Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Tired of Kardashians? Resistance appears futile

By Pamela Sitt, TODAY.com contributor

We?re sorry to have to break this to you, but 2012 is not the year of the Dragon. It?s the year of the Kardashian.

Lucy Nicholson / Reuters file

"Should I tweet a picture of this licorice bow I made?" Kim Kardashian and her sister Khloe at an NBA game earlier this month.

This might be the year that the Kardashians break us. There are too many of them. They?re relentless. And they keep breeding. Kourtney?s on a beach in Mexico as we speak, flaunting her baby bump in a turquoise bikini.

Is resistance futile?

You would think that after the embarrassment of Kim Kardashian?s 72-day marriage -- culminating in a dramatic, and certainly biased, retelling of events?in Sunday?s ?Kourtney and Kim Take New York? finale -- the most famous of the sisters would want to lay low for a while.

You would think.

But a girl can?t even watch ?The Bachelor? on a Monday night without getting assaulted by a preview for the ABC sitcom ?Last Man Standing,? guest-starring ... Kim Kardashian!

While guest-hosting ?Live with Kelly? last week, Kim told Kelly Ripa that she fled to her mom?s house with only pajamas and two pairs of sweatpants after her divorce for a self-imposed media hiatus. But I don?t recall a period in the recent past when we didn?t hear about Kim Kardashian. Do you?

On Monday, hours after E! showed her having a tearful meltdown because she didn?t want her husband to move his stuff into her house (prompting Scott Disick to ask, ?You do realize you?re married, right??), Kim cheerfully tweeted a pictureof herself and her sisters posing topless in Kardashian Kollection blue jeans.

Insert overexposure joke here. (Also, when did Scott Disick become the voice of reason in the Kardashian universe?)

On Tuesday, Kim tweeted (to her 12.8 million followers, shame on all of you) a picture of her new hair color: ?You like??

It appears that we do. Enough people seem to like Kim & Co. to keep them relevant.?Almost 5 million viewers tuned in to the ?Kourtney and Kim? finale, so you can be sure that E! has already signed a television contract with Kourtney?s unborn baby.

Is it too late to make a collective New Year?s resolution?

It is?

Well, then. ?Khloe and Lamar? is right around the corner.

Do you follow the Kardashians on Twitter or watch their shows on TV? Defend yourself over on Facebook!

Related content:

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/31/10281252-tired-of-the-kardashians-resistance-appears-futile

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Google Plus announces President Obama as "Hangout" host (Reuters)

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) ? It's not every day that you get to spend time with the President of the United States, but Monday night Barack Obama will log on to Google Plus for the Oval Office's first virtual "Hangout."

To discuss last week's State of the Union address, Obama will participate in a group video chat Monday on the burgeoning social networking site at 5:30 p.m. ET.

In its earnings report earlier this month, Google reported that 90 million people now subscribe to Google Plus, which combines many of the features of Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms.

Obama has leveraged social media to his advantage before, answering questions in Twitter and Facebook "townhalls."

Unlike with the Twitter townhall last July, Obama will answer live questions rather than just a preselected bunch. Google will choose certain questions submitted via YouTube while people can also comment and interact on Google Plus.

Obama's State of the Union drew high approval marks - 91 percent according to CBS News - but the "Hangout" comes a day before the Florida primary, which will give the Republicans the first of many chances to reverse some of the buzz generated by the year's first big national address.

The discussion will be streamed on Google Plus, the White House website and the White House's YouTube channel.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/media_nm/us_googleplus_obama

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Monday, January 30, 2012

Mitt Riffs Hard on Newt (TIME)

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Gingrich bemoans Romney's Florida "carpet-bombing" (AP)

MIAMI ? Newt Gingrich slammed GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney for "carpet-bombing" his record ahead of Tuesday's presidential primary in Florida, trying to cut into the resurgent front-runner's lead in the final 48 hours before the vote.

On the defensive after barrage of attacks from Romney and a political committee that supports him, Gingrich said Romney had lied and the GOP establishment had allowed it.

"I don't know how you debate a person with civility if they're prepared to say things that are just plain factually false," Gingrich said during appearances on Sunday talk shows. "I think the Republican establishment believes it's OK to say and do virtually anything to stop a genuine insurgency from winning because they are very afraid of losing control of the old order."

Despite Romney's effort to turn positive, the Florida contest has become decidedly bitter and personal. Romney and Gingrich have tangled over policy and character since Gingrich's stunning victory over the well-funded Romney in the South Carolina primary Jan. 21.

Showing no signs of letting up, Gingrich objected to a Romney campaign ad that includes a 1997 NBC News report on the House's decision to discipline the then-House speaker for ethics charges.

"It's only when he can mass money to focus on carpet-bombing with negative ads that he gains any traction at all," Gingrich said.

Gingrich acknowledged the possibility that he could lose in Florida and pledged to compete with Romney all the way to the party's national convention this summer.

An NBC/Marist poll showed Romney with support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters and Gingrich slipping to 27 percent.

While Romney had spent the past several days sharply attacking Gingrich, he pivoted over the weekend to refocus his criticism on President Barack Obama, calling the Democratic incumbent "detached from reality." The former Massachusetts governor criticized Obama's plan to cut the size of the military and said the administration had a weak foreign policy.

Gingrich's South Carolina momentum has largely evaporated amid the pounding he has sustained from Romney's campaign and the pro-Romney group called Restore Our Future. They have spent some $6.8 million in ads criticizing Gingrich in the Florida campaign's final week.

Gingrich planned to campaign Sunday in central Florida, while Romney scheduled rallies in the south. He was also looking ahead to the Nevada caucuses Feb. 4, airing ads in that state and citing the endorsement Sunday of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada's largest newspaper.

Gingrich collected the weekend endorsement of Herman Cain, a tea party favorite and former presidential hopeful whose White House effort foundered amid sexual harassment allegations.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, trailing in Florida by a wide margin, planned to remain in Pennsylvania where his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, was hospitalized, and resume campaigning as soon as possible, according to his campaign. She has a genetic condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 18th chromosome.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul has invested little in the Florida race and is looking ahead to Nevada. The libertarian-leaning Paul is focusing more on gathering delegates in caucus states, where it's less expensive to campaign. But securing the nomination only through caucus states is a hard task.

Gingrich appeared on "Fox News Sunday" and ABC's "This Week." Paul was on CNN's "State of the Union."

___

Associated Press writer Philip Elliott in Tampa contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Brazilian bikinis burgeon to fit the fat

In this photo taken Jan. 27, 2012, women shop for bikinis at a store in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken Jan. 27, 2012, women shop for bikinis at a store in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken Jan. 25, 2012, Elisangela Inez Soares rinses off at a shower in Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. According to Soares " not everyone is built like a model." (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken on Jan. 25, 2012, Elisangela Inez Soares rinses off at a shower in Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. According to Soares " not everyone is built like a model." (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken Jan. 27, 2012, people shop for bikinis at a store in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

In this photo taken Jan. 24, 2012, people rinse off at the showers at Piscinao de Ramos, an artificial lake in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

(AP) ? Tall and tan and young and ... chunky?

