Quotes and reaction to Jackson doc sentencing (AP)

Quotes on the sentencing of Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's doctor:

? "We are not here to seek revenge. There is nothing you can do today that will bring Michael back. But we will keep the love in our heart that Michael embodied throughout his life. His passion was for unifying the world through the gift of his artistry." ? Jackson family statement read by attorney Brian Panish

? "As Michael's parents, we could never have imagined that we would live to witness his passing. It is simply against the natural order of things. As his brothers and sisters, we will never be able to hold, laugh or perform again with our brother Michael. And as his children, we will grow up without a father, our best friend, our playmate and our dad." ? Jackson family statement as read by Panish

? "Dr. Murray ? whether he's a barista for the rest of his life, whether he's a greeter at Walmart ? he's still going to be the man who killed Michael Jackson." ? defense attorney Ed Chernoff

? "I would just simply state that this crime occurred on June 25, 2009, but as far as looking at factors in aggravation, we know the defendant was playing Russian roulette with Michael Jackson's life every single night." ? Deputy District Attorney David Walgren.

? "In essence Dr. Murray created this vulnerable situation and when Michael Jackson was at his most vulnerable, Dr. Murray left him alone to die." ? Walgren.

? "My son is not what they charged him to be. He was a gentle child from the time he was small. " ? Milta Rush, Murray's mother

? "It should be made very clear that experimental medicine is not going to be tolerated, and Mr. Jackson was an experiment. The fact that he participated in it does not excuse or lessen the blame of Dr. Murray, who simply could have walked away and said no as countless others did." ? Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor

? "I can't even imagine that happening to any of us because of the horrific violation of trust." ? Judge Pastor, regarding a recording of an impaired Jackson that authorities recovered from Murray's cell phone

? "This is going to be a real test of our criminal justice system to see if it's meaningful at all," District Attorney Steve Cooley said about Murray's four-year sentence automatically being cut in half

? "I think this die was cast a long time ago," defense attorney J. Michael Flanagan on judge issuing maximum sentence

? "The egregious conduct of Dr. Murray when `treating' Michael Jackson was bad enough but when coupled with his outrageous lies in trying to cover up his wrongdoing after Michael was dying and/or had died only served to magnify his criminal actions. Michael Jackson was the one of the greatest entertainers that ever lived and he will be missed by millions." ? Statement issued by estate of Michael Jackson

_"For those of us who knew Michael and loved him this is not a day of celebration. It is a day of continued pain because of the loss of a great artist and friend. I do hope it sends a signal to those that would prostitute their professional skills for money and pleasure while violating the oath of their profession." ? The Rev. Al Sharpton

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111130/ap_en_ce/us_jackson_doctor_quotes

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Times Higher Education - Sector must reject neoliberal business ...

1 December 2011

Academics have been "seduced" into using business-speak to defend higher education, according to leading scholars and politicians.

Speaking at a conference titled Universities under Attack, academics called for a "fightback" in which the "neoliberal" language of "employability" and "value for money" are ditched in favour of advocating higher education for its own sake.

Arguing for universities' economic value meant "bowing down" before a flawed conception of education, argued Baroness Kennedy, principal of Mansfield College, Oxford.

"We have to reignite the language of what education is all about," she told delegates at the event at King's College London on 26 November, which was organised by the London Review of Books and the New York Review of Books and supported by Times Higher Education.

"The whole business of learning is about something greater - it's not just about having jobs."

Decrying the "marketisation" of the academy, Baroness Kennedy said: "This is about turning ourselves into businesses. We have been seduced into the idea that there is no other way. It comes out of Hayek and Thatcher being enamoured with the free market. Big money from this ideology feeds into thinktanks in education, health and welfare. Alternative ways of thinking do not get resourced."

Accusing the academic community of being "pusillanimous", she added: "We have not been loud enough in complaining about it."

Michael Wood, professor of English and comparative literature at Princeton University, said it was vital to argue for higher education on its own terms.

"What can we say without falling into the market trap? What are we to say about the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake? A society that does not value knowledge in this way will be outpaced by societies that do," he argued.

