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POMPANO BEACH, Fla. ? Newt Gingrich slammed GOP rival Mitt Romney on Sunday for the steady stream of attacks he likened to "carpet-bombing," trying to cut into the resurgent front-runner's lead in Florida in the dwindling hours before Tuesday's pivotal presidential primary.
And despite surging ahead in polls, Romney wasn't letting up, relentlessly casting Gingrich as an influence peddler with a "record of failed leadership."
In what has become a wildly unpredictable race, the momentum has swung back to Romney, staggered last weekend by Gingrich's victory in South Carolina. Romney has begun advertising in Nevada ahead of that state's caucuses next Saturday, illustrating the challenges ahead for Gingrich, who has pledged to push ahead no matter what happens in Florida.
An NBC News/Marist poll published Sunday showed Romney with support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters, compared with 27 percent for Gingrich.
Romney's campaign has dogged Gingrich at his own campaign stops, sending surrogates to remind reporters of Gingrich's House ethics probe in the 1990s and other episodes in his career aimed at sowing doubt about his judgment.
Gingrich reacted defensively, accusing the former Massachusetts governor and a political committee that supports him of lying, and the GOP's establishment of allowing it.
"I don't know how you debate a person with civility if they're prepared to say things that are just plain factually false," Gingrich said during appearances on Sunday talk shows. "I think the Republican establishment believes it's OK to say and do virtually anything to stop a genuine insurgency from winning because they are very afraid of losing control of the old order."
Gingrich objected specifically to a Romney campaign ad that includes a 1997 NBC News report on the House's decision to discipline Gingrich, then speaker, for ethics charges.
Romney continued to paint Gingrich as part of the very Washington establishment he condemns and someone who had a role in the nation's economic problems.
"Your problem in Florida is that you worked for Freddie Mac at a time when Freddie Mac was not doing the right thing for the American people, and that you're selling influence in Washington at a time when we need people who will stand up for the truth in Washington," Romney told an audience in Naples.
Gingrich's consulting firm was paid more than $1.5 million by the federally-backed mortgage company over a period after he left Congress in 1999.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, trailing in Florida by a wide margin, stayed with his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, who was hospitalized with pneumonia. Sunday night he told supporters, "She without a doubt has turned the corner," but he cautioned she "isn't out of the woods yet."
Aides said Santorum would resume campaigning Monday in Missouri and Minnesota.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who has invested little in Florida, looked ahead to Nevada. The libertarian-leaning Paul is focusing more on gathering delegates in caucus states, where it's less expensive to campaign. But securing the nomination only through caucus states is a hard task.
The intense effort by Romney to slow Gingrich is comparable to his strategy against Gingrich in the closing month before Iowa's leadoff caucuses Jan. 3. Gingrich led in Iowa polls, lifted by what were hailed as strong performances in televised debates, only to drop in the face of withering attacks by Romney, aided immensely by ads sponsored by a "super" political action committee run by former Romney aides.
But Romney aides say they made the mistake of assuming Gingrich could not rise again as he did in South Carolina. Romney appears determined not to let that happen again.
"His record is one of failed leadership," Romney told more than 700 people at a rally in Pompano Beach Sunday evening. "We don't need someone who can speak well perhaps, or can say things we agree with, but does not have the experience of being an effective leader."
Gingrich has responded by criticizing Romney's conservative credentials. Outside an evangelical Christian church in Lutz, Gingrich said he was the more loyal conservative on key social issues.
"This party is not going to nominate somebody who is a pro-abortion, pro-gun-control, pro-tax-increase liberal," Gingrich said. "It isn't going to happen."
But Gingrich, in appearances on Sunday news programs, returned to complaining about Romney's tactics. "It's only when he can mass money to focus on carpet-bombing with negative ads that he gains any traction at all," he said.
Romney and the political committee that supports him had combined to spend some $6.8 million in ads criticizing Gingrich in the Florida campaign's final week. Gingrich and a super PAC that supports him were spending about one-third that amount.
Gingrich worked to portray himself as the insurgent outsider, collecting the endorsement of tea party favorite Herman Cain, whose own campaign for president foundered amid sexual harassment allegations.
It was unclear how aggressively Gingrich would be able to compete in states beyond Florida. The next televised debate, a format Gingrich has used to his advantage, is not until Feb. 22, more than three weeks away.
Romney already has campaigned in Nevada more than Gingrich, is advertising there, and stresses his business background in a state hard-hit by the economy. His campaign welcomed the Sunday endorsement of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada's largest newspaper.
Michigan and Maine, where Romney won during his 2008 campaign, also hold their contests in February. Arizona, a strong tea-party state where Gingrich could do well, has its primary Feb. 28.
___
Associated Press writers Steve Peoples in Naples and Shannon McCaffrey in Lutz contributed to this report.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) ? Libyan Prime Minister Abdurrahim al-Keib called on Sunday for a regional security conference to tackle a proliferation of weapons by exiled supporters of former leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The Libyan civil war may have given militant groups in Africa's Sahel region like Boko Haram and al Qaeda access to large weapons caches, said a U.N. report released on Thursday.
"(There is) still a real threat from some of the armed remnants of the former regime who escaped outside the country and still roam freely. This is a threat for us, for neighboring countries and our shared relations," Keib told African Union leaders in Addis Ababa.
"My country calls for a regional security conference in Libya of interior and defense ministers of neighboring countries," he told the summit, the first since Gaddafi's death last year.
A U.N. report said the Libyan civil war may have created a proliferation of small arms, giving militant groups like Boko Haram and al Qaeda access to large weapons caches in Africa's Sahel region that straddle the Sahara, including Nigeria, Niger and Chad.
The report said some countries believe weapons have been smuggled into the Sahel by former fighters in Libya - Libyan army regulars and mercenaries who fought on behalf of Gaddafi, who was ousted and killed by rebels.
Links between al Qaeda and Boko Haram have become a growing source of concern for the countries of the region, the U.N. report said.
The Islamist sect Boko Haram has killed at least 935 people since it launched an uprising in Nigeria in 2009, including 250 in the first weeks of this year, Human Rights Watch said last week.
