Tweens Influencing Online Gaming

Cited: Reuters

The landscape of online games is a booming market that is being changed by tweens.  Tweens are the audience of boys and girls aged 8-11 that have game publishers launching new games like Disney Online’s “World Of Cars Online” And Sony Online Entertainment “Star Wars: Clone Wars adventures.”

As these tweens grow older, they are also fueling the success of established online games like Blizzard Entertainment’s “World of Warcraft” and Zynga’s “Farmville.”

In 2007, when children’s marketing research firm KidSay asked boys what virtual worlds or online games they had visited in the past two weeks, 35% of boys aged 8 to 11 replied “none.”

But a new M2 Research Report, “Kids and Games: What Boys and Girls Are Playing,” found 91% of boys and 93% of girls aged 8-11 are playing games online on a regular basis.

“The number of families with broadband Internet access has increased substantially in the past several years and this has greatly helped make online gaming accessible to a younger audience,” said Wanda Meloni, founder of M2 Research.

Over the past few years, video game publishers like Sony Online Entertainment, Electronic Arts and Disney Online have focused on creating new free-to-play gaming experiences like “Free Realms,” “Monopoly Online” and “Pirates of the Caribbean Online” to a growing audience of young, connected kids.

It seems the strategy is paying off.

Sony Online Entertainment has attracted over 12 million “Free Realms” players in North America and Europe in its first 16 months and plans on expanding the game to China.

According to John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, 46% of “Free Realms” players are under the age of 13 and 75% of them are under the age of 17.

FAMILY PLAY

“We went out of our way to make sure kids were in a safe online environment, so that’s why we’re getting such a strong amount of kids registering,” said Smedley.

“And we’re finding that many of our older players now play this game with their kids.”

“World of Cars Online,” which just launched on Disney.com, is the latest free-to-play game from Disney Online Studios. The company has had success in this category with games like “Club Penguin” and “Disney Fairies Pixie Hollow.”

M2 research has shown that children gravitate to games that have strong brands like Disney’s and are marketed on television. Meloni said with the right marketing, these games will be on a fast track to success, as long as the gameplay remains engaging.

“‘Cars’ fans will be able to experience the characters and story lines they love in an entirely new medium,” said John Lasseter, chief creative officer of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios.

“The ‘World of Cars Online’ gives players the ability to create and customize their own car characters and worlds in a fun and imaginative way, just as we are working on expanding that same world with our upcoming feature ‘Cars 2.’”

Michael Pachter, video game analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities, believes “World of Cars Online” will ultimately attract 3 to 5 million consumers and open the door for in-game micro-transactions for virtual items for gamers.

Meloni said that while tweens tend to play age-appropriate games online such as Disney’s “Club Penguin” and SOE’s “Free Realms,” as they move into their teens (12-15) they start to move away from these games.

Meloni also stated, “In particular, we are starting to see more references of ‘World of Warcraft’ and Xbox Live showing up on the ‘preferred games lists’ for boys, and Facebook games showing up for girls.”

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My Take: Kids are into too much gaming!  It wouldn’t be so bad if a game they were playing for educational.  Every time you turn around one of the PSP repair because they took it outside.  Either that or they got mad when the game beat them and now they need Playstation repair.  Whatever happened to the old-fashioned working?  Are they even still around?

It’s bad enough when kids use their parents’ computer to play games online and caused their parents to out search out data recovery solutions.  I guess their parents should be thankful that they don’t need hard drive recovery services.  Hopefully, these game publishers have good international software test programs to make sure nothing happens to people computers.  Although, most software publishers to perform various software test to make sure that the programs run correctly.

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Texas AG Investigates Google Rankings

Cited: Reuters

The Texas Attorney General’s office has targeted global in an investigation on the period of search engine rankings according to Google on September 3.  The world No. 1 search engine company said the probe is the first by a U.S. legal authority into the fairness of its rankings, which can make or break commercial websites.

Google faces a similar probe by the European Commission, prompted by complaints from some small websites that felt they were unfairly hurt by low Google search rankings.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has asked for information about complaints from a number of companies, Google said on its website. Google specifically mentioned websites operated by Foundem, TradeComet and myTriggers as challenging its results, saying they competed with the search giant.

A spokeswoman for the Texas Attorney General confirmed the probe, but would give no further details. Google said it looks forward to answering questions from the Texas attorney general.

“We recognize that as Google grows, we’re going to face more questions about how our business works,” Deputy General Counsel Don Harrison said in a blog post. Harrison was not available for further comment.

In its statement on Friday, Google pointed out that two of the companies are represented by attorneys who also work for Microsoft Corp, which has publicly encouraged companies to challenge Google’s business practices. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

TradeComet CEO Dan Savage said in an email that Google is trying to “distract from its own antitrust problems by pointing to others and their lawyers.”

A myTriggers spokesperson added that its concern “is just the harm to myTriggers done by Google’s anti-competitive conduct and bullying tactics.”

Foundem did not respond to a request for comment.

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PRIVACY SUIT SETTLED

Separately, Google has settled a federal lawsuit accusing it of privacy violations in connection with its Buzz social networking service, according to a court document filed on Friday.

