Shirley MacLaine to star in UK's "Downton Abbey" (omg!)

LONDON (Reuters) - Oscar-winning actress Shirley MacLaine will join the cast of hit British television series "Downton Abbey," broadcaster ITV announced.

The 77-year-old, who has appeared in more than 60 films and won a best actress Academy Award for the 1983 movie "Terms of Endearment," will play a new character called Martha Levinson, Lady Grantham's mother.

Producers said the character of Levinson would provide a "wonderful combatant" for the formidable Dowager Countess played by two-time Oscar winner Maggie Smith.

Laura Mackie, director of drama at ITV, said MacLaine's casting underlined the show's success both in Britain and the United States.

Filming of the third series begins in February.

Downton Abbey, written by Oscar-winning scriptwriter Julian Fellowes, follows the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants at an impressive country estate in the early 1900s.

The show has been a ratings hit for ITV, regularly commanding a British audience of more than 11 million.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_shirley_maclaine_star_uks_downton_abbey125238979/44362483/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/shirley-maclaine-star-uks-downton-abbey-125238979.html

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The Warrior Beat | Investing in UH football | UH football, University of ...

Offensive lineman Mike Milovale of Hartnell College has accepted a football offer from the Warrirors.

He was raised in American Samoa, and was a high school teammate of UH running back Joey Iosefa.

Milovale is 6-4 and 310 pounds.

* * * * *

We all know someone who wants to let you know about a great investment. No obligations. Honest. Just a little of your time.

Punahou running back Steven Lakalaka and Kamehameha safety Taylor Taliulu listened, and yesterday both decided to invest in the Warrior plan. In doing so, they rescinded pledges to Pac-12 schools ? Lakalaka to UCLA, Taliulu to Washington State.

?Steven and I are really good friends,? Taliulu said. ?We were talking about it. We thought it would be cool to show everyone we?re serious about Hawaii football. We can change this place around.?

Taliulu had been set on going away. After completing his UH trip yesterday, he evaluated his offers.

?I felt home would be the best place for me to get a scholarship and try to be the best player I can be,? Taliulu said. ?I think coach Chow has a really good coaching staff. I feel I can gain the best knowledge from them.?

Lakalaka expressed an interest in medicine. During his visit, Chow and assistant coach Keith Uperesa took Lakalaka to the John Burns Medical School. They met with professors and other students.

?That meant a lot,? Lakalaka said.

The message: Many of the ?things on the mainland can be found in Hawaii.

Lakalaka and Taliulu then discussed their situation.

?We talked about USC and UCLA, and their traditions,? Lakalaka said. ?Somebody had to start it. We wanted to be part of starting a tradition.?

* * * * *

Source: http://warriorbeat.staradvertiserblogs.com/2012/01/30/investing-in-uh-football/

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Aperture 3.2

Since our review of Aperture 3.0 at its launch, Apple has been busy not only tightening the app by making it more stable and correcting minor glitches in specific cases, but also adding new capabilities like support for iCloud, iOS 5, and Lion multi-touch. Among an extremely capable field of pro photo-workflow software?especially Adobe Lightroom ($299, 4.5 stars), ACDSee Pro ($99.99, 4 stars), and the impressive newer arrival, CyberLink PhotoDirector ($99.99, 3.5 stars)?Aperture's smooth user interface, Faces and Places features, plentiful output options, and good camera raw support stand out. For Mac users who want a big step up in power from iPhoto, Aperture is a natural. But Lightroom goes further for the pro or very serious amateur, with not only the enforced workflow, but with specific lens-based corrections for geometry, vignetting, and chromatic aberration.

Aperture is available either from the Mac App Store for $79.99, or as a free trial downloadable from www.apple.com/aperture. It's a Mac-only application, so Windows and Linux users are out of luck, but are well served by Adobe's competing Lightroom, PCMag.com Editors' Choice photo workflow app, which is also available for the Mac. Another new Mac and Windows offering, Corel AfterShot ($99.99, 2.5 stars) has a ways to go before catching up with the two major players from Adobe and Apple.

Interface
Programs in Aperture's class are all about workflow. The progression is generally from importing and organizing to adjusting and editing to outputting your photos to print and web. Lightroom, ACDSee, AfterShot, and PhotoDirector take the approach of segmenting each of these phases of the workflow with different "modes" in tabs or buttons, usually along the lines of Organize, Edit, and Output. The progression often makes sense, but there are times when you may just want to jump around and perform an organizing action in the midst of photo editing.

Aperture is non-modal, meaning you can do just this, performing any action at any point in your process from its single Inspector panel. The tabs on this panel for Library, Metadata, and Adjustments, along with the interface's buttons and the app menu, give you access to everything in the program at any stage of the process. Your process will determine which is best for you: the more methodical types will prefer Lightroom's approach, while Aperture will better suit the more ADD types, who want to jump around between functions.

The modal approach will be comfortable for many photo pros, and it epitomizes an actual "workflow." But navigating Aperture's easy full-screen view, with optional "heads-up" display for the Inspector, becomes second nature pretty quickly. This new full-screen capability makes it easier to show nothing but your big glorious photo. Lightroom still has three levels of "full screen" and requires extra steps to hide all the panels and toolbars. However, neither Aperture nor Lightroom let me undock the panels the way ACDSee did.

Aperture lets you view your library as large thumbnails in full screen mode, and its thumbnail-size slider makes adjusting them easier than in Lightroom. Aperture also has a nice zoom with the mouse-wheel option. New support for OS X Lion gestures means you can pinch and unpinch on a trackpad to zoom in and out as well. Rotating and cropping also benefits from multitouch gestures. Another feature lacking in Lightroom but available in Aperture is the virtual Light Table; this lets you arrange photos in different sizes in a single view and save them as one PDF or JPG. I'm not sure how useful this is for most photographers, but it's been brought up on Adobe Lightroom forums by those who miss it.

Import and Organize
When you import photos from a memory card, Aperture saves files in its own area as "managed" photos, only accessible by Aperture, but you can save the images to a regular disk folder and have Aperture treat them as "referenced" files for editing. Any edits will be saved in Aperture's database, but the master images remain where you placed them on the drive. You can also export a managed file to a disk file visible in Finder. The raw import settings for my Canon EOS Rebel T1i turned out beautiful images. And the software can perform some image processing as it imports, such as applying adjustment presets, and even Apple ActionScripts that you can download from enthusiast sites.

Like most current photo-editing software, Aperture is "non-destructive," meaning it keeps a master of the original image you imported and saves your edits in a database. Any of your edited images is called a "version" (as opposed to the master?the original). I think Lightroom makes it a little easier to take snapshots and view before/after comparisons, though you can do this in Aperture through menus. Lightroom also makes it easier to see a split view of one side showing your original and the other your edited version. And while tethering my T1i worked flawlessly in Lightroom 3 beta, Aperture wouldn't play. I contacted Apple about this and assume it will support this most popular of DSLRs soon.

Aperture lets you organize your images in several hierarchies?at the top level, your Library contains Projects, which can be subdivided into folders, albums, and Smart albums. Stacks is a feature in both Aperture and Lightroom that lets you group related photos, and both can auto-group photos into stacks based on the shots' timestamps. Aperture makes a bigger deal out of stacks, giving the feature its own menu (Lightroom offers a choice under its Photo menu). And Aperture has a nice expanding animation when you reveal a stack's photos.

