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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
The EU Is Investigating Samsung Over Unfair Patent Lawsuits [Samsung]
Sony cancels India release of 'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES, Jan 29 (TheWrap.com) ? "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" will not be hitting theaters in India.
The film was to be released on February 10, but India's Central Board of Film Certification insisted that several scenes be edited.
Director David Fincher refused to cut two love-making scenes and a rape and torture scene from his R-rated adaptation of Stieg Larsson's best-selling book.
Sony acknowledged that it would not be opening the film in India and released a statement, which read in part, "While we are committed to maintaining and protecting the vision of the director, we will, as always, respect the guidelines set by the Board."
The film has already made nearly $100 million in the U.S. and more than $165 million at the overseas box office, and appears on its way to more than $200 globally, with much of Asia still ahead.
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Welcome to Space Camp [Video]
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/dam4U-tSchw/welcome-to-space-camp
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Streep's Thatcher, Williams' Monroe star at SAG (omg!)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The "Harry Potter" finale has earned some love from Hollywood's top acting union, winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for best big-screen stunt ensemble Sunday.
The win for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" was a final triumph for the fantasy franchise that concluded last summer after a run of eight blockbusters.
Winning the TV stunt ensemble prize was "Game of Thrones." The stunt awards were announced on the arrivals red carpet before the show began.
Among the early arrivals to the cheers of enthusiastic fans on a warm afternoon were Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray of the old "Dallas" TV series, soon to be the new "Dallas" TV series on TNT.
For the main event, Sunday's 18th annual SAG ceremony is heavy on actors playing illustrious real-life figures.
Among them: Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady"; Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover in "J. Edgar"; and Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe and Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier in "My Week With Marilyn."
Streep won a Golden Globe for "The Iron Lady" and is considered a favorite for the SAG prize and for her third win at the Academy Awards, which are set for Feb. 26.
The front-runners for the other SAG awards are actors in fictional roles, though, among them George Clooney as a dad in crisis in "The Descendants" and Jean Dujardin as a silent-film star fallen on hard times in "The Artist." Both are up for best actor, and both won Globes ? Clooney as dramatic actor, Dujardin as musical or comedy actor.
Octavia Spencer as a brassy Mississippi maid in "The Help" and Christopher Plummer as an elderly dad who comes out as gay in "Beginners" won Globes for supporting performances and have strong prospects for the same honors at the SAG Awards.
The winners at the SAG ceremony typically go on to earn Oscars. All four acting recipients at SAG last year later took home Oscars ? Colin Firth for "The King's Speech," Natalie Portman for "Black Swan" and Christian Bale and Melissa Leo for "The Fighter."
The same generally holds true for the weekend's other big Hollywood honors, the Directors Guild of America Awards, where Michel Hazanavicius won the feature-film prize Saturday for "The Artist." The Directors Guild winner has gone on to earn the best-director Oscar 57 times in the 63-year history of the union's awards show.
SAG also presents an award for overall cast performance, a prize that's loosely considered the ceremony's equivalent of a best-picture honor. However, the cast award has a spotty record at predicting what will win best picture at the Oscars.
While "The King's Speech" won both honors a year ago, the SAG cast recipient has gone on to claim the top Oscar only eight times in the 16 years since the guild added the category.
Airing live on TNT and TBS from the Shrine Exhibition Center in downtown Los Angeles, the show features nine television categories, as well.
Receiving the guild's life-achievement award is Mary Tyler Moore. The prize was to be presented by Dick Van Dyke, her co-star on the 1960s sit-com "The Dick Van Dyke Show."
___
Online:
http://www.sagawards.com
http://www.sagawards.com
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Paul says he has no intention of dropping out
Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, speaks during a campaign stop at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham, Maine, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, speaks during a campaign stop at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham, Maine, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, campaigns Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, speaks at a campaign stop at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham, Maine, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
An overflow crowd waits to get into a building to meet Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, at a campaign stop at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Supporters of Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, cheer him during his campaign stop Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
GORHAM, Maine (AP) ? Ron Paul said Saturday the Republican presidential race has "a ways to go" and he doesn't intend to get out or get behind another candidate anytime soon.
The Texas congressman was campaigning Saturday in Maine, which holds caucuses beginning Feb. 4. He spoke to an overflow crowd at the University of Southern Maine and held an outdoor rally outside the famed L.L. Bean store in Freeport. He picked up the endorsement of Linda Bean, the granddaughter of the Bean company founder and a prominent Republican activist in the state.
Paul told reporters that it didn't make sense for him to campaign in Florida, which holds its primary Tuesday and awards all its 50 delegates to the winner. Polling indicates Mitt Romney is leading the field there.
"Some other campaigns have many, many millions of dollars to run a campaign," Paul said. "We maximize the delegates the way we're doing it."
Paul planned to campaign next week in other caucus states, including Nevada, which also holds its caucus on Feb. 4, and Colorado and Minnesota, which hold caucuses Feb. 7.
Paul dismissed suggestions he would back any of his GOP rivals.
"I think that's premature. We have a ways to go," Paul said, adding he was glad they were speaking favorably about some of his libertarian-leaning views.
"I'll work with anybody who wants to come in the direction of Constitutional government," Paul said.
He noted that Newt Gingrich had endorsed his views on monetary policy in a nationally televised debate this week. Paul has called for the Federal Reserve to be audited and ultimately eliminated, and wants the value of the dollar tied to gold.
Paul said he hoped the former House speaker and others would also adopt his noninterventionist foreign policy views, which are far outside the Republican Party mainstream.
"If he says 'I agree with Ron Paul, we should bring the troops home from Afghanistan,' my ears would pop up," Paul said.
___
Follow Beth Fouhy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bfouhy
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Obama urges Congress to act in election year (AP)
CAMBRIDGE, Md. ? President Barack Obama rallied House Democrats for an election-year fight, urging them to work with Republicans if they show some willingness to put politics aside but telling the rank and file to call them out if they stand in the way.
Addressing Democrats on the final day of their three-day annual retreat, Obama outlined the political stakes over the next few months as congressional Democrats try to push his agenda in the face of Republican opposition, the GOP choses its nominee and signs of recovery in a fragile economy go a long way to determining his re-election chances and the party's fate.
Obama said Democrats should seize the opportunity "whenever there is a possibility that the other side is putting some politics aside for just a nanosecond in order to get something done for the American people, we've got to be right there ready to meet them," the president told the sometimes raucous crowd.
However, "where they obstruct, where they're unwilling to act, where they're more interested in party than they are in country, more interested in the next election than the next generation, then we've got to call them out on it," the president said. "We've got to push. We can't wait; we can't be held back."
Coming off a three-day tour to promote his State of the Union message, Obama promised a "robust debate about whose vision is more promising" when Republicans choose their nominee.
On a day when reports showed the economy picking up late in 2011 but still considered "fragile" by the White House, Obama told Democrats wondering about their re-election prospects: "It's going to be a tough election because a lot of people are still hurting out there and a lot of people have lost faith generally about the capacity of Washington to get anything done."
