Jeff Clavier?s SoftTech VC Raises $55 Million For Fund III

The micro-VCs are growing up. Case in point: Jeff Clavier, who started out as an angel investor backing Web 2.0 companies and then transitioned his portfolio into a more formal venture firm, SoftTech VC. Clavier just finished raising a total of $55 million for SoftTech's third fund. SoftTech's main focus is on three areas: mobile, next-generation e-commerce, and cloud-based services.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/BVp-_mSXaTg/

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Taylor Armstrong Accuses Late Husband of Spying, Paranoia

It's been far too long since Taylor Armstrong bashed her late husband in public.

But, don't worry, the latest issue of Us Weekly contains excerpts from the reality star's disgusting upcoming memoir, "Hiding from Reality."

In the book, Taylor describes Russell as a paranoid stalker, someone who constantly asked her about past sexual partners and even posed as a potential employer in order to run a background check on his wife with her alma mater.

She even found a tape recorder under her home office desk once.

"For the next nearly six years, I always assumed I was being recorded in the car and at home," Taylor writes. "I was always careful to make sure the content of my conversations was very clear."

Russell supposedly defended his actions by saying he had "been burned before" and just wanted to get to know his wife as well as possible.

Years after that discovery, Armstrong added, "I went into my email settings and found that he had set it up so that all of my emails were forwarded to him the moment I received them."

Taylor says she never changed the setting or asked Russell about this issue, and it's not like we can get his take on the allegations.

What a sad, pathetic, money-hungry woman.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/taylor-armstrong-accuses-late-husband-of-spying-paranoia/

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World of Warcraft server blades help you save the children, feel slightly better about yourself

If you're going help save the world, you might as well get a little something for yourself at the same time, right? World of Warcraft fans listen up, because Blizzard wants you to help them help St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and it's willing to give you a fairly unique piece of WoW memorabilia for digging deep. The game developer is once again auctioning off World of Warcraft server blades. This time, the company's offering up 2,000 HP p-Class blades that were recently retired when it upgraded its backend hardware. The blades, which have gone up for auction on eBay, have been fitted with a clear case bearing the WoW logo and a plaque featuring a slew of developer signatures. One-hundred percent of proceeds will go to help the research hospital.

World of Warcraft server blades help you save the children, feel slightly better about yourself originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/25/world-of-warcraft-server-blades-help-you-save-the-children-feel/

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The Disappearing Actinides, and Other Frustrations from the Bottom Row of the Periodic Table of the Elements

I bought three copies of Sam Kean?s The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements. I left the first one in the seat-back pocket of Delta flight 188 from Beijing to Detroit. The second one is sandwiched between ROCK and GEM and The Poisoner?s Handbook on an end table in my living room. The third is a Kindle edition that I purchased so that I could quickly search the text.

When I started reading my first copy of The Disappearing Spoon at 2 am local time in a Beijing hotel room, I was fascinated. I followed Kean readily into the introduction, beginning what I could only imagine would be a tantalizing journey through the periodic table.

I signed on for the prerequisite section ORIENTATION: COLUMN BY COLUMN, ROW BY ROW. We thought back to our first encounters with the periodic table, commiserated about high school exams, and pictured the blank table as a castle. We quickly moved on through our tour?mercury, bromine, top to bottom, east to west, periodic trends! And then, the F-shell elements! Lanthanides, lanthanides, lanthanides, atomic structure, Goeppert-Mayer, the end?! Where are the actinides, my beloved actinides?

It?s ok, I thought, it?s cool. A small oversight. I?m sure he?ll mention the actinides in the text. He must, I mean, really, how can you write about elemental hard-hitters like Marie Curie and Glenn Seaborg without mentioning the actinides? Kean will undoubtedly affirm the four years that I?ve spent in graduate school double-gloving over plastic sleeves, wearing a dosimeter, and stepping onto a hand-and-foot monitor for the sake of better understanding those pesky actinides, right?!

Wrong. Rather than acknowledge the actinides as an independent collection of elements with intriguing properties that have been used to do very big things although they are very much still full of mystery, Kean lumps them together with the lanthanides. He uses the word ?actinide? exactly twice, but it is only used in conjunction with the word ?lanthanide? when pointing out the two rows at the bottom of the periodic table. Sure, he briefly mentions individual actinide elements?thorium, uranium, and plutonium mostly?in later chapters with some assessment of how they were discovered and how they?ve been used, but he never even dips his toes into the still relatively uncharted waters of the bottom row.

