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Thursday, May 2, 2013

Tony Cartalucci
Prison Planet.com
May 1, 2013

The National Democratic Institute (NDI) is one of many tentacles descending from the US State Department and its National Endowment for Democracy (NED) front. Despite NED and NDI?s lofty mission statements about ?promoting democracy worldwide,? the interests they represent are clearly those of the Fortune 500, including big-oil, retail, media, banking, and defense. This convergence of corporate-financier interests pervade the US government from the top,?via corporate-funded policy think tanks that direct US policy at home and abroad, and out the bottom through corporate-chaired and funded NGOs that oversee the execution of this policy.

NED, for example includes?the following directors:

William Galston: Brookings Institution (board of trustees can be found on page 35 here).
Moises Naim: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (corporate funding here).
Robert Miller: corporate lawyer.
Larry Liebenow: US Chamber of Commerce (a chief proponent of SOPA, ACTA, and CISPA), Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE).
Anne-Marie Slaughter: US State Department, Council on Foreign Relations (corporate members here), director of Citigroup, McDonald?s Corporation, and Political Strategies Advisory Group.
Richard Gephardt: US Representative,?Boeing lobbyist,?Goldman Sachs, Visa, Ameren Corp, and Waste Management Inc lobbyist,?corporate consultant,?consultant &?now director of Ford Motor Company, supporter of the?military invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003.
Marilyn Carlson Nelson: CEO of Carlson, director of Exxon Mobil.
Stephen Sestanovich: US State Department, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, CFR.
Judy Shelton: director of Hilton Hotels Corporation & Atlantic Coast Airlines.

Does Boeing, Goldman Sachs, Exxon, and?the SOPA, ACTA, CISPA-sponsoring US Chamber of Commerce care about promoting democracy abroad? Or in expanding their corporate-financier interests under the guise of promoting democracy? Clearly the latter.

Other directors include?Francis Fukuyama,?Zalmay Khalilzad,?Will Marshall, and?Vin Weber ? all certified warmongers and signatories of pro-war papers imploring the US to invade and expand its military presence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, and now Syria.

The NED?s game is growing old, and many nations not only recognize the threat these insidious organizations pose through their stable of NGOs, but have now devised effective strategies to expose and purge them from within their borders. Russia has led the way,?forcing NGOs to reveal openly their funding, and thus compromising their perceived legitimacy and neutrality ? a major problem for NED-funded fronts who attempt to portray themselves as ?independent,? as election-monitor?GOLOS attempted to do before Russian elections in 2011.

mage: A screenshot from?NED?s official website, listing GOLOS as a recipient of NED funding, which in turn is provided by the US State Department. Despite this overt conflict of interest ? especially with NED subsidiaryInternational Republican Institute chairman John McCain openly?threatening Russia with ?Arab Spring? unrest, ?journalists? and GOLOS itself continue using the term ?independent? election monitors. (click image to enlarge)

Thailand?s NED-funded front, Prachatai,?also deceived its readers regarding the nature of its funding, and still to this day claims to be ?independent? despite finally revealing substantial aid from foreign governments, including NED.

Old Dog, New Trick?

However, now, these interests are trying a new trick ? co-opting the planet?s tech community, both to augment its current activities, and to blunt the devastating blow the tech community has so far dealt big-business special interests.

NED?s NDI has spun off NDItech DemocracyWorks which seeks to leverage emerging technology to manipulate and undermine targeted nations, just as NED has done through NGOs for years.?NDItech?s website states:

The?NDItech DemocracyWorks blog provides a platform for NDI to engage in ongoing conversations about the important and increasing role technology plays in politics and democratic development. The blog is managed by NDI?s ICT (information and communication technology) team.

NDI provides technical assistance to our democracy partners around the world including political parties, legislatures, civic groups, other organizations and individuals in?more than 70 countries. Our programs help these groups strengthen democratic institutions, safeguard elections, advance citizen engagement, and promote open and accountable government in their countries. The ICT team assists NDI partners and staff members around the world integrate technology tools into our democracy assistance programs in innovative and sustainable ways.

