শনিবার, ৩১ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

Gene identified in increasing pancreatic cancer risk

ScienceDaily (Dec. 29, 2011) ? Mutations in the ATM gene may increase the hereditary risk for pancreatic cancer, according to data published in Cancer Discovery, the newest journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most morbid cancers, with less than 5 percent of those diagnosed with the disease surviving to five years. Approximately 10 percent of patients come from families with multiple cases of pancreatic cancer.

"There was significant reason to believe this clustering was due to genetics, but we had not, to this point, been able to find the causative genes that explained the cluster of pancreatic cancer for a majority of these families," said lead author Alison Klein, Ph.D., associate professor of oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins and director of the National Familial Pancreas Tumor Registry.

Klein and colleagues used next-generation sequencing, including whole genome and whole exome analyses, and identified ATM gene mutations in two kindreds with familial pancreatic cancer.

When these initial findings were examined in a large series for patients, ATM mutations were present in four of 166 subjects with pancreatic cancer but were absent in 190 spousal control subsets.

Klein said that knowledge of the presence of the ATM gene could lead to better screening for pancreatic cancer, the fourth most common cause of cancer-related death. However, there are currently no recommended screening tests.

Many doctors use endoscopy as a screening tool for pancreatic cancer, but researchers are still evaluating this technique in clinical trials.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/M_sa0LEQ6ag/111229091834.htm

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শুক্রবার, ৩০ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

Arsenal Hero: It Pains me, But With Bale Tottenham are London?s No.1

Arsenal legend Martin Keown believes Tottenham are now the finest team in London and that is largely down to the fact that Harry Redknapp retained Luka Modric and Gareth Bale in the summer.

Tottenham are currently five points clear of Arsenal and four ahead of Chelsea having played a game less than their London rivals, and the aforementioned Keown believes Redknapp's side are evidently winning the battle of the London juggernauts this season.

Where Arsenal lost Samir Nasri and captain Cesc Fabregas, Tottenham retained their two leading players in Bale and Modric despite apparent interest, and Keown believes that has made the difference between Arsene Wenger and Harry Redknapp's respective sides this season.

Keown believes Bale in particular has been instrumental in Tottenham's rise up the Premier League and is inevitably the envy of their rivals Arsenal and Chelsea, both of whom will be hoping Barcelona sign the White Hart Lane star in the not too distant future according to the former Gunners' stalwart.

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"While Spurs kept two players, Arsenal lost two." The former Highbury stalwart told the Daily Mail when discussing where the supremacy lies in London at the moment.

"That has made a significant difference to the teams (Tottenham and Arsenal).

"(Gareth) Bale is not an international globetrotter, which helps. He seems happy to play for Harry, when he could be in the Barcelona team now. One day he will be. Arsenal and Chelsea will be very happy when that day arrives. Bale plays like he has two engines. An incredible sight."

The Arsenal hero concluded: "With Bale, as much as it pains me to say it, they (Tottenham) will finish No 1 in London. Parker has been significant, too, but I still don't think Spurs will go higher than this current position."?

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Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/273897/20111229/arsenal-hero-pains-bale-tottenham-london-s.htm

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সোমবার, ২৬ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

Event Network selects Microsoft Dynamics NAV, LS Retail solutions

RBR Staff Writer Published 26 December 2011

Event Network, a US-based cultural attraction retail operator, has selected Microsoft Dynamics NAV and LS Retail as its enterprise resource planning (ERP) and retail operations software systems.

Radiant Techonolgies will support the retail operator through the process of implementing Microsoft Dynamics NAV and LS Retail for all national operations.

The latest technology solutions will help struggling Event Network in managing multiple disparate systems, including financial management, store replenishment planning, POS, and inventory management.

Event Network will also focus on its aggressive growth strategy, which includes providing guest experience and achieving the maximum retail potential for their partners' cultural attractions.

Source: http://retailtechnology.retail-business-review.com/news/event-network-selects-microsoft-dynamics-nav-ls-retail-solutions-261211

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And The Winner Of The Bob Feller 2001 Topps Archives Baseball Card Is?

post from 30-Year Old Cardboard on 24 December 2011 01:30:33 AM. ? 30-Year Old Cardboard



And The Winner Of The Bob Feller 2001 Topps Archives Baseball Card Is? Spiegel 83 Congratulations. Here is one more look at the prize: And here is how the winner was selected using a randomizer: Spiegel83, I have sent you ? Continue reading ?

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রবিবার, ২৫ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

Samsung Galaxy S, Galaxy Tab 7-incher Won?t Be Getting Ice Cream Sandwich

Samsung addressed some of the mystery surrounding its Ice Cream Sandwich rollouts on Friday, and the news isn’t good.
The latest flavor of the Android OS won’t be arriving on Samsung’s Galaxy S smartphone, or on its 7-inch Galaxy Tab tablet. These devices won’t be getting the update because they lack the RAM and ROM requirements [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/CYvPYpICkHI/

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শনিবার, ২৪ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

Israel: Israeli students to visit #LHC in #Switzerland, and will be among the first students to do so - Ynet. http://t.co/YAjXRTJD #Israel #Research

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Israeli students to visit #LHC in #Switzerland, and will be among the first students to do so - Ynet. dld.bz/a87WW #Israel #Research Israel

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Source: http://twitter.com/Israel/statuses/150608828331851776

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শুক্রবার, ২৩ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

China hackers breached U.S. Chamber of Commerce: report (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Hackers in China broke through the computer defenses of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last year and were able to access information about its operations and its 3 million members, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

In Beijing, China dismissed the report.

The Journal, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter, reported the operation against the top American business lobbying group involved at least 300 internet addresses and was discovered and shut down in May 2010.

The newspaper reported it was not known how much information was seen by the hackers, or who may have had access to the network for more than a year before being discovered.

The group behind the breach is suspected by the United States of having ties to the Chinese government, one of the sources told the newspaper. The FBI informed the Chamber of Commerce that servers in China were pilfering its information, the source said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin dismissed the report.

"There's nothing to be said about the baseless whipping up of so-called hacking and it won't come to anything," he told a daily news briefing in Beijing. "Chinese law bans hacking."

The Chamber of Commerce employs 450 people and represents business interests in Congress, including most of the largest U.S. corporations.

