Trigger Hunting

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT – The top U.S. military officer says he's not assuming that Iran's brief seizure of an Iraqi oil well is part of an orchestrated plan in Tehran.
Adm. Mike Mullen also says he's worried about "the clock now running" on the Obama administration's efforts at trying to keep the lines of communication open with Iran.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says that "signals are very clearly in the air" about more international penalties against Iran over its nuclear program. The U.S. and others worry that Iran's program is intended to make a nuclear weapon. Iran says its work is peaceful and designed to generate electricity.
Mullen said Sunday while flying from Germany back to the U.S. that the oil well incident adds to his worry about Iran's intentions toward neighboring Iraq and the rest of the world.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
Senate Democrats reached a compromise on Saturday with the last holdout senator that secured the 60 votes they need to pass a broad healthcare overhaul sought by President Barack Obama.

A marathon negotiating session on Friday clinched an agreement with Democrat Ben Nelson ensuring federal funds would not be used to pay for abortions and providing extra Medicaid funds for his home state of Nebraska.

Nelson, a strong abortion rights opponent, had been the elusive 60th vote for the sweeping revamp, Obama's top legislative priority and the subject of intense political brawling for months.

"Today is a major step forward for the American people," Obama said at the White House. "After a nearly century-long struggle we are on the cusp of making healthcare reform a reality in the United States of America."

Nelson's backing should secure victory for Democrats in the first of a series of crucial procedural votes scheduled to begin at 1 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Monday and possibly conclude with final Senate passage on Christmas Eve.

"It seems that way," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said when asked if Democrats had the 60 votes they need to muscle the bill through the Senate against unified Republican opposition.

If the Senate approves the bill, it must be melded with a version passed on November 7 by the House of Representatives and both chambers must approve it again before sending it to Obama for his signature.

Reid introduced a 383-page amendment on Saturday making changes aimed at securing the last votes, including the abortion compromise and the dropping of a government-run public insurance option to appease moderates like independent Joe Lieberman.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office gave the revised bill a rosy review, saying it would cost $871 billion over 10 years and cut the federal deficit by $132 billion in the same period -- meeting Obama's cost target and goal of deficit reduction.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who has vowed to use every tool possible to delay the bill, forced the public reading of Reid's amendment. That took more than seven hours on Saturday.

Afterward, Reid filed a series of procedural motions to bring debate to a close and set up a string of closing votes to begin early Monday. The moves came during a rare Saturday session as a huge snowstorm slammed the U.S. capital, shutting down traffic.

'MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT'

"If they were proud of the bill they wouldn't be doing it this way," McConnell told reporters. "They wouldn't be jamming it through in the middle of the night on the last weekend before Christmas."

Obama has asked the Senate to finish by year's end to prevent the issue from spilling into the campaign for November 2010 congressional elections. Opinion polls show the bill losing public support, with majorities now opposed to it.

The Senate bill would extend coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans, provide subsidies to help them pay for the coverage and halt industry practices like refusing insurance to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Reid's amendment incorporates a variety of changes, from dropping the government-run public insurance option to adding non-profit health plans offered by private insurers and administered by a federal agency.

Other revisions take aim at insurance industry margins and taxes, including a cap on profits. Still, insurers would see a delay to the bulk of new taxes and now they would be phased-in over time.

Health insurance plans for large groups would have to spend at least 85 cents of every dollar on medical costs under the revisions, potentially crimping their profits. The amendment dropped the bill's tax on elective cosmetic surgery and added a 10 percent tax on indoor tanning, a potential cause of cancer.

Also included is an increase in the bill's Medicare payroll tax from 0.5 percent to 0.9 percent on income over $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples.

But much of Reid's focus had been on winning Nelson's support. He and other abortion rights opponents feared the federal subsidies could be spent on plans covering abortion.

Nelson said the agreement would allow states to prohibit abortion coverage in the new insurance exchanges created under the bill and mandate that every state exchange include an insurance plan that does not cover abortion.

It would require payments for abortion coverage be made separately with private funds.

