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Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Dec. 19-25. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Football: Chicago at Green Bay, NBC, 24.02 million.
2. "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 18.67 million.
3. "Football Night in America," NBC, 14.73 million.
4. "The X-Factor" (Thursday), Fox, 12.59 million.
5. "NCIS," CBS, 12.37 million.
6. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 11.43 million.
7. "The X-Factor" (Wednesday), Fox, 11.23 million.
8. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 9.28 million.
9. "The Mentalist," CBS, 8.47 million.
10. "Person of Interest," CBS, 8.14 million.
11. "Unforgettable," CBS, 8.09 million.
12. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 7.95 million.
13. "Mike & Molly," CBS, 7.77 million.
14. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 7.35 million.
15. "CSI: NY," CBS, 7.33 million.
16. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 7.29 million.
17. "Terra Nova," Fox, 7.24 million.
18. "2 Broke Girls," CBS, 7.2 million.
19. "Hawaii Five-0," CBS, 7.03 million.
20. "Criminal Minds," CBS, 6.78 million.
___
ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.; CBS is a division of CBS Corp.; Fox is a unit of News Corp.; NBC is owned by NBC Universal.
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Yahoo! News reports that China has unveiled a high-speed six-car train on Tuesday. The prototype train, which is manufactured by state-owned CSR Corp., is capable of traveling at speeds of up to 310 miles per hour.
Built from plastic reinforced with carbon fibre and magnesium alloy, the train was designed to be lightweight and inspired by an ancient Chinese sword for its looks.
The unveiling pushed through despite the high-speed rail accident that happened last July that claimed the lives of 40 people.
Source: China unveils high-speed train despite safety woes
Image: engadget.com
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MANILA, Philippines ? The death toll from flash floods that swept away entire villages in the southern Philippines climbed to nearly 1,500 on Tuesday, as authorities widened their search for bodies.
The Office of Civil Defense's latest tally listed 891 dead in Cagayan de Oro and an additional 451 in nearby Iligan city. The rest came from several other provinces. Most of the dead are unidentified.
"The search will continue as long as we are recovering bodies," said Civil Defense head Benito Ramos.
He said that decomposing remains were retrieved floating in the sea as far as 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the two cities where a Dec. 16 tropical storm unleashed more than a month's worth of rainfall in 12 hours, sending walls of water gushing into homes.
One of the dead was a headless girl who appeared to have been hit by logs that were carried by flash floods, Ramos said. She was among 13 bodies retrieved by a team of navy sailors.
Navy and coast guard divers were initially sent to find more bodies believed to be pinned down by logs scattered in the sea and along riverbanks, but Ramos said the operation had to be called off because waters were too murky. "It's useless to dive when you can see nothing," he said.
It was not clear how many more are missing.
More than 60,000 homeless from hundreds of flood-ravaged villages spent a miserable Christmas in jam-packed schools and gymnasiums, while the United Nations launched an urgent appeal for $28 million to help the displaced ? more than half the population of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, which are in the southern Philippines' Mindanao region.
More rains Tuesday prompted evacuations of nearly 2,000 people on the opposite side of Mindanao Island, where a child was reported missing in floods in Surigao city, the civil defense reported.
President Benigno Aquino III, who banned logging in February following previous flooding deaths that experts say were caused partly by deforestation and soil erosion, has ordered an investigation.
Communist guerrillas in the south, meanwhile, threatened to punish multinational companies they blame for environmental destruction.
Rebel spokesman Jorge Madlos told The Associated Press by telephone that they sought funds for victims from huge pineapple and banana plantations and other companies.
"Some were lukewarm to our call," Madlos said. "That'll be a factor when we decide which ones to punish first for this destruction."
Another factor in the staggering death toll was illegal settlements along Cagayan rivers. Thousands of people lived in shanties on the banks and islands directly along the water's path.
___
Associated Press writer Jim Gomez contributed to this report.
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Stamford firefighter Nick Tamburro pays respect outside the home of Madonna Badger in Stamford, Conn., Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011. A fire at the home on Christmas morning killed Badger's three daughters and parents. The Christmas Day fire that killed three children and their grandparents was a tragic accident related to a fireplace in the home, not the result of foul play, Stamford Mayor Michael Pavia said Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
Stamford firefighter Nick Tamburro pays respect outside the home of Madonna Badger in Stamford, Conn., Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011. A fire at the home on Christmas morning killed Badger's three daughters and parents. The Christmas Day fire that killed three children and their grandparents was a tragic accident related to a fireplace in the home, not the result of foul play, Stamford Mayor Michael Pavia said Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
A section of a house where an early morning fire left five people dead is seen Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011 in Stamford, Conn. Officials said the fire, which was reported shortly before 5 a.m., killed two adults and three children. Two others escaped. Their names have not been released. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)
STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) ? An uncle of three girls killed with their grandparents in a Christmas morning house fire said Wednesday family members are devastated by the tragedy but comforted by each other and an outpouring of public sympathy.
Campbell Badger said that his brother Matthew Badger was devoted to his daughters. He says their family appreciates the prayers and support it has received.
"Matthew is devastated," Campbell Badger said Wednesday. "He's doing as best as can be expected under the circumstances."
Matthew Badger hasn't commented publicly since 10-year-old Lily and 7-year-old twins Grace and Sarah died of smoke inhalation along with their mother's parents, Lomer and Pauline Johnson.
