Rough seas shut down cruise ship search, salvage efforts

A 17th body is recovered from the Costa Concordia, but at least 16 more people are missing as weather hampers efforts to remove a half-million gallons of fuel. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports from Isola del Giglio.

By msnbc.com news services

Published 11:55 a.m. ET

GIGLIO, Italy -- Inclement weather on Sunday has shut down search and salvage efforts at the site of the Costa Concordia cruise ship wreck off the island of Giglio near the Tuscan coast.

The ship shifted more than one inch overnight, and rescue divers were pulled from the water and are waiting for better conditions, NBC News has learned.

On Saturday, divers searching the submerged sixth floor deck found a woman?s body ? the 17th body found since the ship ran aground on Jan. 13. Sixteen people are still unaccounted for.

Related: 17th body found on Costa Concordia

Separately, a body found on the ship?s deck on Jan. 28 was identified as Erika Soria Molina, 25, of Peru. Molina was wearing a service uniform, and studied tourism in Peru and was born in the Andean city of Cuzco, southeast of Lima, the Associated Press reported.

High winds and rough seas delayed plans to begin pumping 500,000 gallons of fuel off the Concordia. That effort will likely continue midweek. A barge carrying pumping equipment that was attached to the capsized ship was withdrawn after strong winds and high waves worsened conditions for the divers working on the huge wreck.

DigitalGlobe

The Costa Concordia, carrying more than 4,200 passengers, ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy. At least 15 people died in the accident, and rescuers continue to search for others missing.

The operation, aimed at preventing an environmental disaster in the pristine waters off a marine nature reserve, could take up to one month to complete.

On Monday, Costa is expected to present a waste disposal plan, NBC News has learned. Furthermore, the company is considering offers for ship removal. The company is weighing bids and is expected to make its decision -- based on method and costs -- in two months. The removal could take up to 10 months.

The Costa Concordia disaster is expected to trigger the most expensive maritime insurance claim ever, and has set off a legal battle in which U.S. and Italian lawyers are preparing class-action and individual lawsuits against the operator, Costa Cruises.

In a bid to limit the fallout, Costa, a unit of Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise ship operator, has offered the more than 3,000 passengers $14,460 each in compensation on condition they drop any legal action.

Related: Passengers on wrecked ship offered $14,460

The Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest, suspected of causing the accident by steering too close to shore, and faces charges of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship before the evacuation was complete.

The ship's first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, has also been questioned by prosecutors but the company itself has not been implicated in the investigation at this stage.

NBC News, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/29/10263973-rough-seas-shut-down-cruise-ship-search-salvage-efforts

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Oscars tops iOS Apps of the Week (Appolicious)

This week?s top apps are quite media-centric. There are apps to make your Oscars viewing more enjoyable and apps to make your general TV watching more rewarding, too. There are even apps to keep up on digital media news and online videos. It?s the middle of winter, so you might as well pop down on the couch and enjoy these apps. It looks awfully windy outside, anyway.

The best award show of the year is less than a month away, and you can start planning your Oscars party now with the official app. Even though the actual show isn?t until February 26, the app has plenty going on before then. Right now users can view a full list of the nominees as well as check out movie trailers and other assorted videos. On the night of the show, the app will transform into a complement to the live broadcast, offering additional live camera angles for super Oscars fans to enjoy while they check out the broadcast on TV.

Shoebox is an app designed to help bring your old photos into the digital age. If you?ve got a bunch of old Polaroids lying around and don?t have a proper scanner to get them digitized, this app uses your iPhone to help you out by automatically detecting the photo?s edges and auto-flattening the image to adjust for the camera?s tilt. Once the photos are scanned in, they?re uploaded to the Shoebox website, where you can share them with their friend and family quickly and easily. Those who prefer their privacy can also opt to keep their uploaded photos private so that other users on Shoebox can?t view them.

paidContent Mobile News is the app version of paidContent.org, a website that keeps readers informed on the latest in the business of digital media. The app version boasts live updates for all of the paidContent web stories, with automatic refreshing throughout the day without users having to refresh the app themselves. Readers can also share stories through Twitter and Facebook. While paidContent Mobile News isn?t a glamorous app, it?s very useful if you enjoy following the business side of media.

