TurboCollage Android app delivers the big picture (Appolicious)

Turns out you don?t have to be a scrapbook expert to create a cool photo collage. All you need is an Android phone or tablet and this useful app. I never made a collage before, but it only took a few minutes using TurboCollage to produce two nice photo art pieces using pictures of my family.

The app?s interface feels straightforward and easy to use. For your collage, the app lets you pull photos live from your device?s camera or from the photo gallery. My only complaint about the user experience is that you can?t choose multiple photos from the gallery at one time, but must instead go back and forth picking one at a time.

Once you have the photos collected, you simply drag them around the workspace. To grow or shrink the size of any individual photo, just select it and touch the plus sign next to the photo and drag up (to blow up) or down (to shrink). You can also quickly rotate photos by dragging your finger in a circle. The whole point of a photo collage is to overlap pictures so the app provides arrows that let you bring a photo in front of or behind others. When you?ve finished your masterpiece, just press the ?share? button to upload the collage to Facebook, send it in an email, or save it to the device gallery.

TurboCollage is free, and definitely worth a look.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_androidapps_com_articles10896_turbocollage_android_app_delivers_the_big_picture/44348152/SIG=1322fcufg/*http%3A//www.androidapps.com/tech/articles/10896-turbocollage-android-app-delivers-the-big-picture

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Japanese carmaker Honda's Q3 seen hit by disasters, yen (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? Honda Motor Co (7267.T) is expected to report a double-digit slide in quarterly operating profit on Tuesday and forecast a still larger drop for the full year, as natural disasters in Japan and Thailand hit it harder than rivals.

Japan's No.3 automaker was the slowest to recover from supply-chain disruptions after the earthquake and tsunami in March, while it was alone in having a car factory inundated by the historic floods in Thailand, Southeast Asia's export hub.

That is expected to push Honda's October-December operating profit down 35 percent to 81 billion yen ($1.06 billion), according to a poll of nine analysts by Reuters.

Honda's announcement is being closely watched after the company withdrew its guidance in October citing uncertainty over when production could resume in Thailand. Honda is the first Japanese automaker to report third-quarter earnings, and is also expected to provide an update on Thai production on Tuesday.

In 2011, Honda's global output dropped by a fifth to 2.909 million cars, slipping below 3 million for the first time in eight years. All other Japanese automakers, except Nissan Motor Co (7201.T), built fewer cars also, but the falls were much smaller than at Honda.

For the year to March 31, 2012, forecasts from 24 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S put Honda's annual operating profit at 283 billion yen, down 50 percent from 2010-11 when it was hit by the yen's rise against the dollar and euro.

The consensus forecast is slightly higher than the 270 billion yen Honda projected in August.

With production steadily recovering in the final months of 2011, investors have turned their attention to an anticipated jump in sales as Honda restocks its depleted inventory.

So far this year, its shares are the best performer among Japanese automakers, rising 14.2 percent as of Monday. Tokyo's auto sector index (.ITEQP.T) has gained 8.9 percent.

LONGER-TERM WORRIES

Still, concern has lingered over whether Honda might be losing its edge after a new version of its top-selling Civic was heavily criticized for its styling and interior in the United States, its biggest market, last year.

Competition in the United States is set to heat up this year as resurgent local giants Ford Motor Co (F.N) and General Motors Co (GM.N) and South Korea's fast-rising Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS) flex their muscles in the sedan segment previously dominated by Honda and Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T).

While acknowledging the criticisms of the revamped Civic, Honda Chief Executive Takanobu Ito stressed this month that the car had topped the country's compact sedan segment in the latest quarter, outselling Toyota's Corolla.

Honda is targeting a 25 percent jump in its U.S. sales this calendar year. To this aim, it is shoring up its struggling Acura premium brand.

Honda is scheduled to announce its results at 3 p.m. (0600 GMT) in Tokyo.

Domestic rivals Toyota and Nissan are scheduled to announce third-quarter earnings on February 7 and 8, respectively. ($1 = 76.7350 Japanese yen)

(Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/bs_nm/us_honda

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Caltrans wants to abandon cliff-hanging Highway 39

In a standoff with federal forest officials, Caltrans is proposing to abandon a popular, cliff-hanging highway in the San Gabriel Mountains because it is too expensive to maintain.

Caltrans' proposal to walk away from California Highway 39, enjoyed by an estimated 3 million people a year, comes as the state struggles to close a $9.2-billion budget shortfall.

To avoid closure, Caltrans is trying to persuade the U.S. Forest Service or Los Angeles County to take over the roadway, which runs 27 miles from the city of Azusa nearly to the crest of the San Gabriels. Neither agency wants it.

"So far, they have gracefully declined to take on this responsibility, and Caltrans is stuck with the costs," said Ronald J. Kosinski, Caltrans' deputy district director for environmental planning. "I hope people don't start digging in their heels over this matter."

L.A. County needs the highway to access three dams critical to flood control. But Tony Bell, spokesman for county Supervisor Michael Antonovich, whose district includes the San Gabriels, said the county has no desire to assume responsibility. "Why would it?" he asked.

The Forest Service's interest is access to Angeles National Forest by the public and, at times, by firefighters. The agency spent $6 million improving a spacious campground at Crystal Lake, where the highway now ends after winding along the San Gabriel River past the Morris and San Gabriel reservoirs.

"We met with Caltrans and told them we do not have the resources or funds to maintain that state highway," said Forest Service engineer Sonja Bergeahl.

The issue led to a bout of brinkmanship in recent days.

Kosinski told The Times that Caltrans is operating the road under a special permit dating to the 1920s, when the highway was built. "According to the agreement, the only way we can extricate ourselves from it is to abandon the highway," he said.

The Forest Service says it has a different interpretation, one that would cost Caltrans dearly. "The permit does say that if Caltrans abandons the highway, they have to remove their improvements ? meaning the road ? and return the area to the natural landscape," Bergeahl said.

Caltrans spends $1.5 million a year maintaining the two-lane paved roadway, which is damaged regularly by landslides, flooding, falling rocks and forest fires. The agency said that abandonment is a rare step, possibly unprecedented. Caltrans could not immediately cite another instance in which it walked away from a state route.

Abandoning the highway to save $1.5 million a year is not significant for an agency that spends $13 billion a year to manage 50,000 miles of road statewide. But Caltrans said the proposal is consistent with its efforts to cut costs wherever it can ? and Highway 39 presents a unique situation.

A landslide swept away the highest part of the road in 1978, cutting it off from Angeles Crest Highway. Since then, that last stretch of asphalt has been roamed by Nelson's bighorn sheep, creatures fully protected under state law. Caltrans concluded that it would be cost-prohibitive to re-engineer that 4.4-mile gap and legally risky to try because it cannot guarantee that the sheep would not be killed in the process.

As a result, the highway has become what Caltrans spokesman Patrick Chandler described as "essentially a 27-mile-long cul-de-sac."

Kosinski said he was waiting for more guidance from agency attorneys. Caltrans might be able to sweeten the offer to the county or Forest Service by providing money to cover several years of maintenance, he said. "Putting up a gate at the southern end of the highway and simply handing over the keys to the Forest Service is another option."

