Thursday, February 28, 2013

93% The Gatekeepers

All Critics (41) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (38) | Rotten (3)

A sobering but welcome dose of honesty regarding issues and events that have otherwise been shrouded in secrecy and overheated rhetoric.

Israelis, generally speaking, tend to be tough, but the men who've commanded Shin Bet, Israel's secret service, are in a whole other category.

A lesser filmmaker might've been tripped up by such a narrow focus. A lesser filmmaker might've misjudged the melange of archival footage, fabricated surveillance footage and talking heads, which Moreh handles with a blend of cinematic flash and tact.

The film makes explicit and implicit endorsements. The strategy of vengeance and overkill is ineffective and leads Israel to horrific behavior described only through metaphor.

The subjects' openness is refreshing - and sometimes frightening.

A feat - of access and of passionate and appropriately unsettling political commentary.

Filmmaker Dror Moreh gives a unique look, from those in the know, of the inner workings of Israel's home intelligence service.

As Moreh probes the men, we, whether we agree with them or not, find ourselves drawn into their moral maze in all of its complexity.

This is a film that leaves a knot in the stomach, and no easy solutions as to how to get rid of it.

The 'other' Oscar-nominated feature about a war on terror, Dror Moreh's documentary The Gatekeepers proves more intellectually engaging than Hollywood's Zero Dark Thirty, and at least as unsettling.

Important and incomplete.

A blunt, clear-eyed, first-hand take on decades of Middle Eastern history, from practically the founding of the Jewish state up through the recent fits and starts of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Moreh has assembled a thorough, evenhanded and fascinating examination of people and operations straight out of a spy novel.

This brave documentary draws a line in the sand. One just wishes Moreh had asked these men what they were doing to change the situation now other than having changed their minds.

From the moment you hear one of these former insiders admitting his misgivings over an act of violence he perpetrated, you can't help but be drawn in.

The access boggles the mind, and some of the stories are riveting.

[T]houghtfully examines the difficulties of protecting a democracy from internal enemies. . .with realpolitik towards peace [and] repeated criticism of government leaders.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_gatekeepers_2012/

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Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf buried at West Point

WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) ? Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, the no-nonsense Desert Storm commander famously nicknamed "Stormin' Norman," graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, soaking up its values: "Duty, Honor, Country."

He married here. He taught here. And on Thursday he was buried here.

His family and friends joined Kuwaiti officials, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Vice President Dick Cheney, gray clad cadets and a detail of New Jersey state troopers for a memorial service in the academy's gothic chapel Thursday afternoon. His remains were buried afterward at the cemetery on the grounds of the storied military institution.

"Norman Schwarzkopf, Class of '56, has come home," Powell said during the service.

Schwarzkopf commanded the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in 1991 when Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Schwarzkopf was 78 when he died of complications from pneumonia on Dec. 27 in Tampa.

Though lauded as one of the brighter lights of the "Long Gray Line," of West Point cadets and graduates, his daughter recalled him as a loving family man equally at home in palaces and camping tents. While Americans knew him as the no-nonsense man in the desert camouflage, his children remember him dressing as a clown and doing magic tricks for children's parties, Cindy Schwarzkopf said, her voice choked with emotion.

Schwarzkopf graduated from West Point in 1956 and later served two tours in Vietnam, first as an adviser to South Vietnamese paratroops and later as a battalion commander in the U.S. Army's Americal Division. While many disillusioned career officers left the military after the war, Schwarzkopf stayed to helped usher in institutional reforms. He was named commander in chief of U.S. Central Command at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base in 1988.

The general's "Stormin' Norman" nickname ? a moniker he never was very fond of ? became popular in the lead-up to Operation Desert Storm, the six-week aerial campaign that climaxed with a massive ground offensive Feb. 24-28, 1991. Iraqis were routed from Kuwait in 100 hours before U.S. officials called a halt.

"When anyone thinks of Desert Storm, they think of Stormin' Norman, The Bear; ... he was a larger than life figure," Powell said.

Schwarzkopf spent his retirement years in Tampa. While he campaigned for President George W. Bush in 2000, Schwarzkopf maintained a low profile in the public debate over the second Gulf War against Iraq.

Schwarzkopf was buried near his father, Col. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the founder and commander of the New Jersey State Police. The academy cemetery also holds the remains of such notable military figures as Gen. William Westmoreland, Lt. Col. George Custer and 1st Lt. Laura Walker, who became the first female graduate killed in action when she died in 2005 in Afghanistan.

Schwarzkopf and his wife, Brenda, had three children: Cynthia, Jessica and Christian.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gen-norman-schwarzkopf-buried-west-point-195326222.html

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Television section

For the week of Feb. 18-24

1. "The Oscars," ABC, 40.38 million.

2. "Oscars Red Carpet Live" (Sunday, 8 p.m.), ABC, 25.53 million.

3. "NCIS," CBS, 21.08 million.

4. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 17.62 million.

5. "Oscars Red Carpet Live" (Sunday, 7:30 p.m.), ABC, 16.5 million.

6. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 16.27 million.

7. "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 14.37 million.

8. "Person of Interest," CBS, 14.23 million.

9. "American Idol" (Thursday), Fox, 13.66 million.

10. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 13.41 million.

Source: http://www.today.com/id/3032450/ns/today-entertainment/

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Blizzard buries Kansas snowfall records

The blizzard winding down in the Midwest blasted through Kansas's snowfall accumulation records.

By Douglas Main,?Our Amazing Planet / February 26, 2013

Wes Anderson clears the driveway in front of his grandparent's house, Feb. 26 in Sedalia, Mo. The second major snowstorm in a week battered the nation's midsection Tuesday, dropping a half-foot or more of snow across Missouri and Kansas with drifts more than 2 feet high.

Sydney Brink / Sedalia Democrat / AP

Enlarge

The blizzard that pounded the southern Plains states yesterday (Feb. 25) added to the dumping the area received just days ago and has broken the all-time monthly snowfall record for Wichita, Kan.

