Ghost Incognito Automates Your Private Browsing [Chrome Extensions]

Ghost Incognito Automates Your Private BrowsingChrome: Even though every browser has a private mode, it's not always easy to remember to enable it before visiting private sites. Ghost Incognito makes it so you don't have to by automatically opening sites of your choosing in incognito mode.

For most of your browsing experience, the icon sits unobtrusively on your tool bar. When you visit a site you don't want to keep a cache of for whatever reason, you click the icon and it opens in incognito mode. After using it once, it's stored, so every future visit does the same thing. It's a handy feature to have for sites like your bank, but with holiday shopping in full swing, it might work well to cover your tracks if you're ordering from a single retailer.

Ghost Incognito | Chrome Web Store via gHacks

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/UKKKSPaAVEE/ghost-incognito-automates-your-private-browsing-in-chrome

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Natalie Wood detectives face conflicting accounts

FILE - In this April 9, 1979 file photo, actress Natalie Wood is shown at the 51st Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Los Angeles sheriff's homicide detectives are taking another look at Wood's 1981 drowning death based on new information, officials announced Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011. (AP Photo, file)

FILE - In this April 9, 1979 file photo, actress Natalie Wood is shown at the 51st Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Los Angeles sheriff's homicide detectives are taking another look at Wood's 1981 drowning death based on new information, officials announced Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011. (AP Photo, file)

FILE - The 55-foot yacht "Splendour," belonging to actor Robert Wagner and his wife, actress Natalie Wood, sits in the waters off Catalina Island in Santa Catalina, Calif., near the site where Harbor Patrol personnel and lifeguards discovered the body of Wood, an apparent drowning victim, Nov. 29, 1981. Los Angeles sheriff's homicide detectives are taking another look at Wood's 1981 drowning death based on new information, officials announced Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Harrington, File)

FILE - A Dec. 1, 1981 file photo shows actress Natalie Wood. Dennis Davern, captain of the yacht Splendour, which Wood was aboard on the night she died, said on national TV Friday, Nov. 18, 2011 that he lied to investigators about Natalie Wood's mysterious death 30 years ago and blames the actress' husband at the time, Robert Wagner, for her drowning in the ocean off Southern California. A Los Angeles County sheriff's detective will speak to reporters Friday about the decision to take another look at the Oscar-nominated actress' nighttime demise. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - In this April 27, 2009 file photo, actor Christopher Walken attends The Film Society of Lincoln Center gala tribute to honor actor Tom Hanks in New York. Clashing versions of what happened on the yacht shared by Wood, her actor-husband Robert Wagner, and their friend, actor Christopher Walken, have contributed to the mystery of how the actress died on a Thanksgiving weekend 30 years ago, and who may be responsible. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file)

In an image from video provided by NBC News, Dennis Davern appears on NBC's "Today" show via video on Friday, Nov. 18, 2011. Davern, captain of the yacht Splendour, which actress Natalie Wood was aboard on the night she died in 1981, said during the interview Friday that he lied to investigators about Wood's mysterious death 30 years ago and blames her husband at the time, Robert Wagner, for her drowning in the ocean off Southern California. A Los Angeles County sheriff's detective Lt. John Corina said Friday that Robert Wagner is not a suspect in the death of his wife, and that new information is substantial enough to take another look at the case. (AP Photo/NBC News)

(AP) ? Natalie Wood's drowning death nearly 30 years ago came after a night of dinner, drinking and arguments but the question remains ? was it anything more than a tragic accident?

Conflicting versions of what happened on the yacht shared by Wood, her actor-husband Robert Wagner and their friend, actor Christopher Walken, have contributed to the mystery of how the actress died on Thanksgiving weekend in 1981.

Two sheriff's detectives are now diving into the mysterious events on the yacht Splendour, although whether they reach any different conclusions than their predecessors remains to be seen. They recently received new, seemingly credible information and heard from potential witnesses who weren't included in the original investigation of Wood's death, sheriff's Lt. John Corina said Friday.

But he said nothing has happened to changed the official view that Wood's death was originally an accidental drowning. Wagner, the star of "Hart and Hart" is not considered a suspect, he added.