Simon Head, a scholar at the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University, also questioned why the UK's world-leading universities were being asked to follow a different model.

"We are being encouraged all the time to emulate the language of business. But we are doing well by all available markers, whereas British business is not represented in the most dynamic areas. Why should we defer when we are world-class to something that is not?"

Howard Hotson, professor of early modern intellectual history at the University of Oxford, argued that the marketisation agenda was being driven by big business, which sought to lower tax rates around the world by passing the costs of higher education to individuals.

"The huge educational debts focus students' minds to making money," he said. "This pushes them to study business or commerce-related subjects...replacing academic values with business values. The choice agenda is one of the screens for...current policy."

Referring to a "slow-motion administrative coup d'?tat" in which business is valued over everything, he added: "For-profit institutions will not lead to an increase in choice [but rather] a collapse in choice."

However, Terence Kealey, vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham, urged "whingeing" scholars to embrace the changes. He said the higher education White Paper was a "fabulous opportunity" for them to "get together and say: 'We are going to create the third Oxbridge.'"

He called on UK institutions to follow "Harvard and create a university with a $25 billion endowment".

jack.grove@tsleducation.com.

Postscript :

? Original print headline: Our bottom line is not the bottom line

Source: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=418295&c=1

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ECB opens door to action, Sarkozy seeks new treaty (Reuters)

BRUSSELS/TOULON, France (Reuters) ? The new head of the European Central Bank signaled on Thursday it stood ready to act more aggressively to fight Europe's debt crisis if political leaders agree next week on much tighter budget controls in the 17-nation euro zone.

In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy called for a new treaty incorporating tougher budget discipline, a European Monetary Fund to support countries in difficulty and decisions in the euro area taken by majority vote instead of unanimity.

Addressing supporters in the port city of Toulon, Sarkozy said he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel would meet next Monday to outline joint proposals to put to a December9 EU summit, seen as make-or-break for the 12-year-old single currency.

"Let us not hide it, Europe may be swept away by the crisis if it doesn't get a grip, if it doesn't change," Sarkozy said, warning that a collapse of the euro would make France's debt unmanageable and wipe out people's savings.

"We don't have the right to let such a disaster happen."

ECB President Mario Draghi painted a dark picture of the state of Europe's banking system, speaking a day after the world's major central banks took emergency joint action to provide cheaper dollar funding for starved European banks.

"A new fiscal compact would be the most important signal from euro area governments for embarking on a path of comprehensive deepening of economic integration. It would also present a clear trajectory for the future evolution of the euro area, thus framing expectations," he told the European Parliament.

Draghi did not spell out what action the ECB might take, saying only a commitment by political leaders to stricter budget discipline and binding their economies more closely "is definitely the most important element to start restoring credibility. Other elements might follow, but the sequencing matters."

In the short-term, economists expect the central bank to relieve pressure on banks and an economy heading into recession by cutting interest rates next week and announcing longer-term cheap liquidity tenders with easier collateral rules. Markets are pricing in a 25 basis point cut to 1.0 percent on December 8.

Draghi, who faces some of the toughest decisions in the currency's 12-year history after just one month in the job, said the ECB was aware many European banks were in difficulty because of stress on sovereign bonds, tight inter-bank funding markets and scarce collateral.

"Downside risks to the economic outlook have increased," he said, noting that the ECB's mandate was to maintain price stability "in both directions" -- a rare indication that the bank is concerned about deflation risks as well as inflation.

Sarkozy voiced similar sentiments in words designed to reassure voters anxious about handing more power to Brussels. He called for an "intergovernmental" Europe and made no mention of the stronger role for the European Commission or the European Court of Justice sought by Berlin.

"Sovereignty can only be exercised with others. Europe doesn't mean less sovereignty but more sovereignty because it gives us a greater capacity to act," Sarkozy declared.

His Socialist opponents in next year's presidential election denounced an "austerity treaty" imposed by Germany.

Merkel is due to outline her own vision in an address to parliament in Berlin on Friday. Aides said the leaders conferred by telephone to ensure that their speeches, while different in tone, would not be incompatible.

