Officials investigating Illinois reactor shutdown (AP)

CHICAGO ? Exelon Energy officials say they've traced a power failure at a nuclear reactor in northern Illinois to an electrical insulator in a switchyard.

Spokesman Paul Dempsey says the insulator failed and fell off Monday morning, causing one of the reactors at the Byron Generating Station to shut down automatically.

He says the bad insulator will be sent to a lab for analysis and officials hope to replace it by Tuesday evening. It's unclear how soon before the reactor could return to service.

Steam containing low levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, is being vented to reduce pressure within the reactor. But federal and plant officials say the levels are safe for workers and the public.

The plant is 95 miles northwest of Chicago.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_re_us/us_nuclear_plant_illinois

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Monday Brief: Rubinstein leaves HP, Kevin talks to RIM CEO Thorsten Heins, and more!

Youtube video link for mobile viewing

Mobile Nations Podcast Feed Mobile Nations on iTunes Mobile Nations YouTube ZEN and TECH 30: Forgiveness Iterate: Flyosity	HTC: Fewer device models in 2012, looking for 'something special' Wifi-only Motorola XYBOARDs now shipping What is NFC? [Android A to Z]
CrackBerry's Interview with RIM's new CEO Thorsten Heins With best wishes to Mike and Jim, from CrackBerry CHYM 96.7 FM Waterloo shows appreciation for RIM, reminds us all there is more to the company than just smartphones	Jon Rubinstein, former Palm CEO, leaves HP HP's open source webOS roadmap HP announces Enyo 2.0 application framework, open sources 1.0
Apple Q1 2012 results: $46.33 billion in revenue, 37.04 million iPhones, 15.43 million iPads, 15.4 million iPods Best jailbreak apps for new iPhone users iMore’s Complete MacWorld Coverage Tim Cook speaks out against claims of factory worker mistreatment	Lumia 900 rumored to launch on March 19 for only $99 Wordfeud now available on the Windows Phone Marketplace Site Announcement: WPCentral app v2.1 now available

 

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/oY6TJgzp_Nw/story01.htm

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Slave port unearthed in Brazil

The Valongo Wharf in Rio de Janerio was the busiest of all slave ports in the Americas and has been buried for almost two centuries.

? A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.

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Not far from here at least 500,000 Africans took their first steps into slavery in colonial Brazil, which took in far more slaves than the United States and where now half of its 200 million citizens claim African descent.

The ?Cais do Valongo? ? the Valongo Wharf ? was the busiest of all slave ports in the Americas and has been buried for almost two centuries under subsequent infrastructure projects and dirt.

That is, until developers seeking to turn Rio?s shabby port neighborhood into a posh tourist center allowed teams of archaeologists to check out what was being unearthed.

?We knew we had found the wharf,? says archaeologist Tania Andrade Lima, showing a ramp made up of knobbly, uneven stones used by slaves. It lay beneath a layer of smoother cobblestones from a dock installed later for the arrival of a Portuguese royal.

Ms. Lima and other community leaders are creating a walking tour that will include the wharf, a nearby cemetery for Africans who died soon after their arrival, and a holding pen called the ?Lazareto,? derived from Jesus? parable about a beggar named Lazarus, where newly arrived Africans were checked for diseases.

The wharf alone is nearly 22,000 square feet. ?This gives a dimension to how huge the influx of slaves was,? says Lima.

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Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/C8HzhyUXmb0/Slave-port-unearthed-in-Brazil

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Gingrich says commission should look at in vitro clinic management of embryos (Star Tribune)

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Fireworks send Beijing air pollution soaring (AP)

BEIJING ? Clouds of smoke from Lunar New Year fireworks sent air pollution in Beijing soaring under a new more sensitive measurement system, reports said Sunday.

Readings of fine particulate matter called PM2.5 reached 1.593 milligrams per cubic meter on the Jan. 22 eve of the holiday, about 100 times worse than the amount considered good for 24-hour exposure, the city's environmental bureau said.

The reading drew wide publicity in the local media on Sunday. The popular Beijing Youth Daily praised the city government for taking a more critical look at air pollution, while urging residents to consider the environmental effects of setting off fireworks.

By noon on Sunday, as people headed back to work after the weeklong holiday, the level stood at a relatively good 0.039.

Concern has grown over air pollution from automobiles and other sources, prompting the city this month to begin announcing measurements of PM2.5 ? particles less than 2.5 micrometers in size. That's about 1/30th the width of an average human hair.

Because of their small size, the particles can lodge deeply in the lungs and are believed to pose the greatest risk to health.

Beijing is frequently cloaked in yellow haze, with buildings a couple of blocks away barely visible.

On particularly bad days, schools cancel outdoor activities due to the risk of respiratory problems and hospitals report increased numbers of people ? particularly the elderly ? seeking help because they're having trouble breathing. Long-term exposure can cause a range of illnesses, especially to the cardiovascular system.

The city previously only released readings of the coarser PM10 standard that often indicated pollution was "light," leading to accusations it was hiding the true extent of the problem.

The U.S. Embassy began independently monitoring PM2.5 from a device on its rooftop and releasing the results via Twitter. Some residents even tested the air in their neighborhoods and posted the results online.

Beijing is now releasing hourly readings of PM2.5 that are taken from a monitoring site about 4 miles (7 kilometers) west of central Tiananmen Square.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_as/as_china_air_quality

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Cops: 4-year-old brings nine bags of pot to school

By msnbc.com staff

A 4-year-old boy?brought nine bags of pot to his elementary school and pulled them out during snack time, police said.

A teacher at Hanover Elementary School in Meriden, Conn., alerted officials to the drug early Tuesday afternoon, according to a report in the Record-Journal. ?Detective Lt. Mark Walerysiak, a police spokesman, told the newspaper that the child turned over the bags to his teacher.

---

Walerysiak could not be reached for comment by msnbc.com on Friday.

"The case remains under investigation," Walerysiak told the Record-Journal. The Department of Children and Families "was called in to also conduct an investigation."

School Superintendent Mark D. Benigni called the event ?isolated incident,? the newspaper said.

?Our concern is for the 4-year-old student who had no knowledge of what he was bringing to school," Benigni said. "The student is safe and we will continue to ensure a safe learning environment to all of our students."

He said the teacher was?close to the child when he pulled the bags out of his coat pocket. No other student was involved, the Record-Journal reported.

Benigni told the newspaper that the child was not at fault. "This is clearly an adult issue," he said.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10251358-cops-4-year-old-brings-nine-bags-of-pot-to-school

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Family history of psychiatric disorders shapes intellectual interests, study suggests

ScienceDaily (Jan. 26, 2012) ? A hallmark of the individual is the cultivation of personal interests, but for some people, their intellectual pursuits might actually be genetically predetermined. Survey results published by Princeton University researchers in the journal PLoS ONE suggest that a family history of psychiatric conditions such as autism and depression could influence the subjects a person finds engaging.

