Gingrich wants panel to look at in vitro clinics (AP)

LUTZ, Fla. ? Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich called Sunday for a commission to study the ethical issues relating to in vitro fertilization clinics, where infertile women receive treatment to get pregnant and large numbers of embryos are created.

"If you have in vitro fertilization you are creating life. And therefore we should look seriously at what should the rules be for clinics that do that because they're creating life," said Gingrich, who opposes abortion and says life begins at conception.

Gingrich, who is campaigning for votes in Tuesday's Florida primary, did not expand on his proposal for a commission. His remarks seemed to open the possibility of a larger federal role over IVF clinics across the country than currently exists.

Standing outside the Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church, where he had attended Sunday worship services, Gingrich also said he opposes the use of leftover embryos for stem cell research, which advocates say offers the hope of treatments or even cures for a variety of diseases.

The issue of stem cell research has become politically charged over the past decade, as scientific technique has advanced.

Former President George W. Bush, who opposed abortion rights, signed an executive order in 2001 that said federal funds could be used for stem cell research only on lines that were already in existence, which scientists subsequently said had been compromised.

President Barack Obama, who supports abortion rights, jettisoned Bush's restrictions on federal funding for stem cell research after taking office.

In vitro fertilization involves creating an embryo outside a woman's body, then implanting it inside the womb. Excess embryos may be stored at the clinic, discarded, used for research or made available to other couples. A study nearly a decade ago estimated there were as many as 400,000 in existence.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_el_pr/us_gingrich_embryos

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Madonna plans 10 schools in Malawi with new partner (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Madonna on Monday announced plans to build 10 new schools in Malawi with a new partner after mismanagement forced the pop star to scrap her first project there last year.

The singer, who has adopted two children from the impoverished southern African nation, said she hoped the 10 new schools would educate at least 1,000 children a year, half of them girls.

That is double the number of children she hoped to help with her previously planned academy for girls, which was scrapped in March 2011 because of mismanagement and cost overruns.

Madonna said her Raising Malawi charity was teaming up this time with the non-profit group buildOn, which has constructed 54 primary schools in Malawi in the last 19 years.

"I am excited that with the help of buildOn, we can maintain our ongoing commitment to move forward efficiently. We now will be able to serve twice as many children as we would have served with our old approach," Madonna said in a statement.

"I have learned a great deal over the last few years and feel confident that we can reach our goals to educate children in Malawi, especially young girls, in a much more practical way. Constructing smaller schools in partnership with buildOn has restored my faith that we can accomplish what we promised we would," she added.

Madonna's earlier plan to build a state of the art girls school for about 400 girls just outside the Malawi capital Lilongwe collapsed last year, and the board of her Raising Malawi charity was fired. The New York Times said at the time that $3.8 million had been spent on the school with little to show for it.

The singer has lent $11 million to the organization which she co-founded in 2006.

Malawi has more than half a million children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic and is ranked by the United Nations as one of the world's 20 least developed countries.

Madonna's plans for new schools came at the start of a busy week for the singer, actress and director. Her new movie "W.E", which she wrote and directed, opens in U.S. movie theaters on Friday, she is performing at Sunday's halftime show at the 2012 Super Bowl, and will release the first single from her upcoming new album on Feb 3.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/en_nm/us_madonna_malawi

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Former Taliban Officials Say U.S. Talks Started

Read the whole story

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/29/former-taliban-officials-say-talks-started_n_1239770.html

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Romney lead over Gingrich up in Florida: Reuters/Ipsos poll (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney's lead over rival Newt Gingrich edged up to 12 percentage points in Florida, according to Reuters/Ipsos online poll results on Sunday, as Romney's front-runner status stabilized and Gingrich continued to slip.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and private equity executive, was supported by 42 percent of likely Florida voters surveyed in the online three-day tracking poll, just down from 43 percent in the same poll on Saturday. Romney was at 41 percent on Friday.

But with just two days before the state's primary on Tuesday, Gingrich's support was at 30 percent, down from 32 percent in Saturday's results and 33 percent on Friday.

The gap between the two was 11 percent when poll respondents were asked about a hypothetical head-to-head race between the rivals in the race for the Republican presidential nomination to oppose President Barack Obama in the general election in November.

If the race were between Romney and Gingrich only, Romney would be at 55 percent to Gingrich's 44 percent, according to the Sunday's results. On Saturday the gap between the two was eight percentage points and on Friday it was just two, when respondents were asked the same question.

"Newt Gingrich's position in the primary race is really starting to lose support," said Chris Jackson, research director for Ipsos Public Affairs.

The poll results, similar to those of several other surveys, illustrated Romney's remarkable turnaround since South Carolina's primary on January 21, which Gingrich won in a surprise upset.

"Gingrich got a big boost out of South Carolina, but he's losing that," said Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak.

"It's clear that Romney's run a much more focused and effective campaign in Florida than Newt," he said. "Newt's playing defense every single day in every way and doesn't seem to be able to make Romney play defense."

Romney had two strong debate performances this week and has jumped to a solid lead over Gingrich, whom he had trailed in earlier opinion polls in Florida. He has taken steady aim at Gingrich on the debate stage and in attack ads as a politician who left government under an ethics cloud and has remained a Washington insider ever since.

GINGRICH FACES TOUGH FEBRUARY

Romney has a solid advantage in money and organization over Gingrich in Florida, and the month ahead does not look much better for the former speaker as the state-by-state race for the Republican nomination continues.

Four states with February contests - Nevada, Maine, Colorado and Minnesota - use caucus systems, which can require greater organization to rally voter turnout. That could help Romney take advantage of his superior financial and staff resources.

On February 28, Michigan and Arizona hold primaries. Romney was raised in Michigan, where his father was a governor and car executive.

"February does not look like a good month for Newt," Mackowiak said.

But his failure to gain more support among likely voters in Florida's primary, which is limited only to registered Republicans, shows that Romney is still not electrifying the party faithful. "He's not the guy that everyone loves and rallies behind," Jackson said. "He's not getting that huge rally of support."

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum trailed well behind with 16 percent support, the same as Saturday's level. Santorum seemed to be gaining momentum as an "alternate" to Romney. Thirty-eight percent of likely voters said he would be their second choice if their first choice left the race, up from 33 percent on Saturday and 30 percent on Friday.

But it is probably too close to the January 31 vote to make a difference, Jackson said.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who is not campaigning in Florida, was at 6 percent.

Statistical margins of error are not applicable to online surveys, but this poll of 726 likely voters in the Florida primary has a credibility interval of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points for registered voters.

