Sunday, June 30, 2013

2013 Ford F-150 - Oklahoma City, OK, Norman, OK & Pauls Valley, OK for $54,840


*The advertised price does not include sales tax, vehicle registration fees, finance charges, documentation charges, and any other fees required by law. We attempt to update this inventory on a regular basis. However, there can be lag time between the sale of a vehicle and the update of the inventory.

EPA mileage estimates are for newly manufactured vehicles only. Your actual mileage will vary depending on how you drive and maintain your vehicle.

Before purchasing this vehicle, it is your responsibility to address any and all differences between information on this website and the actual vehicle specifications and/or any warranties offered prior to the sale of this vehicle. Vehicle data on this website is compiled from publicly available sources believed by the publisher to be reliable. Vehicle data is subject to change without notice. The publisher assumes no responsibility for errors and/or omissions in this data the compilation of this data and makes no representations express or implied to any actual or prospective purchaser of the vehicle as to the condition of the vehicle, vehicle specifications, ownership, vehicle history, equipment/accessories, price or warranties. 2013 Ford Oklahoma City, OK 2013 Ford Norman, OK 2013 Ford Pauls Valley, OK

Source: http://sethwadleyauto.com/2013-Ford-F-150-Pauls-Valley/vd/15570085

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Obama pushes House to pass immigration bill before recess

During his trip to South Africa President Barack Obama urged the House of Representatives to send him an immigration bill before Congress takes its August recess.

By Associated Press / June 29, 2013

A man stands next to posters stuck on the Federal Building at a 24-hour vigil calling on Congress to pass immigration reform in Los Angeles Thursday.

Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

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President Barack Obama is urging the House to quickly send him an?immigration?bill, saying there's more than enough time to do so before Congress takes its August recess.

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Obama says he has urged both House Speaker John Boehner and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi to find a way to pass a bill. He says a sweeping?immigrationmeasure that cleared the Senate with a large bipartisan majority Thursday is a "sound framework" that has been debated for weeks.

Obama says the House has a "bunch of weeks" to get the bill done and "now's the time."

Boehner has said the House will craft its own bill and not simply take up the Senate version.

Obama spoke Saturday during a news conference in South Africa with President Jacob Zuma.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/9lF5rHAg51k/Obama-pushes-House-to-pass-immigration-bill-before-recess

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Feds: Internet influenced Boston bombing suspect

BOSTON (AP) ? What Dzhokhar Tsarnaev needed to learn to make explosives with a pressure cooker was at his fingertips in jihadist files on the Internet, according to a federal indictment accusing him of carrying out the bombings at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured dozens more.

Investigators have been trying to determine whether Tsarnaev's older brother, Tameran who was killed while the two were on the run after the bombing, was influenced or trained by Islamic militants during a trip overseas. But the indictment released Thursday against 19-year-old Dzhokhar makes no mention of any overseas influence.

Before the attack, according to the indictment, he downloaded the summer 2010 issue of Inspire, an online English-language magazine published by al-Qaida. The issue detailed how to make bombs from pressure cookers, explosive powder extracted from fireworks, and lethal shrapnel.

He also downloaded extremist Muslim literature, including "Defense of the Muslim Lands, the First Obligation After Imam," which advocates "violence designed to terrorize the perceived enemies of Islam," the indictment said. The article was written by the late Abdullah Azzam, whose legacy has inspired terrorist attacks in the Middle East.

Another tract downloaded ? titled "The Slicing Sword, Against the One Who Forms Allegiances With the Disbelievers and Takes Them as Supporters Instead of Allah, His Messenger and the Believers" ? included a foreword by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American propagandist for al-Qaida who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011.

The 30-count indictment provides one of the most detailed public explanations to date of the brothers' alleged motive ? Islamic extremism ? and the role the Internet may have played in influencing them.

"Tamerlan Tsarnaev's justice will be in the next world, but for his brother, accountability will begin right here in the district of Massachusetts," Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley, whose jurisdiction includes Boston, said at a news conference with federal prosecutors on Thursday.

The indictment contains the bombing charges, punishable by the death penalty, that were brought in April against Tsarnaev, including use of a weapon of mass destruction to kill. It also contains many new charges covering the slaying of an MIT police officer and the carjacking of a motorist during the getaway attempt that left Tamerlan Tsarnaev dead.

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz of Massachusetts said Attorney General Eric Holder will decide whether to pursue the death penalty against Tsarnaev, who will be arraigned on July 10.

Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded by the two pressure-cooker bombs that went off near the finish line of the marathon on April 15.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured four days later, hiding in a boat parked in a backyard in Watertown, Mass.

According to the indictment, he scrawled messages on the inside of the vessel that said, among other things, "The U.S. Government is killing our innocent civilians," ''I can't stand to see such evil go unpunished," and "We Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all."

The Tsarnaev brothers had roots in the turbulent Russian regions of Dagestan and Chechnya, which have become recruiting grounds for Muslim extremists. They had been living in the U.S. about a decade.

There was no mention in the indictment of any larger conspiracy beyond the brothers, and no reference to any direct overseas contacts with extremists. Instead, the indictment suggests the Internet played an important role in the suspects' radicalization.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev spent six months in Dagestan last year, and investigators traveled to the Russian province to talk to the men's parents and try to determine whether he was influenced or trained by local Islamic militants.

Christina DiIorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for Ortiz, declined to comment on why the indictment did not mention whether authorities believe the elder Tsarnaev received any training during his stay in Russia.

The indictment assembled and confirmed details of the case that have been widely reported over the past two months, and added new pieces of information.

For example, it corroborated reports that Tamerlan Tsarnaev bought 48 mortar shells from a Seabrook, N.H., fireworks store. It also disclosed that he used the Internet to order electronic components that could be used in making bombs.

The papers detail how the brothers then allegedly placed knapsacks containing shrapnel-packed bombs near the finish line of the 26.2-mile race.

The court papers also corroborated reports by authorities that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev contributed to his brother's death by accidentally running him over with a stolen vehicle during a shootout and police chase.

