Friday, March 22, 2013

Line begins at high court for gay marriage cases

People bundled against the cold, wait in the line to enter the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, March 22, 2013, to listen to oral arguments in next weeks Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8 cases. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)

People bundled against the cold, wait in the line to enter the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, March 22, 2013, to listen to oral arguments in next weeks Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8 cases. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)

(AP) ? A line has begun forming at the Supreme Court for people who want to attend next week's arguments in two gay marriage cases.

Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathleen Arberg confirmed by email that people began lining up at some point Thursday.

The justices will hear arguments Tuesday on California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage and on Wednesday on the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman.

Lines frequently form in advance for the free tickets to high-profile arguments, but five days before a case is particularly early. For last year's three days of arguments over the Affordable Care Act, the line began about three days early.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-03-22-US-Supreme-Court-Gay-Marriage-Seats/id-0c00ae0a2342422faf972b55dc98db38

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Study: Pirates Rejoice, Illegal Downloading Doesn't Impact Digital Music Sales

PirateCatSomewhere, there is a very sad music lobby analyst shedding a tear. "The vast majority of the music that is consumed illegally by the individuals in our sample would not have been legally purchased if illegal downloading websites were not available to them," reads a European Commission study on the impact music piracy. Unlike previous research studies whether piracy cannibalizes sales of physical music, the Commission's cross-country study looked sales of digital music (i.e. iTunes) and found that pirates have a negligible effect on the music industry.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/yp2MGz_tt2I/

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This is the Modem World: The internet may be killing cash

Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.

This is the Modem World The Internet May Be Killing Cash

We worship money. It can be exchanged for life-sustaining stuff, makes us powerful and drives us to make new things. It also drives us to do some very strange stuff, but that's a subject for another day and place. You may not bow to the altar of the dollar, but you certainly recognize the need to have some in order to survive.

While we adore money as a society, its time may be limited as a currency, and the internet may be to blame. Money wasn't always king. Before we traded cash, we exchanged gold, cows, clamshells, rice, copper, tea leaves and even bat guano. At some point in those currencies' lives, people determined that there were other things worth more and moved on to trade those.

Today, denizens of the internet are increasingly hoarding other currencies. We -- or at least some of us -- obsess over a whole new kind of currency that, in some cases, doesn't even translate to real-world money.

On social networking sites, one is measured by how many friends, connections and followers he has. To those who care, possessing many online friends makes one appear popular, powerful and interesting.

On Twitter, having a large following means that what you have to say is very important -- or you're really hot. Or you paid someone to get you followers. In any case, Twitter followers, as a number, has become an incredibly important number. It's abstract, and we're still not sure what to do with it, but we care. We feel good when we see "You have new followers!" emails, and we feel empty when we see that people have un-followed us. We're impressed when we see people with millions of followers. Entire industries have formed just to create Twitter momentum for celebrities and businesses. Followers are bought and sold with real money. For better or worse, we care. And if you're one of the few who doesn't care, there are plenty behind you who do.

On user-generated sites like YouTube, one is measured by how many subscribers he has. YouTube stars are crossing over into mainstream because they've become internet famous. In 2010, Fred, a YouTube vlogger who pitches up his voice and does silly things that half of us can't quite figure out, was given a Nickelodeon movie deal. Meanwhile, view counts for music videos are now included in Billboard's metrics. YouTube's viewership, according to Wired, now exceeds that of ABC, NBC and CBS combined during prime time. New businesses designed to just create content for YouTube and create subscriptions are going through impressive rounds of funding.

Meanwhile, in modern communities like Reddit and Digg, one is measured by his social karma, or how many times his comments have been up-voted. In short, one is measured by how much he has contributed. Reddit has become so important in online social currency that Bill Gates, Al Gore and many others have done special AMAs (Ask me Anything) as a measure of community contact. Society's current power-holders are already recognizing how important it is to participate in these new social networks. The success of these small campaigns is measured not by how much money they make but by how far the AMA has been up-voted. Get your client's AMA to the front page and you've done your job, cash or none.

Sure, all of these things ultimately translate to business plans that turn into real, hard cash. After all, humans still need to buy food and shelter. But this is the first time we've quantified -- and measured -- social worth via followers, friends and subscriptions. These things are real currency: they get you more stuff, and sometimes they're the most efficient way to get yourself some moolah.

But are they powerful enough to usurp cash-money as the be-all currency that moves modern society? Will there be a point in which someone will say to another, "Keep the cash. Get me more followers"? Will we one day be able to buy things with something other than dollars and yen?

Certainly barter deals are made now that involve traffic exchanges, social networking pickups and the like, but they're usually ultimately tied to page views and ad revenue that become real money. At some point, though, we may determine that those extra followers are enough currency in that they give us the ability to exchange that online social pull for other services.

It's not a completely crazy concept. After all, we've moved past bat guano. Certainly we could move past cash. In many ways we already have, and the more we apply numbers to our online social success, the more we'll value it.


Joshua Fruhlinger is the former Editorial Director for Engadget and current contributor to both Engadget and the Wall Street Journal. You can find him on Twitter at @fruhlinger.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/20/the-internet-may-be-killing-cash/

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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

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Source: http://www.ecotapeblog.it/?p=710

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New nuclear power plant approved

Ed Davey said the new nuclear power station was a milestone on the road to decarbonisation

The first of a planned new generation of nuclear power plants in the UK has been given approval.

Energy Secretary Ed Davey told MPs in the Commons that he was granting planning consent for French energy giant EDF to construct Hinkley Point C in Somerset.

The proposed ?14bn power plant would be capable of powering five million homes.

Mr Davey said the project was "of crucial national importance" but environmental groups reacted angrily.

25,000 jobs

The building of Hinkley Point C is expected to pave the way for a fleet of new plants across the UK.

It is estimated the project will create between 20,000 and 25,000 jobs during construction and 900 permanent jobs once in operation.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

Nuclear plants are not breeding fast - it has taken a whole generation to get this close to a new pair.

