News Pix: Cold Weather, Christmas Bird Count, and Holiday Joy ...

Never mind Berkeley in the 60s, Wednesday December 19th saw Berkeley in the 30s -- most likely the coldest day of the year so far. (Ira Serkes/Berkeleyside)

On the last day of school before winter break, the nearly 325 children at Verde Elementary School in North Richmond all went home with a coat and a present, provided through the school's annual toy and coat drive.(Rachel de Leon/Richmond Confidential)

East Bay bird watchers were out in force for the annual Christmas Bird Count, run by the Golden Gate Audubon Society.The Oakland count covers a 177-square mile circle that stretches north to Point Isabel and south to the Oakland Airport. Shown here: a black and white Warbler. (Alan Krakauer/Berkeleyside)

UK offers long-awaited copyright reform that sanctions format shifting, remote education

Believe it or not, it's still illegal in the UK to rip a favorite CD, or even to show copyrighted work in distance education -- both fair use permissions that many North Americans take for granted. Some sense is at last coming around now that the Intellectual Property Office is putting forward copyright reforms that accept a digital reality. The measures explicitly approve private copying for personal use, making it legal to shift formats as long as it's to play purchased content. Many of the reforms also clear up the murkiness surrounding institutional use: analysts, researchers and teachers should have access to copyrighted material over networks, as long as it's for non-commercial purposes. The fair use terms aren't as broadly outlined as they are in the US -- these are exceptions, not general rules -- but they go a long way towards legitimizing what many wanted all along. Or, let's be honest, were already doing.

[Image credit: Department for Business Innovation and Skills, Flickr]

Filed under: Storage, Networking, Internet

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Via: GigaOM

Source: Dept. for Business Innovation and Skills

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/cRwErLEtQY0/

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Fiscal Cliff Watch: IRS OKs using 2012 withholding rate for now ...

Because the White House and Congress have yet to agree on tax legislation to avert a plunge over the ?fiscal cliff? on Jan. 1, employers are in a bind as they set up payroll processing for the first week of 2013. Without 2013 withholding tables, it?s impossible to know how to calculate federal payroll taxes and employee take-home pay.

Now the IRS has offered guidance that can let the paperwork proceed, at least for the short term.

According to John Tuzynski, the IRS? chief of employment tax policy, employers should continue to use 2012 withholding tables and personal exemption amounts until further notice.

Using the old withholding tables is the easy part. Remember, the 4.2% employee Social Security tax rate expires on Dec. 31. The proper tax rate is based on when employees are paid, not when the wages were earned. So, unless there is some really last-minute legislation extending the 4.2% rate, for paychecks issued in January (and that are being processed right now), use the 6.2% employee rate.

For supplemental wages under $1 million, the flat supplemental withholding rate will increase to 28%, from 25%, for supplemental wages paid after Jan. 1. The mandatory flat withholding rate on supplemental pay exceeding $1 million will increase to 39.6%, from 35%.

For back-up withholding on payments made to independent contractors after Jan. 1, the rate will increase to 28% and 31%.

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Idaho, California cities deemed best in U.S. for men

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. men looking for the best place to find happiness, health and a good quality of life might consider heading to Boise, Idaho, or San Jose and San Francisco in northern California.

The three western U.S. cities top the list of the 100 best towns for men in a new ranking compiled by Men's Health magazine, while Charleston, West Virginia, Philadelphia and Birmingham, Alabama are considered the worst.

"Anytime we do a best and worst city ranking and a city comes in at the very top like this, it immediately says to us they were consistently strong across the board in pretty much all of the 38 criteria that we looked at," Men's Health Executive Editor Matt Marion said.

Boise, which jumped from fifth place last year, scored high marks for the physical and mental health of its residents, its low crime rate and short commuting times - an average of just 18 minutes.

"Boise finishing number one was interesting to us because it is a city that would have finished in the top 20, but to come in right at the top is impressive," Marion said.

San Francisco, which consistently ranks high in the annual list, impressed with its small percentage of obese people, low number of smokers and highly educated and generally fit population.

San Jose had very low death rates from cancer and heart disease, the lowest percentage of smokers in any of the 100 cities in the ranking, and not much crime.

Plano, in Texas and Seattle rounded out the top five, followed by Burlington, Vermont, which dropped from the top spot last year.

At the opposite end of the list, high cancer rates, violent crime and poor fitness levels assured Birmingham last place. In addition to Philadelphia and Charleston, West Virginia, the bottom five included Toledo, Ohio and St. Louis, Missouri.

New York ranked 33rd and Los Angeles was in the middle of the ranking.

The magazine compiled the list, now in its 12th year, by ranking the cities on criteria ranging from the cost of living, number of jobless, obesity, crime and death rates, to air quality and the ratio of men to women.

It used data from various sources including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, the National Center for Health Statistics, state cancer registries and federal crime statistics.

"The things that we do focus on ultimately are the ones that will make a difference in terms of whether or not you will be happy and healthy," Marion said.

The full list can be found at http://www.menshealth.com/best-life/best-cities-men

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Paul Casciato and Leslie Gevirtz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/idaho-california-cities-deemed-best-u-men-163649865.html

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Football: Libya Gains Nine Positions in FIFA Ranking Since 2011

Libya's national football team...had a good year, finishing high up in FIFA Ranking

Libya's national football team will finish the year 2012 in 54th position from among the 207 members of the International Football Federation, FIFA. That means it gained nine places in the overall standing since a year ago when it finished 2011 in 63rd place.

