Mexico gets Google Maps Navigation

Many countries have been enjoying Google Maps' free turn-by-turn navigation feature for a couple of years, but so far Mexico's been left out of the fun. That changes today with the launch of Google Maps Navigation (in beta, natch) in the country.

Just like the English-language version, Navigation for Mexican users features turn-by-turn directions, complete with voice playback, and real-time traffic updates. There's also Spanish-language voice search, and the ability to search for businesses or other places along your route.

Mexican Android users running OS version 2.2 Froyo or greater can take advantage of the new feature by jumping into the latest version of the Google Maps app.

Source: +Google México; Thanks, Spook81!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/wHCSZaEHk40/story01.htm

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Good Relationship with In-laws Improves Marriage for Men ...

For men, a good relationship with their in-laws benefits the marriageThe holiday season is rife with opportunity for family disputes and blow-ups. (As Beverly D?Angelo says in National Lampoon?s Christmas Vacation, ?It?s Christmas. We?re all miserable.?) Now, a new study may help your understand how best to handle your relationship with your in-laws.

The marriages of men who are closer to their in-laws are 20 percent less likely to end in divorce, according to a study conducted by Dr. Terri Orbuch, a psychologist and research professor at the University of Michigan?s Institute for Social Research and author of Finding Love Again: 6 Steps to a New and Happy Relationship. The story of her findings in regards to in-laws recently appeared in The Wall Street Journal.

Over a period of 26 years, Dr. Orbuch studied the habits of 373 couples between the ages of 25 to 37 for a longitudinal study on marriage and divorce funded by the National Institute of Health. As part of the study Dr. Orbuch asked the couples to rate how close they felt to their in-laws. The article that discusses the findings of the study has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Family Relations.

How not to hate your in-laws

Women, on the other hand, are easily offended by in-laws interferenceWhereas a man?s closer relationship with his in-laws helps the marriage to survive, a woman?s closeness to her in-laws has a negative effect: 20 percent more likely to end in divorce. Dr. Orbuch theorizes this is due to the fact that a close relationship between the in-laws and the wife may include a large amount of meddling.

?In-law ties are especially stressful for women. And, when they are close to in-laws, especially early in marriage, this may interfere with and prevent the formation of a strong bond with their husband. It is important for newlyweds to establish clear emotional boundaries,? Dr. Orbuch told Yahoo! Shine. ?Relationships are more central and important to women in general. We analyze them and want to constantly work and improve them. We take what our in-laws say as personal, we interpret it as interference and meddling and we can?t set the boundaries.?

If you?ve had frustrating arguments with your spouse about his parents, but he gets along better with your parents, there is a reason for this, according to Dr. Orbuch. ?[Men's] identity as as a father and a husband is often secondary to their identity as a provider. As a result, they don?t take what their in-laws do or say so personally. ?

Women, on the other hand, interpret their husband?s closeness with their parents as an extension of love for them.

In other words: women, keep doing what you?re doing. Men: be nice to your in-laws.

Original Story

Source: http://wzakcleveland.com/3513451/good-relationship-with-in-laws-improves-marriage-for-men-increases-chance-of-divorce-for-women/

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Small Shops Skip Groupon For Holidays - Business Insider

This holiday season, small retailers are leaving Groupon off their lists as far as sales strategy goes.

This shopping season is the biggest one of the year, and small businesses often rely on sales made during this period to bring them into the black as the year comes to a close.

A sales strategy that didn't work during the rest of the year is out of the question for the holidays, says Pamela Springer, CEO of online small business network Manta.

This doesn't bode well for Groupon and other daily deals sites. Only 3percent of retailers got repeat customers out of daily deals promotions, according to a survey Manta released Oct. 30.

"They're doubling down on things that work, and leaving things that are less proven or they've had experience with and didn't work off to the side," says Springer.

If businesses aren't getting repeat customers out of Groupon deals, they're losing money, says Anthony Bruce, CEO of retail data analyzer Applied Predictive Technology. Groupon often charges businesses as much as half the revenue of a deal sale, which is usually a drastic discount already.

"If there are future purchases that occur because of a Groupon, that's great," says Bruce. "If it's an incremental visit I wouldn't have gotten anyway, it's bad. If it's a visit I would have gotten anyway but did it with a Groupon, that's terrible."

Jennifer Untermeyer says she won't use Groupon this holiday season, because she lost money on the five daily deals she ran last year for her business, TravelKiddy, an online store that sells toys and games to keep kids busy during road trips or plane rides. She ran her first $10 deal for $20 of merchandise on Eversave last November, trying to snag holiday travelers, and ran four more similar deals on niche mom-themed deals sites, hoping to score new customers.

It didn't work.

"We can tell how many people we've had repeat, and it's eight or nine out of 3,000 deals," she says. "We ended up in an overall loss, even factoring in the marketing benefits."

Sales chief Kal Raman says Groupon helps businesses retain customers through its reward program, which is sort of like a frequent-flier program for customers. The program helps businesses track purchases a Groupon customer has made, and after a certain level of spending is reached, Groupon automatically sends the customer a free deal.

"We effectively become their loyalty-management company," says Raman, who sees Groupon as a great way for retailers to sell inventory they'd otherwise be sitting on. "As a small-business owner, you can aim high, and we can hedge that risk."

Will Ander, senior partner of retail strategy firm McMillan Doolittle, says liquidation is the only good thing Groupon does for small retailers. "It's more effective than giving it to the Salvation Army."

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/small-shops-skip-groupon-for-holidays-2012-11

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NRA's Club Champion Challenge under the Florida sun

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida - An NRA Club Champion Challenge took place this month at the Tropical Sport Shooting Association (TSSA) in Ft. Lauderdale. Known as south Florida?s largest defensive shooting club, the competition took place at the Markham Park Target Range in Weston, Florida.

"It's a fun and exciting way for shooters to find out who's the best shot in the club," said NRA Competitive Shooting's John Parker. "The Club Champion Challenge includes all ages, skill levels and best of all ... the awards are provided by the NRA."

Rick Lund, TSSA's Chief RSO, NRA Certified Instructor, Stats Guru and Webmaster provided us with the following report:

On the morning of November 17, the Tropical Sport Shooting Association arrived at the Markham Park Target Range for our first NRA Club Champion Challenge.

South Florida presented us with a near picture perfect day for the 22 members who successfully completed our first NRA Club Championship Challenge. The format required firing from static positions, so some of us had to practice getting into those positions while manipulating our firearms on the clock.

Everyone who participated (and we had a number of people who came out early but did not finish the match) proved to be great competitors. They even pitched in to help helped behind the scene on a variety of stages to keep things moving.

Competitors shot three stages of Pistol, Rifle-Carbine and Tactical Shotgun, some with multiple strings which were scored on NRA B-16 Targets or steel depending on the stage.

