Uproar over rightist leader's comments about Jews

FILE - In this Oct. 20, 2011, leader of the Austrian right-wing Freedom Party, FPOE, Heinz-Christian Strache delivers a speech during a parliament session in Vienna, Austria. Senior members of the country's far-right party were widely cited Monday, Jan. 30, 2012, as comparing protests against a ball that attracts extremists to the Nazi persecution of Jews. Vienna's Jewish community demanded an investigation but the party insisted no harm was meant. The comments by Freedom Party leader Strache and an associate were first reported on the website of the daily Der Standard Sunday, two days after the event. But they drew little attention until until they were picked up by other news outlets Monday. (AP Photo/dapd, Hans Punz, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 20, 2011, leader of the Austrian right-wing Freedom Party, FPOE, Heinz-Christian Strache delivers a speech during a parliament session in Vienna, Austria. Senior members of the country's far-right party were widely cited Monday, Jan. 30, 2012, as comparing protests against a ball that attracts extremists to the Nazi persecution of Jews. Vienna's Jewish community demanded an investigation but the party insisted no harm was meant. The comments by Freedom Party leader Strache and an associate were first reported on the website of the daily Der Standard Sunday, two days after the event. But they drew little attention until until they were picked up by other news outlets Monday. (AP Photo/dapd, Hans Punz, File)

A woman in the ball gown passes a police woman during protest against the rightist fraternity WKR-Ball in downtown Vienna, Austria, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. About 3,000 guests are expected at the ball that will take place at Vienna's Hofburg palace. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

Demonstrators protest against the rightist fraternity WKR-Ball in downtown Vienna, Austria, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. About 3,000 guests are expected at the ball that will take place at Vienna's Hofburg palace. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

VIENNA (AP) ? Far-right Austrian politicians were widely criticized Monday for comparing protests against a fancy ball that attracts extremists to the Nazis' persecution of Jews.

Vienna's Jewish community demanded an investigation into the remarks but the Freedom Pary insisted no harm was meant.

The comments by Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache and an associate were first reported Sunday on the website of the daily Der Standard, but they drew little attention until Monday.

The furor extended the controversy over Friday's far-right ball, which attracts guests who include the neo-Nazi fringe and was held this year on the same day the world pays tribute to victims of the Holocaust.

Police recorded only isolated violent incidents Friday from demonstrators outside the Viennese palace where the ball was being held. But Strache was quoted as saying the violence was "like Kristallnacht," referring to the 1938 anti-Semitic riots across Germany and parts of Austria that left streets strewn with broken glass from the windows of Jewish-owned property and synagogues. Kristallnacht was an ominous sign of the Holocaust to follow.

"We are the new Jews," Strache declared to other ball guests, according to Austrian media.

Strache associate Klaus Nittmann, meanwhile, was quoted as saying "whoever works for this ball immediately gets a Jew star pinned on him" ? a reference to the yellow stars Jews were forced to wear under Nazi rule.

Austria's Jewish community demanded that the state prosecutor investigate the comments and urged Strache to give up his parliamentary immunity from legal action.

Karl Oelligner of the opposition Green Party suggested that such comments can only come from someone who "has either lost his marbles or is trying to trivialize the horrors of Nazi rule."

Hannes Rauch, whose centrist People's Party is in the government coalition, called Strache's words "an open slap in the face for all those who were victims of the criminal National Socialist regime."

Freedom Party officials dismissed the criticism. Spokesman Harald Vilimsky spoke of "artificial and ridiculous outrage," adding that Strache only meant the denunciations of ball supporters and attacks on their property are reminiscent of "the horrible reports about the sinister era of National Socialism."

Strache, he said, did not intend to play down "the agony that was forced upon the Jews."

Austria has moved from its postwar portrayal of being Nazi Germany's first victim to acknowledging that it was Hitler's willing partner. Most young Austrians reject Nazi ideology and condemn the part their parents might have played in the Holocaust.

At the same time, the rightist-populist Freedom Party ? whose supporters range from those disillusioned with more traditional parties to Islamophobes and Holocaust deniers ? has become Austria's second-strongest political force.

Although the annual ball regularly comes under criticism, its overlap this year with worldwide commemorations of the Holocaust had increased the pressure on organizers and attendees.

Because it was listed among other champagne-laced Viennese balls, an Austrian committee reporting to UNESCO, the U.N.'s culture organization, struck all the balls from its list of Austria's noteworthy traditions earlier this month.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-30-EU-Austria-Rightist-Ball/id-0e8253fcf784470886fe27251f1e8736

bill monroe nike pro combat nike pro combat gardasil gardasil usnews new york special election

Video: Harry: Queen?s secret to success is husband

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

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/46201783#46201783

smokin joe conrad murray verdict tappan zee bridge jessica chastain jessica chastain nook tablet eagles

Gannett 4Q earnings, revenue decline

MCLEAN, Va. (AP) ? Gannett Co. reported a 33 percent drop in its fourth-quarter net income Monday. The media company, which publishes USA Today and owns a network of broadcast, digital and other publishing properties, said profits were weighed down by restructuring costs and other charges, as well as a revenue decline.

The company earned $116.9 million, or 49 cents per share, in the three months that ended Dec. 25. That's down from earnings of $174.1 million, or 72 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Gannett's stock fell 7 percent, or $1.07 to $14.15 in midday trading on Monday. It has traded in between $8.28 and $18.93 in the past 52 weeks.

Excluding special items such as restructuring charges, Gannett earned 72 cents per share in the latest quarter. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 68 cents per share, according to a poll by FactSet.

The company said its results reflected $63.6 million in charges related to workforce restructuring and facility consolidations at properties in the U.S. and the U.K. The largest charge was associated with the transfer of production of The Cincinnati Enquirer to a newspaper printer in Columbus, Ohio.

Revenue fell 5 percent to $1.39 billion from $1.46 billion in the same period a year earlier.

Analysts were expecting revenue of $1.39 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.

"We are positioning for growth in print and digital media through new subscription models delivered across platforms, capturing opportunities in adjacent businesses, and continuing to focus on operational efficiencies," said Gracia Martore, president and CEO, in a statement.

Revenue at Gannett's publishing division fell 5 percent to $1.01 billion, a decline the company attributed to lower advertising amid the economic softness in the U.S. and the U.K.

