Should YouTube Ban Videos of the Adorable but Endangered Slow Loris?

Like hundreds of thousands of other people, my first encounter with a slow loris occurred online when I watched the now-famous 57-second video of one of these adorable primates being tickled and throwing up its arms in apparent glee. That video has been viewed more than nine million times since it was posted in June 2009.

But some conservationists argue that videos like this create a false impression of the slow loris in viewers? minds, and in the process fuel the illegal pet trade that brutally mangles the tiny creatures and puts them at risk of extinction in the wild.

On January 25 the BBC aired a documentary called Jungle Gremlins of Java (viewable here if you live in the U.K.) that examined the illegal pet trade in Jakarta, Indonesia, where slow lorises are available in Indonesian markets for as little as $20. They await their fate in tiny cages after having their front teeth and venomous elbow patches painfully clipped off with pliers, nail clippers or wire cutters. (Lorises are the world?s only venomous primates.) Many of the animals die shortly after being sold, as the removal of their teeth can hamper their ability to eat.

The documentary?s host, Oxford Brookes University anthropologist Anna Nekaris, told BBC News that lorises rescued from the pet trade can never be reintroduced into the wild because they have no teeth and can?t fend for themselves.

There are five slow loris species, along with six species of slender lorises. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) limits the sale of all slender lorises (from the genus Loris) and bans trade in two of the three loris species from the genus Nycticebus (the Bengal slow loris, N. bengalensis, and the pygmy slow loris, N. pygmaeus). The International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species only lists two species as ?endangered,? but classifies the rest as ?vulnerable to extinction? with declining populations.

According to the International Animal Rescue Web site, ?Thousands of slow lorises are poached from the wild and illegally sold as pets or for use in traditional medicine. Domestic and international trade takes place in various ways, from open selling of slow lorises on roadsides to smuggling them in poorly ventilated, overcrowded cages. In Indonesia slow lorises are sold on the street or in traditional animal markets as well as in city malls. Although both Indonesian and international laws ban the trade in slow lorises, the illegal wildlife trade is flourishing.?

In response to the documentary, the organization International Animal Rescue Indonesia has posted an online petition asking YouTube to remove clips of captive lorises.

?Videos portraying the slow loris as a cute, furry pet increase the demand for slow lorises, fueling the trade,? the petition reads. ?Slow loris behaviors, which are caused by stress or fear, are misinterpreted as funny. YouTube has many slow loris videos on the Web site which show the slow loris as a pet, some of which have been watched millions of times. Despite requests to take these videos down, YouTube refuses to see the animal suffering in the slow loris clips.?

Nekaris has been asking YouTube to remove the slow loris videos for the last few years. ?Lorises are?traded openly in Indonesian markets and the YouTube clips only increase the demand,? she told The Independent in March 2011. ?Tackling this trade should be an urgent priority for wildlife-enforcement agencies. The penalty should be greater than simply confiscation of the animal.? YouTube responded, saying that their community guidelines prohibit animal abuse, and videos that are found to violate that guideline are removed ?usually in under an hour.?

Nekaris told the conservation news site Mongabay.com in 2009 that lorises appear docile in these videos because ?it is part of their defense mechanism?to be still and silent? when held and otherwise threatened. That?s also one of the reasons why it is so easy for poachers to grab the animals from their wild habitats. ?The infants are particularly defenseless and easy to catch,? she said. ?Any hunter going into the forest will just grab a loris if he sees it.?

The pet trade isn?t the only reason why lorises are endangered. As I wrote in 2010, they are also used in traditional Asian medicine to ?treat? conditions such as leprosy, heal broken bones and ward off the ?evil eye.? Of course, none of these purported medical benefits have any grounding in science. All lorises are also threatened by habitat loss.

So what do you think? Should YouTube remove these videos because they harm wildlife, similar to the reasons why eBay banned the sale of ivory, or should they be allowed to stand on the grounds of freedom of expression?

Photo 1: Slow loris for sale in a Thailand market, by ?megadem? via Flickr. Photo 2: Slow loris at a market in Malaysia by Michael Whitehead via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons license

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=7eb9d450f9cd0fa03c00faed9829f733

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Fort Hood shooting suspect seeks to delay trial (AP)

FORT HOOD, Texas ? Defense attorneys for the Army psychiatrist charged in the Fort Hood shooting rampage want to delay his March murder trial.

A military judge set a hearing next week to consider Maj. Nidal Hasan's (nih-DAHL' hah-SAHN') request to delay the trial.

It's unclear why defense attorneys want more time or if they're proposing a new date. The high-profile military trial is expected to last about two months at Fort Hood.

Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. He faces the death penalty or life without parole if convicted in the November 2009 shooting spree on the Texas Army post.

The 41-year-old Hasan remains jailed. He was paralyzed from the waist down after being shot by police that day.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_us/us_fort_hood_shooting

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The wild early lives of today's most massive galaxies

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Astronomers have combined observations from the LABOCA camera on the ESO-operated 12-metre Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope with measurements made with ESO's Very Large Telescope, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and others, to look at the way that bright, distant galaxies are gathered together in groups or clusters.

The more closely the galaxies are clustered, the more massive are their halos of dark matter ? the invisible material that makes up the vast majority of a galaxy's mass. The new results are the most accurate clustering measurements ever made for this type of galaxy.

The galaxies are so distant that their light has taken around ten billion years to reach us, so we see them as they were about ten billion years ago. In these snapshots from the early Universe, the galaxies are undergoing the most intense type of star formation activity known, called a starburst.

