On line Video Gaming Resources That Help You Get Games For ...

If you are a skilled gamer or beginner, the next report has something for you! Learn about the most recent winning methods, cheat requirements, savings and hottest features developing soon. No matter what your game or goal in playing, you are sure to locate something new and useful in the recommendations listed below.

And you stumble upon still another player who appears to be aggravating other people (or you, specifically) intentionally, don?t go on it personally, if you are playing a game title on line. This really is called ?Griefing,? and it is the gambling exact carbon copy of Internet trolling. Griefers are just out for negative focus, and they are given by you what they are looking for if you connect to them. Don?t get emotionally invested in what?s happening and simply make an effort to ignore it.

Choose rechargeable battery for the instant gaming controller. You can purchase rechargeable energy supplies for almost any controller. You will be eating by way of a great deal of money in the batteries used to run your controllers, if you want to play game titles often. A rechargeable battery can save a lot to you of profit the long run.

Go through the back of the package, If you?re purchasing a game as a gift and read what it says. Specially, if the overall game is for a kid, look for something that you believe can show doubtful content. There also needs to be considered a few images that give you some idea of what you are getting as well.

Create reviews for game titles. This can help others learn whether they need a, from the perspective of a person who owns the game and has played it. Write an evaluation that you would desire to read. So that you might help others make good choices, be informative and descriptive.

Playing game titles is a great way to relax after having a difficult time at work or at school. Don?t let a difficult level on a game detract from this relaxing exercise. Even probably the most skilled gamers sometime desire a code to greatly help complete an exceptionally difficult level. On the net, there are some great sites offering cheat codes and strategy guides for different video games.

Simply take computer game breaks. Sitting in the same position for too long could be dangerous to your current health. Push your self every half an hour hitting that pause button and walk across the room for somewhat. This can help the human body along with clear the mind.

Understand that some games contain multi-player options, which could expose your kids to others on the web. In this case, you should really be monitoring who your young ones are talking to, as you do not want them to get too involved with strangers. This can help to place your child in the best place possible.

Double jumping is something that you can do in lots of method games to give you that extra boost when you?re running in order to avoid your opponent. This can be a good tactic to use, because it generally requires when you?re in motion the jump button to be pressed by you twice.

If you are looking forward to the newest gaming programs, be prepared to wait somewhat longer. Console gaming methods are normally a loss for the maker. The amount of research and development involved makes them maybe not successful when released. On the rear end on the on line purchases and games the money is made by the manufacturers.

Games may improve our lives in so many interesting ways. Game play can improve your athletic reactions, GPA if not your power to put together a fantastic party for your family! Hopefully this informative article has provided you with an engaging solution to learn more about video games and how to increase your advantages from them.

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Source: http://www.isk-network.de/on-line-video-gaming-resources-that-help-you-get-games-for-free/

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Mirren shares royal tea with cancer-stricken boy

Celebs

Randee Dawn TODAY contributor

11 hours ago

Nctlc Trust/Facebook

Helen Mirren with Oliver Burton.

Dame Helen Mirren all by herself is pretty terrific. But put the 70-year-old Oscar winner in the outfit of the Queen, and she wears it like a superhero.

Recently, she stormed outside mid-performance of her London show "The Audience" (in which she plays Queen Elizabeth II) to unload on noisy drummers (and later publicly wore a handmade T-shirt supporting their cause). But her latest deed goes one step further: Last week, she agreed to have tea with 10-year-old Oliver Burton, who has Down syndrome and has been battling cancer for much of his short life.

Burton was diagnosed with leukemia in 2006, and was recently given a terminal diagnosis, according to a Facebook page set up to support him. But he had one dying wish: To have afternoon tea with the Queen and visit Buckingham Palace, as reported by the Leicester Mercury.

A national trust designed to support cancer-stricken children requested the actual Queen Elizabeth II -- who couldn't work it into her schedule.

So Mirren stepped forward to invite him to the Gielgud Theatre to see her play the Queen -- and invited him backstage to share tea and cake and to meet the corgis who star in the play with her. There were even footmen.And naturally, she was in costume the entire time.

"Our incredibly brave Ollie has Tea with The Queen!" the National/Regional Children's Tumor Leukaemia and Cancer Trust posted on their page.

His mother Catherine told the Mercury, "Dame Helen was brilliant. She stayed in character the whole time and spent a lot of time talking to Oliver and drawing him out of himself. She signed his British flag, which he waves all the time."

She also knighted him, with her hand. Now, that's royal behavior.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/helen-mirren-gives-royal-welcome-boy-down-syndrome-terminal-cancer-6C10018472

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Impoverished Malawi sells presidential jet for $15 mln

LILONGWE (Reuters) - Malawi's luxury presidential jet, bought by late leader Bingu wa Mutharika, has been sold for $15 million to raise cash for the impoverished African country, a government official said on Wednesday.

Mutharika, who left the economy on the brink of collapse after he picked a fight with donors whose support accounted for almost 40 percent of the budget, bought the jet for $22 million in 2009. He said the plane matched his status and was cheaper than flying commercially.

Britain, Malawi's main bilateral donor, criticised the purchase and reduced its aid budget to Mutharika's government by 3 million pounds because if it.

President Joyce Banda, who took office in April last year after Mutharika died of a heart attack, made the sale of the jet a priority as she sought to repair the economic damage.

Chintu Phiri, principal secretary in the office of the President and Cabinet, told Reuters that Virgin Islands company Bohnox Enterprise Ltd had beaten three other bidders for the 14-passenger Dassault Falcon 900EX aircraft. "We have accepted their offer and we are waiting to hear from them," Phiri said.

The plane reportedly cost Malawi about $300,000 a year in maintenance and insurance.

Since taking office, Banda has also cut her salary by 30 percent, pledged to sell off 35 Mercedes Benz cars used by her cabinet and introduced a host of austerity measures.

