Applying to schools? Clean up your Facebook

By Athima Chansanchai

It's crunch time for college and graduate school admissions, and while thousands are twisting and turning over their essays, they might want to spend just as much time cleaning up their digital profiles.

Kaplan Test Prep surveyed admissions officers at the top law schools, business schools and colleges across the U.S. this summer, and found those looking at future lawyers to be the most active in pre-screening applicants using their online footprints. The Kaplan data showed 41 percent of law school admissions officers (from?128 of the nation?s 200 American Bar Association-accredited law schools)?said they have Googled an applicant to learn more about them, while 37 percent have checked out an applicant on Facebook or other social networking site.

And they're not just looking for fun. Nearly a third of law school admissions officers who researched an applicant online ??32 percent ??said they discovered "something that negatively impacted an applicant?s admissions chances." ?

Lawyers, it turns out, hold themselves to a higher bar than you'd think.?Jeff Thomas, Kaplan's director of pre-law programs said:

Despite jokes and negative stereotyping of lawyers, the reality is that the legal community takes ethics among its members very seriously. You not only have to be accepted to a state bar to practice law, but once you are admitted, unethical behavior can lead to your disbarment, stripping you of your ability to practice. Not many other professions have that kind of enforceable code of conduct, so it?s natural that law schools screen more stringently and more often.

You hear that? So future lawyers: Smarten up and untag yourselves from all those frat party and Mardi Gras pics! Better yet, delete them, if you can.

Kaplan's?Russell Schaffer said the "offenses" they found included: "essay plagiarism, vulgarities in blogs, alcohol consumption in photos and illegal activities."?

On the flip side,?77 percent of potential law school students (869 Kaplan Test Prep students who took the October LSAT)?"objected to having their online personae included as part of the admissions process." That same percentage, Schaffer said, "also said that as future lawyers they should be held to a higher ethical standard than other professionals."

Only 15 percent of those would-be lawyers admitted there is something in their personal digital footprint that might show up as a negative on their application.

Those of you going to college and business school, you have a little wiggle room. Only 12 percent of college admission officers and 14 percent of business school admissions officers found something online that could damage an applicant?s admissions chances.

But, business school admissions officers do take to the Internet to find out more about applicants: 27 percent used Google. Less than a quarter (22 percent) of them have visited an applicant?s Facebook page.

In September, Kaplan released the results of another survey of college admissions officers in which nearly a quarter (24 percent) of them said they went to an applicant?s Facebook or other social networking page, and 20 percent Googled them.?

When Kaplan first began tracking the issue in 2008, only 10 percent of schools reported checking applicants? social networking pages.

And if you think that your school isn't going to be so strict in its admissions, you'd be gambling, as?38 of the top 50 colleges (as designated by U.S. News & World Report) participated in the survey, as did 16 of the top 25 business schools?(as designated by U.S. News & World Report), says Schaffer.

Besides the 128 law schools, 359 colleges and 265 business schools also responded to the survey.

More stories:

Check out Technolog on?Facebook, and on Twitter, follow?Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the?Google+?stream.

Source: http://digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/31/8562893-applying-to-grad-schools-clean-up-your-facebook

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Why Our Brains Love Horror Movies

When Paranormal Activity 3 chalked up record-setting numbers at last weekend?s box office (its $54 million was the most ever for a horror film), Stuart Fischoff wasn?t surprised. ?Films like Paranormal Activity 3 have a pre-registered audience just waiting for the latest Hollywood bouquet of blood, sweat, tears, and chills to exquisitely fill our lust for horribly sweet sensations,? says Fischoff, professor emeritus of psychology at California State University, Los Angeles, and senior editor of the online Journal of Media Psychology.

The fact that some people like to be scared out of their wits never ceases to baffle those of us who would as soon see Freddy Krueger slash his way through A Nightmare on Elm Street as we would have surgery without anesthesia. But to masters of the genre, as well as to experts in media psychology, it makes perfect sense. In Danse Macabre, Stephen King described ?terror as the finest emotion, and so I will try to terrorize the reader.? What makes it so fine? ?One of the major reasons we go to scary movies is to be scared,? says Fischoff. But the scare we crave?and this applies to haunted houses and spooky corn mazes no less than to horror movies?is a safe one. ?We know that, in an hour or two, we?re going to walk out whole,? says Fischoff. ?We?re not going to have any holes in our head, and our hearts will still be in our bodies.?

But those hearts will likely be pounding a bit harder than if you had just seen, say, Dolphin Tale. And that accounts for a lot of the appeal. ?If we have a relatively calm, uneventful lifestyle, we seek out something that?s going to be exciting for us, because our nervous system requires periodic revving, just like a good muscular engine,? says Fischoff. A 1995 study found that the higher people score on a scale that measures sensation-seeking, the more they like horror films. ?There are people who have a tremendous need for stimulation and excitement,? says Fischoff. ?Horror movies are one of the better ways to get really excited.?

That may explain why horror movies are most popular with younger audiences. Teens and twenty-somethings ?are more likely to look for intense experiences,? says John Edward Campbell, an expert in media studies at Temple University. That fades with age, especially as people become more sensitive to their own physiology: middle-aged and older adults tend not to seek out experiences that make their hearts race, and feel that real life is scary enough. (Did we mention foreclosure? Unemployment? Divorce?) They don?t need to get their scares from movies. Or as Fischoff puts it, ?Older people have stimulation fatigue. Life?s [real] horrors scare them, or they don?t find them entertaining any more?or interesting.?

