Eighteen-year-old Jared DeWeese is severely disabled. He cannot walk, talk, read or write. Nevertheless, WSB-TV reports, he is receiving straight A?s in several courses, including algebra, biology and world history at a school in Gwinnett County, Georgia.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/connecticut-church-near-shooting-evacuated-bomb-threat-180742511.html
tropic thunder carnie wilson missing reese witherspoon pregnant billy joel bent new york jets
The Large Hadron Collider is working more efficiently, physicists announced today, with more particles than ever before crammed into the particle accelerator's beams.
Scientists successfully halved the space between the bunches of protons that fly through the LHC in sprays called beams. To observe unknown particles and interactions, physicists race these beams around a 17-mille-long (27 kilometers) underground ring on the border between France and Switzerland. Head-on collisions between protons give rise to short-lived, exotic particles, perhaps including the elusive Higgs Boson, the particle theorized to be responsible for bestowing mass on all other particles.
LHC physicists think they've finally found the Higgs Boson. A new subatomic particle discovered this summer matches the theoretical description of the Higgs, though more analysis and data is needed to nail down the identification.
Meanwhile, CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, which runs the collider, announced the completion of its first three-year "run" today (Dec. 17) by trumpeting several milestones.
"The LHC's performance has exceeded all expectations over the last three?years," Steve Myers, the director for accelerators and technology for CERN, said in a statement. ?"The accelerator delivered more than 6 million billion collisions and the luminosity has continuously increased. It's a fantastic achievement, and I'm incredibly proud of my team." [Photos: The World's Largest Atom Smasher]
Luminosity is a measurement of the rate of particle collisions in the accelerator.
The last few days of the LHC's run have been partially devoted to upping the efficiency of the enormous machine. Each proton beam in the LHC is divided into hundreds of bunches, each several centimeters or inches long and each containing more than a hundred billion protons. Now, scientists have halved the spaces between each bunch of protons, leaving only 25 nanoseconds of time between each proton-rich pulse. That means twice as many proton bunches can fit into each beam, increasing the rate of particle collisions, and therefore the amount of data scientists can collect.
"This new achievement augurs well for the next LHC run starting in 2015," Myers said. "High intensity beams mean more collisions and a better chance of observing rare phenomena."
The Higgs, if CERN physicists have found it, is indeed a rare phenomena. Of the 6 million billion collisions generated in the last three years, only about 400 produced traces of the Higgs-like particle.
As 2013 opens, the LHC will conduct experiments involving colliding protons with lead ions before a long pause in research for maintenance through 2014. In 2015, particle collisions are expected to resume with increased energy and frequency.
Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas?or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.
Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/worlds-largest-atom-smasher-gets-faster-180215602.html
Webb Simpson Fathers Day Quotes Stevie J mothers day 2012 cinco de mayo osama bin laden death spinal muscular atrophy
AUTOS: BMW Reveals M6 Gran Coupe
A twin-turbo V8 generating 560 horsepower lifts the sleek four-door ahead of the competiion; official debut set for January at the Detroit Auto Show.
BMW has revealed its 560-horsepower M6 Gran Coupe in a series of official photographs ahead of the sleek four-door's public debut in January at the Detroit auto show.Set to rival the Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG, Porsche Panamera Turbo and upcoming Audi RS7, the latest M-car sets out to broaden the scope of the existing M6 lineup by providing added levels of practicality and improved comfort through the adoption of two extra doors and greater rear seat accommodation than its coupe and convertible siblings.
Unique styling for the M6 Gran Coupe includes a carbon-fiber-reinforced rear diffuser. (Photo: BMW) Powered by a twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8, the car arrives in North America next summer with a price tag around $110,000.
The M6 Gran Coupe is distinguishable from lesser versions of the 6-series Gran Coupe by exterior styling cues developed under the guise of BMW M division's longtime head of design, Uwe Weidehase.
Included is a deeper front bumper with sizeable cooling ducts for the engine bay and front brakes, altered kidney grille with twinned horizontal slates and M6 identification, adaptive headlamps, widened front wheel arches, a chromed indicator lamp surround within the front wings, deeper sills underneath the four doors, aerodynamically optimized mirror housings and a carbon fiber-reinforced plastic roof panel.
At the rear, the machine receives more M6 identification on the trunk lid and a deep, uniquely profiled bumper housing a carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic diffuser element shaped to draw hot air away from the rear differential and a quartet of chromed tailpipes. Wheels are 20 inches in diameter.