Although preliminary, the findings provide a new look at the oft-studied link between psychiatric conditions and aptitude in the arts or sciences. While previous studies have explored this link by focusing on highly creative individuals or a person's occupation, the Princeton research indicates that the influence of familial neuropsychiatric traits on personal interests is apparently independent of a person's talent or career path, and could help form a person's basic preferences and personality.

Princeton researchers surveyed nearly 1,100 students from the University's Class of 2014 early in their freshman year to learn which major they would choose based on their intellectual interests. The students were then asked to indicate the incidence of mood disorders, substance abuse or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in their family, including parents, siblings and grandparents.

Students interested in pursuing a major in the humanities or social sciences were twice as likely to report that a family member had a mood disorder or a problem with substance abuse. Students with an interest in science and technical majors, on the other hand, were three times more likely to report a sibling with an ASD, a range of developmental disorders that includes autism and Asperger syndrome.

Senior researcher Sam Wang, an associate professor in Princeton's Department of Molecular Biology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, said that the survey -- though not exhaustive nor based on direct clinical diagnoses -- presents the idea that certain heritable psychiatric conditions are more closely linked to a person's intellectual interests than is currently supposed.

During the past several decades, Wang said, various researchers have found that, in certain people and their relatives, mood or behavior disorders are associated with a higher-than-average representation in careers related to writing and the humanities, while conditions related to autism exhibit a similar correlation with scientific and technical careers.

By focusing on poets, writers and scientists, however, those studies only include people who have advanced far in "artistic" or "scientific" pursuits and professions, potentially excluding a large group of people who have those interests but no particular aptitude or related career, Wang said. He and lead author Benjamin Campbell, a graduate student at Rockefeller University, selected incoming freshmen because the students are old enough to have defined interests, but are not yet on a set career path. (Princeton students do not declare a major until the end of sophomore year.)

"Until our work, evidence of a connection between neuropsychiatric disorders and artistic aptitude, for example, was based on surveying creative people, where creativity is usually defined in terms of occupation or proficiency in an artistic field," Wang said. "But what if there is a broader category of people associated with bipolar or depression, namely people who think that the arts are interesting? The students we surveyed are not all F. Scott Fitzgerald, but many more of them might like to read F. Scott Fitzgerald."

The Princeton research provides a new and "provocative" consideration that other scientists in this area can build upon, said Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychiatry and behavioral science professor at Johns Hopkins University and co-director of the university's Mood Disorders Center.

Jamison, who is well known for her research on bipolar disorder and her work on the artistic/mood disorder connection, said that while interests and choice of career are presumably related, Wang and Campbell present data suggesting that intellectual interests might also be independently shaped by psychiatric conditions, which provides the issue larger context.

In addition, the researchers focused on an age group that is not typically looked at specifically, but that is usually included in analyses that span various ages. Such a targeted approach lends the results a unique perspective, she said. Though the incidence of psychiatric conditions in the Princeton study was based on the students' own reporting and not definitive diagnoses, the rates Wang and Campbell found are not different from other populations, she noted.

"This is an additional way of looking at a complex problem that is very interesting," said Jamison, who played no role in the research project. "This work provides a piece of the puzzle in understanding why people go into particular occupations. In this field, it's important to do as many different kinds of studies as possible, and this is an interesting initial study with very interesting findings. It will provoke people to think about this question and it will provoke people to design other kinds of studies."

An implied connection between psychiatric conditions and a flair for art or science dates to at least Aristotle, who famously noted that those "eminent in philosophy, politics, poetry and the arts have all had tendencies toward melancholia."

Modern explorations of that relationship have examined the actual prevalence of people with neuropsychiatric disorders and their relatives in particular fields.

Among the most recent work, researchers at Sweden's Karolinska Institute reported in the British Journal of Psychiatry in November that of the 300,000 people studied, people with bipolar disorder, as well as their healthy parents and siblings, were more likely to have a "creative" job -- including a field in the arts or sciences -- than people with no familial history of the condition. Parents and siblings of people with schizophrenia also exhibited a greater tendency to have a creative job, though people with schizophrenia did not.

Various other studies in the past few decades have found a similar correlation between psychiatric disorders and "creativity," which is typically defined by a person's career or eminence in an artistic field such as writing or music. In their work, however, Wang and Campbell present those criteria as too narrow. They instead suggest that psychiatric disorders can predispose a person to a predilection for the subject matter independent of any concrete measure of creativity.

Jamison, in an editorial regarding the Karolinska study and published in the same journal issue, wrote that "having a creative occupation is not the same thing as being creative." Wang and Campbell approached their project from the inverse of that statement: Being creative does not necessarily mean a person has a creative occupation.

"A person is not just what they do for a living," Wang said. "I am a scientist, but not just a scientist. I'm also a guy who reads blogs, listens to jazz and likes to cook. In that same respect, I believe we have potentially broadened the original assertion of Aristotle by including not just the artistically creative, but a larger category -- all people whose thought processes gravitate to the humanistic and artistic."

As past studies have, Wang and Campbell suggest a genetic basis for their results. The correlation with interests and psychiatric conditions they observed implies that a common genetic path could lead relatives in similar directions, but with some people developing psychiatric disorders while their kin only possess certain traits of those conditions. Those traits can manifest as preferences for and talents in certain areas, Wang said.

"Altogether, results of our study and those like it suggest that scientists should start thinking about the genetic roots of normal function as much as we discuss the genetic causes of abnormal function. This survey helps show that there might be common cause between the two," Wang said.

"Everyone has specific individual interests that result from experiences in life, but these interests arise from a genetic starting point," Wang said. "This doesn't mean that our genes determine our fate. It just means that our genes launch us down a path in life, leading most people to pursue specific interests and, in extreme cases, leading others toward psychiatric disorders."

This study was published Jan. 26 in the journal PLoS ONE.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Princeton University. The original article was written by Morgan Kelly.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Benjamin C. Campbell, Samuel S.-H. Wang. Familial Linkage between Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Intellectual Interests. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (1): e30405 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0030405

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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/2012/01/120126224317.htm

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Romney is the aggressor in final Florida debate (AP)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ? An aggressive Mitt Romney repeatedly challenged Republican rival Newt Gingrich Thursday night in the final debate before next week's critical Florida primary, demanding an apology for an ad saying he harbors anti-immigrant sentiments and ridiculing the former House speaker's call to colonize the moon.

"If I had a business executive come to me and say I want to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I'd say, `You're fired,'" Romney declared. That was just one particularly animated clash between two rivals struggling for supremacy in the race to pick an opponent to President Barack Obama in the fall.

Gingrich responded heatedly. "You don't just have to be cheap everywhere. You can actually have priorities to get things done." He said that as speaker of the House he had helped balance the budget while doubling spending on the National Institutes of Health.

The debate was the 19th since the race for the Republican nomination began last year, and the second in four days in the run-up to Tuesday's Florida primary. Opinion polls make the race a close one ? slight advantage Romney ? with two other contenders, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Texas Rep. Ron Paul far behind.

