Siri0us jailbreak hack puts Siri dictation on iPhone 4, iPod

Siri0us gives hacked iOS devices voice dictation

Eric Day took advantage of hacked access to Siri on Sunday through a hack for jailbroken iOS devices. Siri0us (Cydia source link) adds voice dictation similar to that on the iPhone 4S, allowing the same accuracy and continuous dictation as in the official install. It's known to work smoothly on the iPhone 4, although it may take a speed hit on the iPhone 3GS and current iPod touch.

Unlike early hacks, the current port doesn't require borrowed iPhone 4S files to work.

As with most such hacks, Siri0us is unsanctioned by Apple and doesn't have any guarantees of security, stability, or help. It does show that it's technically possible to use key Siri features on pre-4S iOS hardware. Apple's reasons for limiting the voice system to the iPhone 4S are believed as much practical as marketing driven, since it keeps the amount of usage scaling more gradually and lets Apple manage traffic while Siri is still considered an unfinished beta. [via iDownloadBlog]

by MacNN Staff

Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5530446373&f=378

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Aamir, UNICEF?s new brand ambassador

After being the brand ambassador of initiatives like Incredible India – Atithi Devo Bhava, Women and Child Development program, National Voter Motivation Campaign and Teach India campaign, Aamir Khan has now lend his support to UNICEF?s Nutrition and Child Rights campaign. The actor has been roped in as their new brand ambassador and will be [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newslatest/~3/nzCZwwcWq44/7669.html

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Nasa ready to launch Mars rover

25 November 2011 Last updated at 11:07 ET By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News Continue reading the main story

• Project costed at $2.5bn; will see initial surface operations lasting two Earth years
• Onboard plutonium generator will deliver heat and electricity for at least 14 years
• 75kg science payload more than 10 times as massive as those of earlier US Mars rovers
• Equipped with tools to brush and drill into rocks, to scoop up, sort and sieve samples
• Variety of analytical techniques to discern chemistry in rocks, soil and atmosphere
• Will try to make first definitive identification of organic (carbon rich) compounds
• Even carries a laser to zap rocks; beam will identify atomic elements in rocks

All is set for one of the most ambitious space missions ever devised.

Nasa is about to launch its latest Mars rover, nicknamed Curiosity, from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

At nearly a tonne, the six-wheeled vehicle dwarfs all previous robots sent to the surface of the planet.

The machine carries a suite of sophisticated instruments and tools, including a hammer drill and a laser, to find out whether Mars is, or ever has been, suitable for life.

The US space agency will get its first opportunity to launch the robot - also known as the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) - at 10:02 local time (15:02 GMT) on Saturday.

Weather conditions look good on the Space Coast and engineers report no technical issues after replacing a suspect battery in Curiosity's Atlas 5 launch rocket earlier in the week.

Lift-off is just the start for what Nasa hopes will be a multi-year campaign at the Red Planet.

The rover is equipped with a plutonium battery and so should have ample power to keep rolling for more than a decade. It is likely the mechanisms on MSL will wear out long before its energy supply.

"MSL is an incredibly important flagship mission for this agency? as important as Hubble," observed Doug McCuistion, Nasa's Mars exploration programme director.

The organisation has certainly invested a huge amount of money in the project (costed at $2.5bn/?1.6bn), and has had to bear a barrage of criticism for delays and budget overruns.

But Nasa believes the memory of past woes will quickly fade when this exciting mission reaches the surface of Mars in eight-and-a-half-months' time. That is how long the robot will take to cover the 570-million-km cruise distance to the Red Planet after Saturday's launch.

Animation of Curiosity's journey to Mars and arrival on the Red Planet (Courtesy of Nasa)

MSL is being aimed at a deep equatorial depression called Gale Crater, which contains a central mountain that rises some 5km above the plain below.

The crater was chosen as the landing site because satellite imagery had suggested it may well be one of the best places on Mars to look for evidence that ancient environments could have supported microbial activity. This included pictures of sediments at the base of the peak that were clearly laid down in the presence of abundant water.

MSL will use its suite of 10 instruments to study the local rock, soil and atmosphere.

"We feel confident that within two years we can achieve a level in the mound that's probably 350m to 400m up," said project scientist John Grotzinger.

"After that, the warranty expires. But pending the interest of science to keep on going, we think the slopes are gentle enough that if you took an appropriately circuitous route you could make it to the top of the mound."

First, though, MSL-Curiosity has to land safely, and the history of Mars exploration is wretched. Of the 40 or so ventures launched since 1960, only about a third have delivered any real level of success.

The US rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which landed in 2004, and the Pathfinder-Sojourner robot, which landed in 1997, all used the very effective technique of wrapping the vehicles in airbags to cushion their impact on the surface.

But Curiosity is too heavy to employ the same system and so will be using a rocket-powered "skycrane" to slow the final moments of descent and to position the rover softly on the crater floor.

It is a novel approach and, should it prove successful, will point the way to ever more massive objects being landed on Mars - a capability that will be important if manned missions are ever to be sent to the Red Planet.

Although predominantly a US venture, MSL-Curiosity has important contributions from Russia, Canada, Spain and France. Europe in particular will be watching Curiosity closely because the rover design will form the template for its proposed joint mission with America in 2018.

That rover - known in Europe as ExoMars - would be the first step in a multi-mission objective to bring Martian rocks back to Earth.

ExoMars would seek out signs of life on, and just below, the surface, and also cache rocks for collection by later spacecraft.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/science-environment-15882485

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Earlier deals, longer hours woo Friday shoppers

A customer rides an escalator while shopping in the Toys R Us in Times Square in New York on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011. This weekend, many stores will for the first time use midnight openings along with the usual bevy of deals as they try to lure consumers, whose appetite for good-buys has been increasing since the Great Recession. (AP Photo/Andrew Burton)

A customer rides an escalator while shopping in the Toys R Us in Times Square in New York on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011. This weekend, many stores will for the first time use midnight openings along with the usual bevy of deals as they try to lure consumers, whose appetite for good-buys has been increasing since the Great Recession. (AP Photo/Andrew Burton)

A customer pays for his purchases inside the Toys R Us in Times Square in New York on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011. The Toys R Us opened at 9PM offering special deals for holiday shoppers. (AP Photo/Andrew Burton)

A shopper walks to his car after purchasing a bike at Walmart in Butler Plaza on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, in Gainesville, Fla. Walmart opened stores on Thursday. (AP Photo/Matt Stamey, The Gainesville Sun)

Early bird shoppers watch a Harry Potter movie being shown on a giant screen outside the Best Buy store in Mayfield Hts., Ohio while waiting for the doors to open at midnight on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011. This weekend, many stores will for the first time use midnight openings along with the usual bevy of deals as they try to lure consumers, whose appetite for good-buys has been increasing since the Great Recession. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

Early bird shoppers wait in a long line to get into the midnight opening of an Old Navy store in Mayfield Hts., Ohio on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Move over turkey ? it's time to shop.

Black Friday began in earnest as Target, Abercrombie & Fitch and other stores opened their doors at midnight ? a few hours earlier than they normally do on the most anticipated shopping day of the year. A few retailers even had lines of shoppers when they opened on Thanksgiving Day.