A?recent NDItech job listing stated:

The software engineer will develop and maintain software applications for NDI democracy programs around the world and for internal business applications. The ideal candidate is versatile and likes to work in a very dynamic environment on several projects in parallel. This position requires an engineer who is passionate about new technologies, who keeps current with software development trends, and who has the ability to not only code but also advise NDI staff and partners on using technology to meet objectives and to solve problems.

NDItech will in essence,?be developing technology to bolster the many fake revolutions and armed violence the US State Department is busy orchestrating on behalf of the corporate-financier interests that direct US policy and both fund and chair NED, NDI, and now NDItech.

NDItech in Bed with SOPA, ACTA, CISPA Sponsors

Most ironically, when it was pointed out to NDItech that they were attempting to co-opt Internet activist Aaron Swartz? work to help the very interests he fought against, they replied by stating:

?Not sure what you?re talking about. We?re strongly opposed to all those pieces of legislation and some of us knew Aaron.?

The people at NDItech claim they ?knew Aaron.? They also feign ignorance regarding their organization being steered in by the US Chamber of Commerce, claimed by CNET to be ?SOPA?s most aggressive defender.? In fact, CNET wrote a 2011 article titled, ?SOPA?s most aggressive defender: U.S. Chamber of Commerce,? which stated:

There is no more influential business lobby group in the world than the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which boasts that its ?core purpose is to fight for free enterprise? and ?individual freedom.?

Which is why the Chamber?s unflagging?even unyielding?support of a controversial copyright bill loathed by Silicon Valley might come as something of a surprise. Not only do critics view the Stop Online Piracy Act as antithetical to the individual freedom the Chamber applauds, but the technology industry has contributed more to economic growth and free enterprise in the last decade than Hollywood has.

Yet the Chamber has been even more aggressive than the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America in defending SOPA and attacking the legislation?s critics. SOPA would allow the Justice Department to seek a court order to be served on search engines, Internet providers, and other companies that would force them to make a suspected piratical Web site effectively vanish from the Internet.

While CNET attempts to break down the Chamber?s support for SOPA into a left/right, Democrat vs. Republican issue, the reality is that the corporate-financier interests represented by the Chamber, drive the policy of both sides of the aisle ? which is why a Neo-Con chaired NED?directly funds both the NationalDemocratic Institute, which is indeed affiliated with the Democrat Party, and?the International Republican Institute.

Additionally, the NDI itself lists the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), a joint project of the US Chamber of Commerce and NED, as one of its ?American Partners.? It states:

The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) strengthens democracy around the globe through private enterprise and market-oriented reform. Its key program areas include anti-corruption, advocacy, business associations, corporate governance, democratic governance, access to information, the informal sector and property rights, and women and youth.

CIPE?s board of directors consists almost entirely of US Chamber of Commerce members, including:

On behalf of Intel Corporation, as well as our subsidiary McAfee, I am writing to offer our support for the ?Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011.? We believe the policy changes and legal protections implemented by the bill represent meaningful improvements in the important area of information sharing for cybersecurity purposes.

Of course, then, NDItech ?knew Aaron,? because he was the man fighting directly against NDItech and the very people they work for. CIPE is listed as one of NDI?s ?American Partners? and is funded right alongside NDI by their umbrella group, NED. These are the very people involved in the revolving doors between big-business and big-government that got SOPA, ACTA, and CISPA as far as they did, and are the same people who will continue fighting against Internet freedom well into the foreseeable future.

The arrogance of NDItech, and other fronts like them, is that they believe the tech community is as easily led as the many willing but perhaps unwitting activists they dupe into working for their crypto-corporate NGOs worldwide. They apparently do not believe those across the tech community possess the ability to do some simple background checking into NDItech and who they are affiliated with, and realize the fox is attempting to guard the hen house.