Lomer Johnson also suffered a blunt head and neck trauma, which could have resulted from a fall or being hit by an object, according to the medical examiner.
Matthew Badger and the girls' mother, Madonna Badger, are divorcing, and he was not at the home when it was engulfed by flames.
Authorities say embers in a bag of discarded fireplace ashes started the blaze.
Madonna Badger, an advertising executive and the home's owner, escaped from the fire, as did Michael Borcina, a friend and contractor working on the house. Borcina was released from a hospital on Wednesday morning, a spokeswoman said.
As flames shot from the three-story home, Madonna Badger climbed out a window onto scaffolding, screaming for her children and pointing to the third floor.
Firefighters went into the house twice trying to rescue the victims but were forced out by the blaze's intensity.
Borcina and Lomer Johnson, a department store Santa Claus who spent a long career as safety and security director for a Louisville, Ky.-based liquor company, tried to save them, as well. One of the girls, found dead just inside a window, had been placed on a pile of books, apparently so Johnson could reach in and grab her after he jumped out.
Instead, authorities say, Johnson fell through the roof outside the window and was found dead in the rear of the house. He and his wife, both of Southbury, had been visiting their daughter for the holidays.
A Badger family and Johnson family statement issued by Madonna Badger's brother on Wednesday night said they wanted to express their thoughts and prayers for the people who've been "so deeply impacted by the tragedy on Christmas morning."
"We also want to say thank you for all of the prayers and well wishes that have come in from around the country and the world," said the families' statement, released by Wade Johnson. "We can feel the warmth of your prayers surrounding us as we struggle to cope with the tragic loss of our family members."
The Department of Consumer Protection said its records show neither Borcina nor his company, Tiberias Construction Inc., is currently registered to perform home improvement work in Connecticut. Registration is required by state law and provides certain contractual rights to the consumer, according to the department.
"We do not yet have enough information about what work was being done or had been completed," the agency said. "We will address the pertinent regulatory issues in due course."
Repeated attempts to contact Borcina by telephone since the fire killed the children and their grandparents have been unsuccessful.
Campbell Badger said his nieces were "wonderful, delightful energetic children."
"They were loved tremendously by their mother and their father, who always put their kids first," he said.
He said his brother, a television commercial director who lives in New York, was involved in all aspects of his daughters' lives and played all types of games and activities with them, including soccer, rollerblading and painting.
He said the Johnson and Badger families are grateful for the public support, which has included floral bouquets, stuffed animals and candles left by passers-by at the site of the torn-down Victorian home.
"We are really touched," he said. "Everyone wants to help in any way they can. We feel it, and it's remarkable."
___
Associated Press writer Stephen Singer contributed to this report from Hartford.
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In this Monday, Dec. 19, 2011 photo, billionaire Indian tycoon Ajay Piramal speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at his office in Mumbai, India. In May last year, Piramal's healthcare business sold its generic drug operations to U.S. pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories for $3.8 billion. Piramal was eager to set that cash pile to work and wanted to expand one of his chemical plants, but was told it would take five years. With the country mired in corruption, bureaucratic red tape and unclear and changing government policies, many of the men who made their billions here are saying maybe it's time to quit India. It's got to be easier to do business elsewhere. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
In this Monday, Dec. 19, 2011 photo, billionaire Indian tycoon Ajay Piramal speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at his office in Mumbai, India. In May last year, Piramal's healthcare business sold its generic drug operations to U.S. pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories for $3.8 billion. Piramal was eager to set that cash pile to work and wanted to expand one of his chemical plants, but was told it would take five years. With the country mired in corruption, bureaucratic red tape and unclear and changing government policies, many of the men who made their billions here are saying maybe it's time to quit India. It's got to be easier to do business elsewhere. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
In this Monday, Dec. 19, 2011 photo, billionaire Indian tycoon Ajay Piramal speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at his office in Mumbai, India. In May last year, Piramal's healthcare business sold its generic drug operations to U.S. pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories for $3.8 billion. Piramal was eager to set that cash pile to work and wanted to expand one of his chemical plants, but was told it would take five years. With the country mired in corruption, bureaucratic red tape and unclear and changing government policies, many of the men who made their billions here are saying maybe it's time to quit India. It's got to be easier to do business elsewhere. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
MUMBAI, India (AP) ? Ajay Piramal is sitting on a mountain of cash. Yet the billionaire Indian tycoon, working in one of the world's fastest growing economies, is struggling to figure out what to do with the money.
The problem isn't opportunity, he said. It's India.
"Every large investment, there was no transparency," Piramal said.
His dilemma is a worrying sign for India. With the country mired in corruption, bureaucratic red tape and unclear and changing government policies, many of the men who made their billions here are saying maybe it's time to quit India. It's got to be easier to do business elsewhere.
In May last year, Piramal's healthcare business sold its generic drug operations to U.S. pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories for $3.8 billion. Piramal, a tall big man in a country that still measures prosperity by girth, was eager to set that cash pile to work. He wanted to expand one of his chemical plants, but was told it would take five years.
"The same plant could be set up in China in two years," he said. "I love India, but my customer is not going to wait."
India, still a beacon of relatively fast growth despite a troubled world economy, should be a magnet for capital. Instead, since the beginning of 2010, the amount that Indians have invested in businesses overseas has exceeded the amount foreigners are investing in India, according to central bank figures.