Broadcasting revenue fell 14 percent to $199.8 million, due mainly to sharply lower political advertising than a year earlier.

Revenue at the company's digital division, which includes the website CareerBuilder, rose 9 percent to $181.5 million.

Company-wide digital revenue, which consists of the digital division and revenue generated by newspaper websites, rose nearly 7 percent to $290.3 million.

For the full year, Gannett earned $458.7 million, or $1.89 per share, down 22 percent from $588.2 million, or $2.43 per share, in the previous year.

Adjusted earnings were $2.13 per share.

Revenue slid 4 percent to $5.24 billion from $5.44 billion.

Analysts were expecting full-year adjusted earnings of $2.10 per share on revenue of $5.25 billion.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-30-Earns-Gannett/id-c3fa572b688840b5a8aec6c351d210ed

cma awards christmas tree tax cmas cmas world series of poker joe walsh zsa zsa gabor

Senator's stroke shows they can hit the young, too (AP)

WASHINGTON ? When a stroke hits at 52, like what happened to Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, the reaction is an astonished, "But he's so young."

The reality is that strokes don't just happen to grandma. They can happen at any age, even to children ? and they're on the rise among the young and middle-aged.

That makes it crucial to know the warning signs no matter how old you are.

"Nobody's invincible," warns Dr. Ralph Sacco, a University of Miami neurologist and past president of the American Heart Association.

Every year, about 795,000 people in the U.S. have a stroke. While some strokes are caused by bleeding in the brain, most are like a clogged pipe. Called ischemic strokes, a clot blocks blood flow, starving brain cells to death unless that circulation is restored fast.

Make no mistake, the vast majority of strokes do occur in older adults. But up to a quarter of them strike people younger than 65, Sacco says.

In the so-called stroke belt in the Southeast, that figure can be markedly worse. At Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina, a stunning 45 percent of stroke patients are young or middle-aged, says stroke center director Dr. Cheryl Bushnell.

More ominous, recent government research found that nationwide, hospitalization rates for ischemic strokes have jumped by about a third among people ages 15 to 44 over the past decade.

Sometimes younger-age strokes are flukes with no warning signs, impossible to predict ? like Kirk's appears to be. The Republican senator is a Navy Reserve commander and avid swimmer, but dizziness sent him to the hospital. It turns out he had a tear in the carotid artery in his neck which blocked blood flow to his brain, triggering a stroke. Trauma usually causes such tears, although doctors haven't been able to say what caused Kirk's. His doctor at a Chicago hospital said Monday that Kirk was continuing to improve from the stroke, which affected his left side.

Heart birth defects, such as a little hole in the heart known as a PFO, and blood-clotting disorders also tend to cause strokes more often in younger people than in seniors.

But just like strokes at older ages, a lot of younger strokes are preventable. The increase seems to be part of a troubling trend: As Americans get fatter, high blood pressure, diabetes and other artery-corroding consequences set in at an earlier age ? meaning resulting strokes can hit earlier, too.

Indeed, research reported in Annals of Neurology last fall found nearly 1 in 3 of the 15- to 34-year-olds hospitalized for a stroke, and over half of those ages 35 to 44, already had high blood pressure.

More women are having strokes during or right after pregnancy, too, the government reported last summer. That's because more of them start out with unhealthy conditions like high blood pressure even before the hormonal changes kick in.

Whatever the cause or the age, anyone with stroke symptoms needs emergency care: Sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm or leg, especially on one side; sudden difficulty speaking or understanding speech; trouble seeing or walking; a sudden super-severe headache.

Younger adults are less likely than seniors to know those symptoms, and tend to try to shrug them off, Bushnell says. She points to a recent 50-something patient who twice ignored temporary episodes of weakness on one side. Called TIAs, for transient ischemic attacks, such episodes are a big red flag that a full-fledged stroke may be imminent. A third TIA finally brought him to the emergency room. By then, aggressive treatment wasn't enough to avoid a stroke that left him with impaired speech.

"As people get older, they have more and more direct contact with people who had strokes," and learn what to watch for, Bushnell says. But at younger ages, "there's just a gap in awareness."

Who is at increased risk for a younger-than-usual stroke? African-Americans and Hispanics, more than whites. Someone whose parent had a stroke before age 65 is at extra risk.

But mostly, the same things that are bad for your heart are bad for your brain, making it crucial to control blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol, to stop smoking and to keep active. At www.powertoendstroke.org the American Heart Association offers a seven-step online test called "My Life Check" that can help assess your risks.

Younger people do tend to survive strokes more than older people, and to recover better.

But Arnold Springs, 48, of Winston-Salem, N.C., knows it was his friends' fast 911 call that made the difference for him earlier this month.

"All of a sudden, my right arm went numb. The next thing I knew I was on the floor," Springs recalls.

The ambulance got him to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in time for a clot-busting drug to stop his stroke. Springs left the hospital three days later with some loss of vision and trouble walking, problems that his sister says are expected to improve ? plus orders to lower his blood pressure to stave off future strokes.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE ? Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_he_me/us_med_healthbeat_strokes

walmart black friday 2011 walmart black friday 2011 packers vikings bob costas jerry sandusky chelsea clinton kat von d tiki barber

Hoping to regain public trust, unpopular Congress tries to police itself on inside trading (Star Tribune)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/192909067?client_source=feed&format=rss

michael dyer meteor shower bachmann bachmann dan savage iowa caucus results sickle cell trait

Fraggle Rock: The Complete Series Is Your Down-In-Fraggle-Rock Deal of the Day [Dealzmodo]

Have you ever studied philosophy? Oh it's dreadful, theorems upon postulations upon unwashed grad students and stuffy dead depressed Germans. Phooey! Fie! If you're considering a philosophy class, please don't do it. They'll tell you all about Plato's Cave, which is where prisoners see shadows and the prisoners are philosophers and Socrates is there and boorrrriiinnnnggggg. The only cave I want to spend that much time in is the one where Fraggle Rock takes place. Fuzzy little muppets laughing and singing and playing all day long? That, my friends, is an ethos. That's philosophy. And this $50, 20-disc complete series compilation is the only syllabus you'll ever need. -BB More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ut1i5c6vYrA/fraggle-rock-the-complete-series-is-your-down+in+fraggle+rock-deal-of-the-day

homeland packers giants game golden globe winners 2012 ricky gervais golden globes epidermolysis bullosa miss wisconsin law abiding citizen

Pep Boys agrees to be acquired for about $791M

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? The Pep Boys ? Manny, Moe & Jack, an auto parts chain founded more than 90 years ago, has agreed to be taken private by the investment firm The Gores Group for about $791 million.

