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Monday, October 31, 2011
YouTube Confirms Plans To Take On Cable With ?Channels?, Names Dozens Of Partners
YouTube's ambitions to challenge cable television head-on are getting a big boost tonight: the world's largest video site is announcing that it's lined up a slew of new content partners who will be developing shows for the site, covering everything from sports to comedy to music. The news had been rumored for some time, including a report last week in the WSJ. In a blog post announcing the news, YouTube says its goal with these channels is to "[give] you more reasons to keep coming back again and again". The post references the so-called "defining channels" born out of cable, like MTV, ESPN, and CNN, and says that the next generation of these will emerge on YouTube.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/aUHpwL--wXg/
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Sunday, October 30, 2011
Investing Fundamentals -What is your investment target | Brock Pettit ...
With regards to investing, many first time traders need to soar right in with both feet. Unfortunately, very few of these traders are successful. Investing in anything requires a point of skill. You will need to remember that few investments are a certain factor ? there?s the chance of shedding your cash! Before you soar right in, it?s higher to not only find out extra about investing and the way it all works, but also to find out what?s your investment target? What do you hope to realize with your investments? Will you be funding a university schooling? Buying a house? Retiring? Before you invest a single penny, really take into consideration what you hope to attain with that investment. Figuring out what your investment target is will enable you to make smarter funding decisions alongside the best way! Too often, folks make investments cash with desires of changing into wealthy overnight. That is attainable ? but additionally it is rare. It is usually a really dangerous concept to start out investing with hopes of becoming wealthy overnight. It?s safer to invest your cash in such a manner that it?s going to grow slowly over time, and be used for retirement or a baby’s education. Nevertheless, if your investment target is to get rich quick, you need to study as a lot about excessive-yield, quick time period investing as you presumably can earlier than you invest. It is best to strongly contemplate talking to a financial planner earlier than making any investments. Your monetary planner may also help you establish what kind of investing you will need to do to achieve the monetary objectives that you?ve set. He or she may give you realistic data as to what kind of returns you may anticipate and how long it?s going to take to achieve your specific goals. Once more, do not forget that investing requires greater than calling a dealer and telling them that you simply wish to buy stocks or bonds. It takes a certain quantity of analysis and knowledge in regards to the market if you hope to speculate successfully.
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Glareless Glass, Flexible Solar-Powered E-Paper, And More From FPDI
You wouldn't expect an event like FPDI, the Flat Panel Display International Exhibition, to be much more than a dry little gathering of circuit benders and substrate wranglers. And that's kind of what it is. But you would do well to remember that these pixel jockeys are putting together the screens that make things like the iPhone 4 possible. And this year's expo looks like a bumper crop of technology we'll be seeing in devices soon. Tech-On, as usual, is covering the event with gusto, if you want to get this straight from the source. But I've highlighted the items most worth paying attention to below. If you like pixels, inquire within.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Ncnk5H3pLdE/
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Saturday, October 29, 2011
Republicans seek $2.2 trillion in deficit cuts (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Republicans in Congress are calling for $2.2 trillion in deficit-reduction, including significant cuts to healthcare programs for the elderly and poor along with tax changes that they argue would boost the economy, congressional aides said on Thursday.
The plan offered by Republicans who serve on a congressional "super committee" tasked with slashing deficits calls for cuts to the Medicare and Medicaid health programs for the poor and elderly and other health and welfare programs.
The panel of six Republicans and six Democrats have been negotiating behind closed doors, but the details of the Republican plan that have emerged show the two sides far apart over the issue of tax increases to reduce the deficit.
Aides said the Republican plan claims hundreds of billions of dollars in savings by lowering corporate and individual tax rates. They say that would increase economic activity and bring in more revenue. Democrats have argued that position is a non-starter for them.
In contrast to a Democratic plan that has an almost even balance between spending cuts and tax increases, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said the focus of deficit reduction efforts should be almost exclusively on cutting benefit programs.
He rejected the idea of additional defense spending cuts.
"When you look at what is yet to be done by the super committee, almost all of that is going to fall in the area, I think, of mandatory spending, which is more than two thirds of the budget. It is time for us to do our work there," Boehner told reporters.
PLAN DRAWS FIRE
Mandatory programs range from Medicare and Medicaid to the Social Security retirement plan and food stamp program for the poor. It also includes federal workers' pension plans.
Congressional aides, who asked not to be identified, said the Republican proposal has $785 billion in mandatory spending cuts, including $500 billion for Medicare, $185 billion for Medicaid and $100 billion for other health programs.
The Medicare cuts include premium increases for beneficiaries, according to a congressional aide.
There are an additional $400 billion in spending cuts for other mandatory spending programs that include government retirement programs and food stamps, according to other aides.
The proposal also includes a controversial plan to change the way annual benefit increases are calculated for Social Security and other government programs to reflect a lower rate of inflation than the current formula.
The Republican plan calls for tax changes, but would dedicate any revenues generated by closing tax loopholes and other breaks to reducing overall income tax rates, the aides said.
The Republican plan immediately drew fire from Democrats. They complained it was designed more to please Grover Norquist, who heads the conservative Americans Tax Reform, which opposes tax increases to reduce the deficit.
"Their offer is a joke," said a Democratic aide who declined to be identified.
The Republican offer came after Democrats on the panel proposed on Tuesday about $3 trillion in savings over 10 years through an equal mix of spending cuts, which also include cuts for Medicare and Medicaid.
The super committee has been asked to develop a plan for at least $1.2 trillion in deficit cuts over 10 years. If it fails to reach a deal an equivalent amount in automatic spending cuts would be triggered.
Boehner said he wanted to avoid the automatic spending cuts, which would fall heavily on the defense sector, traditionally favored by Republicans.