The charges cover the slaying of Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, who authorities said was shot in the head at close range in his cruiser by the Tsarnaevs, who tried to take his gun.

In addition, prosecutors said that during the carjacking, the Tsarnaevs forced the motorist to turn over his ATM card and his password, and Dzhokhar withdrew $800 from the man's account.

At the same time the federal indictment was announced, Massachusetts authorities brought a 15-count state indictment against Dzhokhar over the MIT officer's slaying and the police shootout.

___

Tom Hays reported from New York.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/feds-internet-influenced-boston-bombing-suspect-063522205.html

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Complex activity patterns emerge from simple underlying laws, ant experiments show

June 28, 2013 ? A new study from researchers at Uppsala University and University of Havana uses mathematic modeling and experiments on ants to show that a group is capable of developing flexible resource management strategies and characteristic responses of its own.

The results are now published in Physical Review Letters.

Group-living animals are led to regulate their activity and to make decisions on how to manage resources, under the action of a variety of environmental stimuli and of their intrinsic interactions. The latter are typically cooperative, in the sense that the activity of a single animal increases nonlinearly with the number of already active ones.

The researchers monitored experimentally and using mathematical modeling the activity profile of food-searching ants in a natural environment. The number of ants entering in or exiting the nest was recorded as well as the local temperature over several days.

The study shows that the group is capable of developing flexible resource management strategies and characteristic responses of its own. This is achieved by operating in an aperiodic fashion close to a regime of chaos, where nonlinearity is especially pronounced and offers the group more options than just following passively the day/night temperature cycle.

Furthermore, the group bursts into its foraging activity rapidly and subsequently relaxes to the inactive mode more slowly. This flexible behavior is reminiscent of "free will" in the sense that groups' activities are not totally constrained by the environment but on the contrary constitute new, emerging modes of behavior not encoded in the external stimuli or in the activity rhythms of the individuals within the group.

"Our results are likely to account for a wide range of temporal rhythms observed across the animal kingdom as well as in human societies," says Stamatios Nicolis, researcher at the Department of Mathematics, who lead the study.

"For instance, signal processing in the brain typically leads to complex patterns of electrical activity as witnessed by the electroencephalogram whose aperiodic, chaotic-looking structure is not a simple replica of the signal but reflects instead the ability of the brain to store vast amounts information and to process them selectively depending on the circumstances," says Stamatios Nicolis.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/s8EfwWh0yUw/130628091951.htm

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With All That Developer Mojo, Google Is Like An Ass-Kicking Octopus

Screen Shot 2013-06-28 at 12.30.22 PMFor James Governor and the RedMonk crew, craft beer is a metaphor for talking about developer communities, the cloud and all that goes with them. It's something these guys do every day, providing their own independent analysis about the millions of programmers who RedMonk Co-Founder Stephen O'Grady calls the new kingmakers.

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

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Co-Founder ?Who Made Numbers God? At Zynga Joins Bee Cave ...

Zynga co-founder and godfather of metrics-based game development Eric Schiermeyer quietly slipped out of the company, is working on a new startup, and today announced he?s become an investor and advisor to Bee Cave Games, makers of play-money gambling Facebook game Blackjack Casino. Bee Cave Games CEO Erik Bethke tells me Schiermeyer?s advisor role is a weekly commitment and his investment is part of a forthcoming funding round in the low millions.

Previously, Schiermeyer was?a CTO of Myspace, and at Zynga he was VP of Product. Bee Cave Games won?t be his full-time gig as he tells me he?s advising some other companies, and is in the early stages of building a new company. ?A former Zynga employee gave me this candid look into working with Schiermeyer:

?He was known as the most aggressive man at Zynga. He ran the product management organization. They were the numbers guys, the one behind metrics. He?s the one who made numbers God in the product management cultures. That?s where he was the most aggressive, always trying to push the numbers, push the numbers.?

That strategy of tweaking every bit of a game?s design to increase growth, retention, engagement, and monetization is arguably what made Zynga so financially succesful in its early years. It may have also eventually contributed to low morale, fleeing talent, and the inability of Zynga to produce any hit games recently.

Our source says, ?His reputation was for being a bit abrasive and hard to work with, but he was absolutely successful. He got results. He was the driving force behind Zynga?s growth.?

Screenshot-MapScreen

Schiermeyer will bring serious business experience to his board advising and investment spot with the young company, which was was founded in 2012 and has only raised?$1.4 million before now. Why did he pick the startup? He tells me ?I think BCG is posed to take all the lessons they learned from pioneering the social games space into the casino world. I?ve looked at all the top grossing casino apps on IOS and they remind me of the old school online gambling downloadables. ?Certainly while I was still at Zynga we were eating traditional gaming companies lunch in the online side of the business. I think BCG could do something similar.?

Schiermeyer left Zynga in July 2011. ?Since the public offering at the end of that year, the gaming giant?s share price has rallied from its year?s low of $2.10 in November up to $2.78 now, but has been on a jagged decline since March. Zynga recently fired hundreds of employees, closed several offices, and earlier this month shuttered the Draw Something studio OMGPOP it bought for $200 million just a year prior.

The plan has been for Zynga to reemerge as a leaner, mobile-focused gaming company. But it?s not that simple. The big gaming business is based on home runs that pay for development of a slew of titles, and Zynga hasn?t been able to find one. Many hopes now rely on its plans for real-money gambling games.

Bee Cave CEO Bethke, who formerly worked with Schiermeyer at Zynga on Mafia Wars, told me factors that have led to Zynga?s fall include ?tremendous amount of talent turnover. I think they?re struggling. It needs direction, it needs a strategy. If you look over at King they?re making hits. If you look at the Facebook ecosystem everyone else is making 60% more this year than last year. Despite Zynga?s decline, Facebook?s [gaming] ecosystem is still up.?

That bodes well for Bee Cave, whose only game right now is on the Facebook platform. The company claims that Blackjack Casino is ?now the #2 fastest growing casino game on Facebook trending charts?, though AppData puts it below 50,000 daily users. Bethke tells me that later this summer it plans to port the game to iOS, Android, and 14 other languages, and it?s building some new titles. While Bee Cave games let users bet fake money,?Schiermeyer?s ruthless efficiency could help the studio churn out real dollars.


