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japan.internet.com recently reported on a sruvey by goo Research, their third regular survey into mobile phone users? email usage. Note that mobile phone here covers both existing feature phones and smartphones.
Between the 16th and 18th of January 2012 1,086 members of the computer-based goo Research monitor group who had also registered as mobile phone monitors completed a mobile phone-based (including smartphone) questionnaire. 58.8% of the sample were female, 2.9% in their teens, 26.8% in their twenties, 33.9% in their thirties, 25.6% in their forties, and 10.8% aged fifty or older.
Since getting my smartphone I?ve started using it as my main device for emailing my parents, as I cannot get as much time as I want on my real computers, and now with a better camera it is quite easy to attach photos. Furthermore, docomo?s sp-mode email tool offers now not just embedded animated emoji, but also full animation that dances all over the email page via a mechanism that I haven?t actually got round to investigating yet but I suspect is HTML 5 scripting.
Read more on: email,goo research,sp-modeQ1: Which is your main device for sending and receiving email, a computer or a mobile phone? (Sample size=1,086)
Computer (to SQ1) 32.6% Mobile phone, smartphone 51.8% Can?t say either way 12.6% Don?t have a computer 2.9% Q1SQ1: Why do you use a computer as your mail email device? (Sample size=354, multiple answer)
More used to writing email on computers 79.1% Easy to use 41.2% Don?t run up a data packet transmission bill 39.8% The email addresses of people I often communicate with are recorded on computer only 9.6% No good with mobile phones 6.8% Other 7.3% Some of the Other reasons were that the display was wider, speed was faster, better useability, and that one needed to attach files to messages.
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COMMENTARY | According to Florida Today, former Massachusetts Gov Mitt Romney journeyed to Florida's space coast and delivered a speech that was less visionary than that of his rival New Gingrich. But Romney does enjoy the endorsement of a group of aerospace giants.
While laying out four principles that his space policy would follow, Romney declined to state what his space policy or goals would be. He reiterated his desire for a committee to experts from across NASA, the military, the commercial sector, and academic to determine what that policy might be. He did not reiterate his opposition to a moon colony, however.
The Romney campaign released a letter of endorsement that decried the state of the space program under President Barack Obama and also suggested Romney would be the candidate best positioned to fix it.
The people signing the letter included former NASA administrator Mike Griffin, Apollo moonwalker Gene Cernan, shuttle era astronaut Bob Crippen, space tourism entrepreneur Eric Anderson and former space officials for various Republican administrations Scott Pace, Mark Albrecht and Peter Marquez, and William Martel, an Associate Professor of International Security Studies at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. According to Marcia Smith at Space Policy Online, Scott Pace heads Romney's space advisory team.
The group of aerospace heavyweights supporting Romney seems to offer a contradiction. While Romney has ridiculed the idea of a moon base or colony as proposed by Gingrich, a number of his advisers have been involved in return to the moon efforts, which are understood to involve establishing a moon base or colony.
Albrecht was the executive secretary of the National Space Council under President George H.W. Bush charged with trying to keep the Space Exploration Initiative, which included a lunar base, on track. Griffin was NASA administrator charged with running the canceled Constellation program, which also included a lunar base.
Romney has inoculated himself against the charge of being anti-space by having a group of aerospace heavy hitters endorse him. Also, whatever his advisers come up with is going to be less "grandiose" that Gingrich's proposal, even if -- as one might suspect -- it includes a lunar base. The maneuver is as adroit as it is cynical. Romney does not have to offer his own vision that can be sniped at. But he does offer a group of advisers that hint at a vision to come.
Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker . He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.
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Team Chara's Marian Gaborik, left, celebrates his second goal against Team Alfredson with teammate Marian Hossa during the first period of the NHL hockey All-Star game Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012 in Ottawa, Ontario. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Fred Chartrand)
Team Chara's Marian Gaborik, left, celebrates his second goal against Team Alfredson with teammate Marian Hossa during the first period of the NHL hockey All-Star game Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012 in Ottawa, Ontario. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Fred Chartrand)
Team Chara's Marian Gaborik celebrates his goal past Team Alfredson goaltender Henrik Lundqvist during the first period of the NHL All-Star hockey game on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Ottawa. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Fred Chartrand)
Team Chara's Marian Gaborik rounds the net after scoring past Team Alfredson goaltender Henrik Lundqvist during the first period of the NHL hockey All-Star game Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012 in Ottawa, Ontario. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Fred Chartrand
Team Chara's Marian Gaborik, center, is congratulated following his third goal past Team Alfredsson goaltender Jonathan Quick (32) by teammates Marain Hossa, left, and Dion Phaneuf during the second period of the NHL All-Star hockey game on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Ottawa, Ontario. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Sean Kilpatrick)
OTTAWA (AP) ? Marian Gaborik staked his claim to NHL All-Star game MVP honors.
The high-scoring Rangers forward scored twice in the first period against New York teammate Henrik Lundqvist, completed his hat trick in the second period with another goal, and added an assist in the third to carry Team Chara over Team Alfredsson 12-9 on Sunday.
Gaborik, who made his third All-Star appearance, became the 16th player to record a hat trick in the midseason showcase. The previous one was in 2008 by Columbus' Rick Nash, Gaborik's Western Conference teammate in that game.
It has already been a stellar season for Gaborik, who has a team-high 25 goals and 39 points for the Eastern Conference-leading Rangers.
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CHICAGO -- Maybe it's a good thing Michael Bisping and Chael Sonnen didn't have months to promote their fight tomorrow night on the UFC on Fox 2 at the United Center. One can only imagine the depths the trash talk would've sunk to.
Sonnen's testosterone replacement therapy is the popular subject this week for the Brit, who suggests that the American is less than a complete male. Early in the week on HDNet, Bisping alleged that Sonnen has a physical abnormality.
"[...] He's been submitted more times than I care to mention. Not to mention, the last time he lost a fight by submission, there were some issues involving performance enhancing drugs," Bisping said. "I don't know what the deal is. Apparently, he has one testicle. One testicle! This is why he uses performance enhancing drugs. He's gonna need more than one little ball to fight me next weekend!"
Sonnen served a one-year suspension for not properly disclosing that he was undergoing testosterone replacement therapy before his UFC 117 fight in California. Bisping is not a fan of fighter using TRT.