About 500 people rely on the highway to reach their homes, said Barret Wetherby, former president of the San Gabriel Canyon Homeowners Assn. Wetherby said he does not believe the road will ever be abandoned.

"I think Caltrans is bluffing, and it's not going to work," he said. "It's the gateway to the San Gabriel Mountains and we need it open every day and night so that flatlanders can recreate up there, and folks can evacuate in the event of an emergency."

Adam Samrah, 54, bought the Crystal Lake Snack Bar Trading Post in 2002, shortly before the area was closed for nine years because of damage from a forest fire. He finally opened for business in March after spending about $107,000 in renovations.

Closing California 39, the only road that accesses the store, "would destroy me," Samrah said. "I'm sick over this. It doesn't make sense."

Caltrans spokesman Chandler visited the rustic cafe this week and tried to reassure Samrah. "All we want to do is abandon the highway," Chandler said. But that doesn't necessarily mean the highway will be closed, he said.

Samrah, a Turkish immigrant who speaks broken English, had trouble understanding the difference.

"What if nobody else wants the highway?" Samrah asked. "What if you shut it down? I'm not a rich guy. I can't afford to sue a giant like Caltrans."

"We'll be in touch," Chandler said before heading down the mountain.

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/UEEB2BzqzlM/la-me-caltrans-highway39-20120129,0,518532.story

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That which does not kill yeast makes it stronger

ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2012) ? Cells trying to keep pace with constantly changing environmental conditions need to strike a fine balance between maintaining their genomic integrity and allowing enough genetic flexibility to adapt to inhospitable conditions. In their latest study, researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research were able to show that under stressful conditions yeast genomes become unstable, readily acquiring or losing whole chromosomes to enable rapid adaption.

The research, published in the January 29, 2012, advance online issue of Nature, demonstrates that stress itself can increase the pace of evolution by increasing the rate of chromosomal instability or aneuploidy. The observation of stress-induced chromosome instability casts the molecular mechanisms driving cellular evolution into a new perspective and may help explain how cancer cells elude the body's natural defense mechanisms or the toxic effects of chemotherapy drugs.

"Cells employ intricate control mechanisms to maintain genomic stability and prevent abnormal chromosome numbers," says the study's leader, Stowers investigator Rong Li, Ph.D. "We found that under stress cellular mechanisms ensuring chromosome transmission fidelity are relaxed to allow the emergence of progeny cells with diverse aneuploid chromosome numbers, producing a population with large genetic variation."

Known as adaptive genetic change, the concept of stress-induced genetic variation first emerged in bacteria and departs from a long-held basic tenet of evolutionary theory, which holds that genetic diversity -- evolution's raw material from which natural selection picks the best choice under any given circumstance -- arises independently of hostile environmental conditions.

"From an evolutionary standpoint it is a very interesting finding," says graduate student and first author Guangbo Chen. "It shows how stress itself can help cells adapt to stress by inducing chromosomal instability."

Aneuploidy is most often associated with cancer and developmental defects and has recently been shown to reduce cellular fitness. Yet, an abnormal number of chromosomes is not necessarily a bad thing. Many wild yeast strains and their commercial cousins used to make bread or brew beer have adapted to their living environs by rejiggering the number of chromosomes they carry. "Euploid cells are optimized to thrive under 'normal' conditions," says Li. "In stressful environments aneuploid cells can quickly gain the upper hand when it comes to finding creative solutions to roadblocks they encounter in their environment."

After Li and her team had shown in an earlier Nature study that aneuploidy can confer a growth advantage on cells when they are exposed to many different types of stress conditions, the Stowers researchers wondered whether stress itself could increase the chromosome segregation error rate.

To find out, Chen exposed yeast cells to different chemicals that induce various types of general stress and assessed the loss of an artificial chromosome. This initial screen revealed that many stress conditions, including oxidative stress, increased the rate of chromosome loss ten to 20-fold, a rate typically observed when cells are treated with benomyl, a microtubule inhibitor that directly affects chromosome segregation.

The real surprise was radicicol, a drug that induces proteotoxic stress by inhibiting a chaperone protein, recalls Chen. "Even at a concentration that barely slows down growth, radicicol induced extremely high levels of chromosome instability within a very short period of time," he says.

Continued growth of yeast cells in the presence of radicicol led to the emergence of drug-resistant colonies that had acquired an additional copy of chromosome XV. Yeast cells pretreated briefly with radicicol to induce genomic instability also adapted more efficiently to the presence of other drugs including fluconazole, tunicamycin, or benomyl, when compared to euploid cells.

Interestingly, certain chromosome combinations dominated in colonies that were resistant to a specific drug. Fluconazole-resistant colonies typically gained an extra copy of chromosome VIII, tunicamycin-resistant colonies tended to lose chromosome XVI, while a majority of benomyl-resistant colonies got rid of chromosome XII. "This suggested to us that specific karyotypes are associated with resistance to certain drugs," says Chen.

Digging deeper, Chen grew tunicamycin-resistant yeast cells, which had adapted to the presence of the antibiotic by losing one copy of chromosome XVI, under drug-free conditions. Before long, colonies of two distinct sizes emerged. He quickly discovered that the faster growing colonies had regained the missing chromosome. By returning to a normal chromosome XVI number, these newly arisen euploid cells had acquired a distinctive growth advantage over their aneuploid neighbors. But most importantly, the fast growing yeast cells were no longer resistant to tunicamycin and thus clearly linking tunicamycin resistance to the loss of chromosome XVI.

Researchers who also contributed to the work include William D. Bradford and Chris W. Seidel both at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

The study was funded in part by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stowers Institute for Medical Research, via Newswise.

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Journal Reference:

1. Guangbo Chen, William D. Bradford, Chris W. Seidel, Rong Li. Hsp90 stress potentiates rapid cellular adaptation through induction of aneuploidy. Nature, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nature10795

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://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/5Ai57WPl72k/120129151104.htm

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Sub of the Night locked up? Oliveira brilliant in finish of Wisely at UFC on Fox 2

CHICAGO -- Eric Wisely learned a new submission term - the calf slicer. Unfortunately, it was Wisely's calf, knee and thigh being shredded by Charles Oliveira.

In his featherweight debut, Oliveira showed off some nifty scrambling and submission skills in finishing the American at the 1:53 mark of the first round. The UFC's Tom Gerbasi said it was the first cal slicer finish in the history of the promotion.

Oliveira (15-2, 3-2 UFC, 1 NC) is the leading candidate for the Submission of the Night bonus. That should be good for somewhere between $65,000 and $75,000.

"It felt amazing to walk out and hear the energy of the crowd here in Chicago. I was extremely confident and proud going into this fight and I knew that God would be with me," Oliveira said. "I have practiced my submissions endlessly and it was easy to look for that opportunity to finish the fight. I am ready for the next challenge inside the Octagon."