Eric is the the Guru of Growth. Prior to launching Zynga, he was the CTO at eUniverse, the company that became Intermix Media, parent company of MySpace.

? Learn more

Bee Cave Games is a social and mobile games developer based in Austin, Texas. We develop connected games for web, Facebook, iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android (phone and tablet), and other gaming platforms.

? Learn more

Zynga was founded in July 2007 by Mark Pincus and is named for his late American Bulldog, Zinga. Loyal and spirited, Zinga?s name is a nod to a legendary African warrior queen. The early supporting founding team included Eric Schiermeyer, Michael Luxton, Justin Waldron, Kyle Stewart, Scott Dale, John Doerr, Steve Schoettler, Kevin Hagan, and Andrew Trader. Zynga?s mission is connecting the world through games. Everyday millions of people interact with their friends and express their unique personalities through our...

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Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/28/the-most-aggressive-person-at-zynga/

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Friday, June 28, 2013

iOS 7 for iPad First Impressions: Messing With the Best

iOS 7 for iPad First Impressions: Messing With the Best

Since its inception, the iPad has been the gold standard for tablets. Nothing else has come close, really. A lot of credit goes to iOS, which has ceded plenty of ground to Android on phones but remains easily the friendliest tablet software. So changing up iOS 7 means changing up the very best tablet OS there is. Here's how that's working out so far.

Read more...

    


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/wpSlntyIQ1g/ios-7-for-ipad-first-impressions-messing-with-the-best-598446530

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S?o Miguel scops owl was wiped out after arrival of humans in the Azores

June 27, 2013 ? On S?o Miguel Island in the Azores, there used to exist a small, nocturnal bird of prey, related to the European scops owl, named Otus frutuosoi, which was very probably driven to extinction with the arrival of the first settlers in the 15th century. An international study, in which Spanish researchers participated, has for the first time identified fossils of this species endemic to the island.

On 28 August 2011 researchers Juan Carlos Rando, from the University of La Laguna (Tenerife), and Josep Antoni Alcover from the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies in Mallorca unearthed some small fossil bones buried not far below the ground of the ?gua de Pau cave (S?o Miguel Island, Azores, Portugal).

Two years later, an article published by the journal Zootaxa has revealed that the remains found belong to an extinct species of scops owl which has been given the name Otus frutuosoi in honour of the 16th-century Azorean historian Gaspar Frutuoso.

Carbon dating the fossils indicates that they are from 1,970 years ago. The hypothesis entertained by the researchers is that the arrival of human beings to the archipelago in the 15th century changed its ecosystem and caused the extinction of the species.

"Humans have a history of changing island ecosystems. When humans arrived on the island mice started to appear and laurisilva -- a type of humid forest -- was destroyed. This surely played a large part in the extinction of the S?o Miguel scops owl," Alcover explains.

Scops owls are nocturnal birds of prey, and this new species in particular is phylogenetically related to the Otus scops, or European scops owl, which with a length of 20 cm is the smallest nocturnal bird of prey on the Iberian Peninsular.

It is calculated that the wing surface of the Otus frutuosoi measured a maximum of 114 cm2, at least 33% less than the European scops owl, and although its legs were 11.6% longer, "the appearance of its body was more squat," according to the experts.

"The body of the extinct scops owl of the Azores was shorter and wider than that of its modern-day European relatives. Its beak was short and small, similar to that of the nightjar. Having long legs and very short wings, it must have been a very poor flyer and thus more of a land-dwelling bird," the scientist points out.

The second extinct scops owl on North Atlantic islands

A year ago, the same team of scientists documented another extinct bird of the same genus, although bigger, in Madeira: the Otus mauli.

Due to its anatomical features, the scientists believe that the Otus frutuosoi was an insectivore and must have lived on the ground of the laurisilva, where it would have found food and protection.

Otus frutuosoi remains have only been found on S?o Miguel Island in the Azores, therefore it is considered endemic to the island, although the authors do not discount the possibility of finding more fossils of the same species or other similar ones in various parts of the archipelago.

"The discovery of endemic scops owls in Azores and Madeira indicates that on occasions atmospheric conditions have occurred that have dragged these birds with them. Some reached safe land, where they survived and developed in isolated conditions, and new species formed," concludes Alcover.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/phbEXUJ2L_8/130627083044.htm

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Ancient Roman Concrete: The Building Material of the Future?

Image: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

It only took us two millennia to figure out how the Ancient Romans made such amazingly durable concrete. Scientists at the Berkeley National Lab and a team of researchers from around the world have discovered the unique recipe used to construct Roman cities and landmarks?a surprising number of which still stand after 2000 years of use.

Compare that with modern concrete, which is engineered to maintain its design strength for anywhere from 50 to 100 years, and you can see the value of the Roman recipe. The two most surprising ingredients: Volcanic ash and seawater.

In addition to longevity, the Roman recipe is reported to be a much greener material, requiring substantially less energy in the manufacturing process. Making Portland cement?which makes modern concrete stick together?produces an enormous amount of CO2. It turns out that the Romans would've baked their ingredients at much lower temperatures, reducing the amount of fuel burned to make concrete.

If you're as intrigued by this new development as I was, here's plenty more.

