arianfosterjerseysのブログ

Dharun Ravi refuses to apologize for spying on g

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:03:18 +0900

Dharun Ravi refuses to apologize for spying on gay roommate Tyler Clementi
"When politicians give public apologies, to me, it always sounds so insincere and false," Ravi said. "No matter what I say, people will take it that way."

The case drew national attention when the roommate, Tyler Clementi, committed suicide days after the September 2010 spying. The case touched a nerve among gay rights and anti-bullying activists as an example of the harassment and challenges that young people, and young gays and lesbians in particular, can face. Among those speaking out was President Barack Obama.

Ravi did not address the judge Monday, and the judge criticized his lack of apology. Clementi's brother James said hearing an apology this late from Ravi would not be meaningful to him.

In sentencing Ravi to 30 days when he could have gotten years, the judge said he did not consider the case a hate crime, even though the most serious charge, bias intimidation, is the legal name for what most people call a hate crime.

"I do not believe he hated Tyler Ndamukong Suh Jerseys Clementi," Judge Glen Berman said Monday. "He had no reason to, but I do believe he acted out of colossal insensitivity."

In New Jersey, a major push to adopt hate crime laws came more than 20 years ago amid a string of attacks on Indian-Americans.

Last week, several hundred protesters, many of them Indian-American, gathered at the New Jersey State House to show support for Ravi and decry what they saw as injustices in the state's hate crime laws.

At his sentencing, Sabitha Ravi, tearfully pleaded with the judge not to send her son to prison. Clementi's mother, Jane Clementi, also in tears, told the judge Ravi did deserve incarceration because, she said, Ravi was hateful toward her son.

"Why was he so arrogant, mean-spirited and evil?" She asked.

Clementi and her family did not comment after the sentencing. The Middlesex County prosecutor's office said it planned to appeal the sentence, saying Ravi deserves more time behind bars.

Ravi is likely to appeal the conviction entirely.

Devils even series with Rangers

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:01:55 +0900

Devils even series with Rangers
NEWARK, NJ - We all know it's a best-of-three now, but the question is going to be whose best, and in which of the three. If feels like the New Jersey Devils are leading the New York Rangers 2-2 in this Eastern Conference final, especially given the way they won Game 4. It was a 4-1 whipping, and it was yet another game in which they outplayed the Rangers. It was just that this time, they were rewarded.

"It was the same [as New Jersey's 3-0 loss in Game 3]," said Devils captain Zach Parise, who scored two third-period goals, and added a critical assist. "It's just that the puck happened to go in tonight . "

That was New Jersey's focus, after being stonewalled by New York's Hart Trophy candidate Henrik Lundqvist in Games 1 and 3. The Devils flipped their lines and shuffled the lineup, but the game plan was the same. Attack, possess the puck, generate chances. New Jersey scored two goals in a four-minute span of the first period, and unless you count goaltender Martin Brodeur getting sucker-punched by Mike Rupp late in the game, were never really threatened again.

"I was just minding my own business, for real," said Brodeur, who added an assist on Parise's empty-net goal, and now has four helpers in these playoffs alone. "I never got punched like that in my career ... it surprised me, but now I know I can take a punch. "

son specifics, they">Rupp was ejected, and tempers flared, nowhere more than on the benches, where coaches John Tortorella and Pete DeBoer screamed and pointed at one another. They had already exchanged angry words during the regular season, and while neither man would comment on specifics, they were not exchanging recipes.
screened Lundqvist at the 8:10 mark, and the second on">If New York is frustrated, the reason was clear. New Jersey was dominant in the first, and scored the first goal on a seeing-eye shot from defenceman Bryce Salvador that eluded a screened Lundqvist at the 8:10 mark, and the second on a 2-on-1 that developed because Rangers defenceman Michael Del Zotto - who was miserable before being benched in the second period, and only on the ice because Ryan McDonagh got in a fight - made a bad decision to pinch Parise at the blue line . The Rangers got better Ndamukong Suh Jerseys in the second, but Parise scored a power-play goal on a rebound early in the third.

