It seems that 55-Inch OLED TV wasn't enough for LG: the Korean company today announced it's ready to showcase another monster TV at the CES 2012 in Las Vegas (which kicks off on January 10). This model comes with a 84-inch 3D LCD display with 4K resolution (3,840?2,160 pixels). To put things into perspective: 4K resolution, which LG calls "Ultra Definition", is four times the resolution of full HD. Other details are scarce at this point, but LG promises "slim and narrow bezel design", controllable 3D picture effects, and 3D sound zooming capability.
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Ho Ho Ho-ing In Rome: Well, that didn't take long. Celebslam reports that your favorite man whore and mine (oka... bit.ly/uMJzgvIl y a environ 16 heuresvia twitterfeed
ScienceDaily (Dec. 27, 2011) ? Two vital parts of mentally organizing the world are classification, or the understanding that similar things belong in the same category; and induction, an educated guess about a thing's properties if it's in a certain category. There are reasons to believe that language greatly assists adults in both kinds of tasks. But how do young children use language to make sense of the things around them? It's a longstanding debate among psychologists.
A new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, challenges the predominant answer. "For the last 30 to 40 years it has been believed that even for very young children, labels are category markets, as they are for adults," explains psychologist Vladimir M. Sloutsky, who authored the paper with Ohio State University colleague Wei Deng. According to this theory, if you show anyone an oblong, scaled, limbless swimming thing and say it's a dog (its label), both adults and children will believe it's a dog (in that category of four-legged domesticated mammals) and should behave like a dog -- bark or wag its tail.
The study confirms that many adults do use labels this way. But children do not. "Our research suggests that very early in development labels are no different from other features," says Sloutsky. "And the more salient features may completely overrule the label." You insist the swimming thing is a dog. The child weighs all the evidence -- and "dog" is no more important than scales or swimming -- and concludes it's a fish.
To test their hypothesis, the psychologists showed pictures of two imaginary creatures to preschoolers and college undergraduates. Both animals had a body, hands, feet, antennae, and a head. The "flurp" was distinguished by a pink head that moved up and down; the "jalet" had a blue sideways-moving head. The heads were salient -- the only moving part. During training, the subjects learned what a flurp or a jalet looked like.
Then the experimenters changed some of the features, keeping the head consistent with most of them, and asked participants to supply the missing label. They also showed creatures with characteristics and a name, and the subjects had to predict -- induce -- the missing part. Both adults and children did best when the head was consistent with the name.
The difference arose when the head was a jalet's but label was "flurp," or vice-versa. Then, most of the adults went with the label (we accept that a dolphin is a mammal, even though it looks and swims like a fish). The children relied on the head for identification. Regardless of its name, a thing with a jalet's head is a jalet.
To eliminate the possibility that the participants were flummoxed by the invented names, they researchers called the creatures "carrot-eater" and "meat-eater." The results were the same.
Sloutsky says the findings could inform teaching and communicating with children. "If saying something is a dog does not communicate what it is any more than saying it is brown, then labeling it is necessary but by no means sufficient for a child to understand." Talking with young children, "we need to do more than just label things."
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Vladimir M. Sloutsky and Wei Deng. Carrot-Eaters and Moving Heads: Salient Features Provide Greater Support for Inductive Inference than Category Labels. Psychological Science, 2012
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NORTHAMPTON, Mass. ? A lawsuit brought by the parents of Phoebe Prince, a 15-year-old Irish immigrant in Massachusetts who committed suicide after relentless bullying, was settled for $225,000, according to documents made public Tuesday.
The settlement with the town of South Hadley and its school department was reached more than a year ago, but the details were kept under wraps until a journalist won a court order for the release of the information.
The documents show that Prince's parents settled claims against the town and its school department for $225,000. In return, the parents promised to release the plaintiffs from any further claims.
The documents were released by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which represented Slate reporter Emily Bazelon in her bid to for the disclosure of the settlement.
"This is a victory for the public's right to know and for transparency in government," said Bill Newman, an attorney with the ACLU's legal office in western Massachusetts.
Prince hanged herself in January 2010 after classmates taunted her after she dated a popular boy. She had recently moved from Ireland to South Hadley, a rural town about 100 miles west of Boston.
Five students later accepted plea deals in criminal cases connected with bullying that preceded her death. None involved prison time.
Prince's death drew international attention and was among several high-profile teen suicides that prompted new laws aimed at cracking down on bullying in schools. All school districts in Massachusetts are now required to develop bullying prevention plans.
After unsuccessful attempts to gain access to details of the settlement, which was reached with the town and its insurer in November 2010, Bazelon sought a court order to release the information under the state's public records law.
In an order dated Dec. 23, Superior Court Judge Mary Lou-Rup ruled in favor of Bazelon, saying the town had not shown what harm would be caused by disclosure of the settlement. The judge noted that the Prince family had not registered an objection to releasing the details.
Edward Ryan, lawyer for the town, did not immediately return an after-hours call Tuesday seeking comment.
Ryan had argued in court that the settlement was not a public document and that all parties involved had agreed to keep it confidential.
MOSCOW ? Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the March election, in which he will seek to reclaim presidency, should be transparent and fair, but rejected demands from swelling numbers of protesters for a rerun of the fraud-tainted parliamentary election.
Putin's United Russia party barely retained its majority in the Dec. 4 election despite alleged vote-rigging in its favor. Tens of thousands have protested since, urging an end to Putin's rule, including a Moscow rally last weekend that was the largest show of discontent since the Soviet collapse 20 years ago.
Putin, who served as president in 2000-2008 and remained the country's most powerful figure after switching to the premier's seat due to a term limit, has responded to the protests by offering to ease his rigid controls over the political field. At the same time, he has sought to cast protesters as Western stooges working to weaken Russia.