Tim Layton is a home and DIY blogger for Popular Mechanics. Follow him on Twitter: @RemodelingGuy

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/how-to/blog/ancient-roman-concrete-the-building-material-of-the-future-15631356?src=rss

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Aereo coming to Chicago on September 13th

Aereo coming to Chicago on September 13th

Between Chicago Hope, Chicago Fire and, erm, The Chicago Code, the Windy City's got a strong pedigree in television drama. That's why it makes perfect sense that streaming TV service Aereo is coming to the Chicagoland area of Illinois on September 13th. As with Aereo's other launches, users will be able to watch the local ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox (yup) affiliates on your computer, smartphone and tablet -- with DVR add-ons starting at $8 a month. At the same time, we've also heard a rumor that Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia has revealed that the service would launch in Washington D.C. at some point in August, and we'll keep an ear to the ground to see if that's true.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/CV7G5PhVGeA/

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

European Publishers, Others Slam Google On ?Abusive? Practices, Ask EC To Reject Google Proposal

google euroIt looks like it may be back to the drawing board for Google on the European competitive front: hundreds of publishers and publishing trade associations today are coming out in force to ask the European Commission and its Vice President Joaqu?n Almunia to "reject outright" Google's draft remedies, which Google submitted to the EC as its offer for rebalancing competition in search and other online products where it is dominant in the region. The statement put out today, by the European Publishers' Council, comes on the same day that other would-be Google competitors, including online mapping and travel companies, as well as the Fairsearch consortium, are also expected to call for much deeper scrutiny of Google and rejection of its proposals.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/3r8929WNZ54/

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Supreme Court Set to Rule on Gay Marriage (WSJ)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/315337806?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Rdio updates family plan, bumps the limit to five users for $32.99 a month

On its blog today, Rdio announced that it will now support up to five people on its family plan. Previously, only three customers were able to buddy up on the music-streaming service, with monthly pricing set at $17.99 for two users and $22.99 for three. Fees for two and three users will remain the same, while four members cost $27.99 and maxing out with five listeners will set you back $32.99 per month. If you already have an account and want to get your sibs in on the actions, head to your Rdio settings and select "Unlimited Family." From there, you can invite the family to sign on.

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Source: Rdio Blog

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/24/rdio-updates-family-plan-five-users/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Sony SmartWatch 2 unveiled: a water-resistant 'second screen' for Android devices

Sony SmartWatch 2

Sony's taking a second stab at the fledgling wearable category it helped pioneer with today's announcement of the SmartWatch 2. The Android-powered wristwatch retains the familiar remote functionality of its predecessor (i.e., allowing users to answer calls, read email and texts, snap photos, etc.), albeit now from a larger, 1.6-inch (220 x 176) touch display. Sony's packed all of this "second screen" functionality into a handsome, aluminum body design that's crafted to be dust- and water-resistant (IP57), much like the Xperia Z line before it. And for users that want a little variety, the company's also offering a pack-in stainless steel wristband that can be swapped out for any other 24mm strap (Sony plans to offer alternative straps sometime soon).

The SmartWatch 2 also features support for NFC and Bluetooth 3.0, so you can easily pair it with compatible devices running Android 4.0 or higher -- something like the Xperia Z Ultra, perhaps. As for battery life, Sony claims the SmartWatch 2's rated for a maximum of four days with moderate use. But those with a lighter touch, or a penchant for digital wristwatches, may be able to eke out a full week's worth of juice. There's no pricing information to share at the moment, only a semi-concrete global release date for this September. Which is just about enough time for you (or, more likely, your Dad) to dust off that Dick Tracy impersonation.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/CP3SXqGmXvc/

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Vodafone launches bid for Kabel Deutschland

(AP) ? Britain's Vodafone PLC has launched a takeover bid for Germany's biggest cable operator, Kabel Deutschland, which values the German company at 7.7 billion euros ($10.2 billion).

Kabel Deutschland Holding AG, which has more than 8 million customers, said Monday that its management and supervisory boards "welcome this announcement."

Vodafone will offer 87 euros per share. When including 3 billion euros in net debt, the deal puts Kabel Deutschland's total value at 10.7 billion euros.

Kabel Deutschland shares were up 2.2 percent in early Frankfurt trading at 85.96 euros.

Vodafone made a preliminary approach to Kabel Deutschland earlier this month. That was followed by a preliminary takeover proposal from U.S. rival Liberty Global.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-24-Germany-Kabel%20Deutschland-Vodafone/id-58605c4a99d94df49d2a5fbdb780dcc4

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South African stocks recover with global peers, retailers lead

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African stocks, led by blue-chip retail shares such as Truworths, rose on Tuesday in line with a global rebound after reports on manufacturing, business spending and housing added to signs of a pick-up in U.S. economic activity.

Snapping four straight sessions of decline, the benchmark Top-40 index added 1.17 percent to 34,187.43. The broader All-share index rose 1.07 percent to 38,484.19.

Retailers were among the biggest Top-40 gainers, with Truworths bounding 4.4 percent higher to 82.53 rand. Woolworths climbed 3.1 percent to 60.62 rand.

"Woolworths and Truworths have been hard hit not just in last week's pull back but in the last three months when foreigners sold every retail share they could find," said Abri du Plessis, chief investment officer at Gryphon Asset Management in Cape Town.

Both shares are also in a technical rebound from oversold territory, according to Reuters data. Truworths remains down about 24 percent in the year to data

The sector has been hard hit this year by a poor economic outlook for Africa's largest economy, reflected in poor retail sales data, and fading hopes for a domestic interest rate cut which could boost consumer spending.

South African gold and platinum producers extended losses as the bullion price eased in the face of a rising dollar and amid domestic nervousness over upcoming wage talks.

An exception was world No. 4 platinum producer Aquarius, which added 4.6 percent after it announced a one-year wage agreement with the National Union of Mineworkers which will see increases just above inflation - a rare deal in an industry rocked by labour unrest and huge pay demands.

The dollar and global shares recovered on the positive spate of U.S. data and markets also got a lift from Monday's remarks by two policymakers with the U.S. Federal Reserve who downplayed the notion of an imminent end to the central bank's money-printing.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-african-stocks-recover-global-peers-retailers-lead-155722383.html

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Egypt court: Brotherhood members planned jailbreak

CAIRO (AP) ? An Egyptian court on Sunday said Muslim Brotherhood members conspired with Hamas, Hezbollah and local militants to storm a prison in 2011 and free 34 Brotherhood leaders, including the future President Mohammed Morsi.

The court statement read by judge Khaled Mahgoub named two members of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood ? Ibrahim Haggag and Sayed Ayad ? to be among the alleged conspirators in the attack on Wadi el-Natroun prison on Jan. 29, 2011.

