Monday, April 22, 2013

LG's NYC press event aims to 'share the genius' of the Optimus G Pro

LG

LG's just shed some much needed light on its May 1st New York event. Turns out the "genius" the company will be celebrating stands for Atlas Genius -- as in the band -- and the star of this fete: the Optimus G Pro. We've already seen and very favorably reviewed the global model of LG's performance flagship (for the G's successor, you'll have to wait until Q3) and now it looks like the US is in store for a potential carrier-branded version of its own. If it arrives internally unmolested, we're looking at a 5.5-inch 1080p True HD IPS+ display, Snapdragon 600 and a 2.1-megapixel / 13-megapixel camera setup capable of dual video recording. We'll be on-site for this stateside debut, so stay tuned for the full monty.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/vW5tYZbcn9E/

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The Self-Education Checklist - Race Bannon

by Race Bannon on April 20, 2013

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A while back I read a great book by Atul Gawande titled The Checklist Manifesto. The message of the book is that in today?s deluge of information and processes that many of us are required to utilize in our daily lives, and in our professional lives in particular, there is no way we can remember everything we need to do without a reference. That reference can be a simple checklist.

A checklist is simply a concise listing of steps or considerations that should be addressed as we undertake a task. I won?t go into the power that checklists have. Go ahead and read Gawande?s book to learn more about that, but the gist is that the introduction of a simple checklist into a task or process significantly improves the likelihood that all steps or considerations will be addressed and that the resulting outcome will be better. The evidence put forth by Gawande is irrefutable in this regard.

So, how might this apply to self-education? I?d like to propose you consider creating for yourself a simple checklist you can use to jumpstart any self-education effort you might undertake. As you begin to embark on a learning project, use each of these checklist items to hone and improve your learning. Each checklist item need only have one or a few words to queue you to thinking about the item. How you construct your checklist is up to you and should be tailored to your preferred ways of learning. Simple and short is usually best. This following checklist should give you some ideas.

  1. Start a learning document. This can be a simple word processing document that contains much of the content we?ll talk about in the remaining checklist. A learning document becomes your central repository for learning guidance and documentation of learning.
  2. What do I want to learn? At first glance, this seems like a silly checklist item, but too often we start to learn about something and realize we?ve failed to identify exactly what it is we want to learn?
  3. Why do I want to learn it? Why we want to learn something is important. Having a good reason to learn something motivates us and helps to keep our learning on track.
  4. What learning resources are available? Are there people you can communicate with who understand the topic? Books? Websites? eLearning? Discussion groups? Make as thorough a list of resources as possible.
  5. Can I identify some good overview material? Most of us learn best when we digest and understand high-level, overview material about the topic first. We hang the more detailed aspects of our learning on these larger, overarching ideas and concepts. Understanding them will improve your learning.
  6. Use the overview material. Learn from any overview material you can find until you feel you have a good, high-level understanding of the topic.
  7. Can I outline the topic? Creating an outline, even a rudimentary one, can assist you in organizing your thinking and your learning. No one will see the outline but you. So use whatever format works for you.
  8. What should I do and in what order? Identify some specific learning tasks such as reading a book, viewing a documentary, talking with a knowledgeable person, attending a speech or presentation, investigating a website, and so on.
  9. Act. You know what you want to learn, why you want to learn it, identified some resources, identified and learned from overview material, outlined the topic, and created an ordered list of learning tasks. Now it?s time to act and learn.
  10. Can I produce something that proves I know what I know? Can you create a document, presentation, video, photograph, audio recording, or anything else you can think of that ?proves? you know the topic. This serves two purposes. First, it helps you solidify the learning that?s taking place as you create this product. Second, if you should ever need to prove to an employer or someone else that you know about this topic, such proof is incredibly valuable.
  11. Update, organize and store your learning document and any other materials you used to learn or prove your learning. Most of what you?ll be organizing are likely to be digital computer files, which are easily organized, but you might have some tangible physical stuff to deal with as well. When it becomes necessary to reference this stuff in the future, you?ll be glad you spent a little time doing this.

This checklist is just a suggestion for the creation of your own checklist. Adapt it to suit your needs. No one knows how you learn best better than you. And if you have any other suggestions for checklist items, please enter a comment to share with everyone so we can all keep learning.

Source: http://racebannon.com/2013/04/20/the-self-education-checklist/

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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Bid For FBI Building Sets Off Regional Competition

WASHINGTON ? The FBI's announcement that it needs a new home has touched off a virtual real estate beauty contest, with communities around the region jockeying for the opportunity to attract the law enforcement agency ? and attendant economic benefits ? to their neighborhoods.

The pursuit has turned congressmen from neighboring states into competing pitchmen, spurred newspaper op-eds and even required a public apology from an economic development official who disparaged another community bidding for the headquarters. Public debate on Capitol Hill and in the real estate development community has focused on whether an agency whose identity is linked to the nation's capital could find a more suitable home in the Washington suburbs.

"You would expect there to be competition among the jurisdictions for a development project as favorable as the FBI," said Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, who joined counterparts from Virginia in testifying last month before a House subcommittee. "We're all friends. We're going to try to sell our jurisdictions as the best sites."

The contenders include Maryland's Prince George's County, already home to federal agencies specializing in intelligence research and cybersecurity. Northern Virginia proponents boast of the area's high-quality schools and proximity to the CIA headquarters and other existing FBI facilities, including its training academy, in the area. The District of Columbia is also offering a waterfront site near highways, public transit and a major league baseball stadium.

The General Services Administration, which oversees federal office space, has received about three-dozen submissions following its request for ideas to develop a new headquarters of approximately 2.1 million square feet.

One idea under consideration is a property swap in which a developer would take over the existing FBI headquarters in exchange for constructing or providing a new building for the agency. That arrangement would allow the government to save on costs of a new land acquisition while a developer would get the chance to build the new headquarters and repurpose a downtown city block.

