How Self-Talk and Stress Levels Impact Your Relationship With ...

How we deal with what most stresses us shapes and is shaped by how we communicate, and ultimately the relationship between you, your mind and body.

In Part 1, we looked at how inner self-talk impacts the quality of communication between your mind and body, and how the subconscious relies on this interpretive inner dialogue to understand you, regarding the specifics of your life from day one to the present moment, as part of its job in optimally operating all the systems that come together to make you?possible.

In this post, we consider how this inner stream of consciousness also impacts and is impacted by the direction and quality of the relationship you have with your self, mind and body, and arguably your life and relationships in general.

If how you talk to yourself inside decides whether your autonomic nervous system remains relatively calm or unnecessarily turns on your body?s survival system, that means you have a built-in capability to direct ? or redirect ? the overall state of your mind and body.

The power of interpretive thoughts and beliefs?

Your body, in the form of self-talk, makes subconscious decisions for you around the clock. This inner dialogue is a stream of consciousness that has an enormous effect on every aspect of your life and relationships.

Interpretive thoughts, in particular, form words and pictures that shape your imagination and, in turn, modulate your body?s emotion and physiology. When thought patterns are repeated, over time, they form emotional-command neural circuits that automatically direct what and how you think, talk and act, because ? they bypass the frontal cortex of your brain.

It?s?how your brain learns and adapts to change.

When this inner dialogue, however, consists of toxic thinking patterns and limiting beliefs that?unnecessarily?activate your survival system, literally, your body takes subconscious control of responses, thus, your capacity to make conscious choices.?In survival mode, the body shuts off most all communication to the higher cortex and relies instead on ?proven? protective strategies it has stored in memory.

As occurs in relationships, ?how? you communicate with your self impacts how you consciously or subconsciously relate with every aspect of yourself, i.e., your thoughts, emotions, feelings, physiological sensations, and so on.?Regardless how well-intentioned, in the same way that verbal attacks erode a relationship between two people, negative thoughts about your self or your attributes, etc., weaken the connection to your own inner resources by:

  • Activating survival response of the body to some degree.
  • Producing low-energy emotional states (fear-based) ?that disturb your sense of safety and security inside.
  • Turning off the regular operations of the body?s systems (reserved for protective mode) and thus otherwise amazing inner resources.
  • Blocking optimal emotional states, such as hope, compassion and belief in yourself, which are essential to energize actions toward a more healthy, happy and fulfilled you!

It?s an ongoing process, and love-based emotional states produce entirely different outcomes from fear-based ones.

This means that, in some areas of your life, habitual responses may be shaping your life ? rather than you.

Toxic patterns are limiting because they constrain, in varying degrees, what you believe is possible for you to achieve and who you are capable of becoming.

For example, the thought of stopping at a favorite place for a cup of coffee may not be cause for activating your survival response in most cases; however, what if you and a loved one had a heated argument at your favorite coffee shop the night before or last week? In this case, even though you?ve since made up, the thought may bring a rush of emotions that, in extreme cases, may lead you to (an unreasonable) decision to never go to this coffee shop again ? ever! In other words, the mere thought of coffee can activate dynamic processes in your body that cause you to re-experience the event. Even worse, if you?ve decided to never go to that coffee shop again, it means your body is reacting with nearly the same physiological intensity and processes it would use as if you were facing a lion in the jungle!

If this were the case, you?d likely consider this a limiting or debilitating thinking pattern, right?

Though this may sound absurd, your body makes subconscious decisions like this all the time. Is there a particular food, situation, or person with certain traits you go out of your way to avoid? Does a part of you seem to resist your efforts to change a behavior?

The deciding factor? Your beliefs.

How?s the relationship between you, your mind and body?

The beliefs you hold to be true about a situation form powerful perception filters that, in varying degrees, either limit or increase your options, thus, they have the power to either harm or enrich how you relate to yourself and the world around you.

Subconscious patterns are connected to emotional command circuitry in the brain that literally dictates whether, as a person, you are free to be overall happy and fulfilled or unhappy and overstressed. Thoughts and the underlying beliefs that spawn them determine whether you live a relatively fulfilling life or fight a losing battle with stress and stressors.

Like most, you may not be conscious of many of your perceptions; they are the habitual way you explain life experiences to yourself in your mind and they are subconscious.

Your choices are being controlled by subconscious choices you made (or were made for you) in the past.?Why subconscious?

