Monday, January 7, 2013

Paymill, The Samwer Stripe Clone, Raises $13M From Serial Rocket Internet Backer Holtzbrinck Ventures And New Investor Sunstone

paymill rocketPaymill, the Rocket-Internet incubated online payments company that works like developer-friendly?Stripe?by offering users an API to quickly integrate card transactions, is today announcing that it has picked up ?10 million ($13.2 million) in funding. Rocket regular Holtzbrinck Ventures participated, along with new investor Sunstone Capital, a backer of companies like Prezi and Trunk. Rocket has confirmed that this is the first time Sunstone has invested in a Rocket-backed company. The Rocket Internet spokesperson also tells me that to date, Paymill, which is active in 34 countries, has now raised funding in the region of “double digit million euros” — although, as is par for the course with many of the Samwer’s businesses, we don’t have an exact figure yet. Other investors in Paymill are Rocket Internet and RI Digital (another Rocket vehicle). The news comes as other Rocket businesses also continue to grow — among the most recent, fashion site Zalando has created a luxury goods spinoff,?Emeza. I have also had a?tip?(along with others) that the Samwers may be looking to go public, although the company would not to comment on?the report. Paymill says it will be using the new funds to expand its footprint in Europe and elsewhere, as well as further develop its technology. “The investments by Holtzbrinck Ventures and Sunstone Capital reinforce our leading innovative position in the European online payment market and will help us to continue our rapid growth,” said Mark Henkel, CEO of Paymill, in a statement. “Especially, we will use the funds to further improve our technical platform and to enhance our customer care. It?s our goal that everyone can accept online payments fast and easily.” Like Stripe, which has been described as the “Twilio of payments” because integrating the payment service into an app or site is as easy as adding a line of code — making it possible for said app or site to then accept payments using major card networks at the touch of a button — Paymill has been building its service on the back of the rapid rise of native and web apps. Its charges are similar to those of Stripe — in Paymill’s case, a per-transaction fee of 28 euro cents, plus a one-time fee of 2.95% of the transaction amount. So far the two have not butted heads in any single market since Stripe is only in the U.S. and Canada, and Paymill is strongest in

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/TCsVsNrUBuk/

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scrofulous chow: BestThinking / Thinkers / Arts & Entertainment ...

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Source: http://scrofulous-chow.blogspot.com/2013/01/bestthinking-thinkers-arts.html

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Toshiba unveils $800 Satellite U845t: a touchscreen Ultrabook for the budget crowd (hands-on photos)

Toshiba unveils $800 Satellite U845t a touchscreen Ultrabook for the budget crowd

We've been expecting to see some budget Ultrabooks at CES, especially as the category has been around for a while and just about all notebooks are due to receive updates with Windows 8-friendly touchscreens. Toshiba just unveiled one such sub-$1,000 system, the Satellite U845t. It's a 14-incher with a touch-enabled, 1,366 x 768 screen, and it will be available for $800 when it debuts in March (on March 10th, to be exact). It's not Toshiba's first Ultrabook with touch -- the Satellite U925t claims that honor -- but it's the first entrant in the budget category. At four pounds and 0.8 inch thin, it's not the thinnest or lightest system out there, but it packs solid specs: a Core i3 or Core i5 processor with up to 6GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive with 32GB of SSD memory. Connections include HDMI, Ethernet and an SD card slot, along with one USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports. We got an early look at the U845t at Toshiba's (very clubby) press event; check out our gallery

Jose Andrade contributed to this report.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/fLoAxOBspto/

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Organic Tools are Constantly Great for Health and fitness | The War ...

Naturally created mineral cosmetics is way better to your skin as compared to traditional cosmetic makeup products because it is not petroleum dependent and has zero filler ingredients that block the particular follicles or irritate your epidermis. At this point, the key point out notice, it is not the latest technology: drinking cosmetic makeup products are already found in a lot of cultures through background. ?t had been not necessarily until eventually today?s world, however , regarding big beauty suppliers to realize the benefits of all-natural cosmetics also to throw their very own fat from the manufacturing and also distribution associated with natural natural make-up.