The newspaper reported that the emails revealed the names of companies and key people in contact with the Chamber, as well as trade-policy documents, meeting notes, trip reports and schedules.

"What was unusual about it was that this was clearly somebody very sophisticated, who knew exactly who we are and who targeted specific people and used sophisticated tools to try to gather intelligence," the group's chief operating officer, David Chavern, told the Journal.

China is often cited as a suspect in various hacking attacks on U.S. targets. In August, the Pentagon warned in a report to Congress that hacking from China could one day be used for overt military means.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/security/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111221/wr_nm/us_usa_china_hacking

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Kindle Adds Periodicals to iOS Apps: But Will Consumers Read Them? (Mashable)

Amazon updated its Kindle app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch Wednesday, giving users access to their periodical subscriptions and cloud-stored documents for the first time. Previously, users could only use the Kindle app to read -- and, before Apple changed its guidelines, buy -- ebooks on those devices. Having access to documents stored on Amazon is handy, but iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch owners will find little reason to begin reading their newspapers and magazines through the Kindle app [iTunes link]. That's because:

[More from Mashable: Apple in 2011: A Bittersweet Year for Tech?s Most Valuable Company]

1) They're likely already paying to get access to their favorite newspapers and magazines on those devices, or getting them for free as part of their print subscriptions, and therefore have no incentive to pay for a second subscription through Amazon.

2) Most major magazines already have designated apps for the iPhone and iPad, and those apps (in most cases) offer a superior user experience. They're optimized for both screen sizes, and come with a host of bells and whistles -- links, slideshows, audio interviews, interactive graphics -- that aren't available in the Kindle app version.

[More from Mashable: Apple Recall Replaces First Generation iPod Nanos With Sixth Generation Nanos [VIDEO]]

Take a look at The Atlantic on the Kindle iPhone app, for instance, which has no navigation and virtually no formatting. Leading images sometimes bleed into the text of the previous story, and bullet points, italics and font sizes aren't rendered at all:

And here's Popular Mechanics on its iPad app (left two images) and on the Kindle iPad app (right image). Note how the story has been divided into two pages on the magazine's iPad app (left) to make it easier to read:

The update will be useful to one very small subset of users: Those who already subscribe to newspapers and magazines through the Kindle Store, and would like to have their periodicals synced between their Kindle device and their Apple devices. Those users can now take in a few pages on their iPhones in line for lunch, and pick up at the same place on their Kindle Fires at home, for the price of two subscriptions.

Of course, this is not to say that Amazon won't ever be able to build a useful newsstand on for iOS devices, or that magazine publishers won't wise up and start bundling all of their digital subscriptions together, including those offered through the Kindle Store. But for now, there's nothing for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch owners to get too excited about.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/mashable/20111221/tc_mashable/kindle_adds_periodicals_to_ios_apps_but_will_consumers_read_them

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২২ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

Libyan leader returns to University of Washington (AP)

SEATTLE ? One morning last February, Ali Tarhouni, a professor at the University of Washington's business school, gave his microeconomics students some startling news: He wouldn't be teaching them anymore. He was off to help with the Libyan revolution.

He returned to the university for a brief visit Tuesday following a 10-month absence that saw him serve as the oil and finance minister in the transitional government, hold the hand of a dying 14-year-old boy, and stand bitterly over the battered corpse of Moammar Gadhafi.

"A year ago at this time, I was thinking about what coffee shop would I go to to have a good cup of coffee," Tarhouni said at a news conference. "I've seen a lot of death this last nine months. ... You see a lot of courage, a lot of pain, a lot of pride."

Tarhouni, 60, was exiled from Libya in the 1970s, after he and other students pressed for greater democracy and reforms, and he told his students that he had been on Gadhafi's hit list for three decades.

He earned a doctorate from Michigan State University in 1983 before coming to the University of Washington's Foster School of Business, where he has taught since 1985. He kept pressing for greater freedoms in Libya, without success, and when the revolution finally came, he said, his wife and children knew he would go.

Tarhouni soon found himself heading the oil and finance ministries in the transitional government, backed by rebels who knew his credentials could bring them added legitimacy in the West. He won credit with journalists by speaking honestly about the difficulties and disorganization the rebels faced in those tumultuous days, and became one of the most visible and internationally respected figures in the transitional government.

He declined to continue serving in the government, though, and criticized the country's new leadership as unrepresentative of the populace ? a government he described as unduly influenced by foreign powers, an apparent reference to meddling by Qatar. But on Tuesday he described it as a good government, and said he would continue working to form a new, broad, democratic political party.

"There's really no manual for building a state from scratch," he said. "What makes it really tough is ? we're hoping, we're dreaming, and I believe strongly we will succeed in building a democratic society ? but there's really no history of democracy in Libya. ... I thought I could serve it better by building this political movement."

It isn't clear whether Tarhouni will return to teaching. His stay in Seattle to see his wife and grown children will last just a week.

Among the most memorable moments of his return to Libya from exile were standing in the capital, Tripoli, and declaring it to be free, as well as holding the hand of a crying, injured 14-year-old supporter of Gadhafi, he said.

"I told him, `You're not my enemy,'" Tarhouni said. "He died three hours later."

He was less saddened by the death of Gadhafi.

"I stood over his corpse the same day he was killed," he said. "I thought of the comrades and friends who died in prison and never saw this day. ... I couldn't believe this ugly corpse did this damage to Libya."

Within 15 seconds of getting back in his car, though, he realized Gadhafi was no longer on his mind. There were other things to think of.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111221/ap_on_re_us/us_libya_leader

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সোমবার, ১৯ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

One village at a time in Haiti

The Boca Grande Hope for Haitians Committee raises funds to build self-sustaining villages complete with schools and water-treatment facilities in Haiti.

? A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.

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On the west coast of Haiti, about 60 miles northwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince, retired businessman Ben Scott has helped deliver what he calls a ?new lease on life.?

Mr. Scott helped to raise $600,000 to build the Boca Grande Friendship Village, a self-sustaining village that includes about 60 homes, a village school, a water-treatment facility, and a five-room vocational school. It also boasts 750 newly planted fruit trees, a community garden, a chicken house, and a cattle farm.