Oliveira looked solid in all aspects, most importantly the bounce in his step. This was the 22-year-old's first fight down at 145 pounds. The Brazilian's length at 5-foot-10 gave Wisely trouble from the start. He just couldn't get inside on Oliveira.

Wisely (19-7) flopped to his back after eating a few good punches and a kick. From there, Oliveira patiently hovered above looking to land some good shots. He finally grabbed a leg and dropped back to work on a heel hook. It was tight, but Wisely escaped serious damage. He wasn't out of it. Oliveira tried to reset the position.

Wisely scrambled to get to his hand and knees with his back facing Oliveira. That's when the Brazilian went into improvise-mode, jumped on Wisely's back and dropped back down. But he did so without releasing Wisely's left leg. He cranked and the pressure on Wisely's leg was incredible. He tapped with his right hand a couple. the referee missed it. He groaned in agony as he tapped again with the left. The fight was over. Wisely (19-7, 0-1 UFC) loses his promotional debut.

"I've got to work on a few things to improve my overall game. With these Brazilian jiu-jitsu guys, I've got to be a little quicker all around. That might have been enough to have kept me from getting caught and we might be looking at an entirely different outcome," said Wisely.

Swanson posts a beautiful knockout of Roop

Cub Swanson's hands haven't always been kind to him. Tonight, they paid dividends big time.

Swanson scored a huge second-round knockout with a perfectly placed right hand on George Roop's chin. Swanson drilled Roop with an overhand right. The impact sent Roop's mouthpiece flying into the cage and he went down in a heap. A surprised Swanson jumped on top to throw 10 more unanswered punches and the fight was stopped at 2:23 of the second.

"That shot just connected and rocked him and put him on his back. I wanted to make sure that I had finished it because it all happened so fast. I'm going to take about two weeks off and see how I feel. I might be looking to get back in here pretty quickly after a win like this," said Swanson.

Swanson (16-5, 1-1 UFC) appeared to a get a little emotional during the immediate aftermath of the victory. It's been rough run the last few years for Swanson who's battled hand issue after hand issue. Because of injuries, he's only fought two times since Aug. of 2010.

"We had some pretty good action when the match started and I was using my range to gain the advantage. I'm really not sure what happened because it really just happened to fast. He hit me with something that I didn't see coming at all," said Roop.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/sub-night-locked-oliveira-brilliant-finish-wisely-234618338.html

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Newt Gingrich Hits Mitt Romney For Efforts To 'Distort And Deceive' In New Web Video

Newt Gingrich's campaign released a web video attacking Mitt Romney Friday, hitting the former Massachusetts governor for his efforts to "mislead, distort and deceive" on the campaign trail.

Gingrich's team used several of Romney's comments from Thursday night's Republican presidential debate as fodder for the ad, which claims Romney has told several fibs to win over voters.

The video shoots down Romney's claim that he has always voted Republican with reference to the 1992 Massachusetts primary, when Romney voted for a "liberal Democrat" instead of Pat Buchanan or George H.W. Bush. The spot also fact-checks Romney's claim that his investments in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were part of a blind trust.

"If we can't trust what Mitt Romney says about his own record, how can we trust him on anything?" the video says.

Romney's campaign released a statement condemning the ad, saying "Gingrich's desperate smears have already been called 'inflammatory' by Marco Rubio and 'ridiculous' by Jeb Bush."

"It is laughable to see lectures on honesty coming from a paid influence peddler who suffered an unprecedented ethics reprimand, was forced to pay a $300,000 penalty, and resigned in disgrace at the hands of his own party," the statement said. "Speaker Gingrich is desperate to distract from his record of failed and unreliable leadership in an attempt to try and prop up his sinking campaign."

Another Republican featured in the ad is former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who is shown saying if a man is "dishonest to get a job, he'll be dishonest on the job." Huckabee released the following statement on his appearance in the spot:

Any use of an out of context quote from the Republican Presidential primary 4 years ago in a political ad to advocate for the election or defeat of another candidate is not authorized, approved, or known in advance by me. I have made it clear that I have not and do not anticipate making an endorsement in the GOP primary, but will support the nominee. My hope is to defeat Barack Obama and win majorities in both the House and Senate, not to attack any of the Presidential candidates who might be our nominee.

HuffPost's Mark Blumenthal points out that the video lacks the "I approve this message" disclosure that is required by federal law for television advertising paid for by federal campaigns, meaning it is unlikely to appear anywhere but the web:

So at very least, the new attack ad posted to YouTube cannot appear in its current form as a paid advertisement, and the relatively small amount spent by the Gingrich campaign on broadcast advertising suggests that few Floridians would see it, even if aired.

Watch the video above.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/newt-gingrich-mitt-romney_n_1237321.html

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Joe Paterno Memorial: Jay Paterno Says, 'Dad, You Won. You Can Go Home Now'

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Jay Paterno leaned over his dying father, gave him a kiss, and whispered in his ear.

"Dad, you won," he said. "You did all you could do. You've done enough. We all love you. We won. You can go home now."

Joe Paterno died Sunday of lung cancer at age 85.

At a memorial service Thursday that drew some 12,000 people to the Penn State basketball arena, Jay Paterno reflected on what he called the "magnificent daylight" of his legendary father's life. It was primarily a glowing tribute to Paterno and his accomplishments during 46 years as Penn State's football coach ? but also an opportunity to defend his legacy against criticism that he failed to do more when told about an alleged child sexual assault involving one of his former assistants.

Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight won a thunderous standing ovation when he defended Paterno's handling of the 2002 allegations against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. Paterno, he hinted, had been made a scapegoat.

"If there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation and not in Joe Paterno's response," Knight said. Paterno's widow, Sue, was among those rising to their feet.

Capping three days of mourning on campus, the 2 1/2-hour ceremony was filled with lavish praise for the man called "JoePa." Paterno racked up more wins ? 409 ? than any other major-college football coach, led his team to two national championships, and preached "success with honor" while insisting his athletes focus on academics. The Paternos donated millions to Penn State.

Though the campus and surrounding community have been torn with anger over the Sandusky scandal and Paterno's summary dismissal by the board of trustees two months before his death, Jay Paterno said his father didn't hold a grudge.

"Despite all that had happened to him, he never wavered in his belief, in his dream, of Penn State. He told me he wanted to use his remaining time on earth to see Penn State continue to thrive. He never spoke ill and never wanted anyone to feel badly for him," Paterno said.

Players from each decade of Paterno's career as the Nittany Lions' coach spoke in loving terms about their mentor, saying he rode them hard, but always had their best interests at heart and encouraged them to complete their educations and become productive members of their communities.

Among the speakers were Michael Robinson, who played for Paterno from 2002 to 2005 and flew in from Hawaii, where he was practicing for his first Pro Bowl; star quarterback Todd Blackledge from the 1980s; and Jimmy Cefalo, a star in the 1970s. Like Robinson, Blackledge and Cefalo went on to play in the NFL.

Former NFL player Charles V. Pittman, speaking for players from the 1960s, called Paterno a lifelong influence and inspiration.

