Scientists pause research with lab-bred bird flu (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The scientists who created easier-to-spread versions of the deadly bird flu say they're temporarily halting more research, as international specialists debate what should happen next.

Last month, U.S. officials had urged two labs not to publicly reveal how they brewed the new viruses, for fear would-be bioterrorists might copy them. Critics also worried a lab accident might allow the strains to escape.

The viruses are held in high-security labs in the U.S. and the Netherlands. They were created to help learn how bird flu might mutate to become a bigger threat to people. But in a letter Friday to the journals Science and Nature, the scientists said they would "pause" additional research for 60 days as world health officials debate how to learn from the work, safely.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_he_me/us_med_bird_flu

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TSMC profits down 22.5 percent, still able to afford a new yacht

It's not been a great year for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company: the chip foundry behind Qualcomm and NVIDIA's silicon (amongst others) saw profits slump by 22.5 percent in the last quarter of 2011. Like everything in this world, however, trouble is relative: the business still made a net profit of just over a billion US dollars. CEO Morris Chang pointed a wealthy digit toward customers clearing out old inventory and said that new orders for phone and tablet CPUs would arrive shortly -- thanks to a 28-nanometer factory that opened its doors around the same time. He then casually mentioned that a 20-nanometer facility will open its doors towards the end of this year, followed by a 14-nanometer block by 2014. We've got the report on the financials -- for those with a currency convertor and some spare time to hand -- after the break.

Continue reading TSMC profits down 22.5 percent, still able to afford a new yacht

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/19/tsmc-2011-profits-slump/

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Intel 4Q earnings rise 6 percent, top St. estimate

This Jan. 17, 2012 photo shows an Intel processor advertisement for a computer at a store in Santa Clara, Calif., Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012. Intel Corp., releases quarterly financial results Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, after the market close. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

This Jan. 17, 2012 photo shows an Intel processor advertisement for a computer at a store in Santa Clara, Calif., Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012. Intel Corp., releases quarterly financial results Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, after the market close. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

(AP) ? Intel Corp., the world's largest chip-maker, on Thursday said its profit rose 6 percent in the latest quarter, topping analyst expectations, even as hard-drive shortages held back PC makers' chip orders.

The Santa Clara, Calif., company also provided a forecast for the new quarter that matched analyst expectations.

Intel's results, like Apple's in recent quarters, have benefited from the economic surge in China and other developing countries, where many people are buying PCs for the first time. Intel processors go into about four out of five PCs built.

CEO Paul Otellini expects China to continue to drive Intel's sales, noting on a conference call with analysts that the country's is now the world's largest PC market, even though just 35 percent of Chinese households have PCs. In the U.S., 90 percent of households have PCs.

At the same time, growing Internet use is driving demand for servers, where Intel processors are now the No. 1 choice as well.

However, Intel had to scale back sales expectations in the middle of the quarter because of disastrous floods in Thailand, which knocked out factories that produce hard drives and hard drive components. Computer makers cut production, and chip purchases, because of the parts shortages.

The latest results were at the high end of Intel's mid-quarter forecast range.

Fourth-quarter net income was $3.36 billion, or 64 cents per share, up from $3.18 billion, or 56 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding some one-time charges related to acquisitions, earnings totaled 68 cents per share, beating the 61-cent estimate of analysts polled by FactSet

Revenue rose 21 percent to $13.9 billion from $11.5 billion. Analysts were expecting $13.7 billion.

Excluding last year's acquisitions of security company McAfee Inc. and a unit of Infineon AG that makes modem chips for cellphones, Intel's annual revenue grew 15 percent from 2010.

The company says it expects between $12.3 billion and $13.3 billion in first-quarter revenue, straddling the analyst forecast of $12.8 billion.

Intel is also gearing up for its biggest advertising campaign since 2003. This spring, it will promote "ultrabooks," which are thin, light and powerful laptops in the vein of the MacBook Air. Intel has prodded PC makers to produce such models, and they've responded enthusiastically.

While Intel is stronger than ever on the PC side, it's facing a new threat in the form of cellphone-style chips made by Texas Instruments Inc., Qualcomm Corp., Nvidia Corp. and others. These chips have taken the step from powering cellphones to tablets, and could be encroaching on Intel's PC market next year.

To fight back, Intel is moving its chips into cellphones. Last week, it announced that Lenovo Corp. will be making an Intel-powered smartphone for China, and Motorola Mobility Holdings Corp. of the U.S. has committed to using Intel chips for smartphones and tablets.

