MLS playoffs begin! Dynamo at Fire

There are reasons to feel good and bad about both of these teams, who launch Major League Soccer?s 17^th?playoff season tonight.

Kickoff: 9 p.m. ET Wednesday, Toyota Park, ESPN2

(Official league match preview is here)

(MORE: MLS playoff primer and schedule)

On Chicago:

• It?s tough to feel great about a (slightly slumping?) team with just one win it its last five matches going into the playoffs.?That one victory was a dandy, a very professionally managed 2-0 win over the Red Bulls outside New York. Veteran Dutch target striker Sherjill MacDonald had both goals for the Fire, who were at their counter-attacking best in that one.
• Who runs that counter attack for Frank Klopas? team? That?s Chris Rolfe, and as he goes, so goes the Fire. Just like in his first go-round at Toyota Park a few years back, Rolfe is the very definition of a streaky attacker. When he was so confident and on top of things back in September, the Fire was 4-1 (its only loss coming to Eastern Conference champion Sporting Kansas City).
• Past Rolfe, Klopas? team is full of good roll payers, but a little short on difference-makers in the attack. Guys like MacDonald, Patrick Nyarko, Dominic Oduro, Alex and others have their moments, but they aren?t reliable game-changers.
• So the boys in the back will be needed to lock it down, and perhaps just a little better than they did throughout all of 2012. Rookie of the Year favorite Austin Berry is, well, a rookie, and he gets nipped on positioning here and there. Outside back Jalil Anibaba is another good, young defender ? but this is just his second season. And goalkeeper Sean Johnson can turn a game either way, usually with big stops but occasionally with the real howler.
• Chicago certainly has this on its side: no one on the field Wednesday has been in more big games that German veteran center back Arne Friedrich.

(MORE: Austin Berry is PST?s pick for Rookie of the Year)

(MORE: Talking tactics and Chris Rolfe)

On Houston:

• Dominic Kinnear?s team has been just a little better than dreadful away from home this year, tied with Vancouver for the fewest road wins (3) and a fairly hideous -12 goal difference.
• After an impressive early summer success the Dynamo is just 3-3-4 down the stretch. And this teetering between formations (4-4-2 and 4-3-3) shows the Dynamo still hasn?t exactly found itself. Clearly, this is not the best time to be ?finding yourself.?
• On the other hand, Houston knows how to get it done on the road in the playoffs. Last year, they fought their way into MLS Cup 2011 largely on the strength of wins at Philadelphia and Kansas City. From there, they had to meet Los Angeles at the Galaxy?s Home Depot Center, and nearly pulled out another upset. Houston lost that one, 1-0, without top man Brad Davis (pictured).
• Houston fans won?t soon forget another important playoff match in Los Angeles, back in November of 2010. Kinnear?s team had Los Angeles absolutely on the ropes before a power failure ? of all things, right? ? served as a sort of re-set for Los Angeles, which went on to win in overtime.
• The Dynamo attack is all about Oscar Boniek Garcia on the right and Davis on the left. Will Bruin and Brian Ching, the veteran warrior who has taken on a second-half sub role this year, depend on service from the wings. And Davis, of course, is one of the league?s premier dead ball strikers.
• The Dynamo will understand that preventing Rolfe from getting the ball in good spots is critical to stopping Chicago?s attack before it gets started. That will be up to defensive midfield screener Adam Moffat or Ricardo Clark (or both, depending upon how Kinnear shapes his team for this one.)
• If there?s a gap in the back, it?s at right back, where rookie Kofi Sarkodie has shown his talent at times, but also some immaturity in some moments. Watch for Nyarko?s attempts to exploit that.

(MORE: Considering Houston?s playoff experience)

Bottom line:

Don?t look for a lot of goals.

Even at home, Chicago doesn?t always commit tremendous numbers forward. Anibaba on the right is a little young and will likely lean toward caution in this one, generally choosing to ?stay home.? Gonzalo Segares on the left is 30 now and not quite the spry presence we used to know around Bridgeview.

On the other side, Jermaine Taylor and Bobby Boswell haven?t gotten much press this year, but they remain a solid central defensive duo. Houston likes to move the ball out of the back quickly and safely, minimizing chances for back-line booboos.

So one mistake will probably decide it in a 1-0 or 2-0 contest.

FYI: It will be cool to cold and probably a little windy ? about what you would expect for an Illinois night in late October.

