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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Defense Executives Willing To Accept Budget Cuts, Higher Taxes

AOL Defense:

Top executives from four major defense and aerospace firms sent a message to Congress and the Obama administration today: the nation expects its elected leaders to lead and the well-paid executives are willing to accept higher personal and corporate taxes on the path to find a solution to the nation's fiscal woes.

Read the whole story at AOL Defense

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/03/defense-executives-fiscal-cliff_n_2234368.html

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Monday, December 3, 2012

HOME GARDENING with PRACTICAL TACTICAL ? PRACTICAL ...

There are many angles to consider along your journey to becoming truly prepared and more self-reliant, and home gardening is certainly a staple of our preparedness plan. You don?t have to be a full time farmer with hundreds of acres to be an accomplished gardener and you don?t have to make a living playing in the dirt to make gardening worth your while. Although we grew up ?country? and were around family gardens as children, we had gotten away from vegetable gardening as adults. We made the choice to get back into home gardening a couple of years ago and are very happy that we did. Our garden plot and our crop yields just get larger and larger each year, but they pale in comparison to the amount of joy and fulfillment we get from our efforts. We have found that the quality time spent working together in the garden has been more rewarding than we could have ever imagined.

Recently UnderCurrent Atlanta, a small production company here in our area, came out and did a feature on me and Alice and our home gardening experiences. We are very thankful for their interest and for the opportunity to spread the word about an activity that we find to be an absolutely worthwhile endeavor. We think it turned out pretty good and we are thrilled to be able to share it with you here.

There are numerous facets to gardening at home like simply getting started, tending to your garden, harvesting, canning, preserving and on and on. Much like tackling personal preparedness starting a garden can seem overwhelming at first, but rest assured that you can do it. Here at Practical Tactical, we want to assist you in any way we can, so please reach out to us with any questions you may have.

Whether rounding out your preparedness plan or just looking for a rewarding hobby, we hope you will look into home gardening as an option for you and your family. We believe you will not be disappointed. Home gardening is so rewarding in so many ways, so get out there and play in the dirt when the next growing season rolls around and see what you can grow. Worst case, you?ll make some great memories and have a ton of fun!

Finally, a huge ?Thank you!? to Mike Payne, Garland Nealy and the rest of the good people at UnderCurrent Atlanta for treating us so well. We appreciate all they did to make this happen as well as all the good work they are doing to shine a light on the character(s) in our community that make it such a rich and vibrant place. We certainly hope to work with them again very soon. Be sure to check them out on Facebook today!

Source: http://practicaltactical4you.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/home-gardening-with-practical-tactical/

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The Daily?s Final Day: About 100 Employees In The Newsroom, Little Inkling Of Layoffs

I spoke to a person inside The Daily who held a $40,000 reporter position for the now shuttered "daily iPad newspaper." While not completely blindsided, they had little inkling of what was going on inside the paper but there was always an undercurrent of doubt. "When the layoffs happened in the summer," the said. "You saw it coming. People were dropping off."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/rj7gVZaeHs8/

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Mitch Unrein helps Broncos beat Bucs 31-23

Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning (18) reacts after throwing a touchdown pass to Denver Broncos defensive tackle Mitch Unrein (96) against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012, in Denver. (AP Photo/Joe Mahoney)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman (5) throws against pressure from Denver Broncos defensive end Derek Wolfe (95) in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012, in Denver. Denver won 31-23 and clinched the AFC West division. (AP Photo/Joe Mahoney)

Denver Broncos defensive tackle Mitch Unrein (96) reacts after scoring a touchdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Denver Broncos defensive tackle Mitch Unrein (96) hits Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman (5) as he throws in the third quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

El quarterback de los Broncos de Denver Peyton Manning lanza un pase en el partido de la NFL ante los Buccaneers de Tampa Bay el domingo 2 de diciembre de 2012. (AP Foto/Joe Mahoney)

DENVER (AP) ? What Mitch Unrein lacks in dance moves he more than makes up for in shock value.

The second-year defensive lineman out of Wyoming helped the Denver Broncos wrap up their second straight AFC West title Sunday with their seventh straight win, a less-than-perfect but oh-so-pretty 31-23 win over the feisty Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Unrein caught a 1-yard touchdown pass from Peyton Manning to open the scoring, then came free for the big hit on Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman that forced a bad throw that ended up in Von Miller's hands for the game's biggest play.

