Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Veteran Communications Exec Departs News Corp. - FishbowlNY

By Chris O'Shea on January 30, 2012 2:30 PM

Teri Everett, News Corporation?s Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Communications, is leaving the company after 12 years. Everett started with News Corp. in 200o, directing its Los Angeles communications. She has been in her current position since 2009.

?News Corp. executives are a peerless group and I will miss them immensely,? said Everett. ?I will always be grateful to Rupert and Chase for their support over the years and am thrilled that Julie will be succeeding me. While it may be a tired cliche, I am ready for something new.?

Julie Henderson is succeeding Everett, whose last day is February 10. Henderson?s title will be Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Chief Communications Officer.

Source: http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/veteran-communications-exec-departs-news-corp_b52195

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The Emergence Of The Content Creation Class

online-content-creationThe content creation class shall inherit the Internet. Richard Florida coined the expression the Creative Class, his belief being that these 30 to 40 million would be the driving force for economic development in a postindustrial world. Instead of driving the macro economy the Content Creation Class refers to the group of people who drive content on the internet those that write blogs, those that upload video to YouTube, and those that upload pictures to share with the world.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/n4sjVohgzUc/

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Monday, January 30, 2012

Russia invites Syria's gov't, opposition for talks (AP)

MOSCOW ? Russia's Foreign Ministry says it has invited Syrian authorities and opposition for talks in Moscow.

The ministry said in a statement Monday that Syrian authorities have already agreed to come. The ministry is hoping that opposition leaders will send their reply in the coming days. The opposition has balked at holding talks with the regime, saying the violence must end first.

The U.N. estimates about 5,400 people have been killed in 10 months of violence.

The ministry said the Syria talks need to be conducted "as soon as possible" to stop violence in the country.

Russia, Syria's longtime ally has been backing the regime of President Bashar Assad although Moscow has also talked to Syrian opposition leaders in the past months.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/terrorism/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria

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UN nuclear team arrives in Iran (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran ? A U.N. nuclear team arrived in Tehran early Sunday for a mission expected to focus on Iran's alleged attempt to develop nuclear weapons.

The U.N. nuclear agency delegation includes two senior weapons experts ? Jacques Baute of France and Neville Whiting of South Africa ? suggesting that Iran may be prepared to address some issues related to the allegations.

The delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency is led by Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts, who is in charge of the Iran nuclear file. Also on the team is Rafael Grossi, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano's right-hand man.

In unusually blunt comments ahead of his arrival in Tehran, Nackaerts urged Iran to work with his mission on probing the allegations about Iran's alleged attempts to develop nuclear weapons, reflecting the importance the IAEA is attaching to the issue.

Tehran has refused to discuss the alleged weapons experiments for three years, saying they are based on "fabricated documents" provided by a "few arrogant countries" ? a phrase authorities in Iran often use to refer to the United States and its allies.

Ahead of his departure, Nackaerts told reporters at Vienna airport he hopes Iran "will engage with us on all concerns."

"So we're looking forward to the start of a dialogue," he said: "A dialogue that is overdue since very long."

In a sign of the difficulties the team faces and the tensions that surround Iran's disputed nuclear program, a dozen Iranian hard-liners carrying photos of slain nuclear expert Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan were waiting at Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport early Sunday to challenge the team upon arrival.

That prompted security officials to whisk the IAEA team away from the tarmac to avoid any confrontation with the hard-liners.

Iran's official IRNA news agency confirmed the team's arrival and said the IAEA experts are likely to visit the underground Fordo uranium enrichment site near the holy city of Qom, 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of the capital, Tehran.

During their three-day visit, the IAEA team will be looking for permission to talk to key Iranian scientists suspected of working on a weapons program, inspect documents related to such suspected work and secure commitments from Iranian authorities to allow future visits to sites linked to such allegations. But even a decision to enter a discussion over the allegations would be a major departure from Iran's frequent simple refusal to talk about them.

The United States and its allies want Iran to halt its enrichment of uranium, which they worry could eventually lead to weapons-grade material and the production of nuclear weapons. Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes, such as generating electricity and producing medical radioisotopes to treat cancer patients.

Iran has accused the IAEA in the past of security leaks that expose its scientists and their families to the threat of assassination by the U.S. and Israel.

Iranian state media say Roshan, a chemistry expert and director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, was interviewed by IAEA inspectors before being killed in a brazen bomb attack in Tehran earlier this month.

Iranian media have urged the government to be vigil, saying some IAEA inspectors are "spies," reflecting the deep suspicion many in Iran have for the U.N. experts sent to inspect Iran's nuclear sites.

___

AP writer George Jahn contributed to this report from Vienna.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Cruise ship fuel removal stalled due to rough seas (AP)

GIGLIO, Italy ? Rough seas off Italy's Tuscan coast forced a delay in the planned Saturday start of the operation to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded Costa Concordia, and officials said pumping may now not begin until midweek.

Recovery operations continued, however, and on Saturday yielded a 17th body: The woman who wasn't wearing a life jacket was found by divers on the submerged sixth floor deck, civil protection officials said.

The Concordia ran aground on Jan. 13 off the port of the island of Giglio port after the captain deviated from his planned route and gashed the hull of the ship on a reef. Some 4,200 passengers and crew endured a panicked evacuation after the abandon ship alarm didn't sound until the ship had capsized so much that some life boats couldn't be lowered.

Some 16 people remain unaccounted for and are presumed dead.

On Saturday, the body found on the ship's deck on Jan. 28 was identified as Erika Soria Molina, 25, of Peru by Doris Sotomayor, Peru's consul general in Florence.

Sotomayor told The Associated Press that the body was found in a submerged part of the deck. Soria, who was wearing a service uniform, studied tourism in Peru and was born in the Andean city of Cuzco, southeast of Lima.

The removal of the fuel aboard the Concordia is a key concern since the seas around Giglio form part of a protected marine sanctuary and are a favorite destination for scuba divers. So far, no leakage has been detected.

Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit has been contracted by the Concordia's owner Costa Crociere SpA, a unit of Miami-based Carnival Corp., to remove the fuel. Smit's divers have made the necessary preparations to begin pumping out fuel from six outer tanks that hold more than half of the 500,000 gallons (1.9 million liters) of heavy fuel oil that are aboard the ship.

The rest of the fuel is contained in inner tanks that are harder to access.

