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Source: http://twitter.com/PatDollard/statuses/252135439413149697
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Sunday, September 30, 2012
Supersizing the sandwich generation | Inheritance | Retirement ...
About one-quarter of the so-called sandwich generation already has a second slice on top since they care for two or more seniors.
Balancing the demands of family life for today?s parents can be difficult at the best of times. Times are even tougher for many a parent suddenly tasked with the responsibility of caring for their own parents as well. These people make up the sandwich generation ? those raising their children and simultaneously looking after their parents.
But today?s changing demographics ? many of them highlighted in census data released recently by Statistics Canada ? are resulting in a sort of super-sizing of the sandwich generation.
There are incentives to consider the option of moving Mom and Dad into your home or moving your family into their home
The increase in rates of senior or ?grey? divorce means higher odds of caring for divorced parents and maybe even their new partners. As if caring for your married parents isn?t tough enough, we might see a generation of Baby Boomers providing elder care for parents in multiple locations.
About one-quarter of the so-called sandwich generation already has a second slice on top since they care for two or more seniors.
The trend towards having children at a later age also puts more people in the position of having to care for both children and parents. And since people are simply having fewer children period, there are less children to care for the growing ranks of the elderly.
The term ?sandwich generation? was coined by American social worker Dorothy Miller in 1981. A generation later, more than one-quarter of today?s Canadians aged 45-64 have children living with them and also perform some sort of elder care.
Since eight out of 10 in the sandwich generation are also working, it?s not surprising to see more and more retirement homes and nursing care options becoming available to provide the care they may not have the time to provide themselves. In some cases, it?s just not an option for the elderly to live on their own. That said, not all seniors have the resources to afford these facilities ? nor do all of their children.
Beyond the stress of physically caring for parents comes the stress of caring for their money
Statistics Canada reports the number of seniors living with relatives or non-relatives in a private dwelling increased from 285,370 to 393,150 from 2001 to 2011.
There are incentives to consider the option of moving Mom and Dad into your home or moving your family into their home. Selling your parents? home or your home could provide funds to use towards their care. It could also reduce the commuting costs of going back and forth from your home to theirs, since they are not likely to live close by.
And given that Statistics Canada reports that 15% of sandwiched workers have to reduce their work hours, having your parents in your home could mean more time to get the job done ? both your day job and your night job. After all, there are only so many hours in the day.
Beyond the stress of physically caring for parents comes the stress of caring for their money. And practically speaking, there are typically two different problems when it comes to Mom and Dad?s money ? they either have too little or too much.
Too little means they might become a financial burden on you. And if you have siblings, deciding how to split the cost of care can be a delicate subject. Should the cost be split equally? Should the oldest child step to the plate? Should the wealthiest child bear more of the burden? Or the one who makes more money? Or the one who got more financial support from their parents over the years?
Having too much money, while seemingly less of a problem, isn?t always so. One child may want to keep the funds intact in their parents? names, while others might push for an early advance of their inheritance. Beyond that, it?s common to see situations where strategies to move money from one generation to the next or to reduce taxes or probate defeat the original intention or lead to significant costs ? both financially and on family ties ? ranging from mistakes to disagreements to litigation.
The good news on the tax front is that the Canada Revenue Agency provides incentives to Canadians who are caring for elders. It?s possible a senior (or anyone, for that matter) may qualify for a tax credit called the ?disability amount? if they suffer from prolonged symptoms that inhibit their performance of the activities of daily living. Nursing home and caregiver costs may be claimed as medical expenses for another tax credit. And beyond that, there are additional tax credits for ?infirm dependents? as well as ?caregivers? depending on whether or not a senior lives with you or depends on you financially for support.
Having three generations under one roof is more common elsewhere in the world, but perhaps less so here in North America ? right now. One problem with this option is that it could raise an interesting dilemma ? that is, what if you take in your divorced parent and subsequently need to provide care to your other parent? Or maybe your parent has remarried and they require help as a couple? What if your parent passes away and their spouse still requires assistance? Maybe you inherit the house that the spouse is living in?
Odds are moving more in favour of being presented with such situation and Baby Boomers have some decisions to make in the not-so-distant future to ensure they can digest the double-decker sandwich they could soon be served.
Jason Heath is a fee-only Certified Financial Planner and income tax professional for Objective Financial Partners Inc. in Toronto.
Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2012/09/29/supersizing-the-sandwich-generation/
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Hodgson knighted in Finland for services to football
LONDON (Reuters) - England's globetrotting coach Roy Hodgson has been knighted in Finland for helping the minnows put their name on the football map.
Hodgson, appointed England coach in May, managed the Nordic nation from January 2006 to November 2007 when they came agonisingly close to qualification for a first major tournament at Euro 2008.
"Roy's time as the manager of Finland lifted the level of Finnish football culture and made Finland internationally better known as a football nation," Finnish ambassador to Britain Pekka Huhtaniemi said on the English FA's website (www.thefa.com) on Saturday.
Finland reached their highest ever FIFA ranking of 33 and were just one goal away from qualifying for Euro 2008 under Hodgson, when a victory over Portugal in their last qualifier rather than a 0-0 draw would have put them through.
"I enjoyed my life (in Finland) very much. Not only in football, but outside of it as well. I hope that my relationship with Finland, which is already great, becomes even greater," said the 65-year-old Hodgson.
The England boss has plied his trade in club football in Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, England, Norway and Denmark, is fluent in multiple languages, has won eight league titles and has also coached the national sides of Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.
"Roy brought with him a higher degree of professionalism and more disciplined style of playing," added Huhtaniemi.
Finland, now at their lowest ever ranking of 96 and coached by Mixu Paatelainen, are grouped with World and European champions Spain and 1998 World Cup winners France in their tough 2014 World Cup qualifying pool.
