Gadgets Week in Review: Take Flight

Here’s a selection of stories from the past week on TechCrunch Gadgets: App-maker Moonbot Gets An Oscar Nomination Kickstarter: eye3, An Affordable Aerial Photography Drone Secret Windows 8 Weapon: Kinect Built Into Your Laptop Twitter Changes The ?Contours? Of Censorship With Country-By-Country Blocking A Really Nice Flying Ornithopter Video For Your Friday Enjoyment

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/kzvsy6SnOO8/

power ball kelly slater kelly slater palindrome palindrome asana als disease

Protesters in capital pledge to stay despite ban (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Defiant anti-Wall Street protesters in Washington vowed to remain peacefully entrenched in two parks near the White House on Monday despite a police order to stop camping on federal land, raising the specter of possible confrontation.

The U.S. National Park Service, in its first challenge to the demonstrators, said last week it would start enforcing a ban at noon on Monday against camping in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, where protesters have camped out since October.

It ordered bedding and cooking equipment removed but said tents could remain as a protest symbol if flaps stayed open. While many protesters told Reuters they would comply with the order, blankets were still visible in some tents.

After a cursory inspection of the McPherson Square camp, police remained on the outskirts and no arrests had been reported by late afternoon. Protesters said police appeared hesitant to move in while television crews thronged the area.

While similar "Occupy" protests against social and economic inequality in other U.S. cities have been shut down by police, the demonstrations in the capital have survived an unusually warm winter and a permissive approach by federal authorities reluctant to provoke confrontation.

In Charlotte, North Carolina, city police began evicting another group of Occupy protesters from city property on Monday.

Despite their small numbers, the Washington protesters enjoy outsized media attention because their camps are just blocks from President Barack Obama's official residence and one is next to K Street, a wide thoroughfare that is home to many lobbyists and is synonymous with corporate influence in the capital.

While Obama has not explicitly backed the protests, he has made economic inequality a central theme of his re-election campaign and called for higher taxes on wealthier Americans, angering his Republican opponents.

HUGE TENT

McPherson Square protesters set up a huge tent decorated with stars and moons over a statue of Civil War General James McPherson in the center of the square to protest the police order. "The people united will never be defeated," they chanted.

Tensions rose in the "Occupy DC" camps after police used a stun gun on one protester on Sunday. More than 400 people were arrested during violent anti-Wall Street protests in Oakland, California over the weekend.

Some Washington protesters said they would defy the park police order while others said they would sleep in churches and elsewhere. They are permitted to hold overnight vigils in the parks overnight so long as they do not use their tents for sleeping or cooking.

"We're not going to fight, but we're just going to make it difficult," said Jake Roszack, 22, from New York, who had built a barricade of spare wood, tents and cardboard, around his personal belongings and those of his friends.

A U.S. Park Police spokesman, David Schlosser, said arrests would be made on a case-by-case basis. "We're very pleased that we're getting some voluntary compliance," he said.

Inspired by the Arab Spring, "Occupy" demonstrations began in New York in September and spread across the United States and to other countries.

Protesters are targeting the growing income gap, corporate greed and what they see as unfair tax structure favoring the richest 1 percent of Americans. Washington protesters also cite other pet causes, including joblessness, big agriculture and the homeless, some of whom sleep in the park.

The U.S. capital, site of historic demonstrations over the decades, so far had done little to deter the protesters, drawing a rebuke from congressional Republicans who accuse the Obama administration of sympathizing with the groups and refusing to enforce park rules - a charge denied by park officials.

The National Park Service regulates both parks and forbids camping on federal land not designated as a campground. Local city officials have complained about squalor, rats and trash.

The number of protesters in the Occupy DC camps fluctuates, but city officials estimate there are less than 100 in total.

The Occupy protests had faded over the last few weeks but flared anew on Saturday when violence broke out in Oakland.

Officials in Charlotte, the site of the Democratic National Convention this September, began taking down tents under cover of a police helicopter even though protesters said they had complied with rules to remove their belongings. Police said seven protesters were arrested for resisting orders to leave their tents.

(Writing by Susan Heavey; additional reporting by Rick Rothacker in Charlotte; Editing by Ross Colvin and Doina Chiacu)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/us_nm/us_usa_protests_washington

bay area news lettuce recall lettuce recall zanesville ohio zanesville ohio light field camera world series game 1

Abbott wins 3rd US title with mesmerizing grace

Jeremy Abbott salutes the crowd after his routine in the men's free skate at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Jeremy Abbott salutes the crowd after his routine in the men's free skate at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Jeremy Abbott laughs while holding up his first place medal after winning the men's free skate event at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Jeremy Abbott competes in the men's free skate at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Jeremy Abbott competes in the men's free skate at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Jeremy Abbott competes in the men's free skate at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) ? Rust will no longer be Johnny Weir and Olympic champion Evan Lysacek's only worry if they come back.

Jeremy Abbott proved he's capable of contending with the best in the world ? past and present ? in winning his third title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Sunday. Needing only to stay on his feet to claim the title, he put on a sublime display of quiet elegance and superior skill that was simply bewitching.

"I skate to give a performance like that and so I felt really good," Abbott said. "I was really nervous when I started, I was shaking a little bit. But from the second I set for the quad I was like, 'I'm going to do this.' I just really took it into my hands and made sure that I did what I needed to do."

His final score of 273.58 was the highest ever at the U.S. championships, and puts him within striking distance of world champion Patrick Chan. It was about 12 points better than 2006 Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko scored in winning his seventh European title Saturday.

Adam Rippon, a two-time junior world champion, was second. Ross Miner finished third for a second straight year.

Earlier Sunday, Caydee Denney and John Coughlin won their first pairs title together after winning the previous two years with other partners.

The U.S. men have been in a bit of a funk without Lysacek and Weir the past two years. No one's come close to winning a medal at the world championships, and the Americans did so poorly last year they actually lost the third spot they've had since 2002.

Abbott is one of the most technically sound skaters in the world, with beautiful edges that carve the ice like a master craftsman and perfect body control. He's also one of the few skaters who has managed to maintain the balance between the performance quality that makes figure skating so entertaining and the tough physical tricks the system now demands. But he's never been commanded the international respect Lysacek and Weir did, flopping at the 2009 world championships and again at the Vancouver Olympics.

Even last year, when the U.S. title was there for his taking with Lysacek and Weir gone, Abbott struggled so mightily he failed to even make the world team.

But Abbott is a different man now, and the rest of the world ? Lysacek and Weir included ? would do well to take notice.

"When I was competing with (Lysacek and Weir), both had these larger-than-life personalities and took all the attention," Abbott said. "I really feel I've come into my own. I feel like, with them coming back, it would be just like any other competition. Personally I wouldn't feel any different with them than without them."