Source: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2012/10/31/mls-playoff-preview-houston-dynamo-at-chicago-fire/related/

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ConEd prepped for big storm, got even bigger one

Streets around a Con Edison substation are flooded as the East River overflows into the Dumbo section of Brooklyn, N.Y., as Sandy moves through the area on Monday, Oct. 29, 2012. Superstorm Sandy zeroed in on New York's waterfront with fierce rain and winds that shuttered most of the nation's largest city Monday, darkened the financial district and left a huge crane hanging off a luxury high-rise. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Streets around a Con Edison substation are flooded as the East River overflows into the Dumbo section of Brooklyn, N.Y., as Sandy moves through the area on Monday, Oct. 29, 2012. Superstorm Sandy zeroed in on New York's waterfront with fierce rain and winds that shuttered most of the nation's largest city Monday, darkened the financial district and left a huge crane hanging off a luxury high-rise. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

This photo taken Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, shows what appear to be transformers exploding after much of lower Manhattan lost power during hurricane Sandy in New York. After a gigantic wall of water defied elaborate planning and swamped underground electrical equipment at a Consolidated Edison substation in Manhattan's East Village, about 250,000 lower Manhattan customers were left without power. (AP Photo/Karly Domb Sadof)

Consolidated Edision trucks are submerged on 14th Street near the ConEd power plant, Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, in New York. Sandy knocked out power to at least 3.1 million people, and New York's main utility said large sections of Manhattan had been plunged into darkness by the storm, with 250,000 customers without power as water pressed into the island from three sides, flooding rail yards, subway tracks, tunnels and roads. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

FILE -In this Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, file photo, workers clear debris outside the Consolidated Edison power sub-station on 14th Street. After a gigantic wall of water defied elaborate planning and swamped underground electrical equipment at a Consolidated Edison substation in Manhattan's East Village, about 250,000 lower Manhattan customers were left without power. (AP Photo/ John Minchillo, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Blame a very high tide driven by a full moon, the worst storm surge in nearly 200 years, and the placement of underground electrical equipment in flood-prone areas for the most extensive storm-related power outage in New York City's history.

It's like what happened at the Fukushima nuclear complex in Japan last year ? without the radiation. At a Consolidated Edison substation in Manhattan's East Village, a gigantic wall of water defied elaborate planning and expectations, swamped underground electrical equipment, and left about 250,000 lower Manhattan customers without power.

Last year, the surge from Hurricane Irene reached 9.5 feet at the substation. ConEd figured it had that covered.

The utility also figured the infrastructure could handle a repeat of the highest surge on record for the area ? 11 feet during a hurricane in 1821, according to the National Weather Service. After all, the substation was designed to withstand a surge of 12.5 feet.

With all the planning, and all the predictions, planning big was not big enough. Superstorm Sandy went bigger ? a surge of 14 feet.

"Nobody predicted it would be that high," said ConEd spokesman Allan Drury.

At one point, nearly 1 million ConEd customers lost electricity in and near the city ? a record number for the utility. And the troubles didn't end as the storm slowly moved off. Con Ed said problems to its high-voltage systems caused by the hurricane forced the utility to cut power to about 160,000 customers in Brooklyn and Staten Island on Tuesday night.

But the signature event came when a surge of water pushed forward by the storm's winds poured over the banks of the East River near the substation on 13th Street.

As water poured into the substation Monday night, the blinding flash of an explosion lit the most famous skyline in the world. A huge section of the city that never sleeps fell into darkness.

It's exactly what a proactive ConEd hoped to avoid by shutting down three similar power networks in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn in advance of the storm surge.

However, the combination of circumstances, notably an extraordinary high tide, pushed massive amounts of water deep into the city. The underground infrastructure was suddenly vulnerable.

As the storm's predicted path zeroed in on New York City, ConEd brought on extra work crews and laid plans to shut down some underground equipment in lower Manhattan and other parts of the city.

By late Monday afternoon, the utility started to notify Manhattan customers south of 36th Street that power might be shut off if underground equipment was flooded with corrosive, destructive seawater. The company gave the same heads-up to some customers in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.

By mid-evening, though, conditions had worsened. More than 150,000 customers in New York City and Westchester County were already off grid. The utility began turning off the power, as a precaution, to a section of lower Manhattan, including Wall Street, in an attempt to stem damage. Shortly afterward, the company began cutting electricity in parts of Brooklyn too; a total of 220,000 other customers were already in the dark.

Less than an hour later, more equipment flooded, sparks flew, and the blast boomed across the East River and throughout lower Manhattan from what ConEd believes was a circuit breaker at its flooded substation.

The flooded equipment had failed.

When live electric equipment is inundated with salt water, electricity escapes every which way, sending sparks flying and damaging equipment. "You see a huge blast just from the short circuit," says Arshad Mansoor, senior vice president for research and development at the Electric Power Research Institute, an industry-funded research group.

As day broke Tuesday, the company was busily assessing damage and fixing equipment. But downed trees and wires, as well as lingering flood waters, made it hard for repair crews to reach some areas. The utility was able to get at least 140,000 customers back on the grid within several hours.

But hundreds of thousands of others hunkered down for a longer outage. ConEd said customers served by underground equipment should be restored to service in four days. Those who get power from overhead lines are expected to wait a week. That's because there are so many fallen lines.

