Top U.S. spies to face grilling on Taliban, Iran talks (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The possible release of detained Taliban leaders is likely to join Iran's nuclear ambitions at the top of a busy agenda when the top seven American intelligence chiefs testify before the Congress this week.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper -- as well as the heads of the CIA, FBI, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Counterterrorism Center and State and Homeland Security department intelligence units -- will be grilled on "worldwide threats" at a pair of open hearings.

The hearings -- before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday and its House of Representatives counterpart on Thursday -- are an annual ritual. But they offer a rare opportunity for legislators publicly to raise sensitive national security topics that are usually discussed only in secret briefings.

Lawmakers have expressed concern about the Obama administration's efforts to engage in peace talks with the Afghan Taliban, including consideration of the release of five Taliban leaders incarcerated at Guantanamo as a "confidence building" gesture, sources close to the committee said.

Senator Saxby Chambliss, Republican vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, told Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week that he and the panel's Democratic chairwoman, Senator Dianne Feinstein, had twice written to the Obama administration "raising strong objections" to the proposed move, which purportedly would involve the release of the Taliban prisoners into Afghan government custody.

Chambliss said he and Feinstein first wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "We've gotten a response" from Clinton, he said, declining to discuss the classified contents of her letter.

But he hinted that Clinton's response did not mollify them, adding that he and Feinstein then wrote a second letter to President Barack Obama.

Chambliss said there was "every reason to believe" some of the five Taliban detainees were involved in the death of CIA officer Johnny Micheal Spann during an uprising by Taliban prisoners at a fortress outside the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif in November 2001.

"I think it's bad policy. We don't negotiate with terrorists. We never have," Chambliss said, calling the detainees "five of the meanest, nastiest killers in the world."

Two detainees slated for possible release, former senior Taliban army commanders Mohammed Fazl and Noorullah Noori, were held at the historic Qala-i-Jangi fortress outside Mazar-i-Sharif when the prison revolt erupted in 2001.

But a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, insisted earlier this month that he knew of no evidence that they were involved in the death of Spann, who was surrounded and killed by rioting prisoners.

CONGRESS NOT NOTIFIED

Chambliss said Obama had not yet notified Congress of the administration's plan to transfer the prisoners from Guantanamo, a step which is required by a law which the president signed on December 31.

"It's the president's call. There's an ongoing conversation about it, let me say that," said Chambliss. To date, all discussions the Administration has had with Congress on the prisoner transfer issue have taken place behind closed doors.

Iran's nuclear progress and threats to Persian Gulf shipping and U.S. interests are almost certain to be key topics of discussion, with U.S. intelligence officials expected to offer a less alarming take on Iranian activity than those voiced by some conservative and Israeli analysts.

U.S. officials have told Reuters they believe that Iran's leaders have not yet made a decision to build nuclear weapons, an assessment which the U.S. intelligence community has held since it published extracts of a controversial National Intelligence Estimate on the issue in 2007.

U.S. officials say the reason Iranian leaders have not made a decision to build a bomb is because they are still weighing the costs and benefits of doing so.

But while a lot of what Iran is doing in its nuclear program has civilian applications, U.S. officials also believe that Tehran is keeping its options open regarding the building of a bomb -- adding to the air of ambiguity surrounding Iran's intentions and dealings with the U.S. and the outside world.

Other subjects which officials said might come up during this week's hearings are the stability of North Korea's regime and the future of its nuclear program after the death last month of Kim Jong-il and his replacement by his son Kim Jong-un; the recent discovery by authorities in Thailand of possible stockpiling of bomb-making materials by an individual with alleged links to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah; and drug-related violence and instability in Mexico.

The activities of homegrown U.S. militants could also be raised at the hearings. The FBI and other domestic law enforcement agencies have been particularly concerned about "lone wolf" militants who become radicalized via the internet and plot violence without catching the attention of authorities.

"We have to constantly be vigilant against a range of threats. Terrorism didn't begin with (Osama) bin Laden, it's not over with his death. There are other al Qaeda, al Qaeda-related groups, and we have the growth of homegrown extremists," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Monday.

Last week in Baltimore, a man pleaded guilty to attempting to bomb a military recruiting center. Investigators said he had no connection to international militants but had been trying unsuccessfully to recruit others to join his plot until he was trapped by authorities in a "sting" operation.

Earlier in January, a home-grown militant in Tampa was arrested in connection with a plot to car-bomb nightclubs and then attack crowds of onlookers with guns or a suicide vest.

(Reporting By Mark Hosenball and Warren Strobel; additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/ts_nm/us_usa_congress_threats

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Intel Leads $20M Round For Solera Networks

Solera Networks just announced that it has raised $20 million in Series D funding from Intel Capital (the chip-maker's investment arm) and others. The company says its DeepSee Platform can index and classify all network traffic, giving companies a comprehensive picture of their network security in real-time, either for spotting risks before a security breach or responding quickly once a breach has occurred. Both domestic and international sales supposedly grew more than 100 percent last year.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/a-NmBTiZqTY/

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'Take both arms' blood pressure'

29 January 2012 Last updated at 21:40 ET

Measuring blood pressure in both arms should be routine because the difference between left and right arm could indicate underlying health problems, says a study review.

The Lancet research found that a large difference could mean an increased risk of vascular disease and death.

Although existing guidelines state that blood pressure should be measured in both arms, it is not often done.

But a heart charity said it was too early to judge the findings.

The arm with the higher pressure can vary between individuals, but it is the difference between arms that counts, the study suggests.

Dr Christopher Clark and colleagues, from the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Exeter, reviewed 28 previous study papers looking at this area.

Most people in the study had an elevated blood pressure risk and about one-third had a normal level of risk.

The study concluded that a difference in systolic blood pressure of 10 millimetres of mercury (mm Hg) between arms could identify patients at high risk of asymptomatic peripheral vascular disease.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

It's too early to say whether this idea could become part of standard healthcare practice.?

End Quote Natasha Stewart British Heart Foundation

A difference of 15mg Hg would also indicate an increased risk of cerebrovascular disease, a 70% increased risk of cardiovascular mortality and 60% increased risk of death from all causes, the authors said.

Peripheral vascular disease (PVD) is the narrowing and hardening of the arteries that supply blood to the legs and feet. There are often no symptoms.

The UK vascular check programme for over-40s which includes a test for hypertension, advises that blood pressure measurements be taken in both arms.

"But surveys have shown that the average GP doesn't do it," said Dr Clark.

'Routine care'

Early detection of PVD is important because these patients could then benefit from stopping smoking, lowering their blood pressure or being offered statin therapy.

Dr Clark said the findings supported the need for blood pressure checks in both arms to be the norm.

Writing in The Lancet, Prof Richard J McManus, department of primary care health sciences at the University of Oxford and Prof Jonathan Mant, from the department of public health and primary care at the University of Cambridge, said the review supports existing guidelines.

