Gamers looking for some hardware assistance can breathe a sigh of relief; Mad Catz's latest eye-catching forays into gaming mice and headsets are almost, if not already, upon us. The Cyborg M.M.O.7 mouse (?130) manages to offer up 78 definable commands beneath those eye-catching metallic hues and is available to buy now, while its F.R.E.Q 5 headset ($150) has hit pre-order on the manufacturer's site. Acronym-loving thrill-seekers can check out both at the source below.
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CULIACAN, Mexico ? The Mexican army says the drought is so bad in the country's north that even illicit drug growers and their normally well-tended crops of marijuana and opium poppies are being harmed.
Mexico has been shocked in recent weeks by reports of widespread hunger and poverty in the northern mountains caused by the drought.
But Gen. Pedro Gurrola says one effect of the lack of rain is that drug planting has "declined considerably." He says surveillance flights have detected fewer plantations than in previous years.
Debris and wreckage lie along the highway after a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
Debris and wreckage lie along the highway after a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
Firemen hose down a commercial carrier truck on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., after it was involved in a multi-vehicle wreck which killed at least nine people in the early hours of Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
A fireman sprays the interior of a burned vehicle that was involved in a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
At left, firemen rest after fighting fires that resulted from a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
Florida Highway Patrolmen inspect the damage from a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup on the highway, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)
GAINESVILLE, FLa. (AP) ? Just hours before a pileup that killed 10 people, authorities had closed a stretch of highway smothered in smoke and fog due to a three-vehicle crash that left a passenger seriously injured. Why they reopened it just minutes before the second crash ? and who made the call ? remained murky Monday, with the Florida Highway Patrol refusing to answer questions as national investigators hinted they might join the inquiry.
An FHP report noted that police closed Interstate 75 about midnight Saturday following the smashup between two SUVS and after drivers called in reporting low visibility. They reopened the roadway at 3:30 a.m. ? 15 minutes before at least a dozen cars, six tractor-trailers and a motorhome collided south of Gainesville, pushing some of the cars under the crushing bellies of big rigs, causing others to burst into flames and sending metal shrapnel flying through the air. Eighteen survivors were hospitalized.
FHP spokesmen at the state and local level did not respond to several phone calls and emails Monday from The Associated Press seeking answers to what protocol authorities follow ? and whether it had been altered following a similarly deadly crash in 2008 on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Tampa, about 125 miles south of Sunday's crash. Four people were killed and 38 injured in that crash.
Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators to Gainesville on Monday to determine if it would formally join the inquiry into the crash and its causes. Either way, the highway patrol will remain in charge of the investigation, NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said. "We've investigated a number of these pileups and we just want to see if there is any lesson we can learn from this particular series of accidents," he said. "One of the areas that our investigators will be looking at is the reopening of I-75."
The pileups happened on both sides of the highway. When rescuers first arrived, the smoke and fog were so thick the only way they could locate victims was by following the sound of their screams and moans from the wreckage, which was strewn for nearly a mile.
Authorities had not released the names of the victims, but did say that four people died in one of the cars and that a "tour bus-like" vehicle also was involved in the pileup. The fog and smoke had cleared enough Monday to reopen all lanes of the roadway.
Steven R. Camps and some friends were driving home hours before dawn Sunday when they were drawn into the massive wreck. "You could hear cars hitting each other. People were crying. People were screaming. It was crazy," the Gainesville man said hours later. "If I could give you an idea of what it looked like, I would say it looked like the end of the world."
Before Camps hit the fog bank, a friend who was driving ahead of him in a separate vehicle called to warn of the road conditions. The friend said he had just seen an accident and urged Camps to be careful as he approached the Paynes Prairie area, just south of Gainesville.
A short time later, Camps said, traffic stopped along the northbound lanes. "You couldn't see anything. People were pulling off the road," he said. Camps said he began talking about the road conditions to a man in the car stopped next to him when another vehicle hit that man's car.
The man's vehicle was crushed under a semi-truck stopped in front of them. Camps said his car was hit twice, but he and another friend were able to jump out. They took cover in the grass on the shoulder of the road. All around them, cars and trucks were on fire, and they could hear explosions as the vehicles burned.
"It was happening on both sides of the road, so there was nowhere to go. It blew my mind," he said, explaining that the scene "looked like someone was picking up cars and throwing them."
The fire that is believed to have contributed to poor visibility on the highway had destroyed 62 acres and was still burning Monday. Florida Forest Service spokeswoman Ludie Bond said the fire began Saturday and investigators were still trying to determine whether the blaze had been intentionally set. She said there were no controlled burns in the area and no lightning. No home are threatened by the fire. ___ Associated Press writer Freida Frisaro in Miami contributed to this report.
It?s official.? In Saturday?s edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, ?reader representative? Ted Diadiun addressed at length the decision to remove long-time Browns writer Tony Grossi from the team?s beat.? Diadiun?s article is well-written, superficially persuasive, and apparently effective, given the number of emails we?ve received from folks who believe based on Diadiun?s article that the newspaper did the right thing.
