Tis the season to be jolly! Festive decorations, gatherings of family and friends, and sharing of lavish feasts and sweet treats brighten our spirits. Today, some of us celebrate the birth of Jesus in the Little Town of Bethlehem as we sing ?The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.?
Hope is essential to our ability to face the uncertainty of life. A great prophet proclaimed to the chosen tribe of Israel: ?Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.? (Isaiah 40:31)
Hope that is promised within religious scripture is a certain hope, greater than a secular, human hope that Webster defines as ?to expect with confidence.? The difference in the two concepts is spiritually profound for those with religious faith. Those who are not religious might not perceive degrees of hope, so the distinction of religious hope could remain as a mystery for them, much like an unwrapped gift under the Christmas tree.
There is a real difference for me between the perfect hope that is promised in the Old Testament and celebrated in the New Testament, and the hope which we, as attorneys and care coordinators, lend and nourish. Our clients and their care advocates face difficult choices as they anticipate and manage the challenges and opportunities of extended care. Our experience and knowledge is useful, but promising a perfect outcome in the final chapters of life is more hope than we can offer.
Sometimes an individual client has an uncertain medical prognosis, as can occur with a rare disease. Other times, a spouse of a person who has dementia feels such stress from caregiving that his or her own health is deteriorating; yet, a profound commitment to stay together makes a suggestion for voluntary separation seem to be impossible. In such circumstances, it can be hard to know what to hope for.
When it comes to knowing whether a legal document will stand up to scrutiny if challenged in court, it is the responsibility of a lawyer to understand the legislation, regulations and case law which apply to the circumstances at hand. An elder law attorney knows how legal outcomes for older persons might be different than for those of a younger age. Giving our clients a high level of confidence that their wishes as expressed in a legal document will be honored by a court, or encouraging wise planning now so that extended care can be affordable in the future, supports our clients? healthy desire to have a hopeful attitude.
Sometimes, a client comes to us with uncertainty and fear about what will happen after their finances are exhausted. Our services help clients to preserve their assets, obtain government benefits, and avoid financial liability for their children after their assets have been exhausted. To feel a sense of independence and dignity and to fuel a hope that life remains worth living, most clients need to feel that their extended care challenges will not drain their family emotionally or become a financial liability.
Our mission to integrate the legal and caregiving aspects of extended care issues is challenging. Since every case is different, we are like a guide who has walked the trails and fished the waters previously, but cannot guarantee what will be around the next bend or whether the fish will be biting today. Our experience enables us to understand a probability of what might occur, yet for many reasons we cannot know the certainty of what lies ahead. A wise approach to extended care issues can sometimes seem like the Chinese wisdom that one?s best hope to cross a river is to focus on the need to progress from one stone to another, one step at a time.
Sometimes the confusion and stress of extended care can become overwhelming, and it is hard to know what to do next. Just as a hiker who is lost in the woods feels relief to be found by a park ranger, we offer a sense of relief to those who are lost in the extended care maze. The guidance and preparation we give our clients equips them to experience the extended care journey with less confusion and greater probability for financial advantages.
When a caregiver feels lost, his or her sense of hope can seem to be burnt out and in need of rekindling. Often, clients or their caregivers come to our office with an arm full of information and a chest full of stress. We lend our clients and their caregivers the hope which our experience and knowledge with extended care issues has given us an opportunity to discover. We feel it is a hopeful sign when they sigh deeply before leaving our office and express a sense of relief.
If Alzheimer?s or dementia seems to be stealing the personality of someone you love, we understand that you might feel lonely, and even angry or abandoned. In some ways, a caregiver?s pain can be similar to that of grieving a death. Eloise Cole, a bereavement specialist who was also a family caregiver, wrote a poem ?Borrowed Hope? which begins: ?Lend me your hope for a while. I seem to have mislaid mine. Lost and hopeless feelings accompany me daily.? The hope that her poem seeks is the type of hope that we offer as elder law practitioners.
If your family?s humor and laughter as you celebrate Christmas feels a bit awkward at moments because you are also suffering with a loved one through an extended care crisis, that is understandable. But give yourself a break and embrace what joy you can in this time of celebration. Find comfort in this conclusion of Eloise Cole?s poem: ?Lend me your hope for a while. A time will come when I will heal and I will lend my renewed hope to others.?
Merry Christmas!
Dave Nesbit
Attorney
Source: http://www.keystoneelderlaw.com/blog/sentinel-articles/sentinel-borrowing-hope/
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Each year Ukraine becomes more interesting for foreign manufacturers and suppliers and attracts more foreign businesses and investments. Area of intellectual property is also actively growing. Ukraine Patent Law Company Inventa Co, Ltd states that during its practice in the year of 2012 amount of foreign applicants filled applications for trademark registration inUkraine has increased on 20%.
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Artem Kantsypa, IP Agent at the Inventa Co, Ltd says, ?It?s a very positive factor that confirms growth of foreign companies from The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, China, Cyprus, Italy, Japan, and United Stares of America interested in Ukrainemarket development.?
