Obama seeks share of spotlight in Florida (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama is pitching a plan for boosting U.S. tourism near Orlando, just as Republican presidential candidates prepare to blanket Florida with an anti-Obama message ahead of the state's Jan. 31 primary.

Thursday's trip is the latest attempt by the White House and Obama campaign to steal a share of the spotlight from Republicans in the midst of their nomination fight. Obama held a live video conference with Iowa voters during the Republican caucus, Vice President Joe Biden held a similar event with voters in New Hampshire as primary votes there were being counted, and next week Obama will travel to Nevada, which follows Florida on the primary calendar.

Obama's high-profile trip to Florida ? the president will speak at Walt Disney World ? could help him counter attacks on his record lobbed by Republican presidential candidates during stops across the state, and in television ads already running in Florida. And it allows Obama to lay the groundwork for the general election campaign in Florida, a key political battleground he carried in 2008.

The White House said Obama would unveil a new strategy to boost tourism and travel during his speech at Disney. The announcement is part of the president's "We Can't Wait" initiative aimed at promoting executive actions Obama can take without congressional approval.

Tourism is a key component of the economy in Florida, which is burdened by 10 percent unemployment and rampant home foreclosures.

Republican front-runner Mitt Romney already has been testing economic attacks on Obama in Florida. A campaign mailer sent recently to Florida Republicans said: "Our economy has fallen flat. Who's to blame?" Another proclaims that Romney is the strongest to lead the country out of economic turmoil, arguing, "With conservative leadership, America can be first in the world in job creation again."

A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed the president in a near-statistical tie with Romney in a head-to-head matchup.

The White House insists the president's trip to Florida is not purely political. Obama spokesman Jay Carney said that if the White House couldn't travel to any state with a primary, "that would make it impossible for us."

From Florida, Obama will fly to New York City for four glitzy campaign fundraisers, including an event at the famed Apollo Theater featuring performances by Al Green and India Arie. Tickets to that fundraiser start at $100.

The president also will attend a $35,800 per ticket fundraiser at the home of director Spike Lee, and two small fundraisers at Daniel, an exclusive Manhattan restaurant. Tickets start at $5,000 for the first restaurant fundraiser and $15,000 for the second.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_el_pr/us_obama

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Iran says ready to discuss "any issues" with IAEA (Reuters)

VIENNA (Reuters) ? Iran said on Tuesday it was open to discuss "any issues" in rare talks this month with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, which wants Tehran to address mounting concerns that it may be trying to develop nuclear weapons capability.

With the Islamic state facing intensifying sanctions aimed at its oil exports, a senior Iranian official said a high-level team from the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would hold three days of talks in Tehran from Jan 29-31.

The IAEA delegation, to be headed by Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts, is expected to seek explanations regarding intelligence information indicating Iran has engaged in research and development relevant for nuclear weapons.

It coincides with increased tension in the international row over Iranian nuclear work the United States and its allies suspect has military aims. Iran, a major oil producer, says it is aimed at generating electricity.

Western diplomats, who have often accused Iran of stalling tactics as it presses ahead with its nuclear program, have expressed doubt that the planned IAEA trip will lead to any major progress in the long-running nuclear dispute.

Asked whether Iranian officials would be ready to talk about

IAEA questions of possible military links to the nuclear program, Iran's IAEA envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh told Reuters:

"We are open to discuss any issues that the IAEA is interested to discuss, within the framework of its mandate of course ... I am optimistic that we will have a constructive, professional, technical meeting."

He did not say which Iranian officials would take part in the talks. There was no immediate comment from the IAEA.

Iran rejects accusations that it has coordinated efforts to process uranium, test high explosives and revamp a ballistic missile cone to accommodate a nuclear warhead.

SUBSTANTIVE TALKS?

While U.N. inspectors regularly monitor Iran's declared nuclear facilities, their movements are otherwise restricted, and the IAEA has complained for years of a lack of access to sites, equipment, documents and people relevant to its probe.

Iran says its nuclear work is purely peaceful, and has shown no sign of backing down in the face of international demands that it suspends its uranium enrichment program.

It has stoked Western suspicions by starting to enrich uranium deep inside a mountain at Fordow, stepping up protection of activity that can have both military and civilian purposes.

But its leadership has come under growing pressure since the IAEA reported in November that Tehran appeared to have worked on designing a nuclear weapon and that secret research to that end may be continuing.

Referring to the nuclear dispute, Soltanieh said the discussions with the IAEA team would be aimed at "removing the ambiguities and concluding all this seemingly endless process."

The IAEA visit showed Iran's "determination for cooperation and engagement with the IAEA in a constructive and transparent manner," the Iranian ambassador added.

Iranian officials have used similar language before, and Western diplomats say they remain skeptical about Iran's willingness to seriously answer the agency's questions.

The IAEA wants it "to be a substantive meeting where Iran is actually responding to the questions and not talking about how to respond to the questions in the future," one diplomat said.

"And I think Iran has no intention of responding substantively to the questions," the envoy added.

(Additional reporting by Zahra Hosseinian)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120117/wl_nm/us_nuclear_iran_iaea

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Santorum Flirts With Negativity (ABC News)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/187325080?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Bacillus subtilis for Missoni

Bacteria grow by dividing in half, their population doubling in size as fast as every twenty minutes. In a few short hours, a bacterial culture can go from a single cell to billions, and from being invisible to the naked eye to forming dense colonies on a petri dish, sometimes centimeters across. These colonies can be relatively boring little circular mounds, swarms that form ridged waves, or fractal branched patterns [PDF].

Fractal growth of B. subtilis, from Fujikawa and Matsushita, Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 1989.

These fractal colonies are formed by the soil bacteria Bacillus subtilis, forming different shapes depending on the conditions of the petri dish, the presence of nutrients and the humidity. Depending on these external conditions and the rules of how the cells grow and respond after bumping into each other, amazing patterns can emerge.

