College presidents wary of Obama cost-control plan

President Barack Obama speaks at the University of Michigan's Al Glick Field House, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama speaks at the University of Michigan's Al Glick Field House, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama greets supporters after his speech at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

President Barack Obama speaks at the University of Michigan's Al Glick Field House, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

President Barack Obama speaks at the University of Michigan's Al Glick Field House, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama speaks at the University of Michigan's Al Glick Field House, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Public university presidents facing ever-increasing state budget cuts are raising concerns about President Barack Obama's plan to force colleges and universities to contain tuition prices or face losing federal dollars.

Illinois State University President Al Bowman says the reality is that deficits in many public schools can't be easily overcome with simple modifications. Bowman says he's happy to hear Obama call for state-level support of public universities but adds that, given the decreases in state aid, tying federal support to tuition is a product of "fuzzy math."

Obama spelled out his proposal Friday at the University of Michigan.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-28-Obama-College%20Costs/id-9705e2b8e4e0444a8566bc077eadea11

sveum benetton ads cornucopia

Obama administration reveals new ATF gun probe rules (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The Obama administration on Friday revealed new reforms undertaken to improve how it conducts undercover gun trafficking investigations in the wake of a botched operation in which scores of weapons disappeared.

The reforms require additional oversight of undercover operations, including those that involve more than 50 firearms, and, in most cases, ends the practice of paying gun dealers to serve as confidential informants.

Additionally, a new review committee has been established to monitor sensitive undercover cases or those that would have a "significant regional or national impact," according to the Justice Department.

The details were revealed just before Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Thursday before members of the House of Representatives' Oversight and Government Reform Committee about the bungled operation known as "Fast and Furious."

The operation, run out of the Phoenix offices of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and U.S. Attorney's office was meant to follow the guns from the initial buyers along the U.S. border to violent drug cartel leaders in Mexico.

However ATF agents did not track the weapons after they were transferred from the initial buyer to others who smuggled them across the border. As many as 2,000 guns may have been sold under the operation.

Two AK-47 style weapons from that program were found in Arizona 18 miles from the border where a U.S. Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, was shot and killed during a December 2010 shootout with illegal immigrants.

A similar, smaller program was run during the Bush administration dubbed "Wide Receiver."

"We are undertaking key enhancements to existing department policies and procedures to ensure that mistakes like those that occurred in 'Wide Receiver' and 'Fast and Furious' are not repeated," Deputy Attorney General James Cole said in a letter to Congress.

Republicans have been demanding to know who in the Obama administration knew about the "Fast and Furious" operation and when. Holder and other senior ATF and Justice Department officials said they did not learn about it until early 2011.

(Reporting By Jeremy Pelofsky)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/pl_nm/us_usa_mexico_guns

paranormal activity 4 andrew luck andrew luck love and hip hop 2012 nfl mock draft iowa caucus lemonade diet

US Embassy: US citizen kidnapped in Nigeria freed (AP)

LAGOS, Nigeria ? A U.S. citizen kidnapped by gunmen in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta has been freed after a week in captivity, the U.S. Embassy said Friday.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Deb MacLean told The Associated Press that the man had been released after being kidnapped in Warri in Delta state on Jan. 20. MacLean declined to offer any other details, citing privacy rules. Delta state police spokesman Charles Muka said he had not been informed about the man's release, as his company refused to cooperate with local authorities.

The freed hostage was identified as William Gregory Ock, 50, of Bowdon, Ga., by his sister, Dee Dee Patterson.

Patterson told the AP on Friday that the family had no details of his release.

"The only thing we know is that he is safe and he is in a secure location," Patterson said by telephone.

She had no information on when Ock would return home to Georgia.

It was not immediately clear whether a ransom had been paid to secure his release, though many companies working in the region carry kidnap insurance and simply pay a negotiated price to see their employees freed. Kidnappers had made contact with authorities previously and demanded a $333,000 ransom.

The attack Jan. 20 occurred outside a bank branch in Warri, one of the main cities in nation's Niger Delta, a region of mangroves and swamps where foreign oil companies pump 2.4 million barrels of crude oil a day. The gunmen attacked Ock as he came outside, shooting his police escort to death before abducting him, Muka said.

Investigators believe the gunmen trailed him for some time before the attack, Muka said.

Foreign firms have pumped oil out of the delta for more than 50 years. Despite the billions flowing into Nigeria's government, many in the delta remain desperately poor, living in polluted waters without access to proper medical care, education or work.

In 2006, militants started a wave of attacks targeting foreign oil companies, including bombing their pipelines, kidnapping their workers and fighting with security forces. That violence waned in 2009 with a government-sponsored amnesty program promising ex-fighters monthly payments and job training. However, few in the delta have seen the promised benefits and criminal gangs still roam the region, increasingly targeting middle-class Nigerians.

In 2011, there were five reported kidnappings of U.S. citizens in Nigeria, according to a recent U.S. State Department travel warning about the country. The most recent occurred in November when two U.S. citizens and a Mexican were kidnapped from a Chevron Corp. offshore oil field and held for about two weeks, the State Department said.

A German working in the city of Kano in north Nigeria was abducted Thursday by unknown gunmen, authorities have said.

___

Associated Press writer Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.

___

Jon Gambrell can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_us/af_nigeria_oil_unrest

corporal kelsey de santis ufc on fox juan manuel marquez juan manuel marquez stanford oregon velasquez vs dos santos velasquez vs dos santos

Audiobooks.com offers unlimited book listening

Audiobooks.com is a new service for book lovers that allows you to listen to as many audiobooks as you want. The cloud-based service offers more than 10,000 titles, including the

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/UGurRylcta0/story01.htm

tim howard west virginia rob roy gaslight justin timberlake michael dyer meteor shower

Apple doubles iPhone sales in 1Q (AP)

NEW YORK ? After uncharacteristically tepid sales in the July-to-September quarter, Apple came back with a vengeance in last three months of 2011, vastly exceeding analyst estimates and setting new records.

Apple Inc. on Tuesday said it sold 37 million iPhones in the quarter, double the figure of the previous quarter and more than twice as many as it sold in last year's holiday quarter.

The result may make Apple the world's largest maker of smartphones. Samsung Electronics, which held that position for most of last year, has said it expects to report shipping about 35 million smartphones in the October to December quarter.

October saw the launch of the iPhone 4S, and the addition of Sprint Nextel Corp. as an iPhone carrier in the U.S.

