The Boston Celtics have a shopping list this holiday season and they're hoping to have much of their work done -- or at least be ready to purchase -- by the time training camp opens next week.

Call it "Green Friday," as the NBA will open training camps Dec. 9. Teams can't officially sign players until that day, but Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said Thursday that after the league allowed general managers to start corresponding with player agents this week, he hopes to have as many as 10 players on the court at the start of camp.
"Hopefully we'll be close on Dec. 9," Ainge said. "There may be some straggling players coming in. But hopefully when we start training camp, we'll at least have 10 [players]."

The Celtics currently boast six players under contract in the playoff starting five -- Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Jermaine O'Neal -- and second-year guard Avery Bradley. The team can add two more players if it signs draft picks JaJuan Johnson and E'Twaun Moore.

Before the lockout, Boston expressed interest in undrafted guard Gilbert Brown, who seemingly could be part of a free-agent cluster brought in to compete for a spot in camp.

Ainge also indicated Thursday that the Celtics have had interest in retaining the services of restricted free agent Jeff Green.


Unrestricted free agents Glen Davis and Delonte West are also on the radar.

"We've had conversations with their representatives," Ainge said.


He did stress that nothing was close with any free agents, and the league prohibits handshake deals until free agency opens.

Ainge admitted the post-lockout landscape is a bit daunting for a team that's already committed $63.8 million to six players. And that doesn't count the $5.9 million qualifying offer to Green (whose value might only escalate if he draws interest from other teams).

"Every year is a challenge, it brings different challenges," Ainge said. "A few years back, we had a target and we went after Rasheed [Wallace], and it was easy that way. We don't have the same [financial] flexibility this summer to do some of those things. We're just in the game. We have a list of players we'd like to get. Right now there's a lot of money out there, a lot of teams with cap space. Players are waiting for the big paydays, so we have to be patient in this process."


One thing the team does know, it will not use the amnesty clause this season to take one contract off the books. Given the need for bodies, that ace in its pocket should be more valuable to the team in future seasons (even next year with at least $37.4 million coming off the books with Garnett, Allen, and O'Neal in the final year of their deals).

The Celtics also expect to be a tax-paying team -- a good sign they plan to bring back the likes of Green and Davis, even if the latter could simply be used in a sign-and-trade deal. That would mean Boston would have only the mini mid-level exception ($3 million) at its disposal to add another above-the-minimum player (while non-tax-payers will have a $5 million mid-level to entice others).

Size and shooting -- Boston's two biggest needs -- won't come cheap, and that means Ainge will have to be creative in filling out the roster. Ainge did suggest the team might be in the market for players who get released by others via the amnesty clause, but again, non-taxpayers will have a better opportunity at those available.

"We've had a long time off and a lot of GMs out there that are anxious for the season to start," he said. "There's been a lot of conversations. That's my job to field all the calls of all the teams and find the value of my players. That's what I do."

Coach Doc Rivers is bracing himself for having as much as half of the team comprise new faces.

"Listen, we don't know who we're going to have yet," he said. "Obviously, we have a list and we're going after that list. And so when you're integrating half a team to another team, it's going to be [difficult]. But we're not the only group that's doing that. Like Danny said, we do have a core group, that are familiar with what we do. Obviously, they are going to be extremely important at the start of the season to help carry whatever new guys we have.

"I expect us on the first game to be ready. We may have to put in more work to get there. We might have to go double [sessions] in training camp and even through the preseason to get there. But I think we can get there."