On Tuesday, during a meeting with supporters he dismissed the opposition as lacking a goal beyond fomenting turmoil, accused its leaders of trying to delegitimize elections and said they haven't proven their worth.
"The problem is they lack a consolidated program, as well as clear and comprensible ways of achieving their goals, which aren't clear either," said Putin, who became prime minister after term limits forced him to leave the presidency. "They also lack people who are capable of doing something concrete."
Putin again flatly rejected the demands for a rerun of the parliamentary vote, saying that "there can't be any talk about reviewing it."
At the same time, he urged his supporters to ensure fairness of the presidential vote to prevent any possible criticism, and discussed details of his proposal to put web cameras at all polling stations. He also suggested that all ballot boxes be made transparent.
"As a candidate, I don't need any vote-rigging," Putin said. "I want the election to be maximally transparent. I want to rely on people's will, on people's trust, and it makes no sense to work if it's missing."
Putin and his protege Dmitry Medvedev, who succeeded him in the presidency and is expected to switch to the premiership after March, earlier rolled out a set of proposed political reforms intended to assuage public anger.
They include relaxing registration rules for political parties and restoring direct elections of provincial governors abolished by Putin.
But opposition leaders have rejected the government proposals as window-dressing, pointing out that they would only affect the next election cycle years away and vowing to continue street protests.
Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption lawyer and popular blogger who has been a key driving force behind the latest protests, vowed that up to a million demonstrators would take to the streets before the presidential election.
In a surprise move reflecting the government's search for a strategy to respond to the protests, former finance minister Alexei Kudrin, who remains close to Putin, attended the weekend opposition rally and joined calls for the ouster of the Central Election Commission chief.
Kudrin also proposed setting up a discussion panel where protesters and government authorities can exchange views, saying it would pave a path for reforms while lowering the risk of violence. He even suggested holding a repeat parliamentary election next fall.
Kudrin told the business daily Vedomosti in remarks published Tuesday that he met with Putin prior to the rally to propose serving as a mediator between the protesters and the government. Kudrin insisted his proposals were his own initiative, and that the meeting with Putin showed that a "dialogue is possible."
Some observers saw Kudrin's speech at the rally as part of Putin's efforts to soothe public anger.
"The Kremlin isn't going to surrender, it simply has turned from a brutal crackdown to a sly flirting with the active part of the population," said Stanislav Belkovsky, a Moscow-based independent analyst.
GadgetTrak's new CameraTrace service helped a professional photographer get back $9,000 worth of stolen gear. CameraTrace can also help you recover your lost or stolen camera, as well as find people using your photos without permission.
Like previously mentioned StolenCameraFinder, CameraTrace works by searching photos uploaded online for your camera's serial number. (Most cameras embed the serial number information in the EXIF data of every photo taken with that camera. CameraTrace has a list of supported cameras here.)
You'll need your camera's serial number to do the free search (i.e., you can't upload a photo to do the search, as you can with StolenCameraFinder). The serial number is found on the camera itself and the camera box, so if you still have either of those on hand, now's a good time to write the serial number down just in case.
CameraTrace comes with a couple of advantages over similar services. For one thing, CameraTrace claims access to a much larger database of photos than its competitors. Also, if you register your camera for a one-time $10 fee, CameraTrace will actively monitor the web for photos from your camera once you report it missing?saving you the hassle of repeatedly searching via other sites. Once it finds anyone trying to upload photos from your camera, CameraTrace will notify you by email.
The $10 fee for CameraTrace includes a lost and found tag as well, so in case your camera is just lost rather than stolen, a good samaritan can return the camera to you.
One final benefit for professional photographers is copyright protection: The image monitoring service shows you where your photos are being used, perhaps without permission.
You might not have $9K worth of camera gear to protect, but for many this is still worthwhile insurance.
FREDERICKSBURG, Ohio?? A man cleaning his muzzle-loading rifle shot the gun into the air, accidentally killing a 15-year-old Amish girl driving a horse-drawn buggy more than a mile away, a sheriff said Tuesday.
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Rachel Yoder was shot in the head Thursday night while traveling to her home in Wayne County, between Columbus and Akron. She had attended a Christmas party for employees, most of them under 18 years old, at an Amish produce farm and was riding home alone when she was shot, Wayne County sheriff's Capt. Douglas Hunter said.
Hunter said his department had traced a trail of blood along the road for about three-eighths of a mile into Holmes County in an area of farms and rolling hills.
Holmes County Sheriff Timothy Zimmerly said investigators figured out what happened after the gun-cleaner's family came forward and after his neighbors reported hearing a shot at about the time the girl was wounded.
The man had fired the gun in the air about 1.5 miles from where Yoder was shot, Zimmerly said. State investigators were checking the rifle for a ballistics match, he said.
"In all probability, it looks like an accidental shooting," Zimmerly said.
No charges have been filed.
Yoder was born in nearby Mount Eaton and attended the Old Order Amish Church, The (Wooster) Daily Record reported. She is survived by her father, 10 brothers and sisters, 26 nieces and nephews and two grandparents.
Hunter said earlier there was no indication the shooting was related to a rash of beard-cutting attacks against Amish men in a feud over church discipline.
Still, the mystery of the shooting in the wake of the beard-cutting attacks had left the Amish shaken and "on pins and needles," Zimmerly said.
Zimmerly said he informed the Yoder family that the shooting appeared to be accidental.
"Obviously, that makes them feel a lot better than if someone might have been targeting the Amish or (if it was) a random shooting murder," he said.