First, they were recorded subconsciously. One of the reasons young children?s brain can quickly pick up a vast amount of information is that they have not yet formed ?perception? filters. Until children?s brains form selective perception filters, their subconscious allows the integration of a lot of unfiltered information. Once language is learned, the process is no longer passive. The subconscious mind can then turn off ?learning mode,? and go into the ?protective mode? as needed.

Second, a lot of potentially ?good? information is automatically ignored or rejected. Once the subconscious forms selective filters, a lot of healthy data goes undetected or gets automatically vetoed by these perception filters because of the selective, protective processes they activate.?Of course, most or all of this occurs beneath the surface of awareness, subconsciously.

If your inner dialogue decides whether your mind and body remain?relatively?calm or get?unnecessarily?triggered, that means you have a built-in choice, a capability to decide how you will direct ? or redirect ? the communication between you and your body, and thus decide how you relate to your mind and body, all parts of you.

Whether you make use of this amazing capacity, however, once again depends on what you believe. If your believe you are the agent and choice maker of your life in charge of your happiness, you will create radically different results than if you believe you have the short end of the stick, and blame certain others for your unhappiness.

The most important decision you make in life may be whether you are the primary agent who decides your choices and responses, particularly, when it comes the matters of the heart.?Do you wait for clues from others that you are loved, worthwhile, valuable, for example?

Who is in charge of your heart and happiness?

Your subconscious relies on your inner dialogue to understand you, regarding the specifics of your life from day one to the present moment, as part of its job in optimally operating all the systems that work together to make up the most amazing system of all: you!

Your responses or reactions say a lot about how you interpret events you experience in and around you. The belief systems you hold to be true form personal perception filters that automatically explain your experiences, and this rapid fire communication is going on at all time without your awareness as a function of your body?s natural orientation to learning.

Consciously or subconsciously, you are where you are in your life, for the most part, thanks to the thoughts you think on a consistent basis.

As occurs in relationships, how you communicate with your self inside enhances or reduces the relationship quality you have with all aspects of your physical, emotional and mental world.

Your internal dialogue or self-talk not only modulates the quality of communication between your mind and body, or conscious-self and subconscious-self, but also forms the basis for how you?relate?with yourself and inner (thus also outer?) world of sensations in your mind, consciously or subconsciously.

This can be good news. Conceivably it means your body (Nature?) expects you, at some point, to?develop?awareness of your built-in capacity to sort through and consciously, thoughtfully?choose?moment by moment?how?you use language to create optimal emotional states of mind and body in order to in turn create your best and healthiest you, life and future.

Perhaps the most important choice you make in life is whether to you believe, feel and treat your self as the choice-maker and creative agent of your life.

To do so is a prerequisite to embarking on a journey that forms and maintains quality relationships with your self, all parts of you, mind and body ? and life around. You deserve this (so does life around you).

Relationship consultant, author, licensed marriage and family therapist, Dr. Athena Staik shows clients how to break free of anxiety, addictions, and other emotional blocks, to awaken radiantly healthy lives and relationships. Dr. Staik is currently in private practice in Northern VA, and writing her book, Safe Enough to Love?: Breaking Free of Addictive Love in Couple Relationships. To contact Dr. Staik for information, an appointment or workshop, visit www.drstaik.com, or visit on her Facebook fan page DrAthenaStaik

Like this author?
Catch up on other posts by Athena Staik, Ph.D. (or subscribe to their feed).



????Last reviewed: 27 Oct 2012

APA Reference
Staik, A. (2012). How Self-Talk and Stress Levels Impact Your Relationship With Your Self ? Mind and Body, 2 of 2. Psych Central. Retrieved on October 27, 2012, from http://blogs.psychcentral.com/relationships/2012/10/how-self-talk-and-stress-levels-impact-your-relationship-with-your-self-mind-and-body-2-of-2/

?

Source: http://blogs.psychcentral.com/relationships/2012/10/how-self-talk-and-stress-levels-impact-your-relationship-with-your-self-mind-and-body-2-of-2/

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NuvaRing Lawsuit | Pulaski & Middleman, L.L.C.

Posted on October 26th, 2012

NuvaRing was first introduced as an FDA-approved form of birth control in the United States in July 2002. It provided women with the ability to more easily satisfy their birth control needs because of the fact that it was vaginally inserted one time per month. This reduced the risks associated with the use of other forms of birth control such as forgetting to take daily oral contraception pills, not having a condom available when needed and more. The convenience associated with the NuvaRing resulted in many women making the decision to choose it over other forms of birth control available. However, as more women began to use it regularly, the health issues associated with its use became well known.

