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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Facebook's Oregon Data Center Uses As Much Power As The Entire County It's In [Factoid]
Optimism builds in euro zone economy, picture still mixed (Reuters)
BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? Confidence in the euro zone's economy strengthened in January for the first time since early 2011, EU data showed on Monday, but a recovery in Germany masked a deterioration in France and Italy in a sign of the bloc's diverging fortunes.
The European Commission's economic sentiment indicator rose by 0.6 points in the euro zone to 93.4, the first improvement in sentiment since March last year as some confidence returned to services, consumers and construction.
The indicator was still slightly lower than forecast by economists polled by Reuters, underscoring the difficulty of measuring the rising optimism that is still tempered by EU leaders' inability to resolve the euro zone debt crisis.
The business climate indicator also rose for the second month in a row to -0.21, in line with economists' expectations.
The mixed picture was evident in the Commission's industrial confidence indicator, which remained unchanged in January, as factory managers said they saw a deterioration in their assessment of their order books, though this was offset by a positive assessment of their stocks.
Confidence in services, meanwhile, rebounded by 2 points in the euro zone and construction also rose 0.6.
Economists are divided over how deep the euro zone's economic contraction will be after the European Central Bank's decision in December to provide 3-year loans to banks averted a credit freeze.
But budget austerity and political divisions over how to solve the two-year debt crisis continue to depress business in the euro zone and the wider European Union, with non-euro zone country Britain heading for a recession in early 2011.
The European Commission forecasts 2012 economic growth of just 0.5 percent for the 17 nations in the euro zone, which generates 16 percent of global economic output. The International Monetary Fund is more pessimistic, forecasting a 0.5 percent contraction in 2012 that it says could drag the world into recession.
EU leaders hope to sketch a pathway out of the slump at a summit in Brussels on Monday, but a big divergence in the performance of the 27-nation bloc's economies makes that a tough task, while spending cuts are still the order of the day.
Recent data suggests Germany will avoid a recession, while non-euro zone member Britain, as well as euro states Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal, are likely to see their economies contract in 2012. Belgium and the Netherlands, also members of the single currency, will struggle to grow at all.
(Reporting By Robin Emmott; editing by Rex Merrifield)
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Up to 500,000 new refugees could flee to S. Sudan: WFP (Reuters)
JUBA (Reuters) ? Conflict and food shortages could push up to half a million Sudanese refugees to flee to South Sudan in the next couple months if Khartoum does not allow aid agencies more access to its restive border regions, the World Food Program said.
South Sudan seceded in July under a 2005 peace deal that ended a decades-long civil war with the north, but fighting has continued on both sides of the poorly drawn border.
The United States has pressed Khartoum to allow more aid in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, citing expert reports that said more than a quarter of a million people could be on the brink of famine there by March.
Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations this month dismissed concerns of a looming crisis in the two states, saying the situation there was "normal."
World Food Program deputy executive director Ramiro Lopes Da Silva said more than 1,000 people per day have crossed into South Sudan over the last week, as many people as were crossing into Kenya from Somalia at the peak of the famine in the Horn of Africa last year.
"In a couple of months it is what is typically the hunger season both in Sudan and South Sudan and obviously the potential impact on those populations is very serious," Da Silva told reporters.
"There is a sense of urgency that the window for an effective intervention with the populations where they are is narrowing."
Fighting broke out in June between government forces and South Kordofan rebels who sided with the southern army during the civil war. The conflict spread to Blue Nile in September.
In South Sudan, aid agencies are already helping 83,000 Sudanese who have fled aerial bombardment and ground attacks in the two states.
The Sudanese government accuses South Sudan of continuing to support the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army North (SPLM-N) in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, charges Juba denies.
WFP says they are already planning to feed 2.7 million South Sudanese this year, and are seeking donations to plug a cereal deficit which, according to preliminary estimates, could amount up to 500,000 tons.
Da Silva said WFP is lobbying Khartoum to allow more humanitarian access to Blue Nile and South Kordofan, but the government is worried the assistance may fall into the hands of combatants.
(Additional writing by Alexander Dziadosz)
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
What if we could predict tornadoes a month out? Scientists make strides.
Scientists have only a fledging ability now, but a new approach to prediction could eventually allow forecasters to identify portions of states facing high risk for tornadoes in an upcoming month.
Scientists have developed a fledgling ability to predict monthly tornado activity in the US up to one month in advance.
Skip to next paragraphThe technique, which uses existing weather-forecasting tools, is not yet ready for prime time. But in initial tests, the approach showed "statistically significant skill" in predicting regional tornado activity during most months of the year, including the peak of the spring tornado season, the researchers say.
If the approach can be honed sufficiently, eventually it could allow forecasters to identify portions of states facing the highest risk for tornadoes in an upcoming month.
In addition, the technique could help scientists explore a potential direct relationship between global warming and tornado activity. So far, such efforts have focused largely on the relationship between global warming and conditions that can spawn severe thunderstorms, which may or may not trigger tornadoes.
Though the results so far are modest, "this is exciting, because it's a hard problem," says Michael Tippett, a researcher with Columbia University's International Research Institute for Climate and Society, who lead the team.
The effort represents "an important early step" along the road to seasonal forecasts of tornado activity, says Harold Brooks, a researcher at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla.
One potential audience for such forecasts would be federal and state emergency managers, Dr. Brooks suggests.
"If you were able to say: 'The second half of April is going to be really, really bad,' " it could provide extra lead time to marshal emergency supplies or ratchet up efforts to ensure more people know how to respond to tornado watches and warnings when they are issued, he explains.
Ordinarily, Dr. Tippett spends his time developing or improving ways to make extended-range forecasts of tropical cyclones, or swings in natural climate cycles such as El Ni?o or the Arctic Oscillation.?But that changed last April, when the US experienced its worst tornado outbreak on record. The three-day outbreak from April 25 to 28 spawned 359 tornadoes in 21 states, including four tornadoes that reached EF5, the most destructive category. The outbreak and the thunderstorms that spawned them inflicted at least $11 billion in damage and killed 322 people.
At the time, Tippett says, he noted that forecasters at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., "had identified large regions where they thought there was going to be trouble, maybe four or five days in advance."
That implied the presence of large-scale, predictable features in the atmosphere that favor the formation of severe storms.
Researchers have applied the same general concept to produce seasonal hurricane forecasts. Tippett says it dawned on him that key atmospheric features also may encourage tornado-spawning storms to form.
