WPSL suspends 2012 season

updated 6:30 p.m. ET Jan. 30, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO - Women's Professional Soccer won't play the 2012 season amid a legal dispute with an ousted owner.

The league's Board of Governors voted Monday to suspend the season with hopes of resuming in 2013, the WPS announced.

In October, it terminated its South Florida franchise after clashing with owner Dan Borislow all season. A Florida judge ruled earlier this month that the league failed to follow its own dispute procedures when it terminated the franchise, and another court hearing is set for Wednesday.

WPS CEO Jennifer O'Sullivan said owners chose to cancel the season over possibly working with Borislow in the league again.

"We have diverted so many resources into litigation," she said. "This is something that needs to be resolved before we can move forward with play."

Borislow purchased the former Washington Freedom before last season and moved the club to South Florida, renaming it for a telephone call device he invented. The magicJack franchise was repeatedly disciplined during the season for not meeting league standards. In August, after Borislow filed suit against the WPS, the league released a statement accusing him of violations ranging from "unprofessional and disparaging treatment of his players to failure to pay his bills."

The league has played three seasons. It needed a waiver from the U.S. Soccer Federation to be sanctioned as a first-division league in 2012 with only five teams, below the required eight. In the deal with the governing body in December, WPS agreed to increase the number of teams to a minimum of six for 2013 and at least eight for 2014.

A longtime thoroughbred owner, Borislow was an outspoken figure in horse racing but sold most of his stable because of a dispute with the IRS.

O'Sullivan was not yet CEO when he was approved as an owner, but she acknowledged the vetting process might have been hurried.

"I do think the league at the time was in a situation where they were in a bit of a rush," she said.

With the Olympics this summer, the league's absence could give national team players more time to train together even if it means fewer games for them to play. The attention paid to the Olympics would have been valuable marketing for the WPS during the 2012 season.

The league's predecessor, the Women's United Soccer Association, folded after three years.

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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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No big deadline-day signings

??European football's January transfer window is closing with the leading clubs appearing to avoid any lavish outlays in the first season of UEFA's strict new financial controls.

Mike Zarrilli / Getty Images Contributor

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Mitt Romney: Who In God's Name Is He Anyway?

New York:

Back in the thick of the 2008 Republican presidential race, I asked a captain of American finance what he had made of Mitt Romney when they were young colleagues at Bain & Company. "Mitt was a nice guy, a smart businessman, and an excellent team player," he ?responded without missing a beat. Then came the CEO's one footnote, delivered with bemusement, not pique: "Still, whenever the rest of us would go out at the end of the day, we'd always find ourselves having the same conversation: None of us had any idea who this guy was."

Read the whole story: New York

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/mitt-romney-mormon_n_1240761.html

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[OOC] Shounen Academy.

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Emily3456

Member for 2 years

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Could I reserve a spot? I'll try to get Girl 3 up as fast as I can.

AlyxtheStubborn

Member for 1 years

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Could i possibly have girl 2 but i cant do the character until later thats why im hoping to reserve XD

inara1917

Member for 1 years

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Ooo, can I go for the gay teacher? :)

PrincessBoy

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Heyy can I have the friend that got them into the mess?

~Stop, stop breaking my heart. I love you boy. Stop, stop breaking my heart. I need you boy~
- Teen Top
The passion is CRAZY, but the drive is pure <3

theMoonlightTheory

Member for 1 years

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Dibs on the worst bad boy, ladies, you're in for some trouble hehehehe~

"It is in the east, and Juliet is the sun!"

black-as-night_oni

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Snedeker wins a shocker at Torrey Pines (AP)

SAN DIEGO ? Brandt Snedeker won the Farmers Insurance Open in a playoff no one imagined possible until Kyle Stanley hit a wedge into the water and made triple bogey on the last hole.

Snedeker had a tap-in birdie on the 18th and was so certain he would be the runner-up that he drove up to the media center for an interview, just in time to see Stanley run into trouble.

Both players made birdie on the 18th in the playoff, then Snedeker won on the second extra hole with a 5-foot par putt. Stanley's putt from about the same length caught the right side of the lip.

It was a devastating loss for Stanley, who led by seven shots in the round, and was four shots ahead as he stood on the 17th green.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_sp_go_su/glf_farmers_insurance

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Karen Dalton-Beninato: Brad Pitt and the Business of Making it Right ...

"Blogger Karen Dalton-Beninato sent me this beautiful picture of the project Brad Pitt is working on..."

Five years ago, Arianna Huffington posted my husband's photo of pink tents in a planned green community in New Orleans. That was two years post Hurricane Katrina levee failures, and it often felt like New Orleans was stuck in neutral.

It was 2007 and the 9th Ward still looked like an overgrown prairie strewn with concrete slabs, all that was left of most houses near the Industrial Canal. Residents were coming back to FEMA trailers, if they could get one, and gutted out homes. In the years since then, Make It Right NOLA has assembled a living study in sustainable architecture for returning residents.

