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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Transformer Prime Graduates to Ice Cream Sandwich Today [Android]

Click here to read Transformer Prime Graduates to Ice Cream Sandwich Today

That super-powered quad core dream machine known as Transformer Prime? It's available with Ice Cream Sandwich starting today. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/hNU0Cib5Mx0/transformer-prime-is-graduating-to-ice-cream-sandwich-today

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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Once struggling U.S. auto market now industry bedrock (Reuters)

DETROIT (Reuters) ? Welcome to an unlikely beacon of hope for the global auto industry -- Detroit.

Executives arriving this week for the Detroit auto show find a U.S. car market that has morphed from meltdown three years ago to a safe haven as concerns grow about the stability of other big economies, from Europe to China.

Analysts and executives expect 2012 U.S. auto sales to grow 4 percent to 9 percent, the third consecutive annual gain. The only reason automakers are not more bullish is the risk that the sovereign debt crisis in Europe may trigger a broader slowdown.

All three U.S. automakers took market share in the United States for the first time in 23 years. But they can expect tougher competition in 2012 as the Japanese rivals rebound, and Hyundai and Volkswagen gather steam. A return to the boom years of 17 million annual sales, however, will not happen any time soon.

"We see an exceptionally competitive market because there are now eight major manufacturers vying for share," said Tom Libby, senior forecasting analyst at Polk, a Michigan-based automotive consulting firm.

"VW has become very aggressive in the U.S., and Hyundai-Kia has huge momentum that will continue into 2012."

The crop of new vehicles at the Detroit show this week reflects the heavier competition U.S. automakers General Motors, Ford and Fiat-controlled Chrysler can expect in their home market.

Toyota -- which lost 2.3 percentage points of U.S. market share last year -- and Honda, still rebuilding inventory after Japan's tsunami last March, are previewing 2012 updates of their key Prius and Accord models. VW and Hyundai-Kia are also getting attention after posting the biggest U.S. sales gains of last year.

VW wants to double its U.S. market share, said Rainer Michel, product strategy and marketing chief for Volkswagen of America. "Our aim should be being visible on the street, so every five or six cars out of 100 on the road should eventually be a Volkswagen."

The VW brand had 2.5 percent of the U.S. market in 2011 and its luxury brand Audi accounted for nearly 1 percent.

South Korea's Hyundai and affiliate Kia together matched VW's 26 percent sales surge in a U.S. market that expanded 10 percent in 2011.

Polk sees that growth slowing to 7 percent for 13.7 million U.S. deliveries this year, with Europe flat or in decline.

Buckingham Research analyst Joseph Amaturo said he expects moderate growth in China, Brazil and India this year with the prospect of "very aggressive" discounting in those emerging markets.

"Europe is where we face the biggest uncertainties because of financial market volatility, and we're having to adapt our products to increase share," said Philippe Dehennin, head of German premium automaker BMW's French division.

"The U.S. market, along with China, offers significant growth potential with our existing models. It's an absolute priority."

BRIGHT SPOT AMID UNCERTAINTY

Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne's investment in Chrysler, seen in 2009 as a risky distraction even with no cash outlay, now looks like a saving grace as he grapples with collapsing demand in Fiat's core southern European markets.

"He entered Chrysler at rock bottom and will now capitalize on a U.S. recovery - the timing was perfect," said Philippe Barrier, an automotive analyst with Societe Generale in Paris.

U.S. automakers are also counting on a domestic recovery to soften the impact of Europe's slump, already complicating the elusive turnaround plan at Opel, GM's regional unit.

"As I look around the world, my greatest confidence is about the U.S.," GM Chief Economist Mustafa Moharatem told an analyst conference in Detroit on Sunday.

"Europe is where I see the greatest uncertainty, because we don't know how the sovereign debt issue will be handled."

Moharatem also predicted "slower growth and more uncertainty" in major emerging markets.

While U.S. consumer demand is rising, some analysts warn the car market will not return to the 17 million annual sales averaged before the 2008 crisis.

"The growth rate looks good because we're coming off very depressed levels, but there's a question of the longer-term outlook," Citigroup U.S. auto analyst Itay Michaeli said.