Gold price climbed a new peak today by rising Rs 50 to Rs 29,490 per 10 grams on sustained buying by stockists to meet the ongoing marriage season demand amid a firming global trend.
The precious metal has surpassed its previous record rate of Rs 29,440 per 10 grams set on November 30. Silver followed suit and surged by Rs 1,050 to Rs 56,950 per kg on increased offtake by industrial units and jewellery makers, amid a similar firming trend in the Asian region. The trading sentiment remained bullish on sustained buying by stockists, jewellers and retailers for the ongoing marriage season, traders said.
The trend was further supported as the precious metals continued to gain fresh ground on all-round buying as a hedge against turmoil in financial markets, they said. Gold in global markets, which normally sets the price trend on the domestic front, traded higher by USD 2.80 to USD 1,748.10 an ounce and silver by 1.50 per cent to USD 33.22 an ounce in Singapore. On the domestic front, gold of 99.9 and 99.5 per cent purity added another Rs 50 each to Rs 29,490 and Rs 29,350 per 10 grams, respectively. Sovereigns rose by Rs 50 to Rs 23,350 per piece of eight grams.
In a similar fashion, silver ready spurted by Rs 1,050 to Rs 56,950 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 2,750 to Rs 57,650 per kg. However, silver coins held steady at Rs 63,000 for buying and Rs 64,000 for selling of 100 pieces.

In a move that may allow more highly skilled immigrants from India and China to obtain the so-called green cards faster, the US House of Representatives has passed a bill modifying the visa system.
The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigration Act (H.R. 3012), eliminating per-country caps on employment-based visas and instituting a first come, first served system, drew broad, bipartisan support, passing the House with a vote of 389-15 Tuesday.
The bill is expected to move swiftly through the Senate.
Currently, immigration law limits employment-based green cards allowing permanent residence for citizens from any one country to no more than seven percent of the total green cards approved by the State Department in any particular year.
The rule makes it easier to obtain a green card for applicants from smaller countries that don’t generate a significant amount of applications, but makes it tougher for workers from big countries that provide most of the foreign tech workers sought by companies.
Individuals from India, the source of most tech industry immigrants to the US, often have to wait up to 10 years for a green card due to the per-country cap.
The High-Skilled Immigration Act, which was introduced to Congress in September by Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz, aims to correct such imbalances by switching to a first come, first served system for the roughly 140,000 employment-based green cards awarded each year.
‘Per country limits make no sense in the context of employment-based visas. Companies view all highly skilled immigrants as the same regardless of where they are from–be it India or Brazil,’ Chaffetz said in a statement.
In addition to eliminating numerical caps on employment-based green cards, the Act would also raise the per-country cap for 226,000 family-related green cards from seven percent of the total to 15 percent.
The bill’s bipartisan support owes much to the fact that it does nothing to increase the total number of green cards awarded, it simply evens out the process for those looking to emigrate to the US.
American technology companies have been clamouring for Congress to offer more green cards for their foreign employees, arguing that the United States was losing out in global competition by forcing those immigrants to leave

The captain of Jet Airways flight from Milan to New Delhi underwent a harrowing experience as he was forced to remove his turban by the security staff at Milan international airport last night. Captain Ravijot Singh Dhupia, who has been flying on the Delhi-Milan-Delhi sector for a while, was asked to come back for a second security check up even after the entire cabin crew had checked in for the flight.

He was taken to a separate room and told to remove his turban, put it in a tray and wait till his headgear passed through the X-ray machine. After the check, he was asked to wear his “hat” again and continue with his duty of flying the aircraft back home.

“I felt humiliated,” he told Manohar Singh Gill, Congress MP from Punjab, saying that the security staff did not even know the difference between a “turban” and a “hat”. Though the Ministry of External Affairs has been claiming from time to time that the issue has been taken up not only with the European Union but also its member states but cases of harassment of turbaned Sikhs continue to be reported.

Talking to The Tribune over the phone, Manohar Singh Gill said that it was not only in Italy but also in Warsaw (Poland) that security personnel at international airports were picking turbaned Sikh passengers at random and asking them to remove their turbans as part of the security drill.

As President Barack Obama wraps up his eighth trip this year to Pennsylvania, some political insiders say he can't sell his brand in the Keystone State. The region's white, blue-collar voters, they say, have tuned him out.

So why, then, was he in Scranton this week pushing the payroll tax cut?

It may be that, despite the conventional wisdom, the Obama re-election campaign has a different, larger strategy quietly developing. They know that the 2012 election will likely be decided by a razor-thin margin. It will be a battle for every vote.

