Pions don't want to decay into faster-than-light neutrinos, study finds

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Contact: Diana Lutz
dlutz@wustl.edu
314-935-5272
Washington University in St. Louis

Major speed bump in the path of a startling result announced in September

When an international collaboration of physicists came up with a result that punched a hole in Einstein's theory of special relativity and couldn't find any mistakes in their work, they asked the world to take a second look at their experiment.

Responding to the call was Ramanath Cowsik, PhD, professor of physics in Arts & Sciences and director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Online and in the December 24 issue of Physical Review Letters, Cowsik and his collaborators put their finger on what appears to be an insurmountable problem with the experiment.

The OPERA experiment, a collaboration between the CERN physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Gran Sasso, Italy, timed particles called neutrinos traveling through Earth from the physics laboratory CERN to a detector in an underground laboratory in Gran Sasso, a distance of some 730 kilometers, or about 450 miles.

OPERA reported online and in Physics Letters B in September that the neutrinos arrived at Gran Sasso some 60 nanoseconds sooner than they would have arrived if they were traveling at the speed of light in a vacuum.

Neutrinos are thought to have a tiny, but nonzero, mass. According to the theory of special relativity, any particle that has mass may come close to but cannot quite reach the speed of light. So superluminal (faster than light) neutrinos should not exist.

The neutrinos in the experiment were created by slamming speeding protons into a stationary target, producing a pulse of pions unstable particles that were magnetically focused into a long tunnel where they decayed in flight into muons and neutrinos.

The muons were stopped at the end of the tunnel, but the neutrinos, which slip through matter like ghosts through walls, passed through the barrier and disappeared in the direction of Gran Sasso.

In their journal article, Cowsik and an international team of collaborators took a close look at the first step of this process. "We have investigated whether pion decays would produce superluminal neutrinos, assuming energy and momentum are conserved," he says.

The OPERA neutrinos had energies of about 17 gigaelectron volts. "They had a lot of energy but very little mass," Cowsik says, "so they should go very fast." The question is whether they went faster than the speed of light.

"We've shown in this paper that if the neutrino that comes out of a pion decay were going faster than the speed of light, the pion lifetime would get longer, and the neutrino would carry a smaller fraction of the energy shared by the neutrino and the muon," Cowsik says.

"What's more," he says, "these difficulties would only increase as the pion energy increases.

"So we are saying that in the present framework of physics, superluminal neutrinos would be difficult to produce," Cowsik explains.

In addition, he says, there's an experimental check on this theoretical conclusion. The creation of neutrinos at CERN is duplicated naturally when cosmic rays hit Earth's atmosphere.

A neutrino observatory called IceCube detects these neutrinos when they collide with other particles generating muons that leave trails of light flashes as they plow into the thick, clear ice of Antarctica.

"IceCube has seen neutrinos with energies 10,000 times higher than those the OPERA experiment is creating," Cowsik says.."Thus, the energies of their parent pions should be correspondingly high. Simple calculations, based on the conservation of energy and momentum, dictate that the lifetimes of those pions should be too long for them ever to decay into superluminal neutrinos.

"But the observation of high-energy neutrinos by IceCube indicates that these high-energy pions do decay according to the standard ideas of physics, generating neutrinos whose speed approaches that of light but never exceeds it.

Cowsik's objection to the OPERA results isn't the only one that has been raised.

Physicists Andrew G. Cohen and Sheldon L. Glashow published a paper in Physical Review Letters in October showing that superluminal neutrinos would rapidly radiate energy in the form of electron-positron pairs.

"We are saying that, given physics as we know it today, it should be hard to produce any neutrinos with superluminal velocities, and Cohen and Glashow are saying that even if you did, they'd quickly radiate away their energy and slow down," Cowsik says.

"I have very high regard for the OPERA experimenters," Cowsik adds. "They got faster-than-light speeds when they analyzed their data in March, but they struggled for months to eliminate possible errors in their experiment before publishing it.

"Not finding any mistakes," Cowsik says, "they had an ethical obligation to publish so that the community could help resolve the difficulty. That's the demanding code physicists live by," he says.

###


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?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 23-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Diana Lutz
dlutz@wustl.edu
314-935-5272
Washington University in St. Louis

Major speed bump in the path of a startling result announced in September

When an international collaboration of physicists came up with a result that punched a hole in Einstein's theory of special relativity and couldn't find any mistakes in their work, they asked the world to take a second look at their experiment.

