Nigeria: death sentence for former dictator's man (AP)

LAGOS, Nigeria ? A judge in Nigeria has sentenced a former dictator's right-hand man to death over the killing of a politician's wife.

Judge Mojisola Dada at Lagos' High Court on Monday ruled that Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha should be hanged. He was accused of orchestrating the 1996 machine-gun killing of the wife of Moshood Abiola, a flamboyant businessman widely believed to be have won an annulled 1993 presidential election.

Al-Mustapha, the right-hand man for the feared military dictator Sani Abacha, has spent 13 years in prison awaiting various trials accusing him of murder in Africa's most populous nation.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_re_af/af_nigeria_trial

osiris 9 11 memorial 9 11 memorial explosion plaxico burress kenya entourage season 8

2 convicted in al-Qaida terror plot in Norway (AP)

OSLO, Norway ? Two men were found guilty Monday of involvement in an al-Qaida plot to attack a Danish newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, the first convictions under Norway's anti-terror laws.

A third defendant was acquitted of terror charges but convicted of helping the others acquire explosives.

Investigators say the plot was linked to the same al-Qaida planners behind thwarted attacks against the New York subway system and a shopping mall in Manchester, England, in 2009.

The Oslo district court sentenced alleged ringleader Mikael Davud, to seven years in prison and co-defendant Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak to three and a half years.

Judge Oddmund Svarteberg said the court found that Davud, a Chinese Muslim, "planned the attack together with al-Qaida." Bujak was deeply involved in the preparations, but it couldn't be proved that he was aware of Davud's contacts with al-Qaida, the judge said.

The third defendant, David Jakobsen, who assisted police in the investigation, was convicted on an explosives charge and sentenced to four months in prison ? time he's already served in pretrial detention.

Defense lawyers for the three told the court they would study the verdict before deciding whether to appeal.

Davud smiled and waved to photographers as he left the court. His defense lawyer, Carl Konow Rieber-Mohn, told The Associated Press later Monday that he would advise his client to appeal.

The case was Norway's most high-profile terror investigation until last July, when a right-wing extremist killed 77 people in a bomb and shooting massacre.

The three men, who were arrested in July 2010, made some admissions but pleaded innocent to terror conspiracy charges and rejected any links to al-Qaida.

During the trial Davud denied he was taking orders from al-Qaida, saying he was planning a solo raid against the Chinese Embassy in Oslo. He said he wanted revenge for Beijing's oppression of Uighurs, a Muslim minority in western China.

Davud, who moved to Norway in 1999 and later became a Norwegian citizen, also said his co-defendants helped him acquire bomb-making ingredients but didn't know he was planning an attack.

Prosecutors said the Norwegian cell first wanted to attack Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, whose 12 cartoons of Muhammad sparked furious protests in Muslim countries in 2006, and then changed plans to seek to murder one of the cartoonists instead.

Bujak, an Iraqi Kurd, said the paper and the cartoonist were indeed the targets, but described the plans as "just talk."

Prosecutors had to prove the defendants worked together in a conspiracy, because a single individual plotting an attack is not covered under Norway's anti-terror laws.

"There is no doubt that Davud took the initiative to prepare the terror act and that he was the ring leader," the judge said as he delivered the verdict.

He said Davud planned to carry out the attack himself by placing a bomb outside Jyllands-Posten's offices in Aarhus, in western Denmark.

The men had been under surveillance for more than a year when authorities moved to arrest them. Norwegian investigators, who worked with their U.S. counterparts, said the defendants were building a bomb in a basement laboratory in Oslo.

Jakobsen, an Uzbek national who changed his name after moving to Norway, provided some of the chemicals for the bomb, but claims he did not know they were meant for explosives. Jakobsen contacted police and served as an informant, but still faced charges for his involvement before that.

An Associated Press investigation in 2010 showed that authorities learned early on about the alleged cell by intercepting emails from an al-Qaida operative in Pakistan and ? thanks to those early warnings ? were able to secretly replace a key bomb-making ingredient with a harmless liquid when Jakobsen ordered it at an Oslo pharmacy.

The judge said it had been proven that Davud had contacts with al-Qaida in Pakistan, and that his notebook contained references to Saleh al-Somali, al-Qaida's chief of external operations, who officials believe helped organize the New York, Manchester and Norway plots. He was killed in a CIA drone strike in Pakistan in 2009.

During the trial, prosecutors presented testimony obtained in the U.S. in April from three American al-Qaida recruits turned government witnesses.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/terrorism/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_re_eu/eu_norway_terror_trial

kelly thomas international day of peace michaele salahi jill zarin dexter mccluster dexter mccluster david beckham

Federal workers make more for the same job

WASHINGTON?? The average federal worker earns about 2 percent more than a private sector worker in a comparable profession, though the government's generous pension system means that overall compensation is significantly higher, a government study released Monday said.

Once pension and health benefits are factored in, the average federal worker reaps 16 percent more in total compensation than do private sector workers.

The Congressional Budget Office study said federal workers in lower-level jobs make more than private sector workers but that those with advanced degrees earn more in the private sector. Federal workers with a high school education or less earn about $4 more an hour than private sector employees in similar jobs.

The CBO study comes as House GOP leader have scheduled a vote this week to extend the current federal worker pay freeze for an additional year and have been pressing to make federal employees contribute more for their pensions.

"While millions of Americans continue to struggle with stagnant wages and high unemployment, government bureaucrats in Washington continue to enjoy significant advantages over those whose tax dollars finance their compensation," read a statement by the office of Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., chairman of the House Budget Committee.

The average benefits package for federal workers, including health insurance and a defined benefit pension plan, costs the government about 48 percent more than for private sector workers in comparable jobs. Defined benefit pensions ? in which retirement payments are based on a formula involving wages and length of service ? are becoming far less common in the private sector.

The federal government employs about 2.3 million civilian workers, or about 1.7 percent of the U.S. workforce. Total compensation for civilian federal workers costs roughly $200 billion a year. Civilian worker pay has been frozen for the past two years in response to exploding budget deficits.

President Barack Obama has proposed lifting the pay freeze next year but limiting the increase to a small 0.5 percent hike.

Supporters of federal workers say the government has difficulty competing for highly qualified workers like doctors and engineers because federal pay isn't as high. Indeed, federal workers with a professional degree or a doctorate earn, on average, 23 percent less than private sector employees. On the other hand, the government offers far greater job security and comparable benefits.

For workers with a college degree, private and public sector wages are about the same, but the government's benefits package means overall compensation costs about $7 more an hour, on average.