By measuring the masses of the dark matter halos around the galaxies, and using computer simulations to study how these halos grow over time, the astronomers found that these distant starburst galaxies from the early cosmos eventually become giant elliptical galaxies ? the most massive galaxies in today's Universe.

"This is the first time that we've been able to show this clear link between the most energetic starbursting galaxies in the early Universe, and the most massive galaxies in the present day," explains Ryan Hickox (Dartmouth College, USA and Durham University, UK), the lead scientist of the team.

Furthermore, the new observations indicate that the bright starbursts in these distant galaxies last for a mere 100 million years ? a very short time in cosmological terms ? yet in this brief time they are able to double the quantity of stars in the galaxies. The sudden end to this rapid growth is another episode in the history of galaxies that astronomers do not yet fully understand.

"We know that massive elliptical galaxies stopped producing stars rather suddenly a long time ago, and are now passive. And scientists are wondering what could possibly be powerful enough to shut down an entire galaxy's starburst," says Julie Wardlow (University of California at Irvine, USA and Durham University, UK), a member of the team.

The team's results provide a possible explanation: at that stage in the history of the cosmos, the starburst galaxies are clustered in a very similar way to quasars, indicating that they are found in the same dark matter halos. Quasars are among the most energetic objects in the Universe ? galactic beacons that emit intense radiation, powered by a supermassive black hole at their centre.

There is mounting evidence to suggest the intense starburst also powers the quasar by feeding enormous quantities of material into the black hole. The quasar in turn emits powerful bursts of energy that are believed to blow away the galaxy's remaining gas ? the raw material for new stars ? and this effectively shuts down the star formation phase.

"In short, the galaxies' glory days of intense star formation also doom them by feeding the giant black hole at their centre, which then rapidly blows away or destroys the star-forming clouds," explains David Alexander (Durham University, UK), a member of the team.

###

ESO: http://www.eso.org

Thanks to ESO for this article.

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

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117045/The_wild_early_lives_of_today_s_most_massive_galaxies

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Conoco says reaches China spill compensation deal (AP)

BEIJING ? ConocoPhillips said Wednesday that it and China National Offshore Oil Corp. reached a $160 million agreement to settle compensation claims from oil spills off northeastern China.

The Houston-based company said in a statement that the two had reached an agreement with China's Ministry of Agriculture over the oil spills last June in the Bohai Sea.

The spills were considered small, especially compared with the Gulf of Mexico spills in 2010, but Conoco, the operator of the Bohai field, still came under intense media criticism in China.

Conoco said the money, 1 billion yuan, would be used "to settle public and private claims of potentially affected fishermen in relevant Bohai Bay communities."

It said 10 percent of the money would go to the company's previously announced fund to improve fishery resources.

The agreement will likely stop a lawsuit that a group of more than 100 Chinese fishermen filed last year seeking compensation from ConocoPhillips China for damage to their sea cucumber catches.

In September, ConocoPhillips announced plans to set up two funds to pay compensation and address environmental problems resulting from the spills.

The government has already ordered the company to stop all production pending a full cleanup and a review to ensure no more oil seeps into the sea.

The oil spill covered about 2,500 square miles (6,200 sq. kilometers) of water surface. It drew attention to pollution in the Bohai region due to industrialization, oil drilling and fast population growth that has decimated sea food and fish stocks and caused frequent red tides.

Sea cucumbers, one of many types of sea product harvested in the Bohai, are sausage-shaped, often spiky marine animals that are viewed as a delicacy by many in Asia.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_oil_spill

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Why Mitt Romney Can't Be The Mormon JFK

By David Gibson
Religion News Service

(RNS) Mitt Romney's sudden downgrade from Republican frontrunner to potential also-ran coincided with a massive shift of conservative Christians voters in South Carolina to Newt Gingrich's camp.

Why? Many observers trace it to lingering suspicion among evangelicals -- a key Republican constituency -- about Romney's Mormon faith.

And that has led some to suggest that Romney needs to make a speech about his Mormonism along the lines of John F. Kennedy's defense of his Catholicism to Protestant leaders during the 1960 campaign.

So could Romney pull a Kennedy? Should he?

Mike Huckabee, an evangelical favorite who sought the GOP nod in 2008, told Fox News after Romney's South Carolina implosion that the time had come for Romney to give it a shot.

"I do think he ought to address it," Huckabee said, arguing that such a speech would "sort of dismiss it, make it less important."

But few political observers, and apparently even fewer Romney's allies, appear to be urging that step, and they have good reasons for taking a wait-and-see approach:

1. Romney has more than a Mormon problem

For one thing, the tracking polls in the GOP contest over the past months have registered more spikes and dips than an erratic electrocardiogram. Romney's cardiac moment in South Carolina -- and his continuing struggle heading into Florida's Jan. 31 primary -- needs to be seen in that context.

"I think it was more a result of Newt Gingrich catching fire combined with a pretty tough week for Mitt on issues like taxes and income," said David French, a social conservative and Romney ally who with his wife, Nancy, just published a book, "Why Evangelicals Should Support Mitt Romney (and Feel Good About It!)."
"It's a pretty conventional narrative -- at least by the conventions of this very volatile race," French added. "If there was any blanket anti-Mormon sentiment, then Mitt would not have been up to begin with."

2. Romney doesn't need to rally the Mormon base

When Kennedy addressed the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in September 1960, it was only two months before the November election, and he did not have to worry about his Democratic base the way Romney has to worry about securing the GOP base to win the primaries.