The Girl From Ipanema has put on a few pounds, and for many sunbathers on Brazil's beaches the country's iconic itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny bikini just doesn't suffice anymore.

A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines.

That's nothing short of a revolution in this most body-conscious of nations, where overweight ladies long had little choice but to hit the beach in comely ensembles of oversized T-shirts and biker shorts.

"It used to be bikinis were only in tiny sizes that only skinny girls could fit into. But not everyone is built like a model," said Elisangela Inez Soares as she sunbathed on Copacabana beach, her oiled-up curves packed into a black size 12 bikini.

"Finally, it seems like people are beginning to realize that we're not all Gisele," said the 38-year-old mother of four, referring to willowy Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen.

Clothing designer Clarice Rebelatto said her own swimwear-hunting travails prompted her to found Lehona, an exclusively plus-size beachwear line.

"Honestly, the problem went way beyond just bikinis. In Brazil, it used to be that if you were even a little chunky, finding any kind of clothes in the right size was a real problem," said Rebelatto, herself a size 10. "And I thought, 'I'm actually not even that big compared to a lot of women out there, so if I have problems, what are they doing?'"

Since its launch in 2010, the line has become a hit.

In brash leopard spots and flower prints not meant for wallflowers, the label's 14 bikini styles aren't what you'd normally associate with plus-size swimsuits. The necklines plunge dramatically. Straps are mere strings. And while the bottoms provide too much coverage to qualify for the famed "fio dental" or "dental floss" category of Brazilian string bikinis, they're significantly more audacious than the standard U.S. cut.

"We're working from the principle that bigger women are just like everyone else: They don't want to look like old ladies, wearing these very modest, very covering swimsuits in just black," said Luiz Rebelatto, Clarice's son and director of Lehona.

He said that recent publicity of the brand and several other new swimwear lines catering to plus sizes has triggered an overwhelming number of calls and e-mails from would-be customers.

"They're all excited and they say, 'I've been looking everywhere for a bikini like that. Where can I get one?'" said Rebelatto.

Lehona is currently sold exclusively at big and tall specialty stores throughout Brazil. Its bikinis retail for about 130 reais or $75 ? a relatively high price-point here, but Rebelatto said sales have grown at a galloping pace, though he did not provide any figures.

It's the same story at Acqua Rosa, a conventional swimwear label that added a plus-size line in 2008. Now, plus-size purchases account for more than 70 percent of the brand's total sales, said director Joao Macedo.

It makes sense.

For centuries, large swaths of Brazil were beset by malnutrition, and in 1970, nearly 10 percent of the population in the country's poor, rural northeast region was considered underweight, according to Brazil's national statistics institute.

But the phenomenal economic boom that has lifted tens of millions out of poverty and into the burgeoning middle class over the past decade has also changed the nation's once-svelte physique: A 2010 study by the statistics institute showed that 48 percent of adult women and 50 percent of men are now overweight. In 1985 those figures were 29 percent for women and 18 percent for men.

(Still, there's been no rash of plus-size male swimwear lines, as men here wear Speedo-style suits that don't impinge on big guts.)

Analysts attribute Brazil's rapidly widening girth to changes in nutrition, with chips, processed meats and sugary soft drinks replacing staples like rice, beans and vegetables.

And while the country's elite are widely known to be fitness freaks ? and also among the world's top consumers of cosmetic surgery ? those recently lifted out of poverty and manual labor are becoming increasingly sedentary. A 2008 study showed that barely 10 percent of Brazilian teens and adults exercise regularly.

Still, despite their growing numbers, not everyone is eager to embrace "gordinhas" ? or "little fatties," as chunky women are affectionately known here.

Many high-end bikini-makers have turned a seemingly deliberately blind eye to the burgeoning plus-size market. Rio-based upmarket brand Salinas, for example, offers five sizes, from extra-small through extra-large. But their sizing runs notoriously small and it's hard to imagine anyone over a size 6 actually managing to fit into any of the brand's minuscule two-pieces.

Luis Rebelatto of Lehona chalked it partially up to snobbery.

"Some brands, they don't want their image to be associated with chunky women," he said. "Only the thin, the rich and the chic."

While Brazilians' increasing heft is a public policy preoccupation for the government, growth in the ranks of the overweight population has given them increased visibility in Brazilian society. Extra-wide bucket seats for the obese have been installed in Sao Paulo's metro system, and on Sunday the city will host Brazil's first ever Miss Plus Size beauty contest.

"It used to be that people would stare at me," said Soares, the voluptuous sun-worshiper on Copacabana beach. "Now when I come to the beach I see women who are much bigger than me ? and lots of them are wearing bikinis ? so I'm not self conscious any more.

"God makes some people thin but he made me like this," she said, rubbing down the well-oiled bulge of her stomach and thighs. "So who am I to think that he was wrong?"

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-28-LT-Brazil-Bulging-Bikinis/id-afb5e6b51ea54ad78b962a9ab4d30967

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Magnetic Soap May Help Clean Up Spilled Oil

BP released millions of gallons of dispersants to break up oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. But what if dispersants could be sucked up again after doing their job? Chemist Julian Eastoe talks about an iron-containing soap he's created that can be recaptured using a magnet.

Copyright ? 2012 National Public Radio?. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

IRA FLATOW, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow. After the Deepwater Horizon spill, BP poured nearly two million gallons of dispersants into the Gulf of Mexico. The goal, of course, is breaking up oil slicks, making them dissolve into ocean waters, sort of like how you squirt dish soap on a greasy frying pan to get the oil to wash away with the water.

The problem is, after you dump all that soap into the Gulf, the soap stays there. My next guest has developed something that could be the solution: the soap that has iron in it so that you can suck up the soap with a magnet.

How do they do it? Could we really use something like this next time there's a big oil spill? Julian Eastoe is a professor in the School of Chemistry at the University of Bristol in the U.K. Welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY.

JULIAN EASTOE: Hello, Ira, from the United Kingdom.

FLATOW: Thanks for joining - how did you get this idea? It sounds so simple yet so easy.

EASTOE: Well, to explain that, I'd like to propose an interactive experiment for you and your listeners. Would that be OK?

FLATOW: Absolutely.

EASTOE: Well, the experiment works best if you're in the kitchen. So go over to the fridge and take one of those picture fridge magnets, you know, with Niagara Falls, Las Vegas or Disneyland on it.

FLATOW: Right.

