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Biden, Romney spar like it's fall 2012 (AP)

TILTON, N.H. ? It's an opening salvo of the presidential campaign, minus actual presidential nominees.

Vice President Joe Biden unleashed a biting critique of Mitt Romney's policies Friday and the Republican came swiftly back at him ? a full-contact preview of what the general election might look like should Romney win the GOP nomination to challenge President Barack Obama.

All this, before a vote is cast in the Republican race, The Iowa caucuses, looming Jan. 3, are the first step in the voting to pick a Republican nominee.

In an opinion piece published in The Des Moines Register, Biden portrayed the Republican frontrunner as the purveyor of failed, retreaded economic ideas. Romney shot back that Biden and Obama live an economic "fantasyland" out of touch with the real world.

Biden's jabs mark a major escalation in Obama's re-election campaign and refocus his political team on Romney, the former Massachusetts governor whom Obama advisers have long considered his most likely opponent. And it switches Obama away from his just-concluded tax cut victory over House Republicans to the GOP presidential field just 12 days before the Iowa caucuses.

"Romney appears satisfied to settle for an economy in which fewer people succeed, while the majority of Americans are left to tread water or fall behind," Biden wrote.

The Obama team may be betting on Romney, but his Republican rivals were conceding no such ground.

Campaigning in South Carolina, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich derided Romney as a "Massachusetts moderate trying to come down and pretend to be a conservative. But I'm not going to say anything stronger than that. I'm going to focus on positive things."

Asked later how that wasn't being negative, Gingrich said: "I didn't criticize him. I described him accurately."

And he swiped at rival Ron Paul for wanting to shut overseas military bases, a stark departure from the Republican mainstream and one not bound to sit well in pro-military South Carolina. "The only person I know who is for a weaker military than Barack Obama is Ron Paul," Gingrich told 300 people outside a Columbia restaurant. "If we become isolationist, the world would become a more dangerous place overnight."

Rep. Michele Bachmann's campaign said Friday she would start radio and TV commercials in Iowa, her first since her straw poll victory in the state in August. In them, she stresses her Christian values and that she's "an Iowa girl from Waterloo."

Biden's words, meanwhile, summed up a running story line about Romney that Obama's campaign and the Democratic Party have been refining for months. The piece also was a direct rebuttal to Romney's recent claim he wants "an opportunity society" versus what he called Obama's "entitlement society."

Biden reiterated a major theme of Obama's re-election effort, one the president spelled out in a recent speech in Kansas where he declared that the middle class was at a make-or-break moment. In taking on Romney, Biden defined "opportunity" in his own terms.

"We believe deeply in opportunity ? that if you work hard and play by the rules, no opportunity should be out of reach," he wrote. "This is a fundamentally different vision than what the other side has proposed."

Romney, speaking at the Tilt'n Diner, quickly countered that it was Obama who is hurting the country and expressed astonishment that Biden would have the "chutzpah ... the delusion" to write such a piece.

"This president and his policies have made it harder on the American people and on the middle class," he said. "And I don't think they get it. I don't think they understand from fantasyland what's happening in real America. They need to get out to diners like this."

The timing, placement and direct response to Romney represented a remarkable early volley from the Obama camp, using the most potent voice next to the president himself to set a new signpost on the re-election season. And it signaled an aggressive strategy to challenge his GOP opposition and engage even though the Republican nomination could remain unsettled for months.

In the opinion piece, Biden said Romney's proposals for the economy "would actually double down on the policies that caused the greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression and accelerated a decades-long assault on the middle class."

"Romney also misleadingly suggests that the president and I are creating an `Entitlement Society,' whereby government provides everything for its people without regard to merit, as opposed to what he calls an Opportunity Society,' where everything is merit-based and every man is left to fend for himself," Biden wrote.

In essentially placing its bets on Romney, the Obama camp elevated his stature in the race, particularly in Iowa where he is running neck-and-neck with Gingrich and Texas congressman Ron Paul.

Romney was clearly ready ? and eager ? to engage with the White House. While he generally has to be asked, or even pressed, to criticize Gingrich, he hit back at Biden at the first opportunity.