Intel shares added 19 cents to $25.82 in extended trading, after the release of the results. Shares had risen 24 cents to $25.63 on Thursday.

For the full year, Intel had net income $12.9 billion on $54 billion in revenue. That was up from $11.5 billion on $43.6 billion in revenue in 2010.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-19-Earns-Intel/id-35089babdf8d4b0dbbadddf881647ac3

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Colo. court weighs energy leases near Utah parks (AP)

DENVER ? A federal appeals court must decide if the Obama administration gave energy companies enough notice that it was scrapping Bush-era energy leases near national parks in Utah, the auction for which prompted an environmental activist to drive up prices with his bidding in an act of civil disobedience.

Arguments before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday focused on whether Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's announcement of the decision in the opening weeks of the new administration should count as notice.

The issue is important because energy companies had 90 days to appeal, and if the clock started ticking then, the energy companies filed too late.

The case involves leases near Arches and Canyonlands national parks and Dinosaur National Monument that were auctioned off in the final month of the President George W. Bush's administration.

Salazar has said he later voided the leases because they were at the doorstep to Utah's redrock parks ? Arches and Canyonlands national parks and Dinosaur National Monument. He also faulted the Bureau of Land Management for failing to consult the National Park Service before leasing the lands, and he questioned whether an environmental analysis justifying the sale was adequate.

U.S. District Judge Dee Benson ruled in September 2010 that a lawsuit brought by energy producers challenging the cancellation of the 77 oil and gas drilling leases was filed too late. Benson concluded the companies failed to file their lawsuit within 90 days of Salazar's February 2009 decision.

The judge wrote that Salazar exceeded his authority by withdrawing the leases but ultimately ruled in his favor because the companies missed their deadline.

Salazar's attorneys argued those reasons were good enough for him to scrap the 77 leases. Benson disagreed.

The auction on Dec. 19, 2008, was troubled from the start. A Utah college student grabbed a bidder's paddle to run up prices and take parcels between Arches and Canyonlands national parks for safekeeping.

Tim DeChristopher, who acknowledged he didn't have $1.7 million to pay for his leases, was convicted of interfering with and making false representations at a government auction. He was sentenced in July to two years in prison, fined $10,000 and ordered to serve three years of probation. DeChristopher said he disrupted the auction as an act of civil disobedience to focus attention on climate change.

Thursday's hearing in Denver was the latest public show of conflict between the Obama administration and the energy industry.

Last week, the administration banned new hard rock mining on more than a million acres near the Grand Canyon, an area known to be rich in high-grade uranium ore reserves. And on Wednesday, the president blocked the proposed $7 billion, 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas, though the issue may not be dead.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_re_us/us_national_parks_drilling

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Testing for HIV together, hearing results together (AP)

CHICAGO ? Newly dating and slightly anxious, two men bared their arms for blood tests and pondered the possibility that one of them, or both, could be infected with HIV. An innovative program ? called Testing Together ? would allow them to hear their test results minutes later, while sitting side by side.

Eric Zemanovic, a dental hygienist, and Dominic Poteste, a restaurant server, had been dating two months after a yearlong friendship. In the past, they'd both practiced safe sex and got regular HIV tests. Both are in their early 30s. They'd grown up when AIDS meant an early, horrible death. So, whenever they heard about friends testing positive, they felt pangs of fear.

Poteste explained: "There's always an anxiety that comes with getting tested, even though 99 percent of the time I've been safe and been careful, there still is always ..." His voice trailed off.

"A slight possibility," Zemanovic completed the sentence.

"A slight possibility," Poteste agreed.

___

Testing Together, now under way in Chicago and Atlanta, takes an unusual approach: It encourages gay male couples to get tested together and hear their results together. After delivering the results, a counselor talks with the couple about what to do next, including agreements they may want to make with each other about sex and health.

Are we agreeing to be monogamous? Is any sexual activity outside the relationship OK? How are we going to protect each other from infection? Couples address these questions and more.

The idea is to bring honesty to sexual relationships, said one of the researchers behind the program, Rob Stephenson of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta.

Relationships offer only "mythical protection" from HIV, Stephenson said. Some couples may have avoided talking about each other's HIV status, thinking, "If he were HIV positive he would have told me," or "If he wanted to know, he would have asked."

Poteste and Zemanovic, the newly dating Chicago couple, differed in their past approaches. Zemanovic was in the habit of asking his sex partners about their HIV status; he was "neurotic" about it, he said. Poteste hadn't been as sexually active as his new boyfriend, but he hadn't always asked the questions: Have you been tested? What's your status?