But it doesn?t change our opinion that the Plain Dealer cowered to the Browns.? In fact, it strengthens it.
When scrutinizing an employment decision, inconsistencies in the reasons and rationalizations from the employer become extremely important.? The thinking is that, if the employer can?t tell a unified story in support of a supposedly legitimate decision, it?s possible that the employer is trying to conceal potentially illegitimate motives.? Circumstantial evidence also takes on a critical role, since the employer rarely will admit to ordering the Code Red.? Or, perhaps for these purposes, a Code Orange.
And that?s really the ultimate question.? Did the Browns order a Code Orange on Grossi?? Or, more accurately, did the Plain Dealer reassign Grossi because it believed the Browns wanted Grossi out?
Let?s consider the facts, the circumstances, and the inconsistencies.
First, the facts.? Grossi posted on his Twitter page a message that he had intended to keep private.? In the message, Grossi called Browns owner Randy Lerner a ?pathetic figure? and ?the most irrelevant billionaire in the world.?? (Of all the billionaires in the world, technically one of them must be the most irrelevant.)? Grossi immediately deleted the tweet once he realized his mistake.? By then, however, his words had been copied and repeated across the Internet, and it was impossible to unring the bell.
Grossi apologized publicly, the Plain Dealer apologized publicly, and Plain Dealer publisher Terrance C.Z. Egger sent a written apology to the Browns and to Lerner.
Though not addressed in Diadiun?s column, the Browns responded with silence.? Apart from declining to comment in response to inquiries from PFT, the Browns and Lerner refused to take calls from Grossi, and possibly from other officials of the Plain Dealer.? Indeed, Diadiun admits that ?[n]one of the editors involved talked with anyone connected with the team? before making the decision to reassign Grossi.
Diadiun omits reference to the key question of whether the Plain Dealer tried to have such discussions.
Second, the circumstances.? Most significantly, Diadiun admits that Egger personally met with Lerner and team president Mike Holmgren on Wednesday, after the decision was made to reassign Grossi.? The fact that a meeting occurred invites speculation that the Browns cared ? or at a minimum that the Plain Dealer believed the Browns cared ? about the manner in which this situation was handled.
Third, the inconsistencies.? On Thursday, Plain Dealer managing editor Thom Fladung told 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland that the ?determining factor? for the decision was the following standard:? ?Don?t do something that affects your value as a journalist or the value of your newspaper or affects the perception of your value and the perception of that newspaper?s value.?? Fladung also said that Grossi?s opinions would have been permissible if he had posted them not on his Twitter page, but in the pages of the Plain Dealer.? ?Let?s say Tony had written that Randy Lerner?s lack of involvement with the Browns and their resulting disappointing records over the years has made him irrelevant as an owner, that?s defensible,? Fladung said.? ?That?s absolutely defensible.?
But Diadiun?s item contains a contradictory quote from Plain Dealer editor Adam Simmons, who thinks that Grossi?s role as a beat writer precluded him from making the statements about Lerner in any context.? ?If it had been a columnist who wrote that, we might cringe, but that role is different,? Simmons said. ?They?re paid to offer up opinions, however prickly. But we?re not asking them to go out and cover a team in a fair and balanced and objective way, like we are with a reporter.?? (Presumably, Simmons also believes that a columnist could have offered those opinions on his Twitter page, since opinions are fair game for a columnist.)
Complicating matters is Diadiun?s attempt to reconcile the action against Grossi with his First Amendment rights.? Rather that relying on the simple ? and accurate ? notion that employees of a private, for-profit enterprise have no First Amendment rights, Diadiun draws a clumsy line between personal and professional social media.? ?Anyone who works at the paper has the right to say, write or Tweet anything they wish,? Diadiun writes.? ?But they do not have a corresponding right to say it in the newspaper or on the website or on their newspaper Twitter account.? If they do, the editors who are in charge of maintaining the credibility of the newspaper have the right to change their assignment.?
So Fladung says that Grossi could have said what he said in the paper, Simmons says that Grossi couldn?t have said what he said anywhere unless he was a columnist, and Diadiun says that Grossi could have said what he said on his own, personal Twitter page.? And no one says it?s impermissible for Grossi to secretly possess those views, even if those views (as Diadiun writes) undermine his credibility.? Under the newspaper?s view of journalistic ethics, it only becomes a problem when those views are disclosed ? which actually should make Grossi even more credible, since he has openly acknowledged his bias.
The end result is a stew of mixed messages, which invites speculation that the real reason for the move was to maintain a good relationship with the Browns.? Though there continues to be ? and likely never will be ? any evidence that the Browns told the Plain Dealer what the Browns wanted the Plain Dealer to do, some of the loudest and clearest messages can be sent through silence.
