Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/O70F9VdE78k/
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Obama, Romney Campaigns Adopt Mobile Payments For Donations
We're about 10 months away from the presidential election, and grassroots fundraising is kicking into high gear. For the first time ever, smartphone-enabled mobile payments are playing into fundraising schemes, both for Republican and Democrat presidential hopefuls.
Late Night FDL: Gaming the System | Firedoglake
Noland?s muscular dystrophy qualified her for benefits from her father?s Social Security insurance when she was a young teen. She earns a few bucks here and there selling Avon products. Hale, 38, tinkers in Web design.
He said back pain and limited movement in one arm keep him out of the cooking jobs he once held.?But years of appeals to receive Social Security benefits have been unsuccessful.
?I know this guy in St. Joe who qualified in his late 20s, but he?ll still lift car engines, replace a transmission, work on his house,? Hale said. ?People like that make it harder for people like me to get Social Security.?
Among the non-beneficiaries around Benton County, it?s a common observation.
?There are more people on disability here than I?ve ever seen,? said William McKinney, who installs satellite TV systems and moves furniture. ?I grew up in Independence, lived in Butler, spent time in Oklahoma, in Springfield. Nothing like here?
?I think some of them are disabled just enough to be labeled that way so they feel they don?t have to work.?
Chris Stewart of the Katy Trail Community Health Centers disagreed: ?I don?t think that?s anywhere near the norm.?
She attributed the region?s high reliance on disability benefits to factors linked to poor general health: Poverty, low graduation rates, geographic isolation and higher than normal levels of drug and alcohol abuse.
As for assessing their patients? ability to work, Katy Trail physicians don?t get involved, Stewart said:
?They?ve said it puts them in a difficult situation in terms of advocacy or non-advocacy ? We provide medical records and let others make that decision,? meaning the medical advisers and administrative judges employed by the Social Security Administration.
Source: http://firedoglake.com/2012/01/30/late-night-fdl-gaming-the-system/
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Second exam important in child sex-abuse cases (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) ? When a child is thought to have been sexually abused, a second medical exam may be key to picking up injuries and sexually transmitted infections, a study published Monday finds.
The American Academy of Pediatrics already recommends that kids being examined for sexual assault have a follow-up exam in the weeks afterward.
But until now, no studies had looked at the benefits of doing that.
For the new report, researchers reviewed the records of 727 children and teenagers who were evaluated for sexual abuse or assault over a five-year period.
They found that almost one-quarter of the time, the patients' second exam changed the findings of the first.
In 18 percent of cases, there was a shift in the diagnosis of traumatic injuries.
Most often, the original examiner had said it was unclear whether the child had an injury suggestive of sexual assault (like tears or bruising), but the second examiner concluded that the findings were "normal."
However, that "does not in any way" mean the child wasn't sexually abused, said Dr. Nancy D. Kellogg, one of the researchers on the study and a child abuse expert at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.
It's well known that sex-abuse victims often do not have telltale traumatic injuries, Kellogg told Reuters Health.
So it's what the child says that's most important.
Kellogg's team also found that the second medical exam helped pick up sexually transmitted diseases that weren't caught initially. That was true in nearly seven percent of cases.
Most often, Kellogg said, the follow-up exam caught genital warts -- which would not yet have been apparent during the first exam.
The findings, reported in the journal Pediatrics, are based on 727 children and teens who were first examined at one San Antonio ER or the regional child advocacy center. A doctor or nurse trained in child abuse cases performed the exams.
The second exam was done about a month later at the child advocacy center, by an experienced child-abuse doctor or nurse.
During the initial exam, Kellogg explained, kids are "anxious or in pain -- they're traumatized. And that can affect the examiner's ability to detect things."
But the researchers also found that the first examiner's experience mattered. If he or she had done fewer than 100 such exams, the second examiner was more likely to reach different conclusions on whether the child had a traumatic injury.
That, Kellogg said, points to the importance of having an experienced doctor or nurse do the second exam.
Some hospitals, she noted, have special "child abuse teams" who can evaluate kids for sexual assault. There may also be a nearby child advocacy center with doctors or nurses who can do the exam.
As for areas where those services aren't available, Kellogg said she hopes the current findings give less-experienced pediatricians some guidance in evaluating kids for sexual abuse.
"We were a bit surprised by the findings," she noted. "We didn't expect the follow-up exam to make such a big difference in so many kids."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/A83tBr Pediatrics, online January 30, 2012.
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'Fear Factory' Donkey Semen Controversy: NBC Pulls Episode (Report)
Though "Fear Factor" has seen its fair share of controversy, NBC finally deemed a stunt un-airable.
TMZ reported that what would have been the Jan. 30 episode, entitled "Hee Haw! Hee Haw!," featured contestants being asked to drink a glass of donkey semen and a glass of donkey urine. The stunt was allegedly so extreme that NBC executives decided to pull it from the schedule just the day before it was scheduled to hit living rooms nationwide, according to TMZ.
