Mitt Romney: From South Carolina loss to big Florida surge

Energized by two recent debates and powered by a campaign war chest that?s allowed him to blanket the state with ads attacking Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney has surged in late polling.

In the final days and hours before the Republican primary in South Carolina, Newt Gingrich surged ahead in the polls, leaving Mitt Romney scrambling to make the best of an increasingly losing situation. Romney got shellacked in that race, losing to Gingrich by nearly 13 points.

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Going into Florida, the next big contest and one that?s worth more convention delegates than all three of the previous races combined, the reverse has happened.

Energized by his more aggressive performance in two Florida debates, and powered by a campaign war chest that?s allowed him to blanket the state?s media markets with attack ads, Romney has surged in late polling.

A survey by the Tampa Bay Times, the Miami Herald, and two Florida TV stations has Romney ahead, 42 percent to 31 percent. Public Policy Polling finds ?strong movement away from Newt Gingrich and toward Mitt Romney.? PPP?s latest poll (out Saturday) gives Romney an eight-point edge (40-32).?An NBC/Marist poll released Sunday gives Romney a 15-point lead (42-27).

?It's clear that the negative attacks on Gingrich have been the major difference maker over the last week,? reports PPP. ?His net favorability has declined 13 points in just five days. Romney has pretty much stayed in place.?

Gingrich got what could be important backing over the weekend from two tea party superstars ? Sarah Palin and Herman Cain. Palin in particular has been trying to counter the sharp anti-Gingrich assertions of such establishment Republicans as former Sen. Bob Dole, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and Sen. John McCain, who (referencing Romney?s great wealth) calls Gingrich a ?desperate candidate who attacks someone who succeeds in the free-enterprise system.?

RECOMMENDED:?Herman Cain and Sarah Palin: Do they still have political clout?

Although she hasn?t officially endorsed Gingrich (as Cain has), Palin is firing back?on Fox News and social media.?

?We have witnessed something very disturbing this week,? Palin writes in a Facebook message headlined ?Cannibals in GOP Establishment Employ Tactics of the Left.? ?The Republican establishment which fought Ronald Reagan in the 1970s and which continues to fight the grassroots Tea Party movement today has adopted the tactics of the left in using the media and the politics of personal destruction to attack an opponent.?

That opponent, she goes on, is Newt Gingrich ? the man who ?brought the Reagan Revolution into the 1990s.?

Money is a major factor in the Florida race for Republican primary votes, and it?s clear that Romney has the advantage. Huffington Post political reporter Paul Blumenthal lays out the scene:

?The biggest spender in Florida ? the most expensive state in the Republican primary to date ? has been the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future. Run by a trio of former Romney advisers, the group has spent $10.7 million in the state. The vast majority of that ? $9.9 million ? has gone into a barrage of ads, on television and radio, and direct mail attacking Gingrich. That's more than double what pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future is spending in Florida.?

On the Sunday TV talk shows, Gingrich called that ?carpet bombing,? and he accused Romney of flat out lying, both in this past week?s two debates in Florida and in his campaign ads.

?I don?t know how you debate a person when he stands there and blatantly just doesn?t tell the truth,? Gingrich said on Fox News Sunday. "He just tries to tear down whoever he's running against, and it has an effect.?

?We're in a very tough campaign down here,? Gingrich said. That?s a point on which all can agree.

Election 101: Ten questions about Newt Gingrich as a presidential candidate

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/c4tMWS6gXUI/Mitt-Romney-From-South-Carolina-loss-to-big-Florida-surge

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Neeson's 'The Grey' tops box office with $20M

NEW YORK (AP) ? Beware the Liam in Winter. Liam Neeson's "The Grey" topped the weekend box office with $20 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, continuing the actor's success as an action star in the winter months.

The Alaskan survivalist thriller opened above expectations with a performance on par with previous Neeson thrillers "Taken" and "Unknown." Those films, both January-February releases, opened with $24.7 million and $21.9 million, respectively.

But the R-rated "The Grey," which has received good reviews, drove home the strong appeal of Neeson, action star. It's an unlikely turn for the 59-year-old Neeson, previously better known for his dramatic performances, like those in "Schindler's List" and "Kinsey."

"Liam is a true movie star, period," said Tom Ortenberg, CEO of Open Road Films. It's the second release for the newly formed distributor, created by theater chains AMC and Regal.

"My guess is that Liam Neeson in action thrillers would work just about any time of year."

January is often a dumping ground for less-stellar releases, a tradition held up by two badly reviewed new wide releases: "Man on a Ledge," with Sam Worthington, and "One for the Money" with Katherine Heigl.

"One for the Money" fared better, earning $11.8 million, while "Man on a Ledge" opened with $8.3 million.

Those were reasonably solid returns, and, in an unusual twist, were both ultimately for Lions Gate Entertainment. Its film studio, Lionsgate, released the romantic comedy "One for the Money." The action thriller "Man on a Ledge" was released by Summit Entertainment, which Lions Gate bought for $412.5 million earlier this month.

"One for the Money" was helped by a promotion with Groupon, the Internet discount site, with which Lionsgate previously partnered for "The Lincoln Lawyer." David Spitz, head of distribution for Lionsgate, said the large number of older, female subscribers of Groupon matched well with the audience of "One for the Money."

Groupon email blasts, he said, had a significant promotional effect.

Last week's box-office leader, "Underworld: Awakenings," Sony's Screen Gem's latest installment in its vampire series, came in second with $12.5 million, bringing its cumulative total to $45.1 million.

The unexpectedly large haul for "The Grey," strong holdovers (such as the George Lucas-produced World War II action film "Red Tails," which earned $10.4 million in its second week) and the bump for Oscar contending films following Tuesday's nominations added up to a good weekend for Hollywood. The box office was up about 15 percent on the corresponding weekend last year.

So far, every weekend this year has been an "up" weekend, after a somewhat dismal fourth quarter in 2011.

"'Mission: Impossible,' I think, really helped reinvigorate the marketplace, and that's carried over into the first part of the year," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "That's good news for Hollywood after the down-trending box office of 2011."

Oscar favorites "The Descendants," ''Hugo" and "The Artist" sought to capitalize on their recent Academy Awards nominations. Each expanded to more theaters and saw an uptick in business.

Fox Searchlight's "The Descendants," which is nominated for five Oscars including best picture, added 1,441 screens in its 11th week of release. It added $6.6 million and has now made $58.8 million, making it one of Fox Searchlight's most successful releases.

Sheila DeLoach, senior vice president of distribution for Fox Searchlight, said the film's nominations and its recent Golden Globes wins (for best drama and best actor, George Clooney) "played a big role" in its weekend box office.

Paramount's "Hugo," which led Oscar nominations with 11 including best picture, saw a 143 percent jump in business over its last weekend. In its tenth week of release, it earned $2.3 million, bringing its total to $58.7 million.