Apple said net income in the fiscal first quarter was $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per share. That was up 118 percent from $6 billion, or $6.43 per share, a year ago.

Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting earnings of $10.04 per share for the latest quarter, Apple's fiscal first.

Revenue was $46.33 billion, up 73 percent from a year ago. Analysts were expecting $38.9 billion.

The Cupertino, Calif., company shipped 15.4 million iPads in the quarter, again more than doubling sales over the same quarter last year.

Apple shares rose $33.03, or 7.9 percent, to $453.53 in extended trading, after the release of the results.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_hi_te/us_earns_apple

build build miss usa 2011 miss usa 2011 stevie nicks sarah michelle gellar living social

House bills promote religion at war memorials (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The House has passed a bill confirming the use of religious symbols at military memorials. It was also voting on legislation to order that a prayer issued by Franklin Roosevelt on D-Day be installed at the World War II memorial in Washington.

The first bill would write into law existing practice of allowing display of religious symbols at military memorials and cemeteries. It was introduced by Rep. Duncan Hunter, a San Diego Republican, in response to a federal court decision a year ago that a 43-foot cross at St. Soledad Veterans Memorial in nearby La Jolla was unconstitutional.

The other bill, expected to pass later in the day, would direct the Interior Secretary to install a plaque of inscription with the FDR prayer to the nation on June 6, 1944.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_re_us/us_war_memorials_religion

devil inside ted nugent dash diet how to make moonshine joel osteen emmy rossum moonshine

Online Gamers Achieve First Crowd-Sourced Redesign of Protein

An enzyme designed by players of the protein-folding game Foldit was better than anything scientists could come up with. Image: Foldit

Obsessive gamers' hours at the computer have now topped scientists' efforts to improve a model enzyme, in what researchers say is the first crowdsourced redesign of a protein.

The online game Foldit, developed by teams led by Zoran Popovic, director of the Center for Game Science, and?biochemist David Baker, both?at the University of Washington in Seattle, allows players to fiddle at folding proteins on their home computers in search of the best-scoring (lowest-energy) configurations.

The researchers have previously reported successes by Foldit players in folding proteins, but the latest work moves into the realm of protein design, a more open-ended problem. By posing a series of puzzles to Foldit players and then testing variations on the players' best designs in the lab, researchers have created an enzyme with more than?18-fold higher activity than the original. The work was published January 22 in?Nature Biotechnology.

"I worked for two years to make these enzymes better and I couldn't do it," says Justin Siegel, a post-doctoral researcher working in biophysics?in Baker's group. "Foldit players were able to make a large jump in structural space and I still don't fully understand how they did it."

The project has progressed from volunteers donating their computers' spare processing power for protein-structure research, to actively predicting protein structures, and now to designing new proteins. The game has 240,000 registered players, 2,200 of whom were active last week.

The latest effort involved an enzyme that catalyses one of a family of workhorse reactions in synthetic chemistry called Diels-Alder reactions. Members of this huge family of reactions are used throughout industry to synthesize everything from drugs to pesticides, but enzymes that catalyze Diels-Alder reactions have been elusive. In 2010, Baker and his team?reported that they had designed a functional Diels?Alderase computationally from scratch³, but, says Baker, "it wasn't such a good enzyme".?The binding pocket for the pair of reactants was too open and activity was low. After their attempts to improve the enzyme plateaued, the team turned to Foldit.

In one puzzle, the researchers asked users to remodel one of four amino-acid loops on the enzyme to increase contact with the reactants.?In another puzzle, players were asked for a design that would stabilize the new loop. The researchers got back nearly 70,000 designs for the first puzzle and 110,000 for the second, then synthesized a number of test enzymes based on the best designs, ultimately resulting in the final, 18-fold-more-active enzyme.

Science by intuition

"It's a refreshing twist on enzyme engineering," says Stefan Lutz, a chemist?at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who was not involved in the research. "Using the Foldit players allows the researchers to use human intuition at a scale that is unprecedented."

Foldit allows people to explore more drastic changes to the protein than are possible using standard methods such as directed evolution ? in which a large pool of randomly mutated enzymes is screened for mutants that improve the original. These mutations are typically just amino-acid substitutions, not the 13-amino-acid addition the players came up with. Systematically testing a change of that size?would require testing astronomical numbers of proteins.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=651bc0d21025400c78f810094745257f

custer scott walker restaurant week type 2 diabetes occupy congress juan williams victor martinez

Heated charges, counter-charges in Florida debate (AP)

TAMPA, Fla. ? Republican presidential contenders Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich clashed repeatedly in heated, personal terms Monday night in a crackling campaign debate, the former Massachusetts governor tagging his rival as a Washington "influence peddler," only to be accused in turn of spreading falsehoods over many years in politics.

"You've been walking around the state saying things that are untrue," Gingrich told his rival in a two-hour debate marked by occasional interruptions and finger-pointing.

The event marked the first encounter among the four remaining GOP contenders ? former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul shared the stage ? since Gingrich won the South Carolina primary in an upset last weekend.

His double-digit victory reset the race to pick a rival to challenge Democratic President Barack Obama this fall, and the next contest is the Jan. 31 Florida primary.

With a week of campaigning ahead, Romney is expected to release his income tax return for 2010 as well as an estimate for 2011 on Tuesday. He said it will show he paid all the taxes he was obligated to pay, adding, "I don't think the voters want a president who pays more than he owes."

Following his defeat in South Carolina, Romney can ill afford to lose in Florida, and he was the aggressor from the opening moments Monday night. He said Gingrich had "resigned in disgrace" from Congress after four years as speaker and then had spent the next 15 years "working as an influence peddler."

In particular, he referred to the contract Gingrich's consulting firm had with Freddie Mac, a government-backed mortgage giant that he said "did a lot of bad for a lot of people and you were working there."

Romney also said Gingrich had lobbied lawmakers to approve legislation creating a new prescription drug benefit under Medicare.

"I have never, ever gone and done any lobbying," Gingrich retorted emphatically, adding that his firm had hired an expert to explain to employees "the bright line between what you can do as a citizen and what you do as a lobbyist."

Romney counterpunched, referring to the $300,000 that Gingrich's consulting firm received in 2006 from Freddie Mac, the government-backed mortgage giant.

And when Gingrich sought to turn the tables by inquiring about the private equity firm that Romney founded, the former Massachusetts governor replied: "We didn't do any work with the government. ...I wasn't a lobbyist."