So far, divers have drilled into four of the six outer tanks and fixed valves on them: one on top, one on bottom. Hoses will then be attached to the valves and as the oil ? which must be warmed to make it less gooey ? is sucked out of the upper hose, sea water is pumped in to fill the vacuum via the lower hose.

Smit spokesman Martijn Schuttevaer told reporters Saturday that the pumping operation may not begin now until midweek since the poor weather is forecast at least through Tuesday. Officials don't want to risk the possibility that a battering of the hoses caused by rough seas might lead to leakage.

On Saturday, the choppy waters partially dislodged Smit's barge that was hitched to the Concordia's hull and had served as a staging platform for the fuel removal operation. Smit brought it back into port, where it will stay until the weather improves, Schuttevaer said.

The Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, remains under house arrest, accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning a ship before its passengers had evacuated. He has admitted he took the ship on "tourist navigation" to bring it close to Giglio but said the reef he hit wasn't marked on his nautical charts.

___

Winfield reported from Rome. Franklin Briceno contributed in Lima, Peru.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_ship_aground

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Gingrich says he's in till GOP convention (AP)

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. ? On the weekend before the pivotal Florida primary, Newt Gingrich vowed Saturday to stay in the race for the Republican presidential nomination until the national convention this summer even if he loses Tuesday's vote. Front-runner Mitt Romney poured on the criticism of his rival in television ads airing across the state.

Gingrich's pledge, in a race defined by unpredictability, raised the prospect of an extended struggle inside the party as Republicans work to defeat President Barack Obama in the fall. "You just had two national polls that show me ahead," he said. "Why don't you ask Gov. Romney what he will do if he loses" in Florida.

The former Massachusetts governor countered a few hours later while in Panama City. "I think we are going to win here, I sure hope so," he said.

As the two rivals made their appeals to Hispanic, Jewish and tea party voters, veterans of the armed forces and others, all known indicators pointed to a good day for Romney in the primary.

He and his allies held a 3-1 advantage in money spent on television advertising in the race's final days. Robust early vote and absentee ballot totals followed a pre-primary turnout operation by his campaign. Even the schedules the two men kept underscored the shape of the race ? moderate for Romney, heavy for Gingrich.

Campaigning like a front-runner, Romney made few references to Gingrich. Instead, he criticized Obama's plans to cut the size of the armed forces. "He's detached from reality," the former Massachusetts governor said.

"The foreign policy of `pretty please' is not working terribly well," he added. Romney said he wants to add 100,000 troops, not cut them.

If his personal rhetoric was directed Obama's way, the television commercials were trained on Gingrich, whose victory in last Saturday's South Carolina primary upended the race for the nomination. A new ad released as the weekend began is devoted to the day in 1997 when Gingrich received an ethics reprimand from the House while serving as speaker and was ordered to pay a $300,000 fine.

Nearly the entire 30-second ad consists of NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw's nationally broadcast description of the events on the evening news. "By an overwhelming vote, they found him guilty of ethics violations; they charged him a very large financial penalty, and they raised ? several of them ? raised serious questions about his future effectiveness," Brokaw said that night, and now again on televisions across Florida.

Both NBC and the former newsman registered objections. The network called on the campaign to stop using the footage and Brokaw said in a statement, "I do not want my role as a journalist compromised for political gain by any campaign."

A Romney adviser, Eric Fehrnstrom, said the campaign wasn't likely to stop running the ad. "We believe it falls within fair use," he said. "We didn't take the entire broadcast; we just took the first 30 seconds."

Whatever its impact, the ad represented part of a barrage that Gingrich could not match.

A second Romney ad said Gingrich had "cashed in" as a Washington insider while the housing crisis was hitting Florida particularly hard.

Figures made available to The Associated Press showed Romney was spending $2.8 million to air television commercials in the final week of the Florida campaign. In addition, a group supporting him, Restore Our Future, was spending $4 million more, for a combined total of $6.8 million.

By contrast, Gingrich was spending about $700,000, and Winning Our Future, a group backing him, an additional $1.5 million. That was about one-third the amount for the pro-Romney tandem.

Officials said the total of absentee and early vote cast approached 500,000, about 200,000 of them before Gingrich won in South Carolina last weekend.

Gingrich seemed in good humor during the day, despite the obstacles in his way. He joked with reporters that they had missed an example of his grandiosity ? a charge that one rival, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, had used in a recent debate ? when they didn't see him hold a golf trophy on display at the PGA Library.

Gingrich also turned aside one opportunity to criticize Romney, answering a question by saying, `I want to talk about defeating Obama."

But his tone seemed to change after he said he wasn't happy with his performances in a pair of debates during the week, and was asked to explain.

"You cannot debate somebody who is dishonest. You just can't," he said, referring to Romney.

Referring to one answer the former Massachusetts governor had given, Gingrich said it was not true that Romney had always voted for a Republican when one was on the ballot.

"That in fact he could have voted for George H.W. Bush or Pat Buchanan the same day and he chose the Democratic primary, he voted Paul Tsongas, the most liberal candidate. The same year he gave money to three Democrats for Congress," he added, referring to the 1992 campaign.

"Now there's no practical way in a civil debate to deal with somebody who is that willing to say something that is just totally dishonest."

Romney poked fun at Gingrich's debate performances.

"This last one Speaker Gingrich said he didn't do so well because the audience was so loud. The one before he said he didn't do so well because the audience was too quiet. This is like Goldilocks, you know, you've got to have it just right.

"When I debate the president, I'm not going to worry about the audience, I'm going to make sure that we take down Barack Obama and take back the White House."

The two other contenders, Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, have conceded Florida and did not campaign in the state during the day.

