Ask Engadget: best 'money is no object' laptop?

We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is coming to us from Chris, who simply has too much money to blow on a super-laptop. If you're looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

"I sold my business and I want to replace my laptop [HP Pavilion G6] with a completely unreasonably expensive top of the line machine. I want it to do everything I do (gaming, coding, web design) all at the same time. Apart from the fact I need two hard drive bays, I'm completely open-minded, so what should I be buying? Thank you!"

Quell your gnashing teeth, members of the 99 percent, he's done well for himself and now he needs our help. We were able to trick out an Alienware M18x to full capacity for $6,700 -- with an over-clocked 4GHz Intel Core i7 CPU, 32GB of RAM, two 2GB NVIDIA GTX 675M GPUs in SLI mode and 1.2TB of SSD RAID storage. That's the benchmark, folks: who out there can find something more powerful?

Ask Engadget: best 'money is no object' laptop? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 23:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UFC VP says Strikeforce champ Ronda Rousey helped bolster MMA?s hopes in New York

If, as it should be, mixed martial arts is ever legalized in New York, don't forget to give Strikeforce bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey her share of credit.

On April 18 in Albany, N.Y., the New York state senate voted 43-14 to approve a bill that would legalize and regulate MMA in the state. It still needs to pass the assembly and then be signed by Gov. Cuomo in order to become law.

The bill has passed the state senate before, but this time around, said Marc Ratner, the UFC's vice president for governmental and regulatory affairs, the job was made much easier with Rousey's testimony.

"She got up there and she really made a great presentation and I think she had a significant impact," Ratner said. "We [as executives] can talk all we want to them about the positives of MMA, but to hear it from someone like her, a fighter, someone who is very articulate [and] who made her points very passionately, it definitely made a huge impact."

Rousey, who defeated Miesha Tate by, what else, an arm bar submission to win the title on March 3 in Columbus, was particularly effective when she spoke about what MMA has done for her. She won a bronze medal in judo in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, but said she would be struggling financially had she remained in that sport. She said she'd be losing money if she were a professional judoka.

Several senators approached her, she said, and told her her presentation changed their minds and caused them to vote in favor of the bill.

"MMA has a bad rap among some people," Rousey told Cagewriter. "It's marketed sometimes in a way that is not what the sport is. You hear the marketing, 'Two men enter. One man leaves,' but that's ridiculous. It's not what this sport is. They just do it to sound dramatic. It's like a movie preview. The whole movie isn't just running around and screaming and explosions, but they make it seem like that [in the trailer] so people go to the movie. There's a lot of quiet time and dialogue and there is a plot. What they're doing is like they're comparing a commercial for 'The Bourne Identity' to actually sitting there and watching it for two hours."

She spent time explaining the nuances of her specialty, the arm bar. She pointed out that she'd been arm barred "more times than I can count," and pointed out that she wasn't out snapping bones. She said she doesn't think she's ever broken an opponent's arm.

That, too, worked.

"I explained everything behind it and after I did, they were like, 'OK, that's no problem, it's not barbaric,' " Rousey said.

Her best point, though, may have been when she told the senators that there was actually already MMA going on in the state. She made them aware that there is a robust amateur scene there, but it isn't as safe for the fighters and the fighters aren't able to make a living, like they do when they're professionals and compete where the sport is regulated.

That point struck home with many of the lawmakers.

"In New York, you could fight and have people do MMA," she said. "But they have to do it without the proper medical checks. They have to do it without getting paid. They have to do it without any kind of regulation or oversight. [Amateur MMA in New York] is unsafe the way it is now, because they're missing all the things we have in pro MMA.

"We're not asking them to bring in a bunch of people and tell them to kill each other. That's not what's going on. That's how it was being presented. I wanted to point out that amateur MMA is here already, but we want to get it regulated so it's safe and there is regulation and it is safe and everyone gets paid for what they do. I want to be able to work in any state in my own country. Can you imagine, we're in 2012 and I still legally can't do my job anywhere I want in my country?"

The tens of millions of dollars poured into the legalization effort by UFC owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta and president Dana White will be primarily responsible for MMA's passage in New York, if and when it occurs.

But Rousey's day on the hill shouldn't be forgotten. On that day, the lady was a champ when it came to wooing the legislators.