Corina released few details about who investigators have contacted or plan to re-interview, but the inquiry will certainly lead them to speak with the three survivors of the trip ? Wagner, Walken and skipper Dennis Davern.

Wood's sister, Lana, was not on the boat, but told CNN's Piers Morgan on Friday that she has spoken with Davern many times and believes her sister did not fall off the boat.

"I don't think she fell, I don't know if she was pushed, I don't know whether there was an altercation and it happened accidentally but she shouldn't have died and that does stay with me and hurt," Lana Wood said.

"I would prefer to always believe that RJ (Wagner) would never do anything to hurt Natalie and that he loved her dearly, which he did, and I don't believe that whatever went on was deliberate. I've always cared about him. I always will care about him," she said.

The captain said on NBC's "Today" on Friday that Wagner is to blame for the Oscar-nominated actress' death in the chilly waters of Southern California in November 1981, but didn't offer many specifics. For years he has maintained that he heard the famous couple arguing on the boat before Wood went missing and Wagner refusing to immediately search the waters nearby for his wife.

Davern's account is dramatically different from what he told investigators after Wood's body was found in 1981, when no mention of an argument between the couple was made. Wood was wearing a nightgown, wool socks and red down coat when she was found floating off Santa Catalina Island.

The renewed investigation comes at a time when plenty of attention was sure to be focused on Wood, whose beauty and acting in films such as "West Side Story" and "Rebel Without a Cause" made her Hollywood royalty. Her death stunned the world and CBS' "48 Hours Mystery" has been looking into the case for a special airing on Saturday.

Sheriff's officials denied the renewed attention prompted their review, which could take months.

"We're not concerned with the anniversary date," Corina said. "It may have jarred some other people's memories."

Davern and Wagner agree on one point about the fateful night ? there was a heated argument on the yacht after the group returned from dinner on Catalina. All had been drinking, and here is where the three men's accounts begin to differ.

Davern said he heard Wagner and Wood arguing and its outcome had horrific consequences.

Was that fight "what ultimately led to her death?" Davern was asked by "Today" show host David Gregory.

"Yes," Davern replied.

"How so?"

"Like I said, that's going to be up to the investigators to decide," Davern responded after a long pause.

Wagner acknowledges a fight took place on the Splendour, but in his best-selling 2008 memoir "Pieces of My Heart," he wrote that the fighting was between him and Walken. The disagreement began over the acting profession and led to Wood retreating to her cabin, while the dispute raged on between Wagner and Walken. Later Walken went to bed, according to Wagner, who, after staying up with Davern for a while, went looking for his wife and couldn't find her on board. He then noticed that a dinghy attached to the boat ?and his wife ? was gone.

Walken, who has rarely spoken about the events that led to Wood's death, denied in a 1982 interview on "Good Morning America" that he and Wagner quarreled.

"No, that's not true," Walken said when asked if a fight was the reason Wood left the yacht. "They were very good to me, that family, and that's not true.

"We were having a Thanksgiving weekend, a good time," he said.

But Walken told sheriff's detectives that there was an argument, according to a 2000 Vanity Fair piece that included statements from a report by the investigating detective. It also included comments from Davern, who told the magazine that he heard Wagner and Wood fighting before she went missing.

The detective, Wagner and Walken and coroner's officials all have maintained that Wood's death was an accident, possibly caused by her trying to secure the dinghy to the side of the yacht.

"The people who are convinced that there was something more to it than what came out in the investigation will never be satisfied with the truth," Walken was quoted in the Vanity Fair piece as saying during an interview in the 1980s. "Because the truth is, there is nothing more to it. It was an accident."

Wagner too addressed the uncertainty about what happened in his book.

"Nobody knows," he wrote. "There are only two possibilities; either she was trying to get away from the argument, or she was trying to tie the dinghy. But the bottom line is that nobody knows exactly what happened."

Wagner said through a spokesman that his family trusts the sheriff's department to conduct a fair investigation into Wood's death.

The couple were married twice, first in 1957 before divorcing six years later. They remarried in 1972.