Sunday's Reuters/Ipsos survey is the third of four daily tracking polls being released ahead of Tuesday's Florida primary.

(Reporting By Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/pl_nm/us_usa_campaign_poll

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If it feels good, do it (Balloon Juice)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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I?m Glad We Can Stop Pretending Otherwise (Balloon Juice)

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SUMO-snipping protein plays crucial role in T and B cell development

Saturday, January 28, 2012

When SUMO grips STAT5, a protein that activates genes, it blocks the healthy embryonic development of immune B cells and T cells unless its nemesis breaks the hold, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports today in Molecular Cell.

"This research extends the activity of SUMO and the Sentrin/SUMO-specific protease 1 (SENP1) to the field of immunology, in particular the early lymphoid development of T and B cells," said the study's senior author, Edward T. H. Yeh, M.D., professor and chair of MD Anderson's Department of Cardiology.

SUMO proteins, also known as the small ubiquitin-like modifiers or Sentrin, attach to other proteins in cells to modify their function or to move them within a cell. SENP1 is one of a family of six proteins that snips SUMO off of SUMO-modified proteins. SUMOylation (SUMO modification) of proteins has been implicated in development of cancer, heart and neurodegenerative diseases, among others.

The team first analyzed the role of SENP1 in the development of lymphoids in mice and found it is heavily expressed in precursor cells, the early stages of B and T cell development.

Working with genetically modified mice they developed that lack SENP1 gene expression, Yeh and colleagues found the mouse embryos had severe defects in their T and B cells, white blood cell lymphocytes that identify and fight infection.

SUMO pins STAT5 in the nucleus

Subsequent experiments led them to STAT5, a transcription factor known to play critical roles in the development and function of immune cells. Transcription factors work in the cell nucleus, activating gene expression by connecting to a gene's promoter region.

"STAT5 works in a cycle, moving from the cytosol of a cell into the nucleus to activate genes and then back out to the cytosol," Yeh said. "We found that when STAT5 is SUMOylated in the nucleus it gets trapped there when there's no SENP1 to remove SUMO."

The team found that SUMO muscles in on two other signaling events that govern STAT5 activity - phosphorylation and acetylation.

SUMO inhibits STAT5 signaling

STAT5 is activated in the cell cytosol when the JAK tyrosine kinase attaches a phosphate group at a specific site on the STAT5 protein. This transformed STAT5 crosses the nuclear membrane into the nucleus to transcribe genes.

The team found that SUMO attaches to STAT5 close to its phosphorylation site and that cells lacking SENP1 have increased SUMOylation and decreased phosphorylation.

SUMOylation vs. acetylation

In addition to phosphorylation, acetylation of STAT5 has been shown to be essential for STAT5 to cross the nuclear membrane into the nucleus to enhance gene transcription. Yeh and colleagues found that SUMO competes directly with acetyl groups for the same binding site, inhibiting acetylation.

"Without SENP1 to remove SUMO, STAT5 can't be acetylated or phosphorylated and can't be recycled for use again," Yeh said. "We discovered that SENP1 controls lymphoid development through regulation of SUMOylation of STAT5."

Since Yeh's lab discovered SUMOylation in 1996, SUMO has been found to alter the function of thousands of proteins.

Yeh is hosting the 6th International Conference SUMO, Ubiquitin, UBL Proteins: Implications for Human Diseases Feb. 8-11 in the Dan L. Duncan Building at MD Anderson. Yeh organizes the meeting every other year.

"There used to be so little known about SUMO. Now, a protein is assumed to be SUMOylated until proved otherwise," Yeh said.

###

University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center: http://www.mdanderson.org

Thanks to University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117155/SUMO_snipping_protein_plays_crucial_role_in_T_and_B_cell_development

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Suspect shown by Mexico cops says he beat Canadian (AP)

CULIACAN, Mexico ? A man charged with brutally beating a Canadian tourist at a luxury beach hotel told reporters Saturday that he tried to hold the woman in an elevator and punched her several times in the face when she cried for help.

Police presented Jose Ramon Acosta Quintero, 28, to local and foreign journalists in the Pacific port city of Mazatlan, where the attack on Sheila Nabb of Calgary, Alberta, occurred in the early hours of Jan. 20.

He was arrested Friday and charged with attempted murder. Prosecutors have said investigators were led to Acosta by a hotel security video that showed him leaving the elevator where Nabb was attacked.

Sinaloa State Prosecutor Marco Antonio Higuera Gomez said Saturday that Acosta was drinking in local bars and had taken cocaine with a Canadian friend when they decided to go to one of the large tourist hotels where bars operate 24 hours. He said Acosta frequents those hotels and sometimes goes by the name "Ray."

Flanked by police, Acosta spoke in fluent English as he answered a few questions from foreign reporters. He said he entered the hotel from the back beach doorway and was taking an elevator up to the roof when the doors opened and Nabb got in. They talked and then he put his hand on the door, he said, to prevent her from leaving so they could keep talking.

"She got afraid when I didn't let her out and she started yelling, 'He won't let me out,'" Acosta said. "I got afraid also, because she's a North American and I'm Mexican and I wasn't supposed to be in the hotel."

He said he covered her mouth as she continued to yell for help.

"Then I hit her four or five times in the face with my fist and then I left," said Acosta, who swallowed nervously as he talked.

Nabb's husband was in their hotel room at the time of the attack and she was found lying in the elevator and bleeding heavily.

She was flown to Canada, and Canadian media have reported that she remains hospitalized with major injuries to her face and jaw.

"Yeah, I did it. I did, but it wasn't planned or anything like that," Acosta said in a soft voice. "I didn't try to abuse her, or I didn't try to kill her or anything or rob her."

Acosta said police had shown him a security camera video of him leaving the elevator, but he denied it showed him kicking Nabb. He said that possibly he was using his foot to move her hand out of the door so it would close.

Higuera has said Acosta had Nabb's blood on his shoes when he was arrested.

"I'm sorry and I hope that she recovers," Acosta said before being led away by police. "I've seen the papers. Her face was bad."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mexico/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_canadian_attacked

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Gay actors still worry that coming out will hurt careers (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES, Jan 26 (TheWrap.com) ? There's still a celluloid closet in Hollywood.

Gay actors are far more open about their sexuality with friends and co-workers, than their agents, according to a new survey by the British trade union Equity.

Only 57 percent say that they are openly gay with their agents. Despite the success of gay and lesbian actors like Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Lynch and Ian McKellen, the indication seems to be that actors and actresses fear that their choice of roles will be affected if they come out of the closet publicly.

