How a British Florist Solved the Mystery of the Coming Apocalypse [Wtf]

Last week, in the south west of England, the world started to fall in on itself. As little blue balls of sticky gel fell from the sky, Steve Hornsby feared the worst: the end was surely nigh. But, phew, it's all OK. A florist from a nearby town has sorted it out. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/s1E4UGovwcA/how-a-british-florist-solved-the-mystery-of-the-coming-apocalypse

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Pets Help Women Cope With HIV/AIDS (HealthDay)

MONDAY, Jan. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Having a pet helps women with HIV/AIDS cope with their condition and may also help those with other chronic diseases, a new study says.

Researchers conducted 12 focus groups with 48 women with HIV/AIDS to find out how they stay healthy. The women, whose average age was 42, said that five social roles helped them manage their illness.

These roles included being: a pet owner; a mother/grandmother; faith believer; an advocate and an employee.

The study also found that being stigmatized had a negative impact because it prevented women from revealing their illness and seeking out appropriate supports, the Case Western Reserve University researchers said.

The finding about the benefits of being a pet owner was a surprise, said study author and nursing instructor Allison Webel.

"Pets -- primarily dogs -- gave these women a sense of support and pleasure," Webel said in a university news release.

Speaking about their pets, one cat owner said, "She's going to be right there when I'm hurting," while a dog owner said, "Dogs know when you're in a bad mood ... she knows that I'm sick, and everywhere I go, she goes. She wants to protect me."

Webel noted that the human and animal bond in healing and therapy is receiving increasing recognition and more animals are visiting nursing homes to connect to people with dementia, or visiting children going through long hospital stays.

The study appears online in the January-February issue of Women's Health Issues.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about living with HIV/AIDS.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/aids/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120130/hl_hsn/petshelpwomencopewithhivaids

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Lifelong payoff for attentive kindergarten kids

ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2012) ? Attentiveness in kindergarten accurately predicts the development of "work-oriented" skills in school children, according to a new study published by Dr. Linda Pagani, a professor and researcher at the University of Montreal and CHU Sainte-Justine. Elementary school teachers made observations of attention skills in over a thousand kindergarten children. Then, from grades 1 to 6, homeroom teachers rated how well the children worked both autonomously and with fellow classmates, their levels of self-control and self-confidence, and their ability to follow directions and rules.

"For children, the classroom is the workplace, and this is why productive, task-oriented behaviour in that context later translates to the labour market," Pagani said. "Children who are more likely to work autonomously and harmoniously with fellow classmates, with good self-control and confidence, and who follow directions and rules are more likely to continue such productive behaviors into the adult workplace. In child psychology, we call this the developmental evolution of work-oriented skills, from childhood to adulthood."

All the children attended kindergarten in the poorest neighborhoods of Montreal, and their teachers used a carefully constructed observational scale to score them on their attentiveness skills. Over time, the researchers identified the evolution of three groups of children: those with high, medium, and low classroom engagement. All analyses were reviewed to take into account various explanations for the link that was observed between kindergarten attention and classroom engagement.

"Teachers spend many hours per day in school-related activities and can therefore reliably report on them," Pagani explained. The researchers found that boys, aggressive children, and children with lower cognitive skills in kindergarten were much more likely to belong to the low trajectory.

"There are important life risks associated with attention deficits in childhood, which include high-school dropout, unemployment, and problematic substance abuse. Pagani said. "Our findings make a compelling case for early identification and treatment of attention problems, as early remediation represents the least costly form of intervention. Universal approaches to bolstering attention skills in kindergarten might translate into stable and productive pathways toward learning." The researchers noted that the next step would be to undertake further study into how specifically the classroom environment influences children's attention spans.

The study was published online by the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, (the official publication of the International Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology), on January 13, 2011, and received funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Fonds de recherche sur la soci?t? et la culture. Dr. Linda Pagani is affiliated with the University of Montreal's School of Psycho-Education and the Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine Research Centre. The University of Montreal is officially known as Universit? de Montr?al.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Montreal.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Pagani LS, Fitzpatrick C, Parent S. Relating Kindergarten Attention to Subsequent Developmental Pathways of Classroom Engagement in Elementary School. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 2012

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120129232827.htm

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Newt Gingrich Campaign Spars With Mitt Romney Surrogates (VIDEO)

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Walk to the back of any Newt Gingrich campaign event in Florida and you're likely to run into a few members of the U.S. House who are decidedly not backing the former speaker. In fact, they're all surrogates for Mitt Romney.

Reps. Charlie Bass (R-N.H.), Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) and Connie Mack (R-Fla.) have all been taking turns going around the state to Gingrich's events, available to talk to the media -- and any Gingrich backers who may recognize them.

But on at least three occasions, they have also gotten into skirmishes with Gingrich campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond.

It started on Thursday morning in Mount Dora, Fla., when Hammond confronted Chaffetz.

Chaffetz told The Huffington Post that Hammond came up to him with an audio recorder and started bombarding him with questions about whether he supported Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

"I am a citizen with questions. He is a congressman without answers," Hammond told The Huffington Post later in the day.

Hammond went at it again on Friday, asking Chaffetz if he wanted a seat on Gingrich's charter plane. When a reporter asked whether Hammond's tone to the congressman was appropriate, Hammond replied, "Sure. He's a citizen like everyone else. I think we're pointing out the fact that the Romney campaign is running scared. They're looking for any opportunity to distort."

It happened again on Saturday morning, this time with Connie Mack in Port St. Lucie. But this time, Mack was ready, according to the Washington Post, and "quickly began browbeating him about Gingrich's work for Freddie Mac, the federally backed mortgage giant that paid him $1.6 million for consulting work."

"Apparently, he's very sensitive about people asking questions about Newt Gingrich and his relationship with Freddie Mac. So he tries to intimidate us and bully us out of the way," Mack told The Huffington Post at Gingrich's Hispanic Town Hall in Orlando Saturday afternoon. "We're not doing anything different than what other campaigns are. Bracketing events is a normal thing. You know, you're in the business. But apparently he gets very sensitive about people asking questions about Newt Gingrich's relationship with Freddie Mac."

He added that it was a sign that the Gingrich campaign was getting "desperate."

"You can just tell this is a campaign in decline," he said.

Gingrich's Hispanic Town Hall was nearly empty. Roughly 60 seats out of the 480 seats at Centro de la Familia Cristiana were filled by attendees, according to an estimate by the Miami Herald.