Herald Square in New York was bustling at 6 p.m. with shoppers looking to snag discounts at Old Navy and other stores that were open on the Thanksgiving. By 9:45 p.m., more than 300 people were waiting outside a Best Buy in New York before it opened at midnight. An hour later, nearly 2,000 were in line at another Best Buy in St. Petersburg, Fla., ahead of its midnight opening.

Roberto Rubi, 24, of Seminole, Fla., had been standing in line since 1 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning and hoped to score a cheap TV and laptop. He ate dinner with his family at home while three of his buddies took his place in line.

"It's hard times," Rubi says. "So, any discount helps."

Retailers hope the earlier openings will make shopping more convenient for Americans who are more likely to be worried about high unemployment and the other challenges they face in the weak economy. Black Friday is important to merchants because it kicks off the holiday shopping season, a time when they can make 25 to 40 percent of their annual revenue. It's expected that shoppers will spend nearly $500 billion during the holiday shopping season, or about 3 percent more than they did last year.

"It's a good move to try to get shoppers to spend sooner, before they run out of money," says Burt Flickinger, III, president of retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group.

About 34 percent of consumers plan to shop on Black Friday, up from 31 percent last year, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, and 16 percent had planned to shop on Thanksgiving Day itself. For the weekend, 152 million people are expected shop, up from 138 million last year.

To get people to shop, merchants pulled out of their bag of tricks. A few opened last year at midnight, but several other stores are doing so this year. Some are matching the prices of their competitors. Others are offering layaway plans that allow shoppers to pay as they go.

But the deals are what's driving many early shoppers into stores. After all, Americans are focusing more on bargains these days, a habit they picked up during the economic downturn.

The Gap is offering discounts of 20 to 60 percent on many items. Old Navy has pea coats for $29 and jeans for $15. Toys R Us is selling a Transformers Ultimate Optimus Prime action figure for $30 off at $47.99 and a Power Wheels Barbie vehicle for $120 off at $199.99. And Best Buy has a $499 42-inch LCD HDTV for $199 and a $400 Asus Transformer 10-inch tablet computer for $249.99.

Millie Ayala, 28-year-old receptionist, began standing in line at a Toys R Us in New York at 5:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving, armed with the retailer's circular and a plan for how she and her sister would scour the store for deals. On her list? An interactive dog named Cookie and dolls for her two young daughters.

"Finances have been tough," she says. "Things are a lot more expensive but with Black Friday deals, things are more affordable."

After showing up at Best Buy in New York on Wednesday at 3 p.m., Emmanuel Merced, 27, and his brother were the first in line when it opened. On their list was a Sharp 42-inch TV for $199, a PlayStation 3 console with games for $199.99 and wireless headphones for $30. Merced says he likes camping out for Black Friday and he figures he saved 50 percent.

"I like the experience of it," says Merced, who plans to spend $3,000 to $4,000 on gifts this season.

It remains to be seen whether that enthusiasm will linger throughout the holiday shopping season. But analysts seem to agree that if retailers want shoppers to keep coming back, they'll have to keep discounting.

"The consumer is continuing to spend and shop and look for the bargains," says said John D. Morris, BMO Capital Markets analyst. "If it's the right product at the right price, she's shopping and buying."

_____

Anne D'Innocenzio in New York and Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg, Fla., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-25-Black%20Friday/id-5c2289901a5b4bb1aafbd6585c7fc97c

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Robert Scheer: Thanks For What?

I love Thanksgiving for its illusion of abundance. It brings back early childhood memories of the one day each year during the Depression when the food on my family's table was not the leftover produce that my Uncle Leon could no longer sell at his stall, or the nearly spoiled organ meats that our local butcher offered at a steep discount.

But Thanksgiving day was quite the opposite, and while I obviously can't recall what was served in 1936, the year I was born, the holiday was soon seared into my childhood memory as the day when the good times looked upon us in the form of charity gift baskets from philanthropists of various religious and political orders, much like the needy will be served today in volunteer kitchens across America and just as soon will be forgotten.

It did not take long before I was old enough to realize that the largesse of Thanksgiving was the rare exception, and that "just getting by," as my mother's brave optimism would have it, was the norm. Getting by, thanks to Mom's piecework in the downtown sweatshops and my mechanic father's signing on to one of the New Deal's public jobs programs.

Then came the economic miracle of World War II, dismissed in its day by some Republicans as Franklin Roosevelt's treachery, and my parents and other relatives got their jobs back. The relevance of the wartime jobs to Thanksgiving in our family was that my Uncle Edward, the welder, was rewarded every year at his plant with one enormous turkey or two smaller ones.

The result was what I recall as an annual day of bloating, as if my extended family was frantically storing calories in preparation for a severe economic winter that was certain to return. But for us it didn't return. Not with the good union jobs that abounded in the postwar boom and the opportunities provided by the GI Bill and the spread of affordable college education that made upward mobility a truly plausible American goal.

Every time I need to be reminded of what was done for my generation in the way of generous government-funded programs, I reread the part of Colin Powell's inspiring autobiography where he writes about the educational opportunities and vigorous community support programs that postwar kids in the Bronx were afforded. Powell and I were engineering students in the same class at the City College of New York, though I didn't get to know him until he was famous and I spoke with him as a journalist. But the great opportunities available to us, as compared to what is available to the poor today, is a recognition we share.

I thought back to those buoyantly optimistic times at CCNY, the working-class Harvard as it was justifiably called, last week when students protesting onerous tuition hikes at the University of California got pepper-sprayed for their efforts to keep hope alive. The once excellent and very affordable UC system, like the publicly funded colleges of New York and elsewhere across the country, was the proud boast of moderate Republican and Democratic politicians who believed as did the nation's Founders that equal opportunity leading to a land of stakeholders was the essential bedrock of America's experiment in democracy.

No more. On this Thanksgiving we have been cheated of the bounty of that harvest as the stakes have been pulled up on 50 million Americans who have lost or soon will lose their homes. The housing crisis haunts a majority of Americans, even those who own their homes outright but have lost their jobs and must now sell in a downward-swirling housing market.

Good public education on every level, from preschool through college, is now a matter of inherited privilege reserved for those who can pick and choose affluent neighborhood settings for their children's schools. And the prospect of affording one of those settings is dim for most parents in a country where securing a good job is beyond the reach of so many highly motivated people.

How many folks from my generation are honestly sanguine about the economic future of their children and grandchildren? What I have heard constantly, and just this week from a former top investment banker addressing a college class I teach, is that our offspring probably will face a decade of lost opportunity. I thought back to my college days and how shocked any of us, even those from the most impoverished of circumstances, would have been to hear such a prediction.

As the New York Times editorialized this Thanksgiving, "One in three Americans -- 100 million people -- is either poor or perilously close to it."

A bummer of a message, I know, until I think of those pepper-sprayed college students linking arms, and of all the Americans, young, old and between, who have occupied their minds with a challenge -- that it doesn't have to be this way. For their brave spirit of resistance we should be most grateful this Thanksgiving.

?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/thanks-for-what_b_1111562.html

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Russia is resigned to losing Mars moon probe (AP)

MOSCOW ? Russian officials on Tuesday acknowledged that the chances of fixing a space probe bound for a moon of Mars that got stuck in Earth's orbit are close to zero, Russian news agencies reported.