Maybe, though, it?s not his fault.

According to Thomas Albrecht-Schmitt, a professor at the University of Notre Dame who teaches a graduate level course on the chemistry of lanthanides and actinides, the treatment of the actinide elements in The Disappearing Spoon is comparable to the level of recognition that they receive in introductory level college chemistry courses.

?[Kean?s] book is symptomatic of how we educate people, even a chemistry major,? says Albrecht-Schmitt. ?In a freshman chemistry course sequence, students learn nothing about actinides, and all they are told about lanthanides is that they are similar to one another.?

In light of worldwide emphasis on the future of energy, crippling incidents like Fukushima, and policies that leave the U.S. wondering what to do with decades worth of waste, the lack of attention given to the bottom row of the periodic table is a bit troubling.

?It?s mind-boggling,? says Albrecht-Schmitt, ?that nearly 20 percent of the world?s energy is generated by uranium, but we don?t teach anything about uranium in freshman chemistry.?

The Reappearing Actinides: An Introduction

The modern study of actinides began more than 70 years ago reaching a climax during the Manhattan Project. In that time, they?ve played a vital role in weapons development, nuclear energy, and space exploration.

The most basic definition of the actinide series, comprised of elements 89 through 103, is that it results from the sequential filling of the 5f electron shell. All fifteen elements in the series are radioactive and have half-lives ranging from fractions of seconds to billions of years.

The radioactivity of the actinide elements is caused by their nuclear instability. In order to become more stable, the nucleus of an actinide element undergoes radioactive decay, releasing gamma rays, alpha particles, beta particles, or neutrons. This process of decay produces new daughter elements, which may be stable or radioactive. For example, the transformation of U-235 used in nuclear reactors results in the formation of radioactive, long-lived Np-237 through a process of neutron capture, gamma emission, and beta decay.

Understanding what may seem like the tiniest details about the actinides has important implications for environmental remediation of radioactive contaminants. Unlike the lanthanides, which occur primarily in the +3 oxidation state, the actinides generally have a large range of oxidation states?from +3 to +7. This becomes the most important distinction, a reason why the actinides must be studied independently of the lanthanides, in consideration of the environmental mobility of actinides.

If you would like to know more about what?s happening on the bottom row of the periodic table, check out recent research highlighted in Actinide Research Quarterly, a publication of the G. T. Seaborg Institute for Transactinium Science.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=d2075512a9fc98cf8f1c17329a5188e1

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BlackBerry Curve 9360 review

The BlackBerry Curve 8300 emerged as one of the best smartphone ideas of 2007. It pre-dated the first Android handset by a full year, and unlike the original iPhone, it was priced within reach of the average consumer. It introduced the masses to the possibilities of a connected and capable handset, and was the primary catalyst for the BlackBerry's meteoric rise to household name. With each subsequent iteration, however, the Curve remained a handset geared toward first-time smartphone buyers, and that axiom feels particularly true today.

RIM's BlackBerry Curve 9360 outed -- is this Apollo?

RIM launches new BlackBerry Curve (video)

Blackberry Curve 9360 hands-on

We're now presented with the Curve 9360 ($29), a device that's ostensibly hobbled in order to differentiate itself from RIM's higher-end offerings, most notably the Torch 9810 ($49), Torch 9860 ($99) and Bold 9900 ($199). Specifically, we refer to its lack of a touchscreen. The omission will certainly be a deal-breaker for some, but whether it causes the market to reject it as a whole remains unknown. For our part, we're most interested in the impact on the handset's usability and its relevance in an increasingly competitive environment. In other words, has RIM included enough improvements to keep its Curve franchise afloat, or will this iteration sink like a stone? Join us after the break, as we delve into the Curve 9360 and explore these finer details.

Gallery: BlackBerry Curve 9360 review

Continue reading BlackBerry Curve 9360 review

BlackBerry Curve 9360 review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/2XShiKRpeyc/

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Gingrich's tough talk on food stamps may backfire (reuters)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/190726132?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Adult stem cells could improve angioplasy outcome; Study to explore usage

ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2012) ? A Creighton University School of Medicine researcher has received a $3.3 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study what role adult stem cells might play in repairing damaged coronary arteries, a complication that often occurs in patients after they undergo angioplasty and stenting.