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Arctic ice melt lifts hopes for Russian maritime trade
SEVERODVINSK, Russia |
SEVERODVINSK, Russia (Reuters) - When severe snowstorms prevented life-sustaining fuel supplies from reaching the frozen Alaskan town of Nome, U.S. officials turned to a Russian company for help.
The relief mission through perilous, ice-choked seas was the first mid-winter fuel delivery to western Alaska, capping a year of pioneering shipping as oil and gas development and climate change increase traffic along northern trade routes sought by centuries of Arctic explorers.
Russia has staked future growth on mining the Arctic's vast energy resources, and reviving a Soviet-era shipping route along its Siberia coast is an integral part of that plan. It could also promise economic revival for Russia's ports and shipyards, struggling since their Soviet-era glory days.
But industry analysts and mariners say ice floes, narrow straits, shallow waters, poor infrastructure and stormy winters continue to loom as obstacles to safe and profitable shipping through the polar shortcut.
"We must develop the Arctic!" said Fazil Aliyev, a sea captain and owner of the tanker that voyaged to Alaska.
"It is profitable for everyone. Our clients win because their cargo is delivered faster, now we need to make it economically viable... try to make it a year-round route," he said, speaking by phone from Vladivostok, Russia's gateway port to Asian markets.
Aliyev's company, RIMSCO, tripled cargo along Russia's coastal waterway last year when a warm summer kept what Russia calls the Northern Sea Route open for a record 141 days, almost a month longer than usual.
Sometimes called the Northeast Passage, the circumpolar route is a network of sea lanes across the top of continental Eurasia which crosses Russian waters from the Kara Gate to the Bering Strait and trims some 4,000 nautical miles off southern routes.
Danish shipping group Nordic Bulk Carriers said it saved a third of the cost and nearly half the time sending goods to China sailing north of Russia instead of via the Suez canal.
"It's a very promising region and an interesting shipping lane that almost halves the distance between Europe and the Far East," Aliyev said.
TOUGH TIMES AT THE SHIPYARD
In the White Sea port of Severodvinsk, once a closed city of 200,000 at the heart of the Soviet Union's Cold War nuclear submarine program, defense contracts won by the shipyard and tested at a nearby naval base still pay the bulk of wages.
Big black submarines lumbered out to sea from its docks in ice-free waters without the help of tugboats or icebreakers unusually late into the fall last year.
Built in the 1930s, the state-owned Sevmash shipyard 35 km (22 miles) north of the city of Arkhangelsk, is a jumble of buildings and factory floors big enough to be a town itself, with canteens, churches and a museum for its 27,000 employees.
The shipyard saw tough times in the 1990s as Moscow slashed defense spending, and Russia's share of the global shipbuilding market dwindled to just 0.2 percent. China and South Korea now dominate, with 37 and 35 percent of the market, respectively.
Yelena Makhovetskaya, 27, a graduate of Sevmash's shipbuilding university, said salaries were among the highest in the Soviet Union when her parents moved here in the 1970s. Wages have since fallen against the national average, many people have left and fewer are coming to work in the region, she said.
But new state contracts are fueling a revival. The sector was one of the few to see growth in crisis-hit 2009, with output up 62 percent and another 8 percent in 2010.
Sevmash's director, Andrei Dyachkov, said the shipyard hopes to profit from its know-how in the Arctic to win orders to build offshore drilling platforms, ice-capable support ships and even a floating airstrip to service oil fields in the Pechora Sea.
A race to exploit energy riches in the Arctic sea floor -- believed to hold as much as one quarter of the earth's untapped hydrocarbons -- has already brought new contracts.
Under an order from state energy firm Gazprom, Sevmash completed Russia's first ice-resistant offshore production platform, which was tugged out to the Pechora Sea in August to drill at the oil-steeped Prirazlomnoye field.
QUICK AND PIRATE-FREE
Russia has long hauled cargoes of oil, iron ore and fish products across its sprawling northern coast, but until 2009 no foreign-flagged merchant vessel had plied the trade link.
When fast-rising temperatures melted Arctic ice cover to its second-smallest recorded area in 2011, a record 34 barges -- more than double 2010 and including supertankers -- piloted the icy seas.
Russian shipping giant Sovkomflot plied the coastal waterway with the biggest ship ever, a Suezmax-class tanker loaded with 120,000 tons of gas condensate, while a vessel owned by Scorpio Tanker Inc. sailed from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean in a record eight days.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has cast it as a quicker and pirate-free rival to the Suez Canal.
"I have no doubt this is just the beginning," Putin said of the voyages at an international Arctic forum in September.
With its eye on the billions of dollars earned by Egypt's waterway, Moscow hopes transit tolls and fees from the compulsory lease of one of its atomic-icebreaker escort ships will help fund its own costly infrastructure needs in the Arctic.
Most of Russia's 5,500-km (3,420-mile) Arctic-facing coast is uninhabited, lacking refueling stations, navigational infrastructure and coast guards to help stranded seafarers.
Its unrivaled fleet of nuclear icebreakers is a financial drain whether or not they are in use since the reactors need to remain constantly on, Arild Moe, deputy head of Norway's Fridtjof Nansen Institute, told Reuters.
"The waterway is considered an important part of national transport infrastructure, as well as a manifestation of Russian interests in the Arctic," Moe said. "The crucial issue is financing."
The Kremlin plans to spend $1.2 billion through 2014 on its ice-class fleet and build three atomic-powered and six diesel-electric icebreakers by 2020.
Dyachkov described winning these tenders as a potential game changer.
"It would confirm Sevmash as the centre for atomic shipbuilding in Russia," he told Reuters.
HAZARDOUS WATERS, FIERCE STORMS
One of the biggest barriers will continue to be the region's formidable winters.
Ice floes, heavy fog and violent storms like those that have hit Alaska this month increase the environmental and safety risks -- driving up liability insurance rates.
There is little economic incentive today for shipowners to order the more expensive ice-capable tankers, said Erik Nikolai Stavseth, an analyst at Norway-based Arctic Securities.
"I don't think standard vessels will be out-competed yet -- for the next five-ten years," Stavseth said. "We are going to see more pioneering and more exploratory shipping, but I would not bank on the Northern Sea Route becoming a standard route."
Some scientists say rising temperatures could make sailing the Arctic waters more hazardous -- not easier -- in the near future, bringing more icebergs and fiercer storms.
