PFT: Parcells says Patriots spoiled New England fans

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Former Jets QB Vinny Testaverde isn?t a fan of the team?s ongoing circus atmosphere.

Here?s a position-by-position breakdown of the Dolphins? defense.

Bills special-teams coordinator Danny Crossman talks about his plan for improving Buffalo?s coverage and return units.

Here?s a look at the AP awards, if the only team in the NFL was the Patriots.

Baltimore native Michael Phelps thinks the Ravens will win the Super Bowl by seven points.? (The bigger question is whether he?ll celebrate with a bowl, a bong, or a blunt.)

Former (eventually) Steelers RB Chris Rainey has pleaded no contest to a charge of disorderly conduct to resolve his domestic violence case.

Former Bengals LB Ahmad Brooks, who now plays for the 49ers, says that youth and politics kept him from playing more when he was in Cincinnati.

Browns owner Jimmy Haslam says that QB Brandon Weeden will have competition for his job.

So would Gregg Williams and Jerry Gray be able to coexist in Tennessee?

Colts coach Chuck Pagano and new Cardinals coach Bruce Arians could be sharing the coach of the year award come Saturday night.

Jaguars owner Shahid Khan says hosting a second Super Bowl isn?t among his goals for Jacksonville.

Texans owner Bob McNair says inside linebacker and receiver are among the team?s offseason priorities.

QB Geno Smith wants to be a Chief, presumably via the first overall pick in the draft and not, say, round four.

The Broncos are increasing ticket prices for the second straight year.

Former Chargers coach Bobby Ross says the inclusion of some late coverages that weren?t executed well doomed his team the last time the 49ers won a Super Bowl.

If more owners behaved like the late Al Davis, the NFL wouldn?t even need a Rooney Rule.

The Dallas Morning News wants to know if Cowboys fans would accept an openly gay player on the team.

Giants P Steve Weatherford strongly denies that he has ever met ?Magic? Mitch Ross, the deer-antler velvet extract guy.

Eagles WR DeSean Jackson says it?s a ?no-brainer? for the Eagles to bring back QB Mike Vick.

Commissioner Roger Goodell on the Redskins? controversial nickname:? ?I don?t think anybody wants to offend anybody.?

Lions Hall of Fame RB Barry Sanders thinks a gay player should expect to be teased in the locker room, where football players get ?teased for anything.?

Plenty of people will be attending the retirement celebration for WR Donald Driver.

Vikings P Chris Kluwe wants 49ers CB Chris Culliver to get an education on why his comments about gay players were ?not cool.?

Former Bears coach Mike Ditka taught current 49ers coach and former Bears QB Jim Harbaugh a lot about the game.

Saints QB Drew Brees has embraced his temporary role as ambassador for New Orleans.

Buccaneers G Davin Joseph says he?s fully recovered from knee surgery and that the Bucs are on the verge of becoming a ?great team.?

Panthers QB Cam Newton has cut back on his Little Debbie habit.

A group known as Common Cause Georgia plans to block the use of public funds for a new Falcons stadium.

The Cardinals are sticking with a 3-4 defense, despite hiring a coordinator who most recently ran a 4-3.

Rams fans are divided on the future of the team in St. Louis.

Charges have yet to be filed against Seahawks LB Leroy Hill, who was arrested Tuesday on charges of domestic violence.

Folks in San Francisco are buying up big-screen TVs for watching the 49ers on Sunday.? (And for throwing things through it if the Niners lose.)

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/02/bill-parcells-says-new-england-is-spoiled-by-the-patriots/related

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Berlusconi: if I win, Italians get home tax back

Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi delivers his speech at a gathering of supporters in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013. Berlusconi is promising Italians if they vote him back into office that he will not only abolish an unpopular tax on primary residences, but he'll refund property taxes Premier Mario Monti's government made them pay in 2012. Berlusconi abolished the tax when last elected premier in 2008, but Monti, who replaced him in 2011 as Italy sunk into the Eurozone debt crisis, revived it to help fill state coffers. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi delivers his speech at a gathering of supporters in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013. Berlusconi is promising Italians if they vote him back into office that he will not only abolish an unpopular tax on primary residences, but he'll refund property taxes Premier Mario Monti's government made them pay in 2012. Berlusconi abolished the tax when last elected premier in 2008, but Monti, who replaced him in 2011 as Italy sunk into the Eurozone debt crisis, revived it to help fill state coffers. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, foreground, sits in front of Northern League party's leader Roberto Maroni, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013. Silvio Berlusconi says Benito Mussolini did much good, except for dictator's regime's anti-Jewish laws. Berlusconi also defended Mussolini for siding with Hitler, saying the late fascist leader likely reasoned that German power would expand so it would be better for Italy to ally itself with Germany. He was speaking to reporters Sunday on the sidelines of a ceremony in Milan to commemorate the Holocaust. When Germany's Nazi regime occupied Italy during World War II, thousands from the tiny Italian Jewish community were deported to death camps. In 1938, before the war's outbreak, Mussolini's regime passed anti-Jewish laws, barring them from universities and many professions, among other bans. Berlusconi called the laws Mussolini's "worst fault" but insisted that in many other things, "he did good." (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi delivers his speech at a gathering of supporters in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013. Berlusconi is promising Italians if they vote him back into office that he will not only abolish an unpopular tax on primary residences, but he'll refund property taxes Premier Mario Monti's government made them pay in 2012. Berlusconi abolished the tax when last elected premier in 2008, but Monti, who replaced him in 2011 as Italy sunk into the Eurozone debt crisis, revived it to help fill state coffers. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

ROME (AP) ? Media mogul Silvio Berlusconi on Sunday promised Italians that if they vote him back into office, he will abolish an unpopular tax on primary residences and refund property taxes Premier Mario Monti's government made them pay in 2012 as a key austerity measure to rescue the country from the eurozone debt crisis.

Berlusconi abolished the tax in 2008, when he was elected for a third term as premier, to fulfill a campaign promise. But the tax was immediately revived when Monti, an economist and former European Union commissioner, replaced him in 2011 as Italy sunk deeper into the debt crisis.

Berlusconi is a 76-year-old populist trying for a political comeback despite a recent criminal conviction for tax fraud and other judicial woes, including a trial in which he is charged with paying for sex with an underage teenage girl. He claims he is the innocent victim of prosecutors he contends sympathize with the left.

He told a gathering of applauding supporters in Milan that the property tax so spooked Italians that they cut back on buying consumer goods, and quit investing, aggravating the economic crisis in recession-mired Italy.

"This tax caused Italian families worry, anxiety, fear of the future," Berlusconi said, contending that tax so depressed the real estate market that 360,000 people become unemployed, including bricklayers, artisans, locksmiths and electricians.

He insisted the revenue lost by reimbursing homeowners the ?4 billion ($5.4 billion) they paid in property taxes could be compensated by eliminating state financing for political parties, raising taxes on non-essential goods like cigarettes and lottery tickets, and taxing Italians' financial instruments' income in Switzerland.

Cost-cutting measures to compensate the lost revenue would also include halving the number of legislators, a proposed reform that has gone nowhere including during Berlusconi's tenure in the premier's office.

The populist's center-right forces trail a center-left coalition in opinion polls before Feb. 24-25 elections. Monti, heading a centrist ticket, trails even farther back, but his forces could prove to hold the key to forming a coalition since no one ticket is expected to get enough seats in Parliament to govern alone.

Berlusconi didn't mention that his Freedom People legislators in Parliament approved nearly all of Monti's austerity measures, including the same property tax he is now vowing to eliminate at his first Cabinet meeting should he be victorious at the ballot box.

With the economy stagnant, unemployment rising and Italians growing weary of sacrifices imposed by the government, Berlusconi withdrew his party's support for Monti late last year, forcing elections to be called about two months ahead of time.

Monti sarcastically commented on Berlusconi's promise to reimburse property owners for the tax paid last year. "He's magnificent," Monti told reporters. "Berlusconi governed for so many years and maintained none, any of his promises," including one to reduce income taxes.

"What's more, he created many problems, so much so that he had to leave" office, Monti added. While Berlusconi is trying to be elected premier for the fourth time, "Italians have good memories, I believe," Monti said.

Berlusconi has been coy on whether he would be premier again should his forces should win the election. On Sunday, he added a new twist, saying he would be economy minister, joking that he would hold that post if his top aide "would let him."

Front-runner Pier Luigi Bersani has seen a slight drop in support in the polls for his center-left campaign coalition, possibly because of fallout from a widening scandal involving an Italian bank whose board included some backers from his Democratic Left Party. Running third in some polls and ahead of Monti is a comic and political agitator, Beppe Grillo.

The same polls have found that roughly a third of eligible voters saying they are either undecided or won't vote.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-02-03-Italy-Berlusconi/id-76220f5a1d684cb2a09d3351893aba15

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Columbia tragedy still stings 10 years later

Retrace the final, tragic flight of the space shuttle Columbia, from its launch to its catastrophic end on Feb. 1, 2003.

