2 children dead in Englewood fire


















































Two children have died in a fire in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side, fire officials say.

The fire started around 3:30 a.m. at a home in the 6400 block of South Paulina Street, officials said.

Check back for details.





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Egypt's constitution seen passing in referendum


CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians voted on a constitution drafted by Islamists on Saturday in a second round of balloting expected to approve the charter that opponents say will create deeper turmoil in Egypt.


After a first round last week in which unofficial results showed 57 percent of those who voted approved the constitution, the opposition cried foul, saying a litany of alleged abuses meant the first stage of the referendum should be re-run.


But the committee overseeing the two-stage vote said their investigations showed no major irregularities in voting on December 15, which covered about half of Egypt's 51 million eligible voters.


Islamist supporters of President Mohamed Mursi, who was elected in June, say the constitution is vital to moving Egypt towards democracy two years after Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in a popular uprising. They say it will help restore the stability needed to fix an economy that is on the ropes.


If the basic law is passed, a parliamentary election will be held in about two months.


However, the opposition says the constitution is divisive and accuses Mursi of pushing through a document that favors his Islamist allies and ignores the rights of Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the population, as well as women.


"I'm voting 'no' because Egypt can't be ruled by one faction," said Karim Nahas, 35, a stock market broker, heading to a polling station in Giza, a province included in this round of voting which covers parts of greater Cairo.


Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) and close at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) though voting could be extended as it was last week. Queues formed at some polling stations around the country.


Unofficial tallies are likely to emerge within hours of the close, but the referendum committee may not declare an official result for the two rounds until Monday, after hearing appeals.


Shahinaz Shalaby, a housewife, said she would be voting "yes" even though she disagreed with some clauses. "We feel our voice matters," she said, adding that a "yes" vote would not stop protests but "then it will stabilize afterwards".


Cairo districts covered in the first round voted "no", but overall the vote in that round was in favor.


Analysts expect another "yes" vote on Saturday because it covers rural and other areas seen as having more Islamist sympathizers. Islamists may also be able to count on many Egyptians who are simply exhausted by two years of turmoil.


MORE UNREST


But, even if it is approved, the opposition say it is a recipe for trouble since the charter has not received broad consensus backing from the population. They say the result may go in Mursi's favor but will not be the result of a fair vote.


"I see more unrest," said Ahmed Said, head of the liberal Free Egyptians Party and a member of the National Salvation Front, an opposition coalition formed after Mursi expanded his powers on November 22 and then pushed the constitution to a vote.


Citing what he said were "serious violations" on the first day of voting, he said anger against Mursi and his Islamist allies was growing: "People are not going to accept the way they are dealing with the situation."


At least eight people were killed in protests outside the presidential palace in Cairo this month. Islamists and rivals clashed on Friday in the second biggest city of Alexandria, hurling stones at each other. Two buses were torched.


Mohamed Beltagy, a senior official in the Muslim Brotherhood, the group that propelled Mursi to elected office, said the constitution was crucial to holding a parliamentary election and setting up the essential institutions of state.


"What is the catastrophe of this constitution?" he asked the assembly which drafted the document, during a sitting on Friday that was called to challenge opposition criticism of the text.


Opponents, who had earlier quit the drafting assembly saying their voices were not heard, were invited but stayed away.


The vote was staggered after many judges refused to supervise the vote, meaning there were not enough to hold the referendum on a single day nationwide.


The first round was won by a slim enough margin to buttress opposition arguments that the text was divisive. Opponents who include liberals, leftists, Christians and more moderate-minded Muslims accuse Islamists of using religion to sway voters.


"The problem is not whether the majority approves, it is that they rallied the people in the name of the religion," said Mustafa Shuman, who is among dozens of people who have been camped outside Mursi's palace in Cairo in protest.


Islamists, who have won successive ballots since Mubarak's overthrow albeit by narrowing margins, dismiss charges that they are exploiting religion and say the document reflects the will of a majority in the country where most people are Muslim.


(Additional reporting by Tamim Elyan; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Andrew Osborn)



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Samsung drops attempt to ban Apple sales in Europe


Korea's Samsung Electronics on Tuesday said it would drop law suits aimed at banning the sale of Apple Inc. products in Europe just a day after scoring a victory in a battle in the United States with the maker of iPhones.

