Japan population to shrink by one-third by 2060 (AP)

TOKYO ? Japan's population of 128 million will shrink by one-third and seniors will account for 40 percent of people by 2060, placing a greater burden on a smaller working-age population to support the social security and tax systems.

The grim estimate of how rapid aging will shrink Japan's population was released Monday by the Health and Welfare Ministry.

In year 2060, Japan will have 87 million people. The number of people 65 or older will nearly double to 40 percent, while the national work force of people between ages 15 and 65 will shrink to about half of the total population, according to the estimate, made by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.

The total fertility rate, or the expected number of children born per woman during lifetime, in 2060 is estimated at 1.35, down from 1.39 in 2010 ? well below more than 2 needed to keep the country's population from declining. But the average Japanese will continue to live longer. The average life expectancy for 2060 is projected at 90.93 for women, up from 86.39 in 2010, and 84.19 years for men, up from 79.64 years.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has pledged to push for social security and tax reforms this year. A bill he promised to submit by the end of March would raise the 5 percent sales tax in two stages to 8 percent in 2014 and 10 percent by 2015, although opposition lawmakers and the public pose challenges to its approval.

The institute says Japan has been the world's fastest aging country, and with its birthrate among the lowest, its population decline would be among the deepest globally in coming decades.

Experts say that Japan's population will keep losing 1 million every year in coming decades and the country urgently needs to overhaul its social security and tax system to reflect the demographic shift.

"Pension programs, employment and labor policy and social security system in this country is not designed to reflect such rapidly progressing population decline or aging," Noriko Tsuya, a demography expert at Keio University, said on public broadcaster NHK. "The government needs to urgently revise the system and implement new measures based on the estimate."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_population

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(Nearly) Open Thread, January 30 2012 (slacktivist)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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Spanish economy shrinks in Q4, nearing recession (AP)

MADRID ? Spain's economy contracted by 0.3 percent during the fourth quarter, according to official figures released Wednesday, edging the country closer to a new recession as it deals with huge levels of unemployment and painful austerity cuts.

The figure announced by the National Statistics Institute broke a run of seven quarters without economic contraction. The institute said GDP fell 0.3 percent during the quarter compared with a year earlier. For all of 2011, it increased 0.7 percent.

The economy is expected to slide further through March, placing Spain back in its second recession in less than three years. A technical recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.

The country, where unemployment has hit a eurozone-high of 22.9 percent, is struggling to avoid slumping further into a debt crisis that has seen Greece, Ireland and Portugal needing financial bailouts.

Spain began in 2010 to emerge from a near two-year recession triggered by the collapse of a real estate bubble that had fueled growth for nearly a decade and helped make it Europe's top job creator up to 2008.

But the recovery has gone into reverse. The Bank of Spain says the debt crisis has sapped business confidence and dried up bank credits, leading to a huge drop in domestic demand, only partially offset by strong exports.

The bank predicts the economy will contract 1.5 percent this year while the International Monetary Fund says Spain will stay in recession until the end of 2013.

The figures are putting the new right-leaning Popular Party government, which took office last month, under increased pressures to usher in reforms.

On Friday, it introduced a budget-discipline law that will allow the government to impose penalties on debt-laden regional governments if they run deficits after 2020. It has also promised labor and financial sector overhauls in the next few weeks.

Spain's deficit for 2011 is expected to be 8 percent of national income. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government says it is still committed to reducing that to 4.4 percent in 2012 and down to the EU limit of 3 percent the following year, although with a recession looming, that pledge may prove impossible to keep.

Since taking office Dec. 23, the government has also approved austerity measures and tax increases it hopes will bring in some euro15 billion ($19.7 billion) to help ease the swollen deficit.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_spain_financial_crisis

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Hazanavicius wins at Directors Guild for 'Artist' (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? The Directors Guild of America Awards are the latest Hollywood film honors to go silent.

Hollywood's top filmmakers group presented its feature-film honor Saturday to Michel Hazanavicius for his silent film "The Artist," giving him the inside track for the best-director prize at the Academy Awards.

"I really love directors. I really have respect for directors. So this is really very moving and touching for me," said Hazanavicius, whose black-and-white silent charmer has cleaned up at earlier Hollywood honors and could emerge as the best-picture favorite at the Feb. 26 Oscars.

The Directors Guild honors are one of the most-accurate forecasts for who might go on to take home an Oscar. Only six times in the 63-year history of the guild awards has the winner failed to win the Oscar for best director. And more often than not, whichever film earns the directing Oscar also wins best picture.

French filmmaker Hazanavicius, whose credits include the spy spoofs "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies" and "OSS 117: Lost in Rio," had been a virtual unknown in Hollywood until "The Artist." His throwback to early cinema centers on a silent-era star whose career crumbles when talking pictures take over in the late 1920s.

First-time nominee Hazanavicius won over a field of guild heavyweights that included past winners Martin Scorsese for "Hugo" and Woody Allen for "Midnight in Paris." Past nominees David Fincher for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and Alexander Payne for "The Descendants" also were in the running.

Accepting his nomination plaque earlier in the ceremony from his stars in "The Artist," Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, Hazanavicius recalled his childhood education in great cinema, including Hollywood classics such as "Red River" and "Rio Bravo."

Hazanavicius said he felt he was being welcomed by the Directors Guild for a language they had in common: cinema.

"Maybe you noticed, but I'm French. I have an accent. I have a name that is very difficult to pronounce," Hazanavicius said. "I'm not American, and I'm not French, actually. I'm a filmmaker. ... I feel like I'm being accepted by you not as Americans but as filmmakers."