To settle the lawsuit brought by a Gmail user, Google will set aside $8.5 million for attorneys fees and donations to organizations focused on Internet privacy, according to the court filing.

In addition, “the settlement requires that Google undertake wider public education about the privacy aspects of Buzz,” the filing said.

Launched in February, Buzz initially used an individual’s email contacts from Google Gmail to build a social network of contacts that the rest of the world could see, which led to privacy concerns. Google then changed the settings so that contacts were kept private by default.

According to Associate General Counsel Michael Yang, that the settlement filing comes as Google simplifies and updates its privacy policies.  If you would like to read more on the policies click here.

If you would like to read more on this case, the case is: In Re Google Buzz User Privacy Litigation, case #10-cv-00672, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, San Francisco.

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My Take: It just seems a little strange that such a big company like Google would not have made their privacy issues better than they were.  That seems tantamount to air cargo not being put through metal detectors when shift from an overseas location.  I mean, air cargo screeners check every piece a cargo plane carrying.  Why couldn’t Google do a better job?

Google is the leading search engine on the Internet right now and people expect better of them.  If they were the top web hosting service, their reviews would not be very good right now.  In fact, I don’t think they would get very many dedicated hosting reviews at all.

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Food Safety Bill Fueled by Salmonella Crisis

Cited: USA Today

According to federal officials, congressional supporters and independent experts, efforts to pass a long-stalled safety-bill that could prevent or mitigate such problems as the salmonella in eggs that swept through the country recently.

The bill, designed to overhaul a fractured food-safety system that hasn’t been updated in decades, would expand federal regulators’ powers to police food manufacturers. The House passed a version in 2009, but the legislation has stalled in the Senate, despite bipartisan support.

Among other things, the legislation would require more frequent government inspections of food manufacturing facilities and the creation of stronger mechanisms for tracing food-borne illness outbreaks back to their source. The bill also would give the Food and Drug Administration authority to order recalls of food that may be tainted with salmonella, E. coli O157:H7 and other contaminants.

“The pending legislation is absolutely critical,” Jeff Farrar, associate FDA commissioner for food protection, said in a call with reporters. “There are just numerous important measures in that bill that will give us new authorities and resources.”

About 550 million eggs have been recalled in the salmonella outbreak, which federal investigators have linked to two Iowa production facilities: Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tied as many as 1,300 illnesses to the outbreak. Officials say there could be as many as 30 unreported illnesses for each documented case.

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The outbreak comes amid a push by the Obama administration to toughen food-safety rules.

Last month, the administration enacted sweeping requirements on major egg producers with a goal of cutting egg-related salmonella cases by 60%, or nearly 80,000 cases a year. Among other things, the rules require salmonella testing of hens and eggs, better sanitation in henhouses and improved refrigeration. The FDA is beginning a ramped-up inspection program to ensure compliance.

The success of the rules depends on Congress passing the food-safety bill, which would mark the first major update of food-safety laws in 70 years.

The legislation would affect both the FDA, which supervises most food manufacturers, and the Agriculture Department, which oversees beef and poultry production.

Outside experts say the current salmonella crisis will prompt the Senate to take up the bill. “This outbreak creates an enormous public expectation that the Senate is going to react,” says Erik Olson, a food-safety expert at the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Among the key provisions:

  • Inspections. The legislation would set mandatory inspection rates for food production facilities. Currently, FDA-regulated facilities can go a decade or more without inspection.
  • Recalls. Regulators would get the power to order recalls of suspect products. Recalls now are voluntary; federal regulators can spend days negotiating them with manufacturers.
  • Enforcement. Government inspectors would get new powers to suspend or shut down plants with poor safety records.
  • Disease surveillance. Federal agencies would strengthen programs meant to identify and track food-borne illnesses and new rules would help trace the foods that cause those outbreaks.

Earlier this month, a modified version of the legislation was proposed by Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., chairman and ranking minority member, respectively, of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

“Both sides agree on the need to improve … regulatory tools,” Enzi said on August 24. The outbreak of salmonella in eggs “adds to the urgency,” Harkin said earlier this month.  He also expressed hope that “as soon as possible” the bill will get a vote by the full Senate.

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My Take: This just goes to show how naïve we all really are.  I think I am not the only one who thought that the FDA and inspection officials were already doing what this bill is all about.  I wonder, would the Riverside County lemon law come into play here?  If it does, Los Angeles lemon law attorneys are going to have a field day!

If lemon law doesn’t come into play, then LA injury attorneys will get to have fun.  A LA personal injury attorney would know exactly who to sue and for how much!  I know one thing is for sure, the guys in charge of those egg companies are going to be looking for a new job.  I doubt that they will find any CEO jobs after this.  They will have to give in line with the rest of the job seekers.

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Michael Douglas and Throat Cancer Part 2

Cited: ABC News

Continued from “Michael Douglas and Throat Cancer Part 1”

Throat cancers are hard to diagnose early because the symptoms are “not specific,’ according to Agrawal.  “We all get sore throats and take antibiotics and there is some improvement. Patients ignore the symptoms and by the time it has developed in the lymph nodes its stage three or four. That’s when most are diagnosed.”

