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Patients ‘grinned from ear to ear’ at the chance to meet favorite players

Baseball season came early this year for a few of the Chicago Cubs’ most devoted fans.

As part of their annual caravan tour, Cubs members visited Northwestern Memorial Hospital oncology patients and their families on Wednesday, Jan. 13.

Patients were able to meet players including Welington Castillo, Koyie Hill, Micah Hoffpauir, and Brett Jackson, as well as coach Lou Piniella and Cubs broadcaster Bob Brenly.

Hospital staff hosted a reception for Cubs members and patients, and then players broke up into groups to visit individual rooms and sign autographs.

Pat Murphy is the director of oncology nursing at Northwestern and has participated in the Cubs Caravan event for five years.

She noted this year in particular, more patients were physically able to come out of their rooms to attend the reception and meet the entire group of Cubs players.

“The patients were grinning from ear to ear; they enjoyed every single minute of it,” said Murphy.

“For a few minutes that day it took their minds away from what they are here for.”

Murphy added seeing Cubs players interact with patients was a gratifying experience for the entire staff.

“The fact they could take time out of their busy schedules to do this on behalf of our patients was amazing,” said Murphy.

With the latest news reports of toxic metals in toy jewelry and metal trinkets, you just wonder what is safe for children nowadays. A couple of years ago, there was great concern about lead used in children’s toys produced overseas. Now, the latest scare is due to another heavy metal—cadmium.

Why is lead in toy jewelry a concern? Exposure to lead in children remains a major environmental health problem in the United States. It’s particularly dangerous in children because it can cause serious damage to their developing brains and nervous system. It can also cause other behavior and learning problems. These hazards are also magnified in the case of children because of their behavior of taking their hands and other objects to their mouths. Children can easily put these lead based charms and trinkets into their mouths, hence the concern.

Now, we find that some manufacturers stopped using lead but turned to another heavy metal to produce these toy charms—cadmium. Exposure to this toxic metal in children and adults can have adverse effects on kidneys, lungs, and bones, even cancer.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission denounced the use of these heavy metals in children’s products. Hopefully this will put an end to the use of toxic metals in new toys, but what do we do with some of the toy jewelry and metal trinkets our children received over the holidays? At first, I thought that only the cheapest toy jewelry were the ones at risk of having cadmium or lead. But later I found out that even some of the jewelry with brand names might have these toxic metals as well. We could have these items tested. Yet, with these red flags, the practice I usually follow is—when in doubt, throw it out!

About the author: Lina Younes has been working for EPA since 2002 and chairs EPA’s Multilingual Communications Task Force. Prior to joining EPA, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and she has worked for several government agencies.

With the refueling ban introduced by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) for the 2010 season of Formula One, it’s quite logical that we’re going to see much quicker pit stops during the race. The only thing the pit crew will be asked to do will be the tire change, which will reportedly take up to three seconds.

Yes, you’ve heard it right! According to Williams F1 spokeswoman Claire Williams, the pit stop crew at Grove managed to score some impressive times during their Thursday prac… (read more)

Websense has just launched a new security suite for the web, a product called Defensio 2.0. The main selling point of this software is its ability to protect users from malicious content posted to their Facebook profiles. Using a combination of technologies which include a URL category blocker, a profanity filter, an executable file blocker, and a script blocker, users can configure what content can appear on their Facebook profiles or their public pages. In addition to offering Facebook security, Defensio offers blog protection, too, supporting a number of platforms including WordPress and Drupal.

Sponsor

A Facebook Application You Actually Need

Since Websense’s acquisition of Defensio a year ago, the company has been working on building this “next generation” product which originally functioned as a simple spam-blocking tool used by blogs. As before, the Defensio software uses Websense’s ThreatSeeker Network, a technology that incorporates both automated computer analysis and human intelligence to protect against web-based security threats in real-time.

Now Defensio is going beyond simply providing protection for various website and blogging platforms with their Facebook protection feature. This extra security operates by way of a Facebook application. When you sign up to try the new software, you give the product permission to access your profile in order to block malicious content as needed. Like any other Facebook app, installation is as simple as entering in your Facebook sign- on credentials and hitting “Allow” on a few pop-up windows.