House Republicans, who held their retreat in Baltimore last week, have repeatedly said the election will be a referendum on Obama's policies, especially his handling of the economy.
The president acknowledged that Democrats have embraced parts of his agenda when it was politically difficult and in some cases costly. The party took a drubbing in the midterm elections, losing control of the House and seeing their ranks diminished in the Senate.
And despite some past clashes with House Democrats over his willingness to compromise with Republicans, Obama was warmly received and was introduced as "our champion" by Rep. John Larson of Connecticut.
The president returned the warmth with a vote of confidence that Democrats would win back the House in November, making a nod to their leader as "soon-to-be once-again Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi."
"I believe in you guys. You guys have had my back through some very tough times," said the president, who received a small gift ? a DVD of House Democrats singing Rev. Al Green's "Let's Stay Together."
Last week, at a fundraiser at the Apollo Theater in New York, Obama stood on the stage and crooned a line from the Green classic.
Democrats were upbeat at their three-day session, energized by Obama's State of the Union address and its populist themes as well as recent polls showing more Americans say the country is on the right track and approve of Obama's handling of the economy. Divisions in the Republican ranks that were on full display last year in the fight over extending the payroll tax cut and the bitter battle between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich for the GOP presidential nomination also lifted Democratic spirits.
But the relationship with the White House hasn't always been cordial. Vice President Joe Biden, who addressed the Democrats prior to Obama's speech, described some of the rough patches.
He noted that several members in the room were mad at him in December 2010 after Obama negotiated an extension of President George W. Bush's tax cuts over the objections of some House Democrats. Last year, frustrated Democrats complained the Obama gave away too much in negotiating a spending bill and an agreement to raise the government's borrowing authority.
Biden said Pelosi told him at the last conference to "get tough. Enough is enough." He said the "message was heard. The message was heard. And I think we've delivered."
The vice president was more pointed in his political remarks than Obama and called out some Republicans by name. He said the American people will reject GOP unwillingness to compromise and its blatant determination to make Obama a one-term president.
Of the presidential candidates, Biden said Romney's criticism of the auto bailout and a host of positions stated by rival Newt Gingrich on government intervention will create a clear contrast for voters.
"These guys are helping us by saying what they believe," Biden said.
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Need for courtroom artists fade as cameras move in (AP)
CHICAGO ? One marker in hand and one in his mouth, Lou Chukman glances up and down from a sketchpad to a reputed Chicago mobster across the courtroom ? drawing feverishly to capture the drama of the judge's verdict before the moment passes.
Sketch artists have been the public's eyes at high-profile trials for decades ? a remnant of an age when drawings in broadsheet papers, school books or travel chronicles were how people glimpsed the world beyond their own.
Today, their ranks are thinning swiftly as states move to lift longstanding bans on cameras in courtrooms. As of a year ago, 14 states still had them ? but at least three, including Illinois this month, have taken steps since then to end the prohibitions.
"When people say to me, `Wow, you are a courtroom artist' ? I always say, `One day, you can tell your grandchildren you met a Stegosaurus," Chukman, 56, explained outside court. "We're an anachronism now, like blacksmiths."
Cutbacks in news budgets and shifts in aesthetic sensibilities toward digitized graphics have all contributed to the form's decline, said Maryland-based sketch artist Art Lien.
While the erosion of the job may not be much noticed by people reading and watching the news, Lien says something significant is being lost. Video or photos can't do what sketch artists can, he said, such as compressing hours of court action onto a single drawing that crystallizes the events.
The best courtroom drawings hang in museums or sell to collectors for thousands of dollars.
"I think people should lament the passing of this art form," Lien said.
But while courtroom drawing has a long history ? artists did illustrations of the Salem witch trials in 1692 ? the artistry can sometimes be sketchy. A bald lawyer ends up with a full head of hair. A defendant has two left hands. A portly judge is drawn rail-thin.
Subjects often complain as they see the drawings during court recesses, said Chicago artist Carol Renaud.
"They'll say, `Hey! My nose is too big.' And sometimes they're right," she conceded. "We do the drawings so fast."
Courtroom drawing doesn't attract most aspiring artists because it doesn't afford the luxury of laboring over a work for days until it's just right, said Andy Austin, who has drawn Chicago's biggest trials over 40 years, including that of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
"You have to put your work on the air or in a newspaper whether you like it or not," she said.
The job also involves long stretches of tedium punctuated by bursts of action as a witness sobs or defendant faint. It can also get downright creepy.
At Gacy's trial, a client asked Austin for an image of him smiling. So, she sought to catch the eye of the man accused of killing 33 people. When she finally did, she beamed. He beamed back.
"The two of us smiled at each other like the two happiest people in the world until the sketch was finished," Austin recalled in her memoirs, titled "Rule 53," after the directive that bars cameras in U.S. courts.
There's no school specifically for courtroom artists. Many slipped or were nudged into it by circumstance.
Renaud drew fashion illustrations for Marshall Field's commercials into the `90s but lost that job when the department store starting relying on photographers. That led her to courtroom drawing.
Artists sometime get to court early and sketch the empty room. But coming in with a drawing fully finished in advance is seen as unethical.
Some artists use charcoal, water colors or pungent markers, which can leave those sitting nearby queasy. Most start with a quick pencil sketch, then fill it in. Austin draws right off the bat with her color pencils.
"If I overthink it, I get lost," she said. "I have a visceral reaction. I just hope what I feel is conveyed to my pen."
These days, Chukman and Renaud fear for their livelihoods. They make the bulk of their annual income off their court work. Working for a TV station or a newspaper can bring in about $300 a day. A trial lasting a month can mean a $6,000 paycheck. Chukman does other work on the side, including drawing caricatures as gifts.
Austin is semiretired and so she says she worries less. She also notes that federal courts ? where some of the most notorious trials take place, like the two corruption trials of impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich ? seem more adamant about not allowing cameras.
Still, though Rule 53 remains in place, federal courts are experimenting with cameras in very limited cases.
"If federal courts do follow, that will be the end of us," Austin said.
Renaud holds out hope that, even if the worst happens, there will still be demand from lawyers for courtroom drawings they can hang in their offices. Lien plans to bolster his income by launching a website selling work from historic trials he covered, including of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
Chukman, a courtroom artist for around 30 years, jokes that if asked for his opinion, he'd have told state-court authorities to keep the ban in place a few more years until he retires.
"I recognize my profession exists simply because of gaps in the law ? and I've been grateful for them," he said wistfully. "This line of work has been good to me."
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Newt Gingrich Wants American Moon Colony by End of His Second Term (ContributorNetwork)
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich laid out a vision for space exploration that would be executed should he become president. He spoke at the Holiday Inn Express Space Coast Convention Center in Cocoa, Fla., according to Space.com.
After the 30-minute speech, Gingrich participated in a round table on space policy with aerospace experts at nearby Bervard Community College.
What does Gingrich want to do in space?
Gingrich promised that by the end of his second term as president, America would have a base on the moon. Furthermore, near-Earth space would be a hot-bed of commercial space activity. Finally, advanced propulsion technology would be developed to shorten the duration for a manned voyage to Mars.