The $15 per share offer is a 24 percent premium to Pep Boys' closing price Friday of $12.08.

The company's shares surged $3.08, or 25.5 percent, to $15.16 in premarket trading Monday.

Pep Boys, which is based in Philadelphia, has more than 700 locations in 35 states and Puerto Rico.

The proposed acquisition appealed to The Gores Group in part because of Pep Boys brand recognition, as well as its moderate pricing.

"Pep Boys' strong brand awareness and management's strategy to be the automotive solutions provider of choice for the value-oriented customer positions Pep Boys for growth. We are excited to help Pep Boys build on this vision and enable the company to take the brand and business to the next level by effectively scaling its powerful differentiated service platform," Lee Bird, managing director of operations and consumer practice leader at The Gores Group, said in a statement.

Last month Pep Boys reported that its fiscal third-quarter net income rose nearly 23 percent on stronger tire sales and improving service sales. At the time President and CEO Mike Odell said that the improved business was due in part to new marketing, lower gas prices and pent-up demand.

With almost 53 million shares outstanding, the deal is worth about $791 million. The companies put the total enterprise value of the deal at approximately $1 billion.

The agreement includes a provision, which allows Pep Boys to seek and receive alternative offers for a period of 45 days.

Gores Group said that it has fully committed financing for the buyout. The deal is not subject to a financing condition.

Pep Boys said that Odell, as well as other senior managers, are expected to remain in their positions once the acquisitions closes.

Pep Boys' board unanimously approved the buyout, which still needs approval from the company's shareholders. Pep Boys said it has suspended its quarterly dividend in anticipation of the deal.

The transaction is expected to close in the fiscal second quarter. Once the acquisition is complete, Pep Boys stock will no longer trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-30-Pep%20Boys-Acquisition/id-31590de442cb433c971df893d07807ca

houston texans houston texans texans enemy of the state lana del rey snl golden globe nominees arian foster

The fight for Cuban-Americans is on in Florida (AP)

HIALEAH, Fla. ? If Mitt Romney wins Tuesday's primary, a sliver of the GOP electorate in Florida may be one of the big reasons.

Cuban-Americans are deeply committed voters who can have an impact in competitive races, and Romney has strong support among the influential Cuban-American establishment. Older exiles also tend to vote heavily through absentee ballots, where the former Massachusetts governor all but certainly has an edge. And the candidate's emphasis on fixing the economy is resonating with backers like Jesus Ovidez, who cares more about jobs than he does U.S. policy toward Cuba.

"When we are in a better position here, then we can worry about over there. But first you have to put your own house in order," said Ovidez, who spent months in a forced labor camp before fleeing the island in the late 1960s.

Ovidez has been a co-owner of Chico Restaurant in the heavily Cuban-American community of Hialeah north of Miami for more than 30 years. He gestured around to the mostly empty chairs during one recent lunch hour and talked about how Romney's emphasis on the economy was one of the main reasons he already has cast his vote for the former businessman.

"There's no money. People don't go out to eat any more," said Ovidez. Maybe, he said, Romney can help change that. Plus, Ovidez argued, Romney is the only Republican who can beat President Barack Obama, saying: "He's an individual who is a millionaire, and with money you win elections."

During the past week, a series of polls have shown Romney pulling ahead of chief challenger Newt Gingrich in the run up to Tuesday's primary.

Overall, roughly 11.1 percent of registered Republicans in Florida are Hispanic. And of all Hispanic voters in the state, 32.1 percent are Cuban, 28.4 percent are Puerto Rican and 25 percent come mostly from Central and South America., according to the Pew Hispanic Center, which cites the Florida Division of Elections.

Ana Carbonell, a longtime political operative now working for Romney, estimates that 14 percent of the GOP primary vote comes from Miami-Dade County and, of that, 75 percent is Cuban-American.

Generally, Cuban-American voters have the highest turnout rates. In 2008, they helped John McCain win the primary over Romney, who lost heavily in Miami-Dade County, where this voting group is most concentrated.

Cuban-American voters are particularly reliable in the primary in part because so many of the older exiles vote early through absentee ballots, and Romney's campaign ? with the significant help from local Cuban-American political leaders ? has led all other campaigns in encouraging Floridians to vote before Tuesday. He or his allies have been on the TV airwaves since December targeting early voters. And in recent days, they have flooded Spanish-radio and TV with ads attacking Gingrich.

Romney's strength among the old-guard Cuban-Americans was evident last week when he received a standing ovation before he even spoke to more than 400 exile political and civic leaders. They packed the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami, where thousands fleeing Fidel Castro's revolution first received health care and were processed by immigration officers in the 1960s. Romney was flanked by prominent Cuban-American politicians, including former Sen. Mel Martinez and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the first Hispanic elected to Congress.

While Romney highlighted his business background and spoke on the economy, he also tapped into the pride many Cuban-Americans still feel toward the island nation and their angst over its leaders.

"If I'm fortunate enough to become the next president, it is my expectation that Fidel Castro will finally be taken off this planet," Romney told the crowd to wild applause. Castro, 85, has been ill since 2006, when he handed over power to his brother, Raul. "We have to be prepared, in the next president's first or second term, it is time to strike for freedom in Cuba."

Arguably the state's most popular Cuban-American politician, Sen. Marco Rubio, has withheld an endorsement during the primary but came to Romney's defense in the past week, criticizing Gingrich over an ad that labeled Romney anti-immigrant.

Gingrich, for his part, has called for a U.S.-supported "Cuban spring" uprising against the long-standing communist regime.

If elected, he told a crowd of Hispanic business and civic leaders Friday, he would bring to bear "the moral force of an American president who is serious about intending to free the people of Cuba, and willingness to intimidate those who are the oppressors and say to them, `You will be held accountable.'"

Gingrich has talked of covert action to overthrow the government of Raul Castro, though he insisted such efforts would not include violence.