"The plan that we've put together here, that we have agreement on, in fact walls off that money in an effective manner," Nelson told reporters. "I would not have voted for this bill without these provisions."

He said he could drop his support if the abortion deal was altered in negotiations with the House of Representatives.

Reid defended the additional federal funds for Nebraska that will permanently pay for the bill's expansion of the Medicaid health program for the poor -- all other states have to start picking up the tab in 2017.

"That's what legislation is all about," Reid said. "It's compromise."

Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, a strong supporter of abortion rights, told reporters she believed the compromise would adequately separate public and private funds for abortion coverage under the bill.

Advocates on both sides condemned the abortion deal.

Planned Parenthood called it "a sad day when women's health is traded away for one vote."

Douglas Johnson, the legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee said, said the compromise "solves none of the fundamental abortion-related problems with the Senate bill."

The House version of the healthcare bill includes stricter anti-abortion language. The Senate rejected an amendment incorporating the language last week.

(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, editing by Eric Beech and Jackie Frank)

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama calls the climate agreement reached in Copenhagen a breakthrough for action, but says more must be done to actually achieve significant reductions in global warming pollution.
"This breakthrough lays the foundation for international action in the years to come," said Obama on Saturday, only hours after he returned from Copenhagen were he brokered the deal.
Obama said "we will have to build on the momentum" and get Congress to pass mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases.
The international agreement reached in Copenhagen provides billions of dollars in climate aid to poor nations and gets China to be more open on its climate-related actions. But it does not require specific cuts in greenhouse gases.

LONDON (AFP) –
Graham Thorpe believes England star batsman Kevin Pietersen is on the brink of finding his best form after struggling so far in his native South Africa.

Pietersen made his name in world cricket five years ago by scoring three one-day centuries in his homeland.

However, he has found runs hard to come by since returning from four months on the sidelines with an Achilles injury and he has yet to make a fifty during England's ongoing tour of South Africa.

England will now head into the first of a four-Test series starting next week with Pietersen, dismissed for 25 in a warm-up match on Wednesday, struggling for runs.

But they won the Ashes without the 29-year-old, ruled out of this year's series with Australia after just two Tests, and former England batsman Thorpe believes it is just a matter of time before Pietersen, who averages nearly fifty in Test cricket, comes good again.

"Once he gets into an innings he'll be fine," said Thorpe," speaking at an npower urban cricket event at Lord's here on Wednesday.

"It could be in one of these warm-up games," added left-hander Thorpe, whose own Test career came to an end when he was dropped by England in 2005 in a move that allowed Pietersen to make his debut in the five-day format against Australia at Lord's.

"He only needs one score - a 50 or 60 with two or three hours at the crease just to really focus his mind again.

"That's all a person like him needs. He's a big match player with a lot of quality and you just feel that when he does get back he won't be lacking strength or desire against South Africa, that's for sure."

As was the case in 2004, Pietersen has been booed by some South African spectators during this tour.

But Thorpe said he had the strength of character to cope with the taunts while the arrival of former England captain Graham Gooch, one of the most prolific run-scorers of his generation, as the squad's batting coach would help iron out any technical issues.

"The booing is something he's used to," said Thorpe, who played in exactly 100 Tests. "It's the country of his birth so he'll look to impress and do well for England.

"Graham Gooch is out there working with them now. He can help them by focusing their minds on the mental side of the game and getting them in to score big runs."

Thorpe was far more concerned by whether England would be able to dismiss their opponents twice, something any side must do if it wants to win a Test match, especially against a South Africa side that boasts a powerful batting order.

England paceman James Anderson was ruled out Wednesday of a warm-up match against a South African Invitational XI with a knee injury and he has already had several pain-killing injections ahead of next week's first Test at Centurion.

Anderson was a key figure in England's recent 2-1 one-day series win over South Africa and Thorpe said: "Anderson's absence will be a big blow because you need the new ball swinging so England will have to work out which way they'll go, whether they have to go with (Graham) Onions or (Ryan) Sidebottom.