The Weinstein Co.'s "The Artist," with 10 Oscar nominations including best picture, expanded a modest 235 screens to bring it to a total of 897 screens in its 10th week of release. It earned $3.3 million, with a total of $16.7 million.

The Weinstein Co. is being careful with the black-and-white, largely silent film. Thus far, it has appealed particularly to older audiences.

"It's not the same type of picture as any other picture in the marketplace," said Erik Loomis, head of distribution for the Weinstein Co. "Now that the nominations are out, we're going to look to capitalize on it as best we can. ... We're being very, very meticulous with it. We're not throwing it out there and grabbing every theater we can. At some point, we'll open the floodgates on the movie, maybe closer to the awards."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "The Grey," $20 million.

2. "Underworld: Awakening," $12.5 million.

3. "One for the Money," $11.8 million.

4. "Red Tails," $10.4 million.

5. "Man on a Ledge," $8.3 million.

6. "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," $7.1 million.

7. "The Descendants," $6.6 million.

8. "Contraband," $6.5 million.

9. "Beauty and the Beast," $5.3 million.

10. "Haywire," $4 million.

___

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com/boxoffice

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-29-US-Box-Office/id-3a45dd8e69224f159d9850fb268e5b4f

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Protesters in Spain support embattled judge (AP)

MADRID ? Thousands of protesters, including artists, politicians and union members, marched in downtown Madrid on Sunday in support of a judge who is on trial for allegedly overstepping his jurisdiction by probing atrocities stemming from Spain's civil war.

Baltasar Garzon became an international human rights hero when he indicted former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998 and al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2003. But he ran into trouble for trying to investigate deaths and disappearances during and after the 1936-39 war which brought dictator Gen. Francisco Franco to power.

Garzon is on trial in the Supreme Court on three counts of allegedly giving legal instructions that he knew were unlawful.

Spaniards are highly divided over Garzon ? he has rock star status among human rights groups but conservatives deride him as being more interested in fame than justice. The marchers Sunday chanted and carried banners that read: "Garzon, friend, Spain is with you."

Retired printer Raul Ruiz, 69, carried a placard with a cartoon showing a judge presenting Garzon's head on a platter to Franco, who ruled from 1939 till his death in 1975.

More than 100,000 noncombatant civilians died or disappeared at the hands of Franco supporters, but crimes that took place during his dictatorship are covered by an amnesty passed in 1977 as Spain strove for a consensus to restore democracy.

"It is unjust to try a judge, whose job is to investigate crimes, for looking into cases simply because they are controversial," singer-songwriter Raul Anoz said.

Store owner Monica Garcia, 46, said she was ashamed by how her country was treating Garzon. "Fascist murderers were tried in Germany, but here in Spain, Franco's murderous dictatorship has for decades remained un-investigated and unpunished," Garcia said.

Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, 59, head of the Workers Commissions union, said his members were indignant that no one had so far asked the Fascist dictatorship to account for its crimes. "Then, when a judge begins look into it, he gets taken to court," he said.

If found guilty, Garzon ? who was suspended from his job at the National Court in 2010 in advance of the cases ? can be disbarred for up to 20 years. The decision would effectively end his career.

The cases stem from a complaint filed by the leaders of two right-wing groups, even though government prosecutors themselves say Garzon did nothing wrong and should be acquitted.

By a quirk of Spanish penal law, private citizens can seek to bring criminal charges against someone even if prosecutors disagree.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_eu/eu_spain_judge_on_trial

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Time short for Gingrich to close gap in Florida

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, speaks to media during a news conference outside the Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lutz, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, speaks to media during a news conference outside the Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lutz, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, left, watches Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on television as he rides his campaign bus with his brother Scott, and sister-in-law Sheri, to Hialeah, Fla., after campaigning in Naples, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, speaks to media during a news conference outside the Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lutz, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, rides in his campaign bus with his grandson Parker, 5, as they drive from Naples, Fla., to Hialeah, Fla., to continue campaigning Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Jameson Williams, 2, of Sarasota, holds a sign outside a scheduled campaign event for Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport in Sarasota, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Santorum is staying home in Philadelphia to be with his 3-year-old hospitalized daughter Isabella, and is canceling campaign stops in Florida. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? Newt Gingrich slammed GOP rival Mitt Romney on Sunday for the steady stream of attacks he likened to "carpet-bombing," trying to cut into the resurgent front-runner's lead in Florida in the dwindling hours before Tuesday's pivotal presidential primary.

And despite surging ahead in polls, Romney wasn't letting up, relentlessly casting Gingrich as an influence peddler with a "record of failed leadership."

In what has become a wildly unpredictable race, the momentum has swung back to Romney, staggered last weekend by Gingrich's victory in South Carolina. Romney has begun advertising in Nevada ahead of that state's caucuses next Saturday, illustrating the challenges ahead for Gingrich, who has pledged to push ahead no matter what happens in Florida.

An NBC News/Marist poll published Sunday showed Romney with support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters, compared with 27 percent for Gingrich.

Romney's campaign has dogged Gingrich at his own campaign stops, sending surrogates to remind reporters of Gingrich's House ethics probe in the 1990s and other episodes in his career aimed at sowing doubt about his judgment.

Gingrich reacted defensively, accusing the former Massachusetts governor and a political committee that supports him of lying, and the GOP's establishment of allowing it.

"I don't know how you debate a person with civility if they're prepared to say things that are just plain factually false," Gingrich said during appearances on Sunday talk shows. "I think the Republican establishment believes it's OK to say and do virtually anything to stop a genuine insurgency from winning because they are very afraid of losing control of the old order."

Gingrich objected specifically to a Romney campaign ad that includes a 1997 NBC News report on the House's decision to discipline Gingrich, then speaker, for ethics charges.

Romney continued to paint Gingrich as part of the very Washington establishment he condemns and someone who had a role in the nation's economic problems.

"Your problem in Florida is that you worked for Freddie Mac at a time when Freddie Mac was not doing the right thing for the American people, and that you're selling influence in Washington at a time when we need people who will stand up for the truth in Washington," Romney told an audience in Naples.

Gingrich's consulting firm was paid more than $1.5 million by the federally-backed mortgage company over a period after he left Congress in 1999.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, trailing in Florida by a wide margin, stayed in his home state, where his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, was hospitalized. She has a genetic condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 18th chromosome. Aides said he would resume campaigning as soon as possible.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who has invested little in Florida, looked ahead to Nevada. The libertarian-leaning Paul is focusing more on gathering delegates in caucus states, where it's less expensive to campaign. But securing the nomination only through caucus states is a hard task.

The intense effort by Romney to slow Gingrich is comparable to his strategy against Gingrich in the closing month before Iowa's leadoff caucuses Jan. 3. Gingrich led in Iowa polls, lifted by what were hailed as strong performances in televised debates, only to drop in the face of withering attacks by Romney, aided immensely by ads sponsored by a "super" political action committee run by former Romney aides.

