Cynthia Nixon is trying to dig herself out of the hole she created with comments last week to The New York Times.
A few days after stating that, for her, homosexuality is a choice and that she did does care for the term "bisexual," the former Sex and the City star has given a new interview to The Advocate. In it, she clarifies that her initial statements referred solely her story and added:
"I believe we all have different ways we came to the gay community and we can't and shouldn't be pigeon-holed into one cultural narrative which can be uninclusive and disempowering. However, to the extent that anyone wishes to interpret my words in a strictly legal context I would like to clarify:
"While I don't often use the word, the technically precise term for my orientation is bisexual. I believe bisexuality is not a choice, it is a fact. What I have 'chosen' is to be in a gay relationship."
Nixon concludes: "Our community is not a monolith, thank goodness, any more than America itself is. I look forward to and will continue to work toward the day when America recognizes all of us as full and equal citizens."
The star's original classification of homosexuality as merely an option created quite an uproar, with gay celebrity chef Cat Cora labeling the claim "dangerous" and asking for Nixon to address the younger members of this community in a more thoughtful, responsible manner.
'The rules are setting up minority and young voters to fail,' University of South Florida NAACP President Vanity Shields tells MTV News. By Gil Kaufman
Vanity Shields Photo: MTV News
TAMPA, Florida — It's fitting that 20-year-old University of South Florida Junior Vanity Shields, 20, chose to speak to MTV's Power of 12 in the shadow of her campus' Martin Luther King Jr. memorial reflecting pond.
Nearly 50 years after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed discriminatory laws that disenfranchised black voters thanks to the tireless work of the civil-rights giant, Shields is preparing for another voting-rights fight in her state. The president of the NAACP chapter on the USF campus and first-time voter is concerned that a new Florida law, ostensibly aimed at cutting down on voter fraud, might leave many young and African-American voters off the rolls this presidential election year.
"I personally feel that the rules are setting up minority and young voters to fail," the health sciences major said of the new law, which carries heavy penalties for third-party organizations trying to register new voters if they fail to comply with the sometimes-byzantine rules. "Now they have 48 hours to fill out this massive amount of paperwork."
A portion of the new law includes restrictions on community-based voter-registration drives that require anyone registering new voters on behalf of organizations such as Rock the Vote or the League of Women Voters to turn all forms in within 48 hours of obtaining a signature or face unspecified civil penalties. Those two groups have been forced to suspend their voter-registration efforts in Florida this year because, according to a press release announcing a lawsuit seeking to block the new provisions, they "include burdensome administrative requirements, unreasonably tight deadlines for submission for completed forms and unnecessarily harsh penalties for even the slightest delay or mistake."
Shields said the USF NAACP chapter has been very active on the issue and planned a general body meeting called "The Colors of Justice" on Monday (January 30) to discuss the new rules and raise awareness about them. There will also be a voter-awareness rally soon, though she said efforts such as the NAACP's get-out-the-vote "Souls to the Poll" action from years past has been canceled this year because of new restrictions on registering voters on the Sunday before an election.
"I am originally from New Jersey, and Hillsboro County in Tampa is a pre-clearance [area]. ... What that means is that people who were previously registered are still able to vote, but with this new law, if Hillsboro County were not pre-clearance, I would have to go back to New Jersey to vote," said Brianna Simms, 20, the second vice president of the USF NAACP chapter. "As a college student, I don't have the funds or the time to do that, so that would limit my impact on the country in choosing our next president."
Shields said awareness of the voting issue is pretty low at the moment, but she plans to start posting about it on Twitter and Facebook, distribute fliers and ask her fellow students if they know about the changes. "I feel that our demographic is being targeted and that they're trying to silence us, but we will not be silenced," she said. "We will speak our minds and keep our right to vote."
MTV is on the scene in Florida! Check back for up-to-the-minute coverage of the primaries and stick with PowerOf12.org throughout the 2012 presidential election season.
Improving medical treatment requires risk-based approach to regulate clinical trialsPublic release date: 30-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Elizabeth de Bony elizabeth.debony@bm.com 32-274-36652 European Science Foundation
Strasbourg/Brussels -- Current EU legislation represents a major hurdle to improving medical treatment due to the straight-jacket of EU legislation that the 2001 Clinical Trials Directive imposes, a group of leading European medical scientists charged today in a position paper1 issued in Brussels and Strasbourg.
The paper issued by the European Science Foundation (ESF) and its European Medical Research Councils (EMRC) welcomes the planned revision of the 2001 Clinical Trials Directive expected later this year, but urges the Commission to take the opportunity to introduce a series of improvements to the Directive. These improvements include streamlining procedures, introducing a risk-based approach to authorising clinical trials and crucially ensuring greater harmonisation in the implementation of EU rules at national level so that clinical trials can take place across national borders.
"Balancing these aims with the imperative of maintaining a high level of patient safety is the major challenge facing the revision," said Professor Liselotte Hjgaard, Chair of the EMRC.
Finding that balance, however, is the key to preserving Europe's position as an innovative and competitive research area.
The 2001 Directive was a landmark in the pursuit of quality medicine in Europe. It aimed to facilitate clinical research across the EU, while at the same time maintaining a high level of protection for public health. It established specific provisions regarding the conduct of clinical trials on humans involving medicinal products in particular relating to the implementation of good clinical practice defined as a set of internationally recognised ethical and scientific quality requirements which must be observed for designing, conducting, recording and reporting clinical trials.
