EARTH: Tracking plastic in the oceans

Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
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Contact: Megan Sever
msever@earthmagazine.org
American Geological Institute

Alexandria, VA Humans produce over 260 million tons of plastic each year. Almost a third of that plastic goes into disposable, one-time-use items, and only about 1% of it is recycled globally. Where does the rest of the plastic go? How does it interact with our environment? And how will it impact us in the future? In this month's issue of EARTH Magazine, follow the fate of many plastics as they make their way from our homes to our planet's oceans.

While no one knows exactly how much plastic is in the ocean, studies over the past few decades have suggested that millions of square kilometers of ocean surface may be covered with floating garbage "patches." Today, at least five such patches are known to exist. The largest, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, floats miles off the coast of Hawaii and is estimated to be roughly the size of Texas. Where did this refuse come from? How is it affecting our oceans? And will we ever be able to remove the trash? Find out at http://www.earthmagazine.org/article/tracking-plastic-oceans.

Plastics not your bag? Read this story and more in this month's issue of EARTH Magazine, available online now at http://www.earthmagazine.org/. Also in this month's issue, revisit water on mars as scientists search for clues to see if Mars could support life; learn how radiation is affecting residents in Fukushima, Japan; and, travel to Virunga National Park in the Congo to hike Mount Nyiragongo.

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Keep up to date with the latest happenings in Earth, energy and environment news with EARTH magazine online at http://www.earthmagazine.org/. Published by the American Geosciences Institute, EARTH is your source for the science behind the headlines.

The American Geosciences Institute is a nonprofit federation of 50 geoscientific and professional associations that represents more than 250,000 geologists, geophysicists and other earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geoscience education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role the geosciences play in society's use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and interaction with the environment.

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

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

Contact: Megan Sever
msever@earthmagazine.org
American Geological Institute

Alexandria, VA Humans produce over 260 million tons of plastic each year. Almost a third of that plastic goes into disposable, one-time-use items, and only about 1% of it is recycled globally. Where does the rest of the plastic go? How does it interact with our environment? And how will it impact us in the future? In this month's issue of EARTH Magazine, follow the fate of many plastics as they make their way from our homes to our planet's oceans.

While no one knows exactly how much plastic is in the ocean, studies over the past few decades have suggested that millions of square kilometers of ocean surface may be covered with floating garbage "patches." Today, at least five such patches are known to exist. The largest, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, floats miles off the coast of Hawaii and is estimated to be roughly the size of Texas. Where did this refuse come from? How is it affecting our oceans? And will we ever be able to remove the trash? Find out at http://www.earthmagazine.org/article/tracking-plastic-oceans.

Plastics not your bag? Read this story and more in this month's issue of EARTH Magazine, available online now at http://www.earthmagazine.org/. Also in this month's issue, revisit water on mars as scientists search for clues to see if Mars could support life; learn how radiation is affecting residents in Fukushima, Japan; and, travel to Virunga National Park in the Congo to hike Mount Nyiragongo.

###

Keep up to date with the latest happenings in Earth, energy and environment news with EARTH magazine online at http://www.earthmagazine.org/. Published by the American Geosciences Institute, EARTH is your source for the science behind the headlines.

The American Geosciences Institute is a nonprofit federation of 50 geoscientific and professional associations that represents more than 250,000 geologists, geophysicists and other earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geoscience education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role the geosciences play in society's use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and interaction with the environment.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/agi-etp013012.php

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Trying to read between the lines of the Fed rate message (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? For a central bank that wants to make transparency its hallmark, the Federal Reserve's new forecast of nearly three more years of super-low rates has left room for a few doubts.

The Fed surprised markets last Wednesday when it extended its previous forecast for keeping its key interest rate "exceptionally low" until at least late 2014, more than a year longer than its previous guidance.

Ninety minutes later, the U.S. central bank published charts showing that more than a third of its policymakers expected a rate rise before 2014, whiplashing bond markets.

The difference in tone between the dovish statement of the Fed's policy-setting committee and the somewhat more hawkish-looking projections of its 17 individual members, has left some economists unsure as to when the Fed will start to reverse its historic, all-out support of the U.S. economy.

Some are re-examining the Fed's choice of language and questioning whether the term "exceptionally low" really means the current level of the Fed funds rate of zero to 0.25 percent.

Others are asking what the phrase "late 2014" means more precisely as they try to decipher the nuances of a central bank that is taking bold steps to support the economic recovery while at the same time stressing transparency into its inner workings.

"You can't possibly know with any degree of confidence what will unfold given this degree of uncertainty," said Michael Moran, chief economist at Daiwa Capital Markets, in New York, referring to the wide range of views on where rates are headed. "You just have to keep an open mind on monetary policy."

The Fed has kept short-term rates below 0.25 percent for more than three years already and purchased some $2.3 trillion in long-term securities to help the U.S. economy claw its way back from a brutal recession.

With the recovery still fragile and at risk from fallout from Europe's crisis, the Fed is running out of tools and has turned to making statements about its intentions over the coming years in the hope of assuring skittish markets that it is committed to sticking with its super-loose monetary policy.

That could keep longer-term rates low in the open market. Low rates usually encourage economic activity and boost hiring.

This delicate management of expectations is playing out just as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is shining a light on what in the past were the central bank's opaque internal deliberations.

The first-ever release last week of projections by Fed policymakers of where they expect interest rates to be over the next few years revealed a remarkably wide range of views.

Three officials expected a rate rise as soon as this year. Two others did not see that happening until 2016.

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Economic, rate projections: http://link.reuters.com/zud36s

FOMC statement from Jan 24-25 meeting: FED/FOMC

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CONFUSION

In an early sign of confusion, yields on 10-year Treasuries dropped after the Fed's late-2014 comment on Wednesday and fell to as low as 1.92 percent. They bounced back to 2 percent after the rate projections were revealed.

Asked for clarity by reporters, Bernanke made it clear that the statement from the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets rates and currently has 10 voting members, prevailed over the 17 individual projections.

"The FOMC will always, in some sense, trump the projections of forward interest rates," he said.