"The fear is that England will not be able to take 20 wickets and that's going to be England's hardest task," Thorpe added. "We look a little bit light there."

Add the Motorola Droid to the expanding list of hacked devices that give more adventurous users greater control over how they can use their smartphones. Late Tuesday Wired's Gadget Lab reported that instructions had been posted to an Android forum that supposedly show you how to gain administrator access to your Droid device.

A hacked Droid would allow you to modify the operating system any way you want, and add functions to the device that may have been previously restricted. The problem is that, for the moment anyway, an online community providing customized Droid hacks doesn't exist yet. But that is likely to change in the not-too-distant future.

Warning: Hacks can be hazardous to your Droid's health

Before you read on, keep in mind that rooting your Droid could brick your handset making it essentially useless. Also, tinkering with the inner workings of the software will almost certainly void the device's manufacturer warranty. So think carefully before you decide to try hacking your device.

Android phones are rooted, not jailbroken

In Android lingo a hacked phone is said to be rooted as opposed to being unlocked or jailbroken. With a rooted Android phone you can change the handset's visual theme, customize the operating system and add multi-touch gestures. You could also use applications or functions that may be forbidden or restricted by your carrier such as tethering.

How it's done, and why you should hold off

The instructions found on AllDroid for hacking your device look pretty straightforward: download a .zip file, rename it, and stash it on your handset's SD card. After that you restart your phone while holding down several keys, and then install the exploit using an onscreen menu. I have not verified this exploit myself, so I can't vouch for it.

According to the post, after the Droid has been hacked you can gain root access to the phone. But as I mentioned earlier, unless you already know how to modify to the Android OS, rooting your Droid won't do much for you at the moment. That's because software designed to take advantage of hacked Droids doesn't exist yet.

Hacking communities already exist for many Android HTC phones, and other devices running the Android 1.6 operating system (Droid runs Android 2.0). So in all likelihood you won't have to wait that long for Droid-related modifications.

But while you're waiting, you can check out what's already available for some rooted Android devices at the Android Spin database, the Cyanogen mod, and this dedicated Android hacking and modding site.

Just remember: any tinkering you do with your Android device is at your own risk. So ask yourself if the benefits are really worth it, before trying to modify your handset.

Connect with Ian on Twitter (@ianpaul).

LONDON (Reuters) –
A British police probe into Bernard Madoff's ponzi scheme is shifting focus to the European firms that fed money to the New York-based fund, a person familiar with the investigation said on Tuesday.

The change in emphasis comes as Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has found it difficult to find evidence of any wrongdoing at the British arm of Madoff Securities.

The source said a series of investigations into the unit had not found sufficient evidence to justify further inquiry or prosecution.

"(The investigation is) now much more focused on the feeder funds and less on the activities of people in the UK arm of the Madoff empire," said the source, who asked not to be named.

"It will come to a conclusion in the near future," the source said, adding it was difficult conducting a probe that involved other European jurisdictions. The source would not speculate as to whether prosecutions were likely.

Madoff, serving a 150-year sentence after pleading guilty to running a $65 billion Ponzi scheme, has claimed he alone was responsible for the large-scale fraud.

The SFO has attempted to follow a trail of money from New York to the London arm where it was used to make some low-risk trades before sending the money back to the United States.

"Although it's clear that the UK was used as part of the disguising of fraud, there's obviously a difficulty then in extrapolating that to say the people in the UK absolutely knew what was going on," the source said.

Feeder funds gathered money from European investors to invest with Madoff, and have already attracted scrutiny from investigators and disgruntled investors alike.

London-based FIM, headed by Carlo Grosso and Federico Ceretti, first came under investigation by the SFO earlier this year over its role as consultant to the Kingate funds. Kingate lost billions to Madoff. Also subject to scrutiny has been Austria's Bank Medici, and its founder and 75-percent-shareholder Sonja Kohn, who has been forced to deny that she received money from Madoff in return for delivering client funds.