"Restenosis, a re-narrowing of coronary arteries in the heart, after balloon angioplasty and the placement of stents, is a serious problem. Drug-eluting stents can help reduce the occurrence of restenosis. However, there is a serious tradeoff.

Drug-eluting stents can lead to thrombosis (platelet deposits in the endothelial lining around the blood vessels that destroy the lining), which then requires longer periods of anti-platelet therapy. This therapy, in turn, can produce serious side effects, including nosebleed, upset stomach, nausea and diarrhea," said Devendra Agrawal, Ph.D., principal investigator and a professor of biomedical sciences, internal medicine and medical microbiology and immunology.

For the study, Agrawal and his co-investigators, Creighton cardiologist Michael Del Core and pathologist William Hunter will deliver adult stem cells (autologous mesenchymal stem cells), together with a novel gene, at the site of an interventional procedure in the coronary arteries of a pig model.

The goal is to determine whether the administration of adult stem cells, along with the gene therapy, is superior to using drug-eluting stents following angioplasty, said Agrawal, holder of The Peekie Nash Carpenter Endowed Chair in Medicine. If successful, he added, the treatment could even eliminate the need for stents.

Recent research has shown that angioplasty and stenting -- commonly used to open narrowed coronary arteries -- are not as effective as once thought.

In fact, a study involving more than 15,000 patients and published Nov. 28 online by the Archives of Internal Medicine, shows that it can even do more harm than good in some patients. According to the study, nearly one in 10 patients undergoing coronary angioplasty was readmitted to a hospital within 30 days, and these patients were at higher risk of death within one year.

With angioplasty, a catheter-guided balloon is inserted to open a narrowed coronary artery. A wire mesh stent is typically implanted during the procedure to keep the artery open.

Eleven to18 percent of all patients experience restenosis or a re-narrowing of the artery within three-four years, said Agrawal.

This is the second grant Agrawal has received in recent months to explore alternatives to stenting. The first grant totaled $2.58 million over four years.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120123133644.htm

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Security in Tibetan region tightened, wounded hide (AP)

BEIJING ? About 30 Tibetans injured after Chinese police fired into a crowd of protesters in a restive southwestern region were seeking shelter Tuesday in a monastery while military forces surrounded the building, a Tibetan monk said.

Chinese authorities said Monday's unrest was caused by a "mob" and that overseas advocacy groups were twisting the truth about what happened in order to undermine the government.

The United States, which will host China's Vice President Xi Jinping at the White House next month, expressed grave concern at reports that security forces in Sichuan province opened fire on protesters, killing some and injuring others.

The violence in Luhuo county in the politically sensitive Ganzi prefecture of Sichuan comes amid high tensions after at least 16 Buddhist monks, nuns and other Tibetans self-immolated in the past year. Most have chanted for Tibetan freedom and the return of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled to India amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

A monk from Luhuo county's Shouling monastery, one of the most famous monasteries in the region, told The Associated Press by phone that 33 wounded people were being cared for in a clinic within the religious compound. At least 50 military vehicles were parked outside the monastery, he said.

"They want to take the injured people away but we won't let them because we don't trust them, we don't know what will happen to them," said the monk, who would not give his name out of fear of government retaliation. He said the monks worried about the massive security response.

"We are all in the monastery. Without the local residents around, the monks don't dare to go out," he said.

Accounts of Monday's violence differ, and independent confirmation is impossible due to a heavy security presence and lack of access to outsiders. Tibet activist groups said police opened fire on thousands of peaceful protesters, while the Chinese government says a far smaller number of Tibetans and police clashed after the Tibetans attacked a police station and smashed cars.

The monk at the Shouling monastery told the AP that the protesters had been peaceful until police fired into the crowd, killing one man. "When it all started we were only standing in the streets shouting slogans," he said. After police opened fire, the Tibetans responded by smashing police cars and windows, he said. But he rejected official accounts that five police were also injured in the clash.

He said Tibetans were frustrated by the government's tight restrictions on their religious practices.

