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6.0 Magnitude Quake Reported off Norcal Coast

February 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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HUMBOLDT COUNTY-- An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 is being reported off the coast of Northern California. The USGS says the quake was located 35-miles west-northwest of the small unincorporated community of Petrolia California. The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said in a statement that the magnitude was such that a tsunami is not expected. "However, in coastal areas of intense shaking, locally generated tsunamis can be triggered by underwater landslides." Humboldt County spokesman Phil Smith-Hanes says he felt a rolling sensation, but the movement didn't feel as severe as the magnitude-6.5 quake that struck the same area Jan. 9. That quake left more than $40 million of damage in the area and caused one major injury. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from Thursday's quake, which struck at 12.20 p.m. Eureka Fire Chief Eric Smith says crews are checking on structures damaged in the previous earthquake to make sure they're secure. … [Read more...]

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Toyota: Software to blame for Prius brake problems

February 4, 2010 By 3 Comments
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: Toyota will not issue recall on 2010 Prius models over braking issue Officials: Software glitch causes cars to move even if brakes are engaged Toyota is already under fire for issues surrounding sticking gas pedals in several vehicles Tokyo, Japan (CNN) -- Without issuing a recall of its iconic Prius hybrid vehicles, Toyota said Thursday a software glitch is to blame for braking problems in the 2010 model. "We would want to be given a little time," Hiro Yuki Yokoyama, Toyota's managing officer, said when reporters asked whether a recall was in the works. The company changed its braking system software in January as part of what it called "constant quality improvements," but did not say what it would do about vehicles manufactured before then. Toyota officials described the problem as a "disconnect" in the vehicle's complex anti-lock brake system (ABS) that causes less than a one-second lag. With the delay, a vehicle going 60 mph will have traveled nearly another 90 feet before the brakes begin to take hold. Brakes in hybrids such as the Prius operate differently from brakes in most cars. In addition to standard brakes, which use friction from pads pressed against drums or rotors, the electric motors in hybrids help slow them. The process also generates electricity to recharge the batteries. Video: Toyota brand troubles Video: Toyota still a good buy Video: What else is wrong at Toyota? RELATED TOPICS Toyota Prius Toyota Motor Corporation Automotive Recalls The Japanese government has warned Toyota to take seriously mounting complaints with the Prius. Toyota Vice President Shinichi Sasaki met with Japan's transport minister on Wednesday. In Japan, 14 complaints about brakes in the Prius have been lodged since July. Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has asked Toyota to investigate, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association. "The complaints received via our dealers center around when drivers are on a bumpy road or frozen surface," said Paul Nolasco, a Toyota Motor Corp. spokesman in Japan. "The driver steps on the brake, and they do not get as full of a braking feel as expected." Full coverage of Toyota recall In the United States, more than 100 complaints alleging poor brake performance have been lodged with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration against the 2010 Prius, a newly designed version of the car that was introduced last summer. "NHTSA has received a number of complaints about a potential defect affecting the brake system in Toyota's Prius hybrid and is conducting field work to examine the issue," the agency said Wednesday. A search of NHTSA's complaint database turned up many similar-sounding complaints in the United States. "I have been driving my 2010 Prius for 6 months and have experienced the following nearly 10 times," one owner wrote. "When braking, if a pothole or bump in the road is hit, the car seemingly jerks forward/accelerates for a split … [Read more...]