1 The position paper "Proposal for a revision of the 'Clinical Trials Directive (2001/20/EC) and other recommendations to facilitate clinical trials" is available on the ESF website: www.ESF.org
It is widely recognised that the 2001 Directive radically enhanced the quality of Europe's clinical trials on which patient safety resides, and the ESF, EMRC and many other European organisations want the revision to preserve that high standard. But in line with Europe's 2020 objectives it must also be designed to boost innovation and improve medical treatments.
Since its implementation in 2003 the Directive has been under a lot of criticism for adding to rather than reducing red tape. No one argues the benefits of the strict regulations for high risk trials involving experimental medicines for humans, but the EMRC argues in favour of a sliding scale of requirements depending precisely on the risk involved. In this way low-risk trials or comparative trials could benefit from a less restrictive framework than high risk trials. Clinical researchers wanting to verify the effectiveness of one already licensed medication over another aspirin versus paracetamol for example would not have to fulfil the full gamut of rules. "It is time now to align requirements with the risk involved," stressed Prof Hjgaard.
Another key objective for research is to harmonise national implementation of the clinical trials directive. Currently the 27 member states have each translated the Directive into national law with different definitions and varying restrictions so every pan-European trial has to deal with that complexity. This is a non-starter for academic research groups with a low research budget. The EMRC therefore welcomes indications from the Commission that improved harmonisation and cooperation in clinical trials will be part of the revised legislative.
"Excellence in clinical research requires a truly functioning harmonisation," emphasised Professor Hjgaard. "We urge the Commission, European Parliament and the member states to enact a law that unifies clinical trials in Europe."
###
For further information please contact:
At the European Science Foundation
Prof Liselotte Hjgaard, EMRC Chair
University of Copenhagen and Danish Technical University, Denmark
45-3545-4215 or 45-3545-1792 / lottepet@rh.dk
Dr. Kirsten Steinhausen, Science Officer
Biomedical Sciences Unit
33-3-88-76-2184 / KSteinhausen@esf.org
Shira Tabachnikoff, Head of Communications
33-3-88-76-71-32 / stabachnikoff@esf.org
At Burson-Marsteller in Brussels
Elizabeth de Bony, Director
32-2-743-66-52 /elizabeth.debony@bm.com
Notes to editors
The European Science Foundation (ESF) The European Science Foundation (ESF) was established in 1974 to provide a common platform for its Member Organisations to advance European research collaboration and explore new directions for research. It is an independent organisation, owned by 78 Member Organisations which are research funding organisations and research performing organisations, academies and learned societies from 30 countries. ESF promotes collaboration in research itself, in funding of research and in science policy activities at the European level. www.esf.org
The European Medical Research Councils (EMRC) is the membership organisation for all the Medical Research Councils in Europe under the ESF. The EMRC's is to promote innovative medical research and its clinical application towards improved human health. EMRC offers authoritative strategic advice for policy making, research management, ethics, and better health services. In its activities, EMRC serves as a voice of its Member Organisations and the European scientific community. EMRC disseminates knowledge and promotes the socio-economic value of medical research to the general public and the decision makers.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Improving medical treatment requires risk-based approach to regulate clinical trialsPublic release date: 30-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Elizabeth de Bony elizabeth.debony@bm.com 32-274-36652 European Science Foundation
Strasbourg/Brussels -- Current EU legislation represents a major hurdle to improving medical treatment due to the straight-jacket of EU legislation that the 2001 Clinical Trials Directive imposes, a group of leading European medical scientists charged today in a position paper1 issued in Brussels and Strasbourg.
The paper issued by the European Science Foundation (ESF) and its European Medical Research Councils (EMRC) welcomes the planned revision of the 2001 Clinical Trials Directive expected later this year, but urges the Commission to take the opportunity to introduce a series of improvements to the Directive. These improvements include streamlining procedures, introducing a risk-based approach to authorising clinical trials and crucially ensuring greater harmonisation in the implementation of EU rules at national level so that clinical trials can take place across national borders.
"Balancing these aims with the imperative of maintaining a high level of patient safety is the major challenge facing the revision," said Professor Liselotte Hjgaard, Chair of the EMRC.
Finding that balance, however, is the key to preserving Europe's position as an innovative and competitive research area.
The 2001 Directive was a landmark in the pursuit of quality medicine in Europe. It aimed to facilitate clinical research across the EU, while at the same time maintaining a high level of protection for public health. It established specific provisions regarding the conduct of clinical trials on humans involving medicinal products in particular relating to the implementation of good clinical practice defined as a set of internationally recognised ethical and scientific quality requirements which must be observed for designing, conducting, recording and reporting clinical trials.
1 The position paper "Proposal for a revision of the 'Clinical Trials Directive (2001/20/EC) and other recommendations to facilitate clinical trials" is available on the ESF website: www.ESF.org
It is widely recognised that the 2001 Directive radically enhanced the quality of Europe's clinical trials on which patient safety resides, and the ESF, EMRC and many other European organisations want the revision to preserve that high standard. But in line with Europe's 2020 objectives it must also be designed to boost innovation and improve medical treatments.
Since its implementation in 2003 the Directive has been under a lot of criticism for adding to rather than reducing red tape. No one argues the benefits of the strict regulations for high risk trials involving experimental medicines for humans, but the EMRC argues in favour of a sliding scale of requirements depending precisely on the risk involved. In this way low-risk trials or comparative trials could benefit from a less restrictive framework than high risk trials. Clinical researchers wanting to verify the effectiveness of one already licensed medication over another aspirin versus paracetamol for example would not have to fulfil the full gamut of rules. "It is time now to align requirements with the risk involved," stressed Prof Hjgaard.
