Report proposes dividing Great Lakes, Mississippi (AP)

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. ? Groups representing states and cities in the Great Lakes region on Tuesday proposed spending up to $9.5 billion on a massive engineering project to separate the lakes from the Mississippi River watershed in the Chicago area, describing it as the only sure way to protect both aquatic systems from invasions by destructive species such as Asian carp.

The organizations issued a report suggesting three alternatives for severing an artificial link between the two drainage basins that was constructed more than a century ago. Scientists say it has already provided a pathway for exotic species and is the likeliest route through which menacing carp could reach the lakes, where they could destabilize food webs and threaten a valuable fishing industry.

"We simply can't afford to risk that," said Tim Eder, executive director of the Great Lakes Commission, which sponsored the study with the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative. "The Great Lakes have suffered immensely because of invasive species. We have to put a stop to this."

The report's release is sure to ramp up pressure on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is conducting its own study of how to close off 18 potential pathways between the two systems, including the Chicago waterways. The corps plans to release its findings in late 2015, a timetable it says is necessary because of the job's complexity and regulatory requirements. A pending federal lawsuit by five states ? Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania ? demands quicker action.

"This study shows that hydrological separation is both technically and economically feasible," said Rep. Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican.

A spokeswoman said the corps would not comment until it could review the report.

The project that linked the two drainage basins began in the 1890s when engineers reversed the flow of the Chicago River to flush sewage away from the city and into a newly built, 28-mile-long canal that created a connection between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River, a tributary of the Mississippi. It is now a network of rivers, locks and canals.

In their report, the two groups call for placing barriers at key points to cut off the flow of water between the two drainage basins by 2029.

One alternative would put barriers in five locations near Lake Michigan. Another would erect a single barrier in the ship canal before it branches off into connecting waterways. A third plan would use four barriers.

The report does not express a preference but says the four-barrier plan would cost less than the others ? between $3.26 billion and $4.27 billion. That plan, the report says, would cause less disruption of waterborne commerce and fewer problems with flood and stormwater control, all of which opponents contend would result from dividing the two systems. It also comes closest to restoring the natural divide between the watersheds, said David Ullrich, executive director of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative.

The report doesn't make a detailed proposal for covering the costs but says the four-barrier plan could be done if the average household in the Great Lakes basin paid about $1 a month through 2059.

The five-barrier and single-barrier plans' price tags could reach about $9.5 billion.

Despite the high cost, the report's sponsors said the project would save money in the long run by shielding both systems from species invasions. Zebra and quagga mussels and sea lamprey already have exacted a heavy toll on the Great Lakes economy, and the region's leaders fear the Asian carp could make things much worse.

"Yes, it's expensive. But the cost of doing nothing is greater," Ullrich said.

Asian carp escaped from Southern fish farms and sewage treatment plants decades ago and migrated up the Mississippi and its tributaries, gobbling up plankton that is essential for other nourishing other fish.

The study, commissioned by the two groups and developed by a private engineering firm, will make the idea of separation easier for people in the region to grasp, said Joel Brammeier, president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, a Chicago-based environmental group.

"It's a natural, practical, on-the-ground map of how to get it done," Brammeier said.

Mark Biel, chairman of an Illinois business coalition called UnLock Our Jobs that opposes separating the watersheds, said the Great Lakes groups' proposals would take many years to carry out and would devastate cargo shipping and pleasure boating in the Chicago area while doing nothing to prevent species invasions elsewhere.

"Calling this a solution is ludicrous," Biel said.

But the report's authors said their plan envisions upgrades to docks and other infrastructure that, in the long run, would boost water commerce while improving water quality and flood protection. The barriers themselves would make up just 3 percent of the total cost.

The Army Corps of Engineers contends an electric barrier in the shipping canal is preventing Asian carp and other fish from swimming upstream toward Lake Michigan, although carp DNA has been found beyond the device. Eder said the barrier is a good temporary measure, but not a permanent solution.

"It's kind of like the old Clint Eastwood adage, `How lucky do you feel?'" he said. "We can take chances that the electric barrier and other measures will work, but I don't think we should."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_re_us/us_great_lakes_mississippi_divide

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China to make Shanghai global yuan hub by 2015 (Reuters)

SHANGHAI (Reuters) ? China intends to establish Shanghai as the global centre for yuan trading, clearing and pricing over the next three years as part of broader plans to make the commercial hub an international financial centre by 2020.

The plan for Shanghai's financial innovations through 2015, published jointly by the country's economic planning agency and the Shanghai government on Monday, set goals on a wide range of areas aimed at further developing Shanghai, though some analysts said many of them appeared ambitious.

"This anticipated pace of development looks a bit quick to me," said Frances Cheung, a strategist at Credit Agricole in Hong Kong.

China wants to transform Shanghai into an international financial centre on par with the likes of New York and London by 2020. That goal was set in 2009 by the State Council and analysts have taken it as a broad deadline for liberalizing the currency.

The state economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, outlined a series of goals under the 2015 yuan plan.

These included making the daily yuan mid-point published by the central bank in the onshore yuan market serve as the benchmark for both domestic and foreign yuan trading markets.

Currency traders interpreted the statement partly as a message from Beijing that the yuan's movements, which have increasingly been influenced by the offshore market over the past few months, should be decided by the government.

"There have been recent developments that have put Hong Kong's offshore market in the spotlight from time to time, such as its pricing of the yuan quite differently from the onshore market," said a trader at a European bank in Shanghai.

"In this sense, the NDRC statement is published at a sensitive time and means the government once again wants to emphasize that it has the final say in the value of the yuan."

The plan also aims to make the government-backed Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor) the benchmark for yuan credit everywhere and targeting to more than double the annual non-forex financial market trading volume to 1,000 trillion yuan by 2015.

While the plan lacked details on how China would achieve these targets, analysts were skeptical on the feasibility of some of the planks in the platform.

"Shibor is not even a very well established benchmark onshore," Cheung said. Markets currently use the government's seven-day repurchase rate as the lending benchmark.

Analysts said the NDRC's plan gave no fresh insight into how quickly China would liberalize its capital account, a crucial step in Shanghai's attempt to become a global money hub.

China has taken a series of measures over the past two years to invigorate the offshore yuan market in Hong Kong as part of a longer-term plan to promote the use of the yuan overseas and make it a fully-convertible and international reserve currency along with the U.S. dollar.

Earlier this month, Britain said it was teaming up with its former colony to secure London a top spot as an offshore trading centre for the yuan.

The NDRC's plan would not threaten Hong Kong's current position as the main offshore yuan centre, analysts said.