"This could be a real problem for offshore platforms and tankers," said Genrikh Alexeyev, an expert on the interaction of the ice, ocean and atmosphere at Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Institute.
The dangers of plying the Arctic seas were spotlighted when a drilling rig with 67 crew capsized and sank off Russia's far eastern island of Sakhalin in a storm last month, killing 53.
Experts say a leak even a fraction of the size of BP's disaster in the Gulf of Mexico could be devastating in frozen seas -- halting dreams of Arctic transformation in their tracks.
"Ice, like a blotter, easily absorbs oil products, and oil stuck to ice can spread colossal distances," said Inna Nemirovskaya, head of the P. P. Shirshova Institute of Oceanology at the Russian Academy of Science.
But Russia is playing a long game in the Arctic.
"For Russia, development of Arctic resources is a vital interest. It is the key to maintaining and increasing gas exports," said Charles Emmerson, author of "The Future History of the Arctic."
"We are witnessing the first of a five-act play."
If and when climate change opens up the Arctic to year-round bulk shipping, Russia had a head start, Aliyev said.
"We've learned in the most extreme weather, so that when it gets easier there won't be anything to be scared of," he said.
(Additional reporting by Gleb Bryanski; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Dana White calls out Internet hackers, they respond by releasing his alleged personal info
CHICAGO -- The war is on between the UFC and Internet hackers.
On Sunday, UFC.com was re-routed several times to the website UGnazi. The site's organizers, who White called terrorists several times during the "UFC on Fox 2" press conference, said the hacking of UFC.com is a result of the company's support of SOPA and PIPA. The wide-ranging bills are aimed at stopping online piracy.
White lashed out at the hackers.
Update: White dug in deeper during a conversation with The Score's Mauro Ranallo (13:30 mark).
"Keep hacking our site, do it again. Do it tonight," said White. "These guys look like terrorists now and a bill that was about to die, is about to come back."
The hacker taking credit for the UFC hit, @joshthgod, went a different route after the challenge, posting White's personal info, including a Social Security number, a list of residential addresses, a vehicle identification number and a personal phone number.
That followed a tweet that said White is now the target.
"@danawhite We don't want your site anymore. We are going after YOU! Follow me for tonights exciting events! #ufc #sopa #acta #pipa,"
[Related: Why SOPA, PIPA aren't answer to MMA's piracy problem]
White said the hackers are only hurting their own cause by alerting politicians that there's a serious issue. He's willing to risk his own safety to stop the online pilfering.
"Is SOPA the perfect bill? No, it's not. The only thing that we're focused on is piracy. Piracy is stealing. If you walk into a store and you steal a gold watch, it's the same as stealing a pay-per-view. I don't care what your twisted, demented idea of stealing is," White said. "These kids who grew up on the Internet never had to pay for anything, so they don't think that you should have to."
White closed by saying he's not afraid of the Internet, it's where cowards live.
Other popular content on the Yahoo! network:
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Friday, January 27, 2012
HBT: Wedge 'leaning' toward dropping Ichiro from leadoff
The Seattle Mariners remain in a transition phase, attempting to undo the messes of Bill Bavasi while playing in a beefed up AL West division that includes two teams ? the Rangers and Angels ? that are throwing money around like they just got some magic pants.
A big part of that transition will involve 38-year-old right fielder Ichiro, whose contract runs out after the 2012 season. He?s coming off his worst season in the big leagues and will make $17 million in 2012, money the M?s would no-doubt like to spend elsewhere.
It seems that manager Eric Wedge is already preparing for life without Ichiro, saying in an interview with 710 ESPN in Seattle on Wednesday that there is ?a good possibility,? he?ll be dropping Ichiro from his customary spot at the top of the batting order.
?I?ve been doing a ton of thinking about that and I still haven?t decided what I?m going to do,? he said. ?I?ve got a vision in mind in regards to what I want to see happen. Obviously I?ve got to work off of Ichiro a little bit, but ultimately I?m going to do what I think?s best to give us the best chance to score runs, because it?s too important for us to make a huge step offensively.?
Pressed on the question of removing Ichiro from the leadoff spot, Wedge admitted that ?if you had to put a gun to my head right now I?d probably be leaning in that direction.?
Wedge said his ideal leadoff hitter gets on base a lot ? which Ichiro used to do (.370 career OBP), but didn?t in 2011 (.310)?? and sees a lot of pitches ? something Ichiro has never done. He mentioned Dustin Ackley, who hit .273/.348/.417 in 90 games as a rookie in 2011, as a possible replacement.
Click through for the entire interview, as Wedge talks about other things, too, including Jesus Montero: ?We think he?s going to be able to catch.?
You can follow Bob on Twitter here, or if Facebook is your thing, be his friend here.
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Report: Android accounts for 39 pct of tablet market (Digital Trends)
Market analysis firm Strategy Analytics has released its analysis of the worldwide tablet market during the fourth quarter of 2011, and finds that while the Apple iPad continues to dominate with a 58 percent share, Android tablets are catching up, accounting for 39 percent of the market. And even Windows tablets put in an appearance, accounting for roughly one percent of the global market. The figures represent a solid year-on-year improvement for Android, which Strategy Analytics pegged at holding 29 percent of the tablet market a year ago.
?Dozens of Android models distributed across multiple countries by numerous brands such as Amazon, Samsung, Asus, and others have been driving volumes,? said Strategy Analytics executive director Neil Mawston, in a statement. ?Android is so far proving relatively popular with tablet manufacturers despite nagging concerns about fragmentation of Android?s operating system, user interface, and app store ecosystem.?
Strategy Analytics says some 10.5 million Android tablets were shipped during the fourth quarter of 2011, up from just 3.1 million for the same quarter a year ago. However, the numbers require a little bit of explanation: Strategy Analytics says its figures refer to ?sell-in,? which is when manufacturers sell their devices to retailers and other outlets, who in turn sell them to the public. However, the figures Strategy Analytics is using for the Apple iPad?15.43 million units during the fourth quarter?refer to actual sales to consumers, not just units shipped to be sold. As company?s like RIM know all too well, there can be a tremendous difference between the number of products a company ships to retailers and the number that actually wind up in consumers? hands. For that matter, it?s absolutely certain Apple shipped more than 15.43 million units to its own stores and retailers last quarter, since the iPad 2 was readily available in good supply to anyone who wanted it.