(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Paul Simao)
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Friday, October 28, 2011
Boys Should Get HPV Vaccine Too, CDC Says
News |
Health
The rationale behind the recommendation is that the vaccine prevents genital warts and anal cancers in males, both of which can be caused by HPV
?| October 26, 2011?|
A vaccine originally intended to prevent cervical cancer in girls should be given to boys as well, an advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today (Oct. 25).
The panel voted to recommend the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine be given to boys ages 11 to 12. The vaccine is already recommended for girls of this age.
The rationale behind the recommendation is that the vaccine prevents genital warts and anal cancers in males, both of which can be caused by HPV. The vaccine may also prevent head and neck cancer, which has been on the rise in recent years.
In addition, vaccinating boys may help reduce cervical cancer in women. If males do not acquire the infection, they cannot pass it to females.
The new recommendation "will be a hugely important step in cancer prevention in this country, both for girls and for boys; women as well as men," said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University, in an interview before the vote. Because rates of HPV vaccination in girls have been low, it's important to vaccinate boys as part of the public health strategy to prevent cervical cancer, Schaffner said.
Although the vaccine has been licensed by the Food and Drug Administration for boys ages 9 to 26, only about 1 percent of males in this age group have received it, said Dr. Paul Offit, chief of the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. After this new recommendation, that percentage should increase dramatically, Offit said.
Boys and men ages 13 to 21 who have not been vaccinated, or haven't received all their shots should also be vaccinated, the committee said.
Benefit for boys and girls
Two of the most common strains of HPV (HPV 16 and 18) cause about 21,000 cancers per year in the United States. One-third of these cancers are in males, according to the CDC.
There are now studies showing the vaccine is effective at preventing genital warts and anal cancers caused by HPV. The recommendation is for the Gardasil vaccine, made by Merck & Co. Inc, which protects against four strains of HPV. The other available HPV vaccine, called Cervarix and made by GlaxoSmithKline, is not licensed for use in males.
And although the vaccine has not been proven to prevent head and neck cancers, which can also be caused by HPV, the recent rise in cases of these cancers likely factored into the panel's reasoning for the recommendation, Schaffner said. Between 1988 and 2004, there was a 28 percent increase in oropharyngeal cancer, a type of head and neck cancer, said Dr. Lauri Markowitz, a member of the CDC committee on HPV vaccines.
In addition, it wasn't previously clear whether vaccinating boys as a means to prevent cervical cancer in girls would be worth the cost. If every girl was vaccinated, the benefit of vaccinating boys would be minimal, and come at a high price, researchers reasoned.
However, new research shows only about 32 percent of U.S. girls receive all three shots of the HPV vaccine (three shots are thought to be optimal for HPV prevention). This low rate of vaccination rate in girls means "it becomes much more sensible to vaccinate the boys also," Schaffner said.
Schaffner also pointed out that the new recommendation will protect men who have sex with men ? a group that may not be protected from even a high rate of vaccinations among girls and women.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=275e8c1ce1e8f409a996f3653522f1b9
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Fertility treatment raises tumor risk in study (Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) ? Women given drugs during fertility treatment to stimulate their ovaries to produce extra eggs have an increased risk of developing borderline ovarian tumors, Dutch researchers said on Thursday.
A large 15-year study found women undergoing in-vitro fertilization (IVF) were twice as likely to develop ovarian malignancies -- defined as either cancer or borderline tumors -- as similarly sub-fertile women who were not treated.
The risk was concentrated in borderline tumors, which have abnormal cells that may become cancerous but usually do not. The danger of invasive ovarian cancer was slightly higher in the IVF treatment group but this was not statistically significant.
Fertility experts said the results showed there was a need for further research, although they stressed the apparent risks were still very low.
"This ... goes some way to answering the questions that so many IVF patients ask. However, the results should be kept in proportion as the increase shown was from around five in a thousand to seven per thousand women," said Peter Braude of Kings College London.
Braude, who was not involved in the Dutch study, said the possible risks needed to be balanced against the important objective of IVF in conceiving a child.
Lead researcher Flora van Leeuwen of the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam said the findings were significant because the study was the first to include a comparison group of sub-fertile women not undergoing IVF.
That is important because having difficulty conceiving or never having been pregnant are in themselves known risk factors for ovarian tumors.
The study observed 25,000 women, of whom 19,000 received IVF. It found 61 ovarian malignancies among the IVF group, of which 31 were borderline tumors and 30 invasive cancer -- a proportion of borderline cases that was unusually high.
Richard Kennedy, general secretary of the International Federation of Fertility Societies (IF), noted that other studies over the past decade looking at ovarian stimulation and cancer risk had been generally reassuring.
"The IF remains of the view that the long-term risks are low but calls for continued vigilance through reporting of long-term outcomes with international collaboration," he said in a statement.
The results of Dutch study were published in the journal Human Reproduction.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Tim Pearce)
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Social Gaming Network PapayaMobile Coming To iOS
The popular social gaming network for Android, PapayaMobile, is announcing today that it's now expanding its gaming platform to iOS. The company is making its social development toolkits available to iOS developers as a beta release, allowing them to connect users on both platforms (iOS and Android) for in-game features including challenges, game invites, leaderboards and more.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/7z9I7wzvY54/
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Obama taking on student loan relief Wednesday
President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011. Obama is on a three-day trip to the West Coast. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011. Obama is on a three-day trip to the West Coast. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
In this Oct. 6, 2011 photo, Gan Golan, of Los Angeles, dressed as the "Master of Degrees," holds a ball and chain representing his college loan debt, during Occupy DC activities in Washington. As President Obama prepared to announce new measures Wednesday to help ease the burden of student loan debt, new figures painted a demoralizing picture of college costs for students and parents: Average in-state tuition and fees at four-year public colleges rose an additional $631 this fall, or 8.3 percent, compared with a year ago. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is outlining a plan Wednesday to allow millions of student loan recipients to lower their payments and consolidate their loans, in hopes of easing the burden of the No. 2 source of household debt.