EASTOE: And now go over to the kitchen sink with the magnet. Next put the magnet against the bottle of dish soap. Right. What happens?

FLATOW: Nothing.

EASTOE: Absolutely nothing.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

EASTOE: That's because normal soap is not magnetic. Just as you said, you can't control where it goes. Gravity does that, just sucks it down the drain. Now, Ira, we've been making soaps and surfactants with unusual properties for some years. Have you ever thought of a soap you could turn on with the flick of a switch, a light-sensitive surfactant? We made one of those about five years ago.

And next we thought why not try magnets. Would it be possible to make surfactants or soaps that respond to magnets? Well, if that's true, then you stand a chance to control where the soap does and where it doesn't go. Our motivation for this was just good old-fashioned scientific inquisitiveness.

FLATOW: So you created this soap that is magnetic so that the soap dissolves the grease, keeps the grease with it, and then you can just magnetize it away with a magnet?

EASTOE: Yeah, it sounds incredible, but it's true. I mean, I was witnessing the experiments in my laboratory at the University of Bristol this afternoon with graduate students. We were making emulsions with lube oil, our magnetic soap, and we were moving them around using magnets. The emulsions can be collected up. It's amazing.

FLATOW: Now, I've - I've got an experiment for you now. Tell me if this is possible. Let's say that you can put your - you can disperse your magnetic soap into a harbor. Can you magnetize the hulls of ships so that they sort of scoot around the harbor soaking up all the grease collecting on their hulls, and then you just clean them off when they get back to the harbor?

EASTOE: Well, Ira, I hadn't thought about that. It sounds feasible to me, but I think we would have to do some tests in the laboratory. I'm not sure about if you can maintain magnetism in the hull of a ship.

FLATOW: A-ha, but you think you can do this with an oil spill by collecting up all the grease later on?

EASTOE: Well, in principle that's right. That's what we demonstrated in the laboratory. The - we started with chemicals that are relatives of common or garden(ph) soaps. We kept the organic part of the molecule, the one which dissolves oily substances, but we chemically modified the ionic part, which makes the compound water soluble.

And it's quite simple, really. We replace the normal ions with magnetic ions. Those ions contain the element iron.

FLATOW: And voila, because the soap molecule, as you say, is fascinating to begin with. One end likes to stick in the grease, one end likes to stick in the water, and that's why it works so well. And you basically took the water end and put a piece of iron in there.

EASTOE: Yeah, we've done this with iron. That's in the paper, which has been published recently, but we've even used other magnetic units. I can't disclose them right now because they're under a secrecy agreement, but we are now starting to optimize the chemistry, and that is now really exciting.

I think what this research shows is the first stage in any scientific breakthrough, the essential proof of principle, and once the proof of principle has been established and has been communicated to the scientific community, that's when it gets really interesting.

FLATOW: Yeah.

EASTOE: That's when the collective consciousness, those thousands and thousands of scientific minds get to work coming up with ideas that you would never have thought of.

FLATOW: Yeah, it's - so once you show that this can happen, people will say, you know, this is what I could do with it. Sort of like...

EASTOE: Now, it was suggested to me, Ira, by somebody from the British equivalent of the Audubon Society - that's the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the United Kingdom - that this could potentially help in the cleanup of those poor seabirds when they get contaminated by oil slicks.

FLATOW: They get washed down with this magnetic soap.

EASTOE: Yeah, he suggested that maybe with the extra pull from the magnet you would be able to clean off the poor birds more effectively than just using the traditional, you know, dispersants. So I sent a grad student down to the store to get some lube oil and a pillow. We've taken it apart and we're testing that idea right now with down from the pillows that we bought in the store.

FLATOW: I'm sure the grad students are doing it, right?

EASTOE: Sure.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

FLATOW: You know, once these things happen, you know, like you never know where they're going to end up. I mean, the laser beam was invented to cut steel and razor blades back in the early '60s, but look what it's used for now. You never know where your idea might wind up, where it will end.

EASTOE: No, that's the really exciting thing about being a scientist, is that you uncover facts and figures that you just do not know where that will lead for the human race. Think about the liquid crystals, which were developed in the U.K. in the 1970s.

When they developed liquid crystals, they had no idea that it would be an integral part of mobile phones and smartphones, for example, but they certainly don't work without liquid crystals to allow you to interface with the electronics through the screen. And this is the same it could be here with this application, the applications that could come from this magnetic soap.

FLATOW: Now, let me ask you the $64 question, as we say here in the States.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

FLATOW: And it is a $64 question, I guess. Is it cheap enough? You know, can you make...

EASTOE: Well, in fact, it's interesting that what we started with, a chemical, sort of just the brothers and sisters of those that you would find in household products, we tried to keep it simple here. And the cost of our magnetic soap is already reasonable. It's reasonable enough that it could actually be scaled up.

Think that the elements that are contained in this soap are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, chlorine and iron, all very, very common elements. And therefore the soap that we've made is cheap, commercially viable.

FLATOW: Well, I wish you the best of luck, and we'll watch to see where your soap shows up, so to speak.

EASTOE: OK, thank you very much.

FLATOW: Thanks for taking time to be with us today. Julian...

EASTOE: OK, it's been a great pleasure, Ira.

FLATOW: You're quite welcome. Julian Eastoe is a professor in the School of Chemistry at the University of Bristol in the U.K.

Copyright ? 2012 National Public Radio?. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/27/145990087/magnetic-soap-may-help-clean-up-spilled-oil?ft=1&f=1007

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'Bubba Nosferatu' Could Become 'Bubba Roswell,' Paul Giamatti Reveals

Elvis versus aliens. If that doesn't sound awesome to you, then you and I are not living on the same planet.
Though "Bubba Ho-Tep" director Don Coscarelli and actor Paul Giamatti have long been planning on putting rock icon Elvis Presley up against a pack of blood-thirsty vampires in "Bubba Nosferatu," it now appears that their [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/01/27/bubba-nosferatu-roswell-paul-giamatti-don-coscarelli/

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Mayor unveils Lebanon's new tagline & logo

Sporting a Penn State football jersey in keeping with the event's halftime-party theme, Lebanon Mayor Sherry Capello stands before a screen showing the city s new logo and tagline Lebanon: The place to grow shortly after introducing them Wednesday night in HACC-Lebanon s multipurpose room. (John Latimer / Lebanon Daily News)

You won't find any reference to bologna in Lebanon's new catch phrase.

The city's new tagline - "Lebanon: The place to grow" - was announced Wednesday night by Mayor Sherry Capello.

The mayor's announcement was made in HACC-Lebanon's multipurpose room, which was decorated to reflect a Super Bowl halftime party theme. The room was filled with community leaders and invited guests, including many local elected officials.

