Arab League to vote on Syria sanctions draft (AP)

BEIRUT ? The Arab League is set to vote Sunday on sweeping sanctions against Syria, which could include halting cooperation with the nation's central bank and stopping flights to the country.

The 22-nation body will vote on the recommendations at the group's headquarters in Cairo.

If the Arab League were to go ahead with the move, it would be a huge blow for a regime that considers itself a powerhouse of Arab nationalism.

Syria is facing mounting international pressure to end the bloody crackdown on the uprising against President Bashar Assad, which the U.N. says has killed more than 3,500 people. The European Union and the United States have imposed several rounds of sanctions against Assad and his regime, including a ban on the import of Syrian oil.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111127/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria

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This Year, Give Them Brains

Advances | More Science See Inside

Each year we poll scientists and educators on ideas for books, puzzles and toys that foster inquiry. This season's picks range from a top that never stops spinning to a build-it-yourself skull.

By Anna Kuchment ?| November 25, 2011?|

Image: Photograph by Lucas Zarebinski

1. Your Body puzzle
$24.95 at fatbraintoys.com; ages 4 and up
A five-layer birch puzzle lets kids peer inside the human body, revealing the digestive tract, nerves and skeleton. Katy Shepard, a Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience at Emory University, says her three-year-old cousin received this puzzle after he pointed to his skin and asked, ?What comes next??

2. Life Cycle Stacking Blocks
$19.95 at forsmallhands.com; ages 2 to 6
Paperboard boxes that stack nearly three feet high and feature beautiful illustrations of the life cycles of the butterfly and frog are accompanied by an informative poem, says Julie Frey, a fifth grade teacher at Stuard Elementary School in Aledo, Tex.

3. Skull puzzle
$23 at theevolutionstore.com; ages 8 and up
This 39-piece 3-D puzzle comes with a removable brain. ?This puzzle is educational, challenging and, most important, fun,? says Kent Kirshenbaum, a chemistry professor at New York University. ?Bonus: the jaw swings open and shut hauntingly after you complete it.?

4. Bones: Skeletons and How They Work
by Steve Jenkins (Scholastic, 2010); ages 7 and up
Michelle Nijhuis, a biologist and author, recommended this book and the two following ones. (For more of her suggestions, go to lastwordonnothing.com.) Bones, she writes, has fantastic illustrations and ?is also great for inspiring hands-on research.?

5. Far from Shore: Chronicles of an Open Ocean Voyage
by Sophie Webb (Houghton Mifflin, 2011); ages 9 to 12
This book chronicles the author?s four-month-long Pacific research voyage. ?Webb describes her work in some depth, but she emphasizes not the results but the experience: the starlit nights on deck, the sightings of dolphins and whales and seabirds, and daily life with her fellow scientists,? Nijhuis writes.

6. Tuesday
by David Wiesner (Clarion, 1997); ages 5 to 8
?Late one Tuesday evening a mob of frogs flies through town on lily pads, disappearing as quickly as it came. Why? This almost wordless story doesn?t say, leaving kids free to form their own theories about spontaneous frog flight,? Nijhuis says.

7. Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be
by Daniel Loxton (2010); $18.95 at kidscanpress.com; ages 8 to 13
Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, touts this book as ?an excellent introduction to a topic not frequently covered in children?s books. There?s more to evolution than dinosaurs, after all!?

8. Magic Briks bristle blocks
$26.95 at kaplanco.com; ages 3 and up
Never underestimate simple building blocks. Noah Cowan, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University?s Whiting School of Engineering, says they are ?an essential component in developing a child?s ability to reason about space, time and even challenging concepts like entropy. Bristle blocks are particularly good for young children who don?t yet have the dexterity for Legos?and, frankly, bristle blocks are even more open-ended because the connector density is higher.?

9. Shark in a Jar?Squalus acanthias
$29 at theevolutionstore.com
This real baby shark taken from an adult caught by a commercial fisher ?offers a launching point for discussions about the differences between sharks and bony fish, the diverse ways sharks bear their young, and the importance of conservation for threatened shark species,? N.Y.U.?s Kirshenbaum says.

10. Science kits
from Thames & Kosmos
From $13.95 at thamesandkosmos.com; ages 5 and up
Christof Koch, a professor of cognitive and behavioral biology at the California Institute of Technology, grew up playing with these designer sets, many made by a 189-year-old German company. ?These days kids see computer simulations and watch YouTube but don?t do that much with their own hands anymore,? he says. More than 60 different kits are available for various ages and specialties?from chemistry and biology to energy and forensics.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=dd7628ac6d993a7790b7949071297a96

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Thousands queue in Indonesia to buy new Blackberry

Impatient Indonesians raise their fists to show their 'priority' wrist bands as they queue up to buy the new BlackBerry 9790 at discounted price for the first 1,000 buyers outside a shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. Thousands of Indonesians jammed into a glitzy shopping mall Friday to get hold of the first BlackBerry Bold 9790s being sold worldwide. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Impatient Indonesians raise their fists to show their 'priority' wrist bands as they queue up to buy the new BlackBerry 9790 at discounted price for the first 1,000 buyers outside a shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. Thousands of Indonesians jammed into a glitzy shopping mall Friday to get hold of the first BlackBerry Bold 9790s being sold worldwide. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Indonesian police officers stand guard as people queue up to buy the new BlackBerry 9790 at discounted price for the first 1,000 buyers outside a shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. Thousands of Indonesians jammed into a glitzy shopping mall Friday to get hold of the first BlackBerry Bold 9790s being sold worldwide. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Security guards stand before Indonesians in a long queue to buy the new BlackBerry 9790 at discounted price for the first 1,000 buyers outside a shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. Thousands of Indonesians jammed into a glitzy shopping mall Friday to get hold of the first BlackBerry Bold 9790s being sold worldwide. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Impatient Indonesians rush to the queue to buy the new BlackBerry 9790 at discounted price for the first 1,000 buyers outside a shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. Thousands of Indonesians jammed into a glitzy shopping mall Friday to get hold of the first BlackBerry Bold 9790s being sold worldwide. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) ? Thousands of Indonesians jammed into a glitzy shopping mall Friday to get hold of the first BlackBerry Bold 9790s being sold worldwide.

Fearing a riot, hundreds of police were deployed outside, tying up traffic in the heart of the capital for hours.

With a 50 percent discount on the $540 phone for the first 1,000 buyers, lines started forming in front of Pacific Place mall on Thursday night. By daybreak, impatient shoppers started rattling the gates.

And when rumors spread that the new smartphones ? commonly known as Bellagio ? had already sold out, the crowd of 3,000 went crazy. Several people fainted in the crush.

Indonesia, a nation of 240 million people, has experienced a come-from-nowhere tech frenzy in recent years.

With 6 million users, BlackBerry dominates the smartphone market.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2011-11-25-AS-Indonesia-BlackBerry-Frenzy/id-5c67ce5c59ad481faf9164a5c8918e3e

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In "The Artist," silence is golden (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Actor Jean Dujardin won this year's best actor award at the Cannes film festival for playing a man who hardly says a word, but not because his character couldn't speak. In fact, he says quite a lot.

