Saturday, December 31, 2011

Teamspeed: Bourgeois Chevrolet Buick GMC???: Forum: Canada Posted By: pearlcoupeg35 Post Time: 12-28-2011 at 04:48 PM http://t.co/JYFym251

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Bourgeois Chevrolet Buick GMC???: Forum: Canada Posted By: pearlcoupeg35 Post Time: 12-28-2011 at 04:48 PM bit.ly/t77PdM Teamspeed

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Source: http://twitter.com/Teamspeed/statuses/152140888821334017

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Investors Can Still Find Value In Energy Sector

View of the assembly of the oil drill

It?s not too late to find value in the energy services sector. Parker Drilling Company (PKD) continues to be a value stock even as shares hit new multi-year highs. This Zacks #1 Rank (strong buy) is now trading with a forward P/E of 14.2, up from 11.9 in mid-November.

Parker Drilling provides contract drilling solutions, rental tools and project management to the energy industry. It has 25 land rigs and 2 offshore barge rigs in its international fleet. Its U.S. fleet consists of 13 barge rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.?The company?s rental tool segment supplies equipment to operators on land and offshore in the U.S. and some international markets.

Parker Surprised in third quarter by 38%

On November 3, Parker reported its third quarter results and surprised on the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 5 cents. Earnings per share were 18 cents compared with the consensus of just 13 cents. PKD only broke even in the year ago quarter.?Revenue rose to $176.6 million from $172 million a year ago. The quarter was boosted, again, by big growth in the rental tools segment. Sales rose 30% to $62.4 million from $48.1 million a year ago.

Demand for drill pipe and related products, especially from operators drilling in the shale plays, continued to expand.?The level of international and deepwater Gulf of Mexico placements also increased in the quarter. U.S. drilling revenue rose 94% to $28.9 million from $14.9 million a year ago.

For the quarter, Parker had an average of 10.7 barge rigs employed compared to about 7.6 barge rigs which were employed in the third quarter of 2010.

Free Investment Report What?s Working Now: 8 Blockbuster Buys. Click here to download immediately.

Zacks Consensus Estimates Rise

The estimate picture for Parker looks good. As you can see from the price and consensus chart below, estimates fell off a cliff, along with the stock price, during the Great Recession in 2008/2009.

But the earnings have turned it around and now the chart is very bullish, showing the 2012 consensus estimate again rising another 45% after an expected 550% earnings growth in 2011.?That is a huge turnaround from 2010 when the company made just 8 cents for the entire year.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/zacks/2011/12/28/investors-can-still-find-value-in-energy-sector/?feed=rss_home

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Friday, December 30, 2011

NeowinFeed: PS Vita second week hardware sales plummet in Japan #sony #psvita http://t.co/2g2eteCO #neowin

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PS Vita second week hardware sales plummet in Japan #sony #psvita neow.in/ruiGNn #neowin NeowinFeed

Neowin Team

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Source: http://twitter.com/NeowinFeed/statuses/152553571274076160

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Microsoft job opening hints at forthcoming backup / restore features for Windows Phone

The current state of performing backups for Windows Phone is far from ideal, although a new job posting from Microsoft suggests that a better solution may be coming to the smartphone platform in its next major software release. According to a job posting from the monolith in Redmond, the company is seeking a talented employee to join its Windows Phone Backup, Migrate and Restore team. The listing goes on to state, "Our goal is to ensure that no matter if someone loses their phone, drops their phone in a lake ... a user can quickly and seamlessly get their phone back to a good state." Whether this involves backup to the cloud, or simply more robust features within the Zune software is never explicitly stated, although Microsoft does suggest it aims to leapfrog the competition in this arena. Not a moment too soon, either.

Microsoft job opening hints at forthcoming backup / restore features for Windows Phone originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Dec 2011 08:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Electronista, wpcentral, WMPoweruser  |  sourceMicrosoft  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/28/microsoft-job-opening-hints-at-forthcoming-backup-restore-feat/

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

MLBreports: RT @firstbasewizard: Tim Raines for the Hall of Fame http://t.co/1hxqKMSc #Baseball

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Tim Raines for the Hall of Fame es.pn/tmVgcK #Baseball firstbasewizard

John Bloomfield

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Source: http://twitter.com/MLBreports/statuses/152097781224448000

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Hudson said 'no' to 'Precious' over weight gain

Gabourey Sidibe sure must be grateful for this!

Story: Jennifer Hudson slams split rumors

In Jennifer Hudson's book "I Got This: How I Changed My Ways and Lost What Weighed Me Down," the 30-year-old singer-actress opens up about why she turned down an opportunity to star in the Academy Award nominated 2009 film "Precious."

PHOTOS: Jennifer's incredible slimdown

"I had (gained weight) with Effie (in "Dreamgirls")," she explains, as excerpted by Uptown Magazine. "And as much as I was moved by this film, I wanted to try a role that had nothing whatsoever to do with my weight."

  1. More Entertainment stories
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      The former "Survivor" producer accused of murdering his wife Monica won't fight extradition for the crime, a choice that s...

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PHOTOS: Stars who were bullied for their weight

Instead, Hudson, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Dreamgirls," went on to co-star in the first "Sex and the City" movie, alongside Sarah Jessica Parker.

PHOTOS: 2011's most talked about celeb bodies

Since her days on "American Idol," Hudson has dropped 80 lbs. with the help of Weight Watchers. In September, she even opened up the Jennifer Hudson Weight Watchers Center in Chicago.

Copyright 2011 Us Weekly

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45795158/ns/today-entertainment/

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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Risking new Turkish ire, Israel debates recognition of the Armenian genocide

The Israeli parliament on Monday held its first public debate on whether to commemorate the Turkish genocide of Armenians a century ago, an emotionally resonant and politically fraught topic for Israel, founded on the ashes of the Holocaust and trying to salvage frayed ties with Turkey.

The session resulted from a rare confluence of political forces ? a decades-long effort by some on the left to get Israel to take a leading role in bringing attention to mass murder combined with those on the right angry at the way Turkey has criticized Israel over its policies toward the Palestinians.