Fernan Federici, a researcher in the Haseloff Lab at Cambridge University and one of the Synthetic Aesthetics residents, studies how cells grow and develop into complex shapes and structures. Using confocal microscopy, he tracks the growth of plant cells and tissues, creating models of how cell structures form and beautiful images, including two winners of the Wellcome Image Awards in 2011.

Award winning images by Fernan Federici

In collaboration with computer scientist Tim Rudge, Fernan also studies how patterns form in B. subtilus colonies and biofilms, with the goal of eventually being able to modify the rules of how these cells interact to design new emergent patterns. His images of the fluorescent bacterial cells are incredible, and you can begin to see how complex patterns form from the interaction of growing cells at high magnification:

To the interaction of two growing cell-types, one tagged with a red fluorescent protein and one green:

And zoomed out further with more colors added, creating patterns that look like Missoni fabric (and that I would love to have a dress made out of):

For more amazing photos, check out Fernan?s plant or bacteria images on his Flickr page.

(via freshphotons)

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=4537acaae73053ac97263dddf4df11a4

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Sarah Palin to Newsweek: YOU'RE Dumb!

Many conservatives are furious over Newsweek's controversy-bait cover story by Andrew Sullivan, whose headline asks, "Why Are Obama's Critics So Dumb?"

Sarah Palin is taking it particularly personally, though.

"Know what's truly 'dumb'?" Palin Tweeted. "Giving a cover story to the Trig Truther conspiracy kook writer who thinks I didn't give birth to my son."

In a play on the "Birther" conspiracy surrounding Obama's birth certificate, Palin is calling out Sullivan for questioning whether she is Trig's real mother.

In 2008, Sullivan and others theorized that a Sarah Palin pregnancy scandal involving a cover-up of Bristol Palin getting knocked up could be in effect.

Bristol was, of course, pregnant with Tripp, not Trig.

He hypothesized that Palin "faked the pregnancy to avoid embarrassment for her daughter [Bristol Palin] or for political gain or some combination of reasons."

Sullivan's response to Palin calling him out today?

"I have no idea, as I have said time and time again, whether Sarah Palin gave birth to Trig, and have never written such a thing."

"All I ever asked for a person who could become president was some basic evidence for her insane story, like medical records that most candidates have no problem providing."

"She never provided any, and preferred to withdraw from seeking public office rather than do so. Of course, no response to the substance. She doesn't do substance. Neither, it seems, does much of the rightwing blogosphere.

Other conservative bloggers have fired back against Sullivan on political grounds. Andrew Breitbart's Big Government writes "Why Is Andrew Sullivan So Dumb?"

"You'd have to be stupid, fanatical, and dishonest to argue - as Trig Truther Sullivan does - that Barack Obama's failures are part of an ingenious 'long game' destined to succeed," he wrote. "If this is the best Obama's supporters can do, Obama's only hope for re-election is the weak Republican field."

During a Fox News segment on Sullivan's article Monday night, the network blurred out Sullivan's name when showing the Newsweek cover.

"They are far too afraid to have me on to defend it," Sullivan wrote. "I've been on the blacklist for years. Like Ron Paul, too dangerous for Fox."

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/sarah-palin-to-newsweek-youre-dumb/

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Video: John Edwards? medical condition delays trial

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/46012133#46012133

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Zach Gage on gaming for art's sake - Edge Magazine

Zach Gage is the conceptual artist, and now videogame designer, behind games such as SpellTower, BitPilot and SynthPond. While initially self-contained art projects, his work has veered ever closer to traditional videogames to the point that now a distinction is harder to make. Here, we continue the conversation started in our profile of Gage in issue 237 of Edge.

Do you make any distinction between your work as an artist and a designer?
I think for a long time there was a serious distinction. When I first started, there was a real split between the stuff I was doing as games, the stuff I was doing as art, and the stuff I was doing as a crossover. My new media stuff was clearly art, and then Unify was clearly a game, and then Lose/Lose was art that makes use of a game to promote what it?s saying.?Lately those things have blended. There are definitely still categories, but I don?t know if the categories would be art and games. Most of my new media stuff is still conceptual internet sculpture, but the games, I wouldn?t say they?re not art. They?re just game experiences that are a different category of art. I?d split them up just as I?d split sculptures up from any paintings I might do.?

I think where games are at currently, it?s just too hard to discuss them in terms of art. Where it really came up for me was when I was trying to work out what I wanted to spend my time doing. For a while I was really concerned that I was falling into games and doing all this game stuff, and I felt like I really wanted to be putting forth artistically meaningful works like I?d done a couple of years ago. But then I realised that we don?t really know what games mean yet; we don?t really know where they fit into cultural frameworks. And that actually makes them more exciting, because I?m not trying to fit the meaning and the success of the work onto something that?s already been defined very well. I?m just trying to make the greatest and most interesting thing that I can, and then years down the road we?ll see what was important and what that all meant.

As an artist, did you suspect that games might be beneath you and the things you should actually be doing for a time?
I don?t think beneath is the word I would use, but I think art has always been really special to me. I hate to say this, but there?s a moment that I?ve had a lot and it?s really important to me. It?s when I walk into a gallery and see a piece and it makes me feel something different, like when you go into a gallery and there?s painting on all the walls, there?s this reverence. The works just protrude into this tangible feeling and you feel amazing. I think games are amazing, and they?re artistically totally viable, but I haven?t gotten this feeling from them yet.?But then I realised that games have given me a lot of other experiences that aren?t that feeling. I remember playing Secret Of Mana when I was a kid, and that bit at the start where you?re thrust into the wilderness and you?re just looking around trying to find a town: that feeling?s amazing, and it?s not something I?ve ever got from art. It?s a different medium and a different thing, but I think it took a lot of time for me to come around to that and understand that I could spend a substantial amount of time building these things and that it?s worth it. Now it?s paying off in the same way that art pays off: I can give lots of people an awesome experience and share myself through the work.

