Euro zone confidence improves, highlights divergence (Reuters)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? Confidence in the euro zone's economy strengthened in January for the first time since early 2011, EU data showed on Monday, but a recovery in Germany masked a deterioration in France and Italy, highlighting the bloc's diverging fortunes.

Germany has shown more resilience to the euro zone's troubles than many of its neighbors, helped by fiscal prudence, a competitive edge and good demand for its high quality goods.

France and Italy have struggled to keep up, facing questions about the sustainability of their own finances as Greece tries to agree a debt restructuring and Portugal comes under fresh scrutiny in financial markets.

The divergence complicates the task of EU leaders who are meeting in Brussels on Monday to try and sketch a path out of the economic slump.

The European Commission's economic sentiment indicator rose by 0.6 points in the euro zone to 93.4, the first improvement in sentiment since March last year as some confidence returned to services, consumers and construction.

"We're seeing a slight stabilization and we expect the recession the euro zone will end in the spring," said Christoph Weil, an economist at Commerzbank.

"But we can also see that the divergence in the euro zone is increasing and that is of great concern," he said.

The European Central Bank's decision in December to provide 3-year loans to banks averted a credit freeze, while the U.S. economy expanded strongly in the last quarter of 2011 and China has remained robust, maintaining demand for Europe's goods.

But budget austerity and political divisions over how to solve the two-year debt crisis continue to depress business in the euro zone and the wider European Union, with non-euro zone country Britain heading for a recession in early 2011.

The rising optimism is still tempered by EU leaders' inability to resolve the euro zone debt crisis and the sentiment indicator was slightly lower than forecast by economists polled by Reuters.

Following last week's surprisingly positive purchasing managers' indices, or PMIs, business climate rose for the second month in a row to -0.21, in line with economists' expectations.

But factory managers saw a deterioration in the view of their order books and although this was offset by a positive assessment of stocks, it confirmed the mixed economic picture.

Industrial confidence remained at the lowest level since April 2010 while confidence in services rebounded by 2 points in the euro zone and construction was up 0.6 points.

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For a graphic on the data: http://link.reuters.com/bas36s

For full multimedia coverage: http://r.reuters.com/xyt94s

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GERMAN RENEWAL, GREEK PAIN

The European Commission forecasts 2012 economic growth of just 0.5 percent for the 17 nations in the euro zone, which generates 16 percent of global economic output.

The International Monetary Fund is more pessimistic, forecasting a 0.5 percent contraction in 2012 that it says could drag the world into recession.

EU leaders face a tough task at Monday's summit as they try and bridge the divergence in economic performance among the 27-nation bloc's economies and reconcile austerity with growth.

Recent data suggests Germany will avoid a recession, while non-euro zone member Britain, as well as euro states Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal, are likely to see their economies contract in 2012. Belgium and the Netherlands, also members of the single currency, will struggle to grow at all.

The Commission's data also supported that view, as economic sentiment improved in Germany by 2.3 points, the second consecutive monthly rise, but fell in France, Italy and the Netherlands.

While large economies such as France and the Netherlands will likely benefit from Germany's recovery, Italy and Greece must confront falling productivity and high debts to avoid years of stagnation.

"Weakened domestic economic activity, intensified fiscal tightening in many countries and still serious uncertainties and concerns over the euro zone sovereign debt crisis continue to limit an improvement in sentiment," said Howard Archer, chief European economist at IHS Global Insight.

(Reporting By Robin Emmott; editing by Rex Merrifield/Anna Willard)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/bs_nm/us_eurozone_sentiment

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Afghan woman slain for giving birth to daughter

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan?? An Afghan man killed his wife for giving birth to a third daughter rather than the son he'd hoped for, police said Monday.

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The 28-year-old victim, who was known by the one name of Storai, was strangled by her husband ? a local militia member ? and his mother on Saturday, authorities said.

Storai had given birth to the couple's third daughter three months ago in Mohasili village in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province.

Police said they arrested the victim's mother-in-law in connection with her death, but Storai's husband was still at large, likely sheltered by heavily-armed militia colleagues.

"The existence of militiamen is a huge problem and therefore we face difficulty in arresting him," Kunduz police chief Sufi Habib said.

Nadera Geya, head of the Kunduz women's affairs department, called the killing one of the worst examples of violence against women she had encountered.

Acid attack
Violence against women is common in Afghanistan. In late November in the same province, an Afghan family that refused to give their daughter in marriage to a man they considered irresponsible was attacked at home by assailants who poured acid over both parents and three children.

Police later arrested the rejected suitor and his three brothers for the attack.

With foreign combat troops set to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, and moves ongoing to kickstart a peace process involving the ultra-conservative Taliban, rights watchdogs inside and outside Afghanistan fear women's rights may be sacrificed.

NBC News reported that President Hamid Karzai announced over the weekend that he will hold a conference in February focused on eliminating violence against women.

"The rights of women cannot be relegated to the margins of international affairs, as this issue is at the core of our national security and the security of people everywhere," the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said in a statement released on Monday.

Reuters, NBC News' Atia Abawi and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46187660/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

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Drug Addiction May Make Users More Vulnerable to Stress

Head Lines | Mind & Brain See Inside

ECK: Depression and substance abuse modify the same brain circuitt

By Andrea Anderson ?| January 30, 2012

Image: Malcolm Case-Green Alamy

Mood disorders such as depression are known to increase drug abuse risk. Yet mounting evidence suggests that substance abuse also makes people more vulnerable to depression and the negative effects of stress, according to Eric J. Nestler, chair of neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He and his team reported new details about the link between depression and drug abuse in Neuron in August.