(Writing by Tom Pilcher, editing by Mark Meadows)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hodgson-knighted-finland-services-football-123620868--sow.html
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Atrix 4G, Photon 4G and Electrify will not receive Ice Cream Sandwich, says Motorola
Well this is tough news. Motorola Mobility has been maintaining an update chart and evaluating its current device lineup as to which devices should go forward with Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean. Just a few days ago, they delayed several devices having previously said they would get the upgrade in Q3. Now, they have announced the Atrix 4G, Photon 4G and Electrify will not be receiving the update and will be remaining on Gingerbread.
This is not good news. We hope this is just a difficult transitional period for Motorola and that they will learn from this. We bet that they will, but that still doesn't help all of you who currently own these devices.
So we feel for you and we'll be here to help you install unofficial updates. You'll probably want to sound off in the forums, and we don't blame you, so here are the links:
Their update chart has also been updated to reflect the changes.
Source: Motorola Mobility
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/BhGAjuIBb68/story01.htm
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Friday, September 28, 2012
Goodell apologizes to fans for replacement games
FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2012, file photo, Commissioner Roger Goodell gestures to fans before an NFL football game between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys in East Rutherford, N.J. The NFL and referees' union reached a tentative agreement on Wednesday, Sept. 26, to end a three-month lockout that triggered a wave of frustration and anger over replacement officials and threatened to disrupt the rest of the season. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2012, file photo, Commissioner Roger Goodell gestures to fans before an NFL football game between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys in East Rutherford, N.J. The NFL and referees' union reached a tentative agreement on Wednesday, Sept. 26, to end a three-month lockout that triggered a wave of frustration and anger over replacement officials and threatened to disrupt the rest of the season. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell apologized to the fans who fretted through three weeks of replacement officials calling their favorite teams' games.
"Obviously when you go through something like this, it's painful for everybody. Most importantly, it's painful for fans," he said on a conference call Thursday, about 12 hours after the league reached a deal to bring back the regular officials. "We're sorry to have to put fans through that. Sometimes you have to go through something like that in the short term for the right agreement for the long term."
Two days after a missed call on the final play cost the Green Bay Packers in their "Monday Night Football" loss to the Seattle Seahawks, the NFL and the officials' union announced a tentative eight-year agreement to end a lockout that began in June. The regular officials will return for Thursday night's Browns-Ravens game.
Goodell insisted the two sides were already in "intense negotiations" the last two weeks and that the Monday night mess was not a major factor in completing a deal.
"It may have pushed the parties along," he said.
But he dismissed assertions that the presence of replacement officials increased the chances an egregious mistake would occur. Goodell repeatedly reminded reporters that the regular officials have botched plenty of calls over the years.
The new agreement, he said, will improve officiating week in and week out, reducing similar mistakes in the future and making the strains of the last three weeks worthwhile.
"You're always worried about the short-term impact on your brand and the long-term impact on the brand," he said. "Obviously this has gotten a lot of attention and it hasn't been positive. It's something you have to fight through and get to the long term."
Associated PressCompelling evidence that brain parts evolve independently
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
An Evolutionary Biologist at The University of Manchester, working with scientists in the United States, has found compelling evidence that parts of the brain can evolve independently from each other. It's hoped the findings will significantly advance our understanding of the brain.
The unique 15 year study with researchers at the University of Tennessee and Harvard Medical School also identified several genetic loci that control the size of different brain parts.
The aim of the research was to find out if different parts of the brain can respond independently of each other to evolutionary stimulus (mosaic evolution) or whether the brain responds as a whole (concerted evolution). Unlike previous studies the researchers compared the brain measurements within just one species. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.
The brains of approximately 10,000 mice were analysed. Seven individual parts of each brain were measured by volume and weight. The entire genome, except the Y chromosome, was scanned for each animal and the gene set for each brain part identified.
Dr Reinmar Hager from the Faculty of Life Sciences compared variation in the size of the brain parts to variation in the genes. He found that the variation in the size of brain parts is controlled by the specific gene set for that brain part and not a shared set of genes.
He also compared the measurements for each mouse to the overall size of its brain. Surprisingly he found very little correlation between the sizes of the brain parts and the overall size of the brain.
Dr Hager says: "If all the different brain parts evolved as a whole we would expect that the same set of genes influences size in all parts. However, we found many gene variations for each different part of the brain supporting a mosaic scenario of brain evolution. We also found very little correlation between the size of the brain parts and the overall size of the brain. This again supports the mosaic evolutionary hypothesis."
Using the data collected from the mice Dr Hager and colleagues analysed the genes that influence the size of the brain to the genes that control the size of the body. They wanted to find out how independent size regulation of the brain is to that of the body.
They found evidence that the size of the brain is governed by an independent gene set to the one that controls the size of the body. Again they found vey little correlation between variations in the size of the body and the brain.
The evidence means that overall brain size can evolve independently of body size.
Following this research more work will be carried out to identify the specific genes that underlie the size of different parts in the brain
Dr Hager says: "If we can identify the specific genes that cause variations in the size of brain parts then there will be big implications for researchers looking at neuronal disease and brain development. We hope this research will significantly advance our understanding of the brain."
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University of Manchester: http://www.manchester.ac.uk
Thanks to University of Manchester for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
This press release has been viewed 71 time(s).
Source: http://www.labspaces.net/123866/Compelling_evidence_that_brain_parts_evolve_independently
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Safeguards Available If You Fear Downpayments for Home ...
? Ventilation is Key to a Good Roof
Occasionally I run into a customer who is afraid of giving a downpayment for work that they want done. They may have been burned in the past or just don?t trust themselves enough to have adequately checked out a business. If, for any reason, you do not trust the person who is trying to sell you something, do not do business with them. If you do trust them but still have reservations you can check out their online profile, or simply use a credit card.