But today's decision is only the start of a government struggle to fuel much of the country on atomic power.

Because Hinkley is the only nuclear plant queuing for planning permission at the moment.

What's more, the stations there will have to be subsidised massively by the public under a deal being "intensely" discussed by the Treasury. Its owners are asking for government guarantees that may possibly be challenged under EU competition law and the firm is still looking for a business partner.

And even if the plants at Hinkley actually do get off the ground, there is still a huge question mark over the rest of the new-build programme.

To replace historic capacity would need at least three more developments on this scale. But it's barely conceivable that the new-build programme could progress with no sign of a long-term nuclear waste disposal in prospect.

The stakes are high. The government's chief energy scientist David Mackay recently warned that to supply clean energy to industry would take a four-fold increase in nuclear power - or (based on new figures) an increase in wind power of between 12-20 fold.

That's unless we all start saving energy with a level of frugality and invention which has eluded us so far.

BBC industry correspondent John Moylan said the power plant would cost more than the London 2012 Olympics.

Mr Davey told the Commons: "The planning decision to give consent to Hinkley Point follows a rigorous examination from the Planning Inspectorate, and detailed analysis within my department.

"This planned project adds to a number of new energy projects consented since May 2010, including wind farms and biomass and gas-fired power stations.

"It will benefit the local economy, through direct employment, the supply chain and the use of local services."

The news is a boost to the nuclear industry following a series of setbacks in plans to construct a new fleet of reactors in the UK, which ministers say are needed to cut carbon and keep the lights on.

Nuclear waste Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

It will lock a generation of consumers into higher energy bills, via a strike price that's expected to be double the current price of electricity?

End Quote John Sauven Greenpeace chief executive

EDF says the project would generate taxes equivalent to a few percentage points of what the entire financial sector yields for the exchequer.

The energy giant is negotiating with ministers over what it can charge for the electricity Hinkley generates for decades to come.

Mr Davey said discussions on the strike price were ongoing, but he expected them to be concluded shortly.

EDF chief executive Vincent de Rivaz said "intensive discussions" were taking place.

He said: "To make this opportunity a reality, we need to reach agreement swiftly... It must offer a fair and balanced deal for consumers and investors."

Shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint welcomed the decision to grant planning consent.

"Today's announcement is an important milestone in the development of new nuclear build in the UK," she said.

"I am pleased to welcome it and reiterate our support for nuclear power alongside an expansion of renewable energy and investment in carbon capture and storage as part of a clean, secure and affordable energy supply for the future."

'Fair and balanced'

However, environmental groups have reacted angrily.

They raised concerns over the potentially high price for electricity the government will agree to in order to get the nuclear plant built, and over the issue of nuclear waste.

Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said: "It will lock a generation of consumers into higher energy bills, via a strike price that's expected to be double the current price of electricity, and it will distort energy policy by displacing newer, cleaner, cheaper technologies.

"With companies now saying the price of offshore wind will drop so much it will be on par with nuclear by 2020, there is no rationale for allowing Hinkley C to proceed."

Friends of the Earth's Policy and Campaigns Director Craig Bennett said: "The only way this plant will be built is if the government hands over a blank cheque from UK taxpayers to French developers, EDF.

"The most cost-effective way to cut carbon and keep the lights on is a combination of energy efficiency and investing in renewables."

Continue reading the main story

Hinkley C would be one of the UK's biggest infrastructure projects for years with 5,600 workers on site at the peak of construction.

Unite's national officer for energy Kevin Coyne, said the decision to grant consent was a "massive boost for jobs".

But Dr Tim Fox, head of energy and environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, warned of a potential shortage of skilled engineers needed to build the plant.

"More needs to be done to increase the number of people choosing engineering as a career to overcome a skills shortage," he said.

"Over the next 10 years, the UK needs to be recruiting about 87,000 engineers a year, but worryingly we are currently producing just 46,000 engineers a year."

Hinkley Point C will be the third nuclear plant at the site.

Hinkley A, which is now being decommissioned, began generating in 1965 and was closed down in 1999. Hinkley B, which started generating in 1976, is due to be turned off in 2023.

The last nuclear plant built in the UK was Sizewell B in Suffolk. Building work for the plant, near Leiston, began in 1988 and it started operating seven years later.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21839684#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Vatican releases pope's Mass details, motto

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? The Vatican is releasing details of the pope's installation Mass on Tuesday as well images of his coat of arms and fisherman's ring.

In addition to more than 132 government delegations, the Vatican said 33 Christian delegations will be present, as well as representatives from Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain communities.

The ring that Pope Francis will put on during the Mass once belonged to Pope Paul VI, and is made of gold-plated silver.

Francis' papal coat of arms is based on the same simple one as he had previously, with the symbol of his Jesuit order.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vatican-releases-popes-mass-details-motto-132136952.html

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Neiman Marcus Settles Charges It Falsely Claimed Real Fur Products Were 'Faux'

  • Vonage

    We all know how difficult it can be to decipher a phone bill. It?s especially tricky to figure out those mysterious fees when companies use official-sounding wording that sounds like they're charges mandated by the government and, thus, beyond their control. Case in point: Vonage. A reader sent us a letter from the company noting a $1 per month increase, to $2.99, in the ?Regulatory, Compliance and Intellectual Property Fee,? RC&IP, for short. According to a Vonage spokesman, the fee covers ?our regulatory-related and legal compliance expenses, including those related to customer privacy protection, anti-fraud protection and number portability, as well as intellectual property-related costs enabling our services. It also ensures that we continue to deliver best-in-class service and build innovative products that meet a range of customer calling needs.? <strong><a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/content/cro/en/shopping/naughty-and-nice-2012.html">Read more at Consumer Reports</a></strong>