Food for the Poor, based in Florida, coordinated the construction. Scott serves as chairman of Boca Grande Hope for Haitians Committee, which raised the funds. The committee?s next project, Scott says, will be a village for 40 Haitian families now barely surviving on seasonal agriculture in Michaud, not far from Port-au-Prince.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/z7y2h6KmC3o/One-village-at-a-time-in-Haiti

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রবিবার, ১৮ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

Global stocks mixed, euro flat on downgrade fears (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? World stocks were mixed and the euro was flat on Friday as worries about downgrades of weaker euro zone countries curbed risk appetite, pushing aside an improved outlook on the U.S. economy.

Volume was below average across financial markets heading into the weekend. Trading was choppy as perceived risky assets gave up much of their initial gains.

Anxiety over potential ratings downgrades in European sovereign debt and their repercussion on the region's banks underpinned safety bids for U.S. and German government bonds.

Fitch Ratings on Friday placed Belgium, Cyprus, France, Ireland, Italy, Slovenia and Spain on watch for possible downgrade and warned that a comprehensive solution to this festering problem is "technically and politically beyond reach".

It affirmed France's AAA-rating but could strip the second-biggest euro zone economy of its top-notch rating in two years.

Fitch's rating move and dire warning about Europe trumped optimism about the U.S. economy following recent upbeat data.

Government data released on Friday showed U.S. inflation pressure waning, fanning expectations the Federal Reserve could do more to boost economic growth. The latest consumer price report followed data on Thursday suggesting a possible pick-up in job growth, which has been meager during the current recovery.

Investor fears about the euro zone debt crisis persist as European leaders have not delivered more measures to contain the crisis after promising increased fiscal disciple at a summit in Brussels last week.

"There remains a great deal of concern about the direction of the euro zone," said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist at BNY Mellon in New York. "We're still not trading on fundamentals and haven't been for some time."

The MSCI world equity index rose 0.3 percent after hitting a three-week low on Thursday. The index is still down 3.5 percent on the week.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) closed down 2.42 points, or 0.02 percent, at 11,866.39. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) was up 3.91 points, or 0.32 percent, at 1,219.66. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was up 14.32 points, or 0.56 percent, at 2,555.33.

On the week, the Dow fell 2.7 percent; the S&P lost 2.9 percent and the Nasdaq declined 3.5 percent. (.N)

European stocks (.FTEU3) ended down 0.5 percent, erasing earlier gains on selling tied to expiration of options contracts. They finished 2.9 percent lower on the week.

Tokyo's Nikkei (.N225) ended up 0.3 percent, reducing its weekly drop to 1.6 percent.

The euro clung to the $1.30 area versus the dollar after falling to 11-month lows on Wednesday. The 17-nation common currency was poised to close up 0.1 percent against the greenback after touching a high of $1.3084. It lost 2.6 percent against the dollar on the week.

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For full multimedia coverage: http://r.reuters.com/xyt94s

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PERIPHERAL YIELDS STAY HIGH

Long-term borrowing costs for Italy and Spain, whose heavy debt loads have worried investors and rating agencies, fell early in the trading day. That helped to steady the euro and briefly boosted European shares.

But they ratcheted back up to alarmingly high levels, with the yield on 10-year Italian government bonds creeping back above 7 percent, which analysts deem unsustainable for the euro zone's third-biggest economy to pay.

Italy faces a confidence vote in parliament, called to speed up approval of a 33 billion euro ($43 billion) austerity package aimed at restoring investor confidence.

Amid these political developments, worries linger about the euro zone debt crisis and have supported U.S. Treasuries and German Bunds. They pushed aside optimism about the U.S. economy and hopes the European Central Bank will ultimately step in to buy bonds of troubled euro zone peripheral countries.

Bund futures ended up 1 point at 138.66 at their highest in four weeks. Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes were up 17/32 in price for a yield of 1.85 percent, touching their lowest levels in early October.

Gold, another traditional safehaven asset, snapped a four-day losing streak tied to fund liquidation.

Spot bullion in London ended up 1.5 percent at $1,593.68 an ounce after touching the lowest level since late September on Thursday. For the week, gold fell 6.8 percent, the biggest weekly decline since late September.

The oil market struggled to hold early gains on nagging worries about the euro zone crisis causing a global economic slowdown. February Brent crude futures settled down 25 cents at $103.35 a barrel, while spot U.S. oil futures settled down 34 cents at $93.53, briefly falling below their 300-day moving average.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111217/bs_nm/us_markets_global

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With A Crisp $10M In His Pockets, ?Founder?s Den? Founder Launches Security App ?AirCover?

JJonFDcouch colorOn his second startup out of his incubator?Founder's Den, and perhaps proof that the Founder's Den model works, serial entrepreneur Jason Johnson is today launching the first app out of his new utility app startup BlueSprig. An app for app lovers -- and those suffering from app fatigue -- AirCover is a security service for both iOS and Android that basically aims to replace another eight apps on your phone.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/jJ-aj4GDT_Q/

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শনিবার, ১৭ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

Investment in China falls amid world doldrums

A shopper, right, buys vegetables from a vender in Shanghai, China, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. Chinese leaders are pledging to seek stable and more balanced growth while fighting inflation, ending a top-level economic planning session without major shifts in policy. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A shopper, right, buys vegetables from a vender in Shanghai, China, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. Chinese leaders are pledging to seek stable and more balanced growth while fighting inflation, ending a top-level economic planning session without major shifts in policy. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A worker cleans a building in Shanghai, China, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A butcher, left, prepares the meat for a shopper in Shanghai, China, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. Chinese leaders are pledging to seek stable and more balanced growth while fighting inflation, ending a top-level economic planning session without major shifts in policy. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

(AP) ? Foreign investment in China fell nearly 10 percent in November in the latest evidence of the rising toll that weakness in the West is taking on the world's No. 2 economy.

The $8.8 billion in foreign direct investment in November ? down 9.8 percent from a year earlier ? was a sudden deterioration compared with an increase of 8.8 percent in October, the Commerce Ministry said. Foreign direct investment covers spending on physical assets such as factories and doesn't include financial assets such as stocks.

Exports, industrial production and property dealings are slowing, and China's leaders wrapped up their annual economic planning conference on Wednesday with statements suggesting they will be more pro-active in moving to fend off the chill from the European debt crisis.

With the European Union ? China's largest export market ? in the doldrums, Commerce Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang described trade prospects as "grim."

