Texas Tech rallies past San Diego to go to 12-0

SAN DIEGO ? Kierra Mallard scored on a putback with 7.6 seconds left, and No. 13 Texas Tech remained undefeated with a 58-57 win over San Diego on Friday night in the Surf N' Slam Classic.

Casey Morris missed a jumper before Mallard grabbed the rebound, took one dribble and scored to give the Lady Raiders one of their few leads of the game.

San Diego's Felicia Wijenberg missed a wide open layup at the buzzer after taking a pass from Dominique Conners.

Texas Tech (12-0) had to overcome an 11-point deficit in the first half - its largest of the season. Chynna Brown had 14 points, and Mallard added 12 points and nine rebounds for the Lady Raiders, who came in as one of seven unbeaten teams in the nation.

Morgan Woodrow scored 20 points for San Diego (9-3), which was held to one field goal in the final 4:41 after taking a 53-50 lead.

The Associated Press

Source: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/dec/30/texas-tech-rallies-past-san-diego-to-go-to-12-0/

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Windows Phone Road Map Details 'Tango,' 'Apollo'

A leaked Windows Phone road map purports to trace the smartphone platform's evolution over the next year.

The road map was first posted Dec. 27 by the blog WMPoweruser, which declined to mention the source. Nonetheless, if taken at face value, the document suggests that Microsoft will follow up its recent Mango software update with additional versions aimed at the midmarket, business users and the higher-end "superphone" segment.

The second quarter of 2012, according to the road map, will see the arrival of an update labeled "Tango," which will feature "products with the best prices." This likely means Windows Phones aimed at the midmarket, with a possible stripped-down user interface to match the lower cost.

That will be followed in the fourth quarter of 2012 with "Apollo," for which the road map offers three bullet points: "increase overall volume," along with competitive "superphones" and "business." Based on that, one can infer that Microsoft intends the Windows Phone line to branch out yet again, targeting both the superphone (i.e., high spec) and business markets. The "increase overall volume" could allude to Microsoft anticipating more Windows Phone units in users' hands by the end of 2012, or else the hope that smartphones loaded with some sort of Apollo software update will kick off a higher volume of sales.?

Despite the Microsoft brand name and phones from several manufacturers, Windows Phone failed to gain much traction with consumers in 2011. During his July 11 keynote speech at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference, CEO Steve Ballmer described Windows Phone's market presence as "very small."

Tango and Apollo rumors have floated for some time. In August, Mary-Jo Foley posted on her All About Microsoft blog that she'd heard of "two Tango releases on tap," with the first aiming to expand "the Windows Phone footprint into new markets" while the second "will be targeted at low-cost devices and include fixes and new features."

Meanwhile, Apollo had already been tagged (by Slashgear and other sources) as Microsoft's next big code update. However, possible features remain unclear. Microsoft makes a habit of not publicly commenting on future Windows Phone developments.??

Throughout 2012, expect Microsoft to push Windows Phone as a viable alternative to both Google Android and Apple's iPhone. In addition to software updates, the company has signed agreements with Nokia and other manufacturers to build new devices and market them aggressively. But with its market share still tiny, Microsoft will need to make a considerable effort if it wants to truly challenge Google and Apple for smartphone supremacy.

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Source: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Windows-Phone-Roadmap-Details-Tango-Apollo-297327/?kc=rss

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JonahNRO: RT @keithurbahn: That sound you hear is left-wing military historians & analysts scrambling to find excuses for when Iraq goes south nex ...

That sound you hear is left-wing military historians & analysts scrambling to find excuses for when Iraq goes south next year. Il y a 13 minutes via web

Source: http://twitter.com/JonahNRO/statuses/152379707361476608

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Ron Paul Calls GOP Rivals Serial Hypocrites, Flip-Floppers (ABC News)

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Mariah's Twin's Christmas Portrait (omg!)

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Taylor Swift Enjoys a Day on the Snowy Shore

Ryan Seacrest gets excited for the new year! Plus, check out more stars' cute, candid and crazy Twitter photos

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Multifamily Insurance Trips and Traps | Multi-Housing News Online

By Keat Foong, Executive Editor

Surely every property owner?s nightmares must include finding out in the aftermath of a hurricane, fire or a lawsuit that insurance does not cover the costs. What a disaster! Apartment owners must be very careful to risk-manage properly and make sure their assets have the correct insurance policies.

Experts? advice for ensuring proper insurance protection for apartment properties typically fall into three categories: Making sure that the right type of insurance is purchased, ensuring that enough coverage is purchased and selecting the right insurance broker.

Simply opting for the policy with the lowest premium ?just because they are trying to save money? is one of the most common pitfalls of apartment owners, says Carlton Einsel, executive vice president of The Donaldson Group, a third-party apartment manager. ?But people do that,? he adds.

According to attorney Barry Fleishman, partner at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, the most typical missteps apartment companies can make include not adequately understanding the coverage, not reviewing the actual policy terms with their brokers and legal counsel, and failing to compare losses in the past to their current coverage. Insurance is a very difficult and complex field, says Fleishman, and the risk manager or CFO should work closely with the broker and/or an insurance attorney to make sure there are no unintended gaps in the protection.

What type of insurance to purchase

First, apartment owners need to ensure the correct type of insurance is acquired. Experts advise that owners purchase all-risk?rather than named-peril?insurance, whether the insurance is third-party property insurance or general liability insurance. This is because named-peril insurance covers only risks that are specifically named, whereas all-risk insurance covers all risks except those explicitly excluded. Property owners should also be careful to have policies that reimburse at replacement cost?and that cover business interruption.

?Buy broad, all-risk, policies, rather than named-peril policies,? says Steve Cataldo, director of risk management at Greystar, which oversees insurance for a management portfolio of more than 48,000 apartment units.

Property insurance coverage generally applies to ?all risks,? such as? fire, explosions, earthquakes, tornados and hurricanes, with the exception of specific exclusions. Fleishman, a legal specialist in policyholder insurance coverage, says it?s important that the apartment company review the risk history of the property and the areas in which losses were suffered in the past, and then ensure that none of these exposures are excluded from coverage.

The terms of the insurance, naturally, will be influenced by the location of the property. If the apartment asset is close to a disaster prone area, such as a flood or an earthquake zone, the insurance policy will likely contain sublimits that may be much lower than the coverage for the basic perils.

Certain perils such as windstorms and earthquakes may also carry higher deductibles, depending on the location of the asset, adds Derek Ramsey, Greystar CFO. The apartment owner needs to determine its ability to fund the deductible if a loss occurs. If available cash will be insufficient to meet that deductible, then the owner may want to consider paying a higher premium in order to obtain a lower deductible, he points out.