"You have an assumption that if there's something this person could do to potentially hurt me, they would tell me," he said.

Zemanovic hoped getting tested together and discussing results with a counselor would build trust between them.

Poteste hoped the counselor could help them start a conversation so they could ask and answer difficult questions.

___

It started in Africa more than 20 years ago. Researchers believe couples testing has successfully reduced the spread of AIDS among married, heterosexual couples in some African regions. One study that looked at couples where one spouse is HIV positive and the other is HIV negative estimated that couples testing was cutting the rate of transmission by more than half.

In Washington, D.C., where the rate of HIV infection rivals some African nations, some community agencies allow couples to test together. Family and Medical Counseling Service Inc. has been testing about 145 couples together annually since 2008. Most are heterosexual couples.

In Chicago and Atlanta, Testing Together, funded by the MAC AIDS Fund, hopes to test 400 couples by the end of the year.

___

Each participant in Testing Together signs a consent form that addresses receiving counseling, testing and results with a partner in the same room at the same time with a trained counselor: "I hereby consent to allow my partner to know the results of my HIV test," it begins.

The program challenges conventional practices in the United States, where HIV testing is usually private and for individuals only. At most other clinics, a man who asks if his partner can be there when he hears his test result is denied because of patient confidentiality concerns.

There are two trends fueling Testing Together. One, the number of gay Americans telling the U.S. Census they're living with same-sex partners nearly doubled in the past decade, to about 650,000 couples. About half those same-sex partnerships are gay men.

What's more, a new line of research suggests that up to 68 percent of new HIV infections in gay men come from a main sex partner, not from casual sex, in part because main sex partners are more likely to forgo condoms.

Counselors are trained on how to deliver test results, with particular emphasis on how to tell partners the most difficult news: one partner has the virus and the other doesn't. With these so-called "HIV discordant" couples, counselors have a great opportunity to reduce the spread of the virus by helping the couple learn ways to protect the uninfected partner, primarily through correct and consistent condom use.

Counselors are trained to dispel myths. If the couple thinks the test result means one partner has been unfaithful, the counselor might point out that the infected partner could have acquired HIV before the partner became a couple. If the couple believes the virus is "sleeping" and can't be transmitted, the counselor might explain that HIV can be transmitted even if there are no signs or symptoms. If the couple believes their status is proof that precautions aren't needed, the counselor might explain that HIV could be transmitted in the future as the infected partner's virus levels rise.

Sam Hoehnle is a counselor in the Chicago program. "It never becomes easier emotionally" to deliver the news to an HIV discordant couple, Hoehnle said. He tells the HIV negative partner his results first, then spends more time and attention on the HIV positive partner. He's seen partners support each other, but he acknowledges he can't read minds. A show of compassion could mask anger or fear.

"You don't know what's happening internally, in their heads, about how they're feeling about each other," he said.

___

Poteste and Zemanovic got the best news possible: They were both HIV negative.

They both laughed with the sheer relief of it. The counselor had been nonjudgmental and hadn't wanted to talk about the past, only the future, pressing them to talk specifically and directly about their agreement on sex outside the relationship.

Zemanovic: "We both agreed on monogamy. And if we do need to go outside the relationship (we agreed) to talk to each other and find out, `OK, what do we need to do here?'"

Poteste: "This was a full exploration of (monogamy), whereas before, it was a casual statement or a passing joke that was maybe passive-aggressive.... We need to be much more direct in communications than we have been."

As a thank-you gift for participating in the program, they received two movie passes and a gift certificate for drinks and popcorn.

After the other decisions they'd made that day, deciding on which movie to see would be a snap.

___

Online:

http://www.testingtogether.org

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_he_me/us_fea_hiv_testing_couples_together

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In Geek Squad City, dead PCs come to life

Just outside this city, known for the Kentucky Derby and the Louisville Slugger, is another metropolis better known for its brain power and a curious form of local pride.

It's called Geek Squad City: a 240,000-square-foot warehouse that?s home to 1,200 of retail giant Best Buy?s best and brightest. Every day up to 4,000 broken laptops, smart phones and tablets arrive here, almost a million a year, where they?re unloaded, then sorted by brand for repair.

Geek Squad City is not just a repair facility. It?s ground zero in the big box chain?s fight to whip rivals like Amazon.com and Walmart through expertise, service and end-to-end customer care. Since they think of this place as a city, the geek-in-charge is known as Mayor Wes Snyder.