"The impact of the global economic climate means the foreign trade environment is very severe," Shen said. He said China would step up efforts to encourage imports and boost exports by focusing on faster growing regions such as Russia and other emerging economies.

Export growth has fallen steadily since hitting a peak of nearly 36 percent in March, and economists are forecasting foreign trade will be a drag on growth next year.

Foreign direct investment in January-November rose 13.2 percent to $103.8 billion ? a slowing from the 15.9 percent increase seen in January-October, when total foreign direct investment was $95 billion.

An 18 percent increase in investment from other Asian economies to $89.6 billion, helped to offset a 23 percent decline in U.S. spending this year, as of the end of November, to $2.74 billion. Investment from the EU held steady, edging up 0.3 percent from a year earlier to $5.98 billion.

At their yearly economic work conference, Chinese leaders pledged fine-tuning to ensure stable and more balanced growth while fighting inflation, but offered no major shifts in policy.

The gathering endorsed the ruling communist party's agenda for keeping a "prudent" monetary policy to counter inflation and a "pro-active" fiscal policy to support growth.

It also pledged to keep curbs on the property sector in place to guard against a rebound in prices, and called for keeping the value of China's currency, the yuan, "basically stable," according to a statement issued by the official Xinhua News Agency.

China plans to prop up falling exports by setting up special trade "bases" and aiding exporters in inland areas, which have lagged behind the richer coastal regions, state media cited Commerce Ministry officials as saying.

Tax cuts and increased government spending in key areas such as high-tech and energy are also likely, though analysts say they do not expect stimulus comparable to the 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) package deployed in response to the 2008 global crisis.

By targeting specific sectors, authorities aim to prevent the sort of runaway investment, driven by bank lending, that drove inflation to 6.5 percent in July and has left housing prices prone to inflate into financially risky bubbles.

With labor unrest flaring and financial conditions deteriorating across many sectors, from small companies to government-backed building projects, Beijing's mantra is "stability."

That word was repeated five times in just one sentence of the official dispatch that vowed continuity in policies for the sake of keeping social stability.

An expected transition next year to a new generation of communist leaders has accentuated Beijing's obsession with keeping control.

China's economy grew 9.1 percent in July-September but is expected to slow to below 9 percent growth in the coming year, as weaker demand at home compounds the impact from fragile conditions in Europe and the United States.

Given the weakness in demand for Chinese exports overseas, the leaders reiterated their intention to boost domestic demand to build an economy less dependent on foreign trade and investment.

___

Follow Elaine Kurtenbach on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ekurtenbachsh

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-12-15-AS-China-Economy/id-cb81e79c543f4a969af37fb695edda42

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It's the cable guys! Antarctic ice wired

One of the most desolate spots on Earth recently got a visit from one of the most elusive characters on Earth ? the cable guy. Four very high-tech and capable cable guys, to be specific.

A small team of scientists recently installed a fiber-optic cable in the Ross Ice Shelf, a colossal plain of floating ice larger than the state of California that clings to the edge of Antarctica, straddling a massive bay between the eastern and western halves of the continent.

The cable, more than half a mile (1 kilometer) in length, is threaded straight down through 600 feet (200 meters) of solid ice and 2,000 feet (600 m) of water to dangle above the seafloor.

The fiber-optic cable is "like the kind that goes to your television or computer," said project leader David Holland, a professor at New York University, and was set in place so that the giant ice plain can, in essence, make phone calls to his office in Manhattan, and tell him what things are like in the ocean underneath it.

Holland and three colleagues ? an NYU graduate student and researchers from Ohio State University and the University of Nevada ? spent two weeks living out on the ice, sleeping in tiny tents to complete the pilot project, which is a year-long test run for the technology.

"You can measure the temperature on a fiber-optic cable at every meter," Holland told OurAmazingPlanet. "With this technology you can 'watch' the ice shelf," he said.

It took three days of drilling to bore a tiny hole just 2 inches (3 centimeters) across into the ice to complete the installation, which was sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Loquacious ocean
A nifty suite of instruments sits atop the ice shelf, connected to the fiber-optic cable ? a data logger, a low-power laser and a modem ? powered by solar panels, wind turbines and batteries to get through the dark winter months, Holland said.

Every three hours, a modem on the roof of Holland's NYU building calls up the modem parked on the Antarctic ice to get a full rundown of temperatures throughout the ice shelf and, far more important, the ocean below.

So who wants to talk to a chatty ice shelf about its watery nether regions? Just about anyone who studies the mechanisms driving the significant changes observed in Antarctic ice. Research has revealed that warm ocean water gnawing away at ice shelves is a key player in unprecedented losses to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet over the last two decades.

"The temperature of the water underneath the ice shelves and the rate that water circulates in the ocean cavities underneath the ice shelves are the major determinants of the mass balance at the bottom of the ice shelves ? in other words, how fast they're melting at the bottom," said Stan Jacobs, an oceanographer at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

Ice shelves act as door stops for glaciers ? which are, essentially, slow-moving rivers of ice ?? and slow glaciers' inexorable march into the sea. When ice shelves thin, or completely disappear, glaciers speed up.

"That moves more ice more rapidly into the ocean, and of course that has sea-level implications," Jacobs told OurAmazingPlanet.

Satellites have glimpsed changes in ice shelves, and even their disappearance ? the dramatic collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula made headlines in 2002 ? yet they can't see underneath them to capture the details concerning how warm ocean water is taking a toll.

Holland said the fiber-optic cable can operate for many years at a time, delivering a steady stream of data on temperature conditions in the ocean under the ice shelf.

Jacobs, who was not associated with the project, said that getting temperature data during the winter months, when the darkness and brutal conditions make field work impossible, would be valuable.

"You'd like to have year-round measurements, and once you have year-round measurements, you'd like to have them more than one year," Jacobs said. "We already know that properties and circulation (of the water) change from one year to the next."

Testing, testing
Holland said that so far, the data indicate things are pretty stable under the Ross Ice Shelf, which is precisely what he expected. Unlike its neighbors in western Antarctica, the ice shelf doesn't appear to be suffering any losses.?

"This was not necessarily the most important place to go," Holland said, "but it's a smart idea for testing the technology." The ice shelf is next door to McMurdo Station, the largest of the United States' three research stations in Antarctica.

