Cash shortage stretches to sea bed

29 March 2013 Last updated at 20:00 ET By Roger Harrabin Environment analyst

The government has admitted moving slowly to protect wildlife in the seas because of the cost.

Environment Minister Richard Benyon said that in the current financial squeeze he could not designate as many areas for protection as he would like.

He said he was hoping to confirm the designation of the current tranche of 31 Marine Protected Zones under a consultation that ends on Sunday.

Environmentalists have accused the government of dragging its feet.

This is because 127 zones were originally nominated for protection after a compromise deal agreed with other users of the sea.

Jolyon Chesworth from the Wildlife Trusts said: "We are disappointed at the rate of progress. The government has an international obligation to protect wildlife in the seas.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

I want to do as many zones as we can for as little as we can?

End Quote Richard Benyon Environment minister

"The marine environment is not as obvious to people as it is when they see wildlife walking through a woodland or downland but it's just as important and equally worthy of protection.

"The 127 zones were only nominated after very long discussions with anglers, sailors and the fishing industry. We are now being asked to compromise on a compromise."

But Mr Benyon told the BBC that with cuts to the Defra budget, the cost of making scientific assessments and then developing rules for the use of different areas could not be dismissed.

"We are constrained by a hugely expensive process at a time when we have little money in government", he said.

"I want to do as many zones as we can for as little as we can. People have waited many years for this; we will designate the first tranche in September and will announce the next lot for consultation then."

Environmentalists are worried that the UK might slither back from its international commitment to create an ecologically coherent network of sites.

They are angry that several key sites have been left out of the first tranche on the grounds that insufficient evidence was supplied to justify them.

Sailors' fears

Mr Chesworth said that in his south of England region there was a cast-iron case for designating, among others, Bembridge Levels on the Isle of Wight - home of the stalked jellyfish and Poole Harbour - a key breeding ground for sea horses.

But both of these zones have been contested by sailors who fear that new rules will prevent them anchoring on sensitive sites. One boat owner on the Isle of Wight told Mr Benyon that the designations were "bonkers".

Boaters are the mainstay of the local economy and have lived in harmony with wildlife for decades, he said.

John Pockett from the Royal Yachting Association told the BBC: "We fear we won't be able to anchor our yachts; we fear we won't be able to train our next Ben Ainslie (the Olympian) because we won't be able to anchor marker boats."

Sailors are not the only ones protesting. In some areas fishing crews object to MPZs, even though they are supposed to provide a breeding ground for fish stocks to recover.

Conservationists warn that recently revealed chalk arches off the North Norfolk coast could be destroyed by one careless pass of a trawl net.

A further complication is the fact that UK jurisdiction ends six nautical miles from the shore, even though its responsibility for wildlife stretches further.

"It would be terrible to stop our own fishermen from exploiting a sensitive areas then allow boats of other nationalities to come in", Mr Benyon said. "We are trying to negotiate this with Brussels."

The proposals stem from the 2009 UK Marine Bill. If all the sites had been approved, just over a quarter of English waters would end up under some kind of protection. Currently, the total is way under 1%.

Globally just 0.6% of the world's oceans have been protected, compared to almost 13% of our planet's land area.

Marine author Callum Roberts told the BBC: "There's no way you'll have an effective network of marine-protected areas the way we are going. It's undermining trust."

But public sector cutbacks are a reality. And the government insists that the state of the economy will inevitably be felt on the sea bed, like everywhere else.

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Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21967189#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Morocco's rebel rapper released from prison

CASABLANCA, Morocco (AP) ? A Moroccan rapper known for his protest songs said Friday after completing a yearlong prison sentence that he will be concentrating on his studies and improving his music and is unsure about further activism.

Mouad Belghouat's angry rap songs excoriating the gaps between rich and poor in Morocco provided the soundtrack to the North African kingdom's Arab Spring protest movement in 2011 that called for social justice and greater democracy.

But while Belghouat, known as El-Haqed or "the enraged," was in prison, the February 20 movement, as it was known, faded away as popular ire with the state was defused by a string of reforms promulgated by the king.

"I will concentrate more on my studies ? I have my high school exams to pass in June," said a pale, subdued 26-year-old Belghouat to journalists and activists, showing only occasional flashes of his trademark irreverent sense of humor. "I played around a lot before, and in prison I discovered the importance of reading more."

The rapper appeared in glasses, which supporters say he now needs because of how his health deteriorated in prison where he said he experienced harassment and even went on hunger strike at one point to protest conditions.

Belghouat was convicted in May for insulting a public official over his song "Dogs of the State," which was addressed to the police. An online video accompanying the song portrayed a police officer with a donkey's head prompting the lawsuit by authorities.

"You are paid to protect the citizens, not to steal their money," said one lyric. The song then asks the police to arrest the wealthy businessmen who have divided the country up for themselves.

Morocco, a popular tourist destination for Europeans, has one of the highest discrepancies between rich and poor in the Arab world, according to international development agencies.

"It was a huge relief when he was released," said Abdullah Abaakil, an activist with the February 20 movement that introduced the rapper at the news conference. He emphasized that Belghouat was key for the movement to reach out to young people, especially in the country's myriad slums. "He suffered for all of us... he more than did his part."

As the protests died away, dozens of activists from the February 20 movement have been arrested and imprisoned. A statement by 18 local non-governmental organizations in December said at least 58 activists were in prison.

Belghouat, who described in an Associated Press interview last year how he would go to poor neighborhoods to raise people's awareness about the injustices in the country, was noncommittal about his future as an activist.

"I am just out of prison, and I'm still tired, so I need a bit of time to answer this question about how I will assess the situation of the February 20 in the country," he said, though he didn't rule out staying involved. "And if tomorrow there was a demonstration for February 20, I might well join, why not?"

___

Associated Press reporter Smail Bellaoualli contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/moroccos-rebel-rapper-released-prison-184724070.html

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5 Headaches of Modern Publishing | Digiday

The economics of publishing are harder than ever, but there?s a raft of other challenges those on the sell side face. Whether it?s a Byzantine RFP process or uncertainty with mobile, publishers have a lot on their minds these days. Digiday spoke to publishers to narrow down the five areas giving them migraines.

The RFP Mess
There?s one thing both sides agree on: the RFP process is a stone-cold mess. This is best illustrated in the intricate flowchart constructed by NextMark detailing the cumbersome RFP process. By this count, there are some 42 steps. It?s a pain on all sides.

But for publishers it gets worse. Buyers are notoriously unrealistic, and firmly in control thanks to the vast supply-demand imbalance. That means asking publishers for what seems like the impossible. It can be to create products and programs that have never been done, something that?s innovative. And to top it off, publishers are asked to scramble and have it done in 10 minutes ? and with measurable results.

Click Pressure
Eighteen years ago, when banner ads arrived on the scene, their creators made the understandable decision to differentiate this new advertising medium by adding interactivity. That?s why the first banner copy read, ?Have you clicked here? You will.?
It turns out not that many people do click anymore. That doesn?t stop media buyers from hunting for clicks. Many will tell you it?s not all about clicks. These same people will turn around for a brand advertising campaign and hold a publisher accountable for, yes, clicks. The lesson: When they say it?s not about the click, it?s always about the click.