More related to this story

Previous efforts to declare one day a year a memorial for ?the massacre of the Armenian people? have failed, and hearings on the topic were restricted to closed sessions of the Knesset?s defence and foreign affairs committee because of concerns over Turkey?s reaction, especially at a time when relations were friendlier.

But with Turkey having recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv, the hearing was moved this year to the education committee where sessions are open. The debate was carried on live television.

?As a people and as a country we stand and face the whole world with the highest moral demand that Holocaust denial is something human history cannot accept,? Reuven Rivlin, the speaker of the Knesset, who has favoured official recognition of the genocide, said in his testimony. ?Therefore we cannot deny the tragedy of others.?

More than 15 countries have officially labelled as genocide the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians in the chaos surrounding the First World War and the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. Its denial is a crime in Switzerland and Slovenia.

The lower house of the French parliament just approved legislation requiring a fine of nearly $60,000 and a year in jail for denying it, prompting Turkey to recall its ambassador from Paris and cancel permission for French military planes to use Turkish airspace and French naval vessels to enter Turkish harbours.

Turkey acknowledges atrocities occurred but without any specific death toll and says the killings were not genocide but part of the inevitable tragedy of war.

At Monday?s hearing, attended by an official of the Armenian patriarchate of Jerusalem and members of Israel?s Armenian minority, some advocates of commemorating the massacre said their efforts had nothing to do with politics or with the Turkey of today. Rather, they said, the goal was to face history, educate young Israelis about genocide and publicly assert the need to prevent such acts.

But officials from the Foreign Ministry said relations with Turkey are currently fragile and that passing such a resolution could have bad strategic consequences. They did not take a stand on the commemoration but said the discussion could not be disentangled from regional developments.

After Israel invaded Gaza three years ago to stop rocket fire by Palestinian militants, Turkey expressed anger. A year and a half ago, the Israeli navy stopped a Turkish-sponsored flotilla from going to Gaza, killing nine activists aboard. Turkey demanded an apology and compensation and when Israel refused, ties were downgraded.

Otniel Schneller, a parliamentarian from the opposition Kadima Party and himself the son of Holocaust survivors, spoke against the commemoration, saying the region was growing more hostile to Israel in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings and that Israel had to be pragmatic.

?This is the time when we must rehabilitate our relations with Turkey because this is an existential issue for us,? he said. ?We have to integrate into the Middle East. Sometimes our desire to be right and moral overcomes our desire to exist, which is in the interest of the entire country.?

The politics of the debate have been head-spinning. The session was launched by the combined efforts of Alex Miller of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party and Zahava Gal-On of the left-wing Meretz party. Enthusiastic advocates include many members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?s hawkish Likud party ? yet Mr. Netanyahu?s national security adviser, Yaakov Amidror, telephoned Mr. Rivlin of Parliament on Sunday and tried to get the session cancelled.

Ori Orbach, a parliamentarian from the right-wing Habayit Hayehudi party, challenged the government?s concerns about what Turkey might do and spoke for many conservatives here.

?How many times can they recall their ambassador?? he asked rhetorically. ?What can Turkey do to us? It?s our duty to teach what happened to the Armenian people.?

Many Jews argue for the unique nature of the Nazi Holocaust and efforts to view it in the context of other genocides have sometimes met with resistance. But Yehuda Bauer, a longstanding historian of the Holocaust, spoke at Monday?s session in strong support of commemorating the Armenians.

Later, by telephone, he said that the Nazi Holocaust was unprecedented in that it was the most extreme and thorough form of genocide so far in history ? the aim was to kill every single Jew everywhere in the world even though the Jews had no army, no government and their property had already been taken. Still, he noted, the Armenians lost two-thirds of their people in the killings that started in 1915 and the Jews only one-third in the Second World War. The Armenian genocide, he said, deserved wide discussion and education.

?As Jews, we have a special moral obligation and in my book that comes before any political consideration,? he said. He urged the study of the Armenian genocide throughout Israeli schools and naming April 24, when mass killings of Armenians began in 1915, as a date when Parliament would mark the deaths.

The committee took no action, agreeing to meet again.

New York Times News Service

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheGlobeAndMail-International/~3/rj524Y0AOt8/

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NBA Western Conference: Team previews

1:57 p.m. CST, December 24, 2011

(Predicted order of finish)55-27 in 2010-11 4th in West

Lost in West finals

Coming: Reggie Jackson

Going: No one of note

Thunder was spared from mad free-agent scramble, returning every key player from last season. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook should help young roster come of age, with potential No. 1 seed in West preceding deep playoff run. James Harden is poised to continue development into an upper-echelon guard, and slimmed-down Kendrick Perkins no longer has to slog up the court.

57-25 in 2010-11

3rd in West

NBA champions

Coming: Lamar Odom, Vince Carter, Delonte West, Brandan Wright

Going: Tyson Chandler, Jose Barea, Caron Butler, Corey Brewer, Rudy Fernandez

Chandler and Barea each represent huge losses from defending NBA champions, but Odom should be an inspired addition ? particularly in the four games against Lakers ? and Carter clings to vestiges of greatness. Oh, yeah, and there's still that Nowitzki guy. Biggest question might be how long it takes owner Mark Cuban to zing Khloe Kardashian.

Lakers

57-25 in 2010-11

2nd in West

Lost in second round

Coming: Coach Mike Brown, Josh McRoberts, Troy Murphy, Jason Kapono

Going: Coach Phil Jackson, Lamar Odom, Shannon Brown

If it seems only direction Lakers can go without their longtime coach and top reserves is down, fall shouldn't be long one. Lakers still have core that would make almost every other NBA team envious and coach who has been to Finals. Health of aging superstar Kobe Bryant and fragile big man Andrew Bynum will be assessed on a knee-to-know basis, with any significant setbacks curtailing title aspirations.

Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/basketball/bulls/sc-spt-1223-west-caps-nba--20111223,0,3890553.story?track=rss

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Monday, December 26, 2011

Release of 2012 SEC Football Schedule Delayed

Patrick Brown
Chattanooga Times Free Press


Read the source article

Following the recent additions of Texas A&M and Missouri to the SEC, the league has yet to release its adjusted 14-team schedule for 2012. Two SEC athletic directors said publicly last week that the release would come before Christmas, but the SEC posted a statement on its official Twitter account Thursday updating the situation?s status.