A wealth of riches is contained within the M6 Gran Coupe's luxurious interior. (Photo: BMW) The M6 Gran Coupe is based around a high-strength steel platform that boasts the same wheelbase as the M5. As is customary for all cars wearing the revered M badge, it receives tracks that have been widened significantly compared with the standard 6-series Gran Coupe.
The powertrain is completed with a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, a combination first seen in the M5 and more recently brought to the M6 coupe and cabriolet.
Torque swells to 500 pound-feet in the M6 Gran Coupe, and BMW claims its new super sedan is marginally faster than its keenest four-door performance rivals from zero-60 mph, with an official time of 4.1 seconds.
Top speed is nominally limited to 155 mph, although buyers can increase it to 189 mph through an optional driver's package that also brings high-performance tires.
With standard fuel-saving functions such as stop/start and brake energy recuperation, the M6 Gran Coupe's average fuel consumption is pegged at 23.8 mpg on the European test cycle.
This story originally appeared at Autoweek.com.
Source: http://automotive.speedtv.com/article/autos-bmw-reveals-m6-gran-coupe/
pulitzer prize winners nfl 2012 schedule gmail down ryan oneal file taxes online tupac shakur sledge hammer
Posted on: 3:18 pm, December 16, 2012, by Katie DeLong, updated on: 03:55pm, December 16, 2012
WASHINGTON (CNN) ? The White House said President Barack Obama supports reinstatement of a federal ban on assault weapons ? a position he took in the 2008 campaign but failed to press during his first term.
?It does remain a commitment of his,? presidential spokesman Jay Carney told reporters as the nation reeled from a mass shooting in Connecticut that mainly killed school children.
An emotional Obama did not address that issue directly in a televised statement from the White House on the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown that killed 26 people but said something had to be done.
?We?re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics,? said Obama, the father of two girls.
He wiped away tears when he spoke of the ?beautiful little kids? killed in the massacre.
Police recovered three weapons from the scene: a semiautomatic .223-caliber rifle made by Bushmaster, a Glock and a Sig Sauer, both handguns, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.
Others also spoke out for a strong federal response.
?We cannot simply accept this as a routine product of modern American life. If now is not the time to have a serious discussion about gun control and the epidemic of gun violence plaguing our society, I don?t know when is,? Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, said in a statement.
Congress approved a ban on assault weapons in 1994. The prohibition, which expired in 2004, did not eliminate them, but restricted their features, limiting magazine capacity to 10 rounds and regulating pistol grips, bayonet attachments and flash suppressors.
Gun rights generally divide Americans.
A Pew poll conducted after the 2011 assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, that killed six other people, found that 49% of Americans said it was ?more important to protect the rights of Americans to own guns,? while 46% said it was ?more important to control gun ownership.?
But a survey conducted by CNN/ORC International in August shortly after the deadly theater mass shooting earlier this year in Aurora, Colorado, found that 76% of those surveyed believe ?there should be some restrictions on owning guns.?
Obama supported a platform while running for president in 2008 that included reinstating the assault weapons ban, but has largely avoided the issue of gun control during his first term.
He wrote an opinion piece two months after the Giffords shooting acknowledging the importance of the Second Amendment right to bear arms and called for a ?focus? on ?effective steps that will actually keep those irresponsible, law-breaking few from getting their hands on a gun in the first place.?
Obama said at a presidential debate in October that he wanted a ?broader conversation? in general about reducing gun violence.
?Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced,? he said.
The National Rifle Association, which advocates for gun rights, said in a statement it would not have anny comment on the Connecticut shooting ?until the facts are thoroughly known.?
Kristin Goss, an associate professor of public policy and political science at Duke University and author of ?Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control in America? earlier this year that the pro gun control side of the issue ?has struggled to come up with a compelling narrative? to convince more people to support stricter gun laws.
?For a long time, these gun violence rates and massacres speak for themselves. They relied on that to make the case but were up against a very powerful but very well disciplined and skillful army that was good at taking those arguments apart,? Goss said.
CLICK HERE?to read more about the Newtown, CT mass shooting on FOX6Now.com
Source: http://fox6now.com/2012/12/16/obama-remains-committed-to-assault-weapons-ban-white-house-says/
battlestar galactica blood and chrome my morning jacket roger goodell psychosis dianna agron million hoodie march tebow trade
MIAMI (AP) ? When the Miami Heat players and coaches showed up for work Saturday morning, basketball was secondary.
Newtown was the focus.
Friday's massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., was the primary topic of discussion among the Heat, even though they were gathered to finish prepping for a Saturday night game against Washington. It's rare for anything to overshadow basketball on the Heat practice court, but clearly, this was not going to be a typical day.
