SAG Awards menu is months in the making (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? When your dinner party guests include Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Kate Winslet and Glenn Close, and the whole affair is televised live, it can take months to plan the menu. That's why the team behind the Screen Actors Guild Awards began putting together the plate for Sunday's ceremony months ago.

It was still summer when show producer Kathy Connell and executive producer and director Jeff Margolis first sat down with chef Suzanne Goin of Los Angeles eatery Lucques with a tall order: Create a meal that is delicious at room temperature, looks beautiful on TV, is easy to eat and appeals to Hollywood tastes. Oh, and no poppy seeds, soups, spicy dishes, or piles of onions or garlic.

"It can't drip, stick in their teeth or be too heavy," Connell said. "We have to appease all palates."

The chef put together a plate of possibilities: slow-roasted salmon with yellow beets, lamb with couscous and spiced cauliflower and roasted root vegetables with quinoa. There was also a chopped chicken salad and another chicken dish with black beans.

To ensure the dishes are both tasty and TV-ready, Connell and Margolis, along with the SAG Awards Committee and the show's florist and art director, dined together at this summertime lunch on tables set to replicate those that will be in the Shrine Exposition Center during the ceremony. The pewter, crushed-silk tablecloths and white lilies you'll see on TV Sunday were also chosen months ago.

The diners discussed the look of the plate, the size of the portions and the vegetarian possibilities.

"We'd like the portions a little larger," Connell told the chef.

"And a little more sauce on the salmon," Margolis added.

Come Sunday, it's up to Goin to prepare 1,200 of the long-planned meals for the A-list audience.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_en_ot/us_sag_awards_menu

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Quest for the golden cross (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? January has turned out strong for equities with just two trading days to go. If you're afraid to miss the ride, there's still time to jump in. You just might want to wear a neck brace.

The new year lured buyers into growth-related sectors, the ones that were more beaten down last year. The economy is getting better, but not dramatically. Earnings are beating expectations, but at a lower rate than in recent quarters. Nothing too bad is coming out of Europe's debt crisis - and nothing good, either - at least not yet.

"No one item is a major positive, but collectively, it's been enough to tilt it towards net buying," said John Schlitz, chief market technician at Instinet in New York.

Still, relatively weak volume and a six-month high hit this week make some doubt that the gains are sustainable.

But then there's the golden cross.

Many market skeptics take notice when this technical indicator, a holy grail of sorts for many technicians, shows up on the horizon.

As early as Monday, the rising 50-day moving average of the S&P 500 could tick above its rising 200-day moving average. This occurrence - known as a golden cross - means the medium-term momentum is increasingly bullish. You have a good chance of making money in the next six months if you put it to work in large-cap stocks.

In the last 50 years, according to data compiled by Birinyi Associates, a golden cross on the S&P 500 has

augured further gains six months ahead in eight out of 10 times. The average gain has been 6.6 percent.

That means the benchmark is on solid footing to not only hold onto the 14 percent advance over the last nine weeks, but to flirt with 1,400, a level it hasn't hit since mid-2008.

The gains, as expected, would not be in a straight line. But any weakness could be used by long-term investors as buying opportunities.

"The cross is an intermediate bullish event," Schlitz said. "You have to interpret it as constructive, but I caution people to take a bullish stance, if they have a short-term horizon ."

GREECE, U.S. PAYROLLS AND MOMENTUM

Less than halfway into the earnings season and with Greek debt talks over the weekend, payrolls data next week and the S&P 500 near its highest since July, there's plenty of room for something to go wrong. If that happens, the market could easily give back some of its recent advance.

But the benchmark's recent rally and momentum shift allow for a pullback before the technical picture deteriorates.

"We bounced off 1,325, which is resistance. We're testing 1,310, which should be support. We are stuck in that range," said Ken Polcari, managing director at ICAP Equities in New York.

"If over the weekend, Greece comes out with another big nothing, then you will see further weakness next week," he said. "A 1 (percent) or 2 percent pullback isn't out of the question or out of line."

On Friday, the S&P 500 (.INX) and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) closed their fourth consecutive week of gains, while the Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) dipped and capped three weeks of gains. For the day, the Dow dropped 74.17 points, or 0.58 percent, to close at 12,660.46. The S&P 500 fell 2.10 points, or 0.16 percent, to 1,316.33. But the Nasdaq gained 11.27 points, or 0.40 percent, to end at 2,816.55.

For the week, the Dow slipped 0.47 percent, while the S&P 500 inched up 0.07 percent and the Nasdaq jumped 1.07 percent.

A DATA-PACKED EARNINGS WEEK

Next week is filled with heavy-hitting data on the housing, manufacturing and employment sectors.

Personal income and consumption on Monday will be followed by the S&P/Case-Shiller home prices index, consumer confidence and the Chicago PMI - all on Tuesday.

Wednesday will bring the Institute for Supply Management index on U.S. manufacturing and the first of three key readings on the labor market - namely, the ADP private-sector employment report. Jobless claims on Thursday will give way on Friday to the U.S. government's non-farm payrolls report. The forecast calls for a net gain of 150,000 jobs in January, according to economists polled by Reuters.

Another hectic earnings week will kick into gear with almost a fifth of the S&P 500 components posting quarterly results. Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), Amazon (AMZN.O), UPS (UPS.N), Pfizer (PFE.N), Kellogg (K.N) and MasterCard (MA.N) are among the names most likely to grab the headlines.

With almost 200 companies' reports in so far, about 59 percent have beaten earnings expectations - down from about 70 percent in recent quarters.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak and Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/bs_nm/us_usa_stocks_weekahead

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Legal exemplars cited in Michael Mann's UVA email case | Watts Up ...

Mann alludes to his ?dirty laundry? which cannot come out, requesting his correspondent to not pass the email or the data attached to it to anyone else (PE-22).

The Environmental Law Center of the American Tradition Institute

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

Washington, D.C.