"I think they realize what's coming," he said. "I hope they're right. I hope I'm the nominee."

Romney aides said campaign days like this help him against his GOP rivals, positioning him as the candidate best able to take on Obama in the fall and addressing a top Republican goal: selecting a nominee who is electable against the president.

The Obama campaign also chose Iowa to deliver the Biden message because it is an epicenter of national politics and where it was sure to get intense attention.

Moreover, Iowa is a general election swing state that Democrat Al Gore won in 2000 but President George W. Bush won in 2004. Obama beat Republican John McCain in the state in 2008 by 8 percentage points. Biden's message clearly aimed for the state's general election voters as well.

Earlier this week, Romney accused Obama of deepening the economic crisis and backing policies that would redistribute wealth instead of creating equal opportunity for people to do well.

Romney said his policies would turn the U.S. into an "opportunity society" while Obama's vision for an "entitlement society" would make more people dependent on government welfare.

"The only entitlement we believe in is an America where if you work hard, you can get ahead," Biden wrote in the op-ed.

Biden's piece hinted at another line of attack on Romney ? that the former governor is a man of wealth and privilege. Biden, in his piece, stressed his own family's working class roots and how his father's pride was "put to the test when he found himself struggling to make ends meet."

Romney, by contrast, is the son of former American Motors Corp. chairman and Michigan Gov. George Romney. Romney also made his own fortune as a venture capitalist, a point Obama's Democratic surrogates have used to portray Romney as out of touch and elitist.

_____

Hunt reported from New Hampshire; Kuhnhenn reported from Washington. AP White House Correspondent Ben Feller and Associated Press writers Will Lester, Brian Bakst, Seanna Adcox and Shannon McCaffrey contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111223/ap_on_el_ge/us_biden_romney

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In Jakarta, it?s hip to like history

History tours are a part of a broader effort to get people to appreciate - and invest in - Jakarta's Old City.

? A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
Indonesian youths with a penchant for the past have injected new life into Jakarta?s Old City. Once home to the city?s main port and 17th-century Dutch settlements, the area known then as Batavia is now abuzz with teens who come to ride vintage bicycles, visit the history museum, or snap pictures in front of several crumbling colonial facades.

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Groups such as the Sahabat Museum, an informal community of history aficionados, lead walking tours of the area. Sahabat Museum has organized nearly 100 tours around Indonesia since starting in 2003, but founder Ade Purnama says the Old City remains a favorite among youths.

?Because they live here, they grew up here, and they want to know the city?s history,? he says, noting that the last tour he organized there drew roughly 1,000 people.

Many participants come to enhance their knowledge of the country?s past. But Mr. Purnama sees the tours as part of a broader effort to get people to appreciate Jakarta.

Many buildings in the Old City remain in ruin. Their owners say they won?t invest in rehabilitation until the government enacts a widespread revitalization program.

In the meantime, Indonesians are finding other ways of bringing new life to the area. The Indonesian Heritage Society leads tours of historical sites, such as an old bank, a soy sauce factory, and the former homes of Dutch elite, as does a group called Cultural Explorer.

?This is an interesting way to learn about our city,? says Bulan Mendota, who was on a recent Sahabat Museum tour.

By learning about Jakarta, says Purnama, youths will also learn how to make it better.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/7j5IVnw_nYI/In-Jakarta-it-s-hip-to-like-history

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Gaunt George Michael says "fortunate to be here" (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? A gaunt and breathless George Michael tearfully thanked his doctors and fans on Friday for seeing him through a "touch and go" battle with pneumonia.

A thin and visibly weak Michael told reporters outside his home in north London that he wasn't supposed to speak for very long and was still recovering from a tracheotomy.

"I got streptococca-something...It's a form of pneumonia and they spent three weeks keeping me alive basically," Michael said of the doctors in the Austrian hospital where the singer has been receiving treatment since he fell ill last month.

"I'm very weak but I feel amazing," he said as he stood in front of a lit-up Christmas tree.

The 48-year-old former Wham! frontman, who went on to pursue a successful solo career, was taken ill in the Austrian capital and diagnosed with severe pneumonia last month.