Can you define that missing feeling?
It?s indefinable. I?m not religious, but I guess the feeling I get from art is bordering on religious reverence: the idea that something you?re looking at is connecting to so many parts of you and so many parts of the world that you can?t even begin to understand what it is. I think there are actually games that do this, they just do it differently. Poker and Go, say, do this, but we just don?t engage with them the right way enough. When you first start in on Poker or Go, it?s really visceral. When you?re looking at a painting, you don?t think about how you?re looking at a painting, you just stare at it and let go. But then, Secret Of Mana, that was amazing because after I was in that world, I still thought about it. That?s a lot more like how we engage with art, and it?s also where the fond, incredible memories comes from.

You have an interest in sculpture that is created as a by-product of something. SpellTower and SynthPond seem to be built on similar ideas. Is that link with sculpture something that attracted you to working with games?
That?s interesting. I hadn?t thought about it like that at all, but I definitely think you?re picking up on something that?s there. The way I engage with this stuff is that I?m trying to explore the world and the way I think about it, and I try to find physical or digital means of getting other people to have the same experiences. It?s about dealing with all of these small ideas and systems as efficiently as possible.?It?s often about following a feeling. With Spelltower, I didn?t understand word games at all, and I decided I wanted to make one, and with the visuals and the idea, I just followed where I felt it was going and where I thought it would work. What?s left from that is what people get to play.

SpellTower

You made?SpellTower?because you didn?t like the word game genre. Did you find yourself excavating a lot of the rules of the genre on a first principles approach?
Yes, and it was amazing. I love engaging with stuff I have absolutely no idea about. With?SpellTower?it was really incredible to watch people play word games and to find out what they liked. The entire concept that when you design a word game, you?re designing a game for people who could have perfect skills. That blew my mind. You can?t be perfect at?Halo, but you can actually know the dictionary - it?s a physical possibility. How do you make something that?they?like? It?s a really hard problem. It made me realise that the reason people like?Bookworm?or Boggle is that you can show off how good you are. I?m not even sure they?re games. They?re more like exercises in showing off. So a lot of?SpellTower?was figuring out how to take something like that and make it a game. How do I bring the game part back? How do I make strategy important in all of this? I have one vector of difficulty, which is how good you are at words, and I have another one which is strategy. So it doesn?t matter how good you are with words, because if you suck at strategy, you won?t be able to win. The good stuff often has to emerge. A lot of times the coolest stuff, and the most interesting stuff, are the things that you look at it and think, 'There?s no way I can do that. It?s crazy. I don?t know anything about it'.

I?ve done that with a couple of things. I did it with?SynthPond, because I wanted to make a musical instrument and I didn?t know anything about music. With?Unify?it was because I wanted to make a block-dropping game and I hated block-dropping games. I learned to so much and now I really love them. With?SpellTower?it was, okay, I have two weeks to do something I?ve never done before that I hate. That sounds awesome. Let?s fucking do that.

Were you a fan of games as a kid?
I definitely was. My mom was really smart and didn?t let me have videogames, so I ended up playing them at friends? houses then coming home and designing them with something called Kid Pix. It was a gamified drawing program for kids. Then Apple had something called Coco ? it?s different to the Coco they have now ? which was essentially a way for young people to learn object-oriented programming. It still exists in the form of a company called Stagecast, but it was really cool back then. I did a lot of that at school, and I thought I wanted to be a game designer, and then I went off to college and art just sucked me in. So this is like a return to that.

Source: http://www.edge-online.com/features/zach-gage-gaming-arts-sake

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Investing in America's Lands ? ArticleZio / Dofollow Article Directory

Land investments are an investing option that has been around for centuries. Investment lands can be farms, recreational property, timberland, forest land or other vacant tracts. It can be held indivudally or along with partners and/or family members.

Here are some advantages of buying land. Unlike investments in gold, bullion and other commodities, it cannot be stolen easily. Land does not come with the risks of investing in shares and bonds. It can be mortgaged more than once to raise some funds for emergencies or other investments. Property does not lose value over a period like the money in banks which fails to keep pace with inflation, it records consistent appreciation, which can be realized after a long period of time. The appreciation works at a rate which is generally much higher than inflation, and bank interest rates. More often than not, investmenting in vast open lands that may not have much value as of now can give dividends about 20 to 25 years later. Buying property provides a means of tax planning. If the money is invested in land for appreciation, the investor becomes liable to tax only if he sells the property. If he chooses to hold the property for 20 years, he pays no tax on annual or biannual capital appreciation till the date he sells the property. Effectively, such capital appreciation gets compounded without deducting tax component. Had the investor opted to invest in some bank deposit, the interest earned thereon would be taxable. Best of all, you can lease out your land for another source of income.

Where to find land for sale? This is what Westslope Properties can answer for you. Westslope Properties markets land that has, for generations, been managed as a working forest land. Our extensive collection of properties has some of the best scenic views, waterfront access, recreational property, and hunting land for sale on the market today. Our land continues to be privately managed and has never before been available for sale until now.

We are not your average real estate company. Westslope Properties specializes exclusively in rural land for sale and offers only timberland properties that we manage. Our people are professional land sales agents who are rooted in the communities where they work, live and recreate. We know this land first-hand. It?s our job to make sure that you get what you want.

To find a Land for Sale, visit the website: http://www.westslopeproperties.com/land_sale/

Source: http://www.articlezio.com/2012/01/14/investing-in-americas-lands/

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No new offers from Israel, Abbas says (AP)

RAMALLAH, West Bank ? Israel has made no new proposals in meetings with Palestinians about the possibility of resuming formal peace talks, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday.