Strategy Analytics says its figures also omit e-readers, something that?s sure to irk Barnes & Noble with its range of Android-powered devices. Previous reports on Android tablets have included the Nook Color as an ?Android tablet.?
Most industry watchers expect Android tablets to begin chipping away at Apple?s lead in the tablet market?particularly with the success of the Amazon Kindle Fire and other low-cost devices. However, the diversity of devices and manufacturers in the Android ecosystem may make it difficult to determine exactly how well Android tablets might be doing against the iPad: Apple reports actual sales, but essentially no other manufacturers are willing to do the same.
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends
More from Digital Trends
Survey: iPad set to be pushed aside by Kindle Fire this holiday season
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Obama speech echoes in town with failed factory (AP)
MOBERLY, Mo. ? After 19 years running state unemployment offices across northern Missouri, Steve Moore can rattle off the names of shuttered factories in this old railroad town with ease.
There's Matcor Automotive, a parts manufacturer that at its peak employed 300 workers but closed in June 2010 in response to declining production by General Motors. Textbook publisher Scholastic Inc. is closing its Moberly packaging center, costing the town another 100 jobs.
Then there's the biggest blow of all: the failed promises of Mamtek U.S. Inc., a Chinese-owned artificial sweetener factory offered about $17 million in state tax incentives and $39 million of local bonds that went belly up in 2011 when the company couldn't make the bond payments. More than 600 promised jobs went up in smoke, with the deal now facing scrutiny by Missouri lawmakers and a pair of investigations by the state's attorney general and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
"There was a lot of anticipation, and then a lot of disappointment," Moore said. "Let's be honest. Everybody had hoped that something was going to come out of it."
As President Barack Obama again pledged to repair the American economy in his annual State of the Union address Tuesday night, some Moberly residents chalked up his pronouncements as just more rosy rhetoric by a politician ? not unlike the July 2010 day when Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and former Gov. Bob Holden came to the town of nearly 14,000 and hailed the Mamtek project's potential.
Others blamed an intractable Congress for not working more closely with the president to lift the country's economy. Still more held out hope that manufacturing companies lured by the region's low cost-of-living and central location would once again seek out Moberly, a 136-year-old railroad hub that became known as the Magic City in the late 19th century for its seemingly overnight emergence on once-empty prairie.
"We got a promise that he didn't keep," said business owner Diane Harlan. "He promised our economy was going to be better, and it's not. In this small community, we were under the false hope that everything was going to be OK, and it's not."
Harlan spent seven years as executive director of Main Street Moberly, which represents downtown business owners, before opening the Darn It Yarn store seven months ago after the business group cut her full-time job to 20 hours a week. She voted for John McCain in 2008 but hasn't yet made up her mind about the 2012 election.
While vacant storefronts dot downtown Moberly, Harlan said her business has succeeded beyond expectations, allowing her to drop that part-time job starting next week. A handful of similar small businesses have sprouted nearby, from a sewing shop to a secondhand furniture store.
"People are finally figuring out, we can't depend on our leader to get us out of something that we've created," she said. "We've got to go back to the grassroots. More self-sufficiency, doing things on our own, teaching our children, instead of depending on a man sitting in a white castle to take care of us and make things right."
David Gaines, a vice president with the Moberly Area Economic Development Commission, is among the local officials who helped court Mamtek in a deal given the code name "Project Sugar" before it was publicly disclosed. Count him among those looking for more leadership from those in the audience at Tuesday night's speech.
"It's not so much what he says but what they do," Gaines said, referring to Congress. "They need to quit talking and do something.
"That's what is holding consumer confidence down, is the inability of Congress on both sides of the aisle to do what the people elected them to do," he added.
After the speech, Gaines said he was heartened to hear the president urge lawmakers to work together, not against one another.
"I do like the fact that he said it's time to stop the divisiveness between the two parties," Gaines said. "If they set the right tone, everyone will follow along. If they don't, the nation will just drift."
Political affiliation aside, Moberly residents interviewed Tuesday tended to agree that improving the economy and creating more local jobs are the most important issues facing their community and the country. Look no further than a commuter parking lot along U.S. 63 packed with cars while their owners work 35 miles south in the college town of Columbia. Moberly, in turn, attracts workers from dozens of surrounding rural towns.
"Folks are regularly commuting 40 or 50 or 60 miles to go to work every day," Gaines said. "When we share that with the folks we talk to in Atlanta and Chicago and LA, they are quite amazed that people are willing to commute that far for a good job. But they have to."
Elsewhere in Moberly, Obama's speech was met with disinterest, if not outright scorn. At Nelly's Someplace Else restaurant, dozens of Republicans filed past a pair of televisions showing the president's address as the monthly meeting of the Randolph Area Pachyderms Club. Few stopped to listen, though some jeered as they walked past.
___
Follow Alan Scher Zagier at http://twitter.com/azagier
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
2012 Oscar Nominations Full List
'The Artist' and Martin Scorcese's 'Hugo' lead the way for February 26 awards show.
By Kevin P. Sullivan
Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo in "The Artist"
Photo: Weinstein Company
Jennifer Lawrence read off the names of the year's nominees for the 84th Academy Awards on Tuesday morning (January 24). "The Artist" and "The Descendants" both emerged as Best Picture favorites after big nights at the Golden Globes, but Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" led the field of nominations with 11 total.
Billy Crystal will return for his ninth turn as host when the ceremony airs February 26 on ABC at 7 p.m. ET. Here is the full list of the nominees:
Best Picture
"The Artist"
"The Descendants"
"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"
"The Help"
"Hugo"
"Midnight in Paris"
"Moneyball"
"The Tree of Life"
"War Horse"
Best Director
Michel Hazanavicius, "The Artist"
Alexander Payne, "The Descendants"
Martin Scorsese, "Hugo"
Woody Allen, "Midnight in Paris"
Terrence Malick, "The Tree of Life"
Best Actor
George Clooney, "The Descendants"
Demián Bichir, "A Better Life"
Jean Dujardin, "The Artist"
Gary Oldman, "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"
Brad Pitt, "Moneyball"
Best Actress
Glenn Close, "Albert Nobbs"
Viola Davis, "The Help"
Rooney Mara, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"
Meryl Streep, "The Iron Lady"
Michelle Williams, "My Week With Marilyn"
Best Supporting Actor
Kenneth Branagh, "My Week With Marilyn"
Jonah Hill, "Moneyball"
Nick Nolte, "Warrior"
Christopher Plummer, "Beginners"
Max von Sydow, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"
Best Supporting Actress
Bérénice Bejo, "The Artist"
Jessica Chastain, "The Help"
Melissa McCarthy, "Bridesmaids"
Janet McTeer, "Albert Nobbs"
Octavia Spencer, "The Help"
Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
"The Descendants"
"Hugo"
"The Ides of March"
"Moneyball"
"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"
Best Writing (Original Screenplay)
"The Artist"
"Bridesmaids"
"Margin Call"
"Midnight in Paris"
"A Separation"
Best Art Direction
"The Artist"
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2"
"Hugo"
"War Horse"
Best Cinematography
"The Artist"
"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"
"Hugo"
"The Tree of Life"
"War Horse"
Best Costume Design
"Anonymous"
"The Artist"
"Hugo"
"Jane Eyre"
"W.E."
