Tuesday, 31 January 2012

[OOC] Territory Combat and Control

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This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Blood on the Thames?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

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Asian stocks rise as investors watch Europe

A masked man is reflected on an electronic stock board at a securities firm in central Tokyo, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. Asian stock markets fell Monday, with slower-than-expected growth in the U.S. and uncertainty about a tentative deal to resolve Greece's debt crisis weighing on investor sentiment. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

A masked man is reflected on an electronic stock board at a securities firm in central Tokyo, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. Asian stock markets fell Monday, with slower-than-expected growth in the U.S. and uncertainty about a tentative deal to resolve Greece's debt crisis weighing on investor sentiment. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

A currency trader walks through the foreign exchange dealing room of the Korea Exchange Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. Asian stock markets fell Monday, with slower-than-expected growth in the U.S. and uncertainty about a tentative deal to resolve Greece's debt crisis weighing on investor sentiment. South Korea's Kospi was 1.3 percent lower at 1,939.90. (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)

A woman walks screens at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Korea Exchange Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. Asian stock markets fell Monday, with slower-than-expected growth in the U.S. and uncertainty about a tentative deal to resolve Greece's debt crisis weighing on investor sentiment. South Korea's Kospi was 1.3 percent lower at 1,939.90. (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)

Currency traders look at monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Korea Exchange Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. Asian stock markets fell Monday, with slower-than-expected growth in the U.S. and uncertainty about a tentative deal to resolve Greece's debt crisis weighing on investor sentiment. South Korea's Kospi was 1.3 percent lower at 1,939.90. (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)

(AP) ? Asian stocks rose Tuesday as traders watched for a possible deal to cut Greece's debts and Japanese factory output rebounded.

Benchmark oil rose above $99 per barrel while the dollar fell against the euro and the yen.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 0.1 percent to 8,806.06 after data showed December industrial activity rose 4 percent over the previous month. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.7 percent to 20,304.48 and Seoul's Kospi was up 0.1 percent at 1,942.82.

Traders watched Europe, a major export market, following reports Greece and its creditors were close to a deal to cut its debts. Also Monday, European leaders agreed on a new treaty meant to stop overspending and put an end to the region's crippling debt woes.

"Everyone is watching the European summit and how the Greek debt crisis comes out," said Jackson Wong at Tanrich Securities in Hong Kong. "The general atmosphere is to play a wait-and-see game."

China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.2 percent at 2,289.42 ahead of Wednesday's release of a key manufacturing index. Investors are hoping for a loosening of credit curbs or other measures to boost growth if it shows activity is slowing amid lackluster global demand for Chinese goods.

Benchmarks in Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia and India rose while Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand fell. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.2 percent to 4,266.10.

European markets tumbled Monday on concerns Greece's financial problems might not be solved even if creditors agree to cancel part of its debt.

Under a tentative agreement, investors holding 206 billion euros ($272 billion) in Greek bonds would exchange them for bonds with half the face value. The replacement bonds would have a longer maturity and pay a lower interest rate. When the bonds mature, Greece would have to pay its bondholders only 103 billion euros.

France's CAC-40 shed 1.6 percent while Britain's FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX both lost 1 percent.

Wall Street fell in early trading but Asian investors were encouraged after the Dow Jones industrial average recovered most of its losses to close down just 0.1 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 lost 0.8 percent.

Borrowing costs for European countries with the heaviest debt burdens shot higher. The two-year interest rate for Portugal's government debt jumped to 21 percent after trading around 14 percent last week.

Portugal may become the next country "where default is a real possibility," said Martin Hennecke of Tyche Group in Hong Kong.

"The euro zone crisis is far from being fixed at all. Italy and Spain are effectively bankrupt as well," Hennecke said. "For Asia, that means there is huge uncertainty in terms of export markets."

The treaty agreed to Monday by all European Union governments except Britain and the Czech Republic includes strict debt brakes and is aimed at making it harder for violators to escape sanctions. The 17 countries in the eurozone hope the tighter rules will restore confidence in their joint currency.

The agreement comes as richer countries such as Germany are losing patience with giving Athens loans, saying the Greek government is not carrying out reforms and spending cuts fast enough. A German official proposed having an EU monitor oversee Greek spending but that idea was quickly rejected at Monday's meeting in Brussels.

Benchmark oil for March delivery gained 37 cents to $99.39 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 78 cents to end at $98.78 per barrel on the Nymex on Monday.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3191 from $1.3114 late Monday in New York. The dollar fell to 76.17 yen from 76.25 yen.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-31-World-Markets/id-b9fee620a42f46399de36ea4b70784a8

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'Caged' Brings 'Toughest Fight' For Danger In Episode Four

Danger and Daniel tells MTV News why the new episode, which airs Monday at 10 p.m. ET, is one of their favorites.
By Christina Garibaldi


"Caged" star Danger
Photo: MTV News

We're only three episodes into MTV's new docu-series "Caged," and so far, the show has certainly packed a punch. With the fourth episode airing Monday at 10 p.m. ET, these amateur mixed martial arts fighters from the small town of Minden, Louisiana, are gearing up for some of their toughest competition yet, both in the cage and out.

MTV News caught up with Daniel and Matt a.k.a. Danger, who were visiting New York City for the first time, and they told us what fans can expect from this upcoming episode.

"For me, it's definitely my toughest fight for the season." Danger said. "I'm very excited for everybody to see it. ... Just fighting a really tough guy, really tough guy from a really tough camp. One of the higher-ranked guys in our state and in our area, so it's a fight I wanted for a long time and it finally came to fruition and it was a great fight. It didn't disappoint; I hope everybody enjoys it."

Fellow fighter Daniel said he's looking forward to fans getting to know his lighter side. He returned to the cage last week after suffering a knockout in the premiere episode and went on to win a tough fight on the anniversary of the tragic death of his girlfriend Hannah.

"I feel that my personality is going to finally start opening up a little bit more." Daniel said. "I'm obviously getting a little bit more used to the cameras and I just feel like you all get to see maybe a funnier side to me. Not just a robotic, deep-voiced guy that's always fighting for something crazy."

That's not all: On Monday night viewers will also be introduced to a new Minden fighter, who enters the cage for the first time.