Abbott landed the only quadruple jump of the day, and his spins were so tight and perfectly centered that coaches will no doubt be asking for a DVD of them. But it was his presence that was truly spectacular. He picked the music for his free skate, a Muse song that he found on his iPod. He played a part in the choreography, too, resulting in perfect harmony between skater and song. It was as if he let the music wash over him and tell his skates what to do. The audience was so spellbound you could hear his blades carving the ice, and it wasn't until the final notes of his music faded that fans erupted in applause.

Abbott, meanwhile, was so caught up in his own moment that he stood at center ice for a good 10 seconds, not moving a muscle.

"I really at that moment was just feeling the energy of the audience. It was a cool moment to see," Abbott said. "I've won this twice before but both times it was a little surreal and I didn't get the opportunity to take it all in. This time I was lucid and calm. I got to take in the moment and the energy.

"No tears were shed," he cracked. "I was just really enjoying the moment."

The only damper on his day was news that his stepfather, Allen Scott, had blacked out during his performance. The 64-year-old Scott was taken to a hospital, and Abbott said he was able to talk with him.

"His heart rate is down. His blood pressure is really high, but he's coherent," Abbott said. "He's OK and my whole family is with him."

If Abbott comes remotely close to this performance at the world championships in March, it will go a long way toward regaining that third spot. Abbott and Rippon will need to finish with a combined placement of 13 or better.

"It's very important to our federation and other skaters," Rippon said. "But going into worlds, it won't be my focus. This competition was about getting all the monkeys off my back and being able to move forward from that. I know I'm capable of a lot more than I did today and hope that I can show that (at worlds)."

Rippon will need a bit more energy than he had Sunday, when he skated tentative and flat, as if he was trying to hold onto his spot on the podium rather than move up.

He's lucky he didn't get a ticket for loitering as he geared up for a triple axel-step-double toe combination, holding his edge on the entry for what seemed like forever and leaving no doubts about what was coming. Not only did he not do his planned quadruple salchow, he only did a double. A well-done double but a double nonetheless, with nowhere near the point value of a quad or even a triple.

What saved Rippon was his artistry. He has the extension of a ballet dancer, and he used every part of his body, from the tips of his toes to the top of his head, to express his music.

"It wasn't completely perfect, but I'm very proud of what I did," Rippon said.

Armin Mahbanoozadeh, a distant third after the short program, needed a strong effort to have any chance of overtaking Rippon and making the world team. He went the opposite direction, instead, dropping off the podium after taking a big splat on his quadruple toe attempt and turning out on the landings of two other jumps.

Miner took advantage, moving up a spot with a strong program that had only one error, a fall on a triple axel.

Denney and Coughlin had won the last two U.S. titles, each with a different partner. They teamed up in May and, even in a sport where couples have all the stability of Jell-O, their matchup came just three weeks after Coughlin and Caitlin Yankowskas finished sixth at the world championships.

Clearly, though, Denney and Coughlin knew what they were doing. As good as each other was with someone else, they're that much better together. Their performance Sunday was one of the best of the entire week in any discipline, any event. The highlight was their carry lift. Coughlin carried Denney three-quarters of the way around the rink, and did it with such speed and strength she looked as light as a feather pillow. Midway through, she switched positions, turning in the opposite direction of the way he was skating.

You know how tough it is to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time? Try that, times 10.

"I've been dreaming all week about doing that carry after skating clean and that feeling from the audience," Coughlin said. "Oh, I had so much fun."

___

Follow Nancy Armour at http://www.twitter.com/nrarmour

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-29-US%20Championships/id-7f26ce35e34a4bf5b186e5518334c86b

jon bon jovi kim jong il died warren hellman survivor south pacific survivor south pacific house of wax survivor

29 Chinese missing after militant attack in Sudan (AP)

BEIJING ? Militants apparently captured 29 Chinese workers after attacking a remote worksite in a volatile region of Sudan, and Sudanese forces were increasing security for Chinese projects and personnel there, China said Sunday.

China has close political and economic relations with Sudan, especially in the energy sector.

The Foreign Ministry in Beijing said the militants attacked Saturday and Sudanese forces launched a rescue mission Sunday in coordination with the Chinese embassy in Khartoum.

The Ministry's head of consular affairs met with the Sudanese ambassador in Beijing and "urged him to actively conduct rescue missions under the prerequisite of ensuring the safety of the Chinese personnel," the statement said.

In Khartoum, a Chinese embassy spokesman said the northern branch of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement announced that 29 Chinese workers had been captured in the attack. The spokesman, who asked not be identified, gave no other details and it wasn't clear if the militants had demanded conditions for their return.

Other details weren't given. The official Xinhua News Agency cited the state governor as saying the Sudan People's Liberation Movement attacked a road-building site in South Kordofan and seized the workers.

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement are a guerrilla force that has fought against Sudan's regime. Its members hail from a minority ethnic group now in control of much of South Sudan, which became the world's newest country only six months ago in a breakaway from Sudan.

Sudan has accused South Sudan of arming pro-South Sudan groups in South Kordofan. The government of South Sudan has called such accusations a smoke screen intended to justify a future invasion of the South.

China has sent large numbers of workers to potentially unstable regions such as Sudan and last year was forced to send ships and planes to help with the emergency evacuation of 30,000 of its citizens from the fighting in Libya.

China has consistently used its clout in diplomatic forums such as the United Nations to defend Sudan and its longtime leader Omar al-Bashir. In recent years, it has also sought to build good relations with leaders from the south, where most of Sudan's oil is located.

Chinese companies have also invested heavily in Sudanese oil production, along with companies India and elsewhere.

___

Associated Press writer Mohamed Saeed contributed to this report from Khartoum.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_as/as_china_sudan

all saints day all saints day bernard madoff ct news hemlock hemlock mark rothko

WSJ: $100 Billion Facebook IPO Happening Next Week [Rumors]

The Wall Street Journal's golden box of anonymous sources has rattled once more, this time with news that Facebook is finally going public. Now that's cooler than a million dollars. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/b-n9eWHpVXM/wsj-100-billion-facebook-ipo-happening-next-week

cheesecake recipe leona lewis carlos beltran air jordan 11 concord unemployment extension the thin man republic wireless

Romanians take to streets in austerity winter (Reuters)

BUCHAREST, Jan 27 ? In December 1989, art student Titi Amzar risked his life to join the demonstrations in University Square that brought down reviled communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Now 43, Amzar is back on the square demanding much the same thing - a new leader for Romania.

"All these post-communist governments have been incompetent," Amzar, now a designer, told Reuters at the crossing of broad boulevards in central Bucharest where some 50 protesters were killed more than 20 years ago.

"The political class is the main culprit for the collapse of our economic system and the ills of the society."