If coverage for particular risks-?such as flood, pollution or earthquakes in certain regions?is not found in traditional types of policies, the property owner may be able to look to alternative instruments for managing risks. These alternative instruments, which can be very sophisticated, include specialty risk policies (such as pollution liability policies), catastrophe bonds, self-insurance supported by re-insurance, or industry risk retention pools, says Fleishman.

As regards both liability and property insurance, Fleishman advises that apartment owners ensure that all layers of insurance?primary, umbrella and excess?be consistent with each other. For example, property owners should make sure that certain excluded losses in primary layers are not also excluded in umbrella or excess layers. In such cases, there would be a gap in coverage.

?Sit with your broker (or attorney) and go through the policy page by page(it takes one day or so), and understand what is in the policy: what is covered and what is excluded,? he says. ?The broker should make sure the policy is consistent in each layer of insurance or tell the client where it is not.?

The hazards of replacement
cost insurance

Property owners should also be careful to obtain insurance that will reimburse them for the replacement, rather than acquisition, cost of the assets. Inadequate limits of insurance can present a problem even if the property owner believes he or she is obtaining full replacement-cost insurance coverage, notes Greystar?s Cataldo. Cataldo says that property insurance carriers commonly issue full replacement-cost insurance, but impose separate sublimits on certain perils, including floods, windstorms and earthquakes.

Even if there are no sublimits on the replacement cost proceeds, Cataldo advises property owners to try to insure their properties at the full replacement cost. It is very important that the owner knows accurately what the cost to replace the asset is, and what the insurance limit is on the property. One reason is that if the property owner insures the property for materially less than the full replacement cost of the property?whether to save money on premiums or for other reasons?and the full replacement cost turns out to be greater than the insured amount, the policy holder may only be entitled to collect the lower amount from the insurance company, notes Cataldo.

Furthermore, in many cases in which there is a material loss, the mortgage lender is entitled to receive the insurance proceeds and may not be required to advance them to the owner to repair or rebuild the asset if there is a difference between the cost to replace and the insurance proceeds, Cataldo explains.

Other than insuring for replacement costs, apartment owners must also remember to establish business interruption insurance, not just first-party property damage insurance. According to Fleishman, business interruption insurance is normally included in the property insurance policy. However, the property owner should understand limits and restrictions on the insurance, he says. There may be time restrictions, for example. Apartment companies need to really understand business interruption insurance, says Fleishman. ?You need to go over the terms with your broker.?

The other broad category of insurance is general liability insurance, which covers claims brought against the policy holder for third-party property damage or bodily injury. Overseers of apartments need to make sure the liability insurance they acquire does not exclude certain activities currently taking place on the property, such as methamphetamine-producing laboratories. ?If the activity happens to be one, then the policy will exclude damage from that type of property,? says Cataldo.

Under liability insurance, most defense costs do not fall under the insurance limits, says Fleishman. However, it is important to understand that for certain policies, such as directors? and officers? policies, defense costs are subject to the insurance limits, and can ?eat up? the insurance, Fleishman says. That is why the determination of how much coverage to purchase needs to be fully reviewed by purchasers.

Finding the right middle-man

Selecting the correct broker is also a part of getting the right insurance coverage. In this regard, The Donaldson Group?s Einsel says that it is easiest for brokers to go to market with
the information supplied by the client, but
most difficult to find brokers who can obtain the best policies and who have the best process to handle claims.

?If you have a claim, you do not want to waste weeks and months arguing [with the broker],? says Einsel, who advises that the owner should select brokers they know would handle claims quickly.

Sources interviewed all agree that property owners need to ask their brokers whether they have any existing relationships with carriers. Cataldo says risk retention groups do establish pools of sponsored programs, and the insurance broker may participate in the underwriting profits and incomes or obtain a commission. He notes that such arrangements are acceptable to the apartment company, but they need to be disclosed. Einsel agrees. ?If you do not know,? he explains, ?you could end up buying the policies when you are really being steered to that carrier because the broker is getting fees out of it.?

Finally, another important consideration for the apartment owner when purchasing insurance is the ability and/or willingness of the insurance company to pay claims when there is an expensive disaster, such as an earthquake in California, Cataldo points out. Not all insurance companies are created equal. And for apartment owners that do not have mortgages on their properties and therefore lender guidance on buying insurance, it is important to remember to check on the Standard & Poor?s or A.M. Best ratings of the insurance company.

?Ask the insurance agent or broker who
places the insurance what the insurance company?s rating is before the coverage is placed,? Cataldo advises.

As Einsel says, ?Very often, we do not go with the lowest cost provider. If the insurance carrier is not as strong, we may decide on a higher-priced carrier.? For example, The Donaldson Group has a lot of policies with Travellers, even though it can obtain lower-cost policies with other companies. But, Einsel adds, Travellers is a very solid company with a long history.

Related Posts:

Source: http://www.multihousingnews.com/features/multifamily-insurance-trips-and-traps/1004046511.html

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Parents show modest gains after smoking programs (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) ? About one out of every four parents with small children responds to interventions to help them quit smoking, which is slightly better than the one in five parents who would quit without any special help, according to a new study.

Researchers say the results should encourage pediatricians to take advantage of their frequent encounters with parents, and try to get them to start a smoking cessation program.

"Because (pediatricians) can make use of the teachable moment of a child's vulnerability to tobacco smoke, they may provide added benefit to helping this group of smokers quit," said lead author Dr. Jonathan Winickoff, a professor at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Winickoff and his colleagues combined the results of 18 different studies of smoking cessation programs aimed at more than 7,000 parents.

The studies included either medications, counseling or self-help materials, or some combination of the different approaches to quitting.

Most of the studies included an intervention in the hospital, a well-baby clinic or a pediatrician's office.

The 18 studies followed parents for anywhere between several months and more than a year, and measured whether those who received the smoking interventions were more likely to quit than parents who didn't get any additional help.

Only four of the studies found that the interventions improved the parents' quit rates.

When the findings from all the studies were combined, 23.1 percent of the parents who received the anti-smoking aids successfully quit, while 18.4 percent in the other group gave up smoking.

In studies that included medications, parents were three times as likely to quit as parents who didn't take the drugs.

The authors write in their report that the gains from the smoking cessation programs were "modest," but Winickoff said they are worth pursuing.

"These are short-term studies," Winickoff told Reuters Health. "There are stages of change and (parents') readiness to quit. Over time we will enable almost every parent to quit smoking."