"If Sonnen needs TRT, then he's is the wrong sport. If you need TRT, then perhaps you should be carrying a purse and a handbag, and wearing a dress," Bisping told The Telegraph's Gareth A. Davies. "This is a fight sport, and Alpha males shouldn't need testosterone from anywhere else."
Strangely enough, that quote emerged from a conversation where Bisping discussed using a sports psychologist. That topic could certainly open the door for some counter-fire from Sonnen. Stay tuned, there's still 30-plus hours until the fight.
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ANN ARBOR, Michigan (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama, appearing before thousands of cheering students at the University of Michigan, touted his plan on Friday to reward colleges that keep their tuition under control with more federal aid as he makes school affordability a top election-year priority.
Obama, seeking to reform federal aid for students to pay spiraling college costs, unveiled fresh details of a proposal to make higher education affordable for more families that he first announced on Tuesday in his State of the Union address.
His plan is aimed at helping students pay for a higher education, which is seen as crucial for employment as the country is grappling with an 8.5 percent jobless rate. It also specifically targets the issue of income and access, a central focus of the November 6 presidential race that has zeroed in on the nation's widening wealth gap.
Obama's plan would have his administration redistribute campus-based aid, which is handled directly by schools, based on schools' performance: colleges that keep tuition costs in check and get students to graduate would get more money than other schools that do not.
"We're putting colleges on notice: you can't assume that you'll just jack up tuition every single year. If you can't stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers each year will go down," the Democratic president said at the speech that had all the trappings of a campaign event with striped bunting and a crowd-filled stage.
Obama couched his remarks in the broad populist themes of his re-election campaign - of sticking up for the middle class, rewarding companies for bringing jobs back home, and ensuring that the rich pay higher taxes.
"We should push colleges to do better. We should hold them accountable if they don't," he told a crowd of about 4,000 people.
Low-interest federal Perkins loans for poor students will also be expanded to $10 billion a year, the White House said in a statement. Another $1 billion grant will go to states that reform their higher education systems, it added.
Obama also called for a "college scorecard" that would give prospective students and families a uniform, easy-to-read look at information such as tuition and graduation rates across all universities -- just as labels on food packages offer a standard look at essential facts.
Other proposed changes would require congressional action, something many analysts and others see as unlikely in an election year.
Obama wants lawmakers to increase the number of work-study jobs over the next five years. He also has called on Congress to block an increase in interest rates on federal student loans set to take effect July 1, doubling from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent for about 7.4 million students with Stafford loans, low-interest loans directly from the Department of Education.
(Writing By Susan Heavey; additional reporting by Alister Bull in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham and Vicki Allen)
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Courtesy of reszatonline, who brings us the following allegory by way of Tim Coldwell, we are happy to distill (no pun intended) all of modern economics and finance in a narrative that is 500 words long, and involved booze and broke alcoholics: in other words everyone should be able to understand the underlying message. And while the immediate application of this allegory is to explain events in Europe, it succeeds in capturing all the moving pieces of modern finance.
From reszatonline
Helga is the proprietor of a bar.
She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar.
To solve this problem, she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later.
Helga keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers? loans).
Word gets around about Helga?s ?drink now, pay later? marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Helga?s bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in town.
By providing her customers freedom from immediate payment demands, Helga gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Consequently, Helga?s gross sales volume increases massively.
A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Helga?s borrowing limit.
He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral!!!
At the bank?s corporate headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS.These ?securities? then are bundled and traded on international securities markets.
Naive investors don?t really understand that the securities being sold to them as ?AA? ?Secured Bonds? really are debts of unemployed alcoholics.
Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb!!!, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation?s leading brokerage houses.
One day, even though the bond prices still are climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Helga?s bar.
He so informs Helga.
Helga then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts.
Since Helga cannot fulfil her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy.
The bar closes and Helga?s 11 employees lose their jobs.
Overnight, DRINKBOND prices drop by 90%. The collapsed bond asset value destroys the bank?s liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community.
The suppliers of Helga?s bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms? pension funds in the BOND securities. They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds.
Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers. Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multibillion dollar no-strings attached cash infusion from the government.
The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers who have never been in Helga?s bar.
(38 votes)
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PARK CITY, Utah ? Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana came to the Sundance Film Festival to promote their closing-night film, "The Words."
The two actors play a married couple in the movie, which follows an aspiring writer who gains fame when he finds an old manuscript and passes it off as his own.
The pair avoided any appearance of their reported off-screen romance by staying apart from one another while posing for photos and giving interviews to support the film. Saldana did affectionately touch Cooper as they passed in a hallway, though.
Both had been to Sundance before, where snow fell throughout the festival and the weather dipped into the teens. Still, Saldana maintained her fashionista edge.
"I did bring warm stuff but I also brought fashion-y stuff. Come on. You've got to pay the price, even if it's too cold," she said.
The 33-year-old actress wore green suede shoes with spiked stiletto heels despite the slushy conditions.
"They're kind of fabulous. They're also lethal. So I have to be really careful, and somebody has to be careful not to piss me off," she said with a smile. "Yeah right. I'm just trying not to fall. It's like `Please don't fall. Please don't fall,' if I'm walking."
Cooper's first time at the festival was 12 years earlier with the eventual cult comedy hit "Wet Hot American Summer."
"I wasn't even able to get into the screening," he recalled.
Saldana said playing Cooper's wife in "The Words" made her think about how she approaches relationships and the concept of unconditional love.
"Like how unconditional am I when I'm in love. Do you bypass certain things? Would I be able to be with a man ? or with someone ? that feels incomplete, doesn't matter what we do?" she said. "If we change this, if we get married, if we have a baby ? just someone that feels incomplete. Would I be able to deal with that for so many years and accept them as who they are and go, `Come as you are. This is who I fell in love with and I don't want to change you?'
"I'm not like that, which is why I wanted to play her, because it was a challenge, you know. Look at me, I totally said I'm not unconditional at all. So awful."
Cooper's part as author-plagiarist Rory Jansen is his second writerly role after playing a novelist in last year's "Limitless." But that's just coincidence, he said. Despite having a degree in English, the 37-year-old actor says he typically only writes in his "girlnal."
"Journal, sorry," he said. "That's a `Wet Hot' reference. Paul Rudd says that."
Saldana, meanwhile, is in the midst of shooting the "Star Trek" sequel in Los Angeles with director J.J. Abrams and much of the original's cast.