?People will call us up and say, ?We?ll give you this brand campaign? but will cancel it because the click-through rate wasn?t good,? said Larry Burstein, publisher of New York Magazine. ?But wait a minute. You?re asking for a very specific to a campaign about branding. Click-through rates mean nothing.?

The Mobile Morass
The Internet was bad enough for publishers, but then mobile came around. The old saw with the Web was it was trading analog dollars for dimes. With mobile, it?s down to fractions of pennies. This has moved from an annoyance to an existential threat as publishers typically see more than a third of their audiences on smartphone or tablets. (Tablets are, admittedly, a somewhat easier challenge on the monetization front.)

The challenge is pretty simple: Mobile ads are tiny, the opportunity for real creativity that will excite brands pretty much negligible. Most mobile banners on smartphones are difficult to even read, much less evoke emotion.

?Advertisers like a canvas to paint with, and mobile devices don?t allow for truly creative, custom or integrated advertising solutions,? said Brian Fitzgerald, co-founder of Evolve Media. ?For publishers, this means more of our inventory transitions to mobile, which doesn?t currently have the same revenue opportunity as PC.?

Standards Flux
The Internet ad community has long struggled to find the right balance between innovation and standardization. As a mass media, the Web needs standards to cut down on transaction costs. Yet in the case of banner ads, many blame those same standards for creating vanilla units that became irrevocably commoditized.

Native advertising has emerged as the great hope to fight against that commoditization. And yet here publishers run into the problem of scale. Ironically, in order to really become a meaningful part of the Internet ad economy, native-type products might need the same distribution mechanisms built for the banner world.

Programmatic Pressures
The separation of audience data from media context was akin to splitting the atom for publishers. The world changed. The rise of automated systems allowed advertisers to find their target audiences ? only their target audiences ? wherever they are on the Internet. This was an advertiser-driven innovation that?s left many publishers holding the bag. The promise of private exchanges, which theoretically give publishers the efficiency of exchange buys with protections they need, hasn?t yet panned out.

?This allows for the cost-effective and time-efficient practice of buying cookies and not consumers,? Fitzgerald said. ?Clients do value brands, content and environment and intrinsically understand the value of engaging influencers in the right context or environment and converting them into brand advocates. This can?t and doesn?t happen in a programmatic buying channel when targeting audiences by cookies outside the environments that are most likely to influence and engage them.?

Image via Shutterstock

Source: http://www.digiday.com/publishers/10-digital-plagues-of-publishing/

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In order to omit needless words and cut deadwood

Wherein the Monitor?s language columnist vents a bit on redundancies she loves to hate, but also warns wordsmiths against turning into 'search-and-replace' editors.

By Ruth Walker / March 28, 2013

I was reviewing the work of an esteemed colleague, collating her corrections of our manuscript and those of our author, when I noticed a lot of striking through of the first two words of a usually unremarkable three-word phrase: "in order to."

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Hmm, she seems not to like "in order," I thought. At all.

There was perhaps a bit of professional jealousy involved. My colleague obviously had a spiffier version than I of our annotation software. Hers let her strike through offending words incontrovertibly, as with a red ballpoint and a ruler. Take that! And that!

But back to "in order to": Is it always deadwood?

As it happens, Copyediting, the newsletter, ran an item recently on this raging controversy in its weekly tips column, and took a nuanced position. In a sentence such as, "In order to control class sizes, the district will also place seven portable classrooms at the four schools," the "in order" should be trimmed, in the great Strunk & White tradition of omitting needless words.

But the Copyediting columnist, Erin Brenner, cited Bryan Garner's "Modern American Usage" as saying that "in order to," while wordy, can be useful in sentences in which there is already an infinitive.

To cite Mr. Garner's own example: "The controversy illustrates how the forces of political correctness pressure government to grow in size and arbitrariness in order to pursue a peculiar compassion mission."

Ms. Brenner, though, thinks there's more to it than that. "In order to" isn't just an extra little verbal ruffle; it's an established idiom meaning "for the purpose of." It's a much-used idiom at that. Often the "in order" is out of order, but sometimes it's needed.

For example: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union..."

That's my example, not Brenner's; but the sense of "purpose" comes through there ? along with the repetition of the three "or" sounds ("order ... form ... more"). And the rhythm would be wrong without "in order."

Another editor I've much admired once commented: "You don't want to be a 'search-and-replace' editor." That is, do more for your writers than just execute a string of reflexive deletions.

But I can also hear, with the ear of memory, other editors I've worked with over the years and the redundancies they have pointed out to me: "reason why," as in, "I asked him the reason why he looked so glum." Usually either "reason" or "why" on its own suffices. Or "outside of": "Outside" alone is generally all you need.

The "or not" of "whether of not" is often, though not always, redundant. It's not needed here: "The board is to decide tonight whether or not to fire the president." But it is useful in, for instance, the sentence, "Whether or not he gets the job, he'll still need some new clothes."

I suppose I have redundancies I love to hate, too: "track record" where "record" alone would serve, for instance.

My newest pet peeve is the Roman numeral "I" some are attaching to the name of the new pope. Stop it, everyone, right now, before it becomes a habit. It's entirely unnecessary. He will be Francis I only after he's gone, and a new pope takes the name Francis II. And given that it's taken a couple of millenniums for the Roman Catholic Church to have its first Pope Francis, we needn't hold our breath for a second one anytime soon.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/aaDTvuF6dgU/In-order-to-omit-needless-words-and-cut-deadwood

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BlackBerry makes $94 million on revenue of $2.7 billion, ships 1 million BB10 devices in 2013 Q4

This isn't quite the BlackBerry earnings story you're waiting for -- after all, the US figures covering the success (or otherwise) of the Z10 won't arrive until the next quarter. Instead, we're looking at the company's results from the end of the fiscal year to March 2nd, which shows that the smartphone maker made $94 million in GAAP income on revenues of $2.7 billion -- in contrast with the $125 million net loss it made in the same quarter last year. More importantly, however, it shipped out almost one million BlackBerry 10 devices during the three weeks of the quarter that they were available. In addition, it managed to push five million of its older smartphones and 370,000 PlayBook tablets out of the door, but saw user numbers fall from 79 million last quarter to 76 million now.

As revenue has remained relatively flat, the surge in profits can only be attributed to Thorsten Heins' aggressive cost-cutting measures, with the CEO remarking that the "numerous changes" he has implemented at the company have "resulted in [BlackBerry] returning to profitability." At the same time, Mike Lazaridis has announced that he'll retire from his position as vice-chair and director of the outfit he founded the better part of three decades ago. He'll exit the business on May 1st so that he can concentrate on his new enterprise, Quantum Valley Investments.

Update: During the conference call, Thorsten Heins has revealed that around two-thirds or three-quarters of the one million BB10 devices shipped have been sold.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Blackberry

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/28/blackberry-2013-q4/

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Space station shifts its orbit to make speedy crew rendezvous possible

Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

A police helicopter flies next to the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft as it is transported to its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 26. The Soyuz will carry NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy along with Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin to the International Space Station.