James Marsh won the film documentary prize for "Project Nim," his chronicle of the triumphs and trials of a chimpanzee that was raised like a human child. It was the latest major Hollywood prize for Marsh, who earned the documentary Academy Award for 2008's "Man on Wire."

Scorsese went zero-for-two at the guild awards. He also had been nominated for the documentary award for "George Harrison: Living in the Material World."

Robert B. Weide won the TV comedy directing award for an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," while Patty Jenkins earned the TV drama prize for the pilot of "The Killing."

The award for TV movie or miniseries went to Jon Cassar for "The Kennedys."

Other television winners were:

? Reality programming: Neil P. DeGroot, "The Biggest Loser."

? Musical variety: Glenn Weiss, "The 65th Annual Tony Awards."

? Daytime serials: William Ludel, "General Hospital."

? Children's programs: Amy Schatz, "A Child's Garden of Poetry."

? Commercials: Noam Murro.

At the start of the ceremony, Guild President Taylor Hackford led the crowd in a toast to one of his predecessors, Gil Cates, the veteran producer of the Oscar broadcast who died last year.

The Directors Guild awards were the first of two major Hollywood honors this weekend. The Screen Actors Guild hands out its prizes Sunday.

___

Online:

http://www.dga.org

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_en_tv/us_directors_awards

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Video: Remembering actor Robert Heyges

Best known for his role in ?Welcome Back, Kotter,? Heyges died Thursday at age 60. NBC?s Brian Williams reports.

>>> robert hchb egyes has died. he was best known playing the jewish puerto rican student juan epstein alongside john travolta in the '70s in "welcome back cotter." he was later a regular in "cagney and lacy." he passed away thursday morning after suffering cardiac arrest. he was 60 years old.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46169962/

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Tech stocks: Growth ahead for handheld game consoles

Tech stocks subsector face growing competition from mobile phones and tablets. But one tech stocks analysts sees up to 20 percent revenue growth in 2012 for makers of handheld game consoles.?

The market for handheld devices may be getting squeezed by competition from mobile gaming platforms like smartphones and tablet PCs, but research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) is predicting further growth for the sector and expects revenues to jump as much as 20 percent this year, after single-digit percentage growth in 2011.

Skip to next paragraph

According to IDC's research manager for gaming Lewis Ward, the experience that comes from playing handheld devices is unique to users, and adds that the short battery lifespan in mobile gaming devices will always give its handheld console rivals an edge.

?"I think the stereoscopic 3D effect [in handheld devices] is quite compelling in many respects," Ward told CNBC on Thursday. ?Obviously Nintendo has some extraordinary IP, Pokemon, and many other titles which are unique to the platform and therefore provides an experience you simply can't get somewhere else.?

??One of the important drivers for adult gamers in particular is the ability to save your battery life on your cellphone and therefore make a dedicated handheld that much more attractive,? he added.

?A recent report from IDC projects the share of video gaming revenue for handheld console devices and their related software will fall to 59 percent in 2015, compared to the current 66 percent, as more users shift to the mobile gaming platform. Even so, Ward is predicting growth for the sector.

?"I'm anticipating growth in dedicated handhelds and console gaming in 2012," Ward said. "The market has been going sideways in many respects for the past couple of years, but I'm expecting some respectable results in the fourth quarter from major providers."?

?Tech heavyweight?Microsoft?beat analyst expectations in its fourth quarter earnings last week, helped by strong sales of its Xbox consoles.?Sony, which reports next week, is expected to barely break even in the lucrative October-December quarter, although Ward expects its handheld gaming unit do well this year when its latest PlayStation Vita console rolls out in the American and European markets in February.

Gaming giant?Nintendo, meanwhile,?forecasts a $580 million operating loss for the full year to March 31, after posting a 61 percent drop in third quarter operating profit?on Thursday. The company also cut its forecast for its latest 3DS handheld console to 14 million units from 16 million after poor sales.

?While investors have questioned the outlook for Nintendo on reports its chief gaming architect Shigeru Miyamoto is stepping down, Ward says the concerns are overblown.

??My understanding is that there's been a lot of grooming going on over the years and there's a lot of very talented people within Nintendo and I fully expect that the legacy will continue. I believe its in good hands in many respects,? he noted.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/M8s8ydKVHvY/Tech-stocks-Growth-ahead-for-handheld-game-consoles

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Mitt Romney's disastrous week ends with collapse in national polls

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Poll numbers for Mitt Romney aren't falling just in Florida. Newt Gingrich is the new top choice among likely Republican voters nationally, the latest Gallup tracking poll shows. 

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/07pBh3xyMa4/Mitt-Romney-s-disastrous-week-ends-with-collapse-in-national-polls

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Ice-T weighs in on presidential race from Sundance (AP)

PARK CITY, Utah ? Regardless of the outcome of the presidential primaries, Ice-T already has his mind made up about the forthcoming election.

The rapper and actor, who is making his directorial debut at the Sundance Film Festival with the documentary "Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap," says he expects President Barack Obama to be re-elected. After that, he predicts Hillary Clinton will be the next president.

The 53-year-old entertainer said, "She did the Secretary of State job, she was a G, she held it down, she didn't cry," referring to the former New York Senator with the hip-hop term for gangster (a positive thing).

"Obama will support her," he said, "and she'll be the first woman president."

Ice-T's documentary premiered at the Sundance festival, which continues through Sunday in Park City, Utah.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_en_mu/us_film_sundance_ice_t

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Comodo Antivirus 2012

Going online without an antivirus utility to guard your back is just foolish. Even the safest, biggest site can be hacked so that just visiting it earns you an unwanted malware attack. Cost is no excuse, not when there are free choices like Comodo Antivirus 2012. But be warned: Comodo's behavior-based Defense+ module will enlist you as an essential member of the malware-fighting team.