The unmanned $170 million Phobos-Ground was launched two weeks ago and reached preliminary Earth orbit, but its engines never fired to send it off to the Red Planet. Russian engineers have been trying to retrieve data from the probe as it passes over their territory but haven't established contact.

"We have to be realistic. Since we haven't been able to get in touch with it for such a long time, chances to accomplish the mission are very slim," Roscosmos deputy chief Vitaly Davydov said in remarks carried by the Interfax news agency.

Davydov said that Russian engineers can keep trying until the end of the month to fix the probe's engines to steer it to its path to Phobos, one of Mars' two moons.

Russian scientists could fix the problem if the probe failed because of a software flaw, but some experts think that the failure was rooted in hardware that's difficult to fix.

The failure of the probe could see Russia change its priorities in space research. The Russian space agency will more likely focus on Moon research instead of studying Mars, Davydov said.

The failed spacecraft is 13.2 metric tons (14.6 tons), and most of that weight, about 11 metric tons (12 tons), is highly toxic fuel.

Davydov said Tuesday that Phobos-Ground could crash to Earth some time between late December and late February. The site of the crash cannot be established more than a day in advance, he said.

Davydov insisted that "if you calculate the probability of it hitting somebody on the head, it is close to zero."

A satellite tracking website showed the Mars probe passing over North America on Tuesday morning Moscow time.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111122/ap_on_sc/eu_russia_mars_moon_mission

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Influential jazz drummer Paul Motian dies in NYC

NEW YORK?? Longtime jazz drummer and composer Paul Motian, who came to prominence as a member of pianist Bill Evans' trio in the late 1950s and influenced a generation of musicians with his astounding sense of time, died Tuesday at age 80.

Motian died at a Manhattan hospital because of complications of a bone marrow disorder, said friend and bandmate Joe Lovano, a tenor saxophonist who began performing with him in 1981.

"He was a hard-swinging free jazz drummer with an uncanny sense of time-phrasing and form that was beyond description," Lovano said.

Motian, who grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, and spent time in the Navy, came to the forefront while a member of Evans' trio in the late 1950s and early 1960s, playing on landmark recordings such as "Waltz for Debby" and "Sunday at the Village Vanguard." He also had longtime partnerships with pianist Keith Jarrett, bassist Charlie Haden and guitarist Bill Frisell.

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Lovano called him a "true natural and one of the most expressive musicians in jazz."

"His touch and sound, sense of dynamics were so personal and unmatched," Lovano said.

Motian's career also included stints as a bandleader, beginning with the album "Conception Vessel" in 1972, and as a composer of works Lovano characterized as "hauntingly beautiful." As a leader, he recorded nearly three dozen albums for the ECM, WInter & Winter and JMT labels.

"As a composer he wrote pieces of music that were vehicles for improvisation," Lovano said.

Even after Motian stopped touring, he continued to perform and record, mostly in New York and most often at the Village Vanguard jazz club, where he last performed in September, according to Lovano. His repertoire included originals, American songbook standards and traditional bebop.

Jarrett said Motian was a good drummer because he "understood composition."

"A lot of drummers are good drummers because they have some understanding of rhythm," Jarrett told The New York Times. "Paul had an innate love of song."

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45410615/ns/today-entertainment/

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The best tech deals this Black Friday

Walmart

Many Black Friday circular ads, such as Walmart's, can already be viewed online.

Whether you're already in line for a Black Friday sale or still figuring out what you'll do with Thursday's leftover turkey, now's a good time to review the best offers of this shopping season. We're here to help with handpicked tech deals.

A few things to note:

• These deals are Black Friday offers?? promised for Friday, Nov. 25 ??so don't panic if you don't see them in stores or on retailer's websites with the prices listed below right this minute.?
• The deals in this list were selected by considering a combination of factors such as value, savings, product quality, features and brand reputation.
• Most offers are limited in quantity, so be quick if you've got your eye on something specific.
• The cellphone offers listed below typically require you to sign a two-year service agreement.
• You should read the detailed descriptions of each offer carefully before buying ? msnbc.com is not responsible for the duration or integrity of individual deals, though we do our best to check the all.
• If you're looking for a gigantic list of Black Friday deals instead of some handpicked deals, take a peek at the Black Friday Cheat Sheet compiled by our friends at Gizmodo. If you prefer an alternative pile of hand-selected offers, then check out what the folks at Lifehacker picked out.

Got all that? Great! Here are some of our favorite deals for Black Friday 2011.

We will be updating this list in the days and hours before Black Friday, so feel free to check back often.

Televisions:
I aimed to pick a variety of size options here and definitely kept value in mind. Samsung came out as one of the best bets for this shopping season?? as far as TVs go, at least.

• 22-in. Samsung LED HDTV (1080p) for $198 (Normally $250)???at Best Buy
• 32-in. Emerson LCD TV for $188 (Normally $300)???at Walmart
• 40-in. Samsung LED HDTV (1080p) for $497 (Normally $700)???at Best Buy
• 40-in. Samsung LED Smart HDTV (1080p) for $728 (Normally $1,100)???at Best Buy
• 47-in. LG LED (1080p) for $700 (Normally $1,000)???at Best Buy
• 60-in. Samsung LED Smart HDTV (1080p) for $1398 (Normally $2,800)???at Best Buy
• 60-in. Samsung 3D LED HDTV (1080p) for $3300 (Normally $4,200)???at Best Buy

Gaming:
If you're looking for a gaming console, you should probably make Walmart one of your stops on Black Friday. It's got some of the better overall deals.

• Xbox 360 4G console (with Kinect and "Kinect Adventures") for $200 (Normally $300)???at Walmart
• Xbox Kinect (with "Kinect Adventures") for $100 (Normally $175???at Walmart
• PlayStation 3 160GB console (with "Little Big Planet 2" and "Rachet and Clank 4") for $200 (Normally $250)???at Walmart
• Nintendo Wii console (Limited Edition Blue) for $100 (Normally $150)???at Walmart
• Nintendo 3DS console with "Super Mario 3D Land" for $180 (normally $209) ??at Target
• Xbox Live Gold (3-month membership) for $13 (Normally $24) ??at GameStop
• Gears of War 3 (Xbox 360) for $40 (Normally $59)???at GameStop
• FIFA Soccer 12 (Xbox 360/PS3) for $40 (Normally $59)???at GameStop
• Maden NFL 12 (Xbox 360/PS3) for $40 (Normally $59)???at GameStop

Monitors:
After carefully interrogating friends and colleagues about their monitor choices, I've realized that Acer's the crowd favorite due to its reputation and value. And there are definitely a handful of those monitors to be found on sale come Friday.

• 20-in. Acer LED widescreen monitor for $90 (Normally $130) ??at Best Buy
• 20-in. LG LED widescreen monitor for $110 (Normally $160) ??at Best Buy
• 23-in. Acer LED widescreen monitor for $160 (Normally $200)???at Best Buy

Desktops:
It's rough to make recommendations when it comes to desktops simply because individual priorities differ a great deal when it comes to these particular gadgets, so I went with a handful of decent deals for the average shopper.