Aperture offers all the extensive metadata support you could want?camera and EXIF, ratings, captions, keywords, and much more?including support for the standard IPTC Core spec. One thing I'm used to is right-clicking to get properties, but that's not an option in Aperture. For my Canon T1i, Aperture could show me the focus points, but Lightroom couldn't. A very complete filter dialog lets you view just photos that meet the criteria you want, though in a minor quibble, Lightroom makes it easier to filter by EXIF info such as which lens you used.

Aperture also now displays video and lets you do basic trimming, something Ligthroom users will have to wait for in version 4. I do wish it were easier to filter the library view by just video, though. The video editing like what you get on the iPhone?very basic. But it can be useful for slideshow presentations, and it's more than you get it Lightroom 3, which only displays videos in the betas I've seen so far.

iCloud Photo Stream
New for version 3.2 in Aperture, a Photo Stream entry appears by default in your Library tab in the side panel. The first time you click on this, you'll see a message asking whether you want to turn the feature on or not. After responded in the affirmative, a confirmation dialog appeared, telling me I had to enable iCloud in System Preferences. The relevant control panel opened, where I could sign into my Apple ID. After returning to Aperture and hitting the Turn on Photo Stream button, two project thumbnail trays appeared at the bottom of the window. My guess is that this was because I had iCloud Photo Stream syncing set up on a Windows PC, too, but shooting a couple more photos with my iPhone quickly populated both sets with the new photos.

By default, any photos I added to my Aperture Library were automatically added to Photo Stream, which wasn't a good thing for my storage limit. A complicated series of rules apply if you upload from multiple computers. One smart feature of Photo Stream is that it can make raw camera files viewable on your iPhone or iPad.

A striking point about Photo Stream (and in some ways iCloud as a whole) is that it's almost more generous with Windows PC users than with Mac users. The service works with all recent versions, including XP, Vista, and Windows 7, whereas only the latest version of Mac OS X is compatible: Leopard and even Snow Leopard users are less favored than Windows users.

Also, on Windows, you get a standard folder under My Photos for your Photo Stream, where on the Mac the folder is hidden, with the photos only accessible through iPhoto or Aperture. This means Lightroom users on Windows can point to this as an auto-import folder, so Lightroom has no Photo Stream disadvantage compared with Aperture.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/LwwfKisvQFg/0,2817,2362337,00.asp

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Feisty Gingrich stakes campaign on electability

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks in Delray Beach, Fla., Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks in Delray Beach, Fla., Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, campaigns at Lanco Paint Company in Orlando, Fla., Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. Romney and Gingrich square off over immigration and other issues as they look to woo Hispanics a day after a feisty, final debate before Tuesday?s Florida primary. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) ? Newt Gingrich has staked his presidential bid on one idea: that he is best positioned to defeat President Barack Obama. Even some of his supporters seem to be struggling to buy the former House speaker's claim, an indication that chief rival Mitt Romney's efforts to undercut him may be working.

"Beating Obama is more important than everything else," Patrick Roehl, a 51-year-old computer software engineer, said in the midst of a packed Gingrich rally inside a Sarasota airport hangar this week. "Can Newt win? I'm not sure. He's got a lot of high negatives. The elections are won and lost in the middle. I'm not sure he appeals to the middle."

John Grainger, a 44-year-old assistant golf pro, doesn't like Romney. But he's having trouble shaking skepticism about Gingrich.

"I want to be a Newt supporter," he said. "This guy's going to have the guts to stand up and speak his piece ? no holds barred." But Grainger said he wasn't quite ready to back the former House speaker.

Interviews with more than a dozen Republican voters at Gingrich's overflowing rallies this week suggest that while many Florida voters love his brash style as they look for someone to take it to Obama, they also have lingering doubts about whether the Republican's intellectual bomb-throwing alone will make him the strongest Obama opponent.

Romney and his allies have spent a week working to stoke those doubts with Florida Republicans ahead of Tuesday's primary. And the GOP's establishment wing has started to help the former Massachusetts governor make that case by castigating Gingrich at every turn.

On television and on the campaign trail, Romney and his allies have steadily highlighted Gingrich's liabilities ? consulting contracts and ethics investigations among them. And they've suggested that more baggage could emerge in the fall, when the Republican nominee would be at the height of a general election battle against Obama.

"In the case of the speaker, he's got some records which could represent an October surprise," Romney said this week, referring to Gingrich's consulting work and ethics allegations when he was in the House. "We could see an October surprise a day from Newt Gingrich."

An outside group dedicated to helping Romney has spent almost $9 million on Florida television advertising, including a massive $4 million investment this week alone, to make the case even more explicitly.

"Newt Gingrich's tough talk sounds good, but Newt has tons of baggage. How will he ever beat Obama?" says the new ad from the so-called super PAC, Restore Our Future.

Gingrich, to be sure, is not letting such criticism go unanswered. He's telling everyone ? on the trail, in television interviews, on conference calls and in fundraising messages ? that he alone can defeat Obama. He points to his 12 percentage point victory in the South Carolina primary as proof.

Exit polling there showed that the majority of Republican voters, 51 percent, said that Gingrich was better suited to defeat the Democratic president.

"Their highest value was beating Obama," Gingrich told evangelical voters this week. "And if they thought Romney was the only person who could beat Obama, then they would swallow a lie. But the minute they thought there were two people who could beat Obama, they suddenly turned and said, Well, you know, maybe we should be for Newt."

Polls suggest that Gingrich could defeat Romney in Florida, a surge fueled partly by growing support from the tea party movement and continued anti-Romney sentiment. Gingrich drew massive crowds at venues across Florida this week.

But in those swelling crowds were conservatives who said they were drawn less by Gingrich's electability than his fiery rhetoric.

"He's a fighter. Mitt, I think, is too wishy-washy," said Dominique Boscia, a 43-year-old unemployed woman from Lakewood Ranch. "I like feisty people. I like people who have spunk."

That's certainly Gingrich. For months, he has used aggressive debate performances to fuel his underdog candidacy. He has consistently thrilled conservatives by promising to take the fight directly to Obama in a series of free-form debates modeled after the 1860 meetings between Illinois Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas.

Should Obama refuse, Gingrich says he'll follow the president on the campaign trail until he agrees.

That gets good applause lines at rallies. But a closer look at polling suggests that a debate beat down doesn't necessarily mean Gingrich can beat the president in an election that will include independents and Democrats.

Gingrich struggled among independents in a recent Washington Post-ABC News national poll, in which 53 percent gave him unfavorable marks and just 22 percent had a favorable opinion of the former House speaker. While Romney has typically polled better among independents, the poll ? conducted between Jan. 18 and 22 ? found virtually no difference: 51 percent of independents viewed him unfavorably, compared with 23 with favorable views.

But when all Florida voters, including independents and Democrats, are asked to weigh in, Romney appears to have a strong advantage over Gingrich, according to a poll conducted by Suffolk University-WSVN-TV Miami. Romney would defeat Obama here 47 percent to 42 percent; Gingrich would lose, earning just 40 percent to Obama's 49 percent of likely Florida general election voters.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-28-Gingrich-Electability/id-65b11f70056243b1929924bec3d559e2

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Deep-sea fish recordings reveal grunts and quacks

Ecologists may have captured the first deep-sea fish sounds, hidden among the sounds of dolphins and humpback, fin and pilot whales, they report in a new study.

More than 50 years ago, researchers hypothesized that sound production in deep-sea fish is common, based on the fact that many of the species have the anatomy needed to produce sound. Most fish make incidental noises as a byproduct of chewing and swimming, but for deep-sea fish, which live in perpetual darkness, communicative noises might be important for survival and reproduction.