When Grossi or others from the Plain Dealer tried to call Lerner and/or Holmgren and they refused to speak, what should a reasonable person conclude?? Moreover, why would a meeting with Lerner and Holmgren even be needed if the Plain Dealer didn?t care about the team?s response to the situation?? If this decision was solely about journalistic standards and the integrity and credibility of Grossi?s coverage in the eyes of the audience given his personal views regarding Lerner, there was no reason to go to Berea and kiss rings and/or smooch butts.
That?s the fundamental disconnect.? The Plain Dealer wants us to believe it engaged in a textbook exercise in ethics while at the same time doing things like writing letters of apology to Lerner and publicly calling Grossi?s words about Lerner insulting and personally meeting with Lerner and Holmgren.
Though the Browns may not have intended to order a Code Orange, we believe that the Plain Dealer believed that it needed to remove Grossi from the beat in order to remain in the good graces of the Browns.? And we?d have far more (or, as the case may be, any) respect for this decision if the Plain Dealer would simply admit that which upon inspection of the facts, the circumstances, and the inconsistencies seems obvious.
What's that? An HTC PI86100 Windows Phone with AT&T-specific LTE (bands 4 and 17) showing up in the hallowed halls of the FCC? Why, this must be the Titan II, announced a tad over a fortnight ago. Docs show that a production unit of the device, sporting the aforementioned LTE bands as well as 850 / 1900 3G (also AT&T compatible), is ready to take on its new Windows Phone competition sometime soon. Is it a guarantee that the phone is nigh at hand? Not quite, but at least it signifies that the 16 megapixel beast is one step closer to showing up in our hands.
VIENNA ? Austrians gathered in memory of the 2 million Jews murdered in Adolf Hitler's Auschwitz camp condemned plans to hold a ball of extreme rightists later in the day Friday, saying the event's timing transformed it into a macabre dance on Holocaust victims' graves.
Ball organizers insisted the fact that their event coincided this year with the 67th anniversary of the death camp's liberation was coincidental and denied suggestions that those attending were extremists.
But opponents vehemently criticized both the day chosen to hold the WKR ball and the political views of those attending it, suggesting it regularly attracts elements from the neo-Nazi fringe. The ball is to be held in Vienna's ornate Hofburg palace, less than a minute's walk away from the memorial event.
The dispute reflects both the distance Austria has come in acknowledging its role in Nazi atrocities and stubborn rightist sentiment among some here, who see themselves as Germans and Germans as the superior race ? a common regional building block of anti-Semitism.
Some of the most bitter comments came from the crowd that converged on Vienna's Heldenplatz, or Heroes' Square, to lay wreaths for the victims of Auschwitz, the concentration camp in occupied Poland where some of Nazis' greatest atrocities were committed during the Holocaust.
"You, who will dance and celebrate here; we remind you of the murder of two-thirds of Europe's Jews," proclaimed Holocaust survivor Rudolf Gelbard. Insisting that Nazi atrocities must never be forgotten, Greens' Party head Eva Glavischnig declared, "It is all the greater perfidy that there will be dancing today on the graves of Auschwitz."
Organizers point out that the ball traditionally takes place on the last Friday in January, but federal government minister Gabrielle Heinisch-Hosek scoffed at their insistence that the timing this year with international Auschwitz commemorations was coincidence.
She called the timing "a big provocation" in comments to The Associated Press, while Greens' Party member Niki Kunrath said the fact "that right-wing extremists can still assemble in the most magnificent halls of the country" was a national shame.
Formally, Austria has moved from a postwar portrayal of being Nazi Germany's first victim to acknowledging that it was Hitler's willing partner. Most young Austrians reject Nazi ideology and condemn the part their parents might have played in the Holocaust.
At the same time, the rightist-populist Freedom Party ? whose supporters range from those disillusioned with the more traditional parties to Islamophobes and Holocaust deniers ? has become Austria's second-strongest political force.
The party, a strong defender of the ball, confirmed Friday that Marine Le Pen, head of France's National Front, planned to attend the event, along with Belgium's Philip Claeys of the Vlaams Belang party and other European far rightists.
The Freedom Party itself went on the offensive, saying the real threat to society came from leftists planning to demonstrate against the ball and warning Austrian Jewish leader Ariel Muzicant that it might press charges of incitement against him for encouraging the protests.
The ball is staged mostly by dueling fraternities including far-right members who display saber scars on their cheeks as badges of honor. But Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache described the event as "an academic ball, not a political ball."
He accused "extreme-left" opponents of trying to sabotage his party and warned that the protests being organized outside the venue were being organized by anarchists backing "the rule of the street."
But demonstrations that began as the ball guests started to converge on the Hofburg were generally peaceful, with most of the approximately 2,500 demonstrators respecting police lines separating them from the venue.
In the only reported incident, some of the guests were delayed when the two buses carrying them were briefly blocked by sitting protesters who were quickly removed by police.