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Yesterday's storm dropped nearly 7 inches (17.8 centimeters) of snow on that city, bringing the monthly total to 21 inches (53 cm) ? the most snow the city has seen in any month since records have been kept, according to the National Weather Service.

The snowfall also broke the city's record for February of 20.5 inches (52 cm), set in 1913.

Though the record is for the month, all the snow has actually fallen since Feb. 20, dropped by the two large storm systems that have hit the region in less than a week, the NWS reported.

The low-pressure system also dropped a record amount of snow in Texas, accumulating up to 17 inches (43 cm) in Amarillo. Yesterday morning, the Amarillo International Airport recorded a hurricane-force 75-mph (121 kph) gust of wind. In Oklahoma, a state of emergency was declared for 56 of 77 counties, according to Reuters. [Intense Texas Blizzard Caught in Videos]

And the snow hasn't completely stopped. Flurries are possible throughout the day today (Feb. 26), so that total snowfall in Wichita may climb further. The same system is expected to hit Chicago and Detroit by this evening, perhaps bringing as much as 6 inches (15 cm) of snow to those locales, just in time to snarl rush-hour traffic, according to the NWS.

At least three deaths have been blamed on the storm, which has created hazardous driving conditions, the Associated Press reported. Wind gusts of up to 30 mph (48 kph) have created drifts up to 2 feet (61 cm) high throughout the region, reducing the visibility to nearly zero in some areas, the AP said.

Throughout the region, there were several reports of thundersnow.

Reach Douglas Main at dmain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @Douglas_Main. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter?@OAPlanet. We're also on?Facebook?and Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/yUbiNEvsUV8/Blizzard-buries-Kansas-snowfall-records

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To Build An Empire, Hold The Anchovies

Located north of Lima, Peru, the Caral-Supe settlement was the ancient home of the Norte Chico people, a civilization almost as old as the Egyptians.

Courtesy of Chris Kleihege

Located north of Lima, Peru, the Caral-Supe settlement was the ancient home of the Norte Chico people, a civilization almost as old as the Egyptians.

Courtesy of Chris Kleihege

Megalomaniacs, consider yourselves warned. Anchovies will not help you build your empire. To rule long and prosper, serve corn.

That's the word from archaeologists who say they've solved a mystery that has been puzzling their colleagues for the past 40 years: How did some of the earliest Peruvians manage to build a robust civilization without corn ? the crop that fueled other great civilizations of the Americas, like the Maya?

The Norte Chico people, who lived some 5,000 years ago, built a thriving civilization ? but from the archaeological evidence previously available, it looked like they did it solely on anchovies. And anyone who has ever nibbled an anchovy on a pizza knows there's not a lot of meat on those tiny bones.

Would that have given the Norte Chico enough oomph to build the monumental architecture they left behind, including dozens of large communities with huge earthen platforms and circular ceremonial plazas, some 40 meters across?

A view of one of the ceremonial plazas at the Caral-Supe archaeological site.

Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images

A view of one of the ceremonial plazas at the Caral-Supe archaeological site.

Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images

"Think about anchovy at every meal you ate," says Jonathan Haas, an archaeologist at the Field Museum in Chicago. "The problem with anchovies is if you are going to get calories out of them, you have to eat a lot of them, and it's not a balanced diet."

Agriculture is considered the engine of civilization, and in the Americas, that means corn.

Though very little evidence of corn consumption had been found in Peru dating back to the time of the Norte Chico, Haas and his colleagues figured these people just had to be eating corn. So they decided to look harder.

First, they searched Norte Chico archaeological sites north of Lima for proof that the ancient Peruvians had been growing corn. They found lots of old maize pollen.

Then, they went looking for pollen on the stone tools the residents of Norte Chico used to cook. They looked under the microscope, and "lo and behold, the large majority of the tools are being used to process maize," Haas tells The Salt.

Finally, they looked in the fossilized human poop found in the sites. They found anchovy bones ? and lots of corn starch. And that's not all: Turns out, sweet potatoes were the second most popular carbohydrate, and guava the most popular source of sugar. (You can learn a lot from fossilized feces.)

Haas says this "corn rules" thesis may be controversial, but he thinks his team's data are strong enough to hold up. The work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Rather than being a maritime-based society, it's an agriculturally based society," Haas says. "South America then falls in line with the rest of the civilizations of the world."

Update: Photographer Chris Kleihege, whose photo project is documenting excavations at Caral-Supe, sends this photo of a 5,000-year-old corncob found at a pyramid at the ancient Peruvian site.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/02/25/172896292/to-build-an-empire-hold-the-anchovies?ft=1&f=1007

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Deadly storm dumps snow in North, rain in South

Hurricane force winds blew into Texas creating a 'historic' blizzard and whiteout conditions in the Texas-Oklahoma panhandle. Kansas also saw its share of snow as the storm blew north, and blizzard warnings are in effect. The Weather Channel's Mike Seidel reports.

By Ian Johnston and Matthew DeLuca, NBC News

A powerful winter storm continued to hit much of the country Tuesday, with heavy snow spreading from the Plains to the Great Lakes and severe thunderstorms possible in the South, forecasters warned.

The National Weather Service said the storm would ?continue to bring a variety of hazards? to the affected areas. Winds have been gusting up to hurricane strength, with 84 mph recorded at El Paso, Texas.

The storm was blamed for at least two deaths on Monday: Heavy snow caused a roof of a house in Woodward, Okla., to collapse, killing one person inside, and in northwest Kansas, a 21-year-old man was killed when his SUV overturned on an icy patch of Interstate 70. A third death was reported on Tuesday, after a female passenger died in a pickup truck accident on an icy strip of road overnight. Three others were injured in the accident.


Full coverage from weather.com

?We have roofs collapsing all over town,? Woodward Mayor Roscoe Hill, Jr., told Reuters. ?We really have a mess on our hands.?

The storm brought the February total in Wichita, Kansas, to 21 inches, breaking a 100-year-old record for the month, NBC station KSN reported. A KSN reporter was covering the storm when a building collapsed under the weight of snow.?

Authorities pleaded with people to stay off the roads because of what Weather Channel meteorologist Greg Postel described as a ?really nasty blizzard.?