Lower-skill workers with a high school diploma or less fare significantly better as government workers than they would in comparable private sector jobs, with 21 percent higher wages and far better health and pension benefits.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46194863/ns/business-us_business/

mark wahlberg merle haggard ladainian tomlinson apple announcement yu darvish keystone xl pipa

The Omni Group talks iPad apps, user interface, and the future of the platform

The Omni Group is famous for their high quality, thoughtfully designed, and enormously useful productivity apps for iPhone, iPad, and Macs, including OmniFocus, OmniGraphSketcher, OmniGraffle, and OmniOutliner. They were one

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/dfG2YpyaTpI/story01.htm

palmetto sturgis sturgis rob lowe fox news sanctum the notebook

Social Media for Business | The Big Picture

Macro Notes

REAL GDP touch light, NOMINAL GDP very light
Peter Boockvar

After 3 quarters in a row that averaged just 1.2%, Q4 GDP grew 2.8%, a touch below expectations of 3.0% BUT Nominal GDP grew well below forecasts. Because the price deflator was up just .4% vs the estimate of 1.9%, Nominal GDP was up 3.2% vs the estimate of 4.9%. Personal Consumption rose 2.0% vs the forecast of 2.4%. Fixed Investment rose 3.3% helped by a 5.2% increase in equipment and software spending and residential construction rose by 10.9%. Trade was a slight drag on GDP growth and government spending was as well led by a 12.5% decline on national...

read more ?

Source: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/01/social-media-for-business/

drosselmeyer pacific standard time local time when is daylight savings 2011 what time is it cain gingrich debate andy rooney dies

Sanctions to hit EU buyback firms: Iran oil chief (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) ? European companies owed oil by Iran could lose out if Tehran imposes a ban on crude exports to the European Union next week, the head of Iran's state oil company said on Saturday.

Iran's parliament is due to debate a bill on Sunday that would cut off oil supplies to the EU in a matter of days, in revenge for a decision last Monday by the 27 EU member states to stop importing crude from Iran as of July 1.

"Generally, the parties to incur damage from the EU's recent decision will be European companies with pending contracts with Iran," Ahmad Qalebani, head of the National Iranian Oil Co. told the ISNA news agency.

"The European companies will have to abide by the provisions of the buyback contracts," he said. "If they act otherwise, they will be the parties to incur the relevant losses and will subject the repatriation of their capital to problems."

By turning the sanctions back on the EU, Iranian lawmakers hope to deny Europe the six-month window it had planned to give those countries most dependent on Iranian oil - including some of the most economically fragile - time to adapt.

The EU banned imports of oil from Iran on Monday and imposed a number of other economic sanctions, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at deflecting Tehran's nuclear development programme.

Under buyback contracts, a common feature of the Iranian oil industry, investments in oil field projects are paid back in oil, often over many years.

Italy's Eni says it is owed $1.4-1.5 billion in oil for contracts in Iran dating from 2000 and 2001 and has been assured by EU policymakers its buyback contracts will not be part of the European embargo but the prospect of Iran acting first may put that into doubt.

The EU accounted for 25 percent of Iranian crude oil sales in the third quarter of 2011.

(Writing by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by David Stamp)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/ts_nm/us_iran_oil_sanctions

starship troopers nfl nfl cruise ship italy patriots broncos game gisele bundchen saints

The Rise of Private Health Insurance Plans

Should You Choose an HSA, HMO, or PPO Health Insurance Plan?

Preferred Provider Organization (PPO): These are similar to HMO plans. They also have a network of medical providers.

Many people like PPO plans because they are more flexible than HMO plans.

HSA Health Plans (Health Savings Accounts): These are a little different. You will get a high deductible major medical insurance plan with a health savings account.

• Many accounts pay interest at competitive rates.

?

Medicare supplement plans are not issued by private insurance companies to compete with the Federal Government?s Medicare. Instead, Medicare and Medicare supplement plans would work hand-in-hand in answering the growing health care needs of Americans. Medicare is the prime source of insurance coverage while Medicare supplement plans covering parts of the expenses.

will remain supplemental.; There are still some aspects of health care coverage that private health insurance plans cannot cover. Despite that, however, Medicare supplement plans still offer the practical approach to Americans who are concerned about health care: a mix of Medicare and Medicare supplement plans to answer health care and medical insurance needs.

Source: http://www.umdelts.org/the-rise-of-private-health-insurance-plans

james ray williston nd williston nd mists of pandaria mists of pandaria 20 20 gunner kiel

US weapons for future include key relics of past (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The lineup of weapons the Pentagon has picked to fit President Barack Obama's new forward-looking defense strategy, called "Priorities for 21st Century Defense," features relics of the past.

They include the Air Force's venerable B-52 bomber, whose current model entered service shortly before Obama was born. There is the even older U-2 spy plane, which began flying in 1955 and burst into the spotlight in May 1960 when Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union.

When Obama went to the Pentagon on Jan. 5 to announce his new defense strategy he said that as the U.S. shifts from a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan it will "get rid of outdated Cold War-era systems." He was not specific. But when the first details of the Pentagon's 2013 budget plan were announced Thursday, it was clear that some prominent remaining Cold War-era "systems" will live on.

That includes not just the B-52 bomber and the U-2 spy plane, but also the foundation of U.S. nuclear deterrence strategy: a "triad" of nuclear weapons that can be launched from land, sea, and air. That concept, credited by many for preventing nuclear conflict throughout the Cold War, is now seen by some arms control experts as the kind of outdated structure that the United States can afford to get rid of.

Some think the U.S. should do away with at least one leg of that "triad," perhaps the bomber role. That would not just save money and clear the way for larger reductions in the number of U.S. nuclear weapons ? an Obama goal in line with his April 2009 pledge to seek the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said recently that maintaining the current structure of American nuclear forces was "not in keeping with the modern world." He and like-minded lawmakers argue that nuclear weapons play no role in deterring threats such as global terrorists.

The U.S. now has about 5,000 operational nuclear weapons, about half as many as a decade ago. They can be launched from ballistic missile submarines, from underground silos housing intercontinental ballistic missiles, and from B-52 and B-2 bombers at air bases in Louisiana, North Dakota and Missouri.

The Air Force, which provides the land and air legs of the triad, argues for preserving that Cold War-era configuration.

"It remains our conviction that as you go down (in numbers of nuclear weapons), the triad actually becomes more important," Gen. Norton Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff, told reporters Friday. "The diversity, the variety, the attributes associated with each leg of the triad reinforce each other to a greater degree."

Both the B-52 and the B-2 are capable of doing more than carrying nuclear weapons. The B-52 has been modernized many times and is now used in a variety of roles, including close-air support of troops in conflict and can carry missiles, bombs and mines. The first of the current H models entered service in May 1961.