(Reporting by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by James Macharia)
Obama may have had no sex scandals, but neither did Bush if that's your criteria. As far as non-sex scandals go, there's Fast and Furious for a start. There's all the "green" energy companies defaulting on their federally guaranteed loans. I'm sure it's entirely coincidental that they're owned by Obama campaign bundlers [opensecrets.org] and supporters.
As far as Romney goes your complaints are:
1) He has too many children? Oh yes, how terrible that he has five children all of whom have bachelors degrees and four of which have post-graduate degrees. What a rotten place the world would be if everyone supported their children and instilled in them the necessary work ethic to finish college and graduate school and become doctors and entrepreneurs.
2) He doesn't pay an high enough percentage in taxes? He pays about 15%, which is higher than 80% [cnn.com] of the tax payers in the country. In 2009 (the last year that the IRS has stats up for) there were 58,603,938 tax returns filed without any taxable income. I'll take the guy paying 15% over the 58 million who are paying between -6% (yes, there are people with a negative effective tax rate, i.e. they receive a larger refund than they had withheld during the year) and 0%.
3) The average effective income tax rate for households earning over $200,000 is only 9.9%. Add in FICA and that tax rate will still just be topping 13%. If you pay higher than 15%, then either I congratulate you on your exceptionally high earning or seriously recommend that you find a financial adviser.
4) Charitable giving is opaque? Huh? If you want to know where your money is going, then charitable giving is your best bet as you have total control of who you give to and you can select recipients that have just as much transparency as you desire.
5) Only about 60% of Romney's declared charitable giving went to the LDS church. The other 40% went elsewhere. Regardless I find it amazing that you can complain about the LDS church. Sure they may be wealthy on a per capita basis, but why? It's not because they're penny pinchers as they do copious amounts of charitable works and disaster relief. Remember these are a group of people who walked out of the United States because multiple attempts to settle down and do their own thing ended up in their homes being burned, their leaders being murdered and their land and chattels stolen. They crossed half the continent and settled in the middle of the desert next to a lake full of water they couldn't drink. And still they are thriving. Why? Because they believe in family, hard work, education and self-reliance. And you don't want people to look up to that?
It's MacWorld, which means those providers of Apple gear are busting out wares for aftermarket insertion into your objects of desire. Other World Computing's latest offering is a slender solid-state drive ready to be crow-barred into last year's MacBook Airs. The bombastically named OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD is a SATA Rev. 3.0 drive with a promised 6Gb/s data speed at sizes of up to a staggering 480GB. Since the stock drives are limited to the 3Gb/s SATA Rev. 2.0 (but the controllers run 3.0), you should find a significant performance bump when swapping in the new unit. The toggle-synchronous NAND drives come in a variety of sizes, starting at 120GB ($260), but it's the brand new and quite beastly 480GB model that has us excited. Sure, $1,150 is a lot to ask for less than half a terrabyte of storage, but you'll get a three-year warranty for all that cash. We may never give you our money, nor our funny pages, but you can have the press release that's after the break.
DAKAR (Reuters) ? Street protests spread through towns across Senegal overnight on Saturday after a top legal body said President Abdoulaye Wade had the right to run for a third term in elections next month.
Local television said one policeman died from head injuries after clashes in the capital Dakar. Reuters reporters saw youths set fire to tires and overturn cars after a ruling of the West African country's Constitutional Council late on Friday night.
Rivals to 85-year-old Wade say the constitution sets an upper limit of two terms on the president. Wade, who came to power in 2000 and was re-elected in 2007, has argued his first term pre-dated the 2001 amendment establishing the limit.
Senegal's Constitutional Council validated his candidacy and that of 13 rivals for the February 26 vote but turned down the presidential bid of world music star Youssou N'Dour, saying he had not gathered the required 10,000 signatures of support.
N'Dour called on his supporters to prevent the elections from going ahead.
"We will never allow Abdoulaye Wade to take part in the election," he said, speaking on his own TFM television channel.
"The decision to keep me out had nothing to do with the law. It was a political decision and we will reply with a political decision," he said, without giving further details.
Senegal is the only country in mainland West Africa to have not had a coup since the end of the colonial era. February's poll, and a possible run-off a few weeks later, are seen as major test of social peace in the predominantly Muslim country.
WADE URGES CALM
One witness said a police station in the central town of Kaolack had been ransacked, while state radio said the local headquarters of Wade's liberal PDS had been burned down. Street protests were also reported in the towns of Thies and Mbour.
"Wade has no right to a third term and the people will resist this," Moustapha Niasse, a former prime minister for Wade who is now challenging him for the presidency, said.
Wade appeared on state television and made an appeal for calm, promising that the elections would be free and fair.
"Stop these displays of petulance which will lead to nothing," he said. "The electoral campaign will be open. There will be no restrictions on freedom."
The Council validated 13 other candidates including Socialist Party leader Ousmane Tanor Dieng, Niasse and two other ex-prime ministers - Idrissa Seck and Macky Sall.
Its five judges, all selected by Wade, said authorities had been unable to identify around 4,000 of some 12,000 signatures gathered by N'Dour, meaning his candidacy was invalid.
"We are here to protest against Wade," Yero Toure, a 26-year-old student at an opposition rally of a couple of thousand people in central Dakar before the ruling. "If they don't reject him the people will rise up against him."
Critics say that Wade, who spent 26 years in opposition to Socialist rule, has done nothing during his 12 years in power to alleviate poverty in a country where formal employment is scarce, and has dragged his heels on tackling official graft.
Wade points to spending on education and infrastructure projects such as roadbuilding as proof of progress towards turning Senegal into an emerging market country and a trade hub.
His candidacy has raised eyebrows abroad. The senior U.S. State Department official for Africa, William Fitzgerald, told French RFI radio this month Washington viewed it as "a bit regrettable".
"From our point of view it was the right moment to go into retirement, to protect and support a good transition - democratically, peacefully, safely," Fitzgerald said.
(Writing and additional reporting by Mark John; editing by Andrew Roche)
Deena Cortese is the latest Jersey Shore star to go without makeup in a self portrait on Twitter, ditching the fake eyelashes, contacts and orange skin that are her staple.
