Peru bus plunge kills 52, including 13 children

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A makeshift bus carrying 52 Quechua Indians back from a party in southeastern Peru plunged off a cliff into a river, killing everyone on board, including 13 children.

The accident occurred Friday night as the red-and-yellow cargo truck made its way back from a party in the provincial capital of Santa Teresa, an area about 310 miles (500 kilometers) southeast of Lima. It went off the road and fell about 650 feet (200 meters) into a deep ravine, ending up in the Chaupimayo river which courses through the ravine.

Rescuers equipped with little more than flashlights spent the night searching without success for survivors amid the twisted steel and large boulders, pulling bodies from the water. Authorities said bodies were found as far as 330 feet (100 meters) away from the impact site, suggesting they were thrown from the vehicle.

"We haven't found a single survivor," said firefighter Capt. David Taboada, who was leading the rescue operation and provided the casualty figure.

The cause of the accident hasn't been determined, Taboada said, adding that the vehicle was "coming from a party in Santa Teresa at which a lot of alcohol was consumed."

Firefighters were placing the recovered bodies on a soccer field above where the crash took place.

Throughout the morning and day, relatives of the victims arrived to identify their loved ones. Local farmers prepared meals and invited them to dine with them.

Fedia Castro, mayor of the district where Santa Teresa is located, told Canal N television that rural farmers must rely on informal forms of transport, such as this cargo truck, because no public buses exist in the area.

The high-altitude roads of the Peruvian Andes are notorious for bus plunges, with poor farmers comprising many of the victims. Last year, more than 4,000 people were killed in such accidents.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-12-LT-Peru-Bus-Accident/id-fbe035ca496b48eea14fa847cf94d803
Tags: zach mettenberger   Léon Foucault   Ian Somerhalder   Miley Cyrus Vmas 2013   big brother spoilers  

NBC News SVP, Vivian Schiller, reportedly headed to Twitter

According to a report from AllThingsD, Vivian Schiller, the senior vice president and chief digital officer of NBC News, is set to become the head of news at Twitter. The site's sources say Schiller's deal with the blue bird is "all but done." With its IPO filing on the books, the world and Wall ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/QwuN_7IGntY/
Similar Articles: Johnny Galecki   auburn football   Ezra Is A   Brickyard 400   grown ups  

2013 Cleveland APL Pledge For Pets Radiothon: Become A Cash ...

Q104?s Pledge for Pet?s Radiothon, presented by Stautzenberger College & The PUP Program from The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, will occur this year on Friday, May 10th, from 6am-6pm, and on Saturday, May 11th, from 10am-4pm.

You can help raise money to support our Cleveland Animal Protective League by becoming a Q Cash Captain, Kid or School and collect Doggy Dollars/Kitty Kash, brought to you by Whole Foods Market.

Simply register at ClevelandAPL.org and the APL will send you your kit. You can then get started collecting donations from everyone you know. You can even set up an on-line fund-raising page and email all your friends asking them to support you! Then come to the exclusive Doggy Dollars/Kitty Kash Bash on May 9th from 6pm-8pm at the Primate, Cat & Aquatics Building at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and turn in the money you?ve collected, and then hang out with the animals, fellow DD/KK participants, Q104?s Fee?s Kompany and Cleveland APL staff.

Listen to Q104?s Pledge for Pets Radiothon, broadcasting live for two days, May 10th and 11th, from the Cleveland Animal Protective League with hosts Allan Fee, Katherine Boyd, and Glenn Anderson. Or better yet, stop down during the two Live Broadcast days and join the fun. Who knows? You may even find your new best friend and give a forever home to one the APL?s adoptable animals.

The Cleveland Animal Protective League located at 1729 Willey Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, 44113, in the historic Tremont area!

BECOME A Q CASH CAPTAIN HERE

Source: http://q104.cbslocal.com/2013/03/04/2013-cleveland-apl-pledge-for-pets-radiothon-become-a-cash-captain/

kendall marshall whitney houston news sylvia plath whitney houston autopsy results obama trayvon jim yong kim michael bush

King's skull found under parking lot in England

LEICESTER, England (AP) ? Scientists say they have found the 500-year-old remains of England's King Richard III under a parking lot in the city of Leicester.

University of Leicester researchers say it is "beyond reasonable doubt" that a battle-scarred skeleton unearthed last year is the king, who died at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.

Osteologist Jo Appleby said Monday that a study of the bones provides "a highly convincing case for identification of Richard III."

And DNA from the skeleton matches a sample taken from a distant living relative.

The last English monarch to die in battle, Richard was depicted in a play by William Shakespeare as a hunchbacked usurper who left a trail of bodies ? including those of his two princely nephews, murdered in the Tower of London ? on his way to the throne.

Many historians say that villainous image is unfair.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/experts-weve-found-englands-king-richard-iii-104514414.html

monday night football SEC Championship Game 2012 kansas city chiefs Javon Belcher express kindle fire Jenny Johnson

Arkansas gas prices up 17 cents over past week

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- The AAA says gas prices in Arkansas have gone up 17 cents in the past week.

The average price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline in Arkansas is $3.34 as of Monday. A week ago, the price was $3.17 per gallon.

The Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers area reported the highest average price among the state's metropolitan areas, at $3.37 per gallon. The national average is $3.52 per gallon.

Officials say retail prices in the central United States have risen the most dramatically as a result of an increase in the costs of products used by refiners that supply the region.

Arkansas' record high for gasoline is $3.97 per gallon, set in July 2008.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/arkansas-gas-prices-17-cents-161347597.html

beverly hills hotel beverly hills hotel the watchmen whitney houston dies dolly parton i will always love you beverly hilton hotel whitney houston found dead

VKEDCO: Vladimir Kulyukin's Education Coop: Python & Perl ...

There is a one-to-one correspondence between finite state automata (FSA) and regular expressions in the sense that every regular expression can be compiled into an FSA and for every FSA there is an equivalent regular expression. Equivalence in this context is construed as the equivalence of languages. In other words, an FSA and a regular expression are equivalent if and only if they accept/recognize the same language.

Suppose we want to implement a finite state machine (FSM) and use it in pattern matching. The abbreviations FSA and FSM are interchangeable. The most important aspect of an FSM is its transition table. Consider an FSM in Figure 1.