“In general, oropharyngeal cancer is usually involved at the base of the tongue and the tonsils and can be associated with HPV, and even at stage four can have an 80% cure rate,” he said.

The human papilloma virus, or HPV, is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States.

Recent studies have found connections between HPV and cancers of the mouth and throat, and recently with lung cancer. Other HPV-related cancers include vulva, vaginal, penile and anal.

HPV has long been known to result in cancers of the sex organs, particularly the cervix. Doctors say men are more prone to throat cancer after kissing or oral sex with an infected partner.

According to a National Institutes of Health website, use of tobacco or alcohol is among the factors that put people at risk of developing throat cancer. Combining tobacco and drinking increases the risk.

‘Percentages Are Good,’ Douglas Says

Douglas, 65, who has two children with Catherine Zeta-Jones, said he enjoyed the summer traveling with his family before returning to the doctor.

“The percentages are very good,” he told Letterman, referring to survival rates. “I would hate to say, but right now, it looks like it should be 80 percent, and with certain hospitals and everything, it does improve.”

A biopsy found he had late, stage-four cancer, “which is intense, and so they’ve had to go at it,” he said.

Stage four means that there is lymph node involvement in the cancer. Unlike a breast cancer that has metastasized, throat cancer at this stage is not as widespread.

Cullen said that doctors likely did not operate because chemotherapy and radiation “work very well” with throat cancers. Removing a tumor at the base of the tongue could lead to speech and swallowing problems.

Others who have been diagnosed with throat cancer are writer Christopher Hitchens, who was diagnosed this summer, former Texas Gov. Ann Richards and the late actor Ron Silver.

Throat Cancer Facts

Throat cancer forms in the tissues of the pharynx, the hollow tube inside the neck that starts behind the nose and ends at the top of the windpipe and esophagus. It can include cancer of the nasopharynx (the upper part of the throat behind the nose), the oropharynx (the middle part of the pharynx), and the hypopharynx (the bottom part of the pharynx). Cancer of the larynx (voice box) may also be included as a type of throat cancer.

Most throat cancers are squamous cell carcinomas.

According to the National Cancer Institute, there were 12,720 new cases of laryngeal and 12,660 of pharyngeal in 2010. The estimated annual deaths are 3,600 and 2,410, respectively.

Head and neck cancers account for approximately 3% to 5% of all cancers in the United States. These cancers are more common in men and in people over age 50.

Risk factors include tobacco and alcohol use: 85% of all head and neck cancers are related to smoking and that risk increases with alcohol use.

Some reports have found that people who smoke and drink are up to 100 times more likely to get head and neck cancer than are people with neither habit.

Other risk factors are the human papilloma virus, a group of about 100 different viruses. The 16 and 18 are associated with throat cancer.

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My Take: I think Michael Douglas is great after.  In fact, I think he is a better actor than his father, Kirk Douglas.  I love to Kirk Douglas was movies and they were Spartacus and The War Wagon.  Michael has been in so many movies that I like that I cannot list them here that I don’t have enough room.  If I had to choose a favorite of Michael it would be “An American President” and that is because of what he stated near the end of the movie in the press release.

When I hear the name Michael Douglas I think of his role as the American President and when I think of his father I think of him in Greek clothing from his movie Ulysses.  Nowadays, of course, that type of clothing is usually called fraternity or sorority clothing.

I wonder if Michael’s doctor used the rabid qualitative screening test as part of his diagnostic process.  Many doctors now get discounts from various medical supply companies to get laboratory equipment in their office.  Many doctors even have the Access 2 immunoassay system in their office to run tests for patients.

On a lighter note, there is one thing Michael Douglas doesn’t seem to need and that is hair plugs!  I believe it will be a very long time before he will need to see a hair thinning specialist Arizona.  Not many men his age still have all hair.

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Goldman Sachs Ex-Programmer 1 Count Down

Cited: Reuters

A former Goldman Sachs Group computer program who has been charged with 3 felonies had one felony dismissed by a federal judge on September 3.  The charges accused the programmer of stealing right or if your code from the bank lucrative high-frequency trading platform.

The defendant, Sergey Aleynikov, won the dismissal of one count, alleging unauthorized computer access, in a three-count indictment, in a ruling by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan.

Cote rejected Aleynikov’s request to dismiss the other two counts, which concerned the alleged theft of trade secrets and transportation of stolen property in interstate commerce.

The government had alleged that on June 5, 2009, his last day working at Goldman, Aleynikov downloaded the code to an outside server and transferred it over the Internet.

Aleynikov sent code files to his personal email, a laptop and other places for storage, and on July 2 took the laptop and another storage device to his new employer, Teza Technologies LLC, a high-frequency trading start-up based in Chicago, prosecutors charged.

The FBI arrested Aleynikov a day later at Newark Liberty International Airport. Teza later suspended him. The arrest has been credited with drawing attention to the fast-growing business of high-frequency trading in U.S. stocks.

Cote said in dismissing the one count that Aleynikov could not have violated one provision of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as prosecutors said, because the government conceded he had been authorized to access the relevant source code.

