Recommended Health and Fitness Apps | Total Mommy Fitness

PinExt Recommended Health and Fitness Apps

The following apps are recommended for optimum health with regards to fitness, nutrition, and pregnancy. They provide a guideline to help you reach your health and fitness goals.

Runkeeper Appa3ecdb Recommended Health and Fitness AppsRunKeeper

Features:

  • GPS Activity Tracking
  • Manual Activity Tracking
  • Audio Interval Cues
  • Huge social community
  • Activity sharing on Twitter and Facebook
  • Data syncs with RunKeeper.com

Jefit App0d06be Recommended Health and Fitness Apps

JetFit Pro

Features:

  • Body Stats, and Benchmark Exercises Progress Bar
  • Setting 1RM Goals for Exercises and Body Stats
  • 1RM Progress Chart and Bar for All Exercises
  • Total Volume Progress Chart for All Exercises
  • Training Logs for Individual Exercises
  • Cardio Charts and Tracking

Fooducate App0e3627 Recommended Health and Fitness AppsFooducate

Features:

  • Created by Dietitians and Concerned Parents
  • 200,000+ Unique Products and Growing Daily
  • Simplified Information to Help You Make Better Choices
  • Analysis of Information Manufacturers Don?t Want You to See
        • Excessive Sugar
        • Tricky Trans Fats
        • Additives and Preservatives
        • High Fructose
        • Corn Syrup
        • and More!
    • Automatically Scan a Product Bar Code
    • See Product Highlights (good and bad)
    • Select Better Alternatives
    • ?

      Smoothie Selector App1b6735 Recommended Health and Fitness AppsSmoothie Selector

      Features:

      • Smoothies Based on Goals
            • Muscle Building
            • Weight Loss
            • Meal Replacement
            • Breakfast
            • Healthy Boost
            • Dessert
        • Complete Nutritional Information
        • Sharp Color Photos
        • Add Recipes to Your Favorites
        • Add Your Own Smoothie
        • Pregnancy Companion App51b8af Recommended Health and Fitness AppsPregnancy Companion

          Features:

          • Exclusive Daily and Weekly Pregnancy Tips and Developmental Insights
          • 3D Animated Photos
          • Ask the Docs
          • Pregnancy Topics at Your Fingertips
          • Drug Safety
          • Hydration Counter
          • Nutrition Guidelines and Calorie Tracker
          • Wellness with Prenatal Yoga and Acupressure?Points
          • Recipes from ?The Pregnancy Diet?

          Pilates for Pregnancy App5070989167b3 Recommended Health and Fitness AppsPilates for Pregnancy

          Features:

          • Clear Photographs
          • Detailed Explanations of Each Exercise
          • A ?Benefits? page for Each Exercise
          • Due Date Calculator that Directs You to the Appropriate Trimester Workout
          • Personalize Your Workouts
          • Choose Timed Exersizes or Workouts for Specific Muscle Groups
          • To Do Lists that Correspond to the Trismester You are In

          ?

          supermomapp Recommended Health and Fitness Apps

          Super Mom Workout

          Features:

          • Instructional Videos
          • Benefits Busy Moms
          • Multi-tasking Tips
          • Aids Post Partum Mothers Who Want to Lose 5-10 pounds
          • Workouts Tailored for All Daily Activities

          Source: http://www.totalmommyfitnessonline.com/health-and-fitness-apps/

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"Dad's Army" star Clive Dunn dies aged 92

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dads-army-star-clive-dunn-dies-aged-92-170940379.html

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Vanessa Paradis Hints There?s More To Her Split With Johnny Depp

Corel PaintShop Pro X5

Corel's image editor, PaintShop Pro, has since 1990 been a low-cost alternative to Adobe Photoshop (which first appeared in 1988) and the later Photoshop Elements (2001).Though it offers a lot of image manipulation, during its whole existence PaintShop Pro has lagged behind Adobe's products in both capabilities and slickness of interface. This latest PaintShop Pro X5 version adds some major features we've already seen elsewhere?face tagging, mapping, and Instagram-like one-click photo effects. That's not to say Corel hasn't innovated, with its own twists on these features. At $59.99, is still a bargain compared with its Adobe competitors, but it also still trails in deep features and usability.

Installing
PaintShop Pro is available in regular edition for $59.99 and an Ultimate edition that adds Reallusion FaceFilter Studio 2.0 portrait enhancement tools, Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 filters, and a collection of royalty-free images, brushes and textures. You can download and install a full-function 30-day trial version of PaintShop Pro X5 from Corel's site. It's a 138MB download, and the installer unfortunately tries to side-load a browser toolbar, which you can deselect if you're alert during installation.

Interface
The interface is little changed from X4's, but with competitors like Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 cleaning up their interfaces considerably, PaintShop's remains overly cluttered with buttons, icons, rulers, panels, and menus. It's a standard three-panel affair, with folder navigation on the left, the main image view in the center, and an info and action panel on the right. Along the bottom is your filmstrip view of photos in the current folder, aka the "tray." I do like how you can undock or hide any panels to taste. You can choose interface colors other than the default (and best, to my eyes) dark gray. An odd choice here is a distracting baby blue.

In contrast to the busy working area, three simple mode selectors grace the top of PaintShop's window?Manage, Adjust, and Edit. Most photo workflow apps add one or more output modes?Print, Web, and so on. Lightroom is the king of this, with the ability to customize which modes appear to taste. The Adjust Mode doesn't actually offer all of the adjustments the program is capable, of instead just offering some quick fix options, similar to Photoshop Elements' new design. One thing I'd like to see in PaintShop is a simple Revert button, for when you've gone beyond the pale with editing and need to start over. An optional History panel shows all your previous actions, and can even run scripts.