Although the ball regularly comes under criticism, its overlap this year with the Auschwitz liberation anniversary has increased pressure on organizers and attendees
Because it was listed among other annual champagne-laced Viennese balls, an Austrian committee reporting to UNESCO, the U.N.'s culture organization, struck all the balls from its list of Austria's noteworthy traditions last week.
While some of the more opulent Vienna balls are criticized as a showcase of the rich, most are devoid of direct political controversy. For centuries, the city's high society has waltzed blissfully through wars, recessions and occasional firebomb-throwing anarchists opposed to the moneyed decadence they think such events represent.
But the WKR ball started drawing flack as Austrians began to come to grips decades ago with the fact that their country was one of Nazi Germany's most willing allies instead of its first victim through its 1938 annexation by Hitler.
Bowing to the pressure, the Hofburg palace announced late last year that the ball will have to move elsewhere as of 2013.
___
Philipp Jenne contributed to this report.
___
George Jahn can be reached at http://twitter.com/georgejahn
JOHANNESBURG?? Young people tweeting from BlackBerrys and iPhones are driving the growth of Twitter in Africa, with South Africans by far the most vociferous, according to new research published Thursday.
Kenya-based Portland Communications and Tweetminster published findings indicating Twitter in Africa is widely used for social conversation and is fast becoming an important source of information. More than 80 percent of those polled said they mainly used it for communicating with friends, 68 percent said they use it to monitor news and 22 percent to search for jobs, the companies said.
The research analyzed more than 11.5 million geographically pinpointed tweets originating on the continent during the last three months of 2011. That was complemented by a survey of 500 of Africa's most active tweeters.
South Africans, with the continent's biggest economy, were the most prolific with over twice as many tweets at 5,030,226 than the next most active country of Kenya with 2,476,800 tweets. Surprisingly, Africa's most populous nation, Nigeria, had only 1,646,212 tweets from its more than 160 million people. It was followed by Egypt with 1,214,062 and Morocco with 745,620 tweets.
African tweeters are young, averaging 20 to 29 years, compared to 39 worldwide, the report said. And some 57 percent of analyzed tweets were sent from mobile phones, mainly BlackBerrys and iPhones.
The researchers noted how few African business and political leaders were joining Africa's burgeoning Twittersphere.
"With some notable exceptions, we found that business and political leaders were largely absent from the debates playing out on Twitter across the continent," they said. "As Twitter lifts off in Africa, governments, businesses and development agencies can really no longer afford to stay out of a new space where dialogue will increasingly be taking place."
Among noted Twitter users are President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Kagame got into an infamous Twitterspat last year with journalist Ian Birrell of The Guardian of London, with the two trading tweets about human rights and repression in the central African nation. The cyber-conversation first was joined by Kagame's foreign minister, and then went global.
While Kenyan soldiers and fighters of an extremist Somali Islamist group have been fighting each other, their spokesman has taken the battle onto Twitter, with taunts, accusations and insults being directly traded in a rare engagement on the Internet.
On Thursday, South Africa's new Corruption Watch campaign launched, including a Twitter account where tweeters encouraged each other to make it "the No. 1 followed Twitter account in South Africa."
The research, called "How Africa Tweets," found Twitter is helping form new links within Africa. The majority of those surveyed said at least half of the Twitter accounts they followed were based on the continent.
Beatrice Karanja, head of Portland Nairobi, said: "We saw the pivotal role of Twitter in the events in North Africa last year, but it is clear that Africa's Twitter revolution is really just beginning."
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Members of the audience applaud at the conclusion of a video montage featuring moments from former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno's career during a memorial service in Paterno's honor at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pa., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. A capacity crowd of more than 12,000 packed Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center for one more tribute to Paterno, the Hall of Fame football coach who died Sunday from lung cancer. (AP Photo/York Daily Record, Chris Dunn) YORK DISPATCH OUT
Members of the audience applaud at the conclusion of a video montage featuring moments from former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno's career during a memorial service in Paterno's honor at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pa., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. A capacity crowd of more than 12,000 packed Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center for one more tribute to Paterno, the Hall of Fame football coach who died Sunday from lung cancer. (AP Photo/York Daily Record, Chris Dunn) YORK DISPATCH OUT
Phil Knight adjust the microphones before he speaks during a memorial service for former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pa. Thursday Jan. 26, 2012. Knight, the Nike founder, got a standing ovation at Paterno's public memorial for defending the late coach's response to an accusation of child sex abuse against a former assistant. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Penn State University Worthington/Scranton campus students watch a live telecast of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno's memorial service on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, in Dunmore, Pa. Paterno died on Sunday from lung cancer. (AP Photo/The Scranton Times-Tribune, Butch Comegys) WILKES BARRE TIMES-LEADER OUT
Jay Paterno addresses the audience as the final speaker at "A Memorial for Joe" in memory of his late father, former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pa., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/York Daily Record, Chris Dunn) YORK DISPATCH OUT
Former Penn State football player Charles V. Pittman, senior vice president for publishing at Schurz Communications Inc., an Indiana-based company that owns television and radio stations and newspapers is interviewed as his grandson Noah, six and a half months old, looks on after the conclusion of a memorial service in honor of Joe Paterno at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pa. Thursday Jan. 26, 2012. A capacity crowd of more than 12,000 packed Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center for one more tribute to Paterno, the Hall of Fame football coach who died Sunday from lung cancer. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) ? The near-capacity crowd of 12,000 seemed to be just waiting for somebody to bring up the subject. Finally, when someone rose in Joe Paterno's defense to argue that he had been made a scapegoat, the audience was instantly on its feet, applauding thunderously.