"It was basically by far the worst month of my life but I'm incredibly, incredibly fortunate to be here," he said. "If I wasn't spiritual enough before the last four, five weeks then I certainly am now."

British press reports said that members of his family had travelled to be by his side at Vienna General Hospital, but Michael said he had played down reports of his illness during his hospital stay for the sake of his fans.

"I didn't want to worry my fans too much and I'm really sorry that I couldn't contact them in any way before now but I was really not in any state to," he said.

Michael had been in the middle of a European tour when he became ill and was forced to cancel a string of dates but, speaking for the first time since he fell ill, he promised to play to every fan who had bought a ticket.

He added that he also wanted to hold a special show for the Austrian doctors who treated him.

"I've spent the last 10 days since I woke up literally thanking people for saving my life, which is something I've never had to do before and never want to have to do again," he said, choking back the tears.

Asked if the experience had changed his life, he said: "Absolutely. I'm a new man."

After joking that he hoped reporters had enjoyed their mince pies, Michael said he couldn't speak any more because he was trying to get over the tracheotomy.

Born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, Michael burst on to the British pop scene in the early 80s as the lead singer of Wham!, which had a string of catchy hits including "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" and "Last Christmas."

He also found success as a solo artist with chart-toppers like "Careless Whisper" and "A Different Corner," and it was only a matter of time before he struck out alone.

His rich vein continued with the 1987 No. 1 "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" in which he performed with Aretha Franklin, one of his favorite artists.

The same year he released "Faith," an album which spawned a string of hit singles including "I Want Your Sex," "Faith" and "Father Figure" and earned the singer a Grammy.

It was his best-selling album, although he did top charts around the world with subsequent releases, enjoyed estimated career sales of 100 million records and amassed a personal fortune of 90 million pounds ($141 million).

When he was not hitting the airwaves with his music, Michael's personal life was regularly in the headlines, most notably in 1998 when he was arrested in California for "engaging in a lewd act" in a public toilet.

After the incident he spoke openly about his homosexuality, and courted controversy again by speaking out against the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Michael told Reuters in a 2005 interview that he was withdrawing from public life, but the following year he launched his first tour in 15 years.

He had a string of run-ins with British police for possession of narcotics, and was given a jail sentence last year for driving under the influence of cannabis.

Michael opened what was to be his final tour in Prague in August.

(Reporting by Michelle Martin, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111223/en_nm/us_georgemichael_britain_home

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'Nanoantennas' show promise in optical innovations

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Researchers have shown how arrays of tiny "plasmonic nanoantennas" are able to precisely manipulate light in new ways that could make possible a range of optical innovations such as more powerful microscopes, telecommunications and computers.

The researchers at Purdue University used the nanoantennas to abruptly change a property of light called its phase. Light is transmitted as waves analogous to waves of water, which have high and low points. The phase defines these high and low points of light.

"By abruptly changing the phase we can dramatically modify how light propagates, and that opens up the possibility of many potential applications," said Vladimir Shalaev, scientific director of nanophotonics at Purdue's Birck Nanotechnology Center and a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Findings are described in a paper to be published online Thursday (Dec. 22) in the journal Science.

The new work at Purdue extends findings by researchers led by Federico Capasso, the Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. In that work, described in an October Science paper, Harvard researchers modified Snell's law, a long-held formula used to describe how light reflects and refracts, or bends, while passing from one material into another.

"What they pointed out was revolutionary," Shalaev said.

Until now, Snell's law has implied that when light passes from one material to another there are no abrupt phase changes along the interface between the materials. Harvard researchers, however, conducted experiments showing that the phase of light and the propagation direction can be changed dramatically by using new types of structures called metamaterials, which in this case were based on an array of antennas.

The Purdue researchers took the work a step further, creating arrays of nanoantennas and changing the phase and propagation direction of light over a broad range of near-infrared light. The paper was written by doctoral students Xingjie Ni and Naresh K. Emani, principal research scientist Alexander V. Kildishev, assistant professor Alexandra Boltasseva, and Shalaev.

The wavelength size manipulated by the antennas in the Purdue experiment ranges from 1 to 1.9 microns.