Miller's pick-6 marked the first career interception and the first career touchdown for last year's Defensive Rookie of the Year, who is making a stronger case by the week for Defensive Player of the Year honors.

And it put this game out of reach at 28-10.

Miller did a hip-swaying jig in the end zone, unlike Unrein, who became the first defensive lineman to catch a touchdown pass in Broncos history and celebrated with a big-time spike ? followed by a mad scramble to retrieve the football.

"After I spiked it, I was, like, 'Uh, oh, where'd it go?" Unrein said. "Luckily, I got it back."

He left the dancing to Miller, though.

"I have two left feet as they say. I can two-step a little bit, country dance," Unrein said. "It all happened so fast I didn't know what to do."

Unrein trotted onto the field on first-and-goal from the 1 and lined up at fullback.

"Certainly when you put a big D-lineman in there, a lot of times the defense is thinking run," Manning said.

Unrein, though, slipped into the left flat and hauled in Manning's floater in stride.

"It was a Willie Mays catch," marveled teammate Kevin Vickerson. "It was over the shoulder just like Mays."

And it seemed the hang in the air for just as long as Vic Wertz's drive to the warning track in the 1954 World Series, too.

"It felt like a really long time when that ball was floating toward me," Unrein said. "I was like, 'Don't drop it. Don't drop it.' Luckily, it hit my hands and I caught it. That's why I wrapped it up with both hands and stood there for a second and was like, 'I just scored a touchdown. That's pretty cool.'

"Then, afterward, I had no dance, no skills like Von Miller."

Although the Broncos had put in the trick play at practice several weeks ago ? and Unrein said he caught it every time ? the play surprised teammate Champ Bailey.

"Not that they threw to him, but that he caught it," Bailey noted. "Too many times you see a defensive player run a route, be wide open and he drops it. He got his hands up and caught it."

It sure stunned the Buccaneers.

"You never prepare for that play," safety Ronde Barber said. "It happens. There isn't much you can do about it. It never had shown up on film."

About 90 minutes later, Unrein helped Miller get into the end zone for his first career TD, coming through the line unblocked and hitting Freeman just as he threw toward Vincent Jackson.

The ball floated into Miller's hands at the 26 and he ran untouched into the end zone.

"I only had some O-linemen in front of me," Miller said. "I felt like my odds were pretty good."

Miller's touchdown came just after Demaryius Thomas' second straight TD catch from Manning, whose 29 touchdown throws this season surpassed Jake Plummer and John Elway for the most scoring tosses in a single season for the Broncos.

"You look at that type of swing that a pick-6 is from a mental standpoint, from a point standpoint, it's tough to overcome," said Freeman, who completed 18 of 39 passes for 242 yards.

The Broncos (9-3) won their seventh straight and wrapped up a date in January in the playoffs, though there were no whoops and hollers in the locker room.

"It's one step," Bailey said. "It's not like we've done everything we want to do."

The Bucs (6-6), surprising contenders under first-year coach Greg Schiano, fell a game behind Seattle for the second NFC wild-card spot and their loss clinched the NFC South for Atlanta.

The Broncos held Tampa Bay rookie Doug Martin to 56 yards on 18 carries.

Manning went 27 for 38 for 242 yards, as the Broncos scored 30-plus points for the sixth time over their seven-game win streak. Despite Denver's big numbers, which included eight catches for 99 yards for Thomas and nine receptions for 89 yards from tight end Jacob Tamme, this was another far-from-perfect effort from the Broncos' offense.

Manning was frustrated in the first half as a series of penalties, off-target throws and missed protections kept him biding his time on the bench. The only real highlight came at the end of his first drive ? the 1-yard touchdown pass to Unrein.

Freeman countered with an 11-yard scoring strike to Manning's friend and former top target in Indianapolis, Dallas Clark.

After that early touchdown drive, Freeman never got comfortable again, although he led the Bucs on a 47-yard TD drive that made it 31-23 with 2:33 left. Eric Decker recovered the onside kick and Denver lined up in victory formation twice. Schiano, as is his wont, had his players fire off the ball.

"After the game he came up and told me on the end-of-game play he didn't mean any harm," Manning said. "And I appreciated that comment."

NOTES: Broncos K Matt Prater missed from 47 yards, making him 2 for 5 from 40 to 49 yards this season and 15 for 17 from everywhere else, including 3 for 4 from 50-plus. ... Bucs CB LeQuan Lewis appeared to sustain a serious leg injury in the closing minutes on special teams.