"We know it takes multiple attempts over time," said Sue Curry, dean of the University of Iowa College of Public Health, who was not involved in this study.

"To me (the study) says that we need to have realistic expectations, and we need to make sure we celebrate the successes of smokers that go through the process," Curry told Reuters Health.

One of Curry's studies was included in the current analysis, which is published in the journal Pediatrics.

Her research found that mothers who were given a quitting guide along with in-person advice and phone counseling from nurses were twice as likely to quit as mothers who didn't receive this intervention.

Her study originated in a pediatric clinic, which Winickoff said is a good place to intervene with parents' smoking habits.

Given that parents of young children frequent the pediatrician's office for routine check-ups and vaccinations, kids' doctors should screen parents for smoking and help them find resources to stop.

Winickoff added that helping parents to quit smoking could have an enormous impact not only on their own health, but on the health of their children.

Another paper in the same issue of Pediatrics, for instance, found that children whose parents smoked during the pregnancy have thicker arterial walls, which is linked with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease.

Smoking is "associated with pneumonia, asthma, developmental delay, school absenteeism, dental decay, sudden infant death, hearing loss and a range of other illnesses that are too numerous to list," he said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/tL9hx3 Pediatrics, online December 26, 2011.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111228/hl_nm/us_parents_smoking_programs

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Website says Sinead O'Connor's marriage is over (AP)

LONDON ? A statement on Sinead O'Connor's website says her brief marriage to therapist Barry Herridge has ended amicably.

The statement on sineadoconnor.com says "the marriage was 16 days. We lived together for 7 days only.. Until Xmas eve."

The statement says "from the moment myself and my husband got together ... there was intense pressure placed upon him by certain people in his life, not to be involved with me."

She adds: "As my good friend said `well, at least you got married in Vegas in a pink Cadillac! Can't get more Rock n Roll than that.'"

Roman Szendrey, who maintains the site, told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday the report is accurate and was personally posted by O'Connor.

______

Online: http://www.sineadoconnor.com/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111228/ap_en_ce/eu_people_sinead_o_connor

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Fire at ad exec's Conn. home kills 3 kids, parents

Firefighters are seen on the roof of a house where an early morning fire left five people dead Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011, in Stamford, Conn. Officials said the fire, which was reported shortly before 5 a.m., killed two adults and three children. Two others escaped. Their names have not been released. (AP Photo/Tina FIneberg)

Firefighters are seen on the roof of a house where an early morning fire left five people dead Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011, in Stamford, Conn. Officials said the fire, which was reported shortly before 5 a.m., killed two adults and three children. Two others escaped. Their names have not been released. (AP Photo/Tina FIneberg)

Firefighters spray water on the roof of a house where an early morning fire left five people dead Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011, in Stamford, Conn. Officials said the fire, which was reported shortly before 5 a.m., killed two adults and three children. Two others escaped. Their names have not been released. (AP Photo/Tina FIneberg)

FILE - In this Aug. 25, 1998 file photo, Madonna Badger, president and creative director of what was then called Badger Worldwide Advertising, now Badger and Winters Group, poses in her New York office. Badger is the owner of a tony Connecticut home that burned in a blaze that killed five people on Christmas morning Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Jim Cooper, File)

The back of a house where an early morning fire left five people dead is seen Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011, in Stamford, Conn. Officials said the fire, which was reported shortly before 5 a.m., killed two adults and three children. Two others escaped. Their names have not been released. (AP Photo/Tina FIneberg)

A section of a house where an early morning fire left five people dead is seen Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011 in Stamford, Conn. Officials said the fire, which was reported shortly before 5 a.m., killed two adults and three children. Two others escaped. Their names have not been released. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) ? A fire tore through the home of an advertising executive in a tony neighborhood along the Connecticut shoreline Sunday, killing her three children and both of her parents on Christmas morning.

Madonna Badger and a male acquaintance were able to escape from the house as it was engulfed by flames, said Stamford Police Sgt. Paul Guzda. But Badger's three daughters ? a 10-year-old and 7-year-old twins ? perished in the fire, Guzda said.

He said Badger's parents, who were visiting for the holiday, also died.

Neighbors awoke to the sound of screaming shortly before 5 a.m. and rushed outside to help, but they could only watch in horror as flames devoured the grand home in the pre-dawn darkness and the shocked, injured survivors were led away from the house.

"It is a terrible, terrible day," Mayor Michael Pavia told reporters at the scene of the fire. "There probably has not been a worse Christmas day in the city of Stamford."

Badger, an ad executive in the fashion industry, is the founder of New York City-based Badger & Winters Group. A supervisor at Stamford Hospital said she was treated and discharged by Sunday evening.

Property records show she bought the five-bedroom, waterfront Victorian home for $1.7 million last year. The house is situated in Shippan Point, a wealthy neighborhood that juts into Long Island Sound.

The male acquaintance who also escaped the blaze was a contractor who was doing work on the home, Guzda said. He was also hospitalized but his condition was not released.

Police officers drove Badger's husband, Matthew Badger, from New York City to Stamford on Sunday morning. Badger's parents lived in Southbury, Conn., Guzda said.

Firefighters knew there were other people in the home but could not get to them because the flames were too large and the heat too intense, said Acting Fire Chief Antonio Conte, his voice cracking with emotion.

"It's never easy. That's for sure," he said. "I've been on this job 38 years ... not an easy day."

Conte said fire officials don't yet know the cause of the blaze and likely won't get clues for a few days until fire marshals can enter the structure.

By Sunday evening, the roof of the blackened house had largely collapsed.

A neighbor, Sam Cingari Jr., said he was awakened by the sound of screaming and saw that the house was engulfed by flames.

"We heard this screaming at 5 in the morning," he said. "The whole house was ablaze and I mean ablaze."

Cingari said he did not know his neighbors, who he said bought the house last year and were renovating it.

Charles Mangano, who lives nearby, said his wife woke him up and alerted him to the fire. He ran outside to see if he could help and saw a number of fire trucks in front of the house.

"I heard someone yell 'Help, help, help me!' and I started sprinting up my driveway," Mangano told The Advocate of Stamford.

He told the newspaper he saw a barefoot man wearing boxers and a woman being taken out of the house. The outdoor temperature at the time was below freezing, according to the National Weather Service.

The woman said, "My whole life is in there," Mangano said. "They were both obviously in a state of shock."

Stamford, a city of 117,000 residents, is about 25 miles northeast of New York City.

Badger was the creative mind behind major advertising campaigns for leading fashion brands, including the iconic Marky Mark underwear ads for Calvin Klein.

