Japan's Abe to pick LDP veteran Aso as finance minister: media

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's next Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will offer the finance minister's job to Taro Aso, media said, a veteran lawmaker and former prime minister expected to toe the party line calling for aggressive monetary easing and a public works splurge.

Asahi and Mainichi newspapers reported on Tuesday Aso would get the finance post while Yomiuri said Aso, 72, was also being considered as a possible foreign minister.

Abe, whose Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its small ally New Komeito captured a two-thirds majority in Sunday's landslide, will announce his cabinet line-up on December 26.

The choice of Aso suggests that Abe is looking to LDP veterans to fill important positions to avoid criticism that his ministers lack experience, a recurring complaint about cabinets of the Democratic Party of Japan that trounced the LDP in 2009, only to suffer a crushing defeat three years later.

Abe's own first cabinet similarly suffered criticism that he picked lawmakers close to him personally rather than those best qualified for the job.

When Aso was prime minister, he launched massive economic stimulus packages to combat the 2008-2009 financial crisis, but his efforts were overshadowed by gaffes, scandals and policy flip-flops that culminated with the LDP losing power after more than half a century of an almost non-stop rule.

Like Abe, Aso has an elite political lineage and like the next premier is a grandson of a prime minister.

Abe, who quit abruptly in 2007 after just one year in office, says he has learned from past mistakes and has been working hard to project an image of a strong, mature and decisive leader.

Buoyed by the election victory, which political analysts saw more as voters' payback for the Democrats' troubled rule than a full embrace of the LDP, Abe has swiftly moved to press his agenda.

On Monday, he turned up the heat on the Bank of Japan to boost its monetary stimulus when it ends its two-day meeting on Thursday and pressing it to adopt a more ambitious 2 percent inflation target as soon as next month.

On Tuesday, Abe told reporters that he had agreed in a telephone call with U.S. President Barack Obama that the two would try to meet next month, part of a push to strengthen ties with Washington and give Japan a greater global security role.

(Writing by Tomasz Janowski; Editing by Linda Sieg and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japans-abe-pick-ldp-veteran-aso-finance-minister-023348458--business.html

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Helping Others When We Can Barely Help Ourselves In Our Grief

By Maureen Hunter?-

The pain of our grief is so massive, so huge and so crippling we are struggling to help ourselves in early grief, let alone be able to help anyone else or cope with the demands of looking after our family. It?s as if we?ve been put in a high speed spinner, churned about and then spat out in tatters and tears. Our heart is fractured and we are broken, no longer whole. We are reeling from the devastating impact of our loss and yet we worry about helping our family through and being there for them ? our daughters, our sons, our husbands, and our kin.

As a mother I know what mothers do. We nurture, we care, we carry on and often we?re the backbone of the family. When grief assaults us our backbone crumbles into a pool of pain so deep we feel we?re drowning and yet amidst all that we feel a responsibility to help, to be there, to support our families, to support others. As much as we would want to there is absolutely no way in the midst of early grief that we can be there for them in the way that we were. Our whole world has collapsed leaving us feeling overwhelmed and out of control. Our capacity to function has been crippled. We can?t think straight, can?t sleep well, can?t barely move ? we are consumed by our grief and thoughts of our loved one.

When Stuart died my world imploded and I did too. My body parts were moving, my legs seemed to be working but my mind was dense fog and I was consumed by tears and exhaustion. My family arrived for the memorial service and my daughter asked me to look after my then 18month old granddaughter for a few hours. I couldn?t do it. I didn?t have any reserves within myself to give to my beautiful girl. I was cleaned out, a void, an empty shell.

I was like that for a long time but not forever. Fast forwards eighteen months and I was able to walk with a friend through the very same circumstances of losing his daughter as I had lost my son. I had something to give. In the intervening months I had done a lot to replenish my void ? my heart and my soul. In many ways I was lucky! It was an excruciatingly lonely and painful time but I didn?t have the responsibility of looking after anyone else. I didn?t have to worry about the impact of my grief on my husband ? there was just me.

This may not be the case for many of you. You desperately need a break but you can?t say ?No?. You have young families to care for, grandchildren, and elderly parents ? pressing needs which are there no matter how you feel. There is no stop button, there is no pause. You are on autopilot. You have to do what you have to do. So how do you?

Simplify everything ? get groceries delivered. Buy ready-made meals a couple of times a week. If friends ask how they can help ? think what would make your day to day easier, could they be a part of that in some way.

Structure some routine ? when everything?s totally out of control, carving a structure or routine for ourselves can put a framework back around our lives. It can return to us a sense of control that we?ve lost in our world.

Carve out some space for you ? plan a few hours to yourself, Get someone to babysit, take over your role for a little while. Take that small piece of time for you. Make you as much a priority as anyone else.

Be a friend to you ? nurture yourself wherever you can. Consider supplements, rest when you can, ask for help, take time for you. Give yourself the grace to not be perfect, to stumble and fall through this difficult time.

Grieve ? throughout it all your grief is still there. Let yourself feel and let your pain find its expression. Even if you have to stagger the moments when you do this, don?t hold it and fold it inside of you.

Support ? when the going gets tough it?s so very hard to do it all alone. Find those who can be there for you, who will understand and let you be you. Find those who can support you in a practical as well as an emotional way.

Maureen Hunter is an inspirational writer and grief steps mentor giving comfort and hope to many. She is passionate about helping people to step through grief and build a new and different life after loss, one in which their loved one is always a part of.

Claim your FREE report now: ?Opening the Door to Hope?. Helping you Step through Grief? http://www.esdeer.com/hope

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Maureen_Hunter
http://EzineArticles.com/?Helping-Others-When-We-Can-Barely-Help-Ourselves-In-Our-Grief&id=6995160

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Source: http://theselfimprovementblog.com/self-improvement/tools-for-self-improvement/helping-others-when-we-can-barely-help-ourselves-in-our-grief/

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About Website Design Classes Online | business resources

You will find a lot of people getting into Internet technology as factory jobs dry out in the united states and round the world. Some are learning the standard ways through schools or tech schools however nowadays we will cover a little about website design classes online to ensure you get choices to consider.

Why Online Web Design Service Courses?

The modification from the Internet and market has already established an enormous impact in route this website designers work and think which is the reason why if a person aspires to being a designer of web sites nowadays, she or he must be very centered on the job and also have imaginative and inventive ideas to be able to stick out in the crowd.

A business with a attractive website designed includes a crucial edge because it will get more people compared to competition who does not. Presently you will find many small , medium-sized companies that are reaping helpful benefits only due to the truth that they?ve had an excellent website designed.