Samsung and Apple, the world's top two smartphone makers, have been locked in patent disputes in at least 10 countries over the last 18 months since Apple sued Samsung, saying the Korean firm copied its best-selling iPhone and iPad.

On Tuesday, Samsung said it was dropping an attempt to stop the sale of some Apple products in Germany, Britain, France, Italy and the Netherlands, though it did not say it would halt its court battle for compensation.

"Samsung remains committed to licensing our technologies on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, and we strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court," the company said in a statement.

A spokesman for Apple declined to comment on Samsung's decision.

The decision comes a day after a judge rejected Apple Inc's request for a ban on the sale of Samsung Electronics' smartphones in the United States.

In August, Apple was awarded $1.05 billion in damages after a U.S. jury found Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad. The Samsung products run on the Android operating system, developed by Google.

In January, the European Commission opened an investigation into whether Samsung Electronics has distorted competition in the European mobile device market, breaking EU antitrust rules.
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7 Simple Steps To Health and Fitness Success

Let's take a look at seven simple steps you can take right now to move you rapidly along toward your fitness goals.
Think on paper: Only about 3 percent of adults have clear, written goals. These people accomplish five and ten times as much as people without written goals.
Step 1: Decide Exactly What You Want. This will allow you to prioritize your tasks to that you are spending the most time on high value tasks that move you closer to your goals. If your goal is to add 20 pounds of muscle, there isn't much point in using up a lot of you training time by jogging 5 miles a day.
Step 2: Write It Down. Again, think on paper. Written goals are a powerful thing. They have an energy behind them that helps you move toward them that unwritten goals just don't have.
Step 3: Set A Deadline On Your Goal. Create a sense of urgency and positive pressure. Without a deadline you will procrastinate and do the little things that may damage your short term goals. If you are having "after" pictures
taken in three weeks then you are much less likely to swallow that bag of popcorn, than if you are just getting in shape...eventually.
Step 4: Make a list of everything you can think of that you will need to do to help you achieve your goal. Leave nothing to chance. The more planning you do ahead of time, the more likely you will stick to the plan and achieve your goals. The more prepared you are, the more success you will experience.
Step 5: Organize the list into a plan. Organize your list by priority and sequence.
Step 6: Take action on your plan immediately. Do something. Get started. Start building positive reinforcement and momentum RIGHT NOW.
Step 7: Resolve to do something every single day that moves you toward your major goal. And with fitness, you have to, don't you? Whether it is your workout, eating six high protein meals, etc. you should always be doing something that moves your forward toward your goals.
Don't just read these tips and nod your head. Activel use them. They will make a big difference, not just in your health and fitness goals but in your life in general.

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Hearing Impaired in the Workplace

Being hearing impaired can be a real challenge in the workplace. The biggest problem is that few understand the problem, and usually the person with the hearing impairment is hesitant to admit the fact.
When in a one on one situation things may be just fine, especially if there is little background noise. In a crowd situation the hearing impaired person may hear, but not understand, 50% or more of what is said. It can be very frustrating in meetings etc.
Sound is made up of Frequency and Volume measured in decibels. In the ear that sound is converted to electrical impulses to the brain. Many things can happen to keep the sound from reaching the brain.
Say someone says the letter "A". That "A" is made of the frequency determined by that person's voice box and the loudness that he speaks. That sound goes out into the room and mixes with the noise in the room. A person with normal hearing in both ears has little problem understanding the letter "A".
But a person that has hearing in one ear only, cannot determine where that sound comes from. And the brain has to work twice as hard to process that sound.
It is a matter of information. With two ears twice the information available to the brain.
Same with someone that has a hearing loss the percentage of hearing loss, for whatever reason, reduces the amount of information available to the brain to process.
A normal ear may process the sound of the letter "A" with this much information, 0110110110011011 to the brain while the damaged ear may only send this much, ------11011---------, so the brain has to look for more clues as to what that information really represents.
If you will notice a person with hearing loss does everything possible to gather clues or information to help in the hearing process. Some of the things are:
  • Looking at your face or lips while you talk.
  • Turning their head so that the good ear is facing the speaker
  • Cupping the ear with the hand
Remember even a hearing aid does not work as well as a normal functioning ear.
I hope this helps you understand what the loss of hearing really is.

