Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Pioneer of rap reggae, King Stitt, dies at 72 (AP)

KINGSTON, Jamaica ? Rap-reggae pioneer King Stitt has died in Jamaica at age 72.

Jamaican musicologist Bunny Goodison says his close friend died Tuesday after being treated at a Kingston hospital for prostate cancer and diabetes.

The entertainer known offstage as Winston Sparks started his career in the late 1950s on Kingston's sound system circuit.

He is credited as being one of the earliest performers of "toasting," a form of Jamaican deejaying that inspired hip hop.

Stitt is best known for songs such as "Paradise Plum" and "Fire Corner." He collaborated for years with late music producer Clement Dodd, who ran the celebrated Studio One.

He is survived by a daughter.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obits/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_en_mu/cb_jamaica_obit_king_stitt

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Glooko Raises $3.5M To Connect Glucose Meters To iPhones For Tracking Diabetes

glookoGlooko, the developer of a unique hardware device and movile app solution for people with diabetes, has raised $3.5 million in Series A funding led by The Social+Capital Partnership, with participation from existing investors, including Bill Campbell, Vint Cerf, Judy Estrin and Andy Hertzfeld, Venky Harinarayan, Russell Hirsch and Xtreme Labs. Chamath Palihapitiya, Founder and Managing Partner of The Social+Capital Partnership will be joining Glooko's board. Launched last year, Glooko is a digital logbook for people with diabetes who have to check their blood sugar every day. There are dozens of glucose logbooks in iTunes, but almost all of them require manual entry. What makes Glooko different is that the company designed a $40 cable (sold separately) that works with seven of the top glucose meters. You just plug it into both devices and it downloads your daily readings.

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

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Monday, January 30, 2012

Complete list of winners at 18th annual SAG Awards (AP)

A complete list of winners at Sunday's 18th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards:

MOVIES:

Actor: Jean Dujardin, "The Artist"

Actress: Viola Davis, "The Help"

Supporting actor: Christopher Plummer, "Beginners."

Supporting actress: Octavia Spencer, "The Help."

Cast: "The Help"

Stunt ensemble: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2."

___

TELEVISION:

Actor in a movie or miniseries: Paul Giamatti, "Too Big to Fail."

Actress in a movie or miniseries: Kate Winslet, "Mildred Pierce."

Actor in a drama series: Steve Buscemi, "Boardwalk Empire"

Actress in a drama series: Jessica Lange, "American Horror Story"

Actor in a comedy series: Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock."

Actress in a comedy series: Betty White, "Hot in Cleveland."

Drama series cast: "Boardwalk Empire"

Comedy series cast: "Modern Family."

Stunt ensemble: "Game of Thrones."

___

Life Achievement: Mary Tyler Moore

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_en_tv/us_sag_awards_list

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Troopers: At least 9 dead in wrecks on I-75 in Fla

Officials work at the scene of a multi-vehicle wreck on Interstate 75 at Paynes Prairie on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, south of Gainesville, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Stamey, The Gainesville Sun)

Officials work at the scene of a multi-vehicle wreck on Interstate 75 at Paynes Prairie on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, south of Gainesville, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Stamey, The Gainesville Sun)

Officials work at the scene of a multi-vehicle wreck on Interstate 75 at Paynes Prairie on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, south of Gainesville, Fla. (AP Photo/The Gainesville Sun, Matt Stamey)

Officials work at the scene of a multi-vehicle wreck on Interstate 75 at Paynes Prairie on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, south of Gainesville, Fla. (AP Photo/The Gainesville Sun, Matt Stamey)

Officials work at the scene of a multi-vehicle wreck on Interstate 75 at Paynes Prairie on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, south of Gainesville, Fla. (AP Photo/The Gainesville Sun, Matt Stamey)

Officials work at the scene of a multi-vehicle wreck on Interstate 75 at Paynes Prairie on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, south of Gainesville, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Stamey, The Gainesville Sun)

(AP) ? Hazy fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire clouded a north Florida interstate overnight, leaving drivers blinded and causing wrecks that killed at least nine people, authorities said Sunday.

Photographs taken Sunday morning showed the burned-out shells of at least two vehicles and a tractor-trailer, with gray smoke still rising above the asphalt on an otherwise desolate Interstate 75.

Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Patrick Riordan said the pileups happened around 3:45 a.m. on both sides of I-75 south of Gainesville. All lanes of the interstate ? there are three lanes running each direction ? remained closed as investigators began trying to figure out exactly what caused the wrecks. Vehicles were still smoldering, and firefighters sprayed foam to try to put out the fires.

Cars appeared to have smashed into tractor-trailers and, in one case, a motor home. Some cars were badly crushed beneath the wreckage of the larger rigs.

Riordan said several people were injured and taken to Gainesville hospitals. Their conditions were unclear.

At least 18 people hurt in the wreck were being treated at Shands at the University of Florida, said hospital spokeswoman Allison Wilson.

Donna Henry told The Gainesville Sun that she was driving south on the interstate at 3:45 a.m. when she encountered the smoke.

"We just hit it, and you couldn't see anything," said Henry, who was driving with friends back home to Palm Bay. She said her car struck a guardrail and ended up sideways in the outside lane. She pulled off the highway and called 911. She told the paper that she could hear the other crashes.

"You heard like 15 times somebody hit, from this side and that, north and south. It was bad."

The FHP had briefly closed the highway before the crashes because of a mixture of fog and smoke from a marsh fire in the Paynes Prairie area south of Gainesville. Officers patrolling the highway had reopened the road when visibility improved.

Riordan said he is not sure how much time passed between the reopening of the highway and the first crash.

Riordan said this is the worst accident he's seen in his 27-year career with FHP.

Traffic is being diverted onto U.S. 301 and State Road 27, Riordan said.

Heavy fog and smoke were blamed for another serious crash four years ago. In January 2008, four people were killed and 38 injured in a series of similar crashes on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Tampa, about 125 miles south of Sunday's crash. More than 70 vehicles were involved in those crashes, including one pileup that involved 40 vehicles.