The sides met twice so far in Jordan, and two more meetings are set for Saturday and for Jan. 25, Abbas told members of his Fatah movement.

Abbas has said he will not resume negotiations unless Israel freezes settlement construction and accepts the pre-1967 Mideast War frontier as the baseline for a future border. Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in that war, and the Palestinians seek those territories for their state, but are ready for minor land swaps.

Israel has rejected both demands, arguing that everything must be discussed in negotiations. However, the Palestinians say settlement expansion pre-empts the outcome of negotiations and that after two decades of failed discussions, only a clear framework can lead to an agreement.

The Palestinians agreed to the low-level exploratory talks in the Jordanian capital of Amman in order not to be seen as the side torpedoing peace efforts. However, Abbas said nothing has been achieved so far.

"Until now, there is nothing new in the dialogue that is going on in Amman," Abbas told Fatah leaders, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. "We are not authorized to speak about what is going on in Amman, but our demands are known, and the Israelis didn't present something we can accept."

Abbas reiterated that despite U.S. and Israeli pressure, he has not abandoned his bid to seek U.N. membership for a state of Palestine, denounced by Israel as an attempt to bypass negotiations.

He also suggested that his Palestinian Authority will review its relationship with Israel if the deadlock continues, though he has said he would not dissolve the Palestinian Authority.

Earlier this week an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said disagreements emerged in the Amman talks but that his government remains committed to a year-end target for reaching a final peace deal. He said documents submitted by the Palestinians were "recycling" long-standing positions that Israel opposes.

The talks are taking place under the auspices of the international "Quartet" of Mideast peace mediators ? the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia.

In October, the Quartet asked the two sides to produce proposals on territory and security within three months. The Palestinians believe the deadline is Jan. 26. The Israeli official said Israel considers that three-month period to have begun last week, when the talks resumed.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120112/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

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This Week's Top Downloads [Download Roundup]

Jan 14, 2012 5:00 PM 11,429 0

• Unlock Root Roots Nearly 250 Android Devices in One Click [UPDATED] (Android) If you're looking to root your phone but don't want to pore over complicated instructions, a new program called Unlock Root claims to root a ton of different phones with ease.
• Gym-Pact Rewards You for Going to the Gym with Cash, Charges You when You Skip Out (iOS) If you just signed up for a gym membership, completely convinced that you'll go every day this year, keep in mind you're essentially throwing money away when you don't go. If you need a little more motivation to make the trip and work out, Gym-Pact is a new iOS app and webapp that lets you put your money where your mouth is. Go to the gym and check in with your phone and you'll be rewarded with cash payouts. Skip your workouts, and the service penalizes you and your bank account.
• OldChromeRemover Frees Up Disk Space Used by Old Versions of Chrome (Windows) We've mentioned before that Chrome stores old versions on your hard drive, which can eventually take up lots of space. OldChromeRemover is a simple app that will free that space back up for you.
• Movie Explorer Compiles Details for All Those Movies on Your Hard Drive (Windows) If you have lots of movies ripped or downloaded to your hard drive it can be difficult to keep track of the details. Movie Explorer is a self-executable program for Windows 2000 and up that will scan your hard drive and pull movie posters and details from iMDB. You can use Movie explorer to browse your movies and when you've made a selection you can launch the file directly from the program.
• Void Lock Secures Your Android Phone by Making It Appear Turned Off (Android) Void Lock keeps your phone secure by turning off your screen, as if the phone weren't on at all, and letting you unlock with a gesture.
• Get Linux Compiles Information, Screenshots, and more for Tons of Linux Distributions for Easy Reference (Windows) So you've gotten started with Linux, maybe tried Ubuntu or Mint, but you're ready to move on to another distro. Get Linux is a simple app that helps you browse information on tons of other distros available.
• Dragon Go! Brings Dragon's Superior Voice Search to Android (Android) While Android has a pretty great voice search system built-in, Dragon Go kicks it up a notch, with impeccable speech recognition skills and by automatically detecting what you're searching for and taking you to the correct web page.
• Sparkbox Is a Repository for Your Creative Inspiration (Mac) When you find an image you find particularly inspiring, you often want to save it. If you save a lot of these images, they can be hard to sort through and find as needed. That's where Sparkbox can help. It's a repository for your creative inspiration.
• Mindful Displays iCal Events and Reminders on Your Desktop (Mac) If you use iCal to manage your to-do list you may want to consider Mindful. This app creates a desktop view of your events and reminders for the day similar to the daily view function of most calendars.
• Boycott SOPA for Android Scans Products, Warns You If the Manufacturer Supports SOPA (Android) We've discussed several ways you can stay on top of the fight against SOPA, and ways you can get around it, but Boycott SOPA is an Android app that turns your smartphone into a powerful tool to speak with your dollars, and avoid financially supporting companies that support the bill.

Related Stories

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/DlQSo5QJWzA/this-weeks-top-downloads

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Taiwan re-elects president (Reuters)

TAIPEI (Reuters) ? Taiwan voters re-elected incumbent President Ma Ying-jeou on Saturday, endorsing his push for closer ties with Beijing and removing a potential irritant in Sino-U.S. relations as those two powers head for a year of political transition.

The election had been expected to be tight, but the Central Election Commission said the Nationalist Party's Ma Ying-jeou won about 51.6 percent of the vote versus about 45.6 percent for Tsai Ing-wen of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

"In the next four years, cross-strait relations will be more peaceful, with greater mutual trust and the chance of conflict will be less," Ma, 61, told thousands of his supporters, many clapping, waving red and blue Taiwan flags and cheering in the pouring rain outside the party headquarters in downtown Taipei.