As for the Medicare prescription drug benefit, Gingrich expressed pride in having supported it. "It has saved lives. It's run on a free enterprise model," he said in a state that is home to millions of seniors.

Whatever the stated subject, the debate's subtext was character ? and electability, the quality that Republican voters say consistently matters most to them in the race.

Gingrich said voters don't want a president who will "manage the decay," but change the country. "That requires sending somebody who's prepared to be controversial when necessary."

Romney pointed to his career in business, his turn as head of the Salt Lake City Olympics and a term as governor of Massachusetts.

Obama took his lumps, as customary in a Republican debate.

Romney said the president lacks a vision for NASA, and said, "There are people on the Space Coast that are suffering and Florida itself is suffering as a result."

He proposed that "a collection" of academics and private investors consult with the president on a new mission for the space agency and have the program funded jointly by the government and private industry.

Gingrich called that answer "building a bigger bureaucracy" and instead proposed handing out prizes to people who come up with ways to "make the Space Coast literally hum with activity." Going back to the moon permanently, putting a man on mars and building space stations should be priorities, he said.

When the debate turned to immigration, one moderator noted that Romney and Santorum have said they would veto the "Dream Act," which would create conditions under which illegal immigrant minors might achieve U.S. citizenship, and asked if Gingrich agreed.

"No, I would work to get a signable version," he said. "I think any young person brought here by their parents when they were young should have the same opportunity to join the American military and earn citizenship."

Romney said that was the same as his position.

Moments later, he was asked to reconcile two other statements he has made about immigration, that while he doesn't want to deport millions of illegal immigrants, he wants them to return to their home countries and apply for citizenship. "The answer is self-deportation, which is people decide they can do better by going home," he said.

At times, the other two contenders on stage were reduced to supporting roles.

Asked if he could envision a path to the nomination for himself, Santorum said the race has so far been defined by its unpredictability.

He jumped at the chance to criticize both Romney and Gingrich for having supported the big federal bailouts of Wall Street in 2008.

He also said both men had abandoned conservative principles by supporting elements of "cap and trade" legislation to curb pollution emissions from industrial sites. "When push came to shove, they were pushed," he said.

Paul sidestepped when moderator Brian Williams of NBC asked if he would run as a third-party candidate in the fall if he doesn't win the nomination. "I have no intention," he said, but he didn't rule it out.

Paul has said he will largely bypass Florida to concentrate on states that are holding caucuses.

Hit at the outset with Romney' charge that he had resigned Congress in disgrace and went on to a career peddling his own influence, Gingrich said two men who had run against the former governor in the 2008 campaign, John McCain and Mike Huckabee, had said he couldn't tell the truth.

The polls post-South Carolina show Gingrich and Romney leading in the Florida primary. That and the former speaker's weekend victory explained why the two were squabbling even before the debate began, and why they tangled almost instantly once it had begun.

Romney began airing a harshly critical new campaign ad and said the former House speaker had engaged in "potentially wrongful activity" with the consulting work he did after leaving Congress in the late 1990s.

Gingrich retorted that Romney was a candidate who was campaigning on openness yet "has released none of his business records."

He followed up two hours before the debate by arranging the release of a contract his former consulting firm had with the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. for a retainer of $25,000 per month in 2006, or a total for the year of $300,000. The agreement called for "consulting and related services."

Despite Romney's attempts to call Gingrich a lobbyist, the contract makes no mention of lobbying.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_el_ge/us_republicans_debate

cameron todd willingham death row naacp cheryl cole x factor freetown freetown nicole scherzinger

Bullied as a kid, Peter Jackson fights back on film (Reuters)

PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) ? The high-profile case of the West Memphis Three murderers might seem like an odd choice of films for director Peter Jackson, but the "Lord of the Rings" maker has come to Sundance with a documentary about the case and a new revelation of a possible suspect.

Jackson, who helped bankroll the defense of the three convicted killers who are now out of jail nearly 20 years after the crime, and the legal team claim they have testimony that the stepfather of one of the victims is the real murderer.

Whether that allegation eventually proves true will await prosecutors' action in West Memphis, Arkansas where the murders took place in 1993, and so far the prosecution has stuck by its belief they had the right culprits all along.

But where Jackson and one of the West Memphis Three, Damien Echols, are concerned, their documentary "West of Memphis" and this new testimony takes the fight further.

"It's got to be dealt with," Jackson told Reuters on Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival. "You can't just leave a murder case like that hanging in the air."

The high-profile case of the West Memphis Three who were tried and convicted as teens of murdering three boys prompted a call to action for Jackson when first told the disturbing tale of the young men linked to a grisly murder who were ultimately released from prison in August 2011.

"I was bullied and regarded as little bit of an oddball myself," Jackson told Reuters on Saturday. "And I see that happening to somebody else, so I just want to help them."

Jackson and director Amy Berg debuted "West of Memphis" at Sundance on Friday, and simultaneously defense lawyers issued a press release detailing their new revelations.

The documentary follows the case of what many believe was the wrongful conviction of Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, who were teenagers when they were accused of killing three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993.

The case already has been made famous by the HBO documentary series "Paradise Lost," but the story of the three jailed boys struck a chord in the Jackson and his wife and producing partner Fran Walsh as far back as 2005.

"It's an American story but it's a human story as well," Jackson said. "When you look at the original 'Paradise Lost' film, you see three kids who can't defend themselves, being persecuted in a medieval way -- witchcraft, satanic worship. It was kind of primitive. It makes you angry, so Fran and I contacted (Echols' wife) Lorri Davis and asked what we could do to help."

Jackson said he and Walsh funded the defense team's investigation anonymously, spending "more than thousands" of dollars paying bills for such things as DNA tests and sending investigators to interview additional witnesses.

"We're still doing that," Jackson said.

Only one week ago, he said, the filmmakers shot and edited the new revelation into the documentary, but they had no time to include the footage in early screenings.

NEW REVELATION

According to Jackson, Echols and the defense team, the nephew of Terry Hobbs -- Michael Hobbs, Jr. -- has told friends that his uncle committed the crime. Terry Hobbs' stepson, Stevie Branch, was among the murder victims.

Hobbs has long denied any wrongdoing and police have never considered him a suspect, according to media reports. Reuters was unable to reach Hobbs for comment.

For Jackson, the idea of actually making a documentary on the West Memphis Three didn't arise until 2008, after DNA and forensic findings paid for by Jackson and Walsh, were dismissed by the original judge presiding over the trial. He found the evidence as not being compelling enough to reopen the case.