___

Associated Press writer Freida Frisaro contributed to this report from Miami.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-29-Deadly%20Interstate%20Crash/id-7ac9a3535a9a4477b6e6236cc842676d

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

US citizen kidnapped in Nigeria returns to US (AP)

ATLANTA ? A U.S. citizen kidnapped by gunmen in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta returned to Georgia on Sunday after being held captive for a week, his family said.

William Gregory Ock arrived in Atlanta on Sunday morning to a warm greeting from family and friends, said his sister-in-law Tamara Lane. She said Ock, 50, is feeling well but not yet ready to talk about his experience.

"We're all very excited. We had a big turnout for him, and he looks great," Lane said. "We just hope he gets some good rest."

U.S. Embassy officials said Ock was released after being captured in Warri in Delta state on Jan. 20 but declined to offer further details, citing privacy rules.

It wasn't immediately clear whether a ransom had been paid to secure his release, although many companies in the region carry kidnap insurance. Authorities say kidnappers had previously demanded a $330,000 ransom for Ock's safe return.

The attack took place outside a bank branch in Warri, one of the main cities in the Niger Delta, an oil-rich region where foreign firms pump 2.4 million barrels of crude oil a day. The gunmen ambushed Ock as he came outside, fatally shot his police escort and then abducted him, said Charles Muka, a Delta state police spokesman.

He said investigators suspect the gunmen trailed him for some time before the attack, one of several recent assaults targeting foreign workers. A recent U.S. State Department travel advisory said there were five reported kidnappings of U.S. citizens in Nigeria in 2011.

Lane said Ock and his family are grateful for all the help they received during this ordeal.

"The family just wishes to thank everybody for their well wishes, prayers and thoughts," Lane said. "We have had such amazing support."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_us/us_nigeria_oil_unrest

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Factbox: Main competition films at Berlin festival (Reuters)

BERLIN (Reuters) ? The 62nd Berlin film festival opens on Thursday February 9. and ends on February 19., with the awards ceremony taking place on February 18.

Following are the 22 films in the main competition line-up, along with the production countries, the name of the director and the names of major stars. Five are not in the running for awards. Another film will be announced on January 31.

- Aujourdhui (France/Senegal) by Alain Gomis.

- Coming Home (France) by Fr?d?ric Videau.

- Barbara (Germany) by Christian Petzold.

- Bel Ami (Britain) by Declan Donnellan, Nick Ormerod and starring Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Christina Ricci.*

- Captive (France/Philippines/Germany/Britain) by Brillante Mendoza.

- Caesar Must Die (Italy) by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani.

- Just The Wind (Hungary/Germany/ France) by Bence Fliegauf.

- Childish Games (Spain) by Antonio Chavarr?as.

- A Royal Affair (Denmark/Czech Republic/Germany/Sweden) by Nikolaj Arcel.

- Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close (USA) by Stephen Daldry and starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock.*

- Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate (Hong Kong, China) by Hark Tsui.*

- Mercy (Germany/Norway) by Matthias Glasner.

- Jayne Mansfield's Car (Russian Federation/USA) by Billy Bob Thornton and starring Billy Bob Thornton, Robert Duvall, John Hurt, and Kevin Bacon.

- Postcards From The Zoo (Indonesia/Germany/Hong Kong, China) by Edwin.

- Sister (Switzerland/France) by Ursula Meier.

- Farewell My Queen (France/Spain) by Beno?t Jacquot, starring Diane Kruger.

- Meteora (Germany/Greece) by Spiros Stathoulopoulos.

- Rebelle (Canada) by Kim Nguyen.

- Shadow Dancer (Britain/Ireland) by James Marsh and starring Clive Owen.*

- The Flowers Of War (People's Republic of China) by Zhang Yimou and starring Christian Bale.*

- Tabu (Portugal/Germany/Brazil/France) by Miguel Gomes.

- Home For The Weekend (Germany) by Hans-Christian Schmid.

NOTE: * denotes films not competing for prizes.

(Reporting by Alice Baghdjian, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/stage_nm/us_germany_berlin_film

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Coll. of Charleston's Cremins takes medical leave (AP)

CHARLESTON, S.C. ? Bobby Cremins' assistant says the veteran basketball coach hasn't looked well the past few weeks and Friday evening the College of Charleston announced Cremins will miss the rest of the season because of a medical problem.

Yet, Mark Byington ? who will take over as the Cougars' coach ? was still surprised when the 64-year-old Cremins called him Friday morning with the news.

"The despair in his voice last night and this morning, I knew something was wrong," Byington said.

Cremins was at his home on Hilton Head Island when the announcement was made at the school. The college did not specify Cremins' medical condition or put a time frame on his return, and asked reporters to respect his privacy. Charleston athletic director Joe Hull did say Cremins' condition was not life threatening.

"I personally hope he coaches for many years to come," Hull said.

The AD also plans to speak with Cremins over the next few weeks to determine it the coach will be out even longer.

Cremins issued a statement through the school, saying he knows his top assistant for all six of his years at Charleston will do well in his new role.

"I have complete faith in him as do our players," Cremins said.

The Cougars started this season 10-2 with wins over Clemson and Tennessee, but have lost six of their last eight. Hull said the goal is still to make it to the NCAA tournament. They are 4-5 in the Southern Conference and will need a late season run to get a bye into the second round of the conference tournament.

"It will be business as usual," Byington said. "There will be a different guy calling the signals, but we will move on."

Hull said he will keep in touch with Cremins, but has no plans for the program's future beyond having Byington finish the season.

Byington said Cremins has not looked healthy for the past few weeks, but he thought the coach just might need a day or two off. Instead, he got a phone call from a distraught Cremins at 7:15 a.m. Friday. He told athletic officials that Cremins was taking the rest of the season off, then gathered his team.

"I was very upset. The first thing the team asked when they heard is he OK?" guard Andrew Lawrence said. "Obviously if this has happened and he needs to take a leave of absence we are completely behind him."

