Author: Serkadis

Right now, 20 million Americans are in the midst of an episode of depression.

Some have the incapacitating symptoms of what doctors call a major depression. These symptoms usually require professional attention because they are very severe and demoralizing. Feeling hopeless and worthless, a person with major depression may sleep and eat irregularly.

In the throes of severe depression, it is hard to concentrate, make decisions, or find the energy to do much of anything. Thoughts of suicide are common.

Depression primarily refers to a state of mind that is purely negative, with an inclination to insufficiency and a hopeless lack of interest to do things.

If someone has a minor depression, however, the problem is more manageable. Experts say that people who have some minor depression will feel lousy about themselves and lousy about their lives, but they are managing to function at a high level.

In fact, some of the newfound ways of battling the blues are related to what you do as well as what you feel. Here are some ways that you can prepare your body to help prevent minor depression:

1. Put some spring in your step.

Regular exercise may be the most powerful natural antidepressant available. It is advisable that you take a brisk walk. Exercise helps generate the release of brain chemicals called endorphins. When endorphin levels are low, depression occurs. Exercise also oxygenates the brain, keeping it healthy.

How much should you exercise? Thirty minutes, five or six days a week, at moderate intensity, is a nice level to aim for to help prevent the brain imbalances that can make you vulnerable to depression.

2. Nourish your brain.

Virtually any nutrient deficiency can result in impaired mental function, including depression. To help prevent depression, health experts recommend that people should take high-potency multivitamins or mineral supplement. This will supply the brain with enough nutrients in order to keep it properly functioning and, thus, avoid some mental disorders such as depression.

3. Get enough sleep.

Getting less than eight hours of sleep, night after night, may lower levels of the brain chemical known as “serotonin,” which can make you more prone to depression. To sleep well, health practitioners recommend going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, including weekends.

Relax before bedtime, perhaps with a hot bath. And for the soundest sleep, keep your bedroom quiet and dark.

4. Consider some alternate explanations.

Your emotions, positive or negative, are created not by situations themselves, but by the way you interpret those situations. A very common situation can turn into a reason for hand wringing unless you take mental steps to prevent it.

Suppose a friend is going to pick you up so that the two of you can go somewhere and do something fun together. Now, suppose that time passes, and your friend does not arrive to get you. Your feelings change, quite literally, from moment to moment. If at first you think of your friend as being insensitive and irresponsible, you will find yourself feeling angry at him. If you think that perhaps something bad has happened to him, you will naturally become concerned. If you think that this person does not care much about you and that is why he is late, you feel rejected, lonely, even depressed.

Although the situation does not change, and that your friend is still delayed, you can have a whole range of feelings depending on how you interpret that event.

For this reason, experts contend that situations are usually ambiguous, open to any interpretation. Hence, your interpretation helps create your feelings about the situation. Positive interpretations lead to good feelings and enjoyment; negative interpretations lead to bad feelings and depression. To stay on the positive side, try to look for the positive interpretations.

Indeed, depressions can be very destructive if neglected. Hence, the best way to stop the development of depression is to always put a bright light on the blues and create a positive outlook in life.

Venezuela, South America | Natural Wonders

It might look like it’s straight out of a sci-fi movie, but this natural wonder is completely real, and fully awe inspiring. Mount Roraima, bordered by three different countries (Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana) whose border lines intersect of the massive shelf, is surrounded on all four sides by sheer 400-meter high cliffs. While its cliff walls are only scalable by the most experienced of climbers, there is a hiking path up the mountain’s natural ramp-like path (usually a two-day hike).

However, the mountain is worth a visit for more reasons than its impressive cliffs. Mount Roraima, part of Venezuela’s 30000-square-kilometer Canaima National Park, is the site of the highest peak of the country of Guyana’s Highland Range. The mountains of this range, including Roraima, are considered to be some of the oldest geological formations known, some dating back to two-billion years ago. Its near daily rains have also created a unique ecosystem which includes several endemic species, including a unique carnivorous pitcher plant, and some of the highest waterfalls in the world.

Culturally, the mountain has long held significance to the indigenous people of the area and features prominently in their myths and folklore. It was also the inspiration for the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel, The Lost World as well as for Paradise Falls in the 2009 Pixar film, Up.

Looks like Ubisoft is off to making one “Ghost Recon Future Soldier”, if the filed trademark on the USPTO is any indication. No other information is available, save for the fact that it is classified as a

Square Enix is giving you another cause to catch Just Cause 2 when it releases next year with this new trailer. Off they go to Southeast Asia’s “best kept secret”, and from there, the island of Panau

In this official transcript of a briefing delivered on Air Force One on the way back from Copenhagen, Denmark to Washington, D.C., a senior administration official (evidently Press Secretary Robert Gibbs) describes the unusual process President Obama took to craft the Copenhagen Accord with the leaders of China, India, Brazil, and South Africa at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change.

11:46 P.M. CET

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So I just want to make sure everybody is cool with the rules here. We’re going to have probably a couple of these on this flight. What I want to do though, on background as a senior administration official, I want to go through a series of events that led up to the President going into what we had set up as a bilateral meeting with Premier Wen. So I just want to get—I want everyone to be clear on this set of events. So let me go through this timeline and then we can go through questions. And bear with me because I sometimes can’t even read my own writing.