The overall winner, Wayne Dayberry, received a Montana Silversmiths belt buckle emblazoned with the NRA logo. Top finishers Ryan Rodriguez (Top Junior), Craig Wood (3rd place) and Jose Garcia (2nd place and Top Senior) were awarded with Club Champion Challenge medals provided by the NRA.

Thanks Rick, hope everyone had a great time at the match!

If you'd like to hold an NRA Club Champion Challenge of your own, just head on over to the Club Champion website at www.nraclubchamp.com and sign up today.

Source: http://www.nrablog.com/post/2012/11/28/NRAs-Club-Champion-Challenge-under-the-Florida-sun.aspx

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Researchers synthesize new kind of silk fiber, and use music to fine-tune material's properties

ScienceDaily (Nov. 28, 2012) ? Pound for pound, spider silk is one of the strongest materials known: Research by MIT's Markus Buehler has helped explain that this strength arises from silk's unusual hierarchical arrangement of protein building blocks.

Now Buehler -- together with David Kaplan of Tufts University and Joyce Wong of Boston University -- has synthesized new variants on silk's natural structure, and found a method for making further improvements in the synthetic material.

And an ear for music, it turns out, might be a key to making those structural improvements.

The work stems from a collaboration of civil and environmental engineers, mathematicians, biomedical engineers and musical composers.?

"We're trying to approach making materials in a different way," Buehler explains, "starting from the building blocks" -- in this case, the protein molecules that form the structure of silk. "It's very hard to do this; proteins are very complex."

Other groups have tried to construct such protein-based fibers using a trial-and-error approach, Buehler says. But this team has approached the problem systematically, starting with computer modeling of the underlying structures that give the natural silk its unusual combination of strength, flexibility and stretchiness.

Buehler's previous research has determined that fibers with a particular structure -- highly ordered, layered protein structures alternating with densely packed, tangled clumps of proteins (ABABAB) -- help to give silk its exceptional properties. For this initial attempt at synthesizing a new material, the team chose to look instead at patterns in which one of the structures occurred in triplets (AAAB and BBBA).

Making such structures is no simple task. Kaplan, a chemical and biomedical engineer, modified silk-producing genes to produce these new sequences of proteins. Then Wong, a bioengineer and materials scientist, created a microfluidic device that mimicked the spider's silk-spinning organ, which is called a spinneret.

Even after the detailed computer modeling that went into it, the outcome came as a bit of a surprise, Buehler says. One of the new materials produced very strong protein molecules -- but these did not stick together as a thread. The other produced weaker protein molecules that adhered well and formed a good thread. "This taught us that it's not sufficient to consider the properties of the protein molecules alone," he says. "Rather, [one must] think about how they can combine to form a well-connected network at a larger scale."

The results are reported in a paper published in the journal Nano Today.

The team is now producing several more variants of the material to further improve and test its properties. But one wrinkle in their process may provide a significant advantage in figuring out which materials will be useful and which ones won't -- and perhaps even which might be more advantageous for specific uses. That new and highly unusual wrinkle is music.

The different levels of silk's structure, Buehler says, are analogous to the hierarchical elements that make up a musical composition -- including pitch, range, dynamics and tempo. The team enlisted the help of composer John McDonald, a professor of music at Tufts, and MIT postdoc David Spivak, a mathematician who specializes in a field called category theory. Together, using analytical tools derived from category theory to describe the protein structures, the team figured out how to translate the details of the artificial silk's structure into musical compositions.

The differences were quite distinct: The strong but useless protein molecules translated into music that was aggressive and harsh, Buehler says, while the ones that formed usable fibers sound much softer and more fluid.

Buehler hopes this can be taken a step further, using the musical compositions to predict how well new variations of the material might perform. "We're looking for radically new ways of designing materials," he says.

Combining materials modeling with mathematical and musical tools, Buehler says, could provide a much faster way of designing new biosynthesized materials, replacing the trial-and-error approach that prevails today. Genetically engineering organisms to produce materials is a long, painstaking process, he says, but this work "has taught us a new approach, a fundamental lesson" in combining experiment, theory and simulation to speed up the discovery process.

Materials produced this way -- which can be done under environmentally benign, room-temperature conditions -- could lead to new building blocks for tissue engineering or other uses, Buehler says: scaffolds for replacement organs, skin, blood vessels, or even new materials for use in civil engineering.

Elliott Schwartz, professor emeritus of music at Bowdoin College, says: "For centuries, mathematics, logic and science have provided important models for musical structures, processes, and our understanding of sonic materials. The present research may well lead to one more important chapter in this ongoing story of mutual interaction."

It may be that the complex structures of music can reveal the underlying complex structures of biomaterials found in nature, Buehler says. "There might be an underlying structural expression in music that tells us more about the proteins that make up our bodies. After all, our organs -- including the brain -- are made from these building blocks, and humans' expression of music may inadvertently include more information that we are aware of."

"Nobody has tapped into this," he says, adding that with the breadth of his multidisciplinary team, "We could do this -- making better bio-inspired materials by using music, and using music to better understand biology."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Joyce Y. Wong, John McDonald, Micki Taylor-Pinney, David I. Spivak, David L. Kaplan, Markus J. Buehler. Materials by design: Merging proteins and music. Nano Today, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.nantod.2012.09.001

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/JH39QKo8_v8/121128112157.htm

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Cyber Monday sparks Internet sales tax debate | www ...

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By Johnny Kampis | Missouri Watchdog

ST. LOUIS, Mo ? Online retailers like Amazon were expected to reap millions during the Christmas shopping event known as Cyber Monday, but Missouri?s coffers won?t benefit because the state doesn?t collect sales tax from Internet-only stores.

The Show Me State faces the same conundrum as the rest of the nation ? how to make ?remote sellers,? or those who sell to Missouri residents but who do not have a physical presence in the state, pay sales taxes on the goods they sell.

David Overfelt, president of the Missouri Retailers Association, said local businesses are hurt by an uneven playing field.

?We?re concerned that everybody plays by the same rules,? he said. ?There?s been some pretty big estimates that Missouri could see a windfall of $400 million to $500 million in revenue that would be spread throughout the state and local governments.?

Missouri was one of 44 states that helped form the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, which minimized costs and administrative burdens on retailers who operate in multiple states, making it easier for them to pay sales taxes in each state. That agreement also encourages remote sellers to collect taxes on purchases online or by mail.

But Missouri has not passed corresponding legislation; a bill was introduced into the General Assembly last year but failed to pass.

?Congress truly has to act on this,? Overfelt told Missouri Watchdog. ?All a state can do is try to make it simpler for companies who operate across state lines to pay their sales taxes.?

The governing board of the Streamlined Sales Tax group notes that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the 1992 case Quill v. North Dakota gives Congress the power to level the playing field for local merchants under the Commerce Clause.

