Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/192798723?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Space station dodges Chinese satellite debris
The International Space Station fired its thrusters Saturday in order to steer clear of orbital debris from China's 2007 anti-satellite test.
The dodging maneuver was required to avoid space junk from the Chinese satellite Fengyun 1C, which peppered low-Earth orbit with an estimated 3,000 pieces of shrapnel when it was intentionally destroyed by China five years ago. The remaining debris has required several similar avoidance maneuvers by the space station in recent years.
Rocket thrusters on the space station's Russian-built Zvezda service module fired at 6:50 p.m. EST (2350 GMT) in a 1-minute, four-second burn to slightly raise the laboratory's orbit, leaving it on a path that reaches just over 251 miles above Earth at the highest point, NASA officials said in an update.
Saturday's maneuver was "designed to place the station at the correct altitude and trajectory for future visiting vehicle activities and to avoid a repetitive coincidence of possible conjunctions with a piece of Chinese Fengyun 1C satellite debris," NASA officials explained.
A conjunction is what scientists call instances in which space debris will fly close enough to the station to cause concern. Since the space station orbits Earth at about 17,500 mph even a small piece of orbital debris can cause serious damage if it hits. [ Photos: Space Debris & Cleanup Concepts ]
The Fengyun 1C satellite debris had the potential to cause seven conjunctions with the space station, so steering the $100 billion safely into the clear was required, according to an earlier NASA update.
The space station is currently home to a six-man crew that includes three Russians, two Americans and one Dutch astronaut. NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston typically orders a dodging maneuver when debris is expected to fly inside a safety perimeter, which is shaped like a pizza box, that extends about 15 miles around the space station, as well as a half-mile above and below the orbiting lab.
When there is not enough time to plan a dodging maneuver, station astronauts can take shelter inside the Russian Soyuz vehicles that ferry them to and from the station until a piece of space junk has safely zoomed by. The Soyuz capsules, two of which are docked at the station now, each seat three people and can double as lifeboats.
Maneuvers to avoid space junk conjunctions are not uncommon for the space station and other satellites orbiting Earth.? Earlier this month, the space station fired its thrusters to avoid debris from a 2009 satellite crash between an U.S. and Russian spacecraft.
Space junk poses an ongoing threat to astronauts on the space station , as well as other satellites in orbit. To date, there are about 6,000 tons of space junk orbiting Earth ranging from tiny bolts and paint chips to huge spent rocket stages and dead satellites.
More than 500,000 pieces of space junk are currently tracked every day by NASA and the U.S. military's Space Surveillance Network in order to avoid collisions in orbit.
You can follow Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
? 2012 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46182311/ns/technology_and_science-space/
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Ubuntu moves beyond the desktop with new TV interface, menu-killing navigation system (Digital Trends)
Late last year, Ubuntu announced it would bring the open source operating system to mobile devices. Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth said Ubuntu will soon be found on ?tablets, phones, TVs and smart screens from the car to the office kitchen, and it will connect those devices cleanly and seamlessly to the desktop, the server and the cloud.?
Much debate has followed Ubunto?s mobile strategy, the general consensus being that its loyal followers and fans of Linux everywhere are the least interested in testing this technology. Still, doubt over how well it would compete against that other open source, Linux-based option (a little something called Android) remains.
Since the announcement, Ubuntu has been relatively quiet about its mobile and smart device progress, until very recently.
Ubuntu TV: Coming soon? maybe
At CES earlier this month, Canonical introduced the Ubuntu smart TV interface. ?Ubuntu TV is a vision of how TV will work in the future. With no cables, no boxes and no hassles, the goal is to uncomplicated television for the average viewer while delivering to him or her all the services and options that they are becoming used to,? the company said. The system allows you not only to watch broadcast or streaming content, but also to access your own media files as well, via the cloud. It?s built into your TV, not available from a box-top or separate device. Also, there is no browser option, something Ubuntu doesn?t believe belongs in the television. 
But like every other company trying to break into the connected TV segment, there are some very big barriers. And like its competitors, Ubuntu is going to have a hard time breaking them down. Content rights holders have become notoriously difficult to strike deals with, and manufacturing partners can be tricky to nail down.
Working in its favor is the fact that Ubuntu wants nothing more than to be the operating system for your TV. It has no plans to get into content production (like Google has done with YouTube), or develop its own app or other content distribution platform (which comes tied to Apple products). Ubuntu?s service steps on fewer toes than some of its major competitors do.
?From a cost perspective as well as a ?make the life of the manufacturer? easy perspective, Ubuntu will be a solid contender,? Ubuntu expert and author of Ubuntu Unleashed?2012 Edition: Covering 11.10 and 12.04 (7th edition)?Matthew Helmke tells us. ?Companies like Vizio, that make smart TVs with pretty cool software and interfaces, could be able to offload some of their development expenses and in-house programming burden.?
Still, Ubuntu TV, for the moment, largely remains conceptual. There isn?t so much of a hint as to a shipping date, and if there are any manufacturing partners, both parties are keeping quiet about it. But in true Ubuntu form, there are instructions on how you can make your own Ubuntu-supported smart TV.
New interface design
While the announcement of Ubuntu TV definitely has a certain flash appeal to it, a new display interface deserves just as much attention. Canonical?s Mark Shuttleworth recently blogged about the change, called the Head-up Display (or HUD) that does away with the menu and tries to better reflect how the human brain works.?We noticed that [new as well as established] users spent a lot of time, relatively speaking, navigating the menus of their applications, either to learn about the capabilities of the app, or to take a specific action,? he says. ?We were also conscious of the broader theme in Unity design of leading from user intent. And that set us on a course which lead to today?s first public milestone on what we expect will be a long, fruitful and exciting journey.?