___

Associated Press reporter Steve Peoples in Panama City contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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Romney Fights Back

It was not a universally good night for Romney, though. He denied that he was running an ad that his campaign was, in fact, running. In the radio ad, he accuses Gingrich of calling Spanish a ?ghetto language.? When Wolf Blitzer pointed out that Romney had actually said at the end of the ad "I'm Mitt Romney and I approve this message," Romney mumbled. For the audience at home it was probably confusing, but Romney looked like he was weaseling, not owning up to his words. He also sounded like he was ducking when talking about how his investments are in a blind trust he doesn't control. True, perhaps (though some accounts he does see), but it doesn't sound good.?When Romney in response to Santorum's passionate critique of his health care plan said, "It's not worth getting angry about," you could hear those conservatives who have doubts about him say ... and that's our problem with you.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=895fd52cb27ae6ebf289cecf058d7a63

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Friday, January 27, 2012

Want To Make A Giant Telescope Mirror? Here's How

Temperatures inside this giant oven will reach 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. Large blocks of glass inside the oven will melt as the whole oven spins around at a rate of five times per second, creating a curved and smooth telescope mirror. Enlarge Ray Bertram/Steward Observatory

Temperatures inside this giant oven will reach 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. Large blocks of glass inside the oven will melt as the whole oven spins around at a rate of five times per second, creating a curved and smooth telescope mirror.

Ray Bertram/Steward Observatory

Temperatures inside this giant oven will reach 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. Large blocks of glass inside the oven will melt as the whole oven spins around at a rate of five times per second, creating a curved and smooth telescope mirror.

The world's largest mirrors for the world's largest telescopes are made under the football stadium at the University of Arizona.

Why there? Why not?

"We wanted some space, and it was just used for parking some cars, and this seemed like a good use," says Roger Angel.

Angel is the master of making big mirrors for telescopes. For 30 years he has been using a method called spin casting to make the largest solid telescope mirrors in the world.

At the moment, he's making the second of seven mirrors, each 27 feet across, that will go into the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), which will be sited on a peak in the Andes Mountains in Chile.

In the old days, you made mirrors by ladling molten glass into a mold. With spin casting, "we just put these chunks of solid glass, lay them over the mold while they're cold," says Angel.

Then they heat the furnace to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. At that temperature the glass chunks melt, turning into a clear, syrupy liquid that oozes into the mold. Having the furnace spin while this is happening encourages the glass to flow into the parabolic shape it will eventually become.

The pieces of glass that technicians are arranging inside the rotating oven will melt down into the curved surface of the telescope mirror. Each piece of glass is hand-inspected. Enlarge Ray Bertram/Steward Observatory

The pieces of glass that technicians are arranging inside the rotating oven will melt down into the curved surface of the telescope mirror. Each piece of glass is hand-inspected.

Ray Bertram/Steward Observatory

The pieces of glass that technicians are arranging inside the rotating oven will melt down into the curved surface of the telescope mirror. Each piece of glass is hand-inspected.

A Hard Shape To Tackle

The first GMT mirror is getting its final polishing in a cavernous hall next door.

After the mirror is cast, it moves to the Large Polishing Machine, where the mirror's shape is refined and perfected — down to the millionth of an inch. Enlarge Ray Bertram/Steward Observatory

After the mirror is cast, it moves to the Large Polishing Machine, where the mirror's shape is refined and perfected ? down to the millionth of an inch.

Ray Bertram/Steward Observatory

After the mirror is cast, it moves to the Large Polishing Machine, where the mirror's shape is refined and perfected ? down to the millionth of an inch.

Angel has made several mirrors as large as these. "But the shape of this mirror is more challenging by about a factor of 10 than the previous ones that we've made," he says.

That's because the shape is aspherical. Instead of being a shallow symmetrical bowl, one side of the mirror is higher than the other. It's a shape dictated by where the mirror will focus starlight once it's set in the telescope.

Not only is it devilishly hard to grind and then polish an aspherical mirror, it's hard to know when you've done it right. The mirror is 27 feet across, but the differences in height across the surface are smaller than a millionth of an inch.

Imaging The Skies

To see the earliest objects in the universe, astronomers need really big telescopes. That's because the light from these objects is very dim, and you need a big "light bucket" to capture the light they give off. Telescopes now use adaptive optics to correct for the blurring of the atmosphere, so large ground-based telescopes can do even better than the Hubble Space Telescope in resolving small objects, such as planets orbiting stars. Here's a look at some next-generation telescopes in the works:

Angel and his colleagues have developed three separate tests to convince themselves they've polished their mirror properly. No one wants a repeat of the experience of the Hubble Space Telescope. It also has an aspherical mirror, and it wasn't until the telescope reached orbit that astronomers discovered the mirror wasn't shaped exactly right. Luckily, the space shuttle astronauts were able to install corrective lenses that fixed the problem.

'Opportunity For New Discovery'

The giant mirrors will give astronomers two things they really want in a telescope: high sensitivity so they can see really, really dim objects; and high resolution so they can see fine details.

Wendy Freedman, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science and chair of the GMT board of directors, says to get a sense of GMT's resolving power, imagine you're looking at the face of the dime. "And you were to take that dime, and put it 200 miles away. Then with GMT, you could resolve the face of that dime. It's quite spectacular."

Freedman says the resolution of the new telescope should let astronomers see planets around other stars, and its sensitivity should let them see some of the earliest objects to form in the universe. Freedman says astronomers can only imagine what they'll learn when GMT starts operating.

"The opportunity for new discovery in astronomy usually follows when we make a big leap in sensitivity or resolution like this," she says.

But those discoveries are a ways off. It will be a while before the giant mirrors are shipped to Chile and assembled into a telescope. Under the rosiest scenario, the telescope won't achieve "first light," as it is known, until 2020.

Still, Freedman and Angel are convinced it will be worth the wait.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/26/145837380/want-to-make-a-giant-telescope-mirror-heres-how?ft=1&f=1007

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Facebook, Washington state target online spam

(AP) ? Facebook is partnering with Washington state to combat a type of spam called "clickjacking" that is plaguing the social networking site, company and state officials announced Thursday.

Two separate lawsuits were filed in federal courts in California and Washington state against Delaware-based Adscend Media LLC, which officials say is behind the spamming.

"The way we think about it, security is an arms race," Facebook's general counsel, Ted Ullyot, said alongside Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna at the social media company's Seattle offices. "It's important to stay ahead of spammers and scammers."

In "clickjacking," links on Facebook promising shocking or salacious videos have code embedded in them that spreads the link to the user's page. That makes it seem like the user "liked" the link, with the aim of attracting more clicks from the user's friends. The links eventually lead users to a survey or information from an advertiser.

Adscend Media is spreading spam through misleading and deceptive tactics and has encouraged others to do the same, McKenna's office said.

An email inquiry sent to Adscend was not immediately returned, and an attorney for the company had not yet been listed in federal court records.