Protests against President Traian Basescu and his close ally, Prime Minister Emil Boc, have occurred daily for two weeks and spread around the country, initially against proposed health reforms but quickly broadening to express unhappiness with tough austerity measures and corruption.

Many demonstrators, like Amzar, have also criticized the opposition and questioned if any of Romania's current leaders can fix the country's problems.

The unrest, the worst in more than a decade, is still far from serious enough to sway policy or threaten the government.

But it may derail Boc's chances in parliamentary elections late in 2012 and leave Basescu, who will not face the voters until presidential elections in 2014, stuck in an unhappy marriage with his opponents.

Basescu has a theoretically non-executive position but makes almost all major Romanian policy announcements himself, including wage and pension cuts in 2010, a new International Monetary Fund deal and withdrawal of the healthcare reforms.

The bluff former sea captain, president since 2004, made a serious misstep when he criticized the popular deputy health minister Raed Arafat, prompting his resignation and sparking the demonstrations.

Basescu had accused Arafat, a Palestinian-born doctor who created Romania's widely admired main emergency response system, of being a left-winger - a sensitive thing to say in post-communist Romania - after he opposed privatization of the health system.

STILL POOR

While Romania has made huge strides in the last 20 years, its per capita income is still less than half the EU average and it is still markedly poorer than other former communist countries like Poland and Hungary. Many villages and even some parts of Bucharest still have no running water or electricity.

Romanians tended to suffer quietly under communism and there was no equivalent of 1956 in Hungary or the 1968 Prague Spring. But tempers boiled over in 1989 after years of food and energy shortages and Romania's revolution was that year's bloodiest, with more than 1,000 killed.

The thousands who have taken to the streets this month chose

University Square, where the 1989 protesters assembled and now known as 'Kilometer Zero of Democracy', to echo the events of that year.

They are angry about lack of progress in catching up with other members of the European Union and a perception that politicians are more interested in lining their pockets than working to improve the country.

"Romanians put up with a lot if they perceive the government to be fair, but this government has come to be seen as acting unilaterally and imposing discretionary cuts," said Alina Mungiu-Pippidi of the Romanian Academic Society thinktank.

The demonstrators wave placards comparing Basescu with Ceausescu and Dracula, saying he is sucking the nation's blood. But they also criticize the opposition, some of whose MPs have said they will push for Basescu's impeachment.

Although the protests have been mostly peaceful, demonstrators have thrown bricks and set fires, prompting the police to respond with tear gas.

"A large majority of the population would now like 'Basescu out' but beats a retreat when the talk turns to who they would like to put in," wrote Grigore Cartianu, editor of daily Adevarul.

LONG WAY BACK

The Basescu/Boc team presided over boom and bust and passed some of Europe's harshest austerity to balance the economy, including 25 percent salary cuts and a 5 point hike in value added tax.

About three quarters of the population think the country is heading in the wrong direction, a Eurobarometer survey showed.

"The whole system is wrong ... otherwise how can one explain that people who work legally don't have the basics assured from a state salary?" said 42-year-old Daniela Lupu, a public clerk who lives on a monthly wage of just 700 lei ($210) a month.

Boc has effectively admitted the weakness of his Democrat-Liberal party's position by reappointing Arafat and has a long way back from 18 percent in opinion polls, compared with about 50 percent for the USL, an uneasy leftist alliance.

The USL has promised to revoke some austerity measures and if it sticks together and polls well enough to take power it would be stuck with Basescu - who can delay and try to block legislation - until 2014.

Ultimately Boc and Basescu will be judged on results. But with growth of only about 2 percent expected this year, the clock is ticking.

"If in spring some growth starts coming then they can start reaping benefit. If it doesn't come by then, it's too late," said Guy Burrow, partner at consultancy Candole in Bucharest.

Amzar, protesting in the chill breeze on University Square, runs his own small advertising business which has been hurt by dwindling demand, though he has not been directly affected by salary or pension cuts.

"It is clear that incompetence, siphoning of public money and improper laws designed for cronies have affected the whole economy," he said.

"I don't love Basescu's government nor do I like the opposition - all the politicians now are like dogs fighting over a bone."

($1 = 3.4134 Romanian lei)

(Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/wl_nm/us_romania_protests

meryl streep packages camila alves albrecht durer dan marino david lee roth joe bodolai

For the birds

Friday, January 27, 2012

Location matters for birds on the hunt for caterpillars, according to researchers at UC Irvine and Wesleyan University. Findings suggest that chickadees and others zero in on the type of tree as much as the characteristics of their wriggly prey.

Unfortunately for caterpillars, munching on tree leaves that are healthy and tasty can dramatically boost their own risk of becoming food. Study results, published online this week in The American Naturalist, show that dining on the trees that are most nutritious for caterpillars ? such as the black cherry ? can increase by 90 percent their chances of being devoured by a discerning bird.

"The jump in risk is surprising," said co-author Kailen Mooney, assistant professor of ecology & evolutionary biology at UCI. "It shows that for caterpillars, moving from one tree to the next can mean the difference between getting eaten and surviving."

The findings indicate a "neat potential pest control system," because the healthiest tree species harbor the greatest number of caterpillars, thereby offering the easiest pickings for winged predators, said lead author Michael Singer of Wesleyan. "Our study addresses basic theoretical questions in ecology, but we also want forest managers and conservation biologists to take away practical knowledge."

Mooney, who specializes in the ecology of predatory birds, said tree identification is probably learned by birds, not genetic. He added that Southern California bird species probably do the same with coastal sage scrub, determining which types of bushes afford a better chance of tasty insect treats.

With help from a small army of students, the scientists conducted a two-year experiment in Connecticut forests involving hundreds of tree branches either covered with bird-proof netting or left bare.

Mooney noted that the results illustrate a stark choice between gaining strength through a good diet but being more vulnerable to predators and remaining weaker and hungrier but more safe.

"If a caterpillar could feed on nutritious, high-quality tree species and be left alone, this would be the best of all worlds," he said. "Instead, it's faced with a trade-off. Overall, it appears that it's better to feed on poor-quality tree species and have fewer caterpillars around you than to be on a nutritious plant with many others."

###

University of California - Irvine: http://www.uci.edu

Thanks to University of California - Irvine for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 25 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117121/For_the_birds

oyster festival oyster festival hopkins hopkins the big year the big year breast cancer walk

Packers still stinging from playoff loss to Giants

/

By JAYMES SONG

updated 9:10 p.m. ET Jan. 26, 2012

HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii - When Packers coach Mike McCarthy left frigid Green Bay, the temperature was in the single digits. When he landed in Honolulu, it was a balmy 80 degrees.

The Green Bay Packers are thawing out in the islands, relishing every minute of their Pro Bowl experience. They would gladly trade in their floral leis, beach chairs and mai tais, however, to be preparing for the Super Bowl.