Raised in Kentucky, Badger began her career working as a graphic designer in the art department of Esquire magazine. Before starting her own company, she worked as an art director for several magazines and CRK, the in-house advertising agency for designer Calvin Klein.

Badger & Winters has worked with Proctor & Gamble, CoverGirl, A/X Armani Exchange, Emanuel Ungaro and Vera Wang, among other high-profile corporations. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-25-Fire-Five%20Dead/id-0983b46ee7ca41b1bc8213f7e4eae901

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Study: San Francisco Bay oil spill damaged herring (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO ? The cargo ship accident that dumped tens of thousands of gallons of thick, tarry ship fuel into San Francisco Bay caused lasting damage to the region's once-plentiful schools of Pacific herring, the bay's only commercially fished species, according to a study released Monday.

Herring embryos collected from shorelines left coated in oil starting about 3 months after the November 2007 Cosco Busan spill suffered from unusually high death rates and a range of ailments and deformities associated with exposure to the chemicals in crude oil, the study found.

"The majority of embryos in samples from oiled sites were dead on examination in the laboratory," wrote the study's authors, who were led by John Incardona, a toxicologist with the fisheries division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

By 2010, death rates had returned to normal, but the embryos continued to show heart defects that are a common symptom in herring of oil exposure.

The bay's Pacific herring are the largest coastal population in the continental U.S. and a key element of the bay's complex food web, according to the study, which was published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The spill that resulted from the massive cargo ship striking one of the pillars of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in heavy fog killed more than 6,800 birds and closed beaches to swimmers for weeks.

In 2009, California regulators cancelled the bay's herring fishing season, which typically begins in January. The state said the herring populations in the bay had reached an all-time low, with the causes ranging from drought to pollution from the oil spill.

The north-central San Francisco Bay shorelines left coated in oil and littered with sticky tarballs are one of the historic spawning grounds for the bay's herring. Only about half the oil along those shores was recovered, and an unknown amount remained submerged near the water's edge, the study said.

The study's authors knew from herring harmed in Alaska's Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 that those same fish in San Francisco Bay would likely be threatened. Unlike the Valdez spill, which sent hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil spilling into Prince William Sound, the Cosco Busan leaked bunker fuel, a mix of diesel and fuel oil left over from the crude oil refining process.

Embryos exposed to chemicals in crude oil suffer from a range of maladies, from heart problems and deformities to swelling and cancer. Similar symptoms were seen in embryos collected for the San Francisco Bay study.

The problems did not seem to be caused naturally or by other pollution in the bay, the study's authors wrote. They said the only common feature of three sites where the embryos were collected was that they were exposed to oil.

Jonathan Maul, a toxicologist with The Institute of Environmental and Human Health at Texas Tech University who was not involved in the study, said the researchers faced difficulty in showing that the toxins came from the Cosco Busan's bunker fuel and not other sources in the environment. He said the study should encourage scientists to look further into the toxic effects of oil contamination.

"Overall I believe it is a valuable study and should garner attention toward impacts to early life stages of fisheries," Maul said.

Because the chemical levels found in the embryos didn't seem high enough to cause the high death rate, the study concluded that exposure to sunlight played a part in making the spill more deadly.

"One or more of these unidentified chemicals likely interacted with natural sunlight in the intertidal zone to kill herring embryos," the study said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111226/ap_on_re_us/us_bay_spill_herring

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Wagner stuns No. 15 Pittsburgh 59-54 (AP)

PITTSBURGH ? When Danny Hurley took over at Wagner a year ago, he pledged to turn the woeful Seahawks around with a mixture of toughness and grit, qualities that are synonymous with the family name.

Consider his rebuilding project well ahead of schedule.

Latif Rivers scored all 18 of his points in the second half ? including six free throws in the final minute ? to lead the Seahawks to a stunning 59-54 victory over No. 15 Pittsburgh on Friday night.

"We've got good players, we practice really hard and I think our guys feel like they deserve wins like this and moments like this," Hurley said.

Wagner, which went 5-26 the season before Hurley arrived, certainly played like it.

Controlling the tempo and making Pitt work hard at both ends of the court, the Seahawks (8-3) beat a ranked opponent for the first time since knocking off then-No. 15 Alabama on Nov. 24, 1978.

Pitt (11-2) saw its nine-game winning streak snapped in emphatic fashion. Ashton Gibbs scored 14 points for the Panthers, but Pitt shot 40 percent from the field and turned it over 18 times while losing to a Northeastern Conference opponent for the first time ever.

"It's very big for us," Wagner guard Kenneth Ortiz said. "You know the Big East is one of the biggest conferences. Us being a mid-major, this is something big. Everyone wants to be top-ranked. We wanted to get it, we got our chance and we made the best of it."

The Panthers came in 70-0 all-time against NEC foes, but never led over the game's final 33 minutes.

"It's definitely not the way we want to play," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "We definitely took a step backwards."

Pitt has been nearly unbeatable in nonconference games since the Petersen Events Center opened in 2002. The Panthers had lost just one non-Big East game in the arena's first nine seasons. Now they have dropped two in the span of five weeks.

Long Beach State raced past Pitt 86-76 on Nov. 16, blistering the Panthers with a dizzying uptempo attack.

Wagner went the opposite way, working the shot clock and spreading the floor while trying to wear down Pitt's depleted backcourt. The Panthers are playing without starting point guard Travon Woodall, who is nursing groin and abdominal injuries.

Gibbs has taken over the majority of the ballhandling duties, and it has worn him down. He missed his first seven shots and finished just 5 of 16 from the field with four turnovers.

"We felt like them not having Travon would be a big advantage for us," Hurley said. "They were kind of laboring getting the ball up the court. Even on possessions where we weren't really rattling them, we wanted them to have a short clock."

The victory also proved a bit bittersweet for Hurley, who twice turned down opportunities to join Dixon's staff at Pitt. Hurley had served as an assistant coach at Rutgers before becoming a prominent high school coach in New Jersey. As appreciative as he was of Dixon's offer, Hurley knew when he got back into the collegiate ranks, he wanted to run his own show.

Along with his brother and assistant coach Bobby ? who starred at Duke 20 years ago ? Hurley has the tiny Staten Island, N.Y. school rapidly rising to respectability thanks to an upgraded roster and newfound confidence.

The Seahawks played fearlessly, not panicking after the Panthers built a 9-2 lead.

Ortiz and Tyler Murray outplayed backcourt counterparts Gibbs and Cameron Wright, with Ortiz getting out in transition to capitalize on sloppy ballhandling by the Panthers.