In order to execute commands, the HUD interface eliminates the need to scroll through menus, instead giving users immediate control over the applications they are using. Watch the video demo below to get a look at HUD in action.
Now HUD is definitely meant for the desktop in many respects ? Shuttleworth specifically mentions that, saying, ?The desktop remains central to our everyday work and play, despite all the excitement around tablets, TVs and phones.? However, there?s great potential for how this fast and accessible system could translate to Ubuntu for mobile devices. Helmke agrees: ?I think HUD will be wonderful on mobile. It is faster than using menus, which are terrible for mobile devices anyway.?
And the innovation that Ubuntu has planned for mobile will interact seamlessly with this new approach. ?Once the promised voice interface is completely, HUD will be hard to beat.?
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends
More from Digital Trends
Ubuntu?s going mobile: Will it survive?
MeeGo killed in favor of Tizen, a new OS backed by Samsung and Intel
Microsoft previews Windows 8 at BUILD
Television and social integration: What exactly do consumers want?
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Kitchen gadget inspires scientist to make more effective plastic electronics
ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2012) ? One day in 2010, Rutgers physicist Vitaly Podzorov watched a store employee showcase a kitchen gadget that vacuum-seals food in plastic. The demo stuck with him. The simple concept -- an airtight seal around pieces of food -- just might apply to his research: developing flexible electronics using lightweight organic semiconductors for products such as video displays or solar cells.
"Organic transistors, which switch or amplify electronic signals, hold promise for making video displays that bend like book pages or roll and unroll like posters," said Podzorov. But traditional methods of fabricating a part of the transistor known as the gate insulator often end up damaging the transistor's delicate semiconductor crystals.
Drawing inspiration from the food-storage gadget, Podzorov and his colleagues tried an experiment. They suspended a thin polymer membrane above the organic crystal and created a vacuum underneath, causing the membrane to collapse gently and evenly onto the crystal's surface. The result: a smooth, defect-free interface between the organic semiconductor and the gate insulator.
The researchers reported their success in the journal Advanced Materials. In the article,Podzorov and three colleagues describe how a single-crystal organic field effect transistor (OFET) made with this thin polymer gate insulator boosted electrical performance. The researchers further reported that they could remove and reapply membranes to the same crystal several times without degrading its surface.
Organic transistors electrically resemble silicon transistors in computer chips, but they are made of flexible carbon-based molecules that can be printed on sheets of plastic. Silicon transistors are made in rigid, brittle wafers of silicon.
The methods that scientists previously applied to organic transistor fabrication were based on silicon semiconductor processing, explained Podzorov, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, School of Arts and Sciences. These involved high temperatures, high-energy plasmas or chemical reactions, all of which could damage the delicate organic crystal surface and hinder the transistor's performance.
"People have tendencies to go with something they've known for a long time," he said. "In this case, it doesn't work right."
Podzorov's innovation builds upon a decade of Rutgers research in this field, including his invention of the first single crystal organic transistor in 2003. While his latest innovation is still a ways from commercial reality, he sees an immediate application in the classroom.
"Our technique takes 10 minutes," he said. "It should be exciting for students to actually build these devices and immediately see them work, all within one lab session."
Podzorov was actually trying to solve another problem when he first recalled the food packaging demo. He was thinking about how to protect organic crystals from airborne impurities when his lab shipped samples to collaborating scientists in California and overseas.
"We could place our samples between plastic sheets and pull a vacuum," he said. "Then I thought, 'why don't we try doing this for our gate insulator?'"
Funding for the research was provided by the U. S. Department of Energy and the Rutgers Institute for Advanced Materials and Devices for Nanotechnology. Collaborators in Podzorov's lab were postdoctoral researchers Hee Taek Yi and Yuanzhen Chen, and undergraduate student Krzysztof Czelen. The department's machine shop made a custom-designed vacuum chamber for the project.
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Journal Reference:
- H. T. Yi, Y. Chen, K. Czelen, V. Podzorov. Vacuum Lamination Approach to Fabrication of High-Performance Single-Crystal Organic Field-Effect Transistors. Advanced Materials, 2011; 23 (48): 5807 DOI: 10.1002/adma.201103305
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120127140935.htm
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
All You Need to Know about Investing That Will Assist You Grow ...
When you are looking to enter into the world of making investment, you may need to think about some points and carefully go over them. Among them is the sum of money you?re ready to invest. If you put your dollars on bonds, mutual funds, options, or stocks, you will need to have a certain amount so as to acquire a unit or build an account.
With regards to financial investments, two forms of units are commonly traded out there ? short-term as well as long-term investments.
The primary difference between the two is this: short-term investments are made to provide considerable returns in a relatively shorter period of time, whereas long-term investments are meant to reach maturity for many years or so and characterized by a slow but progressive increase in return.
If your primary objective as an investor is to boost your wealth or keep the purchasing power of your capital over time, then it?s essential that your investments must grow in value that at least keeps up with inflation rate. Having a diversed portfolio of equity shares and property investments is arguably a good long-term strategy when compared with having only fixed interest investments.