  • Time Warner Cable

    The broadband and cable giant recently announced it will begin charging customers $3.95 per month to lease a cable modem. Time Warner joins a list of other Internet biggies to do so, including Cox, Comcast, and Bright House. Although Time Warner and other companies allow customers to purchase and install their own modems outright, less-tech-savvy folks might be reluctant, assuring the companies a steady stream of extra revenue. <strong><a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/content/cro/en/shopping/naughty-and-nice-2012.html">Read more at Consumer Reports</a></strong>

  • Tiger Direct

    Restocking fees have been around for years. But TigerDirect.com?s policy is vague and the penalty significant. To qualify for a return, the products ?must be 100% complete, in the same condition as when sold, and in the original packaging . . . all packing materials, manuals, diskettes, CDs, digital media, blank warranty cards and other accessories and documentation must be included. Kits and other items assembled after purchase must be unassembled and returned in the manufacturer's original packaging.? Talk about stern language: ?All returns will be inspected and products found to be non-conforming will be rejected or subject to a restocking fee? of up to 25 percent ?at TigerDirect.com's sole discretion.? <strong><a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/content/cro/en/shopping/naughty-and-nice-2012.html">Read more at Consumer Reports</a></strong>

  • Ticketmaster

    The king of sports, music, and entertainment tickets charges customers $2.50 per order to print out their own tickets? That?s especially hard to justify since Ticketmaster will ship tickets for free via snail mail. But the company?s got that angle covered, too. If you choose to have your tickets mailed for free, Ticketmaster says they?ll ship within a leisurely 10 to 14 days of purchase, insufficient lead time for some events. Thus, you?re forced to trade up to expedited shipping (starting at $14.50) or choose to print them yourself. Gotcha. <strong><a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/content/cro/en/shopping/naughty-and-nice-2012.html">Read more at Consumer Reports</a></strong>

  • Spirit Airlines

    ?We empower you to save money on air travel by offering ultralow fares with a range of optional services?including bags?for a fee,? Spirit proclaims on its website, ?allowing you the freedom to choose only the extras you value.? Well, if you value almost anything other than airfare itself, you?ll likely need to dig into your wallet. The company just upped the freight to a maximum of $100 to stow a carryon in an overhead bin (it?s free if you can stuff it under the seat), depending on whether you declare the carryon in advance, at the airport, or wait until you?re at the gate. That?s more than you could pay for a checked bag. <strong><a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/content/cro/en/shopping/naughty-and-nice-2012.html">Read more at Consumer Reports</a></strong>

  • Forever 21

    The apparel merchant has different policies for online and in-store returns. If you return an online order to a retail location, you can only exchange the item or obtain store credit. If you mail it back, you can get an actual refund. <strong><a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/content/cro/en/shopping/naughty-and-nice-2012.html">Read more at Consumer Reports</a></strong>

  • Delta Airlines

    This bold pitch from Delta was impossible to overlook. When our reporter booked a domestic economy flight (the restricted fares most people choose) via the carrier?s website, Delta offered him the chance to ?add convenience and peace of mind.? ?Flex this fare for just $737,? the offer shouted, as if you?d be crazy not to jump at the deal. Trouble is, our reporter?s super-saver fare was just $248, so Delta was tripling the price to make it refundable. Gee thanks. <strong><a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/content/cro/en/shopping/naughty-and-nice-2012.html">Read more at Consumer Reports</a></strong>

  • CompUSA

    We have a pet peeve about so-called ?freebies? automatically added to orders that force consumers to unclick the item so it?s not added to the shopping cart. When we shopped for a toaster on CompUSA?s website and went to checkout, a ?free? download for computer antivirus software appeared on the invoice. The freebie, it says, lasts for six months. Afterward, you?ll get a bill for $49.99, according to a customer representative we phoned, unless you cancel before the subscription period ends. <strong><a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/content/cro/en/shopping/naughty-and-nice-2012.html">Read more at Consumer Reports</a></strong>

  • BMW

    Getting stuck with a flat isn?t the best way to find out your car didn?t come with a spare tire or jack, but that?s what you might discover if you drive a BMW. Most of the carmaker?s models now come with run-flat tires, which can get you to help after a simple puncture. But a blowout or rip in the sidewall means calling a tow truck. The disappearing-spare syndrome has been spreading to include even economy models from Hyundai, Chevy, and others. Check before you buy. <strong><a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/content/cro/en/shopping/naughty-and-nice-2012.html">Read more at Consumer Reports</a></strong>

  • Abe's Of Maine

    The New Jersey-based e-tailer and retailer, which sells appliances, electronics, housewares, fitness equipment, and other goods, says it will "gladly? help you exchange or return a product if dissatisfied, backing up its pledge with a ?30-day money back guarantee.*? But that little asterisk hides a laundry list of exceptions to the policy: fitness equipment, large appliances, microwaves, wine coolers, humidifiers, security items, marine and camping gear, sunglasses, watches, software, TVs, computer components, laptops, tablets, and bicycles. And if you want to return many other items, for example, headphones, printers, gaming consoles, computer peripherals, and A/V receivers, they must be unopened. <strong><a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/content/cro/en/shopping/naughty-and-nice-2012.html">Read more at Consumer Reports</a></strong>

  • Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/19/neiman-marcus-faux-fur_n_2908068.html

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    Hacked Bike Headlight Projects Your Speed On the Road Ahead

    Unless you're blasting through red lights and stop signs, you don't really need to care what speed you're riding a bike at. But maybe knowing that you're careening through traffic at a blistering eight miles per hour gives you some kind of thrill. In that case, check out Matt Richardson's Dynamic Bike Headlight hack. More »


    Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/YwV9xnKKveY/hacked-bike-headlight-projects-your-speed-on-the-road-ahead

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    Oscar de la Renta and Lulu Frost Design Pieces for Children?s Book

    The clothing and jewelry designers create special pieces to celebrate author Kelly Florio Kasouf's new children's book, The Super Adventures of Sophie and the City: Grand Central Escapades.

    Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/MbM88KwpXew/

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    Iran to sue Hollywood for fear-mongering with 'Argo'

    This is not the first time Iranian officials have complained about the portrayal of Iran in Hollywood cinema.