But Charles Plosser, president of the Philadelphia Fed and among the most hawkish of the Fed's top officials, acknowledged on Monday that the FOMC's statement was "not as clear as it could have been."

Having low rates until late 2014 is "conditional on the evolution of the economy. I think that we don't make that clear enough," Plosser told CNBC television.

"A lot of people have been reading the statement as if it was a commitment and it is not a commitment."

ALL EYES ON 2014

Plosser, who has focused more on keeping a lid on inflation than lowering the 8.5-percent U.S. unemployment rate, confirmed that he was one of the three officials forecasting a rate rise this year. He is among those skeptical of the Fed's ultra-easy policy and its talk of standing pat for some time to come.

Six of the FOMC's 17 policymakers saw rates rising to between 0.25 percent and 2 percent by the end of 2013. By the end of 2014 they were joined by a further five who expected increases in borrowing costs and as a group they saw rates between 0.25 and 2.75 percent, with a median of 0.75 percent.

The other six projected no change until after 2014.

Adding to intrigue over the path ahead for rates, Plosser, fellow hawk Richard Fisher of Dallas, and Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota, a moderate hawk, all regain positions on the FOMC in the critical year of 2014.

Bernanke, along with vice chair Janet Yellen and William Dudley, the influential head of the New York Fed, has steered the Fed's policy moves. But the chairman's current term expires in early 2014, adding to the uncertainty on the horizon.

Since August, when Bernanke clearly implied in a speech that "exceptionally low" rates meant zero to 0.25 percent, Wall Street has run with that assumption.

Now some economists are reading between the lines.

"There are different definitions of 'exceptionally low' levels of the federal funds rate. Perhaps one could think of any rate below 1 percent as exceptionally low," said Thomas Simons, money market economist at Jefferies & Co, who co-published a note to clients on the topic.

"What is your definition of late 2014? Maybe it's September," Simons said.

Accordingly, futures traders are hedging their bets over what the Fed will actually do.

According to rates contracts at exchange operator CME Group Inc, traders are pricing in a 48 percent chance that the first rate hike will occur in June, 2014. There is a 62 percent chance that it comes in July, 2014.

Economists at FTN Financial argued the Fed's statement was intended to reinforce the primacy of the FOMC over the broader group. "The unspoken message is that there are enough voting members at or near zero to keep rates unchanged even if others at the Fed disagree," they wrote last week in a note to clients.

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Additional reporting by Ann Saphir in Chicago; Editing by Kim Coghill)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120131/bs_nm/us_usa_fed_interest_rates

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SAG Awards menu is months in the making (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? When your dinner party guests include Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Kate Winslet and Glenn Close, and the whole affair is televised live, it can take months to plan the menu. That's why the team behind the Screen Actors Guild Awards began putting together the plate for Sunday's ceremony months ago.

It was still summer when show producer Kathy Connell and executive producer and director Jeff Margolis first sat down with chef Suzanne Goin of Los Angeles eatery Lucques with a tall order: Create a meal that is delicious at room temperature, looks beautiful on TV, is easy to eat and appeals to Hollywood tastes. Oh, and no poppy seeds, soups, spicy dishes, or piles of onions or garlic.

"It can't drip, stick in their teeth or be too heavy," Connell said. "We have to appease all palates."

The chef put together a plate of possibilities: slow-roasted salmon with yellow beets, lamb with couscous and spiced cauliflower and roasted root vegetables with quinoa. There was also a chopped chicken salad and another chicken dish with black beans.

To ensure the dishes are both tasty and TV-ready, Connell and Margolis, along with the SAG Awards Committee and the show's florist and art director, dined together at this summertime lunch on tables set to replicate those that will be in the Shrine Exposition Center during the ceremony. The pewter, crushed-silk tablecloths and white lilies you'll see on TV Sunday were also chosen months ago.

The diners discussed the look of the plate, the size of the portions and the vegetarian possibilities.

"We'd like the portions a little larger," Connell told the chef.

"And a little more sauce on the salmon," Margolis added.

Come Sunday, it's up to Goin to prepare 1,200 of the long-planned meals for the A-list audience.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_en_mo/us_sag_awards_menu

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Neeson's "Grey" wins box office weekend (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Survival story "The Grey" starring Liam Neeson in a battle against weather and wolves led the box office pack with a better-than-expected $20 million in ticket sales over the weekend.

"The Grey" knocked last weekend's winner, "Underworld: Awakening," to second place. The vampire and werewolf sequel starring Kate Beckinsale brought in $12.5 million from Friday through Sunday at domestic theaters, according to studio estimates compiled by Reuters on Sunday.

In "The Grey," Neeson returns to an action role as a man who leads a team of plane crash survivors who must fight harsh weather and a fierce pack of wolves in the Alaskan wilderness.

The movie played at 3,185 North American (U.S. and Canadian) theaters and earned a per-theater average of $6,279, according to the box office division of Hollywood.com.

Distributor Open Road Films acquired the film for about $5 million and had projected up to $12 million in debut weekend sales. The film beat that forecast because "it doesn't look like every other movie out there. In a crowded marketplace, I think it's important to be distinctive," said Open Road Films CEO Tom Ortenburg.

Katherine Heigl's new comedy, "One for the Money," finished in third place with $11.8 million, topping industry forecasts of less than $10 million for the film based on a best-selling book by Janet Evanovich. Distributor Lions Gate Entertainment said readers who loved the book helped the movie beat expectations.

"We think the audience that showed up are not frequent moviegoers. They're just huge fans of Janet Evanovich," said David Spitz, head of domestic distribution for Lions Gate.

In the film, Heigl plays a cash-strapped woman who joins a bail-bond business and must track down a wanted man who happens to be an ex-boyfriend. Audiences surveyed by exit polling firm CinemaScore game the movie a B-minus on average.

OSCAR BOOST

The weekend's other new movie, crime drama "Man on a Ledge," landed in fifth place. The film was distributed by Lions Gate's newly acquired Summit Entertainment unit as release dates and marketing plans were set well before the studios combined earlier this month.

"Man on a Ledge" took in $8.3 million, within studio forecasts. The movie features "Avatar" star Sam Worthington as a fugitive who threatens to jump from a hotel ledge.