Gingrich's upset victory in the South Carolina primary last week upended the race for the nomination, and Romney in particular can ill-afford a defeat on Tuesday.

While the clashes between Gingrich and Romney dominated the debate, Santorum drew applause from the audience when he called on the two front-runners to stop attacking one another and "focus on the issues."

"Can we set aside that Newt was a member of Congress ... and that Mitt Romney is a wealthy guy?" he said in a tone of exasperation.

There were some moments of levity, including when Paul, 76, was asked whether he would be willing to release his medical records. He said he was, then challenged the other three men on the debate stage to a 25-mile bike race.

He got no takers.

In the days since Romney's loss in South Carolina, he has tried to seize the initiative, playing the aggressor in the Tampa debate and assailing Gingrich in campaign speeches and a TV commercial.

An outside group formed to support Romney has spent more than his own campaign's millions on ads, some of them designed to stop Gingrich's campaign momentum before it is too late to deny him the nomination.

With polls suggesting his South Carolina surge is stalling, Gingrich unleashed a particularly strong attack earlier in the day, much as he lashed out in Iowa when he rose in the polls, only to be knocked back by an onslaught of ads he was unable to counter effectively.

Thursday night's first clash occurred moments after the debate opened, when Gingrich responded to a question by saying Romney was the most anti-immigrant of all four contenders on stage. "That's simply inexcusable," the former Massachusetts governor responded.

"Mr. Speaker, I'm not anti-immigrant. My father was born in Mexico. My wife's father was born in Wales. ... The idea that I'm anti-immigrant is repulsive. Don't use a term like that," he added.

At the same time, Romney noted that Gingrich's campaign had been pressured to stop running a radio ad that called Romney anti-immigrant after Florida Sen. Marco Rubio called on Gingrich to do so.

He called on Gingrich to apologize for the commercial, but got no commitment.

About an hour later, Romney pounced when the topic turned to Gingrich's proposal for an permanent American colony on the moon ? an issue of particular interest to engineers and others who live on Florida's famed Space Coast.

A career businessman before he became a politician, Romney said: "If I had a business executive come to me and say I want to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I'd say, `You're fired.'"

The audience erupted in cheers, but Romney wasn't finished.

He said the former speaker had called for construction of a new Interstate highway in South Carolina, a new VA hospital in northern New Hampshire and widening the port of Jacksonville to accommodate the larger ships that will soon be able to transit the Panama Canal.

"This idea of going state to state and promising people what they want to hear, promising hundreds of billions of dollars to make people happy, that's what got us into trouble in the first place," Romney said.

Gingrich responded that part of campaigning is becoming familiar with local issues, adding, "The port of Jacksonville is going to have to be expanded. I think that's an important thing for a president to know." He went on to refer to completion of an Everglades project that he did not describe, then noted he had worked to expand NIH while he was speaker.

Gingrich raised questions about Romney's wealth and his investments. "I don't know of any American president who's had a Swiss bank account," Gingrich said. Romney replied that his investments were in a blind trust over which he had no control. "There's nothing wrong with that," declared Romney, who has estimated his wealth at as much as $250 million.

Earlier Thursday, it was disclosed that Romney and his wife, Ann Romney, failed to list an unknown amount of investment income from a variety of sources including a Swiss bank account on financial disclosure forms filed last year. His campaign said it was working to correct the omissions.

Gingrich also failed to report income from his 2010 tax return on his financial disclosure. The former Georgia congressman will amend his disclosure to show $252,500 in salary from one of his businesses, spokesman R.C. Hammond said.

Debating in a state with a large and influential Jewish population, Romney and Gingrich vied to stress their support for Israel rather than criticize one another.

And all four men were quick to name prominent officials of Hispanic descent who deserved consideration for the Cabinet. Gingrich trumped the other three, saying, "I've actually thought of Marco Rubio in a slightly more dignified and central role," an evident reference to the vice presidential spot on the ticket.

Immigration was a recurring theme.

Gingrich said Romney was misleading when he ran an ad accusing the former House speaker of once referring to Spanish as "the language of the ghetto." Gingrich claimed he was referring to a multitude of languages, not just Spanish.

Romney initially said, "I doubt it's mine," but moderator Wolf Blitzer read it aloud and pointed out that Romney, at the ad's conclusion, says he approved the message.

As for immigration policy, it was difficult to discern their differences.

Both men said they want to clamp down in illegal immigration, create programs to make sure jobs go only to legal immigrants and deport some of the 11 million men and women in the country unlawfully.

Gingrich has never said how many illegal residents he believes should be deported, preferring to say that the United States is not going to begin rounding up grandmothers and grandfathers who have lived in the United States for years.

Romney agreed that was the case ? and Gingrich said that marked a switch in position.

"Our problem is not 11 million grandmothers," Romney said. "Our problem is 11 million people getting jobs that many Americans, legal immigrants would like to have."

Romney and Gingrich also exchanged jabs over investments in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two mortgage giants that played a role in the national foreclosure crisis that has hit Florida particularly hard.

Gingrich said Romney was making money from investments in funds that were "foreclosing on Floridians."

Romney quickly noted that Gingrich, too, was invested in mutual funds with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He then added that the former House speaker "was a spokesman" for the two. That was a reference to a contract that one of Gingrich's businesses had for consulting services. The firm was paid $300,000 in 2006.

___

Associated Press writers Brian Bakst, Kasie Hunt and Steve Peoples contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_el_ge/us_republicans_debate

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Some Wash. wheat farmers back labels for GM foods (AP)

YAKIMA, Wash. ? Some Washington state wheat farmers have thrown their support behind legislation requiring labeling of genetically modified foods, giving food safety advocates fresh hope that lawmakers also will get behind the bill.

They haven't been receptive to the idea in the past, and lawmakers at the national level and in more than a dozen states have rejected similar proposals in the past year.

But in an unusual pairing, a handful of Washington wheat farmers have joined so-called "foodies" to back the latest bill, fearing exports will be hurt if and when genetically modified wheat gains federal approval. The U.S. exports half of its wheat, and in Washington, the only bigger export is Boeing Co.'s airplanes.

Biotechnology giants Monsanto and Syngenta have announced plans to begin testing genetically modified wheat, though the product is likely a decade or more from being offered commercially.

Resistance from the European Union and Japan led Monsanto to abandon similar efforts in 2004. Pacific Rim countries haven't historically been friendly to genetically modified products, and they remain the biggest buyers of Washington wheat.

"If we do nothing, we will be destroyed," said Tom Stahl, a fourth-generation farmer in the small town of Waterville, Wash., about 100 miles east of Seattle. "We will lose our markets and that will be devastating for the eastern Washington economy."

Monsanto and Syngenta representatives didn't immediately return messages left after a Thursday hearing on the bill.

Dozens of people testified at a packed Senate committee hearing in Olympia, Wash., where the committee chairman raised concerns about passing a bill that may conflict with federal law.

About 50 countries require genetically modified foods to be labeled, but the U.S. isn't one of them. Only Alaska has enacted legislation at the state level, requiring the labeling of genetically engineered fish and shellfish products.

