Hit Me With Your Best Shot

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal">Last night was yet another EPIC episode of IWS Radio. Matt and Jay are normally not all that confrontational and they HATE to criticize, but sometimes it’s necessary to call some people out. That’s exactly what your heroes at IWS did. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Matt and Jay took down just about everyone at MSNBC and only really had one conflict. Matt is a fan of cute little Ethra Klein while Jay doesn’t find him all that appealing. Matt also heaped praise on Morning Joe which Jay has no opinion on because the show is over before he gets out of bed each morning. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Some other people that were roasted (kinda) include Tina Fey, Chuck Todd, Bill Simmons, Jalen Rose, Doug Collins, Harold Ford Jr, and of course, Chris Christie. In fact, we had exclusive audio from Chris Christie doing karaoke this weekend at a dive bar in Jersey City. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In addition to that excitement, Dixie Ozark had an exclusive interview with Chris Christie “associate” Jimmy “Three Fingers” Tortelli which was eye-opening and a little scary. Kirk Douglas chimed in with the weather and (s)he talked about some of the strange changes (s)he has undergone since being sick. Al Sharpton sat in for Paul Piatt, Slyder Ballzcock celebrated the Russian ladies curling team and then took a run at Bob Costas. Bobby Kraft went in on President Obama, Tom Cotton and Congressman Cotton’s prissy, finger-wagging mother. Aaaaaaaaaand Rachel Maddow contributed in a big way to the show. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Then we took a call from JesseFerg and um, “celebrated” another one of the great shows on the BlogTalkRadio Network. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal">All in all, a great show! Definitely check it out!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="370" src="https://player.cinchcast.com/?show_id=5906293&platformId=1&assetType=single" width="400"></iframe><br /><div style="font-size: 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;">Popular Comedy Internet Radio with <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/im-with-stupid" rel="nofollow">IWS Radio</a> on BlogTalkRadio</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />Yeah, I know I've been a little critical of her in the past (and maybe last night) but doesn't Tina Fey look terrific? And JesseFerg insists that she hasn't had any work done. He knows these things.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpvgnRoSnZ0oobSHQy3pT1hJUTIbVbyFLnPEJwLl6sejJn1wchAfylZSotlSNZvKfqLCOdmba7yuhvWUP-6Sythcdg9p92z2chN265DkXeOOnID63DiFUS584zQpMUli-xzPbZijkuqPgp/s1600/tina+fey+amy+poehler+hot+gold+globes+2014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpvgnRoSnZ0oobSHQy3pT1hJUTIbVbyFLnPEJwLl6sejJn1wchAfylZSotlSNZvKfqLCOdmba7yuhvWUP-6Sythcdg9p92z2chN265DkXeOOnID63DiFUS584zQpMUli-xzPbZijkuqPgp/s1600/tina+fey+amy+poehler+hot+gold+globes+2014.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /></div></div>

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Last night was yet another EPIC episode of IWS Radio. Matt and Jay are normally not all that confrontational and they HATE to criticize, but...

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‘Mile 420’ marker replaced in Colorado after repeated thefts from pot fans (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKTRZ7AYVl5kBRbUUlODCNvbnp2IW28jWcvKiPfNmTVQs66ObsavJTBJQYxWiLTRMLC7pjtzXKg2d2eKYwkS8cjMOj83mYKqtWakg8GkjMz3RMxdVEtvfF2JIb7M5pePkMpJiZhW81qDQ/s1600/f2eb4502-2b13-4af6-9d46-b852ea6a5c8f_419-sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKTRZ7AYVl5kBRbUUlODCNvbnp2IW28jWcvKiPfNmTVQs66ObsavJTBJQYxWiLTRMLC7pjtzXKg2d2eKYwkS8cjMOj83mYKqtWakg8GkjMz3RMxdVEtvfF2JIb7M5pePkMpJiZhW81qDQ/s320/f2eb4502-2b13-4af6-9d46-b852ea6a5c8f_419-sign.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389575441106_7861" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Sorry pot heads, if you’re looking for a sign <a data-mce-href="http://news.yahoo.com/mile-marker-420-becomes-419-99-thwart-thieves-235742124.html" data-rapid_p="10" href="http://news.yahoo.com/mile-marker-420-becomes-419-99-thwart-thieves-235742124.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">it’s no longer “420” on Colorado’s Interstate 70</a>.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389575441106_7851" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">That’s because while buying marijuana may now be legal in Colorado, stealing a sign with a slang reference to the drug is still frowned upon. But state officials said that just wasn’t stopping the repeated theft of a sign with a popular numerical term that for many is a common reference to marijuana.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389575441106_7941" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">It sounds like the kind of solution only a pot smoker would come up with. But it turns out marijuana signage enthusiasts are the ones forcing Colorado officials to think creatively.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389575441106_7951" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">On Colorado’s Interstate 70, there is a sign marked “MILE 420.” And for those not in the know, “ <a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/420_%28cannabis_culture%29" data-rapid_p="11" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/420_%28cannabis_culture%29" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">420</a>” is a common shorthand used by fellow pot smokers. Like the effects of smoking the plant itself, the term has hazy origins but is said to have originated as code amongst a group of California teens when they wanted to signal each other for a smoking excursion.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389575441106_7962" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">So, after the sign has been stolen a number of times in recent years, Colorado officials decided to move the sign slightly up the road and change its name to <a data-mce-href="http://imgur.com/wTdReCr" data-rapid_p="12" href="http://imgur.com/wTdReCr" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389575441106_7961" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">MILE 419.99</a>.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389575441106_7980" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In fact, it has been <a data-mce-href="http://kdvr.com/2014/01/10/cdot-replaced-420-mile-marker-sign-with-419-99-sign-because-of-thieves/" data-rapid_p="13" href="http://kdvr.com/2014/01/10/cdot-replaced-420-mile-marker-sign-with-419-99-sign-because-of-thieves/" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">stolen so many times,</a> state officials weren't sure of the exact number.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389575441106_7989" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"Obviously people steal these signs," Amy Ford of the Colorado Department of Transportation told the <a data-mce-href="http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24889289/colorado-hopes-mile-419-99-sign-interstate-70" data-rapid_p="14" href="http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24889289/colorado-hopes-mile-419-99-sign-interstate-70" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Denver Post</a>. "In the past, if a sign was stolen too much, we wouldn't replace it. This is sort of an innovative way for us to keep the sign there."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><br />Ford told the Associated Press that it’s the only sign of its kind that has been replaced so far, as most highways do not extend out to the 420-mile marker point.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389575441106_7999" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But they did take inspiration from another bit of signage tweaking in the state. A previous marker reading “MILE 69,” which some took as reference to a sexual practice,” was replaced with “MILE 68.5” after repeated thefts.</div></div>

‘Mile 420’ marker replaced in Colorado after repeated thefts from pot fans (BLOG)

Sorry pot heads, if you’re looking for a sign  it’s no longer “420” on Colorado’s Interstate 70 . That’s because while buying marijuana may ...