"Whenever new evidence came and we tried to present it to the judge, he refused to hear it," said Echols, now 37. He and his wife are producers on the film alongside Jackson and Walsh.

"The only way to let the public know what was going on with this case was by doing a documentary. It was Peter's idea of 'well, why don't we get this evidence out to the public if the courts are going to refuse to hear it?'"

"West of Memphis" follows the three convicted killers until just after they were released last August in a legal maneuver known as an "Alford Plea," whereby the men plead guilty in their own best interest while asserting innocence.

But the trio, their families, their lawyers, Jackson, Walsh and director Berg haven't stopped fighting.

"You have to push this hard in order to get a reaction," said Berg. "I feel that we have gone further than anybody else has gone and we've put it out there for people to act."

The film received strong initial reviews from critics here at Sundance. The Hollywood Reporter labeled it a "gripping overall picture of the West Memphis 3 wrongful-conviction saga" and summed up, "Thorny, blood-boiling and finely made, it deserves a theatrical push."

(Editing by Christine Kearney and Bob Tourtellotte)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120122/film_nm/us_sundance_peterjackson

enews enews mona simpson mona simpson grady sizemore grady sizemore samhain

Costa CEO says captain misled company, crew (AP)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

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

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

kit homes boxing day radio shack bethany hamilton bethany hamilton after christmas sales macys

Debate clip (Balloon Juice)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/188796799?client_source=feed&format=rss

nest williams syndrome jay leno machine gun kelly lindsey lohan reed hastings cujo

Stephen Hawking's cosmic curios explained

Sarah Lee / The Science Museum via Reuters

Physicist Stephen Hawking is seen in his office at the University of Cambridge in this photo taken for London's Science Museum in December. The picture is part of a series of photographic portraits commissioned by the Science Museum to celebrate Hawking's 70th birthday on Jan. 8. The pictures are part of an exhibit at the musem celebrating Hawking's life and achievements.

By Alan Boyle

The cosmic curios of the world's best-known physicist went on display today at a London science museum, chronicling the amazing 70 years of Stephen Hawking's life. Over the decades,?the quadriplegic genius has?popped up in so many pop-culture settings that some of those curios require a little explanation.

That's what we found when we?ran?a picture of the professor?in his Cambridge office as the first installment of a "Where in the Cosmos"?series on the Cosmic Log Facebook page. There's such a generous assortment of gewgaws that it's a wonder?Hawking gets anything done.

---

Stephen Hawking sets the tone for a Science Museum exhibit reviewing his life.

It turns out that the scene was arranged to show off Hawking's stuff for the exhibit at the Science Museum in London. Take the bronze statue on the desk, for example. I was particularly intrigued by the out-of-focus statue because it seemed to hold such a prominent place in the picture.

"I believe the statue is of the pope," Tracey Walters wrote. "But the picture is kinda fuzzy, so?who knows which one?" Others wondered if it was the?theologian Erasmus, or maybe King Midas.

Hawking's longtime executive assistant, Judith Croasdell, straightened out the mystery in an email.

"The statue is the Fonseca Prize which Professor Hawking received in Santiago de Compestela, in 2008," she wrote.?"It normally sits not on Stephen's desk but on the window shelf because it is heavy ? 2 kilograms worth of bronze. Obviously it was put on the desk for the photographers."

A?less weighty?curio is far easier to recognize: It's?a plastic action figure of Hawking as he appeared in an episode of "The Simpsons,"?the animated show that the physicist has called the best thing American television has to offer. The figurine is festooned with the helicopter top and the spring-loaded boxing glove that played their part in the "Simpsons" plot. In the distance, you can just make out a picture on the wall that shows Hawking encountering Maggie Simpson and other characters from the show. Watch this YouTube clip to learn more about Hawking's "Simpsons" connection.

Other items include a little toy computer with sticky notes, a space shuttle model, and a crystal globe. "The crystal globe is a present given by Discovery and shows a map of the world," Croasdell says.?"Carved on the globe are the words 'What is essential is invisible to the eye,' [from]?Saint-Exupery."

There's a?humidifier on his desk that?holds an assortment of seashells. The blackboard you see in the picture above is covered with equations scribbled by his students. Another blackboard in the room, not seen here, that has mathematical in-jokes written on it.

Sarah Lee / Science Museum via Reuters

Another picture commissioned by the Science Museum shows Stephen Hawking with a picture of Marilyn Monroe looming over him.

Another photo of Hawking's office, taken from a different perspective, gives prominent play to?his picture of Marilyn Monroe,?who is one of?the professor's favorite personages from the past. "If I had a time machine, I'd drop in on Marilyn Monroe in her prime," he once mused. The room's walls are covered with flyers as well as photos from Hawking's trips around the world.

To find out more about these items and others in Hawking's office, check out Roger Highfield's profile of the professor in The Telegraph.

The photos are just one little piece of the Science Museum's one-room exhibition: Museumgoers can also see?pictures of?Hawking before his struggle with motor neuron disease, as well as mementos that touch upon the highlights of his long career. The Science Museum's inventor in residence, Mark Champkins, created a "Black Hole Light" in Hawking's honor that?uses a swirl of?neon tubing to evoke the path photons would take as they fell into a black hole.

Here's a sampling of the sights:

AP

The Science Museum displays a selection of books and papers by British physicist Stephen Hawking. His best-known work, "A Brief History of Time," has been translated into more than 30 languages. The object at right that looks like a model of Saturn is actually the 2010 Cosmos Award, which Hawking received from the Planetary Society. Hawking's Fonseca Prize and Prince of Asturias Award are also on display.

Alastair Grant / AP

A diagram by British physicist Stephen Hawking, titled "Black Hole and Unpredictability," is one of the papers on display at the Science Museum.

Alastair Grant / AP

A marked script from a "Simpsons" episode that aired in 1999 highlights Stephen Hawking's lines, including this one: "Silence! I don't need anyone to talk for me except this voicebox." The Stephen Hawking action figure has a helicopter-style wheelchair and a boxing glove, just like the character on the show.

Update for 12:45 a.m. ET Jan. 21: When the Planetary Society's Charlene Anderson took a look at the pictures above, she saw a familiar sight ? the planet-shaped Cosmos Award that Hawking received from the society in 2010. Check out her posting to the Planetary Society's blog, in which she expresses her surprise and pleasure at seeing the society's award in such a place of honor.