?Until we built this place, the largest grouping of agents was 20 in our corporate office,? he said. ?When we originally opened, we were going to have a couple hundred. And it just felt like it was big enough to be a city.?

Mayor Snyder oversees the entire pocket-protector workforce, including nearly 600 Geek Squad agents, many of whom are trained on the job. You can?t miss them: right down to their shiny shoes.

If you look closely, you may even spot a "double agent" or two ? like Geek twins Daniel and Nick Morris. Before joining the squad, they?d never repaired a computer. In their former lives, they flipped burgers. They get all kinds of repair jobs here, from worn-out power supplies to fried disk drives; the most common problem they see here are busted motherboards.

Four years ago, agent Katie Moran was a Best Buy cashier. Today she specializes in fixing Sonys and Toshibas. She can fix pretty much anything in about 15 or 20 minutes - as long as she can get the parts. But she?s taken on some real tough cases. ?I had one that looked like it had been shot,? she said.

Snyder said they?ve seen computers that have been ?run over with cars, thrown out of nine-story buildings, left on radiators to burn up.?

Agents repair up to 10 products a day at an average cost of $200 each, unless they?re under warranty. The success rate is about 95 percent The place buzzes with geekish intensity as the squad tackles a seemingly endless, incoming supply of battered and broken devices too troubled to be fixed in the 1,100 Best Buy stores around the country. They fix any computer, any make, and brand ? whether you bought it there or not.

There may be eight million stories in Geek Squad City, but when they're found on customers' hard drives, they remain top secret. Recording devices, including cell phones, are checked at the door. Hard drives are kept under lock and key, and when a drive can't be fixed, it?s flattened.

Ever had a precious document or photo vanish? That's when the data recovery supersleuths step in. It doesn?t matter if the drive was set on fire, plunged into boiling water ? or you simply hit the delete key when you didn't mean to. If the data is there, they?ll find it, says? Brian Williams, a 12-year squad veteran.

?You kind of think of all the data as a giant puzzle,? he said. ?Some puzzles are very easy to put back together. Some puzzles may be a million different pieces. We can do it, it just may take a little bit longer.?

The job of fitting together the pieces of this business began in 1994, when Robert Stephens, a Minneapolis college kid, founded a computer repair company. He named it Geek Squad, came up with the retro uniforms ? black slacks, white short-sleeve shirt, black necktie, white socks and black lace-up shoes - and put his agents in Volkswagen Beetles. Today he's Best Buy's chief technology officer.

?I never thought I'd get into the computer repair business,? he said. ?That's like the plumbing of the IT industry. But if you operate a service business with good systems, and you think of the hiring and the branding and little details like the uniforms, you can take any boring business and make a name for yourself.?

His small business had grown to 60 geeks and $3 million in annual revenue when it caught Best Buy's attention in the late 1990s. Best Buy bought the company in 2002, and today, the Geek Squad is 20,000-strong, worldwide.

Stephens says his computer repair business has now become Best Buy's entire service ecosystem - across the globe. They?re available on phone and online, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Need a geek to hang a flat screen or fix a fridge? A typical home visit costs about $150. A laptop repair might run as little as $50, or it could be covered under an annual service plans that start at $100.

Best Buy?s blue-shirts on store sales floors are schooled to push the plans. No wonder: Geek Squad services business accounts for roughly 6 percent of Best Buy?s $50 billion in annual sales -- more than $3 billion worth of high-margin revenue.

Those store-bought warranties can be controversial: Not everyone thinks it?s worth paying $250, for example, to insure a $2,000 flat screen. Most consumer advocates say the plans are usually not a good deal. George Sherman, who oversees Best Buy?s service division, said those critics overlook the convenience of the company?s in-store repair shops.

?In many cases, when you buy a warranty, you're being handed off to a third party, and you're picking up a phone and calling a phone number, and it's not the retailer where you bought it,? he said. ?You can walk into a Best Buy store where you bought the product in the first place, and that's where you initiate the repair process.?

Good deal or not, the service contracts ? even the geeks ? are all vital, Best Buy says, to its effort to offer what Amazon and Walmart cannot.

?We think (service) is the absolutely critical factor,? said Sherman. ?There are many places to buy consumer electronics. We think service and services makes the difference. You just don't hang up a shingle and say we're in the service business. And that's why we have such a powerful differentiator with the Geek Squad because we've built it, we've fine-tuned it, we?ve iterated it and we've gotten better and better.?

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46043895/ns/business-cnbc_tv/

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Consider an Automotive Oscilloscope Fit to you personally ? The ...