"Fear Factor" host Joe Rogan hinted at the stunt months ago in an interview with The Huffington Post when asked why he said the reality show was going to be "bigger and crazier" this season:
The biggest example, I can't tell you unfortunately because they haven't even decided whether or not they're gonna air it. It's really that crazy. I got there and they told me what we were gonna do, and I just started laughing like, 'There's no way. That's not really gonna happen. Wait, is that really gonna happen?' [Laughs] I wish I could tell you. NBC's still looking at the footage going, 'Uhhhh, can we do that?' There's gonna be a lot of people that are going to be upset -- it really is ridiculous.
According to TMZ, instead of the donkey-inspired episode in question, NBC will re-air the Jan. 2 episode of "Fear Factor."
Related on HuffPost:
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Apple?s Off-The-Charts iPhone And iPad Sales
Sometimes you have to see things to truly appreciate their magnitude. Apple's latest quarter was so massive that MG had to write two posts about it: $46 billion in revenues, 37 million iPhones sold, 15 million iPads. The chart above, which comes from Asymco (see a fully interactive version here), shows how unusual this quarter was for Apple.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/_BqaTKfcgyg/
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Stars Hit Sundance!
Celebrities braved the snow and flocked to the Sundance Film Festival, but the films weren't the only hot tickets in Park City, Utah, this year.
The place to be seen in the day was definitely T-Mobile's The Village at the Lift where celebrities like Kate Bosworth, Liv Tyler and Victoria Justice could enjoy McCaf? lattes, hit up the uber cool Puma Social Lounge or get Mac makeup touchups.
But what would Sundance be without mentioning the swag?! The biggest celebs were gifted everything from Soul headphones at the Miami Oasis Lounge, Solstice designer sunglasses at the Gen Art Bertolli Meal Soup Chalet, the new Nintendo 3DS at its gaming lounge and sexy DL1961 Premium Denim at the Talent Resources Suite. But the winner for the best celeb lounge had to be the Vevo Sorel lounge, where almost every hot celebrity stopped by even The Bachelor's Ben Flajnik, who received several of the brand's hottest snow boots. But the biggest swag of all was at the Fender Music Lodge where Emily Blunt was gifted a trip to Vomo Island Resort in Fiji!
In the evening, stars Christina Hendricks and Tommy Lee dined at ChefDance where some of the world's leading chefs prepared a different delicious menu every night. The best part was the Yogurtland station for dessert as guests left. After dinner, the hottest acts in music today such as Ludacris, Deadmau5 and OneRepublic preformed at Park City Live and Drake at Bing Bar. Common also hosted an exclusive Express concert for his Sundance film LUV.
Also worth mentioning were the Grey Goose Blue Door Lounge and Acura Studio which served as the exclusive A-List lounges for several film dinners and after-parties. Rashida Jones, James Marsden and Emma Roberts were all spotted partying the night away at the lounges while sipping cocktails til 2 a.m.
For the late-night celebs, the hotspot was the T-Mobile Presents Google Music at Tao. Nick Lachey, Drake, Paris Hilton and Kirsten Dunst were all spotted at the pop-up nightclub getting their groove on and trying not to be seen.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/InTouchWeekly/~3/j865zdURBac/stars_hit_sundance.php
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Tim Cook speaks out against claims of factory worker mistreatment
Following up on reports of factory worker mistreatment, Apple CEO Tim Cook – who has been doing a lot of internal communications as of late, looked to email once
 |  |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/3C-cG6tZDbM/story01.htm
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Viruses con bacteria into working for them
Thursday, January 26, 2012
MIT researchers have discovered that certain photosynthetic ocean bacteria need to beware of viruses bearing gifts: These viruses are really con artists carrying genetic material taken from their previous bacterial hosts that tricks the new host into using its own machinery to activate the genes, a process never before documented in any virus-bacteria relationship.
The con occurs when a grifter virus injects its DNA into a bacterium living in a phosphorus-starved region of the ocean. Such bacteria, stressed by the lack of phosphorus (which they use as a nutrient), have their phosphorus-gathering machinery in high gear. The virus senses the host's stress and offers what seems like a helping hand: bacterial genes nearly identical to the host's own that enable the host to gather more phosphorus. The host uses those genes,? but the additional phosphorus goes primarily toward supporting the virus' replication of its own DNA.
Once that process is complete (about 10 hours after infection), the virus explodes its host, releasing progeny viruses back into the ocean where they can invade other bacteria and repeat this process. The additional phosphorus-gathering genes provided by the virus keep its reproduction cycle on schedule.
In essence, the virus (or phage) is co-opting a very sophisticated component of the host's regulatory machinery to enhance its own reproduction ? something never before documented in a virus-bacteria relationship.
"This is the first demonstration of a virus of any kind ? even those heavily studied in biomedical research ? exploiting this kind of regulatory machinery in a host cell, and it has evolved in response to the extreme selection pressures of phosphorus limitation in many parts of the global oceans," says Sallie (Penny) W. Chisholm, a professor of civil and environmental engineering (CEE) and biology at MIT, who is principal investigator of the research and co-author of a paper published in the Jan. 24 issue of Current Biology. "The phage have evolved the capability to sense the degree of phosphorus stress in the host they're infecting and have captured, over evolutionary time, some components of the bacteria's machinery to overcome the limitation."