You must have an investment portfolio that is spread spanning different varieties of investment instruments so you can successfully decrease your risk. It is a classic the actual application of the old phrase ?Do not put all your eggs in just one basket.? The many investment products available these days are becoming more and more complex with huge and institutional investors increasingly try to outdo one another.
When you are an individual investor, you just need to invest on something you?re comfortable with and not to products that you do not comprehend. You have to be clear with your investment criteria since it is essential in evaluating your options. When you?re doubtful, the right course of action is to obtain helpful advice.
View this site and know more about investments for more suggestions about growing your money.
This entry was posted on Friday, January 27th, 2012 at 4:50 pm by Fidel Forkey and is filed under Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
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Liberalism spreading among college freshmen, survey finds
Already inclined toward liberalism, college freshmen are leaning even farther left on key political issues, a nationwide survey of first-year students has found.
An all-time high of 71.3 percent of the new students support same-sex marriage, 6.4 percentage points higher than in 2009, according to the annual survey of more than 200,000 freshmen conducted by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute.
Nearly 43 percent of conservative freshmen said gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry.
Opinions on abortion, marijuana legalization, immigration and affirmative action also grew more liberal in 2011, according to data released Wednesday. The 270-school survey -- the country's largest sampling of college students -- was first used in 1966.
"It's not so much that liberal students are becoming more liberal," said Linda DeAngelo, one of the report's authors. "It's that students who describe themselves as conservative are becoming more progressive."
A little more than 22 percent of respondents described themselves as conservative or "far right." About 30 percent said they were liberal or "far left," while 47.4 percent called themselves "middle of the road."
Despite the apparent liberalization, political advocates hoping to recruit students to their causes need to realize the survey is more reflective of young people's tolerance on social issues, not enthusiasm, said Ange-Marie Hancock, a political-science professor at the
University of Southern California."They're not like ATMs, where you can just withdraw their support," she said. "You have to cultivate them as voters."
Conservative students in the Bay Area said they weren't surprised by the shift to the left. In a region that gave birth to California's gay-marriage push, political views are not always black and white, students said.
"My time is spent more on fiscal issues," said Mark Luluan, a 24-year-old Cal State East Bay graduate student and chairman of the campus College Republicans chapter. "Over the past four years, we haven't really dealt with traditional socially conservative issues. Students are more concerned about getting a job after graduation."
The same is true among San Jose State University conservatives, said 19-year-old sophomore Mark Williams, chairman of that school's College Republicans.
"I think the conservatives in our club are not as focused on social issues," he said. "We're not really for or against" same-sex marriage.
At UC Berkeley, where liberal politics have long been the cultural norm, several students said Wednesday they rarely discuss politics with their peers and they rarely come across students who are outwardly conservative.
But being conservative would not earn a Cal student a scarlet letter, said 18-year-old freshman Alex Mangels.
"I don't think being conservative would be a huge problem," said Mangels, a Lafayette native who said he did not yet know how to describe his political beliefs. "They're not going to hate you for it."
The survey also revealed that alcohol consumption dropped to an all-time low in 2011, with 35.4 percent saying they drank beer as high-school seniors.
Just less than 58 percent of respondents said they were attending their first-choice college -- the lowest number since 1974 -- and more high-school students took advanced-placement courses and studied longer than in the past.
"I think high-school students are stressed about getting into college," said DeAngelo, of UCLA. "There's an increased pressure to perform."
Matt Krupnick covers higher education. Contact him at 510-208-6488. Follow him at Twitter.com/MattKrupnick.
Source: http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_19822850?source=rss
Friday, January 27, 2012
GelaSkins launches hard cases for iPhone 4S, iPhone 3GS
GelaSkins has been quietly selling some funky iPhone skins for a few years now, but they've recently made the big jump to hard cases.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/btMOgTNYo4A/story01.htm
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
$5 here, $37 there: Americans' indulgences add up (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Those venti lattes add up.
U.S. workers spend more than $1,000 a year on coffee and another $2,000 on lunch, with men and young workers more willing to indulge in a $5 coffee than women or older colleagues, according to a survey of Americans' workplace spending habits.
The survey, by Accounting Principals, a unit of staffing services company Adecco SA, found that U.S. workers, on average, spend $37 per week for lunch, but men spend more: $47 a week, versus $27 for women. Men also pay more for coffee -- $26 a week is typical -- and are more likely to complain about the selection of office vending machines.
One of the sharpest differences is between young workers and older ones. Professionals between 18 and 34 spend almost $25 a week on coffee, $11 more than co-workers over age 45, Accounting Principals said. Such free-spending ways may be changing. Nearly half of the young vow to save this year by bringing lunch to the office.
Americans' total annual bill for coffee and lunch is double the $1,500 a year spent on commuting to work, said the poll, which surveyed 1,000 currently employed Americans and was conducted last month.
Office workers are not clamoring for change, however. Asked whether their bosses should upgrade the lunch room or buy better coffee, workers said comfortable chairs and better computer equipment are bigger priorities.
(Reporting By Nick Zieminski in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
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Rihanna to UK fashion newbies: Dress me up (AP)
LONDON ? Rihanna has found a unique way of getting some new stage outfits.
The musical superstar from Barbados will be hunting for undiscovered design talent in Britain on a new TV show ? as yet unnamed ? in which she will be the executive producer and the star.
Sky Living HD announced Thursday it has commissioned media company Twenty Twenty to make the series and say Rihanna will be working mainly behind the scenes.
Hosting duties will go to another pop name, Nicola Roberts from the U.K. group Girls Aloud.