January 25, 2012

On Tuesday the American Tradition Institute?s Environmental Law Center sent the University of Virginia and Michael Mann copies of 40 emails selected as examples of the 27 categories identified as benefitting from the Court?s review of UVA and Mann?s claims that emails in the taxpayer-funded school?s possession are properly subject to the specific exemptions under Virginia?s Freedom of Information Act (VFOIA). These categories range from discussions of professional retaliation against other scientists who challenged Mann?s work, to those sent to or from Mann from or copying an email account covered by other FOI laws, such as the federal Freedom of Information Act.

This was part of a process agreed to by ATI, the University and Mann?s attorneys as ATI continues to seek Thomas Jefferson?s university to release a cache of 12,000 emails covered under VFOIA that tell an important part of the history of climate alarmism and the often unsettling ways taxpayer money was spent in promoting it.

?The UVA emails are a key part of a history that taxpayers are trying to piece together to place the early climate alarmism, and taxpayer financing of it, in context,? said Dr. David Schnare, Director of the ATI Environmental Law Center. ?The alarmist professors who in some of these emails speak about ?the cause? have complained that their emails have been taken out of context. Release of the full UVA email collection, all sent or received by Mann after expressly agreeing he had no ownership of or expectation of privacy about them, will provide that context. Considering the behavior of this former UVA professor as documented in many emails already available to the public, these emails are the only means he has to claim exoneration without being accused of a whitewash.?

The selected emails include graphic descriptions of the contempt a small circle of largely taxpayer-funded alarmists held for anyone who followed scientific principles and ended up disagreeing with them. For example, in the fifteenth Petitioners? Exemplar (PE-15), Mann encourages a boycott of one climate journal and a direct appeal to his friends on the editorial board to have one of the journal?s editors fired for accepting papers that were carefully peer-reviewed and recommended for publication on the basis that the papers dispute Mann?s own work. In PE-38, he states that another well respected journal is ?being run by the baddies,? calling them ?shills for industry.? In PE-39 Mann calls U.S. Congressmen concerned about how he spent taxpayer money ?thugs?.

PE-18, 20 & 27 illustrate the typical fashion with which Mann used a UVa email account to accuse co-authors and other respected scientists of incompetence, berating them in emails copied to colleagues living throughout the world. UVA claims this is somehow exempt from VFOIA as scientific research.

In PE-22, Mann alludes to his ?dirty laundry? which cannot come out, requesting his correspondent to not pass the email or the data attached to it to anyone else (UVa has claimed no attachments to any emails were preserved on their system). In this email, Mann admits he has failed to follow the most basic tenet of science, to keep a record of exactly what he did in his research, and thus himself could not reproduce his own results.

PE-24 & 25 characterize the efforts of this small group of academics to hide what they are doing and to avoid their work being held up to inspection under the Freedom of Information Act. In PE-26, Mann goes so far as to ask a federal employee ? impossibly, as he send it to an email account subject to the federal FOIA ? to ?treat this email as confidential? though all the email does is complain about a Wall Street Journal author?s efforts to report the science impeaching Mann?s early work. PE-26, like many other emails UVA wishes to keep secret, is subject to release under the federal FOIA.

These emails, if honestly representative of the entire collection, do not make Virginians proud of having paid Mann?s salary.

?ATI, like Greenpeace and its peers, as well as the media, is committed to using transparency laws to make science and government policy open to the citizens who underwrite it, to the exclusion of properly exempt information such as proprietary material,? said Chris Horner, ATI?s Director of Litigation. ?Universities are routinely asked to produce emails under FOIA, and most do so quickly. This has recently been proved true at another Virginia university when the media sought emails of a Mann critic. Why UVA wishes to boast of such outlier status within the academic community makes one ask, ?what is it they are trying to hide???

The Petitioners? Exemplars are available at ATI?s site.

If you wish an interview with Dr. Schnare or Mr. Horner, please contact ATI at info@atinstitute.org.

- 30 ?

h/t to reader Peter Bromberg

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Source: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/01/26/first-look-at-michael-manns-uva-emails/

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What's all the buzz about Oprah and Salman Rushdie going to India?

The Jaipur Literary Festival has become Asia's biggest literary festival, and the fact that some of the biggest names in the book world attend highlights India's growing appetite for good reads.

Oprah's here - but Salman Rushdie is not.?

Skip to next paragraph

The fifth annual Jaipur Literature Festival has for a few years now attracted more and more major literary and cultural figures from across the world, including, this year, talk show host and reading evangelist Oprah Winfrey.?

For five days, the festival, which started Friday, is taking over Jaipur, a city in central India. The festival has gotten so big that no sooner had the dates been announced ? last year ? then did nearby hotels get slammed with bookings. The rate at which the festival is growing in popularity highlights how much the book industry in India has grown.

The Jaipur Literature Festival had relatively humble beginnings: Its main purpose was to put literature, both in English and local languages, on the radar for Indians.

It seems to have worked.

Now, the festival is widely recognized as a destination for thinkers and writers.?Publishers come to scout for talent and writers come looking for book deals. And hundreds of thousands of eyes are on it and watching the books that are discussed there.??

It?s recently been described as ?the Oscars? of the literary world.

?Of the many literary festivals in India, Jaipur is the big one. It?s the one to go and be seen at,? novelist Samit Basu told the Wall Street Journal.

To say it gets crowded is an understatement. In 2008 there were 7,000 attendees; last year an estimated 60,000 people came to see and be seen and even more are expected to attend this year.

India?s English-language publishing is relatively small but growing industry ? a study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry last fall pegged the market at $1.4 billion and reported it was growing about 10 percent each year.

Among the local writers, an invitation to appear is an indication of having made it: Look out for Jeet Thayil, Anuradha Roy, and Gurcharan Das.

Oprah arrived in Mumbai earlier last week and spent time with the?first family of Bollywood?? actors?Aishwarya Rai,?Abhishek Bachchan, and their baby girl???before heading north.