Credit Cards: Many companies will now accept credit cards. You may have to pay the 3% processing fee, but if your contractor chooses not to show up to install your replacement windows or whatever product you are having installed, you can simply call your credit card company and tell them you never received the service promised. Most credit companies will remove the charge for up to 90 days after the card has been charged.
Online Profile: Several free websites such as Google and Yelp allow homeowners to comment and rate companies. Check them out BEFORE they come to your home. It is fair to ask the owner of a company for their full name as well. In Wisconsin, you can search circuit court records online to check them out, but be careful ? sometimes you can confuse someone who has the same or similar name but if you look closely you will notice they have a different birthdate, address, or middle initial. Today, nearly everyone has something in there. Even the author of this article has a ticket for not wearing his seat belt and driving a bit fast.
Better Business Bureau: The Better Business Bureau, sometimes just called the BBB, is available both online and over the phone to answer any questions that you have about a business. Their site is a bit tricky though so you have to know what to look for. Ratings are important, but even the absolute best company may have a maximum rating for A- until they meet the requirements of the BBB. Obviously if a company is only rated C or less, it should serve as a red flag, but you should also look at the amount of complaints a company has had. Is it spotless? Is there online one or two or has the company shown a pattern of poor service, poor products and poor judgement? Also check to see if customers have reviewed them. Are they positive, neutral or negative reviews? Sometimes the BBB will rate a company A+ even though they have had multiple issues with products and service. Be smart about using their website and look past just the rating.
Angie?s List: This is a tricky one. Angie?s list is paid for by the consumer which means if you want their ratings you have to pay for it. It sounds like it could be a decent service, but someone could easily buy subscriptions for their friends and relatives to artificially pump up their online ratings. If you use Angie?s list, use it in conjunction with other online rating places.
Gut Check: This may seem obvious, but if something just doesn?t feel right, that is reason enough not to move forward. Some people call it a ?spidey-sense? that is ?tingling? as if to warn them. But what it really boils down to is whether or not you feel your instincts are telling you that this is the right contractor or not.
So what is the right amount to put down? Many contractors require half down. Higher cost contractors often only require 1/3 down because their profits are higher. Often times you will find that the 1/2 a smaller contractor will require will be the same amount of money that the 1/3 was for a larger contractor. A good rule of thumb though is to never pay that second half until the work has been completed according to what has been written on the contract.
Why do contractors require down payments? They do this because they need to cover their materials and some of the costs of doing business. If they order products for your home and then show up on the day of install and the customer either isn?t home or refuses to let them install the product, then the contractor is not only out what they paid for the product, but they also will have to pay a restocking fee from their supplier and that is IF they allow product returns, plus they?ve lost transportation costs, delivery costs and have idled their work crew (which still needs to be paid) for the day.
Jim McGuigan is owner of Energy Masters, LLC which services the Metro Milwaukee area.
Jim McGuigan, is a licensed home improvement expert with a focus on both controlling and harnessing the elements. He is a GAF certified roofing contractor, a lead safe renovator, a VSI certified siding installer and has worked on flood mitigation projects. He has studied design and is skilled in water hydrology. View all posts by Energy Master ? ? Ventilation is Key to a Good Roof seth macfarlane justin tv justin tv Black Mesa NFL.com matt ryan matt ryan
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Justin Bieber Remembers The Late 'Mrs. Bieber' With 'Love'
Bieber remembers Avalanna Routh, who passed away on Wednesday, as 'one of the greatest spirits I have ever known.'
By Jocelyn Vena
Justin Bieber
Photo: Getty Images
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1694474/justin-bieber-remembers-avalanna-routh.jhtml
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Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Let's Get Honest with 'The Avengers'
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lets-honest-avengers-220522574.html
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Mailbag: Save some Cy Young votes for Braves' Kimbrel
Reliever having kind of rare season that merits award consideration
Getty ImagesThrough Monday, Braves closer Craig Kimbrel had allowed only 25 hits and struck out 106 batters in 58 2/3 innings.
MLB EXPERT MAILBAG
By Tony DeMarco
NBCSports.com contributor
updated 7:24 p.m. ET Sept. 25, 2012
|
Baseball Expert Tony DeMarco has been covering the big leagues since 1987, and been casting Hall of Fame ballots for the last 15 years. He answers questions weekly here:
Q: Given his lights-out ninth-inning performances, how realistic is it to say that Craig Kimbrel is a serious Cy Young Award contender?
? Lee Ayres, Atlanta
A: It's very realistic to think that Kimbrel's name will be included on most of the 32 BBWAA ballots ? which incidentally, now include the top five finishers, rather than the long-standing three. But winning the award figures to be a difficult proposition for him.
Since I happen to have an NL Cy Young Award vote this season, I can't go into any detail at this point on how I will fill out my ballot. But I'll present the questions that voters will have to debate in deciding where to put Kimbrel among a list of standout candidates that includes R.A. Dickey, Gio Gonzalez, Clayton Kershaw, Johnny Cueto, Kyle Lohse, Matt Cain, Aroldis Chapman and possibly a few other potential vote-getters.
First of all, relievers just don't win the award very often. Eric Gagne was the last to do it in 2003, and Dennis Eckersley's MVP/Cy Young season was 20 years ago. It's simple ? no matter how dominant a reliever might be, it's hard to have more impact in 60-or-so innings as a starting pitcher does in 200-plus.
But there are exceptions to every rule, and Kimbrel's dominance certainly has been historical and remarkable (as has Chapman's). How about some of these Kimbrel numbers through Monday?:
- 25 hits allowed in 58.2 innings and 214 batters faced. His .126 opponents batting average is the lowest qualifying average since 1900.
- 1.08 ERA
- With only 14 walks allowed, his WHIP is 0.67 ? the lowest by an NL reliever since 1900.
- 106 strikeouts, or 16.4 per nine innings ? the best single-season ratio on record.
- 39 saves in 42 opportunities for a league-best 92.8 percentage.