At the first bilateral meeting with Premier Wen, the President, as we have done over the past several days, was pushing quite hard on transparency language. And we had given some transparency language to them and negotiators on our side had gone to work with their side on the notion of transparency.

Q The language was before the meeting, though? Was given to them before the meeting?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I’m sorry, say again.

Q When you said, “we had given language to them,” you meant before their bilat?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: This was during the bilat. So this was at the end of the bilat and the President says to Wen that he thinks our negotiators should get together, spend about an hour seeing if we can make some progress – because in all honesty, rhetorically, we were hearing what we wanted to hear about steps that they were willing to take on transparency, but wanted to make sure that we would have something to agree on that wasn’t just them agreeing to agree.

So the President at that point – you guys will have some times in your email to go through – but remember there comes a point in which you should have gotten from Kevin Lewis, via an update from me, that says the President has gone to the multilateral meeting and representing the Chinese was their climate change ambassador in the ministry of foreign affairs, who was in this meeting – to put it, I guess, accurately – as to speak for the entire Chinese government.

It’s at this point that the President, before our Medvedev bilateral, the President said to staff, I don’t want to mess around with this anymore, I want to just talk with Premier Wen. So we were trying to do that before the Medvedev bilat. Our advance team called their advance team to try to set this meeting up, and in all honesty make one more chance, make one more run at getting something done. The Chinese say they need to call our advance guys back. So it’s clear that it’s going to take some time to get this Wen meeting done, so we’re going to go ahead and do the Medvedev bilat earlier than was on the schedule.

And as the President waited for Medvedev to be – to move the delegation down into the room, the President also says to staff, we should meet in a group of three with Lula of Brazil, Singh of India, and Zuma of South Africa. All right. So, let’s get a meeting with Wen, let’s get a meeting with these three guys.

We get a call back from advance that Wen is at the hotel and the Chinese staff are at the airport.

Q (Inaudible.)

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I don’t know what level of staff, but some of their staff – a decent chunk of their staff was at the airport.

Q So they had all left the Bella Center?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes.

Q Including Wen – and that was news to you guys –

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Wen was at the hotel.

Q Oh, he was at the hotel.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The Indians – when we called also about Zuma, Lula and Singh, we were told Singh was at the airport.

Q Do you consider that a walk-out?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, I think they thought the meeting was done. I think they thought there wasn’t anything left to stay for, in all honesty.

Q That was around 4:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m.?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I’d have to – my sense is probably closer to 4:00 p.m. So we basically – we set times for when we want to have these meetings. We called the advance for each of these countries. We want to do – we had given the Chinese to a certain point before we were going to lock in first the other meetings. So we hadn’t heard back from the Chinese so we lock in first the notion at 5:30 p.m. we’d like to meet with the three, Zuma, Lula and Singh. And then at 6:15 p.m. – the Chinese called back – we didn’t know if they were going to call back, at 6:15 p.m. we lock in that we’re going to do a bilateral meeting with Premier Wen.

Zuma originally accepted this 5:30 p.m. multilateral meeting. Brazil tells us that they don’t know if they can come because they want the Indians to come. The Indians, as I just said, were at the airport. Zuma is under the impression that everybody is coming. Advance basically tells the South Africans that at this point the Brazilians are unclear about meeting without the Indians, the Indians are at the airport, and Zuma at that point says, well, if they’re not coming I can’t do this.

The Chinese then call and say, can we move our 6:15 p.m. bilateral back to 7:00 p.m. And we said – we put them on hold, talked a little bit, the President walked up, the President said, move it to 7:00 p.m., I’m going back to the multilateral. The President goes to the multilateral and we had been getting emails at this time from those in the European delegation about – because the President had left that first multilateral – or the previous multilateral after the deputy foreign minister for climate change had been there representing the Chinese and saying, I’m going to go find and talk to Wen. All right, we’re going to do this Wen thing. So the Europeans are wondering sort of where we were with Premier Wen.

He spent about 45 minutes in the bilateral meeting –

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL #2: In the multilateral.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I’m sorry, in the multilateral meeting; thank you. That’s with the Europeans, that’s with Ethiopians. At the very –

Q (Inaudible.)

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So this would have been, quite frankly, leading up to about 7:00 p.m.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL #2: After Medvedev.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes, after Medvedev. We said – a couple of us start to walk up to the room where the multilat is because we had sent advance to look at the room, the room where we were going to have the China bilat and realize the room is occupied by what we think are the Chinese and we can’t get into the room to look at it.

So they come back and it sort of got our antennae up a little bit. So by the time several of us, including Denis McDonough and I, got into the multilateral room we’ve now figured out why we can’t get into that room: because that room has Wen, Lula, Singh and Zuma. They’re all having a meeting.

Q So they weren’t at the airport?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Or they came back.

Q And you guys didn’t know this.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: We did not know this. We are getting – I can show you some of the emails that we’re getting saying – because truthfully I asked one of the advance guys, did you see anybody else in the hallway? And he said, just clearly Chinese.

