Yesterday a third design was spotted that combines the black bar with the menu structure of the single menu bar.

The new bar displays Google’s most popular services directly again on the bar for quick access. The More link leads to additional services. Users of the gray bar design will notice that the black bar has been moved on top of the design. Everything else, with the exception of the Google logo menu has remained the same.

The Google Operating System blog has posted instructions on how to enable the new Google bar design.

Open google.com in your web browser of choice.In Google Chrome, press Ctrl-Shift-JIn Mozilla Firefox press Ctrl-Shift-KIn Internet Explorer press F12 and choose consolePaste the following code into the form

Press enter and close the console again.Local users need to replace the domain in the information (google.com) with the country code domain, e.g. (google.de)

The page should refresh automatically, and you should see the new layout on the Google page. Please note that it will only be active for as long as the cookie remains on your system.

Users who want to return to the old Google homepage layout can repeat the steps, by loading the following code in the console.

My personal opinion? Google should give users more choice when it comes to the services that are displayed on the homepage. I’m for instance not using Google News, so why should it be there that prominently on the page? Google furthermore needs to choose a design and stick with it, instead of confusing users with different designs and layouts. Some users, depending on the browser they use to access Google, have reported that they are seeing different layouts on the same computer.

What’s your take on this, and what’s your favorite bar so far?

source : www.ghacks.net

The couple hitched a lift to the reserve. “It was breathtakingly beautiful and instantly inspiring, full of vibrant, happy people living in easy buildings made from wind-felled trees. There was no electricity, radio or television. Allie and I were broke, so when they offered to let us stay as volunteers, it was like a dream.

“There was a dress code,” he continues. “Very short hair and beards for men – the founder didn’t want us looking like hippies to outsiders – and long hair for women, while ‘modesty’ dictated a ban on bare legs. The image was scientific and professional.”

The reserve seemed well‑organised, with families, single men and single women all living in separate buildings. As well as Costa Ricans, there were Americans and a Dutch woman.

On their first evening, Nick and Allie joined a group discussion that ended with a short meditation. “It was a bit like a yoga class. We got the impression we were among some very good people who were welcoming two hard‑working Europeans into their community.”

Everyone had a timetable, and the couple were given guidelines on community life, meal times and working patterns. “As we got into the swing of the timetable, the meditations became more intense. We only spoke basic Spanish at first, so our understanding was limited. The conditions were loose early on, but gradually we lost more and more freedom.”

Soon the pair were assigned their own individual tutors, who helped them “integrate”. “It was help with factual things at first, practical stuff, but soon we were being tutored in the beliefs and values of the group. Looking back, the religion was a hotchpotch of everything from Buddhism to Christianity. We were never told things – it felt as if our own inquisitiveness led us to find things out. After a month we asked if we could stay there permanently.”

Nick and Allie discovered that the community had been set up in the 1980s. The founder had persuaded an initial group of people to follow his teachings: give up their lives, sell everything, and pool their resources into buying a piece of land.

To gain acceptance into the group, Nick and Allie were asked to make a one-off payment of £500 each to cover their living costs and kit out their cabin – there was a comprehensive list of items they required, such as two spades and a two-ring cooker. Rather like the dress code, every cabin had to be identical.

Nick had no money, so he returned to England to work in a cousin’s factory. When he arrived back at the reserve two months later, Allie had changed. “She had become much more like the others – I think even at the beginning, I had held something back – and was very sure of her new beliefs. She began calling the leader – a charismatic 30-year-old – ‘The Master’, and she was distant with me, less tactile, and mechanical in our lovemaking. Her emotions were tightly controlled.”

The couple soon found they were being given very tiny to eat – and requests for more of the vegetarian food were met with accusations of greed. Meanwhile, the new timetable dictated that they wake up at 3.30am for meditation, sermons and parables.

“We were told, why sleep when you can be doing something useful?” states Nick. “I realise now we were being weakened by sleep deprivation and a meagre diet so we’d become too weak to resist the force of the group. They’d speak about how consumerism was destroying the world, agricultural reforestation, how to create a harmonious lifestyle – all topics we found fascinating.

“That was the external face of it. The internal face was the development of self, spiritual evolution, how to become the perfect human being, with the leader a sort of living manual to achieve this. If you questioned him that wasn’t tolerated, and people were ostracised and shunned as punishment.”