Cremins is in his sixth season with the Cougars after spending 19 years coaching Georgia Tech. He has led Charleston to 20 victories in each of his seasons, but his teams haven't been able to win the Southern Conference tournament to get to the NCAAs. He is 579-375 in 31 seasons of coaching, and the Yellow Jackets named their home court for him before he returned to coaching in 2006.

Cremins grew up in the Bronx then came south to play for South Carolina and fellow New York-transplant Frank McGuire. He got his first head coaching job at Appalachian State, leading the Mountaineers to the NCAA tournament in 1979.

Three years later, he left for Georgia Tech and the Atlantic Coast Conference. He led the Yellow Jackets to nine NCAA tournament appearances and reached the Final Four in 1990. He also won three ACC tournament titles and two regular-season crowns before the program tailed off and he was let go after the 2000 season.

Cremins spent the next several years as a college basketball analyst, playing tennis on Hilton Head, until deciding to come back to coaching at the College of Charleston.

Byington has been at Charleston nine seasons. He led Friday's practice and told players they needed to play well for Cremins and just concentrate on Saturday's game against Wofford.

"We're going to make it through," Byington said. "You're going to deal with worse things in your life."

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

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Video: NFLX: Bull vs. Bear

Netflix is exploding to the upside after blowing past analyst estimates. The stock is up roughly 67% this year, but can the rush continue? Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush, explains: "The content owners are smart guys."

Related Links:

Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com

Top of page

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46150544/

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Friday, January 27, 2012

Enormous solar outburst could dazzle your weekend

Auroras may dazzle more people than usual this weekend as Earth receives a glancing blow from an enormous solar outburst that erupted on Jan. 19.

Auroras may dazzle more people than usual this weekend as Earth receives a glancing blow from an enormous solar outburst that erupted on Jan. 19.

Skip to next paragraph

The outburst, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), was detected by sun-watching satellites.

Researchers at the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute predict that auroras should be visible from Seattle, Des Moines, Chicago, and Cleveland, to Boston and Halifax, Nova Scotia Saturday and Sunday nights, weather permitting.

RELATED: Are you scientifically literate? Take our quiz!

Space-weather forecasters initially were concerned that Earth would take a direct hit, notes Joe Kunches, a space scientist at the National Weather Service's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo.

"Indications at the time were that this could be a fairly energetic event," says Mr. Kunches, a former operations chief at the center. The solar flare that triggered the coronal mass ejection covered a relatively large patch of the sun and released a lot of energy. Where other flares during the week lasted an hour or two, the flare that launched the CME lasted roughly 18 hours.

And the CME "was in the right spot," he adds. It emerged from just about the middle of the sun's disk.

It's the "just about," however, that led to the prediction of a glancing blow, rather than a direct hit. The CME emerged from a location just north of the sun's equator, so for the most part it will hurtle past Earth far above the North Pole.

Space Weather Center forecasters say they expect the encounter to generate a weak geomagnetic disturbance beginning around 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time Sunday Jan. 22 and lasting through Jan. 23. It could trigger weak fluctuations in electricity flowing through the long-distance transmissions lines and have a minor effect on satellites.

Coronal mass ejections represent the sudden release of a vast, searingly hot cloud containing up to 200 billion tons of electrons and protons, as well as heavy atomic nuclei forged in the sun's nuclear-fusion furnace.

Hurtling from the sun at speeds of up to 2 million miles an hour, CMEs can generate intense disturbances in Earth's magnetic field that can trigger power and radio blackouts and disable satellites ? as well as generate spectacular aurora over the North and South poles.?

RELATED: Are you scientifically literate? Take our quiz!

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/DZTRnfwm4-Y/Enormous-solar-outburst-could-dazzle-your-weekend

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Most Massive Galaxies Had Frenzied Star-Forming Pasts (SPACE.com)

Clusters of distant galaxies that were bursting with newborn stars in the early universe eventually became the most massive galaxies today, a new study finds.

A team of astronomers found a strong link between active starburst galaxies of the early universe and the giant elliptical galaxies we now see. The star formation in these early galaxies was abruptly cut short, and the researchers pointed to the eating habits of supermassive black holes as the likely culprit.

"This is the first time that we've been able to show this clear link between the most energetic starbursting galaxies in the early universe and the most massive galaxies in the present day," lead scientist Ryan Hickox, of Dartmouth College and England's Durham University, said in a statement.

The astronomers combined data from the European Southern Observatory's Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope and Very Large Telescope, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and others to examine the way bright, distant galaxies are grouped in clusters. [Video and photo of the massive galaxies]

What they found was that galaxies that are closely huddled together have larger halos of dark matter, the elusive, invisible material thought to make up most of the mass in the universe.

To study how these galaxies evolved, the researchers measured the masses of the dark matter halos around the galaxies and used computer simulations to predict how they grow over time. Their calculations showed that these starburst galaxies become giant elliptical galaxies, which are the most massive galaxies in the universe today.?

The starburst galaxies are so distant that their light takes roughly 10 billion years to reach Earth. This allows astronomers to observe them as they were 10 billion years ago, in the early universe. At that time, the galaxies were undergoing a frenzy of intense star formation, which scientists classify as starbursts.

The results of the new study are the most accurate clustering measurements ever made for this type of galaxy, European Southern Observatory officials said in a statement.

The astronomers found that these starbursts were extremely productive, doubling the number of stars in the galaxies. But the phase lasted only 100 million years ? a relatively brief period on cosmological scales. What caused this abrupt end to the rapid star formation was a process that has not been well understood.

"We know that massive elliptical galaxies stopped producing stars rather suddenly a long time ago and are now passive," study team member Julie Wardlow, of the University of California at Irvine and Durham University, said in a statement. "And scientists are wondering what could possibly be powerful enough to shut down an entire galaxy's starburst."

Observations from this new study point to supermassive black holes as a possible explanation. The intense bursts of star formation could have powered quasars, which are regions around black holes that gobble matter and give off intense radiation into space.

