Gingrich begins Iowa push with call for civic duty (AP)

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa ? Americans are going to have to do more for themselves if they want the government to do less, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Thursday.

The former House speaker's call for "more responsible" citizens is the crux of the message he said he planned to stress as he approached the final month of campaigning for votes in Iowa's leadoff nominating caucuses.

"Whether you are a parent or grandparent or an aunt or an uncle you have responsibilities to your community, your neighborhood," Gingrich told about 500 employees of an insurance company at its Des Moines headquarters. "And we're all going to have to roll up our sleeves and be a little bit more responsible in the next 30 years."

While warning that he alone couldn't turn the country around as president, Gingrich also expressed confidence in his resurgent campaign. He is riding a wave of late support, having lost most of his national campaign staff in June over fundraising and strategy issues. Larger crowds turned out during his two-day Iowa visit than those coming to see his Republican rivals recently.

Gingrich capped the visit Thursday by headlining the Polk County GOP fundraising dinner. Party officials said they had hoped two weeks ago to sell 300 tickets to the dinner, but they ended up packing packed 450 into the convention hall and had to turn about 100 away.

Earlier, he met with some of Iowa's many Republican state lawmakers and picked up backing from a former top supporter of rival Herman Cain.

"I'm going to be the nominee," Gingrich said in an ABC News interview. "It's very hard not to look at the recent polls and think that the odds are very high I'm going to be the nominee."

Gingrich's demeanor, loose and cheerful, belied the increasing intensity in the once slow-moving campaign for Iowa's Jan. 3 caucuses.

While a driving snow in central Iowa heralded the coming caucuses, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was preparing to air his first advertisement in Iowa, a spot for Friday touting his business background and plan to cut the budget.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry also planned to introduce a new ad Friday, his seventh, focusing on his Christian faith.

Two nationally televised debates are scheduled within the next two weeks in the state.

Despite leading in some national and Iowa polls, Gingrich has little of the campaign infrastructure on the ground. Identifying supporters and turning them out at roughly 1,700 precinct-level political meetings requires an organizational network other candidates have spent more time developing than Gingrich has.

Last month, he hired back two of the Iowa staffers who quit in June, and added three more this week.

Gingrich joked Thursday that a methodical march to the caucuses would have been no challenge.

"We had a chance in June to do it easy, and thought to ourselves, why would you want to do that?" Gingrich said during an Associated Press interview.

He said he's now scrambling to build a campaign organization while hoping a winning message can resonate with undecided caucusgoers.

Gingrich's scholarly style ? he's a former college history professor ? and blunt candor have produced standout debate performances that have boosted his fundraising in recent months.

Without scolding, he said lasting economic recovery would require sacrifice.

"So every person who says they want a smaller bureaucracy and less power in Washington, you better sign up to do more things yourself," he told the AP.

It was a message that won over Charlie Gruchow. A tea party organizer in Iowa, he had been a strong supporter of Cain. But the reports of sexual harassment and an alleged extramarital affair had damaged Cain, said Gruchow, who said he would support and likely work for Gingrich's campaign.

Gingrich's path is far from certain.

Polls of Iowa GOP caucusgoers have shown Romney continually strong but not dominant, underscoring a healthy contingent of Republicans looking for an alternative to the former Massachusetts governor.

Gingrich's history as a Washington insider with nuanced positions, such as support for allowing some illegal immigrants to remain in the country, has prompted rivals to begin attacking him in the conservative state.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul released a blistering Internet video Wednesday, raking Gingrich in part for receiving more than $1.5 million from the embattled federally backed mortgage company Freddie Mac for consulting work after he left Congress.

"If we want nuance, we have that in Romney," said Iowa Republican activist Chuck Laudner. "What we want is clarity."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_on_el_pr/us_gingrich

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Australian court extends ban on Galaxy tab sales

FILE - In this Oct. 13, 2011 file photo, people walk by a Samsung store in Sydney. Samsung Electronics Co. is closer to selling its new Galaxy tablet computer in Australia after a court on Wednesday, Nov. 30, overturned a ruling that favored Apple's allegations Samsung had copied its iPad and iPhone. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 13, 2011 file photo, people walk by a Samsung store in Sydney. Samsung Electronics Co. is closer to selling its new Galaxy tablet computer in Australia after a court on Wednesday, Nov. 30, overturned a ruling that favored Apple's allegations Samsung had copied its iPad and iPhone. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)

(AP) ? Apple Inc. won a small victory on Friday in its global patent battle with rival Samsung, after Australia's highest court temporarily extended a ban on sales of Samsung's Galaxy tablet computers in the country.

Samsung Electronics Co. is desperate to begin selling the Galaxy in Australia in time for Christmas sales, but the High Court's decision means the device can't go on the market until at least Dec. 9.