The team found that mice given cocaine daily for a week?a simulation of chronic drug abuse in humans?were more likely than their drug-free counter?parts to display behaviors reminiscent of depression after being subjected to socially stressful situations involving an aggressive and intimidating mouse. The drug-treated mice became lethar?gic and reluctant to interact with other mice following a shorter-than-usual bout of this ?social defeat? stress, which is commonly used to study depression in mice.

Most striking, the researchers found that the cocaine use led to the same molecular changes in the nucleus accumbens, a reward region, as are found in mice prone to stress and depression. The mice had lower levels of a molecule that polices the activity of certain genes and keeps at least one signaling circuit in check.

When the researchers artificially dialed down or up the levels of this regulatory molecule in the nucleus accumbens, they were able to produce or protect against depression in mice. This effect suggests that shifts in that brain region can cause?and are not just a side effect of?depression.

Testing for such changes in the human brain is trickier, of course.The team did find low levels of some of the same gene-regulating com?ponents in postmortem tissue sam?ples from the nucleus accumbens of people diagnosed with depression, hinting that humans with the disorder might experience altered signaling in this brain region, too.

If so, the findings may provide clues about why cases of drug abuse and depression sometimes spiral out of control, given that drug-induced de?pression is believed to ratchet up the chances of subsequent abuse in the same way that naturally occurring depression can.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=708027251e95280f8505d89698f5f74f

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Apple?s Off-The-Charts iPhone And iPad Sales

Sometimes you have to see things to truly appreciate their magnitude. Apple's latest quarter was so massive that MG had to write two posts about it: $46 billion in revenues, 37 million iPhones sold, 15 million iPads. The chart above, which comes from Asymco (see a fully interactive version here), shows how unusual this quarter was for Apple.

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

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Former Boston Mayor Kevin White dies at 82 (reuters)

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APNewsBreak: UN weapons experts going to Tehran (AP)

VIENNA ? The U.N. nuclear agency is including two senior weapons experts on its next mission to Tehran in an unusually clear statement on the team's prime focus ? wresting information from Iranian officials about suspicions the country has secretly worked on atomic arms.

Iran has flatly refused to discuss such allegations for more than three years, saying they were based on phony intelligence from the U.S. and others seeking to harm the Islamic Republic.

But diplomats on Friday told The Associated Press that the weapons experts were part of the U.N team and that Iran had accepted their inclusion after some initial resistance. That suggested that the Islamic Republic was being more conciliatory on the issue of secret weapons work than usual as the International Atomic Energy Agency mission prepares to fly from Vienna to Tehran Saturday.

All six diplomats interviewed said Tehran had not committed to discussing the issue. But three of them added that Iranian officials indicated openness to talking about all topics during the IAEA mission that ends early next week ? a departure from standard reluctance by Tehran to exclude give-and-take on the arms allegations.

None of the diplomats expressed confidence of a breakthrough. But the Iranian stance at least allows the mission to have some home of making a dent into Iran's wall of silence about its alleged clandestine nuclear weapons work.

Any progress on the issue would be significant.

Tehran has blocked IAEA attempts for more than three years to follow up on U.S. and other intelligence alleging covert Iranian work on nuclear arms, dismissing the charges as baseless and insisting all its nuclear activities were peaceful and under IAEA purview.

Faced with Iranian stonewalling, the IAEA summarized its body of information in November, in a 13-page document drawing on 1,000 pages of intelligence. It stated then for the first time that some of the alleged experiments can have no other purpose than developing nuclear weapons.

Iran continues to deny the charges and no change in its position is expected during the Tehran talks with IAEA officials. But even a decision to enter a discussion over the allegations would be a major departure from outright refusal to talk about them.

The diplomats said that the IAEA team was looking for permission to talk to key Iranian scientists suspected of weapons work, inspect documents relating to such suspected work and get commitments for future visits to sites linked to such allegations.

As most often the case, the IAEA team is headed by Herman Nackaerts, the chief agency official in charge of the Iran file ? but the makeup of the rest of the team reflects the importance attached by the agency to the trip.

Two diplomats said Friday that nuclear weapons experts Jack Baute of France and Neville Whiting of Britain would accompany Nackaerts.

While both fulfill IAEA functions not directly related to nuclear arms research, they were connected to their nation's weapons programs before they came to the agency.

One of the diplomats ? who is familiar with the thinking that went into setting up the mission ? said their inclusion was meant to send a clear signal to the Iranians. He, like the five other diplomats, asked for anonymity in exchange for discussing privileged information,

Also on the team is Rafael Grossi, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano's right hand ? another indication of the importance the agency has attached to the trip.

The three-day visit comes as anxiety grows daily about Iran's nuclear capacities ? and what it plans to do with them.

Since the discovery in 2002 that Iran was secretly working on uranium enrichment, the nation has expanded that operation to the point where it has thousands of centrifuges churning out enriched material ? the potential source of both nuclear fuel and fissile warhead material.

Iran says it is enriching only to generate energy. But it has also started producing uranium at a higher level than its main stockpile ? a move that would jump start the creation of highly enriched, weapons grade uranium, should it chose to go that route. And it is moving its higher-enriched operation into an underground bunker that it says is safe from attack.

Israel in particular is concerned by Iran's expanding enrichment capacities ? and increasing evidence of secret nuclear weapons work.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Friday the world must quickly stop Iran from reaching the point where even a "surgical" military strike could not block it from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Amid fears that Israel is nearing a decision to attack Iran's nuclear program, Barak said tougher international sanctions are needed against Tehran's oil and banks so that "we all will know early enough whether the Iranians are ready to give up their nuclear weapons program."