Dujardin stars in "The Artist," a silent movie made more than 80 years after those films gave way to "talkies," and the movie has Hollywood buzzing with Oscar talk. Directed by Frenchman Michel Hazanavicius, it tells of a silent film star (Dujardin) whose career is cut short by the advent of sound.

"People think silent movies are intellectual," Hazanavicius told Reuters about his old-is-new-again creation. "It's just the opposite. It's really sensual. Instead, talking movies use dialogue in an intellectual way to tell stories."

In "The Artist," Dujardin plays George Valentin, a pompous leading man in 1920's Hollywood. French actress Berenice Bejo plays Peppy Miller, an ingenue looking for a big break.

The pair meet and fall in love, but the advent of talkies brings divergent fortunes. Valentin's career implodes, while the singing and dancing Miller rockets to stardom.

"The Artist" is, at its heart, a rather simple tale of personal redemption and love, but making a silent movie in these modern days of action, special effects and 3D was anything but easy.

"Everybody tells you that it's not do-able because nobody wants to see a silent movie," he said. "The first person I had to convince was myself."

Giving Hazanavicius and his investors confidence was his enthusiasm for the project and his success with a pair of spy spoofs, "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies" and "OSS 117: Lost in Rio." Those movies mimicked early James Bond such as 1962's "Dr. No," and starred Dujardin in the lead role.

SILENT CHALLENGES

Bringing back the silent form for modern audiences was itself the obvious challenge, Hazanavicius said, noting that what appears to be a simpler storytelling form is deceptively complicated for both the filmmaker and audience.

"It's a paradox, in a way. The actors are very far from reality. You can't hear them. They are black-and-white," he explained. "But you fill the gap, as an audience, with your imagination. You create the voice, you create the sound design, you create your own dialogue."

And casting, he said, was also critical, because he needed actors who were experts at expressing ideas, thoughts and emotions with their body movements and facial expressions.

Dujardin recalled that when he first read the script, he was impressed by the director's ambition, but he admitted he was initially nervous about some of the more dramatic scenes.

"Up until then, we'd made comedies where we had a lot of fun with characters and situations," he explained. "'The Artist' was full of emotion. I was touched by all it said about cinema, its history and actors.

"I had no lines to hold on to ... But I discovered that silent film was almost an advantage. You just have to think of the feeling for it to show," Dujardin said.

The coming of sound permanently altered the language of cinema, transforming an image-focused medium into one often driven by words. But Hazanavicius feels something more was compromised.

"We lost a universal language and something which was really specific to the medium: to tell a story with moving images," he said.

It's no coincidence that many of Hollywood's greatest directors got their start in silent films: John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Raoul Walsh and Howard Hawks, to name a few.

Still, the director readily concedes that comedic filmmakers like Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges made witty and sophisticated dialogue their trademark.

"If you look at a great director like Ernst Lubitsch, his talking comedies are much better than his silent comedies."

And yet, Hazanavicius said he discovered that making a silent film gave him a better understanding of his craft.

"Watching a silent, I get the same feeling I had when I was a child looking at the movies in theaters," he confides. "I wanted to share that experience with an audience today."

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Chris Michaud)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111125/en_nm/us_theartist

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Heart patients prefer longevity over quality of life (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) ? When an elderly person's chronic disease is impossible to cure, many doctors might assume that patient would chose to improve the quality of his or her remaining life rather than to extend it as is. Those doctors would be mistaken most of the time, according to a new study.

Swiss researchers who surveyed more than 500 elderly heart failure patients found three quarters wouldn't trade a longer life with symptoms for a shorter life without them, and the severity of symptoms was not a good predictor of who would pick a measure of relief over more time.

"I was quite surprised by the results," said lead author Dr. Hans-Peter Brunner-La Rocca, of University Hospital Basel in Switzerland.

"Often we think we know what is best for a patient, but this is often wrong," he told Reuters Health in an email.

"When patients get to an age where the chance of dying in the near future becomes more evident, pure survival may be more important," said Brunner-La Rocca, who is also affiliated with the Cardiovascular Research Institute at Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

Heart failure is a chronic and incurable condition, in which the heart is too weak to pump enough blood to meet the body's needs. It affects around six million people in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Symptoms include shortness of breath, fatigue, weakness and swelling in the legs and feet, reducing a person's ability to walk or exercise. Heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes can weaken the heart muscle over time, which can lead to heart failure.

The researchers surveyed 555 heart failure patients, most in their seventies and eighties, asking a series of questions about end-of-life preferences. Then they repeated the survey after 12 months, and again after another six months.

At the start of the study, 74 percent of the respondents said they would not choose to live one more year in excellent health over living two more years in their current state. After a year had elapsed, 80 percent were unwilling to trade more time for symptom relief.

At 18 months, few had changed their minds. When asked about whether they wanted CPR in a crisis, about a third said they didn't want to be resuscitated.

Even among people with "do not resuscitate" orders in their medical files, about a third said they in fact did want CPR. Dr. Eugene Storozynsky, who studies cardiology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, noted that the study participants represented a broad range of people with heart failure -- from those with a just a few symptoms to those with many more severe problems.

Those with milder disease might not consider it bad enough to trade-off their remaining time.

"For these patients, it seems oral medications are still adequate enough to relieve their symptoms so they don't need to be frequently hospitalized," said Storozynsky, who was not part of the study.

Patients with end-stage heart failure require multiple hospitalizations in a short period of time due to their symptoms, he pointed out.

"Life expectancy may be six months or less without advanced therapies," he told Reuters Health.

"Patients in this study were less bothered by their symptoms, so I would define them as less sick than those with end-stage heart failure."

Participants in the study who were willing to trade more time for symptom relief were older, often female and had more heart failure symptoms, suggesting people may change how they manage their disease over time.

"We couldn't find particular patterns to predict what individuals would want," Brunner-La Rocca told Reuters Health.

"So it's crucial to individually discuss these issues with the patient." Storozynsky also thinks doctors should be upfront with patients.

"We should discuss all stages of heart failure to make them aware that at its end stage, their life will likely shorten," he said.

"Not to scare them, but inform them and tailor our treatment to their wishes."

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/w41t5q

European Heart Journal, online November 18, 2011.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/seniors/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111126/hl_nm/us_heart_patients_longevity

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Iron Bowl gets extra fuel from trees, comeback

Alabama head coach Nick Saban reacts to an offensive penalty during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Georgia Southern at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Alabama head coach Nick Saban reacts to an offensive penalty during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Georgia Southern at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Mississippi State quarterback Tyler Russell (17) is tackled for a loss in the first quarter by Alabama linebacker Dont'a Hightower (30) and defensive lineman Damion Square (92) in their NCAA college football game in Starkville, Miss., Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Auburn tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen (43) celebrates with fans after their win 35-16 over Samford in an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011, in Auburn, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)

FILE - In this undated photo provided by the Auburn Public Safety Department, Harvey Almorn Updyke Jr., 62, of Dadeville, Ala., is shown. Lee County Circuit Court Judge Jacob A. Walker III has scheduled Updyke's trial for the criminal court session beginning March 5, 2011. Updyke was indicted last May on two counts of criminal mischief, two counts of desecrating a venerable object and two counts of a state law that includes making it unlawful to damage, vandalize or steal any property on or from an animal or crop facility. Updyke is accused of poisoning the oak trees at Auburn's Toomer's Corner. (AP Photo/Auburn Public Safety Department)

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) ? The red-hot Iron Bowl didn't need any more fuel.

