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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
China says 29 abducted in Sudan still being held (AP)
BEIJING ? None of the 29 Chinese workers abducted after an attack in a volatile region of Sudan have been freed, Chinese state media said Tuesday, dismissing reports that some of the workers had been released.
The workers were abducted Saturday by militants in a remote region in the country's south. Sudanese state media reported Monday that 14 of them had been freed, but the official Xinhua News Agency and China Daily newspaper said all 29 were still being held.
China has close political and economic relations with Sudan, especially in the energy sector.
The Chinese ambassador to Sudan, Luo Xiaoguang, told China Central Television in an interview in Khartoum that anti-government rebels attacked the road project the Chinese were working on.
"There are still Chinese workers missing. Some others are still being held by the anti-government armed forces," Luo said.
Xinhua said 47 Chinese workers were caught in the attack in the South Kordofan region of Sudan. It said 29 were captured and the other 18 fled, and that one of those who fled remains missing.
The Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that a working group had been sent to Sudan to assist in the rescue work.
"China calls upon relevant parties to maintain calm and exercise restraint, to ensure the safety of Chinese personnel, and from a humanitarian point of view, to the release of Chinese personnel as soon as possible," the statement said.
A statement from the workers' company, Sinohydro Corp., said that it and the Chinese Embassy would "spare no effort in ensuring the personal safety of those abducted and rescuing them."
On Monday, Sudan's state-run SUNA news agency quoted South Kordofan provincial governor Ahmed Haroun as saying that 14 workers had been released.
SUNA said the attack took place near Abbasiya town, 390 miles (630 kilometers) south of Khartoum.
Sudanese officials have blamed the attack on the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North, a branch of a guerrilla movement that has fought various regimes in Khartoum for decades. Its members hail from a minority ethnic group now in control of much of South Sudan, which became the world's newest country only six months ago in a breakaway from Sudan.
Sudan has accused South Sudan of arming pro-South Sudan groups in South Kordofan. The government of South Sudan says the accusations are a smoke screen intended to justify a future invasion of the South.
China has sent large numbers of workers to potentially unstable regions such as Sudan. Last year it was forced to send ships and planes to help with the emergency evacuation of 30,000 of its citizens from the fighting in Libya.
China has used its diplomatic clout to defend Sudan and its longtime leader, Omar al-Bashir. Recently, it has also sought to build good relations with leaders from the south.
South Sudan and Sudan are in bitter dispute over oil, which is produced primarily in South Sudan but runs through Sudanese pipelines for export.
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Monday, January 30, 2012
U.S. Embassy shelters Americans amid Egypt NGO crackdown (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Several American citizens have taken refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Cairo amid a sharpening dispute between Washington and Egypt over U.S.-funded pro-democracy groups in the country, the State Department said on Monday.
"We can confirm that a handful of U.S. citizens have opted to stay in the embassy compound in Cairo while waiting for permission to depart Egypt," State Department spokeswoman Kate Starr said.
The unusual step of offering ordinary U.S. citizens diplomatic refuge follows a crackdown by Egypt's military-led government on non-governmental organizations, including several funded by the U.S. government, which saw travel bans imposed on six American staffers including a son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
Egyptian police raided the groups in late December as part of an investigation into foreign funding of 17 pro-democracy and human rights groups, part of what civil society groups say has been a broader crackdown on critics of the army's heavy-handed tactics in dealing with street unrest.
Washington has strongly criticized the move, which has cast a pall over U.S.-Egyptian relations as the most populous Arab nation reaches a critical stage in its uncertain transition away from authoritarian rule.
"We have made clear our concerns about this issue and our disappointment that these several citizens are not being allowed to depart Egypt," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Monday.
Leading U.S. lawmakers have also voiced outrage over the incident, and American officials have repeatedly warned that Washington may have to take a fresh look at U.S. aid to Egypt's military, which runs about $1.3 billion per year.
The six U.S. citizens hit with travel bans work with the National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute. Both receive U.S. public funding and are loosely affiliated with the two major U.S. political parties.
The State Department did not provide details on the Americans sheltering in the embassy, although officials at the National Democratic Institute said none of their staff had been relocated. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry declined to comment.
Another State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, described the refuge offer as "a unique situation" and dismissed suggestions that the aim was to shield the U.S. citizens from potential arrest.
"There is no expectation that any of these individuals are seeking to avoid any kind of judicial process," Nuland said.
"We do not feel that they are in physical danger at the moment. That is a different matter than whether they are being persecuted in the Egyptian judicial system," Nuland added.
MILITARY DELEGATION
An Egyptian military delegation is expected in Washington this week for regular talks that are expected to focus on the impasse over the NGOs, U.S. officials said.
Nuland, while stressing that the visit had been planned before the NGO dispute erupted, said the Egyptians could expect firm words during their U.S. meetings.
"We have concerns about the fact that we have not been able to resolve this situation. That is the message that we are giving the Egyptian government in the strongest terms," she said.
The delegation, made up of four major generals, was expected in Washington on Tuesday, diplomatic sources said.
President Barack Obama spoke with the head of Egypt's ruling military council, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, on January 20. He stressed the importance of the NGOs and discussed Egypt's request for $3.2 billion from the International Monetary Fund.
In a weekend call to Tantawi, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta urged the Egyptians to lift the travel ban and expressed concern over restrictions placed on NGOs, the Pentagon said.
The Obama administration is finalizing its budget for the 2013 fiscal year, which will be presented on February 13 and is expected to include continued assistance for Egypt's military, albeit subject to new conditions imposed by U.S. lawmakers.
Those include evidence that Egyptian military authorities are committed to holding free and fair elections and protecting freedom of expression, association, and religion.
(Additional reporting by Missy Ryan and Laura MacInnis; editing by Doina Chiacu and Mohammad Zargham)
Hollywood actors' guilds move closer to merger (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES, Jan 29 (TheWrap.com) ? The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists' national board approved a merger proposal with the Screen Actors Guild on Saturday.
The proposal passed with 94% of the panel voting for approval, which followed approval by SAG's national board on Friday night.
The approval by both national boards will be followed by a referendum on the merger measure to be approved by the full membership of each guild. The referendum for AFTRA wil be mailed to AFTRA members on or about February 27, 2012, with a ballot return and tabulation deadline of March 30, 2012.