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The Law ofUkraine?On the Protection of Rights to Marks for Goods and Services? is the main law for trademarks registration inUkraine. Foreign applicants should file a trademark application and do all actions for obtaining trademark rights only with registered Ukrainian patent attorney.
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Ukraine Patent Law Company Inventa Co, Ltd actively provides foreign applicants with legal support of trademark application during the processing of the Ukraine Patent Office. The company?s trademark attorneys search for identity and similarity of the trademark to trademarks already registered in Ukraineand those which have just been filed for registration. The trademark attorneys fill and serve the application for trademark registration processing in the Ukraine Patent Office and then notify the applicants when a certificate of trademark registration is received. The certificate is valid for a period of 10 years from the date of filling. The term of certificate may be renewed for further 10 years period.
The intellectual property law company Inventa Co, Ltd was founded in 1991 and today has become one of the leading patent law companies offering foreign applicants trademark registration in Ukraine. The patent law attorneys perform work on intellectual property registration and protection for applicants from Europe, UK, and USA striving to expand services to new countries. The company provides application filing for obtaining a protection document for rights on trademarks, inventions, utility models, and industrial designs inUkraine and worldwide.
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For more information please visit the company website http://www.inventa-ua.com/ or call +380 (57) 343-94-84.
6 viewsSource: http://www.freepressreleases.com/trademark-attorneys-offer-trademark-registration-ukraine/330039
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The Mayans being before my time, I'm too young for their End of the World.
Theirs comes from an ancient calendar that says "the fourteenth baktun" ? a new era ?will commence on Dec. 21, 2012.
Mine's newer. It comes from Mrs. Elkin, my second grade teacher, who told us how to hide during an atomic bomb attack. None of us had much confidence that sitting under our desks would work, which is why my End of the World makes no reference to calendars. Instead, it comes with a mushroom cloud.
For most of my young life, this is how I thought about The End, and with all due respect to the Mayans, there is something grand, even colossal, about an atomic finish, and here's my proof.
Historian Alex Wellerstein once posted an old video, produced, I presume, by the U.S. military, around 1952. It shows an atomic bomb exploding on the Nevada desert.
Like most bomb blast images, you can see it from a respectful distance, a long stem with a mushroom cloud on top ? but this video is different. It includes shots from the ground up, from an ordinary soldier's point of view and on this particular day, there were soldiers there, standing in trenches, watching.
As they look, they get hit by a shock wave...
After which, they are told to leave their trenches and head toward the explosion, which is at that moment rising to the sky directly in front of them. I have never seen ? and Alex says these are very rare ? an atomic bomb with people so exposed and so close.
Here they are even closer. That's the bottom of the mushroom cloud which now towers above them. "I suddenly get a sense for how big the cloud is," Alex writes, "even though it must be many miles away."
In the video there's a tracking shot that takes you from these soldiers up the column of smoke, higher and higher ? it just goes on and on and on ? until we reach the cloud on top. As atomic bombs go, this wasn't a big one. So this is a rare look at the immensity of these weapons.
What you can't see, of course, is the horror they cause, the damage this bomb is doing to these soldiers, the damage it could do to homes, cities, animals, people. But oddly, a sense of scale has been missing from most images of an atomic Armageddon. This video is the closest I can get to imagining the immensity of my End of the World.
I don't know what the Mayans imagined for their finish ? I'm not expecting to find out on Friday ? but this was the nightmare I grew up with. I'm very glad that over the years The End I feared is getting a little less likely ? at least I hope it is. _Are you listening Mr. Obama? Mr. Putin? Mr. Netanyahu? Mr.Mukherjee? M. Hollande? Mr. Kim? Mr. Ashraf? Hmm. The list keeps getting longer...)
Here's the video:
Thanks to Alex Wellerstein, historian at the at the American Institute of Physics, whose cold war tales are regularly posted on his Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog. That's where I go when I'm looking to be (metaphorically only), blown away.
And that's where I found this video and his accompanying essay. He called it "In Search of a Sense of Scale."
Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/12/20/167706713/the-end-of-the-world-my-way?ft=1&f=1007
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BEIJING (AP) ? A Chinese advertising company says it has agreed to be taken private and removed from U.S. stock markets in the biggest transaction of its kind for China.
Focus Media Holding Ltd. said Thursday it will be bought by a group that includes its chairman, private equity firm Carlyle Group and Chinese investors. The transaction values the company at $3.7 billion.
Focus Media announced plans for the change in August and complained U.S. markets were undervaluing its shares. The company was formed in 2003 and operates electronic advertising displays in elevators, grocery stores and other locations.
Source: http://feeds.boston.com/click.phdo?i=ca0992b02c8b334353b1e5d2cedfbc7b
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LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Kathryn Bigelow's Osama bin Laden manhunt thriller "Zero Dark Thirty" hits theaters Wednesday, and when it comes to the box office, this isn't going to be "Hurt Locker."
That was Bigelow's last film, a gritty Iraq war drama that upset "Avatar" for Oscar's Best Picture in 2009 but took in just $17 million domestically. "Zero Dark Thirty" could well top $100 million, say industry analysts - and if the awards season breaks the right way for the Oscar Best Picture front-runner, it could go higher than that.