The level of interest isn't surprising: At stake is a multi-million-dollar economic development project that would bring thousands of jobs, expand the tax base and boost area retail and service industries.

"Think about the daytime population, people coming to the FBI headquarters morning, noon and night," said Douglas Cooper or the Urban Land Institute in Washington, a nonprofit research group. "Think about the potential for people relocating from one jurisdiction to the other to be closer to work."

The FBI's current headquarters, a hulking Brutalist structure that began housing workers in 1974 on prime Pennsylvania Avenue real estate, is known by many Americans for its appearances in news broadcasts and movies. Millions have visited for tours, which are now discontinued.

But the FBI says the J. Edgar Hoover Building is now obsolete, inefficient and in disrepair. Those findings were confirmed by a 2011 Government Accountability Office report that agreed the building didn't meet the agency's long-term security needs.

The bureau wants to move more than 10,000 employees spread among leased annexes throughout the region into a secure consolidated headquarters somewhere in the region. It says a new headquarters could save at least $44 million in rent payments annually.

The competition manifested itself at a House subcommittee hearing last month, when congressmen normally accustomed to uniting behind joint regional interests took turns trumpeting the virtues of each one's state.

Maryland officials are pushing a site near a mass transit station in Prince George's County, which officials say is already home to about a quarter of the region's federal workforce as well as agencies and installations like NASA and Joint Base Andrews, a military facility.

Virginia officials have touted a GSA warehouse facility in Fairfax County ? between the existing headquarters and the FBI training academy in Quantico ? which they say would allow for easy access to the airports, Capitol Hill and the White House.

The states have selectively cited studies and statistics to bolster their case. Maryland officials say more headquarters employees live in their state than in D.C. or Virginia; representatives from Virginia have made similar assertions.

The debate has also included discussion of the region's demographic and economic differences. Fairfax County, ranked among the nation's highest-income counties, says the headquarters would be another boon to an already-thriving region, while Prince George's County officials see a chance to help the county catch up to its more affluent neighbors.

"These sorts of locations and these sorts of decisions are not based really on who needs it the most for different reasons," said Sharon Bulova, chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. "It's not that Fairfax County doesn't need it and that Prince George's County does. I would be very surprised if the FBI and the federal government make a decision on who needs it most. It should be on the merits."

The process took a snarky turn when Gerald Gordon, president of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, was described by the Washington Business Journal as jokingly suggesting that an FBI headquarters in Prince George's County would be conveniently close to where its agents go to pick up criminals.

The county struggles with violent crime and was shamed by a public corruption scandal that brought down former County Executive Jack Johnson ? who was recorded by the FBI directing his wife to stow cash bribes in her undergarments ? and other county officials. Gordon later apologized for having "mentioned some negative aspects of a neighboring jurisdiction."

"The county is moving on and the sins of the previous administration should not be exacted upon a county of hardworking, honest people," said Aubrey Thagard, a county economic development official, adding, "We'll debate the merits of our location anytime, anywhere, with anybody."

D.C. officials have proposed relocating the bureau to a waterfront development near the Anacostia River.

It's an agency "that needs to be on call," said Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.'s non-voting representative to Congress.

That point was echoed by one retired FBI agent, who in a letter to The Washington Post made the case for keeping the bureau in Washington by saying, "Even in today's fast-faced electronic world, the need for face-to-face meetings is critical to getting things right."

Aside from any sentimental attachment, any decision on where to site the headquarters needs to account for practical concerns like traffic management and affordable housing options, said Cooper, of the Urban Land Institute.

"Wherever they decide to relocate, it's going to have an impact throughout the region ? not just in that one jurisdiction but throughout that region."

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/20/fbi-building_n_3124304.html

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SMBC Nikko bets on "Abenomics", plans first new branches in 5 years

By Nathan Layne and Emi Emoto

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's SMBC Nikko Securities will expand its domestic retail branch network by more than 20 percent over the next three years as it bets that the new premier's economic policies will lift the stock market further, the head of the country's third-largest brokerage said.

Tetsuya Kubo, who became president of the brokerage arm of banking group Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc (SMFG) this month, said he wanted to open 25 new branches as part of an effort to increase retail client assets by one-third, to 30 trillion yen ($302 billion), by 2016.

The aggressive shift in strategy for SMBC Nikko, which has 109 branches and has not opened a new one in five years, could also mean tougher competition for Nomura Holdings Inc and Daiwa Securities Group Inc , Japan's two largest securities firms which have about 180 and 120 branches, respectively.

Kubo, 59, said there was a need to invest in the brokerage's retail network after years of tight cost controls under the previous owner Citigroup Inc , which sold the franchise, known as Nikko Cordial, to SMFG in 2009.

"Nikko is strong in retail but for the past several years we didn't really put resources into branches and staff," Kubo, previously chief financial officer of SMFG, told Reuters in an interview last week. His comments were embargoed for release on Monday.

"To be a winner over the long term there is a need to increase staff," Kubo said. Earlier this month, the company announced it would boost overall staffing by 600, to 8,600, under a three-year business plan.

A DIFFERENT LOOK

Kubo said he was confident that bold fiscal and monetary steps under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, aimed at pulling the economy out of deflation, would continue to push stock prices higher.

He would not be surprised, he said, if the Nikkei stock average <.n225> reached 16,000 by the end of 2013. That would be a gain of another 20 percent for the benchmark from its close on Friday at 13,316.48, after already rallying some 50 percent since Abe was tipped as a candidate for premier in mid-November.

Kubo also noted a marked increase in interest from foreign investors during the final months of his tenure as the banking group's CFO, when the aggressive economic stimulus espoused under "Abenomics" set stocks rising and the yen tumbling.