Installation
Comodo Antivirus installed without difficulty on all but one of my 12 malware-infested test systems. The installation process felt rather long, with a required reboot followed by a lengthy antivirus signature update. Immediately on finishing the update, Comodo launched a full scan. That makes sense?the first thing most users want to do is make sure there are no lurking threats.

On the one problem system, Comodo's installation failed with an error message every time due to interference by malware. Installing in Safe Mode didn't work, so I cleaned up the system using Comodo Cleaning Essentials (free, 4.5 stars). After that, the antivirus installed without trouble.

Average Cleanup
At the end of each malware cleanup session, Comodo reported that it had found malware and offered to have a GeekBuddy expert handle the cleanup process. I found this a little misleading, since GeekBuddy service is not free. In each case, I clicked away the offer.

Comodo lists all the malware threats it found, along with the associated file and Registry traces. It assigns each found item a risk level, but marks threats of all levels for removal. In a few cases, it needed a reboot to complete the cleanup.

Comodo detected 85 percent of the threats, just a hair below average. Poor removal of the traces it did find earned it a mediocre malware removal score, 5.4 of 10 possible points. It left behind executable traces for close to half the detected threats, and for nearly half of those at least one process was still running after supposed removal. Comodo left behind all the non-executable traces for many of the rest. AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 (free, 4 stars), our Editors' Choice for free antivirus, scored 6.5 in this test.

This antivirus proved especially weak against rootkits, detecting 85 percent of them and scoring a low, low 3.9 points, the same as McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2012 ($39.99 direct, 3.5 stars). Comodo Cleaning Essentials removed two rootkits in order to allow installation of Comodo Antivirus. Of those detected by the antivirus alone, all remained running with their rootkit technology still active.

Comodo Antivirus did detect all the scareware samples, but most products manage that feat. Comodo's score of 8.3 for scareware removal is actually low, given that well over half the current competition scored 9.5 or higher. Norton AntiVirus 2012 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars) and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Free 1.51 (free, 4 stars) aced this test with a perfect 10.

For an explanation of my testing technique, see How We Test Malware Removal.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/U2cphNYH8Oo/0,2817,2399139,00.asp

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Lytro open to partnering with smartphone makers, executive suggests

Now that its famed light field camera has finally become official, Lytro is looking to the future, with an eye, apparently, toward the cellphone market. During a recent interview with PC World, Lytro executive chairman Charles Chi described his company's new sensor in greater detail, and talked at length about its purportedly superior battery life. He also divulged a few hints about Lytro's roadmap. When asked whether the firm would ever license its technology to a smartphone manufacturer, Chi confirmed that Lytro has "the capital to do that, the capability in the company to do that, and... the vision to execute," before launching into an explanation of what it would take for such an initiative to succeed:

If we were to apply the technology in smartphones, that ecosystem is, of course, very complex, with some very large players there. It's an industry that's very different and driven based on operational excellence. For us to compete in there, we'd have to be a very different kind of company. So if we were to enter that space, it would definitely be through a partnership and a codevelopment of the technology, and ultimately some kind of licensing with the appropriate partner.

Far from a confirmation, to be sure, but it seems like the handset market is at least on Lytro's radar. Read the full Q&A at the link below.

Lytro open to partnering with smartphone makers, executive suggests originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/25Of9w88fZQ/

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Bonobos' unusual success story

Monday, January 23, 2012

Mate competition by males over females is common in many animal species. During mating season male testosterone levels rise, resulting in an increase in aggressive behavior and masculine features. Male bonobos, however, invest much more into friendly relationships with females. Elevated testosterone and aggression levels would collide with this increased tendency towards forming pair-relationships.

Bonobos are among the closest living relatives of humans. Like other great apes they live in groups made up of several males and females. Contrary to other ape species however, male bonobos do not, in general, outrank female individuals and do not dominate them in mating contexts. This constellation suggests that the selection for typically masculine behavioral patterns like aggression, dominance and intrasexual competition are met with antagonistic forces: On one hand it is advantageous if a male outcompetes a fellow male. This, however, implies that there is increased aggression and an elevated level of testosterone in high-ranking males. On the other hand ? as dominance relations between the sexes are rather balanced in bonobos ? it is likely that males benefit from having friendly pair-relationships with female individuals. Studies with birds and rodents show that a tendency towards forming pair-relationships correlates with lower male aggression rates and testosterone levels.

In a current study, Martin Surbeck, Gottfried Hohmann, Tobias Deschner and colleagues of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, found that in wild bonobos high-ranking males were more aggressive and their mating success was higher when compared to lower-ranking males. Contrary to other species in which males compete fiercely over access to females, there was no correlation between dominance status or aggression with testosterone levels. In addition, the researchers found that high-ranking males invested more often than lower-ranking group members into friendly relationships with females. This suggests that these friendly relationships between the sexes are associated with lower male testosterone levels.

"Our study suggests that in bonobos ? as in in humans ? intersexual friendships result in hormonal patterns that we know from species in which male individuals are actively participating in raising their young and in which the two sexes enter lasting pair-relationships", says Martin Surbeck.

###

Martin Surbeck, Tobias Deschner, Grit Schubert, Anja Weltring, Gottfried Hohmann
Mate competition, testosterone and intersexual relationships in bonobos (Pan paniscus)
Animal Behavior, January 9, 2011

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft: http://www.mpg.de

Thanks to Max-Planck-Gesellschaft 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/116943/Bonobos__unusual_success_story

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The Comprehensive Online Gaming Directory | Online Gaming Tips

Posted by Admin on January 22nd, 2012

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Source: http://www.coscn.org/the-comprehensive-online-gaming-directory.html

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DLD 2012 ? @Jack Dorsey: ?Twitter Has A Business Model That ...