Together they will challenge fashion newcomers to create stage gear for musicians and celebrities ? with the final task to dress Rihanna for her July 8 performance at the Wireless music festival in London's Hyde Park.
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APNewsBreak: Army to cut combat brigades (AP)
WASHINGTON ? The U.S. Army plans to slash the number of combat brigades from 45 to as low as 32 in a broad restructuring of its fighting force aimed at cutting costs and reducing the service by about 80,000 soldiers, according to U.S. officials familiar with the plans.
Officials said the sweeping changes will likely increase the size of each combat brigade ? generally by adding another battalion ? in an effort to ensure that those remaining brigades have the fighting capabilities they need when they go to war. A brigade is usually about 3,500 soldiers, but can be as large as 5,000 for the heavily armored units. A battalion is usually between 600-800 soldiers.
The brigade restructuring is intended to save money without eroding the military's ability to protect the country and wage war when needed. Army officials contend that while there would be fewer brigades, building them bigger will give them more capabilities and depth, and will reduce stress on the units.
They said specialty units, such as Army special operations forces, would not be affected by the cuts.
Reducing the overall number of brigades will also eliminate the need for the headquarters units that command and oversee them.
Officials acknowledged that merging battalions together into larger brigades could shift some soldiers to different bases across the country, although that effort could be stymied by members of Congress who don't like to see the staffing decline at bases that feed the local economy. Officials said the Army will try to limit such shifts.
The cuts come as the Pentagon puts the finishing touches on its 2013 fiscal year budget, which must reflect about $260 billion in savings in its five-year plan. Congress has ordered the Defense Department to come up with a total of $487 billion over the next 10 years, and could face cuts of double that amount if Congress can't reach an agreement to avoid automatic across-the-board reductions mandated by lawmakers last year.
Officials spoke about the budget plans on condition of anonymity because they have not yet been made public.
Military leaders, from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on down, insist they will come up with the budgets cuts without hurting the force's effectiveness. In fact, many of the top Army leaders who have been putting the budget together were around when massive budget cuts after the Vietnam war left Army units badly undermanned and ill-equipped ? leading to what they call a hollow force.
According to officials, plans call for the active duty Army to shrink from a high of about 570,000 soldiers to roughly 490,000 over the next decade or so. Initial cuts have been ongoing, and there are currently about 558,000 active duty soldiers in the Army.
Additionally, there are nearly 205,000 in the Army Reserve and close to 360,000 in the Army National Guard, the Army said Wednesday.
The Army plans to shed soldiers carefully, including through planned departures, separations for medical or behavioral problems, and by scaling back the number of people promoted or allowed to enlist and re-enlist.
One priority would be to make sure that the Army retains its mid-level officers, who routinely take up to 10 years to get to the rank of major or higher. Army leaders struggled through periods of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, using bonuses and other incentives to retain the mid-level officers they needed to command smaller units on the battlefield.
But Army officials also acknowledge that they will be forced to deny the reenlistment of many qualified soldiers, while also continuing to bring in quality recruits.
Gen. Raymond Odierno, chief of staff of the Army, has warned that cutting brigades was one way to cut the budget. And he said that shrinking the force will mean that the Army will no longer be able to handle two simultaneous conflicts ? long a requirement for the U.S. military.
But the new military strategy mapped out by President Barack Obama and his defense team envisions a shift away from the hard-fought ground wars of Iraq and Afghanistan that relied on tens of thousands of troops to battle stubborn terrorists and insurgent groups. The future military, instead, will focus more on Asian security risks such as China and North Korea, and build on partnerships in the Middle East to keep an eye on Iran.
One major reduction, already announced by Panetta, will cut the number of Army brigades stationed in Europe from four to two. Other units would rotate in and out of the region as needed.
Currently there are three brigades in Germany and one in Vicenza, Italy, and that would change so that there would be one in Germany and one in Vicenza.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Gingrich says he can 'shake up' nation's capital (AP)
TAMPA, Fla. ? Fresh off a big win in South Carolina, Republican Newt Gingrich found himself on defense Monday as the volatile GOP presidential contest shifted to Florida.
The former House speaker answered critics who questioned his temperament by saying he would be a nominee who would "shake up Washington." He also accused chief rival Mitt Romney of misstating his dealings with mortgage giant Freddie Mac.
Appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America" hours before a campaign rally in Tampa, Gingrich basked in his come-from-behind triumph in South Carolina. His win made for three different winners in the first three states, with former Sen. Rick Santorum winning Iowa and Romney taking New Hampshire.
Gingrich's campaign said it had raked in $1 million in the first 24 hours since South Carolina's primary Saturday.
Frequently the aggressor in the race, Gingrich is taking fire from all sides now as Florida campaigning ramps up ahead of the pivotal Jan. 31 primary.
Romney has been calling Gingrich a lobbyist and demanded that he release consulting contracts related to Freddie Mac. Gingrich flatly denied lobbying on the firm's behalf.
"It's not true. He knows it's not true. He's deliberately saying things he knows are false," Gingrich said. "I just think that's what the next week will be like.
The battle over financial transparency has gone both ways.
For weeks, Gingrich demanded that Romney release his personal tax records. The businessman and former Massachusetts governor now says he will.
Gingrich told ABC he has campaign lawyers working to make Freddie Mac records public; he said the decision rests with the Center for Health Transformation, which he founded but no longer owns. Two former Gingrich companies earned $1.6 million over eight years from Freddie Mac. Gingrich has said he only earned about $35,000 a year himself.