"I applaud the AFTRA National Board for their overwhelming approval of this historic merger package," said AFTRA National President Roberta Reardon. "The partnership we formed on the G1 was one of collegiality and consensus that went into laying the foundation for a new union. This plan embodies the thoughtful work and valuable perspectives from large and small markets across the nation of many working actors, broadcast professionals, recording artists and other performers."
Last year, AFTRA's New Union Committee and SAG's Merger Task Force formed a joint committee called the "G1," or Group for One Union. That committee broke into study groups, which examined governance and structure, finance and dues, collective bargaining, pension, health and retirement, operations and staff and member education and outreach.
The G1 spent nine days this month working on its recommendations for a merger.
The Screen Actors Guild vote on Friday was approved 87.1% to 12.9%.
Screen Actors Guild National President Ken Howard released the following statement regarding the AFTRA National Board vote on the proposed merger with Screen Actors Guild:
"This is a terrific outcome and I offer my sincere thanks and congratulations to AFTRA's National Board and National President Roberta Reardon. Professional performers are now an important step closer to the strongest union representation possible. Just as our boards have, I believe our members will decisively approve this merger and that SAG-AFTRA will be a leader in shaping the entertainment and media industries."
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The fight for Cuban-Americans is on in Florida (AP)
HIALEAH, Fla. ? If Mitt Romney wins Tuesday's primary, a sliver of the GOP electorate in Florida may be one of the big reasons.
Cuban-Americans are deeply committed voters who can have an impact in competitive races, and Romney has strong support among the influential Cuban-American establishment. Older exiles also tend to vote heavily through absentee ballots, where the former Massachusetts governor all but certainly has an edge. And the candidate's emphasis on fixing the economy is resonating with backers like Jesus Ovidez, who cares more about jobs than he does U.S. policy toward Cuba.
"When we are in a better position here, then we can worry about over there. But first you have to put your own house in order," said Ovidez, who spent months in a forced labor camp before fleeing the island in the late 1960s.
Ovidez has been a co-owner of Chico Restaurant in the heavily Cuban-American community of Hialeah north of Miami for more than 30 years. He gestured around to the mostly empty chairs during one recent lunch hour and talked about how Romney's emphasis on the economy was one of the main reasons he already has cast his vote for the former businessman.
"There's no money. People don't go out to eat any more," said Ovidez. Maybe, he said, Romney can help change that. Plus, Ovidez argued, Romney is the only Republican who can beat President Barack Obama, saying: "He's an individual who is a millionaire, and with money you win elections."
During the past week, a series of polls have shown Romney pulling ahead of chief challenger Newt Gingrich in the run up to Tuesday's primary.
Overall, roughly 11.1 percent of registered Republicans in Florida are Hispanic. And of all Hispanic voters in the state, 32.1 percent are Cuban, 28.4 percent are Puerto Rican and 25 percent come mostly from Central and South America., according to the Pew Hispanic Center, which cites the Florida Division of Elections.
Ana Carbonell, a longtime political operative now working for Romney, estimates that 14 percent of the GOP primary vote comes from Miami-Dade County and, of that, 75 percent is Cuban-American.
Generally, Cuban-American voters have the highest turnout rates. In 2008, they helped John McCain win the primary over Romney, who lost heavily in Miami-Dade County, where this voting group is most concentrated.
Cuban-American voters are particularly reliable in the primary in part because so many of the older exiles vote early through absentee ballots, and Romney's campaign ? with the significant help from local Cuban-American political leaders ? has led all other campaigns in encouraging Floridians to vote before Tuesday. He or his allies have been on the TV airwaves since December targeting early voters. And in recent days, they have flooded Spanish-radio and TV with ads attacking Gingrich.
Romney's strength among the old-guard Cuban-Americans was evident last week when he received a standing ovation before he even spoke to more than 400 exile political and civic leaders. They packed the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami, where thousands fleeing Fidel Castro's revolution first received health care and were processed by immigration officers in the 1960s. Romney was flanked by prominent Cuban-American politicians, including former Sen. Mel Martinez and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the first Hispanic elected to Congress.
While Romney highlighted his business background and spoke on the economy, he also tapped into the pride many Cuban-Americans still feel toward the island nation and their angst over its leaders.
"If I'm fortunate enough to become the next president, it is my expectation that Fidel Castro will finally be taken off this planet," Romney told the crowd to wild applause. Castro, 85, has been ill since 2006, when he handed over power to his brother, Raul. "We have to be prepared, in the next president's first or second term, it is time to strike for freedom in Cuba."
Arguably the state's most popular Cuban-American politician, Sen. Marco Rubio, has withheld an endorsement during the primary but came to Romney's defense in the past week, criticizing Gingrich over an ad that labeled Romney anti-immigrant.
Gingrich, for his part, has called for a U.S.-supported "Cuban spring" uprising against the long-standing communist regime.
If elected, he told a crowd of Hispanic business and civic leaders Friday, he would bring to bear "the moral force of an American president who is serious about intending to free the people of Cuba, and willingness to intimidate those who are the oppressors and say to them, `You will be held accountable.'"
Gingrich has talked of covert action to overthrow the government of Raul Castro, though he insisted such efforts would not include violence.
And he signed a pledge to roll back the ability of Cubans to visit and send money to relatives on the island to the strict limits Bush imposed in 2004. Such promises play well in the older exile community, many of whose homes were confiscated during the Cuban revolution and are far less likely than newer Cuban immigrants have close family there.
Gingrich also aired a Spanish-language radio ad in South Florida, reminding voters of Romney's 2007 presidential campaign gaffe, in which he proudly declared in Little Havana, "Patria or muerte, venceremos!" (Fatherland or death, we shall overcome) ? not realizing the line was a slogan of Fidel Castro.
All that has helped sway retired insurance agent and Cuban exile Bernardo Diaz.
Last week, he declared his vote for Romney.
"I don't want Obama, and he's the only one who can win," Diaz said, as he puffed on a cigarette outside the famed Versailles Restaurant in Miami's Little Havana.
Days later, he had changed his mind, saying: "I'm leaning toward Gingrich. Gingrich seems more energetic, stronger on Cuba."
