Bill Gates: Steve Jobs "did something better than I did" in designing the iPad

Bill Gates says that even though Microsoft came up with the idea of a tablet well before Apple, Steve Jobs "did something better than I did" in Apple's design for the iPad. He adds, though, that he believe the Microsoft Windows 8 Surface tablet "will change the rules" of computing.

Gates said all that and more during a lengthy interview with Charlie Rose last night. Much of the interview was about Gates's philanthropic work, but Gates also spent some time talking about computing, particularly PCs and tablets.

Rose asked Gates about Microsoft's work on its unsuccessful slate tablet years befor the iPad was released. Gates said that Microsoft's work on tablets was:

"Way too early...a few things could have been done differently...?

To learn more and to read the entire article at its source, please refer to the following page, Bill Gates: Steve Jobs "did something better than I did" in designing the iPad- Computerworld Blogs

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Source: http://feeds.dabcc.com/~r/presentation-virtualization/~3/tih5sGgE0lE/article.aspx

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Manchester United picks NYSE for U.S. public offering

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/manchester-united-picks-nyse-u-public-offering-011858309--sector.html

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Today on New Scientist: 5 July 2012

Zoologger: The fish with its genitals on its head

Newly discovered in Vietnam, Phallostethus cuulong has its gonads under its chin - along with a serrated saw and rod for grasping females

World's biggest hydroelectric plant fully operational

Witness the power of this fully operational... dam. The last turbine generators of China's Three Gorges Dam have been opened

Physicists propose factory to spew out Higgs particles

A muon-antimuon collider might be a clever way to produce bucketloads of Higgs bosons, letting us study their properties

One-Minute Physics: Why the Higgs is the missing link

Watch an animation that explains why the Higgs boson completes the standard model of particle physics

Ouija board helps psychologists probe the subconscious

A new study suggests it's possible to tap into our subconscious using the preferred tool of spiritualists

Infertility may increase risk of mental disorders

Failure to have children may increase risk of hospitalisation for psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and drug abuse

Eco-activists want to torpedo a war game

The US navy uses old ships as target practice before letting them sink in the sea - environmental activists fear the vessels are toxic

The quest to drill the world's deepest hole

Deeper and deeper the drillers have gone in the past 50 years. Follow them down through the Earth's crust towards their boldest borehole yet

GlaxoSmithKline agrees $3 billion fraud payout

The pharmaceutical giant accepts that it sold misbranded drugs and withheld safety data, following a criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice

Computer composer honours Turing's centenary

A suite of orchestral pieces generated by a computer program has been premiered in Spain

Split personality crime: who is guilty?

Dissociative identity disorder - when a person appears to have multiple personalities - is a real condition, a study says. But what if they commit a crime?

First animation reveals how a face forms in the womb

Watch a time-lapse based on human embryo scans that shows how our face develops

Subscribe to New Scientist Magazine

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'iPad Mini' Billed as a Nexus 7 Killer

iPad Mini

Apple is prepping a smaller iPad to take on tablets from competitors like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

The "iPad Mini" would supposedly sport a 7- or 8-inch screen, reduced from the 9.7-incher on all three generations of Apple's existing tablet, according to a pair of unnamed sources cited by the news agency. The smaller iPad could be announced in October and released in time for the holidays, according to Bloomberg.

The current iPad iPad is famous for its high-resolution Retina display, but the rumored Mini would have a cheaper screen, according to Bloomberg's sources. That could be key if Apple is truly positioning a smaller tablet against the likes of Google's recently unveiled Nexus 7 built by Asus and Amazon's Kindle Fire. Those two 7-inch tablets start at just $199, as compared with the iPad's starting price of $499.

Apple could also face some competition from the first Windows 8-based tablets due out before the end of the year, including Microsoft's own Surface, which the company to make itself to help kick start its next-generation operating system. The Surface is a larger tablet, however, and its rumored starting price is north of the iPad's?though Windows 8 tablets from other vendors may be smaller and cheaper.

Meanwhile, a smaller iPad would fly in the face of the late Steve Jobs' contention that Apple's tablet is the perfect size as is and anything smaller is essentially unusable, as Slate's Farhad Manjoo noted last week.

That doesn't necessarily mean Jobs was right (Manjoo doesn't think so) or that Apple remains beholden to his more entrenched viewpoints. But it's worth remembering that Apple still rules the tablet roost with its one and only iPad. The company has no track record of being so reactionary as to build a new product just because a would-be rival is hawking an as-yet unproven device like the Nexus 7.

