Apple?s 5th Gen iPod Touch And 7th Gen iPod Nano Shipping Times Improve

Apple's new iPod touch and iPod nano, announced alongside the iPhone 5 at an event last month, saw their shipping times improve over the weekend, from an expected two week shipping timeframe to 5-7 business days. The new iPod were first given the open-ended retail window of "October" when initially announced, and then began rolling out to pre-order customers earlier this month.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/plsxK75T5AM/

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Spears' dad feared meltdown would kill singer

Evan Agostini / AP file

Britney Spears in New York in May.

By Brandon Lowery, Reuters

LOS ANGELES -- The father of pop star Britney Spears was terrified by his daughter's deepening drug addiction as her life spiraled out of control five years ago, his attorney told jurors on Friday.

"Jamie (Spears) was living in constant fear that he was going to look at the TV one day and see Britney was dead," said Leon Gladstone, Jamie Spears' attorney.

Gladstone's remarks came on the second day of a civil trial that has pitted the singer and her parents against Sam Lutfi, who was one of her closest friends in 2007 and early 2008 and who described himself as her manager at that time.

Britney Spears slideshow

Lutfi, now 38, was considered to be Spears' live-in "gate keeper" who determined who was allowed to see her during her personal and career meltdown in 2007.

He is suing the singer for a chunk of her earnings at that time.

Lutfi also is suing Spears' parents, Jamie and Lynne Spears. He claims Jamie Spears punched him in the chest at Britney Spears' Los Angeles area home in January 2008, and that Lynne Spears libeled him in her book, "Through the Storm," published later that year.

The trial has lifted the lid on a tumultuous period when Spears famously shaved her head, was twice placed on psychiatric holds, lost custody of her children and was placed under her father's conservatorship, giving him control of her health and finances.

Nick Ut / AP

Britney Spears' parents, Lynne Spears, left, and Jamie Spears arrive at court in Los Angeles on Friday, Oct. 19.

Depressed and addicted for years
Gladstone said that Jamie Spears had been trying to get his daughter to go to rehab after her 2006 divorce from Kevin Federline and at one point he convinced Federline to obtain sole legal custody of their two young children, Gladstone said.

While the "Toxic" singer's problems began to reach their a peak after her divorce from Federline, her spiral into depression began years earlier, Gladstone said.

The once-happy and humble pop star became angry and impulsive in 2003 after breaking up with fellow superstar Justin Timberlake, Gladstone said. That was the year she went to Las Vegas and ended up getting married to a childhood friend - a marriage that lasted 55 hours.

Gladstone described how Jamie Spears went to see Britney at a Los Angeles hospital in 2007, and found her strapped to a gurney and yelling.

"He is scared to death," Gladstone said, "and he's thinking to himself, 'My daughter has lost everything. Here she is, in a psychiatric ward, out of her head.'"

From gas station to superstar manager
Lutfi is seeking 15 percent of Spears' income over several months in 2007 and 2008, when he said he managed her. She earned $800,000 to $1 million per month over that period, attorneys said.

Before that, Lutfi had worked at a gas station and the only proof he was her manager was a mostly blank form contract Lutfi had downloaded from the Internet and an oral contract with the singer, said attorney Joel Boxer, who is representing Spears' estate.

"Sam Lutfi never conducted himself as if he was Britney's manager," Boxer told jurors. "Mr. Lutfi did not earn a dollar for Britney."

AP file

Sam Lutfi leaves UCLA Medical Center after visiting Britney Spears on Jan. 31, 2008.

Spears' income at the time resulted from deals brokered before Spears even knew Lutfi, Boxer said.

Lutfi's attorney, Joe Schleimer, argued in opening statements on Thursday that Lutfi had a valid deal with the pop star, and tried but failed to keep her out of trouble.

Attorneys for the singer's family and estate say Lutfi tried to take control of her and keep her away from her family.

On the alleged assault by Jamie Spears, Gladstone said on Friday that the worried father merely touched Lutfi to get his attention.