Social networking sites are popular targets for spammers because people are more likely to trust and share content that comes from people they know. This makes spam, scams and viruses easy to spread.

Still, Facebook says less than 4 percent of content shared on the site is spam. By comparison, about 74 percent of email is spam, according to security company Symantec Corp., though the bulk of it gets filtered out before reaching someone's inbox.

Facebook has more than 800 million users.

Named in Washington state's lawsuit are Adscend co-owners Jeremy Bash, of West Virginia, and Fehzan Ali, of Texas. The lawsuit says Adscend violated several state laws, as well as the federal CAN-SPAM act, which makes it unlawful to procure or initiate transmission of misleading commercial communication.

McKenna said Adscend has annual revenue of $20 million.

Washington state is the only state partnering with Facebook. The company said it partnered with Washington state because of a history in the state of technology consumer protection.

The attorney general said Washington state has been a leader in technology consumer protection since his predecessor, now Gov. Chris Gregoire, began filing suits against malware and spyware users.

"As spammers adjust their tactics, we adjust ours," McKenna said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-26-Facebook%20Scam/id-7414ecdfb88743c080961a953dddc7e6

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Report: Mom who lost 3 girls in fire attempts suicide

By msnbc.com staff and news services

The mother who lost her three daughters and parents in a Christmas Day fire in Connecticut has tried to take her own life, the New York Daily News reported.

According to the newspaper, Madonna Badger, one of only two survivors of the fire at her home in Stamford, was hospitalized last week after injuring herself in an attempt to kill herself, a relative confirmed to the Daily News.

Eduardo Munoz / Reuters, file

Matthew and Madonna Badger cry as they await the arrival of their daughters' caskets for their funeral service at Saint Thomas Church in New York on Jan. 5, 2012. A raging Christmas-morning house fire that killed Madonna Badger's elderly parents and her three young daughters appears to have been caused by embers from a fireplace.

The suicide attempt was first reported by CBS 2 Wednesday night. According to?the report,?Badger ?is now in a safe place, surrounded by family and long-time friends.?

Authorities established that embers in a bag of discarded ashes started the blaze in Stamford a month ago, killing 10-year-old Lilly and 7-year-old twins Grace and Sarah and their grandparents, Lomer and Pauline Johnson.

More than 500 mourners joined the grieving mother about three weeks ago at St. Thomas Church in Manhattan for a somber funeral.

"My girls are in my heart," Badger said. "They're right here. And that's where they live now."

Badger and her boyfriend,?Michael Borcina, the contractor who was renovating the Stamford home, escaped the blaze without serious injury.

According to CBS 2, construction workers told police the alarms and extinguishers had been taken out of the house and stored in the garage, as painters began working on the interior.

Matthew Badger, the girls? father, hired private investigators to look into the circumstances surrounding the fatal blaze, CBS 2 reported.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/26/10242210-report-mom-who-lost-3-daughters-in-fire-attempts-suicide

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Teen passengers: 'The other distraction' for teen drivers

ScienceDaily (Jan. 24, 2012) ? A pair of studies by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and State Farm? identify factors that may lead teens to drive with multiple peer passengers and, then, how those passengers may affect their driver's behavior just before a serious crash. The studies were recently published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Experts have long known that peer passengers increase teen driver crash risk. What hasn't been well understood was how they increase crash risk. "These studies help us understand the factors that may predispose teens to drive with multiple friends and how those passengers may contribute to crashes by distracting the driver and promoting risky driving behaviors, such as speeding, tailgating, or weaving," said study author Allison Curry, PhD, director of epidemiology at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention. "Knowing this, we can develop programs that work in tandem with current Graduated Driver Licensing laws that limit the number of passengers for teens during their first year of driving."

The first study surveyed 198 teen drivers and found that teens who are most likely to drive with multiple passengers shared the following characteristics: considered themselves "thrill-seekers," perceived their parents as not setting rules or monitoring their whereabouts, and possessed a weak perception of the risks associated with driving in general.

"The good news is that that these teens make up the minority," said Jessica Mirman, PhD, study author and a behavioral researcher. "Teens in this study generally reported strong perceptions of the risks of driving, low frequencies of driving with multiple passengers, and strong beliefs that their parents monitored their behavior and set rules."

The second study analyzed a nationally-representative sample of 677 teen drivers involved in serious crashes to compare the likelihood of driver distraction and risk-taking behaviors just prior to the crash when teens drive with peer passengers and when they drive alone.

"Both male and female teen drivers with peer passengers were more likely to be distracted just before a crash as compared to teens who crashed while driving alone," explained Dr. Curry. "Among the teens who said they were distracted by something inside the vehicle before they crashed, 71 percent of males and 47 percent of females said they were distracted directly by the actions of their passengers."

Additionally, the researchers found males with passengers were almost six times more likely to perform an illegal maneuver and more than twice as likely to drive aggressively just before a crash, as compared to males driving alone. Females rarely drove aggressively prior to a crash, regardless of whether they had passengers in the car.

"Most teens take driving seriously and act responsibly behind the wheel. However, some may not realize how passengers can directly affect their driving," said Dr. Mirman. "Teen passengers can intentionally and unintentionally encourage unsafe driving. Because it can be difficult for new drivers to navigate the rules of the road and manage passengers, it's best to keep the number of passengers to a minimum for the first year."

The study authors also emphasized the important role parents play in supporting safe driving among teens and their passengers. They recommend parents set a house rule of no non-sibling teen passengers for the first six months of driving and only one non-sibling passenger for the second six months.

"It's critical that parents stay involved in their teens' driving beyond the learner permit phase. This includes continuing to monitor their driving activities and to review ways teens can be safe drivers and passengers," said Chris Mullen, research director at State Farm. "Combined with Graduated Driver Licensing laws that limit passengers for the first year of driving, involved parents are an effective strategy to protect teens from a dangerous and preventable crash risk -- driving with their friends."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, via Newswise.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Allison E. Curry, Jessica H. Mirman, Michael J. Kallan, Flaura K. Winston, et al. Peer Passengers: How Do They Affect Teen Crashes? Journal of Adolescent Health, 2012 DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2011.10.016

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120124092532.htm

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Gulf Arabs quit Syria monitoring mission (Reuters)

BEIRUT (Reuters) ? Saudi Arabia's Gulf allies joined Riyadh on Tuesday in pulling out of an Arab League monitoring team to Syria, risking the collapse of a mission whose presence has not halted more than 10 months of violence.