In addition , vitamin makeup foundation and cosmetic makeup products get ended up popularized in the press, creating a large numbers of followers with regard to vitamin cosmetic makeup products. Advantages more than conventional petroleum-based tools are numerous. A critical stage will be, nutrient make-up is usually totally free of synthetic ingredients for example talc, artificial chemical substances along with other ingredients you see in many makeup. Instead, drinking cosmetics make use of nutrients such ti dioxide and briciolo powder snow.

Nutrient cosmetics attain their own color making use of natural metal oxides, that absorb high temperature. Nutrient makeup foundation also consists of zinc o2 as well as together, these types of substances will offer prevention of sunlight along with contrary to the effects of getting older. It is common for dermatologists in order to suggest vitamin makeup to sufferers with acne breakouts or rosacea or even these whose pores and skin is actually sensitive to be able to sun rays soon after medical procedures or maybe substance peels.

Normal proper care is safe proper care

Vitamin makeup foundation is not going to assist different development, so also the yellow, nutrient cosmetics are much less oftimes be contaminated than any other varieties of makeup. Simply because normal cosmetic is of course smooth, signifies that individuals may take these kinds of cosmetic makeup products with epidermis allergies like this condition or maybe easily irritable epidermis. All-natural skin care offers advantages apart from their health benefits. Rather than9124 cover problems or maybe blemishes, the trend of recent makeup foundation would be to emphasize the particular natural splendor, vital and genuine do it yourself.

Given that mineral makeup provides wonderful coverage, the result when utilizing vitamin makeup is actually immaculate, real skin. Vitamin make-up additionally is made up of nutrients that are specific mild reflecting, functioning wonderfully well to lower seen aging and you will reserve an event. Each lady started to be thinking about proper care along with era as well as perceives these kinds of excellent traces building around the girl sight along with jaws. These facial lines as well as dropping skin that may be not shine because before.

And lots of ladies learn to recognize that normal skin care tools are definitely the top items associated with healthy skin care. Yet how would you find a very good all-natural maintenance systems? There is no official concept of ?natural? with regards to healthy skin care and also age reversing merchandise. Nonetheless ?natural? implies ?safe? elements items. Numerous skin area cares which enter the skin we have maintenance systems as well as makeup from the Ough. T. are usually suspended far away, like The european countries. But here, it is completely legitimate to utilize ingredients in our pores and skin along with thought anti-aging services typically the FDA will not manage towards in which. The web too bad there exists full agencies create to try and motivate typically the production involving harmless attention along with makeup products. Lots of people tend to be looking at organic care products as well as makeup products to find secure goods.

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Source: http://thewaronevil.com/2013/01/organic-tools-are-constantly-great-for-health-and-fitness/

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Sunday, January 6, 2013

US quickly rejects Assad's plan to stay in power

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration is rejecting a new proposal from Syrian President Bashar Assad that would begin a peace process and keep the besieged leader in power.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says Assad's latest plan is "detached from reality" and would only allow the regime to continue its oppression of the Syrian people.

Assad spoke Sunday in a rare public speech, outlining a new peace initiative that includes a national reconciliation conference and a new constitution. He ignored international demands to step down and pledged to continue the nearly two-year fight against rebels challenging his authoritarian rule.

Nuland says Assad has lost all legitimacy and should step aside to allow for a political solution and a democratic transition that satisfies the Syrian people.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-quickly-rejects-assads-plan-stay-power-213413183--politics.html

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A new approach to assessing future sea level rise from ice sheets

A new approach to assessing future sea level rise from ice sheets [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 6-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Hannah Johnson
hannah.johnson@bristol.ac.uk
44-117-928-8896
University of Bristol

The study, published today in Nature Climate Change, is the first of its kind on ice sheet melting to use structured expert elicitation (EE) together with an approach which mathematically pools experts' opinions. EE is already used in a number of other scientific fields such as forecasting volcanic eruptions.

The ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland contain about 99.5 per cent of the Earth's glacier ice which would raise global sea level by some 63m if it were to melt completely. The ice sheets are the largest potential source of future sea level rise and they also possess the largest uncertainty over their future behaviour. They present some unique challenges for predicting their future response using numerical modelling and, as a consequence, alternative approaches have been explored.