"If it works for one year, it will be a proven technology ? and if it's good I would ask that it be installed elsewhere," Holland said.

Jacobs said that ice shelves in the Amundsen Sea, particularly the Pine Island Glacier Ice Shelf, are of most concern to scientists, because they appear to be melting rapidly.

The glaciers in this western region of Antarctica are responsible for about 7 percent of annual global sea level rise, and of those speedy glaciers, the Pine Island Glacier is moving the fastest, at a clip of about 2.5 miles (4 km) per year.

A team of scientists is currently camping out on the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf to get some of the first precise measurements of temperature beneath it, yet they will have to pack up and go home when Antarctic winter approaches.

Although drilling into a giant piece of ice clinging to a continent at the bottom of the world may appear frivolous to some, Holland said, the research is important.

"It's just one element in a puzzle," he said. The ultimate goal is to hand over enough puzzle pieces to climate modelers, Holland said, because it's clear that changes in the atmosphere are driving changes in Antarctic ice, and changes in Antarctic ice drive changes in global sea level.

"If you talk to one individual, they're working on some piece of the puzzle around the change," he said. "No one piece is more important than the other, but if one piece is ignored you can't figure out this story."

Reach Andrea Mustain at amustain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @AndreaMustain.Follow OurAmazingPlanet for the latest in Earth science and exploration news on Twitter @OAPlanet and on Facebook.

? 2011 OurAmazingPlanet. All rights reserved. More from OurAmazingPlanet.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45690009/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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শুক্রবার, ১৬ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

Revealed: Why court cleared Amanda Knox

Raffaelle Sollecito, the former lover of Amanda Knox, spoke candidly on Italian TV about his relationship with the American student and the "cruel injustice" that destroyed their love, saying they will always be linked by tragedy.

By msnbc.com staff and news services

UPDATED?3 p.m. ET

The Associated Press?offers more details about the appeals court ruling:

MILAN, Italy -- The Italian appeals court that overturned Amanda Knox's murder conviction in the slaying of her British roommate gave the reasons for its ruling on Thursday: the evidence that had been used by a lower court against the American and her Italian boyfriend just didn't hold up.


Those shortcomings included no murder weapon, faulty DNA, an inaccurate time for the killing, and insufficient proof that Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were even at the location where the crime occurred. So said the Perugia appellate court in its long-awaited reasoning behind its October ruling that reversed the lower court's convictions.

British college student Meredith Kercher was found slain in a pool of blood on her bedroom floor in Perugia, Italy, on Nov. 2, 2007.

Knox and Sollecito, who had just begun dating at the time of the murder, were arrested several days later, then convicted in what prosecutors' portrayed as a drug-fueled sexual assault. They were sentenced to 26 years and 25 years, respectively, in proceedings that made headlines around the world.

On Thursday, the appellate cited among the other failed elements of the prosecutors' case DNA evidence, which was undermined during a re-examination in the appeals trial, and the failure to conclusively identify the murder weapon. The appellate court even contradicted the lower court's time of death, saying it happened at around 10:15 p.m., not after 11 p.m. The court said the "building blocks" used to construct the case had failed.

The appeals court also said there was no proof of the prosecutors' claim that Knox and Sollecito had helped a third man, who was convicted separately, of sexually assault Kercher, nor was there evidence that the pair had simulated a burglary by throwing a rock through a window to remove suspicion from themselves, as prosecutors alleged.

The appeals court said the lower court had arrived at a verdict "that was not corroborated by any objective element of evidence and in itself was not, in fact probable: the sudden choice of two young people, good and open to other people, to do evil for evil's sake, just like that, without another reason."

"It is not, therefore, sufficient that the probability of the prosecutors' hypothesis is greater than the hypothesis of the defense, not even when they are notably greater in number, but it is necessary that every explanation that differs from the prosecutors' hypothesis is, according to the criteria of reasonability, not at all plausible," the court said.

The only elements of the prosecutors case that were proven, the appeals court said, were the charge of slander against Knox, who was convicted of falsely accusing a bar owner of killing Kercher, and the fact that the Knox and Sollecito alibis did not match.

That the alibis were out of synch "is very different" from the prosecutors' claim of false alibis, the court said.

The proven elements combined, the court said, are not enough to support convictions against Knox and Sollecito.

"The only elements that are sustained don't allow the belief, even when put together, that the guilt of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito for the crime of murder ... has been proven," the court said.

After her conviction was thrown out, Knox, 24, returned immediately home to Seattle. She was credited with time served for the conviction of slander for accusing bar owner Diya "Patrick" Lumumba of carrying out the killing.

Prosecutors contended a kitchen knife found at Sollecito's house was the weapon because it matched wounds on Kercher's body and carried traces of Kercher's DNA on the blade and Knox's on the handle. However, the court-ordered review discredited the DNA evidence, saying there were glaring errors in evidence-collecting and that below-standard testing and possible contamination raised doubts over the DNA traces on the blade and on Kercher's bra clasp.

In addition, the defense cast doubt on the knife, questioning why Knox and Sollecito would return it to Sollecito's home if it had been used in the murder. They maintain the real weapon has yet to be found.

A third defendant in the case, Rudy Hermann Guede of the Ivory Coast, was convicted in a separate trial of sexually assaulting and stabbing Kercher. His 16-year prison sentence ? reduced on appeal from an initial 30 years ? was upheld by Italy's highest court in 2010.

The appeals court also expressed incredulity that the two would have cooperated in such a crime with Guede, with whom there is no proof of any relationship. "For example, there is no evidence of phone calls or text messages between the three," the court said.

TODAY's Matt Lauer talks to Amanda Knox's father, Curt, who says his daughter is currently focused on being with her friends, many of whom have stayed her friend while she was in prison.

?

Earlier story:

MILAN, Italy -- The appellate court in Italy that cleared American student Amanda Knox in the slaying of her British roommate released the reasoning behind its ruling on Thursday.

The Perugia court said faulty evidence was used to build the case linking Knox and her Italian boyfriend to the slaying of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, whose body was found in a pool of blood on Nov. 1, 2007.

U.K.-based news?website The Week reported that Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellman's 144-page report?found that Kercher was killed by a "lone assassin."

The judge?also suggested that Knox's alleged confession?came because she "was stressed," according to The Week.