Obama challenges Republicans on payroll tax cut

With less than a year before Election Day and having raised more than $100 million, the Obama campaign believes it has the time and the money to compete in the dozen or so traditional battleground states as well as take on a few new states it feels have been put into play since 2007.

Now, Team Obama is focused on finding multiple ways to get to 270 electoral votes.

The path to 270

First, the president is aiming to win all the states John Kerry won in 2004. That would bring him to 246 electoral votes, including Pennsylvania's mother lode of 20. Add New Mexico, which the president won in 2008, and that's five more electoral votes. Now he's at 251.

Then it gets hard. The final 19 electoral votes would come through a process of mix and match.
The scenario getting the most buzz inside the beltway: locking in Virginia (13 electoral votes) and North Carolina (15 electoral votes) which would get him to 279.

Democratic operatives like the demographics of these states because they see an influx of the young, highly educated workers who tended to be Obama voters in 2008.

But some Republicans doubt Obama can take North Carolina, in particular, pointing to its high unemployment rate -- currently around 10.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- and voting history: Obama won the state by only 14,000 votes in 2008 (or 1%), and it went for the Republican candidate in seven out of the past eight elections. Before Obama, Jimmy Carter in 1976 was the last Democrat to win North Carolina.

A win in Florida, with its 29 electoral votes, would also do the trick. But if Florida's popular junior Sen. Marco Rubio is on the Republican ticket, the state could suddenly be out of reach. Even without Rubio, it will be a tough battleground state.

There are other paths to the 19 electoral votes they need.

Ohio has 18 electoral votes (yes, they still plan to campaign there), plus any of these other states: Nevada (6), Iowa (6), Colorado (9) or even Arizona (11), which, thanks to its growing Latino population, could now be in play.

Back to Pennsylvania

But Republicans won't simply roll over in those states, especially in Pennsylvania. They have success in the last midterm elections to build on.

In 2010, Republican Pat Toomey won the open U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania. Republicans also picked up five new House seats and took over the governor's mansion in the last election.

So now, top Republicans say that with the president's approval rating down to 44% in Pennsylvania, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll, coupled with his early struggle to win in the western part of the state against Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primaries, they may actually have a shot at taking the traditionally Democratic state in 2012.

But Democrats argue that they'll hold those 20 electoral votes for three reasons:


Carney: President operates by the book

JKUSA: Obama and blue collar voters 1. They have a 1 million-plus advantage among registered voters.
2. Turnout for the midterms was so low -- around 41% -- it wasn't necessarily a true reflection of voter sentiment.
3. In 2008, the president won the state by more than 10 points, making it likely, in their view, that he can at least eke out a victory this time.

Meanwhile, Republicans also plan on fighting for the Kerry states of Wisconsin and Michigan.

However, the Obama team has alternate routes to 270 if they lose some of the Kerry states.

For example, if he loses Pennsylvania -- which would take him down to 226 -- but wins North Carolina (15), Virginia (13) and Colorado (9), and adds two of the following three states -- Iowa (6), New Mexico (5), Nevada (6) -- he crosses 270.

Or he could lose Pennsylvania -- down to 226 -- and Wisconsin -- down to 216 -- but pick up Florida (29), North Carolina (15) and Virginia (13) and he crosses the finish line. Add Ohio (18) and Arizona (11) to the list of options and the possibilities grow.

Of course one wonders whether the president could sweep other battleground states if he can't prevail in Pennsylvania and hold the Kerry map.

Any road map to victory requires one big dose of reality: The president will have to fight hard to win votes in any battleground state, old or new, given the state of the economy.

And that won't be easy.

Siri can help you find drugstores and bars, but the iPhone 4S digital assistant is clueless when it comes to the locations of abortion clinics, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The advocacy group this week launched an online petition asking people to send e-mails to Apple saying that "if Siri can tell us about Viagra, it should not provide bad or no information about contraceptives or abortion care. Send a message to Apple: Fix Siri."