The Meatball shared the no-makeup pic herself yesterday, writing "Lol no makeup n hairs in a pony but makos [the cat's] face is too cute not to tweet." Indeed. So true.
Deena follows in the footsteps of her BFF - remember Snooki without makeup earlier this month? - and we have to say, the change is a positive (albeit short-lived one).
Doesn't she look good? And probably 10 pounds lighter when you take off all that crap? You tell us. Check out these Deena Corese pics and vote on her best look!
ScienceDaily (Jan. 26, 2012) ? Over dinner on R.V. Calypso while anchored on the lee side of Glover's Reef in Belize, Jacques Cousteau told Phil Dustan that he suspected humans were having a negative impact on coral reefs. Dustan -- a young ocean ecologist who had worked in the lush coral reefs of the Caribbean and Sinai Peninsula -- found this difficult to believe. It was December 1974.
But Cousteau was right. During the following three-plus decades, Dustan, an ocean ecologist and biology professor at the University of Charleston in South Carolina, has witnessed widespread coral reef degradation and bleaching from up close. In the late 1970s Dustan helped build a handheld spectrometer, a tool to measure light given off by the coral. Using his spectrometer, Dustan could look at light reflected and made by the different organisms that comprised the living reefs. Since then, he has watched reefs deteriorate at an alarming rate. Recently he has found that Landsat offers a way to evaluate these changes globally. Using an innovative way to map how coral reefs are changing over time, Dustan now can find 'hotspots' where conservation efforts should be focused to protect these delicate communities.
A Role for Remote Sensing
Situated in shallow clear water, most coral reefs are visible to satellites that use passive remote sensing to observe Earth's surface. But coral reefs are complex ecosystems with coincident coral species, sand, and water all reflecting light. Dustan found that currently orbiting satellites do not offer the spatial or spectral resolution needed to distinguish between them and specifically classify coral reef composition. So instead of attempting to classify the inherently complex coral ecosystem to monitor their health, Dustan has instead started to look for change -- how overall reflectance for a geographic location varies over time.
Dustan uses a time series of Landsat data to calculate something called temporal texture? -- basically a map showing where change has occurred based on statistical analysis of reflectance information. While Dustan cannot diagnosis the type of change with temporal texture he can establish where serious changes have occurred. Coral communities have seasonal rhythms and periodicities, but larger, significant changes show up as statistical outliers in temporal texture maps and often correlate with reef decline.
A Case Study
Carysfort reef -- named for the HMS Carysfort, an eighteenth century British warship that ran aground on the reef in 1770 -- is considered the most ecologically diverse on the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary's northern seaward edge, but today it is in a state of ecological collapse.
Dustan and colleagues conducted the first quantitative field study of coral health at Carysfort in 1974. After a quarter century their studies showed that coral had declined 92 percent. The coral had succumbed to an array of stressors culminating with deadly diseases.
Using the well-characterized Carysfort reef as his control, Dustan calculated the temporal texture for the reef using a series of 20 Landsat images collected between 1982 and 1996. The resulting temporal texture maps correlated with the known areas of significant coral loss (where coral communities have turned into algal-dominated substrates) and they correctly showed that the seaward shallow regions have had the most detrimental change.
This novel approach to change detection is only possible because the long-term calibration of Landsat data assures that data from year-to-year is consistent. Dustin needs at least 6 to 8 Landsat images to create a reliable temporal texture map, but the more data that is available, the finer the results.
Dustan tested this work in the U.S. because he had a robust study site and because prior to 1999 coverage of reefs outside of the U.S. was spotty. With the Landsat 7 launch in 1999 a new global data acquisition strategy was established and for the first time the planet's coral reefs were systematically and regularly imaged, greatly increasing our knowledge of reefs. The Landsat archive enabled the completing of the first exhaustive global survey of reefs (Millennium Global Coral Reef Mapping Project, http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/news/news-archive/news_0031.html). Efforts are currently underway to receive and ingest Landsat data collected and housed by international ground-receiving stations. International partners often downlink Landsat scenes of their countries that the U.S. does not, so it is very likely that historic reef images will be added the U.S. Landsat archive during this process.
Carrying on Outside of Carysfort
Temporal texture gives scientists an entirely new way to look at coral reefs. A worldwide study could help managers locate change 'hotspots' and could better inform conservation efforts.
Ideally, after more testing, Dustan would like to see an automatic change detection system implemented to follow major worldwide reef systems. "There is no reason that a form of temporal texture monitoring could not be implemented with current satellites in orbit," Dustan says.
Because reefs are underwater it is difficult to grasp the extensive devastation being exacted upon them. Global temporal texture mapping could bring the ravages into focus.
The Landsat Program is a series of Earth observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. Landsat satellites have been consistently gathering data about our planet since 1972. They continue to improve and expand this unparalleled record of Earth's changing landscapes for the benefit of all.
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Delivering on a recent promise to convey its policy intentions more transparently to investors and the public, the Fed said it expected to keep short-term interest rates low into 2014.
The Federal Reserve delivered Wednesday on a promise of greater transparency on its policy outlook, giving a forecast that the interest rate it controls will stay low into the year 2014.
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Previously, the Fed had said it would keep its short-term interest rate low through the middle of 2013.
In releasing its forecast, the central bank, for the first time,?divulged the individual forecasts of its policy committee members on such things as the expected direction of interest rates over the next several years. That information, the Fed hopes, will help to convey its policy intentions more accurately to investors and the public.
The Fed also offered an official target for consumer price inflation ? 2 percent a year ? in its policy statement, a number consistent with guidelines the Fed has given in the past. The Fed's congressional mandate includes maintaining rough price stability, allowing neither runaway inflation nor a potentially devastating cycle of deflation that could push investors and consumers to the economic sidelines.
The views of policymakers were not linked with individual names, such as that of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. But the report gives a clear window into the gap between so-called inflation "hawks," and "doves," and those in between on policy.
In charts showing a dot for the position of each committee member, investors learned that six committee members believe policy should be tightened (such as by raising the interest rate modestly) this year or in 2013. Another five see 2014 as the likely timing for tightening. And six expect 2015 or 2016 to be the optimal time.