Responding to the call was Ramanath Cowsik, PhD, professor of physics in Arts & Sciences and director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Online and in the December 24 issue of Physical Review Letters, Cowsik and his collaborators put their finger on what appears to be an insurmountable problem with the experiment.

The OPERA experiment, a collaboration between the CERN physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Gran Sasso, Italy, timed particles called neutrinos traveling through Earth from the physics laboratory CERN to a detector in an underground laboratory in Gran Sasso, a distance of some 730 kilometers, or about 450 miles.

OPERA reported online and in Physics Letters B in September that the neutrinos arrived at Gran Sasso some 60 nanoseconds sooner than they would have arrived if they were traveling at the speed of light in a vacuum.

Neutrinos are thought to have a tiny, but nonzero, mass. According to the theory of special relativity, any particle that has mass may come close to but cannot quite reach the speed of light. So superluminal (faster than light) neutrinos should not exist.

The neutrinos in the experiment were created by slamming speeding protons into a stationary target, producing a pulse of pions unstable particles that were magnetically focused into a long tunnel where they decayed in flight into muons and neutrinos.

The muons were stopped at the end of the tunnel, but the neutrinos, which slip through matter like ghosts through walls, passed through the barrier and disappeared in the direction of Gran Sasso.

In their journal article, Cowsik and an international team of collaborators took a close look at the first step of this process. "We have investigated whether pion decays would produce superluminal neutrinos, assuming energy and momentum are conserved," he says.

The OPERA neutrinos had energies of about 17 gigaelectron volts. "They had a lot of energy but very little mass," Cowsik says, "so they should go very fast." The question is whether they went faster than the speed of light.

"We've shown in this paper that if the neutrino that comes out of a pion decay were going faster than the speed of light, the pion lifetime would get longer, and the neutrino would carry a smaller fraction of the energy shared by the neutrino and the muon," Cowsik says.

"What's more," he says, "these difficulties would only increase as the pion energy increases.

"So we are saying that in the present framework of physics, superluminal neutrinos would be difficult to produce," Cowsik explains.

In addition, he says, there's an experimental check on this theoretical conclusion. The creation of neutrinos at CERN is duplicated naturally when cosmic rays hit Earth's atmosphere.

A neutrino observatory called IceCube detects these neutrinos when they collide with other particles generating muons that leave trails of light flashes as they plow into the thick, clear ice of Antarctica.

"IceCube has seen neutrinos with energies 10,000 times higher than those the OPERA experiment is creating," Cowsik says.."Thus, the energies of their parent pions should be correspondingly high. Simple calculations, based on the conservation of energy and momentum, dictate that the lifetimes of those pions should be too long for them ever to decay into superluminal neutrinos.

"But the observation of high-energy neutrinos by IceCube indicates that these high-energy pions do decay according to the standard ideas of physics, generating neutrinos whose speed approaches that of light but never exceeds it.

Cowsik's objection to the OPERA results isn't the only one that has been raised.

Physicists Andrew G. Cohen and Sheldon L. Glashow published a paper in Physical Review Letters in October showing that superluminal neutrinos would rapidly radiate energy in the form of electron-positron pairs.

"We are saying that, given physics as we know it today, it should be hard to produce any neutrinos with superluminal velocities, and Cohen and Glashow are saying that even if you did, they'd quickly radiate away their energy and slow down," Cowsik says.

"I have very high regard for the OPERA experimenters," Cowsik adds. "They got faster-than-light speeds when they analyzed their data in March, but they struggled for months to eliminate possible errors in their experiment before publishing it.

"Not finding any mistakes," Cowsik says, "they had an ethical obligation to publish so that the community could help resolve the difficulty. That's the demanding code physicists live by," he says.

###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/wuis-pdw122311.php

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Papier mache confetti ball favors for your New Year's and holiday season wedding!

Confetti ball
Celebrating the holidays and New Year's Eve is super fun. People feel hopeful for the possibilities of the new year, or maybe relieved that the last one has finished. In the US, where I live, we celebrate with silly hats, fizzy drinks, and one of my favorite things ever: confetti.

Weddings are a celebration of something new as well. Why not inject your event with some holiday and/or New Year's excitement with these papier mache confetti balls!

Guts

Materials:

Paper strips
Step 1:
Tear crepe paper into strips about 1"x4" strips. Keep in mind that the narrower you tear these strips, the tougher they'll be to work with.