The land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) force dates to 1959. Ballistic missile subs, known as "boomers," were first launched in 1960; the current Ohio-class fleet dates to 1981.

The administration is nearing completion of an internal review of how many nuclear weapons are required to meet today's security needs; that process will lead to decisions on whether to reshape the nuclear arsenal. That effort is linked to consultations with NATO allies on whether to withdraw the remaining U.S. nuclear weapons from Europe, an arrangement that also is rooted in the Cold War. Also at play is how to set the stage for a new round of nuclear reduction talks with Russia.

The only move the Pentagon is making on the nuclear weapons front in the 2013 budget is a proposed two-year delay in development of a new generation of submarines to replace those how equipped with Trident nuclear missiles.

The Arms Control Association, which favors cutting nuclear weapons, estimates that the new fleet of ballistic missile submarines would cost $350 billion to build and would last for 50 years. It advocates shrinking the number of subs to eight, which is says would save $27 billion over 10 years.

Laicie Olson, senior policy analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, said in an interview Friday that she was surprised, given Obama's commitment to reducing the number of nuclear weapons, that the administration is not using its 2013 defense budget to take substantial steps in that direction.

"All of these things are sticking around," she said, referring also to the U-2 spy plane, which was to have been retired in 2015 and replaced by a high-tech successor, the Global Hawk, which is flown without a pilot aboard.

Preserving such Cold War-era weapons "actually seems like the opposite of what the president set out to do," she said.

The Pentagon announced Thursday that the Global Hawk turned out to be a disappointment and no cheaper to use, so it is being canceled. As a result, the Air Force is extending the lifespan of the U-2, nicknamed "Angel" by Kelly Johnson, the Lockheed engineer who helped design the high-altitude spy plane.

Since 1994 the Air Force has spent $1.7 billion to modernize the U-2, whose claims to fame include the October 1962 flights over Cuba that confirmed the presence of Soviet nuclear missiles, touching off the Cuban missile crisis.

___

Online:

Pentagon: http://tinyurl.com/84ouz2u

Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation: http://armscontrolcenter.org/

Arms Control Association: http://www.armscontrol.org

___

Robert Burns can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_pentagon_in_with_the_old

x factor finale pro bowl voting kindle fire update college board pasco county rooney mara solstice

Video: Florida remains up-for-grabs

>>> the republican presidential candidates have been bashing president obama 's address while they're on the road in florida today . larry kudlow interviewed mitt romney for his show tonight. romney told him that many obama's millionaire's tax is aimed directly at him. while newt gingrich told the "today" show he liked obama's rhetoric, but that was it.

>> well, it's designed to commit me if i'm the nominee, if i happen to be not the nominee, he's trying to divide america and try and say that republicans are all about the rich people . look, republicans are about fighting to help middle class americans get better jobs.

>> i find the gap between president obama 's words and his deeds to be sort of astounding. you know, he ran on bringing us together. he ran on yes, we can. yet, last night he seemed to be setting up an entire year of divisiveness.

>> meanwhile, some new poll numbers out today showed newt gingrich taking the lead in the sunshine state . the quinnipiac poll talked to voters before and after the south carolina primary , before the primary, romney was polling at about 37%, gingrich in second at 26%. but after the south carolina primary , take a look at this now. gingrich soars to 40%. but the race cos still be anyone's. 3% say they still might change their minds. want to bring in the "news nation" political panel. michael smerconish is a radio talk show host, also an msnbc contributor as well, a.b. stoddard, columnist for the hill. good afternoon to both of you.

>> hi, craig .

>> michael , let's start with you. newt gingrich wiping out a 12-point lead by mitt romney in florida . he did the same thing in south carolina . his momentum now giving him more momentum. how likely at this point that romney loses florida , and what will that mean for the race going forward?

>> i think this would be the contest that would wipe the slate clean because up till now, folks have been saying romney is still the proverbial front-runner but if he should lose florida , a far more diverse state than was south carolina in terms of those who come out and comprise the primary electorate, this would be a very significant setback. you know, craig , here's the state of the union address last night. i'm convinced mitt romney made the decision to release his tax returns yesterday, thinking he would get buried in all the coverage of the state of the union . and instead, it seems to have played directly into the hand of the president who was prepared already to talk about income disparity and here now is the romney tax return , which just furthered the narrative the white house is trying to create of him.

>> a.b., it did sound at times last night that the president was speaking as if mitt romney was going to be 9 nominee. a lot of the themes highlighted last night were the themes that would lend themselves to mitt romney .

>> they are. and michael 's right that the release of the tax returns showing that a man with no job is earning almost $60,000 a day in income off his investments from years gone by is really quite a stark example with most americans. but i think that president obama is going to run on the same themes no matter who is the nominee. he's decided he's not going to run on the situation with the economy which he says is better but he's not going to run on 8% unemployment. he's not going to run on health care reform law. he's going to run on the fact that things could be worse and the fact that there are these differences between republican economic positions which he says destroy the middle class and his proposal to defend the middle class , which he says you know, is having this make or break moment. it doesn't matter. even if newt gingrich becomes the republican nominee, you'll hear the same thing from president obama this summer and fall.

>> i want to come back to the state of the union in a moment. i want to make sure we get to what happened in florida today . newt gingrich spending part of the morning on a univision candidate forum in miami trying to court hispanic voters. a huge continuigency in the sunshine state . take a listen to what he said this morning. i want to talk about it on the other side.

>> you said that spanish is the language of the living -- of living in a ghetto.

>> it wasn't about spanish. i said about all languages. i am for english as a communionfying language. the fact is you will have a higher income, have greater job opportunities, and have a likelihood of your family having a better future if you're conversant in english.

>> michael , is there a republican candidate that has an advantage over the other with those crucial little important hispanic voters in florida ?

>> well, really interesting, craig , because you know, newt gingrich in commenting about the path towards citizenship as he saw it for the 11 million here already illegally, alienated some elements of thatting and glow base within the gop. the message he offered a few weeks agoing that drew criticism should be one that would earn him fans among hispanics in florida in particular. whether that turns out to be the case, we're about to find out.

>> one of the things that struck me going back to the state of the union last night, a.b., one of the things that struck me was it appeared as if the president was racing for the middle. it looked like and sounded like triangulation all over again. he spent time last night talking about cyberwarfare, talked about fighting mercury poisoning and spent a fair amount of time talking about personal responsibility, as well, themes that you generally don't hear a lot of left leaning politicians talk about a great deal. a.b., is the president going to be able to make that pivot successfully to go from fiery liberal populist to the centrist in the.