As a result, for those who would like to learn beginner website design you will find really two options to think about plus they number the standard learning techniques which entail seeing a school or perhaps a private center or even the online method of learning also called e-learning.

Clearly many people may wish to explore a university and learn creating abilities, but for most of us nowadays e-learning has changed nearly all their class periods and so many people are thinking about it extremely effective.

One other way as proven below would be to learn website design at home. An illustration of this assets to locate these kinds of training is as simple as going to .

Affordable

In comparison towards the traditional courses, this can be a way less costly method of learning and in addition it provides the massive benefit to the consumer of getting their learning time handled as she or he is very pleasing to.

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How a concepts are described is extremely intuitive and customers will normally get videos to look at that will demonstrate to them the key they need to understand.

In comparison to simply learning tiresome ideas and never getting any obvious good examples or good examples whatsoever, its a certainty that by doing this of learning is superior in lots of aspects towards the traditional way. And as it pertains lower into it, the scholars will become familiar with all of the training in the convenience of their houses that is just an additional benefit.

For individuals who do not have money, borrowing money to obtain that site designer diploma isn?t that enticing. These web based website design courses cost between thirty and $ 100 monthly so anybody can easily see just how much better they?re when it comes to financial implications. In addition, the classes will focus particularly on things that customers should try to learn and never allow them to in on abstract concepts they wont make any practical utilization of.

And no-one can deny that the easiest method to take website design classes on the internet is via a step-by-step process. So to begin with, students is going to be trained training about HTML and CSS design. After these can come mastered, then more complicated concepts which is described like web development training, copywriting and graphics.

By Expert Website owners

Among the primary benefits of these courses is they are compiled by specialists and therefore are mainly guaranteed to work for everybody attempting to learn through online website design training. Yet it?s usually suggested that reviews located on the Internet regarding them ought to be read before buying. Better safe than sorry as the saying goes.

How Lengthy to understand Website Design Courses Online?

Eventually in around eight days (varies), individuals will know a great deal about web design service training and will also enable them to begin creating websites and putting their abilities towards the test. Over time, they?ll also hone their talent much more by studying via a traditional or online web design course being real professionals in the market wholl get compensated 1000?s of dollars by large companies to complete the things they love most. It does not improve than that!

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Source: http://humsn.net/about-website-design-classes-online/

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Sandy Hook survivors struggle to pick up the pieces

A vigil in Newtown on Friday night. (Andrew Gombert-Pool/Getty Images)

NEWTOWN, Conn.--As residents here learned the names Saturday of the 20 children and six adults killed at Sandy Hook School in one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, kids and their parents began a long mourning process.

Roxanne Mader, the mother of 7-year old Bianca, a student at Sandy Hook, said two of her daughter's friends are among the dead, as well as her principal, Dawn Hochsprung, whom Bianca loved.

"I cried a lot," Bianca said quietly, after visiting a small memorial of flowers and candles set up across the street from the school. "I miss my principal.?She said, keep on working, don't give up."

Hochsprung reportedly tried to stop the shooting,?heroically lunging at the gunman before he shot her and continued on his rampage.

Mader said her daughter has not been shielded from Friday's events.

"They told them to keep their eyes closed (when evacuating the building) and she did, but some of the kids didn't and then as they walked they already shared the information with each other, unfortunately," Mader said.

Steven Reps, a parent of a first grader at Sandy Hook who was volunteering in the classroom when the shooting began, said he is still struggling to explain what happened to his daughter. Reps told the class on Friday morning that a wild animal was in the school, after the children began to ask why they had to hide in the classroom for so long, listening to gunfire. "One said, 'Maybe it's a wild animal,' and I said, 'Yeah, I think it's a fox,'" Reps said. On Saturday, he explained to his daughter that a person, not an animal, was responsible for the shooting, and that he was now dead and could no longer hurt anyone. They're still waiting to tell her about her schoolmates who have died. "We're going to let this sink in for a while," he said.

Kathy Murdy, a Pre-K teacher in Newtown, traveled to the media-inundated Treadwell Park on top of a hill in town because she heard officials would be releasing the names of the dead. A reporter showed her the list, and she spotted the name of one of her former students, six-year-old Catherine Hubbard. "These are our babies," Murdy said.

The shooting's effects rippled beyond Newtown Saturday.

Twelve year old Michael Guaman traveled to Newtown from Danbury with his mother to show support for his history teacher, the husband of slain principal Hochsprung. Michael said he's worried his favorite teacher might not come back to school, and is praying for him.

"I'm a little scared and I hope they take more precautions now," Michael's mother Mariana Guaman said. "I pray to God that nothing else bad happens."

The tragedy raises the question of what will happen to the approximately 450 students who attend the K-4 school, and whether the school should ever reopen. Parents assume school will be cancelled next week, but the district has not yet announced that move. After winter break, Reps said students may be divided up and placed in extra spaces, like cafeterias, in nearby schools, with each class kept together.

"They've known each other since kindergarten," Mader said of her daughter's class, and said it's "essential" that they stay together.

Jeannie Pasacreta, a therapist in Newtown who is helping with the counseling of victims' families, said that she's been "inundated with calls" from parents who are worried about sending their kids backs to the school.

"One mom is going to send her kid to another school," Pasacreta said. "There's a lot of concern about going back to the scene of the trauma."

She's also heard from parents who want to move out of the town altogether. Pasacreta's cousin, whose two children were absent from Sandy Hook on Friday on a family trip, hasn't come back to Newtown yet because she doesn't want to face the scene.

On Saturday, Connecticut police announced that the gunman, Adam Lanza, was not buzzed into the school by employees as previously reported but rather forced his way inside.

"I don't think anyone should go back there," said Joel Faxon, a Newtown resident. His seventh-grade son, Christopher, who attends middle school in Newtown, said it should become a memorial. "It should have all the names listed: the kids and teachers who lost their lives," he said.

But Mader said the fear of "lightning striking twice" would exist no matter where the kids go to school.?"I'm going to have to get over my fear that you put your child on the school bus and they might not get off one day," Mader said, clutching her seven-year-old.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/sandy-hook-survivors-struggle-pick-pieces-012908726.html

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Co-Writer Jonathan Nolan Talks TDKR; Comments On JUSTICE ...

Speaking recently with Empire, The Dark Knight Rises co-writer and brother of director Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, discussed many aspects of the "epic trilogy conclusion," including the Robin gag. The Oscar-nominated screenwriter also shared excitement for the potential of Justice League, and he offered praise for Marvel's The Avengers and director Joss Whedon.