Pittman said Paterno challenged his young players, once bringing Pittman to tears in his sophomore year. He said he realized later that the coach was molding him into the man he would become.

"What I now know is that Joe wasn't trying to build perfection. That doesn't exist and he knew it. He was, bit by bit, building a habit of excellence," said Pittman, now a media executive on the board of The Associated Press.

Paterno was fired Nov. 9 after he was criticized for not going to police in 2002 when he was told that Sandusky had been seen sexually assaulting a boy in the showers. Sandusky was arrested in November and is awaiting trial on charges that he molested 10 boys over a 15-year span.

As the scandal erupted, Pennsylvania's state police commissioner said Paterno may have met his legal duty but not his moral one. Penn State president Graham Spanier was also fired in the fallout.

Knight, appearing about midway through the memorial, became the first speaker to explicitly address the scandal. He said the coach "gave full disclosure to his superiors, information that went up the chains to the head of the campus police and the president of the school. The matter was in the hands of a world-class university, and by a president with an outstanding national reputation."

Lanny J. Davis, an attorney for the board, responded after the service by saying: "All the reasons for the board's difficult and anguished decision ? made unanimously, including former football players and everyone who still loves Coach Paterno and his memory ? reached a decision which was heartfelt. All 32."

"The facts speak for themselves" and include the grand jury testimony, he said.

Chris Marrone, another former player who eulogized Paterno, said Knight was his "new hero" for expressing the "pent-up frustration" of Paterno's supporters.

"I think the response that he got is indicative of how folks feel," Marrone said.

Only one member of the university administration ? the dean of the college of liberal arts ? and no one from the board of trustees spoke at the memorial, which was arranged primarily by the Paterno family.

People said it felt good to remember and celebrate the good times.

Tennessee Titans coach Mike Munchak, who played for Paterno, said he attended the service "because I'm a part of his legacy."

"It was not only about football," Munchak said. "It was about life and how he affected all of us as men."

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/joe-paterno-memorial-jay-paterno_n_1236237.html

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Summary Box: Stocks dip; Dow near post-crisis high (AP)

LOWER CLOSE: Stocks closed lower Thursday after mixed economic reports doused traders' early optimism. The government said that home sales fell in December, capping the worst year for home sales on record and highlighting housing's continued drag on the economy.

MORNING LEAP: During a brief morning rally, the Dow Jones industrial average rose above its highest closing prices since the financial crisis. It closed 76 points shy of that benchmark.

GOOD SIGNS: The early momentum was powered by news that orders to U.S. factories for long-lasting manufactured goods rose in December for the second straight month. Strong earnings from big manufacturers 3M and Caterpillar also helped.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wall_street_summary_box

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Samsung 2011 Q4 earnings official: $42 billion in sales, $4.7 billion operating profit

It might not be making as much money as the competition in Cupertino, but that doesn't mean Samsung isn't raking in cash at an astonishing clip. We reported earnings estimates a few weeks ago, but now it's official that the firm posted a 5.3 trillion won ($4.7 billion) operating profit in Q4 2011. That represents over a 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) increase year over year. In all, it pulled in 47.3 trillion won ($42 billion) in sales, thanks in no small part to the over 300 million phones Sammy sold last year. While mobile accounted for roughly 40 percent of company sales and half of its operating profit (2.6 trillion won, or $2.3 billion), its semiconductor business did almost as well, raking in 2.3 trillion won ($2 billion) in profit over the same period. Samsung's Display Panel business outperformed 2010 -- buoyed by strong sales in LED televisions -- as sales were up almost 20 percent, to 8.55 trillion won ($7.6 billion).

Well the call just finished up, and Sammy provided some prognosication for 2012. It anticipates the mobile business to continue to grow, with LTE and and new market segments (read: Galaxy Note) helping drive sales. TV sales are also expected to remain on the uptick, as Samsung anticipates demand to continue growing due in part to the London Olympics and roll-out of more Smart TVs. Feel free to check out all the numbers giving Samsung reason for its optimism at the source link below.

Samsung 2011 Q4 earnings official: $42 billion in sales, $4.7 billion operating profit originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/p1ymlpKBrXM/

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Just a Guy Documenting His Year, One Backflip at a Time [Video]

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/CKdC1jYtGMY/just-a-guy-documenting-his-year-one-backflip-at-a-time

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Figures from Apple's 1Q earnings report (AP)

Some figures from Apple Inc.'s first-quarter earnings report, put into context:

Apple's net income for the last three months of 2011: $13.1 billion.

Net income for Intel, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo, combined: $13.0 billion.

Apple's net income per full-time employee: $215,000

Apple's sales in the last three months of 2011: $46.3 billion

Apple's full-year sales in 2009: $42.9 billion

Number of iPhones sold in the last three months of 2011: 37 million

Number of iPhones sold in their first two years on the market (2007-2009): 21 million

iPads sold in the last three months: 15.4 million

Computers sold in the last three months by the world's largest PC maker, Hewlett-Packard Co.: 15.1 million (estimate by IDC)

Apple's calendar year 2011 sales, per person on Earth: $18

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

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Syria denounces Arab League for telling Assad to quit (Reuters)

BEIRUT (Reuters) ? Syria on Monday rebuffed as a "conspiracy" an Arab League call for President Bashar al-Assad to step down in favor of a unity government to calm a 10-month-old revolt in which thousands of Syrians have been killed.

But a day after Arab ministers urged Assad to step aside, a senior Russian lawmaker said that Moscow could do little more to support the 46-year-old leader, opening the door to a policy shift by one of Syria's few remaining powerful allies.

Mikhail Margelov said Russia's veto last year, alongside China, of a Western-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Assad's crackdown on months of protests was the "last instrument" Russia could use to support Assad.

"This veto has exhausted our arsenal of such resources," Margelov was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass news agency

In the Damascus suburb of Douma, tens of thousands of people turned out on Monday under the protection of rebel Free Syrian Army fighters to mourn 11 people killed by security forces, activists and a resident said.

Security forces, apparently keen to avoid a confrontation, stayed outside the area, where fighting had erupted overnight.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour criticized the Arab League's call for Assad to step down, saying its ministers had taken an "unbalanced" approach to the crisis by disregarding violence perpetrated by Assad's opponents.

Damascus has not rejected the League's decision to keep Arab observers in Syria one month longer, Mansour said, even though critics say their presence has not stemmed the bloodshed and only bought time for Assad to crush his opponents.

The Sudanese general who heads the monitoring mission said violence had dipped in the past month, contradicting accounts by Syrian activists who say at least 600 people were killed.

"After the arrival of the mission, the intensity of violence began to decrease," Mohammed al-Dabi told a news conference at the Cairo-based Arab League, saying the monitors had logged only 136 deaths on both sides since they began work.

"Our job was to check what is happening on the ground and not investigate it," said Dabi.

His role as chief monitor has displeased Assad's critics given that he has held senior military and government posts in Sudan, including in Darfur, where the International Criminal Court prosecutor says the army carried out war crimes and the United Nations says 300,000 people may have died.