This FSM has two states {1, 2}. The start state is 1 and the end state is 2. The language accepted by this FSM is {a}. To put it differently, this automaton accepts only one string that consists of the symbol a.
?
We can represent the transition table of this FSA with a Python dictionary or a Perl hash.

tran_tbl_01 = {}
tran_tbl_01['a'] = {1 : [2]}
?
The above code fragment represents the FSM's transition table as a dictionary of dictionaries. The first dictionary takes a symbol, e.g., 'a', and maps it to another dictionary that maps states to lists of states. In other words, when reading 'a', in state 1, the FSM can transition to any state in the list [2]. In this case, this list contains only 1 state, but it can have multiple states or be empty.

In Perl, we can realize the same ideas as follows:

my %tran_tbl_01_a = (1, [2]);
my %tran_tbl_01 = ('a', \%tran_tbl_01_a);




We first obtain a hash (%hash_tbl_01) that maps 1 to [2] and then place its reference into another hash (%tran_tbl_01)? under the key 'a'.?

Once we have an FSA's transition table, we need to access its elements. Here is a way to do it in Python.

def tran_table_lookup(sym, state, tran_tbl):
??? if tran_tbl.has_key(sym):
??????? return tran_tbl.get(sym, []).get(state, [])
??? else:
??????? return []

def tran_table_epsilon_lookup(state, tran_tbl):
??? return tran_table_lookup('', state, tran_tbl)

Note that we encode the epsilon as ''. Recall that epsilon transitions allow the FSA to transition from its current state to another state without consuming any input.

Here is how the same access functionality can be implemented in Perl:

sub tran_table_lookup {
? my ($sym, $state, $tran_tbl) = @_;
? ## check if $sym exists in $tran_tbl.
? if ( exists($tran_tbl->{$sym}) ) {
??? ## if it does, get the hash reference that maps?
? ? ## individual states to lists of states
??? my $state_to_states = $tran_tbl->{$sym};
??? ## check if the current state $state exists as a key
??? if ( exists($state_to_states->{$state}) ) {
????? ## if it does, return the reference to the corresponding list of states
????? return $state_to_states->{$state};
??? }
??? else {
????? ## return an empty list reference
????? my @empty_ary = ();
????? return \@empty_ary;
??? }
? }
}

sub tran_table_epsilon_lookup {
? my ($state, $tran_tbl) = @_;
? return tran_table_lookup('', $state, $tran_tbl);
}
?
?
An FSA can be represented as a 3-tuple of a start state, a list of final states, an transition table. Here is a Python realization of this representational choice:

fsa_01 = (1, [2], tran_tbl_01)

def get_start_state(fsa): return fsa[0]
def get_fin_states(fsa): return fsa[1]
def get_tran_table(fsa): return fsa[2]

Perl's implementation is similar:

my @fsa_01 = (1, [3], \%tran_tbl_01);

sub get_start_state {
?return $_[0];
}

sub get_fin_states {
? return $_[1];
}

sub get_tran_table {
? return $_[2];
}?

Let i be the current position in some text txt, n - the length of txt, cur_state is the current state of the FSA, fin_states is the FSA's final states, and tran_tbl is the FSA's transition table. Then, given an FSA, we can use the following method to see if txt is accepted by the FSA.

match_fsa(txt, i, n, cur_state, fin_states, tran_tbl):
? ? if ( i == n ):
? ? ? ? if ( cur_state is in fin_states ):
? ? ? ? ? ? return true
? ? ? ? else:
? ? ? ? ? ? next_epsilon_states = states the FSA can get to on epsilon from cur_state
? ? ? ? ? ? for nes in next_epsilon_states:
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? if nes is in fin_states:
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? return true
? ? ? ? ? ? return false
? ? else:
? ? ? ?? next_states = states the FSA can get to from cur_state on txt[i]
? ? ? ?? next_epsilon_states = states the FSA can get to from cur_state on epsilon
? ? ? ?? if (next_states and next_epsilon_states are both empty):
? ? ? ? ? ?? return false
? ? ? ?? else:
? ? ? ? ? ?? for ns in next_states:
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? rslt = match_fsa(txt, i+1, n, ns, fin_states, tran_tbl)
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? if ( rslt is true ): return true
? ? ? ? ? ?? for nes in next_epsilon_states:
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? rslt = match_fsa(txt, i, n, nes, fin_states, tran_tbl)
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? if ( rslt is true): return true
? ? ? ? ? ?? return false
?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? ?
What To Implement
1. Implement match_fsa in Python & Perl.?

2. Build two FSA's that accept languages {(ab)^n | n >= 1} and {a^n | n is even} U {b^n | n is odd}. One FSA for each language.
?

3. Construct two regular expressions in Python and Perl for the same languages.?

4. Test both FSAs and your regular expressions on the following set of strings: '', 'ab', 'abab', 'ababab', 'abbb', 'aaaa', 'aaa', 'aaaaaa', 'b', 'bbb', 'bbbbb', 'abbaabba'.?

5. Do you notice any difference between your implementation of match_fsa and the way the native regex engines do the matching? Briefly (no more than 3 sentences) explain what is the difference, if there is any.?

What & Where To Submit
1. Create a subfolder hw_04 in your Dropbox folder and submit two files there: fsa.py and fsa.pl.

2. The files should contain your implementations of match_fsa, your regular expressions, and your answer to question 5.

Source: http://vkedco.blogspot.com/2013/02/python-perl-matching-text-patterns-with.html

teresa giudice atlanta hawks 2012 white house correspondents dinner forrest gump bernard hopkins nfl draft grades devils

Unique Content Article on sports, outdoors, recreation ... - bicycle

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://bicycleland.blogspot.com/2013/02/unique-content-article-on-sports.html

Aaron Swartz Java Gangster Squad school shooting Oscar Nominations 2013 oscar nominations C7 Corvette

NRA likens universal checks to gun registry

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The National Rifle Association's executive vice president continued to oppose background checks for all gun purchases despite polls indicating that most NRA members don't share his position.

The NRA's Wayne LaPierre tells "Fox News Sunday" that background checks for all gun purchases would lead to a universal registry of gun owners. Critics say such a registry could lead to taxes on guns or to confiscation.

Mark Kelly, a gun owner married to the former Arizona congresswoman who survived a 2011 shooting, asked LaPierre to listen to his members. He said the current system prevented 1.7 million gun purchases since 1999. However, those potential buyers had other options because many gun sales don't require a background check.

