London Olympic travel plan: Be patient, drink beer

This is an image of a poster made made available by Transport for London about travelling on public transport during the London 2012 games Monday Jan. 30, 2012. Olympic organizers have some travel advice for the millions of people who work and live in London: Be patient. Have a beer. Telecommute. Rejecting suggestions of possible transport chaos during the July 27-Aug. 12, games, they unveiled a 8.8 million-pound (US$13.3 million) campaign Monday to persuade city residents to change their travel patterns to ease the strain on public transport. (AP Photo/Transport for London)

This is an image of a poster made made available by Transport for London about travelling on public transport during the London 2012 games Monday Jan. 30, 2012. Olympic organizers have some travel advice for the millions of people who work and live in London: Be patient. Have a beer. Telecommute. Rejecting suggestions of possible transport chaos during the July 27-Aug. 12, games, they unveiled a 8.8 million-pound (US$13.3 million) campaign Monday to persuade city residents to change their travel patterns to ease the strain on public transport. (AP Photo/Transport for London)

This is an image of a poster made made available by Transport for London, about travelling on public transport during the London 2012 games Monday Jan. 30, 2012. Olympic organizers have some travel advice for the millions of people who work and live in London: Be patient. Have a beer. Telecommute. Rejecting suggestions of possible transport chaos during the July 27-Aug. 12, games, they unveiled a 8.8 million-pound (US$13.3 million) campaign Monday to persuade city residents to change their travel patterns to ease the strain on public transport. (AP Photo/Transport for London)

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London leaves on his bicycle after a press conference for the unveiling of a major UK transport campaign 'Get Ahead of the Games' at King's Cross station, which is currently undergoing development, in London, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. With just under 200 days to go to the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, The new 'Get Ahead of the Games' campaign explains directly to the public how they can plan ahead and avoid the travel hotspots during the games. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

A poster is seen at the unveiling of a major UK transport campaign 'Get Ahead of the Games' at King's Cross station, which is currently undergoing development, in London, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. With just under 200 days to go to the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, The new 'Get Ahead of the Games' campaign explains directly to the public how they can plan ahead and avoid the travel hotspots during the games.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London reacts during a press conference for the unveiling of a major UK transport campaign entitled "Get Ahead of the Games", in London, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. With just under 200 days to go until the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, The new Get Ahead of the Games campaign explains directly to the public how they can plan ahead and avoid the travel hotspots during the games. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

LONDON (AP) ? Olympic organizers have some travel advice for the millions of people who work and live in London: Be patient. Have a beer. Work from home.

Rejecting suggestions of possible transport chaos during the July 27-Aug. 12 games, they unveiled a 8.8 million-pound ($13.3 million) campaign Monday to persuade city residents to change their travel patterns to ease the strain on public transport.

Even as London Mayor Boris Johnson tried to focus attention on the positive, transport officials had to bat back demands by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union for more money. Union officials say subway staff are not being offered enough to compensate them for working more hours and erratic schedules during the Summer Olympics.

The fresh union demands came just moments before London transport officials unveiled posters, signs and banners to make travelers aware of how to handle transport issues during the games. Johnson directed his remarks at what he called "Olympo-skeptics."

"They predict that tumbleweed will be going down Shaftesbury Avenue," Johnson said, referring to a main London thoroughfare. "They are completely wrong and mistaken and missing a huge opportunity to profit."

London transport officials have been at pains in recent weeks to downplay concerns about whether the city's aging transportation system can handle the extra traffic from tourists, spectators and others expected to use the network.

Officials point to a 6.5 billion-pound ($10.2 billion) investment in the transport system. They say train journeys are faster and note that many more trains will run ? and that some will even have air conditioning ? during the games.

If office workers do things as simple as stopping and have a beer on their way home, it will spread out the rush-hour demands, they assert. No recommendations ? alcoholic or otherwise ? were made for the morning commute.

Businesses have been asked to consider whether London workers could telecommute or have more flexible working hours.

The trouble is that even on regular days London struggles with constraints on the Tube, an aging system that handles 12 million trips a day. The Olympics is estimated to add 3 million trips on busy days. Keeping the system running smoothly is predicated on the notion that locals will rearrange their schedules, change travel patterns and adjust their lives to accommodate.

Even Johnson acknowledged that travelers on the Jubilee line ? one of the key arteries for the games ? would not be "short of company."

London wants all of its spectators to arrive by public transport ? or foot and bike. Ticket holders to Olympic events will receive day passes for the subway as part of their package. A special train known as the "Javelin" will take spectators directly from central London's St. Pancras train station to the Olympic Park in the East London neighborhood of Stratford.

The "Get Ahead of the Games" campaign that kicked off Monday marks the biggest effort yet to directly reach the public. Featuring cartoonlike posters and directional signs in hot pink and maroon, the campaign tries to let people know about upcoming disruptions and gives suggestions on how to address them.

The campaign, funded as part of the 9.3 billion pounds ($14.6 billion) devoted to staging the Olympics, will run in national newspapers, rail stations and radio stations across the country as well as around Olympic venues.

Souring the big launch was the rail union's announcement that subway train drivers considered a one-time payment of around 500 pounds ($784) inadequate.

"All we are calling for is a fair deal for all the staff involved in delivering the colossal transport challenge that we will be facing this summer and the negotiations to achieve that are ongoing," Union chief Bob Crow said in a statement.

Crow said the union was ready for more talks. Peter Hendy, the Transport for London commissioner, called the union announcement "a tactic," and maintained that everyone at the transit agency is proud of helping out at the games.

Hendy refused to say how much he was prepared to pay to compensate the transport workers, but the pressure comes at a time when Olympic organizers are straining to stay within budget.

The National Audit Office, Britain's spending watchdog, has reported that only 500 million pounds ($785 million) remains unspent for dealing with future Olympics-related costs.

Hendy insisted the money to cover compensation for transport workers would be available once a deal was struck.

__

www.getaheadofthegames.com or following the (at)GAOTG Twitter

___

Danica Kirka can be reached at http://twitter.com/DanicaKirka

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-30-OLY-London-2012-Transport/id-e6af5beec43a471db517263b03f7a532

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Irish minister: hard to stay in euro if treaty rejected (Reuters)

DUBLIN (Reuters) ? It would be difficult for Ireland to remain in the euro zone if its voters rejected a proposed new fiscal treaty, its European Affairs minister said on Monday, raising the stakes in a political battle over whether to put the plan to a referendum.