"ZDT" and this year's winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, "Amour," are making limited debuts Wednesday, while the Barbra Streisand-Seth Rogen comedy "Guilt Trip" and a 3D re-release of "Monsters Inc." go into wide release.
Six more movies will roll out on Friday, including Judd Apatow's "This Is 40" and the Tom Cruise starrer "Jack Reacher," in what Hollywood is hoping will be a very busy pre-holiday week at the box office.
In the course of detailing the killing of Bin Laden, "ZDT" is an examination of the nation's war on terror, its prosecution and its effect on America's collective psyche, and that will help, not hurt, the film at the box office, Exhibitor Relations Senior analyst Jeff Bock told TheWrap.
"This movie is about the biggest American war story since Pearl Harbor," Bock said. "The American people are at a place now where they are ready to look back and really think about what we've been through.
"This movie, particularly if it keeps getting awards buzz, is going to be talked about everywhere, and if you want to have an opinion, you're going to have to see it."
Despite all the newcomers arriving Wednesday and Friday, Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" is expected to continue dominating. It took in about $7 million Monday - on the heels of its $85 million debut weekend - and should cross the $100 million mark Tuesday
Sony Classic is rolling out "Amour," Michael Haneke's dark and unsparing look at old age and death, at two theaters in New York and one in L.A. The French-language film was recently named the best film of 2012 by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, giving it an important boost during a season in which its chances outside the Oscar foreign-language category hinge on getting Academy voters to see it.
That honor stopped an awards run by "Zero Dark Thirty," which Sony is rolling out on five screens. The intense tale had won the top award with the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review, the Boston Film Critics Society and the New York Film Critics Online.
"ZDT" was produced by Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures for about $45 million.
Sony's plan is to go wide with it release on January 11 after the Academy Award nominations.
Beside the film itself and director Bigelow, her producing partner Mark Boal is a good bet for an Best Adapted Screenplay nomination, as is Jessica Chastain in the Best Actress category. All of those earned Golden Globes nominations in those categories.
The gritty and gripping tale is a critical favorite - it has a 97.7 percent rating at Movie Review Intelligence - but a lightning rod for political criticism, from both the left and right of the political spectrum. Some critics have charged the film is an apology for U.S. interrogation tactics that included waterboarding, while others say it's intended to boost the image of President Obama.
"Our agenda isn't a partisan agenda - it's an agenda of trying to look behind the scenes at what went down," screenwriter Boal told TheWrap earlier. "Hopefully art or cinema can present a point of view that's a little above the political fray, but that doesn't mean the political narrative doesn't try to assert itself and pull you back in."
"Amour" is a co-production between companies in Austria, France and Germany. It is Austria's entry and a favorite in Oscar's Best Foreign Language category, and it has a shot at a Best Picture nomination, too.
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva star as Anne and George, an elderly couple who are retired music teachers and have a daughter (Isabelle Huppert) living abroad. The story, which Haneke wrote and directed based on a similar experience in his own family, focuses on what happens when Anne suffers a stroke.
It was nominated in six categories at the recent European Film Awards and won four, including Best Film and Best Director. The L.A. Film Critics named the 85-year-old Riva co-Best Actress (with Jennifer Lawrence in "Silver Linings Playbook"), and she has an outside shot an Oscar nomination in that category.
"Guilt Trip" is Streisand's first film foray since "Little Fockers," which debuted around the same time of year in 2010 for Universal - and her first starring role since 1996's "The Mirror Has Two Faces."
"Little Fockers," a sequel to "Meet the Fockers," opened to $30 million and went on to make $148 million. Distributor Paramount will be happy if the PG13-rated "Guilt Trip," which will be on about 2,300 screens, can match half that debut." The analysts are looking for it to wind up around $12 million.
It's one of three Paramount releases this week; the Tom Cruise thriller "Jack Reacher" and concert film "Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away" debut Friday.
"They all play to distinctly different demographics, Paramount's head of distribution Don Harris told TheWrap, "so other than being really busy, we don't have any problem with these three all in the marketplace."
What could provide some tough competition is Judd Apatow's R-rated comedy "This Is 40," which Universal is rolling out on roughly 2,900 screens Friday.
Disney will have its 3D version of its 2001 animated hit "Monsters Inc." in 2,400 theaters. It will be the third 3D re-release of a Disney film this year. The first two did unspectacular but solid business, particularly when you consider the only cost to the studio is the 3D conversion and marketing.
A 3D version of "Beauty and the Beast" debuted to $17 million in July and went on to make $47 million. In September, a converted "Finding Nemo" took in $16 million in its first week and wound up at $41 million.
Between "The Hobbit," the holdover kids holiday film "Rise of the "Monsters Inc." and a very crowded marketplace, "Monster Inc." will have a tough time matching those numbers.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/zero-dark-thirty-wont-hurt-locker-box-office-010150707.html
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The U.S. State Department says it will keep tabs on a Facebook page purportedly created by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that includes both positive and derogatory remarks from followers.