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Walmart's website lets you Pay With Cash, strips away the 'convenience' of shopping online

Here's an idea: order products online, and then pay using regular 'ol dollar bills. Intrigued? That's exactly what Walmart has begun offering on its website today with its new Pay With Cash service. It's no different from initiating a normal web order, save for being another -- and potentially convoluted -- option to hand over your funds and checkout. After selecting PWC, you'll receive an order confirmation, which then allots you 48 hours to print it out and present it your local Wally World. From there, you can choose to pick up the item in store or have it shipped to your house -- in effect, stripping away some of the key conveniences of shopping online in the first place. Of course, one could likely just give their local store a call to place items on hold for a similar result, but hey, more options are always nice, right? At the very least, many without the likes of credit cards and Google Wallets might find some appreciation this method of retail purchasing. Hit up the links below for all the details.

Walmart's website lets you Pay With Cash, strips away the 'convenience' of shopping online originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wrong Message (talking-points-memo)

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aTV Flash (black) Apple TV jailbreak package gets updated with a revamped video player and more

FireCore has released another update to its hugely popular software for jailbroken second generation Apple TV's (2010, 720p version). The new 1.5 release includes a revamped video player which claims to improve playback performance of most video file types.

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Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson Headed To Cannes

Zac Efron, Brad Pitt and Matthew McConaughey will also head to the French Riviera in May for the annual film festival.
By Jocelyn Vena

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

Robert Pattinson will soon be an ex-Patt. He and Kristen Stewart are saying "au revoir" to Hollywood to hit up the Cannes Film Festival next month.

The "Twilight" twosome will be jet-setting to the famed seaside film festival to promote two of their highly anticipated films, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Pattinson will premiere David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis", while Stewart will debut Walter Salles' "On the Road." Both of their films are in competition at the annual fete.

But they aren't the only ones adding some Hollywood sparkle to the French festival, which takes place alongside the French Riviera. Nicole Kidman, Brad Pitt, Zac Efron, Reese Witherspoon, Marion Cotillard and Matthew McConaughey will all be on hand to promote films there.

Several other highly anticipated films will also see their grand debut, including Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom" and "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted." "American cinema has come back relatively en force," Cannes' artistic director Thierry Fremaux said at a press conference on Thursday (April 19).

This year's festivities also pay homage to Marilyn Monroe, who has recently found a resurgence in pop culture ("My Week With Marilyn," "Smash," Nicki Minaj's track, "Marilyn Monroe"). She is the face of the festival, appearing on a poster blowing out birthday candles in honor of the bash's 65th birthday. The 65th annual Festival de Cannes will run from May 16 to May 27. Of the 1,779 films submitted, 54 films made the final cut. Fremaux said a Cannes selection is "a trip through the cinema and through the world."

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Johnson & Johnson quarterly profit beats forecast, but sales lag

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Canon unveils EOS-1D C and C500 4K Cinema cameras, two new lenses ahead of NAB

In a departure from its last introduction as dramatic as the C300's Hollywood launch itself, Canon has quietly announced two additional cameras to sit alongside the company's former lone flagship. You may have caught a glimpse of the EOS-1D C at the C300 launch, but what six months ago was a mere mock-up has actually become a reality, likely to ship sometime this year. More out of left field, however, is the C500 -- a higher-end version of the C300 that adds several shooting modes, dual 3G-SDI ports and a larger, permanent grip. Both cameras can capture 4K video, but in substantially different ways.

Canon teases 'exclusive screening' in Las Vegas, new Cinema EOS products coming at NAB?

Canon has a new 'EOS Movies' DSLR on the way too: 4K video, 35mm full frame sensor

Canon C300 cinema camera hands-on (video)

The $15,000 1D C, which has the same chassis and still shooting features of its less-abled cousin, the EOS-1D X, pipes 4096 x 2160 8-bit 4:2:2 video to a CF card at 24 fps. Unlike the X, however, the C swaps a headphone jack for the X's PC socket, that's usually used for hooking up strobes. The higher-end C500 requires a dedicated external recorder, but offers two full-RAW output options: 4096 x 2960, that will be better suited for motion picture capture, and 3840 x 2160 for 4K TV. Both of these modes offer 10-bit 4:4:4 at 60 frames-per-second. There's also a half-RAW option, at 4096 x 1080 or 3840 x 1080 resolutions, also 10-bit 4:4:4, but at 120 fps. The C500 also includes dual CF slots, but that recording option is only available for 1080p (which can be captured to CF concurrently). Both cameras support Canon Log Gamma, empowering colorists to correct color in post production with more versatility by capturing additional information and a higher dynamic range.