European leaders are expected to agree to tighten budget rules on Monday, seeking to regain market confidence in the public finances of the 17 countries sharing the euro after three, including Ireland, had to seek international bailouts in a crisis that now threatens major economies such as Italy.

Irish citizens have twice rejected changes to EU treaties before voting through amended versions.

"It would be a very sad day if we somehow decided to opt out of that (new treaty) and allowed the other 16 members of the euro zone to progress and try to find a solution without us," junior minister Lucinda Creighton told state broadcaster RTE.

"I think it would make it almost impossible for us to continue as part of the currency union because being part of a currency union means you have to abide by the rules," Creighton said.

The government has rubbished opposition suggestions that Ireland should leave the euro zone rather than continue to endure savage spending cuts, saying an exit would have catastrophic consequences for the economy.

Ministers have indicated they would prefer to avoid a referendum on the treaty fearing it would be rejected in a backlash against austerity.

Creighton said the government was happy with the treaty in its current draft.

"If we were to open it up substantially today, it could cause problems ... we are pretty satisfied with the text as it stands," she said.

The government will take legal advice on whether to hold a referendum on the treaty once it is finalized, a process that is likely to take weeks.

Opposition parties say they would demand a referendum either way.

A poll last week showed that 72 percent of voters wanted a referendum to be held and indicated voters would narrowly back the treaty, but a quarter of those questioned said they were still undecided.

(Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/bs_nm/us_ireland_euro

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Private investors near deal on Greek debt (AP)

ATHENS, Greece ? A disorderly and potentially devastating Greek debt default is looking much less likely.

Greece and investors who have bought its bonds have reached a tentative deal to significantly reduce the country's debt and pave the way for it to receive a much-needed euro130 billion bailout.

Negotiators for the investors announced the tentative agreement Saturday and said it could become final next week. If the agreement works as planned, it will help Greece remain solvent and help Europe avoid a blow to its already weak financial system, even though banks and other bond investors will have to accept multibillion-dollar losses. Still, it doesn't resolve the weakening economic conditions Greece and other European nations face as they rapidly rein in spending in order to get their debts under control.

Under the agreement, the euro206 billion worth of Greek bonds that investors own would be exchanged for new bonds worth 60 percent less.

Private investors would receive new bonds whose face value is half of the existing bonds. The new bonds would have a longer maturity and pay an average interest rate of slightly less than 4 percent. The existing bonds pay an average interest rate of 5 percent, according to the think tank Re-Define.

The deal would reduce Greece's annual interest expense on the bonds from about $10 billion to about $4 billion. And when the bonds mature, instead of paying bondholders euro206 billion, Greece will have to pay only euro103 billion.

Without the deal, which would reduce Greece's debt load by at least euro120 billion, the bonds held by banks, insurance companies and hedge funds would likely become worthless. Many of these investors also hold debt from other countries that use the euro, which could also lose value in the event of a full-fledged Greek default. This is the scenario analysts fear most and why they hope investors will voluntarily accept a partial loss on their Greek bonds.

The agreement taking shape is a key step before Greece can get a second, euro130 billion bailout from its European Union partners and the International Monetary Fund. Besides restructuring its debt with private investors, Greece must also take other steps before getting aid. It must cut its deficit and boost the competitiveness of its economy through layoffs of government employees and the sale of several state companies, among other moves.

This would be Greece's second bailout. The EU and the IMF signed off on a euro110 billion aid package for Greece in May 2010, most of which has already been disbursed.

Greece faces a euro14.5 billion bond repayment on March 20, which it cannot afford without additional help.

Private investors hold roughly two-thirds of Greece's debt, which has reached an unsustainable level ? nearly 160 percent of the country's annual economic output. By restructuring the debt held by private investors, Greece and its EU partners are hoping to bring that ratio closer to 120 percent by the end of this decade. Without a deal, analysts forecast that ratio ballooning to 200 percent by the end of this year as the Greek economy falters.

In return for the first bailout, Greece's public creditors ? the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank ? have unprecedented powers over Greek spending. However, Greece's problems will not be fixed simply by cutting government spending. In order to bring its debts to a more manageable level, the country must also find ways boost economic output, which would enable it to collect more taxes.

If no debt-exchange deal is reached with private creditors and Greece is forced to default, it would very likely spook Europe's ? and possibly the world's ? financial markets. It could even lead Greece to withdraw from the euro.

Sarah Ketterer, co-manager of Causeway International Value Fund, a $1.4 billion mutual fund that invests in European stocks, said the region's markets have rebounded this month largely on expectations that negotiators would reach a deal along the lines of the one being finalized now.

Any last-minute breakdown in the talks could trigger a sharp decline in European markets, she said. But a rally is unlikely if negotiations succeed.

"The equity markets have ... largely already discounted this, and you can see that in the confidence that has returned in European equities since the end of December, and especially for financial stocks," Ketterer said.

She said there "really was no other option" than reaching a deal for bondholders to take a haircut of 50 percent or more.

Ketterer said a Greek deal could help restore bond market confidence. That would help Italy manage its own debt crisis ? one that Ketterer views as more critical than Greece's because of Italy's greater size.

The investors who own Greek bonds are being represented by Charles Dallara, managing director of the Washington-based Institute of International Finance, and Jean Lemierre, senior adviser to the chairman of the French bank BNP Paribas.

___

Elena Becatoros in Athens and Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels contributed.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_greece_financial_crisis

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Oakland police use tear gas on Occupy protesters

Stephen Lam / Reuters

Police officers arrest an Occupy Oakland demonstrator during a clash Saturday in Oakland, Calif., where officers fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters who tried to take over a shuttered convention center.

By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services

Oakland police used tear gas and "flash" grenades Saturday to break up an estimated 2,000 Occupy protesters after some demonstrators started throwing objects at officers and tearing down fencing.

There were at least 19 arrests in the afternoon, but no reports of serious injuries.

---

After 6 p.m. (9 p.m. ET), police?in riot gear declared a group of protesters gathered near the YMCA under arrest en masse for failing to disperse.

Several protesters appeared to be put hard to the ground as police moved in and at least one protester had blood on his face.

