US announcing talks with EU to limit space debris (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The United States is announcing talks with the European Union to set informal rules aimed at limiting debris in space that threatens satellites.

A senior U.S. official says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will announce the talks Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement.

The EU already has made public its own draft rules for operating in space. The U.S. official says the United States views that document as a starting point but would like to see changes. The United States also wants other countries, including Russia and China, involved.

U.S. and EU concerns were spurred by China's move to pulverize a disabled weather satellite in 2007. The test sent large amounts of debris into orbit.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_re_us/us_us_eu_space_junk

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'Hunger Games' Stars Answer More Of Your Questions!

Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth exclusively talk survival skills, accents and most challenging scenes.
By Kara Warner, with additional reporting by MTV UK

Liam Hemsworth, Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson in "The Hunger Games"
Photo: Lionsgate

As promised, we are back with more from our exclusive interviews with "Hunger Games" stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth — and all the questions were asked by you, the fans.

Last week, Lawrence, Hutcherson and Hemsworth revealed a few of the pranks pulled on set, as well as a preview of what the arena will look like onscreen. This second installment features talk about which actor is most like his or her character, details about the reaping and talk of real-life survival skills. (Minor spoilers ahead for those who haven't read Suzanne Collins' brilliant books!)

Be sure to check back here next week for part three of our interviews.

@RealOrNotReal: Who among the cast is most like their "Hunger Games" character?

Jennifer Lawrence: Josh. Josh is Peeta. He's charming, he's nice, he's very real and down to earth, he's not fake in any way. He just can charm anyone and anything.

Josh Hutcherson: Oh, God, this is going to sound so stupid: Me, because I have literally never read a character, book or script or anything that has a character in it I connected with more than Peeta. I feel like so much of who I am is Peeta. It drove me crazy during the audition process, because I was like, "This is so me, it hurts. If I don't get this, I'm not even good at being me, so now what am I? I have no idea what to do next."

@HGTribute_Manda: What was the most difficult scene to shoot?

Liam Hemsworth: The reaping stuff that we shot was pretty hard. I remember turning up to set the first day and looking out at the few hundred extras there — it looked like a prison camp. It looked so rough and really did look how I think it would be, and it was hot. It was some of the hottest weather I've ever shot in. We had extras collapsing because it was so hot out there. That was probably the hardest stuff to shoot for sure.

Lawrence: I don't know if I have a most difficult scene. Really, the physical scenes, the running. Katniss doesn't really stop running throughout the whole movie, so if I'm running up a mountain in a scene, that's what we shot all day, so by the time we started acting and talking, it was like a vacation.

@p1nklov3er: Is it hard to hide your accent?

Hemsworth: It gets easier and easier. I work with accent coaches a lot and try to do my best to get the Australian out of there. Australians grow up with a lot of American TV; we watch the same movies you watch, so it's not as alien for an Australian to do an American accent as it is for an American to do an Australian accent, because you guys don't grow up hearing our accents. It's in the back of your mind, but it's practice, practice, practice.

@eringabin: In a postapocalyptic world, what would your most valuable survival skill be?

Hutcherson: I think I'd be pretty good at building a fort. I have a lot of experience with that when I was a kid. I built a lot of forts back in the day, so I think my expertise would be in the architecture and design of our shelter.

@OttoRivera: Have you met Suzanne Collins?

Hemsworth: I haven't met her, but I've spoken to her on the phone a few times, and she's really, really lovely. She's obviously tremendously smart, and I love her books, so she's been a big part of collaborating on the script. ... I think everyone involved in the production wanted it to be true to the story, so she's been involved a lot.

@eringabin: Did you get any injuries during filming?

Hutcherson: Not anything too crazy in the injury department. There were the classic bumps and bruises from running through the woods and forest, the big fight scene at the end with myself and Katniss and Cato on top of the Cornucopia, which itself lends itself to having more injuries than other times, but it was pretty good all in all, nothing too serious.

All month long, the stars of "The Hunger Games" will be answering your Twitter questions, exclusively for MTV News. Check back every Thursday in January for more answers from Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth!