Importing and Organizing
Importing is a weak point for PaintShop Pro. It adds a "Review Photos" entry to the AutoPlay dialog that pops up whenever you plug camera media into your PC. But I had to navigate down to the folder where the captures resided, while Photoshop Elements found them for me. PaintShop does have an Import menu choice, but while it found my iPhone, it didn't find the photos on an SD media card. Of course, you could just use Windows' pretty good photo importer, which even lets you tag pictures on the way in, but Adobe Photoshop Element's import capabilities beat PaintShop's.

The app's documentation claims that you don't really need to specifically "import" images?PaintShop will enter any photos you open in its database, keeping track of changes and optionally keeping a copy of the original. But this isn't helpful when you're viewing photos on a memory card. It also means you have no way to preview raw camera photos before import or select only some for import as you can in the competition. Though I could do this with my iPhone photos, once I hit the import dialog's Get Pictures, I got an error message saying the file couldn't be written.

Once you've got images in, the Quick Review, summoned by double-clicking a tray thumbnail, shows your photos in full screen, with controls at the bottom for rating, discarding, zooming, and moving to the next or previous image. Doing this last with large raw camera files was still slow when they were on the SD card, faster when moved to disk, and simplifies quickly deciding on photos' merits.

PaintShop Pro gives you the usual ways to organize images?star ratings from 1 to 5 and tags that can be easily set from a sidebar Info panel, though not from a control that appears when you hover the mouse cursor over the image, as you can in Photoshop Elements. An Auto Group option lets you keep photos shot within a specified time frame together. And you can have the program create Smart Collections, specifying parameters like date range, name, caption, size, or tags. You can easily zoom in on the thumbnails or even beyond 100 percent size in Manage mode, which Elements' Organizer for some reason doesn't allow.

Faces. Now added to the usual organizing tools are face and place organizers. To get started with face recognition, you select some photos in a collection and hit the head icon and choose Find People. This doesn't work if you've selected photos from a computer folder?only from a collection. I scanned all my 1320 image files for faces, which took about 7 minutes. Once it was done, I could either attach a name on a photo's full preview, or switch to thumbnail view to see groups of found faces.

As with all face detection, non-faces (shrubs and such) were misidentified, but it seemed like more than most apps. Also, the same person's face would often appear in multiple groups, and there were a lot of ungrouped photos that contained the same faces that had a group. For the former, I could hit an X to easily ignore the non-faces.

The program doesn't have as clear or effective a system for "learning" a face as other apps do, though when click in the name box, occasionally a previous name appears. But if it doesn't, even when you start typing, suggestions from previous names you entered don't show up. Another problem is that the grid view doesn't zoom into the face, so if there's more than one face in the photo, you don't know which you're naming.

Once you've face tagged, you can select a person's name from the Collections panel to show just photos containing the named person's visage. But after that, there are no fun options like collages or face movies.

Maps and Location. PaintShop Pro's new mapping capability does include a nifty sharing project, called Share My Trip, but first let's take a look at the basic location feature. It can use embedded GPS data in the photos, or you can manually place them on a map integrated into the program or import a KML file.

The easiest, automatic way is if you have GPS data embedded in the photo files?usually the case for smart phone pictures. With those, you don't have to do anything; the program creates Collections based on location, which you can filter on. You can also import location from your Facebook check-ins. In Manage mode, one of the main view options along with Preview and Thumbnails is Map Mode. This shows a map with pins for each photo's location. A search box even lets you find specific locales.

Now for the Share My Trip feature. The sharing comes courtesy of Facebook and Dropbox?yes you need an account in both for the online sharing though you can create your geographical pictorial locally, too. You select applicable photos in the tray, and then run through a wizard, logging into both services for web sharing. The result was attractive, with a filmstrip across the bottom and a map with large thumbnails at each location. You can also simply view a small slideshow of the geo-tagged photos. Not as high-production-values as iPhoto's Places slideshows, but nice enough.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/CS44Advl8UM/0,2817,2358638,00.asp

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Anderson Silva to appear in Steven Seagal?s next film

Action movie star and all-around ... interesting guy Steven Seagal has supported Anderson Silva several times in the UFC middleweight champion's career. He reportedly taught him the kick Silva used to knock out Vitor Belfort. Now, Silva will get a chance to return the favor. He told Globo that he will have a role in Seagal's next film.

"I'm going to Los Angeles to record a movie with Steven Seagal. I'm very excited about this new phase. I'm preparing," Silva said.

The Internet Movie Database doesn't have Seagal in the production stages of any movies, so we don't know exactly which film Silva and Seagal are working on. A rumor circulated in April that Seagal would be in the next sequel to "Expendables," the movie that starred Randy Couture and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

But Silva already has plenty of training in acting. He is a commercial king, and starred in "Never Surrender," the 2009 film that also had Georges St-Pierre and B.J. Penn in it. It's still shocking that "Never Surrender" was snubbed by the Oscars and Golden Globes.

Thanks, MMA Mania.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/anderson-silva-appear-steven-seagal-next-film-191817139--mma.html

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Poll problems cropping up in spots around US

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Sporadic problems were reported Tuesday at polling places around the country, many in Pennsylvania including a confrontation involving Republican inspectors over access to some polls and a voting machine that lit up for Republican Mitt Romney even when a voter pressed the button for President Barack Obama.

One Florida elections office mistakenly told voters in robocalls the election was on Wednesday.