Configuring Your Protection Level

From the software’s Account Management page, you can check or uncheck the type of content you want to restrict from being posted to Facebook or your blog. URLs can be blocked by category like Security (hacking, phishing, spyware, etc.), Legal Liabilities (adult material, gambling, etc.), and more, or the feature can be switched off altogether. You can further customize the protection by entering in keywords to block, just as is typically done with blog comment spam protection systems. You can also enable or disable an executable file blocker and a script blocker which prevents scripts and links to executable files from being posted to your Facebook profile.

Doing Business on Facebook? Take Note

While this system will obviously appeal to any Facebook user concerned with security, the real market for this type of software is with the companies that use Facebook for professional purposes. These days, everyone from major corporations to mom-and-pop shops have set up their own Facebook pages for marketing purposes. Facebook is even being used in place of traditional websites in some instances. Take, for example, the recent commercial for the upcoming movie “When in Rome.” Instead of referring you to a traditional URL like wheninrome-movie.com, the commercial touts the Facebook page: facebook.com/wheninrome as the only place to view the trailer and movie information online.

Clearly, big businesses have a lot to lose if malicious software or objectionable content made its way onto their Facebook pages. Besides the bad press involved with being the source of a malicious attack of some sort, the companies would suffer something even worse (at least in their opinion) – no one would visit their page. That will make the Defensio suite a very appealing option for many companies, no matter what the expense.

Pricing

For now, those interested in demoing the software can do so for free. The company website currently lists monthly pricing as starting at $5/month for less than 100,000 comments (or wall posts). That should suffice for those wanting to run the software for personal use. However, the real money is in the business licensing. Those with 100,000 to 300,000 comments are charged $15/month and those with over 300,000 comments must purchase enterprise licenses. Here, the first 3 licenses are $50/month with each additional license costing another $35. However, Websense admits that pricing levels may be adjusted after the beta period ends. While these rates are reasonable for the protection being offered, at this point Websense could practically charge anything they want since no other company is offering this sort of automated protection for Facebook profiles.

If you’re interested in testing the program yourself, you can sign up for a free trial here.

Discuss

Filed under: Convertible, Japan, Lexus, Rumormill, Luxury

Much unloved by the automotive press and lately by consumers who haven’t been buying them, the folding-hardtop Lexus SC430 is possibly ending its production run this July. To celebrate and honor the occasion, Lexus is releasing a special edition. Called “The Eternal Jewel,” this special edition SC430 should be at Japanese domestic market Lexus dealers by March.

Only 200 are being made and all we know is what we see in the above photograph, i.e. nice looking leather. We doubt any will make it to our shores. If SC430 production does end, that leaves the door open for Lexus to continue in the direction laid down by the IS-F and LF-A and bring out a sporty SC replacement, hopefully along the lines of the original SC300 and SC400, visually at least. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more. Tip of the sun-blocking baseball cap to Leopaul!

[Source: Lexus]

Rumormill: Lexus SC430 to end production in July with special edition “Eternal Jewel” originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mayor Daley flanked by Philadelphia Mayor Nutter (L) and San Francisco Mayor Newsom (photo by Lynn Sweet)

Mayor Daley and Evanston Mayor Tisdahl, left in white jacket (photo by Lynn Sweet)

WASHINGTON–Mayor Daley revved up a coalition of mayors on Thursday to urge the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold Chicago’s handgun ordinance in the wake of the National Rifle Association challenge to be argued on March 2.

“For many years, the City of Chicago has had strong handgun laws in place.

The gun industry’s challenge to our handgun laws has already been dismissed by two federal courts and now they have taken their case to the US Supreme Court,” Daley said at a press conference at the U.S. Conference of mayors. Daley was flanked by about 20 mayors who filed friend of the court briefs supporting the Chicago ban, including Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

“This summer, the Court will decide whether Chicago’s guns laws are constitutional. The case could affect or open the door to countless — and needless — legal challenges to local and state gun laws across the country. Today, we stand here on behalf of the people of Chicago and the United States who have been victims of gun violence, on behalf of their families and loved ones and on behalf of all those who believe Chicago’s current gun law is constitutional,” Daley said.