Rupert Everett, once eager to become the next James Bond, has for years spoken frankly the price he's paid for being openly gay, lambasting Hollywood as "very, very conservative" in a late 2010 interview.

He said that he didn't blame those who chose to remain in the closet, calling it "very sensible."

McKellen, Lynch, Harris and others have made great strides for the gay community and frequently play straight people on television and in movies, but there are no A-list film stars who are openly gay. Rumors have swirled for years about the sexuality of major stars such as Jodie Foster, but so far the actress has avoided any explicit public declarations.

At this year's Golden Globe awards, host Ricky Gervais riffed on the those rumors, and the title of Foster's recent film, "The Beaver."

"I haven't seen it myself," Gervais said. 'I've spoken to a lot of guys -- they haven't seen it either, but that doesn't mean it's not good."

Beyond a reticence to broadcast their sexuality, 35 percent the actors surveyed said they have experienced homophobia in their professional lives.

"I have never felt that being gay has worked against me but the finding in Equity's own survey that just under half of all gay performers are not out to their agent in the U.K. is worrying," Malcolm Sinclair, actor and president of Equity, said in a statement. "But then work is scarce and, whether sexuality is a barrier or not, people may just err on the side of caution. They don't want to test the water to see if it's all right."

The same anxiety does not appear to exist among co-workers. Ninety four percent of those polled said they are honest about their sexuality with their fellow performers and 81 percent were out in their professional lives.

(Editing By Zorianna Kit)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/en_nm/us_gayactors

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Why the US won't fund Palestinian 'Sesame Street'

Following a Palestinian appeal for UN recognition, US congressional funding for aid projects including a local version of 'Sesame Street' have been frozen.

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

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Daoud Kuttab usually produces a Palestinian version of ?Sesame Street? that teaches children how to count. But lately he has had to focus on his own bottom line. Three months after an American funding freeze, his show is so behind schedule that the writers? workshop rooms are empty, the editing studios are dark, and the Muppets have left the West Bank for repairs.

Think you know the Middle East? Take our geography quiz.

Mr. Kuttab says that in October he was expecting to receive $2.5 million from the US Agency for International Development for the next three years. But Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) of Florida froze $192 million in congressional funding to USAID?s programs in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations, which the United States opposed.

Each season, Kuttab works with teachers and child psychologists to craft 26 episodes around themes of tolerance, sharing, and friendship. Kuttab said that even if money is restored he will not manage to produce any new episodes in 2012.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/aOwVL3qu_hU/Why-the-US-won-t-fund-Palestinian-Sesame-Street

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Archivist challenges Kremlin in Wallenberg saga

MOSCOW (AP) ? A former senior Russian archive official says he saw a file that could shed light on Holocaust hero Raoul Wallenberg's fate ? challenging the insistence of Russia's KGB successor agency that it has no documents regarding the man who saved tens of thousands of Jews in Hungary before disappearing into the hands of Soviet secret police.

Anatoly Prokopenko, 78, told The Associated Press that in 1991 he saw a thick dossier containing numerous references to Wallenberg that suggested he was being spied upon by a Russian aristocrat working for Soviet intelligence. Russian officials later said the file didn't exist, in line with blanket denials of having information on Wallenberg.

"That file is extremely interesting, because it could allow us to determine the reasons behind his arrest," Prokopenko said, while acknowledging he had only a few minutes to flip through hundreds of pages of documents.

As Sweden's envoy to Nazi-occupied Hungary, Wallenberg saved 20,000 Jews by giving them Swedish travel documents or moving them to safe houses, and managed to dissuade Nazi officers from massacring the 70,000 inhabitants of the city's ghetto. The 32-year-old diplomat was arrested by the Soviets in January 1945 when the Red Army stormed Budapest, and imprisoned in Moscow.

The Soviets had stubbornly denied that Wallenberg was in their custody before issuing a 1957 announcement that he had died on July 17, 1947, in his prison cell of a sudden heart attack. They stonewalled international demands for information about his fate, and rejected allegations that Wallenberg could have lived as a prisoner under a different identify as late as the 1980s.

Prokopenko said that in the fall of 1991, on an inspection tour of the main KGB archive in a tightly guarded facility outside Moscow, he came across a hefty dossier on Count Mikhail Tolstoy-Kutuzov, a Russian aristocrat who left Russia after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and worked alongside Wallenberg in Budapest.

Prokopenko said that he only had a few minutes to peek at the dossier, but he saw Wallenberg's name mentioned repeatedly in what appeared to be Tolstoy-Kutuzov's reports to his handlers in Soviet intelligence.

"I realized that he was following every step Wallenberg made," Prokopenko said.

Prokopenko was fired just over a year later and deprived of his access to the archives ? a move Prokopenko attributes to his efforts to reveal secret Soviet archives to the public.

He said he advised Guy von Dardel, Wallenberg's half-brother who spent years searching for clues to his fate, to ask the KGB successor agency for permission to see the files on Tolstoy-Kutuzov. They turned him down, saying that no such files existed.

When von Dardel said that he knew from Prokopenko that this wasn't true, officials asked him to come back in a few days and handed him a dossier that contained only a few pages lacking any reference to Wallenberg.

Prokopenko said that Stalin's secret police possibly suspected Wallenberg of being involved in secret contacts between the Western allies and the Nazis and were eager to learn about his connections.

Wallenberg had been recruited for his rescue mission in Budapest by a U.S. intelligence agent, with Swedish government approval, on behalf of the War Refugee Board created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. But he is not known to have been engaged in intelligence-gathering.

Susanne Berger, a German researcher who advised a Swedish-Russian working group that conducted a 10-year investigation that ended in 2001, backs Prokopenko's view that the Soviets likely saw Wallenberg as a valuable source of intelligence.

"The Soviet leadership was particularly paranoid about what it perceived as a possible Anglo-American conspiracy against Soviet interests," she said in e-mailed comments.

Berger added that Stalin might have hoped to use Wallenberg for future bargaining with the West.

"The most likely reason for Stalin to arrest Raoul Wallenberg would have been to use him as some kind of 'asset,' to bargain or negotiate for," Berger said. "Stalin may have felt that with Raoul Wallenberg, scion of a powerful Western business family, he held a rather interesting bargaining chip."

The former archivist said KGB officers privately told him that Wallenberg was killed because his refusal to cooperate made him a liability. "They couldn't have set him free, they would have needed to liquidate him," Prokopenko said.