NuvaRing Health Issues

The NuvaRing is manufactured by Merck, and it is designed to deliver a low dose of hormones to the body on a daily basis to prevent pregnancy. It is designed to be inserted by the woman once a month and left in place for three weeks out of each month. Since its introduction to United States in 2002, over 300 serious health issues have been reported and numerous other minor health issues have been reported. Among the most serious complications and side effects associated with NuvaRing are the development of blood clots, heart attack, pulmonary embolism and stroke. It should be noted that many of these conditions can ultimately lead to disability or death.

If You Have Been Affected

If you have developed any of these issues since using the NuvaRing and believe that this contraceptive device is the cause, you may consider talking to a NuvaRing lawyer about your legal rights. These health issues can result in significant pain and suffering, financial cost associated with past and future medical bills, loss of income due to medical treatments or disability and more. A NuvaRing lawsuit may help you to benefit from financial compensation for these effects.

While over 100 lawsuits have been filed over the NuvaRing contraceptive device, you should be aware that this is a highly specialized area of toxic tort law. In order to enjoy the optimal results from a lawsuit, it is best to work with a NuvaRing attorney who has significant experience with toxic tort law as well as with NuvaRing cases specifically. You can schedule an initial consultation with a toxic tort lawyer with a specialization in this area today. Through your consultation, you can explore your legal rights and begin the process of seeking justice in a court of law. If you or a loved one have been affected by the side effects of NuvaRing, contact an experienced NuvaRing attorney or call us today at 1-800-BAD-DRUG.

Source: http://www.pulaskilawfirm.com/blog/2012/10/26/nuvaring-lawsuit/

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Tiger Woods Tracker: Follow Round 3 At CIMB Classic

Golfweek:

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- It wasn't necessarily pretty at times, but Tiger Woods managed to keep himself in contention on Friday with a 4-under 67 that left him five shots behind 36-hole leader Robert Garrigus at the CIMB Classic.

But he'll need to make a bigger move on Saturday if he hopes to have a chance at winning his first international title of the season.

We'll take you shot-by-shot through Tiger's third round, so stay tuned all night as he attempts to cut into the five-shot deficit.

Read the whole story at Golfweek

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/26/tiger-tracker-follow-tige_1_n_2027572.html

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Surface interest, Win 8 caution on release day

2 hrs.

U.S. shoppers woke up with mild Surface fever on Friday, lining up in moderate numbers to buy Microsoft's groundbreaking tablet computer designed to challenge Apple's iPad.

The global debut of the Windows 8 operating system was greeted with pockets of enthusiasm, but not the mania reserved for some previous Apple launches.

Microsoft is positioning the slick new computing device, which runs a limited version of Windows and Office with a thin, click-on keyboard cover, as a perfect combination of PC and tablet that is good for work as well as entertainment.

"I like the flexibility of having the keyboard and the touch capability," said Mike Gipe, 50, who works in sales for bank Barclays, and was planning to buy a Surface tablet at Microsoft's pop-up store in Times Square in New York.

"It's the combination of having the consumer stuff and the work stuff," he said, looking forward to using Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations on the new device.

The Times Square store was the first to sell the Surface???Microsoft's first ever own-brand computer???and other Windows 8 devices late on Thursday and will be open through the holiday shopping season. On Friday morning it was crowded with a mix of tourists and local office workers, but the cash tills were not jammed.

"With the other tablets you're a consumer. With this you can have input," said Peter Townsend, on vacation in New York from Australia with his wife, who bought a Surface tablet because he liked the keyboard.

Mark Pauluch, 28, who works for a New York private equity firm, said he would like a Surface because he does not want to take a laptop on a plane, but was disappointed when the sales representative told him the wifi-only Surface would not work with Cisco VPN networking.

"I can't use this to replace my work laptop unless it supports VPN," he said.

Elsewhere in the United States, there was solid but not overwhelming interest for the Surface.

"It's a good tablet. I am not a huge i-anything fan, I like Windows," said Matt Shanahan, a software developer who drove four hours to the tiny Michigan Avenue pop-up store in Chicago from Grand Rapids, Michigan to buy a Surface. "My friend and I are software developers and this gives us an opportunity to develop new apps," he said.