But Romney aides say they made the mistake of assuming Gingrich could not rise again as he did in South Carolina. Romney appears determined not to let that happen again.

"His record is one of failed leadership," Romney told more than 700 people at a rally in Pompano Beach Sunday evening. "We don't need someone who can speak well perhaps, or can say things we agree with, but does not have the experience of being an effective leader."

Gingrich has responded by criticizing Romney's conservative credentials. Outside an evangelical Christian church in Lutz, Gingrich said he was the more loyal conservative on key social issues.

"This party is not going to nominate somebody who is a pro-abortion, pro-gun-control, pro-tax-increase liberal," Gingrich said. "It isn't going to happen."

But Gingrich, in appearances on Sunday news programs, returned to complaining about Romney's tactics. "It's only when he can mass money to focus on carpet-bombing with negative ads that he gains any traction at all," he said.

Romney and the political committee that supports him had combined to spend some $6.8 million in ads criticizing Gingrich in the Florida campaign's final week. Gingrich and a super PAC that supports him were spending about one-third that amount.

Gingrich worked to portray himself as the insurgent outsider, collecting the endorsement of tea party favorite Herman Cain, whose own campaign for president foundered amid sexual harassment allegations.

It was unclear how aggressively Gingrich would be able to compete in states beyond Florida. The next televised debate, a format Gingrich has used to his advantage, is not until Feb. 22, more than three weeks away.

Romney already has campaigned in Nevada more than Gingrich, is advertising there, and stresses his business background in a state hard-hit by the economy. His campaign welcomed the Sunday endorsement of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada's largest newspaper.

Michigan and Maine, where Romney won during his 2008 campaign, also hold their contests in February. Arizona, a strong tea-party state where Gingrich could do well, has its primary Feb. 28.

___

Associated Press writers Steve Peoples in Naples and Shannon McCaffrey in Lutz contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-29-US-GOP-Campaign/id-c8c53cf958274fbe83e6a9ee7d3ca5c7

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Cain backs Gingrich's presidential bid

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) ? Former presidential hopeful Herman Cain is backing Newt Gingrich's White House bid.

Cain endorsed Gingrich Saturday, just days before Florida's primary, at a Republican fundraiser.

Gingrich was also slated to speak to the group later Saturday night.

Gingrich, a former House of Representatives speaker, is in a fierce fight for Tuesday's Florida's Republican primary with Mitt Romney.

Cain, a favorite of the conservative tea party movement and a former pizza executive, left the race before the first nominating contests facing accusations of unwanted sexual advances. He remains popular, however, and would be a late boost for Gingrich.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-28-Cain-Gingrich/id-31ba59c2604845ac90e64d6e9fd6d5d5

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Prejudices? Quite normal!

Friday, January 27, 2012

Girls are not as good at playing football as boys, and they do not have a clue about cars. Instead they know better how to dance and do not get into mischief as often as boys. Prejudices like these are cultivated from early childhood onwards by everyone. "Approximately at the age of three to four years children start to prefer children of the same sex, and later the same ethnic group or nationality," Prof. Dr. Andreas Beelmann of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany) states. This is part of an entirely normal personality development, the director of the Institute for Psychology explains. "It only gets problematic when the more positive evaluation of the own social group, which is adopted automatically in the course of identity formation, at some point reverts into bias and discrimination against others," Beelmann continues.

To prevent this, the Jena psychologist and his team have been working on a prevention programme for children. It is designed to reduce prejudice and to encourage tolerance for others. But when is the right time to start? Jena psychologists Dr. Tobias Raabe and Prof. Dr. Andreas Beelmann systematically summarise scientific studies on that topic and published the results of their research in the science journal Child Development (DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01668.x.).

According to this, the development of prejudice increases steadily at pre-school age and reaches its highest level between five and seven years of age. With increasing age this development is reversed and the prejudices decline. "This reflects normal cognitive development of children," Prof. Beelmann explains. "At first they adopt the social categories from their social environment, mainly the parents. Then they start to build up their own social identity according to social groups, before they finally learn to differentiate and individual evaluations of others will prevail over stereotypes." Therefore the psychologists reckon this age is the ideal time to start well-designed prevention programmes against prejudice. "Prevention starting at that age supports the normal course of development," Beelmann says. As the new study and the experience of the Jena psychologists with their prevention programme so far show, the prejudices are strongly diminished at primary school age, when children get in touch with members of so-called social out groups like, for instance children of a different nationality or skin colour. "This also works when they don't even get in touch with real people but learn it instead via books or told stories."

But at the same time the primary school age is a critical time for prejudices to consolidate. "If there is no or only a few contact to members of social out groups, there is no personal experience to be made and generalising negative evaluations stick longer." In this, scientists see an explanation for the particularly strong xenophobia in regions with a very low percentage of foreigners or migrants.

Moreover the Jena psychologists noticed that social ideas and prejudices are formed differently in children of social minorities. They do not have a negative attitude towards the majority to start with, more often it is even a positive one. The reason is the higher social status of the majority, which is being regarded as a role model. Only later, after having experienced discrimination, they develop prejudices, that then sticks with them much more persistently than with other children. "In this case prevention has to start earlier so it doesn't even get that far," Beelmann is convinced.

Generally, the psychologist of the Jena University stresses, the results of the new study don't imply that the children's and youths attitudes towards different social groups can't be changed at a later age. But this would then less depend on the individual development and very much more on the social environment like for instance changing social norms in our society. Tolerance on the other hand could be encouraged at any age. The psychologists' "prescription": As many diverse contacts to individuals belonging to different social groups as possible. "People who can identify with many groups will be less inclined to make sweeping generalisations in the evaluation of individuals belonging to different social groups or even to discriminate against them," Prof. Beelmann says.

###

Raabe T, Beelmann A.: Development of ethnic, racial, and national prejudice in childhood and adolescence: A multinational meta-analysis of age differences. Child Development. 2011; 82(6):1715-37. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01668.x.

Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet Jena: http://www.uni-jena.de

Thanks to Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet Jena for this article.

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Obama urges Congress to act in election year (AP)

CAMBRIDGE, Md. ? President Barack Obama rallied House Democrats for an election-year fight, urging them to work with Republicans if they show some willingness to put politics aside but telling the rank and file to call them out if they stand in the way.

Addressing Democrats on the final day of their three-day annual retreat, Obama outlined the political stakes over the next few months as congressional Democrats try to push his agenda in the face of Republican opposition, the GOP choses its nominee and signs of recovery in a fragile economy go a long way to determining his re-election chances and the party's fate.

Obama said Democrats should seize the opportunity "whenever there is a possibility that the other side is putting some politics aside for just a nanosecond in order to get something done for the American people, we've got to be right there ready to meet them," the president told the sometimes raucous crowd.