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North Korea relaxes free market restrictions

February 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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The free market could be the only way for many to feed themselves Increasing social unrest has led North Korea to ease restrictions on private markets, say reports. The move follows a recent currency revaluation which wiped out many cash savings in the country. The revaluation appears to have been an attempt by North Korea's leaders to reassert control over the economy. But correspondents in South Korea say allowing markets to operate more freely may be the only way for many in the North to feed themselves. A spokesman for South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) said signs of an easing of restrictions had been detected "in various places". The authorities "may not have been able to keep ignoring people's demands," the spokesman told the AFP news agency. North Korean people are in despair, crying and shouting - just like a war Park Sang-hak Currency change sparks panic Struggle to control economy The BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul says the traders and smugglers who manage to cross North Korea's tightly-sealed border with China have reported runaway inflation, food shortages and civil unrest in recent weeks. Organisations with contacts in the North saying some people had attacked security agents patrolling markets. The unrest followed a 30 November decree that old North Korean banknotes would be swapped for new ones at a rate of 100 to one. The amount of currency people were allowed to exchange was reportedly restricted, and any cash held above that became worthless - effectively wiping out some people's savings. Control attempt The revaluation also led to spiralling inflation. According to traders quoted in the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, $1 fetched 98 won at the beginning of the revaluation whereas it is now worth between 300 to 500 won. ANALYSIS John Sudworth, BBC News, Seoul The reports from traders and smugglers who cross the Chinese border are of a country facing runaway inflation, food shortages and civil unrest, unleashed as a result of November's currency revaluation. The reform was apparently an attempt by the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to reassert state control over the economy and restrain growing free market activity. If that was the intention, it seems to have worked too well. So reversing the policy and allowing markets to operate more freely may be the only way for many North Koreans to feed themselves. On Wednesday, South Korean media reported that a top North Korean finance official had been sacked over the chaotic move. Pak Nam-Ki, the Communist Party's director for planning and finance, had reportedly been absent from public activities since early January. North Korea introduced limited market reforms in 2002, which allowed people to buy and sell goods at free markets. These markets have become increasingly important to ordinary North Koreans, with a wide range of goods on offer, such as imported fruit, clothes and electronics unavailable in state shops. Some analysts say the main … [Read more...]

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China hits back at US over trade and currency

February 4, 2010 By 1 Comment
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President Barack Obama: "China is going to be one of our biggest markets" China has hit back at the US a day after President Barack Obama promised to take a tougher line with Beijing over currency and trade. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu insisted the value of the Chinese yuan was not the main reason for China's trade surplus with the US. Mr Obama vowed to ensure that countries were not giving their currencies an unfair advantage over the dollar. Ties between the US and China have been strained over an arms deal with Taiwan. Tensions have also risen over reports of Chinese cyber attacks on US-run websites and a planned visit to the US by the Dalai Lama. US companies have long complained that China keeps its currency artificially undervalued, allowing a steady flow of cheap exports around the world. At a meeting with Senate Democrats, Mr Obama was asked whether the US would cut ties with Beijing over continuing trade disputes. He said he would continue to make sure that China and other countries abided by trade agreements, but warned it would be a mistake for the US to become protectionist. "The approach that we're taking is to try to get much tougher about the enforcement of existing rules, putting constant pressure on China and other countries to open up their markets in reciprocal ways," he said. "But what I don't want to do is for us as a country or as a party, to shy away from the prospects of international competition." Mr Obama also said foreign exchange rates would be monitored. "One of the challenges that we've got to address internationally is currency rates and how they match up to make sure that our goods are not artificially inflated in price and their goods are artificially deflated in price," he explained. US-CHINA TENSIONS Google - China denies being behind an alleged cyber attack on the US search engine Taiwan - a US sale of $6.4bn (£4bn) of defensive arms to Taiwan has angered Beijing Tibet - China says a US meeting with the Dalai Lama would "undermine relations" Trade - rows over imports and exports of meat, media, car tyres and raw materials Iran - the US fears China will not back tougher sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme Climate - the US is disappointed at China's tough position at the Copenhagen Summit Relations hit a bad patch The US-China power balance Send us your comments But Mr Ma said on Thursday that the value of the Chinese yuan was at a reasonable level and that China was not pursuing a trade surplus with the US. "At the moment... the level of the yuan is close to reasonable and balanced," he said. Mr Ma said he hoped any problems with the China-US trade relationship could be solved through dialogue. "Trade co-operation between the US and China is mutually beneficial," he said. "We hope the American side sees the problems within the China-US trade co-operation objectively and reasonably and continues to negotiate on an equal basis. Accusations and pressure do not … [Read more...]