There was no official comment from Beijing, but the Communist Party's official newspaper, the People's Daily, welcomed the outcome.

"This result shows that striving for peace, development and stability has become mainstream public opinion on the island of Taiwan, and this will promote the advance of cross-strait relations," said a commentary on its website (www.people.com.cn)

"In recent years, the peaceful development of cross-strait relations has brought dividends, and many members of Taiwan's public feel this deeply."

U.S. President Barack Obama congratulated Ma on the win. "Cross-strait peace, stability and improved relations, in an environment free from intimidation, are of profound importance to the United States," he said.

China claims Taiwan, a U.S. ally, as a renegade province that must be re-unified eventually with the mainland. U.S. arms sales to the island are a major bugbear for Beijing.

The election outcome would be a relief to China. The opposition DPP's independence-leaning stance has long angered Beijing, even though Tsai had tried to distance herself from that position in the campaign. Analysts had said a DPP win would have put ties with China in limbo, and sharpened Beijing's differences with the United States.

Ma's victory lifted a potential cloud over China's own leadership transition later this year. China's President Hu Jintao, who considers forging detente with Taiwan as a proud part of his legacy, is due to step down as Communist Party chief this year and as president next year as part of the leadership reshuffle.

ONE IRRITANT

For the United States as well, the result removes at least one prickly issue from its ties with China as Obama readies for his own re-election bid later this year.

"It's a good result for Ma's China policy, and it is probably also a good result for Beijing's Taiwan policy," said Alex Huang, professor of strategic studies at Taipei's Tamkang University.

"It is also a good result for the United States and for regional stability," he added, noting also that business will benefit from the continuity the same administration will provide.

However, Ma's victory was much reduced from the near 17-point margin he had over the DPP at the last election in 2008.

The Nationalist Party also won a clear majority in parliament, which should give Ma a fillip in pushing through policy. The election commission said the Nationalists won 64 seats in the 113-member legislature, although that is also lower than the 81 seats they had in the outgoing house.

"We will continue to let economic growth flourish, protect cross-strait peace and friendly relations to achieve more concrete results in cooperation in important areas," said Lien Chan, the honorary chairman of the Nationalists.

But in an acknowledgement of the reduced majority, he added: "We need to discuss thoroughly the criticism the voters have handed to us."

Ma's China policy is centered on not declaring independence but also not not moving toward unification. Despite critics saying that his policy of detente could lead to unification with China, he is seen unlikely to allow that.

"There's a majority position that is in support of maintaining the status quo, the numbers of people that want unification or independence are very, very small," said Bonnie Glaser, a leading U.S. scholar on Taiwan issues.

"He (Ma) wants to do what is in the interests of the majority in Taiwan. I think it's extremely unlikely that he'll move away from that position."

China also was more relaxed about this election. Unlike in 1996, when China fired missiles into waters off Taiwan before the island's first direct presidential election, Beijing has learnt to temper any response to avoid antagonizing voters into backing the DPP.

Nearly 200,000 Taiwanese returned from overseas for the poll according to local media reports, cramming flights in a last minute rush to cast ballots. In a measure of the easing ties with the mainland, most of them came over from China.

Ma and Tsai are both former law academics with doctorates from Harvard and the London School of Economics respectively. Tsai, the first woman to bid for Taiwan's presidency, appeared unable to press home her charges that Ma had pursued his pro-China policy with little regard to rising costs of living and a widening income gap at home.

"Ma has lost a lot of votes," said former DPP legislator Luo Wenjia. "But the people's dissatisfaction was not enough to make him lose the election."

A third presidential candidate, former Nationalist party member James Soong who now leads a splinter party, trailed far behind with around 2.8 percent of the vote.

Ma's victory is likely to provide a short-term boost to Taiwan stocks and the Taiwan dollar when markets reopen on Monday, analysts said. Economists see stronger ties with China's vast markets as vital for Taiwan's heavily export-dependent economy because of the slowdown elsewhere in the world.

(Additional reporting by Faith Hung, Clare Jim and Argin Chang in Taipei; Chris Buckley in Beijing; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Brian Rhoads)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120114/ts_nm/us_taiwan_election

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Woman's quest could mean Medal of Honor for dad

Elsie Shemin-Roth flips through a book documenting the heroic acts of her father, William Shemin, during World War I, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012, at her home in Labadie, Mo. Thanks to the tireless effort of his daughter and nearly four decades after his death, Shemin may finally be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions, but never received, many believe because he was Jewish. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)?

Elsie Shemin-Roth flips through a book documenting the heroic acts of her father, William Shemin, during World War I, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012, at her home in Labadie, Mo. Thanks to the tireless effort of his daughter and nearly four decades after his death, Shemin may finally be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions, but never received, many believe because he was Jewish. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)?

Elsie Shemin-Roth flips through a book documenting the heroic acts of her father, William Shemin, during World War I, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012, at her home in Labadie, Mo. Thanks to the tireless effort of his daughter and nearly four decades after his death, Shemin may finally be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions, but never received, many believe because he was Jewish. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)?

Elsie Shemin-Roth holds a photo father, William Shemin, taken during World War I, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012, at her home in Labadie, Mo. Thanks to the tireless effort of his daughter and nearly four decades after his death, Shemin may finally be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions, but never received, many believe because he was Jewish. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)?

LABADIE, Mo. (AP) ? It was bravery at the highest level: William Shemin defied German machine gun fire to sprint across a World War I battlefield and pull wounded comrades to safety. And he did so no fewer than three times.

Then, with the platoon's senior soldiers wounded or killed, the 19-year-old American took over command of his unit and led it to safety, even after a bullet pierced his helmet and lodged behind an ear.

Yet Shemin never earned the nation's highest military citation, the Medal of Honor ? a result, many suspected, of the fact that he was Jewish at a time when discrimination ran rampant throughout the U.S. military.