While it was normal to be called on by asset managers in charge of Japan, he also started to get requests for meetings from global managers of equity funds.

"There was a different look in their eyes. They wanted to know what was happening in Japan, what had changed," he said.

Japanese individuals, which park the bulk of their $15 trillion worth of savings in bank deposits and other low-yielding instruments, have been a particularly hard sell for Japanese stock brokers and asset managers. Memories still linger of the collapse of Japan's asset bubble two decades ago, which hit retail investors hard.

Kubo sees SMBC Nikko's ties to its parent bank, which owns 100 percent of the broker, as a key advantage over independent securities firms such as Nomura and Daiwa in tapping the renewed retail investor interest in stocks.

The brokerage has attracted 1 trillion yen in assets through referrals from SMFG bank clients since becoming part of Japan's third-largest banking group, Kubo said.

Of the 7 trillion yen increase in retail assets the brokerage is targeting over the next three years, it hopes to capture another 1 trillion yen through such referrals from SMFG, which has 10 times the number of accounts as SMBC Nikko, he said.

(Editing by Edmund Klamann)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/smbc-nikko-bets-abenomics-plans-first-branches-5-210237767--sector.html

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USA Today founder Neuharth dies in Florida at 89

FILE- in this Thursday, Sept. 25, 2003 file photo provided by the Freedom Forum, Al Neuharth, founder of the USA Today and the Freedom Forum listens as former U.S. Sen. George McGovern speaks during the dedication of the Al Neuharth Media Center on the campus of the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, S.D. Neuharth has died in Cocoa Beach, Fla. He was 89. The news was announced Friday, April 19, 2013 by USA Today and by the Newseum, which he also founded. (AP Photo/Freedom Forum, Dave Eggen, File)

FILE- in this Thursday, Sept. 25, 2003 file photo provided by the Freedom Forum, Al Neuharth, founder of the USA Today and the Freedom Forum listens as former U.S. Sen. George McGovern speaks during the dedication of the Al Neuharth Media Center on the campus of the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, S.D. Neuharth has died in Cocoa Beach, Fla. He was 89. The news was announced Friday, April 19, 2013 by USA Today and by the Newseum, which he also founded. (AP Photo/Freedom Forum, Dave Eggen, File)

FILE - In this Dec.1999 file photo, Al Neuharth, founder of USA Today, poses at his home in Cocoa Beach, Fla. USA Today founder Al Neuharth has died in Cocoa Beach, Fla. He was 89. The news was announced Friday, April 19, 2013 by USA Today and by the Newseum, which he also founded. (AP Photo/Peter Cosgrove, File)

(AP) ? Al Neuharth changed the look of American newspapers when he founded USA Today, filling the newspaper with breezy, easy-to-comprehend articles, attention-grabbing graphics and stories that often didn't require readers to jump to a different page.

Critics dubbed USA Today "McPaper" when it debuted in 1982, and they accused Neuharth, of dumbing down American journalism with its easy-to-read articles and bright graphics. USA Today became the nation's most-circulated newspaper in the late 1990s.

The hard-charging founder of USA Today died Friday in Cocoa Beach, Fla. He was 89. The news was announced by USA Today and by the Newseum, which he also founded.

Jack Marsh, president of the Al Neuharth Media Center and a close friend, confirmed that he passed away Friday afternoon at his home. Marsh said Neuharth fell earlier this week and never quite recovered.

Sections were denoted by different colors. The entire back page of the news section had a colored-weather map of the entire United States. The news section contained a state-by-state roundup of headlines from across the nation. Its eye-catching logo of white lettering on a blue background made it recognizable from a distance.

"Our target was college-age people who were non-readers. We thought they were getting enough serious stuff in classes," Neuharth said in 1995. "We hooked them primarily because it was a colorful newspaper that played up the things they were interested in ? sports, entertainment and TV."

USA Today was unlike any newspaper before it when it debuted in 1982. Its style was widely derided but later widely imitated. Many news veterans gave it few chances for survival. Advertisers were at first reluctant to place their money in a newspaper that might compete with local dailies. But circulation grew. In 1999, USA Today edged past the Wall Street Journal in circulation with 1.75 million daily copies, to take the title of the nation's biggest newspaper.

"Everybody was skeptical and so was I, but I said you never bet against Neuharth," the late Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham said in a 2000 Associated Press interview.

The launch of USA Today was Neuharth's most visible undertaking during more than 15 years as chairman and CEO of the Gannett Co. During his helm, Gannett became the nation's largest newspaper company and the company's annual revenues increased from $200 million to more than $3 billion. Neuharth became CEO of the company in 1973 and chairman in 1979. He retired in 1989.

As Gannett chief, Neuharth loved making the deal. Even more so, the driven media mogul loved toying with and trumping his competitors in deal-making.

In his autobiography, "Confessions of an S.O.B.," Neuharth made no secret of his hard-nosed business tactics, such as taking advantage of a competitor's conversation he overheard.

He also recounted proudly how he beat out Graham in acquiring newspapers in Wilmington, Del. He said the two were attending a conference together in Hawaii, and he had already learned that Gannett had the winning bid, but he kept silent until he slipped her a note right before the deal was to be announced.

During the mid-1980s, Gannett unsuccessfully attempted to merge with CBS in what would have been the biggest media company at the time. The deal fell apart, something that Neuharth considered one of his biggest failures.

Neuharth was proud of his record in bringing more minorities and women into Gannett newsrooms and the board of directors. When he became CEO, the company's board was all white and male. By the time he retired, the board had four women, two blacks and one Asian. He also pushed Graham to become the first female chairman of the American Newspaper Publishers Association.

