Ultra-fast photodetector and terahertz generator

ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2012) ? Extremely thin, more stable than steel and widely applicable: the material graphene is full of interesting properties. As such, it is currently the shining star among the electric conductors. Photodetectors made with graphene can process and conduct both light signals and electric signals extremely fast. Upon optical stimulation, graphene generates a photocurrent within picoseconds (0.000,000,000,001 second). Until now, none of the available methods were fast enough to measure these processes in graphene.

Professor Alexander Holleitner and Dr. Leonhard Prechtel, scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM), have now developed a method to measure the temporal dynamics of this photo current.

Graphene leaves a rather modest impression at a first sight. The material comprises nothing but carbon atoms ordered in a mono-layered "carpet." Yet, what makes graphene so fascinating for scientists is its extremely high conductivity. This property is particularly useful in the development of photodetectors. These are electronic components that can detect radiation and transform it into electrical signals.

Graphene's extremely high conductivity inspires scientists to utilize it in the design of ultra- fast photodetectors. However, until now, it was not possible to measure the optical and electronic behavior of graphene with respect to time, i.e. how long it takes between the electric stimulation of graphene and the generation of the respective photocurrent.

Alexander Holleitner and Leonhard Prechtel, scientists at the Walter Schottky Institut of the TU Muenchen and members of the Cluster of Excellence Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM), decided to pursue this question. The physicists first developed a method to increase the time resolution of photocurrent measurements in graphene into the picosecond range. This allowed them to detect pulses as short as a few picoseconds. (For comparison: A light beam traveling at light speed needs three picoseconds to propagate one millimeter.)

The central element of the inspected photodetectors is freely suspended graphene integrated into electrical circuits via metallic contacts. The temporal dynamics of the photocurrent were measured by means of so-called co-planar strip lines that were evaluated using a special time-resolved laser spectroscopy procedure -- the pump-probe technique. A laser pulse excites the electrons in the graphene and the dynamics of the process are monitored using a

second laser. With this technique the physicists were able to monitor precisely how the photocurrent in the graphene is generated.

At the same time, the scientists could take advantage of the new method to make a further observation: They found evidence that graphene, when optically stimulated, emits radiation in the terahertz (THz) range. This lies between infrared light and microwave radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum. The special thing about THz radiation is that it displays properties shared by both adjacent frequency ranges: It can be bundled like particle radiation, yet still penetrates matter like electromagnetic waves. This makes it ideal for material tests, for screening packages or for certain medical applications.

The research was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Excellence Cluster Nanosystems Initiative Munich and the Center for NanoScience (CeNS). Physicists from Universita?t Regensburg, Eidgeno?ssische Technische Hochschule Zu?rich, Rice University and Shinshu University also contributed to the publication.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Technische Universitaet Muenchen.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Leonhard Prechtel, Li Song, Dieter Schuh, Pulickel Ajayan, Werner Wegscheider, Alexander W. Holleitner. Time-resolved ultrafast photocurrents and terahertz generation in freely suspended graphene. Nature Communications, 2012; 3 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1656

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/WpmzM4Pyc3o/120131135747.htm

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Protesters in Washington defiant as deadline passes (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Defiant anti-Wall Street protesters in Washington vowed to dig in on Monday as a police midday deadline for them to remove their belongings from two camps within sight of the White House passed without incident.

In its first challenge to the demonstrators, U.S. National Park Service said last week it would enforce a ban at noon against sleeping in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, where "Occupy" protesters have camped out since October.

It ordered sleeping bags, pillows and other gear removed but said tents may remain as a protest symbol if flaps stayed open. Protesters at McPherson Square set up a huge tent off of a statue in the middle of the one-block square surrounded by office and government buildings - a makeshift "Tent of Dreams" to protest the order.

"The people united will never be defeated," participants chanted on Monday.

While similar "Occupy" protests against social and economic inequality in other U.S. cities have been shut down by police, the demonstrations in the capital have survived an unusually warm winter and a permissive approach by federal authorities reluctant to provoke confrontation.

Despite their small numbers, the Washington protesters enjoy outsized media attention because their camps are just blocks from President Barack Obama's official residence and one is next to K Street, a wide thoroughfare that is home to many lobbyists and is synonymous with corporate influence in the capital.

Fears of clashes mounted after police used a stun gun Sunday on one protester, who was later arrested. The deadline in Washington follows a new burst of unrest at "Occupy" protests in Oakland, California, over the weekend.

Some protesters interviewed pledged peaceful resistance.

"We're not going to fight but we're just going to make it difficult," said Jake Roszack, 22, from New York, who had built a barricade of spare wood, tents and cardboard, around his personal belongings and those of his friends.

More than 100 passersby, journalists and others gathered at McPherson Square to see what action authorities would take but the noon deadline passed without police intervention.

ARRESTS ON CASE-BY-CASE BASIS

A U.S. Park Police spokesman, David Schlosser, said arrests would be made on a case-by-case basis but that none had been made so far. "We're very pleased that we're getting some voluntary compliance," he said.

At McPherson Square, participants turned their tents and sleeping bags into symbols of protest using donated art supplies. One tent read, "We're still here." A sign on a bench read "Eviction?? Bring it!!"

Inspired by the Arab Spring, "Occupy" demonstrations began in New York City in September and spread across the United States and to other countries.

Protesters are targeting the growing income gap, corporate greed and what they see as unfair tax structure favoring the richest 1 percent of Americans. Protesters in Washington also cite other pet causes, including joblessness, big agriculture and the homeless, some of whom sleep in the park.

The U.S. capital, site of historic demonstrations over the decades, had so far done little to deter the protesters, drawing a rebuke from congressional Republicans who accuse the Obama administration of sympathizing with the groups and refusing to enforce park rules - a charge denied by park officials.

The National Park Service regulates both parks and forbids camping on federal land not designated as a campground.

The protests have also has irked local city officials who are concerned about squalor, rats and trash.

Protesters had issued multiple calls on Twitter for reinforcements from New York, Boston, Philadelphia and other cities, but so far no large groups had arrived.

The number of protesters in the Occupy DC camps fluctuates, but city officials estimate there are less than 100 in total.

The Occupy protests had faded over the last few weeks but flared anew on Saturday when violence broke out in Oakland, California and 400 demonstrators were arrested during a night of skirmishes with police. Oakland has become a flashpoint of the protests and the arrests there were one of the largest mass detentions since the movement began.

Obama has seized on the debate to call for higher taxes on the richest Americans and has made economic inequality a central theme of his administration and bid for re-election.