The chief of the archives of the FSB, the main KGB successor agency, admitted in a rare interview with the AP in September that the Soviet version that Wallenberg died of a heart attack could have been fabricated and that his captors may have "helped him die." Lt. Gen. Vasily Khristoforov said that all documents related to Wallenberg likely had been destroyed back in the 1950s and denied that his agency was withholding any information related to his case.

Prokopenko, who headed the Special Archive containing documents from 20 European countries in the waning years of the Soviet Union, allowed researchers working for an international commission investigating Wallenberg's fate to search for clues to Wallenberg's fate amid Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's openness campaign.

They quickly found a document on Wallenberg's transfer from one Soviet prison to another, but the KGB immediately learned of the effort and ordered them out.

Prokopenko lost his job soon afterward, but continued his work to open the archives under the government of Boris Yeltsin, the first president of Russia until he lost his post of the deputy chief of the Russian state archive agency in early 1993.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-27-EU-Russia-Wallenberg/id-39b32e3320a44b19a0bb250c373a405f

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Site sells baubles of the broken-hearted

Never Liked It Anyway

By Suzanne Choney

Wow, never mind the glitzy baubles that are available on a new website, Never Liked It Anyway. The stories that come with them are just as gripping (and they're free).

The site is for the spurned and broken-hearted who are not so devastated that they can't see their way to making a buck (or in some cases, much, much more) from their former lovers' gifts, with "real-world" prices given alongside "break-up" prices. But the best part is that sellers can vent their feelings about their exes in describing why the items are for sale.

Never Liked It Anyway

Here you can find a 1.74 carat "princess cut solitaire engagement ring," listed as having a "real world price" of $10,250, but offered for a "break-up price" of $6,800. Writes the seller:

Absolutely loved wearing this ring during my engagement. Unfortunately my ex-fiance and I never made it down the aisle. Months before the big day we purchased a new vehicle in my name for my soon to be husband, his vehicle, his payment. Needless to say when we broke things off, he decided to quit his job and give me the vehicle instead of getting it put in his name, leaving me with the payment. Not to mention we had rolled over negative equity from his previous vehicle to the new one, so in order to get rid of it when I sold it, I had to pay $9,000 in negative equity. So basically at this point I am trying to pay off the Credit Cards I had to max out to do so. Still fixing his mess months after the breakup ...

There's also more modest jewelry, like a "silver double love heart necklace with little cubic zirconias around the edge of larger heart." Real-world price: $150. Break-up price: $80. And a simple explanation that goes with it: "My ex is history and I want the jewelery he gave me to be as well," says the seller.

Then there's the 2-carat wedding ring, real-world price, $6,400; break-up price, $3,000:

Was married 23 years and didn't ever have a wedding ring ... marriage was on the rocks ...He was trying to buy me to keep me... so this ring hasn't been worn more than 2 years. Divorced 2 years later... No longer needed and need the money.

There are also wedding dresses never worn.

A Maggie Sottero gown, for example, originally $1,500, is offered at $1,300 (with the seller willing to bargain):

After our wedding turned into everything HE wanted, I realized that the path I was heading into wasn't where i wanted to be," she writes. "So i called off the wedding 2 months before so that I could be happy again. I absolutely love this dress and really hate parting with it but I feel like it is the final step to ending that relationship. I hope a gorgeous bride will walk down the isle with it one day!

The site was started by an Australian woman, Annabel Acton, who "decided to set up a kind of eBay for bitter brides and disgruntled grooms and other brokenhearted," notes The New York Post. Acton, the newspaper said, "was inspired by her own miserable breakup with her boyfriend five days before Christmas."

"All this pathetic ?Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? was sappy," Acton told the Post. "I wanted something spunky."

Spunky it is. Never Liked It Anyway isn't all about the dollars; it's also about healing. The site includes a "Moving on Manual," a crowd-sourced grab bag of "tips and tricks to help you move on fast, as written by you."

Many of those tips are helpful, and many are just cathartic: "Get the Fat App and distort a photo of them. Instant relief and instant comedy!" wrote "MissB."

Wrote "PeteRepeat": "Watch jersey shore and remember, it could always be worse... you could be The Situation."

And there's this, from "kmobayeni":?"Ban all Celine Dion songs (you should do this anyway)."

Related stories:

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on?Facebook,?and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

?

?

Source: http://digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/25/10236563-site-sells-baubles-of-the-broken-hearted

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A slim race for best original song at the Oscars

FILE - Actor Bret McKenzie arrives at HBO's 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards after party, in this Sept. 16, 2007 file photo taken in West Hollywood, Calif. The race for the best original song Oscar is a slim one with two songs up for the honor, a first for the Academy Awards. Sergio Mendes' ?Real In Rio? from the animated adventure ?Rio? will compete with Bret McKenzie's ?Man or Muppet? from ?The Muppets,? despite having a bevy of all-star musicians like Elton John, Mary J. Blige, will.i.am and Pink in contention for nomination. (AP Photo/Gus Ruelas, File)

FILE - Actor Bret McKenzie arrives at HBO's 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards after party, in this Sept. 16, 2007 file photo taken in West Hollywood, Calif. The race for the best original song Oscar is a slim one with two songs up for the honor, a first for the Academy Awards. Sergio Mendes' ?Real In Rio? from the animated adventure ?Rio? will compete with Bret McKenzie's ?Man or Muppet? from ?The Muppets,? despite having a bevy of all-star musicians like Elton John, Mary J. Blige, will.i.am and Pink in contention for nomination. (AP Photo/Gus Ruelas, File)

FILE - Bossa Nova piano maestro Sergio Mendes poses for a photo in this Feb. 7, 2006 file photo taken at his home in Woodland Hills, Calif.The race for the best original song Oscar is a slim one with two songs up for the honor, a first for the Academy Awards. Sergio Mendes' ?Real In Rio? from the animated adventure ?Rio? will compete with Bret McKenzie's ?Man or Muppet? from ?The Muppets,? despite having a bevy of all-star musicians like Elton John, Mary J. Blige, will.i.am and Pink in contention for nomination. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The race for the best original song Oscar is a slim one with two songs up for the honor, a first for the Academy Awards.

Sergio Mendes' "Real In Rio" from the animated adventure "Rio" will compete with Bret McKenzie's "Man or Muppet" from "The Muppets," despite having songs from a bevy of all-star musicians like Elton John, Mary J. Blige, will.i.am and Pink in contention for nomination.

Charles Bernstein, the former chairman of the Academy Awards' music branch, says he "personally was surprised" that only two songs are up for the honor.

