piece, nor is Laure (Zo? H?ran), the titular character, portrayed as an outsider from a troubled home.
Sciamma (Water Lilies) deserves great praise for what she has accomplished with a simple film addressing a complex subject.
"Tomboy" is so specific and intuitive that I kept thinking, "How do the filmmakers know this stuff?"
Tomboy captures a delicate moment in time before issues of sexuality so much more complicated and calculated.
As the sisters come to see that dresses and haircuts and behaviors are a means to create a self, to communicate with others, Tomboy doesn't offer an easy answer; instead, it lets you wonder why gender must be so definitive.
...a well-intentioned yet hopelessly inert piece of work.
Tomboy is a charming film about childhood and identity.
Seems like the first episode of a TV mini-series rather than a stand-alone feature film.
Against a backdrop of overly programmed 'issue dramas,' this superb movie is notable for its strong foundation in character and wholesale investment in psychological motivation, rather than salacious plotting.
Tomboy was the deserving Jury winner at the Berlin Film Festival of the Teddy Award for the Best Gay or Lesbian film.
a melding of youthful allure, keen dramatic structure and the delicate art of directing the young
Celine Sciamma is a filmmaking force to be reckoned with in the coming years. Her story-writing ability, deft hand at directing and understanding of her young actors makes her someone to watch.
WASHINGTON PARK -- A "person of interest" remains in custody in connection with the shooting death of a 35-year-old Washington Park man early Saturday.
Meanwhile, Illinois State Police continue to seek a suspect in the homicide of Edward Austin, whose body was discovered at his residence at 2124 N. 49th St.
Washington Park Police Chief Dave Clark said police received a call early Saturday about a burglary in the 2100 block of North 49th Street. Officers arrived at a home at 2125 N. 49th St. and found a great deal of blood on the premises, but no body.
A neighbor informed the officers of a broken window at the victim's residence across the street at 2124 N. 49th St., where they found Austin's body.
A suspect was seen fleeing from the crime scene, but a detailed description was not available, according to police.
Illinois State Police have taken over the investigation.
Anyone with information about Austin's death is urged to call Illinois State Police Special Agent Jamie Brunnworth at 346-3759 or the CrimeStoppers tip line at 866-371-8477. This is an anonymous tip line that pays up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
A winner of more than 400 international awards, Emirates operates one of the aviation world?s youngest, most environmentally-friendly and technologically advanced-fleet of 156 aircraft. Its rapidly-expanding network spans 114 cities in 67 countries in Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East, Africa, the Indian subcontinent and Asia Pacific. The airline is an employee-focused company with a commitment to providing staff with excellent working conditions and competitive salaries. In January 2012, Emirates will commence a daily service from Dublin to Dubai. The Position: Based in Dublin, you role will be to: Manage and control finance activities of the station which include authorizing (as per the authorities manual), evaluating and implementing corporate finance decisions in areas covering Revenue, Receivables, Payables, Cash/Banking, Payroll, General ledger and Taxation. Ensure regular review of the accounting records to confirm that all transactions recorded through the country accounting system reflect their true nature in a timely manner and with necessary clarity. You will ensure all station activities comply with the local laws of the Republic of Ireland and within the terms of the company?s authorized business in the Republic of Ireland. You will also review Emirates? financial transactions to ensure that local laws and regulations are complied with and legal and contractual liabilities are discharged in full. Implement adequate controls on processes and company assets (including verification, insurance, custodianship, authorised utilisation and proper maintenance) to ensure that they are safeguarded and the loss due to fraud or misappropriation is minimized. Manage cash and liquid assets at the country by regular review and repatriation in compliance with the Corporate Treasury policy and to maintain adequate control on storage and utilisation of revenue documents and other service related documents. Manage the risk environment at the station including the company debtors (BSP/CASS/GSA/Agents/Corporate) by continuously analysing, identifying and covering credit risk so that revenues are maximised without jeopardising the company receivables. Control the payables function to ensure that payments are appropriately authorised, and as per valid contracts, accurate, timely, credit period is fully availed of and supplier dues paid if only fully justified. Manage the preparation of a realistic yearly budget ensuring due discussion