The Fed's report, following a scheduled policy meeting, also showed how fast a rise in interest rates policymakers view as healthy for the economy. A handful in the hawkish, inflation-wary camp would like to see the Fed's interest rate rising to about 1 percent this year and 2.5 percent by 2014. By contrast, a slim majority of the 17 forecasts shown call for the rate to remain below 1 percent even in 2014.
Longer run, the committee has a strong consensus: The interest rate should be at a level more like 4 or 4.5 percent in a normal economy.
Interest rates on US Treasury bonds fell sharply (the yield on the 10-year?note dropped to about 2 percent) as the Fed released its policy statement. Stock prices rose about 1 percent for the day, on average.
Many economists applaud the Fed for providing greater transparency. But the announcement of intentions to keep the short-term lending rate very low (now near zero percent) is controversial.
Supporters say it provides a reassuring signal that the Fed will maintain a supportive monetary policy as the economy stages what's expected to be a continued gradual recovery from the deep recession that officially ended in 2009. But some critics warn that it's hard to predict economic events for this year, let alone through 2014.
"Often, decision makers will extend the present into the future, and this is exemplified ... today" by a Fed policy committee expecting moderate growth and subdued inflation to persist into late 2014, John Silvia, chief economist of Wells Fargo, said in a written comment on the Fed's move. "History suggests that such an outlook is actually very unlikely."
Chairman Bernanke himself emphasized in a press conference that the outlook for rates to remain low is an expectation, not a firm pledge by the committee he heads.
The Fed has the options open to tighten interest rates sooner, if warranted. And Bernanke said the policymakers have tools to provide additional monetary fuel for the economy if they see a risk that the recovery will falter.
The Fed committee modestly downgraded its economic growth forecast for the current year. It expects the economy to grow between 2.2 and 2.7 percent in 2012, down from November's forecast of? 2.5 to 2.9 percent. Still, the Fed sees some improvement in the job market. It said unemployment should fall as low as 8.2 percent this year, down from a forecast two months ago of 8.5 percent.
PROFIT DROP: Swedish fast-fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB on Thursday said fourth-quarter net income dropped 2 percent on higher raw material costs and heavy discounting to attract customers during an economic downturn.
GROWING: But the company's revenue increased 4 percent, and H&M said its market share is growing.
DIGITAL: H&M plans to launch online sales in the U.S. this year. It also intends to open 275 new stores, including its first Latin American store, in Mexico.
Yoga is amazing. I had my doubts, but it really builds strength and flexibility. Maybe I look a little foolish in the unitard, but dammit I don't care. I'm getting in shape over here. So get in shape with me, play a few nerdy card games, and let's morph our faces together to see what our kids would look like in today's app deals. More »
iVoice Beth Engelman doesn’t want to hear which candidate wears ‘mom jeans’ and which candidate might be more fun to have a beer with. She wants to hear how candidates can work with Congress and unite the country – the stuff that really matters!
Shortly before Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff did his best Gary Anderson impersonation (to the chagrin of Matt Birk), Ravens receiver Lee Evans had the ball in his hands, in the end zone.? But Patriots defensive back Sterling Moore knocked the ball out of Evans? hands, and the ruling on the field was that the would-be touchdown pass was incomplete.
Though it wasn?t a scoring play, fewer than two minutes remained in the game.? Thus, the decision (or not) to review the play was to be initiated by the replay assistant in the booth.? Even though the slow-motion angle shown by CBS seemed to suggest that it may have been a catch, the replay assistant didn?t instruct referee Alberto Riveron to take a look via the on-field portable TV on wheels.
As to whether a catch was made, the standard is simple.? From Rule 8, Section 1, Article 3, Item 3:? ?If a player controls the ball while in the end zone, both feet, or any part of his body other than his hands, must be completely on the ground before losing control, or the pass is incomplete.?
There?s no Calvin Johnson component.? No requirement of a football move.? Possession plus two feet down equals a catch, and a touchdown.
So why didn?t the replay assistant direct Riveron to take another look?? Absent indisputable visual evidence that the call on the field was correct, the replay assistant must tell the referee to look for indisputable visual evidence to overturn it.
The league disagrees.? ?The ruling on the field of an incomplete pass was confirmed by the Instant Replay assistant, correctly, and as a result, there was no need to stop the game,? the league said in a statement forwarded to PFT by spokesman Michael Signora.? ?The receiver did not get his second foot down in the end zone with possession, and as a result, it was an incomplete pass.?
Former V.P. of officiating and current FOX rules analyst Mike Pereira expressed a similar sentiment via text message to PFT.? ?Clearly not a catch,? Pereira said.? ?Ball coming out before second foot clearly down. . . .? No need to review it because it was clearly incomplete.?
But where?s the harm in taking a look at the play?? The left foot may have been down a nanosecond before the ball was dislodged.? Why not have Riveron decide whether or not that was the case?? Moreover, a different camera angle may have shown that Evans had the ball before his left foot previously left the ground.? (There?s no doubt that the right foot was down while Evans had the ball.)
It could be that the replay assistant erred on the side of not giving Riveron a chance to make what could have been another Bill Leavy-style error.? Either way, under the league?s standard for initiating a booth review, we think a booth review should have been initiated.? And if it had been initiated, Riveron would have been faced with a decision that wouldn?t have been quite as easy as the league seems to think it would have been.
WASHINGTON ? The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that police must get a search warrant before using GPS technology to track criminal suspects.
The decision was a defeat for the government and police agencies, and it raises the possibility of serious complications for law enforcement nationwide, which increasingly relies on high tech surveillance of suspects, including the use of various types of GPS technology.
A GPS device installed by police on Washington, D.C., nightclub owner Antoine Jones' Jeep helped them link him to a suburban house used to stash money and drugs. He was sentenced to life in prison before the appeals court overturned the conviction.
Associate Justice Antonin Scalia said that the government's installation of a GPS device, and its use to monitor the vehicle's movements, constitutes a search, meaning that a warrant is required.
"By attaching the device to the Jeep" that Jones was using, "officers encroached on a protected area," Scalia wrote. He concluded that the installation of the device on the vehicle without a warrant was a trespass and therefore an illegal search.
All nine justices agreed that the GPS monitoring on the Jeep violated the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure, a decision the American Civil Liberties Union said was an "important victory for privacy."