Another key objective for research is to harmonise national implementation of the clinical trials directive. Currently the 27 member states have each translated the Directive into national law with different definitions and varying restrictions so every pan-European trial has to deal with that complexity. This is a non-starter for academic research groups with a low research budget. The EMRC therefore welcomes indications from the Commission that improved harmonisation and cooperation in clinical trials will be part of the revised legislative.
"Excellence in clinical research requires a truly functioning harmonisation," emphasised Professor Hjgaard. "We urge the Commission, European Parliament and the member states to enact a law that unifies clinical trials in Europe."
###
For further information please contact:
At the European Science Foundation
Prof Liselotte Hjgaard, EMRC Chair
University of Copenhagen and Danish Technical University, Denmark
45-3545-4215 or 45-3545-1792 / lottepet@rh.dk
Dr. Kirsten Steinhausen, Science Officer
Biomedical Sciences Unit
33-3-88-76-2184 / KSteinhausen@esf.org
Shira Tabachnikoff, Head of Communications
33-3-88-76-71-32 / stabachnikoff@esf.org
At Burson-Marsteller in Brussels
Elizabeth de Bony, Director
32-2-743-66-52 /elizabeth.debony@bm.com
Notes to editors
The European Science Foundation (ESF) The European Science Foundation (ESF) was established in 1974 to provide a common platform for its Member Organisations to advance European research collaboration and explore new directions for research. It is an independent organisation, owned by 78 Member Organisations which are research funding organisations and research performing organisations, academies and learned societies from 30 countries. ESF promotes collaboration in research itself, in funding of research and in science policy activities at the European level. www.esf.org
The European Medical Research Councils (EMRC) is the membership organisation for all the Medical Research Councils in Europe under the ESF. The EMRC's is to promote innovative medical research and its clinical application towards improved human health. EMRC offers authoritative strategic advice for policy making, research management, ethics, and better health services. In its activities, EMRC serves as a voice of its Member Organisations and the European scientific community. EMRC disseminates knowledge and promotes the socio-economic value of medical research to the general public and the decision makers.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
ATHENS (Reuters) ? Prime Minister Lucas Papademos sought backing on Sunday from leading Greek party leaders for painful and unpopular reforms that the near-bankrupt country must negotiate now that a long-awaited debt relief deal seems almost secured.
Attention is shifting to negotiations with Greece's international lenders who want proof that the Papademos coalition will take action on reforms before they hand over funds from a 130 billion euro bailout.
Greece needs the money to avoid a chaotic default when big bond redemptions fall due in March. However, in a sign that the talks will be tough, German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler openly called for Athens to surrender control of its budget policy to outside institutions if it cannot implement the reforms required under the euro zone rescue package.
Such suggestions have raised hackles in Greece and Papademos made clear how hard the talks with its lenders, the IMF and European Union, would be.
"The negotiations are not easy," he said in a statement after meeting the heads of the three parties in his government.
"Despite progress on stabilizing the economy, despite the significant changes and the great sacrifices, deviations from targets and repeated delays in the implementation of specific policies have resulted in our partners setting more terms and commitments."
Greece appears to be close to clinching the bond swap agreement with private creditors after months of talks. This followed suggestions that the creditors are willing to accept a demand made by euro zone ministers for new bonds to carry annual interest of less than 4 percent.
If the deal is sealed, this will ease Greece's debt burden by slashing the value of the creditors' debt holdings and give Papademos a boost, but only briefly.
Exasperated lenders are worried that Greece no longer has the will or ability to ram through changes.
The mix of spending cuts and measures to reshape the economy risk heaping more misery on austerity-weary Greeks in the short term and few politicians want to be associated with them as they gear up for elections expected as early as April.
Papademos, a technocrat who heads a government of politicians, said leaders of the three partners in his coalition - the Socialist PASOK, conservative New Democracy and far-right LAOS parties - had committed themselves to continuing talks and reaching a deal with the lenders.
LEADERSHIP AND MONITORING
In Berlin, Economy Minister Roesler became the first German cabinet member to endorse openly a proposal for Greece to surrender budget control.
"We need more leadership and monitoring when it comes to implementing the reform course," Roesler, who is also vice chancellor, told Bild newspaper, according to advance extracts of an interview to be published on Monday.
"If the Greeks aren't able to succeed themselves with this, then there must be stronger leadership and monitoring from abroad, for example through the EU," added Roesler, chairman of the Free Democrats who share power with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives.
Reuters reported on Friday that Germany wants Greece to give up control of budget policy to European institutions as part of discussions over a second rescue package.
Even before Roesler spoke, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos reacted angrily to the suggestion on Sunday, saying Greece was perfectly capable of making good on its promises.
"Anyone who puts a nation before the dilemma of 'economic assistance or national dignity' ignores some key historical lessons," he said in a statement before heading to Brussels for a European Union summit on Monday.
LAOS chief George Karatzaferis told reporters after meeting Papademos that Greece must examine whether the lenders' demands are in accordance with the Lisbon treaty and that he would not take any action until the European Parliament made a decision.
"The prime minister said that we are running out of time," he said. "I said that for the sake of Greece's future we can find time."
In recent weeks Karatzaferis has stepped up threats to quit the coalition, citing a lack of cohesion among partners. His party's support has slipped in opinion polls since December.
Underscoring the struggle Papademos faces in implementing reforms, Greece's parliament voted last week against extending pharmacy hours soon after officials from the "troika" of lenders - the ECB, European Commission and International Monetary Fund - arrived in town to discuss the bailout.