NASA observed its annual "Day of Remembrance" for fallen astronauts on Friday with ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, as well as at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and other NASA centers. In this 10th-anniversary commentary, NBC News' longtime Cape Canaveral correspondent, Jay Barbree, looks back at the loss of the shuttle Columbia and its crew:

By Jay Barbree, NBC News

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ? On the morning of that fateful Saturday, the first day of February 2003, the Columbia astronauts prepared their ship for its landing at their Florida launch site.

Touchdown was set for 9:16 a.m. Eastern time, and on Columbia's 255th trip around Earth in 16 days, commander Rick Husband was given the "go" to put on his brakes and leave orbit.? The senior astronaut was flying Columbia backward and tail-up when he ignited the ship's?two orbiting maneuvering?rockets. Twelve thousand pounds of thrust pounded against Columbia's forward speed?for two minutes and 38 seconds.? The burn was "right on the nose," and it slowed the big shuttle's forward motion just enough to drop it out of orbit.

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Columbia slammed into Earth's atmosphere at 400,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean.? This is when a spacecraft skips along the upper surface of the planet's air, much like a stone skipping across a lake. The first effects of re-entry heat can be felt when the shuttle penetrates the atmosphere.? Its surface grows hotter and hotter as it plows deeper and deeper into the thickening air. The plasma sheath around the shuttle is hotter than the molten lava pouring from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano.

In physics, plasma is a highly ionized gas containing an approximately equal number of positive ions and electrons.? The super-hot plasma is the product of friction created by a fast-moving object through air.? It first appeared to Columbia's astronauts as a faint salmon glow.? Nearing the California coast, Columbia was dropping like a rock. Its nose-up attitude was focusing the plasma's heat on the reinforced carbon-carbon panels covering the shuttle's nose and the leading edges of its wings.

Dec. 31, 2008: NASA releases information about what the astronauts went through in their final moments onboard the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. NBC's Tom Costello reports.

"This is amazing," pilot Willie McCool said.? "It's really getting, uh, fairly bright out there," he added, staring at the growing intensity of the fire outside.

Veteran commander Rick Husband smiled. It wasn't his first re-entry.? He knew this was only the beginning of the blast furnace that was yet to come.? "Yeah, you definitely don't want to be outside now," he told his pilot.

Columbia crossed the California coast at 8:53 a.m. Eastern time, 23 minutes away from its Florida touchdown.? Below, two news photographers had set up their cameras to get a view of the returning shuttle, but instead of seeing the perfect trail of plasma they expected, the photographers saw a big red flare shoot from underneath Columbia.

The two looked at each other. Was that thing coming apart?

Six minutes later, Columbia?crossed the sky 40 miles above north central Texas. The super-hot plasma sped freely through a six-inch hole in Columbia's left wing, made by a chunk of falling tank foam on launch day. The blast melted the ship's inner structure.? America's first space shuttle was ripped into more than 84,000 pieces, killing Columbia's dedicated crew of seven.

Following a seven-month investigation, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, chaired by retired Navy Adm. Harold W. Gehman Jr., issued a scathing report, confirming that the "the foam did it" and indicting NASA as a co-conspirator. The board declared that "the NASA organizational culture had as much to do with the accident as well as the foam." Its report cited eight missed opportunities to detect the problem during the flight, and identified schedule pressures and communications breakdowns as contributing factors.

NASA?decided to retire its space shuttle fleet?after meeting its obligations to?complete the building of the International Space Station,?and?drew up?plans for safer rockets and spacecraft.

President?George W. Bush approved a new generation of space vehicles, aimed at sending astronauts to the moon under a project named Constellation. Then, along came Barack Obama. The new president canceled Constellation, and?since then, NASA has struggled.

Today, 10 years after?the Columbia tragedy,?America's $6.6 billion Florida spaceport sits mostly idle. Several projects are trying to get started. Private companies are working on spaceships that could launch astronauts from U.S. soil again starting sometime in the next several years. NASA is developing a launch system that could be sending Americans beyond Earth orbit a decade from now. Meanwhile, about 8,400 NASA employees and contractors are caretakers of what was once the home?of the world's leader in space exploration. Those with vision have moved on to more promising projects, while many of those who are left mark time and cut grass.

More about the Columbia tragedy:

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Jay Barbree is in his 55th year with NBC News as a space analyst, correspondent and consultant. He is the only journalist who covered all 166 flights by American astronauts from U.S. soil, and is now writing a book on Neil Armstrong's life of flight.