"Further research is needed to clarify whether substantial differences between arms should prompt aggressive management of cardiovascular risk factors.

"Ascertainment of differences should become part of routine care, as opposed to a guideline recommendation that is mostly ignored."

Natasha Stewart, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said measuring blood pressure on both arms to assess vascular disease is, theoretically, a quick and simple task.

"But it's too early to say whether this idea could become part of standard healthcare practice and so we need more research to confirm the findings."

Prof Bryan Williams, from the Blood Pressure Association and the University of Leicester, said the study reinforced the message already in the guidelines from health watchdog NICE.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/health-16739682

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Invisibility cloak uses 'metamaterial' to hide three-dimensional objects

It may not be a cape of magical, silvery material, but it's still an invisibility cloak. A tube made of an insulating material striped with long, thin strips of copper makes objects within it invisible to microwaves. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin reported their cloaking chamber Jan. 25 in the New Journal of Physics.

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Different lab groups have been trying to cloak objects from light waves and microwaves for years. Previous efforts rendered objects invisible?along a plane, in two dimensions, by bending microwaves around the objects. Last year researchers?demonstrated an invisibility cloak?that worked in three dimensions, concealing a bump on a reflective surface.

This newest cloak makes three-dimensional objects invisible without using reflective surfaces or specialized microwave chambers. "We don't need mirrors, we don't need waveguides, we just built a cloak with a cover around an object," said Andrea Al?, an engineer at Texas-Austin who led the research.

The cloak makes objects invisible to microwaves from all angles, Al? and his colleagues found. They aimed microwaves at an 18-centimeter-long cylinder, fitted inside the invisibility chamber, from different angles. They found reduced microwave reflection from the cylinder no matter where they observed it.

Objects reflect light and other electromagnetic waves when they're just sitting around. That's how your eyes can see them and how devices such as radar detectors can sense airplanes and ships. Al?'s cloak works by reflecting electromagnetic waves in a way that cancels out the waves that the object reflects. "It's kind of an interference between the two," he told InnovationNewsDaily. "The combination of the two becomes invisible."

The secret to the cloak's exactly canceling waves is a "metamaterial," a man-made material that doesn't appear in nature and that has,?as one paper put it, "exotic electromagnetic properties." Al? first?published his ideas?for how to make an invisibility cloak using this canceling metamaterial in 2005 and has been working on the idea ever since.

Of course, the cylinder he cloaked in this latest study is still visible to the naked eye, which detects light waves, not microwaves. He said his technique works best with objects of comparable size to the wavelengths they're trying to hide from. Thus cigar-size cylinders are well masked from microwaves, which can be several centimeters long, while microscopic objects are best masked from visible light waves. So Al?'s metamaterials can't be used to cover certain boy wizards or anybody else, he said. "You can't use this to cloak a human body or a large object to visible light." He's working on creating a material that will cloak a microscopic object from visible light, which would be useful for machines that take microscopic photos.

As for the cloak he's already made, Al? thinks it would work well for stealth operations. "But it's superior to stealth, because stealth cancels the reflection but not the shadow of an object," he said.

You can follow?InnovationNewsDaily?staff writer Francie Diep on Twitter @franciediep. Follow InnovationNewsDaily on Twitter @News_Innovation, or on?Facebook.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/v3G6AsRL2DI/Invisibility-cloak-uses-metamaterial-to-hide-three-dimensional-objects

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Why MBA in Finance is Recommended | Foundations of Finance

Completing a degree program in accounting prepares students to step into various careers that involve accounting and finance. Accounting programs are available to students at the associate?s, bachelor?s, master?s, and doctorate?s degree level. Student?s career goals will determine which degree program to complete. Other possible accounting and finance career preparation programs can include:

• Accounting Technology
• Corporate Financing
• Finance and Banking

?

Corporate finance also awards undergraduate degrees unless students advance their training inside a finance degree program.

To gain the best career options in accounting and finance students should complete graduate degree training. Students study risk management, assurance, financial management, taxation, and much more. Master?s degree programs train students to understand business and taxation. Possible career options for students that have a graduate degree include risk assessors, corporate executives, financial managers, and auditors.

Students that complete a bachelor?s degree program will explore financial reporting, international market, and personal investments.

Accredited accounting and finance degree programs give students several career opportunities.

Accounting and Finance Career Preparation Programs

Accounting or financial managers are the people responsible for overseeing and maintaining the financial strategy and history of a company. The accounting manager is focused more on financial reporting, while the financial manager is focused on strategy and money management. The CFO supervises all accounting and financial operations, as well as administering the company?s general financial policies and strategies. The financial officer may formulate and implement strategies to raise capital, oversee cash management, or manage the company?s capital investment activity.

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Source: http://www.icasm2009.org/why-mba-in-finance-is-recommended

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Phil Emery agrees to become Bears general manager

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) ? The Chicago Bears have hired Kansas City Chiefs director of college scouting Phil Emery as their new general manager.

Emery was an area scout for the Bears from 1998-2004 and replaces Jerry Angelo, who was fired after an injury-riddled 8-8 season.

Emery and New England Patriots director of pro personnel Jason Licht were finalists and both interviewed twice. The Bears also interviewed San Diego Chargers director of player personnel Jimmy Raye, New York Giants director of college scouting Marc Ross, and current director of player personnel Tim Ruskell.

Emery's hiring comes after a major collapse marked by season-ending injuries to quarterback Jay Cutler and running back Matt Forte, as well as a drug scandal involving backup receiver Sam Hurd. The Bears dropped five in a row after a 7-3 start, spoiling a promising season before closing with a win at Minnesota.

Chicago has now missed the playoffs four times in five years following a trip to the Super Bowl after the 2006 season.

Angelo was fired two days later, though he was signed through 2013. The Bears also parted with offensive coordinator Mike Martz, who had an expiring contract, and quarterbacks coach Shane Day but made it clear head coach Lovie Smith was safe for next season.

Since then, they've promoted offensive line coach Mike Tice to coordinator and announced they will hire a passing coordinator to work with their QBs.

Emery has one mandate from president Ted Phillips: Close the talent gap with Green Bay and Detroit in the NFC North. Another criteria was to be able to work well with Smith, an area where Emery was thought to have the edge because of his previous ties with the Bears.

From 2004-08, Emery served as director of college scouting for the Atlanta Falcons and also worked as a regional scout for the Falcons leading up to the 2009 draft.

Emery started his career as a student assistant at his alma mater, Wayne State, before joining Central Michigan as a graduate assistant. He went on to become the offensive line/strength and conditioning coach at Western New Mexico for three seasons before taking the position of defensive line coach at Georgetown College.

Emery served as the defensive line and strength and conditioning coach at Saginaw Valley State from 1985-87 before joining Tennessee as the Volunteers' assistant strength and conditioning coach from 1987-91.

He made his last collegiate stop as the director of strength and conditioning services and as an associate professor at the U.S. Naval Academy from 1991-98.