On plans for the Justice League movie, and seeing Batman in that very different context:

?I?m incredibly excited. I was a big Batman fan when I was a kid. In fact he was the only comic-book character I really liked. I went through a brief spell where I was reading Captain Britain, because I was an English kid living in the States, and Wolverine for 30 seconds, Spider-Man too, but really Batman was the one. And I love that there are different versions of the character. I love that in the context of The Justice League, he?s kind of the black sheep of that family.?

On Bane, the Joker, and the trend of recent villains conspiring to get themselves captured:

?Well, the Joker did that gag in The Dark Knight and that?s one of my favorite scenes in The Dark Knight! But I?m sure we were inspired by what went before ? probably Bond movies or something else. There?s something great about it: in the face of certain defeat they have actually engineered the whole thing. There are similarities between Bane and The Joker in that sense. With both you think the shoe is on the other foot, and then you realize that the entire encounter has been engineered for them to get something they want. But The Joker has a particularly municipal aim. With this one, Bane?s out to do something really big. He is completely in charge of that situation. And unafraid, almost absurdly fearless. You?re never in any doubt with Bane. He is completely what he is. He?s absolutely... Out-of the box thinking. He does not take into consideration his fear.?

On the Robin gag at The Dark Knight Rises' end and if the character could work in that established universe:

?It is a little hard to imagine Robin working in that universe, so the idea had to be limited to that gag at the end. But Joe?s character is very important to the story. In any movie you need a character looking at proceedings the way you see them, and Joe?s character is that character for this film. One of my favorite scenes is when John tells Bruce how he knew he was Batman. It?s like that scene in The Prestige where the little kid sees through Christian?s trick. Little kids, they don?t have any illusions, they just see the truth of the situation. I feel there?s a kind of spiritual connection between the two movies there.?

On whether he has seen this summer's Marvel's The Avengers box office behemoth:

?I did. To me Joss Whedon is a god, I?m just a huge fan of his work, I love his work on TV. And I thought The Avengers was just an incredible achievement.?

For the full interview, where Jonathan Nolan discusses Anne Hathaway's performance as Selina Kyle and rogue?s gallery characters that couldn't work in The Dark Knight universe, head over to Empire. Anyhow, special thanks to Steven for the jump on the interview. What do you think?

Source: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/MarvelFreshman/news/?a=71337

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As Syrian rebels close in, Assad has cards to play

BEIRUT (AP) ? With rebels trying to penetrate Syria's capital, Damascus, President Bashar Assad may appear to be heading for a last stand as his weakened regime crumbles around him.

But the Syrian leader is not necessarily on his way out just yet.

He still has thousands of loyal troops and a monopoly on air power. A moribund diplomatic process has given him room to maneuver despite withering international condemnation. And the power of Islamic extremists among the rebels is dashing hopes that the West will help turn the tide of the civil war by sending heavy weapons to the opposition.

"The West, for all its rhetorical bombast, has restricted the flow of important weapons," said University of Oklahoma professor Joshua Landis, who runs an influential blog called Syria Comment. "They have not brought down this regime because they are frightened of the alternative."

There is no appetite for intervening actively against Assad ? as NATO did against Moammar Gadhafi in Libya ? and run the risk of having him replaced by an Islamist regime hostile to the West. Those concerns have deepened after the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and political turmoil in Egypt where a bid to promote an Islamist agenda threatens to tear the nation apart.

Also working in Syria's favor is its alliance with Russia, which could be losing faith in Assad but will probably not abandon him. Russia has been Syria's key protector at the U.N. Security Council, where Moscow has used its veto power to shield Damascus from world sanctions. On Friday, Russia distanced itself from a statement by its Middle East envoy, who said a day earlier that Assad is losing control and the rebels may win.

During a reign of more than 40 years, the Assad family has built a powerful military and paramilitary force controlled by fellow members of their Alawite sect who are committed to maintaining the once-marginalized religious minority and its allies in power.

While the opposition is making significant gains, the forces propping up the regime are far from spent. For many of them, defeat would mean not only the end of Assad but an existential threat by vengeful rebel forces.

Some observers believe the die-hard loyalists around Assad ? a man who has vowed to live and die in Syria, despite the uprising ? may not allow him to abandon ship, even if he wanted to.

"Assad has effectively held his community hostage and convinced them to go down this road, which could very well lead to horrible retribution," Landis told The Associated Press. "He cannot leave them defenseless by swanning off."

Torbjorn Soltvedt, a senior analyst with the Britain-based Maplecroft risk analysis group, said the close links between the regime and many senior military officers act as a brake on defections in Assad's inner circle. Unlike in Tunisia and Egypt, where the military leadership could envision a prominent role after the removal of the old regime, the fate of many of Syria's senior commanders is linked with that of the Assads, he said.

"A large portion of the Syrian top military elite is unlikely to turn against the regime despite the lack of a successful strategy to regain the initiative in the conflict," Soltvedt said.

So far, air power has been the regime's most potent tool against the rebels, who remain largely helpless in the face of jets and attack helicopters that drop bombs from the sky. The rebels have managed to seize large swaths of territory in the north, overrun military bases and expand their control on the outskirts of the capital.

But rebels admit there is little to do about the threat from above, even though they appear to have shot down a few aircraft in recent months. The airstrikes, which often kill civilians, have in some cases turned residents off the rebellion by making them angry that insurgent fighters are effectively bringing the fight to their doorsteps.

A slow-moving and so-far ineffective diplomatic process also plays directly into Assad's hands. The U.S. has warned the Syrian leader not to cross a "red line" and unleash chemical weapons against the rebels, but beyond that threat there is no clear sign that Washington or its allies want to get involved by sending troops or arming the rebel forces.

That stance may have the unintended consequence of giving Assad broad leeway to continue cracking down in other ways, short of a chemical attack, without any fear of retribution.

The U.S. and NATO this week accused Assad's forces of firing Scud missiles at rebel areas, but the regime has denied that. The government also has been careful not to confirm it even has chemical weapons, while insisting it would never use them against its own people.

Syria is believed to have a formidable arsenal of chemical weapons, including sarin and mustard gas, although the exact dimensions are not known.

While the conflict drags on, there are widening fears that the civil war will ignite neighboring countries, including Lebanon, where pro- and anti-Assad forces have clashed. On Friday, the Pentagon said the U.S. will send two batteries of Patriot missiles and 400 troops to Turkey as part of a NATO force also including Germany and the Netherlands. The force is meant to protect Turkish territory from potential Syrian missile attack.

A number of Syrian shells have landed in Turkish territory since the conflict began in March 2011, and Turkey has been one of Assad's harshest critics.

But NATO's move was not a step toward intervention in Syria. In a statement Friday, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said "the deployment will be defensive only."

"It will not support a no-fly zone or any offensive operation. Its aim is to deter any threats to Turkey, to defend Turkey's population and territory and to de-escalate the crisis on NATO's south-eastern border," Lungescu said.