How would Gingrich accomplish this?
Some of the details were lacking. Gingrich did repeat his often express proposal to reserve 10 percent of NASA's budget for space prize competitions in which private groups would vie to create new spacecraft, rocket engines, and other technology for cash rewards. These competitions would be similar to the Orteig Prize that aviator Charles Lindbergh won by crossing the Atlantic non-stop. More modern versions of space prizes include the Ansari X Prize, the Google Lunar X Prize, and NASA's own Centennial Challenge program. As an extreme example, Gingrich suggested a $10 billion prize for the first private group to land a person on Mars and return him or her to the Earth.
Gingrich also inveighed against NASA bureaucracy and its tendency to want to plan to do things rather than do things. He suggested that A Gingrich White House would relentlessly pressure NASA to do things "faster, better, cheaper." He also suggested that the Kennedy Space Center should be more like an airport, with multiple launches a day. The space prize competitions would help to fulfill this vision as would a greater emphasis in supporting commercial space.
Did Gingrich really suggest making the moon the 51st state?
Gingrich mentioned in passing a Northwest Ordinance, similar to the one that dealt with the territory that eventually became Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio, for the moon. The moment 13,000 Americans live on a lunar colony, they could apply to become a state of the union.
Does the Gingrich plan have critics?
Aside from press stories ridiculing the plan, there are some serious criticisms. Paul Spudis suggested that a space prize regime, similar to those which would helped further aviation in the 1920s and 1930s, would not work as well for space. Hotair's Allahpundit wondered if the plan was really affordable in an era of huge public debt. John Logsdon, a space policy expert who has advised Democrats, also did not think the plan practical. Gingrich's main rival, Mitt Romney, had stated, even before the speech, that lunar colonies were "zany."
What is the Bottom Line?
There are some unanswered questions about the Gingrich plan. Is his plan to return to the moon to be undertaken as a space prize? Or will NASA, with 90 percent of its remaining budget, direct the effort, with a streamlined management structure, space prizes for critical technology, and partnerships with commercial entities? How much money does Gingrich proposal to spend on his vision?
Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker . He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Wife: Imprisoned Belarus politician seeks pardon (AP)
MINSK, Belarus ? The wife of a jailed former presidential candidate in Belarus says her husband is seeking a pardon from the country's authoritarian leader because he fears for his life.
Andrei Sannikov is serving a five-year prison term on a conviction of organizing riots following the presidential election in December 2010. He was one of seven candidates arrested at or following a massive demonstration on election night protesting alleged vote fraud.
Sannikov's wife Irina Khalip spoke to reporters Wednesday in Minsk.
She says that she saw Sannikov on Tuesday, their first visit in three months. He looked frail and held up a message to the glass in the visiting area saying "They could kill me at any moment."
He applied to President Alexander Lukashenko for a pardon in November, she said.
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The nations weather (AP)
Weather Underground Forecast for Thursday, January 26, 2012.
Active weather will spread across much of the East on Thursday as the storm system from eastern Texas lifts northeastward across the Eastern Valleys to the Northern Appalachians. Ample moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will accompany this system and will aid in producing moderate to heavy rainfall and thunderstorms on the northern and eastern edge of this system, from the Central Gulf Coast through the Ohio River Valley and Mid-Atlantic and into the Northeast later in the day. Energy from an associated warm front lifting through the Mid-Atlantic will enhance precipitation in the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys and the Appalachians, while energy from a trailing cold front enhances storms in the Gulf Coast States. There is a slight chance for severe weather development across the central to northeastern Gulf Coast. Damaging wind and isolated tornadoes will be the main concerns with severe storms in these areas. Meanwhile, more light to moderate rain showers and thunderstorms will be possible on the back of this system in eastern Texas.
To the north, a few flurries may be possible in the northern Upper Great Lakes as a low pressure system moves eastward through southern Canada. A cold front associated with this low pressure will extend through the nation 1/4's mid-section during the day before dissipating by the evening.
In the West, another wet system will move through the Northwest, bringing rain and high elevation snowfall to areas from the Pacific Northwest and areas of northern California through the Northern Intermountain West and the northern tier of the Central Great Basin. Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Wednesday have ranged from a morning low of -4 degrees at Big Piney, Wyo. to a high of 96 degrees at Bonifay, Fla.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Video: Dogs of the Dow?
The dogs of the Dow is one of the best known dividend investing strategies, but after giving a boost to investor portfolios last year, the strategy is in the dog house so far in 2012, with CNBC's Jeff Cox.
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Solar storm sends charged particles toward Earth
A massive explosion on the sun's surface has triggered the largest solar radiation storm since 2005 and has unleashed a torrent of charged plasma particles toward Earth, though the threat to satellites, power grids and other high-tech hardware is believed to be manageable, scientists said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration detected a solar flare Sunday night that peaked at 7:59 p.m. Pacific time. NOAA satellites traced the bright flash of X-ray light to an area on the sun's surface known as region 1402 ? the same area that had produced a weaker flare Thursday. A coronal mass ejection ? which can hurl billions of tons of plasma up to 5 million mph ? quickly followed.
Radiation from the explosion arrived at Earth within hours of the flash, said Doug Biesecker, a physicist with NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo. A burst of charged plasma particles is expected to reach Earth by 6 a.m. Tuesday. That charged plasma is traveling uncommonly fast, making the 93-million-mile trip to Earth in about 34 hours, rather than taking two or more days, as is usually the case, Biesecker said.
Sunday's radiation storm is the strongest since May 2005, when another happened that was perhaps 10% larger, Biesecker said. Based on the amount of radiation emitted, both storms measure about a three on a scale of one to five.
While the plasma may cause otherworldly displays of light and color in some parts of the sky Tuesday night, the bombardment of energetic particles can wreak havoc on Earth ? potentially downing GPS systems, wiping out power grids, destroying sensitive satellite equipment in orbit and exposing astronauts to fatal doses of radiation.
As a precaution Monday, some flights were rerouted around polar regions, where the flash flood of charged plasma particles may interfere with navigation systems. Others flew at lower altitudes to reduce the risk of radiation exposure.
Though it had been more than six years since the last storm of this magnitude, storms of this size are expected to become more frequent as a period of peak solar activity approaches in 2013.
"As we ramp up to the solar maximum next year, this sort of storm will become normal," Biesecker said.
Scientists still don't know how to predict these solar events ? which is a problem because they deliver a triple threat to technology on Earth, said Stanford solar astronomer Todd Hoeksema.
X-rays traveling at the speed of light hit the Earth in about eight minutes. These can interfere with radio communications.
A burst of radiation traveling at near-light speeds begins pelting Earth 20 minutes to an hour later. This radiation causes what are known as "single event upsets." Essentially, a high-energy proton traveling through a satellite can interfere with the charges in the silicon-based hardware, which can cause it to spit out spurious signals.
The third and final attack comes from the burst of charged particles that affects Earth's magnetosphere, potentially interfering with airplane navigation systems. This particular worry is expected to force rerouting of some flights during the storm.