"After Hurricane Katrina, many people said the Lower 9th Ward could not be rebuilt, but the spirit of the Lower Ninth and its residents is vibrant and resilient," Brad Pitt recently said through his Foundation. "Today, the neighborhood is growing and alive with new homes, playgrounds, gardens and block parties. With the help of generous partners like Hyatt, Make It Right will fulfill our goal of building 150 sustainable homes for those in this community who lost everything in the storm." Pitt is hosting a March 10th MIR benefit at the newly reopened Hyatt Regency in New Orleans, and the Hyatt is underwriting the cost of the event so all proceeds go to rebuilding.

Why the focus on New Orleans, and Pitt and Jolie's move to the French Quarter? Robert Kinney described it as well as anyone in his 1941 guidebook, The Bachelor in New Orleans: "New Orleans is the lotus land, to which all travelers return - once visited, it haunts you, calling your blood always."

"I'm from New Orleans, I love New Orleans and I love that Make It Right continues to help the people there rebuild their beautiful city," event co-chair Ellen DeGeneres said of the project. "Brad Pitt is amazing - not only for what he started, but also because, who else can make a hard hat look like a jaunty fall fashion accessory?"

DeGeneres will be joining my friend Mac Rebennack a/k/a Dr. John, and other NOLA natives Wendell Pierce and Mayor Mitch Landrieu at the benefit. And they will be joined by Seal, Rihanna, Sheryl Crow, Randy Jackson, Josh Brolin, Chris Paul, Djimon Hounsou, Spike Lee, Blake Lively, Sean Penn, and Kevin Spacey, with dinner prepared by chefs John Besh, Giada DeLaurentiis and Emeril Lagasse. Aziz Ansari of Parks and Recreation is hosting the after-party. With all the celebrities expected, it would probably be shorter to list who's not coming.

The event will sprint the project to its final goal of 150 platinum LEED certified homes in its 16-block neighborhood, and eventually help Make it Right move into helping Pitt's home territory of Joplin, Missouri with what they've learned from rebuilding green in New Orleans.

Steve Ragan is MIR's Development Director, and he walked us through the neighborhood's homes. We started out at the one that was built to float, designed by Tom Mayne of Morphosis Architects. Modular construction was assembled at UCLA, shipped to New Orleans and reassembled as the first home in the United States permitted for a floating foundation. All the connections to utilities are flexible tubing and piping, and if the home did begin to float they would be safely cut leaving its two masts to support it, Ragan explained. "It's probably our most cutting edge design. If we opened our program up to young hipsters, it would have sold quickly." The home eventually sold to an older man who needed a smaller space than the multi-generational homes occupied by many of his neighborhood.

"The most important thing is the immediate good for people who live here," Ragan says. "Second most important is advancing construction of energy efficient homes. Third, if you can imagine, is having the final neighborhood of 150 homes designed by 21 of the greatest architects in the world. In 20 years the people who will be touring the homes hopefully won't be thinking of them as advanced technology any more, but because they're architecturally significant."

Landscaping is largely made up of indigenous plants that help soak up water. Make it Right has patented a permeable concrete with 100 percent drainage throughout the development, and Ragan pours his coffee onto the surface to show us how quickly it disappears. That drainage also helped along with gray water collected beneath the homes. One of MIR's contractor was at a funeral and thought of using concrete crypts under the residents' homes to collect gray water. It's the right size, half the cost of building a container and feels appropriate in a city where dancing at funerals is not out of the norm.

Homes are built at least 4 feet off the ground, but MIR encourages residents to go higher. Residents have skin in the game, typically paying $75,000 with the rest of the $150,000 subsidized with a forgivable mortgage. With solar panels, Energy Star appliances and every possible new green technology on hand, only two homes in the development regularly use more energy than they produce, and those are multi-generational.

"If we had not focused on one area, we would have been able to build faster but people would have been pioneers sitting on their own," Ragan said. He's seen the crawfish boils, family reunions and arrivals of other developers as the area came to life. The 9th Ward was at 80 percent home ownership before Katrina, families who had lived there before the Industrial Canal was built and passed their homes down through generations. Some former residents are now back home, with green rooftop decks offering a view across the river.

"Homeowners choose their home as long as it's something that through our assistance they can afford. They're treated with the same respect, able to make the same decisions about design as a private developer would," Ragan said. "You can see some differences between first of the homes and later. We've managed as we've gone along with every iteration of homes to increase energy efficiency and lower costs. It's great when you can get an academic architect to take pause and say, 'how did you do that?"

It's something to see, and the visitors are coming in ever-increasing numbers. "I counted tour buses one day, and we were at 48," Ragan said. That number will only grow, with the Hollywood of the South bringing even more tourists to New Orleans. The Pugh Scarpa home we walked through had far more natural light than you would expect from the exterior view. Window direction adds to passive heating and cooling technologies, much like early Creole homes in the French Quarter. In the morning, the home is flooded with light. But by afternoon, the side with fewer windows, all hurricane resistant, cools the home down. Wireless lighting systems save on wiring costs, and directed vents at the top of the wall where hot air rises help cool the house faster. The architects are clearly familiar with Louisiana summers. Floors are reclaimed pine, and all the paint in the home is VOC-free. "We haven't had hard data, but anecdotally children who suffer from asthma have fewer problems once they move in." Architects meet with stakeholders early on, and the project has focused on residents who had lived in the Lower 9th Ward. One of the main design alterations requested has been larger porch and terrace areas for neighborhood socializing.

