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Monday, December 3, 2012

Public Speaking 101: How to Emphatically Enumerate Things ...

Everyone hates a pompous lecture ? unless you?re giving it and your audience has to listen. (I.e. small children, workers with uncertain job security, the uglier person in a couple). But even a semi-tolerable lecturer can sink faster than the proverbial hobo if inexpert at counting off his main points.

Tunnel collapses in Japan, at least seven still missing

About 150 concrete panels fell from the roof of a highway tunnel on the main road linking?Tokyo?with central Japan on Sunday.

By Elaine Kurtenbach,?Associated Press / December 2, 2012

Police officers and firefighters gather at the exit of the Sasago Tunnel on the Chuo Expressway in Otsuki, Yamanashi Prefecture, central Japan, Sunday morning. Police said that parts of the tunnel collapsed Sunday morning, trapping an unknown number of vehicles as smoke from a fire inside prevented rescuers from approaching.

Kyodo News/AP

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At least seven people were feared missing Sunday after about 150 concrete panels fell from the roof of a tunnel on the main highway linking?Tokyo?with central Japan.

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Efforts to rescue any survivors trapped inside the tunnel were hindered by heavy smoke after one vehicle caught fire inside the Sasago Tunnel, about 50 miles outside?Tokyo.

Rescuers also temporarily suspended work because of fears of a further collapse. They were attempting to reach at least several vehicles believed buried in the rubble, including a truck whose driver was trapped inside and had called his company for help.

"I could hear voices of people calling for help, but the fire was just too strong," said a woman interviewed by public broadcaster NHK after she escaped from the tunnel.

Local media reported that at least three bodies had been found inside the tunnel. However, Norio Furusawa, a spokesman for the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, said he could not confirm that information.

Recent check found no issues

Executives for Central Japan Expressway Co. said the company was investigating why the concrete panels had given way. A check of the tunnel's roof in September and October found nothing amiss, they said.

A woman who escaped from a rental car that was trapped in the 3-mile tunnel told authorities that she was unsure about the condition of five other people who had been in the vehicle with her. Two other vehicles were known to be buried in the rubble, suggesting at least seven people were trapped inside, according to a statement by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

It said two people were confirmed injured, one of them moderately.

The tunnel, which opened in 1977, is one of many in mountainous Japan. The location of the collapse, about a mile inside the tunnel, was complicating rescue efforts, reports said.

Police vehicles, fire trucks and ambulances were massed outside the tunnel's entrance.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/kaX0hsDpJLw/Tunnel-collapses-in-Japan-at-least-seven-still-missing

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Murder-suicide with 'sharp-edged weapon' happened during class

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) ? A man wielding a sharp-edged weapon killed one person in a Casper neighborhood Friday before killing a male teacher and himself in front of students in a community college classroom, causing a campus-wide lockdown as authorities tried to piece together what happened.

Police found the suspect and teacher dead at a science building on the Casper College campus, which was locked down for about two hours, school and police officials said. The other victim, a woman, was found in a street about two miles away.

Casper Police Chief Chris Walsh said the murder-suicide took place in a classroom with students present, but he didn't know how many students or what the class topic was.

He said investigators were still trying to determine a motive.

Walsh said an "edged weapon" was used it at least one of the killings, but he didn't offer specifics and it was unclear if the same or a similar weapon was used in all of the deaths.

The attacker wasn't believed to be a Casper College student and it appeared he knew the victims, Walsh said. No names were released.

"We're locating next of kin and working on notification absolutely as fast as we can," Walsh said.

He added authorities didn't believe there was any further threat to the community.

"I want to emphasize that this is a horrible tragedy," Walsh said. "And I want the city to ... just feel safe right now. There is no one at large."

The attack at the two-year community college in Casper, about 250 miles northwest of Denver, occurred just before 9 a.m. in a classroom on the science building's third floor. All students and staff were evacuated from the building.

