NATO says 3 troops killed in eastern Afghanistan

(AP) ? A roadside bombing killed three NATO service members Saturday in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S.-led coalition said.

The coalition recently shifted its focus from southern Afghanistan to the east, where militants are fighting Afghan and coalition troops along the long, porous border with Pakistan.

The exact location of the bombing was not disclosed, nor were the nationalities of the dead.

So far this year, 519 NATO service members have been killed in Afghanistan, including at least 389 Americans.

Separately, tribal elders in Logar province, also in the east, continued to negotiate with insurgents on Saturday in an effort to free eight Pakistani laborers kidnapped by militants on Thursday, said provincial spokesman Din Mohammad Darwesh.

He said they were kidnapped by a gunman on a motorcycle who ambushed a bus carrying the laborers to work at a hospital construction site in Pul-e-Alam, the provincial capital. The assailants took them into the woods at gunpoint.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-03-Afghanistan/id-d8b3dce57e5d435faa1ef9e893c0d8a4

carlos santana jahvid best libya map libya map world series game 2 world series game 2 libya

People Are So Outraged At Coca-Cola's Holiday ... - Business Insider

Coca-Cola tried to revive its polar bear mascot with a wintry white can design for Coca-Cola Classic, but just one month after launch, it's abandoning the project and reverting to red, reports Mike Esterl at the Wall Street Journal.

Why? Three reasons:

1. Some consumers are confusing the packaging with Diet Coke's similar silver cans.

2. Others swear that the drink tastes different when in a white can.

3. Coke's most ardent fans find the change in color blasphemous.

Coke frequently features special edition holiday cans, but this was the first time it had ever strayed from its usual red for Coca-Cola Classic. It probably won't ever try it again.

This change wasn't anything near the New Coke debacle back in 1985, yet it evoked the same sort of strong feelings among the brand's fans. They don't approve of change, and to appease them, Coke must taste and look like Coke always has.

And it goes to show that packaging -- especially for such a massively powerful brand like Coke with such fanatical followers -- matters deeply.

NOW SEE: Coke vs. Pepsi - The Amazing Story Behind The Infamous Cola Wars >

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/coca-cola-abandons-white-polar-bear-can-2011-12

remember the titans wale wale weather denver weather denver ambition dorothy rodham

Spotify Apps: Rolling Stone, We Are Hunted, More

Spotify, the unlimited music-streaming service, has added Spotify Apps to its Mac and Windows desktop software. These apps build on Spotify’s multi-million song catalog to bring recommendations, lyrics and reviews right there within Spotify itself. It’s pretty great. To try the new apps you’ll need to grab the preview version of Spotify. The first thing you’ll [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/MUIvmS4CD00/

gop debate dos santos snl boxing news boxing andy dalton miami marlins

Biden: US troop exit marks new beginning with Iraq (AP)

BAGHDAD ? Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that his trip to Baghdad ahead of the U.S. military pullout marks a new beginning between Iraq and the United States, but protests in Iraq against his visit demonstrated the difficulties the relationship will face.

Biden landed in Baghdad Tuesday in a surprise visit to Iraq at a pivotal time as the last of the American troops withdraw, and the U.S. must establish a new relationship with a country that is home to billions of barrels of oil reserves and more closely aligned with neighboring Iran than the U.S. would like.

In comments surrounding his meetings with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Biden stressed that the U.S. and Iraq will continue to have a relationship long after the American troops have left the country.

"Our troops are leaving Iraq, and we are working on a new path together, a new face of this partnership," he added. "This is marking a new beginning of the relationship that will not only benefit the United States of America and Iraq. I believe it will benefit the region and will benefit the world."

Biden said that people in both countries have had to overcome misperceptions about the relationship. He said people in the U.S. still ask whether it is worth it to spend so much energy and money in Iraq, a country where 4,485 American military personnel have died and tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed.

"We have jointly demonstrated, it is worth it, it is worth it ? as costly and as difficult and sometimes as controversial as it is," he said.

Many Iraqis, suspicious of American intentions in the region, have wondered why the U.S. is keeping such a large presence here, while Americans have questioned the prudence of spending money in Iraq while the U.S. is experiencing financial problems of its own.

Biden said the U.S. needs to have experts in a wide range of areas "on hand, in country." The U.S. will also have thousands of security contractors to protect the embassy's facilities in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Irbil and Basra, as well as diplomatic personnel.