The group said that 1,400 retailers have voluntarily collected more than $700 million in sales taxes in states that have passed the streamlined legislation, but that states could be missing out on more than $23 billion in uncollected sales tax from businesses that aren?t participating.

Amy Blouin, executive director of the Missouri Budget Project, said the growth in remote sales could put extra burden on state and local government services, which rely heavily on sales tax collections for their budgets.

The U.S. Census Bureau said online sales represented 5.2 percent of total retail sales last quarter, a percentage that continues to creep up.

Blouin advocates passing streamlining legislation in the state.

?Taking the steps to modernize the state?s sales tax structure is critical to ensure that Missouri prevents further loss of state and local tax revenue,? she said.

Missouri?s general revenue sales tax rate is 3 percent and funds about a quarter, or nearly $2 billion, of the general budget. An additional 1.225 percent rate is earmarked to fund K-12 schools, parks and conservations efforts.

Local sales taxes vary greatly across the state, making the overall sales tax rate under 6 percent in some jurisdictions and greater than 10 percent in others.

Overfelt said he?s heard rumblings that if Missouri could collect online sales taxes there might be interest in reducing the state?s overall rate.

?We certainly wouldn?t be opposed to that,? he said.

There?s been pushback from some online merchants on the Internet sales tax issue.

Top online auction house eBay, where tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of small merchants make a living selling their wares, released a video post-election arguing against requiring its users to pay sales taxes except to customers they serve within their own states.

Brian Bieron, eBay?s senior director of U.S. government relations, said requiring users to collect and file sales taxes in 50 states would be onerous.

?We think for a small business that?s an especially negative change and we oppose that change,? Bieron said.

Contact Johnny Kampis at johnny@missouriwatchdog.org.? For more Missouri Watchdog updates, visit Facebook and Twitter, or sign up for a free newsletter.

Source: http://www.quicknewhavennews.com/?q=content/cyber-monday-sparks-internet-sales-tax-debate

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Man says prayer group leader told him to kill wife

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) ? Less than three months after he stood as a groomsman in the wedding of two friends he had known since college in Texas, Micah Moore walked into a suburban Kansas City police department and unloaded a dark secret: He had taken the woman's life at the request of her new husband, a charismatic prayer group leader.

Police said Bethany Deaton's death initially appeared to be a suicide. Officers found a note and empty bottle of over-the-counter pain medication along with her body in a minivan parked by a lake on Oct. 30.

It wasn't until Moore confessed nearly two weeks later that police announced she had been killed. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on a first-degree murder charge Wednesday.

In the criminal complaint filed in support of the charge, police detailed a stunning series of allegations that Moore made as part of his confession.

Moore, 23, lived with Deaton and her husband, Tyler, in a communal home shared by male members of their prayer group. He told police that several members had sexually assaulted Bethany Deaton and that they were worried she would tell someone. Moore said that's when Tyler Deaton ordered him to kill Bethany Deaton, according to a criminal complaint.

Tyler Deaton has not been charged in his wife's death. Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said Deaton was under investigation but declined to elaborate. Deaton does not have a listed phone number and did not respond to requests for comment The Associated Press made through Facebook and phone and email messages to his father.

Moore's attorney, Melanie Morgan, declined to comment.

Tyler and Bethany Deaton moved to Kansas City in 2009 from Texas to attend a six-month internship at the non-accredited International House of Prayer University. The two had met as freshmen at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, in 2005, and two years later Tyler started a prayer group, a former longtime member of the group told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was afraid of retaliation from Tyler Deaton.

Tyler Deaton was listed at one point as a division coordinator for IHOPU's "friendship groups," but the school said that was a mistake. It issued a statement distancing itself from Tyler Deaton after Moore, a student at IHOPU, was arrested.

"Since Bethany's death it has come to light that over five years ago, both she and Mr. Moore joined an independent, close-knit, religious group in Georgetown, Texas," the school said in a statement. "This religious group of fewer than 20 people was led by Tyler Deaton. They relocated to Kansas City over the last few years and operated under a veil of secrecy."

IHOPU is the educational arm of International House of Prayer of Kansas City, an evangelical Christian group focused on missions and preparation for the end of time.

The Deatons' prayer group had at least two houses, with women living in one and men in another. Bethany Deaton, 27, moved into the men's house with Tyler Deaton after they married in August.

According to the criminal complaint, Moore told police that men in the house began drugging Bethany Deaton and sexually assaulting her soon after she moved in. He said she was seeing a therapist and group members became concerned she would tell the therapist about the assaults.

Moore and other men who lived in the house told police that several group members also were having sexual relations with Tyler Deaton, unbeknownst to his wife. One man, whose name was blacked out of the criminal complaint, told police that Tyler Deaton said after Bethany Deaton died that he had had a dream he killed his wife by suffocating her.

Moore told detectives Tyler Deaton instructed him to kill Bethany Deaton because he knew Moore had it in him to do it, and that Moore reported back to Tyler Deaton after she was dead. Moore told police that he had placed a bag over Bethany Deaton's head and held it there until her body shook.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/man-says-prayer-group-leader-told-him-kill-080538762.html

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Gifting the boss could be bad for your career

Leah-Anne Thompson

Is it a good idea to give the boss a holiday gift?

Holiday gift exchanges at work can be veritable political minefields, and few are trickier to navigate than the question of "gifting up" -- giving the boss a gift.

Some employers may expect gifts from their employees. Others may disdain them. And when it comes to how the boss treats the employees, some employers land squarely on the "nice" list and others on the "naughty."

Sherri Athay, author of ?Present Perfect: Unforgettable Gifts for Every Occasion,? generally advises employees not to get the boss a present. However, she says that small?gifts, such as baked goods, are appropriate.

April Masini, who pens the online advice column,?AskApril.com, cautions that it?s important to understand your workplace?s culture.

?If you're not sure, ask around. Some companies are very easygoing about gifting up and anything goes. Others frown on it. And still others expect it,? Masini told TODAY Money. "This kind of etiquette isn't going to be in a human resources handout. Use your social skills to figure out your company's unwritten rules.??

While the experts say skip it, or at least proceed with caution, employees also have mixed feelings about giving the boss a gift.

?I?ve never done this or wanted to ? then, my last boss was a really bad one, a bully," said?Susan Moon of Seattle.?"My current boss is terrific, I have more appreciation because of my immediate prior bad experience, and I?m finding myself wanting to find a small gift to 'gift up' this year.??

Most employees who were comfortable with the idea of giving the boss a gift felt it should be more of a token gift rather than a big, under-the-tree type of present. ?I usually just bring snacks for the staff and our boss on holiday weeks. They are all men, so they would eat anything I bring, but they always make me feel as though I saved the day when I bring food to work,? said Megan Okerstrom of San Angelo, Texas.