Supporters said that bill was needed to protect one of Alaska's most lucrative and important industries, though genetically engineered fish are not yet on the market.

The Washington bill would require genetically engineered foods or foods containing genetically engineered ingredients to be labeled with the ingredients listed effective July 1, 2014. The rule would apply to all foods sold in the state, although those in which GM ingredients make up less than half of 1 percent would be exempt.

The federal government's position is that approved genetically modified foods are not substantially different than conventional products. Critics say requiring GM foods to be labeled will increase packaging costs and state spending on enforcement.

More than 90 percent of corn and soybeans in this country are grown from genetically modified seed, said Karen Batra, spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based Biotechnology Industry Association, a trade group that advocates for biotechnology members, including Monsanto and Syngenta.

"Ultimately, you're not providing any meaningful information to consumers, because you end up labeling the majority of products," she said by telephone. "Consumers already have a choice: If they don't want biotech foods, they can buy organic."

Batra declined to speculate on whether opponents would challenge the bill in court if it passed.

Wheat has lagged behind other crops in terms of innovation, and biotechnology offers tools to deal with problems like drought and increase sustainable production, said Jane DeMarchi, the National Association of Wheat Grower's director of government affairs for research and technology.

DeMarchi said in a telephone interview that her group has been talking to people who buy wheat, including those overseas, to determine what they want from U.S. farmers and educate them about genetically modified wheat.

She said she recognized the farmers' concerns but stressed that each one has a choice of what to grow and how to label it.

"We support voluntary labeling of food products, provided it's consistent with U.S. law and trade agreements and that it's truthful and not misleading," she said.

The problem with voluntary labeling is that it puts the burden on companies whose products aren't a problem, said Trudy Bialic, director of public affairs for PCC Natural Markets, the largest consumer owned and operated grocery retailer in the U.S. It supports the bill as a means of educating consumers, preserving the identity of non-GM foods and protecting export sales.

"In my view, a lot of federal law has started at the state level," Bialic said. "This has to start at a state level, because the federal government won't take it up."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/biotech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_us/us_food_and_farm_gmo_labeling

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Down the Apple food chain, profits and some worry (AP)

NEW YORK ? If you like Apple's stock, you're going to love its suppliers.

The companies that make iPhone casings, chips for the iPad and other components are attracting so many investors, they're making the stock of the beloved tech juggernaut look like it's gathering dust.

Many are virtual unknowns, sporting names like TriQuint Semiconductor, Aphenol and the hopeful-sounding Skyworks Solutions, but that may be why they're doing so well. Apple has risen 10 percent this year, but these companies are up two or three times more.

Investors apparently are hoping supplier anonymity means bargains, and they're scooping up shares with gusto ? maybe too much gusto.

"People are thinking the Apple goodies aren't baked into the stock yet," says Pacific Crest analyst Nathan Johnsen, referring to TriQuint, which he thinks is no bargain after its 24 percent jump so far this year.

Fueling the latest spurt higher was Apple's announcement Tuesday that it sold 37 million iPhones in the last three months of 2011, trouncing analysts' already high expectations. It turned a record $13 billion profit for the quarter.

Apple stock, which traded at $100 as recently as March 2009 and at $200 as recently as February 2010, closed at $446 on Wednesday.

Apple is set to regain its position as the world's largest maker of smartphones. For parts makers, it is unchallenged as their most sought-after customer.

Part of the difficulty of investing in Apple suppliers is the mystery surrounding them. Apple's notorious secrecy means it's tough knowing even whom they're buying from, much less for how much.

Hence the enthusiasm when analysts and bloggers crack open iPhones, a process called teardowns, and write tell-alls.

In a recent report following a teardown of the iPhone 4S, research firm IHS Inc. touted a component it uncovered that allows the phone to work on different wireless systems worldwide. It fingered Avago Technologies as the supplier.

"We believe this is one of the unsung heroes of the iPhone 4S," Vijay Rakesh, an analyst for broker Sterne Agee, wrote in a report Wednesday.

Avago is up 18 percent this year.

Other suppliers rising fast include Jabil Circuit Inc., up 17 percent this year, and audio chip maker Cirrus Logic Inc., up 39 percent.

One Cirrus fan, Tore Svanberg, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, published a report Jan. 10 noting that the semiconductor maker was trading at 11 times its expected per share earnings for the coming year, a bargain next to its rivals' 21 times.

The stock has risen more than a third since, but Svanberg still thinks it's worth buying because of its close ties to Apple. "The stock has been trading like it's a problem," he adds.

Perhaps for good reason. Professional investors like to buy suppliers with many customers so that if one cancels a contract, profits will still roll in. In Cirrus' latest quarterly report filed with regulators, Apple accounted for 59 percent of its sales.

Another danger for suppliers is becoming Apple-obsessed ? so worried over losing their contract with the big guys that they neglect other buyers.

Before it shot up recently, the stock of TriQuint, a supplier of power amplifiers that help iPhones communicate with cell towers, was falling fast. It was down 58 percent in 2011.

A big reason: The company turned over so much of its factories to churning out parts for Apple, it couldn't keep up with orders from rivals making Android phones, according to Pacific Crest's Johnsen.

Things got so bad, he says, that at one point the company had to help Android makers find new suppliers.

He says investors might be making a mistake bidding up TriQuint stock.

"They've held on to Apple, but outside of that company, they'll be suffering," Johnsen predicts. "Supplying Apple is a double-edged sword."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_us/us_the_apple_universe

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UK economy shrinks by 0.2 pct in 4th quarter (AP)

LONDON ? Britain's economy shrank by 0.2 percent in the last three months of 2011, official data showed Wednesday, a worse than expected result that raises fears of a recession and could see the Bank of England push for more monetary stimulus.

The market consensus had been that the economy would contract by only 0.1 percent in the quarter. For the year, GDP grew by just 0.8 percent, the Office for National Statistics said.

The fourth-quarter drop is likely to confirm analysts' belief that the Bank of England will authorize spending more billions next month to stimulate the economy.

Minutes of the January meeting of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee showed that, as expected, the nine members had been unanimous in voting not to approve more stimulus.

The Bank had indicated that it would take at least through January to spend the 75 billion pounds in asset purchases approved in October.

Some analysts expect the bank to authorize more purchases next month.

The GDP report showed that Britain's big services sector didn't grow at all in the fourth quarter, while output of production industries, including factories, fell by 1.2 percent.

The International Monetary Fund this week cut its forecasts for the U.K. economy, predicting growth of only 0.6 percent compared with 1.6 percent previously.

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

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Demi Moore Hospitalized For ?Substance Abuse?

