Cutter: It's 'tough,' but Obama's still fighting (Politico)

President Barack Obama?s scorecard for 2011 is a study in extremes: stunning foreign policy achievements matched by considerable domestic defeats.

The president oversaw the killing of Osama bin Laden, wound down the war in Iraq and helped topple a dictator in Libya. But his successes abroad couldn?t help him back home, where Congress largely blocked his agenda and a lethargic economy drove two-thirds of Americans in many polls to say the country is headed in the wrong direction.

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With Washington nearing a legislative standstill as the 2012 presidential campaign ramps up, the focus of this White House over the next year will be modest: protecting and implementing what Obama has already achieved and pressing Congress to act on his jobs measures.

Stephanie Cutter, a deputy senior adviser to the president who departed the White House last month to work on Obama?s campaign, sat down for an interview with POLITICO to discuss the administration?s successes, setbacks and surprises over the past year.

It was a tough year for the president, but let?s start on the positive side of the ledger. What would you point to as the administration?s top policy achievements?

He kept his promise on Iraq. By the end of the year, American troops will be out of Iraq.

We doubled fuel-economy standards, which is a historic accomplishment ? the largest single reduction in oil imports in history. ... [and] which haven?t been touched for 20 years. Not only does that save consumers thousands of dollars in fuel costs, it?s a significant decrease in greenhouse gases and it decreases our import of foreign oil.

We achieved historic trade agreements. South Korea alone will have more of an impact than nine past trade agreements. It?s been a long time since America has been able to put some of these things in place, and, as the president says, he wants to see Fords and Chryslers sold over in South Korea. I think the American people are soon going to see that.

The killing of Osama bin Laden and other key leaders is a major accomplishment of this president. ... He took some risks. Had the raid on the bin Laden compound gone badly, it would have been a huge political problem for this president, but he stuck to it, remained focused and ultimately we got him.

When we announced that we were sending troops over to Libya as part of a NATO alliance, the president received a tremendous amount of criticism, particularly from Congress and from some conservative foreign policy experts. This is another example of the president persevering, sticking to his strategy, pursuing what he believes is right, albeit not popular, and we achieved our goals.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories1111_69430_html/43816299/SIG=11m93sgv3/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/69430.html

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Jupiter and the Moon to Show Off in Tuesday's Night Sky (SPACE.com)

As darkness falls tomorrow (Dec. 6), check out the east-southeast sky.?You'll see a bright waxing gibbous moon, nearly 90 percent illuminated, and shining brilliantly to the lower right of the moon will be a brilliant silvery "star" gleaming with a steady glow.

That's not a star, though, but the "king of the planets," Jupiter.?

The moon and Jupiter will be closest together?during the afternoon, and they will be slowly separating during the overnight hours of tomorrow and Wednesday morning.? During the evening they'll be separated by about 5 or 6 degrees (for comparison, your clenched fist held at arm's length measures about 10 degrees and the moon moves across the sky at about its own diameter each hour).

Jupiter remains a bold light high in the east-southeast at nightfall.??This week it?doesn't set in the west until around 3:30 a.m. local time.?

Although brighter than any nighttime star, Jupiter blazes less fiercely now than in previous months.?One glance toward the southwest?before 6:30 p.m. local time will readily show that Venus outshines it.? Jupiter appears to be levitating in front of the sparse stars of eastern Pisces, filling this region of the sky with overbearing brightness.?

What kind of telescopic observation can be made now?? Almost any kind.? From mid-northern latitudes you could even watch a full rotation of Jupiter, with the cloud features of every longitude displayed, during a single nightlong vigil. And as always, a fascinating dance of Jupiter's four large satellites will await viewers on any night who watch with a small telescope or even steadily held binoculars. [Video: Top 10 Amateur Telescopes]

As darkness falls over the eastern United States tomorrow, you'll see two of Jupiter's moons ? Ganymede and Europa ? on one side of the planet, while?a third, Callisto, hovers by itself on the other side.?