Gingrich arrived 55 minutes late and then spoke for less than 10 minutes. Though the event was billed as a town hall, audience members were not allowed to stand up and ask questions. He did stick around to take photos and chat with attendees one-on-one, although he typically does that at every event.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Hammond said he thought turnout for the event was "very good," and he declined to say why Gingrich was late.

When asked whether Gingrich gave the green light to Hammond's confrontations with the Romney surrogates, Hammond replied, "He certainly hasn't discouraged it."

The following Gingrich event, the Orange County Liberty Counsel Forum at the Aloma Baptist Church in Winter Park, Fla., was much more filled out. The conservative audience gave Gingrich several standing ovations for his answers on defunding Planned Parenthood, moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and opposing embryonic stem cell research.

Watch the confrontation between Hammond and Mack (via The Washington Times:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/28/newt-gingrich-mitt-romney-florida-gop-2012_n_1239211.html

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WrestleMania XXVIII Axxess tickets now available

The ultimate interactive WWE fan experience ? WrestleMania Axxess ? is coming to Miami from March 29 - April 1 at the Miami Beach Convention Center (Hall D). This is one event WWE fans of all ages will want to be part of! (WATCH)

TICKETS
Available now at:
?- Ticketmaster
?- Ticketmaster.com
?- Charge by phone: 800-745-3000

ATTRACTIONS
?- Live matches
?- Superstar Q&A's
?- Superstar signings
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?- WWE Shop
?- Undertaker's Graveyard
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?- Memorabilia Display
????? And much more! ?

LIMITED VIP TICKETS - $95*

VIP TICKETS INCLUDE:
?- Autograph from designated Superstar at VIP Autograph Stage
?- Entrance to VIP standing area next to ring at WrestleMania Axxess
?- 8x10 Superstar Photo
?- VIP wristband required for meet & greet (wristband will be provided once tickets are scanned on site)

VIP MEET & GREET WITH AUTOGRAPH SIGNING AND MORE!
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SESSION SCHEDULE & TIMES
Thursday, March 29
6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Friday, March 30
6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Saturday, March 31
? Session 1: 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
? Session 2: 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
? Session 3: 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Sunday, April 1
? Session 1: 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
? Session 2: 12:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Children 3 years and under - FREE

*Prices are PER SESSION and do not include applicable fees or sales tax.

WrestleMania XXVII Axxess photos
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/wrestlemania/28/axxess-tickets

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Bucks keep Lakers' road woes going with 100-89 win

Los Angeles Lakers' Pau Gasol (16) and the Milwaukee Bucks' Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (12) fight for the rebound during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)

Los Angeles Lakers' Pau Gasol (16) and the Milwaukee Bucks' Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (12) fight for the rebound during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)

Los Angeles Lakers' Pau Gasol, left, and Matt Barnes (9) fight for the ball with the Milwaukee Bucks' Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (12) during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)

Los Angeles Lakers' Pau Gasol (16) reacts to a foul against the Milwaukee Bucks during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)

Los Angeles Lakers' Derek Fisher, left, dives for the loose ball as the Milwaukee Bucks' Luc Richard Mbah a Moute grabs it during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)

Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant drives to the basket against the Milwaukee Bucks' Carlos Delfino during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)

MILWAUKEE (AP) ? (AP) ? Drew Gooden scored 23 points and the undermanned Milwaukee Bucks made sure the Lakers' road struggles continued, beating Los Angeles 100-89 on Saturday night.

Kobe Bryant scored 27 for the Lakers, who are 1-7 on the road this season.

Ersan Ilyasova and Mike Dunleavy added 15 points each for the Bucks, who managed to beat the Lakers without two of their best players.

Already scrambling to compensate for the long-term absence of injured center Andrew Bogut, the Bucks found themselves without guard/forward Stephen Jackson on Saturday because of an NBA suspension.

Bryant made six free throws to break Jerry West's franchise record for free throws made. Coming into Saturday's game, Bryant needed three makes to tie West's mark of 7,160.

Bryant also came closer to becoming the Lakers' career leader in field goals made. He was 10 of 21 from the floor Saturday, leaving him three short of the 13 field goals he needed to tie Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's franchise record of 9,935 field goals made.

Even without Bogut and Jackson, the Bucks were in control most of the way. Ilyasova hit a jumper at the horn to end the third quarter, and the Bucks took an 80-73 lead into the fourth.

The Bucks led 85-76 after an inside score from Ilyasova with just under eight minutes left, but Bryant scored five straight points to cut the lead to four.

But Luc Richard Mbah a Moute hit a jumper, then Gooden scored on a turnaround hook shot and hit a pair of free throws to run the lead back to 91-81.

Andrew Bynum scored inside, but Dunleavy hit a long jumper to give the Bucks a 93-83 lead with just over two minutes left.

After Bryant made a pair of free throws, Dunleavy drilled a 3-pointer to put the game away with 1:24 left.

The Bucks managed the beat the Lakers without Jackson, whose suspension was announced a few hours before the game.

The NBA suspended Jackson one game for verbal abuse of a game official and failure to leave the court in a timely manner at the end of the Bucks' 107-100 loss at Chicago on Friday night.

It's another rough moment for Jackson, who was benched by coach Scott Skiles in the Bucks' Jan. 20 game at the New York Knicks.

Bogut, meanwhile, fractured his left ankle in Wednesday's game at Houston and is expected to miss eight to 12 weeks ? a crushing blow for Milwaukee.

Without Bogut, the undersized Bucks faced a tough test from the Lakers' pair of 7-footers: Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.

But they held their ground on defense early on, taking a 51-43 lead at halftime. The Bucks forced the Lakers into 10 turnovers in the first half, and limited Gasol to six points on 3 for 10 shooting.

Gasol finished the game with 12 points and 15 rebounds, but was 6 for 18 from the floor.