"Red Tails," a drama about black fighter pilots in World War Two, brought in $10.4 million to land in fourth place in its second weekend in theaters.

Also this weekend, a crop of films capitalized off last week's Oscar nominations.

"The Descendants," starring George Clooney as a father dealing with a family crisis, expanded to 2,001 theaters from 560 and gained 176 percent from last weekend. The movie took in $6.6 million, lifting its domestic tally to $58.5 million since its release last November. The movie has added $27 million in international markets for a worldwide total of $85.5 million.

Black-and-white silent film "The Artist" increased its weekend sales by 40 percent from a week earlier, bringing in $3.3 million after adding 235 more screens. To date, the film has grossed $16.7 million domestically.

Family film "Hugo," which led the Oscar nominations with 11, also jumped 143 percent to $2.3 million. Its total sales to date stand at $58.7 million domestically.

Open Road Films, a joint venture between theater owners Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment Inc, released "The Grey." The film unit of Sony Corp distributed "Underworld: Awakening." "Red Tails" and "The Descendants" were released by divisions of News Corp's Fox Filmed Entertainment. Privately-held The Weinstein Co released "The Artist," and Viacom Inc unit Paramount Pictures distributed "Hugo."

(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Editing by Xavier Briand and Paul Simao)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/film_nm/us_boxoffice

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You're Probably Not Going To Sleep Through a Megaphone Alarm Clock [Alarm Clocks]

It's not the first one to go the obnoxiously loud route, but since this clever Megaphone Alarm Clock is available from the Museum of Modern Art Store, it's certainly the first to do it with a healthy dose of style. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Gxts1rVZ868/youre-probably-not-going-to-sleep-through-a-megaphone-alarm-clock

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Arab League observers see spike in Syrian violence (AP)

CAIRO ? The head of the Arab League observers in Syria says violence in the country has spiked over the past four days.

Sudanese Gen. Mohammed Ahmed al-Dabi said in a statement Friday that three Syrian cities ? Homs, Hama and Idlib ? have witnessed a "very high escalation" of violence since Tuesday.

The head of the League's operations room for the mission, Adnan al-Khudeir, said 30 additional observers will be sent to Syria next week to bolster the mission.

The observers are in Syria to monitor a League plan to end the country's 10-month-old crisis.

The mission has been widely criticized for failing to stop the violence.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

BEIRUT (AP) ? Armed forces loyal to President Bashar Assad barraged residential buildings with mortars and machine-gun fire, killing at least 30 people, including a family of women and children during a day of sectarian killings and kidnappings in the besieged Syrian city of Homs, activists said Friday.

The violence erupted Thursday, but important details were only emerging a day later. Video posted online by activists showed the bodies of five small children, five women of varying ages and a man, all bloodied and piled on beds in what appeared to be an apartment after a building was hit in the Karm el-Zaytoun neighborhood of the city. A narrator said an entire family had been "slaughtered."

The video could not be independently verified.

Heavy gunfire erupted for a second day Friday in the city, which has seen some of the heaviest violence of the 10-month-old uprising against Assad's rule. Activists said at least 10 people were killed across the country, four of them in Homs.

Elsewhere, a car bomb exploded Friday at a checkpoint outside the northern city of Idlib, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, citing witnesses on the ground. The number of casualties was not immediately clear.

In an attempt to stop the bloodshed in Syria, the U.N. Security Council was to hold a closed-door meeting Friday to discuss the crisis, a step toward a possible resolution against the Damascus regime, diplomats said. The U.N. says at least 5,400 people have been killed in the government crackdown since March, and the turmoil has intensified as dissident soldiers have joined the ranks of the anti-Assad protesters and carried out attacks on regime forces.

Details of Thursday's wave of killings in Homs were emerging from an array of residents and activists on Friday, though they said they were having difficulty because of continuing gunfire.

"There has been a terrifying massacre," Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told the AP on Friday, calling for an independent investigation of Thursday's killings.

Thursday started with a spate of sectarian kidnappings and killings between the city's population of Sunnis and Allawites, a Shiite sect to which Assad belongs and which is the backbone of his regime, said Mohammad Saleh, a centrist opposition figure and activist resident of Homs.

There were also a string of attacks by unknown gunmen on army checkpoints, Saleh said. Checkpoints are a frequent target of dissident troops who have joined the opposition.

The violence culminated with the evening killing of the family, Saleh said, adding that the full details of what happened were not yet clear.

The Observatory said 29 people were killed, including eight children, when a building came under heavy mortar and machine gun fire. Some residents spoke of another massacre that took place when shabiha ? armed regime loyalists ? stormed the district, slaughtering residents in an apartment, including children.

"It's racial cleansing," said one Sunni resident of Karm el-Zaytoun, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. "They are killing people because of their sect," he said.

Some residents said kidnappers were holding Alawites in the building hit by mortars and gunfire in Karm el-Zaytoun, but the reports could not be confirmed.

Thursday's death toll in Homs city was at least 35, said the Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees, an umbrella group of activists. Both groups cite a network of activists on the ground in Syria for their death tolls. The reports could not be confirmed.

Syria tightly controls access to trouble spots and generally allows journalists to report only on escorted trips, which slows the flow of information.

The Syrian uprising began last March with largely peaceful anti-government protests, but it has grown increasingly militarized in recent months as frustrated regime opponents and army defectors arm themselves and fight back against government forces.

It has also seen outbreaks of bloody tit-for-tat sectarian killings. Syria has a volatile religious divide, making civil unrest one of the most dire scenarios. The Assad regime and the leadership of its military and security forces are dominated by the Alawite minority, but the country is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim.

Also Friday, Iran's official IRNA news agency said gunmen in Syria have kidnapped 11 Iranian pilgrims traveling by road from Turkey to Damascus.

Iranian pilgrims routinely visit Syria ? Iran's closest ally in the Arab world ? to pay homage to Shiite holy shrines.

The government crackdown has killed more than 5,400 people since March, according to estimates from the United Nations.

U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay said the "fragmentation within the country" was making it harder to update the numbers. "Some areas are completely closed, such as parts of Homs, we are unable to verify much of the information that's coming to us. We are watching the figures, working closely with civil society organizations, and sifting through all the information that's coming to us," he said at the Davos Forum in Switzerland.