In keeping with the sports-like atmosphere, the Lebanon High School cheerleaders lent their voices to the celebration, and many guests wore the jersey of their favorite team - including Capello, who sported a Penn State football jersey.

The tagline and logo - a red outline of the city's skyline above the word Lebanon - were the creations of a steering committee of about a dozen community volunteers who worked several months on the project, Capello explained.

The group formed its message by focusing on four of the city's best attributes - business, education, family life and community, the mayor said.

"Our tagline .... is not quite the big city flashy sort of tagline," Capello said. "However, it does reflect our vision statement and what you can get if you come to live in or visit Lebanon."

The tagline will not be part of a big marketing campaign, but it will be used to identify the city on places like its Website and letterhead, the mayor said.

The announcement of the tagline and logo were the finishing touches to a process that began a year ago when Capello invited community members to develop a vision for the city.

Four meetings were held at HACC during which the city's strengths and weaknesses were identified and discussed. A public survey was also conducted to gauge public sentiments.

The result was a lengthy vision statement, a portion of which identified Lebanon as a place with "a perfect blend of urban flair and rural character (with) a walkable urban center that embraces its historic charm and integrity while meeting the contemporary needs of a 21st Century economy."

While that process was guided by the Pennsylvania Downtown Center - a nonprofit organization with a track record of helping other cities develop revitalization strategies - Capello stressed that the tagline was a homegrown effort created and refined by Lebanon residents.

"We did what is right for us. What fits us," she said.

Capello gave credit to Jack Cantwell for coming up with the basic idea.

Owner of SkyLimit Marketing, Cantwell is a marketing specialist who has developed taglines and messaging for dozens of companies during a lengthy career.

After the celebration, Cantwell explained that good taglines need to have a positive message and be targeted towards the right audience - in the city's case, families and business owners.

"We built the line around grow, because it is a positive word and it is a reflection of the future, and positivity," Cantwell said. "We are a very solid, traditional community that sees the future as something special and positive. And we are happy to be here because this is the lifestyle we enjoy, and you can't find it anyplace else."

When campaigning for mayor in 2009, Capello promised to change the city's image and said creating a tagline was one way she would attempt to do it. Wednesday night, she said she was pleased with the results.

"If you want to elevate the standard of living of our residents and build our businesses, we must counter unproductive stereotypes about our city," Capello said. "We are going to change our image. We will promote the quality and benefits that are good to be associated with. Our tagline is credible, sustainable and matches the reality of our place."

johnlatimer@ldnews.com; 272-5611, ext. 149

Source: http://www.ldnews.com/ci_19822169?source=rss_viewed

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Friday, January 27, 2012

Today's sports briefs 1-27

Corn Belt classic pairings released

The Corn Belt Conference basketball classic will be held on Saturday in Freeman.

The classic starts at 11 a.m. at Freeman High School with the Menno girls playing Marion. At 12:30 p.m., the Menno boys play Marion.

The Canistota girls play Bridgewater-Emery at 2 p.m. and the Bridgewater-Emery boys play Freeman at 3:30 p.m. At 5 p.m., the Freeman girls play Hanson, and at 6:30 p.m., the Canistota boys play Hanson.

All-day admission for adults is $5, and students? admission is $4.

Craion, Oral Roberts pound South Dakota

TULSA, Okla. (AP) ? Michael Craion?s double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds paced Oral Roberts to its 12th straight victory in a 97-64 decision over South Dakota on Thursday night.

Mikey Manghum scored 18 points, all on 3-pointers, and Steven Roundtree 17 for the Golden Eagles (19-4, 11-0), whose winning streaks reached 19 at home and 18 in the Summit League. Warren Niles added 11 points and Dominique Morrison 10.

Charlie Westbrook scored 23 points and Trevor Gruis 11 for the Coyotes (7-13, 2-9), who have dropped four of five.

Manghum hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give Oral Roberts a 20-15 lead with 11:04 to go in the first half, and the Golden Eagles never trailed after that.

The Golden Eagles outshot the Jackrabbits 56.7 percent to 45.5 percent, held a 36-26 rebounding advantage and piled up 13 steals and 21 assists.

Oral Roberts took the first meeting 79-67 on the road Dec. 30.

Bader, Oakland, Mich., top South Dakota St. 92-87

ROCHESTER, Mich. (AP) ? Travis Bader scored 37 points and set a school record with 10 3-pointers to lead Oakland, Mich., to a 92-87 victory over South Dakota State on Thursday night.

Bader went 10 of 14 from long range, and his 3-pointer with 1:36 left gave the Golden Grizzlies the lead for good at 81-79. He also tied the best 3-point output in Division I this season.

Drew Valentine scored 19 points for Oakland (12-11, 6-5 Summit League), which has won four of five. Reggie Hamilton added 16 points and Ryan Bass 10. Corey Petros grabbed 10 rebounds.

Two players had double-doubles for the Jackrabbits (16-6, 8-2), whose three-game winning streak ended. Jordan Dykstra scored 23 points with 10 rebounds, and Nate Wolters had 21 points and 12 assists. Griffan Callahan scored 17, and Taevaunn Prince had 10 rebounds.

The Golden Grizzlies earned a season split, having lost 76-64 at South Dakota State.

Bucs hire Greg Schiano as coach

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) ? The Buccaneers are counting on Greg Schiano to lead them back to respectability and transform Tampa Bay into consistent winners ? much in the same way he made Rutgers matter again.

The 45-year-old former Scarlet Knights coach was hired Thursday, more than three weeks after the Bucs fired Raheem Morris following a 4-12 finish.

Celtics beat Orlando 91-83

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) ? Paul Pierce had 24 points and 10 assists, and E?Twaun Moore added 16 points to help the Boston Celtics erase a 27-point deficit and beat the Orlando Magic for the second time this week, 91-83 on Thursday night.

Pierce and Moore had 10 points each in the fourth quarter.

Dwight Howard led the Magic with 16 points and 16 rebounds. Orlando had an 11-point lead entering the fourth quarter, but shot 2 of 17 in the final 12 minutes.

Tags: sports,?updates

Source: http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/event/article/id/61640/

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Twitter may censor tweets in individual countries

This screen shot shows a portion of the Twitter blog post of Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, in which the company announced it has refined its technology so it can censor messages on a country-by-country basis. The additional flexibility is likely to raise fears that Twitter's commitment to free speech may be weakening as the short-messaging company expands into new countries in an attempt to broaden its audience and make more money. But Twitter sees the censorship tool as a way to ensure individual messages, or "tweets," remain available to as many people as possible while it navigates a gauntlet of different laws around the world. (AP Photo/Twitter)

This screen shot shows a portion of the Twitter blog post of Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, in which the company announced it has refined its technology so it can censor messages on a country-by-country basis. The additional flexibility is likely to raise fears that Twitter's commitment to free speech may be weakening as the short-messaging company expands into new countries in an attempt to broaden its audience and make more money. But Twitter sees the censorship tool as a way to ensure individual messages, or "tweets," remain available to as many people as possible while it navigates a gauntlet of different laws around the world. (AP Photo/Twitter)

(AP) ? Twitter has refined its technology so it can censor messages on a country-by-country basis.