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/01/16805696-how-the-columbia-tragedy-unfolded-and-led-to-nasas-tough-transition

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How to let a holiday cottage in winter & get bookings | Schofields Blog

November to February is typically a quiet period for holiday cottage rentals. Although many holiday home owners undertake essential maintenance during this period, winter is also a time to take stock of the previous letting season and prepare for the new one.

Although there are fewer people looking to go on holiday during this period, there are still lots of travellers looking to get away.? Here a few ideas to help you maximise the opportunity to attract bookings at your holiday let cottage during the winter.

Offer incentives

Some ideas;

• Offer one day free when they stay for 7 (7 days for the price of 6).
• Don?t ask for a damage deposit ? this reduces the perception of the overall cost. Most cottage owners don?t deduct from damage deposits anyway.
• How can you add value? Include coal and logs for the open fire, a free box of chocolates and bottle of wine, include electricity charges and free wifi. Factor these into the rental rate rather pricing them as extras.

The point of these incentives is to differentiate your property from the rest, show that your rental is value for money and a better offer than competing properties.

Discounts

Try to be as flexible and competitive as possible with your rental rates ? but only if you make a profit. It may be more costly for you to have an empty property than to give a discount. Check out your competitors and try to attract longer winter rentals.

Why should guests visit during winter?

Some travellers have the opinion that many resorts ?shut down? in winter. If your holiday cottage is in a year round destination, showcase the nearby attractions and create a calendar of local winter events. A blog is the ideal platform to do this.

Set the scene, allow potential guests to see themselves lounging by your log burner, walking on the snow caped fells or at dining your local cosy pub.

Christmas and New Year

Although your Christmas and New Year dates are likely to book up, there are still lots of people looking to get away both before and after Christmas. Your rental rates in December, early January are probably a fraction of the cost compared to the festive period, but guests can still sample the festive spirit.

How can you make your property appealing? What special events are on, such as Christmas markets, decorate your cottage with a tree/Xmas decorations and add pictures to your gallery.

Update your photos

Holidaymakers will want to see wintery photos of your holiday cottage (especially your roaring log burner or open fire) and the local area if they?re searching for a winter rental. Update photos on your holiday rental listings to wintery images.

Keep your advertising updated

Don?t forget to update your advertising, re-write descriptions to sell the benefits you provide for winter rentals. Promote your indoor entertainment; a wii, board games for the whole family, a heated hot tub, cooking books and baking utensils for example.

Are there any niche holiday rental sites that you can advertise on that have improved in the last 12 months?

Get winter rental reviews

Third party endorsements from past guests help get bookings. Get reviews from guests who stayed in winter. Showcase what made their stay special. Did they go sledging, build a snowman, enjoy the local markets, your cosy log burner, walks from your doorstep or the winter menu at your local pub.

If you make sure that they could access your property in the snow (a concern for some travellers) ask guests to mention it in the review..

Email marketing

Contact previous guests to let them know about your winter special offers or remind them of their loyalty discount. It?s also a good opportunity let them know about any updates you have done at your cottage. This simple ?nudge? may get bookings from those who know your property well. Happy guests return.

There are still lots of travellers looking to book cottage holidays in the winter. If you have any letting tips please add them in the comments.

Source: http://www.schofields.ltd.uk/blog/2986/letting-a-holiday-cottage-in-winter/

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Cameron makes unexpected visit to Libya

LONDON (AP) ? British Prime Minister David Cameron made an unexpected visit to the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Thursday and announced that U.K. police officers will travel to the North African nation to investigate the Lockerbie bombing.

He also held bilateral talks to explore what support and expertise Britain can offer to Libya to strengthen its security and defeat terrorism.

Cameron told a press conference in Tripoli he was "delighted" that police would be able to visit Libya and "look into the issues" around the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town. The attack killed 270 people, many of them American.

The death last spring of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi ? a former Libyan intelligence agent and the only man convicted over the Lockerbie bombing ? renewed pleas from victims' relatives for further investigation of the bombing. After the 2011 fall of dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Britain asked Libya's new rulers to help fully investigate.

Cameron also said Britain was prepared to provide training and advice to Libya amid growing concerns over security in the region, pledging to help Libya's police and army.

The prime minister's visit to Tripoli ? which came shortly after a stop in Algeria, where he struck a security partnership ? also was just days after the U.K. Foreign Office warned of a potential threat against the British embassy in Tripoli.

Just before that, Britain joined other governments in urging its citizens in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, to evacuate in response to what was described as an imminent threat to Westerners.