Getty Images

One of the more counterintuitive findings in the science of fear is that the stronger the negative emotions (fear, worry, anxiety...) a person reports experiencing during horror films, the more likely he or she is to enjoy the genre. Distress and delight are correlated. ?The pleasure comes from the relief that follows,? says Campbell. ?It provides a cathartic effect, offering you emotional release and escape from the real world of bills and mortgages and the economy and relationships.?

The catharsis theory is one of several that have been floated over the years to explain the appeal of being scared out of your wits. Freud suggested that horror was appealing because it traffics in ?thoughts and feelings that have been repressed by the ego but which seem vaguely familiar,? as a 2004 paper explained. Jung argued that horror touches on primordial images in the collective unconscious. But since there is no evidence that many of us have repressed feelings of drowned children like Freddy marauding through a summer camp in Friday the 13th, let alone that that?s part of our collective unconscious, such psychoanalytic explanations for the appeal of fear have fallen by the wayside.

Instead, scientists suspect that other motivations, besides catharsis, are at work. One comes from the fact that horror movies, even slasher flicks, generally stick to an almost Victorian moral code. You can be pretty sure that the girl who has sex with her boyfriend will wind up dead (as parodied in the Scream movies), as will teenagers who pick up deranged hitchhikers. Horror films thus appeal to people who like predictability and neat ends, hold the ethical relativism: in these movies, there is no question about who the bad guy is. And despite the high and often gory body count, the films tend to have a (relatively) happy ending. ?Control lost under the cover of darkness is rediscovered in the light of day; danger posed by things unknown is reduced by increased knowledge and predictability,? explained clinical psychologist Glenn Walters of Kutztown University in that 2004 paper (written when he worked at a federal prison in Minersville, Pa.)

He suggests that the appeal to teenagers also goes beyond thrill-seeking and catharsis. Horror movies help young people learn to manage terror. ?They can either succumb [to frightening images] or learn to manage,? he argues. ?By learning to suppress feelings and display mastery or cling to others in a dependent ploy for protection, a person learns to cope with another aspect of his or her environment, a skill that may be useful in dealing with more than just horror pictures.? That may explain another oddity of the genre: horror movies are popular date films. ?Teenage boys enjoyed a horror film significantly more when the female companion... expressed fright, whereas teenage girls enjoyed the film more when the male companion... showed a sense of mastery and control,? Walters argued.

Older adults tend not to seek out experiences that make their hearts race. They feel that real life is scary enough.

Perhaps most fundamentally, horror films are popular because they speak to the basic human condition of existential fear, the knowledge that we are all doomed (albeit not as messily as Jason?s or Freddy?s victims). By sitting through a fictional depiction of that fact?even if the movie?s victims slough their mortal coil in a more sensational way than most of us, God willing, will?we face our greatest fear.

Yet when people are asked to name their top 25 favorite films, horror almost never makes the cut, Fischoff and colleagues found. (The Godfather, Star Wars, Casablanca, and The Sound of Music jostle for room at the top; the closest the horror genre comes is an occasional appearance by Ghost, which is more romantic than scary.) ?Horror is almost no one?s favorite genre,? says Fischoff. The two horror films named by the most people, Nightmare on Elm Street and The Exorcist, each got only six mentions from the 560 people surveyed. People 50 and older almost never name a horror film as one of their 25 favorites (0.2 percent of this group?s top 25 lists include a horror movie). But the genre accounts for only 3.2 percent of the top films named by people 13 to 25, and 2.3 percent of those named by those 26 to 49. (For whatever it?s worth, the ethnic group that names the most horror films to its top 25 lists is Latinos.)

Why is horror less popular than other genres? ?Generally, people anticipate feeling entertained and feeling good when they leave a movie,? explains Fischoff. But while horror films excite and arouse, they ?often leave people feeling nervous and unsettled,? despite any catharsis. ?This is not a state which leads to fond memories.? As anyone with nightmares after Nightmare can attest.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1923853/news/1923853/

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Japan's digital divas take to the stage, wow fans (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? Japan's two newest stars have all the basics of being a pop idol down. Their dance moves are sharp, they sing without missing a beat, and their songs have made the top 10.

The only thing is, neither one of them exists.

The green-haired "Megpoid" and red-haired "Akikoloid" are both completely computer generated, the latest in a line of popular digital characters based on a voice-synthesizing program that allows users to create their own music.

They were the stars of a concert during the recent Digital Concept Expo in Tokyo.

Music made by "Vocaloid," the voice-synthesizing program, and its spin-off characters, has made it into the top 10 on Japan's weekly top hits list. But for those watching the concert, the performance was nothing more than thin air -- unless they looked at the screen showing the augmented reality (AR) scene with the 3D characters inserted into live video.

The software used at the concert used a complicated system of sensors and motion capture technology to create the two singers, with sensors around the venue and on the cameras and the hands of two human back dancers interacting to make a composite that was inserted into the concert in real time.

Nothing about the singers is real. Even their high, perky voices are digitally generated, but sound no different from those of many a live Japanese pop singer.

"Though there have been a few concerts with the characters before, this is the first time they could interact with others, including the audience, and appear to move around in a true 3D space," said Masaru Ishikawa, a Tokyo University researcher who helped create the system used for the concert.

"These sorts of concerts up to now have looked 3D but were actually using 2D technology. This is a world first in that the character is actually 3D and can sing and dance with others," he said.