Gibbs, the preseason Big East Player of the Year, entered the game shooting just 36 percent from the field since Woodall's injury, and missed all seven of his shots in the first half. Ortiz had no such issues, going a perfect 5 of 5 to help Wagner take a 29-25 halftime lead, the first time the Panthers have trailed at the half since losing to Long Beach State in the third game of the season.

And Wagner ? just like the 49ers ? proved it wasn't a fluke.

Rivers shook of a rough first half to score seven quick points as the Seahawks went ahead 44-32. Pitt clamped down defensively but couldn't take advantage at the other end of the court.

Gibbs put together a brief hot streak to get the Panthers back in it, but every time Pitt appeared ready to take control, Wagner would respond with a big shot.

Pitt drew as close as three points twice in the final 36 seconds but couldn't get over the top. Rivers hit six straight free throws down the stretch and the Seahawks poured onto the court in celebration after the program's biggest victory in 33 years.

"I said to the coaches and I'll say to the players to make sure you have your phones charged, because you're going to get a lot of texts and a lot of calls," Hurley said.

Meanwhile, the Panthers search for answers.

The defending Big East regular season champions open conference play at Notre Dame next Tuesday. They hoped to come in on a high. Instead, they're left wondering how to get back on track.

"It's something we can grow from," Pitt forward Lamar Patterson said. "We've got to learn from our mistakes today."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111224/ap_on_sp_co_ga_su/bkc_t25_wagner_pittsburgh

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5 killed in plane crash in central Texas (AP)

AUSTIN, Texas ? A single-engine plane crashed amid a rainstorm in central Texas, killing the pilot, his wife and two children from Georgia, as well as his brother who lived in Texas, officials said Tuesday.

The Piper Saratoga aircraft crashed just before 10 p.m. Monday in a farming and ranching community in northeast Brazos County, said Tom Vinger, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The flight originated in Atlanta, stopped in Jackson, Miss., and was headed for Waco, Texas, when it crashed in a field north of Bryan and College Station. A resident called 911 to report the crash.

Vinger identified the victims as 33-year-old Michael D. Butler; his 34-year-old wife Kelly; their 14-year-old daughter Brooke; and son Braden, age 2. The family was from Stockbridge, Georgia, south of Atlanta.

Also killed was the pilot's brother, David S. Butler, 37, of Mount Calm, Texas, a community outside Waco.

The plane had yet to begin its descent, and storms with rain and lightning were moving through the area when the crash occurred. Vinger said it was not clear if the weather played any role, and that authorities hadn't determined the cause of the crash.

Heavy snow fell Monday in parts of northwest Texas, though the crash occurred hundreds of miles south and east of the areas of the state that suffered the most severe weather.

Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were at the crash scene Tuesday and flew over the area in a helicopter, following a similar flight plan to the aircraft that crashed.

"From there, you can see a whole lot more than you can see from down here," said Department of Public Safety Cpl. Jimmy Morgan, who was also at the scene. "Maybe you can see something we don't."

A final determination on what caused the crash isn't expected for up to a year.

Brazos County Police Sgt. Charles Booker arrived on the scene within an hour of the crash and said Brooke Butler, 14, was ejected from the plane and thrown 50 feet.

One of the plane's wings broke away from the rest of the aircraft and came to rest more than 300 yards from the main crash area, he said. The plane smashed into a series of treetops as it sped toward the ground and left a radius of debris spreading outward more than 2 miles.

The owner of the land where the plane crashed told Booker a light rain had begun to fall in the area just prior to the crash, and it kept raining as Booker began investigating the scene.

Eventually it intensified into "a pretty good little downpour," Booker said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111220/ap_on_re_us/us_central_texas_plane_crash

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Making Sense of Cancer Screening Updates (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, Dec. 20 (HealthDay News) -- As experts alter course on guidelines for cancer screenings such as mammograms and the prostate-specific antigen test, the general public is understandably confused.

Women at age 40 wonder if they should have a mammogram to look for breast cancer or wait until 50, as one U.S. organization suggests. Men of an age when prostate cancer develops may be told to forgo the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, contrary to standard past practice. And sexually active women may not feel safe from cervical cancer if they wait years between Pap tests.

"It's difficult to accept that having less testing is either as good or even better than having more," said Dr. Robert Mayer, faculty vice president for academic affairs at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Based on new research, some major cancer groups are advising the medical profession to be more judicious about who gets tested and when.

"I don't think the data are as conclusive that screening is as bad or as good as we had hoped," said Dr. David Penson, professor of urologic surgery and director of surgical quality and outcomes research at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

Probably the most controversial recommendation came from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a government body that publishes screening guidelines. It set off a furor two years ago when it announced that mammograms may not benefit women in their 40s, while women aged 50 to 74 could safely undergo screening once every two years instead of annually.

This year, the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care came out with similar recommendations on breast cancer screening, suggesting that women aged 40 to 49 at average risk for breast cancer not get routine mammograms.

This, of course, runs counter to long-standing conventional wisdom that all women over the age of 40 should undergo a yearly mammogram.

These organizations reasoned that mammograms can result in false positives and unnecessary biopsies, harm that in some instances may outweigh the benefits of this type of screening. Soaring health costs may also weigh in the decision-making.

However, the American Cancer Society and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists still advocate screening starting at age 40.

"I don't see a trend of backing away from endorsement for screening among many organizations," said Robert Smith, senior director of cancer control at the American Cancer Society. "Frankly, I see it in one."

But the medical establishment is backing away from PSA screening for prostate cancer, because the test is far from perfect, resulting in many unnecessary biopsies.

Increased PSA levels can indicate cancer, but they are not a foolproof measure. PSA levels rise naturally as men age, explained Mayer. Levels can also rise if men have had two or three sexual experiences in the prior few days.

"There are an enormous number of false positives," Mayer added. "How does one then say what's good for everybody?"

And not all prostate cancers are created equal, some being highly aggressive and others very slow-growing. Invasive treatment may be more harmful than watching and waiting, some doctors say.

"We know that less than 10 percent of men with prostate cancer ever die of the disease," Mayer said. "That's very different from colon cancer, where 40 to 50 percent die from it, or breast cancer, where 30 to 40 percent die from it."

The bottom line for both breast and prostate cancers: Check with your health care provider on what is the best screening schedule for you.

Cervical cancer screening guidelines have also evolved over the years.

In October, three groups, including the American Cancer Society, jointly created guidelines calling for women to get fewer cervical cancer screenings over their lifetime.

The guidelines also call for combination Pap testing and HPV (human papillomavirus) testing in women aged 30 and older, placing stronger emphasis on HPV testing than guidelines officially released at the same time from the USPSTF.