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Washington state marijuana legalization headed for ballot (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Supporters of legalizing marijuana for recreational use have submitted enough signatures to put the matter to voters in Washington state in a bold move that, if successful, could put Olympia on a collision course with the federal government.
The group New Approach Washington submitted nearly 278,000 valid signatures for the measure, more than required to put it on the November ballot, David Ammons, a spokesman for the Washington Secretary of State's office, said in a statement.
The move comes as federal prosecutors have sought to crank up pressure on several mostly western states, including Washington, that have legalized medical marijuana even as cannibis remains classified as an illegal narcotic under federal law.
The proposal, if approved by voters, would allow marijuana sales to people 21 and older, permit state taxes to be collected on the drug, ban pot advertising and prohibit driving under the influence of cannabis.
Supporters of legalizing marijuana, who include acting Seattle city attorney Peter Holmes, say the federal prohibition on the drug has not curbed use and that it enriches drug cartels.
"This is the grown-up approach to regulating a relatively harmless drug," Holmes said.
Opponents of legalization say it would lead to more abuse of the drug, including by young people, and that underground sales would continue.
"There will always be a black market. That's been proven with cigarettes with the tobacco industry," said Calvina Fay, head of the Florida-based Drug Free America Foundation. "Even though tobacco is legal and it's regulated, there's still a huge global black market."
Washington is one of 16 states that, along with the nation's capital, have decriminalized medical marijuana. But federal agents have raided medical marijuana dispensaries in several states, including Washington, in recent months.
Under state law, the recreational legalization initiative next heads to the Washington State Legislature, which has the option of avoiding a popular vote by itself enacting the proposal to legalize marijuana, Ammons said.
The legislature could also allow the measure to go to the ballot alongside an alternative from lawmakers, Ammons said.
Alison Holcomb, campaign director of New Approach Washington, has said she did not expect the legislature would enact the proposal on its own, but would leave the issue for voters to decide.
In 2010, a measure to legalize marijuana in California lost at the ballot box when less than 47 percent of voters approved it.
No modern, affluent nation has ever legalized commercial production and distribution of marijuana, according to research organization RAND Corp.
In the Netherlands, famous for its Amsterdam cafes where guests buy and smoke marijuana, authorities allow adults to buy the drug but the country officially has a policy that commercial production of it is illegal, said Beau Kilmer, co-director of the RAND Drug Policy Research Center.
(Reporting By Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)
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Video: TODAY?s Home: Fix it or ditch it?
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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/46173952#46173952
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Feisty Gingrich stakes campaign on electability
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks in Delray Beach, Fla., Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks in Delray Beach, Fla., Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, campaigns at Lanco Paint Company in Orlando, Fla., Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. Romney and Gingrich square off over immigration and other issues as they look to woo Hispanics a day after a feisty, final debate before Tuesday?s Florida primary. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) ? Newt Gingrich has staked his presidential bid on one idea: that he is best positioned to defeat President Barack Obama. Even some of his supporters seem to be struggling to buy the former House speaker's claim, an indication that chief rival Mitt Romney's efforts to undercut him may be working.
"Beating Obama is more important than everything else," Patrick Roehl, a 51-year-old computer software engineer, said in the midst of a packed Gingrich rally inside a Sarasota airport hangar this week. "Can Newt win? I'm not sure. He's got a lot of high negatives. The elections are won and lost in the middle. I'm not sure he appeals to the middle."
John Grainger, a 44-year-old assistant golf pro, doesn't like Romney. But he's having trouble shaking skepticism about Gingrich.
"I want to be a Newt supporter," he said. "This guy's going to have the guts to stand up and speak his piece ? no holds barred." But Grainger said he wasn't quite ready to back the former House speaker.
Interviews with more than a dozen Republican voters at Gingrich's overflowing rallies this week suggest that while many Florida voters love his brash style as they look for someone to take it to Obama, they also have lingering doubts about whether the Republican's intellectual bomb-throwing alone will make him the strongest Obama opponent.
Romney and his allies have spent a week working to stoke those doubts with Florida Republicans ahead of Tuesday's primary. And the GOP's establishment wing has started to help the former Massachusetts governor make that case by castigating Gingrich at every turn.
On television and on the campaign trail, Romney and his allies have steadily highlighted Gingrich's liabilities ? consulting contracts and ethics investigations among them. And they've suggested that more baggage could emerge in the fall, when the Republican nominee would be at the height of a general election battle against Obama.
"In the case of the speaker, he's got some records which could represent an October surprise," Romney said this week, referring to Gingrich's consulting work and ethics allegations when he was in the House. "We could see an October surprise a day from Newt Gingrich."
An outside group dedicated to helping Romney has spent almost $9 million on Florida television advertising, including a massive $4 million investment this week alone, to make the case even more explicitly.
"Newt Gingrich's tough talk sounds good, but Newt has tons of baggage. How will he ever beat Obama?" says the new ad from the so-called super PAC, Restore Our Future.
Gingrich, to be sure, is not letting such criticism go unanswered. He's telling everyone ? on the trail, in television interviews, on conference calls and in fundraising messages ? that he alone can defeat Obama. He points to his 12 percentage point victory in the South Carolina primary as proof.
Exit polling there showed that the majority of Republican voters, 51 percent, said that Gingrich was better suited to defeat the Democratic president.
"Their highest value was beating Obama," Gingrich told evangelical voters this week. "And if they thought Romney was the only person who could beat Obama, then they would swallow a lie. But the minute they thought there were two people who could beat Obama, they suddenly turned and said, Well, you know, maybe we should be for Newt."
Polls suggest that Gingrich could defeat Romney in Florida, a surge fueled partly by growing support from the tea party movement and continued anti-Romney sentiment. Gingrich drew massive crowds at venues across Florida this week.
But in those swelling crowds were conservatives who said they were drawn less by Gingrich's electability than his fiery rhetoric.
"He's a fighter. Mitt, I think, is too wishy-washy," said Dominique Boscia, a 43-year-old unemployed woman from Lakewood Ranch. "I like feisty people. I like people who have spunk."