One such approach is via carefully soliciting and pooling expert judgements a practice already used in fields as diverse as eruption forecasting and the spread of vector borne diseases. In this study Professor Jonathan Bamber and Professor Willy Aspinall used such an approach to assess the uncertainties in the future response of the ice sheets.

They found that the median estimate for the sea level contribution from the ice sheets by 2100 was 29cm with a 5 per cent probability that it could exceed 84cm. When combined with other sources of sea level rise, this implies a conceivable risk of a rise of greater than 1m by 2100, which would have deeply profound consequences for humankind. The IPCC's report provided figures ranging from 18cm to 59cm for six possible scenarios.

The researchers also found that the scientists, as a group, were highly uncertain about the cause of the recent increase in ice sheet mass loss observed by satellites and equally unsure whether this was part of a long term trend or due to short-term fluctuations in the climate system.

Professor Bamber said: "This is the first study of its kind on ice sheet melting to use a formalized mathematical pooling of experts' opinions. It demonstrates the value and potential of this approach for a wide range of similar problems in climate change research, where past data and current numerical modelling have significant limitations when it comes to forecasting future trends and patterns."

###

This study was part funded by Ice2sea a major EU-funded programme to improve the projections of future global sea levels.

Notes to editors

Paper:

'An expert judgement assessment of future sea level rise from the ice sheets' by J.L. Bamber and W.P. Aspinall in Nature Climate Change.

About Ice2sea

Ice2sea brings together the EU's scientific and operational expertise from 24 leading institutions across Europe and beyond. Improved projections of the contribution of ice to sea-level rise produced by this major European-funded programme will inform the fifth IPCC report (due in 2013). In 2007, the fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report highlighted ice-sheets as the most significant remaining uncertainty in projections of sea-level rise. Understanding about the crucial ice-sheet effects was "too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate of an upper bound for sea-level rise."


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

?


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


A new approach to assessing future sea level rise from ice sheets [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 6-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Hannah Johnson
hannah.johnson@bristol.ac.uk
44-117-928-8896
University of Bristol

The study, published today in Nature Climate Change, is the first of its kind on ice sheet melting to use structured expert elicitation (EE) together with an approach which mathematically pools experts' opinions. EE is already used in a number of other scientific fields such as forecasting volcanic eruptions.

The ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland contain about 99.5 per cent of the Earth's glacier ice which would raise global sea level by some 63m if it were to melt completely. The ice sheets are the largest potential source of future sea level rise and they also possess the largest uncertainty over their future behaviour. They present some unique challenges for predicting their future response using numerical modelling and, as a consequence, alternative approaches have been explored.

One such approach is via carefully soliciting and pooling expert judgements a practice already used in fields as diverse as eruption forecasting and the spread of vector borne diseases. In this study Professor Jonathan Bamber and Professor Willy Aspinall used such an approach to assess the uncertainties in the future response of the ice sheets.

They found that the median estimate for the sea level contribution from the ice sheets by 2100 was 29cm with a 5 per cent probability that it could exceed 84cm. When combined with other sources of sea level rise, this implies a conceivable risk of a rise of greater than 1m by 2100, which would have deeply profound consequences for humankind. The IPCC's report provided figures ranging from 18cm to 59cm for six possible scenarios.

The researchers also found that the scientists, as a group, were highly uncertain about the cause of the recent increase in ice sheet mass loss observed by satellites and equally unsure whether this was part of a long term trend or due to short-term fluctuations in the climate system.

Professor Bamber said: "This is the first study of its kind on ice sheet melting to use a formalized mathematical pooling of experts' opinions. It demonstrates the value and potential of this approach for a wide range of similar problems in climate change research, where past data and current numerical modelling have significant limitations when it comes to forecasting future trends and patterns."

###

This study was part funded by Ice2sea a major EU-funded programme to improve the projections of future global sea levels.

Notes to editors

Paper:

'An expert judgement assessment of future sea level rise from the ice sheets' by J.L. Bamber and W.P. Aspinall in Nature Climate Change.