Addressing the festival today, she said three things have struck her about India so far: "Its chaos,?the underlying calmness and love, and the fact that everyone seems to know where they are going.? She also dabbled in US politics, predicting the President Obama would win reelection in November.

US journalist Katherine Boo's book on life in the slums of Mumbai, ?Behind The Beautiful Forevers,? is one of the most anticipated books, and sOprahe?s slated to be on hand.

Other notable authors appearing include Ben Okri,?David Remnick, Jamaica Kincaid, Fatima Bhutto, Lionel Shriver, Amy Chua, and Teju Cole.

But Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses which earned him a fatwa in 1989, has announced he will not attend, saying intelligence services have told him that underworld dons in Mumbai have hired assassins to "eliminate" him. He may yet appear via video link instead, which is continuing to kick up controversy in India.

"While I have some doubts about the accuracy of this intelligence, it would be irresponsible of me to come to the Festival in such circumstances; irresponsible to my family, to the festival audience, and to my fellow writers," said Rushdie in a statement.?

It's unfortunate for festival-goers, many of whom were keen to see Rushdie live in the flesh in his homeland,?but something tells me there will be plenty to keep them occupied.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/E1y3e-ASKo0/What-s-all-the-buzz-about-Oprah-and-Salman-Rushdie-going-to-India

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GPS uncovers possible Southwest quake risk

The U.S. Southwest isn't particularly known for its seismic activity, but the Rio Grande Rift, a series of faults and basins that runs from central Colorado south through New Mexico, is alive and stretching, new research shows.

Scientists had suspected the rift might be dead, but measurements of its movement varied widely and were riddled with uncertainties. Now, thanks to state-of-the-art GPS technology, geophysicists have found the rift is indeed extending ? just very slowly.

And of course, anytime a large chunk of the Earth's crust moves, the issue of earthquakes arises.

"There's certainly potential for earthquakes in this region," said Anne Sheehan, a seismologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder who co-authored the new study. "They would be very low-probability events but, like all earthquakes, they could have large consequences if they do happen."

Not dead, but not thriving
Sheehan began studying the region after noticing something odd in the mantle underlying the Rio Grande Rift. Studies had shown that seismic waves move through this part of the mantle very slowly, hinting that it could be quite hot. It could also mean that the overlying continental crust is spreading apart, Sheehan thought.

Using a large network of GPS stations ? nearly 300 sites ? her team monitored the rift's movement over four years. They found that the rift is in fact spreading very slowly, at a rate of about 0.1 millimeters per year.

"That's really pretty small," Sheehan told OurAmazingPlanet. "The rift is not dead, but it's not really thriving, either."

More surprisingly, the team found that the spreading isn't focused at the rift itself, but is spread across a span of more than 370 miles (600 kilometers).

"That wasn't what we expected, because the deformation at the surface has been along faults that are relatively narrow," said Henry Berglund, a geophysicist at UNAVCO who led the study. "Instead, we observed the deformation is likely much broader than that ? at least the width of the state of New Mexico."

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      Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Scientists catalog the biodiversity of one of the world's last pristine tropical forests ? and come upon some strange-looking new species.

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A real earthquake risk?
As for earthquake risks, Berglund explained, "It's not a predictive tool, but it does tell us that, if the deformation is broader, maybe we're more likely to have earthquakes in more places than we previously expected.?

There was a magnitude-5.3 quake near Trinidad, Colo., last August, and a larger earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 6.6 in north-central Colorado in 1882. A magnitude-5.5 quake shook Dulce, N.M., in 1966. Future quakes in the region could also fall in the magnitude-5 or -6 range, but likely not much higher, Sheehan said.

"We can't use this to say we expect to see a big earthquake anywhere in the region," Sheehan cautioned. "But a more worrisome aspect is that we don't really expect earthquakes here, so our building codes aren't as strict as they are in, say, California."

The team's findings appear in the January issue of the journal Geology.

? 2012 OurAmazingPlanet. All rights reserved. More from OurAmazingPlanet.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46132907/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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10 reasons to watch WWE NXT: Jan. 25, 2012

WWE.com?s 10 reasons to check out the latest episode of WWE NXT Redemption.

10) Titus O'Neil has added some bite to his bark.

9) Can Heath Slater finally pick up a victory on the show that kick-started his career?

8) Maxine compares who to an American Idol?

7) Matt Striker makes all the tough decisions.

6) Who does Titus O?Neil shockingly shove to the ground?

5) Tyler Reks & Curt Hawkins want to prove they are the future of tag team competition and battle The Usos.

4) Johnny Curtis confronts Maxine and Derrick Bateman about what happened in Vegas!

3) An A-Bombshell! From A-Ry!

2) Maxine kicks Johnny Curtis where it counts!

1) You can watch WWE NXT Redemption in its entirety only on WWE.com!

Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/wwenxt/2012-01-25/10reasons01252012

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Iranian film in running for foreign language Oscar

Jennifer Lawrence and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak announce the Best Foreign Language Film of the year nominations for the 84th Annual Academy Awards on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 in Beverly Hills, Calif. The 84th Annual Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, Feb. 26 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

Jennifer Lawrence and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak announce the Best Foreign Language Film of the year nominations for the 84th Annual Academy Awards on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 in Beverly Hills, Calif. The 84th Annual Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, Feb. 26 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

In this film image released by Sony Pictures Classics, Leila Hatami, left, and Peyman Moadi are shown in a scene from "A Separation." The film was nominated Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 for an Academy Award for best foreign film. The Oscars will be presented Feb. 26 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, hosted by Billy Crystal and broadcast live on ABC.(AP Photo/Sony Pictures Classics, Habib Madjidi)

LONDON (AP) ? A taut domestic drama from Iran is competing against a Belgian thriller, a true Polish tale from the Holocaust and dramas from Canada and Israel in the Academy Awards race for best foreign-language film.

Nominees announced Tuesday in Los Angeles include "A Separation," the story of a marital breakdown and its far-reaching consequences from Iranian writer-director Asghar Farhadi.