As the evening progresses, notice how Ganymede and Europa will gradually pull away from Jupiter, but then at 8:21 p.m. EST (5:21 p.m. PST), a fourth satellite (Io) will emerge from Jupiter's shadow and l appear on the side of Jupiter occupied by Callisto.?Slowly, as tomorrow night wears on, Io will become easier to see as it moves away from Jupiter and toward Callisto.?

Keep in mind that during this time,?Jupiter's distance from Earth is increasing, from 34.8 light-minutes now to?37.7 light-minutes by the end of December (a light-minute is the distance light can travel in a minute ? about 11 million miles, or 18 million kilometers).?The apparent size of?Jupiter's disk is therefore shrinking too; in fact, it will be nearly 13 percent smaller by year's end compared to?when it was at opposition to the sun in late October.?

Nonetheless, Jupiter will continue to be a great target for those who might acquire binoculars or a telescope for the holidays over this upcoming winter season.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20111205/sc_space/jupiterandthemoontoshowoffintuesdaysnightsky

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George McGovern hospitalized after fall in SD

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) ? Former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern was being treated at a hospital in South Dakota after falling and hitting his head on the pavement outside a library bearing his name.

McGovern's daughter Ann McGovern said her father was to be treated at a Sioux Falls hospital after being flown by helicopter from Mitchell, S.D., where a live C-SPAN interview was to take place at the Dakota Wesleyan University's McGovern Library on Friday.

"He had just walked from home to the center. He lives literally just across the street," Ann McGovern told The Associated Press.

McGovern has lived in St. Augustine, Fla., since 2008 but also has a home in Mitchell.

Friends and faculty who had gathered at the library for the C-SPAN taping said McGovern fell at about 5:15 p.m. ? less than two hours before the program began. A former South Dakota senator, McGovern, 89, was "bleeding profusely" but was conscious and talking as he was taken from the university by ambulance, said Donald Simmons, dean of the College of Public Service.

Ann McGovern was with her father before he was taken to Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, but she wasn't sure how serious the injury was. Hospital officials said no new information was available late Friday night.

University President Robert Duffett said McGovern had been excited to take part in the live C-SPAN program called "The Contenders," which focuses on failed presidential candidates who changed the landscape of American politics." McGovern lost his 1972 challenge against President Richard Nixon, who eventually resigned amid the Watergate scandal.

Duffett said he had coffee with McGovern just hours before the fall and that McGovern was returning to the campus to grab dinner with faculty before the interview.

McGovern was entering a side door when he "tripped and fell and hit his head hard," said Duffett, audibly frazzled. "It's just one of those things. He's made that walk many times before."

McGovern has an office inside the library named for both him and his late wife, Eleanor.

Ann McGovern said the injury was unrelated to her father's hospitalization in late October for exhaustion. She was with her father was he was being readied to be taken to Avera McKennan Hospital, but she wasn't sure how serious the injury was.

C-SPAN went ahead and aired the segment on McGovern, with program host Amity Shlaes interviewing political experts and journalists to analyze McGovern's ill-fated campaign. Shlaes said on air that McGovern had taken "a spill" and wasn't able to be on the program as planned, but she said he was fine.

McGovern was elected to his first of three terms in the Senate in 1962. Though he later lost the presidential race to Nixon, he continued to distinguish himself during his political career and was a lifelong advocate for U.S. and world food programs.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-03-McGovern%20Hospitalized-Fall/id-01f4c896e298407eb22a9f3c6fd6827f

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Even unconsciously, sound helps us see

ScienceDaily (Dec. 2, 2011) ? "Imagine you are playing ping-pong with a friend. Your friend makes a serve. Information about where and when the ball hit the table is provided by both vision and hearing. Scientists have believed that each of the senses produces an estimate relevant for the task (in this example, about the location or time of the ball's impact) and then these votes get combined subconsciously according to rules that take into account which sense is more reliable. And this is how the senses interact in how we perceive the world.