• 18.5-in. HP AMD dual-core 3GB DDR3 500GB HD desktop for $298 (Normally $429)???at Walmart
• 20-in. HP 320-1034 AMD dual-core 4GB DDR3 1TB HDD all-in-one desktop for $400 (Normally $700)???at Best Buy
• 24-in. Dell XPS 8300 Core i7 16GB RAM 1.5TB HDD desktop for $1000 (Normally $1500) ? at?Costco
• 24-in. Sony Intel Core i3 4GB RAM 1TB HDD touch-screen desktop for $900 (Normally $1079) ??Staples

Laptops:
Like desktops, laptops are a finicky topic when it comes to Black Friday shoppers. I decided to select a product I'd recommend personally?? the MacBook Air?? and two low cost solutions.

• 10.1-in. Gateway LT2811U?netbook (1.66MHz/1GB RAM/250GB HDD) for $149 (Normally $450) ??at Best Buy
• 13.3-in. MacBook Air (1.7GHz/4GB RAM/128 SSD) for $1099 (Normally $1299)???at Best Buy
• 15.6-in. HP 2000-329WM laptop (1.60GHz/3GB RAM/320 GB HDD) for $248 (Normally $400)???at Walmart

Cameras:
A DSLR and a low-cost point-and-shoot. What more could you ever want to pick up in the camera department on Black Friday?

• Nikon Coolpix S3100 camera (14MP/720p video) for $99 (Normally $139)???at Best Buy
• Canon Rebel T3 DSLR for $480 (Normally $550) ??at Target

Tablets:
There's no getting around it?? the tablet category was a popularity contest.

• Apple iPad 2 (16GB with Wi-Fi) for $455 (Normally $500)???at Best Buy
• Amazon Kindle Keyboard 3G with "Special Offers" for $85 (Normally $99) ??at Target

Cellphones:
While some other options are listed, your best bet when it comes to cellphones on Black Friday is Amazon. Nearly every phone you can think of is available for just a penny ??assuming you sign a two-year service agreement ??and you get a bonus $100 gift card.

• AT&T Samsung Infuse for $0 (Normally $100)???at Best Buy
• AT&T LG Thrill for $0 (Normally $100)???at Best Buy
• Verizon Droid Incredible for $0 (Normally $200)???at Best Buy
• Verizon HTC Thunderbolt for $0 (Normally $150)???at Best Buy
• Almost any phone you can think of (plus a $100 Amazon gift card) for $.01 (Normal prices vary) ??at Amazon.com

GPS devices:
A solid GPS device, a lifetime of maps, and a decent price? No brainer.

• 4.3-in. Magellan GPS device with lifetime maps and traffic updates for $99 (Normally $149)???at Best Buy

Software
OfficeMax is one of the spots with the best software deals on Friday, so head there if you're looking to feed your computer some new apps.

• Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 for $55 (Normally $100) ??at OfficeMax
• Dragon Naturally Speaking (Home Edition) for $45 (Normally $90) ??at OfficeMax
• Microsoft Office Home for Mac for $80 (Normally $120)???at OfficeMax

Miscellaneous odds and ends:
Dyson products. On sale. This doesn't happen often, folks. Take advantage of it.

• Dyson DC 28 full-size bagless upright vaccuum for $479 (Normally $649) ??on Dyson.com
• Dyson Hot fan/heater for $299 (Normally $399) ??on Dyson.com
• Dyson Air Multiplier AM 03 fan for $349 (Normally $449) ??on Dyson.com
• iCade iPad arcade cabinet for $60 (Normally $100) ??on ThinkGeek.com
• HP C410a Color Inkjet Photosmart Premium wireless all-in-Oone printer/fax for $100 (Normally $300) ??at OfficeMax
• Most items on Panasonic's website for whatever discounted price Panasonic employees would pay (Normal prices vary) ??on Panasonic.com

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts, or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/22/8929998-the-best-tech-deals-this-black-friday

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Syrian rebels launch 1st attack in capital

At least two rocket-propelled grenades hit a building belonging to the ruling Baath party in Damascus on Sunday, residents said, in the first insurgent attack reported inside the Syrian capital since an eight-month uprising began against President Bashar Assad.

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"Security police blocked off the square where the Baath's Damascus branch is located. But I saw smoke rising from the building and fire trucks around it," one witness, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

"The attack was just before dawn and the building was mostly empty. It seems to have been intended as a message to the regime," he said.

The Syrian Free Army, comprised of army defectors and based in neighboring Turkey, claimed responsibility for the attack, just as Assad vowed in an interview to crush the insurgency and pursue a crackdown on protests demanding his removal that has killed 3,500 people, by a U.N. count.

The attack could not be independently confirmed. Syrian authorities have barred most independent journalists from entering the country.

Story: Syria's Assad vows to continue crackdown despite Arab League pressure

The Local Coordination Committees activist network and several residents reported several explosions in the district of Mazraa in the heart of the Syrian capital.

The LCC said in a statement that the building had been hit at daybreak Sunday by several rocket-propelled grenades and that two fire brigades headed toward the area amid heavy security presence.

However, eyewitnesses said the building looked intact Sunday.

'New dimension'
Residents in the Syrian capital said they heard two loud explosions but could not confirm whether the building had been hit.

"I woke up to the sound of two loud thuds," said a resident of the area who asked that he remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.

Damascus-based journalist Thabet Salem, who lives about 1100 yards away from the Baath party building and heard the explosions, said if the reports are confirmed, it would signal a new phase in the Syrian uprising.

"It would be an escalation that gives a new dimension to the whole situation," he said.

Syria's uprising against Assad has grown more violent and militarized in recent weeks, as frustrated protesters see the limits of peaceful action.

Why Syria?s revolution needs a Benghazi

Army dissidents who sided with the protests have also grown more bold, fighting back against regime forces and even assaulting military bases.

The so called Free Syrian Army group of dissident soldiers this week staged their boldest operation yet, attacking a military intelligence building in a Damascus suburb .

Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000, is a member of the Alawite minority community, an offshoot of Shiite Islam that dominates the state, the army and security apparatus in the majority Sunni Muslim country of 20 million.

The Syrian Free Army said in a statement Sunday's attack came in response to the authorities' refusal to release tens of thousands of political prisoners and pull the military out of restive cities in accordance with a plan agreed between the Arab League and Damascus.

An Arab League deadline for Syria to end its repression of the unrest passed with no sign of violence abating.

Story: Russia warns Syria is close to 'real civil war'

The league on Sunday rejected a request by Damascus to amend plans to send a monitoring mission to Syria, Egypt's state news agency reported.

It said the league rebuffed Syria's approach in a letter from its Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby to Syria's foreign minister. The league wants to send a 500-strong mission of monitors to Syria to assess the situation there.

"The additions requested by the Syrian counterpart affect the heart of the protocol and fundamentally change the nature of the mission," the letter said, MENA reported, adding that the pan-Arab body rejected the demand.

The league had given Damascus three days from a meeting on November 16 to abide by a deal to withdraw military forces from restive cities and start talks between the government and opposition. The plan included sending an observer team to Syria.

The Arab League said in its statement that it was committed to an Arab solution for the Syrian violence and was working to end the crackdown on civilians in Syria.

In a surprise move, the league suspended Syria's membership last week.

Video: Crisis accelerates in Syria (on this page)

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that Assad was taking his country to the brink of civil war.

Rice told CNN's "State of the Union" that Assad's crackdown was creating a very dangerous situation.

She said Assad "is no friend of the United States" and that his overthrow would be a "great thing" for the Syrian people, U.S. interests and anyone seeking a more peaceful Middle East.