"The near infrared, specifically a wavelength of 1.5 microns, is essential for telecommunications," Shalaev said. "Information is transmitted across optical fibers using this wavelength, which makes this innovation potentially practical for advances in telecommunications."

The Harvard researchers predicted how to modify Snell's law and demonstrated the principle at one wavelength.

"We have extended the Harvard team's applications to the near infrared, which is important, and we also showed that it's not a single frequency effect, it's a very broadband effect," Shalaev said. "Having a broadband effect potentially offers a range of technological applications."

The innovation could bring technologies for steering and shaping laser beams for military and communications applications, nanocircuits for computers that use light to process information, and new types of powerful lenses for microscopes.

Critical to the advance is the ability to alter light so that it exhibits "anomalous" behavior: notably, it bends in ways not possible using conventional materials by radically altering its refraction, a process that occurs as electromagnetic waves, including light, bend when passing from one material into another.

Scientists measure this bending of radiation by its "index of refraction." Refraction causes the bent-stick-in-water effect, which occurs when a stick placed in a glass of water appears bent when viewed from the outside. Each material has its own refraction index, which describes how much light will bend in that particular material. All natural materials, such as glass, air and water, have positive refractive indices.

However, the nanoantenna arrays can cause light to bend in a wide range of angles including negative angles of refraction.

"Importantly, such dramatic deviation from the conventional Snell's law governing reflection and refraction occurs when light passes through structures that are actually much thinner than the width of the light's wavelengths, which is not possible using natural materials," Shalaev said. "Also, not only the bending effect, refraction, but also the reflection of light can be dramatically modified by the antenna arrays on the interface, as the experiments showed."

The nanoantennas are V-shaped structures made of gold and formed on top of a silicon layer. They are an example of metamaterials, which typically include so-called plasmonic structures that conduct clouds of electrons called plasmons. The antennas themselves have a width of 40 nanometers, or billionths of a meter, and researchers have demonstrated they are able to transmit light through an ultrathin "plasmonic nanoantenna layer" about 50 times smaller than the wavelength of light it is transmitting.

"This ultrathin layer of plasmonic nanoantennas makes the phase of light change strongly and abruptly, causing light to change its propagation direction, as required by the momentum conservation for light passing through the interface between materials," Shalaev said.

###

Purdue University: http://www.purdue.edu/

Thanks to Purdue University 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.

This press release has been viewed 14 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116284/_Nanoantennas__show_promise_in_optical_innovations

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kualalumpurnews: Indonesia keeps Jan palm oil, cocoa export tax unchanged http://t.co/odcuEW7Q

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Seeking to Circumvent Possible U.S. Trade Sanctions, China Buys Hawaiian Solar Company

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Chinese investment in the U.S. economy up to now has been primarily in the form of U.S. Treasury bills.
?
But, reading the U.S. press and conservative calls for punitive trade tariffs against China, Beijing?s investors have taken a leaf out of Tokyo?s 40 year-old playbook, when similar concerns were raised about Japanese imports. Four decades ago Japan cannily began not only to establish factories in the U.S. for its major U.S. exports, primarily automobiles, but began a cautious policy of investing in struggling U.S. companies, so if and when Congress got more xenophobic Japanese manufacturers could point out that trade barriers would harm American workers as well as Japanese ones.
?
The net result on punishing Japan with restrictive tariffs quickly became the daunting possibility of throwing U.S. workers into unemployment, then, as now, the third rail of American politics, and what Congressman want to be seen as increasing unemployment?
?
The above scenario is behind the recent acquisition by Tianwei New Energy Holdings Co., Ltd. (Tianwei) of Hawaii?s troubled Hoku Corporation, a solar energy product company, a leading provider of silicon wafers, photovoltaic (PV) cells, modules and systems.
?
Last month Tainwei announced the signing of a definitive reseller agreement establishing Tianwei Solar USA, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of, as the primary distributor of Tianwei New Energy's PV modules to the North American market.
?
On 1 December Tianwei started its polysilicon production via Hoku Corp. with an annual capacity of 2,500 tons. Last year China?s National Development and Reform Commission approved Tianwei purchasing 60 percent of Hoku Corp.?s outstanding shares.
?
According to Hoku Corp., ?During the three months ended September 30, 2011 Hoku Materials incurred an operating loss of $7.6 million,? as even as of ?September 30, 2011, Hoku Materials has capitalized $575.6 million related to construction costs for the Polysilicon Plant and had received $140 million in customer deposits as prepayments under long-term polysilicon supply agreements.?
?
Can you say cash flow problems?