Washington lawyer Andy Pincus called the decision "a landmark ruling in applying the Fourth Amendment's protections to advances in surveillance technology." Pincus has argued 22 cases before the Supreme Court and filed a brief in the current case on behalf of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a civil liberties group with expertise in law, technology, and policy.
The Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, said the court's decision is "a victory for privacy rights and for civil liberties in the digital age." He said the ruling highlights many new privacy threats posed by new technologies. Leahy has introduced legislation to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a 1986 law that specifies standards for government monitoring of cell phone conversations and Internet communications.
Scalia wrote the main opinion of three in the case. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor.
Sotomayor also wrote one of the two concurring opinions that agreed with the outcome in the Jones case for different reasons.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote, in the other concurring opinion, that the trespass was not as important as the suspect's expectation of privacy. Police monitored the Jeep's movements over the course of four weeks after attaching the GPS device.
"The use of longer term GPS monitoring in investigations of most offenses impinges on expectations of privacy," Alito wrote in an opinion joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. Sotomayor in her concurring opinion specifically said she agreed with Alito on this conclusion.
Alito added, "We need not identify with precision the point at which the tracking of this vehicle became a search, for the line was surely crossed before the four-week mark."
Regarding the issue of duration, Scalia wrote that "we may have to grapple" with those issues in the future, "but there is no reason for rushing forward to resolve them here."
Alito also said the court should address how expectations of privacy affect whether warrants are required for remote surveillance using electronic methods that do not require the police to install equipment, such as GPS tracking of mobile telephones. Alito noted, for example, that more than 322 million cellphones have installed equipment that allows wireless carriers to track the phone's location.
"If long-term monitoring can be accomplished without committing a technical trespass ? suppose for example, that the federal government required or persuaded auto manufacturers to include a GPS tracking device in every car ? the court's theory would provide no protection," Alito said.
Sotomayor agreed. "It may be necessary to reconsider the premise that an individual has no reasonable expectation of privacy in information voluntarily disclosed to their parties," she said.
A federal appeals court in Washington had overturned Jones's drug conspiracy conviction because police did not have a warrant when they installed a GPS device on his vehicle and then tracked his movements for a month. The Supreme Court agreed with the appeals court.
Recent experiments conducted at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) produced striking results, showing for the first time that corals hosting a single type of "zooxanthellae" can have different levels of thermal tolerance ? a feature that was only known previously for corals with a mix of zooxanthellae.
Zooxanthellae are algal cells that live within the tissue of living coral and provide the coral host with energy; the relationship is crucial for the coral's survival. Rising ocean temperatures can lead to the loss of zooxanthellae from the coral host, as a consequence the coral loses its tissue colour and its primary source of energy, a process known as 'coral bleaching'. Globally, coral bleaching has led to significant loss of coral, and with rising ocean temperatures, poses a major threat to coral reefs.
It was previously known that corals hosting more than one type of zooxanthellae could better cope with temperature changes by favouring types of zooxanthellae that have greater thermal tolerance. However, until now it was not known if corals hosting a single type of zooxanthellae could have different levels of thermal tolerance.
Results recently published in the prestigious scientific journal, Nature Climate Change, showed corals that only host a single type of zooxanthellae may in fact differ in their thermal tolerance. This finding is important because many species of coral are dominated by a single type of zooxanthellae.
PhD student, Ms Emily Howells from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) at James Cook University, Townsville, together with scientists from AIMS and CoECRS, collected two populations of a single type of zooxanthellae (known as C1) from two locations on the Great Barrier Reef. The population collected from Magnetic Island near Townsville experiences average ocean temperatures 2?C higher than the population collected from the Whitsunday Islands. In experiments at AIMS, young corals were treated with one or other of the two different populations of zooxanthellae, and exposed to elevated water temperatures, as might occur during bleaching events.
The results were striking. Corals with zooxanthellae from the warmer region coped well with higher temperatures, staying healthy and growing rapidly, whilst corals with zooxanthellae from the cooler region suffered severe bleaching (loss of the zooxanthellae) and actually reduced in size as they partly died off.
Madeleine van Oppen, ARC Future Fellow at AIMS, says the research results will likely have a major impact on the field, as until now corals associating with the same type of zooxanthellae have been viewed as physiologically similar, irrespective of their geographical location.
"Our research suggests that populations of a single type of zooxanthellae have adapted to local conditions as can be seen from the remarkably different results of the two populations used in this study. If zooxanthellae populations are able to further adapt to increases in temperature at the pace at which oceans warm, they may assist corals to increase their thermal tolerance and survive into the future." says Emily Howells.
"However, we do not yet know how fast zooxanthellae can adapt, highlighting an important area of future research", says Bette Willis, Professor from the CoECRS at James Cook University.
Research at AIMS is therefore currently assessing whether zooxanthellae can continue to adapt to increasing temperatures and at what rate. This work in progress will provide insights into the capacity of zooxanthellae to adapt to future climate change.
###
ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies: http://www.coralcoe.org.au/
Thanks to ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies for this article.
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Hey there guys! So i thought i would try a different approach to finding some new partners for my role plays. So what i think i will do i will type up what threads im interested in and other plot lines that i have stuck in my head. I am a frequent posting usually online most of time, i can post a good length about 3 - 4 paragraphs as long as i have something good to go on. I love developing characters into really deep character, even today i use characters that i created 3 years ago when i first joined RPG but they have developed into really defining characters.
what i'm interested in:
Realistic Romance ( i do prefer playing male characters) fantasy ( i like vampires and werewolf types NOT TWILLIGHT!!! ) i'm open to suggestions to as long as the plot line makes sense and i have an idea for a character that will develop.
what's in my head:
R.A.T.S: (Regional Animal Testing Site)
You wake up lying on a cold steel table strapped down and locked, you cant remember how you came to this place but it cant be good. A strange man arrives at least you think its a man the lights too bright to tell he examines your body for any signs of injury or illness. Then a five inch needle is thrust into your chest piercing into your heart the pain is intense there's no way to describe it as it affects other people different ways. After the painful trauma you are thrown into another room like a cell be reinforced. THATS when you notice your body has changed, you can hear things better see things better and you have other animal characteristics.