___

Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

___

Follow Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arniestapleton

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-12-03-Buccaneers-Broncos%20Folo/id-6787cf96f4d647db8c90ad870171068d

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Sunday, December 2, 2012

Congo rebels complete Goma pullout

M23 rebels withdraw from the eastern Congo town of Goma, Saturday Dec. 1, 2012. Sy Koumbo, a spokesman for the U.N. in Congo, says that an agreement was reached late Friday with M23 rebels after they attempted to force their way into Goma's international airport to seize arms. Koumbo says U.N. peacekeepers blocked the fighters. Trucks full of M23 rebels drove Saturday along the road that leads out of Goma towards Kibumba, where the rebels are supposed to settle following an agreement reached in Kampala last week. M23 soldiers were cheering as they did a final tour in the city center. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

GOMA, Congo (AP) ? Rebels believed to be backed by Rwanda completed their retreat from Congo's eastern provincial capital on Saturday less than two weeks after taking control of the strategic city, a military official said.

The retreat, however, may be tentative after a leader for the M23 rebels said they now wanted to negotiate with the government within 48 hours.

Ugandan Brig. Jeffrey Muheesi, who is part of a mission sent by regional leaders to oversee the rebel retreat, said the rebels' pullout from Goma was complete.

"They have pulled out of Sake and Goma, and now Congolese government policemen are controlling the central bank, the governor's office and the border post," he said from the outskirts of Goma.

The M23 rebels took the capital of North Kivu on Nov. 20, after battling the Congolese army for nearly a day. The group had defied two earlier ultimatums to leave Goma, raising the possibility they did not intend to leave and giving credence to a U.N. report accusing Rwanda of using the rebels as a proxy to annex territory in the mineral-rich eastern Congo.

The eight-month-old M23 rebellion is led by fighters from a now-defunct rebel group, who agreed to lay down their arms on March 23, 2009, in return for being allowed to join the ranks of the Congolese army. M23 takes its name from the date of that accord, and the rebellion began in April, when hundreds of soldiers defected from the military, saying that the terms of the accord had not been respected.

In fact, most analysts believe the origin of the rebellion is a fight over Congo's vast mineral wealth, a good chunk of which is found in the North Kivu province where Goma is the capital. Starting this spring, the fighters seized a series of small towns and villages in North Kivu, culminating with the capture of Goma, a population hub of 1 million and a key, mineral trading post.

The regional bloc representing the nations bordering Congo had issued a Friday deadline for the M23 fighters to retreat from Goma, after the rebels had thumbed their nose at an earlier ultimatum. M23 rebels began retreating on Tuesday from the other territories they seized.

Trucks full of M23 soldiers were driving out of Goma this morning. A column of rebels on foot walked near the convoy, mirroring the column of fighters that first walked into the city a little less than two weeks ago. The rebels left in a matter of hours and in an orderly fashion, carrying rifles and ammunition. Some of the trucks also carried mattresses and even a generator.

"Now we are waiting for the negotiations, within 48 hours," said a leader of M23, Gen. Sultani Makenga, as he left Goma.

He said the rebels would wait for a cease-fire to be signed.

"If the government wants, we will come back," he said, adding that they'd do so through negotiations, or force if needed.

The rebels' withdrawal also comes after they attempted to force their way into Goma's international airport on Friday in order to seize arms belonging to the Congolese military.

"An agreement was reached yesterday over the ammunitions issue," said Sy Koumbo, a spokesman for the U.N. mission in Congo. He said that U.N. peacekeepers had control of the airport and blocked the fighters from obtaining the arms.

But M23 leader Gen. Makenga said the matter had not been resolved.

"We decided to leave. We will get all this back, when our turn comes," he said.

Goma's residents have denounced the M23 rebels for looting several small shops and houses.

In the Majengo neighborhood, a shopworker said that fighters stole money, a phone, oil and alchohol. Other people said the M23 rebels were going door-to-door, looking for valuables to loot.

"At midnight, I heard my children screaming that someone wants to break the door," said a 65-year-old man who insisted on anonymity out of fear for his safety.

The rebels will settle in Kibati, a mere 15 kilometers ( 9 miles) from Goma in the coming days and 600 Congolese army soldiers will move into Goma alongside a neutral force made of troops from the countries that are a part of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region.