It is the first statement by a court that holds members of the three Islamist groups ? the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestinian Hamas, and Lebanon's Hezbollah ? responsible for a series of jailbreaks during the chaos of Egypt's 2011 uprising. Two other prisons in which Hamas and Hezbollah members were held were also attacked.

Morsi and other Brotherhood leaders have maintained that they were freed by local residents. Hamas, the Palestinian chapter of the Brotherhood, has denied involvement in the attacks on prisons.

The court statement is likely to further fuel opposition to Morsi's rule just a week before his opponents are scheduled to stage massive protests to force him out of office. The planned June 30 demonstrations mark his first anniversary in office as Egypt's first freely elected leader.

The past year has seen growing polarization as Egypt struggles with a host of problems that many accuse Morsi of failing to effectively tackle. They include surging crime, rising prices, power cuts, fuel shortages and unemployment.

Morsi has not spoken publicly about his escape from Wadi el-Natroun since he gave an account of what happened in a frantic phone call he made to Al-Jazeera Mubasher TV moments after being freed.

"From the noises we heard ... It seemed to us there were (prisoners) attempting to get out of their cells and break out into the prison yard and the prison authorities were trying to regain control and fired tear gas," Morsi said in the call.

By the time they got out, the prison was empty, and there was no sign of a major battle, he said.

The prison breaks took place during the 18-day popular uprising that toppled the 29-year regime of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The breaks led to a flood of some 23,000 criminals onto the streets, fueling a crime wave that continues to this day. Among those who escaped were around 40 members of Hamas and Hezbollah as well as the 34 Brotherhood leaders.

A total of 26 top police, prison and intelligence officials have testified before the court, which held its hearings in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia. Some gave their testimony in closed session.

Haggag and Ayad, the two Brotherhood officials named by Mahgoub, took part in the attack on Wadi el-Natroun with "those (foreign) elements who violated the sovereignty of the Egyptian state and its territory in addition to spreading chaos throughout the republic and terrifying unarmed civilians at their homes by releasing thousands of prisoners who are danger to society," the court statement said.

The case began in January when a former inmate appealed a three-month sentence passed by a lower court that convicted him of escaping Wadi el-Natroun. The defendant was acquitted by judge Mahgoub, who on Sunday referred to prosecutors the testimonies and evidence gathered during the trial on the jailbreak at Wadi el-Natroun in order "to reveal the truth and honor the state's right to mete out justice."

There was no immediate word from the office of the country's top prosecutor on whether his office planned to take up the case.

In Egypt's polarized political climate, Morsi's opponents have been using his escape from Wadi el-Natroun against him, saying friends of the Brotherhood violated the country's security and fed its instability. The eagerness of some in the intelligence and security agencies to blame Hamas could in part reflect resentment of the Brotherhood's ties with the militant group, which they have long seen as a threat.

The Wadi el-Natroun prison in which Morsi and his Brotherhood comrades were held is part of a four-jail complex northwest of Cairo. A total of 11,171 inmates were released from the complex. Thirteen inmates were also killed, according to Mahgoub, who said the attackers used machine-guns mounted on pickup trucks and SUVs as well as huge earth-moving vehicles that demolished parts of the walls and gates.

Mahgoub said the attackers also seized large amounts of firearms belonging to prison guards. He said allies of Hamas in Sinai prepared for the entry of its fighters into the Egyptian peninsula with attacks on Jan. 25, 2011 against security forces on the Sinai side of tunnels running under the border with Hamas-ruled Gaza. Fighters from Hamas and Hezbollah crossed into Egypt on Jan. 28, he said.

The 34 Brotherhood leaders were arrested early on Jan. 27 and arrived in Wadi el-Natroun shortly before their escape, said Mahgoub.

The last two hearings of the trial witnessed scuffles between supporters and opponents of Morsi. Sunday's hearing was held amid tight security with stringent control over who gets to enter the tiny courtroom.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-court-brotherhood-members-planned-jailbreak-093513553.html

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New player is critical to unleashing T cells against disease

June 23, 2013 ? A major study from researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology provides new revelations about the intricate pathways involved in turning on T cells, the body's most important disease-fighting cells, and was published today in the scientific journal Nature.

The La Jolla Institute team is the first to prove that a certain type of protein, called septins, play a critical role in activating a calcium channel on the surface of the T cell. The channel is the portal through which calcium enters T cells from the blood stream, an action essential for the T cell's survival, activation, and ability to fight disease.

Patrick Hogan and Anjana Rao, Ph.D.s, are senior authors on the paper and Sonia Sharma and Ariel Quintana, Ph.D.s, are co-first authors. Drs. Sharma, Rao and Hogan are former researchers at Harvard Medical School with high-level genetics expertise who joined the La Jolla Institute in 2010. Dr. Quintana conducted advanced microscopy that was a major aspect of the study.

Dr. Hogan describes the discovery as another important step in understanding the overall functioning of T cells -- knowledge from which new, more precisely targeted drugs to treat diseases ranging from cancer to viral infections can emerge. "It's like working on an engine, you have to know what all the parts are doing to repair it," he says. "We want to understand the basic machinery inside a T cell. This will enable us to target the specific pressure points to turn up a T cell response against a tumor or virus or to turn it down in the case of autoimmune diseases."

The findings were published in a Nature paper entitled "An siRNA screen for NFAT activation identifies septins as coordinators of store-operated Ca2+ entry."

"We have found that the septin protein is a very strong regulator of the calcium response, which is essential for activating immune cells," says Dr. Sharma, who was recently appointed to a faculty position, and now leads her own independent laboratory at the La Jolla Institute, in addition to serving as scientific director of the newly established RNAi screening center.

Dr. Hogan says the discovery took the research team by surprise. "We knew septins existed in the cellular plasma (surface) membrane, but we didn't know they had anything to do with calcium signaling," he says. Septins are known to build scaffolding to provide structural support during cell division.

This finding builds on Dr. Rao and Dr. Hogan's groundbreaking discovery in 2006 showing that the protein ORAI1 forms the pore of the calcium channel. The channel's entryway had been one of the most sought after mysteries in biomedical science because it is the gateway to T cell functioning and, consequently, to better understanding how the body uses these cells to fight disease.