The Foreign Office on Thursday would not comment on the status of those threats but said it was "taking appropriate measures."

But Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan described the calls for British and other European nationals to leave Benghazi as "sort of a precautionary measure," telling reporters at a joint press conference with Cameron that "the situation is not worth worrying over."

He accused "anti-revolutionary" forces for being behind all the talk about Benghazi's deteriorating security situation.

"The security situation is fine, recovering and improving," Zidan said, praising Cameron for visiting Libya and calling him a "responsible and a courageous man who cares about his country's interests."

Earlier Thursday, locals greeted Cameron as he toured Tripoli's famous Martyrs' Square amid tight security.

Cameron also visited a police training center on the outskirts of Tripoli, telling police recruits it was "very good to be back." He last visited Libya in September 2011, just after the fall of Gadhafi.

"I will never forget the scenes I saw in Tripoli and Benghazi," Cameron said, according to Britain's Press Association. "The British people want to stand with you and help you deliver the greater security that Libya needs. So we have offered training and support from our police and our military."

The U.K. will double the number of advisers working on training Libyan forces to 16, bring the number of police advisers to three and embed another expert with Libya's ministry of the interior.

Members of the Libyan navy will be invited to attend a five-month training course in England, and the U.K. will fund a 4.5 million-pound ($7.1 million) job creation package focusing on ex-militia.

After Libya, Cameron travels to Liberia for a development conference.

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Associated Press writer Esam Mohamed in Tripoli, Libya, contributed to this report.

Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cameron-makes-unexpected-visit-libya-124551953.html

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Do you know the difference between copyright and trademarks?

If not, why not? You could save yourself a shed load of hassle down the line if you do.

If you?re an artist, web designer, writer, or blogger (or pretty much anyone else working in the creative field), you?re likely to be fully aware of the benefits of copyright. Generally it protects what is termed as an ?original work of authorship? ? roughly translated as including books, poems, songs, web pages, and other original works.

Copyright protection is considered to be automatic in that the author creates the copyright in the act of creating the work. As such, copyright does not have to be registered, although in order to fully benefit from copyright protection, it is necessary to assert ownership of a particular work. At a very basic level, this is achieved by marking the work with the ? symbol, the date from which the copyright protection is claimed, and the name of the claimant. Multiple copyrights can be managed easily with the help of a free copyright management app. With a few exceptions, copyright lasts until 70 years after the death of the claimant.

The distinction between copyright and a trademark is not always immediately obvious; both are valid methods of protecting forms of intellectual copyright. The difference really lies in what is being protected, with trademarks more suitable when asserting right of ownership over things like brand names. There is no legal requirement to apply for a trademark, since the rights and protection associated with it are technically gained in the simple act of using the mark. The advantages of official registration include legal presumption of ownership, an exclusive right to use the trademarked name across the U.S., as well as offering a certain level of overseas rights. As in the case of copyrights, registering a trademark can be accomplished with the help of online legal services, although unlike copyrights these are not free. Compared to the potential cost of a later breach of trademark, the costs are fairly insignificant. Registrants can expect to pay in the region of $100 to $400 depending on the service required. It is up to the owner to renew a trademark. This can be completed up to six months before the tenth anniversary of the initial filing date (and on every tenth anniversary following).

One problem to watch out for is trademarks becoming generic. Some of the better known examples of this may be identified as Frisbee, Hoover, and Hula Hoop; all of which started life as a particular brand name, but have since become common vernacular. Choosing a strong trademark can alleviate the possibility of a trademark being used generically, with ?made-up? names often easier to protect.

Whether you need copyright or trademark protection it pays to know the difference and do something about it either way. Otherwise you could find yourself facing difficulties in trying to prove something important is actually owned by you.

Click here to find out more about Trademarks and how they differ from copyright.

Source: http://myows.com/blog/do-you-know-the-difference-between-copyright-and-trademarks/

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Beyonce to finally face media at Super Bowl

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? Beyonce is expected to face the media Thursday as she previews her halftime performance at the Super Bowl. But the focus will likely be on her performance at that other big event earlier this month.

The superstar hasn't spoken publicly since it was alleged that she lip-synched her rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at President Barack Obama's inauguration. Since she hasn't addressed the controversy, it's expected the topic will be the main focus of her afternoon press conference in New Orleans.

The Super Bowl halftime performer usually talks about the halftime show. On occasion, some acts have performed for the media.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-01-31-Super%20Bowl-Beyonce/id-1092a9295bd64097a84b02d45370e55e

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