Protesters chanted, "Let us disperse," but instead were taken one by one for police processing.

Earlier, Officer Jeff Thomason said police started making arrests when some in the crowd started throwing objects at them during the afternoon rally. Police declared an unlawful assembly after marchers tore down perimeter fences at the vacant Henry Kaiser Convention Center.

Three officers were injured, police said, but did not elaborate.

After meeting up at Frank Ogawa Plaza around noon, protesters marched toward the convention center in hopes of making it their new meeting place and social center, NBCBayArea.com reported.

Read NBCBayArea.com coverage of the protest

Oakland officials said about 250 people were in the group when the protest started but the crowd grew to about 2,000.

@OaklandPoliceCA tweeted around 3 p.m., "Area of Oakland Museum and Kaiser Center severely impacted. Persons cutting and tearing fences for entry. Bottles and objects thrown at OPD."

Earlier during the rally one of the organizers, Shake Anderson, said, "We are here to protect each other and to be civil disobedient. ... We're doing it to change the world, not just today but every day."

Stephen Lam / Reuters

Occupy Oakland demonstrators shield themselves from an explosion Saturday during a confrontation with the police near the Oakland Museum of California in Oakland, Calif.

The protesters were walking through Laney College around 2:30 p.m. Some people were wearing bandanas over their mouths and others were holding signs saying, "We are the 99%." A marching band dressed in pink and black tutus and neon pick tights also was in the crowd.

Once they reached the center, organizers planned to kick off a two-day "Oakland Rise-up Festival" to celebrate the establishment of the movement's new space.

Occupy Oakland spokesman Leo Ritz-Bar said the group's new headquarters "signals a new direction for the Occupy movement: putting vacant buildings at the service of the community."

He also warned that protesters could retaliate against any repressive police action by blocking the Oakland International Airport, occupying City Hall or shutting down the Port of Oakland.

City officials said that while they are "committed to facilitating peaceful forms of expression and free speech, police would be prepared to arrest those who break the law.

"The city of Oakland will not be bullied by threats of violence or illegal activity," city administrator Deanna Santana said in a statement issued Friday.

This article includes reporting from NBCBayArea.com, The Associated Press and msnbc.com's Miranda Leitsinger.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/28/10260959-oakland-police-fire-tear-gas-flash-grenades-on-occupy-protesters

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HBT: Oswalt reportedly to sign with Cardinals

UPDATE: Hold your horses, everyone. When most of us went to bed, it appeared as though Roy Oswalt was St. Louis-bound. That may still be the case, but Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com has backtracked a bit from his previous report. He calls a deal likely to happen ?soon? and was told by a source that it?s ?not 100 percent? yet.

Meanwhile, Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports?that the Cardinals are insisting that no deal is in place with Oswalt.?Any deal would be contingent upon a physical and the veteran right-hander has a history of back problems, so it?s possible some formalities are standing in the way of an official agreement.

1:09 AM: Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com reports that Roy Oswalt is headed to the Cardinals. No word yet on the terms of the contract.

8:36 PM, Friday: Jim Duquette of MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM reports that the Cardinals and Roy Oswalt are close to agreeing on a contract. Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald?confirms Duquette?s report, but adds that the process may take ?another day or two.?

No word on the specific terms being discussed, but Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported earlier this week that the Cardinals made an offer to Oswalt a few weeks ago ?approaching $5 million.? Strauss didn?t think that would be enough to get it done and even pegged the Rangers as the favorites.

As for Duquette, he hears that the Red Sox, Astros and Rangers remain in the mix. The Astros are a bit of a head-scratcher given that they haven?t been mentioned until this point and aren?t anywhere close to contending, but perhaps Oswalt gave some thought to going back to where it all started.

Of course, the interesting part of a potential match with the Cardinals is that they already have five starters and Kyle Lohse and Jake Westbrook have full no-trade clauses in their respective contracts. By the way, Lohse will make $11.57 million in 2012 while Westbrook is owed $8.5 million this season and a $1 million buyout on his $8.5 million mutual option for 2013. Oswalt has the potential to make them better, obviously, but that could be a messy situation.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/28/report-cardinals-and-roy-oswalt-close-to-agreement/related/

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Greek village priest held over church treasure dig (AP)

THESSALONIKI, Greece ? Police in northern Greece have arrested a village priest and a church elder for allegedly digging for treasure in the chancel of the church.

A police statement Friday says villagers complained of loud drilling noises late Thursday from the church at Fyska near Kilkis, some 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Thessaloniki.

Officers found a two-by-one-meter (six-by-three-foot) hole in the chancel of the 150-year-old church of the Prophet Elijah. Police are seeking four other people suspected of taking part in the illegal dig ? in which a pneumatic drill was used.

Illegal treasure hunting has increased amid Greece's acute financial crisis. In recent months, police have made a string of arrests, mainly in the north of the country, and located several tunnels.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_eu/eu_greece_church_treasure

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Afghan lawmaker blasts early French withdrawal

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, center, France's Defence and Veterans Minister Gerard Longuet, left, and French General and Paris military governor Bruno Dary, right, pay tribute to the Unknown soldier's tomb, at the Arc of Triomphe, in Paris, Friday Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Lionel Bonaventure, Pool)

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, center, France's Defence and Veterans Minister Gerard Longuet, left, and French General and Paris military governor Bruno Dary, right, pay tribute to the Unknown soldier's tomb, at the Arc of Triomphe, in Paris, Friday Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Lionel Bonaventure, Pool)

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai arrives prior to laying a wreath on the Unknown soldier's tomb, at the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris, Friday Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Lionel Bonaventure, Pool)

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, second from right, France's Defence and Veterans Minister Gerard Longuet, third from right, and French General and Paris military governor Bruno Dary, fourth from right, pay tribute to the Unknown soldier's tomb, at the Arc of Triomphe, in Paris, Friday Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Lionel Bonaventure, Pool)

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, front right, and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, second from left, sign a friendship and cooperation treaty at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Philippe Wojazer, Pool)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? An Afghan lawmaker has sharply criticized France's plans to hand over security in her troubled province to Afghan troops within a few months, saying that her country's forces are unprepared to handle the job and more violence would result.

Tahira Mujadedi, a member of parliament from Kapisa province, also criticized France's decision to withdraw all of its troops from Afghanistan early.