Anger and resentment came spilling out at a campus memorial service Thursday for the football coach, two months after he was summarily fired by the trustees.
It was Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight who broke the dam, defending Paterno's handling of child-sex allegations that were leveled against a former coaching assistant.
"If there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation and not in Joe Paterno's response," Knight said. Paterno's widow, Sue, was among those rising to their feet.
Later, Paterno's son Jay received a standing ovation when he declared: "Joe Paterno left this world with a clear conscience."
Capping three days of mourning on campus, the 2?-hour ceremony was filled with lavish praise that probably would have embarrassed Paterno, who died Sunday of lung cancer at 85 after racking up more wins ? 409 ? than any other major-college football coach and leading his team to two national championships in 46 seasons.
One by one, Penn State football stars and others credited Paterno with building not just better athletes but better men ? and women. He was saluted for his commitment to sportsmanship, loyalty, teamwork, character, academics and "winning with honor." He was called a good father, a good husband, a good neighbor, a good friend, a good teacher.
Players from each decade of Paterno's career spoke affectionately about him, saying he rode them hard but always had their best interests at heart and encouraged them to complete their educations and make something of themselves.
Though the Penn State campus has been torn with anger over the child-sex scandal and Paterno's dismissal, Jay Paterno said his father didn't hold a grudge.
"Perhaps his truest moment, his living testimony to all that he stood for, came in the last months of his life. Faced with obstacles and challenges that would have left a lesser man bitter, he showed his truest spirit and his truest self," Paterno said.
Only one member of the university administration ? the dean of the college of liberal arts ? and no one from the Board of Trustees spoke at the memorial, which was arranged primarily by the Paterno family.
Among the speakers were Michael Robinson, who played for Paterno from 2002 to 2005, quarterback Todd Blackledge from the 1980s and Jimmy Cefalo, a star in the 1970s. All three went on to play in the NFL.
Former NFL player Charles V. Pittman, speaking for players from the 1960s, called Paterno a lifelong influence and inspiration.
Pittman said Paterno pushed his young players hard, once bringing Pittman to tears in his sophomore year. He said he realized later that the coach was not trying to break his spirit but instead was "bit by bit building a habit of excellence."
"He was building a proud program for the school, the state and the hundreds of young men he watched over for a half-century," said Pittman, now a media executive on the board of The Associated Press.
Similarly, Chris Marrone, whose playing career at Penn State was cut short by injuries, said Paterno molded him into a young man with "the strength to overcome any challenge, any adversity."
Paterno was fired Nov. 9 after he was criticized for not going to police in 2002 when he was told that a former member of his coaching staff, Jerry Sandusky, had been seen sexually assaulting a boy in the showers. Sandusky was arrested in November and is awaiting trial on charges that he molested 10 boys over a 15-year span.
As the scandal erupted, Pennsylvania's state police commissioner said Paterno may have met his legal duty but not his moral one. Penn State president Graham Spanier was also fired in the fallout.
Among those at the memorial was former athletic director Tim Curley, who is awaiting trial on charges he lied to the grand jury that investigated Sandusky.
About midway through the ceremony, Knight became the first speaker to explicitly address the scandal. He said the coach "gave full disclosure to his superiors, information that went up the chains to the head of the campus police and the president of the school. The matter was in the hands of a world-class university, and by a president with an outstanding national reputation."
Lanny J. Davis, an attorney for the board, responded after the service by saying: "All the reasons for the board's difficult and anguished decision ? made unanimously, including former football players and everyone who still loves Coach Paterno and his memory ? reached a decision which was heartfelt. All 32."
"The facts speak for themselves" and include the grand jury testimony, he said.
After the memorial, Marrone said Knight was his "new hero" for expressing the "pent-up frustration" many people are feeling.
"I think the response that he got is indicative of how folks feel," Marrone said.
Jay Paterno, who served under his father as quarterback coach, began his remarks by imitating his father's raspy, high-pitched voice, telling the audience, "Sit down! Sit down!"
Growing serious, Paterno described his last moments with his father. As Paterno lay dying, his son kissed him and whispered in his ear.
"Dad, you won," Jay Paterno said he told him. "You did all you could do. You've done enough. We all love you. We won. You can go home now."