The widely praised film ? being hailed by some as a vital cultural bridge at a time of souring relations between Iran and the West ? has already won the Golden Globe for best foreign language film, and also gained Farhadi an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay.

It's up against four other films, including "Footnote," a mordant tale of rivalry between father-son Talmudic scholars by Israel's Joseph Cedar.

Cedar said there was "something poetic" in the fact that Israeli and Iranian films were both nominated. The two countries are bitter enemies, and Israel has been a leading voice in international calls to halt Iran's nuclear program.

Cedar, who was Oscar nominated in 2008 for "Beaufort," said it was "very flattering" to be nominated in what he called "a great year for foreign film at the Oscar."

Lior Ashkenazi, who plays the son, said he was shocked to hear the film had been nominated given its subject ? "two Talmudic scholars, the most drab thing that could be."

"Who could imagine it?" he told Israel Radio. "It's not exactly an action movie."

Israel has emerged as a surprising powerhouse in the foreign film category, garnering four Oscar nominations since 2007. Two of those nominations have gone to Cedar.

Belgian director Michael R. Roskam gained a nomination for his feature debut "Bullhead," a crime drama set amid the world of cattle rearing and hormone dealing.

Producer Bart Van Langendonck welcomed the recognition for a film that "was written so it could be appreciated all over the world, even if the theme of the cattle mafia is extremely Belgian."

The nominees also include the gritty, realistic "In Darkness" by Poland's Agnieszka Holland, based on the true story of Leopold Socha, a Polish petty criminal who hid Jews from the Nazis in the sewage canals of Lviv during World War II.

It's a third Oscar nomination for 63-year-old Holland, one of the country's best-known directors, after "Europa Europa" and "Angry Harvest," both of which also dealt with the Holocaust.

The fifth contender is "Monsieur Lazhar," Canadian director Philippe Falardeau's story of an Algerian immigrant substitute teacher who helps a group of children get over a death.

It's the second straight year a filmmaker from Quebec has made the shortlist. Denis Villeneuve was nominated last year for his war drama "Incendies."

Falardeau said he was overwhelmed by the recognition for the French-language film, adapted from a play by Evelyne de la Cheneliere.

The director likened himself to "a hockey player trying to describe the feeling after he wins the Stanley Cup ? he looks stupid because it is indescribable and unbelievable."

"So there you are: indescribable and unbelievable," he said.

"I think I rejoice myself in the fact that an intimate film like 'Monsieur Lazhar' can exist alongside major Hollywood productions in the biggest gala in the world," Falardeau said. "I think it says a lot about the fact that we have to make the movie that we have inside of us and not try to imitate any kind of recipe."

But he admitted the looming ceremony left him with a dilemma ? "I don't have a tux."

This year's Oscars contest already has an international flavor. The race is led by Martin Scorsese's Parisian fantasia "Hugo," with 11 nominations, and "The Artist," a French-made silent tale of old Hollywood, with 10.

Winners of the 84th annual Oscars will be announced at a Feb. 26 ceremony at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre.

___

Associated Press writers Raf Casert in Antwerp, Belgium, Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.

____

Online: http://www.oscars.org

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-24-Oscar-Nominations-Foreign-Films/id-96a1cff0080944a4819f317390c67141

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RIM's Co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie Finally Step Down [Rim]

RIM's co-CEOs, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie aka the keyboard loving odd couple, are finally realizing they're running BlackBerry into the ground and jumping ship before it's too late. That is, Lazaridis and Balsillie are out at RIM. Stepping down. Done. Gone. Bye bye. The new CEO of RIM will be former COO Thorsten Heins. He has quite the job ahead of him, to say the least. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/F7EaRO3lRJc/rims-ceos-finally-step-down

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Study: Stem cells may aid vision in blind people

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Scientists?are reporting hints that embryonic stem cells?can ease blindness in some people.

It's the first results from the use of embryonic stem cells in humans.

The research published online Monday in the journal Lancet involved two legally blind patients. They received an injection of cells derived from embryonic stem cells in one eye.

One had the "dry" form of age-related macular degeneration and the other had a rare disease that causes serious vision loss.

After four months, both did better on a standardized eye test.

The work was done by scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles and Advanced Cell Technology in Massachusetts. A third patient in London last week underwent a similar stem cell injection as part of the company's ongoing tests.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-23-Stem%20Cells-Blindness/id-6a6834e42e2c490baab0b3d45bf017cc

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The Wiggles are coming to Android

Attention all parents: The Wiggles are coming to Android. Repeat: The Wiggles are coming to Android. Ruckus Media Group today announced that it's been granted worldwide rights to come up with an iOS and Android storybook apps for smartphones and tablets. The first titles will arrive in iTunes in April, and on Android later in the year.

For those of you without kids, the Wiggles are an Australian children's music group and have sold more than 24 million DVDs, 8 million CDs and 8 million books worldwide. 

The Wiggles Android app will fill yet another niche in Android children's apps. We've seen a plethora of kids apps released over the past year or so, including "A Charlie Brown Christmas," a number of books by popular children's author Sandra Boynton, and "Winnie the Pooh, What's a Bear to Do."

Source: Press release; Also: See more Android kids apps

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Vi6GjxM_nYQ/story01.htm

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Study finds tablet, e-book ownership soared

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Tablets and e-readers were a popular gift over the holidays, so much so that the number of people who own them nearly doubled between mid-December and January, a new study finds.

A report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project set to be released Monday found that 29 percent of Americans owned at least one tablet or e-reader as of the beginning of this month. That's up from 18 percent who said the same in December.

The iPad from Apple Inc. is perhaps the best-known example of these gadgets, along with Amazon.com's various Kindle devices and the Nook from Barnes and Noble. The iPad put tablets on the map and the cheaper Kindle Fire and Nook devices helped get them in the hands of more people.

The percentage of people who own a tablet jumped to 19 from 10 between mid-December and early January. E-book reader ownership also rose to 19 percent from 10 percent of U.S. adults.