"The Chinese government says we have religious freedom but we have no freedom at all. If we did, then they would not be talking badly about the Dalai Lama. They say you cannot listen to the Dalai Lama, if we have pictures of the Dalai Lama we have to take them down," he said. "This really hurts our feelings; they hurt our self-esteem."

The London-based International Campaign for Tibet said three Tibetans were killed and nine wounded, while another group, Free Tibet, said one died and up to 30 others were shot and wounded in Luhuo, also known as Draggo in Tibetan.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei slammed such groups, accusing them of exaggeration. Hong said order has been restored after one Tibetan died and four others were injured, and that five police were also wounded.

"Overseas forces of 'Tibet independence' have always fabricated rumors and distorted the truth to discredit the Chinese government with issues involving Tibet," Hong said in remarks carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.

Xinhua said more than 100 people, including monks, some armed with knives and stones, gathered to attack a police station after hearing rumors that three monks would set themselves on fire. They smashed two police vehicles and two fire engines and stormed shops, it said.

Ganzi is a rugged, deeply Buddhist region filled with monasteries that has been at the center of dissent for years. It is among the traditionally Tibetan areas of Sichuan province and other parts of western China that have been closed to outsiders for months amid a massive security presence.

Many Tibetans resent Beijing's heavy-handed rule and the large-scale migration of China's ethnic Han majority to the Himalayan region. While China claims Tibet has been under its rule for centuries, many Tibetans say the region was functionally independent for most of that time.

In a statement Tuesday, U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Maria Otero expressed grave concern over the latest violence, and urged China's government to address "counterproductive policies" in Tibetan areas that have created tensions and threatened Tibetans' religious, cultural and linguistic identity.

She also called on China to resume talks with the Dalai Lama or his representatives over Tibetan grievances.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. has always been clear with China about its concerns for the human rights of Tibetans and others. She said the U.S. would "just as clear" when Vice President Xi visits next month.

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.

____

Gillian Wong can be reached on http://twitter.com/gillianwong

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_re_as/as_china_tibet

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Mexico officials: 'Chapo' aide killed in gunfight

MEXICO CITY (AP) ? Members of a Mexican army special forces unit fatally shot a high-ranking aide to the country's most-wanted drug dealer in a gunfight in the northern state of Durango, officials said Monday.

Luis Alberto Cabrera Sarabia was responsible for the operations of Guzman's Sinaloa Cartel in Durango and part of the neighboring state of Chihuahua, army spokesman Gen. Ricardo Trevilla said.

The army says Sarabia is know as "The Architect," and was named to the role after the December arrest of his brother Felipe Cabrera Sarabia, or "The Engineer."

Sinaloa gunmen traded fire with troops during the operation to arrest Luis Cabrera Sarabia on Friday. One of the gunmen was slain and 11 others were captured. Four soldiers were hurt in the gunfight.

Mexican officials said that another high-ranking member of the Sinaloa cartel, Fidel Mancinas Franco, was arrested in the northern state of Sonora on Saturday. Mancinas had been extorting money from immigrants seeking to travel to the United States, they said. Mancinas is wanted in the U.S. in connection with the deaths of 11 migrants during a car crash in Texas in 2009, officials said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-23-LT-Drug-War-Mexico/id-57572f297af84d3880d723a803bfffd0

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Shannen Doherty: "My Heart Goes Out" to Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian's brief marriage to Kris Humphries has been the topic of much public ridicule, but former Beverly Hills, 90210 actress Shannen Doherty completely empathizes with the Keeping Up the Kardashians star. Doherty, 40, has experienced two short-lived marriages, and she praises Kardashian for having the strength to extricate herself from a failing relationship.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/shannen-doherty-empathizes-kim-kardashian/1-a-421222?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Ashannen-doherty-empathizes-kim-kardashian-421222

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Tracy Morgan of '30 Rock' collapses at Sundance (AP)

PARK CITY, Utah ? Comedian and "30 Rock" cast member Tracy Morgan said he will be back at work Tuesday after being hospitalized while attending the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

Morgan's publicist, Lewis Kay, said Monday that the actor suffered from exhaustion and altitude when he collapsed Sunday night in Park City, where the elevation is 7,000 feet.

Morgan posted a comment Monday on Twitter that the high altitude "shook up this kid from Brooklyn."

"Superman ran into a little kryptonite," he quipped.