Envoys to the Cairo-based League will meet later in the day to discuss whether to call off the whole mission, Sudan's ambassador to the 22-member body said.

"The meeting of representatives today will discuss the fate of the monitoring mission, whether it continues or withdraws," the envoy, Kamal Hassan Ali, told Reuters.

Syria is becoming an Arab and international pariah for its harsh response to an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in which thousands of people have been killed.

The Arab League demanded on Sunday that Assad step down in favor of a unity government to end the bloodshed, but said Arab observers should stay in Syria for another month.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said at the time his country was quitting the mission because Syria had not implemented any part of an Arab peace plan agreed in November.

"The GCC states have decided to respond to the decision of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to withdraw its monitors from the Arab League delegation to Syria," the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council said in a statement.

It said the GCC was "certain the bloodshed and killing of innocents would continue, and that the Syrian regime would not abide by the Arab League's resolutions."

The Arab League's demand for a change of government in Syria puts more pressure on the U.N. Security Council to overcome its divisions and take a stand on the bloodletting there.

In an initial response, an official Syrian source told the state news agency SANA on Monday that the Arab initiative was a "conspiracy against Syria" and "flagrant interference" in its affairs.

The Arab observers deployed late last month to assess Syria's compliance with an earlier Arab League plan.

"There has been some progress, but there has not been immediate or complete implementation as the Arab initiative requires," Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said on Tuesday, adding that he would name a special envoy to Syria this week.

A Syrian opposition group condemned the mission's leader, Sudanese General Mohammed al-Dabi, for a report in which he highlighted violence by Assad's adversaries as well as by his security forces.

"BUTCHER AND VICTIM"

The Syria-based Local Coordination Committees criticized Dabi for equating "the butcher and the victim," saying he had "blurred the monumental hardship that millions of Syrians experience every day while they rise to reach freedom, dignity, democracy and a wise system of governance."

It said the security forces had killed 36 people, including three children, on Monday. The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the civilian death toll at 26.

The state news agency SANA reported the burials of nine military or law enforcement "martyrs" the same day.

In Syria's restive city of Homs, soldiers were stationed behind sand barriers at street corners, most shops were closed and residents were nervous, according to a Reuters reporter taken there on a government-organized visit.

Scattered shooting was a reminder of the struggle between Assad's government army and rebels who now control most of it.

"Every day we have a funeral. Every day we receive between four to five dead. There was one day we buried 20 soldiers," said Haitham Othman, an officer at a military hospital where three security men were buried on Monday.

The bloodshed in Syria, whose revolt was inspired by others that have toppled three Arab leaders, has damaged Assad's standing in the world, with Iran among his few remaining allies.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the Security Council's silence on Syria was scandalous, but that the Arab League call for the Syrian leader's removal had provided "a glimmer of light."

Russia has so far resisted U.N. Security Council action against Assad, but a senior Russian lawmaker, Mikhail Margelov, said Moscow could do little more to back the 46-year-old leader.

He said Russia's veto last year, alongside China, of a Western-drafted Security Council resolution condemning Assad's crackdown had "exhausted our arsenal of such resources."

Germany's U.N. envoy, Peter Wittig, said the Arab League's request for the Council to endorse its call for Assad to hand over to his deputy could be a "game-changer" for the world body.

The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed since the revolt erupted in March. Damascus says "terrorists" have killed more than 2,000 soldiers and police.

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Damascus, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Erika Solomon and Dominic Evans in Beirut, Joe Logan in Dubai, Aly Eldaly in Cairo, John Irish in Paris and Lou Charbonneau at the United Nations; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/wl_nm/us_syria

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Dr. Drew gets juiced up on 'Lifechangers'

The CW

Dr. Drew has an adverse reaction to Go-Go Juice.

By Randee Dawn

Dr. Drew Pinsky of "Dr. Drew's Lifechangers" is pretty unflappable -- and why not? He's had years of experience dealing with celebrities and their sometimes off-the-wall addictions, and is usually the composed, cool-headed center of rationality.

But you haven't seen Dr. Drew until you've seen him try some of Honey Boo Boo Child's Go-Go Juice, as he does in the clip below, from "Lifechangers."

"It tastes like apple juice!" says Child, whose birth name is Alana, and who stars in "Toddlers & Tiaras."

OK, he doesn't exactly get down on the floor and spin around (as the pageant princess has been known to do). But having had a small sip of the "energy drink and caffeine drink" combo Alana's mom put together, he starts immediately stumbling over his words.

"I'm kind of starting to sweat a little bit ... I can't speak, my tongue is getting thick ... I can't talk because I've got this Go-Go juice making my mouth thick," he said.

"I'm having trouble, I'm starting to lose it," he added, spitting a little out.

Talk about a life-changer!

Honey Boo Boo Child, her mother and the Go-Go Juice make an appearance on "Dr. Drew's Lifechangers" on Feb. 2 on The CW.

What do you think about giving a young child an energy/caffeine drink combo? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.

Related content:

Source: http://theclicker.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10215721-dr-drew-chokes-up-over-go-go-juice-on-lifechangers

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Exporter Japan eyes first trade deficit in 3 decades (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? Japan probably produced its first trade deficit last year in more than three decades as energy imports surged to cover for the loss of nuclear power following the Fukushima disaster, a major blow to an economy built on its exports prowess.

For decades Japan used an exports-orientated economic policy to build up global brand names such as Toyota, Sony and Canon and a manufacturing might that was the envy of the world.

Official trade figures due for release on Wednesday are expected to show that Japan swung to a deficit for the first time since 1980, as utilities purchased fossil fuels for power stations to make up for the loss of nuclear power.

Economists say Japan's trade will be in deficit for the next few years as it copes with the Fukushima catastrophe that released radiation into the atmosphere and forced most nuclear power stations to shut in the face of a public outcry over safety.

Trade will then return to a surplus, but long-term trends suggest the surplus will weaken anyhow. A rise in the yen to a record last year of fewer than 77 per dollar from more than 250 in 1980 is making Japanese exports increasingly uncompetitive and so encouraging manufacturers to move overseas.

"Japan can continue to export goods, but if you focus exclusively on the trade balance, then the days as an exporter are ending," said Seiji Adachi, senior economist at Deutsche Securities.