"But just because they have the anatomy to make noises, doesn't mean they necessarily do it," said Rodney Rountree, a marine ecologist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. "In terms of communicative sounds, we don't know what proportion of the fish do it."

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   2. Deep-sea fish recordings reveal grunts and quacks
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Few studies have ever reported recording possible deep-sea fish sounds, so scientists know little about these sounds, Rountree explained. It's not as simple as putting the fish in a tank and listening in on their conversations.

"Deep-water fish are extremely difficult to keep alive in the lab, and the fish will not make a sound unless you can elicit the behavior tied to the sound," he told LiveScience. For example, you won't be able to hear their reproductive sounds unless you can get them to spawn in the laboratory, which they won't do unless the conditions are just right. [Video of Fish Calls]

Moreover, until now scientists have not pursued recording deep-sea fish in their natural habitat, mostly because of the lack of adequate, low-cost technology. "Our study was the first where we purposely went out and did that," Rountree said.

In collaboration with commercial fishermen, Rountree and his colleagues developed a simple deep-water hydrophone. With the device, they recorded 24 hours of deep-water sounds from the seafloor (about 2,237 feet, or 862 meters, below the surface) of Welkers Canyon, which is south of New England's Georges Bank.

From the recording, they were able to identify various sounds from whales and other cetaceans,but they also heard at least 12 other unique and unidentifiable sounds.

These mysterious grunts, drumming and ducklike calls could be from whales, but they could also have come from deep-sea fish. "Most fish only hear low frequencies and only produce low-frequency sounds," Rountree said. "The sounds we recorded were in the range that fish typically use."

If the sounds were indeed produced by deep-sea fish, the continued increases in human-made noise may prove to be problematic, Rountree said. The potential fish noises were just barely above the background noise, he said, "so if the background noise increases too high, it might mask the fish's sounds from each other."

Rountree and his team are now trying to develop a listening system that incorporates video, in hopes of identifying the creatures that made the enigmatic noises. However, the work has been difficult.

"When we try to incorporate video, the price tag goes way up, because video requires light, and powering the light becomes a problem," Rountree said. "Right now we are still on the drawing board with trying to come up with a good way to do this."

They also hope to figure out the meaning behind the grunts and other calls.

The study appears in the new book, "Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life" (Springer, 2012).

? 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46171218/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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US stock futures fall slightly after 4Q GDP report

In this Jan. 25, 2012 photo, traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. World stocks faced multiple headwinds Friday Jan. 27, 2012 after disappointing Japanese earnings, higher unemployment in Spain and weak U.S. home sales. Investors awaited quarterly growth figures from the U.S. later in the day. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

In this Jan. 25, 2012 photo, traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. World stocks faced multiple headwinds Friday Jan. 27, 2012 after disappointing Japanese earnings, higher unemployment in Spain and weak U.S. home sales. Investors awaited quarterly growth figures from the U.S. later in the day. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) ? U.S. stock futures are mostly down with a report showing that the economy grew at a slower pace than economists had expected.

Dow Jones industrial futures are down 21 points to 12,6963. The broader S&P 500 futures are down 1 point at 1,314. The Nasdaq composite is up less than a point at 2,454.

The Commerce Department said Friday that the economy grew at a modest 2.8 percent in the final three months of last year. While that is the fastest growth in 2011, economists expected 3 percent growth.

Consumer products maker Procter & Gamble Co. cut its earnings outlook and Ford Motor Co. fell short of Wall Street expectations.

A recovery in the U.S. is vital for global growth at a time when Europe is facing another recession.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-27-Wall%20Street/id-6adddb1e2afd4b7d91a7f4acfa0b639e

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Oil Portraits Investing Methods - Peruvian Embassy

Precisely what Are Your own Investing Restrictions?

As an oil portrait investor, what is your own maximum? Harry Callahan said, which a guy must learn his limitations.

Possibly you are not a guy? Does his strategy still apply in order to you?
Is This Particular Article For Us?

This particular article typically is for investors, who would definitely invest between $8 as well as $25,000, no more. Those, of you, who would definitely purchase established artworks, well-known paintings, must look for elsewhere, for tips.

Here Begin The Strategies
Here I will tell, in order to you, of some oil portraits artists, whose careers tend to be still growing, still who promise in order to be more celebrated, prior to too years will possess gone by.

If it turns out we need to save really more whenever shopping online try utilizing barnes and noble coupon codes as well as barnes and noble promo code.

Statement Of Innocence
Initially permit me personally state, I possess no relationship alongside many of these artists. I do not attain paid in order to tell, in order to you, about them.
What exactly is within it for me personally, typically is in order to establish my reputation because a tipster.

Daniel Gerhartz
Daniel Gerhartz has been painting within Kewaskum, Wisconsin. A superior cause, for you in order to be excited, about his artistic career, is the fact that his function has been sold at Sotheby?s, still he continues to be comparatively uncelebrated.

Reasons With Come with Self-confidence With regard to Daniel?s Career
Daniel typically is a young bloke, he wasn?t even born, until eventually 1965. He can possess an advantageous 30 yrs left, in order to awaken the particular art-public in order to his presence. A great deal can be performed, within which amount of time.

I foretell which he will become a celebrity within the art planet, as well as which his paintings, as well as the prints of them, will rise within value, at an advantageous rate.

Daniel Does Commission Portraits
He said, which he typically is ready, in order to do custom portraiture. Should you want in order to contact him, do thus from his web?s site: .

Virgil Elliott
The upcoming oil portrait musician, whereof I desire to tell you, typically is called, ?Virgil Elliott?. His atelier, or simply painting-stead, typically is within Penngrove, about the grounds, of an aged winery, within northern California.

Virgil?s Networks, And also Honors, Vow Growth
Virgil was born within 1944, as well as has gotten multiple honors.

Realist Organizations Are Growing With regard to Clout, Due to the fact They Are Proactive And also Protective

Unlike ?modernist? institutions, which, until eventually in the recent past, seemed in order to possess had infinite funding as well as publicity, the particular associations, as well as the media, which promote realism, though their energy typically is about the rise, possess still in order to attain the particular amount, of clout, erst shown by the particular foe.

Thereby, the particular organizations, which possess honored Virgil, even though they tend to be the particular foremost groups within their field, possess been place down, by the particular foe, in order to the particular extent, they possess not been contained within wikipedia.

Specifics Of Virgil?s Honors
Virgil?s career, or simply, shall you state, his recognition, appears in order to be growing. He typically is listed within ?Who?s Who With regard to The World?, as well as within ?Who?s Who With regard to America?.
Virgil?s Book

Virgil?s book, ?Conventional Oil Painting: Advanced Techniques And also Concepts From The Renaissance With The Present?, typically is in order to be found, within the top booksellers of the U.S. of an., in order to wit, Barnes And also Noble, as well as Borders.

Honors And also Networks Which Support The Growth Of Virgil?s Career Celebrity
Virgil typically is you, of just 24, portraitists, in order to possess been given certification, by the particular American Portrait Society.

He was elected, in order to be an associate guild associate, of the American Society of Classical Realism. He typically is a signature associate of the American Society of Portrait Artists. He claimed a competition within the Artist?s Magazine?s portrait competition.

Indeed there is much more, but yet I do not wish to extend this particular article any further, alongside the reasons, for expecting the particular career, of Virgil Elliott, to develop.