Materials
Step 2:
Mix your papier mache paste to your liking. I used about 1 cup of flour per 2 cups of water. You can make large batches of the paste and it will keep for a day or two if you cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap when you're not using it.

Step 3:
Blow up your balloons?and then deflate them. AND THEN RE-INFLATE THEM. This may seem absurd, but the 5" balloons got bigger and rounder upon second inflation. Tie the end in a knot.

Paper macheing on the balloon
Step 4:
Saturate a strip of crepe paper with the paste. It shouldn't be dry, but it shouldn't be dripping all over the place either. Smooth it onto the balloon. Repeat until the balloon is totally covered, avoiding the knot and surrounding area.

Step 5:
Allow to dry overnight. You CAN apply more layers before leaving to dry, but I made these late at night and I was tired, so I left the one layer. I applied a second layer the next morning, then came home and moved on to the next steps.

Let the air out the balloon and then pluck it from the crepe paper shell
Step 6:
When you think your papier mache is strong enough to stand up to the stress of transportation but light enough to tear open, snip the balloon close to the knot and release the air. The balloon will naturally separate from the papier mache shell; pluck it from the inside of the shell and discard.

Stuff your crepe paper balls with goodies!
Step 7:
Stuff the trinkets, candy and confetti into the shell. I used sealed fun-size candies so they wouldn't be affected by further gluing, random glue flakes inside the shell, or go bad if made months ahead of time.

Paper m?ch? the open end of the ball flat, as flat as you can, so it will sit on a table easily
Step 8:
Cut 1" slits into the shell from the opening, and use more papier mache strips to form a flat bottom. Dry overnight with flat bottom facing up.

Step 9:
Add metallic crepe paper bits, glitter or whatever else to the outside to snazz it up using more paste. Let it dry fully (overnight is preferable) before handling.

Then? give 'em to your guests! It's a blast to tear into these guys!

Cracking open the confetti ball

Cracking open the confetti ball

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OffbeatBride/~3/KeXuJ6zi5uo/papier-mache-confetti-balls-favors-for-you-new-years-and-holiday-wedding

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Jaguar photo shows conservation success in Bolivia

ScienceDaily (Dec. 22, 2011) ? The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) just released a dramatic photo of a female jaguar and her two cubs near the Isoso Station of the Santa Cruz-Puerto Suarez Gas Pipeline in Kaa Iya National Park in Bolivia. The adult jaguar, nicknamed Kaaiyana, has been seen with her cubs in the area for over a month; though WCS conservationists have confirmed she has been a resident in the vicinity for at least six years.

"Kaaiyana's tolerance of observers is a testimony to the absence of hunters in this area, and her success as a mother means there is plenty of food for her and her cubs to eat," said Dr. John Polisar, Coordinator of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Jaguar Conservation Program.

At more than 13,200 square miles (34,400 square kilometers), Kaa Iya National Park is the largest protected area in Bolivia and safeguards the most expansive and best-conserved dry forest in the world. It is found in a transition zone between Chacoan and Chiquitano dry forest ecosystems and includes unique vegetation and rare wildlife such as giant armadillos, Chacoan titi monkeys, and Chacoan peccaries. The creation of Kaa Iya in 1995 marked the first time in South America that a protected area was established through the initiative of an indigenous group, the Guaran?-Isoce?o people.

WCS has conducted extensive research in the area and estimates that at least 1,000 jaguars live in the Gran Chaco Jaguar Conservation Unit, a 47,000 square-mile (124,000 square kilometer) area spanning southern Bolivia and northern Paraguay. With support from the Liz Claiborne and Art Ortenberg Foundation, WCS is promoting conservation action across the Gran Chaco.

The construction of the 1,900-mile (3,100 kilometer) Bolivia-Brazil gas pipeline that cuts across Kaa Iya National Park and the Isoso indigenous land required developing institutional alliances to minimize environmental impacts. With the participation of private energy companies, which make up Gas TransBoliviano (GTB), as well as the Isoso indigenous organization, and an independent member, the Kaa Iya Foundation was created in 2003 as a mechanism to deliver a match with WCS funds to conduct wildlife research and environmental education in the park, which is funded and managed by the Bolivian government.