Sarkozy avoided calling directly for massive ECB action to buy bonds of troubled euro zone states or cut interest rates. But he said: "Naturally the European Central Bank has a decisive role to play ... I am convinced that faced with the risk of deflation with threatens Europe the central bank will act."

Two years into Europe's debt crisis, investors are fleeing the euro zone bond market, European banks are dumping government debt, south European banks are bleeding deposits and a recession looms, fuelling doubts about the survival of the single currency.

The euro and European stocks extended gains after surging on Wednesday upon the joint dollar liquidity move by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the ECB and the central banks of Japan, Britain, Canada and Switzerland.

Markets were cheered by strong demand at Spanish and French bond auctions on Thursday. France's 10-year bond spread over safe haven German Bunds fell below 100 basis points for the first time since October 28 after peaking above 200 bps in mid-November.

A group representing many of the world's top private banks added its voice to the calls for action from the ECB. "The crucial role of the ECB in ensuring normal liquidity conditions in the Euro Area sovereign and financial debt markets cannot be overstated," the Institute of International Finance's market monitoring group said in a statement.

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Euro zone in graphics http://r.reuters.com/hyb65p

Market disconnect graphic http://r.reuters.com/van64s

Interactive timeline http://link.reuters.com/rev89r

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NO MORE LOSSES?

EU paymaster Germany is pressing for limited treaty changes to establish coercive powers to veto national budgets in the euro zone that breach agreed rules.

Berlin wants the European Commission to be empowered to reject national budgets before they go to parliament and to refer serial deficit offenders to the European Court of Justice.

Sources close to the negotiations said Germany and France had yet to agree on key issues including the role of the EU executive and court, with Paris preferring an intergovernmental approach leaving the final word with elected leaders.

In another apparent difference, Sarkozy called for a guarantee that savers would face no further losses on European sovereign bonds, and that writedowns for private creditors of Greece would be a one-time exception.

Berlin and its north European allies have so far insisted that private investors must accept the risk of a so-called "haircut" on government bonds issued from 2013.

The conservative Sarkozy's main challenger in next year's presidential election, Socialist Francois Hollande, said on Wednesday that as president he would never hand France's budget sovereignty over to European judges.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said he would propose at the summit that EU states set aside sovereign debt of over 60 percent of gross domestic product -- the EU treaty limit -- in special funds to be paid off over 20 years with national revenues.

Leaders of Merkel's centre-right coalition agreed that Germany's opposition to common euro zone debt issuance was non-negotiable, slamming one door which France and other southern euro zone states have tried to open.

With the ECB barred by treaty from acting as lender of last resort to the euro zone or directly financing governments, EU officials are working on ways to support states under bond market pressure, possibly via the International Monetary Fund.

One idea under active consideration is allowing euro zone national central banks affiliated to the ECB to lend money to the IMF which could provide larger credit lines for Italy and Spain on strictly monitored policy conditions.

In Greece, where the euro zone debt crisis began in 2009, schools, hospitals and public transport were paralyzed by a one-day general strike in protest at the new national unity government's EU/IMF-imposed "starvation" budget.

The strike is the first such test for new technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, who has had little time to celebrate since European finance ministers this week approved an 8 billion euro tranche of aid to prevent Greece from going bankrupt.

(Additional reporting by Paul Carrel in Frankfurt, Catherine Bremer in Paris, Noah Barkin in Berlin, Emilia Sithole-Matarise in London, Lesley Wroughton in Washington and Tatiana Fragou in Athens; Writing by Paul Taylor; editing by Janet McBride)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111201/bs_nm/us_eurozone

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How to Keep Commercial Spaceflight Safe: Q&A With FAA's George Nield (SPACE.com)

The commercial space industry in the United States is in its adolescence, growing by leaps and bounds while the federal government sometimes looks on as a watchful and worried parent. But one government agency ? the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), whose job it is to make sure the industry maintains safety standards and doesn't harm anyone on the ground ? has decided in some ways to be a cheerleader for its teenage charge.

George Nield, the FAA's associate administrator for commercial space transportation, talked to SPACE.com at the recent International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight in Las Cruces, N.M. Nield weighed in on misperceptions about commercial spaceflight, the difficulties of regulating such a new industry and what the future may hold in store.