Best Film Editing
"The Artist"
"The Descendants"
"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"
"Hugo"
"Moneyball"
Best Makeup
"Albert Nobbs"
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2"
"The Iron Lady"
Best Music (Original Score)
"The Adventures of Tintin"
"The Artist"
"Hugo"
"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"
"War Horse"
Best Music (Original Song)
"Man or Muppet" from "The Muppets"
"Real in Rio" from "RIO"
Best Sound Editing
"Drive"
"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"
"Hugo"
"Transformers: Dark of the Moon"
"War Horse"
Best Sound Mixing
"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"
"Hugo"
"Moneyball"
"Transformers: Dark of the Moon
"War Horse"
Best Visual Effects
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2"
"Hugo"
"Real Steel"
"Rise of the Planet of the Apes"
"Transformers: Dark of the Moon"
Best Foreign Language Film
"Monsieur Lazhar" - Canada
"Bullhead" - Belgium
"A Separation" - Iran
"Footnote" - Israel
"In Darkness" - Poland
Best Animated Feature Film
"A Cat in Paris"
"Chico & Rita"
"Kung Fu Panda 2"
"Puss in Boots"
"Rango"
Best Animated Short Film
"Dimanche/Sunday"
"The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore"
"La Luna"
"A Morning Stroll"
"Wild Life"
Best Short Film
"Pentecost"
"Rajua"
"The Shore"
"Time Freak"
"Tuba Atlantic"
Best Documentary Feature
"Hell and Back Again"
"If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front"
"Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory"
"Pina"
"Undefeated"
Best Documentary Short
"The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement"
"God is the Bigger Elvis"
"Incident in New Baghdad"
"Saving Face"
"The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom"
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677781/academy-award-nominations-2012.jhtml
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"Shahs of Sunset" puts young Iranians on U.S. TV map (omg!)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's vibrant Iranian-American community is getting its own reality TV show -- its stars spending, squabbling and showing off in what looks like a cross between the gossipy "Real Housewives" series and splashy "Keeping up with the Kardashians".
"Shahs of Sunset", premiering on cable TV channel Bravo on March 11, follows six "passionate socialites" in their 30s who try to juggle their careers and social lives with family and tradition, Bravo said on Monday.
Four of those taking part in the show work in real estate in Beverly Hills, the Hollywood Hills and other pricey areas of Los Angeles. Most enjoy a lavish lifestyle where expensive cars, huge mansions, gold jewelry and shopping are a must, judging by a short promotional trailer for the new series.
Among the cast is one of the few openly gay men in southern California's Iranian-American community, Bravo said.
The series is thought to be one of the first on U.S. TV to document the lives of young Persians whose parents fled Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, or who settled in California as young children.
An estimated 500,000 Iranian-Americans live in the Los Angeles area -- the largest Persian community outside Tehran -- and some 20 percent of the population of Beverly Hills are of Iranian descent.
"From outings on Rodeo Drive to traditional Persian feasts at home, this series celebrates the unique lifestyle of a group of friends who have worked hard for what they have and are not afraid to flaunt it," Bravo said.
"Shah's of Sunset" is produced by Ryan Seacrest, host of "American Idol" and the producer of the popular "Keeping up with the Kardashians", about Armenian-American socialite sisters Kim, Khloe and Kourtney, and its spinoff series.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
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Plane crashes in New Zealand, killing 2 aboard (AP)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand ? A small plane has crashed in a New Zealand park, killing both people aboard.
Authorities say the two-seater Yak aircraft fell into a playing field Monday in the town of Feilding on the country's North Island.
Police spokeswoman Kim Perks says the plane left from an airfield a few miles (kilometers) from the crash site and was flying for about 25 minutes before it went down. Perks says witnesses saw the private plane performing acrobatics before the crash.
Perks says the two men believed to have been aboard are widely known in the region. Authorities are not releasing their names pending notification of their next of kin.
Investigators were traveling to the scene of the crash.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
AT AMAZON, markdowns in the Automotive Outlet. - PJ Media
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Source: http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/135764/
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BlackBerry maker co-CEOs step down as co-CEOs (AP)
TORONTO ? The new chief executive of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion said Monday drastic change is not needed after he assumed his new job following the departure of Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, who stepped down as co-CEOs and co-chairmen of the once-iconic, but now struggling company.
The RIM founders have been replaced by Thorsten Heins, a little known chief operating officer who joined RIM four years ago from Siemens AG.
The Canadian company turned the email smartphone into a ubiquitous device that many could not live without, but U.S. users have moved on to flashier touch-screen phones such as Apple's iPhone and various competing models that run Google's Android software. RIM has suffered a series of setbacks and has lost tens of billions in market value.
RIM's survival has been in question but Heins said he didn't think significant change was needed and said the moves were not "seismic" changes. He said he was committed to the vision and new software platform favored by Lazaridis and Balsillie, who announced Sunday they would step down from the top jobs but serve in other roles.
Heins said RIM has to improve its U.S. marketing in an effort go beyond the traditional corporate customer and attract consumers.
"In the U.S. we were very, very successful coming from the core enterprise business and in the public opinion this is still where we're skewed to," Helms said on a conference call on Monday. "We need to be more marketing-driven. We need to be more consumer oriented because this is where a lot of our growth is coming from. That is essential in the U.S."
Shares of RIM fell 3.9 percent, or 66 cents, to $16.34, after the conference call Monday morning after initially moving up almost 4 percent in premarket trading.