Saudi Arabia, an adversary of Syria's ally Iran, undermined the mission's credibility when it withdrew its own monitors on Sunday, accusing Damascus of defying an earlier Arab peace plan.

CONSPIRACY

Responding to the new League plan unveiled in Cairo on Sunday, an official Syrian source told the state news agency SANA that the initiative, which told Assad to hand power to a deputy pending elections, was a "conspiracy against Syria."

"Syria rejects the decisions of the Arab League ministerial council ... and considers them a violation of its national sovereignty and a flagrant interference in its internal affairs," the source said.

On the streets of Damascus there was little hope that the outside world could offer an end to the crisis. "I want stability and I want to work and see my children grow up. Can the Arab League achieve this for me? No," said Mohammed Wahbi, a shopkeeper in Damascus.

"They are interfering in our affairs," said Akeel Shehadi, another shopkeeper.

Rami Khouri, a Beirut-based commentator, said the unusually bold Arab initiative was clearly "bad news" for Assad, one of a string of authoritarian Arab leaders to face popular uprisings in the past year. Three have been overthrown.

"The fact that Arab countries would propose such a clear intervention and essentially order him to step aside and give him a mechanism to do so is quite a dramatic sign of how much credibility and legitimacy he has lost in the region," he said.

The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed by the security forces since an anti-Assad revolt began in March. The authorities say they are fighting foreign-backed "terrorists" who have killed 2,000 soldiers and police.

EU foreign ministers tightened sanctions against Syria on Monday, adding 22 people and eight entities to a list of banned people and groups, and said Assad's repression was unacceptable.

"The message from the European Union is clear," said the EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton. "The crackdown must stop immediately.

Splits among the League's 22 members have complicated its diplomacy on Syria, but in the end only Lebanon refused to approve the latest proposal, although Algeria objected to taking the plan to the United Nations Security Council.

"TYRANNICAL REGIME"

Burhan Ghalioun, head of the main opposition Syrian National Council, welcomed the initiative, saying it "confirms that all Arab countries today consider the tyrannical regime of Bashar al-Assad to be finished and that it must be replaced."

The U.N. Security Council is also divided on how to respond, with Western powers demanding tougher sanctions and an arms embargo, measures opposed so far by Russia.

A Western diplomat said the tough Arab League stance would put more pressure on Moscow to drop its objections to Security Council action against the Syrian leadership. "The Russians are not putting all their chips on Assad," the diplomat said.

But in a sign Moscow's close ties with Damascus, a Russian newspaper said that Russia has signed a deal to sell Syria nearly 40 fighter jet trainers.

The daily Kommersant cited a source close to Russia's state arms export monopoly, Rosoboronexport, as saying that the sides had signed a contract after holding talks in December, and that Damascus was to pay $550 million for 36 Yak-130 aircraft.

Joshua Landis, a Syria expert at the University of Oklahoma, said the Arab plan would extract no concessions from Assad and that the Security Council had no alternative strategy to offer.

"Without the credible threat of foreign intervention, Assad continues to feel confident that he can contain, if not beat, the opposition," Landis said. "The United Nations is as divided over Syria as the Arab League is."

Qatar has proposed sending Arab peacekeepers to Syria, but no other Arab country has shown any enthusiasm for this.

Syria, keen to avoid harsher foreign action, has made several moves to show it is complying with the initial Arab peace plan, which required an end to killings, a troop pullout from cities, release of detainees and a political dialogue.

The violence, however, has raged on unabated.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said seven civilians were killed on Monday and 12 the previous day.

Activists said an army deserter fighting for the Free Syrian Army had been killed in al-Quseir near the border with Lebanon.

SANA said three security personnel had been killed and 14 wounded in al-Quseir and one had died while trying to defuse a bomb in the eastern region of Deir al-Zor.

It said Brigadier-General Hassan al-Ibrahim and another officer were killed on Sunday when insurgents shot at their car in Damascus province. He was the third brigadier killed in a week. It said 11 people were also killed in an attack in Homs.

(Additional reporting by Tamim, Elyan, Ayman Samir and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo, Dominic Evans and Erika Solomon in Beirut, Thomas Grove in Moscow and Mariam Karouny in Damascus; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/wl_nm/us_syria

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Gamers Redesign a Protein That Stumped Scientists for Years [Science]

Folding: it's detestable and boring, as any Gap employee can tell you. But it's also a totally fun thing you can do in a video game! And today it's particularly exciting because players of the online game Foldit have redesigned a protein, and their work is published in the science journal Nature Biotechnology. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/idviCkxjqDw/gamers-redesign-a-protein-that-stumped-scientists-for-years

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Can Actors Be Sold On The VOD Business Model? Sundance ...

The longer the 2012 Sundance Film Festival deal-making stalemate continues, the more VOD-centric deals will take center stage as they did in Toronto. A lot of the movies that came in with visions of theatrical releases are considering overtures from bidders who intend to emulate the Margin Call model where video-on-demand is equal to or more important than theatrical.

If VOD is to become a viable business that leads films on the margins to being widely seen, some obstacles have to be worked out of the system. The biggest: convincing actors accustomed to seeing their work play on 2,000 movie screens that the VOD model doesn?t mean their careers are on the downswing and that they?ve been relegated to pay-per-view. The only real equivalent actors have had for this was when they made a stinker that went straight to video obscurity. Will those actors spark to the potential of VOD riches and embrace the idea of promoting films to cable delivery systems instead of the ego-boosting traditional selling system of commercials and print ads? This is a psychological hurdle for stars. When Margin Call sold at Sundance last year with the Lionsgate/Roadside Attraction distribution VOD deal, veteran actors like Kevin Spacey had to be convinced this wasn?t necessarily a step down from a traditional theatrical release.

Another consideration is Oscar eligibility. The Academy rule has been that a film that premiered on television prior to theatrical was ineligible for an Oscar. Several major talent agents I spoke to said they weren?t exactly clear how this works. For example, the distributors behind Margin Call and Melancholia protected their movies and talent by booking ?stealth? qualifying runs in a theater, just in case. On the Oscar front, the Academy tells me that as long as a film opens in an LA County theater for seven consecutive days either before or at the same time it is released VOD, Oscar eligibility is preserved. If the film makes its commercial debut on VOD, it cannot be considered for an Oscar. So a VOD revolution will likely lead to a lot of unadvertised runs in LA theaters.

?As long as there is a clear line on how to retain Oscar eligibility, actors are going to have to get used to this, because this is the way that adult dramas are going to be seen,? said one senior agent. ?The practical reality isn?t as bad as the perception. The people who watch these kinds of films usually have great sound systems and large-screen TVs, and most Oscar voters already watch eligible films on video in their homes. We?re all just going to have to get used to this. We?re already having those conversations. Isn?t a movie that?s seen by millions across the country on VOD better than a few people watching in ratty arthouse theaters, which are uncomfortable and screens that aren?t that much bigger than large TV screens? Enough actors have made projects they thought would get on the screen, only to see them get dumped. You hear about movies with stars that never came out theatrically and grossed $5 million VOD. This is a process that will evolve, but it will enable these movies to get made.?

