Christmas bonanza decks streets, storefronts of New Delhi

The Christmas 'blitz' is a relatively new phenomenon in New Delhi, but it's a big one.?

After nearly four years living in India, I?m still amazed at what a huge celebration Christmas has become. From the gigantic reindeer that straddles the newly-constructed megamall near my house and hundreds of kids bargaining off light-up Santa hats on the street, to the roadside shops selling all things Christmas, signs of the holiday are everywhere. Though this ancient country of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, Buddhists, and many other religions has a long history of celebrating each other?s festivals, the blitz of Christmas is still a relatively new phenomenon.

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?When I was a kid we used to sell real pine trees from the Himalayas and fruit cakes,? says Shareel Goyal, the third-generation owner of Kriti Creations, a magnificent gift shop that brims with human-sized Santa Claus statues and reindeer neck ties in Khan Market, a bustling shopping area. ?But after India opened up to foreign imports in the early 1990s, Christmas started booming. We now have everything from custom Christmas trees and nativity straw to every kind of ornament you can imagine.?

Shopping in Mr. Goyal?s little store feels like WalMart on Black Friday. The Christmas music is merry, but the murmurs from shoppers that the place is a "mad house" are hard to miss. However, what makes the scene so unique is that most of the clients are non-Christian Indians. Fascinated by why so many Indians would be interested in Christmas, I ask a mother and daughter who just bought a wreath and big golden horn why they celebrate the holiday.

?We just like to decorate our house for Christmas,? says the mother. ?More and more of our friends have been doing this in the last five years so we like to also.?

Outside, Megha Joneja, a bright-eyed mother of two, selects a four-foot-tall Christmas tree. ?Christmas is mostly a party for us,? says Ms. Joneja. ?But one of the reasons I feel it is so important to celebrate other people?s religious holidays is because I want my children to be exposed to as many different religion?s customs as possible.?

Though it appears the pandemonium so typical of Christmas in the states has now spread to India, essentially, the holiday is still an incredible example of religious understanding and cultural intelligence. Sometimes the spirit of Christmas finds you when you are least expecting it. Such was the case with me this week, when I got a visit from Mr. Singh, a jolly middle-aged Indian man who brings big jugs of drinking water to my house each week.

?This is for you, madam,? says Mr. Singh with a huge smile, handing me a tiny plastic Christmas tree. ?Merry Christmas.?

Thousands of miles away from the place I grew up, my family, and the traditions that are most familiar this time of year, Singh?s gift was a reminder of what Christmas is really about.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/zaoBOlw5rPY/Christmas-bonanza-decks-streets-storefronts-of-New-Delhi

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Android and iOS Activations go through the roof at Christmas

Got an Android handset for Christmas ? You could be one of the 3.7 million people who activated their device on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. A staggering amount considering that there?s 700,000 per day during ?normal weeks?. Andy Rubin has jumped onto Twitter to announced the stats himself.

Both Apple and Android saw 6.8 million activations on Christmas Day alone. Apple, according to Flurry.com, also did well. Although there?s no individual figure for iOS activations, we?re assuming the ?normal? 700,000 Android activations on the 24th and therefore 3 million on the 25th, which would leave 3.8 million iPhone / iPad activations on Christmas Day. There were also a quarter of a BILLION app downloads on the 25th across both platforms.

Links ? Twitter ? Flurry.com
Credit ? BGR.com

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/coolsmartphone/uJxV/~3/4ek8352kix0/

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Beware the Mistletoe

No. In fact, December turns out to be one of the least violent months of the year. A Department of Justice study conducted in 1997 found that hospitals treated the highest numbers of violence-related injuries in June, July, and August, while only 8 percent of such injuries were treated in December. In 2007, one of the few recent years for which daily data are available from the Mortality Statistics Branch of the National Center for Health Statistics, there were fewer reported homicides on Christmas than on most other days in December. While police chiefs and other local officials sometimes claim that domestic violence increases over the holidays, they don't have much hard evidence. On the contrary, researchers for the National Domestic Violence Hotline found a drastic decrease in call volume on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Thanksgiving, at least during a study period running from 2004-10. In the 1997 Department of Justice study, hospitals treated the fewest violence-related injuries in February, and the fourth fewest in December. (Holidays or not, people tend to commit more acts of violence when it's hot out.)

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=a9a1198896c0270c4fed19c1a91b9e53

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Ford, GM vans face safety probe for potential rust ... - Automotive News

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Automotive News -- December 27, 2011 - 4:39 pm ET UPDATED: 12/27/11 4:50 p.m.. Add a comment. U.S. safety regulators are investigating about 63000 2004 Ford Motor Co. minivans to determine is a defect is causing severe rust in the ...