And he signed a pledge to roll back the ability of Cubans to visit and send money to relatives on the island to the strict limits Bush imposed in 2004. Such promises play well in the older exile community, many of whose homes were confiscated during the Cuban revolution and are far less likely than newer Cuban immigrants have close family there.

Gingrich also aired a Spanish-language radio ad in South Florida, reminding voters of Romney's 2007 presidential campaign gaffe, in which he proudly declared in Little Havana, "Patria or muerte, venceremos!" (Fatherland or death, we shall overcome) ? not realizing the line was a slogan of Fidel Castro.

All that has helped sway retired insurance agent and Cuban exile Bernardo Diaz.

Last week, he declared his vote for Romney.

"I don't want Obama, and he's the only one who can win," Diaz said, as he puffed on a cigarette outside the famed Versailles Restaurant in Miami's Little Havana.

Days later, he had changed his mind, saying: "I'm leaning toward Gingrich. Gingrich seems more energetic, stronger on Cuba."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_el_pr/us_florida_the_cuban_vote

blood pressure uhs uhs google street view google street view gluten free diet oprah winfrey

Dolphin, seal deaths plague New England

BOSTON?? Whether they got lost, sick or swam astray chasing food, 77 dolphins that beached on Cape Cod in recent weeks have died, the second time in three months New England has seen a mass of marine mammal deaths.

Now, scientists are trying to figure out why.

They're also researching whether there's any connection to a die-off this fall of 162 harbor seals, whose carcasses were found between northern Massachusetts and Maine.

Scientists later determined the seal deaths were linked to an influenza virus similar to one found in birds but never before seen in seals. In a letter earlier this month, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and Rep. William Keating asked Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to investigate "any common cause" between the dolphin and seal deaths.

"That is a big question," said Mendy Garron, regional marine mammal stranding coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service, part of NOAA. The initial indications are that there is no link, she said, but it's too early for a definitive answer. Necropsies are under way to determine the causes of death, and that can take a few weeks.

The strandings stretch along 25-mile stretch of Cape Cod from Wellfleet, approaching the tip of the cape, south around the curve of Cape Cod Bay to Dennis.

The first was reported in Wellfleet on Jan. 12. Five more reports followed the next day. On Jan. 14, 30 more animals got stuck on Wellfeet and reports remained steady, then trailed off in the past week.

As of Saturday, 63 of the dolphins have been found dead and 11 died later, included at least one that was euthanized. Another 24 were released into the ocean, though three of those have died, said A.J. Cady of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The group is leading the rescue efforts.

The total strandings are unprecedented, and two and half times the annual average of 37 common dolphin strandings over the past 12 years, Cady said.

Wellfleet harbormaster Michael Flanagan said he's seen several pods of more than 100 animals in his 14 years on the job. "But you never really see that many strandings," he said.

The affected dolphins appear to be linked by little besides their species. Their conditions range from healthy to sick, and they aren't all a particular age or sex.

"Nobody really knows for sure yet whether it's one particular thing," Cady said.

1. Only on msnbc.com

   1. Romney uses 'history,' surrogates against Gingrich
   2. Gingrich vows to go ?all the way to the convention?
   3. Artists lend their voices to airport PSAs
   4. Romney, McCain rally vets in Pensacola, Fla.
   5. After teen hockey injuries, safety push gains support
   6. Meet 'Rosie' and 'Ken': 2 chimps, many experiments
   7. Teens send 'Lego Man' above the clouds

There are several possibilities. For instance, the dolphins are social animals, and some could be following a sick fellow animal to shore, researchers theorize. Changes in water temperature are a possible factor leading them into the bay, but it's unclear how.

Some dolphins could be chasing prey into Cape Cod Bay, and essentially getting lost in the geographic features of Cape Cod's inner coastline. For instance, dolphins headed north along the inner Cape's coastline looking for open ocean can get trapped in Wellfleet, which juts out like a tiny hook. Then, the area's quickly receding tides can beach them in local marshes.

Rescuers try to guide lost animals to open water, either by keeping a boat between them and the coastline, or repelling them from land with unpleasant sounds, Cady said.

Once stranded, a dolphin's own weight can damage its organs. Hypothermia and sunburn are also a danger, and Flanagan said seagulls looking for a meal turn savage and pick at the mammal's eyes and organs.

After rescuers reach a dolphin, often through major muck, they quickly assess whether it's strong enough to be moved. If so, workers slip a stretcher underneath and carry the 8-foot-long, 300-pound animals into rescue trailers for a trip to the Cape's outer coastline for release. On the way, scientists perform tests to better assess the health of the animals.

Just a few years ago, it was commonly believed to be too risky to move the stranded animals, Cady said. But, he said, tracking devices placed on some rescued dolphins have shown them moving far from where they were released.

The effort and expense is considerable ? the dolphin strandings have cost between $50,000 and $60,000, Cady said. But it's well worth the cost on several levels, he added. Their health tells us about the health of the ocean, which affects everyone, Cady said. It's also simply the humane things to do, he said.

People don't have to be prodded to assist dolphins. Flanagan said he gets "a million" volunteers every time an animal is stranded.

"People can relate to these mammals, because they go and see them at Sea World. ... They can see how intelligent they are," he said. "They're such gentle animals, you can't help but feel sorry for them when they're stranded and they're out of their element and there's nothing you can really do for them."

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

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46175315/ns/us_news-environment/

brining a turkey brining a turkey who won dancing with the stars 2011 five iron frenzy wild horses lyrics sweet potato recipes green bean casserole recipe

Health Tip: Manage Pain During Childbirth (HealthDay)

(HealthDay News) -- Pain is a virtual certainty during childbirth, but there are ways to ease the discomfort without medication.

The womenshealth.gov website mentions these no-medication possibilities:

• Practicing relaxation and breathing techniques.
• Relaxing in a warm shower or bath, or getting a gentle massage.
• Receiving hot and cold therapy, including placing a cool washcloth on the forehead or a heating pad on the lower back.
• Seeking the care and support of a doula, nurse or loved one.
• Trying various positions to get more comfortable, from crouching to walking.
• Listening to soothing music.
• Using a labor ball.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/meds/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120127/hl_hsn/healthtipmanagepainduringchildbirth

sugar cookie recipe sugar cookie recipe robert deniro how the grinch stole christmas macaroni and cheese festivus festivus

Infinity stops cancer drug trial (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Infinity Pharmaceuticals pulled the plug on a mid-stage trial of its experimental pancreatic cancer drug as it failed to show benefit over a placebo, wiping off over 41 percent of its market value.