About Ice2sea

Ice2sea brings together the EU's scientific and operational expertise from 24 leading institutions across Europe and beyond. Improved projections of the contribution of ice to sea-level rise produced by this major European-funded programme will inform the fifth IPCC report (due in 2013). In 2007, the fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report highlighted ice-sheets as the most significant remaining uncertainty in projections of sea-level rise. Understanding about the crucial ice-sheet effects was "too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate of an upper bound for sea-level rise."


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

?


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


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/uob-ana010313.php

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Ex-Rep. Frank on Senate seat: Put me in, governor

Retiring Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. talks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013, prior to the start of the 113th Congress. Joseph Kennedy III is scheduled to be sworn in Thursday, replacing Frank. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Retiring Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. talks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013, prior to the start of the 113th Congress. Joseph Kennedy III is scheduled to be sworn in Thursday, replacing Frank. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

(AP) ? Newly retired Rep. Barney Frank revealed on Friday that he would like to serve as a temporary successor to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the secretary of state nominee.

Frank told The Associated Press that he asked Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint him to serve as the state's interim senator until a special election is held to fill Kerry's seat.

Patrick confirmed Friday that he was considering Frank and believed he would make a "great interim senator," but added that he had talked to other people about the position as well.

"I'm very well suited to do it," Frank said. "You're not going to have a long period to get acquainted with things."

Frank first disclosed his conversation with the governor on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday, one day after his 32-year career in the House ended.

Under state law, the Democratic governor will be required to fill the seat with an interim appointment if the Senate confirms Kerry as secretary of state. The special election would then be scheduled between 145 days and 160 days ? about five months ? after Kerry's departure.

In a telephone interview with the AP, Frank said he expected Kerry's confirmation by the end of the month.

Frank previously had said he didn't want the appointment. But the 72-year-old Democrat, who served 16 terms and headed the House Financial Services Committee, noted Friday that the fiscal cliff deal that was reached earlier this week to avoid tax cuts on most Americans also means that major spending decisions will be made in next few months.

"I would very much like to be part of deciding those," Frank said.

He called raising the Medicare eligibility age "a terrible idea," but would support higher Medicare co-payments for the wealthy in addition to increased taxes on Americans earning $250,000 to $450,000 to help fund the entitlement programs.

If nominated, Frank listed other priorities as cutting military spending, ending military operations in Afghanistan and encouraging "mainstream Republicans to break with the tea party."

Patrick has made clear that he planned to choose an interim senator who was not interested in running in the special election. The winner of that race would serve out the remainder of Kerry's term, which ends after the 2014 election.

The governor said he spoke to Frank on Thursday. He called Frank a "gifted legislator" who was among the possible appointees.

"I think he would be a great interim senator and, like I say, he's on the list," Patrick said.

Frank said he had no interest in running in the special election.

"I would not under any circumstances. I have no desire to raise money or run," he told The Associated Press.

Michael Dukakis, the former governor and the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, and Victoria Kennedy, widow of the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, have been among other names mentioned as possible interim senators. Patrick said he would keep any other conversations he had with potential appointees confidential, but commented on Frank because the former congressman had gone public with his interest.

Longtime U.S. Rep. Edward Markey has said he plans to run in the special election and several other Democrats have said they are considering becoming candidates if Kerry is confirmed.

"I'm very happy with Ed Markey as the nominee," Frank said.

Former Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, who lost his re-election bid to Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, is also weighing another run.

___

Associated Press writer Bob Salsberg in Boston contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-01-04-Massachusetts%20Senate-Frank/id-db7a2b115af64717aa2967a75e24c1d7

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Saturday, January 5, 2013

Some gun shows canceling after Newtown shooting

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) ? Four gun shows, all about an hour's drive from Newtown, Conn., all canceled.

Organizers say they weren't appropriate just weeks after a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown.

But gun advocates aren't backing down from their insistence on the right to keep and bear arms.

One gun show will go on as scheduled next weekend in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., a bit farther away from Newtown, about 120 miles. But city officials have asked organizers not to display military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Organizer David Petronis says it's not fair that the shows and their organizers are seen as the brunt of the problem. But he says he understands the reaction, and the group agreed to the city's request.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gun-shows-canceling-conn-mass-shooting-093735008.html

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Friday, January 4, 2013

Slideshow: White House releases 'The Year in Photographs'

When tourists visit new places, they often seek the most popular landmarks and have their picture taken near them to prove they made the journey. What if someone flipped that idea on its head: Instead of locating the most well-known landmarks, find the least well-known and bring it to people's attention. Reddit user "Etegamiguy," who [...]