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Source: http://www.thebodyhasamindofitsown.com/?p=707

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Rising factory output gives economy a lift (AP)

WASHINGTON ? U.S. factories are roaring back from the depths of the recession, cranking out more machinery, vehicles and energy.

Factory production has surged 15 percent above its lows of 2 1/2 years ago and is helping drive the economy's recovery.

A jump in manufacturing output last month coincided with other data suggesting that the economy began 2012 with renewed vigor. Wholesale prices are tame. Demand for U.S. Treasury debt should help keep borrowing costs low. Even homebuilders are more optimistic.

Signs "that manufacturing in the U.S. is gaining global market share appears to be growing, and this could be an important dynamic supporting growth in 2012," said John Ryding of RDQ Economics.

Manufacturing rose 0.9 percent from November to December, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday. It was the biggest monthly gain since December 2010.

Overall output at the nation's factories, mines and utilities grew 0.4 percent. Warm weather dampened demand for energy produced by utilities.

Over the past year, factory output has risen 3.7 percent. Factories benefited in particular in the second half of 2011 from several trends: People bought more cars. Businesses spent more on industrial machinery and computers before a tax incentive expired. And companies restocked their supplies after cutting them last summer.

The growth has also fueled more hiring. Factories added 23,000 jobs in December, the most since July. That helped reduce the unemployment rate to 8.5 percent, the lowest level in nearly three years.

Among the manufacturers faring better is Steris Corp., which makes sterilization equipment and other medical supplies. Hospitals and drug companies are buying more of the company's products.

Steris, based near Cleveland, says it has added 250 employees in the past 18 months and is still hiring. It has more than 5,000 employees globally, about half of them in the United States.

Steve Norton, a spokesman, said Steris has benefited from being part of a regional cluster of biomedical firms and research facilities. Some manufacturers in the region that once focused on auto parts are now also making components for medical devices, he noted.

"The Midwest continues to be a manufacturing leader," Norton said.

Still, Europe's debt crisis has begun to dampen demand for American exports. That trend, should it continue, could slow manufacturing and threaten growth this year.

That hasn't happened yet.

December's gains suggest the industry "is still resistant to the apparent slowdown in growth elsewhere, particularly in Europe," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist with Capital Economics.

Businesses are starting to see some relief from high energy and food prices, which should benefit consumers later this year.

The producer price index declined 0.1 percent in December, the Labor Department said. The index measures price changes before they reach consumers.

"Core" wholesale prices, which exclude food and energy costs, rose more sharply in December ? 0.3 percent. But economists downplayed the increase. They cited temporary factors that had pushed auto prices down in October and November.

Overall, wholesale prices are trending lower. They increased 4.8 percent in December compared with the same month a year ago, reflecting in part the effect of higher oil and other commodity prices. Even so, it's the slowest annual increase since January and down from 7.1 percent in July.

Falling prices for oil and agricultural commodities have lowered the cost of food and gas. Gas prices have turned upward in recent months, but economists don't expect that to worsen inflation this year. That's because prices will likely be lower than last winter and spring, when political turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East sent prices up.

Lower wholesale costs mean manufacturers and retailers face less pressure to raise prices for consumers to maintain profits. That could keep consumer price inflation in check. Lower inflation also gives the Federal Reserve leeway to keep short-term interest rates low and take other steps, if necessary, to boost the economy.

Borrowing costs are likely to stay low next year, especially if U.S. Treasury debt remains in strong demand around the globe. That's because high demand for Treasurys drives their yields down. Those lower yields, in turn, help keep interest rates down on other loans throughout the economy.

Foreign holdings of U.S. Treasurys rose in November to a record $4.75 trillion, the Treasury Department said. U.S. government debt is still considered among the safest investments. And it has been in high demand as worries about Europe's debt crisis have intensified.

The dollar has strengthened in recent weeks, particularly against the euro. A stronger dollar makes imports cheaper and helps keep inflation in check.

Lower rates on long-term Treasury debt tend to drive down mortgage rates. So far, super-low home-loan rates haven't given much life to the depressed housing market. But they have made U.S. homebuilders slightly less pessimistic.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index rose in January for the fourth straight month, to its highest level since June 2007.

The reading remained far below levels that suggest they are optimistic about a turnaround. Homebuilders appear to be drawing optimism from rising interest among would-be buyers ? interest that builders hope will increase sales this year.