Source: http://www.autonews.com/article/20111227/OEM11/111229930

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Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5663472606

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Windows Azure Diagnostics ? Performance Counters in Action

Introduction

If you are familiar with performance counter in windows you probably know that there are hundreds of performance counters divided into logical categories, all serving the purpose of monitoring the operation system, application or service in Windows.

Windows operation system provides a great handy application (which I am sure you must have used or heard of) named?perfmon.exe?(Start->Run->perfmon).?

You can still use perfmon in you Windows Azure environment to monitor a role instance?(by remote desktop a.k.a RDP to the role instance. Additional information is available?here and here).

Yet, monitoring an entire Azure application, composed of multiple role instances is extremely cumbersome, not to mention that the data is not saved locally (not by default).??

With that motivation in mind Microsoft created a mechanism Called?Windows Azure Diagnostics?that automates the gathering and persistence of diagnostic data from the role instances (in the essence the virtual machines) into an Azure Storage for a later and a deeper investigation.?Azure diagnostics retrieves many other types of diagnostics data like trace logs, crash dumps window event logs etc...?In this discussion will focus on performance counters which can share huge amount of critical information on how your Azure application functions. Practically, performance counters can help you isolate performance problem and most importantly save money by indicating if the Azure resources are optimally exploited.??

How Windows Azure Diagnostics Works?

Every role VM has a built-in diagnostics process (DiagnosticsAgent.exe) that is responsible for periodically collecting the diagnostic data, caching it to a local file and eventually storing to a predefined Azure Storage. Note that the diagnostics process can also be manually triggered.?

Specifically, the diagnostics data for the performance counters are persisted to a designated Azure table named?WADPerformanceCountersTable. Other diagnostics data such as trace logs, ?event logs etc.. are also stored in designated tables like:?WadLogsTable?,?WADDiagnosticInfrastructureLogsTable?etc.. (Additional information can be found?here).

Every role instance has a configuration file located in the azure storage under directory (blob directory) called?wad-control-container.?The configuration file primarily defines the performance counters to be collected and associated collection rate.???

The following?displays the location of the diagnostic?configuration?file. Access?wad-control-container using?Cloud Storage Manager for Azure:??

The configuration file uses a standard XML format and can be manually modified (although not recommended).??

Using the code??

In this article we will review:?

1. How to configure performance counters from the Role code (running in the azure application) and remotely from an external program.?
2. How to access the data from the azure storage table.
3. Quick analyze of performance counters.?

The entire code is available for download below.?

First lets cover the API we going to use in order to enable monitoring for our role instances.?

Windows Azure Diagnostics API??

(definition taken from the MSDN)

To enable diagnostics monitoring in your role you must first import the diagnostic module in the ServiceDefinition.csdef configuration file. Visual Studio provides an easy way to enable the diagnostics via the role properties window in the cloud solution (more information is available here).

Configuring Performance Counters from within a Role Code?

The following code retrieves the role instance configuration (keep in mind that the diagnostics configuration is managed per role instance), sets a new performance counter to monitor and starts the diagnostics monitor with the modified configuration.

public class WebRole : RoleEntryPoint
 {
                 public override bool OnStart()
     {
                 var config = DiagnosticMonitor.GetDefaultInitialConfiguration();
 
                 config.PerformanceCounters.ScheduledTransferPeriod = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5);
                 PerformanceCounterConfiguration cpuUtilizationCounter = new PerformanceCounterConfiguration()
         {
             CounterSpecifier = @"\Processor(_Total)\% Processor Time",
                         SampleRate = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1)
         };
         if (!config.PerformanceCounters.DataSources.Contains(cpuUtilizationCounter, 
                     new PerformanceCounterComparer()))
         {
             config.PerformanceCounters.DataSources.Add(cpuUtilizationCounter);
         }
                 DiagnosticMonitor.Start("Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString", config);
         return base.OnStart();
     }
 
                 private class PerformanceCounterComparer : IEqualityComparer<PerformanceCounterConfiguration>
     {
         public bool Equals(PerformanceCounterConfiguration a, PerformanceCounterConfiguration b)
         {
                         if (Object.ReferenceEquals(a, b)) return true;
                         if (Object.ReferenceEquals(a, null) || Object.ReferenceEquals(b, null))
                 return false;
                         return (a.CounterSpecifier == b.CounterSpecifier && a.SampleRate == b.SampleRate);
         }
         public int GetHashCode(PerformanceCounterConfiguration counter)
         {
                         if (Object.ReferenceEquals(counter, null)) return 0;
                         int hashCounterSpecifier = counter.CounterSpecifier == 
                            null ? 0 : counter.CounterSpecifier.GetHashCode();
                         return hashCounterSpecifier ^ counter.SampleRate.GetHashCode();
         }
     }
 }