Many rebel fighters are bitter that the U.S. and others have not intervened to stop Assad's air force as they did in Libya against Gadhafi.

The fractious nature of the opposition and the increasing power of Islamic extremists among the rebel fighters have been a boon for the regime, as well.

On Wednesday, the U.S., Europe and their allies recognized the newly reorganized opposition leadership, giving it a stamp of credibility though it remains to be seen if the new bloc holds much sway with fighters on the ground.

Those fighters are a growing problem for the West. Some of the rebels' greatest battlefield successes have been carried out by extremist groups with links to al-Qaida. The West, of course, does not want see such organizations wielding any power in the region ? much less running Syria.

Moreover, the opposition appears split over how much to embrace the Islamist fighters.

The president of the new opposition coalition, Mouaz al-Khatib, has disagreed publicly with the U.S. decision to blacklist Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida-linked force that has proved to be one of the most successful fighting groups in the war against Assad.

Support for al-Nusra appears to be gaining traction among those who support the rebellion ? no doubt alienating many Syrians who hope for a secular future. On Friday, according to amateur video footage posted online, some crowds calling for the downfall of the regime rejected the U.S. designation of al-Nusra as terrorists and carried signs that said: "We are all Jabhat al-Nusra."

The AP could not independently verify the videos, but they appeared to be in line with other reports coming out of the area.

The threat of Islamic extremism resonates deeply in Syria, a country with many ethnic and religious minorities. The Assad dynasty has long tried to promote a secular identity in Syria, largely because it has relied heavily on its own Alawite base in the military and security forces in an overwhelmingly Sunni country. Assad has warned repeatedly that the country's turmoil will throw Syria into chaos, religious extremism and sectarian divisions.

The opposition has so far failed to put forth a credible alternative to Assad, a shortcoming which has kept many Syrians on the fence even as he appears increasingly to be losing control.

"The opposition is not a government," Landis said. "They do not offer social security or retirement payments or a pension. There are millions of Syrians who depend on that government. ... Can this new coalition that America just recognized step in and take their place?"

Still, Landis said, Syrians will likely abandon the regime in increasing numbers ? but "with a fearful heart."

"They've got nobody to look after them," he said. "There are 23 million Syrians who are going to be out of luck, out of food, and out of money."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebels-close-assad-cards-play-171134574.html

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Support C4SS with Dyer Lum's ?The Economics of Anarchy?

C4SS has teamed up with the?Distro of the Libertarian Left. The?Distro?produces and distribute zines and booklets on anarchism, market anarchist theory,?counter-economics, and other movements for liberation. For every copy of Dyer Lum?s ?The Economics of Anarchy??that you purchase through the?Distro, C4SS will receive a percentage.?Support C4SS with?Dyer Lum?s ?The Economics of Anarchy?.

A groundbreaking presentation of Mutualist economic and social theory, freed-market anti-capitalism, and an industrialism of worker ownership and mutual exchange.

I have repeatedly been asked to write a brief summary of the aims sought by Anarchists which could be read and discussed in the various clubs that are studying economic questions. With this end in view the following pages are submitted, trusting that they may be a help to those who are earnestly seeking the rationale of the Labor Question. . . .

FREE EXCHANGE?. . . would break the monopoly now possessed by currency, the instrument of exchange, and also could open full use of the possession of land. . . . Has the workman equal freedom to compete with the employer of labor? . . . But why not? Because behind the capitalist, as we now find him, privilege lends support which transforms the result of honest industry into a hideous Moloch standing with outstretched arms to receive as sacrificial victims the toilers who have made that capital possible. . . . Capital itself is man?s best friend, the true social savior that opens the march of progress and that has transformed society from warlike to peaceful pursuits. But under the crucifying hands of legalization, where prerogative mocks at penury, its mission is thwarted and it becomes a ravenous beast. . . . Reliance upon militant measures, trying to curb indus?trial discontent by legislative coercion, is reactionary in character. However disguised in twilight mixtures it is the spirit of the old regime seeking to dominate the new; as vain as seeking to check an exhaustless flow of water by damming the stream. The remedy cannot lie in enactments, in the organ?ization of systems, in return to simplicity of structure, for industrial civilization demands plasticity of forms . . . while organization, on the other hand, ever tends to rigidity. . . .

The Economics of Anarchy?was published at Chicago in 1890.?Dyer D. Lum?was a revolutionary anarchist, a labor organizer, and a pioneer of mutualist economics. He became involved in the labor movement through his trade as a bookbinder, and came into contact with Anarchists such as Albert Parsons and August Spies in Chicago. He was closely involved with support for the Hay?mark?et martyrs during the 1880s ? he took up the editorship of Albert Parson?s newspaper,?The Alarm, after Parson?s death, and it was Lum who smuggled a dynamite cap to Louis Lingg in prison (which Lingg used to commit suicide ahead of the noose). A collaborator and lover of Voltairine de Cleyre?s, and a prolific writer of both books and articles for Anarchist papers such as Twentieth Century, Liberty, and The Alarm, Lum?s Anarchism combined the radical individualism and anti-capitalist market anarchism of the Boston Anarchists, with an emphasis on worker ownership, radical solidarity, and the militant labor organizing of his Chicago revol?ution?ary milieu.

Source: http://c4ss.org/content/15172

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17 Most Innovative Cars Of The Year - Business Insider

A lot changed in the auto industry this year. Cadillac suddenly became a relevant brand again, and now Ford is trying to do the same with Lincoln.

Fuel efficiency continued to be the big theme. Prius sales skyrocketed, and Chevy's Volt became the most loved and hated car of the year.

Even Ferrari and Land Rover looked to boost their cars' mile per gallon figures.

From the Porsche that can drive more than 700 miles on a single tank to the electric Tesla that can compete with any vehicle on the market, these 17 innovative cars may not be the best on the road, but they are the ones that are changing the game.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/17-most-innovative-cars-of-the-year-2012-12

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Golden Globes 2013 Nominees: Winners And Losers

Underdog 'Django Unchained' gets major recognition while other popular favorites, like 'Dark Knight Rises,' got shut out of this year's Globes.
By Josh Wigler

Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio in "Django Unchained"
Photo: The Weinstein Co.

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1698850/2013-golden-globes-nominees.jhtml

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Rare Bear Has Twins at National Zoo

Two Andean bear cubs were born overnight at the Smithsonian's National Zoo, officials at the institution announced.

Six-year-old bear mom Billie Jean gave birth to the twins ? one around 12:01 a.m. local time and the other around 2:02 a.m. Thursday (Dec. 13), according to officials at the zoo in Washington, D.C.