(Writing by Susan Heavey and Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Ross Colvin and Doina Chiacu)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/us_nm/us_usa_protests_washington

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Gingrich sketches Day 1 agenda for his presidency (AP)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ? To hear Newt Gingrich tell it, the dramatic conservative change he promises will begin even before he is sworn in as president in 2013.

"My goal would be by the end of that first day, about the time that President Obama arrives back in Chicago, that we will have dismantled about 40 percent of his government," he tells audiences.

Obama's health care bill? Repealed.

Legislation that toughened regulations on Wall Street after the economic collapse of 2008? History.

White House czars? Gone.

All this, and more, he pledges to get done before his head hits the presidential pillow for the first time.

It's characteristic Gingrich ? bold and rich with details that lend credibility and evoke applause from supporters, yet sometimes based on assumptions that strain the imagination. It's all designed to make the case to Republican primary voters that he, not GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney, is capable of envisioning and then ushering in a new conservative age.

"We need someone who is going to fight back and doesn't back down," said Harry Berntsen, a Gingrich supporter, after listening to the former House speaker on Sunday at a sun-splashed rally at The Villages, a mammoth central Florida retirement community.

"I love the conservatism in him," added Sheary Berntsen, who, like her husband, wore a small sticker showing her support for Gingrich.

As he has done elsewhere, Gingrich outlined his Day One scenario on Monday for a small audience in Jacksonville, Fla., as he embarked on a final, full day of campaigning on the eve of Florida's Republican presidential primary.

The polls make Romney a heavy favorite in the state, dampening Gingrich's hope that his upset in South Carolina on Jan. 21 portended a steady rise. Already, Gingrich is pointing toward caucuses in Nevada and Minnesota in early February, followed by a showdown in Arizona at the end of February and Texas in the spring.

The closest approximation that Romney has to Gingrich's opening-day narrative is a pledge to sign an executive order allowing the states to opt out of the health care law, preferring to stress his credentials as a businessman while campaigning as the man who knows best how to create jobs.

Yet he and a third contender, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum cast a suspicious eye on the political feats promised by Gingrich, who campaigns as the heir to the late President Ronald Reagan and who led Republicans to a House majority in 1994 for the first time in 40 years.

"Grandiosity has never been a problem with Newt Gingrich," Santorum said in a recent debate.

In television ads, Romney reminds voters of the ignominious end to Gingrich's tumultuous four-year speakership, after the House said he had violated ethics rules and he later lost the support among Republican lawmakers that was necessary to remain in power.

For boldness, Gingrich's Day One scenario trumps the Contract With America, the campaign manifesto that propelled Republicans to control over the House in 1994.

Then, Gingrich merely promised to hold votes on a 10-item conservative to-do list within the first 100 days of his speakership, without guaranteeing that any of the measures would clear Congress.

Like then, Gingrich talks of Republicans campaigning as a team, this time winning the White House as well as a majority in Congress. There was no presidential election in 1994.

The new Congress will convene on Jan. 3, 2013, he notes, while the presidential term begins at noon on Jan. 20.

"I will ask Congress to stay in session" in the meantime, he says, so that legislation is ready for his signature on Inauguration Day that repeals the health care bill that stands as Obama's top domestic accomplishment, wipes out the so-called "Dodd-Frank" legislation that imposed new regulations on Wall Street and scraps a 2002 measure that toughened accounting rules.

Gingrich doesn't say so, but more than Republican majorities would be needed to accomplish this. Senate Democrats would surely filibuster to block the measures, raising questions about the fate of the repeal efforts.

Suggesting he has the day timed to the minute, Gingrich adds that "about two hours after the inaugural address" he will sign an executive order that eliminates all the czars Obama appointed.

Often, he promises to issue between 100 and 200 executive orders before the day ends.

In an aside meant to appeal to tea party sticklers for openness in government, the orders are to be posted online well in advance of the November election "so everyone in America will know what is coming."

In a gesture to participatory democracy, Gingrich invites suggestions on what orders can be issued.

With polls showing Republicans most want a candidate who can defeat Obama, Gingrich splices in a few barbs at the president, and some at Romney.

"With all due respect to Gov. Romney, there is an enormous difference of both how to move the nation and how to actually get things done in Washington," Gingrich said at The Villages. "This is a very hard complicated business. We've had three years of an amateur and we've understood it doesn't work very well.'

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_el_pr/us_gingrich_s_first_day

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Jury finds Afghan family guilty in honor killings

Mohammad Shafia, centre, Tooba Yahya, right, and Hamed Shafia, left, arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Mohammad Shafia, centre, Tooba Yahya, right, and Hamed Shafia, left, arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Mohammad Shafia, center, Tooba Yahya, right, and Hamed Shafia, left, arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Tooba Yahya is led away from the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, after being found guilty of first degree murder. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Mohammad Shafia, front,Tooba Yahya, center and Hamed Shafia arrive at the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ont., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder of Mohammad Shafia's three daughters and childless first wife. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

Mohammad Shafia reacts as he his led away from the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ont., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, after being found guilty of first degree murder of his three daughters and childless first wife. A jury took 15 hours to find Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case so shocking it has riveted Canadians from coast to coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Graham Hughes)

KINGSTON, Ontario (AP) ? A jury on Sunday found an Afghan father, his wife and their son guilty of killing three teenage sisters and a co-wife in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor."

The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case that shocked and riveted Canadians from coast to coast. First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

After the verdict was read, the three defendants again declared their innocence in the killings of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.

Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped for the night on their way home to Montreal from Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly killed the three teenage sisters because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and going online. Shafia's first wife was living with him and his second wife. The polygamous relationship, if revealed, could have resulted in their deportation.

The prosecution alleged it was a case of premeditated murder, staged to look like an accident after it was carried out. Prosecutors said the defendants drowned their victims elsewhere on the site, placed their bodies in the car and pushed it into the canal.

Defense lawyers said the deaths were accidental. They said the Nissan car accidentally plunged into the canal after the eldest daughter, Zainab, took it for a joy ride with her sisters and her father's first wife. Hamed said he watched the accident, although he didn't call police from the scene.

After the jury returned the verdicts, Mohammad Shafia, speaking through a translator, said, "We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn't commit the murder and this is unjust."

His weeping wife, Tooba, also declared the verdict unjust, saying, "I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother."

Their son, Hamed, speaking in English said, "I did not drown my sisters anywhere."

But Judge Robert Maranger was unmoved, saying the evidence clearly supported their conviction for "the planned and deliberate murder of four members of your family."

"It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous crime ... the apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor ... that has absolutely no place in any civilized society."