Gallery: Canon Cinema EOS-1D C and C500

Jump past the break to continue...

Continue reading Canon unveils EOS-1D C and C500 4K Cinema cameras, two new lenses ahead of NAB

Canon unveils EOS-1D C and C500 4K Cinema cameras, two new lenses ahead of NAB originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gay worker claims Facebook 'like' got him fired

By Eve Tahmincioglu

A former management analyst at the Library of Congress?is claiming he was fired after?he "liked" a Facebook page for same-sex parents, an act he says led to his boss discovering?he is gay.?

Peter TerVeer liked the ?Two Dads? page on Facebook, a group that helps ?promote the gay and lesbian community,? according to the page.?

When his manager, John Mech, discovered he was gay, TerVeer?s once-positive performance reviews turned negative, he alleges, and his boss started making derogatory statements about his sexual orientation, according to TerVeer's attorney Thomas Simeone.

Simeone would not comment on details of the case, but a Roll Call article published Tuesday said shortly after TerVeer liked the Two Dads page:

TerVeer said he started to receive emails from Mech that contained ?religiously motivated harassment and discrimination.? Mech then called him into a meeting for the purposes of ?educating him on hell and that it awaited him for being a homosexual.?

TerVeer's therapist ordered him to take medical leave because of the stress, Simeone said. He?was fired last week for missing 37 consecutive days of work.

A spokeswoman for the Library of Congress said she could not comment on personnel matters. But the Library released a statement saying, ?Library of Congress employees, like all employees in the federal government, have protection against workplace discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Library employees who believe they have been subjected to discrimination may avail themselves of an internal administrative process to address their equal employment opportunity complaints.?

TerVeer filed a claim with Library of Congress? Equal Employment Opportunity Complaints Office, Simeone said. The office has until mid-May to make a ruling. After that, TerVeer can take his case to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.?EEOC spokeswoman Christine Nazer would not comment on the case.

Even though sexual orientation discrimination was part of the case, Simeone said his client will fight the termination based on religious bias. He said laws protecting?workers?against sexual orientation discrimination are limited and provide few, if any, remedies?for compensating workers in cases like TerVeer's.

Whatever the outcome, it?s a wake-up call for employees who may not yet understand the extent to which their?social media participation can?impact their careers. The question of what?s private and what?s not on social networking sites is rearing its head in the workplace more often.

This month Maryland became the first state to ban the practice of asking for a job candidate or worker's social networking password; and Illinois is considering similar legislation, said Daniel Prywes, an employment attorney for Bryan Cave.? ?The proposed bills would broadly prohibit employers from seeking access to private areas of social media accounts, with no exceptions for law enforcement or similar sensitive types of employment.?

Facebook has threatened to ?take action to protect the privacy and security of our users? in cases where employers seek passwords.

While most companies don?t cyber snoop on workers and job candidates,?it can be legal for your employer to mine your social media meandering and take adverse action against you for something on your Facebook or LinkedIn, as long as your employer doesn?t thwart discrimination laws or collective bargaining rights.

Discuss this issue on our Facebook page. But remember, your boss might be reading.

A former employee at the Library of Congress is claiming he was fired after he "liked" a Facebook page for same-sex parents, an act he says led to his boss discovering he is gay. WRC-TV's Jim Handly reports.

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N.Koreans desperate for Western approval of launch

The country's satellite is poised to launch to commemorate the 100th birthday of Kim Il-sung, but there are some doubts over whether it will ever go into orbit. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

By Ed Flanagan, NBC News Producer

PYONGYANG, North Korea ? With just one day before North Korea?s expected controversial satellite launch to commemorate the 100th birthday of ?Great Leader? Kim Il-sung, the government invited journalists to view its Mission Control ? the nerve center where the rocket and satellite will be monitored and guided from.

Coming after a press conference the day before, this was likely our last preview of preparations before launch. It was important because it gave us a critical view of the real operators of the satellite.?