Check out everything we've got on "The Hunger Games."

For young Hollywood news, fashion and "Twilight" updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.

Related Videos

• The 'Hunger Games' Cast Answer Your Burning Twitter Questions

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677512/hunger-games-jennifer-lawrence-josh-hutcherson-liam-hemsworth-twitter.jhtml

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Add A Little Mayonnaise to Your Batter for Rich, Moist Chocolate Cake [Food Hacks]

If your chocolate cakes come out a little dry from time to time, the solution may be one of the most unexpected items in your fridge: a cup of mayonnaise. To some, it's an old baking trick that's been around longer than cake mixes, but to others, it's an unexpected addition that can add moistness and richness, even if it sounds a little gross.

The mayonnaise trick is actually an old one, so if you've been baking for a long time or learned from someone who's been baking for ages, you may know it already. Mayo is essentially oil, vinegar, and egg, and while you could just add an extra egg to try and get the same effect, The Kitchn points out that the oil makes the cake tender, the egg helps the batter retain moisture, and the acid in the vinegar really brings out the chocolate flavor.

They go to the step of suggesting you make your own mayonnaise, something we've suggested before, but of course, that's optional. Have you made a mayonnaise cake before, or does this just sound too way out there for you? Whatever you think, let's hear it in the comments below.

Try This! Put a Cup of Mayonnaise In Your Next Chocolate Cake | The Kitchn

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/LShXTYGdm-M/add-a-little-mayonnaise-to-your-batter-for-rich-moist-chocolate-cake

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Let Lee decode the 2012 campaign for you? (Balloon Juice)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/187983812?client_source=feed&format=rss

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June 6th 2012: IPv6 goes live

When Vint Cerf and his friends at DARPA concocted a system that allowed for 4.3 billion IP addresses, it was never conceived that everyone's computer would be able to access the internet -- before the age when your telephone, fridge and air conditioning unit would too. The IPv4 system officially ran out of addresses last year, but fortunately the moment was prepared for: June 8th 2011 was "World IPv6 Day," where a host of sites including Google, Bing and Facebook quietly tried out the new system for 24 hours to make sure it wouldn't cause the internet to explode. June 6th this year will see the final activation of the new network provision that has a capacity of around 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 unique addresses, which we figure will keep us going until Black Friday, at least.

June 6th 2012: IPv6 goes live originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/18/june-6th-2012-ipv6-goes-live/

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La Nina 'linked' to flu pandemics

16 January 2012 Last updated at 15:03 ET By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News

La Nina events may make flu pandemics more likely, research suggests.

US-based scientists found that the last four pandemics all occurred after La Nina events, which bring cool waters to the surface of the eastern Pacific.

In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they say that flu-carrying birds may change migratory patterns during La Nina conditions.

However, many other La Nina events have not seen novel flu strains spread around the world, they caution.

So while the climatic phenomenon may make a pandemic more likely, they say, it is not sufficient on its own - and may not be necessary either.

La Nina is the cold cousin of El Nino - the two collectively making up the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

"Certainly ENSO affects weather and precipitation and humidity around the world," said Jeffrey Shaman from Columbia University in New York.

"But the effects are very varied around the world - there's no coherent picture."

Nevertheless, the last four pandemics - the Spanish Flu that began in 1918, the Asian Flu of 1957, the Hong Kong Flu of 1958 and the swine flu of 2009 - were all preceded by periods of La Nina conditions.

What pandemics have in common is that they all feature novel strains of the virus to which people have not developed immunity.

Typically these are created when two existing strains infecting an animal such as a bird or a pig exchange genetic material.

The link to La Nina events is not clear. But recent research has shown that some wild birds' patterns of flights and stopovers during migrations, or moulting times, differ between El Nino and La Nina years.

"Our best guess is this brings together birds [in La Nina conditions] that don't otherwise mix, and that allows the genetic reassortment to take place," Professor Shaman told BBC News.

Yet the fact that many other La Nina periods have not been followed by a pandemic indicate that other factors must also be involved.