These are not hypothetical fears, Biesecker said. For example, the infamous October 2003 "Halloween storm" took out Japan's ADEOS-II spacecraft, among other victims, causing the approximately $600-million satellite to fail less than a year after its launch.
"With all the technology of our advanced civilization, solar storms can have significant effects on communication, power, things like that," said UC Berkeley physicist Robert Lin. "The really big ones can have an enormous effect on space weather on the Earth."
But most satellites built today should be relatively safe from mid-level storms such as the current one, said NOAA research scientist Juan Rodriguez. Modern satellites are built to withstand space weather as severe as a 1989 storm that caused a massive power outage in Canada's Quebec province.
That said, those looking for a light show Tuesday night might be in for a treat. The aurora borealis probably won't be visible in Los Angeles, Rodriguez said, "but in Canada, maybe in the northern United States, it's a pretty amazing sight."
amina.khan@latimes.com
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Giants top 49ers 20-17 in OT to reach Super Bowl (AP)
SAN FRANCISCO ? In a season of fabulous finishes, Eli Manning and the Giants had another one in them.
And now New York is headed toward the ending that matters most: another trip to the Super Bowl.
Five plays after the 49ers' Kyle Williams fumbled a punt, Lawrence Tynes kicked a 31-yard field goal in overtime, sending the Giants to the Super Bowl with a 20-17 victory over San Francisco in the NFC championship game on Sunday.
"Guys never quit, never ever have any doubts," Manning said. "They keep believing and fighting until the very end no matter what the circumstances are. I think everybody knew we were going to get a break, we were going to get a chance to win this game."
In another tight contest in this decades-old postseason rivalry, both defenses made key stops before New York capitalized on a rare mistake in San Francisco's resurgent season. Williams' blunder put the Giants in perfect position for another sensational finish in a season full of them.
The first three possessions in overtime ended in punts before Williams fumbled. The Giants won it moments later and silenced ? for good this time ? the towel-waving, poncho-wearing sellout crowd at cold, rainy Candlestick Park.
"It was one of those situations where I tried to turn it upfield and it just didn't work out," Williams said.
Manning and the Giants (12-7) will face the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl on Feb. 5 in Indianapolis as 3 1/2-point underdogs. The last time the teams met for the NFL title, 2008, the Giants ended the Patriots' bid for a perfect season.
Tynes had a hand, er, foot in getting the Giants to that one, too, kicking a field goal in overtime.
Devin Thomas put the Giants in position this time by recovering his second fumble of the game after Jacquian Williams stripped the ball from fill-in return man Kyle Williams, who also fumbled earlier to set up a New York touchdown.
"It's my second NFC championship game, my second game-winner," Tynes said of his kick 7:54 into overtime. "It's amazing. I had dreams about this last night. It was from 42, not 31, but I was so nervous today before the game just anticipating this kind of game. I'm usually pretty cool, but there was something about tonight where I knew I was going to have to make a kick. Hats off to Eli, offense, defense. Great win."
Holder Steve Weatherford celebrated with a slip-and-slide on his back down the soggy field. Victor Cruz fell to his knees. Tynes quickly found his crying wife for a warm hug. Manning tossed his gloves into the temporary seats with a big smile, then received a surprise visit from big brother, Peyton, in the locker room.
Manning went 32 of 58 for 316 yards and two touchdowns and overcame six sacks in his record fifth road playoff win, New York's fifth in a row overall. Manning orchestrated five fourth-quarter wins during the regular season.
He threw a go-ahead 17-yard touchdown pass to Mario Manningham with 8:34 remaining after Kyle Williams fumbled for the first time.
The Giants challenged that the ball touched Williams' right knee and Thomas recovered with 11:06 left and coach Tom Coughlin won, giving the Giants the ball back at the 29.
"That was a tremendous football game for those that really enjoy football at it's very basic element," said Coughlin, who matched former Cowboys coach Tom Landry for most road playoff wins with seven. "Just a classic football game that just seemed like no one was going to put themselves into position to win it. Fortunately, we were able to do that."
A 12-point underdog in the 2008 title game, the Giants battered Brady and got a last-minute TD pass from Manning to Plaxico Burress to win their third Super Bowl. Five months ago, Manning declared he was in the same class as Tom Brady. Now, he'll get another chance to outdo him on the NFL's biggest stage.
During this playoff run, he's already outplayed Aaron Rodgers and the defending champion Packers, and fellow former No. 1 pick Alex Smith.
Cruz set the tone Sunday with eight of his 10 receptions in the first half and finished with 142 yards.
"It's just been a tremendous effort by all of us, man," Cruz said. "We understand that any one of us can get hot at any moment. As long as we're all on the same page and just playing together, man, we've got a great group of guys."
The Giants appeared on the verge of collapsing and Coughlin's job status in jeopardy just a month ago, when they fell to 7-7 with an embarrassing loss to the Washington Redskins on Dec. 18.
They were facing elimination the following week against the Jets and Rex Ryan, but the Giants won 29-14. They followed with a 31-14 win over Dallas in the regular-season finale to win the NFC East and get to the playoffs for the first time since 2008.
New York dominated Atlanta at home in the opening round, and then came another stunner: a 37-20 victory at Green Bay.
Vernon Davis caught touchdown passes of 73 and 28 yards for the NFC West champions (14-4), who went from 6-10 a year ago to a contender and ended an eight-year playoff drought.
"It will be a tough one. It will take a while to get over," coach Jim Harbaugh said. "There were a lot of ways in which we played well enough to win. We just didn't come away with it."
Smith completed just 12 of 26 passes for 196 yards, connecting on only one short throw to a wide receiver. With no threats on the outside, San Francisco managed one third-down conversion, coming on the final play of regulation. The offense was unable to overcome Williams' blunders.
"You hate to be the last guy that had the ball, to give it away in that fashion and to lose a game of this magnitude," Williams said. "It is what it is. We're going to move forward as a team. Everyone has come to pat me on the back and the shoulder to say it's not me."
Notes: Davis joined Jerry Rice as the only 49ers with at least two touchdowns receiving in back-to-back playoff games. ... Cruz caught a 36-yard pass from Manning on the first play of the second quarter, then Manning hit Bear Pascoe for a 6-yard touchdown seven plays later. ... Giants C David Baas beat his former team. ... Manningham missed the potential game-tying TD in a 27-20 loss here on Nov. 13.
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An emotional start as Philbin takes over Dolphins (AP)
DAVIE, Fla. ? New Miami Dolphins coach Joe Philbin stood at a lectern, swallowed hard and began to talk about his son's recent drowning. His wife and their five surviving children sat to the side with somber expressions reflecting a loss worse than any game.
Moments later everyone was laughing as Philbin joked about his good fortune in becoming a first-time head coach. He and his family are counting on a bright future to ease the pain of the recent past, and his introductory news conference Saturday was part of the healing process.
"All people suffer loss," said Philbin's wife, Diane. "When you lose someone, it's part of life, but you have to be resilient. You have to take the bad things and difficult times and turn them into good, and that's what we will do. And we'll do it with the Miami Dolphin family."