Outside court, prosecutor Gerard Laarhuis said the verdict is a reflection of Canadian values that he hopes will resonate.

"This verdict sends a very clear message about our Canadian values and the core principles in a free and democratic society that all Canadians enjoy and even visitors to Canada enjoy," Laarhuis said to cheers of approval from onlookers.

The family had left Afghanistan in 1992 and lived in Pakistan, Australia and Dubai before settling in Canada in 2007. Shafia, a wealthy businessman, married Yahya because his first wife could not have children.

The prosecution painted a picture of a household controlled by a domineering Shafia, with Hamed keeping his sisters in line and doling out discipline when his father was away on frequent business trips to Dubai.

The months leading up to the deaths were not happy ones in the Shafia household, according to evidence presented at trial. Zainab, the oldest daughter, was forbidden to attend school for a year because she had a young Pakistani-Canadian boyfriend, and she fled to a shelter, terrified of her father, the court was told.

The prosecution said her parents found condoms in Sahar's room as well as photos of her wearing short skirts and hugging her Christian boyfriend, a relationship she had kept secret. Geeti was becoming almost impossible to control: skipping school, failing classes, being sent home for wearing revealing clothes and stealing, while declaring to authority figures that she wanted to be placed in foster care, according to the prosecution.

Shafia's first wife wrote in a diary that her husband beat her and "made life a torture," while his second wife called her a servant.

The prosecution presented wire taps and cell phone records from the Shafia family in court to support their honor killing theory. The wiretaps, which capture Shafia spewing vitriol about his dead daughters, calling them treacherous and whores and invoking the devil to defecate on their graves, were a focal point of the trial.

"There can be no betrayal, no treachery, no violation more than this," Shafia said on one recording. "Even if they hoist me up onto the gallows ... nothing is more dear to me than my honor."

Defense lawyers argued that at no point in the intercepts do the accused say they drowned the victims.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-29-CN-Canada-Honor-Killing/id-25fff341354e45c8b25247a719e1f1ff

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Fujifilm X10

The Fujifilm X10 ($599.95 direct) may look like an older camera on the outside, but it's a purely digital point-and-shoot with some nice features that photographers should appreciate. Along with the X100 and recently announced X-Pro1, the camera is part of Fuji's X series?a group of unique cameras that are aimed at enthusiasts. The X10 is set apart from other point-and-shoots by its larger image sensor, bright optical viewfinder, abundant physical controls, and Raw shooting capability. It doesn't manage to oust the Canon PowerShot S100 ($429.99, 4.5 stars) as our Editor's Choice for high-end compacts, but if you're looking for a zooming compact with a good optical viewfinder, the camera is worth consideration.

Design and Features
From a distance, the X10 could easily be mistaken for a 1970s-era 35mm camera. Its all-black finish and optical viewfinder fit the bill, but the camera's disguise is betrayed by the modern rear LCD and an abundance of button and dials. It's a bit larger than most compact cameras, measuring 2.7 by 4.6 by 2.2 inches (HWD) and weighing in at 12.3 ounces. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 ($499.99, 3.5 stars), which delivers a similar zoom range but lacks an optical finder, is only 2.6 by 4.3 by 1.7 inches and a bit lighter at 9.5 ounces.

Unlike most modern cameras, the X10 lacks a power switch. To turn the camera on, you must remove the lens cap and twist the lens away from its Off position. You also twist the lens to change its focal length?there are no power zoom controls like on other compact cameras. This gives you more control over the zoom action, but also makes the camera a bit awkward to use?especially if you're shooting via the optical viewfinder. Other cameras in this class have optical finders, including the Canon PowerShot G12 ($499.99, 2.5 stars), but they are generally much smaller and don't lend themselves to regular use.

The viewfinder is bright and clear enough for regular use, but it is not without its foibles. It doesn't cover the entirety of the frame, only about 80 percent, so for tightly-composed photos you'll probably want to use the rear LCD. It is also without any sort of information display. There is no focus confirmation, so you'll have to place your trust in the camera's autofocus system. By default, the camera uses a center focusing point, although you can change that manually. If you use something other than center as the point, it's up to you to remember where in the frame the camera is focusing and translate that to a position in the finder.

Placing trust in the autofocus is not something to be worried about?I was able to raise the camera to my eye for quick street shots and the X10 nailed the focus quickly and consistently. There is an option to have the camera make an audible beep when focus is locked, but street shooters are likely to disable this. There is no way to separate the focus confirm beep and the shutter sound clip, which is unfortunate as the desire to have an audible confirmation of focus lock does not go hand-in-hand with that to have the camera play a fake shutter noise when a photo is snapped.

I also found that using the zoom lens and the optical finder together could be a bit awkward. My hand would generally get in the way of the finder when adjusting the focal length, which makes grabbing quick shots difficult. I also inadvertently added fingerprints to the front of the finder when operating the zoom on several occasions, which very noticeably affected its clarity.

The 4x zoom lens is the equivalent of a 28-112mm f/2-2.8 in 35mm photography. It's a very sensible zoom range?although it lacks the telephoto reach needed for sports, birding, and similar applications. Other top-end compacts feature similar zoom ranges and fast lenses, although the Nikon Coolpix P7100 ($499.95, 4 stars) leads the pack with a 7.1x (28-200mm f/2.8-5.6) lens. The camera has a very nice macro mode to allow you to focus on objects that are very close to the lens. Enabling it also enables the rear LCD, as you cannot get accurate framing with the optical finder when shooting on a close object due to parallax. This is true for any camera that has a viewing lens that is offset from its taking lens.

The X10's rear LCD isn't the best in its class. It is 2.8 inches in size, a bit smaller than the 3-inch displays?that are par for the course in this class of camera, but does offer the same 460k dot resolution that is common to the Canon PowerShot S100, Panasonic LX5, and Canon G12. Both the Nikon P7100 and the Samsung TL500 ($449, 3 stars) offer 921k dot screens. The X10's LCD is bright, so you won't have any trouble using it on a sunny day?and the optical finder is there if you're in a situation where glare cannot be avoided?but it's easier to confirm critical focus on a higher-resolution display.

You'll find a number of physical controls on the X10. The top-mounted Mode Dial allows you to toggle between shooting modes, and another dial makes it easy to dial in EV compensation from -2 EV to +2 EV in third-stop increments. The shutter button features a standard thread, which makes it possible to add a soft release button or to use a manually shutter release cable to grab a photo. Rear controls include a 4-Way Command Dial, AE-L/AF-L, and a button to switch from JPG to Raw shooting for a single shot. There is also a standard rear command dial which will adjust aperture in A mode, shutter speed in S mode, and can be used to navigate through menus.