During Angelo's 11-year run, the Bears won four division championships, reached the Super Bowl and got back to the NFC championship game last season. But he was undone on several fronts ? especially this season when backup Caleb Hanie struggled mightily after Cutler was hurt.

Emery inherits a team that could use help on both lines, in the secondary and at wide receiver. Forte's rookie contract is up, and Pro Bowl linebacker Lance Briggs has made it clear he wants to renegotiate even though his six-year deal runs through 2013.

He'll also be running a team that features a franchise quarterback in Cutler along with stars such as Forte, Briggs, Julius Peppers and Brian Urlacher. As dramatic as the Bears' fall was, they still seemed poised for a playoff run at one point.

They never recovered, though, once they lost Cutler.

He broke his right thumb trying to make a tackle following a late interception with the Bears on the way to their fifth straight win against San Diego on Nov. 20, and that's when the season soured. Forte sprained a ligament in his right knee against Kansas City on Dec. 4, leaving the offense without its two best players.

That would be tough for any team to handle, but the injuries exposed an eye-opening lack of depth. Hurd's arrest on federal drug charges in mid-December was just another blow for a team that was already sinking fast.

Besides the issues behind center, backup running back Marion Barber made some key mental and physical mistakes in losses to Kansas City and Denver. Receiver Roy Williams struggled to hang onto the ball, and the defense slumped late in the season, giving up 38 points to Seattle and 35 against Green Bay the following week.

One area where they certainly need to improve is in the draft, where Angelo had more swings and misses in recent years than hits. High-profile picks such as Rex Grossman and Cedric Benson were disappointments at times, and 2008 first-rounder Chris Williams has mostly struggled. Gabe Carimi, their first-round pick last year, missed most of his rookie season with a right knee injury.

The Bears plan to introduce Emery in a Monday news conference at Halas Hall.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-28-FBN-Bears-Emery/id-1062870d51b248eb9c4ffc2c34d84199

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St. Louis hosts 1st big parade on Iraq War's end

Niliah Banks, foreground, works with other students in her fifth grade class at Ross Elementary create hand-made signs Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Creve Coeur, Mo. The signs will be used when St. Louis hosts a "Welcome Home the Heroes from Iraq Day" on Jan. 28 with a noontime parade through downtown to welcome veterans of the war in Iraq. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Niliah Banks, foreground, works with other students in her fifth grade class at Ross Elementary create hand-made signs Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Creve Coeur, Mo. The signs will be used when St. Louis hosts a "Welcome Home the Heroes from Iraq Day" on Jan. 28 with a noontime parade through downtown to welcome veterans of the war in Iraq. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Ross Elementary fifth grade students, clockwise from left, Juilanna Bell, Mollie Weinberg, Courtney Turner and Mckenzie Thompson work to create a hand-made sign Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Creve Coeur, Mo. The sign will be used when St. Louis hosts a "Welcome Home the Heroes from Iraq Day" on Jan. 28 with a noontime parade through downtown to welcome veterans of the war in Iraq. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

ST. LOUIS (AP) ? Since the Iraq War ended there has been little fanfare for the veterans returning home. No ticker-tape parades. No massive, flag-waving public celebrations.

So, two friends from St. Louis decided to change that. They sought donations, launched a Facebook page, met with the mayor and mapped a route. On Saturday, hundreds of veterans are expected to march in downtown St. Louis in the nation's first big welcome home parade since the last troops left Iraq in December.

"It struck me that there was this debate going on as to whether there should or shouldn't be a parade," said Tom Appelbaum, one of the organizers. "Instead of waiting around for somebody somewhere to say, 'Yes, let's have a parade,' we said, 'Let's just do it.'"

Appelbaum, a 46-year-old lawyer, and Craig Schneider, a 41-year-old school technology coordinator, said they were puzzled by the lack of celebrations marking the war's end. But, they wondered, if St. Louis could host thousands of people for a parade after their beloved Cardinals won the World Series, why couldn't there be a party for the troops who put their lives on the line?

The effort got help with donations from two corporations with St. Louis connections ? $10,000 from Anheuser-Busch and $7,500 from the Mayflower moving company. Individual donations have boosted the project's total budget to about $35,000. By comparison, more than $5 million was spent two decades ago on New York's welcome-home parade for Gulf War veterans who helped drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

Ticker-tape salutes to returning troops are part of the American culture, including parades in many cities honoring veterans of World War I and World War II.

Since the end of the latest war in Iraq, there have only been small events at military posts, gatherings of families at airports and a low-key appearance by President Barack Obama at Fort Bragg, N.C., a base that endured more than 200 deaths from fighting in the war.

In St. Louis, Army Spc. James Casey appreciates the handshakes he's gotten at local and often informal observances of his 11.5 years with the Army Reserve and three tours in Iraq, which included the 2003 invasion. But the 29-year-old father of a year-old daughter relishes attending the St. Louis parade he considers "the proper welcoming home we all know we deserve."

He hopes larger U.S. cities follow suit.

"For the longest time, St. Louis has been the east-meets-west society, so I'm not surprised it's happening here. Hopefully, everybody sees what we're doing and grabs onto this," Casey said Friday. "Something like this ? where it's showing support for those that have served ? is not just a thank you. It's an embracing of the sacrifice so many Americans have made."

Celebrating the end of the Iraq War hasn't been as simple as the outpourings after the world wars, said Wayne Fields, professor of English and American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. With 91,000 troops still fighting in Afghanistan, many Iraq veterans could be redeployed ? suggesting to some that it's premature to celebrate their homecoming.

"We're not celebrating the end of a war the way we were with V-E Day or V-J Day (after World War II)," Fields said. "Part of what this is trying to do is recognize the special service of those who were there even though we can't declare a victory over a clearly identified enemy."

In May 2003, then-President George W. Bush landed on an aircraft carrier to hail the end of major combat operations in Iraq. Behind him during that speech was a banner that read, "Mission Accomplished," yet U.S. troops remained in Iraq for 8 ? more years.

Even some of the festivities in St. Louis will serve as a reminder that Bush launched the Iraq War as part of the larger war on terror following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

As part of the weekend, a "Reading of the Fallen" will begin at 9:11 p.m. Friday at Soldiers Memorial downtown. It will continue until the names of the approximate 6,500 Americans killed since the attacks are read.

"Veterans have sacrificed so much for the safety and well-being of St. Louisans," Mayor Francis Slay said. "This is a chance to demonstrate our appreciation for them."

City officials agreed to waive permit fees and allow use of streets for the parade from the heart of downtown along Market Street to Union Station, the former train station that is now a shopping center and hotel. A "Resource Village" will be set up there that will include food, music and entertainment but will also connect returning vets with organizations to help ease transition to civilian life.

Organizers expect about 100 parade entries ? floats, marching bands, first-responders, veterans groups. Appelbaum said that while the parade marks the end of the Iraq War, any military personnel involved in post-Sept. 11 conflicts are welcome.