Daley added later, “America rose up about smoking…why can’t we have America rise up against gun violence?”

“This is about real leadership, standing up to the National Rifle Association,” Daley said.

“He’s been right on this issue for many years,” said Tisdahl. “I believe we have the right to determine what will keep our young people safe.”

Newsom said mayors have enormous responsibility and “self-determination should be afforded those who are accountable for the people they represent.”

Nutter said, “There is no reason to have an m-16 in an urban environment/. The NRA is out of control.”

Below, text of Mayor Daley’s remarks on the National Rifle Association challenge to Chicago’s handgun ban, delivered at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, followed by briefing sheet on friend of the court filings and lists of other supporters of the Chicago and Oak Park handgun bans. UPDATED.Backgrounder on Evanston….

Gun violence across America is a national disgrace.

In one year on average, more than 100,000 people in America are shot or killed with a gun.

Americans of all backgrounds and from every part of our nation — big cities and small, urban and rural — needlessly lose their lives because guns are too easily available in our society.

On college campuses, in malls, on our streets and in homes across our nation, gun violence has tragically ended the lives of people who were just going about their everyday lives.

The victims are our mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters — and our children.

Last year, 82 percent of Chicago’s homicides were committed with a gun.

Just this week in Virginia eight people were killed by gun violence, the worst mass shooting there since Virginia Tech in 2007.

Gun violence challenges the s

Reliable sources have told WMPU that the HTC Obsession, HTC’s rumoured 3.7 inch AMOLED smartphone set to come later this year, will be coming to AT&T and T-Mobile USA as the HTC Diamond3.

They were also able to confirm a time scale – the smartphone was intended to ship as early as June 2010, but may be delayed somewhat.  Despite the plans to come so early, the smartphone is definitely a Windows Mobile 7 device, and will not be coming in a WM 6.5 version first.

A reminded of the specs of the device below:

The full specs are below.

• CPU: Qualcomm QSD8250; 1GHz
• GSM HSDPA
• Device Size: 112 x 56 x 11.7 mm
• Memory (RAM/ROM): 512MB/512MB
• Internal Storage: 4GB
• External Storage: MicroSD (up to 32GB)
• Screen Size/Type: 3.7-inch capacitive AMOLED “Multitouch Supported”
• Camera: 5.0 Megapixel AF with flash; HD 720p video@ 25fps
• Video Support: Windows Media Video (WMV), MPEG-4 (MP4/M4V) H.264, DVR-MS4
• Audio Support: Windows Media Audio (WMA), Advanced Audio Coding (AAC-LC), FairPlay DRM, MP3 (.mp3)
• Battery:  Removable 1230 mAh
• Talk Time: Up to 10 hours
• Standby Time: 240 hours
• Internet Use: 6 hours (3G), 7.5 hours (WiFi)
• Video Playback: 7 hours
• Audio Playback: 24 hours

Unlike previous Diamonds the device will not be coming in a CDMA version, following poor sales of the last Diamond.

In some ways the branding will be reassuring to HTC HD2 owners, who would prefer not to see their investment superseded so quickly with an HD3.

Follow us on twitter.com/wmpoweruser for more Windows Mobile 7 news and rumours.

While the public has made accommodations for 54.4 million people with disabilities, many researchers regularly exclude people who cannot read, hear or write from participating in their research projects. But that’s about to change.

The Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing (FPB) will develop research tools and strategies to include individuals with vision and hearing impairments in future research. The SMART Center at the nursing school will present its first FIND Lab Workshop from 8 a.m. to noon, Tuesday, Feb. 9, in the Thwing Center ballroom.

Shirley Moore, Edward J. and Louise Mellen Professor of Nursing and director of the National Institutes of Health-funded Center for Self-Management Research (SMART Center) at FPB, is the lead investigator for the two-year, nearly $400,000 National Institute for Nursing Research-funded project, “Full Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (FIND) in Self-Management Research.”