Earlier this fine Sunday afternoon, Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey took the stage at the DLD Conference, the annual pre-Davos meeting of minds held in Munich, Germany.

In an interview with not one but two journalists (Holger Schmidt from FOCUS Magazine and Techonomy?s David Kirkpatrick), Dorsey talked a great deal about Twitter and a little bit about Square.

Dorsey didn?t reveal anything spectacular about either company, emphasizing once more how Twitter is not your traditional social network (here?s my counterpoint) and that its business model works, thanks very much for asking.

He also talked about how Square is looking to expand outside of the United States and why 2012 will be a pivotal year for Twitter in Germany.

Below are my notes ? some of Dorsey?s responses are slightly paraphrased.

Let?s start by talking about the platform wars. How do you see the future role of twitter compared to Facebook, Google+ and other social networking services?

Twitter is different because we?ve always been about hosting public conversations, that are real-time to boot. There?s always been this perception that you need to tweet to use Twitter, but we see a huge number of people using it for the discovery of news, events, content and so on. Our focus on simplicity is another differentiating factor.

Some people say Google+ is more of an attack on Twitter than on Facebook. Do you look at it that way?

We have concerns about building and growing Twitter, not so much about competitors. We want to get Twitter into more markets, so more people use it. Google has a lot of evolutions to go through, with search slowly becoming replaced by apps, the rise of social and whatnot. But again, social for us is only one part of what people use Twitter for, and we see the service more as an information utility.

Twitter was obviously born from a blogging-centric mindset, but where we shine is real-time discovery, being able to open up Twitter and instantly see what?s going on in the world, or with your friends and family. When we recently redesigned the website, we focused a lot on the discovery part of the equation, making it very simple for people to get value out of Twitter without necessarily participating.

Twitter has just acquired Summify, a startup that built technology for filtering relevant news. Is this an important area for Twitter, helping people overcome information overload?

Our goal is delivering relevant content to people, instantly. This sounds simple but is in fact extremely complicated to pull off in real-time. We want to bring you closer to what?s happening in the world, and we have a lot of work to do ? Summify will help us in that regard.

Should we expect more acquisitions?

We?re always looking for amazing teams, and we can get them by acquiring companies, then why not?

In the long run, is Twitter going to become a destination for information, or a distribution channel that brings traffic to other websites?

The beautiful thing about the service is that it is both. The most amazing thing about Twitter is that it reaches every single device on the planet, from the cheapest phone to the most advanced smartphone. We?re not just about distribution, but also about people sharing content on Twitter.

(Dorsey brings up the Hudson river plane crash incident as an example of content that was shared first on Twitter sparking an international conversation.)

Yes, ok, but have you made up your mind about whether you want to be a distribution channel or a destination site?

Well, it?s a blurry line, but in essence we think of every tweet as a destination on itself, while Twitter is also a mechanism for distribution of content.

There?s been a lot of coverage of the Internet?s reaction to SOPA and its subsequent delay. Do you think we?re entering a new world of democracy? Will this outpouring of reactions on social networks, effectively changing things, become more common?

Services like Twitter definitely make this more possible, based on immediate feedback, the fact that everyone can give their opinion right away. This way, you get free access to public thoughts, right from someone?s phone.

We see politicians use Twitter to consume real-time conversations. It?s mind-blowing. Question is what do we do with that information? I?m a believer that if you give people data and information, it will help them make better decisions.

Twitter in that sense can really help the world, allow us to have better conversations, get a better grasp of how people approach the world, their trials and tribulations.

It look a long time for Twitter to develop a business model, and it?s based on advertising. We can agree that Twitter is big in perception but comes up short when it comes to engagement and stickiness. Do you need the same level of engagement other social networks enjoy to make your business model work?

Twitter?s business model has been in development for quite some time, and it works. Advertisers use it and we see them coming back for more. The market has vetted, and confirmed that they want to keep using it. Twitter?s ?Promoted? products ? including promoted tweets, accounts and trends ? are currently seeing 3 to 5 percent engagement.

We?re always looking to increase engagement, but I also think about other things, like that fact that our technology can have a positive impact on the world and how businesses interact with their customers.

So what you?re saying is that even with the extremely minimal exposure of ads that you deliver, engagement can still prove sufficient enough to make for lots of revenues down the line?

Absolutely, it?s huge. Every signal that we?re getting from both users and advertising proves to us that people want more of it.

What?s more important to you as a business right now: make money or get more users? And you can?t answer both.

Both. It?s not really a fair question. We think of revenue as not a destination but as oxygen that feeds the model and vice versa. You can?t build a product without revenue, but you can?t focus on revenue without having a product either. Twitter is an organic system and product. Time and time again, you see companies whose revenue model makes their products better, just look at how Google AdSense improved search.

You?re unusual in many ways, but also because you have two fulltime jobs: you?re also the CEO of Square. Is Square coming to Europe soon, and what obstacles do you expect?

We would love to come to Europe and we?re going to work hard this year to get traction outside of the United States. The company has been around for two years, but the product has only been on the market for one year, and we?re seeing massive uptake. We have about a million merchants currently using Square, creating new jobs because of it.

We don?t want to limit ourselves to the US, and we?re looking at other markets right now. Germany, for example, is fascinating for both Square and Twitter. Many people don?t know this, but the first programmer we hired for Twitter, Florian Weber, was based in Hamburg, so we definitely have strong ties to Germany.

Interestingly, you just visited China. Twitter is not available there, but will Square soon be?

Square is definitely looking at China. People there use a lot of debet cards, there are lots of sole proprietors, but the tool that?s lacking is a way for them to handle payments. We?re looking all over Asia for opportunities.