Nick was being fed barely enough to live on and was physically exhausted from the manual work, the martial arts and long runs that were part of the regime. He lost three stone in weight. The questioning part of his mind remained active, but he silenced it because he wanted to keep his family intact.

Allie, on the other hand, had turned into an unquestioning devotee. Their relationship became strained and she moved out of their shared cabin into the single women’s accommodation. Nick could still visit his son, but this eventually became difficult and Allie accused him of “snooping”. Soon he was forbidden from visiting Oscar at all.

‘I tried to gain more acceptance from the cult leader, but it was hard as he used psychological tricks, with rewards for compliance and punishments for crimes such as questioning the teachings. When I managed to get myself into ‘acceptance’ mode, everything made perfect sense – and when you see how together everyone is, how close, and that you’re not part of that, you want to be. You would strive for acceptance. But no matter how hard I tried to give myself up to the group, a part of my brain always resisted.”

A year passed, and Nick became more compliant. He recalls this period as the time he was most engaged with the group. The leaders weren’t convinced, however, and suggested Nick return to the UK to work on environmental study for a year, and to come back when he was clearer about what he wanted.

“I had become good at detaching myself emotionally, which is what they encourage, but I was very sad about leaving Oscar. They wouldn’t let me take him. When I arrived home my parents were mortified at my physical appearance – I was very thin and gaunt. I didn’t know it then, but they had sought professional help on how to deal with me and my situation, and had been told that challenging me could be the worst thing they could do. So they decided to sit it out and hope I’d one day see the light.”

Nick returned to the group a year later. The thought of being estranged from his son overwhelmed him, so he knuckled down with his “tutor”, who persuaded the leader to let him stay.

“I didn’t question a thing, and the leader was pleased. I stopped listening to my quiet voice that challenged them, and I continued like that for two more years, believing I was learning to be the perfect person. We were told the end of the world was coming. We were so cut off from the world, with no newspapers or anything, the beliefs of the group were all we had. The longer you are in the grip of a cult, the harder it is to leave – you think you are an evolved being and the outside world is meaningless. There’s also a huge part of you that won’t admit it’s all rubbish, that you were wrong to accept it’s not real, to admit defeat.”

Nick eventually became close to Danny, another member who was becoming disillusioned with the community, “and speaking to him, my mind started opening up. I started questioning things I had been told. For instance, the leader had stated that he’d had an accident as a child and had been pronounced clinically dead, that he was a soul from another planet – rubbish, of course, but by the time we were told this we were so far gone, we believed it. Recruitment is a slow, steady process, you kind of slip into it, and before you know it ‘facts’ such as these are plausible. What you don’t know early on is that everyone else is in on it, so you are being recruited by the entire group. I remember an American girl arriving and we all recruited her, me included. I’d become one of them.”

Nick knew he had to leave with Oscar, so he focused on being ultra “good”. It worked. The leader concurred that Nick could take Oscar to England for a holiday.

When Nick arrived home he was a fragile mess, seeing the outside world through the group’s eyes one minute, and as a critic the next. “Everyone at home seemed so self-indulgent. I’d been brainwashed to think my parents were very negative, which they weren’t – it’s all part of being accepted, to be alienated from those who care about you. I’d had no contact with my parents for a year, as their letters had gone unread, left in the town a two-hour walk away.”

Three months passed. It was time to return to Costa Rica, but in his heart Nick knew he wasn’t going back. He contacted Allie’s parents to explain, and they invited Nick to visit their home to discuss the situation. They hadn’t told him Allie would also be there, and she grabbed the boy.

An eight-month court battle ensued, during which time Nick made contact with the anti-cult expert Graham Baldwin, who runs Catalyst, a charity that helps cult victims get their lives back. Graham counseled Nick and helped prepare his court case against Allie, putting him in contact with a specialist lawyer. Nick was only granted to see Oscar with a child psychologist present. Suicidal thoughts crossed his mind.

“This group wasn’t about money but power,” explains Graham Baldwin. “Nick was very confused when I met him, like many people in his position who are trying to make sense of what happened to them. I let him speak a lot, but I asked a lot of questions, such as ‘why do you think they did this or that?’. Cult victims must find the answers themselves. Cults target intelligent young people who are often searching for something. Anyone can be recruited. There is no immunity.”