My reasoning typically is, which, because a member of those top networks, within the field of realism, generally there typically is an advantageous chance of increasing publicity as well as celebrity for Virgil, alongside the passage of time.

Virgil Does Commission Portraits, Sells A Print
Virgil does commissioned portraits. Should you contact him, from his website, you are able to get a print of you of his paintings, ?Nocturne?, directly from him. Here typically is the particular url: .

Source: http://www.peruvian-embassy.com/oil-portraits-investing-methods/

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Monster to cut 400 jobs (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Online recruitment firm Monster Worldwide Inc said it will reduce its global workforce by about 7 percent and forecast a first-quarter profit below analysts' estimates amid a weak job market in the United States.

Shares of the company, which also reported fourth-quarter profit that missed expectations by a cent, fell 13 percent in premarket trading on Thursday.

"The progress we saw in the fourth quarter was much slower than what we saw earlier in the year," Monster CEO Sal Iannuzzi told Reuters in an interview.

The uncertainty in Europe and the United States is causing companies to hold back and not commit as much as they would normally, he said.

The staffing sector -- seen as a barometer of economic health -- has been hit by a slowdown in Europe and an uncertain recovery in the United States, where the unemployment rate currently stands at 8.5 percent.

Iannuzzi does not expect a material change to the job market for the time being.

The company will cut about 400 jobs and consolidate some office facilities, and expects to record a pre-tax charge of $30 million to $40 million mostly in the first quarter.

Monster forecast first-quarter profit to be breakeven to 4 cents a share, lower than analysts' estimates of 9 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company, which runs the Monster.com recruiting website, expects revenue to fall 3 to 7 percent in the first quarter and bookings to drop 6 to 10 percent.

Its fourth-quarter profit was 11 cents a share and revenue was $250 million. Analysts were expecting 12 cents a share and $258.9 million.

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel, Supriya Kurane)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/wr_nm/us_monsterworldwide

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The Economic Blueprint Does Not Begin with American Manufacturing (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | In his State of the Union Address, President Obama made it clear that the blueprint for American economic success begins with manufacturing. He stated: "So we have a huge opportunity, at this moment, to bring manufacturing back. But we have to seize it. Tonight, my message to business leaders is simple: Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed."

The fact of the matter is, nothing could be further from the truth. This is not to say that American manufacturing workers are not the smartest and hardest working manufacturing workers in the world. But they are incredibly overmatched.

In a recent New York Times article titled "How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work," the case for why the American manufacturing sector is doomed begins and ends with one word -- wages. The article states that Foxconn, the company that employees hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers to build and assemble Apple products, pays many of their workers less than $17 per day to work 12 hour shifts, 6 days per week.

If you figure that the average worker there works approximately 50 weeks a year; the average worker is making a gross income of roughly $5,100 per year. Most amazing of all, Foxconn says that they could hire 3,000 people overnight without any problems.

It doesn't take an economics whiz to figure out that American manufacturing cannot compete in a global environment where people literally line up in hopes of landing a job that pays $17 a day.

But in the end, this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

To prove my point, ask any parent that is working as an assemblyman in manufacturing one simple question: Do you want your children to do the same line of work as you? Now that might seem to be a cold or arrogant statement, but I would guess that 90 percent of respondents would say no. And believe me, that is not to say that they are not good, honest, hard-working people. But most work these types of jobs in order to support their family so that their children can go on to live better lives than they had, not to repeat the life they lived.

As Americans, it's time to start dreaming bigger and not dream of reliving the American life of the past 50 years. Our grandparents and great-grandparents did not live through a depression and win two World Wars in order for us to work at the same factory as they did. They did it so that freedom and the American spirit would live on; building an America that was far greater than the one they left us.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120126/us_ac/10885847_the_economic_blueprint_does_not_begin_with_american_manufacturing

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Study: Heartburn drugs don't aid children's asthma (AP)

CHICAGO ? An acid reflux drug often used for hard-to-treat asthma doesn't help children with the breathing disease and may cause side effects, a study in 300 children found.

The results echo recent research showing that a similar heartburn drug didn't work in adults with asthma.

Use of these heavily promoted acid-blocking drugs, called proton pump inhibitors, has more than doubled in U.S. children in recent years, but the study results suggest doctors should put the brakes on that practice, said University of Arizona asthma expert Dr. Fernando Martinez.

The study found children on prescription Prevacid pills had more colds, sore throats and bronchitis infections than those given dummy pills. There were also signs that children given Prevacid were prone to broken bones. That finding was weak and could have been due to chance. But Martinez said it is worrisome, given a Food and Drug Administration advisory about fracture risks in adults using these drugs long-term. And he urged "great caution" in prescribing these drugs to all children, not just those with asthma.

The study and an editorial by Martinez were released Tuesday in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.

Acid reflux involves stomach acid backing up into the throat, causing irritation and often symptoms including heartburn. Asthma is an unrelated lung disease involving narrowed airways, with symptoms including wheezing, breathing difficulties and coughs. Sometimes acid reflux can cause similar respiratory symptoms and in children it often occurs without heartburn.

Some doctors believe that airway irritation caused by acid reflux may make asthma worse, and that undiagnosed acid reflux might be a reason why some people on standard asthma medicines continue to have symptoms. Prescribing acid-blocking drugs is thus common in people with poorly controlled asthma even if they have no obvious symptoms of reflux.

Previous research by some of the same study authors found that another acid-blocking drug, Nexium, didn't improve asthma symptoms in adults. Still, those drugs continue to be widely used in patients with asthma but no reflux symptoms, said Janet Holbrook, a researcher at Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health, lead author of the new children's study.

Holbrook said results from both studies likely apply to all proton pump inhibitor drugs, including those sold over the counter. Prevacid became available without a prescription during the study.

The new study involved about 300 children and teens at 19 centers whose asthma wasn't adequately controlled by steroid drugs. Half were given daily Prevacid pills for six months; the others received dummy pills.

Asthma symptoms didn't improve in either group. They also didn't improve in a subgroup of study kids who had airway tests that revealed undiagnosed reflux disease, Holbrook said.

Bronchitis was twice as common in kids on Prevacid, and they were also 30 percent more likely than the others to develop colds and sore throats.

It's unclear if those symptoms were caused by the reflux drug. But it's possible that these drugs interfere with helpful bacteria in the body that fight infection, said Dr. Chitra Dinakar, an asthma specialist at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo. who took part in the study

Dinakar said she will no longer be inclined to prescribe powerful acid-blocking drugs for kids with asthma but no obvious signs of reflux.

Dr. Daniel Searing, an allergy and asthma specialist at National Jewish Health in Denver, said the study provides important information to pediatricians wondering if the previous study in adults was applicable to children.

The National Institutes of Health and American Lung Association paid for the study.

___

Online:

JAMA: http://jama.ama-assn.org

Asthma: http://1.usa.gov/tAQMLv

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_he_me/us_med_asthma_acid_reflux

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Europe poses global recession threat: IMF (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Europe's debt crisis could tip the world economy into recession and a bigger firewall is urgently needed to keep the damage from spreading, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

The IMF chopped its estimate for 2012 global growth to 3.3 percent from 4 percent just three months ago and warned it could drop as low as 1.3 percent if Europe lets the crisis fester for much longer. For 2013, it predicted growth of 3.9 percent.

"The epicenter of the danger is Europe but the rest of the world is increasingly affected," IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard said at a news conference. "There is an even greater danger, namely that the European crisis intensifies, and in this case the world could be plunged into another recession."