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Restaurants reopen with bottled water after West Virginia spill (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBeJu4i6SQzes16vWPhyphenhyphengU8dlMbsFofLq2RalINnlysRW_2Gmr5sE2rlmE5S1JlJkgasc9gFOnRd24E86eyKoTFCVfZGvWF4yS73_dzrhJ-5LWdvO4KO3BwnpdwHYwkcOQP3mfCi-esvY/s1600/4864c7bc-01ee-4593-b195-4669b233c235_AP918197219916_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBeJu4i6SQzes16vWPhyphenhyphengU8dlMbsFofLq2RalINnlysRW_2Gmr5sE2rlmE5S1JlJkgasc9gFOnRd24E86eyKoTFCVfZGvWF4yS73_dzrhJ-5LWdvO4KO3BwnpdwHYwkcOQP3mfCi-esvY/s320/4864c7bc-01ee-4593-b195-4669b233c235_AP918197219916_5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389575441106_5684" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">By Ann Moore</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389575441106_5695" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">State government officials, the utility company West Virginia American Water and the National Guard were continuing to test the water supply on Sunday after as much as 7,500 gallons (28,000 liters) of an industrial chemical leaked into the Elk River on Thursday.CHARLESTON, West Virginia (Reuters) - Restaurants and shops were reopening on Sunday in parts of West Virginia where the water supply was poisoned by a chemical spill, although up to 300,000 people spent a fourth day unable to use tap water for anything besides flushing toilets.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389575441106_5724" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">It could still be several days before people in nine counties and Charleston, the state capital and largest city, can once again use the water from their faucets for drinking, cooking and bathing.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389575441106_5734" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">A dozen restaurants in Charleston had been allowed to reopen by Sunday afternoon by the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department after assuring officials that they have secured a source of potable water.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"It feels very expensive," said Keeley Steele, who bought hundreds of bottles of water in order to reopen her comfort-food restaurant, the Bluegrass Kitchen, in Charleston on Sunday. "This is all coming at such a huge cost."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Nearly 200 groceries, supermarkets and drugstores also have been allowed to reopen across the affected area. Hotels were allowed to continue operating as long as they steer clear of using tap water, although several hotel owners said they were only honoring existing reservations to reduce the expense of shipping out linens for cleaning.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Officials have so far declined to estimate the economic cost of the spill.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Frustrations, however, continue to mount, with West Virginians lamenting the toll the outage has taken on their health and personal hygiene.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"It feels like we've all been living on junk food these past couple days," Josephine Ritter, a 40-year-old hairstylist, said outside a recently reopened 7-Eleven convenience store in Charleston. "You can't cook or clean or anything. It's just bottled water and potato chips every day."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The emergency began last week after a spillage from a tank belonging to Freedom Industries, a Charleston company that makes chemicals for the mining, steel and cement industries, authorities said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The spill happened about a mile upriver from a West Virginia American Water treatment plant. President Barack Obama declared it an emergency, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency has sent dozens of tractor trailers loaded with clean water.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Water tainted by the spilled 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, or Crude MCHM, smells faintly of licorice. Contact with the water can cause nausea, vomiting, dizziness, diarrhea, rashes and reddened skin. More than 70 people had visited emergency rooms with these symptoms by Saturday, according to the state's health department.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Nearly 1,000 people have called the West Virginia Poison Center since the spill to say they or someone in their household had been exposed, Elizabeth Scharman, the center's director, said on Sunday.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The "vast majority" of those people reported symptoms of some kind, she said. While there is little data on the chemical's effect on humans, she said most symptoms were easily treated and that rashes and feelings of nausea would soon fade.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"It's not a highly toxic chemical, it's an irritant chemical," she said, adding that less than 10 people had required being admitted to a hospital. More than 60 people had also called to say their livestock or pets had been exposed.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Earl Ray Tomblin, the governor of West Virginia, and other officials said at a press conference on Saturday evening that efforts to flush the chemical from the water supply were showing some progress.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Most of the water samples tested on Saturday were found to be within safety limits. But officials say they need to see all samples register within safety limits over at least a 24-hour period before they can consider lifting the tap water ban.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The governor and other officials said they would hold another press conference at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT) on Sunday.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Meanwhile, some West Virginians are anticipating a disheveled start to the new work week.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"I'm not looking forward to going back to work on Monday without a shave or shower," said Clark Mills, a 51-year-old contractor in Charleston. He has sent his family to stay with relatives in an unaffected part of the state while he waits out the problem.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"I have a 6-month-old baby," he said. "We can't live like this."</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389575441106_5774" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">(Reporting by Ann Moore; Writing by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Barbara Goldberg)</div></div>

Restaurants reopen with bottled water after West Virginia spill (BLOG)

By Ann Moore State government officials, the utility company West Virginia American Water and the National Guard were continuing to test the...