It was actually Allie’s sister who saved the day. Having visited the group in Costa Rica, she came forward and stated she believed Oscar was better off with his father. Oscar was made a ward of court.

Nick, meanwhile, slowly started rebuilding his life – and Savannah Miller became a huge part of this rehabilitation. When they first met at a friend’s wedding eight years ago, she describes him as a “poor lost puppy”. They married in 2005 and now have three kids – as well as Oscar, 16, who continues to live with them.

Nick kept a diary during his stay with the group, something that is helping with Paradiso, the film script he is working on, about his experiences in a cult. He intends to donate some of the profit to Catalyst to help pay for a therapy centre for the victims of cults – unlike many countries, the UK still lacks such a facility.

Catalyst currently deals with around 200 cases a year, and estimates that approximately 1,500 cults operate in the UK alone. As Savannah says: “Without Graham’s help, who knows if Nick would have recovered and turned into the confident man he is today.”

source : telegraph.feedsportal.com

Canadian Blood Services is calling on people of African and Caribbean heritage to register as blood and stem donors through its OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network.

Sickle cell disease is an inherited disease of red blood cells, predominantly affecting people of African descent. In people with sickle cell disease, the red blood cells are abnormally shaped and starve tissues of oxygen.

The lifespan of affected people is about three decades shorter than average, stated Dr. Isaac Odame, medical director of the Global Sickle Cell Disease Network at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

Complications can include infections, extreme bone pain and damage to the brain, lungs, heart and kidneys, Odame said.

Kynan Jackson, 7, of Halifax struggles with painful sickle cell disease. He takes medication twice a day, has had blood transfusions and been admitted to the hospital a few times since he was diagnosed at age four.

“It is stressful,” stated his mother, Winnell Jackson. “It’s nearly like a waiting game. The medication will not ever stop him from getting crisis again, so I know it’s coming.”

A stem cell transplant replaces the bad, misshapen ones with normal ones, stated Odame.

Sickle cell disease can be cured with stem cell transplants, states Dr. Issac Odame. (CBC)

“The only way to give him [Kynan] a chance is to cure it,” Odame said. “We know that it can be cured through stem cell transplantation.”

Stem cell transplants require a close match from a donor of the same ethnic background, which narrows Kynan’s odds of getting one.

“If you are Caucasian and you are looking for an unrelated match, probably 75 per cent chance you will find one. If you are of African descent, your odds are far, far, far less,” Odame said.

Canada’s blacks represent about 2.5 per cent of the population, based on the 2006 census. But of the 300,000 on the blood agency’s stem cell and marrow registry, only 0.7 per cent are of African descent.

“Sometimes people wait six months to years to find a match and they may end up passing away in that time period because we cannot find a match in Canada or around the world,” stated Sue Smith, executive director of One Match.

During Black History Month, Canadian Blood Services is appealing for young, black male donors in particular to donate blood and be registered. Men tend to be bigger and deliver a bigger volume of stem cells without the complications of an over-reactive immune system that can occur during pregnancy.

Currently, the bureau stated there is a waiting list of 36 African Canadians with cancer who could be cured with a stem cell transplant. Kynan’s mother hopes the campaign is a success and she is able to see him grow up.

It would “be really nice to know that, you know what, he does have a match out there. There’s somebody out there wherever they may be, that would match him and be able to take that pain, help ease that pain in his life.”

The blood agency’s theme this year, “Our Canadian Story: Making Community Engagement a Priority,” emphasizes community.

With files from CBC’s Pauline Dakin

source : www.cbc.ca

The Green Bay quarterback won the 2011 Associated Press award in a landslide. Manning, the hometown hero who did not play a down this season because of neck surgery, handed it to him.

Manning was greeted with a standing ovation when he came on stage at the Murat Theatre during “NFL Honors,” a primetime special on NBC. Moments later, the crowd was back on its feet for Rodgers.

“It means a lot to be recognized as a consistent player and contributing on my team,” Rodgers said. “I think it’s an award that relies on a player having the support of his teammates, obviously, guys blocking, guys running, guys catching, guys making plays. But I’m very honored to receive the award.”

Speaking to Manning, who did not miss a game for 13 seasons before 2011, Rodgers added: “We’re all really excited to see you back on the field next year.”