Now, nearly four decades after his death, Shemin may finally get that medal, thanks to the tireless efforts of his daughter, whose long quest to see her father decorated also opens the door for other overlooked Jewish veterans of the Great War.

"A wrong has been made right here," said Shemin's daughter, 82-year-old Elsie Shemin-Roth of Labadie, Mo., a small town about 40 miles southwest of St. Louis.

Last month, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which contains a tiny provision known as the William Shemin Jewish World War I Veterans Act. It provides for a Pentagon review of Jewish soldiers and sailors who may have been overlooked for the Medal of Honor simply because of their faith.

Shemin's daughter was the driving force behind the measure, an effort that began a decade ago when she read news accounts of a similar law that provided for review of Jews possibly denied recognition in World War II. She was horrified there was no similar mechanism for World War I veterans.

So she began gathering military records, photos, commendations and firsthand accounts of her father's heroism. Eventually, she enlisted the help of her congressman and support from both U.S. senators from Missouri.

Retired Army Col. Erwin Burtnick of Baltimore, who is active in the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A., helped get the bill passed. He also reviewed Shemin's war record and will present the case on his behalf to the Pentagon.

"I believe, based upon the criteria of World War I, the level of heroism exhibited by Sgt. Shemin will rise to the Medal of Honor," Burtnick said.

At the time, the enlistment age was 21, but Shemin lied about his age and got in at 18. A tall, strapping athlete who played semi-pro baseball at age 15 and later played college football at Syracuse, Shemin was sent off to France. On a hot day in August 1918, he and his platoon were doing battle near a river in Burgundy.

One of his superiors, Capt. Rubert Purdon, later wrote in support of a Medal of Honor: "With the most utter disregard for his own safety, (Shemin) sprang from his position in his platoon trench, dashed out across the open in full sight of the Germans, who opened and maintained a furious burst of machine gun and rifle fire."

Shemin didn't stop there. Casualties were heavy. Many senior platoon leaders had been killed or badly hurt, so the young sergeant led the group out of harm's way over the next three days.

Along the way, a German bullet hit him in the head, went through the steel helmet and lodged behind his left ear. Shemin eventually collapsed and was hospitalized for three months. The wound left him deaf in that ear.

His heroics did not go unnoticed: Shemin was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second-highest military honor.

He eventually left the military, got a degree from Syracuse and started a greenhouse-and-nursery business in the Bronx, where he raised three children.

Shemin was satisfied with the medal he got, his daughter recalled, and only occasionally wondered if he was passed over for the Medal of Honor because of anti-Semitism.

"My father told me there was a lot of discrimination, but he didn't dwell on it," she said.

But once, when another soldier paid a visit, Shemin's daughter was struck by something the man told her.

"He witnessed my father's actions," said Shemin-Roth, who was then 12. "He told me, 'Your father never got the medal he deserved because he was a Jew.' I thought to myself how terrible that was."

Shemin was 78 when he died in 1973. His sense of determination clearly rubbed off on his daughter. Her first husband died when she was just 43 and a mother of five. She went to college and became a nurse.

Since then, she's done volunteer work in war-torn areas around the world. Back in Labadie, she heads a nonprofit animal-rescue group, and her property on a rural hilltop is home to dozens of rescued animals, from cats and dogs to donkeys, geese and fish.

The new law may have arrived too late to recognize many Jewish heroes from World War I. They're all gone now ? the last surviving American World War I veteran died last year. Even many of their children have died or are well into their 80s and 90s, Burtnick said, making it less likely that surviving relatives will have enough documentation to prove worthiness for the Medal of Honor.

So far, Burtnick said, the only veteran whose case will be presented for review is William Shemin.

A decision could come by spring. If the Pentagon approves, the president would present the medal on Shemin's behalf to his daughter in a White House ceremony. Just the thought chokes her up.

"I try so hard to think of what my father would think of this," she said. "He was such a humble man. All I can see in my head is this big handsome man sitting down, tears in his eyes."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-10-Jewish%20Veterans/id-bfaebf579114494ba8ad89bfe1b8af93

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Samsung Debuts Series 9 Ultrabook: A 15-Inch Display On A 14-Inch Body

Here at the CES 2012 International conference, we promised you'd be seeing ultrabooks galore. Well, Samsung isn't going to let you down, today announcing the Samsung Series 9 ultrabook. The Series 9 sports a 15-inch display on a compact 14-inch body. This is the second generation of Samsung's Series 9 notebooks, and the company calls it as thin as some of the original tablets we saw hit the market a couple years back. Yep, even when it's closed.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/68-FX91b8wQ/

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Boston lawsuit claims DES-breast cancer link

Arline MacCormack first heard about DES from her mother when she was 17.

Three decades later, MacCormack believes that the drug her mother took to prevent miscarriages caused her to develop breast cancer at age 44.

MacCormack, of Newton, is one of 53 women from around the country who are suing drug companies who made and promoted DES for millions of pregnant women from about 1938 to the early 1970s. In 1971, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration told doctors to stop prescribing DES for their pregnant patients after a study found that taking DES during pregnancy appeared to increase the risk of developing a rare vaginal cancer years later for DES daughters in their teens and 20s.

DES, or diethylstilbestrol (dahy-eth-uhl-stil-bes'-trawl), is a synthetic estrogen that was prescribed to millions of women in the United States, Europe and other countries to prevent miscarriages, premature birth and other problems.

The case in Boston is being closely watched by DES daughters around the country. Thousands of lawsuits have been filed since the 1970s alleging links between DES and cervical and vaginal cancer, as well as infertility problems. Many of those cases were settled before trial. The Boston case is believed to be the first major litigation alleging a link between DES and breast cancer in DES daughters over the age of 40.