But he expressed "great concern that the killings are continuing and in my view it's the authorities who are killing civilians, and so it would all stop if an order comes from the top to stop the killings."

Assad's regime claims terrorists acting out a foreign conspiracy are behind the uprising, not protesters seeking change, and that thousands of security forces have been killed.

International pressure on Damascus to end the bloodshed so far has produced few results.

The Arab League has sent observers to the country, but the mission has been widely criticized for failing to stop the violence. Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia pulled out of the mission Tuesday, asking the Security Council to intervene because the Syrian government has not halted its crackdown.

The U.N. Security Council has been unable to agree on a resolution since violence began in March because of strong opposition from Russia and China.

A senior Russian diplomat said Moscow will oppose a new draft United Nations resolution on Syria because it fails to take Kremlin's concerns into account.

Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying Friday that the draft worked out by the West and some Arab states fails to exclude the possibility of outside military interference.

In Cairo, Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby told reporters that he and the prime minister of Qatar would leave for New York on Saturday seek U.N. support for the latest Arab plan to end Syria's crisis. The plans calls for a two-month transition to a unity government, with Assad giving his vice president full powers to work with the proposed government.

Syria has rejected the plan, saying it violates its sovereignty.

Bassma Kodmani, a spokeswoman for the opposition Syrian National Council, said the Arab initiative was a move in the right direction.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria

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Costume designer Eiko Ishioka has died at 73 (AP)

NEW YORK ? Eiko Ishioka, a bold, Academy Award-winning visual artist whose surreal and sensual costumes were worn by Broadway actors, Olympic athletes, Cirque du Soleil performers and movie stars like Jennifer Lopez, has died in Tokyo. She was 73.

Her studio manager, Tracy Roberts, said Thursday that the designer died of pancreatic cancer.

Ishioka, who also worked in advertising and other graphic arts, won the 1992 Academy Award for Best Costume Design for the film "Bram Stoker's `Dracula,'" directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Her dreamlike, billowing designs were featured in the 2001 film "The Cell," staring Lopez.

She won a Grammy Award in 1986 for her cover design of Miles Davis' album "Tutu" and she directed the music video for the single "Cocoon" from Bjork's album "Vespertine." She also won the 1985 Cannes Film Festival Award for Artistic Contribution for her production design work on the Paul Schrader film "Mishima."

Ishioka, who died Saturday, was the director of costume design for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and designed racing uniforms and outerwear for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.

A graduate of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, she became the first woman to be elected a member of the Tokyo Art Directors Club. She opened her own design studio in 1970 and was known for a bold, thought-provoking style even when advertising Japanese shopping complexes.

In 1983, she published a retrospective of her graphic design and art direction work entitled "Eiko by Eiko." She also wrote the book "Eiko on Stage," which focuses on her stage and screen work.

On Broadway, she made the sets and costumes for David Henry Hwang's 1988 Tony Award-winning drama "M. Butterfly," which earned her two Tony Award nominations for scenic design and costume design. She also tried her hand at opera with her costume design for Richard Wagner's "Ring Cycle" at the Netherlands National Opera.

She designed over 130 costumes for the Cirque du Soleil show "Varekai" and was the visual artistic director for a David Copperfield show on Broadway in 1996. Her comic book inspired costumes can currently be seen in "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark."

"Her work will continue to touch audiences for years to come," said "Spider-Man" producers Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris said in a joint statement, adding that Thursday's performance would be dedicated to her memory.

She was honored in 1992 to be named to the Hall of Fame by the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame. Her work can be seen at museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

___

Entertainment Writer Frazier Moore contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obits/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_en_mu/us_obit_ishioka

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Four dead, 17 missing in Rio buildings collapse (Reuters)

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) ? Rescuers on Thursday recovered four bodies from the rubble of three buildings that collapsed in downtown Rio, highlighting the creaky infrastructure of the city that will host the 2014 soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

The buildings, one 20 floors high, collapsed on Wednesday night in a cloud of dust behind the city's 100-year-old Belle Epoque-style Municipal Theater.

Engineers said work was being done with no permits from city regulators on two floors of the taller building, which could have caused it to collapse and bring the other buildings down.

Rescue teams pulled six people alive from the rubble, but at least 17 people were missing, authorities said.

The buildings housed offices that had mostly closed for the day and few people were on the normally busy street at the time of the disaster.

Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes said the cause of the collapse could have been a structural failure as a result of building work underway inside one of the buildings. He said there was no gas leak that could have caused an explosion.

"We will investigate fully, because it's not normal for a building to collapse," Paes told CBN radio.

Building work was underway on the third and ninth floors that was not authorized by the Rio building commission, said Luiz Antonio Cosenza, head of the local engineers association. "The most likely scenario was structural failure," he said.

Rio is struggling to address concerns about its decrepit infrastructure, unreliable power supplies and deficient public transportation as it prepares to host global sporting events.

Construction and renovation of 12 stadiums for the soccer World Cup in 2014 is behind schedule and there is concern that Brazil's overcrowded and inefficient airports will be not able to handle masses of sports fans expected to attend the events.

The building collapses come months after an explosion apparently caused by a gas leak ripped through a restaurant in downtown Rio, killing three people and igniting more concern about the state of the city's infrastructure.

In recent months, Rio's inhabitants have had to deal with exploding sewer lines and landslides in the city's slums caused by heavy rain and deforestation.

The collapsed buildings had a bakery and an Itau Unibanco Holding bank branch on the ground floor and were near the headquarters of state-run companies such as oil giant Petrobras and development bank BNDES.

Witnesses said they heard the structures cracking and saw plaster falling before the buildings collapsed, causing panic in the streets and covering parked cars with dust and debris.

"It was like an earthquake. First some pieces of the buildings started to fall down. People started to run. And then it all fell down at once," a witness who identified himself as Gilbert told Reuters.

One man said he was on the 10th floor and ran down the stairs just in time to escape the collapse.

"My wife was inside. I spoke with her just before the collapse," another man in tears said on television.

