Romney: Gingrich didn't earn millions as historian (AP)

TAMPA, Fla. ? Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney says Newt Gingrich's freshly released contract with mortgage giant Freddie Mac shows that he was not merely a historian as he first suggested.

Romney is charging during Monday night's GOP debate that the former House speaker made millions as an "influence peddler."

Romney says that companies don't spend that much money for history lessons and that Gingrich's time since leaving office has been spent trading on his connections. Gingrich is adamant that he never lobbied.

Gingrich says that his consulting firms made that money, not him personally. He says his annual share was only about $35,000 and that the accusations he lobbied are defamatory and false.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_debate_freddie_mac

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Romney's $20 Million IRA: A Lousy Investment? (Time.com)

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Android A to Z: What is the JIT?

What is the JIT?  JIT stands for "Just In Time," and we use it to describe a Dalvik JIT compiler, which was added to Android with the 2.2 release.  It compiles bytecode into native machine code at runtime.  Essentially it takes the code for an app, analyzes it and converts it into something that runs faster.  It does all this while the application is running, and that's where the "just in time" tag comes from.  The JIT compiler designed for Android also can do this with a very short "warm up" time, meaning it doesn't take very long to analyze the code before it starts working.  It stores information in a cache in your phone's RAM, which means it's not an ideal solution for devices with low memory.  It's been optimized to have a small footprint -- about 100K per process -- but even that is enough to impact performance on older models like the G1 or HTC Magic.  This is why most phones that came before the Nexus One never got an official version from Google -- hardware limitations.

You hear terms like "runs faster" or 4 to 5 times performance increase anytime you talk about Android's JIT compiler.  A JIT compiler simply saves CPU cycles -- more work can be done for each clock cycle.  This means applications that were throttled by CPU performance get faster, and apps that are "rate-limited" (run until they are finished without taxing the processor to the maximum) finish faster and use less battery because of it.  Not all applications see a significant speed increase, and most applications written with the NDK or in native code won't see an increase at all, as they don't use the Dalvik virtual machine.  

If all this reads like Greek to you, that's OK.  To the end user (that's you and me) all we should see is better performance in most of our applications.  We certainly saw that when Froyo was released for the Nexus One, and things have just gotten better with every release.  For the more technically inclined, check out the video from Android engineers Ben Cheng and Bill Buzbee during Google I/O 2010 where the JIT compiler was introduced.

Previously on Android A to Z: What's an IPS display?; Find more in the Android Dictionary

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/JOPGQNWPgoU/story01.htm

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With Nasdaq soaring, is 2012 tech's breakout year? (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The stock market has had an impressive January. The staid companies that make up the Dow Jones industrial average have gained 4 percent in three weeks, and the broader market has done even better.

But the Nasdaq composite ? a collection of technology stocks whose dot-com heyday was more than a decade ago ? has left them both in the dust.

That's no surprise when you consider tech stocks took a licking last year. Tech companies tend to carry more risk ? a problem for the Nasdaq during last year's market gyrations. As investors regain confidence in the economy, riskier plays are doing well.

But experts say the Nasdaq's gains reflect long-term currents that could lift tech stocks through 2012 and beyond. Many companies put off replacing worn-out technology during the recession. To compete and survive, they need to invest in tech.

There's also a growing global market for technology as more nations try to reduce labor costs by automating everything from factories to cash registers.

And the biggest tech companies face less competition these days when they try to acquire smaller companies. Many of their mid-sized rivals for those deals were weeded out after the dot-com bust and the financial crisis.

In the market for mergers and acquisitions, established players like IBM and Oracle can be picky about buying only those companies that will increase their earnings ? and probably their stock prices.

In other words, it's not all about Microsoft-style titans and trendy social media companies like LinkedIn and Zynga. The Nasdaq contains more than 3,000 companies, many of them relative startups compared with the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

For the year ? just 13 trading days old ? the Nasdaq composite is up 7 percent, compared with 4.6 percent for the S&P 500 and 4.1 percent for the Dow.

"It looks like it's going to be their year, or at least their month," says Michael Vogelzang, chief investment officer at Boston Advisors LLC.

The Nasdaq sank 1.8 percent last year, while the Dow rose 5.5 percent and the S&P was flat. That left tech stocks relatively cheap, giving them more space to rise as the broader market rallied. Oracle is up 11.9 percent this year, Microsoft 14.5 percent.

Vogelzang and others say the tech rally has further to go.

"If you want to make your company more productive, you have to turn to the world of technology for that," says Kim Caughey Forrest, senior analyst with Fort Pitt Capital Group.

She expects the S&P 500's tech sector to outperform the broader market because of strong demand from U.S. companies, developing nations such as China and even cash-strapped European governments. As China's banking system exploded to serve a growing middle class, banks there spent big on IBM technology, she noted.

"Nobody questions whether they need the latest and greatest technology anymore. They know they need to keep up their technology spending," says Eric Gebaide, managing director of Innovation Advisors, a tech-focused investment bank and strategic advisory firm.

Gebaide and others mentioned many companies' efforts to move their computing and data storage off-site ? trends known as "cloud computing" and "virtualization." Long-distance computing is cheaper, but it requires technology.

But why are tech stocks rallying now? The cloud computing transition has been under way for years, and spending by companies has driven much of the U.S. recovery since the economy emerged from recession in June 2009.

It's all about the investment cycle, says Jack Ablin, chief investment officer with Harris Private Bank. He says investors are finally willing to "flex their speculative muscles in a market that isn't falling apart in the way they feared last year."

Last year, some of the best-performing stocks were consumer staples and utilities ? lower-risk industries where demand is consistent even the economy is slow. This year, utilities in the S&P are down 3.7 percent, while tech companies are up 6 percent.

The move out of so-called defensive stocks, the ones you want to own in a slow economy, is a sign that investors are willing to embrace risk again.

"You're getting this big market rotation," Vogelzang says. "People made money last year in the boring, stable industries, and they're saying, `Hey, I better get on this economy train while I can.'"

Tech companies learned hard lessons from the dot-com bust of the early 2000s and the 2008 financial crisis, says Gebaide of Innovation Advisors. They hold more cash than most types of companies and carry less debt. That leaves them less vulnerable to bankruptcy or a loss of investor confidence.

Given its twice-stung discipline, tech is positioned to drive the economy ? "perhaps the best it has been as a sector in the past 20 years," Gebaide says.

The biggest threat to the industry, Gebaide says, is a slowdown in the early investment that helps startups grow into viable companies. Those early dollars used to offer massive returns to savvy investors when a good pick went public.