That's certainly Gingrich. For months, he has used aggressive debate performances to fuel his underdog candidacy. He has consistently thrilled conservatives by promising to take the fight directly to Obama in a series of free-form debates modeled after the 1860 meetings between Illinois Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas.
Should Obama refuse, Gingrich says he'll follow the president on the campaign trail until he agrees.
That gets good applause lines at rallies. But a closer look at polling suggests that a debate beat down doesn't necessarily mean Gingrich can beat the president in an election that will include independents and Democrats.
Gingrich struggled among independents in a recent Washington Post-ABC News national poll, in which 53 percent gave him unfavorable marks and just 22 percent had a favorable opinion of the former House speaker. While Romney has typically polled better among independents, the poll ? conducted between Jan. 18 and 22 ? found virtually no difference: 51 percent of independents viewed him unfavorably, compared with 23 with favorable views.
But when all Florida voters, including independents and Democrats, are asked to weigh in, Romney appears to have a strong advantage over Gingrich, according to a poll conducted by Suffolk University-WSVN-TV Miami. Romney would defeat Obama here 47 percent to 42 percent; Gingrich would lose, earning just 40 percent to Obama's 49 percent of likely Florida general election voters.
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Friday, January 27, 2012
AP Interview: Chris Isaak makes Memphis album
U.S musician Chris Isaak plays on his guitar during an interview with Associated Press Television in a west London hotel, to promote the launch of his new album "Beyond The Sun", Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)
U.S musician Chris Isaak plays on his guitar during an interview with Associated Press Television in a west London hotel, to promote the launch of his new album "Beyond The Sun", Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)
U.S musician Chris Isaak plays on his guitar during an interview with Associated Press Television in a west London hotel, to promote the launch of his new album "Beyond The Sun", Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)
U.S musician Chris Isaak plays on his guitar during an interview with Associated Press Television in a west London hotel, to promote the launch of his new album "Beyond The Sun", Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)
U.S musician Chris Isaak plays on his guitar during an interview with Associated Press Television in a west London hotel, to promote the launch of his new album "Beyond The Sun", Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)
LONDON (AP) ? Chris Isaak is returning to the roots of rock 'n' roll and doing it old-school: All in one take.
The U.S. soul singer headed back to the original Sun Studios in Memphis to record a collection that includes cover versions of hits by Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. The album, "Beyond the Sun," was released this week and Isaak will soon embark on a string of U.S. concert dates.
The 56-year-old, well known for his mesmerizing vocals on the now-classic 1989 hit "Wicked Game," says the decision to make the new album was easy.
"I just went 'I'll sing a bunch of those songs I like singing. I got a band, I'll just call them up and tell them to come over,'" he told the Associated Press in an interview in London.
To make it truly authentic, Isaak and his band recorded with no headphones, no separate takes, just everyone listening to each other and going with the flow.
"It scared the hell out of the band because they go, you know, 'If I screw up the guitar solo then everybody is going to look at me,'" Isaak said.
Sun Studios, the record label owned by Sam Phillips, launched the careers of some of the greatest U.S. singer/songwriters ? including Elvis, Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison.
Influenced by those big names while growing up as a child in California, Isaak delivers his interpretations of "Ring of Fire," ''Great Balls of Fire," ''Can't Help Falling In Love," ''Oh, Pretty Woman," while also penning his own original songs.
The first single to be released is one of Isaak's own, "Live It Up."
Fortunately for the band, the old-school approach to recording meant they ended up producing more songs than they had bargained for. Even Isaak's manager was surprised at the speed of production.
"She goes '38 songs? You finished 38 songs?' I said 'Yeah.' She said 'Well, you have to mix all those, that's going to cost a fortune.' I said 'No, they're all done. We just did it all at one time in a room.'"
The singer says he's never missed a show and neither has his drummer Kenney Dale Johnson or his bass player Rowland Salley in the 27 years they've been playing together.
"I'm very proud of them," he said.
Before forging a career in music, Isaak tried his hand at many different occupations: roofing, truck-driving, being a bouncer and even a boxer. He claims he was "lousy" at all of them, it was only with music that he finally found a job he can do well.
"Singing is something that I'm always happy to do it and going in the studio I never felt any pressure. I just feel like I get to sing, you know. It's fun," he said.
While many musicians decry the strain of touring, Isaak says he's lucky to be able to travel the world doing what he loves.
"I come from a small town and I come from a background where we didn't have money to travel," he said. "I thought I'd have to join the military to get to Europe. So I'm thrilled to travel."
U.S. fans will get a chance to see Isaak in action starting in Austin, Texas, on Feb. 13 and ending in Napa, California, on April 27.
But, despite the stereotypes about rockers, don't expect him to be raising hell on tour.
"I liked the rock n' roll, I never wanted the drugs and I never saw the sex because ...nobody ever suggested anything wild to me!" he said. "I think I look too much like a cop."
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Self as Symbol
This essay is part of Demystifying the Mind, a special report on the new science of consciousness. The next installments will appear in the February 25 and March 10 issues of Science News.
When Francis Crick decided to embark on a scientific research career, he chose his specialty by applying the ?gossip test.? He?d noticed that he liked to gossip about two especially hot topics in the 1940s ? the molecular basis for heredity and the mysteries of the brain. He decided to tackle biology?s molecules first. By 1953, with collaborator James Watson (and aided by data from competitor Rosalind Franklin), Crick had identified the structure of the DNA molecule, establishing the foundation for modern genetics.
A quarter century later, he decided it was time to try the path not taken and turn his attention to the brain ? in particular, the enigma of consciousness.
At first, Crick believed the mysteries of consciousness would be solved with a striking insight, similar to the way the DNA double helix structure explained heredity?s mechanisms. But after a while he realized that consciousness posed a much tougher problem. Understanding DNA was easier because it appeared in life?s history sooner; the double helix template for genetic replication marked the beginning of evolution as we know it. Consciousness, on the other hand, represented evolution?s pinnacle, the outcome of eons of ever growing complexity in biochemical information processing.
?The simplicity of the double helix ? probably goes back to near the origin of life when things had to be simple,? Crick said in a 1998 interview. ?It isn?t clear there will be a similar thing in the brain.?