Although the majority of complaints were about extremely long lines, the Election Protection coalition of civil rights and voting access groups said they had gotten some more serious calls among more than 69,000 received on a toll-free voter protection hotline.

"The calls have been hot and heavy all day long," said Barbara Arnwine, president of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

In Philadelphia, the Republican Party said 75 legally credentialed voting inspectors were blocked from polling places in the heavily Democratic city, prompting the GOP to obtain a court order providing them access. Local prosecutors were also looking into the reports. Democratic Party officials did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Also in central Pennsylvania, officials said the voting machine that switched a person's vote from Obama to Romney has been recalibrated and is back in service.

Pennsylvania Department of State spokesman Ron Ruman said the Perry County voter notified elections officials of the problem after trying to cast his ballot Tuesday. Video of what Ruman called a "momentary glitch" was widely viewed on YouTube.

Pennsylvania was also the scene of what a state Common Cause official called "widespread" confusion over voter ID requirements. The state this year enacted a new photo ID requirement but it was put on hold for Tuesday's election by a judge amid concern many voters would not be able to comply on time.

Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause in Pennsylvania, said election workers in many places were demanding IDs even though they are not required. It was unclear, however, just how many voters may have been turned away or discouraged.

"There seems to be a lot of confusion about voter ID. Apparently the poll workers were not adequately trained," he said.

Also in Philadelphia, a judge ordered a mural of President Barack Obama covered up after a Republican election worker snapped a picture of it at a school polling place, according to a statement from the Republican Party.

The battleground state of Ohio was the scene of yet another court battle, this one involving a lawsuit claiming voting software installed by the state could allow manipulation of ballots by people not connected to official election boards. A judge, however, flatly dismissed a lawsuit seeking to stop use of the software.

The Florida robocall glitch occurred in Pinellas County, where the supervisor of elections said about 12,000 voters were wrongly told they could vote on Wednesday.

Spokeswoman Nancy Whitlock said the office had contracted with a company called callfire.com to call voters who had requested mail ballots but had not yet returned them. Whitlock said calls went to those voters without a problem on Thursday, and then again Monday.

For some reason, she said, when the service didn't reach some 12,000 voters Monday, it then called them again on Tuesday between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. with the same message. Whitlock said another message then went out to the same 12,000 voters, telling them that Tuesday was the correct day to vote.

Back in Ohio, officials in Franklin County ? where the capital city of Columbus is located ? barred the tea-party linked True the Vote group from monitoring polling places because applications to do so weren't filed properly.

Franklin County Board of Elections spokesman Ben Piscitelli said Tuesday that managers were instructed to keep True the Vote representatives from the polls in the Columbus area because of the application problem.

Catherine Engelbrecht, president of the Houston-based group, claimed the Ohio Democratic Party was behind pressure that led several local Ohio candidates to withdraw their permission for the group's members to act as election observers.

Elsewhere, the Election Protection coalition reported problems with ballot scanners in the Ohio cities of Cleveland, Dayton and Toledo; late-opening polling places in minority neighborhoods in Galveston, Texas; and some precincts in the Tampa, Fla., area where voters are being redirected to another polling place where they must cast a provisional ballot.

Meanwhile, voters in several storm-ravaged areas in New York and New Jersey expressed relief and even elation at being able to vote at all, considering the devastation from Superstorm Sandy. Lines were long in Point Pleasant, N.J., where residents from the Jersey Shore communities of Point Pleasant Beach and Mantoloking had to cast their ballots due to damage in their hometowns. Many people still have no power eight days after Sandy pummeled the shore.

"Nothing is more important than voting. What is the connection between voting and this?" said Alex Shamis, a resident of hard-hit Staten Island, gesturing to his mud-filled home.

Any voting problems are being closely monitored after months of legal and political battles over more voter ID restrictions and other laws, mostly fruitless hunts for supposedly ineligible people on voting rolls in many states and sustained claims that black and Hispanic voters are being targeted for intimidation and suppression.

Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, said even in states where the restrictive laws have been blocked or delayed, many people still think they are in effect.

"The laws were struck down but the confusion remains," Waldman said.

Many of these issues could resurface in the courts after Tuesday, particularly if the race between Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, is too close to call or heads for a recount in states such as Ohio or Florida.

The Justice Department will have at least 780 observers at key polling places in 23 states to ensure compliance with the 1965 Voting Rights Act and look into any allegations of voter fraud.

Provisional ballots were the latest legal skirmish in the critical battleground state of Ohio, where Secretary of State Jon Husted's decision on how they can be cast was challenged in federal court. Advocates and lawyers for labor unions contend Husted's order would lead to some provisional ballots being rejected improperly because the burden of recording the form of ID used on a provisional ballot is being placed on voters, not poll workers as in the past.

A provisional vote allows a person to have his or her say, but the ballot is subject to review and verification of eligibility. A court hearing was set for Wednesday on the issue. Provisional ballots cannot be counted in Ohio before Nov. 17.

___

Associated Press writers Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg, Fla.; A.J. Connelly in New York; Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus, Ohio; and Patrick Walters in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

___

Follow Curt Anderson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Miamicurt

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/poll-problems-cropping-spots-around-us-172724548--election.html

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Given 2nd term, Obama now facing new urgent task

President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks at the election night party at McCormick Place, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012, in Chicago. Obama defeated Republican challenger former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks at the election night party at McCormick Place, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012, in Chicago. Obama defeated Republican challenger former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney embraces Republican vice presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., after Romney conceded the race during his election night rally, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012, in Boston. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

President Barack Obama waves as he walks on stage with first lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha at his election night party Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012, in Chicago. Obama defeated Republican challenger former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

A supporter cries as President Barack Obama speaks during an election night party, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012, in Chicago. Obama defeated Republican challenger former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Speaker John Boehner talks with reporters outside Ronald Reagan Lodge after voting, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, in West Chester, Ohio. After a grinding presidential campaign, Americans head into polling places across the country. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

(AP) ? President Barack Obama faces a new urgent task now that he has a second term, working with a status-quo Congress to address an impending financial crisis that economists say could send the country back into recession.