The menu system isn't the most intuitive; in my testing, some of the settings were a bit hard to find. The Raw shooting mode is actually located in the Settings area rather than the Shooting Menu where I'm used to seeing it. Once the initial setup is complete you won't have to spend a lot of time diving into menus?there are enough physical controls so you can avoid that. The X10 also supports a few film emulation modes, including Provia, Velvia, and Astia film stocks as well as a few different black and white shooting modes.

Even though the 2/3-inch image sensor in the X10 is larger than those found in most point-and-shoots, it is smaller than that found in interchangeable lens cameras like the Nikon J1 ($649.95, 3.5 stars), Olympus E-PM1 ($499.99, 4 stars), and our Editors' Choice, the Sony Alpha NEX-C3 ($649.99, 4.5 stars)?all of which are similarly priced to the X10. The main reason to opt for a compact over one of these mirrorless shooters is portability. Larger lenses are required to capture enough light to cover larger image sensors, where a compact camera like the X10 is able to get the job done with a much smaller lens. Canon's recently announced G1 X ($799.99) is set to change this a bit, as its sensor is larger than that of a Micro Four Thirds camera, but the camera itself is only slightly larger than the X10.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/72URKlJs4wA/0,2817,2399338,00.asp

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Viacom CEO Dauman's pay drops to $43M in 2011

NEW YORK (AP) ? Viacom Inc.'s Philippe Dauman led the list of America's top-paid CEOs in 2010 but his pay package for 2011 was nearly halved, mainly because he didn't get stock bonuses for renewing his contract as he did a year ago.

Still, an Associated Press tally values Dauman's pay package at $43 million, down from $84.5 million a year ago.

The figures were contained in a securities filing the media company filed Friday.

Another reason he won't be the highest paid CEO last year: Apple Inc.'s Tim Cook was awarded a package valued at a whopping $378 million for replacing the late Steve Jobs at the helm.

Dauman's base salary rose 33 percent to $3.5 million, but the bulk of his pay came in the form of a $20 million bonus for good performance, a 78 percent increase from a year ago. The company said operating profits came in above the mid-point of its target range and free cash flow generation was near the top of its range.

Dauman's annual grant of stock awards was 68 percent smaller than a year ago at $13.3 million, and new stock options he was granted were valued at $6 million, down 79 percent from fiscal 2010.

He also received other compensation of $262,636, mainly for personal use of the company aircraft.

New York-based Viacom's executive chairman and 88-year-old founder, Sumner Redstone, saw a 39 percent boost to his pay package to $21 million.

Redstone, who controls the company through a special class of voting shares, pulled down a base salary of $1.75 million, up a third from a year earlier, and a performance bonus up 78 percent at $10 million. New grants of stock and stock options came to about $8 million, the same as the previous year.

Redstone also benefited from a preferential executive pension plan that grew by about $1 million, with other compensation totaling $30,955.

Over the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Viacom's widely traded Class B shares rose 7 percent to $38.74 from $36.19. The company said its total shareholder return in fiscal 2011, comprised of $417 million in dividends and $2.5 billion in share buybacks, was 8.7 percent, compared to 0.8 percent for the companies of the S&P 500 Index.

Viacom owns pay TV networks such as MTV, Nickelodeon and VH1 and the Paramount Pictures movie studio.

The Associated Press formula calculates an executive's total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. The AP formula does not count changes in the present value of pension benefits. That makes the AP total slightly different in most cases from the total reported by companies to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The value that a company assigned to an executive's stock and option awards for 2011 was the present value of what the company expected the awards to be worth to the executive over time. Companies use one of several formulas to calculate that value. However, the number is just an estimate, and what an executive ultimately receives will depend on the performance of the company's stock in the years after the awards are granted. Most stock compensation programs require an executive to wait a specified amount of time to receive shares or exercise options

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-27-Viacom-Executive%20Compensation/id-fb24b93f6682431fb71db8434280bb67

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London Olympic Village Ready For Finishing Touches

POSTED: 6:08 pm CST January 26, 2012
UPDATED: 11:01 pm CST January 26, 2012

LONDON (CNN) -- Six months to the day before Opening Ceremonies, builders have handed the Olympic Village over to the London 2012 organizers.The first of 16,000 beds have been delivered as organizers start to fit out the rooms."We are starting the huge process to install essential facilities and services ready to welcome competitors from around the world in six months' time," Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London 2012 Organizing Committee said in a press release issued early Friday.The beds will soon be joined by 11,000 sofas and even 5,000 toilet brushes, say organizers.The Summer Games run from July 27 through Aug. 12.Olympic Village, a huge housing complex of some 2,800 apartments within walking distance of the stadium in East London, has already been sold as part of the post-games legacy plans.Nearly 1,400 of the apartments were sold in 2009 for $400 million and will be rented by local governments for subsidized housing. The remainder was sold to a consortium, including the Qatari government, as part of a $800 million deal to own and manage the entire village.Local campaigners have pushed for more of the apartments to be social housing as part of the organizer's pledge to regenerate the area post-games.The original plan was for the developer Lend Lease to raise the funding privately to build the village, but the work started in 2008 at the height of the financial crisis. The government decided instead to the foot the reported $1.6 billion bill and is unlikely to recoup the entire cost of the housing.The complex will be known as East Village once it is turned over to renters and homeowners.

Copyright CNN 2012

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Nintendo posts loss on strong yen, weak sales (AP)

TOKYO ? Nintendo Co. sank to losses for the April-December period, battered by a price cut for its 3DS handheld, a strong yen that erodes overseas earnings and competition from mobile devices such as the iPhone that offer games-on-the-go.

The Japanese video game machine maker behind the Super Mario and Pokemon franchises said Thursday it now expects to sell far fewer of its 3DS machines, which feature three-dimensional images. It is forecasting sales of 14 million machines for the fiscal year through March 2012, down from an earlier 16 million. That's despite a price cut for the 3DS in August.

Nintendo, which also makes the Wii home console, posted a loss of 48.35 billion yen ($627.9 million) for the first nine months through December. That was a reversal from a 49.56 billion yen profit the same period in 2010. Nintendo did not break down quarterly numbers.

The company said it will have Wii U, the successor to the Wii, ready in time for the year-end holiday season. Earlier, it had said the machine, which has a touch-screen controller, will go on sale in the latter half of this year. But some had been skeptical whether it would be ready. Nintendo hasn't announced prices.

Kyoto-based Nintendo also lowered its annual earnings forecast to a 65 billion yen ($844 million) loss, much larger than the 20 billion yen ($260 million) loss projected earlier. It posted a 77.62 billion yen profit the previous fiscal year.