"He was a great leader," said former AP president and CEO Tom Curley, who worked closely with Neuharth for many years. "He certainly was one of the pioneers on moving women and people of color into management positions. He was a very strong manager who commanded respect, I think, throughout the industry as well as from those who worked with him. His hardscrabble life, poverty in South Dakota and fighting in World War II prepared him for any battles in a competitive arena, and he loved to compete and he loved to win."

Before joining Gannett, Neuharth rose up through the ranks of Knight Newspapers. He went from reporter to assistant managing editor at The Miami Herald in the 1950s and then became assistant executive editor at the Detroit Free Press.

Allen H. Neuharth was born March 22, 1924, in Eureka, S.D. His father died when he was 2. He grew up poor but ambitious in Alpena, S.D., and had journalism in his blood from an early start. At age 11, he took his first job as a newspaper carrier and later as a teenager he worked in the composing room of the weekly Alpena Journal. His ambition already was noticeable.

"I wanted to get rich and famous no matter where it was," Neuharth said in a 1999 Associated Press interview. "I got lucky. Luck is very much a part of it. You have to be at the right place at the right time and pick the right place at the right time."

After earning a bronze star in World War II and graduating with a journalism degree from the University of South Dakota, Neuharth worked for the AP for two years. He then launched a South Dakota sports weekly tabloid, SoDak Sports, in 1952. It was a spectacular failure, losing $50,000, but it was perhaps the best education Neuharth ever received.

"Everyone should fail in a big way at least once before they're forty," he said in his autobiography. "The bigger you fail, the bigger you're likely to succeed later."

Neuharth married three times. His first marriage to high school sweetheart Loretta Neuharth lasted 26 years. They had a son, Dan, and daughter, Jan. He married Lori Wilson, a Florida state senator, in 1973; they divorced in 1982. A decade later, he married Rachel Fornes, a chiropractor. Together, they adopted six children.

After he retired from Gannett, Neuharth continued to write "Plain Talk," a weekly column for USA Today.

He also founded the The Freedom Forum, a foundation dedicated to free press and free speech that holds journalism conferences, offers fellowships and provides training. It was begun in 1991 as a successor to the Gannett Foundation, the company's philanthropic arm.

Jim Duff, president and chief executive officer of the Freedom Forum, said, "Al will be remembered for many trailblazing achievements in the newspaper business, but one of his most enduring legacies will be his devotion to educating and training new journalists," according to the post on the Newseum website. Duff added, "He taught them the importance of not only a free press but a fair one."

With his entrepreneurial flair, Neuharth put the Freedom Forum on the map with Newseum, an interactive museum to show visitors how news is covered. The first museum in Arlington, Va., was open from 1997 to 2002. It was replaced by a $450 million facility in Washington that opened in spring 2008. There was also the Newscapade, a $5 million traveling exhibit.

In a June 2007 interview in Advertising Age, Neuharth was asked about the future of printed newspapers amid the upheavals of the news business.

"The only thing we can assume is that consumers of news and information will continue to want more as the world continues to become one global village," he said. "The question is how much will be distributed in print, online and on the air. I don't know how much will be delivered on newsprint. Some will be delivered by means we can't even think of yet."

___

Associated Press Writer Kristi Eaton in Sioux Falls, S.D., contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-20-Obit-Al%20Neuharth/id-f2bfd83b358e488396e12340635c959d

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Sen. Lindsey Graham Says We Should Deny Bombing Suspect's Constitutional Rights (Little green footballs)

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Saturday, April 20, 2013

Quake jolts China's Sichuan, killing 41

In this photo provided by China's official Xinhua News Agency, a giant rock blocks the road, about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) from the county seat of Lushan in Ya'an city, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, April 20, 2013. A powerful earthquake jolted China's Sichuan province Saturday near where a devastating quake struck five years ago. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Hai Mingwei) NO SALES

In this photo provided by China's official Xinhua News Agency, a giant rock blocks the road, about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) from the county seat of Lushan in Ya'an city, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, April 20, 2013. A powerful earthquake jolted China's Sichuan province Saturday near where a devastating quake struck five years ago. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Hai Mingwei) NO SALES

In this photo provided by China's official Xinhua News Agency, people gather on a street to avoid aftershocks of an earthquake, in Shifang, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, April 20, 2013. At least two people were killed Saturday when a powerful earthquake jolted China's Sichuan province near the same area where a devastating quake struck five years ago, with state media warning the casualty toll could climb sharply. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Zhang Xiaoli) NO SALES

In this photo provided by China's official Xinhua News Agency, students gather outside their school buildings to avoid aftershocks of an earhtquake, in Dazhou, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, April 20, 2013. People were killed Saturday when a powerful earthquake jolted China's Sichuan province near the same area where a devastating quake struck five years ago, with state media warning the casualty toll could climb sharply. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Deng Liangkui) NO SALES

BEIJING (AP) ? A powerful earthquake jolted China's Sichuan province Saturday near where a devastating quake struck five years ago, leaving at least 41 dead and more than 600 injured and prompting state media to warn the casualty toll could climb sharply.

The quake ? measured by China's seismological bureau at magnitude-7 and the U.S. Geological Survey at 6.6 ? struck the steep hills of Lushan county shortly after 8 a.m. toppling buildings, many of them older brick structures. Tiles fell from roofs, and pictures dropped from walls, sending people into the streets in their underwear and wrapped in blankets.

"Generally the quake felt much stronger than that from five years ago. Many decorations at home got smashed," said Zhao Zheng, a resident of Ya'an city, near the quake. He was reached by direct message on his Twitter-like microblog resident and said he was awakened by the earthquake.

The People's Daily newspaper said 41 people had been killed, including at least 28 in the epicenter of Lushan. Xu Mengjia, Communist Party secretary for Ya'an, which administers Lushan, told China Central Television that at least 32 people had been killed and more than 600 injured.