"Promoting Shanghai as an onshore yuan centre complements Hong Kong's growing role as an offshore yuan center, and should help to strengthen the circle of onshore-offshore yuan flows underpinning the yuan trade settlement process," said Donna H J Kwok, economist at HSBC in Hong Kong.

China will also encourage overseas companies to sell yuan-denominated shares in its domestic stock markets, but the plan did not give a detailed timetable.

Authorities have been discussing launching a so-called "international board" on the Shanghai stock exchange for listing foreign companies' shares, seen as a centerpiece for the 2020 goal, but the city's mayor said this month that the time was not currently right for its launch.

Shanghai will explore M&A opportunities involving overseas stock exchanges to increase its global clout, the NDRC's plan said without elaborating.

(Additional reporting by Zhou Xin in Beijing, Saikat Chatterjee in Hong Kong and Lu Jianxin in Shanghai; Editing by Jason Subler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/ts_nm/us_china_economy_shanghai

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South Korea to spend $7.4 billion on fighter jets

SEOUL?? South Korea has invited Boeing, Lockheed Martin and EADS to participate in its next generation fighter jet program, in which the country will invest 8.3 trillion won ($7.39 billion) until 2021.

The air-power project comes as the country braces for changing dynamics on the Korean Peninsula after the death in December of Kim Jong Il, the former leader of North Korea, with which the South is still technically at war.

Neighboring Japan recently chose U.S. contractor Lockheed Martin to build a fleet of 42 F-35 planes, valued by analysts at more than $7 billion, and China plans to introduce its own stealth fighters.

The deadline for proposals will close on June 18, South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said at a presentation to contractors.

Wee Jong-seong, director of the agency's fighter project team, said the three firms' aircraft met operational capability requirements.

'Stealth capabilities'
Prospective planes for the bidding include Lockheed's F-35 Lightning II and EADS's Eurofighter Typhoon.

A DAPA spokesman declined to specify how many planes it planned to buy.

However, Yonhap News Agency reported that South Korea was seeking "60 fifth-generation fighter jets with stealth capabilities." It didn't cite a source.

Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46186617/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/

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Time short for Gingrich to close gap in Florida (AP)

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. ? Newt Gingrich slammed GOP rival Mitt Romney on Sunday for the steady stream of attacks he likened to "carpet-bombing," trying to cut into the resurgent front-runner's lead in Florida in the dwindling hours before Tuesday's pivotal presidential primary.

And despite surging ahead in polls, Romney wasn't letting up, relentlessly casting Gingrich as an influence peddler with a "record of failed leadership."

In what has become a wildly unpredictable race, the momentum has swung back to Romney, staggered last weekend by Gingrich's victory in South Carolina. Romney has begun advertising in Nevada ahead of that state's caucuses next Saturday, illustrating the challenges ahead for Gingrich, who has pledged to push ahead no matter what happens in Florida.

An NBC News/Marist poll published Sunday showed Romney with support from 42 percent of likely Florida primary voters, compared with 27 percent for Gingrich.

Romney's campaign has dogged Gingrich at his own campaign stops, sending surrogates to remind reporters of Gingrich's House ethics probe in the 1990s and other episodes in his career aimed at sowing doubt about his judgment.

Gingrich reacted defensively, accusing the former Massachusetts governor and a political committee that supports him of lying, and the GOP's establishment of allowing it.

"I don't know how you debate a person with civility if they're prepared to say things that are just plain factually false," Gingrich said during appearances on Sunday talk shows. "I think the Republican establishment believes it's OK to say and do virtually anything to stop a genuine insurgency from winning because they are very afraid of losing control of the old order."

Gingrich objected specifically to a Romney campaign ad that includes a 1997 NBC News report on the House's decision to discipline Gingrich, then speaker, for ethics charges.

Romney continued to paint Gingrich as part of the very Washington establishment he condemns and someone who had a role in the nation's economic problems.

"Your problem in Florida is that you worked for Freddie Mac at a time when Freddie Mac was not doing the right thing for the American people, and that you're selling influence in Washington at a time when we need people who will stand up for the truth in Washington," Romney told an audience in Naples.

Gingrich's consulting firm was paid more than $1.5 million by the federally-backed mortgage company over a period after he left Congress in 1999.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, trailing in Florida by a wide margin, stayed with his 3-year-old daughter, Bella, who was hospitalized with pneumonia. Sunday night he told supporters, "She without a doubt has turned the corner," but he cautioned she "isn't out of the woods yet."

Aides said Santorum would resume campaigning Monday in Missouri and Minnesota.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who has invested little in Florida, looked ahead to Nevada. The libertarian-leaning Paul is focusing more on gathering delegates in caucus states, where it's less expensive to campaign. But securing the nomination only through caucus states is a hard task.

The intense effort by Romney to slow Gingrich is comparable to his strategy against Gingrich in the closing month before Iowa's leadoff caucuses Jan. 3. Gingrich led in Iowa polls, lifted by what were hailed as strong performances in televised debates, only to drop in the face of withering attacks by Romney, aided immensely by ads sponsored by a "super" political action committee run by former Romney aides.

But Romney aides say they made the mistake of assuming Gingrich could not rise again as he did in South Carolina. Romney appears determined not to let that happen again.

"His record is one of failed leadership," Romney told more than 700 people at a rally in Pompano Beach Sunday evening. "We don't need someone who can speak well perhaps, or can say things we agree with, but does not have the experience of being an effective leader."

Gingrich has responded by criticizing Romney's conservative credentials. Outside an evangelical Christian church in Lutz, Gingrich said he was the more loyal conservative on key social issues.

"This party is not going to nominate somebody who is a pro-abortion, pro-gun-control, pro-tax-increase liberal," Gingrich said. "It isn't going to happen."

But Gingrich, in appearances on Sunday news programs, returned to complaining about Romney's tactics. "It's only when he can mass money to focus on carpet-bombing with negative ads that he gains any traction at all," he said.

Romney and the political committee that supports him had combined to spend some $6.8 million in ads criticizing Gingrich in the Florida campaign's final week. Gingrich and a super PAC that supports him were spending about one-third that amount.

Gingrich worked to portray himself as the insurgent outsider, collecting the endorsement of tea party favorite Herman Cain, whose own campaign for president foundered amid sexual harassment allegations.

It was unclear how aggressively Gingrich would be able to compete in states beyond Florida. The next televised debate, a format Gingrich has used to his advantage, is not until Feb. 22, more than three weeks away.