The most densely populated parts of the city, mostly in Manhattan and Brooklyn, are served by underground transmission wires. These offer protection from wind and falling tree limbs that plague overhead wires and make the suburbs far more vulnerable to outages.

But underground wires can flood and be more difficult to repair, especially in low-lying areas. It can be harder for workers to get to the wires because manholes flood. When water recedes, it can be harder to find problems, pull out wires and equipment, dry them, fix them, and slide them back into place.

The damage assessment could take days to complete.

To engineers like Joannes Westerink, a University of Notre Dame researcher who is working on a computer model for future New York City storm surges, this was all predictable.

"You build infrastructure too low, and you run into trouble," he said. "It's a recipe for disaster."

He said it's well known that New York City had spread to ever-lower zones in modern history. He cited Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan as a dramatic example.

ConEd could likely have shut down more networks served by the 13th Street substation before the storm arrived, but that would have meant cutting power to tens of thousands of people and critical facilities like hospitals. Even though hospitals have backup power generators, they too can fail. Generators at New York University Langone Medical Center went down Monday night, and patients were evacuated.

"You have to make the decision to shut off power to a substation very, very carefully, especially if it serves critical facilities," Mansoor said. The decision can turn into a lose-lose situation.

Despite the latest damage, Mansoor called the New York City system the most reliable in the world because it's normally well protected from weather and set up with backup equipment. That protects the city from minor disruptions and helps keep major disruptions from cascading through the city.

No system, he said, can be designed to withstand every storm, no matter how severe.

Carol J. Friedland, a Louisiana State University engineer who has studied the impact of flooding on electrical systems, said more measures should be taken to protect equipment in low-lying places. For example, sea walls can be raised, and equipment can sometimes be relocated.

"My personal opinion ... is that there should be more resilience built into these types of infrastructure, because when the power goes out, it disrupts the entire community," she said.

Massoud Amin, a University of Minnesota electrical engineering professor who has studied power outages, said the storm underscores the need to improve the nation's electric grid by stringing more high-voltage wire and using modern sensor technology to spot problems sooner, isolate damage, and speed recovery from outages.

"Our electrical infrastructure system is a marvel of engineering for the last century," Amin said. "The grid operators and the power companies are doing the best they can."

It is too soon to say if anything more could have been done to keep the New York City grid working. Under state regulations, ConEd will be required to file a report on the outage to the New York State Department of Public Service within 60 days of power restoration. That agency's staff will evaluate how problems were handled and if improvements can be made for the future, according to agency spokeswoman Pamela Carter.

___

AP writer Jeff Donn reported from Plymouth, Mass. and Dave Carpenter from Chicago. AP writers Scott Mayerowitz and David Koenig contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-10-31-Superstorm-Con%20Ed/id-6d465224c8a24eb3b8494df20b74df63

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Kroc Center searching for fitness instructors | Sports & Recreation ...

Kroc Center MS Gulf Coast:
We are expanding our fitness schedule and looking for instructors! If you are certified to teach group cycling, core, muscle/body pump, step, etc. please call 228-207-1218 and ask for Scott. Get paid to work out and be a part of a GREAT staff team.

Information source: Kroc Center MS Gulf Coast.

Source: http://gulfport.wlox.com/news/sports-recreation/59400-kroc-center-searching-fitness-instructors

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Obama at 49 percent, Romney 46 percent nine days before election: Reuters/Ipsos poll

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A map of London painted in Twitter languages

Joanna Carver, reporter

(Image: Ed Manley & James Cheshire)

Twitter has its own #language, but this map shows that in the home of the Queen's English, the Twittersphere is a polyglot place.

Using an algorithm adapted from web browser Google Chrome, engineering doctorate candidate Ed Manley and spatial analysis lecturer James Cheshire, both from University College London, were able to detect the language of tweets sent from the London area over the summer. Of 3.3 million tweets, 92.5 per cent are, not surprisingly, in English. The biggest tweeting tongues after that are Spanish (grey), French (red), Turkish (dark blue), Arabic (green), Portuguese (purple), German (orange), Italian (yellow), Malay (turquoise) and Russian (pink).

Arabic tweeters are busy in the strongly Middle Eastern area of Edgware Road, to the north-east of Hyde Park. They are also thick on the ground in the top-drawer shopping districts of Knightsbridge and Kensington. Turkish tweeting is spread across north London, while there are clear hotspots of Francophone activity - one in fashionable Notting Hill and another at the Institut Fran?ais.

"We're just showing that people can see this pattern going on," Manley says. "I hope this helps people think about the people who use Twitter."

Sixty-six languages were detected overall, and Manley said he was surprised to find a few in Basque, Haitian Creole and Swahili. Quite a few seemed to be written in the Filipino language Tagalog, but most of them turned out to be phrases like "hahahahaha" or "lolololol," and were excluded.

"I don't know much about Tagalog," Manley says on his blog, "but it seems like a fun language."