By James Oberg, NBC News Space Analyst

For more than 30 years, Russian spaceships have taken two days to dock with their target ??but on Thursday, the travel time for a Soyuz capsule carrying three spacefliers to the International Space Station is being trimmed to six hours.

Has the Soyuz suddenly become speedier? Not really.

The Soyuz itself won't fly any faster when it's sent into space at 4:43 p.m. ET from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It won't have any fundamentally new or improved guidance and navigation system. "All the systems of the vehicle are the same, but the work is more intense," Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov, the Soyuz's commander, said last week during a news briefing. "There are no new systems or modes in the vehicle, but the coordination work of the crew should be better."

This faster flight plan is possible only because someone else is doing the real work. The space station itself has shifted its position to be nearer to the Soyuz when that spacecraft goes into orbit. It is quite literally moving itself right in front of the speeding Soyuz.

---

The rapid rendezvous procedure has already been tested twice with robotic supply flights, but this is the first time it's been used with a crewed spacecraft. If it works, the crew should be docking with the station at 10:31 p.m. ET Thursday, taking the fastest ride to an orbital destination since NASA's Skylab missions, 40 years ago.

Hunter and hunted
Chasing down a target in the trackless void of space is not as simple as merely catching sight of it and thrusting towards it. The inflexible rules of orbital mechanics ??motion along orbital paths ? demand precise timing of critical course changes on the part of the vehicle that's doing the chasing.

For any space rendezvous, the first critical time is the moment when the chaser?s launch pad passes below the target?s circular orbit. If the chaser is launched during this moment and heads in a direction parallel to the target's orbital course, it winds up more or less in the same orbital plane as the target. That's the "planar window" for a launch.

But there's another critical timing requirement, having to do with how far ahead the target is when the chaser enters orbit. The target could be at any point in the circular path it follows around Earth, but it's important to choose the right point for launching the chaser.

Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

The Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft is transported from its assembly hangar to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on March 26.

The numbers give you an idea of the scale of the problem: The space station travels in a circular orbit that averages around 224 miles (360 kilometers) in altitude, and the chaser spacecraft are usually launched into initial orbits averaging around 143 miles (230 kilometers). That lower orbit is faster, both because gravity is slightly stronger there, and because the radius is smaller, which makes each circuit shorter.

For that difference in average altitude, a typical chaser spacecraft will catch up with the station at a rate of 560 mph (900 kilometers per hour). So if the chaser starts out 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) behind the station in its orbit, it will take about 10 hours to overtake the station. If it?s 16,800 miles (27,000 kilometers) behind, it would take 30 hours. And it might be even farther.

Flexibility is key
If you have a long period of time available for making your rendezvous ? say, one or two days???you have more flexibility for launch opportunities, even if your chaser spacecraft starts out lagging far behind the station. Mission designers prefer to pick launch days on which the lag falls within a certain range. If it?s relatively far away, the chaser stays lower and faster for a longer period, to make up the lag. If the target is not so far away, the crew flies their ship higher sooner, to slow down the approach rate and arrive at the target at the same desired time.

The fast-rendezvous scenario, in contrast, has very little flexibility. The Soyuz has only a few hours to vary its altitude in order to accommodate a range of possible target distances. The range of acceptable distances between the chaser spacecraft and the space station is known as the "phase window." For a fast rendezvous, the phase window shrinks from what's typically about half of each orbit to as little as 5 percent of each orbit.

There are only a few launch opportunities when the precise time of the planar window also falls within the narrow slot of the phase window. That makes it harder to select an appropriate launch date for a fast rendezvous.

The job was easier back in the '60s, for the early rendezvous missions conducted by NASA and the Soviets. That's because those missions involved launching the target satellite first, and then launching the chaser no more than a few hours later. In such cases, the lag distance for the chaser's launch could be customized to fit the short range for a quick docking.

These days, the only way to approximate that required narrow slot in the sky is to have the International Space Station do an engine burn. This can push the station ahead or behind in its orbit, so that it happens to be at the proper distance at precisely the time when the Soyuz is launched.

That critical orbital maneuver took place a week ago: On March 21, a Progress cargo craft attached to the station fired its thrusters for 11 minutes and 13 seconds, pushing its orbital altitude from 253.5 to 255 miles (408 to 410.5 kilometers). It's just a mile and a half, but it's enough to ensure that the station will be in the right place, assuming that the Soyuz launches at the right time.

For all the virtuosity of the cosmonauts in their steering, the factor that makes the briefer trip at all possible is the target generously maneuvering itself right into the chaser?s sights. And for every quick rendezvous in the future, by Russian or American or other orbital vehicles, the same elaborate target line-up will be required.

More about orbital hookups:

---

NBC News space analyst James Oberg spent 22 years at NASA Mission Control, where he carried the title of Rendezvous Guidance and Procedures Officer?? RGPO, pronounced "Arr-Jeep-O." In that capacity he sat in the center of Mission Control's front row, down in the legendary "trench" of space maneuvering specialists.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2a126327/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C270C17491180A0Espace0Estation0Eshifts0Eits0Eorbit0Eto0Emake0Espeedy0Ecrew0Erendezvous0Epossible0Dlite/story01.htm

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Sample itinerary for a family yurt camp holiday in the Dordogne | the ...

If you?re planning a family holiday at the ?covall?e yurt camp in the Dordogne, this sample itinerary should give you a few ideas. (Pause for SEO applause.) It?s what we would do if we were here for one week in peak season, with two children aged over five, and a car.

Obviously one itinerary doesn?t fit every family (it would be hard pushed to fit even one), but you have to start somewhere ? and I?d start with?

The Welcome Picnic enjoyed by everyone booking one week or more

Saturday

Arrive late afternoon, get shown to your beautiful yurt, leave the kids to run around exploring, rifling through the Play Yurt, bouncing on the trampoline and meeting other children as they arrive. Unpack the car and enjoy the Welcome Picnic, relieved you won?t need to find the nearest supermarket straight away. Watch the bats diving around in front of the outdoor kitchen after dusk, then gaze at the stars, spotting satellites ? or was that the space station?

Sunday

Have a cup of that organic coffee, then pop into Lalinde to pick up croissants, pain au chocolat, baguettes or whatever else takes your fancy (?covall?e tip: at the boulangerie on the square they do a ?poche? with a selection of the previous day?s croissants etc. ? it?s cheaper and still pretty fresh ? on top of the short counter in clear plastic bags).

Issigeac is heaving on market day and eerily deserted the rest of the week

Drive to Issigeac, about 25 mins away, for the Sunday market. Walk slowly around this medieval town that feels like you?re walking through a Shakespearean film set. Buy supplies for a couple of days, then head back to ?covall?e. Make lunch and spend a few hours relaxing in a hammock. Then go to Lanquais for a swim in the lake. Resolve to return at least once during the week. Pick up some croissants for breakfast on the way home, grab a cold drink from the fridge-freezer behind Reception, then barbecue while trying to be the first to see a bat, then a shooting star.