Gun violence in Amish communities is rare but not unheard of. A man shot 10 schoolgirls, killing five, inside a one-room schoolhouse five years ago in Nickel Mines, Pa. The Amish were praised for their forgiveness after the shooting and reaching out to comfort the gunman's widow.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
WASHINGTON ? A small comet survived what astronomers figured would be a sure death when it danced uncomfortably close to the broiling sun.
Comet Lovejoy, which was only discovered a couple of weeks ago, was supposed to melt Thursday night when it came close to where temperatures hit several million degrees. Astronomers had tracked 2,000 other sun-grazing comets make the same suicidal trip. None had ever survived.
But astronomers watching live with NASA telescopes first saw the sun's corona wiggle as Lovejoy went close to the sun. They were then shocked when a bright spot emerged on the sun's other side. Lovejoy lived.
"I was delighted when I saw it go into the sun and I was astounded when I saw something re-emerge," said U.S. Navy solar researcher Karl Battams.
Lovejoy didn't exactly come out of its hellish adventure unscathed. Only 10 percent of the comet ? which was probably millions of tons ? survived the encounter, said W. Dean Pesnell, project scientist for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which tracked Lovejoy's death-defying plunge.
And the comet lost something pretty important: its tail.
"It looks like the tail broke off and is stuck" in the sun's magnetic field, Pesnell said.
Comets circle the sun and sometimes get too close. Lovejoy came within 75,000 miles of the sun's surface, Battams said. For a small object often described as a dirty snowball comprised of ice and dust, that brush with the sun should have been fatal.
Astronomers say it probably didn't melt completely because the comet was larger than they thought.
The frozen comet was evaporating as it made the trip toward the sun, "just like you're sweating on a hot day," Pesnell said.
"It's like an ice cube going by a barbecue grill," he said.
Pesnell said the comet, although only discovered at the end of November by an Australian observer, probably is related to a comet that came by Earth on the way to the sun in 1106.
As Comet Lovejoy makes its big circle through the solar system, it will be another 800 or 900 years before it nears the sun again, astronomers say.
___
Online:
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory: http://1.usa.gov/upZJgS
U.S. Naval Research Lab's Sun-grazing comet website (video, photos at bottom): http://bit.ly/sfAAN5
GENEVA ? The World Trade Organization agreed Friday to allow Russia to become its newest member, giving a critical boost to the ailing economy of its biggest trading partner, the European Union.
Until now, Russia has been the only member of the Group of 20 leading world economies still outside the WTO, the global body that sets legally binding rules for international trade and mediates disputes.
The deal is expected to quickly increase EU exports by some euro4 billion ($5.2 billion) a year, EU trade officials say. Under the deal, Russians will be able to buy European-made goods at far lower prices and to sell its oil and gas more efficiently.
The 27-nation EU bloc is Russia's biggest trading partner for agriculture, fuels, mining and manufacturing. The EU buys 52 percent of Russia's exports, including the fossil fuels that keep Europe running. Russia, in turn, is third-biggest customer for EU exports, after the U.S. and China.
Elvira Nabiullina, Russia's minister of economic development, hailed the deal and said Russia is ready to help counter the risks of the global economic slowdown.
"We are ready to counter these risks actively," she told WTO trade ministers, just after their decision to welcome Russia.
The agreement is also likely to provide a boost for Russia's heavily state-managed economy, trade experts say, because it would bring the nation under international trade rules that could give outside investors more confidence.
"The EU has high expectations of Russia as a responsible partner able to respect rules," EU trade chief Karel De Gucht told the WTO.
As a WTO member, Moscow would provide annual reports to other members on its continuing privatization and gradually lower its average tariff ceiling to 7.8 percent from its current 10 percent.
A final hurdle to joining the WTO was the deal Russia signed with Georgia, its neighbor with whom it waged a brief war in 2008, to allow a neutral company to monitor all trade between the two nations.
Russia would become a WTO member next year, 30 days after it notifies WTO that the Russian Duma has ratified membership.
With MF Global's missing funds in focus, Bart Chilton, Commodities Futures Trading Commission commissioner, shares the calls to action that need to be made to prevent customer funds from being lost, including rules that prohibit investing outside U.S. ...
TRIPOLI, Libya ? Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has arrived in Tripoli, making history as the first Pentagon chief to ever set foot on Libyan soil.
Panetta's visit Saturday comes just after an eight-month civil war ousted Moammar Gadhafi and set the country on a rocky path to democracy.
The United Nations, the United States and Great Britain announced Friday they are lifting sanctions and unfreezing about 80 billion dollars in assets blocked during Gadhafi's reign.
Panetta will meet with members of the transitional government, and make an emotional visit to what historians believe is the gravesite of 13 U.S. sailors killed in 1804. Those deaths were caused by the explosion of the U.S. ship Intrepid, which was slipping into the Tripoli harbor to destroy pirate ships that had captured an American frigate.
RAINIER, Wash. ? A recent West Point grad, two aviators with extensive experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a man with a pregnant wife were killed when two helicopters crashed at a Washington state base, the Army said Wednesday as investigators tried to determine the cause of the collision.
Army officials said the airmen were on a routine night training flight in two reconnaissance choppers when they crashed after 8 p.m. Monday in the southwest training area of the sprawling Joint Base Lewis-McChord, killing all four on board. An investigation into the cause of the accident by a team from Fort Rucker, Ala., began Wednesday.
Among those killed was Chief Warrant Officer Lucas Daniel Sigfrid, 32, who went to high school and college in Minnesota and graduated from Champlin Park High School, in a suburb of Minneapolis.
He attended St. Cloud State University for pilot training before joining the Army, his cousin Mark Duclos told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Sigfrid's wife and Duclos' wife are both pregnant, Duclos told the newspaper.
"We were just talking last week ... about if we're going to have boys and they would grow up like us. We were just hellions," Duclos said.