Aleynikov was 40 at the time of his February indictment, and could have faced up to 25 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

“Based on our preliminary review, we are very gratified that the judge found no basis for charging Mr. Aleynikov with violating the computer fraud and abuse act,” said Kevin Marino, the defendant’s lawyer, in an interview.

Marino said he may appeal the decision to let the remaining counts stand to the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment. Goldman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Two months after Aleynikov’s indictment, prosecutors charged former Societe Generale trader Samarth Agrawal with stealing computer code used in high-frequency proprietary trading in the French bank’s New York office.

According to Ivan Fisher, Agrawal’s attorney, he was indicted in May and pleaded not guilty.  Court records show that the case is that for a November 8 trial.

If you’re interested in the case it is U.S. v. Aleynikov, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 10-cr-00096.

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My Take: Goldman Sachs in the news again!  It sounds like to me that this guy needs NYC employment lawyers.  If he is innocent should sue their ass off.  As much problems Goldman Sachs has caused this country, they deserve everything they get.

So many people have suffered because of their arrogance.  The economy can’t get any worse.  People have hired divorce lawyer or a divorce mediator because their stress level had gotten so high their marriage fell apart.  So many families have suffered because of the economy and not just financially.  A friend just had to hire child support lawyer because her husband was not paying child support and the bad thing is that neither one of them is working.

I have heard horror stories from other people who needed to hire custody lawyers because people were fighting over who gets the children instead of impeachment property.  I have even heard about employees who had quit their jobs because their bosses were sexually harassing them.  I am sorry, just because the unemployment is high even give you the right to intimidate employees.  That is what New York sexual harassment lawyers get the big bucks for

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Loss of Home Equity Cuts Deep

Cited: MSNBC

In 2004, Mike Choi purchased a three-level townhouse $183,000 in the New London Connecticut area.  As an engineer, he wasn’t worried about the real estate market at the time.  He was 24, had a good engineering job and could easily afford monthly payments on the mortgage he took out with no down payment.  But six years later, his home’s value has fallen to the low $150,000s. Choi, now 29 and with an MBA, feels restricted in his job hunting because moving elsewhere would force him to sell his home for less than he owes on it.

So he is doing what millions of Americans are doing these days: He’s getting used to living life “underwater” — the real estate industry’s term for a property worth less than the outstanding mortgage on it.

Broad swaths of homeowners who have been able to avoid the worst-case scenario of foreclosure are nonetheless grappling with the impacts of lost home equity. Living underwater presents a new set of challenges, like not being able to tap home equity to fund a child’s college tuition or having to wonder whether the cost of home improvements like a remodeled kitchen can ever be recouped.

For these owners, seemingly unscathed by the housing crisis, it’s hard to complain aloud about making such minor adjustments when so many homeowners have lost homes, gone deep into debt, or faced the moral dilemma of whether to walk away from a home worth a fraction of its purchase price. But still, most home buyers just didn’t count on falling home values when they bought.

Americans have become intimately familiar with what can happen when declining home values collide with other unforeseen circumstances like losing a job or a medical emergency: They’ve seen unprecedented foreclosures, owners walking away from mortgages, headlines about owners’ struggles to modify mortgages and a rise in short sales, where the house is sold at a loss, often leaving the seller to make up the difference to the lender.

‘It’s Good to Have a Mortgage’

“When I bought I was young and naïve and I had listened to my peers. They said ‘It’s good to have a mortgage,’” Choi says. “In one sense I have regrets, which is that this house is tying me down.”

Choi’s zero-down mortgage was structured in two parts—a loan for 20% of the home’s price carrying an 8.375% interest rate, and a loan for 80% of the purchase price carrying a more-affordable 6.125% interest rate. Once his home’s value fell, Choi couldn’t refinance his mortgage to more favorable terms because his loan to value ratio was too large. He was ineligible for government modification because he earned too much.

So Choi is renting out his two bedrooms and using the rental income to whack away at the higher-interest component of his mortgage and regain some equity. He estimates he’ll have the 20% mortgage paid off by February 2012.

“It wasn’t like I woke up one day and said, ‘Oh no! My house value dropped $30,000,’” he says. “My situation isn’t that bad. I have a good job, and I’ve kept a good credit score.”

But he acknowledges he’s had to get creative to work around what’s happened in the market. He sleeps in his basement so his renters can use the two bedrooms in the upstairs portion of his 1,500-square-foot townhome. He jokes about whether his subterranean living space might be why he’s single.

According to real estate data website Zillow, 21.5% of the nation’s single-family homes with a mortgage were underwater or had “negative equity” at the end of the second quarter 2010. Some markets (Phoenix’s 66.8%, Miami’s 44%, Minneapolis-St. Paul’s 36%) clearly are showing more stress than others. Zillow estimates 60% of all U.S. homes are mortgaged, with the rest owned outright.

While the negative equity rate is beginning to fall — it was 23.3% at the end of first quarter — Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries said the improvement may reflect homebuyer tax credits that were in effect during the first half of the year. He called the end of the credits a “large unknown,” however.

“Recent trends in home values suggest the nation could reach a bottom in the latter half of 2010,” Humphries said in a statement. “We continue to be cautious about the impact of declining home sales.”