Appelbaum has no idea how many people will turn out to cheer on the troops but said response has been overwhelming despite the lack of any substantial marketing.

"It's significant that this is strictly a grassroots effort, and coming out of the heartland of the U.S., I think it really says something," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-27-Iraq%20War-Parade/id-b3161ab129624d4bbc47d6331491be89

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Pink Slime, Ammonium Hydroxide Fast Food Ground Beef Additive, Dropped By McDonald's Et Al.

McDonald's said this week that it was no longer using the controversial ground beef additive known as "pink slime" in its hamburger recipe. Taco Bell and Burger King have also reportedly repudiated the "slime," which consists of spare beef trimmings that have been treated with ammonium hydroxide to make them safe and at least semi-palatable.

The move came after "Food Revolution" and "Naked Chef" star Jamie Oliver made public calls for chains to abandon the "slime," which has been manufactured by Beef Products Inc since 2001. Some are pointing to his advocacy as a central factor behind McDonald's decision.

Even if Oliver was the most prominent critic of "pink slime," though, he wasn't alone. The New York Times raised serious doubts about "pink slime" in a 2009 investigation of the product. It was also criticized in the 2010 documentary "Food Inc."

Part of the criticism stems from a general sense of disgust. People don't like hearing that they're eating spare trimmings of beef from strange parts of a cow. Nor, for that matter, do people like to hear that they're eating ammonia.

The USDA, for its part, approved of the ammoniated beef trimmings. In 2007, when it mandated increased testing for most ground beef, it specifically exempted "pink slime," even though the ammoniated beef comes from the parts of the cow most likely to harbor pathogens. The USDA argued that the beef's ammonia treatment would kill any bacteria lingering in the beef.

And there's some evidence that the USDA wasn't wrong to call "pink slime" safe. Indeed, a Jan. 9 editorial in Food Safety News argued that the public backlash against pink slime had more to do with fear-mongering on the part of figures like Oliver than with any rational assessment of the product itself.

That said, the Times found evidence that linked Beef Products' ammoniated beef to dozens of cases of salmonella and E. coli, so there's at least a fighting chance that it's less safe than conventional beef. Moreover, using "pink slime" only cuts the price of ground beef by about three cents a pound. Aren't you willing to pay less than a penny more for your quarter-pounder to avoid gambling with your health?

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/pink-slime-fast-food_n_1237206.html

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Man jailed for false claim against X factor's Walsh (Reuters)

DUBLIN (Reuters) ? An Irish man who falsely accused television star and pop impresario Louis Walsh of groping him in a Dublin night club was jailed for six months on Wednesday.

Walsh, who manages boy band Westlife and stars on the popular UK television talent show "X Factor," was accused in June last year of the assault by Leonard Watters, 24, who later retracted the allegations.

"The public must be protected from this type of untrue, unfounded allegations, he put the injured party through a lot of pain and anguish," said District Court Judge Dermot Dempsey.

Watters said he would appeal against the sentence.

(Reporting by Conor Humphries, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/music_nm/us_louiswalsh_xfactor

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Android tablets approach tipping point, mimic smartphone rise (Appolicious)

Google?s winning smartphone strategy was to make Android open source and invite anyone and everyone to create a device for their mobile platform. It worked, as HTC, Motorola and others jumped on the opportunity to create smartphones to rival the iPhone. However, the market was reset when Apple released the iPad. Yet another game-changer, the iPad set new standards for tablets, and is already prepping for a third generation release. All the while, Google?s been building an Android platform designed for tablets, eventually releasing Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich towards the end of last year. While Android?s been unable to topple iOS in the tablet arena, the tides are finally starting to turn as Android?s tablet market share rose to 39 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011.

According to Strategy Analytics, that?s up from 29 percent in the year-earlier period. The iPad still accounted for 68.2 percent of tablet sales, but the pattern is following a path similar to the smartphone market since the iPhone was first released in 2007.

?In other words, Android tablets are rising at broadly the same rate as Android smartphones did in the past,? says Neil Mawston, executive director of the global wireless practice of Strategy Analytics.

That?s good news for device makers, who have been anxious to release better Android tablets into the market. Price is certainly a factor, with gadgets like the Amazon Kindle Fire appealing to a broad range of consumers. Companies like Samsung have been able to rise to the top of the Android competition with one of the best iPad alternatives in terms of features. And while Samsung faces a slew of patent infringement lawsuits from Apple, Android OEMs can apply some of the lessons learned from their smartphone experiences, making improvements in their tablet strategies moving forward.

Tablets boost the mobile market

More Android tablets could be a boost for carriers as well, which rely on a diverse mobile device line up to draw in consumers. AT&T may have lost a few billion in the failed T-Mobile merger, but the wireless provider still managed to beat Wall Street?s expectations last quarter with total revenue of $32.5 billion, an increase of 3.6 percent from the same period last year. AT&T had its best-ever quarter for smartphones, setting records for Android and iPhone activations. If tablets truly are to follow the smartphone market, networks like AT&T will be able to further their revenue streams around tablets and data plans over the next few quarters.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/linux/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_androidapps_com_articles10876_android_tablets_approach_tipping_point_mimic_smartphone_rise/44314419/SIG=13d56tn0b/*http%3A//www.androidapps.com/tech/articles/10876-android-tablets-approach-tipping-point-mimic-smartphone-rise

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With reelection prospects dimming, Sarkozy warns his career is 'at the end'

Between the eurozone crisis, rising challenges from rivals, and growing French dissatisfaction with his leadership, Sarkozy has reason to worry about his reelection prospects.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is famous for bluntly speaking his mind, and for shining the brightest in the midst of a crisis. But now Mr. Sarkozy faces a crisis that he may not surmount ? his reelection ? and he is bluntly saying his political career may be over.

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The president even told his aides, with a slightly dark Nixonian note, that if he is not reelected in April, ?I'll change my life completely, and you won't hear from me again."?

"In any case, I am at the end," Sarkozy said on a trip back from French Guyana Monday night within earshot of reporters who leaked the conversation, despite it being off-the-record. "For the first time in my life I am facing the end of my career."?

France is mired in economic doldrums, capped off with a downgrade of its triple-A credit rating earlier this month. Between that and socialist candidate Francois Hollande, who delivered a tub-thumping speech on Sunday that showed he can move a crowd, Sarkozy faces both a toughening race and poll numbers that may not improve enough by April.

Ironically, Sarkozy has not yet announced whether he will actually run. But his comments Monday suggest he will quit politics only after a political fight. If he doesn't run or runs and does not win, Sarkozy will become the first French president since the 1970s to serve only one term.

In polls this fall, roughly 30 percent of respondents said they would vote for Mr. Hollande in the first round ? a strong lead over Sarkozy, with 24 percent.?

Sarkozy could also lose conservative votes to Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front in the first round of elections, and lose centrists to the now-surging candidacy of Francois Bayrou of Democratic Movement.