However, "where they obstruct, where they're unwilling to act, where they're more interested in party than they are in country, more interested in the next election than the next generation, then we've got to call them out on it," the president said. "We've got to push. We can't wait; we can't be held back."

Coming off a three-day tour to promote his State of the Union message, Obama promised a "robust debate about whose vision is more promising" when Republicans choose their nominee.

On a day when reports showed the economy picking up late in 2011 but still considered "fragile" by the White House, Obama told Democrats wondering about their re-election prospects: "It's going to be a tough election because a lot of people are still hurting out there and a lot of people have lost faith generally about the capacity of Washington to get anything done."

House Republicans, who held their retreat in Baltimore last week, have repeatedly said the election will be a referendum on Obama's policies, especially his handling of the economy.

The president acknowledged that Democrats have embraced parts of his agenda when it was politically difficult and in some cases costly. The party took a drubbing in the midterm elections, losing control of the House and seeing their ranks diminished in the Senate.

And despite some past clashes with House Democrats over his willingness to compromise with Republicans, Obama was warmly received and was introduced as "our champion" by Rep. John Larson of Connecticut.

The president returned the warmth with a vote of confidence that Democrats would win back the House in November, making a nod to their leader as "soon-to-be once-again Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi."

"I believe in you guys. You guys have had my back through some very tough times," said the president, who received a small gift ? a DVD of House Democrats singing Rev. Al Green's "Let's Stay Together."

Last week, at a fundraiser at the Apollo Theater in New York, Obama stood on the stage and crooned a line from the Green classic.

Democrats were upbeat at their three-day session, energized by Obama's State of the Union address and its populist themes as well as recent polls showing more Americans say the country is on the right track and approve of Obama's handling of the economy. Divisions in the Republican ranks that were on full display last year in the fight over extending the payroll tax cut and the bitter battle between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich for the GOP presidential nomination also lifted Democratic spirits.

But the relationship with the White House hasn't always been cordial. Vice President Joe Biden, who addressed the Democrats prior to Obama's speech, described some of the rough patches.

He noted that several members in the room were mad at him in December 2010 after Obama negotiated an extension of President George W. Bush's tax cuts over the objections of some House Democrats. Last year, frustrated Democrats complained the Obama gave away too much in negotiating a spending bill and an agreement to raise the government's borrowing authority.

Biden said Pelosi told him at the last conference to "get tough. Enough is enough." He said the "message was heard. The message was heard. And I think we've delivered."

The vice president was more pointed in his political remarks than Obama and called out some Republicans by name. He said the American people will reject GOP unwillingness to compromise and its blatant determination to make Obama a one-term president.

Of the presidential candidates, Biden said Romney's criticism of the auto bailout and a host of positions stated by rival Newt Gingrich on government intervention will create a clear contrast for voters.

"These guys are helping us by saying what they believe," Biden said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_go_co/us_house_democrats

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SwRI-led RAD measures radiation from solar storm

Public release date: 27-Jan-2012
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Contact: Deb Schmid
dschmid@swri.org
210-522-2254
Southwest Research Institute

Data will provide valuable information for future human space exploration

The largest solar particle event since 2005 hit the Earth, Mars and the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft travelling in-between, allowing the onboard Radiation Assessment Detector to measure the radiation a human astronaut could be exposed to en route to the Red Planet.

On Sunday, a huge coronal mass ejection erupted from the surface of the sun, spewing a cloud of charged particles in our direction, causing a strong "S3" solar storm. A NASA Goddard Space Weather Lab animation of the CME illustrates how the disturbance impacts Earth, Mars and several spacecraft. Solar storms can affect the Earth's aurorae, satellites, air travel and GPS systems; no harmful effects to the Mars Science Laboratory have been detected from this solar event.

We only have a few hours of data downloaded from the RAD so far, but we clearly see the event, said RAD Principal Investigator Don Hassler, science program director in the Space Studies Department at Southwest Research Institute. The Mars Science Laboratory, launched Nov. 26, will land a sophisticated car-sized rover called Curiosity on the surface of the planet in August. Loaded with 10 instruments including RAD, Curiosity will traverse the landing site looking for the building blocks of life and characterizing factors that may influence life, such as the harsh radiation environment expected on Mars. "This SPE encounter is particularly exciting in light of the alignment between the Earth, MSL and Mars right now and for the next few months. It will be very interesting to compare the RAD data, collected from inside the capsule, with the data from other spacecraft."

This event has also been seen by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, Geostationary Operational Environment Satellites, the Advanced Composition Explorer, and the twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory spacecraft in Earth orbit as well as the Solar Heliospheric Observatory flying between Earth and the sun.

"RAD was designed to characterize radiation levels on the surface of Mars, but an important secondary objective is measuring the radiation during the almost nine-month journey through interplanetary space to prepare for future human exploration," said Hassler. "RAD is an important bridge between the science and exploration sides of NASA.

"Not only will this give us insight into the physics of these giant clouds, but like an astronaut, RAD is tucked inside the MSL 'spacecraft,'" Hassler continued. "Measurements from RAD will give us insight about the shielding provided by spacecraft for future manned missions in deep space."

RAD will collect data nearly continuously during cruise and will downlink data every 24 hours. Positioned in the front-left corner of the rover, the instrument is about the size of a coffee can and weighs about three pounds, but has capabilities of an Earth-bound instrument nearly 10 times its size. When MSL arrives at Mars, RAD will detect charged particles arriving from space and will measure neutrons and gamma rays coming from Mars' atmosphere above, or the surface material below, the rover.

###

SwRI, together with Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany, built RAD with funding from the NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate and Germany's national aerospace research center, Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt.

The Mars Science Laboratory is a project of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech. The mission's rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

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Public release date: 27-Jan-2012
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Contact: Deb Schmid
dschmid@swri.org
210-522-2254
Southwest Research Institute

Data will provide valuable information for future human space exploration

The largest solar particle event since 2005 hit the Earth, Mars and the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft travelling in-between, allowing the onboard Radiation Assessment Detector to measure the radiation a human astronaut could be exposed to en route to the Red Planet.

On Sunday, a huge coronal mass ejection erupted from the surface of the sun, spewing a cloud of charged particles in our direction, causing a strong "S3" solar storm. A NASA Goddard Space Weather Lab animation of the CME illustrates how the disturbance impacts Earth, Mars and several spacecraft. Solar storms can affect the Earth's aurorae, satellites, air travel and GPS systems; no harmful effects to the Mars Science Laboratory have been detected from this solar event.

We only have a few hours of data downloaded from the RAD so far, but we clearly see the event, said RAD Principal Investigator Don Hassler, science program director in the Space Studies Department at Southwest Research Institute. The Mars Science Laboratory, launched Nov. 26, will land a sophisticated car-sized rover called Curiosity on the surface of the planet in August. Loaded with 10 instruments including RAD, Curiosity will traverse the landing site looking for the building blocks of life and characterizing factors that may influence life, such as the harsh radiation environment expected on Mars. "This SPE encounter is particularly exciting in light of the alignment between the Earth, MSL and Mars right now and for the next few months. It will be very interesting to compare the RAD data, collected from inside the capsule, with the data from other spacecraft."