Q So Wen –

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Wen, Lula, Singh and Zuma. But we’re starting to get emails one by one, hey Zuma is in this room, too; hey, Singh is in this room, too. So all of a sudden that’s when we start to make sure we’re walking up to the multilateral room. The President is beginning to leave. He spends time right before he leaves – this would have been right before 7:00 p.m., the President is talking with Chancellor Merkel and Gordon Brown about going for this bilateral meeting with Premier Wen, that they had rescheduled for 7:00 p.m.

Again, we thought we were still on for a bilateral meeting. That’s when our delegation walked over. We held and I think Ben moved the pool because we had heard at this point previous to this that the pool for the Chinese had been assembled outside of this room. And we had the President wait for a minute while Ben moved the pool so that – we had heard that they were going to pre-set without any of us. So we had the President hold.

That’s I think when many of you start to pick up this story. This is when I think you, in the pool report, said, you know –

Q When he said, are you ready, are you ready?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Are you ready for me? We were going to –

Q You were going to crash their meeting.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, no, no, no, no. We weren’t crashing a meeting; we were going for our bilateral meeting.

Q And you found those other people there.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: We found the other people there. We found this out as we were going –

Q So as you walked in you realized it –

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: We found this out – remember, we found this out as Denis and I are walking up to the room to go with the President, because the delegations were the same for the Wen bilat, Denis, Ben and I were both in the delegation for the original Wen bilat. That’s when the President walks in – Helene has in the pool report, you know, “Are you ready for me?”

Q Is it correct to say that when he walked in he didn’t know?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I don’t – I think it’s safe to say they did not intend to have that meeting with four of them; they intended to have that meeting with one. The President walks in – and by the time I finally push through I hear the President say – there aren’t any seats, right, I mean, I think if you’ve seen some of the pictures, there were basically no chairs. And the President says, “No, no, don’t worry, I’m going to go sit by my friend Lula,” and says, “Hey, Lula.” Walks over, moves a chair, sits down next to Lula. The Secretary of State sits down next to him.

And that leaves us at a series of events that Doug and others covered where there’s pushing and that would have been at 7:00 p.m. local time, so 1:00 p.m. sort of East Coast Time.

Q When the President –

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Let me just – I want to do a couple things now. They’re still meeting back in Copenhagen. We’re going to get some regular updates, and as we get some updates, our hope and goal is to provide you then a little bit more context. Then we’ll start then at 7:00 p.m., or 1:00 p.m Eastern, because there’s several more twists in this road before we get to I think my notes have it at about – that whole meeting concludes about 8:15 p.m.-8:20 p.m. But there’s a whole lot of fun in between.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Let me take a few –

Q Can I clarify two just sort of factual points. You said at one point that the President left the multilateral because of the level of Chinese representation – is that right, that he – basically he said, I’m out?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Let me say this – I think the President realized, based on a meeting that – meetings that he’d had in Beijing with Premier Wen and the bilateral, he felt like he had a very good relationship with Premier Wen, and quite frankly, if the Chinese were going to make – if the Chinese were going to move on transparency, it wasn’t going to be through the deputy mining minister – right?

Q Is that what the guy is, deputy mining minister?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, I was just – sort of a joke. But, no, he’s the – I think we sent it around – he’s the –

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL #2: Climate change ambassador.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: – climate change rep for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But in all honesty, it’s a position lower than the person that was in the original multilateral when we got there –

Q (Inaudible.)

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Right, yes. So I think at that point, the President – I think the President understands that he wants to make one more run at this, but he wants to make one more run at this with Premier Wen.

Q And later in the – when he was going up to the meeting that turned into the multilateral, is it your thought that they meant to have a meeting with each other to exclude the United States, or get their ducks in a row, or what was going on?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I will assume that their meeting was to get their ducks in a row. Because at this point, though our – certainly our impression was that a number of these people were either at or on the way to the airport. We had confirmed with the Chinese before he went to the multilateral the second to last time – the last time being right before the press conference – but the second to last time, that we had just then agreed to move the bilateral meeting that we wanted to set up with the Chinese to 7:00 p.m. So we believed, up until about two minutes before Denis and I walked into the multilateral, before moving to the 7:00 p.m. meeting, that we were having a bilateral meeting.

Q But it’s not – it shouldn’t be too big of a surprise because those four countries have been working as a negotiating team on this issue, right?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Certainly no surprise. Again, we were trying to put together a similar meeting, but found the logistics to be hard to do. And I think I know now why the logistics proved somewhat challenging. They were busy; they were meeting.

Q Was it logistics, or were they trying to have their own separate meeting without the U.S. involved?

Q Were they trying to scuffle the deal and get together and –

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I don’t know that they were trying – I don’t know where they were on the deal. I know that the – again, the President’s viewpoint was I’m going to make one last run. When it appeared we couldn’t get the Chinese earlier in the day, the President said, well, if we can’t get the Chinese then let’s get the next three that are – absolutely they’re working as a team. They’ve got similar interests, there’s no doubt about that.

Again, the only surprise we had, in all honesty, was we did not know at 6:15 p.m., when we moved our meeting from 6:15 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., that in that room wasn’t just the Chinese having a meeting about their posture going into the 7:00 p.m. meeting, but in fact all four countries that we had been trying to arrange meetings with were indeed all in the same room.

