Planet found orbiting habitable zone of sun-like star

By Irene Klotz

MOFFET FIELD, California | Mon Dec 5, 2011 9:07pm EST

MOFFET FIELD, California (Reuters) - The most Earth-like planet ever discovered is circling a star 600 light years away, a key finding in an ongoing quest to learn if life exists beyond Earth, scientists said on Monday.

The planet, called Kepler-22b, joins a list of more than 500 planets found to orbit stars beyond our solar system. It is the smallest and the best positioned to have liquid water on its surface -- among the ingredients necessary for life on Earth.

"We are homing in on the true Earth-sized, habitable planets," said San Jose State University astronomer Natalie Batalha, deputy science team lead for NASA's Kepler Space Telescope that discovered the star.

The telescope, which was launched three years ago, is staring at about 150,000 stars in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra, looking for faint and periodic dimming as any circling planets pass by, relative to Kepler's line of sight.

Results will be extrapolated to determine the percentage of stars in the Milky Way galaxy that harbor potentially habitable, Earth-size planets.

This is the first detection of a potentially habitable world orbiting a Sun-like star, scientists reported in findings to be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Kepler-22b is 600 light years away. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km).

GROUND TELESCOPES

Planets about the same distance from their parent stars as Earth take roughly a year to complete an orbit. Scientists want to see at least three transits to be able to rule out other explanations for fluctuations in a star's light, such as small companion stars. Results also are verified by ground and other space telescopes.

Kepler-22b, which is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth, sits squarely in its star's so-called "habitable zone," the region where liquid water could exist on the surface. Follow-up studies are under way to determine if the planet is solid, like Earth, or more gaseous like Neptune.

"We don't know anything about the planets between Earth-size and Neptune-size because in our solar system we have no examples of such planets. We don't know what fraction are going to be rocky, what fraction are going to be water worlds, what fraction are ice worlds. We have no idea until we measure one and see," Batalha said at a news conference at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffet Field, California.

If Kepler-22b has a surface and a cushion of atmosphere similar to Earth's, it would be about 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 C), about the same as a spring day in Earth's temperate zone.

Among the 2,326 candidate planets found by the Kepler team, 10 are roughly Earth-size and reside in their host stars' habitable zones.

Another team of privately funded astronomers is scanning the target stars for non-naturally occurring radio signals, part of a project known as SETI, or the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

"As soon as we find a different, a separate, an independent example of life somewhere else, we're going to know that it's ubiquitous throughout the universe," said astronomer Jill Tarter, director of the SETI Institute in Mountain View.

The Kepler team is meeting for its first science conference this week.

(Additional reporting by Debby Zabarenko in Washington; Editing by Jane Sutton and Philip Barbara)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/YPCaGAKF5xA/us-space-planet-idUSTRE7B42CV20111206

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Obama tries to pressure Republicans on tax cut (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama sought on Saturday to boost pressure on Republican lawmakers to back an extension of a tax cut for U.S. workers that he views as vital to help the fragile economy.

Obama's proposal to renew a temporary payroll tax holiday has received a lukewarm reception from Republicans who say it would not do much to spur economic growth and would weaken the Social Security retirement program.

Without congressional action by the end of the year, the payroll tax would revert to 6.2 percent from the current rate of 4.2 percent.

Obama has warned that failure to extend the cut would deal a huge blow to the economy.

"Now is the time to step on the gas, not slam on the brakes," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. "Unfortunately, too many Republicans in Congress don't seem to share that same sense of urgency."

In an attempt rally help for his effort, Obama urged Americans to visit the White House website to calculate how their household incomes would be affected by the expiration of the payroll tax cut.

"Try it out. Then let your members of Congress know where you stand," Obama said, adding that the average family would see their tax bills go up by $1,000 if the tax cut lapses.

The radio address was the latest in a series of public remarks Obama has been making to try to boost support for the payroll tax cut.

On Thursday, the Senate defeated competing versions of legislation that would have extended the payroll tax cut. The vote exposed divisions among Republicans as many declined to back a version of the bill put forth by their leadership.