"I just love to come out here on a Saturday," Ragan said. "You've got construction crews working, you've got homeowners socializing, this neighborhood has come back to life. Architects talk about how architecture engages people. Tourists come outside, and a homeowner will come out and start explaining the home to them. Then another will come out and say, let me tell you about mine."

Plantings and mulch are available to community members. And the Make it Right playground, made of recycled materials, has wi-fi installed so children can compete with children in a playground on the other side of the world with the same system installed. Bayou Bienvenue backs up to the development, but its original cypress trees were killed off years ago as canals brought saltwater intrusion from the Gulf to the city. An older man walks up and reminisces about the years when the bayou was fresh water and the cypress trees grew. He talks about trapping and walking through the bayou, pointing to the stumps that now exist.

We meet Robert Green, a Make it Right resident and its unofficial ambassador. "I've been fortunate enough to be here when most people come by," he said. Green asked for the Waiting for Godot sign from the 9th Ward production starring Pierce, so the front of his house greets visitors with words by Samuel Beckett. Green often takes people into his home to show them construction, which he's proud of. His was the second lot in the program, and he bought the adjacent lot through the city's Lot Next Door program. He's considered putting in a gazebo.

Green was sent back from the Superdome when they couldn't offer adequate help to his mother who had Parkinson's Disease. So the family returned home, and the next day the water started rising. Green saved two of his granddaughters, but he lost his mother and granddaughter in the floodwaters that came through the broken levee on August 29, 2005. A marker for each rests in front of his home, under his Waiting for Godot sign.

A country road. A tree. Evening.

Details on A Night to Make It Right are available at: nighttomakeitright.com

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-daltonbeninato/brad-pitt-and-the-busines_b_1239228.html

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Arab League suspends Syria mission as violence rages (Reuters)

CAIRO/BEIRUT (Reuters) ? The Arab League suspended its monitoring mission in Syria on Saturday because of worsening violence, a move Damascus said was an attempt to draw foreign intervention as it struggles to quell a 10-month revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

The Arab League took the decision days after calling, unsuccessfully, for Assad to step down and make way for a government of national unity. It will take an Arab peace plan to the U.N. Security Council next week.

The rising violence in Syria took a dramatic turn this week when rebels seized three Damascus suburbs. On Saturday the army launched an offensive against them, leading to intense fighting.

"Given the critical deterioration of the situation in Syria and the continued use of violence ... it has been decided to immediately stop the work of the Arab League's mission to Syria pending presention of the issue to the league's council," Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said in a statement.

Arab League foreign ministers are expected to discuss early next month the possibility of withdrawing monitors completely, a League official said, but added that the secretary general could pull monitors out at any time if necessary.

"Syria regrets and is surprised at the Arab decision to stop the work of its monitoring mission," state channel Syria TV cited a government official as saying.

"This will have a negative impact and put pressure on (Security Council) deliberations with the aim of calling for foreign intervention and encouraging armed groups to increase violence," the official added.

The Arab League mission was sent to observe Syria's implementation of a League peace plan, but the level of violence remained high and there was no sign of a let-up in the crackdown on unrest by Assad's forces.

The mission's mandate was extended for a second month, but critics said the team's presence had not lessened the fighting, and the mission was further undermined when Gulf states withdrew their monitors last week, saying the team could not stop the violence.

Diplomatic pressure on Assad to step down or to carry out the peace plan has been weakened by his continuing support from Russia and regional power Iran. Assad himself blames the unrest on foreign-backed militants.

FIGHTING, DEFECTIONS NEAR CAPITAL

There was fighting outside three rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on Saturday, activists said, adding they believed the army was trying to prevent the insurgents from building a stronghold in an area so close to the centre of government.

Eight residents were killed and dozens wounded and 11 government troops killed in the clashes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that security forces shot dead four civilians and an army deserter elsewhere in the country.

The Damascus insurgents were emboldened by a string of reports of army desertions, and activists said one group of deserters had brought with them their three tanks.

A spokesman for the rebel forces, known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), said he did not have a complete tally but estimated that over 100 soldiers had deserted in the area on Saturday.

Elsewhere, activists said they were still recovering bodies from a sectarian "massacre" of Sunni Muslims in a neighbourhood of the flashpoint city Homs, which they blamed on pro-Assad militiamen belonging to the president's minority Alawite sect.

The Syrian Observatory, which said the death count had risen to 47, said snipers and checkpoints had made it difficult for activists to enter the district and find all the bodies.