Q Well, when did that become clear? When the President goes to that meeting does he think he’s going to meet Wen, and walks in the door and is, like, oh, everyone is here?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, no. Denis and I had told him that – we had told him –

Q That they were all in there?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: – that the room that the meeting is being held in for our bilateral currently contains the leaders of those four countries. And he said, “Good.”

Q That was his thought – good?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: And we were off.

Q Can I ask one logistical –

Q So he said, “Good,” and, I’m going to go up there at 7:00 p.m. for my prior appointment with Wen –

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: He said, “Good,” on the way to walking to the meeting. I mean, we had a 7:00 p.m. meeting and we were walking on our way to meet our 7:00 p.m. meeting. We briefed him that our 7:00 p.m. meeting is in a room currently occupied by not just the Chinese, but the three other countries. And the President’s viewpoint is, I wanted to see them all and now is our chance.

Q Were they waiting for him there? Is that why they were all there, because they knew he was coming?

Q Was there surprise when he walked in?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes, the Chinese were waiting for us. I do not believe they anticipated that the meeting that we ultimately had would actually include all the countries. There’s no doubt –

Q They thought you guys would wait until they were done?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I don’t know whether they thought we would – there really wasn’t anybody to – actually I think we were shown into the room, in all honesty. I think we were shown which direction to go to the room and I think there was no doubt there was some surprise that we were going to join the bigger meeting.

Q I’ve got to ask why you didn’t have better intel – and I don’t mean in the CIA sense – on where all these people were? I mean, it’s not –

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: We did. We thought they were at the airport.

Q Right, exactly.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I mean, that’s what we were told.

Q But, you know, you’re all sort of in a close area there. Why didn’t anybody from the administration know where all these people were? I mean –

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, it’s not our job to know where Prime Minister Singh is if his – if we’re told he’s at the airport.

Q But usually at these summits there’s a lot of Sherpa-tracking going on and that sort of thing, you know.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, look, I – I mean, we were – we were told they were at the airport. We were told delegations were split up. We were told they weren’t going to meet – Zuma wasn’t going to come unless he was under the impression that the other two were going to come.

Q Do you think that’s all part of the brinksmanship and the sort of horse-trading and maneuvering?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I honestly think that they – well, my gut instinct tells me that they knew they had to make one more run at this.

Q One more?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: One more run at this.

Q But there’s this – what they call a taxicab strategy, when you always threaten to walk out. I mean, do you think that’s what –

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, they didn’t threaten to walk out. When we tried to set up the meetings we were told they were gone. I mean, if they employed that strategy they didn’t lay down the threat.

Q Can I ask a logistical question just about when – I mean, because we’re all on the plane and we land at 1:00 a.m. in the morning –

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: If we’re lucky.

Q If we’re lucky.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: If somebody wants to type this up and call it in, I will tell them that that’s fine to do – largely because I want to be – I want to make clear, we did not break into what we thought was a secret meeting, okay? Again, the reason that we appeared at the room – the reason we appeared at the room was at – in the 5:00 p.m. hour the Chinese wanted to move their 6:15 p.m. meeting back to 7:00 p.m. in the room that they had for their meetings. We said, fine. We were walking to meet our 7:00 p.m. appointment.

Q Well, you guys want – I mean, can we – because are we going to try and get this in for tonight? Or – I just want to make sure that – the one thing I just want to make sure doesn’t happen is a transcript lands and some – and we don’t somewhere –

Q I’m more interested in what happens between 7:00 p.m. and 8:15 p.m.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: It’s a good story, my friend, and with a little luck we’ll be able to tell that at a little bit later leg on the flight.

Q That’s what I mean. So we, like hold – are we holding everything until we land? Or are we trying to, like –

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I just want to make sure – I don’t want to be – just again, I just want to make sure that – the reason I gave you this series of events is because to accurately portray just sort of what is happening and when. We did not – again, our presence at that room at 7:00 p.m. was expected based on the meeting that we had set up. Whether or –

Q With Wen.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Right. Whether or not the other – fair enough we did not know the other three were there until at a point at which we were about to go and walking to that meeting.

Q And you and Denis told the President?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Denis and I –

Q Was anybody mad about it?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No. We thought this was a great opportunity to finish four meetings.

Q The other guys.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: You know, it’s hard to tell because the truth is – and we’ll get into this on the next leg of this – there were – quickly dove into about an hour and 20 minutes worth of negotiating that – I want to do this part off the record.

• * * * *

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So, the President believed that he needed to talk to Wen, they needed to make one more run at getting an agreement. So he’s in this meeting – this is the group of leaders that we first visit in the very beginning of the morning. So it is comprised of – obviously you’re going to take the four out that are already in the different meeting. So you’ve got a pretty decent cross-section, first, of – you’ve the Europeans – you’ve got Merkel, Brown, Sarkozy; you’ve got Rudd from Australia; you’ve got Rasmussen from Denmark. You’ve also got Meles from Ethiopia; you’ve got Mexico, Norway – so you basically have the smaller developing countries, Europe, Australia, Scandinavia – so you basically have the larger group minus the four that he ultimately sees.

This larger group had come to the conclusion that the agreement would either – they needed to make one more run at two main points. One of them was the percent reduction by 2050 and the temperature change, as well as the transparency; that they had to do that with Wen or they were not going to get an agreement.