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/photos/best-of-2012-white-house-photos-slideshow/

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?Why do I speak first and then write?? ? The One-Minute Play Festival

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I couldn?t find my playwright headshot to put in this blog so I?m sharing my actor headshot instead.

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That?s a really bad lie. I don?t even own a playwright headshot. I wish I did. Or maybe it?s not necessary. A shot of my playwright head. What does my head look like if I?m posing as a playwright and not a performer?

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Like the other artistic labels I embrace, playwriting came to me by accident. It began my Junior year of college. I was bored. So I decided to visit my University?s archival collection and look for articles about racial discrimination on my campus. The librarian brought me a 1 foot high manila folder titled ?RACE?. The articles dated back to 1968, when Georgetown admitted its first class integrated class.? I spent a whole day in the Archives reading newspaper articles and yearbooks.? At the end of the day I decided that I was going to write a play using this material. The thing was, this play was going to have many voices and only one actor: me. And there it began. In 2008 I premiered suddenly BLACK, at Georgetown to many packed audiences. I became a performance artist.

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Since then, I have created and performed another solo show, FUFU & OREOS that continues to evolve.?? I mine for new narrative material through extemporaneous storytelling.? It?s like prose up on its feet.

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Why do I speak first and then write? I?m sure it?s because I was a debate and public speaking nerd at a boarding high school in the boonies of Western Massachusetts. I also think it?s because my Mother is a really good speaker and storyteller and it definitely has something to do with how Fela Kuti was always performing in the moment.? It?s a lot of things.? I have spoken words with no preparation that start somewhere unknown and then hit the air with immediacy and importance. These words have helped me in high school defeat a debate opponent?s immature philosophy about Wal-Mart?s labor laws (ahem, Deerfield Academy).? Words have saved me from the trauma of family tragedy.? Words have brought me close to strangers.

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In the past year, I?ve been finding solace in writing first. Typing on a GoogleDoc or putting pen to paper feels daring in a different way than when I?m performing. I?m hearing a lot of voices in my head it?s extremely scary but exciting to find a new way to bring them to an audience.

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My one-minute play in this weekend?s festival, RED DRINK, has been in my belly since I quit my job at Starbucks in 2010. I wanted to know why I was addicted to venti iced passion tea lemonades and I wanted to know why first dates are so silly. I hope you enjoy this minute of exploration because it?s my first where you won?t have to see me to listen to my words.

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The first time I heard Mimi and Kyle perform my play the other actors and playwrights around the rehearsal table laughed (a lot, huzzah!) and asked questions and share their stories about sugary beverages and cultural and class-based totems. It was an awesome moment. It gave me a joy that is VERY different from the joy I get from performing. Last year I was an actor for Boston?s first OMPF and now I get to participate in a different way. I?m very grateful to Dominic and Boston Playwrights? Theatre for this experience.

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-Obehi Janice

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The?2nd Annual Boston One-Minute Play Festival?in partnership with?Boston Playwrights? Theatre?will run Jan 5-7 at 8PM at BPT. Tickets are $20 and available?here.The Jan 6th performance will livestream howlround.com?s?New Play TV.?

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Source: http://oneminuteplays.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/why-do-i-speak-first-and-then-write/

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American Eagle pilot arrested at Minn. airport

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ? Airport police arrested an American Eagle pilot Friday after he failed a blood-alcohol breath test as he prepared to fly from Minneapolis-St. Paul to New York City, authorities said.

The pilot was conducting preflight checks at about 6:30 a.m. when airport police officers acting on a tip boarded the aircraft, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport spokesman Patrick Hogan said. Officers made him take a Breathalyzer test and arrested him on suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol.

"There was a witness who smelled what they thought was alcohol on the pilot's breath and notified police," Hogan said. Passengers had not yet boarded the flight to New York's LaGuardia Airport, he said.

The pilot has been suspended pending an investigation, said Matt Miller, a spokesman for American Airlines, which uses Eagle to operate shorter connecting flights. Both airlines are owned by AMR Corp.