Early last month, French financier Patrick Littaye was placed under formal investigation for breaching customers' trust in the running of the Madoff feeder fund Access International he founded with Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet.

Villehuchet committed suicide last year following the discovery of the fraud.

(Editing by Steve Slater and Karen Foster)

CARACAS (Reuters) –
Unfazed by a recession and rampant inflation, image-conscious Venezuelans show no signs of cutting back on the facelifts, liposuction, and breast augmentation that have become de rigueur beauty treatments.

"There is never a question of not doing it, but of how you can do it. We all want to get everything done," said Helen Patino, a 37-year-old former model who had her first breast augmentation when she was 21 and her third about three months ago.

Venezuela's inflation is the highest in Latin America, up more than 20 percent in the first 10 months of this year and the South American nation is in recession after a five year boom.

Hard times may even encourage cosmetic procedures as people look for ways to lift their spirits, with many dipping into savings or taking on debt to get operations, surgeons say.

"The financial crisis has spurred people to spend more on themselves ... to console themselves in this crisis. I have not seen demand diminishing," said Peter Romer, a plastic surgeon in Caracas.

For Iris Delgado, a 57-year-old dental technician, a lack of funds was not an obstacle to getting a recent eyelid tuck.

"With the economy, one has to make sacrifices, because you don't have the money. So, you get it from credit cards, from family and you pay for it," said Delgado, who borrowed 7,000 bolivares -- about $3,250 -- for the procedure, a move she saw as a hedge against inflation in plastic surgery prices.

Like Delgado, many go into debt to finance cosmetic surgery, according to those in the industry.

"It's an investment that people make and they look for money everywhere," said Romer, adding that one of his patients moved into a smaller apartment to get a makeover and another traded her car for a facelift.

Leoncio Barrios, a social psychologist at the Central University of Venezuela, said such stories are the exception. "The majority of middle and lower-income women do not have property to sell or the capacity to save," he said.

"What is clear is that in the subway you can see ads for clinics that offer credit for this type of surgery, and that women who work use their vacation bonuses and borrow from their work savings accounts," he added.

The industry will make sure that cosmetic work remains within reach to ensure a steady flow of income, Barrios said.

"NEED TO BE BEAUTIFUL"

Despite the hefty price tag, the choice to get cosmetic surgery is not considered a luxury for some Venezuelans.

"We need to be beautiful," said Patino.

Competition among women, by far the biggest consumers of plastic surgery in Venezuela, to look their best is fierce, and social pressure to get work done is high.

"Socially, there is a lot of demand, especially from men, to have a good body," said Prem Pratita, a 27-year-old who had a breast augmentation a few weeks ago.

In this image-conscious country, famous for beauty queens who win record numbers of international pageant titles, the idea of getting cosmetic surgery is instilled at a young age.

Patino recalls how, as a child, her mother and aunt dreamt of surgery to get rid of wrinkles. Now, with a child of her own, the subject is already on the table.

"I told my husband, 'Look honey, if she has your nose, she's going to get surgery,'" said Patino.

Some young women even describe moving up a few cup sizes as a rite of passage.

"It's a transformation from being a girl to being a woman," said Pratita, who said she was one of the last in her circle of friends to have the procedure.

"Everybody has a breast augmentation. Three or four of every seven women have one," said plastic surgeon Angel Pena, who likens his surgery to body decoration practiced for centuries.

"By nature, human beings have the desire to look better ... this desire is timeless and it's a desire that doesn't depend on your economic situation ... it's not that frivolous."

(Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Sandra Maler)

NEW YORK – For many women, getting a mammogram is already one of life's more stressful experiences.
Now, women in their 40s have the added anxiety of trying to figure out if they should even be getting one at all.
A government task force said Monday that most women don't need mammograms in their 40s and should get one every two years starting at 50 — a stunning reversal and a break with the American Cancer Society's long-standing position. What's more, the panel said breast self-exams do no good, and women shouldn't be taught to do them.
The news seemed destined to leave many deeply confused about whose advice to follow.
"I've never had a scare, but isn't it better to be safe than sorry?" asked Beth Rosenthal, 41, sitting in a San Francisco cafe on Monday afternoon with her friend and their small children. "I've heard of a lot of women in their 40s, and even 30s, who've gotten breast cancer. It just doesn't seem right to wait until 50."
Her friend agreed. "I don't think I'll wait," said Leslie David-Jones, also 41, shaking her head.
For most of the past two decades, the American Cancer Society has been recommending annual mammograms beginning at 40, and it reiterated that position on Monday. "This is one screening test I recommend unequivocally, and would recommend to any woman 40 and over," the society's chief medical officer, Dr. Otis Brawley, said in a statement.
But the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a government panel of doctors and scientists, concluded that such early and frequent screenings often lead to false alarms and unneeded biopsies, without substantially improving women's odds of survival.
"The benefits are less and the harms are greater when screening starts in the 40s," said Dr. Diana Petitti, vice chair of the panel.
Breast cancer survivors who were diagnosed at a young age were among the more vocal critics of the new guidelines.
"This sure seems like a big step backwards to me," said Debbie Hayes, who was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer at age 33 after finding a lump during a self-exam. A mammogram, ultrasound, biopsy and finally a mastectomy and chemotherapy followed.
"People are being diagnosed even in their early 20s," said Hayes, now 53 and a volunteer coordinator for the Chicago-based Breast Cancer Network of Strength. "Mammograms are a key element of that."
But another breast cancer survivor thought the new guidelines sounded about right — even though she was diagnosed at age 37, two years ago.
"They seem pretty sensible to me," said Claire Mayne, of San Francisco. "The death rate is not going down because of the earlier mammograms. I'd feel comfortable telling a friend to wait until she was 50."
Mayne was more doubtful, though, about the advice on self-exams; that's how she found her own cancer.
Most women in their 40s interviewed for this article said they planned to stick with the old mammography recommendations, at least for now.
"I have two young children," said Amber Smart, a 47-year-old mother in Agoura Hills, Calif. "There's a lot of years left that they need me." She's been having mammograms every six months, since she was 44, to make sure that certain dense areas of her breasts aren't cancer.
"I think it's kind of sad that they're basically saying, 'We can't afford to pay for the few people who may have it in their 40s, so a few people are going to die,'" Smart said.

Judy Finley, a flight attendant from Dallas, called the new recommendations "a terrible idea," and said she was especially worried that insurance companies might "pick up on this and quit paying for mammograms from 40 to 50."

"I think it would be really sad," said Finley, who was walking through the Crown Center mall in Kansas City, Mo. "And I don't know how the U.S. government or a panel of government officials can think they know better than the American Cancer Society."

But there were those who saw the new guidelines as potentially a relief, a development that could save women from endless stress, false positives and perhaps needless procedures.

"I can't tell you how many friends I have who've gone through severe worries from false scares," said Maren Waxenberg, a Manhattan mother. "At least three of them have had biopsies. And it turned out to be nothing."

Waxenberg herself, 46, has not yet had a mammogram. "I'm not concerned at this age," she said. "I plan to do it, but there's no sense of urgency."

The new guidelines are for the general population, not those at high risk of breast cancer because of family history or gene mutations.

They say:

_Most women in their 40s should not routinely get mammograms.

_Women 50 to 74 should get a mammogram every other year until they turn 75, after which the risks and benefits are unknown. (The task force's previous guidelines had no upper limit and called for exams every year or two.)

_The value of breast exams by doctors is unknown. And breast self-exams are of no value.

Medical groups such as the cancer society have been backing off promoting breast self-exams in recent years. Decades ago, the practice was so heavily promoted that organizations distributed cards to be hung in the shower demonstrating the circular motion women should use to feel for lumps.

As for mammography, the panel's new recommendations are more in line with international guidelines, which call for screening to start at age 50; the World Health Organization recommends the test every two years, and Britain says every three years.

They were sharply challenged by the cancer society on Monday.