Hollande is running as an everyman candidate ? ?Mr. Normal,? as he calls himself. Sarkozy has sought to dramatize Hollande?s lack of office holding experience and to present himself as the man of experience and gravitas.

Sarkozy won office in 2007 as France?s youngest president, promising change or ?rupture? from the past, and has been an indefatigable office holder, sometimes compared to the energizer bunny. He married Carla Bruni, a popular model and singer, recently became a new father, and travels widely in and out of Europe in an effort to restore French pride on the world stage, most notably with his leadership on Libya last spring.

But his personal style as a celebrity-president has been controversial, earning him the title of ?President Bling Bling? and partly accounts for an oft-noted visceral dislike of him in France, where his disapproval rating runs close at close to 60 percent.

Dominique Moisi, a leading French intellectual at the French Institute for International Relations this week wrote that euro crisis Europe is in the mood to replace ruling governments. ?Mr. Sarkozy seems the ideal prey for a left starved of power after so many years in opposition. The French president is rejected not so much for his performance as for his essence.? He seems to have lost the support of rather too many voters.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/7PXzo6F1p9w/With-reelection-prospects-dimming-Sarkozy-warns-his-career-is-at-the-end

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Dispute over additive limits US meat exports

Michaela Rehle / Reuters

Fed to an estimated 60 to 80 percent of pigs in the United States, ractopamine has sickened or killed more of them than any other livestock drug on the market.

?

By Helena Bottemiller
The Food and Environment Reporting Network

A drug used to keep pigs lean and boost their growth is jeopardizing the nation?s exports of what once was known as ?the other white meat.??

The drug, ractopamine hydrochloride, is fed to pigs and other animals right up until slaughter and minute traces have been found in meat. The European Union, China, Taiwan and many others have banned its use, citing concerns about its effect on human health, limiting U.S. meat exports to key markets.

Although few Americans outside of the livestock industry have ever heard of ractopamine, the feed additive is controversial. Fed to an estimated 60 to 80 percent of pigs in the United States, it has sickened or killed more of them than any other livestock drug on the market, an investigation of Food and Drug Administration records shows. Cattle and turkeys have also suffered high numbers of illnesses from the drug.

Growing concern over sick animals in the nation's food supply sparked a California law banning the?sale and slaughter of?livestock unable to walk, but that law?was struck down by the Supreme Court Monday. Meat producers had sued to overturn California?s ban, arguing that the state could not supercede federal rules on meat production. The court agreed.

The FDA,?which regulates livestock drugs in the United States, deemed ractopamine safe 13 years ago and approved it, setting a level of acceptable residues in meat. Canada and 24 other countries approved the drug as well.

U.S. trade officials are now pressing more countries to accept meat from animals raised on ractopamine -- a move opposed by China and the EU. Resolving the impasse is a top agricultural trade priority for the Obama administration, which is trying to boost exports and help revive the economy, trade officials say.

U.S. exports of beef and pork are on track to hit $5 billion each for the first time, the U.S. Meat Export Federation estimates. Pork exports to China quadrupled from 2005 to 2010 to $463 million but are still only 2-3 percent of the market.

?China is a potentially huge market for us,? said Dave Warner, spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council.

Part of a class of drugs called beta-agonists, ractopamine mimics stress hormones, making the heart beat faster and relaxing blood vessels. Some beta-agonists are used to treat people with asthma or heart failure, but ractopamine has not been proposed for human use.

In animals, ractopamine revs up production of lean meat, reducing fat. Pigs fed the drug in the last weeks of their life produce an average of 10 percent more meat, compared with animals on the same amount of feed that don't receive the drug. That raises profits by $2 per head, according to the drug's manufacturer, Elanco, a division of Eli Lilly. It sells the drug under the brand name Paylean.

Ractopamine leaves animals' bodies quickly, with pig studies showing about 85 percent excreted within a day. But low levels of residues can still be detected in animals more than a week after they've consumed the drug.

While the Department of Agriculture has found traces of ractopamine in American beef and pork, they have not exceeded levels the FDA has determined are safe.

But because countries like China and Taiwan have no safety threshold, traces of the drug have led to rejection of some U.S. meat shipments. The EU requires U.S. exporters to certify their meat is ractopamine-free, and China requires a similar assurance for pork.

Some U.S. food companies also avoid meat produced with the feed additive, including Chipotle restaurants, meat producer Niman Ranch and Whole Foods Markets.

The FDA ruled that ractopamine was safe and approved it for pigs in 1999, for cattle in 2003 and turkeys in 2008. As with many drugs, the approval process relied on safety studies conducted by the drug-maker -- studies that lie at the heart of the current trade dispute.

Elanco mainly tested animals -- mice, rats, monkeys and dogs -- to judge how much ractopamine could be safely consumed. Only one human study was used in the safety assessment by Elanco, and among the six healthy young men who participated, one was removed because his heart began racing and pounding abnormally, according to a detailed evaluation of the study by European food safety officials.

When Elanco studied the drug in pigs for its effectiveness, it reported that "no adverse effects were observed for any treatments." But within a few years of Paylean's approval, the company received hundreds of reports of sickened pigs from farmers and veterinarians, according to records from the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine.

USDA meat inspectors also reported an increase in the number of "downer pigs" -- lame animals unable to walk -- in slaughter plants. As a result of the high number of adverse reactions, the FDA requested Elanco add a warning label to the drug, and it did so in 2002.

The company also received a warning letter from the FDA that year for failing to disclose all data about the safety and effectiveness of the drug.

Since it was introduced, ractopamine had sickened or killed more than 218,000 pigs as of March 2011, more than any other animal drug on the market, a review of FDA veterinary records shows. Pigs suffered from hyperactivity, trembling, broken limbs, inability to walk and death, according to FDA reports released under a Freedom of Information Act request.

"I've personally seen people overuse the drug in hogs and cattle," said Temple Grandin, a professor at Colorado State University and animal welfare expert. "I was in a plant once where they used too much ractopamine and the pigs were so weak they couldn't walk. They had five or six people just dedicated to handling the lame pigs."

But she noted that producers have since scaled back use in response to the rash of illnesses.

"Our company takes adverse event reporting very seriously and is overly inclusive on the information we submit to ensure we're meeting all requirements," Elanco spokeswoman Colleen Par Dekker said. She said the label change in 2002 resulted from an ongoing process of evaluating adverse effects of the drug, adding that an industry trend towards heavier pigs contributed to rising numbers of lame animals in this period.

By 2003, with ractopamine rolling out across the livestock industry, U.S. trade officials began pressing to open world markets for meat produced with the feed additive. Their effort focused on a relatively obscure corner of the trade world -- the U.N.'s Codex Alimentarius Commission, which sets global food-safety standards.

Setting a Codex standard for ractopamine would strengthen Washington's ability to challenge other countries' meat import bans at the World Trade Organization.