RIM said last month that new phones deemed critical to the company's future would be delayed until late this year. And its PlayBook tablet, RIM's answer to the Apple iPad, failed to gain consumer support, forcing the company to deeply discount it to move the devices off store shelves.
Many shareholders and analysts have said a change or sale of the company has been needed, but the sudden departure of the two founders from their top jobs wasn't expected despite their promises that they would examine the co-CEO and co-chairmen structure.
Balsillie and Lazaridis have long been celebrated as Canadian heroes, even appearing in the country's citizenship guide for new immigrants as models of success. They headed Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM together for the past two decades.
"There comes a time in the growth of every successful company when the founders recognize the need to pass the baton to new leadership. Jim and I went to the board and told them that we thought that time was now," Lazaridis said in a statement.
Lazaridis will take on a new role as vice chairman of RIM's board and chairman of the board's new innovation committee. Balsillie remains a member of the board.
The two remain two of RIM's biggest shareholders.
"I agree this is the right time to pass the baton to new leadership, and I have complete confidence in Thorsten, the management team and the company," Balsillie said in the statement. "I remain a significant shareholder and a director and, of course, they will have my full support."
Analysts have said RIM's future depends on its much-delayed new software platform as RIM has tried and failed to reinvigorate the BlackBerry. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said in late 2010 that RIM would have a hard time catching up to Apple because RIM has been forced to move beyond its area of strength and into unfamiliar territory of trying to become a software platform company.
Heins, 54, said Lazaridis and Balsillie took RIM in the right direction and said he's committed to the new software.
"We are more confident than ever that was the right path. It is Mike and Jim's continued unwillingness to sacrifice long-term value for short-term gain which has made RIM the great company that it is today. I share that philosophy and am very excited about the company's future," Heins said.
Barbara Stymiest, a former chief operating officer of the Royal Bank of Canada who has been a member of RIM's board since 2007, has named chair of the board of directors. RIM also announced that Prem Watsa, the chief executive of Fairfax Financial Holdings, is a new board member. Watsa has become a significant shareholder.
Lazaridis said he was so confident in the future direction of the company that he intends to purchase an additional $50 million of the company's shares on the open market.
RIM was worth more than $70 billion a few years ago but now has a market value of around 8.9 billion.
Peter Misek, an analyst at Jefferies & Co. in New York, said that after missing the software transition caused by the iPhone, Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis put RIM's future in doubt.
The company still has 75 million active subscribers, but many analysts believe RIM will lose market share internationally as it has in the U.S. Market researcher NPD Group said RIM's market share of smartphones in the U.S. declined from 44 percent in 2009 to 10 percent in 2011.
Balsillie acknowledged in December that the last few quarters have been among the most challenging times in the company's history.
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Non-Consenting Adults
The law required the researchers to offer a means for opting out. Northfield's answer was to provide plastic bracelets inscribed with the words "I decline the PolyHeme study." Crucially, to opt out, one first had to know the study existed?a challenge, because the obligatory community notification tended to be desultory. Ross McKinney Jr., vice-dean for research at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, estimated that consultation in his area reached about 450 out of a possible 267,000 people.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=3c68c356eb589acaaab64ded43deef9a
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China reports second bird flu death in a month (AP)
BEIJING ? China on Sunday reported its second bird flu fatality in a month following deaths last week in Vietnam and Cambodia.
The patient died Sunday in Guizhou province in the southwest after being hospitalized on Jan. 6, the health ministry said in a brief statement. It said the flu was highly pathogenic but gave no indication whether it was confirmed to be the H5N1 strain.
Mainland officials told Hong Kong authorities the patient was a 39-year-old man who reported having no contact with poultry, government-run Hong Kong broadcaster RTHK said. It gave no other details of his identity.
The health ministry statement said 71 people who had contact with the patient showed no unusual symptoms.
China suffered its first bird flu fatality in 18 months when a bus driver in Shenzhen, a city that borders Hong Kong, died Dec. 31.
Last week, Vietnam reported its first bird flu fatality in nearly two years ? an 18-year-old man who worked on a duck farm.
In Cambodia, a 2-year-old boy died last week after reportedly having contact with sick poultry in his village, according to the World Health Organization.
Indonesia also has reported one bird flu death this year.
WHO says that as of Friday, there have been 343 human deaths from 582 confirmed bird flu cases worldwide since 2003. Some 27 of those deaths were in China and 60 in Vietnam.
___
Online:
Chinese Ministry of Health: http://www.moh.gov.cn
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Video: Snakes improve search-and-rescue robots
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Designing an all-terrain robot for search-and-rescue missions is an arduous task for scientists. The machine must be flexible enough to move over uneven surfaces, yet not so big that it's restricted from tight spaces. It might also be required to climb slopes of varying inclines. Existing robots can do many of these things, but the majority require large amounts of energy and are prone to overheating. Georgia Tech researchers have designed a new machine by studying the locomotion of a certain type of flexible, efficient animal.
"By using their scales to control frictional properties, snakes are able to move large distances while exerting very little energy," said Hamid Marvi, a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. candidate at Georgia Tech.
While studying and videotaping the movements of 20 different species at Zoo Atlanta, Marvi developed Scalybot 2, a robot that replicates rectilinear locomotion of snakes. He unveiled the robot this month at the Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology (SICB) annual meeting in Charleston, S.C.
"During rectilinear locomotion, a snake doesn't have to bend its body laterally to move," explained Marvi. "Snakes lift their ventral scales and pull themselves forward by sending a muscular traveling wave from head to tail. Rectilinear locomotion is very efficient and is especially useful for crawling within crevices, an invaluable benefit for search-and-rescue robots."
Scalybot 2 can automatically change the angle of its scales when it encounters different terrains and slopes. This adjustment allows the robot to either fight or generate friction. The two-link robot is controlled by a remote-controlled joystick and can move forward and backward using four motors.
"Snakes are highly maligned creatures," said Joe Mendelson, curator of herpetology at Zoo Atlanta. "I really like that Hamid's research is showing the public that snakes can help people."
Marvi's advisor is David Hu, an assistant professor in the Schools of Mechanical Engineering and Biology. Hu and his research team are primarily focused on animal locomotion. They've studied how dogs and other animals shake water off their bodies and how mosquitos fly through rainstorms.This isn't the first time Hu's lab has looked at snake locomotion. Last summer the team developed Scalybot 1, a two-link climbing robot that replicates concertina locomotion. The push-and-pull, accordion-style movement features alternating scale activity.