___

Associated Press writer Denise Petski contributed to this report.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-19-Natalie%20Wood-Investigation/id-559325f6a22e4d29882ae3b126b6223a

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Salesforce.com shares drop on tepid outlook (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Web-based software maker Salesforce.com Inc forecast current-quarter earnings broadly in line with Wall Street estimates and posted a quarterly net loss as its marketing and sales costs increased sharply.

The tepid outlook from one of the leaders in Internet-based "cloud" computing suggests it will not avoid the effects of broad cutbacks in corporate spending which have ravaged other technology firms.

Salesforce shares fell 6 percent after hours.

Chief Executive Marc Benioff said he was optimistic about companies' spending on technology and marketing, despite economic difficulties in Europe and Japan.

"I don't feel like we are going into a recession," he said on a conference call with analysts.

The San Francisco-based company reported a net loss of $3.8 million, or 3 cents per share, for the fiscal third quarter, compared with a profit of $21.1 million, or 15 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

The loss was due to a 49 percent jump in operating costs to $465.8 million, which outpaced sales growth. The cost of stock-based compensation more than doubled to $57 million from $26 million a year ago.

Excluding certain items, such as the stock-based compensation, its profit was 34 cents per share, beating the 31 cent average estimate by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters

I/B/E/S.

Sales rose 36 percent to $584 million, surpassing the $571.5 million expected by analysts.

For the current quarter, the company forecast profit, excluding items, of 39 cents to 40 cents per share, compared to Wall Street's estimate of 40 cents.

For fiscal 2013, it made its first sales forecast, of $2.88 billion to $2.92 billion, which includes projected revenue from Model Metrics, an acquisition expected to close this quarter. Excluding that deal, analysts are expecting sales of $2.79 billion.

Salesforce.com shares dropped 7 percent in after-hours trading to $117.78, after closing at $126.09 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Bernard Orr and Richard Chang)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/software/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111117/wr_nm/us_salesforce

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Aerial view of tsunami zone: cleaner but barren (AP)

SENDAI, Japan ? From 1,000 feet (300 meters) up, the view of the tsunami-battered Japanese seaside communities shows striking progress: much of the rubble, crumpled cars and other debris is gone.

Yet seen from a helicopter Friday carrying Associated Press journalists, there are few signs of rebuilding eight months after the March 11 disaster, triggered by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake off the tsunami-prone coast.

What remains ? the stark, gray emptiness where bustling towns once stood ? is a sobering reminder of how much work still lies ahead.

On the ground, people living in the tidy rows of temporary houses that dot the surrounding areas say they are frustrated that authorities aren't moving ahead more quickly with reconstruction plans. They are anxious to rebuild their lives, yet remain uncertain of how to proceed.

"I want to leave this place as soon as possible and move into our own house, but the feeling I'm getting from the banks and government is that's going to be hard," said Yuki Numakura, 36, from Natori, near Sendai, who shares a unit with her mother, brother, grandmother and pet dog Seven.

"The future looks really murky," she said.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's government plans to spend at least 18 trillion yen ($234 billion) over the next five years to fund the reconstruction, 6 trillion yen of which has been approved by parliament. So far, the government has built 51,886 temporary houses ? almost all of the 52,500 needed ? in seven prefectures (states) affected by the disaster.

Ultimately, decisions about reconstruction of each town fall to local town leaders, but uncertainty about the extent and speed of aid from the central government has caused some towns to move cautiously.

The towns have just begun to come out with longer-term reconstruction plans, which include input from residents and seek ways to better protect their communities from future tsunamis. Many are also reluctant to rebuild in low-lying areas for fear that another massive wave may strike again sooner or later, given that four have hit the coastline in the last 120 years.

The fishing town of Minamisanriku, which lost 70 percent of its buildings in the disaster, calls for building residential areas on higher ground, even cutting into the surrounding hills, and possibly raising the town's commercial district slightly from the fishing docks, a key hub of activity. To help people better escape from future tsunamis, the town plans to widen evacuation routes and increase the number of elevated shelters.

Minamisanriku's reconstruction plan extends 10 years into the future. Facing a shrinking and aging population, it seeks to revive its local economy through promoting tourism and drawing new business.