Romney already has campaigned in Nevada more than Gingrich, is advertising there, and stresses his business background in a state hard-hit by the economy. His campaign welcomed the Sunday endorsement of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada's largest newspaper.

Michigan and Maine, where Romney won during his 2008 campaign, also hold their contests in February. Arizona, a strong tea-party state where Gingrich could do well, has its primary Feb. 28.

___

Associated Press writers Steve Peoples in Naples and Shannon McCaffrey in Lutz contributed to this report.

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

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Gingrich-Romney GOP debate propels CNN in ratings (Reuters)

NEW YORK, Jan 27 (TheWrap.com) ? CNN hit the sweet spot with its GOP candidates' debate in Florida Thursday night, registering its best performance in the key demo during this election cycle and its second largest total audience.

The Wolf Blitzer-moderated sparring contest drew 5.4 million total viewers and 1.74 million in the adults 25-54 demo, the fourth best demo performance of any debate thus far and the second best among cable news networks.

Fox News' debate in Iowa December 15 still reigns supreme in cable with its 6.7 million total viewers and 1.87 in the demo, while ABC's Iowa debate takes the cake overall in total viewers. NBC's "Rock Center" debate in Florida January 23 set the bar for the demo.

As those numbers suggest, CNN's debate is in the middle of the pack overall, but for the network they are substantial.

As Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney fought over grandmas, immigration and tax records, viewers pushed CNN well ahead of its cable news foes Thursday night, and the network held onto its lead in the 10 p.m. hour.

CNN is slated to host the next scheduled debate February 22: Yes, viewers get a reprieve from the nearly endless series of debates -- unless another pops up before then.

(Editing By Zorianna Kit)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/tv_nm/us_cableratings

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Twitter's new censorship plan rouses global furor (AP)

NEW YORK ? Twitter, a tool of choice for dissidents and activists around the world, found itself the target of global outrage Friday after unveiling plans to allow country-specific censorship of tweets that might break local laws.

It was a stunning role reversal for a youthful company that prides itself in promoting unfettered expression, 140 characters at a time. Twitter insisted its commitment to free speech remains firm, and sought to explain the nuances of its policy, while critics ? in a barrage of tweets ? proposed a Twitter boycott and demanded that the censorship initiative be scrapped.

"This is very bad news," tweeted Egyptian activist Mahmoud Salem, who operates under the name Sandmonkey. Later, he wrote, "Is it safe to say that (hash)Twitter is selling us out?"

In China, where activists have embraced Twitter even though it's blocked inside the country, artist and activist Ai Weiwei tweeted in response to the news: "If Twitter censors, I'll stop tweeting."

One often-relayed tweet bore the headline of a Forbes magazine technology blog item: "Twitter Commits Social Suicide"

San Francisco-based Twitter, founded in 2006, depicted the new system as a step forward. Previously, when Twitter erased a tweet, it vanished throughout the world. Under the new policy, a tweet breaking a law in one country can be taken down there and still be seen elsewhere.

Twitter said it will post a censorship notice whenever a tweet is removed and will post the removal requests it receives from governments, companies and individuals at the website chillingeffects.org.

The critics are jumping to the wrong conclusions, said Alexander Macgilliviray, Twitter's general counsel.

"This is a good thing for freedom of expression, transparency and accountability," he said. "This launch is about us keeping content up whenever we can and to be extremely transparent with the world when we don't. I would hope people realize our philosophy hasn't changed."

Some defenders of Internet free expression came to Twitter's defense.

"Twitter is being pilloried for being honest about something that all Internet platforms have to wrestle with," said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "As long as this censorship happens in a secret way, we're all losers."

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland credited Twitter with being upfront about the potential for censorship and said some other companies are not as forthright.

As for whether the new policy would be harmful, Nuland said that wouldn't be known until after it's implemented.

Reporters Without Borders, which advocates globally for press freedom, sent a letter to Twitter's executive chairman, Jack Dorsey, urging that the censorship policy be ditched immediately.

"By finally choosing to align itself with the censors, Twitter is depriving cyberdissidents in repressive countries of a crucial tool for information and organization," the letter said. "Twitter's position that freedom of expression is interpreted differently from country to country is unacceptable."

Reporters Without Borders noted that Twitter was earning praise from free-speech advocates a year ago for enabling Egyptian dissidents to continue tweeting after the Internet was disconnected.

"We are very disappointed by this U-turn now," it said.

Twitter said it has no plans to remove tweets unless it receives a request from government officials, companies or another outside party that believes the message is illegal. No message will be removed until an internal review determines there is a legal problem, according to Macgilliviray.

"It's a thing of last resort," he said. "The first thing we do is we try to make sure content doesn't get withheld anywhere. But if we feel like we have to withhold it, then we are transparent and we will withhold it narrowly."

Macgilliviray said the new policy has nothing to do with a recent $300 million investment by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Mac or any other financial contribution.

In its brief existence, Twitter has established itself as one of the world's most powerful megaphones. Streams of tweets have played pivotal roles in political protests throughout the world, including the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States and the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia and Syria.

Indeed, many of the tweets calling for a boycott of Twitter on Saturday ? using the hashtag (hash)TwitterBlackout ? came from the Middle East.

"This decision is really worrying," said Larbi Hilali, a pro-democracy blogger and tweeter from Morocco. "If it is applied, there will be a Twitter for democratic countries and a Twitter for the others."

In Cuba, opposition blogger Yoani Sanchez said she would protest Saturday with a one-day personal boycott of Twitter.

"Twitter will remove messages at the request of governments," she tweeted. "It is we citizens who will end up losing with these new rules ... ."

In the wake of the announcement, cyberspace was abuzz with suggestions for how any future country-specific censorship could be circumvented. Some Twitter users said this could be done by employing tips from Twitter's own help center to alter one's "Country" setting. Other Twitter users were skeptical that this would work.

While Twitter has embraced its role as a catalyst for free speech, it also wants to expand its audience from about 100 million active users now to more than 1 billion. Doing so may require it to engage with more governments and possibly to face more pressure to censor tweets; if it defies a law in a country where it has employees, those people could be arrested.

Theoretically, such arrests could occur even in democracies ? for example, if a tweet violated Britain's strict libel laws or the prohibitions in France and Germany against certain pro-Nazi expressions.

"It's a tough problem that a company faces once they branch out beyond one set of offices in California into that big bad world out there," said Rebecca MacKinnon of Global Voices Online, an international network of bloggers and citizen journalists. "We'll have to see how it plays out ? how it is and isn't used."

MacKinnon said some other major social networks already employ geo-filtering along the lines of Twitter's new policy ? blocking content in a specific jurisdiction for legal reasons while making it available elsewhere.