In Germany, Twitter is struggling with low adoption rates. What do you plan to do about that?

We?re currently building a team here in Germany. We also plan to have lots of conversations with local entrepreneurs, engineers and press to develop the system so anyone can use it in Germany. This will certainly be a pivotal year for Twitter in Germany.

(Photo not from DLD but from TechCrunch Disrupt ? sorry about that)

Software engineer Jack Dorsey is the Co-Founder of Twitter, and was the CEO until October 2008. Dorsey had the original idea for Twitter while still at Odeo, a podcasting startup which was a project of Obvious Corp. He is now the chairman of Twitter. In May 2009, Dorsey announced his latest startup, Square. Square, originally code-named Squirrel, is a mobile payment startup with both an app and a piece of hardware that allows the iPhone and Android to...

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Twitter, founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in March 2006 (launched publicly in July 2006), is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to post their latest updates. An update is limited by 140 characters and can be posted through three methods: web form, text message, or instant message. The company has been busy adding features to the product like Gmail import and search. They recently launched a new site section called ?Explore? for...

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Square is a revolutionary service that enables anyone to accept credit cards anywhere. Square offers an easy to use, free credit card reader that plugs into a phone or iPad. It?s simple to sign up. There are no extra equipment, complicated contracts, monthly fees or merchant account required. Co-founded by Jim McKelvey and Jack Dorsey in 2009, the company is headquartered in San Francisco with additional offices in Saint Louis and New York City.

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Source: http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/22/dld-2012-jack-dorsey-twitter-has-a-business-model-that-works/

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Government closes Volt probe, says car is safe

DETROIT (AP) ? The government ended its safety investigation into the Chevrolet Volt on Friday after concluding that the Volt and other electric cars don't pose a greater fire risk than gasoline-powered cars.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began studying the Volt last June after a fire broke out in one of the cars three weeks after it was crashed as part of safety testing. Two other fires occurred later related to separate safety tests, and NHTSA opened an official investigation into the vehicle on Nov. 25.

The agency and General Motors Co. know of no fires in real-world crashes.

GM and federal safety officials say they believe the fires were caused by coolant leaking from damaged plastic casing around the batteries after side-impact collisions. The coolant caused an electrical short, which sparked battery fires seven days to three weeks after the crashes.

GM announced earlier this month that it will add steel plates to about 12,000 existing Volts to protect the batteries in the event of a crash. The company has sold around 8,000 Volts and 4,000 are still for sale. GM is repairing the vehicles for free. NHTSA didn't order the recall, as it sometimes does after a safety investigation.

GM said Friday that NHTSA's decision to close the investigation is consistent with the results of its own internal testing. It said the steel plates will provide additional protection and minimize fire risk in the days and weeks after a crash.

NHTSA said Friday that it "continues to believe that electric vehicles show great promise as a safe and fuel-efficient option," and that based on available data, electric cars don't appear to be riskier than gas-powered ones.

But the agency said electric cars do have some specialized components, and the agency has developed guidelines for firefighters and other responders on how to handle electric cars after a crash.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-20-US-Volt-Fires/id-58023228c91d4f12b8c080cbf6603ac0

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More Americans Practicing Safe Sex, CDC Reports (HealthDay)

THURSDAY, Jan. 19 (HealthDay News) -- The number of Americans who practice behaviors that put them at risk for HIV infection has declined significantly, federal health officials reported Thursday.

The ranks of those engaging in a risky sexual or drug-related behavior dropped from 13 percent of men and 11 percent of women in 2002 to 10 percent and 8 percent, respectively, in 2010, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Generally, these are behaviors that are studied in higher risk populations, but by looking in the household population we can get a better sense of the level of risk that may exist in the general population that you don't normally think about," said report author Anjani Chandra, a health scientist at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

Some of the risk factors the researchers looked at were gay and bisexual sex, illicit drug use and having several sexual partners or a partner who injects illegal drugs, she said.

"For women, we don't really see that the decline is due to any variation in sexual risk behaviors, whereas for men we see substantial difference by race," she said.

The reasons for the decline in risk behaviors is not clear, Chandra said. Some of the public health messages might be getting through. It also could be that people are reluctant to disclose that they engage in risky behaviors, she said.

"But, it could be real and reflect actual changes in behavior," she said.

The data in the report was collected on almost 23,000 men and women aged 15 to 44 in households throughout the country and represents 6.5 million men and 4.9 million women.

The decline seems to be due to a drop in risky behaviors such as having unprotected sex and having sex with multiple partners, Chandra said.

There were, however, differences in behaviors in different groups. For example, men who had recently been in prison were more likely to report engaging in one or more HIV risk behaviors, compared with other men, the researchers found.

There were also significant variations based on race and income level, they reported.

Sixteen percent of young black men ages 15 to 24 reported at least one HIV risk-related sexual behavior, compared with 8.7 percent of Hispanic men and 6.5 percent of young white men. Poorer men were also more likely to engage in risky behaviors.

The HIV risk in households is not something one usually thinks about when one thinks about HIV risk, Chandra said.

"In household populations, where you may think these behaviors are nonexistent or very rare, they are occurring and they may be placing people at risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases," Chandra said. "Just focusing on high-risk populations may not take care of the concerns that we have."

Dr. Sten Vermund, director of the Institute of Global Health at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, said that the data used was "a highly valid sample of the American population."

Both sexual and drug-related risk behaviors declined in the study period, and that is a positive trend, he said.

"Risk behaviors remain high and the likelihood of encountering an HIV-infected person has never been higher," Vermund noted. "Nonetheless, there is a strong indication that prevention programs are working or cultural norms are shifting, or both."