Sequencing NDI?s Corporate Fascist DNA

NDI?s shady partnership with CIPE aside, NDI itself hosts a myriad of compromised interests tied directly to big-business.?Some select members include:

Robin Carnahan: Formally of the Export-Import Bank of the United States where she ?explored innovative ways to help American companies increase their sale of goods and services abroad.? The NDI?s meddling in foreign nations, particularly in elections on behalf of pro-West candidates favoring free-trade, and Carnahan?s previous ties to a bank that sought to expand corporate interests overseas constitutes an alarming conflict of interests.
Richard Blum: An investment banker with Blum Capital, CB Richard Ellis. Engaged in war profiteering along side the Neo-Con infested Carlyle Group,?when both acquired shares in EG&Gwhich was then awarded?a $600 million military contract during the opening phases of the Iraq invasion.
Bernard W. Aronson:? Founder of ACON Investments.?Prior to that, he was an adviser to Goldman Sachs, and serves on the boards of directors of Fifth & Pacific Companies, Royal Caribbean International, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, and Chroma Oil & Gas, Northern Tier Energy. Aronson is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) which in turn represents the collective interests of some?of the largest corporations on Earth.
Sam Gejdenson: NDI?s profile claims Gejdenson is ?in charge of?? Sam Gejdenson International, which proclaims?on its website ?Commerce Without Borders,? or in other words, big-business monopolies via free-trade. In his?autobiographical profile, he claims to have promoted US exports as a Democrat on the House International Relations Committee. Here is yet another case of conflicting interests between NDI?s meddling in foreign politics and board members previously involved in ?promoting US exports.?
Nancy H. Rubin: CFR member.
Vali Nasr: CFR member and a senior fellow at the?big-oil, big-banker Belfer Center at Harvard.
Rich Verma: A partner in the Washington office of?Steptoe & Johnson LLP ? an international corporate and governmental legal firm representing for Verma, a multitude of conflicting interests and potential improprieties. Setptoe & Johnson is active in many of the nations the NDI is operating in, opening the door for manipulation on both sides to favor the other.
Lynda Thomas: A private investor, formally a senior manager/CPA at Deloitte Haskins & Sells in New York, and Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte in London. Among her clients were international banks.
Maurice Tempelsman: Chairman of the board of directors of Lazare Kaplan International Inc., the largest cutter and polisher of ?ideal cut? diamonds in the United States. Also senior partner at Leon Tempelsman & Son, involved in mining, investments and business development and minerals trading in Europe, Russia, Africa, Latin America, Canada and Asia. Yet another immense potential for conflicting interests, where Tempelsman stands to directly gain financially and politically by manipulating foreign governments via the NDI.
Elaine K. Shocas: President of Madeleine Albright, Inc., a private investment firm. She was chief of staff to the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations during Madeleine Albright?s tenure as Secretary of State and Ambassador to the United Nation, illustrating a particularly dizzying ?revolving door? between big-government and big-business.
Madeleine K. Albright: Chair of Albright Stonebridge Group and Chair of Albright Capital Management LLC, an investment advisory firm ? directly affiliated with fellow NDI board member Elaine Shocas, representing an incestuous business/government relationship with overt conflicts of interest. Albright infamously stated that sanctions against Iraq which directly led to the starvation and death of half a million children ?was worth it.?

Again, big-oil, big-banking, and big-defense. These are, without a doubt, the very people Aaron Swartz was resisting. These are the very interests across big business, that championed for?SOPA (.pdf), ACTA, and CISPA.? NDI is directly affiliated with people who literally and very openly championed for SOPA, ACTA, and CISPA. Their boldfaced lies claiming they were ? strongly opposed to all those pieces of legislation? says much about how they view the intelligence of tech community they seek to compromise, co-opt, and employ to promote the very sort of encroachments on our civil liberties many in the tech community are fighting against.

Don?t Work for NDItech, Work for Yourself and Your Community

It is the greatest victory for them to take enemies like Aaron Swartz and those who supported his activism, and turn them into tools for special interests. It is our greatest victory when we expose them, ostracize them, boycott the special-interests that subsidize their insidious work,?and replace them permanently with local alternatives.

The NDItech tweet searching for prospective employees stated:

Got Drupal? We?re hiring. Come build stuff for us.

However, do yourself a favor and don?t go ?build stuff for them.??Build stuff for yourself and your community, because you and your community are the only ones who have your own best interests at heart. NDItech is a fraud, at face value, and disturbingly more so as you dig beneath the layers of corporate fascism and conflicts of interest.

Learn the tricks they use to co-opt talented, well-intentioned, intelligent young people, and take a look across the rest of the tech landscape to see who else is playing a similar game. There is nothing they can offer or provide for you, that you and your community cannot do yourselves better, more honestly, and truly for your own best interests.