Lakers rookie guard Andrew Goudelock scored 13 points despite being hospitalized for dehydration overnight. Goudelock was coming off his best performance of the year, having scored a career-high 14 points against the Clippers on Wednesday.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-29-Lakers-Bucks/id-48c1b33bad464c8998da79f03016f176

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Shocker! New RIM CEO targets existing BlackBerry users for upgrades

All of new RIM CEO Thorsten Heins' fresh ideas will apparently still be revealed to the company's board in a couple of weeks, but he's already dropped some gems in interviews with the Wall Street Journal and Reuters (update: and Bloomberg). First item on the agenda? Getting current users upgraded to the latest and greatest BlackBerry hardware. Citing internal statistics that indicate 80- to 90- percent of the company's customer base aren't running BlackBerry 7 hardware yet, it will work closely with US carriers to promote upgrades until the new BB10 devices hit later this year. There's no word on what the carrier deals include, but he hinted at device or preloaded app bundles. He also promised an LTE version of the PlayBook would arrive this spring, with LTE connected handsets also planned for the BlackBerry 10 lineup. Is that enough to turn around RIM's fortunes in the US, where he acknowledged the company is "a turnaround candidate"? We'll find out, but as obvious as the need to placate the already BBM-addicted may be, execution of the plan is everything.

Shocker! New RIM CEO targets existing BlackBerry users for upgrades originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/27/shocker-new-rim-ceo-targets-existing-blackberry-users-for-upgra/

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Gingrich under fire from conservative media (AP)

NEW YORK ? Forget the so-called liberal media. Right now Newt Gingrich's most ardent critics are conservative pundits and columnists, many of whom have launched aggressive campaigns to discredit him and trip up his run for the Republican nomination.

This crew has largely been lukewarm about Gingrich's chief rival, Mitt Romney, considering him too moderate. But their open criticism of Gingrich is evidence that for all their misgivings about the former Massachusetts governor, they see him as a much stronger contender against President Barack Obama.

To hear columnists Ann Coulter and Charles Krauthammer and the conservative media aggregator Matt Drudge tell it, Gingrich is an inconsistent conservative who didn't fully support President Ronald Reagan and whose undisciplined nature mirrored that of President Bill Clinton, who was Gingrich's Democratic adversary in the 1990s.

The conservative media hits against Gingrich have come with force just as the GOP establishment seems to be rallying around Romney in earnest, perhaps out of fear that Gingrich may end up winning the nomination.

On Thursday, Romney's campaign released a scathing open letter from the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, Bob Dole, who served as Senate Republican leader when Gingrich presided over the House. In the letter, Dole glowingly endorses Romney and repudiates Gingrich.

"If Gingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices," Dole wrote. "Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway."

Jacob Heilbrunn, in the conservative-leaning magazine The National Interest, mused that Gingrich "is essentially bragging that his prime credential to become president is that he's willing to debate for hours and bring a knuckle-duster. This is evidence of his sober judgment? This is supposed to induce swing voters to back him?"

Conservative radio titan Rush Limbaugh also weighed in, seemingly to defend Gingrich from some of the attacks. But, in doing so, he also vividly outlined many of the critiques against Gingrich from other conservatives.

Conservatives "are raising questions here about Newt and his mendacity, his forthrightness ? it's incredible," Limbaugh marveled on his show Thursday.

Gingrich stormed to a decisive win over Romney in the South Carolina primary last week fueled in part by two well-timed attacks on the news media. Both came during nationally televised debates, guaranteeing maximum exposure.

In a CNN debate, Gingrich pushed back at anchor John King when King questioned him about an interview Gingrich's second wife, Marianne, had given ABC News. In the interview, Marianne Gingrich suggested her husband had asked her for an open marriage so he could carry on with a mistress, Callista Bisek, now his third wife.

"I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office. And I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that," Gingrich said. "I am tired of the elite media protecting Barack Obama by attacking Republicans."

The audience rose in a standing ovation.

Gingrich also told King that his campaign had given ABC News the names of friends who would vouch for him but that the network had rejected the offer. On Wednesday, a Gingrich spokesman acknowledged that the claim was a mistake and that the campaign had offered only Gingrich's two adult daughters to defend him.

Gingrich drew raves at another Fox News debate before the South Carolina primary when asked about his oft-stated assertion that Obama is a "food stamp president." He angrily denied the statement had anything to do with race.

Mark Jurkowitz of the Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism said Gingrich had tapped into longstanding resentment of many conservatives against mainstream news outlets.

"Running against the elite media ? we've seen now for a good 30 years ? certainly has resonance among Republican base voters. In conservative circles, there's been the perception that the media are tilted against them," Jurkowitz said.

Brent Bozell, founder of the conservative Media Research Center, announced Thursday that his group was set to spend $5 million on an advertising campaign to expose media bias in the 2012 election.

"You have a left-leaning media that's out of control. You've got to corral them," Bozell said in a news briefing, promising radio ads, billboards and an "unprecedented" effort in social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook.

Gingrich, for his part, promised in his South Carolina victory speech to keep up his attacks on the media. But the hits he took this week while campaigning in Florida came from other conservatives.

By Thursday, Gingrich was disparaging the Commission on Presidential Debates, suggesting he might not participate in debates the commission organizes if he becomes the Republican nominee.

"We've had enough of newsmen deciding what the topics would be," Gingrich told supporters in Jacksonville, many of whom waved "Don't Believe the Liberal Media" signs.

Later, Gingrich was asked about the attacks from conservative pundits, particularly from the American Spectator's Emmett Tyrell, who wrote that Gingrich has had "private encounters with the fair sex that doubtless will come out."

Gingrich tried to turn such criticisms to his advantage, suggesting they represent "establishment" thinking.

"Tyrrell has to write whatever Tyrrell wants to write," Gingrich said. "There's the Washington establishment sitting around in a frenzy, having coffee, lunch and cocktail hour talking about, `How do we stop Gingrich?'"

While Gingrich relishes bashing the media "elite" in public, he is friendly with the reporters who cover his campaign and makes himself available for media questions daily on the campaign trail. He seems to relish the back-and-forth with journalists, sometimes labeling questions he dislikes "bizarre."

At a campaign stop in South Carolina, he wished a reporter covering his campaign a happy birthday, and he typically stops by to chat with reporters at dinner after a day of campaigning.

___

Associated Press writers Brian Bakst in Jacksonville, Fla., and Shannon McCaffrey in Atlanta contributed to this report.

___

Follow Beth Fouhy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/bfouhy

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_el_pr/us_gingrich_conservative_media

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Acer Iconia A200 review

Acer's got a decent affordable Android tablet here, but the shortcuts are apparent

Meet the Acer Iconia Tab A200. We've seen a lot of Android tablets in the past year or so. A lot of Honeycomb tablets. And let's be perfectly frank here -- after a while they can start to look a lot alike. And so we're a wee bit surprised that we're as enamored as we are with the Iconia A200. On one hand, it's more of the same. The specs are familiar. The form factor's familiar. The software is relatively unchanged.