Keith Myers / The Kansas City Star via AP

A fallen tree limb blocks his drive as John Cushing shoves snow Tuesday in Kansas City, Mo.

The NWS said that heavy snow would spread from the Plains to the Great Lakes, with ?blizzard conditions possible through early Tuesday.?

?On the south side of the storm system, severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall are possible across portions of the Gulf Coast and Southeast,? it added.

Severe thunderstorms and the threat of heavy rainfall remained possible over sections of the southeastern states and the Gulf Coast on Tuesday, the NWS said, as the south side of the storm system moved through the area.

A waterspout came ashore in Tampa, Fla., damaging a Westin hotel, WTSP reported. Winds of 90 mph were reported in Cedar Key, and trees and power lines were down.?

Charleston, S.C., broke its record for rain for the month with 10.46 inches -- and more was falling.?

In a storm summary message posted at 4 a.m. ET, the weather service said blizzard warnings were in effect for parts of central northern Oklahoma with storm watches and warnings in effect for some places from central Oklahoma into the southern Great Lakes.

In Chicago, the wintry mix could affect voter turnout in the special primary to replace former Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., in the Illinois 2nd District. As much as five inches of slushy snow was expected in the city?s southern suburbs, and a storm watch has been issued for the northern part of the state.

Michael Schumacher / AP

Drivers attempt to deal with tricky conditions on the I-40 service road Monday after a blizzard blasted Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle.

Storm watches and warnings were also in effect for portions of the Appalachians, mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states, while ice storm warnings and freezing rain advisories were in effect for parts of West Virginia.

The NWS warned of high winds in the Appalachians in Tennessee, North Carolina and southern Virginia.

In Texas, residents discovered that even their snowdrifts are bigger as they began to dig out from a whopping 19 inches of snow in Amarillo that stranded as many as 100 motorists in the Panhandle and caused Gov. Rick Perry called out military forces.

Farther south, there were flood and flash-flood warnings and watches for ?much of the Gulf Coast and southeast U.S. from Louisiana to Georgia.?

Flood watches were also in effect for parts of the mid-Atlantic Region, the NWS notice added, as rain was expected throughout the greater Washington, D.C., area on Tuesday. The mix of rain and wind was expected to begin by noon, picking up through?the later part of the day. Meteorologists warned people should expect more rain than sleet as temperatures were likely to remain above freezing. The rain should move out of the area by Wednesday morning, and might yield to sunny skies later in the afternoon.

Commuters in New York City and the tri-state area should also expect to see a late-afternoon cocktail of rain, sleet, and snow. The worst of the storm was likely to hit overnight, though morning commuters might also catch the tail of the storm on Wednesday, forecasters said. As much as six inches of snow could accumulate at higher elevations inland.

Related:

2 dead as wind-whipped winter storm pounds Great Plains

This story was originally published on

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/26/17098892-deadly-storm-dumps-snow-in-north-heavy-rain-in-south?lite

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IE 10: It's Not Just for Windows 8 Anymore

In what could be a boost for Microsoft in the browser wars, the company on Tuesday began offering Internet Explorer 10 to Windows 7 users, giving them the same enhanced Web surfing features previously only available to those who had access to Windows 8. The company will automatically update Windows 7 users' browsers in 95 languages over the next few weeks.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/28fe4b91/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C7740A10Bhtml/story01.htm

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Indiana Senate backs requiring ultrasound for "abortion pill" use

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - The Indiana state Senate on Tuesday approved Republican-backed legislation to require women seeking to end pregnancies through use of the so-called abortion pill to have an ultrasound examination.

If it becomes law, the proposal would make Indiana the ninth state to require an ultrasound prior to an abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

Senators voted 33 to 16 to approve the measure, advancing it for consideration by the state House of Representatives, which like the Senate is controlled by a Republican super-majority.

Republican Governor Mike Pence, a former U.S. congressman who strongly opposes abortion and championed federal attempts to cut off funding for abortion provider Planned Parenthood, is expected to sign the bill into law if it reaches his desk.

The bill, as first introduced by Republican state Senator Travis Holdman, would have required two ultrasounds before a woman could obtain a prescription for the abortion pill, officially known as RU486. It was amended to allow the doctor providing the drug to decide if a second exam was needed.

"It is a matter of the mother's health," said Holdman. It is dangerous to administer RU486 in some cases, such as if the fertilized egg implants outside the womb of the woman.

The bill as passed also would require clinics where RU486 medication is dispensed to meet the same standards as a facility that performs surgical abortions, a provision opponents said could force an Indiana clinic to close.

The two-pill abortion medication called RU486 has been legally available in the United States since 2000. By 2008 it accounted for about one-fourth of U.S. abortions performed before nine weeks of gestation, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

As approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the two drugs - mifepristone and misoprostol - are dispensed by prescription directly from a physician. They are not available in pharmacies. The medication is generally prescribed for ending pregnancies of less than eight weeks.

Opponents of the bill said it would effectively require women seeking an RU486 prescription to undergo an invasive transvaginal ultrasound probe, because that is the only exam capable of providing the information mandated by the bill during early stages of pregnancy.

The bill language does not specify the type of ultrasound required, and Holdman said a normal ultrasound would suffice.

Planned Parenthood of Indiana President Betty Cockrum said the new licensing requirements could force a Lafayette, Indiana, clinic that provides non-surgical abortion services to close.

"It's politics, pure and simple," Cockrum said, adding that requiring the clinic to meet surgical standards would not improve patient safety.

(Reporting by Susan Guyett; Editing by Steve Gorman, David Bailey, Greg McCune and Leslie Adler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/indiana-senate-backs-requiring-ultrasound-abortion-pill-220238798.html

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Monday, February 25, 2013

PFT: Draft prospect Lotulelei has heart condition

WernerAP

It?s late February.? The Combine is unfolding.? And that means it?s time for scouts to rip or praise players under the cloak of anonymity.