The quake's shallow depth, less than 13 kilometers (8 miles), likely magnified the impact. The official Xinhua News Agency said that the quake rattled buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu 115 kilometers (70 miles), to the east. It caused the shutdown of the city's airport for about an hour before reopening, state media said.

Lushan, where the quake struck, is home to 1.5 million people where the fertile Sichuan plain meets foothills that eventually rise to the Tibetan plateau. Known for its mountains, the area is near a well-known preserve for pandas.

Social media users who said they were in Lushan county posted photos of collapsed buildings and reported that water and electricity had been cut off.

A man who answered the phone at the Ya'an city government said telecommunications were cut and that medical and rescue teams are on the way to the area. Xinhua said more than 2,000 soldiers were being mobilized and sent to the disaster area.

"I felt the strong quake this morning in my office. All drawers of the desk opened and some stuff on the table fell on the floor," said the man, who refused to give his name, as is usual with low-ranking Chinese government officials.

The area lies near the same Longmenshan fault where the devastating 7.9-magnitude quake struck May 12, 2008, leaving more than 90,000 people dead or missing and presumed dead.

"It was just like May 12," said Liu Xi, a writer in Ya'an, who was jolted awake by Saturday's quake. "All the home decorations fell at once, and the old house cracked."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-20-China-Earthquake/id-47a707b2c5ce4a89bf077a2d305ea53a

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CinemaCon: Michael Cera Dies in Sony's Outrageous 'This Is the End' Trailer

(Contains strong language and sexual content)

By Brent Lang

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Michael Cera, playing himself, dies in spectacularly gory fashion in "This Is the End," which Sony Pictures showed in an excerpt screened at the CinemaCon movie convention on Wednesday night.

The "Superbad" actor is impaled by a falling lamp post after the apocalypse harshes the mellow at James Franco's star-studded house party in the upcoming foul-mouthed comedy.

That's not the only indignity foisted upon the nebbish Cera, who like all the other actors - Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride - plays an obnoious, self-centered version of himself. In the film, the actor transforms himself into a sex-crazed, Dionysian figure. Another scene finds a bare-assed Cera being serviced by not one, but two women. For good measure Mindy Kaling, playing herself, confesses to Seth Rogen, playing himself, that she wants to sleep with Cera before the night is over.

Sony Pictures, which screened roughly 15 minutes of footage at the annual exhibition trade show, clearly thinks that the film may be one of this summer's breakout R-rated comedies and theater owners in the crowd greeted the sneak peek with loud laughter and applause.

It will face stiff competition for that distinction, however. "The Heat," a profane buddy comedy with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy screened in its entirety at the trade show earlier this week and was enthusiastically received. Likewise, "The Hangover Part III" enters the fray with enormous brand recognition.

In a season of adult-oriented comedies, "This Is the End" may be the hardest R of all. A lengthy exchange between Franco, playing himself, and Danny McBride, ditto, results in a record-breaking use of the word cum, while in a slaughtering of sacred cows "Harry Potter" star Emma Watson robs the comedians of their remaining booze.

"Hermione just took all of our shit," McBride moans after the theft.

"This Is the End" premieres on June 12, 2013.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cinemacon-michael-cera-dies-sonys-outrageous-end-trailer-220729851.html

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Confused About Pointers, Trying To Make Homing Missile - C And ...


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    8 Replies - 75 Views - Last Post: Today, 09:11 AM Rate Topic: -----

    #1 Nano511 ?Icon User is offline

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    Posted Today, 07:15 AM

    I need a way for the bullet to have the coordinates of its target, so i thought i could use a pointer. But it isnt exactly working out.

    Here is the code i attempted:

    
 //class Bullet_TrackingMissile Bullet_TrackingMissile (sf::Texture& spriteSheet, Enemy& target, int x, int y,int range) { 	this->target = target;  	//other code cut because it is irrelevant }  void Update() {         //check if target is null(if null that means it has died) 	target->//no members available  	float deltaX = target->GetX() - xPos; 	float deltaY = target->GetY() - yPos; 	float angle = std::atan(deltaY/deltaX)/DEGTORAD;  	if( deltaX < 0 ){ angle += 180;} 	if( deltaX >= 0 && deltaY < 0 ){ angle+= 360;} } 

    pls respond


    Is This A Good Question/Topic? 0

    Replies To: Confused about pointers, trying to make homing missile

    #2 jimblumberg ?Icon User is offline

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    Re: Confused about pointers, trying to make homing missile

    Posted Today, 07:19 AM

    Quote

    But it isnt exactly working out.

    So would you mind telling exactly why it's not "working out"?

    You need to ask specific questions based on the code you provided.

    Jim


    #3 Nano511 ?Icon User is offline

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    Re: Confused about pointers, trying to make homing missile

    Posted Today, 07:37 AM

    Oops sorry. The problem was that target has no available members in line 12


    #4 jimblumberg ?Icon User is offline

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    Re: Confused about pointers, trying to make homing missile

    Posted Today, 07:41 AM

    So how can we help? You haven't told us anything about this "target" or really any relevant data. In your snippets "target" seems to be uninitialized but I really can't tell with the paltry amount of code you've shown.

    You need to post the smallest complete program that illustrates your problem.

    Jim


    #5 Nano511 ?Icon User is offline

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    Re: Confused about pointers, trying to make homing missile

    Posted Today, 07:53 AM

    
 #pragma once  #include "Bullet.h"  class Bullet_TrackingMissile : public Bullet { private: 	Enemy* target; public: 	Bullet_TrackingMissile (sf::Texture& spriteSheet, Enemy* target, int x, int y,int range) 	{ 		this->target = target;  		s_Sprite.setTexture(spriteSheet);  		xPos = x; 		yPos = y;  		speed = 4; 		this->range = range/speed; 		rangeCnt = 0;  		damage = 10; 		s_Sprite.setTextureRect(sf::IntRect(22, 8, 5, 5)); 		s_Sprite.setOrigin(2,2);  	}  	void Update() 	{ 		target->//no members 	} }; 


    #6 jimblumberg ?Icon User is offline

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    Re: Confused about pointers, trying to make homing missile

    Posted Today, 08:01 AM

    So like I said it looks, from the paltry code you provided, that target is not initialized. What is an Enemy? Where and how are you initializing this pointer? Either show all the relevant code or I can't help you.