Among the research efforts first supported by the foundation were jaguar surveys. Kaayiana was first detected by WCS researcher Dr. Andrew Noss at the Isoso site in 2005 with male jaguars, and again in 2006 with a cub. The Kaa Iya park guards work with GTB personnel to prevent illegal hunting and settlements along the right-of-way to the gas pipeline and ensure the protection of wildlife, including jaguar prey, in the park.

"The photographic histories of jaguars in the area by WCS and the reproductive success of this female are testimony that conservation efforts have been effective," said Julie Kunen, WCS Director of Latin America and Caribbean Programs.

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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111222105510.htm

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With same vim, new animals, Cameron Crowe returns (AP)

NEW YORK ? Fresh off an inspired writing session, Cameron Crowe is pulsing with enthusiasm.

He spent the previous night sitting outside New York's Plaza Hotel, a spot that made him recall one of his first trips to New York ? as a teenage journalist for Rolling Stone ? in which he stayed at the Plaza while chronicling a Led Zeppelin tour.

"I was just thinking, `Man, it's like no time has passed,' says Crowe. "This is the future time. That's what it was. You always wonder, `In the future time, what will this all mean? What will it all amount to?' That was kind of the revelation of last night: Here I am. And it feels like no time."

After six years of uncertainly, the present is feeling good for Crowe, the writer-director of earnest, personal films such as "Say Anything ..." and "Jerry Maguire." He's back with his first feature film since 2005's critical and box-office misfire "Elizabethtown": "We Bought a Zoo," an unabashedly warmhearted family film about a father (Matt Damon) who, after his wife dies of cancer, impulsively buys a rundown zoo to re-energize himself and his two kids.

"I don't look at the time post-"Elizabethtown" as the bottom of the roller coaster," says the perpetually writing Crowe. "I kind of look at it as a gathering time."

In those years, Crowe plotted a film about Marvin Gaye that failed to get off the ground (he hopes to still make it), scripted an adaptation of David Sheff's "Beautiful Boy" and "Tweak" (a pair of books about an addict father and his son) and made two music documentaries (the Pearl Jam retrospective "Pearl Jam Twenty" and "The Union," about Elton John's collaboration with Leon Russell).

He was also divorced from his wife of 24 years, Nancy Wilson of the band Heart, with whom he has 11-year-old twin sons. Crowe says Wilson remains a "close collaborator" with the children, and that he eagerly voted for Heart in this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees.

The parallels with "We Bought a Zoo" ? which includes moving scenes of Damon's character fondly reminiscing about his wife ? aren't lost on Crowe.

"This movie is about keeping souvenirs of a lost love," says Crowe. "Even in the broken relationships or people that have died or moved on, there's valuable luggage to be kept that guides the future."

Crowe, himself, is a big collector. His largest collections might be his LPs and various music memorabilia, such as treasured set lists and ticket stubs. But he also keeps things from his movies. The boombox John Cusack raised over his head in "Say Anything ..." sits in his garage. His most cherished item is a signed Vans sneaker from Sean Penn, who played the Vans-wearing stoner Spicoli in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" ? Crowe's first script.

Though no masterpiece, "We Bought a Zoo" is considerably better than its title and plot synopsis suggest. It's a rare film Crowe has directed but hasn't written (he shares screenplay credit with Aline Brosh McKenna, who adapted Benjamin Mee's autobiographical book), and it bears many hallmarks of the director. Last week on "The Daily Show," Damon, realizing the movie didn't sound like the most artistic enterprise, took to shouting at the crowd the simple justification: "Cameron Crowe directed it!"

That's often all a film has needed to draw moviegoers. In person, Crowe has many of the qualities of his films: He's uncommonly upbeat, sincere and utterly engaging. Over a lunch interview, he's as likely to learn about a reporter as the reporter is to learn about him. He's one of few famous Twitter users who uses it almost exclusively to reply personally to fans.

When Damon first met Crowe (he came to Austin, Texas, while Damon was making "True Grit"), he asked himself, "Is this for real?"

"But that is him and it's a beautiful thing," says Damon. "It's not that he looks at the world with rose-colored lenses. He's realistic, too. He just chooses to engage with the world from that place of joy instead of cynicism."

Asked if Damon modeled his character on Crowe, he says that he's come to think that in Crowe's movies, "everybody's playing him a little bit."

"There's a look that he gets," says Damon. "I see it a lot with Rene (Zellweger) and (Tom) Cruise in `Jerry Maguire.' I have it in this movie. It's that thing where somebody's explaining something to you and you're not quite sure what they're saying and you're trying to figure it out. It's this very Cameron kind of thing that's in all his movies."