Chisholm and co-author Qinglu Zeng, a CEE postdoc, performed this research using the bacterium Prochlorococcus and its close relative, Synechococcus, which together produce about a sixth of the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere. Prochlorococcus is about one micron in diameter and can reach densities of up to 100 million per liter of seawater; Synechococcus is only slightly larger and a bit less abundant. The viruses that attack both bacteria, called cyanophages, are even more populous.
The bacterial mechanism in play is called a two-component regulatory system, which refers to the microbe's ability to sense and respond to external environmental conditions. This system prompts the bacteria to produce extra proteins that bind to phosphorus and bring it into the cell. The gene carried by the virus encodes this same protein.
"Both the phage and bacterial host have the genes that produce the phosphorus-binding proteins, and we found they can both be up-regulated by the host's two-component regulatory system," says Zeng. "The positive side of infection for bacteria is that they will obtain more phosphorus binders from the phage and maybe more phosphorus, although the bacteria are dying and the phage is actually using the phosphorus for its own ends."
In 2010, Chisholm and Maureen Coleman, now an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, demonstrated that the populations of Prochlorococcus living in the Atlantic Ocean had adapted to the phosphorus limitations of that environment by developing more genes specifically related to the scavenging of phosphorus. This proved to be the sole difference between those populations and their counterparts living in the Pacific Ocean, which is richer in phosphorus, indicating that the variation is the result of evolutionary adaptation to the environment.
The new research indicates that the phage that infect these bacteria have evolved right along with their hosts.
"These viruses ? the most abundant class of viruses that infect Prochlorococcus ? have acquired genes for a metabolic pathway from their host cells," says Professor David Shub a biologist at the State University of New York at Albany. "These sorts of genes are usually tightly regulated in bacteria, that is they are turned into RNA and protein only when needed by the cell. However, genes of these kinds in viruses tend to be used in a strictly programmed manner, unresponsive to changes in the environment. Now Zeng and Chisholm have shown that these particular viral genes are regulated by the amount of phosphate in their environment, and also that they use the regulatory proteins already present in their host cells at the time of infection. The significance of this paper is the revelation of a very close evolutionary interrelationship between this particular bacterium and the viruses that seek to destroy it."
"We've come to think of this whole system as another bit of evidence for the incredible intimacy of the relationship of phage and host," says Chisholm, whose next steps are to explore the functions of all of the genes these marine phage have acquired from host cells to learn more about the selective pressures that are unique to the phage-host interactions in the open oceans. "Most of what we understand about phage and bacteria has come from model microorganisms used in biomedical research," says Chisholm. "The environment of the human body is dramatically different from that of the open oceans, and these oceanic phage have much to teach us about fundamental biological processes."
###
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: http://cee.mit.edu/
Thanks to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering for this article.
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
AP source: Fielder and Tigers agree on 9-year deal (AP)
DETROIT ? The Detroit Tigers responded to a jarring injury with an audacious move.
Free-agent first baseman Prince Fielder and the Tigers agreed Tuesday to a nine-year, $214 million contract that fills the AL Central champions' need for a power hitter, a person familiar with the deal said.
Detroit boldly stepped up in the Fielder sweepstakes after the recent knee injury to star Victor Martinez. A week ago, the Tigers announced the productive designated hitter could miss the entire season after tearing his left ACL during offseason conditioning.
CBS first reported the agreement with Fielder.
The person told The Associated Press the deal was subject to a physical. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the contract was not yet complete.
The Tigers won their division by 15 games before losing in the AL championship series to Texas. Adding the 27-year-old Fielder gives the Tigers two of the game's premier sluggers, pairing him with Miguel Cabrera.
With Fielder now in the fold, general manager Dave Dombrowski and owner Mike Ilitch have a team that figures to enter the 2012 season as a favorite to repeat in the division ? with an eye on winning the franchise's first World Series title since 1984.
"Everyone knew Mr. Ilitch and Mr. Dombrowski were going to make a move when Victor went down," outfielder Brennan Boesch said in a phone interview with the AP. "But I don't think anybody thought it would be this big."
The move also keeps Fielder's name in the Tigers' family. His father, Cecil, became a big league star when he returned to the majors from Japan and hit 51 home runs with Detroit in 1990. Cecil played with the Tigers into the 1996 season, and young Prince made a name for himself by hitting prodigious home runs in batting practice at Tiger Stadium.
A few years ago, when Prince returned to Detroit as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers, Tigers Hall of Famer Al Kaline recalled that power show.
"You can't ever say that you look at a kid that age and say that you know he's going to hit 40 or 50 home runs someday, but Prince was unbelievable," Kaline said then. "Here's a 12-year-old kid commonly hitting homers at a big league ballpark."
In an interview with MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM, Cecil Fielder said he was "shocked" by the news that Prince was heading to Detroit.
"He's been there in Detroit most of his young life so I think he'll be comfortable in that place," Cecil Fielder said. "I know Mr. Ilitch is probably excited because he's been wanting that kid since he was a little kid, so he finally got his wish."
With Cabrera and Fielder, Detroit will begin this season with two players under age 30 with at least 200 career homers. According to STATS LLC, that's happened only once before. At the start of the 1961 season, the Milwaukee Braves featured 29-year-old Eddie Mathews (338 homers) and 27-year-old Hank Aaron (219).