Tony Cartalucci is the writer and editor at Land Destroyer

This article was posted: Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 10:25 am

Source: http://www.prisonplanet.com/nditech-in-bed-with-cispa-sponsors-seeks-hacktivists-to-spread-corporate-fascism-worldwide.html

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Want to slow mental decay? Play a video game

May 1, 2013 ? There may be a way for older people to prevent natural aging of their minds, and it could be as simple as playing a video game.

That's according to a study from the University of Iowa, which found that elderly people who played just ten hours of a game priming their mental processing speed and skills delayed declines by as many as seven years in a range of cognitive skills.

"We know that we can stop this decline and actually restore cognitive processing speed to people," says Fredric Wolinsky, professor in the UI College of Public Health and lead author on the paper published May 1 in the journal PLOS One. "So, if we know that, shouldn't we be helping people? It's fairly easy, and older folks can go get the training game and play it."

The study comes amidst a burst of research examining why, as we age, our minds gradually lose "executive function," generally considered mission control for critical mental activities, such as memory, attention, perception and problem solving. Studies show loss of executive function occurs as people reach middle age; other studies say our cognitive decline begins as soon as 28 years of age. Either way, our mental capacities do diminish, and medical and public health experts are keen to understand why in an effort to stem the inexorable tide as much as possible.

Wolinsky and colleagues separated 681 generally healthy medical patients in Iowa into four groups -- each further separated into those 50 to 64 years of age and those over age 65. One group was given computerized crossword puzzles, while three other groups were exposed to a video game called "Road Tour." Briefly, the game revolves around identifying a type of vehicle (displayed fleetingly on a license plate) and then reidentifying the vehicle type and matching it with a road sign displayed from a circular array of possibilities, all but one of them false icons. The player must succeed at least three out of every four tries to advance to the next level, which speeds up the vehicle identification and adds more distractions, up to 47 in all.

The goal, naturally, is to increase the user's mental speed and agility at identifying the vehicle symbol and picking out the road sign from the constellation of distractors (which are rabbits, by the way).

"The game starts off with an assessment to determine your current speed of processing. Whatever it is, the training can help you get about 70 percent faster," says Wolinsky, who has no financial stake in the game.

The groups that played the game at least 10 hours, either at home or in a lab at the university, gained at least three years of cognitive improvement when tested after one year, according to a formula developed by the researchers. A group that got four additional hours of training with the game did even better, improving their cognitive abilities by four years, according to the study.

"We not only prevented the decline; we actually sped them up," Wolinsky says.

Improving people's processing speed is considered important for a host of reasons. One widely accepted benefit is widening a person's field of view. "As we get older, our visual field collapses on us," Wolinsky explains. "We get tunnel vision. It's a normal functioning of aging. This helps to explain why most accidents happen at intersections because older folks are looking straight ahead and are less aware of peripherals."

Recognizing this, the National Institutes of Health in the late 1990s commissioned the largest cognitive training study of its kind, called ACTIVE. The national, multi-site trial, in which Wolinsky was involved, showed the elderly's memory, reasoning and visual processing speed could be improved with interventions, thus slowing the aging of their minds. But the ACTIVE study had its limitations: Among them, the control group didn't get any training and the primary goal was to assess the effects on seniors' field-of-view vision.

Wolinsky's team added an active control group -- those doing the crossword puzzles. The researchers found those who played the "Road Tour" game also scored far better than the crossword puzzle group on tests involving executive function beyond field-of-view vision, such as concentration, nimbleness with shifting from one mental task to another and the speed at which new information is processed. The improvement ranged from 1.5 years to nearly seven years in cognitive improvement, the study found.

"It's the 'use it or lose it' phenomenon," Wolinsky says. "Age-related cognitive decline is real, it's happening, and it starts earlier and then continues steadily. The good news is we can do something about it. The question is will we?"

The NIH funded the work, out of a Research Challenge grant from the NIH director's office as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (grant numbers 5 RC1 AG035546 02 and 1 RC1 AG035546 01).