So, at this point – so the President went around to – went around the table, physically walking around the table, talking to Ethiopia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Australia, the Maldives – all these countries to talk about what they were going to go – what he was going to go do in making a last run at Premier Wen. And they talked about the fact that if they didn’t – if they went to Wen and they couldn’t get an agreement, that basically they would still try to structure something for those that would sign on in order to continue to make progress toward something in the future.

So essentially the President has – is working with Europe, Asia – I’m sorry, Europe, Australia, and others in the developed – of the developed economies, in addition to the smaller developing countries minus India, China, Brazil, and South Africa, which is essential in ensuring that, in all honesty, the other four realized – this is where I think the other four realized that they’ve got to make one more run at this, too, because what they were – what the President was discussing along with this group was, if they couldn’t get something that included China, India, Brazil, and South Africa on transparency and temperature mitigation, that they would get what they could with who they could get it with.

So you basically have – you’ve got – you’ve now got two different coalitions. All right.

Q I just don’t understand your last sentence – they would get what they could with who they could get it with.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, basically if the Chinese were unwilling to do transparency, and the Indians and the Brazilians and the South Africans followed the Chinese, then the President and those in that multilateral group would try to get something that all they could agree on, and we would go out with all of that.

I mean, look, I think it’s safe to say at that point in the day, China had real – they were balking at transparency. The President thought at the very least we could get – we can make progress on something by putting together a coalition of those that were agreeable to having some sort of declaration or agreement.

Q And that coalition included both developing and developed countries?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes, and that obviously is the key to –

Q Like you could create leverage against the four outstanding.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes, yes. I think that’s why people stowed their luggage in their overhead bins and decided to come back to the negotiating table. Came back from the airport.

All right? Thanks, guys.

Bowl season has just gotten underway, and already I am off to an 0-1 start in my postseason picks. Surely, I shouldn’t even need to tell you at this point, but I will, anyway: Don’t Bet On It!

Here is the next round of bowl forecasts:

Humanitarian Bowl: Bowling Green Falcons v. Idaho Vandals (Dec. 30): Oh, you have to be kidding me! I’m diving headfirst back into bowl season, and you’re giving me Bowling Green versus Idaho on the blue field in Boise? For crying out loud, this is a game so lame even I may not watch it! If I declared a national bowl of disinterest, this would be it. Eenie meenie minie . . . Bowling Green. Moving right along now. . . .

Holiday Bowl: Arizona Wildcats v. Nebraska Cornhuskers (Dec. 30): There was some good thinking going on there. Here we have a bowl game with a long history of being one of the most exciting postseason tilts around, played in scenic San Diego, all of which adds up to one of the most watchable bowls on the slate, and some nimrod at Pacific Life decides to invite Mike Stoops and Bo Pelini, the two finalists for the AFCA’s Wayne Woodrow Hayes Memorial Trophy, which is awarded annually to the head coach voted most likely to blow a head gasket and completely flip out on the sideline. Watching this bowl game will be like watching a hockey game . . . you’ll just be hanging around waiting for the fight to start. The ‘Cats are happy to be there and the ‘Huskers are miffed about coming within one second of winning the Big 12, so I’m going with Arizona.

Armed Forces Bowl: Air Force Falcons v. Houston Cougars (Dec. 31): I’m glad the House Committee on Un-American Activities isn’t still in existence, because I’m afraid I might be investigated for picking against a service academy in the Armed Forces Bowl. Nevertheless, the Cougs have done what putative “BCS busters” did perennially prior to the Utah Utes’ breakthrough season in 2004, winning their marquee non-conference contests while stumbling against league foes in head-scratching losses. Inasmuch as this game qualifies as a marquee non-conference contest (and is being played in the Lone Star State), I’m thinking Houston should have no problem.

Sun Bowl: Oklahoma Sooners v. Stanford Cardinal (Dec. 31): If I’d told you four months ago that Oklahoma and Stanford would be meeting in a bowl game this season, you’d have told me either that I was crazy or that my prediction was a sign of the apocalypse. Well, you may want to have your Bible open to the Book of Revelation on New Year’s Eve, because I’m picking the Cardinal to win in spite of the numerical advantage the Sooners enjoy by virtue of having pluralized their mascot.

If my math is correct (and there’s a very good chance it isn’t), I’m halfway through the bowl season, so stick around for the bowls you actually care about rest of my prognostications, but, in the meantime, don’t forget my regular disclaimer: Don’t Bet On It!

Go ‘Dawgs!

With a massive 20 million PS2 install base, Square Enix released Final Fantasy XII exclusively on the PS2 in Japan, and has so far sold some 2.4 million units to date. A Japanese analyst has high enough

Holiday decorations are supposed to add to your enjoyment of the season, but they can be hazards in some cases. According to CPSC, more than 14,000 people in the US are treated in emergency rooms due to injuries related to holiday decorating in the two months surrounding Christmas.

Even the most innocent-looking decor can be dangerous.

Does anyone else find it a bit ironic that an angel tree topper, Precious Moments no less, is being recalled due to overheating? I guess it’s really not a very angelic topper after all.

The topper is being recalled due to undersized wiring that could cause the switch assembly to overheat, posing a fire hazard. Get more details about this recall at CPSC.