The move to assist struggling graduates and students could help Obama shore up re-election support among young voters, an important voting bloc in his 2008 campaign, and appeal to their parents, too. Student loan debt also is a common concern voiced by Occupy Wall Street protesters.
The loans have become particularly painful for many amid the nation's economic woes, high unemployment and soaring tuition costs. They are second only to mortgages as a portion of Americans' debt, coming in ahead of credit cards.
Obama's planned announcement in Denver comes the same day as a new report on tuition costs from the College Board. It shows average in-state tuition and fees at four-year public colleges rose $631 this fall, or 8.3 percent, compared with a year ago. Nationally, the cost of a full credit load has passed $8,000, an all-time high.
The White House said Obama will use his executive authority to provide student loan relief in two ways.
First, he will accelerate a measure passed by Congress that reduces the maximum required payment on student loans from 15 percent of discretionary income annually to 10 percent. The White House wants it to go into effect in 2012, instead of 2014. In addition, the White House says the remaining debt would be forgiven after 20 years, instead of 25. About 1.6 million borrowers could be affected.
Second, he will allow borrowers who have a loan from the Federal Family Education Loan Program and a direct loan from the government to consolidate them into one. The consolidated loan would carry an interest rate of up to a half percentage point less than before. This could affect 5.8 million borrowers.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters on a conference call that the changes could save some borrowers hundreds of dollars a month.
"These are real savings that will help these graduates get started in their careers and help them make ends meet," Duncan said.
The White House said the changes will carry no additional costs to taxpayers.
Last year, Congress passed a law that lowered the repayment cap and moved all student loans to direct lending by eliminating banks as the middlemen. Before that, borrowers could get loans directly from the government or from the Federal Family Education Loan Program; the latter were issued by private lenders but basically insured by the government. The law was passed along with the health care overhaul with the anticipation that it could save about $60 billion over a decade.
The law change was opposed by many Republicans. At a hearing Tuesday, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., who chairs a subcommittee with oversight over higher education, said it had resulted in poorer customer service for borrowers. And Senate Republicans issued a news release with a compilation of headlines that showed thousands of workers in student lending, including those from Sallie Mae Inc., had been laid off because of the change.
Today, there are 23 million borrowers with $490 billion in loans under the Federal Family Education Loan Program. Last year, the Education Department made $102.2 billion in direct loans to 11.5 million recipients.
Increases in federal aid have helped ease the burden on students dealing with tuition increases, the White House Council of Economic Advisers said in a report Wednesday.
"Despite large increases in the published price of college over the past four years, the average student has not seen commensurate increases in the net price of college, defined as the published price minus grants, scholarships and tax benefits," the report said.
Meanwhile, the Education Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a project Tuesday to simplify the financial aid award letters that colleges mail to students each spring. A common complaint is that colleges obscure the inclusion of student loans in financial aid packages to make their school appear more affordable, and the agencies hope families will more easily be able to compare the costs of colleges.
Separately, James Runcie, the Education Department's federal student aid chief operating officer, told Foxx's congressional panel that the personal financial details of as many 5,000 college students were temporarily viewable on the department's direct loan website earlier this month.
Runcie said site was shut down while the matter was resolved, and the affected students have been notified and offered credit monitoring.
___
Kimberly Hefling can be followed at http://twitter.com/khefling
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Official: Accord at Wednesday EU summit in doubt
BRUSSELS (AP) ? A European official says there is now serious doubt that EU heads of government will agree on a broad package of financial measures at a summit meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.
The official says the 10 EU members who don't use the euro do not want to agree to a bank recapitalization plan unless there's also agreement on increasing the firepower of the EFSF, the EU's bailout fund.
The person, speaking on condition of anonymity because the negotiations were confidential, says there are doubts that the EFSF changes can be agreed.
"It's a real mess once again," the official said.
There will be no finance ministers' meeting before the leaders' summit Wednesday evening, the official said, a sign that there are doubts that an agreement can be reached.
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011
The Impact of the iPod (Mashable)
"With iPod, Apple has invented a whole new category of digital music player that lets you put your entire music collection in your pocket and listen to it wherever you go," said Steve Jobs as the first iPod launched in 2001. "With iPod, listening to music will never be the same again." Thanks to the iPod's far-reaching impact over the last decade, you could argue that the consumer electronics industry has never been the same again.
[More from Mashable: Top 12 Mashable Infographics]
On the tenth anniversary of the iPod's debut we take a look at just how influential Apple's portable digital music player has been. Take a look at our analysis, complete with comment from experts. Have your say in the comments below.
1. Transforming the Consumer Electronics Industry
[More from Mashable: 10 Retro Games for the Modern Mobile]
"The iPod truly ushered in the era of portable digital consumer electronics, much as the Walkman did for analog audio," states Jordan Selburn, principal analyst of consumer electronics at IHS-iSuppli.
In just 10 years the iPod has been so influential that the word has come to represent a portable digital music player in the same way "Hoover" dominates the vacuum cleaner market. Apple wasn't the first to introduce such a device, so why has the iPod brand dominated all others?
"The iPod wasn't the first MP3 player out there -- before it came out I'd used models from Rio for my runs -- but it took the shortcomings inherent in the existing products in the market and improved on them," explains Jonathan Seff, executive editor, MacWorld.
"It held much more music than a typical MP3 player, and its use of FireWire meant transfer speeds much faster than the slow 12Mbps USB everyone else was using," Seff continues. "Plus the combo of hardware and software (iTunes) made it easier to use than much of what else was out there. And in very little time, the iPod took over the digital music player section of the market."
Apple has had something like 70% market share for years now. There are still competing products (minus the Microsoft Zune, which was recently killed off), but the others are fighting over a pretty small sliver of the pie."
Leander Kahney, editor of Cult of Mac and author of The Cult of iPod, sees the iPod's primary impact in terms of the "connected device."