At that stage in the universe's history, starburst galaxies were gathered together in a way that is similar to quasars and were found within the same dark matter halos. Quasars are powered by supermassive black holes at their centers, and as they flung powerful bursts of energy into the cosmos, they also could have ?blown away the galaxies' surrounding gas, which is the raw material from which stars are born.

This dynamic process could have been powerful enough to abruptly shut down rapid star formation.

"In short, the galaxies' glory days of intense star formation also doom them by feeding the giant black hole at their center, which then rapidly blow away or destroys the star-forming clouds," David Alexander, of Durham University, said in a statement.

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/20120125/sc_space/mostmassivegalaxieshadfrenziedstarformingpasts

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Catalyzing new uses for diesel by-products

Catalyzing new uses for diesel by-products [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 26-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Stephen Rouse
RouseS@cardiff.ac.uk
44-290-208-75596
Cardiff University

A new catalytic process could convert by-products of diesel production into more useful chemicals for industry

A new catalytic process discovered at Cardiff University could unleash a range of useful new by-products from diesel fuel production.

More sustainable production of sulphur-free diesel from natural gas and biomass is increasing. However the by-products, hydrocarbons like decane and other low value alkanes have little practical use.

Now a discovery at the University's Cardiff Catalysis Institute has found a potential route for upgrading these by-products into more useful chemicals.

In the past, synthetic reactions starting from alkanes like decane have been fraught with difficulty. They tend either to over-dehydrogenate or to combust, depending on whether oxygen is present in the reaction. Now the Institute, part of the University's School of Chemistry has reported the use of a mixed-metal catalyst to convert decane to a range of oxygenated aromatics.

The breakthrough, published in Nature Chemistry, came when the team fed a gas mixture of decane and air through an iron molybdate catalyst. At higher temperatures, the reaction formed water and decene, which is used in the production of detergents. At lower temperatures, however, the reaction took a different route to create oxygenated aromatic molecules. These included phthalic anhydride, used in the dyeing industry, and coumarin which helps in the production of anti-coagulant drugs.

Professor Stan Golunski, a member of the Institute team behind the discovery said: "This discovery breaks new ground as it implies the involvement of oxygen that has not yet made the full transition from its molecular form to its ionic form. This overturns a widely-held view that this type of oxygen was too reactive to form anything other than carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in reactions with hydrocarbons."

"While the increased production of sulphur-free diesel has been a positive move, the glut of low value by-products will become a problem. We hope our new process will lead to less waste and the creation of more useful chemicals for a range of industries."

###


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

?


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


Catalyzing new uses for diesel by-products [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 26-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Stephen Rouse
RouseS@cardiff.ac.uk
44-290-208-75596
Cardiff University

A new catalytic process could convert by-products of diesel production into more useful chemicals for industry

A new catalytic process discovered at Cardiff University could unleash a range of useful new by-products from diesel fuel production.

More sustainable production of sulphur-free diesel from natural gas and biomass is increasing. However the by-products, hydrocarbons like decane and other low value alkanes have little practical use.

Now a discovery at the University's Cardiff Catalysis Institute has found a potential route for upgrading these by-products into more useful chemicals.

In the past, synthetic reactions starting from alkanes like decane have been fraught with difficulty. They tend either to over-dehydrogenate or to combust, depending on whether oxygen is present in the reaction. Now the Institute, part of the University's School of Chemistry has reported the use of a mixed-metal catalyst to convert decane to a range of oxygenated aromatics.

The breakthrough, published in Nature Chemistry, came when the team fed a gas mixture of decane and air through an iron molybdate catalyst. At higher temperatures, the reaction formed water and decene, which is used in the production of detergents. At lower temperatures, however, the reaction took a different route to create oxygenated aromatic molecules. These included phthalic anhydride, used in the dyeing industry, and coumarin which helps in the production of anti-coagulant drugs.

Professor Stan Golunski, a member of the Institute team behind the discovery said: "This discovery breaks new ground as it implies the involvement of oxygen that has not yet made the full transition from its molecular form to its ionic form. This overturns a widely-held view that this type of oxygen was too reactive to form anything other than carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in reactions with hydrocarbons."

"While the increased production of sulphur-free diesel has been a positive move, the glut of low value by-products will become a problem. We hope our new process will lead to less waste and the creation of more useful chemicals for a range of industries."

###


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

?


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


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/cu-cnu012612.php

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Ex-Stanford Prof Starts a Totally Free Online School [Video]

Remember when Stanford offered those college-level Computer Science courses for free? Now the professor who ran them is leaving Stanford to start a project that will offer nothing but free CS online classes. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/sNsCeOQd20U/ex+stanford-prof-is-starting-a-totally-free-online-school

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Potter star Daniel Radcliffe at new film premiere (AP)

LONDON ? Daniel Radcliffe has attended a premiere for "The Woman in Black," his first movie role since the final Harry Potter movie was released last year.

Radcliffe, who is known to most movie-goers as the boy wizard Potter, says it felt "very natural" to move away from that character and start the next phase of his career.

The 22-year-old plays a widowed father and lawyer in the film adaptation of the Susan Hill's gothic ghost story, one of the longest-running plays in London's West End.

Nonetheless, many of Radcliffe's fans lining the red carpet at London's Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday greeted him with Potter books and other memorabilia to be signed.

Radcliffe attended the premiere with his co-star, British actress Liz White, who plays the title role.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_en_mo/eu_britain_people_daniel_radcliffe

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Pakistan police suspect aid worker kidnapped (AP)

KARACHI, Pakistan ? Pakistani police say a Kenyan aid worker has disappeared and is suspected of having been kidnapped in the country's south.

Police officer Shahab Akbar Kolachi said late Monday the man was working for an international NGO, helping the southern Sindh province recover from devastating 2010 floods. Kolachi did not provide the man's name.

The officer said police believe the man was kidnapped Monday while traveling from the city of Sukkur to the district of Dadu. His vehicle was found abandoned between the two areas. His colleagues tried to call him, but his phone was turned off.