In the past, the number of nominees for best original song has ranged from three to 14. Only up to five songs are eligible for nomination.

"I personally felt that there may have been more than two that I personally would have championed," he said in an interview after the Oscars nominations were announced Tuesday. "But it is a majority vote situation."

Blige, who co-wrote a song for the Deep South drama "The Help," said in a tweet Tuesday that she was sad, and felt like the Academy "is being mean" for only nominating two songs for the award.

This year, 39 songs were eligible for nomination for best original song, including tracks from Brad Paisley, Robbie Williams, The National, Zooey Deschanel, Zac Brown, Chris Cornell and others.

Members of the music branch can rank songs using 10, 9.5, 9, 8.5, 8, 7.5, 7, 6.5 or 6, and a song must have at least an average score of 8.25 to be nominated. If only one song gets that score, it and the song receiving the next highest score will be the two nominees.

Since two songs were nominated, it could mean that voters were unimpressed with this year's contenders.

"Each person is voting on a subjective impression ... so you'd have to go into the head of each individual voter to kind of know what it was that made them feel that any given song was or wasn't award-worthy," Bernstein said.

Bernstein also stressed that the songs "have to be written for the picture, and the judgment of its quality has a great deal to do with how it functions in the movie as well as how well written it is."

Bernstein, who did vote in the category, wouldn't say how many people voted this year, but did say that the rules for each Academy Award are carefully observed each year. He says the music branch will most likely take a closer look at the requirements for best original song after this year's results.

"It's very likely because there were two this year that the rules committee will probably take another look at it next year and make sure it wants to continue the same rules," he said.

Madonna's "Masterpiece," which won the Golden Globe for best original song and is from her directorial effort "W.E.," was not eligible for an Academy Award because "the song does not occur either in the body of the film, or as the first song at the end of the film," Bernstein said.

Mendes, who shares his nomination with Siedah Garrett and Carlinhos Brown, says "Rio" director Carlos Saldanha delivered the good news to him.

"I don't know much about the voting process really. I'm not an expert in that, but I'm so happy about me being nominated," Mendes said Tuesday afternoon. "I don't really know the criteria, but I can only think about celebrating."

Winners of the 84th annual Academy Awards will be announced Feb. 26 in a ceremony that will air live on ABC from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

____

Online:

http://oscar.go.com/

____

Mesfin Fekadu covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/musicmesfin

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-25-Oscar%20Nominations-Best%20Original%20Song/id-f2254983a31240479087a832a1d9b720

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Arizona Gov. Brewer gets book critique from Obama (AP)

MESA, Ariz. ? Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer says President Barack Obama complained to her about how she depicted him in her book.

It happened when Obama landed in Air Force One Wednesday at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, where Brewer met him on the tarmac.

Reporters observed the two leaders in intense conversation.

Brewer is a Republican. She later told reporters that Obama raised the treatment he received in her political memoir, "Scorpions for Breakfast." She describes him in the book as lecturing her about immigration. Obama opposes Arizona's strict immigration law.

She said she told him she's sorry he felt that way and that she respects the office of president.

There was no immediate comment from the White House.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_el_pr/us_obama_arizona_governor

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British-based all-star concert to debut in NYC (AP)

NEW YORK ? The Secret Policeman's Ball is letting America in on the party: The British-based music and comedy festival is coming to New York in March.

Coldplay, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Mumford & Sons and Russell Brand are among the acts who have signed on for the event at Radio City Music Hall on March 4. The concert will benefit Amnesty International, as it has since it started back in 1976 with celebrities like John Cleese. Over the years, Bono, Sting and others have participated. This will mark the first time it's being held in New York City.

"For us, it's iconic and a very special thing, and has provided the opportunity to really celebrate the presence of freedom of expression and free speech, and how we can move people and how we can bring people together, and just how powerful that is," said Amnesty International spokesman Andy Hackman in an interview Tuesday.

The last Secret Policeman's Ball was in 2008 in London. Hackman said the organization wanted to do something different and on a grander scale this year since it's the 50th anniversary of the human rights group.

"That phrase `human rights' has lost meaning in some ways," he said. "That's why we want to demonstrate the power and the joy that free speech can bring to us all. ... It's really just using these amazing talented people to demonstrate the power, what a force of good free speech is."

David "DJ" Javerbaum, the former head writer and executive producer for "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," said the show will feature sketches, music and more. He said the legacy of the Secret Policeman's Ball, which has lived on in videos, has helped it attract top talent, some of which are still to be announced.

"These are very seminal movies for anybody young in that age who wanted to get into comedy," he said.

Tickets go on sale on Monday.

___

Online:

http://www.facebook.com/secretpoliceman

___

Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the AP's music editor. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_en_ce/us_secret_policeman_s_ball

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Rising Telecommuter Numbers Worldwide Form A Notable Trend

A new poll of over 11,000 workers worldwide by Ipsos and Reuters shows that telecommuting is an increasingly popular choice, especially in non-Western countries. This will come as no surprise to many, but the numbers are higher than some might have guessed. Over 30 percent of workers in India, Mexico, and Indonesia claimed to telecommute regularly, and one in ten overall work from home every day. But it's not just bloggers and knowledge workers, and the business infrastructure will soon have to stretch to accommodate a class of workers that has gone from exception to rule.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/_i64uckhD6c/

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Through the Looking Glass - Dedicated Players Wanted

Hello, everyone! I've worked with two friends of mine to create the roleplay Through the Looking Glass, a story that follows the adventures of fairy tale characters in the real world and real world people in a fantasy world. Now, we know that it has similarities to the television show Once Upon a Time, but we want to establish that we're trying to go a very different direction with our story.

In this roleplay, everyone will have two characters: A fairy tale character and their real-world counterpart, who will switch universes at the very beginning of the RP. From there, they can either begin to make their way back, or try to make themselves at home in the real world. All this takes place during a time of political upheaval between the good and evil queens of Atleos, and a corporate legal conflict in modern-day New York.

We are trying to limit the use of 'well-known' characters, such as Disney Princesses and Princes, and choose more unusual and 'minor' characters from existing fairy tales to allow for as much creative room as we want, while still allowing for some fun name-dropping and references to other stories.

Please take a look, and reply below or in the OOC thread here if you have questions!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/T9W5oy_puwU/viewtopic.php

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Vending machine based on the barter economy

Courtesy of Fast Company

By Andrew Price, Fast Company

There are about 7 million vending machines in America. And what do the vast majority of them sell? Sodas and sodium- or sugar-heavy snacks (which aren?t good for you), packaged in plastic or PET and shipped around the country (which isn?t good for the planet). We?ve all used vending machines. But despite their convenience, they certainly aren?t a solution to humanity?s problems.