"You'll get a chance to meet one of our boys, he makes his 'Caged' debut, John Wesley Reed," Danger revealed. "He's a great fighter, and everybody is going to fall in love with him too. So we're really excited about episode four; it's one of my favorites."

You can catch "Caged" on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on MTV.

For continuing "Caged" coverage, be sure to check in with MTV's Remote Control blog.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678084/caged-episode-four-danger.jhtml

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Water trucked to nearly bone-dry Texas town

SPICEWOOD, Texas (AP) ? Under dark clouds and rain, two tanker trucks for the first time delivered thousands of gallons of water Monday to a Texas town that came precariously close to becoming the state's first community to run out of water during a historic drought.

The 8,000-gallon water delivery arrived in Spicewood after it became clear the village's wells could no longer produce enough water to meet the needs of the Lake Travis community's 1,100 residents and elementary school, said Clara Tuma, spokeswoman of the Lower Colorado River Authority.

Several towns and villages in Texas have come close to running out of water during the driest year in Lone Star State history, but until now none has had to truck in water. Most found solutions to hold them over, often paying tens of thousands of dollars to avoid hauling water, a scenario that conjures up images from the early 1900s, when indoor plumbing was a novelty.

In reality, water still ran Monday through pipes and faucets of the Central Texas town, though the source will soon be different. Instead of being pumped from wells into the community's 129,000-gallon storage tank ? a two day's supply of water ? the already treated liquid will be hauled in from 17 miles away, treated a second time and put into the town's water system.

"The hauling of water is just a Band-Aid approach. It's just a short-term approach," said Joe Don Dockery, a Burnet County commissioner that oversees the Spicewood area.

LCRA realized last week how dire the situation was, and informed Dockery on Monday. By the next day, the situation was worse ? the well had dropped another 1.3 feet overnight. The severest forms of water restrictions were put in place, and LCRA said there would be no new hookups to the town's water supply.

Ryan Rowney, manager of water operations for the LCRA, said the agency plans to truck water into Spicewood for several more weeks while exploring alternatives, including drilling a new well or piping water from nearby Lake Travis. But the agency doesn't want to rush into any project, and prefers for now to pay $200 per truckload of water while ensuring the tens of thousands of dollars it will cost to find a permanent solution are well-spent.

"If we need to haul every day, we will. This will probably go on for several more months," Rowney said.

Trucks, including at least one 6,000 gallon tanker, will make about four or five deliveries a day, he said, but the town will still have to remain under the severest water restrictions.

"All you can do is take a bath, a shower, and that's really all you're allowed to do. You can flush the commode, but even that we're asking people to do judiciously," Rowney said.

Spicewood is a community about 35 miles from Austin, home to many retirees who spend their weekdays in the city and drive to their lakeside homes on the weekends. Residents are now being careful, taking shorter showers, and some are even bringing their clothes to Laundromats.

Until last week, when it became clear they could run out water, the most exciting event in Spicewood was the upcoming wild game chili cookoff advertised on a roadside sign at the entrance to the small community.

"When we had water it was pretty nice here," deadpanned Riley Walker a 73-year-old state transportation employee.

Walker bought land in Spicewood in 1988 when only a handful of families lived here. He built a house and moved into town full time in 2002.

"I have faith they will haul water in. They don't really have a choice, there are a lot of people here," Walker said.

Joe Barbera, president of the local property owner's association, said residents have been "really worried about this for a long time now," but have always been conservation minded.

"You look around and you don't see any immaculate lawns," he added. "This is just normal use for a normal community."

For more than a year, nearly the entire state of Texas has been in some stage of severe or exceptional drought. Rain has been so scarce lakes across the state turned into pools of mud. One town near Waco, Groesbeck, bought water from a rock quarry and built a seven-mile pipeline through a state park to get water. Some communities on Lake Travis moved their intake pipes into deeper water. And Houston started getting water from an alternative, farther away reservoir when Lake Houston ran too low.

And even though it has started to rain more this winter, it's not enough to fill the arid state's rivers and lakes.

A few inches of rain certainly won't be enough to fill Spicewood's wells.

"We're talking about rainfall events of 20 inches plus. Huge, huge flood events to bring the lake levels up," Rowney said, explaining that many parts of Texas can no longer wait for the rain. "The downside of that is that everyone's praying for a flood, well floods can be bad too."

___

Plushnick-Masti contributed to this report from Houston. You can follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com//RamitMastiAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-30-Texas%20Drought-Wells%20Run%20Dry/id-dd7151a77b3041ed8bdc5504729195d3

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Monday, 30 January 2012

High School Graduation: 'How I Went From Slacker to Star Student'

This is a teen-written article from our friends at Youth Communication, a nonprofit organization that helps marginalized youth develop their full potential through reading and writing.

Names have been changed.

?Yo, do you understand what we have to do? ?Cause I damn sure don?t,? I whispered to a friend one day during math class. We were supposed to be working on a sheet of problems, but neither of us understood how to do it. I raised my hand, and when the teacher came over, I told him I was confused.

?Well, Miss, you should have been paying attention when I was giving the lesson and not so focused on talking to your friend.?

?But Mr. Cooper, I need help. I don?t get it. Are you going to help me or not?? I asked, getting angry.

?No, I?m not going to re-teach it to you when you should have been paying attention,? he replied. I was so mad I didn?t do any of his work for the rest of class.

What pissed me off the most was the way he talked to me. He should have sat down with me and broken down the problem. I decided to stop going to his class. Why should I waste my time with a teacher who won?t teach me?

Throughout elementary and middle school, I had been a relatively good student. In fact, math?Mr. Cooper?s subject?had always been my favorite class. But high school was different.

A New Routine

This was the first time I?d gone to a school outside of Brooklyn, and everything seemed really impersonal. Murry Bergtraum High School was a five-story brick building in downtown Manhattan with thousands of students. It was so big that my daily routine included walking around in a circle, looking for my classes. I felt uncomfortable and unsafe in such a big school with its huge population of students.

The teachers? attitudes affected how I felt about school, too. Most of them never bothered to learn my first name, which says a lot to me. They also seemed less supportive of students than the teachers in my previous schools.

After a while my attitude toward school and the teachers was ?Screw them.? I felt like I was wasting my time trying to learn if they weren?t going to help me, so I started cutting my least favorite classes. A month after my first cutting experience, it had become a part of my regular routine.