The additional flexibility announced Thursday is likely to raise fears that Twitter's commitment to free speech may be weakening as the short-messaging company expands into new countries in an attempt to broaden its audience and make more money.

But Twitter sees the censorship tool as a way to ensure individual messages, or "tweets," remain available to as many people as possible while it navigates a gauntlet of different laws around the world.

Before, when Twitter erased a tweet it disappeared throughout the world. Now, a tweet containing content breaking a law in one country can be taken down there and still be seen elsewhere.

Twitter will post a censorship notice whenever a tweet is removed. That's similar to what Internet search leader Google Inc. has been doing for years when a law in a country where its service operates requires a search result to be removed.

Like Google, Twitter also plans to the share the removal requests it receives from governments, companies and individuals at the chillingeffects.org website.

The similarity to Google's policy isn't coincidental. Twitter's general counsel is Alexander Macgillivray, who helped Google draw up its censorship policies while he was working at that company.

"One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user's voice," Twitter wrote in a blog post. "We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can't. The tweets must continue to flow."

Twitter, which is based in San Francisco, is tweaking its approach now that its nearly 6-year-old service has established itself as one of the world's most powerful megaphones. Daisy chains of tweets already have played instrumental roles in political protests throughout the world, most notably in the uprising that overthrew Egypt's government a year ago.

It's a role that Twitter has embraced, but the company came up with the new filtering technology in recognition that it will likely be forced to censor more tweets as it pursues an ambitious agenda. Among other things, Twitter wants to expand its audience from about 100 million active uses now, to more than 1 billion.

Reaching that goal will require expanding into more countries, which will mean Twitter will be more likely to have to submit to laws that run counter to the free-expression protections guaranteed under the First Amendment in the U.S.

If Twitter defies a law in a country where it has employees, those people could be arrested. That's one reason Twitter is unlikely to try to enter China, where its service is currently block. Google for several years agreed to censor its search results in China to gain better access to the country's vast population, but stopped that practice two years after engaging in a high-profile showdown with Chain's government. Google now routes its Chinese search results through Hong Kong, where the censorship rules are less restrictive.

In its Thursday blog post, Twitter said it hadn't yet used its ability to wipe out tweets in an individual country. All the tweets it has previously censored were wiped out throughout the world. Most of those included links to child pornography.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-26-Twitter-Censorship/id-9f66f9b9ea584812b313dff7cf8890ac

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Somali captors move US hostage after SEAL raid

This combination photo made from undated images provided by the Danish Refugee Council shows Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, left, and American Jessica Buchanan. U.S. military forces flew into Somalia in a nighttime raid Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 and freed the two hostages while killing nine pirates, officials and a pirate source said. (AP Photo/Danish Refugee Council)

This combination photo made from undated images provided by the Danish Refugee Council shows Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, left, and American Jessica Buchanan. U.S. military forces flew into Somalia in a nighttime raid Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 and freed the two hostages while killing nine pirates, officials and a pirate source said. (AP Photo/Danish Refugee Council)

Map locates area around the town of Adado, Somalia, where two hostages were rescued during a helicopter raid.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) ? Pirates moved an American hostage at least three times in 24 hours and threatened Thursday to kill him after U.S. Navy SEALs rescued an American and a Dane in a bold, dark-of-night raid that raises questions about whether other Western captives are now in greater danger.

"If they try again, we will all die together," warned Hassan Abdi, a Somali pirate connected to the gang holding the American, who was kidnapped Saturday in northern Somalia.

"It's difficult to hold U.S. hostages, because it's a game of chance: die or get huge money. But we shall stick with our plans and will never release him until we get a ransom," Abdi said.

U.S. Navy SEALs parachuted into Somalia early Wednesday and hiked to where captors were holding 32-year-old American Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted, a 60-year-old Dane. A shootout ensued and nine captors were killed. Buchanan, Thisted and the U.S. troops were all unharmed. The two aid workers had been kidnapped by gunmen in October while working on demining projects for the Danish Refugee Council.

Buchanan and Thisted were flown to the U.S. Naval Air Base at Sigonella on the Italian island of Sicily to undergo medical screenings and other evaluations before heading home, a U.S. defense official said. Buchanan's family was meeting her at the base, which is the hub of U.S. Navy air operations in the Mediterranean.

The U.S. government said the raid was prompted by Buchanan's deteriorating health. An ailing Frenchwoman kidnapped by Somali gunmen died in captivity last year after not having access to her medication.

In the aftermath of Wednesday's rescue, the gang holding the American kidnapped in the northern town of Galkayo have moved him three times, Abdi said.

"Holding hostages in one place is unlikely now because we are the next target," he told The Associated Press by telephone.

He also expressed concern that the U.S. has pirate informants.

"It wasn't just a hit-and-run operation, but long planned with the help of insiders among us," Abdi said, noting that the Americans struck at a time when the pirates were least on their guard.

U.S. State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said U.S. officials have been in contact with the family of the latest American kidnapping victim.

"We are also working with our contacts in Kenya and in Somalia to try to get more information," Nuland told reporters in Washington.

"Obviously we condemn kidnapping of any kind and call for the immediate release of the victims ? any victims. We also would note that our travel warning for Somalia does caution U.S. citizens about the risk of travel."

Other hostages held in Somalia include a British tourist and two Spanish aid workers seized in neighboring Kenya, a French military adviser and 155 sailors of various nationalities hijacked by pirates at sea.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders, known as Medecins Sans Frontieres, employed the two Spanish women. The group said it was pleased that Buchanan and Thisted were freed and was seeking the release of its workers, Montserrat Serra and Blanca Theibaut. It hinted, though, that it views military raids as risky.

"MSF strongly favors the nonviolent resolution of such cases, as the use of force endangers the lives of the hostages and may result in the tragic loss of human lives," the group said. "We call upon the Somali population, especially the local authorities in control of the areas where the two are held, to do everything in their power to assist in their safe release."

It's not always clear what group is holding a captive in Somalia, and hostages have sometimes been sold from one gang to another. Captives can be held for long stretches: Two journalists from Canada and Australia were held for 15 months before being released in 2009, and the French military adviser has been missing for more than two years.

The security community is divided over whether the U.S. raid would make life more difficult for the other captives or whether the killings of the nine captors might make pirates think twice about launching future operations, a Western official in Kenya said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

On Wednesday evening, hours after the U.S. military raid, the gang holding the American hostage started circulating false rumors that they had executed him.