Spears, now 30, has since made a comeback with world tours hit albums and a new job as a judge on TV talent show "The X-Factor."

She was not in court on Friday and is not expected to attend the trial although her parents are expected to testify. The trial will continue next week.

More in TODAY Entertainment:

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2012/10/20/14579964-britney-spears-father-feared-singer-would-die-during-2007-meltdown?lite

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1972 BMW 2000 Touring restored by BMW Classic Customer ...

If you?ve got a classic car that?s in need of restoration, who better to restore it than the car manufacturer who actually built it? BMW actually has such a service called the BMW Classic Customer Workshop, and this is their latest project ? a 1972 BMW 2000 Touring.

It was handed over the end of last month to its owner Michael Hilti ? and in a very interesting manner too ? through the same vehicle delivery process at the BMW Welt that customers who have bought brand new BMWs go through. The restoration took months of research and countless hours of manual labour. The restoration specialists had to deal with substantial bodywork damage, and the car was also fitted with a completely rebuilt 5-speed sports transmission and a stainless steel sports exhaust system.

?To be able to get back behind the wheel of this car, which I owned in the 1970s and is now in perfect condition again, is just amazing. My wife managed to track down the model, which I was driving when I first met her, and gave it to me as a present,? says Michael Hilti.

?The successful restoration of the BMW 2000 Touring with its output of more than 170 hp is further evidence that, together with our partners in the BMW Group production network, we are able to carry out major restorations at the highest level and tailored to the wishes of each customer,? commented Ralf Vierlein, Director Sales and Aftersales at BMW Group Classic.

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Source: http://paultan.org/2012/10/19/1972-bmw-2000-touring-restored-by-bmw-classic-customer-workshop-in-munich/

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Austria probes gruesome fate of Nazi-era disabled

HALL, Austria (AP) ? Forensic crews scraping away dirt from the remains of the Nazi-era psychiatric patients were puzzled: The skeletal fingers were entwined in rosary beads. Why, the experts wondered, would the Nazis ? who considered these people less than human ? respect them enough to let them take their religious symbols to their graves?

It turns out they didn't.

A year after the first of 221 sets of remains were exhumed at a former Austrian hospital cemetery, investigators now believe the beads were likely nothing more than a cynical smokescreen, placed to mislead relatives attending the burials into thinking that the last stage of their loved ones' lives was as dignified as their funerals.

But skeletons don't lie. Forensic work shows that more than half of the victims had broken ribs and other bone fractures from blows likely dealt by hospital personnel. Many died from illnesses such as pneumonia, apparently caused by a combination of physical injuries, a lack of food and being immobilized for weeks at a time.

Neither do medical records, which show that medical personnel cursed their patients as "imbeciles," ''idiots" and "useless eaters."

Indeed, there is now little doubt that for many of the dead ? mentally and physically disabled people considered by the Nazis to be human garbage ? their final months were hell on Earth.

Nazi extermination of the mentally and physically deficient has been documented since the end of World War II. But information gathered from the hospital cemetery in Hall, an ancient Tyrolean town of narrow, cobble-stoned alleys, cozy inns and graceful church spires east of Innsbruck, has filled out the picture in chilling new ways.

Historians, anthropologists, physicians and archaeologists say the Hall project represents the first time that investigators can match hospital records with remains, allowing them to identify, for example, cases in which patients had broken ribs, noses and collarbones that were not listed in their medical histories, suggesting that the patients had been beaten by those responsible for their care.

Faced with the horrors of the findings, those involved in the probe struggle to maintain the detached attitude of an investigator.

"At first, I sat here and worked through these documents in a relatively dry manner from the point of view of a scientist," psychiatrist Christian Haring said. "But as you read on at some point, you suddenly find yourself in a world where the goose-bumps appear."

Anthropologist George McGlynn said more than half of the sets of remains have broken bones, many of them unexplained in the patients' medical records.

"Why is a stubbed toe talked about in three different (documents), but six rib fractures that cause terrible pain isn't even mentioned?" he asked.