A normal day went like this: I?d walk into the building and check the time on my phone. It would be a little after 11 a.m., which meant I was a full two hours late to school. Acting nonchalant, I continued on to class. Business law and English were the only classes that I actually liked. The teachers were helpful, and I respected and loved them. But I only stayed around for those classes.

After I?d bumped into a few friends and discussed our afternoon plans, we?d all decide that we were going to leave school. Usually, we ended up in Burger King, Mickey D?s, or Wendy?s, but if we wanted to just relax, we would walk through a couple of stores or go kick back by the seaport.

When I was cutting I wasn?t thinking about much. All I knew was that I didn?t like my classes, I didn?t like my teachers, and I didn?t want to be there. I wasn?t thinking about my future at all, because I felt like I didn?t have much of a future to look forward to.

A Million and Two Steps Behind

The cutting went on for almost two years before it really caught up with me. Going into my junior year at Bergtraum, I was supposed to have earned at least 33 credits, but I only had five. I was still considered a freshman and at the rate I was going, I?d never graduate.

When I realized that, I felt overwhelmed. It hurt to hear my friends talk about how they?d made it to the next grade officially, and I was still a million and two steps behind. I considered dropping out because I felt hopeless, like an underachiever. Even so, I knew deep in my heart that I was capable of succeeding; I just didn?t know exactly how to go about it.

I knew I needed a change. I wasn?t getting anywhere in that school, so I decided to transfer to a new one. I was told that there were alternative schools that are smaller than your average high school, with a capacity of roughly 150 students. That sounded good, plus, I heard that the teachers at these smaller schools are dedicated, devoted, and actually give you one-on-one help. I decided to transfer to one of these alternative schools, South Brooklyn Community High School, that happened to be extremely close to my home. There was just one catch: they had to accept me.

During the interview, I sat in a small office with my mom while one of the school counselors asked some basic questions: Why are you here? What didn?t you like about your old school? Then, after asking my mother to leave the room, the counselor started asking me about my entire personal history. He wanted to know the ins and outs of my relationship with my mother and my father, whether anyone else was living in my household besides my mother and me, and lots of other personal stuff.

It felt like he was interrogating me, like I was a criminal about to be taken off to jail. It seemed unnecessary?how would all that information determine whether or not I should be accepted? I think my defensiveness came through in my answers.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/29/from-slacker-to-star-stud_n_1239763.html

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Blaze kills 3 young siblings, injures 4-year-old relative

An early-morning fire killed three toddlers in central Mississippi on Sunday. A fourth child was being treated at a burn center.

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Neshoba County Sheriff's investigator Ralph Sciple told The Neshoba Democrat that 3-month-old Neldavinna Tubby, 1-year-old Omarion Tubby and 2-year-old Sharron Tubby died in the fire at the mobile home.

He said their father, Josh Tubby, and grandfather Tommy Wickson were taken by ambulance to a hospital. A fourth child ? Orex Wickson ? was sent to a burn center in Georgia.

'It's a sad day'
Neshoba County Sheriff Tommy Waddell told WTOK that four-year-old Orex Wickson was a family member who was visiting the home.

"At this time, it appears to be a tragic, tragic accident," Waddell added. "I would like for the community to just pray for the Tubby family because I just cannot imagine losing all your children. It's a sad day."

Citing officials, WTOK reported that the blaze appeared to have started in the kitchen.

The fire was reported shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday.

The house on Mississippi Highway 21 south was fully ablaze when firefighters arrived, authorities said.

State fire investigators are looking into the cause.

Neshoba is about 95 miles northeast of Jackson.

The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46186038/ns/us_news-life/

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Yahoo Shuts Down 10 Mobile Apps, Says Its Going ?Mobile First? (?)

Yahoo-logoYahoo is moving forward with a "mobile first" mindset, the company stated via blog post late last week, then?incongruously announced it would be shuttering 10 of its mobile applications. The list, which contains a mix of iPhone, Android and BlackBerry apps, includes an odd, and somewhat surprising group of underperforming properties. Yahoo Deals, News, Shopping, Finance and Movies, were included among the shutdowns, for example.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Kb-EEMu6CmE/

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Tiger Woods shoots 66 to share lead in Abu Dhabi (AP)

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates ? Tiger Woods shot a 6-under 66 Saturday to grab a share of the lead at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, the latest sign that the 14-time major winner is returning to form after ending a two-year victory drought.

There wasn't a lot of fist pumping from Woods, who traded drama for consistency in racking up six birdies in a bogey-free round.

It was a memorable performance by the American, mostly for his ability to hit the fairways, tame the par 5s and sink clutch putts ? including a six-footer for birdie on the final hole.

"It just seemed like I didn't do a lot of things right but I didn't do a lot of things wrong today, it was just very consistent," Woods said. "You know, made a couple putts here and there ... I stayed away from trouble and tried to keep the ball towards the fat side of some of these pins and I think I did a pretty good job."

Woods moved to 11 under for the tournament and is tied with newcomer Robert Rock, who birdied his final two holes to earn the 117th-ranked Englishman a first-ever pairing with Woods for Sunday's finale.

Rory McIlroy (68), Peter Hanson (64), Francesco Molinari (66) and Paul Lawrie (68) were two shots back, with George Coetzee (65), James Kingston (67), overnight leader Thorbjorn Olesen (71) and Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (69) all a shot further back.

Woods is attempting to follow his season-ending victory at the Chevron World Challenge with another win here. He was two shots off the pace after the second round but started climbing the leaderboard Saturday with an opening birdie, followed by another on No. 7.

He stepped up his game on the back nine and grabbed a share of the lead after he narrowly missed an eagle putt on the 10th and settled for birdie. He briefly took the outright lead with a birdie on 14.

The crowd of several hundred cheered every birdie, with some yelling "Tiger's back."

Woods refused to talk about his victory chances, acknowledging too many players remain within striking distance.

"There's a ton of guys with a chance to win," Woods said. "You know, we have not separated ourselves from the field. The field is very bunched. I need to go out there and put together a solid round of golf, and I can't go out there and shoot even par and expect to win. I've got to go out there and go get it."

Rock, who got his first European Tour win last year in Italy in a playoff with Sergio Garcia, admitted he was star-struck at the prospect of teeing off alongside Woods, calling him "the best guy I've ever seen play golf."