"With the right set of measures, the worst can definitively be avoided and the recovery can be put back on track," he said. "These measures can be taken, need to be taken, and need to be taken urgently."

The IMF called for swift action from the 17-nation euro zone, which it said would likely see its economy contract this year by 0.5 percent.

"The most immediate policy challenge is to restore confidence and put an end to the crisis in the euro area by supporting growth while sustaining adjustment, containing deleveraging, and providing more liquidity and monetary accommodation," it said in its latest World Economic Outlook report.

Blanchard and other top IMF officials emphasized repeatedly that Europe needs to bolster its rescue funds to win market confidence and lower yields on sovereign bonds so that countries like Italy and Spain can borrow at affordable rates.

Talks between private bond holders and the Greek government have foundered, raising the risk Athens could face a messy default that would touch off a deeper crisis. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned on Monday that a failure to erect a larger wall against financial contagion could lead to a "1930s moment."

Jose Vinals, director of the IMF's Monetary and Capital Markets Department, said it was important to both increase the size of the Europe's current 500 billion euro rescue fund and its flexibility.

In addition to helping countries it should be able to take direct stakes in troubled banks "to break the link between national sovereign risk and national banks," he said.

SUPPORT FOR GROWTH NEEDED

The IMF maintained its 1.8 percent growth forecast for the United States in 2012, but said a pick up in spending could be offset if the turmoil in Europe grew.

It also cut its projection for Japan to 1.7 percent from September's 2.3 percent and urged Tokyo to be more ambitious in reducing its debt and implementing a consumer tax.

Economic activity in advanced economies would expand by 1.5 percent on average in 2012 and 2013, too sluggish to make a major dent in high unemployment rates, the Fund said.

Emerging nations are also feeling the pinch.

The IMF projected growth in emerging economies to slow to 5.4 percent this year, down from 6.2 percent last year and well below the 6.1 percent forecast in September, and it called on them to focus policies on lifting growth.

It cut China's growth figure to 8.2 percent for 2012, down from 9.0 percent. Chinese growth should rebound to 8.8 percent in 2013, it added.

For fast-growing emerging Asia as a whole, the IMF reduced its growth outlook for 2012 to 7.3 percent from 8 percent.

Elsewhere, the IMF said growth in the Middle East and North Africa should accelerate, driven mainly by a recovery in Libya after a nine-month civil war ended with the capture and killing of leader Muammar Gaddafi in October.

Global oil prices are likely to ease slightly in 2012 despite slowing world growth, the IMF said, adding that its baseline oil price projection was broadly unchanged since September when it forecast $100 a barrel.

Non-oil commodity prices are set to fall by 14 percent this year, the IMF said, adding that risks to prices are to the downside for most commodities.

In Africa, the effects of the global slowdown is likely to be limited to South Africa, with the region as a whole expanding by around 5.5 percent this year, second fastest after Asia.

The largest impact of the slowdown would likely be felt in central and eastern Europe, which has strong trade links with the euro zone economies, the IMF said. It revised down its estimate for the region to 1.1 percent in 2012 from a previous forecast of 2.7 percent. Growth should edged up to 2.4 percent next year, the IMF added.

(Additional reporting by Glenn Somerville and Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Neil Stempleman, Tim Ahmann and Andrew Hay)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/bs_nm/us_imf

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Klipsch Gallery G-17 Air

As AirPlay speaker systems increase in number?most of them still being referred to as "docks" despite a lack of an actual dock for an iPhone, iPod, or iPad?a few things are becoming increasingly clear. Almost all AirPlay docks are black, and the Klipsch Gallery G-17 Air is no exception. They are all pretty expensive?the G-17 is a hefty $549.99 (direct). For the most part, all AirPlay docks thus far offer quality audio, ranging from booming bass, as with the Audyssey Audio Dock Air ($399.99, 3.5 stars) to superb high fidelity sound, as with the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air ($599.95, 4 stars). However, the disturbing trend that seems to be emerging with some AirPlay docks is a tendency to drop the stream?audio often pauses or stops completely, and this happens in a variety of scenarios. The G-17 sounds excellent, but is not immune to these stream issues. Klipsch reps acknowledge some of the streaming issues and claim a future update to iOS should fix the problem, but Apple reps will not comment on a time frame for the next update.

Design
The rounded, glossy black piano finish of the Gallery G-17 Air is striking, as is the horizontal array of drivers?two 20Watt woofers in the middle and two 10Watt tweeters on the far left and right ends of the front panel. A small Klipsch logo and a remote sensor are the only other things on the front panel. All of the controls are located on the small right-hand side panel?Power, Volume, Input Select, and Wi-Fi, which is used for inital setup. The back panel houses the power cable connection, a 3.5mm Aux input, and a USB connection. You'll need a Phillips head screwdriver to attach the glass stand to the speaker unit (screws are included), but the G-17 is also wall-mountable. Also included with the G-17 and its stand: a rubber cover for the input panel on the back, a black cloth grille cover in case you want to hide the awesome looking drivers, a remote control, the power supply, an owners manual, and?seriously?white gloves, so your fingertips don't smudge the glossy black surface when you move the system.

The included remote can be frustrating to use?depending on the angle, and strength of the Wi-Fi signal, adjusting the volume can be a very delayed process. When the signal is good and the audio is streaming smoothly, the remote, which is a simple, thin, black plastic controller with membrane buttons, works fine. It has Power, Volume, Play/Pause, Skip Forward/Backward, and Input Select buttons.

Performance
The Gallery G-17 offers fairly powerful, refined audio performance for its size. There are four drivers but no subwoofer, and the net result is a audiophile-friendly flat response, devoid of booming deep bass but quite capable of articulating low frequencies well. Kick drums sound tight, not thunderous. Lower register stringed instruments sound pleasantly resonant, not overly boosted or booming. John Adams' modern classical piece, "The Chairman Dances," sounds neither overly bright nor rumbly. Instead, the G-17's response favors mid-range frequencies, occasionally allowing high frequency percussion hits, like wood blocks, to pop out from the more commanding force of the stringed instruments. At maximum volume on deep bass tracks, the G-17 doesn't distort, but this is partially due to the lack of booming bass pushed out by the speakers. Still, many systems that have no subwoofer try to reproduce deep bass frequencies with the result of distortion, and the G-17 avoids this problem. The Knife's "Silent Shout," at maximum volume, doesn't sound as thumping as it would on a system with a sub, but it does not distort either, and the bass frequencies are still well represented. Basically, the G-17 offers a nice, smooth response throughout the frequency range that doesn't exaggerate the lows or ignore them. Fans of accurate response over booming bass will be pleased.

What they?and everyone else?will not be pleased with are the issues that AirPlay streaming suffers from. Simply put, no matter what variables we tried to introduce?say, shortening the distance between the dock, iPhone, and router, or using an entirely different Wi-Fi network?the audio streaming was spotty. The more tasks being completed on the Wi-Fi network, no matter how un-taxing on the bandwidth, like sending an email, the more likely the stream is to pause, or stop completely. Sometimes, the stream stops without any competition from a computer using the same network?simply adjusting the volume on the iPhone or laptop streaming the audio is enough to interrupt the stream. The Audyssey Audio Dock Air has similar streaming issues, and none of these problems occur when using an AirPort Express and AirPlay to stream from the same devices over the same Wi-Fi network. This is possibly because the AirPort Express uses 802.11n wireless signal, while Apple's AirPlay and the supported docks use 802.11g. Again, reportedly, there is a fix in the works in the next iOS update, but until then, this is the reality for some AirPlay docks.