The biggest challenge facing town leaders at this point is balancing residents' demands to restore homes and jobs quickly while coming up with a viable long-term plan, said Tsuneaki Fukui, a civil engineering professor at the University of Tokyo who is helping the major fishing port of Kesennuma, further up the coast, draw up its reconstruction plans.

"The scale of this ? the entire coastline ? makes it all so overwhelming," he said. "It's something even we professionals haven't ever encountered."

The disaster left 15,839 dead and 3,647 missing, according to the official toll. The high number of missing is because the dead are only counted when a body is identified.

Further south, the tsunami also touched off a nuclear crisis when it slammed into the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, forcing about 100,000 people to flee their homes. They still have no idea when they can return.

Disposing of all the debris ? an estimated 23 million tons ? is another huge headache. While most has been removed from town centers, completely disposing of it will likely take another 2 1/2 years, the government estimates.

A large amount of debris has wound up in Natori, a flat area near the Sendai airport, where it has been carefully divided into huge mountains of wood, metal, hazardous waste and other materials. On Friday, dozens of cranes and backhoes picked away at the stuff, dumping it into waiting trucks to be hauled off.

Some of it is recycled. Concrete, for example, is sent to cement factories for reprocessing into small pebbles for use in road construction, the Environment Ministry says. The rest is to be incinerated and used as landfill ? although incinerators in the prefecture are overwhelmed by the volume and have asked for help from elsewhere.

Just a few miles (kilometers) away from the whirring construction vehicles, 75-year-old Yaeko Sai, who lost her Natori home in the tsunami, thinks anxiously about the future in the shadow of her temporary housing block.

"My friends have scattered everywhere," she said. "I'm really not sure how I could make it if I had to leave this place."

___

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111118/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_tsunami_recovery

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PFT: Broncos' McGahee questionable for Jets game

New Orleans Saints v Atlanta FalconsGetty Images

With 3326 passing yards through ten games, Saints quarterback Drew Brees remains on pace to obliterate the single-season yardage record, set 27 years ago by Dan Marino.

Marino threw for 5,084.? Brees is on track for 5,321.

But Brees says he?s not thinking about it, in part because he chased that record (and nearly broke it) three years ago, when he finished with 5,069.

?I feel very different this year than I did back in 2008 in regards to this Marino thing,? Brees said Wednesday, in comments distributed by the team.? ?I think back in ?08, maybe because it was the first time that any of us had really been close to that record in a long time.? As I recall, Kurt Warner was on pace at one point.? Back in ?08, it seemed like every week it was a topic of discussion.? That was the first time I had been a part of anything like that.? For me, I tried not to make it stressful but it was hard not to think about it because people would always talk about it especially when we got down to the final two games where we had to average almost 380 [yards] a game in order to get to the record and we almost did it.? Maybe because I have been through that before, I am really not thinking about it or letting it creep into my mind all that often.?

Brees said that, with winning the only concern, he doesn?t keep track of his passing stats.? ?I am just so focused on winning games and doing whatever it takes to win the game,? Brees said.? ?Even this game against Atlanta, when somebody said I had thrown for 322 yards I was shocked.? I didn?t feel like it was that kind of a game.? It didn?t feel to me like a game that we were throwing it a lot and weren?t running it a lot but when you look at the stat book at the end of the game that is the way it turned out. . . .

?I think the way this season started, there were like six guys on pace to break Marino?s record after the first four or five games.? It seemed like this one of those crazy years where teams are throwing it a lot.? I think as the year goes on situations changes. Some people stay on pace and others don?t.? I really haven?t given it a lot of thought other doing whatever it takes to win.?

Though Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has fewer yards that Brees (3,032), Brady has played one less game.? And Brady currently is on pace for 5,390.