Many of the critics assailing the new policy suggested that it was devised as part of a long-term plan for Twitter to enter China, where its service is currently blocked.

China's Communist Party remains highly sensitive to any organized challenge to its rule and responded sharply to the Arab Spring, cracking down last year after calls for a "Jasmine Revolution" in China. Many Chinese nonetheless find ways around the so-called Great Firewall that has blocked social networking sites such as Facebook.

Google for several years agreed to censor its search results in China to gain better access to the country's vast population, but stopped that practice two years after engaging in a high-profile showdown with Chain's government. Google now routes its Chinese search results through Hong Kong, where the censorship rules are less restrictive.

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt declined to comment on Twitter's action and instead limited his comments to his own company.

"I can assure you we will apply our universally tough principles against censorship on all Google products," he told reporters in Davos, Switzerland.

Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, said it was a matter of trying to adhere to different local laws.

"I think what they (Twitter officials) are wrestling with is what all of us wrestle with ? and everyone wants to focus on China, but it is actually a global issue ? which is laws in these different countries vary," Drummond said.

"Americans tend to think copyright is a real bad problem, so we have to regulate that on the Internet. In France and Germany, they care about Nazis' issues and so forth," he added. "In China, there are other issues that we call censorship. And so how you respect all the laws or follow all the laws to the extent you think they should be followed while still allowing people to get the content elsewhere?"

Craig Newman, a New York lawyer and former journalist who has advised Internet companies on censorship issues, said Twitter's new policy and the subsequent backlash are both understandable, given the difficult ethical issues at stake.

On one hand, he said, Twitter could put its employees in peril if it was deemed to be breaking local laws.

"On the other hand, Twitter has become this huge social force and people view it as some sort of digital town square, where people can say whatever they want," he said. "Twitter could have taken a stand and refused to enter any countries with the most restrictive laws against free speech."

___

Associated Press writers Paul Schemm in Rabat, Morocco, Michael Liedtke in San Francisco, Peter Orsi in Havana, Cuba, Cara Anna in New York and Ben Hubbard in Cairo contributed to this story.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_hi_te/us_twitter_censorship

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Colgate hikes prices at home; 1st attempt in years (AP)

NEW YORK ? Colgate-Palmolive is navigating a delicate tightrope, as it raises prices in North America for the first time in more than two years.

The company, best known for its toothpaste and dish soap, said Thursday it had raised prices in North America by an average of 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter, after cutting prices every quarter since the summer of 2009. The news emerged as the company reported a 5 percent decline in net income that it blamed on higher costs for raw materials.

Raising prices can be a risky move, because cash-strapped customers can drop even their favorite brands to save a few cents. Paychecks are already stretched thin and the government's most recent data on jobs, also released Thursday, show that the number of people seeking unemployment benefits rose last week. There are signs that the economy is healing, but raising prices in North America had been something that Colgate, until recently, had been unwilling to try.

Many of Colgate's rivals raised prices last year, as well as many restaurants, clothing stores and other industries. But Colgate had taken a different strategy, raising prices in fast-growing Latin America, where customers seemed willing to stomach the higher costs, but lowering prices in North America through discounts and other promotions.

In a call with analysts, CEO Ian Cook said customers were still willing to pay for premium products, like toothpaste for sensitive teeth, if they provided a benefit that customers want. Colgate is also aware that budget-conscious customers are generally more likely to trade down in other household products before swapping out their favorite toothpaste for store brands.

Overall, Colgate raised prices 3 percent in the quarter and 1 percent for the year, and Cook said price changes for the coming year would be "on the same order of magnitude."

The higher prices would come even though costs for many materials appear to be declining: Cook said he thought commodities costs would rise 2 to 3 percent this year, a far smaller burden than 2011's increase of 12 to 13 percent. As Colgate paid more for raw materials, its profit margin fell 1.7 percentage points.

But Colgate, like other U.S. companies, probably won't enjoy the same benefit that it got in 2011 from the weak dollar, which caused revenue raised overseas to translate into more dollars at home. Cook noted that other U.S. companies face the same challenge. "That is a global factor," he said, "not a Colgate factor."

Javier Escalante, an analyst at Consumer Edge Research, asked whether the higher prices would hurt Colgate's sales. Cook replied that the volume of sales had continued to grow in the quarter despite higher prices. "We believe we can continue that in 2012, balancing the volume between the rollover of the pricing that we have already," he said.

Colgate has consistently cut North American prices since the third quarter of 2009, by an average of 1.5 percent to 4.5 percent each quarter. To be sure, its 0.5 percent increase in the fourth quarter was far less than the 8.5 percent price increase in Latin America. But it did represent a snapped trend. In Europe, a region the company described as "volatile," Colgate dropped prices by an average of 3 percent.

The higher North American prices may be because the company thinks it can, or that it must, or perhaps a little bit of both. At the same time, Colgate is aggressively seeking to protect market share, even if it has to spend to do so. Cook said the company would continue to invest in creating and advertising new products.

The pricing strategy also reinforces Colgate's decision to lean on emerging markets for growth as U.S. customers get tapped out. Of Colgate's four main geographic regions, North America accounts for the smallest portion and it is where revenue grew the slowest. Latin America grew the fastest, and made up the biggest portion of revenue

For the quarter, the higher prices helped fuel a 5 percent rise in revenue to $4.17 billion, up from $3.98 billion. It was dwarfed by the 9 percent increase in what the company had to pay to make and transport its products.

Colgate earned $590 million, or $1.21 per share. That was down from $624 million, or $1.24 per share. Excluding one-time expenses like putting cost-saving plans into place and other charges, Colgate earned $1.30 per share. That beat the $1.29 that Wall Street expected, according to a poll by FactSet.

Barclays Capital analyst Lauren Lieberman described fourth-quarter results as "more or less in line with our lackluster estimates."

Colgate's decision to try to recoup its margins comes during a fragile time for the U.S. economy.

The jobs data released Thursday show more people sought unemployment benefits. However, the overall trends point to a recovering job market. At least 100,000 jobs have been added for six straight months and the unemployment rate has declined to 8.5 percent, its lowest in almost three years.

But it's not a healthy number yet and the government also released data Thursday showing that fewer people bought new homes in December, sealing 2011 as the worst year for new home sales on record.

For the year, Colgate's revenue rose 7.5 percent, to $16.7 billion, and net income rose 10 percent to $2.4 billion.