Next on 'Where in the Cosmos': Today's picture puzzle focuses on a far-out subject that's been the subject of research recently. I haven't written anything about it yet, but next week I'll fill you in on why it's significant. One of our Cosmic Log friends has already figured out what the picture shows, and as a reward I'll be sending her a copy of John Gribbin's latest book, "Alone in the Universe." To join the conversation, check out the "Where in the Cosmos" posting on the Cosmic Log Facebook page.

More about Stephen Hawking's life and work:

---

The exhibit celebrating Stephen Hawking's 70th birthday runs through April 9 at the Science Museum in London.

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10201173-stephen-hawkings-curios-explained

ray lewis crystal cathedral sarah vowell fire in reno kelly ripa reno wildfire reno wildfire

Combination of oral drugs suppresses common type of hepatitis C

Thursday, January 19, 2012

A new combination of investigational drugs successfully suppressed hepatitis C genotype 1 infection in a high percent of patients who had not responded to previous treatment in a study led by a University of Michigan hepatologist.

The study, which will be published Jan. 19 in the New England Journal of Medicine, focused on hepatitis C genotype 1, which is predominant in the United States and the most difficult to treat. Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver and can cause liver cancer and liver cirrhosis. It is transmitted through direct contact with infected blood and blood products.

In this pilot study, patients with hepatitis C genotype 1 infection, who had not responded to previous treatment with PEG-interferon alfa and ribavirin, were given a combination of two investigational direct-acting antiviral agents (daclatasvir and asunaprevir) alone, or were given these two antiviral agents along with PEG-interferon alfa-2a and ribavirin. All the patients saw their hepatitis C viral load drop rapidly, says Anna S. Lok, M.D., professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology at the University of Michigan Medical School and lead author of the study.

All 10 patients given the four drug treatment -- two direct-acting antiviral agents (daclastasvir and asunaprevir) that block the NS3 and NS5A regions of the hepatitis C virus plus PEG-interferon alfa and ribavirin -- had sustained virologic response with undetectable virus at the end of treatment and at 12 weeks after stopping treatment. Four of the 11 patients given the two direct-acting antiviral agents only also achieved sustained virologic response.

A sustained virologic response or SVR means there is no detectable Hepatitis C virus in a patient's blood after treatment is stopped. Achieving sustained virologic response is important, because research has shown that late relapse is rare.

"The two recently approved hepatitis C drugs ? telaprevir or boceprevir -- combined with PEG-interferon alfa and ribavirin have limited success in patients who have not responded to previous treatment with PEG-interferon alfa and ribavirin. Because of this high unmet medical need, there is a necessity for new combination regimens that can increase response rates in that population," says Lok, who also is Director of Clinical Hepatology at U-M. "The high rate of sustained virologic response in patients who received the four drug regimen is very exciting. Although only four of 11 patients given the two direct-acting antiviral agents only achieved sustained virologic response, this is the first study to show that sustained virologic response can be achieved without the use of interferon or ribavirin. These data are very encouraging because PEG-interferon alfaand ribavirin are associated with many side effects and many patients with hepatitis C choose not to receive treatment for fear that they cannot tolerate those drugs."

An estimated 170 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis C, with genotype 1 being the most prevalent genotype. Up to 80 percent of those infected with hepatitis C will become chronically infected. Twenty percent of people with chronic hepatitis C will develop cirrhosis and, of those, up to 25 percent may progress to liver cancer. Although there is no vaccine to prevent hepatitis C, it is a potentially curable disease.

In the Phase II clinical trial, Lok, along with a team of researchers including scientists from Bristol-Myers Squibb, studied patients with Hepatitis C genotype 1, who had not responded to prior therapy with PEG-interferon alfa and ribavirin. The study was funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

"Overall, these results suggest that further research into combinations of direct-acting antiviral agents, with or without PEG-interferon and ribavirin, should be encouraged," Lok says. "Caution must be exercised in selecting the right combination of direct-acting antiviral agents in studies of interferon-free regimens because in this study, all 7 patients who received only two direct-acting antiviral agents that did not achieve sustained virologic response had emergence of drug resistance variants to both drugs."

In this study there were no serious adverse events on treatment or discontinuations due to adverse events. Diarrhea was the most common adverse event in both groups, but it was mild or moderate in all cases.

###

University of Michigan Health System: http://www.med.umich.edu

Thanks to University of Michigan Health System for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 57 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116853/Combination_of_oral_drugs_suppresses_common_type_of_hepatitis_C

terry fator gerard butler brady hoke brady hoke ali lohan new york election new york election

Amnesty was set to recognize late Cuba dissident

Belkis Jorrin, of Cuban dissident group Ladies in White, signs a condolence book for late dissident Wilman Villar in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. Villar, 31, an imprisoned dissident who went on a hunger strike to protest his four-year sentence, died Thursday night of pneumonia in the eastern city of Santiago, according to the head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, Elizardo Sanchez. Villar was arrested on Nov. 12, 2011 and convicted of disrespecting authority and resisting arrest. At center is Ladies in White member Berta Soler. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

Belkis Jorrin, of Cuban dissident group Ladies in White, signs a condolence book for late dissident Wilman Villar in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. Villar, 31, an imprisoned dissident who went on a hunger strike to protest his four-year sentence, died Thursday night of pneumonia in the eastern city of Santiago, according to the head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, Elizardo Sanchez. Villar was arrested on Nov. 12, 2011 and convicted of disrespecting authority and resisting arrest. At center is Ladies in White member Berta Soler. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

Ramona Rivero, of the Cuban dissident group Ladies in White, places flowers in a vase near a condolence book for the late dissident Wilman Villar in Havana, Cuba, Friday Jan. 20, 2012. Villar, 31, an imprisoned dissident who went on a hunger strike to protest his four-year sentence, died Thursday night of pneumonia in the eastern city of Santiago, according to the head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, Elizardo Sanchez. Villar was arrested Nov. 12, 2011 and convicted of disrespecting authority and resisting arrest. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

A black ribbon hangs on the front door where Berta Soler, of the Cuban dissident group Ladies in White, speaks on the phone standing by a condolence book for the late dissident Vilma Villar in Havana, Cuba, Friday Jan. 20, 2012. Wilman Villar, 31, an imprisoned dissident who went on a hunger strike to protest his four-year sentence, died Thursday night of pneumonia in the eastern city of Santiago, according to head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, Elizardo Sanchez. Villar was arrested Nov. 12, 2011 and convicted of disrespecting authority and resisting arrest. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

HAVANA (AP) ? Amnesty International said Friday that it was on the eve of designating a Cuban dissident as a prisoner of conscience when he died following a hunger strike.