Her early popularity has faded, however, due to an IMF-backed devaluation of the kwacha currency that caused inflation to spike to more than 35 percent a year.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/impoverished-malawi-sells-presidential-jet-15-mln-095422594.html

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Microsoft touts Xbox One as all-in-1 entertainment

Kareem Choudhry, left, development manager for Microsoft Corp.'s Kinect motion-sensing device for the Xbox, demonstrates the level of detail in the camera of the new Kinect for the next-generation Xbox One entertainment and gaming console system to a visiting journalist, right, during a demonstration, Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in Redmond, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Kareem Choudhry, left, development manager for Microsoft Corp.'s Kinect motion-sensing device for the Xbox, demonstrates the level of detail in the camera of the new Kinect for the next-generation Xbox One entertainment and gaming console system to a visiting journalist, right, during a demonstration, Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in Redmond, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

A group of visiting journalists try out the improved motion-detecting capabilities of the new Kinect controller for Microsoft's next-generation Xbox One entertainment and gaming console system, Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in Redmond, Wash. The new Kinect, which will come standard with the Xbox One can also see users in total darkness and has a wider field of view than the previous Kinect device in use with the Xbox 360. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Photographers crowd around Microsoft Corp.'s next-generation Xbox One entertainment and gaming console system after it was officially revealed, Tuesday, May 21, 2013, at an event in Redmond, Wash. It's been eight years since the launch of the Xbox 360. The original Xbox debuted in 2001, and its high-definition successor premiered in 2005. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Don Mattrick, president of interactive entertainment business for Microsoft Corp., speaks after unveiling the next-generation Xbox One entertainment and gaming console system, Tuesday, May 21, 2013, at an event in Redmond, Wash. It's been eight years since the launch of the Xbox 360. The original Xbox debuted in 2001, and its high-definition successor premiered in 2005. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

A controller for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox One entertainment and gaming console system is on display after its unveiling Tuesday, May 21, 2013, at an event in Redmond, Wash. The Xbox One, a next-generation entertainment console that promises to be the one system households will need for games, television, movies and other entertainment, will go on sale later this year. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

REDMOND, Wash. (AP) ? Microsoft thinks it has the one.

The company unveiled the Xbox One, an entertainment console that wants to be the one system households will need for games, television, movies, sports and other entertainment. It will go on sale later this year, for an undisclosed price.

For the past two years, Microsoft's Xbox 360 has outsold its rivals. But it's been eight years since that machine came out, and Microsoft is the last of the three major console makers to unveil a new system. In those eight years, Apple launched the iPhone and the iPad, "FarmVille" rose and fell and tablets began to threaten desktop computers, changing how people interact with games and beyond.

Now, the stakes are high as Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are all using their latest machines not only to draw gamers but also to command the living room. The goal is to extend their reach beyond loyal legions of hardcore gamers and to become as important to our lives at home as smartphones have become to our lives on the go.

Don Mattrick, Microsoft's president of interactive entertainment business, said the company has spent the past four years working on an "all-in-one home entertainment system."

At an hour-long unveiling at the company's Redmond, Wash., headquarters on Tuesday, Microsoft executives used voice controls to switch back and forth seamlessly between watching live TV, listening to music, playing a movie and browsing the Internet ? all while running apps for stuff like fantasy football and Skype chats on the side of the screen.

"It really extends the home entertainment experience," Gartner analyst Brian Blau said.

He said the console seems to appeal to "more than just a core gamer in the family" and should be of interest to all types of audiences, from sports players to TV viewers to those who are "social and want to share things."

The Xbox One unveiling follows Nintendo Co.'s launch of the Wii U in November and Sony Corp.'s tease in February of the upcoming PlayStation 4. Each of the new consoles has shifted away from simply serving as gaming machines, as they incorporate streaming media apps and social networking features.

People will be able to connect their cable or satellite set-top box and watch TV through the Xbox One. It will have its own channel guide and allow viewers to change channels by voice command.

Senior Vice President Yusuf Mehdi demonstrated how the console switched quickly between channels after saying show names such as "Mary and Martha" or commands like "watch MTV." His voice command of "What's on HBO?" brought up the channel guide for HBO.

"No more memorizing channels or hunting for the remote control," Mehdi said.

The interface for the TV goes well beyond the functionality in the Wii U, which still requires users to press buttons to change the input source on the TV. Xbox One seamlessly flipped between games, movies and TV shows with voice commands.

In addition to the console, Microsoft unveiled a new version of its camera-based Kinect system with better motion and voice detection, including the ability to recognize faces, tell if you're smiling or talking and gauge your heart rate. In a demonstration, the new sensor detected up to seven people in front of it. Microsoft said the new Kinect will be included with the Xbox One and is deeply integrated into the system, but it won't necessarily always be watching users in their living rooms.

"There's the ability for you to manage the privacy settings so you can turn it off," Marc Whitten, Microsoft's chief product officer of interactive entertainment business, said in an interview in his office after Tuesday's presentation. "Just like the 360, the biggest thing for us is that you are in control of your privacy."

The company also introduced a more ergonomic Xbox controller, with a slightly different layout from the Xbox 360 controller and trigger buttons that vibrate. The new console will also add the ability to play Blu-ray discs, matching what Sony has in its older PlayStation 3.

The Xbox One won't require a constant connection to the Internet, but having it will be useful for many of the gaming and entertainment features. The Xbox has been popular largely because of its Xbox Live service, which lets users play games online with other players with annual plans that cost as much as $60 a year.

"The box wants to connect to the Internet," Whitten said. "That said, we understand the Internet is flakey. It doesn't always work. We want to make sure you can still play your games, watch movies and watch TV if the Internet is down."

Despite talk that Microsoft might restrict the use of games previously owned by others, the company confirmed that the Xbox One will indeed play used games, but it didn't provide details on how that would work. It said games for the Xbox 360 won't work on the new system because the underlying technology is different, though the company said it will continue to make games for the older machine. Whitten said the Xbox 360 "is going to be incredibly vibrant for some time to come."

Among the games previewed for Xbox One were the military shooter "Call of Duty: Ghosts" from Activision Blizzard Inc., soccer extravaganza "FIFA 14" from Electronic Arts Inc. and racing simulator "Forza Motorsport 5" and time bender "Quantum Break," both from Microsoft Game Studios. Microsoft said more games will be shown at next month's E3 video game conference in Los Angeles.

The company said there will be more than 15 games available exclusively on the Xbox One in its first year, eight of them new franchises. In recent years, the Xbox has been the exclusive home to such popular gaming franchises as sci-fi shooter "Halo" and alien shoot-'em-up "Gears of War."

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said Tuesday's presentation was more general than what Microsoft will likely give at E3, where games will be central as thousands of game industry insiders, bloggers and journalists gather for the annual industry conference.

"They didn't focus on games," he said. "They focused on everything else."