In a pop-up store at the San Francisco Centre mall about 50 people lined up to buy the new Surface.

"On an iPad you have to use half the screen for a keyboard, or buy an accessory. I love that the Surface is so integrated, that you can type and use Word and all my other programs," said Malte von Sehested, a textbook creator who bought a Surface.

"With the Surface you get a steeper learning curve???I had to get someone to show me how to side-swipe, swipe out to get the menus for instance," he said. "It may take a week, before it all becomes natural. That could be a problem for Microsoft. My old dad, he would get hit by that steeper learning curve."

Wall Street and tech industry experts failed to show great enthusiasm for Windows 8, but were prepared to give Microsoft time to succeed.

"Microsoft did not come out with Windows 8 thinking it will be an overnight success," said Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets. "But there's hope that this could be the silver bullet of growth (for Microsoft) as well as giving the PC industry some optimism that there's better days ahead."

The next six to 12 months is a "crucial period" for Microsoft to get traction with consumers, added Ives.

Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at tech research firm Forrester, said consumers may be best served waiting for tablets running the full Windows 8 Pro and Intel chips, which are due out early next year.

"Windows 8 has a lot of great features, but RT has a long way to go," she said, citing a lack of apps and poor video performance on the Surface.

"It's not really a PC. RT is too restricted. Some people will be happier with the full Windows 8," she said.

(Reporting By Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Chicago, Sinead Carew and Nicola Leske in New York, Edwin Chan in San Francisco; Editing by Alden Bentley)?

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at:?http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/surface-tablet-buzz-good-windows-8-excitement-muted-release-day-1C6714690

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Transformers Prime Wii U new story trailer | Video Game Blog, Video ...

Published: 25 October 2012 2:34 AM UTC

Posted in: DS, Video Games, Wii, Wii Games, Wii U

Tags: 3ds, activision, animation, autobots, DS, Hasbro, optimus prime, prime, the game, transformers, tv show, Wii, Wii U

Tying with Hasbro?s animated TV show, Transformers Prime: The Game was announced last March.

Developed by Nowpro for Wii, Wii U and 3ds, by Altron for DS and published by Activision, Transformers Prime: The Game follows the tv show closely as Optimus Prime and the Autobots join forces with Jack, Raf and Miko to save the world from Megatron?s new secret weapon, developed by his Decepticons minions thanks to the discovery of an ancient power during a battle with the Autobots on a mysterious comet.

The game will be a third person action adventure: the player will take the role of the Autobots as they explore unique vistas all around the world, fight enemies with a brawler-style combat system with sparse shooter elements and, in true Transformers fashion, engage in diverse driving sequences.

The trailer released today showcases some snippets from the story from the Wii U version, starting from the battle on the comet to some later plot developments. The game is clearly intended for younger audiences but it may still provide some good amount of fun to an older and nostalgic audience.

The game is set to be available on close to Wii U launch date, on November 20. The Wii, 3DS and DS version will hit shelves on October 30

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Article from Gamersyndrome.com

Related posts:

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Source: http://gamersyndrome.com/2012/video-games/transformers-prime-wii-u-new-story-trailer/

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THE RACE: Romney, Obama both taking aim at Bush

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney boards his campaign plane at Toledo Express Airport in Toledo, Ohio, Friday, Oct. 26, 2012, as he travels to a campaign stop in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney boards his campaign plane at Toledo Express Airport in Toledo, Ohio, Friday, Oct. 26, 2012, as he travels to a campaign stop in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, center, sings "God Bless America" during a campaign stop at the football stadium at Defiance High School in Defiance, Ohio, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012, with, from left, Randy Owen, Meat Loaf, John Rich and Big Kenny. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama, left, casts his vote during early voting in the 2012 election Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012, in Chicago, at the Martin Luther King Community Center. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

As they present their closing arguments, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are occupying some unexpected common ground. Both are taking shots at former President George W. Bush.

Obama, who dismissively suggested 2008 rival Sen. John McCain would merely extend the Bush years, is hewing to a similar argument now, suggesting Romney wants to return to Bush-era economic policies.

But Romney is distancing himself from Bush. The two haven't campaigned together. And Romney has zinged the former Republican president more than once.