The 34-year-old journeyman is relishing the chance to go head-to-head with one of golf's all-time greats.

"There's quite a lot of people out there (today) obviously following Tiger in the group in front of us. Hopefully we've got the same amount of people watching tomorrow, and we'll see how I cope with it," Rock said. "I just want to experience it. How many chances I'll get to do that, it's not clear."

Rock was one of several players who challenged Woods for the lead after overnight leader Olesen fell back.

Lawrie, the 1999 British Open champion, showed some of the form he displayed at the Dubai World Championship in December, where he finished second. He made birdie on 10 and 11 to tie Woods for the lead, fell back with bogeys on 14 and 17 and then recovered to birdie the 18th.

Molinari and Hanson also bounced back from opening round 74s to move into contention. Molinari had five birdies on his back nine, while the 47th-ranked Swede had eight birdies in his round ? including three on the last five holes ? in a bogey-free round to finish with the lowest score of the day.

"It was one of those days where you have the best job in the world," Hanson said. "Struck it nice, made four easy birdies on the par 5s and then a few more, and it felt pretty easy somehow."

U.S. Open champion McIlroy also is still in the mix, a day after he had two double bogeys, including on the 9th when he was penalized for brushing away sand in front of his ball. He only had one bogey to go with five birdies Saturday, but the 22-year-old Northern Irishman was forced to scramble several times to save par, including on the 18th when an errant drive went into nearby rocks and almost into a pond.

"I definitely felt today was a lot better than yesterday," McIlroy said. "I felt like I hit the ball a lot better. I feel that I made a couple of loose swings off the tee and obviously one on the last, and a couple others, but it's getting there. So hopefully I can just keep that going tomorrow and maybe get off to a fast start and put pressure on the guys in front of me."

Top-ranked Luke Donald (73) is 11 shots behind Woods, with No. 2-ranked Lee Westwood (68) seven off the lead.

___

Follow Michael Casey on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mcasey1

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_sp_go_su/glf_abu_dhabi_championship

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Sunday, 29 January 2012

Romney widens lead over Gingrich in Florida: poll (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? White House hopeful Mitt Romney widened his lead over rival Newt Gingrich to 11 percentage points in Florida, according to Reuters/Ipsos online poll results on Saturday, up from 8 points a day earlier, as he cemented his front-runner status in the Republican nomination race.

With just three days remaining before Florida's Republican primary, Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, led Gingrich, a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, by 43 percent to 32 percent among likely voters in Florida's January 31 primary, the online poll said.

He had led Gingrich by 41 percent to 33 percent in the online tracking poll on Friday.

"The momentum in Florida ... really seems to be moving in Romney's direction," said Chris Jackson, research director for Ipsos Public Affairs.

The poll confirmed that Romney's fortunes are turning around in Florida a week after a stinging setback when Gingrich scored an upset win in South Carolina's primary.

Romney has moved ahead of Gingrich in several Florida polls, after turning in his strongest debate performance yet in the seesawing race for the Republican nomination to oppose Democratic President Barack Obama's bid for re-election in November.

The Reuters/Ipsos survey showed Romney also gained when voters were asked who they would support in a head-to-head contest with Gingrich. Saturday's results showed that 53 percent would support him, versus 45 percent for Gingrich.

In the results released on Friday, Romney had led by just 2 percentage points when voters were asked the same question.

SANTORUM GETTING SOME GINGRICH SUPPORT?

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum trailed well behind with 16 percent support, but he had gained ground from 13 percent in Friday's results.

"It seems like some people who are leaving Gingrich are moving to the other conservative in the race, Rick Santorum," Jackson said.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul was at 6 percent, up from 5 percent. The small-government libertarian has not been campaigning in Florida.

Romney has subjected Gingrich to a blistering run of attack advertisements in Florida. He has assailed Gingrich for leaving Congress under an ethics cloud in the 1990s and for being a Washington insider and lobbyist in the two decades since.

Gingrich denies he ever worked as a lobbyist, but has yet to find an effective way to parry Romney's attacks.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, capturing many voters after the most recent debate in Jacksonville on Thursday, where Romney was seen as a clear winner.

Florida lets voters cast their ballots early at polling stations or by mail, and 30 percent of the poll respondents said they had done so, compared with 29 percent on Friday.

Romney held a 12-point lead among those who had already voted, and an 11-point lead among those who had not yet voted.

Statistical margins of error are not applicable to online surveys, but this poll of 903 likely voters has a credibility interval of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Saturday's Reuters/Ipsos survey is the second of four daily tracking polls being released ahead of Tuesday's Florida primary.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/pl_nm/us_usa_campaign_poll

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Saturday, 28 January 2012

Deception Diet: How Optical Illusions Can Trick Your Appetite

On a smaller plate, this meal would look larger – and feel more filling. Enlarge Michael McCloskey/iStockphoto

On a smaller plate, this meal would look larger ? and feel more filling.

Michael McCloskey/iStockphoto

On a smaller plate, this meal would look larger ? and feel more filling.

Think you know how to avoid overeating? Think again.

Research suggests that choices, like how much to eat during a meal, are often made subconsciously. Trouble is, our brains are hard-wired to mislead us in lots of little ways, which can have a big impact on our diets.

Take the Delboeuf effect, an optical illusion first documented in 1865. It starts with two dots of equal size. But surround one dot with a large circle, and the other dot with a small one, and suddenly the second dot looks bigger.

The Delboeuf illusion makes one dot appear larger than the other. But they're the same size. Your brain is mislead by comparing the dots to the surrounding circles. Washiucho/Wikimedia Commons

The Delboeuf illusion makes one dot appear larger than the other. But they're the same size. Your brain is mislead by comparing the dots to the surrounding circles.

Every time you fill your plate, the Delboeuf illusion affects how much food you take, and how much food you think you've taken, Koert Van Ittersum, professor of marketing at Georgia Tech, tells The Salt.

He and Brian Wansink, director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell, performed a series of experiments to measure the effect of the Delboeuf illusion on serving behavior and perceptions of serving size. Their work recently appeared online in the Journal of Consumer Research.

For one experiment, participants were asked to recreate a "target" serving of soup in bowls of various sizes. In another, they had to compare pre-filled bowls to the target serving. Researchers also measured serving behavior in the real-world atmosphere of a buffet line.