Iranian officials had no immediate comment, but the page's contents and style ? including an informal photo of Khamenei riding in a car ? raise serious questions about its authenticity.
Iranian web monitors block access to Facebook and other Western social media sites, and it's highly unlikely Khamenei would endorse a banned outlet.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Monday that U.S. officials will look into the site, joking that Washington is curious how many "likes" Khamenei receives.
The Net is not unknown territory for Iranian leaders, however.
Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and others have official websites.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rumored-facebook-irans-leader-us-watching-105843301.html
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It was a full weekend of fights on FX. The UFC crowned three new winners in "The Ultimate Fighter" franchise, and in 21 bouts by the UFC, 14 ended in a submission or knockout. That makes choosing the stars a more difficult but still really fun proposition.
No. 1 star -- Pat Barry: Barry is no longer the guy who can't defend anything on the ground. He dealt with Shane del Rosario's submission attempts in the first round to come back for a punishing knockout win. It earned him a $40,000 Knockout of the Night bonus.
No. 2 star -- Rustam Khabilov: In his first UFC bout, Khabilov showed that a suplex can be more than just a thrilling way to take down an opponent. Khabilov used it again and again to set Vinc Pinchel up for a knockout.
No. 3 star -- Hector Lombard: The former Bellator champ lost his UFC debut to Tim Boetsch in a way that made Lombard look like he wasn't the heavy-handed star we saw before his UFC days. But the way he stayed out of Rousimar Palhares' leg locks and got the knockout reminded the MMA world that Lombard is pretty good at this MMA game.
Do you agree? Who were your stars from the weekend? Speak up on Facebook, Twitter or in the comments.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fourteen U.S. states and the District of Columbia so far have told the federal government they plan to operate healthcare exchanges under President Barack Obama's reform law, leaving Washington with the daunting task of creating online marketplaces for at least two-thirds of the country.
On the eve of a federal deadline for states to say whether they will run their own exchanges, a top U.S. healthcare policy official told lawmakers that the exchanges will start enrolling eligible families starting on October 1, 2013.
"I am confident that states and the federal government will be ready in ten months, when consumers in all states can begin to apply," Gary Cohen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, told a health oversight panel in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Cohen, whose agency is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), was among federal officials who testified alongside state health authorities at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health.
In written testimony, Cohen said 15 states have told the administration they will operate their own exchanges. He later explained under questioning that the count comprises 14 states and the District of Columbia.
Separately, HHS officials confirmed the count of 14 states but could not immediately explain why Cohen's written testimony contained a higher number.
Some experts say the number of states planning to operate their own exchanges could reach 18 by the time the deadline arrives Friday. Still, the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, which tracks healthcare issues, says only two states - Utah and Florida - remain undecided.
That would leave at least 30 states in which the administration would be required to run exchanges, a challenge that is raising questions about how successfully U.S. officials can implement a key provision of the healthcare reform law, known to opponents and advocates alike as "Obamacare".
"I don't envy them for the job that they have," said Dennis Smith, a former federal healthcare official who now heads health services in Wisconsin, a state that has decided not to pursue its own exchange.
"At the end of the day, you're trying to connect a buyer to a seller. And the fundamental things required to do that are not yet in place," he said.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which Obama signed into law more than 2-1/2 years ago, is expected to extend health coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans. Those who enroll starting in October would be covered by insurance from January 1, 2014.
POLITICAL THEATER
About half of those newly insured individuals would purchase private coverage from online exchanges at federally subsidized rates. Ultimately, the number of people finding coverage through exchanges is expected to reach 26 million, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The remainder would be covered by expanding the Medicaid program for the poor to cover all adults earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $15,000 for individuals and $30,600 for a family of four.
Thursday's hearing provided a political stage for partisan rhetoric about Obama's health reforms, which have survived repeated Republican repeal efforts, a nail-biting consideration by the Supreme Court and the Presidential election campaign.
Republicans and state officials from Republican-led states complained about compliance costs and accused HHS of delaying the release of vital details and rules needed to move forward on the exchanges and on the planned Medicaid expansion.
"The uncertain regulatory environment and the overall lack of response from HHS are not encouraging the states or the health plans to move forward," said Representative Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican.
In response, Congressional Democrats and their state allies stressed the law's benefits for senior citizens, protections for young adults and the sick, and the prospective economic benefits from an expected influx of billions of dollars in federal money.
"The (Republican) move now is to delay implementation under the guise of lack of information," said Representative Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat.
"The world in fact is not coming to an end," he added. "The nation will be better because of the Affordable Care Act."
States that don't run their own exchanges would opt for one of two alternatives: a federally facilitated exchange that requires minimal state participation, or a federal partnership exchange in which states help by performing certain duties.
Kaiser Family Foundation expects six states to choose the partnership option and two dozen to opt for federally facilitated exchanges. Cohen said the count so far is four partnerships and seven facilitated exchanges.
States have until February 15 to say whether they intend to seek a federal partnership exchange. Four have done so already, Cohen said.
The administration will have to engineer an information technology system capable of processing operations in a way that meet the needs of healthcare consumers in different states.