and challenge with budget holders, provide recommendations and feedback to the country management, HO by analysing costs and productivity factors so that the country costs are within budget and productivity is enhanced. Manage the administrative function of the country by providing directions and guidance to ensure that country has the infrastructure that enables it to work effectively. Provide Finance leadership at the station and develop Finance Awareness amongst the non-finance business units through regular meetings so that the line Managers take financially sound and cost effective decisions. Support the Country Manager and other department heads by ensuring appropriate financial input is provided for key decisions. Experience and Qualifications: You will have a recognized professional accounting qualification to the standard of Chartered Accountant, CPA or similar, comprehensive knowledge of rules and procedures according to local laws and a comprehensive knowledge of airline accounting procedures and familiarity with IATA regulations regarding Passenger/Cargo/Excess Baggage sales. You must have the ability to function independently within an established framework and to be practical and innovative. You will be fluent in written and spoken English. Previous applicants need not apply. APPLICANTS MUST HAVE THE LEGAL RIGHT TO LIVE AND WORK IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND. THE COMPANY WILL NOT PROVIDE OR ASSIST IN OBTAINING A WORK PERMIT. To Apply: To express your interest in the above vacancy, please apply by clicking below and completing our online application form in English. We will then consider your application and contact you should we wish to shortlist you for an interview. Should you not receive an invitation for an interview within 5 weeks, please assume that on this occasion you have been unsuccessful. Please also note that if you are not short-listed, you can also update your application at anytime and apply for other opportunities. Thank you for you interest in a career with the Emirates Group.
Warning: There is no need to provide your bank details when applying for a job. We strongly advise that jobseekers should never supply any bank account details or any other financial information by email. If you see a vacancy on Flightglobal Jobs, and the advertiser requests bank account details please email Recruitment.Helpdesk@rbi.co.uk
Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson (89) flips over Arizona Cardinals linebacker Daryl Washington (58) for a touchdown in the first half of an NFL football game, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson (89) flips over Arizona Cardinals linebacker Daryl Washington (58) for a touchdown in the first half of an NFL football game, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson (89) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against Arizona Cardinals linebacker Daryl Washington (58) during the first half of an NFL football game, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Early Doucet kneels in the end zone after missing a touchdown catch in the second half of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in Cincinnati. Cincinnati won 23-16. (AP Photo/David Kohl)
In this combo of photos, Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson (89) flips over Arizona Cardinals linebacker Daryl Washington (58) for a touchdown in the first half of an NFL football game, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Nate Clements (22) celebrates after making an interception against the Arizona Cardinals in the first half of an NFL football game, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Tony Tribble)
CINCINNATI (AP) ? The stadium was only two-thirds full again. The Cardinals were on another one of their incredible comebacks, threatening to derail the Cincinnati Bengals' surprising playoff surge.
A pair of tangled up feet made the difference.
The Bengals moved one win away from the playoffs Saturday, holding on for a 23-16 victory over Arizona that secured only their third winning record in the past 21 years.
Cincinnati (9-6) can clinch the final AFC wild card berth by beating Baltimore at Paul Brown Stadium next Sunday. The Bengals moved a game ahead of the Jets, who fell to 8-7 with a 29-14 loss to the Giants on Saturday.
"It's been a big year for me and for this team," rookie quarterback Andy Dalton said. "It's something we believed we had a chance to do. We weren't getting much credit from outside. We'll find out next week."
Dalton threw two more touchdown passes, becoming only the fourth rookie to have 20 in a season, and Cincinnati got a break when the NFL's top comeback team tripped itself up in the closing minutes.
Wide-open receiver Early Doucet tripped at the goal line and went down, letting a fourth-down pass fall incomplete with 1:12 left. The Cardinals (7-8) got the ball one more time, but the clock ran out after a completion.
A few minutes later, the Jets' loss put the Bengals in position to reach the playoffs. New York would have won the tiebreaker if both teams won out.