Nintendo's past success has come from the appeal of its products to so-called casual gamers ? people who now turn to smartphones and tablet devices such as the iPad from Apple Inc. to enjoy games.

The demand for the Wii has also diminished in recent months.

Nintendo is now expecting to sell 10 million Wii machines in the year ending March, down from an initial estimate of 13 million, which was revised lower to 12 million in July.

Nintendo's nine-month sales dropped 31.2 percent to 556.17 billion yen from the same period the previous year.

The numbers are a disappointment as they include the key year-end holiday season.

"Sales of the 3DS were strong in Japan, but Christmas shopping got to a late start overall in the U.S. and Europe," said Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa. "But we are upbeat about hardware and software sales for next fiscal year."

Worldwide sales of the 3DS for the nine months totaled 11.43 million, the company said. Game software for the 3DS like "Super Mario 3D Land" became million sellers, but games from outside companies did not fare as well, it said.

Competition in portable gaming is heating up with the arrival of the PlayStation Vita from Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony Corp. Vita went on sale in Japan in December and next month in the U.S. and Europe.

Nintendo has continuously outpaced Sony in portable game sales with its hit DS machines.

The strong yen has also hurt Nintendo's bottom line. The dollar has been trading at about 77 yen lately, down from about 83 yen a year earlier.

Nintendo stock slid 0.6 percent to 10,790 yen in Tokyo.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_hi_te/as_japan_earns_nintendo

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Flashpoint Demo Day a Glimpse of How Entrepreneurs' Dreams Come True (Mashable)

A gathering of entrepreneurs in the Bay Area on Thursday offered a window into how ambitious techies' visions become reality. It started with a presentation from a go-getter named Adam Ghetti. Dressed casually in a dark tee-shirt, Ghetti stepped to the front a conference room at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz on Thursday afternoon. He launched into an intense, rapid-fire pitch and test drive of his cloud security startup Social Fortress.

[More from Mashable: How One Entrepreneur Is Connecting Celebrities With Their Fans [VIDEO]]

After Ghetti finished, 14 more entrepreneurs repeated the process, describing the basics of their businesses. They hoped to spark interest -- and investment.

Ghetti and his cohorts are members of Flashpoint, a startup accelerator located at Georgia Tech university. The three-month program provides mentorship, advice and learning. Director Merrick Furst told Mashable the program functions "to address uncertainties and risks in the startup phase." Thursday was the group's chance to convince Silicon Valley venture capitalists of the value of their respective visions.

[More from Mashable: 10 Tips for Building a Strong Online Community Around Your Startup]

This is how it works in The Valley, in the country-club atmosphere of the austere office parks located on Sand Hill Road. Owners of nascent businesses sling a concept, sell an idea and present a business plan, usually touting massive potential and market opportunity.

If they're lucky -- or, more likely, smart and talented -- they get the funding to potentially push their idea over the edge and toward the mainstream.

And it's how the tech world operates now in enclaves outside of Silicon Valley too; the Flashpointers were on the third and final stop in a series of public demo days that took place earlier this month in Atlanta and New York City.

The presenters on Thursday ranged from a Georgia Tech undergrad who started his first company at 14, to hip young entrepreneurs, to serious middle-aged men in slacks and dark blazers. They bragged about who had already invested in their products, gaps in the market and how much teammates had sold previous companies for. They also told how much more money they needed. Most asked for between $500,000 and $1 million. Some companies had recently shifted focus and had been organized for just seven weeks. Others had already generated real revenues.

In addition to CollectorDash, which targets a multibillion market of collectors of trinkets such as action figures; Trimensional, which makes 3D scanning available to consumers via a smartphone app; and SportsCrunch, a social network for athletes to relive glory days and reconnect with former teammates.

But our opinions mattered little compared to those of the attending representatives of venture capital firms such as Split Rock Partners of Menlo Park. Split Rock's Leo de Luna was at the pitch session to begin scouting out early-stage businesses for potential future Series A investments by his firm.

"At this stage, where they're at in seed, it's about market potential because that's a good way to kind of filter things out," de Luna said in an interview following the presentations. "Then just to see the entrepreneurs themselves, see their maturity, their ability to communicate and sell the idea and maybe glean some things about how well they know their market and their product. The best ones were the ones that could show a live demo and could say, 'We've got a product, we've got customers.'"

For Adam Ghetti, the demonstration of Social Fortress apparently worked well. Between chatting and networking with investors and other attendees after the show, he was asked how he thought Thursday's event went.

"I left my Friday wide open," he told Mashable, "and it's now full. So I think today went great."

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/mashable/20120127/tc_mashable/flashpoint_demo_day_a_glimpse_of_how_entrepreneurs_dreams_come_true

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Official: More ship survivors would be miracle

In this undated photo released by the Italian Navy Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, the Costa Concordia cruise ship grounded off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, is seen at night. A large platform carrying a crane and other equipment hitched itself to the toppled Costa Concordia on Tuesday, signaling the start of preliminary operations to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded cruise ship before it leaks into the pristine Tuscan sea. Actual pumping of the oil isn't expected to begin until Saturday, but officials from the Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit were seen on the bow of the Concordia and in the waters nearby making preparations to remove the fuel, while the search for missing passengers continues. (AP Photo/Italian Navy GOS handout)

In this undated photo released by the Italian Navy Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, the Costa Concordia cruise ship grounded off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, is seen at night. A large platform carrying a crane and other equipment hitched itself to the toppled Costa Concordia on Tuesday, signaling the start of preliminary operations to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded cruise ship before it leaks into the pristine Tuscan sea. Actual pumping of the oil isn't expected to begin until Saturday, but officials from the Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit were seen on the bow of the Concordia and in the waters nearby making preparations to remove the fuel, while the search for missing passengers continues. (AP Photo/Italian Navy GOS handout)

The grounded cruise ship Costa Concordia lays on its side off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. A barge carrying a crane and other equipment hitched itself to the toppled Costa Concordia on Tuesday, signaling the start of preliminary operations to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded cruise ship before it leaks into the pristine Tuscan sea. Actual pumping of the oil isn't expected to begin until Saturday, but teams from the Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit were working on the bow of the Concordia on Tuesday and divers were to make underwater inspections to identify the precise locations of the fuel tanks. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

In this undated photo released by the Italian Navy Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, a support team hold the line that allow scuba divers to find their way back from their search in the Costa Concordia cruise ship grounded off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy. A large platform carrying a crane and other equipment hitched itself to the toppled Costa Concordia on Tuesday, signaling the start of preliminary operations to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded cruise ship before it leaks into the pristine Tuscan sea. Actual pumping of the oil isn't expected to begin until Saturday, but officials from the Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit were seen on the bow of the Concordia and in the waters nearby making preparations to remove the fuel, while the search for missing passengers continues. (AP Photo/Italian Navy GOS)