The company is cooperating with authorities and will conduct an internal investigation, Miller said.

The flight was delayed about 2 ? hours while a replacement pilot was arranged, he said.

After the pilot was taken to Fairview Southdale Hospital to have a blood sample taken for testing, he was returned to the custody of airport police, Hogan said.

The alcohol limit for flying is generally lower than for driving a car. Federal rules prohibit pilots from flying within eight hours of drinking alcohol or having a blood-alcohol level of 0.04 percent or higher, half the level allowed for motorists in many states.

Pilots face drug and alcohol testing when they seek a job, are involved in an accident or return from alcohol rehabilitation. Some are selected for random tests. More than 10,000 pilots are tested each year and about a dozen flunk the alcohol part ? a number that has remained mostly steady for more than a decade, according to federal statistics.

Twelve pilots failed the breath test in 2011, 10 in 2010, and 11 in 2009, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-04-Pilot%20Arrested-American%20Eagle/id-7925d424efc64e658d368b703ac27d48

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Dallas Mom and Writer Pamela Gwyn Kripke Defends Single ...

Dallas Mom and Writer Pamela Gwyn Kripke Defends Single Motherhood

Following an article it ran last summer about the dangers of being raised by a single mother, Slate invited its readers to defend ?fatherless households. Sometime D Magazine contributor and Park Cities resident Pamela Gwyn Kripke, who is likely still eagerly counting the days until she can escape having to live in Dallas, is herself a mom raising two daughters solo.

She writes in a post today:

?We are surrounded by huge homes and the other accouterments of wealth. Kids here, and in similar bubbles of affluence, find gift-wrapped cars in the driveway when they turn 16, as well as one of the greatest predictors of success: support. In the recently published?How Children Succeed, author Paul Tough argues that rich kids get the encouragement and poor ones get the grit, and he claims that one without the other gets no one very far. It is hard to spot the millionaire?s kid who mows the lawn or the middle-schooler on a free-lunch program who sees his parents before nine at night. I would maintain that children with a single parent get the winning combination.

Myself raised by a single mother who worked a full-time job and handled three children while attending college in the evenings to complete the degree that my unexpected birth had long prevented her from finishing, I concur that I?ve learned a thing or two about grit.

Source: http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/2013/01/03/dallas-writer-pamela-gwyn-kripke-defends-single-motherhood/

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Mom says boy didn't steal plane in Alabama crash

A Walker County sheriff's deputy lifts crime scene tape for investigators as National Transportation Safety Board officials continue investigate the fatal crash Tuesday night of a small plane that was reported stolen near Jasper, Ala., Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. Walker County sheriff's Chief Deputy James Painter says authorities are still investigating but believe the teenagers took the plane without permission before it crashed Tuesday night. (AP Photo/AL.com, Joe Songer) MAGS OUT

A Walker County sheriff's deputy lifts crime scene tape for investigators as National Transportation Safety Board officials continue investigate the fatal crash Tuesday night of a small plane that was reported stolen near Jasper, Ala., Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. Walker County sheriff's Chief Deputy James Painter says authorities are still investigating but believe the teenagers took the plane without permission before it crashed Tuesday night. (AP Photo/AL.com, Joe Songer) MAGS OUT

National Transportation Safety Board officials continue to investigate at the scene of a fatal crash Tuesday night of a small plane that was reported stolen near Jasper, Ala., Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. Walker County sheriff's Chief Deputy James Painter says authorities are still investigating but believe the teenagers took the plane without permission before it crashed Tuesday night. (AP Photo/AL.com, Joe Songer) MAGS OUT

JASPER, Ala. (AP) ? Jordan Smith fell in love with flying at an early age and was just one test short of earning his private license when the small plane he was piloting crashed after taking off from the county airport, his mother said.

The owner of the Piper PA 30 had given the 17-year-old high school junior his own key and the code to a security gate behind which it was parked, Sherrie Smith said.

"He had used the plane many times before," Smith told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "We were working on getting him his own plane when he was a senior."