    Jim

    This post has been edited by jimblumberg: Today, 08:02 AM


    #7 Nano511 ?Icon User is offline

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    Re: Confused about pointers, trying to make homing missile

    Posted Today, 08:03 AM

    okay i changed it to this:
    
 Bullet_TrackingMissile (sf::Texture& spriteSheet, Enemy* target, int x, int y,int range) 	{ 		this->target = new Enemy(); 		this->target = target; 

    but this->target still doesnt have any available members.

    edit: should have been this->target = new Enemy();

    This post has been edited by Nano511: Today, 08:15 AM


    #8 jimblumberg ?Icon User is offline

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    Re: Confused about pointers, trying to make homing missile

    Posted Today, 08:29 AM

    Since you won't provide the necessary information I can be of no further help. Good luck with your project.

    By the way your last snippet probably generates a memory leak when you reassign the pointer you allocated with new to point to something else.

    Jim


    #9 Nano511 ?Icon User is offline

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    Re: Confused about pointers, trying to make homing missile

    Posted Today, 09:11 AM

    My problem was that Enemy wasnt included. Thanks for the help though


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    Source: http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/topic/318863-confused-about-pointers-trying-to-make-homing-missile/

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    Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries Divorce Settlement: Imminent?!?

    Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/kim-kardashian-and-kris-humphries-divorce-settlement-imminent/

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    Friday, April 19, 2013

    X-ray view of a thousand-year-old cosmic tapestry

    Apr. 17, 2013 ? This year, astronomers around the world have been celebrating the 50th anniversary of X-ray astronomy. Few objects better illustrate the progress of the field in the past half-century than the supernova remnant known as SN 1006.

    When the object we now call SN 1006 first appeared on May 1, 1006 A.D., it was far brighter than Venus and visible during the daytime for weeks. Astronomers in China, Japan, Europe, and the Arab world all documented this spectacular sight. With the advent of the Space Age in the 1960s, scientists were able to launch instruments and detectors above Earth's atmosphere to observe the Universe in wavelengths that are blocked from the ground, including X-rays. SN 1006 was one of the faintest X-ray sources detected by the first generation of X-ray satellites.

    A new image of SN 1006 from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals this supernova remnant in exquisite detail. By overlapping ten different pointings of Chandra's field-of-view, astronomers have stitched together a cosmic tapestry of the debris field that was created when a white dwarf star exploded, sending its material hurtling into space. In this new Chandra image, low, medium, and higher-energy X-rays are colored red, green, and blue respectively.

    The Chandra image provides new insight into the nature of SN1006, which is the remnant of a so-called Type Ia supernova . This class of supernova is caused when a white dwarf pulls too much mass from a companion star and explodes, or when two white dwarfs merge and explode. Understanding Type Ia supernovas is especially important because astronomers use observations of these explosions in distant galaxies as mileposts to mark the expansion of the Universe.

    The new SN 1006 image represents the most spatially detailed map yet of the material ejected during a Type Ia supernova. By examining the different elements in the debris field -- such as silicon, oxygen, and magnesium -- the researchers may be able to piece together how the star looked before it exploded and the order that the layers of the star were ejected, and constrain theoretical models for the explosion.

    Scientists are also able to study just how fast specific knots of material are moving away from the original explosion. The fastest knots are moving outward at almost eleven million miles per hour, while those in other areas are moving at a more leisurely seven million miles per hour. SN 1006 is located about 7,000 light years from Earth. The new Chandra image of SN 1006 contains over 8 days worth of observing time by the telescope. These results were presented at a meeting of High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society in Monterey, CA.

    This work involved Frank Winkler, from Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT; Satoru Katsuda from The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) in Saitama, Japan; Knox Long from Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD; Robert Petre from NASA -Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, MD; Stephen Reynolds from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC; and Brian Williams from NASA -GSFC in Greenbelt, MD.

    NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.

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    Story Source:

    The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Chandra X-ray Center.

    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: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

    Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/MCLCR9n2gko/130417165005.htm

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    Senators start hard work of selling immigration bill (reuters)

    Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

    Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/299701972?client_source=feed&format=rss

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    Reducing the pain of movement in intensive care

    Apr. 18, 2013 ? Monitoring pain and providing analgesics to patients in intensive care units (ICUs) during non-surgical procedures, such as turning and washing, can not only reduce the amount of pain but also reduce the number of serious adverse events including cardiac arrest, finds new research in BioMed Central's open access journal Critical Care.

    Although pain at rest is routinely noted, pain during procedures is less regularly reported and its effect on patients unknown. To assess this missing information and to implement techniques to help better control pain where necessary, educational posters and training were used by the University of Montpellier Saint Eloi Hospital.

    The study showed that being moved for nursing care is one of the most painful procedures experienced by the patient during their stay in the ICU. It also found that serious adverse effects, such as cardiac arrest, problems with heart rate, breathing, or ventilator distress, were associated with severe pain during these procedures.

    The training part of this study increased the amount of analgesics used and reduced both severe pain while being moved as well as serious adverse effects. Dr G?rald Chanques commented, "Our nursing and medical staff reported an increased awareness throughout, and after the project. There can be a disagreement between nursing staff and doctors about levels of pain medication, usually because of issues to do with side effects of the medication. However we found that increased levels of pain medication did not appear to lead to increased side effects, indicating that staff were being very careful in assessing the balance between benefit and risk for individual patients."