    By Roshanak Taghavi,?Correspondent / March 12, 2013

    This film image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Bryan Cranston (l.) as Jack O?Donnell and Ben Affleck as Tony Mendez in 'Argo,' a rescue thriller about the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.

    Claire Folger/Warner Bros./AP/File

    Enlarge

    Iran announced today that it will sue Hollywood for creating films the Islamic Republic alleges intentionally ?propagate fear of Iran throughout the world,? according to state media reports.?

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    Citing director Ben Affleck?s Oscar-winning film ?Argo? as ?the most recent example of various fear-mongering tactics? used by Hollywood, the semi-official Fars News Agency said?French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, widely known for defending Venezuelan-born terrorist?Ilich Ram?rez S?nchez (?Carlos the Jackal?), is in Tehran for talks with Iranian government officials to determine where and how a lawsuit should be filed.?

    ?These people [in Hollywood] are using films to propagate global panic about Iran,??Fars cites Ms. Coutant-Peyre as saying. ??The act [of the lawsuit] itself is valuable,? added Ms. Coutant-Peyre, ?because it can stir interest and discussion among the peoples of the world, until they can discern between what is the truth and what are lies about Iran, and think about them.? The dialogue created by Hollywood [about Iran] can?t be one-sided."

    It is unclear who will specifically be named in Iran's lawsuit. ?Ms. Coutant-Peyre said she has prepared a case and will provide more details at a press conference Wednesday, Fars reports.

    ?Argo? was privately screened in downtown Tehran on Monday as part of a state-organized conference on ?Hollywood Deceit," according to state media reports.?

    Based?on a true story about how the CIA, with the help of Canadian officials, smuggled six American diplomats out of Iran after the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy, ?Argo? was first screened at the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 7, the same day Canada closed its embassy in Tehran and expelled Iran?s diplomats from the Canadian capital, Ottawa.?

    Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/W0MpSunIjbs/Iran-to-sue-Hollywood-for-fear-mongering-with-Argo

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    Tourist-fed stingrays change their ways

    Mar. 18, 2013 ? Stingrays living in one of the world's most famous and heavily visited ecotourism sites -- Stingray City/Sandbar in the Cayman Islands -- have profoundly changed their ways, raising questions about the impact of so-called "interactive ecotourism" on marine wildlife, reports a new study published March 18 in the journal PLOS ONE.

    Researchers from Nova Southeastern University's Guy Harvey Research Institute in Hollywood, Fla. and the University of Rhode Island studied the southern stingray population of Stingray City -- a sandbar in the Cayman Islands that draws nearly a million visitors each year to feed, pet and swim with its stingrays -- to assess how the intensive ecotourism has affected the animals' behavior.

    "Measuring that impact is important because there's a lot of interest in creating more of these interactive ecotourism operations, but we know little about the life histories of the animals involved or how they might change," said study co-author Guy Harvey, who initiated the project.

    The researchers found that Stingray City's stingrays show distinctly different patterns of activity than their wild counterparts, who don't enjoy daily feedings or close human contact.

    "We saw some very clear and very prominent behavioral changes, and were surprised by how these large animals had essentially become homebodies in a tiny area," said study co-author Mahmood Shivji, director of the Guy Harvey Research Institute and NSU Oceanographic Center professor, who led the study.

    Wild stingrays are active at night and solitary -- they forage through the night over large distances to find food, and rarely cross paths with other stingrays. To see if Stingray City's fed stingrays stray from this behavior, Mark Corcoran, lead author of the study who did the research as part of his graduate work at NSU, and the research team tagged and monitored both wild and fed stingrays over the course of two years and compared their patterns of movement.

    They found that fed stingrays swapped their normal nighttime foraging for daytime feeding, and in contrast to their wild counterparts, began to rest at night. They also didn't mind rubbing shoulders with their neighbors: At least 164 stingrays abandoned the species' normal solitary behavior, crowding together in less than a quarter square mile of space at Stingray City. They even formed schools and fed together. The fed stingrays mated and became pregnant year-round, instead of during a specific mating season, and also showed signs of unusual aggression, biting each other more frequently than their wild counterparts.

    These results suggest that human-provided food can dramatically change how even large, highly mobile ocean animals behave -- with potentially serious consequences, the researchers conclude.

    "There are likely to be some health costs that come with these behavior changes, and they could be detrimental to the animals' well-being in the long term," Shivji said. Stingray City means big business in the Cayman Islands, where each stingray generates as much as $500,000 annually in tourism income, Harvey said. The team plans to continue to monitor Stingray City's population to track its health -- and the industry's impact -- over time.

    "Right now, these animals have no protection at all," Harvey said. "Without more studies like these, we won't know what that means for the wildlife or if we need to take action. It's unclear how much of the stingray's daily diet comes from tourism provided food, but the good news is we have seen the animals forage when tourists are absent suggesting that these animal are not completely dependent on these handouts."

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    The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Nova Southeastern University, via Newswise.

    Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


    Journal Reference:

    1. Mark J. Corcoran, Bradley M. Wetherbee, Mahmood S. Shivji, Matthew D. Potenski, Demian D. Chapman, Guy M. Harvey. Supplemental Feeding for Ecotourism Reverses Diel Activity and Alters Movement Patterns and Spatial Distribution of the Southern Stingray, Dasyatis americana. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (3): e59235 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059235

    Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

    Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

    Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/YW0B8idmRkk/130318202914.htm

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    Sunday, March 17, 2013

    2 Ohio football players convicted of raping girl

    Defense attorney Walter Madison, right, holds his client, 16-year-old Ma'lik Richmond, second from right, while defense attorney Adam Nemann, left, sits with his client Trent Mays, foreground, 17, as Judge Thomas Lipps pronounces them both delinquent on rape and other charges after their trial in juvenile court in Steubenville, Ohio, Sunday, March 17, 2013. Mays and Richmond were accused of raping a 16-year-old West Virginia girl in August 2012. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, Pool)