Scarlett Johansson, who plays the zookeeper in the film, was impressed that after his down years, Crowe has been able to "maintain that enthusiasm and not be jaded or bitter."

"When he's nervous about something, he tells you he's nervous about it," says Johansson. "He's got this kind of purity to him."

Both actors had to adjust to one of Crowe's now-trademark methods: During the shooting of some scenes, he plays the music he expects to later soundtrack it with ? a Who song for Cruise in "Jerry Maguire" or a Neil Young tune for Damon in "We Bought a Zoo." Damon thought enough of the tactic that he plans to use it when he directs next year.

Asked where he gets his positivity from, Crowe says, "It's innate and a goal, really, to battle back the daily hurdles or the challenges and just say, `How can I turn this into a positive?' It's interesting how sometimes positivity is the door that opens to a greater understanding of how to deal with the darkness."

Crowe's films have often proceeded similarly. "Elizabethtown" begins with a shoe designer (Orlando Bloom) preparing to kill himself. "Jerry Maguire" starts with a sports agent's humiliating loss of his job.

Crowe says the idea of making "We Bought a Zoo" was ultimately "to put a little joy into the world, coming from grief." In it, Crowe sees a connection with another film about a widower, Alexander Payne's "The Descendants," which he deeply admires.

"Hopefully in some distant, rainy day future, the two movies live together in some strange way as, like, stage one and stage one and a half," says Crowe.

Another feature hiatus is unlikely. The ever-writing Crowe is eager to work rapidly. He's currently writing a script about a city with a rich music history. He's also focused on rewriting and honing a number of scripts so that he can "deal from a deck."

"My dream was always to be able to be like a guy like Spike Lee or Woody Allen or Truffaut where one day you can look at all the stuff and they all come together to give you a portrait of a human life, in different stages of it," says Crowe. "So I'm always looking for what's the next area of life to explore that will help me understand it and bring something universal to other people, too.

"I'll be doing that as long as I can, as long as there's a camera, or a page and a pen."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111220/ap_en_mo/us_film_cameron_crowe

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Robert Redford: Congress and Keystone XL: A National Disgrace

The Congress is ending the year much as it began -- playing politics with our nation's future and putting American families at risk to score partisan points.

In the closing act to a shameful year of paralysis and indecision on the issues that matter most, House Republicans held common-sense tax relief for American families hostage to a holiday gift to Big Oil.

After the GOP-led House welded the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline rider onto the tax-relief bill, the Democratic-led Senate went along for the ride, passing a bad piece of legislation rather than being accused of blocking a needed tax cut.

When the United State Congress intentionally ties these two things together, though, it's not a joke: it's a national disgrace.

Let's be clear about the purpose of this move. It's a naked political stunt designed to hurt the president in an election year. Excuse the sarcasm, but you can see the connection here: tax relief worth about $1,000 a year for the typical working family, and a misguided plan to goose the fortunes of an industry that has already hauled in profits topping $100 billion this year.

With needed tax relief for working families set to expire at year's end, Congress should be sending President Obama a clean bill that asks a simple question: should we extend middle class tax relief and unemployment benefits at a time when our workers are struggling with hard times? For anyone who cares about fairness and families, that's an easy one.

Instead, House Republicans tacked onto that bill a contentious and unrelated question: should we allow Big Oil to build the Keystone XL pipeline, to take the dirtiest oil on the planet from the tar sands of Canada, through the heartland of America, to refineries and ports on the Gulf of Mexico?

Tar sands crude is not only the dirtiest oil on the planet, but it is produced through some of the most destructive industrial processes ever devised.

In requiring the administration to make up its mind within 60 days, this bill ensures that the State Department will not have been able to establish that the pipeline is in the national interest. It would require a decision that pre-approves the safety of an unknown, mystery route, through Nebraska meant to avoid the precious Ogallala Acquifer. There will be no choice but to deny the pipeline permit.

Further, Keystone XL would cross more than 1,500 waterways, threatening them with the kind of accident that dumped 42,000 gallons of oil in the Yellowstone River last summer and put 20 times that much tar sands in Michigan's Kalamazoo River in 2010, in a spill that hasn't been cleaned up yet.

For Congressional Republicans, though, that doesn't really matter.

What they care about is trying to somehow embarrass the president, to force his hand with an arbitrary deadline and cause a rush to judgment on a matter of serious national concern.