"It's wonderful because I've been dying to work with the cast again, to work with JJ," she said. "I love him so much. He's such an amazing human being and such an amazing storyteller and a great director, so what more can I ask for? I start the year and I'm literally going back to a very familiar environment and being a part of a great story."
"The Words," which also stars Dennis Quaid, Jeremy Irons, Ben Barnes and Olivia Wilde, premiered Friday. It was acquired early in the festival by CBS Films, which plans to release it theatrically in the fall. Sundance continues through Sunday.
___
AP Entertainment Writer Ryan Pearson contributed to this report.
___
Online:
www.sundance.org/festival
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PARIS (AP) ? The former head of a French company at the center of a breast implant scandal affecting tens of thousands of women worldwide was arrested Thursday in southeast France, an official says.
Jean-Claude Mas, who founded and ran the now-defunct French company Poly Implant Prothese, was detained as part of a judicial investigation in the southeastern city of Marseille into manslaughter and involuntary injuries, said the official.
So far no specific defendant has been named. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, because the case is in the hands of judicial investigators.
Investigating judge Annaick Le Goff opened the probe after a woman filed a lawsuit in the wake of the 2010 death from cancer of her daughter who had received a suspect implant. As many as 3,000 other complaints by other alleged victims have been taken into account.
The implants have been removed from the marketplace in several countries in and beyond Europe amid fears they could rupture and leak silicone into the body.
Mas is also on Interpol's most-wanted list, but the international police agency said its "red notice" was issued in June at the request of Costa Rica, where he faces a drunken driving charge.
Mas, 72, was detained shortly before dawn during a search of a residence in the Mediterranean coastal town of Six Fours Les Plages, southwest of the main city of Toulon, a police official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
A secretary at the office of Mas' defense lawyer Yves Haddad said the lawyer ? who was with Mas during police questioning ? was not immediately available for comment.
Authorities worldwide have been scrambling to strike a proper public response to the scandal, notably concerning who will pay to remove the implants made with cheap, industrial-grade silicone instead of medical-grade gel ? or if the implants need to invariably come out.
European governments have taken different positions: German, Czech and French authorities say they should be removed, while Britain says there is not enough evidence of health risks to suggest removal in all cases.
On Wednesday, health authorities in Brazil said the government will fine private health plans that refuse to pay for the removal and replacement of faulty breast implants sold by PIP and a Dutch company.
A lawyer for Mas said in a statement earlier this month that his client, who ran PIP until it was closed in March 2010, would not speak publicly on the case.
The scandal has put pressure on French health authorities for allegedly not doing enough to vet the quality of a product used by untold thousands of women both in France and abroad.
France's Health Safety Agency has said the suspect implants ? just one type of implants made by PIP ? appear to be more rupture-prone than other types. Investigators say PIP sought to save money by using industrial silicone, whose potential health risks are not yet clear.
PIP's website said the company had exported to more than 60 countries and was one of the world's leading implant makers. The silicone-gel implants in question are not sold in the United States.
According to estimates by national authorities, over 42,000 women in Britain received the implants, more than 30,000 in France, 9,000 in Australia and 4,000 in Italy. Nearly 25,000 of the implants were sold in Brazil.
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Frazer Harrison / Getty Images
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By Us Weekly
Who needs a college degree when fame and fortune awaits?
Since their first appearance on "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" in 2007, Kendall and Kylie Jenner have become stars in their own right, thanks to lucrative modeling campaigns and a thriving teen fashion empire.
PHOTOS: Kardashians as kids
When Us Weekly spoke to their father Bruce Jenner at the Performance 3D demonstration in NYC Monday, the 62-year-old Olympian admitted his girls' careers are so busy they may not pursue higher education.
"If they want to go to college, certainly, I think it's a good idea. But I'm not the advocate of, 'You've got to go to college!'" Bruce said. "I think by the time they graduate from high school, they will probably be in a position to go right to working."
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Bruce defends Kendall's racy bikini photo shoot
Like their older sisters Kourtney, 32, Kim, 31, and Khloe, 27, Kendall and Kylie are becoming branded businesswomen, Bruce explained. "They've just developing their clothing line for Sears -- it's a little more teen-oriented, the clothing line. And they're working all the time on the show."
With two magazine covers under her belt (American Cheerleader and Teen Prom), Kendall, 16, is poised to become the next big supermodel, Bruce added.
VIDEO: Bruce freaks out when he finds out Kendall is on birth control
"She'll probably have a career by the time she's out of high school," Bruce told Us. "If that's what she wants to do, that's good. I don't know if college is going to be that important for her."
Bruce Jenner's teens have millions. Do they need college?
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SAN FRANCISCO ? Netflix regained 600,000 U.S. customers in the fourth quarter as the video subscription service began to recover from a revolt against a big price increase.
Figures released Wednesday show Netflix Inc. ended December with 24.4 million subscribers in the U.S. That was up from 23.8 million at the end of September.
The subscriber uptick is a positive sign for Netflix after several months of upheaval that battered its stock. Netflix lost 800,000 subscribers last summer after raising its U.S. prices by as much as 60 percent.
The fallout contributed to a 14 percent decrease in Netflix's fourth-quarter earnings.
Netflix made $40.7 million, or 73 cents per share, in the final three months of last year. That compares with income of $47.1 million, or 87 cents per share, a year earlier.
Investors had been bracing for a bigger drop-off. The company's performance easily exceeded the average earnings estimate of 54 cents per share among analysts surveyed by FactSet.
Fourth-quarter revenue climbed 47 percent from the previous year to $876 million ? $19 million above analyst projections.
Netflix's stock soared $11.63, or more than 12 percent, to $106.67 in extended trading. During the regular session, it increased $2.37, up 2.6 percent.
The stock still has a long way to go to return to its peak of nearly $305, which was reached in July, around the same time that Netflix announced the price increase that outraged customers.
But the fourth-quarter results should help bolster confidence in Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who had been lambasted for miscalculating how subscribers would react to the higher prices.
Hastings had promised Netflix would work to lure back customers, and the fourth-quarter gains were even better than he had forecast.