"Although it isn't clear that Apple is intentionally trying to promote an anti-choice agenda, it is distressing that Siri can point you to Viagra, but not the Pill, or help you find an escort, but not an abortion clinic," the group wrote in a blog post Wednesday. "We're confident that the developers at Apple want to provide iPhone users with accurate information."

Apple said Thursday the omission was not intentional:

"Our customers want to use Siri to find out all types of information and while it can find a lot, it doesn't always find what you want," Apple spokeswoman Natalie Harrison said. "These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone. It simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better and we will in the coming weeks."



Siri: Apple's new voice recognition

Siri: Apple's new voice recognition In an informal test by CNN, Siri was able to provide some information about reproductive health services, including where you can buy a condom, but she still could not answer the question, "Where can I get an abortion?"

The digital assistant's reply: "Sorry, I couldn't find any abortion clinics."

When asked about Planned Parenthood, a group that provides reproductive health services, including abortions, Siri was able to locate a nearby clinic.

Similarly, when asked where you could buy a condom, Siri recommended nearby drugstores.

The virtual assistant was unable to decipher a request for the "morning-after pill."

The Siri abortion questions started to become a point of online conversation this week, with bloggers raising the point that Siri was unable to locate abortion clinics.

"If abortion information is plentifully available on the interwebs, and Siri is pulling those types of requests from the Web, why does Siri not have an answer about birth control or abortion?" one blogger wrote on a site called The Abortioneers.

A Tribute to Kuldeep Manak - Died on 30-11-2011

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The Boston Celtics, who already have one of the best point guards in the NBA, are interested in making an upgrade by acquiring the New Orleans Hornets' Chris Paul and would be willing to give up Rondo to get him, sources have told ESPN's Chris Broussard.

The sources say the Celtics are having internal discussions regarding a swap of marquee point guards.


According to an SI.com report, Celtics general manager Danny Ainge is "highly motivated" to land Paul. The report says the Hornets don't appear interested in a two-team deal in which Rondo and Paul would switch places. So Ainge has been trying to find a third team to get involved.

Paul can become a free agent after this season, so the Celtics also would have to convince him to sign an extension with them before giving up Rondo, who has four years and approximately $46 million left on his contract.

Boston is aware, as are many teams around the league, of New Orleans' desire to move Paul rather than go through what Denver did last season with Carmelo Anthony.

Paul was asked earlier Tuesday at a charity event in New York City about speculation that he could soon leave the Hornets.

"I try not to pay attention to all that different type of stuff," Paul said. "My heart is in New Orleans."

This would not be the first time the Celtics have looked into trading Rondo for another point guard.

After last season's playoffs, the Celtics offered Rondo and Jeff Green to Oklahoma City for Russell Westbrook and Kendrick Perkins, sources have told Broussard. The Celtics, looking for another scorer who can create his own offense, thought Westbrook might be available after his erractic postseason play. But Oklahoma was not interested in the deal.

Rondo averaged 10.6 points and 11.2 assists last season, while Paul averaged 15.8 per game (a career low) and 9.8 assists.

USA Ambassador A. Peter Burleigh today called on Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. Taking part in the deliberations during a meeting with Mr Badal, Mr Peter appreciated the entrepreneurship for which Punjabis were known world over. He presented a philosophical book of United States to Mr Badal.
Mr Badal apprised the Ambassador that Punjab’s economy was basically an agrarian with less than two per cent of entire land of the country and was a major contributor of food grains to the national pool with 42 per cent and 50 per cent of share in rice and wheat respectively. The SAD-BJP government as an alliance had created a congenial atmosphere for the growth of Industrial sector also, he added.
Mr Badal said that their government had not only given the good governance but effectively achieved higher economic growth and improved the fiscal situation of the state, besides initiated the process to establish new Power plants to over come the acute shortage of Power supply in the state, which would make Punjab as a Power surplus state by next year. The Chief Minister honoured the visiting envoy by presenting him a Siropa, Sword and a Plaque as a token of love and affection on behalf of the Punjabis on the occasion.