In part this reflects the confidence and aptitude of India's maturing companies and the current malaise in the global economy and financial markets. But it also reflects deep problems at home. India's big coporations may be cash rich but the failure to invest that money domestically is bad news for a developing country that needs capital to build the roads, power plants and food warehouses that could help lift hundreds of millions out of dire poverty.
The frustration of India's business elite with corruption, political paralysis, log-jammed approvals, regulatory flip-flops, lack of access to natural resources and land acquisition battles ? to pick a few of the top complaints ? has reached a pitch perhaps not heard since India began liberalizing its economy in the early 1990s.
"If you are an honest businessman in India, it's very difficult to start up anything," said Jamshyd Godrej, chairman of manufacturing giant Godrej & Boyce. "Companies are going to operate where they see the best opportunities and efficiency for their capital."
Increasingly, that's outside India.
In 2008, foreigners poured roughly twice as much direct investment into India ? $33 billion ? as Indians plowed into businesses overseas. By 2010, that had reversed: Indians invested $40 billion abroad ? twice as much as foreigners invested in India ? a trend that's continued this year.
There is another, unspoken element to all the complaints. To the extent that business in India ran on corruption, some of the old, dirty ways of doing things are being disrupted, freezing India's already glacial bureaucracy, business leaders say.
Scandals in the staging of the Commonwealth Games, the pilfering of homes meant for war widows and the irregular auction of cellphone spectrum that cost the country billions has sent parliamentarians and even a Cabinet minister to prison.
With Indians tiring of the incessant graft, tens of thousands of middle-class protesters poured into the streets and pushed an anti-corruption bill onto the floor of Parliament.
Steelmakers can't get enough iron ore because a massive mining scandal in the southern state of Karnataka prompted a court to order the closure of illicit mines that account for a fifth of iron ore production in the country.
The bureaucrats ? even the honest ones ? are reportedly so scared of being punished they are refusing to make the decisions needed to make the country run.
Piramal is not unpatriotic. Each room in his executive suite is named after an Indian epic hero: Arjuna, the most pure; Dhananjay, acquirer and master of wealth. There's a quote from the Upanishads scriptures on the wall.
His office sits in a one million square foot office park in Mumbai his family built. The buildings around him ? white with blue glass that flashes back the unforgiving sun ? bear his own name in large black letters: Piramal Towers.
Piramal had the will and the means to build power plants and roads.
Instead, his Piramal Group's largest investment to date has been in one of the office park's tenants: the Indian subsidiary of the British telecom giant Vodafone Plc.
Last September, when he got the first payout, of $2.2 billion, from Abbott, the phone started ringing.
"Because people knew we had money, we had so many people approaching us for projects in the infrastructure sector," he said. "These people had no experience and no knowledge and no track record of having built a business in any area. And yet they were coming to us saying we have licenses and approvals. That just didn't sound right or smell right."
Each day, they paraded through his office: The investment banker who decided to build a 500 megawatt power plant, the coal trader assured of a government coal allocation, small-time miners with pretty presentations promising land, licenses and financing.
"They'd name politicians from the center and the state who had it all tied up for them," he said. "It didn't sound right. Obviously there were things going on in the system."
Road and port projects weren't much better, he said.
Piramal also looked at investing in engineering and infrastructure services companies, but couldn't make sense of their books.
"We couldn't find anything," he said. "People get greedy. In their desire to get good valuations they resort to, if I can say, creative accounting."
Today, India's infrastructure companies are known as great wealth destroyers.
"Infrastructure investment has become untouchable, a sure way of losing money," said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head of research at SMC Global Securities. He calculates that four of India's top infrastructure companies ? GMR Infrastructure, GVK Power and Infrastructure, Lanco Infratech and Punj Lloyd ? have lost over 80 percent of their value since 2007. A fifth, Larson & Toubro is down 50 percent.
Piramal may have dodged a bullet, but shareholders in Piramal Healthcare aren't happy. Despite a $600 million special dividend and share buyback, the share price has sagged since the Abbott deal was announced on May 21 last year. They'd like to see the Abbott cash productively deployed. Instead, much of it is sitting in fixed deposit accounts.
Piramal said he really does want to run a pharmaceutical company and be the first Indian company to discover a world-class drug ? despite his dabbling in telecom, financial services and real estate financing. It's just that pharma can't absorb all his cash. He plans to sell the 5.5 percent stake he picked up in Vodafone Essar for $640 million in a few years, when Vodafone Essar issues shares in an initial public offering, he said.
He has also launched Piramal Capital, to make real estate and infrastructure loans, and spent about $50 million to acquire IndiaReit, a real estate investment company.
Meanwhile, his thoughts have turned to Boston, where he set up IndUS Growth Partners with a professor from Harvard Business School to look for buying opportunities in the U.S., in security, financial services and biotechnology. And he said he's still planning to spend over a billion dollars on biotechnology acquisitions in North America and Europe.
"India was going more towards capitalism than socialism," Piramal said. "I think we're going back. Capitalism went to too much excess. Corruption levels went to the extreme."
He said he'll announce his first overseas acquisition by March.