Caretakers are monitoring the mom and newborns from the bear cam for now, allowing the three time to bond without interference. Zoo officials said they won't know the cubs' sex for at least two months. The two cubs' father, Nikki, had to be euthanized in August after his health declined; he had been diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, or cancer.

This is Billie Jean's second set of cubs. Zookeepers began to suspect this pregnancy in November, and ultrasounds showed two amniotic sacs and then, with later ultrasounds, fetal growth and development. Her telltale "I'm pregnant" signs included a decreased appetite, a nest she built inside a den, and her lack of interest in going outdoors, according to the Smithsonian.

Andean bears (also called spectacled bears) live in South America and are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The zoo noted that the species has a high infant mortality rate ? up to 44 percent in the first year.

"The Andean bear population in human care has experienced a lull in the past six years and these cubs are the only surviving Andean cubs in a North American Zoo since Billie Jean's first cubs, Bernardo and Chaska, were born in 2010," zoo officials said in a statement.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rare-bear-twins-national-zoo-162930061.html

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Counting Bugs In Panama? Get Out Your Tree Raft

An Ambitious Insect Census

Researchers collected almost 130,000 arthropods from more than 6,000 species from a section of forest in Panama over two years. It took another eight years for the insects to be classified. Here's a small sampling.

There are more species of insects than pretty much anything else in the world. And scientists know there are millions they haven't even identified yet. Now, in a tropical rainforest in Panama, a multinational team of scientists has just completed the first ever insect census.

Scott Miller, an entomologist at the Smithsonian who worked on the Panama, shows off one of the species from the survey that's at the National Museum of Natural History's insect zoo in Washington, D.C.

"We're standing in front of a colony of leafcutter ants," he says. "There you see one of the worker's who's carrying a leaf above its head and across its back as if it were sort of a sail, it looks sort of the like a sailboat, walking across the rock here."

Miller says the leafcutter ant is one of thousands of arthropod species in Panama's San Lorenzo forest. Arthropod are insects, plus spiders, mites, centipedes and pretty much everything else that lives on land and has at least six legs.

Many researchers thought that counting all the arthropods in even a small area of rainforest would be impossible. But that didn't stop Yves Basset, an entomologist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama who led the study.

"We sampled every arthropod from the soil to the top of the forest ? we call that the canopy," he says.

That canopy was as much as 13 stories above the forest floor. So Basset and his multinational team of researchers and volunteers had to get creative. They got help from professional tree climbers. They used a helium balloon to soar above the foliage. They had a helicopter lower a giant inflatable sampling platform onto the tree tops. And they also had construction crane right in the middle of the forest.

"You are ? the scientist ? actually sitting in a little gondola, a little, sort of cage, and then you have a radio and then you tell the operator where you want to go," Bassett says.

The floor of the rainforest is humid, but up in the canopy it's sunny, dry, and very windy.

"If you are sort of dangling on a rope when there is big wind, this could be dangerous," he says. "Also some branches might fall, so you have to be a bit careful about this."

Up In The Trees

Scientists used a variety of methods to collect arthropods in a section of Panamanian rainforest about the size of a football field.

• Hide caption

  A helicopter placed this inflatable tree raft in the forest canopy in Panama.

  Courtesy of Noui Baiben

• Hide caption

  Researchers used the canopy, which in some places was as much as 13 stories above the forest floor, to collect insects.

  Courtesy of Maurice Leponce

• Hide caption

  A construction crane was also built in the forest to allow access to different levels of the forest.

  Courtesy of Maurice Leponce

• Jurgen Schmidl/University of Erlangen

• Hide caption

  Jurgen Schmidl fogs the forest understory with insecticide to help in the collection of specimens.

  Roger Le Guen/Panacoco

• Hide caption

  Researchers also used a hot air balloon-style system to collect arthropods from thie top of the forest canopy.

  Courtesy of Roger Le Guen

• Hide caption

  Here, researcher Maurice Leponce hangs from the "canopy bubble."

  Courtesy of Maurice Leponce/Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

It took Basset and his team two years to collect the specimens and send them out to labs all over the world for identification. The Smithsonian's Scott Miller says it took more than 100 scientists another eight years to process them all.

Miller says to identify the species, researchers relied in part on DNA analysis, and in part on the arthropods' physical characteristics.

"The hard parts of the male and female genitalia in many insects give us the diagnostic characters for species," Miller says.

In all, Basset and his colleagues had collected almost 130,000 arthropods ? more than 6,000 species ? from a total area of forest not much bigger than a football field. They published their results this week in the journal Science.

May Berenbaum, an insect ecologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who wasn't involved in the Panama study, says nothing like this project has ever been done before. And it's important because of the critical role arthropods play in nature.

"They are what make communities run. They are the garbage disposers. They are the pollinators. They are the food for other organisms," she says.

And she says as development and climate change threaten places like tropical rainforests, we need all the baseline information we can get.

"If you don't know what's there, you don't know what's missing, and you don't know how to set aside, or how to save what you need to preserve the entire community," she says.

Berenbaum says she hopes there will be many more studies like this one.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2012/12/14/167163274/counting-bugs-in-panama-get-out-your-tree-raft?ft=1&f=1007

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Hockey fans fed up with ongoing NHL labor strife

Sitting in a hockey locker room, Steve Chase became the latest die-hard fan fed up with the NHL lockout.

Living in Los Angeles, Chase believed the league had squandered all the goodwill built in the area after the Kings won the Stanley Cup. His weekly pickup games with friends became his only taste of the sport he loved because of the ongoing labor strife that has dragged on for months.

So he took a poll of his buddies, then took a pledge:

"We're not coming back."

Not for good. Just not after the lockout is settled, not for a while.

Chase started the grass roots "Just Drop It" campaign that encourages fans to boycott one NHL game for every game canceled after Dec. 21st. No tickets, no TV, no merchandise ? not a minute or a penny spent on the league, punishment for what he believed are continued abuses of loyalty on their fan base.

He made a video and started a Facebook page, urging fans to click the "like" button and join the cause. More than 11,000 angry fans have joined since the weekend, a puck drop in the circle compared to the millions of fans who attend games, but the latest small sign fans won't again be easily won back.

"People are trying to crush the NHL," Chase said. "That's not our goal. Our goal is just to get hockey back. Hopefully somebody, somewhere cares about this and decides, 'Guys, we've got to get back and talk.' The fans are right.

"They're fighting over our money."

The days of letter writing and 30-second phone calls to sports radio stations have ballooned to steady streams of hashtags, Facebook posts and homemade videos from fans who just want to come in from the cold of this labor battle and watch their slap shots and saves. They are exasperated over a work stoppage with no end in sight and little regard for the fans.