We've been down this road with Apple rumors before. Whether they've tipped a netbook-sized Mac laptop or a bigger iPhone, they don't often pan out.

For more from Damon, follow him on Twitter @dpoeter.

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

Source: http://feeds.ziffdavis.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/breakingnews/~3/wPfs1OJzH54/0,2817,2406688,00.asp

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J&J seeks OK for first drug against resistant TB

FILE- In this Monday, July 17, 2006 file photo, a technician at Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, works in a "sterile filling" room at the plant in Raritan, N.J. Johnson & Johnson said Monday, July 2, 2012, that it is seeking U.S. approval for the first new type of medicine to fight deadly tuberculosis in more than four decades AP Photo/Mike Derer, File)

FILE- In this Monday, July 17, 2006 file photo, a technician at Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, works in a "sterile filling" room at the plant in Raritan, N.J. Johnson & Johnson said Monday, July 2, 2012, that it is seeking U.S. approval for the first new type of medicine to fight deadly tuberculosis in more than four decades AP Photo/Mike Derer, File)

(AP) ? Johnson & Johnson said Monday that it is seeking U.S. approval for the first new type of medicine to fight deadly tuberculosis in more than four decades.

The experimental drug, called bedaquiline, also would be the first medicine specifically for treating multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis. That's an increasingly common form in which at least two of the four primary TB drugs don't work.

Tuberculosis, caused by bacterial infection of the lungs and other body areas, is the world's No. 2 killer of adults among infectious diseases.

J&J's Janssen Research & Development unit created the drug, which was tested in several hundred patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in two mid-stage studies lasting for six months. Some patients were studied for about 1 1/2 years.

The company this fall is to begin late-stage testing that will compare bedaquiline to dummy pills over nine months in about 600 patients; each will also take six other drugs that are the standard treatments for tuberculosis. That study is aimed at seeing whether treatment for resistant tuberculosis can be reduced to nine months from the current 18 to 24 months recommended by the World Health Organization.

Roughly one-third of the world's population is estimated to be infected with the bacteria causing tuberculosis. It remains latent in most people for many years but can be activated by another infection or serious health problem.

TB is rare in the U.S. but kills about 1.4 million people a year worldwide, with about 150,000 of those succumbing to the increasingly common multidrug-resistant forms.

Janssen's head of infectious diseases, Dr. Wim Pays, said the company will also apply for approval of bedaquiline in other countries where TB is very common.

The disease is a serious problem in developing countries because it takes so long to cure and many patients stop taking their pills once they begin to feel better. That helps bacteria still alive in the patient to develop resistance to the medicines already taken, making future treatment much more difficult.

J&J shares rose 44 cents to close at $68, just shy of their 52-week high of $68.05 set almost a year ago.

___

Linda A. Johnson can be followed at http://twitter.com/LindaJ_onPharma

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2012-07-02-Johnson%20and%20Johnson-TB%20Drug/id-dcf35c2f7f4e49fab9001886185862ba

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I have a proposition for you Zelda fans!

The Legend of Zelda: This Ephemeral Light

Not a whole lot of details given for the plot, but that's intentional. This is a dark and gritty side of Zelda we're dealing with, so it's best to keep you in the dark about the goings on until the roleplay actually starts to thicken the plot for us. :D

Anyway, the basic idea for this roleplay is a dark fantasy setting set in Hyrule where demons reign and the other races struggle to survive.

What I need from you fine people of RolePlayGateway are four specific characters:

I need the remaining three heroes to accompany the one I've created. I'm color-coding these heroes like in Four Swords, so I need the red, blue, and purple heroes as I took green already :b Don't worry, this doesn't make my character more important at all. Also, I need a Zelda, her role to be explained in PM form once someone undertakes her control.

Character slots will NOT be reserved and I will take the characters I like best. Once these spots have been filled, you are more than welcome to undertake another role (town guard, villager, traveler, etc.) I won't make your role appear lesser in any way. In fact, I have story revolving around pretty much any situation you can throw at me.