    Defense attorney Walter Madison, right, holds his client, 16-year-old Ma'lik Richmond, second from right, while defense attorney Adam Nemann, left, sits with his client Trent Mays, foreground, 17, as Judge Thomas Lipps pronounces them both delinquent on rape and other charges after their trial in juvenile court in Steubenville, Ohio, Sunday, March 17, 2013. Mays and Richmond were accused of raping a 16-year-old West Virginia girl in August 2012. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, Pool)

    Ma'lik Richmond, 16, top, hugs his mother Daphne Birden, after closing arguments were made on the fourth day of the juvenile trial he and co-defendant Trent Mays, 17, on rape charges in juvenile court on Saturday, March 16, 2013 in Steubenville, Ohio. Mays and Richmond are accused of raping a 16-year-old West Virginia girl in August, 2012. Judge Thomas Lipps said he would render a decision on Sunday morning, March 17. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, Pool)

    Judge Thomas Lipps arrives in court where he pronounced Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'lik Richmond, 16, delinquent on rape and other charges after their trial in juvenile court in Steubenville, Ohio, Sunday, March 17, 2013. Mays and Richmond were accused of raping a 16-year-old West Virginia girl in August 2012. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, Pool)

    Ma'lik Richmond, 16, left, and co-defendant Trent Mays, 17, right, walks around in the court room during a break on the fourth day of their trial on rape charges in juvenile court on Saturday, March 16, 2013 in Steubenville, Ohio. The pair are accused of raping a 16-year-old West Virginia girl in August 2012. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, Pool)

    Trent Mays, 17, enters the courtroom before Judge Thomas Lipps pronounced Mays and co-defendant, Ma'lik Richmond, 16, delinquent on rape and other charges after their trial in juvenile court in Steubenville, Ohio, Sunday, March 17, 2013. Mays and Richmond were accused of raping a 16-year-old West Virginia girl in August 2012. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, Pool)

    (AP) ? Two members of Steubenville's celebrated high school football team were found guilty Sunday of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl, and Ohio's attorney general warned the case isn't over, saying he is investigating whether coaches, parents and other students broke the law, too.

    Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'Lik Richmond, 16, were sentenced to at least a year in juvenile prison in a case that has rocked this Rust Belt city of 18,000 and led to allegations of a cover-up to protect the Steubenville High team, which has won nine state championships. Mays was ordered to serve an additional year for photographing the underage girl naked.

    They can be held until they turn 21.

    The two broke down in tears after a Juvenile Court judge delivered his verdict. They later apologized to the victim and the community, Richmond struggling to speak through his sobs.

    "My life is over," he said as he collapsed in the arms of his lawyer.

    The crime, which took place after a party last summer, shocked many in Steubenville because of the seeming callousness with which other students took out their cellphones to record the attack and gossiped about it online. In fact, the case came to light via a barrage of morning-after text messages, social media posts and online photos and video.

    "Many of the things we learned during this trial that our children were saying and doing were profane, were ugly," Judge Thomas Lipps said.

    Immediately after the verdict, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said he will convene a grand jury next month to investigate whether anyone else should be charged. Noting that 16 people refused to talk, many of them underage, DeWine said possible offenses to be investigated include failure to report a crime.

    "This community desperately needs to have this behind them, but this community also desperately needs to know justice was done and that no stone was left unturned," he said.

    Among those who have been interviewed are the owners of one of the houses where parties were held that night, the high school principal, and the football team's 27 coaches, many of them volunteers.

    Text messages introduced at the trial suggested the head coach was aware of the rape allegation early on. DeWine said coaches are among officials required by state law to report child abuse. The coach and the school district have repeatedly declined to comment.

    Mays and Richmond were charged with penetrating the West Virginia girl with their fingers, first in the back seat of a moving car after a mostly underage drinking party on Aug. 11, and then in the basement of a house.

    "They treated her like a toy," prosecutor Marianne Hemmeter said.

    Prosecutors argued that the victim was so intoxicated she couldn't consent to sex that night, while the defense contended the girl realized what she was doing and was known to lie.

    The girl testified she could not recall what happened but woke up naked in a strange house after drinking at a party.

    "It was really scary," she said. "I honestly did not know what to think because I could not remember anything."

    She said she believed she was assaulted when she later read text messages among friends and saw a photo of herself naked, along with a video that made fun of her and the alleged attack.

    Three other boys, two of them on the football team, saw something happening that night and didn't try to stop it but instead recorded it with their cellphones. Granted immunity to testify, they confirmed the girl was assaulted and said she was so drunk she didn't seem to know what was happening.

    Evidence at the trial also included sexually explicit text messages sent by numerous students after the party. Lawyers noted how texts have seemed to replace talking on the phone for young people. A computer forensic expert documented hundreds of thousands of texts found on 17 phones seized during the investigation.

    In sentencing the boys, Lipps urged parents and others "to have discussions about how you talk to your friends, how you record things on the social media so prevalent today and how you conduct yourself when drinking is put upon you by your friends."

    After the arrests, the case was furiously debated on blogs and social media, with some people warning of conspiracies and conflicts of interest. On Sunday, Hemmeter, the prosecutor, criticized efforts by the hacker collective Anonymous to publicize the case, saying the attention had a chilling effect on those willing to testify.

    After the verdict, the accuser's mother rebuked the boys for "lack of any moral code."

    "You were your own accuser, through the social media that you chose to publish your criminal conduct on," she said. She added that the case "does not define who my daughter is. She will persevere, grow and move on."

    Echoing that, the judge said that "as bad as things have been for all of the children involved in this case, they can all change their lives for the better."

    ___

    Andrew Welsh-Huggins can be reached on Twitter at https://twitter.com/awhcolumbus.

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-17-Football%20Players-Rape%20Charges/id-dd8cb193da0f4f0dabc373ceab50bebf

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    Charm offensive produces no breakthroughs

    (AP) ? Over dinner at a swank hotel a few blocks from the White House, Republican senators wanted to know if President Barack Obama would support a gradual increase in the age of eligibility for Medicare, set at 65 since the program's inception more than four decades ago.