Configuring Performance Counters Remotely

Configuring performance counters can also be performed externally to the role code, by using Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Diagnostics.Management.

const string storageAccoutName = "Storage-Name-Here"; 
 const string privateKey = "Storge-Private-Key-Here";
 const string deploymentId = "Deployment-Id-Here";
 var storageAccount = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(String.Format(
     "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName={0};AccountKey={1}", 
     storageAccoutName, privateKey));
 
 var diagnosticManager = storageAccount.CreateDeploymentDiagnosticManager(deploymentId);
 
 RoleInstanceDiagnosticManager roleDiagManager = 
   diagnosticManager.GetRoleInstanceDiagnosticManager("WebRole1", "WebRole1_IN_0");
 
 var currentConfiguariton = roleDiagManager.GetCurrentConfiguration();
 currentConfiguariton.PerformanceCounters.ScheduledTransferPeriod = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5);
 currentConfiguariton.PerformanceCounters.DataSources.Add(new PerformanceCounterConfiguration()
 {
     CounterSpecifier = @"\Processor(_Total)\% Processor Time",
     SampleRate = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1)
 });
 
 roleDiagManager.SetCurrentConfiguration(currentConfiguariton); 

Retrieving the Performance Counter Data

Now that we've configured the counters we want to monitor, lets access the recorded data from the Azure Table (WADPerformanceCountersTable) and display it.??

I've created the PerformanceDataContext class that?derives?from?TableServiceContext which is?part of the?ADO extensions that?Microsoft?provides in order to?connect?to Azure Tables. You can use a LINQ query in order to?retrieve?the data.

public class QueryExecuter
 {
                 private CloudStorageAccount accountStorage;
                 public QueryExecuter()
     {
         accountStorage = CloudStorageAccount.DevelopmentStorageAccount;
     }
                         public QueryExecuter(string accountName, string privateKey)
     {
         accountStorage = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(String.Format(
           "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName={0};AccountKey={1}", account
     }
                                             public List<PerformanceData> QueryPerformanceCounter(string counterFullName, 
         string deploymentid, string roleName, 
         string roleInstanceName, DateTime startPeriod, DateTime endPeriod)
     {
         PerformanceDataContext context = new PerformanceDataContext(
           accountStorage.TableEndpoint.ToString(), accountStorage.Credentials);
         var data = context.PerfData;
         CloudTableQuery<PerformanceData> query = null;
         query = (from d in data
                  where d.PartitionKey.CompareTo("0" + startPeriod.Ticks) >= 0
                                         && d.PartitionKey.CompareTo("0" + endPeriod.Ticks) <= 0
                                          && d.CounterName == counterFullName
                                              && d.EventTickCount >= startPeriod.Ticks
                                                  && d.EventTickCount <= endPeriod.Ticks
                                                       && d.DeploymentId == deploymentid
                                                          && d.Role == roleName
                                                              && d.RoleInstance == roleInstanceName
                  select d).AsTableServiceQuery<PerformanceData>();
         List<PerformanceData> selectedData = new List<PerformanceData>();
         try
         {
             selectedData = query.Execute().ToList<PerformanceData>();
         }
         catch
         {
         }
         return selectedData;
     }
 }

For this demonstration I've created a Chart in WinForm that is populated with data?retrieved?from the diagnostic table.???

The graph created displays the CPU utilization of specific role instance for the last 2 hours.

Points of Interest

Quest Software develops a very handy and easy to use tool called?Spotlight on Azure.?We provide an in depth monitoring capabilities of the entire Azure subscription starting from the role instance and above, data aggregation, historical display, alerting mechanism and custom user defined counters for deep analysis.??

Source: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/azure/azure-diagnostics.aspx

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More American and European businesses are starting to seriously consider the Russian market. Russia has about % literacy rate, a growing economy consisting of million people, and large reservoirs of natural resources. This manuscript discusses the cultural aspects of doing business?Cheap Prom Dresses?Russia.

Russia has its own cultural aspects of conducing business that should be considered by any serious business organization that intends?Short Prom Dresses?do business in Russia. These cultural aspects include red tape, formalism, sense of time, egalitarianism, language, choosing a partner, recruiting personnel, crime and business, and business etiquettes like dress, age, discretion, meetings, gender roles, communication, gifts, business cards, and money.

INTRODUCTION.Russia is a growing market of about million people. This significant market cannot?Prom Dresses 2012?ignored by American businesses. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, many companies have ventured to the Eastern or Western Russia. Some have been very successful but many have failed.