She said Saturday that it would be "a big mistake" for President Hamid Karzai to back a French proposal to speed up the overall NATO timetable for handing all combat operations to Afghan forces to 2013, a year earlier than now planned.

Mujadedi argued that Afghan forces in Kapisa are not ready to go it alone in fighting the Taliban insurgency, which is especially strong in several of the province's districts. She warned that if NATO forces pull back from Kapisa, it could also destabilize nearby Kabul, the Afghan capital.

"We have had so many attacks, ambushes and also suicide attacks in Kapisa," Mujadedi said. "Unfortunately, our national police and army, while present in Kapisa, are unable to provide good security for people."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced Friday after a meeting with Karzai in Paris that French troops would speed up their withdrawal plans and leave the country by the end of next year, instead of by 2014. He said that Afghan forces would take over responsibility for Kapisa from French forces there by the end of March.

The decision calls into question the unity of the U.S.-led coalition force in Afghanistan.

Sarkozy also said that he and Karzai had agreed to propose withdrawing all international forces by 2013 at a NATO meeting next month. Sarkozy said Paris has informed the U.S. of its plan and he would call President Barack Obama about it Saturday.

The early withdrawal announcements came after four unarmed French troops were shot dead Jan. 20 at a base in Kapisa province, just east of the capital of Kabul, by an Afghan soldier suspected of being a Taliban infiltrator.

Karzai's office confirmed in a statement Saturday that responsibility for Kapisa's security would be transferred from NATO troops to Afghan forces by the end of March at Sarkozy's request.

The NATO coalition has started to hand over security in several areas of Afghanistan, aiming to transfer about half of the country in the coming months. But Kapisa was not on the current list of provinces to be handed over in the coming months, according to U.S. Navy Lt. James McCue, a spokesman for the international force.

Kapisa lawmaker Mujadedi said that France should not leave the Afghan mission early because of its soldiers' deaths, arguing that such incidents happen in war.

"When military forces are present in a war zone, anything can happen," she said. The French troops "are not here for a holiday," she added.

But the killing of the unarmed French troops by an Afghan soldier whom they were training has deepened discontent with the Afghan war in France, where Sarkozy is facing a tough election this year. France has about 3,600 troops in the international force, which is mostly made up of American troops.

A sense of mission fatigue has been growing among some European contributors to the 10-year allied intervention in Afghanistan. The new idea floated by Sarkozy to withdrawal all NATO troops by the end of next year would accelerate a gradual drawdown that Obama has planned to see through until the end of 2014.

France's announcement could step up pressure in other European governments like Britain, Italy and Germany, which also have important roles in Afghanistan ? even if the U.S. has the lion's share by far.

Karzai, who praised the role of France and other NATO allies, didn't object at Friday's joint news conference when Sarkozy said the 2013 NATO withdrawal timetable was sought by the two countries.

But the Afghan leader appeared to suggest that it was a high-end target.

"Yes, Mr. President, it is right that Afghanistan has to provide for its own security and for the protection of its own people, and for the provision of law and order," Karzai said.

"We hope to finish the transition ? to complete this transition of authority to the Afghan forces, to the Afghan government, by the end of 2013 at the earliest ? or by the latest as has been agreed upon ? by the end of 2014," Karzai said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-28-AS-Afghanistan/id-bd93a0f63d3d47659f75f5b2841cecc4

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Eyes-on the innards of Fujitsu's K supercomputer (updated)

Fujitsu's K supercomputer was on our radar before it was even completed, and naturally, we let you know when it smoked the competition and became the supercomputing speed king. So, when we had the opportunity to see a piece of K at Fujitsu's North America Technology Forum today, we couldn't pass it up. In case you forgot, K is a massive machine powered by 864 racks with 24 boards per rack housing SPARC64 CPUs. We got to see one of those boards, and Yuichiro Ajima -- who designed the inter-connection chips (ICC) on them -- was gracious enough to give us some more info on this most super of supercomputers.

Gallery: Eyes-on the innards of Fujitsu's K supercomputer

As you can see in the gallery above, each board has extensive plumbing to keep the SPARC silicon running at a manageable 32 - 35 degrees Celsius (90 - 95 Fahrenheit) under load. Underneath that copper cooling system lies four processors interspersed between 32 memory modules (with 2GB per module) and four ICCs lined up next to the board's rack interconnect ports. Currently, the system takes 30 megawatts to do its thing, though Ajima informed us that K's theoretical max electricity consumption is about double that -- for perspective, that means K could consume the entire output of some solar power plants. When asked if there were plans to add more racks should Fujitsu's supercomputer lose its crown, Ajima-san said that while possible, there are no plans to do so -- we'll see if that changes should a worthy opponent present itself.

Update: Turns out the K's power consumption resides around 13 megawatts, with a max consumption of 16MW at its current configuration. The facility in Kobe, Japan where K resides can deliver up to 24 megawatts, so expansion is possible, but none is currently planned.

Eyes-on the innards of Fujitsu's K supercomputer (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is 'Hunger Games' YA's Best Chance For A Best Picture Oscar?

As Harry Potter weathers his final Academy snub, Hobnobbing wonders if Katniss Everdeen can carry the genre's mantle.
By Amy Wilkinson

Jennifer Lawrence in "The Hunger Games"
Photo: Lionsgate

"The Hunger Games" star Jennifer Lawrence set aside her flaming bow and arrow in favor of a gilded envelope Tuesday morning to announce the 2012 Oscar nominations alongside Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak. And sadly — though not entirely surprisingly for young-adult-literature aficionados — the "Harry Potter" franchise was once again (and for the final time) overlooked for a Best Picture nomination.

Which raises the question: Does the Academy have something against YA adaptations?*

Curiously, adaptations have historically been strong performers at the Academy Awards. Past statuettes have gone to the literary likes of "All Quiet on the Western Front," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Silence of the Lambs." And this year's contenders are no different. Six of the nine Best Picture nominees, including "The Descendants," "Hugo," "The Help," "Moneyball," "War Horse" and "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," can be found lining the shelves of your local Barnes & Noble, while five of last year's 10 nominees were also based on bound works, according to USA Today.