Or are they? The Swap-o-Matic, created by the New York City-based designer Lina Fenequito, is a vending machine that lets you ?recycle things you no longer need and get things you want ? all for free.? You create a Swap-o-Matic account by entering an email address on the machine?s touch screen. You?re then issued three credits. You can earn more credits by donating items to the machine and spend them by getting items in the machine that someone else has donated.

Fenequito, who worked for Americorps before earning an MFA at Parsons School of Design, says the project is about promoting ?a shift in culture away from an emphasis on unconscious consumption towards a more sustainable way of life through reusing and trading.?

The Swap-o-Matic is currently migrating around New York City. You can look up its location on the project?s website and, if you?re in New York, drop by to donate or peruse what?s available. Soon you?ll be able to see what?s in the machine online as well.

With the recent rise of information technology ? and decline in disposable income ? several online-based swapping tools have already emerged, including Swap.com, Freecycle, and Netcycler. The Swap-o-Matic is admittedly more of an art project, but it?s in the same spirit. And while it may not ?save the Earth? (we?ll need cap-and-trade for that), it may get people thinking about their consumption habits in a helpful way.

Follow Fast Company on Twitter.

More from Fast Company:

Source: http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10202145-swap-o-matic-vending-machine-based-on-the-barter-economy

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Analysis: Iran's softer Gulf words don't mean nuclear shift (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iran has stepped back from a threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, but while its softened rhetoric appears to be aimed at de-escalating military tensions, it does not indicate any change of stance on its nuclear program.

"Iran's leadership has a strong sense of self-preservation," said Robert Smith, a consultant at Facts Global Energy. "The comments can likely be interpreted as a sign of cooler heads prevailing."

A senior commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Saturday the likely return of U.S. naval vessels to the region was "not a new issue and ... should be interpreted as part of their permanent presence.

That was a significant shift from earlier this month when Tehran said the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier, which left at the end of December during Iranian naval maneuvers, should not return - an order interpreted by some observers in Iran and Washington as a blanket threat to any U.S. carriers.

Only a few weeks ago Tehran was threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, used by a third of the world's seaborne oil trade, if new sanctions cripple its oil exports - exactly the effect Washington and Europe are aiming for.

European Union foreign ministers are set to meet on Monday to agree a ban on importing oil from Iran and sanctions signed by U.S. President Barack Obama on New Year's Eve aim to make it impossible for countries around the world to buy Iranian crude.

Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, who had said Iran would not allow "even one drop of oil" through the strait if oil sanctions are imposed, was less fiery in remarks reported on Sunday.

"Today they (the West) have launched a new game against Iran but it is clear that we will resist against their excessive demands," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.

But while Iran may be reining in its most hawkish rhetoric, and calling for a resumption of talks with world powers that stalled a year ago [ID:nL6E8CI1Q1], it is no closer to offering concessions on the nuclear issue that could lead to an easing of sanctions.

OIL IMPACT

One Western diplomat in Tehran compared Iran's offer of talks to its position before the last round of sanctions were imposed in mid-2010.

"They were saying then: 'Let's have talks,' but it wasn't followed up by any kind of concrete commitment," he said, adding that, despite several public declarations of goodwill, Tehran has yet to deliver a reply to a letter Ashton sent to Tehran on October 21 letter offering to resume talks.

"Iran is not softening its stance," said Meir Javedanfar, Iran analyst and co-author of "The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran."

"It's changing its strategy after realizing that its ill-timed and exaggerated threat to close the Strait of Hormuz in case of sanctions caused more damage to its stance and position than anyone else."

The change in Iran's rhetoric could add to the bearish direction of oil prices which were down on Friday due to signs of reduced demand.

"The result of Iran softening its stance, amongst other factors, will contribute to an easing of oil markets," Smith said, adding that the impact will be limited.

"If recent events are any indication, the markets have listened to Iran's rhetoric so many times that its impact has become quite muted compared to the reactions of, say, five years ago."

While the likelihood of imminent naval clashes in the Gulf may have receded, Iran could yet see through its threat of closing Hormuz in the event of an Israeli air strike on its nuclear facilities, Javedanfar said.

"Iran could still block the strait of Hormuz in case of a preemptive strike against it.

"This is a scenario which nobody could or should ignore, despite the fact that the recent threat to close the strait in case of sanctions turned out to be a bluff."

(Additional reporting by Hashem Kalantari; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120122/wl_nm/us_iran_gulf

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Bullied as a kid, Peter Jackson fights back on film (Reuters)

PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) ? The high-profile case of the West Memphis Three murderers might seem like an odd choice of films for director Peter Jackson, but the "Lord of the Rings" maker has come to Sundance with a documentary about the case and a new revelation of a possible suspect.

Jackson, who helped bankroll the defense of the three convicted killers who are now out of jail nearly 20 years after the crime, and the legal team claim they have testimony that the stepfather of one of the victims is the real murderer.

Whether that allegation eventually proves true will await prosecutors' action in West Memphis, Arkansas where the murders took place in 1993, and so far the prosecution has stuck by its belief they had the right culprits all along.

But where Jackson and one of the West Memphis Three, Damien Echols, are concerned, their documentary "West of Memphis" and this new testimony takes the fight further.

"It's got to be dealt with," Jackson told Reuters on Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival. "You can't just leave a murder case like that hanging in the air."

The high-profile case of the West Memphis Three who were tried and convicted as teens of murdering three boys prompted a call to action for Jackson when first told the disturbing tale of the young men linked to a grisly murder who were ultimately released from prison in August 2011.

"I was bullied and regarded as little bit of an oddball myself," Jackson told Reuters on Saturday. "And I see that happening to somebody else, so I just want to help them."

Jackson and director Amy Berg debuted "West of Memphis" at Sundance on Friday, and simultaneously defense lawyers issued a press release detailing their new revelations.

The documentary follows the case of what many believe was the wrongful conviction of Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, who were teenagers when they were accused of killing three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993.

The case already has been made famous by the HBO documentary series "Paradise Lost," but the story of the three jailed boys struck a chord in the Jackson and his wife and producing partner Fran Walsh as far back as 2005.

"It's an American story but it's a human story as well," Jackson said. "When you look at the original 'Paradise Lost' film, you see three kids who can't defend themselves, being persecuted in a medieval way -- witchcraft, satanic worship. It was kind of primitive. It makes you angry, so Fran and I contacted (Echols' wife) Lorri Davis and asked what we could do to help."