Sigfrid's former high school wrestling coach, Bill Maresh, said he wrestled all four years of high school and wasn't a champion but was a good guy who was dedicated to the sport and his team.
While other wrestlers might quit after two years if they're not successful, Maresh said Sigfrid stuck with the program.
"He was just one of those guys who kept coming, and he fought as hard as he could all the time," Maresh told The Associated Press.
Chief Warrant Officer Frank A. Buoniconti, 36, of Colorado Springs, Colo., had served on active duty since July 1994, and arrived at the base in early November. He previously served at Fort Bragg, N.C., and the National Training Center, in Fort Irwin, Calif. He was deployed twice to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Silvia Buoniconti of Colorado Springs, Colo., told The Colorado Springs Gazette that her son followed his father into the military, serving three overseas tours. He joined up because "he felt it was the right thing to do," she said.
That service included preparing dinner for fellow soldiers, his mother said.
"He loved to cook, he loved to bake," she said.
Capt. Anne M. Montgomery, 25, a native of North Dakota, had served on active duty since August 2008 and arrived at the Washington base a year ago. She was a 2008 graduate of the United States Military Academy and had not been deployed overseas.
Chief Warrant Officer Joseph S. Satterfield, 36, a native of Alaska, served on active duty since September 1997 and has been at the Washington base since December 2009. He had assignments in Korea and at Fort Campbell, Ky., and deployed once to Iraq and once to Afghanistan.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord is one of the largest bases in the country, with about 100,000 military and civilian personnel. In December 2006, a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter from Fort Lewis crashed southeast of Seattle during a night training mission, killing all three aboard.
____
Associated Press writers Donna Blankinship in Seattle and Jeff Baenen in Minneapolis contributed to this story.
WASHINGTON ? The final Republican presidential debate before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucus crystalized the strengths and weaknesses of the chief contenders as perhaps no other event thus far.
It reinforced the notion that this is a battle between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich unless one of the other five can make a dramatic late run.
Given his likely strength in the Jan. 10 New Hampshire primary, Romney may be able to survive a so-so finish in Iowa. It appears more important for Gingrich to win Iowa, or come close, and Thursday's two-hour televised debate in Sioux City probably helped his cause.
It wasn't so much that the former House speaker had a solid second hour after a somewhat shaky start. It's more that Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning Texan, expressed his anti-war, anti-interventionist views so vehemently that he may have turned off mainstream Republicans who otherwise might have helped him to a surprising first-place finish.
"To declare war on 1.2 billion Muslims and say all Muslims are the same, this is dangerous talk," Paul said of the idea of taking pre-emptive action to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. "Yeah, there are some radicals. But they don't come here to kill us because we're free and prosperous ... They want to do us harm because we're bombing them."
Rep. Michele Bachmann said, "I have never heard a more dangerous answer for American security."
If Paul hurt himself among rank-and-file GOP voters, then Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Sen. Rick Santorum may have helped themselves with solid performances. Bachmann, who faded after winning a mid-August straw poll in Iowa, was especially forceful in accusing Gingrich of being soft on abortion and hypocritical for taking big consulting fees from mortgage giant Freddie Mac while criticizing its work.
Perry, whose campaign faltered after several weak debate performances, showed humor and a command of several topics. The big question is whether any of these second-tier candidates ? and conceivably, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman ? can gain the needed traction that has eluded them for months.
As for Romney and Gingrich, the feisty debate on Fox News laid bare their biggest strengths and vulnerabilities.
Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, once again managed to stay above most quarrels. He seemed well prepared for a challenge to his job-creation record. Romney acknowledged that some jobs were eliminated in corporate restructurings he oversaw at Bain Capital, but the overall effort "added tens of thousands of jobs."
However, Fox News' Chris Wallace, with help from Santorum, bore in on Romney's biggest liability: his changed positions on gun control, gay rights and particularly abortion.
Romney gave his standard response about having a change of heart regarding his former support for abortion rights.
He then got drawn into a complicated back-on-forth about what he meant when he vowed in 1994 to be a better defender of gay rights than Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., whom he was trying to unseat.
Later, when he was governor, Romney said, the state's highest court "determined that under our constitution, same-sex marriage was required." It wasn't up to him, he said, "to make a choice as to whether we had it or not."
Romney said he fought "to overturn the court's decision" and make marriage "between a man and a woman."
A similarly testy exchange underscored Gingrich's greatest vulnerability: his long, contentious record in Washington, which included some prominent deal-making with Democrats during his 20 years in Congress.
Gingrich rejected the notion that he's an unreliable conservative. He said he pursued conservative but attainable goals, working when necessary with Democrats such as President Bill Clinton and Speaker Tip O'Neill.
"The term `government-sponsored enterprise' has a very wide range of things that do a great deal of good," Gingrich said, defending his $1.6 million consulting fee for Freddie Mac. "There are a lot of very good institutions that are government-sponsored."
Such comments wouldn't raise eyebrows among independent or Democratic voters. But they may open Gingrich to questions from the staunch conservatives who dominate GOP caucuses and primaries.
Republican consultant Alex Castellanos said via Twitter there will be "zillions of negative ads still dropping on Newt's head in Iowa after this debate."
Gingrich also displayed several flashes of the bravado that strikes some people as brilliance, others as arrogance. A former college professor who used deferments to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War, Gingrich said he spent "23 years teaching one- and two-star generals and admirals the art of war."
Condemning what he sees as liberal activism by federal judges, Gingrich said, "I testified in front of sitting Supreme Court justices at Georgetown Law School, and I warned them: `You keep attacking the core base of American exceptionalism, and you are going to find an uprising against you which will rebalance the judiciary.'"
"Just like Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and FDR," he said, "I would be prepared to take on the judiciary, if in fact it did not restrict itself in what it was doing."