Apple took Samsung to court in Australia after accusing the Suwon, South Korea-based company of copying its iPad and iPhone. In October, a Federal Court judge ordered Samsung to halt sales of the device ahead of a trial. Samsung appealed, and on Wednesday, a full bench of the Federal Court threw out the earlier ruling and said Galaxy sales could resume on Friday.

But Apple immediately appealed that decision to the High Court, which on Friday said the temporary injunction against sales would be extended for another week while it considers Apple's latest arguments.

"Samsung believes Apple has no basis for its application for leave to appeal and will vigorously oppose this to the High Court," Samsung said in a statement.

The legal back-and-forth is all part of a larger, international battle over the technology giants' competing tablets. Cupertino, California-based Apple struck first when it sued Samsung in the United States in April, alleging the product design, user interface and packaging of the Galaxy "slavishly copy" the iPhone and iPad. Samsung hit back with lawsuits accusing Apple of patent infringement of its wireless telecommunications technology.

The companies have now filed lawsuits in 10 countries. Courts in several nations, including Germany and the Netherlands, have issued rulings that favor Apple.

Apple spokeswoman Fiona Martin declined to comment on Friday's ruling, instead issuing a general statement blasting Samsung.

"It's no coincidence that Samsung's latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging," Apple said in the statement. "This kind of blatant copying is wrong and, as we've said many times before, we need to protect Apple's intellectual property when companies steal our ideas."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2011-12-01-AS-Australia-Samsung-Apple/id-7886ea7db7d14c85abbfeda571cf4c5e

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Romney tougher on rival Gingrich in election race (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney toughened his rhetoric against Newt Gingrich on Friday in a sign he is starting to take seriously the challenge from his surging rival.

Gingrich, the latest conservative alternative to the more moderate Romney, may be peaking at the right time with only four weeks left until Iowa holds the first U.S. nominating contest of the 2012 election cycle on January 3.

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, drew attention to Gingrich's long history in Washington as a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and a consultant for various operations that have benefited from taxpayer funding.

"I think if America feels that we need somebody who has lived in Washington for the last 40 years to run the country, he's a good choice," Romney told Fox News.

"This is not a matter that America needs better lobbyists or better deal-makers, better insiders. I think America needs a leader," Romney said.

Gingrich's support has surged in recent weeks in the race to determine the party's nominee to face Democratic President Barack Obama in 2012.

The Republican race has seen several candidates rise and fall as viable rivals to Romney, the former head of a private equity and leveraged buyout firm.

The two contenders have sparred this week, with Gingrich raising allegations of Romney policy flip-flops while Romney denounced the former House speaker as a "lifelong politician" who lacks credibility in understanding of how the U.S. economy works.

"I actually believe that what we need is someone who has lived out in America, not in Washington, who's had the experience of leading enterprises, who has led a state...I have that experience," Romney said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111202/pl_nm/us_usa_campaign_romney

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The Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle: A Story of Calculation ...

The Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle is complex and sometimes counterintuitive. Roger Garrison?s lecture on The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle is indispensable, and I was pleased to see that his lecture ?Keynes and Hayek: Head to Head? is also available on YouTube. Here, in a few words, is a brief summary of what the Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle entails.

Calculation: People appraise and bargain for goods and services in markets. Prices are the coordinators that tell people the most effective ways in which resources can be deployed. Interest rates are determined by the interaction of firms? demands for investable resources and households? willingness to save. Holding investment demand constant, changing interest rates indicate changes in households? preferences for future versus present consumption. A rising interest rate indicates a reduction in the supply of saving (and an increasing demand for present versus future consumption) while a falling interest rate indicates an increase in the supply of saving (and an increasing demand for future versus present consumption).

Suppose people decide to save more. They will reduce their present consumption in order to save more for future consumption. The prices of goods for immediate consumption will fall, and the prices of investment goods will rise. Wages will fall at the point of immediate consumption, but they will rise for people farther back in the structure of production.

How do people know what to produce? When I?m 64, I might want birthday greetings, bottles of wine, or both. Enter profits and losses. Profits and losses tell firms whether they are choosing wisely with respect to what they produce. Firms that correctly anticipate what best satisfies households? wants will be rewarded with profits while those that incorrectly anticipate what households want will be punished with losses. This is the essence of ?an economy working right,? to borrow from F.A. Hayek via Garrison.

Miscalculation: When the government manipulates the money supply, the market?s signals are distorted. In Tim Harford?s book The Undercover Economist, he points out that competitive markets produce a ?world of truth? in which prices reflect households? preferences and firms? costs of production. The Austrian theory gives us an example of a way in which prices are systematically lying. Entrepreneurs? and managers? appraisals are incorrect as a result of credit expansion. What looks like equilibrium isn?t, and the gap between real saving and the quantity of investable resources demanded is masked by new money. To use Professor Garrison?s term, the gap is ?papered over.?