Cellar Door:
A new family moves into a new home, but something is a miss at night cries and whimpers can be heard coming from the cellar. After further investigation a teenage boy is found battered and bruised, extremely thin and tied to a heavy pipe, he cannot speak and cant understand the simplest things from dressing himself to eating with a knife and fork.
Hospital thread:
i love psych threads so it would be a recovery process of an individual with a traumatic past that he cannot remember, he hears voices and can switch from a range of personalities that all have there secrets.
theres many more that keep popping up.
~There's only now, there's only this, forget regret, or life is yours to miss~ - RENT
~ If at first you don't succed, Destroy all evidence that you tried ~
Apple's latest foray into digital textbooks today raises a lot of questions about the future of the textbook publishing industry and digital textbook startups who now find themselves going up against Apple. One of the highest profile digital textbook startups is Kno, which started out with its own oversized tablet but now focusses on delivering textbooks through its iPad app. On the surface, things don't look so great for Kno, but CEO Osman Rashid is nonplussed: "We love the fact that so much light has been put on digital textbooks. Now we will fight on who has the better product, more interactive features, and a bigger catalog."
Parks and Recreation star Rob Lowe turned the football world upside down late yesterday with a series of tweets regarding Colts quarterback Peyton Manning.
Lowe stated, matter-of-factly, his shock that Peyton Manning is retiring.
Quickly questioned about it, he then said his "people are saying" the injured, aging NFL legend is hanging up the cleats, but did not exactly change course.
Ludicrous on the surface, the fact that Lowe is friends Colts owner Jim Irsay gave the situation a little more credibility. A little. Barely more than none.
Manning’s father and agent quickly denied the rumor, and Irsay has fired a shot at Lowe via Twitter. In response to Lowe's "scoop," the owner wrote:
“My sources tell me Rob will star in an epic remake of Deep Throat with aging porn stars and 4 finger circus clowns!”
It's unclear if Irsay was taking a swipe at Lowe’s infamous sex tape, or just trying to come up with a BS Twitter report of his own that’s odder than Lowe’s to make a point.
Either way, this whole thing is hilariously weird.
Lowe later told Rich Eisen of NFL Network that the info came from a “pretty darn good source.” Lowe said the source wasn’t Irsay, however, or anyone close to him.
The fact that Manning didn’t retire doesn’t mean he won’t, but it's doubtful Rob Lowe broke the sports scoop of the year, though stranger things have happened.
WORCESTER, Mass. ? U.S. Sen. Scott Brown officially kicked off his re-election campaign Thursday, casting his chief Democratic opponent Elizabeth Warren as an ideologue and pledging to be an independent voice in a deeply partisan Congress.
Brown, speaking to a crowd of cheering supporters at Mechanics Hall in the Worcester, said he would continue to oppose the health care law signed by President Barack Obama and would fight against wasteful government spending.
The Massachusetts Republican timed his Thursday evening event to coincide with the anniversary of his special election win in 2010 that catapulted him into the office once held by the late Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy.
Brown also criticized what he called "establishment candidates" who try to divide Americans for political gain.
"They'll wage class warfare, pitting one group of Americans against another," Brown said. "They will attack success, and our free enterprise system. They will use terms like `us' and `them.'"
Brown, who is facing a tough re-election campaign in a state that typically favors Democrats, has tried to position himself as the underdog in the race, despite his incumbent status and a campaign war chest more than twice as large as Warren.
Brown, who welcomed tea party support during his special election campaign two years ago, has gone on to break with his party on several key votes, including his support of a Democrat-backed overhaul of the nation's financial system. Brown's backing of a repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gays serving openly also drew criticism.
Most recently Brown decided to support Obama's decision to name Richard Cordray as the nation's chief consumer watchdog despite the objections of most Senate Republicans.
Brown has pointed to those votes as proof of his independent streak.
"I told the voters that I wouldn't just be another loud, angry partisan," Brown said. "I don't worry about the party line. I don't get caught up in petty fights."
Brown's victory stunned Massachusetts Democrats, particularly because the seat had been held by nearly half a century by Kennedy. Brown famously used that connection when he declared that the seat was the "people's seat" and not the Kennedy seat.
Reclaiming that seat has become the top goal of Democrats. Many are placing their hopes on Warren, the consumer advocate and Harvard professor who helped launch the new federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
While Brown enjoys an overall money advantage with $12.8 million in cash on hand, Warren collected more than $6 million as of Jan. 1, pulling in more than Brown during the final three months of 2011.
Warren's campaign said she had raised at least an additional $1.1 million Thursday during a "money bomb" fundraising effort from midnight to 9 p.m.
Warren was in Worcester on Thursday, shaking hands with diners at the Nu Cafe.
Responding to a portion of Brown's speech emailed to reporters ahead of the address, Warren brushed aside the criticism that she is trying to pit Americans against each other.
"This is the standard Republican play book right now," Warren said. "He is echoing the same things that every other Republican is saying every time a camera's turned on. I don't think the people of Massachusetts are going to be persuaded by that."
Warren added to her fundraiser total on Thursday with an online "money bomb" pegged to Brown's announcement. A money bomb allows supporters to pledge money via the Internet during a narrow window of time, with all the online "checks" cashed on the same day.
By Thursday, the amount pledged to Warren totaled more than $1 million. In the 2010 special election, Brown raised $1.3 million using a similar "money bomb" tactic.
While the race is widely expected to be the most expensive in state history, Warren and Brown are also taking the unusual step of trying to broker a deal to keep third party groups from sponsoring attack ads during the campaign.
Last week, Brown said he and Warren should sign a binding agreement to make hefty donations to charity if outside groups launch television, broadcast or online ads supporting their campaigns or attacking their rival.
Warren said she hoped to strike an even tougher agreement. She said she would like to see the two sign a joint agreement to be sent to all third party groups notifying them of the deal. She said the deal should specifically include radio ads and the candidates should ask broadcast outlets to help honor the deal.
Top staffers from both campaigns were expected to meet Friday to try to hammer out the details of an agreement.
What still isn't clear is how Brown or Warren could block the ads.