With this in mind, it's not surprising that Apple is reportedly choosing to either switch to or include Bluetooth streaming into the AirPlay feature. Even a year or so ago, Bluetooth streaming was still a weak audio solution, with very little bass and low bit-rate fidelity. But recent developments have strengthened the audio quality greatly, as evidenced by recent Editors' Choices, the portable Bose SoundLink Wireless Mobile Speaker ($299.95, 4 stars) and the fantastic JBL OnBeat Xtreme ($499.95, 4.5 stars), which shows up as an AirPlay device on an iPhone or iPad, but uses Bluetooth. Bluetooth streams are interrupted far less than AirPlay streams, at least in recent testing between Bluetooth speaker systems and AirPlay speaker systems.

If you're looking for a wireless dock, it's looking more and more like Bluetooth?as long as it's a recent system?is a more reliable option than AirPlay docks are at the moment. (AirPlay using Apple AirPort Express or AirPort Extreme products, however, is very reliable.) The Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air remains at the top of the list of AirPlay docks, in terms of audio performance, with the Klipsch Gallery G-17 somewhere near the top. The G-17 sounds great, but like the Audyssey dock, the wireless streaming problems bring its rating down a notch.

More Speaker reviews:
??? Audyssey Audio Dock Air
??? Klipsch Gallery G-17 Air
??? Samsung HW-D450
??? Logitech Mini Boombox
??? Audioengine 5+
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/vBmu3wKLshw/0,2817,2398261,00.asp

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U.S. shipbuilder welcomes Navy decision on carriers (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII.N) on Sunday welcomed news that the U.S. Defense Department would not cut its fleet of 11 aircraft carriers to help trim the budget deficit, but naval experts say they are still awaiting details about work on the next such vessel.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, addressing about 1,700 sailors aboard the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier, on Saturday said heightened tensions with Iran underscored the importance of the enormous ships to national security.

The U.S. Navy said the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier sailed through the Strait of Hormuz and into the Gulf without incident on Sunday, a day after Iran backed away from an earlier threat to take action if an American carrier returned to the strategic waterway.

Huntington Ingalls, the shipbuilding unit spun off from Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N) last year, welcomed Panetta's stated commitment to an 11-carrier fleet.

The company is building the first of the new Ford class of carrier ships at its Newport News, Virginia shipyard, and also handles refueling and overhaul of the giant nuclear-powered vessels - work that could be lost if the Navy does not replace its aging carriers when they need to be retired.

"We are pleased to hear that Secretary Panetta is committed to maintaining an eleven carrier fleet and recognizes the importance of these ships that are statements of national purpose," the company said in a statement.

Naval analyst Bob Nugent said the news, which comes just days before Panetta unveils highlights of the Pentagon's fiscal 2013 budget request, was positive for the company and its many suppliers. But he said it remained unclear whether the Navy would award a contract for the next carrier, CVN 79, on time.

"The devil's in the details," said Nugent, vice president at AMI International. He noted that the Navy had already signaled that it would retire some aging cruisers, and could push off the start of construction on the next carrier to save more money.

There had been some talk of shrinking the carrier fleet, perhaps by slowing construction of ships to replace older ones like the Enterprise, but the Pentagon's new focus on the vast Asia Pacific region made continued operation of carriers more important than ever, analysts say.

There will already be a nearly three-year gap between the time that the Enterprise goes offline in November and its replacement, the USS Gerald R. Ford, comes online in 2015.

Huntington Ingalls Chief Executive Mike Petters told Reuters this month that his company was focused heavily on reducing the cost of building the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) aircraft carrier, which is reported to be $884 million over budget.

Petters said it was critical to start work on the next carrier as soon as possible, to maintain the momentum and lessons learned on the Ford.

He said Huntington Ingalls was urging the Navy to proceed with awarding a contract for the next Ford-class carrier in 2013, rather than delaying it as some have suggested.

"The more you push this thing out, the higher the price goes," Petters said. "The most efficient way to build it is to contract on time."

Huntington Ingalls shares closed down 31 cents or nearly 1 percent at $33.74 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

(Reporting By Andrea Shalal-Esa; Additional reporting by Phil Stewart and David Alexander; Editing by Dale Hudson)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/usmilitary/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120122/bs_nm/us_huntington_ingalls_carriers

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Former CIA officer accused of terror leaks

This undated image, taken from video, and provided by ABC News show former CIA officer John Kiriakou interviewed on ABC's World News, Monday Dec. 10, 2007. Kiriakou, who told reporters he participated in the interrogation of terrorist Abu Zubaydah has been charged with leaking classified secrets about CIA operatives and other information to reporters. (AP Photo/ABC News)

This undated image, taken from video, and provided by ABC News show former CIA officer John Kiriakou interviewed on ABC's World News, Monday Dec. 10, 2007. Kiriakou, who told reporters he participated in the interrogation of terrorist Abu Zubaydah has been charged with leaking classified secrets about CIA operatives and other information to reporters. (AP Photo/ABC News)

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (AP) ? An ex-CIA officer who helped track down and capture a top terror suspect was charged Monday with disclosing classified secrets about his teammates to the media, the latest criminal case in the Obama administration's effort to punish leakers.

John Kiriakou, 47, is charged with violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and the Espionage Act. A judge at a federal court hearing ordered Kiriakou to be released on a $250,000 unsecured bond.

According to authorities, Kiriakou told a New York Times reporter classified information about a fellow officer who participated in interrogating suspected al-Qaida financier Abu Zubaydah in 2002, eight months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times and his case has been made an example by those who believe the interrogation technique should be outlawed.

According to an affidavit, FBI agents interviewed Kiriakou last week, and he denied leaking the names of covert CIA officers. When specifically asked whether he had provided the Zubaydah interrogator's name to the Times for a 2008 article, he replied "Heavens no." A New York Times spokeswoman said the newspaper declined comment.

Kiriakou's attorney, Plato Cacheris, said after his hearing that a potential defense argument could be that the charges criminalize conduct that has been common between reporters and government sources for decades. If convicted, Kiriakou could face decades in prison and a fine up to $1 million.

Prosecutors started their investigation after defense attorneys for suspected terrorists filed a classified legal brief in 2009 that included details that had never been provided by the government. Authorities concluded that Kiriakou had leaked the information to reporters, and that reporters had provided the information to the defense.

The charges state that Kiriakou, who was an intelligence officer from 1990 to 2004, leaked information about the identity of another officer who interrogated Zubaydah. In a 2007 interview with ABC News, Kiriakou said that waterboarding was used ? effectively ? to break down Zubaydah. But he expresses ambivalence about the use of waterboarding in general.

Kiriakou has worked as a consultant to ABC News, although he hasn't appeared on the network since early 2009. ABC had no comment on his arrest.

According to a court affidavit, the photographs of the CIA officer who participated in the Zubaydah interrogation were found in the possession of terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

The charges also accuse Kiriakou of lying about his actions in an effort to convince the CIA to let him publish a book, 2010's, "The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror."

Since leaving the agency, Kiriakou has worked as a consultant and on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to his LinkedIn profile. He earned a bachelor's degree in Middle Eastern studies in 1986 and a master's degree in legislative affairs in 1988, both from George Washington University in Washington.