Kidnappings for ransom are common in Pakistan by both criminals and Islamist militants.

Gunmen seized two aid workers, an Italian and a German, in the central Pakistan town of Multan last week.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan

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Islamists secure top spot in new Egypt parliament (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) ? The Muslim Brotherhood won by far the biggest share of seats allocated to party lists in Egypt's first freely-elected parliament in decades, final results confirmed, giving it a major role in drafting the country's new constitution.

Banned under former leader Hosni Mubarak and his predecessors, the Brotherhood has emerged as the winner from his overthrow. Islamists of various stripes have taken about two thirds of seats in the assembly, broadly in line with their own forecasts.

The Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) has promised all Egyptians will have a voice in the new parliament, but Islamists are now set to wield major influence over a new constitution to be drafted by a 100-strong body parliament will help pick.

Under a complex electoral system, two thirds or 332 of the seats in lower house are decided by proportional representation on closed party lists. The other third are contested by individual candidates.

According to final results of the staggered election issued by the High Elections Committee on Saturday, the Brotherhood's electoral alliance took a 38 percent share of the seats allocated to lists.

The hardline Islamist Al-Nour Party won 29 percent of list seats. The liberal New Wafd and Egyptian Bloc coalition came third and fourth respectively.

The Revolution Continues coalition, dominated by youth groups at the forefront of the protests that toppled Mubarak, attracted less than a million votes and took just seven of the 498 seats up for grabs in the lower house.

The elections committee did not give results for individual seats, but the FJP's alliance said on Saturday it now expected to take more than 47 percent of all seats in the lower house.

RECONCILIATORY

Having secured the biggest bloc, the FJP named Saad al-Katatni, a leading Brotherhood official who sat in the old parliament as an independent, as speaker of the assembly.

While the strong Islamist performance has alarmed liberal Egyptians and Western governments who had close ties to Mubarak, it is unclear if rival Islamists will team up in the assembly.

The FJP expressed its "confidence that Katatni will be at the same distance from all representatives, either those of the FJP or other parties."

This would "uphold the principle of democracy and consolidate the rules of political participation," the party said in a statement.

The rise of the Islamists in Egypt's first election since Mubarak's overthrow in February last year marks a monumental shift from the past when parliament was a compliant body stuffed with members of his National Democratic Party and the Muslim Brotherhood was officially banned but tolerated.

The arrival of a new generation of politicians with a genuine popular mandate suggests parliament will seek to temper the power of the ruling military council, which has pledged to step aside at the end of June.

Katatni, who sat on the Brotherhood's policy committee, told Reuters the new assembly would be "reconciliatory."

"The priorities are meeting the demands of the revolution, including the rights of the injured and those killed in the uprising," he said.

The ruling military council, which took over Mubarak's duties after he was ousted in February, also named its choices on Saturday for the 10 parliamentary seats reserved for presidential appointees.

Only one woman was among the appointees which is likely to further disappoint feminist groups after women won only a handful of seats in the elections. Mubarak had traditionally used the quota to boost the representation of women and Coptic Christians.

Five of the appointees belonged to the Coptic community, which comprises some 10 percent of the population.

(Writing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Sophie Hares)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120121/wl_nm/us_egypt_elections_results

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Monday, January 23, 2012

Israeli leader condemns Palestinian Muslim cleric (AP)

JERUSALEM ? The Palestinians' top Muslim cleric is facing harsh Israeli criticism for quoting a religious text that includes passages about killing Jews.

Mufti Mohammed Hussein said his remarks at a rally for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement last week were taken out of context and that he didn't incite people to kill Jews.

The comments from the rally were posted to YouTube by an Israeli watchdog group tracking incitement.

In the video, the mufti cited a hadith, or saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, that the Earth's end of days will not happen until Muslims kill Jews in a religious battle.

Israeli Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday condemned the comments as "heinous."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Mitchell: 'We won't let Joe's legacy die'

FILE - In this Sept. 5, 1987 file photo, Penn State football coach Joe Paterno walks around his players as they warm up for an NCAA college football game against Bowling Green in State College, Pa. Paterno, the longtime Penn State coach who won more games than anyone else in major college football but was fired amid a child sex abuse scandal that scarred his reputation for winning with integrity, died Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. He was 85. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 5, 1987 file photo, Penn State football coach Joe Paterno walks around his players as they warm up for an NCAA college football game against Bowling Green in State College, Pa. Paterno, the longtime Penn State coach who won more games than anyone else in major college football but was fired amid a child sex abuse scandal that scarred his reputation for winning with integrity, died Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. He was 85. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 1965 file photo, Joe Paterno, associate football coach at Penn state, directs players at State College, Pa. Paterno, the longtime Penn State coach who won more games than anyone else in major college football but was fired amid a child sex abuse scandal that scarred his reputation for winning with integrity, died Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. He was 85. (AP Photo, File)

Former Penn State star Lydell Mitchell visited Joe Paterno about a week and a half ago, hoping to get just a moment with his ailing coach.

After an emotional hour and a half, Mitchell said goodbye and told Paterno that he would always have the support of his players.

"I said, 'Hey, man, we love you.' We'll fight the fight for him," Mitchell said Sunday after Paterno died at age 85.

Mitchell says Paterno's legacy "will always be intact because we won't let Joe's legacy die."

Paterno died less than three months after he was ousted amid a child sex abuse scandal involving one of his former assistants.

Former Penn State tight end Mickey Shuler says, "It's just sad because I think he died from other things than lung cancer."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-22-Paterno-Sports%20Reax/id-926280d3d800425b810104a4cfc71455

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House panel: Prosecutor intends to take 5th (AP)

WASHINGTON ? A House committee says a federal prosecutor in Arizona intends to remain silent if called for questioning in a congressional probe of a problem-plagued gun smuggling investigation.

Patrick Cunningham's decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the investigation of Operation Fast and Furious comes after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoenaed him.

Republican committee Chairman Darrell Issa says congressional investigators have information that Cunningham played a role in approving a controversial law enforcement tactic, resulting in federal agents losing track of weapons that later turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S.