Kennedy's chief task in 1960 actually was not to convert his audience; they were already a lost cause, and he knew it. What the Kennedy campaign hoped to do was to influence the 23 percent of the wider electorate who were still undecided.

"The campaign's polling showed that yes, if Kennedy could paint himself as a victim of anti-Catholic bigotry, that will move people your way," said Shaun Casey, a professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary and author of "The Making of a Catholic President: Kennedy vs. Nixon 1960." And it worked.

Romney's "religion" problem is about numbers as much as theology. As Casey notes, Kennedy's other task in Houston was to rally his Catholic base, which he did. But rallying an already strong GOP Mormon base wouldn't do much for Romney.

While Kennedy had a Catholic population of 40 million behind him -- about one-quarter of the electorate, concentrated in key battleground states -- Mormons today number just about 2 million, and are geographically concentrated in the Mountain West in mostly reliable red states (with the exception of toss-ups Nevada and Colorado).

Romney already gave a "Houston" speech -- and it didn't work. Back in 2007, Romney was struggling to overcome evangelicals' doubts about his Mormon faith. While the speech was well received, it didn't move Iowa caucus-goers one iota back then, and a second speech now would likely not convince suspicious evangelicals in Florida (and beyond).

3. Romney may not want people to know he's Mormon

By talking about his Mormonism, Romney would call attention to his Mormonism. Politically speaking, that's a huge risk. Many Americans, and Republicans in particular, tend to consider Mormonism a "cult" -- or "super spooky-wooky!" as Broadway's hit musical, "The Book of Mormon," puts it. Calling extra attention to Mormon beliefs could just affirm those views, or tell evangelicals who don't know about Romney's religion that he is, in fact, a Mormon.

If Romney seeks to legitimize Mormons, he also runs the reviving evangelical concerns about the Mormon "threat." While many conservative Christians consider Mormons a cult, in real life they are not so odd. They are not the alien "other," as many in 1960 believed Roman Catholics to be, nor is Romney an African-American with an exotic pedigree, the way Barack Obama was viewed in 2008 (and still is by many in 2012).

The problem is that Mormons are so much like evangelicals, or what evangelicals want to be -- clean-cut, disciplined, hard-working, family-loving, flag-waving, church-going conservatives -- that many evangelicals seem them as a kind of heretical competition. The fear is that if Romney mainstreams Mormonism, he gives credibility to a potential rival for evangelical souls.

"I do not believe for one moment that if a Mormon like Mitt Romney were elected president he would be a puppet controlled by the Mormon hierarchy," Hal Gordon, a former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and Colin Powell, wrote in a recent column.

"But even if he kept his faith completely private, the election of a Mormon president would, ipso facto, swathe Mormonism in a respectability that it has long coveted."

4. Romney's liability isn't necessarily his faith

Romney's biggest task is convincing conservative Christians that he is a conservative, not that he is a Christian. Evangelicals have shown they are happy to back all sorts of unorthodox candidates (anyone remember Herman Cain?). They never fell for fellow evangelicals Michele Bachmann or Rick Perry, and now they are rushing toward Newt Gingrich, a thrice-married convert to Catholicism.

Evangelicals may not love Mormons, but they are really down on moderates. Indeed, Romney is arguably "not Mormon enough," Richard Land, a top Southern Baptist official, said on the eve of the South Carolina vote.

"If his stance on life and his stance on marriage had been consistently what the stance of the Mormon church has been, he would have far less doubts among social conservatives," Land said.

Ralph Reed, head of the Faith and Freedom Coalition and a top evangelical political activist, said he doesn't think Romney's Mormonism will necessarily preclude him from winning evangelical votes or the GOP nomination, so he doesn't need to make the Kennedy speech at this point.

"Bottom line is," said Reed, "he may need to address it as the campaign proceeds, and he may choose to address it as part of a speech down the road."

5. What Romney's real Kennedy moment would look like

"Down the road" may be a good idea. Surveys show that Democrats -- still seething over Mormon involvement in California's Prop 8 fight over gay marriage -- are much less likely to accept the idea of a Mormon president than are Republicans, and are less accepting of the idea than even conservative Christians.

So picture this: If Romney can secure the nomination, he could give a speech about his faith next September to an audience of suspicious liberals. By doing so, he would win the hearts and votes of Republicans -- including evangelicals -- who would see him as the victim of anti-religious bias.

And that would be the real Kennedy moment.

Also on HuffPost:

Trailing Newt

1? of ?13

Mitt Romney's inevitability suffered a blow in South Carolina, when GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich won the state's primary with 40 percent of the vote. Romney came in second with 28 percent. While Romney struggled to garner excitement from the conservative voting block in the Palmetto state, Gingrich has surged in the polls, challenging Romney's frontrunner status. Mitt Romney's inevitability suffered a blow in South Carolina, when GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich won the state's primary with 40 percent of the vote. Romney came in second with 28 percent.

While Romney struggled to garner excitement from the conservative voting block in the Palmetto state, Gingrich has surged in the polls, challenging Romney's frontrunner status.

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Trailing Newt

Mitt Romney's inevitability suffered a blow in South Carolina, when GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich won the state's primary with 40 percent of the vote. Romney came in second with 28 percent. While Romney struggled to garner excitement from the conservative voting block in the Palmetto state, Gingrich has surged in the polls, challenging Romney's frontrunner status. "; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/25/mitt-romney-mormon-jfk_n_1232307.html

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Canada, U.S. extend softwood lumber agreement (Reuters)

WASHINGTON/OTTAWA (Reuters) ? Canada and the United States extended a bilateral softwood lumber deal by two years to 2015 on Monday, underlining the two nations' close trade ties despite recent disagreements over an oil pipeline.