Men and women were equally likely to own tablets, and the likelihood of tablet ownership was higher for people with higher household incomes, the report found. Those with higher levels of education were also more likely to own tablets than those who completed fewer years of school.

E-readers, meanwhile, were slightly more common among women.

The figures are from ongoing surveys conducted by Pew about tablet and e-reader ownership. They were conducted between November 2011 and January 2012. The first, pre-holiday survey was conducted among 2,986 Americans 16 and older. Two post-holiday surveys were conducted among about 2,000 adults in January.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-23-Pew-Tablets/id-f29fb8784ce34a4f8cd816c0287e8853

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Mourinho won't punish Pepe for Messi hand stamp

/

updated 10:18 a.m. ET Jan. 21, 2012

MADRID - Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho will not punish Pepe for stomping on the hand of Barcelona's Lionel Messi, saying that the defender's apology was sufficient.

The Portuguese manager said Saturday "the player has spoken and that is enough" after including Pepe in his squad for Sunday's home game against Athletic Bilbao.

Real Madrid lost 2-1 Wednesday to Barcelona in the first leg of their Copa del Rey quarterfinal. Mourinho said after the game if Pepe had stepped on Messi's hand intentionally it would be "punishable."

The following day Pepe issued a statement on Madrid's website saying the stomp was "unintentional."

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

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Balotelli lifts Man City

Mario Balotelli scored a stoppage-time penalty kick Sunday to give first-place Manchester City a 3-2 victory over Premier League title rival Tottenham.

Mike Hewitt / Getty Images

Hat trick

Clint Dempsey became the first American to score a hat trick in England's Premier League, helping Fulham rally from a halftime deficit to rout Newcastle 5-2 Saturday.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46081974/ns/sports-soccer/

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A 3D Printer That Works With Chocolate? Now You've Got My Attention [3D Printers]

Instead of the toxic smell of melted plastics, while the Imagine 3D printer is doing its thing, your workspace will be filled with the aroma of delicious confections. Because its printing head uses syringes that can be filled with chocolate. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/B7Bml9trqMQ/a-3d-printer-that-works-with-chocolate-now-youve-got-my-attention

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Polish leader tries to smoke pot in Parliament

WARSAW, Poland (AP) ? The leader of a new left-wing party in Poland threatened to light up a joint in Parliament on Friday ? but just burned incense instead.

Janusz Palikot is campaigning to get soft drugs legalized and to otherwise liberalize the conservative country.

"We're trying to get into room 143 to burn some grass, in accordance with our announcement," Palikot told reporters in a news conference held in his Parliament office.

Palikot's plan, however, put him on a collision course with the speaker, Ewa Kopacz, who vowed not to let him break the law in parliament.

She reported him to prosecutors, and in the end, Palikot simply lit incense sticks containing a tiny amount of cannabis. They emitted a scent of burning marijuana, but Palikot said they were purchased legally in a shop.

Palikot is introducing a draft law that would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.

His proposal has little chance of passing, however. His party, Palikot's Movement, won 10 percent of votes in October elections, becoming the third largest party in Parliament but still lacking the votes needed to change laws.

The party has also vowed to support gay rights and to fight to liberalize the country's restrictive abortion laws. It also opposes the strong influence of the Catholic church in politics and society, and has called for the removal of a Christian cross hanging in the Parliament.

The country's first ever openly gay and transsexual lawmakers entered Parliament this fall on Palikot's party ticket.

Prosecutors have opened an investigation into whether Palikot broke a law against "promoting or advertising" drugs with his threat to smoke pot in Parliament, the news agency PAP reported. That is a crime that could carry a prison sentence of up to a year.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-20-EU-Poland-Pot-in-Parliament/id-7088c04fb12c4295b4c1c482a4644e74

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Boxing's Freddie Roach in unusual reality show (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? When unknown actor Peter Berg wandered into the Outlaw Boxing Club in Hollywood about 17 years ago for a workout, a young trainer named Freddie Roach immediately earned his respect.

"I came in, and nobody would really talk to me," Berg said. "Freddie was the first one to come up to me and really say, `God, you're horrible.'"

Berg took Roach's counsel and stuck to his strengths, eventually becoming the powerful filmmaker behind "Friday Night Lights" and "Hancock." He's turning his cameras on Roach this winter, telling the story of the former boxer afflicted with Parkinson's disease who became the world's most respected trainer.

The six-part series, "On Freddie Roach," premieres Friday night on HBO. Fans of the network's innovative sports programming, such as the "Hard Knocks" and "24/7" series, might be surprised by what they see from Berg and fellow executive producer Jim Lampley, the longtime voice of the network's boxing telecasts.

The 30-minute episodes feature no Liev Schreiber narration, no story lines, no stunts ? just cameras silently following Roach through his complicated life training Manny Pacquiao, Amir Khan and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., while also running the busy Wild Card Gym and stoically managing his encroaching disease.

The 51-year-old Roach is still surprised anybody wanted to put his life outside the ring on television.

"I think I'm kind of a boring person," Roach said during a break in his nonstop daily training routine at the Wild Card.

"Jim and Peter thought otherwise, and they asked me if I'd be open like I am on `24/7.' I thought about it, and I always wanted to be a little bit famous, so I chose to do the show, and they were with me for almost a year. They'd catch me in good moods, and sometimes in bad moods. People really get to see what my life is about and how I deal with it. Parkinson's is always there, of course, but it's something I try to ignore as much as I can. I generally don't even think about that. Just work, work, work."

Berg, whose next studio film is the big-budget summer release "Battleship," has loved boxing since the counselors at his summer camp on Cape Cod roped off a ring in the woods and bet on the young campers' fights. Berg became a fan of Sugar Ray Leonard through his epic fights with Roberto Duran, and he trained in the sport to stay in Hollywood shape, even playing a boxer in the 1996 film "The Great White Hype."