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Life Inc.: Home price rebound? Not exactly

Others, who have been through a short sale and still have debt to repay, find themselves working overtime to work debt down. People like Elizabeth Moore, a 36-year old graphic design consultant, and her husband, a doctor.

‘We’re Not the Walk Away Types’

The couple lost money on a home they bought in 2004 and sold earlier this year in the Gulf Coast region.

They didn’t have much choice in the matter: They had moved in 2007 to South Carolina so Moore’s husband could take a better job. They wound up renting out their property at a loss for several years before deciding to sell it in the wake of several notorious hurricane seasons. They’re now paying a mortgage on their home in South Carolina while also repaying $80,000 in debt connected to losses on their former home. A financial planner advised bankruptcy, but Moore says she and her husband feel morally obliged to repay their debt.

“We’re not the walk-away types,” Moore says. “We’re the types who want to own our home and pay the mortgage and fulfill our obligations.”

The ramifications, however, have been stressful. The Moores have deferred some of their tax bills, and both Moore and her husband are working onerous hours: He’s working extra shifts, while Moore is using freelance work to get her own venture off the ground.

“We’ve just had to scramble with a lot of this stuff,” she says. “It’s been a lot of work. My husband is really tired.”

For now, there is no end in sight to this lifestyle, she says. But she is not resentful, and sees the situation as beyond their control — the sum of relocation, weather and broader economic trends.

“You get yourself into this,” she says. “And you get yourself out of it.”

American Dream Redefined

Choi also said he would own again in the future, but recent research suggests that the prolonged housing downturn and thus-far tepid recovery are eating away at Americans’ bullishness on homeownership.

A survey released by Zillow last month shows that 28% of homeowners believe real estate values in their local markets will fall over the next six months and 30% don’t believe values will rise. This indicates “increasing pessimism” about housing, the company said, pointing out that only 24% of homeowners said they thought their home had risen in value during second quarter when, in fact, 34% of homes rose in value.

Other research agrees. The percentage of adults who hold a “core belief in the inherent value of owning a home” has fallen from 77% six months ago to 72% as of July, according to a survey from San Francisco-based Trulia and Harris Interactive.

Among renters, 27% don’t ever intend to buy, while among those considering buying 68 percent intend to wait at least two years.

“The majority of Americans still think homeownership is part of the American Dream,” said Pete Flint, CEO of Trulia.

“Consumers are realizing they don’t want to get into a negative equity situation,” he says.

Flint adds that consumers also want to apply “realism” to a view of the market.  He continued to State Department realism view reflects a desire to have a large down payment before making a purchase.  In fact, many lenders now request higher down payments as well as consumers volunteering to pay for plan to pay more up front just to protect themselves from this volatile market.

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My Take: As a first time buyer with a limited income, I am opting to participate in a down payment program in Arizona to help me pay a larger down payment.  It is taken me months to save up what that program requires, $1000, plus 2 months worth of mortgage payments in the bank.  I am not purchasing a great piece of Nyack NY real estate, I am purchasing a foreclosed Arizona home.

This program also helps with refurbishing any of the foreclosed homes that may need.  Unfortunately, many people lost their Piermont homes to foreclosures.  I know that Arizona families that lost their homes got angry and stripped or destroyed much of the interiors of their homes.  I can understand their anger, but I cannot understand destroying something they worked so hard to make into a home with memories.  That just destroys the memories!

When I get my new home, actually used home, I plan on start using E-Cigarettes so that I do not have a home it smells of cigarettes and I will be getting new table linens so that might dining room will look nice.  Right now I live in a mobile home and there is much of a dining room.  But Njoy cigarettes will definitely make the home smell nicer.  And maybe some cloth napkins instead of those paper ones that always seem to fall apart.  I know, I need to quit dreaming about it before I jinx it!

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Roger Clemens Enters Not Guilty Plea

Cited: Daily News

Ex-Yankee, Clemens and 4 of his lawyers had lunch in the cafeteria of the federal courthouse prior to going to court.  They sat facing a window with a majestic view of the nearby US Capitol building.  The Rocket, Clemens’s nickname, told stories, got laughs and talked about his golf game later that day calabash New Jersey.  Even one of his lawyers got into the conversation by mimicking a batter stance.

Then the five men put on their suit jackets and their game faces and took the elevator to the sixth floor, where Clemens pleaded not guilty to six felony counts related to his testimony before Congress in February of 2008, when the seven-time Cy Young Award winner denied using steroids and human growth hormone.

“Not guilty, Your Honor,” Clemens barked, when asked to respond to the charges of perjury, false statements, and obstruction.

And so begins what could be the biggest legal showdown since the U.S. government cracked down on the culture of performance-enhancing drug use that took root in Major League Baseball’s clubhouses in the past several decades. The feds have spent 2-1/2 years building a case against Clemens, whose denials of steroid use have been public, aggressive and unwavering.

About 100 onlookers attended the 15-minute arraignment before U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton in the E. Barrett Prettyman courthouse’s largest courtroom. The 48-year-old pitcher, looking tanned and fit, wore a black jacket and khaki pants. Behind closed doors in the hours before the arraignment, his mug shot and fingerprints were taken.