"Basketball, this is nothing," Heat forward LeBron James said. "These games are nothing compared to when you have a tragedy like that. It sucks that sometimes you need a tragedy to put things back in perspective, to appreciate what you have. But it does that to people. It's unfortunate that you have to have something like that to understand what's really important and some things that aren't important at all. Family is the No. 1 important thing in life."
It's likely that many Heat players and coaches had never heard of Newtown before Friday.
That doesn't mean they weren't affected, like countless others. Moments of silence were observed before many games.
In Memphis before tipoff of a college basketball game against Louisville, a moment of silence was observed for the victims and for 32-year-old Memphis police officer Martoiya Lang, a mother of four children, who was shot and killed on Friday. Public address announcer Chuck Roberts struggled and his voice choked up a bit as he said the Memphis officer's name. And he finished after the moment ended with "Amen."
In England, the Queens Park Rangers soccer team wore black armbands at the request of its players during a Premier League match against Fulham. Chelsea captain John Terry on Instagram said "So So Sad" beneath a picture of a candle, and he urged prayers for school. Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany tweeted: "Giving guns to everyone to 'protect' their home or fighting to get rid of all the guns? How many more Newtons will it take?"
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has shopped at the Clackamas Town Center, a mall in his native Oregon where a gunman killed two people Tuesday and then himself. One of Dwyane Wade's nephews was shot last March in Chicago, where gun violence is a major topic of discussion. Ray Allen attended the University of Connecticut, still calls it "my state" and expressed shock as he tried to collect information about Friday's events.
"It's still on my mind. I'm really emotional about it. My eyes water up a little bit just thinking about it right now. Your kids are what you live for," Heat forward Udonis Haslem said, his voice barely above a whisper.
Spoelstra typically comes into the Heat interview room after game-day practices and makes a brief statement about injury situations or what the team worked on that particular day.
He started his remarks Saturday by talking about Newtown, nothing about the Heat or the Wizards.
"We talked about it as a team today and our thoughts and prayers are with the families and the community," Spoelstra said. "Horrific tragedy in Connecticut. We took some time to give our thoughts and prayers to them.
"It's despicable," he added. "It's a horrific tragedy. And it doesn't matter whether you have family or not or kids or not, you can't relate to a tragedy like that."
Spoelstra said he monitored news reports on the Internet until late Friday night. James was getting updated on the day's events even as the Heat were visiting sick children in a pair of Miami hospitals on Friday afternoon, after which he immediately went home and hugged his own sons, neither of whom is likely old enough to comprehend what took place inside that Newtown school.
"Just having two kids of my own, in elementary, I could not imagine sending them off to school and them not returning," James said.
Haslem has three sons, and said he tried telling his oldest boy that "things happen in this world that we have no control over."
He's all-too-familiar with the grieving process, having lost close friends and relatives over the years. Still, Haslem insisted that he cannot comprehend what the families in Newtown feel, especially with this all happening so close to Christmas.
"You take it one day at a time. You're never going to forget about it. Time heals the wounds, slowly," Haslem said. "I still grieve over my friends. I still grieve over my family members I've lost. Slowly, slowly, it gets a little bit ? not a lot ? but a little bit easier.
"We love the money, we love the fame, we love the sport, but at the end of the day, we do this for our kids and the legacy to give them things you never had," Haslem said. "If it was about us, a lot of us would have retired after our first contract. You do this for your kids. Your kids are everything. My three kids are my heart. I just imagine someone taking my heart away from me. Might as well kill me."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/athletes-shaken-connecticut-shooting-203750059--spt.html
ryan zimmerman oscars red carpet jennifer lopez wardrobe malfunction hugo hugo nfl combine 84th annual academy awards
AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas put up $3 billion in taxpayer money and promised cancer breakthroughs. But a criminal investigation, widespread rebuke from scientists and the resignations of embattled state officials came faster than medical discoveries.
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas launched in 2009, flaunting the second-biggest trough of cancer research dollars in the country. Nobel laureates eagerly took jobs with the agency and celebrity Lance Armstrong lent visible and then-coveted support. It was an unprecedented state-run battle against a worldwide killer.
Three years later, it's become unhinged by suggestions of politics and personal profit and is on the ropes.
"People expected that we get some good results. Not that we make people rich in private companies doing cancer research," said Cathy Bonner, a cancer survivor who was a close aide to former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, and who helped brainstorm the idea for CPRIT. "I can't imagine anything lower than misuse of research money that's meant to save people's lives."