While many Republicans are unenthusiastic about the payroll tax cut, others worry they could suffer fallout in congressional and presidential elections in November next year if they are seen as blocking a tax reduction for middle-class Americans.

Obama is grappling with weak approval ratings because of the lackluster economy and high unemployment. Any improvement in the economy would help his chances of winning another four-year term in office.

On Friday, the Labor Department reported the unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent in November from 9 percent in October, offering a hopeful sign for the economy. But employers added workers at a modest pace of 120,000, suggesting the labor market still lacked vigor.

After gaining little traction for his efforts to pass in full the $447 billion jobs he unveiled in September, Obama is making an aggressive push on parts of the bill such as the payroll tax cut and an extension of jobless benefits that he sees as having the greatest chance of passage.

(Writing by Caren Bohan; Editing by Chris Wilson)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111203/pl_nm/us_obama_taxes

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(AP)

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_on_re_eu/eu_apnewsalert

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Jay-Z provides the blueprint for college course (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Michael Eric Dyson parses Jay-Z's lyrics as if analyzing fine literature. The rapper's riffs on luxury cars and tailored clothes and boasts of being the "Mike Jordan of recording" may make for catchy rhymes, but to Dyson, they also reflect incisive social commentary.

Dyson, a professor, author, radio host and television personality, has offered at Georgetown University this semester a popular ? if unusual ? class dedicated to Jay-Z and his career. The course, "Sociology of Hip-Hop: Jay-Z," may seem an unlikely offering at a Jesuit, majority-white school that counts former President Bill Clinton among its alumni. But Dyson insists that his class confronts topics present in any sociology course: racial and gender identity, sexuality, capitalism and economic inequality.

"It just happens to have an interesting object of engagement in Jay-Z ? and what better way to meet people where they are?" Dyson said. "It's like Jesus talking to the woman at the well. You ask for a drink of water, then you get into some theological discussions."

Classes centered on pop culture superstars like Bruce Springsteen have sprouted on college campuses in recent years; Dyson himself says he's previously taught classes on Tupac Shakur and Marvin Gaye at the University of Pennsylvania. He says Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, is a worthy subject because of his diversity of business interests ? a clothing entrepreneur, he's also a part owner of the NBA's New Jersey Nets (soon to move to his native New York borough of Brooklyn) ? as well as his immense cross-cultural appeal and "lyrical prowess" in articulating contemporary black culture and his place in it.

"I think he's an icon of American excellence," Dyson said.

Though hardly as rigorous as organic chemistry, the course does have midterm and final examinations and required readings, including from Jay-Z's book, "Decoded." Classes ? the final one is Wednesday ? focus more on African-American culture and business than on the particulars of the rapper's biography, which include millions in record sales, Grammy Awards, a marriage to Beyonce with a baby on the way and tours with Kanye West and Eminem.

One recent lecture centered on how popular black artists reflect their culture and race to the public at large, with Dyson name-dropping LL Cool J, Diahann Carroll and Bill Cosby. The professor and one student went back and forth on whether the rapper's lyrical depictions of his extravagant lifestyle ? "Used to rock a throwback, balling on the corner/Now I rock a Teller suit, looking like an owner" is one of many examples ? amounted to bragging and rubbing his taste for fine living in the faces of his listeners.

The student took the position that Jay-Z appears overly boastful, but Dyson countered that the rapper, who grew up in a Brooklyn housing project but has since become a multimillionaire, has never lost his ability to relate to the struggles of everyday people and has continued giving voice to their concerns. Though Jay-Z raps about Saint-Tropez and expensive cigars, he also talks about being nurtured by Brooklyn. And in one song, "99 Problems," he attacks racial profiling with a stark depiction of a racially motivated traffic stop: "Son, do you know why I'm stopping you for?" the officer asks. Jay-Z replies: "`Cause I'm young and I'm black and my hat's real low."

The chairman of Georgetown's sociology department, Timothy Wickham-Crowley, says he supports Dyson's course for trying to show how Jay-Z's music fits into American society, and Steve Stoute, an author and marketing executive who has done business with Jay-Z and has spoken to the class, said the course has practical value for students interested in business.