The United Nations has imposed four rounds of sanctions against Iran, but veto-wielding Russia and China say they see no need for additional punitive measures. That has left the U.S. and the European Union to try to pressure other countries to follow their lead and impose even tougher sanctions.

"We are determined to prevent Iran from turning nuclear," Barak told reporters during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

"It seems to us to be urgent, because the Iranians are deliberately drifting into what we call an immunity zone where practically no surgical operation could block them," he said, alluding to increased Iranian efforts to move their enrichment work deep underground.

Separately at Davos, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon urged a resumption of dialogue between Western powers and Iran on the nuclear issue. He said Friday that Tehran must comply with Security Council resolutions and prove conclusively that its nuclear program is not directed at making arms.

__

George Jahn can be reached at http://twitter.com/georgejahn

___

John Heilprin contributed to this report from Davos.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_eu/iran_nuclear

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Carnival Corp's Arison at courtside for Heat game (Reuters)

MIAMI (Reuters) ? Carnival Corp Chairman and Chief Executive Micky Arison on Friday made what was believed to be his first public appearance since an ocean liner belonging to one of his Miami-based company's subsidiaries ran aground and capsized off the coast of Italy two weeks ago.

The 62-year-old billionaire sat courtside at the American Airlines Arena on Miami's waterfront to watch an NBA basketball game between the New York Knicks and the star-studded Miami Heat team, which he owns along with roughly half of the global cruise line industry.

Arison has been heavily criticized in media reports for failing to put in an appearance at the site of the accident, as bodies were still being pulled from the wrecked ship operated by Carnival unit Costa Cruises.

But the "invisible" CEO, as he was dubbed in one report, looked cheerful at times and very calm, as he watched the Heat beat the Knicks from his courtside perch behind a broadcast table.

Clad in a sport coat and open-necked shirt, Arison appeared to exchange few words with anyone and left the arena immediately after the game ended.

At least 16 bodies have been recovered since the massive Costa Concordia cruise liner, with more than 4,200 passengers and crew aboard, capsized after a gaping hole was torn into its hull.

The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest and has been widely blamed for the accident for steering too close to the Tuscan island's shore.

Arison has expressed his condolences in statements issued since the Costa Concordia wreck and given personal assurances that all victims of the tragedy would be taken care of.

(Reporting By Bob Sullivan; writing by Tom Brown; Editing by Eric Beech)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/media_nm/us_ship_italy_arison

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The big lessons from celebrity estate wars (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Philanthropist Brooke Astor. The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia. There are a few celebrities who, in death, at least in certain circles, have become as known for the litigation over their estates as for how they lived their lives. While the dollars are mind-boggling in these cases, anyone thinking about wealth transfer faces the same issues: dysfunctional families, potentially unequal positions in the family business, perhaps multiple marriages with kids from each.

We spoke with Russell Fishkind, an estate attorney and a partner in the East Coast law firm of Saul Ewing and author of "Probate Wars of the Rich and Famous: An Insider's Guide to Estate Planning and Probate Litigation," about what regular folks can learn from these high-profile estate battles.

Q: What's the most common scenario you see?

A: Hands down, most common was a second marriage, or third marriage, with children from multiple marriages. If the estate plan does not adequately provide for Spouse No. 2 and for the children from the first marriage in a way that tries to achieve equality, you're basically buying a litigation case. The two most notable celebrities were Anna Nicole Smith, who at 26 married an 89-year-old billionaire, and Jerry Garcia, who had numerous children with different women, and then, just before he died, married Wife No. 3. The first turned into the longest estate litigation case we've seen in 100 years. The second led to litigation over custom guitars, Cherry Garcia ice cream and Jerry Garcia ties.

Q: What's happens if the family is in business together?

A: A huge amount of our wealth is from family business owners, and often mom or dad runs the business, and one or two children are in it, and one or two children are not. If I'm a dentist in California, should I not get a share of the business? Or what if the son in the business gets gifted the business? There are a lot of emotional ticking time bombs in family businesses that create litigation. The most shining example of that would be the Koch brothers, who had the largest family-owned business in the United States, and feuded for decades.

Q: In the case of Brooke Astor, there was fraud. Does that happen much?

A: I see a lot of these cases. When mom is alone and weak, and one child starts caring for her, somewhere along the line they start thinking they are entitled to more than their fair share. So the person will go to UBS or Morgan Stanley, and say, 'Mom wants to change title from her to me because I'll be dealing with this day-to-day, and I'm paying for her care, and she wants me to watch her portfolio.' Invariably, what gets left out of the conversation is that because these are now jointly-titled assets, they will pass to that child, and that is also the intent of the antagonist. The titling of accounts trumps the terms of the will.

Q: So you could have a very good will, and it will end up being meaningless?

A: Correct. I can give you an example where there's no glitz and no glamour. I handled a case involving a guy who never had any money, but was an inventor, and when he was 76, his invention hit, the company went public, and he was worth $50 million. The wife had the account retitled for his name and her name. When he died, the kids thought they were going to get the motherlode, but everything went to the wife.

Q: Is litigation over estates going up?

A: There's not a doubt in my mind that it is. I've asked surrogate judges informally in chambers, and they all say the same thing. The incidence of probate litigation is on the rise, and the fact patterns are consistent.

Q: What would you do to avoid these situations?