"You made your voice heard," Obama said in his acceptance speech, signaling that he believes the bulk of the country is behind his policies. It's a sticking point for House Republicans, sure to balk at that.

The same voters who gave Obama four more years in office also elected a divided Congress, sticking with the dynamic that has made it so hard for the president to advance his agenda. Democrats retained control of the Senate; Republicans kept their House majority.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, spoke of a dual mandate. "If there is a mandate, it is a mandate for both parties to find common ground and take steps together to help our economy grow and create jobs," he said.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had a more harsh assessment.

"The voters have not endorsed the failures or excesses of the president's first term," McConnell said. "They have simply given him more time to finish the job they asked him to do together" with a balanced Congress.

Obama's more narrow victory was nothing like the jubilant celebration in 2008, when his hope-and-change election as the nation's first black president captivated the world. This time, Obama ground it out with a stay-the-course pitch that essentially boiled down to a plea for more time to make things right and a hope that Congress will be more accommodating than in the past.

The most pressing challenges immediately ahead for the 44th president are all too familiar: an economy still baby-stepping its way toward full health; 23 million people out of work or in search of better jobs; civil war in Syria; a menacing standoff over Iran's nuclear program.

Sharp differences with Republicans in Congress on taxes, spending, deficit reduction, immigration and more await. While Republicans control the House, Democrats have at least 53 votes in the Senate and Republicans 45. One newly elected independent isn't saying which party he'll side with, and North Dakota's race not yet called.

Votes also were being counted Wednesday in the Montana and Washington gubernatorial races.

Obama's list of promises to keep includes many holdovers he was unable to deliver on in his first term, such as rolling back tax cuts for upper-income people, overhauling immigration policy and reducing federal deficits. Six in 10 voters said in exit polls that taxes should be increased, and nearly half of voters said taxes should be increased on incomes over $250,000, as Obama has called for.

"It's very clear from the exit polling that a majority of Americans recognize that we need to share responsibility for reducing the deficit," Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, told CNN. "That means asking higher-income earners to contribute more to reducing the deficit."

But Sara Taylor Fagen, who served as political director in President George W. Bush's second term, warned the current White House to pay heed to the closely divided electorate, a lesson her party learned after 2004. With more than 90 percent of precincts reporting, the popular vote went 50 percent for Obama to 48.4 percent for Romney,

"It'll be interesting if the Obama team misinterprets the size of their victory," Fagen said. "I think if you look back at history, we pushed Social Security and the Congress wasn't ready for that and wasn't going to do it. And had President Bush gone after immigration, we may be sitting in a very different position as a party."

Obama predicted in the waning days of the campaign that his victory would motivate Republicans to make a deal on immigration policy next year to make up for having "so alienated the fastest-growing demographic group in the country, the Latino community."

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour agreed that a lesson of 2012 is for his Republican Party to change the party's approach on immigration.

"Republicans say, 'We don't want to reward people for breaking the law,'" Barbour told CBS. "The way we need to look at it is, how are we going to grow the American economy and where does our immigration policy fit into that?"

Even before Obama gets to his second inaugural on Jan. 20, he must deal with the threatened "fiscal cliff." A combination of automatic tax increases and steep across-the-board spending cuts are set to take effect in January if Washington doesn't quickly reach a budget deal. Experts have warned that the economy could tip back into recession without an agreement.

Newly elected Democrats signaled they want compromise to avoid the fiscal cliff.

Sen.-elect Tim Kaine, a former Virginia governor who defeated Republican George Allen, said on NBC's "Today" show that voters sent a message they want "cooperative government." But he also says the election results show that the public doesn't want "all the levers in one party's hands" on Capitol Hill.

From Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren said on "CBS This Morning" that those who voted for her opponent, Republican Sen. Scott Brown, expressed a desire for lawmakers to work together. She says: "I heard that loud and clear."

Obama repeated his campaign slogan of moving "forward" repeatedly in a victory speech early Wednesday in his hometown of Chicago.

"We will disagree, sometimes fiercely, about how to get there," he said. "As it has for more than two centuries, progress will come in fits and starts. It's not always a straight line. It's not always a smooth path. By itself, the recognition that we have common hopes and dreams won't end all the gridlock, or solve all our problems, or substitute for the painstaking work of building consensus, and making the difficult compromises needed to move this country forward. But that common bond is where we must begin."

Former Obama adviser Anita Dunn told "CBS This Morning" that the president made it clear in his acceptance speech that he will be reaching out, and she warned GOP House leaders, representing Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin, to keep in mind that their voters also wanted to keep Obama.

"Clearly there's a lot of momentum and a lot of incentive for people to work together to really find answers to the challenges," she said.

The vanquished Republican, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, tried to set a more conciliatory tone on the way off the stage.

"At a time like this, we can't risk partisan bickering," Romney said after a campaign filled with it. "Our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people's work."

Obama won at least 303 electoral votes to 206 for Romney, with 270 needed for victory, and had a near-sweep of the nine most hotly contested states.

Obama's re-election means his signature health care overhaul will endure, as will the Wall Street overhaul enacted after the economic meltdown. The drawdown of troops in Afghanistan will continue apace. With an aging roster of justices, the president probably will have at least one more nomination to the Supreme Court.