?Working through the final stages of the 2012 football schedule,? the statement read. ?We?ll release it once it?s complete, but not before Christmas.?

UT athletic director Dave Hart did not disclose a time in which to expect the SEC?s new schedule in an interview with the Times Free Press late last week.

?We?ve been heavily involved as athletic directors through the commissioner, Mike Slive, and the SEC staff,? Hart said. ?We?ve met very regularly and recently met again, just to try to come to a decision on next year?s schedule. We?ve got to get ?12 done, and then we can worry about beyond ?12. We?ve made progress on that.

Read the source article

Source: http://dev.chuckoliver.net/2011/12/release-of-2012-sec-football-schedule-delayed/

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Four-alarm fire gutted historic Watsonville building: Apple Growers Ice & Cold Storage loss called 'end of an era'

EDITOR'S NOTE: During the final two weeks of 2011, the Sentinel is taking a look back at the most newsworthy stories and newsmakers of the year. The series will be published in ascending order, ending on Jan. 1 with the story selected by the Sentinel staff as the year's biggest.

WATSONVILLE ? When Stephanie Phillips first smelled smoke about 3:30 p.m. April 20, she thought it would probably turn out to be nothing, or at least of little consequence.

Then, as firefighters tackled flames rising from the historic warehouse on West Beach Street, she decided to wait and watch while they extinguished the blaze.

But it took three days and dozens of firefighters from several counties to put out Watsonville's most significant fire in years. By then, the Apple Growers Ice & Cold Storage warehouse was gutted, a $10 million loss to the structure and its contents, mostly Martinelli's apple cider.

Phillips, Apple Growers manager, said she never would have guessed her world would be upended on what had been a typical Wednesday afternoon.

?It just seems like this is the end of an era,? Phillips said earlier this month as she presided over what looks to be the final chapter in a business that dates to the late 1920s and symbolizes a time when apples formed the Pajaro Valley's economic foundation.

?This place has been here for so long,? she said. ?It's sad.?

Cork and redwood insulation

tarred to the concrete walls of the warehouse fueled what was later ruled an accidental fire sparked by roofers. Pallets of apple juice stacked high and close prevented firefighters from working the blaze from the inside, and due to the age of the building, there were no sprinklers.

That first night, concern about the potential for a toxic ammonia leak from refrigeration pipes and deteriorating air quality due to smoke led to emergency warning calls to 28,000 phone customers within a three-mile radius. Hundreds of fish died in nearby Watsonville Slough as soot and foam poured into the water.

At its peak, 16 engines, three ladder trucks and 80 firefighters battled the four-alarm fire.

Watsonville Fire Chief Mark Bisbee said the burn time, the number of firefighters involved, and the impact on habitat and air quality all made Apple Growers a consequential fire ?not just for Watsonville, but probably for the (San Francisco) Bay Area.?

The fire cost $227,000 to fight. Watsonville spent nearly $40,000, and the rest had to be absorbed by the agencies providing mutual aid.

S. Martinelli & Co., a Watsonville business with a global reach, lost more than $3 million in apple juice and cider. More would have gone up in flames if not for the efforts of company forklift drivers, who raced ahead of the fire to save a quarter of the stored product.

John Martinelli, president of the 143-year-old family-owned company, said insurance covered the loss, but product was in short supply for several months. Not until early December was inventory back on track, he said.

Martinelli solved a potential storage problem for this year's apple crop ? held in past years at Apple Growers until processing it into cider ? with the purchase of a long vacant frozen food plant.

But the loss that really hurts is the disappearance of a piece of the past, he said. The heirs of the 23 Croatian apple growers, who built the cold storage business in 1928 to store their produce, have decided not to rebuild and the 3.5-acre property is for sale.

The business stood the test of time, though.

Over the years, apples, vegetables, strawberries and nursery stock chilled within its walls. It had become less profitable in recent years, according to the late Steve Zupan, who served as company president until his death in August. But it was still in use. As late as December, undamaged portions of the 78,000-square-foot building held onions grown in Hollister.

?It's tragic,? Martinelli said. ?It's an icon. The facade of that building is such a big part of Watsonville and Watsonville history and especially the apple industry.?

For Phillips, the loss is personal. She's worked at Apple Growers for more than 20 years. Asked what she'll do when the building is sold, she shrugged.

?I don't know,? she said. ?I'll stay until they kick me out.?

?At A Glance

Apple Growers Fire

WHAT: Four-alarm fire at historic warehouse

WHEN: 3:30 p.m. April 20

WHERE: 850 W. Beach St., Watsonville

WHO: More than 80 firefighters responded

CAUSE: Spark from a roofer's torch

DAMAGES: $10 million, building and stored Martinelli's apple cider and juice

ABOUT THE SERIES

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: The Sentinel took a look back Sunday at the year of the whale. This fall, dozens of them put on a spectacular show for kayakers, paddle boarders and boaters just off the coast in Santa Cruz. Read the story at www.santacruzsentinel.com.

MONDAY: Millions of dollars in apples and property were lost in April when a four-alarm fire blazed through the Apple Growers Ice & Cold Storage warehouse in Watsonville.

COMING TUESDAY: David and DeDe Houghton, beloved owners of a Santa Cruz dive shop and engineering firm, and their young sons perished when their plane crashed in July outside Watsonville Community Hospital shortly after takeoff at Watsonville Municipal Airport.

?

Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5663245787

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Sunday, December 25, 2011

Credit Union Provides Christmas Dinner for Children

Robins Federal Credit Union recently provided Christmas dinner for the residents at the Hephzibah Children?s Home in Macon.

For 110 years, the Hephzibah Children?s Home has been providing residential care for youth who are homeless, orphaned, abused and neglected. Robins Federal Credit Union?s corporate donation purchased a traditional Christmas meal, complete with all of the trimmings, for the residents of the home to enjoy.

?Robins Federal Credit Union has been richly blessed this year, and we are proud to pass those blessings along to members of our community, such as the wonderful young people at the Hephzibah Children?s Home. We hope they enjoy their Christmas meal and this holiday season,? Chris Spicer, Marketing Manager for Robins Federal Credit Union, said.