"Gadgets are no longer stand-alone products," Kahney says, "they connect to a range of software and online services. Think Internet TVs, stereos like Sonos, handheld gaming devices, GPS bike computers, in-car stereos, high-end watches, Internet radios, even printers -- the list goes on and on -- and the iPod was the first to do that.
"In terms of connected devices, Selburn sees the iPod as essential tool for hooking consumers to content. He says the device "ignited the idea of ubiquitous access to content," an influence that can now be seen across all areas of consumer electronics.
"The era of the connected consumer, ignited by the iPod, is now coming to fruition. In the very near future, consumers will truly have access to all of their content anywhere they are, and on a wide range of devices spanning from home theaters and large screens to media tablets and smartphones and, of course, their iPods."
2. An Influential Design
The iPod's design is iconic. Design museums around the world display iPods proudly. Apple's senior vice president of industrial design, Jonathan Ive, has earned multiple awards and accolades.
"One of the major reasons for the iPod's success is its unique design, which is simple and aesthetically appealing, making use of high-quality materials like stainless steel," says Dr. Peter Zec, CEO and intellectual and creative head of red dot. "The Apple Industrial Design Team, led by Jonathan Ive, focuses on strict and sustainable design politics: The first iPod fitted perfectly into Apple's product family of that time -- just like the latest models do, which pick up today's unibody design of the iMac or MacBook Pro.
"The simplicity of the iPod's design speaks for itself: There are no unnecessary buttons or wheels, just one single element to navigate intuitively through the product's entire music library.
"When the first iPod was put into the market in 2001, it was a breakthrough and changed portable music from scratch, continues Zec. "There are only few products that shaped the lifestyle of a generation, found its way into popular culture and became the archetype of an entire product group like this.
It's not just the iPod's hardware that has been influential. Apple's user interface and experience also had an enormous impact on the market.
"The iPod had an enormous effect on the UI/UX of consumer electronics, completely changing the game from the day it was launched," says Joshua Porter, interface designer and director of UX at HubSpot.
Porter says the iPod's simple interface was optimized for music playing. The "fun" scrollwheel let users easily move through large lists of music, and the device's pocket-sized ergonomics had rounded corners and was generally comfortable to use.
"I would say that, in general, the addictive nature of all of these pieces created an amazing user experience that just wasn't possible with anything else on the market," concludes Porter. "Apple was the first company to truly think of the overarching activity of purchasing, organizing, and listening to music -- and designing their ecosystem to make that activity pleasurable -- a good experience from beginning to end."
Even the iPod's headphones were strategically designed. "The white headphones were interesting at first, but it was quickly realized that they were an amazing advertisement for iPods," says Porter. "I even heard stories of people switching to black headphones because thieves were targeting the white ones!"
3. The Changing Music Industry
Over the last 10 years, the iPod's companion software, iTunes, has evolved from a simple music management application to a multi-billion dollar online store, with agreements with all the major record labels.
"Without easy-to-use software such as iTunes, the iPod would be as useless as most of the other players on the market," says Patrik Wikstr?m, author of The Music Industry - Music in the Cloud.
"In the early days of the iPod and iTunes, Apple was considered by the industry to be part of 'the digital problem' and to encourage piracy," continues Wikstr?m. The industry argued (probably correctly) that most music on peoples' iPods was illegal. The iPod and iTunes was a cog in the global piracy machinery and probably contributed to the shrinking CD sales rather than anything else. It was not until 2003 when iTunes Music Store was launched when the industry started to believe that Apple was going to save them all. It was indeed an important step when Apple was able to convince all the major labels to license their music to iTunes."
Wikstr?m says one could argue that iTunes has been more a hindrance to the industry than a help. Despite the billions of sales using the platform, the music industry has still suffered over the past decade. Did the dominant iTunes business model blind the industry to alternatives?
"iTunes prolonged the industry's dependence on the old model, and made them believe that it actually might be possible just to shift from CD to MP3, just as they had done in the past when they moved from vinyl to tape to CD," says Wikstr?m. "This is just speculation, but perhaps the most important impact on the music industry is that iTunes delayed the shift from a retail model based on control to what we now start to see emerge as various kinds of cloud-based retail models, such as Spotify and its peers."
Futurist Gerd Leonhard, author of The Future of Content and co-author of The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution also sees iTunes playing a part in the decline of the music industry.
"The genius of the iPod was (and still is, with the iPhone) that, while the music industry actually believed that it had found a good (i.e., closed and controlled) way to extract money from otherwise freeloading consumers, the iTunes/iPod/iPhone ecosystem became the dominant hardware solution for the consumption of free music."
4. The Accessories Market
Hundred of companies have created viable businesses on the back of the iPod. The iPeripherals marketplace is vast -- and arguably unique -- in its sheer scale and variety of products.
Evan Stein, the director of marketing for SDI Technologies' iHome brand (the manufacturer of the first iPod clock radio) says the iPod changed consumers' expectations.
"The iPod is a worldwide cultural phenomenon whose cross-media functionality (e.g. music, photos, video, etc.) has redefined what people could ever expect from an electronic device, and has created a new multi-million dollar industry of supporting accessories."
From speakers and headphones to in-car kits, covers, cases and skins, to novelty iProducts, the relationship between the iPod (and later iPhone) and the accessory market is self-propagating. The more iPods Apple sells, the larger the market for accessories. The larger the amount of accessories, the more likely people are to buy into the iPod ecosystem.
Griffin Technology has been described as one of the first companies to realize the commercial potential of the iPod, introducing its first iPod accessory just a year after the MP3 player launched.
"The abundance of devices that work with the iPod has opened the door for accessory manufacturers worldwide, and without it, the mobile accessory industry wouldn't be what it is today," says president of Griffin, Mark Rowan.
5. Changing Consumer Perceptions of Apple
The iPod has had an enormous impact on the average consumer's opinion of Apple. "Pre-iPod, Apple was primarily a computer company," says Jordan Selburn.