While such injuries did not kill directly, they may often have led to death. Many of the patients are listed as dying of pneumonia, and McGlynn said the "scary conclusion" is that rib injuries combined with sedation and forced immobility ? patients are suspected to have been strapped to their beds for weeks at a time ? may have generated fatal incidences of the disease.

"Nobody is being executed here, like you see in concentration camps," he said. "It was done in a more sinister, insidious way ? people are loaded up with drugs until they get a lung infection."

Forensic examination of the bones shows infection that started at the skin level then "goes right into the muscle and all the way to the bone," McGlynn said.

Others apparently starved ? if not to death, then to the point where they were susceptible to diseases that then killed them.

"We can assume that the patients suffered massively from hunger," said Haring, the psychiatrist, speaking of "enormous" losses in weight.

The Nazis called people deemed too sick, weak or disabled to fit Hitler's image of a master race "unworthy lives," in the terrible culmination of the cult of eugenics that gained international popularity in the early 1900s as a way to improve the "racial quality" of future generations.

"Patients, who on the basis of human judgment are considered incurable, can be granted mercy death after a discerning diagnosis," Hitler wrote in a 1939 decree that opened the flood gates to the mass killings.

More than 70,000 such people were killed, gassed to death or otherwise murdered between 1939 and 1941, when public protests stopped most wholesale massacres. From then until the end of the war in 1945, the killings continued at the hands of doctors and nurses. In all, at least 200,000 physically or mentally disabled people were killed by medication, starvation, neglect or in the gas chambers during the war.

After 1941, McGlynn said, "a lot of the smaller institutions were given carte blanche to take care of things themselves. No longer were people being transported to (killing) centers. They were being put to sleep right there."

Hundreds of psychiatric patients from Hall were among those shipped to killing centers before 1941, but what happened there after that was unknown until two years ago, when an archivist searching through old hospital files discovered the graveyard during a hospital expansion.

The records show that as the war progressed, and able-bodied men and women became scarce behind the front lines, the Nazis made a cynical adjustment in their measurement of patients' value.

"'Worthy of life' and 'unworthy of life' were the terms used back then," Haring said. "The difference was ability to work or not."

Excerpts of medical histories provided to The Associated Press described one of the patients as suffering from "imbecility," but most were objective, bereft of demeaning descriptions. McGlynn, however, said he had examined records that show emotional abuse in addition to the physical violence the remains attest to.

"People are being threatened: 'If you don't do this we are going to stuff this tube down your nose and pump you full of stuff,'" he said. "These people were at the mercy of their captors."

Other evidence backs up McGlynn's findings.

Documents show that the cemetery was created in 1942, a year after the formal end of the mass-killing campaign meant that Hall patients could no longer be shipped to gas chambers. It was shut down and abandoned in 1945, when the war ended. During that time, deaths in the psychiatric ward rose from an average of 4 percent a month in early 1942 to as high as 20 percent in some months before the end of the war.

Haring, an affable, soft-spoken man, is visibly shaken as he speaks of the horrors perpetrated by the previous generation of psychiatrists. But he hesitates to assign individual guilt to anyone caught up in the inhuman machinery of the Third Reich.

"It is easy for us now to point the finger and say 'what have they done?'" he said. "But ... I am not sure that I would have acted differently. We were simply paralyzed."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-10-19-Austria-Unworthy%20Lives/id-f2b4fb94d9c844c79ca697bd96918cdc

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Charges of cronyism in Hungary farmland contracts

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives for an EU summit in Brussels on Friday, Oct. 19, 2012. European leaders have taken a step towards the creation of a single supervisor for banks in countries that use the euro but details over when it will be up and running have yet to be ironed out. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives for an EU summit in Brussels on Friday, Oct. 19, 2012. European leaders have taken a step towards the creation of a single supervisor for banks in countries that use the euro but details over when it will be up and running have yet to be ironed out. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

KAJASZO, Hungary (AP) ? Gergely Bocsodi's family has been farming in this central Hungarian village for six generations but he fears there may not be a seventh, as the region is caught up in a once-in-20-years land grab.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his conservative Fidesz party are being accused of broken campaign promises, cronyism and shady deals in which friends, relatives and political supporters have snapped up valuable long-term agriculture leases on state lands, cutting out many small local farmers.