Experts say the biggest challenge will likely be providing adequate customer service to handle enrollment, as well as fielding a technology system capable of interfacing seamlessly with the system of each state government.
Cohen told the panel the administration is building a website with interactive capabilities and a call center and has begun testing a data services hub to determine eligibility.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Ros Krasny, Jilian Mincer, Nick Zieminski and David Gregorio)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fifteen-u-states-opt-run-own-health-exchanges-151450661.html
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HONG KONG/NEW YORK (Reuters) - CNOOC Ltd's purchase of Canadian energy producer Nexen Inc may prove to be bittersweet if U.S. regulators block the Chinese state-run oil company from taking over Nexen's oilfields in the Gulf of Mexico.
CNOOC won a major coup last week by securing Ottawa's consent for the $15.1 billion deal, China's largest ever overseas acquisition, but the company is still waiting for approval from the U.S. government.
While the Gulf assets are just a fraction of Nexen's reserve base and production, they would give CNOOC a foothold in the world's premier deepwater oil province from which to acquire the technical know-how to drill in the contested South China Sea.
"The Nexen prize is the hi-tech ultra-deepwater drilling tech," said a person familiar with CNOOC's business strategy, adding that the Gulf of Mexico assets were "one of the key reasons that they are buying Nexen".
Approval from Washington is also important to CNOOC as it wants to be endorsed as an acceptable operator in the United States after American politicians blocked its high-profile bid for Unocal in 2005, according to another source.
A rejection would not sink the entire deal -- CNOOC is ready to buy Nexen excluding the U.S. assets, people familiar with the situation told Reuters. But it would be a major blow to CNOOC's deepwater ambitions.
An acquisition of the Gulf of Mexico assets would make CNOOC the operator of deepwater producing assets for the first time, giving it the prized opportunity to grasp the expertise it desperately needs to realize its production target.
China, the world's largest energy user, is already relying on imports for more than half of its oil needs. The country has long hoped to expand deepwater exploration in the South China Sea as onshore production growth sags.
CNOOC, which derives nearly all its domestic output from shallow waters, has vowed to build deepwater capacity of 1 million barrels of oil equivalents per day by 2020, more than doubling the company's total production.
Buying Nexen -- most of whose reserves are oil sands and shale gas in Canada and crude oil in the North Sea -- would mark a "material entry into the Gulf of Mexico" and an "increase in access to deepwater expertise", CNOOC said in a July presentation after it announced its bid for Nexen.
As the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, examines whether the deal presents any threats to national security, a handful of U.S. politicians have voiced concerns. One issue the committee will examine, CFIUS experts say, is whether Nexen's assets are too close to sensitive U.S. military areas.
Senator James Inhofe, soon to be the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Reuters on Tuesday that he hopes CFIUS forces CNOOC to divest the assets.
"It's the same as it would be when I object to their presence in our borders in California, or the Panama canal -- they're not our reliable ally," Inhofe said.
Under U.S. law, CFIUS operates in complete secrecy and it is not known when it may make a decision or which way it is leaning. CNOOC has declined comment on the review and Nexen had no immediate comment.
UNOCAL OVERHANG
CNOOC was forced to abandon its $18.5 billion bid for California-based Unocal in 2005 because of bitter opposition on sovereignty grounds from U.S. lawmakers. The rebuke influenced its bid for Nexen, and it carefully prepared for the review processes it would face.
Some energy analysts and investment bankers not involved in the transaction say they believe the U.S. government would approve the deal, perhaps with some agreements on who operates the rigs, as CNOOC is just buying a relatively small portfolio in the Gulf.
Nexen produced 22,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the region in 2011, less than 2 percent of overall Gulf of Mexico production. The Gulf accounts for around 10 percent of Nexen's production and 5 percent of its proved and probable reserves, according to recent company statements.
Foreign oil and gas companies are very common in the Gulf both as operators and lease owners -- Royal Dutch Shell and BP Plc are the two largest oil producers there. Brazil's state-controlled Petrobras also has a substantial position in the Gulf.
Analysts and bankers also pointed to the approval of recent acquisitions of minority stakes in some U.S. onshore oil and gas assets by CNOOC and China's Sinopec Group, parent of Asia's largest refiner Sinopec Corp.
"I am going to toss the coin and say look, given Canada has approved, it is more likely now the U.S. will approve," said Simon Powell, head of Asian oil and gas research at CLSA in Hong Kong.
But CFIUS standards can often be murky. For instance, a privately owned Chinese company was blocked in September from building wind turbines close to a Navy military site used to test unmanned drones in Oregon.
SOUTH CHINA SEA AMBITION
As China's energy demand soars, CNOOC and other state Chinese oil firms like Sinopec Group have been venturing into deepwater projects in partnership with global oil majors such as Total and Shell in west Africa and offshore Brazil in the last few years.
But the Chinese firms mostly play a minority, passive role in such projects, with limited access to deepwater exploration and production know-how and hence with lack of exposure to the entire operational process.
That leaves an acquisition as the other route to acquiring new technical expertise.