The misinformation spouting from GOP Congressional leadership on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is stunning. Just this morning on NBC's Meet the Press, Speaker Boehner lied repeatedly about every aspect of this project. And it sat there, as truth.

Never mind that the majority of the contracts for the processed oil are already cut and most of it will likely be exported to foreign countries. Speaker Boehner sat there and said it's a matter of national security. It's not. It's a matter of a big payday for his friends in the oil and gas industry.

Never mind that every independent study on how many American jobs will actually be created says, at most, 6,500 temporary construction jobs, very few of which would be local hires, according to the State Department. And never mind that Cornell University concludes it would kill more than it would create, by reducing investment in the clean energy economy. Speaker Boehner can pop off with more misinformation saying hundreds of thousands of jobs will be created. And it sits there, as truth.

Here's the simple truth, they're all willing to put our people and resources at growing risk to help boost oil company profits.

For the millions of Americans who care about clean air and water for their families, national security and a re-energized economy, all GOP Congressional leadership can come back with is a personal slap down. That somehow Americans who feel public health and safety are priority concerns, are crazy and irrational.

Newt Gingrich, the Republican's leading candidate for President of the United States portrayed these American citizens, living in a democracy as "... left-wing environmental extremists in San Francisco." Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called for the president to not "... let a few radical environmentalists stand in the way... " All of this feels more like middle school than political leadership.

The American people are a lot smarter than these so-called leaders give them credit for. They can tell when they're being played. They know that this is a Congress that's more concerned with scoring political points than it is with doing the country's business.

?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-redford/keystone-xl-payroll-tax-cut_b_1156993.html

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Gingrich, Romney begin final pitches (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Republican president hopeful Newt Gingrich doubled down on his criticism of federal judges and the Supreme Court on Sunday as chief rival Mitt Romney defended his record against likely Democratic attacks. With close to two weeks before GOP voters start choosing their nominee, Gingrich is courting the conservative primary voters he will need to win in Iowa and sustain his campaign against Romney, whose superior organization and pile of cash has him seeming ever more confident as he looks ahead to the general election.

"There is steady encroachment of secularism through the courts to redefine America as a nonreligious country and the encroachment of the courts on the president's commander-in-chief powers, which is enormously dangerous," Gingrich said on CBS's Face the Nation.

Polls in Iowa and nationally show Gingrich ahead of Romney in the race for the GOP nomination. Gingrich has acknowledged that Romney's repeated attacks have taken a toll on his campaign and is looking to stay at the top.

To do that, Gingrich is focusing on ideology as he courts the Iowa conservatives he needs to win the caucuses and challenge Romney's well-organized campaign in what could become a drawn-out primary. He has mounted a broad attack on federal judges and the Supreme Court, arguing that they are legislating from the bench and have more control over the country than they should. It's an argument that drew sustained applause during a debate last week in Sioux City, Iowa ? and one that could have particular resonance in a state where Republicans fought a protracted battle with state Supreme Court judges over gay marriage.

"The Manchester Union Leader which is a reliably conservative newspaper endorsed me and the Des Moines Register, which is a solidly liberal newspaper did not endorse me," Gingrich said Sunday. "I think that indicates who the conservative in this race is."

The Register, which typically has a left-leaning editorial board, endorsed Romney Saturday night.

The two Republican front-runners for the nomination focused on President Barack Obama and defending their own records in separate TV interviews. It was a shift from recent weeks where the two have attacked each other, trading accusations about each other's' records and the money each has made.

In a rare appearance on a Sunday news program, meanwhile, Romney portrayed himself as the GOP candidate who is best able to defeat Obama next year. Romney defended his years making millions in private business, claiming he'll be able to handle attacks from Democrats who are already trying to paint him as wealthy and out-of-touch. And he argued that his tax proposal is kinder to the middle class and less generous to the rich than the flat tax proposals his rivals ? including Gingrich ? are backing.

"The president's going to go after me," Romney said on Fox News Sunday. "I'll go after him."

Taken together, the pair has set up a choice for Republican primary voters between a candidate who has struggled to excite the conservative base but emphasizes his appeal to the independents the party will need to win the White House ? or the candidate who sounds more conservative.

While Romney and Gingrich were on the East Coast on Sunday, their other rivals were campaigning across Iowa. Texas Gov. Rick Perry continued his bus tour across the state, as did Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum planned two town hall meetings in the conservative western portion of the state.