Data from a preliminary analysis showed that patients receiving placebo along with an anti-cancer chemotherapy drug lived longer than patients who received the Infinity drug saridegib in combination with chemotherapy.

"It was a risky program to begin with and metastatic pancreatic cancer is an extremely tricky indication and I can only count failures in the past," said ThinkEquity analyst Mani Mohindru.

Pancreatic cancer has proven to be a tough nut to crack for even major drugmakers. In 2009, Pfizer ended its late-stage trial of axitinib, followed soon after by Sanofi-Aventis and Regeneron's decision to drop their late-stage trial of aflibercept for the same indication.

World-wide more than 266,000 people die of pancreatic cancer every year, which to date has been treated with standard chemotherapy gemcitabine.

"I am surprised (by the trial result), given the data they released last week from their Phase 1 trial," Mohindru said.

"There was nothing to suggest that the combination of gemcitabine and saridegib was bad."

Infinity said it stopped the current trial because the drug, which it is developing in partnership with privately held Purdue Pharma and its affiliate Mundipharma, would not meet its main goal.

The mid-stage trial was testing 122 patients with previously untreated, metastatic pancreatic cancer.

"I don't think the drug is dead, but I certainly think that there is no reason to continue to pursue in pancreatic cancer," Rodman & Renshaw analyst Michael King said.

Infinity is testing saridegib in mid-stage trials as a single agent therapy in myelofibrosis, a rare bone marrow disorder, and a life-threatening cancer of the cartilage.

"We continue to believe in the therapeutic potential of Hedgehog pathway inhibition," the company said.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company expects to report data from the myelofibrosis mid-stage trial in the second half of 2012.

However, both analysts have not assigned any value to these two indications while calculating their price targets.

Infinity shares are worth about $5 based on the cash and value of other programs, King said.

The company is also developing another drug, retaspimycin hydrochloride, for non-small cell lung cancer. The drug is in mid-stage trial.

The stock was down 40 percent at $5.99 -- its lowest in four months -- in morning trade on Friday on the Nasdaq. The stock, which had touched a low of $5.85 earlier in the session, was the top percentage loser on the exchange. About 859,000 shares changed hands by 1615 GMT, more than 14 times their normal volume.

(Reporting by Anand Basu in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/cancer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/hl_nm/us_infinitypharmaceuticals

stephen colbert palmetto sturgis sturgis rob lowe fox news sanctum

Demi Moore 911 Call: Was Rumer Willis There?

On the call, someone called 'Ru' was asked to provide an address for emergency responders.
By Kara Warner

Demi Moore with daughter Rumer Willis
Photo: Getty Images

Ever since news of Demi Moore's hospitalization broke, more details have emerged each day to paint a clearer picture of the circumstances that led to the actress' ambulance ride to the ER on Monday night.

Some reports have claimed Moore was inhaling nitrous oxide from aerosol cans, also known as whip-its, the night the 911 call was placed from her home in Los Angeles, the recording and details of which were released Friday (January 27). Several people were heard on the call describing various symptoms the actress was experiencing at the time, as well as a few comments that seemed to indicate that Moore's friends were just learning of her alleged substance abuse.

Photos: Demi Moore through the years.

One question that is causing a buzz online is whether Moore's 23-year-old daughter, Rumer Willis, was present during the ordeal. Careful listening of the 911 call reveals an exchange between one of the callers and someone named "Ru," who is asked for the specific address and instructions for how the paramedics can get to the house.

"Hey, Ru, what's the name at the gate so that we can buzz them in from here?" a man is heard asking on the call.

There has been no confirmation regarding Rumer's presence at the scene, but she reportedly goes by the "Ru" nickname and references it on her Twitter account.

Sources told E! News that Moore's three daughters are doing fine since their mom's health scare. Rumer reportedly visited her mother several times at the hospital before she was discharged earlier this week. Tallulah, 17, is with her dad, Bruce Willis. "She's doing great," the source said. "Her grandmother [Bruce's mom] is also there with her." Moore's other daughter, 20-year-old Scout, goes to Brown University in Rhode Island and reportedly hasn't been home since the incident.

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678094/demi-moore-rumer-willis-911-call.jhtml

golden globe nominations los angeles clippers los angeles clippers charlize theron telenav telenav wade phillips

Self-Deportation: Fantasy or Reality? (ABC News)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/191752343?client_source=feed&format=rss

jenna lyons jenna lyons san francisco earthquake san francisco earthquake nextdoor premier fitness dan uggla

#scio12: The Big Takeaway from the Broadening Participation Panel

Science Online has become my favorite annual conference to attend, by far.? Where else can I be simultaneously surrounded by, tutored, and refreshed by hundreds of folks who are equally geeked about science, technology, outreach, quality education, and social justice and equality as I am? And I love, nay exhilarated by the fact that these comrades are like me, but like me in so many beautiful, complex and different ways.? It warms my heart and feeds my soul. It really does.

I was honored, again, that The Blogfather Bora Z, asked me moderate a session on Broadening Participation of Underrepresented Populations in Online Science Communication & Communities.? There was plenty of discussion and sharing among the participants, which I suppose was near 30 or so (I?m bad a mental math).

Alberto Roca of MinorityPostdoc.org aggregated the notes from the session (which I was typing on the spot).?The?notes include a list of Action Items generated from the discussion. ?It also some video from the session, thanks to Tim Skellet, as well as a Storify summary of? tweets related to the session that occurred both before, during, and after. In fact the tweets continue. Search the hashtags #scio12 #diversity to get the scoop.

The notes give you an idea of the issues we broached.? And truth be told, I believe we could have spent another hour exploring some of the topics more fully.? But there were some very good take home messages, for the people in the room and anyone else in the science, education, and communication worlds that could make the goal of bringing more people into the fold a reality.

1. Regarding blogging, we can each work to create more reader-friendly blog posts.? For example, add more detailed captions for photos.? Some people may be google images and this search activity could bring newer audiences to your blog.? Plus, with more people from urban communities using mobile devices to access the internet, make sure your page is optimized for such viewing.