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Internet Use Linked to Depression

February 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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LEEDS, U.K. — A new report from the U.K. suggests a correlation between the amount of time a person spends surfing the Internet and their propensity for depression — and porn plays a part in it all. "The Internet now plays a huge part in modern life, but its benefits are accompanied by a darker side," says study leader Dr. Catriona Morrison, of the Institute of Psychological Sciences at the University of Leeds. The study reveals that the more time someone spends surfing the Internet, the less likely they are to be happy — with some hardcore web users demonstrating symptoms of both depression and addiction. An online questionnaire was reportedly used to survey the levels of online dependency and rate of depression across 1,319 respondents who ranged from 16 to 51 years old. "There was a high correspondence between the amount of time spent on the Internet and levels of depression," Morrison. "If you look at how dependent people feel they are on the Internet that is likely to correspond with how happy or sad they feel." Out of the pool of respondents, Morrison’s team identified 18 individuals which they classified as Internet addicts who daily spent many hours online, and received depression scores that were more than five times higher than other users. According to reports, those classified as addicts favored porn and gaming sites, along with social networking sites and online communities — and represented a younger audience, with an average age of 21. While representing only 1.2 percent of participants, this addiction rate is double the rate of gambling addiction in the general population. "While many of us use the Internet to pay bills, shop and send emails, there is a small subset of the population who find it hard to control how much time they spend online, to the point where it interferes with their daily activities," Morrison said. The "chicken and egg" question, according to researchers, is whether extended Internet use results in mental illness — or whether those already afflicted with (and perhaps more homebound by) mental health issues are naturally more attracted to the Internet than are members of the general population. "Our research indicates that excessive Internet use is associated with depression, but what we don't know is which comes first — are depressed people drawn to the Internet or does the Internet cause depression?” Morrison concluded. “Now we need to investigate the nature of that relationship and consider the issue of causation." … [Read more...]

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Porn Star Profile – AVN

February 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Jenna Haze Age: 27 Height: 5' 3" Weight: 95 lbs. Measurements: 34B-22-34 Hair color: Brown AVN Award Winner Winner of the 2009 AVN Awards Female Performer of the Year, Jenna Haze was born in Fullerton, California on February 22nd 1982. She grew up a product of a divorced family, and has two sisters and one brother. Jenna says she doesn't remember much from her childhood, except that she was boy and girl crazy from the start. It was while in junior high that Jenna discovered boys and sex. She lost her virginity on the first day of high school, as she says, "to a guy I didn't really like, just so I could lose it." Jenna entered the work force when she was 15, and continued her education through home schooling. She worked as a fast food manager, an oil change girl, stocking shelves at a toy store during Christmas and waitressing at a pie shop. When she turned 18, Jenna had her first experience in adult entertainment - a one-day stint at a strip club, that she found was not to her liking. By the time she was 19, Ms. Haze was a regular at Orange County dance clubs and after-hours parties. It was at a club in Anaheim where a friend introduced Jenna to someone with connections in the adult industry, who offered to help her get into the business. Always a big fan of porn, Jenna jumped at the chance. Two days later, she shot her very first scene in The Oral Adventures of Craven Moorehead. In the movie, Jenna was only supposed to perform a double BJ, but ended up fucking both participants. "From there I just kept going; I couldn't get enough! I shot scene after scene after scene. I was definitely enjoying it! I felt like this is what I was made for," she said. In February 2002, Jenna was shooting for Jill Kelly Productions for the first time. Jill Kelly was directing the scene and Jenna was eager to show her what she could do. After a hot anal scene with Steven St. Croix, Ms. Haze was offered a contract, which, after much debate, she accepted. "They were the company that struck me as being the closest and not just a business, but a family, which I definitely liked. I also enjoyed the idea of having a whole group of girls around me and being with a company that is run by a woman," Ms. Haze said. Jenna soon started to have deep feelings for a cameraman whom she had been dating for about seven months and started not to enjoy her boy-girl work. "My boyfriend and I started to get serious and my morals took over. I didn't feel right about sleeping with other guys while I was emotionally attached to someone else. It didn't seem fair to me or to him. So I told Jill and we decided that it would be cool if I only did girls for awhile. Now I thought this was a great idea! I had only done a few girl-girl scenes and I have always been mad crazy about pussy. So that's what we did. After all, if it doesn't work out with my guy I can always go back to doing what I was doing. But I can never get a chance again to see where this goes between me and him. I can't help … [Read more...]