___

Associated Press photographer Jerome Delay contributed to this report from Goma, Congo.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-01-Congo-Fighting/id-2e4276a4450049ff8db108a51780c2f0

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Could a Syria-style Internet blackout happen in the US?

7 hrs.

Devin Coldewey , NBC News

The ongoing Internet blackout in Syria this week, like the one that occurred in Egypt early in 2011, prompts curiosity as to whether such an event could happen in one's own country. Here's one measure that gives a rough idea of how difficult it would be for your government to legally shut down the Internet.

First, it should be explained that the cutoffs in Syria and Egypt weren't the result of a physical disconnection, like bombing the cables or cutting the power to servers or relay stations. A country can take itself off the map largely?by removing itself from the Domain Name System and Border Gateway Patrol,?the software and databases that tell computers and servers how to contact one another.

In other words, a "kill switch" for the Internet might be as simple?a thing as directing DNS providers to delist or send false information (more easily done when they are run by the state), which could isolate the country from the rest of the online world with a few keystrokes, and restore it just as easily. This method is consistent?with the way in which Syria dropped offline, although a government spokesperson has reportedly claimed that the rebel faction was responsible and had cut the cables.

Renesys, an Internet monitoring and analysis company that provided insight during the disconnection of Egypt, gathered some data how resistant different countries are to a wide-scale shutdown. The company says that one way of measuring the?robustness?of a country's networks is by looking at the number of Internet service providers (ISPs) that have direct connections to other ISPs outside of the country. The more external connections, the more resistant the country is to shutdown.

Larger countries, of course,?have more ISPs, for example,?with one serving the North, one serving only the big cities, one primarily working with businesses, etc. But smaller countries and those with totalitarian or unstable regimes may have very few, or even just one official "outside line."

Again, this doesn't necessarily mean physical lines; many ISPs may share the same fiber backbone that connects, say, Greece and Turkey. Above, for instance, you can see that Syria is connected to neighboring countries by several submarine cables. If two ISPs share a line and only one is forced to cease operating, in most cases the other can keep working. On the other hand, if multiple lines are under the authority of just one provider, that makes shutdowns far easier.?

Countries with only one or two "frontier" providers include Libya, Ethiopia, Myanmar?and,?unsurprisingly, Syria. Places?like?Greenland and Madagascar are also at risk: Their geographic isolation and smaller populations make multiple external connections difficult and in some ways unnecessary.

On the other side there are the countries that should be highly resistant to shutdown: the United States, Canada, most of Europe, and Australia number among the 32 countries with 40 or more frontier providers. So while Americans may understandably be concerned with issues like Net Neutrality and monopolistic practices, it would be comparatively difficult for the government to cut off the country from the rest of the world.

This is only one way to look at risk and security, however. Physical infrastructure?could also be destroyed or rendered inoperable in several ways and at several points. While this method is far less likely to be used by governments (which have likely invested in that very infrastructure), an attacker would feel no such compunction in bombing a transatlantic cable or removing power to a major switch facility.

The outage in Syria is ongoing;?Renesys and other Internet companies like Akamai are monitoring and reporting on the state of the country's connectivity, which no doubt depends heavily on the outcome of the current?armed conflict.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC?News Digital. His personal website is?coldewey.cc.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/could-syria-style-internet-blackout-happen-us-1C7362914

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An Education in Classlessness | Economics reference cell ...

Economics : Of all the people in the city of New York who should be reluctant to charge someone else with elitism, the city's richest man has to be on the top of the list. But irony has never been one of the mayor's strong suits, so there he was?the other day?with a verbal assault on Bill Perkins for, of all things, having the temerity of being a vocal critic of charters, despite having gone to the "tony" Collegiate School for his own high school education.

Here's the NY Post's (natch) account: "The Post's Dave Seifman forward some pretty choice quotes from Mayor Bloomberg going off on state Sen. Bill Perkins, a major opponent of charter schools, on his weekly WOR radio show this morning. Bloomberg jabs at the pol for attending "elite private schools" and says he's been "violently" against choice for parents."

Now's not the right time to interject a tired pot and kettle analogy, but it does take a certain amount of chutzpah to attack Perkins when the mayor probably hadn't set foot inside a public school-his kids went elsewhere obviously-until he was elected mayor. And the same goes for Chancellor Klein who, along with Bloomberg, brought absolutely zero knowledge of public education to the job?when he was elevated to his supreme commander post. And this from a man who spends all of his weekends in Bermuda!