2. Real life connections still matter, and perhaps more than ever.? Mentoring young scholars ? whether they become scientists/engineers or not is an important if not pivotal piece in the broadening participation jigsaw puzzles.? Plus, it?s important that we maintain real contact with people who may not read blogs very much. We still can be that key resource to them, personally, and their sole connection to science and innovation.

3. The highlight of the session was the incomparable and wise, Dr. Cynthia Coleman (Musings on Native Science). Through her very engaging (and almost hyponotic) story-telling style she eloquently illustrated the imperative of?comprehending cultural norms for different communities.? Many communities such as Native peoples of America have multi-generational traditions for passing on knowledge or us, oral history/story-telling traditions to explain natural phenomena or new discoveries.? And something that really touched the entire audience is that for Native Americans, science isn?t a separate way of knowing.? Science is mbedded/intertwined/enmeshed in everything.? It is a part of the spiritual traditions and rituals of the people. ?And I was heartened to learn that the Ecological Society of America (ESA) is recognizing Traditional Ecological Knowledge or TEK in its programming.? Which opened up the conversation and a member of the USDA Forest Service Eastern Forest & Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center reached out to members of the audience to partner with communicating with different audiences.

4. Finally, Gabe Lyon of Project Exploration really drove home a very important point: There is NO a single way to access STEM. The metaphor of the pipeline may not be the best because all of our solutions to ?plug up? or fix the ?leaky pipeline? are deficit models.?? We?ve got to work with people, all people where they are and help them find or rather navigate this twisty-turny maze to access STEM.

From this perspective, it gives everyone a chance to work At any point of time any or all of us might be called upon to be a

Map spelling out the way, the rewards, and the potential pitfalls to pursuing STEM;

Beacon shining light on new opportunities to students, blog readers, a family member or neighbor child;

Signpost pointing someone in the right direction for financial aid, academic support, or even social services so that they can stay on course;

Cheerleader who celebrates every victory ? a test passed, a presentation given, a lab project completed ? and who?offers unselfish obnoxious applause to persevere when a student falls short of victory;

Shelter offering students retreat when they encounter pitfalls or nasty antagonists along the way, because surely they will; or an

Ally welding your weapon to slay a dragon too ferocious or leding your strength to build bridges across moats too wide for a student to handle alone.

We?ve all got work to do. What will you do to broaden participation of under-represented communities in science and science communication?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=85f1c55aaa2fff3ec62d388fe6bb4065

bling ring melissa mccarthy green river killer bohemian grove amazing race showtime the prisoner

Yogurt dip: Dannon joins Super Bowl party

By Rob Neill, msnbc.com

If turkey is the national dish on Thanksgiving, on Super Bowl Sunday it's pizza, wings, seven-layer dip and beer.

Now Dannon plans to bring yogurt to the party. The company will?debut its?first ever ad during the game Feb. 5?featuring its?Oikos Greek yogurt brand.

The spot, featuring b-list actor John Stamos, comes at a time when popularity of Greek yogurt is soaring. Partially for that reason, the company felt comfortable spending ?in the $3.5 million range? for the 30-second spot, said , Dannon spokesman Michael Neuwirth.

?It?s not to change snacking habits during the Super Bowl obviously,? he said. ?But we?re in a category of food that continues to grow. It?s a long-term trend.?

And for exposure, ?there?s no better way to do that than the Super Bowl.?

The spot, which will debut online in the days before the Super Bowl XLVI, features a woman enjoying Oikos at her breakfast table. The ?alarmingly handsome? (Neuwirth?s words) Stamos enters the kitchen. She offers a bite to Stamos. Then he offers her a bite, but pulls it back at the last second to eat it himself. A few more teases later there is a battle between the two that ? well, Neuwirth said, you?ll have to watch the ad.

It has no dialogue.

Actor John Stamos and a young woman share, and then don't share, some nibbles of Oikos Greek yogurt in the company's first-ever Super Bowl ad.

?

A woman eating yogurt? For breakfast? John Stamos? Isn?t Dannon concerned that?s a bit feminine for the big game?

?The yogurt-buying public is broader than you think,? Neuwirth said. ?More than 80 percent of households have yogurt in the refrigerator at some point during the year.?

?The business environment is right for us. Especially with the sustained interest in Greek yogurt.?

Greek yogurt, which is thicker than ordinary yogurt, with more protein and less fat, now?accounts?for a quarter of U.S. yogurt sales, according to The Associated Press.?Neuwirth said the appetite among male customers is increasing.

In any case the?battle-of-the-sexes theme is a?tired-and-true Super Bowl tradition, as much a part of the game as?the pratfalls and talking animals that dominate ads during the big game.

?Anecdotally we?ve heard (the commercial) has a strong appeal to men, for in some cases the same attributes? as women, he said.

Each year, a few companies take the risky plunge and try advertising for the first time on the nation's biggest televised stage. With a reported cost that has risen this year to as much as?$4 million for 30 seconds plus production costs, it?s a bet that does not always pan out (ask Pets.com).

?We started our company in 1942, Neuwirth said. "We?re not a technology company that?(has)?an untested model. We understand there is a higher expectation of quality and creativity. But this ad is very different from our everyday ads.?

Dannon, based in White Plains, N.Y., is a unit of France's Danone.

Full coverage:

The Super Bowl of Advertising

Super Bowl XLVI on NBC Sports

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/25/10228623-pizza-wings-and-yogurt-dannon-joins-super-bowl-party-for-first-time

golden globe nominees arian foster miss america pageant 2012 joe philbin shipwreck lana del rey jose aldo vs chad mendes

Sony tablets, smartphones to get Android 4.0 upgrades

Sony

The Sony Tablet S, left, and the Sony Tablet P.

By Athima Chansanchai

The upgrades to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich continue with the entire Sony Xperia line of smartphones, starting this spring, according to reports. Those say updates may be applied to applied to?Sony's Android tablets as well.

According to The Verge, sources say that Sony's Tablet S and Tablet P "are already running ICS and are being tested behind the scenes, though Sony wouldn't be drawn on giving any more specific a release window than the spring." Sony also acknowledged the imminent upgrades on a UK-based Sony forum.