Rodgers earned 48 votes to two for New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees in balloting by a nation-wide panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the NFL. The Packers star is the first Green Bay player honored since Brett Favre concluded a run of three straight seasons as MVP in 1997.

Brees won Offensive Player of the Year for the second time.

• Baltimore defensive end/linebacker Terrell Suggs, Defensive Player of the Year.

• San Francisco’s rookie coach Jim Harbaugh, Coach of the Year.

• Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford, Comeback Player of the Year.

The top two picks in last April’s draft took the rookie awards: Carolina QB Cam Newton and Denver linebacker Von Miller.

Rodgers led the NFL in passing with a 122.5 rating built on 45 touchdown passes, six interceptions and a 68.3 completion percentage as the Packers went 15-1 and won the NFC North. The Packers were beaten by the New York Giants at Lambeau Field in the divisional round.

“People really count on me to be consistent each week, to play well. Knowing that my performance, the fact that I touch the ball every play, I have a direct impact on the game, the way I play,” Rodgers said. “And if I’m playing consistent and doing things I know I’m supposed to do, we have been able to have some success because of it.”

He joined former Packers Bart Starr, Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung as MVPs.

Rodgers is the third consecutive quarterback voted MVP, joining New England’s Tom Brady (2007, 2010) and Manning (2008, 2009).

Brees shattered Dan Marino’s 27-year-old mark by passing for 5,476 yards, and his 468 completions broke Manning’s 2010 record of 450. Brees completed the season completing 71.6 percent of his passes, breaking his own 2009 NFL record (70.6). He also surpassed 300 yards passing for seven straight games and 13 times during the season, both beating league marks he already held.

Thanks to Brees’ brilliance, the Saints set several single-season records, including offensive yards with 7,474 and first downs with 416.

“Our ideal is yet to come, not just for our team, but the league,” Brees said.

Suggs had 70 tackles, including 14 sacks, and was a threat all over the field from his hybrid linebacker-end position. He also forced seven fumbles and had two interceptions.

Teammate Ray Lewis, a two-time winner of the award, praised Suggs’ versatility.

“That’s why when you sit back and watch him year after year, week after week, I am just proud to state that I love how he comprehends the game now,” Lewis said.

In his first season as an NFL head coach, Harbaugh guided the 49ers to a 13-3 mark and the NFC West championship. They beat New Orleans in the first round of the playoffs before losing the conference title game to the Giants.

“I’ve stated so often how proud I was of this team. I thought they played their hearts out,” Harbaugh said. “I thought we were a well-coached team. They stand toe-to-toe and fight every time they go out onto the field.”

Stafford beat out six other players who received votes. He fought through injuries his first two seasons, then threw for more than 5,000 yards in 2011 to lead Detroit to its first playoff berth in 12 years.

Newton set an NFL record for touchdowns rushing in a season by a quarterback with 14 and became the first player in league history to throw for 4,000 yards and rush for 500. He helped Carolina improve from 2-14 to 6-10, throwing for 21 touchdowns.

“He set a standard, a very high standard, for any rookie quarterback coming in, and he wants to improve,” Carolina coach Ron Rivera said. “He’s gotten better in so many different areas. … He’s really taken his game to next level, and there is so much room for him to grow. He’s got such a high ceiling.”

It’s special because you only get one rookie season. You do not get two tries at it.

on winning Defensive Rookie of the Year

The second Bronco to win the defensive award — LB Mike Croel got it in 1991 — Miller made 64 tackles and had 11½ sacks despite missing one game and playing the last four contests with a cumbersome cast protecting his surgically repaired right thumb. He teamed with quarterback Tim Tebow to energize the Broncos, who rallied from a 2-5 record to the AFC West title and a playoff win over Pittsburgh.

“It’s special because you only get one rookie season,” Miller said. “You do not get two tries at it. It’s really a one-and-done thing. That was probably the most special thing about it, you only get one shot to accomplish this feat.”

Ravens center Matt Birk is the Walter Payton Man of the Year.

The award honors a player for his off-the-field work as well as for his playing excellence.

Birk, a 14-year NFL veteran, has made 96 consecutive starts and is one of the Ravens team leaders. He also supports youth literacy with a program called “Ready, Set, Read,” through his HIKE Foundation.

Birk also has concurred to donate his brain and spinal cord tissue to the Boston University’s Center for Traumatic Encephalopathy, which researches the effects of repetitive head trauma.