>> i think it's going to be tough. last night except for his discussion of economic disparity and tax fairness, i think he was largely a speech to please the base and consolidate the base. in the months to come when there is a general election that has begun in ernest and this is a republican nominee, he's going to bepy videotaping back perhaps on energy and other issues. right now he's talking about expiring the bush tax cuts for the wealthy and fighting for the middle class . republicans are not in agreement with those policies right now.

>> a.b., michael , always a pleasure. thank you both.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/46135961/

real steel real steel iphone 4 cases dean ornish dean ornish yom kippur yom kippur

Iran's Ahmadinejad ups rates to stem money crisis (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad agreed to increase bank interest rates on Wednesday, hoping to halt a spiraling currency crisis intensified by new Western sanctions.

"The economy minister has announced Ahmadinejad has agreed with the approval of the Money and Credit Council to increase interest rates on bank deposits to up to 21 percent," the official IRNA news agency reported.

Sanctions the United States and the European Union announced over the last month - targeting Iran's vital oil exports and its central bank - exacerbated fears about the economy and worsened a dash for hard currency.

The rial was already losing value since a decision last April to cut interest paid on bank deposits to a range of a 12.5-15.5, below inflation which is currently around 20 percent, prompting many Iranians to withdraw savings and buy gold and foreign currency and pushing up the price of both.

But the dash for those safe havens accelerated sharply after the new sanctions were announced, resulting in the rial losing 50 percent of its value against the price of dollars available on the open market in just one month.

Monday's decision marks a policy U-turn for Ahmadinejad, who faces a political test in March 2 parliamentary election. He previously vetoed efforts by Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani to increase rates.

The rial's slide is a huge risk to already rising inflation as Iran is heavily reliant on imported consumer and intermediate goods whose prices have surged as the rial has depreciated.

BUBBLE

The West hopes the economic pressure will force Iran to curb the nuclear work they fear is aimed at making bombs but which Tehran says is entirely peaceful.

Ahmadinejad's representative in parliament - which is already highly critical of the president and may become more so after March 2 - said the new policy would burst what he called the bubble of gold and dollar prices.

"The effects of the new decision will be clear in the market very soon and the bubbles being created for foreign currency and gold will be removed," the ISNA news agency quoted Mohammad Reza Mirtajedini as saying.

The deputy head of parliament's economics committee criticized the government for reacting late to the crisis which he said had "no reasonable, logical basis."

"Increasing the bank deposit interest rates is an appropriate tool for people's investments but doing it in a hasty manner and the current inflamed situation of the market will not solve any problem," Mostafa Motavarzadeh told the semi-official Fars news agency.

The price of 8.133-gram gold coins dropped on the news, local media reported, to 8,500,000 rials, reversing most of last week's 45 percent increase when the price rose to 10,100,000.

The effect on the price of dollars was negligible however with ISNA saying the price had fallen on the news to 22,500 rials from 23,000 rials - still double the central bank's official "reference rate" of 11,293 rials.

However, exchange agencies contacted by Reuters said they had no dollars to sell, reflecting either a shortage of notes or a reluctance to sell in such a volatile atmosphere.

(Writing by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/wl_nm/us_iran_economy_rates

chris hansen ehlers danlos syndrome band of brothers the closer michael turner split pea soup land of the lost

Japan logs first trade deficit since 1980 (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? Japan logged its first annual trade deficit in 2011 for over 30 years as the aftermath of the March earthquake raised fuel import costs even as slowing global growth and the yen's strength hit exports, threatening to erode the country's ability to fund its huge public debt with domestic savings.

Few market players expect Japan to immediately run a deficit in the current account, which includes trade and returns on the country's huge past investments abroad, as a steady inflow of profits and capital gains from overseas outweigh the trade deficit.

But the trade data underscores a broader trend in which Japan's competitive edge in the global market is eroding and it is increasingly reliant on fuel imports due to the loss of nuclear power, with reactors staying closed after routine checks due to public safety fears following the March disaster.

"What it means is that the time when Japan runs out of savings -- 'Sayonara net creditor country' -- that point is coming closer," said Jesper Koll, head of equities research at JPMorgan in Japan.

"It means Japan becomes dependent on global savings to fund its deficit and either the currency weakens or interest rates rise."

Japan logged a trade deficit of 2.49 trillion yen ($32 billion) for 2011, Ministry of Finance data showed on Wednesday, the first annual deficit since 1980.

Total exports shrank 2.7 percent last year while imports surged 12.0 percent, reflecting reduced earnings from goods and services and higher spending on crude and fuel oil.

In a sign of the continuing pain from slowing global growth, exports fell 8.0 percent in December from a year earlier, roughly matching a median market forecast for a 7.9 percent drop, due partly to weak shipments of electronics parts.

Imports rose 8.1 percent in December from a year earlier, in line with a 8.0 percent annual gain expected, bringing the trade balance to a deficit of 205.1 billion yen, against 139.7 billion yen expected. It marked the third straight month of deficits.

Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said on Tuesday he did not expect Japan to continue logging a trade deficit as a trend and did not foresee the country's current account balance tipping into the red in the near future.

But Japan's days of logging huge trade surpluses may be over as it relies more on fuel imports, which may weaken the yen in the longer term.

Running a current account deficit would spell trouble for Japan as it means it cannot pay the cost of financing its huge public debt without overseas funds, although few analysts expect this to happen in the foreseeable future. ($1 = 77.7100 Japanese yen)

(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg; Writing by Tetsushi Kajimoto and Leika Kihara; Editing by Michael Watson)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/bs_nm/us_japan_economy

osama bin laden main main atlanta insanity leonard cohen napoleon

Printed Sensors Could Help Save You From Spoiled Food

Whenever I pick up a package of frozen raw meat from the grocery store, I wonder, "How many times did it thaw and unthaw?" There's currently no easy way to tell, but the ambiguity could be addressed with new temperature sensors from Thinfilm..

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/yeANTGx8nog/

serena williams the falling man the falling man mermaid roger federer drake corset

Administration nominees awaiting next move by GOP (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Senate Republicans are returning to Washington in an angry mood over President Barack Obama's appointments to two key agencies during a year-end break.

More than 70 nominees to judgeships and senior federal agency positions are awaiting the next move from Republicans, who can use Senate rules to block votes on some or all of Obama's picks.

While Republicans return Monday to discuss their next step, recess appointee Richard Cordray is running a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the National Labor Relations Board ? with three temporary members ? is now at full strength with a Democratic majority.

Obama left more than 70 other nominees in limbo, well aware that Republicans could use Senate rules to block them.

The White House justified the appointments on grounds that Republicans were holding up the nominations to paralyze the two agencies. The consumer protection agency was established under the 2010 Wall Street reform law, which requires the bureau to have a director in order to begin policing financial products such as mortgages, checking accounts, credit cards and payday loans.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the five-member NLRB must have a three-member quorum to issue regulations or decide major cases in union-employer disputes.