This event has also been seen by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, Geostationary Operational Environment Satellites, the Advanced Composition Explorer, and the twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory spacecraft in Earth orbit as well as the Solar Heliospheric Observatory flying between Earth and the sun.

"RAD was designed to characterize radiation levels on the surface of Mars, but an important secondary objective is measuring the radiation during the almost nine-month journey through interplanetary space to prepare for future human exploration," said Hassler. "RAD is an important bridge between the science and exploration sides of NASA.

"Not only will this give us insight into the physics of these giant clouds, but like an astronaut, RAD is tucked inside the MSL 'spacecraft,'" Hassler continued. "Measurements from RAD will give us insight about the shielding provided by spacecraft for future manned missions in deep space."

RAD will collect data nearly continuously during cruise and will downlink data every 24 hours. Positioned in the front-left corner of the rover, the instrument is about the size of a coffee can and weighs about three pounds, but has capabilities of an Earth-bound instrument nearly 10 times its size. When MSL arrives at Mars, RAD will detect charged particles arriving from space and will measure neutrons and gamma rays coming from Mars' atmosphere above, or the surface material below, the rover.

###

SwRI, together with Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany, built RAD with funding from the NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate and Germany's national aerospace research center, Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt.

The Mars Science Laboratory is a project of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech. The mission's rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

---

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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/sri-srm012712.php

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Australian PM stumbles before rowdy protest crowd (AP)

CANBERRA, Australia ? Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stumbled and was caught by a security guard as riot police helped her force a path through a crowd of rowdy protesters following a ceremony to mark Australia's national day Thursday.

She appeared distressed as she was pulled away from the protesters but was unharmed. She later remarked that she was made of "pretty tough stuff" and commended police for their actions.

Some 200 supporters of indigenous rights had surrounded a Canberra restaurant and banged its windows while Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott were inside officiating at an award ceremony.

Around 50 police escorted the political leaders from a side door to a car. Gillard stumbled, losing a shoe. Her personal security guard wrapped his arms around her and supported her to the waiting car, shielding her from the angry crowd.

The protesters had been demonstrating for indigenous rights nearby at the so-called Aboriginal Tent Embassy, a ramshackle collection of tents and temporary shelters in the national capital that is a center point of protests against Australia Day.

Australia Day marks the arrival of the first fleet of British colonists in Sydney on Jan. 26, 1788. Many Aborigines call it Invasion Day because the land was settled without a treaty with traditional owners.

Abbott appeared to be the target of protesters, who chanted "shame" and "racist" outside the restaurant.

The Tent Embassy celebrated its 40th anniversary on Thursday. Abbott had earlier angered indigenous activists by saying it was time the embassy "moved on."

Gillard was unharmed and later hosted another Australia Day function for foreign ambassadors at her official residence.

"The only thing that angers me is that it distracted from such a wonderful event," Gillard told reporters.

"I am made of pretty tough stuff and the police did a great job," she added.

Reaction from protesters afterward was mixed, with some saying police assaulted them and that Gillard and Abbott were never in danger. They also made conflicting claims over who had Gillard's shoe ? a Midas high-heeled blue suede ? and if it would be returned.

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

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Campaigning Mitt Romney seldom notes Mexican roots (AP)

COLONIA JUAREZ, Mexico ? White House hopeful Mitt Romney rarely mentions a key fact as he works to woo Hispanics ahead of Tuesday's Republican presidential nominating contest in Florida ? his own Mexican heritage.

"I would love to be able to convince people of that, particularly in a Florida primary," he said Wednesday in an interview with Univision, a Spanish-language television network. "But I think that might be disingenuous on my part."

His father, George, was born in Mexico, and his extended relatives still live in that same community, the border state of Chihuahua. The younger Romney's second cousins, tall men with light hair who speak American-accented English, share the family's last name and Mormon faith. They support his White House candidacy, but not his tough stance on immigration.

They've also never met him, though Romney's siblings have been to the house where their father was born on July 8, 1907, among a colony of Mormon pioneers in a stunning agricultural valley at the foot of the Sierra Madre. George Romney's family left Mexico when he was 5, returning to the U.S. to escape the violence of the Mexican Revolution.

"A lot of people ask why hasn't Mitt come back to see where his roots are. His father left here at such a young age and I don't think that he has that culture embedded like we do," said Leighton Romney, 52, who was born in the United States and is registered to vote in Arizona. "I live here because I love my country," he added. "That's Mexico."

He manages the fruit growers cooperative Grupo Paquime in nearby Nuevo Casas Grandes, and readily showed off his elaborately researched family tree to an Associated Press reporter who visited the office where he sells fruit to Walmart de Mexico and other large chains.

A two-term Michigan governor, George Romney faced questions about his eligibility to run for president in 1968 because he wasn't born in the United States. Yet, George was born a U.S. citizen, not Mexican, because his parents were U.S. citizens. And in those days, Mexico didn't grant dual citizenship so the parents had to choose one country or the other. Mitt Romney has said neither his father nor his grandparents spoke Spanish.

Like all U.S. politicians today, Romney walks a fine line between courting voter rage against illegal immigration, mostly from Mexico, and seeking the support of Hispanics, the fastest-growing voting group in America. In the rare cases where Romney has noted that his father was born in Mexico, he has done so to illustrate how the now-wealthy family came from humble beginnings rather than using the fact as a way to discuss immigration.

The Romneys can trace the family history to 1555, where they have records of a Mr. Romney, no first name, born in 1555 in the town of Tonbridge, England. The Mexican roots are intertwined with their Mormon faith.

The candidate's great-grandfather, Miles Park Romney, was born in 1843 in Nauvoo, Ill., where Joseph Smith founded the Mormon church. Miles Park Romney had five wives and 30 children, and fled to Mexico after passage of the 1882 Edmunson Act that barred polygamy. Among the first Mormons to settle in to the rolling Mexican valley bordering Texas, Miles Park Romney married his fifth wife after the church banned the practice in 1890.

Among the 11 children borne by Miles Park Romney's first wife were brothers Gaskell and Miles Archibold Romney.

The family fled back to the U.S. in 1912, when the Mexican Revolution struck Chihuahua and revolutionary forces invaded the English-speaking communities.

Gaskell Romney stayed in the U.S., with his five children, including Mitt's father, George.

But Gaskell's brother, Miles Archibold Romney, returned to Mexico.

The Mexican Romneys, who number about 40, live in solid brick homes with gingerbread accents and green lawns. They count themselves among the most prosperous ranchers and farmers in an area just 190 miles from the border city of El Paso, Texas. They ranch cattle and grow peaches, apples and chili peppers. They also run businesses, a prestigious school with an American football team and basketball program where the students emerge speaking flawless English.