Plenty of writers who publish assessments made by unnamed scouts are now ridiculed when doing so.? The pedigree and accomplishments of Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel tend to insulate him from scrutiny, even when his unnamed scouts swing and miss on players like Robert Griffin III.? (Heck, McGinn can even publish Wonderlic numbers without being vilified.)

McGinn assesses the players who could be available when the Packers use their first-round pick, and he shares the insights of a pair of unnamed scouts regarding Florida State defensive end Bjoern Werner, a German-born-and-bred prospect who is now poised to fulfill the very unlikely dream of being a first-round draft pick in the NFL.

?He?s good, but I don?t see the special in him,? one unnamed scout said. ?Kind of a try-hard, good football player but nothing special.?

Said another:? ?He?s not a dynamic pass rusher but he seems to get sacks.? He comes off the ball hard but he?s not special.?

Without knowing anything about the team(s) for which these scouts work, there?s no way of knowing whether they?re badmouthing Werner in the hopes that he?ll be available when their team(s) pick.? That?s how it works.? Teams that love a player say bad things about him, wishing for a free fall.? Teams that hate a guy say great things about him, hopeful he?ll be taken early ? pushing down the board players in which the team is actually interested.

With more and more media swarming around the pre-draft process, there?s always someone ready to publish these anonymous assessments.

But citing an ?unnamed scout? tells the audience nothing about the skills or credentials of the scout.? As the late George Carlin used to say (as Carlin himself would say, he?s saying nothing now), there?s a worst doctor in the world ? and someone has an appointment with him tomorrow.? Similarly, there are plenty of scouts who aren?t as skilled as others.? Any time an unnamed scout is being quoted, there?s a chance that he?s the worst of them all.

You know, like the ones who told McGinn last year that, as to RG3, ?[e]verybody is just assuming because of the Heisman and the socks and all that bs. . . . they are ignoring a lot of bad tape that he?s had,? that ?I don?t think he has vision or pocket feel, which to me are the two most important components of quarterbacking,? that ?[h]e?s just running around winging it,? that ?[h]e?s [Michael] Vick, but not as good a thrower,? that ?he?s not as good as Cam Newton,? that ?[a]s much as is written about his athleticism, his athleticism under duress in the pocket isn?t even close to Cam Newton?s,? that ?the only way he gets big plays with his feet is if he?s got a wide-open field and the sea opens for him,? that ?[h]e?s got a little bit of a selfish streak, too,? and that ?[h]e doesn?t treat anybody good.?

Or maybe these unnamed scouts are just good enough to know how to push lies in the hopes of advancing agendas.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/24/combine-medical-test-reveals-star-lotulelei-has-heart-condition/related/

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Kyocera Smart Sonic receiver transmits call audio through cranial vibrations (video)

Kyocera Smart Sonic receiver transmits call audio through cranial vibrations video

Kyocera's Smart Sonic receiver and tissue conduction technology have been around for some time, but this year at MWC, we had another chance to test it out. In case you didn't know, the receiver's a ceramic piezoelectric actuator that takes the place of a phone's speaker to let listeners hear phone calls in even the loudest environments. We got to test it out with a Kyocera Torque, and well... trust us, you'll want to see (and hear) the results in the video after the break.

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Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/24/kyocera-smart-sonic-receiver-ears-on/

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Green Energy?s Past and Future

10:00

It?s easy to view the evolution from ?horse-drawn carriage to jetliner as a straight line of increasing energy consumption, but Atlantic editor Alexis Magrigal tells us that?s not the case. In this hour, Madrigal will discuss his book,?Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology, in which he investigates why so many alternative energy projects have been abandoned, and the opportunities that lie ahead.

Guests

  • Alexis Madrigal,?Senior Editor- the Atlantic

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AllSidesWithAnnFisher/~3/dL2EwgQv2Eo/

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Sunday, February 24, 2013

Ubuntu presume de experiencia de usuario frente a Android

Noticias Software Libre

Ya est? abierta la quinta campa?a de donaci?n de material inform?tico, tras las campa?as I, II, III, IV y V en las que se han donado alrededor de 170 equipos inform?ticos completos. En esta campa?a, cuyas bases pod?is consultar en la web, hay un total de 25 ordenadores sobremesa, 2 port?tiles, 3 proyectores y 3 impresoras/esc?neres (se pueden ver en el cat?logo de material) que se pueden solicitar en un formulario.

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Tópico: Noticias Software Libre

Enviado por admin el Saturday, 23 February a las 08:20:30 (227 Lecturas)
Noticias Software Libre

Este martes 26 de febrero en el Museo Boliviano, ubicado en la esquina de Pajaritos en el centro de Caracas, los diputados de la Comisi?n de Ciencia y Tecnolog?a de la Asamblea Nacional realizar?n un evento con las comunidades de Software Libre, Hardware Libre, Conocimiento Libre y Cultura Libre para presentar y discutir la Ley de Infogobierno. As? lo inform? el diputado Guido Ochoa, vicepresidente de la comisi?n, en una reuni?n recientemente efectuada con voceros y miembros de la comunidad de Software Libre en torno al proyecto de ley, que pronto ser? llevado a parlamentarismo de calle para entrar en segunda discusi?n.

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Tópico: Noticias Software Libre

Enviado por admin el Friday, 22 February a las 11:21:52 (244 Lecturas)
Linux Ubuntu

Cuando Canonical present? Ubuntu para tablets. La pregunta que nos hacemos ahora mismo todos es obvia: ?hay espacio para Ubuntu? El escenario es complicado, con Android y iOS copando el mercado actual, y Windows 8 que pr?cticamente acaba de salir. Ir a por ellos es complicado, y con los recursos de Canonical es casi como darse de frente contra un muro. En el mercado m?s profesional, de desarrolladores, ten?an una oportunidad, pero han decidido no aprovecharla.

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Tópico: Linux Ubuntu

Enviado por admin el Thursday, 21 February a las 23:58:13 (309 Lecturas)
Noticias Software Libre

La incorporaci?n del Software Libre en los pensum de estudio y a trav?s del desarrollo de herramientas inform?ticas busca atender y responder a las necesidades del pa?s en materia tecnol?gica.