Researchers are surprised to learn they are omitting disabled people from their research, but the workshop will highlight why it is important to include persons with disabilities, how to include them and how to modify research methods for people with visual and hearing challenges.

Moore is working with co-investigator Ann Williams, National Institute of Health-supported postdoctoral fellow, who has been working on a health-related research project with blind diabetics.

Williams’ work inspired Moore.

The study is built on the Principles of Universal Design, developed for school teachers to tailor school work for children with special needs.

FIND will bring together a collaboration of experts from the Cleveland Sight Center and the Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center along with researchers in engineering, teaching and rehabilitation specialists of persons with disabilities and communication scientists. The center will also draw from available technologies at the university’s Prevention Research Center and Behavior Measurement Core Facilities, and from other universities and self-management centers around the country.

Staff from the sight and hearing centers will conduct workshops for researchers. During these sessions, researchers will learn about communication technologies for the blind and hearing impaired that can be used to gather data for their research projects.
FIND will also establish a demonstration center, the FIND Lab, where tactile, hearing and other tools to assist participants can be tried and used for practice by researchers or their assistants gathering the data.

“It is important that we do research representative of the people being studied,” says Moore, citing that 15 percent of diabetics are visually impaired but regularly barred from participating in research about their chronic illness because they have problems seeing.

When everyone has a chance to participate, overall research findings will be more robust and reduce bias in studies, says Moore.

If interested in attending, contact Heather C. Terry at to RSVP. Light refreshments will be served.

For more information contact Susan Griffith, 216.368.1004.

Three people were wounded, one of them critically, in a shooting late Wednesday night in the South Side’s Chatham neighborhood, Chicago police said.

One of the victims, a 31-year-old woman, was reported in critical condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital after being shot in the abdomen, police said.

They said a 25-year-old man, believed to be the boyfriend of the woman, was reported in serious but stable condition at Stroger Hospital after being shot in the back.

A 20-year-old man suffered a graze wound to his left thigh. Preliminary reports indicated he went to Jackson Park Hospital.

The shooting happened about 11:20 p.m. in the 500 block of East 76th Street. Police said the victims were in a vehicle when they were shot, and then drove to 75th Street and South Cornell Avenue before being taken to the hospitals.

Police said there were three suspects, all of whom wearing dark clothing, and at least one fired the shots into the victims’ vehicle.

No one was in custody this morning.

–Staff report

The Scandinavian Hydrogen Highway Partnership (SHHP) along with the European Lighthouse Project (LHP), has created H2moves Scandinavia (part of H2moves Europe) which will be rolling out 10 Daimler Mercedes-Benz B-class F-CELL cars plus two Fiat Alfa Romeo MiTo fuel cell vehicles (a first for this company).

The vehicles will serve as shuttles and demonstration cars around the Oslo, Norway region. Oslo will also be having a hydrogen fueling station built by 2011, which will use renewable energy, namely hydropower and the electrolysis of water to create H2.

In addition, H2 Logic will add five hydrogen fuel cell city cars to the mix in Oslo. The FCV city cars will have a range of around 155 miles. H2 Logic will also create a mobile hydrogen refuelling concept with the goal of identifying certification gaps that remain in Scandinavia that need to be addressed before a more robust hydrogen highway system can be built.

In the past I’ve talked about the Scandinavian Hydrogen Highway and the Norway Hynor Project which starts in Oslo and runs to Stavanger with five hydrogen fueling station stops in-between. The development of Oslo as a focal point for a hydrogen vehicle and fueling station cluster will serve the EU as a beacon of H2 development much the same was Los Angeles is serving in the U. S.

BRAD DELONG posts this image:

And he quips, “I really am going to have to learn more about BLS seasonal adjustment procedures.” Indeed, it is mysterious and fascinating to see how noisy the unadjusted series is relative to the adjusted numbers. Of course, what you primarily see are two big spikes every year, one associated with the summer months and one with the end of the holiday season. But one suspects that employers aren’t behaving quite like they typically do, and so the seasonal adjustments are likely off a bit (though in which direction isn’t clear) during the seasonal spikes.