But the issue here is less controversial. "We have more sensitive tests in our ability to detect what is a slow-growing disease," said Smith.

More information

Visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute for more on cancer screening tests.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111221/hl_hsn/makingsenseofcancerscreeningupdates

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Ex-Pa. prof, Okla. teacher held in child porn case (AP)

OKLAHOMA CITY ? An Oklahoma prosecutor said Friday he "fully expects" more young victims to emerge in the case of a former third-grade teacher accused of making child pornography involving her students and sharing it online with a retired college professor in Pennsylvania.

Former McLoud school teacher Kimberly Ann Crain, 48, and retired Pennsylvania professor of early childhood development Gary Doby, 65, were charged Thursday in the case in which prosecutors allege Crain took photographs of as many as 14 young girls while they were changing in her classroom and at her home and shared them with Doby. Crain also is accused of setting up video chats on her school computer between her students and a man named "Uncle G," who authorities say was Doby.

"Any person who has a child that's been a student of Mrs. Crain has been on pins and needles wondering if their child is a victim," said Pottawatomie County District Attorney Richard Smothermon. "We've had at least three or four more parents contact us. Potentially there are many more victims.

"Until we have identified every victim, the investigation will continue."

Crain, who resigned in November, was charged with 23 felony counts, including eight counts of manufacturing juvenile pornography, 10 counts of lewd molestation and aggravated possession of juvenile pornography. Doby, who was arrested Thursday outside his Bloomsburg, Pa. home, was charged with eight counts of manufacturing juvenile pornography and one count of conspiracy to manufacture juvenile pornography.

Crain and Doby were being held Friday on $1 million each. If convicted on all counts, Crain could be sentenced to life in prison, while Doby could face up to 170 years, Smothermon said.

Doby was being held in Columbia County Prison near Bloomsburg University, the state-owned school about 90 miles northwest of Philadelphia from which he retired in 2008. Pennsylvania court officials said Friday they have no record of an attorney for Doby and that an extradition hearing hadn't been scheduled.

A not-guilty plea was entered on Crain's behalf during her arraignment Thursday in Pottawatomie County. Her attorney, Cregg Webb, did not return a phone message Friday left at his office in Shawnee.

Smothermon said he's also discussing the possibility of federal charges, but that Oklahoma statutes carry lengthier sentences.

"We want to make sure we can get the maximum amount of time that we can," he said.

The case first came to light in November when the parents of a 9-year-old girl contacted police after their daughter attended a pizza party at Crain's McLoud home. The girl told police Crain had several girls change into Christmas-themed bras and panties and then took pictures of them decorating a Christmas tree and made a video of them doing a cheer dance, according to a police affidavit.

Police later uncovered more than 100 sexually explicit photographs of young girls from Crain's cellphone, computers and digital cameras, authorities said.

Officers who interviewed Doby at his home in Pennsylvania earlier this week said he admitted his relationship with Crain and that he communicated with her via Skype and received photos of young girls in their underwear, according to the affidavit.

Crain and Doby apparently met when she was a student and he was a professor at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee between 1985 and 1987, Smothermon said. Although Smothermon did not disclose the nature of their relationship, court records show investigators found evidence of numerous "sexual chats" between the two on Crain's computer.

"Our community is distressed by the alleged crimes," Marty O'Gwynn, assistant to the president at OBU said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families."

George Wright, an attorney for the families of some of the alleged victims in the case, said both parents and the children are "traumatized."

"They're horrified daily," Wright said. "It seems like every day we hear something that was worse than the day before. It's an onslaught."

___

Associated Press writer Joseph Mandak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_re_us/us_ex_professor_child_porn

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Tubas get their due at annual Christmas show (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/176124037?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Italian govt calls confidence vote on austerity (AP)

ROME ? Italy's government has called for a vote of confidence on an austerity package aimed at persuading markets that Italy can get its finances under control to emerge from the spiraling debt crisis.

The move is aimed at ensuring passage of the euro30 billion ($39 billion) package of tax hikes and spending cuts that have been hotly contested by lawmakers and unions.

The package ? which also calls for reinvesting euro10 billion to spur growth ? goes to a vote in the lower house of Parliament on Friday, then to the Senate at a later date.

The vote was announced in the lower house on Thursday. Earlier, the speaker of the chamber suspended the session and ejected two lawmakers from the unruly right-wing Northern League who held up banners against the resurrection of a tax on primary residences.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111215/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_financial_crisis

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Salesforce Buys Social Performance Platform Rypple; Will Launch ?Human Capital Management? Unit Successforce

Salesforce.com has just announced the acquisition of social performance platform Rypple. Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close early next year, were not disclosed. Rypple, which has raised $13 million in funding, is a web-based social performance management platform that helps managers and employees improve performance. Essentially, Rypple replaces the traditional performance review with a more social and collaborative approach. The software has been compared to a ?Zynga for the enterprise,? and allows managers to track projects, guide their team and give kudos to deserving staff for others to see within its online application.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/qNS9bWrisok/

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Craig tried to be 'normal guy' for 'Dragon' role

The actor, who is currently shooting his third "James Bond" flick, chats about starring in one of the hottest and highly-anticipated films of the year: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."

By Randee Dawn

As James Bond, Daniel Craig has been convincing audiences for two movies and counting that he's in fighting trim for whatever a project may want to throw at him.

But as he told TODAY's Matt Lauer Friday, that's not what director David Fincher wanted when he hired him for "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." As Lauer pointed out, Craig was in the best shape of his life when he signed on to the role, but Fincher noted that he was playing a journalist, not 007. He would have to put on some weight.

"I wanted to look as much like a normal guy as possible," said Craig. "This guy is a journalist and he works very hard and maybe drinks a little too much, but when the thriller aspect of this movie kicks in, I wanted him to be in danger."

Basically, not to be Bond. And Fincher definitely didn't want a Bond girl to play the quirky, tough Lisbeth Salander. Lauer reminded Craig that Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman were talked about for the role, but Fincher chose a lesser-known actress instead in Rooney Mara.

"I knew once I met Rooney and talked to David that she was the right girl for the part," said Craig. "She hits it out of the park."

And he reiterated comments he's made recently about the film being for adults. "If anybody is a fan of the books, they know what the themes are and that it deals with sexual politics, it deals with violence against women and all of those things are very important to the story," said Craig, who called the film "horribly graphic" in July. "My theory is I'm hoping babysitters are going to make a lot of money out of it."

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" opens Dec. 20.