New York has only scored three or more goals six times in 18 playoff games, and only got all the way to four once, in Game 1 of the first round, but this was the first time they allowed four goals in a playoff game. Martin Brodeur, meanwhile, made 28 saves, and has not allowed more than two goals since turning 40 years old six games ago.

"Well, I think the most important thing is we just have to have the puck more," said Tortorella, who was unusually expansive after the game. "We had opportunities, we had the yips with them ... It was a struggle for a number of our guys. But we have to move by it. "

What has become clear is that barring a dramatic reversal in the tone of the play, the Rangers cannot win this series unless Lundqvist is almost superhuman. Parise had said at the morning skate that the bounces would come, and they did. And the Rangers were left wondering what in the world they need to do to start a game on time.

"I don't know," said Lundqvist, who made 26 saves. "Ask Torts. I'm just a goalie. I can just look at my own game and try to come up with answers. For whatever reason, our starts haven 't really been there. "When asked if he felt he needed to save his team on a nightly basis, Lundqvist said," If we're going to move past this round, I know I have to play well - it's not a secret for me, or for anybody. I just have to do my job. I don't think I have to be extraordinary. I just have to take care of business. "

Rangers appear to be in trouble

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:00:43 +0900

Rangers appear to be in trouble
There was some mild spearing and alleged groin-punching (initiated by Rangers captain Ryan Callahan, the alleged groin-puncher, with New Jersey's Ilya Kovalchuk, the spearer, who said "This is hockey, not chess. So we're allowed to punch each other. ") There was a bit of a rampage by Rangers forward Mike Rupp, a soft-spoken bear of a man, who was called for roughing on Peter Harrold, then punched former teammate Martin Brodeur in the chest and head on the way to throwing around the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Steve Bernier like he was a mannequin.

"I just responded in that moment," Rupp said. "That was that."

And then, finally, Rangers coach John Tortorella and Jersey coach Pete DeBoer stood and turned the air blue for a few seconds - not a lot of complete sentences, and not a lot of printable material, was the word on the conversation - and it was clear that the rivalry between these teams, largely suppressed for the first three games, still exits.

"I think emotion takes over," DeBoer said.

"The longer you play against a team, the more you get emotions playing against them - you learn to hate them or love them, or whatever it might be," Ndamukong Suh Jerseys said Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.

Love does seem unlikely, but we have two or three games to find out. But for the Rangers, it is more about this: for everyone saying that the late histrionics mean that the Rangers lost their cool or were frustrated, or that they could hurt them, that is a little back-asswards. The Rangers only took liberties because the score was a little out of control, and therefore taking liberties could not hurt them. They were frustrated because for four games the Devils have started games better, and finally
the Rangers is not the frustration; it is the reason for the frustration.">managed to play a dominant contest on the scoreboard. The danger here for the Rangers is not the frustration; it is the reason for the frustration.

The Rangers are playing this series on the heels of their skates. They are going through long stretches where they barely even attempt to create offence, in much the same way a drowning man barely attempts to water-ski. New York has not scored more than three goals in their last 17 games, and other than rookie forward Chris Kreider, none of New York's top-six forwards has scored a non-empty-net goal in the series. When Tortorella was asked what he could do to get his struggling forwards going, he gave his most insightful one-word answer of the series: "Pray."

"I don't know what else to tell you," Tortorella said. "We're going to keep on trying to play, pray, and hopefully something good happens to them."

Tortorella appears to be mashing buttons as fast as he can find them. He squawked about dives and alleged dirty hits after Game 3, and the subject of one of those alleged dirty hits, defenceman Anton Stralman, said he could not remember the hit in question . Tortorella sent out his rougher blueshirts, Rupp and Stu Bickel, after a timeout, exchanged words with DeBoer, and then dropped his one-word answer protocol after the loss, answering the media's questions with such relative patience and expansiveness that it seemed like he was determined to lower the temperature. Tuesday Tortorella yanked his team off the ice abruptly, and implied it was because they were having such a great practice.