Holiday trees are involved in hundreds of fires and an average of 15 deaths annually, as well as $13 million dollars in property damage each year. According to CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum, most holiday-decor fires and injuries involve defective holiday lights, dried-out Christmas trees and unattended candles.

For artificial trees, CPSC recommends looking for the label “Fire Resistant.” If you’re going for a live tree, chose a fresh, green tree with needles that can’t be pulled off or broken easily.

For both indoor and outdoor holiday lights, CPSC advises using only lights that have been tested for safety by a known national testing laboratory like UL or ETL/ITSNA. Also, avoid using electric lights on a metallic Christmas tree. Any damaged lights with loose connections, frayed wires or broken sockets should be discarded.

Candles are even bigger holiday offenders than trees. They cause 12,000 fires each year in the US. Never place a candle near items that could catch fire easily, such as curtains or evergreens, and always keep burning candles in sight. If you’re decorating with candles, avoid wearing loose, flowing clothing around them.

For more safe holiday decorating tips, download the holiday decorating brochure from CPSC.

(Image via CPSC)

Post from: Blisstree

Overheated Angel and Other Holiday Hazards

Filed under: Motorsports, Etc., Videos

As the proliferation of LeMons events has proven, there’s a fat vein of crap-box motorsports yet to be mined. Northwestern Wisconsin has its own unique brand of vehicular mayhem called Car Launching. The premise is simple: Jump something fetid and ridiculous off an earthen ramp, headed for certain destruction.

It’s best to tow something that enhances the punchline. Like a dumpster. It’s a much shorter lap than LeMons, but we suppose you could counter that by dragging more than one vehicle with you. Check out the video posted after the jump for the full impact. (We highly recommend clicking the “View Fullscreen” option.)

[Source: Notes from the Technology Underground]

Continue reading VIDEO: Crap Motorsports FTW! – Car Launching

VIDEO: Crap Motorsports FTW! – Car Launching originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh boy! You may have noticed, the site has been down for a couple of days. My hosting service decided to do some behind-the-scenes busy work and we accidentally went back in time to last August for a little while. Needless to say, I’ve been a little stressed out for the last 48 hours! The good news is that it’s all fixed now. The reason for all the commotion is due to the popularity of the site and the traffic it is generating. I’m always glad to see that there are so many people interested in good design for cats!

Due to this little snafu, some of your comments on the holiday giveaways may have been lost. So, if you left a comment since Wednesday, Dec 16, please leave another comment to make sure you’re entered to win. And if you missed any of these the first time around, you still have time to enter!

Sorry for the confusion! There may be a little more technical juggling in the coming weeks to get everything rearranged to accommodate the traffic the site is getting, but I’ll give you plenty of notice.

Holiday Giveaways!

• SnoozePal Cat Hammock in a Box
• Fling-ama-String
• Hepper Holiday Giveaway
• Watson T-shirt Giveaway
• RedTango Watch

Interesting announcement from small gold miner Firstgold. A unit of the Treasury department has informed it that it will seek to block a a planned investment from China.:

—-

Firstgold Corp. (TSX: FGD) (PINKSHEETS: FGOC) (“Firstgold” or “the Company”) has been advised by The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) that they will, on Dec 21st, recommend to President Obama that he reject the proposed investment by the China-based company Northwest Non Ferrous International Investment Company Ltd. (“Northwest”) in Firstgold. CFIUS has determined through their investigation that serious, significant and consequential national security issues existed. In particular they noted the proximity of Firstgold’s properties to the Fallon Naval Air Station and related facilities. CFIUS had considered several mitigation possibilities and concluded that none would sufficiently resolve the national security issues.

“This is very difficult news to receive. While we certainly respect the process CFIUS has taken to arrive at their determination, we disagree 100% with their conclusion. We fail to see the connection between US national security and our principal asset the Relief Canyon mine, which has existed at its present location since the early 1980s. Our property is over 50 miles away from the Fallon base and surrounded by several other mining properties. At this stage we understand on Dec 21st that CFIUS will recommend rejection to President Obama. Our hope would be that his review of the matter will lead to a different and positive conclusion,” commented Terry Lynch Firstgold CEO.

“You can imagine how discouraging this is for Northwest. At this stage we do not know what their intentions are although we remain hopeful that we can yet find a way to close the transaction. In the interim Firstgold is reviewing other options to bring Relief Canyon into production and to obtain value for its assets.”

Firstgold has spent $16 million over the last 24 months developing a processing facility at Relief Canyon, located outside Lovelock Nevada, on the site of the previously producing Pegasus Gold Mine. Additional information about Firstgold Corp. can be found by visiting its web site at www.firstgoldcorp.com

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• China Hires Pimco’s Changhong Zhu To Manage Country’s Giant Forex Reserves
• Niall Ferguson: How China’s Insane Fiscal Policies Pumped Up Chimerica And Crushed America
• China’s Dumping Of The Dollar Has Begun

So far the big storm has been a bust in New York City, although it has been intense south of here. Cherry Hill, New Jersey, for instance, has already seen 14 inches of snowfall.

But the lack of snow doesn’t necessary mean that Super Saturday was salvaged for retailers. The warnings to stay off the roads and fears of blizzard like conditions most likely scared many shoppers out of the stores.