The college sent out a campus-wide alert via text message and email within two minutes of receiving word of the attack at 9:06 a.m., school spokesman Rich Fujita said. The lockdown ended at about 11 a.m. after school officials received word that police were no longer searching for a suspect, Fujita said.

There are fewer classes on Fridays than any other day of the week at Casper College, so only between 1,500 and 2,000 of the college's 5,000 students were there, he added.

Political science instructor Chris Henrichsen said he was showing the film "Frost/Nixon" to his Wyoming and U.S. government class when he stepped into the hall to get something for a student and was told a homicide had occurred on campus.

He went back to his classroom, where students were getting messages about the campus lockdown on their phones.

"We locked the door and waited for further instruction," Henrichsen said.

The students were later sent home, but some who parked near a different campus building where the attack occurred had to leave their cars there, Henrichsen said.

About two miles away, Dave Larsen said he was headed to the gym when he drove past a body in a gutter with two people standing over it, one talking on a cellphone.

Larsen lives about a block from the location of the body, a well-kept neighborhood of mostly single-story houses.

Emergency vehicles had the street blocked off Friday afternoon.

Police provided some details in a news conference streamed live by the Casper Star-Tribune (http://trib.com/).

Walsh said 33 law enforcement officers from different agencies responded to the college after receiving reports of the attack. He said authorities first thought it might have been an "active-shooter-type situation."

"We quickly contained the building and started a sweep through the building," he said.

Walsh said that within minutes of the initial call, there was another report of a traumatic injury about two miles southwest of campus. That victim was found in the street, the Star-Tribune reported.

Classes were canceled for the rest of the day at the school, one of seven community colleges in Wyoming.

A meeting was held in the afternoon for the 150 teachers and students who remained. College president Walt Nolte addressed them, calling it the worst day of his more than 40 years in higher education. He encouraged the community to come together, Fujita said

"It is particularly painful because of our size," Fujita said of the small, tight-knit campus.

Counselors were speaking to students and planned to be available through the weekend. About 450 students live on campus.

Classes were to resume on Monday.

"We agreed it doesn't do any good to just set the students loose. It makes the most sense to have them come back to campus, where they can get help if they need help and come to terms with what happened," Fujita said.

Walsh said police train for such incidents but had no warning of Friday's violence.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, who went to the campus Friday evening, said it was too early to assess security precautions at the college.

"There's no sense in doing that now until we understand fully what has taken place," he said.

The governor added that the focus now "should be on the victims' family, the community college family, the president, the trustees and the students, and making sure we're attending to any of their needs."

Casper College opened in 1945 as the state's first junior college and moved to its current site 10 years later. The campus consists of 28 buildings on more than 200 acres. The college provides more than 140 academic-transfer, technical and career programs.

Wyoming has only one four-year university, the University of Wyoming in Laramie, which serves more than 13,000 students.

Casper is Wyoming's second-largest city with a population of about 56,000. Wyoming residents refer to it as the "Oil City" because it's a hub for the state's oil industry.

___

Associated Press writers Ben Neary in Cheyenne and Matt Volz in Helena, Mont., contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-wyo-murder-suicide-happened-during-class-235147631.html

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'Tis the season for free gift cards

Freebies attached to full-price gift cards are abundant during the holidays. Now is a good time to stock up on gift cards, both for you and for others.?

By Karla Bowsher,?Contributor / December 2, 2012

This 2009 file photo shows a gift card kiosk in New York. New federal rules for gift cards mean user have longer to use them and don't face as many costs up front. Many restaurants and retailers offer 'bonus' gift cards during the holidays, so now is a good time to stock up if you visit any one place frequently.

Mark Lennihan/AP/File

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The two best ways to find gift cards for less than they?re worth is to buy?discounted gift cards?from online exchanges or to buy full-price gift cards that come with freebies.