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Tópico: Noticias Software Libre

Enviado por admin el Thursday, 21 February a las 23:43:01 (147 Lecturas)
GNU/LINUX

?Todo el mundo usa Linux todos los d?as?, dec?a Jim Zemlin, director ejecutivo de Linux Foundation, en una entrevista concedida a a la gente de MuyLinux durante la pasada LinuxCon. No solo ten?a raz?n, sino que la cosa va a m?s, en todos los segmentos.

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Tópico: GNU/LINUX

Enviado por admin el Thursday, 21 February a las 16:15:07 (629 Lecturas)
Linux Ubuntu

Ubuntu ha cerrado el c?rculo con la presentaci?n de su versi?n para tabletas. La cantidad de novedades y funcionalidades propuestas por sus creadores es realmente abrumadora, donde encontraremos lo mejor de las versiones de sobremesa y m?vil. Canonical presume de experiencia de usuario frente a Android pero ?ser? suficiente?

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Tópico: Linux Ubuntu

Enviado por admin el Thursday, 21 February a las 12:04:07 (267 Lecturas)
Linux Ubuntu

Ubuntu para tabletas acaba de ser presentado y ya sabemos que dentro de muy poco podremos instalarlo en tabletas concretas, sobre todo con la idea de poder comenzar a desarrollar y probar aplicaciones para esa nueva plataforma. Los dispositivos preferidos por la gente de Canonical (como ya vimos) son los Nexus de Google, y precisamente para estos aparatos se van a desarrollar las primeras im?genes instalables por los usuarios.

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Tópico: Linux Ubuntu

Enviado por admin el Wednesday, 20 February a las 02:21:55 (237 Lecturas)
Noticias Software Libre

Linux llega con todas sus ventajas a las grandes empresas, pero las PYMEs pr?cticamente lo desconocen... a pesar de ser quienes m?s pueden aprovecharlo.

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Tópico: Noticias Software Libre

Enviado por admin el Tuesday, 19 February a las 09:34:42 (460 Lecturas)
GNU/LINUX

Linus Torvalds ha anunciado el lanzamiento de Linux 3.8, una nueva versi?n de nuestro kernel favorito que como es habitual presenta muchas y muy distintas novedades. Para los ?gnulinuxeros?, sin embargo, la m?s interesante es (as? lo veo yo) el soporte OpenGL en los controladores Nouveau, como se suele decir, out of the box.

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Tópico: GNU/LINUX

Enviado por admin el Tuesday, 19 February a las 09:11:33 (189 Lecturas)
Programaci?n PHP

M?s de 300 programadores y dise?adores web de Bolivia y diferentes pa?ses de Latinoam?rica, se reunir?n en Cochabamba para participar del primer encuentro nacional sobre Drupal, un sistema de gesti?n de contenido, considerado una de las tecnolog?as de desarrollo web m?s avanzadas del momento.

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Tópico: Programaci?n PHP

Enviado por admin el Tuesday, 19 February a las 08:53:46 (181 Lecturas)
Noticias Software Libre

Estimado Presidente Rafael Correa,
Somos varios los pa?ses de Am?rica Latina donde los gobiernos han tomado una posici?n en favor de la apropiaci?n tecnol?gica y el software libre. L?deres como Hugo Ch?vez, Lula da Silva y usted son conocidos a nivel internacional por defender la soberan?a tecnol?gica. Adem?s el compartir conocimiento puede ser un camino que logre una integraci?n permanente de los pueblos de Am?rica Latina, como usted muy bien lo dijo en el a?o 2007.

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Tópico: Noticias Software Libre

Enviado por admin el Tuesday, 19 February a las 00:42:32 (369 Lecturas)
Noticias Software Libre

En el abismo de tux nos sigue gustando el FLOSS tanto por sus ventajas ?ticas, t?cnicas y econ?micas.

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Tópico: Noticias Software Libre

Enviado por admin el Tuesday, 19 February a las 00:41:07 (316 Lecturas)
Noticias Software Libre

A ?ste y a otros Gobiernos anteriores a ?l, se les va la fuerza por la boca, mucho hablar de austeridad, pero s?lo la practican con los dem?s y no se la aplican a ellos mismos.

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Tópico: Noticias Software Libre

Enviado por admin el Sunday, 17 February a las 18:14:07 (584 Lecturas)
Noticias Software Libre

Zacatecas, Zacatecas.- Tras explicar que durante el pr?ximo periodo ordinario se presentar? la iniciativa de ley para impulsar la promoci?n en el uso del software libre, el diputado Blas ?valos Mireles, indic? que en la actualidad existen en la entidad 150 escuelas (equivalente a 25 mil estudiantes) que ya usan este tipo de tecnolog?a.

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Tópico: Noticias Software Libre

Enviado por admin el Friday, 15 February a las 22:39:28 (298 Lecturas)
Noticias Software Libre

El siguiente art?culo es de un amigo Ing. maestro de inform?tica en Chiapas M?xico.
El d?a de hoy trataremos sobre programas que podremos utilizar en el nivel bachillerato en especial el ?rea inform?tica, todo ello en base a la poca experiencia de su servidor que espero sea de utilidad y nazca en cada docente la iniciativa. As? que sin m?s rodeos comenzamos:

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Tópico: Noticias Software Libre

Enviado por admin el Friday, 15 February a las 22:36:26 (364 Lecturas)


?? LA HISTORIA DEL DIA
Hoy a?n no hay una Gran Historia.
?








Source: http://www.somoslibres.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6054

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A land of militias, Libya struggles to build a military

The Libyan government wants a professional standing army, but the many militias still on the streets are too good at their job to be replaced with a fledgling, inexperienced military.

By Maggie Fick,?Correspondent / February 24, 2013

Libyan National Congress President Mohammed Magarief (second r.) shakes hands with officers of the Libyan National Army during a graduation ceremony for students of military academies in Tripoli February 20.

Ismail Zitouny/Reuters

Enlarge

In the seventeen months since Muammar Qaddafi was killed, Libya has made building an army a top national priority. But progress toward achieving this goal has been slow at best, with an official admitting that he does not even know how many soldiers are currently in the army.