Rice was calling for the "toughest" possible penalties against Assad's government.

Meanwhile, activists in the central city of Homs said the body of Farzat Jarban, an activist who had been filming and broadcasting pro-democracy demonstrations in the city, was found dumped near a private hospital on Saturday with two bullet wounds.

"Security police are no longer just shooting protesters, they are targeting activists when they least suspect it, such as when they take their children to school. Sometimes they don't shoot to kill but to neutralize," said a doctor from Homs who has fled to Jordan.

"I treated an activist recently...They shot him in the thigh and by the time his family got him to me gangrene had spread and his leg needed to be amputated," he said.

'Terrorists'
Authorities blame the violence on foreign-backed armed groups which it says have killed some 1,100 soldiers and police.

Tanks and troops deployed in Homs after large anti-Assad protests six months ago. The authorities say they have since arrested dozens of "terrorists" in the city who have been killing civilians and planting bombs in public places.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces killed 16 civilians in raids and in shootings on protesters on Saturday, including two at a funeral in Kfar Tkharim in the northwestern Idlib province on the border with Turkey.

Non-Arab Turkey, once an ally of Assad's, is also taking an increasingly tough attitude to Damascus.

Story: Assad's forces shell Syria villages for hours

Turkish newspapers said on Saturday Ankara had contingency plans to create no-fly or buffer zones to protect civilians in neighboring Syria if the bloodshed worsens.

Dissident colonel Riad al-Asaad, organizing defectors in Syria from his new base in southern Turkey, said in a television interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday that no foreign military intervention was needed other than providing a no-fly zone and weapons supplies.

He said more deserters would swell his Free Syrian Army's ranks if there were protected zones to which they could flee: "Soldiers and officers in the army are waiting for the right opportunity."

The dissident colonel denied government allegations that neighboring states were allowing arms smuggling into Syria. He said "not a single bullet" had been smuggled from abroad.

Weapons were brought by defectors, obtained in raids on the regular army or bought from arms dealers inside Syria, he said.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45374621/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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Where's the salt? Hidden in your Thanksgiving menu

FILE- This Oct. 13, 2011 file photo shows a citrus turkey surrounded by side dishes in Concord. N.H. No need for a salt shaker on the Thanksgiving table: Unless you really cooked from scratch, there's lots of sodium already hidden in all the turkey and trimmings. (AP Photo/Matthew Mead, FIle)

FILE- This Oct. 13, 2011 file photo shows a citrus turkey surrounded by side dishes in Concord. N.H. No need for a salt shaker on the Thanksgiving table: Unless you really cooked from scratch, there's lots of sodium already hidden in all the turkey and trimmings. (AP Photo/Matthew Mead, FIle)

Chart salt content of four major brands

WASHINGTON (AP) ? No need for a salt shaker on the Thanksgiving table: Unless you really cooked from scratch, there's lots of sodium already hidden in the menu.

Stealth sodium can do a number on your blood pressure. Americans eat way too much salt, and most of it comes inside common processed foods and restaurant meals.

The traditional Thanksgiving fixings show how easy sodium can sneak into the foods you'd least expect. Yes, raw turkey is naturally low in sodium. But sometimes a turkey or turkey breast is injected with salt water to plump it, adding a hefty dose of sodium before it even reaches the store ? something you'd have to read the fine print to discover.

From the stuffing mix to the green bean casserole to even pumpkin pie, a lot of people can reach their daily sodium allotment or more in that one big meal unless the cook employs some tricks.

"For Thanksgiving or any meal, the more you can cook from scratch and have some control over the sodium that's going in, the better," says the American Dietetic Association's Bethany Thayer, a registered dietitian at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.

The Food and Drug Administration this month opened deliberations on how to cut enough salt in processed foods for average shoppers to have a good shot at meeting new dietary guidelines. The idea: If sodium levels gradually drop in the overall food supply, it will ease the nation's epidemic of high blood pressure ? and our salt-riddled taste buds will have time to adjust to the new flavor.

"Reducing sodium is important for nearly everyone," Dr. Robin Ikeda of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the FDA hearing.

The question is how to make that happen. The prestigious Institute of Medicine and several public health advocates are urging the FDA to order gradual rollbacks, setting different sodium levels for different kinds of foods, a step the government has been reluctant to take.

Food makers want a voluntary approach and say they're reworking their recipes, some as part of a campaign launched by New York City to cut salt consumption by at least 20 percent over five years.

It will take different strategies to remove salt from different foods ? and some may need to be a sneak operation, Kraft Foods Vice President Richard Black told the FDA meeting. Ritz crackers labeled low-sodium were a bust until the box was changed to say "Hint of Salt" and those exact same crackers started selling, he said.

In other foods, salt acts as a preservative with a variety of functions. Kraft sells cheese with somewhat less sodium in Britain than in the U.S. Americans melt a lot of cheese and lower-sodium cheese doesn't melt as well, Black said.

In the U.S., the average person consumes about 3,400 milligrams of sodium a day. The nation's new dietary guidelines say no one should eat more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium ? about what's in a teaspoon of salt ? and half the population should eat even less, just 1,500 milligrams. The smaller limit is for anyone who's in their 50s or older, African-Americans of any age, and anyone suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease.

Why? One in three U.S. adults has high blood pressure, a leading cause of heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure. Being overweight and inactive raises blood pressure, too, but the weight of scientific evidence shows sodium is a big culprit.

People want to eat heart-healthy, but Wal-Mart shoppers spend about 19 minutes buying groceries, added Tres Bailey of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which told its vendors to start cutting sodium.

That's not a lot of time for label-reading to find hidden sodium, especially in foods where it's unexpected ? like salad dressings that can harbor more than 130 milligrams per tablespoon.

Depending on your choices, Thanksgiving dinner alone can pass 2,000 milligrams: About 600 per serving from stuffing mix, another 270 from gravy. The salt water-added turkey can bring another 320, double that if you saved time and bought it fully-cooked. Use canned beans in the green bean casserole and add another 350. A small dinner roll adds 130. A piece of pumpkin pie could bring as much as 350.

How to cut back? Thayer, the dietitian, has some tips for Thanksgiving and beyond:

?All bread contains sodium, but starting with a homemade cornbread for stuffing could help cut a few hundred milligrams.

?Use low-sodium broth for the gravy, and choose low-sodium soups whenever possible.

?Try onion, garlic and a variety of other herbs in place of salt. Lemon and other citrus also can stand in for salt in some foods.

?Check your spice bottles. Combination products, such as those labeled poultry seasoning, can contain salt.

?Fresh or frozen vegetables have little if any sodium, unless you choose the frozen kind with an added sauce.

?People tend to heavily salt mashed potatoes while sweet potatoes, even dressed up as a souffle, contain very little sodium.

Going suddenly low-salt can startle your palate, "but it adjusts much quicker than I think most people realize," Thayer says.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE ? Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2011-11-22-HealthBeat-Salty%20Thanksgiving/id-391fc69d26b249dcaaf44fc77bca3f5d

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NC sex offender gets prison for Facebook request (charlotte observer)

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Cairo Protest Of Egypt Elections Reach Second Day Of Unrest

CAIRO -- Firing tear gas and rubber bullets, Egyptian riot police on Sunday clashed for a second day in downtown Cairo with thousands of rock-throwing protesters demanding that the ruling military quickly announce a date to hand over power to an elected government.