In fact, it has become pretty clear that deciphering consciousness will definitely be more difficult than describing the dynamics of DNA. Crick himself spent more than two decades attempting to unravel the consciousness riddle, working on it doggedly until his death in 2004. His collaborator, neuroscientist Christof Koch of Caltech, continues their work even today, just as dozens of other scientists pursue a similar agenda ? to identify the biological processes that constitute consciousness and to explain how and why those processes produce the subjective sense of persistent identity, the self-awareness and unity of experience, and the ?awareness of self-awareness? that scientists and philosophers have long wondered about, debated and sometimes even claimed to explain.
So far, no one has succeeded to anyone else?s satisfaction. Yes, there have been advances: Understanding how the brain processes information. Locating, within various parts of the brain, the neural activity that accompanies certain conscious perceptions. Appreciating the fine distinctions between awareness, attention and subjective impressions. But yet with all this progress, the consciousness problem remains popular on lists of problems that might never be solved.
Perhaps that?s because the consciousness problem is inherently similar to another famous problem that actually has been proved unsolvable: finding a self-consistent set of axioms for deducing all of mathematics. As the Austrian logician Kurt G?del proved eight decades ago, no such axiomatic system is possible; any system as complicated as arithmetic contains true statements that cannot be proved within the system.
G?del?s proof emerged from deep insights into the self-referential nature of mathematical statements. He showed how a system referring to itself creates paradoxes that cannot be logically resolved ? and so certain questions cannot in principle be answered. Consciousness, in a way, is in the same logical boat. At its core, consciousness is self-referential awareness, the self?s sense of its own existence. It is consciousness itself that is trying to explain consciousness.
Self-reference, feedback loops, paradoxes and G?del?s proof all play central roles in the view of consciousness articulated by Douglas Hofstadter in his 2007 book I Am a Strange Loop. Hofstadter is (among other things) a computer scientist, and he views consciousness through lenses unfamiliar to most neuroscientists. In his eyes, it?s not so bizarre to compare math and numbers to the mind and consciousness. Math is, after all, deeply concerned with logic and reason ? the stuff of thought. Mathematical paradoxes, Hofstadter points out, open up ?profound questions concerning the nature of reasoning ? and thus concerning the elusive nature of thinking ? and thus concerning the mysterious nature of the human mind itself.?
Enter the loop
In particular, Hofstadter seizes on G?del?s insight that a mathematical formula ? a statement about a number ? can itself be represented by a number. So you can take the number describing a formula and insert that number into the formula, which then becomes a statement about itself. Such a self-referential capability introduces a certain ?loopiness? into mathematics, Hofstadter notes, something like the famous Escher print of a right hand drawing a left hand, which in turn is drawing the right hand. This ?strange loopiness? in math suggested to Hofstadter that something similar is going on in human thought.
So when he titled his book ?I Am a Strange Loop,? Hofstadter didn?t mean that he was personally loopy, but that the concept of an individual ? a persistent identity, an ?I,? that accompanies what people refer to as consciousness ? is a loop of a certain sort. It?s a feedback loop, like the circuit that turns a whisper into an ear-piercing screech when the microphone whispered into is too close to the loudspeaker emitting the sound.
But consciousness is more than just an ordinary feedback loop. It?s a strange loop, which Hofstadter describes as a loop capable of perceiving patterns in its environment and assigning common symbolic meanings to sufficiently similar patterns. An acoustic feedback loop generates no symbols, just noise. A human brain, though, can assign symbols to patterns. While patterns of dots on a TV screen are just dots to a mosquito, to a person, the same dots evoke symbols, such as football players, talk show hosts or NCIS agents. Floods of raw sensory data trigger perceptions that fall into categories designated by ?symbols that stand for abstract regularities in the world,? Hofstadter asserts. Human brains create vast repertoires of these symbols, conferring the ?power to represent phenomena of unlimited complexity and thus to twist back and to engulf themselves via a strange loop.?
Consciousness itself occurs when a system with such ability creates a higher-level symbol, a symbol for the ability to create symbols. That symbol is the self. The I. Consciousness. ?You and I are mirages that perceive themselves,? Hofstadter writes.
This self-generated symbol of the self operates only on the level of symbols. It has no access to the workings of nerve cells and neurotransmitters, the microscopic electrochemical machinery of neurobiological life. The symbols that consciousness contemplates don?t look much like the real thing, the way a map of Texas conveys nothing of the grass and dirt and asphalt and bricks that cover the physical territory.
And just like a map of Texas remains remarkably stable over many decades ? it doesn?t change with each new pothole in a Dallas street ? human self-identity remains stable over a lifetime, despite constant changes on the micro level of proteins and cells. As an individual grows, matures, changes in many minute ways, the conscious self?s identity remains intact, just as Texas remains Texas even as new skyscrapers rise in the cities, farms grow different crops and the Red River sometimes shifts the boundary with Oklahoma a bit.
If consciousness were merely a map, a convenient shortcut symbol for a complex mess of neurobiological signaling, perhaps it wouldn?t be so hard to figure out. But its mysteries multiply because the symbol is generated by the thing doing the symbolizing. It?s like G?del?s numbers that refer to formulas that represent truths about numbers; this self-referentialism creates unanswerable questions, unsolvable problems.
A typical example of such a G?delian paradox is the following sentence: This sentence cannot be true.
Is that sentence true? Obviously not, because it says it isn?t true. But wait ? then it is true. Except that it can?t be. Self-referential sentences seem to have it both ways ? or neither way.
And so perceptual systems able to symbolize themselves ? self-referential minds ? can?t be explained just by understanding the parts that compose them. Simply describing how electric charges travel along nerve cells, how small molecules jump from one cell to another, how such signaling sends messages from one part of the brain to another ? none of that explains consciousness any more than knowing the English alphabet letter by letter (and even the rules of grammar) will tell you the meaning of Shakespeare?s poetry.
Hofstadter does not contend, of course, that all the biochemistry and cellular communication is irrelevant. It provides the machinery for perceiving and symbolizing that makes the strange loop of consciousness possible. It?s just that consciousness does not itself deal with molecules and cells; it copes with thoughts and emotions, hopes and fears, ideas and desires. Just as numbers can represent the complexities of all of mathematics (including numbers), a brain can represent the complexities of experience (including the brain itself). G?del?s proof showed that math is ?incomplete?; it contains truths that can?t be proven. And consciousness is a truth of a sort that can?t be comprehended within a system of molecules and cells alone.