As predicted by the illusion, people under-served and over-estimated on small dishes, while the reverse was true for large dishes. People using the smallest dishes undershot the target serving by as much as 12 percent. But people using the largest dishes took up to 13 percent more food than they intended.

"We are often times our own worst enemy. And that's not because we want to overeat," Van Ittersum says. The illusion is embedded so deeply in our brains, he says, it is nearly impossible to overcome. Even telling test subjects about it ahead of time, as they did in another phase of the research, didn't eliminate the bias.

? Brian Wansink demonstrates an optical illusion that even fools bartenders. How much should he pour to match the amount in the taller glass? Enlarge Jason Koski/University Photography/Cornell University

Brian Wansink demonstrates an optical illusion that even fools bartenders. How much should he pour to match the amount in the taller glass?

Jason Koski/University Photography/Cornell University

Brian Wansink demonstrates an optical illusion that even fools bartenders. How much should he pour to match the amount in the taller glass?

The Delboeuf illusion is just one of many subconscious biases influencing our food choices. We may not be able to prevent these kinds of effects, but with a little planning, we could turn them to our advantage. The Salt scoured the literature and came up with these suggestions for eating just enough.

Buy smaller dishes. The average size of an American dinner plate has increased almost 23 percent since 1900, according to Wansink and Van Ittersum. They've shown that people using smaller dishes overestimate the size of their servings, even as they serve themselves less food. Contrasting colors between the food and dish, and between the dish and table, enhance the effect.

At Massachusetts General Hospital's cafeteria, moving water and diet beverages to eye level (above the dotted line) increased sales. Mass. General Hospital Nutrition and Food Service

At Massachusetts General Hospital's cafeteria, moving water and diet beverages to eye level (above the dotted line) increased sales.

Buy taller glasses. Another optical trick, the T-illusion, which you can try for yourself, affects the serving size of liquids. We tend to overestimate vertical lengths, compared to horizontal lengths. In a previous experiment, Wansink and Van Ittersum asked people to pour equal amounts into a short, wide glass and a tall, skinny one. They found that even professional bartenders poured too much into the short, wide glass ? but thought the under-filled tall glass held more.

Put healthy food at eye level in your kitchen. In 2010, the cafeteria at Massachusetts General Hospital adopted a green-yellow-red labeling system to indicate how healthy each food was. A few months later, they rearranged the shelves to place healthier items at eye level. Both changes increased purchases of healthy food.

"We were trying to make the default or the easy choice the one that was healthier," says MGH researcher Anne Thorndike, who led the reorganization.

Color-coding might be overkill at home, but you can rearrange your fridge and cabinets to make healthy foods more visible and accessible, and keep unhealthy foods out of sight.

Avoid food porn. It should be a no-brainer that looking at images of delicious food will make you hungry, but science has finally proved it. Researchers in Germany found that looking at pictures of food increases levels of the hormone ghrelin, which makes us feel hungrier and eat more.

Use food coloring. Color affects taste, as our sister blog Shots reported last year. We expect red things to be sweet, like ripe fruit. Cut a few calories by replacing some of the sugar in your recipes with red dye, a food psychologist recommends.

Eat with men. In October, The Salt reported that college students of both genders ate fewer calories in the presence of men than with women. Researchers speculate that social gender norms are to blame: Women may try to eat daintily around men, while men may feel less inclined to show off by pigging out if no women are around.

Adopt a mindful eating routine. Ok, so this one isn't subconscious. But several experts reminded The Salt that subliminal tricks only go so far. So slow down and pay attention to your food ? and your appetite ? as an additional defense against overeating.

    Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/01/28/145865238/deception-diet-how-optical-illusions-can-trick-your-appetite?ft=1&f=1007

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Video: Marine?s baby photo goes viral

A picture of a Marine?s son curled up near his father?s combat boots has been circulating on the Internet after the Marine died in Afghanistan. NBC?s Brian Williams reports.

>>> a photo circulating on the web this week is getting a lot of attention. we did some checking and found out the photo was taken a year ago, it's no less impactful and emotional when you consider the newborn infant's father was killed just a month earlier. he was killed in action in afghanistan.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46170000/

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CARPE DIEM: Modern Automotive Manufacturing

My Photo
Name: Mark J. Perry
Location: Washington, D.C., United States

Dr. Mark J. Perry is a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan. Perry holds two graduate degrees in economics (M.A. and Ph.D.) from George Mason University near Washington, D.C. In addition, he holds an MBA degree in finance from the Curtis L. Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. In addition to a faculty appointment at the University of Michigan-Flint, Perry is also a visiting scholar at The American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.

Source: http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2012/01/modern-automotive-manufacturing.html

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Friday, 27 January 2012

Scientists create star matter in a lab: what could possibly go wrong?! (Yahoo! News)

Experiments bring us closer to understanding our own sun

As scientists work to discover more and more about the?galaxy and our own?solar system, they're doing some pretty amazing things. But U.S. Department of Energy scientists working at the?SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University have accomplished something that really boggles the mind: they have created superhot solid plasma?? the kind of material you would find at the center of a star or a giant planet.

The scientists used a machine called the Linac Coherent Light Source, the most powerful X-ray laser machine ever created, to accomplish this feat. They fired the laser at a tiny cube of aluminum only one-thousandth of a centimeter wide, and as the laser pulses converged on the aluminum, it created a superhot solid plasma burning at a temperature of 3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit (2 million degrees Celsius).

While that might sound pretty darn hot (and it is about the temperature of our sun's corona or outer atmosphere), it's still much cooler than the 14 million Kelvin (13.9 million Celsius) of the matter at the center of our star. But the research goes a long way toward understanding the nuclear fusion process that powers our sun and makes stars work.

[Image credit:?University of Oxford/Sam Vinko]

This article was written by Katherine Gray and originally appeared on Tecca

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/techblog/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20120126/tc_yblog_technews/scientists-create-star-matter-in-a-lab-what-could-possibly-go-wrong

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Muslims call for NYPD chief to resign over movie (AP)

NEW YORK ? Muslim groups are calling for New York's police commissioner to step down because of his appearance in a film they say puts their religion and its adherents in a bad light.