For the first time in history, U.S. consumers are scrapping more vehicles than they buy. Younger households increasingly are forgoing a second car and middle-aged couples are less likely to have a third vehicle, according to a Citigroup study.

The shift threatens to keep annual sales in the 13 million to 14 million range "for the next few years," it adds.

"Over the decade preceding the last crisis, America took in many more vehicles per household, largely because of all the incentives and easy credit," Michaeli said. "Now the question is how many we want and need in this new world that we're in."

Michaeli forecasts 13.9 million U.S. sales in 2012 and said pricing is holding up well, so far. Some automakers nonetheless say conditions could weaken.

"The U.S. market is not necessarily in line for years of uninterrupted recovery," BMW's Dehennin said. "And there's a lot of competition on the starting line."

(Additional reporting by Gilles Guillaume in PARIS and Christiaan Hetzner in NEW YORK; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120109/bs_nm/us_usautos_outlook

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New light shed on how children learn to speak

ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2012) ? Researchers have discovered that children under the age of two control speech using a different strategy than previously thought.

During the study at Queen's University, the researchers changed the vowel sounds that the participants heard over headphones as they talked. They found that while the adults and young children changed their vowel sounds in response to this altered feedback, the toddlers did not.

"We were very surprised to find that the two-year-olds do not monitor their own voice when speaking in the same way as adults do," says Ewen MacDonald, a former Queen's research associate and now associate professor at the Technical University of Denmark. "As they play music, violinists will listen to the notes they produce to ensure they are in tune. If they aren't, they will adjust the position of their fingers to bring the notes back in tune. When we speak, we do something very similar. We subconsciously listen to vowel and consonant sounds in our speech to ensure we are producing them correctly."

The researchers have proven that toddlers use a different strategy to control speech than adults. They still have not pinpointed the exact method children under two use when learning to control speech. Future studies are being developed to determine what strategy toddlers are using.

"Understanding the development of speech is a complex and challenging problem. Using novel techniques, such as the ones used in this experiment, we can isolate and better understand how the different components of speech develop," says Dr MacDonald. One possibility is that toddlers rely on the interaction with the person they are talking to in order to judge the accuracy of their speech sounds.

Other researchers on the study include Queen's psychology professor Kevin Munhall and Elizabeth Johnson, an assistant professor in the department of psychology at the University of Toronto.

The research was recently published in Current Biology.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Queen's University.

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Journal Reference:

Ewen?N. MacDonald, Elizabeth?K. Johnson, Jaime Forsythe, Paul Plante, Kevin?G. Munhall. Children's Development of Self-Regulation in Speech Production. Current Biology, 2011; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2011.11.052

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/_e4MgyswBPs/120109155948.htm

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Monday, January 9, 2012

Sony Ericsson Xperia S and Ion Heading to CES 2012?

The latest news and reviews from Las Vegas: CES 2012 Special Report

Two Sony Ericsson smartphones will reportedly be unveiled at the CES 2012 conference in Las Vegas next week. The Sony Ericsson Xperia S and Ion Android phones are likely to be the brand's swansong.

Ever since Sony announced it was to buy-out Ericsson's share of Sony Ericsson, we've wondered about the future of the SE brand and its now-popular Xperia range. It may soon disappear, but not yet. According to the SEMC blog, the Xperia S and Ion will be unveiled at CES 2012 - within the next few days. Arc HD

The Xperia S has previously been rumoured as the Nozomi and the Xperia Arc HD. No specs for the phone have officially been revealed yet, but reports to date suggest it will easily trump all previous Xperia handsets. A dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 720p 4.3in screen, 12-megapixel camera with 1080p video capture and 1GB of RAM will make it a serious rival to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus - especially with that rumoured high-powered camera sensor in tow, and more pocket-friendly form factor. However, like that Ice Cream Sandwich device, there's no memory card slot.

Details of the Ion are more scarce, although early reports indicate it may have a 4.6in or 5in screen. If Sony Ericsson is looking to mirror HTC's Sensation line-up, headed by the 4.3in XE and 4.65in XL, specs other than screen size may be similar to those of the Xperia S.