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iTunes' Official Music Charts for the week ending Jan. 23, 2012:
Top Songs:
1. "Turn Me On (feat. Nicki Minaj)," David Guetta
2. "Set Fire to the Rain," ADELE
3. "What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)," Kelly Clarkson
4. "Rack City," Tyga
5. "Good Feeling," Flo Rida
6. "Young, Wild & Free (feat. Bruno Mars)," Wiz Khalifa, Snoop Dogg
7. "We Found Love (feat. Calvin Harris)," Rihanna
8. "Sexy and I Know It," LMFAO
9. "Domino," Jessie J
10. "Ni(asterisk)(asterisk)as in Paris," Kanye West, JAY Z
___
Top Albums:
1. "21", ADELE
2. "Take Care," Drake
3. "El Camino," The Black Keys
4. "Bangarang," Skrillex
5. "Kidz Bop 21," Kidz Bop Kids
6. "Mylo Xyloto," Coldplay
7. "Joyful Noise (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)," Various Artists
8. "This Means War," Attack Attack!
9. "Lana Del Rey," Lana Del Rey
10. "Making Mirrors," Gotye
___
(copyright) 2012 Apple, Inc.
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Boston ? Havely Taylor knows that her two children do not play the way she did when she was growing up.
When Ms. Taylor was a girl, in a leafy suburb of Birmingham, Ala., she climbed trees, played imaginary games with her friends, and transformed a hammock into a storm-tossed sea vessel. She even whittled bows and arrows from downed branches around the yard and had "wars" with friends ? something she admits she'd probably freak out about if her children did it today.
"I mean, you could put an eye out like that," she says with a laugh.
Related content: Little girls or little women? The Disney Princess effect
Her children ??? Ava, age 12, and Henry, 8 ??? have had a different experience. They live in Baltimore, where Taylor works as an art teacher. Between school, homework, violin lessons, ice-skating, theater, and play dates, there is little time for the sort of freestyle play Taylor remembers. Besides, Taylor says, they live in the city, with a postage stamp of a backyard and the ever-present threat of urban danger.
"I was kind of afraid to let them go out unsupervised in Baltimore...," she says, of how she started down this path with the kids. "I'm really a protective mom. There wasn't much playing outside."
This difference has always bothered her, she says, because she believes that play is critical for children's developing emotions, creativity, and intelligence. But when she learned that her daughter's middle school had done away with recess, and even free time after lunch, she decided to start fighting for play.
"It seemed almost cruel," she says. "Play is important for children ? it's something so obvious it's almost hard to articulate. How can you talk about childhood without talking about play? It's almost as if they are trying to get rid of childhood."
Taylor joined a group of parents pressuring the principal to let their children have a recess, citing experts such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends that all students have at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. They issued petitions and held meetings. And although the school has not yet agreed to change its curriculum, Taylor says she feels their message is getting more recognition.
She is not alone in her concerns. In recent years, child development experts, parents, and scientists have been sounding an increasingly urgent alarm about the decreasing amount of time that children ? and adults, for that matter ? spend playing. A combination of social forces, from a No Child Left Behind focus on test scores to the push for children to get ahead with programmed extracurricular activities, leaves less time for the roughhousing, fantasizing, and pretend worlds advocates say are crucial for development.
Meanwhile, technology and a wide-scale change in toys have shifted what happens when children do engage in leisure activity, in a way many experts say undermines long-term emotional and intellectual abilities. An 8-year-old today, for instance, is more likely to be playing with a toy that has a computer chip, or attending a tightly supervised soccer practice, than making up an imaginary game with friends in the backyard or street.
But play is making a comeback. Bolstered by a growing body of scientific research detailing the cognitive benefits of different types of play, parents such as Taylor are pressuring school administrations to bring back recess and are fighting against a trend to move standardized testing and increased academic instruction to kindergarten.
Public officials are getting in on the effort. First lady Michelle Obama and US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, for instance, have made a push for playgrounds nationwide. Local politicians from Baltimore to New York have participated in events such as the Ultimate Block Party ? a metropolitan-wide play gathering. Meanwhile, business and corporate groups, worried about a future workforce hampered by a lack of creativity and innovation, support the effort.
"It's at a tipping point," says Susan Mag?samen, the director of Interdisciplinary Part?nerships at the Johns Hopkins Uni?versity School of Medicine Brain Science Insti?tute, who has headed numerous child play efforts. "Parents are really anxious and really overextended. Teachers are feeling that way, too."
So when researchers say and can show that "it's OK to not be so scheduled [and] programmed ? that time for a child to daydream is a good thing," Ms. Magsamen says, it confirms what families and educators "already knew, deep down, but didn't have the permission to act upon."
But play, it seems, isn't that simple.
Scientists disagree about what sort of play is most important, government is loath to regulate the type of toys and technology that increasingly shape the play experience, and parents still feel pressure to supervise children's play rather than let them go off on their own. (Nearly two-thirds of Americans in a December Monitor TIPP poll, for instance, said it is irresponsible to let children play without supervision; almost as many said studying is more important than play.) And there is still pressure on schools to sacrifice playtime ? often categorized as frivolous ? in favor of lessons that boost standardized test scores.
"Play is still terribly threatened," says Susan Linn, an instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the nonprofit Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. But, she adds, "what is changing is that there's a growing recognition that the erosion of play may be a problem ... we need to do something about."
One could say that the state of play, then, is at a crossroads. What happens to it ? how it ends up fitting into American culture, who defines it, what it looks like ? will have long-term implications for childhood, say those who study it.
Some go even further: The future of play will define society overall and even determine the future of our species.
"Play is the fundamental equation that makes us human," says Stuart Brown, the founder of the California-based National Institute for Play. "Its absence, in my opinion, is pathology."
IN PICTURES: At play: Children worldwide taking part in some recreation
Can you define 'play'?
But before advocates can launch a defense of play, they need to grapple with a surprisingly difficult question. What, exactly, is play?
It might seem obvious. Parents know when their children are playing, whether it's a toddler scribbling on a piece of paper, an infant shaking a rattle, or a pair of 10-year-olds dressing up and pretending to be superheroes.
But even Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary definition, "recreational activity; especially the spontaneous action of children," is often inaccurate, according to scientists and child development re-searchers. Play for children is neither simply recreational nor necessarily spontaneous, they say.
"Play is when children are using something they've learned, to try it out and see how it works, to use it in new ways ? it's problem solving and enjoying the satisfaction of problems solv[ed]," says Diane Levin, a professor of education at Wheelock College in Boston. But Ms. Levin says that, in her class on the meaning and development of play, she never introduces one set definition.
"This is something that people argue about," she says.
