Construction starts on new marine research vessel

Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sarah Schofield
sarah.schofield@csiro.au
61-362-325-197
CSIRO Australia

Construction of Australia's new $120 million Marine National Facility research vessel, Investigator has started in Singapore.

The Executive Director of the Future Research Vessel Project at CSIRO, Toni Moate, who is attending the steel cutting ceremony in Singapore, said the 93.6 metre research vessel will be capable of conducting marine research from our coastal waters, to the Antarctic ice edge and to the tropical waters to the north.

The contract to design, build and commission the vessel was awarded to Teekay Holdings Australia, which partnered with the Sembawang Shipyard in Singapore because of its track record and strong commitment to new technologies and innovation.

"The equipment on board our new world-class vessel will for the first time allow Australian scientists to carry out advanced atmospheric research on board the Marine National Facility," she said.

"It will also be capable of mapping the seafloor six kilometres below the surface, conducting deep water coring to 24 metres and it will have the latest satellite communications technology."

Investigator will be operated by CSIRO and will be available to all Australian marine scientists. It replaces the existing Marine National Facility ship, Southern Surveyor, which is 40 years old.

In 2009 the Australian Government committed AU$120 million to the purchase of a new research vessel for the Marine National Facility. The project is an initiative of the Australian Government being conducted as part of the Super Science Initiative and financed from the Education Investment Fund.

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sarah Schofield
sarah.schofield@csiro.au
61-362-325-197
CSIRO Australia

Construction of Australia's new $120 million Marine National Facility research vessel, Investigator has started in Singapore.

The Executive Director of the Future Research Vessel Project at CSIRO, Toni Moate, who is attending the steel cutting ceremony in Singapore, said the 93.6 metre research vessel will be capable of conducting marine research from our coastal waters, to the Antarctic ice edge and to the tropical waters to the north.

The contract to design, build and commission the vessel was awarded to Teekay Holdings Australia, which partnered with the Sembawang Shipyard in Singapore because of its track record and strong commitment to new technologies and innovation.

"The equipment on board our new world-class vessel will for the first time allow Australian scientists to carry out advanced atmospheric research on board the Marine National Facility," she said.

"It will also be capable of mapping the seafloor six kilometres below the surface, conducting deep water coring to 24 metres and it will have the latest satellite communications technology."

Investigator will be operated by CSIRO and will be available to all Australian marine scientists. It replaces the existing Marine National Facility ship, Southern Surveyor, which is 40 years old.

In 2009 the Australian Government committed AU$120 million to the purchase of a new research vessel for the Marine National Facility. The project is an initiative of the Australian Government being conducted as part of the Super Science Initiative and financed from the Education Investment Fund.

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/ca-cso013012.php

bill monroe nike pro combat nike pro combat gardasil gardasil usnews new york special election

Emily VanCamp: Seeking Revenge, Boyfriend

Emily VanCamp stars on Revenge on ABC. If you don't know who she is, and haven't seen the show ... check out this magazine article and start watching!

VanCamp, who plays Emily Thorne, swears she is nothing like her vengeful character, and that she is still looking for "the one" in real life.

Most recently connected to The Vampire Diaries' Joseph Morgan, VanCamp tells her native Canada's Flare magazine that distance is to blame for their split.

"I'm working non-stop in L.A., he's in Atlanta. It kind of makes it impossible ... It doesn't take away from the love two people have, and I think he's extraordinary."

Another extraordinary (fictional) thing: Juggling two suitors on Revenge - humble Jack (Nick Wechsler) and current fiance, rich Daniel Grayson (Josh Bowman).

That doesn't mean life imitates art for VanCamp.

"It's all about making me laugh. I can be quite serious sometimes so laughing is key," the 25-year-old says of what she looks for in the perfect boyfriend.

"I think it's important to be with a guy who has a strong sense of integrity. That's how I was raised, and that's something I look for. And humility."

"I think people who lack humility are really annoying."

There's your blueprint, fellas. Make your move.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/emily-vancamp-seeking-revenge-the-one/

eddie cibrian washington redskins doritos confederate flag confederate flag kim delaney kim delaney

Obama, Occupy DC Attend Alfalfa Dinner (ABC News)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/192896185?client_source=feed&format=rss

ryan leaf jahvid best libya map libya map world series game 2 world series game 2 libya

British police arrest 5 in tabloid bribery probe (AP)

LONDON ? British police searched the offices of Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers Saturday after arresting a police officer and four current and former staff of his tabloid The Sun as part of an investigation into police bribery by journalists.

The arrests spread the scandal over tabloid wrongdoing ? which has already shut down one paper, the News of the World ? to a second Murdoch newspaper.

London's Metropolitan Police said two men aged 48 and one aged 56 were arrested on suspicion of corruption early in the morning at homes in and around London. A 42-year-old man was detained later at a London police station.

Murdoch's News Corp. confirmed that all four were current or former Sun employees. The BBC and other British media identified them as former managing editor Graham Dudman, former deputy editor Fergus Shanahan, current head of news Chris Pharo and crime editor Mike Sullivan.

A fifth man, a 29-year-old police officer, was arrested at the London station where he works.

Officers searched the men's homes and the east London headquarters of the media mogul's British newspapers for evidence.

The investigation into whether reporters illegally paid police for information is running parallel to a police inquiry into phone hacking by Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World.

Police said Saturday's arrests were made as a result of information provided by the Management and Standards Committee of Murdoch's News Corp., the internal body tasked with rooting out wrongdoing.

News Corp. said it was cooperating with police.

"News Corporation made a commitment last summer that unacceptable news gathering practices by individuals in the past would not be repeated," it said in a statement.

Thirteen people have now been arrested in the bribery probe, though none has yet been charged.

They include Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of Murdoch's News International; ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson ? who is also Prime Minister David Cameron's former communications chief; and journalists from the News of the World and The Sun.

Two of the London police force's top officers resigned in the wake of the revelation last July that the News of the World had eavesdropped on the cell phone voicemail messages of celebrities, athletes, politicians and even an abducted teenager in its quest for stories.

Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old tabloid amid a wave of public revulsion, and the scandal has triggered a continuing public inquiry into media ethics and the relationship between the press, police and politicians.

An earlier police investigation failed to find evidence that hacking went beyond one reporter and a private investigator, who were both jailed in 2007 for eavesdropping on the phones of royal staff.