Several agencies contacted by The Associated Press, including banking regulators, said they were conducting their normal business despite vacancies at the top. In some cases, nominees are serving in acting capacities.

At full strength, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has five board members. The regulation of failed banks "is unaffected," said spokesman Andrew Gray. "The three-member board has been able to make decisions without a problem." Cordray's appointment gives it a fourth member.

The Comptroller of the Currency, run by an acting chief, has kept up its regular examinations of banks. The Federal Trade Commission, operating with four board members instead of five, has had no difficulties. "This agency is not a partisan combat agency," said spokesman Peter Kaplan. "Almost all the votes are unanimous and consensus-driven."

Republicans have pledged retaliation for Obama's recess appointments, but haven't indicated what it might be.

"The Senate will need to take action to check and balance President Obama's blatant attempt to circumvent the Senate and the Constitution, a claim of presidential power that the Bush administration refused to make," said Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican who is his party's top member on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Grassley wouldn't go further, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky hasn't tipped his hand after charging that Obama had "arrogantly circumvented the American people." Before the Senate left for its break in December, McConnell blocked Senate approval of more than 60 pending nominees because Obama wouldn't commit to making no recess appointments.

Republicans have to consider whether their actions, especially any decision to block all nominees, might play into Obama's hands.

Obama has adopted an election-year theme of "we can't wait" for Republicans to act on nominations and major proposals like his latest jobs plan. Republicans have to consider how their argument that the president is violating Constitutional checks and balances plays against Obama's stump speeches characterizing them as obstructionists.

Senate historian Donald Ritchie said the minority party has retaliated in the past for recess appointments by holding up specific nominees. "I'm not aware of any situations where no nominations were accepted," he said. The normal practice is for the two party leaders to negotiate which nominations get votes.

During the break, Republicans forced the Senate to convene for usually less than a minute once every few days to argue that there was no recess and that Obama therefore couldn't bypass the Senate's authority to confirm top officials. The administration said this was a sham, and has released a Justice Department opinion backing up the legality of the appointments.

Obama considers the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau a signature achievement of his first term. Republicans have been vehemently opposed to the bureau's setup. They argued the agency needed a bipartisan board instead of a director and should have to justify its budget to Congress instead of drawing its funding from the independent Federal Reserve.

Cordray is expected to get several sharp questions from Republicans when he testifies Tuesday before a House Oversight and Government Reform panel.

The NLRB has been a target of Republicans and business groups. Last year, the agency accused Boeing of illegally retaliating against union workers who had struck its plants in Washington state by opening a new production line at its non-union plant in South Carolina. Boeing denied the charge and the case has since been settled, but Republican anger over it and a string of union-friendly decisions from the board last year hasn't abated.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_go_co/us_nominations_spat

ian stewart ian stewart odom colt mccoy vt vt cleveland browns

Mitt Romney: An ordinary ($21.6 million a year) American

Mitt Romney is rich. Can American voters get beyond that fact? The Romney campaign is not doing the candidate any favors by trying to portray him as an ordinary American, says DCDecoder.

Remember Kim Jong Il Looking at Things? It?s about that awkward looking at Mitt Romney gnoshing on a Subway sandwich, filling up his staffer?s car with gas or dumping Tide into a coin-operated laundry.

Skip to next paragraph

Let?s get something out of the way.

Mitt Romney is rich.

But not just ?rich.? He?s not like the dad next door when you were a kid, the guy who owned the hardware store, made it to upper middle management at IBM or made partner at the law firm.

That guy drove a car that was a model and few years better than your parents. That family took vacations to another house they also happened to own and you were jealous that their kids always had cooler clothes.

We now know that Mitt Romney had $21.6 million in income in 2010. He gave $3 million to church and charities.

Mitt Romney is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of quarter of a billion dollars. Do you know what your worth is as a fraction of a billion? No, and neither does Decoder.?

It?s just different. And people get that, Decoder thinks.

Very few people in America really begrudge their fellow citizens for being rich. Sure, there are cranks who assume all the wealthy stole their way to the top but the vast majority of Americans don?t see wealth in-and-of-itself as a bad thing.

Unfortunately, Mitt Romney/his campaign think Mitt needs to make sure he relates to ?ordinary Americans? (our words, not his.) And that?s why you get these cheesy, manufactured, down-homie clips of him banging around the laundromat.

As POLITICO wrote Monday morning, one of Romney?s chief problems is simply that he

?tries too hard. That was the issue in New Hampshire when the wealthy former CEO recalled the dread he once had of facing the prospect of a pink slip. And it was the same a week ago in South Carolina when he took the stage at a tented evangelical conference and noted that he was wearing jeans for what he said felt like a revival meeting (the connection between fundamentalist Christianity and denim somewhat less than self-evident).
?Romney the candidate seems to be constantly tugged between competing impulses. At a time of economic distress, the privileged son of a CEO-turned-governor is ever conscious of the need to appear in touch with the sort of financial strain he?s never known. That?s why his speeches center around his determination to improve the quality of life for the middle class, he dresses more casually and ostentatiously posts pictures eating fast food and flying budget airlines.

And it?s why he?s so pained in discussing his fortune.?

If a candidate wants to convince middle America he/she is looking out for their interests, how about concrete policy proposals that help the middle class?

The difference between phony and revealing - this guy isn?t so stiff after all! - is whether a) people see your policies in line with your posturing and b) you are, actually, in touch with typical Americans.

If Mitt Romney wants to convince voters he feels their pain, he needs to actually feel their pain. This is what the media is there for - if Romney actually connects with voters, reporters will see it. And they?ll write it.

If Mitt Romney wants to get his Joe Sixpack on, it will ring much truer after a speech about helping the middle class.?

And let?s just say the road to either place isn?t paved with Subway flatbreads.

Like your politics unscrambled? Bookmark DCDecoder.com

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/HrTN61b_sUk/Mitt-Romney-An-ordinary-21.6-million-a-year-American

free shipping day golden globe nominations 2012 war in iraq war in iraq barbara walters government shutdown sofia vergara

Does Your Business Need Mobile Apps? Bizness Apps (& More) Give You The Premium Tools

Let's say you want to give your small business a mobile presence. You'd like to develop some mobile apps, but you don't have the time, money, or technical skills to do it yourself, and you're not too excited about the idea of paying a developer an armload to do it for you. Of course, on the other hand, you may be willing to pay a little more of a premium to have someone else do the work for you, work with you directly, and walk you through the process, customizing your app as you go.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/TQEvC8QcGEw/

houston news us news and world report college rankings

PIC: Pregnant Kristin Cavallari Beams During L.A. Shopping Trip (omg!)