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Girlfriends Films to Receive FSC Leadership Award

February 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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In the past nine months, Girlfriends Films has taken down more than 20,000 URLs infringing on the company’s content CANOGA PARK, Calif.—The Free Speech Coalition (FSC) is proud to announce Girlfriends Films as the recipient of its 2010 FSC Leadership Award. “We’ve won awards for movies but nothing can be more satisfying than this one,” Girlfriends Films President Dan O’Connell said. “There’s no higher honor than being so prominently recognized as being the leader in the kind of exemplary work and innovation that the award stands for. This is a big industry and to be the company that receives this year’s award is just the best. I couldn’t be happier or more proud!” The FSC Leadership Award goes to an adult company that exemplifies excellence and innovation in business practices. Girlfriend Films, which was founded in 2002, has a long history of fair businesses practices and philanthropy. “We’ve made every effort to be a good neighbor to our business partners, models and fans,” O’Connell said. “As a company, Girlfriends Films has always made an effort to put a positive foot forward when it comes to our marketing, products, customer service and business dealings. In short, we’ve made a continuous effort to treat everyone with appreciation, consideration and respect.” Girlfriends Films instituted its own anti-piracy efforts in response to distributors’ concerns over declining sales, and in the past nine months has taken down more than 20,000 URLs infringing on the company’s content. The company also has earmarked a portion of annual revenues to donate to various charities, as well as hosted fundraising events for several charities. “Over the last several years, Girlfriends Films has not only created movies that are popular with consumers, but has also incorporated better practices and ethics in the way they do business,” said FSC Membership Director Joanne Cachapero, who added that the company has hosted many fundraisers for various charities over the years and continues to be a great role model for the adult community. Aside from a strong anti-piracy stance, O’Connell and the company also are staunch supporters of protecting the rights of adults to enjoy adult entertainment. “Though the adult industry’s mission is to make people happy and satisfy their private desires, there are always other people and groups who want to deny anyone’s access to our products, even though they are most often used in privacy. With attitudes held over from the dark ages, these folks have appointed themselves as Taliban-style ‘thought police’ and are never content to leave the rest of us alone. The Free Speech Coalition is the one group that is front and center in fighting for the rights of our industry and fans, and all of us should be actively supporting them,” he said. “Girlfriends Films thanks the FSC for this award as well as what they’ve done for this industry,” O’Connell added. “Surely, this … [Read more...]

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What type of cheating is worst? That depends