The plane went down Tuesday night less than a mile from the Walker County Airport in Jasper, northwest of Birmingham, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Jordan Smith was killed, along with two teens whom Walker County Coroner J.C. Poe identified as Brandon Tyler Ary, 19, and Jordan Seth Montgomery, 17.

Walker County sheriff's Chief Deputy James Painter said earlier Wednesday that authorities believed the three teenagers took off in the plane without permission.

"We don't know for sure but we think it was some teenagers who stole the plane and were sort of joyriding it," Painter said.

A call to the National Transportation Safety Board was not returned Wednesday.

The plane had departed from the small airport about 10:30 p.m. in overcast skies and a low cloud ceiling, airport manager Edwin Banks said.

"It was a student pilot flying an airplane without permission, an airplane that he was not qualified to fly at night," Banks said.

The crash happened in a wooded, swampy area just over the fence from Margaret Swann's hay farm. She said training flights from the airport circle over her farm routinely and she guessed that Jordan Smith was flying the same pattern before the plane went down.

"It's just three kids making a wrong decision," she said.

Smith said her son had left the house about 6 p.m. Tuesday to meet some friends at another airport in the area, and she said she last spoke to him by cellphone about four hours later. One of her son's friends called later about reports of a plane crash, and she tried to reach Jordan again but couldn't.

Jordan Smith had enough promise as a pilot that he'd already earned a scholarship to Wallace State Community College to study aviation, Sherrie Smith said.

"He started going to the airport when he was 14, and friends would take him up."

The Piper PA 30 is also called a Piper Twin Comanche. It is a low-wing plane with two propellers and can seat four to six, depending on the model.

The planes were built from 1963 until 1972, and were popular with flight schools because of their fuel efficiency and relatively inexpensive price tags, according to the International Comanche Society, an enthusiasts' group.

Jordan Smith's father is an Alabama state trooper and member of the Alabama National Guard who is currently serving in Afghanistan.

___

Associated Press writers Jeff Martin and Phillip Lucas in Atlanta and AP researcher Judith Ausuebel in New York contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-03-New%20Year's%20Plane%20Crash/id-f8cfc18141a945e89fc9b4e136ec272e

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Israeli Military Court Indicts Terror Suspect In Bus Bombing Case ...

Tel Aviv, Israel

Tel Aviv, Israel


Written by Jim Kouri

January 3, 2013

Israel?s military court on Wednesday indicted a 26-year-old terrorist-cell leader from the West Bank village of Beit Lakiya for spearheading the bombing of a passenger bus in Tel Aviv in November, according to an Israeli police source.

The military court charged Ahmed Moussa with a list of offenses, including an attempt to intentionally cause death, conspiracy to cause death, trafficking weapons and explosives, and building improvised explosive devices for use against targets in the Jewish homeland, the source said.

The bus bombing occurred during the time when Palestinian terrorist groups located in Gaza fired numerous rockets and missiles into Israel cities and towns.

About 30 Israeli civilians were wounded onboard the No. 142 bus when the bomb exploded. The wounded were all treated in area hospitals and eventually released.

Following Moussa?s interrogation by the Shin Bet Security Agency (Shabak), the indictment establishes that Moussa headed a terrorist cell in the West Bank, which was behind the bus attack. It also claims he had links to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

According to the indictment, Moussa purchased the weapons that were used in the attack and he had recruited two additional jihadists to carry out the attack with him.

He is also charged with preparing explosives used on the targeted bus, which exploded near the city?s hospital and military headquarters, and deploying a fellow cell member to plant the bomb and notify him when the task was completed by mobile phone.

The Shin Bet?s investigation also revealed that the cell planned to carry out further militant attacks including targeting Israeli ministers and conduct drive-by shootings in the West Bank.

As for other members of the alleged terror cell, Mohammed Mafarja, 18, from the Arab Israeli town of Taybe, was indicted in December for allegedly planting the bomb on the bus. He has confessed to the charges during his investigation by the Shin Bet and the police and reenacted his steps.

Fuad Atzi, 27, and Mohammed Damra, 25, have been connected to the Moussa?s cell but they haven?t been indicted for the attack as yet.

Source: http://www.albanytribune.com/03012013-israeli-military-court-indicts-terror-suspect-in-bus-bombing-case%E2%80%8F/

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