A: If there's a second spouse, make sure to give that spouse what was bargained for in the (prenuptial agreement). Where there is a likelihood of dissension, appoint an independent fiduciary or trustee. And for the family business, you really want to document your intentions so that if you are giving an interest to one child, and not to the other three, there is no mystery. If you are appointing one child to be CEO, write it down and explain it to everyone. Don't leave it to chance, or to petitions filed in court.

Q: The cases you point to entail significant amounts of money. What about for folks with smaller estates, who won't be affected by any estate-tax issues, and so might not have planned as carefully?

A: This is not just about the money. It's about who's living in the house? Where's mom's engagement ring? Where are her photo albums? This is not just something for millionaires. It is day-in and day-out, Main Street-type stuff. It's not unusual nowadays for a grown child to be living with mom and dad. If the second spouse dies, and the kid's still living in the house, the other siblings may battle because the house is worth $300,000. It's not so much about the money, but that the situation is bad. It would be better to have a will that says, the house is valued at $300,000, and the son who is living in it gets it, but he has to take out a mortgage and give the other siblings $150,000. You need to address it. These issues are not unique to people having money. They are common issues.

(Editing by Beth Pinsker Gladstone and Jan Paschal)

(The author is a Reuters contributor. The opinions expressed are her own.)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/en_nm/us_taxes_estatewars

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University of Maryland women?s soccer coach departs for Tennessee

The University of Maryland on Thursday lost successful women?s soccer coach Brian Pensky to Tennessee, a program with big ambitions and, apparently, more money to offer.

After turning down an overture about two weeks ago, Pensky accepted the Volunteers? second proposal Wednesday.

?I wasn?t ready to leave Maryland after working so hard to create what we did,? he told the Insider. ?Tennessee called again a few days ago, and at the same time, I was wondering: ?What if??

?I love these kids, I love the program, and in many ways, it?s very sad to go, but the opportunity was too good to pass up.?

Maryland didn?t match Tennessee?s second offer, said Pensky, who had three years remaining on his contract. He declined to discuss details of his Maryland and Tennessee agreements.

More.....

A source unaffiliated with Maryland said Pensky was offered a contract extension at the same salary.

The Maryland athletic department is saddled with a multimillion-dollar deficit and, in November, recommended cutting eight varsity programs. Women?s soccer was never in danger, but its operating budget, according to soccer industry sources, is less than half of Tennessee?s. (Tennessee, however, doesn?t offer men?s soccer.)

The Tenneesee women?s team plays in a facility of its own, 3,000-seat Regal Stadium, which was built five years ago. Knoxville-based Regal Entertainment Group financed most of the project, according to the university?s Web site.

At Maryland, the men?s and women?s teams have shared Ludwig Field with lacrosse and track and field. Trailers serve as game-day locker rooms.

The ACC is the top-rated women?s soccer league; the SEC is third.

As of late Thursday night, Maryland hadn?t announced Pensky?s departure. Tennessee issued a news release in the afternoon.

Pensky worked at Maryland for 10 years ? three as a men?s assistant and seven in charge of the women?s program. After four losing seasons, the Terrapins posted a 44-14-9 record the past three years and advanced to the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament twice. Soccer America named him the national coach of the year in 2010.

Prior to Maryland, Pensky was the boys? coach at Bullis School in Potomac and an assistant at George Washington University (women) and Loyola in Baltimore (men).

Tennessee was 15-7-0 last season and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Pensky?s predecessor, Angela Kelly, was 160-84-20 with nine NCAA berths in 12 years. She left Knoxville to become the Texas coach.

Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=2e2fa6807788447b954603e4e9d01e56

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Sony Xperia S boasts 'dirt-repellent' coating and 'fast charging'

As launch day approaches, more technical details of Sony's new Xperia S are starting to trickle out. We learned all the key specifications at CES (where we also got some hands-on time with the device), but now two interesting new features of the Sony flagship phone have come to light, according to Swiss tech site PocketPC.ch.

Firstly, the site reports that a Sony Ericsson product manager told them the Xperia S has a "dirt-repellent", "UV-active nano-coating". We're not even going to pretend to know what that means, but if it protects the device from scrapes and daily wear-and-tear, we're all in favor. For what it's worth, the presence of an "anti-stain shell" has already been confirmed on the official Sony Ericsson Facebook page.

The product manager also reportedly spilled a few details on the new battery tech employed by the Xperia S. The phone is said to use improved lithium-polymer technology that's capable of recharging in half the time taken by earlier models, with ten minutes of charging time apparently being enough to power the device for a whole hour.

The Xperia S is due to launch in Europe from the second week of March. Its American counterpart, the AT&T Xperia Ion, will land stateside during the second quarter.

Source: PocketPC.ch; via: XperiaBlog

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/WGhw299ss3g/story01.htm

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Tiny crooners: Male house mice sing songs to impress the girls

Thursday, January 26, 2012

It has been known for some time that house mice (Mus musculus) produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during courtship but it has generally been assumed that these are no more than squeaks. However, recent spectrographic analyses have revealed that USVs are complex and show features of song. Although the vocalizations are inaudible to human ears, when playbacks of recorded songs are slowed down their similarity to bird song becomes striking. Frauke Hoffmann, Kerstin Musolf and Dustin Penn of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna's Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology aimed to learn what type of information is contained in males' songs for the discerning ear of the female mouse to detect. Their initial studies, the first to study song in wild mice, confirmed that males emit songs when they encounter a females' scent and that females are attracted to males' songs. Additionally, the scientists discovered that females are able to distinguish siblings from unrelated males by their songs ? even though they had previously never heard their brothers sing.