Today, the upside for venture capitalists is limited because far fewer companies are going public in big stock offerings. The bar is much higher after dot-com era debacles like Pets.com. Before underwriting a deal or buying chunks of stock, banks and investors want to see millions in annual revenue and established customer bases. It's tough for younger tech companies to meet those standards.

Peter Falvey, managing director of Morgan Keegan Technology Group, says there's plenty of capital, entrepreneurship and good ideas to keep companies' bottom lines ? and stock prices ? rising.

Falvey's group specializes in tech mergers and acquisitions ? the kinds of deals that allow IBM or Oracle to bring a small competitor's product to a wider audience and add to their own earnings. Last year was the best for M&A in his group's 11-year history, and this year's deal pipeline already is stronger than last year's was at this time, he says.

A company like IBM "has huge amounts of capital and a global customer base, plus complete hardware-software services," Falvey says. "Once you put a small company into that machine, IBM can do really well with it."

The industry's earlier downturns also helped big companies by weeding out smaller players. The number of publicly traded tech companies has decreased by a third since 2000, Gebaide says. Now the big dogs can pick and choose more carefully, acquiring only businesses that are almost certain to increase their profits.

To be sure, high-tech companies are higher-risk investments, and they could lose value quickly if the market tanks because of a debt catastrophe in Europe or something unforeseen.

"People love tech until we get an economic shock, or negative economic statistics start to come out," Vogelzang says. "Then all of a sudden, people will say, `Whoa, I need to go buy some utilities again."

But investors should take tech's success at this stage as a promising sign, says Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist with Schaeffer's Investment Research. He says higher-risk bets like tech stocks tend to rise as the market enters a phase of long-term growth.

Housing, tech and small-company stocks all have risen faster than broad indexes since October, Detrick says. Those sectors are sensitive to improving economic data, he says.

"When you start to see tech taking charge, that's definitely a potential step in the right direction for future gains, potentially for the whole year," Detrick says. "Those are the sectors you want to see lead a bull market."

___

Follow Daniel Wagner at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports.

.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/us_wall_street_week_ahead

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UniCredit set to succeed with share sale (Reuters)

MILAN (Reuters) ? The 7.5 billion euro ($9.7 billion) rights issue by UniCredit SpA (CRDI.MI) looks set to be almost entirely taken up, allowing it to meet tougher capital requirements being imposed on the euro zone's beleaguered banks.

"Take-up could be around 97 to 98 percent," a source close to the banking consortium handling the issue told Reuters. Subscriptions are expected to be at least 95 percent, another consortium source said.

Friday is the last day of trading in rights to the heavily discounted new shares.

Some 31 European banks must tell their national regulators by Friday how they plan to fill the 115 billion euro collective hole in their balance sheets as part of moves to tackle the continent's sovereign debt crisis.

UniCredit's cash call will allow the Italian lender's core Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio to rise above the target of 9 percent of risk-adjusted assets required by the European Banking Authority and almost entirely plug the second biggest capital shortfall in the region after Spain's Santander (SAN.MC).

The two-for-one share offer ends on January 27 and will dilute 2012 earnings per share by around 65 percent, according to analysts' estimates.

The bank's chief executive Federico Ghizzoni said on Wednesday he was confident the sale would be successful, although the company's share price has fallen by around 70 percent in the past year.

The existing shares were trading ex-rights down over 2 percent at 3.29 euros by 1140 GMT, with the right to buy two of the new shares at 1.943 euros trading down 5 percent at 2.59 euros (CRDI_r.MI).

"They seem to have pulled it off, but for the historic shareholders it's a killer," said Alessandro Capeccia, who manages 500 million euros at fund Azimut sgr and said he preferred UniCredit's high-yielding bonds to its shares.

According to other sources close to the underwriting consortium, the rights issue has drawn interest from U.S. institutional investors and from Nordic countries.

Some core shareholders have indicated they will not take up their rights including the Libyan central bank and the Libyan Investment Authority.

DEBT JITTERS

Looking ahead, Italy's largest bank by assets remains vulnerable to the country's sovereign debt woes, analysts say, with already low profitability further dented by the dilutive cash call and question marks hanging over its strategy.

Despite having the biggest international reach among Italian lenders, with operations in 22 countries and 950 billion euros in assets, UniCredit makes 42 percent of its revenues in its home market, compared with 25 percent in Germany, its second biggest cash earner.

It also has 40 billion euros of Italian government bonds on its books, accounting for 43 percent of its total exposure to sovereign debt.

"This is an international lender whose core market happens to be Italy and whose exposure to Italian government debt is considerable," said Nicholas Spiro, managing director of consultant Spiro Sovereign Strategy.

"Italy remains a proxy for euro zone risk and is likely to experience a severe recession this year; this has implications for the bank's plan to improve its profitability," he said.

UniCredit's shares have also borne the brunt of a market sell-off in Italian assets, with its theoretical ex-rights market capitalization now below 20 billion euros, a far cry from the 75 billion euros former chief executive Alessandro Profumo could boast of just four years ago after a buying spree in central and eastern Europe.

That acquisition drive turned UniCredit into the biggest lender in Austria and in several central and eastern European countries, and gave it the third spot in Germany. But at a price.

As Italy and its banks got sucked ever deeper into the debt crisis Ghizzoni revealed a 10.6 billion euro third-quarter loss in November due to big writedowns on the book value of those deals.

Ghizzoni has come under heavy criticism for waiting too long to launch the rights issue on January 9, and the initial market reaction to the steep discount offered was a disaster -- the stock plunged 45 percent in the space of four days.

But the shares then partially recovered. Analysts have said a 90-95 percent take-up by shareholders would be a good result, given current market conditions.

Analysts at DZ Bank, which has a "sell" recommendation on the stock, estimated UniCredit's return on equity after tax in 2012 would be 2.6 percent, compared with a median of 7.4 percent for its European peers.

And with Italy's economy likely to slide into a recession several analysts say the 3.8 billion-euro profit target for 2013 is too ambitious.

($1 = 0.7757 euros)

(Writing by Lisa Jucca and Stephen Jewkes; Editing by Will Waterman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120120/bs_nm/us_unicredit

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Proteins may warn of diabetic kidney disease risk

Levels of a natural compound in blood seem to foreshadow high risk of renal failure

Web edition : 5:59 pm

A simple blood test might reveal which people with diabetes are most prone to kidney failure, two long-term studies show. An abundance of two compounds better known as culprits in inflammation seems to pinpoint high-risk diabetes patients years before they show outward signs of kidney problems, researchers say.