(Additional reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Writing by Anthony Boadle; editing by Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/wl_nm/us_brazil_rio_collapse

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Less Salt, More Veggies in School Lunches: USDA (HealthDay)

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 25 (HealthDay News) -- First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack unveiled on Wednesday new standards for school meals -- the first revisions in more than 15 years. The goal: To provide healthier meals and better nutrition for the nearly 32 million children who take part in school meal programs.

The new standards include offering fruits and vegetables every day, increasing whole grain-rich foods, serving only fat-free or low-fat milk, limiting calories based on children's ages, and reducing the amounts of saturated fat, trans fats and sodium, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Mrs. Obama and Vilsack, who were joined by celebrity chef Rachael Ray, made the announcement at an elementary school in Alexandria, Va.

"As parents, we try to prepare decent meals, limit how much junk food our kids eat, and ensure they have a reasonably balanced diet," Mrs. Obama said in a news release. "And when we're putting in all that effort, the last thing we want is for our hard work to be undone each day in the school cafeteria. When we send our kids to school, we expect that they won't be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we try to keep them from eating at home."

In the same statement, Vilsack said, "Improving the quality of the school meals is a critical step in building a healthy future for our kids."

Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, said that "these changes to school food standards are welcome, commendable and unquestionably helpful in efforts to combat childhood obesity and all of the metabolic mayhem that follows in its wake."

Still, Katz doesn't think the changes go far enough.

And they aren't as complete as the Obama administration had wanted, according to the Associated Press.

Last year, Congress blocked some of the agriculture department's planned revisions, including cutting down how often french fries and pizza could be served, the news agency said.

In November, Congress passed a bill requiring the agriculture department to continue to count tomato paste on pizzas as a vegetable, the AP reported.

"Making healthier pizza is a great idea. However, it is unfortunate and rather ridiculous that Congress still thinks tomato paste is a vegetable," said dietitian Samantha Heller, clinical nutrition coordinator at the Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital in Derby, Conn.

Congress also refused to allow the USDA to limit servings of potatoes. Those congressional directions must be incorporated into the final rule, the AP reported.

The news service said that potato growers, companies that make frozen pizzas for schools and others in the food industry lobbied for the changes made by Congress, and that conservatives said the government shouldn't be telling children what to eat.

Some school districts objected to some of the requirements, saying they went too far and would cost too much, the AP said.

Katz said, "It is unacceptable that food industry elements lobbied Congress successfully for changes in nutrition standards that placed profits ahead of children's health.

"The argument that we cannot afford to do even better is spurious, because it leaves us needing to afford the treatment of type 2 diabetes in children. It leaves us needing to pay for bariatric surgery in adolescents," he added.

Still, the changes signal some progress, Katz said. "We should not expect it to change childhood obesity rates. School lunch was never the cause of epidemic obesity, and improving it will not be the cure. But school lunch has long been part of the problem and these improved standards will help make it one part of a comprehensive solution, now long overdue," he said.

Heller rejected the argument that children will not eat healthier foods.

"When given the time, exposure and encouragement as well as altering environmental influences, kids will eat healthy foods when available," she said. "Just putting fresh fruit by the cafeteria check-out in schools increases consumption by schoolchildren considerably. Making fresh, healthy foods delicious and explaining to kids how and why good nutrition is critical for them to do well in their favorite activities such as sports, art or science, will also boost consumption," Heller said.

"Food companies, lobbyists, and members of Congress would do well to step up to the plate and start setting good examples of healthy eating and lifestyles," Heller added.

The new rule is based on recommendations from a panel of experts from the Institute of Medicine and also updated changes from the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

More information

For more information on healthy eating, visit the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120126/hl_hsn/lesssaltmoreveggiesinschoollunchesusda

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Video: Obama strikes populist tone in State of Union

>> the president's state of the union was not a campaign speech per se . but his populist rhetoric is something we're going to hear a lot of in the general election campaign ahead. president obama used this election year state of the union address to talk about the future and boast about what he believes are his best accomplishments.

>> the state of our union is getting stronger. we've come too far to turn back now.

>> reporter: bracing for a tough re-election fight the president struck a populist tone.

>> we can have an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone gets their fair share and everyone plays by the same rules.

>> reporter: he went out of his way to strike a patriotic tone using the words " america " and "american" 88 times.

>> what's at stake aren't democratic or republican values but american values . american manufacturers are hiring again. america is back.

>> reporter: sticking to the populist theme he went after easy targets -- wall street and congress.

>> i talked about the deficit of trust between main street and wall street but the divide between this city and the country is at least as bad.

>> reporter: foreign policy mostly took a back seat but one topic came up twice.

>> for the first time in two decades, osama bin laden is not a threat to this country.

>> reporter: the president going out of his way to use the successful bin laden mission as a lesson on how washington should work.

>> one of my proudest possessions is the flag that the s.e.a.l. team took with them on the mission to get bin laden . on it are each of their names. some may be democrats. some may be republicans. but that doesn't matter.

>> reporter: but the presidential campaign was never far from his mind. one of his signature proposals -- creating a 30% minimum tax rate for multimillionaires and billionaires.

>> asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? most americans would call that common sense.

>> reporter: the president could have been talking directly to mitt romney who released his tax returns tuesday showing he paid less than 15%. under the president's proposal romney's tax bill would more than double.

>> he thinks america is on the right track.

>> reporter: in an interview with brian williams , romney questioned the optimistic tone.

>> the idea that we are on the right track is foreign to people here.

>> reporter: the emotional high point of the evening took place before anyone uttered a word. arizona congresswoman gabby giffords who is resigning her seat today received an enthusiastic bipartisan salute, including a special greeting from the president. while the president's traditional post state of the union travel schedule looks awfully like a campaign swing, he's hitting five battleground states in three days from michigan, arizona, nevada, colorado and iowa, matt.

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/46128879/

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Breach of new EU data rules to carry high fines (Reuters)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? The European Commission unveiled new online data privacy rules on Wednesday, putting more responsibility on companies to protect users' information, and said those who breach the code could be fined up to two percent of their annual turnover.

