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Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Monday, September 24, 2012
PFT: Ray Lewis rips refs, but he's wrong this time
ReutersThe NFL has updated its clubs regarding the negotiations with locked-out game officials via a memo from general counsel Jeff Pash.? It looks and feels like a press release.
Adam Schefter of ESPN has obtained the document, which addresses the recent negotiations between the two sides and addresses the areas of discrepancy that remain, from the perspective of the league.
Pash explains that, in addition to last week?s discussions, that parties met for six hours on Saturday and nine hours on Sunday.? The session on Sunday involved a federal mediator, who has no specific power over the two sides but who has tried to get them to reach an agreement.? Commissioner Roger Goodell participated in the weekend discussions.
The memo explains that significant gaps remain on all issues, and that the officials? most recent proposal is ?unacceptable in numerous important respects.?
Pash explains that the officials now want a shorter deal, at six years instead of seven, along with only a 10-percent reduction in their request for increased pay and a ?ratification bonus? aimed in part to pay the locked-out officials for the weeks that they have missed.
And here?s the summary of the league?s position, which perhaps can best be described as being for the benefit of the media, since the clubs already should know what was being offered: ?Game officials on average earned almost $150,000 in 2011. Prior to the start of the lockout, we proposed a 7-year deal that would have increased average game official?s compensation more than 7 percent to just over $161,000 in 2012, and further increase that average to more than $189,000 by 2018. In addition, we have offered a generous defined contribution retirement plan, with average contributions of $16,500 in 2012, increasing to more than $22,300 per game official by 2018. Officials also receive numerous other benefits, including severance equal to one year?s game fees and postseason bonus, a period of guaranteed ?time off? from the end of the season through mid-May of each year, first-class air travel, and
partial reimbursement for medical insurance for officials who do not have insurance through their other jobs.?
Perhaps the line that will raise the most eyebrows appears in the final paragraph: ?We recognize that the current officials are under unprecedented scrutiny and we are committed to do all we can to help them continue to improve.?
They?re not improving. And the replay officials (who aren?t replacements) and the league supervisors (who aren?t replacements) aren?t helping.
The broader message?? The league is still circling the wagons, waiting for 61 or more of the 121 locked-out officials to collectively cry ?uncle? and to then find a lawyer to draw up the paperwork that will recite, in the appropriate jargon, ?uncle.?
Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/09/24/ray-lewis-rants-about-replacements-again/related/
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Thousands join drug rehab courses - The Nation
Anupan Chantana ,
Pongphon Sarnsamak
The Nation September 24, 2012 1:00 am
"This is the most drug addicts getting rehab treatment ever recorded in Thailand since we started fighting against drugs many years ago," Permpong Chaovalit, deputy secretary-general of the Narcotics Control Board (NCB), said recently.
The drug problem, which had become more and more severe, threatening the security of people's lives and property, prompted the NCB and four other agencies to team up and launch the rehabilitation programme last October.
The four partners are Metropolitan Police, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's Health Bureau, the Army and the NCB's Bangkok division.
It was aimed at cutting the number of drug addicts nationwide by offering treatment on a voluntary basis without prosecution - unlike the previous practice of sending them to jail first.
The government has set the goal to get 400,000 drug abusers to attend the rehab programme this year. Now over 508,850 people dependent on several kinds of drugs such as methamphetamine (yaba) and crystal meth (ice) have attended the programme and were able to overcome addiction.
The Public Health Ministry estimates that about 1.3 million people became addicted to drugs and up to 60 per cent of them are in Greater Bangkok. This was why the government is making the problem part of the national agenda and will uphold the principle that drug abusers are patients in need of rehabilitation.
According to the NCB's report, 319,911 drug abusers received treatment at hospitals and rehab centres in 2003, as the government had considered drug abusers as patients who need treatment.
A few years later, the number of drug abusers who received treatment had plummeted to only 40,000-60,000 per year from 2004-07 due to the government's intense drug war. Most of the prisons nationwide were also full and there was no space for drug offenders.
To reduce drug demand, the NCB has set up 1,000 rehab centres in communities and district hospitals nationwide.