But others have concerns.

Kevin Powell, who writes about hip-hop and has run unsuccessfully for Congress in Brooklyn, said any discussion of Jay-Z should account for what Powell says are the rapper's derogatory lyrics toward women and his expressions of excessive materialism. Kris Marsh, an assistant sociology professor at the University of Maryland who specializes in the black middle class, said that while she appreciated Jay-Z's cultural significance, she was wary of structuring an entire course around him and using his narrative alone to reflect black America. Though hip-hop artists can focus a lens on urban life, she said, "sometimes these artists use poetic license" and blend fact and fiction to an audience that is often suburban and white.

"We're not sure if it's fiction or real life. It can be almost indistinguishable sometimes in hip-hop," she said.

In an opinion piece published in the student newspaper, The Hoya, junior Stephen Wu dismissed as "poppycock" Dyson's belief that Jay-Z could be compared to Homer or Shakespeare.

"It speaks volumes that we engage in the beat of Carter's pseudo-music while we scrounge to find serious academic offerings on Beethoven and Liszt. We dissect the lyrics of "Big Pimpin'," but we don't read Spenser or Sophocles closely," Wu wrote.

Danielle Bailey, a senior international business and marketing major who is taking the class, said she was a Jay-Z fan before enrolling but now has greater appreciation for his business acumen.

"I know a lot of people are upset, but I think the point of college is to think outside the box. I rarely have classes that allow me to look at things differently," she said, adding, "It's not always about Mozart and Homer."

Dyson makes no apologies, saying the course is a conduit for studying the "major themes of American life" and that hip-hop artists at their best deserve to be classified alongside literary luminaries.

Jay-Z was on tour and not available for an interview, his representative said. But Dyson, who considers himself a friend of the rapper, says Jay-Z has told him he appreciates the course. And Bailey said she heard Jay-Z give a "shout-out" to the class at a recent concert of his she attended.

"You're doing the class there," Dyson says Jay-Z told him. "I'm doing kind of the master class while I'm in concert."

___

Online:

http://www.georgetown.edu/

http:// www.michaelericdyson.com

____

Eric Tucker can be reached at http://twitter.com/etuckerAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_en_ot/us_jay_z_at_georgetown

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Haptic shoes could help the blind navigate cane-free (Yahoo! News)

Is Syria in a civil war?

On Thursday, Navi Pillay, the UN's high commissioner for human rights, said that the nation's political unrest has indeed approached the level of a civil war. Pillay said her assessment stems in part from recognition that elements of the opposition to the Bashar al-Assad regime are increasingly calling for armed resistance. She added that UN estimates of the conflict's death toll--4,000 killed in the past nine months--are likely understated.

"I have said that as soon as there were more and more defectors threatening to take up arms--I said this in August before the Security Council --there was going to be a civil war," Pillay told a news conference in Geneva Thursday, according to a Reuters report. "At the moment, that's how I am characterizing this."

However, it appears that Pillay's is not yet the official UN line. Shortly after she delivered her remarks, her spokesman walked back the characterization, asserting that Syria is, rather, on the "cusp" of civil war, and "heading" in that direction.

"It is definitely heading that way, with more and more reports of armed resistance to the government forces," Pillay's spokesman Rupert Colville told Reuters. "It is on the cusp, but in these circumstances it is hard to say definitively at what point it becomes civil war."

So what prompted the walk-back? And what determines whether the Syrian bloodshed constitutes a civil war?

State Department urges Syria opposition to remain peaceful

The State Department has likewise shied away from Pillay's characterization, noting that the United States has called on both the Syrian regime and the pro-democracy protesters alike to refrain from violence.

"Obviously, we have been very clear in saying that we believe that . . . the opposition needs to remain peaceful," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told journalists at the press conference Thursday.Read More ?