Philbin, the Green Bay Packers' offensive coordinator for the past five years, said he's eager to lead the Dolphins back to the top of the NFL. He noted they haven't been there since 1973, the year of their most recent Super Bowl championship season.
He also did a little math regarding his career. He has been an assistant since 1984 ? 10,061 days, by his count ? and said that gives him sufficient experience to succeed as a head coach.
"I have a lot of faith in what I'm capable of doing," he said. "I've been fortunate to work with a lot of good people. I've been fortunate to be around winning programs, places where we developed players, we developed men, we had good teams. I'm just confident we'll be able to build the same thing here in Miami."
And then, 22 minutes into the news conference, the subject turned to his son's death.
Philbin interviewed with the Dolphins for the first time Jan. 7. The next day, the body of 21-year-old Michael Philbin was recovered from an icy Wisconsin river.
"You're heartbroken. You're devastated. It's hard to comprehend," Philbin said.
He spent a week away from the Packers, drew comfort from a funeral that included 68 family members, then rejoined his team last Sunday for its divisional playoff loss to the New York Giants.
Philbin said he went home that night uncertain whether to remain a candidate for the Dolphins' job ? or whether the position was even still open.
"I had no idea," he said. "The TV hadn't been on in our house for a week."
Philbin then received a pep talk from his 16-year-old son, Tim.
"He said, `You're going to go after the job, aren't you?'" Philbin recalled. "I said, `I don't know what I'm going to do.' I was dejected on a lot of different fronts. He said, `You'd better go after that job. Michael would want you to.'
"That was the start of me getting back and getting moving again."
Philbin met Wednesday for a second interview with Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and general manager Jeff Ireland, who admired the way the coach dealt with the family tragedy.
"You find out what a person is all about in times like that," Ross said. "He's a strong person, a family person. He has a lot to look forward to. I think this opportunity and change of scenery is probably great for him."
Ross said Philbin reminds him of the only coach to lead Miami to a Super Bowl, Hall of Famer Don Shula. Philbin played a significant role in the development of Pro Bowl quarterback Aaron Rodgers and helped the Packers rank in the top 10 in the NFL in yardage each of the past five seasons.
They won the Super Bowl a year ago and went 15-1 this season.
"When I first met Diane Philbin today, she said something I took to heart," Ross said. "She said, `You hired Joe to win, because that's what he's all about.' I think that sums it up."
Not that Philbin was the Dolphins' first choice. Jeff Fisher turned them down a week ago to become coach of the St. Louis Rams.
With a coach finally in place, Ross couldn't resist taking a jab at Fisher.
"We interviewed six people in person," Ross said. "With the exception of one, they were all excited about wanting to lead the Miami Dolphins."
Ross fired Tony Sparano last month with three games to go in his fourth year as coach. The Dolphins finished 6-10, their third consecutive losing season, and haven't won a playoff game since 2000.
Philbin becomes Miami's seventh coach ? including two interim coaches ? in the past eight years. Ross is desperate for some stability, which sounds good to Philbin.
"I'm 50 years old," the coach said. "I anticipate this being the last job I ever take."
When the news conference ended, Philbin posed for photos holding a Dolphins helmet and wearing a smile. Off to the side, his wife thought of their late son and fought back tears.
"Michael's looking down," she said. "And Michael's happy."
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Newsmaker: Megaupload a story of Dotcom boom and bust (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Among the roll-call of hip-hop artists and other celebrities plugging Megaupload.com's digital storage services in an online promotional video, a cameo from the website's founder would have gone unnoticed by many.
As the voiceover boasts of the site's billion users and four percent share of all Internet traffic, a colossal figure clad in black appears in a music studio.
"Bit by bit, it's a hit, it's a hit!" founder Kim Dotcom booms in a slight accent that hints at his German roots.
The hits may have just run out for Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Investor, who spent his 38th birthday on Saturday in a New Zealand jail after 70 police raided his country estate and cut him out of a safe room he had barricaded himself in.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which requested the raid, says Dotcom masterminded a scheme that made more than $175 million in a few short years by copying and distributing music, movies and other copyrighted content without authorization.
Megaupload's U.S. lawyer said the company merely offered online storage, would "vigorously defend itself" and was trying to recover its servers and get back online.
The arrest marks the latest twist in the checkered story of Dotcom, a former hacker who got his first computer at nine before going on to build an Internet fortune and friendships with music stars including Alicia Keys, Will.i.am and P.Diddy who appeared on the Megaupload.com promo video.
EARLY STARTER
Born in the German city of Kiel, Dotcom -- who was then known as Schmitz -- grew up in northern Germany.
As a child, he made copies of computer games to sell to his friends, and in the early days of the Internet, began hacking into computers via telephones, according to reputed German daily Die Welt.
Schmitz has made no secret of his controversial past as a cyber-raider, hacking into computer networks at NASA, the Pentagon and at least one major bank.
As the hacker pioneer generation came of age, so did Schmitz. After being convicted of computer hacking in 1998, he made a fortune providing computer security consulting and venture capital investment via the firm Kimvestor.
According to German magazine Der Spiegel, Schmitz once boasted he would become one of the richest men in the world. How was he so sure? "I'm smarter than Bill Gates," he said.
Schmitz, who also called himself Kimble after the wrongly convicted doctor-on-the-run in the film "The Fugitive," became well known for his lavish lifestyle as much as his computer skills.
He briefly became a fixture in Germany's nouveau riche party scene and made his own film, shot with a hand-held camera, Kimble Goes Monaco. The hulking Schmitz -- reportedly two meters tall and weighing more than 130 kg -- was often shown in Germany's tabloid press with fast cars and a model on his arm.
Schmitz's website at one point featured photographs of him racing cars, shooting an assault rifle and flying around the world in his private jet on lavish vacations.
"I have a different attitude towards money than those who rather hoard it," he said during an appearance on the Harald Schmidt Show, a popular late-night talk show in Germany. "I would rather spend it and have a lot of fun."
A documentary about the outlaw Gumball 3000 road race of 2001 by German TV station RTL filmed Schmitz driving the Russian leg of the rally in excess of 240 kph (150 mph) in a 480-horsepower Mercedes sedan, and then laughing when an opponent is pulled over by police in Finland. "Our competition is out of the way!" he says in jubilation.
Schmitz liked promoting himself through stunts such as offering up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest of Osama bin Laden in the wake of terror attacks against the United States.
THE NAME'S DOTCOM. KIM DOTCOM
But in 2002, he was convicted in what was then the largest insider-trading case in German history.
Prosecutors said Schmitz bought shares in an online business and drove up the share price by announcing plans to invest millions to rescue the company from insolvency. After selling his shares for a profit, he fled to Thailand, was arrested and deported.
A Munich court sentenced the then 28-year-old to 20 months probation and a 100,000-euro fine.
After his conviction, Schmitz disappeared from public view, reappearing a couple of years ago in New Zealand, having legally changed his name to Dotcom.
He and his family moved into a multimillion dollar mansion outside Auckland and were granted residency after promising to invest at least NZ$10 million ($8 million) in New Zealand.