The tree poisoning that pains Auburn fans and the comeback that riles the Alabama faithful were hardly necessary to raise the mercury on this year-round, statewide feud.

They might have collectively done just that for Saturday's game at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Even those who weren't raised in the rivalry's midst have quickly gotten into the spirit.

"I'm not from Alabama," said Auburn defensive end Corey Lemonier, "but being here for one year, I just hate Alabama."

"Hate is a strong word," said Alabama linebacker Dont'a Hightower, "but I strongly dislike Auburn."

Lemonier's a Floridian, Hightower from Tennessee. They fit right in, though.

Nationally, the significance of the game relates to No. 2 Alabama's quest to sandwich a second BCS title around Auburn's crown and keep the state's three-year run of college football supremacy going.

In this state, that particular celebration can wait, at least until dinnertime Saturday evening. Alabama must earn bragging rights before committing wholesale to the title aspirations. Four years running, one of the teams has been ranked first or second coming into the Iron Bowl.

To Byron Hopkins, that's almost beside the point.

"It's just a football game," said Hopkins, an Alabama fan and graduate who lives in Birmingham. "We don't believe it is, but it is. The thing that bothers me the most is it's gotten way too much ? as successful as Alabama's been ? it's become about who's No. 1, who's No. 2 and who's No. 3. Let's try to enjoy a football game and not be so much concerned about rankings."

There's plenty of fodder to go around beyond the rankings, or even the normal rancor.

?The trees. Longtime Alabama fan Harvey Updyke Jr. faces felony charges for allegedly poisoning the two famed oak trees at Auburn's Toomer's Corner. Auburn officials haven't publicly given up on them yet, but the once-stately trees now look sickly, even decorated with toilet paper after the fans' traditional celebratory rolling.

Auburn resident and fan Michael Moore took his toddler out to see the snowy mess Sunday morning after a homecoming win over Samford.

"It's really sad," said Moore, while workers laboriously plucked the tissue from the trees by hands. "They're slowly dying. They don't look very good. And also the fact that it's a slow fade, it sticks with you at times."

?The comeback. The proud Tide has never had a meltdown quite like last year's Iron Bowl, going up 24-0 and going down 28-27. It was the biggest deficit Alabama had ever blown.

"We definitely owe them this year," said Alabama fan Scot Nipper, who grew up selling drinks and programs at Birmingham's Legion Field, the Iron Bowl's onetime home. "They came into our house last year and pulled that comeback on us. We definitely owe them. I will be there. We owe them.

"We're going to pay them back."

The Tide is heavily favored to do just that.

Maybe a title will follow. Bragging certainly will. Things will get heated on the field, too.

"It's really like World War III," Auburn tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen said. "It's just two teams that dislike each other a lot ? respect each other a lot, but dislike each other lot ? and fans that take it over the top. It really changes their whole life and their whole outlook on the next year, whether you can brag about it or hide the whole year. It's really something that you can't describe to someone."

Alabama's Hightower gives it a shot.

"It's a love-hate relationship, I guess, with a little less love," he said.

Within a state that doesn't have a major professional sports team, the rivalry has always been practically all-consuming. It's not terribly unreasonable to tell someone who expresses neutrality or indifference, "Welcome to the state. Where ya from?"

This is a rivalry that once took a 41-year break over where the umpires would come from, how many players each team would get and a whopping 50 cents in per diem.

Nowadays, that's just enough for a soda at the stadium if, say, the offensive linemen pool their quarters.

The rivalry has definitely redeemed its national reputation in recent years with the programs' revival under new coaches: Auburn's Gene Chizik and Alabama's Nick Saban. The past two years have each brought national titles and Heisman Trophies to the state.

Two games that went down to the wire, too, including 26-21 Alabama in 2009.

Saban has been a part of Michigan-Ohio State, Michigan-Michigan State and other cherished rivalries. He knows fans of all of them prize theirs above all others.

This game, of course, is no exception.

"Everybody knows this is one of the greatest rivalry games in college football and certainly a game that defines everything about the state of Alabama and football in Alabama," Saban said.

Trees, comebacks and all.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-11-24-FBC-T25-Iron-Bowl/id-364f5743e75142428435c879452eb6d3

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Kyobo Colour eReader ? Move over Kindle, Nook and Kobo!

Kyobo Book Centre, Korea’s largest seller of books, has announced the retail availability of the world’s first e-reader to include mirasol? display technology. The touch enabled?Kyobo e-Reader features a 5.7″ XGA format (1024 x 768 pixels) mirasol display (screen resolution of 223 ppi) and Qualcomm’s 1.0 GHz Snapdragon? S2 class processor and runs a custom [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/11/23/kyobo-colour-ereader-move-over-kindle-nook-and-kobo/

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On the road to plasmonics with silver polyhedral nanocrystals

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The question of how many polyhedral nanocrystals of silver can be packed into millimeter-sized supercrystals may not be burning on many lips but the answer holds importance for one of today's hottest new high-tech fields ? plasmonics! Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) may have opened the door to a simpler approach for the fabrication of plasmonic materials by inducing polyhedral-shaped silver nanocrystals to self-assemble into three-dimensional supercrystals of the highest possible density.

Plasmonics is the phenomenon by which a beam of light is confined in ultra-cramped spaces allowing it to be manipulated into doing things a beam of light in open space cannot. This phenomenon holds great promise for superfast computers, microscopes that can see nanoscale objects with visible light, and even the creation of invisibility carpets. A major challenge for developing plasmonic technology, however, is the difficulty of fabricating metamaterials with nano-sized interfaces between noble metals and dielectrics.

Peidong Yang, a chemist with Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division, led a study in which silver nanocrystals of a variety of polyhedral shapes self-assembled into exotic millimeter-sized superstructures through a simple sedimentation technique based on gravity. This first ever demonstration of forming such large-scale silver supercrystals through sedimentation is described in a paper in the journal Nature Materials titled "Self-assembly of uniform polyhedral silver nanocrystals into densest packings and exotic superlattices." Yang, who also holds appointments with the University of California Berkeley's Chemistry Department and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, is the corresponding author.

"We have shown through experiment and computer simulation that a range of highly uniform, nanoscale silver polyhedral crystals can self-assemble into structures that have been calculated to be the densest packings of these shapes," Yang says. "In addition, in the case of octahedra, we showed that controlling polymer concentration allows us to tune between a well-known lattice packing structure and a novel packing structure that featured complex helical motifs."

