Monday, August 5, 2013

Miley Cyrus Wedding Planning On Hold, Says Little Sister Noah Cyrus

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Source: http://www.lipstickalley.com/f15/miley-cyrus-wedding-planning-hold-says-little-sister-noah-cyrus-551299/

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San Diego Mayor starts 2-week therapy

SAN DIEGO - Therapists say admitting one has a problem is the first step toward recovery. For San Diego Mayor Bob Filner that could be tricky.

The first-term mayor and former congressman starts two weeks of intensive therapy Monday while facing a sexual harassment lawsuit and calls for his resignation amid a flurry of allegations that he groped women for years.

Even as he undergoes treatment, Filner is set to be grilled by lawyers under oath this week in a lawsuit brought by his former communications director that claims he asked her to work without panties, told her he wanted to see her naked and dragged her around in a headlock while whispering in her ear.

Neither Filner nor his office has released details about his therapy or its location. Filner is picking up the tab for the treatment.

Filner's accusers, his one-time supporters and voters have expressed skepticism that any two-week program is an appropriate remedy for what Filner himself has described as years of inappropriate behavior toward women. Longtime therapists also questioned how much progress could be made.

"It is pie-in-the-sky to think that in two weeks anyone could be a new man," said Helen Friedman, a St. Louis psychologist who has treated compulsive sexual behavior for 30 years, though she said it was a good start.

Success will depend on how far the 70-year-old Filner goes in acknowledging his problems, experts said.

"Typically in the first few sessions you have to find someone you really trust," said Lilli Friedland, a Beverly Hills psychologist who advises business executives on sexual harassment. "`Can I open up with all my dirty laundry, and is this person expert enough?' It takes a number of sessions and visits to establish that trust."

Some voters wondered whether the therapy stint was simply an effort to buy time amid extraordinary pressure to resign.

"He needs to save face," said Christina Imhoof, 72, who voted for Filner in November but then quit the Democratic Party over the allegations. She said she suspects Filner will return after the time-out and say his therapist has encouraged him to resign for medical reasons.

Filner announced his plans on July 26 to enter a behavioral counseling clinic to "begin the process of addressing my behavior." He called it the first step in a continuing program that would involve ongoing counseling.

"I must become a better person ... I must demonstrate that my behavior has changed," Filner said then, while offering apologies and an acknowledgement that his "failure to respect women, and the intimidating contact, is inexcusable."

The mayor's office did not respond to interview requests.

Nine women, including a university dean and a retired Navy rear admiral, have gone public in the past month with accusations that Filner cornered them and made unwanted sexual advances that included groping and slobbering kisses. At least five renewed their calls for Filner to resign after he pledged to begin therapy.

"It is highly doubtful that two weeks of therapy will correct for decades of reprehensible behavior," said Laura Fink, who alleges that Filner patted her buttocks at a 2005 fundraiser when she was deputy campaign manager to the then-congressman.

One accuser, former Filner communications director Irene McCormack Jackson, has filed a harassment lawsuit against him. Her lawyer, Filner's attorney and city lawyers will depose him Friday.

Filner, the city's first Democratic leader in 20 years, will keep full powers while in therapy and said he would be briefed twice-daily on city business. Filner also has delegated significant authority, including the ability to sign contracts, to an interim chief operating officer, Walt Ekard, a former county administrator.

The mayor's absence comes during a summer lull, with the City Council on August recess. Nevertheless Filner's Republican predecessor, Jerry Sanders, said his absence occurs when the mayor's office normally "would get caught up, do a lot of policy work and make sure things got in order."

Sanders, who now leads the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, believes the scandal is affecting day-to-day business. He said department directors are hesitant to make decisions, that money has not been released for the city's tourism marketing district, and investors are reluctant to start projects.

"We are hearing companies saying: `Why would we move to San Diego? With this going on the city is the absolute object of ridicule around the country,"' Sanders said.

Experts who spoke generally about treatment approaches and not specifically about Filner said patients being treated for addictive or compulsive sexual behavior typically get a medical examination to rule out chemical imbalances or other physical ailments.

Therapists would try to build trust so the patient is comfortable sharing personal information and try to determine if the person is in denial.

Once a problem is acknowledged, doctors try to identify what triggers the behavior so patients can develop a coping

mechanism, build a support network and find other ways to control it. Long-term treatment may involve weekly group or individual therapy.