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    Story Source:

    The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BioMed Central Limited.

    Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


    Journal Reference:

    1. Audrey de Jong, Nicolas Molinari, Sylvie de Lattre, Claudine Gniadek, Julie Carr, Mathieu Conseil, Marie-Pierre Susbielles, Boris Jung, Samir Jaber and Gerald Chanques. Decreasing severe pain and serious adverse events while moving intensive care unit patients: a prospective interventional study (the NURSE-DO project). Critical Care, 2013 (in press) [link]

    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/uR2-taELRyY/130417223628.htm

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    Wednesday, April 17, 2013

    Recommendations Changed for Cancer Drug Tamoxifen

    A new recommendation by the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force endorses the cancer drug tamoxifen for cancer-free women who may be at high risk for developing breast cancer. This new statement, reported on April 15 by The New York Times, comes within months of recommending women with breast cancer take tamoxifen for 10 years.

    Tamoxifen and breast cancer

    Tamoxifen helps to prevent some forms of estrogen-positive breast cancers from returning. However, the drug has severe side effects. Bone pain, pulmonary embolism, cataracts, uterine cancers, blood clots, stroke, and deep vein thrombosis are all possible complications associated with tamoxifen. Other non-life-threatening side effects include hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, moodiness, and the onset of menopause in pre-menopausal women. My oncologist recomended that I take tamoxifen. When I declined treatment, she felt that I was making a mistake. Most physicians feel that the benefits outweight the risks.

    Women usually take tamoxifen for five years. Studies by the National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC) changed the guidelines. Now, women like me with estrogen-positive breast cancer should take tamoxifen for 10 years instead of five. The recommendation of taking tamoxifen has been extended to women who are cancer-free but are at a high risk for breast cancer (like my mom and my daughter). Their risk was low until I had breast cancer. Now both are in the high-risk category because I am a direct-line relative and I was diagnosed before the age of 50. This raises important questions. For example, should my daughter forgo having a child because I had breast cancer before 50, or should my mom risk the side effects of tamoxifen because my diagnosis puts her at high risk?

    The medical community downplays the risks, ignores quality of life issues, and they give women a false sense of security that nothing bad will happen if they take or extend treatment with tamoxifen. The NGC stated in the same study that there is "no improvement in breast cancer mortality" if the new guidelines are followed. The side effects are real. Some of the women taking the drug and some that took the drug during trials had one or more of the severe outcomes. Otherwise, the drug manufacturers would never put it on the label.

    The risks outweigh the outcome

    If you read the studies, like the one from NGC, taking tamoxifen does not decrease your chances of dying from breast cancer. Women need to carefully weigh their risks of having one of the severe and potentially fatal side effects from this drug, when there is no concrete proof that it prevents dying from breast cancer. In the long run, tamoxifen might prevent cancer from returning, but then again, it might not.

    Lynda Altman was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2012. She is an advocate for women's health issues.

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/recommendations-changed-cancer-drug-tamoxifen-220900222.html

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    Motion picture group expands movie ratings

    (AP) ? The Motion Picture Association of America announced changes Tuesday to its movie rating system, saying it wants to better inform parents about violence in films.

    The new system, rolled out as the "Check the Box" campaign, will include prominent and detailed descriptions explaining why a movie received its rating. Films that might previously have been stamped PG-13 with a throw-away sentence beneath the rating will now feature extensive descriptions in large font next to the ratings code.

    One example read, "An intense scene of war violence, some images of carnage, brief strong violence."

    The changes announced by MPAA CEO Christopher Dodd in Las Vegas on Tuesday come in the aftermath of explosions at the Boston Marathon and recent shooting rampages, though the former U.S. senator did not address such examples directly.

    The White House has called on the movie industry help parents monitor violence in media since the elementary school in Newtown, Conn., the state Dodd represented for 30 years as a Democrat until 2011. And in a sweeping proposal this year, President Barack Obama asked specifically for a stricter rating system.

    Dodd announced the industry's plan at the annual movie-theater convention CinemaCon and spoke generally about the need to help parents "so they can make the best choices about what movies are right for their children to watch."

    The MPAA began issuing ratings descriptions for every film rated PG or higher in 1990.

    Some observers had hoped Dodd might use his keynote address to signal to the industry that the MPAA would begin assigning R ratings to all hyper-violent movies, potentially limiting their audience and quashing their box office appeal.

    Conservative groups have for years accused the MPAA of "ratings creep," a ratcheting down of ratings in the interest of profits, so that material once considered a PG-13 now gets a PG and what once was an R is now a PG-13.

    "I am not moved," said Tim Winter, the president of nonpartisan Parents Television Council "I think this is a distinction without a difference. A cynical view of the announcement today is, How can the MPAA protect themselves and continue a toxic level of violence, especially in PG-13 movies, while providing themselves cover from all the scrutiny?"

    Gun control advocacy groups greeted the announcement with a shrug.

    The MPAA will bolster the campaign with a public service announcement and posters that will appear in theaters across the country.

    ___

    Hannah Dreier can be reached at http://twitter.com/hannahdreier

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-04-16-MPAA%20Movie%20Violence/id-2e7652c5c5af4482b589cd11460825d1

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    Feds seek clues in deadly Boston blasts

    BOSTON (AP) ? The bombs that blew up seconds apart at the finish line of one of the world's most storied races left the streets spattered with blood and glass, three dead, including an 8-year-old boy, more than 140 wounded and gaping questions of who chose to attack at the Boston Marathon and why.

    Federal investigators said no one had claimed responsibility for the bombings one of the city's most famous civic holidays, Patriots Day. But the blasts among the throngs of spectators raised fears of a terrorist attack.

    President Barack Obama was careful not to use the words "terror" or "terrorism" as he spoke at the White House Monday after the deadly bombings, but an administration official said the bombings were being treated as an act of terrorism.