He also said on Twitter that he would be back to work Tuesday on "30 Rock."

Ron Nyswaner, co-director of the Sundance film "Predisposed," in which the actor stars, said Morgan's collapse resulted from "altitude sickness combined with his diabetes. And he hadn't eaten. He hadn't had enough water."

Kay said hospital officials report no drugs or alcohol were found in Morgan's system.

Morgan had been attending an event for the Creative Coalition at which he had just received an award.

In "Predisposed," which stars Jesse Eisenberg and Melissa Leo, Morgan plays a drug dealer caught up in the push-and-pull between a piano prodigy and his troubled mother.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_en_mu/us_film_sundance_tracy_morgan

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Colts owner tweets: Coach to be picked next week (AP)

INDIANAPOLIS ? Colts owner Jim Irsay says the Indianapolis team expects to decide on a new head coach next week.

Irsay made the announcement on his Twitter account Saturday.

Irsay's tweet read: "The (hash)1 pick debate will rage on,what a great year to have it..the HC search is wide ranging n thorough,decision by mid 2 late next week."

The Colts fired coach Jim Caldwell on Tuesday after three seasons. The team went to the Super Bowl during Caldwell's first year, but finished a dismal 2-14 this season.

The day after they locked up the No. 1 overall draft pick, Irsay fired team vice chairman Bill Polian and his son, general manager Chris.

The Colts played the season without Peyton Manning, who had his third neck surgery in September.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_colts_coach_irsay

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Will Type For Food: Communications devolution

Seeing an e-reader on the train the other day, I was inspired with an overwhelming desire not to get one. No surprises there as I am an old grouch in a younger person's body, and I have that inspiration almost every day, but seriously, why buy them? Because you can't get a paper book with buttons on it? If I had a book like that, I'd spend all my time changing channels and never bother actually reading a book, which would somewhat defeat the purpose, old bean.

It's getting harder to keep up with the latest thing in the world of stuff. we don't just have to deal with the communications revolution, but the communications insurrection that happened after the first communications revolution, and then the communications putsch that happened after the communications insurrection, and then the communications coup, and the ongoing communications civil war, and so on, and so on. If I had kept up with all the things I was meant to keep up with in the thirty odd years that I have been on this earth, I would now be in possession of not only a laptop, and a blog, and an email, and a mobile phone, and a television, but I would also have an iPod, an iPad, an iBook, a video player, a cassette deck, a tape answering machine, a Super 8 player, a twitter account, a tumblr account, a fax machine, a Nintendo, an Atari, a Commodore 64, a Kodak camera, a ham radio set, a UHF, several phrase books of Japanese-English, French-English, Auslan-English, and possibly a set of message flags, a pigeon farm, and a telegraph machine. What would I do with all those things? I don't even want a bloody NBN, which Stephen Conroy keeps threatening me with.*

I mean, it's all a bit much for me. When I was a kid, communications was simple: the phone would ring, you would race your brothers to get it, and wrestle it out of their hands before shouting

HELLOTWOOHONEFOURONESIX!

And waiting for the lovely connection ladies on the other end to ask you nicely if your parents were around.** Now that is what communications should be about, ladies and gentlemen. Why did things ever change?

*Should be another ten years or so before it arrives anyway, there is that at least.

**Yes, we had a telephone exchange in Balranald. I guess we must have been one of the last places in Australia to get a wired up properly.

Source: http://willtypeforfood.blogspot.com/2012/01/communications-devolution.html

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The Engadget Show is live tonight with Red Cameras, MakerBot and the coolest gadgets of CES!

Are you ready for this? We sure are. We're back from CES, just slightly worse for wear, and we've got a lot to discuss. We're going to kick off the first Engadget Show of 2012 with a parade of some of last week's hottest gadgets. We'll also be taking a look at Apple's new education initiative, giving you a behind the scenes tour of Engadget's CES trailer and taking you straight to the show floor. MakerBot's Bre Pettis will be popping in to discuss the company's new Replicator 3D printer and we'll be getting some serious hands-on time with the latest camera from Red. Also, musical guest, Brooklyn's Ducky and surprises galore! Keep your browser locked here and we'll see you at 6PM ET sharp.