Speaking of the Obama auto bailout he opposed, Romney noted in the final presidential debate that Bush "wrote the first checks." He also explicitly said the U.S. didn't need another war like those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At an earlier debate, Romney said he and Bush "are different people and these are different times. ... I'll crack down on China, President Bush didn't. I'm going to get us to a balanced budget, President Bush didn't. My priority is jobs. I know how to make that happen. And President Bush had a very different path."

Matt Schlapp, a former Bush political adviser, calls Romney's criticism "pretty gentle" and suggests Bush did much the same thing to "separate himself from his father," President George H.W. Bush.

As Obama did in 2008, Romney now casts himself as the candidate of "change"

The election is about "choosing real change," Romney said in Iowa Friday as the government reported a slight pickup in U.S. economic growth between July and September.

Obama argues that the only change his rival wants is returning to Bush policies.

Obama did television interviews in the White House Friday and campaigns Saturday in New Hampshire.

Vice President Joe Biden stumped in Wisconsin, home state of GOP running mate Rep. Paul Ryan ? who was later teaming up with Romney in Canton, Ohio.

__

Follow Tom Raum on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum. For more AP political coverage, look for the 2012 Presidential Race in AP Mobile's Big Stories section. Also follow https://twitter.com/APcampaign and AP journalists covering the campaign: https://twitter.com/AP/ap-campaign-2

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-10-26-The%20Race/id-b8433808c7774d2cb8ff7f077de9757d

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Hermit crabs socialize to evict their neighbors

ScienceDaily (Oct. 26, 2012) ? Social animals usually congregate for protection or mating or to capture bigger prey, but a University of California, Berkeley, biologist has found that the terrestrial hermit crab has a more self-serving social agenda: to kick another crab out of its shell and move into a larger home.

All hermit crabs appropriate abandoned snail shells for their homes, but the dozen or so species of land-based hermit crabs -- popular terrarium pets -- are the only ones that hollow out and remodel their shells, sometimes doubling the internal volume. This provides more room to grow, more room for eggs -- sometimes a thousand more eggs -- and a lighter home to lug around as they forage.

But empty snail shells are rare on land, so the best hope of moving to a new home is to kick others out of their remodeled shells, said Mark Laidre, a UC Berkeley Miller Post-Doctoral Fellow who reported this unusual behavior in this month's issue of the journal Current Biology.

When three or more terrestrial hermit crabs congregate, they quickly attract dozens of others eager to trade up. They typically form a conga line, smallest to largest, each holding onto the crab in front of it, and, once a hapless crab is wrenched from its shell, simultaneously move into larger shells.

"The one that gets yanked out of its shell is often left with the smallest shell, which it can't really protect itself with," said Laidre, who is in the Department of Integrative Biology. "Then it's liable to be eaten by anything. For hermit crabs, it's really their sociality that drives predation."

Laidre says the crabs' unusual behavior is a rare example of how evolving to take advantage of a specialized niche -- in this case, land versus ocean -- led to an unexpected byproduct: socialization in a typically solitary animal.

"No matter how exactly the hermit tenants modify their shellters, they exemplify an important, if obvious, evolutionary truth: living things have been altering and remodeling their surroundings throughout the history of life," wrote UC Davis evolutionary biologist Geerat J. Vermeij in a commentary in the same journal. For decades, Vermeij has studied how animals' behavior affects their own evolution -- what biologists term "niche construction" -- as opposed to the well-known Darwinian idea that the environment affects evolution through natural selection.

"Organisms are not just passive pawns subjected to the selective whims of enemies and allies, but active participants in creating and modifying their internal as well as their external conditions of life," Vermeij concluded.

Laidre conducted his studies on the Pacific shore of Costa Rica, where the hermit crab Coenobita compressus can be found by the millions along tropical beaches. He tethered individual crabs, the largest about three inches long, to a post and monitored the free-for-all that typically appeared within 10-15 minutes.

Most of the 800 or so species of hermit crab live in the ocean, where empty snail shells are common because of the prevalence of predators like shell-crushing crabs with wrench-like pincers, snail-eating puffer fish and stomatopods, which have the fastest and most destructive punch of any predator.

On land, however, the only shells available come from marine snails tossed ashore by waves. Their rarity and the fact that few land predators can break open these shells to get at the hermit crab may have led the crabs to remodel the shells to make them lighter and more spacious, Laidre said.