The argument that Japan can rely on surpluses from its international trade to offset a large public debt could also look less convincing and lead some investors to bet that a funding crisis will come sooner than originally expected.

"Last year I thought we could continue to finance our debt for 10 years. Now I think it's seven years," Adachi said.

Trade data for December and 2011 as a whole is due on Wednesday at 8:50 a.m. (Tuesday 2350 GMT). Adachi forecasts a 2011 deficit of 2.4 trillion yen ($31.2 billion).

That would be the first shortfall since a 2.6 trillion yen deficit in 1980, one ironically also caused by a jump in oil import costs when world prices rose.

Since then Japan has been able to rely on exports of goods, including its iconic autos, MP3 players, computer chips and in recent years games consoles, to produce one trade surplus after another.

ENERGY NEEDS

Liquefied natural gas imports jumped to a record last year as utilities turned to gas-fired power generation to plug the gap left by the shutdown of most nuclear reactors after the March 11 earthquake caused the worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.

Japan, the world's third-biggest oil consumer, has also seen import values rise due to high crude prices. Assuming that oil prices remain high, this could also keep Japan in a trade deficit for the next few years, economists say.

The trade deficit could narrow to 1.9 trillion yen in 2012 and then widen to 2.2 trillion yen in 2013, Adachi said.

In addition to energy imports, a surge in outward-bound mergers and acquisitions by Japanese firms will also lower export volumes as manufacturers go abroad, Adachi said. They are also expanding production to overseas locations rather than in Japan.

Years of trade surpluses and a high savings rate among Japanese fuelled confidence that the country could comfortably service its mounting debt, which has reached twice the size of its $5 trillion economy, the biggest burden among industrialized nations.

Japan has avoided the sell-off in its sovereign debt that has become common in debt-stricken Europe.

One reason, analysts have often cited, is that running a trade surplus makes Japan a creditor to other nations. Hefty holding of overseas assets by Japanese investors also helped give Japan a high credit status.

Economists have predicted that as the Japanese population ages and the savings rate falls that these surpluses could swing to deficits.

A shift from nuclear power generation could prove expensive enough to hasten the oncoming of Japan as a deficit nation and increase the need for tax hikes and spending cuts to lower outstanding debt.

The change in Japan's energy balance is also proving painful for Japanese companies as it is happening largely without a well-defined energy policy from the government to assure firms that energy supplies and costs will remain stable in the future.

Nippon Keidanren, the country's largest business lobby, cited uncertainty about energy, a strong yen and the manufacturing shift overseas on Tuesday as reasons why pay raises are out of the question for annual labor union negotiations in the spring.

"The wild card is energy costs," said Hiroaki Muto, senior economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co.

"What we really need is some type of revolution to make ourselves more energy efficient. In that sense, you could say the government's energy policy is contributing to all of this."

The trade deficit could peak out at 5 trillion yen in 2015 due to expensive energy imports, Muto predicted.

($1=77 yen)

(Editing by Neil Fullick and Ed Lane)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/bs_nm/us_japan_economy_trade

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Tracy Morgan of '30 Rock' collapses at Sundance

FILE - In this June 21, 2011 file photo, comedian and actor Tracy Morgan arrives at a news conference with Kevin Rogers, right, in Nashville, Tenn. The publicist for comedian and "30 Rock" cast member Tracy Morgan says the actor wasn't drinking when he collapsed Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, file)

FILE - In this June 21, 2011 file photo, comedian and actor Tracy Morgan arrives at a news conference with Kevin Rogers, right, in Nashville, Tenn. The publicist for comedian and "30 Rock" cast member Tracy Morgan says the actor wasn't drinking when he collapsed Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, file)

(AP) ? The publicist for comedian and "30 Rock" cast member Tracy Morgan says the actor suffered from a combination of exhaustion and altitude when he collapsed at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

Publicist Lewis Kay says Morgan is grateful to the medical center staff for their care Sunday in Park City, where the elevation is 7,000 feet.

Morgan was escorted from the Creative Coalition Spotlight Awards ceremony Sunday night at the festival.

Kay says Morgan is seeking medical attention and is with his fiancee. He says hospital officials report no drugs or alcohol were found in Morgan's system.

Morgan is attending Sundance in connection with the comedy film "Predisposed," one of the 100 films at the festival, in which he plays a drug dealer named Sprinkles.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-23-Film-Sundance-Tracy%20Morgan/id-d0c8b11871214dbda87ab8a27670d06b

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Monday, January 23, 2012

Professor Charles Lieber receives Israel's Wolf Prize

Professor Charles Lieber receives Israel's Wolf Prize [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 23-Jan-2012
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Contact: Peter Reuell
preuell@fas.harvard.edu
617-496-8070
Harvard University

Charles Lieber, the Mark Hyman Jr. Professor of Chemistry, was recently awarded Israel's prestigious Wolf Prize.

A pioneer in the synthesis of a wide range of nanoscale materials, the characterization of the unique physical properties of those materials, and the development of hierarchical assembly methods for nanoscale wires, Lieber has demonstrated the use of nanoscale materials in nanoelectronics, nanocomputing, biological and chemical sensing, neurobiology, and nanophotonics.

Awarded by the Wolf Foundation, the prize has been given annually to six recipients in recognition of their contributions to agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, and physics. The prize is also awarded for contributions to the arts.

Laureates receive their awards from the president of Israel in a special ceremony held at the Knesset Building in Jerusalem.

###


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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Professor Charles Lieber receives Israel's Wolf Prize [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 23-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Peter Reuell
preuell@fas.harvard.edu
617-496-8070
Harvard University

Charles Lieber, the Mark Hyman Jr. Professor of Chemistry, was recently awarded Israel's prestigious Wolf Prize.

A pioneer in the synthesis of a wide range of nanoscale materials, the characterization of the unique physical properties of those materials, and the development of hierarchical assembly methods for nanoscale wires, Lieber has demonstrated the use of nanoscale materials in nanoelectronics, nanocomputing, biological and chemical sensing, neurobiology, and nanophotonics.

Awarded by the Wolf Foundation, the prize has been given annually to six recipients in recognition of their contributions to agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, and physics. The prize is also awarded for contributions to the arts.

Laureates receive their awards from the president of Israel in a special ceremony held at the Knesset Building in Jerusalem.