Sony's tablets have been making headlines in the past few months. The S tablet?is now more affordable?affordable than the iPad, thanks to a recent price drop.?The tablet seems to have the Pope's blessing as well; the Holy See used a Sony tablet to light?"the biggest Christmas tree in the world." Meanwhile, the pocket-size Tablet P received buzz over its folding dual 5.5-inch screens.

Before the end of 2011, Sony Ericsson gave details about the Xperia smartphone upgrades in this blog post. Starting from end March/early April 2012, the first smartphones to get the upgrade are Xperia arc S, Xperia neo V and Xperia ray.

Then, Sony informs, starting from end April/early May, these will get the upgrade: Xperia arc, Xperia PLAY, Xperia neo, Xperia mini and mini pro, Xperia pro and Xperia active. The ?Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman will also receive one. ?

Sony Ericsson

It summarizes what goes into the upgrade here:

• It starts with public push when we as a manufacturer get access to the new Android release from Google
• Our developers take the existing Xperia? software and combine it with the new Android release
• Once the coding is done we want to make sure the quality of the new software meets our, our partners and your expectations
• Now we feel the new software is ready but we also need to make sure it?s approved by our external partners
• All good. We?re all set to roll-out the new software.?

As 2012 kicks into gear, we'll see many more reports of the Android 4.0 upgrades, such as the LG announcements that harkened their coming in November.

More stories:

Check out Technolog on?Facebook, and on Twitter, follow?Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the?Google+?stream.

Source: http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/24/10224482-sony-tablets-smartphones-to-get-android-40-upgrades

acrylamide advent calendar adobe air 2005yu55 advanced search alexander the great personhood amendment

Cyfe Lets SMBs Monitor Their Business Metrics From One ...

I?m becoming increasingly convinced that, amidst the bevy of web startups and app developers rushing to build consumer-facing products and services, the business-to-business space holds increasing opportunities for startups and small businesses. Small businesses, and let?s define them as companies with less than 20 employees, make up the majority of businesses out there, and most of them are either offline ? barely online ? or are underserved in terms of tech support, web development, and everything in between.

We just covered Silver Lining, a company that aims to help SMBs increase their profitability by helping them analyze their operations, set reasonable and attainable financial goals, and, most importantly, help them take action to realize those goals. Or there?s Bizness Apps, which helps SMBs quickly create quality mobile and web apps, or On Deck, which helps SMBs find loans without all the hassle.

This psychology resonated with Deven Patel, a serial entrepreneur and web software engineer, who tells me that the key (even in spite of what I?ve just said) is creating products and services not solely based on the market, but based on what entrepreneurs have found to be areas of need (or structural deficiencies) in their experience ? or that of their customers. In Patel?s case, he said that he?s found that small businesses spend up to 80 percent of their time collecting data and creating reports on their customers? interaction with their services, among one hundred others. It?s a pain in the ass, time consuming, and he thinks he?s found a simple way to solve the problem.

This week, he launched the open alpha/beta of Cyfe, what I think of as a ?TweetDeck for business analytics?, which allows business owners to easily monitor and share their vital business data and analytics from a single location, in realtime.

In other words, Cyfe isn?t a business intelligence solution, it?s a command center for SMBs, which can be set up in a matter of minutes and is initially free. At the outset, Cyfe integrates with over 25 popular services, like Salesforce, AdSense, MailChimp, Amazon, Facebook, WordPress, Zendesk and Twitter, so that business owners don?t have to log in to each of these services individually to find out what they?re customers are up to ? and what they?re saying about your business.

In his experience, Patel says that existing products in this space were either too technical (in that they required IT support or programming), too focused on enterprise (not optimized for startups and SMBs), or too expensive ($2K to $100K per month). What?s more, small businesses were wasting way too much time piecing together their own internal dashboards, so the founder developed a cloud-based service that small businesses can use to monitor their Twitter accounts, or monitor website uptime with Pingdom.

Cyfe offers three different templates, or dashboards, for businesses, agencies, and management. Agencies, for example, spend an enormous amount of time manually gathering performance data every day/week/month for their clients, so with, Cyfe, they can set up individual dashboards for their clients, which can be shared privately. The read-only dashboards provide their clients with a realtime view of progress the agency is making by tracking traffic via Google Analytics, SEO efforts on SEOmoz, etc. The same is true for management, allowing them to keep track of customer relations and traffic without having to go to IT for the latest updates.

Cyfe?s business model, like so many other software and web startups, is freemium. The pricing starts at free and works up to $50 a month, depending on how many services users want to manage in their dashboards. The free plan allows users to connect to five different services, 20 services for $10 a month, and so on.

This is where Patel hopes Cyfe will have a leg up on companies like GoodData, which starts at $2K a month and can be tough to use, whereas Oracle is also expensive and more focused on enterprise-grade business intelligence and analytics. Solving the price and complexity problem can mean big opportunity.

Of course, with a widget-based system, which requires companies to connect their various services to Cyfe to open the gateway so that data can be viewed in one dashboard, security is essential. Small business owners without a ton of web or technical experience, may resist tools that require them to share their prized asset (their internal data), especially with a young startup with a beta web presence.

Patel was quick to point out that security is top priority for he and his team, and that the widgets that require login details use OAuth for authentication and thus don?t store any login details in their databases. For those that don?t have OAuth capabilities, Cyfe uses AES encryption, which was developed by the U.S. government (and is now used widely), to protect the data. Cyfe also has a few widgets that don?t require login details, like Twitter FeedBurner, and SEOMoz, which he says he thinks users may like because, in the example of Twitter, it allows SMBs to monitor the Twitter accounts of their competitors from their dashboards as well.

Patel did say that a Twitter widget which does show personal data from your Twitter account will be available in later versions of the widget, and the same goes for others, as they receive feedback and crowdsource the tools and versions that are most used (and called for) by their users.

I think that Cyfe may have to raise the amount of widgets they offer (five) for their free plan to entice users to start testing out the product for free, and I can?t believe I?m saying this, but I think their pricing could even be steeper. Even the smallest, most capital-strapped end of the SMB spectrum is willing to fork out some cash on a monthly basis for a service that saves them a big chunk of time. Patel said that he is still working out the most optimal pricing scheme, but he?s determined to keep it affordable.