Republican voters in Iowa and New Hampshire have surprised the nation before. At this stage four years ago, many saw Rudy Giuliani as the likeliest GOP nominee.
Perhaps Perry, Bachmann or Santorum will make an 11th hour surge. Maybe Paul drew more fans than he turned off with his isolationist talk Thursday.
But with little more than two weeks left before the Iowa caucus, most are watching to see if Romney and Gingrich can make the most of their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.
___
EDITOR'S NOTE ? Charles Babington covers politics for The Associated Press.
AMSTERDAM (AP) ? It's getting surprisingly easy to light up in the Netherlands these days ? cigarettes, that is.
Even as the Dutch government hardens its famous tolerance policy on marijuana, it is taking an increasingly relaxed stance toward tobacco, bucking the trend in nearly every other developed country.
Last year it exempted some bars from a smoking ban and now it has unveiled plans to reduce spending on anti-smoking advertising campaigns and end funding for health care programs to help people kick the habit. The Netherlands is also planning to cease funding its national center on tobacco control.
Nearly half of the nation's bars and nightclubs flout the 2008 smoking ban but they're rarely punished.
"There's no other country that's taking these backward steps," said Lies Van Gennip, director of the national tobacco control center, slated to be closed in 2013. "I'm ashamed of what's happening here."
At a press briefing on Wednesday, several Dutch politicians and experts blasted the government for backtracking on tobacco control policies. Opposition lawmaker Renske Leijten of the Socialist Party said Health Minister Edith Schippers was making the wrong decision to cut back on quit smoking policies.
"You can even wonder if she is minister of health or minister for the tobacco industry," she said.
Schippers said she believes in freedom of choice for smokers and that the government has "gone too far in making rules about it."
Inge Freriksen, a health ministry spokeswoman, told the Associated Press the Netherlands had chosen "a different manner of prevention" ? one that focuses on educating children on the dangers of smoking.
The Netherlands is home to Europe's biggest tobacco industry and also has Philip Morris' largest factory worldwide. Some experts have suggested possible improper links between the Dutch government and Dutch tobacco that account for the changes.
In a recent documentary on Dutch television, tobacco lobbyist Alexander van Voorst Vader said he knew Schippers when she served in Dutch Parliament and held numerous discussions with her. "She was very open (to) sensible points of view of the industry," he said.
Any communication where the tobacco industry might influence government policies is strictly forbidden by the World Health Organization's international tobacco control treaty, which the Netherlands signed in 2005.
Health ministry spokeswoman Freriksen said any communication government officials had with the tobacco industry was legitimate. "It's not forbidden to have communication with tobacco companies in a normal manner about enforcement," she said. "You do talk with them."
The WHO tobacco control treaty obliges signatory nations to introduce strong tobacco control measures including increased legislation, taxation and education. But like most global treaties, there are no real measures to punish countries that don't comply.
According to the Netherlands' National Organization for Tobacco Trade, Dutch consumers bought more than 4 billion euros ($5 billion) worth of tobacco products last year. About 27 percent of people in the Netherlands smoke, slightly higher than other rich countries including Britain and the U.S.
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the Netherlands has a lung cancer rate of about 93 people per 100,000, higher than the average in Western Europe, including Austria, France and Germany.
Earlier this year, Dutch researchers predicted that without stronger anti-smoking policies, almost a million people in the Netherlands would die prematurely due to tobacco-related diseases between now and 2040.
By 2020, they estimated smoking-related diseases would kill 600 additional people as a result of the government's decision to stop paying for quit smoking programs and ending mass education campaigns.
Schippers argued in a letter to Parliament that the projection was "partially dependent on assumptions."
The government's liberal stance toward tobacco contrasts strongly with its moves to curtail the country's famous tolerance policy toward marijuana: the government is reducing the number of cafes licensed to sell the drug and plans to introduce a pass system next year that would bar tourists from buying it at all.
Critics argue the Dutch population is woefully ignorant of the dangers of tobacco. In a global survey on smokers' awareness, only 61 percent of Dutch smokers agreed second-hand smoke was dangerous to non-smokers ? much lower than smokers elsewhere, including Mauritius, China, Brazil and Mexico.
"Dutch smokers are among the least informed about the harms of smoking and second-hand smoke," said Geoff Fong, at the University of Waterloo in Canada, who heads a program that monitors smoking policies worldwide.
"The Dutch are heading into a situation where their tobacco control could be worse than many developing countries," he said.
Last year, the government declared that small, owner-operated bars without employees would be exempt from the smoking ban.
Ex-smoker Eddie Moojen quit smoking four months ago on his own and says he isn't worried about second-hand smoke.
"We had dinner the other night at a cafe where they smoke, it doesn't make that much difference," said Moojen, 39, founder of Opentracker, a software company in the southern city of Eindhoven. "I'm not uptight about smokers bothering non-smokers."
____
Cheng reported from London. Associated Press Writer Mike Corder in The Hague contributed to this report.
Taking notes is a pain in the ass. Sometimes you get back to your room and the notes don't even make sense. Is that a Q or a K? Take better notes and save some money for another box of ramen. Relive the golden years of cabinet gaming with an overhead-flying game, get ready for the slopes by plowing through virtual snowmen, and share your location with everyone. More »
Study examines family formations in young adulthoodPublic release date: 5-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jen Sobolewski jsobole@bgsu.edu 419-372-8582 Bowling Green State University
BOWLING GREEN, O. -- For many, an important marker of adulthood is forming a family, whether it's having a child, getting married or cohabiting with a romantic partner. Researchers at Bowling Green State University's National Center for Family and Marriage Research's (NCFMR) say a majority (61 percent) of young adults have formed a family by age 25.
Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, researchers looked at the different pathways to family formation. The results are the latest in a five part series from the NCFMR, "On the Road to Adulthood," which looks at the experiences of young adults through age 25.
According to the research, over two-thirds of women (69 percent) have formed a family in early adulthood compared to just over half of men (53 percent). Education also plays an integral part in how a family is formed, in sometimes unexpected ways. Family formation in early adulthood was most prevalent among young adults with a GED diploma, at 81 percent. Those with at least a bachelor's degree were least likely to form a family before age 25 (44 percent).
"Increasingly, young adults are spending more time in school as they pursue college and advanced degrees," said Dr. Susan Brown, co-director of the NCFMR and a professor of sociology. "This tends to delay family formationwhether childbearing, cohabitation, or marriageas most people aim to achieve financial security prior to starting a family."
Marriage in Early Adulthood
Researchers found over a quarter of young adults married prior to their 25th birthday. Over a third of them followed a direct or "traditional" pathway into marriage, meaning they did not live with their partner or have a child before getting married. Men were more likely than women to follow this "traditional" pathway, and it was more prevalent among Hispanics and less so among African-Americans. Only 26 percent of African-Americans who married in early adulthood did not live with their partner or have a child before getting married.
Young adults with at least a bachelor's degree were most likely to follow a "traditional" marriage path at 55 percent, while those with a GED or without a high school diploma were more likely to cohabit or have a child before marriage.
According to Sociologist Dr. Wendy Manning, co-director of the NCFMR, these patterns showcase the educational divide in family patterns in the United States. "Young adults with the lowest economic prospects are least likely to follow the traditional family patterns."
Cohabitation in Early Adulthood
Researchers found the most common family formation experience was cohabitation, but with considerable variation. Thirty-seven percent of young adults with cohabitation experience have only lived with their significant other. One-half have cohabited and had a child, 36 percent have lived together and married, and nearly a quarter have experienced parenthood, marriage and cohabitation. Of those who cohabited and had a child, the majority first lived together, then became parents.
It turns out living together is a strong pathway to marriage. Among young adults who got married, over three-fifths cohabited before tying the knot. Women are also more likely than men to live with someone before marriage (63 percent versus 57 percent).
"Today, most marriages are preceded by cohabitation," Brown said. "It's really become a stage in the courtship process. It's unusual for couples to marry without first cohabiting."
Cohabitation before marriage is more prevalent among whites than African-Americans or Hispanics. Factoring in education, those with a GED most often lived together before marriage while those with at least a bachelor's degree were least likely to.
Parenthood in Early Adulthood
The NCFMR found one-third of young adults have had a child and over one in three of them did so before cohabitation or marriage. One-third of African-Americans have a child before entering a union a rate that is over twice that of Hispanics and almost five times that of whites.
At only 2 percent, it's rare for young adults with at least a bachelor's degree to have a child pre-union. In contrast, about one-fifth of young adults without a diploma or degree or with a GED have had a pre-union birth before age 25.
One in seven young adults who had a child went from cohabitation to marriage and then parenthood by age 25.
###
This project was supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. For additional details about the study, visit http://ncfmr.bgsu.edu/pdf/family_profiles/file102409.pdf.
The NCFMR is the only federally supported family and marriage research center in the nation. It is a university-based, multidisciplinary, nonpartisan center whose mission is to conduct policy-relevant research on American families with the goal of improving our understanding of how families affect the health and well-being of children, adults, and communities; train and mentor the next generation of family researchers, and disseminate research findings to broad, national audiences, including policymakers and practitioners.
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Study examines family formations in young adulthoodPublic release date: 5-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jen Sobolewski jsobole@bgsu.edu 419-372-8582 Bowling Green State University
BOWLING GREEN, O. -- For many, an important marker of adulthood is forming a family, whether it's having a child, getting married or cohabiting with a romantic partner. Researchers at Bowling Green State University's National Center for Family and Marriage Research's (NCFMR) say a majority (61 percent) of young adults have formed a family by age 25.
Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, researchers looked at the different pathways to family formation. The results are the latest in a five part series from the NCFMR, "On the Road to Adulthood," which looks at the experiences of young adults through age 25.
According to the research, over two-thirds of women (69 percent) have formed a family in early adulthood compared to just over half of men (53 percent). Education also plays an integral part in how a family is formed, in sometimes unexpected ways. Family formation in early adulthood was most prevalent among young adults with a GED diploma, at 81 percent. Those with at least a bachelor's degree were least likely to form a family before age 25 (44 percent).
"Increasingly, young adults are spending more time in school as they pursue college and advanced degrees," said Dr. Susan Brown, co-director of the NCFMR and a professor of sociology. "This tends to delay family formationwhether childbearing, cohabitation, or marriageas most people aim to achieve financial security prior to starting a family."
Marriage in Early Adulthood
Researchers found over a quarter of young adults married prior to their 25th birthday. Over a third of them followed a direct or "traditional" pathway into marriage, meaning they did not live with their partner or have a child before getting married. Men were more likely than women to follow this "traditional" pathway, and it was more prevalent among Hispanics and less so among African-Americans. Only 26 percent of African-Americans who married in early adulthood did not live with their partner or have a child before getting married.
Young adults with at least a bachelor's degree were most likely to follow a "traditional" marriage path at 55 percent, while those with a GED or without a high school diploma were more likely to cohabit or have a child before marriage.
According to Sociologist Dr. Wendy Manning, co-director of the NCFMR, these patterns showcase the educational divide in family patterns in the United States. "Young adults with the lowest economic prospects are least likely to follow the traditional family patterns."