So if those patterns hold, Brees will indeed break Marino?s record.? But Brady, not Brees, will hold the record going forward.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/11/16/mcgahee-questionable-for-thursday/related/

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HP redesigns its Envy laptops, announces the Envy 15, 17 and 17 3D (video)

Just last month, we off-handedly said that HP's Envy laptops were among the most shameless MacBook impersonations we've seen. Looks like we spoke too soon: the company just introduced a redesigned Envy 15, Envy 17 and Envy 17 3D, and we have to say: the resemblance in the interior is just uncanny. If you ask company reps, they'll tell you the old taupe design was too masculine (despite the divets arranged in a floral pattern!), and that the new aesthetic is more gender-neutral. Fair enough, we suppose, though we defy you to tell us that touchpad, silvery aluminum chassis and black, chiclet-style keyboard aren't familiar. To be fair, it's not a complete facsimile: HP also throw in a few design flourishes of its own, most of them Beats-inspired. Chief among them is a red-accented, analog volume dial on the right side of the keyboard deck, though the black lid and thin red strip around the keyboard also add some kick.

All three laptops will be available December 7th, with the Envy 15, Envy 17 and Envy 17 3D starting at $1,100, $1,250 and $1,600, respectively. For now, though, we've got hands-on shots below, along with a rundown of the starting specs just past the break.

Continue reading HP redesigns its Envy laptops, announces the Envy 15, 17 and 17 3D (video)

HP redesigns its Envy laptops, announces the Envy 15, 17 and 17 3D (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/16/hp-redesigns-its-envy-laptops-announces-the-envy-15-17-and-17/

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City's legal advice may not be on point | Davis Enterprise

BobDunning2W

So, City Attorney Harriet Steiner rained on the parade of the 3,866 Davis residents who signed petitions to place the city?s water rate hike on the ballot when she declared ?The city?s newly adopted water rates are not subject to challenge by referendum.?

Well, without belaboring the point, this is the same city attorney who signed off on the incredibly one-sided Zipcar contract summer before last, so her opinion deserves a good deal of objective scrutiny.

It?s interesting that her opinion was released after a number of media requests and was dated Nov. 15, when it?s obvious it was written some time before that. Otherwise, why would there be statements such as ?the county elections official is currently examining the petition to determine whether it contains the required number of signatures??

By Nov. 15, the county already had verified that the referendum petition had qualified.

However, despite the fact I?ve made numerous requests of city officials, both elected and otherwise, as to when this opinion actually was offered, I?ve received absolutely no responses.

One council member did, however, admit that ?Harriet sent us a memo on Nov. 4 concerning whether or not we were bound to honor the referendum. It was confidential because Harriet said it was confidential.

?Personally, I was perplexed as to why council or counsel would want to withhold this information. I personally think that the citizens should have been informed at a far, far earlier point that this might be an issue.?

Amen to that.

But apparently the city attorney thinks she works only for her political allies on the City Council, not for the unwashed masses who pay her salary.

Be that as it may, her analysis of the ?legality? of the referendum process is fatally flawed. I say this despite the fact my hourly rate is considerably less than hers.

First, even Harriet has to admit that ?there are no post-Proposition 218 cases that are directly on point? of her contention that the water rates are not subject to challenge by referendum.

She then notes ?Proposition 218 only addresses initiatives and it is silent with respect to the power of the referendum. The provision?s silence regarding the referendum power to reduce, repeal or affect Proposition 218 fees and charges is a strong indicator that the referendum power is not available for those purposes.?

Hold your horses there, counselor. You?re finding a prohibition where no prohibition exists. Silence does not automatically translate to prohibition.

In fact, a quick look at the opinion of the state Legislative Analyst?s Office concerning Prop. 218 reveals the exact opposite conclusion.

In Appendix I, titled ?Areas in which legislative or judicial clarification may be needed ? Elections,? the LAO asks ?Who may vote on referendums to repeal assessments, fees, or taxes??

Note that magic word ?referendums.? Now, common sense will tell you that if the LAO is asking the question as to who gets to vote in referendums to repeal assessments, fees, or taxes, it presupposes that a referendum itself is completely legal.

The LAO, in fact, is not questioning in any way the right of citizens to use the referendum process. It?s merely raising the question as to who gets to vote once a referendum qualifies for the ballot. In other words, not only is the LAO not silent on referendums, it specifically says they are a part of the process.

That?s enough for me, but there?s much, much more.

Adds the LAO analysis: ?Prior to Proposition 218?s passage, the courts allowed local governments significant flexibility in determining fee and assessment amounts. A business or resident challenging the validity of a fee or assessment carried the ?burden of proof? to show the court that the fee or assessment was illegal.