That everything else includes a multiyear agreement between Microsoft and the National Football League to develop new interactive viewing experiences for pro football games through such products as the Xbox One and Microsoft's Surface tablet computer. Fans will be able to watch games, chat with other fans, view statistics, access highlights in real time and gather fantasy information about players and teams ? all on a single screen. For those who prefer multiple screens, fans can get an even deeper experience on mobile devices such as tablets.

Microsoft is also branching into creating original content beyond games, following the trend of other technology companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc. Director Steven Spielberg will produce a TV series based on the "Halo" games.

The original Xbox debuted in 2001, and its high-definition successor premiered in 2005. The Xbox represents a small fraction of Microsoft's overall revenue, but it is an important consumer-facing business for Microsoft and offers a way to direct traffic to other Microsoft-owned services, including Skype. Microsoft's stock fell 23 cents, or less than 1 percent, to close Tuesday at $34.85.

Nintendo kicked off the next generation of gaming in November with the launch of the Wii U, the successor to the popular Wii system. The Wii U features an innovative tablet-like controller, though its graphics is on par with the previous-generation Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo said the console sold just 3.45 million units by the end of March, well below expectations.

Sony was next, teasing plans for its upcoming PlayStation 4 ? without showing the actual box ? at a February event in New York. The reaction to that console, which featured richer graphics and more social features, was mixed. The PS4 is expected by the holidays.

Microsoft didn't waste any time showing off the Xbox One console, new Kinect sensor and Xbox controller at the beginning of Tuesday's presentation.

___

Barbara Ortutay reported from New York. AP Business Writer Ryan Nakashima in Los Angeles and AP Pro Football Writer Barry Wilner in Boston contributed to this story.

___

Online:

http://www.xbox.com

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-05-21-Games-Xbox/id-18d82affeb74480791898494086c3e0c

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Resistance to last-line antibiotic makes bacteria resistant to immune system

May 21, 2013 ? Bacteria resistant to the antibiotic colistin are also commonly resistant to antimicrobial substances made by the human body, according to a study in mBio?, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. Cross-resistance to colistin and host antimicrobials LL-37 and lysozyme, which help defend the body against bacterial attack, could mean that patients with life-threatening multi-drug resistant infections are also saddled with a crippled immune response. Colistin is a last-line drug for treating several kinds of drug-resistant infections, but colistin resistance and the drug's newfound impacts on bacterial resistance to immune attack underscore the need for newer, better antibiotics.

Corresponding author David Weiss of Emory University says the results show that colistin therapy can fail patients in two ways. "The way that the bacteria become resistant [to colistin] allows them to also become resistant to the antimicrobials made by our immune system. That is definitely not what doctors want to do when they're treating patients with this last line antibiotic," says Weiss.

Although it was developed fifty years ago, colistin remains in use today not so much because it's particularly safe or effective, but because the choices for treating multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii and other resistant infections are few and dwindling. Colistin is used when all or almost all other drugs have failed, often representing a patient's last hope for survival.

Weiss says he and his colleagues noted that colistin works by disrupting the inner and outer membranes that hold Gram-negative bacterial cells together, much the same way two antimicrobials of the human immune system, LL-37 and lysozyme, do. LL-37 is a protein found at sites of inflammation, whereas lysozyme is found in numerous different immune cells and within secretions like tears, breast milk, and mucus, and both are important defenses against invading bacteria. Weiss and his collaborators from Emory, the CDC, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta set out to find whether resistance to colistin could engender resistance to attack by LL-37 or lysozyme.

Looking at A. baumannii isolates from patients around the country, they noted that all the colistin-resistant strains harbored mutations in pmrB, a regulatory gene that leads to the modification of polysaccharides on the outside of the cell in response to antibiotic exposure. Tests showed a tight correlation between the ability of individual isolates to resist high concentrations of colistin and the ability to resist attacks by LL-37 or lysozyme.

This was very convincing, write the authors, that mutations in the pmrB gene were responsible for cross-resistance to LL-37 and lysozyme, but to get closer to a causative link between treatment and cross-resistance, they studied two pairs of A. baumannii isolates taken from two different patients before and after they were treated for three or six weeks with colistin. The results helped confirm the cross-resistance link: neither strain taken before treatment was resistant to colistin, LL-37, or lysozyme, but the strains taken after treatment showed significant resistance to colistin and lysozyme. (One post-colistin isolate was no more or less resistant to LL-37 than its paired pre-colistin isolate.) Like the resistant strains tested earlier, both post-colistin isolates harbored crucial mutations in the pmrB gene that apparently bestow the ability to resist treatment.

The authors point out that the apparent link between resistance to colistin and cross-resistance to antimicrobial agents of the immune system could well extend to other pathogens that are treated with colistin, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Weiss says he plans to follow up with studies to determine whether this bears out.

For Weiss, the problems with colistin are symptomatic of a much larger trio of problems: increasing levels of drug resistance, cuts in federal funding for antibiotic research, and lack of incentives for pharmaceutical companies to invest in antibiotic R&D. "We don't have enough antibiotics, and it's really important for the research community and the public to support increases in funding for research to develop new antibiotics," says Weiss.

"We got complacent for a while and the bugs are becoming resistant. This is something we can reverse -- or make a lot better -- if we have the resources."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/GvkR-4TrerQ/130521011230.htm

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Jones still won't reveal name of son's father

Celebs

Randee Dawn TODAY contributor

5 hours ago

Getty Images file

January Jones.

And the father of January Jones' 20-month-old is ... I'm Not Telling. "That's my son's business," the actress, who plays the former Betty Draper on "Mad Men," told the New York Times on Sunday. "It's not the public's business."

Betty -- and Jones -- often divide fans. And in the Times, the actress does not come across as an easy interview. But that doesn't mean she didn't have some items of interest to share. As she told writer Ruth La Ferla, "Jack Nicholson once told me, 'You should never give your personal life away, otherwise people will pick you apart. They'll never believe in your character.'"

Speaking of that character, Jones has been concerned about her perception as icy and self-involved. "That was the fear for me," she said. "That we'd be in the third season and you'd hate the character."

Jones doesn't -- she says she understands Betty's mindset. "She has a childlike emotional response to things," she said. "You have to treat that very, very tenderly."

But back to Jones: Whether she'll name his father or not, little Xander is growing up fast and is already talking. His first word? "Mama." Second? "Back." "'Cause I keep saying, 'Put it back,'" she said.

When asked about previous comments -- like how she ate her own placenta after giving birth, she noted matter-of-factly, "It was like taking a vitamin blended into a smoothie,? adding with some sarcasm, "I'm a mammal. I nursed. I did all kinds of weird stuff."