    The president hedged, according to several at the event, recalling the discussion on a cost-saving change to Medicare that most if not all leading Democrats in Congress adamantly oppose. One later recalled that Obama "drew no bright line" in opposition, but the lawmaker came away believing that the president "would be very resistant" even if it might unlock a long-sought deal to reduce deficits and an ever-growing federal debt.

    That lawmaker and some of the others describing what occurred in the meetings spoke on condition of anonymity, noting that the sessions were supposed to be private discussions.

    The politically fraught moment came at the outset of Obama's widely publicized recent string of meetings with rank-and-file lawmakers. The unusual commitment of presidential time netted public praise from his most implacable critics and was supplemented by numerous conversations among lawmakers and senior White House aides.

    No breakthroughs were anticipated and none emerged, and for all the warm talk, House Speaker John Boehner delivered a tart summation.

    "Republicans want to balance the budget. The president doesn't. Republicans want to solve our long-term debt problem. The president doesn't," he said, while adding it was incumbent on all sides to seek common ground.

    Across the hours, there were moments of levity ? and an expression of gratitude to Arizona Sen. John McCain for his service to the nation on the 40th anniversary of his release from a prisoner of war camp in Vietnam.

    Evidently the food was pretty good, too.

    One presidential aide left a meeting with the Senate Republican rank and file toting a carry-out bag from lunch that featured lobster salad and blueberry pie with ice cream.

    "Ultimately it's a matter of the House and the Senate ... getting together and being willing to compromise," the president said as he departed the Capitol on Thursday.

    Even on that point, Republicans disagree.

    Over and over, they told Obama, he must lead, tone down the attacks on them and lean on Democrats to accept concessions in benefit programs.

    Over and over, he told Republicans that if he is to make concessions on Medicare and elsewhere, they would have to agree to higher taxes.

    On that, there was little if any give, particularly with Republicans noting that Obama's approval ratings have recently begun receding for the first time since his re-election.

    At the dinner at the Jefferson Hotel more than 10 days ago, Republican senators noted that some of the changes under discussion for Medicare would raise costs for wealthier seniors and also that higher revenues might result from what one called "pro-growth tax reform."

    But there was no support for raising taxes, recalled one participant at the dinner. Several said the resolve stemmed from last winter's agreement to raise tax rates in legislation that contained only skimpy spending cuts.

    By the time of his final meeting Thursday, Obama told House Democrats that, for now at least, they needn't worry about having to make concessions like slowing the growth of cost-of-living benefits under Social Security and other programs. Republicans, he said, weren't willing to contemplate enough additional tax revenue to warrant the trade-off.

    Policy differences aside, there was an undercurrent of mistrust if not long-nursed grievances among Republicans, many of whom were getting their first look up-close look at the Democrat in the White House.

    Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma told the president he had heard that his first call on election night last November had been to the leader of the Democrats' 2014 campaign committee, rather than to Boehner, the Republican speaker.

    Not so, Obama replied, saying he had indeed called Boehner first, but he was asleep. "Yeah, it was an early night for us," called out one lawmaker, drawing laughs from a group that lost eight seats in November.

    Later in the same meeting, Rep. Tom Price of Georgia referred to a lack of trust between the two sides. According to participants in the meeting, he chalked up Obama's delay in presenting a budget this spring to politics.

    The president replied that if he were solely interested in politics he would be running a "Mediscare" campaign rather than holding meetings with Republicans.

    Across the Capitol, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota singled out an interview in which he said the president accused Republicans of wanting to eviscerate Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

    "Nobody here believes those programs ought to be gutted," Thune told Obama, the senator later recalled. Instead, he told the president that Republicans want to preserve the programs for the future.

    The president stood his ground, saying the Republican plan to turn Medicaid and food stamps into all-purpose grants to the states would inevitably lead to deep cuts in services for the needy.

    By all accounts, Medicare, which provides health care to millions of seniors, is the key to any deficit-reduction compromise.

    In his budget a year ago, Obama proposed saving $305 billion over a decade from the program, although little of that derives from the sort of changes Republicans say are essential to slow the growth in health care costs.

    Roughly half would come from drug companies that sell medicine to low-income Medicare beneficiaries. A $63 billion savings would come from changes in payment rules for post-hospital care facilities; $36 billion from lowering the amount of bad debt the government would cover for providers.

    An additional $28 billion would come from raising premiums for wealthier seniors beginning in 2017.

    Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, noted that the president had said repeatedly last winter that Congress should pass tax items they agreed on and leave others for later.

    Seeking to turn the tables, he asked Obama why the White House wouldn't now agree to pass legislation to slow the growth of cost-of-living increases in Social Security and other benefit programs and increase Medicare fees for wealthier seniors, steps Obama has backed in the past.

    Obama replied that Republicans would have to agree to higher taxes first, according to several lawmakers present.

    Even then, it was clear when he met with Senate Democrats that Obama he would face resistance from his allies in Congress.

    Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who sides with Democrats, said he and Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa spoke out strongly against changes in calculating cost-of-living increases.

    "It would make major cuts in Social Security benefits ... and also very significant cuts for disabled veterans," Sanders said in a telephone interview.

    "I do not believe that the American people want to balance the budget on the backs of disabled veterans or widows who lost their husbands in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

    ___

    Associated Press writers Donna Cassata and Charles Babington contributed to this report.

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-16-US-Obama-Congress/id-dba41142ef94497d82b9f617bba925a0

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    Speck Products FitFolio Protective Cover for iPad mini ? Black

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

    Source: http://furor.co/speck-products-fitfolio-protective-cover-for-ipad-mini-black/

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    BLU Life Series phones include quad-core CPU, Android 4.2, start at $229 unlocked

    Blu Life Series phones include quadcore CPU, Android 42, start at $229 unlocked

    Coming this April, BLU Products will have three new smartphones vying for your hard-earned dollar. The trio of dual-SIM handsets, known as the Life View, Life One and Life Play, will be sold unlocked on Amazon and will range in price between $229 and $299. As a nice touch, Android 4.2 will be common among the bunch, as will backside-illuminated sensors on the cameras and the quad-core, 1.2GHz MediaTek MT6589 (Cortex A7) SoC. Likewise, each smartphone will also feature an HD IPS display.