"The Macintosh, despite increasing popularity with the introduction of the iMac, was still a niche product," continues Selburn. "The success of the Macintosh computers can be attributed to the company's focus on the consumer rather than on raw technology (a critical success factor that seems to still elude many companies). The iPod brought that philosophy to the consumer electronics market and, as a result,...consumers now see Apple as a company where technology just works, and you don't need a Ph.D. to listen to a song."
Leander Kahney believes it was the iPod that solidified Apple's mainstream appeal. "Before the iPod, Apple had a reputation for making nice but expensive computers...But as the iPod became cheaper and more popular, so more and more consumers were introduced to the Apple brand. Someone who got an iPod for Christmas would wander into the Apple Store and start checking out the other products. Next thing you know, they've replaced their old PC with a MacBook. Then they buy an iPhone, then an iPad. So the iPod has a tremendous 'halo effect' -- the halo from the iPod shines a light on Apple's other products. It took a while, but Apple these days is thoroughly mainstream."
Jonathan Seff, who also notes the "halo effect," suggests the real breakthrough came when Apple first launched an iPod that worked with a Windows PC, and then when it introduced iTunes for Windows.
"When the iPod starting supporting Windows PCs, it opened Apple up to a whole new world of people who would never have considered buying anything from Apple. It took Apple from being a computer company for Mac users to a consumer electronics company for the masses. That led to the iPhone and the iPad, both of which are huge cross-platform products."
In Conclusion
Ten years later it's hard to believe we're talking about the massive impact of a pocket-sized, $399 gadget, especially considering consumer reaction to the device was initially lukewarm.
"Many people looked at the iPod when it came out and couldn't believe the price and the comparative lack of features," says Joshua Porter. "But once it became a hit, other companies had to redefine what great was in their own houses, but by then Apple was ahead of the game -- and still is."
Images courtesy of 37Prime, osaMu, EverJean, Robert S. Donovan, Peter Gerdes
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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Monday, October 24, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
What Have You Done for Me Lately? Obama's Domestic Headache (ContributorNetwork)
COMMENTARY | He took out Osama bin Laden, and Anwar al-Awlaki. He led from behind to the successful demise of Moammar Gadhafi and is ending the war in Iraq, but like George H.W. Bush in 1991, President Barack Obama's successes abroad don't mean much among an increasingly xenophobic and self-indulgent electorate clamoring for an upswing in the economy. "What have you done for me lately?" ask the people who want to party like it's 1999.
According to the Huffington Post, the needle of support isn't moving for the president whose approval is languishing near its all-time low. While support for his handling of terrorism is up to 64 percent, only 40 percent of the people approve of his handling of the economy and domestic issues. Americans are upset with their government for their own plight, so the plight of those abroad bears no weight in politics or elections.
Truthfully, jobs are overrated. I haven't had one in 20 years. We need to earn an income, but jobs are just one way in a plethora of options available to earn money, and the president isn't responsible for any of those many options.
My disapproval for the president is that I'm a liberal and I don't see him suiting up on the matters I expect a liberal president to fight for. I don't see him saying things like "I'm not a 'secret Muslim,' but so what if I was?" And what happened to closing Gitmo?
I don't see him standing up and saying there is a difference in what we believe as individuals with religious conviction and what we believe as a nation about the nature of freedom, and that for that reason, same sex couples should have their marriage rights protected under law, rendering therefore what is Caesar's unto Caesar and to God what is God's.
I don't see him standing up on behalf of immigrants, legal or otherwise, stating emphatically from the bully pulpit that our immigration laws are unnecessarily unfair to poor people and that we are a better people when we seek first to help others and then to protect ourselves, rather than the other way around.
He has my vote by default, and that's a sad fact indeed. I miss 2008 Barack Obama. Man, I really liked that guy. Let me know if you see him.
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In a Message on the Occasion of the United Nations Day: Bahrain's Prime Minister Urges International Community to Continue to Support and Strengthen the United Nations
MANAMA, Bahrain, Oct. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Bahrain is honored and proud to join in the shared progressive goals of the United Nations and urges its fellow nations to contribute positively to supporting and strengthening the United Nations and its specialized agencies, enabling the international organization to undertake the noble missions for which it was established: enhancing world security and stability, entrenching justice and equality and shaping a more shining future for humans around the world.
"The United Nations is an important and vital forum that needs to be perpetually developed so as to meet ambitions of humanity everywhere in the world," Khalifa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa, Bahrain's prime minister, said in a statement honoring United Nations Day. "This is especially key for promoting relations of friendliness and cooperation among nations and peoples, minimizing international social and economic tensions, disputes and problems that now threaten all countries of the world."
The prime minister paid tribute to the active efforts exerted by the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, and all staff of the international organization and its specialized agencies towards entrenching underpinnings of cooperation and solidarity among nations and peoples.
"Bahrain strongly supports enhancing bonds of cooperation with the United Nations and its specialized agencies, out of a firm belief that the international organization represents the conscience of humanity and appreciation for its commendable efforts in achieving rapprochement and understanding among peoples of all races and religions," the prime minister said.
"His Majesty's vision was quite clear-cut in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly that reflects the Kingdom of Bahrain's openness to the outside world and living its concerns, particularly under the accelerating developments experienced by the world," the prime minister said.
When Bahrain was elected to head the United Nations General Assembly in 2006 it appointed lawyer and women's rights activist Haya bint Rashid Al Khalifa, President of the United Nations General Assembly, only the third woman in history to head the world body that let Bahrain contribute to the U.N. goals of equality and opportunity for all, the prime minister said.
Bahrain strongly embraces the United Nations Charter as a regulator for international legitimacy rules that govern relations among all states and contribute to firmly establishing rules for common international action that would promote humanity and avert acute conflict. The universality of principles and goals envisaged by the United Nations Charter makes it the hub to which all nations and peoples turn to for support in times of distress and crises and "the international organization has proved efficient and successful and we look forward to further successes leading to the prevalence of tranquility and stability all over the world," the prime minister said.