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/january-jones-its-not-publics-business-who-my-sons-father-6C9996530

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Sony Entertainment Network web store launching in Japan on May 29th

The Sony Entertainment Network, which is already live in the US and Brazil among other countries, will launch in Japan on May 29th. As you may recall, the service is a browser-based marketplace with games, movies and other media available for download. SEN is especially targeted at PlayStation users; games and videos purchased will automatically show up in the PlayStation store. Given that Sony calls the Land of the Rising Sun home, it's high time its Entertainment Network opened its doors to Japan. And with E3 less than a month away, the world may get a taste of Sony's next-gen hardware for enjoying this service -- stay tuned.

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Hey, Congress: It's comprehensive immigration reform or nothing

Some members of Congress argue that the comprehensive immigration reform bill before the Senate is too long and that it needs to be broken up and considered piecemeal. But a piecemeal approach flies in the face of the long history of failed stand-alone immigration bills. This Congress needs comprehensive reform to save itself from itself.

Only a comprehensive reform legislative package will pull together the strange-bedfellow coalition necessary to secure enough votes for any immigration bill to pass both houses of Congress: No comprehensive legislation; no bipartisan coalition; no change.

OPINION: 5 myths about amnesty for illegal immigrants in Senate bill

As groups hold out for their priorities, each part of comprehensive immigration reform legislation is held hostage to passage of all others:

Liberal Democrats supported by ethnic interest groups want earned legalization with a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants. Libertarians in the Republican Party and other Republicans responding to business constituencies want more visas for high-skilled information technology workers and lower-skilled guest workers.

Legislators from states with large high-tech sectors want green cards for foreign graduates of US university doctoral programs in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields; legislators from agricultural states with vegetable, fruit, and dairy want a guest-worker program for farm workers.

More socially conservative Republicans as well as security hawks among Democrats want tougher border controls and work-site enforcement. Liberal Democrats and more libertarian Republicans accept increased spending on border fences and tighter controls, but only within the context of comprehensive reform.

Unless these many demands are part of an interdependent, comprehensive reform package, each of the various camps is unlikely to support each other?s individual initiatives.

But with so many contentious parts, some lawmakers have argued for a piecemeal approach. Senate Judiciary Committee Member Ted Cruz (R) of Texas called for considering smaller bits of immigration legislation that have the most bipartisan support, like an improved agricultural guestworker program, instead of imperiling legislation by including deeply divisive elements like legalization with a pathway to citizenship.

Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Robert Goodlatte (R) of Virginia, said his committee would examine these issues in a step-by-step process and then introduced a stand-alone temporary agricultural worker bill allowing up to 500,000 foreign workers.

History shows that the piecemeal approach to immigration reform doesn?t work. For example, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R) of Virginia has put forth a bill to create a nonimmigrant H-2C work visa program for agricultural workers. The bill would eliminate the limitation to seasonal work and reduce cumbersome requirements of the current H-2A temporary agricultural worker program established in 1986. It would also increase the overall numbers of agricultural workers.

But the newly introduced bill is similar to more than a dozen bills that have failed to be enacted by previous Congresses, including the Temporary Agricultural Worker Act of 1998, the Agricultural Job Opportunity Benefits and Security Act of 2000, and the Temporary Agricultural Labor Reform Act of 2007, which Representative Goodlatte introduced six years ago.

Passing stand-alone immigration bills would also require multiple bargains and agreements across parties and across interest groups.

This kind of bargaining ? called ?legislative logrolling? ? could move step-by-step, piecemeal immigration legislation forward. With this practice, a legislator agrees to trade her vote on a bill she cares less about for another legislator?s vote on a bill that is much more important to her.

For example, a New York City Democrat who wants to help high-tech businesses but cares less about agriculture might agree with a Texas Republican to vote in September for a new temporary agricultural worker program that benefits Texas, if his Texas colleague will vote in October for legislation giving green cards to foreign students who earn PhDs from US universities ? which benefits New York.

But such an approach to immigration reform would necessitate numerous, complex vote trades during a long sequence of bills being introduced and voted upon. The piecemeal approach will not work in this Congress because there is simply not enough trust among its members (and their constituencies) to enable such logrolling.

Too many members of Congress reason that if provisions others want most are considered first and passed as stand-alone legislation, the legislation they want most may not even get a vote in the House or Senate. Since lawmakers cannot trust one another to enact immigration reform piece by piece, it must be voted on all at once.

The good news is that soon after the Memorial Day break, a bipartisan House group is expected to introduce a comprehensive reform bill close enough to the Senate?s that differences could be worked out in conference.

However, Speaker of the House John Boehner did not object at the beginning of the legislative session to Rep. Goodlatte?s plan to hold extensive hearings on individual pieces of immigration legislation. If Mr. Boehner fails to support the comprehensive reform approach when the bill is introduced and opts for Rep. Goodlatte?s slow, piecemeal approach, it is unlikely the American people will see any difference from the pattern of failed immigration legislation introduced over the past few years.

Members of Congress introduce immigration bills popular with their constituencies that have zero chance of passing both houses but enable them to issue press releases stating they have done something, while, in reality, nothing changes.

ONE MINUTE DEBATE: 3 views on how US should combat illegal immigration

But polls show that the majority of Americans ? both Republicans and Democrats ? support broad immigration reform. If Congress wants to meet that demand, members will stop avoiding change by floating unrealistic, piecemeal proposals and make the tough compromises of comprehensive reform.

Rey Koslowski is an associate professor of political science at the University at Albany and a non-resident fellow of the Migration Policy Institute.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hey-congress-comprehensive-immigration-reform-nothing-154543744.html

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Session's last day arrives for Minnesota lawmakers (Star Tribune)

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Agriculture in China predates domesticated rice: Discovery of ancient diet shatters conventional ideas of how agriculture emerged

May 17, 2013 ? Archaeologists have made a discovery in southern subtropical China which could revolutionise thinking about how ancient humans lived in the region. They have uncovered evidence for the first time that people living in Xincun 5,000 years ago may have practised agriculture -- before the arrival of domesticated rice in the region.

Current archaeological thinking is that it was the advent of rice cultivation along the Lower Yangtze River that marked the beginning of agriculture in southern China. Poor organic preservation in the study region, as in many others, means that traditional archaeobotany techniques are not possible.

Now, thanks to a new method of analysis on ancient grinding stones, the archaeologists have uncovered evidence that agriculture could predate the advent of rice in the region.