Knox, then a college student studying in Italy, and Raffaele Sollecito were convicted in 2009 of murdering Kercher in what prosecutors said was a drug-fueled sexual assault.

An Italian appeals court overturned their convictions in October after independent forensic investigators sharply criticized police scientific evidence in the original investigation, saying it was unreliable.?

Knox, 24,?immediately returned home to Seattle, after four years in jail.?

After landing in Seattle, Amanda Knox told supporters, "Thank you to everyone who has believed in me, who has defended me, who has supported my family."

Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Knox?had hired a prominent Washington, D.C.-based lawyer as she considers possible book deals.

Knox retained attorney Robert Barnett "to represent her in discussions with various book publishers" and to help her family evaluate "other opportunities,"?spokesman David Marriott said.

Barnett has previously represented President Barack Obama, former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, singer Barbra Streisand and a host of other political and entertainment luminaries in book deals.

Read more content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

The Associated Press, Reuters?and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/15/9470253-revealed-why-court-cleared-amanda-knox

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Video: Buyer?s remorse? Stores see early returns



>>> ominous sign of the times during this shopping season. an associated press story about christmas shopping . it says some stores are experiencing preholiday returns, indicating a kind of buyers' remorse. a lot of folks who rushed to snag discounts on tvs, toys and other gifts are returning them. one company that buys back returned merchandise from big stores like walmart says return rates are running about double the rate we'd normally see in better economic times .

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/45676218/

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বুধবার, ৭ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

Bachmann: Romney, Gingrich both have 'flaws' (AP)

Rep. Michele Bachmann said Tuesday she still thinks she has a good chance of winning the Iowa Republican caucuses, saying presidential campaign rivals Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney "have significant flaws."

Bachmann said in a nationally broadcast interview that she, more than her rivals, personifies the kind of conservative values Iowa Republicans want, and said she believes "we're going to be shocked on Jan. 3 when we see the results."

Bachmann commented at a time when polls continue to show her in the lower tier of candidates vying to challenge President Barack Obama next year.

Asked on CBS's "The Early Show" about Gingrich's surge to top of the polls, Bachmann replied that "two weeks can be an eternity" in a White House campaign. She appeared on the same day that Romney awaited an endorsement from former Vice President Dan Quayle and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman prepared for an appearance in Washington before the Heritage Foundation's Bloggers Briefing.

"I think we're perfectly situated to be where we want to be," Bachmann said. She said the campaign is like a "political Wall Street," with candidates' stock rising and falling. And she accused both Gingrich and Romney of being supporters of "Obamacare," and said that both backed the government bailout of financial institutions.

The Minnesota Republican asserted that Romney had reversed his position on "life" issues and said that both Romney and Gingrich "are flawed candidates."

Bachmann wouldn't say whether she will participate in a Dec. 27 debate in Des Moines moderated by real estate magnate Donald Trump. She said she likes Trump, but that she's still weighing whether to appear.

Gingrich has accepted the debate invitation, and Rep. Ron Paul and Huntsman have declined. The other candidates are still thinking it over.

Huntsman, in an appearance Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show, accused Romney of being indecisive, and cited the former Massachusetts governor's failure to say whether he would join the Des Moines debate is an example.

"As usual, Mr. Romney can't make a decision. He's weighing both sides and may flip-flop on this as well," Huntsman said.

He said that "people are giving us a second look, a first look in some cases."

"I'm running against a conservative flip-flopper," Huntsman said of Romney. "I'm running against a grandiose conservative. People are coming around to the reality that I'm a consistent conservative."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111206/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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মঙ্গলবার, ৬ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

Romney, Gingrich proceed carefully in GOP showdown (AP)

MANCHESTER, N.H. ? The once-bursting 2012 Republican presidential field is narrowing to a two-man race, and GOP voters have one month before casting the first votes to winnow it to one. Barring a dramatic new turn, their chief options will be the steady but often bland demeanor of Mitt Romney and the idea-a-minute bombast of Newt Gingrich.

Herman Cain's suspension of his campaign Saturday, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry's continued struggles to regain traction, have focused the party's attention on Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and Gingrich, the former House speaker. They offer striking contrasts in personality, government experience and campaign organization.

Romney has maintained a political infrastructure since his 2008 presidential bid, especially in New Hampshire. Gingrich, whose campaign nearly collapsed several months ago, is relying much more heavily on his televised debate performances and the good will he built up with conservatives as a congressional leader in the 1980s and 1990s.

Gingrich's and Romney's political philosophies and differences are a bit harder to tease out. Both men have changed their positions on issues such as climate change. And Gingrich, in particular, is known to veer into unusual territories, such as child labor practices.

Cain's announcement in Atlanta offered a possible opening for Romney or Gingrich to make a dramatic move in hopes of seizing momentum for the sprint to the Jan. 3 Iowa caucus. Neither man did. They appear willing to play things carefully and low-key for now.

At a town hall meeting in New York sponsored by tea party supporters, Gingrich declined to characterize the race as a direct contest between himself and Romney. Any of the remaining GOP contenders could stage a comeback before the Iowa caucuses, he said. "I'm not going to say that any of my friends can't suddenly surprise us," Gingrich said.

But once high-flying contenders such as Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota have not managed to bounce back so far, despite weeks of trying.

Romney seemed as eager as Gingrich to avoid casting the contest as anywhere close to decided. He repeatedly turned aside reporters' invitations to light into Gingrich, offering only gentle critiques. As usual, he aimed much sharper remarks at President Barack Obama.

"I don't think people have really settled down, in a final way, to decide who they're going to support in the nomination process," Romney told reporters in Manchester, where he held a rally and knocked on a few doors. "I hope they give us a good, careful look."

That was about as much emotion and daring as he showed all day. With the second-tier candidates ramping up their criticisms of Gingrich, Romney stuck to his steady-as-she-goes campaign style of criticizing Obama's economic record, and saying little else.

Cain's once-prospering campaign was undone by allegations of sexual wrongdoing. Gingrich has been the most obvious beneficiary of Cain's precipitous slide. But Perry, Bachmann and possibly others are likely to make a play for Cain's anti-establishment tea party backing. Time is running short for them to establish themselves as the top alternative to Romney, who has long been viewed with suspicion by many conservatives.