But News Corp. has now acknowledged it was much more widespread.

Last week the company agreed to pay damages to 37 hacking victims, including actor Jude Law, soccer star Ashley Cole and British politician John Prescott.

The furor that consumed the News of the World continues to rattle other parts of Murdoch's media empire.

As well as investigating phone hacking and allegations that journalists paid police for information, detectives are looking into claims of computer hacking by Murdoch papers.

News Corp. has admitted that the News of the World hacked the emails as well as the phone of Chris Shipman, the son of serial killer Harold Shipman. And The Times of London has acknowledged that a former reporter tried to intercept emails to unmask an anonymous blogger.

News Corp. is preparing to launch a new Sunday newspaper ? likely called the Sunday Sun ? to replace the News of the World.

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at: http://twitter.com/JillLawless

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/britain/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_phone_hacking

oakland texas judge texas judge tom brokaw maria shriver andy irons ethan zohn

Canada Honor Killing Trial Verdict: Shafia Family Found Guilty

KINGSTON, Ontario ? A jury on Sunday found an Afghan father, his wife and their son guilty of killing three teenage sisters and a co-wife in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor."

The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case that shocked and riveted Canadians from coast to coast.

After the verdict was read, the three defendants again declared their innocence in the killings of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.

Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped for the night on their way home to Montreal from Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly killed the three teenage sisters because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and going online. Shafia's first wife was living with him and his second wife. The polygamous relationship, if revealed, could have resulted in their deportation.

The prosecution alleged it was a case of premeditated murder, staged to look like an accident after it was carried out. Prosecutors said the defendants drowned their victims elsewhere on the site, placed their bodies in the car and pushed it into the canal.

Defense lawyers said the evidence suggested that the deaths were accidental. They said the Nissan car accidentally plunged into the canal after the eldest daughter, Zainab, took it for a joy ride.

After the jury returned the verdicts, Mohammad Shafia, speaking through a translator, said, "We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn't commit the murder and this is unjust."

His weeping wife, Tooba, also declared the verdict unjust, saying, "I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother."

Their son, Hamed, speaking in English said, "I did not drown my sisters anywhere."

But Judge Robert Maranger was unmoved, saying the evidence clearly supported their conviction for "the planned and deliberate murder of four members of your family."

"It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous crime ... the apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor ... that has absolutely no place in any civilized society."

The family had left Afghanistan in 1992 and lived in Pakistan, Australia and Dubai before settling in Canada in 2007. Shafia, a wealthy businessman, married Yahya because his first wife could not have children.

The months leading up to the deaths were not happy ones in the Shafia household, according to evidence presented at trial. Zainab, the oldest daughter, was forbidden to attend school for a year because she had a young Pakistani-Canadian boyfriend, and she fled to a shelter, terrified of her father, the court was told.

The prosecution presented wire taps and cell phone records from the Shafia family in court. In one phone conversation, the father says his daughters "betrayed us immensely."

The wiretaps, which capture Shafia spewing vitriol about his dead daughters, calling them treacherous and whores and invoking the devil to defecate on their graves, were a focal point of the trial.

But defense lawyers argued that at no point in the intercepts do the accused say they drowned the victims.

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/29/canada-honor-killing-shafia-family-guilty_n_1240268.html

bachmann bachmann iowa caucus results dan savage sickle cell trait michigan football michigan football

What really happened prior to 'Snowball Earth'?

Friday, January 27, 2012

In a study published in the journal Geology, scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science suggest that the large changes in the carbon isotopic composition of carbonates which occurred prior to the major climatic event more than 500 million years ago, known as 'Snowball Earth,' are unrelated to worldwide glacial events.

"Our study suggests that the geochemical record documented in rocks prior to the Marinoan glaciation or 'Snowball Earth' are unrelated to the glaciation itself," said UM Rosenstiel professor Peter Swart, a co-author of the study. "Instead the changes in the carbon isotopic ratio are related to alteration by freshwater as sea level fell."

In order to better understand the environmental conditions prior to 'Snowball Earth', the research team analyzed geochemical signatures preserved in carbonate rock cores from similar climactic events that happened more recently ? two million years ago ? during the Pliocene-Pleistocene period.

The team analyzed the ratio of the rare isotope of carbon (13C) to the more abundant carbon isotope (12C) from cores drilled in the Bahamas and the Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The geochemical patterns that were observed in these cores were nearly identical to the pattern seen prior to the Marinoan glaciation, which suggests that the alteration of rocks by water, a process known as diagenesis, is the source of the changes seen during that time period.

Prior to this study, scientists theorized that large changes in the cycling of carbon between the organic and inorganic reservoirs occurred in the atmosphere and oceans, setting the stage for the global glacial event known as 'Snowball Earth'.

"It is widely accepted that changes in the carbon isotopic ratio during the Pliocene-Pleistocene time are the result of alteration of rocks by freshwater," said Swart. "We believe this is also what occurred during the Neoproterozoic. Instead of being related to massive and complicated changes in the carbon cycle, the variations seen in the Neoproterozoic can be explained by simple process which we understand very well."

Scientists acknowledge that multiple sea level fluctuations occurred during the Pliocene-Pleistocene glaciations resulting from water being locked up in glaciers. Similar sea-level changes during the Neoproterozoic caused the variations in the global carbon isotopic signal preserved in the older rocks, not a change in the distribution of carbon as had been widely postulated.

###

University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science: http://www.rsmas.miami.edu

Thanks to University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science 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 52 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117150/What_really_happened_prior_to__Snowball_Earth__

i am legend bret michaels bret michaels the unit bob weston david wilson bill obrien

Tight-fisted mortgage lenders pressure home sales

By John W. Schoen, Senior Producer

Home prices have fallen by a third since 2006, creating tremendous bargains for home buyers. Mortgage rates are at rock-bottom lows, making houses more affordable than they have been in decades. Yet home sales last year fell to the lowest levels since the government began keeping records in 1963.

One big reason: mortgage bankers have gotten a lot choosier about approving loans, according to a report by Goldman Sachs economists Hui Shan and Jari Stehn. By some measures, they're pickier than they were before the housing boom took off.?

With anecdotal evidence showing that home mortgages are harder to get, the economists crunched Federal Reserve data to show just how much tighter lending standards have become. Using the results of the Fed's survey of loan officers, the report found that lending standards rose sharply after the mortgage market collapsed and the financial system imploded in 2008. Since the recession ended in 2009, lenders haven?t eased their tight grip on mortgage money.