TMZ is reporting that Demi Moore was rushed to the hospital last night, with sources revealing to the celebrity gossip site that the reason behind her visit to the hospital was for substance abuse. So sad. It’s been a tough several months for the “St. Elmo’s Fire” star. Paramedics were called to her Los Angeles home around 10:45 PM, and after being checked out by emergency personnel, she was sent to the hospital. She is reportedly being moved to a treatment facility. A representative for Moore told TMZ: “Because of the stresses in her life right now, Demi has chosen to seek professional assistance to treat her exhaustion and improve her overall health.? She looks forward to getting well and is grateful for the support of her family and friends.” While her rep states that she is being treated for “exhaustion” and her “overall health”, sources told TMZ that she is seeking help for “substance abuse”. Recent pictures of the 49-year-old actress has shown her looking gaunt, adding more concern over her well being. We certainly hope that she’ll be okay and wish her a speedy recovery. As we all know, last year was quite a stressor for Moore. In [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/tGEijGD1Ddg/

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It's guys, not ladies, who splurge on lunch

Getty Images / Getty Images file

A man eats his lunch at a Burger King in London.

By Allison Linn

The next time you stop in for a morning latte or head out for a restaurant lunch, take a look around ? and don?t be surprised if you see a lot of young men standing in line.

A new survey of workers finds that men spend significantly more on coffee and lunch than women.

The survey, from staffing firm Accounting Principals, also found that younger workers spend more than older workers on lunch and coffee during the workday.

Overall, those lunches out and coffee breaks are costing workers a bundle.? American workers who buy coffee and lunch spend an average of $1,000 a year on coffee and $2,000 a year on lunch, based on the survey of 1,000 workers.

About two-thirds of workers buy lunch and half buy coffee during the week.

Men were slightly more likely than women to go out to eat, but they spent a lot more. The men who buy their lunches spend an average of $46.30 on lunch each week, compared with $26.50 for women who go out to eat.

Men who buy coffee spend an average of $25.70 vs. $15 for women.

The caffeine fix is a bigger hit on the wallets of 18- to 34-year-old workers. Younger workers who buy coffee spend an average of $24.74 a week on coffee, compared with $14.15 for workers 45 and older who buy coffee during the work week. Younger workers also spend far more on lunch than older workers: about $45 a week vs. $32.

Not surprisingly, a third of those surveyed said one of their goals for 2012 was to bring their own lunch more often.

Accounting Principals, a unit of Adecco, commissioned the survey in December.

Tip of the hat to Consumerist, which first reported on the study.

Related:

Frugal food: Brown bag options that won't break the bank

Starbucks raising prices in Northeast, Sunbelt

{"contentId":"10201172","totalVotes":"3421"}

Do you bring your lunch or buy it?

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Source: http://lifeinc.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10201172-its-guys-not-ladies-who-splurge-on-lunch

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Christie Wants Voters to Decide Gay Marriage (TIME)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/190971861?client_source=feed&format=rss

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New malaria maps to guide battle against the disease

Monday, January 23, 2012

A new suite of malaria maps has revealed in unprecedented detail the current global pattern of the disease, allowing researchers to see how malaria has changed over a number of years.

In a study published in the Malaria Journal, a multinational team of researchers from the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP), funded mainly by the Wellcome Trust, present the results of a two-year effort to assemble all available data worldwide on the risk of Plasmodium falciparum malaria, the most deadly form of the disease. Using computer modelling and data on climate and human populations, they have revealed the complex landscape of malaria across the globe. The maps build on the first ever Atlas of Malaria-Eliminating Countries published earlier this year.

Malaria continues to exert an huge burden of illness and death worldwide but, after decades of neglect, the war against the disease has entered an unprecedented era: it is high on the policy agenda, international funding is beginning to translate into real increases in populations protected by bed nets and other key interventions, and a growing body of evidence points towards important reductions in illness and death.

The maps have been made freely available, along with a wide range of other malaria resources via the launch of a new online portal at www.map.ox.ac.uk. The research was led by Dr Pete Gething from the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford. He says: "These new maps and our online portal are really aimed at everyone involved in the battle against the disease: from the major international organisations and funders, to other scientists, to those actually doing the disease control work on the ground."

However, in order to allocate funding where it is most needed, accurate maps detailing where the disease is most intense and where the largest concentrations of people at risk are found. The new maps reveal for the first time the startling variations in malaria risk, even over short distances.

Dr Simon Hay, who leads the MAP group in Oxford, explains: "It's increasingly clear that malaria transmission is extremely heterogeneous. This means a one-size-fits all approach to controlling is not appropriate. What works in one place might not work elsewhere. These maps are designed to help unravel that complexity and provide a practical guide to help target resources."

Sir Richard Feachem, Director of the Global Health Group at the University of California, San Francisco, and Chair of the Malaria Elimination Group has welcomed the role the new maps can play in pursuing malaria elimination. He says: "From the perspective of elimination, the key message is that malaria transmission is actually very low across large swathes of the endemic world - including the 36 countries currently engaged in elimination programmes. Mapping transmission levels in detail helps to guide these initiatives and highlights how, with concerted effort and sustained financing, we can continue to shrink the malaria map."

###

Wellcome Trust: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk

Thanks to Wellcome Trust 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/116941/New_malaria_maps_to_guide_battle_against_the_disease

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Experts: Paterno's death won't stop court cases (AP)

PHILADELPHIA ? Joe Paterno would no doubt have made a dramatic courtroom witness. But legal experts said his death will have little or no effect on the criminal or civil cases to come out of the Penn State child sex-abuse scandal.

"Obviously, you're taking away a great deal of the high-profile nature of this case, because it deals with Joe Paterno's football program," said Jeffrey Lindy, a criminal defense lawyer involved in a clergy-abuse case in Philadelphia. "But with regard to the legal impact of his death, there is none."

Paterno died Sunday at 85, two months after former coaching assistant Jerry Sandusky was charged with molesting boys and two university officials were accused of perjury and failing to report child sex-abuse allegations against Sandusky to police.

The criminal case against the two university officials may even become more streamlined without Paterno in the mix.

Former university vice president Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley are charged with failing to report to police what graduate assistant Mike McQueary said he told them in 2002: that McQueary saw Sandusky sexually assaulting a boy in a locker room shower.

McQueary first told Paterno, who said he reported it to Curley and Schultz the next day. The administrators told the grand jury they were never informed that the allegations were sexual in nature.

With Paterno's death, though, a jury is free to focus not on what Paterno knew or did, but on the defendants' actions.

What McQueary told Paterno "was a distraction, and now that that part of the case is really gone, it will focus much more on his interaction not with Paterno, but with the Penn State officials," said Duquesne University law professor Nicholas P. Cafardi.

McQueary is also the more crucial witness in the case against Sandusky, who is charged with abusing 10 boys, at least two of them on the Penn State campus.

Paterno testified for just seven minutes last January before the grand jury. He gave only vague answers ? and was never pressed ? when asked what he knew about anyone accusing Sandusky of molesting boys.

"Without getting into any graphic detail, what did Mr. McQueary tell you he had seen and where?" Paterno was asked, according to the grand jury testimony read in court last month.

"Well, he had seen a person, an older ? not an older, but a mature person who was fondling, whatever you might call it ? I'm not sure what the term would be ? a young boy," Paterno replied.

