Romney Gives Donors Added Access (WSJ)

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How Long Should Your Fun Team Building Be?

Time is very essential especially for organizations. A lot can happen in a few minutes and hours. That is why it is very essential to use time wisely. If you?re going to have a fun team building activity, make sure that the hunt is not too long so that it doesn?t bore the participants. In Cityhunt, they organize fun team building activities that last from 1.5 hours to 3 hours. If you want, you can even choose activities that are as short as 1 hour and as long as 48 years. Yes, the company can make that possible. Just contact them and let them know how long you want the activities to be.

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Kuwait court dissolves newly elected parliament

KUWAIT CITY (AP) ? Kuwait's constitutional court has ruled the country's parliament was elected unconstitutionally and restored the previous legislature.

The state news agency KUNA said the court ruled Wednesday that the 2012 vote was unconstitutional. The decision comes just days after the government suspended parliament meetings for a month amid an escalating feud with Islamist-led opposition lawmakers seeking a greater voice in the Gulf nation's affairs.

The court reinstated the previous parliament, elected in 2009, which is seen as more liberal and supportive of the government. It is unclear when or if new elections will be held.

Tensions have flared since February elections that gave the opposition control of the chamber. Islamists and their allies have pressured two ministers to resign and demanded seats in the government.

Associated Press

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Re: Hippies in Blackface at the Fremont Solstice Parade? A New Poll!

City Re: Hippies in Blackface at the Fremont Solstice Parade? A New Poll!

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 11:29 AM

The controversy continues! This morning, I got an email from Leslie Zenz, director of the Fremont Solstice Parade, who hoped to exonerate the group by saying this wasn't their first time:

Brendan and Philip:

While I do not know what the intention of this group was for the 2012 parade, I highly doubt from what I saw that their intention was to Blackface.

Last year, this same group attended in full black body paint with flowers, flip-flops, and umbrellas (see attached photo). I would like to respond only from my perspective here. What I am about to say is not necessarily the opinion of the Fremont Arts Council proper, should this get blown way out of proportion.

My understanding is that Blackface is a very intentional action where the wearer of black paint (most often accompanied by white eyes and exaggerated lips) is in direct mockery of African Americans.

That is not what I saw happening during the parade with this group. From the photo below, you'll see two of the women are blond and no effort has been made to give them corn rows, dreadlocks, or even darken the hair. Simply dancing to drum music (which was not a part of their ensemble, but a neighboring ensemble) and waiving about a spear-like object (which I did not see), does not an African person make. I am sorry [people were] offended. I am honestly surprised by this interpretation.

I have a longer perspective having witnessed this group the year before in black body paint. I will let the ensemble leader respond further on their intention with the performance.

Thank you for your honorable journalism in seeking out this response.

Leslie Zenz
Parade Director

And the photo:

And the new poll!

Blackface? Not blackface?

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BOLERO-2 - will this change practice in advanced breast cancer?

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Moot Loot: Stats Show Crime Doesn't Pay--for Most Bank Robbers

News | More Science

Statistical evidence argues that holding up banks is a dangerous and unlucrative career that nets the average bank robber the annual salary of a cafe barista?and at the peril of getting caught or shot

By Dave Mosher ?| June 19, 2012

Image: Flickr/shaunwong

Aspiring bank robbers, take heed. New statistical analyses of confidential bank data suggest that mountains of riches aren't in your future, but that a jail cell is.

"The return on an average bank robbery is, frankly, rubbish," wrote the authors of a new article about the economics of British bank robberies in Significance, a quarterly statistics journal published by the American Statistical Association and Royal Statistical Society. "[I]t is so low that it is not worth the banks' while to spend as little as ?4,500 [$7,000] per cashier at every branch on rising screens to deter [bank robberies]."

These and other conclusions emerge from a confidential data set obtained by economists Neil Rickman and Robert Witt at the University of Surrey, and Barry Reilly at the University of Sussex. The trio spent months negotiating with the British Banker's Association, or BBA, to obtain confidential records detailing 364 bank heists that occurred over three years in the U.K.

The data reveal how many robbers pulled off with each heist, if they were armed, what security measures were present, how much they escaped with, whether or not they were caught, bank location (and thus proximity to police stations), and more. Such detailed bank robbery data is not available in the U.S. where, by contrast, if U.S. banks even record most of these details, they are lost in anonymity in the FBI 's quarterly reports on bank robberies.

"There hasn't been a lot of work done on this problem because most data sets only tell you if a robbery occurred. The size of a robber's takings is sensitive to banks, so they keep it confidential,"? Rickman says. "We're very lucky to get the data we have."

Game of numbers
About 80,000 robberies occur in the U.K. each year, and of these less than 0.5 percent were bank robberies. Averaged across 10,500 bank branches in the region, the odds of a bank robbery at any particular branch in recent years work out to about one in 100. "One element to being a successful bank robber is not only walking away uncaptured, but the amount of money you walk away with," Rickman says. "Walking away with ?10 [$15], for example, isn't something I'd consider successful."

By averaging the work of the best criminals with the worst?and every crook in between?from 2005 through 2008, the data paint a bleak picture for criminals eyeing a future career in larceny.

The data reveal that the average U.K. bank robbery consists of 1.6 robbers and nets ?20,330.50 ($31,600) per heist, with a standard deviation of ?53,510.20 ($83,000). Assuming an equal share, the average take was ?12,706.60 ($19,700) per robber, per heist?roughly equivalent to a coffee shop barista's annual salary.

Wielding a gun increased the average haul by ?10,300.50 ($16,000), as did adding more robbers to a raid. But going alone netted the average robber more money, because the amount gained by increasing a heist party did not outpace the hit taken by splitting an individual robber's spoils.

Dangerous career choice
The amounts are not chump change, Rickman noted, but bank robbing is risky business. Roughly 33 percent of U.K. bank heists end with no robber earning anything, and about 20 percent of raids end in capture. The odds of arrest get worse as a robber attempts more heists. On a robber's fourth heist, for example, the odds of capture compound to 59 percent. "Somehow, I expected most bank robbers to be doing much better than what the data actually show," Rickman says. "Would I pick up a firearm to share 20,000 quid with another person? Probably not."

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Crude Oil Holds Steady

Crude oil prices held near $83 per barrel Monday following elections in Greece that likely will preserve the country's international bailout program.

In New York, West Texas Intermediate crude oil for July delivery shed 88 cents reach $83.17 per barrel. Natural gas added 2 cents to hit $2.655 per million British thermal units.

Home heating oil added 0.43 cents to $2.622 per gallon.

Gasoline moved lower, giving up 1.7 cents to reach $2.6592 a gallon.

At the pump, the national average price of unleaded gasoline fell to $3.505 per gallon from Sunday's $3.509, AAA said.

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