The police battled an estimated 5,000 protesters in and around the capital's Tahrir Square, birthplace of the 18-day uprising that toppled authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak in February. Tear gas filled the air as protesters, many chanting "freedom, freedom," pelted the police with rocks.

Sunday's clashes, which come a day after two people were killed and hundreds wounded in similar unrest in the capital and other major cities, are stoking tensions eight days before the start of the country's first post-Mubarak parliamentary elections. The violence reflects the rising public anger over the slow pace of reforms and apparent attempts by Egypt's ruling generals to retain power over a future civilian government.

"We have a single demand: The marshal must step down and be replaced by a civilian council," said protester Ahmed Hani, referring Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Egypt's military ruler and Mubarak's longtime defense minister.

"The violence yesterday showed us that Mubarak is still in power," said Hani, who was wounded in the forehead by a rubber bullet. He spoke over chants of "freedom, freedom" by hundreds of protesters around him.

Rocks, shattered glass and trash covered the pavement in Tahrir and the side streets leading off the square, while a cloud of white smoke from tear gas hung in the air. Several hundred protesters were camping out on the lawn of the square's traffic island, and protesters manning barricades into the square checked the IDs of anyone trying to enter.

The windows of the main campus of the American University in Cairo, which overlooks the square, were shattered and stores were shuttered. "The marshal is Mubarak's dog," read one of a fresh crop of graffiti in the square.

An Interior Ministry official said 55 protesters have been arrested since the violence began on Saturday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Yahya el-Sawi, a 21-year-old university student, said he was enraged by the sight of riot police beating up protesters already hurt in an earlier attack by the security forces. "I did not support the sit-in at the beginning, but when I saw this brutality I had to come back to be with my brothers," he said.

Many of the protesters had red eyes and coughed incessantly. Some wore surgical masks to help combat the tear gas. A few fainted, overwhelmed by the gas.

Hundreds of protesters gathered near the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police, to offer the Muslim noon prayers, but came under police attack using tear gas and rubber bullets. Ali Saber, a protester who attended the prayer, said the man who led the prayer was hit in the shoulder by a gas canister.

Doctors staffing two field hospitals in the square said they have treated around 700 protesters so far on Sunday. Alaa Mohammed, a doctor, said most of those treated suffered breathing problems or wounds caused by rubber bullets.

"The police are targeting the head, not the legs as they normally do," said Mohammed.

Protesters were using social networking sites on the Internet to call on Egyptians to join them, and there were reports of several demonstrations headed to the square, including one from Cairo University.

The military, which took over from Mubarak, has repeatedly pledged to hand over power to an elected government but has yet to set a specific date. According to one timetable floated by the army, the handover will happen after presidential elections are held late next year or early in 2013. The protesters say this is too late and accuse the military of dragging its feet. They want a handover to take place immediately after the end of parliamentary elections in March.

Sunday's clashes mark a continuation of the violence a day earlier, when police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and beat protesters with batons, clearing the square at one point and pushing the fighting into surrounding side streets of downtown Cairo.

At least one protester was killed in Cairo, and another in Alexandria, officials said, and 676 injured.

The government has urged protesters to clear the square.

A member of the military council, Maj. Gen. Mohsen el-Fangari, said protesters' calls for change ahead of the election were a threat to the state.

"What is the point of being in Tahrir?" he asked, speaking by phone to a private TV channel. "What is the point of this strike, of the million marches? Aren't there legal channels to pursue demands in a way that won't impact Egypt ... internationally?"

"The aim of what is going on is to shake the backbone of the state, which is the armed forces."

In a warning, he said, "If security is not applied, we will implement the rule of law. Anyone who does wrong will pay for it."

Saturday's confrontation was one of the few since the uprising to involve the police, which have largely stayed in the background while the military took charge of security. There was no military presence in and around the square on Saturday or Sunday. The black-clad police were a hated symbol of Mubarak's regime.

Some of the wounded had blood streaming down their faces and many had to be carried out of the square by fellow protesters to waiting ambulances. Human rights activists accused police of using excessive force.

An Egyptian protester shows the V-sign for victory during clashes with riot police at Cairo's landmark Tahrir Square on November 20, 2011. Several hundred Egyptians occupied Cairo's Tahrir Square with sporadic clashes between protesters and the police following a night of deadly violence, an AFP correspondent said. (KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images)

An Egyptian protester shows the V-sign for victory during clashes with riot police at Cairo's landmark Tahrir Square on November 20, 2011. Several hundred Egyptians occupied Cairo's Tahrir Square with sporadic clashes between protesters and the police following a night of deadly violence, an AFP correspondent said. (KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images)

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An Egyptian protester shows the V-sign for victory during clashes with riot police at Cairo's landmark Tahrir Square on November 20, 2011. Several hundred Egyptians occupied Cairo's Tahrir Square with sporadic clashes between protesters and the police following a night of deadly violence, an AFP correspondent said. (KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images)

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/20/cairo-protest-egypt-elections_n_1103716.html

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Powers pressure Iran, IAEA chief "alerts world" (Reuters)

VIENNA (Reuters) ? Major powers closed ranks on Thursday to increase pressure on Iran to address fears about its atomic ambitions, and the U.N. nuclear chief said it was his duty to "alert the world" about suspected Iranian efforts to develop atom bombs.

The six powers involved in diplomacy on Iran -- the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany -- overcame divisions exposed by a hard-hitting U.N. nuclear report on Iran last week and presented a united front toward Tehran.

They hammered out a joint resolution in intense negotiations and submitted it to the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a Vienna-based U.N. body, which is expected to debate and vote on it on Friday.

But it will not satisfy those in the West and in Israel, Iran's arch-enemy, who had hoped IAEA head Yukiya Amano's document would trigger concrete international action to rein in Tehran, such as an IAEA referral of its case to the U.N. Security Council.

Last week's IAEA report, which assessed that Iran has been conducting research and experiments geared to developing a nuclear weapons capability, has stoked tensions in the Middle East and raised a clamor in Western capitals for harsher sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

In November 2009, IAEA governors including Russia and China rebuked Iran for building a uranium enrichment plant in secret. Iran rejected that vote as "intimidation."

There has been concern that if the powers cannot settle their differences over how to nudge Iran into serious nuclear negotiations, then Israel, which feels endangered by Iranian nuclear aspirations, will attack it.

Israel is widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal to deter numerically superior enemies, but has never confirmed or denied it.

On Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned on the eve of talks with his Israeli counterpart that a strike on Iran could harm the world economy, saying the U.S. focus was on diplomatic pressure and sanctions.

"There are going to be economic consequences to that (an Iran strike), that could impact not just on our economy but the world economy," Panetta told reporters traveling with him on Thursday to Canada, where he will attend a security forum and hold bilateral talks with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

Amano stressed the need for Iran to engage in serious talks to clarify issues in his report and said he wanted to send a high-level mission to the country to tackle increasing concerns about the nature of its nuclear activities.

"It is clear that Iran has a case to answer," Amano told a news conference on the sidelines of the board meeting.

"We have to alert the world before nuclear proliferation actually takes place."