About 20 activists held a news conference on the steps of City Hall on Thursday and criticized Ray Kelly for giving an interview to the producers of the movie "The Third Jihad."

The movie uses dramatic footage to warn against the dangers of radical Islam and shariah, or Islamic law. Muslim groups say it encourages Americans to be suspicious of all Muslims.

"Terrorism is an evil that must be eliminated, but one cannot fight wrong with wrong," said Talib Abdur-Rashid, a Muslim cleric.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday he stood by Kelly and the commissioner's spokesman, Paul Browne. Activists had also demanded Browne's resignation.

However, the mayor said Kelly would have to redouble his outreach efforts to Muslims.

"Anything like this doesn't help credibility, so Ray's got to work at establishing, re-establishing or reinforcing the credibility that he does have," Bloomberg said.

Kelly appears for about 30 seconds of the 72-minute movie, which was made by the conservative Clarion Fund. He originally said he was not involved but on Wednesday acknowledged he had given a 90-minute interview to the filmmakers in 2007.

Browne he had initially forgotten details of Kelly's involvement in the film until asked about it again this week.

"This goes back five years," he said. "There's some suggestion that, `Gee, I suddenly remembered.' I didn't suddenly remember ? I went through five years of emails to try and figure out did I get request by this guy who's connected with the foundation."

The movie was later shown to police trainees. The police department said it was played in a continuous loop in the sign-in area of counterterrorism training sessions between October and December 2010. As many as 1,489 trainees may have seen the movie, according to documents released under New York's public records law.

Kelly apologized Wednesday for his appearance and for the playing of the movie.

The Clarion Fund and its supporters say "The Third Jihad" is balanced.

"I don't see why they're so upset by people seeing it," said Stuart Kaufman of The United West, a group that opposes shariah. "Shariah law is a danger to western civilization and it's up to police to understand the nature of Shariah law so they can prevent this."

The Muslim leaders said they are worried that the police department is teaching officers to treat all Muslims as suspects. They demanded the resignation of Kelly and Browne, and a U.S. Department of Justice inquiry into the showing of the film.

The activists also want retraining of all 1,489 officers "that are walking this city with poison in their brains," said Cyrus McGoldrick, civil rights director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations-New York. CAIR is one of the organizations that "The Third Jihad" accuses of being soft on terrorist groups.

Bloomberg said he doubted the movie had swayed any of the trainees and said he saw no need for retraining.

"I think any retraining is probably being done by the press right now," Bloomberg said.

Kelly has said the department does surveillance only when it is following leads. But an investigation by The Associated Press has revealed a secret intelligence program, set up with the aid of the Central Intelligence Agency, aimed at infiltrating religious groups and monitoring neighborhoods even when there is no evidence of wrongdoing.

The CIA has since decided to pull its officer from the NYPD after an internal investigation criticized poor oversight of the collaboration.

___

Associated Press reporters Samantha Gross and Tom Hays contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_us/us_nypd_intelligence_movie

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Thursday, 26 January 2012

Asthma rate and costs from traffic pollution higher: Much higher than past traditional risk assessments have indicated

ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2012) ? A research team led by University of Massachusetts Amherst resource economist Sylvia Brandt, with colleagues in California and Switzerland, have revised the cost burden sharply upward for childhood asthma and for the first time include the number of cases attributable to air pollution, in a study released this week in the early online version of the European Respiratory Journal.

The total cost of asthma due to pollution is much higher than past traditional risk assessments have indicated and there is growing evidence that exposure to traffic-related air pollution is a cause of asthma and a trigger for attacks, so it should be included, say the authors. They conducted the study in Long Beach and Riverside, Calif., communities with high regional air pollution levels and large roads near residential neighborhoods.

Total additional asthma-specific costs there due to traffic-related pollution is about $18 million per year, almost half of which is due to new asthma cases caused by pollution, they report. Brandt worked with researchers at the University of Basel, Switzerland, Sonoma Technology, Inc. and the University of Southern California.

Using updated techniques that count asthma cases attributable to air pollution for the first time and including a broader range of health care costs such as parents? missed work days, extra doctor visits and travel time along with prescriptions, the researchers found that a single episode of bronchitic symptoms cost an average $972 in Riverside and $915 in Long Beach. Bronchitic symptoms (daily cough, congestion or phlegm, or bronchitis for three months in a row) are a critical outcome for children with asthma.

Further, people who live in cities with high traffic-related air pollution bear a higher burden of these costs than those in less polluted areas, they say.

Brandt and colleagues say the total annual cost for a typical asthma case was $3,819 in Long Beach and $4,063 in Riverside, and ?the largest share of the cost of an asthma case was the indirect cost of asthma-related school absences.? School absences are an important economic consequence, they add, because ?they often lead to parents or caregivers missing work.?

Overall, Brandt points out that the results are relevant and applicable to many settings and ?families with children who have asthma are bearing a high cost. The total annual estimate between $3,800 and $4,000 represents 7 percent of median household income in our study in these two communities. This is troublesome because that is higher than the 5 percent considered to be a bearable or sustainable level of health care costs for a family.?

Riverside and Long Beach account for about 7 percent of the total population of California, the authors say, which suggests that state-wide costs of asthma related to air pollution are ?truly substantial.?

For this work, Brandt and colleagues analyzed several surveys on health care visits by children with asthma and their previous estimates of the number of asthma cases attributable to pollution to estimate the annual costs of childhood asthma. They also estimated the cost of asthma exacerbation due to regional air pollutants. They feel the new method does a better job of accounting for the full impact of traffic-related pollution and will be widely applicable in urban areas.

She points out, ?Traditional risk assessment methods for air pollution have underestimated both the overall burden of asthma and the cost of the disease associated with air pollution. Our findings suggest the cost has been substantially underestimated and steps must be taken to reduce the burden of traffic-related pollution.?

This work was supported by California?s South Coast Air Quality Management District and its settlement funds from BP, as well as by the U.S. National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Hastings Foundation.

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Journal Reference:

  1. S. J. Brandt, L. Perez, N. Kunzli, F. Lurmann, R. McConnell. Costs of childhood asthma due to traffic-related pollution in two california communities. European Respiratory Journal, 2012; DOI: 10.1183/09031936.00157811

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/2012/01/120125202759.htm

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Rising costs push Kimberly-Clark 4Q profit lower (AP)

NEW YORK ? Kimberly-Clark Corp., the maker of Kleenex tissues, Huggies diapers and other household goods, is still waging a battle against rising costs that pushed its fourth-quarter profit down 19 percent.

