Nasdaq rises 1 percent (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? The Nasdaq advanced more than 1 percent while the Dow and S&P 500 added to gains on Wednesday as optimism about potential help from the International Monetary Fund for Europe.

Technology shares led the rise on the S&P 500, with the S&P technology index (.GPST) up 1.5 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was up 79.58 points, or 0.64 percent, at 12,561.65. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) was up 10.66 points, or 0.82 percent, at 1,304.33. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was up 32.55 points, or 1.19 percent, at 2,760.63.

(Reporting By Caroline Valetkevitch; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120118/bs_nm/us_markets_stocks

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Copyright, Darwin, SOPA and ScienceOnline2012

So I?m sitting in an airport on a long layover in the middle of the night, excited to be heading to ScienceOnline 2012 for my 4th time. ?CNN is on repeat, talking about the SOPA protest blackouts by Wikipedia and others. I?ve for science-based imagery on my mind.?

Like many science bloggers, I enjoy a good dressing-down of superstition and religion in the face of facts and reason now and again. On the plane, I was thinking about how the simple symbols can sometimes be the most powerful. I?m not a graphic designer, my work is too messy and complex, but I appreciate powerful designs when I see them.?

In my portrait of Charles Darwin. ?Darwin Took Steps?, I included the little tree of speciation Darwin had sketched and famously written, ?I think.??

It?s an incredibly descriptive little diagram. It?s possible to imagine other ways to depict evolution by natural ?selection: a wildfire, spiral river-eddies, interlocking Venn circles, perhaps.?

But Charles made an awkward, halting little tree that still describes his theory well even after the discovery of DNA and cataloguing the genome.?

I was thinking: what if some skeptic, atheist group really promoted it, really rattled religious cages successfully and it became an important, loud rallying symbol? In the news, punk kids wearing it on their knapsacks. Talking head on CNN dismissing stunts an graffiti without understanding it.?

Would that be what Charles Darwin would have wanted for his little sketch? By all accounts he tried to avoid needless controversy while preserving the idea. (It could be easily argued that better science ed is a necessary controversy.)

Charles Darwin drew that little tree, but due to copyright laws, there?s no claim he can posthumously make for it. Or his estate. So it could be used by a noisy group he would have disavowed for their tactics and there?s nothing anyone could say about it. Because copyright eventually expires, and the most impact-full images are remembered and echo through culture. The echo might get distorted but we still hear/see it.?

Da Vinci, in his attempts at joining noble society would no doubt have lost his temper when Dadaist Marcel Duchamp drew a moustache on a print of the Mona Lisa. But even before copyright laws, our society understand that sometimes preserving images from the past means re-imagining them.?

This is why, even as an artist and content-creator, I oppose SOPA. Eventually, all artists have to let their creations live in the world. Punishing the unfettered creativity of the Internet and sometimes, even the artist?s own fans is just fighting against the life-cycle of an image. Creators *do* have the right to nurse their creations along.?

Let them go. At your own speed, of course, make your career, control your creations, steer them to the right clients and in service of the right causes and genres.?

But one day, they?re going to go off on their own.?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=f8666442aaf538f09ca68f320fad648b

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Romney says he pays about 15 percent in income tax

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks to reporters after campaigning at the Florence Civic Center in Florence, S.C., Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks to reporters after campaigning at the Florence Civic Center in Florence, S.C., Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at the Florence Civic Center in Florence, S.C., Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

FLORENCE, S.C. (AP) ? After weeks of stalling, Mitt Romney did an about-face on Tuesday and said he will release his tax returns in April and that they will show he pays close to 15 percent of his income in taxes.

Romney, a multimillionaire, has been under pressure from his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination and others to release the information. He'd previously said he wouldn't release it. He suggested Tuesday that he would make public only one year's worth of information, for 2011.

Speaking to reporters after a campaign stop in South Carolina, Romney said most of his income comes from investments, not regular wages and salary. The tax rate on investment income is 15 percent, much lower than the 35 percent rate applied to wages for those in the highest tax bracket.

"What's the effective rate I've been paying? It's probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything," Romney said. "Because my last 10 years, I've ... my income comes overwhelmingly from investments made in the past, rather than ordinary income or rather than earned annual. I got a little bit of income from my book, but I gave that all away. And then I get speaker's fees from time to time, but not very much."

Romney has resisted calls to release his tax returns, insisting that he and his wife, Ann, have complied with federal law that requires them to disclose information about their financial holdings.

But in a debate Monday night, Texas Gov. Rick Perry insisted that Romney release his returns, saying that the party needs to fully scrutinize its nominee now instead of later. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he will release his tax information this week.

"I know that if I'm the nominee, people will want to see the most recent year, and see what happened in the most recent year," Romney said, suggesting he'd release the couple's 2011 tax information. "We'll wait until the tax returns for the most recent year are completed, then release them."

Romney's wealth ? he is worth between $190 and $250 million ? puts him among the wealthiest Americans. But if most of his income is from investments, it could help him to significantly lower his federal tax bill compared to people who make money in other ways.

The top federal tax rate for investment income ? qualified dividends and long-term capital gains ? is 15 percent. By comparison, the top tax rate for wages is 35 percent, on taxable income above $388,350. Wages are also subject to Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes.