We conducted a brief shopping trip to the Flat Iron and Union Square area today. We found that shops were crowded although not packed to overcapacity. It looked like it wasn’t quite the Super Saturday that retailers might have hoped for but not a complete wipe out either. Here’s the full East Coast report from Stephen Manning of the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — “Super Saturday” may just end up as Snowy Saturday in much of the eastern U.S.

The last Saturday of shopping before Christmas, usually one of the busiest days of the year for retailers, was snowed out on most of the East Coast by blizzard-like conditions that stretched from the Carolinas to New England.

Many retailers were open but crowds were sparse on a day stores count on for a successful season.

Treacherous roads and near whiteout conditions kept many shoppers away from shopping malls and other stores. For retailers hoping for a better holiday season than last year’s dismal sales, the bad weather was especially painful.

“You are looking at your busiest day of the year and taking it away,” said Steven Aarons, manager of Barstons Child Play, a toy store in Washington.

Forecasts for the Washington region called for up to 20 inches of snow. A heavy coat was already on the ground by the time most stores opened around midmorning.

Compounding problems were snow-covered roads and spotty public transportation. Shopping malls were especially affected by bad roads. In Washington, the Metro subway system shut down aboveground stations in the early afternoon, effectively cutting off rail service to many big suburban shopping centers.

In the Friendship Heights section of the city, usually a bustling retail area with big department stores and upscale shops, most foot traffic came from work crews scraping away snow and spreading salt. Some big stores opened on time, but others remained dark after their posted opening hours. Even the Salvation Army stand was unstaffed.

The King of Prussia Mall outside of Philadelphia opened on time at 8 a.m., but traffic was down significantly at the complex’s 365 stores and 40 restaurants, according to a spokesman. The mall’s traffic did get a boost Friday night from people wary of the coming storm.

The holiday shopping season so far has been mildly encouraging for retailers who have suffered due to high unemployment and the weak economy that have made consumers reluctant to spend. Most reports put spending slightly above last year’s levels.

At Tysons Corner Center, a mega-mall in the Washington region, only about half of the stores were open by midday and customer traffic was light. Jeff Hernandez, manager of a stationary store, said he wasn’t able to open until noon and would likely close before the mall shuts down later tonight.

“I didn’t think it was worth it,” to stay open, he said.

It’s still unclear how the storm will affect sales later in the week and whether consumers who stayed home Saturday would shift their shopping to Sunday. Much of the worst weather was expected to be over by late Saturday in the Washington region but last into Sunday morning farther north.

Super Saturday usually accounts for $15 billion worth of sales nationwide, according to Scott Bernhardt of weather research firm Planalytics. The storm’s current track means it will likely impact about a quarter of the U.S. population. Those that do shop will likely make their trips short, he said.

“They are going to dash in and dash out. They aren’t going to do any impulse buying,” he said.

Retailers with an especially high concentration of stores in the affected region include Bon-Ton stores, DSW Shoe Warehouse and Kohl’s Inc.

The effect on retailers is likely to be less than it would if the snow hit even later in the season, said Michael Niemira, chief economist of the International Council of Shopping Centers. They still have several days to make up the sales. And while the storm hit the heavily populated East Coast, most of the rest of the nation was unaffected by bad weather.

The storm didn’t lead Niemira to change his estimate that November and December spending would rise 1 percent from last year.

Online shopping also could get a boost as consumers buy from home rather than brave the bad weather.

“People may just sit at home and shop,” said Hana Ben-Shabat, a partner in the retail practice at A.T. Kearney, a global management consultant.

In New York, shoppers were trying to wrap up ahead of the storm.

At Manhattan Mall, a few blocks away from Macy’s flagship store in New York, stores like J.C. Penney were still bustling at midday, when snow hadn’t yet materialized. But even shoppers who took the train in to the city were wary.

Natalie McCann, of Edison, N.J., said she would probably cut short her annual trip into the city on the last Saturday because of the building storm. But it wasn’t the snow that was keeping her from spending big on gifts.

“I’m just not that enthusiastic this year,” said McCann, 47, who says she’s cutting her spending significantly to about $750.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Winter Storm Threatens To Bury "Super Saturday"

Don’t forget about this one. 

It may be nothing, but it hasn’t gone away yet.

—–

By LARA JAKES (AP) – 1 hour ago

BAGHDAD — Iraq deployed security forces Saturday near a remote oil well seized by Iran, officials said, and its government pressed Tehran to withdraw its forces from the area along their disputed southern border.

U.S. officials applauded Iraq for standing its ground against Iran — an uneasy ally that analysts said was aiming to remind its neighbor of its economic and political pull in its takeover of the oil well Thursday. The site is located in one of the largest oil fields in Iraq and has about 1.5 billion barrels in reserves.

The standoff was a dramatic display of the occasionally tense relations between the two oil-rich nations that fought an eight-year war in the 1980s but now share common ground in Shiite-led governments.

“Again, we ask Iran to be committed to the good relations that they announced with Iraq and its nation, and to withdraw its forces immediately,” Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Al-Arabiyah TV. “This is the demand of Iraq, and we call Iran to be committed with that.”

Iran, however, appeared undeterred.

In a statement, the Iranian military denied it violated Iraq’s sovereignty and cited a 1975 border agreement in claiming the oil well as part of Iran’s territory.