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Public statements by senior Libyan leaders suggest that there is little disagreement over the notion that the country desperately needs a functioning military to ensure a peaceful transition ??and a clean break from the Qaddafi legacy of a weak army dwarfed by powerful brigades loyal to the autocrat?s sons. However, political will alone hasn't been enough to effect serious reforms.?

The decrepit, near nonexistent, state of the army two years after Libyans rose up against Qaddafi is a symbol of the interim government?s failure to begin developing institutions to guide Libya?s path toward a democratic state.?The hurdles to building an army reflect the broader struggles facing Libya as it seeks to define its national identity in the wake of 42 years of a regime based solely on the whims of one man.?

Over the past year, Libyan authorities have largely entrusted the revolutionaries who overthrew Qaddafi with the task of maintaining security across the country, punting on the responsibility of building new army and police forces. Militia fighters in a rainbow of uniforms?? not soldiers or police officers???remain the predominant public face of security in Tripoli and in other cities and towns throughout the country.

Absent a strong central command to manage the conduct of the thousands of local militias participating in security provision, many of the militias that overthrew Qaddafi remain intact and continue to operate outside the confines of law.??

The ?revolutionary legitimacy? of the local brigade members and their leaders far outweighs that of Qaddafi-era army officials.

In some cases, the government has authorized the creation of semi-formal umbrella groups for the militias like the Libyan Shield Forces; in others, local militias simply govern themselves.?

'In name only'

When Prime Minister Ali Zeidan took office last October, he declared that building professional army and police forces was his highest priority. But in the case of the army in particular, this goal remains out of reach.

Some Libyans describe it as existing ?in name only.? Many soldiers who served during Muammar Qaddafi?s rule and remained on the autocrat?s side during the 2011 uprising either were killed, fled the country, or have attempted to conceal their past loyalties in order to avoid persecution.

This raises the question of who exactly remains in the army. When asked to estimate how many soldiers there are, Giuma Sayeh, the head of the defense committee for the temporary General National Congress elected in July told The Christian Science Monitor he had ?no idea.?

Meanwhile, militia fighters remain as well-armed as soldiers. Research by the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey found that in Misurata, Libya?s third-largest city and the scene of some of the fiercest battles of the 2011 uprising turned civil war, revolutionary brigades control more than 90 percent of the city?s weapons.

"The primary security challenge facing Libya is how to transform a decentralized revolutionary force ? which is made up of hundreds if not thousands of separate units ? into state security structures that have democratic checks and balances,? says Brian McQuinn, an Oxford University doctoral student who has been studying Libyan armed groups since Qaddafi?s fall and is the author of a recent Small Arms Survey report on the same topic.?

Mr. McQuinn says that Libyan leaders are grappling with the need to build a new national army while also recognizing the importance of?accommodating?the many local groups of revolutionary fighters "who?sacrificed a great deal."

As for the efficacy of the current security arrangements ? overlapping and parallel forces operating independently of each other ? McQuinn expressed a widely held view: "What is the alternative at this point?"

Impossible task

Army chief of staff Yussef al-Mangush, a former colonel in Qaddafi?s army who retired from the army just before the revolution began, was appointed by the interim cabinet early last year and is now facing mounting opposition from GNC members.

?We are trying to nominate another chief of staff,? Mr. Sayeh

"He has tried to do something, but he is not capable because he is weak," he added, criticizing his management skills but stopping short of any comments about the colonel?s past role in Qaddafi?s regime.

Army chief of staff Yussef al-Mangush is in the unfortunate position of being increasingly unpopular among parliamentarians for his failure to make quick progress, while at the same time being tasked by the government with an ever-growing raft of responsibilities.

"People are calling for his dismissal but he keeps getting handed more responsibilities," says a Western official in Libya who spoke on condition of anonymity.? "Land, air, naval forces, border security. In theory he is powerful, but he is working with the shells of institutions."

Analysts say that aside from facing the tall task of rebuilding these institutions, al-Mangush is also grappling with the demands of powerful local militia commanders, few of whom are interested in ceding power to his authority.

Who can serve?

With Libya focused on?building new institutions, both in the security sector and elsewhere, and with the constitution-drafting process yet to begin, the question of who will be permitted to lead this process is being decided by the congress. In Tripoli this week, the 200-member General National?Congress is debating a draft of the Political Isolation Law, which will specify which Libyan citizens are ineligible to run for political office based on their past service of the Qadaffi government over 42 years.

Activists say the law is too expansive and will prevent many Libyans who had no choice but to serve in the government from playing a role in the building of the new state.

?We have educated people from the [former] navy, army, and air force,? says Sayeh. ?To be honest, some were with Qaddafi and they escaped, they are now outside the country. But some [from the former army] were clearly against Qaddafi under the table,? he says, expressing concern that experienced officers who could help lead the new armed forces would be prevented from doing so if the bill passes.

Revolutionaries who are still manning checkpoints and performing security duties on behalf of the state ?should go back to their jobs or be trained in military academies," he says.

A government program offering such choices to the tens of thousands of young Libyans who played roles in the revolution could be an appealing alternative to holding on to their weapons and their positions of local power.

Until such a program is created, however, the structure of security forces in Libya may continue to model that of the highly decentralized revolution.?

The current reality is a glaring reminder that although Libyans rose up in unison to bring down Qaddafi, there is less unity of purpose when it comes to the hard work of managing the country while it remains awash in arms and rife with militias that are not eager to return to civilian life.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/y0VrdlSC9Jc/A-land-of-militias-Libya-struggles-to-build-a-military

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UFC 157 prelims: Dennis Bermudez, Matt Grice deliver Fight of the Year candidate

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- UFC 157's preliminary card started with a bang and ended with a snoozer on Saturday.

Dennis Bermudez took a tight split decision in a fight that will go down as a fight of the year candidate. He won it 29-28, 28-29, 29-28 over Matt Grice.

Bermudez fell into full mount early in the round and rained punches down on Grice's head, but Grice got out and came back late in the round by leveling Bermudez with a left hook.