Frequency lets you keep up on all your favorite online videos. You create personalized channels tailored to your specific interests, from sports to technology to music. You can then see highlights from all of your channels in the app?s ?My Feed,? section which acts like a best-of tab. If you?re tired of jumping from website to website to keep up with all of the web clips you want to watch, Frequency streamlines the process by creating a one-stop shop for web video.

Viggle is something like Foursquare for your TV viewing habits. The app lets you ?check-in? to your favorite TV shows as you watch them. Each time you check-in, you receive points from Viggle, which can later be redeemed for coupons and other rewards from retailers like Best Buy, Burger King and Fandango. If you already spend a lot of time hanging out watching TV, you might as well get rewarded for your efforts.

Create a list of your favorite iPhone apps

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/internet/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_appolicious_com_articles10906_oscars_tops_ios_apps_of_the_week/44358112/SIG=12h6e87op/*http%3A//www.appolicious.com/tech/articles/10906-oscars-tops-ios-apps-of-the-week

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Pardoned by Haley Barbour, a 'free man' is on the run

Convicted for killing a convenience store clerk in 1994, Joseph Ozment walked out of the Governor's Mansion after being pardoned by Gov. Haley Barbour on Jan. 8 and hasn't been seen since.

Declaring Joseph Ozment ?rehabilitated,? Gov. Haley Barbour included the convicted killer among over 200 pardons he issued in his last days as governor of Mississippi.

Skip to next paragraph

Mr. Ozment was last seen leaving the Governor's Mansion, where he was a convict ?trusty,? on Jan. 8 when he got into a car driven by his grandmother.

Ozment, whom Barbour described Friday as a ?free man,? is now being sought by Mississippi authorities investigating the constitutionality of Barbour's mass pardons, which shocked many Mississippians, including victims and law enforcement. The list included over 40 murderers, rapists and others convicted of violent crimes.

OPINION:?Congress must allow ex-prisoners to vote

The unusual manhunt is the latest twist in a peculiar tale of Southern patriarchy and redemption that has dogged Mr. Barbour since he left office earlier this month. The governor has defended his actions, saying the state pardon board had already freed most of the people, and that the clemency was mainly designed to give worthy ex-convicts the right to vote and hunt.

But national scrutiny has revealed that those pardoned were both disproportionately white and many had access to powerful interests in the state. In the aftermath, the state ended its mansion ?trusty? program, a judge is deciding the constitutionality of the majority, and the legislature is weighing several bills to curtail the pardon process.

At the same time, the pardons also touched on deeper issues around the nature of redemption and mercy for a country that has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world.

?While his timing and transparency are in question, he has at least reopened a needed national discussion on how justice must be tempered by mercy,? wrote the Monitor's editorial board last week.

But in Mississippi, that debate has taken backseat to concerns about Ozment's whereabouts. While four other former mansion ?trusties? that were released have checked back in with the judge, and vowed to maintain daily contact, Ozment has disappeared.

Attorney General Jim Hood, who called Barbour's mass pardons ?a slap to the face? of victims and the judicial system, said Ozment was last seen in northwest Mississippi, from where he hails.

A CNN crew trying to track him down also traveled to Memphis, Tenn., and Birmingham, Ala., where Ozment has family, but have so far come up short. On Jan. 17, the network carried an interview with Anthony McCray, one of the five former mansion ?trusties? pardoned by Barbour. Mr. McCray called Ozment and the other trusties ?nice guys,? and suggested that ?God touched Haley Barbour's heart? as the reason why Barbour signed the pardons.

The search has raised unprecedented issues, including the extent to which the state can legally force Ozment, who's not wanted for any crime and now has a clean criminal record, to report to a judge.

The issue became only murkier on Friday when Attorney General Jim Hood hinted that there could be a financial reward for information on his whereabouts. Mr. Hood has said he may begin a criminal investigation if Ozment continues to refuse to surface.

The fact that Ozment hasn't abided by a judge's order to report for a hearing suggests to Hood that he may be a threat to public safety.

?He doesn't have a lot to lose if he thinks he's going back to prison for life," Hood said Friday. "That's what concerns me about the public safety."

OPINION:?Congress must allow ex-prisoners to vote

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Dfm7_jf_H-Y/Pardoned-by-Haley-Barbour-a-free-man-is-on-the-run

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Keep the dishwasher and fridge apart; save a bundle on energy

Why would you put a device that gets hot next to a device that gets cold? They would both be using energy to fight the effects of the appliance next door.