?Proposition 218 changed this legal standard by shifting the burden of proof to local governments. Now local governments must prove that any disputed fee or assessment charge is legal.?

And furthermore, although there is a legal distinction between initiatives and referendums, the LAO adds ?Proposition 218 eliminates any ambiguity regarding the power of local residents to use the initiative by stating that residents of California shall have the power to repeal or reduce any local tax, assessment or fee.?

Two things to note here. First, the italics on the word ?any? are theirs, not mine. And second, the word ?repeal? generally assumes a referendum, not an initiative. Add that to the fact the LAO specifically recognizes the right to a referendum in its analysis and you pretty much have a slam dunk.

But yes, there?s more.

And I hope the city attorney and all members of the Davis City Council read Section 5 of Proposition 218 before deciding to declare both the referendum petition and the referendum process invalid and effectively slap the faces of all 3,866 citizens of this town who bothered to sign it.

Says Section 5, titled ?Liberal Construction?: ?The provisions of this act shall be liberally construed to effectuate its purposes of limiting local government revenue and enhancing taxpayer consent.?

Game, set, match.

? Reach Bob Dunning at bdunning@davisenterprise.net

Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=105782

View this story on page A2 Posted by Bob Dunning on Nov 17 2011. Filed under Bob Dunning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Source: http://www.davisenterprise.com/opinion/dunning/citys-legal-advice-may-not-be-on-point/

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Calif. Occupy protests focus on cuts to education

D.J. App, of Berkeley, sweeps the Occupy Cal campsite in Sproul Plaza on the campus of University of California at Berkeley, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011, in Berkeley, Calif. Students held the campsite despite threats from the university's police that the lodging was illegal. (AP Photo/Beck Diefenbach)

D.J. App, of Berkeley, sweeps the Occupy Cal campsite in Sproul Plaza on the campus of University of California at Berkeley, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011, in Berkeley, Calif. Students held the campsite despite threats from the university's police that the lodging was illegal. (AP Photo/Beck Diefenbach)

University of California at Berkeley students sleep in the Occupy Cal campsite in Sproul Plaza on the campus of UC Berkeley, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011, in Berkeley, Calif. Students held the campsite despite threats from the university's police that the lodging was illegal. (AP Photo/Beck Diefenbach)

University of California at Berkeley student Ian Saxton pleads with Lt. Eric Tejada not to take down the Occupy Cal campsite in Sproul Plaza on the campus of UC Berkeley, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011, in Berkeley, Calif. (AP Photo/Beck Diefenbach)

University of California at Berkeley student Anastasia Somkin dances to music in the Occupy Cal campsite in Sproul Plaza on the campus of UC Berkeley, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011, in Berkeley, Calif. (AP Photo/Beck Diefenbach)

University of California at Berkeley students hold a general assembly at the Occupy Cal campsite in Sproul Plaza on the campus of UC Berkeley, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011, in Berkeley, Calif. (AP Photo/Beck Diefenbach)

(AP) ? Police arrested a number of Occupy protesters and students Wednesday who stormed into a downtown San Francisco bank and shouted slogans as they tried to set up camp in the lobby.

The arrests came after more than 100 demonstrators rushed into a Bank of America branch, chanting "money for schools and education, not for banks and corporations."

Police officers in riot gear cuffed the activists one-by-one as hundreds more demonstrators surrounded the building, blocking entrances and exits.

Deputy Police Chief Kevin Cashman said 80 arrests were expected for trespassing. Suspects were taken to jail, cited and released.

Elsewhere, students and anti-Wall Street activists settled into a new encampment at the University of California, Berkeley, and visited the state Capitol to demand the restoration of funding for higher education.

At Berkeley, police watched over about two dozen tents that were pitched Tuesday night on a student plaza despite a campus policy that forbids camping. Police warned that protesters could be arrested if they didn't leave.

Seth Weinberg, a 20-year-old cognitive science major, said he slept in a tent on Sproul Plaza to press the university to lobby for more public education funding.

"There should be a way for anyone who wants to go to college if they choose to," Weinberg said. "What the university doesn't understand is that we are not camping out. This is a constant protest."