The lenders have demanded Greece make extra spending cuts worth 1 percent of GDP - or just above 2 billion euros - this year, including slashing defence and health spending as well as cutting redundant state entities.
BOND SWAP PROGRESS
Euro zone leaders at the Brussels summit will have the chance to discuss the debt swap deal, which both sides said late on Saturday was close to being finalised.
Under the swap, private creditors take a 50 percent cut in the nominal value of their Greek holdings in exchange for cash and new bonds. Their actual losses are expected to be much higher depending on the coupon, or interest rate, involved.
Both sides said the deal was along the lines of a proposal made by Jean-Claude Juncker, the chairman of euro zone finance ministers, suggesting creditors had accepted his demand for a coupon of less than 4 percent. That would result in actual losses of close to 70 percent for creditors on their holdings.
Two sources close to the talks on Sunday confirmed a deal was largely in place with a coupon below 4 percent, but that a final agreement could not be clinched until euro zone finance ministers signed off on it.
The talks had earlier run into trouble over the coupon and whether the ECB and other public creditors must also take losses on their holdings.
Negotiations were further complicated by hedge funds that have built up positions in Greek bonds and now either want the country to go under so that insurance against the debt could be paid out, or hope for payment in full by holding out.
Greece has responded by threatening to enforce losses on investors who do not voluntarily sign up to the swap.
The swap deal, aimed at chopping 100 billion euros off the debt load, must be sealed in about three weeks at the latest as Greece has to repay 14.5 billion euros of debt on March 20.
Without a deal and a subsequent release of funds from the bailout plan, Greece would sink into an uncontrolled default that risks spreading turmoil across the euro zone and tipping the global economy back into recession.
(Additional reporting by John O'Donnell in Brussels, Writing by Deepa Babington; editing by David Stamp)
Israel is home to a burgeoning tech industry, but the country's broadband infrastructure hasn't really been able to keep pace. In terms of broadband penetration, in fact, Israel ranks just 21st out of 34 developed nations, according to statistics gathered by the OECD. All this may be changing, however, now that the country's state-run electric company has announced plans to create a new national broadband network. According to the AP, the forthcoming network will use so-called fiber to the home (FTTH) technology, which is capable of providing connections at speeds of between 100Mbps and 1Gbps. That would be about ten to 100 times faster than the connections most Israelis have today, and could offer obvious benefits to a wide array of businesses and industries. The electric company is aiming to have 10 percent of the country connected to its new network by next year, and to have two-thirds covered within the next seven years.
DAVOS, Switzerland ? Three topless Ukrainian protesters were detained Saturday while trying to break into an invitation-only gathering of international CEOs and political leaders to call attention to the needs of the world's poor.
After a complicated journey to reach the heavily guarded Swiss resort town of Davos, the women arrived at the entrance to the congress center where the World Economic Forum takes place every year.
With temperatures around freezing in the snow-filled town, they took off their tops and climbed a fence before being detained. "Crisis! Made in Davos," read one message painted across a protester's torso, while others held banners that said "Poor, because of you" and "Gangsters party in Davos."
Davos police spokesman Thomas Hobi said the three women were taken to the police station and their papers were checked. They were told that they weren't allowed to demonstrate, and will be released later, he said.
The activists are from the group Femen, which has become popular in Ukraine for staging small, half-naked protests to highlight a range of issues including oppression of political opposition. They have also conducted protests in some other countries.
"We came here to Switzerland to Davos to explain position of all poor people of the world, to explain that we are poor because of these rich people who now sit in the building," said protester Inna Schewcenko.
Protesters from the Occupy movement that started with protests against practices on Wall Street held a separate demonstration in Davos on Saturday. A small group of protesters are camped in igloos in Davos to call for more help for the needy.
About 40 protesters from the Occupy movement gathered in front of the town hall. Some held placards with slogans such as "If voting would change anything, it would be illegal" and "Don't let them decide for you, Occupy WEF." The event has been peaceful.
A member of the Occupy camp was invited to speak at a special event outside the Forum on Friday night discussing the future of capitalism attended by British opposition leader Ed Miliband.
Soon after the panel discussion began, some activists in the audience jumped up and started chanting slogans, and the protester panelist walked off the stage.
Other members of the audience told the activists to "shut up" and arguments disrupted the panel for about 20 minutes. The discussion then resumed, without the Occupy panelist.
___
Anja Niedringhaus and Paolo Santalucia contributed to this report.
LOS ANGELES ? Demi Moore smoked something before she was rushed to the hospital on Monday night and was convulsing and "semi-conscious, barely," according to a caller on a frantic 911 recording released Friday by Los Angeles fire officials.
The woman tells emergency operators that Moore, 49, had been "having issues lately."
"Is she breathing normal?" the operator asks.
"No, not so normal. More kind of shaking, convulsing, burning up," the friend says as she hurries to Moore's side, on the edge of panic.
The recording captures the 10 minutes it took paramedics to arrive as friends gather around the collapsed star and try to comfort her as she trembles and shakes.
Another woman is next to Moore as the dispatcher asks if she's responsive.
"Demi, can you hear me?" she asks. "Yes, she's squeezing hands. ... She can't speak."
When the operator asks what Moore ingested or smoked, the friend replies, but the answer was redacted.
"Some form of ... and then she smoked something. I didn't really see. She's been having some issues lately with some other stuff. So I don't know what she's been taking or not," the friend says.
The city attorney's office advised the fire department to redact details about medical conditions and substances to comply with federal medical privacy rules.
"She smoked something. It's not marijuana. It's similar to incense," the friend says to the 911 operator.