A second term is sure to produce turnover in his Cabinet. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has made it clear he wants to leave at the end of Obama's first term but is expected to remain in the post until a successor is confirmed. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama's rival for the presidency four years ago, is ready to leave. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta isn't expected to stay on.

Some Americans were hopeful for progress in Obama's second term.

"He may not have done a great job in my mind but I kinda trust him," Jerry Shul said Wednesday morning in New York's Times Square. "And I feel like he's gonna keep trying and I feel like when people keep trying in you favor things work out. I have faith in him, I have faith he will get with the Republicans and get something done."

Elsewhere on the ballot, voters in Maine and Maryland became the first to approve same-sex marriage by popular vote while Washington state and Colorado legalized recreational use of marijuana.

Obama claimed at least seven of the nine swing states, most notably Ohio, seen as the big prize. He also prevailed in Iowa, New Hampshire, Colorado, Nevada, Virginia and Wisconsin. Romney got North Carolina.

Florida was too close to call Wednesday morning. The unofficial count had Obama with a 46,000-vote lead, but Florida historically has left as many as 5 percent of its votes uncounted until after Election Day.

Overall, Obama won 25 states and the District of Columbia. Romney won 24 states.

It was a more measured victory than four years ago, when Obama claimed 365 electoral votes to Arizona Sen. John McCain's 173, and won 53 percent of the popular vote.

Preliminary figures indicate fewer people participated this time. Associated Press figures showed that about 118 million people had voted in the White House race, but that number will rise as more votes are counted. In 2008, 131 million people voted, according to the Federal Election Commission.

___

Follow Nancy Benac on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nbenac

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-11-07-US-Election-Rdp/id-66a3f109d6b549398ce16002c9060ef8

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Roller Coaster Campaign Concludes With Tuesday's Vote | FOX8 ...

By Tom Cohen

WASHINGTON (CNN) ? A roller-coaster ride of an election campaign, buffeted by a superstorm and missteps on both sides, finally concludes Tuesday when America decides if President Barack Obama gets a second term or Republican challenger Mitt Romney will move into the White House in January.

In a contest reflecting the nation?s deep political chasm, Obama and Romney ran dead even in final polls that hinted at a result rivaling some of the closest presidential elections in history.

The first polling results of the day in New Hampshire?s Dixville Notch did nothing to change that notion. It was a tie.

Obama and Romney each received five votes.

The town in the state?s northeast corner has opened its polls shortly after midnight each election day since 1960 ? but Tuesday?s draw was the first in its history.

Tuesday?s outcome will influence the direction of a government and country facing chronic federal deficits and debt as well as sluggish economic growth in the wake of a devastating recession and financial industry collapse that confronted Obama when he took office as the first African-American president in January 2009.

Voters also will determine the makeup of a new Congress, choosing all 435 members of the House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 senators. Analysts expect Republicans to maintain control of the House and Democrats to keep their narrow advantage in the Senate.

No matter who wins the presidency, the White House and Congress will face fresh pressure to legislate a comprehensive deficit reduction deal that has been stymied so far by intransigence on the issue of tax reform, with Republicans refusing to consider any kind of tax increase while Obama and Democrats insist on at least the wealthy paying a higher income tax rate.

Despite the building drama toward Election Day in the campaign expected to cost $2.6 billion, much of the outcome already was known.

Only a handful of states were considered up for grabs and both candidates and their campaigns concluded an exhausting final sprint through them over the weekend and on Monday.

The barnstorming amounted to a montage of Americana electioneering, with Obama and Romney shouting themselves hoarse before boisterous crowds, joined by top surrogates and star power such as Bruce Springsteen singing for Obama and Kid Rock for Romney.

In their final speeches, the candidates and their respective running mates ? Vice President Joe Biden and GOP Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin ? blended inspirational visions for a better future with well-honed attacks in hopes of ensuring their committed supporters actually cast ballots while trying to coax votes from anyone still undecided.

Obama, Romney make final pitches

Obama briefly waxed nostalgic at his first event on Monday in Madison, Wisconsin, referring to Springsteen when he said: ?I get to fly around with him on the last day that I will ever campaign, so that?s not a bad way to end things.?

He cited accomplishments of his first term, including ending the war in Iraq, winding down the war in Afghanistan, passing health insurance and Wall Street reforms, and ending the ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell? policy that banned openly gay and lesbian personnel from the military.

?I know what real change looks like,? the president said, referring to what he characterizes as Romney?s false claim of being an agent of needed change. ?You?ve got cause to believe me because you?ve seen me fight for it and you?ve seen me deliver it. You have seen the scars on me to prove it. You have seen the gray hair on my head to show you what it means to fight for change. And you?ve been there with me. And after all we?ve been through together we can?t give up now because we?ve got more change to do.?

Emotion overtook the president at the end of the day.

His eyes welled with tears as he thanked the people ?who?ve given so much to this campaign over the years,? during a stop in Des Moines, Iowa ? a place where his first campaign gained an early foothold in his first run for the White House.

?You took this campaign and made it of your own and you organized yourselves block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, county by county, starting a movement that spread across the country,? Obama said wiping away away tears three times as he talked.

In North Carolina, first lady Michelle Obama exhorted voters to endure the expected long lines to vote on Tuesday, telling a Charlotte crowd: ?Once you are in that line, do not get out. Don?t get out. And the waits could be long. We need you to wait it out.?

For his part, Romney called Obama?s record one of underachievement and failure, telling a cheering Virginia crowd at his second stop of the day that ?almost every measure he took hurt the economy, hurt fellow Americans.?