"This is always something I've always had a great respect for," Berg said. "There's no more intense form of athletic competition. It's two men fighting for their lives. There's less safety net in boxing than any other sport, and that makes it undeniably compelling."

When Lampley approached Berg with the project, both men agreed on a bold break from traditional sports storytelling. Berg's biggest influence was the cinema-verite style of Frederick Wiseman, the prolific 82-year-old documentarian whose naturalistic purity has guided two generations of filmmakers.

"I thought this would be the right style and it would separate us from `24/7,' which I'm a huge fan of," Berg said. "I think HBO had more of an appetite to do something different. It was just a very emotional experience, and they recognized that we could do something that felt genuine and emotional."

The series gets emotional in its second episode: Roach's brother, Pepper, had a stroke at the Wild Card while Berg's cameras filmed. Not every episode features life-or-death drama, but Berg believes even non-boxing fans will be fascinated.

"I never felt like we had to make something happen," Berg said. "This place is an inherent gold mine of invention and emotion and activity. It was nice not to have to be driving the bus."

If the unfamiliar style catches on with viewers, Lampley thinks this team could examine other sports figures. They've considered doing a similar show on Washington State coach Mike Leach, another old friend of Berg.

"Some people are going to watch this and say, `It's too slow. It's too contemplative. I'm bored,'" Lampley said. "We don't want the biggest audience ? just the smartest. I really wanted to do a show that trusts the viewers. You don't need to gild this lily."

Roach quickly got used to the constant presence of the cameras: He sometimes fell asleep in his own bed while the crew filmed, and it documented his obsession with cleaning his home ? particularly his sinks. Roach's employees also get plenty of screen time, including Marie Spivey ? his ex-girlfriend turned assistant ? and Roach's mother, who lives next-door to him in Los Angeles.

"The hardest part about the TV show so far is watching it," Roach said. "The best part about the show is they never asked me to do anything. It's just truly my life, day by day, what challenges I have to go through. Some of it is sad. Some of it is sappy. I don't have Liev Schreiber to help me along the way with his voice, so I have to have my own voice."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_en_tv/box_roach_s_show

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Combination of oral drugs suppresses common type of hepatitis C

Thursday, January 19, 2012

A new combination of investigational drugs successfully suppressed hepatitis C genotype 1 infection in a high percent of patients who had not responded to previous treatment in a study led by a University of Michigan hepatologist.

The study, which will be published Jan. 19 in the New England Journal of Medicine, focused on hepatitis C genotype 1, which is predominant in the United States and the most difficult to treat. Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver and can cause liver cancer and liver cirrhosis. It is transmitted through direct contact with infected blood and blood products.

In this pilot study, patients with hepatitis C genotype 1 infection, who had not responded to previous treatment with PEG-interferon alfa and ribavirin, were given a combination of two investigational direct-acting antiviral agents (daclatasvir and asunaprevir) alone, or were given these two antiviral agents along with PEG-interferon alfa-2a and ribavirin. All the patients saw their hepatitis C viral load drop rapidly, says Anna S. Lok, M.D., professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology at the University of Michigan Medical School and lead author of the study.

All 10 patients given the four drug treatment -- two direct-acting antiviral agents (daclastasvir and asunaprevir) that block the NS3 and NS5A regions of the hepatitis C virus plus PEG-interferon alfa and ribavirin -- had sustained virologic response with undetectable virus at the end of treatment and at 12 weeks after stopping treatment. Four of the 11 patients given the two direct-acting antiviral agents only also achieved sustained virologic response.

A sustained virologic response or SVR means there is no detectable Hepatitis C virus in a patient's blood after treatment is stopped. Achieving sustained virologic response is important, because research has shown that late relapse is rare.

"The two recently approved hepatitis C drugs ? telaprevir or boceprevir -- combined with PEG-interferon alfa and ribavirin have limited success in patients who have not responded to previous treatment with PEG-interferon alfa and ribavirin. Because of this high unmet medical need, there is a necessity for new combination regimens that can increase response rates in that population," says Lok, who also is Director of Clinical Hepatology at U-M. "The high rate of sustained virologic response in patients who received the four drug regimen is very exciting. Although only four of 11 patients given the two direct-acting antiviral agents only achieved sustained virologic response, this is the first study to show that sustained virologic response can be achieved without the use of interferon or ribavirin. These data are very encouraging because PEG-interferon alfaand ribavirin are associated with many side effects and many patients with hepatitis C choose not to receive treatment for fear that they cannot tolerate those drugs."

An estimated 170 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis C, with genotype 1 being the most prevalent genotype. Up to 80 percent of those infected with hepatitis C will become chronically infected. Twenty percent of people with chronic hepatitis C will develop cirrhosis and, of those, up to 25 percent may progress to liver cancer. Although there is no vaccine to prevent hepatitis C, it is a potentially curable disease.

In the Phase II clinical trial, Lok, along with a team of researchers including scientists from Bristol-Myers Squibb, studied patients with Hepatitis C genotype 1, who had not responded to prior therapy with PEG-interferon alfa and ribavirin. The study was funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

"Overall, these results suggest that further research into combinations of direct-acting antiviral agents, with or without PEG-interferon and ribavirin, should be encouraged," Lok says. "Caution must be exercised in selecting the right combination of direct-acting antiviral agents in studies of interferon-free regimens because in this study, all 7 patients who received only two direct-acting antiviral agents that did not achieve sustained virologic response had emergence of drug resistance variants to both drugs."

In this study there were no serious adverse events on treatment or discontinuations due to adverse events. Diarrhea was the most common adverse event in both groups, but it was mild or moderate in all cases.

###

University of Michigan Health System: http://www.med.umich.edu

Thanks to University of Michigan Health System for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116853/Combination_of_oral_drugs_suppresses_common_type_of_hepatitis_C

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Venture capital investments up 19 percent in 4Q (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO ? Funding for startups rose 19 percent in the fourth quarter as venture capitalists fueled money into more companies in the Internet, clean technology and other sectors.