And even as he invokes the power of prayer - my friend Sean McIndoe joked that the conversation would go along the lines of, "Are you there God? It's me, Joh-" "NO" - Tortorella invoked his confidence in his team's ability to bounce back, again. He is trying to figure something out beyond simply hoping that Lundqvist swells beyond his already extravagant human proportions, and hoping for a bounce. There may yet be a better Rangers team in there somewhere. He only needs to find it twice .

SAP to acquire cloud-computing developer Ariba i

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 16:59:32 +0900

SAP to acquire cloud-computing developer Ariba in US $ 4.3B deal
SAP AG, largest maker of enterprise-applications software, agreed to buy Ariba Inc. For US $ 4.3-billion in the German company's second multi-billion purchase in cloud computing to take on Oracle Corp.

SAP will pay US $ 45 a share, or 20% more than Ariba's May 21 closing price, Walldorf, Germany-based SAP said yesterday. The transaction, subject to approval by Ariba shareholders and regulators, will probably be completed by the end of August, SAP Chief Financial Officer Werner Brandt said on a conference call.

Ariba is the leader in cloud-based collaborative commerce applications, counting BHP Billiton Ltd. And Deutsche Bank AG among customers it connects to more than 730,000 suppliers. As competition in on-demand software intensifies, SAP has increased its pace of acquisitions, last buying SuccessFactors Inc. in December. With businesses increasingly choosing to store and process data on the Web, SAP is shifting many of its staple applications to the Internet.
"We don't have the DNA in the cloud," SAP co-Chief Executive Officer Bill McDermott said in an interview. "We're probably the most strategic cloud player in the enterprise software industry."

SAP fell 1.12 euros, or 2.3%, to 46.69 euros at 9:35 am in Frankfurt. Ariba jumped 19% to US $ 44.87 at yesterday's close in New York.

Earnings Growth

In more than 60 enterprise software takeovers since 2002, the median multiple buyers paid was about 16 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with the 106 times trailing 12-month Ebitda SAP has offered for Ariba, the data show.

Sunnyvale, California-based Ariba's Ebitda is projected to more than quadruple to US $ 125-million in the 12 months through September, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

SAP's acquisition of Ariba would be the largest enterprise software deal since Hewlett-Packard Co. Bought Autonomy Corp. For more than US $ 10-billion last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. There have been almost 1,200 of those transactions globally over the past decade, with a value topping US $ 80-billion.

Counterbid?

"There's potential for other bidders to emerge," said Richard Williams, an analyst at Cross Research in Livingston, New Jersey, who has a hold rating on SAP. "There's a history of bidding wars between SAP and Oracle and this is exactly the kind of strategic company that would spark something like that. "

Deborah Hellinger, a spokeswoman for Oracle, didn't return a phone call seeking comment.

. Ariba's global trading network connects and automates more than US $ 319-billion in commercial transactions, collaborations, and intelligence among companies, according to SAP's statement. SAP's tools mostly serve internal business processes, and Ariba would give the German company a way to automate business transactions with outside companies and make it a stronger competitor in cloud-based business networks, Williams said.

The deal will add to SAP's profit, excluding some items, in 2013, Brandt said yesterday. Ariba CEO Robert Calderoni will join SAP's global management board.

SuccessFactor Takeover

SAP bought SuccessFactors in December Ndamukong Suh Jerseys 2011 for US $ 3.4-billion, adding a maker of online personnel-management applications to help it enter the cloud-computing market. SAP is now offering its payroll, supply-chain management and financial software as cloud applications through the Internet.

The market for cloud software delivered via the Web will grow five times as quickly as sales of programs installed on clients' premises, according to researcher IDC. SAP plans to generate 2 billion euros (US $ 2.5-billion) from such systems by 2015 to help it reach a sales target of more than 20 billion euros by that year.

While Oracle has snapped up rivals, SAP had traditionally shied away from large deals, with past CEO Leo Apotheker telling investors in 2009 that the company's home-grown software was superior to Oracle's. McDermott and co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe have changed that strategy as they race to snatch business from Oracle and other companies such as Salesforce.com Inc. and Workday Inc. in the cloud.

Hana Analytics

SAP bought Sybase Inc. For US $ 5.8-billion in 2010 to bolster its database and mobile-computing offerings. It has also introduced a data-processing system called Hana, which competes with Oracle in database software.