###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/hu-pcl012312.php

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Notion Ink's Adam II promises TI OMAP CPUs, Ice Cream Sandwich, broken dreams

Notion Ink's teaming up with TI in order to get at its OMAP4xx silicon for the forthcoming Adam II tablet. It'll also be jamming in the company's Wi-Link 7.0 and Phoenix Audio gear onto the Ice Cream Sandwich-running slate. The chip was apparently chosen thanks to its modular setup, HD visuals and powerful low-energy multitasking. Novice owners will also get their hands on a modular software architecture which will let casual users develop specific applications using a drag-and-drop interface. It's pitching that functionality at home-brewers, students and professionals who can tailor the software to meet a specific need, casually mentioning that it could be used for signal processing, 3D modeling or medical imaging. Do we hear expectations being raised to unrealistic levels again? Given our experiences with the original, we suspect the answer is: "Yes."

Continue reading Notion Ink's Adam II promises TI OMAP CPUs, Ice Cream Sandwich, broken dreams

Notion Ink's Adam II promises TI OMAP CPUs, Ice Cream Sandwich, broken dreams originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/8HI94P9Rp-0/

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Lawmakers flip on piracy bills protested on Web (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Some members of Congress switched sides to oppose antipiracy legislation as protests blanketed the Internet on Wednesday, turning Wikipedia dark and putting black slashes on Google and other sites as if they had been censored.

Content providers who favor the anti-piracy measures, such as Hollywood and the music industry, were scrambling to win back public opinion and official support.

Wikipedia, the world's free online encyclopedia, shut down for a day. Google and others used the black censorship bars to draw attention to what had until recently been an obscure and technical legislative proposal to curb access to overseas websites that traffic in stolen content or counterfeit goods.

Many of the sites participating in the blackout urged their users to contact their legislators on the issue, a plea that brought quick results.

Several sponsors of the legislation, including Senators Roy Blunt, Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch and John Boozman and Marco Rubio, said they were withdrawing their support. Some blamed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for rushing the Senate version of the bill.

Meanwhile, friends of the bills stepped up their efforts.

Creative America, a studio- and union-supported group that fights piracy, launched a television advertising campaign that it said would air in the districts of key legislators. In Times Square, it turned on a digital pro-SOPA and PIPA billboard for the day - in space provided by News Corp, which owns Fox Studios.

The group also said it is sending a team of 20 organizers to big events around the country, including the upcoming Sundance Film Festival, to try to get voters to see the situation their way.

The legislation, known as PIPA in the Senate and SOPA in the House of Representatives, has been a priority for entertainment companies, publishers, pharmaceutical companies and other industry groups who say it is critical to curbing online piracy, which they believe costs them billions of dollars a year.

But Internet players argue the bills would undermine innovation and free speech rights and would compromise the functioning of the Internet.

In switching their positions, Blunt called the legislation "deeply flawed" while Rubio and Boozman cited "unintended consequences" that could stem from the proposed law. All said they still supported taking action against online piracy.

Other lawmakers, such as Senator Kristen Gillibrand, said they supported changes to the legislation.

The blackout affected thousands of sites and served as the culmination of several efforts online to fight the legislation. In recent days, for example, many Twittter users placed black "Stop SOPA" bands on the bottom of their profile pictures.

Even sites that didn't black out their sites, which would have cost them a day's worth of advertising revenue and angered some consumers, made their opposition to the bills plain.

"We can't let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the Internet's development," Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

Zynga issued a blog post complaining that "the overly broad provisions we've seen in the pending SOPA and PIPA bills could be used to target legitimate U.S. sites and chill innovation at a time when it is needed most."

While the Facebook and Zynga sites functioned as normal, others looked jarringly different.

Wikipedia mounted a 24-hour protest starting at midnight by converting their English page to a shadowy black background and warning readers that "the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet."

It included a link to help Internet users contact their representatives.

Craigslist, the free Internet classifieds site, also went black in protest, while Google's home search page included a black bar slapped over its logo and asked readers: "Tell Congress: Please don't censor the web!"

Smaller sites, such as Reddit.com and BoingBoing.net, were also dark, while icanhascheezburger.com placed a banner over its site alerting users to the situation and inviting them to click on a link for more information.

"It's a way of engaging the public in something that had been a very much behind closed doors, kind of business as usual in Washington thing," said Bill Allison, editorial director at the Sunlight Foundation, a lobbying watchdog group. "It's a way to get the public aware and alerted to it, and somewhat on their side."

A lunchtime protest in San Francisco drew about 100 protesters, including Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and rapper M.C. Hammer, who called the proposed legislation "barbaric."

But content providers said the protests were long on hype and short on substance, and that reaching voters one-on-one and in person would prove more effective. "We see this as a long battle," said Mike Nugent, executive director of Creative America. He has been sending outreach staff to events like local festivals and movie screenings to get them to call their legislators and enlist their support.

MOMENTUM COOLS

The bills were seemingly on track for approval by Congress, but sentiment has shifted in recent weeks and an implicit veto threat from the White House over the weekend cast doubt on whether the legislation would pass.

Republican Representative Tom Price, head of the House Republican Policy Committee, said in a hallway interview, "I don't think it is going anywhere."

"There is real confusion about it, number one, but number two, there are real concerns about whether or not it would shut down the ability of entrepreneurs, new businesses and the like to utilize the Internet for their purposes," Price said.

When asked about the anti-piracy legislation at a news conference on Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner said lawmakers will continue to try to find support for it, but that it's not there now.

"It's pretty clear to many of us that there is a lack of consensus at this point," Boehner said.

The protest drew some criticism ahead of its launch.

"This publicity stunt does a disservice to its users by promoting fear instead of facts," Lamar Smith, Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a sponsor of SOPA, said in a statement on Tuesday. "Perhaps during the blackout, Internet users can look elsewhere for an accurate definition of online piracy."

Former Senator Chris Dodd, who now chairs the Motion Picture Association of America, labeled the blackout a "gimmick" and called for its supporters to "stop the hyperbole and PR stunts and engage in meaningful efforts to combat piracy."

The blackout harkens back to some similar movements on the Internet in recent years, particularly a 2007 protest over online radio royalties. Then, services like Pandora turned off their music for a day. Two years later, the music services and record labels reached an agreement over the payments.