The side of the equation, then, troubling Academy voters seems to the "young adult" variable. Though to be fair, there's not much of a precedent for awards recognition seeing as mining teen lit for film fodder is a relatively new phenomenon. Sure, there are exceptions like S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders" (made into a film all the way back in 1983, starring Matt Dillon and Patrick Swayze), but for every "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" or "The Princess Diaries" there are tens (if not hundreds) of seminal works, like "The Catcher in the Rye" or "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret," languishing in pre-production hell or undeserved obscurity as far as film financiers are concerned.

Which leaves us with "The Hunger Games," the latest YA sensation, which blazes into theaters in less than two months. And while it's hard to predict the awards-season viability of a movie we haven't even seen yet, there are at least a few indicators to suggest it could be the first YA novel adaptation to win (or at the very least be nominated for) Best Picture. For one, Oscar's already made acquaintance with many members of the cast and crew. Our friends at NextMovie crunched the numbers, discovering that the actors and technical experts behind "The Hunger Games" boast 30 Oscar nominations — even Effie Trinket couldn't turn her nose up at that. And while a film like "Twilight" (which, let's be honest, won't be sharing a feather-strewn canopy bed with the Academy anytime soon) focuses on a fantastical, star-crossed-lovers plotline, "The Hunger Games" deals more seriously with issues of life, death and government control, likely giving it more credence with voters.

Though most of the above could surely have been said of "Harry Potter," it apparently wasn't meant to be. Hopefully with "The Hunger Games" (and the slew of approximately 4 million teen novels in various stages of adaptation) the Academy will begin recognizing artful YA adaptations as the deserving films that they are. Because we already do.

Do you think "The Hunger Games" is blazing a path for YA novel adaptations? Sound off in the comments below and tweet me @amymwilk with your thoughts and suggestions for future columns!

*Whether, in fact, "Harry Potter" constitutes YA is a topic of much debate in and of itself, though for the sake of this piece, I assert that the final novel's dark tone and subject matter secure its spot at the teen table.

Check out everything we've got on "The Hunger Games."

For young Hollywood news, fashion and "Twilight" updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677988/hunger-games-oscars-odds-2013.jhtml

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How To Turn Your Wall Into a Touchscreen Phone Using a Kinect [Video]

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A tiny wasp sneaks into US and prospers

A tiny wasp with iridescent wings showed up in upstate New York in 2010. Just one year later it was spotted in Irvine, Calif. ? suggesting the fairyfly wasp is now well established in the United States within a year of sneaking into the country, a scientist says.

"This wasp was accidentally introduced in North America," said Serguei Triapitsyn of? the University of California-Riverside, who made the initial discovery but wasn't able to positively identify the species until two weeks ago.

The fairyfly wasp, Gonatocerus ater, is a millimeter (two-fifths of an inch) long. It lays its eggs inside the eggs of plant-eating insects called leafhoppers, which in turn lay their eggs inside plant tissue. When the fairyfly wasp eggs hatch, the little larvae munch on what is essentially the womb: the leafhopper eggs.

Triapitsyn, director of California-Riverside's Entomology Research Museum, said it is likely the wasp eggs were carried inside leafhopper eggs that were in twigs of Lombardy poplar seedlings coming from Europe. In fact, reports of the wasp in Italy suggested the leafhopper Rhytidodus decimaquartus was the wasp's host.

"In California, we do not know if the wasp's host is this leafhopper, but I found it on the same Lombardy poplar trees that had the wasp, so an association is very likely," he said.

Triapitsyn found the wasp species in August 2011 while doing fieldwork and brought ?samples back to his lab.

"I identified the wasp as Gonatocerus ater by comparing it to wasps from upstate New York and also Europe," he said. "It would not surprise me if this wasp is found wherever Lombardy poplars are located, because it's likely leafhopper host prefers these trees for feeding."

Though a relative newcomer, the wasp poses no known risk in the U.S., at least to humans. For leafhoppers, that's another story, as the wasp kills leafhopper larvae within their eggs.

"It actually helps naturally control leafhopper numbers," Triapitsyn said. "In its absence leafhopper populations could have skyrocketed."

Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

? 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46122202/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Obama Proposes Cuts, but Are They Enough? (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | President Obama announced Friday at the White House that he intends to ask Congress for the power to merge redundant government agencies, in an effort to trim government bureaucracy and save an estimate $3 billion over 10 years. At stake are about a thousand jobs in several agencies that collectively represent the interests of small and medium businesses abroad.

$3 billion over 10 years seems a lofty sum to the average American taxpayer, but it's really just an extravagant way of stating the actual yearly average savings of $300 million per year, carried over a 10-year period. We see this sort of crafty wordplay from both the President and from Congress with increasing frequency these days, and most of us are seeing it for what it is: a means by which to promise savings now that actually take no immediate effect, and are back-loaded toward the end of the 10-year period.

To put things in perspective, $300 million is about what it took to produce the 2009 James Cameron film Avatar, and accounts for about 0.008 percent of the $3.5 trillion in spending allowed for under the 2012 federal budget.

Why is President Obama proposing these changes now, in the fourth year of a presidency that is known for the most profligate spending by any administration in American history? The answer is twofold: because it's an election year, and because he promised in his State of the Union Address of 2011 that he would take steps to cut fat from the government hog. He's counting on the very real probability that his failure to do so until this lackluster fourth-quarter effort will be lost on many American voters in November.

With this announcement, President Obama can now claim to carry the banner for what has traditionally been known as a Republican cause. Cutting wasteful government spending is set to be a hot issue this election year, for Republicans and Democrats alike. As much as the Republican majority in the House would probably like to oppose the President's new cost-cutting plan, I expect the measure to sail through Congress. Opposition to cuts in government spending in any area other than social or entitlement programs is simply not politically viable this year.

I believe strongly in giving credit where it's due, and this is no exception. If this is the first of many such announcements, I say good for you, Mr. President. However, spending cuts will have to go far, far deeper than this to have any meaningful impact. If this is the only measure we've got coming down the pike, I'll have to pass it off for what I suspect it really is: more fodder for election year talking points.

Sources:

The Washington Post

Official Budget Page at whitehouse.gov

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120124/pl_ac/10840761_obama_proposes_cuts_but_are_they_enough

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Obama to meet Italy's Monti at White House February 9 (reuters)

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Sweeping genetic analysis of rare disease yields common mechanism of hypertension

ScienceDaily (Jan. 22, 2012) ? Analyzing all the genes of dozens of people suffering from a rare form of hypertension, Yale University researchers have discovered a new mechanism that regulates the blood pressure of all humans.