Both studies linked high levels of proteins called tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptors with elevated incidence of kidney disease up to 12 years later. The association showed up in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, the researchers report online January 19 in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Study leader Andrzej Krolewski, a kidney researcher at Harvard Medical School and the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, says the findings may ultimately improve care for at-risk diabetes patients. ?The most immediate application,? says study coauthor Monika Niewczas, a researcher also at Harvard and Joslin, ?will be a diagnostic test that we hope would be available soon.?

TNF receptors serve as docking stations on cells. When their counterpart protein latches onto the receptor, the signal produced by that binding can instruct a cell to trigger inflammation or to take on other duties. Some TNF receptors also roam free, showing up in the blood, a characteristic the scientists measured in the new studies.

In one study, the researchers tracked the health status of 410 people with type 2 diabetes who didn?t have kidney disease in the early 1990s. Patients provided initial blood samples followed by information on their health over the subsequent eight to 12 years. By the end of the study?s follow-up period, 52 percent of the patients with high concentrations of TNF receptors in that initial blood sample had developed kidney failure and needed dialysis or a transplant, whereas only 3 percent of patients with low levels of TNF receptors did. After accounting for differences among the patients, the high-receptor group was still about six times more prone to kidney failure, Niewczas says.

The other study included 628 patients with type 1 diabetes, formerly called juvenile-onset diabetes. Over five to 12 years of follow-up, participants who had high TNF receptor levels at the start were three times as likely to develop chronic kidney disease as those with low receptor levels.

?These are good pilot studies, very well conducted,? says Sankar Navaneethan, a nephrologist at the Cleveland Clinic, who wasn?t involved in the new research. ?But they need to be replicated in future studies before we can embark on using this biomarker for predicting these outcomes in patients.?

Diabetes is the most common cause of kidney failure, accounting for 44 percent of new cases in 2008. Chronic inflammation has long been suspected in this connection, but the Joslin team reports that several common inflammatory proteins don?t show a link to kidney disease ? only the TNF receptors do.

The researchers ?provide very solid statistical and epidemiological evidence? linking TNF receptor abundance with kidney damage, says Klaus Ley, a physician at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in California. ?But we don?t know why the receptor levels are increased in these patients. This is just the beginning of a very exciting story.?

Found in: Body & Brain

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/337761/title/Proteins_may_warn_of_diabetic_kidney_disease_risk

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MakerBot releases free-to-download Playsets, will have you printing a Captain Kirk Chair in no time

So, you've always wanted to build a dollhouse out of ABS plastic? Well here's your chance. MakerBot has announced the release of its "MakerBot Playsets," a collection of free-to-download schematics used to create objects such as dolls, dollhouses and furnishings with the company's 3D printer. The files are available in .stl and .dxf formats for use with CAD programs, and take away the guesswork involved in coming up with a uniform design for larger projects. Take a look at the current collection -- including such objects as a Telescope, Moon Rover, Captain Kirk Chair, Treasure Chest and Suit of Armor -- and see what you think. You'll find the entire collection at the Thingverse link just below.

MakerBot releases free-to-download Playsets, will have you printing a Captain Kirk Chair in no time originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tiger Woods Book: 'The Big Miss' By Hank Haney Reportedly Angers Woods

By Golfweek

According to ESPN.com, Tiger Woods is not pleased about Hank Haney's upcoming book, 'The Big Miss' -- which will delve into Haney's time as Woods' coach.

"I think it's unprofessional and very disappointing," Woods told ESPN.com in a telephone interview, "especially because it's someone I worked with and trusted as a friend.

"There have been other one-sided books about me, and I think people understand that this book is about money. I'm not going to waste my time reading it."

Earlier this month, Haney revealed his intent to release the book right before the Masters.

"I was a witness to greatness," Haney told ESPN.com Thursday. "And I get asked the question all the time about Tiger. I wanted to talk about it and I wanted to share it with people. That's the bottom line. I'm not sure I understand the unprofessionalism part. He hasn't read the book. There's a lot of positives in there. I think he's the greatest golfer who ever lived.

"I was just in a position to observe greatness and anyone who observes greatness likes to share it. I feel like I wrote a book that was fair and honest. It's golf history."

According to ESPN.com, Haney did not contact Woods about the book.

Haney and Woods won six majors as a coach-player tandem, and also picked up 31 wins.

"Again, I want to thank Hank for everything he did for me," Woods told ESPN.com.

For more in-depth golf coverage visit Golfweek.com.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/20/tiger-woods-book-the-big-miss-haney-report_n_1218131.html

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Daily Deal: Incipio Hive Honeycomb dermaSHOT Silicone Case for iPad 2 only $22.95

For today only, the iMore Store has the Incipio Hive Honeycomb dermaSHOT Silicone Case for iPad 2 on sale for only $19.95!. Get them before they're gone! Get the Incipio Hive Honeycomb dermaSHOT Silicone Case for iPad 2 now!

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Making The Most Out Of Your Life Insurance Policy by ...

17 Jan

Article posted by LatoriaPloense751 as Games

You cannot go anywhere with out somebody offering you their help and advice about life insurance. It may be difficult to sift out the quality details from the ridiculous. When you want the true info and wish to be your own personal expert around the subject, this write-up is available for you.

Make sure you select the appropriate style of life insurance for your existing and long-term wants. Of your four primary types, some policies only cover you for any particular period of time and some include you to the remainder of your lifetime as long while you keep premium payments current. Younger purchasers might want to start with term life insurance that may frequently be converted to whole life policies later.

Remember that endowment life insurance policies would be the policy choice you need to go with when you want an investment option. These policies will charge you a higher premium and put some of that cash into an investment fund. You possibly can select of period 10, 20 or 30 years then have that investment paid out to the beneficiaries.

Order life insurance to supplement pension and societal safety income. If 1 spouse dies, another will need to live on a lot a lot less income, and life insurance can serve as being a partial income replacement for your surviving spouse. Term insurance operates clearly with this purpose, and a whole life policy is even far better because of its growing dollars value, although it expenses much more money.

When you have a house settlement agreement having a former spouse, setting forth an expectation the other companion pays all or a part of your children?s expenses or alimony, factor this into your life insurance decisions. Must your former spouse die, unless it is clearly during the estate documentation, there is no requirement the estate will continue to pay these expenses. Instead, it might make sense to insure your ex spouse and checklist yourself as beneficiary, in an effort to protect your self and also your kids.