Robins Federal Credit Union is a local non-profit financial cooperative with nineteen branches in central Georgia. Robins Federal currently provides financial services to over 138,000 members, with assets exceeding $1.4 billion. Membership is open to anyone who lives, works, worships or attends school in the 16 counties Robins Federal serves.

Source: http://warnerrobins.13wmaz.com/news/community-spirit/63295-credit-union-provides-christmas-dinner-children

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Army Specialist back home in E. Texas for the holidays

HENDERSON, TX (KLTV)-

An East Texas soldier is home from Iraq after a year-long tour.

Army Specialist Dedrick Walker was a part of the last groups of US troops to deploy for Iraq back in October 2010.

He's also a part of the last groups to come home from Iraq for good.

Walker says it is good to be home this Christmas--and many more to come.

Military roots run deep in the walker family.

It's evident Bishop L.J. Guillory, Dedrick's father, is proud.

The latest edition to the long line of servicemen is his 23-year-old son, Army Specialist Dedrick Walker.

Dedrick is home for Christmas. Home now, for good.

"He is the biggest present that we have for Christmas," says Guillory, "And his brother and I are just happy, just elated to have him here."

Dedrick's father and dozens of others welcomed him home Sunday, after he served a year in Iraq.
??? ?
Dedrick served as a Preventive Medicine Specialist, helping make the drinking water and living conditions safe for our troops.

He says he helped the Iraqis develop a better quality of life.

His work in Iraq earned him a bronze star.

Dedrick explains that he inspected Iraqi compounds, taught classes, and gave tips to the locals.

Last Christmas morning he was serving overseas. Dedrick says it was then he missed some of the little things, "Just this house, you know, I really missed it. So, I'm not looking for any gifts or anything like that. It's just being around the people I love."

Guillory says, "He is my present from God. My son and I, he is our present from God. That's the biggest present that God could have given me. Santa Claus, St. Nick, all those guys they just don't know. This is the best Christmas I've ever had.

Specialist Walker will attend SFA in the fall, where he will study psychology.

He says he wants to help soldiers cope with mental health issues.

Copyright 2011 KLTV. All rights reserved.

Source: http://henderson.kltv.com/news/news/75851-army-specialist-back-home-e-texas-holidays

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PHOTOS: Dogs Up For Adoption At The Washington Humane Society

?

Take a look at these photos, courtesy of the?Washington Humane Society, of dogs currently available for adoption at the WHS Georgia Avenue location.

To find out more information about the Georgia Avenue shelter or more information about any of the dogs you see above, visit the?Washington Humane Society's website.

Source: http://pennquarter.wusa9.com/photo-gallery/pets/85364-photos-dogs-adoption-washington-humane-society

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Saturday, December 24, 2011

Obama firma prórroga de dos meses a alivio fiscal y prestaciones

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Source: www.lancasteronline.com --- Friday, December 23, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) - El presidente Barack Obama promulgó el viernes una ley que prolonga por DoS meses más un alivio al impuesto sobre la nómina, poniendo fin a un drama de fin de año que dividió a los republicanos y amenazó con aumentarles las contribuciones a 160 millones de estadounidenses. ...

Source: http://es.ap.lancasteronline.com/4/amn_gen_eeuu_congreso

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Study: Indoor Tanning Linked With Early Onset of Skin Cancer (Time.com)

Given that indoor tanning beds were officially classified as a human carcinogen in 2009 -- up there with cigarettes and asbestos -- it should be fairly obvious that frequent tanning-booth exposure would increase your risk of skin cancer.

Indeed, the evidence linking indoor tanning with melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, and squamous cell carcinoma, one of the more common forms of the disease, is "convincing," according to the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer. But the research concerning tanning beds and basal cell carcinoma, the third and most frequent major type of skin cancer -- which accounts for some 80% of all skin cancer cases in the U.S. -- has thus far been inconsistent. (See pictures of a photographer's intimate account of her mother's cancer ordeal.)

Basal cell carcinoma, a slow-growing cancer, has traditionally been a disease of middle age. But it's been appearing with increasing frequency in people under 40, especially in women -- a demographic that also happens to like indoor tanning -- suggesting a link. So researchers at the Yale School of Public Health sought to study the association.

The study included 376 people under 40, who had been diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma between 2006 and 2010. They were matched with a control group of 390 dermatology patients who were diagnosed with minor skin conditions like cysts and warts. All participants had skin biopsies, and all were drawn from a Yale University database.

The researchers interviewed each participant about their UV exposure -- both in tanning beds and outdoors. They also asked about their history of sunburns, sunscreen use, family history of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers, and their self-reported eye, skin and hair color.

The conclusion: people who had ever used a tanning booth were 69% more likely to develop early-onset basal cell carcinoma than never tanners. Those who used tanning booths more regularly -- for at least six years -- were more than twice a likely to develop basal cell carcinoma, compared with never tanners.

The study found that women were far more devoted than men to indoor tanning, which might help explain why 70% of all early onset basal cell carcinomas occur in females. The authors concluded that about 27% of cases of early onset disease -- including 43% of cases in women -- could be prevented if people simply stopped using tanning booths.

That's a tall order, considering that some 30 million Americans use indoor tanning beds each year. Policy changes, such as the recent California ban on teen tanning, may help, the authors suggest. So would behavioral interventions aimed at women -- at least one study in 2010 found that the best way to get young women to tan less was to warn them about the skin-wrinkling effects of tanning-bed exposure, not the risk of skin cancer.

"Importantly, indoor tanning is a behavior that individuals can change. In conjunction with the findings on melanoma, our results for [basal cell carcinoma] indicate that reducing indoor tanning could translate to a meaningful reduction in the incidence of these two types of skin cancer," said Leah M. Ferrucci, first author of the paper and a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale School of Public Health, in a statement.

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Friday, December 23, 2011

Electric Power - Mexico - CFE 40% complete with DF's historic center electric revamp

Mexico's state power company CFE is 40% complete with the revamp of electrical infrastructure in Mexico City's historical center, the company said in ...

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Source: http://www.bnamericas.com/news/electricpower/cfe-40-complete-with-dfs-historic-center-elec-revamp

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Apple wins patent victory, gets HTC devices banned in U.S. (Appolicious)

In the ongoing patent wars between Apple and just about everybody, the iPhone maker has struck another blow against its Android-manufacturing competitors by winning an injunction against device maker HTC.

A ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission states that some of Taiwanese device maker HTC?s devices infringe on Apple?s patents, and those devices have been banned from sale in the U.S. The ITC?s job is to protect U.S. patent holders against foreign infringers, and it has the power to keep foreign products from being imported to the U.S. and sold when those products could hurt U.S. businesses.

As AllThingsD reports, the ban on HTC products won?t go into effect until April, giving carriers time to phase out infringing devices and HTC time to demonstrate how it has fixed the issues that surround the ITC ruling. The patent infringement finding centers around two claims from Apple, both related to smartphones.

HTC is still allowed some leeway under the ruling, in addition to the April delay. It can import refurbished devices for the time being in order to fill repair requests from existing customers, allowing it to meet obligations that have already been set in motion. The ruling is also pretty limited, affecting only certain devices, along with the time delay.

?While disappointed that a finding of violation was still found on two claims of the ?647 patent, we are well prepared for this decision, and our designers have created alternate solutions for the ?647 patent,? HTC said, according to AllThingsD. That suggests that the given the time delay on the ban, the Taiwanese company shouldn?t suffer much in the way of adverse long-term effects, given that it can fix the infringing issues with its devices.

Apple has been campaigning pretty hard against its Android-backing competitors at home and abroad, claiming lots of devices from several manufacturers have infringed on its patents. Among those are Samsung smartphones and tablets, which Apple has successfully gotten banned in similar cases in Germany, Australia and The Netherlands during the last year.

The HTC ruling probably won?t hurt Apple?s competitor too badly, but it does suggest that Apple?s patent claims for its smartphones aren?t just hot air. There have been some serious legal implications for the accusations Apple has brought, and governments are listening. How that might change the smartphone landscape in 2012, however, is anybody?s guess at this point.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_appolicious_com_articles10539_apple_wins_patent_victory_gets_htc_devices_banned_in_u_s/43960669/SIG=1393aoo77/*http%3A//www.appolicious.com/tech/articles/10539-apple-wins-patent-victory-gets-htc-devices-banned-in-u-s

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Thursday, December 22, 2011

BofA's Countrywide to pay $335 million over bias case (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Bank of America Corp's Countrywide Financial unit agreed on Wednesday to pay a record $335 million to settle civil charges that it discriminated against minority homebuyers, an historic settlement for the Obama administration in the wake of the subprime mortgage morass.

As the financial and housing crisis deepened in 2008, Bank of America bought Countrywide, which specialized in so-called subprime mortgages, focusing on loans to those with lower credit ratings and charging them higher interest rates and payments that suddenly increased after two or three years.

The settlement covers conduct between 2004 and 2008, before the acquisition by Bank of America, and involved a range of alleged wrongdoing, including charging African-Americans and Hispanics higher interest rates and fees than non-minorities.

Minorities also were steered to more expensive subprime loans even though they were qualified for traditional mortgage rates. Justice Department officials said it was the largest residential discrimination settlement in U.S. history.

"The victims had no idea they were being victimized. They were thrilled to have gotten a loan and realize the American dream," Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department's civil rights division, told reporters. "This is discrimination with a smile."

The civil settlement comes as the Obama administration has faced criticism for the lack of criminal prosecutions related to the conduct of financial institutions during the U.S. housing crisis.

Federal prosecutors dropped a probe of former Countrywide Chief Executive Officer Angelo Mozilo after determining his actions in the mortgage debacle did not amount to criminal wrongdoing.

The proposed settlement was filed in a federal court in California where a judge must approve it.

SWIPE AT BUSH ADMINISTRATION

Perez said that Countrywide's actions contributed to the housing crisis and that the Justice Department was again using tools in its "law enforcement arsenal including some that were dormant for years," an apparent swipe at the previous Bush administration.

More than 200,000 African-American and Hispanic borrowers in 41 states and the District of Columbia were affected by Countrywide's conduct, of which 30 percent were in California, a state particularly hard-hit by the mortgage meltdown, the Justice Department said.

They will receive compensation from the money paid by the Bank of America unit, and those steered into subprime mortgages will receive a greater share because they suffered more, Justice Department officials said. However, there was no relief in the settlement for the higher interest rates they pay.

Government investigators reviewed some 2.5 million loans in their probe and found that African Americans and Hispanics were more than three times as likely to receive high-cost subprime loans than non-minorities.

Before imploding and being bought by Bank of America, Countrywide had net earnings of about $6.7 billion between 2004 and 2007, according to the Justice Department.

Countrywide no longer originates new loans.

"We are committed to fair and equal treatment of all our customers, and will continue to focus on doing what's right for our customers, clients and communities," said Bank of America spokesman Dan Frahm.

"We discontinued Countrywide products and practices that were not in keeping with our commitment," he said, adding that they were working to resolve any remaining Countrywide issues. He also said that Bank of America's own practices were not at issue.

The Justice Department's civil rights division has about 20 investigations open into allegations that financial institutions engaged in discriminatory practices against minorities buying homes.

This is the latest settlement involving Bank of America's Countrywide unit. Earlier this year it agreed to pay $20 million to settle with the Justice Department over allegations Countrywide illegally foreclosed on about 160 members of the U.S. military without court orders.

And the Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement with Countrywide last year for $108 million over allegations it overcharged homeowners for loan servicing fees.

Shares of Bank of America closed up 6 cents, or 1.2 percent, at $5.23 in regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting By Jeremy Pelofsky and James Vicini; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Gary Hill, Tim Dobbyn)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111221/bs_nm/us_boa_countrywide

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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Inflation is bad for debtors, worse for creditors

Inflation isn't as good for debtors as is commonly assumed, but it's unequivocally bad for creditors whose investments lose value proportionate to inflation.

I recently pointed out why inflation isn't as good for debtors as is commonly assumed. Only if and to the extent it raises nominal income more than it raises the nominal cost of non-debt payments will it really help debtors and improve their ability to repay the debt and meet the debt payments. In most cases it will, but not in all cases, and even in the cases it do the gain is much smaller than is commonly assumed.