Following the visit, NBC News sat down with 22-year NASA Mission Control veteran and NBC space consultant James Oberg to discuss what he learned from this visit and his expectations for the launch.

First off, what were your impressions of the Control Center? Was it as you expected it to be?
It looked like a real control center ? from the outside as well as the inside. First the communications links ? two communications domes and a pretty hefty antenna farm on top of the hill ? looked real, and inside the displays appeared logical and made sense to me.

Digitalglobe / via AFP - Getty Images

This DigitalGlobe satellite image obtained April 11, 2012, shows an image of the Tongchang-ri Launch Facility in North Korea. This image was taken April 9, 2012.

One difference: There was a big sign outside the building here that I found out didn?t actually say Mission Control Center; instead, it said, ?Everyone follow the leadership of the Great General.?

---

The director of the center made a short speech and then specifically called for you to come to the front of the press scrum to witness everything. What was that like for you?
It was certainly flattering, but clearly also an attempt at manipulation because he asked me to endorse his claim that the satellite launch was peaceful. Still, I recognized it as a gesture of respect for the American space program, for which I am the only representative to have ever visited the North Korean space program, though completely unauthorized officially by NASA.

For a while there, it seemed like there were as many North Korean cameras focused on you as foreign ones. Did you expect all that attention today?
No, I didn?t. But when you think about it and realize how desperate the North Koreans are for the appearance of Western approval, they?re bound to look for it wherever they can get it. Just the presence of this press corps, not just me, is interpreted as a sign of foreign respect for the program.

Some might view your presence at the launch center as a convenient propaganda prop for their claims. How do you respond to that?
They certainly felt it was. But I was able to use the visibility to raise some questions they had not yet answered to my satisfaction. I stressed that the boasted transparency of the North Koreans was nowhere near complete and that we didn?t have reliable insight into what was under the nose cone of that rocket.

The director joked about letting one journalist ride on the rocket. I told him that photographs of the installation of the satellite would be enough to dispel lingering suspicions, including in my own mind. He promised to provide them, but I?m not holding my breath.

One of your primary questions over the last couple of days has been how soon after launch would we start to receive radio signals from the satellite to confirm its success. Do you feel you got an adequate answer on that?
Absolutely. The director gave an answer that was totally consistent with my own calculations that it might be up to 12 hours before they get a good solid communications link with the satellite.

In the meantime, he enthusiastically agreed that amateur radio listeners around the world should try to pick up the signal, which he assured us would be broadcast continuously. Of course, it?s to their advantage that a foreign expert confirm the first proof of the satellite?s successful launch since controversy remains over the success of their [previous] satellite launch, which they still insist was successful against all other evidence.

At one point you asked where the equivalent of your old console would be in the control room and he pointed to the orbital information station in the room, a station you manned for many years. That was pretty impressive.
Yeah, I got a kick out of that. But it?s too bad I couldn?t talk to the actual operator. Because there are still interesting ? to me, at least ? questions about some third-stage rocket steering maneuvers they seem to need during launch to get into their target orbit. We could have had a real geek-level conversation that would have blown the interpreter?s mind.

NBC?s Richard Engel, as well as other Western journalists, continued to ask North Korean officials about the military application of these rockets, but the answers were at times exasperated and sometimes sarcastic. What do you make of it?
We?re really engaged in dual disconnected monologues here, not a real conversation. The North Koreans don?t seem to understand foreign objections and act as if their pure ideological correctness deserves worldwide obedience. They?ve dug themselves deep into the true-believer?s self-delusion that disagreement is caused by stupidity and malice, a bad habit that isn?t restricted to this corner of the world. In the West we have a hard time understanding how genuinely crazy so many North Korean projects ? such as this satellite ? really may be.?

But isn?t political single-mindedness a plus for advancing a difficult effort such as space exploration?
It might seem so at first, but I?m beginning to worry that the opposite is more likely to turn out to be true.? An effective safety culture in space, or any other high-tech field, demands disobedience and independent thinking from people who detect real problems that require real solutions.

But the official North Korean reaction to difficulties looks like resorting to appeals for divine inspiration from their infallible leadership so they can bully reality to ?fit? their intentions. I can?t detect any indications of the necessary kind of critical problem-solving and that?s a bad sign.