Part of the reason is that there?s less money available to lend. During the housing boom, as brokers produced a flood of new mortgages, Wall Street bankers churned out a torrent of mortgage-backed bonds for investors waiting to snap them up. That market has all but vanished; 90 percent of new mortgages written today are backed by the government. ??

The new mortgage pipeline also has slowed because it is clogged with paperwork. These days, you?ll have to fill out many more forms and produce a lot more documentation, on average, just to get your loan considered.

The percent of loans that required ?full documentation? declined steadily from 2000 through 2006, hitting a low of less than 60 percent. Those ?no-doc? loans were a big part of the reason mortgage bankers made the bad underwriting decisions that created the mortgage mess. Today, nearly 90 percent of mortgage applications require full documentation. That?s much higher than the pre-bubble level.

You?ll also have to show a much higher credit score than you did in the go-go days of the housing boom. In a separate report, Mortgage Marvel, an online mortgage-shopping website, analyzed data from more than 700,000 mortgage applications filed last year and found that the average FICO score was 730. That?s a significant jump from the days when borrowers with scores in the high 500s were routinely steered to high-cost subprime loans.

Applications with highest credit scores concentrated in California, Oregon, Wisconsin, District of Columbia and Hawaii, the company said. The states with the lowest credit scores were Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia, Louisiana? and Oklahoma.

{"contentId":"10252614","totalVotes":"8856"}

Have you had trouble getting a mortgage approved?

Join the discussion on Facebook

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10252614-tight-fisted-mortgage-lenders-pressure-home-sales

tim thomas oral roberts les paul detroit tigers romney tax return red hook fred thompson

New-home purchases fall, 2011 worst ever for sales

This Jan. 18, 2012 photo shows a new home in a development in Pleasant Hills, Pa. Fewer people bought new homes in December, making 2011 the worst sales year on record. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

This Jan. 18, 2012 photo shows a new home in a development in Pleasant Hills, Pa. Fewer people bought new homes in December, making 2011 the worst sales year on record. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Fewer Americans bought new homes in December. The decline made 2011 the worst year for new-home sales on records dating back nearly half a century.

The Commerce Department said Thursday new-home sales fell 2.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 307,000. The pace is less than half the 700,000 that economists say must be sold in a healthy economy.

About 302,000 new homes were sold last year. That's less than the 323,000 sold in 2010, making last year's sales the worst on records dating back to 1963. And it coincides with a report last week that said 2011 was the weakest year for single-family home construction on record.

The median sales prices for new homes dropped in December to $210,300. Builders continued to slash price to stay competitive in the depressed market.

Still, sales of new homes rose in the final quarter of 2011, supporting other signs of a slow turnaround that began at the end of the year.

Sales of previously occupied homes rose in December for a third straight month. Mortgage rates have never been lower. Homebuilders are slightly more hopeful because more people are saying they might consider buying this year. And home construction picked up in the final quarter of last year.

"Although this decline was unexpected, it does not change the story that housing has likely bottomed," said Jennifer H. Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, said easier lending requirements, historically low mortgage rates and improved hiring all point to consistent, albeit slow, rises in sales in the coming months.

"A sustained rise in new home sales is imminent," he said. "Homebuilders say so too, and they should know."

Hiring is critical to a housing rebound. The unemployment rate fell in December to its lowest level in nearly three years after the sixth straight month of solid job growth.

Economists caution that housing is a long way from fully recovering. Builders have stopped working on many projects because it's been hard for them to get financing or to compete with cheaper resale homes. For many Americans, buying a home remains too big a risk more than four years after the housing bubble burst.

Though new-home sales represent less than 10 percent of the housing market, they have an outsize impact on the economy. Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in tax revenue, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

A key reason for the dismal 2011 sales is that builders must compete with foreclosures and short sales ? when lenders accept less for a house than what is owed on the mortgage

Builders ended 2011 with a third straight year of dismal home construction and the worst on record for single-family home building. But in a hopeful sign, single-family home construction, which makes up 70 percent of the market, increased in each of the last three months.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-26-New%20Home%20Sales/id-0c50f0e4a23f4d828f4786fe6656fb83

new facebook layout yalta oman oman unforgettable metta world peace hpq

Severe flooding, landslides kill 6 in Fiji (AP)

SUVA, Fiji ? Severe flooding and landslides in Fiji have killed six people and left hundreds more homeless.

The permanent secretary of information for the South Pacific nation said Thursday that heavy rain since last weekend has forced 3,500 people into temporary shelters. Sharon Smith-Johns also says some people have lost all their possessions.

She says a landslide Wednesday killed a family of four, including two toddlers, in the remote Tukuraki village on the main island of Viti Levu. She says two farmers also died in separate incidents as they tried to rescue livestock on the islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu.

Western regions of Viti Levu have been worst hit. Smith-Johns says a break in the weather Thursday is giving people hope that the worst is over.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_as/as_fiji_floods

department of justice doj dept of justice weather chicago mpaa swizz beatz lauren scruggs

Star Jones making guest appearance on 'The View' (AP)

NEW YORK ? Apparently enough water has flowed under the bridge for Barbara Walters and Star Jones to reunite for a day.

"The View" announced on Wednesday that Jones will appear on the daytime talk show on Feb. 22 to promote an awareness campaign about heart disease among women.

Walters and Jones had a falling out in 2006 when Jones, one of the five original co-hosts of the daytime chat show, exited "The View." ABC decided not to renew her contract and Jones took Walters by surprise by announcing on June 27 that she would be leaving the show.

That exit came more quickly than expected. Walters wouldn't allow her back the next day.

Walters later said that Jones had compelled her co-hosts to lie for her by not revealing that Jones had undergone gastric bypass surgery while on "The View." Jones took her own shots, criticizing Walters for writing an autobiography that revealed details of an affair.

The women later had something serious in common. Both underwent open heart surgery to repair faulty heart valves within two months of each other in 2010.

Jones is coming back to the show to discuss her involvement in the American Heart Association's "Go Red for Women" public information campaign. Women are asked to wear red on Feb. 3 to support heart patients.