Several teams had shown interest this winter in Fielder, who had spent his entire career with the Brewers. He visited Texas, and the Washington Nationals also got involved in the discussions.
The beefy slugger hit .299 with 38 home runs and 120 RBIs last season. He is a three-time All-Star and was the MVP of last year's event in Phoenix.
Fielder has averaged 40 homers and 113 RBIs over the past five years. He's also been among the most durable players in the majors, appearing in at least 157 games in each of the last six seasons.
Fielder hits left-handed, while Cabrera is a righty. Manager Jim Leyland will get to decide where to put them in the batting order.
"I don't think there's a better right-left combo in any lineup in baseball," Boesch said. "I'm sure Skip's wheels are already turning on how to set them up."
The deal is only the fourth $200 million contract in baseball history, following Alex Rodriguez's $275 million, 10-year contract with the New York Yankees, A-Rod's $252 million, 10-year deal with Texas and Albert Pujols' $240 million, 10-year contract last month with the Los Angeles Angels.
Among current players, Fielder's $23.78 million average salary is behind only A-Rod ($27.5 million), Ryan Howard ($25 million), and Cliff Lee and Pujols ($24 million each).
Dombrowski indicated last week he'd probably seek a short-term solution to Martinez's injury, but he left himself some wriggle room, saying it depended who the replacement was.
Acquiring Fielder opens all sorts of possibilities. For now, Detroit has an opening at DH with Martinez out. But Martinez is in the second year of a $50 million, four-year contract.
One option could be to move Cabrera from first base to third. He played third base regularly for the Florida Marlins before the Tigers acquired him before the 2008 season.
Third baseman Brandon Inge has one year left on a two-year, $11.5 million deal with Detroit.
The Tigers reached the World Series in 2006, but they appeared to be in cost-cutting mode when they traded popular center fielder Curtis Granderson to the New York Yankees after the 2009 season.
It turned out they were simply re-allocating resources. They quickly signed ace Justin Verlander to a five-year deal in early 2010, then added Martinez and standout reliever Joaquin Benoit last offseason.
___(equals)
AP Sports Writers Ronald Blum in New York and Larry Lage in Detroit contributed to this report.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Verizon posts $2B 4Q loss on pension adjustment (AP)
NEW YORK ? Verizon paid dearly to put iPhones in the hands of subscribers in the latest quarter, holding back its profits in the hope that its customers will rack up higher monthly bills and stay loyal.
The quarter saw the launch of the iPhone 4S, the second model to be sold by Verizon, and it was clear that many had been waiting for it. Verizon on Tuesday said it sold 4.3 million of them, and 7.7 million smartphones total.
But by the upside-down logic of the wireless industry, higher sales mean lower profits for the quarter. Verizon Wireless subsidizes each smartphone by hundreds of dollars, figuring that it will make the money back in service fees over a two-year contract. That means the wireless division, though still highly profitable, posted a rare drop in operating income for the fourth quarter.
An iPhone that Verizon buys from Apple for around $600 is sold in stores for $200. The question is whether phone companies ever really make that money back.
Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett argues that the example of AT&T, which has sold iPhones since 2007, indicates that the expected boost to profits never really materializes, because the phone companies have to keep subsidizing each new iPhone release.
"The earnings pop will always be a year away," Moffett wrote Tuesday.
In the results of Verizon Communications Inc., the phone company that owns 55 percent of Verizon Wireless, the effect of the iPhone sales was masked by large charge for adjusting the value of its pension plans.
The New York-based company reported that it lost $2.02 billion, or 71 cents per share, in the last three months of 2011. That compares with net income of $2.64 billion, or 93 cents per share, a year ago.
Verizon had warned that the big pension charge was coming.
Excluding the pension effect and another one-time item, Verizon earned 52 cents per share. That was a penny shy of the average forecast of analysts polled by FactSet. Comparable earnings last year were 54 cents per share.
Verizon had warned that hefty smartphone sales would hold back earnings, but analysts had expected a slightly smaller drop. Verizon shares fell 90 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $37.50 in morning trading. On Jan. 3, they hit a four-year high of $40.48.
Revenue rose 7.7 percent to $28.4 billion from $26.4 billion a year ago. The latest figure was in line with analysts' expectations.
Wireless accounted for all of the revenue increase, as Verizon's wireline division saw a small decrease. The "old" phone company essentially breaks even, despite the popularity of its cable-like FiOS TV and Internet service.
Usually, Verizon's overall revenue increase is driven higher monthly wireless service revenues, as it gains customers. But this quarter, the largest contributor to the rise in revenue was phone sales, which doubled from last year to $2.2 billion.
Verizon Wireless added 1.2 million new subscribers on contract-based plans, which are the most lucrative. It was the second-best result in the last two years, further solidifying the company's position as the industry leader, with 87.4 million phones and other devices on contract-based plans, and 108.7 million total.