Shares of Colgate-Palmolive Co. rose $1.91, or 2.1 percent, to close at $91.35 Thursday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_colgate

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Open WebOS 1.0 Coming in September [WebOS]

When HP kinda, sorta killed webOS as a money making endeavor, they promised to keep it alive as an open source project, but offered little in the way of concrete details. According to The Verge they've partially pulled back the curtain, revealing that Open webOS 1.0 should arrive in September. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/fDl9h-bKLTk/open-webos-10-coming-in-september

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US team due in NKorea in March (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The Defense Department says U.S. personnel are due to travel to North Korea in March to restart efforts to recover thousands of servicemen missing from the Korean War.

The U.S. and North Korean militaries agreed last October to resume recovery operations that were suspended in 2005, but a start date was not announced.

A letter from Republican Sen. Richard Lugar to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta notes the agreement calls for a March 1 start date. The letter dated January 17 was obtained by The Associated Press.

A Defense Department spokeswoman Maj. Carie Parker said Thursday the North's military will begin preparations in early March ahead of a small U.S. advance team's arrival later that month to evaluate conditions and prepare for operations.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/nkorea/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_go_ot/us_us_nkorea_war_remains

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AiP Stands With Context and Variation

My SciAm colleague and friend Kate Clancy of Context and Variation has been the target of disturbing trollish behavior recently. She is experiencing what many female bloggers do at some point while writing for an online audience and she?s rallying her community by speaking candidly about her experiences:

Even when the threats aren?t physical, the antagonism towards women has been nasty. I have been called a sexist, someone who plays victim, told I should be fired, and worse, personal things that I will not relay here. I have had my writing challenged by brash claims regarding my character or intent without any attempt to build a case with evidence.

And even though I can look at the evidence and my writing, at what I do and what I stand for, and know these claims are ridiculous, each one of these attacks shatters me.

Back at my old blog, these attacks would have had little effect on me. At my old blog my posse would have crowded them out, shrugged their way past them until the attackers were shouting uselessly at the periphery. My old blog was a warm, inviting space where I could take risks because people were willing to take them with me.

I could blame the loss of my posse on the commenting system or the more heavily-male readership here at Scientific American and throw up my hands. But I also know I have not been modeling the appropriate behavior to encourage you to get comfortable in my new place. I have left almost all attack comments up rather than delete them because I worried that getting rid of them would open me up to more attacks, or make it look as though I was silencing my opposition. And so I left them, and waited, hoping someone would come and back me up. Sometimes someone would.

Supporting a female blogger under attack in a comment thread is a very risky endeavor. If you are a male ally, you may be afraid of making things worse. If you are a woman, you may be afraid of drawing some of the attack on to you. The attack may also just feel like it?s not your business. It takes a very brave person who doesn?t mind sticking their nose in to put together a reasoned response and handle the blowback.

By letting the oppressive and rude behavior in my comment threads get out of control, I have put my posse in an impossible position. I have silenced potential commenters, and lost the most valuable part of my blogging.

AiP has also received its share of trollish comments and emails that also left me feeling raw and exposed. It is amazing what people will ask you?especially if you?re female. My response was to delete comments and emails and not respond. But sometimes it feels as though that?s the only response out there, and that can be disheartening.?Kate is right: It will only stop when we?that?s you and me?take a hand in making it stop.

It has not been an entirely easy transition from the independent home of Anthropology in Practice to the Scientific American network. There, like Kate, I knew I had a steady group of readers who knew the tone and style of the space and could and would step in to help monitor and maintain the community. A few of you have followed me here, and I thank you for that. It delights me to see your names in the comment box. I also understand why the community has overall been slow to grow here?having to register can be prohibitive to commenting?but I am confident we will get there again, Readers. (We are working on changing the registration requirements, but that will take time. In truth, registration is a bit of a joke. You can register as a pseud or under your name and only I see your email address?whatever email address you choose to enter.)

Kate has issued a new commenting policy for Context and Variation which goes a long way toward re/creating a constructive, supportive community where debate and discussion can occur intelligently and respectfully. I support her stand for her space, and in that spirit want to ask you, Readers, to rally with us: register, and let us know you?re there.

AiP?s commenting policy has always been an open one. In short, it read: ?Readers are invited to leave a comment and join the discussion about breaking news, research ventures, and most importantly, everyday events. However, spam and abusive commentary will be deleted promptly.? But in this venue, in this space, it?s clear that this will not suffice. Here is AiP?s commenting policy?with summary by Dr. Seuss:

• ?Not here not there not anywhere!? Be respectful: no personal attacks, no condescension, no snide insinuations. These comment(s) will be deleted promptly. Talk to me about the points of the post, alternative research, and your experiences?let?s have a discussion instead.

• ?Everything stinks till it?s finished.? Finish the post. If something I?ve written bothers you or seems wrong, finish reading before you fire off that angry email. If there are comments, take a second and peruse them. Perhaps someone has said something similar and I?ve addressed those concerns. Perhaps something was said that might change your perception. Finish it.

• ?I do not like green eggs and ham.? That?s fine. You don?t have to like green eggs and ham?you also don?t have to agree with me or each other. But try to hear the argument out?be open to the discussion and willing to engage in dialogue. If you post a comment, chances are you?ll get a response?at the very least from me. Let?s try to understand each other.

• ?Oh the thinks you can think up if only you try!? Think your response through?add something to the discussion that others can respond to. Use evidence instead of rocks to make your point.

I?ve tried to approach this with some lightness, but it is serious. AiP is my home on the web, but I?d like to share it with you. There?s an entire world out there to explore and examine through the ethnographic lens. Now if you?ll excuse me, there?s a posse I have to go join.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=d21a041f47d74df12f91ac76580d810b

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Dear Prudence: Vacation House of Horrors

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=b3c5e4615561e81f890b6b13bc55c49f

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Newt Cashes In On Victory (TIME)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/190273199?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Stem Cell Study May Show Advance

[unable to retrieve full-text content]A treatment for eye diseases derived from human embryonic stem cells might have improved the vision of two patients, bolstering the beleaguered field, researchers reported.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=a6fb96e0efb415a9c2f1dc26465ea137

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Stocks end mixed as Greece negotiates to cut debt (AP)

NEW YORK ? The S&P 500 index eked out a tiny gain Monday while traders kept an eye on talks in Europe to cut Greece's crushing debt load and prevent a global financial crisis. Other indexes ended slightly lower.

The S&P added 0.62 of a point to close at 1,316 on Monday. The broad market measure has now closed higher on 12 of 14 days this year.

European stocks and the euro rose after the continent's finance ministers put pressure on banks that hold Greek government bonds to accept new ones that are worth half as much and carry a lower interest rate.