Your dishwasher gets hot. Your dishwasher also gets moist, meaning it?s harder to cool down the air around it. Your refrigerator gets cold. So does your freezer.

Skip to next paragraph Trent Hamm

The Simple Dollar is a blog for those of us who need both cents and sense: people fighting debt and bad spending habits while building a financially secure future and still affording a latte or two. Our busy lives are crazy enough without having to compare five hundred mutual funds ? we just want simple ways to manage our finances and save a little money.

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Why would you put a device that gets hot next to a device that gets cold? No insulation is perfect, after all, so they would both be using energy to fight the effects of the appliance next door.

So many elements of frugality and personal finance come down to paying attention to the details. This is one of those little detail things that so many people will overlook, but over time it just continually costs you money.

When we moved into our current home, one of the things that annoyed me about it was the relatively small kitchen. It wasn?t much larger than the kitchen in our small apartment, having only a small counter that the other did not have.

Even worse, the refrigerator was installed next to the dishwasher, and the only way to fix it would involve an extensive reworking of our kitchen, as the cabinets are all formed around slots for the appliances.

There?s no doubt that energy is lost in this process. The dishwasher, while running a cycle, puts off a tremendous amount of heat, some of which you can feel on the side of the refrigerator. I often hear the refrigerator kicking on just a minute or two after starting a dishwasher load due to the rise in internal temperature of the refrigerator. It?s actively costing us money.

So, what can we do about this? At the moment, not much. Other than the side-by-side appliance issue, our kitchen is laid out fairly well for its size. Although we?ve looked at alternate arrangements, none of them have provided enough value to be worth the cost of rearranging things.

One short-term fix we?ve done is to insert a piece of thin insulation between the two appliances. There was just enough room for a small piece of insulation to fit between the two, so we purchased a piece of heat-resistant insulation. While this isn?t a perfect fix, it does reduce the heat directly transferred between the two devices.

We also try to make an effort to keep the refrigerator door closed while the dishwasher is running. Opening the refrigerator door while the dishwasher is running causes the cool and dry air to rush out and the warm, damp air to move in, making it that much harder for the refrigerator to do its job.

However, we do plan to build a new house in the future. When we do that, we?ll make sure to avoid having a ?hot? appliance next to a ?cold? one. In fact, in our latest design sketches (a fun project that Sarah and I work on sometimes in the evenings is doing sketches on the computer of what our dream house would be like), the refrigerator and dishwasher are pretty far apart, with a large counterspace between the refrigerator and the sink and the dishwasher on the other side of the sink.

Another thing to watch out for: avoid having your refrigerator or freezer next to an air vent, particularly if you live in northern climates. During the winter, your air vent will be blowing out hot air, which you don?t want blowing directly onto your refrigerator. This is something else to consider when designing or re-designing a kitchen, as it?s all about the energy efficiency.

Will this save you a lot of money or a little? It?s really hard to measure, as it depends on the modes you?re running in your refrigerator and dishwasher, the amount of insulation between the two, and countless other factors. However, I?d have to be oblivious to not hear our refrigerator kicking on and running almost contiunously when our dishwasher is running. If a simple kitchen design decision will make a real difference in how much your refrigerator is running, it?s well worth keeping in mind as a principle.

This post is part of a yearlong series called ?365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),? in which I?m revisiting the entries from my book ?365 Ways to Live Cheap,? which is available at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere.?

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on www.thesimpledollar.com.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/mhOTWZaL5s0/Keep-the-dishwasher-and-fridge-apart-save-a-bundle-on-energy

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Neeson's 'The Grey' tops box office with $20M (AP)

NEW YORK ? Beware the Liam in Winter.

Liam Neeson's "The Grey" topped the weekend box office with $20 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, continuing the actor's success as an action star in the winter months.

The Alaskan survivalist thriller opened above expectations with a performance on par with previous Neeson thrillers "Taken" and "Unknown." Those films, both January-February releases, opened with $24.7 million and $21.9 million, respectively.

But the R-rated "The Grey," which has received good reviews, drove home the strong appeal of Neeson, action star. It's an unlikely turn for the 59-year-old Neeson, previously better known for his dramatic performances, like those in "Schindler's List" and "Kinsey."

"Liam is a true movie star, period," said Tom Ortenberg, CEO of Open Road Films. It's the second release for the newly formed distributor, created by theater chains AMC and Regal.