In their recent studies, Penn's group recorded and analysed the courtship calls of wild-caught male house mice for the first time, using digital audio software to examine parameters such as duration, pitch and frequency. They found that males' songs contain "signatures" or "fingerprints" that differ from one individual to another. Moreover, they confirmed that the songs of siblings are very similar to one another compared to the songs of unrelated males, which helps explains how females can distinguish unrelated males. This finding could potentially lead us to understand how female mice avoid inbreeding.

Interestingly, in some species of birds the males with the most complex songs appear to be most successful at attracting females. Further studies are needed to determine whether the complexity of male mouse vocalizations has an effect on females that is similar to that of "sexy syllables" in birds.

The vocalizations of wild house mice differ significantly from those of inbred strains of laboratory mice. Wild male mice produce more syllables within high frequency ranges than laboratory mice, a result that is consistent with other studies that find genetic effects on mouse song. "It seems as though house mice might provide a new model organism for the study of song in animals," says Dustin Penn. "Who would have thought that?"

###

The article "Spectrographic analyses reveal signals of individuality and kinship in the ultrasonic courtship vocalizations of wild house mice" by Frauke Hoffmann, Kerstin Musolf and Dustin J. Penn is published in the journal Physiology & Behavior (Volume 105, Issue 3, pp. 766-771).
Abstract of the article online (full text for a fee or with a subscription): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2011.10.011

University of Veterinary Medicine -- Vienna: http://www.vetmeduni.ac.at

Thanks to University of Veterinary Medicine -- Vienna 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/117093/Tiny_crooners__Male_house_mice_sing_songs_to_impress_the_girls

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Official: Would take miracle for cruise survivors

	Essential News from The Associated Press

? ?Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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Sun erupts with biggest storm in seven years

A powerful solar eruption is expected to blast a stream of charged particles past Earth on Tuesday, as the strongest radiation storm since 2005 rages on the sun.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught an extreme ultraviolet flash from a huge eruption on the sun overnight (10:59 p.m. ET Sunday, or 0359 GMT Monday), according to SpaceWeather.com.

The solar flare spewed from sunspot 1402, a region of the sun that has become increasingly active lately. Several NASA satellites, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Solar Heliospheric Observatory and the STEREO spacecraft, observed the massive sun storm.

A barrage of charged particles triggered by the outburst is expected to hit Earth at around 9 a.m. ET Tuesday, according to experts at the Space Weather Prediction Center, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. [Video and photos of the solar flare]

NOAA's forecasters say this is the strongest solar radiation storm since May 2005. As a precaution, polar flights on Earth are expected to be rerouted, the agency's deputy administrator, Kathy Sullivan, said Monday at the 92nd annual American Meteorological Society meeting in New Orleans.

Scientists call these electromagnetic bursts "coronal mass ejections," and they are closely studied because they can produce potentially harmful geomagnetic storms when electrically charged particles from the sun interact with Earth's magnetic field.

In addition to generating stronger than normal displays of Earth's auroras (also known as the northern and southern lights), geomagnetic storms aimed directly at our planet can also disrupt satellites in orbit, cause widespread communications interference and damage other electronic infrastructures.

"There is little doubt that the cloud is heading in the general direction of Earth," SpaceWeather.com said? in an alert. "A preliminary inspection of SOHO/STEREO imagery suggests that the CME will deliver a strong glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on Jan. 24-25 as it sails mostly north of our planet."

1. More space news from msnbc.com

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      Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Reality-TV impresario Simon Cowell says the winner of "Britain's Got Talent" could go into outer space on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane.

   2. 'Oozing' alien planet is a super-Earth wonder
   3. Is some poor little planet getting blasted?
   4. Space station's private hookup delayed till March

Sunday's solar flare was rated an M9-class eruption, which placed it just on the verge of being an X-class flare, the most powerful type of solar storm. M-class sun storms are powerful but midrange, while C-class flares are weaker.

Last week, a separate sunspot group unleashed several M-class flares. SDO scientists said these types of flares are occurring almost daily as the sun's rotation slowly turns the region toward Earth.

The sun's activity waxes and wanes on an 11-year cycle. Currently, our planet's nearest star is in the midst of Solar Cycle 24, and activity is expected to ramp up toward solar maximum in 2013.

Some solar radiation storms can pose a risk to astronauts, but NASA said the six men aboard the International Space Station were in no danger. "The flight surgeons have reviewed the space weather forecasts for the flare and determined that there are no expected adverse effects or actions required to protect the on-orbit crew," NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries told Space.com.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing northern lights photo, or other skywatching image, and would like to share it for a possible story or gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com.

OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer Brett Israel contributed to this report from New Orleans. Follow Space.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom? and on Facebook.

? 2012 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46102926/ns/technology_and_science-space/

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Tiny Tower Developers Call Out Zynga For Copying Their Game (After They Refused To Be Acquired)

The guys from NimbleBit (developers of Tiny Tower, the game handpicked by Apple as iOS Game Of The Year) are on a bit of a tweeting spree tonight, blasting out two big ol' gems of knowledge in as many hours. First: Zynga just launched a new iOS game, and it looks a lot like Tiny Tower. Second (and this one makes that first bit all the more interesting): Zynga allegedly tried to buy NimbleBit at some point in the past, but NimbleBit turned them down.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/m4PdBIkViyE/

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PSU editor quits after erroneous Paterno report

David Marselles a senior at Penn State from Allentown, Pa., stands with a cardboard cutout of Joe Paterno near a statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium on the Penn State University campus Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

David Marselles a senior at Penn State from Allentown, Pa., stands with a cardboard cutout of Joe Paterno near a statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium on the Penn State University campus Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

This is the Mount Nittany Medical Center main entrance in State College, Pa., where former Penn State footbal coach Joe Paterno is in serious condition Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? The managing editor of a student-run news organization that covers Penn State resigned Saturday after the publication's Twitter account sent messages saying former coach Joe Paterno had died, according to a letter on the publication's website.