February 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Study: Guys bothered more by sexual infidelity, women by emotional affairs Cheating on a spouse or significant other is sure to cause feelings of jealousy and hurt in the spurned partner. But men and women differ on what part of cheating they think is the worst: Men tend to be more bothered by sexual infidelity, while most women are bothered more by emotional infidelity. The prevailing explanation for this difference is the unique evolutionary roles played by men and women, but a new study suggests that it has more to do with the types of attachments people form in relationships. The widespread evolutionary explanation posits that men rank sexual infidelity as the greater sin because over the eons they learned to be hyper-vigilant about sex, as they could never be absolutely certain that their children were actually theirs. Women, on the other hand, became more bothered by emotional infidelity, because they are concerned about having a partner to help raise their children. A recent study found that men feel guiltier after a sexual discretion, while women feel guiltier after an emotional one. The problem with the prevailing idea was that while men were more likely than women to rate sexual infidelity as worse than the emotional kind in studies, there was still a small subset of men who put emotional infidelity at the top of the list, said Kenneth Levy, a psychologist at Penn State. This subset seemed to indicate that "there must be something else going on," Levy told LiveScience. Attachment to others Levy, who studies attachment in relationships, saw the results instead through the lens of his research and began to suspect that individual differences in how people view relationships could be affecting men's and women's views on infidelity. Why do men cheat? June 25, 2009: Following South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s public confession of infidelity, psychotherapist Robi Ludwig and psychologist Jeff Gardere discuss what drives men to cheat. Levy spoke of two types of attachment in relationships: dismissive and secure. A person with a dismissive attachment "doesn't see the value in relationships," he explained, describing them as "hyper-independent." Or, in other words, "most of us value our independence, but we also value our relationships. These individuals only value their independence, to the exclusion of relationships." On the flip side, those with secure attachments see the value in relationships and are comfortable with the interdependency that comes with them, Levy said. Levy thought those with a secure attachment style might be more likely to be bothered by emotional infidelity, while those with dismissive styles would see sexual infidelity as more of problem. Sexual vs. emotional infidelity To test this idea, Levy and his colleague Kristen Kelly had over 400 undergraduate students (about three-quarters were female) complete a standard assessment of attachment style in romantic relationships and also asked them which they would … [Read more...]

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Woman over 40: the hostess, not the guest, when it comes to sex

February 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Newsflash to the nubile young lovers out there: that middle-aged couple is having better sex than you are. According to Susan Quilliam, co-author of the recently published The New Joy of Sex (Pocket books, 2009), "There's plenty of research that shows sex gets better for women as they get older…It's one of the best-kept secrets of women's lives." Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! (Go ahead and sing that to any tune of your choice, it sounds fabulous, even off key). Why is this the case? I have yet to read the book, but can answer that with a few good guesses of my own. First of all, the sexiest part of the human body is not in the nether regions, it is the brain. When it comes to making love, attitude and passion are all about the gray matter, not someone’s endowment, six-pack or perky pair of boobs. In other words, out with the perfection and in with the pleasure. A woman in her forties and beyond shows up when it comes to intimacy; sex is not something done to her, sex is something she often initiates…with gusto, verve, and a fine-tuned sense of what turns her on and satisfies her switch. Once upon a time, I wondered why older women would be interested in younger men, but now I know it is likely the other way around. Younger men recognize an uninhibited sense of joy for physical love in older woman that only comes from experience and time. Her confidence and diminished inhibitions make her a delicious thirst quencher. Ripened like a fine wine, if you will. Lovers in this age bracket are less obsessed about maintaining the perfect body. For them, the physique is about utility and fun. Breasts may sag, tummies may flab, hair may drag, but none of that really matters in soft candle light and a warm bed. Or the ottoman, the sofa, the dining room table, and even the outdoor patio furniture. She is built for comfort, not speed so sex really is about mutual pleasure and satisfaction, not sucking in the gut or flaunting the gluts. Heck, if the neighbors have never overheard some late night loving, those middle-aged sweethearts are likely to think, it’s about time! Finally, women who are done making babies get to focus on making love in a way that transcends the nagging worries of unwanted pregnancy. And that release of anxiety also gives way to a greater acceptance and exploration of sensual fantasies. When, how, now and again; the pleasure of sex with a partner who knows her well means less judgment and more joy, less worry and more love. But don’t expect her to boast to her younger sisters about her well-satiated libido; a lover of her class is too refined to flaunt anything but lovely lingerie. Besides, it is still our favorite little secret... As always, comments ON LINE are most appreciated. Thank you for reading, and if you want to join my subsriber list, please add your email address to the list. … [Read more...]

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