In the Nature Materials paper Yang and his co-authors describe a polyol synthesis technique that was used to generate silver nanocrystals in various shapes, including cubes, truncated cubes, cuboctahedra, truncated octahedra and octahedra over a range of sizes from 100 to 300 nanometers. These uniform polyhedral nanocrystals were then placed in solution where they assembled themselves into dense supercrystals some 25 square millimeters in size through gravitational sedimentation. While the assembly process could be carried out in bulk solution, having the assembly take place in the reservoirs of microarray channels provided Yang and his collaborators with precise control of the superlattice dimensions.

"In a typical experiment, a dilute solution of nanoparticles was loaded into a reservoir that was then tilted, causing the particles to gradually sediment and assemble at the bottom of the reservoir," Yang says. "More concentrated solutions or higher angles of tilt caused the assemblies to form more quickly."

The assemblies generated by this sedimentation procedure exhibited both translational and rotational order over exceptional length scales. In the cases of cubes, truncated octahedra and octahedra, the structures of the dense supercrystals corresponded precisely to their densest lattice packings. Although sedimentation-driven assembly is not new, Yang says this is the first time the technique has been used to make large-scale assemblies of highly uniform polyhedral particles.

"The key factor in our experiments is particle shape, a feature we have found easier to control," Yang says. "When compared with crystal structures of spherical particles, our dense packings of polyhedra are characterized by higher packing fractions, larger interfaces between particles, and different geometries of voids and gaps, which will determine the electrical and optical properties of these materials."

The silver nanocrystals used by Yang and his colleagues are excellent plasmonic materials for surface-enhanced applications. Packing the nanocrystals into three-dimensional supercrystals allows them to be used as metamaterials with the unique optical properties that make plasmonic technology so intriguing.

"Our self-assembly process for these silver polyhedral nanocrystals may give us access to a wide range of interesting, scalable nanostructured materials with dimensions that are comparable to those of bulk materials," Yang says.

###

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: http://www.lbl.gov

Thanks to DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for this article.

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

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115419/On_the_road_to_plasmonics_with_silver_polyhedral_nanocrystals

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Robojelly gets an upgrade: Underwater robot learns to swim more like the real thing

ScienceDaily (Nov. 22, 2011) ? Engineers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VirginiaTech) have developed a robot that mimics the graceful motions of jellyfish so precisely that it has been named Robojelly. Developed for the U.S. Office of Naval Research in 2009, this vehicle was designed to conduct ocean underwater surveillance, enabling it potentially to detect chemical spills, monitor the presence of ships and submarines, and observe the migration of schools of fish.

Recently, a team at VirginiaTech has improved the performance of this silicone swimmer, enabling it to better overcome the limitations of its artificial skin and better mimic the true motion of a jellyfish. Details on this new design and how it might provide new insights into jellyfish propulsion mechanisms are being presented at the 2011 meeting of the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics in Baltimore, Md., Nov. 20-22.

According to VirginiaTech mechanical engineer Alex Villanueva, Robojelly looks very similar to an actual jellyfish. "Its geometry is copied almost exactly from a moon jellyfish [Aurelia aurita]," he said. The robot is built out of silicone and uses shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators to swim.

To move through the water, the natural animal uses the bell section of its body, which deforms and contracts to provide thrust. The lower, or lagging, section of the bell is known as the flexible margin, and it deforms slightly later in the swimming process than the rest of the bell. Until recently, however, Robojelly lacked this crucial piece of anatomy in its design.

Villanueva and his colleagues tested a number of different designs for their robot, some with and without an analog to a flexible margin. Initially, the artificial materials used in construction presented a problem. Unlike their natural counterparts, the artificial materials tended to fold as they deformed, reducing Robojelly's performance. After

testing a number of designs and lengths for the folding margin, the engineers discovered that cutting slots into the bell reduced this unwanted folding effect.

This gave Robojelly a truer swimming stroke, as well as a big boost in speed.

"These results clearly demonstrate that the flap plays an important role in the propulsion mechanism of Robojelly and provides an anatomical understanding of natural jellyfish," said Villanuerva.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/SLv7rSPDm5M/111122113209.htm

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Western states step up sanctions on Iran (Reuters)

LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The United States and European Union are set to impose more sanctions on Iran, with Britain on Monday banning dealings with the central bank and France calling for measures on an "unprecedented scale" over Tehran's nuclear program.

The steps come in response to a November 8 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that presented intelligence suggesting Iran had worked on designing an atomic bomb and may still be secretly carrying out related research. Iran says its nuclear work is entirely peaceful.

The range of unilateral steps planned by Western powers reflects the difficulty of persuading Russia and China not to veto further measures at the U.N. Security Council, where they have supported four previous sanctions resolutions.

While Britain ordered its financial institutions to stop all business with Iran, a source familiar with the sanctions said the steps would not directly target trade in Iranian oil.

"We believe that the Iranian regime's actions pose a significant threat to the UK's national security and the international community. Today's announcement is a further step to preventing the Iranian regime from acquiring nuclear weapons," said British finance minister George Osborne.

The United States has not bought Iranian oil since 1995, but it appeared unlikely the U.S. Treasury would try to now cut off the Iranian banking system entirely, a move that could disrupt global energy markets and harm U.S. economic recovery.

A U.S. official said the Treasury Department planned to designate Iran as an area of "primary money laundering concern" on Monday, a move allowing it to take steps to isolate the Iranian financial sector further.

The United States is also expected to unveil sanctions against Iran's petrochemical sector on Monday, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.

It was unclear exactly what steps the U.S. Treasury plans, but the measures, which the U.S. official said were to be announced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, appeared designed as a warning about the risks of dealing with Iran's financial institutions.

EU governments could reach a preliminary deal on Tuesday to add about 190 Iranian people and entities to a list of those targeted by asset freezes and travel bans, diplomats said.

Canada will immediately ban the export to Iran of all goods used in the petrochemical, oil and gas industry as part of an international sanctions package, the government said on Monday.

But France called for much stronger action.

"As Iran steps up its nuclear program, refuses negotiation and condemns its people to isolation, France advocates new sanctions on an unprecedented scale to convince Iran that it must negotiate," said a statement from President Nicolas Sarkozy's office.

"France therefore proposes to the European Union and its member states, the United States, Japan and Canada and other willing countries to take the decision to immediately freeze the assets of the Iranian central bank (and) stop purchases of Iranian oil," it added.

The new EU measures will likely target industries such as shipping and will be formalized at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on December 1, but discussions on possible further steps could take place in the coming days, diplomats said.

"NOOSE TIGHTENING"

Henry Smith, Middle East analyst at the Control Risks consultancy in London, said the British move may not significantly affect Iran's major oil customers.

"It essentially de-legitimizes the country's financial system but in reality it may not make that much practical difference. The Chinese, Indians and others will continue to engage, while many Western multinationals have already pulled out," he said.

Smith said tighter sanctions had appeared more likely than any Western attack to knock out Iran's nuclear facilities. "We wouldn't regard Israel or indeed the U.S. as having the wherewithal to pursue the kind of military action required to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities," he said.

"It's going to affect trade finance which has a derivative effect on oil trade. That seems clear," said John Solomon, director of threat finance research at World-Check, a risk intelligence firm owned by Thomson Reuters.