Monday

A typical demonstration (actually taken at Cadouin)

Drive West, following the Dordogne river, aiming for the spectacular gardens at Marqueyssac, about 40 minutes away. Buy a twin ticket that lets you into Castelnaud later, then be blown away by the awesome brain-like hedges. Amble round the large plateau, stopping in the play areas and being grateful that the whole two-hour (buggy friendly) walk is shaded by trees. Stand on the viewing platform hundreds of feet above the river and stare at La Roque-Gageac, a beautiful village built into the cliffs. After lunch with a view, drive to nearby Castelnaud and the museum of medieval warfare. There?s armour, weaponry, actors in period costume fighting, actual-size siege-engine demonstrations and a whole lot more, though steep circular staircases make it hostile to buggies. After an ice cream in the village, grab some supplies on the way back to ?covall?e, arriving before the bats come out.

Tuesday

From the swimming lake you can see the roofs of chateau at Lanquais ? designed by the same architect as the Louvre

A lazy day, today, starting with a morning at Lanquais swimming lake. It?s only ten minutes in the car, and a sandy beach overlooked by a beautiful chateau, with a snack bar, life guard and blue sky is not to be missed (many a guest has spent half their holiday here ? and it?s easy to see why). After lunch in the square at Lalinde, head back to ?covall?e for an afternoon of nature trails, hammock dozing, chicken watching, trampoline bouncing, reading ? reading! a book! ? solar shower taking and whatever else springs to mind. Order takeaway pizza, because you?re on holiday and it?s beginning to feel like it.

Wednesday

Another adventurous day starts with a trip to the cave at Proumeyssac. It?s only 30 mins away, above-averagely spectacular, with a good-sized woodland play next to the car park. It?s also very close to the aqua park near Le Bugue. Here, there?s a swimming pool, slide, play area and bouncy thing for everyone, and plenty of space to lie around on the grass. The lake, with its huge inflatables (which aren?t that easy to haul yourself up on) is a must-do. There is a real danger of face ache though, and you realise that you need to spend more of your life grinning from ear to ear.

Thursday

We cut paths through the meadows to leave wild flowers and insects waiting to be discovered

With the end of the week looming, it?s another day trip, heading for Sarlat but unable to resist stopping at Beynac on the way. This jaw-dropping castle overlooking the river was home to Richard I for 10 years. Its massive walls are built on top of sheer cliffs by people who must have redefined bravery. After lunch in Sarlat and a wander round old town, it?s an afternoon in one of the nearby tree parks. First timers will want to go round the easiest run to get used to the equipment, before getting as scared as they dare on the higher runs. Afterwards, looking at the tree park across the road, it?s tempting to wonder if those runs would have been even more fun ? but could that be possible? Will you ever know? Although a planned return trip to Marqueyssac for the candlelit, music-filled Thursday evening sounds great, it?s been a long day and?the barbecue?s waiting back in ?covall?e.

Friday

The bridges at Limeuil ? yet another beautiful place to unwind

Wake up hoping the stiffness from the tree park will be cured by a morning canoeing down the river. Head to Le Buisson, about 15 mins away, hire a canoe and be driven upriver in a minibus to Siorac, then paddle back to the starting point and spend some time relaxing on the river (pebble) beach, occasionally getting dragged into its roped off swimming area. Then drive to nearby Limeuil and have a drink overlooking the river where the Dordogne and Vezere meet. Walk up through the village to the panoramic gardens at the top, then take a different route back down and discover a shop where a glassblower fashions amazing objects. It?s hot work, which reminds you to start planning what and where you?re going to eat.

Saturday

It?s time to move on, pack the car, and plan a return to ?covall?e so you can do all the things there weren?t time to do this week. Like: have lunch in Bergerac old town, spend an afternoon in Domme, visit the Maison Forte at Reignac, and Roc St Christophe, and the villages of Monpazier and Cadouin, then there?s the caves, chateaux, markets, more canoeing, restaurants?

The Maison Forte at Reignac has a torture chamber that will chill you to the bone

We?ve lived here six years in August and we?ve seen and experienced only a tiny fraction of what this area has to offer. We?ve done everything on this itinerary at least once and will do it all again (at least once). On our list for this year are a canoe trip down the Vezere from Les Eyzies, that other tree park near Sarlat, and some caves with drawings instead of rock formations. But that?s us. What about you?

PS Previous guests, if you?re reading this, please use the comment section to say what?s on your must-see-must-do list for in and around ?covall?e.

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Source: http://thedevolutionary.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/sample-itinerary-for-a-family-yurt-camp-holiday-in-the-dordogne/

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You want to see this flying armbar (Video)

The flying arm bar is one of those submissions that happens so quickly, that you need to look twice to realize what happened. Skip to the 1:10 mark in this video and you'll see Oliver Fontaine pull it off at the Lyon Fighting Championship in France. And you have to feel for his opponent, Sofian Benchohra, who never saw the arm bar coming. With a record of 4-7-1, he hasn't won a fight since October of 2010.

Thanks, MMA Fighting.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/want-see-flying-armbar-video-151956671--mma.html

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Pistorius bail restrictions eased

State prosecutor Gerrie Nel, prepares for a hearing in the Pretoria, South Africa high court, Thursday, March 28, 2013. The state is opposing the relaxation of bail conditions in the charges against athlete Pistorius who is charged with the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp last month. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)

State prosecutor Gerrie Nel, prepares for a hearing in the Pretoria, South Africa high court, Thursday, March 28, 2013. The state is opposing the relaxation of bail conditions in the charges against athlete Pistorius who is charged with the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp last month. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) ? A judge in South Africa says Oscar Pistorius, who is charged with murdering his girlfriend, can leave South Africa to compete in international competition, with conditions.

Judge Bert Bam says the Olympic and Paralympic athlete must provide authorities with his travel plans at least a week before he leaves the country. He must also return his passport to the court within 24 hours of returning to South Africa

Pistorius' lawyers said in the North Gauteng High Court on Thursday that he had no immediate plans to compete, but might eventually need to run at track meets again to earn money.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-28-Pistorius-Shooting/id-929fd689c5ca4cfc81d6512bfe37faca

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How Did Usher & Shakira Do on 'The Voice'?

You'd think Shakira and Usher had been swiveling for years. On Monday night's Season 4 premiere of The Voice (NBC, Mondays and Tuesdays, 8 p.m. ET), the two new judges -- who have replaced Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green this season -- slipped comfortably into the show's giant leather armchairs alongside Adam Levine and Blake Shelton.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/new-voice-judges-how-did-usher-and-shakira-do/1-a-530341?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Anew-voice-judges-how-did-usher-and-shakira-do-530341

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How to watch TV with the HTC One

Powered by Peel, the HTC One helps discover what to watch - and then ?deftly turns into an infrared remote control

A common thread among smartphone manufacturers this year is the inclusion of an infrared port and television remote control and show discoverability. That is, you use your phone to control the TV and change channels and volume and stuff. You also have a way to see what's on, and to easily tune to it.

Know what? It works pretty darn well.

More: Read our complete HTC One review

To be clear, we're not talking about watching TV on your HTC One. We're talking about watching TV with your HTC One. See the difference? The idea behind all this (for HTC as well as other manufacturers) is that there's a pretty good chance you're sitting there with your phone in your pocket anyway. Might as well put it to use. Whether that's a good idea? Well, we'll leave that for another time.