Jackson said he and Walsh funded the defense team's investigation anonymously, spending "more than thousands" of dollars paying bills for such things as DNA tests and sending investigators to interview additional witnesses.

"We're still doing that," Jackson said.

Only one week ago, he said, the filmmakers shot and edited the new revelation into the documentary, but they had no time to include the footage in early screenings.

NEW REVELATION

According to Jackson, Echols and the defense team, the nephew of Terry Hobbs -- Michael Hobbs, Jr. -- has told friends that his uncle committed the crime. Terry Hobbs' stepson, Stevie Branch, was among the murder victims.

Hobbs has long denied any wrongdoing and police have never considered him a suspect, according to media reports. Reuters was unable to reach Hobbs for comment.

For Jackson, the idea of actually making a documentary on the West Memphis Three didn't arise until 2008, after DNA and forensic findings paid for by Jackson and Walsh, were dismissed by the original judge presiding over the trial. He found the evidence as not being compelling enough to reopen the case.

"Whenever new evidence came and we tried to present it to the judge, he refused to hear it," said Echols, now 37. He and his wife are producers on the film alongside Jackson and Walsh.

"The only way to let the public know what was going on with this case was by doing a documentary. It was Peter's idea of 'well, why don't we get this evidence out to the public if the courts are going to refuse to hear it?'"

"West of Memphis" follows the three convicted killers until just after they were released last August in a legal maneuver known as an "Alford Plea," whereby the men plead guilty in their own best interest while asserting innocence.

But the trio, their families, their lawyers, Jackson, Walsh and director Berg haven't stopped fighting.

"You have to push this hard in order to get a reaction," said Berg. "I feel that we have gone further than anybody else has gone and we've put it out there for people to act."

The film received strong initial reviews from critics here at Sundance. The Hollywood Reporter labeled it a "gripping overall picture of the West Memphis 3 wrongful-conviction saga" and summed up, "Thorny, blood-boiling and finely made, it deserves a theatrical push."

(Editing by Christine Kearney and Bob Tourtellotte)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120122/people_nm/us_sundance_peterjackson

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Tiny baby leaves Los Angeles hospital amid fanfare (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? One of the world's smallest surviving babies was discharged Friday from the hospital where she spent nearly five months in an incubator ? but not before getting the Hollywood treatment.

Wearing a pink knit hat and wrapped in a pink princess blanket, Melinda Star Guido was greeted by a mob of television cameras and news photographers outside the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.

"I'm just happy that she's doing well," said her 22-year-old mother Haydee Ibarra. "I'm happy that I'm finally going to take her home ... I'm just grateful."

Melinda was born on August 30 weighing just 9 1/2 ounces, less than a can of soda. She was so tiny that she fit into her doctor's hand. Melinda is believed to be the world's third-smallest surviving baby and second smallest in the U.S.

Now weighing 4 1/2 pounds and breathing through an oxygen tube as a precaution, doctors said Melinda has made enough progress to go home. Her brain scan was normal and her eyes were developing well. She also passed a hearing test and a car seat test that's required of premature babies before discharge.

It's too early to know how she will do developmentally and physically, but doctors planned to monitor her for the next six years.

"I am cautiously optimistic that the baby will do well, but again there is no guarantee," said Dr. Rangasamy Ramanathan, who oversees preemies at the hospital.

Most babies as small don't survive even with advanced medical care. About 7,500 babies are born each year in the U.S. weighing less than 1 pound, and about 10 percent survive.

Melinda has come a long way since being delivered by cesarean section at 24 weeks after her mother developed high blood pressure during pregnancy, which can be dangerous for mother and fetus.

She was whisked to the neonatal intensive care unit where she breathed with the help of a machine and received nutrition through a feeding tube. Infants born before 37 weeks are considered premature.

Even after discharge, such extremely premature babies require constant care at home. Their lungs are not fully developed and they may need oxygen at home. Parents also need to watch out for risk of infections that could send infants back to the hospital. Even basic activities like feeding can be challenging.

"They may need extra help and patience while they learn to eat," Dr. Edward Bell, a pediatrician of the University of Iowa who runs an online database of the world's smallest surviving babies born weighing less than a pound.

The list features 130 babies dating back to 1936 and does not represent all survivors since submission is voluntary. Melinda was not eligible to be included until she was discharged.

Two years ago, Bell published a study in the journal Pediatrics that found many survivors have ongoing health and learning concerns. Most also remain short and underweight for their age.

There are some rare success stories. The smallest surviving baby born weighing 9.2 ounces is now a healthy 7-year-old and another who weighed 9.9 ounces at birth is an honors college student studying psychology, according to doctors at Loyola University Medical Center in Illinois where the girls were born.

Soon after birth, Melinda was treated for an eye disorder that's common in premature babies and underwent surgery to close an artery. Ibarra held Melinda for the first time after the operation in November. Her parents said the toughest part was battling traffic after work every day to see their daughter.

___

Online:

Registry: http://www.healthcare.uiowa.edu/tiniestbabies

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_he_me/us_med_tiny_baby

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Russian billionaires' huge legal battle closes | The Associated Press ...

A legal battle between two feuding Russian billionaires has ended in a London court.
Judge Elizabeth Gloster reserved judgment Thursday on the case between exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky and fellow Russian Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea Football Club owner.
The date for the verdict has not been set.
Berezovsky sued Abramovich for several billion dollars, saying the soccer club owner had intimidated him into selling shares in their jointly-owned Russian oil giant Sibneft at a fraction of their value. He alleged breach of contract and claimed more than 3 billion pounds (US$4.6 billion) in damages.
Abramovich denied that, saying Berezovsky never owned the stakes.
The trial, which began in October, is one of the most expensive legal fights London has seen.

Source: http://www.sfexaminer.com/news/2012/01/russian-billionaires-huge-legal-battle-closes

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Road rage at driverless cars? It's possible

Paul Sakuma / AP

Stanford graduate student Mick Kritayakirana shows the computer system inside a driverless car on the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, Calif.

By John Roach

The road to a future where we jump in our cars, enter a destination, and leave the driving to the car could be filled with rage, according to an expert on driverless car technology.

For starters, driverless cars will likely be programmed to obey all traffic laws. They won't speed and will always come to a complete stop at stop signs, for example.

Throw just a few of those law-abiding robots on roads clogged with 250 million human-controlled cars, and there's bound to be some shaken fists, or worse.