Penguins captain Sidney Crosby understood why fans are upset over the third lockout in Commissioner Gary Bettman's 20-year tenure.

"I don't blame anyone for being frustrated with this process," Crosby said. "Everyone's got to be frustrated with the way this has gone. It's pretty easy for everyone involved to feel that way."

Kind of like they sing in a song about union executive director Donald Fehr's old sport, some fans vow it's one, two, three lockouts and they're out.

"I wouldn't blame them if they did that by any stretch," Penguins forward Craig Adams said, "but I can't predict that."

It's actually pretty easy to call this shot.

For all the angry tweets, texts, threats and organized campaigns, fans will still pick up the remote and print out tickets as soon as the strife ends.

They always do. In every sport. Remember 1994? After the World Series was wiped out, baseball loyalists vowed never to return to the old ball game. Fueled by super-sized sluggers and retro ballparks, attendance topped 60 million in 1996, 70 million in 1998 and soared to 79,503,175 in 2007.

The NHL, of course, can't match those numbers. But the story arc is still the same. The NHL drew 20,854,169 fans when the sport returned in 2005-06 ? 497,970 more than the total in 2003-04, the season before the lockout.

The NHL saw an attendance uptick each of the next three seasons and totaled a record 21,468,121 fans in 2011-12.

Fans are filling stadiums from A (Air Canada) to X (Xcel Energy) and most geographic points in between. If there are fans still holding out over the lost season and refusing to step foot inside an NHL arena, they're at least throwing on their oversized Winter Classic sweaters and watching from home.

The 2004 Stanley Cup finals between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Calgary Flames averaged 3.286 million viewers on ABC/ESPN, the Nielsen company said. Those numbers actually dipped in 2006 and 2007 when Carolina and Anaheim, two nontraditional hockey markets, won the Cup.

When hockey-mad cities like Pittsburgh, Detroit, Philadelphia and Chicago all reached the finals, though, the ratings soared. The Blackhawks-Flyers series in 2010 on NBC/Versus averaged 5.167 million viewers, the highest for the finals since 2002, Nielsen said.

The NHL is coming off its sixth consecutive year of record revenue, with a projection of more than $3.2 billion by the end of the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs, the league said.

Don't forget, the NHL has a $2 billion, 10-year deal with NBC Sports Group through the 2020-21 season.

"Our fan support coming back last time was outstanding and we were probably a little bit surprised to see how good it was," Adams said. "That speaks to how much the fans love the game."

The NHL clearly caught some breaks coming out of the last lockout.

The league marketed its comeback around rising stars like Crosby and Washington's Alex Ovechkin. They added fan-friendly shootouts and the New Year's Day Winter Classic. The league made the two-line pass legal to help bust up the neutral-zone trap and created chic commercials to appeal more toward casual fans.

This time ? whenever the lockout ends ? the league might be all out of tricks. They'll need to dig. And it could take years to recover from the wreckage.

Some teams are trying to keep their brand alive among an increasingly uninterested public. The Flyers aired classic games and brought back former stars for autograph signings at a sports bar in the same complex as the Wells Fargo Center.

Gerry Helper, special assistant to the president and senior vice president for the Nashville Predators, said the team enjoyed their best season ticket renewal year in franchise history this past offseason.

The Predators have stayed aggressive in developing benefits packages for season ticketholders during the work stoppage. They organized "Preds Pride Day" activities and something called a "Smashmob" for a youth hockey game last month where they brought their public address announcer and mascot, and created a Predators' game-like atmosphere. Helper wrote in an email to The AP the Predators have stayed in touch with season ticket holders via email and phone.

Not every Predators fan feels appreciated. Tom Begley, of Franklin, Tenn., canceled the two season tickets he has held since Day 1 of the franchise. He also estimated approximately 1,000 people like himself are season-ticket holders from the first day. He said the team has done plenty of events for all season-ticket holders, but nothing special for that select group.

"I got not even a phone call from the Predators just to say, 'Look we know you're a loyal die-hard season-ticket holder from Day 1. Why don't you come down and do something at the arena?'" he said. "Hey, if I feel like it down the line and I want to buy tickets again I can do it. Right now, I don't know. I'm not convinced that hockey here in Nashville is going to be viable long-term. I am scared to death of what Donald Fehr is doing to the game and it's a shame. It really is."

In Pennsylvania, the government is getting involved in the messy dispute.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey on Wednesday urged the U.S. Small Business Administration to provide additional assistance to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia businesses that have been adversely affected by the lockout. Casey claimed small business in Pittsburgh are losing nearly half of the $2.1 million in revenue generated for each Penguins home game. He wrote Philadelphia is losing $1 million in revenue from each lost home game.

All the bluster of a boycott is easier tweeted than done. Fans can't quit Sid the Kid, Ovi, Big Z, The Warden, Phil the Thrill and The Doaner.

On Opening Night in January 2013 or October 2013 or November 2015, whenever, the teams will be back ready for the first faceoff.

So will the fans.

At least some of them.

_____

AP Sports Writers Will Graves in Pittsburgh and Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, Tenn., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Dan Gelston at www.twitter.com/APGelston

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hockey-fans-fed-ongoing-nhl-labor-strife-223938126--nhl.html

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The ABC's Of Managing An Inside Sales Team - Business 2 ...

My digital marketing manager mentioned that he came across a great blog from?Kara Trivunovic, Vice President of Marketing Services for StrongMail. Her topic focused on the ABC?s of email marketing and we thought it would be interesting to come up with an A-Z run down on teleprospecting from a manager?s perspective.

Here we go:

A- Align company goals w/ employee goals

B- Bi-Directional Communication w/ inside and outside sales team is vital to sales success

C- Call plan: Your team needs a call strategy to follow on daily basis to maximize prodcutivity

D- Downtime is detrimental: You should always have time to prospect

E- Entice your reps: Utilize contests to encourage healthy competition

F- Foster your culture: A healthy company culture keeps the troops motivated and moving forward which key when you?re teleprospecting all day

G- Get to the point with your scripts: Blatant rip off from Kara here. When leaving messages keep it to 30 seconds/ when sending email keep it brief- 4 sentences max!

H- Hold your reps accountable: Managers put pressure on themselves to make their reps successful?.but the rep has ultimate responsibility for their results

I- Include your reps on messaging discussions: I?ve this the only way they can truly internalize the message

J- Joint training with peers: Managers only have so much time in the day. We need recognize that reps have just as much to learn from each other as they can from management.