By their nature, the political action committees and outside groups that pay for the ads must work independently of the candidates and their campaigns. Federal election law explicitly bans candidates from coordinating with the committees on advertising.
Warren said it's still worth a shot.
"It's an effort to try to change the environment for third party groups," Warren said Thursday. "This is important and it's worth trying to do something to try to keep them out."
Warren still must win the state's Democratic primary in September. She is being challenged by other Democratic candidates including Marisa DeFranco, an immigration lawyer from Middleton, and James King, a lawyer from Dover.
(AP)? LISBON, Portugal ? Portugal has easily raised euro2.5 billion ($3.2 billion) in a debt auction, just days after Standard & Poor's downgraded its credit rating to junk status.
Portugal is one of the eurozone's weakest members and is stuck in recession. It needed a euro78 billion bailout last year.
Portugal's government debt agency said interest rates were flat or lower in Wednesday's sale of 3-, 6- and 11-month Treasury bills amid strong demand.
It sold euro1.25 billion at a rate of almost 5 percent in the 11-month bills ? the longest-term debt it has sold since taking the bailout.
What is fastboot? In Android, fastboot is a special diagnostic and engineering protocol that you can boot your Android device into. While in fastboot, you can modify the file system images from a computer over a USB connection. It's a powerful, nerdy tool that deserves to be broken down into terms we all can understand -- let's try and do that.
Not all phones have a fastboot mode that the user can access. It's turned on with Nexus devices by default (as well as a few other phones and tablets) and has been enabled by independent Android developers and enthusiasts on some other phones. It also requires more than what ships with the Android SDK, and different USB drivers for Windows computers. Fastboot runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux and all the information about setting it up can be found in the forums if you're interested. Once set up, you boot your phone to fastboot and you can flash image files to your phone's internal memory. Flashing a custom recovery like ClockworkMod is a popular use case, as is resetting it all back using factory images after we're done breaking things. The images you flash don't need to be signed with a particular key, so just about anything will try to flash -- even if it shouldn't be used, so use care. There are other commands you can use with fastboot, and they're a bit more advanced. Things like erasing partitions and overriding kernel command line options can be done, and this makes the tool very useful for developing hardware and software solutions that may need customized booting procedures. With a little bit of knowledge, and the right Android hardware, fastboot can be a great tool.
It looks like not everyone loves "The Artist." According to the Telegraph, a "small number" of Liverpool filmgoers were so surprised to find that the Best Picture frontrunner was silent, they demanded their money back.
"I thought it was really funny and laughed," Nicola Shearer, a 25-year-old Liverpool resident going to see "The Artist" told the Telegraph after being reminded by theater personnel that the film was silent. "Of course, I knew it was and I asked the usher why she wanted to know. She then told me some people complained and asked for refunds because there is no sound and the screen is smaller."
After first denying that any refunds were handed out, an Odeon Liverpool One representative confirmed that some guests received their money back after being dissatisfied with the film.
This isn't the first time a critically acclaimed 2011 film has come under fire from ticket buyers. A Connecticut movie theater refused refunds over the summer when patrons walked out of Terrence Malick's polarizing film, "The Tree of Life."
"We encourage patrons to read up on the film before choosing to see it," read a sign posted at the Avon Theater in Stamford, Conn. It later added, "We hope you expand your horizons with us."
Starring Golden Globe-winning actor Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo and Uggie the dog, "The Artist" is a silent film about a silent film star faced with dwindling job opportunities following the invention of talkies. It's expected to be a major player at the Academy Awards next month, and could earn up to up to ten nominations; on Tuesday, the film earned 12 BAFTA nominations.
Worldwide, "The Artist" has grossed $27 million since its release; here in the U.S., it is creeping up to $10 million, a number that should expand fairly significantly once the Oscar nominations are announced.
LONDON ? Organizers of the Royal Ascot race meeting say they're tightening their dress code by banning fascinators from the royal enclosure.
New rules put out by organizers Wednesday are the latest in a series of changes and clarifications put out by those behind the super-elite horse racing event held each June.
Ascot is a highlight of the British social calendar and organizers have been fighting to control the proliferation of provocative dresses, outrageous accessories and revealing tops.
Other rules introduced or reinforced Wednesday include the requirement that women must wear hats and clarify that dresses must fall below the knee.
The new rules also state that men must wear a suit and tie in some areas. Those in the royal enclosure must wear a top hat.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Science fiction wouldn’t be much fun if movies never took any creative license. But some popcorn flicks are just too wrong to enjoy.
Solutions for a nitrogen-soaked worldPublic release date: 17-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Liza Lester llester@esa.org 202-833-8773 x211 Ecological Society of America
Interdisciplinary panel reviews US nitrogen pollution trends, risks, and mitigation strategies
Nitrogen is both an essential nutrient and a pollutant, a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion and a fertilizer that feeds billions, a benefit and a hazard, depending on form, location, and quantity. Agriculture, industry and transportation have spread nitrogen liberally around the planet, say sixteen scientists in the latest edition of ESA's Issues in Ecology series, "Excess Nitrogen in the U.S. Environment: Trends, Risks, and Solutions," with complex and interrelated consequences for ecological communities and our dependence upon the resources they provide, as well as human health.
Pulling from a broad pool of expertise in air quality, agronomy, ecology, epidemiology and groundwater geochemistry, the sixteen authors track nitrogen through its different chemical forms and biological incarnations as it progresses across economic, environmental and regulatory bounds. They argue for a systematic, rather than piecemeal, approach to managing the resource and its consequences. "We're really trying to identify solutions," said lead author Eric Davidson, a soil ecologist and executive director of the Woods Hole Research Center. "This is a paper about how much we do know, not about what we don't know. We know about nitrogen cycles, and sources, and we know problems can be addressed in economically viable ways."
Once a critical limiting element of agricultural production, excess nitrogen now overflows from fields and stockyards, typically in the forms of ammonia and nitrate, contaminating drinking water and air, and altering the chemistry and constituency of ecological communities. "Nitrogen is readily mobile, and very efficiently distributed through wind and water," said author James Galloway, a biogeochemist at the University of Virginia. Airborne nitrogen from agricultural fields, manure piles, automobile tailpipes, and smokestacks travels with the wind to settle over distant forests and coastal areas.