Of course, in either case, the product has to be killer, and Cyfe isn?t all the way there yet, but it?s very early in the game, and they?re off to a great start. They can?t and won?t stop and 25 products ? the more widgets users can compile in one place, the better.

The other issue that comes to mind is management. Hootsuite, and other services like it, allow businesses to manage all of their social media accounts from a single dashboard. However, Hootsuite only does social media, and it only goes so broad with the networks one can integrate. Cyfe is going after a similar endgame, but it?s aiming to be more all-inclusive ? as an analytics and performance data tool. As it goes forward, it may behoove Cyfe to add management capabilities, and Patel says this is very much on the roadmap. I could also see alerts having more than a few use cases within this framework so that business owners could get instant, realtime sentiment analysis. (Which is perhaps better than having to rely on Klout.)

Cyfe allows user to put together a dashboard that business owners and agencies can privately share with their clients to see a realtime view of progress, but there?s no multi-user access yet, though Patel says this, too, is coming soon. With a few of these upgrades, an even greater array of available widgets, Cyfe is going to be a great tool. Having to worry less about creating Excel spreadsheets and PDFs to collect and present all of your business? performance data presents a big value proposition, and it could do for analytics and reporting what FreshBooks did for invoicing. And, hey, if they don?t have a widget, they let you create your own.

For more, check out Cyfe at home here. Let us know what you think. Did we miss something? Comment away.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/23/cyfe-lets-smbs-monitor-their-business-metrics-from-one-command-center-in-realtime/

dwts results vanessa paradis vanessa paradis when will ios 5 be released when will ios 5 be released ipod nano watch ipod nano watch

Another Crash Landing? (talking-points-memo)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/190212487?client_source=feed&format=rss

the killing fields texas killing fields burzynski pete seeger gazelle gazelle pumpkin carving patterns

I Want to Work On This Vespa Workstation [Video]

I want to work on this Vespa workstation made with half a 1968 Vespa half of the day. Then chill out the other half of the day on the chair made with the other half of the Vespa. A brilliant mashup. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/bzth-S4Ol_w/i-want-to-work-on-this-vespa-workstation

braves harrys law orioles atlanta braves national coffee day national coffee day paw paw

Debates have major impact on GOP presidential race (AP)

NEW YORK ? The Republican presidential debates have served up riveting television and exposed the contenders' strengths and weaknesses, with no one benefiting more than Newt Gingrich. His in-your-face style has excited GOP voters who want a scrappy fighter to take on President Barack Obama in the fall.

At the same time, no one has found himself more boxed in by the format than Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor's cautious but generally mistake-free performances earlier in the contest were seen as evidence of his resilience. But that steadiness recently has given way to a string of awkward gaffes and unforced errors, mostly surrounding his income taxes and the vast wealth he earned running a venture capital firm.

Gingrich, Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul were set to square off twice this week before Florida Republicans have their say in the primary Jan. 31. Debates were scheduled for Monday night in Tampa, and Thursday night in Jacksonville.

Romney's advisers at one point signaled that he might skip both Florida debates. His campaign has recruited Brett O'Donnell, a former debate coach to 2008 Republican nominee John McCain, to help him prepare. Since losing South Carolina's primary to Gingrich on Saturday, Romney has ratcheted up his criticism of Gingrich, all but promising feistier debate performances from him this week.

The debates ? 17 so far ? have offered political junkies a dose of "must-see" TV and exposed the candidates' warts and all.

Ask Herman Cain, a former pizza executive with no political experience who bounced briefly to the top of the field after several witty and memorable debate performances. Or Rick Perry, who saw his once promising candidacy unravel on stage as he stammered to recall the third of three federal agencies he'd eliminate and ended with a memorable "oops."

The debates also have influenced media coverage of the race. An analysis by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism found that the tone of coverage of a candidate almost directly corresponded with the assessment of their debate performances. The center also studied Twitter postings around the debates, and found an extraordinary amount of instant debate commentary reverberating through that platform.

The debates have cast a particularly sharp focus on the Republican field, in part because there is no primary on the Democratic side. In the 2008 presidential race, there were 26 debates in which Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and other candidates mixed it up in memorable fashion.

The debates have been particularly important to residents of early voting states, which saw a flood of TV advertising from the campaigns and independent groups but much less face-to-face campaigning from candidates than in years past.

Data bears that out.

In New Hampshire, which held the nation's first primary Jan. 10, 84 percent of those surveyed said the debates were important to their vote, according to exit polls sponsored by The Associated Press and the broadcast networks.

In South Carolina, 65 percent said the debates were important in determining their vote. Among the most conservative voters, including evangelical Christians and tea party backers, the figure was closer to 70 percent.

That group of voters backed Gingrich in Saturday's primary in the strongest numbers, in part because of two memorable debate exchanges.

At a CNN debate last Thursday in Charleston, moderator John King asked Gingrich to comment on an interview his former wife had given to ABC News alleging that he had asked her for an open marriage. Gingrich let loose, channeling conservative rage at the "elite media."

"I think the destructive, vicious negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office. I'm appalled you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that." Gingrich snarled at King. The audience roared its approval.

At an earlier Fox News Channel debate in Myrtle Beach, Gingrich rebuffed a question from panelist Juan Williams on whether black voters might be insulted by Gingrich's frequent references to Obama as the "food stamp" president. Obama is the nation's first black president; Williams is also black.

"The fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history. Now, I know among the politically correct, you're not supposed to use facts that are uncomfortable," Gingrich said, adding: "If that makes liberals unhappy, I'm going to continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job and learn some day to own the job."

The reaction in the audience was so positive that Gingrich's campaign produced a television ad drawing from the exchange.

Gingrich even spoke of his own debating skills at his South Carolina victory party.

"It's not that I am a good debater," he said. "It is that I articulate the deepest-felt values of the American people."

While Gingrich's strong debate performances have temporarily deflected questions about his history and character, few expect that to last. Gilbert Cranberg, an emeritus professor of mass communications at the University of Iowa, said good debaters don't necessarily make good presidents.

"You want a president to be deliberative, to consult, not to make snap judgments," Cranberg said. "Debates are showbiz."

___

AP deputy director of polling Jennifer Agiesta in Washington contributed to this report.

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

richard hamilton paris jackson paris jackson howard stern americas got talent china aircraft carrier barbara walters most fascinating person 2011 golden globe nominations