Join us for Microsoft's last-ever CES keynote (Monday, 6:30 p.m. PT)

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer during last year's CES keynote address.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

LAS VEGAS--Get ready for Microsoft's CES swansong.

Microsoft announced plans last month to walk away from the Consumer Electronics Show after a nearly two-decade involvement with the confab and the organization behind it. The 2012 keynote and giant booth presence will be Microsoft's last.

That makes tomorrow night's keynote address from Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer the beginning of the end. We'll be there to bring you the news, live from the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Microsoft isn't planning major announcements. The company has said that the timing of the annual confab doesn't generally align with its product news milestones, the key reason it's bailing on the show.

But Ballmer is bound to give a look at some of the upcoming trim ultrabook computers running Windows 7. He'll likely demo some previously disclosed features of Windows 8, which should debut toward the end of 2012. He'll almost certainly give a nod to some new handsets running Windows Phone 7.5, the company's mobile phone operating system that's been getting some praise from the tech press. And Ballmer will use the forum of the CES keynote to discuss the momentum Microsoft's Xbox video game console--the top selling console in the United States--continues to gain.

We'll be using ScribbleLive to bring you the news. Come back to this post and stay tuned with live text and photos from Microsoft's CES keynote finale. The event kicks off at 6:30 p.m. PT.

Source: http://www.cnet.com/8301-33372_1-57354774/join-us-for-microsofts-last-ever-ces-keynote-monday-6-30-p.m-pt/?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-Microsoft

nfl scores nfl scores college football scores arkansas razorbacks arkansas football maggie daley black friday online deals

Delays at Union Station impact hundreds

By Rosemary Sobol Tribune reporter

8:27 p.m. CST, January 9, 2012

Hundreds of commuters were stuck at Union Station during the evening rush after signal problems jammed up several outbound and inbound trains, officials said.

Trains were delayed as much as 50 minutes, mainly on the Burlington Northern Sante Fe and SouthWest Service lines, according to Metra?s website.

?It?s next to impossible to get through,?? said a commuter trying to board a train for Western Springs. ?Hundreds of commuters are crammed in walkways and in loading areas.??

Other commuters complained of incorrect information on schedule boards and unintelligible announcements over the public address system.

But they said the crowds remained generally calm.

?They were good natured and well behaved,?? a commuter said. ?There was some pushing but no fighting.??

A Metra spokesman did not details of what caused the delays, other than to say there were switching and signaling problems.

rsobol@tribune.com

?

Source: http://feeds.chicagotribune.com/~r/chicagotribune/news/~3/cYzzwoiIwHQ/chi-delays-at-union-station-reportedly-affect-hundreds-of-commuters-20120109,0,5621500.story

annie annie zuccotti park leymah gbowee gabby giffords gabby giffords hunger games trailer

Obama's 'Alice In Wonderland' White House Party With Tim Burton In 2009 Revealed: Report

President Obama threw a star-studded, "Alice In Wonderland"-themed Halloween party at the White House in 2009, New York Times correspondent Jodi Kantor writes in her new book, "The Obamas."

The party, kept under wraps to avoid public disapproval and provide fuel to the conservative Tea Party movement, saw the State Dining Room transformed into a Tim Burton-inspired fantasyland. It resembled the world of the filmmaker's impending Disney-distributed adaptation of the famous Lewis Carroll story, which was released in March 2010.

Kantor writes (via the NY Post) that Burton made up the room "in his signature creepy-comic style... He had turned the room into the Mad Hatter's tea party, with a long table set with antique-looking linens, enormous stuffed animals in chairs, and tiered serving plates with treats like bone-shaped meringue cookies... Fruit punch was served in blood vials at the bar. Burton's own Mad Hatter, the actor Johnny Depp, presided over the scene in full costume, standing up on a table to welcome everyone in character."

George Lucas, the book says, sent over the original Chewbacca costume for the occasion. Kantor also writes that the President and First Lady's daughters, Malia and Sasha, and their friends were entertained with a magic show in the East Room.