After two years of examining the shifts in Internet use and the behavior of consumers using websites such as Facebook, Google and Yahoo!, the European commissioner in charge of data privacy, Viviane Reding, said she was determined to give individuals more control over their personal information.

"The protection of personal data is a fundamental right for all Europeans, but citizens do not always feel in full control of their personal data," Reding said.

"A strong, clear and uniform legal framework at EU level will help to unleash the potential of the digital single market and foster economic growth, innovation and job creation."

The new laws, which have caused widespread concern among major technology and data companies, are expected to come into force at the end of 2013, once they have been approved by all EU member states and the European Parliament.

(Reporting By Claire Davenport; editing by Luke Baker)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/wr_nm/us_eu_dataprivacy

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Tumblr boasts 120M users, and 15B page views monthly

By Helen A.S. Popkin

Tumblr

One of Tumblr's most beloved memes, reads from his own Ryan Gosling-dedicated Tumblr. That's just how huge Tumblr is now!

Within two weeks of its 2007 launch, plucky microblogging platform Tumblr hit 750,000 users, becoming the?go-to point for single service blogs?(often with NSFW titles) such as "Look at this F---ing Hipster," "STFU, Parents," "Animals with Casts," countless "F--- Yeah"?Tumblogs,??and a collection of infinitely reblogged photo memes such as "Selleck Waterfall Sandwich" and "Jumping Rob Pattinson.

Five years later, the?New York City-based tech company has grown from a content-generating platform to curation central, serving?120 million users and getting 15 billion unique page views every month. These are the numbers CEO David Karp cited from Internet traffic-tracking outfit Quantcast, while discussing Tumblr's evolution Monday at the Digital Life Design Conference in Munich, Germany.

"The early growth that we saw was around creators," Karp told the audience. "Our first community was those creators. We didn?t set out to build a network ... all we wanted to do was make novel tools."

Those novel ? and easy-to-use ? tools took off quickly?however, even though Tumblr originally eschewed the standard social network tools common on similar sites?? such as commenting and tagging ? that more than a few people find annoying.

Nonetheless, Tumblr is now a major influencer in how the distribution of mainstream media is changing. For example, the average Tumblr post is re-blogged on the site nine times, and now features apps for direct posts to Facebook and Twitter.

The content "therefore reaches vastly more people than if it just sat on its original site waiting to be discovered by people visiting it directly," Felix Salmon writes on the Tumblr reblogging phenomenon in his Reuters post, "How sharing disrupts media." "In the future, the most viral stories are going to have a life of their own, being shared across many different platforms and being read by people who will never visit the original site on which they were published."

Probably not that far in the future, either. As Tumblr's "about" page notes, the site now hosts more than 16 billion posts and 42 million blogs. On Monday alone, Tumblr racked up up more than 61 million posts.

via Venturebeat

More on the annoying way we live now:

Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10218733-tumblr-boasts-120m-users-and-15b-page-views-monthly

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Florida Republican debate: Where and when to watch (Washington Post)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/190546027?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Sex poses surprisingly low risk to heart patients (AP)

CHICAGO ? Good news: Sex is safe for most heart patients. If you're healthy enough to walk up two flights of stairs without chest pain or gasping for breath, you can have a love life.

That advice from a leading doctors' group on Thursday addresses one of the most pressing, least discussed issues facing survivors of heart attacks and other heart patients.

In its first science-based recommendations on the subject, the American Heart Association says having sex only slightly raises the chance for a heart attack. And that's true for people with and without heart disease.

Surprisingly, despite the higher risk for a heart patient to have a second attack, there's no evidence that they have more sex-related heart attacks than people without cardiac disease.

Many heart patients don't think twice about climbing stairs, yet many worry that sexual activity will cause another heart attack, or even sudden death, said Dr. Glenn Levine, lead author of a report detailing the recommendations and a professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

The report says sex is something doctors should bring up with all heart patients. Yet few do because they're uncomfortable talking about it or they lack information, Levine said. The new guidance is designed to fill that gap.

Heart patients should get a doctor's OK before engaging in sexual activity. Many may be advised first to do cardiac rehab ? exercise while being monitored for heart symptoms, to improve heart strength and increase physical fitness. But the heart association says most eventually will be cleared to resume sexual activity.

The doctors' group offers advice for heart patients based on scientific research involving sometimes provocative sex-related topics:

_Who's most at risk for sudden death related to sex? Married men having affairs, often with younger women in unfamiliar settings. Those circumstances can add to stress that may increase the risks, evidence from a handful of studies suggests.

_Sex may be OK as soon as one week after a relatively mild heart attack, if patients can walk up a few flights of stairs without discomfort.

_Viagra and other drugs for erectile dysfunction are generally safe for men with stable heart disease.

"The risk of having a heart attack during sexual activity is two to three times higher than when not having sexual activity. However, this increased risk of heart attack during sexual activity represents only a very small part of a person's overall risk of having a heart attack, and sexual activity is the cause of less than 1 percent of all heart attacks," Levine said.

Among heart attack survivors, average risks for another heart attack or sudden death are about 10 in 1 million per hour; having sex increases that to about 20 to 30 in 1 million per hour of sexual activity, the new report says. People without heart disease face lower overall risks for a heart attack, but similar risks for a sex-related attack.

The updated advice was released online Thursday in the heart association journal, Circulation.

Dr. Keith Churchwell, chief medical officer of Vanderbilt University's Heart and Vascular Institute, said the guidance is important for patients, and that questions about sex are the most common ones he hears from heart patients.

Ohio State University heart specialist Martha Gulati praised the recommendations for emphasizing that sexual counseling is important not just for patients but also their partners, who she says are often just as nervous about resuming sexual activity.

Day-care operator Tammy Collins of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, one of Gulati's patients, says the advice is reassuring.

She had a heart attack last year on Sept. 11, during a trip to Cincinnati to celebrate her wedding anniversary.

Collins' mother died of a heart attack at the same age, on her 51st birthday. With high blood pressure and high cholesterol, Collins knew she was at risk. She developed symptoms a few hours after having sex. She dismissed it at first, until she felt a sharp pain in her upper back and had trouble breathing. She was rushed to the hospital and doctors used stents to open blocked arteries.