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/techblog/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20111202/tc_yblog_technews/haptic-shoes-could-help-the-blind-navigate-cane-free

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Calif. residents grapple with windstorm cleanup

Crews from Southern California Edison power company work to clean up and restore power on Live Oak Avenue, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, in Temple City, Calif. With more than 100,000 people still without power Friday from one of the biggest windstorms to hit the Western United States in years, people began cutting up felled trees, hauling away trash and firing up power generators. Particularly hard hit was the Los Angeles suburb of Temple City, where winds toppled telephone poles like dominos, leaving three-quarters of the city's 35,000 residents without power for several days. (AP Photo/Bret Hartman)

Crews from Southern California Edison power company work to clean up and restore power on Live Oak Avenue, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, in Temple City, Calif. With more than 100,000 people still without power Friday from one of the biggest windstorms to hit the Western United States in years, people began cutting up felled trees, hauling away trash and firing up power generators. Particularly hard hit was the Los Angeles suburb of Temple City, where winds toppled telephone poles like dominos, leaving three-quarters of the city's 35,000 residents without power for several days. (AP Photo/Bret Hartman)

Julian Francis, 7, of Pasadena, stands next to a fallen tree, caused by the Santa Ana winds, near the intersection of East Mountain Street and North Hill Avenue, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, in Pasadena, Calif. On Friday hundreds of thousands of people remained without power in Southern California and crews struggled to clean up smashed trees, toppled power lines and debris-strewn roadways. (AP Photo/Bret Hartman)

Crews from Southern California Edison power company work to clean up and restore power on Live Oak Avenue, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, in Temple City, Calif. With more than 100,000 people still without power Friday from one of the biggest windstorms to hit the Western United States in years, people began cutting up felled trees, hauling away trash and firing up power generators. Particularly hard hit was the Los Angeles suburb of Temple City, where winds toppled telephone poles like dominos, leaving three-quarters of the city's 35,000 residents without power for several days. (AP Photo/Bret Hartman)

Crews from Southern California Edison power company work to clean up and restore power on Live Oak Avenue, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, in Temple City, Calif. With more than 100,000 people still without power Friday from one of the biggest windstorms to hit the Western United States in years, people began cutting up felled trees, hauling away trash and firing up power generators. Particularly hard hit was the Los Angeles suburb of Temple City, where winds toppled telephone poles like dominos, leaving three-quarters of the city's 35,000 residents without power for several days. (AP Photo/Bret Hartman)

Crews work to clean up and restore power on Live Oak Avenue, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, in Temple City, Calif. With more than 100,000 people still without power Friday from one of the biggest windstorms to hit the Western United States in years, people began cutting up felled trees, hauling away trash and firing up power generators. Particularly hard hit was the Los Angeles suburb of Temple City, where winds toppled telephone poles like dominos, leaving three-quarters of the city's 35,000 residents without power for several days. (AP Photo/Bret Hartman)

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) ? As the hurricane-force winds that pummeled the West eased Friday, Diane Johnson stood knee high in leaves and branches, surveying a fallen tree trunk at eye-level and trying to decide just how to begin the big cleanup.

A near century-old eucalyptus tree toppled over in the middle of the night, crushing all three of the family's cars, landing at the doorstep of their Southern California home and blocking any view from their windows.

Trapped inside for hours, they were able to get out when the fire department cut them a small pathway.

"I have no idea what to do," she said. "I don't know. I don't know."

Like hundreds of thousands of people in Southern California on Friday, Johnson was without electricity. And just like Johnson, residents and crews struggled to clean up smashed trees, toppled power lines and debris-strewn roadways.

Several cities in the region, the hardest hit from Wednesday night's windstorms, were still in a state of emergency.

In Temple City, the Los Angeles suburb where Johnson lives, a row of toppled power poles with wires attached blocked a street. The city's main street remained a shuttered ghost town as cars inched past darkened stop lights and shop signs in Chinese.

Seventy-five percent of the city remained without power Friday and residents in some parts were being advised to boil water or use bottled water. As many as 200 trees fell. As the night loomed, police increased patrols and the city handed out free flashlights.

During the day, residents began cleaning up, filling trash bags with leaves and branches. Streets with older, larger trees suffered the worst damage as top-heavy trunks fell over. But many homes were spared, including that of Johnson's next-door neighbor, Margaret Mushinskie.

The trimmed lawn at Mushinskie's house was pristine because her husband won a years-long battle with city hall to cut down the two eucalyptus trees in front of their home.