Space programs infected by such a pathological culture, whether Soviet-era or NASA pre-Challenger [and pre-Columbia] era, or today?s North Korea, are doomed to encounter major setbacks.? As the bumper sticker warns, when it comes to human fallibility, ?Man forgives, God forgives, Nature ? never.?

This visit was likely the last satellite-related site we?ll visit before the launch itself. Any final thoughts before we begin the wait for launch time?
Opening these facilities to outside observers still strikes me as a bold and risky tactic, which I welcome. We may be able to utilize it for the good.

As the old song wisely observes, the North Koreans may not get what they WANT from this gambit ? foreign approval. But they may get what they NEED ? better foreign insight into their motives and decision-making. And that could make it all worthwhile.

Also for radio enthusiasts around the world, this could be your day to shine. The first people who will get a crack at catching the North Korean hymns the satellite will play to honor Kim Il-sung will be those in Western Australia 20 minutes after launch. About an hour after launch, the Eastern seaboard of the United States will be able to listen in.

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China leadership succession back to old disorderly self

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A rising star is ejected from China's Politburo and faces trial for violations of Communist Party discipline. His wife is in custody, suspected of murdering a British national.

So much for an orderly transition of power.

Just weeks ago, the pending retirement of Chinese president and Communist Party Chief Hu Jintao to the younger generation headed by anointed leader to be Xi Jinping had appeared headed for a quiet repeat of 2002.

That year, Hu took the reins from Jiang Zemin in what was hailed as the first peaceful transition of power in the Chinese Communist Party's history. The party itself believed it had finally come up with a model for orderly and structured leadership handovers.

No longer. The 2002 transition increasingly looks to be the exception.

The ouster of charismatic but controversial former Chongqing party boss Bo Xilai, and the detention of his wife Gu Kailai in connection with the murder of Briton Neil Heywood, conjures images more akin to the sinister and sometimes deadly power politics under Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping than to peaceful succession.

Between the two of them, Mao and Deng abandoned five chosen successors who were shoved aside or died in prison, under house arrest or in strange circumstances. Many other senior leaders around them were purged.

Mao ousted his first successor, Liu Shaoqi, during the Cultural Revolution in 1969 and Liu later died in prison. Mao's second, Lin Biao, died in a mysterious plane crash in 1971. He was tried posthumously for treason after what China said was an abortive coup attempt.

According to Party legend, Mao told his third chosen successor, Hua Guofeng, on his deathbed in 1976: "With you in charge, my heart is at ease". Hua lasted only a year.

He was deposed in 1977 by Deng, who had been purged twice by Mao before coming back to assume power.

ENDANGERED SPECIES

The revolving door of Communist Party chiefs resumed under Deng, who sacked his own first successor, the reformer Hu Yaobang, in 1987 for being too soft on Western ideas.

Hu Yaobang's death in April 1989 sparked spontaneous memorials in Tiananmen Square that turned into the student-led democracy protests that were the undoing of Deng's second successor, Zhao Ziyang. Zhao was removed in May 1989 for sympathising with the student protests that were crushed with deadly force later by the People's Liberation Army.

A political joke that circulated around Beijing in late 1989 put Deng in a car with two other senior leaders when a cow blocked the road. One leader warned they would declare martial law. The cow didn't budge. The other said they'd send in the army. The stubborn bovine stood fast.

It was only when Deng whispered in its ear that he would appoint it as Communist Party chief that the cow fled in fright.

Deng's last pick, Jiang Zemin, defied the odds. With remarkable staying power, he ousted his own rivals and served as party chief over the next decade until handing over to Hu Jintao in 2002 to mark the first peaceful transition.

Bo Xilai was not a candidate for one of China's top two posts. But the former commerce minister was actively campaigning for one of nine seats on the next Politburo Standing Committee, the elite body that will run China under Hu's anointed successor Xi Jinping after a Party Congress late this year.

The bizarre drama surrounding Bo's removal, triggered when his own police chief, Wang Lijun, fled into the U.S. consulate in Chengdu apparently seeking asylum, hearkens back to power politics of old.

While the Party maintains a veil of secrecy and decides its top personnel moves - including Bo's fate - behind closed doors, his purge has sparked tensions with some conservative leftists and other supporters and upset with the disruption of what once appeared to be another routine transition.