"My guess is that Liam Neeson in action thrillers would work just about any time of year."

January is often a dumping ground for less-stellar releases, a tradition held up by two badly reviewed new wide releases: "Man on Ledge," with Sam Worthington, and "One for the Money" with Katherine Heigl.

"One for the Money" fared better, earning $11.8 million, while "Man on Ledge" opened with $8.3 million.

Those were reasonably solid returns, and, in an unusual twist, were both ultimately for Lions Gate Entertainment. Its film studio, Lionsgate, released the romantic comedy "One for the Money." The action thriller "Man on Ledge" was released by Summit Entertainment, which Lions Gate bought for $412.5 million earlier this month.

"One for the Money" was helped by a promotion with Groupon, the Internet discount site, with which Lionsgate previously partnered for "The Lincoln Lawyer." David Spitz, head of distribution for Lionsgate, said the large number of older, female subscribers of Groupon matched well with the audience of "One for the Money."

Groupon email blasts, he said, had a significant promotional effect.

Last week's box-office leader, "Underworld: Awakenings," Sony's Screen Gem's latest installment in its vampire series, came in second with $12.5 million, bringing its cumulative total to $45.1 million.

The unexpectedly large haul for "The Grey," strong holdovers (such as the George Lucas-produced World War II action film "Red Tails," which earned $10.4 million in its second week) and the bump for Oscar contending films following Tuesday's nominations added up to a good weekend for Hollywood. The box office was up about 15 percent on the corresponding weekend last year.

So far, every weekend this year has been an "up" weekend, after a somewhat dismal fourth quarter in 2011.

"`Mission: Impossible,' I think, really helped reinvigorate the marketplace, and that's carried over into the first part of the year," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "That's good news for Hollywood after the down-trending box office of 2011."

Oscar favorites "The Descendants," Hugo" and "The Artist" sought to capitalize on their recent Academy Awards nominations. Each expanded to more theaters and saw an uptick in business.

Fox Searchlight's "The Descendants," which is nominated for five Oscars including best picture, added 1,441 screens in its 11th week of release. It added $6.6 million and has now made $58.8 million, making it one of Fox Searchlight's most successful releases.

Sheila DeLoach, senior vice president of distribution for Fox Searchlight, said the film's nominations and its recent Golden Globes wins (for best drama and best actor, George Clooney) "played a big role" in its weekend box office.

Paramount's "Hugo," which led Oscar nominations with 11 including best picture, saw a 143 percent jump in business over its last weekend. In its tenth week of release, it earned $2.3 million, bringing its total to $58.7 million.

The Weinstein Co.'s "The Artist," with 10 Oscar nominations including best picture, expanded a modest 235 screens to bring it to a total of 897 screens in its 10th week of release. It earned $3.3 million, with a total of $16.7 million.

The Weinstein Co. is being careful with the black-and-white, largely silent film. Thus far, it has appealed particularly to older audiences.

"It's not the same type of picture as any other picture in the marketplace," said Erik Loomis, head of distribution for the Weinstein Co. "Now that the nominations are out, we're going to look to capitalize on it as best we can. ... We're being very, very meticulous with it. We're not throwing it out there and grabbing every theater we can. At some point, we'll open the floodgates on the movie, maybe closer to the awards."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "The Grey," $20 million.

2. "Underworld: Awakening," $12.5 million.

3. "One for the Money," $11.8 million.

4. "Red Tails," $10.4 million.

5. "Man on Ledge," $8.3 million.

6. "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," $7.1 million.

7. "The Descendants," $6.6 million.

8. "Contraband," $6.5 million.

9. "Beauty and the Beast," $5.3 million.

10. "Haywire," $4 million.

___

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com/boxoffice

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_en_ot/us_box_office

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Iolo System Mechanic 10.7

If sluggish PC performance is giving you the blues, you'd do well to invest in the $39.95 Iolo System Mechanic 10.7, a utility suite?designed to blow the virtual dust out of worn machines by repairing the registry, defragging the hard drive, and eliminating files that stymie snappy performance. Iolo System Mechanic 10.7 serves up a host of new features not present in previous builds we've reviewed, including Designated Drivers which manages drivers in an attempt to keep your PC problem free. All in all, Iolo System Mechanic remains one of the best PC tune-up utilities around, as it digs deep, cleans up PCs well, and offers informative, easy-to-understand help about the problems that plague computers.