The importance of remodeled shells became evident after an experiment in which he pulled crabs from their homes and instead offered them newly vacated snail shells. None survived. Apparently, he said, only the smallest hermit crabs take advantage of new shells, since only the small hermit crabs can fit inside the unremodeled shells. Even if a crab can fit inside the shell, it still must expend time and energy to hollow it out, and this is something hermit crabs of all sizes would prefer to avoid if possible.

The work was funded by UC Berkeley's Miller Institute.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Berkeley. The original article was written by Robert Sanders.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Mark E. Laidre. Niche construction drives social dependence in hermit crabs. Current Biology, 2012; 22 (20): R861 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.08.056

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/_H6c6LBVpYY/121026125131.htm

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Very few voters to decide presidential race

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The outcome of the hard-fought but still deadlocked presidential race between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney will be decided Nov. 6 by a small percentage of voters in just nine states. That's because presidents are elected not by popular vote, but by the Electoral College.

The system was born from an 18th century political compromise. States are allocated a fixed number of electoral votes based on population. In almost all cases, whoever wins a state wins all of its electoral votes. And the candidate who captures a majority of the 538 electors becomes president.

Most states are reliably Democratic or Republican, but neither Obama nor Romney has a lock on enough states to win a majority of electors. That means the real battle is for the nine "swing states" ? those where the outcome is uncertain. Whoever can carry enough of those states to bring his overall electoral vote total to at least 270 will win.

Nationwide polls, which show the race a virtual tie, do not necessarily predict the outcome. A candidate can win the most votes nationally and still lose by failing to accumulate a majority of electors. What's important is what happens in the swing states. And, for the moment, Obama appears to have an edge.

___

The Electoral College:

Each state is granted one presidential elector for every member of Congress: one for each member of the House of Representatives, where seats are allocated according to population, and two more because each state has two senators. That guarantees that each state will have at least three electoral votes. The District of Columbia gets three electors even though it doesn't have full congressional representation.

In most states, the popular vote winner captures all of that state's electors. The only exceptions are Nebraska and Maine, which award electors proportionally.

The system was written into the U.S. Constitution to overcome concerns by small states that they would be left voiceless among their larger-population brethren. The solution was a middle ground between those who wanted the president to be chosen by Congress and others who pushed for a nationwide popular vote.

In what is largely a formality long after the winner has been determined, each state's electors will meet on Dec. 17 in their home states and cast their votes for president and vice president. Congress will meet on Jan. 6 to conduct an official tally.

The Electoral College system can produce two anomalies. As happened to then-Vice President Al Gore, who lost to George W. Bush in 2000, a candidate can win the most popular votes but lose the presidency. Or candidates can be tied for electoral votes, 269 each, which throws the tie-breaking decision into the House of Representatives. The choice of vice president falls to the Senate. With the House expected to remain in Republican hands, a tie would mean a Romney presidency. Democrats are likely to retain control of the Senate, meaning Vice President Joe Biden would have a second term.

___

The state of the race:

In 41 states plus the District of Columbia, the results are fairly predictable. States like Texas and Alabama are almost certain to support Romney; California and New York are among those favoring Obama.

An Associated Press tally shows Obama ahead in states with 237 electoral votes; Romney leads in states with 191. If that holds, Obama must win in enough swing states to accumulate 33 more electoral votes. Romney needs 79 more.

The two biggest swing-state prizes are Ohio, with 18 electoral votes, and Florida, with 29. Polls show the candidates running even in Florida, but Obama has a slight lead in Ohio.

Both states are crucial for Romney. If Obama wins in Florida, Romney would need to sweep all the other swing states, including Ohio. If Romney wins in Florida, but loses Ohio, Obama would still be just 15 electoral votes shy of victory. That would leave him with several paths to victory. For example, he could win by taking Nevada (6 electors) and Wisconsin (10), two states where polls show him leading.

Because of those stakes, many analysts see Ohio as the pivotal state on election night. No Republican presidential candidate has ever won the White House without also carrying the Midwestern state.

The other five swing states are North Carolina (15), Virginia (13), Iowa (6), Colorado (9), and New Hampshire (4).

___

The issues:

The economy is by far the biggest issue in the race. The United States has struggled to return to full strength after the late 2008 financial meltdown and the Great Recession, which began during Bush's presidency. Obama takes credit for preventing deeper problems and says that the economy, while not ideal, is on the road to recovery and that Romney would reinstate the policies that led to the collapse. Romney says the continued economic weakness demonstrates the failure of Obama's policies and, noting his own record as a successful businessman, says he knows how to stimulate the private sector and create jobs.