Friedman said any such recovery requires hard work over a lifetime.

"People feel after an inpatient stay that they have things under control," she said. "However, when they are back in their usual environment, they're confronted with the same triggers that got them into treatment."

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/national/san-diego-bob-filner-mayor-begins-2-week-therapy

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Saturday, August 3, 2013

Collier: Blowout loss doesn't ruin a great week of baseball

For most of the past month, this rare five-game entanglement between the Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals loomed on the calendar like an ominous and perhaps even fateful crossroads, yet when it finally came around, both teams rolled into it with little evident apprehension.

The Pirates and Cardinals knew the one thing about this series that maybe we didn't care to know because it might have taken the fun out of it, that it would only turn out to be really significant if somebody swept it.

Despite the gathering of another massive North Shore crowd, this one carrying dollar store brooms and frothing to see St. Louis get skunked in a five-game series for the first time in 97 years (seriously, 1916), the Redbirds put a big fat purple 13-0 bruise on Clint Hurdle's pitchers Thursday night and got out of town with their dignity.

With their dignity, yes, but without their 11/2-game lead in the National League Central Division, which they turned over to the Pirates by losing four out of five.

Had the Pirates swept it and wound up ahead by 3 1/2, or had the Cardinals done the same and pushed the Pirates 6 1/2 games behind, then you might have had something both teams would point to in October as the place where so many things started to go right/wrong. As it is, in terms of relevant Central Division politics, this series will enjoy the approximate shelf life of a hard-boiled egg rolling down the aisle of a PAT bus.

Or something.

It's not like the Pirates haven't been in first place before, and it's not like the Cardinals are about to plunge into a dark depression at the prospect of being 1 1/2 games out with 55 to play.

But as theater, it was little else than the very best essence of the sport.

Baseball must ultimately be adjudicated, obviously, with pennants won, a World Series staged, a champion crowned and another city's heart ceremoniously broken on national television. But it says here that none of that is necessarily better than this, than these past five games, when nearly 130,000 people came out on four perfect summer nights in Pittsburgh and watched the best teams in baseball perform with purpose and passion.

The whole edge-of-your-seat, heart-palpitating-on-every-pitch brand of big-league ball can wait until October as the promised product of what dreams may come, but the game lives for the summer. This was a series that could not have been placed more perfectly than at the intersection of July and August. It was a series to savor, to relax, sit back, talk ball, have a dog or two and a brew or three, and to lament nothing except that PNC Park could be here for another 50 years and never produce a more perfect showcase.

In practical terms, the Pirates proved they could beat the very best competition in a variety of ways, shutting 'em out (6-0), outlasting 'em in 11 (2-1), spanking 'em hard (9-2), coming from behind (5-4), and proved beyond any doubt they are far from a perfect machine.

Oh yeah, 13-0.

In practical terms, Charlie Morton, the starter Thursday night, worked six shaggy innings to extend a funk in which he has now allowed 38 hits in 302/3 innings with an ERA of 4.98. He's no Brandon Cumpton.

The Cardinals, always glad to see Morton, lashed him for 10 hits in five innings. St. Louis is 8-2 all time against Morton. Against the Cardinals, his career ERA has swollen to 6.30.

If the Pirates have a part of their rotation squealing with dysfunction, the Cardinals are possibly solidifying theirs thanks to Joe Kelly, 25, who kept the Pirates hitless into the fifth and worked six shutout innings. Starting for only the fifth time in 2013, Kelly has allowed just one run in his past 172/3 innings.

No one figured him for the stopper when it came to the Cardinals' seven-game losing streak, their first of longer than three all season.

Nine games remain between these teams, six of them in St. Louis, the final one Sept. 8.

Should you be looking for the next fateful scheduling crossroads, the next ominous zombiescape dystopia, you might look past Sept. 8 to the season's horizon, because after that final Pirates meeting, the Cardinals might very well play the final 19 games of the season against teams with losing records.

Nineteen days of Brewers, Mariners, Rockies, Cubs, Nationals and, yes, more Brewers.

A lot will happen between here and there, and perhaps beyond, and maybe it will be more dramatic and more momentous and even more historic.

But it won't be better baseball than the baseball that filled this week.

Can't be.

Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sports/gene-collier/collier-blowout-loss-doesnt-ruin-a-great-week-of-baseball-697829

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Lawyer: Snowden has a place to live in Russia

In this still image taken on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013 and released by Russia24 TV channel, shows Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, second right in the center, and National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, center back to a camera, as Snowden leaves Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. Snowden has received asylum in Russia for one year and left the transit zone of Moscow's airport, his lawyer said Thursday. Kucherena said that Snowden's whereabouts will be kept secret for security reasons. (AP Photo/Russia24 via Associated Press Television) TV OUT

In this still image taken on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013 and released by Russia24 TV channel, shows Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, second right in the center, and National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, center back to a camera, as Snowden leaves Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. Snowden has received asylum in Russia for one year and left the transit zone of Moscow's airport, his lawyer said Thursday. Kucherena said that Snowden's whereabouts will be kept secret for security reasons. (AP Photo/Russia24 via Associated Press Television) TV OUT

A street cafe visitor reads a fresh Russian newspaper "Izvestia" with a front page pictures of Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, center, and National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, center left, taken on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013 at Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow, Russia, on Friday, Aug. 2, 2013. Snowden has received asylum in Russia for one year and left the transit zone of Moscow's airport, his lawyer said Thursday. Kucherena said after meeting with the fugitive at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, where he was stuck since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23, that he handed him the papers proving his status. Kucherena said that Snowden's whereabouts will be kept secret for security reasons. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

In this image taken form Russia24 TV channel, Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena shows Snowden's a temporary document Russia while speaking to the media after visiting National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden at Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013. National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has received asylum in Russia for one year and left the transit zone of Moscow? airport, his lawyer said Thursday. Kucherena said after meeting with the fugitive at Moscow?s Sheremetyevo airport, where he was stuck since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23, that he handed him the papers proving his status. Kucherena said that Snowden?s whereabouts will be kept secret for security reasons. (AP Photo/Russia24 via APTN) TV OUT

(AP) ? National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has a place to live in Russia after being granted temporary asylum, but he still hasn't decided what he wants to do next, his lawyer said Friday. The big question may be how much choice he actually has.

Russia granted a year of asylum to Snowden on Thursday, allowing him to quietly slip out of the Moscow airport where he had been holed up for almost six weeks as he evades charges of espionage in the United States. Authorities have suggested he will have wide freedom to work, but Kremlin watchers believe his moves are likely being closely controlled by Russian intelligence.

Snowden "is in a safe place," but the location will remain secret out of concern for his security, his lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told Russian news agencies. The systems analyst who revealed himself as the source of reports in the Guardian newspaper of a vast U.S. Internet surveillance program needs time after his ordeal in airport limbo to figure out his next steps.

He was seen only once in his weeks in the transit zone of the Sheremetyevo airport. Despite troops of photographers and reporters camped out inside and outside the airport, no one apparently saw him leaving, except for someone who snapped a photo of Kucherena talking to blurry figures who the attorney later said were Snowden and Sarah Harrison, a WikiLeaks staffer who has been advising him.

Kucherena said he expects Snowden to speak to journalists soon. "As soon as he decides what he will do, I hope he will announce it himself," the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted the lawyer as saying.

The move to grant Snowden asylum infuriated the Obama administration, which said it was "extremely disappointed" and warned that the decision could derail an upcoming summit between President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The decision gives Russia cover to depict itself as a defender of human rights, pointing a finger to deflect criticism of its own poor record on rights including free speech. But the secrecy that surrounded Snowden's time at the Moscow airport and his unwillingness so far to talk to the press indicates he is being controlled by Russian intelligence, Andrei Soldatov, a Russian journalist who co-authored a book on the Russian intelligence services said.

"Does he have independent sources of information and communication? My impression is that he has none, which means he's not his own master," Soldatov said.

He said Kucherena's statements about concerns for Snowden's safety do not hold water.

"We are all perfectly aware that Snowden, who has just received asylum, does not face any danger in Russia," Soldatov said. "American intelligence does not kidnap or assassinate people in Russia, that's a fact. This is a just a pretext."

One of the reasons for keeping Snowden isolated may be to prevent him from speaking about the people he met and what really happened to him during the 39 days he spent in the airport's transit zone, Soldatov said. For the same reason, Soldatov said he expected Russian authorities to find a job for Snowden that will prevent him from having contacts with journalists.