However, our findings show that the senses of hearing and vision can also interact at a more basic level, before they each even produce an estimate," says Ladan Shams, a UCLA professor of psychology, and the senior author of a new study appearing in the December issue of Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science. "If we think of the perceptual system as a democracy where each sense is like a person casting a vote and all votes are counted (albeit with different weights) to reach a decision, what our study shows is that the voters talk to one another and influence one another even before each casts a vote."

"The senses affect each other in many ways," says cognitive neuroscientist Robyn Kim. There are connections between the auditory and visual portions of the brain and at the cognitive level. When the information from one sense is ambiguous, another sense can step in and clarify or ratify the perception. Now, for the first time, Kim, Megan Peters, and Ladan Shams, working at the University of California Los Angeles, have shown behavioral evidence that this interplay happens in the earliest workings of perception -- not just before that logical decision-making stage, but before the pre-conscious combination of sensory information.

To demonstrate that one sense can affect another even before perception, the researchers showed 63 participants a bunch of dots on a screen, in two phases with a pause between them. In one phase, the dots moved around at random; in the other, some proportion moved together from right to left. The participants had to indicate in which phase the dots moved together horizontally. In experiment 1, the subjects were divided into three groups. While they looked at the dots, one group heard sound moving in the same direction as the right-to-left dots, and stationary sound in the random phase. A second group heard the same right-to-left sound in both phases. The third group heard the identical sound in both phases, but it moved in the opposite direction of the dots. In the second and third conditions, because the sound was exactly the same in both phases, it added no cognitively useful information about which phase had the leftward-moving dots. In experiment 2, each participant experienced trials in all three conditions.

The results: All did best under the first condition -- when the sound moved only in the leftward-motion phase. The opposite-moving sound neither enhanced nor worsened the visual perception. But surprisingly, the uninformative sound -- the one that traveled leftward both with the leftward-moving dots and also when the dots moved randomly -- helped people correctly perceive when the dots were moving from one side to the other. Hearing enhanced seeing, even though the added sense couldn't help them make the choice.

The study, says Kim, should add to our appreciation of the complexity of our senses. "Most of us understand that smell affects taste. But people tend to think that what they see is what they see and what they hear is what they hear." The findings of this study offer "further evidence that, even at a non-conscious level, visual and auditory processes are not so straightforward," she says. "Perception is actually a very complex thing affected by many factors."

"This study shows that at least in regards to perception of moving objects, hearing and sight are deeply intertwined, to the degree that even when sound is completely irrelevant to the task, it still influences the way we see the world," Shams says.

The article is entitled, "How adding non-informative sound improves performance on a visual task."

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[OOC] Fighting for Love: The Knights

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Life is like a rose, the more it opens, the more you become beautiful XD

PrinceoftheHunters

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May I please reserve the 'First Knight' role? If it is at all possible. It may take me a while to get a sheet up though, but it should be up by next tuesday at the VERY latest.

BekaL101

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Can I reserve the female commoner? Thanks! ^^

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Walgreen, others sue Pfizer over depression drug (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Pfizer Inc and Teva Pharmceutical Industries Ltd were sued by Walgreen Co and four other large retailers, accused of violating U.S. antitrust law by conspiring to keep generic versions of a popular antidepressant off the shelves.

Walgreen, Kroger Co, Safeway Inc, Supervalu Inc and HEB Grocery Co accused Pfizer's Wyeth unit of conducting an "overarching anticompetitive scheme" to prevent and delay the approval and marketing of generic versions of the prescription drug Effexor XR, causing them to overpay.

In a complaint made public on Thursday by the U.S. District Court in Trenton, New Jersey, the retailers said Wyeth kept generic equivalents off the market for at least two years after its marketing exclusivity for the original Effexor compound patent lapsed in June 2008.

They said Wyeth did this by obtaining fraudulent patents, engaging in sham litigation, and entering a price-fixing agreement with Teva to delay cheaper generic equivalents from reaching the market.