The Justice Department's campaign to punish leakers has been unrelenting. This is the sixth criminal leak case opened under the Obama administration and the second involving a former CIA officer and The New York Times. Federal prosecutors claim Jeffrey Sterling divulged classified information to Times reporter James Risen about CIA efforts to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions. Sterling is awaiting trial.

"Safeguarding classified information, including the identities of CIA officers involved in sensitive operations, is critical to keeping our intelligence officers safe and protecting our national security," said Attorney General Eric Holder. "Today's charges reinforce the Justice Department's commitment to hold accountable anyone who would violate the solemn duty not to disclose such sensitive information."

In light of the indictment, CIA Director David Petraeus reminded his agency's employees of the essential need for secrecy in their work.

"When we joined this organization, we swore to safeguard classified information; those oaths stay with us for life," he said "Unauthorized disclosures of any sort ? including information concerning the identities of other Agency officers ? betray the public trust, our country, and our colleagues."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-23-CIA%20Leak%20Charges/id-426fb22344264eff85138d84100f7217

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Palestinian woman says locked in bathroom for 10 years (Reuters)

RAMALLAH (Reuters) ? A 21-year-old Palestinian woman has told authorities she was locked in a bathroom for the past decade by her father, who let her out only in the dead of night so she could clean their house.

"People are monsters," Baraa Melhem said her father would tell her, according to a social worker dealing with the case.

Palestinian police said Monday they freed Melhem from the small bathroom of a home in the West Bank city of Qalqilya on Saturday after an anonymous tip.

Her father, who holds Israeli citizenship, was arrested and handed over to Israeli authorities. He is due to appear in an Israeli court Wednesday, an Israeli police spokesman said.

Melhem told Voice of Palestine radio that when she was 11, her father confined her to the toilet and did not allow her to go to school or see her mother, whom he had divorced.

She was beaten with a baton and metal wires and given only one blanket to keep her warm, said the social worker, Hala Shreim.

"The bathroom was only 1-1/2 meters big, it was like a cell," Shreim said.

According to a statement issued by Palestinian police, the father, citing a "family dispute," admitted to locking up his daughter and feeding her mainly bread.

Melhem told Voice of Palestine that her father used to shave her hair and her eyebrows, and allowed her to shower only once a month. He would let her out of the bathroom every night at 1 a.m. to clean the house until 4 a.m., she added.

Melhem's father, the social worker said, often encouraged his daughter to commit suicide.

"Her only consolation was a radio which kept her connected to the world," Shreim said.

The young woman has now been reunited with her mother.

"She told me that she loves life and has to live," Shreim quoted Melhem as saying.

(Reporting By Jihan Abdalla; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/wl_nm/us_palestinians_woman

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Communications Degree Admission and Course Requirements ...

Get to know the different admission requirements for a communications degree including the course requirements for various concentration areas.

Do you know what you can do with a communications degree?
A communications degree can put you in various career paths connected to communications such as journalism, teaching, journalism and more.
Both the admission and course requirements for this degree vary, and this depends on the focus of the program and the school you are attending.

Communications degree students with a journalism concentration are often required to undergo a few writing and editing classes.
Those with a focus on advertising should take more classes about public relations.
In general, communication degrees require several classes that every student will have to take, irrespective of the areas of concentration.

Before enrollment, most communication program departments often require interested applicants to take an entrance exam.
The purpose of the test is to know each student?s level of proficiency in grammar and writing.
Besides assessing each applicant, the placement test may also serve as a screening tool to determine which classes are necessary before taking up the core curriculum that make up the requirements of communications degree.

Applicants that scored too low may have to attend the introductory language classes.
However, those that get exceptionally high scores may not be required to get prerequisite courses.
During the first to second years, course requirements will focus on the basics of communications program.

Every student will be required to attend classes on writing compositions and speech communications, regardless of the degree program.
These two classes are important since they provide foundation for the rest of the classes in the communication curriculum.
Other basic classes include psychology and sociology.

During the third and fourth years of the program, the course requirement for communications will start to focus on the student?s chosen concentration.
Students going to print journalism field will likely be required to take basic classes on feature writing, news writing and copy-editing.
Those who want to be an advertising specialist will concentrate on public relations and marketing classes.

The head or director of the communications department may assist students in determining the best classes that are needed for their chosen specialty.
Just to add to the classroom communications requirements, students are usually expected to take an internship related to their respective specialty.
For instance, print journalism students will practice at a local magazine or newspaper while radio journalism may do duties at a local radio station.

An internship usually consists of between four to 12 credits towards this degree.
Apart from completing internships, many degree programs encourage students to join extracurricular activities that matches with the curriculum.
Debate teams, film festivals, college newspapers, TV stations and radio stations are great choices for extracurricular activities.

For those interested in taking up a masters in communication, most schools require a bachelor?s degree from an accredited university or college.
Of course, an official transcript should be submitted with at least 2.75 cumulative GPA and a professional resume.
In addition, applicants are requested to write an application essay, more or less a 500-word essay about the things you expect to gain by completing the degree; the essay will also demonstrate your writing skills.

However, for applicants with less than 2.75 GPA, some schools may accept applications provided you have an above average score on GRE (Graduate Record Exam) or MAT (Miller Analogies Test).
Applicants are subjected for review of potential as a communications degree graduate student.
To add, applicants whose bachelor?s degrees are not related to communication may have to take up prerequisite courses in addition to the core curriculum of the masters degree.

Source: http://www.podcampfoundation.com/2012/01/communications-degree-admission-and-course-requirements/

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House members call for probe into Lap-Band safety, marketing

Members of Congress are calling for an investigation into the 1-800-GET-THIN weight-loss surgery marketing campaign and the safety and effectiveness of the Lap-Band device.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) and two other House members called for congressional hearings to examine whether the sponsors of the ad campaign, their affiliated clinics and the device's manufacturer are improperly promoting a potentially dangerous surgery.

In a letter sent Friday to the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Waxman said Congress should subpoena documents from 1-800-GET-THIN and Lap-Band manufacturer Allergan Inc.

FULL COVERAGE: Lap-Band investigation

The letter cited a series of articles in The Times about patient deaths and recent studies that have questioned the long-term effectiveness of the Lap-Band, a ring that is surgically implanted around the stomach to discourage overeating.

"We believe the Committee should hold hearings to examine whether FDA device regulation has been ineffective in protecting the public from dangerous medical devices like the Lap-Band," Waxman and Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) said in the letter.

Five patients have died in Southern California since 2009 after Lap-Band surgeries at clinics affiliated with 1-800-GET-THIN, according to lawsuits, autopsy reports and other public records.

Robert Silverman, president of 1-800-GET-THIN, did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did Michael and Julian Omidi, brothers who, according to a recent lawsuit, run the Lap-Band surgery business from offices in Beverly Hills.

A spokeswoman for Lap-Band manufacturer Allergan of Irvine said the device is safe and effective, if "inserted by an experienced and qualified bariatric surgeon who offers the patient appropriate follow-up care."

Allergan spokeswoman Naziah Lasi-Tejani also questioned a study that Congress members cited in the letter as evidence that the Lap-Band often has long-term complications. That study examined the effectiveness of an earlier version of the Lap-Band and surgical techniques that are no longer used, she said.

In addition to the effectiveness of the Lap-Band, Waxman and his colleagues questioned "aggressive marketing" of the device through 1-800-GET-THIN ads on freeway billboards, radio, television, direct mail and the Internet.