At an earlier event in Florida, Romney asked if people wanted four more years like the last four, raising the specter of continuing gridlock in Washington and adding that ?unless we change course, we may be looking at another recession.?

He promised to repeal the health care and Wall Street reforms of the Obama presidency and to ?limit government rather than limiting the dreams? of Americans.

?We have known many long days and some short nights and now we are close. The door to a brighter future is open. It is waiting for us. I need your vote. I need your help. Walk with me. Tomorrow we begin a new tomorrow,? Romney said.

Romney also planned two Election Day stops to continue campaigning until polls close. He?ll visit Ohio ? considered the most vital swing state with 18 electoral votes ? and Pennsylvania, where Obama leads but the Romney campaign hopes for a late surge to grab the 20 electoral votes available.

It takes 270 of the 538 total electoral votes to win the presidency.

While both campaigns sought to project confidence in victory, the possibility loomed that neither candidate will get more than 50% of total votes cast. In a less likely but mathematically possible result, a tie in the Electoral College could occur, which would set up a congressional vote to break the deadlock.

As the challenger, Romney sought to frame the election as a referendum on Obama?s presidency and to capitalize on his own background as multimillionaire businessman by depicting himself as better able to handle economic issues identified by voters as their biggest concern. His campaign stump speech hammered Obama over high unemployment and what he called excessive taxes and regulations that Romney said stifled faster growth.

Obama and his team attacked Romney?s politics and his background as a venture capitalist, saying he would back policies favoring the wealthy over the middle class and exacerbate the already widening income and opportunity disparity in the country. The president wanted the race to come down to competing visions for the future and his oft-repeated goal of restoring the promise of the American dream of equal opportunity for all.

In particular, Obama repeatedly noted he backed a taxpayer bailout that helped restore General Motors and Chrysler while Romney opposed it. The issue resonated in auto industry states like Michigan and Ohio, which was considered the most significant of the battlegrounds in the final days of the race.

Campaign chess match

Aside from the policy differences, the election amounted to a campaign chess match targeting specific states and demographic groups as part of plan to create a path to 270 electoral votes. Polling portrayed a race that hinged on the social and democratic divides in American society, with Obama supported most strongly by women, minorities and young respondents, while Romney did better among wealthy and middle class white men, from senior citizens down to 30 year olds.

In response, Obama emphasized the anti-choice positions of Romney and conservatives on abortion, their stance against gay rights and their opposition to providing a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants.

Re-election offered Obama, 51, the chance to secure a two-term legacy and seek further reforms he promised in his historic campaign of 2008 but was unable to deliver in the first four years. In particular, he has made comprehensive immigration reform a top target, as well as a deficit reduction plan that ends tax breaks for income over $250,000.

However, the wave of optimism that carried to him to victory in 2008 seemed muted four years later, with former supporters angered by the failure to achieve the kind of change in Washington they believed Obama had promised but failed to deliver. Particular issues of discontent included Obama?s expanded use of unmanned drones to attack terrorist targets abroad, the lack of broad immigration reform and the continued existence of the federal Defense of Marriage Act that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

For Romney, a multimillionaire businessman seeking to become the nation?s first Mormon president, the election concluded a six-year quest for the presidency to achieve the office that his father ? former Michigan Gov. George Romney ? briefly and unsuccessfully sought in 1968.

Mitt Romney also failed in his first bid for the Republican nomination in 2008, then spent the next two years preparing for a second run that began in 2011 with a grueling primary campaign featuring a record 20 debates.

A former governor of Massachusetts, he shifted to the right for the primary race to overcome a broad field that included former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman and businessman Herman Cain.

Romney, 65, declared himself ?severely? conservative and adopted stances against abortion, gay marriage and a path to legal residency for undocumented immigrants while also opposing higher tax rates as part of a deficit reduction plan. His support remained steady ? though well below a majority ? throughout the primary campaign while opponents dropped out one by one until Romney emerged as the winner and claimed the nomination at the GOP convention in late August.

However, his campaign endured a tough September, due in part to some unforced errors. A secretly recorded video from a May fundraiser became public, showing Romney referring to 47% of the country as dependent on government handouts and therefore unreachable to him as a candidate.

When U.S. diplomatic compounds came under attack on September 11, including an assault that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, Romney quickly issued a statement that was criticized for mistaken information and seeking to politicize a sensitive national security issue.

Then, in the first presidential debate on October 3, Romney began an energetic shift back to the political center and scored a clear victory over Obama by presenting himself as more moderate than the right-wing zealot portrayed by the president. He acknowledged the need for government regulation, opposed deporting undocumented immigrants and generally backed Obama?s positions on the war in Afghanistan, the conflict in Syria and other foreign policy matters.

Obama?s lackluster showing in the first debate contributed to an overwhelming consensus among analysts and poll results that Romney carried the night, and he began rising in the polls to erase what had been a consistent Obama lead since the conventions a month earlier. Stronger performances by Obama in the second and third debates began to slow Romney?s momentum, though the Romney team claimed a surge put states like Michigan and Pennsylvania back in play. They were previously thought safe for the president.

With polls tightening in the final weeks, Romney or his surrogates heightened their attacks on key issues, including a campaign ad that implied the auto bailout led to shifting the production of iconic Chrysler Jeeps to China. The automaker joined the Obama campaign in complaining that the ad was misleading, and the president said it was intended to scare workers for political gain.

Superstorm Sandy

However, the biggest impact on the end of the campaign was Superstorm Sandy, which blasted the East Coast from Maryland to Connecticut just over a week before Election Day. Obama and Romney canceled campaign events, and the president shifted to full emergency response mode as the storm and its devastation dominated the national focus for much of the final full week of campaigning.