Philip Alcabes, an associate professor in the School of Health Sciences at Hunter College/City University of New York, is critical of the report as another example of how the government still avoids the real problem of HIV.

"What a waste of time and taxpayer dollars," he said. "Having failed to advocate for structural changes that would actually reduce risk of HIV acquisition and having failed to implement widespread, easily accessible syringe exchange programs, federal agencies instead spend their time studying personal behavior. It's a shame."

"Even though our officials don't have a clear concept of what really happened 30 years ago, they are still looking at AIDS through the same moralizing lens that was common in 1981. That's sad, and disturbing," he said.

More information

For more on HIV/AIDS, visit the AIDS.gov.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120120/hl_hsn/moreamericanspracticingsafesexcdcreports

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Stephen Colbert Super PAC Slams Stephen Colbert, Throws Support Behind Herman Cain

The campaign of Presidential quasi-candidate Stephen Colbert was dealt a major blow this week when it was established that voters can’t write his name in on the ballot during Saturday’s Republican primary in his native South Carolina.

Colbert has, as a result, devised a new strategy.

Well, Colbert Super PAC supporting him has anyway. The organization is now asking voters to pull the lever for Herman Cain (remember him?), who still appears on the ballot, as he qualified for it before dropping out of the race.

Stephen Colbert Super PAC Ad (Ft. Samuel L. Jackson)

As Colbert’s TV ad, narrated by the incomparable Samuel L. Jackson says of Cain: “He’s such an outsider, he is not even running for president!”

The ad slams Colbert for “turning our election into a circus.” Obviously.

If you're confused, and frankly we don't blame you if so, the Colbert Super PAC is a political action committee ... formed expressly to mock such things.

A Super PAC can raise and spend unlimited amounts of cash on a candidate's behalf, yet cannot coordinate efforts with the candidate directly.

Colbert is staging a faux campaign as a means of ridiculing the system's absurdity, though he led Jon Huntsman and tied Rick Perry in one poll.

Huntsman quit the race Monday, while Rick Perry dropped out this morning. Colbert is still going hard, even if it's on Herman Cain's behalf.

Watch your back, Mitt and Newt.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/stephen-colbert-super-pac-slams-stephen-colbert-throws-support-b/

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MyApartmentMap Mobile Apps Take Your House Hunting on the Go [Video]

iOS/Android: Previously mentioned (and Hive Five favorite) apartment search site MyApartmentMap has changed a lot since we last looked at it, but this week the service launched mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices that let you browse listings, view maps, and search for and filter apartments and rentals right on your mobile device.

The new mobile apps all offer the same features that are available on the site, just in the palm of your hand. You can search for apartment and rental listings, filter them based on price, location, whether they allow pets, size, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and so on. Tap to view eligible listings on a top-down Google Map, or browse them in a list complete with photos and comparisons to the average rental price of the neighborhood. You can tap any listing for more information, including contact info for the rental company or owner.

In addition to the mobile apps, MyApartmentMap automatically de-duplicates listings from owners and rental companies and sites like Craigslist and Apartments.com so you get the best, most accurate list of properties available. The service also tags rental locations with nearby amenities, so you don't have to do multiple searches to find out whether an apartment you like is close to restaurants or public transit. When you find a place you like, remember to take our apartment hunter's checklist with you!

The MyApartmentMap mobile apps are free and available now for iOS devices, and Android devices in their respective app stores.

MyApartmentMap's Mobile Applications | MyApartmentMap

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/RbDloLSkaHo/apartment-search-service-myapartmentmap-unveils-mobile-apps-for-house-hunting-on-the-go

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Video: Stocks Continue to Rally

Stocks are cheap, the U.S. dollar is king, so is now the time to be bullish? Ron Kruszewski, Stifel Nicolaus & Company CEO, and Jack Bouroudjian, Index Futures Group CEO, weigh in.

Related Links:

Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46048181/

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Apple rolls out digital textbook service iBooks 2 (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Apple Inc unveiled a new digital textbook service called iBooks 2 on Thursday, aiming to revitalize the U.S. education market and quicken the adoption of its market-leading iPad.

The consumer electronics giant has been working on digital textbooks with publishers Pearson PLC, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Muffin Harcourt, a trio responsible for 90 percent of textbooks sold in the United States.

It Amazon.com Inc and other device makers have made inroads into an estimated $8 billion market for electronic textbooks.

At the event, Apple introduced tools to craft digital textbooks and demonstrated how authors and even teachers can create books for students.

Marketing chief Phil Schiller said it was time to reinvent the textbook, adding that 1.5 million iPads are in use now in education.

"It's hard not to see that the textbook is not always the ideal learning tool," he said.

"It's a bit cumbersome."

IBooks 2 will be available as a free app on the iPad, starting Thursday. High school textbooks will be priced at $14.99 or less, Schiller said.

"You'll see textbooks for every subject for every level," he added.

Other media and technology companies have eyed the U.S. education market as ripe for some sort of upheaval. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp launched an education business two years ago and hired former New York City Education Chancellor Joel Klein to lead it.

At an event at New York's Guggenheim Museum, the first since the passing of Apple founder Steve Jobs, Schiller said teachers need help and Apple is trying to figure out how it can do its part.

"In general, education is in the dark ages," he said, adding that education has challenges that are "pretty profound."

According to Jobs' biography by Walter Isaacson, Murdoch met with Jobs last year and discussed the possibility of Apple's entrance into a market Jobs estimated at $8 billion a year and believed was ripe for disruption.