While Moore's friends don't say exactly what she smoked, an increasingly popular drug known as Spice is sometimes labeled as "herbal incense."
Spice is a synthetic cannabis drug and also called K2. It's sold in small packets over the Internet, in smoke shops and at convenience stores. The packaging sometimes reads "not for human consumption" to conceal its purpose.
In 2011, there were twice as many spice-related calls to Poison Control Centers nationwide as in the previous year, according to the National Office of Drug Control Policy.
The adverse health effects associated with synthetic marijuana include anxiety, vomiting, racing heartbeat, seizures, hallucinations, and paranoid behavior.
Asked if Moore took the substance intentionally or not, the woman says Moore ingested it on purpose but the reaction was accidental.
"Whatever she took, make sure you have it out for the paramedics," the operator says.
The operator asks the friend if this has happened before.
"I don't know," she says. "There's been some stuff recently that we're all just finding out."
Moore's publicist, Carrie Gordon, said previously that the actress sought professional help to treat her exhaustion and improve her health. She would not comment further on the emergency call or provide details about the nature or location of Moore's treatment.
The past few months have been rocky for Moore.
She released a statement in November announcing she had decided to end her marriage to fellow actor Ashton Kutcher, 33, following news of alleged infidelity. The two were known to publicly share their affection for one another via Twitter.
Moore still has a Twitter account under the name mrskutcher but has not posted any messages since Jan. 7.
Meanwhile, Millennium Films announced Friday that Sarah Jessica Parker will replace Moore in the role of feminist Gloria Steinem in its production of "Lovelace," a biopic about the late porn star Linda Lovelace. A statement gave no reason for the change. The production, starring Amanda Seyfried, has been shooting in Los Angeles since Dec. 20.
During the call, the woman caller says the group of friends had turned Moore's head to the side and was holding her down. The dispatcher tells her not to hold her down but to wipe her mouth and nose and watch her closely until paramedics arrive.
"Make sure that we keep an airway open," the dispatcher says. "Even if she passes out completely, that's OK. Stay right with her."
The phone is passed around by four people, including a woman who gives directions to the gate and another who recounts details about what Moore smoked or ingested. Finally, the phone is given to a man named James, so one of the women can hold Moore's head.
There was some confusion at the beginning of the call. The emergency response was delayed by nearly two minutes as Los Angeles and Beverly Hills dispatchers sorted out which city had jurisdiction over the street where Moore lives.
As the call is transferred to Beverly Hills, the frantic woman at Moore's house raises her voice and said, "Why is an ambulance not on its way right now?"
"Ma'am, instead of arguing with me why an ambulance is not on the way, can you spell (the street name) for me?" the Beverly Hills dispatcher says.
Although the estate is located in the 90210 ZIP code above Benedict Canyon, the response was eventually handled by the Los Angeles Fire Department.
By the end of the call, Moore has improved.
"She seems to have calmed down now. She's speaking," the male caller told the operator.
Moore and Kutcher were wed in September 2005.
Kutcher became a stepfather to Moore's three daughters ? Rumer, Scout and Tallulah Belle ? from her 13-year marriage to actor Bruce Willis. Moore and Willis divorced in 2000 but remained friendly.
Moore and Kutcher created the DNA Foundation, also known as the Demi and Ashton Foundation, in 2010 to combat the organized sexual exploitation of girls around the globe. They later lent their support to the United Nations' efforts to fight human trafficking, a scourge the international organization estimates affects about 2.5 million people worldwide.
Moore can be seen on screen in the recent films "Margin Call" and "Another Happy Day." Kutcher replaced Charlie Sheen on TV's "Two and a Half Men" and is part of the ensemble film "New Year's Eve."
ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2012) ? A rare combination of electric and magnetic properties in a now readily producible material could improve electronic memory devices.
An electric field can displace the cloud of electrons surrounding each atom of a solid. In an effect known as polarization, the cloud centers move away slightly from the positively charged nuclei, which radically changes the optical properties of the solid. Materials that can maintain this polarization, even when the external electric field is removed, are known as ferroelectrics and they could provide a novel route to higher-density memory devices.
"The function of ferroelectric materials is much expanded if they are also magnetic, and if there is a strong coupling between polarization and magnetization," explains Yasujiro Taguchi from the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in Wako. Taguchi and his colleagues from RIKEN, and several other Japanese research institutes, recently demonstrated experimentally that the material strontium barium manganite ((Sr,Ba)MnO3) has this rare combination of properties1.
Previous experimental studies on (Sr,Ba)MnO3 did not identify any signs of the ferroelectricity promised by theoretical simulations. The problem was an insufficient ratio of barium to strontium atoms: conventional crystal growth techniques had produced material with only a maximum ratio of 1:4. Taguchi and his colleagues therefore developed a new two-stage growth technique that enabled them to increase the barium content to 50%. By comparing the properties of crystals with different levels of barium content, they identified a transition to a ferroelectric state at a content ratio of between 40 and 45%.
Strontium barium manganite has a so-called perovskite crystal arrangement, which is characterized by a repeating cubic structure (Fig. 1). Manganese atoms are located at the center of the crystal and oxygen atoms are situated in the middle of each of the six sides. Either a strontium or a barium atom sits on each corner of the cube. The spin, or rotation, of an electron in the manganese ions makes the crystal magnetic. Ferroelectricity arises because the manganese ions are displaced slightly from the center of the cube. "Therefore the manganese ions are responsible for both polarization and magnetism and thus a strong coupling between the two emerges," explains Taguchi.