It later named three other jailed Cubans as prisoners of conscience, in the first such recognition of inmates on the island since the last of 75 government opponents jailed in a 2003 crackdown were freed last spring.

The human rights watchdog had planned to send a worldwide call to action Friday morning demanding the immediate release of Wilman Villar, Amnesty Caribbean campaign officer James Burke told The Associated Press by phone from London. But Villar died Thursday night from complications of pneumonia after a 50-day hunger strike. He had been hospitalized since Jan. 14 and was in a coma.

"We were going to launch an urgent action on his case today ... but unfortunately we came to the office today with the tragic news that he had passed," Burke said.

The group has strict criteria for what constitutes a prisoner of conscience, including a history of nonviolence.

Cuba denies holding any political prisoners and characterizes dissidents as mercenaries bent on toppling the Communist Party government at the behest of Washington. The state-run website Cubadebate carried a message calling Villar a common criminal and denying that he was truly a dissident, or even on a hunger strike.

Until recently Villar, 31, was little known even among fellow dissidents, who said he apparently began taking part in anti-government actions only last fall. Authorities arrested him in November during a protest in the eastern city of Santiago and threatened to punish him for a prior domestic violence case if he did not stop making trouble, Amnesty International and island dissidents said.

Villar was convicted of assault, disrespecting authority and resisting arrest, and sentenced in November to four years in prison. He protested by refusing to wear a prisoner's uniform and turning down food.

Villar's health worsened until finally he was hospitalized, said Elizardo Sanchez, head of the independent Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, which monitors detentions of dissidents in Cuba.

Amnesty International said it held Cuban authorities responsible for Villar's death and said the charges against him were related to the protest. The government denied that, calling him a "common criminal" who was convicted of 0spousal battery.

The message on Cubadebate alleged that Villar got involved with dissidents only after the domestic violence case in an attempt to evade justice by linking himself to them, and it warned of an international conspiracy to defame the island's government.

"Cuba regrets the death of any human being; it energetically condemns the crude manipulations of our enemies," it read.

Villar's funeral was held Friday outside Santiago, where multiple phone calls to his widow rang unanswered. In Havana, dissidents gathered at the headquarters of the Ladies in White opposition group to sign a book of condolences dedicated to Villar.

"Unfortunately he trusted that this stance of confrontation ... would lead Cuban authorities to reevaluate his case," said Hector Maseda, a dissident and former inmate. "But we who have been political prisoners over these five decades know that nothing softens the hearts of tyrants."

Villar's death set off a flurry of news articles, blogs, tweets and recriminations from rights groups, dissidents and U.S. politicians, everyone from Cuban-American legislators and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney to President Barack Obama.

"Villar's senseless death highlights the ongoing repression of the Cuban people and the plight faced by brave individuals standing up for the universal rights of all Cubans," Obama said in a statement.

The government of Spain also expressed concern and called for the Cuban government to release "all political prisoners."

Meanwhile, defenders of President Raul Castro's government scoffed at the lionization of a man they called a common criminal, saying his death was being used for political ends.

"The death of a human being is always painful, but it seems some suffer more than others ... The death of an individual convicted by a court for acts of violence is converted into a weapon to be hurled at the Cuban Revolution," Iroel Sanchez wrote on the pro-government blog La Pupila Insomne.

"This man who is presented today as a peaceful fighter for human rights on the island was nothing more than a violent citizen, a proven danger to society," read a tweet from another pro-government blogger, Yohandry Fontana.

Villar is the second jailed dissident to die on hunger strike in two years. In February 2010, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, also considered a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, died after refusing food for months.

Zapata had been pressing for the release of prisoners from the 2003 crackdown, and a few months after his death the government began freeing them under a deal brokered by the Roman Catholic Church. Many went into exile with their families.

After the last of them walked free in April 2011, Amnesty said it no longer recognized any prisoners of conscience in Cuban jails.

In the months since, rights watchers say, authorities changed tack and would hold dissidents for a few hours or a couple of days before releasing them without charge.

But on Friday, Amnesty expressed concern about the Nov. 30 detentions of Ivonne Malleza Galano and her husband, Ignacio Martinez Montejo, picked up while staging a peaceful anti-government protest in Havana, and of Isabel Haydee Alvarez, an onlooker who objected to their arrest. It said all three were told they were arrested for "public disorder" but have been held without charge.

"Amnesty International considers them to be prisoners of conscience, detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly," it said, "and is calling for their immediate and unconditional release."

___

Associated Press writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana and Jorge Sainz in Madrid contributed to this report.

___

Peter Orsi on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Peter(underscore)Orsi

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-20-CB-Cuba-Dissident-Dies/id-37377d3cd74243d8967ac618fa78e6b4

tim howard goal ben gibbard aubrey o day nfl playoff schedule tim howard scores nick cannon kidney failure consumer financial protection bureau

Brady leads prolific Patriots to AFC title game

/

By HOWARD ULMAN

updated 5:50 p.m. ET Jan. 15, 2012

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - Next up to try and stop the seemingly unstoppable Tom Brady and the New England Patriots' offense: the Baltimore Ravens.

Good luck.

How do you cover powerful Rob Gronkowski and versatile Aaron Hernandez and still have a defender left to deal with Wes Welker, the NFL's leading receiver?

Can you generate enough of a pass rush to foil Brady's quick release? If you don't, the master of analyzing defenses and firing precise passes can stand comfortably in the pocket, calmly searching for his best option and the quickest route to the end zone.

And don't forget the ground game while you're focused on all those aerial stars.

Get ready, Ray Lewis and Terrell Suggs. Your dominant defense is about to get its toughest test.

Baltimore's reward for beating the Houston Texans 20-13 on Sunday is a date with the prolific Patriots, who got there with a 45-10 win Saturday night over the Denver Broncos that turned Tebowmania into a passing phenomenon while its central character, Tim Tebow, kept passing poorly.

The Ravens play at Foxborough on Sunday with a defense much better than the one the overwhelmed Broncos displayed. Baltimore's unit is the third-stingiest in the NFL, but it has never seen anything like this. Not with Brady at the top of his game after his decade of greatness.

"The team revolves around him," Hernandez said. "When he comes to play, which he mostly does every game, then we're going to be on fire, and when he's ready, we're all ready."