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On this day in 1871, the Houston and Texas Central Railroad reached Austin, making the city the westernmost rail terminus in Texas. The completion of the first railroad to the capital city marked a new era in Austin's development. As the only railroad town for scores of miles in most directions, Austin was transformed into a trading center for a vast area. Construction boomed and the population more than doubled in five years. Although a second railroad, the International-Great Northern, reached Austin in 1876, the town's fortunes turned downward after 1875 as rival lines traversed the region and diverted much of Austin's trade to other towns. Austin's expectations of rivaling other Texas cities for economic leadership faded, though the city solidified its position as a political and educational center.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Political Notes is a weekly compilation of political news items.
Military members will be able to stay in hotels for free as part of a new Hotels for Heroes program.
Congress passed a law last week, co-sponsored by Maryland Democrats U.S. Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger and Sen. Ben Cardin, that allows people to donate hotel reward points to members of the military. The bill, which will benefit troops receiving care through the military health system and their families, was included in the National Defense Authorization Act that passed by a vote of 283 - 136 in the House and 86-13 in the Senate.
"The love and support of family is often the best medicine to help a wounded warrior recover from his or her injuries," Ruppersberger said in a statement. "Military families are already facing enormous challenges and should not ever have to worry about how they will afford travel expenses."
Hotels for Heroes is an expansion of the national Hero Miles program that provides free round-trip airfare to wounded warriors recovering at military medical centers, as well as to friends and family visiting them. Flights under the program, created by Ruppersberger in 2003, are made possible through frequent flyer mile donations made by airline passengers.
The program is administered by the Fisher House, a nonprofit organization that opens its homes to military families visiting loved ones at hospitals across the country. Fisher House recently announced it had issued 25,000 tickets over the years.
The 33rd District Democratic Club won't meet this month.
The group's next meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Jan. 19 at Perry's Restaurant, 1210 Annapolis Road, Odenton. The speaker will be U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards, representative of the 4th Congressional District.
The club will also hold elections at the meeting. For more information, visit www.33dems.org.
A Severna Park man running for U.S. Senate has garnered another local endorsement.
Sen. Ed Reilly, R-Crofton, has endorsed former U.S. Secret Service agent Dan Bongino.
Reilly, the state Senate's minority whip, said Bongino can relate to the "average Marylander."
"Dan understands the difficult choices we face in this weak economy," Reilly said in a statement. "His candidacy gives us a chance to turn the page and send someone to Washington who has actually lived a life similar to those he'd be elected to represent."
Bongino, 36, served in the Secret Service for more than a decade in the Presidential Protection Division. An entrepreneur, Bongino has graduate degrees in business administration and psychology.
The Friends of Nic Kipke will host a fundraiser from 4:30-6:30 p.m. on Jan. 4 at The Greene Turtle, 20 Magothy Beach Road, Pasadena.
Tickets are $100 each or $125 per couple. Sponsorships are also available: $250 for two tickets and a bronze sponsorship, $500 for four tickets and a silver sponsorship, and $1,000 for six tickets and a gold sponsorship.
To get tickets, send checks payable to the Friends of Nic Kipke at P.O. Box 862, Pasadena, MD, 21123. Tickets can also be purchased online at www.kipke.com.
---
Compiled by Staff Writer Allison Bourg. To submit an item to be included in Political Notes, email polinotes@capgaznews.com.
Source: http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2011/12_22-12/GOV
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Linksys' E4200 v2 Maximum Performance Dual-Band N900 router ($200) does not look any different from the original E4200, which came to market at the beginning of this year. That's a good thing, too because the E4200 is perhaps the most stylish consumer router available. The difference between the E4200 v2 and the original are under the surface. A ratcheted-up processor, tweaked software and a flawless setup process makes the E4200 a router that delivers power to even the most technically clueless of users.
Make no mistake?it's expensive, at a list price of $200. That price should come down somewhat if purchasing through various online retailers. However, if you are looking for a router with speed only topped by Netgear's powerful N750 and N900 dual-band routers, and you want an even simpler setup and user experience than Netgear provides; the E4200 v2 is the router to choose.
Hardware Specs
The E4200 v2 is Cisco Linksys' first router to provide throughput of up to 450 Mbps on both the 2.4- and 5-GHz bands.? This is achieved by 3x3 spatial stream MIMO antenna arrays for both bands. Six internal antennas along with internal and external amplifiers help the router keep good throughput at range?although not as consistent as that of Netgear's N750 and N900 routers.
The E4200 v2 has four Gigabit Ethernet ports, and a USB port for connecting printers and external storage. The processor has been upgraded from 533 MHz from the previous E4200 to 1.2 Ghz which results in faster copy and file transferring to and from a connected USB storage device.
Check out How to Buy a Wireless Router
Setup
The setup process is fantastic: the best we've ever seen. Setup takes only a couple of minutes and does not require anything more than a computer with a working wireless adapter. You need no wired connection to get the E4200 v2 set up. During setup, I ensured the laptop I was using wasn't connected to the Internet via one of the many WLANs in proximity. The router sets up SSIDs, security and other preliminary configurations. Not only that, but after configuring, my laptop was connected to the newly created wireless network without requiring me to do anything. ?
By default, the router gives both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands the same SSID. This way, wireless devices will typically select the most appropriate band, which is fine for those who don't want to deal with the underbelly of networking. I prefer to distinguish the 5 GHz band by denoting it as "<SSIDname>-5" because this makes it easier for me to select which devices should access which band for myself. For more on which of the most popular wireless devices connected to which bands, check out The Wi-Fi You Need For The Gadgets You Want.