So, if you guys are willing to take up these roles (you can only have one), then by all means, submit your characters! I cannot wait to get started. :)

Toodle-loo!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/qJSbs8rDZ_4/viewtopic.php

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Telefonica partners with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and RIM for global carrier billing

Telefonica partners with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and RIM for global carrier billingMaking a half dozen attempts to guess your login info or typing each digit of a credit card account certainly can get in the way of following through on impulse purchases, which is exactly how you'd categorize FarmVille cash or a featured flick that you know you may not have time to watch within the month. The solution is carrier billing, eliminating those precious seconds between impulse and reconsideration, and Telefonica has just signed on to offer the service to Facebook, Google, Microsoft and RIM account holders. The partnerships will enable O2 users in Germany or Movistar subscribers in Spain to charge purchases to their mobile phone accounts, for example -- in total, 14 Telefonica subsidiaries should be up and running with carrier billing by the end of the year, though some services, such as Google Play and Facebook, have already begun to roll out. Click through to the PR after the break for the full breakdown.

Continue reading Telefonica partners with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and RIM for global carrier billing

Telefonica partners with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and RIM for global carrier billing originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 14:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Next Web  |  sourceTelefonica (PDF)  | Email this | Comments


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/VaFH8yRAWRg/

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Seabirds study shows plastic pollution reaching surprising levels off coast of Pacific Northwest

ScienceDaily (July 4, 2012) ? Plastic pollution off the northwest coast of North America is reaching the level of the notoriously polluted North Sea, according to a new study led by a researcher at the University of British Columbia.

The study, published online in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, examined stomach contents of beached northern fulmars on the coasts of British Columbia, Canada, and the states of Washington and Oregon, U.S.A.

"Like the canary in the coal mine, northern fulmars are sentinels of plastic pollution in our oceans," says Stephanie Avery-Gomm, the study's lead author and a graduate student in UBC's Department of Zoology. "Their stomach content provides a 'snapshot' sample of plastic pollution from a large area of the northern Pacific Ocean."

Northern fulmars forage exclusively at sea and retain ingested plastics for a long period of time, making them ideal indicators for marine littering. Analysis of beached fulmars has been used to monitor plastic pollution in the North Sea since the 1980s. The latest findings, when compared to previous similar studies, indicate a substantial increase in plastic pollution over the past four decades.

The research group performed necropsies on 67 beached northern fulmars and found that 92.5 per cent had plastics -- such as twine, Styrofoam and candy wrappers -- in their stomach. An average of 36.8 pieces per bird were found. The average total weight of plastic was 0.385 grams per bird. One bird was found with 454 pieces of plastic in its stomach.

"The average adult northern fulmar weighs five pounds, or 2.25 kilograms," says Avery-Gomm. "While 0.385 grams in a bird may seem inconsequential to us, it's the equivalent of about five per cent of their body mass. It would be like a human carrying 50 grams of plastic in our stomach -- about the weight of 10 quarters."

"Despite the close proximity of the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch,' an area of concentrated plastic pollution in the middle of the North Pacific gyre, plastic pollution has not been considered an issue of concern off our coast," says Avery-Gomm, "But we've found similar amounts and incident rates of plastic in beached northern fulmars here as those in the North Sea. This indicates it is an issue which warrants further study."

The researchers propose annual monitoring of trends in plastic pollution and the effectiveness of marine waste reduction strategies.

"Beached bird surveys are providing important clues about causes and patterns of sea bird mortality from oil spill impacts, fisheries by-catch and now plastic ingestion," says co-author Karen Barry with Bird Studies Canada, a not-for profit organization that helped facilitate the study.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of British Columbia, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Stephanie Avery-Gomm, Patrick D. O?Hara, Lydia Kleine, Victoria Bowes, Laurie K. Wilson, Karen L. Barry. Northern fulmars as biological monitors of trends of plastic pollution in the eastern North Pacific. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.04.017

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120704124321.htm

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Seabirds study shows plastic pollution reaching surprising levels off coast of Pacific Northwest

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 4-Jul-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Brian Lin
brian.lin@ubc.ca
604-822-2234
University of British Columbia

Plastic pollution off the northwest coast of North America is reaching the level of the notoriously polluted North Sea, according to a new study led by a researcher at the University of British Columbia.

The study, published online in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, examined stomach contents of beached northern fulmars on the coasts of British Columbia, Canada, and the states of Washington and Oregon, U.S.A.

"Like the canary in the coal mine, northern fulmars are sentinels of plastic pollution in our oceans," says Stephanie Avery-Gomm, the study's lead author and a graduate student in UBC's Department of Zoology. "Their stomach content provides a 'snapshot' sample of plastic pollution from a large area of the northern Pacific Ocean."