Skip to next paragraph Stefan Karlsson

Stefan is an economist currently working in Sweden.

Recent posts

By contrast, inflation is unequivocally bad for creditors whose investments lose value basically proportionate to inflation. Some readers may object that creditors are subject to the same possible negative effect of relative price changes as debtors, but while that is true in the sense that it is possible that some relative price changes caused by inflation could make some creditors gain from inflation in other contexts (for example if they apart from holding debt securities also own oil stocks) that is not relevant for the analysis of the effect on creditors in their role as creditors.

To the extent that higher inflation has raised the after-tax nominal interest rate they receive this is not applicable? but given that a loan with a fixed interest rate has already been made or given that the central bank prevents such an increase in nominal interest rates higher inflation is bad for creditors.

The case is different when it comes to the effect of higher real growth. Higher real growth is very positive for debtors because either their nominal income is increased more than their cost of living or their cost of living is reduced more than their nominal income. Either way, their debt burden is reduced as they have more money left for debt payments.

By contrast, higher real growth has no direct positive effect at all on creditors. To the extent it reduces defaults or (in the case of variable interest rates on loans they have made) persuades the central bank to allow real interest rates to increase it could however have an indirect positive effect. However those effects is only indirect and relatively small in the case of fixed interest rates.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. This post originally ran on stefanmikarlsson.blogspot.com.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/9KFdZKd7jM8/Inflation-is-bad-for-debtors-worse-for-creditors

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Olympic success: Intangible benefits worth up to $3.4 billion

Olympic success: Intangible benefits worth up to $3.4 billion [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 6-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Jane Hurly
jane.hurly@ualberta.ca
780-492-6821
University of Alberta - Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation

'Own the Podium' program's benefits vastly outweighed its operating costs

At the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, when Canadians roared with delight at a medal haul that placed the country at an "all-time, all-nation Winter Olympics record of 14 gold medals," athletes did more than win goldthey fired up exuberant displays of national pride and unity across the country.

And new research involving the University of Alberta suggests Canadians are willing to pay to get them.

In fact, the research pegs the intangible benefits generated by the Canadian government's Own the Podium program at between three and five times its cost: between $215 million and $3.4 billion.

U of A economist Brad Humphreys and sport management professor Dan Mason worked with economists Bruce Johnson of Centre College, Kentucky, and John Whitehead of Appalachian State University, North Carolina, to determine Canadians' willingness to pay for Team Canada's success at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Using nationally representative surveys of Canadians, they sought to understand how people saw and valued the Own the Podium program, which supported elite athletes to the tune of $110 million in hopes of putting more Canadian athletes on the podium at the 2010 Winter Olympics than ever before.

The researchers used the contingent valuation method (CVM), commonly used by economists to measure the value of public goods, in a unique way. About 2,000 Canadians were surveyed before and after the Games about their willingness to pay extra taxes to support elite athletes and enhance medal success. No previous study has analyzed outcomes of sports mega-events using the CVM method, according to the authors.

"The heart of the survey revolved around hypothetical scenarios and questions eliciting willingness to pay for Olympic success," said Humphreys. "Before the Games, the survey asked Canadians how satisfied they were with Canada's third-place ranking at the 2006 Olympic Games. After the Games, the survey told them the Canadian government was spending $120 million to support athletes at Summer and Winter Olympicsabout $10 per householdand asked whether they supported that. Survey respondents were told that Own the Podium cost $3 of spending per annual Canadian household and were asked if they thought more money for the program would result in more medals than in 2010.

"This allowed us to estimate willingness to pay for success in the Vancouver Games and conduct a simple cost-benefit analysis of the Own the Podium program."

Next, respondents were presented with a hypothetical scenario about expanded funding of Own the Podium for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. They were told that the extended program would be financed by an annual income tax surcharge for three years of amounts ranging from $10 to $65. They were asked whether they thought this would increase Canada's gold medal count at the Games, how many more it might result in and their level of satisfaction with such an increase.

Respondents were also asked whether they would vote in a referendum on a tax increase to support Own the Podium and how high or low they'd be prepared to go to support such a proposal.

Mason said the results show that "not only are Canadians proud of their Olympic performance, they also think it is important and that, post-Games, Canadians support Own the Podium going forward." Before the Games, 54.3 per cent of those surveyed said they would support continuing to pay additional taxes to fund Own the Podium; after the Games, that was significantly increased, to 80.9 per cent.

"Our results suggest that Canadians believed, even before the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, that the intangible benefits generated by the Own the Podium program far exceeded the costs of operating the program," Mason said. "Their experience with the 2010 Winter Olympics caused them to reassess and conclude that the benefits were even higher that they'd previously expected."

Said Humphreys: "Seeing the national team succeedclearly has the potential to generate significant intangible benefits relative to winning the rights to host a mega-event and then seeing it take place."

###

Contacts:

Brad Humphreys, professor, Department of Economics, brad.humphreys@ualberta.ca; 780-492-5143, 780-940-9182 (cell)

Dan Mason, professor, Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation; dan.mason@ualberta.ca, 778-477-4950. (home) or 250-317-2034 (cell)



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Olympic success: Intangible benefits worth up to $3.4 billion [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 6-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Jane Hurly
jane.hurly@ualberta.ca
780-492-6821
University of Alberta - Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation

'Own the Podium' program's benefits vastly outweighed its operating costs

At the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, when Canadians roared with delight at a medal haul that placed the country at an "all-time, all-nation Winter Olympics record of 14 gold medals," athletes did more than win goldthey fired up exuberant displays of national pride and unity across the country.

And new research involving the University of Alberta suggests Canadians are willing to pay to get them.

In fact, the research pegs the intangible benefits generated by the Canadian government's Own the Podium program at between three and five times its cost: between $215 million and $3.4 billion.

U of A economist Brad Humphreys and sport management professor Dan Mason worked with economists Bruce Johnson of Centre College, Kentucky, and John Whitehead of Appalachian State University, North Carolina, to determine Canadians' willingness to pay for Team Canada's success at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Using nationally representative surveys of Canadians, they sought to understand how people saw and valued the Own the Podium program, which supported elite athletes to the tune of $110 million in hopes of putting more Canadian athletes on the podium at the 2010 Winter Olympics than ever before.