Fans were able to get in on the action by using poles with markers that allowed them to be detected by the augmented reality system and interact with the characters by waving the poles around during the concert. Depending on the song, these movements produced stars, sparkles and flames in the video.

"Seeing the concert with augmented reality made it seem like they were really there, even though they weren't," 24-year-old fan Keisuke Shindo said after watching the hour-long concert.

"It was also interesting to see how they added the effects and allowed the audience to interact using the poles. I think it's pretty amazing."

In addition to the 150 fans at the actual concert, more than 65,000 people watched on Nico Nico Douga, a Japanese video-sharing site similar to YouTube.

(Writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111028/music_nm/us_japan_divas_digital

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BOJ eases policy with eye on yen, Europe crisis (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? The Bank of Japan eased monetary policy on Thursday by boosting purchases of government bonds and warned of risks posed by a strong yen and Europe's debt crisis in a sign it would act again if recovery in the world's third-largest economy falters.

Spurred by the yen's renewed climb to record highs and heightened overseas risks, the central bank delivered its second monetary stimulus in three months by topping up its asset buying scheme by 5 trillion yen to 20 trillion yen ($263 billion) while keeping interest rates on hold near zero.

The BOJ also cut its growth and price forecasts, while Governor Masaaki Shirakawa stressed various risks clouded the outlook.

"Current yen rises are having a big negative impact on Japanese corporate sentiment and exports," Shirakawa told a news conference after the rate review.

"Global economic uncertainty, including Europe's debt problem, remains very high, prompting global investors to seek safe haven assets."

Japan's economy has been recovering from the devastating March earthquake and until recently central bankers appeared reluctant to ease policy further, counting on fiscal spending on reconstruction and demand from emerging markets to sustain the upturn.

An agreement struck by European leaders on Thursday on a package of measures to tackle the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis, offered some relief to Japanese policymakers who fear the crisis may start to hurt their economy as well as emerging Asian nations that are key markets for Japanese goods.

But the yen's strength and lingering doubts whether Europe can produce a lasting solution to its debt crisis swayed the BOJ board in favor of more action.

Even if investors were not sure about the timing, the scale of the easing came as no surprise, and the yen -- buoyed by safe haven flows fueled by European debt jitters -- barely budged. It hovered around 75.88 to the dollar after the decision, just off its latest record high of 75.709 struck on Wednesday.

Few analysts expect the BOJ to hold off on easing for long.

"The yen's uptrend won't change as it's driven by problems in Europe and the United States. Monetary easing needs to be coupled with currency intervention to be effective," said Mari Iwashita, chief market economist at SMBC Nikko Securities.

"There's a chance the BOJ may (ease) again once or twice more, such as by buying more assets including corporate bonds" by March next year, she said.

In a rare development at the consensus-minded BOJ, former academic Ryuzo Miyao -- regarded as one of the most pessimistic board members -- voted against the move, seeking a bigger 10 trillion yen increase to a broader 50-trillion-yen pool for asset buying and market operations.

Some analysts said the BOJ was not bold enough.

"Bringing down long-term interest rates is effective in weakening the yen," said Hideo Kumano, chief economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute. "The BOJ decided to focus on increasing JGB purchases this time, but why didn't they decide to buy JGBs with maturities exceeding two years?"

SLOWER, LESS CERTAIN RECOVERY

As expected, the central bank trimmed its growth forecasts for this fiscal year to March 2012 and next, while sticking with its view that Japan would continue a moderate recovery.

The BOJ cut next fiscal year's forecast to 2.2 percent growth from 2.9 percent and predicted 1.5 percent growth in the following year, which would still make Japan one of the best performing major advanced economies.

But it also highlighted that overcoming deflation would take time and said a multitude of risks to such a scenario warranted monetary easing now.

The entire increase in the asset buying scheme will take the form of more purchases of government bonds with no increase in private debt, given corporate financing has shown little sign of strain, the BOJ said.

But in contrast to past expansions, the central bank did not extend the deadline for the purchases, suggesting it will be buying government debt at a faster pace.

The BOJ also effectively pledged to keep rates ultra low for years to come by forecasting that core consumer inflation will stay well below the 1 percent level deemed desirable until March 2014.

Finance Minister Jun Azumi welcomed the BOJ's easing and described Europe's agreement on a 50 percent write-down of Greek debt as a "big step forward," after repeating a customary warning that Tokyo might intervene in the currency market.

The BOJ previously eased policy by boosting its asset buying pool in August, acting in tandem with the Finance Ministry, which ordered Japan's biggest-ever single-day currency intervention, selling more than 4.5 trillion yen.

The impact proved short-lived, however, and the yen crawled back to trade close to its record highs.

This has been a source of deepening frustration for Japanese officials, who argue that a yen rally is one problem too many for a nation grappling with a nuclear crisis, a $250 billion post-quake rebuilding effort and ballooning debt.

($1 = 75.990 Japanese Yen)

(Additional reporting by Stanley White, Kaori Kaneko and Tetsushi Kajimoto; Writing by Leika Kihara and Tomasz Janowski; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111027/bs_nm/us_japan_economy

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Some Small Businesses Become Big

Some small businesses become big and some stay small. Some run by solopreneurs never grow beyond the single professional who launched them. But no matter what, many aspects of starting and running a small business successfully are the same. Drive, determination, imagination and hard work are always part of the equation. Here are some examples of small businesses that grew and some tips and trends to run your small business regardless of its size.