That doesn?t mean that consciousness can never be understood ? G?del?s work did not undermine human understanding of mathematics, it enriched it. And so the realization that consciousness is self-referential could also usher in a deeper understanding of what the word means ? what it symbolizes.
Information handler
Viewed as a symbol, consciousness is very much like many of the other grand ideas of science. An atom is not so much a thing as an idea, a symbol for matter?s ultimate constituents, and the modern physical understanding of atoms bears virtually no resemblance to the original conception in the minds of the ancient Greeks who named them. Even Francis Crick?s gene made from DNA turned out to be much more elusive than the ?unit of heredity? imagined by Gregor Mendel in the 19th century. The later coinage of the word gene to describe such units long remained a symbol; early 20th century experiments allowed geneticists to deduce a lot about genes, but nobody really had a clue what a gene was.
?In a sense people were just as vague about what genes were in the 1920s as they are now about consciousness,? Crick said in 1998. ?It was exactly the same. The more professional people in the field, which was biochemistry at that time, thought that it was a problem that was too early to tackle.?
It turned out that with genes, their physical implementation didn?t really matter as much as the information storage and processing that genes engaged in. DNA is in essence a map, containing codes allowing one set of molecules to be transcribed into others necessary for life. It?s a lot easier to make a million copies of a map of Texas than to make a million Texases; DNA?s genetic mapping power is the secret that made the proliferation of life on Earth possible. Similarly, consciousness is deeply involved in representing information (with symbols) and putting that information together to make sense of the world. It?s the brain?s information processing powers that allow the mind to symbolize itself.
Koch believes that focusing on information could sharpen science?s understanding of consciousness. A brain?s ability to find patterns in influxes of sensory data, to send signals back and forth to integrate all that data into a coherent picture of reality and to trigger appropriate responses all seem to be processes that could be quantified and perhaps even explained with the math that describes how information works.
?Ultimately I think the key thing that matters is information,? Koch says. ?You have these causal interactions and they can be quantified using information theory. Somehow out of that consciousness has to arrive.? An inevitable consequence of this point of view is that consciousness doesn?t care what kind of information processors are doing all its jobs ? whether nerve cells or transistors.
?It?s not the stuff out of which your brain is made,? Koch says. ?It?s what that stuff represents that?s conscious, and that tells us that lots of other systems could be conscious too.?
Perhaps, in the end, it will be the ability to create unmistakable features of consciousness in some stuff other than a biological brain that will signal success in the quest for an explanation. But it?s doubtful that experimentally exposing consciousness as not exclusively human will displace humankind?s belief in its own primacy. People will probably always believe that it can only be the strange loop of human consciousness that makes the world go ?round.
?We ? draw conceptual boundaries around entities that we easily perceive, and in so doing we carve out what seems to us to be reality,? Hofstadter wrote. ?The ?I? we create for each of us is a quintessential example of such a perceived or invented reality, and it does such a good job of explaining our behavior that it becomes the hub around which the rest of the world seems to rotate.?Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/337947/title/Self_as_Symbol
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
US: American's weak health led to Somali rescue
By NBC News and news services
WASHINGTON -- As two aid workers freed by a Navy SEAL team flew out of Somalia to be reunited with family, details emerged about the rescue operation that the Pentagon says left nine captors dead.
Vice President Joe Biden told NBC's "TODAY" show that the U.S. decided to stage the rescue because of concerns that the health of American Jessica Buchanan "was beginning to decline."
"We wanted to act," Biden said.
Buchanan,?32,?and Dane Poul Thisted, 60,?were kidnapped on Oct. 25, and then held for ransom. They both work for the nonprofit Danish Demining Group and had just finished training Somalis on how to clear mines when they were captured.
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Bernanke news conference on Fed policy (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Below are highlights from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's news conference following the Fed's policy meeting on Wednesday.
Fed Graphics:
> FOMC statement word cloud - http://link.reuters.com/wud36s
> Economic, rate projections http://link.reuters.com/zud36s
BERNANKE ON EXPANDING THE BALANCE SHEET:
"Expanding the balance sheet certainly remains an option, one that we would consider very seriously if, in particular, if progress towards full employment...became more inadequate or if inflation remained exceptionally low. So we will continue to look at that."
BERNANKE RELATION BETWEEN INFLATION TARGET, EMPLOYMENT:
"We are not absolutists. If there is a need to let inflation return a little bit more slowly to target to get a better result on unemployment then that is something that we would be willing to do."
BERNANKE ON PROVIDING FURTHER STIMULUS:
"If the situation continues with inflation below target and unemployment declining at a rate which is very, very slow, then our framework, the logic of our framework says, we should be looking for ways to do more. ... We need to adopt policies that will both achieve our inflation objectives and help the economy recover as quickly as feasible. I would say that your question, actually and the earlier question, shows the benefit of explaining this framework, because the framework makes very clear that we need to be thinking about ways to provide further stimulus if we don't get improvement in the pace of recovery and a normalization of inflation."
BERNANKE ON FORGIVENESS OF MORTGAGE PRINCIPAL:
"It seems very likely that principal forgiveness could be helpful, depending on how it is structured, in reducing delinquencies. There are also some potential drawbacks. One of them is the fact that the amount of negative equity in the United States is about $700 billion, which is enormous and so there is no conceivable program (that will get) everybody in the country above water. And so I think the issue then becomes if we have $20 (billion) or $25 billion or whatever the number may end up being in this settlement, what is the most cost effective way to help as many people as possible. And I think that is an ongoing debate."
BERNANKE ON HOUSING:
"The weakness of the housing sector is an important reason why the economy is not recovering more robustly, and the problems in housing finance (are) a part of the reason why monetary policy has not been more powerful because part of our transmission mechanism is through lower interest rates which affects refinancing. It affects sales and purchases as well. And so in addition to that as bank supervisors we have considerable interest in servicing, loan modifications, in delinquencies and all the aspects of mortgage lending."
BERNANKE ON ECONOMIC OUTLOOK:
"Strains in global financial markets continue to pose significant downside risk to that outlook.