"They need to come down," she said, expressing concern for Johnson's son who worked two jobs for his red sports car that now sat crushed under a pile of leaves. "Those poor people. He was so proud of his car. Bless his heart."

In the adjacent city of Arcadia, Aubreann Loving stood in the front yard of her home, watching one car after another turn onto her tiny cul-de-sac, unable to continue down a major cross street that had been blocked by a gigantic fallen tree.

Another tree crashed into her backyard, demolishing the yard's back wall.

The 15-year-old high school sophomore was at home with her family in a house with no heat or light and a refrigerator filled with spoiling food after the city's school district canceled classes at all 10 of its campuses for a second day.

Loving, who passed time Friday watching videos on a portable DVD player she had recharged at a friend's home, is no stranger to school furloughs, having taken her share of snow days off in her native Iowa.

But this, she complained, was far more monotonous.

"If the power would go off, it would come back on within a few hours," she said of elementary school days in Iowa. "But the power isn't coming back on right away here, so it's like there's nothing to do."

About 200,000 people in Southern California and thousands more in Utah ? where Thursday winds topped 100 mph ? remained without electricity. Authorities said some areas might not have power restored until Sunday.

In Pasadena, among the hardest hit cities in the region, inspectors were checking more than 100 damaged buildings to see if they should be red-tagged as being too dangerous to inhabit.

One 42-unit apartment building and other structures were red-tagged Thursday and two dozen more were yellow-tagged, allowing only limited access, said Lisa Derderian, the city's emergency management coordinator.

"Every street in Pasadena was impacted in one way or another," she said, adding that the city's cleanup would be expeditious. "We have the (Tournament of Roses) parade every year here so we are experts in cleanup and debris removal."

In Northern California, crews battled wildfires Friday that were sparked by power lines blown down by the wind. The winds were blamed for the destruction of at least four homes.

Aiding firefighters and those involved in the cleanup was the fact that the high winds, which had been expected to return overnight, never materialized. Around the state, the 60- to 80-mph wind gusts of the previous day had become mere breezes.

The low-pressure system that had spawned the winds was moving eastward so quickly that the National Weather Service canceled red flag warnings that predicted extreme fire danger from the gusty, dry weather.

A new system was expected to move into Arizona on Friday night, bringing a chance of more winds over the weekend but the winds will not be as strong, weather service meteorologist Eric Boldt said.

Nevada could get 35-mph sustained winds with gusts to 70 mph, while Wyoming and Utah could see light snow and New Mexico was warned to expect heavier snow and freezing drizzle.

___

Associated Press writers John Rogers and Alicia Chang in Los Angeles, Jennifer Dobner in Salt Lake City, Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco and Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-02-Western%20Winds/id-369ec97a48044a898da2bd2877ba187f

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Jay-Z provides the blueprint for college course (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Michael Eric Dyson parses Jay-Z's lyrics as if analyzing fine literature. The rapper's riffs on luxury cars and tailored clothes and boasts of being the "Mike Jordan of recording" may make for catchy rhymes, but to Dyson, they also reflect incisive social commentary.

Dyson, a professor, author, radio host and television personality, has offered at Georgetown University this semester a popular ? if unusual ? class dedicated to Jay-Z and his career. The course, "Sociology of Hip Hop: Jay-Z," may seem an unlikely offering at a Jesuit, majority-white school that counts former President Bill Clinton among its alumni. But Dyson insists that his class confronts topics present in any sociology course: racial and gender identity, sexuality, capitalism and economic inequality.

"It just happens to have an interesting object of engagement in Jay-Z ? and what better way to meet people where they are?" Dyson said. "It's like Jesus talking to the woman at the well. You ask for a drink of water, then you get into some theological discussions."

Classes centered on pop culture superstars like Bruce Springsteen have sprouted on college campuses in recent years; Dyson himself says he's previously taught classes on Tupac Shakur and Marvin Gaye at the University of Pennsylvania. He says Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, is a worthy subject because of his diversity of business interests ? a clothing entrepreneur, he's also a part owner of the NBA's New Jersey Nets (soon to move to his native New York borough of Brooklyn) ? as well as his immense cross-cultural appeal and "lyrical prowess" in articulating contemporary black culture and his place in it.