In a sign of how fraught the leadership transition has become, the party mouthpiece, the People's Daily, issued a call for unity alongside Tuesday's reports of Bo's removal from the Politburo and broader Party Central Committee.

"We must conscientiously unify our thinking around the spirit of the central leadership, and closely unite around the party's central leadership with Comrade Hu Jintao as general secretary," it said.

If the tensions sparked by Bo's downfall are any sign, holding Party unity will prove a challenge.

(Editing by Don Durfee and Jonathan Thatcher)

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Afghanistan night-raid deal: Does it handcuff US forces?

While the deal gives Afghanistan legal and military 'ownership' over the night raids, on a practical level US forces still have leverage and flexibility, especially to react quickly to intelligence.

The Pentagon has just negotiated its way out of a major stumbling block in its long-term relationship with the Afghan government: night raids conducted by US forces.

Skip to next paragraph

Under an agreement reached Sunday, Afghan commandos will now ?take the lead? in night operations, heavily supported by US special operations forces. An Afghan judicial panel will also have to sign off on these raids with a warrant.?

Though the agreement is a vital to an Afghan government under intense political pressure from civilians concerned about the intrusiveness of the raids, in practical terms not much is likely to change from the perspective of US troops.?

Though the new memorandum of understanding now requires that the military obtain a warrant within 72 hours of conducting a night raid, these warrants may also be issued after a raid in cases in which intelligence requires quick action.

?That leaves the door open for some flexibility,? says Jeffrey Dressler, a senior analyst at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington. ?So if there?s something that needs to be done quickly, and we can?t necessarily wait three days, then it can be sort of retroactive.??

Will this sort of flexibility delegitimize the process in the eyes of the Afghans? Mr. Dressler argues that it does not, but rather ?provides an outlet for quick emergency action.??

He points out that the Afghan judicial panel could also refuse to issue a warrant retroactively, which would then require the release of any suspected insurgents scooped up in the raids.?

Yet US forces are likely to have some measure of leverage in the issuing of warrants, senior officials say. Though Afghan forces have long been ?in the lead? for a variety of missions, including securing the capital city of Kabul, Afghan troops still rely on US forces for nearly all of their operating needs, including supplies, intelligence analysis, and money for salaries.?

The greater worry, however, is that the process of securing warrants might lead to leaks that could tip off insurgents that they may be the target of a raid, say some officials.?

Another key question is going to be ?exactly how well these Afghan judicial panels function,? Dressler says. Will the military ?be able to wait three days for an Afghan judicial panel to authorize a raid? I think that?s not always going to be realistic.?

Yet in conducting the raids themselves, Afghan special forces are widely considered some of the best-trained and most effective units operating in the country.?

In recent congressional testimony, Gen. John Allen, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, pointed out that in the 2,200 night raids conducted last year, Afghan forces took part in most of them, with a civilian casualty rate of less than 1.5 percent.

This sort of competence could in turn help US forces carry out a smoother exit strategy. ?With conventional Afghan forces, you really have to drill down with what it means to be ?partnered? ? with US forces, Dressler says.?

Not so with these special-forces commandos, military officials add. ?The Afghan special operations units have developed at extraordinary speed and are manned by courageous and capable operators,? Allen noted in a statement during the signing of the memorandum Sunday.

US officials are also hoping that the new agreement undercuts Taliban propaganda efforts now that Afghan troops officially ?own? these operations, Dressler says.?

?The important thing here more than anything is symbolic,? he adds. ?If something goes wrong the Afghans can step up and say that this wasn?t an American operation or American forces preying on the Afghan populace.??

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Hannity contacted by shooter in Martin case

NEW YORK (AP) ? Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity has become the second cable news host whose involvement in the Trayvon Martin shooting case has gone beyond merely talking about it on the air.

Hannity acknowledged having a conversation with a man he believed to be George Zimmerman, who shot and killed the black Florida teenager Feb. 26 in a case that has ignited racial tensions. Zimmerman's former lawyers, in quitting the case Tuesday, noted that their client had talked to Hannity more recently than with them.

Hannity, who last week interviewed Zimmerman's father on Fox, said there has been a "rush to judgment" about the shooter.