To the research team's surprise, the septins were forming a ring around the calcium channel. "We aren't sure why, but we theorize that the septins are rearranging the cellular membrane's structure to "corral" the key proteins STIM and ORAI1, and maybe other factors needed for the calcium channel to operate," says Dr. Hogan.

Dr. Sharma adds that, "essentially we believe the septins are choreographing the interaction of these two proteins that are important in instigating the immune response." Without the septins' involvement, T cell activation does not occur.

In the study, the researchers devised a simple visual readout of activity in a main pathway responsible for activation of T cells -- the same pathway that is targeted by the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporin A that is used clinically -- and looked for impairment of the activity when individual genes were, in effect, deleted. After sorting through the roughly 20,000 human genes, they turned up 887 gene "hits," says Dr. Hogan.

With further experiments, they should be able to classify those hits into genes that affect the calcium channel itself and genes that act later in the pathway. "We are hopeful that one or more of these genes can be used as a clinical target for new drugs to treat transplant rejection and immune diseases, some of the same indications now treated with cyclosporine A," adds Dr. Hogan. He believes that a medication aimed at an early step of calcium entry through the ORAI channel could be more effective and have fewer side effects than cyclosporin A, which targets a later step in the pathway and can cause complications such as kidney disease.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/uf267gV8CMA/130623144925.htm

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Monday, June 24, 2013

Unable to send private messages?

I did indeed check the FAQs but none of the available answers applied to my situation. Since I joined I haven't been able to reply to private messages that are coming into me, or compose new ones. When I press the 'compose message' button, I get 'no new messages' instead of a compose page. Chat works just fine.

Thank you in advance! :)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/Jd-LYdDTUJ0/viewtopic.php

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Sunday, June 23, 2013

South Africa: Nelson Mandela in critical condition

(AP) ? Nelson Mandela's health has deteriorated and he is now in critical condition, the South African government said Sunday.

The office of President Jacob Zuma said in a statement that he had visited the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader at a hospital Sunday evening and was informed by the medical team that Mandela's condition had become critical in the past 24 hours.

"The doctors are doing everything possible to get his condition to improve and are ensuring that Madiba is well-looked after and is comfortable. He is in good hands," Zuma said in the statement, using Mandela's clan name.

Zuma also met Graca Machel, Mandela's wife, at the hospital in Pretoria and discussed the former leader's condition, according to the statement. Zuma was accompanied on the visit by Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president of the country's ruling party, the African National Congress.

Mandela was jailed for 27 years under white racist rule and released in 1990. He then played a leading role in steering the divided country from the apartheid era to democracy, becoming South Africa's first black president in all-race elections in 1994. He was hospitalized on June 8 for what the government said was a recurring lung infection.

In Sunday's statement, Zuma also discussed the government's acknowledgement a day earlier that an ambulance carrying Mandela to the Pretoria hospital two weeks ago had engine trouble, requiring the former president to be transferred to another ambulance for his journey. Pretoria, South Africa's capital, lies about 50 km (30 miles) from Johannesburg, where Mandela has been living.

"There were seven doctors in the convoy who were in full control of the situation throughout the period. He had expert medical care," Zuma said. "The fully equipped military ICU ambulance had a full complement of specialist medical staff including intensive care specialists and ICU nurses. The doctors also dismissed the media reports that Madiba suffered cardiac arrest. There is no truth at all in that report."

Mandela, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is seen by many around the world as a symbol of reconciliation, and Zuma appealed to South Africans and the international community to pray for the ailing ex-president, his family and the medical team attending to him.

The ruling party expressed concern about the deterioration in Mandela's health.

"We welcome the work being done by The Presidency to ensure that South Africans and people of the world are kept informed on the state of Madiba's health," the party said. "The African National Congress joins The Presidency in calling upon all of us to keep President Mandela, his family and his medical team in our thoughts and prayers during this trying time."

In Washington, the White House National Security Council spokeswoman noted the latest reports from the South African government about Mandela's worsening condition.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with him, his family and the people of South Africa," said spokeswoman Caitllin Hayden.

Prior to Zuma's statement late Sunday, reports from the government, former President Thabo Mbeki and a grandson of Mandela had indicated that the health of Mandela was improving, even though he has been in the hospital for treatment several times in recent months. In the days following his latest hospitalization, Zuma's office described his condition as serious but stable. Family members have been seen making daily visits to the hospital where Mandela is being treated.

Mandela, who has become increasingly frail in recent years, last made a public appearance at the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament, which was hosted by South Africa. He didn't deliver an address on that occasion and was bundled against the cold in a stadium full of fans.

On April 29, state television broadcast footage of a visit by Zuma and other leaders of the African National Congress to Mandela's home. Zuma said at the time that Mandela was in good shape, but the footage ? the first public images of Mandela in nearly a year ? showed him silent and unresponsive, even when Zuma tried to hold his hand.

Between hospital stays in recent months, Mandela has been staying at his home in the Johannesburg neighborhood of Houghton, where he has received what the government described as "home-based high care" by a medical team. On April 6, he was discharged from a hospital after treatment for pneumonia, which included a procedure in which doctors drained fluid from his lung area.

Mandela has been vulnerable to respiratory problems since contracting tuberculosis during his imprisonment under apartheid. Most of those years were spent on Robben Island, a forbidding outpost off the coast of Cape Town.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-06-23-South%20Africa-Mandela/id-8eee3e39246741a396df0ceec42aa9fb

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Southwest resumes takeoffs after computer glitch

DALLAS (AP) ? A spokesman for Southwest Airlines says planes are taking off again after a computer glitch grounded an estimated 250 flights.

Brad Hawkins tells The Associated Press that service resumed early Saturday, albeit far slower than usual because of lingering computer problems. Hawkins says some cancellations are expected due to the late hour, but he wasn't sure how many.

The system-wide computer problem affected the airline's ability to do such things as conduct check-in, print boarding passes and monitor the weight of the aircraft. Flights in the air were unaffected.

Hawkins says around 250 flights were grounded, some when they were on the taxiway preparing for takeoff. Most of the disrupted flights were out of West Coast airports.