But Acer's tweaked and nipped and tucked, and it's produced a solid tablet that looks good, feels good and, most important, doesn't do a number on your wallet.

So join us after the break for our Acer Iconia Tab A200 review.

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Feels great in the hand, includes a full-size USB port and HDMI out. Gets rid of the rear camera.	Gets rid of the rear camera, and the front camera is horrific. Door hiding the microSD slot is nearly impossible to open. Awaiting an update to Ice Cream Sandwich.
See what we did there with the camera thing? Maybe you'll miss it. Maybe you won't. Either way, Acer's come up with a tablet that falls in the middle of its Iconia range, but it just as easily feels like it could sit at the top.

Inside this review	More info
Video walkthrough Hardware review Software review Camera tests	Acer A200 specs Acer A200 forums

read more

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

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'Barefoot Bandit' emails ridicule law enforcement

SEATTLE?? New federal court documents say the "Barefoot Bandit" ridiculed police and prosecutors in emails he sent from prison, undercutting his claims that he's sorry for his two-year crime spree.

In emails that 20-year-old Colton Harris-Moore wrote recently, he referred to Island County Sheriff Marc Brown as the "king swine," called prosecutors who handled his case fools, and referred to news reporters as vermin.

He bragged about his two-year crime spree, saying that his flying accomplishments were "amazing" and unmatched by anyone except the Wright brothers.

Harris-Moore was sentenced last month in state court to seven years. He'll be sentenced on Friday for his federal crimes. The U.S. attorney's office is seeking six-and-a-half years, the longest sentence possible under Harris-Moore's plea deal. Harris-Moore's attorneys have asked for a sentence of just under six years.

Harris-Moore's daring run from the law earned him international fame and a movie deal to help repay his victims after he flew a stolen plane from Indiana to the Bahamas in July 2010, crash-landed it near a mangrove swamp and was arrested by Bahamian authorities in a hail of bullets.

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

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46121330/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

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Romney's Bain Problem (Taegan Goddard's Political Wire)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/190271715?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Hundreds of homes ravaged by deadly Ala. storms

Violent weather roared across Alabama, injuring dozens of people and killing at least two. The Weather Channel's Eric Fisher reports.

By msnbc.com staff and news services

Storms that spawned at least one twister were responsible for 2 deaths, more than 100 injuries and some 400 homes and buildings destroyed or damaged early Monday?in the area around Birmingham, Ala. -- less than a year after the?state saw 240 lives taken by tornadoes.

More than 200 homes were destroyed, the Red Cross said, and as many were damaged.

Jefferson County appeared hardest hit, especially the town of Clay, where the National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado with 150-mph winds had struck.

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"We have major, major damage," said a Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency official, Bob Ammons, in reference to the region.

Butch Dill / AP

This neighborhood in Trussville, Ala., was among those hit by a suspected tornado overnight.

Two people were confirmed killed in the county, and officials were looking at a report of a third death there as well.

In the town of Center Point, the elementary school was 80 percent destroyed and officials said it would have to be bulldozed, The Birmingham News reported.

Last April, massive tornadoes tore through Alabama killing 241 people, including 64 in the Jefferson and Tuscaloosa areas.

The storms flattened homes and peeled off roofs in the middle of the night in the rural community of Oak Grove. As dawn broke, residents surveyed the damage and began cleaning up across parts of central Alabama, an area that has a history of tornadoes going back decades.

In a sign that Alabama has become all too familiar with severe weather, officials had to reschedule a meeting Monday to receive a report on their response to?deadly twisters last spring.

At least two people are dead after an overnight storm in Alabama. NBC's Erika Edwards reports.

Alabama's governor declared a state of emergency for the entire state.

Oak Grove was hit hard?last April, though officials said none of the same neighborhoods was struck again.

Amber Butler and her family hid in her sister's brick home as the storm approached. Butler's own home was destroyed.

Butch Dill / AP

Rescue workers help a family out of their neighborhood in Trussville, Ala. on Monday.

"I am just so speechless now, I don't know what to do," she said. "God Bless our friends and neighbors who have come to help. We've lost everything we had."

Butler lived near 83-year-old Bobby Frank Sims, who was killed when his home was leveled by a tree.

In Clay, northeast of Birmingham, 16-year-old Christina Nicole Heichelbech died, the Jefferson County coroner's office said. Rescue workers said her parents were injured.

The storm system stretched from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, producing hail, strong winds and rain. Possible tornadoes were reported in Arkansas on Sunday night.

In Alabama, searchers went door-to-door calling out to residents, many of whom were trapped by trees that crisscrossed their driveways.

Jefferson County, where Oak Grove and Clay are located, suffered the most damage, followed by Chilton County, with most of the damage around Maplesville.

Oak Grove, a sprawling unincorporated area in the western part of the county was nearly wiped out on April 8, 1998, by a powerful tornado that killed 34 people and left about 260 people injured. It spread a wide path of destruction that left much of the previously heavily wooded western section of the county looking barren. The tornado destroyed Oak Grove High School, which has been rebuilt.

This general section of Jefferson County has been infamous for destructive tornadoes dating back to the 1930s.

State Climatologist John Christy said there seems to be a general path from central Mississippi going into north Alabama that gets attention for a large number of tornadoes ? and their intensity. One theory has to do with the distance from the Gulf of Mexico, just far enough to be effected by cold air coming from the north.

"It's the frequency and intensity of the storms that tend to align on this corridor," said Christy, a professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.?

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
?

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10214424-3-people-killed-as-storms-sweep-through-alabama

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S&P ends with minor gains, Dow, Nasdaq slightly off

By msnbc.com staff and news services

Stocks continued their 2012 rally Monday, barely, as the S&P 500 finished slightly higher.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average ended down 11.66 points, or 0.09 percent, at 12,708.82. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.62 points, or 0.05 percent, to 1,316.00. The Nasdaq Composite Index was off 2.53 points, or 0.09 percent, at 2,784.17.

The major indexes jumped immediately after the opening bell and swooned by midday. They remained lower most until the last two hours, managing to climb back to positive territory.

Developments in the euro zone including the terms of a likely Greek default remained a concern for investors.

Despite the lull, stocks are off to a strong start in 2012. Investors' biggest fears have slowly faded. Stronger than expected job growth in the U.S. and falling borrowing costs for European governments have helped the S&P 500 index post gains on 11 of 13 trading days.