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Saturday, December 1, 2012

NKorea says it will launch long-range rocket soon

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea announced Saturday that it would attempt to launch a long-range rocket in mid-December, a defiant move just eight months after a failed April bid was widely condemned as a violation of a U.N. ban against developing its nuclear and missile programs.

The launch, set for Dec. 10 to 22, is likely to heighten already strained tensions with Washington and Seoul as the United States prepares for Barack Obama's second term as U.S. president and South Korea holds its own presidential election on Dec. 19.

This would be North Korea's second launch attempt under leader Kim Jong Un, who took power following his father Kim Jong Il's death nearly a year ago. The announcement by North Korea's space agency followed speculation overseas about stepped-up activity at North Korea's west coast launch pad captured in satellite imagery.

A spokesman for North Korea's Korean Committee for Space Technology said scientists have "analyzed the mistakes" made in the failed April launch and improved the precision of its Unha rocket and Kwangmyongsong satellite, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

KCNA said the launch was a request of late leader Kim Jong Il, whose Dec. 17, 2011, death North Koreans are expected to mark with some fanfare. The space agency said the rocket would be mounted with a polar-orbiting Earth observation satellite, and maintained its right to develop a peaceful space program.

Washington considers North Korea's rocket launches to be veiled covers for tests of technology for long-range missiles designed to strike the United States, and such tests are banned by the United Nations.

North Korea has capable short- and medium-range missiles, but long-range launches in 1998, 2006, 2009 and in April of this year ended in failure. North Korea is not known to have succeeded in mounting an atomic bomb on a missile but is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen bombs, according to U.S. experts, and in 2010 revealed a uranium enrichment program that could provide a second source of material for nuclear weapons.

Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program in exchange for aid fell apart in early 2009.

In Seoul, South Korean officials have accused North Korea of trying to influence its presidential election with what they consider provocations meant to put pressure on voters and on the United States as the North seeks concessions. Conservative Park Geun-hye, the daughter of late President Park Chung-hee, is facing liberal Moon Jae-in in the South Korean presidential vote. Polls show the candidates in a close race.

Some analysts, however, question whether North Korean scientists have corrected whatever caused the misfire of its last rocket.

"Preparing for a launch less than a year after a failure calls into question whether the North could have analyzed and fixed whatever went wrong," David Wright, a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, wrote on the organization's website this week.

The United States has criticized North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as a threat to Asian and world security. In 2009, North Korea conducted rocket and nuclear tests within months of Obama taking office.

North Korea under its young leader has pledged to bolster its nuclear arsenal unless Washington scraps what the North calls a "hostile" policy. North Korea maintains that it is building bombs to defend itself against what it sees as a U.S. nuclear threat in the region.

This year is the centennial of the birth of national founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of Kim Jong Un. According to North Korean propaganda, 2012 is meant to put the North on a path toward a "strong, prosperous and great nation."

"North Korea appears to be under pressure to redeem its April launch failure before the year of the 'strong, prosperous and great nation' ends," said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Dongguk University in Seoul.

He added that a successful rocket launch would raise North Korea's bargaining power with South Korea and the United States "because it means the country is closer to developing missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads."

Before its last two rocket launches, North Korea notified the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization about its intentions to launch. IMO spokeswoman Natasha Brown said that as of Friday the organization had not been notified by North Korea.

The North's announcement comes two days after South Korea canceled what would have been the launch of its first satellite from its own territory. Scientists in Seoul cited technical difficulties. South Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the North's planned launch is "a grave provocation and a head-on challenge to the international community."

North Korea's missile and nuclear programs will be a challenge for Obama in his second term and for the incoming South Korean leader. Washington's most recent attempt to negotiate a freeze of the North's nuclear program and a test moratorium in exchange for food aid collapsed with the April launch.

The Korean Peninsula remains in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Washington stations nearly 30,000 troops in South Korea as a buttress against any North Korean aggression. Tens of thousands more are in nearby Japan.