"Just like every team in the NFL, there's only one team that's going to be satisfied when the season is completed. We won't be that team this year," said McCarthy, who is coaching the NFC squad for Sunday's game.

As a reflection of their stunning season, the Packers have six players in the Pro Bowl ? second only to the seven members of the San Francisco 49ers. Green Bay sailed through the regular season with a 15-1 record before coming apart at home in a 37-20 loss to the New York Giants in the NFC divisional playoffs.

"I'm not one to publically display the disappointment, but I am personally disappointed the season didn't go as we had planned," McCarthy said. "Give credit to the teams that are in the Super Bowl. It's just another reminder of how difficult it is to get there and even more so to win it.

"But we're a good football team. We'll make the adjustments we feel we need to make and add new players ... we'll forge ahead and we look forward to being a better team next year."

When asked what the Packers needed to improve on, cornerback Charles Woodson didn't hesitate to answer: "Personnel."

"I think the last game, our entire organization saw the same thing out on the field," he said. "There were some things we just weren't able to do, so hopefully we'll bring some guys in to accomplish the same goal we achieved last year."

Woodson, an eight-time Pro Bowl selection, keeps replaying the playoff loss in his mind, including Eli Manning's desperation Hail Mary pass to a leaping Hakeem Nicks as time expired in the first half to give the Giants a 20-10 lead and a load of confidence heading into the locker room.

"If you watch that game, my feeling is that they just wanted it more than we did," Woodson said. "I think about one play, and I think about that Hail Mary. I go over it in my head and see the clips on ESPN and different sports shows and see the lack of effort from our team to get that ball intercepted or knock it down."

It's clear the Packers are still scratching their Cheeseheads, trying to figure out what went wrong after so much went right earlier in the season. McCarthy said he's still in the middle of an evaluation process.

"I had a chance to spend the full week back in Green Bay, talking to all the players the first two days," he said. "We're still working through the coaching evaluations. We'll go about it like we always have and head our compass pointing toward next year."

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers said he hasn't had time to look back at what the team was able to accomplish, nor to reflect on a season in which he passed for 4,463 yards with 45 touchdowns and just six interceptions. His quarterback rating of 122.5 set an NFL record.

"I think that's going to happen once I leave here and the offseason really starts, it'll be time to reflect on that," he said.

Rodgers is making his first trip to Hawaii. He was also selected two years ago when the game was in Miami, so he never got the full aloha experience. After practice Thursday at this military base, he signed autographs and shook as many hands as he could for the service members and their families before running off for the NFC bus.

He even asked a little boy holding a mini Cowboys helmet and staring at the Packers' star, "Do you want me to sign that?"

"No," the boy replied.

Of the roughly 2,000 watching practice, many were Packers fans, wearing Green Bay jerseys and waving flags with the "G" logo. "I love you, man!" howled one fan as Rodgers signed a helmet for him.

"It's great. It's a fun experience. A lot of us would like to be in our home cities getting ready for the Super Bowl, but this is a great opportunity, a great vacation, good guys, good times," Rodgers said.

Linebacker Clay Matthews said the practice was special. There were three large Air Force cargo jets parked on the runway just south of the practice field.

"To be able to get to interact with some of them is truly fantastic," he said. "They're the real heroes and they represent courageousness. What we do on the field pales in comparison to what they do every day."

Center Scott Wells is making his first trip to Hawaii in his eighth season in the league. He brought his wife and kids. After the Pro Bowl, he's going to spend some time on Maui.

"It's no secret we're disappointed in the way our season ended, but at the same time I'm excited to be here and looking forward to taking everything in," he said.

Receiver Greg Jennings said the Pro Bowl isn't his bowl of choice, but he'll take it.

"Obviously, it's not where you want to be, but if there's a crystal ball and you knew you weren't going to be in the big dance, this will be the consolation prize," he said.

Jennings said he hasn't had an opportunity to look back or look ahead to next season.

"Probably once everything slows down, I'll take a deep breath and kick my feet up and I'll have a chance to really reflect on the special regular season we had and then the unfortunate letdown we had the in the playoffs," he said. "You can't really do that until the offseason."

___

Follow Jaymes Song at http://twitter.com/JaymesSong

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

advertisement

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46156846/ns/sports-nfl/

aortic aneurysm syracuse basketball minnesota timberwolves jr martinez melasma jimmy rollins jimmy rollins

Shhh: Pope urges silence to communicate better

Pope Benedict XVI waves to faithful during the Angelus prayer from his studio overlooking St. Peter's square at the Vatican, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)

Pope Benedict XVI waves to faithful during the Angelus prayer from his studio overlooking St. Peter's square at the Vatican, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Benedict XVI is asking everyone to quiet down.

In his annual communications message released Tuesday, Benedict extolled the sounds of silence. He said a little bit of quiet makes people better listeners and better communicators by giving them more time to think about what they are hearing and saying.

And in a world inundated by Tweets and 24-hour news coverage, that precious time to think and reflect gives words greater value, he said.

"Joy, anxiety and suffering can all be communicated in silence ? indeed it provides them with a particularly powerful mode of expression," he said in his written message.

Benedict has in recent years used his annual communications message to comment on social media. He has urged priests to blog and Catholics who spread the faith on Facebook and other social networks to be respectful of others.

This year, his attention turned to the need to occasionally tune out the social media information overload to allow time for greater reflection. He called for striking a balance between silence, words, images and sounds.

"By remaining silent, we allow the other person to speak, to express him or herself, and we avoid being tied simply to our own words and ideas without them being adequately tested," he said.

He noted that sometimes the most authentic communication takes place in utter silence, "between people who are in love: gestures, facial expressions and body language are signs by which they reveal themselves to each other."

Silence also allows for greater discernment about what is really worth listening to, Benedict said. And of course, it allows for prayer, contemplation and silent conversation with God.

Benedict, for example, has marveled during recent trips to Croatia and Madrid for World Youth Day at the ability of tens of thousands of people gathered in fields and piazzas for prayers to go absolutely silent in contemplation.

The 84-year-old pontiff is known to be quiet by nature. A theologian and lover of classical music, he speaks softly and is said to be an excellent listener.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-25-EU-Vatican-Sounds-of-Silence/id-1cea1950699a47738ce877db0198f0cb

norad how to carve a turkey how to cook a turkey yorkshire pudding whitney cummings larry the cable guy miracle on 34th street

O2 data breach potentially shares your cellphone number with the world

There's an alarming rumor circulating that suggests that UK network O2 forwards your phone number to any website visited on a smartphone. Lewis Peckover built a site that displays the header data sent to sites you visit, finding a network-specific field called "x-up-calling-line-id" which displayed his number. Angry users who tested the site have flooded the company's official Twitter, which is currently responding with:

"Security is our top most priority, we're investigating this at the moment & will come back with more info as soon as we can."