What's also not yet clear is what branding the phones will bear at release. It's possible that the phones will have a Sony-only naming, leaving Sony Ericsson to simply reveal the phones before slipping quietly into the shadows of the past. Will you miss Sony Ericsson when it's gone?

via SEMC blog
image credit ITProPortal

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TRVStorageNews/~3/kK0T0PY-ZQ4/sony-ericsson-xperia-s-and-ion-heading-to-ces-2012

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Sunday, January 8, 2012

Plans to restore crumbling Colosseum cause rumblings in Rome

The Colosseum in Rome, pictured December 2010, when Diego Della Valle of luxury brand Tod's put in a bid to restore the site.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Plans to restore ancient Roman Colosseum meet with anger from Italian Restorers Association
Restorers allege privately-funded plans will use non-specialist builders to clean and restore amphitheater
Colosseum Director refutes claim, says restoration project is hiring architectural restorers, "not just workmen."
Monument in need of funds and protection measures including cessation of car traffic around it

London (CNN) -- It sits in the ancient heart of Rome and is an emblem of the city's imperial history as well as an icon of Italy.

But plans to restore Rome's nearly 2,000-year-old Colosseum are causing rumblings among heritage workers and restorers, compounded by reports in December that small amounts of powdery rock had fallen off the monument.

The current $33 million (25 million euro) restoration plans to restore the Flavian amphitheater, which once hosted spectacular shows and gruesome gladiatorial battles, are being sponsored by Diego della Valle, of luxury Italian brand Tod's, in exchange for advertising rights.

Restoration of the monument, which attracts up to two million visitors a year, is due to go ahead in March and will involve cleaning of the travertine exterior, the restoration of underground chambers, new gating, the moving of visitor service stations to an area outside of the building itself and increased video security.

But members of the Restorers Association of Italy are unhappy about the plans, which they believe has sidelined them in favor of non-specialist restorers and which "run the risk of causing irreparable damage to the monument," according to the group's President, Carla Tomasi.

"Having some of the best restorers in the world in Italy and yet turning to general enterprises is a choice that we do not share, and embarrasses both our work and the image of our nation in the world, in addition to causing risks to the monument," Tomasi said.

It's wonderful to have private companies and individuals wanting to support heritage at a time when public budgets are being cut
Sneska Quaedvlieg-Mihailovic

A ruling given late December 2011 by Italy's Council of State in favor of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities is however allowing the restoration plans to go ahead.

"Italian law states that restorers can restore things like statues, ceramics, mosaics and decorative surfaces but not architecture," said Rossella Rea, Director of the Colosseum, adding that the workers employed to do the restorations are in fact "specialized in architectural restoration, they're not just ordinary workmen."

Rea was also quick to stress that the reports of the Colosseum crumbling were false and that only 8cm of tuff -- a porous rock formed by consolidation of volcanic ash -- had come off, something "that happens all the time to monuments."

But she also added that the Colosseum has suffered in recent years from underfunding caused by government cuts and that the revenue from ticket sales only covers the yearly upkeep of the city's ancient sites, which include the nearby Forum and Palatine.

Sponsorship, though difficult to obtain owing to sponsors having to pay VAT on donations, is much-needed.

Sneska Quaedvlieg-Mihailovic is Secretary General of Europa Nostra, an organization dedicated to protecting cultural heritage in Europe.

She said, "We at Europa Nostra and anyone dealing with heritage would say that it's wonderful to have private companies and individuals wanting to support heritage at a time when public budgets are being cut."

But she also warned against governments across Europe loosening restrictions on restoration work in the current economic climate, and of privately funded restoration plans not complying with strict guidelines.

And while the current Colosseum project aims to improve visitor services in addition to cleaning and restoring the amphitheater, Quaedvlieg-Mihailovic believes that its underlying problems also need to be addressed -- the main one being the car traffic that surrounds the site and causes the exterior to be tarnished with pollution.

"You can do wonderful restoration works but you haven't yet tackled the things that will continue to cause damage and this is an issue at the level of the urban management of the city," she said.