Paterno's sons refuted accounts of their 85-year-old father's death in Twitter messages posted after those by Onward State.

"I appreciate the support & prayers. Joe is continuing to fight," Jay Paterno tweeted.

Paterno has lung cancer and has been in a hospital since Jan. 13. His doctors say recent complications have made his condition "serious."

Onward State recanted is posts, but not before the erroneous information was reported and amplified by many media organizations across the country and retweeted uncounted times. The Associated Press did not publish the report.

Devon Edwards said in the letter that he takes responsibility for the misinformation. He said the publication retracted its tweets after "the mountain of evidence stacked opposite that report became too much to ignore." He also apologized to apologized to the Paterno family and the Penn State community.

"I never, in a million years, would have thought that Onward State might be cited by the national media," his letter said. "Today, I sincerely wish it never had been."

The incorrect information found its way into media websites, including CBSSports.com, People.com and the Huffington Post.

CBSSports.com had run a photo of Paterno with a caption saying the longtime Penn State Coach "loses his battle with lung cancer at 85." The blurb did not include the source of the information.

In an apology on its site, CBSSports.com said the mistake "was the result of a failure to verify the original report. CBSSports.com holds itself to high journalistic standards, and in this circumstance tonight, we fell well short of those expectations."

Last January, several media organizations erroneously reported that U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had died after being shot in the head during a public event in Arizona.

Edwards did not explain in his letter how the error occurred but hinted that the pressure to get the story first may have been a factor.

"In this day and age, getting it first often conflicts with getting it right, but our intention was never to fall into that chasm," the letter said. "All I can do now is promise that in the future, we will exercise caution, restraint, and humility."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-22-Penn%20State-Paterno-Editor%20Resigns/id-cc9f03ea8ba34b6bb0db54dc32df58af

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New Economic Perspectives: MMP #33: Functional Finance and ...

MMP #33: Functional Finance and Long Term Growth

Last week we examined Milton Friedman?s version of Functional Finance, which we found to be remarkably similar to Abba Lerner?s. If the economy is operating below full employment, government ought to run a budget deficit; if beyond full employment it should run a surplus. He also advocated that all government spending should be financed by ?printing money? and taxes would destroy money. That, as we know, is an accurate description of sovereign government spending?except that it is keystrokes, not money printing. Deficits mean net money creation, through net keystrokes. The only problem with Friedman?s analysis is that he did not account for the external sector: he wanted a balanced budget at full employment, but if a country tends to run a trade deficit at full employment, then it must have a government budget deficit to allow the private sector to run a balanced budget?which is the minimum we should normally expect. Somehow all this understanding was lost over the course of the postwar period, replaced by ?sound finance? which is anything but sound. It was based on an inappropriate extension of the household ?budget constraint? to government. This is obviously inappropriate?households are users of the currency, while government is the issuer. It doesn?t face anything like a household budget constraint. How could economics have become so confused? Let us see what Paul Samuelson said, and then turn to proper policy to promote long term growth.Functional Finance versus Superstition. The functional finance approach of Friedman and Lerner was mostly forgotten by the 1970s. Indeed, it was replaced in academia with something known as the ?government budget constraint?. The idea is simple: a government?s spending is constrained by its tax revenue, its ability to borrow (sell bonds) and ?printing money?. In this view, government really spends its tax revenue and borrows money from markets in order to finance a shortfall of tax revenue. If all else fails, it can run the printing presses, but most economists abhor this activity because it is believed to be highly inflationary. Indeed, economists continually refer to hyperinflationary episodes?such as Germany?s Weimar republic, Hungary?s experience, or in modern times, Zimbabwe?as a cautionary tale against ?financing? spending through printing money.Note that there are two related points that are being made. First, government is ?constrained? much like a household. A household has income (wages, interest, profits) and when that is insufficient it can run a deficit through borrowing from a bank or other financial institution. While it is recognized that government can also print money, which is something households cannot do, these is seen as extraordinary behaviour?sort of a last resort. There is no recognition that all spending by government is actually done by crediting bank accounts?keystrokes that are more akin to ?printing money? than to ?spending out of income?. That is to say, the second point is that the conventional view does not recognize that as the issuer of the sovereign currency, government cannot really rely on taxpayers or financial markets to supply it with the ?money? it needs. From inception, taxpayers and financial markets can only supply to the government the ?money? they received from government. That is to say, taxpayers pay taxes using government?s own IOUs; banks use government?s own IOUs to buy bonds from government. This confusion by economists then leads to the views propagated by the media and by policy-makers: a government that continually spends more than its tax revenue is ?living beyond its means?, flirting with ?insolvency? because eventually markets will ?shut off credit?. To be sure, most macroeconomists do not make these mistakes?they recognize that a sovereign government cannot really become insolvent in its own currency. They do recognize that government can make all promises as they come due, because it can ?run the printing presses?. Yet, they shudder at the thought?since that would expose the nation to the dangers of inflation or hyperinflation. The discussion by policy-makers?at least in the US?is far more confused. For example, President Obama frequently asserted throughout 2010 that the US government was ?running out of money??like a household that had spent all the money it had saved in a cookie jar.So how did we get to this point? How could we have forgotten what Lerner and Friedman clearly understood?In a very interesting interview in a documentary produced by Mark Blaug on J.M. Keynes, Samuelson explained: ??????????????? "I think there is an element of truth in the view that the superstition that the budget must be balanced at all times [is necessary]. Once it is debunked [that] takes away one of the bulwarks that every society must have against expenditure out of control. There must be discipline in the allocation of resources or you will have anarchistic chaos and inefficiency. And one of the functions of old fashioned religion was to scare people by sometimes what might be regarded as myths into behaving in a way that the long-run civilized life requires. We have taken away a belief in the intrinsic necessity of balancing the budget if not in every year, [then] in every short period of time. If Prime Minister Gladstone came back to life he ??????????????? would say "uh, oh what you have done" and James Buchanan argues in those terms. I have to say that I see merit in that view."