Gingrich's work for Freddie Mac has come under scrutiny because of its role in the housing meltdown.
On Sunday, some Republican leaders voiced worry about Gingrich's combative style.
He acknowledged Monday that some key players in the party don't want to see him win the nomination, but he also seems to be enjoying the attention.
"I think you're going to see the establishment go crazy in the next week or two," Gingrich said.
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BP executive expected to be first trial witness (AP)
NEW ORLEANS ? A BP executive is expected to be the first witness to testify at a trial next month designed to identify the causes of a deadly rig explosion that spawned a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
In a court filing Tuesday, plaintiffs' lawyers said BP America Chairman and President Lamar McKay is the first witness they intend to call after the trial's opening statements. They also intend to call Mark Bly, BP's executive vice president for safety and operational risk, during the first week of a trial scheduled to start Feb. 27.
U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier will preside over the three-phase trial without a jury. He oversees tens of thousands of claims spawned by the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.
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Heidi Klum and Seal call it quits (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Supermodel and "Project Runway" TV host Heidi Klum and British singer Seal are separating after seven years of marriage, a parting the pair termed amicable in a statement on Sunday night.
"While we have enjoyed seven very loving, loyal and happy years of marriage, after much soul-searching we have decided to separate," the two said in a statement.
"We have had the deepest respect for one another throughout our relationship and continue to love each other very much, but we have grown apart."
The German-born Klum and Seal, who married in 2005, have four children ranging in age from 2 to 7. They said protecting the well-being of their children was their top priority.
They also thanked family and friends for their support.
Signs of trouble in their marriage surfaced over the weekend on celebrity magazine websites, surprising fans of the couple who had seemed to enjoy a stable relationship.
The two released a steamy music video in September 2010 for the Grammy-winning singer's single "Secrets," which featured the naked couple in bed together.
In an interview with Reuters at the time, Seal said that he had titled his sixth album "Commitment" because that was a recurring theme for him, particularly since meeting Klum.
The couple, who at one time renewed their marriage vows every year, in 2010 were also preparing to shoot a pilot program for cable television that gave couples the chance to have the wedding of their dreams.
(Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
PFT: Jones praises Eli, slams Romo
Getty ImagesRavens quarterback Joe Flacco has just completed the fourth year of a five-year rookie contract.? He thinks he?s done enough to merit additional security.
?Definitely,? Flacco said Monday, via the team?s official website. ?We?ll see how it goes; if it goes, it goes, if it doesn?t, it doesn?t.?
So far, it hasn?t been going anywhere.? Per a source with knowledge of the situation, there have been no talks toward a new contract.
Why does Flacco think he has earned an extension?? ?I think I?m the quarterback that I am,? Flacco said.? ?I think the first four years that I?ve played here we?ve gone to the playoffs every time [and] won a game. I think the last two years that I?ve played in the playoffs, I?ve played well in the playoffs.?
I think.? I get.? The point.
But he wasn?t done.? ?And like I said earlier, I think when you watch the film and you?re a guy in this organization, I think that you can say, ?Hey, he?s played pretty damn good for us,?? Flacco added.? ?But like I said, you never know what?s going to happen.
Though owner Steve Bisciotti said last year that he envisioned negotiations beginning in 2012, there?s a chance that, once the two sides start talking, they?ll realize that there?s a significant disconnect between what the Ravens want to pay and what Flacco wants to be paid.? On one hand, Flacco?s camp surely will point to performances like the one he put together on Sunday in the AFC title game.? On the other hand, the team surely will point to his consistent pattern of inconsistency.
In the end, both sides would be wise to work something out.? While the Ravens could do a lot better at the position, they could do ? and have done ? a lot worse in the past.
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Reid postpones vote on anti-piracy bill (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Yielding to strong opposition from the high tech community, Senate and House leaders said Friday they will put off further action on legislation to combat online piracy.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he was postponing a test vote set for Tuesday "in light of recent events." Those events included a petition drive by Google that attracted more than 7 million participants and a one-day blackout by the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.
House Judiciary Committee chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, quickly followed suit, saying consideration of a similar House bill would be postponed "until there is wider agreement on a solution."
The Senate's Protect Intellectual Property Act and the House's Stop Online Piracy Act have strong support from the entertainment industry and other businesses that lose billions of dollars annually to intellectual property theft and online sales of counterfeit products. But they also have strong opposition from Internet-related companies that argue the bill would lead to over-regulation and censorship of the Internet.
Reid has also seen at least a half-dozen senators who sponsored the bill announce they now oppose it.
Reid said counterfeiting and piracy cost the American economy billions of dollars every year and "there is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved." He said he was optimistic about reaching a compromise in the coming weeks.
The main Senate sponsor, Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he respected Reid's decision to postpone the vote but lamented the Senate's unwillingness to debate the bill.
"The day will come when the senators who forced this move will look back and realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem," he said. Criminals in China, Russia and other countries "who do nothing but peddle in counterfeit products and stolen American content are smugly watching how the United States Senate decided" it was not worth debating the bill.
The two bills would allow the Justice Department, and copyright holders, to seek court orders against foreign websites accused of copyright infringement. They would bar online advertising networks and payment facilitators such as credit card companies from doing business with an alleged violator. They also would forbid search engines from linking to such sites.