Now what you might also notice is the big tick upward at the end of the adjusted series. That is, in part, a product of the difficulty in making seasonal adjustments. But today’s numbers, for last week’s statistics, involve a decline to the unadjusted numbers of 154,000, and a large and unexpected increase in the adjusted numbers of 36,000. Last week, seasonally adjusted claims were at 482,000, which seems bad; not long ago they had fallen to 433,000.

But this, as it turns out, as nothing to do with the economy. Instead, the jump reflects an “administrative accumulation” at the Labour Department—essentially, a backlog of applications that built up over the holiday season. Budget cuts, you know. Even when the numbers are misleading, they’re informative.

The extent of the inconvenience will depend on the routes riders take and the time of day they travel, officials said. All overnight “owl” service on buses and trains will be maintained to serve third-shift workers.

The agency plans to take out of service 287 buses in a fleet of about 2,000 vehicles. It remained unclear whether the downsizing of CTA bus operations will continue beyond this year as the transit agency adapts to living within its means during tough times for the economy.

CTA buses provide about 1 million of the 1.7 million rides taken on the system.

In addition to the bus cuts, service will run less frequently on seven of the eight CTA rail lines, officials said.

Union leaders reacted angrily to the agency’s final proposal on Wednesday, charging that CTA management is bloated with bureaucrats who should lose their jobs first.

Darrell Jefferson, president of the union representing CTA bus drivers and bus mechanics, said each bus garage had five managers when he was hired in 1994 and today there are 20 managers at each facility.

“They’re having lunch all day, I guess,” he said. “There’s not enough paperwork for all of them.”

CTA President Richard Rodriguez said Jefferson’s assertions are “completely untruthful.” CTA officials, meanwhile, vented frustration over the unions’ lack of willingness to accept contract concessions at a time when nonunion employees are enduring more unpaid days in 2010, on top of their fourth straight year without a salary increase.

“Our unionized workers have not contributed to solving this problem,” CTA board member Jacquelyne Grimshaw said at the agency’s monthly board meeting. Outside the transit agency’s headquarters, off-duty CTA employees marched, banged on drums, carried protest signs and chanted, “Yes, we can.”

The layoffs and service cuts are projected to save the CTA $95.6 million. Freezing salaries and increasing the number of furlough and unpaid holidays for nonunion employees is estimated to reduce the deficit by $32 million.

In addition, $90 million in capital-improvement funds are being shifted to the operating budget, which helps reduce the deficit but delays much-needed repairs.

Planned fare increases that would have increased the cost of a single ride to as high as $3 would have raised $83.3 million. But Gov. Pat Quinn brokered a deal in which the Regional Transportation Authority will increase the amount of money it borrows by issuing bonds and the state will pay some of the costs of servicing that debt in exchange for the CTA promising to hold off on fare hikes for two years.

“The only party that has yet to step to the table to assist us, unfortunately, is the unions,” CTA Chairman Terry Peterson said.

He said the agency could start reinstating service, starting with the 41 bus routes slated to operate fewer hours each day, if the unions agreed to return their 3.5 percent salary increase. The pay hike will cost the CTA $20 million. The next priority would be to add back the nine express bus routes, Peterson said.

“The budget is skewed by labor costs,” Rodriguez said. “Our operating costs must be reduced.”

But Jefferson, the bus union chief, said his membership has made recent concessions in pension and health care coverage.

“I would love to help the CTA, but I see that help is a one-way street,” he said. “We are at a stalemate. Opening the contract is just out of the question.”

Free rides for senior citizens and other categories of riders account for a big source of lost revenue — more than $60 million a year, officials said. The CTA provided 68 million free rides in the first 11 months of 2009, said Karen Walker, CTA chief financial officer.

That’s an increase of 16.8 million free rides compared with the same period in 2008, she said.

Several members of the public signed up to address CTA board members Wednesday and ask them to rescind the service cuts and layoffs.

Phyllis Palmer, business manager of a homeowners association on the Far South Side, said the planned belt-tightening will reduce service by 30 percent south of 95th Street.