"This extension agreement will bring much-needed stability and predictability to the lumber industry," Canadian Trade Minister Ed Fast told reporters after a meeting in Washington with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

Washington and Ottawa signed the initial seven-year deal in 2006 in a bid to end prolonged legal fights. Producers in the United States have complained for decades that Canada unfairly subsidizes its lumber companies.

In recent years, the U.S. housing downturn and the lingering effects of the global financial crisis have created hard times for North American lumber producers.

Kirk, in a separate statement, said continuing the pact was important, "particularly when both sides of the border are facing weak demand."

The extension was signed less than a week after President Barack Obama's administration irritated Canada by vetoing a proposed pipeline that would have carried crude from Alberta's oil sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Fast declined to tell reporters whether he discussed the issue with Kirk but said he was optimistic the deal would eventually be approved.

At the same time, it is important Canada "diversify its markets" for both its oil and lumber, Fast said.

Canadian lumber producers are already enjoying increased sales to China, thanks in part to the efforts of the Canadian government, he said.

The original softwood lumber agreement, which was set to expire in October 2013, provided for a two-year extension.

Both sides will consult with industry on whether to pursue a longer renewal when the time comes, Fast said.

It is also possible that lumber issues could be addressed in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership talks, which Canada, Mexico and Japan have requested to join with the United States and eight other nations, he added.

The United States and Canada are the world's biggest goods trading partners. According to official U.S. data, two-way trade in 2010 totaled $525 billion.

Despite the new agreement, there are still tensions on the lumber file. Last year, Ottawa agreed to level small export charges on softwood shipped from Ontario and Quebec after an arbitrator ruled the two provinces had breached the deal.

Also in 2011, the United States accused Canada of violating the agreement by underpricing wood from trees killed in a massive insect infestation in British Columbia. That issue is expected to go to arbitration soon, and Fast expressed confidence that Canada would prevail.

(Reporting by Doug Palmer and David Ljunggren; Editing by Peter Galloway and Will Dunham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/wl_canada_nm/canada_us_usa_lumber

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Sundance Exclusive Clip: 'For A Good Time, Call' Lauren Miller For Dating Advice

For a good time, check out the Sundance Film Festival release of "For A Good Time, Call?," the new comedy from co-writers Lauren Miller and Katie Anne Naylon. Miller stars in director Jamie Travis' feature as a woman forced to move in with her worst enemy from college, Katie (Ari Graynor), when her personal life [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/01/23/sundance-for-a-good-time-call-exclusive-clip/

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N. Korea marks New Year with 'kimjongilia' flowers

David Guttenfelder / AP

North Koreans gather to put flowers on a stage in front of a portrait of Kim Jong Il as they pay their respects on the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on Monday.

By msnbc.com and news services

PYONGYANG, North Korea - Bundled up against the freezing cold, soldiers and children lined up Monday at Pyongyang's main plaza to pay their respects again to late leader Kim Jong Il.

It was North Korea's unique way of marking the lunar New Year which was celebrated in China and elsewhere in the region with fireworks.

A massive portrait of Kim that had been taken down after a mourning period following his Dec. 17 death was back up at Kim Il Sung Square.

---

People scurried across the vast plaza to get in line to bow and lay single red flowers, the late leader's namesake "kimjongilia" begonias, made of fabric. The song "It's snowing" blared from the loudspeakers, a reminder of Kim's solemn funeral procession through the capital city's snowy streets late last month.

There was an elaborate and dramatic farewell Wednesday for Kim Jong-Il, the leader of one of the most isolated places on earth: North Korea. He died 10 days ago, and as his nation paid its final respects, the eyes of the world were on his young, untested successor. NBC's Adrienne Mong reports.

For several weeks after the funeral, Pyongyang was barren and somber. But almost overnight the city has filled with color again. North Korea's red, white and blue national flag fluttered from signposts. Banners celebrating "Juche 101" ? the current year, according to the North Korean calendar, which begins with the 1912 birth of national founder Kim Il Sung ? and posters marking the holiday were pinned to buildings and walls.

At the plaza in front of the Pyongyang Grand Theater, hundreds of children scampered and shouted as they played traditional Korean games in frigid temperatures. Signs in front of the theater spelled out "We are happy" in big, bold letters.

Pyongyang residents said they were encouraged to celebrate the traditional holiday as they usually do, despite the death of Kim Jong Il, only the second leader North Koreans have known since the nation was founded in 1948. State television aired a segment late Sunday on making rice cake soup, a traditional New Year's meal in both Koreas.

The holiday comes as new leader Kim Jong Un makes a round of visits to military units.

Outside observers have raised questions about whether Kim Jong Un ? who's believed to be aged in his late 20s ? is ready to rule a country of 24 million with a nuclear program as well as chronic food shortages.

But the North has dismissed such worries, and state media have put out a stream of reports and images meant to show that Kim has strong military and governing experience. Late last week, for example, North Korea credited Kim Jong Un with spearheading past nuclear testing and said he was "fully equipped" with the qualities of an extraordinary general.

Kim Jong Un, anointed his father's successor at least three years ago, was declared "supreme leader" of the North Korean people, party and military after his father's death. He has pledged to uphold his father's "military first" policy.