System Requirements and Interface
Compatible with Windows 7, Vista, and XP PCs, Iolo System Mechanics 10 requires just 30MB of disk space, 256MB of RAM, and an Internet connection for activating the license.?Unlike most PC tune-up utilities such as TuneUp Utilities 2012 (4 stars, $49.95), which limit you on the number of licenses, Iolo System Mechanic 10.7 lets you install the software on any number of computers provided that it's not for business purposes?a welcome feature in the age of the multi-PC household.

The interface looks very similar to previous entries in the Iolo System Mechanic family with the familiar red-white-and-blue color scheme. Like the previous version of System Mechanic, this version has several options in the left pane (Overview, Problems, Automated Tasks, Anti-malware, Firewall, All-in-One Tools, Individual Tools) the content of which appears in the main pane when clicked.

Iolo System Mechanic 10.7 also installs a useful widget on the desktop that gives you at-a-glance PC health and security readings. From this widget, you can launch any number of Iolo System Mechanic 10.7's features to begin the clean up process.

The Clean Up Process
The Overview screen opens by default when the program is launched, and it's where the "Analyze Now" button lives. Clicking the arrow next to it opened drop-down box that presented two choices: "Perform Quick Analysis" and "Perform Deep Analysis." The former is a one- to two-minute scan that looks for the most common PC problems; the latter is a five- to seven-minute scan that checks for all problems. Considering the heavy use that our test laptop had received, I went with the second option. Approximately six minutes later finished the scan and uncovered over 2,000 problems.

Beneath the reading appeared a highlighted message: "Boost speed and stability by removing redundant programs with CRUDD Remover." CRUDD is Iolo's acronym for Commonly Redundant or Unnecessary Decelerators and Destabilizers?fancy talk for duplicate programs that clog your system. The idea behind CRUDD Remover is to eliminate those extra programs as each application install theoretically slows your PC's performance a bit. After running CRUDD Remover, 9 problems were detected on the PC, which were explained in wonderful detail on the "Problems" screen.

What I found truly cool was that Iolo System Mechanic 10 didn't just serve up a number?it provided blurbs that explained why these problems negatively impact performance. I checked off all nine problems, clicked the "Repair All" button, and performed the required reboot. Performing another deep scan revealed that all but one problem was fixed, and that straggler was one beyond Iolo System Mechanic 10.7's scope: No installed anti-malware program was detected on the system.

I also ran Iolo's patent-pending Program Accelerator, which smartly re-aligns all of a program's dependent files on the hard drive. It's touted as being better than disk defragmenters, which can blindly compact and separate files even more. Program Accelerator took approximately 15 minutes for to work its magic, and, when it was done, I discovered that it had re-aligned over 30,000 files and eliminated nearly 100 file fragments. Four further files were defragmented after a restart.

Performance Improvements
I tested Iolo System Mechanic 10.7's ability to whip a PC back into shape by performing three tests?running the Geekbench system performance tool, measuring boot times, and transferring a 1.1GB folder of mixed media to external storage?before and after running the software to compare the computer's potency. Each test was run three times and averaged. Before AVG PC Tuneup 2011 scrubbed the system, the 2-GHz Intel Core i7 X990 Style-Note notebook with 4GB of RAM, and an 80GB Intel SSD drive achieved a 5,903 Geekbench score, booted in 50.3 seconds, and transferred the 1.1GB folder in 40.5 seconds.

After using Iolo System Mechanic 10.7, the system saw the most improved performance of all the tune-up utilities tested: The GeekBench score rose to 6064 (better than TuneUp Utilities 2012's 6045); the boot time decreased to just 37.1 seconds (on a par with TuneUp Utilities 2012's 37 seconds). The file transfer speed dropped to 40.8 seconds (swifter than TuneUp Utilities 2012's 41.1 seconds).?The overall system performance was incredibly fast and snappy?windows and menus opened in a blink.

Designated Drivers and NetBooster
Designated Drivers, a new feature to version 10.7, helps you find and install safe drivers for your computer?drivers that have been tested and certified by Microsoft. I liked that this driver utility is a part of Iolo System Mechanic 10.7 and not a separate application (which is the case with SlimWare Utilities SlimCleaner and SlimWare Utilities DiverUpdate). Designated Drivers found two driver updates for my PC, but Slimware Utilities DriverUpdate found a whopping 74.