"It is a very open community, where we have been progressive, and we have shaped a life for ourselves, our children, that we think is a healthy life," said Leighton Romney. "We have been here for generations."

Colonia Juarez and its surroundings have not escaped the drug violence that first terrorized the Mexican border and has now migrated to other parts. Meredith Romney, Leighton's brother, was kidnapped in 2009 and held hostage for two days in a cave until his family paid an undisclosed ransom.

The family says the area has gotten safer in the last year and that kidnappings have decreased. They credit Chihuahua's new governor, Cesar Duarte, who took office in 2010.

The town of 1,035 people has another emblematic symbol of the community's success: a white marble temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with a golden statue of Moroni, the angel said to have visited Joseph Smith. Next to it is the LDS-affiliated Academia Juarez, with three-story brick buildings and large lawns more reminiscent of Utah than Mexico.

Leighton's nephew, Brandon Romney, 33, grows chili peppers and helps with the school's sports teams. During a recent basketball game, he ran around giving instructions in both English and Spanish to teenagers playing on the court and stopped to talk about his famous relative.

"He's just another guy to me," Brandon Romney said. "Some people get kind of a sense of pride about it. I've never known him, never talked to him."

Brandon Romney and his other relatives who are eligible to vote in America plan to support their distant cousin. Some say they will donate to him if he wins the nomination.

The family generally sees him as a smart businessman who can lead America out of its economic turmoil. They only part ways on immigration, sharing the Mexican view that migrants seeking work in the U.S. should be given a legal means to do so.

The candidate has taken a hardline against illegal immigration. He favors a U.S.-Mexico border fence and opposes education benefits for illegal immigrants. He would support legislation that seeks to award legal status to some young illegal immigrants who serve in the armed forces, but not for those who attend college.

This week, Romney said he favors policies that encourage "self-deportation," where illegal immigrants decide on their own to leave the U.S., over those that would require the government to return the immigrants to their home countries.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_romney_relatives

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Stocks mostly lower ahead of Fed policy statement (AP)

Stocks mostly fell early Wednesday ahead of a statement on interest rates from the Federal Reserve and a news conference by its chairman.

Traders also fretted about Greece's slow progress in talks with private bondholders aimed at reducing the nation's crushing debt load.

Tech stocks rose, bucking the wider market, after consumer electronics giant Apple Inc. reported a best-ever quarter driven by strong sales of iPhones and iPads.

Apple's stock jumped 6.8 percent, helping lift the Nasdaq composite index 4 points to 2,790. The Nasdaq is up 7.1 percent this year, more than twice the gain for the Dow Jones industrial average.

The Dow fell 80 points, or 0.6 percent, to 12,595 in the first half-hour of trading. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 6, or 0.5 percent, to 1,308. Information technology was the only rising sector of the ten in the S&P 500.

Shortly after noon, the Fed will offer details about how long it plans to keep interest rates very low, an important issue for financial companies that lend to consumers and businesses. Access to credit is vital for the economic recovery. Low interest rates also encourage investment in stocks by reducing the returns traders can earn from many bonds.

The Fed will also release an economic forecast later Wednesday, and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will take questions from reporters in his quarterly news conference.

European markets retreated earlier as Greece's bondholders held a closed-door meeting to discuss whether they will continue to negotiate with the crisis-stricken nation.

Greece wants the investors, mostly banks and hedge funds, to voluntarily write off about half of its debt. Otherwise, Greece will be unable to obtain needed bailout cash and will default. That could set off a financial crisis similar to the aftermath of Lehman Bros.' failure in 2008.

The main stock indexes in France, Britain and Germany fell more than a half-percent. Borrowing costs for Italy, Spain and France increased, a sign of traders' fears that the debt crisis will spread. Adding to gloom was a report that Britain's economy shrank by 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter.

Apple's gains followed news late Tuesday that it sold 37 million iPhones in its fiscal first quarter, the first period after the death of CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs. That was coupled with a big jump in iPad sales to 15.4 million, and a more modest increase in Mac sales.

Apple's net income leapt 118 percent from the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue soared 73 percent. Both results blew the doors off Wall Street's expectations.

Among the other companies making big moves after announcing earnings:

? US Airways Group Inc. jumped 13 percent and Delta Air Lines Inc. rose 9 percent. Both carriers reported earnings that were far better than Wall Street analysts expected. The airlines raised fares during the fourth quarter while keeping costs under control. Delta also cut the number of flights it makes to keep pace with demand.

? WellPoint Inc., the nation's largest health care insurer based on enrollment, fell 5 percent. The company's fourth-quarter earnings dropped 39 percent, far more than analysts had expected. The Indianapolis company's full-year forecast also fell short of Wall Street's forecasts. Medical claims, its largest expense, rose nearly 10 percent in the quarter.

___

Follow Daniel Wagner at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/us_wall_street

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Legal Skills Prof Blog: Teaching legal skills in Qatar - Part 3

? ABA Committee Proposes Changes in How Law Schools Report Employment Data | Main | The story of highlighters ?

January 22, 2012

Teaching legal skills in Qatar - Part 3

Here's the third installment from our guest blogger Professor Rob Hudson on teaching legal skills in the Middle East (click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2).? In this final post, Professor Hudson describes what it's like to be a faculty member and law librarian at Qatar University.

The first point about being faculty here at the College of Law in Qatar is that there are almost no Qataris on the faculty. All but two of the law professors are from somewhere else and most are on three year contracts, although extensions exist, but tenure does not exist. The faculty is multinational and multi-lingual so that we have our faculty meetings in a room with simultaneous translation through wireless headsets. Many of the faculty are from Egypt or Lebanon and are on leave from faculty status in those countries. Others, including Dean Hassan Okour, are from Jordan. The Dean has a Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Ghana, Canada, Germany, France, the US, and the UK are part of the international mix too. The majority of faculty are men. The degrees of faculty at the College of Law include many PhDs and LLMs. Few have a JD or LLB as their terminal degree. The Faculty of Law split from the Sharia Faculty to be autonomous in 2006.

Qatar University is investing in major new facilities as part of the strategic plan and international accreditation efforts. Faculty at the College of Law benefited with a new building, shared with the business school,? and a new library this year.? The accreditation efforts of QU College of Law are focused on both SACS and the ABA from the United States. The ABA standards are entirely self-imposed as no avenue for accreditation outside of the US currently exists.? I have joint status at the College of Law and the Library and as law librarian take the Chapter Six requirements from the ABA to heart as I develop the law collection from minimal to functional.? Significant differences from US law schools are that half of the classes are taught in Arabic and no American law classes are in the curriculum at all. Classes are being proposed in all areas of legal studies, including advanced legal research, so the curriculum is still evolving.? Grants are heavily supported by the University and research is gaining emphasis in a traditionally instruction-driven academic environment.