"We started this quite a while ago ? seems like just yesterday," coach Marvin Lewis said. "But now we're right where we want to be at the end."
Their rookie quarterback put them in position.
Dalton threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Jermaine Gresham and a 19-yarder to Jerome Simpson, who did a somersault over a defender and landed on both feet in the end zone.
Dalton joined Peyton Manning (26), Charlie Conerly (22) and Dan Marino (20) as the only NFL rookies to throw 20 touchdown passes.
Down 23-0 heading into the fourth quarter, the NFL's best comeback team nearly pulled off its most improbable one yet. Arizona took advantage of Cedric Benson's two fumbles, getting a pair of touchdown passes by John Skelton and Jay Feely's field goal with 3:16 left.
The Cardinals then had their chance to pull even. The Bengals ran an all-out blitz on fourth down from the Cincinnati 17-yard line, and Doucet wound up uncovered at the goal line. Skelton lofted the ball into the end zone, but Doucet tripped and fell.
"It was a blitz and nobody was there," Doucet said. "It was one of those deals where I hadn't hooked it up and my feet got tangled. It's a play I should've made. It was my fault. That's a play I normally make."
The Cardinals had their four-game winning streak snapped and were eliminated from playoff contention.
Cincinnati's defense dominated the first three quarters. Arizona didn't cross midfield until Skelton completed a pass with 13:25 to go, but piled up 208 yards in the final quarter.
Skelton started for the second consecutive week in place of Kevin Kolb, who hasn't fully recovered from a concussion. Skelton was 23 of 44 for 297 yards with three interceptions and five sacks that helped the Bengals get the 23-0 lead.
It could have been worse. Mike Nugent, the NFL's most accurate kicker, missed field goals of 35 and 48 yards in the first half.
Arizona has rallied from fourth-quarter deficits six times this season, one shy of the NFL record. The Cardinals have won three games in overtime, tying the league record.
They couldn't do it one more time.
"Yeah, we're a second-half team," Skelton said. "That's how it has been all year. But in the end, it was too little, too late."
Dalton was 18 of 31 for 154 yards and two touchdowns on a sunny, 39-degree afternoon in front of only 41,273 fans. The Bengals have sold out only one of their seven home games, when the Steelers brought thousands of fans.
Dalton's second touchdown pass had a highlight finish.
Simpson got open for a catch-and-run to the goal line. With Daryl Washington between him and the end zone, Simpson jumped and twirled past the linebacker, landing on both feet in the end zone and raising both arms like a triumphant gymnast.
"One of the key parts for me was I stuck the landing," Simpson said. "I stuck the landing like a gymnast. That was probably one of the most surprising of all the plays in my career. It was pretty awesome, I thought."
For most of the game, the Cardinals couldn't do anything right. Rookie cornerback Patrick Peterson picked off a Dalton pass in the third quarter, but the interception was nullified by Arizona's second roughing-the-passer penalty of the game.
Worse, Peterson hurt his left hamstring on the play, pulling up on the return. The first-round pick left the game and didn't return. He wore a protective boot after the game.
"He's got a strain, it's not a tear," coach Ken Whisenhunt said. "We're fortunate that it doesn't appear to anything long term."
Notes: Beanie Wells became the first Cardinal to run for 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns in a season. ... After the game, the Bengals made a buy-one, get-one-free offer to season ticket holders, trying to fill the stadium for the final game. ... A.J. Green, playing with a strained right shoulder, had two catches for 25 yards. He passed Cris Collinsworth's club record for a rookie with 1,013 yards on the season.
So you've been busy playing Grand Theft Auto III on your iPad and?don't want your kids to accidentally boot it up. So what about the rest of your electronics ??is there a way to set up parental controls for everything you own that won't be annoying for?you when you want to use them?
Nearly every modern electronic device has parental controls, but what they actually block and how they work varies from device to device. Let's break it down and look at how you can set up parental controls on each of your gadgets and how they actually work.