Yesterday, Google filed its 10-K with the SEC, revealing the number of acquisitions and money spent on these purchases in the year. As of Q3, Google had spent over $1.4 billion on 55 acquisitions for the year. Google ended 2011 spending $1.9 billion (including cash and stock) on completing 79 acquisitions during the entirety of the year. Some of the bigger purchases included ITA Software, which was purchased for $676 million in cash. As we know Google is spending $12.5 billion on Motorola (which isn't included in 2011's calculations), with a termination fee of $2.5 billion if the deal fails to get regulatory approval. The transaction is currently expected to close in early 2012.
And the cutest photo of the day award goes to If You Can't Reach That Nintendo 3DS, Team Up With Your Twin Sister. I wonder how often do they change places. [Google+ — Thanks Gustavo!] More »
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich released the following statement on Obama's address.
We have a crisis of work in this country and tonight President Obama proposed nothing in the way of policy changes that will get us to robust job creation and dramatic economic growth.
Instead, the president described his conviction that his big government is built to last and should be paid for with higher taxes.
But bigger government and higher taxes will not lead to jobs and growth. Bigger government and higher taxes will instead lead to more people on food stamps, a situation which the President and his party defend as a fair outcome.
Here we have to confront the truth about President Obama. Economic growth and prosperity is not really at the top of his agenda. He will always prefer a food stamp economy to a paycheck economy and call it fair.
For the president and a large part of the political class, it's about their power, their right to rule. They just want to take money from Joe the Plumber - the small business people who makes over 90 per cent of the new jobs -- and redistribute it to the government bureaucracy and their political friends and allies. That's why so much of that nearly trillion-dollar stimulus didn't create jobs but just went into the pockets of special interests who support President Obama and the leadership of the Democratic Party.
No better example of this exists than in the crisis of American energy. President Obama and his political allies - not of few of whom love living in energy inefficient houses or driving gas-guzzling luxury vehicles - openly admit they want gas prices to remain high so that the rest of America will learn to live more modestly. They think it's good for rest of us. Only recently, the president canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline that would have created countless new jobs and helped America on the way to energy independence because he wanted to appease the far left of his party. And yet not a single word on the Keystone XL pipeline tonight.
To create jobs and growth in this country, we must start with dramatic tax reform that lowers taxes and maximizes capital investment and job creation. We must return to a dollar as good as gold whose purchasing power is the same in thirty years as it is today. We must dramatically expand American energy production. We must have smarter regulation at the same time we abolish destructive and costly regulatory systems beginning with Obamacare,Dodd-Franks, and Sarbanes-Oxley. And finally, unlike the current administration, we must have faith in job creators.
With these policies the state of the union will be much better. They will create an explosion in job creation and lead to robust economic growth and a return to prosperity. Furthermore, a paycheck economy will put us on a path to balanced budgets and paying down our national debt.
Katy Perry is cutting Russell Brand out of her life in more ways than one.
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The 27-year-old "Firework" singer has unfollowed her soon-to-be ex-husband on Twitter. As of Friday, Perry is still one of the 78 people Brand subscribes to via the social networking site.PHOTOS: Katy's crazy cleavage
It's not surprising, given that Perry is only communicating with Brand, 36, via phone or email. "She's limiting those interactions," a source tells the new issue of Us Weekly (out now). "He's being so atrocious that she feels like she never really knew him."
VIDEO: Why did Katy and Russell call it quits?
Perry has been keeping Brand off her mind by focusing on her career: she performed in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Thursday, and she recently shot an Adidas ad in Santa Barbara, Calif.
"She doesn't want to look battered and have people for sorry for her," a Perry source tells Us. "She's very strong and confident."PHOTOS: Katy and Russell's zany romance
For much more on the couple's nasty split -- including Brand's plans for a tell-all book documenting his 14-month marriage to Perry -- pick up the new issue of Us Weekly, out now!
UPDATE: Montero passed his physical, so it?s now a done deal.
==========
The multi-player deal between the Yankees and Mariners headlined by Jesus Montero and Michael Pineda is moving closer to completion.
Montero was delayed from taking a physical due to weather, plane and visa problems in his native Venezuela, but Larry Stone of the Seattle Times reports that the 22-year-old arrived in the United States yesterday and was en route to Seattle.
The Pacific Northwest was rocked by a pretty nasty winter storm this week, so there?s no guarantee Montero?s travel plans went off without a hitch. However, assuming no problems with his flight and scheduled physical, an official announcement could happen within the next day or two.
The deal between the Yankees and Mariners, which was agreed upon last Friday, will send Montero and right-hander Hector Noesi to Seattle for Pineda and prospect right-hander Jose Campos.
Group settings can diminish expressions of intelligence, especially among womenPublic release date: 22-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Paula Byron pbyron@vt.edu 540-526-2027 Virginia Tech
In the classic film "12 Angry Men," Henry Fonda's character sways a jury with his quiet, persistent intelligence. But would he have succeeded if he had allowed himself to fall sway to the social dynamics of that jury?
