Cadillac seeks to regain lost luxury turf

Rebecca Cook / Reuters

Cadillac is betting that it can regain its once-lofty standing with the launch of a series of new products that includes the big XTS sedan that made its debut earlier this month at the annual Los Angeles auto show.

By Paul A. Eisenstein

Once known as the ?standard of the world,? Cadillac has been anything but a benchmark for carmakers in recent years as imported brands such as Lexus, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have dominated the U.S. luxury market.

But now Cadillac is fighting back, betting that it can regain its once-lofty standing with the launch of a series of new products that includes the big XTS sedan that made its debut earlier this month at the annual Los Angeles auto show.

Cadillac will follow up next year with the addition of the compact ATS, and it has more new models on the drawing board.

A few years ago it might have seemed ?a stretch? for Cadillac to even imagine a comeback in the U.S., admits Don Butler, general marketing manager for the?General Motors division.

In the ?new (luxury) world old formulas don?t apply, so we had to start over? with the XTS, a premium luxury sedan that replaces two slow-selling Cadillac models, the STS and DTS, Butler said.

Caddy isn?t the only upscale domestic car brand that?s hoping to convince car show visitors in Los Angeles -- the nation's largest luxury car market -- that it can become relevant again.

Slide show: Images from the 2011 Los Angeles auto show

At this year?s show, Ford?s Lincoln division showed off updates to two of its own products, the big MKS sedan and MKT crossover. The two 2013 models get revised fascias and grilles, new wheels and modest improvements in performance and fuel economy. They?re also getting the updated version of the MyLincolnTouch systems designed to address recent criticism of the brand?s infotainment technology.

?This is truly marking the beginning? of Lincoln?s design renaissance, said Max Wolff, the brand?s chief designer, although he also hinted that the big news for Lincoln won?t be revealed until January when Detroit plays host to the North American International Auto Show -- generally thought to be the most important show in the auto show calendar.

There, the automaker plans to unveil a concept version of its next-generation Lincoln MKZ, the most popular sedan in its portfolio. The concept vehicle will introduce an all-new ?face? for the luxury brand that will abandon Lincoln?s time-tested ?waterfall grille? and move to a series of horizontal slats that are almost wing-like in appearance. The show car version will also feature an all-glass roof that will be able to open like a hard-top convertible.

The revised grille will reappear on a production version of the MKZ debuting at the New York auto show next April, although it?s not clear if the glass roof idea will be carried into production.

But the dramatic changes coming to Lincoln underscore the concerns Ford has for the Lincoln division, which has become little more than an also-ran in a market where it once vied with Cadillac for dominance.

Cadillac hasn?t stumbled quite so badly, but it has been struggling in recent years after what appeared to be a significant turnaround early in the new millennium. The maker scored big with the first generation of the compact CTS sedan, which introduced Caddy?s distinctively edgy ?art and science? design theme.

In a segment of the car market where manufacturers have traditionally opted for softer designs, the ?art and science? design ?language? was a bold standout. But after hitting a market home run with the CTS, Cadillac failed to score with the next run of offerings, like the STS, the DTS and the XLR sports coupe.

The products simply fell short of the competition in terms of interior refinement, ride and features, analysts contend.

Cadillac won?t make those mistakes again, insists Mark Reuss, president of GM?s North American operations. The goal, he insists, ?is to win in the intensely competitive luxury market, not just compete.?

Besides offering a striking exterior shape and a much more refined interior, the new XTS will introduce Cadillac?s new CUE -- an infotainment system that can be programmed using normal speech rather than requiring users to learn a complex and often confusing series of rigid commands.

These high-tech features have become a critical differentiator in the luxury market, notes Derek Kuzak, Ford?s global product development czar.

Lincoln thought it had a leg up on the competition with the MyLincolnTouch infotainment system, but, underscoring the risks of relying on high technology, the Ford luxury brand was slammed for problems with the touch-sensitive system. Indeed, influential Consumer Reports magazine lifted its sought-after ?Recommended Buy? rating from several Lincoln products this year.

The carmaker hopes to win back that endorsement with the updated MyLincolnTouch, and then show that its styling and performance are also relevant with the product offensive it is kicking off in Los Angeles this month.

But both Lincoln and Cadillac won?t have an easy time of it. Even established luxury brands such as Lexus, BMW and Mercedes are ramping up their own efforts. Lexus, in particular, is expected to be especially aggressive in the months ahead, hoping to recover the momentum it lost due to product shortages caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last March.

And second-tier players such as Audi, and also Nissan?s Infiniti brand, are hoping to gain ground with their own expanding line-ups.