"As a result of defendants' exclusionary conduct, generic versions of Effexor XR were illegally blocked from the marketplace from June 2008 through at least June 2010," when U.S. sales of the drug topped $2.5 billion, the 78-page complaint said. Pfizer bought Wyeth in 2009.

Some of the retailers' claims had been assigned to them by three large drug wholesalers: AmerisourceBergen Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and McKesson Corp. A sixth plaintiff is American Sales Co, another wholesaler.

Effexor XR is used to treat depression and three anxiety disorders. Its chemical name is venlafaxine hydrochloride.

"Pfizer categorically denies the claims asserted in the plaintiffs' complaints," spokesman Christopher Loder said in an emailed statement. "Wyeth obtained its patents protecting Effexor XR lawfully, and the company intends to defend itself vigorously against these claims."

Teva spokeswoman Denise Bradley said that company believes the lawsuit has no merit.

Pfizer's global sales of Effexor XR totaled $537 million from January to September, down 64 percent from a year earlier, reflecting increased generic competition.

Pfizer is based in New York, while Wyeth has operations in Madison, New Jersey. Walgreen is based in Deerfield, Illinois; Kroger in Cincinnati; Safeway in Pleasanton, California; Supervalu in Eden Prairie, Minnesota; independently-owned HEB in San Antonio; and American Sales in Lancaster, New York.

The case is Walgreen Co et al v. Wyeth Inc et al, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, No. 11-06958.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; additional reporting by Bill Berkrot in New York and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111201/hl_nm/us_pfizer_walgreen_effexor

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Kourtney Kardashian is pregnant again

>>> hey, everybody, it's thirsty thursday october 6 , 2011 . we are keeping up with the kardashian. we have each member of the famous family on to fill in for kathie lee . today is kourtney 's turn.

>> this is fun.

>> what do you think so far? you're in the chair.

>> i've never been on this side of the studio. we've got mimosas and i love it.

>> i asked if you were still breast-feeding.

>> no. mason is 22 months. i think i stopped early because my sisters said it's time, it's time. i did 14 months, but i think next time i would do two years.

>> why?

>> i miss they think they know him.

>> there he is. he was here with your mother.

>> she jumped on his bed 6:30 a.m . and woke him up. then we had a late dinner. we went to "the lion king " last night.

>> did he love it?

>> loved it. he sat for an hour and a half mesmerized. didn't make a peep. unbelievable. he never sat that still ever. he's so active. we left at halftime because i was --

>> halftime.

>> whatever. intermission. i thought he probably wouldn't sit still.

>> why aren't you guys married because everyone asks you that all the time. he said ask you.

>> oh, come on. of course he said that.

>> he was going to and you didn't want to. who doesn't want to get married?

>> i don't. i think we both just feel like it's not the right time. i don't know when the right time is or what that means. i think just how our relationship has evolved and then i got pregnant. i didn't just want to go get married because i was like, if i wasn't pregnant i wouldn't go get married. i don't know.

>> so why do it now.

>> for us, and we are in a great place. we have such a happy family . i'm just like a piece of paper to me doesn't make our relationship any better or worse than anyone else 's.

>> your eyelashes are crazy. i'm listening to what you're saying. can you see? go sideways.

>> no zoom in.

>> no. just sideways. they're all there. they are insane.

>> thank you.

>> you guys get a lot of attention. you get spoofed a lot, you and your sisters.

>> yes.

>> let's watch one quick spoof on "snl."

>> hi.

>> all right, very good. let's introduce ourselves, girls.

>> i'm kim , the hot one.

>> i'm kourtney , the smart one.

>> i'm khloe , i'm third.

>> you certainly are delightful. let's take a seater and seat our bottoms.

>> i can't, my butt.

>> when you see that stuff do you laugh?

>> we definitely laugh. then i'm also like kourtney is the shortest one.

>> are you really the smarter one?

>> no. i went to college and graduated. my sisters didn't -- well, khloe didn't go. khloe did home school . i don't think that makes you smarter or not.