Startups & New Trends

Small businesses that grew to be giants. Most big businesses start small, but here are perhaps some of the best examples of companies that started as small mom-and-pops and grew to become huge companies and household names. Business Insurance Quotes

Do you need branding or lead generation? An important consideration when starting a business (or starting a marketing campaign) is to identify what is most important. While brand will certainly have an impact over time, leads are also critically important. Without them you will make no sales, have no cash flow and thus will not need a brand. 365 Days of Startups

Selling direct to consumers. Gary Vaynerchuk is talking up what may be the latest trend in business everywhere. Amazon?s decision to enter the publishing business has profound impact for ?middle men? in the economy and should get you thinking about whether you can take your product or service directly to consumers. Next Wave

Entrepreneurship

Reasons to fail. Are there reasons you can?t create a great small business, or a small business that grows into a big one? Sure there are. Lots of them. In fact, here are a bunch. But be warned. They?re easy to find even without a Website. Chris Brogan

Who are you working for? Obviously even entrepreneurs work for customers and clients, but the question here is actually a bit deeper. Becoming an entrepreneur doesn?t mean you can ?do your own thing? all the time, but it implies making certain decisions about how you spend your time. Seth Godin?s Blog

Self-development

Make your point and have it stick. Do you get the feeling that you?re not getting your customer?s or perspective client?s attention when you are communicating with him? Maybe it?s you? What is your I-you ratio? Do you start most sentences with I? I did this. I can do this for you. Remember, the customer doesn?t care about you. He only cares about himself and his problems. What can you and what are you going to do for him? Use 10 ?you?s? for every ?I?. Inc.com

Take action on your goals. You work hard all day and you?re not really accomplishing what needs to be done. Are you working on the right things? Are your goals real or something you put down on a paper some time ago? Review your goals and prioritize them. Then consider what it is that motivates you to accomplish them and find someone who will hold you accountable. Inc.com

Operations

How to find great people. Certainly, recruitment is constantly changing, but as in the case of marketing, find out more about what?s causing the buzz before jumping in head first. Here?s a look at one of the latest recruitment trends. Should you be involved? 365 Days of Startups

Marketing

Don?t make these marketing mistakes. Small business operation is a learning experience, but there are certainly some tips you should consider?to avoid wasting time and money. Marketing errors?can be more serious and damaging to your business?than you may think. Bloomberg Businessweek

How targeted is your campaign? A new service targets customers based on local check-ins and even positive and negative response to a product or brand. How are you targeting your marketing campaigns to be sure you reach relevant customers? Chris Brogan

Source: http://smallbiztrends.com/2011/10/some-small-businesses-become-big.html

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Trouble For Maksim Chmerkovskiy & Hope Solo: Maks? Broken Toe!

There may be a problem on the dance floor for Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Hope Solo come Monday night on DWTS, as Maksim tweeted that he has a broken toe. How is he doing? Will his show go on? LOL. The dancing pro tweeted earlier today, ‘One thing that could make this Halloween weekend better—-NOT having a broken toe!’. Well, yikes. That can’t be good. It’s already been a tough week for the two. After their performance Monday night, Len told Hope Solo that her Rumba to ‘Seasons of Love’ from Rent was her ‘worst dance of the season’. Ouch. Maks and Len then exchanged some words (Len: I’ve been in this business for 50 years… Maks: Then maybe it’s time to go!…). Carrie Ann scolded Maks for being disrespectful, and then in the skybox, he told Brooke Burke Charvet, ?With all due respect, this is my show. I helped make it what it is.? Wow. Luckily for Maks and Hope, they survived elimination as Chaz Bono and Lacey Schwimmer were sent packing. While Maks did not apologize for his comments to Len, he did come forward during elimination night and apologize for his remark about DWTS being ‘his show’. He [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/_C7oEhuyEp0/

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Video: Your Financial Futures & Options

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45062797#45062797

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Pew study: Tablet users don't want to pay for news

NEW YORK (AP) ? Although tablet owners spend more time consuming news than poking around on Facebook, they're reluctant to pay for news content.

That's according to a study released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center's Project for the Excellence in Journalism. It found that 11 percent of American adults own a tablet of some kind, and they spend on average 90 minutes a day using the device.

Consuming news is one of the most popular activities, up there with email and more popular than social networking. Only general Web-browsing proved more popular on tablets than news and email.

Even so, just 14 percent of those who consume news on tablets said they have paid for news content on their devices. Another 23 percent, though, pay for a print subscription that includes tablet content. So in all, about a third of tablet news consumers have paid to access news on their gadgets.

"That is a much higher number than previous research has found more broadly of people paying for digital content," the report says. Nonetheless, a "large majority" of people who have not paid for news are "reluctant to do so, even if that was the only way to get news from their favorite sources," the report adds.

This is bad news for media companies hoping to boost revenue by charging for content on Apple Inc.'s iPad and other tablets. Of the people who have not paid directly to access news on their tablet, just 21 percent said they would spend $5 a month if that was the only way to access their favorite news outlet.

Apps, it turns out, are not the most popular way to access news content. Only 21 percent of tablet news users said they get their news mainly through apps they have downloaded. By contrast, 40 percent said they get their news mainly by way of a Web browser, while 31 percent said they use apps and the browser equally.