The researchers used the contingent valuation method (CVM), commonly used by economists to measure the value of public goods, in a unique way. About 2,000 Canadians were surveyed before and after the Games about their willingness to pay extra taxes to support elite athletes and enhance medal success. No previous study has analyzed outcomes of sports mega-events using the CVM method, according to the authors.

"The heart of the survey revolved around hypothetical scenarios and questions eliciting willingness to pay for Olympic success," said Humphreys. "Before the Games, the survey asked Canadians how satisfied they were with Canada's third-place ranking at the 2006 Olympic Games. After the Games, the survey told them the Canadian government was spending $120 million to support athletes at Summer and Winter Olympicsabout $10 per householdand asked whether they supported that. Survey respondents were told that Own the Podium cost $3 of spending per annual Canadian household and were asked if they thought more money for the program would result in more medals than in 2010.

"This allowed us to estimate willingness to pay for success in the Vancouver Games and conduct a simple cost-benefit analysis of the Own the Podium program."

Next, respondents were presented with a hypothetical scenario about expanded funding of Own the Podium for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. They were told that the extended program would be financed by an annual income tax surcharge for three years of amounts ranging from $10 to $65. They were asked whether they thought this would increase Canada's gold medal count at the Games, how many more it might result in and their level of satisfaction with such an increase.

Respondents were also asked whether they would vote in a referendum on a tax increase to support Own the Podium and how high or low they'd be prepared to go to support such a proposal.

Mason said the results show that "not only are Canadians proud of their Olympic performance, they also think it is important and that, post-Games, Canadians support Own the Podium going forward." Before the Games, 54.3 per cent of those surveyed said they would support continuing to pay additional taxes to fund Own the Podium; after the Games, that was significantly increased, to 80.9 per cent.

"Our results suggest that Canadians believed, even before the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, that the intangible benefits generated by the Own the Podium program far exceeded the costs of operating the program," Mason said. "Their experience with the 2010 Winter Olympics caused them to reassess and conclude that the benefits were even higher that they'd previously expected."

Said Humphreys: "Seeing the national team succeedclearly has the potential to generate significant intangible benefits relative to winning the rights to host a mega-event and then seeing it take place."

###

Contacts:

Brad Humphreys, professor, Department of Economics, brad.humphreys@ualberta.ca; 780-492-5143, 780-940-9182 (cell)

Dan Mason, professor, Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation; dan.mason@ualberta.ca, 778-477-4950. (home) or 250-317-2034 (cell)



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/uoa--osi120611.php

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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Some Asians' college strategy: Don't check `Asian' (AP)

Lanya Olmstead was born in Florida to a mother who immigrated from Taiwan and an American father of Norwegian ancestry. Ethnically, she considers herself half Taiwanese and half Norwegian. But when applying to Harvard, Olmstead checked only one box for her race: white.

"I didn't want to put `Asian' down," Olmstead says, "because my mom told me there's discrimination against Asians in the application process."

For years, many Asian-Americans have been convinced that it's harder for them to gain admission to the nation's top colleges.

Studies show that Asian-Americans meet these colleges' admissions standards far out of proportion to their 6 percent representation in the U.S. population, and that they often need test scores hundreds of points higher than applicants from other ethnic groups to have an equal chance of admission. Critics say these numbers, along with the fact that some top colleges with race-blind admissions have double the Asian percentage of Ivy League schools, prove the existence of discrimination.

The way it works, the critics believe, is that Asian-Americans are evaluated not as individuals, but against the thousands of other ultra-achieving Asians who are stereotyped as boring academic robots.

Now, an unknown number of students are responding to this concern by declining to identify themselves as Asian on their applications.

For those with only one Asian parent, whose names don't give away their heritage, that decision can be relatively easy. Harder are the questions that it raises: What's behind the admissions difficulties? What, exactly, is an Asian-American ? and is being one a choice?

Olmstead is a freshman at Harvard and a member of HAPA, the Half-Asian People's Association. In high school she had a perfect 4.0 grade-point average and scored 2150 out of a possible 2400 on the SAT, which she calls "pretty low."

College applications ask for parent information, so Olmstead knows that admissions officers could figure out a student's background that way. She did write in the word "multiracial" on her own application.

Still, she would advise students with one Asian parent to "check whatever race is not Asian."

"Not to really generalize, but a lot of Asians, they have perfect SATs, perfect GPAs, ... so it's hard to let them all in," Olmstead says.

Amalia Halikias is a Yale freshman whose mother was born in America to Chinese immigrants; her father is a Greek immigrant. She also checked only the "white" box on her application.

"As someone who was applying with relatively strong scores, I didn't want to be grouped into that stereotype," Halikias says. "I didn't want to be written off as one of the 1.4 billion Asians that were applying."

Her mother was "extremely encouraging" of that decision, Halikias says, even though she places a high value on preserving their Chinese heritage.

"Asian-American is more a scale or a gradient than a discrete combination . I think it's a choice," Halikias says.

But leaving the Asian box blank felt wrong to Jodi Balfe, a Harvard freshman who was born in Korea and came here at age 3 with her Korean mother and white American father. She checked the box against the advice of her high school guidance counselor, teachers and friends.

"I felt very uncomfortable with the idea of trying to hide half of my ethnic background," Balfe says. "It's been a major influence on how I developed as a person. It felt like selling out, like selling too much of my soul."

"I thought admission wouldn't be worth it. It would be like only half of me was accepted."

Other students, however, feel no conflict between a strong Asian identity and their response to what they believe is injustice.

"If you know you're going to be discriminated against, it's absolutely justifiable to not check the Asian box," says Halikias.

Immigration from Asian countries was heavily restricted until laws were changed in 1965. When the gates finally opened, many Asian arrivals were well-educated, endured hardships to secure more opportunities for their families, and were determined to seize the American dream through effort and education.

These immigrants, and their descendants, often demanded that children work as hard as humanly possible to achieve. Parental respect is paramount in Asian culture, so many children have obeyed ? and excelled.

"Chinese parents can order their kids to get straight As. Western parents can only ask their kids to try their best," wrote Amy Chua, only half tongue-in-cheek, in her recent best-selling book "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother."