The new era of leadership comes as North Korea prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary in April of the birth of his grandfather, late President Kim Il Sung.

The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10214594-north-korea-marks-lunar-new-year-with-flowers-named-after-dictator

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Revenge of the Return of the Giant Newt (Balloon Juice)

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Lady Gaga in duet with ... Harvard? (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? Pop culture and higher education are once again merging -- and hopefully this time it will go better than Snooki's ill-conceived visit to Rutgers.

Lady Gaga is teaming up with Harvard University to form the Born This Way Foundation, a non-profit, charitable organization.

Its purpose: to "explore the best ways to reach youth and create a new culture of kindness, bravery, acceptance and empowerment" with a focus on issues such as "self-confidence, well-being, anti-bullying, mentoring and career development and advocacy," according to a Harvard release.

The foundation -- which is named after the singer's most recent album and is a collaboration between Gaga, the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the California Endowment, Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Harvard Graduate School of Education -- will officially launch with a February 29 event at Harvard's Sanders Theatre. The singer and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, will be on hand for the reveal.

"My daughter's foundation was born out of her passion to create a better world where people are kinder and nicer to one another and are accepted for who they are, regardless of how different they may be," Cynthia Germanotta said of the new organization.

"She has experienced many of the struggles that our youth encounter today, and identifies with the lasting effects they can have without proper support. Together, we look forward to creating a new movement that will engage and empower youth and accept them as valuable members of our society."

Gaga, a frequent champion of gay rights, was honored earlier this week with a GLAAD Media Awards nomination, in the Outstanding Music Artist category.

(Editing by Chris Michaud)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120120/people_nm/us_ladygaga_harvard

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Just Show Me: How to watch Hulu+ on your Xbox 360 (Yahoo! News)

Welcome to?Just Show Me on?Tecca TV, where we show you tips and tricks for getting the most out of the?gadgets in your life. In today's episode we'll show you how to watch?Hulu+ on your?Xbox 360.

By following along in our video and installing the Hulu+ app, you'll be able to enjoy streaming TV and movies right on your Xbox. It's a great way to sit back and enjoy quality entertainment in your very own home theater.

Take a look at these other episodes of Just Show Me that'll help you use your Xbox 360 to its full potential:

For even more episodes of Just Show Me,?subscribe to Tecca TV's YouTube channel and?check out all our Just Show Me episodes. If you have any topics you'd like to see us cover, just drop us a line in the comments.

This article originally appeared on Tecca

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Tom Engelhardt: Washington's Crocodile Tears: On Checkpoints, War Porn, and Wedding Parties

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta called it ?utterly deplorable.?? Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed ?total dismay.?? General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, was ?deeply disturbed? that the actions in question would ?erode the reputation of our joint force.?? Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos declared them to be ?wholly inconsistent with the high standards of conduct and warrior ethos that we have demonstrated throughout our history,? and Senator John McCain claimed they made him ?so sad.?

Seldom have so many high officials in Washington lined up to denounce an event so quickly or emphatically.? I?m talking, of course, about the video of four wisecracking U.S. Marines in Afghanistan pissing on what might be three dead Taliban or simply -- since we may never know whose bodies those are -- the corpses of three dead Afghans.? (?Have a good day, buddy... Golden -- like a shower, ? you hear them say, seemingly addressing the bodies.) The video went viral in the Muslim world, and the Obama administration moved fast to contain the damage.? After all, no one wanted another Abu Ghraib.

On this subject Washington has been remarkably united (with the exception of Rick Perry, who offered a half-hearted defense of the Marines -- ?to call it a criminal act, I think, is over the top?). Pardon me, though, if I find this chorus of condemnation to be too little, too late.? It feels like a malign version of one of Casablanca?s famous final lines: ?Round up the usual suspects.?

After all, these last years in occupied Iraq and Afghanistan have been utterly deplorable, totally dismaying, and deeply disturbing from start to finish.? On occasion after occasion, U.S. troops, aka ?America?s heroes,? as well as private contractors and others in Washington?s employ have run riot.? There is no way to catalogue what?s been deplorable, dismaying, and deeply disturbing, but if you wanted to start, it really wouldn't be that hard.

In fact, you wouldn't have to go farther than the website I run, TomDispatch.com.? If, for instance, it was deeply disturbing pictures taken by our troops you were curious about, you could have read David Swanson?s 2006 piece "The Iraq War as a Trophy Photo," which focused on the ?war porn? photos U.S. soldiers were already taking (or even setting up) and then proudly submitting to an actual porn website for posting (something, by the way, that?s still going on).

Or if checkpoint killings by U.S. soldiers in Iraq were what you were interested in, all you had to do was read Chris Hedges at TomDispatch in 2008, based on interviews he did with American soldiers for the book Collateral Damage: ?Iraqi families,? he wrote, ?were routinely fired upon for getting too close to checkpoints, including an incident where an unarmed father driving a car was decapitated by a .50-caliber machine gun in front of his small son.?? ("'It's fun to shoot sh-t up,' a soldier said.") And if his word wasn?t enough, you could turn to U.S. Afghan War commander General Stanley McChrystal who, in a moment of bluntness in April 2010, commented: ?We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force.?