Activists told Reuters by telephone that rebels who control the towns of Saqba, Kafr Batna and Jisreen were exchanging fire with soldiers who were shooting back from tanks and had used anti-aircraft guns and mortars.

A video uploaded by activists, purported to be from a rebel-held Damascus suburb, showed smoke rising from behind a mosque and heavy gunfire erupting in the background as residents shouted "Allahu Akbar (God is greatest)."

It was not possible to verify the video or many of the details from activists, as media access to such locations is restricted in Syria.

The rebel FSA agreed a truce last week for government forces to withdraw from rebel-held Zabadani, 30 minutes' drive from Damascus. It said the army had had to pull back because of the large number of desertions from its ranks.

What began last March as peaceful protests against four decades of Assad family rule has grown more violent as protesters began fighting back against the security forces' crackdown and were joined by rising numbers of army deserters.

The United Nations said in December that more than 5,000 people had been killed in the wave of protests. Syria says more than 2,000 security force members have been killed by militants.

The state news agency SANA said "terrorist groups" killed seven soldiers, including an officer, in the Damascus suburbs on Saturday. SANA reported the burial of 28 members of the security forces killed in different parts of the country, and showed pictures of bloodied corpses and a funeral procession led by soldiers carrying wreaths.

U.N. RESOLUTION TALKS

On Friday, the Security Council discussed a European-Arab draft U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at halting the bloodshed in Syria. Britain and France said they hoped to put the draft resolution to a vote next week.

The Arab League's deputy secretary general said the group was also in talks with Russia ahead of the Security Council meeting.

Russian officials have not commented on their talks with the Arab League, but Moscow's U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin previously said Russia found the League plan unacceptable but was willing to "engage."

Russia joined China in vetoing a previous Western draft resolution in October and has since promoted its own draft. Churkin said Moscow wanted a Syrian-led political process, not "an Arab League-imposed outcome of a political process that has not yet taken place" or Libyan-style "regime change.

The prominent opposition Syrian National Council said it was joining the Arab League at its Security Council meeting to request "protection." The SNC has previously called for international forces to implement a no-fly zone in Syria.

(Additional reporting by Shaimaa Fayed and Edmund Blair in Cairo, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Steve Gutterman in Moscow, and Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations; editing by Tim Pearce)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/wl_nm/us_syria

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Libyan PM calls for security meeting over weapons (Reuters)

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) ? Libyan Prime Minister Abdurrahim al-Keib called on Sunday for a regional security conference to tackle a proliferation of weapons by exiled supporters of former leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The Libyan civil war may have given militant groups in Africa's Sahel region like Boko Haram and al Qaeda access to large weapons caches, said a U.N. report released on Thursday.

"(There is) still a real threat from some of the armed remnants of the former regime who escaped outside the country and still roam freely. This is a threat for us, for neighboring countries and our shared relations," Keib told African Union leaders in Addis Ababa.

"My country calls for a regional security conference in Libya of interior and defense ministers of neighboring countries," he told the summit, the first since Gaddafi's death last year.

A U.N. report said the Libyan civil war may have created a proliferation of small arms, giving militant groups like Boko Haram and al Qaeda access to large weapons caches in Africa's Sahel region that straddle the Sahara, including Nigeria, Niger and Chad.

The report said some countries believe weapons have been smuggled into the Sahel by former fighters in Libya - Libyan army regulars and mercenaries who fought on behalf of Gaddafi, who was ousted and killed by rebels.

Links between al Qaeda and Boko Haram have become a growing source of concern for the countries of the region, the U.N. report said.

The Islamist sect Boko Haram has killed at least 935 people since it launched an uprising in Nigeria in 2009, including 250 in the first weeks of this year, Human Rights Watch said last week.

(Reporting by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by James Macharia)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/wl_nm/us_libya_security_au

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Fitch cuts Italy, Spain, other euro zone ratings (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Fitch downgraded the sovereign credit ratings of Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia and Spain on Friday, indicating there was a 1-in-2 chance of further cuts in the next two years.

In a statement, the ratings agency said the affected countries were vulnerable in the near-term to monetary and financial shocks.

"Consequently, these sovereigns do not, in Fitch's view, accrue the full benefits of the euro's reserve currency status," it said.

Fitch cut Italy's rating to A-minus from A-plus; Spain to A from AA-minus; Belgium to AA from AA-plus; Slovenia to A from AA-minus and Cyprus to BBB-minus from BBB, leaving the small island nation just one notch above junk status.

Ireland's rating of BBB-plus was affirmed.

All of the ratings were given negative outlooks.

Fitch said it had weighed up a worsening economic outlook in much of the euro zone against the European Central Bank's December move to flood the banking sector with cheap three-year money and austerity efforts by governments to curb their debts.

"Overall, today's rating actions balance the marked deterioration in the economic outlook with both the substantive policy initiatives at the national level to address macro-financial and fiscal imbalances, and the initial success of the ECB's three-year Long-Term Refinancing Operation in easing near-term sovereign and bank funding pressures," Fitch said.