    The Life View ($299), the largest of the bunch, includes a massive 5.7-inch display, a 12-megapixel rear / 5-megapixel front camera, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of expandable storage and a 2,600mAh battery. Meanwhile, the more reasonably sized Life One ($299) includes a 5-inch display, a 13-megapixel rear / 5-megapixel front camera, similar storage specs and a 2,000mAh battery. Lastly, the sleekest of the three, the Life Play ($229), includes a 4.7-inch display and measures 7.9mm thick. Here, you can expect to find an 8-megapixel rear / 2-megapixel front camera, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of expandable storage and an 1,800mAh battery. You'll find the band support for each of the three phones in the PR after the break, but needless to say, you'll be safe on AT&T (and in many areas, T-Mobile).

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    Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/tq6dfB-Gyhg/

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    Saturday, March 16, 2013

    ShaqIsDope ? Vintage Paris (Prod. By Melrose Zee) + Dirty California (Prod. By LSMi)

    To provide a quick introduction, here?s couple tracks from ?20-year-old Toronto native ShaqIsDope. The kid can definitely rap and a mixtape is currently in the works, set to be released later this year. Until then, listen to ?Vintage Paris? and ?Dirty California.?

    Source: http://youheardthatnew.com/2013/03/shaqisdope-vintage-paris-prod-by-melrose-zee-dirty-california-prod-by-lsmi/

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    Arms flowing to Syria from every direction

    The United Nations said today that more than 5 million Syrians ? about 20 percent of its population ? have been left reliant on aid handouts by the ferocious civil war that has raged there for two years now.

    A glance at today's headlines gives good reason to expect the number of Syrians driven from their homes to bulge ? they highlight the prospect of more arms flowing into a conflict that has already claimed 70,000 lives and driven more than 1 million refugees into neighboring countries.

    Saudi Arabia and Qatar are already arming the rebellion, and Iran and its partner Hezbollah in Lebanon have been sending arms and men to fight alongside President Bashar al-Assad's troops. Now Britain and France want to open the door to direct arming of the rebels themselves. Yesterday, the two countries said they want to lift immediately a European Union embargo on arming the rebels, set to expire on May 31.

    "We have to go very fast," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said, indicating France may act even if it doesn't get an EU green light. "We are a sovereign nation," he emphasized.

    The UK doesn't appear to be quite as gung-ho as France, but still seems to be inching close to much stronger intervention in Syria's war. "We have no plans at the moment to do anything different," Foreign Secretary William Hague said in London today.

    But he also didn't fully distance himself from the French position, adding, "I have said of course that that policy may need to change again in the future if the situation continues to get worse, more people dying, more people fleeing, but we have no plans at the moment, the British government has no plans to send lethal arms, lethal equipment to Syria."

    The one constant of this war has been more people dying and more people fleeing, so Mr. Hague appears to be laying the public ground for a shift. The UN refugee agency said registered Syrians who had fled their country surged to 121,000 last week, 10 percent of the running total of 1 million refugees generated in the past two years. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres called the increases a "staggering escalation." He said the daily flow of refugees more than doubled from December to February ? from 3,000 a day to 8,000.

    This is tragic, but hardly surprising. December is when it first became clear that the rebels had tapped into a new arms supply, since confirmed to be supplied by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, mostly via Jordan. As a result, rebels have made gains in a number areas, but has also intensified fighting that has reduced whole blocks of cities like Homs and Aleppo to rubble. The Syrian government has responded with an even greater willingness to target civilian residential neighborhoods with stand off weapons like mortars, rockets and cluster bombs.

    Amnesty International wrote yesterday:

    Research carried out inside Syria in the last fortnight confirms that government forces continue to bomb civilians indiscriminately, often with internationally banned weapons, flattening entire neighborhoods. Detainees held by these forces are routinely subjected to torture, enforced disappearances or extra-judicial executions

    ?While the vast majority of war crimes and other gross violations continue to be committed by government forces, our research also points to an escalation in abuses by armed opposition groups,? said Ann Harrison, Deputy Director of Amnesty International?s Middle East and North Africa Programme. ?If left unaddressed such practices risk becoming more and more entrenched - it is imperative that all those concerned know they will be held accountable for their actions.?

    So, will even more arms for the rebels make a difference? While US Secretary of State John Kerry said on a visit to Saudi Arabia earlier this month that the US hopes arms flows to the rebels will force Assad to the negotiating table, so far they have only bolstered the resolve of the rebellion while doing nothing to take away from the commitment of Assad's troops, many of whom belong to his minority Alawite sect and view victory in this war as a question of survival.

    The sectarian dimension, both locally and internationally, looms ever larger. Syria is already in many ways a hot proxy war in Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia's long tussle for regional power and influence. Iraq, which has a Shiite-led government but an angry Sunni minority, is providing aid to both Assad via official channels and to the rebels via Sunni militants who see victory for Syria's rebellion as a potential gamechanger for their own prospects inside Iraq.

    With all this activity comes the possibility of blowback for international actors. Secretary Kerry has said the US is convinced that current arms flows are going only to nationalist groups, rather than to the jihadi-inspired organizations like Jabhat al-Nusra, which have been at the forefront of some of Syria's bloodiest recent rebels, but the historic track record of making sure only the "good guys" end up with the weapons is not very promising.

    Consider the US and Saudi effort to arm the mujahideen who fought the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s. While the US tried to avoid arming what it viewed as the most extreme and anti-American groups fighting the Soviets, the Saudis had far fewer qualms about this. In any event, following the Soviet withdrawal, the weapons that ended up in the hands of what became the Taliban enabled them to win their own civil war, at an enormous cost that country is still counting today.