In this undated photo released by the Italian Navy Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, ropes float from a flooded corridor of the Costa Concordia cruise ship grounded off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy. A large platform carrying a crane and other equipment hitched itself to the toppled Costa Concordia on Tuesday, signaling the start of preliminary operations to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded cruise ship before it leaks into the pristine Tuscan sea. Actual pumping of the oil isn't expected to begin until Saturday, but officials from the Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit were seen on the bow of the Concordia and in the waters nearby making preparations to remove the fuel, while the search for missing passengers continues. (AP Photo/Italian Navy GOS)

In this undated photo released by the Italian Navy Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, a scuba diver makes his way into a flooded cabin of the Costa Concordia cruise ship grounded off the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy. A large platform carrying a crane and other equipment hitched itself to the toppled Costa Concordia on Tuesday, signaling the start of preliminary operations to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded cruise ship before it leaks into the pristine Tuscan sea. Actual pumping of the oil isn't expected to begin until Saturday, but officials from the Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit were seen on the bow of the Concordia and in the waters nearby making preparations to remove the fuel, while the search for missing passengers continues. (AP Photo/Italian Navy GOS)

ROME (AP) ? Search efforts aboard the capsized Costa Concordia resumed Wednesday, even as the official overseeing the operation acknowledged for the first time it would take a miracle to find any more survivors from the ship's Jan. 13 grounding.

Franco Gabrielli, head of Italy's national civil protection agency, told reporters that rescuers would keep searching the ship, which is half-submerged off the Tuscan island of Giglio, until every reachable area is inspected.

"Finding someone alive today belongs in the realm of miracles," Gabrielli said. "But since none of us, at least inside, wants to give up on that possibility, we will continue."

And operations did continue Wednesday as crews set off more explosions on the submerged third floor deck to allow easier access for divers. On Tuesday, the body of a woman was found on the deck.

Rescuers have found 16 bodies, with 17 people still unaccounted for. The last time anyone was found alive was on Jan. 15, when a senior crew member was discovered less than 36 hours after the grounding.

The Concordia ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio on Jan. 13 after the captain, Francesco Schettino, veered from his approved course and gashed the ship's hull on a reef, forcing the panicked evacuation of 4,200 passengers and crew.

On Wednesday, the chief executive of Costa Crociere SpA, Pier Luigi Foschi, insisted that Schettino didn't have approval to change the ship's routing and was going far too fast ? 16 knots ? to be so close to shore.

But he defended the practice of so-called "tourist navigation," whereby enormous cruise ships steer close to shore to give passengers a look at the sites. He said it was part of the "cruise product" that passengers demand and that cruise lines are forced to offer to stay competitive.

"It's something that enriches the cruise product," Foschi told a parliamentary committee. "There are many components of the cruise product, and we have to do them like everyone else because we are in a global competition."

Costa is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise company.

Foschi stressed that such deviations from charted routes are supposed to follow strict protocols that ensure safety: ports are informed, the company is informed, and certainly no ship of the Concordia's size would be charging 200-300 yards (meters) off shore at 16 knots.

"For anyone who knows that zone, that ship with those characteristics shouldn't have been there," he said.

Schettino is under house arrest, facing accusations of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning a ship before all passengers were evacuated.

On Wednesday, his lawyer filed a motion challenging the house arrest, saying Schettino wasn't a flight risk and asserting that there was no risk that he would repeat the crime since no cruise line would hire him, the ANSA news agency reported.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-25-Italy-Cruise%20Aground/id-43eaf8c40e5e41f8b2f66d01f93100ab

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Most Popular (TIME)

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Supreme Court says police must get search warrant to use GPS tracking devices

The US Supreme Court ruled today that police must first obtain a search warrant before using GPS devices to track a suspect's vehicle, agreeing with an earlier appeals court ruling but rejecting the Obama administration's position on the case. In delivering the decision, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that the court holds "that the government's installation of a GPS device on a target's vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle's movements, constitutes a 'search,'" and therefore violated the individual's Fourth Amendment rights. The case itself concerned a Washington DC nightclub owner and suspected drug dealer, Antoine Jones, who had his car's movements monitored for a month and was eventually sentenced to life in prison, only to see that conviction overturned by the aforementioned appeals court on the grounds that the police did not have a search warrant when they placed the GPS tracking device on his vehicle.

[Image courtesy Wired]

Supreme Court says police must get search warrant to use GPS tracking devices originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Official: possibility of unregistered passengers (AP)

GIGLIO, Italy ? Unregistered passengers might have been aboard the stricken cruise liner that capsized off this Tuscan island, a top rescue official said Sunday, raising the possibility that the number of missing might be higher than previously announced.

Divers, meanwhile, pulled out a woman's body from the capsized Costa Concordia on Sunday, raising to 13 the number of people dead in the Jan. 13 accident.

Civil protection official Francesca Maffini told reporters the victim was wearing a life vest and was found in the rear of a submerged portion of a ship by a team of fire department divers.

Earlier, Italian authorities raised the possibility that the real number of the missing was unknown because some unregistered passengers might have been aboard. As of Sunday, 19 people are listed as missing, but that number could be higher.

"There could have been X persons who we don't know about who were inside, who were clandestine" passengers aboard the ship, Franco Gabrielli, the national civil protection official in charge of the rescue effort, told reporters at a briefing on the island of Giglio, where the ship, with 4,200 people aboard rammed a reef and sliced open its hull on Jan. 13 before turning over on its side.

Gabrielli said that relatives of a Hungarian woman have told Italian authorities that she had telephoned them from aboard the ship and that they haven't heard from her since the accident. He said it was possible that a woman's body pulled from the wreckage by divers on Saturday might be that of the unregistered passenger.

But one of Concordia's officers, who's recovering from a broken leg suffered during the evacuation, dismissed the allegation that such passengers were on the ship.

"Everyone is registered and photographed. Everything's electronic," the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Manrico Giampedroni as saying.

Authorities are trying to identify five corpses who are badly decomposed after spending a long time in the water.

Gabrielli said they have identified the other eight bodies: four French, an Italian, a Hungarian, a German and a Spanish national.

The missing include French passengers, an elderly American couple, a Peruvian crewwoman and an Indian crewman and an Italian father and his five-year-old daughter. Some of their relatives were briefed by rescuers Sunday, and also met with Pierluigi Foschi, the CEO of Costa Crociere, SpA ? the ship's operator ? who viewed the crippled cruise liner from a boat.