The research was the result of a two-year collaboration between Dr Huw Barton, from the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester, and Dr Xiaoyan Yang, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing.

Funded by a Royal Society UK-China NSFC International Joint Project, and other grants held by Yang in China, the research is published in PLOS ONE.

Dr Barton, Senior Lecturer in Bioarchaeology at the University of Leicester, described the find as 'hitting the jackpot': "Our discovery is totally unexpected and very exciting.

"We have used a relatively new method known as ancient starch analysis to analyse ancient human diet. This technique can tell us things about human diet in the past that no other method can.

"From a sample of grinding stones we extracted very small quantities of adhering sediment trapped in pits and cracks on the tool surface. From this material, preserved starch granules were extracted with our Chinese colleagues in the starch laboratory in Beijing. These samples were analysed in China and also here at Leicester in the Starch and Residue Laboratory, School of Archaeology and Ancient History.

"Our research shows us that there was something much more interesting going on in the subtropical south of China 5,000 years ago than we had first thought. The survival of organic material is really dependent on the particular chemical properties of the soil, so you never know what you will get until you sample. At Xincun we really hit the jackpot. Starch was well-preserved and there was plenty of it. While some of the starch granules we found were species we might expect to find on grinding and pounding stones, ie. some seeds and tuberous plants such as freshwater chestnuts, lotus root and the fern root, the addition of starch from palms was totally unexpected and very exciting."

Several types of tropical palms store prodigious quantities of starch. This starch can be literally bashed and washed out of the trunk pith, dried as flour, and of course eaten. It is non-toxic, not particularly tasty, but it is reliable and can be processed all year round. Many communities in the tropics today, particularly in Borneo and Indonesia, but also in eastern India, still rely on flour derived from palms.

Dr Barton said: "The presence of at least two, possibly three species of starch producing palms, bananas, and various roots, raises the intriguing possibility that these plants may have been planted nearby the settlement.

"Today groups that rely on palms growing in the wild are highly mobile, moving from one palm stand to another as they exhaust the clump. Sedentary groups that utilise palms for their starch today, plant suckers nearby the village, thus maintaining continuous supply. If they were planted at Xincun, this implies that 'agriculture' did not arrive here with the arrival of domesticated rice, as archaeologists currently think, but that an indigenous system of plant cultivation may have been in place by the mid Holocene.

"The adoption of domesticated rice was slow and gradual in this region; it was not a rapid transformation as in other places. Our findings may indicate why this was the case. People may have been busy with other types of cultivation, ignoring rice, which may have been in the landscape, but as a minor plant for a long time before it too became a food staple.

"Future work will focus on grinding stones from nearby sites to see if this pattern is repeated along the coast."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/ehlHNvNJaR8/130517085734.htm

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A thumbnail sketch of NBC's plans for fall season

FILE This Sept. 18, 2011 file photo shows Jimmy Fallon, left, and Seth Meyers at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. Meyers is moving from his "Weekend Update" desk to his own late night show on NBC. The network said Sunday, May 12, 2013 that the longtime "Saturday Night Live" cast member will replace Jimmy Fallon at the 12:35 a.m. "Late Night" show. Fallon will be moving up an hour as Jay Leno's replacement on the "Tonight" show. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, file)

FILE This Sept. 18, 2011 file photo shows Jimmy Fallon, left, and Seth Meyers at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. Meyers is moving from his "Weekend Update" desk to his own late night show on NBC. The network said Sunday, May 12, 2013 that the longtime "Saturday Night Live" cast member will replace Jimmy Fallon at the 12:35 a.m. "Late Night" show. Fallon will be moving up an hour as Jay Leno's replacement on the "Tonight" show. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, file)

Some highlights of NBC's moves in its schedule for next season.

WHAT'S NEW: A lot. The long-struggling network invested heavily in new programming, and has ordered 17 new series for next season. John Malkovich as Blackbeard. James Spader as a wanted fugitive. Dracula brought to life. A cops drama from the guy who made "Law & Order." More supernatural stuff from J.J. Abrams. A cooking show. A quiz show. A home renovation show. If a couple of these make an impression on viewers, NBC will be thrilled.

WHAT'S GONE: The newsmagazine "Rock Center," in a move sure to cause bad blood between NBC's news and entertainment divisions. Matthew Perry's star vehicle "Go On," failing to recreate that "Friends" magic. And about two dozen other sitcoms you never watched.

LIFE SUPPORT: The serial killer drama "Hannibal" has terrible ratings, but NBC had such high hopes for it this spring that executives can't bear to pull the plug. Maybe it's their livers on the line.

STAR POWER: Michael J. Fox is a beloved sitcom actor, respected even more for his dignity in handling Parkinson's Disease. Now he's essentially turning those real-life experiences into a sitcom, where he will play a sportscaster going back to work. Interestingly, NBC gave Sean Hayes a more prominent spot on a Thursday night schedule geared to broad-appeal comedies, perhaps so Fox won't feel the pressure to save the network. And Seth Meyers is moving from his "Weekend Update" desk to his own late night show.

WHAT THEY NEED: Somebody to save the network.

BIG MOVE: "Revolution" to Wednesday nights, where it will no longer have the advantage of a big audience tuning in for "The Voice." ''Chicago Fire" moves to Tuesday. Moving successful shows to new nights is always risky, perhaps even more so for programs at an early stage in their development.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-05-13-New%20Season-NBC-Guide/id-e841a0c955164b40bf4c8837594a5cfb

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Women sell themselves short on team projects, study suggests

May 7, 2013 ? Working on a team is always a challenge, but a new study highlights a particular challenge to women: how much they credit themselves in a joint success. Women will devalue their contributions when working with men but not with other women, according to the new research. The study suggests yet another reason why women still tend to be under-represented at the highest echelons of many organizations.

Michelle Haynes of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, had examined how other people evaluate men and women working together. She decided to build on that work to look at how women view themselves on teams after herself reading glowing group feedback for a conference submission she co-authored.

"As I was reading this extraordinary review, I thought: 'Wow! Those other co-contributors must have really written something amazing for us to have gotten this kind of feedback.' And then it hit me like a ton of bricks: I do this too," she says. She did not recognize her own positive contribution to the team endeavor.

Haynes and colleagues then set out to design an experiment to examine how women evaluate their own contributions to collaborative work outcomes, particularly when working with men on tasks that are considered to be "masculine." She says: "If you get an A on a paper, it is pretty clear who deserves the credit for that A. But if the A is the product of a group effort, how does the credit get distributed?"