Materials that are both ferroelectric and have magnetic properties are called multiferroics. The multiferroic materials identified so far have either strong coupling between electricity and magnetism but small polarization, or large polarization with weak coupling. "We have now discovered a multiferroic material that has both [strong coupling and large polarization]," says Taguchi. "These properties are necessary requirements if multiferroic materials are to be applied to devices. One possible example is low-power-consumption memory devices."
The corresponding author for this highlight is based at the Exploratory Materials Team, RIKEN Advanced Science Institute
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Philippine officials are in?talks with the Obama administration about expanding the U.S.?military presence in the archipelago as part of the strategy to counter China in the Pacific.
Report of the talks first appeared on the Washington Post website on Wednesday, which said the negotiations are in the early stages but that both governments "are favorably inclined toward a deal."
Additional talks are scheduled on Thursday and Friday in Washington, the Post reported, with higher level meetings set for March.
"We can point to other countries: Australia, Japan, Singapore," an unnamed senior Philippine official?involved in the talks told the Post. ?We?re not the only one doing this, and for good reason. We all want to see a peaceful and stable region. Nobody wants to have to face China or confront China.?
Other recent agreements related to Obama?s China strategy include basing Marines in?Australia as well as?Navy ships in Singapore.
China's ministry of defense warned earlier this month that the United States needs to be "careful in its words and actions" about rethinking its defense posture across Asia in?response to China's rise.
US to keep 11 aircraft carriers to show sea power
China has been expanding its naval might in the Pacific, adding submarines and an aircraft carrier, and it?has also increased its missile and surveillance capabilities.
Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines was one of the largest U.S. military installations in the Pacific until it closed in 1991.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? The European Commission stands by the size of euro zone taxpayers' contribution of up to 130 billion euros ($169 billion) to the second Greek bailout, a Commission spokesman said on Wednesday.
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said earlier on Wednesday that Greece's public sector creditors may need to participate in restructuring its national debt if a haircut negotiated with private sector bondholders is not enough to make the debt load on Athens sustainable.
Asked to comment on Lagarde's remarks, the Commission's spokesman on economics and monetary affairs, Amadeu Altafaj, told a regular news briefing:
"The Commission's views have not changed in that respect, there is already a strong involvement of the public sector in the framework of the second programme for Greece."
($1 = 0.770 Euros)
(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; editing by Rex Merrifield)
Modern day video editors can be daunting. While it's better than the literal cut-and-paste practices of yesteryear, opening a new video editor can feel like stepping into the cockpit of a spaceship. Unless you're trained to fly spaceships, in which case this analogy is broken (and also, you're awesome.) Looking to distill video editing down to its simplest form ? a game like experience, they say ? is Game Your Video, a new iOS app from Global Delight.
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Hey Alyx, I wouldn't mind playing your prince, this sounds like fun! ^^ But I might not get him up until sometime tomorrow b/c I need to go to bed soon and then school tomorrow.
MirrorMirror1498
Member for 1 years
Hey Alyx I tossed in a character. Hope you don't mind, this just looked like a lot of fun.
A fragmented tale, eternally retold. When darkness falls, two shall stand against it. The crimson-haired girl and the beach born boy, their fates intertwined, stand together.
Come my children and listen, For time is all we have.
-Darkness on the Coast
Beach-Born-Boy
Member for 0 years
Pick me! Pick me! haha. ha. Well fingers crossed that you pick my character.
LeNarcissus
Member for 0 years
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama called on Tuesday for higher taxes on the rich and new remedies for the U.S. mortgage crisis in a starkly populist State of the Union address aimed at convincing voters to give him a second term.
Speaking to Congress and beyond them to the broader electorate, Obama proposed sweeping changes in the tax code -- most notably, a minimum 30 percent effective rate on millionaires -- to eliminate inequalities that allow the wealthy to pay lower rates than the middle class.
While the biggest proposals in Obama's election-year speech are considered unlikely to gain traction in a divided Congress, the White House believes the president can tap into voters' resentment over Wall Street excesses and Washington's dysfunction.
Obama's message could resonate in the 2012 campaign following the release of tax records by Mitt Romney, a potential Republican rival and one of the wealthiest men to ever run for the White House. He pays a lower effective tax rate than many top wage-earners.
A new proposal outlined by Obama to ease the way for more American homeowners to get mortgage relief -- and to pay for the plan with a fee on banks blamed for helping create the housing crisis -- also struck a strong note of populism.
"Millions of Americans who work hard and play by the rules every day deserve a government and a financial system that does the same," Obama told a joint session of Congress. "It's time to apply the same rules from top to bottom."
Taxes are the most divisive issue at the heart of this year's presidential campaign when Obama is seeking re-election despite a slow economic recovery and a high jobless rate.
Democrats have hammered Republicans in Congress for supporting tax breaks that favor the wealthy while Republicans staunchly oppose tax hikes, even on the richest Americans, arguing they would hurt a fragile economic recovery.
House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top congressional Republican, accused Obama beforehand of promoting the "politics of envy" and insisted the election would be a referendum on the president's "failed" policies.
The U.S. unemployment rate was 8.5 percent in December. No president in the modern era has won re-election with the rate that high.
Obama used the speech to revive his call to rewrite the tax code to adopt the so-called "Buffett rule," named after the billionaire Warren Buffett, who says it is unfair that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.
Those making more than $1 million a year would pay a minimum effective tax rate of at least 30 percent and their tax deductions would be eliminated under Obama's plan.