Where employees can really start to get resentful when it comes to gifting up is when bosses seem to expect (or at least accept) large, lavish gifts. ?It still makes me mad that my co-workers at the dental office expected us to give?$50?to get our bosses stuff like a new camera and a Longchamp bag," said Ky Ivany of Pomfret, Vt.?"They were dentists;?I think they can afford their own cameras.??

Of course, the best gifts are priceless. ?I like to give my boss the gift of pretending to care about my job every day,? said?Jeff Mac of Albuquerque, N.M.

The type of organization you work for can have a lot to do with the practice of gifting up. Those in the military, who work for the government or who are members of unions are likely to find the practice frowned upon, if not banned outright.

Even if you leave the service, you might find some of those values sticking with you, come gift time. ?My attitudes were formed in the Army, but I think they are universal,? said Rob Mood of Houston. ?Demanding or even accepting 'stuff' from subordinates is a sure sign of abysmal leadership and probably much more rot at the heart.?

While some employers may enjoy or even expect gifts from their subordinates, others are uncomfortable with the idea. ?From the perspective of a boss, don't buy me anything,? said Maggie Reed of Davenport, Iowa. ?I am a firm believer in the separation of boss and employee for ethical reasons."?

Jody Gowdy of Maple Valley, Wash., echoed those sentiments. "I would never expect something and honestly find it uncomfortable when it has happened in years past. We give the employees something every year as a thank you for job well done. But I would say no."

If you do decide to give a present to the boss, experts have some advice on how to do it gracefully. ?Make sure you keep it humble and a token of your appreciation," Masini advises. "It's inappropriate to 'one up' your boss's gift. It may make your boss feel uncomfortable.? ?

Masini also notes that employees should make sure any?gift is in line with their?salary. "If you make minimum wage, and you give your boss an Hermes scarf or a ... bottle of champagne, they're going to think they're paying you too much or you're terrible with money.??

Masini also warns employees to make sure to gift in the proper chain of command. "In other words, don't?gift jump?by ignoring your immediate boss, and gifting your boss's boss. Gift jumping is bad politics and will yield you in hot water.??

How do you feel about the practice of gifting up? Tell us about it on Facebook.

Dana Macario is a Seattle-area writer who likes a small gift for a good boss ? when you get a good one, it?s nice to let them know.

{"contentId":"15461135","totalVotes":"226"}

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Source: http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2012/11/27/15461135-giving-the-boss-a-gift-could-be-bad-for-your-career?lite

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How to Fix a Sticky Seatbelt

After pulling the mechanism off a similar model year Corolla in the junkyard and examining how it works, I see two things that could explain your issue. The first and most easily remedied is the spot where you park the car. Toyota's mid-'90s belt-locking mechanism relies on the inertia of a ball bearing in a shallow plastic cup to move a small plastic lever. In a fast stop, that bearing rides up in the cup and raises the lever, engaging a ratchet mechanism and locking the belt. This system is very sensitive to the attitude of the car, so if you park the car facing downhill or uphill or tilted sideways, the lever will engage the belt lock.

The other possibility is contamination. The protective housing is not airtight, and if you do a lot of dusty driving, the cup or the bearing could easily become caked with dirt over the years; that could keep the bearing from rolling properly. Address this by popping the trim off the B-pillar and then unbolting the seatbelt recoil mechanism from the car (it's just one bolt). Pry the lock mechanism's protective translucent cover loose with a standard screwdriver, and then clean the cup and the bearing with a soap-and-water solution. Let it dry thoroughly, and reinstall the mechanism with a dab of Loctite on the threads of the retaining bolt. Test the belt to see if it works. If it's still stubborn, order a new one from the dealership and replace the whole seatbelt as a unit?there's no need to entrust your safety to a compromised device.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/repair/how-to-fix-a-sticky-seatbelt-14784961?src=rss

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Overnight Video: Love Letter to Plywood (Little green footballs)

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

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Iran preparing internal version of Internet | Benjamin Max Gottlieb

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://benjaminmaxgottlieb.com/2012/11/iran-preparing-internal-version-of-internet/

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Sega Rally Arcade Machine Mashed Up With Remote Control Cars For Real Racing Robotics

Sega Rally at the arcade was a blast when I was growing up. But Portugese hardware hacker Luis Sobral and robotics company Artica made it even better by introducing remote controlled cars into the mix, along with cameras and an Arduino receiver to grab transmitted acceleration, braking and turning commands relayed from the arcade cabinet.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/E6wIptKzv0w/

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Morsi seizes broad powers in Egypt: What does US do now?

A decree this week by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi essentially makes him a dictator, critics say. They call for US action. But the Obama administration might give him some leeway.

By Mark Sappenfield,?Staff writer / November 25, 2012

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi speaks to supporters outside the presidential palace in Cairo on Friday.

Egyptian Presidency/AP

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Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's decision this week to make himself above the rule of law has put the Obama administration in a tight spot.

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Mr. Morsi, who has links to Islamist groups looked upon with suspicion by the West, was never Washington's first choice to lead a post-Arab Spring Egypt. But President Obama made a clear choice to allow the Egyptian people to chart their own course, thinking that interference would only undermine the goal of a truly democratic Egypt. ?

Now, it seems, that choice could potentially blow up in Mr. Obama's face. A day after brokering a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, Morsi took a step that could make him as much of an autocrat as his US-friendly successor, Hosni Mubarak. The implication for US and the West seemed clear: peace with Israel, but at the price of Egyptian democracy.

The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin summed up the worst American fears in her Right Turn blog: "The Arab Spring in Egypt looks a whole lot like the Hosni Mubarak tin-pot dictatorship, minus the secularism, good relationship with Israel and reliable partnership with the West. In other words, Egypt now may have Mubarak-style oppression plus Islamist rule."

So the question for Washington now is what to do ? if anything.

For Republican hawks like Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona, who were never comfortable with Obama's relatively hands-off approach, it could be time for America to start pulling some levers. That means perhaps withholding the billions of dollars in aid that the US gives to Egypt, as well as pulling its support from international efforts to forgive Egyptian debt and to give Egypt a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.

"What should the United States of America do, they should be saying, 'This is unacceptable,' " said Senator McCain on Fox News Sunday. " 'This is not what American taxpayers expect, and our dollars will be directly related to the progress toward democracy, which you promised the people of Egypt when you were elected president.' "

Conservatives are already looking askance at the president's response to Morsi's declaration. Chris Wallace, the host of Fox News Sunday, characterized the Obama administration statement on the subject as "very tepid."

Indeed, as with the Arab Spring, Obama so far appears to be looking at the situation through a different lens. His administration sees the establishment of a democratic Egypt as the top goal and has acknowledged that process is likely to be bumpy. Officials say they are awaiting an explanation for why Morsi did this.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/nEgyAfhmGtk/Morsi-seizes-broad-powers-in-Egypt-What-does-US-do-now

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Reach Your Customers With These Internet Marketing Ideas | Turn ...