Cunningham, chief of the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix, is resigning his government post effective a week from now to take a job in the private sector.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_go_co/us_fast_and_furious

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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Cash-strapped Ireland tests limits of austerity (AP)

DUBLIN ? Ireland is testing the limits for how much European Union-ordered austerity one country can take. Its four-year struggle to save its banks and tame a runaway deficit has already meant slashing thousands from the annual budgets of most households ? and many Irish say they're close to breaking point.

"We're squeezed to the pips," said Tommy Larkin, a 35-year-old mechanic changing tires and oil on the double in northside Dublin. "I never had to watch my money in the good times, but that's all I do with my money now."

Across the road, butcher Sean Smith, 43, isn't quite as forlorn about his own family finances but is just as bleak about Ireland's financial future.

"We're under German rule, it's as simple as that, and we'll be paying them back forever," Smith said, referring to Ireland's loss of economic sovereignty since taking a bailout from the EU and International Monetary Fund 14 months ago.

On Thursday, EU and IMF chiefs monitoring Ireland's handling of its debt crisis left Dublin singing the praises of a government that has slashed its 2011 deficit to below 10 percent of GDP, ahead of the bailout plan's target.

Ireland has been cutting its budgets and raising a slew of taxes since January 2009 and, according to the EU-IMF bailout plan, still must cut billions more over the next three years just to regain a 2015 deficit of 3 percent of GDP, the maximum level permitted in the eurozone.

Middle-class wages have been cut around 15 percent, while the nearly 15 percent unemployed have seen welfare and other aid payments trimmed. The government has just raised sales tax to 23 percent, joint highest in the EU, imposing a new household tax, and planning new water charges next. Keeping a car on the road can mean an annual fee of anything from euro160 ($205) to euro2,258 ($3,045), while recent fuel-tax hikes have helped take gas above euro1.50 per liter ($7.25 per U.S. gallon).

Many economists believe Ireland is trying to defy economic gravity by fighting a war on its own debt that, to succeed, will require strong economic growth alongside spending cuts. Austerity alone, the recipe so far, undercuts the hopes of growth by sucking money out of the economy.

The same formula of reforms centered on austerity is being applied across Europe and is championed by Germany's chancellor and leading voice in Europe's financial planning, Angela Merkel, as a way out of the region's financial crisis. Recession-hit Greece and Portugal, which have also been the recipients of bailouts, face severe austerity measures.

The proponents of austerity have pointed to Ireland as proof that it can work, but questions are growing over how much longer the country can keep squeezing money from its economy.

"If austerity don't work in Ireland, it won't work anywhere. And it can't work here if people are scared stiff of spending whatever money they have," said David McWilliams, Ireland's most prominent economic commentator, who foresaw the demise of the 1994-2007 Celtic Tiger economy as credit and property bubbles collapsed.

McWilliams noted that Ireland has an extremely flexible labor market by European standards, is quick to use its traditional safety valve of emigration to keep unemployment artificially low, and has built a lopsided economy dependent on the fortunes of nearly 1,000 foreign multinationals based here.

Despite these advantages, he said, Ireland still stands little chance of achieving the economic growth it needs so long as it's trapped in an EU-directed plan that takes progressively more money out of people's pockets.

"Search every economic textbook you've ever read and find the one that says cutting expenditure in the teeth of a recession will make the economy grow. It doesn't exist," McWilliams said.

"The problem with our austerity budgets is that we're trying to hit a moving target, and every cut and tax hike moves the target further away. I don't see how these austerity budgets ever end," he said.

Ireland's most recent consumer confidence survey last month recorded a precipitous drop as citizens reflected worries about their declining net pay and job security, mortgages in negative equity, and tougher times expected to come.

Austin Hughes, chief economist at KBC Ireland, a Belgian-owned bank that is one of Ireland's main mortgage providers, said the country faces a make-or-break 2012. If the economy doesn't grow sufficiently, he said, people will increasingly reject the whole rationale of austerity.

"Ireland started battling its downturn in 2008 before virtually the rest of the world. As we face into 2012, we're battling this sense of dread, that this fight against debt could go on forever. The risk is it's going to tax people's willingness to make further adjustments," said Hughes, who co-authored the consumer confidence report.

"People rightfully wonder: How bad will property taxes get? How much higher will the other charges go? How bad will the cuts in public services be? We've been living with too much certainty for too long," he said.

"With each austerity budget the government extends this sense of hope that we're coming to the corner, that the worst is over and things are about to get better. And at each stage that hope gets snatched away."

Ireland's exceptional exposure to the economic fortunes of its two major trading partners, the U.S. and the United Kingdom, appears to be the key to pulling Ireland out of its doldrums ? or its Achilles heel, if those two economies don't generate their own growth.

Multinationals in Ireland, chiefly American companies attracted by an unusually low 12.5 percent rate of corporate tax, generate more than 18 percent of Ireland's entire GDP.

The trouble is, those companies making goods for sale overseas provide just 7 percent of Ireland's jobs, according to estimates by McWilliams. So even as these companies' exports boost GDP, their actual economic footprint on the ground in Ireland is far less.

"When Ireland's GDP rises, it doesn't mean anything to the real people of Ireland. It means Pfizer pumped out more Viagra last month," McWilliams said, referring to one of Ireland's most high-profile U.S. drug companies and exports. "And frankly, the level of erectile dysfunction in North America is hardly a firm basis for growth in Ireland."

Perhaps the most striking aspect of Ireland's economic fall has been the relatively low levels of public protest.

Commentators credit Ireland's post-Famine experience of poverty and emigration, its tradition of close government-labor union relations, and its exceptionally high levels of property ownership as disparate reasons why the country's shrinking work force keeps reporting to their jobs.

Smith, the Dublin butcher, and Larkin the mechanic are both bracing in their own ways for a tougher 2012. Both imagine an alternative Ireland where enraged workers riot in the streets, but both doubt it will happen.