Over on MSNBC, Al Sharpton has participated in marches and demonstrations in support of Martin while continuing to discuss the case on his evening talk show. There have been stark differences in the attention and focus on the case at the two networks.

Zimmerman was arrested and charged with second-degree murder on Wednesday. He turned himself in and arrived at jail in Sanford, Fla., where the shooting took place. Cable networks ramped up their coverage to make note of the news.

Hannity's involvement in the case came to light Tuesday at a news conference held by Zimmerman's former lawyers, Hal Uhrig and Craig Sonner. Hannity, who said on his show Tuesday night that he's been pursuing a Zimmerman interview for weeks, said he was contacted Monday by a man he believes was Zimmerman.

"He reached out to me, we spoke on the phone about his case and I agreed not to report on the contents of that conversation," Hannity said.

On his radio show Monday, Hannity said he had confirmed that Zimmerman was a mentor to minority children. "Now, if you were racist, I don't think you'd be a mentor to minority children," he said.

With Uhrig and Sonner present, Hannity last week on Fox interviewed Zimmerman's father, Robert. Robert Zimmerman's face was concealed during the interview.

During the interview, Hannity told Zimmerman that "I would argue there has been a rush to judgment." He cited statements made by political and civil rights leaders about the shooting being racially motivated ? George Zimmerman's father is white and his mother Hispanic ? and mentioned President Barack Obama's comment that if he had a son, he would likely look like Trayvon.

Zimmerman's father said he agreed. "I just believe it's very sad that so many people are not telling the truth for their own agenda," he said.

During the interview, Zimmerman's father said he had never heard his son utter a racial slur and, prompted by Hannity, recalled a time when his son helped a black homeless man.

Hannity also devoted a portion of his show Tuesday to discussing a report that the New Black Panther Party had put a bounty on George Zimmerman's head.

There was no progress to report Wednesday on Hannity's attempt to get a George Zimmerman interview, according to Fox.

Cable news networks had sharply different appetites for the case, according to research by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. From March 19 to 28, MSNBC ? where the prime-time hosts are liberal ? the network devoted 49 percent of its on-air time to the Martin story. During the same period at Fox, where the prime-time hosts are conservative, 15 percent of the news hole was spent on the case. It was 40 percent at CNN.

On March 26, for example, MSNBC carried 14 minutes of a mid-afternoon news conference by Martin's parents live and uninterrupted by commercials, the project said. CNN aired the news conference for a little more than five minutes. Fox didn't mention the story at all in that hour, the Excellence Project reported.

The topics that drew the most attention about the case on MSNBC concerned gun control and Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, the project said. On Fox, the most time spent was on Martin's background and statements in defense of Zimmerman.

With Zimmerman's arrest on Wednesday, Fox aired a lengthy live segment of a news conference held by the defendant's new lawyer shortly after 7 p.m. ET. At the same time, MSNBC showed Sharpton interviewing Martin's parents.

___

Associated Press writers Kyle Hightower in Sanford, Fla., and Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee contributed to this report.

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Search engine marketing-A Better Way to promote your Business ...

Search engine marketing is paid advertising or, rather, Pay-Per-Click Advertising in which the website owners have to pay for every Internet user that passes through their websites. When a PPC campaign is managed effectively, it brings high return on investment (ROI) in quick time. Excellent ROI means you will get business from a majority of visitors. Since you are paying a sum for each visitor, you would expect that each visitor would give you some business so that you can get return on your investment. PPC campaigns, when go out of control, become very expensive and sometimes they cause huge losses to the website owner.

Search engine marketing experts suggest that website owners should start with low budget like $1000 for a month. This is a quite low amount but it is better to start slow when you are a beginner. Your advertisement should come in the first three result pages of the search engine.

One more thing to remember is that you shouldn?t try to outbid every advertisement that is placed over your advertisement. Outbidding others is not your objective. Your focus should be on getting right clicks. Spend time in researching market and studying Google Analytics to see the latest trends in PPC Advertising.

Keywords selection plays a crucial role in deciding the fate of a PPC Advertising campaign. If you are not targeting keywords that are using your customers then you won?t get any return on your investment. For example take an online store that sells apparel and shoes. If the storeowner uses keywords like designer shoes or fashion dresses then he might not get the visitor he is looking for. The storeowner should use keywords like kids? shoes and women apparel. Experienced search engine marketing professionals suggest website owners to be cautious while selecting keywords because it is the keywords that connect websites to their customers.