Drug abusers are required to apply to the programme at these centres. They will be screened and sent to the military-style rehab centres.
They will take 15-90 days to undergo rehab, depending on the length of their addiction. After the rehab programme is completed, the NCB will follow up four times a year to ensure that they do not return to the habit again.
The NCB found that only 20 per cent of rehabilitated drug addicts in the past 12 months had returned to drugs.
In Bangkok, about 5,000 drug addicts aged over 19 have received rehab treatment and 50 of them had returned to drugs. They returned to drugs because they returned to their previous life, Chakkree Premsmit, assistant director of the NCB's Bangkok office, said.
Most people become drug addicts because of family problems. Some were abandoned by their parents, and some were forced to take drugs by friends. The drug control agency found that some people were addicted since they were 19.
"We have to find out how to prevent them from returning to drugs," Chakree said. He has ordered agents to search for drug abuse in neighbourhoods across metropolitan areas and encourage families to persuade users to get drug rehab treatment.
"Most of them don't want to enter a rehab programme because they're afraid they'll be recorded as a criminal," he said.
The drug control agency has to convince drug abusers that they will be treated as a patient and not a wrongdoer because drug addiction is a brain disease that required behavioural changes, he said.
Niyom Termsrisuk, director of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's Narcotics Control Office, expressed concern that young drug abusers had increased by 60-70 per cent. He found the youngest drug abuser was nine years old, while the oldest was 60.
Dr Viroj Verachai, director of Thanyarak Institute, a treatment centre for drug dependence, said substance abuse treatment agencies should carefully check the health of all drug abusers, especially for congenital diseases before providing rehabilitation treatment or sending them to a rehab centre.
Some of them had committed suicide as they had suffered from depression and stress for a long time. They need special medication before getting substance abuse and behavioural treatment.
"We found that some of them had died from congenital disease during the rehabilitation programme as they were not screened for health problems," he said.
Jarunee Siriphan, of Population Services International, said the lack of evaluation of the quality of services inside drug treatment centres and the porous and patchy follow-up system indicated that the government had applied a "war on drugs" strategy without concern for the welfare and quality of life of people who use drugs.
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Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Thousands-join-drug-rehab-courses-30190979.html
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Sunday, September 23, 2012
Facebook posts in hostage case worry police
12 hrs.
Pittsburgh?police said they had serious concerns when an armed man took a business owner hostage in a downtown high-rise office building ? and not just because he had a knife.
The suspect, 22-year-old Klein Michael Thaxton, made Facebook posts during the five-hour ordeal Friday, authorities said, and they feared that responses from friends, family and others might goad him into violence.
In the end, police say, Thaxton surrendered peacefully and released businessman Charles Breitsman.
Now police believe that Thaxton might have chosen Breitsman because he spotted a smartphone and computer in his office and saw a high-profile opportunity to express himself on the social networking site, Chief Nathan Harper said.
Thaxton was arraigned early Saturday on felony charges of kidnapping, aggravated assault and making terroristic threats. He remains jailed on $1 million bail.
Harper said authorities might never know the reason Thaxton decided to take a hostage.
"We will leave that to the mental professionals to figure that out and get the man some help," Harper said. Thaxton will automatically receive a mental health review because of the charges.
Thaxton told police he left a halfway house about 3 a.m. Friday carrying a kitchen knife, hammer, cellphone and charger. After meandering through various neighborhoods, Thaxton arrived downtown at about 7 a.m. and briefly considered attacking two separate traffic officers with the hammer so he could steal their guns, police said.
"It makes me feel powerful when I have a gun," Harper said Thaxton told police.
Deciding he might get shot in the process, Thaxton instead sat and munched on a candy bar and noticed women streaming into a 24-story high-rise, police said. Without any particular goal, Thaxton took an elevator to two upper floors, found he couldn't get around without an electric key card and went down to the 16th floor.
That's where Thaxton saw the financial firm CW Breitsman Associates and the owner's name on the door. He also saw a smartphone, TV and computer and "felt this was the office where he needed to be," Harper said.