The study was conducted on landlines and cellphones from June 30 to July 31 among 5,014 adults in the U.S.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-10-25-Pew-Tablets/id-424f06afc0e44f27abf003cfd8713d46

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Panetta to visit air base in Japan before meeting (AP)

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan ? U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Monday lashed out at North Korea for "reckless and provocative" acts and criticized China for a secretive expansion of its military power.

Panetta, who arrived at this U.S. air base on the second leg of a weeklong Asia tour, spoke out about North Korea and China in an opinion piece published Monday by Japan's Yomiyuri newspaper before his arrival.

He wrote that Washington and Tokyo share common challenges in the Asia-Pacific.

"These include North Korea, which continues to engage in reckless and provocative behavior and is developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, which pose a threat not just to Japan but to the entire region," he wrote.

Panetta's strong language comes as U.S. and North Korean officials gather in Geneva for talks that Washington says are aimed at determining whether Pyongyang is serious about returning to nuclear disarmament talks.

Japan also worries about North Korea and is one of five countries that have jointly tried to persuade the North Koreans to cap and reverse their nuclear arms program. The other four are the U.S., China, Russia and South Korea.

Panetta also criticized China.

"China is rapidly modernizing its military," he wrote in Monday's opinion piece, "but with a troubling lack of transparency, coupled with increasingly assertive activity in the East and South China Seas."

He wrote that Japan and the U.S. would work together to "encourage China to play a responsible role in the international community."

A day earlier, in Bali, Indonesia, Panetta offered more positive remarks about China. He told reporters that Beijing deserved praise for a relatively mild response to a $5.8 billion US arms sale to Taiwan announced in September.

Panetta is not visiting China on this trip, his first to Asia since becoming Pentagon chief in July.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111024/ap_on_re_as/as_panetta_asia

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Hurricane Rina gaining strength on path to Cancun

This NOAA satellite image taken Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 at 12:00 AM EDT shows few clouds in the east as high pressure builds in the region. In the Caribbean, Hurricane Rina threatens the Yucatan Peninsula. (AP PHOTO/WEATHER UNDERGROUND)

This NOAA satellite image taken Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 at 12:00 AM EDT shows few clouds in the east as high pressure builds in the region. In the Caribbean, Hurricane Rina threatens the Yucatan Peninsula. (AP PHOTO/WEATHER UNDERGROUND)

CANCUN, Mexico (AP) ? Mexican authorities set up emergency shelters and cruise ships shifted course on Tuesday as Hurricane Rina strengthened off the Caribbean coast, following a projected track that has it whirling through Cancun and the resort-filled Mayan Riviera, Mexico's most popular tourist destination.

Rina's maximum sustained winds have increased to 110 mph (175 kph), said the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, making it a Category 2 storm. Forecasters predict it will strengthen as it nears the Mexican coast Wednesday night before rolling over the island of Cozumel, a popular dive spot and cruise-ship port, then along the coast to Cancun.

The area, dotted with Mayan ruins, also includes Playa del Carmen, another popular spot for international tourists.

Douglas Baird, 40, of Glasgow, Scotland, said he had been in Playa del Carmen for 11 days on a tour with 10 other people. He plans to stay for the five remaining days of his vacation.

"I'll go to the bar," he said about his plans for waiting out his first hurricane. "It won't be a problem."

Cancun Tourism Director Maximo Garcia said the city alone now has about 22,000 tourists even in the pre-holiday low season. Quintana Roo state, where Cancun is located, has some 83,000 hotel rooms, most in the Mayan Riviera-Cancun area.

Garcia said authorities had asked hotel managers to warn tourists of the hurricane.

But Wendy Powers, a 49-year-old from Louisiana who was taking a stroll at a shopping mall with two other friends, said she hadn't heard anything about the storm until a reporter told her about it. Still, she said she wasn't worried.

"We had Katrina and we survived it," Powers said. "If the one coming here is a category 1 or 2, we could have a beach party."

Laura Valles, a receptionist at the Hotel Jashita in coastal Tulum, said four of its 15 guests moved inland to hotels at the archaeological site of Chichen Itza, some 90 miles (150 kilometers) west, and others were still deciding what to do.

"We are letting those with a reservation know they will have to change their dates," Valles said.

Yassir Espinoza, a clerk at the small Plaza Azul hotel in Cozumel, said tourists were being warned of the impending storm.

"We told them if there is a hurricane there won't be any electricity or water for at least three days," she said.

In Cancun's hotel zone, a string of pickup trucks hauled small boats and jet skis away from marinas, while workers at shopping malls began boarding up windows.

At least eight cruise ships were changing itineraries away from the storm's path, said Carnival Cruise Lines spokesman Vance Gulliksen.

Three cruise ships from the company Norwegian and one from Royal Caribbean have canceled their Friday port of call in the area, said Hiram Toledo, Quintana Roo port administrator.

The area was badly damaged by Hurricane Wilma in 2005, when Cancun's famous white-sand beaches were largely washed away. Insurance officials estimated total damage at $3 billion.

State officials said they were readying more than 1,100 shelters that could handle nearly 200,000 people, though so far there was no word of any planned evacuations.

The hurricane was centered about 275 miles (440 kilometers) southeast of Cozumel Tuesday afternoon and was moving west-northwest at near 3 mph (6 kph), the Hurricane Center said.

Forecasters said Rina was likely to strengthen into a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of about 115 mph (185 kph) by night.

The forecast track shows it curving east toward Cuba by the weekend, but senior hurricane specialist Michael Brennan at the hurricane center said it could also move toward southern Florida.