Kelly and LaPierre agree more people seeking to buy guns illegally should be prosecuted.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-03-Gun%20Checks/id-b721ce1241a946fcb375bd96e8ef7f47

axl rose google earnings pat burrell hilary rosen grilled cheese allen west north korea missile

APNewsBreak: Feds: Warming imperils wolverines

This undated image provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a badger. Add the tenacious wolverine, a snow-loving predator sometimes called the "mountain devil," to the list of species the government says is threatened by climate change. Federal wildlife officials on Friday, Feb. 1, 2013, will propose Endangered Species Act protections for the rare animal in the lower 48 states ? a step twice denied under the Bush administration. (AP Photo/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

This undated image provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a badger. Add the tenacious wolverine, a snow-loving predator sometimes called the "mountain devil," to the list of species the government says is threatened by climate change. Federal wildlife officials on Friday, Feb. 1, 2013, will propose Endangered Species Act protections for the rare animal in the lower 48 states ? a step twice denied under the Bush administration. (AP Photo/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) ? The tenacious wolverine, a snow-loving carnivore sometimes called the "mountain devil," is being added to the list of species threatened by climate change ? a dubious distinction that puts it in the ranks of the polar bear and several other animals that could see their habitats shrink drastically due to warming temperatures.

Federal wildlife officials on Friday will propose Endangered Species Act protections for the wolverine in the lower 48 states, a step twice denied under the Bush administration.

The Associated Press obtained details of the government's long-awaited ruling on the rare and elusive animal in advance of Friday's announcement.

There are only 250 to 300 wolverines in the contiguous U.S., clustered into small, isolated groups primarily in the Northern Rockies of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Washington. Larger populations persist in Alaska and Canada.

Maxing out at 40 pounds and tough enough to stand up to grizzly bears, the animals will be no match for anticipated declines in deep mountain snows that female wolverines need to establish dens and raise their young, scientists said.

Yet because that habitat loss could take decades to unfold, federal wildlife officials said there's still time to bolster the population, including by reintroducing them to the high mountains of Colorado.

Wildlife advocates, who sued to force the government to act on the issue, said they hope the animal's plight will be used by the Obama administration to leverage tighter restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions. As with the polar bear, the government could sidestep that thorny proposition by not addressing threats outside the wolverine's immediate range.

But a special rule proposed by the Fish and Wildlife Service would allow Colorado's wildlife agency to reintroduce an experimental population of the animals that eventually could spill into neighboring portions of New Mexico and Wyoming.

Federal officials also want to shut down wolverine trapping in Montana, the only one of the lower 48 states where the practice is still allowed.

In recent years, Montana wildlife officials have waged court battles against environmentalists who want to stop trapping. If Friday's proposal goes through after a public comment period, wolverine trapping would be banned.

Federal officials said other human activities ? from snowmobiling and skiing to infrastructure development and transportation corridors ? are not significant threats to wolverines and would not be curtailed under Friday's proposal.

Once found throughout the Rocky Mountains and in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range, wolverines were wiped out across the Lower 48 by the 1930s due to unregulated trapping and poisoning campaigns, said Bob Inman, a wolverine researcher with the Wildlife Conservation Society.

In the decades since, they've largely recovered in the Northern Rockies but not in other parts of their historical range, he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-02-01-Wolverine-Climate%20Change/id-5e9080f7d4ae420696f4ca74f534e177

jeremy lin game winner chocolate covered strawberries shrimp scampi kate upton si cover lobster recipes hearts roses

Unique photography rig captures snowflakes in mid-flight

Devin Coldewey , NBC News ? ? ? 18 hrs.

They say no two snowflakes look the same ? well, scientists at the University of Utah aren't going to take that for granted. They've devised a photography rig that can take detailed photos and measurements of thousands of snowflakes in a single night.

It's called the Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera, and it's just what it sounds like. Three cameras are arrayed around an infrared sensor that detects the presence of a snowflake and tells the cameras to fire. By lighting the snowflake carefully and using a super-short exposure (1/25,000th of a second), they can get tack-sharp images of snowflakes on the fly.

The system is so efficient that it can take tens ofthousands of shots in a single night. While that may be too many to browse through for fun, it's a huge benefit to researchers. Meteorologists only have a partial understanding of snowflakes ? their size, density, shape, fall speed, things like that ? because, naturally enough, they tend to melt before anyone can get a good look at them.

MASC is the project of University of Utah atmospheric scientist Tim Garrett, and the setup has been spun off as a separate company, Fallgatter Technologies. Right now, the company's device is documenting snowflakes at Utah's famous Alta ski area.

Scientists in the 1970s also measured snowflakes, but it was by hand, which must have been extremely delicate (and cold) work ? "I knew the guy who did it and he felt he needed to get glasses because of this project," Garrett told LiveScience.

And if the snowflakes in the pictures don't look much like the symmetrical geometric shapes one usually think of (and which were recently captured in stunning fashion by macro photographer Andrew Osokin), that's because most "snowflakes" are actually clumps made up of smaller flakes that have collided or broken apart.

Achieving a better understanding of snowflakes means a better understanding of snowy weather systems. Alta, for example, can use it to gauge the quality of the snow falling, and the Army is planning to use the device to improve its avalanche prediction techniques.

You can watch a live-updating feed of recent snowflakes from Alta, or check the project's highlight page, showing a few outstanding examples of what the system can capture.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/futureoftech/unique-photography-rig-captures-snowflakes-mid-flight-1B8219491

powerball results pebble beach golf beverly hilton roland martin whitney houston dead at 48 whitney houston dead 2012 whitney houston passed away

Placental blood flow can influence malaria during pregnancy

Friday, February 1, 2013

Malaria in pregnancy causes a range of adverse effects, including abortions, stillbirths, premature delivery and low infant birth weight. Many of these effects are thought to derive from a placental inflammatory response resulting from interaction of infected red blood cells with the placental tissue. In a study published in the latest issue of the journal PLOS Pathogen*, a researchers' team led by Carlos Penha-Gon?alves at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ci?ncia (IGC), Portugal, observed, for the first time, the mouse placental circulation and showed how it can influence the malaria parasite behavior and infection. Their results indicate a higher accumulation of parasites in placental regions with low blood flow, being these areas more prone to an inflammatory response.