In Sacramento, about 75 student leaders and a few administrators from UC Berkeley and the University of California, Davis lobbied lawmakers and the governor to allocate more money to education.

Adam Thongsavat, student body president at UC Davis, called on lawmakers to be "more courageous, more aggressive and more thoughtful."

"Come to our campuses and see how your actions affect us," he said. "I want you all to tell us why prisons deserve more spending than universities."

University of California President Mark Yudof issued a statement of support for the students' "passion and conviction" in support of public higher education.

"We also suffer together the strains caused by what has been a long pattern of state disinvestment in the University of California," he said.

Protesters in San Francisco marched through downtown in a demonstration partly organized by ReFund California, a coalition of student groups and university employee unions.

The group bused in protesters from UC Berkeley, the University of California, Merced and other schools to join Occupy San Francisco activists as they marched to the bank and the state building.

The marches in support of higher education came as police in San Francisco and San Diego cleared encampments in those cities, citing public health and safety concerns.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee met with Occupy SF activists to let them know an expansion of their camp would not be tolerated.

"I did give the order to our police chief this morning that there cannot be an expansion of what we're perceiving to be a health hazard in the city," Lee said after the meeting.

Gene Doherty, a media contact for Occupy San Francisco, said the group was surprised by the early morning raid on the encampment.

"Because of this morning's meeting, we thought that the city would be acting in good faith," Doherty said.

Police once again broke up the Occupy encampment in San Diego that officials said posed a growing problem with violence and mounting trash.

Nine people were arrested and one other was cited and released during the 2 a.m. raid.

As some encampments came down, the tent city at UC Berkeley remained after a day of activism against big banks and education cuts culminated with about 4,000 people rallying Tuesday night at a speech by former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

Occupy Cal's general assembly voted to invite the university's chancellor and Board of Regents to a debate in early December and to send the educational officials a list of demands, including a tuition rollback to 2009 levels.

They also voted in favor of rebuilding their encampment despite earlier violence on Nov. 9, when police jabbed students with batons and arrested 40 people as the university sought to uphold the campus ban on camping.

Alyssa Kies, a 20-year-old geography major, said there was a dance party and lots of discussion throughout the night on the UC Berkeley plaza.

She said she wasn't worried about police action because the political climate was too precarious for any sort of violence to be accepted.

___

Duff-Brown reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writers Garance Burke in San Francisco, Julie Watson in San Diego and Juliet Williams in Sacramento also contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-16-Occupy%20California/id-5937b02a050c442ba72965803cbd73f2

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Teaching skills key to selection of a successful model farmer

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 15-Nov-2011
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Contact: Paul Stapleton
p.stapleton@cgiar.org
World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)

Nairobi, 15 November 2011 Farmer trainers should be selected based on their interest and ability to teach others rather than on their successes in implementing farming techniques, shows a new study led by Steve Franzel, a scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).

In the study by Franzel, Charles Wambugu and Tutui Nanok, 126 adopters of fodder shrubs, fast-growing leguminous shrubs for feeding dairy cows, in Kenya took part in the study that found that 40% of expert farmers were not effective disseminators.

About 225,000smallholder farmers in East Africa are growing fodder shrubs to increase their milk production. The overall impact of the shrubs in terms of additional net income from milk is high, at US$19.7 million to $29.6 million in Kenya alone over the past 15 years.

In most extension projects the model farmer is selected based on their expertise and how successfully they have been in attaining and in some cases superseding the desired results.

"This finding has great implications on how extensionis practiced," said Franzel, "It means that choosing a farmerto demonstrate and teach other farmers will only be as effective as their skills in passing on the information."

The results of the study suggest that extension programs that choose farmer trainers on the basis of their farming expertise will not promote dissemination as effectively as those that choose trainers on the basis of their dissemination skills.

"I have helped my fellow farmers in improving their farming methods because I have been able to show them how much more milk I am producing thanks to the fodder shrubs. I have also been able to teach them how to increase milk production on their farms because I have had training on how to teach other farmers," said Rose Wanjiku, one of the farmers who was part the study.