France's ambassador to Italy, Alain Le Roy, recounted Foschi's visit.

"He came to see the families, all families. He met the French family. He met the American family. I am sure he is meeting other families, mostly to express his compassion ... to say that Costa will do everything possible to find the people, to compensate families in any way."

The search had been halted for several hours early Sunday, after instrument readings indicated that the Concordia has shifted a bit on its precarious perch on a seabed just outside Giglio's port. A few meters (yards) away, the sea bottom drops off suddenly, by some 20-30 meters (65-100 feet), and if the Concordia should abruptly roll off its ledge, rescuers could be trapped inside.

When instrument data indicated the vessel had stabilized again, rescuers went back in, but only explored the above-water section and evacuation staging areas where survivors have indicated that people who did not make it into lifeboats during the chaotic evacuation could have remained.

Passengers were dining at a gala supper when the Concordia sailed close to Giglio and struck the reef, which is indicated on maritime and even tourist maps.

There are also fears that the Concordia's double-bottom fuel tanks could rupture in case of sudden shifting, spilling 2,200 metric tons (almost 500,000 million gallons) of heavy fuel into pristine sea around Giglio, which is part of a seven-island archipelago in some of the Mediterranean's most pristine waters and a prized fishing area.

But Gabrielli said pollutants found near the ship have been detergents and other substances, including chlorine, apparently from the wreck of the ship, which carried some 3,200 passengers and a crew of 1,000. Any fuel traces found were "compatible with what you find in a port," he said.

Ferries and cargo ships regularly call at Giglio's port.

Sophisticated oil-removal equipment has been standing by, waiting for the search-and-rescue operations to conclude before workers can start extracting the fuel in the tanks.

Giglio Mayor Sergio Orpelli told Sky TG24 TV that it was tentatively planned to begin fuel-removal operations on Monday but that the timetable ultimately depends on when the rescue efforts are concluded. "No hopes have been abandoned that someone might still be alive," Orpelli said.

Coast guard and fire rescue teams have said that the search will go on, as long as the weather holds and the Concordia stays stable.

The Italian captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest as prosecutors investigate him for suspected manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship while many were still aboard.

Operator Costa Crociere, a subsidiary of U.S.-based Carnival Cruise Lines, has said that Capt. Schettino had deviated without permission from the vessel's route in an apparent maneuver to sail close to the island and impress passengers.

Schettino, despite audiotapes of his defying Coast Guard orders to scramble back aboard, has denied he abandoned ship while hundreds of passengers were desperately trying to get off the capsizing vessel. He has said he coordinated the rescue from aboard a lifeboat and then from the shore.

Rome daily La Repubblica, citing what Schettino allegedly told prosecutors in Grosetto, Tuscany, when he was interrogated last week, quoted him as saying that Costa Crociere was aware of the "recurring practice" of nearing coastlines to salute those ashore. Schettino is quoted as saying that such a maneuver was planned by Costa executives before the ship left the port of Civitavecchia before dinner time on Jan. 13 to gain publicity for the company.

It was not immediately possible to confirm Schettino's allegations. Prosecutors cannot comment on details of a probe while it is still being conducted, and the office of Schettino's lawyer was closed Sunday.

Marco De Luca, a Costa Crociere lawyer, said the company is "an injured party" in the tragedy, which Costa executives have blamed on the captain's failure to follow the programmed route.

Giglio Mayor Orpelli said such "salutes" by passing cruise ships are rare.

Orpelli insisted that before the ill-fated Jan. 13 approach by the Concordia near the reef, the last previous time was on Aug. 14, when the island was celebrating a summer festival in the port, and that the maneuver was closely coordinated with island and navigational authorities. That summer salute was "carried out in perfect safety," the mayor told Sky, adding that he thanked the captain of that voyage "and told him to thank his crew."

Orpelli said that island officials were unaware of the Jan. 13 plan for such a salute.

___

D'Emilio reported from Rome. Fulvio Paolocci reported from Giglio.

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No. 23 Louisville drops Pittsburgh 73-62

Pittsburgh's Tray Woodall (1) fouls Louisville's Kyle Kuric (14) as he shoots in the first half of the NCAA college basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

Pittsburgh's Tray Woodall (1) fouls Louisville's Kyle Kuric (14) as he shoots in the first half of the NCAA college basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

Pittsburgh's Ashton Gibbs (12) hits a three-point shot over Louisville's Peyton Siva in the first half of the NCAA college basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

Louisville's Kyle Kuric (14) hits a three-point shot over Pittsburgh's Tray Woodall (1) in the first half of the NCAA college basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

Louisville's Russ Smith (2) looks to shot around Pittsburgh's Nasir Robinson in the first half of the NCAA college basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

Pittsburgh's Nasir Robinson (35) and Louisville's Russ Smith chase after a loose ball in the first half of the NCAA college basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

PITTSBURGH (AP) ? Kyle Kuric won't be able to shed the walking boot protecting his bum left ankle for at least one or two more weeks.

The Louisville senior forward can deal with the cumbersome shoe so long as it helps him play with the confidence he showed in the 23rd-ranked Cardinals' surprisingly easy 73-62 win over reeling Pittsburgh on Saturday night.

Kuric scored a season-high 21 points in his return after missing two games with a high ankle sprain, only occasionally favoring his injured leg.

"I didn't want to just get there and make excuses, 'Oh, my ankle's sore,'" Kuric said. "So I just put it outside of my mind."

Chane Behanan added a career-high 19 points, while Gorgui Dieng had 13 points and 14 rebounds for the Cardinals (15-5, 3-4 Big East), who took control during an 11-2 run midway through the second half to send the Panthers (11-9, 0-7) to their eighth straight loss.

"It's definitely tough, but at the same time, we have to continue to keep our heads up," Pitt guard Ashton Gibbs said. "If you want to win a game, you can't win a game and not be mentally there."

Gibbs and Lamar Patterson led Pitt with 14 points each but the defending Big East champions remained the only winless team in conference play.

The Panthers hoped the return of point guard Tray Woodall, who missed 11 of the last 12 games with groin and abdominal injuries, would end the program's longest losing streak in more than a decade.

Instead, Woodall went scoreless in 21 minutes, missing all five of his shots and turning it over three times. Pitt coach Jamie Dixon didn't blame Woodall for the sluggish play considering the lengthy layoff.

"We've got to get him out there," Dixon said. "He's got to play and he'll be better the next time out."