Within hours of the hearing, Clemens was on a golf course in Calabash, in the Myrtle Beach area, scrambling to tee off in time to stay competitive in the Golf.com World Amateur Handicap Championship.

Because of the gag order Walton imposed last week, neither Clemens, his attorneys, nor the prosecutors spoke to the army of media members that attended the appearance and followed Clemens from the courtroom to a waiting SUV.

But revealing hints about the government’s case surfaced during the short hearing – particularly the mention of “voluminous” scientific evidence the government collected in its long investigation into Clemens.

“There is a good deal of scientific evidence that needs to be tested,” Clemens’ attorney, Rusty Hardin, told Walton. That was most likely a reference to analysis of medical waste that Clemens’ former trainer, Brian McNamee, turned over to the government, saying he saved it after injecting Clemens with banned drugs.

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Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dan Butler and Steven Durham, who oversaw a 15-month grand jury probe into Clemens’ statements, represented the government at the hearing, along with FBI agent John Longmire, who interviewed dozens of witnesses in the case.

Durham said in the courtroom that the prosecution handed over to Clemens’ attorneys a 34-page “master index” and 12 computer discs of evidence prior to the hearing, including all of the testimony of witnesses who appeared before the grand jury. Also being turned over to the defense are memoranda of the FBI’s interviews with potential witnesses.

That all means Clemens will have access to confidential testimony of former major leaguers Jose Canseco, Jason Grimsley and David Segui; Texas gym owner Kelly Blair; Wall Street investment manager Anthony Corso, and others. Among those the FBI interviewed was Clemens’ former mistress, country singer Mindy McCready.

The indictment against Clemens, issued Aug. 19, lists one count of obstruction of Congress, three counts of making false statements and two counts of perjury. If convicted, Clemens could be the first baseball star to face prison time for his role in the steroid era, particularly since the government’s perjury case against Barry Bonds has been hampered by the refusal of Bonds’ trainer, Greg Anderson, to testify.

Even if the army of attorneys Clemens is paying can save his skin, the jury trial he has now demanded will almost certainly turn his life upside down, as former associates – including his Houston friend Andy Pettitte – are drawn in to testify. Pettitte largely supported McNamee’s testimony.

The next activity in the case is a Dec. 8 status hearing for which Clemens won’t need to be present, followed by a motion hearing on March 28. Jury selection is set for April 5, with a trial immediately following that, although it’s likely that the case will be slowed significantly by various motions and challenges. Bonds’ trial is scheduled for March 21 in San Francisco.

Judge Walton has denied prosecution’s request for comments to surrender his passport, which means Clemens is a free man in the meantime.  However, the judge did order Clemens to contact the court every 2 weeks by phone to check on his movements.

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My Take: We are always hearing about one sports figure or another been arrested.  Some need in Ottawa DUI lawyer others just need an Austin divorce attorney.  But this guy, if he is innocent, is being made an example of by the legal system.  If he is actually guilty, he should have known better than to lie to Congress.  I hope he has a good criminal lawyer.

If I had a son that was into sports, I would definitely discourage him from going pro.  There are too many sports figures today that neither Brockville drinking and driving lawyer and then they end up needing an Austin divorce law attorney or worse.  The only good thing about it is they can afford the cost.

What is worse, these famous sports figures end up with their name wall decals all over kids’ bedroom walls.  It is bad enough that kids have to survive in school with drugs and crime all around them, they do not need the same thing coming at them from one of their idols and their wall decals.

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Michael Douglas and Throat Cancer Part 1

Cited: ABC News

Michael Douglas remained positive about his prognosis throat cancer.  This can be a devastating illness, which is hard to diagnose, treat and hard on the body because of the possibility of losing the voice and even the inability to eat.

Last night on David Letterman’s “Late Show,” the actor said his doctors told him he has an 80 percent survival rate from a stage four cancer.

“He is being treated at Manhattan’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center,” the actor’s press representative Allen Burry told ABCNews.com. “The tumor is at the base of his tongue and his doctor’s prognosis is for a full recovery.”

Doctors say that the optimistic prognosis is rare in throat cancer, which, if it is associated with smoking and drinking, as the actor suggested, is usually around 60%, but only if caught in earlier stages.

“Mr. Douglas is very curable,” said Dr. Kevin Cullen, director of the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center and a medical oncologist who specializes in head and neck cancer.

The actor said he had just finished his first week of radiation and chemotherapy after doctors had diagnosed stage four cancer, which Douglas called “very intense.” The actor said he had been diagnosed three weeks ago with cancer above the neck, although the first symptoms of a sore throat appeared earlier this year.

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The Road Ahead for Michael Douglas

“Typically cancers of the tongue we treat with chemotherapy and radiation. The two are given at the same time,” according to Cullen, who said the actor would not likely lose his voice.

Douglas will have eight weeks of daily outpatient radiation treatment and a couple of rounds of chemotherapy along with it.

“Together, it has proven to give a good chance for a cure for the disease,” said Cullen. “But it is important to know if it is HPV-related, because those are the cancers that respond well to chemotherapy and radiation and have an excellent prognosis. The ones associated with smoking and drinking respond well, but not as well.”

Survival rates for smoking and drinking-related throat cancers are around 50 to 60 percent and “the numbers go down from there,” according to Cullen.