But the problem is going to be that innings total of only 58.2. Chapman has thrown 10 more despite being shut down for awhile in mid-September, and actually has 13 more strikeouts than Kimbrel.
And are Kimbrel's historically microscopic numbers better in the grand scheme of things than ? just to pick two leading candidates:
- Dickey with a very good shot at a pitching Triple Crown, going 19-6 (with two remaining starts) for a sub-.500 team, pitching seven innings and allowing one or fewer runs in 15 starts, tossing back-to-back one-hitters, and being in the top three in virtually every major statistical category?
- Gonzalez winning 20 games (granted with the league's best run support and no blown saves behind him), leading the NL in opponents' batting average and OPS, and doing all of it for a first-place team?
These are tough calls voters will have to make, and it just may come down to this last week of the regular season for many of them to decide.
Q: Do you think that being pushed by the Orioles will help the Yankees come playoff time? Or does it matter at all?
? Jennifer Chilm, Los Angeles
A: This question arises every late-September for first-place teams, and here's how I see it: I do think it's better for division leaders to be somewhat challenged, and be forced to play at a high level down the stretch. That makes it easier to keep their edge once the playoffs begin ? as opposed to clinching too early and losing intensity.
In almost every postseason, we see a favorite who clinched early and coasted into the playoffs, only to get upset. And most often, it's by a team that had to fight its way into the playoffs, and in effect, had been playing playoff games for the last couple of weeks. Last year's Cardinals are the latest in a long line of teams to fit the latter bill.
But as the first-place team, you don't want to be pushed for too long, or challenged so late that you don't clinch until the last day or two of the regular season. That might not allow you to set your rotation, or rest a regular or two who could use a couple of days off.
So the ideal scenario to me is be pushed a bit, but clinch the division title with a minimum of three games left in the regular season. In the new playoff format, with off days and the wild-card play-in game, that would allow almost a week to adjust and set things just right heading into the LDS round.
In the Yankees' case, the AL race is a bit tighter than they'd like. In fact, it's been so tight for so long that their 1.5-game edge over the Orioles through Monday seems big, doesn't it? I do think they will outlast the Orioles and win the AL East, setting up a first-round series against either the White Sox or Tigers.
And at that point, then it will become more a question of match-ups with either of those two teams, as well as how healthy and effective the Yankees' starting pitchers will be, not to mention Mark Teixeira.
Q: The Padres signed Carlos Quentin and Huston Street to extensions this year, but have not signed Chase Headley, who in my opinion is their best player. Why is that? What do you think will happen in the off-season with him?
? Robert Pyper, Phoenix
A: Oh, there's no doubt about it, Headley is the Padres' best player. Which makes their handling of his situation very interesting and important, to say the least.
In his breakout season, Headley, 28, is making $3.475 million ? easily one of the game's best bargains among arbitration-eligible players. His salary for 2013 will more than double in arbitration, and a long-term deal certainly has become the likeliest option with his monster second half (.300, 21 HR, 66 RBI, .372 OBP, .576 slugging through Monday).
While Headley's second half significantly has upped his value, if I were the Padres, I'd lock him up in a multi-year deal that will take away a year or two of free agency. He doesn't complain about the home ballpark, has proven that you can put up numbers despite its pitcher-friendly conditions, and is a solid defender and team leader.
And as you mention, the team's new ownership already has handed out extensions, so it appears as if there's room to expand the payroll ? certainly in the case of a cornerstone-type player such as Headley, rather than a chronic injury risk such as Quentin.
But the Padres were listening to offers for Headley around the trade deadline, and could do again this winter. And in fact, they owe it to themselves to at least see if there's an offer out there similar to the great package (Yonder Alonso, Yasmani Grandal, Edinson Volquez, Brad Boxberger) they received from the Reds last off-season for Matt Latos. If so, they may decide to go that route.
But absent that, Headley likely will get a long-term deal to stay in San Diego.
? 2012 NBC Sports.com? Reprintsadvertisement
More newsBraves are in!
Freddie Freeman hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to put the Atlanta Braves back in the playoffs with a 4-3 victory over the Miami Marlins on Tuesday night.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/49171454/ns/sports-baseball/
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HP Blogs - The Business Value of Cloud: Improve productivity - The ...
?
A number of years ago, HP had transformed its IT environment and achieved great success in doing so. That?s when HP realized there was a large IT base that had been left untouched?in other words, all the computers under the desks of the engineers. Indeed, our R&D engineers used a variety of tools during the development of new products, hardware and software alike. They kept rebuilding those systems so they provided them with the right tools at every step in the development process. And most engineers, not trusting anybody, had the systems literally under their desk.
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HP Product Development & Engineering IT Transformation
A painful transformation started. How would we get those systems away from under the engineers? desk in a datacenter where they could properly be managed? In the mind of the project team this would have several benefits:
- Standardize the toolset used by the engineers
- Focus the engineers on what they do best, development of new products, and relieve them from system management and configuration tasks
- Ensure security, back-up and disaster recovery, so information and intellectual property would be better protected
That stated, the engineers would start doing things in a standardized way. But how do you achieve that with people whose creativity you want to stimulate? You ask them to be as creative as possible in the design of their product, while you streamline them to use standard processes. It?s an oxymoron. Transforming the engineering environment requires careful change management. You must constantly demonstrate the added value to engineers of handing in their servers and software which requires depending on a central team to deliver what they need. The interesting part is the savings HP has experienced from doing this transformation. Actually, if you are interested in understanding more about this transformation you may want to read ?Transforming product design and engineering to save time and money in the electronics industry.?