The features are the same as in latest E-series routers. You can read the full description of features in the Cisco Linksys E3200 review. The Cisco Connect software is a user-friendly interface for setting up parental controls, guest networking and other tasks. The only management you can't do it from it is work with devices connected to the USB port. That has to be done through the advanced settings interface.
Testing and Performance
The E4200 v2 is a speedy performer, only bested by Netgear's latest dual-bands. I was a bit disappointed with the range?throughput dropped 7 percent as I moved from 5 to 30 feet?just a little more than the E3200's which has a drop of only 4 percent. You are still getting excellent throughput at longer distances, however, so this is not a big issue.
Other than the range, my only other issue is how hot a portion of the bottom of the router got after leaving it up for a day and half. There are air vents at the bottom and running underneath the lip of the top chassis, so the hardware should be protected. The hottest part was a plastic strip running underneath the bottom with information like the serial number printed on it. Hopefully there is nothing important hardware-wise under that strip.
File copy performance to and from an attached storage device has greatly improved over older E-series routers with the same capability. ?Uploading a 1.5 GB file to an attached 250 GB USB external drive clocked 7.7 Mbps over 5 GHz. Download speed was an impressive 13 Mbps. This is better performance than copying a file with the Cisco Linksys E3000, which only managed 6.25 Mbps download. The improvement is due to the buffed-up processor in the E4200 v2. The USB can support a printer or serve as a connection for external storage to serve light network-attached storage needs.
Here are the throughput benchmarks at 2.4 GHz in Mixed mode, channel width set to "Auto 20/40 MHz" encryption set to WPA2/WPA compared to other dual-band routers:
Here are the throughput numbers at 5 GHz, 802.11n-only mode, with channel width set to 40 MHz and ecryption set to WPA2 Personal:
Our Favorite Dual-Band Router
The E4200 v2 is our new Editors' Choice for dual-band routers. While Netgear had faster throughput with the N750 and N900, the E4200 v2 also has excellent throughput and its setup process and software can't be beat. This is a future-proof router with support for IPv6 and is an excellent choice for the home with lots of data demand and lots of wireless gadgets whose users don't want any hassle with setup and maintenance.
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The rise of the microblogging site Twitter was fueled by media attention and traditional social networks based on geographic proximity and socioeconomic similarity, a new study says.
By John Roach
Developers of the next-big social networking application stand a greater chance at skyrocketing success if Hollywood stars and big media go gaga over it, according to an analysis of Twitter's meteoric rise in popularity.
Data collected on the number of users adopting the microblogging service in its early years (between 2006 and 2009) show that it first spread gradually via traditional social networks ? real-world friends, work colleagues, neighbors ? then took off when media stars started to?gather their flocks.
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The Hollywood actor, who is most recently in the news for his recent divorce with actress Demi Moore and starring role in the hit TV series Two and a Half Men, touted his Twitter flock on Oprah Winfrey's daytime talk show.?And that's also when Oprah herself sent her first tweet.
"The most number of people ever signed up for Twitter during that week," Toole said.
A visualization showing the adopting of Twitter across the United States. From late March 2006 through the early August 2009, nearly 3.5 million people signed up for twitter. 2.3 million of those users signed up in the 408 cities displayed here.
From there, Twitter's rise was unstoppable. News reporters wrote about Kutcher and Oprah and more people signed up for Twitter. More media personalities wrote their own stories about sending 140-character tweets. More people signed up. More stories, more users.
While the data isn't all that surprising, it suggests a new way for researchers to model the power of media influence in their analyses of what drives a company to success, according to Toole.
In traditional models, he said, the role of media is considered a constant across time. What the Twitter analysis illustrates is the existence of a feedback loop present in today's media. "The more people sign up, the more news articles are written, and then more people sign up," he said.
The effect has been named elsewhere as the Oprah Effect, which is particularly prevalent in book sales. Aspiring authors know that if the talk show host picks their book for her monthly book club, for example, a spot on the best seller list is almost certainly in their future.
The comedian Stephan Colbert has a similar effect, known as the Colbert Bump, which is particularly effective for politicians, according to Toole.
Given the analysis of Twitter data from its early years, the power of big media stars seems to apply to Internet-based applications as well. So, if you want millions of users to use your app, make sure a big name pitches it, preferably in a quasi-viral way. That should mean success, according to the new model.
"What we can't model is if Oprah is going to pick up your Web service," Toole noted.?
More stories on Twitter and the power of media:
The study?is scheduled to appear this month in the journal PLoS One.
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.
Where nations used to compete to get into space, now the competition focuses on private businesses, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into next-generation spaceships. Msnbc.com science editor Alan Boyle reports from inside the rocket factories on the future of spaceflight.
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?Performance? is another word that?s thrown into question by new animation technologies. Rather than just lending their voices, the likes of Bell and Craig literally embody their character, providing, in essence, a moving skeleton that?s then ?clad? in digital flesh. I?m inclined to say there isn?t an actor in Tintin who gives a less than terrific ?performance,? but given how many other artists it required to create each character, it seems somehow wrong to give all the credit (or blame) to an individual performer. Still, it?s worth noting that Serkis, as the drunken, self-pitying Scotsman Haddock, is a standout. It?s a strange, dark role?so dark it nearly takes the PG-rated Tintin into not-fit-for-children territory?and Serkis plays it as big and broad as a barn?a very sincere barn. There?s no hip remove between him and the character, no sense of condescension to the role. Maybe it?s Serkis? familiarity with acting in a motion-capture suit (in addition to Caesar the ape, he?s also played Gollum and King Kong), but Haddock, for all his cartoonish bluster, feels more like a living presence than anyone else onscreen.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=4c957c058d2c7eca9d49d01c745961a9
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FRANKFURT, Germany ? The European Central Bank loaned a massive euro489 billion ($639 billion) to hundreds of banks for an exceptionally long period of three years to shore up a financial system that is under pressure from the eurozone's government debt crisis.