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Early 2016 states still high on Christie -- for now (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhai0f4DGK-bawTna3gfCLZ280FOvDJS9tEqhQSD9-UFVLdiyY59reKQ9k_G0ya-G-pT0BPdGkNA9nq74O2EnPIkhuWwZclt77ee_sB3TIz759BWqtD0iH8ioIQyBsAxF-gMD_PjeApvw0/s1600/g-140111-cvr-christie-4x3.photoblog600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhai0f4DGK-bawTna3gfCLZ280FOvDJS9tEqhQSD9-UFVLdiyY59reKQ9k_G0ya-G-pT0BPdGkNA9nq74O2EnPIkhuWwZclt77ee_sB3TIz759BWqtD0iH8ioIQyBsAxF-gMD_PjeApvw0/s1600/g-140111-cvr-christie-4x3.photoblog600.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="byline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 25.59375px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By Kasie Hunt, Political Reporter, NBC News</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Republican establishment in early presidential nominating states is standing by Chris Christie -- so far.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Many of those closest to the action allow that the New Jersey governor could end up disqualified as a potential 2016 presidential candidate if it turns out that he wasn't telling the truth about the politically motivated lane closures on the George Washington Bridge during his marathon press conference on Thursday. <a href="http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/09/22242281-embarrassed-and-humiliated-christie-axes-aide-apologizes-for-bridge-scandal?lite" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #336699; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Christie said he wasn't aware of or involved with a top staffer's plan</a> to snarl traffic in Fort Lee, N.J., and announced he was firing two top aides. </div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yet interviews with numerous early-state operatives, establishment figures and party chairs show that even though there's skittishness in private, there's readiness to publicly rally behind Christie. His handling of the crisis so far, they say, could wear well over the next two years, eventually casting him as a decisive leader willing to take responsibility and fire top aides for their mistakes.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"At the end of the day, he's going to be just fine," said David Kochel, who led 2012 nominee Mitt Romney's efforts in Iowa.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"He showed leadership. He held people accountable," said Jennifer Horn, chairwoman of the New Hampshire Republican Party.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"It's refreshing to see a leader step up and take responsibility," said Matt Moore, chairman of the South Carolina GOP.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The across-the-board defense reflects a combination of a fractured Republican Party's hopes and fears for the looming 2016 presidential nomination fight that will kick off two years from now in Iowa. Each early state is defensive of its position in the process and wants every candidate to compete aggressively there. It's still early, and it's clear influential players are wary of crossing someone who is still viewed as a frontrunner, a more-than-plausible nominee and a potential president. </div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And most of all, it's reflective of a GOP still bruised by a drawn-out 2012 nomination process that was defined by warring factions, forced its candidates to stake out right-wing positions to woo conservative activists and eventually produced a weak nominee who lost decisively to Democratic President Barack Obama in the general election.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"The thing I think unites our party across the spectrum is to defeat Hillary Clinton. And everyone knows that's going to be a very difficult task," said David Carney, a New Hampshire-based operative who served as Texas Gov. Rick Perry's top strategist during his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Christie hasn't spent too much time in early primary states yet. But he made a number of visits on Romney's behalf in 2012, and it's clear he's interested -- he made sure to send family Christmas cards to Republicans in Iowa, for example. Early polls have put him atop the potential GOP field, and his success winning over Hispanic, independent and even Democratic voters in New Jersey have cast him as someone with the potential clout and widespread appeal to take on a Democrat like Clinton.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">To be sure, it's clear that there's plenty of private criticism and hand-wringing among early-state Republicans about the implications the scandal could have for Christie in the 2016 nominating process. Some acknowledge the episode could exacerbate his reputation as a bully, an image that might be damaging in always-nice Iowa or in the genteel South.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"South Carolinians like people who are strong leaders, but they also like people who are courteous and polite," said David Wilkins, a GOP fundraiser and former ambassador under President George W. Bush who supported Texas Gov. Rick Perry's 2012 presidential campaign.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There's also frustration over the fact that the scandal could incite a new round of the still-raging war between conservative activists and the party establishment. While the GOP has a history of falling in line behind the establishment's preferred presidential nominee, the recent discontent of the GOP base battered Romney during the last election and left party elders wondering how to change the process to protect future nominees. </div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">That's where this scandal could damage Christie in early states, several GOP sources said privately. Potential GOP candidates are legion, and include Sens. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio; former presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Rick Perry; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker; former vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan; and others. Conservative critics are already skeptical of Christie's positions on social issues and embrace of President Obama after Hurricane Sandy in the final days of the 2012 general election. </div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Right-wing figures have been quick to add the scandal to their list of grievances against Christie. Iowa conservative activist Steve Deace, who's championed Cruz as a potential 2016 contender, slammed Christie and the GOP establishment on his Friday podcast.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"The Republicans would like to replace [President Obama] with somebody who shuts down the busiest bridge on planet Earth -- endangering how many lives? -- simply to grind a political axe," Deace fumed.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul -- who operatives in all three states said is by far the most active possible presidential candidate at this stage -- took a swipe at Christie.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">NBC full story -- <a href="http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/12/22268229-early-2016-states-still-high-on-christie-for-now" style="background-color: transparent;">http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/12/22268229-early-2016-states-still-high-on-christie-for-now</a></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div></div>

Early 2016 states still high on Christie -- for now (BLOG)

By Kasie Hunt, Political Reporter, NBC News The Republican establishment in early presidential nominating states is standing by Chris Christ...

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Today's archidose #726

Here are some photos of the <a href="http://www.lakesideprospectpark.com/">LeFrak Center at Lakeside Prospect Park</a> (2013) in Brooklyn, New York, by <a href="http://www.twbta.com/">Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects</a>, photographed by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronplewke/">Aaron Plewke</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronplewke/11915869353/" title="Untitled by AP..., on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="1024" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2869/11915869353_b5f43d76d6_b.jpg" width="576" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronplewke/11915925353/" title="Untitled by AP..., on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="360" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2841/11915925353_bcc92c3690_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronplewke/11916393156/" title="Lakeside at Prospect Park by #TWBTA - zamboni smoothing out the ice by AP..., on Flickr"><img alt="Lakeside at Prospect Park by #TWBTA - zamboni smoothing out the ice" height="360" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2869/11916393156_254526b5c5_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronplewke/11916668366/" title="Untitled by AP..., on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="360" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3802/11916668366_7f116a012f_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronplewke/11916802466/" title="Untitled by AP..., on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="360" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7454/11916802466_e7a0fd2dbf_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronplewke/11916322324/" title="Untitled by AP..., on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="360" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7434/11916322324_41f51b221a_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronplewke/11917009086/" title="Untitled by AP..., on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="360" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2809/11917009086_6c5b2e426b_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronplewke/11916244183/" title="Untitled by AP..., on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="360" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7445/11916244183_34b157fbc9_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:<br /><blockquote>:: Join and add photos to the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/archi-dose/">archidose pool</a>, and/or<br />:: Tag your photos <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/archidose/">archidose</a></span></blockquote>

Today's archidose #726

Here are some photos of the LeFrak Center at Lakeside Prospect Park (2013) in Brooklyn, New York, by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects ,...