But it's the third round of the fight that the MMA world will remember. Bermudez threw everything but the kitchen sink at Grice, but Grice hung in. He continued to throw kicks and punches at Bermudez right up until the horn sounded and a grateful crowd in Anaheim came to its feet.

?That was insane. Somewhere around the second round I woke up and thought 'Oh, I?m in a fight, I think I am in California somewhere'," Bermudez said. "If he?d given me a reason, maybe I would have quit. I had that battle inside me where I maybe could have [quit] but I won that battle and from there got back into the fight."

Brendan Schaub used takedowns, and little else, to beat Lavar Johnson 30-27 on all the judges cards in the final fight of the prelims. With the crowd booing, Schaub repeatedly took down Johnson, who had little takedown defense.

Michael Chiesa continued his unbeaten streak with a rear naked choked of Anton Kuivanen. Chiesa rolled through to get into perfect position. He sunk in a rear naked choke that turned Kuivanen's face red. Kuivanen tapped at 2:29 in the second round.

Sam Stout managed another decision win, taking the split 29-28, 28-29 over Caros Fodor. 14 of his fights have ended with judges cards being read, and this decision put his record to 19-8.

Kenny Robertson made quick work of Brock Jardine. He stopped him with a knee bar at 2:57 in the first round.

"Sometime you gotta go with what you are handed. He was on top of me but didn?t have a great posture," Robertson said after the fight. "I saw the opening, so I grabbed his leg and hyper-extended it and he verbally submitted. I?ll take it. It is a first round win in the UFC."

For the card's opener, Nah-Shon Burrell and Yuri Villefort put on a thrilling bout that ended with Burrell taking the decision 30-27, 29-28, 29-28. Villefort had a strong first round, grabbing Burrell for two different submission attempts. But Burrell fought back in the second round, busting up Villefort's face with smart boxing. In the final round, Villefort grabbed a heel hook, but left his face open. Burrell used the opportunity to punch Villefort several time.

After the thriller by Burrell and Villefort, Neil Magny and Jon Manley's bout was a let down for the crowd in Anaheim. They spent much of the bout in a clinch, with Manley trying for a takedown that never came. Magny took the bout with better striking as the bout wore on.

Other popular content on Yahoo! Sports:
? Jimmie Johnson's daughter has a favorite driver -- and it's not JJ
? Johnny Football = $420 million stadium renovation
? Tigers ace Justin Verlander willing to test free-agent waters for $200M deal
? Manti Te'o coached, but poised in combine press conference

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-157-prelims-dennis-bermudez-matt-grice-deliver-033448621--mma.html

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Google opens their Maps SDK, lets developers replace in-app Apple Maps

Google opens their Maps SDK, lets developers replace in-app Apple Maps

Last night Google updated and opened up their SDK making it possible for any developer to use embedded Google Maps in their apps instead of Apple's Maps. According to Google's Geo Developer Blog, some new features are also included in the updated Google Maps SDK for iOS:

This version of the SDK includes support for ground overlays, gesture control and geodesic polylines.

Just like Apple replaced the original, Google-powered Maps app in iOS 6 with a new, non-Google powered version, the embeddable maps made available to developers in iOS 6 were subject to the same change. While users could switch to different maps apps if their wanted to, for developers who wanted to use different maps data, it wasn't as easy. Now it is, at least more so.

Since Apple's iOS 6 maps have struggled with point of interest data and overall accuracy, Google will likely find a receptive audience. If any developers are planning on switching, let me know how easy the process is, and how you find it works for your app.

And for users, any apps you hope to see make the switch?

Source: Google Geo Developer Blog



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/3N-zT5vgIUo/story01.htm

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Plants 'talk' to bees with electricity, say scientists

Bees use the weak electrical charge carried by plants to determine if they have nectar, a new study has found.?

By Marc Lallanilla,?LiveScience Assistant Editor / February 22, 2013

Bees can sense a flower's electrical charge, which tells them if the flower's worth visiting.

stock.xchng

Enlarge

Everyone knows that bees buzz around flowers in their quest for nectar. But scientists have now learned that flowers are buzzing right back ? with electricity.

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Plants generally have a negative electrical charge and emit a weak electrical signal, according to researchers at the University of Bristol in England. And scientists have known for years that bees' flapping wings create a positive electrical charge of up to 200 volts as they flit from flower to flower, according to a news release.

But can the bees detect flowers' electrical charge? While animals like?sharks are known to sense electrical fields, nobody had ever found that an insect could do the same,?ScientificAmerican?reports.

To test the bees' sensitivity, researchers filled a room with artificial flowers: Half of the flowers were electrically charged and carried a sugary reward, while the other half had no charge and a bitter solution of quinine.

The bees quickly learned to visit only the electrically charged flowers, and to not waste their energy visiting flowers with no electrical charge. But when the electrical charges were switched off, the bees once again visited flowers randomly, suggesting that they had been reacting to the electrical charges. [The 10 Weirdest Animal Discoveries]

"Animals are just constantly surprising us as to how good their senses are," Dominic Clarke, lead author of the study, published in journal?Science, told the?BBC. "More and more we're starting to see that nature's senses are almost as good as they could possibly be."

Bees and flowers, of course, co-evolved with a long-standing symbiotic relationship: The bees depend on flowers for nectar, which they use to produce honey, and flowers need bees to help pollinate other flowers.

Flowers use various means to attract bees and other pollinators. In addition to their electrical charge and alluring fragrance, flowers display bright colors ? and research has found that?bees see colors?three times faster than humans.

But bees ? busy as they famously are ? don't have time to waste visiting pretty flowers whose nectar has just been taken by another insect. "The last thing a flower wants is to attract a bee and then fail to provide nectar," said Daniel Robert, co-author of the study, in a statement. "Bees are good learners and would soon lose interest in such [an] unrewarding flower."

So flowers, the researchers confirmed, emit a different electrical signal after their nectar has been harvested. They found that petunias became slightly more positively charged after a bee visited them, according to ScientificAmerican.

That revised electrical charge acts as a kind of "No Vacancy" sign to other bees, which learn to trust the signals that the flowers emit.