To underscore Obama's point about tax inequality, Buffett's secretary, Debbie Bosanek, was to be seated in the first lady's box in the House of Representatives for Obama's annual address.
CHINA, PEACE DIVIDEND, HOUSING
Seeking to capitalize on a high-profile platform to draw contrasts with his Republican challengers, Obama also rolled out proposed corporate tax reforms, including a minimum rate on companies' overseas profits and a tax credit for moving jobs back home.
Taking aim at China -- an election-year target of Republicans and Democrats alike over its currency and trade practices -- Obama proposed creation of a new trade enforcement unit within the federal government.
Promising what amounts to a peace dividend, Obama also proposed using half of the "savings" from ending the war in Iraq and winding down in Afghanistan to pay down U.S. debt, with the other half going to fixing decaying infrastructure like roads and railways.
According to Congressional Budget Office estimates, savings from the wars would result in "about $440 billion less" in spending in 2012-2021.
On the housing front, Obama said he would send to Congress a proposal to allow more Americans take out new and cheaper mortgages as long as they are current on their payments, savings that would amount to $3,000 per household each year.
Blaming banks for helping to cause the housing crisis in the first place, Obama told Congress that financial institutions would be asked to cover the cost of the plan via a proposed bank fee.
Record-low interest rates have already spurred many U.S. homeowners to refinance their mortgages, but the housing crisis continues to drag on the U.S. economic recovery.
While these initiatives do not offer a quick fix for high unemployment that threatens Obama's re-election prospects, his speech was a chance to take control of the campaign narrative amid saturation coverage of the volatile Republican race.
Although Obama is fully aware of the legislative obstacles, his aides see this approach scoring political points by turning up the heat on Republicans he accuses of obstructing economic recovery.
"We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by," Obama said. "Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share."
Voters learned on Tuesday that Romney, a former private equity firm chief, and his wife paid an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent in 2010 and expect to pay a 15.4 percent for 2011 - tax rates that are far below the top rate of 35 percent on ordinary wages.
Russia's Phobos-Grunt space probesuffered a debilitating malfunction shortly after its November 2011 launch, which stranded it in low-Earth orbit for more than two months before it succumbed to gravitational forces and plummeted through the atmosphere on Jan. 15.
When an ill-fated Russian Mars probe fell to Earth over the weekend, the spacecraft's untimely demise set off a flurry of conflicting media reports and conspiracy theories.
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Russia's?Phobos-Grunt space probe?suffered a debilitating malfunction shortly after its November 2011 launch, which stranded it in low-Earth orbit for more than two months before it succumbed to gravitational forces and plummeted through the atmosphere on Jan. 15.
The $165 million spacecraft reportedly broke apart over the Pacific Ocean, but inconsistent reports soon surfaced, which sparked different theories about?where the probe had landed, and what had caused it to malfunction in the first place.
The Russian Federal Space Agency is notorious for closely controlling any information released, but part of the issue is the tricky nature of calculating re-entry predictions for dead satellites and other?pieces of orbital debris.
"Predicting an impact point is problematic because it involves fundamental factors that cannot be noted in advance and cannot be measured in real time, such as atmospheric density," space consultant James Oberg, a former NASA space shuttle mission control engineer, told SPACE.com. "These can only be averaged or guessed, sometimes even after re-entry. These known unknowns are more than enough to throw off any kind of prediction by thousands of kilometers." [Photos: Russia's Phobos-Grunt Mission to Mars Moon]
A curious case
Still, the Phobos-Grunt saga was shrouded in mystery long before it crashed back to Earth. The cause of the spacecraft's malfunction has not yet been determined, and claims ranging from accidental radar interference to outright sabotage have been reported by Russian news outlets.?
Russian space officials suggested that strong?emissions from an American radar station?on an island in the Pacific Ocean could have accidentally interfered with Phobos-Grunt, reported the Russian news agency Ria Novosti.
But, these claims were later dismissed by a Russian scientist who was involved with the development of Phobos-Grunt. Alexander Zakharov, a scientist at the Russian Academy of Science Space Research Institute, told Ria Novosti that the radar theory is "far-fetched," and suggested instead that issues with the spacecraft itself were likely to blame.
American experts were also quick to write off the idea that a U.S. radar station could have been the source of the spacecraft's demise ? accidental or otherwise.
"I do not see any evidence that supports the suggestion that the United States somehow played a role in the failure of Phobos-Grunt," Brian Weeden, an orbital debris expert at the Secure World Foundation in Washington, D.C., told SPACE.com in an email. "I have examined the claims made about the U.S. tracking radar on the South Pacific potentially interfering with Phobos-Grunt and they are without any credibility whatsoever."
Following?Phobos-Grunt's fall from space, the Russian Federal Space Agency released an official statement confirming that the spacecraft had landed in the Pacific Ocean. But, the agency admitted this impact zone was based on orbital predictions, and they lacked tracking or visual?data.
This fueled speculation that the spacecraft had overshot its predicted landing zone and broke apart elsewhere along its orbital track, such as over Argentina or Brazil. [6 Biggest Spacecraft to Fall Uncontrolled From Space]
"You're never quite sure," said Emmet Fletcher, Space Surveillance and Tracking Manager at the European Space Agency (ESA). "Eyewitness accounts are good, so if someone sees it coming in and takes a picture, that can tell you about where it lands. But, if you're fortunate and it lands in the ocean, which is where we like things to go, there shouldn't be anyone there. So, if something lands in the South Pacific, you won't have anyone there to observe it."