Another talent agent said that convincing actors will get easier when more test cases like Margin Call overachieve on VOD. ?It?s all about the economics and distribution modes and how a film reaches an audience,? said the rep. ?These conversations happen after a movie has been shot and is trying to find a life. It will take a few wins and maybe a breakout success to make it easier, but it?s coming.??Also coming are the Sundance sales. Films like Beasts Of The Southern Wild, Arbitrage, The Surrogate, Lay The Favorite, Celeste and Jesse Forever are rumored to have offers, and buyers are turning out in force tonight for Bachelorette. The expectation coming in has been that after seeing the bulk of the big titles by tonight, that the deals will begin flowing.

Get the latest Industry news sent straight to your Wall.

Source: http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/sundance-vod-video-on-demand/

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Steelers QB settles lawsuit alleging '08 rape (AP)

RENO, Nev. ? Lawyers for Ben Roethlisberger and a woman who accused him of raping her at a Lake Tahoe hotel-casino in 2008 have reached a settlement that ends her civil lawsuit against the Steelers quarterback.

Cal Dunlap, the Reno lawyer representing the woman, confirmed the settlement on Friday but declined to discuss the terms of the agreement.

"The matter has been resolved and I have no further comment," he told The Associated Press.

The Reno Gazette-Journal first reported the settlement on its website. It also dismisses claims against Harrah's employees whom the woman had accused of covering up the alleged sexual assault in Roethlisberger's penthouse suite in July 2008.

Dunlap first told Washoe District Court Judge Brent Adams in papers filed last Nov. 30 that his client wanted to have a stay lifted so the case could be dismissed because a settlement was pending.

"All parties have reached a resolution of all claims and counterclaims," he wrote.

Adams formally dismissed the case Dec. 27 but neither side had publicized it until now.

David Cornwell, Roethlisberger's lawyer, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment on Friday. His agent, Ryan Tollner, said neither he nor Roethlisberger would have any comment.

The Nevada Supreme Court had ruled against the two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback's request in August to have the case moved from Reno to Carson City because it was closer to where the alleged incident had occurred at Harrah's in Stateline.

The woman was a VIP casino hostess at Harrah's when she said Roethlisberger allegedly lured her to his room under the pretense of fixing his television. Roethlisberger was in town at the time to play in a celebrity golf tournament.

Roethlisberger denied the allegations.

The original lawsuit filed in 2009 sought a minimum of $440,000 in damages from the quarterback, at least $50,000 in damages from the Harrah's officials and an unspecified amount in punitive damages.

The woman said she never filed a criminal complaint because she feared Harrah's would side with Roethlisberger and she would be fired.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_roethlisberger_lawsuit_settled

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NYC wants judge in fire dept case removed (AP)

NEW YORK ? A judge overseeing a discrimination case against the fire department abandoned his neutral role, was influenced by press accounts of the proceedings and ignored key evidence, city attorneys charged in court papers.

In a brief filed in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, city attorneys argued that U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn should be removed, his decision reversed and the case given to another judge for trial.

Garaufis appointed an independent monitor last October to oversee the Fire Department of New York's effort to improve diversity in its recruiting after finding that the city had failed to ensure that enough blacks and minorities were being hired.

At the time, he called the FDNY "a stubborn bastion of white male privilege."

Of the 11,200 uniformed firefighters in the city, 9 percent are black or Hispanic. More than half the residents in the city of 8 million identify with a racial minority group.

In the court papers filed Wednesday, city attorneys said Garaufis "lost any semblance of neutrality" while overseeing the case.

They accused the District Court of taking on "the roles of witness and advocate" on behalf of the Vulcan Society fraternal order of black firefighters. The group alleged in the case brought by the federal government that exams used by the FDNY to recruit new members were discriminatory, according to the papers.

City attorneys also said the judge made numerous legal errors and that evidence was analyzed in a "one-sided manner," which "calls the District Court's impartiality into serious question."

They said the judge also appeared to be preoccupied with news stories about the case, "especially those he perceived as critical of him." That, they said, "reinforces the many other indications that the city was deprived of a fair and neutral fact-finder."

Garaufis appointed a former federal prosecutor, Mark S. Cohen, to watch over the recruitment, testing and hiring of new firefighters. He ruled that an independent monitor would oversee the effort to make the fire department more diverse for a period of at least 10 years.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_re_us/us_fdny_discrimination_suit

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Weird World! 'Oozing' Alien Planet Is a Super-Earth Wonder (SPACE.com)

A new look at an alien planet that orbits extremely close to its parent star suggests that the rocky world might not be a scorching hot wasteland, as was thought. In fact, the planet may actually be stranger and wetter than astronomers ever imagined.

The exotic planet 55 Cancri e is a relatively close alien planet, just 40 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Cancer (The Crab).

The super-dense world circles so close to its host star that it takes a mere 18 hours to complete one orbital lap. Using our solar system for comparison, 55 Cancri e is 26 times closer to its parent star than Mercury is to the sun, according to NASA officials.

Because of its tight orbit around its stellar host, 55 Cancri e was long thought to harbor surface temperatures as high as 4,800 degrees Fahrenheit (about 2,700 degrees Celsius), researchers have said.

But new observations from NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope have astronomers revisiting the exoplanet, armed with intriguing clues that 55 Cancri e could be a wetter and weirder place than ??thought. [Oozing Super-Earth: Images of Alien Planet 55 Cancri e ]

Super-hot Super-Earth

Using Spitzer, researchers measured the faint dip in brightness caused by 55 Cancri e passing in front of its star. Since these so-called transits occur every 18 hours, scientists have plenty of opportunities to collect enough data to help them estimate the size, volume and density of the alien planet, agency officials said.

Based on these results, the researchers calculated that 55 Cancri e has a mass 7.8 times that of Earth, and a width just over twice that of our planet.

"Those properties place 55 Cancri e in the "super-Earth" class of exoplanets, a few dozen of which have been found," wrote astronomer Tony Phillips in a post on Science@NASA. "Only a handful of known super-Earths, however, cross the face of their stars as viewed from our vantage point in the cosmos, so 55 Cancri e is better understood than most."

A supercritical fluid world?

55 Cancri e is part of a multiplanet system that was first detected in 1997. Five planets circle the host star, and 55 Cancri e was discovered in 2004. Originally, estimates of the planet's size and mass indicated that it was an ultra-dense rocky world, but Spitzer's observations suggest that about a fifth of the planet's mass must be made up of light elements and compounds, including water, scientists said.

Since 55 Cancri e experiences such extreme temperatures and high pressure, these elements and compounds likely exist in what is known as a "supercritical" fluid state, the researchers said.

Supercritical fluids can best be imagined as liquid-like gases in high pressure and temperature conditions. According to the scientists, water becomes supercritical in some steam turbines, and supercritical carbon dioxide is used to scrub caffeine from coffee beans. Similarly, the liquid fuel used to power some rockets becomes supercritical as it blasts from the tail of a spaceship, the researchers said.