Scientists and child advocates agree that there are many forms of play. There is "attunement play," the sort of interaction where a mother and infant might gaze at each other and babble back and forth. There is "object play," where a person might manipulate a toy such as a set of marbles; "rough and tumble play"; and "imaginative play." "Free play" is often described as kids playing on their own, without any adult supervision; "guided play" is when a child or other player takes the lead, but a mentor is around to, say, help facilitate the LEGO castle construction.
But often, says Dr. Brown at the National Institute for Play, a lot is happening all at once. He cites the time he tried to do a brain scan of his then-4-year-old grandson at play with his stuffed tiger.
"He was clearly playing," Brown recalls.
"And then he says to me, 'Grandpa, what does the tiger say?' I say, 'Roar!' And then he says, 'No, it says, "Moo!" ' and then laughs like crazy. How are you going to track that? He's pretending, he's making a joke, he's interacting."
This is one reason Brown says play has been discounted ? both culturally and, until relatively recently, within the academic community, where detractors argue that play is so complex it cannot be considered one specific behavior, that it is an amalgamation of many different acts. These scientists ? known as "play skeptics" ? don't believe play can be responsible for all sorts of positive effects, in part because play itself is suspect.
"It is so difficult to define and objectify," Brown notes.
But most researchers agree that play clearly exists, even if it can't always be coded in the standard scientific way of other human behaviors. And the importance of play, Brown and others say, is huge.
Brown became interested in play as a young clinical psychiatrist when he was researching, somewhat incongruously, mass murderers. Although he concluded that many factors contributed to the psychosis of his subjects, Brown noticed that a common denominator was that none had participated in standard play behavior as children, such as interacting positively with parents or engaging in games with other children. As he continued his career, he took "play histories" of patients, eventually recording 6,000. He saw a direct correlation between play behavior and happiness, from childhood into adulthood.
It has a lot to do with joy, he says: "In the play studies I'd find many adults who had a pretty playful childhood but then confined themselves to grinding, to always being responsible, always seeing just the next task. [They] are less flexible and have a chronic, smoldering depression. That lack of joyfulness gets to you."
Brown later worked with ethologists ? scientists who study animal behavior ? to observe how other species, from honeybees to Labrador retrievers, play. This behavior in a variety of species is sophisticated ? from "self-handicapping," so a big dog plays fairly with a small dog, to cross-species play, such as a polar bear romping with a sled dog. He also studied research on play depravation, noting how rat brains change negatively when they are deprived of some sorts of play.
Brown became convinced that human play ? for adults as well as children ? is not only joyful but neces?sary, a behavior that has survived despite connections in some studies to injury and danger (for example, animals continue to play even though they're likely to be hunted while doing so) and is connected to the most ancient part of human biology.
'Executive' play
Other scientists are focusing on the specific impacts of play. In a small, brick testing room next to the "construction zone" at the Boston Children's Museum, for instance, Daniel Friel sits with a collection of brightly colored tubing glued to a board. The manager of the Early Childhood Cognition Lab in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he observes children at play with puppets and squeaky toys, rubber balls and fabulously created pipe sculptures. Depending on the experiment, Mr. Friel and other researchers record such data as the time a child plays with a particular object or what color ball is picked out of a container. These observations lead to insights on how children form their understanding of the world.
"We are interested in exploratory play, how kids develop cause and effect, how they use evidence," he says.
The collection of tubing, for instance, is part of a study designed by researcher Elizabeth Bonawitz and tests whether the way an object is presented can limit a child's exploration. If a teacher introduces the toy, which has a number of hidden points of interest ? a mirror, a button that lights up, etc. ? but tells a child about only one feature, the child is less likely to discover everything the toy can do than a child who receives the toy from a teacher who feigns ignorance. Without limiting instruction from an adult, it seems, a child is far more creative. In other words, adult hovering and instruction, from how to play soccer to how to build the best LEGO city, can be limiting.
Taken together, the MIT experiments show children calculating probabilities during play, developing assumptions about their physical environment, and adjusting perceptions according to the direction of authority figures. Other researchers are also discovering a breathtaking depth to play: how it develops chronological awareness and its link to language development and self-control.
The latter point has been a hot topic recently. Self-regulation ? the buzzword here is "executive function," referring to abilities such as planning, multitasking, and reasoning ? may be more indicative of future academic success than IQ, standardized tests, or other assessments, according to a host of recent studies from institutions such as Pennsylvania State University and the University of British Columbia.
Curriculums that boost executive function have become increasingly popular. Two years ago, Elizabeth Billings-Fouhy, director of the public Children's Place preschool in Lexington, Mass., decided to adopt one such program, called Tools of the Mind. It was created by a pair of child development experts ? Deborah Leong and Elena Bodrova ? in the early 1990s after a study evaluating federal early literacy efforts found no positive outcomes.
"People started saying there must be something else," Dr. Leong says. "And we believed what was missing was self-regulation and executive function."
She became interested in a body of research from Russia that showed children who played more had better self-regulation. This made sense to her, she says. For example, studies have shown that children can stand still far longer if they are playing soldier; games such as Simon says depend on concentration and rule-following.
"Play is when kids regulate their behavior voluntarily," Leong says. Eventually, she and Dr. Bodrova developed the curriculum used in the Children's Place today, where students spend the day in different sorts of play. They act out long-form make-believe scenes, they build their own props, and they participate in buddy reading, where one child has a picture of a pair of lips and the other has a picture of ears. The child with the lips reads; the other listens. Together, these various play exercises increase self-control, educators say.
This was on clear display recently at the Children's Place. Nearly half the children there have been labeled as special needs students with everything from autism to physical limitations. The others are mainstream preschoolers ? an "easier" group, perhaps, but still not one typically renowned for its self-control.
But in a brightly colored classroom, a group of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds are notably calm; polite and quiet, sitting in pairs, taking turns "reading" a picture book.
"Here are scissors, a brush...," a boy named Aiden points out to his partner, Kyle, who is leaning in attentively.
"Oh, don't forget the paint," Kyle says, although he's mostly quiet, as it's his turn to listen.
Aiden nods and smiles: "Yes, the paint."
When Aiden is finished, the boys switch roles. Around them, another dozen toddlers do the same ? all without teacher direction. The Tools classrooms have the reputation of being far better-behaved than mainstream classes.
"We have been blown away," says Ms. Billings-Fouhy, the director, comparing how students are doing now versus before the Tools curriculum. "We can't believe the difference."