Contributing authors include Michael Jones and Megan Dotson, from the UI's College of Public Heath, and Mark Vander Weg and M. Bryant Howren, from the Iowa City VA Health Care System.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Iowa. The original article was written by Richard C. Lewis.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Fredric D. Wolinsky, Mark W. Vander Weg, M. Bryant Howren, Michael P. Jones, Megan M. Dotson. A Randomized Controlled Trial of Cognitive Training Using a Visual Speed of Processing Intervention in Middle Aged and Older Adults. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (5): e61624 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0061624

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/MOCi3S4edRY/130501192918.htm

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FOR KIDS: A switch for a living computer

Scientists build a transistor from DNA

By Stephen Ornes

Web edition: May 1, 2013

Scientists build a transistor from DNA

By Stephen Ornes

Web edition: May 1, 2013

Enlarge

Genetic switch?

Scientists used DNA to build biological switches called transcriptors, which act like transistors found on computer chips.

Credit: iStockphoto

Computers are lifeless. They?re ordinarily built from metal, silicon, plastic and other materials. Those components work together to shuttle around the electricity needed to surf the Internet, watch videos or even do homework.

But why stick to the ordinary? Scientists are finding that computer parts can also be built from DNA. This long molecule contains genetic material and is found inside almost every living cell. It tells each cell which molecules to make. In March, researchers published a study that shows how DNA also can be used to build an important computer component, called a transistor.

Visit the new Science News for Kids website and read the full story: A switch for a living computer

Citations

M. Rosen. ?Biological transistor built for living computer.? Science News. April 2, 2013. [Go to]

Suggested Reading

S. Ornes. ?DNA takes notes.? Science News for Kids. June 4, 2012. [Go to]

S. Ornes. ?Genetic memory.? Science News for Kids. Feb. 8, 2013. [Go to]

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/350061/title/FOR_KIDS_A_switch_for_a_living_computer

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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Hansen has 'no plans to give up' fight for Kings

The recommendation has been made, the vote is set and the Sacramento Kings seem all but assured of staying in California's capital city.

Or are they?

In yet another twist to this unprecedented fight between two West Coast cities, investor Chris Hansen has vowed to "move forward with the transaction" he has with the Maloof family to buy the Kings and move the team to Seattle despite a unanimous recommendation from the NBA's relocation committee for owners to reject the bid.

Hansen said he plans to lobby the NBA Board of Governors, which consists of all 30 owners, again anyway the week of May 13. The board is expected to vote on the issue and follow the committee's recommendation ? which NBA Commissioner David Stern also is supporting ? during that meeting.

"When we started this process everyone thought it was impossible," Hansen wrote to Seattle fans on his website late Monday night, hours after the seven-person committee handed down its recommendation. "While this represents yet another obstacle to achieving our goal, I just wanted to reassure all of you that we have numerous options at our disposal and have absolutely no plans to give up. Impossible is nothing but a state of mind."

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson remembers hearing about impossible, too.

In 2011, the Maloofs made plans to move the Kings to Anaheim, Calif. At one point, Johnson seemed so certain the team was gone he called the process a "slow death" and compared the city's efforts to keep the Kings to a "Hail Mary."

Instead, Johnson surprisingly convinced the NBA to give the city one last chance to help finance an arena. He delivered on his promise of a new arena plan ? given Stern's seal of approval ? before the end of last season. But in a stunning move, the Maloofs backed out of the tentative deal for a downtown arena, saying it didn't make financial sense.

The city of Sacramento and the owners broke off talks, reigniting fears the franchise could relocate. Cities such as Virginia Beach, Las Vegas and Kansas City surfaced as potential new homes.

In January, the Maloofs caught Sacramento ? and to a certain extent, the NBA ? by surprise when they announced the deal with Hansen's group, which includes Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and members of the Nordstrom department store family.

Led by Johnson, Sacramento fought back to make the sale and relocation of the Kings tough for the league to recommend. He pushed a non-binding financing plan for a $447 million downtown arena through the Sacramento City Council ? complete with a $258 million public subsidy ? and lined up an ownership group to try to compete with the powerful Seattle contingent.

At a packed pep rally at a downtown restaurant late Monday afternoon, Kings fans serenaded Johnson with chants of "Sac-ra-mento!" He called the committee's recommendation a "big day for the city of Sacramento" but cautioned fans not to declare victory just yet.