According to a study released Friday, startup investments grew to $6.57 billion in the October-December quarter from $5.52 billion in the same period in 2010. The volume of deals, though, did not keep up with the amount of money invested. There were 844 deals completed in the fourth quarter, down from 861 a year earlier.

Called the MoneyTree report, the study was conducted by PriceWaterHouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association based on data from Thomson Reuters.

For all of 2011, venture investments jumped 22 percent to $28.43 billion, in 3,673 deals. That's up from $23.26 billion in 2010, when the money went to 3,526 deals.

Venture capitalists piped $133.9 million into 80 seed-stage companies in the fourth quarter. That's down from $233.2 million going to 90 such startups in the fourth quarter of 2010. The decline suggests some caution on the part of venture capitalists looking at the newest, often most risky, startup investments.

A total of 364 early-stage companies snapped up $2.27 billion in venture funding during the quarter. That compares with $1.48 billion going to 318 early-stage startups in the last three months of 2010. The report said 222 companies in the expansion stage received $2.36 billion in funding, compared with 270 companies snagging about the same amount a year earlier. In the later stage, 178 startups received $1.8 billion in the fourth quarter, while $1.4 billion went to 183 companies a year earlier.

By industry, software companies received the most funding with $1.76 billion snagged in the fourth quarter, followed by biotechnology with $1.27 billion.

San Francisco-based internet storage locker Dropbox Inc. got the single-largest investment during the quarter, $250 million. In second place was Better Place Inc., which is based in Palo Alto and builds infrastructure and systems for electric vehicles, with $200 million.

John S. Taylor, head of research at the National Venture Capital Association, said the figures show "cautious optimism."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_venture_investments

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Cyprus air traffic controllers to strike (AP)

NICOSIA, Cyprus ? Air traffic controllers in Cyprus will walk off the job for four hours on Wednesday to protest a two-year government worker wage freeze and other deficit-reduction measures.

The latest strike action on the island nation comes in the wake of last month's package of cost cuts and tax increases, which are intended to boost investor confidence. Cyprus is struggling to convince investors it has a strategy to deal with its problems and its credit rating was cut last week to junk status by the Standard & Poor's ratings agency largely because of the country's sizable financial sector's heavy exposure to Greek debt.

Airport spokesman Adamos Aspris said the stoppage between 1300 and 1700 local time will affect more than 5,000 passengers on 38 flights to and from the island's two airports.

The Air Traffic Controllers' Union President Giorgos Georgiou defended the action, arguing that his members have been unfairly grouped with other government workers.

Since the salaries of the air traffic controllers come from levies airlines pay the government to use Cyprus-controlled airspace, they should be exempt from austerity measures aimed at reducing the size of the public sector that takes up to a third of all government spending.

Georgiou said the government's measures, that also include lower overtime pay and higher contribution to social insurance, would shrink controllers' take home pay by up to 40 percent, and rejected criticism that the union is holding the economy hostage.

Communications Minister Efthymios Flourentzou said he wants arbitrators to adjudicate the dispute.

A similar four-hour work stoppage is planned for next week.

Largely unable to borrow from international markets, the island is relying on a euro4.5 billion ($5.8 billion), low-interest Russian loan to meet its financial needs for this year.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_cyprus_financial_crisis

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'30 Rock' episode mocks its own star's gay dilemma (AP)

NEW YORK ? NBC comedy "30 Rock" often finds laughs in real-life events in the show business world it inhabits.

But Thursday's edition targeted one of its own cast members, Tracy Morgan, who found himself in real-life hot water last June after making anti-gay remarks during a stand-up appearance in Nashville, Tenn.

On the "30 Rock" episode, Tracy Jordan, the character Morgan plays, sparked a protest after making a couple of ridiculous gay-oriented jokes at a club date.

A contrite Jordan mistakenly apologizes to the makers of Glad bags, rather than to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, known as GLAAD.

Jordan's boss, played by series star Tina Fey, is forced to apologize for him.

"He's not capable of hate," she assures the media. "He's just an idiot who doesn't know what he's saying."

In real life, Tracy Morgan publicly apologized to his fans and the gay and lesbian community for what he called "my choice of words." He denied being a hateful person and acknowledged that "even in a comedy club" what he said went too far "and was not funny in any context." During his rant, Morgan had said in part that if his son were gay, he would "pull out a knife and stab" him.

Fey, who is also the creator and an executive producer of "30 Rock," issued a statement at the time declaring "I hope for his sake that Tracy's apology will be accepted as sincere by his gay and lesbian co-workers at `30 Rock.'"

Mirroring that real-life statement on Thursday's episode, Fey's character, Liz Lemon, chides Jordan by saying, "Do you know how many of your hardworking and dedicated co-workers are gay?"

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_en_tv/us_tv30_rock

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Lohan returns to court for latest probation update (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Lindsay Lohan is returning to court to give a judge her second update on how she's faring under strict new probation requirements.

The hearing on Tuesday is expected to be much like Lohan's last progress update: short and without surprises.

The starlet has been doing cleanup work at the county morgue and attending psychotherapy sessions in an effort to avoid problems with her probation for separate drunken driving and theft cases.

Lohan's spokesman Steve Honig says the actress has made her community service her "primary focus" and is eager for Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner to receive the details.

The 25-year-old struggled with her probation until Sautner imposed a series of tough new rules, including monthly meetings with the court, in November.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_en_mo/us_people_lindsay_lohan

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The 100 Seconds You've Been Waiting For (talking-points-memo)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/187523125?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Should a Hit Like Whitner's Be Legal? - NYTimes.com

A Fifth Down reader, RM from Honolulu, sent this comment after the 49ers-Saints game:

The hit on Pierre Thomas by Whitner was CLEARLY an intentional helmet-to-helmet hit on a defenseless receiver with vicious intent. It was a penalty and deserves fines, not praise. Why haven?t any of the analysts and so-called experts pointed this out? This was THE pivotal play in the game because it took out a key component of the Saints? offense and it has been hailed as such, but it should have been a penalty. What is worse, however, is that it seriously injured Pierre Thomas.