In a series of four experiments, published today in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Haynes' team asked participants to work remotely with another person on tasks traditionally associated with a male role: acting as a managing supervisor at an investment company; in actuality, there was no other teammate. Under various conditions, they received feedback about their team's performance.

When given positive group feedback, the female participants gave more credit to their male teammates and took less credit themselves. They would only credit themselves with success in the task when working with a male if their individual role in the task was clear.

The study also found that women did not undervalue their contributions when their teammates were female. "This finding is critical because it debunks the notion that what we found is simply a function of women being modest in groups," Haynes says. "Rather, it underscores how the expectations women hold of themselves, and those they work with, influence how they process group feedback. Furthermore, it reveals that gender continues to play a role in how individuals derive these performance expectations."

These findings contribute to a body of work about how stereotypes affect women in the workplace. Past work in this area has generally focused on how an individual's work is evaluated -- for example studies have shown that the same resume will be evaluated more favorably if it has a male versus female name attached to it. But other research has found that consistently stellar individual performance is often enough to overcome the influence of stereotypes in evaluations of a woman's competence.

"But our work focuses on group outcomes, which are not inherently diagnostic of individual contribution," Haynes says. "What we have found is that sometimes outcomes and performance -- no matter how stellar -- are not enough to trump the biasing effects of stereotypes, particularly when the nature of individual contribution is unclear."

"This is one of many factors, among a great many, that may hinder women's earning power and career progress," she adds. If women view their own contributions less favorably than they regard the contribution of their male co-workers, it is "likely to impact how women view their efficacy at work and the degree to which they are likely to vie for competitive projects and promotions."

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/Hmgh1G32J-E/130507134645.htm

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Pacers beat Knicks 102-95 in Game 1

New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony (7) fouls Indiana Pacers guard George Hill (3) in the second quarter of Game 1 of their second-round NBA basketball series at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, May 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony (7) fouls Indiana Pacers guard George Hill (3) in the second quarter of Game 1 of their second-round NBA basketball series at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, May 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Indiana Pacers forward David West (21) drives past New York Knicks forward Kenyon Martin (3) in the second quarter of Game 1 of their second-round NBA basketball series at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, May 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

New York Knicks' Raymond Felton (2) is guarded by Indiana Pacers' George Hill as he drives to the basket in the first quarter of Game 1 of their NBA basketball playoff series in the Eastern Conference semifinals at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, May 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Indiana Pacers David West is guarded by New York Knicks Carmelo Anthony in the first quarter of Game 1 of their second-round NBA basketball series at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, May 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Every time Carmelo Anthony attacked the rim, a big body seemed to be waiting.

David West, Roy Hibbert and the rest of the Pacers are classic Eastern Conference bruisers, and the New York Knicks are countering with something closer to small ball.

"It'll be, to me, a contrast in styles most of the series," Indiana coach Frank Vogel said.

So far, the Pacers' way is bigger, badder and better.

Physical beat finesse Sunday, as the Pacers outworked and outmuscled the Knicks in a 102-95 victory in Game 1 of the East semifinals.

West scored 20 points and Paul George added 19 for the Pacers, who outrebounded the Knicks 44-30, showing the smaller team that in the rugged East, size does matter.

"I thought guys did a good job just putting them on their heels," West said. "We were attacking, we were aggressive."

D.J. Augustin had 16 points for the Pacers, who built a 16-point lead while Anthony was on the bench in foul trouble in the third quarter, and easily held on to spoil the Knicks' first second-round game since 2000.

Anthony finished with 27 points and 11 rebounds, but was frustrated by the Pacers' tough defense and by the referees. He shot 10 of 28 from the field and was perhaps thrown out of sync having to defend West, a natural power forward, inside.

"Right now, they're just being really physical with him, they're trying to bang him, they're trying to frustrate him," Knicks point guard Raymond Felton said. "But we're going to be fine. He's going to be fine."

Game 2 is here Tuesday night, and then the series takes a lengthy break before Game 3 on Saturday in Indiana.

The Pacers, who allowed the second-fewest points per game and the lowest field goal percentage in the league during the regular season, mixed in solid offense as well. They outscored New York 59-38 across the middle two quarters and were comfortably ahead throughout the fourth.

"Just a strong defensive effort and then offensively guys played with great poise," Vogel said. "Just a complete team effort, very proud of them."

Hibbert scored 14 points in thoroughly outplaying counterpart Tyson Chandler, and George Hill also had 14 for the Pacers, adding seven rebounds and six assists.

Lance Stephenson added 11 points and 13 rebounds playing in his hometown.

J.R. Smith scored 17 points, but was 4 of 15. Felton had 18 and Kenyon Martin added 12 for the Knicks, who hope to have reserves Amare Stoudemire (right knee surgery) and Steve Novak (back spasms) back for Game 3 and certainly looked as if they could use the help.

Both teams wrapped up their first-round series Friday night, the Knicks' victory in Game 6 in Boston giving them their first series victory in 13 years and sending them on to face a familiar postseason foe in Indiana, which ousted Atlanta.

The teams met three straight years from 1993-95, then again from 1998-00, splitting their six series, and this was the type of slugfest so many of those matchups were.

Indiana led 60-54 when Anthony committed his fourth foul and came out of the game with 7:48 remaining in the third quarter. The Pacers then outscored the Knicks 21-11 the remainder of the period, opening an 81-65 bulge on Augustin's 3-pointer with 31.5 seconds left in the quarter.

"They did all the little things," Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. "We didn't start playing until we actually got down and it was desperation and we've got to play like that from the start."

Anthony came back on to start the fourth and scored the first six points to get the Knicks back within 10. He picked up a fifth on a questionable offensive foul call with 10 minutes left and appeared to wave off a substitution when Chandler checked in, though Woodson said Chandler was going in for Martin, who was the one who exited.

But there was no final flurry, and Chandler eventually fouled out with four points and three rebounds.

Anthony wore a sleeve under his jersey covering a strap to keep his sore left shoulder in place. It was first hurt against the Pacers in April, then aggravated when Kevin Garnett pulled on his arm while setting a screen during the first-round series.

That may have contributed to his poor shooting, but certainly the Pacers had plenty to do with it, as did having to bang inside with the bigger West ? though Anthony downplayed the toughness factor.

"The physicality of this game didn't do nothing to me, to us," he said.