For the year, the Dow is up about 4 percent, the S&P about 4.5 percent. "In our view, optimistic sentiment and lightly traded volume are the two key technical concerns that have raised an early warning flag and indicate that the trend should soon flatten," said Ari Wald, equity analyst at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York.

"Looking ahead to the coming weeks to months, we would be watchful for a new bull market high that goes unconfirmed by our indicators, or if volume on declining days begins to outpace volume on advancing days. This would be a signal for a more meaningful correction.

According to Thomson Reuters data, 15 percent of S&P 500 companies have reported earnings, with 59 percent posting results above Wall Street expectations.

While the percentage of fourth-quarter earnings reports that beat estimates has trailed recent quarters, the rate is expected to improve as earnings season picks up steam. This week 117 S&P 500 companies are expected to report earnings.

Pressuring market sentiment, the euro zone crisis was still lurking in the background. Germany and France pushed for a deal between Greece and its private creditors and said they remained dedicated to a new bailout that is needed by March to stave off a default. Euro zone finance ministers could decide later Monday what debt restructuring terms they would accept.

Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

?

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10218538-sp-ends-day-with-minor-gains-dow-nasdaq-slightly-off

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Florida State ends No. 4 Duke's home streak at 45 (AP)

DURHAM, N.C. ? Michael Snaer acknowledged he never felt comfortable playing in one of college basketball's most hostile environments, from the rowdy fans perched on the sideline to the way Duke tried to pressure the Seminoles out of their offense.

One shot changed everything ? and ended Duke's long reign on its famed home court.

Snaer hit a 3-pointer as time expired and Florida State beat the fourth-ranked Blue Devils 76-73 on Saturday, snapping Duke's 45-game home winning streak.

With the game tied, Luke Loucks sprinted up the middle of the court before zipping a pass to Snaer on the right side in front of the FSU bench. Snaer quickly launched the shot over Andre Dawkins that dropped cleanly through the net at the horn, stunning the once-rowdy crowd at Cameron Indoor Stadium and sending the Seminoles' bench spilling onto "Coach K Court" in celebration.

"When it went in, I didn't know what to think," Snaer said. "It was amazing."

Snaer's basket gave the Seminoles (13-6, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) a fourth straight win, which includes last weekend's 33-point home rout of preseason No. 1 North Carolina. It marked only the second time in school history that the Seminoles have beaten both Duke and North Carolina in the same season, the other time coming in 2002.

It marked the first home loss for the Blue Devils (16-3, 4-1) since falling to the eventual national champion Tar Heels in February 2009. It also ended Duke's 64-game home winning streak against unranked opponents, which began after a one-point loss to Florida State five years ago.

"There's not too many times teams can come in and win at a hostile environment like Duke and a great team like Duke," Loucks said. "We just kind of saw an opportunity here and went ahead and seized it. After the jubilation and jumping around in the locker room, the whole speech was that we're not finished. We only have four ACC wins right now, and that's not going to get us into the (NCAA) tournament."

Xavier Gibson led Florida State with 16 points, while Snaer scored 14 ? including a banked-in 3 to beat the buzzer on the final play of the first half.

Duke led by nine in the first half and by eight midway through the second, but the Seminoles just wouldn't let the Blue Devils pull away to tie a school and ACC record for the longest home winning streak. Instead, they kept attacking and knocking down tough shots.

In fact, Snaer knocked down a pair of clutch shots in the final minute. On the first, he drove into the paint and knocked down a pull-up for a 71-70 lead with 55.8 seconds left. Then ? after Austin Rivers tied the game on a driving basket with 4.9 seconds left ? Snaer answered with an even bigger one, putting him at the center of a celebration that migrated all the way across the court to stand in front of a stunned group of Cameron Crazies.

"The kid hit a beautiful shot," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said the shot looked good to him, prompting a reporter to ask him if he had any doubts it would go in.

"None whatsoever," Hamilton said as he playfully looked to the ceiling. "That's my story and I'm sticking to it."

Duke came in ranked last in the ACC in field goal percentage defense, an unusual stat for Krzyzewski's program. Florida State finished this one at 54 percent, including 67 percent (18 for 27) in a tense second half. The Seminoles scored 50 points after halftime.

Rivers hit a free throw to give Duke a 70-69 lead with 1:13 left, but he missed the second and Snaer followed with his basket for the lead. But Loucks and Gibson each went 1 for 2 at the line in the final 35 seconds, setting up Rivers' final basket that put Duke within reach of overtime.

Duke had won 46 straight at home from 1997-2000, and most of the wins in the current 45-game streak had come by double-digit margins. Duke overcame its own 40-percent shooting by knocking down 10 3-pointers. The Blue Devils also dominated the offensive boards and outscored Florida State 20-6 on second-chance points, but they couldn't come up with a final stop.

"It's so frustrating because we prepare so well and work so hard," Rivers said. "Everybody fought. I don't think anybody was lazy. We were blow for blow and they got that last blow in, the last shot at the last second."

Rivers had 19 points to lead Duke, while Dawkins had 14.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_sp_co_ga_su/bkc_t25_florida_state_duke

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Costa CEO says captain misled company, crew (AP)

ROME ? The cruise captain who grounded the Costa Concordia off the Tuscan coast with 4,200 people on board did not relay correct information either to the company or crew after the ship hit rocks, the cruise ship owner's CEO said Friday as the search resumed for 21 missing passengers.

CEO Pierluigi Foschi told Italian state TV that the company spoke to the captain at 10:05 p.m. (2105 GMT; 4:05 p.m. EST), some 20 minutes after the ship ran aground on Jan. 13, but could not offer proper assistance because the captain's description "did not correspond to the truth."

Capt. Francesco Schettino said only that he had "problems" on board but did not mention hitting a reef.

Likewise, Foschi said crew members were not informed of the gravity of the situation.

Passenger video shown on Italian TV indicates crew members telling passengers to go to their cabins as late as 10:25 p.m. (2125 GMT; 4:25 p.m. EST). The abandon ship alarm sounded just before 11:00 p.m. (2200 GMT; 5:00 p.m. EST).

"That's because they also did not receive correct information on the gravity of the situation," Foschi said.

The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into well-charted rocks off the island of Giglio a week ago. Eleven people have been confirmed dead.

The Concordia shifted again on its rocky perch Friday, forcing the suspension of diving search operations for the 21 people still missing and raising concerns about the stability of the ship's resting place. But the search in areas above the waterline resumed in the evening after the ship was deemed stable.