The Greek stock market gained 5 percent, and indexes in Germany, France, Spain and Britain all advanced less than 1 percent. The euro rose more than a penny to $1.302, close to its highest level against the dollar this year.

Negotiators are trying to prevent a disorderly default by Greece in March. The worst-case scenarios include a credit crisis similar to what happened after the Lehman Brothers investment bank fell in 2008.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 11.66 points to 12,708.82. That's a loss of 0.1 percent.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 2.53 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,784.17.

Stocks are still off to a strong start in 2012. Investors' biggest fears have slowly faded. Stronger than expected job growth in the U.S. and falling borrowing costs for European governments have helped send the S&P 500 index up 4.6 percent for the year.

Maybe the biggest boon to markets this year is the lack of scary headlines, said Jeff Lancaster, a principal at the investment firm Bingham, Osborn & Scarborough.

"When everybody is feeling distressed, anxious and worried as they were at the end of last year, it doesn't take a lot of good news for the mood to change," he said. "It just takes a diminishing quantity of bad news."

Many energy stocks jumped along with prices for natural gas and crude oil. Chesapeake Energy Corp., the No. 2 producer of natural gas in the United States, gained 6 percent after it said it plans to cut production, a response to the recent slump in natural gas prices.

Natural gas futures rose 7.9 percent to $2.60 per 1,000 cubic feet. Gas futures were trading above $4 just six months ago.

Stocks of other gas producers shot higher. Southwestern Energy Co. jumped 10 percent, the biggest gain in the S&P 500. Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. was close behind, rising 6.5 percent.

Apache Corp., a producer of oil and gas, rose 1.6 percent after saying said it plans to buy Cordillera Energy Partners in a $2.85 billion deal. It's the largest merger announced in the U.S. this year.

The price of oil rose 1.3 percent to $99.58 per barrel. The European Union tightened sanctions against Iran by banning the purchase of Iranian oil. Iran threatened to block shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for one-sixth of the world's oil exports.

Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry, sank 8.5 percent after its new chief executive said no drastic changes are needed. The company's founders announced they were stepping down as co-CEOs late Sunday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/us_wall_street

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Rosenthal: They believed, Alex Smith delivered

49ers quarterback is 2 victories away from ultimate football glory after nearly being left for dead

Jed Jacobsohn / Getty Images

49ers quarterback Alex Smith runs in for a touchdown during his team's victory over the Saints in the divisional playoffs last Saturday.

updated 6:06 p.m. ET Jan. 20, 2012

Gregg Rosenthal

?We want Carr. We want Carr!?

It was the lowest moment of Alex Smith?s seven-year career in San Francisco, Oct. 12, 2010. The winless 49ers hosted the Eagles on Sunday Night Football, and the crowd was looking for blood.

After his fourth-quarter fumble, thunderous boos poured down on Smith. He was hearing it all game from the crowd, but this matched anything I?ve ever heard ? even in Philadelphia. The unmistakable chant that came with the booing was even more depressing.

?We want Carr. We want Carr!?

The home crowd wanted Smith benched in favor of backup quarterback David Carr. The fan base collectively waved the white flag. They were tired of their No. 1 overall pick bust and wanted to try another. It was only Week 5 of a rapidly devolving season.

Coach Mike Singletary tried to remove Smith from the game, but the quarterback barked back. He talked his way into staying in the contest. He wound up throwing for more than 300 yards with three touchdowns in a comeback attempt that fell just short, like so many other 49er games during Smith?s tenure.

The fans got their wish two weeks later when Carr replaced an injured Smith during a loss to the Panthers. Troy Smith wound up starting six games for the 2010 49ers. Alex Smith?s beleaguered run in San Francisco was all but over. If nothing else, that gave the fans something to smile about.

Between rare and extinct
David Carr tells us a lot about Alex Smith. Just like Smith, Carr was a No. 1 overall draft pick viewed as a franchise savior. Like Smith, Carr fell flat on his face.

Carr didn?t face the same injury struggles as Smith. Carr didn?t have two head coaches question his toughness. But after five years in Houston, Carr was beat up mentally and physically. When Carr hit free agency, he wanted to take a break.? He wanted out.

"I need to take a deep breath and be around a good environment and just start enjoying the game again,'' Carr said in 2007. ?I wanted to be on a team that was fun and exciting and whether I had a chance to play right away, it didn't matter to me.''

Smith had his chance to take a deep breath last offseason. His family wanted him to leave San Francisco, toasting to new beginnings after this season. Smith didn?t want to go anywhere.

That desire to finish what he started won over new 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh.

"I wanted to get to know him. I had never met him," Harbaugh said last week of his first meeting with Smith in January 2011. "I was just kind of looking in through the keyhole. But I guess the things that I wanted to know, if you boiled it down to one thing, was, did he want to start? Did he want be in the fire? Or did he want to wear the ball cap backward and backup somewhere??

Harbaugh was asking if Alex Smith wanted to be David Carr. (Or Vince Young. Or Matt Leinart. Or JaMarcus Russell.)

"I really felt that he had the competitive drive, the (desire) to prove himself, him wanting to do it here. That's the thing that probably intrigued me the most. That character of wanting to come back and do it here in San Francisco, which is pretty rare ? probably somewhere between rare and extinct. That's not just for football players. That's about anybody. ... And I thought we could really work with that character. To me that was special."

Smith?s seven fourth-quarter comeback victories this season are special. His league-leading interception percentage says a lot. But the most impressive part of Smith?s season is that he?s there at all. He survived.

The things Alex carries
Alex Smith carries his six seasons through the professional football meat grinder everywhere he goes. He carries the old playbooks; the losses; the chants; the manipulative coaches; the shoulder surgeries.

Smith has gone through this 14-3 season hesitant to look back. It?s as if he doesn?t want to jinx what?s happening.

Seven offensive coordinators
Smith?s first offensive coordinator was Mike McCarthy, who pushed the team to draft Smith over Aaron Rodgers with the No. 1 pick in 2005.

One touchdown, 11 interceptions by Smith later, McCarthy scored the Packers' head coaching job before his coaching stock sunk any further.

Norv Turner came next and guided Smith to a promising second season. Smith appeared to have turned a corner. It?s a reminder what good teaching can mean for a young quarterback.? Smith wouldn?t learn that lesson again until 2011.? Turner left after ?06 for the Chargers head coaching job.

Jim Hostler, Mike Martz, Jimmy Raye, and Mike Johnson followed Turner to disappointing results. Each man had a new idea of how an NFL offense should look and how Smith fit into their system. Some liked Smith more than others. Every spring meant a new playbook.