The company, which increasingly relies on overseas markets to help offset weak demand in the U.S., also on Tuesday offered a 2012 adjusted earnings forecast that was below Wall Street's expectations. Its shares fell $1.25, or 1.7 percent, to $72.27 Tuesday.

Like many businesses, Kimberly-Clark is struggling with higher costs for raw materials like oil, wood, pulp and other things it needs to make and transport its products. It has raised prices on some products to help offset some of the expense, but must tread cautiously with price hikes to avoid turning off budget-minded shoppers.

The Dallas-based company continues to face soft demand in North America, as high unemployment and uncertain economic conditions keep many consumers focused on buying basic products on an as-needed basis.

In the fourth quarter, Kimberly-Clark earned $401 million, or $1.01 per share. That's down from a year ago, when it recorded a profit of $492 million, or $1.20 per share.

Excluding restructuring costs in its pulp and tissues segment, adjusted earnings were $1.28 per share, which fell short of the $1.30 per share that analysts surveyed by FactSet expected.

Wendy Nicholson of Citi Investment Research said in a client note that investors are probably disappointed by the company's results and the outlook for this year.

"While the incremental pressure to come from foreign currency exchange was likely anticipated, we suspect some will be frustrated that lower commodity prices are not expected to sufficiently cushion the blow of foreign currency exchange and still weak consumer spending in developed markets," she wrote.

Revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31 climbed 2 percent to $5.18 billion from $5.08 billion on higher prices and sales volumes, but missed Wall Street's $5.21 billion estimate.

Sales of personal care items fell about 5 percent in North America. While Kimberly-Clark raised prices on infant and child-care goods, it was not enough to counter increased promotions.

Chairman and CEO Thomas Falk told analysts during a conference call that another challenge the company faces is the multi-year decline in the nation's birth rate. According to the Census Bureau, there were 60 births per 1,000 U.S. women in 2010, down from 64.2 in 2008.

Total sales for Kimberly-Clark's personal care division edged up 2 percent to $2.2 billion. Consumer tissue segment sales were essentially flat at $1.7 billion, while the health care unit's sales rose 10 percent to about $420 million, partly on sales of exam gloves and surgical products.

Chief Financial Officer Mark Buthman said overseas markets continue to be a source of earnings strength, particularly in Latin America, China and South Korea. Falk said Kimberly-Clark's diaper business continues to expand in China, with Huggies now available in more than 70 cities.

For the full year, earnings fell 14 percent to $1.59 billion, or $3.99 per share. That compares with earnings of $1.84 billion, or $4.45 per share, in the previous year.

Adjusted earnings were $4.80 per share, while annual revenue increased 6 percent to $20.85 billion from $19.75 billion.

"Reflecting on the full year, bottom-line results were somewhat below our original goal for the year, mostly due to higher-than-expected cost inflation and soft demand in portions of the developed markets," Falk said.

"Regardless of the reasons, we are not satisfied with the results we delivered in 2011 and plan to get back on track in 2012," he added.

Falk said the company continued to clamp down on its costs over the course of the year, achieving $265 million in savings.

Looking ahead Kimberly-Clark anticipates 2012 adjusted earnings between $5 and $5.15 per share, below the analysts' average forecast for earnings of $5.23 per share for the year.

Annual revenue is expected to be flat to up 1 percent, which would imply revenue of about $20.85 billion to $21.26 billion. Wall Street forecast revenue of $21.22 billion.

"While we are cautiously optimistic that portions of the U.S. economy are improving, we are not planning for a big increase in market demand," Falk said.

He anticipates that demand will remain soft in the infant and childcare categories in the U.S. this year.

Commodity costs are expected to be a lesser concern, but Kimberly-Clark anticipates foreign currency exchange rates will continue to be volatile.

The company also expects to raise its dividend at a mid-single digit rate, effective in April.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_kimberly_clark

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Wednesday, 25 January 2012

The New Yorker's dissection of the 'Obama memos': 5 takeaways (The Week)

New York ? Reporter Ryan Lizza is out with a "monster" 11,000-word investigation into hundreds of pages of secret White House memos. A look at the highlights

When Barack Obama entered the White House in 2009, he really believed that bipartisanship was viable in Washington, that he could overcome 40 years of increasingly bitter division between Republicans and Democrats, and that American politics is played "between the 40-yard lines," says Ryan Lizza in?The New Yorker. Now, Lizza's review of hundreds of previously unreleased internal White House documents details Obama's rude awakening, and how he gave up his audacious hopes of transforming Washington in favor of getting things done as a "post-post-partisan" president. Here, five takeaways from Lizza's "monster" 11,000-word look at "the Obama memos":

1. The stimulus was too small ? by design
Lizza's big score is a December 2008 memo from Larry Summers and Obama's other top economic advisers, says Ezra Klein at?The Washington Post. The 57-page memo (which Lizza posted in full) "contains the economic team's first thoughts on almost everything the White House would go on to do," from the $787 billion stimulus package to health care reform. The memo acknowledged that the economy faced a $2 trillion hole, but suggested a stimulus no larger than $890 billion. That's because the government could only manage "about $225 billion of actual spending on priority investments" in the short term; less-stimulative components like tax cuts and aid to states offered diminishing returns; "an excessive recovery package could spook markets or the public and be counterproductive"; and Obama could ask Congress for more stimulus later if needed. They really got that last bit wrong, and grossly underestimated the depth of the financial crisis, says Derek Thompson at?The Atlantic. But there's still "quite a lot that Summers and his team got right" in their "rich and complicated report."

SEE MORE: Obama's recess appointments: Unconstitutional?

?

2. Obama wanted a "moon shot" in the stimulus
After reading Summers' memo, Obama didn't push for a $1 trillion stimulus. But he still wanted something "bold and iconic" in the package, says Lizza: An "inspiring 'moon shot' initiative, such as building a national 'smart grid.'" Obama's economic team shot the idea down, arguing that large initiatives were too expensive and too long-term to jolt the economy. Instead, Obama requested $20 billion for high-speed trains. Two years later after Obama gave up on his "metaphorical moon-shot idea," he agreed to cut his predecessor's NASA Constellation project, designed to return astronauts to the moon, and America's "actual moon-shot program was dead, too."