The work here includes faculty housing, family benefits including schooling, work permits for family members, and travel.? My family is with me from the US and my oldest girl is in an international school. One of the greatest benefits to me as an American expat is to see the way my children are enriched culturally by living in an international destination like Doha. Faculty housing is often in gated compounds. I exercised the option to live off-compound at the Pearl to be closer to work and the Gulf. Faculty and their families here need to spend great amounts of time establishing Qatari permanent residency and the University works hard to make the process go fast. This includes University buses and intake specialists that will move a new faculty member from appointment to appointment at government departments. I still think it took me three months before I got a Qatari driver?s license! Return flights to Miami for my family are part of the yearly compensation and we have enjoyed trips to Malaysia and the UAE this year.

I like the schedule. The work week is Sunday to Thursday and the working day typically lasts from 7am to 2 pm. I go to church on Friday mornings with my family! I dislike the traffic and consider it to be the only danger next to the dust in a country ranking so high in quality of life.

For a US law librarian like me the idea that text is read right to left in Arabic, books open from the right cover, and the indexes are on the left is difficult. I still open books only to find I am looking at the back cover. Accessing Arabic books correctly on the shelf means that stacks and call numbers progress from right to left and from bottom to top for some of the collection. With the new library at Qatar University and our move in February 2012 to that facility we are faced with the dilemma of interfiling English and Arabic books while each demand completely opposite organization.? Also, the entire collection ? English, Arabic ? is in the process of a reclassification to LC from Dewey so we are quite busy. The ILS used is Millennium like at many US law schools but it is so recent the library has grand wooden card catalogs in the hall of the staff area.

Technology is good here in Qatar. Electronic resources are being integrated? by Qatar University with Blackboard use mandatory for all classes. Databases for legal research are ideally both in English and Arabic for navigation and content. Arabic text is best displayed in PDF as it often distorts in other formats like HTML. Few databases live up to this ideal.? Very few law students carry laptops here although all have smartphones. The challenge for skills instructors like me is to persuade the students to use mobile technologies like iPad and Blackberry and schedule classes in the instructional labs with computers. Blackberry Messenger is more effective to communicate with law students than email!

My struggle is to make legal research skills and library services relevant for the law students. Workshops and classes seem to be poorly attended and I wonder sometimes if I am making a difference.? My heavy John Wayne American accent probably does not help and I wish I spoke Arabic. Fortunately I am integrated into the writing courses and provide assessment for 15% of the grade in legal research and writing. I am developing a reading knowledge of Arabic, slowly.?

Qatar is less known than neighboring Dubai but becoming the economic and tourist hub for the region. There is no Great Recession here. The dynamic is very interesting and I enjoy living and working here.? The University is creating an international law school for the region .

My experiences are included on the Qatar University Law Librarian blog? .

Dr. Rob Hudson

Lecturer/Law Librarian

Qatar University, College of Law

PO Box 2713

Doha, Oatar

rhudson@qu.edu.qa

Thanks, Rob, for an interesting series of posts. You're welcome back here anytime.

(jbl).

January 22, 2012 | Permalink

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Source: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_skills/2012/01/teaching-legal-skills-in-qatar-part-3.html

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Worm Turns Alcohol Into Longevity

60-Second Science | More Science

A very dilute alcohol solution doubles the lifespan of the ubiquitous lab organism C. elegans. Christopher Intagliata reports.

January 23, 2012

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Lots of studies suggest limited quantities of alcohol?like one drink a day?can benefit your cardiovascular health. But for the tiny worm C. elegans, dilute booze is a veritable fountain of youth. It actually doubles their lifespan, according to a study in the journal Public Library of Science ONE. [Paola V. Castro et al, Caenorhabditis elegans Battling Starvation Stress: Low Levels of Ethanol Prolong Lifespan in L1 Larvae]

The researchers discovered the alcohol effect by accident. In an earlier study, they thought it was a dose of cholesterol that extended the worms' lives. But after review, they realized that the true agent was the weak alcohol solution the cholesterol was dissolved in. Starving worm larvae that usually live 10 days could survive 20 to 30 in the presence of alcohol. And a watery drink at that?the equivalent of one beer, poured into 100 gallons of water.

The authors aren't sure what?s behind the alcohol outcome. It could be a life-saving energy source for the starving worms. Or it might flip a switch that ups the worms' stress resistance. We humans do share some chemical signaling pathways with worms?the insulin response, for example. But the researchers say assuming a similar longevity effect for us is a dangerous road to go down. Especially after drinking.

?Christopher Intagliata

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]
?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=9b96d00d3201d359fb21a008496966a7

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Gingrich's tough talk on food stamps may backfire (reuters)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/190726132?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Exclusive: How Pakistan helps the U.S. drone campaign (Reuters)

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) ? The death of a senior al Qaeda leader in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's tribal badlands, the first strike in almost two months, signaled that the U.S.-Pakistan intelligence partnership is still in operation despite political tensions.

The Jan 10 strike -- and its follow-up two days later -- were joint operations, a Pakistani security source based in the tribal areas told Reuters.

They made use of Pakistani "spotters" on the ground and demonstrated a level of coordination that both sides have sought to downplay since tensions erupted in January 2011 with the killing of two Pakistanis by a CIA contractor in Lahore.

"Our working relationship is a bit different from our political relationship," the source told Reuters, requesting anonymity. "It's more productive."

U.S. and Pakistani sources told Reuters that the target of the Jan 10 attack was Aslam Awan, a Pakistani national from Abbottabad, the town where Osama bin Laden was killed last May by a U.S. commando team.

They said he was targeted in a strike by a U.S.-operated drone directed at what news reports said was a compound near the town of Miranshah in the border province of North Waziristan.

That strike broke an undeclared eight-week hiatus in attacks by the armed, unmanned drones that patrol the tribal areas and are a key weapon in U.S. President Barack Obama's counter-terrorism strategy.

The sources described Awan, also known by the nom-de-guerre Abdullah Khorasani, as a significant figure in the remaining core leadership of al Qaeda, which U.S. officials say has been sharply reduced by the drone campaign. Most of the drone attacks are conducted as part of a clandestine CIA operation.

The Pakistani source, who helped target Awan, could not confirm that he was killed, but the U.S. official said he was. European officials said Awan had spent time in London and had ties to British extremists before returning to Pakistan.

The source, who says he runs a network of spotters primarily in North and South Waziristan, described for the first time how U.S.-Pakistani cooperation on strikes works, with his Pakistani agents keeping close tabs on suspected militants and building a pattern of their movements and associations.

"We run a network of human intelligence sources," he said. "Separately, we monitor their cell and satellite phones.

"Thirdly, we run joint monitoring operations with our U.S. and UK friends," he added, noting that cooperation with British intelligence was also extensive.

Pakistani and U.S. intelligence officers, using their own sources, hash out a joint "priority of targets lists" in regular face-to-face meetings, he said.