The latest FIFA Ranking list up to December 19, places Libya in 54th place, meaning it climbed five places since November, which also gives it an eleventh place among the nations members of the Confederation of African Football.

Year 2012, has also seen Libyan climb to its best ever position in 36th place in September, but since then it lost all the ground it had gained after the loss against Algeria in its two qualifying matches for next month's African Cup of Nations finals in South Africa.

The position also boosts Libya's moral in the year after the 2011 Revolution in which it rid itself of the Gaddafi dictatorial regime, and also any involvement by the Gaddafi family members in the running of sport in the country, particularly football that had become a vehicle for the Gaddafi brothers to try and win over support. In the end, this involvement only gagged the progress on the field of play and brought discomfort among the clubs domestically.

Libya started the year 63rd in the FIFA/Coca Cola World Ranking, then it gained 10 places the following month, but lost two in the March list. But April saw it gain nine places, climbing to 46th, a place it held in May. But in the following four months, Libya seemed to take the ranking list by storm.

In June it climbed four places to 42nd, then gained three more places in July, another one in August, and in September reached its best ever position, 36th.

After that, and due to lack of competitive matches and the two defeats against Algeria, it slipped to 53rd in October and lost six more places in July, only to recover somewhat in the latest ranking just announced, that sees World and European champions Spain holding on to the top position, and Brazil finishing in their worst ever position in 18th.

During the period taken into consideration,143 international matches were played. And though the top ten may have remained the same, there were a few shuffles elsewhere on 2012?s last instalment of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.

Spain will finish the year at the summit for the fifth time in succession - an achievement which earns them the ?Team of the Year? title - followed by Germany, Argentina and Italy (4th, up 1).
The ?Mover of the Year? goes to Colombia for the second time since the Ranking was introduced in 1993. They finished 2011 in 36th, but thanks to six wins, one draw and only one defeat thereafter - and the 455 points they consequently earned - they end 2012 in fifth.

It has also been a very successful year for Ecuador (13th, up 365 points since December 2011) and Mali (25th, up 337 points since December 2011).

Over the course of the year, the regional composition of the top 50 has only slightly changed: whereas the number of teams from UEFA (27 teams in the top 50), CONMEBOL (9), CONCACAF (3) and the OFC (0) remained the same, CAF (8, plus 1) finished the year with one team more in the top 50, at the expense of the AFC (3, minus 1).

In total in 2012, the results of 900 matches have been taken into account, more than half of which were friendlies (465-52 %) and more than a quarter of which were qualifying matches for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil (257-29%).

The top 10 finishers for 2010 are:

1. Spain
2. Germany
3. Argentina
4. Italy
5. Colombia
6. England
7. Portugal
8. Netherlands
9. Russia
10. Croatia

Ivory Coast held on to their top place among the African nations. They also finish 19 overall.
The other teams above Libya in the CAF list are: 2. Algeria 3. Mali 4. Ghana 5. Zambia 6. Egypt 7. Gabon 8. Tunisia 9. Central African Republic and 10. Nigeria.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheTripoliPost/~3/dNefd6nA6U0/articledetail.asp

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Mobile Photosharing, The Final Social Frontier

Despite Consumergeddon, it's still a mobile photosharing jungle out there. Unless of course you are Snapchat, in which case welcome to being the prettiest girl in the room. Which, while fun at times, still sucks -- Because welcome to everyone being intimidated by you (as Facebook is with all heavily used communication apps) or accusing you of (warranted or unwarranted) salacious behavior or copying you or all of the above. So yeah.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/STxU3JXcppM/

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Research Beagles Released as Pets

70 puppies were released after activists alerted the Indian government that the animals had been falsely described as 'pets' by a contract organization seeking to import them

By Meredith Wadman and Nature News Blog

Beagle dogs at the Chennai quarantine facility await transfer to rescue groups. Image: PETA INDIA

Seventy beagle puppies originally intended for pharmacology research were released to adoptive families in India on Saturday, several weeks after activists alerted the Indian government that the animals had been falsely described as ?pets? by the contract research organization seeking to import them.

The company, Bangalore-based Advinus, had been receiving beagle shipments from the Chinese arm of Marshall BioResources, a major research animal breeder based in North Rose, New York, since at least 2010. As Nature?s news blog reported last month (see ?Research dogs shipped to India under airline?s radar?),?the dogs, which are a sought-after breed for toxicology research because of their docility, were flown to companies in India and Japan by Cathay Pacific, which refuses to transport research animals. Marshall had represented the dogs to the airline as being for ?breeding? and ?genetic research? purposes. ?They won?t be hurt or killed as lab animals,? the Chinese arm of Marshall wrote to the airline.

Scott Marshall, the president and chief executive of Marshall BioResources, said last month that he needed to investigate the matter and would have no comment until he did. He did not respond to two additional e-mailed requests for comment this week.

The pups had been in quarantine in Chennai since the Cathay Pacific flight from China landed on 19 October. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in India obtained a photo of them and additional documents indicating that they were intended for research use at Advinus, and reported the information to the Indian government?s Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experimentation on Animals. The committee investigated and, on Saturday, as The Times of India reports,?the government released them for distribution to adoptive owners by Blue Cross and People for Animals, two animal groups in Chennai. The crated pups pictured are shown in the quarantine facility in Chennai shortly before their release.

This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on December 18, 2012.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=e4b1b3d3babf97f22df83bef426b970c

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