Traffic volume of top place paid advertisement is higher than those placed on second and third position but it doesn?t mean that ads placed on second and lower positions don?t get any traffic. If you are using relevant keywords then you can beat others by making a compelling and attractive advertisement. When doing search engine marketing, you should remember that you are paying for every visitor. Once a visitor clicks on your paid advertisement, it lands into your selling page and it gives you only a few seconds to convince it.

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FORSCOM: Your Military Healthcare Daily is out! http://t.co/cTM5Uo88 ? Top stories today via @jtfcapmed @dodcap @usamrmc @va_ptsd_info @hprcupdates

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Soap Dish: Renee Jones Quits Days Of Our Lives

It is Soap Dish time again my friends and this week I am dishing all about the news that Renee Jones has quit Days Of Our Lives. I have to warn you there is a couple of semi spoiler alerts below so beware of that as you continue to read. ? This week Days fans learned that Lexie Carver was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Turns out in real life Renee Jones, who has played Lexie since the role was originated back in 1993, has decided to exit the show and this time for good. Not to give too much away regarding the storyline but Days has said this will be a storyline that fans can?t miss. If I had to guess I would say Lexie won?t survive the brain tumor and from what I have read it is going to be heartbreaking. I will admit I was pretty shocked when I learned that Jones was leaving the show to well, give retirement a try. Yep she isn?t going to another show or wants to try her hand in the movies or primetime, she is getting out of the business. In fact some sources are quoting that the very private [...]

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Source: NBC producer fired over Zimmerman 911 call

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Business buzz: Insty-Prints, Direct Mail Marketing merge | bc4biz.com

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Insty-Prints of Shreveport and Direct Mail Marketing of Bossier City merged Tuesday and as of May 1 will be called Allegra Marketing-Print-Mail.

Allegra is a full-service marketing communications provider with in-house printing technologies, including full-color printing, short-run digital printing, variable data capabilities, color signs, posters and banners, graphic design, mailing services, promotional products, print management solutions and project consulting.

Allegra is at 509 Market St. and is a member of Allegra Network LLC, one of the world?s largest marketing, print and graphic communications networks linking nearly 300 locations in North America.

Chrysler recalls small Jeeps

DETROIT ? Chrysler is recalling about 1,700 small Jeeps because faulty gas tank valves can cause fires. The recall affects some 2012 all-wheel-drive Jeep Compass and Patriot SUVs. Chrysler says the valves were damaged when the manufacturer tested them for leaks.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the valves can leak gasoline if the SUVs are involved in a crash. Chrysler says it doesn?t know of any fires or injuries. The recall is expected to start in June. Dealers will replace the fuel tanks free of charge. Owners with questions can call Chrysler at (800) 853-1403.

Executives have pay cut

WASHINGTON ? Top executives at three companies bailed out by U.S. taxpayers during the 2008 financial crisis were ordered to take pay cuts by the federal government.

The Treasury Department says nearly 70 executives at American International Group Inc., Ally Financial Inc. and General Motors Co. had their annual compensation reduced by 10 percent. The CEOs of each company had their pay frozen at 2011 levels. All three companies have yet to repay what they received from the $700 billion bailout and therefore are subject to pay cuts. AIG still owes taxpayers around $50 billion.

? From Wire Reports

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Website Ranking Tool | Internet Business Consulting - Yes Fixit

Domain Name: yesfixit.com Google Pagerank: Alexa Rank: 7,487,033 Yahoo Backlinks: 0 DMOZ Directory: No Hits: 0 Domain Age: 2 years, 238 days Google Backlinks: 0 Alexa Backlinks: 27 Yahoo Directory: Yes Google Indexed Pages: 221 Yahoo Indexed Pages: 0 Bing Indexed Pages: No Data Digg Links: 0 Delicious Links: 0 Technorati (Blog) Rank: 0 Compete Rank: 0 Site Value: $0 USD W3C Validator: Details Internet Archive: Details Google Bot Last Visit: No Data

Title: Computer Repair | Internet Business Consulting | Laptop Repair | Englewood Sarasota Florida

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