Manley's and Cheshire's work contrasts starkly with census information, which puts English-speakers in London at 60 per cent, leading Manley to conclude that either people tweet more in English or that English-speakers tweet more.

Manley, a Twitter user himself, thinks that one of the reasons people tweet is to build communities.

"I think it's a sort of democratisation of communication in a way," he says. "Because what you know have is you can communicate with anyone directly without any barrier. You can tweet Barack Obama and he might reply, though he probably won't."

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/24eb2613/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A120C10A0Ca0Emap0Eof0Elondon0Epainted0Ein0Etwi0Bhtml0Dcmpid0FRSS0QNSNS0Q20A120EGLOBAL0Qonline0Enews/story01.htm

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WVU English professor to be featured on world's most popular ...

Professor James Harms, chair of the West Virginia University Department of English, will make his fifth appearance as the featured poet on Poetry Daily, often described as the world?s most popular poetry website.

Harms? poem, ?The New Moon Economy,? was published recently in the highly regarded literary journal Shenandoah, and will appear on the Poetry Daily website as the poem of the day for Saturday, Oct. 27.

Each year the editors of Poetry Daily receive thousands of new books of poetry as well as current issues of literary journals, from which they select one poem for each day of the year to republish on their website. The website has become a mainstay for hundreds of thousands of readers from all walks of life, who check in daily for a dose of poetry.

Professor Harms is the author of 10 books and chapbooks of poetry, including most recently ?Comet Scar? (Carnegie Mellon University Press 2012) and ?What to Borrow, What to Steal? (Marick Press 2011). He has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing and three Pushcart Prizes, among other distinctions. Since arriving at WVU he has been named a Benedum Distinguished Scholar, the Carnegie Foundation/CASE United States Professor of the Year for West Virginia, a WVU Foundation Outstanding Teacher, and received the Caperton Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing.

For more information, contact James Harms, at 304-293-9720 or jharms@mail.wvu.edu

-WVU-

ap/10/18/12

CONTACT: Rebecca Herod, Director of Marketing and Communication
304-293-7406, ext. 5251, Rebecca.Herod@mail.wvu.edu

Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.

Source: http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/n/2012/10/25/wvu-english-professor-to-be-featured-on-world-s-most-popular-poetry-website

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Top 10 Real Estate Internet Resources | The Big Picture