"There is huge anger and emotion," Bocsodi said. "It is not easing."

Ahead of the 2010 election, the right-wing Fidesz party had promised farmers and young families access to state lands, one of the vows that helped them win in a landslide.

In Kajaszo, however, there were no locals among the winners of the land lease tenders. Instead, all the available state land around the village went to two groups, including a company linked to the mayor of Felcsut, Orban's hometown.

Fidesz won a two-thirds majority in 2010, amid a recession and deep resentment over eight years of Socialist Party mismanagement. Orban has since reshaped the country with a new, strongly conservative constitution, allowing him to concentrate power and exert greater political control over a wide range of institutions, from the media to the central bank.

Yet discontent with the government is rapidly growing, as austerity measures announced with ever-increasing frequency and lowered growth projections have called into question his government's unusual economic policies.

Charges of cronyism have been leveled against virtually all Hungarian governments, but the land lease scandal seems to be snowballing.

Bocsodi and his parents grow sunflowers, corn, wheat, and other crops on 50 hectares (124 acres) they own in this small village on the edge of the M7 highway, which connects the capital of Budapest to Lake Balaton, Hungary's prime summer resort.

They had been hoping to lease another 70 hectares of state farmland in the area ? enough to allow 28-year-old Gergely to strike out on his own.

"Around here, not a single local farmer was able to secure any land," Bocsodi said as he took a break from tilling with his tractor, preparing to plant autumn wheat.

Since the leases are for 20 years and there is no more land available around Kajaszo, 38 kilometers (24 miles) southeast of Budapest, Bocsodi's future is uncertain.

"I don't understand why the contracts are so long," Bocsodi said. "I would like to stay here. My life is here."

About 20 people staged a symbolic occupation Wednesday of one of plots leased to outsiders. After a tractor turned over a strip of soil, the protesters planted wheat in the fresh grooves and set up signs saying "Territory taken over by the farmers of Kajaszo."

"The situation is similar everywhere," said Maria Tamasi, an advocate for small farmers who took part in the protest. "Other farmers can't obtain lands in their villages, either, and if they see that a few farmers have the courage to do this, they will, too."

One of the most vocal critics of the government's land-lease policy is Jozsef Angyan, a Fidesz parliamentary deputy who resigned as state secretary at the Agriculture Ministry this year. He has compiled detailed reports on the land-lease contracts in three counties, including Fejer county where both Kajaszo and Felcsut are located.

According to Angyan, 59 percent of the state land leased recently in Fejer county, including the biggest and most valuable plots, have gone to just two groups.

Angyan does not speak to the foreign press, perhaps weary of being branded a traitor, as some government critics have been.

"For the time being, I want to continue the struggle among my own," Angyan told The Associated Press when approached in parliament.

But last month at a farmers' meeting in Kajaszo, the 60-year-old agricultural engineer did not mince words.

"Don't be mad at me. I was conned, too," Angyan said. "It's a scandal that the locals did not get even an ounce of land."

His successor at the Agriculture Ministry, Gyula Budai, has rejected criticism of the tenders and promised that reviews beginning in 2013, a year after the first leases were awarded, would weed out any irregularities.

"I myself, as government commissioner, as well as the ministry, reviewed the Kajaszo land tenders and no legal problems surfaced," Budai said.

Opposition parties have repeatedly drawn attention to the issue.

"We would have liked to see transparency in these land-lease tenders and have the evaluation criteria be made public for everyone," said Rebeka Szabo, a lawmaker with Politics Can Be Different, a small opposition party.

According to the head of National Land Management Organization, which organized the tender process, the complaints are being made by sore losers.

"We've granted leases to 21,000 hectares (52,000 acres)," said Robert Sebestyen after a ceremony in the village of Gomba where local farmers did get some plots. "Some people who did not win are unsatisfied."