"The proverbial noose has been tightened and the new sanctions will definitely have an unprecedented chilling effect on Iran's economic dealings globally, not just in Europe, not just in the UK, but even in the Middle East," he said.

U.S. sanctions have already made it extremely difficult for many global oil companies and traders to obtain bank financing to trade Iranian crude, of which less than a third goes to Europe with the rest flowing to China and India.

"A LOSE-LOSE GAME"

The U.S. administration suspects Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons capability under cover of its civilian atomic energy program. Tehran says it has no interest in nuclear arms.

In Tehran, Trade Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari said sanctions were hitting the Iranian economy but warned Western countries they were harming their own interests.

"Sanctions are a lose-lose game in which both sides make a loss. If they don't invest in our oil projects, they will lose an appealing market," Ghazanfari told a news conference before the British announcement.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has often said sanctions have little effect and in some cases make the economy stronger by making Iran find domestic solutions to challenges.

Ghazanfari reiterated that Iran had found alternatives to Western imports and investments, but did not deny the downside.

"Facing hardship in a fight is inevitable. I admit projects will get harder as our trading costs will go up, delays will hit projects and money transfer will get harder," he said.

U.S. officials say there has been a debate within the Obama administration about whether to sanction Iran's central bank, which many Iranian crude importers use to clear transactions.

Despite calls for such sanctions by Democratic and Republican lawmakers, U.S. officials have been reluctant to do so because of the fear that this could cause oil prices to jump, potentially impairing the U.S. economic recovery.

There is also a concern that importers of Iranian oil, including China and India, could be hurt by such a move, thereby antagonizing nations whose support Washington needs.

(Additional reporting by Ramin Mostafavi in Tehran, Peter Apps, Yeganeh Torbati and Dmitry Zhdannikov in London, David Ljunggren in Ottawa, Leigh Thomas in Paris and Justyna Pawlak in Brussels; Writing by David Stamp and Jon Hemming; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111121/wl_nm/us_iran_sanctions

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'Space camouflage' coating claim

22 November 2011 Last updated at 09:17 ET

Tiny carbon tubes can be used to hide three-dimensional objects from view, according to a team of researchers.

The nanotubes are one-atom thick sheets of graphene wrapped into cylindrical tubes.

Engineers from Michigan University found they could be used to obscure objects so that they appeared to be nothing more than a flat black sheet.

The team suggest "forests" of the material may one day be used to cloak spacecraft in deep space.

The group says the technology works because the nanotubes' "index of refraction [is] very close to that of air".

This means they slow down light to a similar degree.

As a result there is very little scattering of light as it passes from the air into the layer of nanotubes.

Hidden tank

Haofei Shi, the report's lead author, said the material "acts as a perfect black cloth that can completely conceal the 3D structure of the object".

To put his theory to the test his team etched a tiny 3D image of a tank out of silicon.

When viewed through a microscope the tank's contours could be clearly seen under white light.

However, when the nanotube coating was applied the tank's structure disappeared and could not be distinguished from the background.

The research will be published in an issue of the Applied Physics Letters journal.

The group is not the first to suggest carbon nanotubes could be used to create an invisibility cloak.

A scientist at the University of Texas at Dallas recently demonstrated that transparent sheets of the material, which looked like threads, vanished from view when placed in a liquid and were heated.

Dr Ali Aliev said the material created a mirage effect, causing light to bend around it.

He likened the effect to "puddles of water" that seem to appear on road surfaces when viewed from a distance on a hot day.

Dr Aliev suggested the material might one day be scaled up to hide large objects including military vehicles.

Other planets

Carbon nanotubes' light absorbing properties are also the focus of research at Nasa.

The space agency revealed earlier this year that it was studying using the substance to create a new kind of black paint.

The coating can absorb more than 99% of visible, ultraviolet, infrared and near-infrared light.

Nasa suggested it could be used in detectors and instrument components where stray-light causes problems.

Since the material reflects hundreds of times less light than the paints currently used, the agency said it could help create equipment capable of measuring distant objects such as planets orbiting stars outside our solar system.

"This is a very promising material," Nasa scientist Ed Wollack said.

"It's robust, lightweight, and extremely black. It is better than black paint by a shot."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/technology-15837145

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[OOC] When the World Dies: Revenge of the Vampires

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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.

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Can I reserve the scientists daughter please?

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may i reserve a class C vampire?

emotionless

Member for 2 years

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Thanks for accepting her TwiliXDragon. I hope she's okay I felt like I was fighting with the codes for hours.

bananaramma

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Charging electric cars in New Jersey about to get easier (Reuters)

MONTCLAIR, New Jersey (Reuters) ? Drivers of plug-in electric vehicles will soon find it easier than ever to charge up in New Jersey, which is at the center of a regional plan to install charging stations across the eastern seaboard.

In this northern New Jersey suburb alone, four public stations are slated to open in municipal parking lots by the end of November.

Last month, New Jersey signed a pledge with nine other states and the District of Columbia to create a regional network of charging stations for electric vehicles so drivers can eventually travel the eastern seaboard from Maine to Maryland and recharge anywhere along the way.

"It will mean the world to electric cars," said Chuck Feinberg, chairman of New Jersey Clean Cities Coalition, a non-profit group affiliated with the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Northeast Electric Vehicle Network grew out of President Barack Obama's Transport and Climate Initiative that promises to put 1 million plug-in vehicles on the road by 2015. About 200,000 of those vehicles will be within the network's region, which also includes Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Supporters of a regional charging network envision stations at malls, train stations, parking lots, rest stops and movie theaters.

Transportation accounts for about 30 percent of all greenhouse gases in the region, according to the Georgetown Climate Center.

Critics of electric vehicles point out that generating electricity also pollutes the air by burning coal, for example. Advocates of electric vehicles insist that electricity is still cleaner because it comes from a variety of sources including nuclear, solar and wind power.

By 2017, the New York Metro area will lead the nation in electric vehicle sales, according to Pike Research, an environmental research group.

But its infrastructure has a long way to go to support that demand. With the new Montclair stations, New Jersey has only about 20 charging stations. New York State has 70, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

A minuscule number of the vehicles on the road today are plug-in electric, and finding one to buy is not easy. Many models are sold in limited quantities.

The Nissan Leaf, an all-electric model, is only available in a handful of states. Until recently, buyers could not even reserve one in New Jersey and it still is not sold in the state . Ford will sell a limited number of its all-electric Focus beginning next year. And the Toyota Prius, the most popular hybrid on the road, will begin selling its plug-in model next year in 14 states, including New Jersey.

Logistics also are difficult. Drivers of electric vehicles who want to travel further than their battery allows -- the Leaf can drive about 80 to 100 miles on a single charge -- need a station.

It takes about 8 hours to fully charge a Leaf with the kind of equipment available in Montclair. The technology for rapid chargers, which could recharge a battery in a matter of minutes, is not commercially available yet.

Funded by a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, the network will spend next year deciding where to put the stations and how many are needed.