The Dallas-based airline conducts on average 3,400 flights a day.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/southwest-resumes-takeoffs-computer-glitch-061945754.html

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Wing walker, pilot die in crash at Ohio air show

CINCINNATI (AP) ? A plane carrying a wing walker crashed at an air show and exploded into flames Saturday, killing the pilot and stunt walker, authorities said.

The crash of the 450 HP Stearman happened at around 12:45 p.m. at the Vectren Air Show near Dayton in front of thousands of horrified spectators. No one else was hurt.

A video posted on WHIO-TV shows the plane turn upside-down as the performer sits on top of the wing. The plane then tilts and crashes to the ground, erupting into flames as spectators screamed.

Ian Hoyt, an aviation photographer and licensed pilot from Findlay, was at the show with his girlfriend. He told The Associated Press he was taking photos as the plane passed by and had just raised his camera to take another shot.

"Then I realized they were too low and too slow. And before I knew it, they hit the ground," he said.

He couldn't tell exactly what happened, but it appeared that the plane stalled and didn't have enough air speed, he said. He credited the pilot for steering clear of spectators and potentially saving lives.

"Had he drifted more, I don't know what would have happened," Hoyt said. He said he had been excited to see the show because he'd never seen the scheduled performer ? wing walker Jane Wicker ? in action.

On the video, the announcer narrates as the plane glides through the sky and rolls over while the stuntwoman perches on a wing.

"Now she's still on that far side. Keep an eye on Jane. Keep an eye on Charlie. Watch this! Jane Wicker, sitting on top of the world," the announcer said, right before the plane makes a quick turn and nosedive.

Federal records show that biplane was registered to Wicker, who lived in Loudon, Va. A man who answered the phone at a number listed for Wicker on her website said he had no comment and hung up.

One of the pilots listed on Wicker's website was named Charlie Schwenker. A post on Jane Wicker Airshows' Facebook page announced the deaths of Wicker and Schwenker and asked for prayers for their families.

A message left at a phone listing for Charles Schwenker in Oakton, Va., wasn't immediately returned.

Dayton International Airport spokeswoman Linda Hughes and Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Anne Ralston confirmed that a pilot and stunt walker had died but declined to give their names. The air show also declined to release their identities.

The show was canceled for the rest of the day, but organizers said events would resume Sunday and follow the previous schedule and normal operations. The National Transportation Safety Board said it is investigating the crash.

Another spectator, Shawn Warwick of New Knoxville, told the Dayton Daily News that he was watching the flight through binoculars.

"I noticed it was upside-down really close to the ground. She was sitting on the bottom of the plane," he said. "I saw it just go right into the ground and explode."

Than Tran, of Fairfield, said he could see a look of concern on the wing walker's face just before the plane went down.

"She looked very scared," he said. "Then the airplane crashed on the ground. After that, it was terrible, man ... very terrible."

Wicker's website says she responded to a classified ad from the Flying Circus Airshow in Bealeton, Va., in 1990, for a wing-walking position, thinking it would be fun. She was a contract employee who worked as a Federal Aviation Administration budget analyst, the FAA said.

She told WDTN-TV in an interview this week that her signature move was hanging underneath the plane's wing by her feet and sitting on the bottom of the airplane while it's upside-down.

"I'm never nervous or scared because I know if I do everything as I usually do, everything's going to be just fine," she told the station.

Wicker wrote on her website that she had never had any close calls.

"What you see us do out there is after an enormous amount of practice and fine tuning, not to mention the airplane goes through microscopic care. It is a managed risk and that is what keeps us alive," she wrote.

In 2011, wing walker Todd Green fell 200 feet to his death at an air show in Michigan while performing a stunt in which he grabbed the skid of a helicopter.

In 2007, veteran stunt pilot Jim LeRoy was killed at the Dayton show when his biplane slammed into the runway while performing loop-to-loops and caught fire.

Organizers were presenting a trimmed-down show and expected smaller crowds at Dayton after the Air Force Thunderbirds and other military participants pulled out this year because of federal budget cuts.

The air show, one of the country's oldest, usually draws around 70,000 people and has a $3.2 million impact on the local economy. Without military aircraft and support, the show expected attendance to be off 30 percent or more.

___

Thomas reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writers Kerry Lester in Chicago and Randy Pennell in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Raw video of crash: http://bit.ly/11Vf7JA

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wing-walker-pilot-die-crash-ohio-air-show-191655523.html

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Heat, LeBron securing places in history

MIAMI (AP) ? Dwyane Wade was walking down the hallway toward the Miami Heat locker room in the wee hours of Friday morning, still in uniform and fussing with the new championship hat atop his head as his team and their families were in the midst of partying the night away.

He stopped briefly and assessed the celebration.

"We're getting pretty good at these," Wade said.

That's understandable, the Heat are getting plenty of practice at throwing themselves end-of-season parties. Four trips to the NBA Finals since 2006, three championships in that span and with the last two titles coming consecutively, it's making the decisions that the Heat and LeBron James made three summers ago look pretty smart.

By topping San Antonio in Game 7 of a back-and-forth NBA Finals on Thursday, the Heat became the sixth franchise in league history to win consecutive championships. It's their third title overall; only four clubs have more. And for James, it capped two seasons where he won all he could ? two regular-season MVPs, two titles, two Finals MVPs, even an Olympic gold medal.

"It feels great. This team is amazing. And the vision that I had when I decided to come here is all coming true," James said. "Through adversity, through everything we've been through, we've been able to persevere and to win back to back championships. It's an unbelievable feeling. I'm happy to be part of such a first-class organization."

James said winning his first title was the toughest thing he's ever done.

It's now the second-toughest. Defending the crown, he said, was even more arduous. He was exhausted when it was over ? and still scored 37 points in the finale, more than he posted in any other postseason game this season.

"Believe in LeBron," Heat President Pat Riley said.

Miami did, all the way to the end.

The Heat rolled past Milwaukee in a first-round sweep, needed five games to oust Chicago in the second round, but then went to the seven-game limit against Indiana in the Eastern Conference finals and then to the last game again against the Spurs, who actually were 21 seconds away from ending the series in six games before James and the Heat engineered a huge rally.