Vodafone Group PLC of Britain owns the remaining 45 percent of Verizon Wireless, and lays claim to a corresponding share of the profits.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
[OOC] FLying in a flock
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This is the auto-generated OOC topic for the roleplay "FLying in a flock"
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This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?FLying in a flock?. Anything posted here will also show up there.Topic Tags:
Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.This is the auto-generated OOC topic for the roleplay "FLying in a flock"
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My Brothers Test: [CENTER]
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Can I resurve the 2nd in comand?
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Jackson: Film saved life of West Memphis 3 suspect (AP)
PARK CITY, Utah ? Peter Jackson believes Damien Echols would be dead now if not for a 1996 documentary that cast doubt on the man's guilt in three child murders.
And Amy Berg, Jackson's colleague on the Sundance Film Festival premiere "West of Memphis," believes former Death Row inmate Echols and two other men might still be in prison if not for the independent investigation launched by "The Lord of the Rings" filmmaker and his wife, Fran Walsh.
There's no better testament at Sundance to the power of art and artists than "West of Memphis," which premiered Friday night at Robert Redford's independent-film showcase. Sundance films often come from mavericks who challenge the establishment. "West of Memphis" is a tale of artists not only challenging the system, but also beating it.
Jackson, Walsh and Berg said "West of Memphis" amounts to the fair trial Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley ? known as the West Memphis Three ? never got as Arkansas teenagers when they were convicted in 1994.
"We went into this case believing that they didn't do it, and the facts and the evidence we came out with at the end completely supported that," Jackson said in an interview. "So is the documentary sort of providing the prosecution's point of view? No, it's not. We're not interested in that. They had their go back in 1994. ... The documentary, it's the case against the state, really."
The case was a shocker in the rural Arkansas community where 8-year-old Cub Scouts Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers were slain in 1993. Found naked and hogtied, two of the boys drowned in a drainage ditch, while the third bled to death, his genitals mutilated, evidence prosecutors used to claim the children were killed in a satanic ritual.
The defendants were convicted based in part on a confession Misskelley later recanted. Misskelley and Baldwin were sentenced to life in prison, while Echols was condemned to death and once came within weeks of execution.
The case became a cause after Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's documentary "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills," which premiered at Sundance in 1996 and questioned whether justice or misguided public opinion was served in the trial. Over the years, celebrities such as Johnny Depp, Patti Smith, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks joined the effort to free the men.
Jackson and Walsh watched "Paradise Lost" in 2005 and were outraged over the case. From their home base in New Zealand, they got in touch with Lorri Davis, who had met and married Echols while he was on Death Row and was leading the fight to free the men.
"Justice should be beyond popular opinion, and in this case, it wasn't," Walsh said. "The popular opinion was these guys were guilty, therefore, they're going down. It really was a done deal."
Over the next six years, Jackson and Walsh financed their own investigation, hiring forensics experts, gathering DNA evidence and tracking down witnesses to show that the prosecution had convicted innocent men.
"The way Peter and Fran just attacked the case, it made us feel like we had hope for the very first time," Echols, 37, said in an interview alongside Davis.
The hope was well-founded. Helped by evidence Jackson and Walsh's investigation collected, the case seemed headed toward a retrial.
Then last August, both sides agreed to a rare legal maneuver in which Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley entered guilty pleas that allowed them to maintain their innocence and gain their freedom for prison time already served.
Some people in Arkansas, including the family of one of the murdered boys, still believe the three men are guilty. Yet as the years passed, even the families of the other two dead boys became convinced that prosecutors went after the wrong suspects. The mother of one boy and stepfather of another came to Sundance, sharing hugs at the premiere with Echols, who said he's "happy to call them friends now."
Three years into their investigation, Jackson and Walsh contacted director Berg, whose 2006 priest-molestation documentary "Deliver Us from Evil" earned an Academy Award nomination. Berg signed on to direct "West of Memphis," which traces the 18-year history of the case and features interviews with Jackson and many witnesses and experts he and Walsh worked with.
"I would submit this film to court, so that's how strongly I feel about it," said Davis, a producer on the film along with Echols, Jackson and Walsh.
The film also builds a case that a stepfather of one of the murdered boys should be investigated.
Jackson said that without "Paradise Lost," "Damien would be dead by now, so I do believe that film saved his life. And I'm hoping that our movie goes some way toward exoneration and catching the person that killed those three kids."
Walsh and Jackson stop short of saying their efforts led to the release of Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley. Yet Berg thinks the evidence brought to light by Jackson and Walsh was crucial.
"Without the discovery of the DNA, there's no way that these guys would be walking free, and that came so much from Peter and Fran and their investigation," Berg said.
Since his release, Echols has lived a nomadic life with Davis. He went to New Zealand to visit the set of Jackson and Walsh's upcoming "Lord of the Rings" prequel "The Hobbit" and has been staying with other friends while trying to decide on his future.
Sitting with his arm entwined around Davis', Echols said the hardships he endured were worth it because of the life he now has ahead of him.
"If I had to go through everything I did in the last 18 years to be with Lorri and to be in this situation, no, I wouldn't change it," Echols said. "I would go through it again if it meant being with Lorri."
___
Online:
http://www.sundance.org
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Fran?ois Hollande, French Presidential Candidate, Says 'Finance' Is ...