Research led by scientists at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute found that small-group dynamics -- such as jury deliberations, collective bargaining sessions, and cocktail parties -- can alter the expression of IQ in some susceptible people. "You may joke about how committee meetings make you feel brain dead, but our findings suggest that they may make you act brain dead as well," said Read Montague, director of the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory and Computational Psychiatry Unit at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, who led the study.
The scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how the brain processes information about social status in small groups and how perceptions of that status affect expressions of cognitive capacity.
"We started with individuals who were matched for their IQ," said Montague. "Yet when we placed them in small groups, ranked their performance on cognitive tasks against their peers, and broadcast those rankings to them, we saw dramatic drops in the ability of some study subjects to solve problems. The social feedback had a significant effect."
"Our study highlights the unexpected and dramatic consequences even subtle social signals in group settings may have on individual cognitive functioning," said lead author Kenneth Kishida, a research scientist with the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute. "And, through neuroimaging, we were able to document the very strong neural responses that those social cues can elicit."
The researchers recruited subjects from two universities and administered a standard test to establish baseline IQ. The results were not viewed until after a series of ranked group IQ tasks, during which test takers, in groups of five, received information about how their performances compared to those of the other group members.
Although the test subjects had similar baseline IQ scores -- a mean of 126, compared to the national average of 100 -- they showed a range of test performance results after the ranked group IQ tasks, revealing that some individuals' expressed IQ was affected by signals about their status within a small group.
The researchers wanted to know what was happening in the brain during the observed changes in IQ expression. The subjects were divided into two groups based on the results of their final rank -- the high performers, who scored above the median, and the low performers, who scored at or below the median. Two of every group of five subjects had their brains scanned using fMRI while they participated in the task.
Among the researchers' findings:
1. Dynamic responses occurred in multiple brain regions, especially the amygdala, the prefrontal cortex, and the nucleus accumbens -- regions believed to be involved in emotional processing, problem solving, and reward and pleasure, respectively.
2. All subjects had an initial increase in amygdala activation and diminished activity in the prefrontal cortex, both of which corresponded with a lower problem-solving ability.
3. By the end of the task, the high-performing group showed a decreased amygdala activation and an increased prefrontal cortex activation, both of which were associated with an increased ability to solve more difficult problems.
4. Positive changes in rank were associated with greater activity in the bilateral nucleus accumbens, which has traditionally been linked to learning and has been shown to respond to rewards and pleasure.
5. Negative changes in rank corresponded with greater activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, consistent with a response to conflicting information.
6. Neither age nor ethnicity showed a significant correlation with performance or brain responses. A significant pattern did emerge along gender lines, however. Although male and female participants had the same baseline IQ, significantly fewer women (3 of 13) were in the high-performing group and significantly more (10 of 13) fell into the low-performing group.
"We don't know how much these effects are present in real-world settings," Kishida said. "But given the potentially harmful effects of social-status assignments and the correlation with specific neural signals, future research should be devoted to what, exactly, society is selecting for in competitive learning and workplace environments. By placing an emphasis on competition, for example, are we missing a large segment of the talent pool? Further brain imaging research may also offer avenues for developing strategies for people who are susceptible to these kinds of social pressures."
"This study tells us the idea that IQ is something we can reliably measure in isolation without considering how it interacts with social context is essentially flawed," said coauthor Steven Quartz, a professor of philosophy in the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory of Caltech. "Furthermore, this suggests that the idea of a division between social and cognitive processing in the brain is really pretty artificial. The two deeply interact with each other."
"So much of our society is organized around small-group interactions," said Kishida. "Understanding how our brains respond to dynamic social interactions is an important area of future research. We need to remember that social dynamics affect not just educational and workplace environments, but also national and international policy-making bodies, such as the U.S. Congress and the United Nations."
###
The research appears in the Jan. 23, 2012 issue of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B in the article, "Implicit signals in small group settings and their impact on the expression of cognitive capacity and associated brain responses," by Kenneth Kishida; Dongni Yang, a former postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine; Karen Hunter Quartz, a director of research in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies of the University of California, Los Angeles; Steven Quartz; and Read Montague, corresponding author, who is also a professor of physics at Virginia Tech. The research was supported by grants from the Wellcome Trust and the Kane Family Foundation to Montague and the National Institutes of Health to Montague and Kishida.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Group settings can diminish expressions of intelligence, especially among womenPublic release date: 22-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Paula Byron pbyron@vt.edu 540-526-2027 Virginia Tech
In the classic film "12 Angry Men," Henry Fonda's character sways a jury with his quiet, persistent intelligence. But would he have succeeded if he had allowed himself to fall sway to the social dynamics of that jury?
Research led by scientists at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute found that small-group dynamics -- such as jury deliberations, collective bargaining sessions, and cocktail parties -- can alter the expression of IQ in some susceptible people. "You may joke about how committee meetings make you feel brain dead, but our findings suggest that they may make you act brain dead as well," said Read Montague, director of the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory and Computational Psychiatry Unit at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, who led the study.
The scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how the brain processes information about social status in small groups and how perceptions of that status affect expressions of cognitive capacity.
"We started with individuals who were matched for their IQ," said Montague. "Yet when we placed them in small groups, ranked their performance on cognitive tasks against their peers, and broadcast those rankings to them, we saw dramatic drops in the ability of some study subjects to solve problems. The social feedback had a significant effect."
"Our study highlights the unexpected and dramatic consequences even subtle social signals in group settings may have on individual cognitive functioning," said lead author Kenneth Kishida, a research scientist with the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute. "And, through neuroimaging, we were able to document the very strong neural responses that those social cues can elicit."
The researchers recruited subjects from two universities and administered a standard test to establish baseline IQ. The results were not viewed until after a series of ranked group IQ tasks, during which test takers, in groups of five, received information about how their performances compared to those of the other group members.
Although the test subjects had similar baseline IQ scores -- a mean of 126, compared to the national average of 100 -- they showed a range of test performance results after the ranked group IQ tasks, revealing that some individuals' expressed IQ was affected by signals about their status within a small group.
The researchers wanted to know what was happening in the brain during the observed changes in IQ expression. The subjects were divided into two groups based on the results of their final rank -- the high performers, who scored above the median, and the low performers, who scored at or below the median. Two of every group of five subjects had their brains scanned using fMRI while they participated in the task.
Among the researchers' findings:
1. Dynamic responses occurred in multiple brain regions, especially the amygdala, the prefrontal cortex, and the nucleus accumbens -- regions believed to be involved in emotional processing, problem solving, and reward and pleasure, respectively.
2. All subjects had an initial increase in amygdala activation and diminished activity in the prefrontal cortex, both of which corresponded with a lower problem-solving ability.
3. By the end of the task, the high-performing group showed a decreased amygdala activation and an increased prefrontal cortex activation, both of which were associated with an increased ability to solve more difficult problems.
4. Positive changes in rank were associated with greater activity in the bilateral nucleus accumbens, which has traditionally been linked to learning and has been shown to respond to rewards and pleasure.
5. Negative changes in rank corresponded with greater activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, consistent with a response to conflicting information.
6. Neither age nor ethnicity showed a significant correlation with performance or brain responses. A significant pattern did emerge along gender lines, however. Although male and female participants had the same baseline IQ, significantly fewer women (3 of 13) were in the high-performing group and significantly more (10 of 13) fell into the low-performing group.
"We don't know how much these effects are present in real-world settings," Kishida said. "But given the potentially harmful effects of social-status assignments and the correlation with specific neural signals, future research should be devoted to what, exactly, society is selecting for in competitive learning and workplace environments. By placing an emphasis on competition, for example, are we missing a large segment of the talent pool? Further brain imaging research may also offer avenues for developing strategies for people who are susceptible to these kinds of social pressures."
"This study tells us the idea that IQ is something we can reliably measure in isolation without considering how it interacts with social context is essentially flawed," said coauthor Steven Quartz, a professor of philosophy in the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory of Caltech. "Furthermore, this suggests that the idea of a division between social and cognitive processing in the brain is really pretty artificial. The two deeply interact with each other."
"So much of our society is organized around small-group interactions," said Kishida. "Understanding how our brains respond to dynamic social interactions is an important area of future research. We need to remember that social dynamics affect not just educational and workplace environments, but also national and international policy-making bodies, such as the U.S. Congress and the United Nations."
###
The research appears in the Jan. 23, 2012 issue of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B in the article, "Implicit signals in small group settings and their impact on the expression of cognitive capacity and associated brain responses," by Kenneth Kishida; Dongni Yang, a former postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine; Karen Hunter Quartz, a director of research in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies of the University of California, Los Angeles; Steven Quartz; and Read Montague, corresponding author, who is also a professor of physics at Virginia Tech. The research was supported by grants from the Wellcome Trust and the Kane Family Foundation to Montague and the National Institutes of Health to Montague and Kishida.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Is that a proton torpedo exploding through space? Nah. Maybe the world's most incredibly unsafe powerline crackling in the night sky? Or how about a CGI bit from The Hobbit? Well, no, but close. It has to do with a dragon, see. More »
KANO (Reuters) ? The death toll from gun and bomb attacks in the northern Nigerian city of Kano has risen to at least 178, a doctor in its main hospital said on Sunday, making this by far the deadliest attack claimed by the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram.
"We have 178 people killed in the two main hospitals," the senior doctor in Kano's Murtala Mohammed hospital said following Friday's attacks, citing records from his own and the other main hospital of Nasarawa.
"There could be more, because some bodies have not yet come in and others were collected early."
(Reporting by Mike Oboh; writing by Tim Cocks; editing by David Stamp)
Yesterday, Google filed its 
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Public release date: 22-Jan-2012
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