He was asked if he ever heard of any other allegations against Sandusky, who had been the subject of a lengthy campus police investigation four years earlier after a mother complained Sandusky had showered with her young son at the football complex.

"I do not know of anything else that Jerry would be involved in of that nature, no. I do not know of it," Paterno said, adding, "You did mention ? I think you said something about a rumor. It may have been discussed in my presence, something else about somebody. I don't know."

Paterno's grand jury testimony cannot be used in court, because the defense never had the chance to cross-examine him.

"His passing deprives folks from finding out, directly from his lips, exactly what he knew and when he knew it, and what he did or didn't do. But the reality is, sometimes those things can be proved by other means," said Jeff Anderson, the St. Paul, Minn., lawyer who filed the first civil case against Penn State on behalf of a Sandusky accuser.

It's not unusual for a witness to die or become infirm before trial, especially in child sex-abuse cases, which can take years or even decades to surface. In Philadelphia, prosecutors won the right to question 88-year-old retired Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua on video last year to preserve his testimony before the spring trial of three priests and a church official. Bevilacqua suffers from dementia and cancer.

Prosecutors never got the chance to preserve Paterno's testimony, given his surprise cancer diagnosis and rapid decline after they filed the charges Nov. 4.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_sp_co_ne/fbc_paterno_legal

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Trends of 2012: Social Gaming ? Articles ? Eurogamer.net

Over the next 12 months, social games will continue be successful. That much isn't particularly hard to predict - the phenomenal numbers of players that the likes of Zynga and Playfish can boast show few signs of dropping off, and if anything they'll swell even further throughout 2012. The real story of social gaming over the next year could be something much more compelling, though. This could well be the year that an area often scorned by traditional gamers finally crosses over to the core.

For many, social gaming is still all about Zynga. For millions ensnared by late-night games of Zynga Poker and many more tending to their virtual lots in FarmVille or CityVille, Zynga is gaming.

Those that consider themselves gamers rest their view of social gaming on a sceptical stance on Zynga's output - these are games with the pleasures of play ripped out of them, replaced with slick and cynical economies. They're Sisyphean slogs in which Sisyphus must drag his friends along for the ride and then spam them with reports on every step of his fruitless trundle.

It's a perception that's long tarnished social gaming, and one that even veterans of this fledgling scene have empathy with. "The very early games on Facebook weren't really games," says Playfish's VP of global studios, Jami Laes, "they were more like these viral vehicles."

Henrique Olifiers, a former studio director at Playfish and now head of fellow London outfit Bossa Studios, goes further. "[Social games] have been in a development cycle for the last three years, and nothing particularly special's come out of it just yet," he tells us. "There have been a lot of copycat games, a lot of games with the same mechanics and the same graphical style, without enough gameplay mechanics or depth of storyline or characters.

Triple Town showed that Facebook can host deep and compelling games - expect more examples in the next 12 months.

"The first generation of social games hit well with a new kind of player, which was typically a 40-year-old woman - the kind who'd never played games before. And that became a self-fulfilling prophecy - since there was money to be made from that segment, everyone started making games for that segment. So that's really the main reason that hardcore gamers don't have any interest. So I see why they don't like these games - I don't blame them at all."

But times are changing, and they're changing rapidly. The past 12 months has seen a sharp upturn in quality and a fresh diversity, from Spry Fox's smart strategy/puzzle hybrid Triple Town to the successful arrival of established gaming brands that have finally managed to etch their own place in social gaming, whether that's with Civ World or, most fruitfully, Playfish's The Sims Social.

"The Sims Social has been successful," confirms Jami Laes, "it's overreached all the targets that we had for the game in terms of audience size and revenue. We were kind of caught off guard in its initial success." It's tailed off somewhat - no real surprise when most social games peak around three months into their lives - but the numbers are still there, and it's showing no sign of disappearing any time soon.

"It's been a big effort from a lot of people," says Laes, admitting that the transposition's been eased as the Sims series comes with a design ethos that already sits comfortably with the unique demands of social gaming.

"It made sense with the brand - it was very suitable to social gaming, and very suitable to Facebook gaming. And when you play the game, I'm sure you'll see that it's one of the only real social games out there, in many ways. Because the relationships really matter in a social context in a more meaningful way than any generic farming or restaurant game or anything like that."

It's not the first of EA's brands to make it across to Facebook, but to date it's been the most successful - and it's paving the way for a fresh wave of games that move further away from the click-farming of old and towards a more traditional gameplay experience. Risk: Factions - a spin on the classic strategic board game that's also made an appearance on console - has already set a strong foundation for EA and Playfish's attack on social gaming in 2012.

"Risk, that we launched a couple of weeks ago, has opened the floodgates," says Laes. "That's a very social game, as it was originally a board game, and board games are social by their very nature. Those games that people traditionally play together lend themselves very well to social gaming. I think Risk is a good example of better execution on social through Playfish and EA on EA's brands, on their core game brands. It's a more hardcore game than The Sims Social is."

Being more hardcore than The Sims is, of course, no real feat, but Risk: Factions is one more step along a path that social gaming looks set to stick to over the next 12 months, and it's one that promises to cross the divide between social gaming and core gaming.

The Sims Social is an example of an existing franchise successfully making the jump to Facebook - can other, more hardcore brands make the jump as well?

It's a divide that's been diminishing for a while already - just as mainstream games have begun to adopt the tropes and themes of social networks - witness, for example, Need for Speed's Autolog, Call of Duty Elite or Forza's Rivals mode - so too are social games beginning to look towards more traditional games for inspiration.

"That borrowing goes both ways," Laes says of the existing relationship between social gaming and console gaming. "Social gaming and Facebook will adopt more of their mechanics from core games, and the core games will adapt some of the themes, mechanics and gameplay from social games."

If a game does emerge in 2012 that successfully caters to the hardcore, it may have to do something more radical than simply weld together two existing templates. "The social mechanic that most social games offer has nothing for the hardcore player," says Olifiers, "it's a lot about using your friends as resources, while more core players are interested in competition and co-operation in a meaningful way. If social games can start doing that - if they start offering stuff like PVP - the game can be a little more casual but could have a large appeal."

Bossa has already started to move towards this, with last year's Monster Mind introducing real-time multiplayer as well as strategic elements that will be familiar to more seasoned games players.

"It's not a departure from social games, but it's a step in the right direction. One of the things that we want to do is comparative real-time multiplayer - we love co-op gaming. We think it's stronger than PVP, and that's something that we don't see on Facebook."

How exactly Bossa Studios delivers on this remains a mystery, but already it's become a source of some excitement. When Yoshifusa Hayama, a veteran developer with one of the industry's most colourful CVs - having worked at Sega's arcade division in the nineties, he went on to work on Shenmue where he's credited with the invention of the QTE, before most recently working at a producer level on The Last Guardian - joined and stated that he wanted to create Facebook's first masterpiece, it sent ripples out among the hardcore.