"Let's face it, ? [we] don?t always follow exactly the traffic rules," Sven Beiker, the executive director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford University in California, told me Friday.?

"An autonomous car would probably need to because there's a company putting code into a system and that obviously then becomes a legal action."

20-year vision?
The road rage-at-the-robot scenario came up as we discussed the evolution of driverless car technology and how we might eventually realize the dream of texting while the robot does the driving.

It'll likely remain a dream, Beiker said, for the foreseeable future.

Some experts in the field, he noted, call it a 20-year vision. "Quite frankly, if someone says 20 years, that's basically telling you we don't really know," he said.

But, driver-assisted technologies such as cars that can park themselves, maintain a safe distance from other cars on the road, and have other crash-avoidance technologies are increasingly available on cars today.

All of these technologies, Beiker said, still require drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road. But those aids are becoming more common, and not just in luxury models.

"These things are definitely happening, and basically you can expect something new every year in that regard," he noted.

Technological, legal, cultural hurdles
When the field will reach the point where we can relinquish control of the car will depend, in part, on further technological developments, a new set of laws?? and a cultural shift.

From the technological standpoint, cars can and do drive themselves today (see the Google Street View cars, for example). So, in a sense, we are technologically there.

But a future of roads full of driverless cars would be enhanced by the development and deployment of a wireless communication system that lets the robots anywhere on the road talk to each other.

Such a system, for example, would let cars know if the car in front of it was planning to turn left or right, as well as provide points of traffic congestion that alert robot drivers to alternate routes.

Think of such a system as a radio traffic report on steroids.

Roads full of autonomous vehicles all talking to each other could be much safer than they are today, Beiker noted. After all, human error contributes to 95 percent of all accidents.?

But, "no technology is 100 percent safe," he said.

When a wreck happens, who gets the blame? That's unclear today. Stanford's automotive center has a legal fellow, Bryant Walker Smith, on staff precisely to help answer these types of questions.

It'll probably shake out one of two ways: Either the car owner and/or passenger will be legally responsible just as drivers are today for most accidents, or the manufacturer will be.

But until such laws are written ? and the some are in the works, such as in Nevada where?a law has been passed to make?driverless cars?legal ? it's unlikely that autonomous cars will rule the roads.

And then there's the question of how to deploy the robots once we're technologically and legally ready. Perhaps at first autonomous cars will be restricted to one lane of travel on certain roads, such HOV lanes.

"But mixing the conventional vehicle and the autonomous vehicles?" Beiker said. "That's quite a challenge."

More on driverless car technology:

---

John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.

Ten years of war have given robot developers a chance to refine and improve their bots. Now the robots are finding all sorts of new jobs on the homefront.

Source: http://futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10201865-road-rage-at-driverless-cars-its-possible

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US says al-Qaida magazine got into Guantanamo cell (AP)

FORT MEADE, Md. ? A copy of a magazine published by an arm of al-Qaida made its way to a terror suspect at the Guantanamo Bay prison, leading to an inspection of cells and a contentious new policy requiring special review teams to examine correspondence between prisoners and attorneys, U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday.

Navy Cmdr. Andrea Lockhart told a military judge during a pre-trial hearing that a copy of Inspire magazine got into a cell. She provided no details on who received the magazine or how. But she said the breach showed that prior rules at the base governing mail review were not adequate. Yemen's al-Qaida of the Arabian Peninsula launched the online, English-language magazine in 2010. An early issue contained tips to would-be militants about how to kill U.S. citizens.

Lockhart is part of the U.S. team prosecuting the case against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi national charged with orchestrating the deadly attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Al-Nashiri, 47, is considered one of the most senior al-Qaida leaders. He has been held at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2006 after spending several years held by the CIA in a series of secret prisons.

How mail between Guantanamo prisoners and their attorneys should be handled consumed several hours of the Al-Nashiri's pre-trial session on Tuesday and Wednesday. At issue is whether even a cursory examination of the legal correspondence violates the attorney-client privilege.

Lawyers for Al-Nashiri, as well as the lawyers for other Guantanamo prisoners and the chief defense counsel for the military commissions, are opposed to the security review of legal mail, which was put in place last month by Navy Rear Adm. David Woods, the prison commander.

Army Col. James Pohl, the judge, ordered the detention center in November to stop Guantanamo guards from reading mail between the prisoner and his lawyers. The judge's order came after Woods authorized an inspection of detainee cells in October that included reading mail between prisoners and their attorneys.

In late December, Woods issued a new directive requiring legal mail to undergo a security review to ensure prisoners were not receiving prohibited materials, such as top-secret information or objects that might be fashioned into weapons.

The December order from Woods created a "privilege review team" independent of the prison staff that would include attorneys, law enforcement and intelligence experts who would examine legal communications between lawyers and their clients. The goal of the order, prison officials said, was to ensure safety and security on the base while preserving attorney-client privilege by having a group not under the prison's command perform the mail review.

Wood testified on Tuesday that the privilege team is made up of contractors hired by the Pentagon's intelligence directorate.

Al-Nashiri's mail has not yet been examined by the team. Marine Col. Jeffrey Colwell, the chief defense counsel for the Guantanamo Bay tribunals, instructed attorneys not to follow Woods' order. Colwell said last week that the rule does not adequately protect attorney-client privilege and violates codes of professional conduct.

But Woods testified that his order doesn't allow team members to read mail. Their role, he said, is to perform a "plain sight review" of correspondence between attorneys and their clients to ensure the documents are marked with the proper stamps to ensure it is actually privileged information. If the material is not marked properly or there are obvious signs of a security risk or contraband, the mail is forwarded to higher authorities for review.

Al-Nashiri's attorneys peppered Woods with questions about how team members could do their jobs without actually reading the information. The order creates situations in which the privilege team has no choice but to dig deeper into a document to understand what is in it, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Reyes said. Reyes also asked Woods why translators were needed on the team if no reading was required.

Woods deflected many of Reyes' questions by saying that he does not have control over the privilege team contract. He also testified that he does not know who monitors the day-to-day activities of the team. "They do not work for me," he said.

On Wednesday, Pohl directed the prosecution and defense to provide him with their proposals for reviewing mail in the Al-Nashiri case. A decision from Pohl is not expected for at least two weeks, however.

The Associated Press and other news organizations viewed the proceedings at Guantanamo Bay on a closed circuit telecast shown in a small theater at Fort Meade, Md., a military base located between Washington and Baltimore.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/terrorism/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_guantanamo_war_crimes

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