“Our forces are on our own soil and, based on the known international borders, this well belongs to Iran,” the Iranian military said in a statement to Iran’s Arabic-language Al-Alam satellite television.

Iraqi army and police reinforcements were sent to a staging ground about a half-mile (1 kilometer) from well No. 4 at the al-Fakkah oil field, according to two Iraqi officials close to the site. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue with the media.

One of the Iraqi officials said Iranian soldiers came and went from the oil well throughout Saturday. They were gone by the evening, leaving behind an Iranian flag mounted at the well, the official said.

The oil field, parts of which both countries claim as theirs, is located about 200 miles (about 320 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad. It was unclear how many troops were involved, and Iraqi forces barred journalists from approaching the area.

The standoff spurred an emergency meeting of Iraq’s national security council and high-level diplomatic talks between Baghdad and Tehran. U.S. officials, already worried about Iran’s growing influence in the region, praised what they described as Baghdad’s quick but measured response to the dispute.

“It does speak to the overall view here that they are not going to be pushed around by Iran,” U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill told reporters.

Iran’s ambassador to Iraq, Hasan Kazemi Qomi, said he would use “diplomatic and technical mechanisms” to soothe tensions. And a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry accused foreign media of trying to “disrupt good relations” between Tehran and Baghdad.

Experts said it is doubtful that Iran is seeking to provoke Iraq, its only other Shiite-led ally in the Middle East.

Instead, Iran appears to be reasserting its place as having the world’s second-largest oil reserves at a time when Iraq is looking to cash in on their own, said Alex Vatanka of the Mideast Institute, a Washington think-tank.

Oil fields along the disputed border have been frozen for years because of Iraq’s longtime inability to entice investors to drill. Iraq is planning to open some oil fields over the next decade and has held two rounds of bidding this year — the first since the war — to develop some sites. Al-Fakkah was among three fields that were combined in one offer in the first round of bidding in June, but the proposal fell through.

At the same time, Iran’s leaders may be feeling more isolated as the result of its domestic political unrest and international disapproval of its nuclear program.

“They are not looking for conflict — this is their way of projecting power,” Vatanka said. “They are saying, ‘Because we’re isolated, because we have internal problems, it doesn’t mean you can go in here and sign a deal on an oil field that is very close to our border without consulting us.’”

Once bitter enemies, Iraq and Iran settled into a more positive, albeit tenuous, relationship after a Shiite-led government came to power following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. U.S. military officials say Iran continues to fund and train fighters in Iraq and send weapons and equipment over the border — although less frequently now than in the past.

Adm. Mike Mullen, America’s top military official said the oil well incident must be resolved between Iran and Iraq, and there were no plans by the United States to intervene.

In Baghdad during a two-day visit to Iraq, Mullen said Saturday that he remains worried about Iran’s influence in the Middle East.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Iranian Forces Cross Border And Seize Iraqi Oil Wells
• Iraq Denies Well Seizure

Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Convertible, Coupe, Budget, Sedan, Performance, Etc., Crossover, Hatchback, Buick, Chevrolet, GM, Rumormill, Luxury, Off-Road

It seems as though it’s just about impossible to keep an embargo in place these days. A Canadian outlet just spilled the beans on a couple of GM reveals set for Detroit next month. They say they were invited to a sneak preview Wednesday evening and although they couldn’t take pics, they felt free to tell us about the whole array of models. Some have been loosely-guarded secrets, but a couple are unknowns, so we’ll quote CanadianDriver on those until we get confirmation from GM.

Apparently, The General will have a slew of new model introductions in the D next month, including the much-anticipated Camaro Convertible, the new, upsized Aveo, a substantially-revised Malibu, production versions of the Spark and Orlando, and two models we hadn’t heard about until now: A GMC version of the Orlando dubbed the Granite, and a “sport version of the Buick Regal” that should get “many of its performance parts from the 325-hp Opel Insignia OPC.” Hot dog, the Regal GS is apparently more than a wet dream. Bring on the Stage 1 and GNX.

The Regal was just introduced in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago, so the announcement of a performance model so soon thereafter seems a little strange — not that we’re complaining, mind you. The Granite is described as an “urban utility vehicle” and will be the smallest model in GMC’s history. A Denali edition can only be around the corner. We’ll get you more details as they are released and we’ll be sure to have the whole field covered when the Big Top opens at Cobo in January.

[Source: CandianDriver]

REPORT: GM to show Chevy Orlando-based GMC Granite and hi-po Buick Regal in Detroit originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Japan, Asia | Unusual Monuments

Located in Aomori, at the Seiryūji (Blue-Green Dragon) Temple is a colossal likeness of Dainichi Nyorai completed in 1984. This particular Buddha, known primarily as Vairocana in the sanskrit, is the principal deity of the esoteric Shingon sect of Buddhism. This particular Daibutsu is the tallest seated bronze statue of the Buddha in Japan, taller even than the famous Daibutsu of Nara.

Shingon Temples hold light ceremonies during the Bon Festival, in mid-August, to help those in a liminal state between life and death successfully transmigrate. Often, during this time, parents of a recently departed child will pray for the pacification of their own souls, and for that of the child’s. The Seiryūji Temple is no different in this respect, holding grand light ceremonies for the entirety of the Bon Festival.