The remarks by Costa CEO Foschi are the latest to indicate a lack of proper communication with authorities on land as the emergency unfolded.

An audiotape of the Concordia's first contact with maritime authorities has a Concordia office repeatedly replying that the ship had experienced a blackout, even though it had hit the reef more than half an hour earlier.

Italian media reported the officer on the call was Schettino, but that could not be independently confirmed.

Costa Crociere SpA, which offered support to the captain in the hours after the emergency, has now turned its back on the man who is under investigation for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship. Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship, is under house arrest near Naples.

Costa in recent days has suspended Schettino, announced it is no longer paying his legal fees and has signed on as a civil party in the prosecution, a move that positions it as an injured party and would allow it to seek damages in the case of a guilty verdict.

Coast Guard spokesman Cmdr. Cosimo Nicastro said crews will evaluate the ship's stability Saturday morning to see if the diving operation can resume, focusing on an area where passengers would have sought lifeboats, Nicastro said.

It was not clear if the slight movements registered by sensors placed on board the Costa Concordia were just vibrations as the ship settles on the rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio or if the massive ocean liner is slowly slipping off the reef. Salvage experts suggest it could be because of pockets of air gradually escaping.

The sensors detected that the ship's bow was moving about 15 millimeters (half an inch) an hour and the stern about 7 millimeters (one-quarter inch) an hour, said Nicola Casagli of the University of Florence, who was called in by Italian authorities to monitor the ship's stability.

The Concordia's movements are being watched since any significant shift could be dangerous for divers trying to locate those missing since the Concordia ran aground Jan. 13. An additional fear is that movement could damage tanks holding a 500,000 gallons of fuel oil and lead to leaks.

The sea floor drops off sharply a few meters (yards) from where the ship is resting, and Italy's environment minister has warned it risks sinking.

On Friday, relatives of some of the 21 missing were at Giglio's port getting briefings from rescue teams.

Casagli told Sky TG24 that some movement in the Concordia was only natural given the immense weight of the steel-hulled ship, which is being held in place by two huge rocks at bow and stern.

But the latest movements indicate it isn't stable, he said. "These are small, regular movements that are being monitored because they're going in the same direction," he told Sky.

Late Thursday, Carnival Corp., the U.S.-based company that owns Costa, announced it was conducting a comprehensive audit of all 10 of its cruise lines to review safety and emergency response procedures in the wake of the Costa disaster. The evacuation was chaotic and the alarm to abandon the ship was sounded after the Concordia had capsized too much to get many life boats down.

___

Colleen Barry reported from Milan. Andrea Foa contributed from Giglio, Italy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_italy_cruise_aground

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Town Turns Off the Lights To See the Stars

The main reasons for street lighting is to make obstacles and pedestrians more visible to motorists, to allow pedestrians to move around without carrying a torch, and to make them feel safer.

In this case, they'd closed the roads around the town for this stunt, so no need for worrying about cars, and a good fraction of the population of the town was out on the street, so there were fewer empty dark back alleys down which to get stabbed (plus it's a small rural town; if it's anything like mine crime is generally livestock related...), and everyone there knew about it months in advance, so I'd expect they were stocked up on torches and batteries. It was just a shame it was so cloudy!

If you have never seen the stars without light pollution, go to somewhere in the middle of nowhere and have a look. It's quite hard to do in the UK, as our population density (and thus light pollution) is many times that of the US, so there aren't many really empty places left. It's a real tragedy that for a little convenience and marginal extra safety we've given up our window seat at the edge of the rest of the universe.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/GMbE0HW0Wsk/town-turns-off-the-lights-to-see-the-stars

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Birds flying faster than ever due to warming

Wind speeds over the Southern Ocean have been increasing over the past three decades and those stronger winds are boosting birds in the area to faster flying speeds, according to new research.

The wind speed shift is linked to climate change in the study, which was published in the latest issue of Science. The impact, at least for now, is a boon for certain birds. It shortens the length of their foraging trips, improves their breeding success and is even causing birds to gain more than two pounds in weight.

The scientists focused their study on the wandering albatross, a bird that spends most of its life in flight, touching down on land mostly just to find food or to breed. The windy Crozet islands in the Southern Ocean have been home to one population of such albatrosses for ages. The researchers believe that other birds, such as petrels, have been affected by the wind changes too.

PHOTOS: Albatrosses Find Fast Food at Sea

"Winds have increased overall at the world's oceans, with some areas being more affected than others, but still the increase is global," lead author Henri Weimerskirch told Discovery News. "The advantage we have with the Crozet is that we have a long term record of the population parameters, and also the movements of the birds, which is a unique situation."

Weimerskirch, a researcher at France's Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chize, and his team analyzed 40 years' worth of information on the Crozet albatross population. For decades, researchers have monitored the birds' feeding and breeding, and in 1989 they began outfitting the birds with satellite transmitters to track their travels.

The researchers found that westerly winds in the Southern Ocean have increased, on average, by 15 percent over the past few decades. Both female and male flight speeds got a boost as a result, with females alone traveling about 311 miles per day in 1990, but about 435 miles per day as of 2010.

Easier flights for the birds have improved their breeding success, allowing them to grow larger. As it is, this species has the largest wingspan of any living bird. It's possible that the weight gain is an adjustment to the speedier winds, allowing the birds to experience greater wing loading while in flight.

In addition to heightened wind speeds, the westerlies in the Southern Ocean are also now gradually moving poleward. All animals in the region, from birds to their prey, have likely been affected by the changes.

"Many albatrosses and petrels are using wind for their movements, either when they search for food during central place foraging movements, or for their migratory movements over the oceans, thus these changes should undoubtedly affect many other species," Weimerskirch said. "They should affect the food web, by increasing current strength, turbidity and therefore production, but this aspect is not well known so far."

BLOG: Climate Change Could Shrink Animals

At present, birds appear to be benefiting from the wind shifts, which the researchers attribute to climate change. But these positive consequences of global warming may be temporary if patterns of wind in the southern westerlies follow predicted climate change scenarios.

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Weimerskirch said models predict that wind strength will continue to increase, and that the poleward shift will continue. By 2080, the westerly flow now centered around Crozet will be further to the south, taking away the bird's easy ride. At present the birds are also under constant threat from longline tuna fisheries, which have indirectly killed many albatrosses and other animals.

Scott Shaffer, an assistant professor of biology at San Jose State University, studied wandering albatrosses back in the late 1990s, as part of his doctoral thesis.