___

ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_en_tv/us_people_star_jones

wilson ramos kidnapped mcqueary mike mcqueary joe paterno fired joe paterno fired glen campbell matt nathanson

Blast destroys police station in north Nigeria

KANO, Nigeria?? A powerful blast destroyed a police station in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, a senior police official said, the latest in a series of blasts in the country's second biggest city since Islamist insurgents stepped up their campaign there.

1. Only on msnbc.com

   1. Watch the entire NBC News GOP debate
   2. Paterno son: Scandal didn?t tarnish dad?s legacy
   3. Reporter?s notebook: journey to the Strait of Hormuz
   4. Obama adviser: ?Make or break moment?
   5. In Afghanistan, it?s dog-fight-dog world
   6. Interpol faces legal threat over hunt for dissidents
   7. Feng shui master: Dragons, don't marry a Dog in 2012

"The explosives also affected some surrounding buildings. It was a big bang. For now, I can not say how many of our men are affected or whether the bomber died," the police source said.

Islamist sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a coordinated series of gun and bomb attacks in Kano Friday that killed 186 people in their deadliest strike yet.

The new focus on Kano, an ancient city once at the heart of caravan routes connecting Africa's interior with the Mediterranean, underscores the sect's growing ambition. Gunfire was also heard there early Tuesday, witnesses said.

From drive by shootings and petrol bombings in its northeastern heartland in Maiduguri, Boko Haram has spread across the north and have struck the capital Abuja.

The Islamists have killed at least 935 people since it launched an uprising in 2009, including more than 250 in the first weeks of this year, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.

Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sinful" in the Hausa language spoken in northern Nigeria, is loosely modeled on Afghanistan's Taliban. It has claimed responsibility for bombing churches, police stations, military facilities, banks and beer parlors in the mainly Muslim north of Nigeria.

The sect focuses its attacks mostly on the police, military and government, but has increased its attacks on Christian institutions. It says it is fighting enemies who have wronged its members through violence, arrests or economic neglect and corruption.

The United States-Nigeria binational security commission met Tuesday. Discussions included the latest Boko Haram attacks and finding ways to stem the violence, diplomatic sources said. The commission usually meets at least once a year.

"Boko Haram's attacks show a complete and utter disregard for human life," said Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch.

"The Nigerian authorities need to call a halt to this campaign of terror and bring to justice those responsible for planning and carrying out these reprehensible crimes."

The report said 550 people were killed in 115 separate attacks by Boko Haram last year, mostly in the far northeastern state of Borno, where the sect was founded in 2002.

Boko Haram has moved from drive-by shootings and petrol bombs to suicide attacks using large and increasingly sophisticated explosives. A suicide car bomb last year killed 25 people at the United Nations headquarters in the capital Abuja.

In July 2009 the sect launched an uprising in the northeast in which more than 800 people were killed in five days of fighting with security forces.

The sect originally said it wanted sharia (Islamic law) to be applied more widely across Nigeria.

President Goodluck Jonathan has been severely criticized for not getting a grip on a group he says has infiltrated the police, military and all areas of government.

"Jonathan's inability to respond effectively, or articulate a credible strategy, reinforces the growing perception of a deep leadership void in Abuja," London-based risk adviser Eurasia Group said in a research note Tuesday.

"So far militarization of the region and strict curfews have only had limited effect and huge (military) spending outlays in 2012 offer little hope for a credible broader strategy."

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42061414/ns/world_news-africa/

los angeles clippers charlize theron telenav telenav wade phillips wade phillips new orleans hornets

Bow Wow 'Needed To Live Life' To Make Underrated

'I had to go through a lot of things for me to be able to write the type of things I'm writing now,' Bow tells 'RapFix Live.'
By Rob Markman, with reporting by Sway Calloway

Bow Wow on "RapFix Live"
Photo: Natasha Chandel/ MTV News

Bow Wow has grown up in hip-hop, but in order to deliver his upcoming seventh album, Underrated, the Cash Money MC had to go through some real-life experiences.

"I feel like with this album, it's so different, because I had to live life to make this album," the 24-year old rapper told Sway when he visited "RapFix Live" on Wednesday.

"I had to go through a lot of things for me to be able to write the type of things I'm writing now, to understand my fans, to be on the ground level. Not above my people, but right there with my people," he continued. "I would probably need another three years to live before I can create another one. Just so I could go through different things."

As far as the album title, Bow used it as motivation. "The more and more I kept sayin' the word 'underrated,' I realized how many others of millions of people out there probably tuning in right now who probably feel like they're underrated," he said. "I'm sure there is an underground rapper out there who can rap hard and he want his break."

Despite all his platinum plaques and sold-out tours, Bow Wow still feels like he doesn't get his just due. He hopes that will change once the album drops. Bow recently debuted the first video from the album, for "Sweat" with Lil Wayne, and he has already clocked in collaborations with Lloyd Banks. Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, Jadakiss and Meek Mill and still plans to record with Wiz Khalifa.

Though there isn't a concrete release date in place, Bow Wow estimates Underrated will drop in April.

What are you expecting from Bow Wow's latest album? Let us know in the comments!

Related Videos

• 'RapFix Live' With Bow Wow And Too $hort

Related Artists

• Bow Wow

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677927/bow-wow-making-underrated.jhtml

erin andrews erin andrews blagojevich sentence mythbusters cannonball uss arizona myth busters tracy mcgrady

How to Register Your New Business Name

You?ve brainstormed, polled your family and friends and conducted some kind of focus group testing. You?ve come up with a cool domain name. Finally, you?ve crossed one of the trickiest hurdles for any new business ? finding the right name for your new brand.

But not so fast. Before you unleash your name on the world, you?ve got to dot a few administrative ?i?s? and cross a few legal ?t?s.? There are three key legal steps in the naming process.

• Make sure the name is available.
• Register the name with your state.
• Register your property (a.k.a. the name) with the federal government.

Keep in mind that trademark law is complex. While this is a brief introduction to the steps involved, there are specific situations that may vary.

SEE ALSO: How to Pick the Right Name for Your Business

---

1. Make Sure the Name Is Available to Use

---

Before you start ordering letterhead and marketing material, you need to make sure your name is available in the state where you are planning to conduct business, and also nationwide. No one wants to find themselves on the wrong end of a trademark dispute. First, there could be punitive damages and legal fees to pay. And even more costly, you could be ordered to rename your company immediately ? putting you back at square one in terms of brand recognition.