Kuric joined a long list of Cardinals players who have missed significant playing time due to injury when he turned his left ankle in practice a week ago, missing a win over DePaul and a loss to Marquette.

He practiced 20 minutes on Friday but wasted little time making an impact upon his return early in the first half. He took a charge on his first offensive defensive possession then hit a layup at the other end of the floor.

"He gave us a big lift in the first half," Pitino said. "Offensively you're so much better of a basketball team with him in."

It was the kind of leadership the Cardinals have lacked at times over the last month, when they lost five of seven to drop from No. 4 in the polls to the bottom half of the Big East.

They righted themselves in front of a national television audience at a place that used to be formidable. Pitt lost just 12 times in its first nine seasons at the Petersen Events Center. The Panthers have now dropped four straight on their home floor.

Pitt never led over the game's final 26 minutes, with its best chance of making a game of it coming when Dante Taylor's dunk drew the Panthers within 45-41 with 13:04 to play.

Then, the turnover problems that have plagued the Panthers all season returned. Louisville scored 11 of the game's next 13 points, six coming off Pitt giveaways. By the time Russ Smith buried a 3-pointer from the corner to put the Cardinals up 56-43, the packed house at the Pete started to thin out.

Pitt, the worst shooting team in the league, shot 55 percent (26 of 47) from the field but only made it to the free throw line six times, making just one.

Not exactly the kind of performance the Panthers ? the Big East's winningest program over the last decade ? were looking for in the midst of the toughest season Dixon's nine-year tenure.

The Panthers have spent the last two months searching for an identity after Woodall went down in a win over Duquesne on Nov. 30. His absence forced Gibbs to take over most of the ballhandling duties, with mixed results ? at best.

The Panthers looked more comfortable with Woodall running the show at the outset, racing to a quick 13-7 lead. But maybe Woodall was too anxious. He picked up two fouls before the game was 6 minutes old, and Pitt's rhythm disappeared.

Louisville turned an early six-point deficit into a 31-28 halftime lead, with Kuric displaying the kind of clutch shotmaking that makes him arguably the Big East's most improved player as a junior.

Thrust into a true leadership role this season, Kuric hasn't quite been able to muster the same magic. Yet he looked like his old self at times, calmly drilling 3-pointers from the corner and mixing it up as Louisville turned a typically tight series ? three of the last four meetings had been decided in overtime ? into a relative laugher.

It was the kind of win the Cardinals knew they needed to get back in the Big East race after late-game meltdowns against Georgetown and Notre Dame and 31-point whipping at the hands of lowly Providence.

"We said all along we've got to win two on the road and win our home games," Pitino said. "Now we're one game away from .500 getting back into this."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-22-T25-Louisville-Pittsburgh/id-34e067848469403ea5cff3ace27633b6

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Romney Lets Loose on 'Failed Leader' Gingrich (ABC News)

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Video: Gingrich surge reflecting a ?revolt? for GOP base?

Tablets, e-readers in 1 of every 4 hands now

Get an iPad, Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet over the holidays? You're not alone: Tablet and e-reader ownership increased by nearly double over the holidays, and more than 1 out of every 4 Americans now has one of the devices, according to a new study.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/46106789#46106789

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Facing long odds and steep climb, Santorum digs in

Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, talks with supporters at a campaign rally in Coral Springs, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Steve Mitchell)

Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, talks with supporters at a campaign rally in Coral Springs, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Steve Mitchell)

Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, speaks at a campaign rally in Coral Springs, Fla. Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Steve Mitchell)

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) ? Newt Gingrich has the momentum. Mitt Romney has the money.

Rick Santorum? He has neither at the moment.

Not that he's going to let details like that stop him from pressing ahead in his White House quest. Or, for that matter, hurdles like scant cash in an expensive state and a rapidly disappearing opportunity to emerge as the consensus candidate of conservative voters now that Gingrich has emerged as the leading anti-Romney candidate.

"Our feeling is that this is a three-person race," Santorum insisted on CNN's "State of the Union." He added that he felt "absolutely no pressure at all" to abandon his bid given Gingrich's rise.

Still, Santorum acknowledged a hard road ahead in what he called "a tough state for everybody."

"It's very, very expensive. It's a very short time frame," he said.

The former Pennsylvania senator placed third in Saturday's South Carolina primary.

Gingrich scored his first win, entering the Florida campaign with the political winds pushing the former House speaker from behind. Romney, who has raised mounds of cash, came in second and was ready to regroup with sophisticated political machines in the upcoming states, Florida included.

Underscoring Santorum's challenges, he was taking a few days away from the campaign trail in Florida this week to restock his thin campaign bank accounts. He plans fundraisers in other states, leaving Gingrich and Romney with free rein in Florida, while he stops in states such as Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri. Money is a necessity in a state like Florida with numerous expensive media markets and where campaigns are usually won on TV.

That's not a natural fit for Santorum, who has run his campaign on a shoestring and won the Iowa caucuses ? albeit narrowly ? by spending more than a year making house calls to voters and traveling the state in a pickup truck.

To make up ground and perhaps earn some free media, Santorum is going on the attack.

Standing in a strip mall's parking lot here Sunday before heading to fundraising events, Santorum cast Romney as an inconsistent figure who would not be an effective foil to President Barack Obama's re-election bid and argued that Gingrich was too "high risk" to be the Republican standard-bearer.

"Trust is a big issue in this election," Santorum told several hundred people. "Who are you going to trust when the pressure is on, when we're in that debate? It's great to be glib, but it's better to be principled."

He also met privately Sunday with pastors and delivered a sermon at Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach, where he emphasized his conservatism. Santorum, who sprinkles his campaign speeches with his Catholic faith, is banking on evangelicals to coalesce around him over the thrice-married Gingrich or Romney, a Mormon.

"Can he win? Only God knows," said David Babbin, a voter here who works at the nearby children's hospital and likes Santorum. "But I believe in miracles."

Still, he noted one of the candidate's challenges: "Rick Santorum is one of us. And that's his biggest flaw ... We live in a society that is 'American Idol' and Rick Santorum is not like that."

Santorum has other hurdles beyond what even admirers call his lack of charisma.

His tough talk on Social Security and Medicare ? ending benefits for wealthier retirees, cutting payments to those who don't need them ? is going to dog him here in a state of 3.3 million seniors, or 17 percent of the population. AARP estimates that more than a third of those seniors would have incomes below the poverty line without Social Security and one in three seniors rely on Social Security as their sole source of income.

Santorum didn't mention those proposals at his first public campaign event since the primary in South Carolina.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-22-Santorum/id-cd7ae785d1da49c5ac11e77b877fe2bb

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