MacCormack, now 50, said she was stunned when she was diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago after having mammograms every six months since she turned 40 because she had had several benign cysts removed over the years.

"The characteristics of my cancer were for women over 60 typically. It wasn't the type of cancer a 40-year-old or a 44-year-old woman gets," said MacCormack.

"When I read the research that's been done, I found I had more chance of getting it because my mom took DES," she said.

The women's lawyers say their case is supported by a recent study that suggests that breast cancer risk is nearly doubled in DES daughters over the age of 40. The average woman has about a 1 in 50 chance of developing breast cancer by 55. The study, led by Dr. Robert Hoover, a researcher at the National Cancer Institute, found that the chance for DES daughters is 1 in 25.

The lawsuit alleges that 14 drug manufacturers ? including Eli Lilly and Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.? withheld from doctors and the FDA reports that showed DES did not prevent miscarriages and raised serious questions about the safety of the drug.

"This drug, DES, was the biggest human experiment of quackery in the history of medicine," said Aaron Levine, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who filed the Boston lawsuit and represents another 18 DES daughters making similar claims.

Representatives and lawyers for Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb declined to comment on the lawsuit.

In court and in public documents, the companies argue that a firm link between DES and breast cancer has not been established and that the DES daughters who are suing them have not shown that DES caused their cancers.

"We believe these claims are without merit and are prepared to defend against them vigorously," Eli Lilly said in its most recent annual report.

The drug companies also argue that the medical community does not generally accept that fetal exposure to DES causes breast cancer.

"There is not a single published study, a respected medical treatise or textbook, nor a pronouncement by one of the prominent societies dedicated to the discovery of cancer causes which claims a causal link between prenatal DES exposure and breast cancer has been proven," Bristol-Myers Squibb argued in a motion to exclude the testimony of the plaintiffs' experts.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler has heard testimony from a dozen experts on both sides during a hearing on the drug companies' motions, which argue that the opinions of the women's experts are not based on reliable science.

If Bowler grants the drug companies' motion, the case will not go to trial, Levine said. But if she allows the plaintiffs' experts to testify, the case can proceed to trial.

Final arguments on the motion are scheduled for Jan. 19 in U.S. District Court.

DES was prescribed at a time when medical advice was rarely questioned and drugs were not subjected to the kinds of rigorous clinical trials they are today, said Dr. Michael Grodin, a professor of medical ethics at Boston University's School of Public Health. Grodin said proving a link between DES and the plaintiffs' breast cancer could be difficult.

"There's an issue of causation, but even if it did cause the cancer, that doesn't mean there was negligence," Grodin said.

"The question of negligence is what did they know, when did they know it and what did they do about it? Those are all in contention," he said.

Jackie White, 48, of Centerburg, Ohio, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010 at age 47. Tests showed 20 tumors in one breast and two pre-cancerous lumps in the other. The cancer had also spread to her lymph nodes. She had a double mastectomy, and did six months of chemotherapy and seven weeks of radiation.

White said her mother, a nurse, told her at age 13 that she had taken DES while pregnant, prompting White to get regular gynecological exams and mammograms over the years. She said she has no family history of breast cancer.

White said it wasn't until she saw high estrogen levels in her pathology reports that she began to wonder whether DES could have caused her cancer.

"I exercise daily. I ate healthy, low-fat, did all of the maintenance screenings that a person needs ? self-exams, mammograms, OB-GYN appointments ? eliminated the exposure to birth control or things like that, just like doctors recommended," she said.

"I'm not any of the things that are the highest-known reasons for risk factors for breast cancer."

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

Source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomHealth-TopStories/~3/rQx3RQ-lTrs/1

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IP Carrier: Is Communications Spending Growing, or Not?

Is Communications Spending Growing, or Not?

As a practical matter, it often is difficult to ascertain whether consumer or business spending on particular communications services or products, though up or down in nominal terms, actually represent growth or decline.

The reason is that nominal increases in spending over time sometimes reflect broader price changes in the whole economy, rather than changes in demand or spending as a percentage of total spending.

Also, even nominal spending can be deceptive. If a flat dollar amount of spending over time also is accompanied by large decreases or increases of overall income, for example, the nominal spending can disguise ?real? changes.

Ignore for the moment changes in product value or features over time that also complicate comparisons. If ?X? amount of spending on any product also is accompanied by significant changes in a household or national budget, for example, then the implications can be quite significant.

As a percentage of spending, a flat amount automatically will represent a larger percentage of spending.

In other words, the product of a fraction always changes as either the nominator or denominator changes.

That noted, it is possible that spending patterns are changing, for the first time in decades. There is evidence that between 2007 and 2010, for example, U.S. households were spending much more on ?telephone equipment,? which has to represent purchases of mobile phones. That should, in principle, lead to higher spending on mobile communication services.

There also was a predictable increase in spending on ?communication services,? which probably reflects increases in video subscription rates, plus some incremental spending on mobile services for all those mobile devices people seem to be buying.

Keep in mind that those percentage increases might, or might not, represent a significant change in the percentage of household spending on services or devices.

Logic might suggest that most people do not spend much, in any given year, on fixed line phones or fax machines, for example.

So a 16-percent change on a small base might not represent much actual sales volume. A four-percent growth of spending on ?information processing? equipment, which presumably includes personal computers, tablets and possibly other personal mobile devices, might represent a bigger change in dollar volume.
On the other hand, logic also would suggest that people are spending more on tablets and smart phones, which could mean they are maintaining spending on legacy products, and adding new devices (increasing spending overall), substituting new products for older products (substituting new products for older products), or cutting back someplace else in budgets to add the new products.?

Looking back at the 1990 to 2008 period, for example, one can note ?huge? increases in nominal consumer spending on communications and information technology.