Brady's performance rivals ?and surpasses in some ways ? his 2007 MVP season when he set an NFL record with 50 touchdown passes and established a team mark of 4,806 yards passing. This season, he beat that by more than 400 with 5,235, second-most in NFL history to Drew Brees' 5,476.

The Patriots went 18-0 in 2007, then lost the Super Bowl 17-14 to the New York Giants on a last-minute touchdown. Now they're 14-3.

One more win gets them to the championship game thanks to Brady's six scoring passes against Denver, tying the NFL record held by Daryle Lamonica and Steve Young. By halftime, Brady already had thrown for five touchdowns while Tebow had just three completions.

The victory helped ease the lingering pain of three straight playoffs losses ? 33-14 to Baltimore and 28-21 to the New York Jets after the Super Bowl disappointment.

"You lose a few playoff games and it's a very bitter way to end the season and it sits on your mind for quite a long time," Brady said. "For us to come out and play the way we did, have a very solid performance in the most important game of the year is very gratifying.

"From this point on, everyone will be focused on what we need to do to be better next week and, hopefully, come out and play for another championship."

Brady has been brilliant all season, starting with a total of 940 yards passing and seven touchdown throws in his first two games. And in his last nine ? all wins ? he's thrown for 25 scores and just three interceptions.

"We never look at the individual. We all try and do our job," defensive tackle Vince Wilfork said. "If (Brady) plays well, everyone else plays well. When he has an off day, we try to rally around him as a team to help Tom and the offense. We aren't going to get 20-30 points all the time."

Of course not. There was that one game, back on Oct. 30, when they scored only 17.

Brady's six scoring passes Saturday matched his career high. He completed 26 of 34 passes for 363 yards, a team record for a postseason game. He wasn't sacked, hardly even pressured, all game.

"That's Tom, week-in-and-week-out," running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis said, "so I don't think anyone else in this locker room or in this country would expect anything else from him."

It wasn't always that promising.

The Patriots were just 5-3 and had lost two consecutive games for just the third time in nine seasons. Their defense, last in the league at the time, was getting pushed around.

It was time for Brady's bunch to turn things around.

They beat the Jets in New York 37-16 to start the nine-game winning streak. In three of the last four games, they've scored more than 41 points. The only other time that happened since Brady arrived in 2000 was in 2007 when they did it in three consecutive games and four of five.

That team had Randy Moss, the deep threat who caught an NFL-record 23 touchdowns.

This one has Gronkowski and Hernandez, the short, middle and deep targets who combined for 24 in the regular season and, in just one playoff game, another four.

"These two are changing the game," guard Brian Waters said. "If you decide to take away one, that opens things up for the other. You add the fact that we have receiving threats and some good guys at the running back position. It limits the things you can do defensively as far as trying to take one person out of the game. That's something that we are able to take advantage of."

The danger doesn't end when they get their hands on the ball. Often, it's just starting.

On the Patriots third play against the Broncos, Gronkowski caught a 7-yard pass and ran for another nine. On the fourth, Hernandez tricked the defense by lining up at running back and rambling 43 yards. And on the next play, Brady found Welker for a 7-yard touchdown pass.

Three plays, three ballhandlers, one impressive drive against a befuddled defense.

"Everybody makes big plays on this team," Hernandez said. "That's why our offense is real dangerous. We've got so many weapons they don't know who to cover."

The Ravens have a week to figure that out.

"I think that we are just coming together as a team and realizing that this is our time and we need to really play well," Welker said. "With all of our weapons and the guys that we have, we should always be able to move the ball."

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

advertisement

More news

NY pulls off one giant upset

Eli Manning threw three touchdown passes and the Giants shocked the Packers 37-20 in an NFC divisional playoff game Sunday. Manning threw for 330 yards, sending the Giants to San Francisco for the NFC championship game next Sunday night.

Jamie Squire / Getty Images

PFT: Why the Packers lost

??PFT: Bad tackling, too many turnovers and missed chances added up to Green Bay being dumped from the playoffs so easily by the Giants.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46005690/ns/sports-nfl/

nfl cruise ship italy patriots broncos game gisele bundchen saints willis mcgahee willis mcgahee

'Human Zoo' Video Ignites Anger

For youtube videos, paste embed code directly in the text box

- Notify me by email when future posts are made
Email:
Members do not need to provide an address

- Preview before posting

Rate Article

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Total votes: 0 Select Comment Validation Method
Member
Name/URL (Guest)
FaceBook (Guest) Member Commenting:

Authenticate with Facebook before submitting

OR

Login: Password:

Make your LabSpaces comments count. Start earning LabSpaces points by becoming a member! Learn more. Name: Link:(Link to your site or blog) Please verify that you are human: Register for LabSpaces
Make your LabSpaces comments count. Start earning LabSpaces points by becoming a member! Learn more.

Please authenticate before trying to post a comment.

If you would like to remain anonymous, please enter a new name and link below

Name: Link:(Link to your site or blog)

Friends

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116714/_Human_Zoo__Video_Ignites_Anger

millionaire matchmaker millionaire matchmaker shawshank redemption 3 10 to yuma west virginia football west virginia football black friday violence

Reader: Leave Beyonce and her baby alone

Our readers continue to contribute some funny, smart and incisive comments to our Today Entertainment Facebook page. Every Friday, we'll highlight those that really stood out. If you see a great comment throughout the week, click the ?Like? button underneath it to draw it to our attention. Thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday, we drew comments from two weeks this time around.

1. On "Complaints at hospital where Beyonce gave birth dismissed"
Amie Murray Trahan: "It's not like they gave birth to a 24-karat gold baby. It came out just like every other baby! This kind of ridiculous attention to people who aren't doing anything remotely remarkable or making any long lasting contribution to the human plight is exactly what's wrong with this country. WHO CARES!? Let them be normal people and have their baby in peace!"

2. On "'One Life to Live' ends 43-year run"
Debbie Alfano Miller Quadrato: "I remember watching in '76-'77 and I was pregnant the same time as Vicky. My son is almost 35 and her kid aged a lot different!"

3. On "Dolly Parton calls herself artificial-looking"
Theresa R. Blancas: "Artificial on the outside, God's original design on the inside. Always loved her genuineness!"

4. On "Tim Tebow's Fire: 1980s song reworked for quarterback"
Greg Deacon Westcott: "I think he is an incredible athlete and competitor and should receive praise and attention for his accomplishments. The hype surrounding him as a good Christian and such is strange to me. Many athletes, celebrities and public figured give praise and thanks to religious beliefs, so why is it such a big deal?"