In humans, red blood cells infected with the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, accumulate in the placenta via interaction with a molecule expressed on the placental tissue ? a process called sequestration. In response to this event, placental cells secrete substances that recruit inflammatory cells leading to placental damage and negatively impacting fetal growth. Until now placental circulation has not been linked to the infected red blood cell sequestration. In fact, it is not trivial to investigate this hypothesis in human placenta, due to technical constraints

Luciana Moraes, an investigator of Carlos Penha-Gon?alves laboratory, has provided new insights to this issue by developing an experimental system that allowed the live observation of the blood flow in the mouse placenta. Mating two strains of mice, one of them with cells stained with a colorful marker, Luciana was able to identify the placental tissue (fetus origin). In collaboration with Carlos Tadokoro's laboratory at the IGC, the investigators developed a microscopy technique that allowed the observation of the placenta in a living mouse. Immediately before exposure to the microscope the mouse was injected with a fluorescent substance that labels the blood. With this set-up it was possible to distinguish maternal blood and placental tissue. The results showed for the first time how the circulation occurs in the placenta, and that the blood flows with different speeds in different regions of the placenta.

Next, the investigators infected red blood cells with the malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei, stained with a different color, and observed ? live ? the behavior of the parasite inside the placenta. They observed that in the areas with higher blood flow, the parasite never stops moving and does not interact with the placental tissue. The accumulation of parasite just occurs in areas of low or absence of flow. In these regions, placental macrophages engulf the infected red blood cells to attempt parasite clearance. Their observations also suggest that movements of the placental tissue may control the blood flow.

Luciana Moraes says: "Our results indicate that binding of infected red blood cells to a molecule expressed in the placenta may not be the only mechanism of parasite sequestration. The dynamics of placental circulation may also play an important role, and should be considered when designing therapeutics."

Carlos Penha-Gon?alves adds: "This is the first study done that shows live how placental blood circulation impacts on the local infection by the malaria parasite. It would be interesting and worthwhile to explore if a similar process occurs in the placenta of humans, taking in consideration that microcirculation in human placenta is quite different."

###

Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia: http://www.igc.gulbenkian.pt

Thanks to Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 39 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126589/Placental_blood_flow_can_influence_malaria_during_pregnancy

aipac vanessa minnillo super tuesday epidemiology total eclipse of the heart jionni lavalle earthquake san francisco

Engadget Mobile Podcast 168 - 01.31.13

Wonder why that incessant honking stopped, and why all those folk are suddenly deeply asleep? That's because BlackBerry 10 finally arrived. So guess what, a large scoop of today's Mobile Podcast is about exactly that. But, because we love you, you get more than one scoop. Listen in to find out what the other flavors are.

Hosts: Myriam Joire (tnkgrl), Brad Molen

Guests: Joseph Volpe, Terrence O'Brien

Producer: James Trew

Music: Tycho - Coastal Brake (Ghostly International)

Hear the podcast

Filed under: Podcasts, Mobile

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/hu4JnjNg44g/

marijuana huffington post elizabeth warren puerto rico diane sawyer Cnn.com Colorado Marijuana

On 'Warm Bodies' Set, We Become Undead For The Day

MTV News' Christina Garibaldi transforms into a zombie on film's Montreal set.
By Christina Garibaldi

MTV News' Christina Garibaldi and Nicholas Hoult on the set of "Warm Bodies"
Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1701189/warm-bodies-set-zombies.jhtml

grammy winners obama budget woolly mammoth belize resorts nikki minaj grammy performance shel silverstein niki minaj grammy performance

Finally get your Nexus 4? We'll help get you started

It looks like Google finally is getting a handle on its Nexus 4 supply/retail issues. Its flagship Jelly Bean phone went back on sale this week and boxes should be hitting doorsteps anytime now. For a good many of you, this will be your first time with the Nexus 4. For others, it'll be the first time with any Nexus.

So where to begin? Even if you've had an Android smartphone in the past, a Nexus is both familiar and new, full of options some other smartphones don't have, while at the same time lacking features other manufacturers pack into their own phones. 

Let's take a look at some of the thing new Nexus 4 owners need to know, need to watch out for -- and need to take advantage of.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Zd46Ay-IkC4/story01.htm

rockies second degree murders bobby petrino brian dunn vin scully petrino fired george zimmerman charged

Will Republicans Move to the Middle on Gay Rights?

President Obama invoking the Stonewall riots in his Inaugural Address. The Boy Scouts considering dropping the ban on openly gay scouts and volunteers. A record number of openly gay and lesbian members elected to Congress in 2012. A gaping generational divide in public opinion on gay marriage.

There?s a seismic shift in cultural opinion that?s taking place at warp speed when it comes to gay rights ? a fact that?s evident simply by looking at the headlines over the last month.? But as the Republican Party tries to moderate its position on immigration, it faces a much more difficult task dealing with an even more polarizing issue where the demographic trend lines are against them.

For many in the Republican Party, the trajectory is now unmistakable. Just as Republican leaders have urged the party to tackle immigration reform in order to appeal to Hispanics, a smaller but equally vocal group of strategists are urging the party to reconsider positions on gay rights to win over younger voters.

In 2012 ? the first presidential election year in which a majority of Americans expressed their support for legalizing same-sex marriage ? gay-marriage advocates scored historic victories on four state ballot initiatives. Public opinion is now on the side of gay-marriage supporters: A December 2012 Gallup poll showed a 53 percent majority of Americans now back same-sex marriage, a 13 point jump since 2008, with a whopping 73 percent between the ages of 18 and 29 supporting it.

?What you?re seeing in the aftermath of the 2012 election cycle is a number of Republicans who are concluding opposition to LGBT rights as it pertains to civil marriage for gay and lesbian couples is not a winning issue politically,? said Gregory T. Angelo, the new executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, the largest GOP gay-rights group. ?There is a sentiment among Republicans that even if they?re opposed to it, there?s political risk in banging the drum.?

Phil Musser, a GOP strategist who advised Tim Pawlenty's?presidential campaign, said the trend lines are clear.

?The future of the Republican Party is dependent on appealing to the millennial generation ? that?s the future ? and attitudes are changing on this issue pretty radically,? Musser said. ?People of good faith can differ on this but having a message that articulates acceptance and tolerance is key.??

But how does the GOP even moderate its stance given its traditional dependence on social conservatives? ?Focusing the broad message of the party on economic growth and economic freedom,? Musser said, ?and not trying to be a referee on social values.?

Last summer?s Republican National Convention illustrated the challenges Republicans face in talking about the issue. For the first time, the Log Cabin Republicans were given the opportunity to participate in the platform-drafting process, lobbying delegates to take out language that could brand the party antigay. But more prominent were the voices of social-conservative organizations, such as the Family Research Council, which ultimately succeeded in including tough measures opposing gay marriage.