Save money on your life insurance premium by selecting to pay it yearly. Most insurance firms will also offer you the option of paying your premium over a monthly, quarterly or semi-annual basis. Even so, when you select one of these alternatives, you typically need to pay installment prices to deal with the company?s more services expenses, as well.

When you are debating purchasing your very own private life insurance policy, or likely with one that the job is offering to sell you, 1 significant thing to remember is in case you leave your work, you can not take your life insurance policy with you. In order to have your policy for your long time, it really is very best to get it on your own.

Ideally, these guidelines have given you some food items for thought. The foreseeable future is uncertain. It in no way pays to put away from stuff like life insurance. Don?t wait until that you are ill and won?t be able to afford what it would cost you. Your loved ones could end up paying the value, further down the road.

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Britain, HK to develop London as yuan trading hub (AP)

HONG KONG ? British and Hong Kong leaders said Monday they will team up to develop London into an international trading center for China's currency.

British Treasury chief George Osborne said in Hong Kong that his trip to Asia this week, which also includes stops in Beijing and Tokyo, furthers dialogue with Chinese authorities and Chinese and British banks "on establishing London as a new hub for the renminbi market as a complement to Hong Kong."

Hong Kong's leader, Chief Executive Donald Tsang said a new private sector-led group will be set up to look at strengthening ties between Hong Kong and London in terms of settlement systems, market liquidity and the development of renminbi financial products.

Beijing is promoting the international use of the renminbi, also known as the yuan. It's also promoting Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese territory with its own financial system and currency, as an offshore trading center for the yuan.

Last year, yuan-denominated bank deposits in Hong Kong doubled to 630 billion renminbi ($100 billion) as savers sought higher returns from the yuan, which has been strengthening 4-5 percent a year.

Beijing would like to see the currency become an alternative to the dollar, although tight capital controls limit its circulation overseas.

"It's clear that there's scope for substantial expansion of the renminbi market in coming years," said Osborne, who was speaking at a financial conference.

He said that in June 2011, China's share of world trade was 11 percent but the yuan's share of global foreign exchange trading last year was only 0.9 percent.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120116/ap_on_bi_ge/as_hong_kong_britain_yuan_trading

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Stars light up red carpet ahead of Golden Globes (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Hollywood A-listers including George Clooney paraded up the Golden Globe Awards' red carpet on Sunday ahead of the ceremony honoring the year's best films and TV shows hosted by acerbic comedian Ricky Gervais.

The British funnyman returns to the Golden Globe stage for the third straight year to host the champagne-soaked bash where prizes are given to actors, actresses, directors and producers in precursor of the more staid Oscars later this year.

Along with Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and numerous others were expected to walk the fashion-filled red carpet ahead of dinner and the program.

Gervais arrived early in a crimson and black tuxedo, Clooney looked dapper in gray. "Modern Family" TV star Sofia Vergara showed off a form-fitting, teal-colored Vera Wang gown and Harry Winston jewels.

Many actresses wore strapless dresses or had plunging necklines and hand-tied bowties were a must among men. Even Uggie the dog from most-nominated film "The Artist" put his four paws on the carpet -- black tie around his neck, of course.

While movies, TV shows and celebrities capture the limelight at the Golden Globe Awards, all eyes will be on Gervais this year after his caustic sense of humor and teasing of stars last year tweaked the sensibilities of some celebrities. He hadn't been expected to return, but here he is.

"I did it because the media said I wouldn't come back. I'm here to annoy them," Gervais said on the red carpet before the big show. When asked about his opening routine, he repeated statements he's made in recent weeks.

"I don't think I'm going to push the boundaries, more of the same, I think. I didn't think I said anything outrageous last year," he said.

The Golden Globe Awards are given out by the roughly 90 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association at what annually is among the key events during Hollywood's awards season because of the media exposure it brings.

OSCAR INFLUENCE?

Honors bestowed on TV shows often lure audiences that can turn a little-seen program into a hit, and films and stars that are declared Golden Globe winners often go on to compete for Oscars, the world's top movie prizes given out later this year.

But veteran Hollywood awards watcher Tom O'Neil of website Goldderby.com notes that in recent years, as more awards shows have aired on TV and Oscar organizers have made changes to their nomination process, the HFPA's influence has waned.

"Six of the last seven years they haven't picked the same best movie. 'Slumdog Millionaire' is the only one," said O'Neil.

Silent-era film "The Artist," a romantic tale shot in the style of old Hollywood, heads into Sunday night's ceremony with six nominations, including best comedy or musical. Late last week, it was named 2011's best movie at the Critics' Choice Awards and appears a good bet to take the Golden Globe for best musical or comedy.

HFPA voters also pick a winner of best film drama, and "The Descendants," starring Clooney as a father trying to keep his family together during a crisis, has the strongest shot at walking off a victor, O'Neil said. Although civil rights drama "The Help" also has been well-received in Hollywood this year.

Among actors and actresses, Meryl Streep looks to be a good pick to claim the trophy for best actress in a drama playing former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady." She faces a challenge from Viola Davis in "The Help," after Davis also picked up the Critics' Choice trophy.

Michelle Williams competes for best actress in a movie musical or comedy in "My Week with Marilyn" against the likes of "Saturday Night Live" comedian Kristen Wiig for "Bridesmaids."

Clooney with "Descendants" takes on Leonardo DiCaprio for "J. Edgar" and Brad Pitt in "Moneyball" in the best drama actor category, and "Artist" star, Frenchman Jean Dujardin, is the odds-on bet for best actor in a film musical or comedy.

Among TV shows, thriller "Homeland" is one of the new shows competing for best drama, taking on others such as "American Horror Story" and "Game of Thrones." Best comedy nominees feature past favorites such as "Glee" and "Modern Family."

The three-hour Golden Globe Awards show airs live on NBC on Sunday night, starting at 8 p.m. EST (0100 GMT on Monday).