Iraq's development, Biden said, "will bring stability to the region. That is our sole interest in Iraq. Period. End of story."

Biden also stressed that the new relationship with Iraq will include a robust security relationship, although few details of that were given.

Baghdad and Washington failed earlier this year to come to an agreement on keeping a small American military presence in Iraq next year, meaning all U.S. forces must be out of the country by Dec. 31. The talks faltered on Baghdad's insistence that the U.S. troops be subject to Iraq's legal system, something that Washington adamantly rejected.

Some 13,000 U.S. troops remain, down from a one-time high of about 170,000.

Al-Maliki said the meetings Wednesday were designed to lay the ground for future cooperation and partnership.

"We've passed a very difficult page of confronting al-Qaida and terrorism in Iraq during which we achieved joint success ... We made many sacrifices from both sides," al-Maliki said.

Alluding to the turmoil going on in the Middle East, al-Maliki also said the region is "sensitive" and that as changes occur, there should be cooperation between the U.S. and Iraq.

One area in which Baghdad and Washington have been on different sides of the argument is Syria. While Washington has harshly criticized Syrian President Bashar Assad's bloody crackdown on protests that has killed more than 3,500 people so far, Baghdad has taken a more conservative approach and did not support Arab League sanctions against its western neighbor.

Biden met later with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, during his eighth visit to Iraq since being elected.

The White House said he was also scheduled to take part in a ceremony commemorating the sacrifices of U.S. and Iraqi troops during the eight-year war.

There were no meetings with some of al-Maliki's key allies, government leaders loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Al-Maliki is navigating a tough position of trying to maintain a relationship with the U.S., from whom Iraq is buying billions of dollars in weapons in the coming years, and al-Sadr, whose backing last year ensured al-Maliki a second term.

Followers of al-Sadr rallied in Basra and Baghdad on Wednesday, chanting "Biden get out of Iraq," and "No to America."

Security was tight for Biden's visit, which was not announced in advance.

In the week leading up to the vice president's trip, Iraq has seen an increase in violence that has renewed concerns about the capabilities of the country's security forces.

Late Wednesday, gunmen stormed the house of a anti-al-Qaida cleric in Samarra, 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Baghdad, an Iraqi security official said. The gunmen killed five people inside, including the cleric.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

___

Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111130/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

chelsea clinton kat von d tiki barber minnesota vikings packers vs vikings packers vs vikings randall cobb

What Good is Google If My Friends Don't Use It? [Ask Lifehacker]

What Good is Google+ If My Friends Don't Use It?Dear Lifehacker,
I think Google+ is pretty great, but the budding social network hasn't caught fire with most of my friends. So what can I get out of Google+ if it's not really my Total Facebook Replacement?

Sincerely,
Hesitant Early Adopter

Dear Hesitant,

You're asking the right person at the right time. Your humble author is just a few days away from sending Google+: The Missing Manual off to the printers, after many, many hours exploring the innards of Google's deeply inter-connected social thing, many revisions for yet another new feature, and quite a few jabs from friends and compatriots.

So, with the disclosure that I'm professionally interested, but personally pragmatic, here are five neat things you should keep Google+ in mind for, even if it's not yet the primary place for your online networks. At least not yet, maybe.

Get a Hold of People in Unique, Noticeable Fashion

When you want to get on a busy person's radar screen, an email message puts you in a long queue with not just other people, but with newsletters, notifications, and bank and bill statements. Twitter and Facebook can work, but might give you enough room, or the right context, to get your message across.

If the person you're trying to reach is active on Google+, it's a good place to try and get in touch. Create a post on Google+, click on the section below your post to choose the circles and people you share with, and type out only the name of the person you're contacting to create a kind of private message. Add links, YouTube videos, and fit your message in the roomier confines of Google+. Below is an example of a one-to-one exchange I had with Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb, just a few hours ago. (Click this image, or any images in this post, for a larger view)

What Good is Google+ If My Friends Don't Use It?

Some people on Google+ have made this process easier by adding a "Send message" link to their profiles, which simply automates the one-person-post process described above. Other people have a "Send email" link on their profiles, which does just what it sounds like. And while you're sending an email, the header and subject will note that it came through their Google Profile, which might differentiate you from the pack.