Larkin is living paycheck to paycheck with nothing left over for savings. His partner takes care of their 3-year-old child at home, and another baby's on the way in March. The home they bought in 2006 with a euro270,000 ($350,000) mortgage is worth less than half of that now.

The auto shop has had to lower prices to keep penny-pinching customers coming in. Its newest competition includes shops that sell imported, used German tires ? too worn down for German roads, but still legal in Ireland ? for half the price of new ones.

One of his friends has just given up on Ireland and joined the 1,700 on average who leave the country each week. Part of him would love to join his friend overseas.

"If I had nothing tying me down, no mortgage, I'd be on that plane to Australia as well," Larkin said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_re_eu/eu_ireland_pains_of_austerity

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Newt Gingrich Makes a Comeback in South Carolina (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | According to the most recent polling data, the South Carolina presidential primary race is tightening. It seems that the man on the move at this moment is the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich. There has been an even larger surge in nationwide polling as Rasmussen has Gingrich trailing Mitt Romney by only three percentage points, 30 to 27. Some are crediting Gingrich's rise to a strong debate performance on January 16 in Myrtle Beach, SC.

Newt Gingrich is an original, outside the box thinker. Sometimes this can get him into trouble and make him sound, to use Mitt Romney's word, zany. However at other times Gingrich is capable of brilliance. In the debate on January 16 he made some valid points about teaching work. He did not single out any race of people. Gingrich simply stated that it would be an excellent way to provide jobs for young people that need money.

Of course Newt's debate performance is very dependent upon your political perspective. Conservatives in the debate audience were quick to applaud Gingrich. Afterwards, those on the left, including former President Jimmy Carter, criticized his comments as being just short of racist. That is a bridge too far even for Jimmy Carter.

My own view is that Mr. Gingrich was on track, for the most part, with his comments in the debate. Americans need jobs. Ignoring the unemployment data for a moment, a recent government report indicated that over 48 percent of American households received some type of government assistance in the first quarter of 2010. This would seem to indicate that at least some Americans have lost the work ethic or the ability to hold a job. Any politician should realize that we need to restore this basic building block of society. America needs productive citizens contributing to the economy, not more dependency on government.

Newt Gingrich's statement about Barack Obama being the food stamp president is also correct. The latest data show that there are 44.7 million Americans receiving food stamps. That is an amazing number when you consider that the total population of the United States in 2010 was just under 309 million people. I thought that Newt Gingrich did a good job of contrasting the conservative approach of personal responsibility and limited government with the current state of affairs in this country. The primary voters in South Carolina will be able to voice their opinion on his approach on January 21.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120119/us_ac/10853733_newt_gingrich_makes_a_comeback_in_south_carolina

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Friday, January 20, 2012

(AP)

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/terrorism/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_re_eu/eu_apnewsalert

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Protest exposes Silicon Valley-Hollywood rivalry

This screen shot shows the blacked-out Wikipedia website, announcing a 24-hour protest against proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress, intended to protect intellectual property that critics say could facilitate censorship, referred to as the "Stop Online Piracy Act," or "SOPA," and the "Protect IP Act," or "PIPA." (AP Photo/Wikipedia)

This screen shot shows the blacked-out Wikipedia website, announcing a 24-hour protest against proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress, intended to protect intellectual property that critics say could facilitate censorship, referred to as the "Stop Online Piracy Act," or "SOPA," and the "Protect IP Act," or "PIPA." (AP Photo/Wikipedia)

This screen shot shows the home page Google.com. A campaign whose backers include tech heavyweights like Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. has successfully portrayed the bills _ the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act _ as an attack on a free and open Internet rather than a way to protect the jobs of Americans in the movie and music industries, in a protest Wenesday, Jan. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Google.com)

Demonstrators protest in front of the building housing the New York offices of U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kristen Gilliband, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. January 18 is a date that will live in ignorance, as Wikipedia started a 24-hour blackout of its English-language articles, joining other sites in a protest of pending U.S. legislation aimed at shutting down sites that share pirated movies and other content. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian addresses a protest in front of the building housing the New York offices of U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kristen Gilliband, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. January 18 is a date that will live in ignorance, as Wikipedia started a 24-hour blackout of its English-language articles, joining other sites in a protest of pending U.S. legislation aimed at shutting down sites that share pirated movies and other content. Reddit.com shut down its social news service for 12 hours. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Demonstrators protest in front of the building housing the New York offices of U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kristen Gilliband, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. January 18 is a date that will live in ignorance, as Wikipedia started a 24-hour blackout of its English-language articles, joining other sites in a protest of pending U.S. legislation aimed at shutting down sites that share pirated movies and other content. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

(AP) ? In a move that heightens the growing tension between Silicon Valley and Hollywood, Wikipedia and other websites went dark Wednesday in protest of two congressional proposals intended to thwart the online piracy of copyrighted movies and TV programs.

The web-based encyclopedia is part of a loose coalition of dot-coms and large technology companies that fear Congress is prepared to side with Hollywood and enact extreme measures ? possibly including the blocking of entire websites? to stop the online sharing and unauthorized use of Hollywood productions.

The fight will test which California-based industry has the most sway in Washington.

For now, Silicon Valley appears to have the upper hand. Supporters of the legislation ? called the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect Intellectual Property Act in the Senate ? say the bills are aimed at protecting jobs in the movie and music industries. But a campaign including tech heavyweights such as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. has successfully portrayed the bills as an attack on a free and open Internet.

"It has nothing to do with stolen songs or movies," said Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn.org, which is participating in the blackout. Ruben says tougher legislation ? even directed overseas ? could make domestic cultural commentators more prone to legal attack.

Rather than showing encyclopedia articles, Wikipedia displayed a blacked-out page describing the protest and offering more information on the bills. Many articles were still viewable on cached pages.

Reddit.com shut down its social news service for 12 hours. Other sites made their views clear without cutting off services. Google blacked out the logo on its home page, directing people to a page where they could add their names to a petition.