Kristin Cavallari is going to be one chic mama!

Just one day before announcing she and on-again fiance Jay Cutler were expecting, the pregnant former Hills star stepped out to grab groceries in West Hollywood, Calif., Saturday wearing super sexy skinny jeans, a beige blouse and matching heels.

PHOTOS: The most stylish pregnant stars

Although she hid her eyes under a pair of aviator sunglasses, it is clear the beaming star was on cloud nine. "She is really happy. She is in the early stages, but she can't wait to be a mom," a source tells Us Weekly of mom-to-be Cavallari, 24.

Though Cavallari and NFL player Cutler, 28, just announced their baby news to the world, the insider says close friends and family have known about their "surprise" pregnancy for a few weeks.

PHOTOS: Kristin Cavallari's best bikini moments

Despite calling off their engagement in July 2011 after just three months, the couple -- who were introduced by E! News host Giuliana Rancic in 2010-- reunited in November 2011 and couldn't be more in love.

PHOTOS: How Kristin and her Hills costars have changed

"[Jay] absolutely adores her, he worships the ground she walks on and she is so in love with him," says the source. "This is a real match, they are made for one another. Everyone is so happy that they are going to have a baby together. She's going to be a great mom."

Get more Us! Follow us on Twitter, Friend us on Facebook, Subscribe to Us Weekly

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_pic_pregnant_kristin_cavallari_beams_during_l_shopping190319817/44275846/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/pic-pregnant-kristin-cavallari-beams-during-l-shopping-190319817.html

troy davis troy davis cough new facebook layout new facebook layout yalta oman

Calculated Risk: Morning Greece: Euro Zone Finance Ministers ...

by CalculatedRisk on 1/23/2012 09:09:00 AM

The new goal is to have a deal by next Monday, January 30th, when the EU leaders meet in Brussls.

From Reuters: Euro Zone Finance Ministers to Rule on Glacial Greek Debt Talks

Euro zone finance ministers will decide on Monday what terms of a Greek debt restructuring they are ready to accept as part of a second bailout package for Athens after negotiators for private creditors said they could not improve their offer.
...
"We will listen to the report on the negotiations, see how far they have gotten and have the ministers say what is acceptable and what is not in terms of outcome of the negotiations," one Eurogroup official said.

Once the guidance from the finance ministers, known as the Eurogroup, is clear, talks on the restructuring could be finalized later in the week.

Here are a few key dates in Europe:
Jan 30th: European Union leaders meet in Brussels on debt crisis.

Feb 9th: ECB holds rate meeting.
Feb 20th: Euro-area finance ministers meet in Brussels.
Feb 29th to March 1st: Italy redeems 46.5 billion euros of bonds.

March 1st and 2nd: EU leaders meet in Brussels.
March 8th: ECB holds rate meeting
March 12th: Euro-area finance ministers meet in Brussels
March 20th: Greece redeems 14.4 billion euros of bonds.
March 30th: Euro-area finance ministers meet in Copenhagen.

Late April: Proposed date for Greek general election.
April 22nd: France holds a presidential election.

Weekend:
? Summary for Week ending January 20th
? Schedule for Week of Jan 22nd
? FOMC Meeting Preview

Source: http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/01/morning-greece-euro-zone-finance.html

cyber monday best deals

Florida State defeats Maryland 84-70

The Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ? Michael Snaer scored 19 points and Ian Miller tied a career high with 18 as Florida State defeated Maryland 84-70 on Tuesday night.

Bernard James had 17 points and six rebounds and Okaro White added 13 points as the Seminoles (12-6, 3-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) used a 21-3 second-half run to pull away.

Terrell Stoglin, the ACC's scoring leader, had 27 points and Nick Faust added 10 points for Maryland (12-5, 2-2).

Maryland led 42-40 with 17:25 left in the game, but Deividas Dulkys keyed Florida State's big run with a pair of 3-pointers as the Seminoles grabbed a comfortable 61-45 lead with 12:39 to go.

Florida State has won three straight ACC games after opening the conference schedule with a 20-point loss at Clemson on Jan. 7. The Seminoles have also won four of five games overall.

The Terrapins had won nine of their last 10 coming into Tuesday. Maryland has now lost its last two road games, including a defeat at North Carolina State on Jan. 8.

Florida State made 20 of 23 shots (87 percent) from the free-throw line. Maryland made just 17 of 27 shots (63 percent).

Luke Loucks had nine points and and six assists for the Seminoles. Florida State had 12 assists and a season-low nine turnovers ? the first time this season the Seminoles have had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio.

James had 11 points and six rebounds as Florida State led 36-33 at the half.

Both teams shot well from the floor. Florida State made 47.5 percent of its baskets (29 of 61) compared to 50 percent (24 of 48) for Maryland.

___

January 17, 2012 11:41 PM EST

Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/seminoles/florida-state-defeats-maryland-84-70-2108069.html?cxtype=rss_sports_1300

anderson cooper andrew bynum diplo rodney atkins fergie one republic carlos santana

Israeli club paying price for racist fans

By ARON HELLER

Associated Press

Associated Press Sports

updated 7:21 p.m. ET Jan. 19, 2012

JERUSALEM (AP) -Throughout its history, the Beitar Jerusalem football club has won 13 trophies, counted prime ministers among its fans and played in numerous European competitions. One thing the club has yet to do: Include an Arab player on its roster.

As the only major Israeli team never to integrate, Beitar Jerusalem is now under heavy pressure - particularly after a series of run-ins with local football authorities over racist behavior by its fans.

That may not be easy. Club management says its hands are tied by a hardcore base of fans who wield significant clout over personnel decisions. It has even called on police to rein in the worst offenders - an infamous group known as "La Familia."

"We are against racism and against violence and we pay a price for our fans," said Assaf Shaked, a team spokesman. "But we aren't going to bring an Arab player just to annoy the fans."

Beitar - which has won six league championships and seven cup titles in its 76-year history - has historically been strongly aligned with Israel's nationalist right wing. Its name, Beitar, comes from the Zionist youth movement that is linked to the ruling Likud Party. For decades, the team, like the Beitar movement, viewed itself as a perennial outsider while the establishment was controlled by the dovish Labor party and its offshoot in the sports world - the various Hapoel, or "workers," teams.

In 1976, Beitar finally won its first cup championship, and the following year Likud rose to power for the first time, ushering in a sea change in Israeli politics and sports. The team and its fans have since been a steady source of support for Likud politics.

A string of politicians have served as team chairman. Prime ministers with Likud roots - from Ariel Sharon to Ehud Olmert to Benjamin Netanyahu - have called themselves fans and made pilgrimages to the club's Teddy Stadium.