For now, let's take a deep dive into the TV app on the HTC One.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/GFpKqJUqJmg/story01.htm

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Retired New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis dies at 85

By Scott Malone

BOSTON (Reuters) - Anthony Lewis, both a champion and a critic of the U.S. legal system and press rights in a newspaper career spanning more than 50 years, died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Monday. He was 85.

A retired New York Times reporter and columnist who won two Pulitzer prizes, Lewis died of complications of heart failure and renal failure, said his daughter, Mia Lewis. He had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

He joined the Times in 1948 and, with the exception of a three-year stint at a Washington daily, spent his entire career at the newspaper, serving as London bureau chief and penning the "Abroad at Home" and "At Home Abroad" columns for more than three decades. He retired in 2001.

During his years as a columnist, Lewis took a number of positions at odds with his friends and colleagues, including criticizing Israel's relations with the Palestinian territories and questioning how much liberty the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gave the U.S. press to protect anonymous sources.

His views on the First Amendment, while sometimes unpopular with colleagues, grew out of the respect the Bronx, New York-born reporter developed for the court system while covering the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren in the 1960s, recalled a former colleague.

"In his later years he turned a little bit against the press, which he loved. But he disagreed with those of us who felt that we couldn't just trust the courts to defend our freedom," said Max Frankel, who worked side-by-side with Lewis in the Times' Washington bureau early in his career and rose to become executive editor of the paper, retiring in 1995.

'IDEALIZATION OF THE COURT'

After retiring from the Times, Lewis spoke out in favor of a 2005 court decision to jail a New York Times reporter for 85 days over her refusal to reveal the source that had helped her to publicly identify a CIA agent.

"He felt that, no, the courts and the judges were the ultimate protectors of a free press," Frankel said. "His idealization of the court, I think, grew mainly out of a court that he worshipped, which was the Warren Court ... I'm not sure how enthusiastic he would have been were he still writing now."

Lewis wrote frequently on the importance of the First Amendment. In his 2007 book "Freedom for the Thought That We Hate," he wrote of America's longstanding tolerance for words that shock and disgust.

"There will always be authorities who try to make their own lives more comfortable by suppressing critical comment," Lewis wrote. "But I am convinced that the fundamental American commitment to free speech, disturbing speech, is no longer in doubt."

Lewis did two stints at the Times, first from 1948 to 1952 in the paper's Sunday department, before joining the Washington Daily News, where he won his first Pulitzer. He returned to the Times in 1955 as a Washington reporter and later went on to become London bureau chief.

He won his second Pulitzer Prize in 1963 for his coverage of the Supreme Court.

His column carried the heading "Abroad at Home" or "At Home Abroad," depending on where he was working. He was the author of the book "Gideon's Trumpet," an account of the Supreme Court's 1963 decision guaranteeing all poor defendants the right to a lawyer under the U.S. Constitution's 6th amendment.

This month marked the 50th anniversary of that decision, which involved an indigent Florida man, Clarence Earl Gideon, who was charged with breaking into a poolroom. Gideon, who could not afford a lawyer and represented himself at trial, was convicted.

Gideon appealed to the Supreme Court, which used his case to declare that every person charged with a serious crime is entitled to the assistance of a lawyer.

'OPTIMIST ABOUT AMERICA'

In his final column, written in the months following the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, Lewis mused on how the United States would balance its tradition of free expression with a renewed concern about national security.

"I am an optimist about America. But how can I maintain that optimism after Vietnam, after the murder of so many who fought for civil rights, after the Red scare and after the abusive tactics planned by government today?" he wrote. "I can because we have regretted our mistakes in the past, relearning every time that no ruler can be trusted with arbitrary power. And I believe we will again."

Lewis is survived by his second wife, Margaret Marshall, former chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court; daughters Eliza and Mia, son David and seven grandchildren. Marshall resigned from the court in 2010 to care for Lewis after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

Lewis was a lover of music, the arts, gardening and food, recalled his daughter Mia, who noted that her father loved to make fruit jellies, which won prizes at fairs on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

"Growing up, we all got the sense that the things that he cared about in the world, that he wrote about, he really felt very deeply and cared about tremendously, and he passed that on to us," Mia Lewis said.

(Reporting by Scott Malone in Boston, additional reporting by Joan Biskupic in Washington; Editing by Howard Goller and John Wallace)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/retired-york-times-columnist-anthony-lewis-dies-85-193608435--finance.html

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South Korea, US sign new military contingency plan

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea and the United States have signed a new military plan that lays out how the allies will communicate with each other and react to any future North Korean aggression.

The signing comes amid North Korean threats to attack the allies over their joint military drills and recent punishing U.N. sanctions aimed at Pyongyang's latest nuclear test.

Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday that the plan is designed to counter a future limited attack by North Korea, but details weren't released. Work on the plan began after a North Korean artillery attack on a South Korean island in 2010 killed four.

The allies also have a separate plan in the case of a full-blown war on the Korean Peninsula.

There are 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.

(Copyright (c) 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Source: http://www1.whdh.com/rss/read/news/articles/world/10010189675872/

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FAA may ease 'reading device' restriction during takeoff and landing later this year

By early 2014, passengers may be able to use certain electronic devices in airplane mode during takeoff and landing, according to a New York Times report. The publication's industry sources say that the Federal Aviation Administration may announce more lenient electronics policies later this year, allowing passengers to use "reading devices" during takeoff and landing -- while it's not clear which gadgets would qualify, cellphones would remain on the ban list. The FAA commissioned an industry group to study the issue of in-flight electronics use -- the team, which includes representatives from Amazon, Boeing, the CEA, FCC, and others, will announce the results of its study by July 31st.

The issue has support from key lawmakers as well. Senator Claire McCaskill is calling the FAA out on its authorization of pilots to use iPads in the cockpit and flight attendants to use devices of their own, while restricting passengers from reading books on e-readers -- "A flying copy of 'War and Peace' is more dangerous than a Kindle," she told the Times. And we'd have to agree. Until the FAA announces a policy revision, we all have no choice but to reluctantly comply with the ban, but with devices like Google Glass on the horizon, updated restrictions could not come too soon.

Filed under: Transportation, Wireless

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Source: The New York Times

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Boeing 787 Dreamliner completes flight check, certification still awaits (update)

It wouldn't surprise us to learn that more than a few Boeing officials had their fingers crossed this morning in Everett, Washington. That's because the 787 Dreamliner took to the skies for the first time since being grounded in an effort to demonstrate a proper fix to that nasty overheating issue that's plagued the airliner's battery. The test flight, known as a functional flight check, lasted approximately two hours and will give the folks at Boeing an opportunity to examine data from the outing in advance of the 787's single certification flight -- a process that's otherwise known as one and done.

Update: This article originally stated that this is the first time the 787 Dreamliner has flown since being grounded, which is incorrect. Today's test flight is the first time the 787 Dreamliner has flown since the FAA-approved battery fix has been in place.

Filed under: Transportation

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Source: Reuters, USA Today

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/7u-stSgCFKE/

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Shinseki says VA on target for ending claims backlog

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Although the number of pending veterans' disability claims keep soaring, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki on Sunday said he's committed to ending the backlog in 2015 by replacing paper with electronic records.