"This is a magnificent interaction where you have an animal and a plant, and they both want this to go as well as possible," study co-author?Gregory Sutton told NPR. "The flowers are trying to make themselves look as different as possible. This is to establish the flower's brand."

How do bees sense an electrical charge? Researchers aren't sure, but they suspect the fuzzy hairs on bees' bodies "bristle up" under an electrostatic force, just like hair in front of a television screen.

Other scientists are excited about the possible implications this research may have for other nectar-gathering insects such as hoverflies and moths.

"We had no idea that this sense even existed," Thomas Seeley, a behavioral biologist at Cornell University, told ScientificAmerican. "Assuming we can replicate the findings, this is going to open up a whole new window on insect sensory systems."

Contact Marc Lallanilla at?mlallanilla@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter?@MarcLallanilla. Follow LiveScience on Twitter?@livescience. We're also on?Facebook?&?Google+.

Copyright 2013?LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/zrTTMHP3NCM/Plants-talk-to-bees-with-electricity-say-scientists

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Governors: Looming cuts threaten economic gains

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, center, seen with National Governors Association Chairman Gov. Jack Markell of Delaware, left, and Vice Chairman Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, speaks during the opening news conference of the NGA Winter Meeting in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. The nation's governors say their states are threatened if the automatic, across-the-board budget cuts, known as the sequester, take effect March 1. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, center, seen with National Governors Association Chairman Gov. Jack Markell of Delaware, left, and Vice Chairman Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, speaks during the opening news conference of the NGA Winter Meeting in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. The nation's governors say their states are threatened if the automatic, across-the-board budget cuts, known as the sequester, take effect March 1. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, left, leads fellow Democratic Governors Associations members along the driveway of the West Wing of the White House in Washington, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, following their meeting with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. From left are, Shumlin, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Vermont Gov. Maggie Hassan, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, center, accompanied by fellow members of the Democratic Governors Associations, speaks outside the White House in Washington, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, following their meeting with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. From left are, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, Virgin Islands Gov. John De Jongh, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Hassan, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, center, accompanied by fellow members of the Democratic Governors Associations, looks up to the overcast sky, outside the White House in Washington, Feb. 22, 2013, following their meeting with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. From left are, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, Virgin Island Gov. John de Jongh, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Hickenlooper, New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, accompanied by other members of the Democratic Governors Associations, speaks outside the White House in Washington, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, following their meeting with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

(AP) ? Washington's protracted budget stalemate could seriously undermine the economy and stall gains made since the recession, exasperated governors said Saturday as they try to gauge the fallout from impending federal spending cuts.

At the annual National Governors Association meeting, both Democrat and Republican chief executives expressed pessimism that both sides could find a way to avoid the massive, automatic spending cuts set to begin March 1, pointing to the impasse as another crisis between the White House and Congress that spooks local businesses from hiring and hampers their ability to construct state spending plans.

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, a former congressman, noted that the cuts ? known in Washington-speak as "the sequester" ? could lead to 19,000 workers laid off at Pearl Harbor, site of the surprise attack in 1941 that launched the United States into World War II.

"That will undermine our capacity for readiness at Pearl Harbor. If that doesn't symbolize for the nation ... what happens when we fail to meet our responsibilities congressionally, I don't know what does," he said.

The budget fight came as many states say they are on the cusp of an economic comeback from the financial upheaval in 2008 and 2009. States expect their general fund revenues this year to surpass the amounts collected before the Great Recession kicked in. An estimated $693 billion in revenues is expected for the 2013 budget year, nearly a 4 percent over the previous year.

At their weekend meetings, governors were focusing on ways to boost job development and grow their state economies, measures to restrict gun violence and implement the new health care law approved during Obama's first term.

Some Republican governors have blocked the use of Medicaid to expand health insurance coverage for millions of uninsured while others have joined Democrats in a wholesale expansion as the law allows. The Medicaid expansion aims to cover about half of the 30 million uninsured people expected to eventually gain coverage under the health care overhaul.

Yet for many governors, the budget-cut fight remains front-and-center and fuels a pervasive sense of frustration with Washington.

"My feeling is I can't help what's going on in Washington," Gov. Terry Branstad, R-Iowa, said in an interview Saturday. "I can't help the fact that there's no leadership here, and it's all politics as usual and gridlock. But I can do something about the way we do things in the state of Iowa."

Indeed, right now no issue carries the same level of urgency as the budget impasse.

Congressional leaders have indicated a willingness to let the cuts take effect and stay in place for weeks, if not much longer.

The cuts would trim $85 billion in domestic and defense spending, leading to furloughs for hundreds of thousands of workers at the Transportation Department, Defense Department and elsewhere.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the cuts would harm the readiness of U.S. fighting forces.

The looming cuts were never supposed to happen. They were intended to be a draconian fallback intended to ensure a special deficit reduction committee would come up with $1 trillion or more in savings from benefit programs. It didn't.

"We should go back and remember that sequestration was originally designed by both the administration and Congress as something so odious, so repellent, that it would force both sides to a compromise. There can't be any question, this is something that nobody wants," said Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat.

Obama has stepped up efforts to tell the public about the cuts' negative impact and pressure Republicans who oppose his approach of reducing deficits through a combination of targeted savings and tax increases. House Republicans have said reduced spending needs to be the focus and have rejected the president's fresh demand to include higher taxes as part of a compromise.

Governors said they are asking the Obama administration for more flexibility to deal with some of the potential cuts.

"We know that the cuts are coming, but we also don't want to suffer disproportionately," said Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, a Democrat and chairman of the National Governors Association.

"We're just saying that as you identify federal cuts and savings, allow the states to be able to realize those savings, too," said Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican and the association's vice chairwoman. "Give us the flexibility to be able to make the cuts where we think it will be the less harm to our citizens."

___

Follow Steve Peoples at: http://twitter.com/sppeoples and Ken Thomas at: http://twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas

___

Online:

National Governors Association: http://www.nga.org

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-23-Budget%20Battle-Governors/id-f7740b83797745bd886ed10816cb8992

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