The White House has cautioned that the book is "an overdramatization of old news, is about a relationship between two people whom the author has not spoken to in years. The author last interviewed the Obamas in 2009 for a magazine piece, and did not interview them for this book."

Obama had a slew of active celebrity supporters during his campaign in 2008; Oprah, Bruce Springsteen, will.i.am, Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson, amongst many others, worked to secure his election by making videos, campaign appearances and speaking out in public. When he took office, stars such as Will Smith, Anne Hathaway and Ron Howard attended his inauguration, while many others took part in parties that week in Washington to celebrate his new presidency. Beyonce sang at his Inaugural Ball.

In August, the President's 50th birthday party featured guests such as Chris Rock, Stevie Wonder, Tom Hanks and Jay-Z.

For more, click over to the NY Post.

'; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/08/obamas-alice-in-wonderland-white-house-party_n_1192884.html

gio gonzalez san francisco fire patti labelle the weeknd the weeknd payroll tax payroll tax

TSX Closes Lower on Energy Share Drop, up on Week

(Reuters) -- Toronto's main stock index finished lower for the first time this year on Friday, as resource and financial issues fell after Canadian and U.S. jobs data failed to impress investors.

The market initially rose on data that showed the U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs in December and the jobless rate dipped to a near three-year low. But on second glance Friday's report underwhelmed in the wake of Thursday's standout private sector ADP report.

"Investors were setting themselves up for a really good jobs number and it didn't happen," said Elvis Picardo, strategist and vice president of research at Global Securities.

Canada's employment picture was worse. A Statistics Canada report showed the economy gained 17,500 jobs in December, but the unemployment rate rose to its highest level since April and the new positions were all part time, a sign the economy is slowing.

"It's the third month in a row that the Canadian numbers have come in below expectations while the U.S. has posted incremental improvement," said Picardo. "It seems to indicate that we may be in for a challenging year ahead."

Seven of the Canadian market's 10 main sectors were down, led by a 0.6-percent drop in energy and material shares.

Like us on Facebook

Talisman Energy TLM.TO, down 5.4 percent to C$12.68, and Potash Corp (POT.TO:?Quote), which slid 2.3 percent to C$42.94, led the day's decliners.

Potash, the world's biggest fertilizer maker, said it will halt production of the crop nutrient at its mine at Allan, Saskatchewan, for four weeks, its third plant shutdown in the province this winter, as demand softens.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE closed down 48.76 pts, or 0.4 pct, at 12,188.64, ending five straight days of gains.

For the first week of the new year, the index was still up nearly 2 percent as financial and resource stocks were boosted by encouraging U.S. and China economic data that offset concerns about Europe's lingering debt crisis.

On Friday, financials were down 0.4 percent, led by Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO:?Quote), which slipped 0.6 percent to C$52.05. The sector was still up more than 1 percent so far this year.

"At this point in time with some indication that the (Canadian) economy will be slowing down you could see some profit taking creep back into Canadian banks and the rest of the financial sector," said Picardo.

Meanwhile, Europe's debt crisis stayed in the spotlight. The euro hit a near 16-month low against a robust greenback as investors compared sovereign funding concerns and the outlook for the euro zone to an improving U.S. economic recovery.

Next week, investor attention will shift to the start of North American earnings season as a further gauge on the health of the market on this side of the Atlantic.

"Good numbers will tend to push Europe on to the backburner for now, but if the numbers don't beat expectations then sentiment could be hit again," noted Picardo.

Most Canadian companies don't start reporting earnings until later in the month.

($1 = $1.02 Canadian)

Source: http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/278003/20120107/tsx-closes-lower-energy-share-drop-up.htm

jim thome fun fun fun fest fun fun fun fest move your money alabama vs lsu alabama vs lsu robert schuller

Sony Ericsson reveals camera-focused teaser ahead of CES 2012

Sony Ericsson has revealed a quartet of clues to it's "big" and "exciting" news for CES 2012, consisting of camera-related pictures.

We've got a close-up of the camera shutter button on a graphite-coloured handset, a shutter close-up with HD marked below it, an onscreen still/video option key and a microSD port to feast our eyes upon.