Under the terms of the agreement, Hoku's newly formed subsidiary will market, distribute and sell Tianwei New Energy's full range of UL-listed PV modules in North America. Hoku established offices in Southern California for Tianwei Solar USA, Inc and will initially focus on developing key sales channels within the commercial and residential segments of the distributed generation solar market. Tianwei New Energy already has an established customer base in Europe, in 2010 delivering more than 200 megawatts of PV modules.

Spinning the news, Hoku Corp. CEO Scott Paul said, "We are extremely pleased to continue strengthening our relationship with Tianwei. This new PV products division represents the first of several steps forward in our continued expansion of Hoku's global market presence. It will provide a strong complement to our existing solar projects business, and we look forward to supplying Tianwei New Energy's modules to project developers, PV integrators and utility customers throughout North America."
?
Reciprocating the back rub, Tianwei general manager and now Hoku Corp. director Zhengfei Gao purred, "We recognize Hoku Solar's PV integration expertise, brand strength and market presence in the U.S. North America is an important, growing market in the solar industry, and Tianwei is very pleased to have Hoku leadership in our strategic North American expansion."
?
So, what has China bought?
?
Hoku Corp. consists of three business units: Hoku Materials, Hoku Solar, and Tianwei Solar USA, Inc., manufacturing polysilicon for the solar market from its plant currently under construction in Pocatello, Idaho and now Hoku Solar markets and sells PV modules manufactured by Tianwei New Energy.
?
And the future looks sunny. Tianwei chairman Ding Qiang said that Tianwei signed a distribution agreement with Hoku Corp. to be its distributor for its sales of modules not only in the U.S., but Canada and South American regions as well.
?
And Tainwei is already garnering allies. On 21 December, according to Ding, the U.S.-based Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy wrote to Hoku competitor solar-panel maker SolarWorld asking it withdraw its petition asking the American government to impose heavy tariffs on Chinese solar energy products for unfair trading practices, commenting, "By asking government to interfere and artificially increase the price will only hinder the deployment, cost thousands of jobs, reduce our energy security, and further negatively impact an already shaky economy."
?
Two months ago SolarWorld Industries America, an Oregon company, and six other undisclosed partners filed an appeal to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) alleging unfair Chinese business practices and the DOC replied in November that it would conduct an investigation to determine whether Chinese firms have been selling solar panels in the United States at unfair discounts and receiving illegal government subsidies and a ruling earlier this month by the International Trade Commission concluded that U.S. solar companies were being harmed by Chinese solar imports.
?
Interestingly, SolarWorld Industries America, the largest U.S. solar manufacturer, is now owned by a German company
Many energy analysts have commented that acquisitions of American companies provide a way for Chinese solar energy companies to avoid U.S. trade barriers.
?
Well, duh!
?
The question remains ? where were U.S. investors when Hoku Corp. was struggling?

By. John C.K. Daly of Oilprice.com

Source: http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Solar-Energy/Seeking-to-Circumvent-Possible-U.S.-Trade-Sanctions-China-Buys-Hawaiian-Solar-Company.html

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sarahposner: Catholic Group Blasts Cardinal's Comment Comparing Gay Rights Parade to KKK | Religion Dispatches http://t.co/bRW4lXSl

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Jon Huntsman Plays Piano on Late Show


In desperate need of a bump in the polls, Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman might consider making this a regular part of his campaign stops.

The former Utah Governor may trail frontrunners Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul where it counts - name recognition - but are any of them in a band?!

After sitting down with David Letterman last night, Huntsman sat in with the band on a rocking version of the Chuck Berry classic, "Johnny B. Goode." Really.

Watch him play the piano on The Late Show below!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/12/jon-huntsman-plays-piano-on-late-show/

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