"I am ready." These few words, slipped into a speech that ran for nearly 90 minutes, summed up the message Fran?ois Hollande tried to convey Sunday before some 25,000 supporters crowded into the Parc des Expositions at Le Bourget, just outside of Paris.
In a hall filled to overflowing, fired up by the fervor of hypermotivated supporters, crushed by flags and posters, drowned out by the noise of vuvuzelas and foghorns, the Socialist candidate has undeniably succeeded in his show of power. From the opening of the festivities, led by Yannick Noah's upbeat concert, to the "Marseillaise" finale, sung on the platform by young supporters, far from the Socialist Party "elephants," there was not one false note in the program of the leader of the Left.
"I am ready." Fran?ois Hollande's voice was deliberately grave, his expression determined, as though he were turning the page on the unfocussed nature of the post-primary period, the glitches and the vagueness that put the brakes on a soaring take-off.
"I am aware of my task: to embody change, to lead the Left to victory, and to give France back her confidence," the leader from Corr said. "Three months before the first round, what is at stake is France. It is always France."
"The soul of France is equality."
Those who are close to the former Socialist Party chief agree: something became clear in Seine-Saint-Denis. At Le Bourget, Fran?ois Hollande gave his most intimate speech since the beginning of his campaign over a year ago. The result of a personal journey. "Everything in my life has prepared me for this day-my commitments, my responsibilities, the ordeals I have experienced. I am a socialist. I did not grow up on the Left. I had to make the clear decision to reach out for it, he says, evoking his parents, conservative but "with a generous soul."
Claiming his own "simplicity" as "the mark of authentic authority."Fran?ois Hollande took particular care to distinguish himself in every way from his rival, Nicolas Sarkozy, whose name he never actually mentioned. "I am consistent in my choices, I do not need to continually change in order to be myself," he said, taking advantage of the sympathetic crowd.
"I'll let you in on my secret, one that I have kept for a long time but which you have no doubt discovered: I like people, whereas others are fascinated by money," he said.
The anti-bling bling angle is devastating, but there's also a bit of Jacques Chirac in this modest love he's expressing for the first time. The same Chirac who spoke to "this France that I love as much as I love you." Guaranteed success.
Using his advantage over an incumbent President accused of having "degraded" France a step further, Fran?ois Hollande spoke at length of the values of the Republic.
"Every country has a soul. The soul of France is equality," he declared, brandishing the ideas of secularism, justice, equality, Europe. The presidential effect was welcomed by the public.
"The challenge was not a simple one: to meet very high expectations, while being the serene embodiment of the presidential," said a Socialist supporter after the rally.
"The adversary is finance": the Royal-Montebourg takeover bid
However, Fran?ois Hollande, who says he bears the "thunderbolt" of 2002 "like a wound," did not make the mistake of forgetting next April 22nd's first round of elections. Jaur?s, Mend?s-France, Mitterrand, Camus... Not one symbol of the Left was missing in the appeal at Le Bourget. Although the chosen candidate from Corr?ze has but rarely veered from the measured line that had marked the path of his campaign until then, he warned "I will promise only what I am capable of delivering," though this will not be possible without making a few concessions to the left wing of the party.
"The adversary is the world of finance," he began, to the applause of a crowd impatient to let Wall Street have it. Broadly echoing the proposals of Arnaud Montebourg and S?gol?ne Royal, Fran?ois Hollande committed himself firmly to the Tobin tax and future bank reform. That's too much, say his critics. No matter, as the attack concentrated on the values that are essential to carrying the first round, and are a major expectation of those inclined towards the Left, as our exclusive Viavoice poll demonstrates.
Program, figures, alliances-they're waiting to trip up Hollande
The campaign is, indeed, far from complete. The violent reaction from Sarkozy's UMP party and the criticisms expressed by other parties on the Left demonstrate that the hardest part is yet to come. All the more so since the candidate has revealed only a small part of his program and, for the time being, has chosen to completely overlook costs. As his appearance Sunday evening on television made clear, Hollande has yet to prove that he is capable of fixing the French economy by means other than attacking "finance."
Get set, then, for next Thursday, the day when the winner of the primaries will finally reveal his priorities and his agenda as future President. For those who would believe the election is already in the bag, Martine Aubry has taken it upon herself to set things straight for the weeks to come: "There is only one battle. To fight to the utmost, and to the very end."
"; 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/2012/01/23/francois-hollande-tk_n_1222529.html
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Seal, Heidi Klum announce separation
FILE - In this Feb. 13, 2011 file photo, Heidi Klum, left, and Seal arrive at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. In a statement Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, the power-couple announced their separation. They say after "much soul searching" they've decided to separate, and blame the breakup on "growing apart." They married in 2005. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 13, 2011 file photo, Heidi Klum, left, and Seal arrive at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. In a statement Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, the power-couple announced their separation. They say after "much soul searching" they've decided to separate, and blame the breakup on "growing apart." They married in 2005. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Seal and Heidi Klum have announced that their storybook marriage is coming to the end of the runway.
In a statement Sunday night, the power couple announced their separation after rumors swirled over the weekend that a divorce was imminent.