The belief that the government must balance its budget over some timeframe is likened to a ?religion?, a ?superstition? that is necessary to scare the population into behaving in a desired manner. Otherwise, voters might demand that their elected officials spend too much, causing inflation. Thus, the view that balanced budgets are desirable has nothing to do with ?affordability? and the analogies between a household budget and a government budget are not correct. Rather, it is necessary to constrain government spending with the ?myth? precisely because it does not really face a budget constraint. The US (and many other nations) really did face inflationary pressures from the late 1960s until the 1990s (at least periodically). Those who believed the inflation resulted from too much government spending helped to fuel the creation of the balanced budget ?religion? to fight the inflation. The problem is that what started as something recognized by economists and policymakers to be a ?myth? came to be believed as the truth. An incorrect understanding was developed. Originally the myth was ?functional? in the sense that it constrained a government that otherwise would spend too much, creating inflation. But like many useful myths, this one eventually became a harmful myth?an example of what John Kenneth Galbraith called an ?innocent fraud?, an unwarranted belief that prevents proper behaviour. Sovereign governments began to believe that the really could not ?afford? to undertake desired policy, on the belief they might become insolvent. Ironically, in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, President Obama repeatedly claimed that the US government had ?run out of money??that it could not afford to undertake policy that most believed to be desired. As unemployment rose to nearly 10%, the government was paralysed?it could not adopt the policy that both Lerner and Friedman advocated: spend enough to return the economy toward full employment. Ironically, throughout the crisis, the Fed (as well as some other central banks, including the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan) essentially followed Lerner?s second principle: it provided more than enough bank reserves to keep the overnight interest rate on a target that was nearly zero. It did this by purchasing financial assets from banks (a policy known as ?quantitative easing?), in record volumes ($1.75 trillion in the first phase, with a planned additional $600 billion in the second phase). Chairman Bernanke was actually grilled in Congress about where he obtained all the ?money? to buy those bonds. He (correctly) stated that the Fed simply created it by crediting bank reserves?through keystrokes. The Fed can never run out ?money?; it can afford to buy any financial assets banks are willing to sell. And yet we have the President (as well as many members of the economics profession as well as most politicians in Congress) believing government is ?running out of money?! There are plenty of ?keystrokes? to buy financial assets, but no ?keystrokes? to pay wages.That indicates just how dysfunctional the myth has become.A Budget Stance to Promote Long Term Growth. The lesson that can be learned from that three decade experience of the US is that in the context of a private sector desire to run a budget surplus (to accumulate savings) plus a propensity to run current account deficits, the government budget must be biased to run a deficit even at full employment. This is a situation that had not been foreseen by Friedman (not surprising since the US was running a current account surplus in the first two decades after WWII). The other lesson to be learned is that a budget surplus (like the one President Clinton presided over) is not something to be celebrated as an accomplishment?it falls out of an identity, and is indicative of a private sector deficit (ignoring the current account). Unlike the sovereign issuer of the currency, the private sector is a user of the currency. It really does face a budget constraint. And as we now know, that decade of deficit spending by the US private sector left it with a mountain of debt that it could not service. That is part of the explanation for the global financial crisis that began in the US.To be sure, the causal relations are complex. We should not conclude that the cause of the private deficit was the Clinton budget surplus; and we should not conclude that the global crisis should be attributed solely to US household deficit spending. But we can conclude that accounting identities do hold: with a current account balance of zero, a private domestic deficit equals a government surplus. And if the current account balance is in deficit, then the private sector can run a surplus (?save?) only if the budget deficit of the government is larger than the current account deficit. Finally, the conclusion we should reach from our understanding of currency sovereignty is that a government deficit is more sustainable than a private sector deficit?the government is the issuer, the household or the firm is the user of the currency. Unless a nation can run a continuous current account surplus, the government?s budget will need to be biased to run deficits on a sustained basis to promote long term growth.However, we know from our previous discussion that fiscal policy space depends on the exchange rate regime?the topic of the next blog.Further, we want to be clear: the appropriate budget stance depends on the balance of the other two sectors. A nation that tends to run a current account surplus can run tighter fiscal policy; it might even be able to run a sustained government budget surplus (this is the case in Singapore?which pegs its exchange rate, and runs a budget surplus because it runs a current account surplus while it accumulates foreign exchange). A government budget surplus is also appropriate when the domestic private sector runs a deficit (given a current account balance of zero, this must be true by identity). However, for the reasons discussed above, that is not ultimately sustainable because the private sector is a user, not an issuer, of the currency. Finally, we must note that it is not possible for all nations to run current account surpluses?Asian net exporters, for example, rely heavily on sales to the US, which runs a current account deficit to provide the Dollar assets the exporters want to accumulate. We conclude that at least some governments will have to run persistent deficits to provide the net financial assets desired by the world?s savers. It makes sense for the government of the nation that provides the international reserve currency to fill that role. For the time being, that is the US government.