This section summarizes some unique aspects?Cheap Little Black Dresses?the Russian business culture that can play an important role in the success of foreign business people in Russia. Several recent publications Dabars & Vokhmina ; Lewis, ; Richardson, ; Roberts, discuss some unique aspects of the Russian culture and their way of conducting business.

An understanding of Russian business culture should be useful for business and vacation travelers?Cheap Wedding Dresses?Russia. It is necessary to remember that over years of communist rule has a strong impact on Russian way of life. Further, Russia has lived under authoritarian rule for over a thousand years.

Although there are risks in generalizing?Cheap Pageant Dresses?about the Russian business culture, these thoughts should be considered as a point of departure in an understanding of the unique Russian cultural aspects of doing business. Much of the cultural knowledge discussed here should also apply to many other Common Wealth of Independent States CIS countries as well.

Source: http://www.condo.com/Community/UserBlogPost.aspx?ID=31641

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LA coroner says Heavy D died of natural causes (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? The Los Angeles coroner's office says Jamaican-born rapper Heavy D died of natural causes.

The self-proclaimed "overweight lover" of hip hop, who became one of rap's top hit makers with a combination of humor and positivity, collapsed outside his Beverly Hills home on Nov. 8. The 44 year-old rapper, whose real name was Dwight Errington, died later at a hospital.

Coroner's office spokesman Craig Harvey said Tuesday that weight and a transcontinental jet flight were contributing factors.

The cause of death was pulmonary embolism and deep leg vein thrombosis. He also had arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Heavy D became one of the genre's most integral stars in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His hit "The Overweight Lover's in the House" played up his hefty frame.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111227/ap_en_mu/us_heavy_d_autopsy

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Military families work to include deployed relatives

LONG-DISTANCE CHRISTMAS IDEAS

While it might be too late to try some of these this year, here are five tips on how to involve a deployed family member in future holiday festivities to keep in mind for next year.

? Send a care package. A box of decorations, Christmas movies and music and even cookies can be enjoyed by the person overseas and provide fun for those who assemble it.

? Video chat. Technology such as Skype can help bridge the gap on Christmas, even when someone is thousands of miles away. If Internet access is limited to certain times of the day, open the gifts at those times or record a video.

? Decorating. Send photos or videos of your family decorating the tree or send a decorated ornament to the person who's deployed.

? Letters from Santa. Have the deployed family member write letters to your children from Santa, so he or she can feel part of the celebration.

? Christmas in July. Leave the Christmas decorations up until the service member returns or even wait to put up the tree together and open gifts then.

Source: Military Spouse Central at veteransunited.com/spouse

Source: http://chillicothegazette.com/article/20111224/NEWS01/112240301/1002/rss01

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22 feared dead in India Christmas boat capsize

Up to 22 Christmas vacationers in India were feared dead after a boat capsized on a lake near the southern city of Chennai Sunday afternoon, government officials said.

The accident happened in Pulicat, a tourist spot about 70 kilometres (43 miles) north of Chennai, when a family of 25 went on a boat ride, Ashish Chatterjee, the top government official in Tiruvallur district of the southern Tamil Nadu state, told Reuters.

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"Three survived and eight bodies have been recovered so far," Chatterjee said, adding search was on to find more bodies.

(Reporting by S. Murari)

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/272584/20111225/22-feared-dead-in-india-christmas-boat-capsize.htm

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Source: http://twitter.com/RamonaSentinel/statuses/150284143614369792

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Dominican-Haitian activist Sonia Pierre dies at 48 (AP)

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic ? Sonia Pierre, a human rights activist who bravely fought discrimination against poor Dominicans of Haitian descent since she was a child, died Sunday, according to colleagues. She was 48.

The renowned activist died outside of the municipality of Villa Altagracia while being rushed to a hospital after suffering a heart attack around noon Sunday, said Genaro Rincon, a lawyer who works with Pierre's Dominican-Haitian Women's Movement.

Pierre's chronic heart troubles were first discovered in 2007 when she was in Washington to receive the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award honoring her work securing citizenship and education for Dominican-born ethnic Haitians.

Through the decades, her activism made her the target of threats in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, but it earned her recognition from overseas as a fierce defender of human rights, including an award from Amnesty International in 2003.

Pierre was one of 12 children raised in a dirt-floor barrack in a Dominican migrant worker camp and was just 13 when she was first arrested and threatened with deportation for leading her fellow Dominican residents of Haitian descent in a march for cane cutters' rights.

Since then, Pierre tirelessly fought to secure citizenship and education for the beleaguered minority of Dominican-born ethnic Haitians.

"She was like a sister to me," said Edwin Paraison, executive director of the Zile Foundation, a Haitian group that tries to improve relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. "The Haitian community has lost someone who was a huge advocate in the fight for Haitian rights."