(Reporting By Yinka Adegoke and Nicola Leske in New York and Poornima Gupta in San Francisco; editing by Mark Porter)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120119/bs_nm/us_apple_education

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HP names new strategy chief (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) ? Hewlett-Packard Co on Tuesday named software veteran Bill Veghte as chief strategy officer as it overhauls its top ranks following a series of missteps over the past year.

Veghte, who joined HP in 2010 after spending two decades at Microsoft, will continue in his current role as executive vice president of HP Software.

HP appointed former California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman CEO in September, after firing former leader Leo Apotheker for a series of missteps, including a poor run at convincing Wall Street he had not overpaid for British software firm Autonomy.

HP's previous chief strategy officer Shane Robison left the company about two months ago

Veghte, who HP said was instrumental in the delivery and launch of Windows 7, would also manage HP's cloud and webOS open source initiatives.

HP opened its webOS mobile operating system to developers and companies after trying to figure out how to recoup its $1.2 billion purchase of Palm, which it acquired in 2010. WebOS was part of the Palm acquisition.

(Reporting By Poornima Gupta; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/software/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120117/tc_nm/us_hp_strategy

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Book claims Kim's eldest fears NKorea may collapse (AP)

TOKYO ? A new book claims that the eldest son of North Korea's late leader Kim Jong Il believes the impoverished regime is in danger of collapse and that his young half-brother, chosen to lead after Kim's death, is merely a figurehead.

The book by Tokyo-based journalist Yoji Gomi went on sale Wednesday. He says it is based primarily on email exchanges he had with Kim Jong Nam over many years.

The book, titled "My Father, Kim Jong Il and Me," drew immediate attention as a rare view into the family that has led the secretive country for decades ? though Kim Jong Nam is thought to be estranged from his family and the workings of government. Since Kim Jong Il's death Dec. 17, North Korea has been led by his youngest son, Kim Jong Un.

"Jong Un will just be a figurehead," the book quotes Kim Jong Nam as saying. It claims he said the collapse of North Korea's economy is likely unless it initiates reforms, which could also bring it down.

"Without reforms and liberalization, the collapse of the economy is within sight," he quoted Kim as saying. "But reforms and opening up could also invite dangers for the regime."

Gomi, a Tokyo Shimbun journalist who had assignments in Seoul and Beijing, claims he exchanged 150 emails and has spent a total of seven hours interviewing Kim Jong Nam, who was seen as a possible successor until he fell out of favor with Kim Jong Il in 2001.

Gomi says he met Kim Jong Nam in person in 2004, in Beijing, and twice last year. Gomi was not immediately available for comment on the book.

Not long after Kim Jong Il's funeral, Jong Nam suggested in an interview with a Japanese TV network that he opposes a hereditary transfer of power to his young half-brother, who is believed to be in his late 20s.

That was a rare public sign of discord in the tightly choreographed succession process, but analysts said Jong Nam spends so much time outside his native land that his opinion carries little weight.

Kim Jong Nam, who did not attend the funeral, made similar comments in his communications with Gomi, the book claims.

"As a matter of common sense, a transfer to the third generation is unacceptable," Kim Jong Nam was quoted as saying in an email dated this month. "The power elite that have ruled the country will continue to be in control."

He added: "I have my doubts about whether a person with only two years of grooming as a leader can govern."

Party and military officials have moved quickly to install Kim Jong Un as "supreme leader" of the people, party and military.

But the new ruler's youth and quick ascension to power have raised questions in foreign capitals about how ready he is to inherit rule over this nation of 24 million with a nuclear program as well as chronic trouble feeding all its people.

A senior North Korean party official, however, told the AP in a recent interview that Kim Jong Un was ready to lead and had spent years working closely with his late father and helped him make key policy decisions on economic and military affairs.

Kim Jong Nam is widely believed to have dropped out of the succession race after embarrassing the government in 2001, when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport. He said he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.

Jong Nam, the oldest of three brothers thought to be in the running, is the closest thing the country has to an international playboy and is the only one who speaks to the foreign media. He travels freely and spends much of his time in China or the country's special autonomous region of Macau ? the center of Asian gambling with its Las Vegas-style casinos.

Experts said he will most likely continue living abroad.

Kim Jong Il is known to have three sons ? one from his second wife and two from his third.

Kim often derided the middle son, Jong Chol, as "girlish," a former Kim Jong Il chef, who goes by the pen name Kenji Fujimoto, said in a 2003 memoir.

___

Associated Press writer Foster Klug contributed to this report from Seoul, South Korea.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/nkorea/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_nkorea

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Car bomb kills at least 9 in Iraq's Mosul (Reuters)

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) ? A car bomb exploded inside a residential complex for displaced Shi'ite Muslims in the Iraqi city of Mosul on Monday, killing at least nine people and wounding five, hospital and police sources said.

The bombing was the latest in a series of attacks on Shi'ite targets since a political crisis erupted a month ago threatening the survival of Iraq's fragile power-sharing government following the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

A Reuters reporter at the scene of the blast in a small village of Shi'ites from the Shabak minority said the explosion left a shallow crater four meters across and flesh scattered nearby. A taxi shattered by shrapnel lay 30 meters from the explosion with pools of blood beneath it.

"All this because of the political conflict over government posts and we are the poorest people paying the price," Abu Ebrahem, a village resident, told Reuters. "They want to agitate sectarian unrest, but they won't succeed."

Police said they found another car bomb at the scene and closed the area for several hours to defuse it.

Hospital officials confirmed the casualty toll.

Political tensions in Iraq have been high since December, when Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government ordered the arrest of a Sunni vice president, touching off a crisis that many fear will bring a relapse into sectarian conflict.

On Saturday, a suicide bomber disguised as a policeman killed at least 53 people and wounded scores in an attack on Shi'ite pilgrims at a checkpoint in the southern city of Basra.