"I think he's an icon of American excellence," Dyson said.

Though hardly as rigorous as organic chemistry, the course does have midterm and final examinations and required readings, including from Jay-Z's book, "Decoded." The 75-minute classes ? the final one is Wednesday ? focus more on African-American culture and business than on the particulars of the rapper's biography, which include millions in record sales, Grammy Awards, a marriage to Beyonce with a baby on the way and tours with Kanye West and Eminem.

One recent lecture centered on how popular black artists reflect their culture and race to the public at large, with Dyson name-dropping LL Cool J, Diahann Carroll and Bill Cosby. The professor and one student went back and forth on whether the rapper's lyrical depictions of his extravagant lifestyle ? "Used to rock a throwback, balling on the corner/Now I rock a Teller suit, looking like an owner" is one of many examples ? amounted to bragging and rubbing his taste for fine living in the faces of his listeners.

The student took the position that Jay-Z appears overly boastful, but Dyson countered that the rapper, who grew up in a Brooklyn housing project but has since become a multimillionaire, has never lost his ability to relate to the struggles of everyday people and has continued giving voice to their concerns. Though Jay-Z raps about Saint-Tropez and expensive cigars, he also talks about being nurtured by Brooklyn. And in one song, "99 Problems," he attacks racial profiling with a stark depiction of a racially motivated traffic stop: "Son, do you know why I'm stopping you for?" the officer asks. Jay-Z replies: "`Cause I'm young and I'm black and my hat's real low."

The chairman of Georgetown's sociology department, Timothy Wickham-Crowley, says he supports Dyson's course for trying to show how Jay-Z's music fits into American society, and Steve Stoute, an author and marketing executive who has done business with Jay-Z and has spoken to the class, said the course has practical value for students interested in business.

But others have concerns.

Kevin Powell, who writes about hip-hop and has run unsuccessfully for Congress in Brooklyn, said any discussion of Jay-Z should account for what Powell says are the rapper's derogatory lyrics toward women and his expressions of excessive materialism. Kris Marsh, an assistant sociology professor at the University of Maryland who specializes in the black middle class, said that while she appreciated Jay-Z's cultural significance, she was wary of structuring an entire course around him and using his narrative alone to reflect black America. Though hip-hop artists can focus a lens on urban life, she said, "sometimes these artists use poetic license" and blend fact and fiction to an audience that is often suburban and white.

"We're not sure if it's fiction or real life. It can be almost indistinguishable sometimes in hip-hop," she said.

In an opinion piece published in the student newspaper, The Hoya, junior Stephen Wu dismissed as "poppycock" Dyson's belief that Jay-Z could be compared to Homer or Shakespeare.

"It speaks volumes that we engage in the beat of Carter's pseudo-music while we scrounge to find serious academic offerings on Beethoven and Liszt. We dissect the lyrics of "Big Pimpin'," but we don't read Spenser or Sophocles closely," Wu wrote.

Danielle Bailey, a senior international business and marketing major who is taking the class, said she was a Jay-Z fan before enrolling but now has greater appreciation for his business acumen.

"I know a lot of people are upset, but I think the point of college is to think outside the box. I rarely have classes that allow me to look at things differently," she said, adding, "It's not always about Mozart and Homer."

Dyson makes no apologies, saying the course is a conduit for studying the "major themes of American life" and that hip-hop artists at their best deserve to be classified alongside literary luminaries.

Jay-Z was on tour and not available for an interview, his representative said. But Dyson, who considers himself a friend of the rapper, says Jay-Z has told him he appreciates the course. And Bailey said she heard Jay-Z give a "shout-out" to the class at a recent concert of his she attended.

"You're doing the class there," Dyson says Jay-Z told him. "I'm doing kind of the master class while I'm in concert."

___

Online:

http://www.georgetown.edu/

http:// www.michaelericdyson.com

____

Eric Tucker can be reached at http://twitter.com/etuckerAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_en_mu/us_jay_z_at_georgetown

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