"It's a problem that's been discussed with the City of Rome for many years," said Rea, adding that she hopes that with the building of a new subway stop near the Colosseum, the roads around the site will be closed to cars -- though heritage workers have long complained that vibrations from the nearby subway trains are also damaging the building.

It's an ongoing struggle, Rea said, but one she hopes will eventually be successful.

After all, it's only been 60 years since people parked their cars inside the amphitheater.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/06/world/europe/rome-colosseum-restoration-plan-protests/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular

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What is the most like facebook status?

What is the most like facebook status? | ChaCha X

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Source: http://www.chacha.com/question/what-is-the-most-like-facebook-status

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Republican Debate: 'Mitt's Gonna Need To Wear A Flak Jacket Tonight' In New Hampshire

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- With precious few days remaining before the New Hampshire primary, and a growing expectation that Mitt Romney will run away with the GOP nomination, Saturday night's debate seems poised to be a brutal evening for the former Massachusetts governor.

Aides and advisers to several of Romney's challengers tell The Huffington Post that they expect a torrent of attacks launched his way, with hopes that they can trip him up enough to keep the primary process going.

"Mitt's gonna need to wear a flak jacket tonight," said a top New Hampshire adviser to one of the GOP candidates.

The lines have been drawn in recent days, with a bereaved Newt Gingrich calling the former governor a liar and pledging to hold him accountable for his distortions come debate time. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, a surrogate for Jon Huntsman's campaign, told The Huffington Post that the Utah Republican was eager to produce a "visual" contrast between himself and Romney. On the trail leading up to the debate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum previewed his own anti-Romney script for the evening, one that questioned the whole notion of the frontrunner's electability.

In Massachusetts, Santorum declared, "fees went up, taxes went up, spending went up. We saw Romneycare instituted, which was the template for Obamacare." He paused for a second, before asking, "That's the reality of the candidate we want to put up as a contrast?"

In private, advisers to the other Republican governors concede that Saturday night is as close to a now-or-never moment as it gets with respect to knocking Romney down a notch. The debate has a perfect moderator for partisan knife fighting: ABC's George Stephanopolous, who famously morphed a 2008 Democratic primary debate into a discussion of Barack Obama's ties to Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright alongside questions about why he didn't wear a flag pin on his lapel. Unlike the second debate this weekend -- a Sunday morning affair moderated by NBC's "Meet the Press" and Facebook -- viewers won't lose interest when the NFL playoffs air hours later.

Whether the rest of the field can seize the moment remains unclear. After all, it's not as if there was a lack of thirst for a sustained Romney attack in the past. Former presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty talked up the political dangers of Massachusetts's health care prior to whiffing, mightily, on a chance to press Romney about it during a debate. Texas Gov. Rick Perry's attacks have been deflected either as tired lines ("nice try," Romney said to one) or oddly-timed (going after the former governor for hiring a lawn care company that employed undocumented workers). Gingrich's pledge to stay positive has limited his maneuvering on the debate stage. He recently spent his time apologizing for an attack on Romney's private equity days at Bain Capital instead of launching new ones.

But political desperation can do strange things to candidates. Gingrich has all but formally conceded that he's abandoning his positive campaign pledge. And on Saturday, the Bain issue resurfaced -- not once, but twice. In the morning, Santorum took Romney to task for having the wrong kind of business experience.

"I just don't think it is the skill set we need as president," he said. "We don't need a manager.... we need someone to fundamentally change Washington."

Later in the afternoon, Gingrich's longtime aide, Rick Tyler, announced that the super PAC he now heads will soon release a 27-minute long video on Romney's days in private equity.

"It is breathtaking," he said, breathlessly. "It's a short film. It documents four case studies of Bain gutting businesses, taking all the assets and cleaning out people's pensions and firing all the people. That is the human toll of predatory paper shuffling, which is not capitalism."

Asked whether he thought the topic might come up Saturday night, he replied: "I hope... There is precious few moments and nobody has done it."

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/07/republican-debate-tonight-_n_1191648.html

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