Richard Vetstein is a nationally recognized real estate attorney,? frequently quoted in the media.? He was recently named one of Inman News? 100 Most Influential in Real Estate. Mr. Vetstein is the founder of the Vetstein Law Group and TitleHub Closing Services LLC. The? former outside claims counsel for a national title company, he has an active real estate litigation practice. He blogs at massrealestatelawblog.com

~~~

Top 10 Real Estate Internet Resources

I thought it would be a good idea to list my Top 10 favorite websites, blogs and other internet sites for real estate. These include law blogs, local and national real estate sites, and even marketing blogs. Feel free to bookmark this post!

1.? HousingWire

This is one of the best national sites for staying up to date on current real estate economic data, mortgage trends, Fed policy, and regulations.

?

2. Wall Street Journal Developments

You can?t go wrong with the Wall Street Journal, right? Some of the best real estate reporters and commentators contribute to this site. A must read on your Google Reader list.

3. Massachusetts Land Records

This is the main portal into the vast majority of the Massachusetts Registries of Deeds. From here you can look up the deeds, mortgages and liens on virtually any property in the state. If you need a guide to searching the online registry of deeds and a full listing of every registry, read this post.

4. Charles Gate Realty?s Boston Real Estate Blog

I really love this frequently updated blog by the team of tech savvy agents at Charles Gate Realty. It?s also a great resource for rentals which is often ignored in the blogosphere.

5. Agent Genius

An online real estate magazine with a robust editorial staff, covering a wide range of topics, including tech and social media, business news, and also good op-ed pieces.

?

6. (tie)

SmarterBorrowing.com

Maintained by well-known mortgage banker, Brian Cavanaugh of RMS Mortgage, this is one of the best mortgage lending blogs out there, frequently updated with current news on the mortgage market.

The Massachusetts Mortgage Blog

Written by the extremely knowledgeable David Gaffin of Greenpark Mortgage.

7. Boston.com Real Estate Now Blog

This is Boston.com?s popular real estate blog managed by buyer?s agent, Rona Fishman, and reporter/writer Scott Van Voorhis. The blog has a very active group of trolls commenters who frequently stir up lively debate. Disclaimer: I contribute a weekly post to this blog.

8. Massachusetts Land Use Monitor

The very experienced group of attorneys at the venerable real estate firm of Rackemann, Sawyer are one of the few large firms who blog, and thankfully they do, because they have a wealth of knowledge and information to share. The blog is managed by Donald Pinto, who?s one of the best real estate attorneys in the Commonwealth and a really good guy.

9. Centers & Squares

Real estate agent bloggers and wanna-be?s, pay close attention. This is how you blog. This is a great and frequently updated blog all about ?the city squares of Cambridge, Somerville and Medford and the town centers of Arlington, Watertown and Belmont.? Written by Elizabeth Bolton, Realtor.

10. Inman Next Agent

Must read for keeping up with the latest in real estate technology, marketing, and social media. Contributors includes the well-known social media evangelists, Chris Smith and Katie Lance.

Honorable Mentions

Cambridgeville

Another standout blog from the Cambridge-Somerville area. Realtor Lara Gordon is a smart, witty writer who keeps her blog frequently updated with urban gems such as the worst places for bike crashes (Harvard Square, of course!), the Somerville Foodie Crawl, and her own photos of the new Charlestown-Cambridge footbridge (I wish more agents did this).

Living in Sudbury

Formerly a global marketing guru at ESPN, Realtor Gabrielle Daniels is the epitome of sass and sharp real estate writing. OMG, you must read her post, Translating Real Estate Ads: 101. Some Descriptions Will Have You ROFL.

Western Mass Living

Our sole entry west of I-495, Lesley Lambert has been blogging and tweeting forever, mixing posts about the Berkshire County lifestyle with a peek into her personal ?Dancing Queen? passion.

Curbed Boston

This is a nationally syndicated blog with a local feel. Recent posts include the opening of Southie?s Gate of Heaven Gym, a new Mexican joint in Brookline and new fixer-upper in Inman Square.

Well, that?s my list. Feel free to add your favorite sites to the comments, and we can expand this list!

_________________________________

?

Richard D. Vetstein, Esq. is a Massachusetts real estate attorney who is passionate about staying up to date on real estate issues, nationally, regionally and locally.

Source: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/10/top-10-real-estate-internet-resources/

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Romney backs GOP Senate candidate despite rape comment

CINCINNATI?? Republican Mitt Romney is standing behind Indiana Senate hopeful Richard Mourdock as President Barack Obama?s campaign keeps up criticism of Romney?s ties to a candidate who said pregnancies that result from rape are "something God intended."

Romney?s campaign has said he disagreed with Mourdock?s remark, which came in a debate Tuesday with his opponent, Rep. Joe Donnelly. But Romney is standing by his endorsement of Mourdock ? and not asking the Indiana state treasurer to take down an ad Romney filmed Monday in support.

The remark thrust a contentious social issue back into the presidential race as Election Day draws near. Early voting has begun in many states, and Obama himself plans to vote Thursday in Chicago. It?s an inopportune time for Republicans, who had been seeing gains in polls among female voters critical to a Romney victory. Democrats are eager to link Romney and other Republican candidates to Mourdock?s remarks.

"Romney must withdraw his support of Mourdock? who?d force rape victims to bear an attacker?s child as ?God intended,"? Obama?s campaign wrote on the president?s campaign Twitter account.

On "The Tonight Show" Wednesday, Obama criticized Mourdock for his comments, saying "rape is rape" and distinctions offered by the Republican candidate "don?t make any sense to me."

Obama campaign aides see Romney?s refusal to pull his support for Mourdock as an opportunity to cast the GOP nominee as extreme on women?s health issues and expose what they say are Romney?s attempts to moderate those views for political gain.

"Romney has campaigned as a severe conservative, supports severely conservative candidates, and would be a severely conservative president ? especially on issues important to women," Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter wrote in a fundraising plea Wednesday evening. She called Mourdock?s remarks "one of the most demeaning comments about women" from a politician.