Since 1990, though, those changes also ?have been more than matched by broader increases in household income, holding the percentage of household spending on communications flat over the entire period.

One might also note that such figures also are not typically ?inflation adjusted? to show changes in constant dollar terms.

Since 1990, consumer spending on information and communications technology has grown from $197 billion to $545 billion, 5.1 percent of national disposable income in 1990, peaking at 5.9 percent in 2000, and falling to 5.4 percent in 2008. Those figures include both recurring spending on services and product purchases.

Spending on communications services has tripled over the same period, from $77 billion to $243 billion, and at 2.3 percent of national disposable income, up from 1.8 percent in 1990 but below its peak of 2.5 percent in 2001

Basically, the story is one of large increases in consumer value. Consumers are spending more on communications and information technology, but a steady percentage of disposable income

Yet consumer value has grown exponentially in the intervening years, one might argue. The problem is that changes in product quality are not reflected in retail price metrics. That is a common ?problem? where we look at software and computing devices, where a constant dollar amount buys more processing power and features every 18 months to 24 months.

U.S. communications expenditures as a share of national disposable income has been flat since 1997, but users have added over 100 million broadband and video connections and over 100 million wireless connections, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Such potential changes bear watching. It would be a very-big deal indeed if typical consumer spending on communications services and mobile devices were to deviate from their historical patterns in a markedly upward direction.

One might argue we already have seen a slight upward trend, measured as a percentage of total household spending. The other angle is that communications spending always will represent a very-small fraction of overall household spending, dwarfed by housing, food, medical care and other categories, for example.

Source: http://ipcarrier.blogspot.com/2012/01/is-communications-spending-growing-or.html

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[OOC] Clan of The Demon Hunters

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Magid: Facebook's new offices may herald a trend

As I sat down to write my "2012 tech predictions" column, I recalled a visit last week to Facebook's new offices in Menlo Park, which may herald a business trend in the new year and beyond.

What impressed me -- besides the cafeteria and fabulous employee gym to work off all that free food -- is how the company is allowing workers to organize their own work and meeting space. In a sense, the offices are a bit like the company's flagship social network.

Facebook provides the infrastructure to make things happen, but doesn't dictate exactly where and when.

That's up to the "users." And when it comes to collaboration, the atmosphere is both open and social.

It might be stretching the analogy to suggest that Facebook employees are encouraged to "share" by default.

But they don't generally work in cubicles and even the executives don't have walled-off offices. Instead, as you walk through the various buildings on the campus that used to house Sun Microsystems, you see lots of spaces where people can sit -- or stand -- to do their work or conduct their meetings.

There are glass-enclosed conference rooms, including some that still have the Sun logo on the glass -- one of the few reminders of the campus' former occupant.

But there are plenty of other "spaces" to work, including small and large tables and spaces under stairways where workers can stand

up to take a call or read an email on their phone or tablet or conduct an impromptu meeting with fellow employees.

The Facebook campus is very much a work in progress.

There are still plenty of hard-hat-only areas where construction workers are erecting bridges between buildings, turning paved areas into grassy outdoor gathering places and otherwise sprucing up and modernizing the facilities.

Unlike the Googleplex in Mountain View, it doesn't yet have that college campus-like feeling. I'm told that at least one outdoor area will eventually resemble downtown Palo Alto -- the scene of Facebook's original office.

What Facebook and Google (GOOG) offices do have in common is that sense of openness and the constant mixture of work and play.

It's become a Silicon Valley tradition to offer on-site distractions, ranging from foosball tables to volleyball courts, and to give employees maximum flexibility as to how they use their time.

There is a rush hour at these companies when many employees arrive in the morning and leave in the early evening.

But there are plenty of people working long and odd hours because -- as any aware manager should know -- creativity doesn't always strike between 9 and 5. And, by offering food, exercise and other amenities, companies like Google and Facebook encourage employees to hang around.

Sure, I've seen Google employees "waste time" by playing impromptu soccer games on the company's parklike lawns. But when the game's over, they're back at work within minutes and -- who knows -- there may very well be some creative work getting done in their heads as they play.

I'm a firm believer that flexibility can lead to creativity and productivity. I started writing this column at 5:30 on a Thursday morning because that's when I'm at my best when it comes to conjuring up ideas. And -- truth be told -- it's also a few hours before my deadline. Procrastination aside, that rush to produce before an impending deadline forces me to focus and -- in my humble opinion -- improves my writing.

I have an office at home, which I use a lot, but at the moment, I'm plopped in front of my kitchen table. I sometimes write from a local coffee shop and I've been known to start, finish and file a column on a cross-country flight, thanks to Gogo Inflight that provides Wi-Fi service on Virgin America, American, Delta and some other airlines.

Being able to access the Internet from 35,000 feet takes cloud computing to a whole new level.

The technology that makes this all possible is not only getting better, but getting even more portable.

When I visit Silicon Valley companies, I often notice employees walking around with their laptops and, increasingly, tablets. It's not uncommon to see a Googler or Facebook staffer walking down a hall and peeking at an open MacBook or ThinkPad to consult the cloud-based company calendar to find out what meeting room they're headed for.

And when they arrive, there are plenty of electrical outlets to power laptops.

There are even preinstalled power adapters for the most popular laptops. I've seen a few people carrying iPads or Android tablets and I expect that trend to grow over time.

Unlike a notebook PC, a tablet works great when you're standing up walking between meetings.

So my optimistic prediction for 2012 is that we're going to see some fundamental changes in the way companies organize their employees work environment.

Work will become more flexible, more adaptable and, for companies that implement it correctly, more profitable.

Contact Larry Magid at larry@larrymagid.com. Listen for his technology chats on KCBS-AM (740) weekdays at 3:50 p.m.

Source: http://www.siliconvalley.com/larry-magid/ci_19640733?source=rss_viewed

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