>> you do have that sort of, that is a tag you get of the group, i think.

>> i'll take it.

>> we are going to give you a little quiz about kris . the big wedding is coming up sunday, october 9th .

>> yes.

>> i hear from sources.

>> yes.

>> i'm going to give you a kris humphries quiz. your mom did the worse. she didn't get one question about kris right. khloe goes three and bruce got them all right. now it's up to you.

>> go, bruce . we always say bruce doesn't listen.

>> for the new jersey nets, kris humphries wears which number?

>> 43.

>> you're right.

>> oh, stop.

>> you'reness going to know this one. i don't think khloe knows it. what is kris humphries ' shoe size ?

>> 14.

>> not exactly. 12. kris turned down a scholarship offer from which university, duke, georgetown, indiana or kentucky?

>> kentucky.

>> duke.

>> oh, my goodness.

>> anyway, so there you have it.

>> i got one right.

>> you got one right. bruce knows the most. then we'll ask kim . she may not know some of these tomorrow.

>> that would be amazing if she didn't.

>> you guys are big tweeters. i noticed today you were tweeting about steve jobs and his passing. isn't it funny how many lives this one man affected? he's almost the thomas edison of our time.

>> he is.

>> it feels like that, doesn't it?

>> yeah. i was reading this morning a lot of his quotes. those are quotes that will live on forever. and, like, inspire people. just such an incredible man.

>> if you guys are at home and you want to be inspired, go to injure stamford university 2005 commencement speech. it is a home run . it will inspire you. think about him giving the best he's got. "you cannot connect the dots looking forward . you can only connect them looking backwards . so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. you have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. this approach has never let me down and has made all the difference in my life." that is such a great statement. sometimes when you're venturing off into a new business, you want to be sure it's going to work.

>> yeah. you have to trust it in. i was reading another one of his quotes this morning about work and how you have to love what you do. it's so true. he says, don't give up, don't settle. you want to love what you do.

>> find your passion.

>> because that takes up so much of your life.

>> i love that. we love a lot of things in our life and we love music on the show. it's that day where we get to pick our favorite songs. okay. i picked one and i know you picked one. because we're being kind of all techie today, we have these cute little speakers. mine is an old school song . i hope you know it. it may be too old. it's by a guy named montel and it's called "this is how we do it." go.

>> this is one of scott's favorite songs.

>> what?

>> yes. is it my turn?

>> not yet. this is how we do it it's friday night

>> this is what you put on when you're going out?

>> yes.

>> this is the getting ready song. i love it. and i feel all right the party is here on the west side

>> you dance. i dance, but he's outside having a cigar.

>> here's yours. this is you.

>> oh, yeah. kanye west and jaycee. this is a song you turn up in your car so loud.

>> there are lyrics we can't play.

>> this is the radio version . this is what we blast in the car, me and khloe , and we go crazy. i know when it says i love you so good i call paparazzi on myself

>> when we find it, we'll crank it up. here is "okay." we do "okay" magazine every week. the question today, is it okay to bribe your kids? kathie lee says bribing is a bad idea but encouraging to do the right thing is a necessity. i say, sure it's okay. parents have a lot on their plates. lighten the load if it takes a little incentive to have your kids eat their veggies off their plate. what do you think?

>> i think parents, too often, just say no without giving another option, which i'm not saying it always has to be like a bribe, but you need to show them something else. don't do this, but you should do this instead. or if you're maybe trying to get them to do something like eat your vegetables and maybe say, if you eat your vegetables, you can have a cookie after or something.

>> that's a bribe.

>> it is a bribe.

>> so it's okay sometimes.

>> i try to not do it as much as i can because i know i have grand parents and sisters and uncles, all these people that are going to be doing it.

>> we should point out "lucky" magazine. they might be confused because they have three versions out. they have the kim , the khloe and the kourtney . all three. are you guys competitive like who is on the most magazines?

>> yeah. there is a contest. whoever wins gets a new pair of shoes.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45489685/ns/today-entertainment/

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