Another security official who has years of experience in the region said it was likely the men holding the American would move him onto a ship with other foreign hostages, because ships were easier to defend and planning rescue operations is more complicated when hostages from other countries are involved.

At least one pirate agreed with his analysis.

"I think land captivity is going to end now. Sea is much safer," pirate Mohamed Nur said by phone from the coastal town of Hobyo. "Even ships are not very safe, but you can at least hit back and resist."

Americans have been captured by Somali pirate gangs before. In 2009, the cargo vessel Maersk Alabama was briefly hijacked before pirates took to the lifeboat with the ship's captain, who was rescued after Navy sharpshooters killed the pirates.

But in a sign that pirates are getting increasingly violent ? and perhaps jittery ? four Americans onboard a hijacked yacht were killed last February. It's still unclear why the hostages were shot.

Several senior pirates condemned Wednesday's U.S. raid, which was authorized by President Barack Obama, and at least one warned that other U.S. hostages might suffer as a result.

"They send hit squads and kill all they want, so there is no way we will care for their (hostages) while they are killing us. They will see the aftereffects and reap the results of their actions," said Bile Hussein, a Somali pirate commander.

A spokesman for Somalia's U.N.-backed government said the pirates got what they deserved.

"Pirates have no place in our society," Abdirahman Omar Osman told the AP. "This is a huge and unforgettable lesson for them."

___

Associated Press writers Jason Straziuso and Katharine Houreld in Nairobi, Kenya, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow Katharine Houreld at http://twitter.com/khoureld

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-26-AF-Somalia-Raid/id-e9c7a6b4f0784d92a939ffd0d765a529

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Netflix shares surge as customer base grows

Netflix Inc's fourth-quarter revenue outpaced Wall Street's expectations as the video rental website reversed subscriber losses to sign up more than 600,000 new U.S. customers in the period, pushing its shares up 13 percent.

Netflix, which revolutionized the home video industry but in 2011 outraged customers with a surprise price hike and a botched attempt to split off its DVD-mail service, posted a 47 percent leap in fourth-quarter revenue to $876 million.

That outpaced an average forecast for $857.9 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Earnings per share hit 73 cents, beating an average forecast of 55 cents.

B. Riley & Co analyst Eric Wold said Netflix delivered the reassurance Wall Street was seeking that the company was winning new customers and wasn't hurt by its growing competition.

Wold said the number of U.S. streaming subscribers came in higher than expected, and the net loss Netflix is predicting for this year's first quarter as it expands internationally was lower than many projected. "It shows in my mind that the impact of Q3 and Q4 was temporary," he said.

"They have a very strong position. I think that's going to be comforting to people," Wold added.

Netflix lost more than 800,000 U.S. customers in the third quarter of 2011 after an uproar over a price hike and now-aborted plan to rent DVDs under the name Qwikster. The company's share price plummeted from $304 in July to $62 in November.

Shares rose 13 percent to trade above $107 in after-hours trading following the earnings report. They had ended at $95.04, up 2.6 percent, in the regular session on Nasdaq.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46138064/ns/business-us_business/

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

How Much Does Political Change Cost? (ContributorNetwork)

An article on CNN.com discusses the rising costs of running for a congressional seat. A senior fellow who studies elections and campaign finance at the Brookings Institution says that the amount of spending by Congressional candidates in the 1970s would almost be considered "rounding errors" in today's high-stakes political spending sprees.

How much does it cost to get to Washington and make a change?

* In 2010 it cost the winning House of Representatives candidate an average of about $1.4 million, reports the Center for Responsive Politics.

* In 2010, according to the same source, it cost the winning Senate candidate an average of about $10 million.

* In 2010 the average national wage was $39,959.30, according to the Social Security Administration. This means that the average House winner spent 35 times the annual income of the average American full-time worker during his or her campaign. The typical Senate winner spent 250 times the annual income of the average worker.

* In 1992, according to the New York Times, incumbent House candidates spent an average of $292,949 in over the previous 21 months, an amount that had risen 27 percent from 1990. The average incumbent Senator spent $2.35 million. This means that, in nominal dollars, 2010 House candidates spent 4.78 times as much as their predecessors 18 years before, while Senate candidates spent 4.25 times as much. During the election cycle only three House candidates and two Senate candidates raised more money than the incumbents they were facing.

* In 1992 the average national wage was $22,001.92, which meant that the typical incumbent House candidate spent 13 times the annual income of the average full-time worker. The average Senate incumbent spent almost 107 times the annual income of the average worker.

* In 2008, according to the Federal Election Commission, all presidential candidates spent a total of over $1.6 billion during their respective campaigns. Republican nominee John McCain spent nearly $400 million, while Democratic nominee (and election winner) Barack Obama spent nearly $800 million. Even those who did not win their respective political party's nomination spent heavily: Republican Mitt Romney spent over $100 million and Democrat Hillary Clinton spent roughly $250 million.

* According to the FEC, presidential candidates must raise more money earlier than ever before. As of March 31, 2007, there were six candidates who had raised more than $10 million for their 2008 presidential campaigns. On March 31, 2003 there was only one candidate who had raised more than $10 million for the 2004 campaign. As of March 31, 1999 only one candidate, incumbent Democratic vice president Al Gore, had raised even $2 million. The most raised by a candidate by March 31, 1979 in anticipation of the 1980 election? $1.75 million, by Republican Phil Crane.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120122/pl_ac/10869005_how_much_does_political_change_cost

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Romney: Gingrich activity 'potentially wrongful' (AP)

TAMPA, Fla. ? Mitt Romney launched a multipronged attack Monday on rival Newt Gingrich, including a scathing TV ad and personally accusing the former House speaker of engaging in "potentially wrongful activity" in his consulting work over the past decade.

Romney called on Gingrich to release his client list for that period. He offered no proof that Gingrich had engaged in wrongful behavior when, after leaving Congress, he worked with former colleagues to push for a prescription drug benefit for Medicare. Gingrich has never been a registered lobbyist.

"Was he working or were his entities working with any health care companies that could've benefited from that? That could represent not just evidence of lobbying but potentially wrongful activity of some kind," Romney told reporters after a campaign appearance.

When asked if he was suggesting that Gingrich committed a crime, Romney said: "We just need to understand what his activity's been over the last 15 years, and make sure that it's conformed with all the regulations that might exist."

The attacks, combined with the campaign's first negative ad and a conference call in which top surrogates criticized Gingrich, showed a newfound aggressiveness for Romney and set the stage for a presidential debate later Monday. Romney lost big to Gingrich in Saturday's South Carolina primary and has adopted a newly aggressive tone in an effort to try to regain the momentum from Gingrich.

"While Florida families lost everything in the housing crisis, Newt Gingrich cashed in," the TV ad says, noting that the former speaker made more than $1.6 million working for Freddie Mac. "Gingrich resigned from Congress in disgrace and then cashed in as a D.C. insider."