Northern fulmars forage exclusively at sea and retain ingested plastics for a long period of time, making them ideal indicators for marine littering. Analysis of beached fulmars has been used to monitor plastic pollution in the North Sea since the 1980s. The latest findings, when compared to previous similar studies, indicate a substantial increase in plastic pollution over the past four decades.

The research group performed necropsies on 67 beached northern fulmars and found that 92.5 per cent had plastics such as twine, Styrofoam and candy wrappers in their stomach. An average of 36.8 pieces per bird were found. The average total weight of plastic was 0.385 grams per bird. One bird was found with 454 pieces of plastic in its stomach.

"The average adult northern fulmar weighs five pounds, or 2.25 kilograms," says Avery-Gomm. "While 0.385 grams in a bird may seem inconsequential to us, it's the equivalent of about five per cent of their body mass. It would be like a human carrying 50 grams of plastic in our stomach about the weight of 10 quarters."

"Despite the close proximity of the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch,' an area of concentrated plastic pollution in the middle of the North Pacific gyre, plastic pollution has not been considered an issue of concern off our coast," says Avery-Gomm, "But we've found similar amounts and incident rates of plastic in beached northern fulmars here as those in the North Sea. This indicates it is an issue which warrants further study."

The researchers propose annual monitoring of trends in plastic pollution and the effectiveness of marine waste reduction strategies.

"Beached bird surveys are providing important clues about causes and patterns of sea bird mortality from oil spill impacts, fisheries by-catch and now plastic ingestion," says co-author Karen Barry with Bird Studies Canada, a not-for profit organization that helped facilitate the study.

###


[ 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.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 4-Jul-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Brian Lin
brian.lin@ubc.ca
604-822-2234
University of British Columbia

Plastic pollution off the northwest coast of North America is reaching the level of the notoriously polluted North Sea, according to a new study led by a researcher at the University of British Columbia.

The study, published online in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, examined stomach contents of beached northern fulmars on the coasts of British Columbia, Canada, and the states of Washington and Oregon, U.S.A.

"Like the canary in the coal mine, northern fulmars are sentinels of plastic pollution in our oceans," says Stephanie Avery-Gomm, the study's lead author and a graduate student in UBC's Department of Zoology. "Their stomach content provides a 'snapshot' sample of plastic pollution from a large area of the northern Pacific Ocean."

Northern fulmars forage exclusively at sea and retain ingested plastics for a long period of time, making them ideal indicators for marine littering. Analysis of beached fulmars has been used to monitor plastic pollution in the North Sea since the 1980s. The latest findings, when compared to previous similar studies, indicate a substantial increase in plastic pollution over the past four decades.

The research group performed necropsies on 67 beached northern fulmars and found that 92.5 per cent had plastics such as twine, Styrofoam and candy wrappers in their stomach. An average of 36.8 pieces per bird were found. The average total weight of plastic was 0.385 grams per bird. One bird was found with 454 pieces of plastic in its stomach.

"The average adult northern fulmar weighs five pounds, or 2.25 kilograms," says Avery-Gomm. "While 0.385 grams in a bird may seem inconsequential to us, it's the equivalent of about five per cent of their body mass. It would be like a human carrying 50 grams of plastic in our stomach about the weight of 10 quarters."

"Despite the close proximity of the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch,' an area of concentrated plastic pollution in the middle of the North Pacific gyre, plastic pollution has not been considered an issue of concern off our coast," says Avery-Gomm, "But we've found similar amounts and incident rates of plastic in beached northern fulmars here as those in the North Sea. This indicates it is an issue which warrants further study."

The researchers propose annual monitoring of trends in plastic pollution and the effectiveness of marine waste reduction strategies.

"Beached bird surveys are providing important clues about causes and patterns of sea bird mortality from oil spill impacts, fisheries by-catch and now plastic ingestion," says co-author Karen Barry with Bird Studies Canada, a not-for profit organization that helped facilitate the study.

###


[ 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/2012-07/uobc-sss062812.php

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FACT CHECK: Buyer beware in health debate

FILE - In this Thursday, June 28, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, after the Supreme Court ruled on his health care legislation. The victory will help define Obama's legacy. However, if Obama does not win a second term in November, he risks losing both the law and the core of his legacy. (AP Photo/The New York Times, Luke Sharrett, Pool, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, June 28, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, after the Supreme Court ruled on his health care legislation. The victory will help define Obama's legacy. However, if Obama does not win a second term in November, he risks losing both the law and the core of his legacy. (AP Photo/The New York Times, Luke Sharrett, Pool, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama promises nothing will change for people who like their health coverage except it'll become more affordable, but the facts don't back him up. Mitt Romney groundlessly calls the health care law a slayer of jobs certain to deepen the national debt.