Things look great during the boom phase of the business cycle because consumption and investment are both increasing. They are increasing to unsustainable levels, though: during the credit expansion, firms initiate investment projects that cannot be realized given household savings. The structure of production is fundamentally distorted as prices, interest rates, and wages do not reflect households? preferences. As credit expansion cannot continue forever without causing hyperinflation, miscalculations that led to malinvestments are eventually revealed.

Recalculation: If the economy is left to its own devices, miscalculations will be corrected and malinvestments will be corrected by a process of recalculation. Firms and households fix their mistakes, and resources are reallocated. Prices that are consistent with the economy?s underlying fundamentals of tastes, technology, and resource availability emerge and guide people toward what Arnold Kling has called ?patterns of sustainable specialization and trade.? In other words, physical capital, human capital, and social capital are invested in lines of production that do not compromise a society?s ability to provide for its future wants.

Note: I first saw ?recalculation? as a description of our current conditions in blog posts by Arnold Kling.

Source: http://blog.mises.org/19608/the-austrian-theory-of-the-business-cycle-a-story-of-calculation-miscalculation-and-recalculation/

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Sanity-Saving Gifts for the Stressed-Out Student [Gift Guide]

College. Ugh. Nonstop, privileged toil. Growing up is sooooo hard. Days without sleep, binge-drinking, experimenting with bodies—it's a miracle that anyone learns anything. These gifts won't print a diploma, but they will help your student earn one. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/lH9qIYrdU-s/sanity+saving-gifts-for-the-stressed+out-student

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HBT: Theo says Cubs want to keep Garza

The Marlins have spoken with nearly all of the top free agents on the market this winter, including shortstop Jose Reyes, first baseman Albert Pujols, left-hander C.J. Wilson and outfielder Yoenis Cespedes. But Miami?s primary addition for 2012 could very well come from within. Josh Johnson, 27, posted a dominant 2.30 ERA and 186/48 K/BB?

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/01/theo-epstein-says-the-cubs-want-to-keep-matt-garza/related/

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Abstinence-only education does not lead to abstinent behavior, researchers find

ScienceDaily (Nov. 29, 2011) ? States that prescribe abstinence-only sex education programs in public schools have significantly higher teenage pregnancy and birth rates than states with more comprehensive sex education programs, researchers from the University of Georgia have determined.

The researchers looked at teen pregnancy and birth data from 48 U.S. states to evaluate the effectiveness of those states' approaches to sex education, as prescribed by local laws and policies.

"Our analysis adds to the overwhelming evidence indicating that abstinence-only education does not reduce teen pregnancy rates," said Kathrin Stanger-Hall, assistant professor of plant biology and biological sciences in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

Hall is first author on the resulting paper, which has been published online in the journal PLoS ONE.

The study is the first large-scale evidence that the type of sex education provided in public schools has a significant effect on teen pregnancy rates, Hall said.

"This clearly shows that prescribed abstinence-only education in public schools does not lead to abstinent behavior," said David Hall, second author and assistant professor of genetics in the Franklin College. "It may even contribute to the high teen pregnancy rates in the U.S. compared to other industrialized countries."

Along with teen pregnancy rates and sex education methods, Hall and Stanger-Hall looked at the influence of socioeconomic status, education level, access to Medicaid waivers and ethnicity of each state's teen population.

Even when accounting for these factors, which could potentially impact teen pregnancy rates, the significant relationship between sex education methods and teen pregnancy remained: the more strongly abstinence education is emphasized in state laws and policies, the higher the average teenage pregnancy and birth rates.

"Because correlation does not imply causation, our analysis cannot demonstrate that emphasizing abstinence causes increased teen pregnancy. However, if abstinence education reduced teen pregnancy as proponents claim, the correlation would be in the opposite direction," said Stanger-Hall.

The paper indicates that states with the lowest teen pregnancy rates were those that prescribed comprehensive sex and/or HIV education, covering abstinence alongside proper contraception and condom use. States whose laws stressed the teaching of abstinence until marriage were significantly less successful in preventing teen pregnancies.

These results come at an important time for legislators. A new evidence-based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative was signed into federal law in December 2009 and awarded $114 million for implementation. However, federal abstinence-only funding was renewed for 2010 and beyond by including $250 million of mandatory abstinence-only funding as part of an amendment to the Senate Finance Committee's health-reform legislation.