Two weeks ago, Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro zone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, and pushing struggling Portugal into junk territory.

With nearly half a trillion euros of ECB liquidity coursing through the financial system, some of which has apparently gone into euro zone government bonds, and with hopes of a deal to write down a slab of Greece's mountainous debt, even that sweeping ratings action had little market impact.

The euro briefly pared gains against the dollar after Fitch cut the five euro zone sovereigns but soon jumped to a session high of $1.3208, according to Reuters data, its highest since December 13.

Italy is widely seen as the tipping point for the euro zone. If it slid towards default, the whole currency project would be threatened.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, a technocrat who has won plaudits for his economic reform drive, said he reacted to Fitch's downgrade of Italy with "detached serenity."

"They signal things that are not particularly new, for example, that Italy has a very high debt as a percentage of GDP and they signal that the way the euro zone is governed as a whole is not perfect and we knew that too," he said during a live interview on Italian television.

"They also say things that give a positive view of what is being done in Italy because there is much appreciation for policies of this government and this parliament," he said.

Fitch said of Italy: "A more severe rating action was forestalled by the strong commitment of the Italian government to reducing the budget deficit and to implementing structural reform as well as the significant easing of near-term financing risks as a result of the ECB's 3-year Longer-term Refinancing Operation."

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, Daniel Bases, Philip Pullela and Pam Niimi, writing by Mike Peacock, Editing by James Dalgleish)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/bs_nm/us_eurozone_fitch

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[OOC] The Origins of Magic

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Researchers shed light on magnetic mystery of graphite

Friday, January 27, 2012

The physical property of magnetism has historically been associated with metals such as iron, nickel and cobalt; however, graphite ? an organic mineral made up of stacks of individual carbon sheets ? has baffled researchers in recent years by showing weak signs of magnetism.

The hunt for an explanation has not been without controversy, with several research groups proposing different theories. The most recent suggestion, published today, 27 January, in the journal EPL (Europhysics Letters), has been put forward by a research group from the University of Manchester that includes Nobel prize-winning scientist Professor Sir Andre Geim.

The research group, led by Dr Irina Grigorieva, found that magnetism in many commercially available graphite crystals is down to micron-sized clusters of predominantly iron that would usually be difficult to find unless the right instruments were used in a particular way.

Finding the way to make graphite magnetic could be the first step to utilising it as a bio-compatible magnet for use in medicine and biology as effective biosensors.

To arrive at their conclusions, the researchers firstly cut up a piece of commercially-available graphite into four sections and measured the magnetisation of each piece. Surprisingly, they found significant variations in the magnetism of each sample. It was reasonable for them to conclude that the magnetic response had to be caused by external factors, such as small impurities of another material.

To check this hypothesis, the researchers peered deep into the structure of the samples using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) ? a very powerful microscope that images samples by scanning it with a beam of electrons ? and found that there were unusually heavy particles positioned deep under the surface.

The majority of these particles were confirmed to be iron and titanium, using a technique known as X-ray microanalysis. As oxygen was also present, the particles were likely to be either magnetite or titanomagnetite, both of which are magnetic.

The researchers were also able to deduce how many magnetic particles would be needed, and how far apart they would need to be spaced in order to create the originally observed magnetism. The observations from their experiments agreed with their estimations, meaning the visualised magnetic particles could account for the whole magnetic signal in the sample.

Dr Grigorieva, said: "The excitement around the findings of ferromagnetism in graphite, i.e. pure carbon, is due to the fact that magnetism is not normally found in organic matter. If we can learn to create and control magnetism in carbon-based materials, especially graphene, this will be an important development for sensors and spintronics."

###

The paper can be downloaded from http://iopscience.iop.org/0295-5075/97/4/47001

Institute of Physics: http://www.iop.org

Thanks to Institute of Physics for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117149/Researchers_shed_light_on_magnetic_mystery_of_graphite

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Not So Quick Reax (talking-points-memo)

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Skip the stove, use the microwave

For the specific tasks at which microwaves excel, they?re much more efficient than stove tops and ovens.

Let?s get this out of the way right off the bat. For the specific task microwaves excel at, they?re much more efficient than stove tops and ovens. The basic stats on energy use prove this to be the case.

Skip to next paragraph Trent Hamm

The Simple Dollar is a blog for those of us who need both cents and sense: people fighting debt and bad spending habits while building a financially secure future and still affording a latte or two. Our busy lives are crazy enough without having to compare five hundred mutual funds ? we just want simple ways to manage our finances and save a little money.

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However, the savings are relatively small. Per comparable use (one hour in the oven versus fifteen minutes on the stovetop or in the microwave), you?re saving on the order of 1 to 1.5 kW by using the microwave ? a savings of about $0.20 per hour of stovetop use, in other words.

In truth, though, the savings are bigger than that. Let?s dig in a little deeper.

The one task that microwaves really excel at is bringing water to a boil. They can do this much faster than virtually anything else in your home (except for perhaps a magnetic induction stove top, which is an incredibly expensive investment).