Then there?s the Koreans, and Hyundai in particular.

It scored an unexpected coup a few years back when its first luxury offering, the Genesis sedan, was named North American Car of the Year. The even bigger and more lavish Equus has so far this year handily beaten the company?s sales expectations, and Hyundai?s own new offering at the Los Angeles show, the big Azera, will target entry-luxury buyers who might have gone for more traditional offerings like the Lexus ES350.

Based on initial reviews, Cadillac and Lincoln are gaining visibility and credibility. But whether they can win back luxury car buyers is another matter entirely.

What is your favorite luxury nameplate?

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/22/8952609-after-losing-ground-american-luxury-carmakers-fighting-back

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Anushka is extremely angry

Kareena Kapoor who started the trend of size zero took a back turn, stating that it’s not really a fad anymore. So, just when we thought that the concept of super thin body was vanishing from Bollywood, another actress has now whittled down to ‘size zero’. And it?s none other than model turned actress Anushka [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newslatest/~3/9vm_WusWCZg/7155.html

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Herbicide may affect plants thought to be resistant

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 22-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Brian Wallheimer
bwallhei@purdue.edu
765-496-2050
Purdue University

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University researchers have discovered a fine-tuning mechanism involved in plant root growth that has them questioning whether a popular herbicide may have unintended consequences, causing some plants to need more water or nutrients.

Angus Murphy, a professor of horticulture, and Wendy Peer, an assistant professor of horticulture, study the movement of auxin, a plant hormone essential for plant development. They showed that ABCB4, a protein responsible for moving auxin into cells, also removes the hormone when too much has accumulated.

"We knew that the protein took auxin up, but found that it switched to removing auxin when a threshold is reached," said Murphy, whose findings appeared in the early online version of the Plant Journal. "It starts transporting the hormones out."

That fine-tuning mechanism is integral to proper development of plant root hairs, which extend from the main plant root and are where most water and minerals enter.

"The root hairs are doing all the heavy lifting for bringing the water into the plant," Peer said. "And ABCB4 maintains the right auxin levels to keep root hairs growing optimally."

The herbicide 2,4-D, a synthetic form of auxin, could have unintended consequences for the protein, Murphy and Peer said.

The herbicide is used to kill broadleaf weeds, which are dicots, while monocot grasses, such as sorghum and corn, are more resistant. That's because grasses inactivate 2,4-D inside the plant, while broadleaf dicots do not.

But ABCB4 is located on the root surface and can be switched into intake-only mode, disabling its ability to remove excess auxin from cells, before 2,4-D can be inactivated inside the plant. This results in shorter root hairs.

"This suggests that ABCB4 is an unexpected target of 2,4-D action," Murphy said. "It's something that we have to be aware of with the commercial introduction of 2,4-D resistant soybeans and other dicot crops."

Murphy said laboratory testing of ABCB4 in yeast, tobacco and human cells subjected to 2,4-D all showed that ABCB4 could be locked into the uptake-only mode. The root hairs of mutant plants that had ABCB4 removed were not affected by application of 2,4-D.

"It was very clear that what was happening in the plant was what was happening in the cell cultures," Murphy said.

Murphy said the findings suggest that application techniques that limit 2,4-D entry into soils are important to ensure that production with engineered 2,4-D resistant crop plants does not require additional fertilizer and/or water inputs.

###

The Department of Energy funded the study. Murphy and Peer partnered with scientists at the Institute of Experimental Botany at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

Writer: Brian Wallheimer, 765-496-2050, bwallhei@purdue.edu

Sources: Angus Murphy, 765-496-7956, murphy@purdue.edu
Wendy Peer, 765-496-7958, peerw@purdue.edu

Abstract on the research in this release is available at: http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2011/111122MurphyTransporter.html



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 22-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Brian Wallheimer
bwallhei@purdue.edu
765-496-2050
Purdue University

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University researchers have discovered a fine-tuning mechanism involved in plant root growth that has them questioning whether a popular herbicide may have unintended consequences, causing some plants to need more water or nutrients.

Angus Murphy, a professor of horticulture, and Wendy Peer, an assistant professor of horticulture, study the movement of auxin, a plant hormone essential for plant development. They showed that ABCB4, a protein responsible for moving auxin into cells, also removes the hormone when too much has accumulated.

"We knew that the protein took auxin up, but found that it switched to removing auxin when a threshold is reached," said Murphy, whose findings appeared in the early online version of the Plant Journal. "It starts transporting the hormones out."

That fine-tuning mechanism is integral to proper development of plant root hairs, which extend from the main plant root and are where most water and minerals enter.