K- KPI?s worth monitoring: You need to determine/track the metrics that drive productivity; Call Numbers, Connect Rate, Conversion Rates?etc

L- Learn what motivates your reps specifically

M- Messaging should always be changing based on your target: Your scripts should always fluid and personalized when possible

N- Never have your team rely solely on emails: Email shouldn?t be a crutch. Best practices tell us to weave email into your calling efforts

O- Open Door Policy with your reps:??I?ve often argued that teleprospecting is the most difficult part of the sales process. Don?t lose sight of the fact that your reps are always in need of your support.

P- Perspective: Good managers should have the capability of recognizing when they?re adding value and when they need to get the hell out of the way. No one likes a micro-manager, especially when it?s not needed.

Q- Qualify, Qualifly, Qualify!!!: This needs to happen for opportunities to progress in your sales pipeline

R- Research: Any time you pick up the phone you should know something about the company and the prospect you?re calling into

S- Sales training: one of the most critical continuing education pieces you can provide for your team

T- Time management: Your day can get away from you very quickly unless you have some structure. Personally, I feel this is one of the most important aspects driving a teleprospectors success

U- Urban Myth: Teleprospecting is easy

V- Vent in private and not with your team

W- Walk around the office: Don?t be chained to your desk. You must be visible to your team for the times they need your motivation

X- X-ray vision- Your reporting needs to be crystal clear and see through

Y- Your sales team is a direct reflection of you as a manager

Z- Zero#- Best way for your team to navigate a large organization

I?ve probably left off 30-40 other management examples here, but this exercise definitely got me thinking about all of the things we do on a daily basis to manage our teams.?I?m always open to other suggestions. Feel free to share!

Source: http://www.business2community.com/sales-management/the-abcs-of-managing-an-inside-sales-team-0354447

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Panetta says Syria chemical threat has slowed

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta talks to reporters while on board his plane headed to Kuwait, Monday, Dec. 10, 2012. Panetta will meet with troops as part of a visit to thank the troops for their service. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool)

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta talks to reporters while on board his plane headed to Kuwait, Monday, Dec. 10, 2012. Panetta will meet with troops as part of a visit to thank the troops for their service. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool)

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, second from left, is welcomed upon his arrival at Kuwait International Airport in Kuwait City, Kuwait, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012. Kuwaiti Defense Minister Sheik Ahmad Al-Khaled Al Sabah, right, escorts Panetta, who is scheduled to meet with troops during his visit as part of a holiday visit to thank the troops for their service. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool)

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, right, talks to reporters while on board his plane headed to Kuwait, Monday, Dec. 10, 2012. Panetta will meet with troops as part of a visit to thank the troops for their service. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool)

KUWAIT CITY (AP) ? The Syrian government seems to have slowed preparations for the possible use of chemical weapons against rebel targets, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday.

Last week, U.S. officials said there was evidence that Syrian forces had begun preparing sarin, a nerve agent, for possible use in bombs.

Speaking to reporters flying with him from Washington to Kuwait, Panetta suggested the threat was no longer escalating, although he was not specific about any Syrian military preparations.

"At this point the intelligence has really kind of leveled off," he said. "We haven't seen anything new indicating any aggressive steps to move forward in that way."

Panetta was in Kuwait to visit U.S. troops at the start of a four-day trip. The U.S. has about 13,500 troops in this country; they are a remnant of the 1991 Gulf War in which a U.S.-led coalition force evicted Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army after it invaded Kuwait in August 1990.

Asked whether he believed Syrian President Bashar Assad was heeding Western warnings against using chemical weapons, Panetta said: "I like to believe he's got the message. We've made it pretty clear. Others have as well."

He noted that the Assad regime is coming under increasing pressure from rebel forces.

"Our concern is that if they feel like the regime is threatened with collapse, they might resort to these kinds of weapons," he said.

Syria is believed to have a formidable arsenal of chemical weapons, including sarin and mustard gas, although its exact dimensions are not known. Syria is not a signatory to the 1997 Convention on Chemical Weapons and thus is not obliged to permit international inspection.

In the interview with reporters on his flight from Washington, Panetta also said he expects Obama administration decisions in the next few weeks on what military missions and forces the U.S. will seek to keep in Afghanistan after its combat mission ends Dec. 31, 2014.

The U.S. now has about 66,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of an international coalition that has been fighting the Taliban for more than 11 years.

Panetta said he would consult further with Marine Gen. John Allen, the top coalition commander in Kabul, before making further recommendations to President Barack Obama on a post-2014 military presence.

Panetta also said he is encouraged by what he called a downward trend in the number of attacks on U.S. and coalition forces by their Afghan partners. These so-called insider attacks accelerated for much of 2012, threatening to disrupt the U.S.-Afghan military partnership.

Panetta said the number of such attacks fell from 12 in August to two in November.

"Steps that were put in place to try to deal with that threat I believe have been effective," he said. He did not mention specific steps, but they include more rigorous vetting of Afghan army and police recruits and a requirement that U.S. troops carry loaded weapons at all times, even when on coalition or Afghan bases.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-12-11-Panetta/id-d604217c0a1844a28cb2c20f984eaf8b

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President Kibaki has said that the Government would soon establish 15 new fully-...

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.facebook.com/KTNKenya/posts/257969317662647

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Lady Antebellum Singer Hillary Scott Pregnant!

Lady Antebellum Singer Hillary Scott Pregnant!

Lady Antebellum singer Hillary Scott has announced her happy news, that she is expecting her first child! The country singer and her drummer hubby Chris Tyrrell, who married in New York last January, tweeted their excitement about their upcoming bundle of joy. “Chris & I are excited to announce that our Christmas gift has arrived ...

Lady Antebellum Singer Hillary Scott Pregnant! Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2012/12/lady-antebellum-singer-hillary-scott-pregnant/

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Intramural sports deadlines coming up, sign-up soon

The Department of Recreational Sports Programs offers a variety of intramural sports activities for UW students, faculty, and staff IMA members. You may view the activity bulletins scheduled for Winter Quarter on our web site http://depts.washington.edu/ima/ by selecting the intramurals and current program links. You can also follow us on Facebook.

Please take special note of the entry deadlines to be sure that you and your teammates don?t miss out on the fun. Early registration is encouraged in order to secure a preferred playing day and time. Registration begins December 10th for Basketball, Volleyball, Co-Rec soccer, Innertube basketball, International Court Soccer, Volleyball Doubles and Badminton tournaments. Entry dead lines: Basketball, Volleyball and 5 on 5 Co-Rec Soccer is Wednesday, January 9th. Innertube basketball, Volleyball doubles, International Court
Soccer and Badminton is Wednesday January 16th.

Please feel free to contact us 206.543-8558 if you have any questions regarding the intramural sports program or campus recreation in general.