Though extra fertilizer sounds like a good thing, it does not benefit all species equally, leading, in more extreme cases, to sudden changes like algal blooms, which smother competing species and can create health hazards. Nitrogen also acidifies soil, leaching away other important nutrients. Interventions to control nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants and gasoline-fueled engines have made encouraging progress. Mitigating agricultural sources of excess nitrogen is more complicated.
"We know how to reduce nitrogen oxides from fossil fuel combustion to a very small amount. We know the science, we have the engineering, and we have the regulatory tools," said Galloway, setting emissions aside as a political, rather than a scientific, hurdle. "On the food side, that's where it gets interesting," he said. "How can you still produce the food the society demands, needs, yet use less nitrogen to produce it?"
The report tabulates strategies to help farmers maximize efficient use of fertilizer, rather than just maximize crop yield, including buffer strips and wetlands, manure management, and ideal patterns of fertilizer application. It also considers the cost of implementing them, and programs for buffering farmers against losses in bad years.
"There are a variety of impacts due to the human use of nitrogen," said Galloway. "The biggest is a positive one, in that it allows us to grow food for Americans and people in other countries, and we don't want to lose sight of that." Balancing inexpensive abundant food against the damage done by nitrogen escaping into the environment is a conversation the authors would like to hear more prominently in policy arenas.
"Yes, we have to feed people, but we also need clean drinking water, clean air, and fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico," said Davidson. "The science helps to show those tradeoffs, and where we most stand to gain from improved nutrient management in agriculture."
###
Issues in Ecology #15, "Excess Nitrogen in the U.S. Environment: Trends, Risks, and Solutions," is available as a pdf download. All reports in the Issues in Ecology series may be found at http://www.esa.org/issues.
The Ecological Society of America is the world's largest professional organization of ecologists, representing 10,000 scientists in the United States and around the globe. Since its founding in 1915, ESA has promoted the responsible application of ecological principles to the solution of environmental problems through ESA reports, journals, research, and expert testimony to Congress. ESA publishes five journals and convenes an annual scientific conference. Visit the ESA website at http://www.esa.org or find experts in ecological science at http://www.esa.org/pao/rrt/.
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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.
Solutions for a nitrogen-soaked worldPublic release date: 17-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Liza Lester llester@esa.org 202-833-8773 x211 Ecological Society of America
Interdisciplinary panel reviews US nitrogen pollution trends, risks, and mitigation strategies
Nitrogen is both an essential nutrient and a pollutant, a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion and a fertilizer that feeds billions, a benefit and a hazard, depending on form, location, and quantity. Agriculture, industry and transportation have spread nitrogen liberally around the planet, say sixteen scientists in the latest edition of ESA's Issues in Ecology series, "Excess Nitrogen in the U.S. Environment: Trends, Risks, and Solutions," with complex and interrelated consequences for ecological communities and our dependence upon the resources they provide, as well as human health.
Pulling from a broad pool of expertise in air quality, agronomy, ecology, epidemiology and groundwater geochemistry, the sixteen authors track nitrogen through its different chemical forms and biological incarnations as it progresses across economic, environmental and regulatory bounds. They argue for a systematic, rather than piecemeal, approach to managing the resource and its consequences. "We're really trying to identify solutions," said lead author Eric Davidson, a soil ecologist and executive director of the Woods Hole Research Center. "This is a paper about how much we do know, not about what we don't know. We know about nitrogen cycles, and sources, and we know problems can be addressed in economically viable ways."
Once a critical limiting element of agricultural production, excess nitrogen now overflows from fields and stockyards, typically in the forms of ammonia and nitrate, contaminating drinking water and air, and altering the chemistry and constituency of ecological communities. "Nitrogen is readily mobile, and very efficiently distributed through wind and water," said author James Galloway, a biogeochemist at the University of Virginia. Airborne nitrogen from agricultural fields, manure piles, automobile tailpipes, and smokestacks travels with the wind to settle over distant forests and coastal areas.
Though extra fertilizer sounds like a good thing, it does not benefit all species equally, leading, in more extreme cases, to sudden changes like algal blooms, which smother competing species and can create health hazards. Nitrogen also acidifies soil, leaching away other important nutrients. Interventions to control nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants and gasoline-fueled engines have made encouraging progress. Mitigating agricultural sources of excess nitrogen is more complicated.
"We know how to reduce nitrogen oxides from fossil fuel combustion to a very small amount. We know the science, we have the engineering, and we have the regulatory tools," said Galloway, setting emissions aside as a political, rather than a scientific, hurdle. "On the food side, that's where it gets interesting," he said. "How can you still produce the food the society demands, needs, yet use less nitrogen to produce it?"
The report tabulates strategies to help farmers maximize efficient use of fertilizer, rather than just maximize crop yield, including buffer strips and wetlands, manure management, and ideal patterns of fertilizer application. It also considers the cost of implementing them, and programs for buffering farmers against losses in bad years.
"There are a variety of impacts due to the human use of nitrogen," said Galloway. "The biggest is a positive one, in that it allows us to grow food for Americans and people in other countries, and we don't want to lose sight of that." Balancing inexpensive abundant food against the damage done by nitrogen escaping into the environment is a conversation the authors would like to hear more prominently in policy arenas.
"Yes, we have to feed people, but we also need clean drinking water, clean air, and fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico," said Davidson. "The science helps to show those tradeoffs, and where we most stand to gain from improved nutrient management in agriculture."
###
Issues in Ecology #15, "Excess Nitrogen in the U.S. Environment: Trends, Risks, and Solutions," is available as a pdf download. All reports in the Issues in Ecology series may be found at http://www.esa.org/issues.
The Ecological Society of America is the world's largest professional organization of ecologists, representing 10,000 scientists in the United States and around the globe. Since its founding in 1915, ESA has promoted the responsible application of ecological principles to the solution of environmental problems through ESA reports, journals, research, and expert testimony to Congress. ESA publishes five journals and convenes an annual scientific conference. Visit the ESA website at http://www.esa.org or find experts in ecological science at http://www.esa.org/pao/rrt/.
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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.
Apple's latest foray into 
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Public release date: 17-Jan-2012
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