The issue has reached the last step in Codex's approval process, but since 2008 the commission has been deadlocked over one central question: What, if any, level of ractopamine is safe in meat?

The EU and China, which together produce and consume about 70 percent of the world?s pork, have blocked the repeated efforts of U.S. trade officials to get a residue limit. European scientists sharply questioned the science backing the drug's safety, and Chinese officials were concerned about higher residues in organ meats, which are consumed in China.

?The main problem for us is that the safety of the product could not be supported with the data,? said Claudia Roncancio-Pe?a, a scientist who led the European food safety panel studying the drug.

U.S. trade officials say China wants to limit competition from U.S. companies, and the EU does not want to risk a public outcry by importing meat raised with growth-promoting drugs, which are illegal there.

The issue also has strained the U.S.-Taiwan trade relationship, since Taiwan -? the sixth-largest market for U.S. beef and pork ?- began testing for ractopamine last year. It found traces in?American beef and pork and pulled meat from store shelves, according to local press reports.

In the U.S., residue tests for ractopamine are limited. In 2010, for example, the U.S. did no tests on 22 billion pounds of pork; 712 samples were taken from 26 billion pounds of beef. Those results have not yet been released.

This article was produced by the Food and Environment Reporting Network, an independent, non-profit news organization providing investigative reporting on food, agriculture and environmental health.

More from the Food & Environment Reporting Network:

Finding drugs in food?

Behind the trade dispute

Milk and water don't mix?

?

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10220221-dispute-over-drug-in-feed-limiting-us-meat-exports

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Landslide hits Papua New Guinea, deaths reported (AP)

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea ? A landslide struck villages in mountainous central Papua New Guinea, and local media reported Wednesday that 40 bodies have been recovered and 20 people are still missing.

The South Pacific island nation's National Disaster Center director Martin Mosi said several villages are close to where the landslide occurred near the town of Mendi early Tuesday and that fatalities are likely but unconfirmed.

Three National Disaster Center officials were headed to Mendi on Wednesday, where they will be flown by helicopter to join police at the disaster site.

"Most likely lives have been lost. We cannot tell how many," Mosi said.

Local lawmaker Francis Potape told Radio Australia's indigenous language service that the landslide completely covered two villages while people slept.

"There are people buried underneath and a number of them are, from what I have heard, children," The National newspaper reported Potape as saying.

The Post Courier newspaper reported that Prime Minister Peter O'Neill would fly to the state later Wednesday.

Local media reports that the destruction extended more than one mile (2 kilometers), leaving roads to villages cut off.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_as/as_papua_new_guinea_landslide

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New Target Discovered for Pain Relief

News | Health

A neuropathic pain expert says, however, that in the past 30 years virtually no new drug targets have made it into the clinic as effective pain-relief drugs

By Katharine Sanderson and Nature magazine ?| January 22, 2012?|

Image: National Cancer Institute

An uncharted trawl through thousands of small molecules involved in the body's metabolism may have uncovered a potential route to treating pain caused by nerve damage.

Neuropathic pain is a widespread and distressing condition, and is notoriously difficult to treat. So Gary Siuzdak, a chemist and molecular biologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., and his team decided to take an unusual route to finding a therapy. Their results are published today in?Nature Chemical Biology.

They took rats with surgically damaged paws, who were consequently suffering from neuropathic pain, and instead of analyzing changes in gene expression and proteins in the animals, focused on metabolites?the biochemical intermediates and end-products of bodily processes such as respiration and the synthesis and breakdown of molecules. The science that looks at the body's metabolite composition is known as metabolomics. Using mass spectrometry, which can detect many different chemicals simultaneously, the researchers were able to identify the metabolites present in these animals 21 days after surgery.

Surprise finding

The team analyzed samples of the injured rats? blood plasma, of tissue near the injured paw, and of tissue from different areas of the spinal column, and compared the metabolites present with that of the same site in healthy rats. One particular area differed markedly between the two cases: the dorsal horn in the spinal column.

"It took me by surprise,? says Siuzdak, who had expected to see most differences in metabolite composition near the site of injury.

The researchers then looked more closely at the metabolites and recognized that the ones that were changing the most were associated with the metabolic pathway that synthesizes and breaks down the phospholipid sphingomyelin, a component of cell membranes, and its ceramide precursors.

?It was a huge flare to us that this was something we should home in on,? says team member Gary Patti, a chemist at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri.

Using cultures of spinal cord cells the researchers then tried to work out which of the altered metabolites might be responsible for pain. One molecule,?the previously unidentified metabolite?N,N-dimethylsphingosine (DMS), stood out for the amount of pain signallng it triggered in the cells.

Untargeted screening

To test experimentally whether this molecule was involved in neuropathic pain, the team then injected small amounts of DMS into healthy rats, and sure enough, those rats showed signs of pain.

The team hopes that DMS might prove to be important in the biochemistry of pain, and perhaps offer a target for drug manufacturers. But neuropathic pain expert Andrew Rice at Imperial College London says that in the past 30 years he has seen many targets identified, but virtually none of them has made it into the clinic as an effective pain-relief drug.

Rice lauds the attention shown to neuropathic pain but is concerned that the current animal model for pain is limited: it only corresponds to pain resulting from trauma, and not to the many other sources of neuropathic pain, which include diabetes, HIV infection and stroke. ?I?d like to see if this is more than a peripheral nerve damage model,? he says.

Siuzdak says his untargeted screening technique could prove useful in identifying drug targets for many other conditions. The more conventional way of using metabolomics is with targeted searches, where the molecule of interest is identified first, before seeing where it might be present. ?[Our approach] is more challenging than targeted analyses,? he says. ?You have to be open to any possibility of what pathways are affected.?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=729f452618f12f216eee34a1eb594370

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Contest winners: Movies HD, Frequencies for iPhone, Run Roo Run, New Year Diet Month, and System Monitor!

If there’s one thing iMore loves even more than iPhones and iPads, it’s giving cool iPhone and iPad accessories and apps to our awesome readers. This week we have… Case-Mate

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'Underworld' sinks teeth into box office with $25M (omg!)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Kate Beckinsale is back with a vengeance, with her latest "Underworld" movie opening at No. 1 this weekend.

"Underworld Awakening" made an estimated $25.4, distributor Sony Screen Gems reported Sunday.

This is the fourth film in the vampire action saga. Beckinsale starred in the first two movies as the warrior Selene, then bowed out of part three but returned for this latest installment. "Underworld Awakening" was shown for the first time in 3-D as well as on IMAX screens, where it made $3.8 million. That's 15 percent of the film's weekend gross, which is a record for an IMAX digital-only run.

Sony had hoped the film would end up in the low-$20 million range. But Rory Bruer, the studio's president of worldwide distribution, says the fact that it did even better ? despite a snow storm that hit much of the Midwest and East Coast ? primarily has to do with Beckinsale's return.