"Having the infrastructure in place is critical for driving demand," Friedman said.

New Jersey does not plan to invest its own money in the program. It will rely on the private sector to build the stations, which cost about $5,000. Montclair paid for its stations with a $25,000 grant from Sustainable Jersey.

Drivers pulling up to the charging station will pay by credit card or a monthly subscription, with rates determined by the market. In Montclair, drivers will pay $2 or $3 an hour to charge their vehicles compared to the 30 cents they would pay at home for the same amount of electricity, according to Plug-In America, an advocacy group.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Greg McCune)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111118/us_nm/us_electric_cars

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Barnes & Noble's Nook tablet starts shipping Wed

This product image provided by Barnes & Noble Inc., shows the new $249 Nook Tablet, which was unveiled Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, in New York. The e-book reader includes more features of a full-blown tablet than its prior offerings as the tablet wars heat up ahead of the all-important holiday season. (AP Photo/Barnes & Noble Inc.)

This product image provided by Barnes & Noble Inc., shows the new $249 Nook Tablet, which was unveiled Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, in New York. The e-book reader includes more features of a full-blown tablet than its prior offerings as the tablet wars heat up ahead of the all-important holiday season. (AP Photo/Barnes & Noble Inc.)

Chart compares tablet sales by operating systems

NEW YORK (AP) ? Barnes & Noble Inc.'s Nook Tablet electronic device began arriving in stores and homes on Wednesday, one day ahead of schedule.

The move comes just after Amazon.com Inc. began shipping its similar Kindle Fire device on Monday, also a day ahead of schedule. Both hope their souped-up tablet-like e-readers will be popular gifts this holiday season.

Apple Inc.'s iPad has so far dominated the tablet market. That device starts at $499. Nook Tablet is selling for $249 and Amazon's Kindle Fire sells for $199.

Since introducing its first Nook in 2009, Barnes & Noble has spent heavily on its e-book readers and e-bookstore.

Unlike Amazon, Barnes & Noble doesn't offer its own streaming services, but the Nook includes preloaded software from Hulu and Netflix Inc. to let users watch movies and TV shows through those subscription services.

The Nook Tablet weighs less than a pound, has a battery that enables nine hours of video watching and comes with 16 gigabytes of memory and an SD slot to add more. It runs on Google Inc.'s Android system for mobile devices.

The company also offers free customer service at the more than 700 Barnes & Noble stores, something CEO William Lynch points out that Amazon as an online retailer cannot do.

The Nook Tablet is being sold online, in Barnes & Noble stores and by a variety of other retailers, including Target, Best Buy, Staples and Fry's.

The research firm Gartner predicts that the iPad will still dominate in the years to come, with sales next year estimated at nearly 70 million units. Devices running Android, such as the Nook Tablet, will be second, with 23 million.

As people change the way they read, Barnes & Noble faces tough competition from discounters and online retailers in the market for traditional books. Barnes & Noble, which is based in New York, has struggled to turn a profit. Its much smaller rival, Borders Group Inc., sought bankruptcy protection and then liquidated its assets this year.

In its most recent quarter, Barnes & Noble reported a narrower loss than a year earlier as its revenue edged up 2 percent to $1.42 billion.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-11-16-US-Nook-Shipping-Early/id-915e2ae69ada46e391b81d8459aef346

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Sandusky proclaims innocence in NBC interview (AP)

NEW YORK ? A former Penn State football assistant coach charged with sexually abusing eight boys in a scandal that has rocked the university said Monday that there was no abuse and that any activities in a campus shower with a boy were just horseplay, not molestation.

In a telephone interview Monday night on NBC News' "Rock Center," Bob Costas asked Jerry Sandusky if he's a pedophile and Sandusky responded, "No."

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported on its website late Monday that close to 10 additional suspected victims have come forward to authorities since Sandusky's arrest, according to people close to the investigation. The paper said police were working to confirm the new allegations.

Sandusky, once considered veteran coach Joe Paterno's heir apparent, was arrested more than a week ago and is charged with sexually abusing eight boys, some on Penn State property, over a 15-year span.

"I am innocent of those charges," the 67-year-old Sandusky said. "... I could say that I have done some of those things. I have horsed around with kids. I have showered after workouts. I have hugged them, and I have touched their legs without intent of sexual contact."

Asked whether he was sexually attracted to underaged boys, he said "Sexually attracted, no. I enjoy young people, I love to be around them, but, no, I'm not sexually attracted to young boys."

Asked if there was anything he had done wrong, Sandusky said, "I shouldn't have showered with those kids."

Athletic director Tim Curley and Penn State vice president Gary Schultz are charged with perjury but maintain their innocence. Paterno and president Graham Spanier were ousted from their jobs for not doing enough after Sandusky was accused of assaulting a young boy in the showers of the campus football complex in 2002. Paterno is not the target of any legal investigation, but he has conceded he should have done more. Spanier, who remains a tenured member of the faculty, has said he would have reported a crime if he'd suspected one had been committed.

The interview with Costas was Sandusky's first public comment on the charges. He had previously maintained his innocence through his attorney, Joe Amendola.

A spokesman for Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly declined to comment on the interview, citing the active investigation.

Sandusky's remarks came the same night that Amendola, told CNN that his client was just behaving like "a jock."

"Jerry Sandusky is a big overgrown kid," Amendola said. "He's a jock, and for anybody who's ever played sports, you get showers after you work out."

Wide receivers coach Mike McQueary told a grand jury that in March 2001 when he was a graduate assistant, he saw Sandusky sodomizing a boy about 10 years old in a shower at the Nittany Lions' practice center. McQueary did not go to police but instead told Paterno, Curley and Schultz, although it is unclear how detailed a description he gave. Schultz, in turn, notified Spanier.

Sandusky told NBC that only "horseplay" was involved.

"We were showering and horsing around, and he actually turned all the showers on and was actually sliding across the floor, and we were, as I recall, possibly like snapping a towel ? horseplay," he said.

Amendola accused the attorney general's office of having "thrown everything they can throw up against the wall." He said some of the allegations, such as putting a hand on a boy's knee, do not constitute criminal conduct and other cases include no direct complaint by the boy.

"They have other people who are saying they saw something, but they don't have actual people saying, `This is what Jerry did to me," Amendola said. "We're working to find those people, and when the time comes, and if we are able to do that, we think this whole case will change dramatically."

The Associated Press has made several efforts to reach Sandusky by phone and through Amendola, but messages haven't been returned. The AP also knocked on Sandusky's door and left messages at least three times over the past week.

When Sandusky retired in 1999, at just 55, he cited his desire to devote more time to The Second Mile, a charity he founded in 1977 to help at-risk kids. According to the grand jury report, however, Sandusky was a sexual predator who used the charity and his Penn State connections to prey on young boys.

Though he was not particularly close with Paterno, he remained a familiar sight around the Penn State football complex. He was given an office in the East Area Locker building, across the street from the football building, as part of his retirement package, and would take Second Mile kids around the football facilities.

Sandusky said Paterno never asked him about his behavior or what he might have done.