Veterans receive disability compensation for injuries or illness incurred during their active military service. About 600,000 claims, or 70 percent, are considered backlogged. The number of claims pending for more than 125 days has nearly quadrupled under Shinseki's watch.

Shinseki told CNN's "State of the Union" that a decade of war and efforts to make it easier for veterans to collect compensation for certain illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder have driven the backlog higher during his tenure. He said that doing away with paper records will be the key to a turnaround.

Shinseki said that the VA has puts its new computer system in place in 20 regional offices around the country and all regional offices will be on the system by the end of the year.

"This has been decades in the making, 10 years of war. We're in paper, we need to get out of paper," Shinseki said. The Defense Department and other agencies still file paper claims, he said, but "we have commitments that in 2014 we will be electronically processing our data and sharing it."

Congressional committees have held two hearings on the disability claims bottleneck in the past two weeks. Lawmakers voiced growing frustration with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"There are many people, including myself, who are losing patience as we continue to hear the same excuses from VA about increased workload and increased complexity of claims," Florida's Rep. Jeff Miller, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, said during a hearing on Wednesday.

"No veteran should have to wait for claims. If there's anybody impatient here, I am that individual and we're pushing hard," said Shinseki, the former four-star Army general who became VA secretary when President Barack Obama came into office.

About 4.3 million veterans and survivors receive disability benefits. Most veterans whose claims are backlogged, about 60 percent, are getting some disability compensation already and have filed for additional benefits for other injuries or illnesses.

Tom Tarantino, chief policy officer of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said a presidential commission was needed to bring greater emphasis to solving the problem and to make sure all federal agencies were on the same page.

"We're tired of waiting for the VA to get their act together," Tarantino said.

Peter Gaytan, executive director of the American Legion, emphasized that resolving disability claims in a timely manner is an issue his organization has dealt with for decades.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/shinseki-says-va-target-ending-backlog-135031728--politics.html

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'Book of Mormon' smashes 1-day box office record

NEW YORK (AP) ? The seemingly unstoppable hit "The Book of Mormon" has broken another record ? this time on the other side of the Atlantic.

The quirky, profane musical opened Thursday night to some critical bashing, but the next day earned the highest one-day gross in London theater history.

Between 10 a.m. and midnight Friday, 2,107,972 million pounds ($3.2 million) worth of tickets were sold at the box office, according to final figures. By comparison, the Broadway version only earned $1.5 million the day after it opened to rapturous reviews.

"London can be tough," Scott Rudin, an influential theater and film producer who has steered "The Book of Mormon," said by phone Friday night after flying back from England. "American musicals tend to get knocked in the teeth in London, by and large. It's a tougher place."

The show is now booked at the Prince of Wales Theatre until January, but Rudin predicts it may be in London for a long time to come.

The $3.2 million windfall is technically higher than the current West End and Broadway one-day record of $3.1 million that poured in the day after "The Producers" opened on Broadway in 2001, but that haul hasn't been adjusted for inflation.

"The Book of Mormon" by "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and "Avenue Q" composer Robert Lopez tells the story of two Mormon missionaries sent to spread the word in Uganda.

In New York, "The Book of Mormon" won nine Tony Awards in 2011, including best musical. The show also won a Grammy Award and recouped its $11.4 million capitalization after just nine months. It remains the toughest ticket to get on Broadway.

A production has opened in Chicago ? it set a house record for the Bank of America Theatre and has been extended three times until September ? and a national tour kicked off in August in Denver, where it has broken box office records as it crosses the country.

The tour is currently in Detroit ? where it already has broken the Fisher Theatre's house record for a standard eight-performance week ? through the weekend, and then goes to Pittsburgh, Boston, Toronto, Cleveland and Washington, D.C.

In London, most critics praised the production's skill and the English cast's energy, though some were left uncharmed, including the Daily Mail critic, who "tired of it after 10 minutes." The Guardian called it "mildly amusing."

Rudin said despite some grousing by London critics, the crowds have been enthusiastic, particularly the English fans of "South Park." Pent-up demand for the show has been roiling since the New York opening. And, unlike in New York, London audiences knew what to expect.

Though Rudin admits he was anxious in the days leading to the London opening, he recognized that the show's humor ? jokes about African dictatorships, AIDS and poverty ? would translate.

"The story and humor of 'The Book of Mormon' is deeply influenced by Monty Python's Flying Circus," he said. "I knew that would work over there."

The West End has just enjoyed its ninth successive year of record box office returns and attendance went up slightly in 2012 to 13.9 million. This season, in addition to "The Book of Mormon," the West End is hosting the musicals "Once" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Family" and plays with Helen Mirren and by John Logan.

Rudin, who has also produced the films "No Country for Old Men" and "The Social Network," has been busy on Broadway this season, putting on the Scarlett Johansson-led "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" revival and the upcoming "The Testament of Mary."

___

Online:

http://bookofmormonthemusical.com

___

Follow Mark Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/book-mormon-smashes-1-day-box-office-record-190836755.html

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Rand Paul rising: 2016 in sight?

Sen. Rand Paul is getting lots of attention since his filibuster on drones and his enthusiastic reception at the Conservative Political Action Conference.?Can he convert that into a serious run for the presidency?

By Brad Knickerbocker,?Staff writer / March 23, 2013

U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor, Maryland, March 14. In a speech before the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce March 19, Paul unveiled his immigration policy and outlined his platform for reform.

Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS

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Rand Paul is the junior US senator from Kentucky, a medical doctor from Bowling Green who never held elective office until two years ago.

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Yet Senator Paul ? a libertarian Republican like his father, former congressman Ron Paul ? is getting more attention than any of the other would-be presidential candidates at the moment.

It was announced this week that Paul will headline the Republican Party of Iowa?s annual ?Lincoln Dinner? in May. That?s Iowa, where precinct caucuses early in a presidential election year kick off the selection of delegates to the party convention. It?s a big deal.

?Senator Rand Paul?s 13-hour filibuster earlier this month caught the attention of Republicans across the nation who are seeking GOP leaders who will stand up to Barack Obama,? Iowa Republican Party Chairman A.J. Spiker told the Washington Post. ?As the ?First in the Nation? state, we immediately extended an invite to Senator Paul to allow him to introduce himself to Iowa Republicans.?

(It should be noted that Mr. Spiker was a Ron Paul supporter during the 2012 presidential campaign.)

Writing in Politico this week, James Hohmann listed ?five reasons why Paul will be a force to be reckoned with ahead of 2016, even if the odds of him winning the nomination are long.?

The reasons: He has a stronger organization than any other Republican; He?s perceived as principled; He?s more cautious than voters realize; He appears to have fewer skeletons than his father; He can play the inside game in a way his dad never could.

For any politician, appearing principled and yet flexible (without flip-flopping) is required for success.

One of the hottest topics in the Republican National Committee?s ?autopsy? report on how to secure a better future for the GOP was the need to ?embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform.?

Paul?s position here has shifted notably in that direction. As a candidate for the Senate in 2010, he favored an electronic fence along the whole 1,969-mile US-Mexican border, and he questioned the 14^th Amendment to the US Constitution granting citizenship to children born in the US to illegal immigrants.