###
Georgia Institute of Technology: http://www.gatech.edu
Thanks to Georgia Institute of Technology for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116858/Video__Snakes_improve_search_and_rescue_robots
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
This Early Investor In Skype Regrets Not Investing In Square And ...
On a recent road trip down to the heart of the Sillicon Valley VC scene, Sand Hill Road, I stopped by Howard Hartenbaum's office at August Capital.
I learned that he regrets not putting his money in Square, and found out more about his early investment in Skype. He also explained why he likes his portfolio companies, who are still in stealth mode, to keep their mouths shut.?He thinks too many startups are press hungry, when they should be focused on building a product.
Check out our video here:
Source: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-01-19/tech/30642120_1_skype-sand-hill-road-startups
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Video: CNBC Sound Off: Most Investment Advisors Under-Performed ...
Today's guests on CNBC comment on earnings disappointments, following the Nasdaq and the under-performance of most investment advisors..
Related Links:
Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46076321/
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Friday, January 20, 2012
One in five Americans mentally ill in past year (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? One in five adults in the United States, or nearly 50 million people, suffered mental illnesses in the past year with women and young adults suffering disproportionately, a government report released on Thursday found.
The survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found women were more likely than men (23 percent to 16.8 percent) to have experienced a mental illness, while the rate of mental illness among people aged 18 to 25 was twice that of those aged 50 and older.
The administration defined mental illness among adults as diagnosable mental, behavioral or emotional disorders, excluding developmental disorders and substance use.
The survey found that 5 percent of American adults, or 11.4 million people, had suffered a serious mental illness in the past year that substantially interfered with their lives.
According to the report, about 8.7 million American adults had serious thoughts of suicide in the past year, with 2.5 million making suicide plans and 1.1 million attempting to take their own lives.
Americans suffering mental illnesses were three times more likely to have developed substance dependence or substance abuse disorders than adults who had not experienced mental illness.
Among youths aged 12 to 17, 8 percent -- or 1.9 million teenagers -- experienced a major depressive episode in the past year, defined as a period of at least 2 weeks when a person experienced a depressed mood or loss of interest.
Those teenagers who experienced a depressive episode also had twice the rate of illicit drug use than teenagers who had not experienced depression.
The administration surveyed 67,500 people aged 12 and older in person around the United States.
The report is available here: http://1.usa.gov/zUrdpz.
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Book claims Kim's eldest fears NKorea may collapse (AP)
TOKYO ? A new book claims that the eldest son of North Korea's late leader Kim Jong Il believes the impoverished regime is in danger of collapse and that his young half-brother, chosen to lead after Kim's death, is merely a figurehead.
The book by Tokyo-based journalist Yoji Gomi went on sale Wednesday. He says it is based primarily on email exchanges he had with Kim Jong Nam over many years.
The book, titled "My Father, Kim Jong Il and Me," drew immediate attention as a rare view into the family that has led the secretive country for decades ? though Kim Jong Nam is thought to be estranged from his family and the workings of government. Since Kim Jong Il's death Dec. 17, North Korea has been led by his youngest son, Kim Jong Un.
"Jong Un will just be a figurehead," the book quotes Kim Jong Nam as saying. It claims he said the collapse of North Korea's economy is likely unless it initiates reforms, which could also bring it down.
"Without reforms and liberalization, the collapse of the economy is within sight," he quoted Kim as saying. "But reforms and opening up could also invite dangers for the regime."
Gomi, a Tokyo Shimbun journalist who had assignments in Seoul and Beijing, claims he exchanged 150 emails and has spent a total of seven hours interviewing Kim Jong Nam, who was seen as a possible successor until he fell out of favor with Kim Jong Il in 2001.
Gomi says he met Kim Jong Nam in person in 2004, in Beijing, and twice last year. Gomi was not immediately available for comment on the book.
Not long after Kim Jong Il's funeral, Jong Nam suggested in an interview with a Japanese TV network that he opposes a hereditary transfer of power to his young half-brother, who is believed to be in his late 20s.
That was a rare public sign of discord in the tightly choreographed succession process, but analysts said Jong Nam spends so much time outside his native land that his opinion carries little weight.
Kim Jong Nam, who did not attend the funeral, made similar comments in his communications with Gomi, the book claims.
"As a matter of common sense, a transfer to the third generation is unacceptable," Kim Jong Nam was quoted as saying in an email dated this month. "The power elite that have ruled the country will continue to be in control."
He added: "I have my doubts about whether a person with only two years of grooming as a leader can govern."
Party and military officials have moved quickly to install Kim Jong Un as "supreme leader" of the people, party and military.
But the new ruler's youth and quick ascension to power have raised questions in foreign capitals about how ready he is to inherit rule over this nation of 24 million with a nuclear program as well as chronic trouble feeding all its people.
A senior North Korean party official, however, told the AP in a recent interview that Kim Jong Un was ready to lead and had spent years working closely with his late father and helped him make key policy decisions on economic and military affairs.
Kim Jong Nam is widely believed to have dropped out of the succession race after embarrassing the government in 2001, when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport. He said he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
Jong Nam, the oldest of three brothers thought to be in the running, is the closest thing the country has to an international playboy and is the only one who speaks to the foreign media. He travels freely and spends much of his time in China or the country's special autonomous region of Macau ? the center of Asian gambling with its Las Vegas-style casinos.
Experts said he will most likely continue living abroad.
Kim Jong Il is known to have three sons ? one from his second wife and two from his third.
Kim often derided the middle son, Jong Chol, as "girlish," a former Kim Jong Il chef, who goes by the pen name Kenji Fujimoto, said in a 2003 memoir.
___
Associated Press writer Foster Klug contributed to this report from Seoul, South Korea.