Putin has denied that Russia's security services have worked with Snowden, either before or after he arrived in Moscow on a flight from Hong Kong. But security experts have said that Russia's intelligence agencies would not have passed up a chance to at least question a man who is believed to hold reams of classified U.S. documents and could shed light on how the U.S. intelligence agencies collect information.

Snowden's temporary asylum allows him to work in Russia, with some restrictions, said immigration lawyer Bakhrom Ismailov.

"Snowden has the same rights for employment as a Russian citizen except that he is not allowed to work as a public servant or take a job in law enforcement agencies," said Ismailov, a managing partner at Yurinvestholding. The founder of Russia's Facebook-like social network site VKontakte, has already made what sounded like a job offer on Twitter.

The law on temporary asylum says a person with this status is entitled "to receive assistance" in traveling out of Russia. Ismailov said that this assistance could mean issuing a travel document, but this is not normally done for people with temporary asylum.

Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia had offered Snowden asylum and he told human rights figures during a meeting in mid-July that he wanted to visit all those countries. But Kucherena said Thursday that Snowden no longer has such plans.

_____

Associated Press writer Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-08-02-NSA-Surveillance-Snowden/id-f4140d4adce04a88b84e3bfce7d897c3

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Friday, August 2, 2013

NBA Free Agency: Would you give Greg Oden a shot?

Former Portland Trail Blazers center Greg Oden may be returning to the league this year. He's not going to break the bank as a free agent, but would you take a chance on him? I know we already have three young bigmen prospects already in Derrick Favors, Enes Kanter, and Rudy Gobert . . . but seriously . . . this guy has a 7'5 wingspan, 9'5 standing reach, had a 34" vertical as a 6'11 (in socks) guy and was pretty quick for his size.

I'd buy out Andris Biedrins and add Greg if it was for under $3 million a year.

But, let's be honest here, if it was up to me I would sign Kyrylo Fesenko for 4 years at the price of $3 million a year.

Source: http://www.slcdunk.com/nba-free-agency/2013/8/2/4583706/nba-free-agency-would-you-give-greg-oden-a-shot

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U.N. rights chief calls for investigation into Syria massacre

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said on Friday she wanted an independent investigation into an apparent massacre carried out by Syrian opposition forces in the town of Khan al-Assal.

"Based on the analysis by my team to date, we believe armed opposition groups in one incident - documented by a video - executed at least 30 individuals, the majority of whom appeared to be soldiers," she said in a statement issued by her office.

Syrian state media have accused insurgents of killing 123 people, mainly civilians, during a rebel offensive in Aleppo province late last month.

A group calling itself the Supporters of the Islamic Caliphate posted a video on YouTube of around 30 bodies of young men piled up against a wall. It said they were militiamen who had supported President Bashar al-Assad.

Over 100,000 people have died in Syria's civil war. In the early months of the conflict Assad's forces were blamed for the documented human rights abuses, but the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria now says both sides have committed atrocities.

"Opposition forces should not think they are immune from prosecution. They must adhere to their responsibilities under international law," Pillay said.

Pillay's office said its team in the region was continuing to investigate the circumstances and scope of the killings, and it had information from a reliable source that opposition fighters were still holding government officers and soldiers captured in Khan al-Assal.

The town is one of three sites due to be visited by another group of U.N. investigators, who are trying to find the truth about allegations that chemical weapons have been used in the conflict.

(Reporting by Tom Miles; editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-n-rights-chief-calls-investigation-syria-massacre-135819444.html

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July 2013 Windows 8 market share

Samsung NP700G7C-S01US, Ubuntu 12.10 & Windows 7, i7-3820, BD R/W, GTX 675m, 16GB Ram, 480GB Mushkin SSD Boot & 750GB 7,200 RPM Data, 400 nit 1080p 120Hz screen.
Gateway P-79xx, Windows 7 64 Pro SP1, qx9200 @ 2.93-3.20 GHz, 8GB Ram, Mushkin Chronos DX 480GB, 500GB XT, Flush USB 3.0 express card, 260m Desk @ 550/1000/1350, Game @ 600/1000/1450 & powermizer off.
Asus U81a, P8400, Windows 7 64 HP, 5-5-5-18 Memory (2x2GB), 500GB Momentus XT.
Stock system, not in my house!!!!

Source: http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/727378-july-2013-windows-8-market-share.html

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