An estimated 500,000 to 1 million ethnic Haitians live in the Dominican Republic, many in isolated village slums that dot the countryside. Most of those born in the Dominican Republic are descendants of Haitians who crossed the border fleeing violence or seeking economic opportunity.

When she won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in 2007, Pierre denounced what she said were "massive abuses" in the Dominican Republic against people of Haitian descent, particularly children.

"They suffer discrimination from the moment they are born," she said during the award ceremony in the U.S. Senate. "The authorities refuse to recognize them as Dominicans."

While Haiti has been plagued by poverty, violence and political instability, its eastern neighbor, with a population of more than 9 million, grew out of its own early struggles to be seen as a comparative land of opportunity even as many Haitian migrants are exploited as cheap labor.

Police arrested Pierre in 1976 when she led her fellow Haitian-Dominican neighbors in a march to demand rights for those who cut sugar cane. She was jailed for a day and threatened with deportation to Haiti, where her mother was born.

"I was crying because I didn't know anyone in Haiti," Pierre once recalled.

Her advocacy also has made her and her family targets in the Dominican Republic. She was once chased out of her Santo Domingo office by a man waving a pistol. She was also punched at a stop light by another man who told her, "I know who you are."

Pierre insisted she was trying to help her people and not malign the Dominican Republic. "I am not a critic of my country, and this is my country," she said. "I am a critic of my government."

Paraison, a former minister of Haitians living abroad, said Pierre is survived by three children.

Funeral arrangements were pending.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obits/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111205/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_dominican_obit_sonia_pierre

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EU in antitrust probe of Apple, e-book publishers (AP)

BRUSSELS ? The European Union's antitrust watchdog is probing whether Apple helped five major publishing houses illegally raise prices for e-books when it launched its iPad tablet and iBookstore in 2010.

The probe, announced Tuesday by the European Commission, offers a glimpse into the fierce competition in the growing e-book market, especially as Apple has tried to take on Amazon and its Kindle e-book reader.

In particular, the Commission is investigating a significant shift in the way the price of e-books is determined that occurred in 2010, just as Cupertino, Calif., based Apple introduced the iPad and its own online book store, iBookstore.

Apple was the first retailer that allowed publishers to move to so-called agency agreements, in which publishers get to set the price at which online bookshops sell e-books to consumers. Until then, publishers were able to set the wholesale price of e-books, while the retailers decided at what price to sell them on.

"The Commission has concerns that these practices may breach EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices," the regulator said in a statement.

Giving publishers the power to set retail prices could effectively restrict competition between online bookshops, since it takes away the power from individual retailers to set lower prices. Since Apple's deal with the publishers, several other online retailers have also shifted to the agency model, possibly in an attempt to secure the rights to sell popular e-books.

The investigation targets publishers Hachette Livre, a unit of France's Lagardere Publishing; Harper Collins, owned by Rupert Murdoch's U.S.-based News Corp.; CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster; Penguin, which is owned by U.K. publishing house Pearson Group; and Germany's Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, which owns Macmillan.

The Commission stressed the probe was in its early stages and did not mean the companies actually broke EU competition law. It follows a similar investigation by the Office of Fair Trading in the U.K. and a class action lawsuit against the same five publishers and Apple filed this summer in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The U.K. OFT on Tuesday closed its own probe, since the Commission has taken over the case, but said it was cooperating closely with the EU investigation. It said in a statement that its investigation was triggered by several complaints, without naming the complainants.

Apple representatives did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Pearson said the fact that the Commission has opened an probe did not prejudge the outcome of the probe.

"Pearson does not believe it has breached any laws, and will continue to fully and openly cooperate with the Commission," it said.

Holtzbrinck echoed that statement, saying it found the Commission's case "without reason."

The e-book market has been dominated by Amazon.com Inc. and the Kindle.

In a summary of its complaint, U.S. law firm Hagens Berman, which filed the U.S. class-action suit, claims that "Apple believed that it needed to neutralize the Kindle when it entered the e-book market with its own e-reader, the iPad, and feared that one day the Kindle might challenge the iPad by digitally distributing other media like music and movies."

It also alleges that following the deal with Apple, Amazon was forced to abandon its discount pricing model and move to the agency model.

___

Robert Barr in London contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111206/ap_on_hi_te/eu_ebooks_antitrust_probe

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Gingrich leads in Iowa poll (The Arizona Republic)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/169520202?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Europe's Race to the Bottom: How Austerity is Killing the Euro (Time.com)

Stock markets may have soared after central banks around the world, led by the Fed, got together in a rare coordinated action to provide more dollars to Europe's strained financial sector. But we also got an indication of just how bad things have become. There have been concerns for months that Europe's banks were having difficulty getting dollar financing, which is very important to the operation of banks in France and elsewhere, as financial institutions around the world became nervous about lending money to a sector saddled with large euro zone sovereign debt holdings of dubious quality. The scary thing about that problem is that it could have caused a financial crisis in Europe even without a major new event in the debt crisis (like an Italian default). For central banks to act as they did, the situation must have become extremely severe, or was at least deteriorating badly.