Embroiled by two lucrative grants approved despite scant review ? or none at all, in one case ? CPRIT is ending a year of turmoil saying the beleaguered agency is cooperating with separate prosecutor investigations. One is by a public corruption unit that convicted former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on money laundering charges, and is beginning this probe trying to recover key internal emails CPRIT says it cannot retrieve.
The investigations opened last week after CPRIT revealed its latest and most serious blunder: Giving a private biomedical startup, Dallas-based Peloton Therapeutics, an $11 million award in 2010 without ever scrutinizing the merits of the company's proposal. The discovery came on the heels of the agency funding a $20 million project roundly condemned for not first undergoing an independent scientific review.
On Friday, the federal National Cancer Institute ? which confers CPRIT the prominent status of being an approved funding entity ? confirmed it was evaluating "recent events" at the state agency.
Amid the escalating troubles, an agency that doled out more than $800 million in three years has practically ground to a halt.
CPRIT's peer-review boards that evaluate research proposals are empty ? virtually all members quit in protest, including the chief science officer and the head of the science review council, both Nobel prize winners. They didn't leave quietly: Dr. Phillip Sharp, professor at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said agency leaders "dishonored" the integrity of the independent review process and suggested "suspicions of favoritism" were at hand.
On the other end of treating cancer ? putting drug discoveries on the market and in the hands of patients ? Chief Commercialization Officer Jerry Cobbs resigned in November after the irregularities behind Peloton's funding were uncovered. The agency has said Peloton was unaware its proposal bypassed review, and the company has declined comment.
Executive Director Bill Gimson then completed an extraordinary purging of the agency's leadership last week, saying he would step down from the $300,000-a-year job he held since CPRIT formed. His Dec. 10 resignation letter is dated the same day the Texas attorney general's office informed Gimson it was launching a wide inquiry into the agency's operations.
Months of upheaval has become even too much for one public relations superpower. Hill & Knowlton Strategies severed its consulting deal with CPRIT last week, telling the agency in a letter that "the ongoing issues and challenges that have confronted the organization over recent months have greatly exceeded the scope of work outlined in the original contract."
Cancer-fighting groups worry Texas lawmakers will be next to abandon CPRIT.
"The internal dynamics are concerning, and we need to know exactly what's going on," said James Gray, a government relations director for the American Cancer Society. "But the mission and work of CPRIT is vital in saving lives today, and also in the future."
CPRIT was created with a built-in expiration date. Texas voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2007 to launch a $3 billion cancer-fighting effort, but gave the state only a decade to do it. Apart from funding research in university laboratories and infusing private biotech startups with cash ? including Peloton ? the agency also provides money for hundreds of thousands of preventive screenings, such as for breast cancer, across Texas.
Gov. Rick Perry and other elected leaders are now talking tough about transparency and getting to the bottom of the Peloton grant. The state's key budget-writing committee added a review of the agency to a hearing agenda for Thursday, though there appears to be little appetite among lawmakers to cut off CPRIT.
Prosecutors launched their investigations last week without alleging any criminal misconduct. But their broad scope will include trying to recover internal agency emails surrounding the Peloton grant that Gimson has said are no longer available.
"We've been down that road many times," said Gregg Cox, director of the Travis County district attorney's public integrity unit.
CPRIT is among fewer than two dozen funding entities in the nation approved by the National Cancer Institute. Aleea Farrakh Khan, an NCI spokeswoman, said the institute has not directly contacted CPRIT during its evaluation and no decisions have been made.
___
Also on HuffPost:
"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/texas-cancer-agency-_n_2307946.html
bruce weber fired notorious big biggie smalls lyrics azores emmylou harris disco inferno b.i.g
Trello is a simple, fun project management tool, but it can also shine as your personal GTD task management tool. The webapp's boards, cards, checklists, labels, and other features make it easy to view and manage your tasks, much as you would use index cards on a cork board.
Programmer and writer Josh Earl has detailed his Trello-based GTD system. He has boards for next actions, projects, goals, someday/maybe, and project-specific boards. Within each of those boards he has lists (e.g., under projects: active, waiting for, needs clarification).
Some features of Trello he points out are perfectly suited to the small-tasks management of GTD include how easy it is to: group related tasks and move them into full projects, copy boards (use them as templates), and add supporting information to each task or project.
After trying just about every task management system out there, he says Trello is "about as close to a perfect platform for GTD" as he could imagine. Read his blog post for more reasons why and to take a peek at his GTD setup.
Rocking GTD with Trello | While(true) { code(); } via Accidental Hacker
Time Fun Voting Locations atlanta falcons voting hours election results Doug Martin