This past week, he told the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce that he supports a legal status for illegal immigrants to remain in the US, working and paying taxes while they go through the citizenship process ? not specifically a ?pathway to citizenship,? as even some Republicans are urging, but a far cry from the hard line ?self-deportation? urged by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

At last weekend?s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Paul edged out Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida in the presidential straw poll 25-23 percent among a long list of possible candidates. His speech to the assembled conservative activists was enthusiastically received (more so than Rubio?s rather flat offering) ? especially by the college students and other young activists who comprised the bulk of those voting in the poll.

It?s those young voters the GOP needs to attract. But at CPAC, was it more than the charged-up Paul loyalists ? a mix of libertarians and some tea partyers ? that were bused in to such events to cheer (and vote for) Ron Paul in 2011-12?

At the moment, it?s not just those loyalists who seem to be fascinated with Rand Paul.

Washington Post pundit Dana Milbank ? usually more inclined to tweak if not pummel right-leaning politicians ? confesses ?with some trepidation? that he ?stands with Rand? (the mantra Sen. Paul supporters tweeted by the thousands during his drone filibuster).

He mentions Paul?s apparent shifts on immigration and same-sex marriage (something to do with the tax code), the drone filibuster (?a stance Democrats would have championed if a Republican were president?), and Paul?s vote to confirm Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary ? one of only four by Republicans.

?Taken together, these pleasant surprises suggest that Paul is more complex than his tea-party caricature and more savvy than the libertarian gadfly his father had been,? Milbank writes. ?In his?speech to CPAC, the younger Paul didn?t even mention the Federal Reserve or the gold standard [Ron Paul favorites]. He has spoken, instead, of reaching out to minorities, young voters and other Democratic constituencies.?

?It?s very early days in the 2016 presidential race, of course, and a lot could change as Republican hopefuls jockey for position.

But Paul ?seems to demonstrate the interest in expanding his support beyond libertarian conservatives, something his father rarely did, and he will have three years to experiment with how to find the right formula,? writes political polling guru Nate Silver on his New York Times ?FiveThirtyEight? blog.

That doesn?t make him as likely a nominee as a more traditional candidate like Sen. Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, or Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Silver writes. ?But his odds look better than the 20-to-1 numbers that some bookmakers have placed against him.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/FvVahUkNenw/Rand-Paul-rising-2016-in-sight

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LIVE UPDATES: What's Happening at the Senate Vote-A-Rama

1:41 a.m.

Patty Murray says more than 60 amendments have been considered and urges colleagues to consider winding it down. "We had amendments on virtually every topic here tonight, including the budget," she said.

1:33 a.m.

On voice vote, senators agree to take 20 percent of their salaries and dedicate to a charity of their choice so that lawmakers can feel what workers furloughed by sequestration are feeling. (A few loud "no" votes caused King to reorder the voice vote not once but twice.)

1:28 a.m.

Patty Murray?s working hard, and knows it. Asked by another senator how many more tranches of amendments would be seen, she indicated people just need to remain cool and let the process keep working itself through. ?I don?t think anybody here can say I haven?t been working my tail off? to get what have been dozens of amendments considered quickly.

1:08 a.m.

Angus King seems tired. He just miscalled a voice vote (no instead of yes), leading Republicans to threaten a more time-consuming roll call. Patty Murray steps in and claims, to laughter, that she hadn?t heard it properly, so they do it all again. Onward.

12:41 a.m.

Senate Republicans try to unsuccessfully pass another amendment that defunds, in some way, the Affordable Care Act: one of the president's signature policy accomplishments. Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa compares their ongoing efforts to dismantle the health care law to a magical cloak from the Harry Potter novels that just makes objects disappear. This comparison makes everyone on the floor, including Sen. Murray, laugh. As it gets late, people are getting a little punchy. Onward to more amendments!

12:31 a.m.

Sessions? immigration bill fails, 43-56.

12:29 a.m.

Mike Lee on Twitter promising a late night/early morning: "Votes on one Lee amendment, several more to go. It's going to be a late night as we do the work we were sent to do."

12:06 a.m.

Fun fact: As you watch Sen. Murray manage the floor over the next few hours and organize amendments, remember: She taught pre-school before she was elected to Congress.

12:04 a.m.

#Votearama is trending on Twitter in D.C.

12:00 a.m.

Potentially interesting immigration marker due soon. Expecting to see Jeff Sessions offer a measure aimed at ensuring illegal immigrants granted any legal status under whatever immigration reform emerges from Congress, should it emerge, are denied access to free health care either under Medicaid or ?Obamacare?.

11:59 p.m.

Heading into the early hours of Saturday morning, this is the next batch of amendments:

• ? Cardin #706 (carbon emissions);

• ? Inhofe #359 (green house gases);

• ? Menendez #705 (immigration-health care-side-by-side to Sessions );

• ? Sessions #614 ( immigrants/health care);

• ? Merkley #696 (prosecutions of financial institutions);

• ? Roberts #187 (prohibit promotional materials PPACA);

• ? Menendez #619 (Flood loss mitigation);

• ? Portman #152 (medical malpractice reconciliation instructions);

11:47 p.m.

Tim Scott union dues bill failed (not because he didn't talk more about it).

11:36 p.m.

Picking up speed again. Voice vote approval of Sherrod Brown?s, D-Ohio, manufacturing amendment. Then Tim Scott, R-S.C., introduced his measure to prohibit automatic deduction of union dues from federal workers? paychecks, but didn?t use up any time explaining or defending it.?

11:15 p.m.

These are the next four amendments up:

• McCaskill #366 (federal and state credentialing)
• Johnson (WI) #213 (Social Security/Medicare)
• Brown #455 (manufacturing)
• Scott #597 (federal workers-union fees)

11:08 p.m.

Majority Leader Reid on the floor praises the progress, but notes how much farther vote-a-rama has to go if all senators insist on a vote for their amendments. ?We?re doing fine. We?re not at carnival stage yet. Let?s proceed and try to reach this with a lot of dignity.?

Patty Murray asks senators to ?continue cooperating.?

11:07 p.m.

Mike Lee, R-UT, amendment requiring budgets spend more on Defense than on debt interest payments goes down, 46-53.

10:59 p.m.

Rand Paul goes to Twitter to thank Mitch McConnell for supporting his failed balanced budget amendment.

10:15 p.m.

Some amendments aim to make a political point and garner media attention. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Tex., authored one to withhold pay for top staff at the president?s Office of Management and Budget for every day the president?s budget is late. It got Cornyn on Fox News on Thursday because it?s a finger-in-the-eye of President Obama, who still hasn?t authored a budget plan this year. The measure passed with a voice vote on Friday night.

9:44 p.m.

So, why do the votes on these amendments matter? Well, they lay down markers for future, tough policy discussions on everything from tax reform to the Keystone pipeline to the estate tax. Here are some interesting articles to peruse on the policy implications of these votes and amendments:

-- Why Keystone Wins Big

-- The Senate's Support for an Internet Sales Tax

-- Budget Votes that Highlight Immigration Debate

9:35 p.m.