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New report says millions of women at risk of falling into poverty, economic ruin (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlQWw0aeiRDYTJWqneSGDkzPMZ1fhERK-wOc6fa9mf1Pvcw6FmM9YFVFP6l-kYzQct1H1eiMitp81kniyrt697XSAvhtdH5X9xZQ2Uxjk_SurGNzzQtUlQw_PZ_7e-oluBHpWiJiKEc_s/s1600/g-140110-cvr-sunshine-5a.380;380;7;70;0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlQWw0aeiRDYTJWqneSGDkzPMZ1fhERK-wOc6fa9mf1Pvcw6FmM9YFVFP6l-kYzQct1H1eiMitp81kniyrt697XSAvhtdH5X9xZQ2Uxjk_SurGNzzQtUlQw_PZ_7e-oluBHpWiJiKEc_s/s1600/g-140110-cvr-sunshine-5a.380;380;7;70;0.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="byline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 25.59375px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By Daniel Arkin, Staff Writer, NBC News</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Although in recent decades women have made historic advances in nearly all areas of American public life, a staggering number of women across the country are still teetering on the verge of poverty and economic disaster, a new report released Sunday shows.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://shriverreport.org/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #336699; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The report</a>, co-authored by NBC News special anchor Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress, takes a wide-angle snapshot of a national economic crisis — seen through the eyes of women. The key findings paint a portrait of an estimated 42 million women — and 28 million dependent children — saddled with financial hardship.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"These are not women who are wondering if they can 'have it all,'" Shriver wrote in her introduction to the report. "These are women who are already doing it all — working hard, providing, parenting, and care-giving. They're doing it all, yet they and their families can't prosper, and that's weighing the U.S. economy down."</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Amid an apparent boom in female empowerment and participation — a time in which women earn the majority of secondary degrees and represent more than half of the country's voters — the report says that millions of women are still struggling on the margins of American society, bruised by the recent recession and the day-to-day trials of family finances.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Women make up close to two-thirds of minimum-wage workers in the country — and upwards of 70 percent of those low-wage workers receive no paid sick days whatsoever, according to the report. </div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“These are people who are trying to survive on minimum wage, which is not a living wage,” Shriver said on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday. “The number one thing that would make the most difference to them is getting sick days,” she added.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">All the while, some 40 percent of all American households with children below the age of 18 include mothers who are either the only or primary source of income — with the average earnings of full-time female workers still just 77 percent of the average earnings of their male colleagues, the report reads.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The authors also presented the results of a survey of 3,500 adults across America that offers a glimpse into the on-the-ground realities of contemporary womanhood. Republican and Democratic pollsters worked together to "write a statistical narrative" of the women who "are an essential part of our nation's fabric and economy," the report says.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Among the chief findings from survey respondents who are low-income females:</div><ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; list-style: none none; margin: 0px 10px 25px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="border: none; list-style: disc outside none; margin: 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">75 percent wish they had devoted more time and energy to education and career — relative to 58 percent of the general population.</li><li style="border: none; list-style: disc outside none; margin: 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">73 percent wish they had made better financial decisions over the course of their lives — and so did 65 percent of the total survey group.</li><li style="border: none; list-style: disc outside none; margin: 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">Low-income women are more likely than men to regret tying the knot when they did — 52 percent versus 33 percent.</li><li style="border: none; list-style: disc outside none; margin: 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">And nearly one-third of low-income women with children wish they had postponed having children — or had fewer of them.</li></ul><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And yet despite the discouraging signs of economic gender inequality, "The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Pushes Back from the Brink" features a wide range of potential remedies — from prospective policy initiatives to community programs. The authors of the report say that turning away from historical injustices and embracing a more equitable future will boost the U.S. economy.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">One such recommendation that Shriver highlighted on Meet the Press on Sunday was for women to think of themselves “as providers, not being provided for.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">”Many women who responded to the poll said they wished they had stayed in school longer and Shriver said fathers and husbands need to reinforce the mindset that women can set themselves up to be breadwinners.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Men are totally a part of this conversation, in terms of how they raise their daughters, in terms of how they support their wives and their partners,” she said.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Leave out the women, and you don't have a full and robust economy. Lead with the women, and you do," Shriver wrote in the report. "It's that simple, and Americans know it."</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Shriver will appear on NBC and MSNBC platforms this week to discuss the report.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The report — which weaves together the personal stories of working women with "public, private and personal recommendations that can help reignite the American Dream for women and their families" — is the third such document published by the eponymous nonprofit media initiative in the last five years. The first was focused on the growth of the female workforce; the second on the Alzheimer's epidemic.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dozens of luminaries in government, business, academia and the arts — from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to pop star Beyoncé Knowles-Carter — contributed reflections to the document. </div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"I have always believed that women are not victims," Clinton wrote. "We are agents of change, we are drivers of progress, and we are makers of peace. All we need is a fighting chance."</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In a short essay, Beyoncé decried gender inequalities and pay disparities between men and women.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"We have to teach our boys the rules of equality and respect, so that as they grow up, gender equality becomes a natural way of life," she wrote. "And we have to teach our girls that they can reach as high as humanly possible."</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Later in the report, Facebook Chief Operating Officer and "Lean In" author Sheryl Sandberg makes the case for nationwide paid maternity leave policy and reductions to the skyrocketing cost of child care, among other policy proposals.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) calls for "more women in office at every level of government."</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"We have to do better," Gillibrand wrote. "That requires demanding better from our elected leaders, and to me, that means changing the face of those leaders so that their agendas reflect women’s needs."</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Shriver said that since women make up 54 percent of voters, “women are at the center of our country,” and Democrats and Republicans need to work together “to modernize our relationships to women.”“When women do well, men do well and the nation does well,” Shriver said.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25.59375px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ABCNews.</div></div>

New report says millions of women at risk of falling into poverty, economic ruin (BLOG)

By Daniel Arkin, Staff Writer, NBC News Although in recent decades women have made historic advances in nearly all areas of American public ...

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Mob Wives: What's The Problem with Vegas Pics?

<div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="alicia draya mob wives" src="http://cdn1-www.realitytea.com/assets/uploads/2013/09/alicia-draya-mob-wives.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Brought to you by Alicia's social media accounts</span></b></div><br /><br />Back in September, the girls' trip to Vegas was filmed for season four. Alicia tweeted and/or instagramed pictures of herself and other members of the cast having a great time there. Some media outlets said she went there after lying to the judge that she needed to go to West Virginia to help her son, Anthony, get settled in his dorm. This was the story printed in the <a href="http://www.realitytea.com/2013/10/01/mob-wives-alicia-demichele-garofalo-parties-in-vegas-after-getting-judge-to-lift-travel-ban-so-she-could-visit-her-son-at-the-university-of-west-virginia/">Reality Tea article</a>. HOWEVER, Alicia's lawyer, John S. Wallenstein, reported that Alicia has always had permission to travel anywhere in the United States as long as she provides the court with notice of her intended plans. This story was covered by the <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/mob-wives-lawyer-vegas-weekend-100-legal-article-1.1471660">New York Daily News</a>.<br /><br />So which is it? Did Alicia have the permission of the courts or did she sneak out of town?<br /><br />The only reason this matters is because of Thursday night's episode 7, entitled "Loose Lips," where Alicia is pointing fingers at all the girls for leaking the information she was in Vegas to the press. You see, the Reality Tea article indicates, and my memory has a clear recollection of having seen, Alicia herself tweet and/or instagram her own pictures in Vegas out on social media. If that is correct, why is she pointing fingers at anyone accusing them of having "loose lips" and speaking to the press??? And, in the second scenario, if what her lawyer says is true and she had the permission of the court to go anywhere in the United States, then why the need to point fingers at all? I have to say I am a bit confused. Do you think this is yet another scripted episode creating drama where there totally isn't any?  Hmmmmm?<br /><br />It seems clear to me that at worst, Alicia was her own "rat" and at best there was nothing to snitch about because it was all legal. I cannot wait to blog this episode!<br /><br /><br />

Mob Wives: What's The Problem with Vegas Pics?

Brought to you by Alicia's social media accounts Back in September, the girls' trip to Vegas was filmed for season four. Alicia twee...

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Man Bashing , The New Fad

<br /><a href="http://jezebel.com/men-killed-masculinity-all-by-their-big-strong-selves-1498667600"><br />It's all wishful thinking.</a><br /><br /><a href="http://ideas.time.com/2014/01/02/men-are-obsolete/?iid=nf-article-mostpop2">I know you aren't talking to me.</a><br /><br />Sigh.<br /><br />Ya know, I'm getting a bit tired of these stupid bints.<br /><br />Men are obsolete.<br /><br />Right.<br /><br /> Go fuck yourselves.<br /><br />Don't bother trying to call me the next time your fucking sink is clogged or because your fucking car won't start. I will be out in my Man Cave scratching my balls and cleaning my tools off while watching football.<br /><br />And just so you ignorant ,self delusional split tails understand what I am talking about, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself with out <i>you</i>.<br />I know how to cook, clean, do laundry, go grocery shopping, pay the fucking bills and make my own fucking sandwiches, the right way. I can even mend my own clothes.<br /><br />I can maintain my own vehicles, wire a fucking house and plumb the fucker too.<br /><br />You will also notice that you won't see many spiders around because I kill them without blinking an eye.<br /><br />You go ahead and keep pretending that men are dispensable.<br />I'll give it a week before you start looking around for one to do something for ya.

Man Bashing , The New Fad

It's all wishful thinking. I know you aren't talking to me. Sigh. Ya know, I'm getting a bit tired of these stupid bints. Men ar...