• Before you incorporate or register your business with your state, check the state?s database of company names.
• At this point, you should also conduct a free trademark search to check if your business name is available to use at the federal level. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) offers a free search tool to see if your name is available to use nationwide.
• It?s also important to know that you can still infringe upon someone else?s mark even if they?ve never formally registered it with the USPTO. For this reason, you?ll also need to do a comprehensive nationwide trademark search into state and local databases (beyond just your own state). This should include common law and county registrars. You can find affordable online services to simplify this task for you by performing a comprehensive search into state and local databases.

---

2. Register the Name With Your State

---

When you incorporate or form an LLC for your new business, the name is registered with your state?s secretary of state. Before approving your application, the secretary of state?s office checks that your name is distinguishable from all other business names registered in the state (just in case you didn?t search yourself in step one). Once approved, the business name is yours, and yours alone, to use within the state. This act protects anyone else from using your name within your state, but it doesn?t offer any kind of protection in the other 49 states.

If you?re not planning on incorporating or forming an LLC, you can still register a business name using a DBA (Doing Business As), which is also known as a Fictitious Business Name. It?s the easiest type of registration, and can be completed through your county government offices.

If you?ve started a business that?s physically tied to your state ? such as a hair salon or a restaurant ? and have no plans to expand into other states, registering your name with the state or county might be enough brand protection for you. However, if you?re planning to conduct business outside your own state (i.e. you sell a product or provide services to clients who live elsewhere), you should look into trademark protection.

---

3. Register a Trademark with the Federal Government

---

You?re not actually required by law to register a trademark. Use of a name instantly gives you common law rights as an owner, even without formal registration. However, as mentioned above, trademark law is complex. Simply registering a DBA in your state doesn?t automatically grant you common law rights; in order to claim first use, the name has to be ?trademarkable? and in use in commerce.

Registering a trademark offers a few advantages:

• Trademarks registered with the USPTO enjoy significantly stronger protection than ?common law? marks, or unregistered marks. When you register a trademark, it?s exponentially easier for you to recover your properties ? for example, if someone happens to be using a close variation of your domain name or is using your company name as their Twitter handle.
• A trademark is property ? it has value and can be sold as a corporate asset.

To register your business name, you?ll need to file an application with the USPTO. Expect to pay approximately $325 per class in application fees that your mark would fall under. Once you submit your application, the process can take anywhere from 6-12 months, so it?s smart to perform a comprehensive trademark search before starting the application process. If your selected name is not available, your application will be rejected. You?ll lose your application fee, not to mention any time invested in the application.

While the process of registering a trademark is more involved than registering a DBA, rights to your name will be enforced by both the federal and state governments.

---

Take the Right Steps

---

As you?re getting your company off the ground, make sure to take brand protection seriously. You?ve spent untold hours deliberating the ideal name, and you?ll be spending even more time cultivating brand recognition. Your name represents your brand and business, so take the right steps up front to protect your identity.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, shironosov, Flickr, thinkpanama

Source: http://mashable.com/2012/01/23/register-business-name/

rob the firm new york philharmonic marines urinating on taliban critics choice awards super pac dre kirkpatrick

State of Union: Obama to take on economic anxiety (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Eager to command center stage in a year dominated by Republican infighting, President Barack Obama is polishing a State of the Union address that will go to the heart of Americans' economic anxiety and try to sway voters to give him four more years. He will speak Tuesday to a nation worried about daily struggles and unhappy with his handling of the economy.

Obama's 9 p.m. EST address before a politically divided Congress will be built around ideas meant to appeal to a squeezed middle class. He is expected to urge higher taxes on the wealthy, propose ways to make college more affordable, offer new steps to tackle a debilitating housing crisis and try to help U.S. manufacturers expand hiring.

Designed as a way for a president to update the nation and recommend ideas to Congress, the State of the Union address has become more than that, especially during that one window when the address falls during the re-election year of an incumbent. It is televised theater ? and Obama's biggest, best chance so far to offer a vision for a second term.

He will frame the campaign to come as a fight for fairness for those who are struggling to keep a job, a home or college savings and losing faith in how the county works.

The speech will be principally about the economy, featuring the themes of manufacturing, clean energy, education and American values.

No matter whom Obama faces in November, the election is likely to be driven by the economy, and determined by which candidate wins voters' trust on how to fix it. More people than not disapprove of Obama's handling of the economy.

The overarching political goal is to give voters a contrast between his vision of a government that tries to level the playing field and those office-seekers who, in his view, would leave people on their own. Without naming them, Obama has in his sights those after his job, including Republicans Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.

The presidential campaign sets an unmistakable context for the speech, right down to the nation's income gap between haves and have-nots. Obama will speak on a few hours after Romney, a former governor and businessman whose wealth is the hundreds of millions of dollars, will release tax records for 2010 and 2011.

The lines of argument between Obama and his rivals are already stark, with America's economic insecurity and the role of government at the center.

The president has offered signals about his speech, telling campaign supporters he wants an economy "that works for everyone, not just a wealthy few." Gingrich, on the other hand, calls Obama "the most effective food stamp president in history." Romney says Obama "wants to turn America into a European-style entitlement society."

Obama's tone will be highly scrutinized given that his address falls smack in the middle of a fierce and frenzied Republican presidential nomination process. He will make bipartisan overtures to lawmakers but will leave little doubt he will act without opponents when it's necessary and possible, an approach his aides say has let him stay on offense.

The public is more concerned about domestic troubles over foreign policy than at other any time in the past 15 years, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. Some 81 percent want Obama to focus his speech on domestic affairs, not foreign ones; just five years ago, the view was evenly split.

On the day before Obama's speech, his campaign released a short Web ad showing monthly job losses during the end of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama administration, with positive job growth for nearly two Obama years. Republicans assail him as failing to achieve a lot more.

House Speaker John Boehner, responding to reports of Obama's speech themes, said it was a rehash of unhelpful policies. "It's pathetic," he said.

Obama will offer economic proposals for this year, despite long odds against getting the help he would need from Republicans.

Presidential spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that Obama is not conceding the next 10 months to "campaigning alone" when people need economic help. On the goals of helping people get a fair shot, Carney said: "There's ample room within those boundaries for bipartisan cooperation and for getting this done."

For three days following his speech, Obama will promote his ideas in five states key to his re-election bid: Iowa, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Michigan. He speaks on Friday about college affordability at the University of Michigan.