Similarly, under their breaths, Republican leaders encouraged GOProud, another Republican gay-rights organization, to have a presence in Tampa, according to Jimmy LaSalvia, the group?s executive director, but in prime time, they were shunted off to the sidelines, given nosebleed seats, and kept out of sight.

LaSalvia is still skeptical that the necessary changes will be undertaken, particularly in reaching out to the LGBT community and moderating the GOP's tone when it comes to discussing marriage equality.?

?There are more and more Republicans who are starting to get it. I?m not convinced yet that enough are willing to make changes that are necessary,? he said. ?They?re not done losing yet.?

It?s difficult for some to imagine a Republican presidential candidate in 2016 openly embracing same-sex marriage and getting past the early caucuses and primaries, which are still driven by party purists, or even an openly gay speaker at the Republican National Convention in 2016.

Slightly easier to envision is GOP candidates adopting the stance that social issues, such as marriage, are best left up to the states ? much like the tactic Mitt Romney used to blunt criticism of the individual mandate in his Massachusetts health care law.

?I think definitely that will work for some people; it?s not going to work for all,? said Craig Robinson, an Iowa-based GOP strategist.

?People need to realize you can?t just say we need to do this, and everybody?s going to do it. There?s 600,000 Republicans in Iowa and we?re never going to agree on everything,? Robinson added. ?It?s a delicate situation for Republicans ? marriage equality has a long way to go before it?s accepted in the party.?

Still, there seem to be signs that movement is happening ? and in some unexpected quarters.?

Newt Gingrich, the same presidential candidate who endorsed the Iowa Family Leader and the National Organization of Marriage?s pledges opposing gay marriage as he attempted to court activists in Iowa last January, recently said in an interview with the Huffington Post that the GOP could no longer close its eyes to the course of public opinion. Gingrich added that an acceptable solution would be to distinguish between "marriage in a church from a legal document issued by the state."

Ken Mehlman, a former Republican National Committee chairman and Bush campaign manager who came out in 2010,?launched a nonprofit called Project Right Side late last year?to make the conservative case for same-sex marriage. He was in Iowa earlier this week meeting with activists and donors to build support.?

And Foster Friess, the mega-wealthy evangelical donor who kept culture warrior extraordinaire Rick Santorum?s campaign afloat in its earlier, leaner days, was recently asked about gay marriage at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast.

?They?re people just like you and I, are we going to come down and penalize them for being gay?? Friess said of the LGBT community. ?I don?t believe the Republican Party should really force any of their members to have one feeling or the other.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-move-middle-gay-rights-124825989--politics.html

audacious pollen count mexico city first day of spring mexico earthquake aziz ansari aziz ansari

Rampaging monkeys injure 7

MAKASSAR, Indonesia -- A mob of wild monkeys has gone on a rampage in a village in eastern Indonesia, entering houses and attacking residents, injuring seven people.

One of the victims was listed in critical condition.

Ambo Ella, a spokesman for Sidendeng Rappang District in South Sulawesi province, says the surprise attack by about 10 monkeys happened in Toddang Pulu village.

He said late Wednesday that a 16-year-old boy was badly bitten in Monday?s attack and is being treated at the hospital.

He believes the troop came from a nearby forest protected by a local tribe.

It is unclear why the monkeys, which are usually afraid of humans and flee when they hear human voices, emerged and attacked.

Local authorities are investigating to find out what prompted the attack, which caused panic among villagers.

By The Associated Press.

Related:

Monkeys in space - a brief history

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/31/16786999-rampaging-monkeys-injure-7-people-in-indonesia?lite

Hurricane Isaac 2012 bill nye Snooki Baby terrell owens terrell owens neil armstrong little league world series

Video: Israeli Warplanes Attack Syrian Military Targets: NBC

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50643245/

gwen stefani overeem laron landry mary j blige burger king islands joe flacco 2013 nissan altima

Microsoft Office 365 Home Premium review

It feels like we've been talking about Office 2013 for a while now -- we first previewed the software back in July, and it's been available as a free beta download ever since. Today, though, it's launching in a more formal way: the final version of Office 2013 is now on sale, as is Office 365 Home Premium, which lets you purchase a subscription to Office 2013 and then install it on up to five computers.

Though you can still buy the software outright, Microsoft has gone out of its way to make subscribing seem like the more attractive option: buying a one-year subscription costs $100 a year and nets you five installs, while the purchase cost is $139 for a single user. To sweeten the deal, Microsoft is giving Office 365 subscribers 60 Skype minutes per month, and expanding the standard SkyDrive limit from 7GB to 20GB. Naturally, too, subscribing to the service means you always get the latest software -- a particularly important point for Apple fans still waiting on a new version of Office for Mac. Either way, though, Office 2013 now has an app store, and you can poke around even if you're not a subscriber.

As it is, we've already given you an in-depth walk-through of all the major new features in Office, but we haven't yet gotten to experience it as a subscription, with all our settings following us from one PC to another. But we're still wondering: is it worth shelling out a hundred bones a year for a subscription?

Gallery: Microsoft Office 365 Home Premium review

Getting started

Though Office 2013 and Office 365 will both be available to purchase in stores, you won't actually find an installation CD in the box. Even if you buy it from a brick-and-mortar kind of place, you'll only really see a written product key when you tear open the packaging. So, regardless of whether you purchase in stores or online, you'll eventually need to head over to office.com, enter your license number and then proceed to download the software.

As ever, the system requirements are fairly modest: so long as you have 3.5GB of free disk space and an x86 or x64 system clocked at 1GHz or higher, you'll be good to go. DirectX10 graphics are required, along with a minimum resolution of 1,024 x 576. Microsoft also recommends 1GB of RAM for 32-bit systems and 2GB for 64-bit machines.

In any case, once you enter your product key it's smooth sailing. Just sign in with your Microsoft account (you'll have a chance to create one if you're a new user) and verify your country and language. So far so good, right? From that home screen on office.com, you can see how many of your five installations you've used. You can view your payment method, expiration date, billing history and automatic renewal information, if applicable. And, of course, there's a big "install" button, which you'll need to click since you haven't actually downloaded the software yet.

While Office sets itself up for the first time, you can choose to page through a few introductory slides. All told, it's not unlike how Windows 8 loads a primer on new gestures while the OS readies itself for the first time. Naturally, once they're fully installed the various Office apps appear as Live Tiles on the Start Screen, not as desktop shortcuts.