"It's like Coach Woodson said and I agree with him, they beat us on the glass, they beat us to the loose basketballs out there, the hustle plays, and they outworked us. I don't think that had anything do with being more physical."

The Knicks closed the first quarter with a 9-0 spurt, taking a 27-22 lead after 3-pointers by Smith and Felton to end the period. But the Pacers tightened the defense in the second, holding the Knicks to two baskets in the final 5 minutes.

Indiana outscored New York 13-4 during that stretch, taking a 52-46 lead to halftime after George hit a 3-pointer with 2.7 seconds left.

The Pacers, who also were the league's best team at defending the 3-pointer, limited the Knicks to 19 attempts and actually made more (8-7). Augustin was 4 of 5 off the bench.

Notes: Anthony averaged 29.1 points in the first round, equaling the second-highest ever by a Knicks player. Patrick Ewing had 31.6 per game in a 1990 series. ... Anthony received the one first-place vote that kept LeBron James from being the NBA's first unanimous selection as MVP. "That's the furthest thing on my mind at this point in time," said Anthony, who was third in the voting behind Kevin Durant. "I'll take that vote." ... Indiana won both matchups in the conference semifinals, a 4-3 victory in 1995 and a 4-1 win in 1998. ... Indiana's Jeff Pendergraph was fined $5,000 by the NBA, the first player punished for violating the league's anti-flopping rules in the playoffs. ... Novak said he hurt his back while warming up at halftime of Game 5 against Boston, but has been feeling better each day since.

___

Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-05-06-BKN-Pacers-Knicks-Folo/id-e2e9e10ef01341d29f00c2a26c614fdd

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B&N cuts Nook HD, HD+ prices this week, hopes you'll gift mom poetry and prose May 12

As if bringing the Nook HD and HD+ access to Google Play this week wasn't already a sweet deal, Barnes & Noble is temporarily slashing the prices for its two reading-focused tablets. The reductions will last until the end of Mother's Day, putting the 7-inch Nook HD 8GB at $149 and the 16GB at $179 (a $50 discount), with the 9-inch HD+ set at $179 for 16GB and $209 for 32GB ($90 off). Compared to other options like the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 tablets, the deal may be enough to make up for both HD's lack of cameras and their UI shortcomings. Check out our reviews of the HD and HD+ if you're interest is piqued, and hit up the source link if you'd like to snag one. Full press release after the break.

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Malaysia's ruling coalition hangs on against winds of change

The coalition that has governed Malaysia since independence managed to hang on in general elections that threatened to upend the status quo, but with possibly its narrowest margin of victory ever.

By Simon Roughneen,?Correspondent / May 5, 2013

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak celebrates with his other party leaders after winning the elections in Kuala Lumpur May 6. Malaysia's governing coalition won a tight national election on Sunday to extend its 56-year rule, fending off an opposition alliance that pledged to clean up politics and end race-based policies.

Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters

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Malaysia's ruling coalition won a keenly-contested election Sunday, extending its 56-year run in charge of this Southeast Asian nation but with what looks to be its narrowest majority since independence from the UK in 1957.

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Ahead of the election, some analysts thought the ruling National Front was vulnerable to a challenge spearheaded by Anwar Ibrahim, a former government insider who broke with the ruling coalition in the 1990s and sought to rally anger against government corruption and a bulge of youth voters hungry for? democratic change.?

But that effort, amid charges of electoral fraud from Anwar's camp, came up short, with strong support among Malaysia's ethnic-Chinese minority and from urban Malaysians, of all backgrounds, balanced against rural Malay constituencies that still heavily favor a government that has led the country through a period of unprecedented prosperity.

Preliminary results show the National Front winning 133 seats, with the opposition Pakatan Rakyat, or People's Alliance, getting 87. In 2008, the ruling coalition won 140 seats against the opposition coalition's 82. That marks a gain for the opposition at national level, though it ceded control of one of the four regional administrations it held going into the poll.

Anwar charged that the loss was down ?to a rigged election. "It is unfair to expect us to form a decision based primarily on the results of an election that is considered fraudulent. We are not accepting it without reason," he said.

In a statement emailed to reporters early Monday morning, Prime Minister Najib Razak in contrast?praised the conduct of the election, which he described as ?true, fair and transparent? and asked Malaysians ?to accept the will of the people, respect the result and show the world we are a mature democracy.? The 80 per cent turnout for this thirteenth election was the highest in Malaysian history

'Ubah'

Going into the vote, the opposition ran on an Obama-esque platform of '"ubah," or "change," a mantra chanted at exuberant rallies around the country in recent weeks. More substantively, Anwar and allies focused on issues such as graft and cronyism, promising to curb ethnic favoritism in government contracts and business dealings, which minorities feel unfairly benefit the 60 percent Malay majority from which the country draws its name.

After race riots in 1969, the Malaysian government introduced a policy of race-based economic privileges for the Malay majority who, typically more rural and less educated than the ethnic-Chinese minority, were at the time bit-players in the country's private sector. Those policies continue to this day. Critics say they've merely created a class of wealthy ethnic-Malay rent seekers, who have been a drag on economic growth while leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of the nation's minorities.

Supporters of the system say it has helped redress historic economic imbalances between the races and become a crucial part of the Malaysian social-contract, preventing another outbreak of the 1969 violence that scarred the national psyche.?

The National Front is spearheaded by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the ethnic-based Malay party that has been the senior partner, with ethnic-Indian and Chinese parties, in the coalition government since independence. Anwar's coalition is composed of his People's Justice Party (Parti Keadilan Rakyat, PKR), the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) and the Democratic Action Party (DAP), an ethnic-Chinese group.

Backers of the Pakatan Rakyat, which hoped to better its previous best-ever showing in 2008 by winning power for the first time, expressed disappointment with the outcome. Speaking in Alor Setar, capital of the rice-growing Kedah state in the north, voter Lys Idris says she hoped for a new government. ?Last time I voted BN, but now maybe we we should go for change,? she said, speaking after voting at a school at the town's outskirts.

The opposition had hoped that the youth vote and urban disenchantment with the long-established incumbents would sway voters more than the government's record on the economy, which has seen Malaysia make a half-century jump from being one of the world's poorest countries at independence in 1956 to hoped-for developed status by 2020.

Lim Guan Eng, a key opposition figure and representative of the DAP, says opposition leaders will likely convene in the coming days to discuss their response to the election.