The Next Web confirmed that Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone numbers are unaffected by the issue, but GiffGaff and Tesco Mobile (both MVNOs that operate on the same network) do. TNW's sources say it's most likely an internal testing setup, while Mr. Peckover suggests it's because the network transparently proxies HTTP traffic, using the number as a UID.

Update: We received confirmation from O2, who said that it was "investigating with internal teams and it's our top priority." Slashgear and Think Broadband were unable to replicate the problem, but in our tests (pictured) it was sharing our data with the site.

O2 data breach potentially shares your cellphone number with the world originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 04:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Next Web  |  Lewis Peckover  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/25/o2-data-breach/

costumes seth macfarlane bobby flay clemson football the new girl miami hurricanes football miami hurricanes football

Danny Pudi Welcomes Twins James and Fiona

"The ? Indian, ? Polish, ? Irish twins are keeping us busy and we're loving every minute of it," the Community star says.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/dvUMtK04uXU/

occupy oakland yahoo.com/mail david nelson david nelson frank miller 60 minutes oobleck

Rep. Giffords to resign and focus on recovery, setting up wide-open race for Ariz. seat (Star Tribune)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/190271423?client_source=feed&format=rss

last man standing jim thorpe pa jim thorpe pa terry francona ios 5 release date ios 5 release date ios 5 update

Summary Box: Swiss army battles snow at Davos (AP)

CREATING BARRIERS: Thousands of Swiss soldiers and police have been shoveling snow to erect a "ring of steel" against unwelcome demonstrators hoping to gatecrash the annual meeting of political and economic elites in the Swiss Alps at Davos.

SNOW JOB: A Swiss army spokesman said Tuesday that heavy snowfall over the past two weeks made putting up 11 miles (18 kilometers) of security barriers around the heart of Davos an arduous task.

AVALANCHE THREAT: Davos saw 16 inches (40 centimeters) of fresh snow overnight, with roadside mounds already reaching heights of more than 8 feet (about 2.5 meters).

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_davos_forum_security_summary_box

deliverance muhammad ali pentatonix nicki minaj barbie doll nicki minaj barbie doll black dahlia drew

U.S. Border Patrol To Build Station In New Mexico's Bootheel

ANIMAS, N.M. -- The U.S. Border Patrol Friday announced it is building an outpost in New Mexico's Bootheel, one of the last unguarded regions between the United States and Mexico.

It's an unforgiving terrain where Geronimo made his last stand. Today, it remains largely isolated with no cell service, few unpaved roads but growing lawlessness as drug dealers and human smugglers increasingly look for alternatives to more traveled routes.

There are tales of drug traffickers breaking into homes and high speed chases that sometimes force school buses off dirt roads. One rancher even stumbled upon 19 lost and starving Chinese immigrants who had illegally entered from Mexico on their way to New York City.

Border officials say the new station in the Animas Valley will give the region 24-hour monitoring for the first time in its history, and will allow border patrol agents to quickly respond to illegal activities. Until now, agents had to drive an hour and a half each way from the nearest Border Patrol station in Lordsburg, N.M., to patrol the area.

El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Scott Luck, who is responsible for the New Mexico border, announced the new outpost at a community meeting of ranchers and residents in Animas, N.M. ,following months of deliberation and debate on where to locate the site. "Operationally and tactically, it was the best choice," said Luck, who made his final decision to sign a lease with a private land owner earlier this week. "It's a win-win situation for all of us."

Luck said he made his choice after listening to agents on the ground and considering which site could quickly dispatch agents to troubled spots. The new outpost will hold a heliport, horse corrals and modular buildings capable of housing up to 15 to 20 federal agents, who'll stay for short-term spans.

Construction will begin immediately and is expected to take four to six months. Luck said the agency will lease the land from the Diamond A Ranch, but declined to give details and did not know how about final estimated cost in building the facility.

According to border officials, the outpost -- also known as a forward operating base -- was needed because the isolated region has seen higher levels of illegal immigration and drug trafficking in recent years due to beefed up enforcement around El Paso, Texas, and the rest of New Mexico, although overall arrests in state have been declining for the last five years.

Last year, the agency reported 6,900 arrests along the New Mexico-Mexico border, with a large portion coming from the state's Bootheel.

In addition, Border officials say the Bootheel had around 1,500 known illegal entries in 2011.

"I see foot tracks all the time when I'm out on the land," said Levi Klump, a cattle rancher who's operated since 1989. "It's been getting worse."

But while the border patrol and area elected officials praised the announcement, Klump and other residents expressed disappointment that Luck did not choose another proposed site on U.S. Bureau of Land Management lot that is only seven miles from the border.

"The BLM site would have served as a deterrent to drug traffickers because it would have been visible," said Meira Gault, 62, who along with her husband, Stephen, 71, operates a 20,000 acre ranch just north of the border. "It had access to all the important roads and agents could see everything."

Stephen Gault said for years illegal immigrants and drug smugglers have been camping out on a mountain known as "Black Point, a mountain visible from the BLM land but not the chosen site. "There they are in plain site," he said. "They would have has easy access."

The Border Patrol say the site they chose is more strategically located to areas where they have seen the heaviest illegal traffic.

The Gaults and other ranchers had organized petition drives, written letters to elected officials and held community meetings in an attempt to pressure the U.S. Border Patrol to select the BLM proposal since it was already under federal control

After Friday's announcement, disappointed residents said they weren't sure if they had any other option but to accept the Border Patrol's selection. "I don't know what else we can do. We've done everything we've can," said Judy Keeler, the outgoing president of the Hidalgo County Cattle Growers Association. "I think their minds were already made up."

Keeler said regardless she hopes that federal authorities can finally get control of the region. She said her ranch had been burglarized and nearby state Highway 80 has become a favorite for Mexican cartel drug runners who manage to navigate out of the Peloncillo Mountains along the Arizona-New Mexico border.

During a recent afternoon along state highway 80 and Interstate 10, trash of bottle waters and abandon backpacks were visible under the freeways. Keeler said they is where illegal immigrants and drug traffickers wait for others to pick them up to continue their journey.

Meira Gault said whatever the U.S. Border Patrol has planned for the outpost, she hopes she sees the effects soon since residents are tired of the trafficking. "I'm from Israel and I remember the 1967 war," she said. "If I wanted to die over a border, I could have stayed there."