(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120116/en_nm/us_goldenglobes

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Captain's conduct blasted as divers find more dead

An Italian firefighter helicopter airlifts a rescued passenger from the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia which ran aground off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Firefighters worked Sunday to rescue a crew member with a suspected broken leg from the overturned hulk of the luxury cruise liner Costa Concordia, 36 hours after it ran aground. More than 40 people are still unaccounted-for. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

An Italian firefighter helicopter airlifts a rescued passenger from the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia which ran aground off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Firefighters worked Sunday to rescue a crew member with a suspected broken leg from the overturned hulk of the luxury cruise liner Costa Concordia, 36 hours after it ran aground. More than 40 people are still unaccounted-for. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Italian firefighters' scuba divers approach the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia which ran aground a day earlier off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. The incident sent water pouring in through a 160-foot (50-meter) gash in the hull and forced the evacuation of some 4,200 people from the listing vessel early Saturday, the Italian coast guard said. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Italian firefighters scuba divers approach the cruise ship Costa Concordia leaning on its side, the day after running aground the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. A helicopter on Sunday airlifted a third survivor from the capsized hulk of a luxury cruise ship 36 hours after it ran aground off the Italian coast, as prosecutors confirmed they were investigating the captain for manslaughter charges and abandoning the ship. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Italian firefighters' scuba divers approach the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia which ran aground off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. The Costa Concordia cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Tuscany, sending water pouring in through a 160-foot (50-meter) gash in the hull and forcing the evacuation of some 4,200 people from the listing vessel early Saturday, the Italian coast guard said. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

A passenger from South Korea, top left, disembarks from an Italian Firefighter boat after being rescued from the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia which ran aground the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. The luxury cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Tuscany, sending water pouring in through a 160-foot (50-meter) gash in the hull and forcing the evacuation of some 4,200 people from the listing vessel early Saturday, the Italian coast guard said. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

GIGLIO, Italy (AP) ? Maritime authorities, passengers and mounting evidence pointed Sunday toward the captain of a cruise liner that ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan coast, amid accusations that he abandoned ship before everyone was safely evacuated and was showing off when he steered the vessel far too close to shore.

Divers searching the murky depths of the partially submerged Costa Concordia found the bodies of two elderly men still in their life jackets, bringing the confirmed death toll to five. At least 15 people were still missing, including two Americans.

The recovered bodies were discovered at an emergency gathering point near the restaurant where many of the 4,200 on board were dining when the luxury liner struck rocks or a reef off the tiny island of Giglio. The Italian news agency ANSA reported the dead were an Italian and a Spaniard.

Still, there were glimmers of hope: The rescue of three survivors ? a young South Korean couple on their honeymoon and a crew member brought to shore in a dramatic airlift some 36 hours after the grounding late Friday.

Meanwhile, attention focused on the captain, who was spotted by Coast Guard officials and passengers fleeing the scene even as the chaotic and terrifying evacuation was under way.

The ship's Italian owner, a subsidiary of Carnival Cruise lines, issued a statement late Sunday saying there appeared to be "significant human error" on the part of the captain, Francesco Schettino, "which resulted in these grave consequences."

Authorities were holding Schettino for suspected manslaughter and a prosecutor confirmed Sunday they were also investigating allegations the captain abandoned the stricken liner before all the passengers had escaped. According to the Italian navigation code, a captain who abandons a ship in danger can face up to 12 years in prison.

A French couple who boarded the Concordia in Marseille, Ophelie Gondelle and David Du Pays, told the Associated Press they saw the captain in a lifeboat, covered by a blanket, well before all the passengers were off the ship.

"The commander left before and was on the dock before everyone was off," said Gondelle, 28, a French military officer.

"Normally the commander should only leave at the end," said Du Pays, a police officer who said he helped an injured passenger to a rescue boat. "I did what I could."

Coast Guard officers later spotted Schettino on land as the evacuation unfolded. The officers urged him to return to his ship and honor his duty to stay aboard until everyone was safely off the vessel, but he ignored them, Coast Guard Cmdr. Francesco Paolillo said.

Schettino insisted he didn't leave the liner early, telling Mediaset television that he had done everything he could to save lives. "We were the last ones to leave the ship," he said.

Questions also swirled about why the ship had navigated so close to the dangerous reefs and rocks that jut off Giglio's eastern coast, amid suspicions the captain may have ventured too close while carrying out a maneuver to entertain tourists on the island.

The ship's owner, Costa Crociere SpA, issued a statement late Sunday saying it was working with investigators to determine "precisely what went wrong aboard the Costa Concordia."

"While the investigation is ongoing, preliminary indications are that there may have been significant human error on the part of the ship's master, Captain Francesco Schettino, which resulted in these grave consequences," the statement said. "The route of the vessel appears to have been too close to the shore, and the captain's judgment in handling the emergency appears to have not followed standard Costa procedures."

Residents of Giglio said they had never seen the Costa come so close to the dangerous "Le Scole" reef area.

"This was too close, too close," said Italo Arienti, a 54-year-old sailor who has worked on the Maregiglio ferry between Giglio and the mainland for more than a decade. Pointing to a nautical map, he drew his finger along the path the ship usually takes and the jarring one close to shore that it followed Friday.

The ship was a mere 150 yards (meters) from shore at the time of the grounding, ANSA quoted Grosseto prosecutor Francesco Verusio as saying.

Schettino insisted he was twice as far out and said the ship ran aground because the rocks weren't marked on his nautical charts.

However, he did concede he was maneuvering the ship in "touristic navigation" ? implying a route that was a deviation from the norm and designed to entertain the tourists.

"We were navigating approximately 300 meters (yards) from the rocks," he told Mediaset television. "There shouldn't have been such a rock. On the nautical chart it indicated that there was water deep below."

Costa captains have occasionally steered the ship near port and sounded the siren in a special salute, Arienti said. Such a nautical "fly-by" was staged last August, prompting the town's mayor to send a note of thanks to the commander for the treat it provided tourists who flock to the island, local news portal GiglioNews.it reported.

But Arienti and other residents said even on those occasions, the cruise ship always stayed far offshore, well beyond the reach of the "Le Scole" reefs.

"Every so often they would do a greeting, but not so close ? far away, safely," said resident Giacomo Dannipale.

Douglas Ward, a cruise expert and author of the 2012 Berlitz guide to cruises, said the waters around Giglio are too shallow for such maneuvers.

Coast Guard Cmdr. Filippo Marini said divers had recovered the so-called "black box," with the recording of the navigational details, from a compartment now under water, though no details were released.

Jorgen Loren, chairman of the Swedish Maritime Officer's Association, said the captain clearly deviated from the ship's intended route.

"It is remarkable because weather conditions were good and these cruise ships have the best and most modern technical equipment. All conditions were ideal," he said.

"These are well-known waters, ferries pass here every day going back and forward to the mainland," he said.

Meanwhile, rescue work continued into the night on the unsubmerged half of the Concordia, said firefighters spokesman Luca Cari. Sniffer dogs were being brought in, although it was unclear if they could adapt to working in an environment where the horizontal became the vertical, due to the 90-degree list of the ship.