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Researching for this blog entry, I ran into a post from my friend Gareth Evans dated from 2009, but in which he describes the benefits HP got from this exercise. HP?s PD&E IT transformation freed up 10-20 percent of engineering resources to go back to performing core productive work that adds up to potentially more successful, higher quality offerings consistently delivered at ever deceasing cost points and competitive time-to-market. The environment can also be kept current in a systematic and organized way going forward. So in a nutshell following benefits can be achieved:
- 10-20 percent more engineering productivity resulting in better products delivered with shorter time-to-market
- Better utilization of the R&D IT environment
- Better management of tools licenses, which can result in the need for less licenses
- Standardization of tools used (improves compatibility between projects and potentially component re-use)
- Increased protection of intellectual property
The question is obviously how these benefits are expressed in monetary terms and whether they can help you justify the migration to cloud. The Engineering IT transformation will not just give you the benefits I discuss above, but will also make you more agile, which in turn brings its own benefits with it.
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Software Development
What is true for PD&E is also true for software development. Mostly software development is done in an artisanal way. As we discussed, the increasing importance of digitization in general and the associated software development in particular, standardizing and optimizing the way software is built is critical. One way to address this is to migrate to PaaS environments, and we see many start-ups actually doing just that. They jumped from the traditional approach to public cloud based PaaS environments all together.
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Larger enterprises may not be ready for that. However, streamlining software development, standardizing the processes and improving the use of the development platforms are critical for enterprises to invest their money wisely and improve their agility. Four components are key to achieve this objective:
- A well-established project governance supported by tools allowing a thorough visibility of the requirements, progress and budget constraints. To achieve this, we use a tool called Project and Portfolio Management
- An environment in which you can manage and track every step in the development process, regardless of the platform you use (as larger projects will most probably combine multiple development platforms). That environment will gather information on the product through the different development steps. We call that Application LifeCycle Management.
- A cloud environment allowing your development engineers to quickly get access to the appropriate infrastructure and tools required at each step of the development. I?ll come back to this in a minute.
- Closer integration between development and operations to ensure a seamless production start-up. As I described in an earlier blog entry, we should learn from design for manufacturability and involve operations people throughout the development process to ensure compatibility between the application being developed and the environment on which it will run.
Let me come back to what we call the ?dev/test? cloud. During the different steps in the development process, multiple environments are required and the amount of compute power needed will vary drastically. So the question really is whether we use the public cloud for all development steps or whether we do some things internally while using public cloud for others. Dev/Test is truly a converged cloud use case.
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Stress testing an environment with anonymized data is definitely something we?ll do in a public cloud, but it will be interesting to see how public cloud-based PaaS environments will be adopted by developers of larger enterprises. Ideally what you would like is to be able to develop your application completely in the public cloud and then be able to take it back in-house without having to adapt it for a different cloud environment. Here again the concepts of converged cloud apply.
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Conclusion
Whether it is engineering or software development, centralizing the development resources (hardware, software) and making them easy to provision, frees engineers up and allows them to spend more time on developing the product or software. This is value to the bottom line as it allows projects to run faster and smoother, delivering results earlier and improving agility.
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But there are side effects. Standardizing the processes and documentation makes re-use of components easier, centralized management of tool licenses reduces cost while facilitating compliance and central back-up/recovery of information protects key assets of the enterprise. The real question is how the last three elements are represented as financial benefits, facilitating the ROI calculation of cloud investments.
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So, how much time do your users spend setting up IT environments, trying to get access to them, finding the right connections etc.? How much are your users spending time and effort finding the appropriate ?shadow-IT? tool because IT does not deliver them what they are looking for? Ask yourselves those questions, think about how cloud computing could help and use the results of your investigations to justify your move to cloud.
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National Conference On Citizenship: Civic Health Predicts Resistance To Unemployment
During the day, classrooms at Weller Elementary School in Springfield, Mo., are filled with students, teachers and the usual abundance of youthful energy and enthusiasm. But on Tuesday and Friday nights, a different kind of energy fuels the hopeful ambiance.
On those nights, local pastors, school nurses, small-business owners, PTA volunteers, and retired community members meet to discuss their vision for the Weller neighborhood and solutions to the economic challenges it faces. The group tackles questions like "Why do we have economic challenges in our neighborhood?" and "How do we reduce poverty in order to reach our vision?."
The answer may be "civic health."
The meetings are part of the Neighbor for Neighbor project, coordinated by Missouri State University and the Community Partnership of the Ozarks in an effort to foster what the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) calls "civic health."
David Smith, the executive director of the NCoC, describes civic health as a measure of community participation in activities like volunteering and voting and the level of trust and interaction between neighbors. The NCoC believes that the concept could be a key factor in turning the struggling U.S. economy around.
For communities like Weller, where Neighbor for Neighbor has calculated the unemployment rate to be nearly double the national average, improving civic health could be a critical first step towards recovery.
Last week, before convening for the 67th Annual National Conference on Citizenship in Philadelphia, the NCoC released a report to highlight the importance of civic health when considering a community's ability to fight unemployment. The report, entitled "Civic Health and Unemployment II: The Case Builds," is a continuation of research that began in 2011.
The report "identifies two aspects of civic health that matter most in preventing unemployment: the presence of a significant nonprofit sector, defined as the number of nonprofits per capita in each community; and social cohesion, the level at which citizens trust, talk to and help neighbors, and socialize with family and friends," the NCoC said in a press release.
According to the report, civic health can be a major factor in reducing unemployment. The NCoC advises community leaders to do several things based on the results of the study, Smith said.
First, leaders and planners must not overlook the impact of civic health on all aspects of community life. Civic health considerations should figure prominently even in economic planning. Second, local governments should encourage and facilitate a welcoming environment for certain types of NPOs that the study found predict resistance to unemployment. Finally, local leaders should include in any civic plan public halls, community auditoriums, arenas, parks, gyms, promenades and other spaces where citizens can congregate and interact.
The investment made in such initiatives will earn significant financial returns for the community, in addition to producing a more connected populace, Smith said. "The more connected people are, the more likely they are to invest in one another. It's a virtuous cycle we're encouraging ? that leads to greater employment and financial capital within the community."