"Chinese parents can say, `You're lazy. All your classmates are getting ahead of you,'" Chua wrote. "By contrast, Western parents have to struggle with their own conflicted feelings about achievement, and try to persuade themselves that they're not disappointed about how their kids turned out."

Of course, not all Asian-Americans fit this stereotype. They are not always obedient hard workers who get top marks. Some embrace American rather than Asian culture. Their economic status, ancestral countries and customs vary, and their forebears may have been rich or poor.

But compared with American society in general, Asian-Americans have developed a much stronger emphasis on intense academic preparation as a path to a handful of the very best schools.

"The whole Tiger Mom stereotype is grounded in truth," says Tao Tao Holmes, a Yale sophomore with a Chinese-born mother and white American father. She did not check "Asian" on her application.

"My math scores aren't high enough for the Asian box," she says. "I say it jokingly, but there is the underlying sentiment of, if I had emphasized myself as Asian, I would have (been expected to) excel more in stereotypically Asian-dominated subjects."

"I was definitely held to a different standard (by my mom), and to different standards than my friends," Holmes says. She sees the same rigorous academic focus among many other students with immigrant parents, even non-Asian ones.

Does Holmes think children of American parents are generally spoiled and lazy by comparison? "That's essentially what I'm trying to say."

Asian students have higher average SAT scores than any other group, including whites. A study by Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade examined applicants to top colleges from 1997, when the maximum SAT score was 1600 (today it's 2400). Espenshade found that Asian-Americans needed a 1550 SAT to have an equal chance of getting into an elite college as white students with a 1410 or black students with an 1100.

Top schools that don't ask about race in admissions process have very high percentages of Asian students. The California Institute of Technology, a private school that chooses not to consider race, is about one-third Asian. (Thirteen percent of California residents have Asian heritage.) The University of California-Berkeley, which is forbidden by state law to consider race in admissions, is more than 40 percent Asian ? up from about 20 percent before the law was passed.

Steven Hsu, a physics professor at the University of Oregon and a vocal critic of current admissions policies, says there is a clear statistical case that discrimination exists.

"The actual dynamics of how it happens are really quite subtle," he says, mentioning factors like horse-trading among admissions officers for their favorite candidates.

Also, "when Asians are the largest group on campus, I can easily imagine a fund-raiser saying, `This is jarring to our alumni,'" Hsu says. Noting that most Ivy League schools have roughly the same percentage of Asians, he wonders if "that's the maximum number where diversity is still good, and it's not, `we're being overwhelmed by the yellow horde.'"

Yale, Harvard, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania declined to make admissions officers available for interviews for this story.

Kara Miller helped review applications for Yale as an admissions office reader, and participated in meetings where admissions decisions were made. She says it often felt like Asians were held to a higher standard.

"Asian kids know that when you look at the average SAT for the school, they need to add 50 or 100 to it. If you're Asian, that's what you'll need to get in," says Miller, now an English professor at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.

Highly selective colleges do use much more than SAT scores and grades to evaluate applicants. Other important factors include extracurricular activities, community service, leadership, maturity, engagement in learning, and overcoming adversity.

Admissions preferences are sometimes given to the children of alumni, the wealthy and celebrities, which is an overwhelmingly white group. Recruited athletes get breaks. Since the top colleges say diversity is crucial to a world-class education, African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders also may get in despite lower scores than other applicants.

A college like Yale "could fill their entire freshman class twice over with qualified Asian students or white students or valedictorians," says Rosita Fernandez-Rojo, a former college admissions officer who is now director of college counseling at Rye Country Day School outside of New York City.

But applicants are not ranked by results of a qualifications test, she says ? "it's a selection process."

"People are always looking for reasons they didn't get in," she continues. "You can't always know what those reasons are. Sometimes during the admissions process they say, `There's nothing wrong with that kid. We just don't have room.'"

In the end, elite colleges often don't have room for Asian students with outstanding scores and grades.

That's one reason why Harvard freshman Heather Pickerell, born in Hong Kong to a Taiwanese mother and American father, refused to check any race box on her application.

"I figured it might help my chances of getting in," she says. "But I figured if Harvard wouldn't take me for refusing to list my ethnicity, then maybe I shouldn't go there."

She considers drawing lines between different ethnic groups a form of racism ? and says her ethnic identity depends on where she is.

"In America, I identify more as Asian, having grown up there, and actually being Asian, and having grown up in an Asian family," she says. "But when I'm back in Hong Kong I feel more American, because everyone there is more Asian than I am."

Holmes, the Yale sophomore with the Chinese-born mother, also has problems fitting herself into the Asian box ? "it doesn't make sense to me."

"I feel like an American," she says, "...an Asian person who grew up in America."

Susanna Koetter, a Yale junior with an American father and Korean mother, was adamant about identifying her Asian side on her application. Yet she calls herself "not fully Asian-American. I'm mixed Asian-American. When I go to Korea, I'm like, blatantly white."

And yet, asked whether she would have considered leaving the Asian box blank, she says: "That would be messed up. I'm not white."

"Identity is very malleable," says Jasmine Zhuang, a Yale junior whose parents were both born in Taiwan.

She didn't check the box, even though her last name is a giveaway and her essay was about Asian-American identity.

"Looking back I don't agree with what I did," Zhuang says. "It was more like a symbolic action for me, to rebel against the higher standard placed on Asian-American applicants."

"There's no way someone's race can automatically tell you something about them, or represent who they are to an admissions committee," Zhuang says. "Using race by itself is extremely dangerous."

Hsu, the physics professor, says that if the current admissions policies continue, it will become more common for Asian students to avoid identifying themselves as such, and schools will have to react.

"They'll have to decide: A half-Asian kid, what is that? I don't think they really know."

The lines are already blurred at Yale, where almost 26,000 students applied for the current freshman class, according to the school's web site.

About 1,300 students were admitted. Twenty percent of them marked the Asian-American box on their applications; 15 percent of freshmen marked two or more ethnicities.

Ten percent of Yale's freshmen class did not check a single box.

___

Jesse Washington covers race and ethnicity for The Associated Press. He is reachable at http://www.twitter.com/jessewashington or jwashington(at)ap.org.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111203/ap_on_re_us/us_i_m_not_asian

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