But what's even more egregious in our view is the mayor's failure to see with any clarity what?the charter phenomenon says about his own educational effort-a point that we have already made before. Here's the Post again: "Bill Perkins is a guy who went to elite private schools, and he represents a district where most people can?t afford elite private schools, and charter schools are their opportunity to get their kids a great education," said Bloomberg. "I think the numbers are something - there?s 10,000 places this year - more places for charter schools, and there?s something like 50 or 60,000 applicants for the 10,000 places."

Now, after eight years of so-called reform-along with reams of flack touting miraculous advance-we have stampedes in poor neighborhoods to flee the public school system as fast as possible. The Post's Seifman continues to spotlight the mayor's views in a follow up story: "Bloomberg argued that charter schools promote competition, which is one reason public schools in the city are improving. "Competition is great for everybody, and it's one of those things we want to encourage, and Perkins has been violently against it, while the educators and the public and the parents want more of [it]," the mayor said."

If the Harlem clamor for choice is any indication, this kind of a competition can best be described in sports language as a blowout-and as an indictment of the failure of the overall?Bloomberg effort. Diane Ravitch's hearing testimony sheds light on the true nature of this far from healthy competition: "Some charters are as idealistic as the original vision, but many others now see themselves as competition for public schools. They want to take over public school space and replace public schools. They revel in stories about beating public schools, not helping them."

But as far as Bloomberg's observation that the charter competition is in some way aiding public school improvement, where's the evidence of that? Which brings us back to the point that we made last week: "So there is obviously a perception of failure at the grass roots level. Whether this is a reality or not-and studies indicate that the charter exploits are exaggerated in the aggregate-doesn't matter. And the clamoring for, "choice," is an indictment of the current system that the media did so much to tout when it was all about mayoral control."

So what's missing from all of this trumped up outrage, is a concomitant genuine outrage at the three card monte game that the Bloombergistas have played-with Rupert and Morticia acting as the audience shills-with a gullible public. It is time to bring in the forensic accountants, and Perkins and his state senate crew should hold follow up hearings on testing fraud, unmerited teacher and administrator bonuses, and a profligate expansion of an educational bureaucracy that has failed to deliver real success even with an 80% increase in its allocation.

But that might not even be necessary if what they think is going to happen next spring actually does-new school tests that expose the naked emperor's false positives. As the NY Post reports: "Criticized for having steadily dumbed down standardized tests -- and trumpeted phantom gains -- the state Education Department says students in grades 3 to 8 taking required math and English exams starting tomorrow won't pass as easily this year. "Students are going to have to know more and do more to demonstrate proficiency on the exams," said John King, senior deputy state education commissioner."

And it will be more difficult to teach to the test: "A rising number of pupils have passed in recent years as cut scores dipped so low that some kids could randomly guess enough right answers to squeak by, experts found. State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and Education Commissioner David Steiner "are committed to ending the annual debate about whether our state tests have become harder or easier," King told The Post. "Doing that will require us to ensure that our tests become both less predictable and more comprehensive in terms of the number of items they test."

But, once the test fraud is exposed will it finally become clear that, as far as NYC's master of the house is concerned, "there's not much there?" Here's the Post's observation: "The sliding standards weren't revealed when Mayor Bloomberg touted dramatic spikes in state scores as a triumph of his stewardship. But the lid was blown off when federal officials found reading and math scores for New York students had remained flat on a national benchmark exam since 2007, while their scores on the state tests skyrocketed over the same period."

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, cited in Sol Stern's upcoming City Journal article, makes this telling point: ?We have to stop lying to children,? education secretary Arne Duncan said recently at a meeting of the National Governors Association (NGA).?We have to look them in the eye and tell them the truth at every stage of their educational trajectory.?

If Mike Bloomberg really wants to advance the interests of NYC school kids, he can begin by laying off the glass house?ad hominen attacks on Bill Perkins; and he can follow Duncan's advice by starting to?tell the truth-to those with an actual stake in public education-about how all of his extra funding and top down control of the educational bureaucracy has yielded a truly lackluster result. Don't expect this anytime soon, because mea culpas are conspicuously absent in the Bloomberg personality profile.

Source: http://economics-reference-cell.blogspot.com/2012/11/an-education-in-classlessness.html

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