"While we have enjoyed seven very loving, loyal and happy years of marriage, after much soul searching we have decided to separate," the joint statement read. "We have had the deepest respect for one another throughout our relationship and continue to love each other very much, but we have grown apart. This is an amicable process and protecting the well-being of our children remains our top priority, especially during this time of transition. We thank our family, friends, and fans for their kind words of support. And for our children's sake, we appreciate you respecting our privacy."
The couple married in 2005 and has four children together, including the supermodel's daughter from a previous relationship.
They were one of Hollywood's most high-profile couples, and seemed to have the relationship everyone should envy. They two starred together in the music video "Secret," they renewed their wedding vows each anniversary, boasted of their love in the media, and threw Halloween bashes together where they dressed in outrageous outfits, most recently last year in New York City, where the two engaged in their typical public display of affection for the cameras.
In an interview with The Associated Press in 2007, the "Kiss from A Rose" singer described his wife, who has a tattoo of his name on her arm, as his best friend.
"It is really important that we have that understanding because apart from anything else it is really healthy," he said of the "Project Runway" host. "People often talk about the most important thing in a relationship. They say it is really important that you are turned on by your partner and you love each other, which is all really true.I often think that the most important thing or certainly up there with love is respect."
TMZ first reported on Saturday that the two planned to divorce this week.
His announcement comes as he releases his new album, "Soul 2," on Tuesday, which has songs like "Love T.K.O," ''Let's Stay Together" and "Love Don't Live Here Anymore."
___
AP Entertainment Writer Alicia Quarles contributed to this report.
Associated PressSunday, January 22, 2012
Video: GOP race starts to fall apart
NYT: New autism definition may exclude many
Proposed changes in the definition of autism would sharply reduce the skyrocketing rate at which the disorder is diagnosed and may make it harder for many to get health, educational and social services, a new analysis suggests.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/46063004#46063004
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Town Turns Off the Lights To See the Stars
The main reasons for street lighting is to make obstacles and pedestrians more visible to motorists, to allow pedestrians to move around without carrying a torch, and to make them feel safer.
In this case, they'd closed the roads around the town for this stunt, so no need for worrying about cars, and a good fraction of the population of the town was out on the street, so there were fewer empty dark back alleys down which to get stabbed (plus it's a small rural town; if it's anything like mine crime is generally livestock related...), and everyone there knew about it months in advance, so I'd expect they were stocked up on torches and batteries. It was just a shame it was so cloudy!
If you have never seen the stars without light pollution, go to somewhere in the middle of nowhere and have a look. It's quite hard to do in the UK, as our population density (and thus light pollution) is many times that of the US, so there aren't many really empty places left. It's a real tragedy that for a little convenience and marginal extra safety we've given up our window seat at the edge of the rest of the universe.
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
EBay reports higher 4Q earnings, revenue
FILE - In this April 22, 2011 file photo, two pedestrians pass eBay headquarters in San Jose, Calif. EBay Inc. reports quarterly financial results Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, after the market close. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
FILE - In this April 22, 2011 file photo, two pedestrians pass eBay headquarters in San Jose, Calif. EBay Inc. reports quarterly financial results Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, after the market close. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? EBay reported on Wednesday that its net income grew sharply in the fourth quarter, helped by a gain from the sale of its remaining investment in Skype. Its results beat Wall Street's expectations, boosted by strong holiday sales at its namesake website and growth at PayPal, its online payments business.
Investors sent eBay's stock higher in after-hours trading. The company gave a first-quarter outlook that was shy of analysts' estimates. However, its guidance for the full year was stronger than expected, suggesting robust earnings momentum later in 2012.
CEO John Donahoe called 2011 an "inflection point for shopping." This means the lines between online and offline shopping are blurring, as even people who shop in retail stores are increasingly using their mobile devices to compare prices, check for deals or search for products.
If all goes as planned, that's where eBay comes in.
"For consumers and retailers, we intend to make shopping more locally convenient and more globally accessible," he said in a conference call with analysts. "This means enabling retailers of all sizes to reach consumers when, where and how those consumers want to shop."
EBay's long-term plan is to transform into a commerce company that melds the online and offline shopping worlds. As part of this effort, it has been expanding PayPal's reach beyond the Web, to mobile devices and tablets. The company is also testing a service that will let people use their PayPal accounts to shop in brick-and-mortar stores, though the program is still in the early stages.
The company earned $1.98 billion, or $1.51 per share, in the October-December quarter. That's up from $559 million, or 42 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. Excluding special items such as the Skype gain, eBay Inc. says it earned 60 cents per share in the latest quarter, above the 57 cents that analysts were expecting.
Revenue grew 35 percent to $3.38 billion from $2.5 billion.
On average, analysts polled by FactSet expected revenue of $3.32 billion.
The e-commerce and online payments company said its PayPal business continued to grow, ending the quarter with more than 106 million active accounts. That's up 13 percent from a year earlier. Revenue jumped 28 percent to $1.24 billion and the business processed $33.4 billion worth of payments during the quarter. That's up 24 percent from a year earlier.
As more people used their smartphones and tablets to buy things online, payments made through mobile devices accounted for $4 billion of the total payments processed through PayPal ? a more than fivefold increase from the prior year.