The Tuesday vote was on whether to move the legislation to the Senate floor for debate. With the recent desertions and a statement Thursday by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell that it is too early to consider the bill, it appeared supporters lacked the 60 votes needed to advance the measure.
McConnell on Friday applauded Reid's decision, saying it would "prevent a counterproductive rush toward flawed legislation."
In the House, Smith said he had "heard from the critics" and resolved that it was "clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products." Smith had planned on holding further committee votes on his bill next month.
The bill's opponents were relieved it was put on hold.
Markham Erickson, executive director of NetCoalition, commended Congress for "recognizing the serious collateral damage this bill could inflict on the Internet."
The group represents Internet and technology companies including Google, Yahoo! and Amazon.com. Erickson said they would work with Congress "to address the problem of piracy without compromising innovation and free expression."
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who has joined Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in proposing an alternative anti-piracy bill, credited opponents with forcing lawmakers "to back away from an effort to ram through controversial legislation."
But the CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, former Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, warned that, "as a consequence of failing to act, there will continue to be a safe haven for foreign thieves." The MPAA, which represents such companies as Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., is a leading advocate for the anti-piracy legislation.
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
How Imperative Is nice Prospecting In Automotive Online marketing ...
Monetary situation currently are very distressing specially for automotive dealers. All of us is having money complications during the market place just like everybody else. Women and men are just tougher to convince crystalray.org they should get a car or truck or a new just one to substitute what they may have had for many years.
Becoming a different vehicle while in these dire days is not any extended perceived as for being especially practical. The monetary downtrend frequently noted in most nations worldwide has manufactured individuals far more aware about their expenditures. Even more than anything, it has taught them to weigh their priorities and cultivate the self-control to remain committed to those priorities. In spite of, folks that are when using the automotive market place perform their everyday work opportunities and their project becomes tougher and tougher as the monetary situation worsens.
Obviously, all of us who programs to market must have individuals to market to. In order to try this properly, prospecting is completed to actually comprehend revenue. Whichever variety of vehicle just one is hoping to market, it will be crucial that you come up with an true list of prospects who just may turn into potential customers. If you sector any kind of product you can find, time is always of the essence. And as you start squandering it when using the improper prospects, goals may not be attained. And what?s there to do if not obtain revenue goals when in company?
The value of prospects is extremely imperative and in some cases significant into the being successful of any automotive marketer. The prospects can?t just be every other list- it has to come with all of the info that can offer you a lead within a lead ? that is, tidbits of data in relation to the prospect?s automotive history info, from his very last day of vehicle choose into the product or versions he has bought. An inventory of potential customers will have to also feature hints about the person?s credit score or standing in order to present the marketer a good foundation for judging whether or not or not the prospect may turn out for being not just a consumer but a accountable just one.
A different reward very good prospecting provides to a marketer is always that it enables him to plan in advance. Nowadays, preparing forward may well be an edge of an automotive vendor in excess of other individuals who are in to a far more spontaneous approach or strategy.
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Experts see tough road for Kodak to reinvent self
An unidentified person enters Kodak Headquarters in Rochester, N.Y., Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012. Eastman Kodak Co. said early Thursday Jan. 19, 2012 it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as it seeks to boost its cash position and stay in business. (AP Photo/David Duprey)
An unidentified person enters Kodak Headquarters in Rochester, N.Y., Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012. Eastman Kodak Co. said early Thursday Jan. 19, 2012 it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as it seeks to boost its cash position and stay in business. (AP Photo/David Duprey)
CHICAGO (AP) ? Even in bankruptcy, Kodak boasts some enviable strengths: a golden brand, technology firepower that includes a rich collection of photo patents, and more than $4 billion in annual sales of digital cameras, printers, and inks.
But all that may not be enough to revive its declining fortunes in a Chapter 11 overhaul. Kodak is at a crossroads: It could go the way of fallen Montgomery Ward and Circuit City, two corporate names that never recovered from long declines. Or Kodak could prosper after bankruptcy like General Motors.
Of the many restructuring experts interviewed by The Associated Press on Thursday, none are optimistic that Kodak can make a strong comeback.
Selling select business lines and patents and making the right bets on a limited number of new technology products could allow the Eastman Kodak Co. to survive, several experts said. But none see a path back to anything close to the glory days of the former photography titan.
"You can pick your metaphor: 'Stick a fork in them,' 'They're over the cliff' -- they're done," said Bill Brandt, chief executive of turnaround consultant Development Specialists Inc. in Chicago. "The Kodak as we know it is done, unequivocally."
The company's only hope, Brandt said, is to reinvent itself as an intellectual property company. But first it will have to put its patent portfolio up for sale and determine whether it wants to sell them based on what's offered, he said, or retain them and try to remake the company over a period of years.
Kodak said only that it has appointed a chief restructuring officer to head the effort: Dominic DiNapoli, vice president of FTI Consulting. It expects to complete its U.S.-based restructuring next year.
Whatever the company does now is likely to be too little, too late, said Gary Adelson, managing director of turnaround firm NHB Advisors in Los Angeles.
"I can't imagine a big future for Kodak," said Adelson, who thinks the company should just sell its assets. "I think it's going to be another one of those companies that didn't make the transition to the future."
Some experts think the company can get by once it cuts debt by reducing pension and employee benefit costs in bankruptcy, then disposes of its least valuable products.
Only a much leaner, more focused Kodak can survive, said Haresh Sapra, an accounting professor and bankruptcy specialist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. "They probably should go back to basics and focus on one or two of those business lines that are self-sustaining," he said.