If the swine flu pandemic of 2009-10 was part of this pattern, the crossing of viral strains must have had something to do with birds as well as pigs.

As wild migratory birds will sometimes visit farms and as domestic flocks of ducks or chickens often live alongside pigs, especially in developing countries, this is quite feasible.

Professor Shaman cautions that the link is far from being firm enough that it could be used as a tool to forecast pandemics.

But the monitoring of birds, pigs, people and the genetics of the influenza virus have all been stepped up in response to recent outbreaks of both swine flu and bird flu.

And this, he believes, should in time show whether the theory is correct.

"Now we can look at viral gene flow in a number of birds, pigs and people - and we might be able to get something more statistically robust, to get a better sense of the mechanisms."

Follow Richard on Twitter

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/science-environment-16577612

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Actionable 2012 Social Business Predictions: #4 Social Selling as a ...

Sales force-driven organizations are wising up to using social media to build relationships with customers. Businesses are investing in sales enablement software like Salesforce.com, iCentera and Jive that have social-related functions internally to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing and some even have ways to manage social contacts.

Sales as Content?

Sales organizations are all a-twitter about content marketing, certain the answer to closing sales is in a steady flow of just the right white papers or video talking heads. All that is right-minded in my book. The sales process, especially in B2B, starts earlier and earlier with business leaders investigating their problem online before they may have even formed the words to describe the problem exactly. Companies like IBM with their Expert Network and use of LinkedIn ?are building presence and thought leadership online that tries to anticipate the business leader?s pain before it?s diagnosed.?

Sales as Service?

Thinking about content as sales ?bait? is one thing (and a little insulting to the customer, I might add). Thinking about sales as a continuing service to customers and prospects is different. Instead of simply ramping up on valuable content, sales organizations who want to get into the sales cycle earlier and even build strong relationships with prospects well before closing would do better to think like IDEO.?

One of the most well-known product design firms in the world, IDEO is expert at getting to the root of customer problems whether they be rooted in usability, service, or some anthropological insight. They?re good at making life easier for customers. True, their solutions tend to be in the product and experiential like designing the Community Pharmacy for Walgreens. Beneath the actual solutions lie a relentless curiosity about behavior and behavior change, ?We identify new ways to serve and support people by uncovering latent needs, behaviors, and desires.?

If a sales organization spent their energy on understanding their customer?s actual experience and behavior and then sought to deliver services that made their lives a little easier, they might end up with a great strategy for building enduring relationships. Inevitably it would actually point to creating content that is helpful to customers/prospects/influencers. So, right back to that content marketing model we are all working on just within the context of delivering service. ?

It might also cause the sales organization to create tools and applications that make it easier to make a smart business decision. Pull out your iPhone. Mine is full of consumer-facing examples of new customer services from my airlines, Delta; my aspirational travel agent, Jetsetter; even my car insurance provider, Geico.?IDEO would think holistically (design thinking) about the buyer?s experience and how we might overcome barriers, friction points, and emotional moats. ?That is a refreshing way to state the goals of social selling.?

Do:?I am all for quick hits and big solutions. I would suggest committing to a content strategy based upon delivering the most useful content possible to your customer?s decision-making process. What reports, white papers, customer testimonials would help them make a good decision? Simply putting on the buyer?s hat vs. your own seller?s hat can drive you to create more useful content.?Meanwhile, try a process where you think more creatively about delivering useful services to help the selling/buying process. You can hire a consultant. You can interview customers. You can trigger some effective brainstorming to explore new service territories.?

Resources:

• IDEO Method Cards ? this pack of cards introduces you to a variety of ways to apply a design approach to business problems. Flip through. Find 3 that sound promising and just try them.
• Patterns - a useful blog from IDEO on design thinking and application?

Timing: By 2nd Q it will be key to be executing on a content marketing strategy that embeds social components. By 4thQ, it would be terrific to have a utility or buyer service in place being used and tested.

(thanks to?madupiyadasa for the pic)

Source: http://johnbell.typepad.com/weblog/2012/01/actionable-2012-social-business-predictions-4-social-selling-as-a-service.html

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