Also in The Scoop:

Source: http://scoop.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/16/9493504-for-dragon-tattoo-role-daniel-craig-worked-at-being-a-normal-guy

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'The Artist' speaks up with 6 noms to lead Globes (AP)

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. ? Silent film is taking over Hollywood's awards scene. The silent-era tale "The Artist" heads the Golden Globes with six nominations, among them best comedy or musical, and acting honors for its French stars, Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo.

Tied for second-place with five nominations Thursday are the 1960s racial tale "The Help" and George Clooney's Hawaiian family story "The Descendants." Both films are up for best drama, while Clooney was nominated for best dramatic actor and "The Help" earned acting slots for Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain.

"We've all been striking out trying to make our dreams come true, and the fact that our very first studio film is being so well received and embraced is humbling and exciting," said supporting-actress nominee Spencer, an awards-season newcomer and longtime friend of Tate Taylor, the first-time director of "The Help," based on his childhood pal Kathryn Stockett's best-seller.

Also competing for best drama: Martin Scorsese's Paris adventure "Hugo"; Clooney's political thriller "The Ides of March"; Brad Pitt's baseball chronicle "Moneyball"; and Steven Spielberg's World War I epic "War Horse."

Joining "The Artist" in the best musical or comedy category are: the cancer story "50/50"; Kristen Wiig's wedding romp "Bridesmaids"; Woody Allen's romantic fantasy "Midnight in Paris"; and Michelle Williams' Marilyn Monroe tale "My Week With Marilyn."

Dujardin, who won the best-actor prize for "The Artist" in its premiere at last May's Cannes Film Festival, was nominated for best actor in a musical or comedy. He plays a silent-film star whose career nosedives as talking pictures take over in the late 1920s in "The Artist," which has virtually no spoken dialogue and is shot in the boxy, black-and-white format of the silent era.

The actor called his nomination an "incredible gift."

"To be recognized alongside such brilliant actors is an honor," Dujardin said. "The Golden Globe nomination for `The Artist' has left me speechless!"

"The Artist" also picked up a supporting actress honor for Bejo as a rising star of the sound era. Filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius earned directing and screenplay nominations for the film, which also is up for best musical score.

Along with the Screen Actors Guild Award nominations a day earlier, the Globes help narrow down prospects for the Academy Awards, whose nominations come out Jan. 24. If "The Artist" earns a best-picture nomination then, it will be the first silent movie with a serious shot at Hollywood's top prize since the very first year of the Oscars, for 1927-28, when the silent flicks "Wings" and "Sunset" took top honors.

"They said I was crazy to take on making a black-and-white, silent movie, but I had a feeling `The Artist' could be something special, something magical," said the film's producer, Thomas Langmann. "I'm so thankful that audiences are taking a chance and embracing it with a spirit of adventure and love of cinema."

Clooney has three nominations. Besides best dramatic actor as a neglectful dad tending his daughters in "The Descendants," he's up for directing and screenplay for "The Ides of March." For the acting prize, Clooney will compete against his "Ides" co-star Ryan Gosling, who plays a presidential candidate's aide. Gosling had a second nomination for best musical or comedy actor as a ladies man in the romance "Crazy, Stupid, Love."

Glenn Close is also a dual contender, as best dramatic actress as a woman masquerading as a male butler in the Irish drama "Albert Nobbs" and for best song for writing the lyrics to "Lay Your Head Down," the film's theme tune.

Also nominated for dramatic actress: Davis as a black maid going public with stories about her white employer in "The Help"; Rooney Mara as a traumatized victim-turned-avenger in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"; Meryl Streep as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady"; and Tilda Swinton as a grieving woman coping with her son's terrible deeds in "We Need to Talk About Kevin."

Clooney has another pal in the dramatic actor race, his "Ocean's Eleven" franchise co-star Pitt, who's nominated for his "Moneyball" role as Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane. And Clooney also is competing for best director against his boss in "The Descendants," filmmaker Alexander Payne.

Gosling, Clooney and Pitt are up against Leonardo DiCaprio as FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover in "J. Edgar" and Michael Fassbender as a sex addict in "Shame."

Pitt's romantic partner, Angelina Jolie, picked up a nomination for foreign-language film for her directing debut, the Bosnian war drama "In the Land of Blood and Honey."

"I am forever indebted to our cast and crew, who experienced their own personal tragedies in the Bosnian war and gave me an authentic perspective into the conflict," Jolie said.

Scorsese for "Hugo" and Allen for "Midnight in Paris" join Clooney, Hazanavicius and Payne in the directing category.

"Making `Hugo' was an extraordinary experience for me," said Scorsese, whose tale is a loving nod to the early years of cinema and French director Georges Melies. "It gave me a chance to work in 3-D, which I've wanted to do since I was young; it allowed me to make a child's adventure, the type of picture that I loved when I was young; and it provided an occasion to pay tribute to one of the cinema's greatest pioneers, Georges Melies."

Though "War Horse" made it in for best drama, Spielberg missed out on a directing nomination.

Spielberg has a consolation prize with a nomination for his first animated film, "The Adventures of Tintin." Other animation nominees are: James McAvoy's "Arthur Christmas," Owen Wilson's "Cars 2," Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek's "Puss in Boots" and Johnny Depp's "Rango."

Along with Gosling and Dujardin, Wilson was nominated for musical or comedy actor as a writer nostalgic for the 1920s France of Hemingway and Fitzgerald in "Midnight in Paris." Also nominated are Brendan Gleeson as a bawdy, rule-breaking Irish cop on a drug investigation in "The Guard" and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a cancer patient aided by an assortment of oddballs in "50/50."

Roman Polanski's domestic showdown "Carnage" earned musical or comedy actress slots for both Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet as mothers squabbling over their sons' schoolyard fight. The other nominees are: Charlize Theron as a delusional woman plotting to win back her high school boyfriend from his wife in "Young Adult"; Wiig as a maid of honor whose life is unraveling in "Bridesmaids"; and Williams as Marilyn Monroe during a chaotic film shoot in "My Week With Marilyn."

Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier, Monroe's exasperated co-star and director on "The Prince and the Showgirl," was nominated for supporting actor.

"To be recognized for portraying one of the greatest actors of our time is truly an honor," Branagh said.

Also in the supporting-actor race: Albert Brooks as a gregarious but ruthless gangster in "Drive"; Jonah Hill as a statistics prodigy in "Moneyball"; Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud in "A Dangerous Method"; and Christopher Plummer as an ailing, elderly father who comes out as gay in "Beginners."

Besides Bejo and Spencer, who plays a sassy maid in "The Help," supporting-actress nominees include "The Help" co-star Chastain as Spencer's lonely new boss. The other nominees are Janet McTeer as a cross-dressing laborer in "Albert Nobbs" and Shailene Woodley as a troublesome teen in "The Descendants."