Source: http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2012/01/mmp-33-functional-finance-and-long-term.html

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RIM CEOs Out: Jim Balsillie, Mike Lazardis Replaced By Thorsten Heins

After a bruising year and growing calls for their resignation, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, the co-chief executives and co-chairmen of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, announced Sunday they were stepping down from their posts and would be replaced by a new CEO, RIM veteran Thorsten Heins, on Monday.

Lazaridis founded RIM in 1985 and, together with Balsillie, oversaw its growth into a multibillion-dollar company in Waterloo, Ontario, that claimed $20 billion in sales last year and, in the early part of this decade, helped pioneer a new class of devices that was at the forefront of the smartphone revolution. RIM's BlackBerry smartphones, which preceded the iPhone by four years, helped make on-the-go email and Web access the rule not the exception among executives. The signature device proved so addictive it earned its own nickname, the CrackBerry.

Yet the company's fortunes have declined steadily in recent years in the face of an onslaught from competing devices such as Apple's iPhone, and Google's Android software, which now powers more than 250 million devices worldwide.

And 2011 was a particularly bruising year for the BlackBerry maker. Last year, Balsillie and Lazardis oversaw a 75 percent drop in the company's stock price. The company's share of the U.S. smartphone market declined by nearly half from January to November 2011, from 30.4 percent to 16.6 percent. Over the same period, Android's share jumped from 31.2 to 46.9 percent. RIM also suffered crippling network outages that left millions around the world without messaging services for days. And the company's attempt at a rival to the iPad, the BlackBerry Playbook, was a disappointment for the company, a flop that it has been forced to offer at steep discounts.

But RIM's new CEO, a four-year veteran of the company, may not provide the breath of fresh air the company needs.

Heins, 54, has worked at RIM since 2007 and most recently served as one of the company's chief operating officers, overseeing the company's hardware, software and sales. The New York Times noted that Heins "pledged during an interview on Sunday to follow the strategy Mr. Balsillie and Mr. Lazaridis set in place" -- a strategy that has so far yielded a series of losses and damaging delays for the company. Before joining RIM, Heins spent more than two decades at Munich-based Siemens, where he rose through the ranks to become chief technology officer.

Balsillie and Lazaridis will stay on the sidelines of the company, with Lazaridis assuming the role of vice chairman and head of the board's newly created innovation committee. Balsillie will not have an operational role, but will remain as a member of RIM's board. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Lazaridis said Sunday that he would provide counsel to Heins and work closely with the new CEO, news that will no doubt cause worry to some investors.

Last June during an earnings call, Balsillie and Lazardis congratulated each other on their performance as co-CEOs, suggesting that, despite criticism from investors, they planned to stick it out in their roles.

"Jim and I have the perfect balance to make the hard decisions," Lazaridis said, according to All Things D.

Their optimism did little to reassure investors, however, and in December, RIM shareholder Jaguar Financial Corp. issued a press release calling for a "substantial corporate governance change and for a sale of RIM."

"At this point we believe investors have lost faith in the ability of the RIM management team to carry out a proper game plan to restore value. Unless the independent directors push to replace management or change RIM's strategic focus, Jaguar believes that the road map to value restoration lies in a sale of RIM whether as a whole or in separate parts," Jaguar chairman and CEO Vic Alboini said in the release.

Balsillie and Lazardis claimed on Sunday in a group interview with reporters that the leadership change had been part of a succession plan formulated the previous year.

"There comes a time in the growth of every successful company when the founders recognize the need to pass the baton to new leadership. Jim and I went to the board and told them that we thought that time was now," Lazaridis said, according to Reuters.

Heins now faces the challenge of ensuring that RIM's next great white hope -- the forthcoming BlackBerry 10 operating system that is to power new smartphones and tablets -- helps usher in the turnaround RIM so desperately needs. Already, the production of BlackBerry 10 has experienced delays. Lazaridis acknowledged in December the first BlackBerry 10 smartphones would not be released until the second half of 2012, which gives rivals plenty of leeway to prep the competition.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/rim-ceos-jim-balsillie-mike-lazaridis_n_1222605.html

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Shop Android Deal of the Day: Seidio ACTIVE Case for Motorola Droid RAZR

The Jan. 20 Shop Android Deal of the Day is the Seidio ACTIVE Case for the Motorola Droid RAZR. It's got a two-layer design that features a compact and lightweight rubber polymer with a precisely positioned hard skeleton for added protection. The arachnid design of the skeleton extends out to protect vulnerable parts of your device, such as the corners and sides. It's available in black, garnet red, amethyst or glossy white and today only is just $17.95 -- that's 40 percent off! Get yours while supplies last!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Dvo2cWdNcBE/story01.htm

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Cancer

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San Francisco's Top 10 Cupcake Spots (PHOTOS)

SF Weekly:

In a fickle landscape for food businesses, many cupcake shops have opened in recent years in San Francisco -- and, happily, they continue to stick around. While not every innovation regarding the dessert has worked out in practice (cupcake and wine pairings should be banned), there's still a clear demand.

SFoodie is a tough customer when it comes to cupcakes. We are not on a diet. We are not lured or fooled by a sky-high swirl of frosting. And we're not swayed by sprinkles, though we do have an appreciation for the occasional edible glitter. Attention must be paid to the cake itself, ideally with a not-too-dense crumb (how the inside looks, not what falls off it). You'd probably not be shocked to know how many places make that an afterthought.

Here are our 10 favorite current spots for cupcakes:

Read the whole story: SF Weekly

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/20/san-franciscos-top-10-cupcakes_n_1219411.html

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