Beitar's fans are notoriously - and proudly - abusive toward opposing players, and routinely taunt them with racist and anti-Arab chants.

The Israeli Football Association says it has had enough. It recently ordered Beitar to play before an empty stadium and docked it two points in the standings after fans made monkey noises toward Hapoel Tel Aviv's Nigerian-born striker Toto Tamuz, a former Beitar player and fan favorite.

"Give Toto a banana!" they shouted.

League spokesman Amir Ephrat said the Beitar fans have pushed things too far, and the team has to take a tougher stand.

"This kind of extremism has to be dealt with before it expands," he said. "It has to be quashed when it is still small, because when it gets bigger it becomes a lot harder to stop."

Beitar's history of shunning Arab players has become especially noticeable in recent seasons. Arabs, who make up about 20 percent of Israel's population, now star on the Israeli national team and on every first division team besides Beitar. This year, the league's top two goal scorers are Arabs.

The league's battle with Beitar - and the team's own struggle with its rogue fans - comes as world football is cracking down on racism.

Earlier this month, a British parliamentary committee announced it would investigate racism in sports following a number of high-profile cases. Racism cases involving players and fans are being dealt with in France, Bulgaria and Spain as well.

As the Likud party has become more mainstream after years in government, the Beitar team's die-hard fans have gone the other direction.

In 2005, the "La Familia" organization was created, and it quickly became the team's loudest and most visible supporters. The fans routinely wave huge flags of the outlawed racist Kach party, whoop like monkeys when opposing black players touch the ball and chant "death to Arabs" and other racist slogans toward Arab players.

The club has been penalized numerous times for the behavior of its fans, which has included booing during a moment of silence for slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, singing songs deriding the Prophet Muhammad and physically assaulting Arab maintenance workers in stadiums.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police were responsible for security outside the stadiums and for enforcing general public order - not fan behavior.

For years, the club's Russian-Israeli owner Arkady Gaydamak refrained from intervening. In fact, he backed the group financially and glowed in their adoration. After a failed attempt to run for Jerusalem mayor, Gaydamak fled the country in 2008 amid financial scandals in Israel and Europe.

Since then, Gaydamak has drastically cut funding to the team and tried to sell it.

First it was Brazilian-American millionaire Guma Aguiar who stepped in with a $4 million investment - before he checked himself into a psychiatric hospital because of increasingly erratic behavior that included plans to rebuild the biblical Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

Last year, a pair of American businessmen agreed to buy the club - only to back out at the last moment. The team finished the season in 11th place in the 16-team league, narrowly avoiding relegation to the second division. This year, Beitar Jerusalem has fallen even further and is currently in danger of relegation.

In this environment, the fans' anger has grown. It is now no longer aimed solely toward Arabs - but against team management as well.

Most of the ire is directed toward general manager Itzik Kornfein, a former Beitar goalkeeping legend who has spoken out against racism. Fans often curse at him outside team practices. Some have even attempted to attack him physically.

Shlomi Barzel, the sports editor of Haaretz and a lifelong Beitar fan, said the radicalization of the fans reflects the weakness of team management.

"'La Familia' is a small, extreme group that numbers no more than a few hundred. The real problem is what happened to the quiet majority? There is no one countering them and the team is too weak to do anything about it," he said.

Barzel said that at the height of Gaydamak's popularity the owner tried to sign an Arab player, only to be overwhelmed by the fans' opposition.

"If he couldn't do it, no one can," he said.

The Beitar policy of shunning Arab players resurfaced last month when Maccabi Haifa striker Mohammed Ghadir said he would be willing to transfer to Beitar. Even before Beitar fans had their say, Ghadir withdrew the suggestion after Arab fans accused him of being a traitor.

"We would love to bring an Arab player on board but the conditions are not yet ripe - not as far as a player is concerned and not as far as the fans are concerned," said Shaked, the team spokesman.

He said fans need to go through "a learning process" before an Arab player could be added. He appears to be correct.

"Beitar is a team of Jews. Just like the army won't bring in a Chinese soldier, Beitar won't bring in an Arab player, because when there is a war and you have to give your all, they will run," said Shahar Darly, an-18-year-old fan. "We represent Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, the state of the Jews, not the Arabs ... if they try to bring an Arab player, we won't let them."

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

advertisement

More news

Mourinho's 'woeful Barca loss

Another loss to Barcelona has piled pressure on Jose Mourinho, with support for the Real Madrid coach ebbing after another ill-tempered and ineffective display against its biggest rival.

Robert Cianflone / Getty Images

He's back

David Beckham has re-signed with the Los Angeles Galaxy, agreeing to a new two-year contract with the Major League Soccer club.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46063797/ns/sports-soccer/

vladimir putin rampage jackson prius c crocodile dundee crocodile dundee sharjah sharjah

Iran says negotiations under way to hold new nuclear (Reuters)

ANKARA (Reuters) ? Negotiations are under way to hold new talks between Western powers and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program and the most likely venue is Istanbul, but there is no date set, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Wednesday.

"Negotiations are going on about venue and date. We would like to have these negotiations," Salehi told reporters during a visit to Turkey, where he is expected to meet Turkish leaders.

Salehi also said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was in touch with the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who heads the so-called P5+1 delegation, and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili to try to arrange a date and venue.

"My personal view is to hold this in Turkey in Istanbul. Negotiations are still going on. My colleague Davutoglu is in touch with Lady Ashton and Jalili so that the date and venue is fixed. Most probably, I am not sure yet, the venue will be Istanbul. The day is not yet settled, but it be soon."

Istanbul was the venue of the last talks a year ago which ended in stalemate because participants could not even agree on an agenda. Iran has since come under much tougher sanctions from the West which accuses it of seeking nuclear weapons capability.

Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful and that it has a sovereign right to atomic technology.

(Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz; Writing by Ibon Villelabeitia; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120118/wl_nm/us_iran_turkey_talks

the muppet movie

Flaky graphene makes reliable chemical sensors

Public release date: 17-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Catherine Meyers
cmeyers@aip.org
301-209-3088
American Institute of Physics

Scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the company Dioxide Materials have demonstrated that randomly stacked graphene flakes can make an effective chemical sensor.

The researchers created the one-atom-thick carbon lattice flakes by placing bulk graphite in a solution and bombarding it with ultrasonic waves that broke off thin sheets. The researchers then filtered the solution to produce a graphene film, composed of a haphazard arrangement of stacked flakes, that they used as the top layer of a chemical sensor. When the graphene was exposed to test chemicals that altered the surface chemistry of the film, the subsequent movement of electrons through the film produced an electrical signal that flagged the presence of the chemical.