Once you've installed Office, you can sign in to your Microsoft account (or not -- in which case it's just a local copy). You can also choose the border that will appear on new Word documents and other files. In all, there are 14 of these themes, though there's also a "no background option" for people who find doodles of circles and circuits offensive. Not that we're pressuring you or anything, but they're really very subtle: they only take up a small patch of space on the fringe of the screen, and don't actually call much attention to themselves.

Office 2013

As crazy as this might sound, we don't plan on dwelling too much on the actual Office suite, just because we already wrote thousands of words on the subject back when it was first released. For a full run-down of the new features (plus dozens of screenshots), we'll direct you back to our preview, first published six months ago. For those of you who lack the attention span, though, we'll humor you with a quick recap. Notable new features in the suite include PDF editing in Word, a full-screen Reading Mode (great for tablets) and a behind-the-scenes Presenter View in PowerPoint. Touch Mode is exactly what it sounds like, which is to say it makes all the UI elements a little bigger and more touch-friendly -- not that it magically makes Excel convenient to use without a keyboard, per se. Resume Reading remembers exactly where you were in a document the last time you opened it, which is useful if you've been charged with editing a 40-page patent infringement brief or something equally tedious.

Even when the software was still in development we found it to be fast and stable, while the features themselves were intuitive to use.

By default, the various Office apps now save to SkyDrive, and you can always send someone a link to your work so they can read it in a browser. Adding online video to Word and PowerPoint files is much easier than it had been, and it's now possible to reply to comments in Track Changes. Flash Fill in Excel can predict what information should go in blank cells if the data is repetitive and follows a pattern. Finally, Outlook gets a feature called Peeks, which lets you hover to view your calendar and such without leaving the inbox. Meanwhile, so-called Social Connectors are plug-ins from services like LinkedIn.

For the most part, the software is the same as when we last tested it. And that's a good thing: even when the software was still in development we found it to be fast and stable, while the features themselves were intuitive to use. The only point of controversy might be the carryover of the Ribbon UI, which debuted all the way back in Office 2007, and which some people still haven't warmed up to.

There are a few new features, however, many of them subtle fit-and-finish sort of things. The icon for switching to Touch Mode has changed, and when you tap it you now get a pop-up menu that briefly explains the difference between that and mouse mode (the gist being that in Touch Mode there's no Ribbon menu, and the various UI elements are spaced farther apart). There's also a rotating group of templates, which vary depending on region and also the time of year. For instance, you won't see any Valentine's Day-related options in August, and you also won't see any sample Fourth of July party invites if you live outside the US. It's a smart idea, making these things timely and region-specific. We're not sure how many people actually use templates to begin with, but if you do, knock yourself out.

PowerPoint, meanwhile, has gotten a new transitions category called "Exciting," which includes some new animations. As you might have guessed, they're flashy transitions, sequences with names like "Curtains," "Origami" and "Paper Airplane" (they all are exactly what they sound like). What can we say? They're playful and call lots of attention to themselves, which is to say they probably won't be especially welcome at a board meeting. But just like with the templates, we're glad they're there for people who require a few more resources to truly express themselves.

Office Store

Now that Microsoft has dragged Office kicking and screaming into the cloud-computing era, it's doing something else to bring the software up to date: it's giving the suite its very own app store. The Office Store lives on office.com, and is accessible even to folks who don't have a subscription to Office 365 (meaning, it's fine if you just own Office 2013). So far, the store includes apps for Word, Excel, Outlook, Project and SharePoint (but not PowerPoint, strangely). If you like, you can sort apps by any of the above programs, which is how we prefer to go about it. Alternatively, though, you can browse through a page of features apps, too. Similar to the Windows Store, you can read user reviews and click through to see detailed system requirements. Installing an app is as easy as hitting an "Add" button, though you'll need to go through an extra step to make sure it appears in the Ribbon of whatever Office application uses the add-on.

What's interesting about browsing the store is that because no one really expected or asked for Office applications, it doesn't matter so much how many there are, or whether you've heard of any of them. (In other words, this isn't like demanding Instagram on Windows Phone 8 and accepting no substitutes.) In fact, there are some big names represented, including LinkedIn, which has a plug-in for Outlook, and Merriam-Webster, whose dictionary works across Word and Excel. We also found some other apps we could see ourselves using, like Bing News for Word and "Random Generator" for Excel.

Most of these are free, which creates a nice incentive for downloading a bunch and seeing what sticks. (As you can see, "nice and inoffensive" seems to be a running theme here, at least as far as the new features go.) A few of the apps do cost money, however, particularly some of the more sophisticated programs designed for enterprise users. If you're a developer reading this, Microsoft takes a 20 percent cut from application purchases, which matches the revenue split already in place for Windows applications.

To use the apps, just click the Insert in the Ribbon, followed by "Office Apps." Each one shows up as a pane along the right-hand side, which you can easily close by tapping an "X" button. You can open more than one app at once (as evidenced in the screenshot above) but be warned: for every app you open, you'll have less space to actually do your work. The apps in Word, for instance, line up side by side, causing the actual document to narrow. If you only open up one application, you'll still be able to type in Word without having to do any extra scrolling from side to side; that changes once you open a second app, though. All told, it's a minor inconvenience: just decide whether you need to be using Bing News at the moment, or if Merriam-Webster is more vital.

As for the apps themselves, they're exactly what they sound like, and that's a good thing. Bing News has a search bar into which you can type queries. Ditto for the dictionary app we tried, and LinguLab WordCloud. Web searches, definitions and everything else shows up in the same box where you performed the search so that you don't have to toggle over to IE 10 -- or any other program, for that matter. That alone makes these apps useful, though it helps that the information itself is clearly presented and comes from reliable sources.

Wrap-up

More Info

• Microsoft Office 2013 preview
• Microsoft Office 2013, Office 365 Home Premium available now; 365 for business coming later
• Microsoft launches four-year, $80 Office 365 University subscription for students

What can we say? Office 2013 is a top-notch product: fast, intuitive and feature-rich. All of the new features work as promised, and are easy to get the hang of. At the same time, since the UI is similar to the previous version, it should be easy to master if you're upgrading from Office 2010. Now it's true, there are various free alternatives out there, including cloud-based ones like Google Docs. Still, we're wary of steering all our readers there, because we know lots of folks are already comfortable using Office, or have come to rely on some of the more advanced features you can't get elsewhere. Assuming you don't have any interest in switching to a more basic suite, then, the real question is: does it make more sense to buy Office once for $139 and make do with one license? Or is it wiser in the long run to pay $100 every year for a subscription in exchange for five installations and ongoing software updates?