Tebow won the Never Say Never Moment of the Year Award for his performance in Denver’s 13-10 overtime win against the Chicago Bears in Week 14, as voted by fans. The award honors the ideal moment or play of the year that represents determination and perseverance.

Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.

source : espn.go.com

updated 10:55 p.m. ET Feb. 4, 2012

WASHINGTON – Blake Griffin fell two assists shy of a triple-double, and he did not even play in the fourth quarter.

It was that kind of dominating night for the Los Angeles Clippers, who rebounded from a disappointing loss in a huge way, jumping on the Washington Wizards early and cruising to a 107-81 win.

Griffin had 21 points, 11 rebounds and tied a season-high with eight assists to lead Los Angeles, but he was hardly the only Clippers player to pile up huge numbers.

DeAndre Jordan shot 9 for 11 from the field for 18 points and had 11 rebounds. Mo Williams had 17 points and eight assists. The Clippers outrebounded Washington 53-32 and had a 32-17 advantage in assists.

Los Angeles lost to the Nuggets on Thursday and started a six-game road trip at Washington, so this was exactly the type of win the Clippers were looking for.

“We were all disappointed in our performance the other day against Denver,” Jordan said. “We really wanted to jump out on them early and set the tone.”

“It was pitiful,” Wall said. “They could do whatever they wanted — whenever they wanted — all night.”

Los Angeles never trailed and opened up a double-digit lead midway through the first quarter after a 13-2 run. The Clippers led 28-17 after the first quarter and removed any doubt about the outcome by scoring the final nine points of the first half, taking a 58-34 lead into halftime.

The Wizards were not able to regroup after the break, scoring just four points in the first 6½ minutes of the third quarter as Los Angeles opened up a 36-point lead, the largest advantage the Clippers have had in any game this season.

“We came out in the third quarter and kind of put it on them there pretty quickly,” Griffin said. “Guys were hitting shots and we were getting stops and getting out in the open court — I think that is when you feel like we can keep it going.”

Griffin had a number of his usual crowd-pleasing dunks, saving his ideal for last. With a minute to play in the third quarter, Griffin soared high for an alley-oop dunk from Williams.

The monster slam gave Los Angeles a 81-50 lead and earned the biggest cheer of the night from the Verizon Center crowd of 19,419. It was Washington’s largest crowd of the season.

“We all should have been embarrassed. We were on our home court — and they came out and did what they wanted,” stated Wizards forward Rashard Lewis, who had two points. “As a unit, none of us came to play tonight.”

Jordan followed Griffin a few seconds later with an electrifying dunk of his own, flying in after Griffin missed a free throw to slam the ball home.

The Clippers were playing so well it hardly mattered that Chris Paul had an off night on the offensive end, scoring a season-low two points on 1 of 9 shooting. Paul did have seven assists and stated he was pleased by the team’s defensive effort.

“From the tip to the end of the game, we controlled the game,” Paul said. “When we get stops, we are tough to guard in transition. We’ve got the shooters, we have got the high fliers and all that. When we defend teams, we are tough to beat.”

NOTES: Wizards F Trevor Booker was in the starting lineup for the sixth time this season, and the first since Jan. 16. He replaced Jan Vesely, who had started the previous five games. … Washington scored fewer than 20 points in each of the first three quarters for the first time this season. … Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro stated F Kenyon Martin, who signed with Los Angeles Friday, will join the team Sunday in Orlando. Del Negro stated he did not know what role Martin would play until they met and Del Negro assessed Martin’s conditioning. … Caron Butler was facing Washington for the first time since the Wizards traded him to Dallas in 2010. … Griffin was 1 for 7 from the free throw line, missing his first five. Including the Clippers’ previous game against Denver, Griffin missed seven free throws in a row, which tied a career long drought according to STATS LLC.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  Rookie Nikola Vucevic set a career high with 15 points to lead six Philadelphia scorers in double figures and the Sixers dodged back-to-back losses once again by beating the Atlanta Hawks 98-87 on Saturday night.

Griffin almost gets triple-double in Clippers rout

Blake Griffin had 21 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, and DeAndre Jordan had 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Los Angeles Clippers to a 107-81 victory against the Washington Wizards on Saturday night.

source : nbcsports.msnbc.com

The Virtuosos Award, recognising the year’s stand-out performers, was also handed out to Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Young Adult’s Patton Oswalt, A Better Life actor Demian Bichir, Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ Andy Serkis and The Descendants actress Shailene Woodley.