Marini, the coast guard captain, held out hope there could still be survivors, perhaps holed up in the section still above water, or that some of the unaccounted passengers simply didn't report their safe arrival on land.

Earlier Sunday, a helicopter airlifted a cabin crew member from the capsized hulk just hours after South Korean honeymooners were rescued from their cabin when firefighters heard their screams.

A relative of the rescued crewman told reporters he had survived two nights in darkness and with his feet in water.

Besides the two dead discovered Sunday, the bodies of three other victims ? two French passengers and a Peruvian crewman ? were pulled out of the sea in the hours after the accident.

Survivors described a terrifying escape that was straight out of a scene from "Titanic." Many complained the crew didn't give them good directions on how to evacuate and once the emergency became clear, delayed lowering the lifeboats until the ship was listing too heavily for all to be released.

"We were left to ourselves," pregnant French passenger Isabelle Mougin, who injured her ankle in the scramble, told the ANSA news agency.

Another French passenger, Jeanne Marie de Champs, said that faced with the chaotic scene at the lifeboats, she decided to take her chances swimming to shore.

"I was afraid I wouldn't make the shore, but then I saw we were close enough, I felt calmer," she told Sky News 24.

Coast Guard diver Majko Aidone, interviewed by Sky TG24 TV after his dive, explained that the first task after gaining access to a submerged space, is to tie down large floating objects, like mattresses, which could turn into dangerous obstacles.

Then, in hopes of alerting any survivors to their presence, "we make noise," he said.

Crews in dinghies climbed on board the exposed hull of the ship and touched it, near the site of the 160-foot-long (50-meter-long) gash where water flooded in and caused the ship to topple on its side.

Earlier Sunday, at a Mass held in Giglio's main church, which opened its doors to the evacuees Friday night, altar boys and girls brought up a life vest, a rope, a rescue helmet, a plastic tarp and some bread.

Don Lorenzo, the parish priest, told the faithful that he wanted to make this admittedly "different" offering to God as a memory of the tragedy.

"Our community, our island will never be the same," he said.

___

Malin Rising in Stockholm, Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris and Victor L. Simpson and Frances D'Emilio in Rome contributed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-15-EU-Italy-Cruise-Aground/id-d79f399076d94797ad5e0be6bbdc63a5

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Huff TV: Arianna On How To Fix America's Economy

On Friday, Arianna joined US News & World Report editor Mort Zuckerman and Time's Fareek Zakaria on CNN's Your Money to talk about the best way to fix capitalism.

In a segment called "Capitalism: On Trial," host Ali Velshi asked each panelist to name the best solution they'd heard for repairing America's battered system.

Arianna said she would look to a businessman, a professor, and a judge for solutions. The businessman is Jim Stengel, former global marketing head of Procter & Gamble, whose book "Grow" focuses on "the need for business to align their bottom line with the social impact they're having."

The professor is Roger Martin, a University of Toronto professor, whose book "Fixing The Game" proposes that the "shareholder value theory" has wrongly "put traders rather than customers at the center of business decisions."

The third person is prominent judge Jed S. Rakoff, who "has the gumption to go out there and say that the double standard" America uses to hold corporations accountable "has to end."

Zuckerman said he would focus on overhauling the country's education system to prepare students for a "world in which education and technology is going to be enormously predominant." Zakaria said the U.S. economy is based "overly on consumption," and must focus more on investments in human and physical capital.

Watch the segment below:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-tv/arianna-talks-fixing-capitalism-cnn-your-money_b_1206579.html

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Celestial Triangle Visible in Night Sky Early Monday (SPACE.com)

Skywatchers who are out and about after 1 a.m. local time Monday (Jan. 16) will have an interesting celestial array to admire, composed of the moon, a bright planet and a bright star.??

The configuration initially will resemble a rather crooked triangle low in the east-southeast sky.?

Along with the moon ? which will be at last quarter or "half" phase ? will be the planet Saturn, shining sedately with a yellowish-white glow well to the left of the moon, while hovering much closer above and to the left of the moon will be the bright bluish star Spica, in the zodiacal constellation of Virgo.?

The moon, of course, appears to pass Spica every month, but over the past year or so Saturn has also happened to be nearby, so we have been christening these monthly gatherings with the moniker " the Saturn Triangle."

The sky map of the Saturn Triangle associated with this story shows how the celestial trio will appear at 2 a.m. local time to observers at mid-northern latitudes.

By around 5:30 a.m., just as dawn is about to break, the trio will have moved to a point nearly halfway up in the sky, toward the south. But the appearance of this celestial triangle will also have changed noticeably. [10 Skywatching Misconceptions Explained]?

Saturn is currently 902-million miles (1.45-billion kilometers) from Earth and will not change its position relative to the background stars during the course of a single night.? But the moon is only 228,000 miles (367,000 km) away and, as a result, will slowly shift its position to the east during the course of the night.?

In fact, the moon appears to move east against the background stars at roughly its own apparent width (0.5 degrees) per hour. If you hold your clenched fist out at arm's length, it will measure roughly 10 degrees.?

So, less than six hours after the triangle's first appearance, the moon will have appeared to move about 3 degrees farther away from Spica, causing the figure's base to appear to become wider and transforming it into a rather convincing isosceles triangle (a triangle with at least two equal sides).

What makes this triangle an isosceles is that Saturn will be located at an equal distance from both the moon and Spica: 7 degrees. So the Saturn-moon and Saturn-Spica sides of the triangle each will be slightly less than a fist's width in length (10 degrees). The side of the triangle from the moon to Spica will measure just 4 degrees. ?

Saturn, at magnitude +0.6, is roughly a half-magnitude brighter than Spica.

If you have a small telescope, check out Saturn's rings. Back in the late summer of 2009, Saturn's rings were all but invisible to Earth viewers because they were turned edge-on (or nearly so) from our perspective.?

Now, however, the rings are tilted about 15 degrees toward us and are readily seen if you are using a telescope with magnification of at least 30-power.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20120115/sc_space/celestialtrianglevisibleinnightskyearlymonday

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Qatar emir suggests sending Arab troops to Syria (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) ? Qatar has proposed sending Arab troops to halt the bloodshed in Syria, where violence has raged despite the presence of Arab League monitors sent to check if an Arab peace plan is working.

Asked if he was in favor of Arab nations intervening in Syria, Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani told the U.S. broadcaster CBS: "For such a situation to stop the killing ... some troops should go to stop the killing."