The leased 20-hectare property, set in rolling hills northwest of Auckland, is one of the largest and most expensive in the country, featuring manicured lawns, fountains, pools, palm-lined paths and extensive security.
In an interview with the New Zealand Herald Newspaper last year, Dotcom said residency would allow him, his wife, Mona, and their three children to live in a country that would become a "rare paradise on Earth."
"I might be one of the most flamboyant characters New Zealand has ever seen but my intentions are good and I would like to see New Zealand flourish to its fullest potential," he said.
Dotcom reportedly paid $500,000 for a massive New Year's Eve fireworks display over Auckland which he and Mona watched from their private helicopter.
The FBI estimates that Dotcom personally made around $115,000 a day during 2010 from his empire. The list of property to be forfeited, including almost 20 luxury cars, one of them a pink Cadillac, hints at a lavish lifestyle which may be about to be put on hold.
Dotcom and three fellow accused will appear in a New Zealand court on Monday and face extradition to the United States. ($1 = 1.2433 New Zealand dollars)
(Reporting by Lincoln Feast in SYDNEY and Sarah Marsh in FRANKFURT; Additional reporting by Peter Maushagen in FRANKFURT, Mantik Kusjanto in WELLINGTON and Brian Rohan in BERLIN; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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Online Gamers Achieve First Crowdsourced Redesign of Protein
An enzyme designed by players of the protein-folding game Foldit was better than anything scientists could come up with. Image: Foldit
Obsessive gamers' hours at the computer have now topped scientists' efforts to improve a model enzyme, in what researchers say is the first crowdsourced redesign of a protein.
The online game Foldit, developed by teams led by Zoran Popovic, director of the Center for Game Science, and?biochemist David Baker, both?at the University of Washington in Seattle, allows players to fiddle at folding proteins on their home computers in search of the best-scoring (lowest-energy) configurations.
The researchers have previously reported successes by Foldit players in folding proteins, but the latest work moves into the realm of protein design, a more open-ended problem. By posing a series of puzzles to Foldit players and then testing variations on the players' best designs in the lab, researchers have created an enzyme with more than?18-fold higher activity than the original. The work was published January 22 in?Nature Biotechnology.
"I worked for two years to make these enzymes better and I couldn't do it," says Justin Siegel, a post-doctoral researcher working in biophysics?in Baker's group. "Foldit players were able to make a large jump in structural space and I still don't fully understand how they did it."
The project has progressed from volunteers donating their computers' spare processing power for protein-structure research, to actively predicting protein structures, and now to designing new proteins. The game has 240,000 registered players, 2,200 of whom were active last week.
The latest effort involved an enzyme that catalyses one of a family of workhorse reactions in synthetic chemistry called Diels-Alder reactions. Members of this huge family of reactions are used throughout industry to synthesize everything from drugs to pesticides, but enzymes that catalyze Diels-Alder reactions have been elusive. In 2010, Baker and his team?reported that they had designed a functional Diels?Alderase computationally from scratch3, but, says Baker, "it wasn't such a good enzyme".?The binding pocket for the pair of reactants was too open and activity was low. After their attempts to improve the enzyme plateaued, the team turned to Foldit.
In one puzzle, the researchers asked users to remodel one of four amino-acid loops on the enzyme to increase contact with the reactants.?In another puzzle, players were asked for a design that would stabilize the new loop. The researchers got back nearly 70,000 designs for the first puzzle and 110,000 for the second, then synthesized a number of test enzymes based on the best designs, ultimately resulting in the final, 18-fold-more-active enzyme.
Science by intuition
"It's a refreshing twist on enzyme engineering," says Stefan Lutz, a chemist?at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who was not involved in the research. "Using the Foldit players allows the researchers to use human intuition at a scale that is unprecedented."
Foldit allows people to explore more drastic changes to the protein than are possible using standard methods such as directed evolution ? in which a large pool of randomly mutated enzymes is screened for mutants that improve the original. These mutations are typically just amino-acid substitutions, not the 13-amino-acid addition the players came up with. Systematically testing a change of that size?would require testing astronomical numbers of proteins.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=f09767ffe7a3470976add5807cd73f77
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Appeal Insurance Coverage Denials to Keep Money in Your Pocket
When we're denied coverage by an insurance company, we often walk away with our tail between our legs and accept defeat. According to WebMD, this is leaving money on the table and one of the biggest mistakes people make is not appealing insurance coverage.
When you're denied coverage for a treatment you have the right to appeal and your insurance company is required to explain why they denied coverage. Doing so often pays off, with an estimated 59 percent of appeals being decided in favor of the patient. It's easy to forget your rights in a case like this, but as WebMD points out: "If you don't fight back you're probably leaving money on the table." This can be applied to most insurance policies and it's always good to keep in mind if your insurance company doesn't cover something you feel they should. Find a few more common mistakes people make with health insurance on WebMD. Photo by Agecom Bahia.
Health Care Bills: Four Mistakes That are Costing You Money | WebMD
Source: http://lifehacker.com/5877835/appeal-insurance-coverage-denials-and-put-money-back-in-your-pocket
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Retroficiency Identifies Building Energy Inefficiencies Without Ever Stepping Inside
Buildings are blamed for as much as 40% of U.S. energy consumption, and while green construction is on the rise, identifying the best ways to make and older building more efficient can be a tedious manual endeavor. Retroficiency, whose aim is to disrupt the energy efficiency market, eases the process with the help of extensive data sets and predictive analytics.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/sOkC5qp_UlQ/
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Bounty hunter called Calif. parolee before suicide (AP)
SAN FRANCISCO ? The apparent suicide of a parolee suspected of killing as many as 19 people occurred after a bounty hunter called him earlier in the day with an ominous warning.
Bounty hunter Leonard Padilla told paroled killer Loren Herzog that his partner in crime ? who is languishing on death row ? was prepared to disclose the location of missing bodies and was trying to pin their murders on him.
Padilla said in a phone interview Wednesday that he agreed to pay Herzog's co-conspirator Wesley Shermantine to disclose the bodies' locations. Padilla says he called Herzog on Monday afternoon to warn him to get a lawyer after Shermantine implicated him in the alleged killings.
"There's a certain way to do things with felons," Padilla said. "I didn't want this to come as a surprise to him."
Authorities found Herzog dead inside his Lassen County trailer hours later. Herzog is believed to have hanged himself in his state-issued trailer just outside the gates of the High Desert State Prison in Susanville.
"I told him I was communicating with Shermantine," said Padilla, who agreed to pay Shermantine a little more than $30,000 if bodies were found. "He knew what was coming down the road."
Padilla said he hoped to recoup the payment through outstanding rewards that family members of victims and others offered for information about their loved ones. At least two families had at one time each offered $20,000 for information about their missing daughters.
Lassen County Sheriff Dean Growdon said "all evidence indicates" that Herzog's death was a suicide.
Growdon said Herzog left a note, but he declined to disclose details other than to say the note was meant for his family and "made no reference to his criminal history, crime victims, etc." Herzog was married with three children.