Shaffer told Discovery News that he was struck by the changes documented to the birds' body weight.

"This is one of the most surprising aspects of the study and is consistent with the changes in wind patterns because wind is everything to these birds and body mass changes influence their flight performance," Shaffer said. "To see such changes over this time period is amazing."

? 2012 Discovery Channel

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45976436/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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JPMorgan profit falls, but sees hope in economy (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? The drag of the European debt crisis on investment banking weighed on JPMorgan Chase & Co's fourth-quarter profit, sending financial stocks tumbling even as the bank provided evidence that the domestic economy is strengthening.

Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said the New York-based bank was seeing signs of improvement in credit quality as well as loan demand from corporations and consumers in the United States.

"We see a mild recovery which actually might be strengthening, and it's broad," Dimon said in a conference call with reporters following the earnings report on Friday. "Hopefully, it will add to more jobs. We have seen jobs growing ... it's not enough but it could be self-sustaining."

Loan balances in JPMorgan's commercial division were up 13 percent at the end of December compared with a year earlier, the sixth consecutive quarterly rise in the measure of business borrowing.

But Dimon sounded renewed alarm on the European debt crisis. "I would put myself in the 'increasing worried' category," he said.

His comments came shortly before a senior euro zone government source said credit rating agency Standard & Poor's was set to downgrade several euro zone countries, not including Germany. The report sent the euro and U.S. markets lower.

JPMorgan shares fell 2.9 percent in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, while the KBW banks index was down 0.7 percent.

JPMorgan is the first major U.S. bank to announce results for the fourth quarter. Its weak investment banking results suggest Wall Street firms Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley will also report tough quarters when they issue results next week.

Others such as Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc, which also report results in the coming days, could benefit from the stronger business loan demand that JPMorgan experienced, but could also face problems in investment banking and housing loans.

Dimon, in a conference call with stock analysts, predicted that other banks will also report what he called "good loan growth in commercial banking." Shares of U.S. regional banks seemed to reflect Dimon's view as they traded better during the day, with PNC Financial Services sliding 0.8 percent and US Bancorp rising 0.8 percent.

But Dimon also conceded that at least some of JPMorgan's new loans came from taking business from competitors. European banks have been retreating from lending in the U.S. and JPMorgan has been deploying new loan marketers in California and Florida.

In a discouraging sign for upcoming results from private equity firms such as Blackstone Group LP, JPMorgan's competing unit showed an $89 million loss in the quarter because of a decline in investment values.

JPMorgan's results "show that there are major headwinds against the banking industry and it requires a strong management team to battle the headwinds," said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm Libertyview Capital Management in New York.

"The bigger negatives tend to be the housing and mortgage situation and investors questioning, 'Have we really hit bottom in this sector or is this just a black hole?'"

In afternoon dealings, Goldman Sachs shares were down 2.5 percent, Morgan Stanley was off 2.9 percent, Bank of America fell 2.8 percent, and Citigroup dropped 3.1 percent.

"We all knew the fourth quarter would be difficult," said Gary Townsend of Hill-Townsend Capital. "But the overall economic outlook has been improving from an economic standpoint starting in December."

ROUGH TIMES

JPMorgan said fourth-quarter net income was $3.72 billion, or 90 cents a share, down from $4.83 billion, or $1.12 a share, a year earlier.

Wall Street analysts, on average, had expected 90 cents a share, according to surveys by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

There had been some expectation the bank would do better, but that view faded after Dimon warned on December 7 that investment banking was not improving. "He did a great job guiding people down, but people thought he would beat" the estimate, said Paul Miller of FBR Capital Markets.

Revenue declined 17 percent to $22.2 billion on an adjusted basis, missing the average Wall Street estimate of about $23 billion.

Investment banking revenue fell 30 percent to $4.36 billion, hurt by a 39 percent drop in underwriting and advisory fees, a 13 percent decline in fixed income, and a 31 percent fall in equity markets.

The results were complicated by an accounting adjustment that reduced earnings by 9 cents per share to reflect a change in the market value of JPMorgan debt during the quarter. In the third quarter, the accounting adjustment added 29 cents per share to profits.

The bank also booked more than half a billion dollars in additional expenses for litigation, primarily for mortgage matters, an amount that totaled 8 cents a share. It said reducing its loan loss reserves added 11 cents per share to earnings.

"The earnings show how well JPMorgan can be managed in one of the roughest times," said money manager Michael Holland, founder of Holland & Co. "They were able to pull off a meet-or-beat quarter."

The bank's return on equity, a key measure of shareholder profits, fell to 8 percent from 11 percent a year earlier and 9 percent in the 2011 third quarter.

The company's quarter-end share count declined 4 percent from a year earlier as it bought back stock.

For the first time in three quarters, JPMorgan booked more income and revenue from its credit card and card loan businesses than from any other area.

Net income from the consumer credit areas was $1.1 billion, or 28.2 percent of total profit. Investment banking profit, by far the largest generator of profits in the first three quarters of 2011, fell 52 percent to $726 million, or 19.5 percent of total quarterly profit.

(Additional reporting by Jed Horowitz and Angela Moon in New York, Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Ben Berkowitz in Boston; editing by Alwyn Scott, John Wallace and Gerald E. McCormick)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120113/bs_nm/us_jpmorgan

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Mercedes-Benz intros mbrace2 at CES, brings apps to the car

Here at Mercedes-Benz's CES keynote (it's first), the creator of the automobile just unveiled the successor to its telematics system: mbrace2. This second generation builds upon last year's release, focusing heavily on adding social media into the mix with app support like Twitter, Facebook and Yelp via a smartphone -- much in the vein of BMW Apps and Ford SYNC AppLink. Rolling out first in the 2013 SL and later eventually to all US models, CEO Dieter Zetsche also mentioned it'll update itself, as lets face it, visits just to the dealer just for new features isn't pleasant nor speedy. Stay tuned for a hands-on from the show floor in a few.

Gallery: Mercedes Benz CES keynote

Joe Pollicino contributed to this report.

Mercedes-Benz intros mbrace2 at CES, brings apps to the car originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/10/mercedes-benz-intros-mbrace2-at-ces-brings-apps-to-the-car/

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Video: Dogs help the healing process??

David Frei, founder of ?Angel on a leash? ?and host of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on how dogs improve the lives they touch.? ?