The Republican nominee and his traveling staff spent Wednesday avoiding questions on the subject. Romney did not speak to reporters or address Mourdock?s remarks during two public appearances. His aides sometimes speak to reporters traveling on Romney?s campaign plane but did not appear Wednesday ? and were scarce at Romney?s rallies. They ignored repeated emailed questions about Mourdock.

Less than two weeks before Election Day, opinion polls depict a close race nationally. Romney?s campaign claims momentum as well as the lead in Florida and North Carolina, two battleground states with a combined 44 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win. Obama?s aides insist the president is ahead of or tied with his rival in both those states and in the other seven decisive battlegrounds.

Obama was campaigning with all the signs that his presidency is on the line, crossing the country Wednesday with rallies in Iowa, Colorado and Nevada and appearing on the "The Tonight Show" in California. In the 17th hour of his day, he stood in a park on a cool, crisp night before thousands of supporters in Las Vegas. By then it was nearly 1 a.m. in Washington, where his day had begun, and Obama?s voice still boomed.

"If you?re not going to sleep, you might as well be in Vegas," Obama said before encouraging people to cast their votes early, as Nevada law allows. He met later with employees at the Bellagio hotel.

On Thursday, Obama was so not much starting his day as continuing his last one. After spending the night on Air Force One, he?s campaigning in Tampa, Fla., Richmond, Va., and Cleveland before heading back to the White House.

In the midst of the 40-hour dash across six battleground states and eight states overall, he planned to do exactly what he is imploring millions of people to do for him: vote.

In his hometown of Chicago, Obama was scheduled to be the first president to vote early in person. By making a special trip just to cast his vote, Obama sought to build awareness about the early voting option, which is a vital part of both campaigns? political operations.

"I can?t tell you who I?m voting for," Obama told a crowd of thousands gathered in chilly Denver on Wednesday. "It?s a secret ballot." He noted that his wife, Michelle, had already voted by absentee ballot and she promised she went for him.

Taken together, the nonstop travels were the busiest single stretch of Obama?s long and combative run for a second term.

He is selling a more specific second-term agenda these days and warning that Romney is untrustworthy, but increasingly, Obama?s goal is to ensure his supporters get to the polls.

Romney was waking up in Cincinnati to kick off a daylong swing through three Ohio towns, sharpening his focus on a state that?s critical to his hopes of winning the White House. The Republican?s advisers say their internal data has him tied to win the state?s 18 electoral college votes, but public polling has shown Obama with a slim lead.

Romney is working to cast Obama?s campaign as focused on small issues while the Republican ticket is focused on fixing the nation?s serious fiscal problems.

"His campaign seems to be smaller and smaller by the day," Romney told more than 2,000 people in an airplane hangar off the tarmac in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, his campaign plane looming behind him. "Attacking me is not an agenda for the future."

??

Associated Press writers Ben Feller in Nevada and Julie Pace in Washington contributed to this report.

?

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Source: http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/10/25/romney-backs-gop-senate-candidate-despite-rape-comment

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Syria undecided on ceasefire proposal, rebels divided

BEIRUT/CAIRO (Reuters) - Syria said on Wednesday its military command was still studying a proposal for a holiday ceasefire with rebels - contradicting international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi's announcement that Damascus had agreed to a truce.

The statement threw Brahimi's efforts to arrange a pause in the bloodshed in Syria into even more confusion, as divided rebel groups fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad gave mixed messages.

The prominent Farooq Brigade, which operates out of the battered city of Homs, said it would cease fire. The Islamist militant Al Nusra Front rejected the truce, saying it is not a group "who accepts to play such dirty games."

A previous ceasefire arrangement in April collapsed within days, with both sides accusing the other of breaking it.

Brahimi, the joint U.N.-Arab League special envoy, had crisscrossed the Middle East to push the warring factions and their international backers to agree to a truce during the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha - a mission that included talks with Assad in Damascus at the weekend.

"After the visit I made to Damascus, there is agreement from the Syrian government for a ceasefire during the Eid," Brahimi told a news conference at the Arab League in Cairo.

Within an hour, Syria's Foreign Ministry said the proposal was still being studied by the military commanders. "The final position on this issue will be announced tomorrow," a ministry statement said. Brahimi later told the United Nations Security Council that Assad himself accepted the truce.

The holiday starts on Thursday and lasts three or four days. Brahimi did not specify the precise time period for a truce.

Nor did the initiative include plans for international observers, and rebel sources had earlier told Reuters there was little point if it could not be monitored or enforced.

Assad's forces and rebels are now locked in a battle with huge potential ramifications in the northwest.

Syrian warplanes carried out bombing raids on Wednesday on the strategic northern town of Maarat al-Numan and nearby villages while rebels surrounded an army base to its east, an activist monitor said.

Five people from one family, including a child and a woman, were killed in the air strikes, according to Rami Abdelrahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Maarat al-Numan has fallen to the rebels, effectively cutting the main north-south highway, a strategic route for Assad to move troops from the capital Damascus to Aleppo, Syria's largest city where the insurgents have taken a foothold.

But without control of the nearby Wadi al-Daif military base, their grip over the road is tenuous and the rebels say the ferocity of counter-attacks by government forces shows how important holding the base is to Assad's military strategy.

CHILDREN KNIFED

More than 32,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which began with peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in March 2011 and then mushroomed into civil war as repression increased.

On Wednesday, opposition activists and Syrian state media traded blame for the killing of at least 25 people, including women and children, in the town of Douma near Damascus.