Smith hopes the information will also help guide individual behavior and assist unemployed Americans in the job search. Though Smith understands that there are many factors that can contribute to a person being unemployed, community engagement may provide crucial support, he said.
"When people become unemployed, they pull back from the community," Smith said. "What our findings are saying is: don't pull back. Now is the time to become more engaged in your church, your mosque, or your synagogue, or a social club, Rotary club, or Elks club? By engaging with [community members], they are more likely to be able to help you get employed, or provide opportunities to build skills that make you more employable."
An engaged community and strong civic health are likely part of why Springfield as a whole has been able to weather the recession so well despite struggles in neighborhoods like Weller, according to Dr. Michael Stout. A sociology professor at Missouri State University, Stout is also a coordinator of the Ozarks Regional Social Capital Study (ORSCS), and a co-coordinator of the Neighbor for Neighbor program. Programs like Neighbor for Neighbor are designed to provide a boost in civic health to pockets that aren't keeping up with the rest of Springfield.
Though the national unemployment rate is stubbornly holding over 8 percent, Springfield brought its local rate down to 6.2 percent in June 2012 from 9.5 percent in June 2009.
"The NCoC study reinforces what we've been finding on the ground," Stout said. "We've actively been targeting our resources towards programming that develops social capital. We're concerned with how connected people are to each other."
Stout believes that it's important to have the ideas come from community residents. Local government should respond to the needs of the community and help facilitate their efforts, he said. "What we're really trying to show is that you need to have the connections and collaboration at both the leadership level and the community level for resources and tools," Stout said. "Empower people at the grassroots to be positive agents of change, while ensuring there is a base of support from leadership."
Local schools and businesses are already seeing results. Janet Dankert, one of the coordinators of Neighbor for Neighbor, said the Weller Elementary principal told her that the school has seen "new folks volunteer at the school who were involved in Neighbor for Neighbor, who had never been active with the school before."
In one Neighbor for Neighbor "action team," community members brokered consumer discounts with local vendors. A local landscaping company agreed to give discounts if residents found enough people in the neighborhood to commit their business to the vendor.
Springfield resident Leah Dingman King, who runs her own business coordinating 10-car haulers, helped organize the Neighbor for Neighbor locations for the city. King believes that the plan has a lot of potential but will need a concentrated effort to make a lasting change.
"It's an everyday thing. It's something where if you don't take a step forward everyday, you will go backwards," King says. "The TV and the internet have put a lot of people in their homes, and they're afraid to come out. But we've got a lot of good things happening and the neighbors are slowly coming off of their porches."
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Sunday, September 23, 2012
Instant analysis: Florida 38, Kentucky 0
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida extended its winning streak over Kentucky to 26 games in relatively easy fashion Saturday -- which is pretty much standard in the series between the Southeastern Conference teams.
The 14th-ranked Gators (4-0, 3-0 SEC) intercepted three passes and recorded their first shutout in SEC play since a 52-0 rout of Mississippi State in 2001. UF also got a touchdown pass and a touchdown run from quarterback Jeff Driskel.
Kentucky (1-3, 0-1 SEC) struggled offensively without starting quarterback Maxwell Smith, who entered the game as the league's leading passer (322.0 yards per game). Smith sat out with a shoulder injury, which he suffered in last week's loss to Western Kentucky. Morgan Newton started in his place and completed just 7 of 21 passes for 48 yards.
It was over when: Florida CB Jaylen Watkins intercepted a Newton pass and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown with 8:24 remaining in the first half. That put the Gators ahead 17-0 and was part of a 21-point second quarter.
Game ball goes to: Driskel. The sophomore was a little wild and did throw his first interception of the season, but he also completed 18 of 27 passes for 203 yards and ran seven times for 43 yards. The 27 pass attempts were a career high.
Stat of the game: Kentucky WR La'Rod King entered the game leading the SEC in receptions per game (7.7) after 23 catches in the first three games. He caught just three passes for 13 yards. Teammate Aaron Boyd was averaging 6.0 catches per game. He didn't have a catch.
Second guessing: Kentucky coach Joker Phillips elected to go for it on fourth-and-3 from the UF 33-yard line on the Wildcats' first possession. Newton's pass was incomplete, and the Gators took over. Yet when faced with a fourth-and-3 at the UF 29-yard line trailing 17-0 and badly in need of some momentum in the second quarter, Phillips called on kicker Craig McIntosh to try a 46-yard field goal. McIntosh missed.
What it means for Florida: The Gators enter their bye week with a 4-0 record and a chance to heal up some key injured players (RB/FB Trey Burton, LB Jelani Jenkins, RT Chaz Green) before an Oct. 6 game against LSU.
What it means for Kentucky: The heat will get turned up on Phillips, whose only victory this season came against Kent State. Phillips is 4-13 in SEC play since taking over for Rich Brooks.
Minglers Link to steal the Mulvaney Bookmakers Open 525 Semi ...
Minglers Link to steal the Mulvaney Bookmakers Open 525 Semi-Final
Six potential winners of the ?50 prize money have made it to the semi-final of the Mulvaney Bookmakers Open 525. The OR event will be staged at Shelbourne Park on Saturday, 22nd September. Majority of the entries have tonight as their open race debut because their previous races range from Grade A2 to A6.
The pair who did try their luck at the level which they will get exposed to yet again tonight, failed dreadfully, ending fifth or sixth.
One of the most commendable entries for the semi-final is the two-year-old black bitch, Minglers Link. The lightly raced hound has been active only four times during the career that took off just this season.
Ballymac Maeve?s daughter won the Grade A6 Derby Transport Package 25 A6 525 Semi-Final on 29th August, 2012 at Shelbourne Park.
Setting into an early pace, and then maintaining the lead until the wire settled the race in 29.21 seconds while winning by the margin of just half-length.
Finishing right after the winner was, Hanover Lass.