The primary hope lies in digital businesses that generated some $4.5 billion in revenue last year, an amount Kodak said accounted for about 75 percent of total sales. That includes consumer devices such as self-service photo kiosks, printers and high-volume document scanners.
"If they can take their existing products and improve them and make them much cheaper, I see no reason why the company can't emerge with a healthier balance sheet," said Edward Neiger, a partner at New York bankruptcy law firm Neiger LLP. "It's going to be a shell of what the old company was, but I don't think they need to liquidate."
In a statement accompanying the Chapter 11 filing on Thursday, the company touted its "pioneering investments in digital and materials deposition technologies" in recent years.
The best-case scenario for Kodak in the long run may be to end up like Polaroid, suggested Eli Lehrer, who heads the nonprofit Heartland Institute's Center on Finance, Insurance and Real Estate in Washington. The company long known for its instant-film cameras stopped making them and filed for bankruptcy in 2008. The Polaroid name, however, lives on under private ownership, albeit as a much smaller firm.
Kodak has a better brand name, Lehrer said, although "That doesn't necessarily translate to people keeping their jobs, or stockholders keeping anything."
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Rosa spins the roulette wheel for Sin City SmackDown in Las Vegas
Hours before "Sin City SmackDown" got underway, SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long gave new WWE Tag Team Champions Primo & Epico and the beautiful Rosa Mendes an early crack at the roulette wheel. What match stipulation did Primo & Epico receive for their showdown with The Usos? Watch this exclusive WWE.com video to find out.
Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/smackdown/2012-01-13/smackdown-rosa-spins-wheel
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Apple announces iBooks 2, iBooks Author
Apple
By Rosa Golijan
"Education is deep in our DNA, and it has been since the very beginning."
With those words,?Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing?Phil Schiller kicked off the company's invitation-only education event on Thursday, according to?Technologizer's Henry McCracken. At this event,?Apple introduced the newly interactive iBooks 2, a first wave of $14.99 school textbooks from the top educational publishers and a new tool for educators to make their own textbook. The company also revamped its iTunes U program for sharing multimedia educational material.
After his opening remarks, Schiller went on to explain that Apple is "proud to help students learn" and that it has noticed that iPads are finding their way into classrooms.
"It's not a big surprise that students get excited to learn on the iPad ? it was No. 1 on teen's wish lists this holiday," Schiller said, quoted by The Verge's rapid-fire liveblog. Between the 20,000 education apps on the iPad and the sheer volume of content in the iBookstore, it's certainly understandable that there are over 1.5 million iPads being used in education.
But Apple wants to make things even easier and better ??by taking two actions.
The first, says Schiller, is reinventing the textbook.?Textbooks, he explains, aren't the most ideal learning tool. They can be cumbersome, they get dogeared, they suffer from wear, they're not interactive, and they're certainly not easily searchable.?
The iPad, on the other hand, is pretty darn portable, durable, and searchable.
So the natural step to take?? raise your hand if you didn't see this coming?? is to put textbooks onto the iPad.?Apple intends to do this with the brand new iBooks 2.
iBooks 2 ??the second generation of Apple's popular app ??will bring movies, multitouch gestures, links, lightning-fast searches, photo galleries, visual Q&A sections,?3-D models and other interactive elements to textbooks.?iBooks 2 will be available for download today (and, like its predecessor, the app itself will be free).
Apple
Now we've established that the snazzy new interactive textbooks will be used in iBooks (and downloadable through the iBookstore), but where will they come from? How are they made?
Easily, says Schiller. A free Mac app for authoring books will be made available. The app will be named?? all too obviously?? iBooks Author.??iBooks Author offers templates, drag-and-drop controls, auto-formatting and allows for custom elements.?The Verge describes it as looking like "Keynote mixed with Pages."
This clever tool aside, Apple's got plenty of partners lined up as well ??so that it can offer textbooks priced at $14.99 or less.?In fact, it's got three major textbook publishers ??Pearson, McGraw-Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt???on its side.?"These companies make 90 percent of the textbooks available," says Schiller.
But all of this isn't enough ??Apple wants to do more for education. Which brings us to the second part of Apple's presentation: A?new iTunes U, previously a collection of free videos and podcasts.?This new version of iTunes U will feel very familiar to those who have used iBooks, says?Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet software and services.?It "lets teachers do everything on their iPad," he added.
The new app will?offer customizable topics, have room for things such as office hours, allow teachers to post messages or list assignments, and make lectures streamable or downloadable.
The new iTunes U app will be free and?is no longer limited to universities ??K-12 schools will be able to use it as well.
Related stories:
Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts, or circling her?on?Google+.
Source: http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/19/10189773-apple-announces-ibooks-2-ibooks-author
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Friday, January 20, 2012
London mayor: UK to study new airport proposal (AP)
LONDON ? London Mayor Boris Johnson says his proposal for a major new airport in the Thames River estuary east of London is gaining some support.
Johnson told BBC radio Wednesday that the government is getting increasingly interested in the proposal. He says both Prime Minister David Cameron and Treasury chief George Osborne have recently discussed the project.
Johnson first proposed the costly and controversial idea in 2008.
Famed architect Norman Foster has also produced a plan for a possible estuary airport.
Critics says the cost, environmental impact and time needed for the construction argue against the proposal.
London's Heathrow Airport is already badly overcrowded and the government has ruled out construction of a third runway there.