Obviously, the more computers you own, the more it makes sense to pay $100 a year for five activations. For example, buying five individual copies would cost $695 up front, as opposed to $600 for six years of service. Basically, you'd be saving money until that seventh year rolls around, and that's a long enough stretch that you'd get upgraded to Office 2017 in the interim. That said, the subscription model isn't for everyone. Many of the perks -- Skype minutes, extra SkyDrive storage -- seem like weak reasons to go with Office 365 if you're on the fence. Meanwhile, the Office Store is useful but it's not like you need a subscription to enjoy it. With all that in mind, if you own just one machine it might make sense to shell out $139 for a single license and not have to pay $100 on an annual basis. In short, then, Office itself is a polished product, but your decision on whether to get 2013 or 365 should mainly come down to how many computers you own. Almost everything else is beside the point.

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/DmMAipylXvY/

doppler radar colorado rockies moonshine news channel 4 radar weather morosini death jacoby ellsbury

Hagel has a bit to explain, says McConnell

Will opposition from his fellow Republicans doom Chuck Hagel's nomination to be defense secretary? Maybe not, if you listen closely to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The Kentucky lawmaker told Yahoo News in an exclusive interview that Hagel had strong opinions and quite a bit to explain. But McConnell called the former Nebraska senator a "smart, capable guy" who deserved a full hearing before the Armed Services Committee on Thursday.

"He?s had a lot of opinions. He was particularly opposed to much of what the Bush administration was doing in foreign policy. That didn?t mean he wasn?t a capable senator or a forceful advocate," McConnell told Yahoo News Chief Washington Correspondent Olivier Knox. Hagel, who served two terms in the Senate from 1997 to 2009, won two purple hearts in Vietnam, where he served as an enlisted Army infantry officer.

Hagel's years in the Senate haven't endeared him to many Republican lawmakers still smarting over his outspoken criticism of the Iraq war even after he voted to authorize the U.S. invasion. Hagel's position on the war sealed his reputation as a party outsider and led him to lend tacit support to President Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Hagel has been criticized for opposing unilateral U.S. sanctions against Tehran?a position he has since changed. He has also raised questions about his support for Israel and at one point criticized the "Jewish lobby" for holding such sway in Washington.

Some Republican senators have suggested they will try to block Hagel's confirmation, including Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a member of the Armed Services Committee.

McConnell told Yahoo News that he and other GOP senators are reserving judgment on whether to support Hagel to allow the confirmation hearings to play out.

"He has taken some rather controversial positions over the years, he?s going to have an opportunity to explain those views," McConnell said.

Knox read from an interview McConnell gave in 2007 where he called Hagel an "indispensable" Republican whose views on Iraq had largely proven correct.

"He's certainly been an outspoken advocate for his point of view and that?s exactly what I was saying," McConnell said. "That?s a little different from saying it was a point of view I shared or that other people shared."

Despite Democratic control of the Senate, Hagel needs at least some support from Republicans to ward off a potential filibuster.

Olivier Knox's complete interview with Sen. McConnell will be released Friday morning, Feb. 1 on Yahoo News.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/yahoo-news-exclusive-mcconnell-holds-judgment-hagel-calls-010242047--politics.html

miracle andy whitfield kennedy demi moore roy oswalt kevin martin 2012 senior bowl

Waste time and flex your brain with Shift It

There's no shortage of quick and fun puzzle games on Android, and Shift It still stands out as a great one. When you start up Shift It and play the first level, you'll instantly draw comparisons to the paradigm of a Rubik's cube. The basic idea of the game is to take the nine section grid of different colored blocks, and move it around so that the blocks of the same color are all connected. You are faced with a 2D view, but the blocks are effectively 3D -- moving blocks off of one edge, you will see them reappear on the other side.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/rYOArGMMSm8/story01.htm

enemy of the state golden globe nominees joe philbin miss america pageant 2012 shipwreck jose aldo vs chad mendes lana del rey

Bioinspired fibers change color when stretched

Jan. 28, 2013 ? A team of materials scientists at Harvard University and the University of Exeter, UK, have invented a new fiber that changes color when stretched. Inspired by nature, the researchers identified and replicated the unique structural elements that create the bright iridescent blue color of a tropical plant's fruit.

The multilayered fiber, described January 28 in the journal Advanced Materials, could lend itself to the creation of smart fabrics that visibly react to heat or pressure.

"Our new fiber is based on a structure we found in nature, and through clever engineering we've taken its capabilities a step further," says lead author Mathias Kolle, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). "The plant, of course, cannot change color. By combining its structure with an elastic material, however, we've created an artificial version that passes through a full rainbow of colors as it's stretched."

Since the evolution of the first eye on Earth more than 500 million years ago, the success of many organisms has relied upon the way they interact with light and color, making them useful models for the creation of new materials. For seeds and fruit in particular, bright color is thought to have evolved to attract the agents of seed dispersal, especially birds.

The fruit of the South American tropical plant, Margaritaria nobilis, commonly called "bastard hogberry," is an intriguing example of this adaptation. The ultra-bright blue fruit, which is low in nutritious content, mimics a more fleshy and nutritious competitor. Deceived birds eat the fruit and ultimately release its seeds over a wide geographic area.

"The fruit of this bastard hogberry plant was scientifically delightful to pick," says principal investigator Peter Vukusic, Associate Professor in Natural Photonics at the University of Exeter. "The light-manipulating architecture its surface layer presents, which has evolved to serve a specific biological function, has inspired an extremely useful and interesting technological design."

Vukusic and his collaborators at Harvard studied the structural origin of the seed's vibrant color. They discovered that the upper cells in the seed's skin contain a curved, repeating pattern, which creates color through the interference of light waves. (A similar mechanism is responsible for the bright colors of soap bubbles.) The team's analysis revealed that multiple layers of cells in the seed coat are each made up of a cylindrically layered architecture with high regularity on the nano- scale.

The team replicated the key structural elements of the fruit to create flexible, stretchable and color-changing photonic fibers using an innovative roll-up mechanism perfected in the Harvard laboratories.