"The root hairs are doing all the heavy lifting for bringing the water into the plant," Peer said. "And ABCB4 maintains the right auxin levels to keep root hairs growing optimally."

The herbicide 2,4-D, a synthetic form of auxin, could have unintended consequences for the protein, Murphy and Peer said.

The herbicide is used to kill broadleaf weeds, which are dicots, while monocot grasses, such as sorghum and corn, are more resistant. That's because grasses inactivate 2,4-D inside the plant, while broadleaf dicots do not.

But ABCB4 is located on the root surface and can be switched into intake-only mode, disabling its ability to remove excess auxin from cells, before 2,4-D can be inactivated inside the plant. This results in shorter root hairs.

"This suggests that ABCB4 is an unexpected target of 2,4-D action," Murphy said. "It's something that we have to be aware of with the commercial introduction of 2,4-D resistant soybeans and other dicot crops."

Murphy said laboratory testing of ABCB4 in yeast, tobacco and human cells subjected to 2,4-D all showed that ABCB4 could be locked into the uptake-only mode. The root hairs of mutant plants that had ABCB4 removed were not affected by application of 2,4-D.

"It was very clear that what was happening in the plant was what was happening in the cell cultures," Murphy said.

Murphy said the findings suggest that application techniques that limit 2,4-D entry into soils are important to ensure that production with engineered 2,4-D resistant crop plants does not require additional fertilizer and/or water inputs.

###

The Department of Energy funded the study. Murphy and Peer partnered with scientists at the Institute of Experimental Botany at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

Writer: Brian Wallheimer, 765-496-2050, bwallhei@purdue.edu

Sources: Angus Murphy, 765-496-7956, murphy@purdue.edu
Wendy Peer, 765-496-7958, peerw@purdue.edu

Abstract on the research in this release is available at: http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2011/111122MurphyTransporter.html



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/pu-hma112211.php

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Siri hack lets you adjust thermostat with your voice

Jacob Aron, technology reporter

You can now heat your home just by asking your phone.

Siri, the new voice-controlled assistant software installed on the iPhone 4S, already sends emails, checks the weather and performs other Apple-sanctioned tasks, but now Pete Lamonica, a software developer in St. Louis, Missouri, has come up with a hack that lets him create custom commands.

His system lets you use Siri as normal, except that all commands pass through a proxy server. Apple's official Siri servers interpret voice commands as usual, but the proxy server intercepts the returning text, making it possible to create plugins that run custom commands. For example, Lamonica hooked up Siri to his wirelessly controlled thermostat, letting him ask for the current temperature or set a new one.

Lamonica says the system should open the way for others to hack Siri, just as the reverse-engineering of Kinect opened the device up to a variety of creative hacks. "We're already seeing a new wave of hacks. I published my code less than 48 hours ago and I've already seen other developers use it to write a Twitter plugin and a plugin that gets hockey scores," he says.

The hack builds on previous efforts from Applidium, a French mobile developer company that last week figured out the protocol behind Siri. It turns out that Siri could theoretically run on any device, not just Apple's latest handset, but the servers will only respond when provided with an unique ID number tied to each individual iPhone 4S.

It may be possible to use an unauthorised device by providing a genuine ID number, but it would also be easy for Apple to block an ID used for requests that seem to come from something other than a 4S.

Lamonica's system currently only works on a 4S, but he says that Apple could still stop it from working by signing each response from the Siri servers then having the Siri client verify this signature. "It would make it impossible to do this kind of "man in the middle" attack where we actually inserted or modified the responses," he says.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/1a463dc4/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Conepercent0C20A110C110Csiri0Ehacked0Eto0Eadjust0Eyour0Ethe0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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Test Driving The Nissan Leaf

Robert Siegel test drives the Leaf, Nissan's electric plug-in vehicle, with Carlos Ghosn, chief executive officer of Nissan and Renault.

Copyright ? 2011 National Public Radio?. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR NEWS. I'm Melissa Block.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

I'm Robert Siegel with an automotive take this week on All Tech Considered.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIEGEL: The other day, Carlos Ghosn, the president of Nissan, talked with me about his company's one-year-old plug-in electric car, the Leaf, and about the federal tax credit of up to $7,500 for people who buy one. Carlos Ghosn let me take a test drive.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR CLOSING)

CARLOS GHOSN: Good. OK, so yeah, with pedal on the break. Pedal on the break.

(SOUNDBITE OF BEEPS)

GHOSN: Here we go. Ah.

SIEGEL: And I had an important vocabulary question for the Nissan CEO.

One of these cars is called the Leaf. What do call two of them?

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

GHOSN: One of these cars is called Nissan Leaf.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

GHOSN: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SIEGEL: Excuse me, yeah.