___

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

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/21/us-border-patrol-to-build_0_n_1221072.html

copd hon equifax typing games javascript javascript history channel

Former CIA officer accused of terror leaks (AP)

ALEXANDRIA, Va. ? Authorities say a former CIA agent who has claimed he helped interrogate a top suspected terrorist has been charged with leaking classified secrets about fellow officers to the media.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says 47-year-old John Kiriakou (keer-ee-AH'-koo) of Arlington is charged with violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and the Espionage Act. He is scheduled to make an initial appearance in federal court in Alexandria on Monday afternoon.

Authorities say Kiriakou told a New York Times reporter about a fellow officer who participated in interrogating suspected al-Qaida financier Abu Zubaydah in 2002. That information was classified at the time.

Zubaydah was captured in Pakistan in 2002. He was reportedly waterboarded 83 times. His case has been made an example by those who believe the interrogation technique should be outlawed.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_re_us/us_cia_leak_charges

pie crust recipe heritage foundation dancing with the stars results 2011 ali fedotowsky ali fedotowsky krill oil krill oil

Greek debt restructuring nearly finished. Again. (Americablog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/189193595?client_source=feed&format=rss

giuliana and bill giuliana and bill 2012 camry endometriosis 9 9 9 plan 9 9 9 plan hoppin john

Under One Moon - Girl Needed

Hiya, I'm looking for a girl for my 1x1 romance/adventure RP.

Basically it's about a pack of people called Weres who can change into animals. Our story focuses on two 18 year olds, a boy named Mitchell that I'm playing, and a girl, who I'm holding auditions for.
One evening they arrive at a pack meeting to find the whole pack, including their families, brutally murdered. They must try to discover who killed them and why, while trying not to meet the same fate as their pack. I don't think I've done a great job explaining it so if you take a look at http://www.roleplaygateway.com/roleplay/under-one-moon/ there's a much better description there. I think it could be really good so I hope you have a go submitting a sheet.

Jamie

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/Js37OLiEyJg/viewtopic.php

ship aground off italy nfl live nfl playoff schedule 2012 saints vs 49ers vanessa marcil 49 ers frank gore

Fri, Jan 20, 2012

Joan Rivers, Stacy Keibler, Cults

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/fri-jan-20-2012/1-h-421004?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Afri-jan-20-2012-421004

gene hackman pineda john edwards heart condition football schedule pretty in pink mena suvari allen west

'Extinct' monkey rediscovered in Borneo by new expedition

Friday, January 20, 2012

An international team of scientists has found one of the rarest and least known primates in Borneo, Miller's Grizzled Langur, a species which was believed to be extinct or on the verge of extinction. The team's findings, published in the American Journal of Primatology, confirms the continued existence of this endangered monkey and reveals that it lives in an area where it was previously not known to exist.

Miller's Grizzled Langur (Presbytis hosei canicrus) is part of the small primate genus Presbytis, found across Borneo, Sumatra, Java and the Thai-Malay Peninsula. In Borneo, P.h. canicrus is only found in a small corner of the county's north east and its habitat has suffered from fires, human encroachment and conversion of land for agriculture and mining.

The team's expedition took to them to Wehea Forest in East Kalimantan, Borneo, a large 38,000 ha area of mostly undisturbed rainforest. Wehea contains at least nine known species of non-human primate, including the Bornean orangutan and gibbon.

"Discovery of P.h canicrus was a surprise since Wehea Forest lies outside of this monkey's known range. Future research will focus on estimating the population density for P.h. canicrus in Wehea and the surrounding forest," said Brent Loken, from Simon Fraser University Canada. "Concern that the species may have gone extinct was first raised in 2004, and a search for the monkey during another expedition in 2008 supported the assertion that the situation was dire."

By conducting observations at mineral licks where animals congregate and setting up camera traps in several locations, the expedition confirmed that P. h canicrus continues to survive in areas west of its previously recorded geographic range. The resulting photos provide the first solid evidence demonstrating that its geographic range extends further than previously thought.

"It was a challenge to confirm our finding as there are so few pictures of this monkey available for study," said Loken. "The only description of Miller's Grizzled Langur came from museum specimens. Our photographs from Wehea are some of the only pictures that we have of this monkey."

"East Kalimantan can be a challenging place to conduct research, given the remoteness of many remaining forested areas, so it isn't surprising that so little is known about this primate," said Dr. Stephanie Spehar, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. "We are very grateful to our local partners. This discovery represents the hard work, dedication, and collaboration of Western and Indonesian scientists, students, NGOs, as well as local communities and government."

"While our finding confirms the monkey still exists in East Kalimantan, there is a good chance that it remains one of the world's most endangered primates," concluded Loken. "I believe it is a race against time to protect many species in Borneo. It is difficult to adopt conservation strategies to protect species when we don't even know the extent of where they live. We need more scientists in the field working on understudied species such as Miller's Grizzled Langur, clouded leopards and sun bears."

###

Wiley-Blackwell: http://www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell

Thanks to Wiley-Blackwell for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 50 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116909/_Extinct__monkey_rediscovered_in_Borneo_by_new_expedition

droid bionic nia nia pineapple diablo 3 beta soa hydrangea

Could the Internet Ever Be Destroyed?

Partial map of the Internet based on the January 15, 2005 data found on opte.org. Each line is drawn between two nodes, representing two IP addresses. The length of the lines are indicative of the delay between those two nodes. View full size image Image: Creative Commons | The Opte Project

The raging battle over SOPA and PIPA, the proposed anti-piracy laws, is looking more and more likely to end in favor of Internet freedom ? but it won't be the last battle of its kind. Although, ethereal as it is, the Internet seems destined to survive in some form or another, experts warn that there are many threats to its status quo existence, and there is much about it that could be ruined or lost.

Physical destruction
A vast behemoth that can route around outages and self-heal, the Internet has grown physically invulnerable to destruction by bombs, fires or natural disasters ? within countries, at least. It's "very richly interconnected," said David Clark, a computer scientist at MIT who was a leader in the development of the Internet during the 1970s. "You would have to work real hard to find a small number of places where you could seriously disrupt connectivity." On 9/11, for example, the destruction of the major switching center in south Manhattan disrupted service locally. But service was restored about 15 minutes later when the center "healed" as the built-in protocols routed users and information around the outage.

However, while it's essentially impossible to cripple connectivity internally in a country, Clark said it is conceivable that one country could block another's access to its share of the Internet cloud; this could be done by severing the actual cables that carry Internet data between the two countries. Thousands of miles of undersea fiber-optic cables that convey data from continent to continent rise out of the ocean in only a few dozen locations, branching out from those hubs to connect to millions of computers. But if someone were to blow up one of these hubs ? the station in Miami, for example, which handles some 90 percent of the Internet traffic between North America and Latin America ? the Internet connection between the two would be severely hampered until the infrastructure was repaired.

Such a move would be "an act of cyberwar," Clark told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience.