The Moore trained then displayed her consistent composure by bagging the ?400 prize money of the Grade A6 Derby Transport Package 25 A6 525 Final on 5th September, 2012 at Shelbourne Park.
For a straight second time the two-year-old out of, Minglers Impact, broke from the fifth trap. She was fast to draw clear from the rest of the competition, and made it to the other end of the wire in 29.27 seconds.
Despite trying to maintain a bench mark of performance, the black bitch dropped down to the third position just when it was time for her to strike the hat-trick at Shelbourne Park.
The race was won by, Razldazl Panda, in 28.79 seconds and had the favourite entry, Laughil George, settling into the second slot.
This time Minglers Link shot out from the third trap rather than the usual fifth.
The 7 to 4 entry has drawn the first gate to break from today.
The rest of the line-up includes Courtlough Rio, The Other Sky, Olympic Queen, Branstown Rex and Scot Abbey.
Formulating a technique for being the first one through the wire after leashing out of the first box will make the trip smooth.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent bettor.com?s official editorial policy.
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Source: http://blogs.bettor.com/Minglers-Link-to-steal-the-Mulvaney-Bookmakers-Open-525-Semi-Final-a189408
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Saturday, September 22, 2012
Three Mile Island Shuts Down After Pump Failure
But then what about the reliability of that backup hardware, especially if it isn't subject to the same kinds of loads as the primary?
At a certain point, "Shut everything down (safely)" is cheaper than having more redundant valvles, pumps, pipes, and more tubes in a series.
It is like RAID 1: you are more likely to have some kind of hard drive failure, but that hard drive failure is more likely to be recoverable.
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Friday, September 21, 2012
Major League Baseball Hopes iPhone Tickets Will Be a Hit - Ina ...
While riding to San Francisco?s AT&T Park on Wednesday, an alert popped up on my phone letting me know that the Giants game was nearby, even though I was still on the train nearing the ballpark.
As I neared the gate, I simply pulled out my just-updated iPhone and a bar code appeared that was scanned in, taking the place of a physical ticket.
Major League Baseball is among the first entities to try out Passbook, the iOS 6 feature that allows tickets, gift cards and boarding passes to be stored in a single spot on the iPhone.
Starting with games on Thursday, the league is supporting Passbook tickets with four teams: The San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox and Kansas City Royals.
The league has been an early adopter of mobile ticketing, supporting cellphone tickets since 2007, though until now it has used a less elegant text-message-based option.
MLB was among those on hand for the iPhone 5 launch last week, along with representatives from Sephora and Starbucks, which will both support Passbook for their loyalty cards.
Apple released iOS 6, which includes Passbook for the iPhone, earlier on Wednesday. The free update works on the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and the soon-to-go-on-sale iPhone 5.
As other phone makers push near field communication to make transactions even more seamless, Apple has said it is focused for now on Passbook, which still requires the use of bar codes for loyalty cards, tickets and boarding passes to be scanned.
Source: http://allthingsd.com/20120919/major-league-baseball-hopes-iphone-tickets-will-be-a-hit/
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Rushdie on the conflict between expression and blasphemy
In the last week, violent protests spread across Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and countries across the Middle East and Asia, targeting U.S. diplomatic missions. ?The provocation: a 14-minute trailer posted on YouTube for "Innocence of Muslims," a low-budget film depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a degenerate, a womanizer and a pedophile.
It all raises very uncomfortable questions about the fine line between defending the freedom of creative expression and inciting religious hatred.
While the violence, the injuries and even the deaths were inexcusable, these tensions come at a time when the Muslim world feels itself under cultural siege by the United States and the West.
In 2005, a Danish newspaper printed cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that many Muslims called insulting. Dozens of people were killed in violent protests and Danish missions were targeted in the Middle East.
The Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was assassinated in 2004 after his film "Submission" took a critical look at the treatment of Muslim women. More than 170 attacks on churches and mosques followed his killing.
More recently, a fringe Florida pastor, Terry Jones, organized "Burn a Quran Day." Last year, the online video of that ceremony triggered protests across Afghanistan, including one attack that killed seven foreigners at a United Nations compound.
This past February, U.S. soldiers burned more than 300 copies of the Quran and other religious materials at a prison in Afghanistan. The United States said it was not intentional, but dozens of protests and attacks ensued which left six Americans and more than 30 Afghans dead.
While Muslims have reacted very strongly to what they say is blasphemy against their prophet and their religion, there's no doubt that extremist provocateurs in the West such as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who posted the YouTube movie trailer, simply play into the hands of extremist provocateurs in the Muslim world as well.
This week Christiane Amanpour discusses the conflict between creative expression and blasphemy with author Salman Rushdie. In 1989, his book "The Satanic Verses" sparked a fatwa, a religious edict against him by Iran's spiritual leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomeini said the novel had blasphemed Islam. Now, 23 years later, Rushdie has written a memoir, "Joseph Anton," about his nine years in hiding.
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Low calorie cranberry juice lowers blood pressure in healthy adults, study finds
ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2012) ? Regularly drinking low-calorie cranberry juice may help get your blood pressure under control, according to new findings presented at the American Heart Association's High Blood Pressure Research 2012 Scientific Sessions.
In a study that measured the effects of drinking low-calorie cranberry juice, participants drank either low-calorie juice or a placebo drink every day for eight weeks as part of a controlled diet.
Blood pressure was measured at the beginning, mid-point and end of the study. After eight weeks, blood pressure values had significantly dropped from an average of 121/73 mmHg to 118/70 mmHg for those drinking the low-calorie cranberry juice. The placebo group showed no change.
Researchers note that cranberry juice is rich in antioxidants -- naturally occurring molecules in fruit, tea, wine and other foods -- which have been associated with lower blood pressure in other studies.