"Al Qaeda is our top priority," he said.

He declined to say where the meetings take place.

Once a target is identified and "marked," his network coordinates with drone operators on the U.S. side. He said the United States bases drones outside Kabul, likely at Bagram airfield about 25 miles north of the capital.

From spotting to firing a missile "hardly takes about two to three hours," he said.

DRONE STRIKES A SORE POINT WITH PAKISTAN

It was impossible to verify the source's claims and American experts, who decline to discuss the drone program, say the Pakistanis' cooperation has been less helpful in the past.

U.S. officials have complained that when information on drone strikes was shared with the Pakistanis beforehand, the targets were often tipped off, allowing them to escape.

Drone strikes have been a sore point with the public and Pakistani politicians, who describe them as violations of sovereignty that produce unacceptable civilian casualties.

The last strike before January had been on Nov 16, 10 days before 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in what NATO says was an inadvertent cross-border attack on a Pakistani border post.

That incident sent U.S.-Pakistan relations into the deepest crisis since Islamabad joined the U.S.-led war on militancy following the Sept 11, 2001 attacks. On Thursday, Pakistani foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar said ties were "on hold" while Pakistan completes a review of the alliance.

The United States sees Pakistan as critical to its efforts to wind down the war in Afghanistan, where U.S.-led NATO forces are battling a Taliban insurgency.

Some U.S. and Pakistani officials say that both sides are trying to improve ties. As part of this process, a U.S. official said, it is possible that some permanent changes could be made in the drone program which could slow the pace of attacks.

The security source said very few innocent people had been killed in the strikes. When a militant takes shelter in a house or compound which is then bombed, "the ones who are harboring him, they are equally responsible," he said.

"When they stay at a host house, they (the hosts) obviously have sympathies for these guys."

He denied that Pakistan helped target civilians.

"If ... others say innocents have been targeted, it's not true," he said. "We never target civilians or innocents."

The New America Foundation policy institute says that of 283 reported strikes from 2004 to Nov 16, 2011, between 1,717 and 2,680 people were killed. Between 293 and 471 were thought to be civilians -- approximately 17 percent of those killed.

The Brookings Institution, however, says civilian deaths are high, reporting in 2009 that "for every militant killed, 10 or more civilians also died." Pakistan's interior minister, Rehman Malik, also said in April 2011 that "the majority of victims are innocent civilians."

Still, despite its public stance, Pakistan has quietly supported the drone program since Obama ramped up air strikes when he took office in 2009 and even asked for more flights.

According to a U.S. State Department cable published by anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks, Pakistan's chief of army staff General Ashfaq Kayani in February 2008 asked Admiral William J. Fallon, then-commander of U.S. Central Command, for increased surveillance and round-the-clock drone coverage over North and South Waziristan.

The security source said Pakistan's powerful spy agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, also was supportive of the strikes, albeit privately.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120122/wl_nm/us_pakistan_drones

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Poorest smokers face toughest odds for kicking the habit

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Quitting smoking is never easy. However, when you're poor and uneducated, kicking the habit for good is doubly hard, according to a new study by a tobacco dependence researcher at The City College of New York (CCNY).

Christine Sheffer, associate medical professor at CCNY's Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, tracked smokers from different socioeconomic backgrounds after they had completed a statewide smoking cessation program in Arkansas.

Whether rich or poor, participants managed to quit at about the same rate upon completing a program of cognitive behavioral therapy, either with or without nicotine patches. But as time went on, a disparity between the groups appeared and widened.

Those with the fewest social and financial resources had the hardest time staving off cravings over the long run. "The poorer they are, the worse it gets," said Professor Sheffer, who directed the program and was an assistant professor with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences at the time.

She found that smokers on the lowest rungs of the socioeconomic ladder were 55 percent more likely than those at the upper end to start smoking again three months after treatment. By six months post-quitting, the probability of their going back to cigarettes jumped to two-and-a-half times that of the more affluent smokers. The research will be published in the March 2012 issue of the American Journal of Public Health and will appear ahead-of-print online under the journal's "First Look" section.

In their study, Professor Sheffer and her colleagues noted that overall, Americans with household incomes of $15,000 or less smoke at nearly three times the rate of those with incomes of $50,000 or greater. The consequences are bleak. "Smoking is still the greatest cause of preventable death and disease in the United States today," noted Professor Sheffer. "And it's a growing problem in developing countries."

Harder to Stay Away

Professor Sheffer suggested reasons it may be harder for some to give up tobacco forever.

Smoking relieves stress for those fighting nicotine addiction, so it is life's difficulties that often make them reach for the cigarette pack again. Unfortunately, those on the lower end of the socioeconomic scale suffer more hardships than those at the top ? in the form of financial difficulties, discrimination, and job insecurity, to name a few. And for those smokers who started as teenagers, they may have never learned other ways to manage stress, said Professor Sheffer.

For people with lower socioeconomic status (SES), it can be tougher to avoid temptation as well. "Lower SES groups, with lower paying jobs, aren't as protected by smoke-free laws," said Sheffer, so individuals who have quit can find themselves back at work and surrounded by smokers. Also fewer of them have no-smoking policies in their homes.

These factors are rarely addressed in standard treatment programs. "The evidence-based treatments that are around have been developed for middle-class patients," Professor Sheffer pointed out. "So (in therapy) we talk about middle-class problems."

Further research would help determine how the standard six sessions of therapy might be altered or augmented to help. "Our next plan is to take the results of this and other studies and apply what we learned to revise the approach, in order to better meet the needs of poor folks," she said. "Maybe there is a better arrangement, like giving 'booster sessions'. Not everybody can predict in six weeks all the stresses they will have later on down the road."

"Some people say [quitting] is the most difficult thing in their life to do," said Sheffer. "If we better prepare people with more limited resources to manage the types of stress they have in their lives, we'd get better results. "

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City College of New York: http://www2.ccny.cuny.edu

Thanks to City College of New York for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116914/Poorest_smokers_face_toughest_odds_for_kicking_the_habit

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ASUS sneak attacks the business world with 12.5-inch B23E laptop ...

ASUS was plenty busy at CES last week, but it held back at least one product on us -- the B23E. This 12.5-inch business laptop packs a Core i5 or i7, up to 8GB of RAM and a maximum 750GB hard drive in a magnesium-aluminum alloy case. Other expected Pro-series niceties are also in tow, including a fingerprint reader, spill-proof keyboard and an anti-shock mounted hard disk. Looking at the spec sheet though, it's not all gravy for this 3.4-pound PC. For one ASUS doesn't state how long it will last on a charge, but we can't imagine the three-cell 4,400mAh battery is going to impress with its longevity. We're also sad to see resolution top out at a pedestrian 1366 x 768. For more details hit up the product page at the source link.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/22/asus-sneak-attacks-the-business-world-with-12-5-inch-b23e-laptop/

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