The NetBooster internet booster is designed to stabilize and speed up your internet connection by optimizing settings?Iolo states that it's beneficial to run it before playing Web-connected video games and assists in opening Web pages faster. Cracked.com loaded in 5.9 seconds before running NetBooster, which decreased slightly (after clearing the browser's Internet history, rebooting, and activating the tool) to 5.3 seconds?a marginal increase.

Should You Use Iolo System Mechanic 10.7?
The answer is a resounding yes. Iolo System Mechanic 10.7 has simple interface, easy-to-understand problem definitions, and a deep array of performance-enhancing tools that produce excellent all-around scores. Iolo System Mechanic remains the PC tune-up-utility champion.

More Utility Suites Reviews:
??? Iolo System Mechanic 10.7
??? Diskeeper 2011 Professional
??? Avanquest Fix-It Utilities 11 Professional
??? Norton Utilities
??? AVG PC Tuneup 2011
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/cN6RUJA1WVY/0,2817,2371043,00.asp

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17-year-old girl dies in Mt. Hood snowboarding accident

PORTLAND ? A 17-year-old Sandy girl was found dead after a snowboarding accident at Skibowl Friday night.

Taylur Dewolf was reported missing at around 10:30 p.m. Friday, according to Sgt. James Rhodes of the Clackamas County Sheriff?s Office. Her family and friends said they had last seen her three hours earlier.

Rescue crews found her body near Dog Leg Run at about 11:05 p.m., Rhodes said. She had apparently lost control while snowboarding at a very high rate of speed, and had run into a tree just off of the groomed run.

She suffered severe trauma to her head and chest. Investigators said she was wearing a helmet.

John Vermas, at Skibowl, said it was the first death at the resort since 1996.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46174482/ns/local_news-portland_or/

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Myanmar shift to democracy not over, more reforms ahead:minister (Reuters)

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) ? Myanmar has already done a lot to reconnect with the international community and win investment, but the return to democracy is not complete and more political and economic reforms are needed, its trade minister said on Saturday.

Myanmar has opened up to the outside world with astonishing speed since a civilian government took office last March after five decades of army rule, releasing political prisoners and launching democratic reforms.

The prospect of the end of Western sanctions imposed for human rights abuses has prompted a surge of interest from investors who view the former Burma as one of Asia's last "frontier markets."

But asked whether he thought Myanmar has done enough to get U.S. sanctions lifted, U Soe Thane told Reuters Television:

"A lot of things we have done, but many more we have to do in the near future. The democratic process is not finished yet."

"We have a lot of things to reform and lots of things have to change: laws, regulations and institutions, not only in the political sector but also in the economic sectors. But sanctions are up to them."

U Soe Thane, who leads Myanmar's first official delegation at the World Economic Forum after five decades of isolation, said he was encouraged by dozens of meetings with leaders and executives at the annual gathering.

"I met a lot of people here, other ministers and CEOs, more than 20, and we discussed co-development," he said.

"Our location, our market and resource potential are very important for them so they are willing to invest in our country."

Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said in video address to the forum earlier this week that the minister's presence was a sign of positive changes in the country.

She said that the nation has not yet reached its "great transformation," but an election in April could bring that point closer and preparations for the polls kept her from attending the summit.

Years of economic mismanagement by the military coupled with U.S. and European sanctions have left the economy in tatters with infrastructure that is rudimentary at best and about a third of its 60 million people living on a dollar a day.

But its rich gas deposits and other natural resources, large and young workforce, and a potential as a tourism destination barely touched by development are making it an attractive target for companies seeking to grow while mature economies struggle.

Japan's trade minister led a group of executives at the start of the year and a similar delegation of U.S. businesses is expected to visit the country next month.

Myanmar's energy minister earlier this week told Reuters energy companies from Norway, Brazil, Russia and Japan were all interested in investments in the sector.

In Davos, Starwood Hotels & Resorts - which runs chains such as Westin, Sheraton and Le Meridien - and Marriott International both expressed interest in running hotels in Myanmar.