"For our artificial structure, we cut down the complexity of the fruit to just its key elements," explains Kolle. "We use very thin fibers and wrap a polymer bilayer around them. That gives us the refractive index contrast, the right number of layers, and the curved, cylindrical cross-section that we need to produce these vivid colors."

The researchers say that the process could be scaled up and developed to suit industrial production.

"Our fiber-rolling technique allows the use of a wide range of materials, especially elastic ones, with the color-tuning range exceeding by an order of magnitude anything that has been reported for thermally drawn fibers," says coauthor Joanna Aizenberg, Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science at Harvard SEAS, and Kolle's adviser. Aizenberg is also Director of the Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology at Harvard and a Core Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.

The fibers' superior mechanical properties, combined with their demonstrated color brilliance and tunability, make them very versatile. For instance, the fibers can be wound to coat complex shapes. Because the fibers change color under strain, the technology could lend itself to smart sports textiles that change color in areas of muscle tension, or that sense when an object is placed under strain as a result of heat.

Additional coauthors included Alfred Lethbridge at the University of Exeter, Moritz Kreysing at Ludwig Maximilians University (Germany), and Jeremy B. Baumberg, Professor of Nanophotonics at the University of Cambridge (UK).

This research was supported by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative, by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and through a postdoctoral research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The researchers also benefited from facilities at the Harvard Center for Nanoscale Systems, which is part of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation. The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard also contributed to this research.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Harvard University.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Mathias Kolle, Alfred Lethbridge, Moritz Kreysing, Jeremy J. Baumberg, Joanna Aizenberg, Peter Vukusic. Bio-Inspired Band-Gap Tunable Elastic Optical Multilayer Fibers. Advanced Materials, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/adma.201203529

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/F55whN1jT3w/130128151938.htm

islands joe flacco 2013 nissan altima masters par 3 contest google augmented reality glasses wonderlic test texas tornado

TV veteran developing news show for Fuse

This undated image released by Fuse shows Rick Kaplan. The Fuse television network has turned to news veteran Rick Kaplan, who has run CNN and MSNBC and produced programs like "Nightline," to develop a music news program aimed largely at people some 40 years younger than him. "Fuse News" is set to debut Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. ET with pre-Grammy Awards coverage. The half-hour show, originating from Fuse's studios across from Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, will be repeated at midnight. (AP Photo/Fuse)

This undated image released by Fuse shows Rick Kaplan. The Fuse television network has turned to news veteran Rick Kaplan, who has run CNN and MSNBC and produced programs like "Nightline," to develop a music news program aimed largely at people some 40 years younger than him. "Fuse News" is set to debut Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. ET with pre-Grammy Awards coverage. The half-hour show, originating from Fuse's studios across from Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, will be repeated at midnight. (AP Photo/Fuse)

This undated image released by Fuse shows Rick Kaplan. The Fuse television network has turned to news veteran Rick Kaplan, who has run CNN and MSNBC and produced programs like "Nightline," to develop a music news program aimed largely at people some 40 years younger than him. "Fuse News" is set to debut Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. ET with pre-Grammy Awards coverage. The half-hour show, originating from Fuse's studios across from Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, will be repeated at midnight. (AP Photo/Fuse)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The Fuse television network has turned to news veteran Rick Kaplan, who has run CNN and MSNBC and produced programs like "Nightline," to develop a music news program aimed largely at people some 40 years younger than him.

"Fuse News" is set to debut Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. Eastern time with pre-Grammy Awards coverage. The half-hour show, originating from Fuse's studios across from Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, will be repeated at midnight.

"A lot of people are covering music in different ways," said Mike Bair, president of MSG Media, Fuse's corporate ownership. "But not a lot of people are covering it deeper and in a respectful way. We thought there was a real opportunity for us."

Fuse, available in some 70 million homes, is overshadowed by MTV, but unlike its competitor has kept its focus on music and is looking for a signature show.

Kaplan, 65, walked through a busy newsroom with TVs tuned to a Fuse countdown of sexy rap videos one recent afternoon. The 47-time Emmy winner had most recently produced Katie Couric's "CBS Evening News" and Christiane Amanpour's stint on ABC's Sunday morning and has formed his own consulting company.

Bair reached out to Kaplan through a mutual friend to gauge interest, and the idea intrigued Kaplan.

"While he's not in the target audience for Fuse (the network's median age is around 27), I think he also saw the opportunity," Bair said.

A whiteboard in Fuse's office already lists story plans for the first month. The collapse of the traditional music industry has made for many changes ripe for examining.

One future story will talk about bands scalping tickets to their own concerts, another about the sound quality issues behind the resurgence of vinyl. If "Fuse News" was on the air last week, it wouldn't treat the story about Beyonce lip-synching at the inauguration as a joke, but rather look into how widespread the practice is, Kaplan said.

"I want it to be a place where if you're involved in the industry in any way ? and that means anybody with a headset ? this will be the place where you will want to go," Kaplan said.

Kaplan's tastes run to the Eagles, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Now he's learning about electronic dance music, and even liking some of it. Liz Walaszczyk, a 28-year-old producer and contributing correspondent on "Fuse News," is gently introducing her boss to bands like the Xx.

And he's introducing her to the news.

Walaszczyk, who booked bands for Carson Daly's NBC show before joining Fuse, said that she finds blogs like Pitchfork and Stereogum helpful but that there's a void in serious music journalism. Kaplan is teaching her the importance of detail in every question asked and picture selected for her stories.

"I hear his voice and I think, 'This man has spoken to so many legends,'" she said.

Co-anchors for the show are Alexa Chung and Matte Babel. Former Gawker writer Elaine Moran and Jack Osbourne are contributing correspondents.

Yes, the news producer who once worked with Walter Cronkite is telling Ozzy's kid what to do.

Kaplan brushed aside a question about whether some people in the television news business might consider his current gig a comedown.

"Oh, God no," he said. "By no means. People who say that don't get it. It's a great privilege to be asked to do this program. It's the only serious program in this industry. It's a serious attempt to report on music in a credible way."

He said he's having a blast.

"In many ways, what Fuse is attempting to do with this show is more cutting edge than what any of the networks are doing," he said. "We're not starting a magazine show. We're not tinkering with the evening news."

The show will also have studio guests and music performances. Kaplan has hired Audrey Gruber, a former CBS News and CNN producer, to eventually take over for him when the show is up and running.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-01-28-TV-Fuse%20News/id-a52f2539ce0d443687871f99240a4bca

tupac hologram tupac back tax deadline death race buffet rule carlos santana dodgers triple play