Those for HPV-related cancers are “higher than 80 percent,” he said.

Douglas has said that he has a “walnut-sized” tumor at the base of his tongue.

Treatment Causes Sore Throat and Swallowing Difficulties

Treatment is “manageable,” Cullen said. “People get a sore throat and difficulty swallowing and they can also have irritation of the skin and throat from the radiation. But those things get better rapidly after treatment. Over a few months, he would hope to be eating normal food and after six months or more, we usually see someone who looks they never had an illness.”

Doctors will determine when Douglas is “out of the woods” after two or three years, according to Cullen.

Three months after treatment, the patient is evaluated to see if the disease is gone. There is a small risk of getting a second primary cancer “down the road,” he said.

Still, the doctors we spoke to for this story all said that since they haven’t seen the patient, they would need more information to speculate on Douglas’s prognosis.

“I actually read about this in the news and it’s hard for me to know where his cancer is exactly,” said Dr. Nishant Agrawal, an otolaryngologist and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Douglas has said he visited doctors for months trying to determine the reason for his sore throat.

The worst survival rate is in the hypopharynx, which is a part of the throat area that is involved in the upper digestive tract. There are also three different subsites in the larynx.

Continued in “Michael Douglas and Throat Cancer Part 2”

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My Take: I hope you are able to survive cancer.  I do not care who you are, or what type of cancer you have, cancer is devastating to everyone in the family.  One thing is sure, he can afford Monmouth County NJ visiting physicians.  Michael Douglas is a very good actor.  In fact, I think he is actually better actor than his father.

I hope that the cancer does not spread either; he will need a California rhinoplasty surgeon if it does.  I had a friend who had throat cancer that spread to the nasal cavity and it was not pretty.  Believe it or not, his surgeon was not well known Alameda CA botox doctor.  Always thought that was kind of funny.  But many plastic surgeons do several types of plastic surgery.  If Michael Douglas has NJ home health care providers, they will be able to spot the signs quickly.  And I definitely hope he will not need a Brooklyn medical malpractice lawyer.  That would definitely not be a good sign!

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Is TN Islamic Center Fire Arson?

Cited: ABC News

On August 28, in the early morning hours of Saturday and the construction site of a new Islamic Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee caught fire.  The fire is now being investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  The fire has not yet been ruled as arson according to officials.  Investigators are “in the process of an arson investigation,” according to Eric Kehn of Nashville ATF.

“It is absolutely heartbreaking,” Camie Ayash, spokeswoman for the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro told ABC affiliate WKRN News 2 in Nashville. “This has absolutely set fear throughout our community.”

The older members of the congregation were very affected by this,” she added. “We had a man say this morning ‘God forbid someone come and try to attack me.’”

“It’s Ramadan. We try to come together as a community in the evenings to break our fast together. Our attendance level has been very low because people are scared to leave their homes.”

Police and the fire department in the Nashville suburb responded to a call at the site at approximately 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning and extinguished the fire. One construction vehicle was significantly damaged, while several others were doused with an accelerant but not set ablaze. It is suspected that a passerby scared off the suspects.

“There had been a lot of controversy about the building,” said Andy Anderson, special agent for the BATF in Alabama and Tennessee. “There had been a lot of protests and a lot of people that had been raising flags. I’m unaware of any specific types of threats other than just some outrage in the community and flags and protesters and things like that.”

“Besides being a hate crime it’s such a terrible reflection on what I personally believe is the true feeling of the community,” said John Green, an attorney who represents the center. “And that’s one of diversity and openness.”

But this is not the first time that the Islamic Center has been attacked. Twice previously vandals have targeted the signs put up by the Islamic Center, and the Center has been receiving threatening phone calls and e-mails.

ATF agents have yet to label the incident a hate crime; however, they have stated that it is entirely possible that they will do so once they have gathered all evidence in the case.

The attack comes at a time when the country is deeply divided over the construction of an Islamic Center in lower Manhattan near Ground Zero, and just four days after a New York cab driver was stabbed for allegedly for stating that he is a Muslim.

Authorities will meet with Muslim community leaders in Murfreesboro this Monday — though the meeting had been planned before the crime took place on Saturday.

The new center will be a 52,000-sq. ft. facility that will include a pool, gym, and school, in addition to a mosque. There has been a center in Murfreesboro for years, but more space to needed to accommodate the growing community of over 250 families.

Ayash said the mosque will increase security at the construction site, and Rutherford County sheriff’s deputies have already increased their patrols of the area.

“We wanted to ensure not just the Muslim community but all the communities that we take these types of crimes seriously, and we will do all we can to make sure that the public safety is taken care of,” Anderson said.

If you have any information about this file, the ATF is asking that you come forward or call 1-888-ATF-FIRE or 1-888-289-9473.

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My Take: I just cannot understand people anymore in this country.  This country was founded by people who were suffering from religious persecution.  And here we are, 200 years later, doing the same thing to other people.  That is almost like having California private security services to guard tree, just a little bit ridiculous don’t you think.