An enduring image of the aftermath was Obama touring the storm damage with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican and top surrogate for Romney. The image and Christie?s praise for Obama?s handling of the crisis undermined a major Romney argument that the president valued personal gain over the good of the nation.

Final polls indicated Obama inching ahead nationally and in most of the battleground states, though the race remained too close to call.

?The hurricane is what broke Romney?s momentum,? Haley Barbour, the former Republican governor of Mississippi, told CNN on Sunday.

On the ground, record numbers of voters cast early ballots as both sides boasted of ramped-up organizations to identify and contact supporters. At the same time, Democrats complained that Republican-led state governments passed tighter voter registration laws in an effort to suppress minority turnout.

Overall, the total cost of the election for president and Congress could top a record-breaking $6 billion, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The figure covers spending from January 2011 through whatever totals emerge after Tuesday?s election.

Outside groups accounted for the biggest boost in spending, with independent organizations dropping more than $970 million. The increase was largely related to the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that paved the way for super PACs to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money as long as they did not coordinate with the campaigns.

Source: http://fox8.com/2012/11/06/roller-coaster-campaign-concludes-with-tuesdays-vote/

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Toys are Tools -Thoughtful Toy Reviews: Review & Giveaway ...

WHAT:?Glow Moon Explorer?by Geomag
DOES:?great open-ended magnetic building block vehicle that doesn't obligate you to buy more pieces. (It's a mindset that can be achieved!); can be used as a low-key introduction to Geomag toys

INVEST:? $25.50 MSRP
TOOLS:??Express Yourself, Think Like a Scientist/Engineer, Holiday/Birthday Build-Uponner

AGES: 5+? ( I agree with this age rec; more fine motor stability required to build)
GIVEAWAY DETAILS BELOW??





Can you teach a child how to shop? ?This is a hard question to answer because?ten years ago,?I don't think we knew we would be shopping this way. ?Don't we all have free shipping ?vs. pay shipping calculators in our heads now? ?Ten years ago, if you told me that I would be buying everything online, I would have told you "Never- especially me. I'm very old-fashioned." ??

But my kids really don't know about on-foot shopping so much. ?They think shopping happens on a laptop. ?Money is never seen. ?No credit card is swiped and for sure, there is no symbolic jar stuffed with bills and coins for that rainy day. ? Given how everything is done electronically, it's hard to imagine how much they can learn but I believe we can still teach them how to shop and there is no better way than to use the material in which they are experts: toys.


Got Drunken Uncle Money?


This year, when my son came into what I call "Drunken Uncle Money" (money given by drunken uncle at a family party for no other reason than your kid is cute), he wanted to spend it right away but I just kept saying no to all of his suggestions. Really, twenty-four Beyblades aren't enough?

But when Geomag's Glow Moon Explorer?came across our sights, I finally let Number 1 Son spend his money. ?It sounds really crazy and maybe a bit unethical since it was a product submission from Geomag, but I honestly let him "buy it from me" instead of buying it from a store. ?Thus, in our family, the toy is no longer "company property." ?It is his but I still get to review it since he is my son and he better let me.

As it turns out, Number 1 made a really good consumer decision and I'll tell you why:


  1. The Explorer has wheels! Any building toy with wheels is a stand-alone toy to me. ?You do not HAVE to buy more open-ended sets if you don't want to or can't afford it. ? That makes it a burden-free birthday/holiday gift too.
  2. Most people tend to buy the sets and then buy the wheels and other attachments but going this route is almost safer.?If the child isn't crazy about it, he can still just have a car and there is nothing wrong with that.

    These two pictures are products of me fiddling around with my computer but I wanted you to see that it can glow.

  3. However, if he does enjoy it, you have the option of encouraging him to build a collection of the constructive magnetic rods and panels. ?If it is too pricey for him then he can earn it.? (Hint to Grandpa and Grandma to ADD TO IT!) ?Meanwhile, he will not get new toys (because he's saving up) and he will have to rely on his imagination to help him have fun with the toys that he has.
    ??
  4. You can show him what sets are available, tell him what the MSRP is and then he can check daily or weekly to see if the price went down. ?Memorizing prices of needed items is a valuable skill. ?We generally have an idea of how much our favorite dishwashing liquid costs, how much copy paper costs, how much is a winter jacket... etc... ? There is no reason why they shouldn't learn how much their favorite toy costs.

  5. It is especially ideal to teach the concept of value with Geomag because one piece doesn't exactly equate to one piece in another magnetic toy and so kids will have to visualize ahead of time just how much they are really buying. ?So for example: A Magnatile or Magformer triangle is just one piece that has three sides but one Geomag rod can only make one side and so essentially you need three connecting balls and three rods to make a single triangle. However to make two adjacent triangles, you just need one more ball and two more rods. Make your child do the math ahead and increase satisfaction.


  6. Thus while it is hard to make one-to-one comparisons of magnetic block toys, you can start encouraging your kids to be more thoughtful and appreciate the finer differences in all their toys. ? When doing price-by-the-piece comparison, they may never come up with a straight answer but it is a great way of learning that the world is not so black and white and personal preferences are hard to quantify.?

      So Did We Buy More Geomags?