Without that comeback, a championship-or-bust season would have gone bust.

Instead, legacies were enhanced, more trophies were hoisted, and Miami's place atop the NBA landscape was cemented.

"To be in the championship three years in a row, to win two of those three, is unbelievable," Wade said. "Everybody can't get to the Finals and win six in a row, like win six and not lose one like Michael Jordan. Everyone don't do that. But we are excited about the future of this organization. We are still a good team. And we're going to do everything we can to make sure that we can stay competitive."

Moves will be made, of course. The Heat have some luxury-tax concerns to address, and it would be a shock if they didn't try to get even better through a trade or free agency.

"All it's about now is what's in front of us," Riley said.

Then again, if James keeps getting better, Miami's place in history will probably only rise.

At 6-foot-8 and 250 pounds, James has a combination of size, speed and strength that seems unmatched in the NBA world. After Miami lost the 2011 finals to Dallas, James decided to improve his post play by working with Hakeem Olajuwon. Last season, his focus was on enhancing his mid-range jumper, something he continued working on throughout the season with Ray Allen.

So with about a half-minute left and the Heat up by two points, it was that mid-range jumper that sealed Miami's title. James delivered with 27.9 seconds left to make it a two-possession game. Not long afterward, he had the Larry O'Brien Trophy in one arm, the Finals MVP trophy in the other, ready for a well-deserved break from basketball.

"I want to be, if not the greatest, one of the greatest to ever play this game," James said. "And I will continue to work for that, and continue to put on this uniform and be the best I can be every night."

James has already put himself in that best-ever conversation.

"We all know his work ethic," said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who spent part of his first day as a two-time champion coach at Jim Larranaga's basketball camp at the University of Miami. "It's probably unique for a guy who has been the best in the game since he was in seventh grade. Usually you wouldn't have the type of work ethic that would match that type of talent."

Jordan won six titles, James only has two. But if that's the sole standard, then Jordan isn't even close either, considering Bill Russell won 11 rings in his Boston career. Russell was there for the Heat title clincher, served as part of the on-court trophy presentations, then retreated to a small room not far from the Miami locker room as players meandered in for one of the immediate perks of winning a title ? a photo shoot with the trophy.

James posed for hundreds of photos during his time in there. Camera clicks were a constant sound for about 10 minutes when he was in the room. And before he left, he and Wade waved for Russell to come join them for some more snapshots.

"Get the legend up here," James shouted.

Russell walked to the front of the room as a few people, mostly Heat employees and family members, clapped. He shook hands with the Heat stars, then turned around to face the cameras and said something to James that was barely audible to those even a few feet away.

"You earned this one," Russell said.

James' grin became even broader, and camera shutters kept on whirring. Suddenly, that oft-mocked, oft-replayed "not two, not three, not four" answer James gave during the Heat celebration of their free agency coup in 2010 doesn't look like such a punch line anymore.

"I always felt that when he got up to five, six, seven that he was joking a little bit, but the media decided to take him very seriously," Heat managing general partner Micky Arison said. "I think right now he's real happy with two and next year he'll be worried about three."

James has played 10 seasons now. Including playoffs, his scoring average is 27.6, third-best in league history behind only Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. Since the league began charting plus-minus (the point differential when a player is on the court), James' teams have outscored opponents by 3,861 points with him in regular-season and playoff games. Second-best on that list? Wade, at 2,301 points. That gap is simply huge.

With an average season next year, he'll move into the Top 25 in all-time regular-season scoring. He got more rebounds per game this season than ever before, shot the 3-pointer better than ever before, punctuating that by making five in Game 7 of the finals. And here's what might be truly frightening for opponents: For the sixth straight year, James' shooting percentage got better.

"Hopefully people will leave him alone a little more now," Heat forward Shane Battier said. "He takes a lot of heat, I think undeservedly. He's the best player on the planet. And hopefully now with two titles, he'll get more the benefit of the doubt. But, you know, he's the best. He's the best right now."

So are the Heat. And that can't be argued.

The Celtics, Lakers and Bulls are the only franchises to win three straight titles. That will be the challenge for the Heat next year, to take a great run and make it a truly elite run.

For now, though, James wants no part of that conversation. He's going to enjoy this one for a good long while.

"It's the ultimate," James said. "I don't want to think about next year right now, what our possibilities are next year. Got to take full advantage of this one. It's an unbelievable moment for our team."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/heat-lebron-securing-places-history-212916314.html

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Former Enron CEO Skilling's sentence cut to 14 years

By Kristen Hays and Anna Driver

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former Enron Corp Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling's near decade-long quest to prove he did nothing wrong at the once high-flying energy-trading behemoth ended on Friday when a federal judge shaved 10 years off of his prison sentence.

U.S. District Judge Simeon Lake reduced his term to 14 years from 24 years, accepting a deal struck between prosecutors and Skilling's lawyers that will end years of appeals.

Under the deal, more than $40 million of Skilling's fortune, which has been frozen since his conviction in 2006, will be distributed to victims of Enron's collapse.

In May of that year, a jury had convicted Skilling of 19 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, insider trading and lying to auditors for his role in maintaining a facade of success as Enron's energy business crumbled.

Enron founder Kenneth Lay also was found guilty of multiple counts of conspiracy and fraud. He died of heart failure six weeks after the trial ended, prompting Lake to throw out the conviction.

Skilling's resentencing had been pending since 2009, when a federal appeals court ruled that Lake wrongly added years to his sentence because Skilling's actions had jeopardized a financial institution.

In the interim his legal team pursued more appeals and sought a new trial, reaching the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010.

His lawyers were on their third such effort when they and U.S. prosecutors in May said they had forged a deal for a lower sentence that would end the litigation for good. That deal proposed that Skilling serve a term of 14 years to 17-1/2 years.

(Reporting by Anna Driver and Kristen Hays in Houston; Additional reporting by Eileen O'Grady; editing by Prudence Crowther)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-enron-ceo-skillings-prison-term-cut-14-193328873.html

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