Meanwhile, the Republican race is suddenly a race again, given Gingrich's resounding win in the South Carolina primary over the weekend. Romney, who appeared the strong front-runner coming into that primary, is now focusing on Gingrich more than Obama as the GOP contest unfolds in Florida.

Vice President Joe Biden, in an interview with radio host Ryan Seacrest, said Monday there is no ideological difference between any of the Republicans seeking to challenge Obama. He said the campaign will offer the clearest choice in which direction to take the country since the era of the Great Depression.

Polling shows Americans are divided about Obama's overall job approval but unsatisfied with his handling of the economy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_state_of_the_union

demarco murray teresa giudice red ribbon week much ado about nothing sean hayes caroline manzo caroline manzo

Watch What Happens When You Leave a Bicycle Outside for a Year [Video]

If you leave your bike on the streets of New York, it's eventually going to get stolen. Even if it's locked up. Even if it's a beater. Even if there aren't any tires. It. Will. Get. Stolen. This video shows you the life cycle of a bicycle left outside for an entire year. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/BzRquzE2FKI/watch-what-happens-when-you-leave-a-bicycle-outside-for-a-year

flds revenge revenge boston redsox red sox law and order svu camaro zl1

Exit poll shows SC voters made up their minds late (AP)

South Carolina's late-deciding voters pushed Newt Gingrich to victory, according to exit polls in the state. The former House speaker's strong performances in the debates leading up to the contest plus a conservative-leaning electorate led to a sizable win for Gingrich.

LATE DECIDERS: A majority of South Carolina Republican voters said they decided on a candidate in the last few days, and they favored Gingrich by a double-digit margin. Santorum and Romney were about even for second among this group.

BROADLY CONSERVATIVE: About 7 in 10 voters in South Carolina said they tilt conservative on most political matters, according to exit polls. That group gave Gingrich a broad advantage over Mitt Romney. Moderate and liberal voters split between Romney and Gingrich.

RELIGIOUS VOTERS: Almost two-thirds of voters in South Carolina said they are born again or evangelical Christians, and about one-quarter said it was deeply important that a candidate share their religious views. Voters in both groups preferred Gingrich to Romney by wide margins.

SEEKING A WINNER: Almost half of voters said the most important trait they sought in a candidate was ability to beat President Barack Obama in November, and these voters favored Gingrich. That's a reversal from New Hampshire and Iowa, where voters prioritizing electability backed Romney. Only around 4 in 10 would support Romney enthusiastically should he win the nomination.

READING THE RESUME: About two-thirds of South Carolina voters said they had a positive impression of Romney's background investing in and restructuring companies, and Romney held a slim edge among those voters. However, he carried less than 5 percent of the vote among those with a negative view of his time as a venture capitalist.

FACING ECONOMIC CHALLENGES: Almost 8 in 10 voters said they were very worried about the future of the nation's economy, and about a third said someone in their household had lost a job since the start of Obama's term. These voters and those who called the economy their top issue tilted toward Gingrich.

These results are from an exit poll conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research as voters left their polling places at 35 randomly selected sites in South Carolina. The survey involved interviews with 2,381 Republican primary voters and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign_voter_attitudes_glance

portland weather jenelle evans jenelle evans jessica capshaw seattle times seattle times colbert super pac

U.S. shuts Megaupload.com, hackers retaliate (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? The U.S. government shut down the Megaupload.com content sharing website, charging its founders and several employees with massive copyright infringement, the latest skirmish in a high-profile battle against piracy of movies and music.

The Department of Justice announced the indictment and arrests of four company executives in New Zealand on Friday as debate over online piracy reaches fever pitch in Washington where lawmakers are trying to craft tougher legislation.

The movie and music industries want Congress to crack down on Internet piracy and content theft, but major Internet companies like Google and Facebook have complained that current drafts of the legislation would lead to censorship.

A Justice Department official said the timing of the arrests was not related to the battle in Congress.

New Zealand police on Friday raided a mansion in Auckland and arrested Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, 37, a German national with New Zealand residency.

About 70 police, some armed, raided 10 properties and also arrested the website's chief marketing officer, Finn Batato, 38, chief technical officer and co-founder Mathias Ortmann, 40, both also from Germany, and Dutch national Bram van der Kolk, 29, who is also a New Zealand resident.

New Zealand police seized millions of dollars worth of assets, which included luxury cars such as a Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe, from the group, dubbed the "Mega Conspiracy" by prosecutors. They also seized more than NZ$10 million ($8 million) from financial institutions.

"The FBI contacted New Zealand Police in early 2011 with a request to assist with their investigation into the Mega Conspiracy," said Detective Inspector Grant Wormald from the Organised & Financial Crime Agency New Zealand.

"All the accused have been indicted in the United States. We will continue to work with the U.S. authorities to assist with the extradition proceedings," Wormald said in a statement.

The men appeared briefly in an Auckland court on Friday and were remanded in custody until Monday for a bail hearing.

"We have nothing to hide," Kim Dotcom said from the dock after his lawyer opposed media cameras in the court, reported New Zealand media.

HACKERS RETALIATE

Vocal critics of the U.S. Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and Protect IP Act (PIPA), quickly showed their opposition to the shutdown of Megaupload.com, with hackers attacking the public websites of the Justice Department, the world's largest music company Universal Music, and the two big trade groups that represent the music and film industries.

"The government takes down Megaupload? 15 minutes later Anonymous takes down government & record label sites," a member of Anonymous said via Twitter.

Representatives with the Justice Department and Recording Industry Association of America declined comment on the attacks. Officials with Universal Music could not immediately be reached.

Motion Picture Association of America spokesman Howard Gantman said his group was working with law enforcement to identify the attackers.

The Mega Conspiracy group was accused of engaging in a scheme that took more than $500 million away from copyright holders and generated over $175 million in proceeds from subscriptions and advertising, according to the indictment unsealed on Thursday.

"In exchange for payment, the Mega Conspiracy provides fast reproduction and distribution of infringing copies of copyrighted works from its servers located around the world," the indictment said.

U.S. Justice Department officials said that the estimate of $500 million in economic harm to copyright holders was on the low end and likely significantly more.

The allegations included copyright infringement as well as conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit racketeering.