The center said the storm could produce as much as 16 inches (40 centimeters) of rain over at least parts of the eastern Yucatan Peninsula while raising water levels by as much as 5 to 7 feet (about a meter) in places.

The rainfall particularly worries authorities in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco, where about 300,000 people are still flooded following eight days of heavy rains.

In Central America, which was affected earlier by Rina's outer bands, fishermen on Monday found a Nicaraguan navy boat that had gone missing with 29 people aboard. It had been used to evacuate an island.

___

Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon and Olga R. Rodriguez in Mexico City contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-10-25-Tropical%20Weather/id-3bc62da91b0f41529b2e1f993caca6ed

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Thompson Lifts Rapids To 2-1 Win Over Whitecaps

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Wells Thompson scored in the 84th minute and the Colorado Rapids rallied for a 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps in the teams' regular-season finale Saturday night.

Defending-champion Colorado (12-9-13) improved its chances of hosting a playoff game, pending other results this weekend.

Thompson got the ball after a scramble near the top of Vancouver's 18-yard box and sent a shot off a Whitecaps defender's head and over goalkeeper Joe Cannon.

Vancouver (6-18-10) closed its inaugural MLS season and was playing under coach Tommy Soehn for the last time. Martin Rennie will take over next season.

Alain Rochat gave the Whitecaps a 1-0 lead in the 49th minute, and Jeff Larentowicz tied the score for Colorado in the 59th minute.

After the game ended, a number of Vancouver players sat on the pitch in frustration after a season that began with a promising 4-2 victory over Toronto FC turned into a disaster that included the firing of former coach Teitur Thordarson.

The club had been playing well lately as Soehn shuffled his lineup. But Thompson, who subbed in near the 70-minute mark, denied the Whitecaps a third-straight home victory before a sellout crowd of 21,000 at newly renovated BC Place.

The Whitecaps had some excellent chances early, but could not score. Long Tan fired a hard shot from the corner of the 18-yard box in the third minute, but Colorado goalkeeper Matt Pickens punched the ball away as it came straight at him.

Four minutes later, midfielder Nizar Khalfan had a breakaway and had an out-of-position Pickens at his mercy, but fired wide.

In the 10th minute, Larentowicz received a yellow card for a reckless foul on midfielder John Thorrington.

Rochat's goal came on a curling free kick from about 30 yards out thanks to an error by Pickens. With Whitecaps captain Jay DeMerit faking a header and running hard at the net, Pickens put up his hand in surrender and let the ball go, thinking it was going out of bounds. However, it snuck into the corner of the net with Pickens watching when he could have easily stopped it.

Just 10 minutes later, Larentowicz fired a straight-on free kick from the top of the Vancouver box right through a Whitecaps defensive wall ? and Cannon's legs ? as he failed to get his hands down on the ball in time.

Camilo had a chance to put the Whitecaps ahead in the 67th minute, but he fired wide from the middle of the Colorado box. Rochat had a chance to score on another free kick in the 71st minute, but he shot the ball over the net.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/23/thompson-lifts-rapids-to-_0_n_1027134.html

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Argentine president wins landslide re-election

Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez, center, cries as she's hugged by her son Maximo and her daughter Florencia, left, after general elections in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011. Fernandez has been re-elected by a landslide. Exit polls say Fernandez has gotten 54 to 55 percent of the votes cast in Sunday's election, the widest victory margin for any Argentine president since democracy was restored in the country three decades ago. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez, center, cries as she's hugged by her son Maximo and her daughter Florencia, left, after general elections in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011. Fernandez has been re-elected by a landslide. Exit polls say Fernandez has gotten 54 to 55 percent of the votes cast in Sunday's election, the widest victory margin for any Argentine president since democracy was restored in the country three decades ago. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez flashes a victory sign while celebrating with supporters after general elections in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011. Fernandez has been re-elected by a landslide. Exit polls say Fernandez has gotten 54 to 55 percent of the votes cast in Sunday's election, the widest victory margin for any Argentine president since democracy was restored in the country three decades ago. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

Supporters of Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez celebrate her re-election after general elections in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday Oct. 23, 2011. Fernandez has been re-elected by a landslide. Exit polls say Fernandez has gotten 54 percent to 55 percent of the votes cast in Sunday's election, the widest victory margin for any Argentine president since democracy was restored in the country three decades ago. (AP Photo/Eduardo Di Baia)

Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez speaks to supporters after general elections in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday Oct. 23, 2011. Fernandez has been re-elected by a landslide. Exit polls say Fernandez has gotten 54 to 55 percent of the votes cast in Sunday's election, the widest victory margin for any Argentine president since democracy was restored in the country three decades ago. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

Supporters of Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez celebrate her re-election after general elections in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday Oct. 23, 2011. Fernandez has been re-elected by a landslide. Exit polls say Fernandez has gotten 54 percent to 55 percent of the votes cast in Sunday's election, the widest victory margin for any Argentine president since democracy was restored in the country three decades ago. (AP Photo/Eduardo Di Baia)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) ? President Cristina Fernandez was re-elected in a landslide Sunday, winning with the widest victory margin in Argentina's history after her government spread the wealth of a booming economy.

Fernandez had 53 percent of the vote after 43 percent of the polling stations reported nationwide. Her nearest challenger got just 17 percent. Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo predicted the president's share would rise as polls reported from her party's stronghold of densely populated Buenos Aires province.