SPACE.com: Do you think commercial spaceflight is inherently any less safe than traditional government-run spaceflight?

Nield: If you look at the Commercial Space Launch Act that Congress recently passed, it came right out and said spaceflight is inherently risky, so we need to acknowledge that. But also, all of the vehicles that have been built since the very first ones that have gone to space have been built by these companies, so there's no reason to think that it would need to be a less safe activity than for NASA to carry out.

NASA's a great organization ? I worked there for many years ? but if you look at the shuttle program, we had two fatal accidents in 135 launches. So I don't think it's fair to say, "Well, NASA's going to be safe, and anybody else is not going to be safe, so we'd better be real careful." That's probably not fair to the commercial community.

SPACE.com: Do you think the perception that commercial spacecraft might not be as safe is widespread, and something the industry is going to have to fight against?

Nield: I do. And that's just because people have come to associate space with NASA. That's understandable, because NASA has been such an important part of our nation's space program since the very beginning.

But that is changing now, especially during this period where the shuttle is being retired and NASA does not have any vehicles to fly to the moon or an asteroid or Mars. Then as we look around, it's going to be private industry that is taking people to the edge of space for the suborbital tourism and eventually to the space station. [Top 10 Fantasy Spaceships Headed for Reality]

SPACE.com: People here today were talking about having a cooperative relationship with the FAA. Do you think the relationship between regulatory agencies and spacecraft operators is changing now compared to how it used to be?

Nield: We get a lot of positive feedback once people have worked with us, because it appears that we are unusual in terms of a regulatory agency, in that we actually want them to be successful.

They need to follow the regulations and they need to be safe, but we're not trying to be a bureaucratic organization who just says no. We're trying to figure out how they can be successful. And I think once they understand that then it makes a big impression on them, and that makes it easier to work together.

SPACE.com: What are some of the differences when it comes to managing risks and maintaining safety within the commercial framework as opposed to the government?

Nield: The physics is the same, the engineering is the same, the technical principles are the same. But one of the differences that I think would be common is over time, NASA and similar organizations have developed, "This is how we do things," and so you write down checklists and procedures and flight rules and you put them on the shelf, and they're good. They've done a good job for us and they've allowed us to be successful.

Over time, though, technology marches on and there's new, better, fresher ideas out there. And if you don't pay attention to those, you're going to be stuck in the same way of doing business.

So one of the things that the commercial industry can bring to the table is, "I've got a better idea, I've got a different way to do it," and maybe it's safer, maybe it's cheaper, maybe it's more comfortable, maybe it provides greater capabilities, and that's going to be great to see.

If you look at the history of aviation, from the Wright Brothers, 50 years to 1953 ? wow, we had hundreds of different companies building different kinds of airplanes, and some of them worked, some of them didn't, but we got all this great experience of what was good, what was bad, what was important and what's not. And that has enabled our aviation system to be the safest it's ever been, and a remarkably safe mode of transportation.

Fifty years after the first human went to space, here we are. Only 500 people have been to space, and how many different rockets are there in the world, how many different companies are working on this? So if we can get to the point where we've got multiple companies that are designing, building and operating rockets that bring people to space, that's going to be great.

SPACE.com: What is the role of government and the FAA in making sure safety is important in this process?

Nield: It's central to our mission. Our most important task really is to ensure the safety of the public during commercial launch and re-entry activities. Right now, that's what we're focusing on. If something goes wrong, we want to make sure that no one on the ground who didn't sign up for this exciting space ride gets impacted by that.

Congress has told us how they want to handle the question of people riding on the rocket, and that is, at least for right now, to fly under something they call "informed consent." So we know it's risky, but we want you to go in with your eyes wide open and understand those risks and those dangers, and if you still want to go, then OK, sign this piece of paper.

So that's our job really, to ensure the safety of the public, and then to make sure that the people who do fly on these vehicles, at least for now, are aware of the risks, and the companies are doing the best job they can to operate safely.