"What they could learn in the Gulf of Mexico could be deployed back into the domestic, South China Sea exploration in terms of best practices in the longer term," said Gordon Kwan, head of energy research at Mirae Asset Securities in Hong Kong.
CNOOC launched its first ultra-deepwater rig earlier this year and it is drilling south of Hong Kong in an area within Beijing's ambit.
Industry watchers expect CNOOC will eventually move the $1 billion rig to explore in deeper and more oil-rich waters further south in the South China Sea, where China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei have overlapping territorial claims.
The deepwater area of the South China Sea remains untapped, largely because tensions between rival claimants have made oil companies and private rig-builders reluctant to explore contentious acreage well away from sovereign coastlines.
Rich hydrocarbon resources are believed to lie below the center and south of the South China Sea, which is in the disputed zone.
Estimates for proven and undiscovered oil reserves in the entire sea range from 28 billion to as high as 213 billion barrels of oil, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a March 2008 report.
That would be equivalent to more than 60 years of current Chinese demand, under the most optimistic outlook, and surpass every country's proven oil reserves except Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, according to the BP Statistical Review.
Chinese state media have called the South China Sea "the second Persian Gulf".
CNOOC also hopes to use the acquisition of Nexen to form a foundation for growth in the Gulf of Mexico, analysts say. Currently, it just owns a minority stake in a deepwater joint venture project with Nexen in the Gulf and some relatively small assets divested by Norway's Statoil in 2009.
Its deepwater capabilities should also benefit from Nexen's projects in the North Sea.
Nexen has 43 percent of the Buzzard oilfield in the North Sea, Britain's largest pumping about 200,000 barrels per day.
They are not deepwater projects but CNOOC can learn how to deal with harsh weather -- expertise also key for CNOOC to expand its deepwater footprint, analysts say.
"You learn how to conduct drilling in extreme weather. It is not deep water but it is harsh weather," said Mirae's Kwan.
(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton in Washington and Bill Powell in Shanghai; Editing by Alex Richardson and Tiffany Wu)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-nexens-u-gulf-oilfields-key-chinas-deepwater-080139133.html
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Posted on: December 13th, 2012 by admin@cpp
A Georgia commercial real estate land parcel is available for purchase from Commercial Property Professionals.
The plot of land, named Floyd Lake Property, is located on Floyd Road in Hampton. It has good topography and is a heavily wooded site. The area is aggressively priced at $4,200 per acre, or approximately $861,000.
There is 450 feet of frontage on Floyd Lake, and it is an ideal investment for a recreational tract, as well as a future residential development site. The property's zoning category is Agricultural/Residential.
The property's location is near Route 20 and the Herman Talmadge Highway. It is also within a short drive from the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Tara Field, a public airport in Hampton is also nearby.
Those interested in learning more information about the property should contact Jason Whitworth at (404) 723-9199, or by email at jwhitworth@cpprofessionals.com. Additionally, Keith Guthrie can be contacted about the property by phone at (404) 790-7271, or by email at kguthrie@cpprofessionals.com. This is one of many land parcels in the state of Georgia offered for sale by Commercial Property Professionals.
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Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/bSxRDs2xJNk/story01.htm
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Dec. 12, 2012 ? Fifty years ago on a mid-December day, NASA's Mariner 2 spacecraft sailed close to the shrouded planet Venus, marking the first time any spacecraft had ever successfully made a close-up study of another planet. The flyby, 36 million miles (58 million kilometers) away from Earth, gave America its first bona fide space "first" after five years in which the Soviet Union led with several space exploration milestones. Designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., the successful Mariner 2 spacecraft ushered in a new era of solar system exploration.
"JPL has always attempted to do mighty things on behalf of NASA and our nation," said JPL director Charles Elachi. "Achieving America's first 'first in space' is among the lab's proudest achievements."
In celebration of the anniversary, an interactive presentation highlighting 50 years of planetary exploration is available online at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/50years .
The first Mariners were designed and built on an extremely demanding schedule. JPL had to ready three probes -- two to fly to Venus and one spare -- in less than a year, with strict weight limits.
Getting to Venus was no easy feat. The Soviet Union suffered several failures in their attempts to get to Venus in 1961. And the rocket carrying NASA's first attempt, Mariner 1, began to fishtail shortly after launch. The range safety officer pushed the self-destruct button four minutes and 53 seconds into flight.
Mariner 2 was launched Aug. 27, 1962, from Cape Canaveral. Shortly after liftoff, the rocket began to roll, making it unable to respond to guidance commands. In the first of a series of Mariner "miracles," the electrical short causing the issue mysteriously healed itself after about a minute.
En route to Venus, Mariner 2 encountered many problems that nearly ended its mission. Among these were a solar panel that twice stopped working, a balky sensor designed to locate Earth and gyros that mysteriously misbehaved. Most troubling of all, temperatures on the spacecraft climbed to alarming levels as Mariner 2 drew closer to Venus. Mission controllers worried the spacecraft might cook itself before reaching its destination.