With two types of federal funding programs available, legislators of individual states now have the opportunity to decide which type of sex education -- and which funding option -- to choose for their state and possibly reconsider their state's sex education policies for public schools, while pursuing the ultimate goal of reducing teen pregnancy rates.

Stanger-Hall and Hall conducted this large-scale analysis to provide scientific evidence to inform this decision.

"Advocates for continued abstinence-only education need to ask themselves: If teens don't learn about human reproduction, including safe sexual health practices to prevent unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as how to plan their reproductive adult life in school, then when should they learn it and from whom?" said Stanger-Hall.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Georgia. The original article was written by Chelsea Toledo.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Kathrin F. Stanger-Hall, David W. Hall. Abstinence-Only Education and Teen Pregnancy Rates: Why We Need Comprehensive Sex Education in the U.S. PLoS ONE, 2011; 6 (10): e24658 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0024658

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111129185925.htm

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Iranian students storm British Embassy in Tehran (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran ? Dozens of hard-line Iranian students stormed the British Embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, bringing down the Union Jack flag and throwing documents from windows in scenes reminiscent of the anger against Western powers after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The mob moved into the diplomatic compound two days after Iran's parliament approved a bill that reduces diplomatic relations with Britain following London's support of recently upgraded Western sanctions on Tehran over its disputed nuclear program.

The protesters broke through after clashing with anti-riot police and chanting for its takeover. "Death to England," some cried in the first significant assault of a foreign diplomatic area in Iran in years.

There was no immediate word on casualties or how many embassy employees were inside at the time of the assault, although it occurred after business hours had ended. More protesters poured into the compound as police tried to clear the site.

Smoke rose from some areas of the embassy grounds and the British flag was replaced with a banner in the name of 7th century Shiite saint, Imam Hussein.

The occupier called for the closure of the embassy calling it a "spy den" ? the same phrase used after militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 hostages for 444 days. Washington and Tehran have no diplomatic relations since then.

The rally outside the British Embassy ? on a main street in Tehran downtown ? included protesters carrying photographs of nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari, who was killed last year in an attack that Iran blamed on Israeli and British spy services.

Outside the embassy, students from some universities and seminaries burned British flags on fire as clashing with police.

State TV reported that another group of hard-line students gathered at the gate of British ambassador's residence in northern Tehran, at the same time.

Tensions with Britain date back to the 19th century when the Persian monarchy gave huge industrial concessions to London, which later included significant control over Iran's oil industry.

But they have become increasingly strained as the West accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons ? a charge Tehran denies.

In recent years, Iran was angered by Britain's decision in 2007 honor author Salman Rushdie with a knighthood.

Rushdie went into hiding after Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, ordering Muslims to kill the author because his novel "The Satanic Verses" allegedly insulted Islam.

The decision shortly after Iran detained 15 British sailors and marines in March 2007 for allegedly entering the country's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf ? a claim Britain denies. The 15 were released after nearly two weeks in captivity.

In 2006, angry mobs burned the Danish flag and attacked Danish and other Western embassies in Tehran in protest to the reprinting of a cartoon deemed insulting of the Prophet Muhammad in the Nordic country's newspapers.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_britain

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T.I. Calls Gays Complaining About Tracy Morgan Jokes "Un-American"


Remember Tracy Morgan's homophobic rant earlier this year? No?

Well T.I. does, and he thinks it was hilarious! The rapper brought the scandal back to life when he told Vibe that Morgan's anti-gay jokes were the funniest he'd ever heard.

The comments have Morgan toeing a fine line between staying under the radar and distancing himself from T.I., who's reveled in "the funniest jokes I ever heard Tracy say."

T.I. Vibe Cover

T.I. then ignited even more controversy. Not only does he found the anti-gay humor funny, he suggested that the backlash against Morgan's stand-up was un-American.

"They're like, 'If you have an opinion against us, we're gonna shut you down,'" T.I. said. "That's not American. If you're gay you should have the right to be gay in peace, and if you're against it you should have the right to be against it in peace."

The rapper, who was recently freed from jail, later walked that last part back somewhat, saying that gays are not anti-American, but the actions of a select few are.

“I believe you have the right to do whatever you want to do as long as you're not hurting anyone. I was quoted correctly, but I was taken out of context,” he said.

He says the U.S.A. is an "institution built around allowing us to speak peacefully and respectfully in opposition of any point or any topic that comes up,” T.I. added.

He went on to add that he's not even against same-sex marriage, and that members of the African-American community acts in the same, oversensitive way as well.

Fair enough, but is what Tracy said, which was borderline hateful, really peaceful or respectful? And would T.I. react the same way to N-word-laden rants? Just curious.

Thoughts on T.I.'s comments?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/11/ti-calls-gays-complaining-about-tracy-morgan-jokes-un-american/

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