Among the key focus areas that Bahrain supports are U.N. efforts in pursuing sustainable development and addressing problems of disease, poverty and social indigence, in addition to its role in maintaining human rights, countering terrorism, responding to natural disasters and ?environmental protection, among others. In order to enhance these efforts and define landmarks for its path towards saving human kind, innovative initiative are needed.
Those concerns are joined with the determination of U.S. members for the enhancement of economic growth and improvement of living conditions of the poor, through and international umbrella framework that can adopt a development model based on international partnership, the prime minister said.
The prime minister noted that current and new developments in several parts of the world will require new strategies and enhanced cooperation and coordination on the part of all countries. This will help to achieve sustainable development, reach common visions to balance the aspired benefits of development and modernization efforts, as well as combat the negative implications of growth for the lower-income brackets. He urged the international community to enhance international partnership, pursue sustained efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 towards a stable and safe world, where its population enjoy descent life and living.
"The Kingdom of Bahrain maintains good relations with the United Nations and its specialized agencies and hosts a number of its offices," the prime minister said. "We also have joint action programs in several developmental and social sectors aimed to improve living conditions of citizens. This has helped create and vigorously reinforce cooperation with the object of realizing development and growth for our people."
The prime minister said Bahrain is giving increased attention to sustainable development and has already made substantial strides on this road. To this end, Bahrain has adopted a package of development programs, including continuing increases in budget allocations earmarked for spending on education, health and housing services.
He also said that Bahrain has managed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals through policies and strategies that meet citizens' ambitions and aspirations.
SOURCE Bahrain News Agency
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Saturday, October 22, 2011
Spiral arms hint at the presence of planets
Thursday, October 20, 2011
A new image of the disk of gas and dust around a sun-like star has spiral-arm-like structures. These features may provide clues to the presence of embedded but as-yet-unseen planets.
"Detailed computer simulations have shown us that the gravitational pull of a planet inside a circumstellar disk can perturb gas and dust, creating spiral arms. Now, for the first time, we're seeing these features," said Carol Grady, a National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported astronomer with Eureka Scientific, Inc.
The newly imaged disk surrounds SAO 206462, a star located about 456 light-years away in the constellation Lupus. Astronomers estimate that the system is only about 9 million years old. The gas-rich disk spans some 14 billion miles, which is more than twice the size of Pluto's orbit in our own solar system.
"The surprise," said Grady, "was that we caught a glimpse of this stage of planet formation. This is a relatively short-lived phase."
A near-infrared image from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan shows a pair of spiral features arcing along the outer disk. Theoretical models show that a single embedded planet may produce a spiral arm on each side of a disk. The structures around SAO 206462 do not form a matched pair, suggesting the presence of two unseen worlds, one for each arm. However, the research team cautions that processes unrelated to planets may also give rise to these structures.
"What we're finding is that once these systems reach ages of a few million years, their disks begin to show a wealth of structure--rings, divots, gaps and now spiral features," said John Wisniewski, a collaborator at the University of Washington in Seattle. "Many of these structures could be caused by planets within the disks."
Grady's research is part of the Strategic Exploration of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru (SEEDS), a five-year-long near-infrared study of young stars and their surrounding dust disks using the Subaru Telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The international consortium of researchers now includes more than 100 scientists at 25 institutions.
"These arm-like structures have been predicted by models, but have never before been seen," said Maria Womack, program director for the division of Astronomical Sciences at NSF. "It is the first observation of spiral arms in a circumstellar disk, and an important test for models of planetary formation."
###
National Science Foundation: http://www.nsf.gov
Thanks to National Science Foundation for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/114479/Spiral_arms_hint_at_the_presence_of_planets
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Friday, October 21, 2011
Fox Buys The Mountain for Ben Stiller
Original Artists-repped Childress also scripted Mother?s Confidential at Paramount and Allison?s Starting To Happen for Sandra Bullock and Warner Bros.
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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1923801/news/1923801/
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How To Evaluate Low cost Automotive Insurance coverage Quotes ...
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Source: http://www.myarticlepoint.com/how-to-evaluate-low-cost-automotive-insurance-coverage-quotes.htm
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Schwarzenegger back on movie set
FILE - In this June 21, 2011 file photo, former Gov. of California Arnold Schwarzenegger attends the Energy Forum 2011 in Vienna, Austria. Schwarzenegger is currently filming "The Last Stand," in New Mexico where he is playing the starring role as a small town border sheriff. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky, file)
FILE - In this June 21, 2011 file photo, former Gov. of California Arnold Schwarzenegger attends the Energy Forum 2011 in Vienna, Austria. Schwarzenegger is currently filming "The Last Stand," in New Mexico where he is playing the starring role as a small town border sheriff. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky, file)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Muscleman-turned movie star-turned California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is returning to the movies.
He's on the New Mexico set of "The Last Stand," playing the starring role as a small town border sheriff.
The actor posted a message on his Twitter account late Monday saying, "Fantastic first day on the set of The Last Stand. Big thanks to the crew - keep up the great work."
The Lionsgate studio says Schwarzenegger plays a former Los Angeles police officer who ends up sheriff of a small border town after a botched operation.
The movie is a modern day Western about convicts making their way to the Mexico border through New Mexico after escaping from a Las Vegas prison.
"The Last Stand" is being directed by Kim Jee-Woon.
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OccuList: Protest organizers luke-warm at best on Obama (Daily Caller)
Emails disclosed Monday show that while organizers of the Occupy Wall Street protest are not openly hostile toward President Barack Obama, they are disappointed by what they see as his White House?s slow, incremental approach to social change.