    Syria is not Afghanistan. A different place, a different culture, a different time. But there are at least superficial similarities. The Global Post reported on Wednesday that "hundreds of young Saudis are secretly making their way into Syria to join extremist groups fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad... over a dozen sources have confirmed that wealthy Saudis, as well as the government, are arming some Syrian rebel groups. Saudi and Syrian sources confirm that hundreds of Saudis are joining the rebels, but the government denies any sponsoring role."

    Sound familiar? It should. Saudi fighters flowed to the Afghan jihad too, and were the vanguard of what became Al Qaeda. Back then, the House of Saud didn't consider the dangers of blowback. They may be making the same mistake again.

    Meanwhile, US involvement continues apace, and is making for strange bedfellows. The Wall Street Journal had an interesting story this week about the CIA stepping up training and equipping efforts for Iraqi anti-terrorism units that answer directly to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

    "The stepped-up mission expands a covert US presence on the edges of the two-year-old Syrian conflict, at a time of American concerns about the growing power of extremists in the Syrian rebellion," WSJ wrote. "Al Qaeda in Iraq, the terrorist network's affiliate in the country, has close ties to Syria-based Jabhat al Nusra, also known as the Nusra Front, an opposition militant group that has attacked government installations and controls territory in northern Syria. The State Department placed Al Nusra on its list of foreign terror organizations in December, calling the group an alias for Al Qaeda in Iraq."

    The concerns are obvious. But units that answer directly to Mr. Maliki have frequently been accused of torture and execution, with their efforts largely targeted at Iraq's Sunni Arabs. And Iraq's goal in this is to stem the flow of support and fighters to Syria's rebellion ? a rebellion the US says it would like to see succeed, even as Iraq helps Iran arm Bashar al-Assad.

    This all seems likely to grow more, not less, complex. While the outcome remains difficult to predict, the near-term future seems to promise more suffering for Syria's people.

    Read this story at csmonitor.com

    Become a part of the Monitor community

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/every-direction-arms-syria-173144716.html

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    Friday, March 15, 2013

    CERN release preliminary results: particle looking 'more and more like a Higgs boson'

    CERN's latest update to its elementary particle project is that the new particle that it was able to pick up is behaving "more and more like a Higgs boson." The team isn't being particularly specific here, as its not certain just yet whether it's detected a 'standard model' particle or the lightest of several possible bosons predicted in other spin-off theories. Researchers are referencing the interactions of the particle (particularly its spin, or lack off) as the main reason why they reckon they're dealing with a genuine Higgs boson and work will now focus on exactly what kind of boson they've managed to snag.

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    Source: CERN

    Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/oJxKAqDFfg0/

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    Democrats wary of Japan entering trade talks

    (AP) ? Concerned that Japan's possible participation in ongoing trade talks among Pacific nations threatens the U.S. auto industry, Congressional Democrats raised their worries in a letter to President Barack Obama on Thursday.

    At least four dozen House and Senate Democrats said Japan has a long history of erecting barriers against U.S. auto imports and resisting U.S. efforts to create a more level playing field, and that is unlikely to change if Japan joins the 11-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, negotiations aimed at establishing free trade principles.

    Instead, they wrote, Japanese auto exports to the United States could increase if the United States eliminates its current 2.5 percent car tariffs and 25 percent truck tariffs.

    "These longstanding economically harmful practices are not susceptible to cursory negotiations at this stage, three years into the U.S. involvement in the TPP negotiations and close to the administration's target date" for concluding the TPP talks, they wrote.

    The administration has said it hopes to wrap up the negotiations by the end of this year. Last month, during a visit to Washington, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signed a joint statement with Obama saying they would continue talks on Japan's "possible interest" in joining the TPP talks.

    Among those signing the letter was Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, champion of the auto industry and top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, which oversees trade issues.

    In the letter, the Democrats wrote that Japan now exports 120 automobiles to the United States for every U.S. auto exported to Japan. They also wrote that the two countries will remain close and important allies but "a flawed, one-way trade agreement that benefits Japan at the expense of the United States businesses and workers will not help strengthen this vital relationship."

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-03-14-Japan-Trade/id-0728323b469146a2a68e798441dcc0e3

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    Scott in the mix at Innisbrook

    Adam Scott, of Australia, hits his tee shot on the sixth hole during the second round of the Tampa Bay Championship golf tournament Friday, March 15, 2013, in Palm Harbor, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

    Adam Scott, of Australia, hits his tee shot on the sixth hole during the second round of the Tampa Bay Championship golf tournament Friday, March 15, 2013, in Palm Harbor, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

    Shawn Stefani tees off on the sixth hole during the second round of the Tampa Bay Championship golf tournament Friday, March 15, 2013, in Palm Harbor, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

    Brian Harman hits from the 10th fairway during the second round of the Tampa Bay Championship golf tournament Friday, March 15, 2013, in Palm Harbor, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

    Harris English follows the flight of his tee shot on the sixth hole during the second round of the Tampa Bay Championship golf tournament Friday, March 15, 2013, in Palm Harbor, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

    Adam Scott, of Australia, blasts from the sand trap on the fifth hole during the second round of the Tampa Bay Championship golf tournament Friday, March 15, 2013, in Palm Harbor, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

    PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) ? Shawn Stefani made all the putts he was supposed to make to keep the lead in the Tampa Bay Championship.

    Stefani took only one putt on half of his holes to piece together a 1-under 70 on Friday and lead by one shot over Adam Scott among the early starter at Innisbrook. Scott played bogey-free for a 66.

    Harris English made four birdies on the tough par 3s on his way to a 69. He was two shots behind, along with close friend and fellow Georgia grad Brian Harman (70).

    Of the late starters, John Daly took himself out of the mix early with a 10 on the third hole. It was the 15th time Daly has made at least a 10 on the PGA Tour.

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-15-GLF-Tampa-Bay/id-08e9e40b9b6d4f53b43a0ef68ac19bfc

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