She said it would be a cruel blow, coming on top of service reductions dating to 1998 and conditions today where “riders continue to wait at oftentimes cold corners, where no bus shelters or minimum travel options exist.”

–Jon Hilkevitch

Photo: Michael Seaton, of Glenwood, left, and Herman Reyes, of Chicago, bang on buckets Wednesday at a rally against impending CTA service cuts and layoffs. (Tribune photo by Michael Tercha / January 19, 2010)

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

Con los últimos informes de metales tóxicos en la joyería infantil de juguete y esos amuletos de metal, uno se pregunta cuán seguros son estos artículos en la actualidad. Hace un par de años, había gran preocupación por el uso del plomo en los juguetes infantiles elaborados en el exterior. Ahora, las últimas noticias preocupantes giran en torno al uso de otro metal pesado, el cadmio.

¿Por qué es el plomo en la joyería infantil de juguete motivo de preocupación? La exposición al plomo
continúa siendo un problema de salud ambiental en Estados Unidos. Es particularmente peligroso en los niños porque puede ocasionar daños serios en sus cerebros y sistemas nerviosos. También puede ocasionar otros problemas de comportamiento y aprendizaje. Estos peligros también se magnifican en el caso de los niños debido a su comportamiento de llevarse las manos y objetos a la boca. Los niños pueden ingerir el plomo fácilmente al chupar esta joyería de juguete y amuletos, he aquí la causa de alarma.

Ahora, los últimos informes indican que algunos manufactureros han dejado de usar el plomo y han optado por otros metales pesados para la producción de estos amuletos de juguete. Este metal es el cadmio. La exposición a este metal tóxico en niños y adultos tiene efectos de salud adversos al hígado, los pulmones y huesos y también puede ocasionar cáncer.

La Comisión para la Seguridad de los Productos de Consumo de EE.UU. ha denunciado el uso de estos metales pesados en los juguetes y joyería infantil. Abrigamos las esperanzas de que eso pondrá fin al uso de metales tóxicos en nuevos juguetes, ¿qué hacemos con esos artículos de joyería infantil y amuletos de metal que nuestros niños recibieron durante las fiestas? Al principio yo pensaba que sólo la joyería infantil más barata tenía probabilidades de estar contaminada por cadmio. Luego aprendí que algunas prendas infantiles de marca podían tener metales tóxicos también. Bueno, podría inspeccionar los productos haciéndoles una prueba especial para determinar la presencia de metales pesados. Sin embargo, si tiene la preocupación, pero no quiere realizar la prueba, quizás la mejor práctica a observar es de simplemente echarlo a la basura para proteger a nuestros niños.

Sobre la autor: Lina M. F. Younes ha trabajado en la EPA desde el 2002 y está a cargo del Grupo de Trabajo sobre Comunicaciones Multilingües. Como periodista, dirigió la oficina en Washington de dos periódicos puertorriqueños y ha laborado en varias agencias gubernamentales.

It’s amazing how people see one semi-successful concept and suddenly everyone has to pile on. The iPhone’s app store has certainly been a success — much more in terms of making the iPhone more attractive than for most developers. But it has all sorts of people thinking that “apps” are in again, and we’re seeing app stores pop up in a variety of different places. The latest is Amazon’s Kindle, which hopes to make the ebook reading device more valuable with more apps.

It does make me wonder, though, if people are betting too strongly on app stores, and not recognizing why it works so well in some areas. I also wonder if focusing on apps and app stores is going to make people miss out on the fact that web-based apps (that don’t need to go through any app store) may overtake client-side apps. We’ve already gone through this on the desktop, and one by one, web-based apps have come along that match (or sometimes exceed) the functionality of client-side apps, leading many to turn away from client apps altogether.

Separately, adding another app store to another device may only serve to confuse (or annoy) some users. If you have an iPhone and a Kindle, and there are the same apps on both, which are you going to use? It may depend on the app, but my guess is that in most cases the phone is going to win out over an ebook reader.

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Warren Buffett tells CNBC’s Becky Quick:

Buffett

QUICK: Ben Bernanke is looking for this reconfirmation. Should he be reconfirmed?