"The task force advice is based on its conclusion that screening 1,300 women in their 50s to save one life is worth it, but that screening 1,900 women in their 40s to save a life is not, Brawley wrote.

That stance "is essentially telling women that mammography at age 40 to 49 saves lives, just not enough of them," he added.

But Dr. Amy Abernethy of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center agreed with the task force's changes.

"Overall, I think it really took courage for them to do this," she said. "It does ask us as doctors to change what we do and how we communicate with patients. That's no small undertaking."

__

Associated Press writers Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee, Stephanie Nano in New York, Evelyn Nieves in San Francisco and Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo., contributed to this story.

___

On the Net:

Government advice: http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstf/uspsbrca.htm

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
Republicans seeking a comeback from recent losses may pick up the governor's seats in Virginia and New Jersey on Tuesday in campaigns that tested the limits of President Barack Obama's influence.

Democrats were bracing for the unhappy possibility they could go down to defeat not just in those two states but in a congressional district in upstate New York where a conservative candidate was leading.

The election outcome could give some clues as to the national mood a year after Obama was elected president and a year before 2010 congressional elections that will represent the first clear referendum on Obama's time in office.

While local factors influenced all three races, the weak state of the U.S. economy was an overarching issue that played a role in each state.

In Virginia, Republican Bob McDonnell was leading Democrat Creigh Deeds by double digits in opinion polls as Virginians went to the polls -- an opportunity for Republicans a year after Obama became the first Democratic presidential nominee to win the state since 1964.

Two appearances on Deeds' behalf by Obama appeared to have little impact on the race, as Democrats suffered a lack of enthusiasm without Obama on the ticket and Republicans were energized by the chance to take back the governor's seat, held by Democrats the past eight years. Voting ends at 7 p.m. EST (0000 GMT) and the winner could be known a few hours later.

OBAMA CAMPAIGNS FOR CORZINE

In New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie has been running neck and neck with Democratic Governor Jon Corzine, the former Wall Street executive who has pumped $23 million of his own money into his campaign. A poll released on Monday gave the Republican a slight lead.

Independent candidate Chris Daggett trailed, and a key question concerned how many of Daggett's supporters would abandon him for Christie or Corzine and sway the race.

Obama campaigned with Corzine on Sunday and made a last-ditch appeal for the Democrat, trying to generate more enthusiasm for him.

"We will not lose this election if all of you are as committed as you were last year," he said. "So I want everybody in this auditorium to make a pledge that in these next 48 hours, you will work just as hard for Jon as you worked for me."

New Jersey polls close at 8 p.m. EST (0100 GMT Wednesday) but it could be some hours before the outcome is clear.

While a Virginia loss for the Democrats could be considered fairly predictable in a state long considered a Republican stronghold, a defeat in New Jersey would be seen as a bigger blow to the party because the state is heavily Democratic. Obama won it by 16 points last year.

"If the Democrats win New Jersey and lose Virginia, I would basically say, no harm, no foul," said Democratic strategist Doug Schoen. "The only real adverse impact is if the administration loses two campaigns, especially one they're heavily invested in New Jersey."

In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared headed to victory over Democrat Bill Thompson after engineering a rules change to allow him to run for a third term and spending millions of his own money on his campaign. As of last month, the billionaire mayor had spent $85 million to Thompson's $6 million.

WILD RACE IN NEW YORK

A wild race was taking place in New York's 23rd congressional district for a House of Representatives seat left vacant when Obama picked Republican John McHugh as his Army secretary.

Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman was leading Democrat Bill Owens slightly in the traditionally Republican district. The race took a bizarre twist over the weekend when Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava withdrew because of flagging support and endorsed the Democrat.

Democrats charged the race was an example of how divided the Republican Party has become between conservatives and moderates as it tries to rebound from losing control of Congress in 2006 and the White House in 2008.

Hoffman had been endorsed by conservative Republicans such as Sarah Palin, last year's Republican vice presidential nominee.