That's a good way to gain experience. Eventually, we'll be more like the aviation community, where we're specifying exactly how big it needs to be, what shape it needs to be, what kind of margins you need, and this is how to build a spaceship. We're not smart enough to do that today.

SPACE.com: But you see the space industry following the trajectory of the aviation industry?

Nield: I do, I think we're going to end up there after a number of years when we have enough experience to be smart enough to put those kinds of regulations in place.

SPACE.com: Are commercial companies going to be held to the same safety standards that NASA has been in the past? Are they going to be held to even more stringent or less stringent requirements?

Nield: That's a great question. Part of the answer is really up to NASA and what standards they plan to have for their astronauts.

We're certainly going to do our best to have safe operations, and we're working closely with NASA to make sure that even if our regulations aren't exactly the same as NASA's, at least they're compatible, at least they're consistent, so that somebody doesn't have to have one design for NASA flights and a different design for commercial flights, 'cause then the whole business model just isn't going to work.

I think realistically, everybody's going to do the best they can to make them as safe as they can. [Infographic: The Dangers of Human Spaceflight]

SPACE.com: Right now, does a commercial company have to get every flight approved by you, or every vehicle? How does that work?

Nield: The primary approval that we have for launches is a launch license, and when we first deal with a company that's building their rockets, then they would need a license for each mission that they want to fly.

After they've done a few and they?ve shown that they know what they're doing and they can operate safely, and we know what their objectives are, then we can give them an operator's license that is good for five years, and they can do as many launches as they want, and don't need a license for every single mission. We want to allow them an opportunity to show what they can do first.

You can follow SPACE.com assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom?and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20111130/sc_space/howtokeepcommercialspaceflightsafeqawithfaasgeorgenield

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American Airlines Declares Bankruptcy (TIME)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/167650708?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Dow, S&P up for 2nd day but financials a drag (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? The Dow and S&P 500 advanced for a second day on Tuesday as consumer confidence data was stronger than expected and investors eyed further progress on a solution to Europe's fiscal mess.

But weak financial shares limited the advance, with the S&P financial index (.GSPF) down 0.4 percent. Shares of Bank of America (BAC.N) dropped 2.7 percent to $5.11, on track for their worst close since March 2009. The Nasdaq also was lower.

"There seems to be some movement on the European front, but things certainly haven't been resolved. Financials are taking a step back, and are kind of keeping a cap on the market as a whole," said Thomas Villalta, portfolio manager for Jones Villalta Asset Management in Austin, Texas.

In a positive sign for the euro zone, Italian bond yields fell from session highs, though they were still at record high rates. In the auction, Italy's government sold 7.5 billion euros of three- and 10-year bonds, close to the upper end of its target range.

In addition, investors also eyed a meeting of European officials in hopes they will make a step forward in resolving the region's debt crisis.

In the United States, the Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer confidence jumped to its highest level since July, handily topping economists' forecasts.

The news followed record Black Friday sales, giving investors hope that the holiday shopping season will be a solid one for retailers.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was up 55.29 points, or 0.48 percent, at 11,578.30. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) was up 4.14 points, or 0.35 percent, at 1,196.69. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was down 8.01 points, or 0.32 percent, at 2,519.33.

On Monday, U.S. stocks rebounded sharply from seven days of losses, with the S&P closing up nearly 3 percent.

Weakness in some large-cap Internet stocks weighed on the Nasdaq after strong gains in those stocks on Monday. Amazon.com (AMZN.O) dropped 2.3 percent to $189.62.

AMR Corp (AMR.N) plunged 78.4 percent to about 35 cents a share after the parent of American Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection and named a new chairman and chief executive. The stock was halted more than a dozen times throughout the day.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111129/bs_nm/us_markets_stocks

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'Twilight' Star Peter Facinelli Has Sticky Fingers In Exclusive 'Loosies' Clip

It's not easy to find love in the city. Christy Carlson Romano, formerly known as Kim Possible and Ren on "Even Stevens," seems poised to learn that the hard way in this exclusive clip from "Loosies."

In the film, Peter Facinelli, who also wrote the script, stars as Bobby, a pick pocket who ends up in [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/11/30/peter-facinelli-loosies-exclusive-clip/

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