This year, Oracle has purchased human-resources software maker Taleo Corp., A counterweight to SAP's acquisition of SuccessFactors, and customer-service cloud-software vendor RightNow Technologies Inc.

Ariba reported US $ 444-million in revenue last year, an increase of 39% from a year earlier. The US company's board has unanimously approved the deal, SAP said in the statement. SAP plans to fund the transaction with its own cash and a 2.4 billion-euro term loan facility, the company said.

Ariba held its initial public offering in June 1999 and was one of darlings of the Internet bubble, seeing its stock more than quadruple in its first two months of trading. The shares plummeted about 90% in 2001.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. And Deutsche Bank AG advised SAP on the deal, while Morgan Stanley provided financial counsel to Ariba.

The two Toronto women stabbed in Atlantic City w

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 16:58:17 +0900

The two Toronto women stabbed in Atlantic City were mother and daughter
The attacks took place a half a block away from a hospital trauma centre.

Atlantic County Jail
Antoinette Pelzer, a 44-year-old woman from Pennsylvania, is in police custody after allegedly stabbing the two women, aged 47 and 80, the Atlantic County Prosecutor's office said.
. Antoinette Pelzer, a 44-year-old woman from Pennsylvania, is charged with murder and is being held on $ 1.5 million bail. Her aunt says Pelzer has been homeless and mentally ill for years.

Gladys Pelzer, Antoinette's mother, told WPVI-TV that her daughter suffers from schizophrenia and may have been off her medication.

"I feel sorry about the people she hurt all because she wanted a cigarette. That's what this was all about. And she didn't have no money to buy cigarettes," Ms. Pelzer's mother told the Philadelphia broadcaster.

The two women suffered multiple stab Ndamukong Suh Jerseys wounds to the upper body on Monday during the attack on Pacific Avenue, near Bally's Casino, in Atlantic City.

They were then taken to the nearby AtlantiCare Regional Medical Centre where they died Monday afternoon, according to the prosecutor's office.

An Atlantic City police officer who was patrolling the area saw the stabbing and immediately intervened and ordered Ms. Pelzer to drop her weapon, the prosecutor said.

Ms. Pelzer was originally charged with two counts of aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose and robbery. The assault charges were later upgraded to two counts of murder.

Ms. Pelzer appeared in court Tuesday, where the judge set bail at $ 1.5-million cash.

During the hearing, Ms. Pelzer laughed out loud, frowned, grimaced and repeatedly asked where her lawyer was, The Associated Press reported.

Superior Court Judge Michael Donio read from a criminal complaint that said Ms. Pelzer, 44, stabbed one of the women and then tried to steal her pocketbook. "When the victim would not relinquish, the suspect stabbed her additional times," he said, reading from the complaint.

The judge said the woman was stabbed numerous times in different parts of her body and that the other was stabbed in her lower body, hands and shoulder when she tried to lend assistance.

The killings marked the third and fourth homicides involving visitors to Atlantic City in the past two years.

Exactly two years before the women were attacked, a casino patron from northern New Jersey was carjacked inside the Taj Mahal casino parking garage and later killed. A man convicted in that case is to be sentenced on Thursday.

In September, another casino patron, also from northern New Jersey, was carjacked from the same garage and later fatally shot. Three young men are awaiting trial in that case.

TV news can make you even less knowledgeable abo

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 16:56:27 +0900

TV news can make you even less knowledgeable about public affairs
David Frum at the Daily Beast draws attention to a study of TV news viewing habits that indicates certain news channels make people dumber than if they hadn't watched the news at all.

The study by Fairleigh Dickinson University ("the largest independent university in New Jersey") finds aa correlation between which news programs Americans watch, and their ability to answer Ndamukong Suh Jerseys questions on public issues. It's worth noting that nobody does very well. Out of 1,185 respondents , on average people got the correct answer to only 1.8 of 4 questions on international news, and 1.6 of 5 questions on domestic news.

But people who watched the "most ideological" stations - FOX News for conservatives and MSNBC for liberals - did the worst.