"If you look at what I think is likely to happen next year, you already have some Republicans who are more aligned with the very conservative element of what's happening in New York saying, 'This is a model for what you'll see throughout the country,'" said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

(Additional reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Folding bicycles often separate or fold in the middle of the frame, which, depending on the design, can weaken the frame and cause more energy-absorbing flexing. Many have elongated seatposts and stems. These longer components, which project above the frame like masts, experience greater bending stresses where they meet the frame, compared to the shorter components of regular bikes. There have been sporadic reports of failure in these components in online message forums[citation needed], and at least one recall due the failure of the steering mechanism.[citation needed] Folding bicycles necessarily have more parts, to allow folding and to lock the frame when unfolded. This results in a more complicated design, with more parts that can potentially fail.

The A-bike is similar to the Strida but has tiny wheels and compacts a bit smaller. Bikes smaller than a Brompton are often called portable bicycles. They forgo the performance and easy ride benefits of their larger counterparts, acquiring characteristics similar to those of an adult folding kick scooter. Regardless of how each folds, the result is easier to transport and store than a traditional bicycle.

http://www.greenzonebikes.com/foldingtandem-bicycles.html

RENTON, Wash. – The skidding Seahawks aren't worried about T.J. Houshmandzadeh's stomping and gesturing after he doesn't get the ball.
They have too many other concerns. Such as keeping their jobs.
Coach Jim Mora put his 2-5 team on notice following Sunday's 21-point loss at Dallas, which came after a 24-point home loss to Arizona.
"He basically said, 'I will evaluate this organization up and down and if I feel I've got to make changes, I'm going to make changes. If that means I've got to fire people, I'm going to fire people,'" quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. "We've definitely been put on notice that the scrutiny is going to go up."
The Seahawks captain said that while some teammates are working harder to get better, "there are some guys just happy to have a job."
Travis Fisher no longer has one. The veteran was released Monday evening. But firing the third-string cornerback who wasn't even active for Sunday's 38-17 loss to the Cowboys isn't going to cure what ails Seattle heading into Sunday's home game against even worse-off Detroit (1-6).
"It's been a tough 24 hours, man," receiver Nate Burleson said.
This is the first time Mora, the coach of the Atlanta Falcons from 2004-06 who took over the Seahawks in January from Mike Holmgren, has been three games below .500 as a head coach. His public tone Monday was far more terse than it had been for two months.
"I don't like to lose," he said.
The coach had been optimistic and upbeat amid Seattle's many injuries and defeats. That was before the Cowboys blew out his team amid penalties, fumbles and missed assignments. A 14-10 game late in the second quarter became a 38-10 runaway.
Just as he did the day before, Mora relayed a statement e-mailed to him Friday by Bruce Brown, his old coach at Hyak Junior High School in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue.
"Adversity turns weak people into victims, and it turns strong people into competitors," was Brown's message.
"We are going to find out who the strong people are, and they are going to be here fighting with us until the end," Mora said Monday. "And we're going to find out who the victims are, and they aren't going to with us fighting to the end.
"We're up against it a little bit. People will reveal themselves at these times. And I will be looking hard."
Houshmandzadeh, who signed a $40 million, five-year contract in the spring, has repeatedly proclaimed he wants the ball more in his first season with Seattle. Then Sunday the NFL's leading receiver over the last three seasons entering 2009 angrily gestured toward Hasselbeck to throw the ball with more loft immediately after he tried to zing a hard pass to the tightly guarded receiver while he was one-on-one with a defender near the goal line in the first quarter. The discussion continued at the bench. Both players made gestures but did not appear to be arguing so much as explaining themselves.
"You're talking about two great competitors. They were just simply having an animated discussion," Mora said. "There was no animosity.
"You have to remember, these two guys, they've only had seven games together. They're trying to learn each other."
Hasselbeck said he thought Houshmandzadeh, who had 92 receptions last season with Cincinnati but has just 35 through seven games with Seattle, knew about an adjustment the quarterback had worked out previously while in a similar situation with Burleson.