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The Engadget Show is live tonight with Red Cameras, MakerBot and the coolest gadgets of CES! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/d7GoqHWkHxM/

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Nike's Fuelband Is an Awesome Fitness Wristband for Your Entire Life [Video]

Nike+ was a super sweet tool for runners to keep track of their workouts. But what about the rest of your life? What if Nike+ could keep track of that? That's what the brand new Nike+ Fuelband, an evolution of Nike+ in a simple Livestrong-styled wristband, tries to do. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/d7xStW-8nYo/

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After Laying Off 60 People, RueLaLa Raises $22 Million

Members-only shopping site RueLaLa, a former subsidiary of GSI Commerce (before the eBay acquisition) just cut roughly 60 positions from its workforce of 550 employees, but an SEC filing published yesterday afternoon reveals that the flash sales company also recently completed a $22 million financing round. UPDATE: The company has informed us that the funding is not new. The SEC filing shows the valuation of stock options already granted to parties. RueLaLa was previously part of Retail Convergence, Inc, a company that was acquired by GSI Commerce back in 2009. The Gilt Groupe rival, which is still 30 percent owned by eBay, is based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/tVQhJmtEL0M/

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Protest exposes Silicon Valley-Hollywood rivalry

This screen shot shows the blacked-out Wikipedia website, announcing a 24-hour protest against proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress, intended to protect intellectual property that critics say could facilitate censorship, referred to as the "Stop Online Piracy Act," or "SOPA," and the "Protect IP Act," or "PIPA." (AP Photo/Wikipedia)

This screen shot shows the blacked-out Wikipedia website, announcing a 24-hour protest against proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress, intended to protect intellectual property that critics say could facilitate censorship, referred to as the "Stop Online Piracy Act," or "SOPA," and the "Protect IP Act," or "PIPA." (AP Photo/Wikipedia)

This screen shot shows the home page Google.com. A campaign whose backers include tech heavyweights like Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. has successfully portrayed the bills _ the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act _ as an attack on a free and open Internet rather than a way to protect the jobs of Americans in the movie and music industries, in a protest Wenesday, Jan. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Google.com)

Demonstrators protest in front of the building housing the New York offices of U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kristen Gilliband, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. January 18 is a date that will live in ignorance, as Wikipedia started a 24-hour blackout of its English-language articles, joining other sites in a protest of pending U.S. legislation aimed at shutting down sites that share pirated movies and other content. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian addresses a protest in front of the building housing the New York offices of U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kristen Gilliband, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. January 18 is a date that will live in ignorance, as Wikipedia started a 24-hour blackout of its English-language articles, joining other sites in a protest of pending U.S. legislation aimed at shutting down sites that share pirated movies and other content. Reddit.com shut down its social news service for 12 hours. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Demonstrators protest in front of the building housing the New York offices of U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kristen Gilliband, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. January 18 is a date that will live in ignorance, as Wikipedia started a 24-hour blackout of its English-language articles, joining other sites in a protest of pending U.S. legislation aimed at shutting down sites that share pirated movies and other content. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? In a move that heightens the growing tension between Silicon Valley and Hollywood, Wikipedia and other websites went dark Wednesday in protest of two congressional proposals intended to thwart the online piracy of copyrighted movies and TV programs.

The web-based encyclopedia is part of a loose coalition of dot-coms and large technology companies that fear Congress is prepared to side with Hollywood and enact extreme measures ? possibly including the blocking of entire websites? to stop the online sharing and unauthorized use of Hollywood productions.

The fight will test which California-based industry has the most sway in Washington.

For now, Silicon Valley appears to have the upper hand. Supporters of the legislation ? called the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect Intellectual Property Act in the Senate ? say the bills are aimed at protecting jobs in the movie and music industries. But a campaign including tech heavyweights such as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. has successfully portrayed the bills as an attack on a free and open Internet.

"It has nothing to do with stolen songs or movies," said Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn.org, which is participating in the blackout. Ruben says tougher legislation ? even directed overseas ? could make domestic cultural commentators more prone to legal attack.

Rather than showing encyclopedia articles, Wikipedia displayed a blacked-out page describing the protest and offering more information on the bills. Many articles were still viewable on cached pages.

Reddit.com shut down its social news service for 12 hours. Other sites made their views clear without cutting off services. Google blacked out the logo on its home page, directing people to a page where they could add their names to a petition.