"People now are scared and very angry. Some of the martyrs were killed with knives, others were shot," Mahmoud Doumany, an activist living in Douma, told Reuters.

Syrian state television said 25 people had been killed by "terrorist members of the so-called 'Liwa al-Islam.'"

Opposition video showed the bodies of women and children, one of whom had a hole in his head.

"God is great," said a man off screen, his voice trembling as he walked around the house, filming bodies on several floors of a residential building.

REFUGEES FLEE BOMBARDMENTS

Hundreds of Syrian refugees have poured into a makeshift refugee camp at Atimah overlooking the Turkish border, fleeing a week of what they said were the most intense army bombardments since the uprising began.

"Some of the bombs were so big they sucked in the air and everything crashes down, even four-storey buildings. We used to have one or two rockets a day, now for the past 10 days it has become constant, we run from one shelter to another. They drop a few bombs and it's like a massacre," one refugee, a 20-year-old named Nabil, told Reuters at the camp.

The army relies on air power and heavy artillery to push back the rebels.

Human Rights Watch said the Syrian air force had increased its use of cluster bombs across the country in the past two weeks. The New York-based organization identified, through activist video footage of unexploded bomblets, three types of cluster bombs which had fallen on and around Maarat al-Numan.

Cluster bombs explode in the air, scattering dozens of smaller bomblets over an area the size of a sports field. Most nations have banned their use under a convention that became international law in 2010, but which Syria has not signed.

In contrast to the Libya crisis last year, the West has shown little appetite to arm the Syrian rebels, worried that weapons would fall into the hands of Islamic militants.

Russia, which has backed Assad through the conflict, sold his government $1 billion worth of weapons last year and has made clear it would oppose an arms embargo in the U.N. Security Council.

(Additional reporting by Marwan Makdesi in Damascus, Erika Solomon in Atiha, Yasmine Saleh and Tom Perry in Cairo, Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Ahmed Tolba in Cairo; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrias-assad-agrees-holiday-ceasefire-u-n-envoy-102819522.html

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Kim Kardashian Wants to Chill, Show Off Sports Bra

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What To Do When Republicans Say Crazy, Insane Things (OliverWillisLikeKryptoniteToStupid)

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More International Insurance Map Brewery Fun - A Good Beer Blog

It was the best of times and insurance maps. It was the worst of times, you know, and... insurance maps. Errr. a tale of two cities of sorts, I suppose. From the left we have the Kingston Brewery as well as Portsmouth Brewing of my town from 1908 plus, onward to the right, the Albany Brewing Company, the Beverwick Brewing Company and Taylor Brewing and Malting all of Albany in 1892. What can we learn from these images? Click on each image and find out for yourself. Here is what I see:

? L1: As discussed last August, the Kingston Brewery dates from at least 1791. The badly digitized 1824 map shows a set of buildings on the inland side of the inner harbour road. The 1908 map shows much of the same complex built up overtime. The malt kiln, laid with iron tiles, is no longer used and a lot of space is dedicated to ice houses as part of the lager operations. And there is a manure pit. Dangers which might be faced by fire crews are noted. Where a boiler might be found or a pump. The notes state that hoses are distributed meaning there is water throughout. The basic set up is a courtyard. There is a four story tower as well as a basement with a fermentation room and a stock cellar.

? L2: By comparison, Portsmouth Brewing in is more orderly. Based more about access to the lake than the older cross town competition. The kiln is on the land side of the property and leads into the brewery proper which leads to the bottling room. The coal and barrel sheds are separate. There is a basement and the main building is three stories high. Our commentator Steve Gates, author of The Breweries of Kingston and the St. Lawrence Valley has an excellent photo of the brewery from the next year taken from the vantage of someone under the letter "F" in "Fisher" as shown on the map. He also tells us that they had been brewing lager since 1872. Hence the ice house.

? M: Next, the Albany Brewing Company neatly fills a city block as this picture from the coal shed view of 1865 to 1870 shows. I am sure there is a very good reason that hand grenades were distributed throughout the brewery for fire fighting purposes but I am not sure what that might be. Unlike the Kingston breweries above or Taylor below, there is no access to waterfront. Unlike Beverwick below, there is no train spur leading to the building. To the right center, there is a five story tower where it appears the coolers are located. The office is across the street to the south and a police station to the north. It's in the middle of things. Looks like there are horse stalls near the coal shed that open out on to Green Street to the left of the image.

? R2: The Beverwick Brewing buildings appear to be more modern again. Founded in 1878, it has a rail siding... which apparently leads it to be suitable for a model railway set. The main building looks impressive. Five stories with a sixth in the attic. Brick arched ceilings on multiple floors frame fermenting tubs and beer tubs. Coolers are located in the fifth floor. A more compact footprint but, at 100,000 barrels a year, very productive and, therefore, famous. A very industrial set up compared to the others.

? R1: Last, good old Taylor Brewing in its elder years. The neighbouring buildings have been left vacant with only the core brewery seemingly in operation. Six stories very much oriented towards the river. When I saw this and saw the images of de Hooch yesterday, its position by the water looked like Dutch breweries lined up along the shore in Haarlem in 17th century paintings. I think that's the building to the middle right in the image at Craig's post on the brewery, though that was almost half a century earlier.

What does that tell us? You tell me. I see a range of brewing systems laid showing about 120 years of technological advances. Still plenty of ale brewing going on but a range of transportation methods from horse carts to ships to trains. For the most part, the breweries are all still malting at the turn of the 20th century.

Source: http://beerblog.genx40.com/archive/2012/october/more

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State officials find problems at Mass. pharmacy

Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick gestures during a news conference regarding the Massachusetts pharmacy responsible for the meningitis outbreak during a news conference at the Statehouse in Boston, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. The outbreak of meningitis, an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord, has sickened nearly 300 people, including 23 who died, in more than a dozen states. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick gestures during a news conference regarding the Massachusetts pharmacy responsible for the meningitis outbreak during a news conference at the Statehouse in Boston, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. The outbreak of meningitis, an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord, has sickened nearly 300 people, including 23 who died, in more than a dozen states. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Dr. Madeleine Biondolillo, Director of the Mass. Bureau of Healthcare Safety, right, leaves at the conclusion of a news conference regarding the Massachusetts pharmacy responsible for the meningitis outbreak during a news conference at the Statehouse in Boston, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. The outbreak of meningitis, an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord, has sickened nearly 300 people, including 23 who died, in more than a dozen states. From left are Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick, Mass. Health and Human Services Secretary JudyAnn Bigby and Biondolilo. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick arrives for a news conference regarding the Massachusetts pharmacy responsible for the meningitis outbreak during a news conference at the Statehouse in Boston, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. The outbreak of meningitis, an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord, has sickened nearly 300 people, including 23 who died, in more than a dozen states. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Dr. Madeleine Biondolillo, Director of the Mass. Bureau of Healthcare Safety, addresses reporters during a news conference regarding the Massachusetts pharmacy responsible for the meningitis outbreak during a news conference at the Statehouse in Boston, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. The outbreak of meningitis, an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord, has sickened nearly 300 people, including 23 who died, in more than a dozen states. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

BOSTON (AP) ? Water from a leaking boiler collected just outside a room that was supposed to be sterile. Floor mats used by technicians were filled with dirt and debris. Drugs were shipped out before the company even confirmed they were sterile.

State officials said Tuesday that they found these and other problems at the New England Compounding Center during a preliminary investigation into the company, linked to a deadly outbreak of meningitis.

The probe can't yet conclusively prove what caused the outbreak, a top health official said. In the meantime, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said he wants to tighten oversight at similar companies, including with surprise inspections ? the first of which happened Tuesday.

The state has also moved to permanently revoke the company's operating license, as well as the licenses of its top three pharmacists.

"Those whose laboratory practices caused this outbreak should never practice pharmacy or manufacture in Massachusetts again," Patrick said.

The outbreak of fungal meningitis, an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord, has sickened 308 people, including 23 who have died, in 17 states. The outbreak has been linked to a steroid made by the NECC and taken mainly for back pain. Compounding pharmacies like NECC custom mix solutions in doses or forms generally not commercially available.

The federal government is conducting a criminal investigation.

The state said Tuesday that its preliminary investigation, which began last month after the company was first suspected in the growing outbreak, found batches of drugs ready for general distribution but not labeled for specific patients.

Its state license permits the company to fill out only specific prescriptions for specific patients, and distributing drugs in batches like a manufacturer would violate that, said Dr. Madeleine Biondolillo, director of the state Department of Public Health's Bureau of Healthcare Safety.

But company attorney Paul Cirel said it's "hard to imagine" state regulators weren't previously aware of the scale of its operations because they've worked so closely together. The state Board of Registration in Pharmacy has always had complete access to the facility, and board members were there as recently as last summer, he said.

"NECC's transparency in dealing with the board since inception in 1998 demonstrates its good-faith intention to operate in compliance with the requirements of its license," Cirel said.

Besides possible state license violations, Biondolillo said the inspections also revealed "several health and safety deficiencies" at the NECC facility in Framingham, just west of Boston.

Three lots of steroids produced by the company are suspected in the outbreak, and the company shipped orders from those lots 13 times before receiving the results of its own tests to confirm those lots were sterile, Biondolillo said. Some medication was shipped as many as 11 days before the company received test results, she said.

Biondolillo also detailed signs of flawed sterilization procedures, including black specks of fungus in sealed vials of the steroids, which were returned to the company during a recall.

Investigators found the company didn't sterilize its products long enough and didn't adequately test whether its sterilization equipment was working, she said.

In addition, mats on which people wiped their shoes to remove contamination before entering a sterile environment were "visibly dirty and soiled with assorted debris," she said. And a leaking boiler adjacent to a pharmacy clean room left an unsanitary pool of water around it and the adjacent walls, she said.

As the investigation continues, Patrick's moves to increase oversight at the state's 25 compounding pharmacies have started.

The first of the unannounced inspections, to take place at least annually, was done on Tuesday, health department spokesman Alec Loftus said. He wouldn't give the inspected facility's name and said the results are being reviewed.

Patrick also said compounding pharmacies will now be required to file annual compliance reports that could help regulators determine if they are acting as manufacturers.

____

Associated Press reporter Bob Salsberg contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-10-24-US-MED-Meningitis-Outbreak/id-0abd76894d43441d85d87c10d88b2d81

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EDUCATION: Subsea energy mining gets its first U.S. graduate program