Content cache
Even an extreme disruption of international connectivity would not seriously threaten the survival of Web content itself. A "hard" copy of most data is stored in nonvolatile memory, which sticks around with or without power, and whether you have Internet access to it or not. Furthermore, according to William Lehr, an MIT economist who studies the economics and regulatory policy of the Internet-infrastructure industries, the corporate data centers that harbor Web content ? everything from your emails to this article ? have sophisticated ways to back up and diversely store the data, including simply storing copies in multiple locations.

Google even stores cached copies of all Wikipedia pages; these were accessible on Jan. 18 when Wikipedia took its own versions of the pages offline in protest of SOPA and PIPA.

This diversified storage plan keeps the content itself safe, but it also offers some protection against loss of access to any one copy of the data in the event of a cyberwar. For example, if power were cut to a server, you may be unable to reach a website on its home server, but you mayfind a cached version of the content stored on another, accessible server. Or, "If you wanted data that was not available from a server in country X, you may be able to get substantively the same data from a server in country Y," Lehr said.

Internet arms race
The redundancy of so much online content and of connectivity routes makes the Internet resilient to physical attacks, but a much more serious threat to its status quo existence is government regulation or censorship. In the early days of Egypt's Arab Spring uprising, the government of Hosni Mubarak attempted to shut down the country's Internet in order to cripple protesters' ability to organize; it did this by ordering the state-controlled Internet Service Provider (ISP), which grants Internet access to customers, to cut service.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=3723b979a22b777edbfd647dc0143495

rachel crow rachel crow steelers browns albert pujols pau gasol va tech duggar miscarriage

Former trailblazer Kodak files for Chapter 11 (AP)

ROCHESTER, N.Y. ? Is Kodak's moment past?

The glory days when Eastman Kodak Co. ruled the world of film photography lasted for over a century. Then came a stunning reversal of fortune: cutthroat competition from Japanese firms in the 1980s and a seismic shift to the digital technology it pioneered but couldn't capitalize on. Now comes a wistful worry that this icon of American business is edging toward extinction.

Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, raising the specter that the 132-year-old trailblazer could become the most storied casualty of a digital age that has whipped up a maelstrom of economic, social and technological change.

Already a shadow of its former self, cash-poor Kodak will now reorganize in bankruptcy court as it seeks to boost its cash position and stay in business. The Rochester, N.Y.-based company is pinning its hopes on peddling a trove of photo patents and morphing into a new-look powerhouse built around printers and ink. Even if it succeeds, it seems unlikely to ever again resemble what its red-on-yellow K logo long stood for ? a signature brand synonymous in every corner of the planet with capturing, collecting and sharing images.

"Kodak played a role in pretty much everyone's life in the 20th century because it was the company we entrusted our most treasured possession to ? our memories," said Robert Burley, a photography professor at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Its yellow boxes of film, point-and-shoot Brownie and Instamatic cameras, and those hand-sized prints that made it possible for countless millions to freeze-frame their world "were the products used to remember ? and really define ? what that entire century looked like," Burley said.

"One of the interesting parts of this bankruptcy story is everyone's saddened by it," he continued. "There's a kind of emotional connection to Kodak for many people. You could find that name inside every American household and, in the last five years, it's disappeared. At the very least, digital technology will transform Kodak from a very big company to a smaller one. I think we all hope it won't mean the end of Kodak because it still has a lot to offer."

Kodak has notched just one profitable year since 2004. At the end of a four-year digital makeover during which it dynamited aged factories, chopped and changed businesses and eliminated tens of thousands more jobs, it closed 2007 on a high note with net income of $676 million.

It soon ran smack into the recession ? and its momentum slipped into reverse.

Years of investor alarm over whether Kodak might seek protection from its creditors crescendoed in September when it hired major restructuring law firm Jones Day as an adviser. Its stock, which topped $94 in 1997, skidded below $1 a share for the first time and, by Jan. 6, hit an all-time closing low of 37 cents. Multiple board members recently resigned, and last week the company announced that it realigned and simplified its business structure in an effort to cut costs, create shareholder value and accelerate its long-drawn-out digital transformation.

The human toll reaches back to the 1980s when Tokyo-based Fuji, an emerging archrival, began to eat into Kodak's fat profits with novel offerings like single-use film cameras. Beset by excessive caution and strategic stumbles, Kodak was finally forced to cut costs. Its long slide had begun.

Mass layoffs came every few years, unraveling a cozy relationship of company and community that was perhaps unequaled in the annals of American business. Kodak has sliced its global payroll to 18,800 from a peak of 145,300 in 1988, and its hometown rolls to 7,100 from 60,400 in 1982.

Veteran employees who dodged the well-worn ax are not alone in fearing what comes next. Some 25,000 Kodak retirees in this medium-sized city on Lake Ontario's southern shore worry that their diminished health coverage could be clawed back further, if not disappear, in bankruptcy court.

It's a long cry from George Eastman's paternalistic heyday.

Founded by Eastman in 1880, Kodak marketed the world's first flexible roll film in 1888 and turned photography into an overnight craze with a $1 Brownie camera in 1900. Innovation and mass production were about to put the world into cars and airplanes, the American Century was unfolding, and Kodak was ready to record it.

"It's one of the few companies that wiggled its way into the fabric of American life and the American family," said Bob Volpe, 69, a 32-year employee who retired in 1998. "As someone at Kodak once said, `We put chemicals in one end so our customers can get memories out the other.'"

Intent on keeping his work force happy ? they never organized a union ? Eastman helped pioneer profit-sharing and, in 1912, began dispensing a generous wage dividend. Going to work for Kodak ? "taking the life sentence," as it was called ? became a bountiful rite of passage for generations.

"Most of the people who worked at Kodak had a middle-class life without a college education," Volpe said. "Those jobs paid so well, they could buy a boat, two cars, a summer place, and send their kids to college."

Propelled by Eastman's marketing genius, the "Great Yellow Father" held a virtual monopoly of the U.S. photographic industry by 1927. But long after Eastman was stricken with a degenerative spinal disorder and took his own life in 1932, Kodak retained its mighty perch with a succession of magical innovations.

Foremost was Kodachrome, a slide and motion-picture film extolled for 74 years until its demise in 2009 for its sharpness, archival durability and vibrant hues. In the 1960s, easy-load Instamatic 126 became one of the most popular cameras ever, practically replacing old box cameras. In 1975, engineer Steven Sasson created the first digital camera, a toaster-size prototype capturing black-and-white images at a resolution of 0.1 megapixels.

Through the 1990s, Kodak splurged $4 billion on developing the photo technology inside most cellphones and digital devices. But a reluctance to ease its heavy reliance on film allowed rivals like Canon Inc. and Sony Corp. to rush largely unhindered into the fast-emerging digital arena. The immensely lucrative analog business Kodak worried about undermining too soon was virtually erased in a decade by the filmless photography it invented.