I can bring a few cups of water to boil in our microwave in about two minutes. On our stovetop, it takes about eight to ten minutes to bring a similar amount to a boil. That?s a savings of six to eight minutes in the middle of meal preparation, which can make a quick meal really fast and a slower meal faster. It can get our family to the dinner table earlier and allows us to have more quality family time after supper. That?s a real value for us.

Simply put, for every cup boiled in the microwave, it takes me about four minutes less time to do it than on the stovetop. It also saves approximately $0.03 doing it that way.

This simple step is something that saves both time and money. Let?s say I?m going to boil some pasta on the stovetop. I get out a large microwave-safe bowl, fill it with a significant amount of water, and microwave it. The time to bring it to a boil or near-boil in the microwave is far lower than on the stovetop, so I?m actually boiling my pasta much faster by bringing the water to boil in the microwave. I?m also saving $0.05 or so by doing it this way.

The same idea is true in almost any recipe that requires a hot or boiling liquid. It?s far more efficient to simply get cold water out of a tap or cold liquid from the refrigerator and boil it in the microwave than to use the stove top or oven.

Typically, I don?t fully cook things in the microwave. Because they excel so well at one specific thing ? raising liquids to a boil ? they?re often poor at other things, such as properly cooking a dish of food.

Thus, my usual technique is to bring the liquid to a boil in the microwave, then just transfer it to whatever I?m cooking in on the stove top or the oven.

It?s a simple little thing, really. It?s never going to make you rich, but it does save a few cents. More importantly, it saves something else ? a bit of time. Simple changes that save both time and money are valuable ones.

This post is part of a yearlong series called ?365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),? in which I?m revisiting the entries from my book ?365 Ways to Live Cheap,? which is available at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on www.thesimpledollar.com.

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Statins May Stave Off Liver Cancer in People With Hepatitis B (HealthDay)

THURSDAY, Jan. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Popular cholesterol-lowering statins may also lower risk for liver cancer among people with hepatitis B, a new study shows. Hepatitis B, an inflammation of the liver due to the hepatitis B virus, is one of the main causes of liver cancer.

This is not the first time that statins have shown promise in reducing risk for cancer. Other studies have hinted that these drugs may play a role in preventing certain types of cancer, including breast cancer.

In the new study of more than 33,000 individuals with hepatitis B followed from 1997 to 2008, those who took a statin were less likely to develop liver cancer, when compared to participants who were not prescribed statins. What's more, the longer a person took statins, the greater the liver-cancer risk reduction. Study participants were prescribed the statins to treat high cholesterol levels. Overall, 1,021 people developed liver cancer during the study period.

More research is needed to see how statins may lower liver cancer risk among people with hepatitis B, the researchers said.

"Statins have potential protective effects against cancers [and] carriers of hepatitis B virus infection have a substantial risk of [liver] carcinoma," said Dr. Pau-Chung Chen, a professor of environmental medicine and epidemiology at National Taiwan University, in Taipei. "Statin use is not only a benefit to preventing cardiovascular diseases, but also an additional, convenient and acceptable strategy for preventing hepatocellular carcinoma," or liver cancer, Chen said.

However, statins can cause a potentially dangerous rise in liver enzymes and liver damage. Regular liver function tests are required for all people who take statins.

The study appeared online Jan. 23 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

"This is exciting and unequivocally solid research," said Dr. Eugene Schiff, a professor of medicine and director of the Center for Liver Diseases at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

"One of the issues is that statins are relatively contraindicated in people with liver disease," Schiff said. But "the take-home message for people with hepatitis B or anybody with liver disease is that statins are safe. This re-emphasizes the point that if someone has chronic hepatitis B and there is an indication for statins, they should get them and they may be beneficial far beyond lowering cholesterol: They may also reduce their risk for liver cancer."

Dr. David Bernstein, chief of hepatology at North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Manhasset, N.Y., is more cautious. "In almost all other liver conditions, cirrhosis must be present before [liver cancer] develops," he said. During cirrhosis, scar tissue replaces healthy liver tissue. "Statins must be used with caution in patients with cirrhosis, which can limit their use in patients with liver disease at risk of developing liver cancer," he said. "Further studies are needed in this patient population to confirm these findings."

More information

For information on hepatitis B, visit the U.S. National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120128/hl_hsn/statinsmaystaveofflivercancerinpeoplewithhepatitisb

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Nintendo Q3 profit slumps, guidance slashed (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Nintendo Co Ltd posted a 61 percent drop in quarterly operating profit on Thursday and forecast a 45 billion yen ($580 million) operating loss for the year to March, far worse than market expectations, hit by weak sales and the strong yen.

The full-year operating loss will be the first since the company started announcing earnings in their current form in 1981. The company blamed yen strength and weaker-than-expected sales.

The creator of the Super Mario franchise dominated the video games industry for years with its DS handheld players and Wii home consoles, but is now struggling to keep up with more versatile gadgets like Apple's smartphones and tablets.