And though that potential danger may have been averted (probably only in the short term), the central bank decision has done nothing to alleviate the underlying sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone. We're about to get some more action on that front as well, however, with yet another summit of European leaders approaching on December 9. The indications are that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy want to push ahead with some sort of "fiscal union," or at least their vision of one. As I wrote in a recent TIME magazine story, a fiscal union would probably be a real solution to the debt crisis. By coordinating national budgets and centralizing at least some decision making over spending priorities, a fiscal union could start repairing the shattered finances of euro zone countries, provide a backbone of support for weaker members like Italy, and convince investors that Europe will truly do whatever it takes to save the euro. (Read "Is Europe's debt crisis becoming a banking crisis?")

We'll have to wait for the details to get the full picture of what's on the table. But based on the early signs, the version of a fiscal union Merkel & Co. seem to advocate is really just an "austerity union," a way of forcing painful budget cuts, tax hikes and other measures onto euro zone countries through stiffer sanctions and regulations, with very little offered in return. That won't work. The euro can't survive on austerity alone. In fact, austerity, as it is being implemented now, is damaging the euro's prospects. Here's why:

The idea behind the German-backed solution to the debt crisis is to fix the broken countries of the euro zone. That, needless to say, does have to happen. But it can't be the entire focus of the crisis-fighting effort. Yes, some euro zone countries have been given financing (bailouts) to support them during their austerity programs, but now the bigger nations infected by the crisis (Italy and Spain) aren't even being offered that much. Instead, their new Prime Ministers are being placed under more and more pressure to cut, cut, cut, cut -- while the rest of the zone sits back and waits. But as we've witnessed for more than a year, cutting alone won't bolster investor confidence. They simply don't believe that the financial adjustments these countries must make can be achieved in any reasonable period of time. What these countries are being asked to do is reverse years -- in some cases, decades -- of fiscal policy in a matter of months. (France hasn't recorded a budget surplus since 1974.) (Read "Bailouts and Austerity Measures Aren't Working: Is This the Euro's Last Stand?")

Most of all, austerity is killing growth in the euro zone, and without growth, the crisis will be much harder to solve. Just look at some statistics. Spain recently downgraded its 2011 growth estimate by half a percentage point to a mere 0.8%. Portugal's GDP contracted 0.4% in the third quarter from the previous quarter. Greece's third quarter GDP plummeted 5.2% from the previous year -- its best quarterly performance of 2011. The OECD in November forecast that euro zone growth would sink to a pathetic 0.2% in 2012 from 1.6% this year. Without growth, closing deficits and stabilizing debt is much more painful. If GDP is stagnant or contracting, the amount of debt you need to eliminate to bring that crucial government-debt-to-GDP ratio down gets larger, and thus more difficult to achieve. Ditto with budget deficits. So to meet euro zone debt and deficit targets, countries have to cut more and more, further suppressing growth, and moving the target further off yet again. They become like a dog chasing its tail.

Investors know this full well, and that's why they remain wary of the euro zone debt situation even as its political leaders slice away at budgets. So borrowing costs remain lofty, making it harder, once again, for Italy and Spain to meet budget targets, which means they have to cut even more. And the pain inflicted by such severe austerity on populaces already suffering from an economic downturn (Spain's unemployment stands near a staggering 23%) only fuels opposition to reform and ire towards the monetary union. So the sick contradiction facing the euro zone is that austerity is necessary to fix the debt crisis, but at the same time, it also feeds the debt crisis. (Read "How to Know When the Euro Crisis Reaches a Tipping Point.")

How does Europe escape the trap? Austerity has to be balanced with something else to help these countries restore growth while repairing their economies. Yes, structural reforms to free up labor markets and decrease regulation will all help, but not in the short or even medium term. Nouriel Roubini argued in the Financial Times the other day that debt restructuring is the answer, to alleviate the burden on Italy. I'd suggest that the euro zone needs to improve the functioning of the common market by implementing EU-wide incentive programs to get companies in healthier countries, like Germany, to invest in weaker nations and hire the unemployed. Or the proposed fiscal union could be a true fiscal union, more like the United States, in which the center has the ability to tax and thus support member states that are economically struggling.