The Sandusky interview came on the day when it was announced the president of The Second Mile had resigned. Jack Raykovitz, a practicing psychologist who had led the group for 28 years, said he hoped his resignation, accepted Sunday, would help restore faith in the group's mission. The Second Mile also announced it had hired Philadelphia's longtime district attorney as its new general counsel.

Separately, the Big Ten has decided to take Paterno's name off its championship trophy. League commissioner Jim Delany said that it is "inappropriate" to keep Paterno's name on the trophy that will be awarded Dec. 3 to the winner of the conference's first title game.

The trophy had been named the Stagg-Paterno Championship Trophy. Paterno had more wins, 409, than any other major college coach while football pioneer Amos Alonzo Stagg won 319 games in 57 years at the University of Chicago.

The trophy will now be called the Stagg Championship Trophy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111115/ap_on_sp_co_ne/fbc_penn_state_abuse

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Obama pushes Congress' deficit panel to act (AP)

HONOLULU ? Sounding increasingly frustrated as a deadline for action approaches, President Barack Obama accused members of a special congressional deficit-reduction panel of refusing to budge from rigid positions and find a solution to the country's yawning deficit.

And with Republicans unwilling to cooperate on his jobs bill, Obama said it might take a new Congress to get economic growth package done.

"It feels as if people continue to try to stick with their rigid positions rather than solve the problem," Obama said of the 12 members of the bipartisan deficit "supercommittee," spreading criticism among Republicans and Democrats alike, at a wide-ranging news conference Sunday night, capping an economic summit in his home state of Hawaii.

"My hope is that over the next several days, the congressional leadership on the supercommittee go ahead and bite the bullet and do what needs to be done, because the math won't change. There's no magic formula," Obama said. "There are no magic beans that you can toss on the ground and suddenly a bunch of money grows on trees. We got to just go ahead and do the responsible thing."

Obama spoke as lawmakers on the specially created panel appeared deadlocked, with a Nov. 23 deadline fast approaching to find more than $1 trillion in deficit cuts or see harsh spending cuts triggered for a range of federal programs including the Pentagon. The president rejected the idea of softening the triggering mechanism, as some have proposed, though he stopped short of threatening to veto such a move.

"I still hold out the prospect that there's going to be a light-bulb moment where everybody says `Ah-ha! Here's what we've got to do," said Obama. He repeated his call for a "balanced approach" that would raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations while also making cuts in entitlement programs and elsewhere. Republicans on the committee would couple any revenue increases with lowering tax rates in a way the White House says would unduly benefit the wealthy.

Obama also defended his policies on Iran, struck back at criticism from the GOP presidential field, and addressed the fate of his stalled jobs bill as Washington politics followed him to Hawaii, where he's on the first part of a nine-day trip aimed at building ties and finding economic opportunities in the fast-growing Asia Pacific. Obama, who played host to the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit here, leaves Tuesday for Australia before ending his trip in Indonesia.

Along the way, he's not neglecting his re-election campaign: the president was scheduled to raise money Monday at a campaign event at the Aulani Disney Resort in Kapolei, Hawaii. Ticket prices for the fundraising brunch started at $1,000 per person.

Once he returns to Washington Nov. 20, the president will grapple once again with Republicans who've agreed to only one sliver so far of his $447 billion jobs package of tax credits and public works spending ? a measure passed by the Senate last week to boost hiring of jobless veterans. But Obama contended Sunday that any failure of the jobs package would hurt Republicans more than him, and he said he'd continue promoting it even if it takes him past next year's elections.

"I'm going to keep on pushing," Obama said. "My expectation is that we will get some of it done now, and I'll keep on pushing until we get all of it done. And that may take me all the way to November to get it all done. And it may take a new Congress to get it all done."

Obama said he hoped Republicans would "recognize that doing nothing is not an option ... And that should be their hope, too, because if they don't, I think we'll have a different set of leaders in Congress."

With jobs at the top of the agenda for voters heading into the 2012 presidential election, Obama's sought to connect his travels to the domestic economy, and he renewed the point at the news conference held outdoors Sunday evening against a spectacular Hawaii backdrop of palm trees and rolling waves.

"No region will do more to shape our long-term economic future than the Asia Pacific region," Obama said.

Obama also defended his efforts to halt the Iranian nuclear threat, saying that the economic sanctions against the country have had "enormous bite," and that he is united with Russian and Chinese leaders in ensuring Iran does not develop an atomic weapon and unleash an arms race across the Middle East.

Republican presidential contenders, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, have assailed Obama for not doing more to keep Iran from getting nuclear weaponry. Said Obama: "Is this an easy issue? No. Anyone who claims it is is either politicking or doesn't know what they're talking about."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111114/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama

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Qatar Airways buys 55 Airbus planes after impasse

Patrouille de France planes perform at the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Nov. 14, 2011. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

Patrouille de France planes perform at the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Nov. 14, 2011. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

An Emirati man and the other visitors pass by in front of planes at the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Nov.14, 2011. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

An Emirati man takes photos of his friends in front of heart shape of colored smoke from Patrouille de France formation display planes at the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Nov.14, 2011. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

Patrouille de France planes perform at the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Nov.14, 2011. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

Patrouille de France planes pass close as they perform at the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Nov.14, 2011. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) ? Fast-expanding Gulf carrier Qatar Airways said Tuesday it will buy 55 Airbus planes just hours after a stunning announcement that talks had hit an impasse.

The deal includes 50 A320neos narrow bodies and five A380 double-decker jumbos with options for more. Airbus says the package is worth $6.4 billion at list prices, but airlines typically negotiate lower prices for large orders.

The announcement at the Dubai Airshow capped a startling flurry of comments in which Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker said negotiations with the European aircraft maker had stalled and then slammed the company as still "learning how to make airplanes."

The carriers announced the deal shortly after Airbus signed a memorandum of understanding with US carrier Spirit Airlines for 45 A320neo planes and 30 of regular A320 aircraft. Airbus chief operating officer John Leahy said that deal is worth $7 billion at list prices with the configurations Spirit requested.

Qatar Airways is increasingly challenging Dubai-based Emirates in the race for long-haul customers using the Gulf as a transit hub. Emirates placed a record $18 billion order for another 50 Boeing 777s shortly after the opening of the Middle East's biggest airshow on Sunday.

Neither Al-Baker nor Airbus provided details about the apparent near-unraveling of efforts to reach a deal during the airshow.

"We thought that we will ... make a very huge announcement today. Unfortunately I feel that Airbus is ... still learning how to make airplanes," al-Baker said when asked about the deal.

"That was a statement in very clear English, and you should understand what I mean," he added during a press conference to announce a deal to buy two Boeing 777 cargo planes from Airbus' U.S. rival. Those planes sell for just over $280 million at list prices.

Doha-based Qatar Airways' fleet of 101 aircraft is dominated by Airbus planes, though it also has orders or options for nearly 90 Boeing jets.

Airbus scored at least one additional order Tuesday.

The plane maker said Newport Beach, Calif.-based aircraft leasing company Aviation Capital Group signed a purchase agreement for 30 A320neo planes ? the same model Qatar Airways agreed to buy.