Courtesy of Lifehacker
SET UP PARENTAL CONTROLS ON YOUR SMARTPHONE
If you have a smartphone or tablet you let the kids use now and again, it's a good idea to set up parental controls not just to restrict access to adult content, but also to ensure they don't accidentally purchase anything on your account.
iOS: Under Settings > General > Restrictionsyou will find a number of different settings you can adjust. First, you need to enable the restrictions and type in a four-digit passcodeso you have access to everything when you need it. If you disable any app restrictions like Safari or YouTube, it will completely remove it from the screen when restrictionsare enabled. The same goes for if you set age restrictionsfor apps and games. If you set the restrictions to block 17+ rated apps, they simply won't appear on the home screen. Be careful though, some apps, like Wikipedia for instance, are rated 17+, so they'll be blocked too.
The problem is that once you remove the restrictions, your apps come piling back into the home screen and you lose any folders you may have had them in before. It's not exactly a deal breaker, but if you appreciate a finely tuned home screen, you need to accept it may get ruined.
Android: As far as our tests were concerned, many out-of-the-box Android users do not get parental control settings. You may find a content filtering setting under Settings on some devices, but it does not appear to block web content, restrict apps or lock down purchases. Android Parental Control?is a free app we had success with to restrict access to apps that have ratings. Like the iOS restrictions, it makes restricted apps invisible. You might be able to find additional restrictions under the settings menu depending on your operating system and device.
Windows Phone 7: You need to Mango to get access to parental controls on a Windows Phone 7 and they work in tandem with your Windows Live account. If you occasionally just hand over your phone to your child, you need to setup a special account with parental protections. This blocks the usage and downloading of rated apps, but doesn't control web browsing.
Courtesy of Lifehacker
SET UP PARENTAL CONTROLS ON YOUR CONSOLES AND SET TOP BOXES
Game consoles and DVD players have had parental controls for a long while, but since many are expanding the content available on them, the basics of just setting a console to disallow games with specific ESRB ratings aren't enough to keep your kids from viewing something you don't want them to. As the content has expanded, so have the options.
PS3/PSP: The PS3 has several different settings, all of them are under Settings > Security Settings. Here you can find the option to restrict games, DVD and Blu-Ray playback, website browsing, and access to the PSN Store. The weird thing about the PS3'ssettings is that you choose based on a level between 1 and 11. They're a little confusing, but the options are broken down in the user agreement. With parental controls enabled, you are always able to enter in a four-digit code to regain access to any content you'd like and the content that is locked shows a lock icon on it when inserted into the disc player. Parental controls are located in the same place on the PSP.
Xbox 360: The Xbox's parental settings are significantly easier to understand than the PS3's. You need to head over to the Settings tab on your dashboard and then hit the Family icon. You are able to set content control to block specific ratings, timers and access to onlinefunctionality. You can also set exceptions under the Ratings and Content tab, so if you don't mind your child playing a specific game or two, you can give them access. Like the PS3, you get a four-digit code to access content at any time. It's also worth noting that some games have mature content filters ("Gears of War 3," for example), but there is no way to discern this based on the box alone.
Wii/DS/3DS: While the Wii doesn't exactly have a ton of mature content available for it, you can still restrict access to games and the Internet. You can find the parental controls under System Settings > Parental Controls. Here you can block the web browser, online functionality and games based on the rating. Like the PS3 and Xbox, you get a four-digit code so you can regain access at any point. Parental controls are located in the same place on both the DS and 3DS handheld systems.
DVD/Blu-Ray/Television: Most modern DVD and Blu-Ray players have parental controls built into the devices that should be easy to locate under the Settings menu. The same goes for televisions and cable. Most television shows and movies are rated by either the MPAA for movies or the TV Parental Guidelines for television. With parental controls enabled, you can set which level of each you want viewable. However, it's worth noting that not every show, movie and broadcast is rated. While it doesn't happen often, you may find that Dora the Explorer is being blocked because it doesn't have a rating. Like the gaming consoles, most disc players and television sets have a four digit access code so you don't have to restrict yourself when restricting your kids.