(Writing by Tomasz Janowski; Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/wl_nm/us_davos_myanmar

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The Love Box is an analog video mixer, house of mirrors for your iPhone (video)

There's something romantic about hacking the iPhone, especially when it means finding ways to personalize the massively popular handset. Apps like Instagram may help you realize artistic talent, but software just doesn't get those creative juices flowing like an old-fashioned piece of hardware can. Despite its taboo-sounding name, The Love Box isn't an adult toy in the traditional sense, instead serving as an analog video (and stills) mixer for your iPhone 4 or 4S. Consisting of a wooden box and an angled sliding mirror, the homegrown contraption lets you simultaneously capture the action in front of and behind you in a single image. It was originally designed in Barcelona to capture two people conversing for a documentary called "The Love Box Conversations," hence the name. The "lowest-tech accessory for the highest-tech phone" is available now as part of a very limited initial run of 100 units, and can be yours for €57.63 (about $77.50) if you hit up the source link below.

Continue reading The Love Box is an analog video mixer, house of mirrors for your iPhone (video)

The Love Box is an analog video mixer, house of mirrors for your iPhone (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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California Prison System: End Of Federal Oversight Not Certain, Interview Suggests

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The court-appointed receiver overseeing California's prison health care system said Friday the state must keep its promise to spend more than $2 billion for new medical facilities before the federal courts can end an oversight role that has lasted six years.

California committed to spending $750 million to upgrade existing medical facilities, building a new $906 million medical center and converting juvenile lockups at a cost of $817 million. So far, only the new medical center in Stockton is being built.

Receiver J. Clark Kelso told The Associated Press that the state must begin all the upgrades before it should be allowed to retake control of a prison medical system once deemed so poor that it was found to have violated inmates' constitutional rights. They are his first public comments since a federal judge last week told officials to begin preparing for an end to the receivership.

"That leaves a court order that the state is now out of compliance with," Kelso said during the 75-minute interview. "The courts have been promised construction for the last half-decade. Somehow those promises don't get kept."

California officials are analyzing the need for new medical facilities in light of a state law that took effect last year that is sending lower-level criminals to county jails instead of state prisons. Federal judges have ordered the state to reduce its prison population by 33,000 inmates over two years to improve the treatment of mentally and physically ill inmates, a decision that has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

At its height in 2006, California's inmate population was more than 162,000.

Kelso said the medical center that is under construction in Stockton and the $750 million in upgrades are needed even if the state has fewer inmates. Conversion of the juvenile lockups was to have included new housing and treatment facilities for sick and mentally ill inmates.

Kelso has been negotiating with officials from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and attorneys representing inmates after a federal judge issued a notice saying it was time to begin ending the federal receivership. Court oversight of medical care in the nation's largest state prison system has led to improvements in inmate health care that have cost California taxpayers billions of dollars.

"We'll just see if the parties can't find a middle ground for agreement," Kelso said.

The pace of those negotiations will determine how quickly the state can retake control of its prison health care operations, he said.

Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate said he wanted to see the receivership end as early as this summer, although he also said it would be appropriate for the courts to maintain some type of oversight role to ensure that inmate care does not deteriorate.

"I think the sooner we return day-to-day operations to the state, the better," Cate told the AP in an interview earlier this week. "We need to work out the construction issues, obviously, and I know that Clark is also concerned about making sure there's a strong structure in place to maintain the strides we've made. But if we can work those issues out, I'd love to see it be this summer."

Kelso said the state also should create a quasi-independent medical bureaucracy within the corrections department to make sure the state doesn't backslide because of budget cuts or a lack of interest.

"A lot of that has to do with budget independence and the independence of the head of prison health care really to control his or her budget," Kelso said. "They can't just get lost in the big haze that is the corrections budget."

He said the corrections department traditionally has focused on keeping inmates safely locked up, with a lesser emphasis on the well-being of those prisoners, and it is unclear if that culture has changed.

Citing inmate overcrowding as the leading cause, the federal courts previously found that medical care for California prisoners was so poor that an average of one inmate a week was dying of neglect or malpractice. It ordered the prison population reduced, prompting the department to send layoff notices this week to 545 employees because fewer workers are needed as the number of inmates declines.

In the notice he filed last week, U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson said conditions had improved enough to consider ending the receivership. He said most of the goals of the federal oversight had been met.

The San Francisco-based judge ordered Kelso, state officials and inmates' attorneys to report by April 30 on when the receivership should end and whether it should continue some role in ensuring that conditions remained constitutional.

"I think this all depends much more on the state's progress than on mine," Kelso said. "Frankly, if the construction had been done as promised, I'd be a hell of a lot closer."

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/california-prison-system-oversight_n_1238200.html

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