3. He really, really wanted GOP support for health care reform
When Obama arrived in Washington, his idea of forming a centrist coalition didn't seem far-fetched ? "after all, the pillars of his agenda seemed to enjoy bipartisan support," says Lizza. His health care reform plan, for example, "had been designed and employed by a Republican governor, Mitt Romney." The memos show Obama so gung-ho "to secure Republican cooperation and support" that he backed GOP-favored ideas like tort reform and scrapped good "initiatives like the public option, end-of-life counseling, and a host of other provisions that Republicans found repugnant," says Igor Volsky at?ThinkProgress. He learned too late that Republicans would oppose any idea to keep Obama from scoring a big win.

SEE MORE: It's time for Eric Holder to resign

?

4. The White House pivoted to austerity out of political consideration
By late 2009, after a year of Tea Party agitation and slipping polls, Obama's political team urged him to start talking up a "new era of responsibility." They advised that his upcoming State of the Union address was "an opportune moment to pivot to themes of restraining government spending." After the bank bailout, auto bailout, and stimulus, Obama's political team thought it "better to channel the anti-government winds than to fight them." So Obama froze non-defense federal spending and formed a presidential deficit-reduction commission, "learning the same lesson of many previous occupants of the Oval Office: He didn't have the power that one might think he had," says Lizza.

5. Obama is wary of the right-wing media
The president rejected at least one idea ? paying federal employees to participate in a pilot program to study the most effective health care treatments ? because it "could prove a target for Fox News," says ThinkProgress' Volsky. Obama liked the low-cost, high-reward idea, but was swayed by his political advisers, whose argument was summarized in a memo from Obama's secretary: The plan "is not politically viable," in part because "it could easily be caricatured by the right-wing press." In an almost apologetic memo to the plan's authors, Obama wrote, "Unfortunately I think the political guys are right about how it would be characterized. Let's go back at it in future years, when the temperature on health care and the economy has gone down."

SEE MORE: William Daley's resignation: Will it help Obama?

?

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politicsopinion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20120124/cm_theweek/223611

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Tuesday, 24 January 2012

Megaupload founder refused bail in New Zealand (Reuters)

AUCKLAND (Reuters) ? A New Zealand judge ordered the founder of online file-sharing site Megaupload.com to be held in custody for another month Wednesday, saying the suspected Internet pirate posed a significant flight risk.

Kim Dotcom, a German national also known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, was remanded in custody until Feb 22 ahead of a hearing of an extradition application by the United States.

Prosecutors say Dotcom was the ringleader of a group that netted $175 million since 2005 by copying and distributing music, movies and other copyrighted content without authorization. Dotcom's lawyers say the company simply offered online storage and that he will fight extradition.

The judge said there was a significant risk Dotcom, who had passports and bulging bank accounts in three names, could try to

flee the country.

"With sufficient determination and financial resources, flight risk remains a real and significant possibility which I cannot discount and bail is declined," Judge David McNaughton said.

Dotcom, 38, and three others, were arrested Friday after 70 New Zealand police raided his country estate at the request of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Officers cut Dotcom out of a safe room he had barricaded himself in within the sprawling mansion, reputedly New Zealand's most expensive home.

LONG BATTLE LOOMS

Dotcom, dressed in the same black trousers and track suit top he was arrested in, showed no emotion when the decision was read out, but his lawyer said he was "very disappointed" and would appeal immediately.

"The judge has agreed with much of what we have submitted but he has taken a different view on the issue of flight risk," Paul Davison told reporters.

The judge said the finding of unlicensed and illegal guns in the mansion, northwest of Auckland, pointed to possible criminal connections, which could make it easier to escape to Germany, where Dotcom would be safe from extradition.

Dotcom's lawyers said he emphatically denied the charges. They also said he was suffering from diabetes and hypertension as well as receiving treatment for a slipped disc.

He now faces four weeks behind bars in Auckland's main remand prison.

Megaupload and its related sites were among the Internet's most popular, allowing users to upload and share all kinds of content.

The site boasted having a billion users and as much as 4 percent of all Internet traffic. Prosecutors say Dotcom personally made $115,000 a day from the business in 2010.

The judge said he could not assess whether the United States had a strong enough case against Dotcom or whether he had a good defense.

"All I can says is that there appears to be an arguable defense at least in respect of the breach of copyright charges," McNaughton wrote.

McNaughton said he did not know how long a hearing would take, nor could it be heard "for some months." Legal experts said the extradition process could drag on for an extended period, as with efforts to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to Sweden from Britain.

A group of Dotcom's supporters left the court dejected and refused to talk to media.

Three other men charged with Dotcom were also remanded in custody and applied to the judge for separate hearings to make individual bail applications.

(Writing by Gyles Beckford; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Nick Macfie)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/wr_nm/us_internet_piracy_megaupload_bail

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World needs 600 million new jobs in next decade: ILO (Reuters)

GENEVA (Reuters) ? The International Labour Organization sounded the alarm on the global jobs situation in its annual report on Monday and called for more coordination of fiscal policies, repair and regulation of the financial sector and support for the real economy.

"What has changed with respect to last year is that our forecast has become much more pessimistic," said Ekkehard Ernst, one of the report's authors.

"We had expected a gradual stagnation or coming down of unemployment numbers. That's not something we foresee this year any more. Even in our baseline the unemployment numbers are increasing. With a possibility of a serious deterioration of global growth these numbers actually increase very much."

The ILO says there are nearly 200 million unemployed and that another 40 million jobs need to be created each year for the next decade.

"Hence, to generate sustainable growth while maintaining social cohesion, the world must rise to the urgent challenge of creating 600 million productive jobs over the next decade, which would still leave 900 million workers living with their families below the $2 a day poverty line, largely in developing countries," the report said.

Even under fairly benign conditions such as a quick resolution of the euro debt crisis, the ILO expects global unemployment to be stuck at about 6 percent until at least 2016.

The data was based on figures for mid- or end-2011 for most countries, although ILO officials use their own estimates for the two biggest countries, China and India.

(Reporting by Tom Miles; editing by Ron Askew)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/bs_nm/us_economy_ilo

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