Polls show that nationwide, Romney holds a slight lead as the candidate best qualified to handle the economy. Nevertheless, Obama maintains his edge in Ohio, where his decision to lend federal money to the failing auto industry saved thousands of jobs.

Other major issues include the huge federal deficit, health care and immigration. Those may be especially important in Florida. The state has a large Hispanic population, and Obama is far more popular with that voting bloc generally ? not counting the traditionally Republican-leaning Cuban immigrant community. Romney's tough stance on illegal immigrants could hurt him with Hispanics.

Florida is also a haven for retired Americans who rely heavily on Social Security, the federal government pension system and Medicare, the government-run health system for people 65 and over. Some older voters might fear that the deficit-cutting proposals of Romney and his vice presidential running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, could lead to reduced benefits.

Florida was ravaged by the recession, with high unemployment and a collapse of the real estate market. That economic suffering would seem to argue in Romney's favor.

International issues are unlikely to sway many voters. Obama has pointed to his efforts against terrorism, including authorizing the military operation in Pakistan that killed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, and the administration's withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Romney says Obama has been weak with U.S. adversaries like Iran and unsupportive of allies like Israel. Romney has also promised to crack down on what he sees as unfair trade practices by China.

Obama is America's first black president and Romney would be its first Mormon president, but neither race nor religion has been widely discussed in the campaign.

___

Spending:

Money spent on the 2012 presidential campaign has passed the $2 billion mark.

A big reason for the increase this year was the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case that allowed corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts in political campaigns. The ruling reversed a century of U.S. precedent that limited financial involvement by those organizations.

Figures compiled so far show Obama had easily outraised Romney personally, but the president was being vastly outspent by outside sources backing the Republican challenger.

___

Congress:

While attention has focused on the White House race, control of Congress is also at stake. Republicans are expected to retain their House majority. Democrats had been considered in danger of losing their Senate majority, but analysts now predict they will hold it by the narrowest of margins.

A third of the 100-seat Senate will be at stake. To win a majority, Republicans need a net pickup of four seats if Obama is re-elected, or three if Romney prevails (the vice president casts a tie-breaking vote). The retirement of some Democratic senators in conservative-leaning states seemed to open the door for Republican gains. But in several states, Republicans who emerged from the nominating primaries were candidates who, while appealing to the party base, are seen as potentially too conservative or otherwise undesirable for mainstream voters.

Republicans, for example, were counting on wins in Missouri and Indiana. But they ended up all but abandoning their Missouri candidate, Todd Akin, after he remarked in August that women's bodies have ways of avoiding pregnancy in cases of what he called "legitimate rape." In Indiana, Richard Mourdock defeated the more moderate veteran senator Dick Lugar, who would have likely cruised to re-election. Mourdock has come under criticism after saying in a debate that when pregnancy results from rape, it is "something God intended."

Other closely watched races are in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Montana, Nevada and Arizona.

All 435 seats in the House are at stake, but incumbents tend to get re-elected. Democrats seem unlikely to pick up the 25 seats they need to gain control.

___

Election Day:

The presidential race is so close that calling a winner could be much delayed. Polls are not closed in all 50 states until voting ends in Alaska at 1 a.m. EDT. But in the three states likely to be most pivotal, all votes will have been cast by 8 p.m. EDT. Virginia polls close at 7 p.m. EDT; Ohio at 7:30 p.m. EDT and Florida at 8 p.m. EDT.

Exit polls will show trends soon after polls close, but barring unexpectedly strong showings by one candidate, the vote counts in swing states could take hours ? or longer. The 2000 election wasn't decided for weeks because of a dispute over the vote count in Florida. Bush's victory was ultimately determined by a Supreme Court ruling.

___

Associated Press writer Ron DePasquale contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/very-few-voters-decide-presidential-race-074441540--election.html

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Bettman says full NHL season unrealistic

NEW YORK (AP) ? NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman still hasn't heard what he wants from the players' association, so he won't return to the bargaining table and he won't play a full hockey season.

With only one day remaining before the league's self-imposed deadline to reach a deal that would ensure an 82-game season, Bettman revealed Wednesday that he has given up hope of a complete slate of games.

"Unfortunately, it looks like an 82-game season is not going to be a reality," he said.