The findings by an international research team headed by Yale scientists, published online Jan. 22 in the journal Nature, may help explain what goes wrong in the one billion people who suffer from high blood pressure. The study also demonstrates the power of new DNA sequencing methods to find previously unknown disease-causing genes.

The team used a technique called whole exome sequencing -- an analysis of the makeup of all the genes -- to study a rare inherited form of hypertension characterized by excess levels of potassium in the blood. They found mutations in either of two genes that caused the disease in affected members of 41 families suffering from the condition.

The two genes interact with one another in a complex that targets other proteins for degradation, and they orchestrate the balance between salt reabsorption and potassium secretion in the kidney.

"These genes were not previously suspected to play a role in blood pressure regulation, but if they are lost, the kidney can't put the brakes on salt reabsorption, resulting in hypertension," said Richard Lifton, Sterling Professor and chair of the Department of Genetics at Yale and senior author of the paper.

The mutations had previously been difficult to find because there were very few affected members in each family, so traditional methods to map the genes' locations had been ineffective.

"The mutations in one gene were almost all new mutations found in affected patients but not their parents, while mutations in the other gene could be either dominant or recessive. The exome sequencing technology was ideally suited to cutting through these complexities," said Lynn Boyden of Yale, the first author of the paper.

The next step is to establish how these new components are involved in regulating sodium reabsorption in the kidney, in hopes of finding new ways intervene in hypertension, a major global health problem.

"We are finding all the individual parts to a complicated machine, and we need to understand how they are all put together to make the machine work," said Lifton, who is also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Physicians from 10 countries and 17 states in the United States recruited patients and families with this rare disease and participated in the research.

The work was funded by the HHMI and Leducq Transatlantic Network for Hypertension and from National Institutes of Health grants from a O'Brien Center and the Yale Clinical and Translational Science Award grant through the National Center for Research Resources.

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Journal Reference:

1. Lynn M. Boyden, Murim Choi, Keith A. Choate, Carol J. Nelson-Williams, Anita Farhi, Hakan R. Toka, Irina R. Tikhonova, Robert Bjornson, Shrikant M. Mane, Giacomo Colussi, Marcel Lebel, Richard D. Gordon, Ben A. Semmekrot, Alain Poujol, Matti J. V?lim?ki, Maria E. De Ferrari, Sami A. Sanjad, Michael Gutkin, Fiona E. Karet, Joseph R. Tucci, Jim R. Stockigt, Kim M. Keppler-Noreuil, Craig C. Porter, Sudhir K. Anand, Margo L. Whiteford, Ira D. Davis, Stephanie B. Dewar, Alberto Bettinelli, Jeffrey J. Fadrowski, Craig W. Belsha, Tracy E. Hunley, Raoul D. Nelson, Howard Trachtman, Trevor R. P. Cole, Maury Pinsk, Detlef Bockenhauer, Mohan Shenoy, Priya Vaidyanathan, John W. Foreman, Majid Rasoulpour, Farook Thameem, Hania Z. Al-Shahrouri, Jai Radhakrishnan, Ali G. Gharavi, Beatrice Goilav, Richard P. Lifton. Mutations in kelch-like 3 and cullin 3 cause hypertension and electrolyte abnormalities. Nature, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nature10814

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/~3/7eUiI5yhRCA/120122152548.htm

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Mexico enacts rules against 'miracle cure' ads (AP)

MEXICO CITY ? Mexico enacted tough new rules Thursday to ban advertising of "miracle cures" for weight loss, sagging body parts and more serious illnesses like prostate ailments, chronic fatigue and even cancer.

Mexico has a long history of faith healers and home remedies, but the problem has come to a head in the last few years with a constant stream of ads on television for more "scientific" sounding creams that supposedly lift or enlarge breast and buttocks, magnets that help users lose weight, or pills and powders that cure gastric problems or diabetes.

In a country with levels of diabetes and obesity among the highest in the world, the combination of a sick population and fake cures can be deadly.

"This is a fraud," said regulator Mikel Arriola, whose Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks is the agency in charge of regulating pharmaceuticals in Mexico. "It is a very serious public health problem, because people take these things instead of going to the doctor ... they lose time in getting treatment or getting cured."

Under the new rules, which take effect in 30 days, authorities can order media outlets to remove such advertising within 24 hours, and it steeply raises fines that can be levied on manufacturers and distributors that advertise the products.

The rules require that any product making a therapeutic claim will first have to prove it is listed in Mexico's pharmaceutical register. The register requires scientific proof of effectiveness and a scientific description of how the medicine or medical apparatus achieves its claimed effects.

That is probably not going to be possible for products like "Acu-Mag." Its advertising purports that when the tiny pad with eight bumps is placed in the outer ear and massaged a few minutes each day, it helps customers lose weight through what ads call "auricular therapy" ? an alternative medicine supposedly derived from acupuncture.

According to the manufacturer's published claims, the pad "helps you lose weight ten times faster than any other (method) ... eliminates anxiety, burns the fat on your body, improves digestion."

Arriola said the ad should no longer be able to air because it makes claims of medical treatment.

Nor should ads for an herbal supplement called Prostaliv, which promises to reduce prostate enlargement and urinary problems in two to four weeks. Similar claims are made for Mulunggay, another herbal extract that is touted as being able to "combat 300 diseases" and control diabetes.

Anyone with real health issues who relies on such non-working treatments could wind up getting worse, "and that represents a cost for the government," Arriola said, because public hospitals have to treat sicker people.

But he added that supposed "miracle cures" are seldom outright dangerous. "Mainly what these companies are doing is selling a placebo, and spending a lot of money on advertising to promote it."

Executives at two of Mexico's largest vendors of such cure-alls could not be reached for comment. An employee at one of the companies appeared not to have heard of the new rules, and the other firm had an incorrect phone number listed with the Mexican stock exchange.

Companies do appear to have been taking note of the government's plan.

Some already run small-print slogans with their ads stating that "this is not a medicine." Arriola called that "an evasive maneuver" and said such ads won't be exempt from the new rules if they still make medical claims.

And the marketing companies also appear to be moving into less-regulated areas, such as corsets in various forms that are "guaranteed" to give wearers a perfect figure instantly. Those ads could continue to run, in theory, as long as they don't make claims that the product is doing anything but hiding fat.