Collins said she wasn't embarrassed to ask Gulati about sex, who told her it was unlikely that her night of romance had caused the heart attack. After several weeks of cardiac rehab, she was cleared to resume sexual activity ? advice that surprised her friends. But Collins said the exercise sessions have made her feel fitter than ever.

"A heart attack does not have to be the end of living," Collins said.

Chicago cardiologist Dan Fintel, a professor of medicine at Northwestern University, said he routinely gives heart patients a sex talk on their last day in the hospital, knowing that it's likely on their minds.

"Resuming sexual activity is safe and emotionally part of the healing process, with a few caveats," he tells patients.

Those caveats elicit nervous chuckles when he explains that includes no philandering, given evidence about that causing extra stress.

___

Online:

Circulation: http://bit.ly/1mt2UY

___

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

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_he_me/us_med_sex_hearts

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6 killed in Afghanistan were Hawaii-based Marines

U.S. officials say there was no sign of enemy fire and the crash is still under investigation. NBC's Lester Holt reports.

By msnbc.com staff and news services

HONOLULU -- All six Marines killed in the crash of a U.S. helicopter in Afghanistan were based in Hawaii, a Hawaii congresswoman said Friday.

The CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopter crashed Thursday in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand.

U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said Friday she's saddened to hear of the deaths. Her spokeswoman, Ashley Nagaoka Boylan, said the congresswoman was notified Thursday evening that all six Marines were Hawaii-based.

---

"All who have called Hawaii home are part of our island ohana, and every loss like this touches us deeply," Hanabusa said in a statement, using the Hawaiian word for family.

The commander of Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 363, ?Lt. Col. Mark Revor, said on the unit's Facebook page that all six killed were from the Kaneohe-based unit, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.

France considers early withdrawal from Afghanistan

A senior U.S. defense official confirmed all six were Marines on condition of anonymity because the U.S. command in Afghanistan had not yet publicly released details.

Family members identified one of those killed?as Marine Cpl. Kevin Reinhard, 25, of the Colonia section of Woodbridge, the Newark Star-Ledger reported. Reinhard was a 2005 graduate of St. Joseph High School in Metuchen.

An obituary written by his family and provided to The Star-Ledger?said Reinhard, based in Hawaii, was a crew chief who served on Sikorsky Sea Stallion helicopters.

"For his family and friends he was already a hero ... before he ever put on a uniform for his country," his relatives wrote. "The uniform only announced to the rest of the world what a wonderful man, what a wonderful soul he was ? that he was a hero for all of us."

Arkansas family loses second son in Afghanistan

Reinhard joined the Marine Corps in 2008 and was with Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 363, the Lucky Red Lions.

The unit deployed in late August to southern Afghanistan and?is scheduled?to return home in March, Hawaii News Now reported. The unit's mission is to provide assault support, transport Marines and critical supplies, as well as equipment during expeditionary operations

The CH-53D, a?Vietnam War-era helicopter, is the same model as one that crashed and killed a Marine in a bay off Hawaii on March 29. An investigation later revealed mechanical failure caused that accident.

The defense official said there is no indication that the helicopter in Afghanistan was hit by enemy fire.

'Tragic news'
Thursday's crash was the deadliest in Afghanistan since August, when 30 American troops died after a Chinook helicopter was apparently shot down in Wardak province in the center of the country.

The cause of the latest crash is still being investigated, but a statement issued by the NATO international military coalition said there was no enemy activity in the area when it happened.

German Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, a spokesman for the NATO coalition in Kabul, said officials were looking at a "technical fault" as the possible culprit.

"The helicopter is one of the safest forms of transport," Jacobson said. He said not only does it protect troops the danger of roadside bombs on the ground, but it is well-tested, well-proven way to travel.

Previous story: 6 Marines die in Afghanistan copter crash

CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters were first used in the 1960s, and the Marine Corps used them in the Vietnam War.

All Sea Stallions still used operationally are stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay. The military plans to replace them with the MV-22 Osprey.

"The loss of the six U.S. Marines in yesterday's helicopter crash in Afghanistan comes as tragic news for our island community and our nation," U.S. Rep. Mazie K. Hirono, of Hawaii, said in a statement. "We owe them and all of our brave servicemen and women a debt of gratitude for their dedication to our country."

In 2005, the same base lost 27 Marines when a CH-53E Super Stallion deployed to Iraq crashed during a desert sandstorm. Altogether, 30 Marines and a Navy medic were killed in that crash.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

?

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10201881-6-killed-in-afghanistan-were-hawaii-based-marines

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This Deadly Jet Boat Is a Pirate's Worst Nightmare [Monster Machines]

Ninjas have been usurped as the number one threat to pirates. The new "Ghost" high-speed attack vessel from Juliet Marine Systems is going to severely f*ck some scallywags up. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/EvgfOBrrMVs/this-deadly-jet-boat-is-a-pirates-worst-nightmare

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Rock Hall of Fame opens archives to public (AP)

CLEVELAND ? The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum opened its new library and archives to the public on Tuesday to give scholars and fans access to the stories behind the music through such "artifacts" as personal letters from Madonna and Aretha Franklin and 1981-82 video of the Rolling Stones tour.

The collection, catalogued over the last few years, includes more than 3,500 books, 1,400 audio recordings and 270 videos, and is housed in the new four-story, $12 million building.

Thousands more books and recordings and hundreds of videos will be added as previously stored items and new donations are catalogued, said Andy Leach, director of the library and archives.

"We hope to serve music scholars, teachers, students and the general public," Leach said. "We hope to see all of them here."

Tuesday's opening of the building on the Cuyahoga Community College campus in Cleveland, not far from the Rock Hall, occurred without a lot of fanfare. The low-key opening allows the public to enjoy the library before a grand opening April 9. The college funded the building, which the library and archives share with the college's Center for Creative Arts. The Rock Hall financed construction and furnishings of the interior of its section of the building.

The library also offers photos, albums and covers, oral histories and scrap books.

Leach said the Rock Hall has done a great job of telling the story of rock `n' roll. He said he sees the library as bringing the museum more recognition and showing "it to be a serious place of research."