?Most people in the square would think of it as a step in the right direction (if only a baby step), and there are certainly a lot more things to be done,? organizer Gabriel Johnson wrote Oct. 6 to other organizers about the president?s American Jobs Act.
The emails are from a trove of 3,257 messages swapped among the group?s organizers from Sept. 14 to Oct. 12. These messages show that the group is on the left-wing fringe of U.S. politics, but also willing to support Obama?s administration and maybe his re-election campaign. Very few emails are hostile to the administration, and hardly any rule out cooperation with Obama?s team. (RELATED: ?Radical children?s literature? at Wall Street protests)
That?s important for Obama and his 2012 hopes because his cadre of enthusiastic supporters has shrunk greatly since 2008. In the last week, he?s sent strong signals of support to the protesters and their backers in the national progressive movement.
The ?Occupy? organizers? lack of hostility toward Obama also reduces the risk that the media-magnified group might schedule protests against him, or stage demonstrations that alarm swing voters.
In general, progressives who backed the president in 2008 aren?t satisfied with his actions in office despite his semi-nationalization of the health care sector; his intensified regulation of the banking, energy and transportation sectors; his military withdrawal from Iraq; his planned draw-down in Afghanistan; and his support for increased taxes.
That?s not enough for the progressives running what has become a small national protest movement. They say they want a formal nationalization of health care, government-set wages, tighter government control of banks and much more.
Clinton-era Democratic pollster Doug Schoen reported Tuesday that?a survey of 200 protest participants in New York City?s Zuccotti Park on Oct. 10 and 11 showed that 65 percent ?say that government has a moral responsibility to guarantee all citizens access to affordable health care, a college education, and a secure retirement?no matter the cost.? Nearly all the protesters, Schoen said, support the use of civil disobedience, and 31 percent support the use of violence, to achieve their goals.
But some support for Obama clearly remains among the organizers.
A Sept. 25 email from Baruch College professor Jackie DiSalvo, for example, cheered Obama?s rousing Sept 24?speech to the Congressional Black Caucus. In the speech, Obama urged African-Americans to ?take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes; stop complaining; stop grumbling, stop crying ? we are going to press on.?
?WOW! Obama calls people, especially African Americans, into the streets ? WOW! ?This, as Obama reminded his audience, is how the 60s started and succeeded,? DiSalvo wrote the next day.
Other organizers, however, quickly muted her enthusiasm. Ultimately, DiSalvo conceded in followup emails that Obama??is Wall Street ? I agree this is opportunism ? and the ?jobs program? [that] it is meant to support offers little to the masses and quite a bit to employers.?
Most organizers had little patience for Obama?s American Jobs Act, a?$447 billion, one-year stimulus plan.
On Oct. 6, for example, organizer ?ACPollack? derided the bill as reactionary. ?What we need to do IMO [in my opinion] is ? demand jobs for all, at union wages and benefits, until everyone is employed, and until we have all the health and childcare workers, teachers, paternity/maternity/elderly leave, that we need to meet the needs of our families and communities!?
The bill is ?a tenth of a step in the right direction and a whole step in the wrong direction,? former Brooklyn College art history professor Doug Singsen wrote the same day.
While commending the bill as a step in the right direction, the Newark, N.J.-based Johnson urged other organizers to withhold support. ?I am somewhat wary of [the group] endorsing a specific piece of legislation so specifically, though, so as not to become too tied (at least in the public consciousness) to Obama or the Democrats,? he wrote, adding the the perception would be ?utterly laughable if you?re familiar with the groups who helped spark OWS like the NYCGA, Adbusters, etc.?
NYCGA is the protestor?s rule-making group, the New York City General Assembly. Adbusters is the advocacy group that spurred the initial ?occupation? of the site in new York.
John McGloin, one of the earliest ?Occupy? organizers, agreed with Johnson, writing ?I am not against baby steps, but the fact that Obama?s big selling point on the jobs act started with the fact that Republicans have supported most of the provisions was a good clue of how effective it would be in creating jobs.?
Two days later, he offered a tepid endorsement, saying ?I hope the jobs act gets passed, but don?t fool yourself that it is a massive stimulus ?We should be demanding a multitrillion dollar jobs program, not begging for tax cuts for small business.?
Organizer Diane Sare, who manages perennial candidate Lyndon LaRouche?s?New Jersey grassroots operation, had a more negative view of Obama and his stimulus.
?The American Jobs act is an insane piece of fascist slave-labor garbage ? and that?s putting it nicely,? she wrote on Oct. 6. ?Giving corporations the right to FREE labor by giving them skilled employees who are collecting unemployment compensation ??We should NOT endorse this!?
?Supporting Obama?s pro-Wall Street policies, like his slave labor ?jobs act? is the best way to get a Rick Perry or Mitt Romney elected,? Sare warned one day later.
Her opinions aren?t unique. In an Oct. 11 email to the group, fellow organizer Jason Jones declared his opposition to any cooperation with MoveOn.org and other Democratic-affiliated groups.
?[The] only option now is brutal separation,? Jones wrote. ?The democrats are the enemy. Smash capitalism!?
Michael Steele predicts Romney-Cain ticket The overlooked, substantive GOP debate OccuList: Protest organizers luke-warm at best on Obama Misfit Politics sets its sights on Fast & Furious TheDC Morning: The unbearable whiteness of being an Occupier
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Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Motorola Atrix 2 just a few clicks away from your purchase at AT&T for $100
Motorola Atrix 2 just a few clicks away from your purchase at AT&T for $100 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Eurozone finance ministers meet to discuss Greece, EFSF reform
Video>> EU finance ministers gather to discuss Greece debt
President of Eurogroup and Prime Minister of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker (2nd L) talks with Belgian Minister of Finance and Institutional Reform Didier Reynders (1st L), EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary affairs Olli Rehn (2nd R) and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble during the Eurozone Finance Ministers meeting in Luxembourg, Oct. 3, 2011. The Eurozone Finance Ministers meeting kicked off on Monday. (Xinhua/Thierry Monasse)
LUXEMBOURG, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) ? Eurozone finance ministers met on Monday to discuss the situation in Greece and reform of the temporary rescue fund in a bid to contain spill-over of the sovereign debt crisis.