GHOSN: Very important, it's the Nissan Leaf. Two cars are two Nissan Leafs. You know, Leafs. You cannot use leaves. It's not Nissan Leaves.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

SIEGEL: I drove the Leaf around Washington for about 20 minutes with Carlos Ghosn selling me on it from the passenger seat. Ghosn is spelled G-H-O-S-N. He describes himself as a Brazilian-born Frenchman of Lebanese origin. He's the boss of both Nissan and Renault. And he's very proud of the Nissan Leaf which, unlike the Chevy Volt, has no internal combustion engine at all.

And also unlike the Volt, the Leaf's battery isn't so big that it divides the rear into bucket seats. It's a five-seater. It has great acceleration. And, of course, it's very quiet.

GHOSN: And the pleasure of driving electric cars is something unique.

SIEGEL: A fully charged battery delivers 100 miles on average. Ghosn said he had Nissan engineers drive as inefficiently as they could - up hills, air conditioning on high - and they still got at least 50 miles to a charge.

GHOSN: Depending on how you drive, you're going to be between 50 and probably 110 or 120, because some people beat the 100 miles also.

SIEGEL: Charging the battery is supposed to take 17 to 20 hours on ordinary household current, seven hours if you attach it to the 220-volt outlet that you plug a washer or dryer into. And as you'll hear, something a lot faster is on the way.

Carlos Ghosn told me when we sat down in the studio that most American Leaf owners - and there are about 8,000 of them - recharge the battery long before it loses all of its charge.

GHOSN: Which is normal, it's like the portable phone. You don't charge the phone when it's empty, you charge it at night when you come back. You just recharge it. You want to make sure that the second day when you wake up, everything is ready for you.

SIEGEL: You raise an interesting comparison because if I owned a plug-in rechargeable car, and I forgot to recharge it as often as I forget to recharge my cell phone, I'd be in a lot of trouble.

GHOSN: Yeah, you'd be in a lot of trouble if you completely used the battery potential, which today from everything we're seeing is not the case. You know, on average, people using the battery probably 40 percent of its potential, which means even if you forget one day it can run another day without having to charge it.

SIEGEL: But does your experience show so far that the system of active recharging is sufficient? Or at some point you have to develop some way to passively recharge the car.

GHOSN: We have a lot of research taking place. We have a fast-charging system that we are developing where you'll be able to recharge the battery up to 80 percent of its potential in 26 minutes. On top of this, in our labs, we are looking at a completely different way to recharge the cars.

SIEGEL: Is it clear to you that today's Leaf buyers are early adopters or are they the market, period? Are they environmentally conscious people who are going to spend 30,000-plus for a car?

GHOSN: You know, the profile so far - and we're talking about 55 percent of the owners are males, 80 percent of them never owned a Nissan before.

SIEGEL: First - this is the first Nissan that they're buying.

GHOSN: This is the first Nissan. A lot of them used to have a hybrid before, so they are moving up the chain. A lot of them also are buying the car not only because it's environmentally friendly, but also because the total cost of ownership is very attractive. The total cost of ownership takes in consideration the price of the car, but also the cost of electricity compared to fuel, in order to run the car.

SIEGEL: How critical to sales of the Leaf is the federal tax credit or, for that matter, a state tax - its benefits?

GHOSN: Oh, well, I think the consumer incentive which is offered by federal government or by the state government extremely important. Because what we want is kind of jumpstart the sales in order to get, as is possible, the scale that would allow us to cut the cost of the cars and of the battery. So, we think this is going to be important in the midterm.

But I don't think we need it for the long-term, because when we get a level of scale that we estimate between 500,000 and one million cars a year globally - not in the United States - we will be very competitive without the incentive offered by government.

SIEGEL: How long will it take you to reach that point, do you think?

GHOSN: Well, we hope that within the next five years this volume will be reached.

SIEGEL: Until Nissan reaches that point, where it's seeing half a million vehicles sold worldwide, is it losing money per unit that it's selling? Is it treading water? How close-run a thing is this?

GHOSN: No. No, it's not losing money. But we're saying when the system will be able to sustain itself without government incentives.

SIEGEL: Would you be losing money though without those government incentives?

GHOSN: Yeah, exactly. That's what I'm saying.

SIEGEL: You would though.

GHOSN: But without government incentive, yes, that we will not have even have launched the technology.

SIEGEL: I don't have to tell you, there are furious arguments in the country right now about whether the government should be in the business of picking winners and encouraging particular technologies as opposed to others. What would happen if the government said, look, the auto companies, they're doing all right. They have profits. They can invest them in new projects. Let them go ahead.