RACKETEERING, MONEY LAUNDERING

If convicted, the maximum penalties are 20 years for conspiracy to commit racketeering and to commit money laundering and five years for each count of copyright infringement and five years for conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.

The companies charged, Megaupload Ltd and Vestor Ltd, were both registered in Hong Kong and owned either in large part or solely by Dotcom. A lawyer who has previously worked with Megaupload was not immediately available for comment.

Megaupload has boasted of having more than 150 million registered users and 50 million daily visitors, according to the indictment. At one point, it was estimated to be the 13th most frequently visited website on the Internet.

Users could upload material to the company's sites which then would create a link that could be distributed. The sites, which included video, music and pornography, did not provide search capabilities but rather relied on others to publish the links, the indictment said.

Users could purchase memberships to the site to obtain faster upload and download services, the primary source of revenue. Material that was not regularly downloaded was deleted and financial incentives were offered for popular content, according to the charges.

The web page with the link to the copyrighted material would include advertisements, another source of revenue.

If copyright holders complained about a specific link to the website, prosecutors said that Megaupload.com would remove that link but scores of others existed to the same material, according to prosecutors.

Other material found uploaded included child pornography and terrorism propaganda videos, according to the indictment. The U.S. government's investigation began in March 2010.

(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky and Jim Finkle in WASHINGTON; Additional reporting by Diane Bartz and Yinka Adegoke, and Mantik Kusjanto in Wellington.; Editing by Gary Hill, Phil Berlowitz, Michael Perry and Mark Bendeich)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120120/media_nm/us_usa_crime_piracy

gunner kiel baby lisa baby lisa paranormal activity wvu football district 9 district 9

It's complicated: Romney struggles to talk wealth

Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney participates in the Republican presidential candidate debate at the North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, S.C., Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney participates in the Republican presidential candidate debate at the North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, S.C., Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Mitt Romney is no natural when it comes to "common man" politics.

He bets a Republican rival $10,000 on an impulse. He dismisses $373,000 in speaking fees as "not very much." And he slow-walks the release of his income tax returns but then blurts out a key fact: He pays about 15 percent of his income in taxes because he lives mostly on investment income and not a paycheck.

Such commissions of candor suggest a presidential candidate who is far from an everyman ? and who may have a tin ear for how he sounds to those who are. That could pose a special challenge to Romney in hard-hit Florida, and beyond. In a general election, Romney, who had a privileged upbringing and made millions as a venture capitalist, would be fighting for the votes of average Americans against a president whose mother at times drew food stamps and who worked his way through Harvard Law School to the pinnacle of power.

"When Barack Obama talks about paying off student loans and struggling, people believe him and it resonates," said Barbara Perry, a senior fellow at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. Historically, "the common people have to believe that the president knows them and knows their situation and knows their lives."

Republicans hope that in 2012, American voters struggling to get jobs and pay bills are looking past the candidates' personal stories and to their proposals for stabilizing the economy and cutting the nation's staggering debt.

"Barack Obama had an incredible emotional connection with the American people in 2008," said South Carolina Republican consultant Jim Dyke. In the worst economy since the Great Depression, "that connection has dissipated," he added. "The American people may be more interested in a credible plan to address our problems."

The ranks of presidential candidates, and presidents, throughout history are full of American aristocrats, from George Washington to the Roosevelts, Rockefellers, Kennedys and Bushes. Some won by using policy and rhetoric to win support from lower-income voters, a practice that became known as the politics of the common man after Andrew Jackson's 1828 campaign. He won in part by portraying the nation's central bank as an institution that mostly made rich people richer.

So it's possible to run for president, and even win, while wealthy. Indeed, polls suggest that Americans don't begrudge Romney's family fortune or his own success in the private sector. In an AP-GfK survey last month, for example, about half of the respondents said Romney "understands the problems of ordinary Americans." Roughly the same percentage felt that way about Obama.

And efforts to portray Romney as a "vulture capitalist" fat cat at Bain Capital may have backfired against Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry, the Republican rivals who launched them. Perry dropped out of the contest on Thursday.

There's evidence that Romney himself is learning to edit out offhand remarks that may be genuine yet jarring to average voters. In a debate Thursday night, Romney referred to having his tax returns "carefully managed," but mostly stayed clear of lifestyle details.

Instead, he equated his wealth with all-American achievement and upward mobility ? the opposite of coasting on his father's success as head of American Motor Corp., Michigan governor and federal housing secretary.

"What I have, I earned. I worked hard, the American way," Romney said to cheers and applause. "I'm not going to apologize for being successful."

It was a refinement of the way Romney has handled the central challenge of his campaign: winning over people struggling to keep their houses and find work when his own background is so far removed. Making it tougher is that the 2012 contest is happening against a backdrop of anger over income disparity, with "99 percenters" protesting policies that help the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans ? including Romney.

And where the Roosevelts and Kennedys won over ordinary people with social policies like the New Deal, Romney is campaigning on a plan to stabilize the economy through investments and tax breaks for "job creators," including the wealthiest individuals.

"Wealthy Democrats can get away with being wealthy so long as they espouse policies favorable to ordinary folks. Wealthy Republicans, by contrast, take a hit when their policies seem to favor the wealthy," said presidential historian H.W. Brands of the University of Texas. "It's the policies that really matter. The personal history is fluff."

Still, Romney has struggled to strike the right note with the masses.

In New Hampshire last month, he suggested that he's feared job setbacks at various points in his career.

"I know what it's like to worry about whether you're going to get fired. A couple of times I wondered if I was going to get a pink slip," Romney said during a campaign stop in Rochester, NH.

But it's highly unlikely he's ever felt the fear of being let go, or of being unable to find work, without a family fortune to fall back on.

Romney's refusal to release his tax forms put a fine point on the issue.

He grudgingly acknowledged that he might, for the first time, release them. But only one year's worth, and not until April, if he is the GOP's presidential nominee. He did reveal that he pays an effective tax rate of 15 percent, lower than what he would pay if he earned a regular pay check. He then disclosed that he earned speaking fees, "but not very much." The amount turned out to be $373,327.62 from 2010-2011.

In New Hampshire, a day after the pink slip remark, he spoke of the importance of having a choice of health insurance companies and declared, "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me."

And in a heated debate last month, Romney bet Perry "10,000 bucks," apparently on impulse, when he could have wagered a symbolic dollar, or a beer.