The researchers experimented by adjusting the volume of the filtered solution to make thicker or thinner films. They found that thin films of randomly stacked graphene could more reliably detect trace amounts of test chemicals than previously designed sensors made from carbon nanotubes or graphene crystals.

The results are accepted for publication in the AIP's journal Applied Physics Letters.

The researchers theorize that the improved sensitivity is due to the fact that defects in the carbon-lattice structure near the edge of the graphene flakes allow electrons to easily "hop" through the film.

###

Article: "Chemical Sensors Based On Randomly Stacked Graphene Flakes" is accepted for publication in Applied Physics Letters.

Authors: Amin Salehi-Khojin (1, 7), David Estrada (2, 3), Kevin Y. Lin (1), Ke Ran (4, 5), Richard T. Haasch (5), Jian-Min Zuo (4, 5), Eric Pop (2, 3, 6), and Richard I. Masel (7).

(1) Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(2) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(3) Micro and Nanotechnology Lab, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(4) Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(5) Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(6) Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(7) Dioxide Materials, Champaign, Ill.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 17-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Catherine Meyers
cmeyers@aip.org
301-209-3088
American Institute of Physics

Scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the company Dioxide Materials have demonstrated that randomly stacked graphene flakes can make an effective chemical sensor.

The researchers created the one-atom-thick carbon lattice flakes by placing bulk graphite in a solution and bombarding it with ultrasonic waves that broke off thin sheets. The researchers then filtered the solution to produce a graphene film, composed of a haphazard arrangement of stacked flakes, that they used as the top layer of a chemical sensor. When the graphene was exposed to test chemicals that altered the surface chemistry of the film, the subsequent movement of electrons through the film produced an electrical signal that flagged the presence of the chemical.

The researchers experimented by adjusting the volume of the filtered solution to make thicker or thinner films. They found that thin films of randomly stacked graphene could more reliably detect trace amounts of test chemicals than previously designed sensors made from carbon nanotubes or graphene crystals.

The results are accepted for publication in the AIP's journal Applied Physics Letters.

The researchers theorize that the improved sensitivity is due to the fact that defects in the carbon-lattice structure near the edge of the graphene flakes allow electrons to easily "hop" through the film.

###

Article: "Chemical Sensors Based On Randomly Stacked Graphene Flakes" is accepted for publication in Applied Physics Letters.

Authors: Amin Salehi-Khojin (1, 7), David Estrada (2, 3), Kevin Y. Lin (1), Ke Ran (4, 5), Richard T. Haasch (5), Jian-Min Zuo (4, 5), Eric Pop (2, 3, 6), and Richard I. Masel (7).

(1) Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(2) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(3) Micro and Nanotechnology Lab, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(4) Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(5) Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(6) Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(7) Dioxide Materials, Champaign, Ill.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/aiop-fgm011712.php

zynga stock sam houston state university

Hello Kitty pays a visit to CES 2012: If you want it, we got it in pink

An electronics show wouldn't be an electronics show without celebrity endorsements. But there was one icon who had more product tie-ins than anyone else. Yep, Kitty-chan was in attendance and she had plenty of pink paraphernalia to hawk to unsuspecting fans of all things kawaii. We've collated together all the gear spotted at CES and fortunately, there was more than just a few phone cases and laptop bags. Merchandise spotted includes Kitty-themed karaoke machines, alarm clocks with mounted laser cannons projectors, cordless phones and more. A brief video tour of some of our favorite surprises is coming soon, but until then, enjoy all that the super-deformed cat had to offer in our gallery below.

Gallery: Hello Kitty at CES 2012

Hello Kitty pays a visit to CES 2012: If you want it, we got it in pink originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/fOWZwXco09o/

anna chapman kim kardashian ghost hunters honda generator honda generator cc sabathia ruth madoff

US: Strong signs Iran is giving Syria weapons

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A senior Obama administration official says a recent visit by the commander of Iran's elite Quds force to Damascus is the strongest sign yet that Iran is supplying weapons to aid Bashar Assad's crackdown on the Syrian people.

The U.S. has long said Iran is helping drive the deadly crackdown on dissent in Syria. But the official says the visit by Quds Force Commander Ghassem Soleimani provides a concrete example of direct high-level cooperation between Iran and Syria.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly.

Iran is one of the few international allies that Syria has left after its nearly year-long crackdown.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-17-US-Iran-Syria/id-ab06d2c1e21941a5b7c1829702eaedd7

club paradise earthquakes today twilight breaking dawn trailer shaker db cooper jackie evancho wild flag

PSU on trial: Forget Paterno; let the trustees do their jobs

Many of the alumni calling for change in Penn State's board of trustees are doing so because they're upset over the firing of Joe Paterno.

They need a refresher course in why the legendary coach had to go, but that doesn't mean the board doesn't need its own attitude adjustment.

Let's deal first with Mr. Paterno. When his longtime assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, was charged with sexually abusing boys whom he brought to Penn State functions and university facilities, it drew attention to a football program where employees were afraid to speak up about misdeeds. Mr. Paterno was at the top of that hierarchy and had been for generations.

When young assistant coach Mike McQueary went to Mr. Paterno with details of an assault he said he'd witnessed in a university shower, he was reluctant to get into graphic sexual details out of respect for Mr. Paterno.

In a wide-ranging interview published in Saturday's Washington Post, Mr. Paterno said he didn't know what to do other than forward the report to university officials. He said he'd been reluctant to inquire further for fear of appearing to throw his weight around.

His power -- perceived or otherwise -- had grown beyond his ability to exercise and control it for good.

Penn State needed a change and the university's reputation would have suffered all the more if it had allowed its beloved, longtime coach to remain at the helm through the season or beyond. In removing him and forcing a resignation from former university president Graham Spanier, the trustees acted in Penn State's best interest.

Could the trustees have moved sooner? Perhaps. Last week, Penn State's new president, Rodney Erickson, said Mr. Spanier had briefed the board about the grand jury investigation of Mr. Sandusky months before his arrest. Still, it's not known how much detail they had at that time.

Once Mr. Sandusky and two other administrators were charged, the trustees wasted no time making changes in the offices of president and head football coach, as they should have.

Going forward, they must demand that university administrators conduct a thorough investigation into what was known or done in response to allegations against Mr. Sandusky, and they must disclose the results.

This will mean a change in the approach of a university that has been all too willing to hide behind its exemption from the state's open records law and its quasi-public status. The best that Penn State alumni can do is give the current board leaders a chance to prove they are up to the task.

First published on January 18, 2012 at 12:00 am

Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12018/1204118-192.stm?cmpid=opinion.xml

office space rawhide bigfoot tony romo twilight zone sandra dee extremely loud and incredibly close