"That's kind of his demeanor," Hasselbeck said of Houshmandzadeh's fire. "There's no issue there. The issue is, we have to complete more passes."

Hasselbeck made a point of mentioning he nominated Houshmandzadeh to be team's player representative for this season.

Then there's Deion Branch's proclamation into a FOX television camera caught live on the air Sunday, as the forgotten former Super Bowl MVP ran through the back of the end zone following his first touchdown catch of the season.

The oft-injured Branch hasn't fulfilled the huge contract and No. 1 draft choice Seattle invested in him after a trade with New England in September 2006, and he had been the subject of trade rumors before the league's deadline last month. He looked into the lens Sunday and shouted: "This is what I do! If anyone wants me, come find me!"

Mora dismissed that, too.

"Sounds like a challenge to me," the coach said. "Sounds like he's competing and challenging people."

Given all the sideshows and losses, Hasselbeck was asked how the Seahawks' psyche was.

"That's a good question," the team's leader said. "I think that's something we've got to figure out."

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., which makes Internet security products, said Thursday its third-quarter profit rose 14 percent on strong sales across all of its regions, especially Asia Pacific.
Check Point earned $91.5 million, or 43 cents per share, up from $80.1 million, or 37 cents per share, in the year-ago period.
Excluding one-time items including stock-option, amortization and restructuring charges, the company posted an adjusted profit of $109.5 million, or 52 cents per share, compared with an adjusted $94.3 million, or 44 cents per share.
Revenue rose 17 percent to $233.6 million from $199.7 million.
The adjusted results beat Wall Street predictions. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a profit of 49 cents per share, excluding one-time items, on $230.7 million in revenue.
Company officials said the quarter's results came in ahead of their expectations and were particularly encouraging given the state of the economy.
In midday trading, Check Point shares rose $1.37, or 4.6 percent, to $31.47.

RICHMOND, Va. – A federal judge has ruled that Virginia violated the voting rights of military service members and other Americans overseas when officials failed to mail more than 2,100 absentee ballots in time for last year's presidential election.
U.S. District Judge Richard Williams also ordered Friday that the Virginia Board of Elections count and certify the absentee ballots.
The ballots from military service members and others living outside the state were the focus of a lawsuit filed by Republican candidate John McCain's campaign, which alleged that they weren't mailed in time for overseas voters to return them before the polls closed Nov. 4.
The missing ballots would not have swung the election in Virginia where President Barack Obama won by nearly 233,000 votes.

Computer software is so called to distinguish it from computer hardware, which encompasses the physical interconnections and devices required to store and execute (or run) the software. At the lowest level, software consists of a machine language specific to an individual processor. A machine language consists of groups of binary values signifying processor instructions that change the state of the computer from its preceding state. Software is an ordered sequence of instructions for changing the state of the computer hardware in a particular sequence. It is usually written in high-level programming languages that are easier and more efficient for humans to use (closer to natural language) than machine language. High-level languages are compiled or interpreted into machine language object code. Software may also be written in an assembly language, essentially, a mnemonic representation of a machine language using a natural language alphabet. Assembly language must be assembled into object code via an assembler.

The term "software" was first used in this sense by John W. Tukey in 1958. In computer science and software engineering, computer software is all computer programs. The theory that is the basis for most modern software was first proposed by Alan Turing in his 1935 essay Computable numbers with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem.

Club Management Software

Hard Money

A hard money loan is a specific type of asset-based loan financing in which a borrower receives funds based on the value of a parcel of real estate. Hard money loans are typically issued at much higher interest rates than conventional commercial or residential property loans and are almost never issued by a commercial bank or other deposit institution. Hard money is similar to a bridge loan which usually has similar criteria for lending as well as cost to the borrowers.

Many hard money mortgages are made by private investors. often in their local area. Usually the credit score of the borrower is not important. The loan is purely against the collateral of the property. Typically the maximum loan to value is 65-70%. That is, if the property is worth $100,000 you can borrow $65,000-70,000 against it. This low LTV is to cover the lender if the borrower does not pay and they have to foreclose on the property.