But on Dec. 14, 1962, Mariner 2 hit its expected mark, gliding within 21,564 miles (13,399 kilometers) of our closest planetary neighbor. Machines at JPL spit out rolls of paper tape with microwave, infrared, radiation and magnetic fields data.
The encounter produced the first close-up measurements of Venus's scorching surface temperature, helping to confirm scientists' hypotheses of a runaway "greenhouse" effect that trapped heat from the sun under an atmospheric blanket. The spacecraft's precision tracking also enabled navigators to use radio signals to measure the effect of Venus's gravity on the spacecraft and calculate the most precise figure ever of the planet's mass.
The mission also made scientific discoveries beyond Venus. During Mariner 2's cruise phase, it was the first to confirm the existence of the solar wind, the stream of charged particles flowing outward from the sun. Its data also enabled scientists to refine the value for an astronomical unit, the average distance between Earth and the sun. Mariner 2 also showed that micrometeorites and the radiation environment were not significant threats in that part of the solar system.
Mariner 2 was a thrilling success during the early, uncertain days of space exploration. As Mariner 2's project manager Jack James of JPL reflected before his death in 2001, "There will be other missions to Venus, but there will never be another first mission to Venus."
Six other successful Mariner missions to Venus, Mars and Mercury followed. And in the ensuing decades, NASA sent spacecraft to all the planets, as well as comets, asteroids and other unfamiliar worlds in our solar system.
For a fuller history of Mariner 2's visit of Venus: visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mariner2/ .
JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/astronomy/~3/9dR80j4gPwI/121212164632.htm
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FILE - In this Dec. 4, 2012, file photo, software company founder John McAfee listens to a question during an interview at a local restaurant in Guatemala City. McAfee said Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012, a live-stream Internet broadcast from the Guatemalan detention center where he is fighting a government order that he be returned to Belize, that he wants to return to the United States and "settle down to whatever normal life" he can. Police in neighboring Belize want to question McAfee in the fatal shooting of a U.S. expatriate who lived near his home on a Belizean island in November. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 4, 2012, file photo, software company founder John McAfee listens to a question during an interview at a local restaurant in Guatemala City. McAfee said Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012, a live-stream Internet broadcast from the Guatemalan detention center where he is fighting a government order that he be returned to Belize, that he wants to return to the United States and "settle down to whatever normal life" he can. Police in neighboring Belize want to question McAfee in the fatal shooting of a U.S. expatriate who lived near his home on a Belizean island in November. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)
Telesforo Guerra, the lawyer of software company founder John McAfee, speaks to journalist outside the detention immigration center where McAfee is being held, in Guatemala City, Friday, Dec. 7, 2012. Guerra told reporters that the creator of the McAfee antivirus program is in good health, and his team is filing four separate legal appeals in an effort to prevent his return to Belize. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) ? A lawyer for John McAfee said Tuesday that a judge has ordered the software company founder released from a Guatemalan detention center where he has been fighting being returned to Belize.
Attorney Telesforo Guerra said the judge notified him verbally of the ruling, but added that it might take a day for formal written notification to win McAfee's release, possibly as soon as Wednesday.
Judge Judith Secaida did not immediately return phone calls seeking to confirm the ruling.
Guerra said Secaida ruled that McAfee's detention was illegal, ordered him released, and gave him 10 days to put his immigration situation in order. It was not immediately clear if McAfee could get some kind of temporary or transit visa to allow him to leave Guatemala.
McAfee has said he wants to return to the United States with his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend. Guerra said that would be his client's best option.
"For me, it's best that McAfee go to the United States, that's definitely the country where he will be safest," Guerra said. "In Guatemala, he runs the risk that anything could happen to him."
McAfee was detained last week for immigration violations after he sneaked into Guatemala from neighboring Belize. He had been on the lam for weeks before that, saying he donned disguises to avoid Belizean police who want to question him in the fatal shooting in November of another U.S. expatriate, Gregory Viant Faull.
The victim lived a couple of houses down from McAfee's compound on Ambergris Caye, an island off Belize's Caribbean coast. McAfee acknowledges that his dogs were bothersome and that Faull had complained about them, but denies killing Faull.
McAfee has said corrupt Belizean authorities are persecuting him, something officials in Belize deny. McAfee says he fears for his safety in Belize because he has sensitive information about official corruption and refused to donate to local politicians.
In a live-stream Internet broadcast Sunday from the Guatemalan detention center where he was put under the government order that he be returned to Belize, the 67-year-old McAfee said he wants to return to the United States and "settle down to whatever normal life" he can.
"I simply would like to live comfortably day by day, fish, swim, enjoy my declining years," he said.
McAfee is an acknowledged practical joker who has dabbled in yoga, ultra-light aircraft and the production of herbal medications. He has led an eccentric life since he sold his stake in the software company named after him in the early 1990s and moved to Belize about three years ago to lower his taxes.
He told The New York Times in 2009 that he had lost all but $4 million of his $100 million fortune in the U.S. financial crisis. However, a story on the Gizmodo website quoted him as describing that claim as "not very accurate at all."