He's not the first high-profile developer with a more traditional gaming background to make the jump to social; amongst Zynga's many acquisitions there has been the hiring of several notable execs such as Barry Cottle and Stephen Chiang. In 2012, we should start to see this cross-pollination bear fruit.

And it's highly likely that the results will bear little resemblance to the current generation of social games as the technology behind them begins to escalate. "Technology's taking us to 3D," says Olifiers, "and we're starting to look at games that look like their counterparts on console. The final aim is to have something that in terms of gameplay mechanics and depth, and storyline and character and engagement with the player is also on a par; this is something that we want to do this year.

Dusty Welch, a man credited with building the Call of Duty brand, is aiming to replicate his success in the world of social gaming.

"Social games are evolving right now - the production values will evolve very fast and close the gap between social games and consoles - and that will start happening this year."

There are already social games in the pipeline that promise to do this, the most notable at present being the as-yet-unnamed shooter project under development at U4iA, a team founded by Dusty Welch - a man who helped build the Call of Duty brand into the behemoth that it is today.

"The team and the talent and the tech hasn't existed yet today to provide a AAA quality experience, for example in Facebook. Flash really can't take advantage until Flash 3D comes out, but Unity can," Welch said late last year, and he's optimistic that his new game can replicate some of his past successes.

"I kind of liken it to when I created Call Of Duty to dethrone the established leaders back in the early 2000s, and you bet my goal at U4iA is to repeat that success again. And so providing a AAA, first-person shooter experience in a browser is really what the end game is for us. And I think that's going to help lead the new dynamic and a transition of gamers into the social."

And U4iA's game isn't going to be alone in 2012. "I actually know there's a couple of games coming in the next 12 months that are going to attract the core gamers," Laes says somewhat cryptically. "But unfortunately I can't speak to what those are right now."

As and when these games start to appear, social gaming's perception amongst the core may still prove an issue. "The problem with that is to convince hardcore gamers that such a thing could happen on Facebook, so they could give it a try," warns Olifiers; "if we create something like that right now I'm pretty sure it will die, because the players won't believe it's something that can happen."

The incoming swell of new games and new game types to the world of social should hopefully wash any such worries away. "It doesn't really need more than a couple of great games that are going to show the potential, that are going to justify those core gamers making that leap of faith and trying Facebook games," says Laes. "Maybe it's a known brand, maybe it's a generic game that they loved, in the same way that the Sims Social has done that on Facebook but with a more hardcore game from the past."

It all adds up to a potentially transformative 12 months in social. "Creativity and differentiation of social games will be key," Laes says of the year ahead. "Until fairly recently, social games stuck to a strict format; 2012 will be the year that we'll see different variations of this and more creative gameplay. Now that studios are waking up to the opportunities that social gaming brings, the race is on to attract loyal social gamers with games that are increasingly sophisticated and really pushing the boundaries of what is expected of them.

"By the end of 2012 we'll have games that are more interesting, and the companies making these games will be making more hardcore games," Olifiers concludes. "It's going to be very interesting, and it's not going to be an easy ride."

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-01-21-trends-of-2012-social-gaming

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Legendary blues singer Etta James dies in Calif.

FILE - This Nov. 24, 2008 file photo Etta James arrives at the premiere of "Cadillac Records" in Los Angeles. James, the feisty rhythm and blues singer whose raw, passionate vocals anchored many hits and made the yearning ballad "At Last" an enduring anthem for weddings, commercials and even President Barack Obama, died Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. She was 73. James had been suffering from dementia and kidney problems, and was battling leukemia. In December 2011, her physician announced that her leukemia was terminal. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

FILE - This Nov. 24, 2008 file photo Etta James arrives at the premiere of "Cadillac Records" in Los Angeles. James, the feisty rhythm and blues singer whose raw, passionate vocals anchored many hits and made the yearning ballad "At Last" an enduring anthem for weddings, commercials and even President Barack Obama, died Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. She was 73. James had been suffering from dementia and kidney problems, and was battling leukemia. In December 2011, her physician announced that her leukemia was terminal. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

In this, April 6, 1987, photo, singer Etta James performs at the Vine St. Bar & Grill in Hollywood, Calif. The singer's manager says Etta James has died in Southern California. Lupe De Leon tells The Associated Press the singer died early Friday, Jan. 20, 2012 at Riverside Community Hospital. De Leon says the cause of death is complications of leukemia. (AP PhotoAlison Wise)

FILE - In this Saturday, June 19, 2004, photo, Etta James & The Roots Band perform at the 26th annual Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The singer's manager says Etta James has died in Southern California. Lupe De Leon tells The Associated Press the singer died early Friday, Jan. 20, 2012 at Riverside Community Hospital. De Leon says the cause of death is complications of leukemia. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

FILE - In this Friday, April 18, 2003, photo, legendary singer Etta James points to her star after an unveiling ceremony on the Walk of Fame, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. The singer's manager says Etta James has died in Southern California. Lupe De Leon tells The Associated Press the singer died early Friday, Jan. 20, 2012 at Riverside Community Hospital. De Leon says the cause of death is complications of leukemia. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 1993, photo, singer Etta James, left, gets a hug from fellow singer K d Lang as she is inducted to the Rock and Roll hall fame, in Los Angeles. The singer's manager says Etta James has died in Southern California. Lupe De Leon tells The Associated Press the singer died early Friday, Jan. 20, 2012 at Riverside Community Hospital. De Leon says the cause of death is complications of leukemia. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Etta James' performance of the enduring classic "At Last" was the embodiment of refined soul: Angelic-sounding strings harkened the arrival of her passionate yet measured vocals as she sang tenderly about a love finally realized after a long and patient wait.

In real life, little about James was as genteel as that song. The platinum blonde's first hit was a saucy R&B number about sex, and she was known as a hell-raiser who had tempestuous relationships with her family, her men and the music industry. Then she spent years battling a drug addiction that she admitted sapped away at her great talents.

The 73-year-old died on Friday at Riverside Community Hospital from complications of leukemia, with her husband and sons at her side, her manager, Lupe De Leon said.

"It's a tremendous loss for her fans around the world," he said. "She'll be missed. A great American singer. Her music defied category."

James' spirit could not be contained ? perhaps that's what made her so magnetic in music; it is surely what made her so dynamic as one of R&B, blues and rock 'n' roll's underrated legends.

"The bad girls ... had the look that I liked," she wrote in her 1995 autobiography, "Rage to Survive." ''I wanted to be rare, I wanted to be noticed, I wanted to be exotic as a Cotton Club chorus girl, and I wanted to be obvious as the most flamboyant hooker on the street. I just wanted to be."

"Etta James was a pioneer. Her ever-changing sound has influenced rock and roll, rhythm and blues, pop, soul and jazz artists, marking her place as one of the most important female artists of our time," said Rock and Roll Hall of Fame President and CEO Terry Stewart. "From Janis Joplin to Joss Stone, an incredible number of performers owe their debts to her. There is no mistaking the voice of Etta James, and it will live forever."