GHOSN: Yeah. Well, I think in this case, you'll have electric cars in other countries and not in the United States.

SIEGEL: But you know what their critique is. Their critique is you start by helping young industries in need of some assist - or young projects - and then it's not too long before you're protecting old industries from foreign competition in one way or another. When - is this really something that one phases out as quickly as, say, five years?

GHOSN: I think one of the good roles of governments across the planet is to facilitate the emergence of a technology that is considered as for good for the countries. Because in the case of the electric cars, not only you are cutting on oil imports, not only you are reducing the emissions, but also you're creating jobs. Because, in fact, what you're doing here is you are substituting oil imports by creating battery plants in the United States.

You're creating a new technology. We're going to be creating 1,400 jobs into the battery plants in Tennessee. And all the oil that would have been consumed by, you know, combustion engine is being in a certain way replaced by jobs and by technology in Tennessee. So, I think the trade off is an interesting one.

SIEGEL: Carlos Ghosn, thank you very much.

GHOSN: Thank you.

SIEGEL: Carlos Ghosn, the president of Nissan and Renault, on the electric plug-in the Nissan Leaf.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

BLOCK: This is NPR News.

Copyright ? 2011 National Public Radio?. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/21/142609004/test-driving-the-nissan-leaf?ft=1&f=1007

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Taylor Swift wins artist of the year at AMAs

Taylor Swift was crowned artist of the year at the American Music Awards for a second time.

"This is so crazy!" the country superstar said after beat such contenders as Adele, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry to capture all three awards that she was nominated for at Sunday's ceremony, including artist of the year, the show's highest accolade that she previously claimed in 2009.

"I ended up writing the record by myself, so the fact that you would honor it this way, you have no idea what this means to me," said Swift after winning the trophy for favorite country album for "Speak Now." She was also awarded the prize for favorite country female artist.

Nicki Minaj, the pink-loving hip-hop diva, won two awards Sunday. She kicked off the 39th annual fan-favorite ceremony by sporting a pair of speakers on her much-talked about posterior and was later honored as favorite rap/hip-hop artist, besting a group that included mentor Lil Wayne, and won favorite rap/hip-hop album for "Pink Friday."

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Story: List of winners at the American Music Awards

"There's so much love in this room," beamed the pink-haired Minaj.

Adele had been the night's leading nominee with four nods, but didn't have much of a presence at the show: She was absent from the ceremony because she is recovering from recent throat surgery. Adele tied Swift with three awards: favorite pop/rock female artist, adult contemporary artist and pop/rock album for "21."

Other winners included Maroon 5 as favorite pop-rock band/duo/group, Blake Shelton as favorite country male artist, Lady Antebellum as favorite country band/duo/group, Beyonce as favorite soul/R&B female artist, Rihanna for favorite soul/R&B album for "Loud" and Hot Chelle Rae as new artist of the year.

The ceremony inside the Nokia Theatre in an unusually rainy Los Angeles was drenched with 17 musical performances.

Justin Bieber got in the holiday spirit among a forest of neon lights with "Under the Mistletoe," and Kelly Clarkson, wearing a glittery red gown with her hair swept to the side, delivered a swinging rendition of her hit "Mr. Know It All" as back-up dancers dressed as 1930s-era photographers snapped the first-ever "American Idol" champion.

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony shared custody of rapper Pitbull, who joined the former couple in a pair of separate performances. Lopez performed essentially a live version of a car commercial starring the "Idol" judge set to "Papi" ? with the car onstage ? before launching into her hit "On the Floor." Pitbull later returned to the stage and joined Anthony for "Rain Over Me."

Lopez expressed surprise when she won the favorite Latin music artist award.

"It's been up and down and just exciting and overwhelming and so many things," Lopez said of the last year.

Several artists delivered stripped-down performances: The Band Perry crooned an emotional "If I Die Young," a pink-haired Perry accompanied herself on guitar for "The One That Got Away" and a platinum-blonde Chris Brown simply sang "All Back" before being joined by a troop of helmet-clad back-up dancers for a flashy interpretation of "Say It With Me."

There were collaborations, too. Lopez joined a glowing-in-the-dark will.i.am for his new single "Hard." Christina Aguilera dueted with Maroon 5 on their "Moves Like Jagger," and then Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine teamed with Gym Class Heroes for their hit "Stereo Hearts." Bieber joined LMFAO in animal-print pants for the show's finale, which ended with everyone on stage ? including David Hasselhoff ? stripping down to smiley-face underwear.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45376269/ns/today-entertainment/

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UC Davis chancellor sorry for pepper spray incident (Reuters)

DAVIS, Calif (Reuters) ? A University of California chancellor apologized to jeering students on Monday for police use of pepper spray against campus protesters in a standoff captured by video and widely replayed on television and the Internet.