(Reporting by Sarah McBride in San Francisco and Diane Bartz in Washington D.C.; Additional reporting by Jasmin Melvin, Malathi Nayak, Alistair Barr and Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Maureen Bavdek, Tim Dobbyn, Gary Hill)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120119/media_nm/us_internet_protest

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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Costa CEO says captain misled company, crew (AP)

ROME ? The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said Friday as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers.

CEO Pierluigi Foschi told Italian state TV that the company spoke to the captain at 10:05 p.m. (2105 GMT; 4:05 p.m. EST), some 20 minutes after the ship ran aground on Jan. 13, but could not offer proper assistance because the captain's description "did not correspond to the truth."

Capt. Francesco Schettino said only that he had "problems" on board but did not mention hitting a reef.

Likewise, Foschi said crew members were not informed of the gravity of the situation.

Passenger video shown on Italian TV indicates crew members telling passengers to go to their cabins as late as 10:25 p.m. (2125 GMT; 4:25 p.m. EST). The abandon ship alarm sounded just before 11:00 p.m. (2200 GMT; 5:00 p.m. EST).

"That's because they also did not receive correct information on the gravity of the situation," Foschi said.

The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into well-charted rocks off the island of Giglio a week ago. Eleven people have been confirmed dead.

The Concordia shifted again on its rocky perch Friday, forcing the suspension of diving search operations for the 21 people still missing and raising concerns about the stability of the ship's resting place. But the search in areas above the waterline resumed in the evening after the ship was deemed stable.

The remarks by Costa CEO Foschi are the latest to indicate a lack of proper communication with authorities on land as the emergency unfolded.

An audiotape of the Concordia's first contact with maritime authorities has a Concordia office repeatedly replying that the ship had experienced a blackout, even though it had hit the reef more than half an hour earlier.

Italian media reported the officer on the call was Schettino, but that could not be independently confirmed.

Costa Crociere SpA, which offered support to the captain in the hours after the emergency, has now turned its back on the man who is under investigation for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship. Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship, is under house arrest near Naples.

Costa in recent days has suspended Schettino, announced it is no longer paying his legal fees and has signed on as a civil party in the prosecution, a move that positions it as an injured party and would allow it to seek damages in the case of a guilty verdict.

Coast Guard spokesman Cmdr. Cosimo Nicastro said crews will evaluate the ship's stability Saturday morning to see if the diving operation can resume, focusing on an area where passengers would have sought lifeboats, Nicastro said.

It was not clear if the slight movements registered by sensors placed on board the Costa Concordia were just vibrations as the ship settles on the rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio or if the massive ocean liner is slowly slipping off the reef. Salvage experts suggest it could be because of pockets of air gradually escaping.

The sensors detected that the ship's bow was moving about 15 millimeters (half an inch) an hour and the stern about 7 millimeters (one-quarter inch) an hour, said Nicola Casagli of the University of Florence, who was called in by Italian authorities to monitor the ship's stability.

The Concordia's movements are being watched since any significant shift could be dangerous for divers trying to locate those missing since the Concordia ran aground Jan. 13. An additional fear is that movement could damage tanks holding a 500,000 gallons of fuel oil and lead to leaks.

The sea floor drops off sharply a few meters (yards) from where the ship is resting, and Italy's environment minister has warned it risks sinking.

On Friday, relatives of some of the 21 missing were at Giglio's port getting briefings from rescue teams.

Casagli told Sky TG24 that some movement in the Concordia was only natural given the immense weight of the steel-hulled ship, which is being held in place by two huge rocks at bow and stern.

But the latest movements indicate it isn't stable, he said. "These are small, regular movements that are being monitored because they're going in the same direction," he told Sky.

Late Thursday, Carnival Corp., the U.S.-based company that owns Costa, announced it was conducting a comprehensive audit of all 10 of its cruise lines to review safety and emergency response procedures in the wake of the Costa disaster. The evacuation was chaotic and the alarm to abandon the ship was sounded after the Concordia had capsized too much to get many life boats down.

___

Colleen Barry reported from Milan. Andrea Foa contributed from Giglio, Italy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_italy_cruise_aground

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Obama tried to help the budget supercommitte. Really.

In September, the president proposed a budget to the supercommittee that included budget cuts meant? to please Republicans. Yet some say he failed to "reach across the aisle."

I?m pretty old school in that I believe elected officials are always worthy of respect, so I tried to be respectful in this dust up with Senator Pat Toomey on CNBC this AM.? The thing is, it?s important not to let anyone?elected official or otherwise?mislead like this, especially when their version is just so contradictory to the truth.

Skip to next paragraph Jared Bernstein

?

Before joining the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities as a senior fellow, Jared was chief economist to Vice President Joseph Biden and executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class. He is a contributor to MSNBC and CNBC and has written numerous books, including 'Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed?'

Recent posts

Sen Toomey, who was a member of the failed supercommittee, argued that the President simply wouldn?t offer any help to the committee, nor would he countenance any cuts to entitlements.

Except for this:

In September, the President proposed a budget to the supercommittee.? There?s a chapter in that budget document called ?Health Savings? which proposes about $250 billion in Medicare savings and about $70 billion in Medicaid savings (both over 10 years).

When I pointed this out to the Senator, he complained about the lack of bipartisanship, reaching across the aisle, etc.? But again, as I pointed out, the President?s proposals were exactly that?a reach across the aisle to an issue?entitlement cuts?about which R?s have been clamoring and frankly, as I noted in the clip, go well beyond many D?s comfort zone.

I?m sorry, but with respect, it is impossible to take such politicians? calls for bipartisan compromise seriously when, on national TV, they refuse to acknowledge such efforts.? The President is, at this point, well within his rights to say, ?I tried.?

RELATED: Gas prices and five other liabilities for Obama in 2012

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on jaredbernsteinblog.com.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/XLgIUNYLRPw/Obama-tried-to-help-the-budget-supercommitte.-Really.

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TonyFratto: RT @bethcomstock: USA, Germany, Japan and China leading innovation champions say global business execs via GE Innovation Barometer http ...

Twitter / bethcomstock: USA, Germany, Japan and Ch ... Loader USA, Germany, Japan and China leading innovation champions say global business execs via GE Innovation Barometer

Source: http://twitter.com/TonyFratto/statuses/159637562233864192

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