?The election process was disappointing,? he says. ?The ink was a sham, people could rub it off,? he adds, referring to widespread claims that voters could with minimal effort remove the indelible ink from their index fingers after voting. Voters dipped their finger in the ink after casting their ballot, with the stain meant to remain for several days, as a counter against potential repeat voting.

About 25 per cent of Malaysia's 29 million citizens are of Chinese descent, and initial results show the latter to have voted for the opposition en masse, likely wiping out the ethnic-Chinese parties that have long been crucial minority mainstays of the National Front.

Tensions?

Expressing surprise at the extent of the Chinese swing away from the victorious National Front, Prime Minister Najib said that ?I expected it but I think not... to this extent. None of us expected this extent. But despite the extent of the swing against us, BN did not fall,? he added.

The result could fuel ethnic tensions in the country, mostly dormant since the riots in 1969 left around 1000 mostly Chinese-Malaysians dead. The swing against the government suggests it has mishandled relations with minorities.

?The BN failed to fully comprehend the dynamics of race and religion in the country and they continue to manage the country by inciting fear or race and religious conflicts which are beginning to irritate many Malaysians, especially the minorities,? says Mohamed Nawab Mohamed Osman, Coordinator of the Malaysia Program at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

But for now, the Malaysia status quo remains, if shaken by a changing electorate and new demands. Najib's vow to regain the two-thirds majority that allowed the ruling coalition to amend the Constitution at will for decades ended in failure and as the seats are counted it looks like BN has its narrowest majority ever.

That result points to a likely shakeup in the ruling coalition, and wind still in the sails of the forces for political change. Lim Guan Eng says that the result, at least, means the opposition has edged closer to the National Front, meaning that even if the government has eluded Pakatan Rakyat for now, it should be in a position to mount a stronger challenge come 2018, when the next elections are due. "We have made our presence felt even more strongly this time," he says.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/pJxm_jTEJQY/Malaysia-s-ruling-coalition-hangs-on-against-winds-of-change

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What People Close to Obama Think About the Keystone XL Pipeline

To environmentalists throughout the country, denying the Keystone XL oil pipeline would be the most important sign that President Obama is committed to combating global warming.

To people close to Obama, the pipeline is not nearly that important, and they think the debate surrounding it is overblown, if not misplaced. In interviews with National Journal Daily, people who have advised Obama over the years, including former White House aides, downplayed the effect the pipeline would have on climate change or much of anything really, besides politics.

?It?s important we focus on things that make the biggest difference in terms of global climate change and do the most to actually reduce carbon emissions, like economy-wide carbon policy or use of the Clean Air Act,? said Jason Bordoff, who left the White House this January after advising Obama on energy and climate issues in senior policy positions since April 2009. ?I don?t know how much building or not building one pipeline is going to affect either how much oil is produced in Canada or in global greenhouse-gas emissions.? Bordoff now heads up Columbia University?s new Center on Global Energy Policy.

A relatively small but loud contingent of environmental groups, led by 350.org and the Sierra Club, has harnessed the 1,700-mile, Alberta-to-Texas pipeline as their rallying cry to fight global warming. The type of oil the pipeline would move?extracted from formations called oil sands?has a heavier carbon footprint than most oil drilled in other parts of the world. This issue is so important to the Sierra Club that the group, one of the oldest and largest environmental organizations in the world, announced earlier this year it was for the first time in its 120-year history lifting its policy against civil disobedience to hold a massive protest against the pipeline in Washington, in partnership with 350.org.

?Individual decisions in and of themselves are not that important,? said Joseph Aldy, who worked on energy and climate issues in the White House for the first two years of Obama?s presidency. ?If oil is $100 a barrel, Alberta will find a way to get the oil out.?

Aldy?s comment isn?t far from what then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in October 2010, several months before environmentalists had succeeded in making the Keystone XL pipeline a political lightning rod in the 2012 presidential election. The State Department must approve any transcontinental energy project like Keystone.

"We're either going to be dependent on dirty oil from the [Persian] Gulf or dirty oil from Canada," Clinton said during an event in San Francisco, according to media reports at the time. ?We're not yet signed off on it. But we are inclined to do so.?

In fact, when Aldy and Bordoff were in the White House and Clinton was in her first year as secretary of State, the administration approved in August 2009 a pipeline similar to the Keystone XL project in two key ways: It?s 1,000 miles long and moves carbon-heavy oil sands from Alberta to Wisconsin.

?We already approved one [such] pipeline when I was in the White House,? Aldy said. ?It happened before. It?s going to come up again.?

He added, though, that environmentalists are forcing a debate that helps bring climate change to the front burner. ?It?s trying to focus attention in the media and in the public sphere about doing something on climate change,? Aldy said. ?I think there is a real value to this debate.?

Aldy and Bordoff are now saying publicly what many Democratic energy and climate advisers have said more privately over the past couple of years: The Keystone XL pipeline is not that big of a deal.

?We are essentially jamming our national energy policy debate through a 30-inch pipe. It?s an unfortunately narrow space, and the tone and quality of the discussion reflects the constraint,? said Jason Grumet, president of the Bipartisan Policy Center, who has advised Obama on energy and climate issues and is close with the administration. "In the absence of a more meaningful energy-policy discussion, Keystone has become a symbolic referendum for a much larger set of issues.?

Environmentalists have been so successful at making the pipeline a referendum on Obama?s commitment to global warming that people on both sides of this issue are now genuinely unsure whether he will approve the pipeline, a decision that?s expected to come in late summer or fall.

Administration officials are careful to avoid direct answers about the pipeline and instead trot out talking points about the official regulatory review process for the project. Given the administration's reticence, the views of Obama's former advisers offer a glimpse into what the president may be thinking.

The environmentalists leading the charge against the pipeline dismiss the comments from Obama confidantes that downplay the pipeline?s impact.

?Obama's guys hate Keystone because they know he's exposed,? said Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org. ?It?s the one place where he can't blame his climate weakness and inactivity on Congress, since Congress has nothing to do with it.?

One notably high-profile former Obama adviser whose position differs from the several people interviewed both on and off the record for this article is Carol Browner. Browner was Obama?s top energy and climate adviser until she left in January 2011.

"Until we do have a climate policy, the idea that we should be supportive of a pipeline that will increase greenhouse-gas emissions is deeply troubling," Browner said at an energy forum in November 2011, according to a Reuters article.

She hasn?t publicly commented on the pipeline since then, and she declined to be interviewed for this article.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/people-close-obama-think-keystone-xl-pipeline-141129218.html

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