Last month, the Food and Drug Administration sent warning letters to 1-800-GET-THIN and some of its affiliated surgery centers, saying the ads were misleading because they did not adequately disclose dangers of the surgery. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has asked its legal team to determine whether the county can regulate the advertising.

The company responded by adding a disclosure to its website that said Lap-Band procedures can result in death. Silverman later told supervisors that the company planned to change its ads to address the FDA's concerns.

Waxman, in a statement to The Times, said he hopes the House committee holds the hearings because "the evidence is clear that there are devices on the market today that pose dangerous risks." The issue is important, he said, because this year Congress is expected to reevaluate how medical devices such as the Lap-Band are regulated.

"The fundamental mission of the FDA is to ensure the safety and effectiveness of medical devices," he said. "That is why it's critical that we understand how unsafe devices get on the market and how to protect patients from these risks."

Kathryn Trepinski, an attorney who has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against 1-800-GET-THIN on behalf of relatives of a woman who died following Lap-Band surgery, said she welcomed congressional scrutiny.

"I'm pleased to see increased action on a federal level," Trepinski said. "I would like to see Allergan and its product, the Lap-Band, put under a microscope and examined."

The congressional concern comes three days after two former employees filed a whistle-blower lawsuit in Los Angeles that accused 1-800-GET-THIN and its affiliated surgery centers of operating in unsanitary conditions, improperly billing insurers and putting an emphasis on profits over patient safety.

The lawsuit also said workers affiliated with the companies persuaded patients to have surgeries they did not need, including hysterectomies and other organ removals, in order to drive up profits.

Company officials did not respond to The Times about the lawsuit's allegations.

stuart.pfeifer@latimes.com

Times staff writer Alejandro Lazo contributed to this report.

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/t6JwEkaJVgM/la-fi-0121-get-thin-congress-20120121,0,518487.story

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Why People Love Beats By Dre Headphones [Music]

Part of it is branding, to be sure. But in Pitchfork's Resonant Frequency column, Mark Richardson rails not against the quality of the Beats line of headphones and its signature, overloaded bass, but rather argues that they're a viable alternative for a new era of music. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/0j0E2uydZRo/why-people-love-beats-by-dre-headphones

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Apple Announcement: iBooks 2 to Replace Textbooks!

Make no mistake, Apple's announcement of its new iBooks 2 for Digital Textbooks today wasn't quite as awe-inspiring as the unveiling of some of its past innovations.

The loss of co-founder Steve Jobs certainly contributed to that.

Still, the company which changed music with its iPod and mobile communications with the iPhone, said today it was offering software that would reinvent textbooks.

It was a project inspired by Apple’s late CEO Jobs himself:

Apple iBooks 2 Presentation

“A lot may be wrong with education. One thing we hear louder than all else and where we can help is in student engagement,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s marketing chief.

“That’s why we get excited when students get their hands on an iPad. “The textbook is not always the ideal learning tool,” said Schiller. “Yet their content is amazing.”

As such, Schiller and his Apple colleagues showed off two new applications to take the information in textbooks and put it, in interactive form, on iPads and computers.

iBooks 2, a free download for iPads, available from Apple’s app store starting today. iBooks Author is a tool he said authors and publishers can use on their computers.

The new interactive books would cost $14.99, far less than most paper textbooks. They could be updated continually, said Apple, without a programming degree.

Students will be able to “mark up” iPad books electronically, creating the digital equivalent of note cards as they go through lessons, and keep the iBooks when done.

Apple is partnering with three of the biggest publishers of school texts: Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, responsible for 90 percent of U.S. textbooks.

Will it be successful? Do you really have to ask?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/apple-announcement-ibooks-2-to-replace-textbooks/

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News Corp pays out over hacking claims (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? The British newspaper arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp settled a string of legal claims over phone hacking on Thursday, and said this was not an admission that management had known about the practice or tried to cover it up.

Murdoch's News International had claimed for years that the hacking of voicemails to generate stories was the work of a single "rogue" reporter who went to jail for the crime in 2007.

However, under a wave of evidence last year it finally admitted that the problem was widespread, sparking a scandal that has rocked the company, the British press, police and the political establishment.

On Thursday, lawyers for victims who had reached settlements said their agreements were based on News Group Newspapers (NGN), publisher of some of News International's titles, acknowledging that senior management were at fault.

They said the company was now seeking to settle all the claims. "News Group has agreed to compensation being assessed on the basis that senior employees and directors of NGN knew about the wrongdoing and sought to conceal it by deliberately deceiving investigators and destroying evidence," the lawyers said in a statement.

But News International said in a "clarification" late on Thursday that despite agreeing the settlements it was not making any admission that senior staff or directors at NGN had known about the wrongdoing or tried to conceal it.

"However, for the purpose of reaching these settlements only, NGN agreed that the damages to be paid to claimants should be assessed as if this was the case," News International said.

In a London court packed with journalists and lawyers, Judge Geoffrey Vos went through each case and heard the grounds for the settlement. At the end of each statement a lawyer for News Corp confirmed the details and offered "sincere apologies."

Settlements announced in court generally ranged from around 30,000 pounds ($46,000) to 60,000 pounds, while some were not revealed. Actor Jude Law accepted 130,000 pounds after he was physically followed abroad as well as in Britain.

"It is clear that I, along with many others, was kept under constant surveillance for a number of years," Law said in a statement. "No aspect of my private life was safe from intrusion by News Group newspapers, including the lives of my children.

"I believe in a free press but what News Group did was an abuse of its freedoms. They were prepared to do anything to sell their newspapers and to make money."

The settlements may lift some immediate pressure off the group, as it will prevent lawyers from poring over further details in open court, and it could result in all cases eventually settling as the size of the payouts set a precedent.

But it could also lead to increased scrutiny of the role played by James Murdoch.

Rupert Murdoch's son James was placed in charge of News International only after the hacking, but has been accused of leading a cover-up. He has denied all knowledge of the scale of the problem and blamed many of those around him for the failings.

PAY-OUT TIME

The court was told that 36 claimants were now ready to settle, including Law, former deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, politician Chris Bryant and other celebrities, while 10 cases were ready to go to court.

News Corp has already received 60 claims and police say there are almost 6,000 potential victims. The legal costs to be paid by News International will also vary hugely, lawyers said.

Lawyers for the victims said they had obtained documents from News International that revealed the scale of the malpractice, partly thanks to the fact that the 12 solicitors' firms involved had joined forces to work together.

"As a result, documents relating to the nature and scale of the conspiracy, a cover-up and the destruction of evidence/email archives by News Group have now been disclosed to the claimants," their statement said.

The long-running case blew up in July when it emerged that the voicemail of missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler, later found murdered, had been hacked into by the News of the World.

News Corp took the drastic step of shutting down the 168-year-old tabloid and pulled its plan to take full control of Britain's highly profitable satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

The scandal had already forced the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman, a former News of the World editor, and later prompted the resignations of senior police officials who were accused of failing to properly investigate the affair.

Three criminal investigations are under way while a judge-led inquiry into Britain's press ethics sits most days, bringing yet more attention to the conduct of the media as it seeks to draw up new regulations.

"I'm grateful to News Group for finally acknowledging, admitting and apologizing for their unlawful voicemail interception," Graham Shear, a lawyer representing victims who also had his own phone hacked, told Reuters.

"But I'm a bit frustrated that they didn't find a way to do this earlier, having previously strenuously defended my own claim and the claims on which I'm acting."

(Additional reporting by Tim Castle; Editing by Peter Graff)

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

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