Certain enterprises are destined to grow into giants, and some are meant to stay small. Unfortunately, most businesses will fail. Many online businesses have been known to fail. Read the following article to keep your business from failing and learn some Internet marketing tips.

A great way to increase traffic to your site is to offer a free course. This makes for savvy Internet marketing, because your free product acts as a persuasive advertisement for the materials you?re actually trying to sell. You can use your ad campaign to detail your customers about the contest.

Try asking for feedback from customers who don?t buy anything. Ask them what you can do to get their business. Their specific reasons will be a great help to you in improving your site.

Start small when you are first setting out with marketing your product or service on a new website. Search engines are more capable of cataloging sites with fewer subpages, than sites that have large quantities of pages.

Look at this great internet marketing tip. Reassure your visitors that they can have confidence when they come to your site. A privacy policy that is located in an easily accessible part of your website will do wonders to assure your readers. This can put your customers? minds at ease, letting them know their personal information will be securely handled. They will be more likely to purchase what you?re selling if they know you are protecting their identity.

Email marketing is an important, beneficial tool. You need to ensure that your mail stays safe. For instance, try to avoid those services out there offering you mail for free. There?s always something buggy about those particular services that will bite you in the end, such as deleting old messages. You may handle arrangements for archiving messages yourself.

All Internet marketers should be absolutely certain of assuring customers of a secure and safe website from which to place orders. People are hesitant to send out personal information via the internet so do your best to assure them that your site is secure.

Nothing will drive customers away faster than spam. While it may seem efficient to post a bunch of comments on sites, those posts won?t have the positive effect you desire. Actually, impersonal advertising will turn off people giving them the opposite effect you intended to give.

Consider making your website accessible to people around the world. Offer visitors the option of choosing their own language when viewing your site. You will get many more customers from different parts of the globe, and you are likely to see an impressive boost in traffic. If a person can read your website in their preferred language, they will feel more comfortable, and you raise the chance that they will place an order with you.

When your consumer has purchased your service or product, up-sell them by forwarding an online classification or product list with links to corresponding products they might be interested in. You could, for example, suggest other cookbooks to customers who have purchased a cookbook from your site already. You can increase your sales by tailoring your product offerings to their purchasing trends.

It is important to watch what your competition is doing. Whatever field you operate in will always have competition.

Know your competition when you market on the Internet. Have a look at your competition and see what they are showing on their websites. Your goal is to create a better site that people will check instead of your competitors?.

Conducting business online can often seem very impersonal. Small businesses benefit from this the most as they rely on a more personal and relationship based strategy to help sell, and create a lifelong customer base.

An effective way to provide content that is sought after and to establish respectability on your site is to have interviews from noted people in your industry. You can conduct this interview via video or audio. Interviews and contact with respected successful people in your industry will bring give you greater presences and reputability and can bring you new visitors and potential customers.

A great way to participate in link-sharing or advertising in general is to have a professional-looking ?Advertise with Us? badge built on your site. This helps to establish a nice flow on your site, as customers will be more apt to click on advertisements with the assurance that you are offering something legitimate.

Post customer commentary about your products on your website. People like to see what others have said about the product, and they enjoy reading about the experience that someone else had. These comments can make them feel better about doing business with you, and it will increase their chances of purchasing the product.

A successful online marketing strategy contains healthy doses of human interest, art and science. Before you begin Internet marketing, try to both aspects. For the sales end and profitability, etc. you can follow the analytic approach, but attempt to use creativity and inventiveness for the motivational, visual and design aspects.

This business may be one of the exceptions to the commonly held belief that you should not mix business and pleasure. This is because the pressure is lower and it can be seen as being a hobby that just happens to make you money. Consider doing this with your spouse to see if you can make it work.

You can use tools to see how many people are visiting your site versus how many people are ordering from your site. Analyze the information, and you can get quick feedback on whether your online marketing is effective or not. Many companies have tools that you can install on your web server to track visitor behavior.

Online business failure can open many doors for you as an entrepreneur. Using the tips in the article, you should be able to increase your success in Internet marketing.

Source: http://oneintoahundred.com/reach-your-customers-with-these-internet-marketing-ideas/

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leroykirman: How to Become Recertified in Pet Loss Grief Counseling

How to Become Recertified in Pet Loss Grief Counseling

November 22nd, 2012 by admin

There are already a significant number of pet loss grief counselors in the United States. They have been certified to offer mental health and emotional support in a unique field. However, those with certification should be aware of the requirements to get recertified. Certification typically lasts three years. To be eligible to renew pet loss grief certification, the medical doctor, nurse or minister must have been actively practicing. In other words, it may be desirable to reapply several months before current certifications are due to lapse. The counselor must have been in practice for about 500 hours or more during the last two or three years. He or she should also have had 50 hours of continuing education. The standards for pet loss grief continuing education are somewhat tolerant and can include seminars and college courses. Publications in academic journals may meet up to half of the 50 hour requirement.

Posted in Self Improvement and Motivation |

Source: http://www.hubph.com/self-improvement-and-motivation/how-to-become-recertified-in-pet-loss-grief-counseling/

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China's role in Southeast Asia questioned

BEIJING (AP) ? China is finding the once friendly ground of Southeast Asia bumpy going, with anger against Chinese claims to disputed islands, once reliable ally Myanmar flirting with democracy and renewed American attention to the region.

The changing terrain for Beijing was on view this past week at a conclave of East Asian nations in Cambodia. Wen Jiabao, China's lame duck premier who usually exudes a mild, grandfatherly air, got into a sharp exchange over the contested South China Sea islands. The leaders of the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam reacted furiously when host Cambodia suggested that all sides agreed not to bring outside parties into the dispute ? a reference to the U.S.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama, buoyed by the first visit ever by a U.S. president to Myanmar, projected an image of a confident, friendly America, calling for a reduction in tensions and seemingly taking no sides.

Beijing is struggling to find its feet as its own power grows, but the U.S. refuses to cede influence in the region, emboldening other countries not to fall in with the Chinese line.

"The robust U.S. presence and relatively disciplined and quiet diplomacy looked strong relative to China's heavy-handed pressure," Ernest Bower, chair for Southeast Asian studies at the Council for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., wrote in a Thursday commentary.

It's a reversal over the treatment Beijing enjoyed much of the past decade as it wooed Southeast Asia with soaring trade and investment and the lure of the huge Chinese market. Looking to further those links, Wen held discussions on expanding a free trade agreement to increase China's imports from Southeast Asia.

China's economic "pull remains, but the smile has faded," said Aaron Friedberg, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University.

Getting Southeast Asian diplomacy right matters to Beijing. It's an area where China historically exercised great sway. The 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian nations, or ASEAN, are home to a market of 600 million people and straddle vital shipping lanes and seas rich in fish, oil, gas and other minerals.