The emir, whose country backed last year's NATO campaign that helped Libyan rebels topple Muammar Gaddafi, is the first Arab leader to propose Arab military intervention in Syria where protesters are demanding President Bashar al-Assad stand down.

CBS said on its website that the interview would be broadcast in its "60 Minutes" programme on Sunday.

Qatar's prime minister heads the Arab League committee on Syria and has said killings have not stopped despite the presence of Arab monitors sent there last month.

In the preview of the interview on the website, the emir did not spell out how any Arab military intervention might work.

There is little appetite in the West for any Libya-style intervention in Syria, although France has talked of a need to set up zones to protect civilians there.

The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed since protests against Assad erupted in March. Syrian officials say 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed by armed "terrorists."

In the latest violence, Syrian tanks and troops renewed an assault on the rebel-held hill town of Zabadani near the border with Lebanon on Saturday, causing about 40 casualties, an exiled opposition figure said, citing residents reached by telephone.

Kamal al-Labwani said green buses had been brought to the town, suggesting preparations for mass arrests. The town is defended by army deserters and anti-Assad insurgents. It was not immediately clear if the 40 casualties included any dead.

The attack on Zabadani was the biggest against opponents of Assad since the Arab observers began work on December 26.

Six civilians died elsewhere, including a 13-year-old boy and a man shot dead in the rebellious central city of Homs, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Syria's military held funerals for 16 soldiers killed by armed "terrorists" in the provinces of Homs, Damascus and Idlib in the northwest, the state news agency SANA said.

SANA also said a blast set off by insurgents in Idlib had derailed a freight train carrying fuel to a power station, setting several fuel tankers ablaze and wounding three people.

MORE OBSERVERS READY

There has been no let-up in the conflict despite the Arab observer mission, which has been castigated even by some of its own members for buying Assad more time to crush his foes.

"This is the last week in the month agreed between Syria and the Arab League and will witness a wide deployment of the monitors," said a source at the Cairo-based League, adding that 40 monitors were ready to join the team of about 165 whenever its leader, Sudanese General Mohammed al-Dabi, requested them.

Plans to expand the team were delayed last week after 11 monitors were slightly hurt in an attack on their convoy by a pro-Assad crowd in the port of Latakia on Monday. That incident also prompted the monitors to suspend work for two days.

Dabi is due to report to the Arab League on Thursday and Arab foreign ministers will then decide whether to continue the mission, or possibly refer Syria to the U.N. Security Council.

The League chief, Nabil Elaraby, said on Friday he feared a 10-month-old struggle to oust Assad could slide into civil war.

Armed clashes, now punctuating what began as a non-violent protest movement, have raised fears of a full-scale conflict in Syria, a Sunni Muslim-majority country of 23 million which also has Alawite, Druze, Christian and Kurdish minorities.

Syria, bordering Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Israel, is at the heart of the volatile Middle East, where its closest allies are Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah group.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called for dialogue in Syria and said those warning of civil war were the ones whose words and policies were pushing the country toward such a fate.

"We urge the Syrian opposition at home and abroad to respond to President Assad's calls for dialogue and to cooperate with him to implement the reforms he has announced," Nasrallah said in a speech to mark a Shi'ite religious occasion.

He said Iran and Turkey, as well as Arab and Muslim countries, could help resolve the crisis in Syria.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu, whose country has become one of Assad's fiercest critics after previously courting him, held talks in Beirut with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and other politicians on Saturday.

"The Syrian authorities must respond to the legitimate democratic aspirations of the Syrian people," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is also visiting Lebanon, was quoted as saying by the Beirut newspaper an-Nahar the previous day.

He also urged the Security Council, where Russia and China have blocked firm action on Syria, to speak with one voice.

A ship carrying Russian ammunition docked in Syria this week, after it had been temporarily halted during a refueling stop in Cyprus, stirring concern in Washington.

(Additional reporting by Ayman Samir and Tom Perry in Cairo and Dominic Evans and Laila Bassam in Beirut; Writing by Alistair Lyon, editing by Peter Millership)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120114/wl_nm/us_syria

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iVoices on New Michelle Obama Book: Not Happy About 'Angry Black Woman' Portrayal

iVoice Celena Gill shares her very mixed feelings about the new book about First Lady Michelle Obama.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/ivoices-new-michelle-obama-book-not-happy-about-angry-black-woman-portrayal/1-h-418052?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aivoices-new-michelle-obama-book-not-happy-about-angry-black-woman-portrayal-418052

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Professor discovers world's tiniest vertebrate

Thursday, January 12, 2012
A. X-ray of paratype of Paedophryne amauensis (LSUMZ 95002). B. X-ray of paratype of P. swiftorum (BPBM 31886). C,E,G,I. Photos of cleared and double-stained paratype of P. amauensis (LSUMZ 95002). C. Whole body. E. Head. G. Hand. I. Foot. D,F,H,J. Photos of cleared and double-stained paratype of P. swiftorum (BPBM 31886). D. Whole body. F. Head. H. Hand. J. Foot. Skeletal elements labeled as follows: Fp, frontoparietal; Il, illium; Mc1-4, metacarpals 1-4; Mt1-5, metatarsals 1-5; Mx, maxilla; N, nasal; S, Sacrum; Sp, sphenethemoid; Sq, squamosal; U, urostyle; V1, first presacral vertebra; V7, seventh presacral vertebra. Credit: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029797.g001

LSU's Chris Austin recently discovered two new species of frogs in New Guinea, one of which is now the world's tiniest known vertebrate, averaging only 7.7 millimeters in size ? less than one-third of an inch. It ousts Paedocypris progenetica, an Indonesian fish averaging more than 8 millimeters, from the record. Austin, leading a team of scientists from the United States including LSU graduate student Eric Rittmeyer, made the discovery during a three-month long expedition to the island of New Guinea, the world's largest and tallest tropical island.

"It was particularly difficult to locate Paedophryne amauensis due to its diminutive size and the males' high pitched insect-like mating call," said Austin. "But it's a great find. New Guinea is a hotspot of biodiversity, and everything new we discover there adds another layer to our overall understanding of how biodiversity is generated and maintained."

Austin, curator of herpetology at LSU's Museum of Natural Science and associate professor of biological sciences, is no stranger to discovering new species, having described numerous species previously unknown to science, including frogs, lizards and parasites.

These most recent species descriptions, which will be published in PLoS ONE on Jan. 11, highlight an interesting trend among the discovery of extremely small vertebrates. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation.