My sense is that none of the above is actively being considered. It seems to me that the only support being discussed is some form of a bailout -- to find a source of money to provide a financial "shield" for Italy and Spain so they can fund themselves at lower cost while implementing reforms. That may help slow the deterioration of the debt crisis, but it won't necessarily solve the debt problem itself, at least not in any acceptable time frame (as we've seen in Greece). If this is the route Europe takes, the members of the euro zone will have to be prepared to financially support its weaker members for an awfully long time before we see a real improvement in their economic health.

The solution to the debt crisis won't be budget cuts, more taxes, and more rules to force them down the throats of Italians, Spanish and Greeks. Merkel, Sarkozy and their counterparts have to find a broader solution. Otherwise, Europe is facing a race to the bottom.

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Croatia opposition set to win vote on economy ticket (Reuters)

ZAGREB (Reuters) ? Croatia voted on Sunday in an election likely to hand power to the centre-left opposition on a mandate to overhaul the country's flagging economy before it joins the European Union in 2013.

Voters will almost certainly punish the ruling conservative HDZ -- Croatia's dominant party since independence in 1991 -- for a string of corruption scandals and rising unemployment.

Polls suggest power will pass to an opposition bloc known as Kukuriku ('cock-a-doodle-doo') and led by 45-year-old former diplomat Zoran Milanovic of the Social Democrats (SDS).

The next government will have to act fast to trim state spending, create jobs and avert a potential credit rating downgrade.

Milanovic has told Croats they will have to work "more, harder, longer" to turn the economy around before the country of 4.3 million people becomes the second ex-Yugoslav republic to join the EU in July 2013.

"I have a decent pension but I look around me and I see poverty everywhere," 74-year-old pensioner Milan Grgurek said after voting in the capital, Zagreb. "Whoever comes to power ... will have to carry out reforms."

Croatia broke away from socialist Yugoslavia in a 1991-95 war, and has seen its economy boom over the past decade on the back of foreign borrowing and waves of tourism to its stunning Adriatic coastline.

But growth ground to a halt when the global financial crisis hit in 2009.

CORRUPTION

Unemployment stood at 17.4 percent in October and thousands of employees work without pay. Lack of liquidity has paralyzed many local businesses and overall foreign debt has surpassed 100 percent of gross domestic product.

"The two things we expect from the new government are to draft a budget that shows fiscal consolidation, otherwise we are threatened with a credit rating cut, and to make a resolute start to the necessary reforms," said Davor Majetic of the national employers' association.

Milanovic told Reuters this week that the state budget for 2012 would be in place by the end of March and should reflect "how serious we are" about turning the economy around and averting a credit downgrade.

He said he expects the credit rating agencies to give Croatia a "grace period of three months at most."

After voting, Milanovic told reporters: "We expect victory, like anybody competing for the trust of the citizens."

In power for the past eight years, Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor's HDZ has been mired in corruption scandals since its former leader and prime minister, Ivo Sanader, stepped down in 2009. Sanader is now standing trial for alleged graft.

A number of other senior HDZ officials have been arrested or questioned over alleged slush funds in the past year, hurting the party's standing with voters.

Kosor said she hoped voters would "choose those who led an uncompromising fight against corruption and will be at the head of the government when we join the EU, because we have done a lot, and achieved that historic goal."

Voting ends at 7 p.m. (1800 GMT), when exit polls will follow. An official, preliminary count is expected by midnight.

(Editing by Matt Robinson and Maria Golovnina)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111204/wl_nm/us_croatia_election

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Trouble hearing? Advanced Bionics' waterproof implant is paddling your way

If you're one of the 200,000 deaf people who've received cochlear implants, then here's an upgrade worth considering: the Neptune from Advanced Bionics claims to be "the world's first and only swimmable, waterproof sound processor," and it's just received certification for the US and Canada. Read on for more details in the full press release and soon you could be bantering while you bathe.

Continue reading Trouble hearing? Advanced Bionics' waterproof implant is paddling your way

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/02/trouble-hearing-advanced-bionics-waterproof-implant-is-paddlin/

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Jessica Simpson Shows Off Girls, Boy

Wow. Jessica Simpson was never exactly lacking in the chestal region, but man. Pregnancy is offering even more enhancement in more departments than just the belly.

The star stepped out today with sister Ashleeeeeee and nephew Bronx Mowgli, named for a borough of New York City and a Jungle Book character. Nice work Ash.

In any case, Jess looked happy, displaying the boy and her girls for all to see.

Jess has had no problem showing off her body since she confirmed she and Eric Johnson are expecting ... or ever, for that matter. Why start now, we suppose.

This takes it to a new level, though. Is she purposely wearing tops from when she was 18? If so, nice. Avert your eyes, Bronx. Eh, it's already too late. Enjoy.