It cut its annual forecast for its ageing Wii console to 10 million devices from 12 million, and for the 3DS handheld games device to 14 million from 16 million.

"We had higher expectations for the year-end season, but failed to meet them," President Satoru Iwata told reporters in Osaka.

Poor sales forced Nintendo to slash the price of its much-anticipated 3DS handheld games device in August, only six months after its launch.

The move halted its record of making profits on games hardware as well as software, a business model that took operating income to a high of 555 billion yen in 2008/09.

Nintendo also faces harsher competition in the home console market from Sony Corp's Move and Microsoft Corp's Kinect

PROFIT FALLS

Profit slumped to 40.9 billion yen for the traditionally strong October-December period, compared with a consensus estimate of a 52 billion yen profit, based on a survey of three analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares in Nintendo have halved to below 11,000 yen since the beginning of the financial year in April, hit by the 3DS flop and market disappointment with the Wii U next-generation home console, unveiled at the E3 games show in June and set to go on sale in the second half of this year. At their peak, in late 2007, the shares traded at 73,200 yen.

Last week, its shares fell to 10,020 yen, their lowest since April 2004, before either the DS or Wii were launched.

($1 = 77.58)

(Reporting by Yoshiyuki Osada in OSAKA and Isabel Reynolds in TOKYO; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Edwina Gibbs)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/ts_nm/us_nintendo_results

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GOP Jacksonville Debate Thread (Balloon Juice)

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Demi Moore Replaced By Mary-Louise Parker In 'Lovelace'

In other Demi news, Madonna reportedly reaches out to actress after her hospitalization.
By Jocelyn Vena

Demi Moore
Photo: Jeffrey Mayer/ WireImage

Amidst her personal woes, Demi Moore, who had been set to play Gloria Steinem in the Linda Lovelace biopic, has been replaced by "Weeds" star Mary-Louise Parker.

Sources confirm to UsMagazine.com that the TV star will fill in for Moore, who had to drop out of the film earlier this week after she was hospitalized for "exhaustion." On Thursday, there was speculation that Chloë Sevigny would play the feminist icon when she was cast as a feminist journalist, but now it seems that those are two different roles.

"Lovelace" is currently shooting in Los Angeles with Amanda Seyfried playing the film's central character, '70s porn actress Linda Lovelace.

As the Demi drama rolls on, there are reports that Madonna reached out to the actress shortly after she was hospitalized. Moore has since been released from the L.A.-area hospital.

Sources tells E! News that the singer called her actress pal. "Madonna told Demi she was there if she needs anything," the E! source says, adding, "They're pretty tight."

The ladies last hung out during Golden Globes weekend, and they reportedly were going to see one another again over Super Bowl weekend; Madge is slated to perform during the halftime show. The status of their annual post-Oscars bash is currently up in the air.

While speculation runs rampant about why Moore was hospitalized, sources say that her ex, Ashton Kutcher, is "deeply concerned" for her. Moore is rumored to have been doing nitrous oxide before landing in the hospital. "He still cares about her and wants the best for her," the source added. "But their marriage is ending and they are both moving on with their lives."

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678022/demi-moore-mary-louise-parker-linda-lovelace.jhtml

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Turtles' mating habits protect against effects of climate change

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The mating habits of marine turtle may help to protect them against the effects of climate change, according to new research led by the University of Exeter. Published today (25 January 2012) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the study shows how the mating patterns of a population of endangered green turtles may be helping them deal with the fact that global warming is leading to a disproportionate number of females being born.

The gender of baby turtles is determined by the temperature of the eggs during incubation, with warmer temperatures leading to more females being born. Higher average global temperatures mean that offspring from some populations are predominantly female. This is threatening the future of some populations and there are concerns that inbreeding within groups due to a lack of males will lead to health problems.

The study focused on a population of the green turtle, Chelonia mydas, nesting in Northern Cyprus, where, due to the high summer temperatures, 95 per cent of babies are female. The study involved a team from the University of Exeter (UK), University of Lefke (Turkey) and North Cyprus Society for Protection of Turtles. Through DNA testing, they were able to ascertain the paternity of baby turtles and, contrary to what they had expected, they found a large number of mating males.

The researchers found that 28 males sired offspring with 20 nesting females: an average of 1.4 males for every female. This means that each female's offspring were sired by one or more fathers. The researchers were surprised to find no evidence that any males fathered offspring born in that season with more than one female.

The research team had thought that one single male might be breeding with multiple females. However, their results suggest that a large number of males are mating with different females at different times. This means that there is less chance of inbreeding.

The team also carried out satellite tracking to discover that males cover thousands of miles of ocean within one breeding season. This suggests they could have also been mating with females at other sites in Turkey or North Africa.

Lead researcher University of Exeter PhD student Lucy Wright said: "It is fantastic to know that there are so many males fathering offspring in this population of green turtles. There is great concern that a lack of males could lead to inbreeding in small populations of marine turtles, potentially causing a population crash. However our research suggests that there are more males out there than expected considering the female-biased hatchling sex ratios and that their mating patterns will buffer the population against any potential feminising effects of climate change."

