Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/188316237?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Friday, January 20, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
CSN: Ravens like underdog role vs. Patriots
January 16, 2012, 5:44 pm
The Ravens have been favored to win most of their games this season, but oddsmakers have assigned them long odds in Sunday?s AFC Championship Game at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.
The early betting lines out of Las Vegas have the New England Patriots favored by? 7 1/2 to 9 points.
The Ravens don?t mind, linebacker Jarret Johnson said Monday.
?We like being the underdog. We?re used to it. I think we handle it better psychologically [than being favored]. I don?t know why, but I think we do,? Johnson said.
The Patriots, the top seed in the AFC playoffs, routed the Denver Broncos in their divisional-round game last weekend, while the second-seeded Ravens struggled before eliminating the Houston Texans Sunday.
?Should we be [underdogs]? I don?t know. It?s their place. They?re the No. 1 seed. They earned it. They?ve got the top offense in the league. They deserve to be the top team,? Johnson said.
Most fans could cite a litany of trends and statistics to build a case for why the Patriots should be favored so heavily; they have won three Super Bowl titles under coach Bill Belichick.
Torrey Smith, the Ravens rookie wide receiver, might not have those trends and statistics committed to memory, but he uses other data that underscore how good the Patriots are.
?My brother always plays [as] them on Madden,? Smith told reporters Monday, referring to the popular NFL video game.
Even though Smith has never played against the Patriots -- the real ones -- and doesn?t know their personnel especially well, ?I would lie to you if I said I didn?t know their names,? he said. ?My brother, I?m telling you, [plays as them] every single time.?
It was interesting that Johnson said the Ravens actually prefer the underdog role. Before Sunday?s game, they had played seven straight playoff games on the road under coach John Harbaugh -- as the underdog more often than not. Playing as home favorites for the first time Sunday, they did not give one of their better performances.
After being expected to win, now they?re back in the familiar role of going on the road and having little to lose.
They don?t mind.
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US seeks stronger democracies, partners in Africa (AP)
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast ? After an intense year of diplomacy sparked by revolution and repression across the Arab world, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is taking stock this week of an entirely separate democratic advance a half-continent away in West Africa.
The region's improvements in multiparty governance and the rule of law may have been overshadowed by the tumult of the Arab Spring. It made its own democratic gains in the past two years, even if the progress came in fits and starts, and often on the back of political violence. In Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won a second term in an election that likely would have been declared free and fair, only to be marred when the opposition leader called for a boycott, forcing Sirleaf to run unopposed.
Here in Ivory Coast, the country successfully held its first transparent election in a decade, but the winner of the polling had to enlist the help of a rebel army in order to force the former president from power, after he refused to accept defeat.
Guinea also returned to democracy after five decades of strongman rule, and encouraging progress was made in Niger, where a military junta handed over power to a democratically elected government.
West Africa's democratic wave was hardly foreseen, with political scientists only a couple of years ago still referring to the region's "democratic recession." The turnaround is strengthening hopes in the United States of a new spirit prevailing and fuller partners emerging on a resource-rich continent where China is investing billions of dollars in trade and infrastructure ? and his little concern for democracy.
"We are committed to standing with the people of Liberia as they continue their important journey, reconciling political and ethnic differences, strengthening democracy and bringing prosperity and opportunity to people," Clinton said Monday after watching Sirleaf get sworn in for a new six-year term.
Clinton meets Tuesday with Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, who won a 2010 election but relied on his forces and international help to oust predecessor Laurent Gbagbo. Gbagbo later was extradited to The Hague to face charges of murder, rape and other crimes allegedly committed by his supporters as he clung to power.
Clinton also will hold meetings Tuesday with the reform-minded President Faure Gnassingbe of Togo, which last year held the closest thing in its history to multiparty elections, and Cape Verde Prime Minister Jose Maria Neves before returning to Washington. It is the first trip ever by a U.S. secretary of state to Togo, a nation long ignored by Washington when Togo was under the three-decade dominion of Gnassingbe's strongman father.
Sirleaf, the 73-year-old Nobel Peace laureate, represents Washington's ideal in an African leader. A Harvard University-educated technocrat, she held senior positions at the World Bank and Citibank before being elected in 2005 to spearhead Liberia's recovery from a disastrous 14-year civil war.