Or consider something no one has yet denounced as deplorable, dismaying, or deeply disturbing: the obliteration of wedding parties.? Over the years, TomDispatch has counted up at least six weddings in Iraq and Afghanistan that were wiped out in part or full by the U.S. Air Force.? All of these, including the first in December 2001 in which a B-52 and two B-1B bombers, armed with precision weapons, killed 110 of 112 Afghan revelers, were reported individually.? But next to no one in our world thought them dismaying or disturbing enough to write about them collectively or, for that matter, to deplore them.? (Of a wedding in Western Iraq in which U.S. planes killed 40 people, including wedding musicians and children, Major General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, asked: "How many people go to the middle of the desert... to hold a wedding 80 miles from the nearest civilization?")

The troves of documents leaked to the website WikiLeaks, for which Army Pfc. Bradley Manning has been charged, certainly caused a stir, but the carnage in them was, in truth, easily available without access to a single secret document.? Washington?s crocodile tears can?t wash away the stain of all this on American honor, as Chase Madar, author of the upcoming book The Passion of Bradley Manning, makes all too clear in a new piece "Blood on Whose Hands?."?

Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of The American Way of War: How Bush?s Wars Became Obama?s as well as The End of Victory Culture, runs the Nation Institute's The United States of Fear (Haymarket Books), has just been published.?

To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com here.

?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-engelhardt/washingtons-crocodile-tea_b_1216790.html

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Apple's education announcement: what you need to know

Today's education event was a reasonably small one, so far as Apple pressers go, held at the Guggenheim museum in New York City, with a smattering of media representatives in attendance. It arrives on the tails of some already hearty numbers for the company, including the existence of 20,000 learning-themed apps and 1.5 million iPads currently in use for education. But Cupertino's plans for the future of learning are grand indeed, including the desire to "reinvent the textbook" via iBooks 2. And while our expectations weren't particularly grandiose going into this morning, we were, indeed, pretty impressed with what we saw. So, what did you miss if you happened to sleep in late today? Find out, after the break.

Continue reading Apple's education announcement: what you need to know

Apple's education announcement: what you need to know originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/19/apples-education-announcement-what-you-need-to-know/

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Genuis DX-ECO wireless mouse has no battery, charges in three minutes anyway

Hip on recharging your wireless rodent every single day? How about if it only takes three minutes? A single day's juice per charge might be unacceptable for most peripherals, but we're ready to make an exception for Genuis' DX-ECO wireless mouse. This adjustable 800 / 1600 DPI clicker swaps out a recharge battery for a "gold," or electric double-layer capacitor -- you may know it as a super, or ultracapacitor. A step towards a battery-free existence not enough for you? Fine, bask in the knowledge that the DX-ECO also features a carpet, marble and sofa friendly "BlueEye" sensor. Read on for the official PR. Us? We're off to fantasize about battery free electric vehicles.

Continue reading Genuis DX-ECO wireless mouse has no battery, charges in three minutes anyway

Genuis DX-ECO wireless mouse has no battery, charges in three minutes anyway originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/LXF4xUcM29o/

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Team finds natural reasons behind nitrogen-rich forests

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Many tropical forests are extremely rich in nitrogen even when there are no farms or industries nearby, says Montana State University researcher Jack Brookshire.

It's because of biological interactions that occur naturally in the forests, Brookshire and four colleagues said in a paper they published Jan. 15 in the online version of the journal Nature Geoscience.

Disputing some long-held beliefs about high nitrogen levels in tropical forests, Brookshire said pollution isn't always the reason behind it. It can also be caused by natural interactions between the forest and nutrient cycles. Brookshire and his team suggested that in mountainous tropical forests, nitrogen availability may not limit plant growth or its response to higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

Brookshire began his study in 2006 when he was a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University. He continued it after moving to MSU in 2009. He is now an assistant professor in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences.

To conduct their study, Brookshire, two scientists from Princeton University and two researchers from the Stroud Water Research Center in Avondale, Pa., used data collected between 1990 and 2008 to examine the concentration of dissolved nitrogen compounds and the isotopic composition of nitrate in streams in six mountain forests in Costa Rica and 55 mountain forests across Central American and the Caribbean.

All of the forests were old-growth tropical forests with no signs of large-scale disturbance. They were classified as mountain evergreen, mountain rainforest or cloud forest. Evergreen forests in Costa Rica are at lower altitudes. Rainforests are at higher elevations. Cloud forests are at the highest elevation. They are bathed in clouds or moisture for much of the year.

The researchers also examined new samples that Brookshire collected in Costa Rica and Trinidad. Sampling was an exciting process that involved hiking through thick forests and swimming through narrow rock gorges, Brookshire said. He was able to avoid snake bites, but not the stinging insects or oppressive humidity.

"You don't dry out," Brookshire said.

The research team found high levels of nitrate in the streams of the tropical forests, indicating large losses of bioavailable nitrogen, Brookshire said. They also found evidence that the loss wasn't recent or a one-time thing. They discovered that the nitrate resulted from plant-soil interactions and not directly from atmospheric deposition.

Tropical forests are significant reservoirs for carbon, and their future relies on forest interactions with nutrient cycles, he said.

Scientists in the past have compared the effect of industry and agriculture on the temperate forests of the northern hemisphere, but relatively little research has been conducted on forests near the equator, Brookshire said. He decided to look at forests in Costa Rica and Trinidad because he already had colleagues there and they, like him, were intrigued by the fact that some tropical forests have dramatic nitrogen exports without apparent human causes.

"These systems have a natural capacity to build up levels of nitrates in soil that we only see in the most polluted temperate forests," Brookshire said.

The research published in Nature Geoscience will continue, Brookshire said.

"This is an on-going research project to figure out how forests work in the larger earth climate system and how they might respond to global change," Brookshire said. "The deep mysteries about how these ecosystems work, we are just beginning to understand. Things are much more complex than previously thought."