      Of course we did! Actually he used his Drunken Uncle Money to buy more sets. (About $70 total- the uncle was very drunk) ? But I have to say that buying more rods after you get a vehicle results in a different feeling than when you buy more pieces after getting a small sample set.? You feel like it is more of a choice rather than buying more because the set you have does not do enough for your child.?? By the way, as a toy in itself, it is fantastic!? You probably got that by now from the photos!?? I love the way the rods feel. ?They are heavy. ?They pick up more than one ball at a time and that is super fun and relaxing. The panels are very light in weight but they do snap on very well after you make a structure to fit them. ? The unique feature about this vehicle are the flexible structures that seems like a thin sheet of bendable plastic. ?It holds itself up pretty well and is rather strong for something so thin. ?They actually glow brighter than the rods themselves!



      I actually encouraged my sons to seek the glow rods not because they glowed but rather because they are uniform in color. ?The panels are all clear unless you snap on the plastic sheets inside. I have learned from my favorite teaching experts that it is so much easier to see the structure of the toy when the bricks or blocks are all the same color. ?

      Doesn't that make sense? ?Imagine a brick building in multiple color bricks. ?Wouldn't that make you dizzy? ? Our rods never make us dizzy. ?You can clearly see the structure. ?



      All in all, I like the Geomag Glow Moon Explorer very much. ?To be truthful, once kids get any Drunken Uncle Money, I pocket the cash immediately.? Come on, you do too, right?? Thus when my kids finally get to "spend" this money, I can't help but feel like it is my own money they are spending.

      However, when you are teaching your kid make quality toy purchasing decisions, lightening your wallet this way is a lot less painful and hopefully, a lot more prideful. ? I hope we will be reviewing more Geomag toys because I find them surprising SOCIAL not to mention MATHEMATICAL!




      Now you can win your own Glow Moon Explorer! ??

      Try the Rafflecopter widget below and remember...?please follow the rules... If you are supposed to make a comment on the blog post, the rule of thumb is...?if you can't see your comment then, it doesn't count as an entry! ? Also, if you have trouble entering Rafflecopter via Facebook, try just using your email address. I'm sorry this system frustrates some of us. ?If you have trouble email me.? I want to help. ?This giveaway will only be shipped to U.S. addresses only.


      a Rafflecopter giveaway

      Can't wait to see if you've won? ?If you are going to purchase it someday, put it in your shopping cart thru my Amazon links below and support Toys are Tools!








      A BIG CHEER FOR REEVES INTERNATIONAL! ?? ?No toy company should be doing anything but concentrating on the holidays, instead, the good folks at Reeves are in New Jersey and still dealing with the storm's aftermath.? Even my son's teacher who also lives in New Jersey and still living in the dark showed up for NYC's kids' first day back at school.? I am energized by all these hard-working people!?? Thank goodness, Reeves' fabulous website is up and they are still shipping their toys out!? Phew.? Visit the site and you'll know why you must poke around.??


      Disclosure:? Toys are Tools has not been compensated in any way by the manufacturer of this product.? The product was submitted to tester to facilitate a review.? Reviews are never promised.? The giveaway prize is being donated by the manufacturer.?



      Source: http://www.toysaretools.com/2012/11/glowmoonexplorer.html

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Jayhawk basketball lacks leadership in final exhbition game | The ...

In their final outing before the record counts, the Kansas men?s basketball team didn?t look like a team that had already played in five exhibition contests since August.

Instead the Jayhawks played like they had never been on the court together, operating as five individuals playing his own game.

After riding a 13-five run into half, the Jayhawks started the second half flat, turning the ball over nine times in the first 11:02 of the second half as the Jayhawks clawed their way to a 62 to 50 victory against the Washburn Ichabods.

?I think that it?s too many people thinking too hard and they?re not just playing,? Senior guard Elijah Johnson said. ?And with us thinking so hard and thinking about everything, making it so complex, I think that it?s confusing each other, rather than just rolling in a rhythm and hopping on the same train.?

There was no single culprit to the Jayhawk turnover mess, instead the whole team contributed to the poor performance, with the team?s four leading scorers all turning the ball over four times each.

It started with the leadership at the top.

Johnson didn?t take control of the offense, instead he let other players, such as freshman guard Ben McLemore, take the ball up the court and start the offense.

?Ben struggled the whole night. Now here?s a guy with multiple turnovers and no assists, and Elijah?s having him initiate offense,? Kansas coach Bill Self said. ?That?s not what guards do. He?s got to do a better job running our team.?

At the outset of the second half, the Jayhawks guns, Johnson, McLemore and freshman forward Perry Ellis, went silent. After scoring 29 of the Jayhawks 36 first half points, they managed just 11 points in the second period.

Ellis said the Jayhawks need to work more as a team.

?We still need to learn how to get it back together,? he said.
But the bigger culprit turned out to be the Jayhawks showing their youth by committing mistakes and turnovers. Mistakes they didn?t show in their previous exhibition outing.

When the game got sloppy and physical, the Jayhawks turned to their big man down low, senior center Jeff Withey, to fend off the feisty Ichabods.

Despite being absent in the first half, where he only recorded one block and one rebound, Withey came to life after being benched, solidifying the defense with six blocks in the second half.

?You shouldn?t have to take a guy out and sit him to get him mad to where he?s aggressive,? Self said. ?That?s how he should be all the time, he should start the game that way.?

Self said he felt his seniors didn?t do enough to carry the team when they needed to drag the struggling younger guys along.

The passive attitude started with Withey and the other seniors trickled down, causing the whole team to take on that mindset.
Self said the team missed opportunities to take charges, jump for the ball and box out.

?That?s as soft as a team could play,? Self said. ?They beat us on everything.?

? Edited by Luke Ranker

Source: http://kansan.com/sports/2012/11/06/jayhawk-basketball-lacks-leadership-in-final-exhbition-game/

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