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White Contact Lenses

Contact lenses come in a variety of colors and effects these days. These include basic white contact lenses. Courtesy of the fact that many of these lenses are now created for cosmetic purposes, with a power of 0.00, basic white contact lenses can be made available for all, not just those with poor eyesight.
One must wonder of course, how basic white contact lenses could affect poor vision, and the answer is that they couldn't of course.
However, at a party, the effect of pure white in one's eyes could be very striking, if not a little bit scary .....
In a dramatic sense, theatrical contact lenses are used to help portray specific characters, or idiosyncrasies that these characters may possess. If a character were blind, then having basic white contact lenses could have a significant effect on the portrayal of that character. Having said that, basic white contact lenses will have a 'pupil hole' which would show up as a black dot in the eye. Without this hole, you wouldn't be able to see anything of course.
Taking this theme a bit further, it is possible to get other color lenses which give an 'all out' effect. By this I mean which are made of a solid color, with only the pupil hole showing. These solid color lenses are available in colors such as silver, black, red, yellow and violet. Again the effects of these types of lenses would be considered theatrical in nature, or perhaps used to add an effect for a night out.

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Achieve Your Health And Fitness Goals

Get SMART to Get Fit
I'm not sure who was creative enough to make the acronym work, but work it does and it can fit in quite nicely with your fitness goals.
If you want to succeed you need to get SMART about your goals.
SMART is a great way to help you stay on track and achieve
your goals.
The S stands for specific. Be specific about the goals you
want to achieve. Forget things like, "I want to get in shape", "I want to add muscle", or "I want to lose weight", or "I want to increase my bench press."
Instead try things like "I want to run a 6 minute mile", "I want to add 10 pounds of muscle", "I want to lose 20 pounds of fat, or "I want to add 40 pounds to my best bench press."
The M stands for measurable. This ties in very well with specific. You can't measure 'getting in shape", but you sure can measure 'running a 6 minute mile'.
With a pair of trusty skin fold calipers, you can also measure pretty accurately adding 10 pounds of muscle or losing 20 pounds of fat.
And of course, you can easily measure the poundage increase on your best bench press.
The specific and measurable aspect can be broken down even more to bring you closer to achieving your goals. For example, if you want to add 10 pounds of muscle, what other specific and measurable things must you do to reach your goal?
One could be that you must eat 6 high protein meals a day.
A second could be that you must eat 3,500 calories and 300 grams of protein every day.
You must train with weights three days per week.
You must add weight to your exercises at least every other workout.
All of these are specific and measurable. The more specifics that you have, the more likely you will add your 10 pounds of muscle as quickly as possible.
You can make a list of your daily, weekly, and monthly goals that you must do in order to meet your top goal of adding 10 pounds of muscle.
Each day, place a check mark next to each measurable and specific goal you achieved that will help you conquer your top goal. Obviously, the more checks you have, the more likely that you will achieve your goal.
In addition to specific and measurable, your goals must be A, or attainable. The R stands for realisitic. As I've said before, it's important to set challenging goals.
Challenging, but attainable, that is. A goal of a 50 pound increase on your bench press max in 12 weeks would be a challenging goal, but also one that is possible.
However, setting a goal of bench pressing 300 pounds in 4 weeks when you currently bench press 75 pounds will do nothing but set you up for failure and frustration.
Obviously, weight loss is on the minds of many people, which is why so many fall victim to promises like "lose 30 pounds in 30 days without getting hungry and without exercising."
As a reader of this newsletter, you know that the above is neither timely nor realistic. But many people do fall for such things because they want results NOW! They are setting themselves up for failure. Please don't join them.
The T stands for Timely. If you do everything previously mentioned, it's still not enough. You must give yourself a deadline to achieve your goal. More importantly, if your goal is attainable and realistic, but also long term, break it up into smaller goals.
If you wish to lose 75 pounds, start with losing just 10 pounds in 2 months. Reaching that goal will motivate you further and before you know it, enough time has passed that you've lost the 75 pounds.
But if you focus solely on losing the 75 pounds, which could take a year or more to accomplish, your motivation and discipline could wane, and you could fail to follow through on what you need to do to make your goal a reality.
Making goals timely hold you accountable and creates a positive sense of urgency. You may think twice about eating that piece of cake when you know you are having a body composition test and pictures taken in 2 weeks.
In addition to getting smart, celebrate your successes. And I don't mean that you should allow yourself to dust off a gallon of ice cream in one sitting because you lost 10 pounds. That would be self defeating.
But you could treat yourself to a movie, or a pair of jeans you've had your eye on, or an extra hour of sleeping in on the weekend. Don't sabotage your wonderful efforts by giving yourself destructive rewards for accomplishing your goals.
Gregg Gillies is a speaker, consultant, fat loss expert, trainer and author. He teaches fitness via his articles, books and courses at his web site [http://www.buildleanmuscle.com] . He is the author of two books: Complete information on his books, along with lots of free articles are available at his site. And while there, don't forget to sign up for his free newsletter, "Fit Physique".