All were making last-ditch appeals to voters as the campaign for the caucuses enters its final weeks. As candidates met with caucusgoers, their campaigns ? and their SuperPAC allies ? were planning major ad offensives on TV. Gingrich's campaign is so far planning to spend about $14,000 on ads next week ? while his rivals and their allies planned to spend more than $1.3 million promoting themselves or attacking him.

Campaigning will continue into next week, with Gingrich also planning to spend the early part of the week in Iowa. He'll head to New Hampshire Wednesday, where Romney will already be part way through a four-day bus tour. Romney won't return to Iowa until after Christmas.

His confidence increasing, Romney has stepped away from his aggressive attacks on Gingrich in recent days, instead shifting his focus back to Obama ? and working to humanize himself on the campaign trail. That focus was on display in Sunday's interview, when Romney spoke emotionally about his wife's struggle with multiple sclerosis.

He said the "toughest time" in his life was standing in the doctor's office waiting for her diagnosis. He said he feared she had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, a fatal degenerative nerve condition.

The doctor "did these neurological tests, and then he ? and we could see that she had real balance problems and she didn't have feeling in places she should have feeling," Romney said. "And he stepped out of the room, and we stood up and hugged each other, and I said to her, `As long as it's not something fatal, I'm just fine. Look, I'm happy in life as long as I've got my soul mate with me.'"

After her diagnosis, Ann Romney was concerned that she wouldn't be able to do things that she had in the past. "And I said, `Look, I don't care what the meals are like, you know, I like cold cereal and peanut butter sandwiches,'" Romney said. "We could do fine with that as long as we have each other. And if you think about what makes a difference to you in your life, it's people. Life is all about the people you love."

Gingrich, meanwhile, was relaxed and jovial in his CBS interview with Bob Schieffer. He acknowledged his comeback has exceeded even his own expectations. Earlier this year top campaign aides and consultants resigned en masse and his White House bid was burdened with deep debt.

"As we were sliding down. I thought I could fight my way back up to being in the top three or four," said Gingrich, now a front-runner for the nomination. "But I think positive ideas and positive solutions... have attracted people. I think they like the idea of someone who's determined to be positive."

__

McCaffrey reported from Atlanta.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111218/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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Compare Car Insurance Estimates - The original Jeffersoncountyark

Posted in General on December 18th, 2011

As well as virtual shopping, you will find affordable car insurance on insurance offices and also speaking to the providers. You can still comparison shop while doing your study on foot, but it takes longer because you ought to drive from place to place. Many individuals prefer the personal support that speaking to a representative face-to-face offers, and if you?re not comfortable using a laptop or computer to make such an important purchase, buying protection in an office can provide you with the added security you will need.

Finding car insurance quotes is not a difficult job. In fact many companies offer you better deals online. Having the ability to do research on different companies before you purchase is something we all need to take advantage of. It is a challenging market out there so we are all looking for savings.

Having been with the same Insurance Company for many years I did not bother to research when the renewals arrived mainly because that I had been proud of the service. Payments were automatically deducted quarterly from my account and I had accurate information on all my transaction. The one two times the car had to go in for repairs, they were done with the at least fuss. You can search for free car insurance quotes

Low-budget car insurance is an low-cost car insurance, which offers just a minimum coverage to the driver. The coverage that?s offered by car insurance rates varies from state to state. However, any low-budget car insurance will provide protection for the third-party injuries and also damages to residence. There are a certain low-budget auto insurances, which cover the actual medical bills from the car driver/owner in case of a road accident no matter whether he is insured or otherwise not. There are many auto insurance firms that offer low-budget car insurance depending on the vehicle and targeted traffic laws of each express. You can check out the estimates offered by various insurance companies online and offline before selecting a car insurance coverage that is most suited.

There are many insurance companies that have specific insurance policies for women drivers. One of the benefits associated with car insurance for women are generally, the premium prices are low. The automobile insurance companies also get them good discount rates.

Always check exceeding one establishment to obtain the car insurance because there is an approximate difference of $500 in between quotes of the most expensive and the ordinary insurance carrier which actually signifies that you end up paying top quality of the same amount unless you do a proper market research.

So don?t hesitate to discover the above ways to get cheap car insurance whether you are getting a fresh plan as well as trying to lower the actual rates on your existing plan.