Use Hangouts for Document Collaboration and Much Easier Video Chat

The group video chat feature of Google+, Hangouts, is the best we at Lifehacker have ever seen. It's remarkably agile at making a multi-person group chat work, and it's easier to rely on participants to have a Google account than hoping their Skype setup works. More than just casual video chats, though, a somewhat heralded feature of Hangouts, "Hangouts with extras", gives you the ability to edit a Google Doc, sketch and design together in SketchUp, and share a portion of your screen with up to 10 people at once.

What Good is Google+ If My Friends Don't Use It?

Google+ markets Hangouts as a social experience, like a street cafe where anybody can wander toward your table and say hello. But you can simply invite only a few select people to a Hangout, perhaps letting them know ahead of time to look for the invite in their Google+ stream (or their red notification bar) when you'll be hanging out. You can also copy the URL of the Hangout with extras and send it to people to invite them in, letting you use Hangout in semi-private fashion as a much better Skype (assuming your invitees don't invite everyone in their circles to join in, too).

Back Up Your Photos For Free

If you've signed up for Google+, your Picasa Web Albums, the space where Google offers to store and share your photos, gets a really big upgrade. Any photo less then 2048 by 2048 pixels, and any video less than 15 minutes long, even shot in HD, doesn't count toward your storage total. That's pretty nifty, but how do you get your photos up in the Picasa web space to take advantage?

What Good is Google+ If My Friends Don't Use It?

Grab the Picasa desktop software for your Windows or Mac system, install it, and use the Folder Manager in the Tools menu to make sure the photos you'd like uploaded are being "watched." Next, head into the Options (also in the Tools menu), and head to the Web Albums tab. If you're sure that your photos are under 2048 pixels in size, or at least that a large portion of them are under that limit, you can set the default upload size to "Original," but otherwise, pick the "Recommend" size of 1600 pixels (wide). Now click through your albums and turn on "Sync to web" on those you want to back up. There you go?all the photos you want, backed up from your system to Picasa's almost unlimited space.

Auto-Sync and Share Your Android Photos

What Good is Google+ If My Friends Don't Use It?

This one is my go-to pitch for Google+ for anybody with an Android phone. Install the Google+ app on your Android, whether or not you plan to read or send posts with it. While installing the app, you'll be asked to enable Instant Upload?do so, but set it to Wi-Fi only. Now, whenever you snap photos on your phone, they'll be automatically uploaded to your Google+ account the next time you're around a trusted Wi-Fi network.

So what? So now, besides having a safeguard against losing easy-to-wipe smartphone photos, all those photos are now backed up on Picasa Web Albums, too. And from Picasa, you can share those photos with anyone, whether they're on Google+ or not, through simple links and emails. Look for the "Share by email only" link at the bottom of the window that pops up when you hit the "Share" button to send photos out beyond Google+.

Search Out Nerdy Information

What Good is Google+ If My Friends Don't Use It?

Let's cut to the chase: a fair number of the people actively engaged with Google+ at this early stage are tech-inclined, social media savvy, and just generally nerdy. That's not a put-down, that's just letting you know that Google+ can be a good place to search out things you're not finding responses for elsewhere. Search what you're looking for in Google+, and even though you're only seeing posts shared as "Public," you're likely to find some posts, links, and discussions that expand your knowledge of a topic. You can also click the "Save this search" button in the upper-right corner to quickly run this search again (from a list just below your circles in the left-hand sidebar), or keep a tab open in your browser and let Google+ continue its real-time search, clicking the "X more recent posts" to see the latest updates.


There you have it?five things you can get out of Google+, even if it seems like a quiet place in your own circles. Google+ can be a really interesting place to browse, post, and get a conversation going, but at the very least, keep these free, handy features in mind. See you in the stream.

Sincerely,
Lifehacker

P.S. If our dear readers have any further uses of Google+ that go beyond the basic post-and-read, we'd love to hear about them in the comments.


You can reach Kevin Purdy, the author of this post, on Google+ (where, yes, you can also send an email or a private message), or on Twitter at @kevinpurdy. Google+: The Missing Manual is due out from O'Reilly Media in late December 2011.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/YIBWP2cRtoI/what-good-is-google%252B-if-my-friends-dont-use-it

joe paterno fired joe paterno fired glen campbell matt nathanson matt nathanson rick perry oops rick perry oops