Except for the electronics, Thaxton's choosing the office was "totally random," Harper said, noting Thaxton didn't know Breitsman or his firm, which handles union pensions and insurance funds.
Police initially believed Thaxton had a gun because he told police negotiators he was going to shoot the victim. Instead, he threatened Breitsman with the knife, sat across a table from him breathing threats and, otherwise, used Breitsman's phone and computer to post mostly forlorn Facebook messages, police said.
"i cant take it no more im done bro," said one post.
"this life im livin rite now i dnt want anymore," another post said. "ive lost everything and I aint gettin it back."
Thaxton has been in legal trouble in recent months, pleading guilty in January to robbery for a carjacking last year. That crime was apparently on his mind, Harper said, because his carjacking victim was a woman and Thaxton told police the only other reason he picked Breitsman was that "he didn't want to victimize another female."
Thaxton was sentenced to six to 12 months in jail by the county's newly established court to help veterans with mental health and substance abuse issues. It wasn't immediately clear how Thaxton's service record contributed ? if at all ? to his mental health problems because he never saw active duty.
Instead, records show Thaxton served as a private in the U.S. Army from December 2008 to June 2010. The Army said he trained at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri before being assigned to Fort Riley in Kansas.
Whatever the motivation, Thaxton felt a need to call attention to his feelings through Facebook and told police he watched coverage of the hostage situation on his victim's TV.
Initially, police wanted the Facebook page kept open, hoping to gain useful information, but they later asked Facebook to take it down so that Thaxton could focus on conversations with police negotiators.
Most of the 700 or so responses to Thaxton's posts were from friends or family expressing their love. But a few were "ridiculous" and others were "outright distasteful," Harper said. Police were still sifting through them Friday, but Harper said any posters who authorities determine urged Thaxton to harm Breitsman or himself could eventually face charges, too.
Thaxton eventually told police negotiators he wanted to speak with an ex-girlfriend whom he hadn't seen since 2008. After shutting down the Facebook page and getting the woman on the phone to speak with Thaxton, he surrendered peacefully.
Breitsman was interviewed by detectives at police headquarters but left through a back door to avoid the media. He didn't return calls to his home Friday. Harper said the man was doing fine though "quite shaken."
Facebook didn't comment on the hostage-taking but referred reporters to a Web page that says it sometimes shares information with law enforcement if necessary to "prevent imminent bodily harm" to someone.
Some of the social network's nearly 1 billion users boast about their criminal exploits on Facebook, making it easier for law enforcement to catch them. Just last month, a woman charged with posing as a nurse and kidnapping a newborn at a Pittsburgh hospital was tracked down using messages she posted about her faked pregnancy on Facebook.
In Thaxton's case, Facebook didn't completely explain his actions nor would he as he was led past reporters at police headquarters.
Instead he grinned and ignored their questions saying, "I can't hear you, bro."
Joe Mandak wrote this story;?Associated Press writers Kevin Begos in Pittsburgh and Michael Rubinkam contributed to this report. AP Technology writer Barbara Ortutay and AP news researcher Jennifer Farrar contributed from New York.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/facebook-posts-hostage-case-worry-police-1B6047330
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What Salesforce Doesn't Tell You At Dreamforce
Salesforce, a pioneer in delivering business software over the Internet, is turning to social business and collaboration services to expand into new markets and keep its revenue engine running. So it?s no surprise that the company?s Dreamforce user conference in San Francisco this week is a love fest for social networking for business. But behind all the hoopla is a dark side that businesses should pay close attention to.
Salesforce's New Social Tools
Salesforce unveiled a long list of products Wednesday and highlighted big-name customers like General Electric and Virgin Airlines. The new services are built on top of Salesforce?s core software for managing customer relations and for helping sales and marketing teams be more effective.
Over the coming months, Salesforce customers will have the option of using Chatterbox for managing and sharing files with partners and customers. Chatterbox places Salesforce in competition with Dropbox, Microsoft?s SharePoint and Box, in which Salesforce is an investor.