Mosul, in northern Iraq, was once an al Qaeda stronghold, and witnessed some of the fiercest fighting during the war that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

The eastern outskirts of Mosul form part of the disputed areas between the central government and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region Government in the north.

The disputed territories between Iraqi Arabs and Kurds are seen as a flashpoints for possible conflict after the last American troops left Iraq in December, nearly nine years after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

(Writing by Suadad al-Salhy; Editing by Patrick Markey and Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120116/wl_nm/us_iraq_violence

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Communications and Collaboration Platforms | Career Management ...

What?s your morning communications, social media routine like? Mine?s getting more complicated every day. Personally, just email requires checking at least three accounts on three devices. At least one is Gmail, so I green-light Gmail chat and also Google+. Then it?s on to open a Skype window ? many clients, friends reach me through Skype instant message. And to make sure I?m truly open, AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger are active, too. They?re a bit old-school, but a few of my clients still use them, so it?s not really negotiable in my world.? Then it?s on to Yammer to check up on the latest and greatest with my teams.

Twitter comes next. Hootsuite, Old School ?regular? Twitter, and TweetChat? helps me monitor multiple Twitter streams and also makes it simple to cross-populate Facebook and LinkedIn with content. Another communications tool I?ve been checking out is the open-source Trillian, which automates the? management of multiple chat clients on both desktop and phone.

When it comes to corporate communications, it?s a whole new ball of wax, Facebook page admins, several WordPress log-ins, all the email and communications platforms like MailChimp, Constant Contact, AWeber and more. There are even ways to communicate via song (Spotify) and visual interest (Pinterest). Granted, not all of these apply to professionalism, but in our connected world, they sure do influence it.

The new tools can also be overwhelming; it?s a matter of choosing and experimenting. But when do we finally just pick and stop experimenting? What works best for workplace collaboration and productivity??Do you stop communicating? Ever?

Actually, no. Facebook is saved for stolen moments between calls and meetings on my end. I?m trying to use it more frequently, and in a way that does not make my friends have to deal with all my tweets (always a work in progress). Let?s not forget Facebook messaging ? again, I?m trying to make it work into my weekly routine. And?LinkedIn ? the ole social standby ? is a great business communications tool, so there?s always a browser tab open for it.?Mind you, this is all before my first cup of coffee.

Does your social blend in a?way that feels comfortable and consistent yet??Do you sense a theme emerging here? I think many people are trying to determine the very best way to manage communications tools both for? business and for pleasure.

The irony: in this flurry of activity, there hasn?t been? a single F2F social interaction, not even a cat sitting on the keyboard. Over the past year, actual live phone conversations have dropped off a tad. I?ve been making a point to schedule more meetings in person and to call people via Skype, Google Voice,?or cell. Sometimes there is simply no time for in-person meetings. I live my business and social life, increasingly, in the world of social media. Some days it doesn?t seem healthy. Some days it feels just right. Some days I wonder how I ever existed without it. Some days I long for more IRL ?In Real Life? contact with people.

In this week?s TalentCulture World of Work #TChat ? brought to you through the wonders of social media, of course ? we?re looking at the good, the bad and the ugly of social communication and workplace collaboration tools. The beauty of ?Twitter Chats are clear ? hundreds of people worldwide can have a discussion in real time, regardless of physical location ? but it?s not clear which other social and workplace communications tools deliver a similar value.

And we have a hashtag where people can show up and share content, insight and fun with us 24.7. It?s become a unique online community and we look forward to continuing the conversation this year. We are going with the connection flow and enjoying every moment.

So let?s come together to explore which communications tools add value and which merely distract us from being productive.?Because you can?t use them all. Or can you??Join us Wednesday night on?#TChat?The World of Work January 18th from 7-8 pm ET (6-7 CT, 4-5 pm PT), where social media and communication topics are in the hot seat.?Join me,?Kevin Grossman,?Maren Hogan, Sean Charles?and?Kyle Lagunas?for a very special #TChat.

Here are the questions we?ll be discussing this week are here or below;

?

Source: http://www.talentculture.com/innovation/tchat-communication-tools-you-cant-use-them-all/

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Nintendo Gaming Lounges at Whistler Blackcomb | GoNintendo ...

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

Source: http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=170118

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Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with MakerBot

MakerBot has sparked a mini industrial revolution, giving us the DIY tools to fabricate our dreams. MakerBot founder Bre Pettis joins us live at 1:30PM ET.

Continue reading Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with MakerBot

Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with MakerBot originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/8A3NKfLXsno/

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Goldilocks Black Holes (preview)

Feature Articles | Space See Inside

Tipping the scales at less than about a million suns in mass, middleweight black holes may hold clues to how their much larger siblings, and galaxies, first formed

By Jenny E. Greene ?| January 12, 2012?|

Image: Illustration by Gavin Potenza

In Brief

• Black holes with a billion times the sun?s mass already existed early in the universe. How did these behemoths grow so big, so fast? What process formed the ?seed? black holes from which they grew?
• Did the death throes of the first stars provide numerous small seeds that then merged together, or did vast primordial gas clouds bypass the star stage and collapse to form larger seeds directly?
• Astronomers are trying to solve this mystery by finding and analyzing leftover seeds??middleweight? black holes. Early indications suggest that middleweights formed by direct collapse.

Astronomers have known for some 10 years that nearly every large galaxy contains at its core an immense black hole?an object having such intense gravity that even light cannot escape. The death of stars can produce small black holes?with masses ranging from about three to 100 times the mass of the sun?but such stellar-mass black holes are tiny compared with the behemoths at the centers of galaxies, measuring millions to billions of solar masses.

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Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=1d191f3149bb161c7c57ec212c620106

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