"Looking further ahead, economic activity is expected to accelerate gradually in conjunction with strengthening consumer and business confidence, improving financial conditions and the continuation of a highly accommodative stance for monetary policy.
BERNANKE ON EMPLOYMENT:
"A number of recent indicators point to some further improvement in overall labor market conditions but the unemployment rate remains elevated. Moreover, in light of the anticipated modest pace of economic recovery, the committee expects that over coming quarters the unemployment rate will decline only gradually towards its mandate consistent levels."
BERNANKE ON ASSET SALES:
"One implication of our extension of our expected point of take off to late 2014 is to imply that the initial sales from our balance sheet, which again are far down the road, but when that begins that will be later than previously thought, that will be presumably in 2015. So, we do expect to hold our balance sheet at a high level for a longer period."
BERNANKE ON NATURAL JOBLESS RATE:
"We are concerned that the large amount of long-term unemployment may be causing some workers to lose skills or lose labor force attachment which at least for a while will also likely increase the so-called natural rate or sustainable rate of unemployment. So there are a number of factors working in that direction. But in any case while there is certainly a lot of uncertainty about exactly where the natural rate of unemployment is, clearly at 8.5 percent, I think we're comfortably above anybody's estimate and for that reason we still consider the labor market to be obviously quite flat."
BERNANKE ON RECENT DATA:
"We are obviously hoping that the strength we saw in the fourth quarter and in recent data will continue into 2012, but we are going to continue to monitor that situation. I don't think we are ready to declare that we have entered a new, a stronger phase at this point. ... We continue to review our holdings, our portfolio holdings, securities, and we are prepared to take further steps in that direction if we see that the recovery is faltering or if inflation is not moving towards target. It's an option that's certainly on the table. It would be premature to say definitively one way or the other, but we continue to look at the option, and if conditions warrant, we will certainly consider using it."
BERNANKE ON INFLATION AND EMPLOYMENT:
"Now all that being said, if inflation is going to remain below target for an extended period and unemployment progress is very slow than I think you're implicit question is right there is a case for an additional policy action and we want to continue to observe the situation but we are certainly prepared to look for a different ways to provide support to the economy if in fact we have this unsatisfactory situation."
BERNANKE ON INFLATION TARGET:
"The committee judges that inflation at the rate of 2 percent, as measured by the annual change in the price index for personal consumption expenditures, is most consistent over the longer run with our statutory mandate. Over time a higher inflation rate would reduce the public's ability to make accurate longer-term economic and financial decisions, whereas a lower inflation rate would be associated with an elevated probability of falling into deflation, which can lead to significant economic problems. Clearly communicating to the public this 2 percent goal for inflation over the longer run should help foster price stability and moderate long-term interest rates and will enhance the Committee's ability to promote maximum employment in the face of significant economic disturbances. Maximum employment stands on an equal footing with price stability as an objective for monetary policy."
BERNANKE ON GROWTH PROJECTION:
"Incoming information such as the economy has been expanding moderately notwithstanding some slowing in global growth. The Committee expect the pace of economic growth to be moderate over coming quarters, reflecting ongoing drags in the housing sector and still tight credit conditions for many households and smaller businesses. Specifically, participants projections for the growth rate of real gross domestic product in 2012 and the central tendency of 2.2 to 2.7 percent. Strains in global financial markets continue to pose significant downside risk to that outlook."
(Washington newsroom)
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Apple briefly passes Exxon as most valuable co.
FILE - In this March 25, 2011 file photo, customers wait outside the Apple store in Munich before the start of sales of the iPad2. Apple has again surpassed Exxon Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, as the most valuable U.S. company after a huge fiscal first quarter. (AP Photo/dapd, Lukas Barth, File)
FILE - In this March 25, 2011 file photo, customers wait outside the Apple store in Munich before the start of sales of the iPad2. Apple has again surpassed Exxon Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, as the most valuable U.S. company after a huge fiscal first quarter. (AP Photo/dapd, Lukas Barth, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Apple briefly surpassed Exxon as the most valuable U.S. company after an excellent quarter, though the oil company has regained the lead at the market's close.
Apple's stock rose as much as 8 percent, while Exxon's fell as much as 2 percent during trading Wednesday.
Exxon Mobil Corp.'s stock closed up 4 cents at $87.22 for a market capitalization of $418 billion. Apple's increased 6 percent to $446.66 for a market cap of about $415 billion.
Apple said Tuesday that net income in its latest quarter more than doubled, while revenue grew 73 percent.
Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple first topped Exxon in August, then fell back to second place. Irving, Texas-based Exxon had held the top spot since 2005.
Apple overtook Microsoft Corp., now in the No. 3 slot, in 2010.
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Glee's Lea Michele fills closet with Candie's (AP)
NEW YORK ? Lea Michele is moving from a locker to a much bigger closet. She's the star of the new Candie's ad campaign, dubbed "Hanging at Home," shot at a private mansion in Beverly Hills, Calif. The images show her poolside, in the kitchen, in a bed with satin sheets and in a walk-in closet, wearing a new outfit and pair of shoes in each one.
The 25-year-old star of "Glee" is following in the high-heel footprints of former brand spokeswomen Britney Spears and Fergie, among others. Michele says she particularly liked Spears' old ads. "I think they're fun and flirty and show off her body great."
Michele does a little showing off here, too, with some sexy poses, some silly poses and some glamorous ones.
Anyone who has seen Michele do a turn on the red carpet knows she's got her moves down for the camera.
She has become a "get" for designers eager to show off their gowns on a hot, young starlet. At the recent Golden Globes, she wore a silver Marchesa gown that was straight from the runway.
Her sentimental favorite gown, though, was probably the one she wore to her first Globes in 2010: a black, strapless Oscar de la Renta with a full skirt.
Other tidbits from Michele in an email interview:
AP: What was your wardrobe like in high school?
Michele: My wardrobe in high school was very simple. Jeans and maybe a sweatshirt and sneakers.
AP: Is there a style trend that you love?
Michele: I love wide-leg, high-waisted pants. If done the right way, they're very chic.
AP: Is there a trend you wish would go away?
Michele: Feathers in people's hair!
AP: Do you have a guilty pleasure?
Michele: I LOVE beauty products. Face and body creams are my obsession.