The A320neo offers a new engine option and other features designed to use 15 percent less fuel than older models of the single-aisle A320. It is scheduled to enter service in 2015.

Airbus' deal with ACG is worth $2.7 billion at list prices.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-15-ML-Dubai-Airshow/id-de8099fc03974bb9b315260c5460e56d

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Recall effort against Wisconsin GOP governor to start (Reuters)

MILWAUKEE (Reuters) ? Opponents of Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker, who led a controversial move to limit bargaining rights of state employees, will launch a recall effort against him with an online filing on Tuesday, organizers said.

United Wisconsin, one of several groups leading recall efforts against Walker, will make the filing with the state Government Accountability Board at midnight followed by a paper filing with election officials in the morning, said Alanis Strauch, a regional volunteer coordinator.

Recall efforts against three Republican state senators will also be launched, a spokesman for the state Democratic party said, along with a recall drive against Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch.

Walker, newly elected in 2010, led the drive against public unions, saying deficit-ridden state finances could not support the union wages and benefits long-term. The Wisconsin battle threw a national spotlight on reform moves by Republicans who took control of state legislatures after the 2010 mid-terms.

Organizers seeking to unseat Walker, a Republican, must then gather 540,208 signatures within 60 days to force a recall election. Some 200,000 people have pledged online to sign the petition to recall Walker, Mike Tate, chair of the state Democratic Party, told WISN-TV in Milwaukee on Monday.

The fresh moves follow nine summer recall elections sparked by the contentious passage of the collective bargaining law. Two Republican state senators lost their seats in the recalls.

The state senators being targeted on Tuesday for recall are Pam Galloway of Wausau, Terry Moulton of Chippewa Falls, and Van Wanggaard of Racine.

As many as 17 state senators, along with Walker and Kleefisch, could be eligible to face recall battles next summer if activists succeed in efforts to force such votes, according to the Wisconsin accountability board.

The political balance of the state Senate is at stake with 11 Republicans and 6 Democrats not already up for re-election eligible for recall efforts under state rules.

Lawmakers who have been in office one year and who have not already faced such a vote are eligible for recall in Wisconsin.

Tate said that potentially more than $100 million could be spent on both sides over the Walker recall effort, with money coming in from wealthy individuals outside the state, including conservative businessmen like the Koch brothers.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said in an interview on WISN-TV that if Democrats receive more than $30 million from outside the state for the recall, it will signal that the recall drive is about preserving Wisconsin as a key swing state for the re-election of Barack Obama.

Fitzgerald told WISN-TV that as governor, Walker has a bully pulpit to explain to the public what happened with the collective bargaining act. He said that since the bill was passed, the state is on more solid financial footing.

Fitzgerald also said he thinks the recall process is too broad, making it too easy to recall legislators.

"It makes it much more difficult to develop good public policy, and it changes the dynamics of the chamber," he said.

Tate said that possible Democrat candidates that could run against Walker include Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who lost the governor's race to Walker last November; former congressman David Obey; former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk; and State Sen. Jon Erpenbach, who was part of the group of Democrat legislators to leave the state earlier this year to deny the senate a quorum for a vote on the collective bargaining law.

(Writing and reporting by John Rondy; editing by Mary Wisniewski and Peter Bohan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111115/pl_nm/us_wisconsin_recall

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Microsoft eyes new category for Windows Embedded, envisions intelligent systems for everyday objects

Microsoft's fixin' to get its Windows platform inside, well, everything. That's according to GM of Windows Embedded, Kevin Dallas, who says the tech giant is on track to create a new category for the division that centers around "intelligent systems." It appears the time is ripe for "low-cost... high-powered microchips" to take advantage of MS' emerging cloud services and integrate means of delivering data and immersive experiences to both enterprise and commercial end users, like in-car systems or point of sale terminals. Need a more specific visual of where this heavy-handed business jargon's headed? Dallas claims customers in the medical industry are eager to implement Kinect's gesture-based tracking into future equipment, so pretty soon you won't have to worry about shaky hands splicing into your vital organs. And all of this is coming relatively soon, as good 'ol Redmond plans to make its Windows Embedded platforms available shortly after the release of Windows 8 for PCs. So hold tight, there's a brave new world coming and Microsoft's holding the keys.

Microsoft eyes new category for Windows Embedded, envisions intelligent systems for everyday objects originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/14/microsoft-eyes-new-category-for-windows-embedded-envisions-inte/

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State-run retailers may cut gasoline prices from Nov 16: source (Reuters)

NEW DELHI (Reuters) ? State-run retailers may cut gasoline prices by about one percent or at least 0.60 rupees a litre excluding taxes from Nov. 16 as softening Singapore prices have partially offset the impact of a declining rupee, an industry source said on Friday.

It would be the first decrease since June 2010 when the Congress-led government freed petrol prices. A series of hikes since then have drawn criticism from political allies and stirred public outcry amid high inflation.

"If the rupee continues at current levels and if Singapore FOB (free on board) gasoline spot prices continue to average $115.80 a barrel, oil companies may reduce basic prices by at least 60 paise a litre," the source, who requested anonymity, told Reuters.

Last week state-run Indian oil retailers raised gasoline prices by 1.50 rupees a litre, which rose to 1.80 rupees a litre after adding local taxes in Delhi. It was the fourth increase in gasoline prices this year.

Petrol is nowhere near as widely used as diesel in India -- accounting for around 10 percent of fuel demand compared with about 40 percent for diesel -- but it is high-profile as it powers many of the cars owned by the growing and vociferous middle class.

In addition, many Indians use petrol-driven scooters for commuting while families of four all on a bike are a common sight.

The widening price gap between the two fuels has softened growth of petrol consumption, which has recently slowed behind that of diesel.

Petrol currently retails around 68.6 rupees ($1.37) per litre, nearly 68 percent higher than diesel.

Last week's price rise was made assuming Asian gasoline prices of about $121 a barrel and an exchange rate of 49.20 rupees to the dollar.

Spot Singapore gasoline prices are currently averaging $115.80 a barrel according to Reuters data while the rupee averaged about 49.30 to the dollar in the fortnight to Friday.

Indian fuel retailers usually meet once a fortnight to consider petrol prices but prefer to wait for a considerable change before passing on to the retail level.

Their profitability has been hurt as the government has not raised prices of subsidised fuels -- gasoil, kerosene, and cooking gas -- since June this year despite rising global crude oil prices .

The oil firms are likely to suffer a revenue loss of 1.32 trillion rupees on their sales of subsidised fuels in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2012.

The finance minstry on Friday agreed to give a cash compensation of 150 billion rupees to state fuel retailers to partially compensate them for losses on sale of subsidised fuels in July-September, two finance ministry sources said.

Indian Oil Corp, the country's biggest fuel retailer, last week reported its largest ever net loss of 74.86 billion rupees in the July to September period.

The other two state-run retailers, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum, also reported losses during the quarter.

($1 = 50.180 Indian Rupees)

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Additional Report by Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Jo Winterbottom)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111111/india_nm/india604744

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