[Photos: Fame Pictures]

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/jessica-simpson-shows-off-girls-boy/

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Enraged Pakistan says NATO attack threatens war on terror (Reuters)

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) ? Pakistan, enraged by a NATO cross-border attack that killed 24 soldiers, could end support for the U.S.-led war on militancy if its sovereignty is violated again, the foreign minister said, warning "enough is enough."

The South Asian nation has already shown its anger over the weekend strike by pulling out of an international conference in Germany next week on Afghanistan, depriving the talks of a central player in efforts to bring peace to its neighbor.

"Enough is enough. The government will not tolerate any incident of spilling even a single drop of any civilian or soldier's blood," The News newspaper on Thursday quoted Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar as telling a Senate committee on foreign affairs.

"Pakistan's role in the war on terror must not be overlooked," Khar said, suggesting Pakistan could end its support for the U.S. war on militancy. Despite opposition at home, Islamabad backed Washington after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

The U.S. Embassy released a video statement on YouTube by Ambassador Cameron Munter in which he expressed regret for the attack. (http://link.reuters.com/cyz35s)

"I would like to extend my most sincere condolences to the people and government of Pakistan, and especially to Pakistan's men and women in uniform, for the tragic incident that took place on Nov 26 in Mohmand Agency," he said, standing in front of U.S. and Pakistani flags.

"We regret it very much," he added in Urdu.

He said the United States took the attack "very seriously" and pledged a "a full, in-depth investigation."

"Pakistan and the U.S. have stood together for over 60 years," he said. "We have weathered previous crises together. I'm certain we will weather this one too, and emerge, together, as stronger partners."

But events seemed to be working against lowering tensions. Two Pakistani men were killed in Afghanistan early on Thursday and Pakistani border guards said NATO may have been responsible.

The officials said the two men, who were from the town of Chagai in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, were gathering wood 30 km (18.6 miles) inside Afghanistan. They said NATO helicopters fired on their vehicle.

"I can confirm that the bodies of two residents of Chagai have arrived from Afghanistan," said Chagai Assistant Commissioner Tufail Baloch. "But I do not have any information on how they were killed. It happened on Afghan soil so we don't have many details yet."

NATO officials had no immediate comment.

NATO helicopters and fighter jets attacked two military border posts in northwest Pakistan on Saturday in the worst incident of its kind since 2001.

The top U.S. military officer denied allegations by a senior Pakistani army official that the NATO attack was a deliberate act of aggression.

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Reuters in an interview: "The one thing I will say publicly and categorically is that this was not a deliberate attack.

The incident has given the army, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its history and sets security and foreign policy, some breathing room after facing strong criticism from both the Pakistani public and the United States after Osama bin Laden was killed in a secret raid by U.S. special forces in May.

The al Qaeda leader had apparently been living in a Pakistani garrison town for years.

Pakistanis criticized the military for failing to protect their sovereignty and U.S. officials wondered whether some members of military intelligence had sheltered him. Pakistan's government and military said they had no idea bin Laden was in the country.

Protests have taken place in several cities every day since the NATO strike along the poorly-defined border, where militants often plan and stage attacks.

Pakistan military sources said Islamabad had cancelled a visit by a 15-member delegation, led by the Director General of the Joint Staff, Lieutenant-General Mohammad Asif, to the United States that was to have taken place this week.

In an apparently unrelated attack, a bomb blew out a wall of a government official's office in Peshawar, the last big city on the route to Afghanistan, early on Thursday, police said. There were no reports of casualties.

Also in the eastern Afghan province of Logar, unknown gunmen abducted seven Pakistani engineers in Pul-e Alam, said provincial police chief Gulam Sakhi Rogh Lewanai.

The United States has long wanted Pakistan, whose military and economy depend heavily on billions of dollars in American aid, to crack down on militant groups that cross its unruly border to attack Western forces in Afghanistan.

More recently, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked Pakistan to bring all militant groups to the negotiating table in order to stabilize Afghanistan.

The NATO attack makes Pakistani cooperation less likely.

NATO hopes an investigation it promised will defuse the crisis and that confidence-building measures can repair ties.

Critics say Pakistan has created a deadly regional mess by supporting militants like the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network to act as proxies in Afghanistan and other groups to fight Indian forces in the disputed Kashmir region.

Pakistan says it has paid the highest price in the war on militancy. Thousands of soldiers and police have been killed.

"The sacrifices rendered by Pakistan in the war on terror are more than any other country," Khar was quoted as saying. "But that does not mean we will compromise on our sovereignty."

(Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in PESHAWAR, Obaid Omar in PUL-E ALAM and Emma Graham-Harrison in KABUL; Writing by Michael Georgy and Chris Allbritton; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/terrorism/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111201/wl_nm/us_islamabad

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