Smith?s seventh coordinator was the charm. Jim Harbaugh knows the quarterback position as well as any head coach, but he also brought in a terrific staff to help him. It?s one of the most underrated skills a head coach can have. Can he choose the right men to assist him?

Offensive coordinator Greg Roman and quarterbacks coach Geep Chryst have both done a fabulous job with Smith. It was Chryst who took over the play-calling late in the divisional round win over the Saints. Along with Harbaugh, the three men collaborate on one of the smartest offensive attacks in the league.

They create big-play opportunities without taking much risk. They accentuate what Smith does well and limit his weaknesses being exposed. They put Smith in position to succeed. That?s coaching.

2 misguided head coaches
Alex Smith?s rookie season was Mike Nolan?s rookie season as a head coach. Both men looked comfortable in their new role.

Nolan ran the 49ers through fear. He often seemed unnecessarily paranoid and played misguided mental games. When Smith?s shoulder was hurt in 2007, Nolan implied publicly that Smith wasn?t fighting through the injury. Nolan came out told the 49ers team behind closed doors that Smith was using his shoulder injury as an excuse for poor play. Smith fought back by speaking out.

?I felt it was trying to undermine me with my teammates,? Smith said back then.

Smith had shoulder surgery after the season.

The next 49ers head coach was a defensive-minded motivational speaker: Mike Singletary. Singletary said multiple times he didn?t think quarterback was the most important position on the field. He once called Smith ?meek.? After Singletary was fired, he was asked what he learned from the experience.

"You gotta have a quarterback," Singletary said.

These were the men in charge. They never believed in Smith.

Harbaugh saw something different in that first meeting with Smith. Most importantly, he saw a quietly improved player on film. Harbaugh?s effusive and immediate praise of Smith almost seemed comical. (He once said Smith had ?armadillo skin .?)

Smith, a free agent, publicly expressed doubt he?d return to San Francisco before Harbaugh started recruiting Smith with regular meetings. No one in San Francisco knew what to make of it. Why would the new hot shot coach stick out his neck for Smith?

?I?ve been studying Alex Smith and watching him and I believe that Alex Smith can be a winning quarterback in the National Football League,? Harbaugh said. ?Very accurate passer. Very athletic. And a guy that has played and been durable.?

This was January 2011. Harbaugh embraced the quarterback no one wanted. The message hasn?t changed since. The love affair has only grown.

The teammates
Smith was benched for the following quarterbacks during his 49ers career: Tim Rattay, Ken Dorsey, Trent Dilfer, Shaun Hill, J.T. O?Sullivan, and Troy Smith.

Guys like Carr and Cody Pickett replaced Smith when he was hurt. Only Hill went on to a modicum of success after leaving San Francisco.

The following wide receivers have started games during Smith?s tenure in San Francisco: ?Brandon Lloyd, Arnaz Battle, Johnnie Morton, Kevin McAddley, Antonio Bryant, Bryan Gilmore, Darrell Jackson, Ashley Lelie, Isaac Bruce, Bryant Johnson, Jason Hill, Josh Morgan, Michael Crabtree, Braylon Edwards, Ted Ginn, Kyle Williams, and Brett Swain.

Change was the only constant in San Francisco?s passing attack. Personnel objectives changed annually with the rotating offensive systems. Players past their prime were brought in like Morton, Jackson, and Bruce. Failed draft picks from other teams were given a second chance like Lelie, Johnson, Edwards, and Ginn. Very little stuck.

Even today, San Francisco?s wide receivers struggle to beat man coverage. It?s a concern this week going against a Giants defense that can get pressure with their front four and played great man coverage last week in Green Bay.

Harbaugh knows all this. He built an offense around the run game, his tight ends, and carefully orchestrated ?shot plays? the wideouts wouldn?t have to win consistently on the outside. He relied on Smith?s accuracy and decision making.

When Harbaugh has asked Smith and his receivers to carry the offense ? against the Giants and Saints ? they have found a way.

Bad habits
Smith deserves his share of blame for struggling until Harbaugh came along. He doesn?t have the big arm you?d expect of a top pick. He?s smart but has struggled to translate those smarts into instinct. He was deliberate making decisions.

Going back through five years of my game notes, the same word came up repeatedly describing Smith: tentative. He took the safe play. He didn?t have enough confidence in himself, his receivers, or perhaps his offense to make the difficult throw.

That slowly started to change this year. The 49ers are not an aggressive passing team, but Smith has played his best with the game on the line.

Back-to-back fourth-quarter comeback wins in Cincinnati and Philadelphia kick-started things. Smith threw a fourth-and-goal game-winner to Delanie Walker in Detroit. An insane 41-yard toss to Michael Crabtree set up the game-winning field goal in Seattle.

In most of those games, the 49ers still coached around Smith. Their wins were more about the defense, running game and short, safe passes. Last Saturday against the Saints, the 49ers coaching staff gave the keys to Smith.

"The winning touchdown to Vernon Davis ... and I'm taking nothing away from Vernon Davis's catch ... the throw made that play, not the catch," NFL Films guru Greg Cosell said on KNBR this week. ?He threw that ball before Davis even got past the underneath linebacker.?

The 49ers could have played for the tie, but they went for the win because of the confidence they had in Smith. It was the type of instinctive, anticipatory, gutsy throw we haven?t seen from Smith. Smith is starting to mix in aggression with his smarts. That could be a championship combination.

The other side
Alex Smith is Mark Sanchez if Sanchez went through another three years like the one he just had.

Smith took all the abuse we could hurl at him and emerged on the other side. He will never be Joe Montana, but that?s not the point. He?s here. He is one game away from playing in the Super Bowl. After what Smith has been through, he deserves to enjoy this moment.

Perhaps Smith will take a deep breath during the national anthem on Sunday and allow himself a peak at the opposing sideline. Giants backup quarterback David Carr will be standing there, representing the road more traveled.

When the anthem ends, Carr will reach to put on his backward hat. Smith will grab his helmet.

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Patriots prevail vs. Ravens

??Tom Brady's 1-yard touchdown run helped N.E. beat Baltimore in Sunday's AFC Championship game, 23-20, and earn them a trip to their seventh Super Bowl.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46067758/ns/sports-nfl/

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Nanmaterial detects and removes arsenic from drinking water

ScienceDaily (Jan. 21, 2012) ? Prof. Dr. Sherif A. El-Safty, a Principal Researcher of the Materials Recycling Design Group, Research Center for Strategic Materials, National Institute for Materials Science developed a nanomaterial which enables simple detection and removal of arsenic from drinking water.