Romney will soon get some practice honing his personal story in a state where he would need to be a master of it in the general election. After the South Carolina primary on Saturday, Romney and the GOP field move to Florida, a massive swing state familiar with the toxic cycle of high unemployment, unpaid bills, home foreclosures and despair.

It's no coincidence that Obama announced a new economic initiative there Thursday. The state suffers from 10 percent unemployment, and more than half of its homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth.

In Florida and beyond, Romney may find that sometimes it's best to keep his thoughts to himself.

"Don't try to stop the foreclosure process," he told the Las Vegas Review Journal in October, describing ways to improve the housing market. "Let it run its course and hit the bottom."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-20-Romney-Common%20Man/id-68d1923eed2f476a954af075250db8a8

home affordable refinance program harp harp world series game 5 moammar gadhafi harry connick jr rightnow

Steve Buscemi Returning to 30 Rock ??? And He's Directing Too (omg!)

Steve Buscemi is returning to 30 Rock ? and this time he's pulling double duty.

The Boardwalk Empire star will reprise his role as private detective Len Wosniak in the Feb. 16 episode, which he will also direct, Tina Fey tells Entertainment Weekly.

Emma Stone, Andy Samberg and Nick Cannon guest-starring on 30 Rock

Len reappears when Jack (Alec Baldwin) calls him after he gets mugged. "Jack wants Len to help him form a private police force where the salary starts at $5 million, so the police have the same interest in protecting the rich," Fey says.

Buscemi earned a guest-acting Emmy nomination in 2008 for his work on the NBC sitcom. He previously directed a 2009 episode of the show, but did not appear in it.

30 Rock airs Thursdays at 8/7c on NBC.

Related Articles on TVGuide.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_steve_buscemi_returning30_rock_hes_directing_too_231200364/44258000/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/steve-buscemi-returning-30-rock-hes-directing-too-231200364.html

oklahoma state santonio holmes raheem morris winter classic mt rainier norco stanford vs oklahoma state

Apple starts selling interactive iPad textbooks

Philip Schiller, Apple?s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, discusses iBooks textbooks available from Pearson for iPad, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012 in New York. IBooks 2 will be able to display books with videos and other interactive features. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Philip Schiller, Apple?s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, discusses iBooks textbooks available from Pearson for iPad, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012 in New York. IBooks 2 will be able to display books with videos and other interactive features. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Philip Schiller, Apple?s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, discusses iBooks 2 for iPad, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012 in New York. IBooks 2 will be able to display books with videos and other interactive features. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Apple employees demonstrate interactive features of iBooks 2 for iPad, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012 in New York. IBooks 2 will be able to display books with videos and other interactive features. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

An Apple employee demonstrates an interactive feature of iBooks 2 for iPad, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012 in New York. IBooks 2 will be able to display books with videos and other interactive features. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

E.O. Wilson, professor emeritus at Harvard, shows his book, "Life on Earth," on an iPad2, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012 in New York. Apple announced iBooks 2 for iPad, featuring iBooks textbooks, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Apple Inc. on Thursday launched its attempt to make the iPad a replacement for a satchel full of textbooks by starting to sell electronic versions of a handful of standard high-school books.

The electronic textbooks, which include "Biology" and "Environmental Science" from Pearson and "Algebra 1" and "Chemistry" from McGraw-Hill, contain videos and other interactive elements.

But it's far from clear that even a company with Apple's clout will be able to reform the primary and high-school textbook market. The printed books are bought by schools, not students, and are reused year after year, which isn't possible with the electronic versions. New books are subject to lengthy state approval processes.

Major textbook publishers have been making electronic versions of their products for years, but until recently, there hasn't been any hardware suitable to display them. PCs are too expensive and cumbersome to be good e-book machines for students. Dedicated e-book readers like the Kindle have small screens and can't display color. IPads and other tablet computers work well, but iPads cost at least $499. Apple didn't reveal any new program to defray the cost of getting the tablet computers into the hands of students.

All this means textbooks have lagged the general adoption of e-books, even when counting college-level works that students buy themselves. Forrester Research said e-books accounted for only 2.8 percent of the $8 billion U.S. textbook market in 2010.

Pearson PLC of Britain and The McGraw-Hill Cos. of New York are two of the three big textbook companies in the U.S. market. The third one, Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, also plans to supply books to Apple's store, but none were immediately available.

The new textbooks are legible with a new version of the free iBooks application, which became available Thursday.

The textbooks will cost $15 or less, said Phil Schiller, Apple's head of marketing. He unveiled the books at an event at New York's Guggenheim Museum. Schools will be able to buy the books for its students and issue redemption codes to them, he said.

Albert Greco, a professor of marketing at Fordham University in New York and a former high-school principal, said schools would need to buy iPads for its students if it were to replace printed books.

It wouldn't work to let students who can afford to buy their own iPads use them in class with textbooks they buy themselves, alongside poorer students with printed books.

"The digital divide issue could be very embarrassing. Because if you don't have the iPad, you can't do the quiz, you don't get instant feedback ... that is an invitation for a lawsuit," Greco said. "I would be shocked if any principal or superintendent would let that system go forward."

Greco said hardback high-school textbooks cost an average of about $105, and a freshman might need five of them. However, they last for five years.

That means that even if an iPad were to last for five years in the hands of students, the e-books plus the iPad would cost more than the hardback textbooks.

Apple also released an app for iTunes U, which has been a channel for colleges to release video and audio from lectures, through iTunes. The app will open that channel to kindergarten-through-12th grade schools, and will let teachers present outlines, post notes and communicate with students in other ways.

Greco called the new app "a shot across the bow" of Blackboard Inc., a privately held company that provides similar electronic tools to teachers. It, too, has applications for cellphones and tablets.

Apple also revealed iBook Author, an application for Macs that lets people create electronic textbooks.

According to biographer Walter Isaacson, reforming the textbook market was a pet project of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, even in the last year of his life. At a dinner in early 2011, Jobs told News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch that the paper textbooks could be made obsolete by the iPad. Jobs wanted to circumvent the state certification process for textbook sales by having Apple release textbooks for free on the tablet computer.

Jobs died in October after a long battle with cancer.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-19-Apple-Textbooks/id-c8ee2044cc6543b29b52ad3640a7a658

phillies philadelphia phillies sand dollar sand dollar just dance 3 just dance 3 cliff lee