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Obamacare may get sick if young Americans don't sign up (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrLM57Edsirg4P9r0Zc-o2DUaT1ZWe82XopRecTPdyTxC022QX_u7JOd_6ILtIS5G_a4kcde9fSeJFDaYEPBBbi87AVsFDDKNGi-MRyXUmQmocoTYk0KZDnSEqksvGo5fiHS3QRatPGTA/s1600/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrLM57Edsirg4P9r0Zc-o2DUaT1ZWe82XopRecTPdyTxC022QX_u7JOd_6ILtIS5G_a4kcde9fSeJFDaYEPBBbi87AVsFDDKNGi-MRyXUmQmocoTYk0KZDnSEqksvGo5fiHS3QRatPGTA/s1600/download.jpg" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389546485660_2751" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">By Lewis Krauskopf</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389546485660_2795" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Early data from a handful of state exchanges shows the administration needs more young adults to sign up in the next three months to help offset costs from older enrollees and prevent insurers from raising their rates.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389546485660_2795" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">NEW YORK (Reuters) - Now that more than 2 million people have signed up for private insurance plans created by President Barack Obama's healthcare law, a crucial next check-up for the new marketplace will be to see how old customers are.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389546485660_2821" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Critics of Obama's Affordable Care Act say the market won't attract enough young people to keep it financially viable, putting more pressure on government funds to compensate for any insurer losses.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Data from seven states and the District of Columbia, which are running their own marketplaces, show that of more than 200,000 enrollees, nearly 22 percent are 18 to 34 years old, according to a Reuters analysis.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The administration had hoped that over 38 percent, or 2.7 million, of all enrollees in 2014 would be 18 to 35 years old, based on a Congressional Budget Office estimate that 7 million people would sign up by the end of March.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"The whole insurance relationship is counting on them signing up," said Dale Yamamoto, an independent healthcare actuarial consultant. "Otherwise rates will have to increase."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The picture from the initial state data is likely to change, since it mostly includes people who enrolled only through November, before a year-end surge of sign-ups for people wanting coverage effective Jan 1. Many experts speculate the early enrollees were more likely to be in urgent need of coverage, and therefore more likely to be older or sicker.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">A recent survey by The Commonwealth Fund, a healthcare research foundation, found that 41 percent of those who had shopped at the various state marketplaces by the end of December were ages 19 to 34, up from 32 percent from an October survey.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">One marketplace with current data, the District of Columbia, said on Friday that of the 3,646 enrollees in private plans through Thursday, about 44 percent are young adults.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Healthcare experts say many young healthy people may sign up only at the end of enrollment on March 31 to avoid paying the law's penalty for not having health insurance.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">A FACTOR OF PRICE</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, prevents insurers from charging people more if they have a health problem. Age is one of the few factors that can affect the price, with insurers allowed to charge up to three times more for a 64-year-old than someone in their early 20s.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But the healthcare costs for a 64-year-old on average are nearly five times as much as a 21-year-old, according to a study of claims from three large insurers Yamamoto conducted for the Society of Actuaries.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"The more that the marketplace is able to attract a broad mix of enrollees including the young and healthy ... the more that costs will be sustainable and premiums will be more affordable," said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America's Health Insurance plans, a trade group for insurers.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Other factors may be as crucial, if not more, in determining the stability of the new market, including the health status of enrollees, regardless of their age, and how that lines up with what individual insurers had projected. But those details will only become clearer later in the year based on the medical claims filed by the newly insured, making age the best early proxy about whether the market is sustainable.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the marketplace for 36 states, has yet to provide any demographic data about enrollees. CMS is expected to release an enrollment report later this month.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Data may come sooner from insurers as they discuss their recent financial performance with investors in the next few weeks. Humana Inc said on Thursday that the mix of enrollment in its marketplace plans were likely to be "more adverse than previously expected.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But healthcare experts say insurers need a better mix of enrollees than seen in the early data.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"If a quarter or more of the enrollees are young adults, I would think that's an encouraging sign, particularly for the first half of the open enrollment period," said Larry Levitt, senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation healthcare think-tank.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">By the end of March, "if it's lower than that, I think there would be some cause for concern," Levitt said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Levitt and colleagues at Kaiser analyzed a scenario that they deemed "worst case" in which young adults represented 25 percent of enrollees. They found that costs then would be about 2.4 percent higher, but insurers would retain a very slim profit margin. As a result, the Kaiser authors projected the companies would raise premiums by a commensurate amount, but not enough to destabilize the market.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Using the same data as Kaiser but different assumptions, Seth Chandler, a law professor at the University of Houston who specializes in insurance, said costs would be 3.5 percent higher, should only 25 percent of enrollees be young adults.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"If we see fewer than 30 percent of the enrollees being in that 18-to-34 age bracket, that's a warning sign that there are problems," Chandler said. "If the demographics come in poorly, insurers are going to lose money."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Chandler is a skeptic of the healthcare law and writes a blog called "ACA Death Spiral." Such a spiral is thought to occur if insurers facing higher costs raise premiums, so only very sick people buy coverage, leading to even higher premiums with the pattern continuing until the insurance market either disappears or shrinks to the point that it is not sustainable.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The penalty for not buying insurance increases significantly by 2016, which should bring in more young and healthy holdouts over time.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Not everyone, however, is significantly concerned about the age of Obamacare enrollees this year.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Linda Blumberg, senior fellow at the Urban Institute's Health Policy Center, said that Obamacare's protections for insurers in the first few years means the program has time to get the demographics sorted out.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"That all combines to make me much less worried about the mix for this year," Blumberg said. "I don't think we have to get a certain percentage of enrollees to be below age 35 or this thing crumbles."</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389546485660_2902" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Andrew Hay)</div></div>

Obamacare may get sick if young Americans don't sign up (BLOG)

By Lewis Krauskopf Early data from a handful of state exchanges shows the administration needs more young adults to sign up in the next thre...