All these camera-related tidbits tie in quite nicely with the 13MP camera we're expecting to see on the LT28at but more likely its pointing to the 12MP snapper of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc HD.

Familiar

As the eagle-eyed bods over at SlashGear point out, the images all bear similarities to the Xperia Arc S which lends further credence to the Arc HD theory (and the fact that one of the pictures actually says HD is a bit of a clue too).

Sony Ericsson's tantalising pictures were posted to the company's Facebook page after the last tease was publisehd on Google+ - will a Twitter clue complete the social networking big three?

Whatever else happens, you can be sure that we'll find out all there is to know at CES 2012 next week.

From Facebook via SlashGear

Source: http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/sony-ericsson-reveals-camera-focused-teaser-ahead-of-ces-2012-1051670?src=rss&attr=all

georgia bulldogs football winter classic 2012 2012 nfl draft order rashard mendenhall rachel zoe nfl playoff schedule 2012 mt rainier national park

Mom's Poverty, Diabetes Might Raise ADHD Risk in Kids (HealthDay)

MONDAY, Jan. 2 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests that the combination of poverty and having diabetes during pregnancy significantly raises the risk of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a woman's offspring.

Children born to such moms are as much as 14 times more likely to have ADHD by the age of 6, the study found. ADHD is a behavioral disorder characterized by difficulty focusing, impulsive behaviors and hyperactivity.

A report on the finding appears in the January issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

The new study included 212 children. Of these, 115 had "low socioeconomic status" (lower-income) moms, moms with gestational diabetes (arising in pregnancy), or both. Ninety-seven children had neither. Researchers evaluated these children for the signs and symptoms of ADHD when they were aged 3 or 4, and again at age 6.

Moms who had either gestational diabetes or were poor were twice as likely to have children with ADHD, but the combination of these two risk factors was even more powerful.

Exactly how poverty and gestational diabetes affect risk for ADHD is not fully understood, but the finding suggests there may be an opportunity to intervene early in pregnancy to prevent ADHD. Women of lower socioeconomic status tend to eat less healthy foods, which can boost their risk for diabetes, noted study senior author Dr. Jeffrey M. Halperin, a distinguished professor of psychology at Queens College and a professorial lecturer in psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.

His advice? "Get good obstetrical care, have your blood glucose levels monitored regularly, eat a healthy diet that is low in saturated fat and sugar, and this will certainly decrease your child's risk for ADHD, as well as for other cognitive and behavioral problems."

What's more, "if a woman had gestational diabetes during one pregnancy, she is much more likely to have it in later pregnancies, so perhaps one can take preemptive steps to reduce this risk," he said.

The new study provides "one more piece of evidence that ADHD has multiple causes," said Dr. Jon A. Shaw, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Miami School of Medicine. "It is important to recognize early risk factors for ADHD because this gives us the chance to develop strategies to prevent it."

Dr. Joel Nigg, a professor of psychiatry, pediatrics and behavioral neuroscience at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, wrote an editorial accompanying the new finding. "Keeping your health in check during pregnancy may be important for your child's physical and mental health," he said. "The evidence is mounting, and this raises the incentive to get good prenatal care."

More information

Learn more about gestational diabetes at the American Diabetes Association.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120104/hl_hsn/momspovertydiabetesmightraiseadhdriskinkids

heavy d dead heavy d dead alaska weather alaska weather election results gop debate live gop debate live

Romney brings in Christie in Iowa final push (Reuters)

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) ? White House hopeful Mitt Romney brought in help from New Jersey on Friday to bolster his prospects for a win in Iowa next week that would put him in the lead in the Republican presidential race.

Romney campaigned alongside tough-talking New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in a final frenzy of candidate appearances before Iowa launches the state-by-state contests to choose the Republican nominee who will face Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 2012 election.

Romney, buoyed by an NBC/Marist poll that showed him leading the field ahead of Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, was upbeat about his chances in the Midwestern state that jilted him for former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in 2008.