Iran says it is enriching uranium only for nuclear power plants, not weapons, dismissing the intelligence information in the IAEA report obtained mainly from Western states as fabricated, and accusing the IAEA of pro-Western bias.

Amano said agency experts had examined the information carefully and put together a "clear, coherent and consistent picture" about Iran's activities.

He said he had written to the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, this month to suggest the visit, which would air issues raised by the IAEA report.

Amano said he hoped a "suitable date" could be agreed soon for his team's visit to Iran, which permits IAEA inspections of declared nuclear sites but since 2008 has stonewalled an agency investigation into "alleged studies" applicable to atom bombs.

BLUNTEST STATEMENT YET

"Throughout the past three years, we have obtained additional information which gives us a fuller picture of Iran's nuclear program and increases our concerns about possible military dimensions," Amano told the board.

"The information indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device," he said, in his bluntest public statement so far on Iran's contested nuclear program. Diplomats described the powers' draft as a compromise text between Western states, which would have preferred tougher language, and Russia and China, which resisted.

It expressed "deep and increasing concern" about Iran's nuclear program and called on it to open up fully to U.N. inspectors, according to a draft seen by Reuters.

The text urged Iran "to engage seriously and without preconditions in talks" to address nuclear concerns and asked Amano to report back to the board's next meeting in March.

It stopped short of actions with teeth such as reporting Iran once again to the Security Council, which has imposed four rounds of sanctions on the major oil producer since 2006. Russia and China oppose any more extensive measures.

But the fact that the six big powers ironed out an IAEA resolution will be welcomed in the West after Amano's report prompted Russia to complain that it was politicized and dimmed chances of a negotiated solution to the Iran nuclear dispute.

In contrast, Western states seized on the document to try to step up pressure on Tehran in the form of farther-reaching economic sanctions, which Russia and China oppose.

"It does the job," one senior Western diplomat said about the resolution. "It is always a compromise, but we want it to have the backing of as many of the board members as possible. That is the aim."

Russia has significant trade ties with Iran and also built its first nuclear power plant, launched at Bushehr earlier this year. China is a major importer of Iranian oil.

(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Halifax, Editing by Richard Balmforth and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111118/wl_nm/us_nuclear_iran_iaea

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Self-help guru gets 2 years in sweat lodge deaths (AP)

PRESCOTT, Ariz. ? The self-help author who led an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony that ended with three deaths was sentenced Friday to two years behind bars ? not enough for the victims' family members, who earlier in the day yelled at James Arthur Ray and said he was "not worthy to spit shine" the victims' shoes.

A judge handed down three, two-year prison terms to be served concurrently and ordered Ray to pay more than $57,000 in restitution.

"I find that the aggravating circumstance of emotional harm is so strong and such that probation is simply unwarranted in this case," Yavapai County Superior Court Judge Warren Darrow said.

Authorities immediately took custody of Ray, who will serve his time with the state Department of Corrections.

Ray was convicted on a trio of negligent homicide charges earlier this year in the deaths of Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y.; James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee; and Liz Neuman, 49, of Prior Lake, Minn.

Family members of the three lashed out at Ray earlier Friday while asking the judge to hand down the maximum sentence of nine years in prison. They said they were appalled that Ray continued to deliver self-help messages through the Internet while he faced criminal charges.

"There was nothing you could teach Liz, James or Kirby about honor, integrity and impeccability," said Neuman's cousin, Lily Clark, drawing from Ray's principle teachings. "But they could have taught you a lot. They were born spiritual warriors, and you are not worthy to spit shine their combat boots."

Neuman's daughter, Andrea Puckett, later said she doesn't believe Ray grasps his role in the deaths, and called the sentence a joke.

"It's very frightening the control he has over people and his mentality," she said. "That's not going to change."

The victims' families also have blasted Ray for offering no solace for their loss until recently.

In asking for leniency, Ray told the judge he would have stopped the ceremony had he known people were dying or in distress. But he offered no excuses for his lack of action as chaos unfolded outside the structure at a retreat near Sedona.

"At the end of the day, I lost three friends, and I lost them on my watch," Ray said, standing before the victims' families. "Whatever errors in judgment or mistakes I have made, I'm going to have to live with those for the rest of my life. I truly understand your disappointment in my actions after, I do. I'm disappointed in myself."

Ray will have to serve 85 percent of his sentence. That comes out to almost 600 days, taking into account the credit he received for 24 days served. That's roughly the amount of time he's been out of jail on bond since his arrest early last year.

The courtroom was silent as the sentence was handed down. The victims' families held hands and braced for a decision, as did Ray's parents and brother.

Ray's family offered their condolences to the victims' families in a statement following the sentencing hearing and asked if they'd find forgiveness in their hearts.

"We were fortunate enough to meet with James after the sentencing," said his brother, Jon Ray. "He was in good spirits and said this would give him the opportunity to help people in prison that need it."

Defense attorneys said they would appeal, likely on the grounds that errors by the prosecution tainted the case.

County Attorney Sheila Polk hoped Ray would get the maximum and believed she had made a strong case for accountability, justice and deterrence. But, she said, "certainly some prison time over probation is better than no prison at all."

Ray originally was charged with manslaughter, but jurors rejected that he was reckless in his handling of the ceremony that highlighted Ray's five-day "Spiritual Warrior" event. Ray's attorneys suggested that toxins or poisons contributed to the deaths, but jurors said that theory was not credible.

Ray's motivational mantra drew dozens of people to the retreat with a promise that the sweat lodge typically used by American Indians to cleanse the body would lead to powerful breakthroughs. When the victims' families discovered something went wrong, they said Ray made no attempt to identify people in the hospital.

Participants began showing signs of distress about halfway through the two-hour sweat lodge ceremony. By the time it was over, some were vomiting, struggling to breathe and lying lifeless on the ground. Brown and Shore were pronounced dead. Neuman slipped into a coma and never regained consciousness. She died more than a week later at a Flagstaff hospital.

"He did some good, but this is about what he didn't do," said Shore's mother, Jane Shore-Gripp. "He had the opportunity to save three people, and he didn't."

The trial was a mix of lengthy witness testimony and legal wrangling that lasted four months. Witnesses painted conflicting pictures of Ray, with some describing him as a coach who encouraged participants to do their best to endure the heat but never forced them to remain in the sweat lodge.