Last year’s winners were Lesley Manville, John Hawkes, Jacki Weaver and Hailee Steinfeld.

source : feedproxy.google.com

A rise in US job numbers has helped the world’s largest economy

11:08am UK, Saturday February 04, 2012

The fall in American unemployment also helped European shares, with Britain’s FTSE 100 closing up 1.8% – a six-month high.

Germany’s DAX completed 1.7% higher, while France’s CAC-40 gained 1.5%.

The US Labour Department stated companies hired 243,000 employees in January, the strongest jobs growth in nine months. Analysts had expected the figure would be 140,000.

The news pushed the unemployment rate in America down to a three-year low of 8.3%.

World markets were given a further lift after other figures showed US factory orders rising for a second straight month during December.

The surge in hiring in the world’s largest economy last month drove the technology-based Nasdaq to an 11-year high as optimism grew that the labour market was on a steady path to recovery.

And the Dow jumped 156.82 points to 12,862.23, its highest mark since May 19, 2008, about four months before the Lehman Brothers investment bank collapsed.

The London stock market rallied on Friday

Signs of an improving economy and an absence of bad news from Europe have helped Wall Street stocks rally since last year.

“It is really hard to find something not to like in the jobs report,” stated Andrew Goldberg, market strategist at JP Morgan Funds in New York.

“There is genuine strength in this report with broad-based jobs creation.”

While the news was positive, it will take more months of substantial job gains to maintain momentum and Mr Goldberg warned: “There is a long way to go for this economy.”

He added: “There is no doubt that no matter how good this report is, this is still a lukewarm jobs recovery.”

Analysts have cautioned that the US market is still susceptible to risks such as a worsening debt crisis in Europe or political uncertainty in the Middle East that could push up the oil price.

Worries over Europe’s debt troubles still have the potential to send markets reeling in the months ahead, Lawrence Creatura, an equity portfolio manager at Federated Investors said.

source : news.sky.com

So overwhelmingly unpopular is Obamacare that in his third State of the Union address, President Obama barely made a passing reference to it, the namesake signature issue of his presidency. Why? Because opinion polls have consistently shown that the majority of Americans want it repealed. Outrage over the law fueled a historic tidal-wave election in 2010 in national and say offices that painted a blue map red, a sea change…

Related Topics: Mitt Romney, Health care

source : www.realclearpolitics.com

The two mayors, whose local teams face off in the huge game, are making the pitch for Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), the organization they co-founded in 2006.

Murder has been on the decline in New York and other major American cities for years, but the mayors say they still see too many dead cops and teens. On Tuesday night, Bloomberg was at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan visiting a New York police officer who had just been shot in the face in Brooklyn.

“We have someone who’s dedicated his life to protecting all of us, who has had a much too close brush with death tonight because of what appears to be an illegal gun,” Bloomberg told a news conference. He added that more Americans have been killed by illegal guns since 1968 than were killed in World War II.

Candidates for local and national office in the U.S. have faced sharp backlashes for advocating restraints on gun ownership, such as assault weapons or guns on campus. Such pushes draw fire from the well-funded National Rifle Association (NRA) and its allies. For many defenders of the Constitution’s Second Amendment – the right to bear arms – guns are the single issue on which they vote.

“We have to face the fact that both Democrats and Republicans have for a while viewed this as the third rail of American politics,” stated John Feinblatt, who helps run MAIG as Bloomberg’s chief advisor for policy and strategic planning. (Bloomberg is an independent; Menino is a Democrat.)

Democrats, who are more likely than Republicans to favor some restrictions on gun ownership, made a conscious decision to stay away from the gun issue in the 2010 midterm congressional elections. The aim: protect the so-called Blue Dog conservative Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, who did not toe the party line on gun control. Most were defeated anyway.

If the Democratic Party hoped to keep the gun issue off center stage in the 2012 presidential race, MAIG’s campaign makes that unlikely. So does the fact that the NRA and the gun industry’s trade group, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), have announced they will have a combined war chest of $225 million.

“We are expecting having a voter-education effort that will be our largest effort ever,” stated Lawrence Keane, senior vice president and general counsel at the NSSF.

NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre echoed the sentiment.

“I do not think this is going to be an apathetic year for American gun owners.”

Only on msnbc.com

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No more candles New York’s activist mayor cannot simply restrict handguns in his city – as he has done with smoking and transfats. Two Supreme Court decisions – District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago – have declared such local initiatives unconstitutional. Instead, Bloomberg launched MAIG, which now has 600 members nationwide. Although it has a handful of private donors, the bulk of MAIG’s $4 million budget comes out of the mayor’s own pocket.

“He’s putting his money where his mouth is,” stated Carolyn McCarthy, a Democratic congresswoman from Long Island. She entered politics after a 1993 shooting spree on the Long Island Rail Road left her husband dead and her son severely injured.

Bloomberg, in his third and last term, is free from concerns about electability and can tap a personal fortune of $19.5 billion, according to a November estimate by Forbes. As for speculation that he might mount a presidential bid this round or next, his leadership on such a divisive issue makes that look less likely.

“There was a lot of political capital that was poured into this,” one person who worked closely with MAIG said.

In the past, advocates for stricter gun controls held marches, rallies and candlelight vigils. MAIG has taken a far more activist approach, conducting undercover investigations and sting operations that are then dramatically revealed to the press.

In 2009, New York City contracted the security firm Kroll Inc. to send undercover agents to gun shows in Ohio, Tennessee and Nevada to show how people who could not pass a background check easily purchased guns.

MAIG also used undercover investigators to expose gun dealers who sold to “straw purchasers,” buyers intending to quickly resell the guns on the black market. Another investigation identified on-line gun sellers who did not require background checks.

Bloomberg launched another probe after the January 2011 shooting in Arizona that killed six people and wounded 13, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Using city money, he sent undercover investigators to Arizona to repeat the gun show sting and prove how simple it was for someone like Jared Lee Loughner, the shooter, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, to get a gun.

That move enraged supporters of unfettered gun rights.

“The ‘sting’ was a waste of money that misleads Americans and did nothing to reduce crime,” wrote John Lott Jr., an economist who writes about guns, in a column on FoxNews.com. “Talk about an aggressive publicity stunt.”

The NSSF’s Keane stated there are serious problems with many MAIG actions. He cited another investigation in which MAIG used gun data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) to sue dealers found to be selling guns to straw buyers.

“The New York City police department went to the ATF, traced data, turned that traced data over to private investigators, violated federal law, and interfered in 18 on-going criminal investigations,” he said. “The ATF had to pull agents out of the field because they were placed at risk.”

Marc Lavorgna, a spokesman for the New York City mayor’s office, stated in response: “They cannot argue the substance, so they continue to make a false, tired claim that has been directly refuted by the ATF. And the courts have validated that our investigations were legal.”

The ATF did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Opponents of the mayors’ efforts have also seized on a Department of Justice program codenamed “Fast and Furious” to discredit sting operations. Beginning in 2009, the ATF, investigating a gun-trafficking network in Arizona and Mexico, supplied 2,000 illegal guns they hoped to trace through the system so they could catch the leaders. Instead, they lost track of hundreds of the guns – two of which were found near the murder scene of Brian Terry, a border patrol agent, in 2010.

Last Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder was called before a congressional committee for a second time to explain how the program went bad. He repeated that senior Justice Department and ATF officials had not known about the operation until it was over.

Real change Members of the MAIG say they are not trying to take guns away from their legal owners, just to close loopholes that grant criminals to get guns and move them around undetected.

“It’s a serious safety issue,” stated Margaret Stock, the Democratic mayor of Butler, Pennsylvania, the town of 13,000 where Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum spent part of his childhood. “If an officer gets shot with an illegal gun I’m responsible.”

Butler is in a sparsely populated area of western Pennsylvania where the first day of deer hunting season is often a school holiday.

“We’re a huge hunting community, but this is illegal handguns, it’s a totally different issue,” Stock said. “I had a tiny bit of backlash from local members of the NRA that I was somehow anti-gun. That was not the intent of the coalition.”

MAIG’s efforts have spurred some change. In 2008, Wal-Mart signed the voluntary 10-point code of conduct MAIG developed for gun sellers. It includes videotaping the area of a store where guns are sold, setting up a computerized gun tracing and alert system, and performing background checks on its employees.