Source: http://uwpolsadvising.blogspot.com/2012/12/intramural-sports-deadlines-coming-up.html

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US job gains defy Sandy and fears of fiscal cliff

In this Friday, Nov. 30, 2012 photo, a person fills out an application at the Fort Lauderdale Career Fair, in Dania Beach, Fla. The U.S. economy added a solid 146,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent, the lowest since December 2008, the Labor Department announced Friday, Dec. 7, 2012. The government said Superstorm Sandy had only a minimal effect on the figures. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

In this Friday, Nov. 30, 2012 photo, a person fills out an application at the Fort Lauderdale Career Fair, in Dania Beach, Fla. The U.S. economy added a solid 146,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent, the lowest since December 2008, the Labor Department announced Friday, Dec. 7, 2012. The government said Superstorm Sandy had only a minimal effect on the figures. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

In this Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012 photo, a couple shops for groceries by flashlight in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York, following a loss of power due to Superstorm Sandy. The U.S. economy added a solid 146,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent, the lowest since December 2008, the Labor Department announced Friday, Dec. 7, 2012. The government said Superstorm Sandy had only a minimal effect on the figures. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? It takes more than a superstorm to derail the U.S. job market.

Employers added 146,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate dipped to 7.7 percent, a four-year low, the government said Friday.

Though modest, the job growth was encouraging because it defied disruptions from Superstorm Sandy and employers' concerns about impending tax increases from the year-end "fiscal cliff."

Analysts said the job market's underlying strength suggests that if the White House and Congress can reach a budget deal to avoid the cliff, hiring and economic growth could accelerate next year.

A budget agreement would coincide with gains in key sectors of the economy.

Builders are breaking ground on more homes, which should increase construction hiring. U.S. automakers just enjoyed their best sales month in nearly five years. And a resolution of the fiscal cliff could lead businesses to buy more industrial machinery and other heavy equipment. That would generate more manufacturing jobs.

"The ground is being prepared for faster growth," said Nigel Gault, an economist at IHS Global Insight.

House GOP leader John Boehner said Friday that the two sides had made little progress in talks seeking a deal to steer clear of the cliff.

The White House used Friday's mixed jobs report as an argument to push President Barack Obama's proposed tax-rate increases for top earners, public works spending and refinancing help for struggling homeowners.

Superstorm Sandy, contrary to expectations, dampened job growth only minimally in November, the government said. Job gains were roughly the same as this year's 150,000 monthly average, and the unemployment rate fell two-tenths of a percentage point to its lowest level since December 2008.

That suggests that fears about the cliff haven't led employers to cut staff, though they aren't hiring aggressively, either. The economy must produce roughly twice November's job gain to quickly lower the unemployment rate.

Friday's report included some discouraging signs. Employers added 49,000 fewer jobs in October and September combined than the government had initially estimated. Monthly job totals come from a survey of 140,000 companies and government agencies, which together employ about 1 in 3 nonfarm workers in the United States.

The unemployment rate, derived from a separate survey of households, fell even though 122,000 fewer people said they were employed in November. That's because the number of people working or looking for work fell by much more ? 350,000.

The household survey asks about 60,000 households whether the adults have jobs and whether those who don't are looking for one. Those without a job who are seeking one are counted as unemployed. Those who aren't looking aren't counted as unemployed.

All told, 12 million people were unemployed in November, about 230,000 fewer than the previous month. That's still many more than the 7.6 million who were out of work when the recession officially began in December 2007.

Investors appeared pleased with the report. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 81 points.

For now, worries about the cliff have led some companies to cut back on purchases of heavy equipment. Consumers are also signaling concern. A survey of consumer sentiment fell sharply in December, economists noted, partly over worries that taxes could rise next year.

But a resolution of the cliff could accelerate job growth in the construction and manufacturing industries. Those sectors, on average, pay more than the retail and restaurant jobs that have helped drive hiring in recent months and tend to contribute more to economic growth.

Construction workers earned an average of $26 an hour in November. Factory workers averaged $24 an hour. Both far exceed the hourly average of $16.40 for retail employees and about $13.40 for hotel, restaurant and other hospitality workers.

"The good news is not that the labor market is improving rapidly ? it isn't ? but that employment growth is holding up despite all the fears over the fiscal cliff," Gault said.

He estimates that a budget deal would boost the economy's average monthly job gains to about 200,000 next year.

One company that could step up hiring in 2013 is Ahaus Tool & Engineering in Richmond, Ind., which makes assembly machines for the automotive and power-generation industries.

Kevin Ahaus, president of the 90-person company and the fourth generation of his family to run it, says the company had its best year ever in the 12 months that ended in September. But since October, sales have leveled off. Many customers are asking for bids but not closing deals, Ahaus said, because of the uncertain economic outlook.

That, in turn, is causing him to delay hiring.

"I probably won't hire anybody until the first of the year because of all the unknowns out there," he said.

Many analysts thought Sandy would hold back job growth significantly in November because the storm forced restaurants, retailers and other businesses to close in late October and early November.

It didn't. In part, that's because the storm struck the East Coast on Oct. 29 ? well before the government surveyed businesses about how many people were on their payrolls for pay periods that included Nov. 12.

Most people are paid every two weeks. So the pay period for the survey could have stretched as late as Thanksgiving week. As long as employees worked at least one day during a pay period, the survey counted them as employed.

Yet there were signs that the storm disrupted economic activity in November. Construction employment dropped by 20,000. And weather prevented 369,000 people from getting to work ? the most for any month in nearly two years. These workers were still counted as employed.

Retailers added 53,000 positions last month, a sharp gain that likely reflected holiday hiring. Auto manufacturers added nearly 10,000 jobs. But overall manufacturing jobs fell by 7,000, partly a result of 12,000 jobs lost in food manufacturing that likely reflected layoffs at Hostess Brands Inc.

Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, noted that hiring by private companies was actually better in October than the government first thought. The overall job figures were revised down for October because governments themselves cut about 38,000 more jobs than was first estimated.

The rebound in housing is leading Georgia Pacific, a paper and wood products company, to hire. It is opening a new plant in South Carolina next year and is filling 140 jobs. So far, it's received 2,400 applications.

"It's a little overwhelming from an HR perspective," said Julie Brehm, vice president of human resources.

The number of Americans who were working part time in November but wanted full-time work declined. And a measure of discouraged workers ? those who wanted a job but hadn't searched for one in the past month ? rose slightly.

Those two groups, plus the 12 million unemployed, make up a broader measure known as "underemployment." The underemployment rate fell to 14.4 percent in November from 14.6 percent in October.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-07-Economy/id-9d384daea8094cd697e9ce1d43225306

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