President Felipe Calderon announced the new rules as a sort of crusade against the power of deceitful advertising.

"Every day, at every hour, on radio, television and the Internet, in print media, the public is literally being bombarded with a huge quantity of ads for all sorts of products that supposedly have curative powers," Calderon said. "They put the health and economic well-being of the population at risk."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weightloss/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_he_me/lt_mexico_fake_medicines

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Homa Sabet Tavangar: You Don't Have to Be Chinese to Celebrate the Year of the Dragon Lunar New Year

The Year of the Dragon celebrations offer a great opportunity to grow our understanding of the world -- while having fun with our kids. Before you good-intentionally blurt out "Happy Chinese New Year," to colleagues and neighbors -- stop! "Chinese New Year" represents a subset of the cultures that celebrate. It's also a festivity in Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Nepal, Thailand, Mongolia, Brunei, Indonesia, and more, with some of the biggest festivals taking place in Canada and Australia. So say "Happy Lunar New Year!" And some call it Spring Festival, even though to many of us in colder locales that feels like a stretch.

You also don't have to be East Asian to celebrate. My family is Iranian-American and some of our favorite memories are of making fresh dumplings with neighbors in the deep winter for the New Year, attending Philadelphia's Chinatown parade followed by a dim sum feast with transplants from four continents, and for our girls, wearing the traditional Chinese silk brocade dress, that comes in every color and size.

I was struck by President Obama's 40-second Lunar New Year greeting (click here to watch), which he put in the context of his own fond memories: "Growing up in Hawaii I remember all the excitement surrounding the Lunar New Year, from the parades and the fireworks to the smaller gatherings with family and friends. It's always been a time for celebration and for hope. " He also uses this as an occasion to remind Americans that we gain strength from our diversity -- a message that can resonate whatever your political leanings (unless, of course, you think that Mitt Romney's French language abilities are a liability).

Did the president celebrate with his Kansan grandparents, who were vital to his upbringing and support system, or with his mother after her return from Indonesia, or more likely, with all of them, since Lunar New Year has been integrated into Hawaiian life, too? These celebrations may have been formative to the American president who has been criticized for stating he is "an American citizen and a citizen of the world." Having a personal experience of something as joyous and free from an agenda as celebrating a new holiday with friends can widen the vision of the possibilities for our own lives, especially at a formative age: what second language we might learn, where we might study or do business, who our friends and loved ones can be, art that resonates, food and music we enjoy, and more. It also helps us become more compassionate to the lives of others -- near or far.

This year is particularly portentous as the Year of the Dragon, a symbol of power and excellence, courage, heroism and perseverance, nobility and divinity. With all the power a dragon has, he uses it benevolently. This wisdom and restraint is a source of wealth and respect.

So, make dumplings; finally learn how to eat gracefully with chopsticks; learn a phrase in Mandarin or Vietnamese; reach out to a new immigrant family in your community; or get to know the couple that runs the ethnic shop nearby. And imagine: how will you be a wise and kind dragon, radiant on the inside, spreading beauty and promise on the outside?

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Follow Homa Sabet Tavangar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/growingupglobal

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/homa-sabet-tavangar/you-dont-have-to-be-chine_b_1218896.html

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GOP leaders slow to embrace Romney ? or his rivals (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Mitt Romney may be the front-runner for the GOP nomination for president, but he has yet to win over most of the national party leaders whose help he will need to defeat President Barack Obama in November.

The upside for Romney: They aren't supporting anyone else either.

The Associated Press has polled 87 members of the Republican National Committee who are to attend the party's national convention this summer as free agent delegates, able to support any candidate for president they choose, regardless of what happens in the primaries.

The results: Romney got support from 14, far more than anyone else but hardly a stampede of endorsements. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry got two each, while Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum each got one. The poll was completed before Perry dropped out of the race Thursday.

Sixty-seven of the RNC members contacted by the AP said they were undecided or simply waiting to see how the race plays out before making a public endorsement.

"If I thought there was someone who stood head and shoulders above everyone else, I would have endorsed," said Jeff Johnson, an RNC member and county commissioner from Minnesota. "I see pluses in all of them, but I decided not to come out in favor of anybody."

Pennsylvania GOP Chairman Robert Gleason said he saw no reason to endorse anyone because a competitive primary is good for the party and the eventual nominee by vetting the candidate while generating publicity and excitement about the race.

"It's working out great for us, and one of these people that is competing with (Romney) could end up being vice president," Gleason said. "I'm pleased with the way things are developing. We're getting all the publicity. It's been pretty favorable for us."

Romney appeared to finish slightly ahead of Santorum in the hours after the Iowa caucuses Jan. 3. However, the Iowa GOP certified vote totals Thursday showing Santorum ahead of Romney. The party decided not to declare a winner because of problems with a few precinct reports.

Romney won handily in New Hampshire last week, and he leads his Republican rivals in the polls nationally and in South Carolina, which votes Saturday. Still, the former Massachusetts governor has been unable to solidify support from many Republicans, some of whom question his conservative credentials.

Stephen Scheffler, an RNC member from Iowa, said he would support Romney if he were the nominee, but he's not excited about the prospect, despite Romney's finish in Iowa.

"He doesn't want to talk to certain segments of the Republican Party," Scheffler said of Romney. "If he's the nominee and they open all these victory offices across Iowa, it's going to be pretty challenging to find volunteers."

Each state plus the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories gets three members on the Republican National Committee. All of them are automatically invited to attend the party's national convention in Tampa, Fla., in August, with a few exceptions. The RNC members from New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, Michigan and Arizona have been excluded ? for now ? as part of the penalties they received for holding primaries earlier than party rules allowed.

In many states, RNC members must support the winner of primaries or caucuses in their states. The AP identified 37 states and territories in which the RNC members will be free to support any candidate they choose.

AP reporters started contacting the 111 RNC delegates from these states after Romney won the New Hampshire primary. They were able to reach nearly 80 percent of them.

The RNC delegates make up less than 5 percent of the 2,286 delegates slated to attend the GOP convention, giving them little power to determine the nominee. But these party leaders will be expected to provide manpower, money, local connections and expertise this fall, when the GOP nominee will rely on the party faithful to help defeat Obama.