Beijing's influence began foundering in 2010 when its more assertive claims to islands in the South China Sea touched off anxieties among the Philippines and Vietnam, who along with Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan also claim the islands in whole or in part.

The fracas provided an opening for the U.S., which as it wound down involvement in Iraq was re-examining the challenge posed by China. The U.S. "pivot" brought renewed diplomatic attention to the region and promises of more military resources.

Still, the friction has only increased. Beijing has become more aggressive in patrolling around the disputed islands, leading to a faceoff last summer with the Philippines over Scarborough Shoal. It is sparring farther afield over other islands with Japan, heightening worries about an expansionist China. It also started issuing new passports featuring a map that shows the entire South China Sea as Chinese territory.

The tensions bubbled to the fore at an annual summit of Southeast Asian leaders in Cambodia's capital of Phnom Penh attended by Obama.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino raised the Scarborough Shoal, prompting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to state that the islets have been "Chinese territory since ancient times and no sovereignty dispute exists." China's actions to assert its sovereignty were wholly "appropriate and necessary," Wen told the closed door meeting, according to Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying.

Wen's stern statement was "destructive and dangerous," wrote CSIS's Bower. "This is very uncertain ground, and uncertainty means the emergency of an inherent instability in the region that undermines a solid foundation for regional growth."

Chinese government-backed experts conceded a failure in execution. "Somehow, the issue was not handled very well in the meeting," said Zhao Gancheng, director of the Center for Southeast Asia at the Shanghai Institute for Foreign Studies.

Economic realities could still work in China's favor, experts say. Chinese imports from the region grew 29 percent last year to $146 billion, and with its economy expected to overtake America's as the world's largest in coming years, China will only grow in importance as a source of overseas investment.

The very fact that China has refused to back off ? despite provoking a backlash that could hurt its long-term interests ? speaks to Beijing's belief that its economic pull will ultimately convince its ASEAN neighbors that their future lies with China, not with the U.S., said Princeton's Friedberg.

"The big question, I think, is whether the ASEAN states believe that the United States actually has the resolve and the resources to follow through on the commitments that have been made in recent years. If they begin to doubt this they will have to do more to appease Beijing," Friedberg said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-role-southeast-asia-questioned-052620029.html

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Arianna Huffington: Sunday Roundup

This week brought what we hope will be a lasting ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict, the promise of looming conflict in Congress over the fiscal cliff, and out-and-out hostility in stores and malls across America as shoppers heckled, scuffled, and even wielded weapons in search of Black Friday bargains. Thanksgiving football, meanwhile, served up some early holiday treats: viral gifs of Ndamukong Suh's "accidental" groin kick, and Mark Sanchez's epic face-in-butt fumble. We were also treated to the decidedly less humorous spectacle of Iraq war cheerleaders like John McCain and Lindsey Graham trying to score political points attacking Susan Rice and demanding "an accounting" and answers to "the basic questions" surrounding Benghazi. If only McCain and Graham (bellicose backers of a different -- and truly misleading -- serving of Rice) had shown a similar fervor in demanding "an accounting" and answers to "the basic questions" about how they and their fellow cheerleaders got it so wrong on Iraq.

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Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/sunday-roundup_257_b_2185277.html

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Hardaway scores 23, No. 4 Michigan beats K-State

NEW YORK (AP) ? Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 23 points before he left late in the game after he was kneed in the head, and No. 4 Michigan beat Kansas State 71-57 on Friday night to win the NIT Season Tipoff.

Glenn Robinson III had 12 rebounds, and Trey Burke and Jon Horford had 10 points each for the Wolverines. Hardaway made 10 of 15 shots from the field before he was hurt with about four minutes left. He returned to the bench in time to celebrate with the rest of his team.

Rodney McGruder scored 16 points and had seven rebounds, and Angel Rodriguez scored 10 points for Kansas State (5-1).

Michigan (5-0) won the tournament, previously known as the Preseason NIT, for the first time. It was the Wolverines' first title in a significant preseason tournament since the 1997-98 season, when they beat Syracuse to capture the Puerto Rico Holiday Classic.

Michigan will get another test on Tuesday when it faces No. 16 North Carolina State in the Big Ten-ACC challenge on Tuesday.

The Wolverines struggled at the end of the first half against Kansas State while Trey Burke and Jordan Morgan sat on the bench in foul trouble. But Hardaway took over early in the second half.

He made four baskets in the first eight minutes as Michigan got out to a 49-30 lead. At one point, he showcased a crossover of the sort that made his father famous, juking Kansas State's Will Spradling to give himself a wide open shot that he knocked down to wild cheering just as the crowd at Madison Square Garden finished gasping at the move.

That basket made it 43-27, and Michigan kept up the pressure, taking a 21-point lead with a little over 10 minutes to play.

From there, it was mostly a formality.

In its semifinal, Kansas State overcame a pesky Delaware team that should contend in the Colonial Athletic Association, but Michigan was several notches above the Blue Hens and the Wildcats didn't have much of an answer. They got off to a slow start in each half, and spent most of their effort trying to chip away at Michigan's lead.

Michigan had a 10-point advantage midway through the first half, but gave some of it back after Morgan and Burke each got two fouls. The Wildcats were outshot 48 percent to 29 percent in the half, but only trailed by five at 29-24.

The Wildcats should be favored in their next four games before they face No. 7 Florida on Dec. 22. They open the Big 12 season Jan. 5 against Oklahoma State.

Michigan's road isn't as easy ? the Wolfpack come to Ann Arbor on Tuesday, and Michigan returns to New York on Dec. 15 for a game against West Virginia at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Michigan fans started a chant of "Beat Ohio!" during an extended timeout with 3:37 to play and Michigan up 66-47. Michigan plays archrival Ohio State ? or "Ohio," according to Wolverines football coach Brady Hoke ? on Saturday at Ohio Stadium. At the end they did it again, standing and cheering as the Wolverines dribbled out the clock.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hardaway-scores-23-no-4-michigan-beats-k-000127658--spt.html

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Canada's third quarter GDP growth seen falling sharply

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's economy likely expanded at a disappointing annualized rate of 0.9 percent in the third quarter, hurt by weaker demand for the country's exports and the drag of a rapidly cooling housing market.

The median forecast in a Reuters survey of 25 analysts was less than the Bank of Canada's already modest 1 percent forecast and well below what is needed to absorb the economy's unused slack.

Such a pace is likely to keep the central bank from raising interest rates anytime soon.

Just last month, a Reuters poll showed analysts were expecting third quarter growth of 1.7 percent.

But forecasts fell sharply following a string of weak data releases. These showed a surprise contraction in August growth, fewer exports, a cooling housing market and temporary disruptions in the oil sector.