Cohabitation in Early Adulthood
Researchers found the most common family formation experience was cohabitation, but with considerable variation. Thirty-seven percent of young adults with cohabitation experience have only lived with their significant other. One-half have cohabited and had a child, 36 percent have lived together and married, and nearly a quarter have experienced parenthood, marriage and cohabitation. Of those who cohabited and had a child, the majority first lived together, then became parents.
It turns out living together is a strong pathway to marriage. Among young adults who got married, over three-fifths cohabited before tying the knot. Women are also more likely than men to live with someone before marriage (63 percent versus 57 percent).
"Today, most marriages are preceded by cohabitation," Brown said. "It's really become a stage in the courtship process. It's unusual for couples to marry without first cohabiting."
Cohabitation before marriage is more prevalent among whites than African-Americans or Hispanics. Factoring in education, those with a GED most often lived together before marriage while those with at least a bachelor's degree were least likely to.
Parenthood in Early Adulthood
The NCFMR found one-third of young adults have had a child and over one in three of them did so before cohabitation or marriage. One-third of African-Americans have a child before entering a union a rate that is over twice that of Hispanics and almost five times that of whites.
At only 2 percent, it's rare for young adults with at least a bachelor's degree to have a child pre-union. In contrast, about one-fifth of young adults without a diploma or degree or with a GED have had a pre-union birth before age 25.
One in seven young adults who had a child went from cohabitation to marriage and then parenthood by age 25.
###
This project was supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. For additional details about the study, visit http://ncfmr.bgsu.edu/pdf/family_profiles/file102409.pdf.
The NCFMR is the only federally supported family and marriage research center in the nation. It is a university-based, multidisciplinary, nonpartisan center whose mission is to conduct policy-relevant research on American families with the goal of improving our understanding of how families affect the health and well-being of children, adults, and communities; train and mentor the next generation of family researchers, and disseminate research findings to broad, national audiences, including policymakers and practitioners.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
In need of a hair color makeover, but not willing to take the plunge into a fiery red hue? Follow in the footsteps of celebs like Katie Cassidy and Kirstie Alley, who recently made the switch to the dark side, and dye your hair a rich brunette.
Need further convincing? Celebrity colorist Jennifer J., who dyed the locks of Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and other Twilight Saga stars on the set of Breaking Dawn: Part 1, tells Us Weekly how easy it is below.
PHOTOS: The best beauty looks from the Breaking Dawn Part 1 premiere
Q: What's a key rule to choosing a shade that will complement my skin tone?
A: Never try and go too dark for your complexion because it can look goth and unflattering to your skin tone. Anytime you are going darker, make sure that you have some warm tones in the color to add some variation in the hair. So whether you use a lighter color at the ends of the hair or paint on highlights to get the variation, either will work and make the color more vibrant. And if you're doing it at home, always use a semi-permanent color.
VOTE: What's Her Best Hair Color?
Q: What maintenance and care tips should I follow to keep my color rich and glossy?
A: First, you should definitely use shampoo and conditioner especially for color treated hair, preferably sulfate free. A gloss treatment is key for deep shine and richness. Deep conditioning is a must for smooth and frizz-free hair and a shine spray will add extra shine after styling.
Q: What went into perfecting Bella Swan's hair color and how can I recreate it?
A: In doing Kristen's color for Bella Swan, there was a lot of layering in color involved. Kristen definitely has warm tones in her hair and if you wanted to achieve this look, you would need to end up with a chocolate brown base color with warm, amber and auburn brown-toned ends. This is all done by layering semi-permanent color and glosses.
PHOTOS: Kristen Stewart: From Grunge to Glam
Q: Whoops! My end hair color is super dark and isn't the shade I was aiming for! How can I fix it?
A: If it turned out too dark, using a clarifying shampoo or Head & Shoulders will lift the color out a little bit. Also, if you put a deep conditioner or an oil treatment in your hair and cover your hair with a shower cap and a hot towel from the dryer, it will also help pull the color out of your hair, but in a more gentle way. If you did make a more extreme mistake, you should definitely see a colorist that specializes in color corrections. Typically you can color your hair again right away, but I would not recommend doing this yourself -- you should really get an expert's advice!
PHOTOS: Sneak Peek: Check Out Scenes from Breaking Dawn!
Jennifer invites anyone who has dye questions to hit her up on Twitter: @JenniferJColor.
"Good luck and enjoy changing your color," Jennifer says. "It's fun and a great way to change your look!"
Get more Us! Follow us on Twitter, Friend us on Facebook, Subscribe to Us Weekly
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's Finance Minister spelled out details on Saturday of his proposal for national redemption funds for excess sovereign debt which he intends to present at a crunch summit of EU leaders next week aimed at restoring confidence in the euro.
Wolfgang Schaeuble outlined his plans under which states would effectively siphon off a chunk of their debt to a special national fund and pay it off over about 20 years while committing to reforms to keep debt levels on target.
Schaeuble believes his proposal, which has won qualified support from Chancellor Angela Merkel, would boost confidence as states would be sending a signal they were serious about limiting debt levels to 60 percent of gross domestic product.
Investors are desperate for a sign from EU leaders next week that they can find a solution to the more than two year-old debt crisis which is having a knock-on effect on the global economy. Merkel is pushing for binding EU rules on budget discipline.
"We need a redemption fund in every single country of the euro zone," Schaeuble told the Passauer Neue Presse.
"Each of these countries should put into a special fund that part of its debt which exceed 60 percent of its GDP, and should pay that off with tax revenues. Over a period of 20 years, the debt should be reduced to 60 percent," he said.
In Germany's case, the fund - covering federal, state and municipal debts - would amount to about 500 billion euros ($672 billion) as German debt is around 80 percent of its gross domestic product, said Schaeuble.
An earlier proposal this month from a panel of independent economic advisers to the German government which was rejected as unrealistic by Merkel, envisaged a European Redemption Pact.