Yet even as Sirleaf was lionized abroad, she faced a tough re-election battle at home amid persistent unemployment. She has had difficulties stamping out graft, which she once declared "Public Enemy No. 1." And many in the impoverished country are pressing to see the fruits of economic progress trickle down to the lower classes.
Clinton lent her support in a private meeting ahead of the inauguration ceremony, where the women discussed strategies to fight corruption.
"It's one of the roadblocks to greater prosperity here," Clinton told staff at America's sparkling new, marbled embassy on a Monrovia hilltop, meant to underline the U.S. commitment to Liberia's stability.
Across town and above the stunted concrete edifices of Liberia's capital stood the nearly as new Chinese Embassy, a reminder of the Asian power's growing commercial and diplomatic clout in Africa. With diamonds and timber, and possibly even offshore oil, Liberia is typical of many African countries waiting for a surge in prosperity and a partner to share in the spoils of its increased development.
"We're missing an important strategic opportunity for the United States," warned Sen. Christopher Coons, D-Del., who joined Clinton in the delegation to Sirleaf's ceremony. "China is taking advantage of our absence as a major funder of infrastructure and is advancing their economic and, I think, policy agenda across the continent."
The U.S. is providing significant aid. It supports groups like the National Democratic Institute and the Carter Center helping to build democratic institutions, while funding various projects to improve health, education, electricity and small companies. The U.S. Agency for International Development spent $207 million in Liberia last year, providing power to the capital and fighting disease.
But Coons, chairman of a Senate subcommittee on Africa, said Washington needs to aggressively pursue its own policy objectives, from anti-corruption and free media to religious tolerance. At a time when many in Congress are slashing aid budgets, he said the U.S. should be trying to "celebrate and lift up the countries in Africa that have chosen to make the difficult transition to democracy."
Ivory Coast is one such country. In Abidjan, life is returning to normal after a year consumed largely by war and reconciliation efforts. U.S. officials have cheered Ouattara's ascent to the presidency, even if the means were messy, and Ouattara's forces now stand accused of crimes against humanity.
At least 3,000 people on both sides died before fighting ended in April. Rights groups accuse Gbagbo's and Ouattara's supporters of carrying out wanton human rights violations. Even though Gbagbo has been extradited to The Hague, little has been done to hold Ouattara's camp accountable, and many are accusing him of "victor's justice."
U.S. officials are holding out hope that Ouattara, a former International Monetary Fund economist, will deliver on his promise of accountability even for the crimes of his allies. They credit him with successfully helping reopen ports, rebuild roads, increase exports and restore much of the Ivorian economy, but acknowledge that his government will need to prove its fairness.
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012
The complete Motorola Xoom Wifi Ice Cream Sandwich changelog
As we first told you late last night, the Wifi-only version of the Motorola Xoom is in the midst of getting its Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update. Motorola's just released the full changelog, which reads as follows:
- Updated Browser with faster rendering, zoom and pan: Users can also now save pages for offline reading and request desktop versions of websites.
- Swipe to dismiss notifications, tasks, and browser tabs: You can now dismiss individual notifications, apps from the Recent Apps list, and browser tabs with a simple swipe of a finger.
- Redesigned app launcher: In All Apps launcher, you can now simply drag an app to get information about it, immediately uninstall it, or disable a pre-installed app.
- New System Font for Improved Readability: An entirely new typeface (called Roboto) optimized for high resolution screens improves readability and brings a polished feel to the user interface.
- Updated “People” Application: Replaces contacts and integrates seamlessly with Google+ and other social networks.
- Improved text input and spell-checking: The keyboard now features improved accuracy to make text input faster. It also now includes an in-line spell checker to make corrections easier.
- Type with your voice: Now you can simply touch the microphone on the keyboard and start talking to write emails, SMS, or any other text—more than 20 languages supported. Text appears in real time, so there’s no waiting for server processing.
- Richer and versatile imaging capabilities: For capturing larger scenes, the camera introduces a single motion panorama mode. Also, you can now take still shots while shooting video just by tapping the screen as video continues to record. You can also launch camera directly from the Lockscreen. When you shoot videos, you can now choose from a number of silly faces and other fun effects which recognize individual facial features so you can give your friends big eyes, squeeze heads, make noses bigger, or change the scenery with background replacement.