___

AP Economics Writers Martin Crutsinger and Derek Kravitz contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_economy

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'Don't Make Me Do This!' The Equations Screamed

Normally, this kind of thing is done with a pen or a pencil or a crayon, not with a graphing calculator. Numbers like to multiply, divide and subtract. They don't want to be words or pictures. That's not their job.

But if you've never been good at math, and you love to draw, here's a little revenge exercise. You can torture numbers into very unmathematical contortions ? contortions that will make you smile.

1. Casual Greeting

For example: This dense equation, plotted on the right computer program, resolves into a phrase that you and everybody you know uses every day. Millions of people say it. Click on the equation to see what it is.

2. Very Casual Greeting

This equation produces a short, vivid expression favored by Notorious B.I.G. and other hip-hop artists. It is especially popular when a speaker has run out of things to say, but wants to stay in charge of the conversation.

Click on the equation.

Click to see what this makes.

3. To Be Displayed On One's Chest

This one (which we are not quoting in full) is instantly recognizable, if you happen to be staring at the ample chest of an American billionaire playboy, industrialist and philanthropist, who keeps company with a young assistant and is something of a sports car enthusiast.

Click on the equation.

Click to see what this makes.

4. Something You Blow, Something You Squeeze

This one isn't numerical, though it is intensely mathematical. It is called a Crease Pattern and is used in origami to indicate how to fold a single piece of paper to create a figure or pattern. In this case, what we get is two wind instruments ? one is Lisa Simpson's favorite, the other often found in dancing bear acts.

5. Something Found Sitting On Rocks

And this one, again a crease pattern (and again, I don't know if this is a partial or total formula), comes from the late and great origami master Eric Joisel. How he managed all these folds, I have no idea, but done right, this pattern will produce an aquatic creature with a tendency to primp while sitting on rocks. They also have the unfortunate habit of charming young men to homes where it is increasingly difficult to breathe. That you can make them from systematic folds on series of blank rectangles, makes them all the more desirable.

And I'm not the only one: Last week The New York Times geeked out on pasta. Quoting from George Legendre's new book, Pasta by Design, they ran a series of equations that perfectly describe ravioli, capelletti, fusilli, scialatieli and various Italian noodles. You'll find their equations (and pasta pictures) here. Just the thing for a foodie who likes to eat abstractly.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/01/10/144991340/don-t-make-me-do-this-the-equations-screamed?ft=1&f=1007

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Politicians Are People Too (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | With Mitt Romney winning the New Hampshire primary and Ron Paul coming in second, we can feel the waves of change; and it's more change than Barack Obama mustered with his "hope and change" platform of 2008. For one, the candidates aren't attacking each other during the debates unless heavily prompted; and for another, Ron Paul is being taken seriously.

I can't see Paul as president, but he earned my respect when he stated, "I think they're unfairly attacking him on that issue because he never really literally said that. They've taken him way out of context. ? He wants to fire companies," as reported by ABC News. Paul's statement was in reference to the attacks Romney has suffered due to his "I like to fire people," statement.

As a former retail assistant manager, I can tell you that firing people is not fun and no manager enjoys firing people. As a manager, when I fire someone, I know I'm taking away their livelihood. I am taking away their self-esteem, and I am ruining their day. It weighs heavily on me, and I can't imagine that Romney feels any differently when he has to fire individuals. Firing someone is the worst part of being a manager. Every time I have ever had to fire someone, I have felt like a failure. I always wonder if there was something else I could have done that would have produced a different outcome.

Therefore, I am in agreement with Paul. Romney was taken out of context. Romney was talking about firing companies, and we can all relate to that. Bank of America made a huge mistake when they tried to initiate a $5 debit card fee, and as a result, many individuals fired Bank of America and chose another bank.

When Netflix tried to separate its DVD by mail services, and its streaming services while increasing the rates to $16, many people fired Netflix as their movie rental service. That's what Romney was talking about. When a company no longer works for you or another company, it should be fired. That's what makes this country great. We have options. If we don't like our bank, we can choose a new bank. If we don't like our cable company, we can choose a new cable company. It's that simple, and when we make those switches, we are firing the old company.

Romney's verbal gaffe also means he's human. There were better ways to state what he said, but he was speaking off the cuff. When Paul said what he said, he was speaking off the cuff. They were telling us how they felt, and we need to see more of that during the primaries and during the 2012 election. We don't just need rhetoric and agendas. We need to know how the candidates feel and what they think, and I think we'll get more of that during the subsequent debates and primaries.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120118/cm_ac/10819087_politicians_are_people_too

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