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang leaving company
FILE - In this Jan. 7, 2008 file photo of Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang gestures in the Yahoo booth after he gave his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Yang announced Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, that he is leaving Yahoo. The surprise departure comes just two weeks after Yahoo Inc. hired former PayPal executive Scott Thomson as its CEO. Yang expressed his support of Thompson in his resignation from Yahoo's board of directors. He had been on Yahoo's board since the company's 1995 inception. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 7, 2008 file photo of Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang gestures in the Yahoo booth after he gave his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Yang announced Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, that he is leaving Yahoo. The surprise departure comes just two weeks after Yahoo Inc. hired former PayPal executive Scott Thomson as its CEO. Yang expressed his support of Thompson in his resignation from Yahoo's board of directors. He had been on Yahoo's board since the company's 1995 inception. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
FILE- In this Nov. 5, 2008 file photo, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang ponders a question during a talk at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. Yang announced Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012, that he is leaving Yahoo. The surprise departure comes just two weeks after Yahoo Inc. hired former PayPal executive Scott Thomson as its CEO. Yang expressed his support of Thompson in his resignation from Yahoo's board of directors. He had been on Yahoo's board since the company's 1995 inception. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
FILE - in this Nov. 26, 2011 file photo, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang takes pictures at an NCAA college football game in Stanford, Calif. Yang on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012 announced that he is leaving Yahoo. The surprise departure comes just two weeks after Yahoo Inc. hired former PayPal executive Scott Thomson as its CEO. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang is leaving the struggling Internet company, as it tries to revive its revenue growth and win over disgruntled shareholders under a new leader.
The departure, announced Tuesday, punctuates the end of an era at Yahoo, a tarnished Internet icon that has spent much of the last decade scrambling to catch up to Internet search leader Google Inc. ? a company that got early encouragement and advice from Yang. It comes just two weeks after Yahoo Inc. hired former PayPal executive Scott Thompson as its CEO.
Thompson is the fourth CEO in less than five years to try to turn around Yahoo. It's a daunting assignment that Yang was unable to pull off during his own tumultuous 18-month reign as the company's CEO in 2007 and 2008.
Yang, 43, endorsed Thompson in his resignation from Yahoo's board of directors. He had been on Yahoo's board since the company's 1995 inception.
"My time at Yahoo, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life," Yang wrote in a letter to Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock. "However, the time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo."
The letter didn't say what Yang plans to do next. He doesn't need to work, thanks to the fortune he has amassed since he began working on Yahoo in a trailer at Stanford University with fellow graduate student David Filo. Yang is worth about $1.1 billion, according to Forbes magazine's latest estimates.
Yang is also stepping down from the boards of China's Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan. Yahoo is negotiating to sell its stakes in both of the Asian companies as part of its efforts to placate investors. The deal could be worth as much as $17 billion, but it still faces a series of potential stumbling blocks.
Besides surrendering the board seats, Yang is giving up his position as "Chief Yahoo," an honorary title he held as he mingled among workers, while keeping tabs on various company projects.
Thompson could have an easier time overhauling Yahoo without Yang looking over his shoulder and possibly second guessing his decisions, said BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis.
"This has the fingerprints of frustration on it," Gillis said. "It's one of those situations where it looks like (Yang) is losing the battle to control the company's direction and now he is saying, 'That's it, I'm out.'"
Although a popular figure among Yahoo employees, Yang had alienated the company's shareholders by turning down a chance to sell Yahoo in its entirety to Microsoft Corp. for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, in May 2008. Yahoo shares haven't topped $20 for more than three years. The stock gained 44 cents to $15.87 in extended trading after Yang's decision was announced.
The slump in Yahoo's stock has diminished Yang's wealth. He still owns a 3.6 percent stake in the company.
Yang conceivably could leverage those holdings to attempt to buy Yahoo's U.S. business after the Asian investments are sold. That is, if he can line up additional financing, Macquarie Securities analyst Ben Schachter wrote in a research note late Tuesday. Several buyout firms have already expressed interest in buying a substantial stake in Yahoo, spurring speculation that Yang might work with them to acquire a controlling interest in what remains of the company if the Asian assets are sold.
When he announced Thompson's hiring earlier this month, Bostock stressed that Yahoo intended to remain an independent, publicly traded company.
Yang had been someone more interested in preserving the company than he created than dismantling parts of its to boost the stock price, analysts said. "Investors tend to want to keep trying to fix the company than carve it apart," Gillis said.
Now that he is out of the way, investors are likely to conclude the sale of the Asian investments will eventually be completed, Schachter wrote.
Investor anger over Yang's handling of the Microsoft negotiations led to his resignation as CEO in late 2008 and the hiring of Silicon Valley veteran Carol Bartz to replace him. Bartz and Yang had gotten to know each other as part of Cisco Systems Inc.'s board of directors.
After initially hailing Bartz as the solution to Yahoo's problems, Yang and the rest of Yahoo's board fired her as CEO in September.
Yahoo's revenue has been falling in recent years even as advertisers have poured more money into the Internet. Much of the money, though, has been going to Google and Facebook's online social network, as Yahoo has fallen further behind in the race to innovate and develop products that attract Web traffic.
Despite its struggles, Yahoo remains profitable and still boasts a worldwide audience of 700 million people.
But visitors aren't sticking around Yahoo's services as much as they once did, depriving the company of more opportunities to sell ads ? the main source of its revenue.
It has been a jarring comedown for Yahoo, which emerged as one of the Internet's first stars after Yang and Filo expanded the service beyond its roots as a hand-picked directory of websites.
Yahoo's early success turned it into a Wall Street darling and landed Yang on the covers of leading business magazines. At the height of the dot-com bubble 12 years ago, Yahoo's stock was trading above a split-adjusted $100 amid talk that the company might eventually try to buy a long-established media franchise such as the Walt Disney Co.
But now investors widely regard Yahoo as a misguided company that can't come up with a cohesive plan to define itself for Web surfers and advertisers.
Yang and Bostock have been the focal point for much of the criticism, partly because of their key roles in the Microsoft talks in 2008. After buying a 5.2 percent stake in Yahoo last autumn, hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb demanded that both Bostock and Yang step down from the company's board. If they refused, Loeb indicated he would finance a shareholder rebellion to oust both men from the board.
Loeb's fund, Third Point LLC, didn't immediately return phone calls seeking comment late Tuesday.
Bostock, Yahoo's chairman for the past four years, has given no indication that he plans to step down.
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Uberlife ? The Next Foursquare, But For Future Real-world Meetups?
I've been fascinated by social mobile location services since at least 2006 when, three years before Foursquare and year after Google acquired Dodgeball, a UK entrepreneur created BuddyPing, now sadly defunct, and right up to the launch of Pin Drop the other day. The rise of the iPhone shortly after created an ecosystem of location-aware apps which has continued to mushroom ever since. But there's one thing that has frustrated me. Seeing where people are right now is all very well. But I what really want to know is - where will they be next? Now I think I may have found potentially my Nirvana: Uberlife (an alpha iPhone app is here).Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/7Yhc8-rKctQ/
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