The one-day outage was timed to coincide with key House and Senate committee hearings as they prepare to send the bills to the full floor for debate.

However, sponsor Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, sought last week to remove a controversial provision from the House bill that could force Internet service providers to interfere with the way Web addresses work for foreign sites deemed dedicated to piracy. He postponed work on the measure until February.

Critics believe such tinkering with core Internet technology treads into dangerous territory that could lead to online censorship. It might also give hackers a new way to wreak havoc.

The White House raised concerns that the bills could stifle innovation. Over the weekend, the Obama administration reacted to two online petitions, saying it "will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet."

At the same time, the administration called on all sides to "pass sound legislation this year that provides prosecutors and rights holders new legal tools to combat online piracy originating beyond U.S. borders."

That nuanced stance is President Barack Obama's attempt at "threading the needle" between two important constituencies as he seeks re-election in November, said Jeffrey Silva, a technology policy analyst at Medley Global Advisors in Washington.

On the one hand, his administration has defended a free, open Internet as it watched repressive regimes fall in the Middle East with help from social media such as Twitter. It has also been a proponent of the concept of "net neutrality," which prevents Internet service providers from slowing online traffic that comes from file-sharing sites known to trade in pirated content.

On the other hand, Obama and other Democrats have gone to Hollywood dozens of times to raise campaign funds over the years.

"The administration is trying to fight to protect the Internet space," Silva said. "But at the same time, it doesn't want to disenfranchise Hollywood and the business community."

Indeed, behind the protests and public posturing, both Hollywood and Silicon Valley spend generously to lobby causes in Washington. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the movie, television and music industries spent a combined $91.7 million on lobbying efforts in 2011, compared with the computer and Internet industry's $93 million.

In the 2012 election cycle, the movie, television and music industry offered up $7.7 million in direct campaign contributions to congressional candidates. The computer and Internet industry contributed $6.6 million.

Despite the uproar on websites and blogs, PIPA remains firmly in play. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said Tuesday that he intends to push the bill toward a floor vote on Jan. 24. He said much of the criticism of the bill is "flatly wrong."

But amid the high-tech campaign against the bills, several lawmakers came out in opposition. At least three Senate Republicans who had previously cosponsored the Senate bill ? Orrin Hatch of Utah, Roy Blunt of Missouri and John Boozman of Arkansas ? issued statements Wednesday saying they were withdrawing their support.

It remains to be seen whether the two industries can come to the table and negotiate a compromise.

"There are good companies, and then there are companies simply out to preserve the Wild West, free-to-steal business model," said Recording Industry Association of America CEO Cary Sherman. He expects to know "within the next few weeks" whether the legislation can survive.

Lawmakers may have a personal incentive to keep online piracy on the nation's political radar, said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a non-partisan government-accountability watchdog. If the issue stays alive through the current election cycle, it may help bring in campaign contributions from high-tech donors and Hollywood later this year.

The issue "becomes an opportunity for raising more money from these groups," Wertheimer said. "If you're into an important issue and money is flowing in on both sides, then both sides can up the ante."

____

Congressional reporter Jim Abrams contributed to this report from Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-18-Wikipedia-Silicon%20Valley%20Versus%20Hollywood/id-bab0f43f58ad40c395c2028839ae09a6

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Android Central 84: CES wrap-up, in-car Android, the trouble with Lightsquared

Podcast MP3 URL: 

http://traffic.libsyn.com/androidcentral/acpc84.mp3

Thing 1: CES recap

• Android Central staff's best of CES picks
• All of our CES coverage

Thing 2: 11 billion downloads, Google Wallet still alive

• Google: Quarter-billion Android devices worldwide, 11 billion downloads
• Google: We will continue to invest in Google Wallet

Thing 3: Ice Cream Sandwich updates

• Ice Cream Sandwich for the Motorola Xoom appears to be rolling out now to everyone
• The complete Motorola Xoom Wifi Ice Cream Sandwich changelog

Thing 4: Other random stuff

• HTC confirms it's pulling Carrier IQ from Sprint ROMs in future updates
• LightSquared claims government testing 'rigged' by GPS industry insiders
• Android A to Z
• Calling all Developers: Want to create the next generation of the Android Central App?
• Editorial: Everybody always is working on better battery life

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/xnYErzBzz24/story01.htm

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