- Redesigned Gallery app with photo editor: To help pictures look their best, the Gallery now offers a powerful photo editor so you can crop and rotate pictures, set levels, remove red eyes, add effects, and much more.Richer, resizable widgets You can expand widgets to show more content, or shrink them to save space.
Quite the update indeed. So how's the update going for everybody so far?
Source: Motorola; More in the Xoom forums
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/YoQxytIydno/story01.htm
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Veteran Chinese dissident indicted for "subversive" poem (Reuters)
BEIJING (Reuters) ? Chinese authorities have indicted veteran dissident Zhu Yufu on subversion charges for writing a poem urging people to gather to defend their freedoms, his lawyer said on Tuesday, the latest activist to such charges in a tightening clampdown.
Zhu, 60, from the eastern city of Hangzhou, was arrested last April for "inciting subversion of state power," a charge often used against critics of the ruling Communist Party. No trial date has been set for Zhu, the lawyer, Li Dunyong, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"The main reason for the indictment was a poem he had written calling for people to gather. He had written the poem around the same time there was chaos (in the Middle East)," Li said. "He believes in the freedom of expression."
Li collected the indictment on Monday from a court in Hangzhou and met with Zhu, who he described as being "in a good condition."
Calls to the Hangzhou Intermediate Court were unanswered on Tuesday.
The authorities disclosed their decision to prosecute Zhu nearly a year after Zhu had written the poem, which was titled "It's time."
A verse reads: "It's time, Chinese people!/ The square belongs to everyone/the feet are yours/it's time to use your feet and take to the square to make a choice." Zhu's lawyer said the poem had been published on the internet.
Li said, however, that Zhu had nothing to do with the online calls for "Jasmine Revolution" rallies inspired by uprisings in the Middle East.
Police rounded up dozens of dissidents in response to the calls, which began on an overseas Chinese website that was blocked to most people in mainland China who do not have the means to overcome censorship walls. The attempted rallies were tiny and were quickly outnumbered by hundreds of police and security guards.
Li said he will defend Zhu on the basis of freedom of expression but believes Zhu's prospects for victory look bleak.
"You can't be optimistic about anything in China," he said. "In this country, he'll be punished harshly."
China's Communist Party is preparing for a leadership handover late this year, when its determination to fend off political challenges to its rule is likely to intensify.
CLAMPDOWN
Zhu's indictment comes after a court in Guiyang in southwest China sentenced another veteran dissident, Chen Xi, to 10 years in jail for subversion, one of the heaviest sentences given for political charges since Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo was jailed two years ago.
Another dissident -- Chen Wei from Sichuan province in southwest China -- was jailed in December for nine years on similar charges of "inciting subversion.
Like both dissidents, Zhu has been jailed before for his pro-democracy activism. He was jailed in 1999 for his involvement in the China Democratic Party, a group that challenged one-party rule. He was released in 2006, only to be jailed again in 2007 for two years, according to the Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
Another prominent activist, artist Ai Weiwei, whose 81-day detention last year sparked an international outcry, said he was interrogated for five hours on Sunday for throwing stones and showing a rude gesture to surveillance cameras outside his home.
Police told Ai that he had to be questioned because he was suspected of "damaging public property," Ai said in a telephone interview with Reuters.
Ai said the stones did not hit the 10 surveillance cameras outside his house and he didn't think he would face charges.
"They said to me: 'This is a warning because you have to behave'," Ai said. "I said: 'I'll behave, I take your warning seriously. But I'm human, I have to show my attitude. It's just a gesture. You're so powerful, how can I destroy you?'"
(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Ken Wills and Sanjeev Miglani)
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Tamaggo 360 Panoramic Camera Has Your Back
There are now plenty of ways to shoot panoramas with your iPhone, from add-on donut-shaped lenses to a whole home-screen’s worth of app that will stitch and twist your images into a patchwork poster. But what if, like me, you don’t own an iPhone? The answer, in 360? pano terms at least, is the Tamaggo [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/4-PsapF3f8U/
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Monday, January 16, 2012
David Furnish Slams Madonna's Golden Globes Win
Nobody was more upset about Elton John's loss to Madonna at the Golden Globes than the Gnomeo & Juliet producer's partner, David Furnish.
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