    "We will find out who did this. We'll find out why they did this," the president said. "Any responsible individuals, any responsible groups, will feel the full weight of justice."

    The Pakistani Taliban, which has threatened attacks in the United States because of its support for the Pakistani government, on Tuesday denied any role in the marathon bombings.

    The group's spokesman, Ahsanullah Ahsan, denied involvement in a telephone call with The Associated Press. He spoke from an undisclosed location.

    The FBI took charge of the investigation into the bombings, serving a warrant late Monday on a home in suburban Boston and appealing for any video, audio and still images taken by marathon spectators.

    The fiery explosions took place about 10 seconds and about 100 yards apart, knocking spectators and at least one runner off their feet, shattering windows and sending dense plumes of smoke rising over the street and through the fluttering national flags lining the route.

    Blood stained the pavement, and huge shards were missing from window panes as high as three stories. Victims suffered broken bones, shrapnel wounds and ruptured eardrums.

    Roupen Bastajian, a state trooper from Smithfield, R.I., had just finished the race when he heard the explosions.

    "I started running toward the blast. And there were people all over the floor," he said. "We started grabbing tourniquets and started tying legs. A lot of people amputated. ... At least 25 to 30 people have at least one leg missing, or an ankle missing, or two legs missing."

    At Massachusetts General Hospital, Alasdair Conn, chief of emergency services, said: "This is something I've never seen in my 25 years here ... this amount of carnage in the civilian population. This is what we expect from war."

    As many as two unexploded bombs were found near the end of the 26.2-mile course as part of what appeared to be a well-coordinated attack, but they were safely disarmed, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation.

    WBZ-TV reported late Monday that law enforcement officers were searching an apartment in the Boston suburb of Revere. Massachusetts State Police confirmed that a search warrant related to the investigation into the explosions was served Monday night in Revere, but provided no further details.

    Some investigators were seen leaving the Revere house early Tuesday carrying brown paper bags, plastic trash bags and a duffel bag.

    Police said three people were killed. An 8-year-old boy was among the dead, according to a person who talked to a friend of the family and spoke on condition of anonymity. The person said the boy's mother and sister were also injured as they waited for his father to finish the race.

    Hospitals reported at least 144 people injured, at least 17 of them critically. At least eight children were being treated at hospitals.

    Tim Davey of Richmond, Va., was with his wife, Lisa, and children near a medical tent that had been set up to care for fatigued runners when the injured began arriving. "They just started bringing people in with no limbs," he said.

    "Most everybody was conscious," Lisa Davey said. "They were very dazed."

    The Boston Marathon is one of the world's oldest and most prestigious races and about 23,000 runners participated. The race honored the victims of the Newtown, Conn., shooting with a special mile marker in Monday's race.

    Boston Athletic Association president Joanne Flaminio previously said there was "special significance" to the fact that the race is 26.2 miles long and 26 people died at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

    One of the city's biggest annual events, the race winds up near Copley Square, not far from the landmark Prudential Center and the Boston Public Library. It is held on Patriots Day, which commemorates the first battles of the American Revolution, at Concord and Lexington in 1775.

    Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis asked people to stay indoors or go back to their hotel rooms and avoid crowds as bomb squads methodically checked parcels and bags left along the race route. He said investigators didn't know whether the bombs were hidden in mailboxes or trash cans.

    He said authorities had received "no specific intelligence that anything was going to happen" at the race.

    The Federal Aviation Administration barred low-flying aircraft within 3.5 miles of the site.

    "We still don't know who did this or why," Obama said at the White House, adding, "Make no mistake: We will get to the bottom of this."

    With scant official information to guide them, members of Congress said there was little or no doubt it was an act of terrorism.

    "We just don't know whether it's foreign or domestic," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.

    A few miles away from the finish line and around the same time, a fire broke out at the John F. Kennedy Library. The police commissioner said that it may have been caused by an incendiary device but that it was not clear whether it was related to the bombings.

    The first explosion occurred on the north side of Boylston Street, just before the finish line, and some people initially thought it was a celebratory cannon blast.

    When the second bomb went off, spectators' cheers turned to screams. As sirens blared, emergency workers and National Guardsmen who had been assigned to the race for crowd control began climbing over and tearing down temporary fences to get to the blast site.

    The bombings occurred about four hours into the race and two hours after the men's winner crossed the finish line. By that point, more than 17,000 of the athletes had finished the marathon, but thousands more were still running.

    The attack may have been timed for maximum carnage: The four-hour mark is typically a crowded time near the finish line because of the slow-but-steady recreational runners completing the race and because of all the friends and relatives clustered around to cheer them on.

    Runners in the medical tent for treatment of dehydration or other race-related ills were pushed out to make room for victims of the bombing.

    A woman who was a few feet from the second bomb, Brighid Wall, 35, of Duxbury, said that when it exploded, runners and spectators froze, unsure of what to do. Her husband threw their children to the ground, lay on top of them and another man lay on top of them and said, "Don't get up, don't get up."

    After a minute or so without another explosion, Wall said, she and her family headed to a Starbucks and out the back door through an alley. Around them, the windows of the bars and restaurants were blown out.

    She said she saw six to eight people bleeding profusely, including one man who was kneeling, dazed, with blood trickling down his head. Another person was on the ground covered in blood and not moving.

    "My ears are zinging. Their ears are zinging," Wall said. "It was so forceful. It knocked us to the ground."

    ___

    Associated Press writers Jay Lindsay, Steve LeBlanc, Bridget Murphy, Rodrique Ngowi and Meghan Barr in Boston; Julie Pace, Lara Jakes and Eileen Sullivan in Washington; and Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee contributed to this report.

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/feds-seek-suspects-motive-boston-bombings-074509929.html

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