If this is the case on 55 Cancri e, supercritical fluids could be seeping out from the planet's rocks. And, while conditions on the strange world are not suitable to host life, 55 Cancri e does give exoplanet hunters an interesting example to study, Phillips added.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20120120/sc_space/weirdworldoozingalienplanetisasuperearthwonder

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Japan's Marubeni taps into Texas shale

Published: Jan. 6, 2012 at 8:04 AM

DALLAS, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- A partnership in the Eagle Ford shale play in Texas will provide a solid base for cash flow for the foreseeable future, a Japanese energy company said.

Japanese energy company Marubeni Corp. announced its U.S. subsidiary acquired a 35 percent working interest from Hunt Oil Co. in Dallas for 52,000 net acres of oil and gas leases in the Eagle Ford shale play in Texas.

Marubeni, in a statement, said the shale play is one of the most promising fields of its kind in the United States.

"We believe that this project, including future expansion and the potential new businesses associated with it, will become a solid base for Marubeni providing a strong cash flow and profit on the mid- to long-term basis," the company said.

This week, China Petroleum Corp. reached a deal to acquire a stake in shale gas acreage in the U.S. Midwest from Devon Energy, including the Utica shale deposit in Ohio.

The abundance of shale deposits in the United States could redefine the country's energy sector. Environmental advocates, however, complain some of the chemicals used in the extraction process make the risk outweigh the benefits.

Source: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2012/01/06/Japans-Marubeni-taps-into-Texas-shale/UPI-45071325855074/

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Facebook Virus Steals 45,000 Usernames & Passwords

December 30, 2011 By Shelly Palmer

I had to take a one-day trip to Boca Raton, FL this week to attend a family event. During my trip, I met several people (of a certain age) who feigned interest in my profession. I was drawn into conversation after conversation where I had to defend the existential necessity of digital literacy. Would it? Read More ?

Source: http://www.shellypalmer.com/2012/01/facebook-virus-steals-45000-usernames-passwords/

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Afghanistan bombs kill 5 NATO troops

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Source: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x5087555

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Video: American Jobs Coming Back?

Discussing what the December jobs report implies about the economy, discussing the global economy and Europe's debt issues, and whether jobs are moving back onshore, with Raghuram Rajan, former IMF chief economist/University of Chicago Booth School of ...

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/45900591/

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Euro zone inflation eases, boosts rate cut expectations (Reuters)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? Euro zone inflation eased from last year's peaks of 3.0 percent in December, the first sign of a fall in price growth this year that analysts expect will create room for more interest rate cuts to help the weakening economy.

The European Union's Statistics Office (Eurostat) estimated that consumer prices in the 17 countries sharing the euro rose 2.8 percent year-on-year in December, down from 3.0 percent year-on-year rises in November, October and September.

No detailed break-down of the numbers is available with the Eurostat estimate, but economists said the slower price growth was likely a result of lower energy prices.

"Looking ahead, further falls in inflation are likely," said Ben May, economist at Capital Economics.

"Assuming that the oil price does not rise again, we see this component knocking about 1 percent off the headline rate in 2012. Food inflation should also slow as the effects of past rises in agricultural commodity prices fade," he said.

"We expect the headline inflation rate to plunge well below the ECB's 2 percent price stability ceiling by the middle of the year," he said.

The European Central Bank cut its main interest rate back to a record low of 1 percent on December 8 to try to boost the economy as inflation pressures subside. Economists believe that with inflation falling, more interest rate cuts were likely soon.

"The favorable medium-term inflation outlook is a green light for further ECB rate cuts over the coming months. We expect the refinancing rate to reach a low of 0.5 percent," said Nick Kounis, economists at ABN Amro bank.

Cheaper credit could help boost growth in the euro zone, where the economy expanded just 0.2 percent in the third quarter and economists expect that it contracted in the fourth.

They also think it might contract in the first three months of 2012, which would send the bloc back into recession after a two-year recovery from the worst global financial crisis since the 1930s.

"Consequently, we expect the ECB to respond to likely euro zone GDP contraction in the fourth quarter of 2011 and the early months of 2012 by cutting interest rates further," said Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight.

"Specifically, we forecast the ECB to trim interest rates by a further 25 basis points from 1.00 percent to 0.75 percent in the first quarter although we do not expect another cut as soon as the 12 January policy meeting," he said.

(Reporting By Jan Strupczewski. Editing by Sebastian Moffett.)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120104/bs_nm/us_eurozone_inflation

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Obama's Constitutional Gamble on Consumer Finance Nomination ...

Posted by Mark A. Calabria

President Obama is announcing today that despite the fact that the Senate is not in recess, he?s going to recess appoint Richard Cordray to be the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), created under the Dodd-Frank Act.

Of course the President is actually claiming that the Senate isn?t in session and that its ?pro forma? sessions are just a ?gimmick?.? Funny I don?t remember then Senator Obama complaining about gimmicks when the Senate used the sames tactics to block Bush recess appointments.? But then again this is the guy who signs a bill allowing indefinite detention of American citizens after having campaigned on shutting down Guantanamo.? Only a former constitutional law professor could be so creative with the Constitution.

More importantly the ?recess? appointment of Cordray doesn?t solve the President?s problem.? The Dodd-Frank Act is very clear, even a law professor can probably understand this section, that authorities under the Act remain with the Treasury Secretary until the Director is ?confirmed by the Senate?.? A recess appointment is not a Senate confirmation.? Now don?t ask me why Dodd and Frank included such unusual language, they could have just given the Bureau the new authorities, but they didn?t.? So even with this appointment, the CFPB won?t be able to go after all those non-banks, like the pay-day lenders and check-cashiers that caused the financial crisis (oh wait, those industries didn?t have anything to do with the crisis).

This appointment also guarantees that Obama, even if he gets a second term, is unlikely to ever get a CFPB Director past the Senate.? Maybe not such a big deal for Cordray since the rumor has always been this is just a political stepping stone so he can go back to Ohio and run for office.? The real harm is that Obama has decided to take a gamble with the?Constitution, risk the further erosion of the Senate?s advise and consent powers, solely to have another campaign issue.? So he can try to paint Republicans as captive to Wall Street, all despite the fact the new agency exempts Wall Street (who will continue under the ever effective oversight of the SEC).? Maybe he can have Geithner and the various Goldman alum in the Administration stand next to him to help remind us how hard he is fighting for the middle class.

Source: http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/obamas-constitutional-gamble-on-consumer-finance-nomination/

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Exercise is good for your waistline -- but it's a writing exercise

ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2012) ? Is losing weight as simple as doing a 15-minute writing exercise? In a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, women who wrote about their most important values, like close relationships, music, or religion, lost more weight over the next few months than women who did not have that experience.

"We have this need to feel self-integrity," says Christine Logel of Renison University College at the University of Waterloo, who cowrote the new study with Geoffrey L. Cohen of Stanford University. When something threatens your sense that you're a good person, like failing a test or having a fight with a friend, "We can buffer that self-integrity by reminding ourselves how much we love our children, for example," she says.