High Desert Prison officials were asked to check on Herzog in his trailer Monday after his parole agent received a warning that the batteries in Herzog's electronic tracking device on his ankle were running low.
Herzog became a pariah upon his parole to the trailer in California's remote northeast corner in 2010. He was released after an appeals court tossed out his confession as illegally coerced and prosecutors reduced three murder convictions and a 78-year prison sentence to a manslaughter charge and 14-year term. Herzog's parole caused an uproar in San Joaquin County, which persuaded prison officials to locate him elsewhere. Lassen County and Susanville officials then filed a lawsuit to bar his settling in the region after prison officials placed him in the trailer outside the prison, which allowed him to come and go.
Herzog was allowed to remain in the trailer pending an appeal in that suit. The trailer on state property was seen as the best solution for a parolee unwelcomed everywhere in the state.
Investigators believe Herzog and Shermantine killed as many as 19 people during a methamphetamine spree in the 1980s and 1990s. The two were dubbed the "Speed Freak Killers" when arrested in 1999. Each blamed the other for masterminding the murders.
Shermantine is on death row after he was convicted of killing four, including 16-year-old Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler in 1985. In letters to the Stockton Record, Shermantine has promised to lead authorities to the bodies of Wheeler, Cyndi Vanderheiden and a covered well holding at least 10 more bodies.
Shermantine has provided false leads before, including during his 2001 trial when he demanded $20,000 in exchange for revealing the location of Wheeler and Vanderheiden. The families and district attorney refused the deal. Then Shermantine turned down a prosecution offer to sentence him to life without parole instead of death row in exchange for information about the missing bodies.
Shermantine also wrote the Stockton Record last year offering to return Herzog to prison by providing the information. In return, he wanted prosecutors to agree to let him out of San Quentin in 10 years.
A search in December of Calaveras County property once owned by Shermantine's parents yielded nothing. But Padilla claims investigators were searching in the wrong area and said California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation investigators and FBI agents were planning to transport Shermantine to the area for a search Wednesday.
But San Joaquin County Sheriff Steve Moore put a halt to those plans late Tuesday after belatedly learning about them.
"Security is the main issue ? Shermantine is on death row and has nothing left to lose," sheriff spokesman Les Garcia said. "He's done this before. He has led law enforcement on a wild goose chase, and it's kind of hard to believe what he's saying now."
The San Joaquin sheriff has scheduled a Friday meeting with the Corrections Department, FBI, Calaveras County sheriff and others to discuss Shermantine's latest claims. One of Moore's proposals to live-stream a search into Shermantine's cell so the inmate can direct searchers without leaving death row, which is in San Quentin Prison in Marin County.
A Corrections spokesman declined to comment. An FBI spokesman didn't return a phone call.
Wheeler's father, reached by phone in his Crossfield, Tenn., home said he doesn't believe Shermantine either.
"This is the second time he's pulled this, and I don't believe a word he says," Raymond Wheeler said. "I think he's just playing a game."
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Miley Cyrus Presents Adorable Gift to Liam Hemsworth
In promotion of The Hunger Games, Liam Hemsworth will likely be on the road often over the next few months. But girlfriend Miley Cyrus has now ensured her man won't be alone.
For the actor's 22nd birthday last week, Cyrus presented him with an adorable puppy named Ziggy, Tweeting a photo of the canine for all followers to see:
Hemsworth apparently wanted to name the dog "Daisy Duke" at first, Miley wrote, but: "I said NOOO WAY! Shes an angel! she loves her bro & sis too!"
As seen above, Liam and Miley were most recently spotted together at last week's People's Choice Awards. Neither won any hardware, both both looked very good.
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/miley-cyrus-presents-adorable-gift-to-liam-hemsworth/
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Friday, January 20, 2012
The British High Commissioner in India, Mr. James Bevan calls on the Minister of State for Defence, Dr. M.M. Pallam Raju, in New Delhi on January 18, 2012.
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Source: http://pib.nic.in/release/phsmall.asp?phid=38681
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
The Cruise-Ship Disaster Highlights Italy's Safety Rules (Time.com)
In the wreck of the Costa Concordia, the cruise ship that rent its hull against the offshore shallows of the Italian island of Giglio, the world was treated to an exhibition of both the best and the worst of the Italian approach to disaster.
On one side stands the ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, who seems to have thrown procedure to the wind when he reportedly diverted the 1,500-cabin luxury liner from the deep water route usually traveled by ships of its size and pulled the vessel to within 150 m from shore. Prosecutors allege that Schettino chose the maneuver to provide inhabitants of the island with a multi-story spectacle of deck lights, a show-off stunt enhanced by a blast of the ship's sirens. At least seven people were killed when the nearly 310-m long vessel capsized dramatically not far from shore less than an hour later. Another 28 of the more than 4,200 people on board remain missing. (See photos of the Costa Concordia after it ran aground off the Italian coast.)
Schettino has been arrested on charges of manslaughter and abandoning his ship; he has blamed errors in his navigational charts for the accident. On Sunday, the company that owns the ship, Costa Cruises, said in a statement that "preliminary indications" were that "significant human error" lay behind the crash. "The route of the vessel appears to have been too close to the shore, and the captain's judgment in handling the emergency appears to have not followed standard Costa procedures," the statement read. Schettino has denied he abandoned his ship, insisting he was among the last to leave.
Such careless concern for the rules of safety is tragically common in Italy, albeit usually on much smaller scales. "There is a permissive interpretation of the rules concerning safety," says Gianfranco Pasquino, professor of political science at the University of Bologna. "We know that some of the rules are perhaps irrational. Some cannot be implemented. And others have loopholes, here and there. And so we rely on our own sometimes flawed judgment to decide what can and should be done."
Thus, construction workers climb scaffolding with their helmets hanging from their belts; nobody worries too much if a fire extinguisher or first-aid kit has gone missing; and many Italians treat seatbelts as optional, especially for small children. In a country where laws and standards stack up like overlapping archaeological sediment, it's often easier to beg leniency than to ensure compliance. "The sanctions are missing," says Pasquino. "There are few chances that you will be punished, unless a serious incident [like the crash of the Costa Concordia] takes place." (See photos of the Russian cruise ship that sank in July 2011.)
As a result, says Maria Giovannone, a researcher at ANMIL, or the National Association of Workplace Accident Victims, Italy has historically had one of the highest levels of workplace accidents in the European Union. "We have a lot of formal standards," she says. "But, when it comes to the ground, they often aren't observed." She added that in the case of the cruise-ship crash, an investigation would show whether early reports by evacuees of confused and unprepared crew members reflected carelessness on the part of the cruise-ship operator. "At first glance, from what passengers have told people, it seems from the point of view of safety, the cruise-ship company hasn't made big investments in safety training and in emergency planning." Costa Cruises says it complies with "all safety regulations," adding that its crew was trained and certified, and regularly ran evacuation drills.
So what is the good side to all of this? While passengers on the ship may have experienced the worst of Italian disaster response, what waited for them onshore was among its best. Citizens of the tiny island greeted the bedraggled evacuees with donated clothes and blankets. Others sailed forth on small boats to rescue passengers who had yet to arrive. And still more opened their homes to those who had nowhere to stay. "There was a lot of support from the Italians onshore," says Pasquino. "This is the way Italy works. When the rules and standards fail, we have to make up with our personal generosity."