Other services that will be available in the near future include being able to hold conversations with customers via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and to create and manage marketing campaigns on the sites. Salesforce will also release tools for gathering intelligence on sales leads from Twitter, blogs and YouTube videos.
Market Pressures
Salesforce is hoping all its new products will keep it ahead of larger rivals Oracle, SAP and Microsoft. With such heavyweights in its rearview mirror, Salesforce can?t afford to standstill. It needs to enter new markets in order to continue driving double-digit revenue growth.
The brass ring for all players delivering business software over the Internet is a $49 billion market that grew by 25% over last year, according to Forrester Research. Spending on social business software will grow from $800 million in 2011 to as much as $5 billion in 2016, according to IDC.
Companies Fear Public Social Networks
With so much at stake, Salesforce is pushing hard into the new social business frontier. But what the marketing hype doesn?t highlight is the risks that need to be addressed before customers rev up the vendor?s new services.
The danger of having employees say the wrong thing on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn is real. Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline learned the hard way when it paid $3 billion last year to settle U.S. government allegations that sales reps sold the company?s drugs based on claims not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Avoiding A Calamity
To avoid such catastrophes, analysts recommend a thorough training program for every employee that will be conducting company business on a public social network. ?Implementing them (social business tools) isn?t that difficult,? IDC analyst Michael Fauscette, said. ?The problem is the tools need to change your business processes and your company culture.?
Employees need to be prepared to do business under the company?s brand in an open environment. Policies have to be clearly stated on what information can and cannot be shared with customers or partners. Workers also need to be taught how to speak on social networks. They need to be aware that communications go far beyond the walls of the corporate office where they are sitting in front of a computer.
While email can also be used to mistakenly release intellectual property or private communications with customers and partners, information posted on a social network travels faster and wider. ?You?re no longer shouting it out in the cafeteria, you?re shouting it out at the local mall where anybody can hear,? Forrester analyst Rob Koplowitz said.
Nothing Is Simple
There is no simple way to introduce new policies and procedures for handling social business and collaboration tools. Changing a company?s culture to be sensitive to the greater exposure will also be difficult. So make sure you are ready before you turn on Salesforce?s new products.
Source: http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2012/09/what-salesforce-doesnt-tell-you-at-dreamforce.php
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Saturday, September 22, 2012
Marijuana Can Prevent the Spread of Cancer, Researchers - AlterNet
Two scientists at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco have found that cannabidiol (CBD), a non-toxic marijuana compound that delivers many of weed's benefits without the high, might stop metastis in aggressive cancer, "potentially altering the fatality of the disease forever."
The pair, molecular biologist Pierre Desprez and researcher Sean McAllister, mixed CBD and cells with high levels of 1D-1, the gene that spreads cancer, in a petri dish. What happened next was a bit of a miracle: ?1D-1 cells stopped spreading and returned to normal.
"What we found was that his Cannabidiol could essentially 'turn off' the ID-1," Desprez told the Huffington Post.
The duo have been studying CBD's effects on cancer for years, and first published a paper about the finding in 2007. The results just keep getting better.
"We started by researching breast cancer," Desprez told HuffPo, "But now we've found that Cannabidiol works with many kinds of aggressive cancers--brain, prostate--any kind in which these high levels of ID-1 are present."
The finding has already gone through laboratory and animal testing, and is awaiting approval for the real test, a clinical trial in humans. Desprez hopes they can move forward with their research immediately. "We've found no toxicity in the animals we've tested, and Cannabidiol is already used in humans for a variety of other ailments," he told the Huffington Post.
The pair has also been synthesizing CBD in a lab, instead of extracting it from the mairjuana plant, to make it more potent. It is a move that may also help them to avoid red tape from the federal government that still insists marijuana has no medicinal value.
"It's a common practice," explained Desprez. "But hopefully it will also keep us clear of any obstacles while seeking approval."
CBD has been used to help treat seizures, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer's.
Smoking marijuana, however, may not deliver enough CBD for it to be effective, ?the researchers said.
Read the full HuffPo piece here.
Source: http://www.alternet.org/hot-news-views/marijuana-can-prevent-spread-cancer-researchers-discover
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