Corresponding author Dr Annette Broderick added: "Climate change remains a great threat to marine turtles, but our ongoing research will help us focus on where the priority areas are for management that may help them cope with future change."

###

University of Exeter: http://www.exeter.ac.uk

Thanks to University of Exeter 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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Danny Pudi Welcomes Twins James and Fiona

"The ? Indian, ? Polish, ? Irish twins are keeping us busy and we're loving every minute of it," the Community star says.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/dvUMtK04uXU/

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Romney supporter Mario Diaz-Balart says ?self-deportation? was mistake, like Obama?s ?57 states? goof (The Ticket)

Romney embraces Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (AP/Charles Dharapak)

One of Mitt Romney's top Cuban-American backers in Florida told Yahoo News that the former Massachusetts governor made a mistake when he said?that "self-deportation" was the solution to illegal immigration.

"It was frankly a bad choice of words," Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican representative from South Florida, said in an interview with Yahoo News.

Diaz-Balart compared Romney's use of the phrase "self-deportation" to President Barack Obama's flub in 2008 when?he said he had visited "57 states" on the campaign trail.

"I think you have to look at what he was saying," Diaz-Balart said. "When?President Obama talked about visiting 56 states you don't think, Oh, he doesn't know how many states there are." (Obama actually said "57 states.")

"I don't think you can judge him on one phrase," Diaz-Balart said of Romney.

That hasn't stopped Newt Gingrich from trying. Gingrich?mocked the idea of "self deportation" as a fantasy in an interview Wednesday with Univision's Jorge Ramos.

Romney defended his choice of words and his policy in his own interview with Ramos. Romney said the phrase "self deportation" means more strictly enforcing immigration laws until illegal immigrants are unable to find work and voluntarily leave the United States.

"I'm not in favor of going across the country and rounding people up and putting them in buses," Romney said.

In Florida, Romney is--for the first time in this presidential campaign--pitching his anti-illegal immigration policies to a significant chunk of Latino voters, which may offer a glimpse into how he could sell the message in a general election.

Eleven percent of Florida's registered Republican voters are Hispanic, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Among these voters, many of them Cuban-American, Romney enjoys a 15-point lead over his rival Gingrich, according to the latest Univision/Latino Decisions poll.

Cubans who reach the United States are granted a path to citizenship under federal law, but most Hispanic Republican voters in the state still support measures like the Dream Act that give legal status to some people who are already living in the country illegally.

Mario Diaz-Balart supports the Dream Act, as does Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, another?Cuban-American member of Florida's congressional delegation who has endorsed Romney.

According to the Univision poll, about?70 percent of Florida's Hispanic Republican voters support the Dream Act, compared to about 90 percent of all Hispanic voters nationwide.

Romney publicly embraced a military-only version of the Dream Act during Monday's presidential debate in Tampa, only a month after he vowed to veto the Dream Act if it came to his desk as president. The Dream Act would grant legal status to some people who were brought to the United States as children and who go to college or join the military.

"It's going to be like walking on eggshells," Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida, said of Romney's presidential campaign in Florida.

Diaz-Balart and Ros-Lehtinen have lined up behind Romney, even though they disavow his stance that no one residing illegally in the country should be eligible for legal status. Marco Rubio, another influential Cuban-American politician in the state, has said he will remain neutral in the race, though he recently came to Romney's defense after a Gingrich ad called him "anti-immigrant."

"There's no secret that the governor and I disagree on immigration," Diaz-Balart told Yahoo News. "Governor Romney is a real hardliner on illegal immigration."

Diaz-Balart said he thinks Hispanic voters in the state care more about Romney's economic positions and presumed electability than what he says about illegal immigration.

"Immigration comes up, but the issue that is on everybody's mind is the economy," he said.

So far, it's unclear if Gingrich's Spanish-language attack ads on Romney as "anti-immigrant" will work. Rubio criticized the ads as "inflammatory" on Wednesday, while Romney called them "inappropriate."?(Gingrich then pulled the ads off the air.)

In November, only 4 percent of Florida's Hispanic Republican voters supported Gingrich, but that number was at 20 percent in the Univision poll, which was conducted from Jan. 16 to Jan. 23.

David Rivera, a freshman Cuban-American lawmaker who has endorsed Gingrich, told Yahoo News that he thinks Gingrich is the only candidate who has a shot at winning the Hispanic vote in the general election, when Romney's stricter immigration proposals may come back to haunt him.

"He's the only candidate to have a humane and reasonable policy on immigration reform," Rivera, who is facing multiple criminal investigations over his time as a state lawmaker,?said of Gingrich.

He added that Gingrich's support among Hispanic Republicans in Florida is probably higher than the Univision poll indicates, because many people were surveyed before Gingrich's victory in South Carolina, which will presumably give the Speaker a boost.

Rivera told Yahoo News he didn't understand Romney's illegal immigration position.

"You could have had self-deportation now," he said. "Nobody's really gone back."

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