The N.F.L. later explained that Thomas was not a defenseless receiver, that he had enough time after the catch to establish himself as a runner. You can find the full explanation in this Associated Press article:

Helmet-to-helmet hits are banned against defenseless players in eight categories, and a runner is not one of those categories. Thomas was considered a runner because he?d made a catch, turned and made a ?football move? before being hit.

Josh Levin, writing for Slate, said the brutality of the blow escaped Kenny Albert and Daryl Johnston on Fox:

Because the hit was legal, the football-is-terrifying-and-dangerous response never got triggered in the announcers? brains. Even after scrutinizing the play in slow motion and high definition, Johnston and Albert either missed or chose to ignore that Pierre Thomas dropped the ball because he was so badly injured that he lost control of his limbs.

On Sunday,?Thomas wrote on his Facebook page: ?Hey fans, just to let everyone know?I?m doing great?it was a nasty hit but this is the sport we play, can?t do anything about it but move forward from here.?

As Jonah Lehrer?wrote for Grantland.com,?if football ever dies, it won?t come from anyone inside the game, like Roger Goodell or even Pierre Thomas. Instead, he wrote: ?The death will start with those furthest from the paychecks, the unpaid high school athletes playing on Friday nights. It will begin with nervous parents reading about brain trauma, with doctors warning about the physics of soft tissue smashing into hard bone, with coaches forced to bench stars for an entire season because of a single concussion.?

What are the odds that?a hit like Donte Whitner?s ?will be penalized in 10 years or 5 or even sooner? Highly likely. It?s not alarmist to think that someone could die or be paralyzed before a national TV audience on that kind of blow. The hit was similar to Ryan Clark?s head smash against Willis McGahee in a Steelers-Ravens playoff game in 2009. (Like the 49ers, the Steelers recovered a fumble after the running back ? McGahee ?was concussed.)

With all that we know now ? and that the N.F.L. should know ? it seems reasonable to offer more protection to players. Thomas and McGahee had some time to brace themselves after a catch, but if you watch in real time, not that much time. There are also situations in which a runner is in a vulnerable position, after being spun around, for example, and not able to prepare for a vicious, but perfectly legal, helmet-to-helmet strike. It?s no wonder the N.F.L. is being sued by multiple sets of former players.

Bottom line, ?Whitner?s hit was legal, but why would a mother and father want their son to play a sport in which that was true?

Source: http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/should-a-hit-like-whitners-be-legal/

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Airbnb finally gets an Android app, reworks mobile features (Appolicious)

Airbnb had a fairly good 2011 despite a few troubles, and as it goes into 2012 the accommodations-finding web service is expanding its mobile outreach, starting with an Android app.

The service formerly was only available online and on Apple?s iOS platform, where it has had an app available for about a year. But in expanding to Android, as TechCrunch reports, Airbnb has reworked its entire mobile experience with an eye toward reaching more customers and providing more services. While the iPhone app has been popular, seeing some 500,000 downloads and around 125,000 active users of the social service, Airbnb says its biggest complaint has been the lack of an Android app.

Airbnb is technically a travel app, although it doesn?t help facilitate flights or car rentals like others in the category. Instead, Airbnb focuses on helping users find accommodations when they arrive, and it does so through a bit of social networking. It?s a ?community marketplace,? meaning users log-in to both offer accommodations and to find and book them. That allows Airbnb to show off places to stay that have some pretty reasonable prices, and it also touts the ability to book your accommodations day-of through the app or website.

In making the jump to Android, which the company notes enjoys some 48 percent of the smartphone market worldwide, Airbnb hopes to expand to become more of a global service. Already the app covers more than 19,000 cities in 192 countries, and it?s expecting its user base to double with the expansion to Android with compatibility for more than 100 devices and in five different languages.

The Android app offers users a lot of quick and easy functions, as well. It?s possible to make reservations, decline reservations, message users and post about properties and accommodations on offer through the app, set prices and keep track of guests. Airbnb has also reworked its web app for mobile as well ? so even if you don?t have the Android native app, you can still use your smartphone or tablet to make use of a host of features through a mobile web browser.

Airbnb saw some success and some failures in 2011, with a bit of a PR debacle that resulted after a guest trashed the home of someone using the service to supply accommodations. But after the initial struggle by the customer to get help from Airbnb?s side, the issue was resolved and the company has strengthened its efforts both in terms of safety and support. Airbnb has had time to learn from its mistakes and to make its entire service better before jumping to Android, and users should benefit from the time spent learning the ropes on iOS before expanding to the larger user base on Google?s platform. And it sounds like there are even more updates in the pipe that will continue to expand Airbnb?s service.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_androidapps_com_articles10793_airbnb_finally_gets_an_android_app_reworks_mobile_features/44208829/SIG=13b2t4ksr/*http%3A//www.androidapps.com/tech/articles/10793-airbnb-finally-gets-an-android-app-reworks-mobile-features

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Mortal Kombat comes to the Vita this Spring (Digital Trends)

The software line-up for the PlayStation Vita is looking more and more impressive all the time. Learning from the mistakes of the Nintendo 3DS, the Vita has loaded up its launch window with massive hits and plenty of options. In fact, the entire year will see a huge number of big name hits, but the launch window through the Spring is absolutely packed.

One of those major releases has now been confirmed to be Mortal Kombat, which will be released this Spring.

The portable version will be a port of the console game that debuted last April and went on to sell over three million copies. The Vita version is promising a few new tricks that will be unveiled over the coming months, but it will include a full story mode, the x-ray moves, and (of course) fatalities. ?

The Vita will hit North America on February 15, and the list of titles that will be available on that day is growing ever more impressive. As it stands today, 24 games will be available on launch day, at least three games are confirmed for a March release, and at least 10 titles are listed for Spring 2012 with more to possibly follow.

?

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20120117/tc_digitaltrends/mortalkombatcomestothevitathisspring

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