___

Associated Press writers Jean H. Lee and Sam Kim contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nkorea-says-launch-long-range-rocket-soon-103821077.html

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How to use iTunes 11's new features (with the old look)

8 hrs.

Thorin Klosowski , Lifehacker

Apple released its newest version of iTunes, and it's a complete overhaul to the entire program. As you'd?expect, that means there are a few cool (somewhat) hidden features. Here are some we've found especially helpful.

With any new iteration of software you're bound to have a bit of a learning curve as you get used to it.?iTunes? 11?is no different, and the first thing you're greeted to when you launch it is a completely different main screen. The big news with iTunes 11 is the new interface, but hidden beneath that is some pretty cool functionality you might not notice at first glance.

Yes, you can get the old iTunes look back (sidebar and all)
Let's start with what we're guessing is most people's main gripe: it looks different. It's true, it does, and if you're not a fan of browsing your music library with giant covers, and navigating drop-down menus, iTunes 11 is a bit annoying. The good news? You can get the old look back:

Get the sidebar back by clicking View > Show Sidebar (or hitting Alt+Cmd+S).
Get the status bar back by clicking View > Show Status Bar (or hit Command+/).
Click Songs in the top bar, and sort by Artist for the traditional list view.

Now, iTunes 11 should look about the same as iTunes 10.

Scan iTunes gift cards with your camera
Entering?in the code from a gift?certificate is always a bit annoying. With iTunes 11, all you need is a camera:

Head into the iTunes Store, and Click "Redeem" at the bottom of the screen under the "Manage" list (or?click this link)
Click "Use Camera"
Hold your gift card up to the camera and wait for it to register.

That's it! No more fumbling around typing a random string of letters and numbers together.

Expanded view replaces cover flow
Cover Flow is gone in iTunes 11 and it's replaced with the new "Expanded View." When you're viewing your library by Albums, simply select an album, and you get an expanded view right there with all the album info. It works a lot better than Cover Flow and makes it so you can quickly view album info without leaving the place you're at. You can either click the album art again, or the "X" in the right corner to make it go away.

Also, a fun fact: Expanded View uses the album artwork as a background for the view (see image at right), so it creates a different background for each album. You can disable this if you want under iTunes > Preferences > General Preferences. Just uncheck the "Use custom colors for open albums, movies, etc" box.

The 'up next' feature is actually awesome?
Ever have those moments where you're listening to a song and it reminds you of another song? You don't want to stop the song playing, but you do want to cue up the song you're thinking of. That's what "Up Next" lets you do. Instead of creating playlists for everything, you can create on-the-fly playlists of songs or albums.

You can do this from anywhere. Just right-click an album, artist, or song, click "Add to Up Next" and it's added to the queue. You can also click "Play Next" instead to add it to the top of the queue. To see what's in your queue, click the list button in the middle of iTunes, and to view the previously played tracks, click the little clock icon. "Up Next" replaces iTunes DJ/Party Shuffle, so if you're looking for those, you won't find them.

Your place is now saved across devices?
If you use a bunch of Apple products, say, an iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, one of the best new features in iTunes 11 is that it saves your progress in your media across all devices through iCloud. So, if you pause a movie, TV show, podcast, audiobook, or iTunes U file on your desktop, you can pick up right where you left off on another device.?

MiniPlayer is more functional
In older versions of iTunes, the MiniPlayer didn't do much except allow you to pause or skip tracks. Now, MiniPlayer allows you to search for new tracks, add new songs to the "Up Next" queue, and even control AirPlay volume.

To enable MiniPlayer, just click the window icon in the top right corner and iTunes will shrink down. When you mouse over the window, you can control playback or search for new tracks. Otherwise, it displays the currently playing track.

Preview history tracks what you listen to in the store?
The iTunes Store now tracks everything you listen to in its preview history panel. When you're in the store, click the list icon in the top right corner, and you're shown all the stuff you listened to recently. You can hit "Clear" to get rid of everything in the list Also worth noting is that provided you're signed in with iCloud, your previewed tracks on all your devices will sync here. So, if you preview a song on your iPhone, it will show in your preview history in iTunes.?