Maybe the mosque should have had CA private security services to guard their church.  Now they have no place to worship.  Hopefully when they build their new mosque they will need to wear flame resistant clothing to worship.  Then again, in the winter in Tennessee they may need Carhartt jackets, which can be flame resistant.

Hopefully, they will catch the ones who caused the fire quickly.  They will definitely need a good criminal defense attorney or Philadelphia County criminal lawyer.  If they happen to be kids, they will need a juvenile defense attorney.  I hope they are not kids.  I think that would be the worst thing wall if they were kids.  It seems that in our society today kids are more in need of a drug attorney Philadelphia than anything else.

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Arizona Family Turns Swimming Pool into Garden

Cited: ABC News

Dennis McClung doesn’t practice his backstroke or cool off from the hot Arizona is backyard pool.  He tends to a subterranean garden that is chock full of vegetables, fish and chickens.  This is become his family’s primary source of food.

That’s right. Instead of spending thousands of dollars fixing up the crumbling swimming pool in their backyard or filling it up with dirt, the McClung family turned the potentially dangerous, run-down pool into their own mini-farm in the desert.

McClung, 30, said that when he and his wife Danielle first saw their Mesa, Arizona house in 2009, they knew it would be perfect for their young family. It was a corner property catty corner to the elementary school his children would attend, he said. There was just one problem: the backyard pool.

“We loved everything about it except for the pool. We didn’t really feel the need to have a 9-foot-deep pool with a 2 and 4-year-old,” he said. “Drownings are huge here… so basically we had a problem.”

The realtor said they’d have to fill the pool with water or dirt, but McClung said he devised a third option: to create a “garden pool” that could generate enough food to help his family reach its goal of self-sufficiency.

When the McClungs first purchased their house, they were told that they would have to repair the run-down swimming pool or fill it up with dirt.

Garden Helps Family Save on Groceries

“I came up with the idea and it looked good on paper and two days after we closed on the house it was done,” he said.

That was October 2009. Now, less than a year after the family moved in, McClung said the garden produces eight eggs a day, unlimited fish, organic fruits, vegetables and herbs. He said the garden has cut the family’s grocery bill by at least 75 percent.

To make the garden pool, the McClungs first used a plastic frame to cover the 16 x 30 foot pool with a tarp. Then they turned half of the pool into a tilapia pond and the other half into a vegetable garden.

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Garden Pool Relies on Symbiosis

McClung said they chose tilapia because they’re perfect for Arizona’s hot climate and they “reproduce like crazy.”

Every four to six months, the female talapia lay more than a thousand eggs that are ready for harvest in about nine months, he said. They’re so prolific that he added a turtle and catfish to the pond for population control. Lemon trees and banana trees float in the water and berries and grapes grow above the water level.

Ten feet over the tilapia pond, the McClungs suspended a chicken coop with a wire bottom so that the chicken waste falls into the pond.

He said the idea to suspend the chicken coop came with the realization that starting a tilapia pool requires chicken waste to grow the algae.

“Everything we have in our garden pool has a symbiotic relationship,” he said. “Everything feeds each other.”

Tilapia Pond Helps Water Plants

In addition to the relationship between the chicken coop and the pond, he said the water from the pond is diverted to both cool and aerate the greenhouse and to water the plants.

Many of the fruits and vegetables in the garden pool grow in water. Photo credit: Dennis McClung

McClung said his wife grew up on a farm in rural Ohio. But most of the knowledge to create the garden came from Internet research and about a decade at his job at Home Depot, where he helped other families bring their ideas to life.

When he and his wife bought their home, McClung, who now works as a Web designer, said his own turn had arrived.

“It was kind of like, I finally have my own house after working at Home Depot forever and I can’t wait to fix it,” he said. “I was very gung ho.”

Tourists Visit the Garden Pool to Learn About Sustainability

Even the McClungs’ 4-year-old son enjoys working in the garden.

“He really loved when we first started picking vegetables. He thought it was the most amazing thing,” McClung said. “He’s really in awe. I think he appreciates food more.”

The family works together in the garden every day of the week and they’ve even become something of a local attraction.

Tour groups of 10 to 40 people visit the McClung home regularly to learn about their organic garden and pay a suggested donation of $5 a person. A local sustainable gardening group recently made the garden pool the star destination on its tour of sustainable Arizona homes, McClung said.

“Our family made it a goal to be as self-sufficient as we can by 2012. This was just another step for us,” he said. “We wanted to share what we have. If people take a couple of concepts and practice them that’s great.”

The McClung’s have reached their goal of self efficiency by growing fruits and vegetables in their garden pool.

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My Take: I think that is absolutely fantastic!  This would be an excellent idea for realtors who are selling Arizona real estate.  Our realtor could even make it a point when they have Arizona new homes for sale.  Of course, the idea might be a little hard sell for new home, but it is still great idea.   I wonder if you could also do the same thing with Colorado basement remodeling.  I suppose so, but Denver basement finishing would have to take into consideration the extreme winter temperatures were to work properly.

There is one thing I definitely would have if I turned a pool into a garden and that would be family protection dogs.  And that is because, depending on the area you live in, homeless people would sneak in at night and steal your vegetables and fruits.  Personal protection dogs will be able to warn you of anybody coming in your yard.

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