5. On "Eddie Van Halen donates 75 guitars to L.A. schools"
Dee Ze: "It's nice that he did the but there are schools everywhere, especially in small towns that need help with their music programs. It seems that big cities get more help (than) the smaller ones do."

Join the discussion, and help us find next week's Comment of the Week, on our Facebook page.

? 2012 MSNBC Interactive.? Reprints

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45987874/ns/today-entertainment/

one republic carlos santana new years rockin eve michael dyer suspended new years ball drop new york times square jaws

Vitor Belfort overcomes Anthony Johnson?s size to get UFC 142 submission

Fighting in front of his hometown crowd, Vitor Belfort submitted Anthony Johnson in the first round at UFC 142 in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.

Johnson wanted to use his wrestling skills caught a kick for a takedown early in the first round. Belfort looked for submissions from his back, but couldn't find any, and they were stood up by referee Dan Miragliotta. Belfort landed a knee and stuffed Johnson's takedowns, while Johnson was still able to land several big strikes.

As the crowd chanted, "Ole Ole Ole! Vitor, Vitor!" Belfort took Johnson's back and cinched it with a body triangle. Belfort methodically worked his arms under Johnson's chin, and secured the rear naked choke for the submission at 4:49 in the first round.

The fight was in question after Johnson weighed in at 197 lbs. for the 185-lb. division. Johnson had to weigh in again at 2 p.m. on Saturday and weigh less than 205 lbs. for the fight to go on. Johnson fought for years at welterweight and had trouble with the weight cut then.

"I fought big guys. I'm not afraid of size. I'm ready to fight whatever, but I cut 20 lbs. in four days. I've got to be a professional. I cannot control the outcome, but I can control my attitude," Belfort said after the bout.

Belfort lost to Anderson Silva in a title bout last February, but has two first-round wins since then. Next, he is slated to coach the first Brazilian edition of "The Ultimate Fighter" against fellow Brazilian MMA legend Wanderlei Silva.

Johnson is in a precarious position. Not making weight will draw the ire of UFC president Dana White, and it does not help to lose a fight the next day.

Other popular content on the Y! network:
? 49ers' Vernon Davis reduced to tears after game-winning grab vs. Saints
? Passan: One night of moves makes World Series faves out of Yankees
? Y! News: Consumer confidence rises, house prices fall

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/vitor-belfort-overcomes-anthony-johnson-size-ufc-142-043537297.html

lindsay lohan playboy cover lindsay lohan playboy cover shooting at virginia tech shooting at virginia tech blagojevich rod blagojevich rod blagojevich

Pete Wentz Talks Future Of Black Cards

Despite departure of singer Bebe Rexha, Wentz tells MTV News 'Black Cards isn't done.'
By James Montgomery

Spencer Peterson, Bebe Rexha and Pete Wentz of Black Cards
Photo: WireImage

Pete Wentz is reshuffling Black Cards, his post-Fall Out Boy project that, to date, has yielded a string of poppy, peppy live shows and a handful of remixes, but not a proper album (despite promises it would be coming in the summer of 2011).

The changes began earlier this week, when the group deleted the name of frontwoman Bebe Rexha from their Facebook page and announced a new mixtape that had her noticeably absent on the cover. That touched off a wave of speculation that Rexha had been booted from the band, and that perhaps the very future of Black Cards was in doubt.

On Friday (January 13), the band officially confirmed Rexha's departure in a statement on their website that also seemed to hint that perhaps the Black Cards were finished. (Wentz closed the statement with "The Black Cards are dead. Long live the Black Cards.") But, in a series of emails to MTV News, Wentz let it be known that the band will continue — in one form or another.

"Right now, [the band] is just Spencer [Peterson] and me. Who knows what tomorrow brings. There are a bunch of people I'd like to collaborate with and make some noise," he wrote. "We have a few brand new songs that I can't wait for people to hear."

Of course, Wentz didn't clarify whether the Black Cards would be making music as a proper band, or as a remix project, as they've been doing in recent months. "Albums are so 20th Century," he wrote when asked about the band's upcoming plans. "Mixtape out in the next week or so." But he did want to set the record straight about Rexha's departure. Simply put, it was anything but acrimonious.

"Don't believe everything you read. Fact checking isn't really a priority for internet message boards," he wrote. "[It was] a mutual decision. Bebe will forever be a homie, and we look forward to hearing music from her solo career."

Wentz also said that he hoped the songs the band recorded with Rexha would see the light of day eventually ("I'd hate for them to just gather dust," he wrote), and closed by basically contradicting everything he had written in that official statement. Namely, the Black Cards aren't finished ... no matter who's in the band.

"Black Cards isn't done," he wrote. "More than the mixtape will be released."

Can the Black Cards go on without Bebe Rexha? Let us know what you think!

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677311/peter-wentz-black-cards-future.jhtml

andy cohen andy cohen deplorable weather radar khloe kardashian mls draft mark davis

Rio gets a Parisian makeover at Maria Bonita Extra (AP)

RIO DE JANEIRO ? The Girl from Ipanema had a Parisian touch Thursday, as Maria Bonita Extra fielded a winter 2012 collection of bourgeois cocktail dresses that look as if they'd be more at home in a Haussmanian apartment than on the sands of Copacabana.

In silk chemisier dresses and cocktail numbers with constructed skirts that stood out through the hips, the models looked like something out of a 1970-era film set in one of Paris' beaux quartiers.

The ultra-abbreviated hemlines, however, gave the clothes a youthful freshness: In the tres bourgeois collection's sole shout out to Brazil, some of the dresses were so short they looked like swimwear.

Guests were still scrambling for their seats when the lights went down and a model appeared, toting a plastic clutch kitted out with glowing lights. But that was the sole gimmick in the collection, one of the strongest yet in the first three days of Rio's five-day fashion extravaganza.

Bianca Marques' debut on the Rio calendar opened with some fine footwork by a ballerina, who pirouetted at the top of the runway between two gilded candlesticks to a soundtrack of Space Age blips. The delicate display set the tone for the collection of frilly, romantic, girly dresses. Everything glowed a soft pink, like the inside of a seashell, and some of the looks were covered in pearls.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/fashion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120113/ap_on_en_ot/lt_brazil_rio_fashion

junior dos santos junior dos santos evelyn lauder devin hester devin hester shayne lamas cain velasquez