Among the interesting amendments that have come up in the last 30 minutes: the Senate voted in favor of an amendment to reduce or repeal the estate tax, an idea put forward by Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia. But, the Senate did not vote in favor of eliminating the estate tax entirely, as Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina suggested.

The Senate also voted in favor (again, non-binding) of not touching benefits for disabled veterans if and when the debate over chained CPI re-emerges. That was Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders amendment. Chained CPI would tweak the cost-of-living calculation for federal benefits, including Social Security, and would result in less generous allotments for people. President Obama has put $130 billion in chained CPI changes on the table as part of a grand budget deal, much to the chagrin of his more liberal counterparts in Congress like Sanders.

Majority Leader Reid also is not a big fan of chained CPI and sat beside Sanders on the floor following the vote on that amendment.

8:44 p.m.

Wanna know why this vote-a-rama will last into the wee hours of the night? So far, 562 amendments have been filed, according to a Senate Democratic aide.

For context, the leadership aide writes: "The average number of votes on amendments and motions to recommit during Senate consideration of the last 10 Budgets is 32. And according to CRS, between 1993 and 2009, an average of 78 amendments to the budget resolution were offered per year during floor consideration." So, the 562 amendments far exceeds what we've seen historically on budget resolutions.

8:32 p.m.

Other topics coming up in amendments: Estate tax; chained CPI; funding for embassy security and law enforcement; something on mercury, more details as we get them; and an amendment from Maryland's Democratic Senator Cardin on pediatric dental care.

8:28 p.m.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warns senators that, ?This is not going to go on forever.? He continued, ?We have 400 amendments that have been offered. We?re not going to do that.?

8:10 p.m.

Motion to waive Budget Act to consider Rubio's abortion measure fails.?

7:50 p.m.

The vote-a-rama seems to be moving a bit faster. The senators are now debating an amendment by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio that would prohibit people, apart from parents, from taking minors into another state to receive an abortion. Upcoming: An amendment from North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan on veterans (she's in a vulnerable seat in 2014) and an amendment about biennial budgeting i.e. moving the budget process to once every two years.

7:29 p.m.

All the vote-a-rama roll call votes have had 99 senators voting. That's because 89-year old Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, is absent.

7:25 p.m.

Alaska?s bipartisan pair of senators, Mark Begich, the Democrat, and Lisa Murkowski, the Republican, both back an amendment requiring labeling of a genetically modified ?fake fish,? as Begich calls it. It passes with a voice vote.

7:08 p.m.

The amendment on taxing internet sales passed 75 to 24. Non-binding, of course, but interesting marker for future fights over overhauling the tax code.

7:01 p.m.

Lots of the amendments in this vote-a-rama include the phrase "deficit-neutral funds." What the heck does that mean? As Dylan Matthews of the Washington Post's Wonkblog explains: The words "deficit-neutral funds" offers "a way to discuss budget-irrelevant topics without violating budget reconciliation rules." In other words, they're a technical workaround that allows lawmakers to score? political points on a wider range of topics.

6:49 p.m.

How do Republicans sustain themselves ahead of a long evening of votes? BBQ. That?s what?s getting dished out in Sen. Mitch McConnell office during the sales tax debate: meat, baked beans, corn bread and salad.

6:30 p.m.

If you want a better sense of why overhauling the tax code may be difficult politically, just tune into the debate unfolding now on the Senate floor over a possible sales tax on internet purchases. The Senate has been fiercely debating this amendment for the past 30 minutes or so.

This amendment, put forth by Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and Republican Sen. Mike Enzi, would express support for letting states collect sales taxes on internet purchases--even if those companies were headquartered out-of-state. And, the amendment pits the business interests of typical retail stores against internet competitors. Among others, the amendment is backed by big lobbying money including the country's largest retail trade association that says it is "strongly supporting this legislative effort aimed at leveling the sales tax playing field for all retailers."

Like many fights over taxes, the split between those in favor of the amendment and those against it does not fall along typical party lines. Among the biggest critics of the bill: Democratic Sens. Max Baucus and Ron Wyden and Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte

6:18 p.m.

The Senate is now in the midst of debating an amendment from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, about states' ability to apply the sales tax to Internet purchases.?

6:03 p.m.

The Hoeven amendment supporting the Keystone XL pipeline passes 62-37, with the backing of 17, yes 17, Senate Democrats.

5:46 p.m.

?The hand-writing is on the wall. I see it,? Boxer says ahead of the next Keystone pipeline amendment vote, this one pushed by Hoeven, after she lost the first tally.

5:45 p.m.

Just how many amendments have been filed? As of 5:30, Senate Republicans have offered 371 budget amendments and Democrats have put together 154.

5:43 p.m.

Boxer?s Keystone amendment fails 33-66.

5:40 p.m.

Settling in for a long night here on the Senate side. For those just tuning into vote-a-rama, a reminder: This is Sen. Patty Murray's first time shepherding a Democratic budget to the floor. She's taken on other thankless tasks, like leading the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (when few thought the party would retain the Senate in 2012) and co-leading the super committee that failed to come up with a grand deficit deal. For background reading on Murray's political ascendance, I'd recommend two deep dives: an August 2011 look at her role leading the DSCC and a March 20 profile of her leadership on the Senate Budget Committee and as a foil to Rep. Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee and former Republican vice presidential candidate. Also, of note: Majority Leader Harry Reid really trusts her.

5:29 p.m.

Sen. John Hoeven, R-North Dakota, speaks against an amendment from Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., related to the Keystone XL pipeline. Boxer stands, arms crossed, steadily shaking her head in disagreement across the floor as Hoeven speaks.

5:20 p.m.

You know who seems to love vote-a-rama? Sen. Tom Coburn. The Oklahoma representative, who disdains wasteful government spending, has put forth over 50 amendments for this budget voting fest. If every senators did that, leadership would have to contend with 5,000 amendments. This doesn't mean that all of Coburn's amendments will make it to the floor, but it does show that Coburn is sticking with his usual playbook of digging into the budget and pointing out its myriad of flaws.

5:11 p.m.

The Whitehouse amendment falls short 41-58.?

5:04 p.m.

The vote on the Whitehouse amendment (#652) is the first of four in a row on energy and environment issues, including two related to the Keystone XL pipeline.

4:55 p.m.

Our first papal reference. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, cites Pope Francis in pushing his amendment related to a carbon tax. Whitehouse says that, ?We ignore carbon pollution at our peril? and cites God when suggesting that not taking care of the environment ?is an offense to His creation.?

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, rises in opposition and declares, ?To have to oppose the pope is really ominous.?

4:18 p.m.?

Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., issues a warning to her colleagues who choose to wander off the floor amid the coming flurry of votes. "You leave at your own peril," she says.

4:00 p.m.

More than 400 amendments to the Senate budget have been filed for Friday's marathon session on the floor. More amendments can be offered through the night, although senators won't necessarily demand votes on every measure.

Under the rules, it all comes to end only when there is no senator on the floor seeking a vote on an amendment. Senator Reid has said he hopes senators will only ask for votes on 25 to 30 of the amendments put forth.

Even so, the chamber likely will not end this "vote-a-rama" until after midnight.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/live-updates-whats-happening-senate-vote-rama-210918702--politics.html

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