Obama, GOP back in tussle over oil pipeline (AP)
WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama and Congress are back where they were before Christmas, locked in an election-season tussle over a proposed 1,700-mile oil pipeline from Canada to Texas.
Republicans hope to again force Obama to make a politically risky decision, while he is seeking to put it off until after the November election.
Obama blocked the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline on Wednesday, at least temporarily, but Republicans immediately signaled their intention to try again to force the issue. Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he will call Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who recommended Obama's rejection, to testify at a hearing as early as next Wednesday, the day after Obama gives his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress.
"This is not the end of the fight. Republicans in Congress will continue to push this because it's good for our country and it's good for our economy and it's good for the American people," especially those who are out of work, said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Republicans are looking to drive a wedge between Obama and two key Democratic constituencies. Some labor unions support the pipeline as a job creator, while environmentalists fear it could lead to an oil spill disaster.
The plan by Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, through a 1,700-mile pipeline across six U.S. states to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.
Obama was already on record as saying no, for now, until his administration could review an alternate route that avoided environmentally sensitive areas of Nebraska ? a route that still has not been proposed. But in an unrelated tax deal he cut with congressional Republicans, Obama had been boxed into making a decision by Feb. 21.
The deal required that the project would go forward unless Obama declared by that date that it was not in the national interest. The president did just that Wednesday, generating intense reaction from all sides.
"This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people," Obama said in a written statement. "I'm disappointed that Republicans in Congress forced this decision."
Republicans got out their toughest rhetoric for the occasion.
Newt Gingrich, campaigning for the GOP presidential nomination in South Carolina, called Obama's decision "stunningly stupid," adding, "What Obama has done is kill jobs, weaken American security and drive Canada into the arms of China out of just sheer stupidity."
Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney said the decision was "as shocking as it is revealing. It shows a president who once again has put politics ahead of sound policy."
Project supporters say U.S. rejection of the pipeline would not stop one from being built. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said Canada is serious about building a pipeline to its West Coast, where oil could be shipped to China and other Asian markets.
TransCanada said it would submit a new application once an alternative route for the pipeline is established. Company chief Russ Girling said if approved, the pipeline could begin operation as soon as 2014. He said TransCanada will continue to work with Nebraska officials to determine the safest route for Keystone XL that avoids the environmentally sensitive Sandhills area, which he said should be completed this fall.
But Assistant Secretary of State Kerri-Ann Jones told reporters that if TransCanada submits a new application for a different pipeline path, it would trigger a new review process.
"We cannot state that anything will be expedited at this time," she said. "We would look to information that is out there to extent we can. It is a new permit application so the process would have to be started over again."
The proposed $7 billion pipeline would pass through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma en route to Texas.
The pipeline is a dicey proposition for Obama, who enjoyed strong support from both organized labor and environmentalists in his winning 2008 campaign for the White House.
Environmental advocates have made it clear that approval of the pipeline would dampen their enthusiasm for Obama in November. Some liberal donors even threatened to cut off funds to Obama's re-election campaign to protest the project, which opponents say would transport "dirty oil" that requires huge amounts of energy to extract.
But by rejecting the pipeline, Obama risks losing support from organized labor, a key part of the Democratic base, for thwarting thousands of jobs.
"The score is job-killers two, American workers zero," said Terry O'Sullivan, general president of the Laborers' International Union of North America.
O'Sullivan called the decision "politics at its worst" and said, "Blue-collar construction workers across the U.S. will not forget this."
Yet some unions that back Obama oppose the pipeline, including the United Auto Workers, Service Employees International Union and Communications Workers of America.
TransCanada says the pipeline could create as many as 20,000 jobs, a figure opponents say is inflated. A State Department report last summer said the pipeline would create up to 6,000 jobs during construction.
Obama appeared to have skirted what some dubbed the "Keystone conundrum" in November when the State Department announced it was postponing a decision on the pipeline until after this year's election. Officials said they needed extra time to study routes that avoid a 65-mile stretch through the Sandhills area, which supplies water to eight states.
The concerns were serious enough that the state's governor and senators opposed the project unless the pipeline was moved. Any new route would have to be approved by Nebraska environmental officials and the State Department, which has authority because the pipeline would cross an international border.
Obama said his decision does not "change my administration's commitment to American-made energy that creates jobs and reduces our dependence on oil."
To underscore the point, Obama signaled that he would not oppose development of an oil pipeline from Oklahoma to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico. TransCanada already operates a pipeline from Canada to Cushing, Okla. Refineries in Houston and along the Texas Gulf Coast can handle heavy crude such as that extracted from Canadian tar sands ? the type of oil that would flow through the Keystone XL pipeline.
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said he doesn't believe the Keystone XL is dead. He said the Obama administration did not have enough time to review the project, given the Republican-imposed timeline.
"I don't believe this is the end of the story," Conrad told The Associated Press. "My personal view is that it should be constructed. It's clear Canada is going to develop this resource, and I believe it is better for our country to have it go here rather than Asian markets."
Bill McKibben, an environmental activist who led opposition to the pipeline, praised Obama's decision to stand up to what he called a "naked political threat from Big Oil."
___
Associated Press writers Ben Feller, Dina Cappiello, Laurie Kellman and Sam Hananel in Washington, Shannon McCaffrey in Warrenville, S.C., Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Houston and James MacPherson in Bismarck, N.D., contributed to this story.
___
Follow Matthew Daly on Twitter: (at)MatthewDalyWDC.
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