It was the biggest ECB infusion of credit into the banking system in the 13-year history of the shared euro currency.
Wednesday's loans to 523 banks surpassed the euro442 billion ($578 billion) in one-year loans from June, 2009, when the financial system was reeling from the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers.
The ECB is trying to make sure that banks have enough ready cash so they can keep on lending to businesses. Otherwise, a credit crunch could choke off growth and spread the debt crisis to the wider economy through the banks.
Markets rose modestly on the outsized amount of credit support, which was far higher than the euro300 billion ($392 billion) expected, but the advance soon faded as the loans highlighted the problems facing Europe's banks. The Stoxx 50 of leading European shares was down 0.4 percent while the euro was trading 0.6 percent lower at $1.3063.
"The good news is, the ECB's efforts to increase liquidity are working," said Jennifer Lee, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets. "The bad news is, high demand for the loans creates worries that banks are urgently in need of funds to boost liquidity ."
Helping the banks may be crucial in the year ahead, as many economists think the eurozone may be headed for recession ? figures Wednesday showed Italy, the eurozone's third-largest economy, contracted by 0.2 percent in the third quarter of the year.
Slowing growth would make it even harder for the over-indebted governments that are at the heart of the eurozone's crisis to get a handle on their debt burdens. A recession in Europe would lower tax receipts and make government debt burdens even harder to handle.
A default on debt payments by a country such as Italy or Spain could cause a new financial crisis and send the global economy into a slump.
While the loans support the banking system they do not address the deeper problem of too much government debt and the lack of a financial backstop big enough to assure markets that governments will be able to pay their debts.
Italy and Spain have been at the center of investor concerns in recent months as their borrowing costs have risen. Those two are considered big to bail out with the current eurozone bailout funds, which have some euro500 billion ($654 billion) in financing. Some of that is already committed to bailouts of smaller Greece, Ireland and Portugal, which have all sought outside financial help after default fears drove their borrowing costs so high they could no longer refinance their debts as they came due. Italy has some euro1.9 trillion in outstanding debt.
The 37-month term of the loans permits the banks to stock up on money for a much longer period and reduces stress on their finances. Many banks have had trouble borrowing from other banks or by issuing bonds as they do in normal times. That is because lenders fear the banks may suffer losses from the crisis and not pay them back.
Of the euro489 billion ($639 billion) loaned out, some 61 percent was rolled over by banks from other ECB credit offerings, meaning about euro200 billion ($261 billion) represents new liquidity that wasn't previously in the banking system, according to analysts at the Royal Bank of Scotland. One likely use for at least some of that fresh money is to pay off euro230 billion ($301 billion) in bank bonds coming due in the first three months of 2012.
The concern has been that if banks cannot borrow to refinance those obligations they will find the money by cutting back on loans to businesses. Those loans enable businesses to operate day to day, expand their operations and hire people.
There was some speculation that the loans would help governments since banks could borrow money cheap from the ECB operation and buy higher-yielding government bonds.
But many analysts think it is unlikely they will increase their exposure to government bonds amid fears of default. Many banks have cut their holdings of debt from governments that are in financial trouble.
"We still believe it is difficult to reconcile a government desire for banks to continue buying debt with the need for banks to reduce risk exposure associated with government debt," said Chris Walker, an analyst at UBS.
In making the loans, the ECB was playing its role of supplier of liquidity, or ready money to operate with, to banks. That is a typical job for central banks, especially in a crisis.
ECB president Mario Draghi has stressed the central bank's role in supporting the banking system even as it has refused to play that role for the indebted governments themselves by buying large amounts of their bonds.
Draghi says governments must be the ones to reduce their spending and deficits, and should not depend on a central bank bailout.
In contrast to its tough line with governments, the bank has made easy and abundant credit to banks its main tool in dealing with the effects of the eurozone's two-year-old financial crisis.
Alongside its efforts to shore up the banks, the European Central Bank has also been cutting interest rates to support the ailing eurozone economy. It has reduced its main refinancing rate from 1.5 percent to 1.0 percent over the last two monthly meetings in the hope that lower borrowing costs will stimulate growth by making credit cheaper for businesses.
Under the terms of Wednesday's loans, the banks will pay the average refinancing rate over the three years. The ECB reviews the rate each month and it will almost certainly change. Banks also have the flexibility of repaying the money after a year if their situation improves.
Still, the credit infusion only treats one of the symptoms of the debt crisis. It does not remove the reasons banks remain wary of lending to each other ? especially, their thin levels of capital reserves against potential losses. And it doesn't cut the large levels of debt carried by governments.
European officials have said banks need to raise euro115 billion ($150 billion) in new capital ? but finding that money is not an easy task in the current environment of fear. Investors are leery of putting more money into banks. It would be politically unpopular for governments to do it, and their finances are stressed as well.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee?? Two Muslim men who say they were kicked off an airplane in May after the pilot objected to their presence are suing Delta Air Lines Inc. and a regional carrier that operated the Delta Connection flight from Memphis to Charlotte, North Carolina.