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The Cure For Old Age

Did you know that aging begins at 30! And every second somewhere in the world someone turns 50! And the quality of life for the average person stops at age 51. After that, it takes medical intervention to manage their symptoms to maintain their “health”. And only 1 in 10,000 people makes it to 100 years old… and a shocking proportion of those people who reach the age of 100 are very poor! “Aging is a barbarick phenomenon that shouldn’t be tolerated in polite society,” says University of Cambridge gerentologist Aubrey de Grey. I Gerald Armstrong the owner of Gen Cells Cures agree. The stem cell research including therapeutic cloning and genomics research needs to bo done now to accomplish our goal of finding the cure for old age.
Why doesn’t everyone want the cure for old age? You tell me I simply don’t understand why more people don’t want the cure for old age. So little money goes into research to cure old age that it’s a crying shame! Maybe it’s because people don’t believe it can be done. Since the dawn of time there have always been critics and skeptics who sit at the sidelines and say it can’t be done or that we are pushing snake oil cures etc. Make no mistake about it Gen Cells Cures has our critics. Food for thought about skeptics and critics: The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has limits. Albert Einstein. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistingushable from magic. Arthur C. Clark. We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. Plato. Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former. Albert Einstein. Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed. Thomas Henry Huxley. In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei.
Main stream scientists are sometimes afraid to get involved in serious gerentology for fear of being branded whackos. Well. let me give it to you straight fom the horses mouth the technologies are now here to do the job. They are in our very own hands. I want to remind you that when Neil Armstrong (I like to call him Uncle Neil) became the first human to step foot on the moon, on July 20, 1969 I knew that humans would live to be 200 years old and beyond with just a little research. However since 1969 serious gerentology has been put on the back burner. Only in the past five years or so has the science of gerentolgy began to accelerate with the discovery of stem cells, cloning and rapid advances in genomics. With today's science nothing is impossible.
Lets talk about 1969 for one second, Viet Nam, Flower Power, free love, a new generation, my generation, we thought we would live forever, and we didn’t trust any one over thirty. I was right there in Hait Ashbury. I know the younger generations since then have envied our time and they should, it was the life! Jimi Hendrix’s guitar was screaming “All Along The Watchtower” and we still had Elvis too! Well, I am a baby bomer and want some of it back. Yes, I am young for 55 but I can see what’s coming around the corner for me and my fellow hippies from 1969 (If they are still alive). And it isn’t pretty. No matter what generation your from, just stop and imagine for one moment what it would be like to have your youth back. Have you ever noticed how time flys like a jet airplane. Something has got to be done and we are going to do it right here in the labs at Gen Cell Cures.
How are we going to find the cure for old age?
Through stem cell research including therapeutic cloning and genomics research.The most difficult part of the nearly unthinkable has already been done. Through therapeutic cloning technologies we can take a patients cell back to the beginning of life. Now all that’s lacking is to perfect these technologies and take them from the bench to the patient. The Koreans human cloning experiments have opened the door wider on therapeutic cloning. We here at Gen Cells Cures have found that the Korean’s new technique of squeezing out the DNA from the egg cell works much better than sucking out the DNA with a tiny needle. Their cloning process was a spectacular achievememt.
Our biologists can re-set your aging clock. It’s just a matter of time. Take a look at your own clock. What time is it? What year is it? How old am I? Where has my life gone? If you want to get the staight scoop on aging contact Miller Quarles of the “Curing Old Age Foundation” or ask Harry Bernstein (“How Do I Move On Without My Soulmate?” Newsweek). From King Tut to Howard Hughes we all face the same dread …No matter how well we succeed in life, we’re all fated to loose it in the end to that pitiless serial killer- old age.
So is Gen Cells Cures suggesting there is a cure right now? Absolutely not, and the anti-aging clinics may be just a little bit ahead of their time. We do disagree with some mainstream scientists in that they do not believe aging can be researched as a disease. We believe aging is at the top of list of the deadly incurable diseases that can be cured. The cure is just around the corner. But the research has to be done and the sooner the better because time waits for no one, no matter how big your wallet is. If you don’t reach into your wallet and do the right thing. Sooner or later you won’t even be able to lift a finger to write the check. Age can and will kill you. Make no mistake about it aging is a disease to be feared. Yes, the disease of aging brings out the fear of God. However, I believe God wouldn’t have given us the ability to cure aging if he didn’t want us to find the cure. Scientists have succeeded in extending the life of some model organisms and humans are next. Currently there is no magic pill. The magic pill will be found in research and to accelerate that research we are recommending private research. You have a family doctor and other specialists. The time has arrived for you to have your own life-sciences researchers. The future is in stem cell research, therapeutic cloning and gernomics!.
Growing old is not all fun. We’re proned to rheumatism, gout, vision loss, hearing loss, and worst of all sexual disfuntion. Some need new knees, new hips, a pacemaker. Aging can be cured the same as any other disease. There is a lack of funds and public support for genuine ant-aging research. Many people tend to see Cancer and Alzheimer’s disease as theoreticaly curable, like polio, but aging as inevitable. There will always be the nay sayers until the cure arrives. We are very excited about the future possibilities from our specialzed research. What good is it if we find your cancer cure, heart disease cure, or stroke cure if we just turn around and let you die from old age. Those of us who have become convinced that aging is the root of nearly all late-life illnesses have not yet won over those of you who have the power to fund further research. For those of you who can see the light at the end of the tunnel for curing old age as we see it clearly shining on the other side of that tunnel may contact Gerald Armstrong from Gen Cells Cures. We can discuss your personal involvement in the cure for old age and other incurable diseases. Yes, even one person can make a difference in our futures and that one person could be you.