For this study, the researchers recruited 45 female undergraduates who had a body mass index of 23 or higher. A body mass index of 18.5 to 24.9 is considered normal weight; 58% of the women were overweight or obese. Each woman was weighed, and was then given a list of important values, like creativity, politics, music, and relationships with friends and family members. Each woman ranked the values in order of how important they were to her. Then half the women were told to write for 15 minutes about the value that was most important to her. The other half, a control group, were told to write about why a value far down on their list might be important to someone else.

The women came back between one and four months later to be weighed again. Women who had written about an important value lost an average of 3.41 pounds, while women in the control group gained an average of 2.76 pounds, a pattern of weight gain that is typical for undergraduates.

"How we feel about ourselves can have a big effect," Logel says. "We think it sort of kicks off a recursive process." Maybe when one of the women who wrote about an important value went home that night, she felt good about herself and didn't eat to make herself feel better. Then the next day snacking wasn't as much of a habit, so she skipped it. Over a few months, that could make a real difference in her life.

Many studies have found that even briefly thinking about values can have a big effect on situations where people feel a threat to their integrity. For example, Cohen used the same technique on minority seventh-graders who were underperforming relative to their white peers. Those who did the exercise were still performing better years later.

It's too soon to say whether this could work for everybody; the women in the study didn't know that writing about values was supposed to help them live better (although they may have wondered why this psychology study required a weigh-in).

"My dream, and my research goal, is to get this to the point where people can do it deliberately to benefit themselves," Logel says. In the meantime, she carries around a keychain that reminds her of a value that she considers to be important. And everyone else can do that, too. "There's certainly no harm in taking time to reflect on important values and working activities you value into your daily life," Logel says.

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Journal Reference:

1. C. Logel, G. L. Cohen. The Role of the Self in Physical Health: Testing the Effect of a Values-Affirmation Intervention on Weight Loss. Psychological Science, 2011; DOI: 10.1177/0956797611421936

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/2012/01/120104134811.htm

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Euro Leaders Seek to Buy Time in Crisis as Debt Sales Loom

January 02, 2012, 10:40 AM EST

By Patrick Donahue

(Updates stocks, euro in fifth paragraph. For more on Europe?s debt crisis see EXT4 <GO>.)

Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) -- European leaders return to work this week seeking to buy time for the Spanish and Italian governments to wrest control over their debt and rescue the single currency from fragmentation in its 10th anniversary year.

Some 157 billion euros ($203 billion) in debt will mature in the 17-member euro area in the first three months of 2012, according to UBS AG. By the end of that period, leaders have pledged to draft a stricter rulebook for controlling government spending. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet in Berlin Jan. 9 to work out details.

?The road to overcoming this won?t be without setbacks, but at the end of this path Europe will emerge stronger from the crisis than before,? Merkel said in a New Year?s speech broadcast Dec. 31. Merkel, whose first official public appointment is on Jan. 5, reiterated that her government will do ?everything? to bring the euro out of the slump.

Ten years after euro bank notes replaced national currencies on Jan. 1, 2002, the euro has for the first time recorded two consecutive annual losses against the U.S. dollar while plunging to a record low against the yen. That raises the pressure on euro leaders as they struggle to hold the monetary union together in the face of credit downgrades, European Union splits and a looming recession that might compound rising debt.

Stocks Rise

European shares rose on the first trading day of 2012, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index up 0.8 percent as of 3:33 p.m. in Berlin. The gauge slumped 11 percent last year.

The euro slid 0.2 percent to $1.2934 after earlier dropping as much as 0.4 percent. The single currency lost 3 percent against the dollar last year, ending at $1.2961, a decline of 13 percent from its 2011 high of $1.4830 on May 2. It lost 3.2 percent in the last quarter.

The latest crack in Europe?s crisis-fighting plans appeared on Dec. 30, when Spain?s new government said 2011?s budget deficit would reach 8 percent of output, 2 percent more than the previous government had projected and more than the 6.9 percent expected by economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy responded by unveiling a new package of spending cuts and tax increases.

Still, the key to the euro?s survival may lie with Italy, the group?s third-largest economy and the second most-indebted after Greece. The government in Rome must repay 53 billion euros in debt in the first quarter, about a third of the euro area?s total amount for the period, after Prime Minister Mario Monti passed an emergency budget package aimed at curtailing borrowing costs.

Italian Yields

Italy?s 10-year yield ended 2011 near the 7 percent mark that led Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek bailouts. Spain?s equivalent yield finished the year just above 5 percent. Italian 10-year yields dropped 13 basis points to 6.97 percent today, while Spanish yields were little changed at 5.10 percent.

?If the Italian yields start to rise, you could quickly turn a manageable situation into an insolvent one,? Michael Spence, a professor of economics at New York University and a Nobel laureate, said on Bloomberg Television Dec. 28. ?Italy needs time and Europe needs to help buy them some of the time.?

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble echoed that strategy, telling the Bild newspaper yesterday that European rescue funds can only ?buy time? before indebted states take ?the necessary measures to win back confidence.?

French Possibilities

Sarkozy said that the French government will turn from budget fighting to economic growth and unemployment in 2012, which will be ?the year of all risks and of all possibilities,? he said Dec. 31 in his fifth New Year?s address, the last before he faces a re-election contest in May. Sarkozy will meet with Italy?s Monti in Paris on Jan. 6.

In his New Year?s message to Greek citizens, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said his nation will confront a ?difficult? 2012 and said that the ?next three months will be particularly crucial.?

Papademos, appointed on Nov. 11 as head of a government backed by three of the five parliamentary parties, is trying to secure loans under a 130 billion-euro bailout for Greece agreed to in October by EU leaders before elections are held. Measures include negotiating a debt swap with private creditors that will cut 100 billion euros off Greece?s burden.

As Europe?s leaders tinker at a new budget framework and craft the so-called firewall that will prop up ailing states, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann said that the European Central Bank won?t ?step into the breach for fiscal policy.?

ECB Limits

?We have to make it clear where our legal, but also our real limits, are,? Weidmann, who is a council member of the Frankfurt-based ECB, told Tagesspiegel newspaper yesterday.

Fiscal and monetary efforts could be hampered by a shrinking economy in the euro area, which would crimp tax revenues and fuel unemployment. The economy of the 17-nation area will shrink by about 0.7 percent this year, said Howard Archer, an economist at IHS Global Insight in London.

?We expect eurozone recession to occur in late-2011 and the first half of 2012 in the face of the ongoing eurozone sovereign debt crisis,? Archer wrote in a Dec. 30 note to clients. ?It is vital that eurozone policy makers get a real grip on matters quickly.?

--With assistance from Brian Parkin in Berlin, Angeline Benoit and Emma Ross-Thomas in Madrid, Gregory Viscusi in Paris, Chiara Vasarri in Milan and Tom Stoukas in Athens. Editors: Dick Schumacher, Alan Crawford

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-02/euro-leaders-seek-to-buy-time-in-crisis-as-debt-sales-loom.html

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