"She is such a force. Her character ? you just can't take your eyes off of her. I know the character is very dear to her, as well, and she just kills it," Bruer said. "The 3-D aspect of the film also brings something, makes it a fun, visceral ride."

Opening in second place was "Red Tails" from executive producer George Lucas, about the Tuskegee Airmen who were the first black fighter pilots to serve in World War II. It made an estimated $19.1 million, according to 20th Century Fox, which was well above expectations; the studio had hoped to reach double digits, said Chris Aronson, executive vice president of domestic distribution.

"I believe what George Lucas has stated all along: This is an important story and a story that must be told. It is a true story of American heroism and valor and audiences have really responded to this message," Aronson said. "People want to feel good about themselves, they want to be uplifted. We have enough hard crud going on in this country right now. Times are tough, and if we look back and are told a story of some really fantastic deeds, that's really compelling moviegoing."

Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian said a grassroots effort to get groups of people into the theaters to see "Red Tails," along with positive word-of-mouth, helped its strong showing. The film saw an uptick from about $6 million on Friday to $8.65 million on Saturday.

Overall box office is up 31 percent from the same weekend a year ago, Dergarabedian said, thanks to new releases as well as movies like "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," which had limited runs for awards consideration at the end of 2011 and are now expanding nationwide. The Sept. 11 drama from Warner Bros., starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, came in fourth place with $10.5 million.

Last week's No. 1 film, the Universal smuggling thriller "Contraband" starring Mark Wahlberg, dropped to the No. 3 spot with $12.2 million. It's now made $46.1 million in two weeks. Meanwhile, Steven Soderbergh's international action picture "Haywire" from Relativity Media, starring mixed martial arts superstar Gina Carano in her first film role, opened in fifth place with $9 million, which was above expectations.

"This is a great, perfect January weekend. You've got these holdover films and newcomers creating an overall marketplace that people are really responding to," Dergarabedian said. "It sounds cliche but this marketplace really has something for everyone."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. "Underworld Awakening," $25.4 million.

2. "Red Tails," $19.1 million.

3. "Contraband," $12.2 million.

4. "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," $10.5 million.

5. "Haywire," $9 million.

6. "Beauty and the Beast (3-D)," $8.6 million.

7. "Joyful Noise," $6.1 million.

8. "Mission: Impossible ? Ghost Protocol," $5.5 million.

9. "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," $4.8 million.

10. "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," $3.75 million ($15.7 international).

___

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

___

AP Movie Writer Christy Lemire can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/christylemire/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_underworld_sinks_teeth_box_office25m_165642869/44264366/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/underworld-sinks-teeth-box-office-25m-165642869.html

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Patriots favored by Vegas books to win Super Bowl

By OSKAR GARCIA

updated 10:49 p.m. ET Jan. 22, 2012

LAS VEGAS - Las Vegas casinos say the New England Patriots are favorites to win the Super Bowl thanks to their national following, a decade of winning and the playoff success of quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick.

Race and Sports Director Mike Colbert says the Patriots opened as three-point favorites over New York in odds posted Sunday night after the Giants beat San Francisco 20-17 in overtime in the NFC championship game.

New England beat the Baltimore Ravens 23-20 for the AFC title.

Executive Race and Sports Director Jay Kornegay of the Las Vegas Hotel & Casino says an injury to Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski is a factor that could swing the line up to one point.

Colbert says the 2008 Super Bowl rematch could break wagering records. The Patriots were 12-point favorites four years ago, but the Giants earned a 17-14 win.

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

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Crucial changes in Super rematch

Rosenthal: Tom Coughlin has gone from the hot seat to the Super Bowl. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have a chance to make history. This all seems familiar, doesn?t it?

Patriots-Giants again, 4 years later

??Talk about a super sequel. Four years after New York stunned previously undefeated New England in the Arizona desert, the Patriots and Giants are going at it again at the Super Bowl ? this time in Indianapolis.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46095595/ns/sports-nfl/

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Deal of the Day ? Samsung UN55D6400 55? 3D 1080p LED HDTV Bundled with Samsung BD-D5500 3D Blu-ray Disc Player and Samsung SSG-3050GB Active 3D Battery Glasses

Today’s LogicBUY deal is a Samsung UN55D6400 55-inch 3D-Ready 1080p LED-LCD HDTV, Samsung BD-D5500 3D Blu-ray Disc Player, and Samsung SSG-3050GB Active 3D Battery Glasses bundle for $1499.99.? TV features:? 1080p, 1920 x 1080, Auto Motion Plus 120Hz, 4 HDMI, USB, PC input, more. $2459.96 – $660 off instantly – $300 coupon code = $1499.99 [...]

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GOP leaders slow to embrace Romney ? or his rivals (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Mitt Romney may be the front-runner for the GOP nomination for president, but he has yet to win over most of the national party leaders whose help he will need to defeat President Barack Obama in November.

The upside for Romney: They aren't supporting anyone else either.

The Associated Press has polled 87 members of the Republican National Committee who are to attend the party's national convention this summer as free agent delegates, able to support any candidate for president they choose, regardless of what happens in the primaries.

The results: Romney got support from 14, far more than anyone else but hardly a stampede of endorsements. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry got two each, while Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum each got one. The poll was completed before Perry dropped out of the race Thursday.

Sixty-seven of the RNC members contacted by the AP said they were undecided or simply waiting to see how the race plays out before making a public endorsement.

"If I thought there was someone who stood head and shoulders above everyone else, I would have endorsed," said Jeff Johnson, an RNC member and county commissioner from Minnesota. "I see pluses in all of them, but I decided not to come out in favor of anybody."

Pennsylvania GOP Chairman Robert Gleason said he saw no reason to endorse anyone because a competitive primary is good for the party and the eventual nominee by vetting the candidate while generating publicity and excitement about the race.

"It's working out great for us, and one of these people that is competing with (Romney) could end up being vice president," Gleason said. "I'm pleased with the way things are developing. We're getting all the publicity. It's been pretty favorable for us."

Romney appeared to finish slightly ahead of Santorum in the hours after the Iowa caucuses Jan. 3. However, the Iowa GOP certified vote totals Thursday showing Santorum ahead of Romney. The party decided not to declare a winner because of problems with a few precinct reports.

Romney won handily in New Hampshire last week, and he leads his Republican rivals in the polls nationally and in South Carolina, which votes Saturday. Still, the former Massachusetts governor has been unable to solidify support from many Republicans, some of whom question his conservative credentials.

Stephen Scheffler, an RNC member from Iowa, said he would support Romney if he were the nominee, but he's not excited about the prospect, despite Romney's finish in Iowa.

"He doesn't want to talk to certain segments of the Republican Party," Scheffler said of Romney. "If he's the nominee and they open all these victory offices across Iowa, it's going to be pretty challenging to find volunteers."