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According to a suit filed Monday in federal court in Memphis, Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul were traveling to Charlotte to attend a conference on anti-Muslim discrimination at the time.
Rahman, who is an adjunct instructor of Arabic at the University of Memphis, has said he was dressed in traditional Indian clothing. Zaghloul, who is a religious leader with the Islamic Association of Greater Memphis, was dressed in Arab garb that included traditional headgear.
The two passed through regular security screening and were waiting at the gate to board when they were pulled out of line and subjected to a second security check, according to the suit. They were questioned about their trip and their luggage and belongings were searched before the men were cleared and allowed to board.
Shortly after the plane pulled away from the gate, the pilot announced the aircraft was returning to the terminal. Once there, according to the suit, the men were pulled off the plane, asked more questions and searched again, this time with a "comprehensive body pat down."
Although they were again cleared to board, the pilot refused to allow them back on the plane, the suit claimed. The plane began to depart without the men when an unnamed airline official called it back and it returned to the gate for a second time.
The suit claims the official then boarded the plane and spoke with the pilot, who said he would not allow Rahman and Zaghloul on the plane because their presence could make other passengers uncomfortable.
According to the suit, the official told passengers that anyone who was apprehensive about the presence of the two men could take a different plane and would be given a generous voucher. There were no takers. The pilot still refused to allow the men to board and they were booked on a later flight, the suit said.
Delta and Atlantic Southeast Airlines Inc., which is owned by SkyWest Inc., issued a statement Monday that read: "Atlantic Southeast and Delta oppose discrimination in any form from any source, and our employees act at all times in the best interest of passenger safety and security. We cannot comment further on pending litigation."
Both airlines are based in Atlanta.
Federal regulation allows an airline to refuse to transport an individual who it decides is unsafe. The plane's captain has ultimate authority. But the decision cannot be made solely on the basis of person's race, color, national origin, religion, ethnicity, or sex.
"Defendants excluded Mr. Rahman and Mr. Zaghloul because of the way they looked," the suit claims. "They had beards, wore traditional Arabic clothing, and were visibly foreign. Defendants unlawfully relied upon these characteristics to conclude that Mr. Rahman and Mr. Zaghloul were security threats, disallowing them from utilizing their purchased tickets."
The suit said the two were traveling to a conference on "'Islamophobia,' and how Muslims religious leaders could help address this issue."
The suit seeks unspecified compensation for the men's losses and injuries as well as punitive damages.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45728113/ns/travel-news/
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TEHRAN, Iran?? Iran's state TV broadcast video of a young man Sunday it claimed was a CIA spy who sought to infiltrate Iran's secret services.
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The TV identified the man, apparently in his late 20s, as Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, an American-Iranian who received special training and served at U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan before heading to Iran for his alleged intelligence mission.
"Their (US intelligence) plan was to initially burn some valuable information, to give it free so that (Iran's) Intelligence Ministry would see the good things and then would contact me," said in a part of the confession that was broadcast.
The voice of an unnamed announcer on the video said U.S. intelligence was certain that Iran's secret services would not ignore the data. Therefore, they provided a mix of correct and false information to mislead Iran's intelligence but tempt it at the same time.
"Iran's intelligence apparatus overcame the thirst and detected the deception, identified the intelligence corridors (Hekmati's alleged link to U,.S. intelligence) ... and contained the infiltration mission," it said.
The TV showed a card with writing in English identifying the bearer as an "army contractor." It also showed several photos of the man identified as Hekmati, some of them in military uniform, together with U.S. army officers.
There was no immediate comment from Washington.
The broadcast said Hekmati was born in Arizona in the U.S. but was of Iranian descent.
In a statement released Saturday, Iran's Intelligence Ministry said its agents identified Hekmati at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan. Bagram is the main base for American and other international forces outside Kabul.
In the video broadcast on several Iranian TV channels Sunday, Hekmati was shown saying he entered the U.S. Army after finishing high school in 2001 and received military and intelligence training.
Before beginning his mission to Iran, Hekmati said he served as an intelligence analyst in Iraq for two years. He said his key responsibility was to identify Iraqi politicians sympathetic to Americans.
His story could not be independently verified.
Iran periodically announces the capture or execution of alleged U.S. or Israeli spies, and often no further information is released.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45716418/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/
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The corporate logo for Zynga is shown on an electronic billboard at the Nasdaq MarketSite, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011 in New York. Stock in the San Francisco company began trading at Nasdaq, Friday following its IPO. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
The corporate logo for Zynga is shown on an electronic billboard at the Nasdaq MarketSite, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011 in New York. Stock in the San Francisco company began trading at Nasdaq, Friday following its IPO. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
"Farmville" by Zynga is shown on an electronic billboard at the Nasdaq MarketSite, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, in New York. Stock in the San Francisco company began trading at Nasdaq, Friday following its IPO. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
The corporate logo for Zynga is shown on an electronic billboard at the Nasdaq MarketSite, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, in New York. Stock in the San Francisco company began trading at Nasdaq, Friday following its IPO. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
The corporate logo for Zynga is shown on an electronic billboard at the Nasdaq MarketSite, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, in New York. Stock in the San Francisco company began trading at Nasdaq, Friday following its IPO. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2011 file photo, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus speaks at a Zynga event, in San Francisco. Founded in 2007 and named after CEO Mark Pincus? dog, Zynga Inc. follows online deals site Groupon Inc. and professional network LinkedIn Corp. in going public. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Zynga's stock got a lukewarm reception in its public debut Friday.