Faull's family has said through a representative that McAfee's skillful courting of the media, including blog posts, email messages clandestine interviews, has obscured the point that McAfee should submit to police questioning.
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Ever wonder how engineers, right out of college or high school, in some cases go on to build huge companies like Apple, Microsoft and Facebook? The answer is ? Tech Venture Capital.
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Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Inc., receives a cash infusion from a Don Valentine, a tech venture capitalist to start Apple.
Starting a new company needs a strong business plan, good management and initial capital. Starting a technology company is no different. But along with a strong business plan, a tech company needs management that understands both the business and technology aspects. Meeting the technology needs of a fast-paced market while facing competition from other companies that have made technology a leading driving force in global economy is not an easy task. This gave birth to a new career ? A Tech Venture Capitalist.
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A Tech Venture Capitalist (TVC), as the name suggests, is an investor or group of investors that privately fund a new technology venture. In exchange for their investment, they usually get a say in the company?s policies and decisions, the company shares (preferred stock) and even some control over the company?s operations. A TVC essentially identifies suitable companies for investment, develops a strategic plan, provides networking and manages competition.
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Any investment would expect a positive return. This makes the most important role of a TVC to estimate the technological trends in the future. With a densely populated technology sector, a product can be irrelevant to the market within days of its release. A TVC projects the future of a product by taking into consideration many factors such as the life of the electrical components used, components of the competitor?s products, the time taken to build a product, market share estimation and needs of the market.
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This needs a TVC to be knowledgeable in both the business and technology fields. Traditionally electrical, computer and software engineers with an MBA in management would be a match for a TVC?s role. But, recent recessions have proven that innovation and entrepreneurship along with a strong background in quality engineering and technology commercialization can bail out a company from dark periods.
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Florida Tech now offers a M.S. in innovation and entrepreneurship. This degree program is perfect for engineers who have a strong interest in starting a company or working for a startup. The curriculum includes courses in technology commercialization, project engineering and quality engineering that are required to sustain the market competition. This degree also allows us to commercialize our Northrup Grumman Engineering & Science Student Design Showcase and would produce individuals perfect for a job in the Tech Venture Capital firms.
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So, the next time you have an innovative idea that can change the world, you know what to do!
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Hey, remember me? It?s The Brooklyn Brawler. For 30 years I?ve been locking up with all the greats in WWE rings, and for 30 years WWE has refused to cross the East River from Manhattan to the greatest city in the world: Brooklyn, N.Y. Finally, after all this time, WWE is bringin? a real-life pay-per-view where the real New Yorkers live, the County of Kings. And if anyone knows a thing or two about bein? a king, it?s me, The Brooklyn Brawler.
(WATCH BRAWLER DEFEAT TRIPLE H | TWITTER:?@BRAWLERREAL)
So let?s get ready for WWE TLC at the sparkly new Barclays Center, right around the corner from the famous Brooklyn Academy of Music. Allow me to guide you through my hometown. We?ve got a lotta history, the best pizza and the toughest fighters. Think you know New York City? Think again. This ain?t Broadway. This is Brooklyn.
(WATCH BRAWLER?S ?BEST??| MORE BROOKLYN BRAWLER)
Source: http://www.wwe.com/classics/brooklyn-brawlers-guide-to-brooklyn
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Spirituality, as a manner of practice, is associated with religions, but spirituality can be discovered and spiritual illumination can be attained outside of religion. Acts of compassion, charity,abercrombie, selfless service, along with the experience of inner peace and joy are all characteristics of spirituality. We can experience spiritual awakening while listening to a beautiful piece of music, while looking at a soulful work of art, or while reading an inspirational book. We can feel spiritual by turning towards Nature, flowing water, walking through the woods, the sky, a towering cliff of mountain, vast ocean, and the rising sun. When we are in tune with Nature, when our mind,abercrombie outlet, body and soul are in harmony with one another, we are being spiritual.
Generally speaking human beings have two goals in life. One is called the worldly prosperity and well-being and the other is called the spiritual illumination. We remain in ignorance as long as we don?t have our spiritual illumination. We cannot desire for the material world alone and ignore the spiritual altogether. This way we lose our balance.
Being spiritual greatly contributes to our Self Improvement and overall joy and happiness,abercrombie france. Our subconscious mind, which is not in our direct control, holds one of the major keys to our growth and self-improvement. By following the path of spirituality we can purify our subconscious mind. By doing so, we can gradually change our old habits, behaviour patterns and attitude towards life, and face the world with a more positive and balanced outlook.
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Spirituality is not just about reading spiritual books, or attending spiritual lectures. Real Spirituality, as a matter of fact, begins with being and becoming spiritual.
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..I loved TDKR, but it was so full of flaws, and less than exceptional performances, that I think this is a cop-out choice...kinda likke when "Return of the King" won Best Picture...its like they are getting paid off for finishing the trilogy...and, all i have to say, is that "The Cabin in the Woods" had a better rating than 7 of these movies on this list...so , they can all smoke the Cabin's zombie hand...put that in your stove-pipe hat, Lincoln
Dec 10 - 06:08 PM
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