This nanomaterial responds to warnings that as many as 60 million people live in contaminated areas in Southeast Asia without safe drinking water.

The nanomaterial is a further developed for heavy metal ion sensors for lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), etc. and adsorbent materials, which Dr. El-Safty developed previously for a rare metal adsorption/recovery materials such as cobalt (Co), palladium (Pd), etc. and radioactive element adsorbents for cesium (Cs), strontium (Sr), etc. As a Principal Researcher whom he originally livid at the Middle East, where a clean water is particularly precious, Dr. El-Safty devoted himself to the development of this material in order to save the world's drinking water.

Groundwater in Asia, South America, and Africa is now widely contaminated with arsenic. Arsenic contamination of the drinking water for 35 million people in Bangladesh is especially well-known. Long-term ingestion of this water causes serious disorders of the skin, nervous system, and cardiovascular system, and can also cause health problems in the form of frequent development of cancers. Although the United Nations and the governments of individual nations have taken countermeasures over many years, it was difficult to develop an arsenic removal method that is inexpensive, simple, and easy to use in treatment of everyday drinking water.

In the developed technology, the inner walls of nanoporous substances, namely a high order mesoporous (HOM) structures, are densely packed with a functional group which is sensitive and selective for capturing arsenic. When even a trace amount of arsenic is present in water, these nanomaterial captors can quickly adsorbed and removed arsenic. As a distinctive feature, the detection/removal of arsenic can easily be confirmed because the color of the nanomaterial captors changes in the adsorption stage with the same frequency of human eyes, showing the user that the removal has occurred.

As one particular advantage of this technology, the potential use is not limited to large-volume water treatment plants. Because its features include high sensitivity, low cost, visualization of results, light weight, and high speed, it can also be used easily by individual persons. As a result, the threat of arsenic can be greatly reduced when the development of new water sources in the developing countries and elsewhere is achieved. Efforts will be made to popularize this new device in many urgent regions, as a technology that can secure the safe water on an everyday basis.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/BEC-GIEnPDU/120121160443.htm

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Romney tries to change the subject from his taxes (AP)

GILBERT, S.C. ? Working to fend off a surging Newt Gingrich in what's become an unexpectedly tight race, presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Friday tried to change the subject from his unreleased tax returns to the ethics investigation Gingrich faced 15 years ago.

Romney's campaign appeared visibly rattled the day before the South Carolina primary, his standing in polls having tumbled after a week of constant attack ads and self-made problems. The former Massachusetts governor faced a potentially difficult day Saturday, and senior aides acknowledged they wouldn't be surprised if he lost the primary.

Romney came to South Carolina after twin victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, only to see his Iowa victory thrown into question because of problems with the count. He's spent a week trying to answer questions about his personal wealth and when he will release his tax returns.

Gingrich's House reprimand in 1997 presented an opportunity to talk about something else. When asked if Gingrich should release the Ethics Committee report that resulted in the first such action against a House speaker, Romney replied, "Of course he should."

"Nancy Pelosi has the full record of that ethics investigation," he said. "You know it's going to get out ahead of the general election."

In fact, the 1,280-page committee report on Gingrich is already public. Campaign officials said Romney was referring to other documents that Gingrich has referenced and that Pelosi has also mentioned.

"Given Speaker Gingrich's newfound interest in disclosure and transparency, and his concern about an `October surprise,' he should authorize the release of the complete record of the ethics proceedings against him," Romney spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said.

Romney's campaign is calling South Carolina voters with a recording attacking Gingrich's ethics record and calling on him to release any documents related to the inquiry.

In December, Pelosi told Talking Points Memo that she had served on the committee that conducted the investigation and implied that more information about the investigation could come to light. At the time Gingrich said the House should retaliate against Pelosi if she released any additional information.

"We turned over 1 million pages of material," Gingrich said then. "We had a huge report."

Gingrich's campaign said Romney's criticism represented a "panic attack" on the part of his campaign.

Romney on Friday said again that he wouldn't release his tax returns until April, which would probably be after Republicans choose their nominee.

"I realize that I had a lot of ground to make up and Speaker Gingrich is from a neighboring state, well-known, popular in the state," Romney said as he campaigned in Gilbert. "Frankly, to be in a neck-and-neck race at this last moment is kind of exciting."

Romney's campaign has rolled out endorsement after endorsement this week as he has tried to build a case that he is the most electable nominee. Ohio Sen. Rob Portman joined him on Thursday and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell campaigned with him Friday.

McDonnell said Friday he had been in touch with Romney's campaign for several weeks as they discussed the timing for the endorsement ? and decided it was most needed now, even as Romney looks ahead to a long campaign.

"It's the first Southern primary. I'm a Southern governor. I thought I could help," McDonnell said.

But the campaign's attack message has jumped from rival to rival and topic to topic as Romney's fought to stay afloat here.

At the beginning of the week, Romney was attacking rival Rick Santorum over voting rights for felons. Then he went after Gingrich's claims that he created jobs under President Ronald Reagan, saying Gingrich was living in "fantasyland." Meanwhile, his surrogates held a series of conference calls attacking his rivals, first calling Gingrich an unreliable leader and then pivoting to attack his ethics record.

In Thursday night's GOP debate, Romney continued his string of off-message remarks about his wealth, saying he has lived "in the real streets of America." A multimillionaire, he has three homes, one each in Massachusetts, California and New Hampshire.

Romney held three campaign events Friday in his last-ditch push to stem Gingrich's momentum. After stopping in Gilbert, he held a rally in North Charleston and flew to Greenville in the conservative upstate for a nighttime rally and a stop at his campaign headquarters before an evening event in Columbia, the state capital.

On a plane between events Friday night, Romney was outwardly cheerful in spite of a difficult day ahead, gamely bantering with reporters as he served pastries from Panera Bread.

"Pain au chocolat, smart move!" he said to one, proferring the box and a pair of tongs to take the desserts.

As he moved farther back into the plane, though, he dispensed with the tongs.

"Just use your fingers," he said. "To heck with it!"

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney

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Microsoft Sells More Windows 7 than Every Mac, iOS, and Android Device Combined [Factoid]

If it doesn't have "8" or "Phone" after it, nobody thinks or cares about Windows anymore. But let's not forget that Microsoft is still selling a gargantuan tower of operating systems every second—and it matches everything else combined. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/fzbDfjvy_S0/microsoft-sells-more-windows-7-than-every-mac-ios-and-android-device-combined

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