"This feels wonderful," Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, told Reuters as he worked a ropeline of supporters outside a grocery store in West Des Moines. "I tell you, the crowds and the enthusiasm couldn't be more wonderful."

The outcome of the caucuses is by no means certain and polls have been volatile as Iowans deliberate over who to choose and the candidates jockey for position in the final days.

The NBC/Marist poll of likely caucus participants put Romney on top at 23 percent, just ahead of the 21 percent for libertarian Texas Congressman Ron Paul.

Rick Santorum, a social conservative and former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, has seen his prospects improve as influential evangelicals flock to his side. Santorum jumped to third place at 15 percent in the NBC/Marist poll, followed closely by Texas Governor Rick Perry at 14 percent.

The top three or four finishers in Iowa on Tuesday will have momentum heading to New Hampshire on January 10, while the rest will have to make tough decisions about whether to continue.

POWERFUL SURROGATE

Romney brought a powerful surrogate to Iowa in Christie, who is popular with conservatives and might shore up Romney's right wing.

Christie, who has gained a following among Republicans for taking on New Jersey's political establishment, urged a crowd of about 1,000 people to "take nothing for granted" and get out to the caucuses to vote for Romney.

He praised Romney as the best hopes of defeating Obama, who he said has not made good on his 2008 pledge to bring "hope and change" to America.

"Let me tell you, after three years of Obama, we are hopeless and changeless and we need Mitt Romney to bring us back," he said.

Christie told reporters he would not rule out joining Romney as his vice presidential running mate if Romney becomes the Republican nominee.

Former Iowa front-runner Newt Gingrich sank to 13 percent in the NBC/Marist poll. The former House of Representatives speaker, buffeted by negative ads and attacks for weeks, got choked up talking about his mother during a campaign appearance.

Gingrich wiped tears from his eyes in a display of emotion that was reminiscent of Hillary Clinton's teary moment on the Democratic campaign trail in 2008.

At an event aimed at moms, Gingrich lost his composure repeatedly when asked about his own mother, who suffered from depression and bipolar disorder before she died.

"I do policy much easier than I do personal," Gingrich said by way of recovery, to laughter from the crowd.

The candidates took shots at each other and argued they have the conservative policy ideas to help the United States trigger job growth.

"I will send a signal to our country's job creators and to the world that the days of socialist policies are over, that our free market is once again open for business," Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann told supporters in Urbandale.

Romney has shied away from going all-out in Iowa but is hoping the anti-Romney vote is splintered sufficiently among his rivals to allow him to score a victory and give him an aura of inevitability heading to what is essentially home turf for him in New Hampshire.

Some in the crowd at his event with Christie came for the opportunity to hear the New Jersey governor, not Romney.

"I don't want Chris Christie necessarily to run for vice president with Romney, although that would be okay, but he needs to be president, I think, Chris Christie," said John Brown of West Des Moines.

Romney, a multi-millionaire who plays down his wealth by talking about the poor conditions his father experienced, accused Obama of elitism, criticizing the president's vacation in Hawaii and likening his stewardship of the U.S. economy to 18th century French queen Marie Antoinette, who famously declared of the peasants "Let them eat cake."

Romney seized on comments Obama has made that the U.S. economy would be even weaker if stimulus measures he pushed through Congress had not been enacted.

"The other day President Obama said it could be worse, can you imagine hearing that from a pessimistic president? 'It could be worse.' That goes down with Marie Antoinette 'Let them eat cake'," Romney said.

"He just finished his 90th round of golf. We've got 25 million Americans that are out of work or stopped looking for work or underemployed."

The Democratic National Committee said Romney's own personal wealth undermined his message.

"It is actually laughable that the "Quarter-Billion-Dollar Man" would call President Obama out of touch - and use the example of a French monarch to make the point," said DNC spokeswoman Melanie Roussell.

(Editing by John O'Callaghan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111230/pl_nm/us_usa_campaign

footlocker julia gillard julia gillard pecan pie the hobbit trailer prometheus trailer red velvet cake recipe