It will take 1,144 delegates to win the GOP nomination. Romney now has 33 delegates, including those won in primaries and caucuses as well as endorsements from RNC members. Santorum is next with 13.

Joseph Trillo, a state lawmaker and RNC member from Rhode Island, said his support for Romney comes down to political pragmatism.

"He's the only one who I know can beat Obama," Trillo said.

Herbert Schoenbohm, the GOP chairman in the Virgin Islands, said that beating Obama is important, but his support for Romney goes much deeper.

"I'm for (Romney) because he has the best leadership skills," Schoenbohm said in a phone interview. "He made it work in Massachusetts, and that was hard to do in a Democratic state."

Lawrence Kadish, an RNC member from Long Island, N.Y., challenged that assessment, saying Gingrich "towers head and shoulders over those other candidates. I don't view Mr. Romney as having a deep rudder, but he's OK."

___

Lauren Johnert, Associated Press deputy manager for election research and quality control, contributed to this report, along with AP writers Pat Condon in St. Paul, Minn., Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa., Mike Glover in Des Moines, Iowa, David Klepper in Providence, R.I., and George M. Walsh in Albany, N.Y.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_superdelegates

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After protest, Congress puts off movie piracy bill (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Caving to a massive campaign by Internet services and their millions of users, Congress indefinitely postponed legislation Friday to stop online piracy of movies and music costing U.S. companies billions of dollars every year. Critics said the bills would result in censorship and stifle Internet innovation.

The demise, at least for the time being, of the anti-piracy bills was a clear victory for Silicon Valley over Hollywood, which has campaigned for a tougher response to online piracy. The legislation also would cover the counterfeiting of drugs and car parts.

Congress' qualms underscored how Internet users can use their collective might to block those who want to change the system.

The battle over the future of the Internet also played out on a different front Thursday when a loose affiliation of hackers known as "Anonymous" shut down Justice Department websites for several hours and hacked the site of the Motion Picture Association of America after federal officials issued an indictment against Megaupload.com, one of the world's biggest file-sharing sites.

The site of the Hong Kong-based company was shut down, and the founder and three employees were arrested in New Zealand on U.S. accusations that they facilitated millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content, costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue. New Zealand police raided homes and businesses linked to the founder, Kim Dotcom, on Friday and seized guns, millions of dollars and nearly $5 million in luxury cars, officials there said.

In the U.S., momentum against the Senate's Protect Intellectual Property Act and the House's Stop Online Piracy Act, known popularly as PIPA and SOPA, grew quickly on Wednesday when the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and other Web giants staged a one-day blackout and Google organized a petition drive that attracted more than 7 million participants.

That day alone, at least six senators who had co-sponsored the Senate legislation reversed their positions. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in statements at the time and again on Friday, stressed that more consensus-building was needed before the legislation would be ready for a vote.

On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he was postponing a test vote set for Tuesday "in light of recent events." House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, followed suit, saying consideration of a similar House bill would be postponed "until there is wider agreement on a solution."

With opposition mounting, it was unlikely that Reid would have received the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation to the Senate floor.

The two bills would allow the Justice Department, and copyright holders, to seek court orders against foreign websites accused of copyright infringement. The legislation would bar online advertising networks and payment facilitators such as credit card companies from doing business with an alleged violator. They also would forbid search engines from linking to such sites.

The chief Senate sponsor, Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., cited estimates that copyright piracy costs the American economy more than $50 billion annually and that global sales of counterfeit goods via the Internet reached $135 billion in 2010. He and Smith insist that their bills target only foreign criminals and that there is nothing in them to require websites, Internet service providers, search engines or others to monitor their networks.

That didn't satisfy critics who said the legislation could force Internet companies to pre-screen user comments or videos, burden new and smaller websites with huge litigation costs and impede new investments.

The White House, while not taking a specific stand on the bills, last week said it would "not support any legislation that reduces freedom of expression ... or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet." On Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said online piracy is an issue that has to be addressed, "but everybody has to be in on it for it to work and get through Congress."

The scuttling, for now, of PIPA and SOPA frustrates what might have been one of the few opportunities to move significant legislation in an election year where the two parties have little motivation to cooperate.

Until recently "you would have thought this bill was teed up," with backing from key Senate leaders and support from powerful interest groups, said Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who cosponsored the original bill but quickly dropped his backing on the grounds the bill could undermine innovation and Internet freedom.

Moran said the "uprising" of so many people with similar concerns was a "major turnaround, and in my experience it is something that has happened very rarely."

Moran said PIPA and SOPA now have "such a black eye" that it will be difficult to amend them. Reid, however, said that there had been progress in recent talks among the various stakeholders and "there is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved."

Jeff Chester, executive director for the Center for Digital Democracy, a consumer protection and privacy advocacy group, said Google and Facebook and their supporters "have delivered a powerful blow to the Hollywood lobby." He predicted a compromise that doesn't include what many see as overreaching provisions in the current legislation.

"It's been framed as an Internet freedom issue, but at the end of the day it will be decided on the narrow interests of the old and new media companies," he said. The big questions involve who should or shouldn't pay ? or be paid ? for Internet content.

Leahy said he respected Reid's decision to postpone the vote but lamented the Senate's unwillingness to debate his bill.

"The day will come when the senators who forced this move will look back and realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem," Leahy said. Criminals in China, Russia and other countries "who do nothing but peddle in counterfeit products and stolen American content are smugly watching how the United States Senate decided" it was not worth taking up the bill, he said.

In the House, Smith said he had "heard from the critics" and resolved that it was "clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products." Smith had planned on holding further committee votes on his bill next month.

The bill's opponents were relieved it was put on hold.

Markham Erickson, executive director of NetCoalition, commended Congress for "recognizing the serious collateral damage this bill could inflict on the Internet."

The group represents Internet and technology companies including Google, Yahoo and Amazon.com. Erickson said they would work with Congress "to address the problem of piracy without compromising innovation and free expression."

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who has joined Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Moran in proposing an alternative anti-piracy bill, credited opponents with forcing lawmakers "to back away from an effort to ram through controversial legislation."

But the CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, former Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, warned, "As a consequence of failing to act, there will continue to be a safe haven for foreign thieves." The MPAA, which represents such companies as Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., is a leading advocate for the anti-piracy legislation.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/digitalmusic/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_en_ot/us_internet_piracy

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