If you're using Netflix on any of these devices, the system settings don't have an effect on the Netflix app. You need to log in to your Netflix account, click Your Account & Help > Change parental control settings, and then change it to what you want. The problem is that it takes up to eight hours until the settings take effect and there's no passcode to disable it, so once it's set, you can't just flip it off.
Courtesy of Lifehacker
SET UP PARENTAL CONTROLS ON YOUR COMPUTER AND BROWERS
One of the more complex places to set parental controls is your computer. After all, it's usually connected to everything, so even if you set basic settings in your OS, it's not always going to restrict content online. Thankfully (for parents) browsers can also be set up with restrictions.
OS X: From the Apple Menu click System Preferences > Parental Controls. Here, you are able to either convert or create a new account with parental control settings. When parental controls are enabled, you can restrict access to websites by using the Automatic setting, which blocks adult Internet content based on filters provided by The RTA and SafeSurf. These won't be perfect, but it will at least keep you from having to set it all up manually. If you prefer, you can also set up a whitelisthere, which means the user will only be able to access the sites you approve. You can also block specific applications, utilities, mail, chat and set time limits for use.
Windows: Windows has some basic parental controls as well. By clicking Start > Control Panel > User Accounts and Family Safety > Set up parental controls for any user, you are able to set time limits, control access to certain games, and block certain programs. It doesn't do much else, but if you want to control access to programs, it works by making them impossible to open when the settings are enabled. If you're using Vista, you can find an automatic web filtering tool here as well, but it's missing in Windows 7.
Courtesy of Lifehacker
Browser Settings and Extensions
Chrome: Chrome has a few great options for filtering web content in a variety of ways. StayFocused is technically a productivity extension, but since it can block websites and domains with a few simple clicks, you can set it up to restrict access for your kids. TinyFilter is an extension that filters out profanity and has a content filter for various types of web content people may find offensive. Both can be disabled temporarily if you want to check out an unfiltered web yourself.
Firefox: For parental control in Firefox you have two great add-ons that will do most of the work for you. FoxFilter blocks web content based on your criteria and specific words. You can set it block all of the content on a site, or just the words you define. Disabling it is as easy as typing in your preferred password. brOOzi takes a different approach, and instead only allows a child to visit sites the parent approves. Depending on the age of your child, either of these should do the trick.
Internet Explorer: Internet Explorer uses a browser-based content filter available under the tools menu. Click Tools >Internet Options > Content, and then click the Enable tab under the Content Advisor menu. Here, you are able to filter for specific types of possibly offensive content like language, nudity, sex and violence, or blacklist sites completely.
OpenDNS: If you prefer to just block as much Internet content as humanly possible in one swoop, OpenDNS's Parental Controls?options might to the trick. OpenDNS will block content on the Internet from any browser on any device as long as it's connected to the router in your home. The setup process is very simple, but depends on the brand of router you're using. It boils down to limiting your network access to the two OpenDNS addresses at the router level and all of the filtering happens there so all devices connected to the network are cut off from content. With this enabled, no computer, tablet, or phone connected to the router will be able to access mature content blocked by OpenDNS's blacklist.
Deciding on how to filter content is going to depend on what your needs are. Blocking on a system or app-based level may very well be enough, but if you want to go deeper, you now know the scope of your options.
London 2012 Olympics: Paul Smith Isle of Man stamps, in pictures - Telegraph
Designer Paul Smith has produced a collection of stamps for the Isle of Man Post Office to commemorate the London 2012 Olympics
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FRANKFURT, Germany ? The European Central Bank held its bond purchases to a bare euro19 million ($24.8 million) this week.
The scant amount indicates that the bank has for now almost ceased the controversial program which has helped keep borrowing costs down for Italy and Spain.
It bought a minimal euro3.36 million last week. That makes two weeks of near-negligible purchases, following euro635 million the week ending Dec. 9 and euro3.66 billion the week ending Dec. 2.
The program has helped keep Italy and Spain from financial disaster from high borrowing costs. But the ECB says it is of limited amount and duration and that it is up to governments to cut their deficits and not wait for a central bank bailout.
Marinetimes 