"International headwinds weighed heavily on Canadian economic output, with exports down 8.6 percent in the quarter, a third consecutive quarterly loss. Domestic demand was likely constrained by tighter mortgage insurance rules put in place on July 9," TD Bank economist Diana Petramala said in a research note.

In its October Monetary Policy Report, the Bank of Canada said it expected third-quarter growth of 1.0 percent, slashing its previous forecast of 2.0 percent. Growth in the second quarter was just 1.9 percent.

Only 11 of 25 economists in the Reuters survey saw third-quarter growth of at least 1.0 percent.

The central bank believes that the economy's potential output grows by 2 percent a year. Anything less than that adds to unused capacity and in theory reduces inflationary pressure.

The latest forecasts reflect fragile business and investment sentiment globally, as fears about Europe's debt crisis have flared up again, while the U.S. budget impasse threatens to push the world's largest economy back into recession.

A report last week from Conference Board of Canada showed business confidence in Canada fell in the third quarter for the second time in a row.

The Bank of Canada painted a brighter picture for the next two quarters, seeing growth pick up to 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter and 2.6 percent in the beginning of 2013. However, many analysts think a rebound will take even longer.

"While we largely agree with the (Bank of Canada) on Q3, their 2.5 percent call for Q4 is looking mighty optimistic," Benjamin Reitzes, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, said a note to clients. "Following the unexpected drop in August GDP, the September rebound looks to be modest at best ... that would provide a weak handoff to Q4."

For September, the economists saw minimal growth of 0.1 percent after a 0.1 percent decline August.

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has retained his bias towards increasing interest rates, but said rate increases have become "less imminent" as the economy slows.

As a result, most of Canada's primary dealers - the institutions that deal directly with the Bank of Canada as it carries out monetary policy - expect the central bank to hold off raising interest rates until late next year or 2014.

(Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson and Andre Grenon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/canadas-third-quarter-gdp-growth-seen-falling-sharply-202345647--business.html

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Phuket Car Insurance offer services. | Thai Classifieds

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'Ideal Weight' Ballooning With Waistlines

Nov 23, 2012 11:13am

As Americans pack on the pounds, so does their idea of the perfect weight, a new Gallup poll found.

The average adult weighs 176 pounds, according to the poll, up 15 pounds since Gallup started tracking weight in 1990. The average ideal weight is 162 pounds, up 13 pounds from 12 years ago.

?Americans appear to be slowly shifting to higher weights, adjusting their expectations of what is ideal over time, mirroring the increase in actual weight,? the Gallup report said. ?Americans? ideal weight today is the highest on record. And more adults than ever ? 60 percent ? say their weight is about right, despite the number of Americans who are overweight or obese remaining near an all-time high.?

Nearly 36 percent of American adults are obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up from about 12 percent in 1990. Another 33 percent of adults are overweight, with the extra pounds raising the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and certain cancers.

The average ideal weight for men was 185 pounds, according to the poll, a Gallup record, and up 14 pounds since 1990. The average actual weight for men was 196 pounds, up 16 pounds since 1990.

The average ideal weight for women was 140 pounds, tying for the Gallup record in 2011 and up 11 pounds since 1990. The average actual weight for women was 156, up 14 pounds since 1990.

?These trends suggest that as Americans have grown heavier overall, their concept of what their ideal weight is has been adjusted upward as well,? the Gallup report said.

While 65 percent of people polled said they exceeded their ideal weight, only 54 percent said they would like to lose weight and only 25 percent said they were ?seriously trying,? according to the report.

?Underscoring Americans? weight denial is the relatively low 25 percent who say they are seriously trying to lose weight,? the report said, ?much lower than the percentage who are above their ideal weight or say they would like to lose weight.?

SHOWS: Good Morning America

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/11/23/ideal-weight-ballooning-with-american-waistlines/

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Puerto Rico a backdoor into US mainland for drugs

A vicious drug war has come to the island home of 4 million Americans, which is being used as a transshipment point to the East Coast. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.

By Gabe Gutierrez, NBC News

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The raids begin before dawn. Fierce knocks followed by shouts of ?Polic?a!? rattle neighborhoods while a helicopter hovers overhead.

On this day in late September, heavily armed agents swarm otherwise peaceful-looking homes throughout the island.

In Toa Alta, outside of San Juan, one suspected drug trafficker surrenders without incident. Amazingly, no neighbors wander outside to see what?s going on. They must already know -- or would prefer not to.

By 8 a.m., 16 people are in handcuffs, facing charges that include drug trafficking and money laundering.

The arrests are part of ?Operation Overtime.?? U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations special agents, working with officers from the Puerto Rico Police Department and San Juan Police Department, launched the initiative to combat drug trafficking in the Caribbean.

This is a war on American soil.

The murder rate in Puerto Rico is higher than in any U.S. state -- and it?s roughly six times the national average. The island -- best known for its stunning beaches and rich history -- is home to roughly 4 million American citizens.

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The island?s police superintendent, Hector Pesquera, told NBC News that more than two-thirds of the homicides are tied to the drug trade.

Luis Romero Font, 60, and his wife Marie Jane Rodriguez, 57, know the pain that comes with the incessant violence. Their son, Julian, was murdered during a robbery in April 2011.

He had just celebrated his 20th birthday.

Luis Romero Font and Marie Jane Rodriguez remember their son, who was killed last year in San Juan. Puerto Rico's murder rate is now roughly six times the U.S. national average.

"I try to focus my thoughts away from the negative, away from what I don?t have, and I try to remember what I did have,? his mother told NBC News. ?That?s what sustains me.?

Julian was stabbed to death as he walked down the street with his girlfriend. The robber cut him three times as Julian lunged to protect her.

"A hero had died,? his father said, choking back tears. ?I am very proud of him. I am very saddened ? [by] this huge weight I have to continue bearing."

The teenager who killed Julian made off with his cell phone ? a valuable tool that is often stolen for drug traffickers to communicate with each other.

In memory of his son, Romero Font, a telecommunications company CEO, has become an activist, starting his own group called ??Basta Ya!? meaning, ?Enough is Enough!?

"Puerto Rico cannot survive with this horrendous crime wave,? he said.

Violent crime has been a part of life on the island for decades -- ever since the 1980s when Colombian cartels began to thrive here.

But the last several years have seen a dramatic spike.

According to the Puerto Rico Police Department, there were 1,016 murders in 2010. That number rose to 1,136 in 2011.

Outgoing Gov. Luis Fortuno credits a police crackdown for reducing homicides in certain parts of the island by 22 percent so far this year. But he stresses it?s not enough.

He told NBC News that he feels ignored by the federal government and that he?s ?banging on Washington?s door? for more help.

Federal agents and local police are cracking down on drug trafficking in Puerto Rico. NBC News speaks with an ICE agent and the island's recently appointed police superintendent, and tags along on a raid.