Search is now universal?
This isn't the most earth-shattering of news, but in iTunes 11 you have two main search areas: the store and your library. That's it. In previous versions you had to search separately for video, music, or podcasts. Now, it searches your entire local library, or the iTunes store for everything.

Also nice is the instant search results you get. Start typing a search, and iTunes starts delivering you results. Select what you want, and you're taken there directly. It's simple, but it works really well.

Apps get a list view for easy trimming
One of the most annoying things to do in older versions of iTunes was trimming down the apps downloaded on your computer. You had to do it in the Apps panel with large icons that seemed to take forever to load. Now you can do it with in a List View, and it supports the same basic sort options you get with music (Date Added, Purchase Date, Size, etc).

All you need to do is select the Apps tab, then click "List." This should come in really handy when you're cleaning out old apps you don't use anymore. Reader?shafnitz points out?this view has been around a little while, but if nothing else it's more prevalent now.

More from LifeHacker

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/how-use-itunes-11s-new-features-bring-back-old-itunes-1C7361026

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PFT: Vick worsening, could be done for season

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The Atlanta Falcons intercepted quarterback Drew Brees five times on Thursday night as the Falcons improved to a league-leading 11-1 with a 23-13 win over Saints.

Atlanta?s defense helped snap Brees? streak of 54 consecutive games with a touchdown pass. It was the first five interception game of Brees? career and his first game without a touchdown pass since Oct. 4, 2009 against the New York Jets.

The loss drops the Saints to 5-7 and puts their chances of rallying to a Wild Card berth in serious peril.

The Falcons jumped on top quickly as they relied on the running game to take the early lead. The Falcons went 80 yards on six plays for the opening score as quarterback Matt Ryan threw just one pass on the opening series. Michael Turner scored on a 3-yard touchdown run to give Atlanta the early 7-0 lead.

Matt Ryan then connected with tight end Tony Gonzalez for a 17-yard touchdown early in the second quarter to extend the lead to 14-0. A 45-yard field goal from Matt Bryant gave the Falcons a 17-0 lead before the Saints finally got on the board late in the first half.

Mark Ingram scored on a 1-yard touchdown run with three minutes to play in the first half to cap an 11-play, 80-yard drive to get New Orleans on the board. The Saints had a chance for more points before the half but badly botched their handling of the game clock and ended the half without getting any points.

Brees? touchdown streak would have continued if not for a costly gaff by receiver Lance Moore in the third quarter. With the Saints trailing 17-7, Moore dropped a Brees pass in the end zone that hit him directly in the hands. The drop lead to the Saints having to settle for a 21-yard Garrett Hartley field goal. A 52-yard field goal from Hartley on the next Saints drive pulled New Orleans within 17-13 late in the third quarter.

Another Bryant field goal, this one a 29-yard try, gave the Falcons a seven-point lead early in the fourth quarter.

The Saints looked to be putting together a promising drive after a 25-yard completion to tight end Jimmy Graham moved the Saints into Falcon territory. After a quick screen to Darren Sproles netted nine yards, the New Orleans drive stalled. William Moore stopped Pierre Thomas for a 4-yard loss on 2nd and 1 and John Abraham came up with a sack of Brees to push the Saints out of field goal range.

Ryan led the Falcons into Saints territory and Bryant connected on a 55-yard field goal to take a 23-13 lead. Ryan completed 18 of 33 passes for 165 yards and a touchdown.

Rafael Bush stripped the ball from Turner?s hands on the next drive to give the Saints another opportunity to close the gap and for Brees to extend his streak.

But Brees was intercepted for a second time by Moore to seal the end of the streak and the win for the Falcons. Brees completed 28 of 50 passes for 341 yards and the five interceptions.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/11/30/michael-vick-could-miss-rest-of-season/related/

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