"Count on me to continue pursuing the project," Fernandez vowed in her victory speech. "All I want is to keep collaborating ... to keep Argentina growing. I want to keep changing history."

Fernandez is Latin America's first woman to be re-elected as president, but the victory was personally bittersweet ? the first without her husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner, who died of a heart attack last Oct. 27.

"This is a strange night for me," she said, describing her mix of emotions. "This man who transformed Argentina led us all and gave everything he had and more ... Without him, without his valor and courage, it would have been impossible to get to this point."

Thousands of jubilant, flag-waving people crowded into the capital's historic Plaza de Mayo to watch on a huge TV screen as she spoke from a downtown hotel, where her supporters interrupted so frequently with their chants that she lectured them as a mother would her children: "The worst that people can be is small. In history, you always must be bigger still ? more generous, more thoughtful, more thankful."

But later she, too, showed her teeth when she vowed to protect Argentina from outside threats or special interests.

"This woman isn't moved by any interest. The only thing that moves her is profound love for the country. Of that I'm responsible," Fernandez said.

Fernandez was on track to win a larger share of votes than any president since Argentina's democracy was restored in 1983, when Raul Alfonsin was elected with 52 percent. Her margin over Gov. Hermes Binner and five other candidates was wider even than the 1973 victory margin of her strongman hero, Juan Domingo Peron.

Her political coalition also hoped to regain enough seats in Congress to form new alliances and regain the control it lost in 2009. At play were 130 seats in the lower house and 24 in the Senate.

Fernandez suffered high negative ratings early in her presidency, but she soared in popularity as a widow by softening her usually combative tone and proving her ability to command loyalty or respect from an unruly political elite.

Most voters polled beforehand said they wanted government stability to keep their financial situations improving in what has been one of Argentina's longest spells of economic growth in history.

Fernandez, 58, chose her youthful, guitar-playing, long-haired economy minister, Amado Boudou, as her running mate. Together, the pair championed Argentina's approach to the global financial crisis: nationalize private pensions and use central bank reserves to increase government spending rather than impose austerity measures, and force investors in foreign debt to suffer before ordinary citizens.

Argentina's world-record debt default in 2001 closed off most international lending, but it has kept the country booming ever since, with its economy expanding at twice the rate of Brazil's, economist Mark Weisbrot said.

The country faces tough challenges in 2012: Its commodities exports are vulnerable to a global recession, and economic growth is forecast to slow sharply in the coming year. Declining revenues will make it harder to raise incomes to keep up with inflation. Argentina's central bank is under pressure to spend reserves to maintain the peso's value against the dollar, while also guarding against currency shocks that could threaten Argentina's all-important trade with Brazil.

Boudou could now win attention as a potential successor to Fernandez, but navigating these storms will require much skill and good fortune.

Opposition candidates blamed Fernandez for rising inflation and increasing crime and accused her of politically manipulating economic data and trying to use government power to quell media criticism.

Former President Eduardo Duhalde, who fell from front-running rival to near-last in the polls, said in a dour closing speech that "the country is dancing on the Titanic," failing to prepare Argentina for another global economic crisis.

But Weisbrot said Argentina is in far better shape than most countries in the region to face such problems.

U.S. President Barack "Obama could take a lesson from this," said Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. "It's an old-fashioned message of democracy: You deliver what you promise and people vote for you. It's kind of forgotten here in the U.S."

Binner, 68, a doctor and governor of Santa Fe province was followed by Ricardo Alfonsin, 59, a lawyer and congressional deputy with the traditional Radical Civic Union party and son of the former president, with 12 percent; Alberto Rodriguez Saa, 52, an attorney and governor of San Luis province whose brother Adolfo was president for a week, with 8 percent; and Duhalde, who preceded Kirchner as president, with 6 percent. Leftist former lawmaker Jorge Altamira, 69, and Elisa Carrio 54, a congresswoman who came in second behind Fernandez four years ago, had 2 percent.

When Fernandez is inaugurated Dec. 10, her Front for Victory coalition will become the first political bloc to begin a third consecutive presidential term since 1928, when President Hipolito Yrigoyen of the Radical Civic Union took office, only to be toppled by a military coup two years later, said Leandro Morganfield, a historian at the University of Buenos Aires.

Voting is obligatory in Argentina, and 77 percent of the nearly 29 million registered voters cast ballots in the country of 40 million.

"I've been a political activist my whole life, but I haven't always been able to vote," Fernandez said when she cast her ballot, referring to the 1966-1973 and 1976-1983 dictatorships, which tried and failed to eliminate Peronism as an electoral force. "To be able to vote freely in the Argentine republic is an achievement."

___

Michael Warren can be reached at www.twitter.com/mwarrenap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-10-23-LT-Argentina-Election/id-e5dd81de6e7845b3a9876c15924e6502

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Reverend Nicholas Stuart Richards: Outside the Walls

Joshua 6:1-2: Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. Then the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.

At Occupy Wall Street I saw two men. Each there for different reasons, having different desires, from different backgrounds. Yet they shared a common trait: a deep frustration with what America has become. This ancient story of Jericho finds new life in these two men I met at the Wall.