Cain said he would offer an endorsement. His former rivals were quick to issue statements on Saturday praising his conservative ideals and grassroots appeal.

Romney seemed loath on Saturday to criticize Gingrich or to stir the political waters. Reporters asked why his background makes him more qualified than Gingrich. "Speaker Gingrich has been a legislator and has worked in government affairs, and he can describe his own background," Romney replied.

Why are his positions better than Gingrich's on issues such as immigration, Romney was asked. "We have very similar views on a whole host of issues," he said. "There are some places, I'm sure, where there are differences." The biggest difference, he said, is "our life experience."

Asked if he fears that Gingrich will draw more tea party support, Romney said tea party activists "want someone who comes from outside Washington," someone who has spent his life "in the private sector, who has learned the experiences of the American economy."

"Speaker Gingrich is a fine person," Romney said, "but he spent his life in Washington, the last 40 years. That doesn't exactly line up with the tea party."

He also said he differed with Gingrich on child labor laws. Gingrich recently suggested that children as young as nine should work as assistant school janitors, to earn money and learn work ethics.

Romney noted that Gingrich would end taxes on dividends and capital gains for everyone, whereas Romney would keep them in place for the wealthiest Americans.

Romney's generally mild reproofs contrast with the hits Gingrich is taking from rivals such as Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. Paul's campaign is airing a video accusing Gingrich of "serial hypocrisy." It shows Gingrich in a TV commercial with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., talking about the dangers of climate change.

Gingrich has called the Pelosi spot a stupid mistake on his part.

Romney's campaign had hundreds of volunteers knocking on doors and making phone calls Saturday, pushing a slogan that presidential hopefuls must "earn it."

Romney has a vacation home in New Hampshire, where he is well known. His campaign structure there isn't perfect, however.

Aides sent reporters to 827 Chestnut Street in Manchester, where Romney would start some door-knocking of his own. But there was no one home at 827, or the next house he tried, or the three after that. In nearly an hour of door-knocking, Romney met only a handful of voters, and all of them already seemed in his corner.

Asked at the day's end why he was being so gentle with Gingrich, Romney replied: "I think the right course for me is to continue talking about my vision for the country, my experience, and how I'd lead the nation. And Speaker Gingrich will get the chance to do the same thing."

___

Fouhy reported from New York.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111203/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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সোমবার, ৫ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

Nevada Cancer Institute to be Sold to UCSD

LAS VEGAS - Nevada Cancer Institute announced Friday plans to sell its out-patient facility, operations and some personal property to UC San Diego Health System.

Operations will continue as normal until the sale is finished. As part of the agreement, the non-profit corporation will have to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The sale will reduce the NCI's debt by more than $50 million.

Nevada Cancer Institute officials say patients will not see a significant change in their care.

"Over time, we will continue to be able to build based on the foundation that the UCSD system and the Moore's Cancer Center have - to be able to, over time, offer more clinical trials to people and again to be part of something that has again achieved enormous standards of excellence," said Nevada Cancer Institute co-founder Heather Murren.?

The sale is expected to be completed in 2012.

Source: http://www.8newsnow.com/story/16177624/breaking-news-nevada-cancer-institute

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রবিবার, ৪ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

Lions' Suh crashes car in Portland; not injured

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) ? Police in Oregon say Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh crashed his car into a tree in downtown Portland, but was not injured.

Police say Suh was not impaired and was cooperative with officers following the accident at about 1:15 a.m. Saturday. Suh lost control of the 1970 Chevrolet Coupe he was driving, which then hit a curb, light pole, drinking fountain and tree. His vehicle was towed from the scene.

Suh had two passengers in the vehicle. They were not injured.

Suh is a graduate of Portland's Grant High School. He was the NFL's 2010 defensive rookie of the year. On Tuesday, the league suspended him for two games for stomping the arm of Packers guard Evan Dietrich-Smith.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-03-Suh-Car%20Crash/id-453c4eb01ecc4662a03d19d75bba4d7a

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[OOC] Cirque du Nuit

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শনিবার, ৩ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

At a crossroads: New research predicts which cars are likeliest to run lights at intersections

ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2011) ? In 2008, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2.3 million automobile crashes occurred at intersections across the United States, resulting in some 7,000 deaths. More than 700 of those fatalities were due to drivers running red lights. But, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, half of the people killed in such accidents are not the drivers who ran the light, but other drivers, passengers and pedestrians.

In order to reduce the number of accidents at intersections, researchers at MIT have devised an algorithm that predicts when an oncoming car is likely to run a red light. Based on parameters such as the vehicle's deceleration and its distance from a light, the group was able to determine which cars were potential "violators" -- those likely to cross into an intersection after a light has turned red -- and which were "compliant."

The researchers tested the algorithm on data collected from an intersection in Virginia, finding that it accurately identified potential violators within a couple of seconds of reaching a red light -- enough time, according to the researchers, for other drivers at an intersection to be able to react to the threat if alerted. Compared to other efforts to model driving behavior, the MIT algorithm generated fewer false alarms, an important advantage for systems providing guidance to human drivers. The researchers report their findings in a paper that will appear in the journal IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems.

Jonathan How, the Richard Cockburn Maclaurin Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, says "smart" cars of the future may use such algorithms to help drivers anticipate and avoid potential accidents.

  • Video: See the team's algorithm in action as robots are able to negotiate a busy intersection and avoid potential accidents.

"If you had some type of heads-up display for the driver, it might be something where the algorithms are analyzing and saying, 'We're concerned,'" says How, who is one of the paper's authors. "Even though your light might be green, it may recommend you not go, because there are people behaving badly that you may not be aware of."

How says that in order to implement such warning systems, vehicles would need to be able to "talk" with each other, wirelessly sending and receiving information such as a car's speed and position data. Such vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, he says, can potentially improve safety and avoid traffic congestion. Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is exploring V2V technology, along with several major car manufacturers -- including Ford Motor Company, which this year has been road-testing prototypes with advanced Wi-Fi and collision-avoidance systems.

"You might have a situation where you get a snowball effect where, much more rapidly than people envisioned, this [V2V] technology may be accepted," How says.