Others said they learned through breathing exercises, a 36-hour fast, and a game in which Ray portrayed God that they dare not question him, and they lost the physical and mental ability to care for themselves or others.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111119/ap_on_en_ot/us_sweat_lodge_deaths

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Police say no record of McQueary report found

FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2011 file photo, former Penn State football defensive coordinator Gerald "Jerry" Sandusky sits in a car as he leaves the office of Centre County Magisterial District Judge Leslie A. Dutchcot in State College, Pa. Sandusky, who is charged with sexually abusing eight boys in a scandal that has rocked the university, said in an telephone interview with Bob Costas Monday night on NBC News' "Rock Center" that there was no abuse and that any activities in a campus shower with a boy were just horseplay, not molestation. (AP Photo/The Patriot-News, Andy Colwell, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2011 file photo, former Penn State football defensive coordinator Gerald "Jerry" Sandusky sits in a car as he leaves the office of Centre County Magisterial District Judge Leslie A. Dutchcot in State College, Pa. Sandusky, who is charged with sexually abusing eight boys in a scandal that has rocked the university, said in an telephone interview with Bob Costas Monday night on NBC News' "Rock Center" that there was no abuse and that any activities in a campus shower with a boy were just horseplay, not molestation. (AP Photo/The Patriot-News, Andy Colwell, File)

In this photo provided by NBC, NBC News anchor Brian Williams, left, talks with Bob Costas about Costas' interview with Jerry Sandusky during NBC News' "Rock Center With Brian Williams" Monday, Nov. 14, 2011. Sandusky, a former Penn State football assistant coach charged with sexually abusing eight boys in a scandal that has rocked the university, said that there was no abuse and that any activities in a campus shower with a boy were just horseplay, not molestation. (AP Photo/NBC, Peter Kramer)

In this screen grab provided by CBS, former Penn State graduate assistant Mike McQueary, left, speaks to CBS News Chief Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011 at an unknown location. McQueary is cited by a grand jury report as witnessing Jerry Sandusky allegedly sodomizing a 10-year-old boy in a Penn State locker room. (AP Photo/CBS) MANDATORY CREDIT

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) ? Penn State campus police and their counterparts in State College said Wednesday that they had no record of Mike McQueary reporting an alleged sexual assault by Jerry Sandusky on a 10-year-old boy in a campus shower.

The details ran counter to McQueary's claims in an email to former teammates and made available to The Associated Press this week.

McQueary, then a graduate assistant, wrote in the email that he had discussions with police about what he saw. In the email, McQueary did not specify which police department he spoke to.

State College borough police chief Tom King said McQueary didn't make a report to his department.

Campus police referred questions on the Sandusky case to the university's public information office.

"At this point we have no record of any police report being filed in 2002" by McQueary in connection with the Sandusky case, university spokeswoman Annemarie Mountz said, adding police searched their records Wednesday.

The football building is on university property, so campus police would have been the most likely to respond for a police call.

Mountz also noted the 23-page grand jury report was the state attorney general's summary of testimony, so it's unclear what McQueary's full testimony was.

The news came after a new judge was assigned to handle the child sex abuse charges against Sandusky, whose televised defense earlier this week drew a rebuke from a lawyer for one of his accusers.

The change removed a State College judge with ties to a charity founded by Sandusky for at-risk children, The Second Mile.

Harrisburg attorney Ben Andreozzi said he represents a client who will testify against Sandusky, who is accused of abusing eight boys, some on campus, over 15 years.

"I am appalled by the fact that Mr. Sandusky has elected to re-victimize these young men at a time when they should be healing," Andreozzi said in a statement released by his office. "He fully intends to testify that he was severely sexually assaulted by Mr. Sandusky."

Sandusky's lawyer, Joe Amendola, appeared with him on NBC's "Rock Center" on Monday night and cast doubt on the evidence in the case.

"We anticipate we're going to have at least several of those kids come forward and say, 'This never happened. This is me. This is the allegation. It never occurred,'" Amendola said.

Andreozzi said he has his "finger on the pulse" of the case and knows of no accusers changing their stories or refusing to testify.

"To the contrary, others are actually coming forward, and I will have more information for you later this week," Andreozzi said.

Sandusky, 67, appeared on the show by phone and said he had showered with boys but never molested them.

Sandusky is due in court on Dec. 7, and the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts announced that a Westmoreland County senior district judge would preside over his preliminary hearing. Robert E. Scott is taking over the hearing from Centre County District Judge Leslie Dutchcot.

Dutchcot has donated money to The Second Mile, where authorities say Sandusky met his victims.

The office said Scott has no known ties to Penn State or The Second Mile.

Amendola defended the decision to have his client go on television, telling the Centre Daily Times on Wednesday the move was designed to demonstrate he had a defense.

"The more people who hear him explain that he didn't commit the acts of which he's been charged, the better off he's going to be down the road," Amendola told the newspaper.

It remains unclear how many accusers have surfaced more than a week after state police and the attorney general's office said at a news conference they were seeking additional potential victims and witnesses.

State police spokeswoman Maria Finn said investigators have told her that published accounts reporting how many people have come forward are inaccurate and they are not disclosing their internal figures.

Some plaintiffs' lawyers are starting to advertise on their websites for potential Sandusky victims, vowing to get justice. Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul, Minn., attorney, has long represented clergy abuse victims and told The Associated Press that he has been retained by several people he described as Sandusky victims.

"There's a great deal of fury and confusion," particularly because Sandusky is free on bail, Anderson said. "Getting (them) help and cooperating with law enforcement is our first priority."

The "time for reckoning," in the form of civil lawsuits, will come later, Anderson said.

Anderson declined to say whether his clients are among the eight boys who were labeled as victims in the grand jury report.

Berks County lawyer Jay Abramowitch, who has represented about 150 child sex victims, many of them in clergy abuse cases, said he is following the Penn State case closely. He declined to say if he was representing anyone accusing Sandusky of abuse.

"The real significance of what happened in the Sandusky situation is that people are beginning to understand the cover-up that goes on in any structural organization that employs a pedophile," he said. "And that's why these pedophiles are running wild."

"What's the answer? One of the answers is to allow these victims the right to go to court and file suit against not only the pedophile but the group that employed them ... and didn't do anything," Abramowitch said.

Abramowitch long fought to get around the legal time limit for victims to sue the Roman Catholic Church for decades-old abuse. In 2005, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected his argument that the suits should go through on grounds the church had concealed the abuse.

In State College, Penn State announced a physician and member of its board of trustees who played football and wrestled for the school would serve as acting athletic director. The school named Dr. David M. Joyner, an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in sports medicine and a business consultant, as the interim replacement for Tim Curley.

Curley is on leave as athletic director as he defends himself against criminal charges that he failed to properly alert authorities when told of an allegation of a sexual assault by Sandusky against a child and that he lied to a grand jury. He maintains his innocence.

Joyner's position on the board, where he has been a trustee since 2000, is being suspended as he takes on the new duties.

Gov. Tom Corbett again defended the pace of the investigation, which he helped launch and oversaw while serving as attorney general until January.

"Could anybody guarantee he wasn't out there touching children? There are no such guarantees, unless he was sitting in jail," Corbett, a Republican, said in Philadelphia. "But we did what we thought was in the best interests of the investigation in getting a good case put together."

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., introduced a bill that would require all adults to report child abuse and neglect to police or local child protective agencies.

And new details were emerging about how the case ended up in the hands of the state attorney general's office.

Former Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira said that his wife's brother was Sandusky's adopted son.

"I reviewed it, and I made the decision it needed to be investigated further," Madeira said. "But the apparent conflict of interest created an impediment for me to make those kinds of decisions."

The scandal's fallout extended to former Pittsburgh Steelers great Franco Harris, whose relationship with a southwestern Pennsylvania racetrack and casino was put on hiatus after he chastised Penn State's trustees for showing "no courage" for firing coach Joe Paterno, who has not been charged with a crime and is not considered a target of prosecutors.

Harris, who played for Paterno from 1968 to 1971, had recently signed as a spokesman for The Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Washington, Pa.

___

Scolforo reported from Harrisburg. Dale and AP writer Kathy Matheson reported from Philadelphia.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-16-Penn%20State-Abuse/id-6c13148ec5e043058faf2b8826abbba5

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