That proposal, for a fund of up to 2.3 trillion euros, was anathema to Merkel because it suggested pooling excess debt into a fund with common liability.
Germany is dead set against any pooling of responsibility for debt within the euro zone, arguing states must themselves tackle their debt problems.
Schaeuble's plan has already hit opposition from Austria. Finance Minister Maria Fekter said on Friday any proposals that resulted in gathering billions of euros from taxpayers would encounter problems in national parliaments.
Merkel's spokesman welcomed Schaeuble's proposal as "interesting," saying it could help rebuild investor confidence.
However, it is far from clear whether Merkel will push the idea. Her main focus is securing a deal on changing EU treaties to force states to be more rigorous in budget discipline.
CRUNCH SUMMIT
Merkel meets French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday to hammer out details on the changes they hope leaders will agree to at the December 9 summit.
World stocks and European bonds made gains at the end of last week on hopes euro zone leaders may be moving closer to a comprehensive solution to the crisis.
Merkel, who told her parliament on Friday there were no quick fixes to the crisis, wants the EU to have greater powers to stop national budgets if they risk breaching the budget rules and to punish offenders.
Merkel's spokesman dismissed a report in Focus magazine which said Germany and France would if necessary let the euro zone break up and make agreements with individual governments if treaty changes could not be agreed between all members.
"The German government's goal is to strengthen stability in the euro zone as a whole through a common set of rules for stricter budget discipline," the spokesman told Reuters.
The German government wants as many members as possible of the 27-member EU to sign up to the changes. British Prime Minister David Cameron threatened on Friday to obstruct the Franco-German drive for swift EU treaty change.
Schaeuble reiterated Germany's opposition to common euro zone debt issuance in the newspaper interview, as did Economy Minister Philipp Roesler, leader of the Free Democrats (FDP), a junior partner in Merkel's centre-right coalition.
He told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that there would be no euro bond under this government.
Schaeuble also reiterated Germany's stance that the European Central Bank was independent.
Former European Commission head Jacques Delors blamed Germany for insisting the ECB must not support debt-stricken members of the euro zone for fear of fueling inflation in an interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph.
The euro's troubles spring from "a combination of the stubbornness of the Germanic idea of monetary control and the absence of a clear vision from all the other countries," he said.
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.
In this Nov. 30, 2011 photo, Richard Figueiredo poses with a lobster trap in Pembroke, Mass. Figueiredo lost hundreds of lobster traps in what came to be known as "The Perfect Storm" in 1991. Rosemary Hill of County Kerry, Ireland, found one of his lobster pot tags on a beach in 2010, and wants to return it to him. (AP Photo/The Patriot Ledger, Gary Higgins) BOSTON HERALD OUT; BOSTON GLOBE OUT; QUINCY OUT
In this Nov. 30, 2011 photo, Richard Figueiredo poses with a lobster trap in Pembroke, Mass. Figueiredo lost hundreds of lobster traps in what came to be known as "The Perfect Storm" in 1991. Rosemary Hill of County Kerry, Ireland, found one of his lobster pot tags on a beach in 2010, and wants to return it to him. (AP Photo/The Patriot Ledger, Gary Higgins) BOSTON HERALD OUT; BOSTON GLOBE OUT; QUINCY OUT
COHASSET, Mass. (AP) ? A tag from a lobster pot that was swept off the New England sea floor two decades ago during what came to be known as "The Perfect Storm" has washed up 3,000 miles away in Ireland.
The pot that held the tag with Cohasset lobsterman Richard Figueiredo's name on it was one of hundreds he lost when the vicious storm on the Atlantic Ocean struck off New England in 1991.
Rosemary Hill of Waterville in County Kerry found the tag on a beach last year, but the 39-year-old beachcomber put it aside with other beach souvenirs. Last week, she decided to try to contact Figueiredo and found him through his son Rich's Facebook account.
"I looked at it again and thought, 'Why not try to find the owner?'" Hill told The Patriot Ledger (http://bit.ly/sVKBd3). "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."
Figueiredo, of Pembroke, was stunned the worn tag had weathered the long trip after the storm, which was made famous by Sebastian Junger's book "The Perfect Storm," the basis for a Hollywood movie about a rugged crew of New England fishermen caught in the storm.
"The odds are phenomenal," Figueiredo said.
Oceanographer Curt Ebbesmeyer said the tag's 20-year drift is unusually long for such flotsam. He theorized it was buried in offshore mud before drifting and catching the Gulf Stream toward Ireland ? in between a few years of circling in a mid-Atlantic current.
He called it "a very well-traveled tag indeed."
Hill said she spied the orange tag in clumps of seaweed after a storm.
Figueiredo and Hill spoke for the first time Thursday, when she offered to mail the tag back to him. But Figueiredo told her to keep it.
"The meaning it has over there is what matters," he said. "I am honored that she has put so much enthusiasm into this. What's happening now is a gift to me."
___
Information from: The Patriot Ledger, http://www.patriotledger.com
It seems that 55-Inch OLED TV wasn't enough for LG: the Korean company today announced it's ready to showcase another monster TV at the CES 2012 in Las Vegas (which kicks off on January 10). This model comes with a 84-inch 3D LCD display with 4K resolution (3,840?2,160 pixels). To put things into perspective: 4K resolution, which LG calls "Ultra Definition", is four times the resolution of full HD. Other details are scarce at this point, but LG promises "slim and narrow bezel design", controllable 3D picture effects, and 3D sound zooming capability.
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GadgetTrak's new CameraTrace service helped a professional photographer get back $9,000 worth of stolen gear. CameraTrace can also help you recover your lost or stolen camera, as well as find people using your photos without permission. 
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Public release date: 5-Dec-2011
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