"The size limit of vertebrates, or creatures with backbones, is of considerable interest to biologists because little is understood about the functional constraints that come with extreme body size, whether large or small," said Austin.

With more than 60,000 vertebrates currently known to man, the largest being the blue whale with an average size of more than 25 meters (75 feet) and the smallest previously being a small Indonesian fish averaging around 8 millimeters, there was originally some thought that extreme size in vertebrates might be associated with aquatic species, as perhaps the buoyancy offers support and facilitates the development of extremism. However, both new species of frogs Austin described are terrestrial, suggesting that living in water is not necessary for small body size.

"The ecosystems these extremely small frogs occupy are very similar, primarily inhabiting leaf litter on the floor of tropical rainforest environments," said Austin. "We now believe that these creatures aren't just biological oddities, but instead represent a previously undocumented ecological guild ? they occupy a habitat niche that no other vertebrate does."

###

Louisiana State University: http://www.lsu.edu

Thanks to Louisiana State University 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.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116674/Professor_discovers_world_s_tiniest_vertebrate

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White Samsung Galaxy Nexus unveiled; sticks to black front

White smartphones seem to be creating a rage these days, with mobile phone buyers preferring to settle for this less-than-ordinary color option instead of the conformist black or silver device that we?re all too used to purchasing. Keeping up with tide of white smartphones, Samsung recently announced plans for a white Galaxy Nexus device, leaving the smartphone market mumbling and nodding in agreement. Here?s the first look at this pale Nexus version that certainly pleases the eye. With the insides packing the same you?d find in the previously released black (or gray) Galaxy Nexus, the phones exteriors will sport a black front with a white back and a silver camera module. The phone is expected to surface by the start of February with a price tag just like its darker counterpart.

[GSMarena]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewLaunches/~3/dQSErB5IElc/white_samsung_galaxy_nexus_unveiled_sticks_to_black_front.php

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Kogeto brings panoramic video to Android with the iCONIC

We've seen our fair share of camera enhancements over the past years, but most of them seem to focus on the still camera end instead of the video camera, until Kogeto. At CES Kogeto is planned to officially announce the Kogeto iCONIC which is an attachment that allows the device to capture panoramic video. Unfortunately the iCONIC is releasing initially for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and more devices to follow, as long as they capture 1080P video. Previously only available for the Apple iPhone it is great to see the expansion, and we look to getting our hands-on time with one of these in Las Vegas!

Source: Engadget

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/ahp00u59zn4/story01.htm

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Send a Message Through Your Desktop with These Signage Wallpapers [Wallpaper Wednesday]

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/GJDo_ifE3ho/

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New Iran site enriching uranium

9 January 2012 Last updated at 18:24 ET

Iran has begun enriching uranium at a heavily fortified underground site, the UN's nuclear watchdog has confirmed.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said medium-level enrichment had begun at the Fordo plant, in northern Iran.

Tehran has said it plans to carry out uranium enrichment there for purely peaceful purposes. The West argues Iran is building a nuclear weapons capacity.

The US said the Fordo work was a "further escalation" in the row. The UK and France also condemned the project.

The existence of the facility near Qom, in the north of the country, only came to light after it was identified by Western intelligence agencies in September 2009.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

All nuclear material in the (Fordo) facility remains under the agency's containment and surveillance?

End Quote Gill Tudor IAEA spkeswoman

Tehran said it began the project in 2007, but the IAEA believes design work started in 2006.

BBC Iran correspondent James Reynolds says the facility has attracted plenty of attention and suspicion.

It is underground, heavily fortified and protected by the armed forces - making it a very difficult target for air strikes.

The US and Israel have refused to rule out attacks on Iranian facilities.

On Monday, a spokeswoman for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Gill Tudor, said the agency could "confirm that Iran has started the production of uranium enriched up to 20%".

She added that "all nuclear material in the facility remains under the agency's containment and surveillance".

Iran insists enriched uranium is needed to make isotopes to treat cancers. But analysts say 20% enrichment is an important step towards making uranium weapons-grade.

In Washington, state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said such a level of enrichment was "a further escalation" of the Iranians' "ongoing violations with regard to their nuclear obligations", and suggested "a different kind of a nuclear programme".

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

Iran's new facility began in secret. The state may have preferred to keep it that way. But in September 2009 the US, France and the UK publicly revealed its existence - a fact that was subsequently confirmed by Iran.

Since then, the new plant has attracted plenty of both attention and suspicion. It has been built underground and it is heavily fortified. In particular, Iran appears to want to guard against potential air strikes. Military experts suggest that the facility may be able to survive attack from all but the most powerful bombs.

Iranian officials suggest that the new plant is an important step forward for the country's nuclear programme. But it is not yet clear how productive the facility will be. Iran says it hopes to carry out what's known as medium-level uranium enrichment at the plant - uranium enriched to 20%.

Western analysts warn that medium-level enrichment is an important step towards enriching uranium to weapons-grade. But Iran stresses that its nuclear ambitions are entirely peaceful.

In Paris, a statement by the foreign ministry said the Iranian move "leaves us with no other choice but to reinforce international sanctions and to adopt, with our European partners and all willing countries, measures of an intensity and severity without precedent".

British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the "provocative act which further undermines Iran's claims that its programme is entirely civilian in nature".

'Falsely accused'

Earlier on Monday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei insisted Iran would not bow to pressure from the West.

"The Islamic establishment... knows firmly what it is doing and has chosen its path and will stay the course," he said in a speech broadcast on state television.

Tensions have been high since the US imposed new sanctions on Iran's central bank and the European Union said it would place an embargo on Iran's oil exports.

EU foreign ministers are due to meet to approve the embargo later this month.

Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz - a key route from the Gulf through which 20% of the world's traded oil passes.

Defence Secretary Leon Panetta warned on Sunday that such a move would cross a "red line" and "we would take action and reopen the strait".

Adding to the strains, a court in Tehran on Monday sentenced to death an Iranian-American man accused of being a CIA spy.

Amir Mirzai Hekmati, 28, a former US marine, had been show on state television in December allegedly confessing to being part of a plot to infiltrate Iran's intelligence services for the CIA.

Our correspondent says Iran's judicial and political systems place huge emphasis on the importance of confessions, which are viewed with concern by human rights groups.

Mr Hekmati's family, who live in Arizona, say the charges against him are fabricated and that he was in Iran to visit his grandmothers. The US has demanded his release.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-16470100

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