Educators and scientists have published overwhelmingly positive analyses since the early 2000s of the sort of curriculum Tools of the Mind employs. But recently the popularity of the play-based curriculum has skyrocketed, with more preschools adopting the Tools method and parenting chat rooms buzzing about the curriculum. Two years ago, for instance, Billings-Fouhy had to convince people about changing the Children's Place program. Now out-of-district parents call to get their children in.
"I think we're at this place where everyone is coming to the conclusion that play is important," Leong says. "Not just because of self-regulation, but because people are worried about the development of the whole child ? their social and emotional development as well."
Today's kids don't know how to play
But not all play is created equal, experts warn.
The Tools of the Mind curriculum, for instance, uses what Leong calls "intentional mature play" ? play that is facilitated and guided by trained educators. If children in the class were told to simply go and play, she says, the result probably would be a combination of confusion, mayhem, and paralysis.
"People say, 'Let's bring back play,' " Leong says. "But they don't realize play won't just appear spontaneously, especially not in preschool.... The culture of childhood itself has changed."
For a host of reasons, today's children do not engage in all sorts of developmentally important play that prior generations automatically did. In her class at Wheelock College, Levin has students interview people over the age of 50 about how they played. In the 1950s and '60s, students regularly find, children played outdoors no matter where they lived, and without parental supervision. They played sports but adjusted the rules to fit the space and material ? a goal in soccer, for instance, might be kicking a tennis ball to the right of the trash can. They had few toys, and older children tended to act as "play mentors" to younger children, instructing them in the ways of make-believe games.
That has changed dramatically, she says. In the early 1980s, the federal government deregulated children's advertising, allowing TV shows to essentially become half-hour-long advertisements for toys such as Power Rangers, My Little Ponies, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Levin says that's when children's play changed. They wanted specific toys, to use them in the specific way that the toys appeared on TV.
Today, she says, children are "second generation deregulation," and not only have more toys ? mostly media-based ? but also lots of screens. A Kaiser Family Foundation study recently found that 8-to-18-year-olds spend an average of 7.5 hours in front of a screen every day, with many of those hours involving multiscreen multitasking. Toys for younger children tend to have reaction-based operations, such as push-buttons and flashing lights.
Take away the gadgets and the media-based scripts, Levin and others say, and many children today simply don't know what to do.
"If they don't have the toys, they don't know how to play," she says.
The American educational system, increasingly teaching to standardized tests, has also diminished children's creativity, says Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a professor of psychology and director of the Infant Language Laboratory at Temple University in Philadelphia. "Children learn from being actively engaged in meaningful activities," she says. "What we're doing seems to be the antithesis of this. We're building robots. And you know, computers are better robots than children."
Other countries, particularly in Asia, she notes, have already shifted their educational focus away from test scores, and Finland ? which is at the top of international ranking ? has a policy of recess after every class for Grades 1 through 9.
But as Dr. Hirsh-Pasek points out, children spend most of their time out of school. A playful life is possible if parents and communities know what to do.
The Ultimate Block Party, which Hirsh-Pasek developed with other researchers, is one way to involve local governments, educators, and institutions in restoring play and creativity, she says. The Ultimate Block Party is a series of play stations ? from blocks to sandboxes to dress-up games to make-believe environments ? where kids can play with their parents. Meanwhile, the event's staff helps explain to caregivers what sorts of developmental benefits the children achieve through different types of play.
The first Ultimate Block Party in New York's Central Park in October 2010 attracted 50,000 people; Toronto and Baltimore held parties last year. Organizers now say they get multiple requests from cities every month to hold their own block parties; Hirsh-Pasek says she hopes the movement will go grass roots, with towns and neighborhoods holding their own play festivities.
"It's an exciting time," she says. "We're starting to make some headway. It's time for all of us to find the way to become a more creative, thinking ?culture."
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20120122/ts_csm/449876
With a few notable exceptions, such as the recent endorsement of Newt Gingrich by action star Chuck Norris, as reported in Reuters, Republican candidates tend not to get celebrity endorsements. This mainly has to do with the politics and culture of the entertainment industry.
That does not mean that some actors and musicians will not cross the aisle and give some love to a Republican running for office. Here are a few recent examples.
Kinky Friedman endorses Rick Perry
Texas Gov. Rick Perry may have failed in his quest for the presidency, but it was not for the want of an endorsement of a former opponent. Kinky Friedman, as reported in the Daily Beast. Friedman ran for governor twice against Perry, once in 2006 as an independent and again in 2010 as a Democrat.
Dennis Miller endorses Herman Cain -- Then Changes His Mind
Comedian and TV personality Dennis Miller is a comedian, a film actor, and a radio talk show host. He endorsed Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza, for president, according to the Daily Caller. But then Cain ran into multiple allegations of sexual harassment and worse -- all unproven -- and so Miller withdrew his endorsement just before Cain withdrew from the race, according to Mediate,
Kelsey Grammar endorses Michele Bachmann
Kelsey Grammar is best known as the star of a number of TV shows such as "Frasier" and the current Starz Network production "Boss" as well as movies like the delightful and underrated "Down Periscope." His nod went to Rep, Michele Bachmann, as reported by Victoria Q. Nerdballs blog, citing MSNBC. Bachmann is now out of the race.
Cindy Crawford endorses Mitt Romney
Cindy Crawford is known as a super model and an actress in such movies as "Fair Game" will Alec Baldwin's brother William and guest appearances in a few TV shows such as "Third Rock from the Sun." Crawford has endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for president, according to Gateway Pundit.
Vince Vaughn endorses Ron Paul
Vince Vaughn, who has appeared in such films as "The Wedding Crashers," "Be Cool," and "Couples Retreat" has not only endorsed Texas Rep. Ron Paul, as reported by the Daily Caller, but has introduced him at a number of events.
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Rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous system of sea fishes with serious consequences for their survival, an international scientific team has found.
Carbon dioxide concentrations predicted to occur in the ocean by the end of this century will interfere with fishes' ability to hear, smell, turn and evade predators, says Professor Phillip Munday of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.
"For several years our team have been testing the performance of baby coral fishes in sea water containing higher levels of dissolved CO2 ? and it is now pretty clear that they sustain significant disruption to their central nervous system, which is likely to impair their chances of survival," Prof. Munday says.
In their latest paper, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, Prof. Munday and colleagues report world-first evidence that high CO2 levels in sea water disrupts a key brain receptor in fish, causing marked changes in their behaviour and sensory ability.
"We've found that elevated CO2 in the oceans can directly interfere with fish neurotransmitter functions, which poses a direct and previously unknown threat to sea life," Prof. Munday says.