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Blount has 4 TD runs, Patriots top Colts 43-22 (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKI8yHyaU9HESco1w42bUk-U6GOp-FNxeOUKSLvF6kdetgRT2Pq77ZEzSq2EBsz4xuU-nRu0j0z-tcE9aLNN_VYtIc4wSQx8zF-W_lxesc00m4qK7aJ1LomUHbfHa0FKwmoUBTb8j_RVo/s1600/201401112206796078363.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKI8yHyaU9HESco1w42bUk-U6GOp-FNxeOUKSLvF6kdetgRT2Pq77ZEzSq2EBsz4xuU-nRu0j0z-tcE9aLNN_VYtIc4wSQx8zF-W_lxesc00m4qK7aJ1LomUHbfHa0FKwmoUBTb8j_RVo/s1600/201401112206796078363.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389546395984_5622" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) -- <a class="yom-entity-link yom-entity-sports_player" data-rapid_p="8" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/24318" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">LeGarrette Blount</a> wasn't satisfied with three short touchdown runs, not against a team coming off the second greatest comeback in playoff history.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389546395984_5642" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Suddenly, the ground game has replaced <a class="yom-entity-link yom-entity-sports_player" data-rapid_p="11" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/5228" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Tom Brady</a> as the heart of the Patriots' offense.So the 250-pound back who makes long runs routine took off on a 73-yarder and carried the <a class="yom-entity-link yom-entity-sports_team" data-rapid_p="9" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/teams/nwe" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">New England Patriots</a> to their third straight AFC championship game with a 43-22 victory over the<a class="yom-entity-link yom-entity-sports_team" data-rapid_p="10" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/teams/ind" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Indianapolis Colts</a> on Saturday night.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389546395984_5662" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">''Once I get into the open field, they're going to have to chase me,'' Blount said. ''And if they catch me, they do. And if they don't, they don't. They usually don't.''</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389546395984_5672" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">They didn't two weeks earlier when he scored on runs of 36 and 35 yards in the regular-season finale against Buffalo. He also returned kickoffs 83 and 62 yards in that 34-20 victory that gave New England a first-round bye. And they didn't on his long touchdown that gave the Patriots (13-4) a 36-22 lead early in the fourth quarter against the Colts (12-6).</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The Patriots will face the winner of the game Sunday between the Broncos and Chargers. It will be in Denver if the Broncos win, and New England will host it if the Chargers win.</div><div class="body-slot-mod" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em 10px; max-width: 300px;"><div class="yom-remote"><div class="" id="mediasportsmatcharticlescore_container"><div class="yom-mod yom-app yom-scores yom-sports-match-score yom-sports-scorething js" id="mediasportsmatcharticlescore" style="border: 1px solid rgb(229, 229, 229); color: #f0f0f0; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding: 10px; zoom: 1;"><div class="hd" style="color: black; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 0px; position: relative; text-transform: capitalize; zoom: 1;"><h3 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-size: 17px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Sat, Jan 11, 2014</h3></div><div class="bd" style="color: black; line-height: 13px; margin: 0px; min-width: 280px; padding: 0px; zoom: 1;"><div class="yom-sports-scorething-day"><table class="nfl boxes" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px !important; margin: 0px auto; width: 280px;"><tbody class=" final game link" data-index="0" data-url="/nfl/indianapolis-colts-new-england-patriots-20140111017/" style="background-color: inherit; border: none;"><tr class="team away " style="background-color: inherit; border: none;"><th class="" style="background-color: inherit; border: none; font-weight: normal; padding: 3px 8px 1px; width: 140px;"><span class="logo yom-logo-nfl large ind" style="background-color: #13467f; background-image: url(http://l.yimg.com/os/mit/media/m/sports/images/team-logos/sprites/nfl-40-1663570.png); background-position: -360px 0px; display: inline-block; float: left; height: 40px; margin-right: 3px; vertical-align: middle; width: 40px;"></span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; display: inline-block; float: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 13px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 92px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis;">Indianapolis</span></th><td class="score" style="background-color: inherit; border: none; padding: 3px 0px 0px; text-align: right; width: 1px;"><span style="border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; color: #3f3f3f; font-size: 22px; padding: 15px 10px 11px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;">22</span></td><td class="links" colspan="1" rowspan="2" style="background-color: inherit; border: none; padding: 5px;"><span class="meta" style="color: #888888; display: block; font-size: 11px; line-height: 17px; text-align: center;"><a class="no-pjax" data-rapid_p="1" data-ylk="lt:s;sec:mod-sch;slk:game;itc:0;ltxt:;tar:sports.yahoo.com;" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/indianapolis-colts-new-england-patriots-20140111017/" style="color: #888888; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Final</a></span></td></tr><tr class="team home winner" style="background-color: inherit; border: none;"><th class="" style="background-color: inherit; border: none; font-weight: normal; padding: 0px 8px 3px; width: 140px;"><span class="logo yom-logo-nfl large ne" style="background-color: #0a1e3f; background-image: url(http://l.yimg.com/os/mit/media/m/sports/images/team-logos/sprites/nfl-40-1663570.png); background-position: -80px 0px; display: inline-block; float: left; height: 40px; margin-right: 3px; vertical-align: middle; width: 40px;"></span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; display: inline-block; float: left; font-weight: bold; line-height: 20px; margin: 13px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 92px; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis;">New England</span></th><td class="score" style="background-color: inherit; border: none; padding: 0px 0px 3px; text-align: right; width: 1px;"><span style="border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; color: #3f3f3f; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold; padding: 15px 10px 11px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;">43</span></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">''It's just a great achievement,'' Brady said. ''People have counted us out at times this year, but I think we've got a locker room full of believers.''</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Blount tied Curtis Martin's team playoff record of 166 yards rushing, on 24 carries, two weeks after rushing for a career-high 189.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">''He's got that combination of size, power and quickness and speed,'' Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. ''He can run hard. He can make guys miss and he can go the distance.''</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Blount scored on three 2-yard runs in the first half, then burst through the right side for his 73-yarder. Once he reached the end zone, he placed the ball gently on the ground made soggy by a game-long rain.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">On the next series, Luck threw his third interception and the Patriots capitalized with <a class="yom-entity-link yom-entity-sports_player" data-rapid_p="12" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/24860" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Stevan Ridley</a>'s second touchdown run, a 1-yarder that finished the scoring with 11:12 left.</div><div class="body-slot-mod" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em 10px; max-width: 300px;"><div class="yom-remote"><div class="" id="mediasportsgameleaders_container"><div class="yom-mod yom-app yom-game-leaders" data-gid="nfl.g.20140111017" id="mediasportsgameleaders" style="border: 1px solid rgb(229, 229, 229); color: #f0f0f0; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1px; padding: 10px; zoom: 1;"><div class="hd" style="color: black; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 5px 0px 5px 5px; position: relative; text-transform: capitalize; zoom: 1;"><h3 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Game Leaders</h3></div><div class="bd league-nfl" style="color: black; margin: 0px; min-width: 280px; padding: 0px; zoom: 1;"><ul class="players" style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li style="clear: both; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top; width: 280px;"><a data-rapid_p="1" data-ylk="lt:s;" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/25916/" style="color: #949494; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" title="LaVon Brazill"><img alt="LaVon Brazill" class="photo" height="66" src="http://l.yimg.com/iu/api/res/1.2/15Xtz1zTb.ivm9vZ7RoOXQ--/YXBwaWQ9eXZpZGVvO2NoPTg2MDtjcj0xO2N3PTY2MDtkeD0xO2R5PTE7Zmk9dWxjcm9wO2g9MjE1O3E9MTAwO3c9MTY1/http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/i/us/sp/v/nfl/players_l/20120913/25916.