The library collection also includes movie posters, photos and memorabilia related to Alan Freed, the DJ credited with coining the phrase rock `n' roll; a handwritten list by Elvis Presley of songs included in one of his concerts; and personal letters from artists including Mick Jagger.

Visitors will not be allowed to check out items, but anyone can use the library reading room to browse through books, listen to audio recordings and watch videos. A smaller archives reading room allows supervised access to certain items.

Steve Waksman, an associate professor of music and American studies at Smith College in Massachusetts, did research at the library prior to its opening for his book on the history of American live music.

"It was very useful, with material that I haven't found anywhere else," Waksman said Tuesday. "They had a lot of material regarding the stage sets of music performers from the `60s and the `70s, such as David Bowie and the Rolling Stones."

Elizabeth Papp Taylor, 53, of Shaker Heights, was at the library opening day.

"I'm looking forward to coming back for a look at the archives, but my first visit was exciting," she said in a phone interview. "It's very impressive."

___(equals)

Online:

http://library.rockhall.com/

___

Information from: The Plain Dealer, http://www.cleveland.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_en_mu/us_rock_archives

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Video: Big-hearted duchess supports small charities

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45883707#45883707

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Cokie Robert's Iowa Caucus Prediction (ABC News)

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Chinese video websites in court as industry grows

BEIJING (AP) ? China's two biggest video websites are fighting in court over accusations they are misusing each other's programming as rivalry heats up in an industry that is luring viewers from bland state TV.

The conflict between Youku.com Inc. and Tudou Inc. is part of a struggle for dominance in an online market with nearly 400 million viewers and dozens of privately owned outlets that might represent the future of China's video watching and a lucrative advertising stream.

"Everybody is shooting for that golden demographic ? the young people who are just out of school, have a lot of disposable income and that watch online video instead of television," said David Wolf, a marketing consultant in Beijing.

China's video websites started out imitating YouTube, relying on users to upload cat videos and other free material. But to lock in affluent viewers, the most ambitious started to imitate TV stations, paying to import foreign programs or create their own.

Still more viewers might be driven to video websites by a new government campaign to clean up China's airwaves and promote "socialist core values."

Rules that took effect Sunday strike at a hugely popular market segment for China's ambitious local broadcasters by slashing the number of reality, talent and dating shows they can show on satellite channels. State media say the number of prime-time entertainment shows plunged from 126 in December to just 38 this week.

That hurts local stations just as rising revenues allow online rivals to produce even more content, highlighted by the court fight between Youku and Tudou.

In a Dec. 16 lawsuit, Youku accused Tudou of stealing 60 of its programs including serials called "The Emperor's Harem," ''Hip-Hop Office Quartet" and "Miss Puff."

Tudou says it has filed suit in Shanghai and Beijing accusing Youku of showing a Taiwanese series, "Kangxi Has Come," after Tudou obtained rights to it. The company claims Youku showed Japanese cartoons without the owner's permission.

The companies, both of which have shares traded on U.S. exchanges, accuse each other of trying to use legal claims to gain a competitive edge.

"Youku think they can live on free traffic without paying for the content," said Tudou CEO Gary Wang in a statement, "and they are trying to hide the fact that they are actually not as competitive as they pretend to be."

Both companies reject the accusations in the lawsuits.

"Tudou is playing games," said a Youku spokeswoman, Jean Shao.

Beijing has allowed such private companies to flourish with fewer of the controls imposed on China's entirely state-owned newspapers, TV and radio, possibly to avoid stifling what is seen as a promising high-tech industry.

Their surging popularity threatens to erode viewership for state TV, which Beijing sees as a tool to mold public opinion. That raises the threat communist leaders might tighten controls to protect their media presence.

Tighter regulation might "threaten private online video sites' very existence, and put investors at risk," said CMM Intelligence, a media consulting firm in Beijing, in a March report.

Chinese video websites make money from advertising and also have pay-per-view and other premium services. But while viewership and revenue are soaring, companies are losing money as costs for programs, marketing and Internet bandwidth rise.

The number of Chinese who watch online video jumped from 284 million in 2010 to 394 million in 2011, according to CMM Intelligence. It said the total might pass 445 million by the end of 2012.

Total industry revenue rose 139 percent over a year ago in the three months ending in September to 1.5 billion yuan ($238 million), according to Analysys International, a research firm. Youku had 25.6 percent of the market and Tudou 14.5 percent. Sohu Video, part of Internet portal Sohu Corp., was close behind at 13.3 percent.

Youku, founded in 2006, says it gets 200 million visitors a month. It reported quarterly revenues surged 129 percent over a year earlier but it still reported a 47.5 million yuan ($7.4 million) loss. Tudou, which says it has 90 million registered users, lost 55.6 million yuan ($8.7 million) despite a 52 percent jump in revenue.

Other outlets include Ku6.com, with shares traded in United States, and LeTV, listed on the Shanghai stock market.

Youku has a venture with state-owned China Telecom Ltd. to distribute video on mobile phones and announced a deal in August to show DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc.'s "Kung Fu Panda" movies on its premium service. Tudou said in November it will show TV Tokyo Corp.'s animated series online one hour after they air in Japan.

Online video also gives foreign broadcasters access to China, where they are barred from most cable systems. Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks, the Discovery Channel and others have struck deals with partners such as search engine Baidu Inc. to distribute programs.

Managers of China Central Television and local state-owned broadcasters have tried to become more commercial. But the government bars foreign programs from prime time and any material deemed racy or vulgar, leading to a schedule heavy with family-friendly but dull historical sagas and variety shows.

Video websites, with looser controls, show dramas and comedies from the United States, Taiwan and Europe and their own programs. Viewers can download shows to watch on mobile phones during their morning subway ride.

Neither the government nor private researchers have reported on how many online viewers might have abandoned state TV outright.

"We all know it's taking place but nobody wants to go out and publicize the data," said Wolf, chairman of Wolf Group Asia. "The online video guys are terrified that if there are statistics that show the 'golden demographic' dropping TV to watch online video, then the government is going to come after them."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-05-AS-China-Online-Video-Battle/id-015fb598838948afa93f0b1ab350ca84

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