The company's marketplaces business, which includes eBay.com and other e-commerce sites and businesses, saw its revenue grow 16 percent to $1.77 billion. Marketplaces' gross merchandise volume, an important metric that measures all items sold on eBay excluding vehicles, rose 10 percent to $16.5 billion.
EBay's outlook for the current quarter fell shy of expectations. The company expects adjusted first-quarter earnings of 50 cents to 51 cents per share on revenue of $3.05 billion to $3.15 billion. Analysts are predicting earnings of 54 cents per share on revenue of $3.16 billion.
For all of 2012, the company is forecasting adjusted earnings of $2.25 to $2.30 per share on revenue of $13.7 to $14 billion. Analysts are expecting $2 per share in earnings and $11.59 billion in revenue.
The San Jose, Calif.-based company's stock climbed 60 cents, or 2 percent, to $30.94 in after-hours trading after closing down 19 cents at $30.34.
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Friday, January 20, 2012
US calls on S. Africans to prevent Sudan crisis (AP)
PRETORIA, South Africa ? The U.S. is calling on South Africa to help prevent a humanitarian disaster in Sudan.
Speaking Wednesday in South Africa, Princeton Lyman, the special U.S. envoy on Sudan, said civilians caught up in fighting in Sudan's Blue Nile and South Kordofan states are running out of food and medicine. Lyman says South Africa should pressure Sudan to allow in international humanitarian agencies.
Lyman says he fears "the prospect of hundreds of thousands of people dying with no access to food or medicine."
Fighting between the Sudanese army and rebels who want to topple the Khartoum government started last year in the states. Groups in both states, which border the new country of South Sudan, sided with the south during a lengthy civil war but remain part of the north.
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Romney rolls out final SC primary ad (AP)
COLUMBIA, S.C. ? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is rolling out his closing appeal for votes in Saturday's South Carolina primary with an ad that takes swipes at President Barack Obama's economic policies and makes tough-to-keep promises.
The ad shows Romney giving his victory speech in New Hampshire's primary two weeks ago with his family in the background and mixes images from campaign stops on factory floors around the country.
"President Obama wants to fundamentally transform America," Romney says. "I stand ready to lead us down a different path. This president has enacted job-killing regulations; I'll eliminate them. He lost our triple-A credit rating; I'll restore it. He passed Obamacare; I'll repeal it."
Romney promises in the ad to cut, cap and balance the federal budget. "If you believe that the disappointments of the last few years are a detour, not a destiny," he says, "then I am asking for your vote."
The ad is a stark contrast to the harsh messages Romney and a political action committee supporting him have been using for weeks in South Carolina, a state whose Republican primary winner has gone on to win the nomination each time since 1980. South Carolina's primary is expected to thin the field before candidates rush to delegate-rich Florida, which holds its primary Jan. 31.
Television ads, mailers and phone messages have been rough. Mail pieces, for instance, have called challenger Rick Santorum a hypocrite for raising his pay while in the Senate and said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich launched an attack on America's free enterprise system by questioning Romney's business deals.
Romney's ad sets up several challenging policy initiatives for a Romney administration. Cutting the deficit, much less balancing the federal budget and capping spending, has been an elusive goal for a deeply partisan Congress. While Romney and other candidates complain about regulations killing jobs, businesses have cited the overall economy and slow consumer demand more frequently than regulations as the top problems. That suggests that rolling back regulations may not easily lead to job creation.
When Standard and Poor's downgraded the nation's AAA debt rating last year, it came after months of warnings about gridlock in Congress over dealing with the nation's financial problems. In a time of rising economic challenges, S&P said the U.S. had weakened "effectiveness, stability and predictability" in its policymaking and political institutions. It is far from clear when and how those shortcomings will be repaired.
The new federal health care law that Obama pushed through over GOP objections will have key elements tested in the Supreme Court this year. Even if those elements fail, facets of the health care law are popular and may never be repealed, including ending lifetime maximum policy limits and extending coverage under a parent's health insurance policy to children until they're 25.
___
Follow Jim Davenport on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jimdavenport_ap
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
IMF sees euro zone GDP down 0.5 percent in 2012: ANSA (Reuters)
MILAN (Reuters) ? The International Monetary Fund expects the euro zone economy to contract by 0.5 percent this year and warns that tensions arising from the bloc's debt crisis threaten global growth, Italian news agency ANSA reported on Thursday quoting a draft of the World Economic Outlook (WEO).
The figure is 1.6 percentage points lower compared with the IMF's September forecast, ANSA said.
The IMF is due to publish next week its latest WEO report.
ANSA said the IMF saw a growth of just 0.3 percent in Germany this year, accelerating to 1.5 percent next year.
Similarly, France was expected to grow by 0.2 percent this year and 1 percent the next.
Both Italy and Spain, according to the draft document, would record two years of negative growth. The Italian economy was expected to shrink by 2.2 percent this year, the Spanish by 1.7 percent.
The GDP contraction should slow to 0.6 percent next year in Italy and to 0.3 percent in Spain, ANSA said.
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Romney's rivals take shots at try to knock him off perch in South Carolina debate (CNN)
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