The pepper-spraying last week led to suspensions of the campus police chief and two officers, and thrust the normally quiet, conservative and mostly apolitical UC Davis campus to the forefront of anti-Wall Street "Occupy" protests nationwide.

Faculty and student critics of Friday's confrontation, some of whom demanded the chancellor's resignation, said it had damaged the school's image and the climate for free expression at the university.

UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi has come under sharp criticism for the school's handling of the protests, with some critics blaming her for what they viewed as excessive force employed by campus police.

An hours-long rally on Monday, attended by more than 1,000 students, faculty members and even parents, was capped by demonstrators pitching at least a dozen tents in the center of the campus, again defying rules forbidding such encampments.

Taking the stage following a parade of speakers who railed against her, Katehi told the crowd: "I'm here to apologize. I really feel horrible for what happened on Friday." Many in the audience answered with boos and catcalls.

"You may not believe anything I say today. It's my responsibility to earn your trust," she said, adding, "I don't want to be the chancellor of the university we had on Friday."

The crowd roared back with cries of "Resign!"

She left the stage after about a minute, looking shaken, and was hustled by security personnel to a waiting car, followed by a throng of media and a cluster of students yelling: "Don't come back!"

As on other campuses around the country, protests at UC Davis, a school of 31,000 students known for its agriculture, wine-making and veterinary programs, started out focused on issues of economic inequality and tuition hikes.

But Monday's rally was spurred by last week's pepper-spray dousing of protesting students and an earlier confrontation at UC Berkeley in which police jabbed students with night sticks.

There was no visible police presence at Monday's gathering, which remained peaceful.

"Before, students didn't see how (the Occupy movement) affected them, but I think watching the video ... they see how it affects them," said Cole Sawyer, 19, from Long Beach, California, one of the students pepper-sprayed last week.

HOT SPOT

Hours earlier in Oakland, a hot spot of anti-Wall Street activism in recent weeks, police in the largely working-class city on the east bank of San Francisco Bay swept away, at least temporarily, the last of the town's protest camps.

Police moved in shortly after midnight and removed 20 to 30 tents from Snow Park, the only Oakland camp still standing after another park and a vacant lot were cleared on Sunday. Later, organizers said they had occupied a home in the process of foreclosure in what they described as a "home defense".

Oakland police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said the tents at Snow Park were dismantled without incident or arrests.

Oakland has been a flash point of the anti-Wall Street movement, helping rally support nationwide for demonstrations launched in New York in September to protest excesses of the financial system, bank bailouts and high unemployment.

Attention over the weekend shifted to UC Davis, near the state capital, Sacramento, where a widely circulated video clip showed a police officer walking back and forth in front of protesters huddled on the ground, repeatedly spraying them in the face. Other police kept onlookers at bay with batons.

UC President Mark Yudof placed two campus police officers on paid administrative leave on Sunday and launched a review of police procedures university-wide. He told all 10 UC campus chancellors in a teleconference on Monday: "We cannot let this happen again," according to a university statement.

Katehi said on Monday that the campus chief of police had also been suspended. In addition, she asked the Yolo County District Attorney's office to investigate the use of force by campus police and said she would create a task force to conduct a campus review and report recommendations in 30 days.

But the executive council of the Academic Senate at UC Davis, which represents some 1,800 faculty at the campus, voted on Sunday to form its own inquiry and a "representative assembly" of all 100 department representatives next week.

"The agenda will be to have a discussion with the chancellor," council chair Linda Bisson, a viticulture professor, told Reuters. She added that one possible outcome could be a call for a vote of no-confidence.

"Most people I've spoken to say, 'We want the facts in the case, and then we'll decide.' Others say, 'It doesn't matter what the facts are. The incident was so atrocious, the chancellor has to go.'" No date for the meeting has been set.

UC Davis spokeswoman Claudia Morain denied that Katehi had instructed police to use force in removing tents last week.

"There was a concern that letting them remain and letting the number grow could be a health hazard. The whole idea was to end it peaceably," she said.

(Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Bohan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111122/us_nm/us_protests_davis_pepperspray

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Mortality rates for pharynx and mouth cancers have decreased

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 21-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Kathi Baker
kobaker@emory.edu
404-727-9371
JAMA and Archives Journals

Greater declines among patients with more education

CHICAGO Death rates have declined among U.S. patients with cancer of the mouth and pharynx from 1993 to 2007, with the greatest decreases seen among men and women with at least 12 years of education, according to a report in the November issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Decreases in risk factors and improved detection and treatment have contributed to decreasing death rates from major types of cancer including lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers in the U.S. since the early 1990s. The decreases in mortality rates among patients age 25 to 64 years were largely limited to those with higher educational attainment, according to background information in the article. Death rates among patients with cancers of the oral cavity (mouth) and the pharynx (the area that starts behind the nose and ends at the top of the windpipe) have also decreased over the past few decades, although the extent this varies by educational attainment has not been previously examined for head and neck cancer.

Amy Y. Chen, M.D., M.P.H., of Emory University School of Medicine and the American Cancer Society, Atlanta, and colleagues studied mortality rates for patients with oral cavity and pharynx cancer by level of education, race/ethnicity, sex, and association with the human papillomavirus (HPV, a family of viruses that can be transmitted through sexual contact). The researchers analyzed data from the National Center for Health Statistics on white and black men and women, age 25 to 64 years, in 26 states.

"From 1993 to 2007, overall mortality rates for patients with oral cavity and pharynx cancer decreased among black and white men and women; however, rates among white men have stabilized since 1999," the authors report.

The largest decreases in death rates were among black men and women with 12 years of education.

"Mortality rates for patients with oral cavity and pharynx cancers decreased significantly among men and women with more than 12 years of education, regardless of race/ethnicity (except for black women), whereas rates increased among white men with less than 12 years of education," the authors write.

The study found that death rates varied substantially for HPV-related and HPV-unrelated sites.

"The difference in mortality trends may reflect the changing prevalence of smoking and sexual behaviors among populations of different educational attainment," the authors conclude.

###

(Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2011;137[11]:1094-1099. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://www.jamamedia.org.)

Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, financial contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

To contact Amy Y. Chen, M.D., M.P.H., call Kathi Baker at 404-727-9371 or email kobaker@emory.edu.



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 21-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Kathi Baker
kobaker@emory.edu
404-727-9371
JAMA and Archives Journals

Greater declines among patients with more education

CHICAGO Death rates have declined among U.S. patients with cancer of the mouth and pharynx from 1993 to 2007, with the greatest decreases seen among men and women with at least 12 years of education, according to a report in the November issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Decreases in risk factors and improved detection and treatment have contributed to decreasing death rates from major types of cancer including lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers in the U.S. since the early 1990s. The decreases in mortality rates among patients age 25 to 64 years were largely limited to those with higher educational attainment, according to background information in the article. Death rates among patients with cancers of the oral cavity (mouth) and the pharynx (the area that starts behind the nose and ends at the top of the windpipe) have also decreased over the past few decades, although the extent this varies by educational attainment has not been previously examined for head and neck cancer.

Amy Y. Chen, M.D., M.P.H., of Emory University School of Medicine and the American Cancer Society, Atlanta, and colleagues studied mortality rates for patients with oral cavity and pharynx cancer by level of education, race/ethnicity, sex, and association with the human papillomavirus (HPV, a family of viruses that can be transmitted through sexual contact). The researchers analyzed data from the National Center for Health Statistics on white and black men and women, age 25 to 64 years, in 26 states.

"From 1993 to 2007, overall mortality rates for patients with oral cavity and pharynx cancer decreased among black and white men and women; however, rates among white men have stabilized since 1999," the authors report.

The largest decreases in death rates were among black men and women with 12 years of education.

"Mortality rates for patients with oral cavity and pharynx cancers decreased significantly among men and women with more than 12 years of education, regardless of race/ethnicity (except for black women), whereas rates increased among white men with less than 12 years of education," the authors write.

The study found that death rates varied substantially for HPV-related and HPV-unrelated sites.

"The difference in mortality trends may reflect the changing prevalence of smoking and sexual behaviors among populations of different educational attainment," the authors conclude.

###

(Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2011;137[11]:1094-1099. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://www.jamamedia.org.)

Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, financial contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

To contact Amy Y. Chen, M.D., M.P.H., call Kathi Baker at 404-727-9371 or email kobaker@emory.edu.