###

Montana State University: http://www.montana.edu

Thanks to Montana State University for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116816/Team_finds_natural_reasons_behind_nitrogen_rich_forests

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So what did you think of Apple?s education event?

So what did you think of Apple’s education event?So now Apple’s education event is over and the dust has settled and we have iBooks 2, iBooks Author,

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/raLkwwCLAc8/story01.htm

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Snakes, Fort Benning to Hold Military Hockey Tryouts Today

COLUMBUS, GA - The Columbus Cottonmouths, in conjunction with Fort Benning, will host tryouts today and next Thursday, Jan. 19 from 7:00 to 8:00 pm in the Columbus Ice Rink to assemble a Fort Benning hockey team.

Tryouts are open to all active duty military and participants must provide their own equipment. A very limited supply of equipment will be available for purchase at the rink. Tryouts will consist of drills and scrimmages being run by Cottonmouths head coach Jerome 'Boom Boom' Bechard, with 22-24 people being selected for the team.

Saturday, Feb. 11 is Military Appreciation Night and the conclusion of Legends Weekend. Fort Benning's newly-assembled team will face the Cottonmouths Legends at 6 p.m., prior to the Cottonmouths' regularly scheduled game. One ticket gets fans into both events.

Approximately 20 former Snakes will return to the Snake Pit for Legends Weekend. Included in the list of returning players are enforcer and fan-favorite Dan Leslie (2007-10), Cottonmouths all-time leading scorer Tim 'The Toolman' Green (2004-10), goaltender from the 1997-98 Levin's Cup championship team Frankie 'The Wall' Ouellette (1997-2001) and playoff MVP from the 97-98 championship team Mike Martens (1997-2001). A complete list of returning Legends will be released soon.

For more information on military tryouts, please contact the Cottonmouths office at 706 571 0086.?

Source: http://midtown-uptown.wtvm.com/news/events/49877-snakes-fort-benning-hold-military-hockey-tryouts-today

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Jack Roberts Dead: Ice Climber Dies After Fall At Bridal Veil Ice Falls

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- A Colorado sheriff says a nationally known climber who wrote books and numerous articles on the subject has died after falling 60 feet during a climb.

Roberts had been climbing on the Bridal Veil Ice Falls east of Telluride in San Miguel County. Members of the San Miguel County Search and Rescue Team spent 40 minutes trying to resuscitate him.

Roberts had been a climber for more than 40 years and was well known in the climbing community as a guide and instructor.

___

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/16/jack-roberts-dead-ice-climber-falls-bridal-veil-ice-falls_n_1209572.html

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Santorum Opens Fire on Romney (Taegan Goddard's Political Wire)

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Prized QB Kiel chooses Notre Dame

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) ? Prized quarterback recruit Gunner Kiel is joining Notre Dame.

Coach Brian Kelly announced Kiel's decision Tuesday, marking one of the most significant recruits he has landed in his two-plus years on the job at Notre Dame. Kiel last year said he would go to Indiana, where his brother was among the quarterbacks, and he later expressed interest in LSU.

Instead, he could be in the mix as Kelly decides on a starting quarterback. Already on campus are junior Tommy Rees, who took over after the first half of a stunning season-opening loss to South Florida and started the next 12 games; junior Andrew Hendrix, who showed promise as a change-of-pace runner and passer in Kelly's spread offense; or untested and talented Everett Golson, who did not play last year as a freshman. Dayne Crist has transferred to Kansas.

Kiel was rated by many scouting services as the top recruit in the nation. Last year at Columbus (Ind.) High School, he passed for 2,517 yards and 28 touchdowns, and rushed for 482 yards and 11 scores. He passed for 7,175 yards in his high school career.

"This recruitment process was a roller-coaster ride at times, but I know I have made the right decision for my family and me," Kiel said in a statement provided by the school. "There were three critical elements I was looking for in my future school: the quality of education I would receive, the distance from home and the comfort level I would have with the players and coaches in the football program. Notre Dame was the perfect fit for me because it hit all three areas."

Notre Dame also confirmed the arrival of running back Amir Carlisle, who played for USC last season, as well as defensive lineman Sheldon Day (Indianapolis) and defensive back Tee Shepard (Fresno, Calif.), who like Kiel graduated from high school last December.

Carlisle played in eight games for the Trojans last season, finishing with 19 carries for 118 yards and seven catches for 41 yards with a touchdown. He will have to sit out next season under NCAA transfer rules but will have three seasons of eligibility remaining.

Kelly has posted consecutive 8-5 seasons that both ended with a bowl appearance. He recently received a two-year contract extension which will keep him with the Fighting Irish through the 2016 season.

Notre Dame's 2012 schedule will be more challenging than Kelly's first two. After opening in Dublin, Ireland, against Navy, the schedule includes Purdue, Michigan State, Michigan, Southern California and Stanford. There are also matchups against BYU, Oklahoma, Miami, Pitt, Boston College and Wake Forest.

Kelly received good news last month when two other players who might have bolted for the NFL decided to return to South Bend for another season: linebacker and leading tackler Manti Te'o and talented tight end Tyler Eifert.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-17-FBC-Notre-Dame-Kiel/id-dbcee6549a3c4296b709b88cc13d9477

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Our fundamental rights (Democracyforamerica)

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Get the Exclusive Details on the Grey's Anatomy-Private Practice Crossover (omg!)

If you haven't yet heard, Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice are doing another crossover this season, and TVGuide.com has the exclusive details on who's popping up where.