"Changing how we choose farmer trainers in this way would see more extension projects reap the full benefits of their work, " said Franzel who was speaking at the ongoing, Innovations in Extension and Advisory Services: Linking Knowledge to Policy and Action Conference in Nairobi, which was attended by various high-level officials including Dr. Romano Kiome, the Permanent Secretary at the Kenya Ministry of Agriculture.

This major international conference seeks to bolster faltering support for government agencies, private operators, and individuals who collectively provide a critical link in the field between agriculture knowledge holders and policy makers and millions of struggling smallholder farmers, in developing countries and more particularly in Africa.

###

About the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)

The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) is part of the alliance of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Centres dedicated to generating and applying thebest available knowledge to stimulate agricultural growth, raise farmers' incomes, and protect the environment.

About CTA

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU). Its mission is to advance food and nutritional security, increase prosperity and encourage sound natural resource management in ACP countries. It provides access to information and knowledge, facilitates policy dialogue and strengthens the capacity of agricultural and rural development institutions and communities. CTA operates under the framework of the Cotonou Agreement and is funded by the EU. For more information on CTA visit, www.cta.int

About the International Conference

"Innovations in Extension and Advisory Services: Linking Knowledge to Policy and Action," will bring together more than 20 Ministers of Agriculture and some 400 leading global experts in agriculture development from November 15-18 at the Hilton Hotel in Nairobi.


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[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 15-Nov-2011
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Contact: Paul Stapleton
p.stapleton@cgiar.org
World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)

Nairobi, 15 November 2011 Farmer trainers should be selected based on their interest and ability to teach others rather than on their successes in implementing farming techniques, shows a new study led by Steve Franzel, a scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).

In the study by Franzel, Charles Wambugu and Tutui Nanok, 126 adopters of fodder shrubs, fast-growing leguminous shrubs for feeding dairy cows, in Kenya took part in the study that found that 40% of expert farmers were not effective disseminators.

About 225,000smallholder farmers in East Africa are growing fodder shrubs to increase their milk production. The overall impact of the shrubs in terms of additional net income from milk is high, at US$19.7 million to $29.6 million in Kenya alone over the past 15 years.

In most extension projects the model farmer is selected based on their expertise and how successfully they have been in attaining and in some cases superseding the desired results.

"This finding has great implications on how extensionis practiced," said Franzel, "It means that choosing a farmerto demonstrate and teach other farmers will only be as effective as their skills in passing on the information."

The results of the study suggest that extension programs that choose farmer trainers on the basis of their farming expertise will not promote dissemination as effectively as those that choose trainers on the basis of their dissemination skills.

"I have helped my fellow farmers in improving their farming methods because I have been able to show them how much more milk I am producing thanks to the fodder shrubs. I have also been able to teach them how to increase milk production on their farms because I have had training on how to teach other farmers," said Rose Wanjiku, one of the farmers who was part the study.

"Changing how we choose farmer trainers in this way would see more extension projects reap the full benefits of their work, " said Franzel who was speaking at the ongoing, Innovations in Extension and Advisory Services: Linking Knowledge to Policy and Action Conference in Nairobi, which was attended by various high-level officials including Dr. Romano Kiome, the Permanent Secretary at the Kenya Ministry of Agriculture.

This major international conference seeks to bolster faltering support for government agencies, private operators, and individuals who collectively provide a critical link in the field between agriculture knowledge holders and policy makers and millions of struggling smallholder farmers, in developing countries and more particularly in Africa.

###

About the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)

The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) is part of the alliance of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Centres dedicated to generating and applying thebest available knowledge to stimulate agricultural growth, raise farmers' incomes, and protect the environment.

About CTA

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU). Its mission is to advance food and nutritional security, increase prosperity and encourage sound natural resource management in ACP countries. It provides access to information and knowledge, facilitates policy dialogue and strengthens the capacity of agricultural and rural development institutions and communities. CTA operates under the framework of the Cotonou Agreement and is funded by the EU. For more information on CTA visit, www.cta.int

About the International Conference

"Innovations in Extension and Advisory Services: Linking Knowledge to Policy and Action," will bring together more than 20 Ministers of Agriculture and some 400 leading global experts in agriculture development from November 15-18 at the Hilton Hotel in Nairobi.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/wac-tsk111511.php

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