"If you're not willing to cannibalize yourself, others will do it for you," said Mark Zupan, dean of the University of Rochester's business school. "Technology is changing ever more rapidly, the world's becoming more globalized, so to stay at the top of your game is getting increasingly harder."

In November, Kodak warned it could run out of cash in a year if it didn't sell 1,100 digital-imaging patents it's been shopping around since July. Analysts estimate they could fetch at least $2 billion.

In the meantime, Kodak has focused its future on new lines of inkjet printers that it says are on the verge of turning a profit. It expects printers, software and packaging to produce more than twice as much revenue by 2013 and account by then for 25 percent of the company's total revenue, or nearly $2 billion.

CEO Antonio Perez said in a statement Thursday that the bankruptcy filing is "a necessary step and the right thing to do for the future of Kodak." The company has secured $950 million in financing from Citigroup Inc., and expects to be able to operate its business during bankruptcy reorganization and pay employees.

On its website, Kodak assured customers that the nearly $1 billion in debtor-in-possession financing would be sufficient to pay vendors, suppliers and other business partners in full for goods and services going forward. The bankruptcy filing in the Southern District of New York does not involve Kodak's international operations.

"To be able to hop from stone to stone across the stream takes great agility and foresight and passion for excellence, and Kodak is capable of that. They have some killer stuff in inkjet printing. It's becoming a profitable product line but what they need is the runway to allow it to take off," Zupan said. "As the saying goes, `the best way to anticipate the future is to invent it.'"

The company and its board are being advised by Lazard, FTI Consulting Inc. and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. Dominic DiNapoli, vice chairman of FTI Consulting, will serve as chief restructuring officer. Kodak expects to complete its U.S.-based restructuring during 2013.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_re_us/us_kodak_s_legacy

gloria allred black friday ads 2011 black friday ads 2011 pacquiao vs marquez pacquiao vs marquez junior dos santos junior dos santos

Romney says he pays US taxes ? about 15 percent (AP)

FLORENCE, S.C. ? His wealth and taxes suddenly a campaign focus, Mitt Romney said Tuesday he pays an effective federal tax rate of about 15 percent. That's far less than if his earnings were wages rather than gains from investments and dividends, and the disclosure under pressure triggered a sharp response from the Democratic White House as well as one of his GOP presidential rivals.

Romney told reporters he also received money from speechmaking before he announced his presidential candidacy early last year "but not very much." He provided no details, but in his financial disclosure statement, released last August, he reported being paid $374,327.62 for such appearances for the 12 months ending last February.

That amount alone would place his income among the top 1 percent of all Americans, and Romney's description of it as a relatively small amount suggested his overall income was far higher.

It's well known that Romney's father was the chairman and president of American Motors, and he himself was a successful businessman and founder of Bain Capital, a private equity firm, where he earned millions. At the same time, his refusal to release his tax returns has been a persistent issue, and one that flared anew in a debate Monday night in which he grudgingly said he might release them in April.

On Tuesday, he said he would release at least one year's returns in April.

Republicans trying to defeat him in Saturday's South Carolina primary are hoping he'll make them public far sooner.

The White House, which expects Romney to win the Republican nomination and take on President Barack Obama this year, reacted, too.

Spokesman Jay Carney said: "This only illuminates what (Obama) believes is an issue, which is that everybody who's working hard ought to pay their fair share. That includes millionaires who might be paying an effective tax rate of 15 percent when folks making $50,000 or $75,000 or $100,000 a year are paying much more."

Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who runs second in some polls in South Carolina, taunted the former Massachusetts governor: "I think we ought to rename our flat tax. We have a 15 percent flat tax, so this would be a Mitt Romney flat tax and all Americans would pay the rate" that he paid. Gingrich is expected to release his own returns on Thursday.

At 15 percent, Romney's federal income tax rate would still be higher than the rate paid by many Americans.

On average, households making between $50,000 and $75,000 will pay a federal income tax rate of 5.7 percent this year, according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.

However, when Social Security and other taxes are included, that same household would pay an average federal tax rate of 16.6 percent.

Overall, the average American household will pay 9.3 percent in federal income taxes_ and 19.7 percent in all federal taxes.

Romney's wealth ? he is worth between $190 million and $250 million_ puts him among the richest Americans. But if most of his income is from investments, it could help him to significantly lower his federal tax bill compared to people who make money in other ways.

While the top federal tax rate for investment income_ qualified dividends and long-term capital gains _is 15 percent, the top tax rate for wages is 35 percent on taxable income above $388,350. Wages are also subject to Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes, while investment earnings are not.

With unemployment high and the country still struggling to recover from the worst recession in decades, Obama's re-election campaign has signaled it intends to make income disparity a central part of this year's campaign.

Romney's remaining nomination foes emphasized in the debate in Myrtle Beach on Monday night that whatever vulnerabilities he might bring to a campaign against Obama, the party should know about them now.

Romney was asked about his taxes shortly before he left South Carolina for a high-dollar fundraiser in New York.

"What's the effective rate I've been paying? It's probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything," Romney said. "Because my last 10 years, I've ? my income comes overwhelmingly from investments made in the past, rather than ordinary income or rather than earned annual income."

By his own account, Romney hasn't received a regular paycheck since 1999. That's when he left the private equity firm he founded, Bain Capital, where he became a multimillionaire. Most of Romney's taxable income comes from investing the fortune he made there. He donated income from his time running the Salt Lake City Olympics to charity.

He also told reporters Tuesday that he has donated the proceeds from the sale of his book, "No Apology," to charity.

Romney said in the Monday debate he probably would release returns because it's tradition.

"I have nothing in them that suggests there's any problem and I'm happy to do so," he said then. "I sort of feel like we're showing a lot of exposure at this point."

At the White House, Carney said that as a candidate in 2008, Obama released multiple years of tax records and has disclosed his returns annually since becoming president. He said George W. Bush and Bill Clinton did the same thing, as did "nominees for each party for years and years and years." In a jab at the Republican front-runner, he said Romney's father, George Romney, released his own returns when he ran for the White House in 1968.

Obama has called on Congress to let Bush-era tax cuts on upper income earners expire at the end of 2012. Romney is opposed, as are most if not all of the Republicans in Congress.

But the former Massachusetts governor has also come under pressure from some of his Republican rivals for recommending no change in the capital gains tax for anyone making more than $200,000 a year. Gingrich, for example, wants to abolish the capital gains tax.

In the debate Monday night, Texas Gov. Rick Perry insisted that Romney release his returns, saying that the party needs to fully scrutinize its nominee now instead of later.

___

Associated Press writer Stephen Ohlemacher contributed from Washington.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney

danielle chiesi walter payton oneiric oneiric eartha kitt psych david ortiz