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 1px solid rgb(127, 127, 127); float: left; height: 66px; margin: 0px 8px 8px 0px; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important; width: 50px;" title="" width="50" /></a><div class="name" style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 2px;"><a data-rapid_p="2" data-ylk="lt:s;" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/25916/" style="color: #949494; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" title="LaVon Brazill">LaVon Brazill</a></div><div class="number team" style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 2px;">#15, <a class="team" data-rapid_p="3" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/teams/ind/" style="color: #949494; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Indianapolis</a></div><div class="stats" style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 2px;"><br /><abbr style="border: 0px; cursor: help;" title="Receptions: 2">2 Rec</abbr><abbr style="border: 0px; cursor: help;" title="Yards: 73">, 73 yds</abbr><abbr style="border: 0px; cursor: help;" title="Touchdowns: 2">, 2 TD</abbr><br /></div></li><li style="clear: both; display: block; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top; width: 280px;"><a data-rapid_p="4" data-ylk="lt:s;" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/24318/" style="color: #949494; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" title="LeGarrette Blount"><img alt="LeGarrette Blount" class="photo" height="66" src="http://l.yimg.com/iu/api/res/1.2/S_Iwx2bYAEVCCkaoi7_x6A--/YXBwaWQ9eXZpZGVvO2NoPTg2MDtjcj0xO2N3PTY2MDtkeD0xO2R5PTE7Zmk9dWxjcm9wO2g9MjE1O3E9MTAwO3c9MTY1/http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/i/us/sp/v/nfl/players_l/20120913/24318.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 1px solid rgb(127, 127, 127); float: left; height: 66px; margin: 0px 8px 8px 0px; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important; width: 50px;" title="" width="50" /></a><div class="name" style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 2px;"><a data-rapid_p="5" data-ylk="lt:s;" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/24318/" style="color: #949494; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" title="LeGarrette Blount">LeGarrette Blount</a></div><div class="number team" style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 2px;">#29, <a class="team" data-rapid_p="6" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/teams/nwe/" style="color: #949494; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">New England</a></div><div class="stats" style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 2px;"><br /><br /><abbr style="border: 0px; cursor: help;" title="Rushes: 24">24 Rush</abbr><abbr style="border: 0px; cursor: help;" title="Yards: 166">, 166 yds</abbr><abbr style="border: 0px; cursor: help;" title="Touchdowns: 4">, 4 TD</abbr></div></li></ul></div></div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">''I'm just disappointed in myself,'' Luck said. ''I can't commit that many turnovers and have a chance to win against a great team like this.''</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Blount joined Ricky Watters, who had five touchdowns for San Francisco on Jan. 15, 1994, as the only players with four or more in a playoff game. The Patriots six rushing touchdowns tied the 49ers' total in that game for second most in playoff history.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Blount's performance came two weeks after he ran for 189 yards and returned two kickoffs for 145 in a 34-20 victory over Buffalo in the regular-season finale.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Billed as a matchup between quarterbacks - long-time great Brady and second-year star Luck - the Patriots' leader was content to hand off while Luck threw an interception on his second pass and never found consistency. He threw two touchdown passes to LaVon Brazill but also threw four interceptions.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Luck had three interceptions a week earlier but led the Colts from a 38-10 deficit early in the third quarter to a 45-44 win over the <a class="yom-entity-link yom-entity-sports_team" data-rapid_p="13" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/teams/kan" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Kansas City Chiefs</a> in a wild-card game.</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="14" data-uuid="1c12517c-b16d-33ec-9784-9e6cbfc12c83" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/photos/blount-4-td-runs-pats-photo-043616252--nfl.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="Blount has 4 TD runs, Patriots top Colts 43-22"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 201px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="Blount has 4 TD runs, Patriots top Colts 43-22" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="201" src="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/ztW9dwRwILVHUvcrBbQZ2A--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIwMTtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/Sports/ap/201401112219803958451" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck pinches his nose as he watches the action from the sideli …</div></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389546395984_5676" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">''We had our chances, man, to make plays and get our offense back on the field,'' Colts safety Antoine Bethea said. ''Last game, we were able to do that, but it was a great quarterback, a great offense and a great team we were facing (Saturday).''</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The Colts trailed 21-12 at halftime, then cut the deficit to 29-22 on a 35-yard pass to Brazill with 5:01 left in the third. The Patriots dominated the rest of the way.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">''We just had to keep our foot on the gas pedal,'' Blount said, ''and make sure that they didn't to us what they did to Kansas City.''</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Blount's first touchdown came on New England's first offensive play after Alfonzo Dennard's interception. He scored again on the Patriots' second series.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Luck responded with a 38-yard touchdown pass to Brazill. Former Patriot <a class="yom-entity-link yom-entity-sports_player" data-rapid_p="15" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/3727" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Adam Vinatieri</a> set an NFL record with his 59th post-season extra point, making it 14-7.</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="16" data-uuid="b55c6363-c7a5-3a85-ad76-0f098da1233e" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/photos/blount-2-td-runs-patriots-photo-020257663--nfl.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="Blount has 4 TD runs, Patriots top Colts 43-22"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 201px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="Blount has 4 TD runs, Patriots top Colts 43-22" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="201" src="http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/VR2pFaj252osmwcfsfGD2Q--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIwMTtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/Sports/ap/201401111933704367485" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">New England Patriots defensive end Chandler Jones (95) grabs the jersey of Indianapolis Colts quarte …</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Blount's third touchdown came 4:06 into in the second quarter before Vinatieri's 36-yard field goal made it 21-10.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The Colts got a break late in the first half when Danny Aiken's snap sailed over punter Ryan Allen's head, ending up in a safety. The Patriots also got a break that the Colts didn't get a touchdown out of it after Allen failed to concede the safety.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Allen fumbled into the air and Indianapolis' Jeris Pendleton slapped the ball out of the end zone.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">''Ryan probably wasn't sure how close they were to him,'' Belichick said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Allen hurt his shoulder on the play and placekicker Stephen Gostkowski punted the rest of the game. Brady took over Allen's holding duties.</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="17" data-uuid="c3fbc9a6-c065-3fa6-ac76-4effdf3f1678" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/photos/blount-2-td-runs-patriots-photo-020257972--nfl.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="Blount has 4 TD runs, Patriots top Colts 43-22"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 200px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="Blount has 4 TD runs, Patriots top Colts 43-22" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="200" src="http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/iwMoeIRNIpx51T_UyeBb2g--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIwMDtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/Sports/ap/201401111945711207527" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) hands off the ball to running back LeGarrette Blount …</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Indianapolis got the ball on the free kick, but the drive ended with Luck's second interception.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Vinatieri's 21-yard field goal early in the third quarter made it 21-15.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Then the Patriots took a 29-15 lead on Ridley's 3-yard run and his carry for a 2-point conversion.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But Luck came right back with his second touchdown pass to Brazill.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">''We didn't accomplish the ultimate goal,'' Colts running back <a class="yom-entity-link yom-entity-sports_player" data-rapid_p="18" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/9291" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Donald Brown</a> said, ''but there are definitely some positives to look back on.''</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Brady completed 13 of 25 passes for 198 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. Luck was 20 for 41 for 331 yards.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Notes: Former NBA star Charles Barkley was in the Patriots' locker room after the game. ''I'm a big fan of his,'' Belichick said. ... A moment of silence was held for 17-year-old Sam Berns of Foxborough, whose battle with a rare and fatal genetic condition that accelerates the aging process inspired Patriots players and was the subject of an HBO documentary ''Life According to Sam.'' He died Friday. He had been invited by Patriots owner Robert Kraft to be the team's honorary captain Saturday.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389546395984_5709" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">---</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1389546395984_5699" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">AP NFL website: http://www.pro32.ap.org</div></div>