The Candie's brand is available exclusively at Kohl's Department Stores.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Paterno's son: JoePa upbeat, fought cancer to end (AP)
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. ? Joe Paterno was upbeat and confident in his final days and didn't die broken-hearted over his firing in November as Penn State's longtime football coach, his son said Monday.
Scott Paterno said his Dad was "serenely calm," before his death from lung cancer on Sunday, antsy to leave the hospital so he could start planning a vacation with his wife, Sue.
Paterno was abruptly dismissed after 46 years amid a child sex abuse scandal involving a former assistant coach.
During a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Scott Paterno said his father's health had deteriorated by Friday afternoon, prompting the family to announce Saturday that the 85-year-old Paterno was in serious condition. He died the following morning.
"He wanted his family in his room. He wanted to be around people. He wanted to talk," the son said. "He wanted to have people, even when he had trouble speaking, he wanted people around him talking. How are your kids? It was so natural. It was like we were having dinner around the kitchen table. It just happened to be his hospital bed."
And, he said: "Even at the end when it was clear that he passed a line of no return, it was never a moment of bitterness. It was never a moment of fear. He was serenely calm, even right up to the end."
The Paternos would have been married six decades this year. Along with their five children, Sue Paterno was at her husband's bedside at Mount Nittany Medical Center when he died.
"If there's any message I think my father would pass on to everybody at this point, it's `let's build this thing up.' He was so positive and so confident at the end of his life that the things that were important about this place would endure.
"And that's why he was at peace," Scott Paterno said, before joking, "That, and (that) my mother was willing to put up with him all these years."
The Paternos' plans for a long promised six-week honeymoon trip were snatched away by the disease that took his life.
The actual honeymoon? A three-day trip to Virginia Beach ? with a stop to see a recruit on the way down.
Paterno re-entered the hospital on Jan. 13, with his family fully expecting him to return home despite his increased frailty.
They thought it was simply a matter of getting him stabilized.
As recently as last Wednesday, Paterno was counting on his fingers the number of days he had been in the hospital, hoping to get out.
"One, two, three, four, five. I've been here five days. I'm coming home," his son quoted his Dad as saying.
Though the old coach was on a respirator that made it difficult to talk, it didn't stop him from teasing Scott on Thursday about his weight. Again. Dad playfully pointed to his son's belly.
"He did that every time," Scott Paterno said.
There were no balloons or flowers in Paterno's room. His son suspects his mother sent them to other patients in the hospital.
But there was a Penn State sweat shirt in there.
"His life is Penn State through and through," Scott Paterno said, speaking of his father in the present tense. "He understood that and it never once occurred to him to be bitter toward Penn State."
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Libya suspends transitional government members
BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) ? The head of Libya's transitional government on Sunday suspended delegates from Benghazi, the city that kicked off the movement that toppled ruler Moammar Gadhafi last year.
The suspension the latest sign of discord within the body that led the anti-Gadhafi uprising but has struggled to establish an effective government to replace his regime.
The move follows protests in Benghazi accusing the body of corruption and not moving fast enough on reform. It was prompted by street protests and rejected by the delegates.
The announcement came the day after protesters stormed the National Transitional Council offices in Benghazi and carted off computers, chairs and desks while Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, head of the NTC, was holed up inside.
Abdul-Jalil told The Associated Press he suspended the six representatives from Benghazi, the main city in eastern Libya. They can continue to serve only if approved by the local city council.
Abdul-Jalil said he appointed a council of religious leaders to investigate corruption charges and identify people with links to the Gadhafi regime.
The body's deputy head, Abdel-Hafiz Ghoga, resigned in protest over the suspensions. Ghoga, known for his polished language and expensive suits, was a prominent spokesman during the eight-month civil war that ended with Gadhafi's capture and killing in October.
Another delegate, Fathi Baja, called the move "illegitimate" and said he would stand down only if the people of Benghazi asked him to. Baja, a well known critic of Gadhafi even before the uprising, also criticized the appointment of religious leaders, saying that when he was criticizing Gadhafi, "they were calling on people to obey the leader."
Also Sunday, the head of the committee tasked with preparing the country's election law said its release would be delayed for one week. The final law, which was set to be announced Sunday, will be made public on Jan. 28, said Othman al-Mugherhi.
The committee published a draft law earlier this month and said it would solicit comments from Libyans. Al-Mugherhi said the delay will allow the committee to consider these comments while drafting the final law.
The law will spell out how Libyans will elect the 200-members national congress, which will oversee the drafting of a constitution. The body is supposed to be elected before June 23.
Al-Mugherhi also announced the formation of a 17-member electoral commission to oversee the vote. The body contains professors, judges, lawyers and men and women representing non-governmental organizations, he said.
Under Gadhafi's rule, Libya had no working parliament for four decades.
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TouchTV comes to LG Smart TV, iPads: catch news clips at home, on the go
If you swing past your local Best Buy and pick up one of those new-fangled LG Smart TVs, you'll find TouchTV's news-clip collection platform available inside. That way you'll be able to watch the trendiest (or at least the most watched) current-affairs clips without having to wait the twenty seconds or so before your rolling news channel of choice displays similar. TouchTV also announced today an iPad app that'll let you grab those newsy clips from your Apple-based slate of choice. The app's available gratis from the store (link below) and we've got the official words and pictures from the company about both products after the interval.
Jose Andrade contributed to this report.
Continue reading TouchTV comes to LG Smart TV, iPads: catch news clips at home, on the go
TouchTV comes to LG Smart TV, iPads: catch news clips at home, on the go originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Project Bifrost: (Fission) Rockets of the Future?
Anytime anyone even thinks about mixing "nuclear" and outer-space (even radioisotope generators as used on many space probes) all the anti-nuclear groups kick up a huge fuss.
Sucks to be them, then. Any time you push beyond the inner solar system, you need some sort of nuclear power to get electricity, as you can't burn things or use hydroelectric or wind-power. You can use solar panels in the inner solar system, but the further out you go the less practical that becomes. IIRC, solar is a no-go much beyond about the orbit of Mars, even for relatively low-power applications. High thrust engines are not low-power!
What's more, as long as you're outside the Earth's magnetosphere, an
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