An Ohio gun show operator identified in MAIG’s 2009 sting began offering police and federal firearms agents a free booth at his shows to strengthen background checks and help dealers recognize straw buyers, according to the Dayton Daily News.

MAIG claims on its website that “four out of the seven gun shows and venues” fingered in the 2009 investigation “have changed their practices.”

On the campaign trail No one thinks gun control is going to be the most important issue in 2012, but there are specific races and constituencies where it certainly will matter.

One such race is northwestern Arkansas, where a 33-year-old Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran named Ken Aden is challenging his former battalion commander for a Congressional seat. Aden is running as a progressive Democrat; his Republican opponent, Steve Womack, is a freshman incumbent, part of the Tea Party sweep of the 2010 midterm elections.

Aden, who has already met with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and other party officials in Washington, has strong views on guns. He collects them, and say he knows what damage they can do. When Aden was 16 his dad was shot and killed by his stepmother, using his father’s own 357 magnum and his shotgun.

“We’ve got to keep guns out of the wrong hands,” Aden said.

He supports the background checks mandated by the 1993 Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and has pledged in his platform to “fight to make sure that hazardous assault rifles and ammunition with no practical purpose in hunting, self-protection, or sport shooting … stay off our streets.”

Womack, for his part has co-sponsored several pieces of legislation to reinforce Second Amendment rights, including a bill that would force says to honor other states’ concealed carry permits.

“New, more stringent gun laws will not keep guns out of the hands of criminals,” Womack told the Arkansas Democrat Gazette in January 2011, after the Tucson shootings. “Rather, proper enforcement of our current laws will provide the necessary mechanisms to ensure the well-being of the American people.”

The NRA is telling supporters that President Obama will outlaw guns in a second term by appointing Supreme Court justices to reverse the gains made in the Heller and McDonald decisions. The White House denies that it has any such aim.

“The real threat to the Second Amendment is the re-election of President Obama,” stated LaPierre.

He believes that other Democratic candidates will stay away from gun issues so as not to draw attention to Obama’s ultimate game plan.

“Their strategy is to fog the issue through the 2012 election, because they do not want the Second Amendment or guns to prevent the re-election of President Obama,” LaPierre stated of the Democrats.

Her firm, Lake Research Partners, conducted a poll in late October for MAIG that found 76 percent of Latinos supported a new program requiring gun dealers in border says to report when someone attempts to purchase more than one semiautomatic rifle within a five-day period.

Suburban women, Lake said, who are known to be swing voters, want guns kept out of their neighborhoods.

In addition to his work with MAIG, Mayor Bloomberg is keeping a close eye on elections all around the country. He has already backed six candidates for Virginia’s say senate with contributions of $25,000 each, and may give to more candidates.

MAIG’s Feinblatt stated the group had not yet identified congressional races it wanted to support, but, he added, “We’re always watching.”

Corrects to “viewers in Washington” from “viewers in New York and Boston” in first paragraph; corrects name to Feinblatt from Feinberg in last paragraph.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

source : www.msnbc.msn.com

Besides a number of pre-order bonuses, publisher Frogster Interactive has also gone on to unveil the beta schedule for its Tera, which is to be released for PC in May this year. A special ‘sneak peek’ at the MMORPG will be provided this day and tomorrow only ,to those gamers who possess keys distributed through various media outlets in Europe as well the title’s official community website.

After the end of this ‘sneak peek,’ all accounts will be wiped in order to prepare for the closed beta tests. A total of five such tests have been planned for the game, the first of which is slated to commence on February 17. They will then continue for every weekend until April 15 after which, on April 19, the open beta will kick off. Those who wish to participate in these tests can visit the title’s official European website in order to register themselves for the beta.

This game has already been made available for pre-order with a range of bonuses on offer to those who reserve their duplicates beforehand. To begin with, the MMORPG will be delivered to them five days before its actual launch. These enthusiasts shall also be allowed entry into each and every beta session that we’ve mentioned above. The players would even be able to create their characters and reserve names for themselves earlier than others. Other bonuses are stated to vary according to retailers.

Tera can now be pre-ordered in Europe at a price of 49.95 Euros (approx. Rs. 2,310). A special collector’s edition containing the game’s soundtrack, a world map, art book and more also sells at 69.95 Euros (approx. Rs. 4,495).

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source : www.gameguru.in