A joint mission from the troika, namely the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, is in Athens now to assess the situation in Greece and whether to deliver the next tranche of loans to the debt-laden country.
The Greek government has said that if it doesn?t receive the 8 billion euros by mid-October it could go bankrupt.
?We are currently assessing whether Greece will meet its fiscal targets with the current measures,? Rehn said before the meeting, adding ?it seems that Greece is likely to miss the target.?
The ministers will not make a decision on whether to pay the sixth tranche of loans to Greece before the troika makes an assessment of the Greek situation, but the worsening debt crisis of Athens will surely dominate their meeting on Monday night.
German Finance Ministers Wolfgang Schaeuble said on arrival for the meeting that speculating about payment of the loans to Greece made no sense.
Besides Greece, the ministers are also discussing reform of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), which analysts said was hard to cover the cost of bailing out larger economies such as Italy and Spain should the sovereign debt crisis spreads.
It was reported that European officials are thinking of increasing the capacity of the EFSF to about 2 trillion euros through leveraging of the EFSF.
Finnish Finance ministers Jutta Urpilainen said that the ministers will discuss leveraging of the rescue fund but he said ?we don?t want to increase the capacity of the EFSF.?
?We will talk about the implementation of the EFSF reform,? Schaeuble said, but he insisted that only 10 percent of the EFSF has been tapped and there is no point in speculating now.
The eurozone is under great pressure to prevent the crisis from spreading to bigger economies since turbulence on the financial market is threatening to hamper economic growth of the 17-member bloc.
European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn said: ?We have a very important meeting at a critical juncture today. We are facing three main challenges: stalling growth, stressed sovereigns and still vulnerable banks.?
Editor: yan
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Gaddafi diehards in Sirte hold up Libyan troops (Reuters)
SIRTE (Reuters)- Libyan government fighters battled Sunday to subdue pockets of resistance by pro-Gaddafi fighters, whose refusal to abandon the ousted leader's hometown of Sirte is delaying Libya's move to democracy.
Ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) forces kept up their bombardment of a small area in the center of Sirte but there was no push under way from ground troops.
NTC militia have besieged Sirte for weeks, slowly boxing Gaddafi die-hards into an area about two square kilometers (a square mile). Green flags, the symbol of Gaddafi's rule, still fly over the area.
Some fighters expressed irritation with their commanders for failing to order and advance and poor communication between brigades.
"There are no orders coming in even though we have the power to push them out," Hesham al-Dafani, an NTC fighter, told Reuters. "We don't know what's happening."
The failure to seize Sirte -- and the other remaining Gaddafi holdout, Bani Walid -- has delayed Libya's democratic transition. The country's new rulers say the process will only begin once Sirte is captured.
Fighting also continued in Bani Walid Sunday, Reuters reporters said, with sniper fire hindering an NTC advance into the city just as it has in Sirte.
Some fighters in Sirte said they suspected that the failure to order an advance was a result of NTC leaders not yet being ready to set out a roadmap for national elections.
Other fighters blamed the delay on a lack of communication between different NTC militias in Sirte.
"We are civilians, we not military people," NTC field commander, Mohammed al Sabty, said. "We don't have a certain plan."
NTC fighters continued to fire on an area known as Neighborhood Two and said they believed one of Gaddafi's sons, Mo'tassim, could be holed up there.
"We know that Gaddafi's Mo'tassim is inside, that's why they are fighting to the last drop of blood," commander Omar Abu Lifa said. "We're surrounding that area. We are taking it slowly because we want to catch him alive."
Some NTC sources told Reuters last week Mo'tassim, a former national security advisor, had been captured as he tried to escape Sirte. But the ruling NTC has yet to officially confirm, or deny, the reports.
NTC officers say Gaddafi loyalists continue to hold out because they fear reprisals if they surrender. Some captured fighters have been abused, rights groups say.
A doctor for the medical aid charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in Sirte has estimated 10,000 people remain trapped in the city of 75,000 residents. Many are women and children, some are sick or injured.
GADDAFI HOME BULLDOZED
Some political analysts say the long sieges of Sirte and Bani Walid risk undermining the NTC which and frustrate its effort to control the whole country.
The often chaotic struggle for Sirte has killed scores of people, left thousands homeless and laid waste to much of what was once a showpiece Mediterranean city where Gaddafi enjoyed entertaining foreign leaders.
The dangers posed by the failure to capture Gaddafi were highlighted Friday when fighting erupted in Tripoli between NTC forces and Gaddafi-loyalists for the first time since he fled the city in August.
Government forces set up more roadblocks across the city over the weekend, but especially in and around Abu Salim, an area of run-down apartment blocks where the clashes took place.
The area remained calm Sunday amid the heavy security but, nearby, a group of armed men with two bulldozers began demolishing the walls around Gaddafi's former home.
As the bulldozers set about the Bab al-Azizyah compound, a heavily fortified construction spread over 2.3 square miles that symbolized his repressive rule, men chanted, "God is greatest. This is for the blood of the martyrs."
Some fired machineguns into the air.
"We are destroying it because we want to demolish anything that belongs to Gaddafi," one gunman, Essam Sarag, told Reuters.
People driving past stopped their cars and joined a crowd waving new Libyan flags.
"We will continue until we destroy everything that belongs to Gaddafi," said Etman Lelktah, who said he was in charge of the fighters at the scene.
"We ask that a peace organization be built instead of Gaddafi's place."
(Additional reporting by Haydar Zim in Bani Walid and Yasmine Saleh in Tripoli; Writing by Barry Malone; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111016/wl_nm/us_libya
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