The one-day outage was timed to coincide with key House and Senate committee hearings as they prepare to send the bills to the full floor for debate.

However, sponsor Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, sought last week to remove a controversial provision from the House bill that could force Internet service providers to interfere with the way Web addresses work for foreign sites deemed dedicated to piracy. He postponed work on the measure until February.

Critics believe such tinkering with core Internet technology treads into dangerous territory that could lead to online censorship. It might also give hackers a new way to wreak havoc.

The White House raised concerns that the bills could stifle innovation. Over the weekend, the Obama administration reacted to two online petitions, saying it "will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet."

At the same time, the administration called on all sides to "pass sound legislation this year that provides prosecutors and rights holders new legal tools to combat online piracy originating beyond U.S. borders."

That nuanced stance is President Barack Obama's attempt at "threading the needle" between two important constituencies as he seeks re-election in November, said Jeffrey Silva, a technology policy analyst at Medley Global Advisors in Washington.

On the one hand, his administration has defended a free, open Internet as it watched repressive regimes fall in the Middle East with help from social media such as Twitter. It has also been a proponent of the concept of "net neutrality," which prevents Internet service providers from slowing online traffic that comes from file-sharing sites known to trade in pirated content.

On the other hand, Obama and other Democrats have gone to Hollywood dozens of times to raise campaign funds over the years.

"The administration is trying to fight to protect the Internet space," Silva said. "But at the same time, it doesn't want to disenfranchise Hollywood and the business community."

Indeed, behind the protests and public posturing, both Hollywood and Silicon Valley spend generously to lobby causes in Washington. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the movie, television and music industries spent a combined $91.7 million on lobbying efforts in 2011, compared with the computer and Internet industry's $93 million.

In the 2012 election cycle, the movie, television and music industry offered up $7.7 million in direct campaign contributions to congressional candidates. The computer and Internet industry contributed $6.6 million.

Despite the uproar on websites and blogs, PIPA remains firmly in play. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said Tuesday that he intends to push the bill toward a floor vote on Jan. 24. He said much of the criticism of the bill is "flatly wrong."

It remains to be seen whether the two industries can come to the table and negotiate a compromise.

"There are good companies, and then there are companies simply out to preserve the Wild West, free-to-steal business model," said Recording Industry Association of America CEO Cary Sherman. He expects to know "within the next few weeks" whether the legislation can survive.

Lawmakers may have a personal incentive to keep online piracy on the nation's political radar, said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a non-partisan government-accountability watchdog. If the issue stays alive through the current election cycle, it may help bring in campaign contributions from high-tech donors and Hollywood later this year.

The issue "becomes an opportunity for raising more money from these groups," Wertheimer said. "If you're into an important issue and money is flowing in on both sides, then both sides can up the ante."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-18-US-Wikipedia-Silicon-Valley-Versus-Hollywood/id-60186b2958594e6e8f67e0e0c6bc6cae

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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Stand Together: The Gaming Community vs SOPA and PIPA

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Source: http://en.sevenload.com/videos/mxmpQjw-Stand-Together-The-Gaming-Community-vs-SOPA-and-PIPA

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The Engadget Show returns Friday, January 20th!

Sleep? Ha! We may have spent the past 10 days or so rocking the Las Vegas Convention Center, but that doesn't mean it's time to rest on our over overtired laurels. Nope, we're back this Friday with the first Engadget Show of 2012, and it's going to be a fun one -- we'll be taking a look at the biggest gadgets, interviews and stories to come out of this year's CES and offering up all sorts of surprises.

Best of all, if you're in New York City, you can be a part of the live show -- just fire off an email to engadgetshow [at] engadget.com.

Here are the deets:
o. The event is all ages.
o. We'll open doors and begin seating at 5:15pm on December 20th, and the taping begins at 6:00PM. We'll be closing the doors at 5:50PM.
o. Winners must confirm and print tickets 24 hours before taping begins or risk forfeiting their seat.
o. Please bring a photo ID with you to the taping.
o. The show length is around an hour.

If you're a member of the media who wishes to attend, please contact us at: engadgetshowmedia [at] engadget [dot] com, and we'll try to accommodate you. All other non-media questions can be sent to: engadgetshow [at] engadget [dot] com.

Subscribe to the Show:

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V).
[Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (M4V).
[RSS M4V] Add the Engadget Show feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.

The Engadget Show returns Friday, January 20th! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/17/the-engadget-show-returns-friday-january-20th/

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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

'Miracle tree' substance produces clean drinking water inexpensively and sustainably

ScienceDaily (Jan. 18, 2012) ? A natural substance obtained from seeds of the "miracle tree" could purify and clarify water inexpensively and sustainably in the developing world, where more than 1 billion people lack access to clean drinking water, scientists report. Research on the potential of a sustainable water-treatment process requiring only tree seeds and sand appears in ACS' journal Langmuir.

Stephanie B. Velegol and colleagues explain that removing the disease-causing microbes and sediment from drinking water requires technology not always available in rural areas of developing countries. For an alternative approach, Velegol looked to Moringa oleifera, also called the "miracle tree," a plant grown in equatorial regions for food, traditional medicine and biofuel. Past research showed that a protein in Moringa seeds can clean water, but using the approach was too expensive and complicated. So Velegol's team sought to develop a simpler and less expensive way to utilize the seeds' power.

To do that, they added an extract of the seed containing the positively charged Moringa protein, which binds to sediment and kills microbes, to negatively charged sand. The resulting "functionalized," or "f-sand," proved effective in killing harmful E. coli bacteria and removing sediment from water samples. "The results open the possibility that ? f-sand can provide a simple, locally sustainable process for producing storable drinking water," the researchers say.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation, and the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Huda A. Jerri, Kristin J. Adolfsen, Lauren R. McCullough, Darrell Velegol, Stephanie B. Velegol. Antimicrobial Sand via Adsorption of Cationic Moringa oleifera Protein. Langmuir, 2011; 111222134253009 DOI: 10.1021/la2038262

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/4PmOKjDdHao/120118112005.htm

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