The online game developer's stock fell 36 cents, or nearly 4 percent, to $9.64 in midday trading, though earlier it traded slightly higher. It was by no means the eye-popping jump that's been the norm for freshly public Internet darlings such as Groupon Inc. and LinkedIn Corp.
But CEO Mark Pincus said Zynga's focus is on "delivering great products" that expand audience for social games over the next few years ? and not on the next trading day.
"We didn't have any expectations coming into this whole process," he said in an interview. "We decided to go public a long time ago."
Zynga Inc., which specializes in Facebook games, raised $1 billion in its initial public offering of stock. That makes it the largest Internet-related IPO since Google Inc. went public in 2004 and raised $1.4 billion. Pincus rang the Nasdaq's opening bell in San Francisco, a first in the city for a freshly public company.
The company's roughly 1,700 San Francisco employees woke up at the crack of down to celebrate with cinnamon buns and hot cocoa. Zynga also delivered video of the opening ceremony over the Internet to its offices around the world.
Zynga's $10-per-share IPO price was at the top of its expected range, a sign that investors were eager to dig into the latest in a series of high-profile technology IPOs this year. It values the company at about $7 billion.
Online deals site Groupon, which began trading in early November, has a market capitalization twice that of Zynga's, $14 billion. But Zynga is selling a much bigger chunk of its available shares, 14.3 percent compared with Groupon's 5.5 percent. It's an issue of supply and demand ? selling more shares means investors don't have to scramble to get their hands on them.
Zynga rounds out a year of high-profile Internet IPOs. The biggest of them all, though ? Facebook ? is not expected until after April.
Zynga charges small amounts of money ? a few cents, sometimes a couple of dollars ? for virtual items in online games. The games are free to play. Players can acquire items that range from crops in "Farmville" to buildings in "CityVille," its most popular Facebook game.
With its huge player base and a few loyal spenders, Zynga earned a net income of $90.6 million in 2010, an unusual pre-IPO money-maker in the sector.
Cowen & Co. analyst Doug Creutz, however, initiated coverage Friday with a "Neutral" rating on the stock. Although Zynga is the leader in Facebook gaming, he's concerned that it won't be able to grow fast enough to justify its stock price. Growth in Facebook gaming has slowed, and Zynga's market share has declined from 50 percent to 38 percent of daily active users, he wrote.
He's also concerned that Zynga's famously aggressive and hard-charging culture may not be the best field to grow good games in. Others have raised concerns that the focus on deadlines and profits might be squeezing out creativity and talent.
In November, Groupon raised $700 million in its IPO. The granddaddy of all Internet IPOs might happen next year, as Facebook Inc. is expected to raise as much as $10 billion.
Zynga is trading under the ticker "ZNGA" on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
___
AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson contributed to this report.
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In 2012, we will work with NAACP to ensure every American has the ability to vote. Across the country, community activists are joining us in this effort. Please take a moment to read the blog below from Benjamin Todd Jealous, President & CEO of NAACP and watch the video.
We're Turning the Tide
Posted on December 14, 2011 by Benjamin Todd Jealous, President & CEO
Last week was a game changer. We issued our call for voting rights in the streets of New York, at the United Nations and across the nation through the media. The far right is now on the defensive about their attack on voting rights.
In collaboration with Brave New Foundation, the NAACP has put together a new video about the impact of the voting right attacks on communities of color. Please take a moment to watch and spread the message to everyone you know, then text STAND to 62227:
Our new video, We Will Stand, shows exactly how difficult obtaining ID can be for many people. In the rural South, many people of a certain age have no birth certificate because they were born to a midwife. For them, the barriers to getting a state issued ID without a birth certificate are tremendous. Others are dependent on the rides to the polls provided by church-organized Sunday voting drives, which have been shut down in some states.
In 2012, we will work tirelessly to ensure every American has the ability to vote. On Martin Luther King Day, we will launch an unprecedented voter registration drive and our first-ever voter identification drive. And throughout next year, we will wage voting rights battles in state houses and courts around the country.
Across the country, community activists are joining us in that effort. As our video shows, South Carolina doctor Brenda Williams has spent countless hours and thousands of dollars helping her patients clear the financial and legal hurdles associated with satisfying the state's new strict voter ID law.
Dr. Williams is a hero in her community - but she cannot do it alone. It is going to take the efforts of people like you to help strengthen our front line and ensure our right to vote in 2012 and beyond.
I urge you to take this opportunity to make this movement your own and stand on the right side of history. Watch our video, share it with your friends, then text the word STAND to 62227 using your mobile phone. We will use this list in the year ahead to make sure that you have the information that you need to fight back against voting rights attacks in your community.
Remember that right to vote empowers us to defend our other rights. Enemies of justice will target your voting rights to take away the rest of your rights, knowing that when they come for your right to vote, the whole house of cards we call democracy starts to fall.
Text STAND to 62227 and help us build a strong foundation.
Follow @RobertGreenwald on Twitter.
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Follow Robert Greenwald on Twitter: www.twitter.com/robertgreenwald
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-greenwald/help-naacp-end-voter-supp_b_1154815.html
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