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Prevent Gum Disease

If you do not know if you suffer from Gum Disease, these are some of the following symptoms of it: deep red/purple gums, they bleed easily when you brush your teeth or poke them, and you constantly feel the need to touch them (such as sticking sharp objects like your fingernail into them). If you suffer from those two symptoms you may want to go consult your dentist as soon as you can and he will give you the appropriate antibiotics to help you rid the disease.
As with any oral disease, most of them are derived from the habit of not having a cleanly oral hygiene. Even if you have a semi-appropriate dental hygiene, you are still at risk of developing Gum disease and other diseases such as Halitosis and Gingivitis.
We always hear how to use appropriate oral care, but do we actually follow those rules? I know a majority of people who do not care for their teeth like they should, and have ended up with oral symptoms.
The most important thing that you can do is brush your teeth 3 times a day (or more if possible), use mouthwash and always make sure to floss. If you keep a good oral hygiene, you will be a lot less likely to develop any sort of disease of the mouth.

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The Best Scary Contact Lenses

Technology works wonders in all areas of life, and contact lenses are no exception. With the increased technology, and the popularity of colored lenses, a new trend has developed with scary contact lenses.
These lenses have been around for awhile and were basically used in movies, plays and other theatrical endeavors. The popularity and desire for these lenses began to increase and the contact lens industry responded with a huge selection of scary contact lenses for anybody with a prescription and also for those without.
These lenses are wonderful for individuals who really enjoy getting into complete costume for Halloween, costume parties or simply enjoy being eccentric and having scary contact lenses.
The best scariest contact lenses really depend on your sense of scary and style. The selection of scary lenses runs from the mild to the extreme. These lenses come in blood red, cat eye, hourglass, stitches, tempest, demon, mummy, berserker and other scary styles. You can even get a lens that is completely white.
The total blackout lens that makes the entire eye white is one of the scariest lenses because it is incredibly freaky and disconcerting for all who see the person wearing them. It looks like the person is walking dead or something scarier.
The Banshee style contact is another incredibly scary lens, and in my opinion the scariest. The colored part of the lens is shaped like a cat eye. The black pupil is surrounded by yellow flames which are encapsulated by blood red. These contacts will scare everyone in your presence and will perhaps convince your friends you have been taken over by an evil spirit. Fortunately, these contact lenses are available on the Internet and do not require a prescription or a visit to an optometrist. However, this might be a good idea especially if you have never worn contact lenses before and don't know the diameter of your eye. You don't want to buy a lens and then it not fit, so consider visiting your optometrist before purchasing these scary lenses.

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