At 15 percent, Romney's federal income tax rate would still be higher than the tax rate paid by most Americans.

On average, households making between $50,000 and $75,000 will pay a federal income tax rate of 5.7 percent this year, according to projections by the Tax Policy Center a Washington think tank.

However, when payroll and other taxes are included, that same household would pay an average federal tax rate of 16.6 percent.

Overall, the average American household will pay 9.3 percent in federal income taxes ? and 19.7 percent in all federal taxes.

In the 2008 presidential race, Republican John McCain released two years of his tax returns and then-Sen. Barack Obama released six years of tax information.

___

Ohlemacher reported from Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-17-US-Romney/id-90e1fcfd06874da18721d6660724af95

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Sprint Disabled Carrier IQ on its Phones (The Atlantic Wire)

As federal investigations against Carrier IQ ramp up this week, Sprint said today it will be removing the company's software from its phones. The company has come into the public eye in recent weeks as folks on the internet found evidence that its software was collecting data, and even recording people's keystrokes, supposedly to?gauge?how well phones were working, but creating suspicion they might be?collecting?and using the data nefariously. The company has denied any claims of wrongdoing and says it will cooperate as governments begin to look into the affair. Sprint wasn't shy about saying today's decision was made with the concern of its customers, who probably didn't like finding out that an invisible something-or-other was maybe?reading?their text messages. From the Sprint statement:

We have weighed customer concerns and we have disabled use of the tool so that diagnostic information and data is no longer being collected. We are further evaluating options regarding this diagnostic software as well as Sprint's diagnostic needs

They are the first company to announce they're eliminating the software, though a few phone?companies?like Verizon have already stated that they'd never included it in their phones.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/atlantic/20111216/tc_atlantic/sprintdisabledcarrieriqitsphones46335

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Hawaii parade honors Japanese-American WWII vets (Providence Journal)

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HBT: Cubs said to be favorites to get Fielder

Yesterday there were conflicting reports about the Cubs? interest in Prince Fielder, with Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com saying they were ?stepping up their pursuit? and Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe saying they?re ?not major players? for the free agent first baseman.

Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com chimed in on the situation today, writing that ?the Cubs are the front-runners to sign Fielder? while also cautioning that ?these negotiations might only be in their early stages.?

According to Rosenthal the Mariners appear to be the Cubs? primary competition and he reports that neither the Marlins nor the Rangers will make a play for Fielder. Another option is the Orioles, but Rosenthal views that as unlikely unless Fielder?s other suitors dry up.

For now at least Rosenthal views Fielder as ?the Cubs? player to lose.?

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/16/report-prince-fielder-is-the-cubs-player-to-lose/related/

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PFT: Ratliff, 'Boys beat writer in locker scuffle

Getty Images

Blaine Gabbert is playing so badly right now that the Jaguars may consider something practically unheard of in the NFL: Taking Top 10 quarterbacks in back-to-back drafts.

Gabbert?s horrible game in Thursday night?s loss to the Falcons has continued a horrible rookie season for the quarterback the Jaguars chose with the 10th overall pick in this year?s NFL draft. Gabbert is last in the league with a passer rating of 65.6, and he looks lost out there. It?s tough to see why the Jaguars? next coach, whoever he is, would want Gabbert as his starting quarterback.

So would the Jaguars, who will likely draft somewhere between the fourth and 10th overall picks, take a quarterback? It?s impossible to say right now, as we have no idea who the new coach will be or what kind of offense he?ll run. We also don?t know where new owner Shahid Khan stands on the matter, and whether he?ll take a hands-on or hands-off approach to the draft. But if Baylor?s Robert Griffin III or USC?s Matt Barkley is available to the Jaguars, they?d have to think long and hard about drafting one of them in the Top 10.

That almost never happens. The Cowboys used their first-round picks in 1989 and 1990 on quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Steve Walsh, but the 1990 pick was used in the supplemental draft. (The Cowboys traded Walsh to the Saints in 1990.) The last time a team used consecutive first-round picks in the regular draft on quarterbacks was in 1982-83, when the Baltimore Colts drafted Art Schlichter and John Elway. But that was a highly unusual circumstance in which neither one of those quarterbacks played for the team in 1983: Schlichter was suspended for the entire 1983 season, and the Colts traded Elway to the Broncos before he ever played a down for Baltimore.

Before the Colts, you have to go all the way back to the early 1960s Los Angeles Rams to find a team that used first-round draft picks on quarterbacks in back-to-back years. The Rams actually drafted quarterbacks in the first round three years in a row: Roman Gabriel in 1962, Terry Baker in 1963 and Bill Munson in 1964. But Baker was a college quarterback who played halfback in the NFL, so that?s not quite the same thing, either. Prior to those Rams, the last team to draft quarterbacks in back-to-back first rounds was the 49ers, who took Earl Morrall in 1956 and John Brodie in 1957. The 49ers traded Morrall to the Steelers before the 1957 season.

What does this history lesson tell us? NFL teams only take quarterbacks in back-to-back first rounds under the most extraordinary of circumstances. If Jaguars G.M. Gene Smith takes a quarterback in the first round a year after he took Gabbert 10th overall, he?ll be doing something NFL general managers just don?t do. But Gabbert might be bad enough to make the Jaguars do it.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/15/jay-ratliff-has-to-be-separated-from-cowboys-beat-writer/related/

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