?We are American citizens,? Fortuno said. ?And we deserve to be protected.?

Puerto Rico?s governor-elect, Alejandro Javier Garcia Padilla, was not immediately available for comment.

Earlier this summer, federal agents arrested dozens of workers at Puerto Rico?s main airport who had allegedly helped smugglers move cocaine to the mainland.

According to ICE, agents have seized 22,000 pounds of illegal drugs so far this year. That?s up from 13,961 pounds in 2011 and 9,275 in 2010.

The street value of the recovered cocaine alone totals $250 million, ICE said.

Since Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, once illegal drugs reach the island, they?re unlikely to face further U.S. customs inspections on their way to the mainland.

?I think the cartels are smart,? said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas. ?They realize we're putting all of our efforts on the Southwest border (with Mexico) and we're not paying attention to the 'third border' -- the Caribbean -- so now they're exploiting that.?

In June, McCaul chaired a hearing on Capitol Hill that focused on the increased drug smuggling in Puerto Rico.

?We have no strategy for the Caribbean,? McCaul told NBC News. ?There is no comprehensive plan.?

He said that hopefully would change quickly as Washington learns more about the problem. In July, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano visited the island and promised to study the issue, adding that an increase in aid to Mexico did not come at the expense of the Caribbean.

A senior homeland security official told NBC News that since then, the department had conducted a comprehensive review of the situation in Puerto Rico and planned to focus on ?quality over quantity.?

The official, who asked not to be identified, said any future manpower surge would likely be ?modest? and the department?s priority would be to increase efficiency among the officers already on the ground as well as resources outside the island -- instead of simply pouring more money into the operations. The increased cooperation would help prevent the flow of illegal weapons to the island as well as illegal drugs from the island, the official said.

The drug trafficking crackdown comes as Puerto Rican police fight to reclaim the trust of residents.

The 17,000-member force is the second largest in the United States. In a report last year, the Justice Department accused officers of engaging ?in a pattern and practice of misconduct that violates the Constitution and federal law.? According to the DOJ?s findings, the department was ?broken in a number of critical ways,? including repeated instances of civil rights violations and illegal searches and seizures.

In 2010, the FBI arrested dozens of law enforcement officers on the island for allegedly providing protection to drug dealers.

Earlier this year, Hector Pesquera, the former head of the FBI's Miami division, was named superintendent of the Puerto Rico police. He told NBC News that weeding out corruption within his department has been a priority -- and he?s seen progress.

?We have streamlined our procedures to work on the internal affairs cases,? Pesquera said. ?We're getting rid of the backlog that existed. The word out there is clear: 'If you commit a transgression, you're going to be terminated.'?

For now, Pesquera said he and other Puerto Rican leaders are simply asking for a shift in federal resources. He said he realizes the difficult fiscal position the U.S. is in, but ?we should not be begging for assistance.?

Luis Romero Font, the activist who lost his son, agrees. He?s pushing the U.S. government to help stop the violence.

?When you lose a son, it?s like losing a huge part of yourself,? he said. ?Either [the U.S.] stops this now, or this crime wave will become something that infects Florida and the rest of the U.S. down the line.?

So away from the tourists, the raids continue. America?s ?third border? ? the place known as the ?island of enchantment? -- remains at war.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/23/15392453-the-third-border-puerto-rico-a-backdoor-into-us-mainland-for-drug-cartels?lite

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Congo rebels advance as regional leaders seek cease-fire

The war continues to expand in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with rebels vowing to extend the gains they've made in the east of the country as more civilians are forced to flee their homes.

By Max Delany,?Correspondent / November 23, 2012

Refugees flee the town of Sake in Congo after the government failed to liberate the town from the M23 rebel movement.

Jerome Delay/AP

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As regional leaders talked peace in plush hotel rooms a country away, fighting between rebels and government troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo's east rumbled on.

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On Friday, civilians carrying meager bundles of their belongings continued to stream out of the town of Sake a day after the Congolese national Army and an allied local militia tried ? and failed ? to retake the town from the M23 rebels.

Where those fleeing can go is unclear. Already tens of thousands of people displaced by the swirl of fighting are struggling to survive in makeshift camps studding the stony countryside.

The rebels pushed on with their offensive, capturing towns and villages around the regional capital Goma ? which they have controlled without challenge since seizing it from Congo's ragtag military on Tuesday. Buoyed by their victory the rebels said they were going much farther ? Congo's capital Kinshasa, a thousand miles to the west.

The continuing advance comes despite a flurry of diplomatic efforts to end the fighting.

As Goma fell, the three men who are widely seen as having played a central role in creating the conflict ? and could play the key role to end it ? met for talks at a luxury hotel on the shores of lake Victoria outside Uganda's capital Kampala.

On the one side was Congo's beleaguered president Joseph Kabila ? who had just seen his army melt away and angry protestors torch his party offices in several cities. On the other side was Rwandan President Paul Kagame ? the man whose own defense minister is in de facto command of the M23 rebels, according to the UN and Congo.

And somewhere in the middle was Uganda's wily leader Yoweri Museveni, a compromised mediator given that some senior Ugandan officials, including Mr. Museveni's own younger brother, have been accused by the UN of supporting the rebels.

Backing DRC?

At a hastily convened press conference on Wednesday the three presidents, looking weary after hours of talks, demanded the rebels stop fighting and pull out of Goma, while Museveni and President Kagame said they could not ?entertain the idea of overthrowing the legitimate government of the DRC or undermining its authority.?

"Wherever they [M23] are we shall tell them to go back. The region is saying to them to go back ... and I can assure you they will go back," Museveni said.

For its part, the government of Congo said it would ?look expeditiously into the causes of [the rebels'] discontent and address them as best as it can.? Mr. Kabila was noncommittal when asked about the possibility of direct negotiations ? the rebels' major demand.

While the presidents seemed confident about stopping the violence, no one seemed to have told the rebels to stop fighting. Rebel leaders said they would not be withdrawing from Goma any time soon.

Museveni reportedly sent a chopper down to the Congo border on Thursday to spirit M23's political chief to Kampala for talks, and Kagame and Kabila are expected back in town over the weekend.

But whether Kabila will agree to negotiate face-to-face with the rebels remains the big question, say analysts.

?Given that the FARDC [Congo's Army] is not strong enough to defeat M23 it's not clear that he is in a position to block such an agreement. It may be his only choice,? says Laura Seay, a regional expert at Morehouse College in the US. ?That said, Kabila only wants to deal with Rwanda, not the M23, as he sees Kigali as the source of M23's strength.?

And despite intense international pressure to find a solution, both sides remain far apart.

?It's hard to see what a negotiated solution would look like at this stage,? Ms. Seay says

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/fnbkVWhjiOE/Congo-rebels-advance-as-regional-leaders-seek-cease-fire

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