Prof. Munday and his colleagues began by studying how baby clown and damsel fishes performed alongside their predators in CO2-enriched water. They found that, while the predators were somewhat affected, the baby fish suffered much higher rates of attrition.
"Our early work showed that the sense of smell of baby fish was harmed by higher CO2 in the water ? meaning they found it harder to locate a reef to settle on or detect the warning smell of a predator fish. But we suspected there was much more to it than the loss of ability to smell."
The team then examined whether fishes' sense of hearing ? used to locate and home in on reefs at night, and avoid them during the day ? was affected. "The answer is, yes it was. They were confused and no longer avoided reef sounds during the day. Being attracted to reefs during daylight would make them easy meat for predators."
Other work showed the fish also tended to lose their natural instinct to turn left or right ? an important factor in schooling behaviour which also makes them more vulnerable, as lone fish are easily eaten by predators.
"All this led us to suspect it wasn't simply damage to their individual senses that was going on ? but rather, that higher levels of carbon dioxide were affecting their whole central nervous system."
The team's latest research shows that high CO2 directly stimulates a receptor in the fish brain called GABA-A, leading to a reversal in its normal function and over-excitement of certain nerve signals.
While most animals with brains have GABA-A receptors, the team considers the effects of elevated CO2 are likely to be most felt by those living in water, as they have lower blood CO2 levels normally. The main impact is likely to be felt by some crustaceans and by most fishes, especially those which use a lot of oxygen.
Prof. Munday said that around 2.3 billion tonnes of human CO2 emissions dissolve into the world's oceans every year, causing changes in the chemical environment of the water in which fish and other species live.
"We've now established it isn't simply the acidification of the oceans that is causing disruption ? as is the case with shellfish and plankton with chalky skeletons ? but the actual dissolved CO2 itself is damaging the fishes' nervous systems."
The work shows that fish with high oxygen consumption are likely to be most affected, suggesting the effects of high CO2 may impair some species worse than others ? possibly including important species targeted by the world's fishing industries.
###
ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies: http://www.coralcoe.org.au/
Thanks to ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116913/Carbon_dioxide_is__driving_fish_crazy_
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MELBOURNE, Australia ? Roger Federer put on a tennis clinic against Bernard Tomic, using deft drops, lobs, booming backhands and 13 aces to beat the 19-year-old Australian 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 and advance to the Australian Open quarterfinals for the eighth straight year.
Tomic came into the match following an upset third-round win over 13th-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov, using slices and a variety of offbeat shots from the back of the court to beat the Ukrainian player.
But four-time Australian champion Federer was having none of that on Sunday night before a packed house of 15,000 at Rod Laver Arena. He stepped up his game when he needed to, breaking the Australian at 4-4 in the opening set and again to open the third.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Lawmakers on Friday indefinitely postponed anti-piracy legislation that pits Hollywood against Silicon Valley, two days after major Internet companies staged an online protest by blacking out parts of prominent websites.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid postponed a showdown vote in his chamber on the Protect Intellectual Property Act, or PIPA for short, that had been scheduled for January 24.
Lamar Smith, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, followed suit, saying his panel would delay action on similar legislation called the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, until there is wider agreement on the legislation.
"It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products," Smith said in a statement.
The bills are aimed at curbing access to overseas websites that traffic in pirated content and counterfeit products, such as movies and music. But support for the legislation has eroded in recent days because of fears that legitimate websites could end up in legal jeopardy.
The entertainment industry wants legislation to protect its movies and music from counterfeiters, but technology companies are concerned the laws would undermine Internet freedoms, be difficult to enforce and encourage frivolous lawsuits.
On Wednesday protests blanketed the Internet, turning Wikipedia and other popular websites dark for 24 hours. Google, Facebook, Twitter and others protested the proposed legislation but did not shut down.
In a brief statement, Reid said there was no reason why concerns about the legislation cannot be resolved. He offered no new date for the vote.
Reid's action comes a day after a senior Democratic aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the measure lacked the 60 votes needed to clear a procedural hurdle in the 100-member Senate.
A handful of senators who had co-sponsored the legislation dropped their support after Wednesday's protests started.
Reid expressed hope on Friday that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, who has been shepherding the bill through Congress, could help resolve differences in the legislation.
"I am optimistic that we can reach a compromise in the coming weeks," Reid said.
Leahy said in a statement that he was committed to addressing online piracy and hoped other members of Congress would work with him to get a bill signed into law this year.
"But the day will come when the Senators who forced this move will look back and realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem," he said.
"Criminals who do nothing but peddle in counterfeit products and stolen American content are smugly watching how the United States Senate decided it was not even worth debating how to stop the overseas criminals from draining our economy," Leahy said.
(Reporting By Thomas Ferraro and Jasmin Melvin; Editing by Bill Trott, Dave Zimmerman)
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Ever since the take-off in popularity of streaming music service Pandora, it seems like the field for services that bring music over the Internet has exploded, with all kinds of offerings. Some take different approaches to streaming music ? Spotify and Rdio, for example, are more on-demand ? while Pandora is more akin to listening to the radio. A new entrant into the race, Raditaz, takes the same approach as Pandora, with the aim to do it better.
The new service just launched an app for Android today, as well as on Apple?s iOS platform. Like Pandora, Raditaz offers music in a sort of randomized, radio-like presentation. You choose a song, artist or album you like, and Raditaz brings more songs similar to what you picked in order to create a ?station,? curating the list on the fly.
But Raditaz?s model seems to largely look at the things that are limiting or slightly irritating about Pandora and fix them on its own service. For example, the free version of Pandora that?s available to all users is ad-supported, which means every few tracks, users have to sit through a quick ad. As of right now, Raditaz is also free. It also boasts 15 million songs in its databases, compared to Pandora?s 900,000.
As for ad support, Raditaz uses advertising to pay for its service just as Pandora does, but it takes a different approach, focusing on ?geographically relevant? advertising based on where listeners are located as they use their mobile devices to access the service. In fact, geography seems to be Raditaz?s defining feature: the service pays attention to where and when you?re listening, gathering the information to make the service better. It also allows you to see what music is trending in the physical area around you, tying you into your location in new and different ways not approached by other services.