Despite his disappointment, Bocsodi still hopes that one of the Kajaszo leases, which may have not met all the requirements, will be voided.

"I trust that part of the land will be tendered again and we will get a new chance to compete," Bocsodi said. "This is where I would like to make a living."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-10-19-Hungary-Land%20Scandal/id-f8b1dd13d0494c6d970f181d1006bb83

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Russell Crowe builds himself an ark in 'Noah'

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, NBC News

Yes, that's Russell Crowe, clad in all brown and looking a little like a very solid tree trunk, on the set of his 2014 biblical epic, "Noah." As you may have guessed from the title, Crowe plays the Old Testament patriarch who builds the ark to protect his family and the earth's animals from the flood God is sending as punishment for man's wickedness.

Splash News

Russell Crowe on the set of his new movie "Noah."

"I'm 48, definitely feeling my age, but I have never been stronger," Crowe tweeted. "My musculature is not fine or ripped, but it's real, Ark builders muscle."

Jennifer Connelly, who starred with Crowe in 2001's "A Beautiful Mind," reunites with him in this film to play Noah's wife, Naameth, and Emma Watson plays Noah's adopted daughter. (In July, Crowe tweeted, "My kids are flipping out that I'm going to work with Hermione.")

Director?Darren Aronofsky has tweeted a photo of the ark being constructed for the film, which is every bit as mammoth as might have been expected. Aronofsky has apparently long wanted to make a film about the famous tale, tweeting "'I dreamt about this since I was 13. And now it's a reality. Genesis 6:14 #noah"

Aronofsky has also been sharing other "Noah" tidbits, including tweeting photos of goofy-looking extras and information about the ark's construction. And on Tuesday, he tweeted, "not sure it's true but today is the actual anniversary of the Noah flood. just saying."

Crowe also joined in the fun, at one point tweeting that the under-construction ark was leaking, and at another posting "Currently the status of my beard is "Epic".

The actor made the news last week due to reports that he had separated from Danielle Spencer, his wife of nine years.

"Noah" floods theaters in 2014.

Interested in seeing "Noah"? Tell us on Facebook.

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Source: http://entertainment.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/18/14514062-russell-crowe-builds-himself-an-ark-in-noah?lite

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Preserve your investment with Wilmington NC property management ...

Do you have your own property? But don?t have enough time to manage the property issues? Then Wilmington NC property management is the best way for managing your investment. There are some motives why you have to give up your property tasks to a property management company. They have improved possessions as their main reason of business is to uphold the possessions. They have enhanced contacts and more understanding as they contract with more than a few properties. So as a property landlord, you will undoubtedly not be beaten anything by taking the services of a property management company. You will have more time to work on developing your collection or portfolio while the day by day responsibilities are handling by a well-organized team. There are a number of property management companies which make available this kind of management services. You will discover numerous when you embark on the search. Though, to find the accurate one is complicated. Yet, you need to find a resourceful company for managing property.

In addition to the property management, these companies also provide Wilmington NC homes for rent services. If you want to rent your property for a while, then these property management companies deal directly with tenants and prospects, saving your time and concern over advertising your rentals, handling maintenance, collecting rent, pursuing evictions, answering to complaints of tenants, and even repair issues. Also, a superior property management company carries its knowledge and understanding to your property, giving you the self-possession that comes with recognizing that your property or your investment is in right hands.

These companies offer Wilmington NC realtors for the better management of your property. Realtors can help out in making the home renting, buying or selling process simplified. They not only save a huge time of their customers, but also execute an extensive sort of duties on their part. These realtors can also save your time, money and efforts, in case you are hunting for a new house. They have an extensive database containing all the private listings. Hence, they can put forth a long list of homes, which matches your criteria.

So if you want to get the services of Wilmington NC rentals or property management, then there are so many websites on the internet that help you in finding the best company for the maintenance of your property.

Source: http://articlepdq.com/health-fitness/fitness-equipment/preserve-your-investment-with-wilmington-nc-property-management/

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