Source: http://www.jeffersoncountyark.com/2011/12/18/compare-car-insurance-estimates/

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Egypt's military clashes with protesters in Cairo (AP)

CAIRO ? Egyptian soldiers clashed with hundreds of rock-throwing protesters in central Cairo for a second consecutive day on Saturday, hurling stones from rooftops and firing water from hoses in a crackdown that has left at least eight people dead.

The violence has brought to the fore the simmering tensions between security officers and activists demanding an end to military rule, and threatened to spark a new cycle of fighting after deadly clashes between youth revolutionaries and security forces in November that lasted for days and left more than 40 dead.

Early Saturday, hundreds of protesters hurled stones at security forces who have sealed off the streets around the country's parliament building with barbed wire and large concrete blocks. Soldiers on rooftops pelted the crowds below with stones, prompting many of the protesters to pick up helmets, satellite dishes or sheets of metal to try to protect themselves.

Stones, dirt and shattered glass covered the streets between the two sides, while flames came out of the windows of a two-story building set ablaze near parliament, sending thick plumes of black smoke into the sky.

Witnesses said soldiers wielding wooden sticks and dressed in riot gear chased protesters through the streets, forcing them to retreat to nearby Tahrir Square, which served as the epicenter of the uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak in February.

Later, soldiers stormed into Tahrir to disperse the protesters, and set fire to their tents. A huge cloud of black smoke hung over downtown Cairo as the tents burned.

There were reports of live gunfire from the rooftops, and the MENA state news agency said at least eight people have been killed and around 300 people injured in the two days of clashes.

Egypt's prime minister acknowledged that people had died from gunshot wounds, but denied the military and the police fired at protesters instead said "a group came from the back and fired at protesters" and said that his government is for "the salvation of the revolution."

The violence first began late Thursday after soldiers stormed an antimilitary protest camp outside the Cabinet building near Tahrir Square, expelling demonstrators demanding an end to military rule and an immediate transfer of power to a civilian authority. Witnesses said troops snatched a protester, taking him into the parliament building and beating him.

The soldiers later moved in, burning protesters' tents. Video footage and pictures showed military police in uniform dragging female protesters from hair, beating men and occupying rooftops of the Cabinet building.

The military took over after longtime President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular revolt in February. Rights groups and activists charge that the military is carrying on the practices of the old regime, including arresting and beating dissidents.

Funerals were expected Saturday for those killed a day earlier. Among the dead was Sheik Emad Effat, a cleric from Al-Azhar, Egypt's most eminent religious institution. Effat had taken a pro-revolutionary position, criticizing the military and issuing a religious decree forbidding voting for former members of the regime in elections. He was shot in the chest after joining the protesters outside the Cabinet.

Many Egyptians have grown increasingly wary of the military and frustrated with its handling of the country's transition period, and activists accuse the ruling generals of trying to hang on to power.

El-Ganzouri, a Mubarak-era politician who was named prime minister few days after violent protests broke out last month, blamed demonstrators for fueling the latest clashes by demolishing a wall of the Cabinet building, setting fire to the building and smashing surveillance cameras.

He said that the military forces guarding the building from inside have not been taken part in the clashes. He added that protesters are not "the pure revolutionaries" he knew, saying "a 12-year old boy can't be a revolutionary."

"I feel very sad and in so much pain," he told reporters in a press conference aired on Egyptian state TV. "I stress here that the armed forces didn't engage with protesters and didn't leave the building."

Mustafa Ali, a protester who was wounded by pellet shot in clashes last month, on Saturday accused the ruling generals of instigating the violence to "find a justification to remain in power and divide up people into factions."

In a statement read on state TV Friday night, the ruling military said its forces did not intend to break up the protest and said officers showed self-restraint, denying the used any gunfire. It said the clashes began when a military officer was attacked while on duty and protesters tried to break into the parliament compound.

The young activists who led the protests against Mubarak have not translated that success into results at the polls, where Islamist parties won a clear majority of seats in the first round of voting last month over the more liberal parties that emerged from the uprising. Results from this week's second round are expected in the coming days, with the rest of the country set to vote next month.

Images of troops protecting polling centers and soldiers carrying the elderly to the polls have served to boost the military's image as guardians of the country. The military remains the ultimate authority on all matters of state in absence of a president.

The second round of voting took place Wednesday and Thursday in nine of the country's 27 provinces. It covered vast rural areas where the religious stand of Islamist parties has strong support.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111217/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt

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