"We do not want to dance in the end zone. We do not want to celebrate prematurely," Johnson said.

TIBCO software chairman Vivek Ranadive, the head of the Sacramento investor group Johnson assembled to mount a competing bid to keep the Kings, also expressed excitement.

"I'm speechless. Thanks to all of the amazing people who supported this great effort," tweeted Ranadive, a minority owner of the Golden State Warriors who could become the first Indian-born majority owner of an NBA team. He would have to sell his share in the Warriors if his group's bid for the Kings is successful.

"We did it, baby," said California Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. The Sacramento Democrat joined Johnson and Republican state Senator Ted Gaines at the rally in a show of bipartisan support.

Barbara "Sign Lady" Rust, as she has become known by Kings fans, waived a sign as Johnson spoke that read: "Love found a way, now here we stay!"

"You should have seen me a few hours ago," she said. "I totally lost it. First I jumped like a crazy woman for a minute. Then I cried."

Who will own the Kings next season is still unclear.

The Maloof family reached the agreement in January to sell a 65 percent controlling interest in the team to Hansen's group at a total franchise valuation of $525 million, topping the NBA-record $450 million that Joe Lacob and Peter Guber bought the Warriors for in 2010. Then Hansen increased his offer to $550 million, which implies buying the 65 percent stake for about $357 million.

Hansen hoped to move the team to Seattle and rebrand them the SuperSonics, who were relocated to Oklahoma City and renamed the Thunder in 2008. Those plans have suddenly seemed to crumble.

But Hansen insisted again that his group has a more solid arena plan, offered more money and "placed all of the funds to close the transaction into escrow." At the bottom of the post on his website, Hansen attributed a quote to boxing great Muhammad Ali that ended with the famous line: "Impossible is nothing."

The NBA Board of Governors is still expected to follow the recommendation by the seven-owner relocation committee, coincidentally headed by Thunder owner Clay Bennett, already a reviled figure in Seattle. The other owners on the committee are Miami's Micky Arison, Washington's Ted Leonsis, Utah's Greg Miller, Indiana's Herbert Simon, Minnesota's Glen Taylor and San Antonio's Peter Holt ? who's also the chairman of the board.

Even still, the Maloofs are not bound to sell the team to the Sacramento group ? and the threat of lawsuits always looms. Johnson said he was unsure what the next step is in the process or whether the NBA would ? or could ? take a role in streamlining the team's sale.

In a letter sent to the relocation and finance committees during its April 17 meeting, the Maloofs said they preferred to sell to the Seattle group and expressed discontent with Sacramento's latest bid, saying it falls "significantly short." Stern has said the offers are in "the same ballpark."

The commissioner also said the relocation committee felt leaving Sacramento just didn't make sense. He also reiterated his long-held stance that expansion is unlikely at this time.

"As strong as the Seattle bid was, and it was very strong, there's some benefit that should be given to a city that has supported us for so long and has stepped up to contribute to build a new building as well," Stern said on NBA-TV.

A Spokesman for the Maloof family declined to comment on the committee's recommendation. Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn pledged that his city will continue to fight for an NBA team.

"I'm proud of how Sonics fans have rallied together to help Seattle get a team," McGinn said in a statement. "We're going to stay focused on our job: making sure Seattle remains in a position to get a team when the opportunity presents itself."

The potential Sacramento ownership group also includes 24 Hour Fitness founder Mark Mastrov, former Facebook senior executive Chris Kelly and the Jacobs family that owns communications giant Qualcomm. Johnson has touted the group as a "California team" with members from all over the country's most populated state.

Johnson, a former NBA All-Star point guard known best by his initials "KJ," also commended Seattle for its efforts and wrote that the Pacific Northwest city "no doubt deserves a team in the future."

"Just not ours," he said.

"I feel good for KJ because he's worked so hard," said interim Brooklyn Nets coach P.J. Carlesimo, who worked with Johnson at NBC and coached the Sonics in their last season. "If it goes down that way, there's no question who deserves the credit because, I mean, they could've rolled over a long time ago. Kevin just really made this happen, which is great."

Seattle is now back to wondering when, and if, the NBA will ever return.