Winslet had a second nomination, as best actress in a TV miniseries or movie for "Mildred Pierce." "Downton Abbey" and "Mildred Pierce" tied for the most television nominations with four, with both shows competing for best miniseries or movie.

Several TV newcomers were among the nominees, including "Boss," "New Girl," "American Horror Story" and "Homeland."

"I feel very lucky to be part of it," said "Homeland" star Damian Lewis, who plays a Marine rescued in Afghanistan after eight years in captivity but who draws the suspicion of a CIA operative, played by Claire Danes. "Now I may even be in season 2 now."

Zooey Deschanel, star of the Fox comedy "New Girl," learned of her nomination as best actress in a comedy and also the show's nod for best comedy after waking up to find her cellphone's mailbox was full with messages.

"I don't expect to be recognized or validated. I've been doing this so long, and I've done so many movies where I work really hard and don't ever get this kind of attention. But I so appreciate it, I'm so thankful!" he said driving to work.

With drinks and dinner, the Globes are a laid-back affair for Hollywood's elite compared to the Oscars. The show turned a bit touchy last year as host Ricky Gervais repeatedly made sharp wisecracks about stars and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group of about 85 entertainment reporters for overseas outlets that presents the Globes.

But Gervais helped give the show a TV ratings boost, and he's been invited back as host for a third-straight year.

Before the nominations announcement, the press group's president, Aida Takla-O'Reilly, joked that Gervais is a "naughty, naughty schoolboy."

Five-time Academy Award and Globe nominee Morgan Freeman ? who won the supporting-actor Oscar for "Million Dollar Baby" and a best-actor Globe for "Driving Miss Daisy" ? will receive the group's Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement at the Jan. 15 ceremony.

___

Online:

http://www.goldenglobes.org

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111215/ap_on_en_mo/us_golden_globe_nominations

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The Most Dangerous Toys of 2011 (LiveScience.com)

Each fall, public safety experts from U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), the federation of state public interest research groups, browses toy stores across the country looking for potentially dangerous toys. Despite the stringent regulations imposed on toy manufacturers in the United States, these experts never fail to find a handful of items on store shelves that appear innocuous, but actually pose toxic, choking, strangulation or excessive noise hazards to children. The team, led by public health advocate Nasima Hossain, detailed their findings for 2011 in a year-end report and in correspondence with Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience.

So, as you're going cart-to-cart with other parents during the next two weeks, crossing items off your child's Christmas list, here's a list of toys not to fight over in the store aisles.

Not-so-funny glasses

Goofy disguises aren't so funny when they contain toxic chemicals. U.S. PIRG discovered that a glasses-and-fake-nose set manufactured by "Joking Around" contained 42 times the legal limit of phthalates ? chemicals used to increase the flexibility of plastics. Worse still, a pink sleep mask sold at Claire's contained 77 times the legal phthalate limit.

The use of phthalates in toys was severely restricted in 2008 after studies by the Environmental Protection Agency showed they can cause developmental problems in fetuses and children.

"If you think about it, when you go to Target or Kmart, most toys in the baby and kids section are made out of plastic, and so up until the 2008 law got enacted, the market was cluttered with products that had phthalates in them," Hossain told Life's Little Mysteries. Manufacturers have since been required to find substitutes for phthalates, she said, but clearly some products containing them still end up on store shelves.

'Little Hands' lead book

A cardboard book intended for toddlers called "Little Hands Love Book" (Piggy Toes Press, 2009) was found to contain 720 parts per million (ppm) of lead. This was more than twice the legal limit (300 ppm) at the time of the book's printing, and more than seven times the prospective legal limit, which was recently set at 100 ppm. Furthermore, a toy called the Whirly Wheel, manufactured by LL, was found to contain an astonishing 3,700 ppm of lead ? 37 times more than the newest legal limit.? Several other toys (including a Disney Tinkerbell watch, a Honda model motorcycle, and a Hello Kitty keychain) contained quantities of lead that were below the legal limit, but over the limit recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (40 ppm).

"Toxicity is the biggest danger posed by toys. [Manufacturers] use lead in plastics, and when this is exposed to air, it rubs off on the skin and children can breathe it in," Hossain said.

Toys too small for tots

Since 1990, 57 children have died from choking on small toys or toy parts. For this reason, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) imposes strict regulations on the minimum size of toys intended for use by children ? especially children under age 3. Nonetheless, U.S. PIRG safety experts found several toys on the market that did not meet these size requirements, and thus posed choking hazards for children. Among them was a wooden block set made by ToySmith and an Oscar the Grouch doll made by Sesame Workshop. [The Cool Physics of 8 Classic Toys]

Many other toys found by the group lacked the necessary warning labels about choking hazards (which must be placed on the packaging of toys for children ages 3 to 6); this serves as a reminder to parents that they must always consider the safety of toys themselves before buying them, rather than taking labels ? or the lack thereof ? at their word.

Small ball hazard

Small bouncy balls and marbles have caused 69 choking deaths since 1990. Consequently, small balls meant for children under age 3 must not be able to fit through a 1.75-inch-diameter test hole ? which approximates the size of a child's wind pipe ? and balls meant for older children must come with choking hazard warning labels. Nonetheless, when perusing toy bins across the country, the U.S. PIRG experts came across several balls that did not meet these requirements, again suggesting that parents must be extra vigilant when buying small balls or marbles for their kids. [Is There a Santa Claus?]

Burst balloons

Balloons are all fun and games until they burst. Pieces of burst balloons pose a choking risk for children under 8 years of age, and have caused 86 deaths since 1990. For this reason, U.S. PIRG recommends keeping balloons away from young children completely, and was discouraged to find balloons in stores that were being marketed for infants' and toddlers' birthday parties.

Quiet down, toys

The CPSC places strict regulations on the maximum sound level that may emanate from toys, because excessive noise can damage a child's hearing. "Even minor hearing loss in children can affect their ability to speak and understand language at a critical time in their development," the U.S. PIRG report explained. According to the law, "close-to-the-ear" toys must have volumes less than 65 decibels (dB), and toys played with at a distance must be quieter than 85 dB (or 115 dB for short bursts of sound). However, several toys were found to violate these laws. The too-loud toys were an "Elmo's World" talking cellphone manufactured and sold by Fisher Price, Victorious stereo headphones from Nickelodeon and the Super Stunt RAT BOMB from Hot Wheels.

This story was provided by Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow us on Twitter @llmysteries, then join us on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20111214/sc_livescience/themostdangeroustoysof2011

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