BUFFETT: If I could vote twice, I would. He should be, I mean, he did a magnificent job over this period. Now, everybody can do it somewhat better. We could sit here and armchair quarterback him, but when I look back at particularly September and October of 2008, he took some extraordinary actions that, if they hadn’t been taken, willingness to act like that, and even stretch his authority some. But he did what you do, and we talked about it being an economic Pearl Harbor, he did what should have been done in response to that Pearl Harbor. And I think he’s done a stellar job.

QUICK: What happens if he’s not reconfirmed? What’s at risk?

BUFFETT: Well, just tell me a day ahead of time so I can sell some stocks. (Laughs.)

From ZeroHedge:

Yesterday we brought attention to China’s overheating economy.

In response, Deutsche Bank analyst Michael Spencer is now estimating an earlier than expected rate hike for the newly-minted second largest world economy. “We think January CPI inflation will be similar to December, but in February inflation could rise to 2.5%, above the 2.25% benchmark deposit rate. This implies some likelihood of the first rate hike coming in the second half of March, earlier than our current expectation of an April rate hike.” Just look at China markets at what tightening means for equities.

Then extrapolate to the U.S., once Bernanke someday wakes up on the right side of the bed and realizes that America is in a very much comparable situation (although 10.7% GDP growth would be something even Obama would have some problems with digesting). And now that Volcker is finally about to supplant the soon to be defunct Larry Summers as Obama’s key financial advisor, one can extend Deutsche’s conclusion and say that the rate hike in the U.S. may also come earlier than expected.

Read the whole story at ZeroHedge >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• China Is Tightening, The FHA Is Tightening, And The Massachusetts Election Means Massive Fiscal Tightening
• Did The FHA Just Perform Covert Monetary Tightening?
• China’s Credit Tightening Pipedream Bursts As Yuan Loans Are Set To Jump 18% In 2010

Nabe (cooking pot) mono (things, stuff) is a popular Japanese hot pot dish commonly served in the cold winter months. It is cooked table side and served communally. One thing I like about nabemono (in addition to its deliciousness!) is its versatility. There are so many different ingredients to choose from! During the cooking process, the broth becomes more flavorful. At the end, after all the ingredients are eaten, rice and egg are added to the seasoned broth and a porridge is made.

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Jim Thome participated Wednesday night in the White Sox’s ”Bring Me Home” campaign that raised money to benefit foster families in Illinois.

As far as Thome is concerned, he wouldn’t rule out a return to the Sox’s family.

”My door is open,” said Thome, a free agent who spent nearly four full seasons with the Sox before being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Aug. 31. ”Just call me.”

Thome said he understands the business side of baseball while praising the entire Sox’s organization.

”I want to play baseball,” Thome said. ”Right now we’re talking to a few teams, and we’ll see what happens. It’s been a slow winter in the market.”

Sox first baseman Paul Konerko, who started the campaign with Thome and their wives, doesn’t believe the door has closed on a return by Jermaine Dye and Thome.

”There is still an outside chance on both of them, certainly Jim,” Konerko said. ”I wouldn’t shut the door on that yet. And even if it was for this year, I wouldn’t shut the door on it for the future. We’ll see. I like the way the team is shaping up otherwise.

” … I know they’re going to be playing somewhere. When I show up to spring training and they’re not there, I’ll worry about that.”

Konerko said he was ”always” lobbying on Jim’s behalf, stating that Thome and Dye can remain productive players.

”They’ll be fine, no matter what.”

In other Sox news, John Danks said a follow-up examination on his left index finger was fine.

”I’m going to live,” Danks quipped in a text message.

Photo: Jim Thome salutes the White Sox fans in 2008. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)

By Mark Gonzales

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

Toyota will bring a slightly revised Auris at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show in March but, unfortunately, boring is still the best way to describe the "fresh" face of the car. However, the best thing – in case you’re one of the many tree huggers out there – is the addition of a hybrid version that could bring a minor increase in European sales.

Getting back to the refreshed Auris, there’s not much too talk about the upgrades. And probably Toyota thinks the same as the Japanese manufactu… (read more)