Each state plus the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories gets three members on the Republican National Committee. All of them are automatically invited to attend the party's national convention in Tampa, Fla., in August, with a few exceptions. The RNC members from New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, Michigan and Arizona have been excluded ? for now ? as part of the penalties they received for holding primaries earlier than party rules allowed.

In many states, RNC members must support the winner of primaries or caucuses in their states. The AP identified 37 states and territories in which the RNC members will be free to support any candidate they choose.

AP reporters started contacting the 111 RNC delegates from these states after Romney won the New Hampshire primary. They were able to reach nearly 80 percent of them.

The RNC delegates make up less than 5 percent of the 2,286 delegates slated to attend the GOP convention, giving them little power to determine the nominee. But these party leaders will be expected to provide manpower, money, local connections and expertise this fall, when the GOP nominee will rely on the party faithful to help defeat Obama.

It will take 1,144 delegates to win the GOP nomination. Romney now has 33 delegates, including those won in primaries and caucuses as well as endorsements from RNC members. Santorum is next with 13.

Joseph Trillo, a state lawmaker and RNC member from Rhode Island, said his support for Romney comes down to political pragmatism.

"He's the only one who I know can beat Obama," Trillo said.

Herbert Schoenbohm, the GOP chairman in the Virgin Islands, said that beating Obama is important, but his support for Romney goes much deeper.

"I'm for (Romney) because he has the best leadership skills," Schoenbohm said in a phone interview. "He made it work in Massachusetts, and that was hard to do in a Democratic state."

Lawrence Kadish, an RNC member from Long Island, N.Y., challenged that assessment, saying Gingrich "towers head and shoulders over those other candidates. I don't view Mr. Romney as having a deep rudder, but he's OK."

___

Lauren Johnert, Associated Press deputy manager for election research and quality control, contributed to this report, along with AP writers Pat Condon in St. Paul, Minn., Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa., Mike Glover in Des Moines, Iowa, David Klepper in Providence, R.I., and George M. Walsh in Albany, N.Y.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_superdelegates

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Whited00r lets you install iOS 5 look-alike on old-gen iPhones and iPod Touches

If you're still rockin' an ancient iPhone or iPod Touch and are fed up with friends teasing you at every chance with their new-style multitasking and reminder features, we've got some good news for you. A new software, dubbed Whited00r, will let you install portions of iOS 5 on the first two generations of the iPod Touch, iPhone 3G and even your O.G. iPhone. Whited00r accomplishes this by simply acting as a custom firmware -- à la CyanogenMod 9 on Android handsets. There are, however, a few traits that devs haven't been able to mimic, which include core services like the App Store (though, you can install apps via iTunes on your home machine), Notification Center and iCloud. So, for those of you clinging to your outdated hardware while you wait for the "next big thing," you can at least freshen up its features (at your own risk) with a coat of whitewash at the source below.

Whited00r lets you install iOS 5 look-alike on old-gen iPhones and iPod Touches originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/20/whited00r-installs-ios-5-on-old-iphones-and-ipod-touches/

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After Laying Off 60 People, RueLaLa Raises $22 Million

Members-only shopping site RueLaLa, a former subsidiary of GSI Commerce (before the eBay acquisition) just cut roughly 60 positions from its workforce of 550 employees, but an SEC filing published yesterday afternoon reveals that the flash sales company also recently completed a $22 million financing round.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/tVQhJmtEL0M/

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Washington St. women lose to No. 4 Stanford 75-41 (AP)

STANFORD, Calif. ? For nearly 18 minutes, Washington State coach June Daugherty saw just about everything she wanted to from her team.

The Cougars took everything No. 4 Stanford threw at them and even built an early lead against the Cardinal before it all fell apart in the second half. That's when Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer switched defenses and Washington State failed to adjust, losing 75-41 on Thursday night.

"I thought we really were on point as far as running our game plan (early)," Daugherty said. "We mixed up the defenses quite a bit and then offensively ... when we didn't have good shots, we spaced the floor, moved to cut a lot better and tried to force Stanford to play into the shot clock a little bit."

It's the second time in their last five games that the Cougars (9-9, 3-3 Pac-12) have gotten off to a quick start, only to see it go to waste in the second half.

Washington State didn't have a player in double figures, shot just 27.7 percent for the game and remained winless in 53 meetings against Stanford.

"I just thought they came out and were really aggressive," VanDerveer said of the Cougars. "I don't think the score indicates how well they played. I just think they got a little discouraged and we turned it up in the second half."

Shalie Dheenshaw had seven points to lead Washington State, which has lost three straight under Daugherty, a former Stanford assistant June Daugherty, since opening the Pac-12 schedule with three consecutive wins.

Nnemkadi Ogwumike had 22 points and 10 rebounds, Chiney Ogwumike added 19 points and 12 rebounds while Joslyn Tinkle had nine points, eight rebounds and four assists as the Cardinal extended their school-record home winning streak to 72 games.

Stanford (16-1, 7-0 Pac-12) looked ragged in the early going before Nneka Ogwumike provided a spark, scoring 12 points in the first nine minutes of the second half. She then sat out the rest of the game, finishing 9 for 19 from the floor and moving into sixth place on the Cardinal's career scoring list.

The Pac-12's top-shooting team going in, Stanford was out of sorts offensively for the first 14 minutes of the game. The Cardinal missed 18 of their first 24 shots, committed careless turnovers and trailed 16-13 before Ogwumike's steal and layup triggered a 16-2 run capped by Bonnie Samuelson's 3-pointer.

Ogwumike moved past Jeanne Ruark Hoff on Stanford's charts and now has 2,055 career points. She needs eight more to slip past Nicole Powell into fifth place and only 23 to move past Val Whiting.

The Cardinal got off to a slow start against the Cougars 3-2 zone before Nneka and younger sister Chiney got them going, both scoring and working the boards. The duo combined to match Washington State's scoring total and was especially tough inside.

Chiney, the conference player of the week, had eight points coming out of halftime and got an assist on a short pass in the key to Nneka during a 24-6 blitz by Stanford that put the game out of reach.

That helped overcome a rough night from Stanford's perimeter shooting. The Cardinal were only 4 of 20 on 3s.

Stanford also got a boost from its own defense, which held the Cougars to 27.3 percent shooting. VanDerveer, who has juggled her lineup in recent weeks, had the Cardinal move to a high 2-3 zone which gave Washington State fits.

"That's when we struggled the most," Daugherty said. "We missed some very easy layups and they stayed in it. Of course you'd stay in it when teams are missing easy layups."

As rough a start as Stanford had shooting in the first half, it was the defense that kept it from being much of an issue.

The Cardinal forced 11 turnovers and had six steals before halftime, two from Tinkle who broke up a pass in the key and fed Toni Kokenis with a long pass and easy layup just before the buzzer to give Stanford a 31-20 lead.

Washington State, which shot 30 percent in the first half, never recovered and extended its winless streak against Stanford.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_sp_co_ga_su/bkw_t25_washington_state

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