Hansen's purchase agreement with the Maloofs seemed the perfect solution for the heartache that has lingered in the Puget Sound region since the Sonics ? and their 41 years of history ? were moved to Oklahoma City. Hansen spent nearly two years working to get an arena plan approved by the city and county governments and spent more than $65 million buying land in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood where the arena would be built.

In the last few months, fan interest and support seemed to be at its highest since before Bennett purchased the team from Howard Schultz in 2006. Now those same fans are stuck waiting to see what the next move by Hansen and Ballmer will be, including mounting an effort for expansion or buying another team.

Hansen has a five-year memorandum of understanding with the city and county on the arena plan. Whether momentum for the NBA in Seattle will remain also is unclear.

___

AP Sports Writer Tim Booth in Seattle, AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney in New York and AP writer Don Thompson in Sacramento contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hansen-no-plans-fight-kings-073539878.html

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Next review: Quick, stylish, expense tracking for iPhone

Next Expense Tracking for iPhone review: Track expenses not only quickly, but with style

Next Expense Tracking for iPhone is not only a quick and easy way to track expenses, but the interface is exactly what you'd expect from an expense tracking app if Apple themselves made it. Everything from the sounds to the way the interface works is done exceptionally well. If you have no need for a hardcore budgeting app but just want a quick look at your overall expenses at a moment's notice, Next Expense tracking may be right up your alley.

Next functions by using a series of grids with icons that represent a particular kind of expense. You can easily rearrange them by dragging them around or tap the settings button after holding down on an icon to change what type of expense it will track. There are lots of well made icons to choose from so finding ones that suit what you need to track should be an easy enough task.

Once you start entering data into Next, you'll notice that used tiles turn blue while ones you have no expenses for stay grey. As you add more and more expenses, the shade of blue will change. Darker blue, almost navy colored squares indicate higher expenses. For example, whatever icon you're tracking higher dollar items under such as a mortgage or rent tend to be darker blue since it indicates a larger payment or cash flow. Outside of typical expense options such as gas, food, and home items, you'll also find icons for liesure items such as App Store, iTunes, and Amazon expenses as well as cable or internet. This means you can keep everything separate instead of lumping them into one single category.

From the main grid view of Next, swiping to the left or right will break down data even further. For example, a swipe to the right will reveal a breakdown of expenses. Along the top you can toggle between week, month, and year. Tapping on any one of these expenses will review a chart showing you how expenses have fluctuated over the past several weeks or months. Obviously, this data will be a lot more meaningful the longer you use Next to track your expenses.

Swiping to the left from the main expense view will give you breakdown by month of what you're spending money on each day. Just tap on a month along the top and you'll see all the data for each day in that month. Again, as you accumulate more data and get better about actually tracking expenses, Next will filter in even more useful data for you to compare against past months.

The good

Hands down one of the best interfaces of any expense tracking app available
Tons of icons and expense types to choose from
Provides expense data in a logical way that isn't overwhelming or hard to decipher

The bad

No way to add more tiles or delete unused ones but 27 expense types will most likely be more than enough for most

The bottom line

If you're looking for an app to help you stick to a budget, Next Expense Tracking is not for you. You'd be better off going with an app like BUDGT. If you're only interested in tracking your expenses and viewing trends, Next is a perfect option and probably one of the better ones out there. Everything from the interface to how expenses are entered was carefully thought out and just makes sense.

If a simpler and more user friendly app is what you're after, Next Expense Tracking is definitely worth considering.

$1.99 - Download Now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/_tKU3a3xnZM/story01.htm

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Detective testifies about Jackson doc's money woes

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A police detective who investigated Michael Jackson's doctor says he found massive evidence the physician was in dire financial straits, and he believed the doctor would do whatever necessary to get paid.

Detective Orlando Martinez told jurors hearing a negligence case filed by Jackson's mother that former cardiologist Conrad Murray was more than $500,000 in debt when Jackson died.

Murray was expecting a $150,000 a month paycheck to serve as Jackson's tour doctor, but the singer died before the contract was finalized.

Jackson's mother is suing concert giant AEG Live, claiming it failed to properly investigate Murray or his finances.

Murray was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter after Jackson died of an overdose of the anesthetic propofol.

AEG has denied wrongdoing.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/detective-testifies-jackson-docs-money-woes-235113865.html

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