Blount has 4 TD runs, Patriots top Colts 43-22 (BLOG)

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) --  LeGarrette Blount  wasn't satisfied with three short touchdown runs, not against a team coming off the second...

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Solar-Powered Cars: How Do They Work? (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt9k5oanQCEwXnbhcsqUXjG-taV8O57L8skcTZG8dQaRHBKn2mPzkK5Wjt6uLVeDZqUHSrgb50eSPE04SjO7snVgIkOOvpF_pgPzzLHfyoKCfsKGgeBDYjjH5yP3X9hw2aWrwbIckrdxk/s1600/solar-cars-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt9k5oanQCEwXnbhcsqUXjG-taV8O57L8skcTZG8dQaRHBKn2mPzkK5Wjt6uLVeDZqUHSrgb50eSPE04SjO7snVgIkOOvpF_pgPzzLHfyoKCfsKGgeBDYjjH5yP3X9hw2aWrwbIckrdxk/s1600/solar-cars-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_12_0_1_1389546257374_707" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 0.55em; margin-top: 0.55em;">A solar vehicle is primarily powered by direct solar energy. Photovoltaic cells (PVC) are installed on the car to collect and convert solar energy into electric energy. Made of silicon and alloys of indium, gallium and nitrogen, the semiconductors absorb light and then release it, creating a flow of electrons that generate electricity.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 0.55em; margin-top: 0.55em;">The first solar car was introduced in 1955 at a Chicago auto show. It was 15 inches long, featured 12 PVC cells and was called the Sunmobile. Its solar-power-operated, 1.5-volt motor turned the driveshaft and transferred the energy to propel the wheels.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 0.55em; margin-top: 0.55em;">Seven years later, the first full-size solar-powered car, a 50-year-old Baker, was unveiled as a concept car. But it was never mass-produced. Numerous other solar-powered cars, some with odd names like Bluebird and Quiet Achiever, had their moments of fame in auto shows and competitions.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 0.55em; margin-top: 0.55em;">In more recent years, several Japanese and American carmakers have also introduced solar-powered hybrid cars. The concept-only vehicles have ranged from using solar power to run accessories to cells installed inside headlights. In the mid-1980s, Mazda’s solar offering was the Senku, while Ford unveiled the Reflex and Cadillac had the Provoq.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 0.55em; margin-top: 0.55em;">None of the manufacturers’ solar-powered cars made it to the public. And likewise, the ambitious French-made Venturi Electric, which combined a solar-, wind- and battery-powered engine, didn’t make it. The Venturi held only three passengers and had a maximum speed of 30 mph.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 0.55em; margin-top: 0.55em;">Transforming concept solar cars into publicly available solar cars poses a few questions. How does the car travel at night? Is the solar car only feasible in states where the sun shines a majority of the time? Ford aims to solve these issues with the introduction this week of the C-MAX Solar Energi Concept car.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 0.55em; margin-top: 0.55em;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 0.55em; margin-top: 0.55em;">Yahoo</div></div>

Solar-Powered Cars: How Do They Work? (BLOG)

A solar vehicle is primarily powered by direct solar energy. Photovoltaic cells (PVC) are installed on the car to collect and convert solar ...

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Indian diplomat tells of anguish at leaving US without children (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqDYtFlq2k1gyYaPx7yA6s1dsaxdgEbUnGVt8zejN6YaZZkqMvlN5JWl05NEbIGD0ViatdkFF7udPk6pe3bMH5ss1O4ywsJ9iiZuHHnNDiAezwrl_qP6MTf78OR5a7L4k9z5_zqhohc_4/s1600/15f7490a1dd5b51630cf9c97b192363f440b5a8a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqDYtFlq2k1gyYaPx7yA6s1dsaxdgEbUnGVt8zejN6YaZZkqMvlN5JWl05NEbIGD0ViatdkFF7udPk6pe3bMH5ss1O4ywsJ9iiZuHHnNDiAezwrl_qP6MTf78OR5a7L4k9z5_zqhohc_4/s1600/15f7490a1dd5b51630cf9c97b192363f440b5a8a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">New Delhi (AFP) - An Indian diplomat at the centre of a bitter row with the United States told Sunday of her "immense stress" at leaving behind her young family in New York, and vowed to clear her name.<br />Indian consulate official Devyani Khobragade was allowed to leave the United States on Friday after a month-long dispute over her arrest and strip-search on suspicion of visa fraud involving her domestic servant.<br />Khobragade was granted full diplomatic immunity and allowed to fly back to India -- just hours after charges were filed in court alleging she lodged false documents to obtain a visa for her servant and then underpaid her.<br />Khobragade, 39, told an Indian newspaper of her anguish at leaving behind her daughters, aged seven and four, in New York along with her husband, a US citizen, who works as an academic.<br />"I wonder if I will be able to ever reunite with my family, my husband, my little kids. I miss them," Khobragade told The Sunday Express.<br />"What if my children choose to study and work in the US? What if I can never return to the US, which I cannot now. Does it mean we will never be able to live together as a family again?" she said.<br />"I know I am honest, and I will come out clean. But we do not know how much time it will take and for how long my family will have to suffer due to this," she added.<br />Her arrest on December 12 outside her children's school and treatment in custody, where she said she was subjected to a cavity search, outraged India which claimed she benefited from full diplomatic immunity.<br />US prosecutors disputed this, and filed charges in New York accusing Khobragade of sometimes forcing the Indian maid to work 100-hour weeks, even when sick and often without a day off, for pay as little as $1.22 an hour.<br />Khobragade did obtain diplomatic immunity when last week New Delhi asked Washington to grant her a G1 visa given to diplomats at India's UN mission, which is also in New York.<br />The row between the two countries, which had embraced each other as strategic partners, saw weeks of feisty exchanges that strained bilateral ties and left resentment on both sides.<br />India has removed extra security barriers at the US embassy in New Delhi, demanded contract details for domestic staff employed by American diplomats and even stopped the mission importing duty-free food and alcohol.<br />On Wednesday, it ordered an embassy leisure centre popular with American expatriates in the capital to stop admitting non-diplomatic members, while scheduled visits by US officials to India have been cancelled.<br />In a fresh retaliatory measure late Friday, India asked the United States to withdraw an embassy official in New Delhi.<br />The expelled American diplomat was a "similar rank" to Khobragade and is thought to have helped the family of her maid travel to America where they were granted protection by prosecutors.<br />US prosecutors say the family of the maid were evacuated to the United States because of attempts to intimidate them.<br />In her newspaper interview, Khobragade said she would continue a legal fight to clear her name, including attempting to have her case in New York officially dismissed in a federal court.<br />"I have come to India but my stand still needs to be vindicated. And of course, I have been separated from my family, and I am under immense stress for my children," Khobragade said.<br />"I spoke to my kids for hours last night, and they are already missing me. The four-year-old asked me, 'Mommy, when will you be back home', and I had no answer."<br />She cannot return to the United States unless she surrenders to the court on arrival, and her name is being placed on US immigration watch lists "to prevent the routine issuance of any future visa", according to US officials.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">YahooNews</div></div>

Indian diplomat tells of anguish at leaving US without children (BLOG)

New Delhi (AFP) - An Indian diplomat at the centre of a bitter row with the United States told Sunday of her "immense stress" at l...

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