The study was funded by Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Heart Association.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Only children are significantly more likely to be overweight, European study finds
ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2012) ? Children who grow up without siblings have a more than 50 percent higher risk of being overweight or obese than children with siblings. This is the finding of a study of 12,700 children in eight European countries, including Sweden, published in Nutrition and Diabetes.
The University of Gothenburg, Sweden, was one of the participating universities in the study.
The study was conducted under the framework of the European research project Identification and prevention of Dietary and lifestyle-induced health EFfects In Children and infantS (IDEFICS), where researchers from various parts of Europe study diet, lifestyle and obesity and their health effects on children aged 2 to 9 years.
The study shows that only children have a more than 50 percent higher risk of obesity compared to their peers with siblings. The results were controlled for other influential factors, such as gender, birth weight and parental weight.
In the study, the children's measured BMI was linked to a parental questionnaire that included questions relating to the children's eating habits, television viewing habits and amount of outdoor play time.
"Our study shows that only children play outside less often, live in households with lower levels of education more often, and are more likely to have televisions in their bedrooms. But even when we take these factors into account, the correlation between singleton status and overweight is strong. Being an only child appears to be a risk factor for overweight independent of the factors we thought might explain the difference," says Monica Hunsberger, a researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, who contributed to the study.
"The fact that only children are more susceptible to obesity may be due to differences in individual family environment and family structure that we were not able to measure in sufficient detail. To better understand the causality, a follow-up study of these families will start next year," says Lauren Lissner, a researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg.
Over 22 million children in Europe are estimated to be overweight. The study shows that obesity among children in general is three times more common in southern countries such as Italy, Spain and Cyprus than in Sweden and other northern countries.
Read more about IDEFICS: www.idefics.eu
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Gothenburg, via AlphaGalileo.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- M Hunsberger, A Formisano, L A Reisch, K Bammann, L Moreno, S De Henauw, D Molnar, M Tornaritis, T Veidebaum, A Siani, L Lissner. Overweight in singletons compared to children with siblings: the IDEFICS study. Nutrition and Diabetes, 2012; 2 (7): e35 DOI: 10.1038/nutd.2012.8
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/Rcd_6uAatYA/120917090022.htm
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Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Emma Watson And 'Perks' Cast Try Out New Accents: 'Ello Guvnah!'
Logan Lerman, Ezra Miller of 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' tackle tough accents ahead of Tuesday's 'MTV First,' airing at 7:56 p.m.
By Amy Wilkinson, with reporting by Josh Horowitz
Emma Watson
Photo: MTV News
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1693931/emma-watson-perks-american-talk.jhtml
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China says ex-cop cooperated in murder probe
CHENGDU, China (AP) ? Prosecutors argued that an ex-police chief cooperated with investigators after initially covering up the murder of a British businessman by a top Chinese politician's wife, a court official said Tuesday at the end of a trial that is enmeshed with a political scandal roiling China's leadership.
The Intermediate Court in Chengdu city concluded Wang Lijun's trial after two half-day sessions without a verdict. But the proceedings bring Chinese leaders a step closer to resolving the scandal that exposed seamy infighting and buffeted a delicate transfer of power to new leaders.
A summary of the trial by a court spokesman fleshed out Wang's role in the murder last year, saying that Gu Kailai, the wife of Chongqing Communist Party chief Bo Xilai, conferred with him before and after the crime. Gu confessed to the murder and received a suspended death sentence at a trial last month.
The summary also said that prosecutors and Wang's lawyers argued that he cooperated with authorities after his arrest.
The emphasis in the official accounts on Wang's cooperation suggests authorities may give him a lighter sentence. The crimes he faces are generally punishable by up to 10 years in prison with a 20-year maximum for consecutive sentences, though sentencing guidelines allow for life imprisonment in egregious cases.
The scandal erupted after Wang fled to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu in February with information that Gu's business partner Neil Heywood ? whose death in November was initially ruled as either a homicide or a heart attack ? was in fact murdered and that Gu was a suspect. After a 33-hour stay at the consulate, Wang gave himself up to Chinese authorities.
The trial summary said Wang knew that Gu was a suspect in the murder all along and only cooperated with authorities after the alleged cover-up and his attempted defection at the U.S. consulate failed.
Absent in the official version was any mention of Bo, Wang's longtime boss and Gu's husband. Bo was removed as Chongqing's chief and suspended from the Politburo and his fate remains the thorniest issue his colleagues must still resolve.
The scandal would have gone unnoticed but for the involvement of a foreigner. Following British demands for a full investigation, Chinese leaders were forced to make public scandalous details that it would have preferred to keep private, further dirtying the Communist Party's already soiled image to the public.
The fall-out saw the Chinese leadership devote energies to damage control just as they were engaging in tricky back-channel politicking to choose the country's next generation of leaders.
Leaders must decide whether to expel Bo from the party and prosecute him, and differences are believed to have delayed announcing dates for a party congress to install the new leadership, though it is expected in coming weeks.
In the trial, Wang "did not raise objections" to the charges of defection, abuse of power, bribe-taking and bending the law for personal gain, and the court found him to be in "good health and stable mood," said court spokesman Yang Yuquan. Footage of the trial aired by state broadcaster showed Wang appearing somber but still looking young for his 52 years. Foreign media were barred from attending.
While prosecutors argued that as a senior official in possession of state secrets Wang's defecting was a serious, they and his lawyer also said that he surrendered to authorities, Yang said. Once in custody, Wang related his suspicions about Bo's wife ? referred to in court documents as Bogu Kailai. Yang said that Wang also provided information that helped in investigating other people not named.
Wang "took the initiative to expose the Bogu Kailai murder case to relevant departments and made an important contribution to the solving of the case," Yang quoted Wang's lawyer as telling the court.
In the official account, the lawyer further argued "Wang had a reason for defecting" that he voluntarily left the consulate, and subsequently related the facts behind his defection accurately.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-says-ex-cop-cooperated-murder-probe-093043243.html
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