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/45787279/

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Discovery of the smallest exoplanets: The Barnard's star connection

Thursday, January 12, 2012
This artist's concept depicts an itsy bitsy planetary system -- so compact, in fact, that it's more like Jupiter and its moons than a star and its planets. Astronomers using data from NASA's Kepler mission and ground-based telescopes recently confirmed that the system, called KOI-961, hosts the three smallest exoplanets known so far to orbit a star other than our sun. An exoplanet is a planet that resides outside of our solar system. The star, which is located about 130 light-years away in the Cygnus constellation, is what's called a red dwarf. It's one-sixth the size of the sun, or just 70 percent bigger than Jupiter. The star is also cooler than our sun, and gives off more red light than yellow. The smallest of the three planets, called KOI-961.03, is actually located the farthest from the star, and is pictured in the foreground. This planet is about the same size as Mars, with a radius only 0.57 times that of Earth. The next planet to the upper right is KOI-961.01, which is 0.78 times the radius of Earth. The planet closest to the star is KOI-961.02, with a radius 0.73 times the Earth's. All three planets whip around the star in less than two days, with the closest planet taking less than half a day. Their close proximity to the star also means they are scorching hot, with temperatures ranging from 350 to 836 degrees Fahrenheit (176 to 447 degrees Celsius). The star's habitable zone, or the region where liquid water could exist, is located far beyond the planets. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The discovery of the three smallest planets yet orbiting a distant star, which was announced today at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society, has an unusual connection to Barnard's star, one of the Sun's nearest neighbors.

The discovery was made by a scientific team led by astronomers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) that included three members from Vanderbilt. The team used data from NASA's Kepler mission combined with additional observations of a single star, called KOI-961, to determine that it possesses three planets that range in size from 0.57 to 0.78 times the radius of Earth. This makes them the smallest of the more than 700 exoplanets confirmed to orbit other stars.

In their investigation of KOI-961, which is about 130 light years away in the Cygnus constellation, the astronomers found that it is nearly identical to Barnard's star, which is only six light years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. This similarity allowed them to use information about Barnard's star, which was discovered in 1916 by Vanderbilt astronomer E.E. Barnard, to determine the mass, size and luminosity of the distant star. These values, in turn, were used to determine the size of the three new exoplanets.

"Barnard's star and KOI-961 are both M dwarfs, which are also known as red dwarfs. This is the smallest category of stars. They are popular targets for exoplanet hunters because their small size makes it easier to detect Earth-sized planets," said Keivan Stassun, the professor of astronomy who headed the Vanderbilt contingent. The other Vanderbilt scientists involved were Research Assistant Professors Joshua Pepper and Leslie Hebb.

From the 1960's through the 1980's, astronomers thought that Barnard's star also had a planetary system ? specifically one or two planets larger than Jupiter. If their existence had been verified, it would have been a scientific first, but the evidence was ultimately discredited. Today, advances in telescope technology and image processing allow astronomers to identify stars with exoplanets with considerable confidence.

Barnard's star favorite of science fiction destination

Although Barnard's star is too dim to be seen by the naked eye, its proximity to the Sun and the possibility that it possessed a planetary system made it a favorite destination for science fiction writers. It appears in dozens of science fiction novels, including Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, movies like the 1979 film The Alien Encounters, television series including Galactica Discovers Earth and a number of computer and video games.

By contrast, KOI-961 is one of thousands of nameless stars that NASA's Kepler mission has identified as candidates that may possess planetary systems. The Kepler spacecraft contains a specially designed telescope that continuously monitors the brightness of 150,000 stars at a time. It flags stars whose brightness dips periodically because the dimming could be caused by a planet that passes in the front of the star as viewed from Earth. Astronomers call this the transit method of planet detection.

The Caltech team used the Kepler data on KOI-961 along with follow-up observations from the Palomar Observatory near San Diego and the W.W. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to confirm the existence of its planetary system and to determine the size of its planets.

Vanderbilt astronomers helped determine star's size

The transit method provides astronomers with the ratio of the size of the planet to that of the star. As a result, they needed to determine the star's size to calculate the size of the planets. The Kepler telescope gives some crude information about a star's diameter, but the researchers knew that this data is particularly unreliable for M dwarfs, Stassun said. So the Vanderbilt contingent performed the additional telescope observations and analysis that were required to get an accurate estimate of the star's size.

To get better estimates of the star's properties, the astronomers obtained an accurate measure of the star's color from Vanderbilt's telescope in southern Arizona and a detailed spectrum of the star from Palomar and Keck. This provided a fingerprint of KOI-961. "When we compared its fingerprint with those of the best known M dwarfs we found that Barnard's star was the best match," said Stassun.

That was fortunate because Barnard's star is the one of the most studied and best characterized M dwarfs. Specifically, there is an accurate estimate of its size, which is one-fifth that of the Sun. This allowed the researchers to start with a mathematical model of Barnard's star and alter it to account for the subtle differences between the two stars. When they did, the model produced an even smaller estimate of KOI-961's size: about one-sixth that of the Sun.

Once the size of the star was established, the team used the Kepler data to calculate that the three exoplanets range from the size of Mars to slightly more than three-quarters the size of Earth. They also determined that these planets orbit the star with periods ranging from a half day to two days. Such short periods mean that all three orbit so close to their star that they must be too hot for liquid water to exist and life to evolve, the astronomers calculate.

New system comparable in size to Jupiter and its moons

The diminutive dimensions of this planetary system prompted John Johnson, the principal investigator of the research from NASA's Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech, to comment, "The really amazing thing about this system is that the closest size comparison is to Jupiter and its moons." (KOI-961 is just 70 percent bigger than Jupiter and its exoplanets are comparable in size and have similar orbital periods to the Galilean moons that circle the Jovian planet.)

The fact that Barnard's star doesn't have a giant planet doesn't preclude the possibility that it has smaller planets. The discovery of another M dwarf that has small exoplanets increases the likelihood that Barnard's star may have some as well. If it does, however, the planets must orbit at a much greater distance than those at KOI-961. The Kepler mission requires that the image of a star must dip three times before it is tagged as a planet-bearing candidate. As a result, the longer a planet's orbital period, the more difficult it is to discover. For example, if a planet orbits a star once a year, it would take three years of continuous observations to detect in this fashion.

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Vanderbilt University: http://www.exploration.vanderbilt.edu

Thanks to Vanderbilt University for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116665/Discovery_of_the_smallest_exoplanets__The_Barnard_s_star_connection

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