In the meantime, researchers including How are developing algorithms to analyze vehicle data that would be broadcast via such V2V systems. Georges Aoude SM '07, PhD '11, a former student of How's, designed an algorithm based on a technique that has been successfully applied in many artificial intelligence domains, but is relatively new to the transportation field. This algorithm is able to capture a vehicle's motion in multiple dimensions using a highly accurate and efficient classifier that can be executed in less than five milliseconds.

Along with colleagues Vishnu Desaraju SM '10 and Lauren Stephens, an MIT undergraduate, How and Aoude tested the algorithm using an extensive set of traffic data collected at a busy intersection in Christianburg, Va. The intersection was heavily monitored as part of a safety-prediction project sponsored by the DOT. The DOT outfitted the intersection with a number of instruments that tracked vehicle speed and location, as well as when lights turned red.

Aoude and colleagues applied their algorithm to data from more than 15,000 approaching vehicles at the intersection, and found that it was able to correctly identify red-light violators 85 percent of the time -- an improvement of 15 to 20 percent over existing algorithms.

The researchers were able to predict, within a couple of seconds, whether a car would run a red light. The researchers actually found a "sweet spot" -- one to two seconds in advance of a potential collision -- when the algorithm has the highest accuracy and when a driver may still have enough time to react.

Compared to similar safety-prediction technologies, the group found that its algorithm generated fewer false positives. How says this may be due to the algorithm's ability to analyze multiple parameters. He adds that other algorithms tend to be "skittish," erring on the side of caution in flagging potential problems, which may itself be a problem when cars are outfitted with such technology.

"The challenge is, you don't want to be overly pessimistic," How says. "If you're too pessimistic, you start reporting there's a problem when there really isn't, and then very rapidly, the human's going to push a button that turns this thing off."

The researchers are now investigating ways to design a closed-loop system -- to give drivers a recommendation of what to do in response to a potential accident -- and are also planning to adapt the existing algorithm to air traffic control, to predict the behavior of aircraft.

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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111130120106.htm

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শুক্রবার, ২ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

Lloyd Chapman: John Boehner Is a Bag of Hot Air

The House Speaker's staff posted a blog today (Dec. 1, 2011) titled, "Uncertainty Hampering Small Businesses, GOP Taking Action with Plan for Jobs," heavily criticizing the Obama administration for not taking small business concerns seriously.

Speaker Boehner is correct that President Obama is failing to support small businesses, but he and the GOP are merely using their jobs plan as a ruse to deregulate Fortune 1000 corporations.

Since taking office the president has completely ignored America's oldest and most cost-effective economic stimulus program, the Small Business Act. This existing federal law aims to stimulate the American economy by requiring that a minimum 23 percent of all federal contract dollars be awarded to small businesses. The Act defines a small business as being "independently owned," which excludes publicly traded corporations.

Yet every year, federal agencies fraudulently misreport their funding actions as contracts awarded to small businesses, when in reality, large corporations like Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, AT&T, Italian defense giant Finmeccanica, Rolls-Royce and British Aerospace are the true recipients of the majority of federal small business contracts. More than a dozen federal investigations conducted since 2003 confirm this.

In recent weeks, mention of a federal bio-defense contract given to Siga Technologies, a company controlled by private equity mogul Ronald Perelman (a top Democratic donor), has sparked a scandal.

Republicans, who otherwise don't bother to point out contracting fraud, pounced on the $433 million sole-source contract from the Department of Health and Human Services that Siga received in May to make an experimental smallpox treatment, because Democratic donors may have benefited.

Before Siga received the contract, a small business complained about not being allowed to bid on the
smallpox drug contract, bringing attention to the fact that the government was about to give a small business contract worth as much as $2.8 billion to Siga Technologies, a publicly traded company.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the Small Business Administration agreed that Siga's affiliation with Ronald Perelman's holding company, MacAndrews & Forbes, disqualified Siga Technologies from the contract. Still, in the long run (having spent $800,000 on campaign donations and lobbying efforts since 2005) Siga received a $433 million contract to develop the smallpox vaccine without competition.

Siga Technologies threatened The Huffington Post with legal action in October 2010 for reporting that "Siga had named labor leader Andy Stern to its board and compensated him with stock options that would become dramatically more valuable if the company managed to win the contract it sought with HHS."

Siga won the bid one week after the offending Huffington Post article, although the contract was specifically required to be awarded to a small business.

The Los Angeles Times reported last month that "the Obama administration could have awarded the contract to Chimerix as the only eligible small-business applicant. Or it could have reopened the competition to companies of any size. Instead, the administration moved to block all companies -- except Siga -- from bidding on a second offering of the contract."

This flies in the face of American small business programs.

Discoveries such as these are irrefutable evidence that federal contracts with publicly traded companies shouldn't be counted as small business awards and that federal oversight is needed to prevent the highest paying lobbyists from holding a monopoly of the federal acquisitions budget.

And while the GOP is no doubt overjoyed about the potential damage the Siga scandal has inflicted on Obama's incumbency, very few members of Congress are willing to approve legislation that would end federal contracting fraud.

During his 2008 presidential campaign Barack Obama stated, "It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." Since taking office, President Obama has failed to follow on that promise. As a result, during every day of his administration, hundreds of millions of dollars in federal small business contracts are illegally diverted to large businesses.

SBA Inspector General Peggy Gustafson testified before Congress in October, naming the issue of federal small business contracting abuse as a "top management challenge" facing the SBA for the seventh consecutive year.

Georgia Representative Hank Johnson introduced H.R. 3184, "The Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act," to the House in October. Now under consideration by the House Small Business Committee and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, H.R. 3184, "The Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act," presents a straightforward solution to the decade-long existence of federal small business contracting abuse in the United States.

If passed, H.R. 3184 would prohibit publicly traded companies from receiving federal small business contract awards and therefore re-divert more than $100 billion in federal infrastructure spending to small businesses every year. The bill currently has 17 co-sponsors (all Democrats), although H.R. 3184 should have the full support of the House, Senate and Executive branch because it presents a simple, deficit-neutral solution for significant job creation that requires no new taxes and no new spending.

If Speaker Boehner and the GOP wanted to go above and beyond supporting small businesses, they would urge House Small Business Committee Chair Sam Graves to appear on national television daily, campaigning to stop federal small business contracting fraud by supporting H.R. 3184.

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Follow Lloyd Chapman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LloydChapman

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lloyd-chapman/john-boehner-is-a-bag-of-_b_1124328.html

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