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/jaaj-mrf111711.php

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Spanish conservatives head toward election win

Conservative Popular Party candidate Mariano Rajoy waves after voting at a voting station in Madrid, Sunday Nov, 20, 2011. Spaniards are voting Sunday in the general elections likely to oust the ruling Socialists in favor of the conservative Popular Party. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Conservative Popular Party candidate Mariano Rajoy waves after voting at a voting station in Madrid, Sunday Nov, 20, 2011. Spaniards are voting Sunday in the general elections likely to oust the ruling Socialists in favor of the conservative Popular Party. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and his wife Sonsoles Espinosa leave after voting at a voting station in Madrid, Sunday Nov, 20, 2011. Spaniards are voting Sunday in the general elections likely to oust the ruling Socialists in favor of the conservative Popular Party. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)

A man casts his vote in a voting station in Madrid, Sunday Nov, 20, 2011. Spaniards are voting Sunday in the general elections likely to oust the ruling Socialists in favor of the conservative Popular Party. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A Spanish Guardia Civil member stands guard as people cast their vote in a voting station in Madrid, Sunday Nov, 20, 2011. Spaniards are voting Sunday in the general elections likely to oust the ruling Socialists in favor of the conservative Popular Party. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Women walks holding their ballots before voting at a voting station in Madrid, Sunday Nov, 20, 2011. Spaniards are voting Sunday in the general elections likely to oust the ruling Socialists in favor of the conservative Popular Party. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)

(AP) ? Spain's opposition conservatives headed for a crushing win to oust the Socialists in general elections Sunday that were dominated by a staggering unemployment rate and Spain's central role in Europe's debt crisis.

If confirmed the win would mean that a third eurozone country in as many weeks ? after Greece and Italy went with unelected technocrats ? has dumped its government as part of a crisis that is causing financial havoc around the world. Ireland and Portugal ? which like Greece received huge bailouts to avoid default ? have also seen their governments change hands because of the crisis.

With 64 percent of the votes counted, Spain's Popular Party led by Mariano Rajoy has won 187 seats, compared to 110 for the ruling Socialists in the 350-seat lower chamber of Parliament, the main one, the Interior Ministry website said. An absolute majority is 176.

In the last legislature the PP had 154 seats to 169 for the Socialists of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who was not seeking a third term in office. His party is saddled with a stagnant economy with grim prospects for years to come, and a 21.5 percent jobless rate.

"The political change led by Mariano Rajoy has won tonight in Spain," PP campaign manager Ana Mato said, although she stopped short of declaring outright victory.

Jubilant, cheering supporters waving red-and-yellow Spanish flags and blue-and-white party ones started to gather outside PP headquarters in downtown Madrid as pop music boomed over loudspeakers. One of them, David Cordero, said he was happy with the prospect of change so as to create jobs and protect social services like state-paid health care and education.

"This is what this country needs right now," he said.

The conservatives won roughly 44 percent of the votes and the Socialists took 29 percent, the Interior Ministry numbers said. In the last election in 2008, the latter won by about 4 points.

The numbers suggest Spanish voters have shifted clearly to the right as they confront their worst economic crisis in decades and choose new leaders to pull them out of it.

As part of that mess, the country is also at the forefront of Europe's sovereign debt crisis, with the Spanish government's borrowing costs rising last week to levels near where other eurozone countries such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal had to request huge bailouts from the European Union and the IMF.

Pre-election polls had pointed to a crushing win for the conservatives, with Spanish voters expected to punish the Socialists for a jobless rate that the government itself has said will take years to chip back down to even the upper teens.

If Rajoy does win, it will come after two election bid losses ? in 2004 and 2008 ? and present him with the daunting challenge of resurrecting an economy that posted no growth in the third quarter of this year and meet Spanish commitments to the EU on deficit-reduction with tax rises or spending cuts without jeopardizing prospects for desperately needed economic expansion.

In its first official reaction, Socialist party spokeswoman Elena Valenciano said her party was awaiting official results but she seemed resigned to a Socialist defeat.

Turnout was 71.5 percent, compared to 73.4 in 2008.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-20-EU-Spain-Elections/id-b7664a921c3f498cbbc2f2fda9f901ae

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Walmart selling Limited Edition Blue Wii for $99.96 on Black Friday

No, you aren't "losing" that thing up top -- Walmart will indeed be bringing those limited edition blue Wiis to the US of A starting this Thursday, and better still, it'll be hawking 'em for just $99.96 apiece. If you'll recall, the powder blue variants of Nintendo's newest home console were previously reserved for other sections of the globe, but a new spot that just aired on CBS' broadcast of the Titans vs. Falcons has confirmed that it'll be on sale within a matter of days for those lucky enough to snag one. They'll be offered up starting at 10:00PM on November 24th (that's Thanksgiving day, you know) and should be completely sold out by 10:00:01PM on the same day. That tally will net you a console, a matching Wii Remote Plus and a Nunchuk. Good luck -- pack a helmet.

P.S. - Black Thursday is the new Black Friday.

Walmart selling Limited Edition Blue Wii for $99.96 on Black Friday originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Nov 2011 16:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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

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