Tracking a falling spacecraft
Fletcher is part of ESA's?Space Situational Awareness?team which monitors space junk and operates a network of tracking stations. Fletcher could not comment specifically on Phobos-Grunt, but he has worked on coordinated international efforts to deal with spacecraft and orbital debris that has re-entered the atmosphere.
"It's all a learning experience," Fletcher said. "There are lessons learned and conclusions about what we can do better. A lot of work is being done to standardize data."
Right now, different agencies and organizations have different methods for calculating re-entry predictions. This has advantages and disadvantages, Fletcher said, but ultimately, a more standardized approach could help foster more efficient cooperation between entities.
But the story of Phobos-Grunt doesn't end there.
In a recent development, the U.S. military appeared to have?removed links to Phobos-Grunt tracking dataon a public website that ordinarily details such events.
Information about the doomed Russian probe's re-entry was removed from Space Track, a website operated by U.S. Strategic Command. The military also did not publish any confirmation of the probe's fall, which breaks with standard protocol.
This handling of the data seemed unusual, said Weeden, a former U.S. Air Force officer, who once also directed the Joint Space Operations Center's orbital analyst?training?program.
"[T]he final re-entry prediction data is still missing from the U.S. military's website where they normally publish the information," Weeden said. "I do not really have any idea why they would withhold this information for Phobos-Grunt. They have published the full?re-entry prediction data?on three other space objects so far this year, and they are continuing to publish re-entry predictions as normal for the next object, Cosmos 2176, which is a Russian Kompass-2 satellite that is due to re-enter in the next several days. "
Falling spacecraft and human error
But Friday evening (Jan. 20), a spokesperson from U.S. Strategic Command told SPACE.com that data was not, in fact, removed from the Space Track website. Rather, a human error had accidentally misfiled the information.
"All actions taken during the Phobos-Grunt re-entry were designed to improve international data sharing on this event," Julie Ziegenhorn, Deputy Chief of Public Affairs at U.S. Strategic Command, said in an email statement. "Unfortunately, shortly after the re-entry event, there was human error that led to all Phobos-Grunt entries on spacetrack.org being misfiled into the year 2011 data, which made it difficult for customers to access the information. Shortly after the error was discovered, the information was re-posted to the site and is accessible at this time."
Still, experts are hoping that more precise information about Phobos-Grunt's impact zone will be released, but it's unclear which agencies will make their reports available to the public. ESA plans to release a final report on Phobos-Grunt, but officials are currently still waiting for "additional data from non-ESA sources," agency spokesperson Andreas Schepers said in an email.
The Phobos-Grunt spacecraft was?designed to collect soil samples?from the Mars moon Phobos and return them to Earth in 2014. The botched mission is one of several space failures that plagued the Russian Federal Space Agency over the past year.
"It was one of the boldest cavalry charges, and they said it was a cavalry charge to restore Russia's honor in space," Oberg said. "But, cavalry charges can also wind up disastrously, so the use of that metaphor was particularly apt."
You can follow SPACE.com staff writer Denise Chow on Twitter?@denisechow. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter?@Spacedotcom?and on?Facebook.
President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, at the Apollo Theatre in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, at the Apollo Theatre in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
President Barack Obama pauses before shaking hands at a campaign event, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, at the Apollo Theatre in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is citing his work to bolster tourism in the United States ahead of an important week in which he'll deliver his last State of the Union address before the 2012 election.
Obama used his radio and Internet address Saturday to bring attention to steps he outlined in Florida's Walt Disney World to make it easier for tourists to travel to the U.S. The White House said more than 1 million U.S. jobs could be created over the next decade, according to industry projections, if the nation took a larger share of the international travel market.
"We want more visitors coming here. We want them spending money here. It's good for our economy, and it will help provide the boost more businesses need to grow and hire," Obama said in the radio address.
The tourism initiative, announced in Florida on Thursday, was part of an executive order Obama signed to increase non-immigrant visa processing capacity in China and Brazil by 40 percent this year and expand a visa waiver program that lets participating nationals to travel to the U.S. for stays of 90 days or less without a visa.
Obama said too often "we've seen Congress drag its feet and refuse to take steps we know will help strengthen our economy."
The president said that has prompted him to take executive actions to give states more flexibility to help children meet higher educational standards, help small businesses with federal contracts get paid at a faster rate, offer incentives for companies to hire veterans and help families refinance their mortgages.
Obama will deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday. The president said he'd offer a "blueprint for actions we need to take together ? not just me, or Congress, but every American ? to rebuild an economy where hard work and responsibility are rewarded. An economy that's built to last."
Republicans said Obama's previous State of the Union addresses have offered plenty of promises but few results.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, delivering the weekly Republican address, said Obama told Americans in 2009 that an economic stimulus plan would improve the economy and offered health care reform as an economic boost in his 2010 speech. Last year, Hensarling said Obama vowed "that his budget would help us 'win the future.'"
Instead, the lawmaker said 1.9 million fewer Americans have jobs since the president took office, gas prices have doubled and more Americans are now on food stamps than ever before.
"Regardless of the president's good intentions, his policies have failed the American people. His policies haven't just failed to make the economy better ? they have actually made it worse," he said, criticizing the president for rejecting a pipeline extension that would have run from Canada to Texas and added thousands of jobs.
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Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
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Modern day video editors can be daunting. While it's better than the literal cut-and-paste practices of yesteryear, opening a new video editor can feel like stepping into the cockpit of a spaceship. Unless you're trained to fly spaceships, in which case this analogy is broken (and also, you're awesome.) Looking to distill video editing down to its simplest form ? a game like experience, they say ? is Game Your Video, a new iOS app from 