Speaking at a news conference Wednesday announcing the New York Islanders' move from Nassau Coliseum to Brooklyn's Barclays Center in 2015, Bettman seemed resigned to a shortened season with the NHL and the players' association still at odds after months of negotiations.

Instead of a celebration, a pall was cast over the event as the lockout approached its 40th day. The NHL is close to another announcement that games will be wiped off the schedule for good.

Bettman stated, in making the NHL's most recent offer, that a deal needed to be in place by Thursday for the season to begin Nov. 2 and be played in full. No negotiations are scheduled this week or anytime soon.

"The fact of the matter is there are just sometimes that you need to take time off because it's clear that you can't do anything to move the process forward," Bettman said. "We're at one of those points right now because we gave our very best offer. That offer, for better or for worse, was contingent on playing an 82-game season. So I think things actually in some respects may get more difficult."

The players' association reached out to the NHL on Tuesday night in an attempt to set up a face-to-face bargaining session Wednesday, but the league declined. The NHL's position is if the union isn't willing to talk about the league's offer that is on the table and isn't prepared to make a new proposal of its own working off that offer, there is no reason to talk.

"There seems to be no interest in making any sort of deal along the lines of what we have expressed a desire and a need for," Bettman said. "Sometimes in collective bargaining you have to take a deep breath before you can move forward."

The union wants anything and everything open for discussion. Bettman wouldn't agree to those terms, so the hockey season remains in peril.

"The players made multiple core-economic proposals on Thursday that were a significant move in the owners direction," union executive director Donald Fehr said in a statement on Wednesday night. "We are and continue to be ready to meet to discuss how to resolve our remaining differences, with no preconditions. For whatever reason, the owners are not. At the same time they are refusing to meet, they are winding the clock down to yet another artificial deadline they created."

A partial season is still a possibility, and the NHL hasn't called off any marquee events such as the outdoor Winter Classic on New Year's Day or the All-Star game.

That could change in a hurry.

"I'm not going to give you an exact timetable, but at some point in November we will have to commit many millions of dollars to get ready for the Winter Classic. So if there's still uncertainty, we're going to have to make a decision," Bettman said. "My guess is we're not going to commit those dollars unless we have certainty."

At some point a deal will have to be made to get the players back on the ice. The NHL canceled the entire 2004-05 season because of a lockout that led to the league adopting a salary cap system for the first time.

A shortened season is still the most likely scenario once the sides can get back to talking and working their way to an agreement.

"Sure, you can play an abbreviated season. I would rather play a full season, and I am sure our fans would rather we play a full season," Bettman said. "That's why we made the offer we did. That was our fourth offer against really one offer from the union in all the time that we've been negotiating from the summer. We very much want to play and we're very disappointed that we're not."

Following a conference call held by the union's executive board on Tuesday night, the players' association informed the NHL it was willing to meet on Wednesday "or any other date, without preconditions, to try to reach an agreement," the union said in a statement.

The NHL's response wasn't what the players' association had hoped to hear.

"We said to them that we are prepared to meet if you want to discuss our offer or you want to make a new offer," Bettman said. "They have no inclination in doing either, and so there really was no point in meeting at this point."

The sides haven't met since the league turned down three counterproposals from the union last Thursday, two days after the NHL's offer that included a 50-50 split of hockey-related revenue.

There is a major divide between the sides over how to deal with existing player contracts. The union wants to ensure that those are all paid in full without affecting future player contracts.

Bettman refused to say whether the 50-50 split in the NHL's most recent offer would come off the table if a full season isn't played.

"I'm not going to negotiate publicly," he said.

This is the third lockout of Bettman's tenure. The stoppage began Sept. 16.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bettman-says-full-nhl-season-unrealistic-094810276--nhl.html

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Obama volunteers at Boulder polls draw complaint from GOP

FORT COLLINS???Some on-campus supporters of President Barack Obama got a little overzealous on the first day of early voting at Colorado State University.

Pro-Obama signs were placed near the entrance to the early voting location, leading to a formal complaint by the Colorado Republican Party to the Larimer County Clerk.

Colorado election law states that electioneering is not permitted within 100 feet of polling locations.

Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler said the problems identified by the state GOP had been corrected. "Every election cycle, you'll get overzealous people who step over the line. It was fixed today."

Read more of the article Obama volunteers at Boulder polls draw complaint from GOP at 9News.com.

Source: http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_21840423/obama-volunteers-at-boulder-polls-draw-complaint-from?source=rss

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