Despite the reputation she cultivated, she would always be remembered best for "At Last." The jazz-inflected rendition wasn't the original, but it would become the most famous and the song that would define her as a legendary singer. Over the decades, brides used it as their song down the aisle and car companies to hawk their wares, and it filtered from one generation to the next through its inclusion in movies like "American Pie." Perhaps most famously, President Obama and the first lady danced to a version at his inauguration ball.

The tender, sweet song belied the turmoil in her personal life. James ? born Jamesetta Hawkins ? was born in Los Angeles to a mother whom she described as a scam artist, a substance abuser and a fleeting presence during her youth. She never knew her father, although she was told and had believed, that he was the famous billiards player Minnesota Fats. He neither confirmed nor denied it: when they met, he simply told her: "I don't remember everything. I wish I did, but I don't."

She was raised by Lula and Jesse Rogers, who owned the rooming house where her mother once lived in. The pair brought up James in the Christian faith, and as a young girl, her voice stood out in the church choir. James landed the solos in the choir and became so well known, she said that Hollywood stars would come to see her perform.

But she wouldn't stay a gospel singer for long. Rhythm and blues lured her away from the church, and she found herself drawn to the grittiness of the music.

"My mother always wanted me to be a jazz singer, but I always wanted to be raunchy," she recalled in her book.

She was doing just that when bandleader Johnny Otis found her singing on San Francisco street corners with some girlfriends in the early 1950s. Otis, a legend in his own right, died on Tuesday.

"At the time, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters had a hit with 'Work With Me, Annie,' and we decided to do an answer. We didn't think we would get in show business, we were just running around making up answers to songs," James told The Associated Press in 1987.

And so they replied with the song, "Roll With Me, Henry."

When Otis heard it, he told James to get her mother's permission to accompany him to Los Angeles to make a recording. Instead, the 15-year-old singer forged her mother's name on a note claiming she was 18.

"At that time, you weren't allowed to say 'roll' because it was considered vulgar. So when Georgia Gibbs did her version, she renamed it 'Dance With Me, Henry' and it went to No. 1 on the pop charts," the singer recalled. The Gibbs song was one of several in the early rock era when white singers got hits by covering songs by black artists, often with sanitized lyrics.

After her 1955 debut, James toured with Otis' revue, sometimes earning only $10 a night. In 1959, she signed with Chicago's legendary Chess label, began cranking out the hits and going on tours with performers such as Bobby Vinton, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Everly Brothers.

"We would travel on four buses to all the big auditoriums. And we had a lot of fun," she recalled in 1987.

James recorded a string of hits in the late 1950s and '60s including "Trust In Me," ''Something's Got a Hold On Me," ''Sunday Kind of Love," ''All I Could Do Was Cry," and of course, "At Last."

"(Chess Records founder) Leonard Chess was the most aware of anyone. He went up and down the halls of Chess announcing, 'Etta's crossed over! Etta's crossed over!' I still didn't know exactly what that meant, except that maybe more white people were listening to me. The Chess brothers kept saying how I was their first soul singer, that I was taking their label out of the old Delta blues, out of rock and into the modern era. Soul was the new direction," she wrote in her autobiography. "But in my mind, I was singing old style, not new."

In 1967, she cut one of the most highly regarded soul albums of all time, "Tell Mama," an earthy fusion of rock and gospel music featuring blistering horn arrangements, funky rhythms and a churchy chorus. A song from the album, "Security," was a top 40 single in 1968.

Her professional success, however, was balanced against personal demons, namely a drug addiction.

"I was trying to be cool," she told the AP in 1995, explaining what had led her to try heroin.

"I hung out in Harlem and saw Miles Davis and all the jazz cats," she continued. "At one time, my heavy role models were all druggies. Billie Holiday sang so groovy. Is that because she's on drugs? It was in my mind as a young person. I probably thought I was a young Billie Holiday, doing whatever came with that."

She was addicted to the drug for years, beginning in 1960, and it led to a harrowing existence that included time behind bars. It sapped her singing abilities and her money, eventually, almost destroying her career.

It would take her at least two decades to beat her drug problem. Her husband, Artis Mills, even went to prison for years, taking full responsibility for drugs during an arrest even though James was culpable.

"My management was suffering. My career was in the toilet. People tried to help, but I was hell-bent on getting high," she wrote of her drug habit in 1980.

She finally quit the habit and managed herself for a while, calling up small clubs and asking them, "Have you ever heard of Etta James?" in order to get gigs. Eventually, she got regular bookings ? even drawing Elizabeth Taylor as an audience member. In 1984, she was tapped to sing the national anthem at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and her career got the resurgent boost it needed, though she fought addiction again when she got hooked on painkillers in the late 1980s.

Drug addiction wasn't her only problem. She struggled with her weight, and often performed from a wheelchair as she got older and heavier. In the early 2000s, she had weight-loss surgery and shed some 200 pounds.

James performed well into her senior years, and it was "At Last" that kept bringing her the biggest ovations. The song was a perennial that never aged, and on Jan. 20, 2009, as crowds celebrated that ? at last ? an African-American had become president of the United States, the song played as the first couple danced.

But it was superstar Beyonce who serenaded the Obamas, not the legendary singer. Beyonce had portrayed James in "Cadillac Records," a big-screen retelling of Chess Records' heyday, and had started to claim "At Last" as her own.

An audio clip surfaced of James at a concert shortly after the inauguration, saying she couldn't stand the younger singer and that Beyonce had "no business singing my song." But she told the New York Daily News later that she was joking, even though she had been hurt that she did not get the chance to participate in the inauguration.

Upon hearing of her death, Beyonce released a statement on her website that read: "This is a huge loss. Etta James was one of the greatest vocalists of our time. I am so fortunate to have met such a queen. Her musical contributions will last a lifetime. Playing Etta James taught me so much about myself, and singing her music inspired me to be a stronger artist. When she effortlessly opened her mouth, you could hear her pain and triumph. Her deeply emotional way of delivering a song told her story with no filter. She was fearless, and had guts. She will be missed."

James did get her accolades over the years. She was inducted into the Rock Hall in 1993, captured a Grammy in 2003 for best contemporary blues album for "Let's Roll," one in 2004 for best traditional blues album for "Blues to the Bone" and one for best jazz vocal performance for 1994's "Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday." She was also awarded a special Grammy in 2003 for lifetime achievement and got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Her health went into decline, however, and by 2011, she was being cared for at home by a personal doctor.

She suffered from dementia, kidney problems and leukemia. Her husband and her two sons fought over control of her $1 million estate, though a deal was later struck keeping Mills as the conservator and capping the singer's expenses at $350,000. In December 2011, her physician announced that her leukemia was terminal, and asked for prayers for the singer.

In October 2011, it was announced that James was retiring from recording, and a final studio recording, "The Dreamer," was released, featuring the singer taking on classic songs, from Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Dreamer" to Guns N' Roses "Welcome To the Jungle" ? still rocking, and a fitting end to her storied career.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-20-US-Obit-Etta-James/id-ad552b78769540b2ad7e772be59af08b

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