Gingrich has said he was a consultant for Freddie Mac, the federally backed mortgage company that played a significant role in the housing crisis.

Romney said Gingrich should return the more than $1.6 million he made from the company.

While Romney criticized Gingrich, Romney also profited from investments in Freddie Mac.

His most recent financial disclosure forms show he had a direct investment in Freddie Mac worth between $100,000 and $250,000. He made between $5,000 and $15,000 in interest income on it between February 2010 and February 2011.

Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom noted that, even though the former Massachusetts governor profited from the investment, he did not work for Freddie Mac as Gingrich did.

"Newt Gingrich said anybody who profited from Freddie Mac while defending their failed model ought to give the money back," Fehrnstrom said.

While Romney's allies have been attacking Gingrich in television commercials for weeks, the Romney campaign's new commercial marked the first time it has directly attacked any of his opponents.

Romney answered questions from the media after an event Monday that made clear he intends to focus on housing in a state particularly hard hit by home foreclosures and the struggling economy.

But Romney didn't suggest he intends to change his own prescription for fixing the housing crisis. He told the Las Vegas Review-Journal's editorial board last year that the housing market should be allowed to hit bottom.

Still, the attacks set the stage for Monday's debate, a forum in which Gingrich has thrived.

To improve his own performance, Romney was spending much of the day preparing for the two-hour debate with Brett O'Donnell, who advised President George W. Bush and 2008 nominee John McCain.

___

Associated Press writer Brian Bakst contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney

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BlackBerry maker co-CEOs step down as co-CEOs (AP)

TORONTO ? BlackBerry maker Research in Motion's co-CEOs, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, announced they have stepped down as co-CEOs and co-chairmen of the once-iconic company that has struggled to compete in recent years.

The RIM founders have been replaced by Thorsten Heins, a chief operating officer who joined RIM four years ago from Siemens AG, RIM said Sunday.

The Canadian company turned the email smartphone into a ubiquitous device that many could not live without, but U.S. users have moved on to flashier touch-screen phones such as Apple's iPhone and various competing models that run Google's Android software. RIM has suffered a series of setbacks and has lost tens of billions in market value.

RIM said last month that new phones deemed critical to the company's future would be delayed until late this year. And its PlayBook tablet, RIM's answer to the Apple iPad, failed to gain consumer support, forcing the company to deeply discount it to move the devices off store shelves.

Many shareholders and analysts have said a change or sale of the company has been needed, but the sudden departure of the two founders from their top jobs wasn't expected despite their promises that they would examine the co-CEO and co-chairmen structure.

Balsillie and Lazaridis have long been celebrated as Canadian heroes, even appearing in the country's citizenship guide for new immigrants as models of success. They headed Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM together for the past two decades.

"There comes a time in the growth of every successful company when the founders recognize the need to pass the baton to new leadership. Jim and I went to the board and told them that we thought that time was now," Lazaridis said in a statement.

Lazaridis will take on a new role as vice chairman of RIM's board and chairman of the board's new innovation committee. Balsillie remains a member of the board.

The two remain two of RIM's biggest shareholders.

"I agree this is the right time to pass the baton to new leadership, and I have complete confidence in Thorsten, the management team and the company," Balsillie said in the statement. "I remain a significant shareholder and a director and, of course, they will have my full support."

Analysts have said RIM's future depends on its much-delayed new software platform as RIM has tried and failed to reinvigorate the BlackBerry. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said in late 2010 that RIM would have a hard time catching up to Apple because RIM has been forced to move beyond its area of strength and into unfamiliar territory of trying to become a software platform company.

Heins, 54, said Lazaridis and Balsillie took RIM in the right direction and said he's committed to the new software.

"We are more confident than ever that was the right path. It is Mike and Jim's continued unwillingness to sacrifice long-term value for short-term gain which has made RIM the great company that it is today. I share that philosophy and am very excited about the company's future," Heins said.

Barbara Stymiest, a former chief operating officer of the Royal Bank of Canada who has been a member of RIM's board since 2007, has named chair of the board of directors. RIM also announced that Prem Watsa, the chief executive of Fairfax Financial Holdings, is a new board member. Watsa has become a significant shareholder.

Lazaridis said he was so confident in the future direction of the company that he intends to purchase an additional $50 million of the company's shares on the open market.

RIM was worth more than $70 billion a few years ago but now has a market value of $8.9 billion.

The company still has 75 million active subscribers, but many analysts believe RIM will lose market share internationally as it has in the U.S. Market researcher NPD Group said RIM's market share of smartphones in the U.S. declined from 44 percent in 2009 to 10 percent in 2011.

Balsillie acknowledged in December that the last few quarters have been among the most challenging times in the company's history.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_bi_ge/cn_rim_ceos_resign

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Murder charge for suspect in shooting of Ky. mayor (AP)

HICKMAN, Ky. ? A 30-year-old man who grew up in a small town in western Kentucky came to the police station in the middle of the night with chilling news: He told officers that he had just shot the mayor.

An officer rushed to Hickman Mayor Charles Murphy's house and found the side door broken in early Monday. In the bedroom, Murphy lay dead of a shotgun blast.

A day later, Thomas Joseph "Tommy" Lattus was due in court to face a murder charge. The 68-year-old Murphy was a well-liked former educator who had dated Lattus' stepmother on and off over the years.

The shooting stunned residents of the town of about 2,500 people, many of whom knew Murphy as their school principal.

"It wasn't random or anything like that; it's personal," Hickman Police Chief Tony Grogan told The Associated Press about the shooting. "As far as clear motive, I would assume that it's just that he didn't like him."

Multiple shots were fired, but Grogan wouldn't say how many times Murphy was hit. Jail records didn't indicate whether Lattus had an attorney.

Grogan said Lattus may have been upset with Murphy over the relationship with his stepmother, Carole Lattus.

"Sometimes they broke up, sometimes they got back together," Grogan said of the relationship.

The police chief added: "From Tommy's point of view, I think he might have had some friction, from things that happened in the past."

The mayor's brother and neighbor, Fred Murphy, said his nephew told him Monday that the mayor had asked his son to call periodically to check on his welfare when Lattus came to visit him in recent days.

Carole Lattus was out of the country Monday and couldn't immediately be reached. Thomas Lattus had been adopted by Carole Lattus when he was a boy, said Gerald Harris, whose niece is married to the mayor's son. The suspect's father, Carole Lattus' former husband, died years ago.

Another neighbor who had known Tommy Lattus since he was young said he appeared to be unstable. Melissa Somerfield, who has lived near Murphy for 22 years, said his odd behavior included a time when Lattus had a singing outburst at a church service.

"He just got up out of the blue and starting singing aloud. People went and started telling his mother that things were not right with him," she said.