Exclusive: Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice doing another crossover

As we first reported, Private's Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) will venture up to Seattle Grace in the first hour of the crossover during Grey's. She'll plead with older brother Derek (Patrick Dempsey) and sister-in-law Lexie (Chyler Leigh) to help save the life of Erica (A.J. Langer), who, it was revealed in Thursday's episode of Private, is suffering from a serious ailment.

Next, Derek and Lexie are scheduled to appear in the Private hour of the crossover, but in a surprising twist, they won't be heading to Seaside Wellness. Instead, they'll stay put, and Cooper (Paul Adelstein), Charlotte (Kadee Strickland) and Erica's son Mason (Griffin Gluck) will make their way to Seattle Grace, which will become Ground Zero in the rush to save Erica.

Grey's Anatomy Scoop: MerDer happiness, a Cristina-Owen explosion and the alt-reality

The special crossover episodes of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice are slated to air Thursday, Feb. 16 beginning at 9/8c on ABC. Private Practice, which has regularly followed Grey's, will move to Tuesday nights at 10/9c once executive producer Shonda Rhimes' third drama Scandal debuts on Thursday, April 5 at 10/9c.

Related Articles on TVGuide.com

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Pirates attack Spanish navy ship off Somalia (AP)

MADRID ? Spain says pirates have attacked a Spanish navy warship off Somalia, drawing gunfire that reportedly left one dead and prompted a helicopter chase in which six attackers were arrested.

A Defense Ministry official says the assailants may have mistaken the 165-meter (540-foot) ship Patino for a freighter in the attack before dawn Thursday.

The Patino is part of an European Union flotilla fighting piracy in the Indian Ocean.

The ministry said in a statement that the detainees had confirmed a colleague was killed, and his body thrown overboard.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with department rules.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120112/ap_on_re_eu/piracy

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Pacquiao camp: No fight with Mayweather on May 5

MANILA, Philippines (AP) ? Manny Pacquiao's camp says there is no economic sense in setting up a bout with Floyd Mayweather on May 5 after the unbeaten American publicly challenged the Filipino champion via Twitter.

Pacquiao's financial adviser Michael Koncz told The Associated Press on Thursday that a 45,000-seat boxing arena being built in Las Vegas won't be finished before the end of May and staging the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight in a smaller venue is "foolish from an economic standpoint."

Mayweather challenged and taunted Pacquiao to a May 5 bout in a tweet on Tuesday.

"Manny Pacquiao I'm calling you out let's fight May 5th and give the world what they want to see," he tweeted.

Mayweather is available for a fight in May at the MGM Grand Garden after a judge agreed last week to postpone his jail sentence for domestic violence until June. Mayweather was sentenced to 87 days in jail, but likely will serve less time.

The MGM Grand seats about 17,000, which could fetch around $20 million in sales, but the larger arena could raise an additional $30 million, Koncz said.

"Why would I tell Manny to fight on the 5th and throw away a percentage of 30 million? That's crazy," he said.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has told the Philippines' GMA television the only reason the fight won't happen is if there is an "economic problem."

He said the fight "could happen very, very easily" at the end of May ? enough time to build the outdoor arena "the fight so badly needs."

"I will also guarantee Manny's purse," he said. "In other words, Manny doesn't want to go into the ring and just fight out a percentage."

He said Mayweather is looking for "outside parties to guarantee his end of the purse."

"So, until he finds the angel, there is no fight," Arum said.

In a separate interview with GMA, Pacquiao said that if Mayweather agrees to a "50-50 sharing, there will be no problem."

"The purse is not the issue right now, the date is," Koncz said. "But we don't have a problem splitting it 50-50."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-12-Pacquiao-Mayweather/id-e1a0bd1677ec4f57bcafd3e9f2cbdc15

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The New Vizio PCs and Notebooks Are Worthy of Apple [Video]

I don't know how these will perform, but holy f*ck the new Vizio PCs and notebooks look amazingly good. Indeed, they may beat sleepy PC giants at their own game. Their designer must be a genetic mix of Jon Ive and Tony Stark. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/MrW8G3kYJgE/

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Samsung bringing its Series 7 Gamer to the US, we go hands-on (video)

We're going to get this out of the way up front: Samsung is showing off a lot of laptops this week at CES. Given how of the moment Ultrabooks are, we can see why Sammy would choose to highlight its Series 5 Ultras and redesigned Series 9. The emphasis on skinny PCs has been so fervent, in fact, that you might not have heard the company is bringing its first gaming laptop, the Series 7 Gamer, stateside. We're told Samsung is currently planning on offering just one configuration, with a Core i7 CPU, 2GB AMD Radeon HD6970M card, a 5,900mAh battery, JBL speakers and a 300-nit, 1080p display. For those who haven't seen this in action yet, it sports a backlit keyboard, with the all-important WASD keys conveniently highlighted in a different color, along with an analog dial for toggling power modes. On the outside, Samsung's logo glows with the help of an LED backlight, but disappears when the lid is shut. Expect it to hit this side of the Atlantic in April for $1,799, and in the meantime we've got hands-on photos and video, but sadly, no answer to that question for the ages: red or marigold yellow?

Gallery: Samsung Series 7 Gamer hands-on

Continue reading Samsung bringing its Series 7 Gamer to the US, we go hands-on (video)

Samsung bringing its Series 7 Gamer to the US, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/10/samsung-brings-its-series-7-gamer-to-the-us-we-go-hands-on-vid/

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