Raditaz seems to bring some cool ideas to the streaming music scene, but it?s likely to find it a tough one into which to break. At the moment, streaming, cloud-based music services are everywhere: Spotify, Pandora and Rdio lead the list of services, while Google Music, Amazon Cloud and iTunes Match make up the three big cloud-based storage services for users? music libraries. There have never been so many options for accessing and listening to music on the Internet before, and as Raditaz joins the race, it?ll likely find it crowded.
But there?s definitely a lot of value in tying social aspects into music services ? Spotify is seeing some real successes there with its Facebook integration ? and Raditaz has new things to offer in that department. It also doesn?t have to beat everyone if it can beat just one competitor: Pandora.
The audience Pandora serves is necessarily different than that served by Google, Amazon, Apple and Spotify: these are users who want to discover new music they might like and enjoy not know what they?ll hear next. Raditaz is approaching the radio model of music streaming, and if it can establish its foothold there, it has the potential to catch on the way Pandora has.
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Brendan is the weekend sports anchor and reporter.
Source: http://www.valleycentral.com/sports/story.aspx?id=708266
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INTERVIEW: Fashion Journalist @LouiseRoe Dishes On The London Look guestofaguest.com/london/intervi? 
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Source: http://twitter.com/guestofaguest/statuses/159654704144580608
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BUCHAREST, Romania ? Romanian cities are gripped by the worst street violence in over a decade. Slovaks seem poised to re-elect a confrontational and divisive populist. Hungary alarms the European Union with laws that erode democratic rights.
In former Soviet bloc nations now part of the EU, frustration is mounting due to economic stagnation and worrisome governance, encouraging street protests and unpredictability that could jeopardize growth and stability in an already troubled part of the continent.
Many of the problems are common far beyond the region: indebted states hiking taxes and slashing state spending to stay solvent. But the added burdens come to a region that was already grappling with much deeper poverty and corruption than in the West before the global financial crisis hit.
In recent days, the situation has played out most dramatically in Romania, where pent-up fury with the government and an eroding standard of living exploded into days of street protests that at times turned violent. In Bucharest over the weekend, 59 people were injured in fighting that saw riot police turn tear gas on protesters who attacked them with stones and firebombs.
"What happened last weekend is only the beginning," commentator Gabriel Bejan wrote in Tuesday's Romania Libera daily paper. "We are in an important electoral year and such confrontations will be frequent. What will they lead to when nobody seems willing to take a step back?"
Much of the frustration goes back to the way Romania transitioned to democracy after its 1989 coup against dictator Nicolae Ceausescu ? with many former communists keeping control of power and resources. The results, today, are seen in entrenched cronyism, a huge gap between rich and poor and a lack of government transparency that feeds a widespread sense of injustice.
"The Mafioso government stole everything we had!" protesters declared on banners at several of the rallies that have taken place in more than a dozen Romanian cities since Thursday and appear set to go on.
Hungarians have also been taking to the streets with increased frequency in recent months over a new constitution and a blizzard of new laws that concentrate power for the right-wing Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Freedom House, a U.S. group that carries out a yearly global survey of political freedom and civil liberties, has observed "hints of re-emergent illiberalism" across central Europe, said Christopher Walker, the group's vice president for strategy and analysis.
This year's report, to be published Thursday, will highlight what it sees as a deteriorating climate for civil liberties in Hungary due to threats to the independence of the press and the judiciary.
"Hungary has shown a bent towards illiberalism which is really inconsistent with the European idea," Walker said.
The EU agrees. On Tuesday the EU Commission launched legal challenges against Budapest over its new constitution and other laws which took effect Jan. 1, saying they undermine the independence of the national central bank and the judiciary and do not respect data privacy principles.
Orban's tightening hold on many institutions comes thanks to an overwhelming 2010 victory for his party on the heels of near economic collapse by the previous, Socialist-led government.
But the mounting EU pressure appeared to have some effect: EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Wednesday that he received a letter from Orban promising to modify the legislation that raised EU concerns.
In Slovakia, meanwhile, opinion polls predict a probable return to power in March elections for Robert Fico, a former left-wing prime minister who has also worried Western diplomats with a sympathetic approach toward authoritarian states. Fico took Russia's side during its 2008 war with Georgia ? bucking a trend across the former Soviet bloc to express concern over Moscow's use of power. He has also celebrated Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution.
In striking contrast to trouble in much of the region, there is one relative oasis: Poland, the largest of the 10 ex-communist states that joined the EU in recent years. Its economy has seen unusual dynamism given the difficult times, thanks in some part to massive infrastructure projects in recent years as Poland prepares to co-host this summer's European football championships with Ukraine.
But economists fear that its economy, too, could lose momentum after the Euro 2012 and with far-ranging austerity measures set to start taking effect this year in an effort to keep state debt from spiraling out of control.
But for now, anger is clearly greater in Hungary and Romania, and in both places the unfolding developments are shaped greatly by the legacy of communist rule.
In Hungary, Orban has justified his upending of the country's laws by arguing that the former communists and their way of thinking were never purged entirely from democratic Hungary.
Romania sees many of its problems exacerbated by the continued rule of some former communists, including President Traian Basescu, 60, who under Ceausescu was a ship captain for the state shipping company Navrom in Antwerp. That was a position of privilege which allowed him to earn coveted hard currency.
Feeding frustration is a sense that there is too little transparency over the doings, past and present, of Romania's leaders.
More than two decades after the overthrow of Ceausescu, authorities have opened only a handful of the files of the former dreaded Securitate secret police, which had 760,000 informers in a nation of 22 million. Former agents are believed to be active in politics, business and the media ? though the public has never been given the full picture.
Also, only a handful of senior officials were ever tried for the mass shootings of unarmed civilians in the 1989 revolution, perpetuating a sense that that story, too, is being covered up.
A political analyst who has studied the revolutions of Eastern Europe, Christopher Chivvers with the RAND Corporation, sees many of today's injustices as being rooted in the overly rapid move toward a market economy in the 1990s.
When state-run industries were privatized then, it was generally only the former communist apparatchiks who knew how to maneuver the system to take hold of them and run them.
"Those who had the know-how ? the former regime officials ? were able to snatch up large amounts of former state property in ways that ultimately entrenched their position in society and in the state," said Chivvers, who is also a professor in European studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Many Romanians express deep frustration over this.
"We still have unanswered questions regarding shady privatization deals made in the 90s," said Cristina, a Romanian woman who asked that her last name not be published because she works for the government and fears retribution.
___
Vanessa Gera reported from Warsaw, Poland. Associated Press writer Karel Janicek contributed from Prague.
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