Murphy's friends said Lattus had been living out of town but returned to Hickman in recent days. Grogan said Lattus had been staying at his stepmother's home.

Somerfield said she was awakened by her sister around 2:30 a.m. with the news that the man who once served as her elementary and junior high principal had been killed. Authorities were at Murphy's home until around 4:30 a.m.

"It's been really hard to wrap my head around this," Somerfield said.

Jason Sipes, pastor at West Hickman Baptist Church, said family members gathering at a house would not comment on the shooting.

The city in the extreme southwest corner of Kentucky is known for the Hickman-Dorena Ferry, the only connection for automobiles over the Mississippi River between Kentucky and Missouri. Violent crime there is rare.

"We have speeding tickets and running stop signs, but to have something of this magnitude, we may have something like this happen every five to 10 years," City Manager Larry Myatt said.

Morrison Williamson, manager at Hickman Hardware, said he first heard about the shooting early in the morning from his wife.

"Next thing I know, people started calling the store, saying `Did you hear what happened?'" Williamson said.

Murphy was in his second term as mayor. He previously served on the city board of commissioners. City Commissioner Charles Choate described Murphy as a small farmer who loved to spend time on his property.

Murphy was also proud that recent audits showed the city's financial situation was improving.

"He was very proud that the city was turning the corner and being more financially responsible," Choate said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_re_us/us_kentucky_mayor_killed

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Supreme Court Says Warrant Required for GPS Tracking (See correction below) (Theagitator)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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Monday, January 23, 2012

Women report feeling pain more intensely than men, says study of electronic medical records

ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2012) ? Women report more intense pain than men in virtually every disease category, according to Stanford University School of Medicine investigators who mined a huge collection of electronic medical records to establish the broad gender difference to a high level of statistical significance.

Their study, published online in the Journal of Pain, suggests that stronger efforts should be made to recruit women subjects in population and clinical studies in order to find out why this gender difference exists.

The study also shows the value of EMR data mining for research purposes. Using a novel database designed especially for research, the Stanford scientists examined more than 160,000 pain scores reported for more than 72,000 adult patients. From these, they extracted cases where disease-associated pain was first reported, and then stratified these findings by disease and gender.

"None of these data were initially collected for research, but this study shows that we can use it in that capacity," said Atul Butte, MD, PhD, the study's senior author.

The medical literature contains numerous reports indicating that women report more pain than men for one or another particular disease, noted Butte, a professor of systems medicine in pediatrics. "We're certainly not the first to find differences in pain among men and women. But we focused on pain intensity, whereas most previous studies have looked at prevalence: the percentage of men vs. women with a particular clinical problem who are in pain. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first-ever systematic use of data from electronic medical records to examine pain on this large a scale, or across such a broad range of diseases."

The study's first authors were Butte's graduate student Linda Liu and postdoctoral scholar David Ruau, PhD, who splits his time between Butte's group and that of co-author Martin Angst, MD, professor of anesthesia. David Clark, MD, PhD, a professor of anesthesia, was another co-author.

Electronic medical records are deployed in about 1-2 percent of hospitals now, but that should approach 100 percent within the next few years as the United States continues to move toward EMRs, Butte said. Thus, large-scale research using clinically collected data will become increasingly feasible.

In this case, the scientists tapped an existing data archive that has been designed specifically for ease of research: the Stanford Translational Research Integrated Database Environment, or STRIDE. Pioneered by the medical school's chief information officer, Henry Lowe, MD (who is also an associate professor of systems medicine in pediatrics and director of Stanford's Center for Clinical Informatics), STRIDE aggregates clinical data on patients cared for at Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, making this data searchable for approved research projects.

Butte's team selected only adult records and looked for gender-related differences in pain intensity as reported on 1-to-10 scales, in which a zero stands for "no pain" and 10 for "worst imaginable." Their search algorithm combed through de-identified EMR data for more than 72,000 patients, and came up with more than 160,000 instances, ranging across some 250 different disease categories, in which a pain score had been reported.

"If someone's reporting that they're in pain, they're probably going to be given medication, which might reduce any subsequently measured pain score," said Butte. To get pain estimates that weren't as confounded by subsequent pain-relief medications or procedures, his group analyzed only the first pain-intensity score reported by a patient per encounter with a hospital-associated health professional.

The search identified 47 separate diagnostic categories for which there were more than 40 pain reports for each gender. The sample included more than 11,000 individual adult patients, of which 56 percent were women and 51 percent of them white. The researchers were able to further analyze these 47 categories by condensing them into 16 disease clusters: "musculoskeletal and connective tissue" (in which the biggest gender differences in reported pain intensity were observed), "circulatory" and so forth.

"We saw higher pain scores for female patients practically across the board," said Butte. Those reported differences were not only statistically significant, but also clinically significant. "In many cases, the reported difference approached a full point on the 1-to-10 scale. How big is that? A pain-score improvement of one point is what clinical researchers view as indicating that a pain medication is working."

While the overall results tended to confirm previous clinical findings -- for example, that female fibromyalgia or migraine patients report more pain than their male counterparts -- the search also unearthed previously unreported gender differences in pain intensity for particular diseases, for example acute sinusitis and "cervical spine disorders," more commonly known as neck pain.

The study's results come with a few caveats. First, the investigators made the assumption that patients' pain hadn't already been treated -- for example, that they hadn't already self-medicated with over-the-counter painkillers -- by the time they showed up in the emergency room, doctor's office or neighborhood health clinic (or, equivalently, that the men and women were equally likely to have done so).

Other possible confounders include the setting in which pain was reported, Butte said. "Will an 18-year-old male report the same pain intensity with or without his mom present, or in the presence of a male vs. a female nurse? We can't be sure." But the sheer size of the study probably washes these concerns out at least to some extent, he said.

The third caveat is perhaps the most controversial. "It's still not clear if women actually feel more pain than men do," said Butte. "But they're certainly reporting more pain than men do. We don't know why. But it's not just a few diseases here and there, it's a bunch of them -- in fact, it may well turn out to be all of them. No matter what the disease, women appear to report more-intense levels of pain than men do."

To get to the bottom of this, Butte's team plans to search EMRs to see if they can find some objective measurement -- an already commonly measured blood-test variable, for instance -- that correlates highly with reported pain. "We want to find a biomarker for pain," he said.

The work was funded by the Stanford Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection; the National Library of Medicine; the Hewlett-Packard Foundation; and the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stanford University Medical Center. The original article was written by Bruce Goldman.

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Journal Reference:

  1. David Ruau, Linda Y. Liu, J. David Clark, Martin S. Angst, Atul J. Butte. Sex Differences in Reported Pain Across 11,000 Patients Captured in Electronic Medical Records. The Journal of Pain, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2011.11.002

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/2012/01/120123115517.htm

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