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Romney, Santorum square off over felons voting (AP)
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. ? Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum and front-runner Mitt Romney are trading barbs over who's the toughest on canceling voting rights for convicted felons.
Santorum says Romney is promoting lies when he stands by attack ads run by Romney's supporters in South Carolina.
One pro-Romney ad shows a prison inmate and says Santorum supported allowing felons to vote. Santorum said Tuesday in Charleston, S.C., that such tactics "lead to real serious questions about whether that man can be trusted to tell the truth on a variety of things."
Romney shrugged off the criticism. He says Santorum is in favor of allowing felons to vote again once they've served their sentences ? while Romney would still ban them from voting.
Their remarks continued a dispute that began in Monday night's GOP debate.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
Mitt Romney's four remaining challengers are keeping the spotlight on the Republican front-runner's wealth and business dealings by pressing him to release his income tax returns. Romney says he might make them public in April. By then, he hopes to have the presidential nomination in the bag.
His rivals did their best to knock the former Massachusetts governor off stride in a contentious debate Monday night, going after him on several fronts. Romney didn't bend under heavy pressure on the issue of his job-creation record at his former private equity firm Bain Capital, nor did he apologize for his evolving views on abortion. Blamed for negative commercials flooding South Carolina's airwaves, he stressed the independence of the super PACs that have been running ads in his behalf against former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other rivals, including former Sen. Rick Santorum.
Romney said that while he might be willing to release his tax returns, he wouldn't do so until tax filing time. The multimillionaire former businessman didn't get much gratitude from his rivals, who want him to release the information in time to influence South Carolina voters going to the polls on Saturday.
Gingrich was quick to suggest Romney wouldn't delay for months if he had nothing to hide and that his hesitation wouldn't sit well with voters. "Last night weakened him," Gingrich told "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday.
Romney seemed hesitant when confronted with the tax issue on stage. He at first sidestepped calls from his rivals to release his returns, then said later that he'd follow the lead of previous presidential candidates.
"I have nothing in them that suggests there's any problem and I'm happy to do so," he said. "I sort of feel like we're showing a lot of exposure at this point," he added.
Monday's night's debate was as fiery as any of the more than dozen that preceded it. Romney, the clear front-runner for the GOP nomination after back-to-back wins in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, was under fire not only from Gingrich and Santorum, but also from Rick Perry and Ron Paul.
The five will meet again in debate in Charleston Thursday night, the last time they will share a stage before the primary two days later.
The first Southern primary could prove decisive in the volatile contest. Gingrich has virtually conceded that a victory for Romney in South Carolina would assure his nomination as Democratic President Barack Obama's Republican rival in the fall, and none of the other remaining contenders has challenged that conclusion.
That only elevated the stakes for Monday night's debate, where the attacks on Romney often were couched in anti-Obama rhetoric.
"We need to satisfy the country that whoever we nominate has a record that can stand up to Barack Obama in a very effective way," said Gingrich.
The five men on stage also sought to outdo one another in calling for lower taxes. Texas Rep. Ron Paul won that competition handily, saying he thought the top personal tax rate should be zero.
In South Carolina, a state with a heavy military presence, the tone turned muscular at times.
Gingrich drew strong applause when he said: "Andrew Jackson had a pretty clear idea about America's enemies. Kill them."
Perry also won favor from the crowd when he said the Obama administration had overreacted in its criticism of the Marines who were videotaped urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
Gingrich and Perry led the assault against Romney's record at Bain Capital, a private equity firm that bought companies and sought to remake them into more competitive enterprises, with uneven results.
"There was a pattern in some companies ... of leaving them with enormous debt and then within a year or two or three having them go broke," Gingrich said. "I think that's something he ought to answer."
Perry referred to a steel mill in Georgetown, S.C. where, he said, "Bain swept in, they picked that company over and a lot of people lost jobs there."
Romney said the steel industry was battered by unfair competition from China. As for other firms, he said, "Four of the companies that we invested in ... ended up today having some 120,000 jobs." And he acknowledged, "Some of the businesses we invested in were not successful and lost jobs."
It was Perry who challenged Romney to release his income tax returns. The Texas governor said he has already done so, and Gingrich has said he will do likewise later in the week.
"Mitt, we need for you to release your income tax so the people of this country can see how you made your money. ... We cannot fire our nominee in September. We need to know now," Perry said.
Later, a debate moderator pressed Romney on releasing his tax returns. His response meandered.
"If that's been the tradition I'm not opposed to doing that," Romney said. "Time will tell. But I anticipate that most likely I'm going to get asked to do that in the April time period and I'll keep that open."
Prodded again, he said, "If I become our nominee ... what's happened in history is people have released them in about April of the coming year, and that's probably what I'd do."
April is long after the South Carolina primary and the Republican nomination could easily be all but decided by then, following Super Tuesday contests around the country in March.
Santorum stayed away from the clash over taxes, instead launching a dispute of his own. He said a campaign group supporting Romney has been attacking him for supporting voter rights for convicted felons, and asked Romney what his position was on the issue.
Romney initially ducked a direct answer, preferring to ask Santorum if the ad was accurate.
He then said he doesn't believe convicted violent felons should have the right to vote, even after serving their terms. Santorum instantly said that as governor of Massachusetts, Romney hadn't made any attempt to change a law that permitted convicted felons to vote while still on parole, a law the former Pennsylvania senator said was more liberal than the one he has been assailed for supporting.
Romney replied that as a Republican governor, he was confronted with a legislature that was heavily Democratic and held a different position.
He also reminded Santorum that candidates have no control over the campaign groups that have played a pivotal role in the race to date.
"It is inaccurate," Santorum said of the ad assailing him. "I would go out and say: `Stop it. That you're representing me and you're representing my campaign. Stop it.'"
That issue returned more than an hour later, when Gingrich said he too has faced false attacks from the same group that is criticizing Santorum. He noted that Romney says he lacks sway over the group, "which makes you wonder how much influence he would have if he were president."
Romney said he hoped no group would run inaccurate ads, and he said the organization backing Gingrich was airing a commercial that is so false that "it's probably the biggest hoax since Bigfoot."
He called for scuttling the current system of campaign finance laws to permit individuals to donate as much money as they want to the candidates of their choice.
Noting that the debate was occurring on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, one moderator asked Gingrich if his previous statements about poor children lacking a work ethic were "insulting to all Americans, but particularly to black Americans."
"No," Gingrich said emphatically, adding his aim was to break dependence on government programs. "I'm going to continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn to get a better job and learn someday to own the job," he said.
Romney is the leader in the public opinion polls in South Carolina, although his rivals hope the state's 9.9 percent unemployment rate and the presence of large numbers of socially conservative evangelical voters will allow one of them to slip by him.
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Associated Press writer Dave Espo contributed to this report.
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Follow Shannon McCaffrey at http://www.twitter.com/smccaffrey13
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