The first protestor carries a large square signed around his neck. In large block letters, the sign announces a hunger strike. I ask him why, he responds: "Before I join the larger protest, I must first purify myself." This struck me. Many think the Wall Street protesters are foolish, irrational and unorganized. But this man was serious. He understood that protest is an honest and personal commitment to revolution. While everyone else was loud and moving about, he stood in place, preparing himself for change. Before Israel marched around Jericho's walls, everyone was told to examine themselves, to ensure their commitment to the struggle. Jericho was supposed to win, the wall wasn't supposed to fall, so every protestor around that ancient wall needed to take this battle seriously. The protestors must take Wall Street seriously. Wall Street is supposed to win. Wall Street will not fall easily. Therefore, each protestor must take personal inventory, making sure they can commit to -- and be ready for -- change.

Too often, our social movements are filled with people who are unprepared and uncommitted. America is in serious trouble; we need men and women like this protestor, who understand the individual dimensions of change. For this movement to matter, each protester must renounce and reject our present economic system. Without honest self-reflection and self-denial we are not prepared for the change we desire, and Wall Street will never come down.

A hunger strike is the ideal symbol of preparation, for it teaches us that we are not our own source; God is. America celebrates exceptionalism and individualism. These principles are inconsistent with a godly life. Throughout the bible we are invited to be like God, to follow God, not simply admire him from afar. American capitalism has 99 percent of us gazing upon the wealth of the 1 percent who live within the wall.

By recognizing that God is our source, we become dependant on God, and are now prepared for change.

I walked and met a younger man and asked him his reasons for being there. His response "I'm here for the food." I laughed only to find he was serious. He was poor and hungry. He came to Occupy Wall Street for the food! Everyone around the Jericho wall was not there for the same reason. By the time of this story, Jericho had become an amazing place to live. In fact all the rich and influential citizens maintained summer residences at Jericho when they wanted to escape the brutal Jerusalem heat. Jericho was filled with the best of everything. However, this amazing city was once a barren desert. Nothing was there. Jericho was built from scratch. Jericho was not built by the rich and influential, but by ordinary men and women. Ordinary people who worked in factories, people who paved roads, people who built houses. But one day these ordinary people found themselves unable to live within the very walls they helped to build. Like Jericho, ordinary people, built America. From nothing but barren wasteland, America has become the place to be. But now America and its amazing cities, like New York and Chicago has pushed its poor, its ordinary people to the edge, outside its' walls. Most Americans live outside the walls of the nation they helped to build. We live outside America's walls of wealth and prosperity. We live outside America's walls of employment and healthcare. We even live outside America's walls of food and shelter. "I'm here for the food," captures the root of the Occupy protest: too many Americans live outside of its walls.

Yet this man who came for food, exposes another stark reality of America. It is best captured in the words of Jesus "many have ears but do not hear, and eyes but do not see." While the majority of Americans live outside of its walls, we are unconscious of what this protest means. Even worse, some of us will miss the revolution all together. The great trick of modernity is to make us consumed with ourselves. A movement is happening all around us. People are Occupying Wall Street, Boston, Chicago, and cities around the country and the world. But many of us are too self-obsessed to pay attention. Our problems and burdens blind us to everything else. This man who came for food had no other concern but himself. Because no one in his country had concern for him. How many hungry men and women do we pass every day? Unconcerned! America is not concerned with poverty. A hungry man is protesting for food, while being surrounded by the walls of excessive wealth and greed. America thrives in poverty, with banks posting profits and paying bonuses. Because the vast majority of us are simply trying to eat, thinking about ourselves. But this moment demands the attention of the poor, working and middle-class, for it offers us more than daily bread, this protest offers us a real opportunity to reverse the spiral turn of our nation.

For six days, Israel was told to march around Jericho's walls and to say nothing to no one. While they marched, people called them foolish, unorganized and troublemakers; but they kept on marching. God's promises often contradict reality, and require that we look like fools to those who have no faith. Yet this scripture is clear: God cares for those who Jericho, and America has rejected.

These two men did in part, what another man at the wall, did in whole. Jesus is at the wall. Jesus prepared himself for his ultimate revolution. Jesus purified himself, in fact, Jesus emptied himself of everything. Jesus emptied himself of privilege and power, he took off heavenly clothes and took upon the likeness of a servant. That not being enough, he purified himself even more, by emptying his blood." There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel veins... " Jesus gave himself you and for me. Jesus is concerned with you and me. And Jesus stands with all men and women who been pushed outside the wall.

?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/reverend-nicholas-stuart-richards/occupy-wall-street-religion_b_1026923.html

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PhotoBlog: Rescue workers find survivors in collapsed buildings

Reuters

A rescue worker carries a boy to an ambulance after his team found him alive in a collapsed building in Ercis, Turkey, Oct.24, 2011.

Tolga Bozoglu / EPA

Rescue workers carry a wounded man from a collapsed building after a powerful earthquake rocked eastern Turkey, in the city of Ercis, Turkey, Oct. 24.

Reuters

A rescue worker carrying a girl runs to an ambulance after his team found her alive in a collapsed building in Ercis, Oct. 24.

Umit Bektas / Reuters

A man searches for his relatives in a collapsed building after an earthquake in Ercis, Turkey, early Octo. 24. Rescue teams worked through the night to try to free survivors crying for help from under rubble.

Phaedra Singelis writes

Today hope is alive in Ercis as survivors are pulled from underneath collapsed buildings, though they expect the death toll to be in the hundreds.

Full story.

Updated 9:01am ET: New story of survival, 'Fiance saves woman from beneath quake's rubble'

Source: http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/24/8463880-rescued-survivors-pulled-from-earthquake-rubble-in-turkey

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Lern2Play

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