Welcome to the health care debate 2.0. As the claims fly, buyer beware.

After the Supreme Court upheld the law last week, Obama stepped forward to tell Americans what good will come from it. Romney was quick to lay out the harm. But some of the evidence they gave to the court of public opinion was suspect.

A look at their claims and how they compare with the facts:

___

OBAMA: "If you're one of the more than 250 million Americans who already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance. This law will only make it more secure and more affordable."

ROMNEY: "Obamacare also means that for up to 20 million Americans, they will lose the insurance they currently have, the insurance that they like and they want to keep."

THE FACTS: Nothing in the law ensures that people happy with their policies now can keep them. Employers will continue to have the right to modify coverage or even drop it, and some are expected to do so as more insurance alternatives become available to the population under the law. Nor is there any guarantee that coverage will become cheaper, despite the subsidies many people will get.

Americans may well end up feeling more secure about their ability to obtain and keep coverage once insurance companies can no longer deny, terminate or charge more for coverage for those in poor health. But particular health insurance plans will have no guarantee of ironclad security. Much can change, including the cost.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the number of workers getting employer-based coverage could drop by several million, as some workers choose new plans in the marketplace or as employers drop coverage altogether. Companies with more than 50 workers would have to pay a fine for terminating insurance, but in some cases that would be cost-effective for them.

Obama's soothing words for those who are content with their current coverage have been heard before, rendered with different degrees of accuracy. He's said nothing in the law requires people to change their plans, true enough. But the law does not guarantee the status quo for anyone, either.

So where does Romney come up with 20 million at risk of losing their current plans?

He does so by going with the worst-case scenario in the budget office's analysis. Researchers thought it most likely that employer coverage would decline by 3 to 5 million, but the range of possibilities was broad: It could go up by as much as 3 million or down by as much as 20 million.

___

ROMNEY: After saying the new law cuts Medicare by $500 billion and raises taxes by a like amount, adds: "And even with those cuts and tax increases, Obamacare adds trillions to our deficits and to our national debt, and pushes those obligations onto coming generations."

THE FACTS: In its most recent complete estimate, in March 2011, the Congressional Budget Office said the new health care law would actually reduce the federal budget deficit by $210 billion over the next 10 years. In the following decade, the law would continue to reduce deficits by about one-half of one percent of the nation's gross domestic product, the office said.

The congressional budget scorekeepers acknowledged their projections are "quite uncertain" because of the complexity of the issue and the assumptions involved, which include the assumption that all aspects of the law are implemented as written. But the CBO assessment offers no backup for Romney's claim that the law "adds trillions to our deficits."

___

OBAMA: "And by this August, nearly 13 million of you will receive a rebate from your insurance company because it spent too much on things like administrative costs and CEO bonuses and not enough on your health care."

THE FACTS: Rebates are coming, but not nearly that many Americans are likely to get those checks and for many of those who do, the amount will be decidedly modest.

The government acknowledges it does not know how many households will see rebates in August from a provision of the law that makes insurance companies give back excess money spent on overhead instead of health care delivery. Altogether, the rebates that go out will benefit nearly 13 million people. But most of the benefit will be indirect, going to employers because they cover most of the cost of insurance provided in the workplace.

Employers can plow all the rebate money, including the workers' share, back into the company's health plan, or pass along part of it.

The government says some 4 million people who are due rebates live in households that purchased coverage directly from an insurance company, not through an employer, and experts say those households are the most likely to get a rebate check directly.

The government says the rebates have an average value of $151 per household. But employers, who typically pay 70 to 80 percent of premiums, are likely to get most of that.

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ROMNEY: "Obamacare raises taxes on the American people by approximately $500 billion."

THE FACTS: The tax increases fall heavily on upper-income people, health insurance companies, drug makers and medical device manufacturers.

People who fail to obtain health insurance as required by the law will face a tax penalty, although that's expected to hit relatively few because the vast majority of Americans have insurance and many who don't will end up getting it. Also, a 10 percent tax has been imposed on tanning bed use as part of the health care law. There are no other across-the-board tax increases in the law, although some tax benefits such as flexible savings accounts are scaled back. Of course, higher taxes on businesses can be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices.

Individuals making over $200,000 and couples making over $250,000 will pay 0.9 percent more in Medicare payroll tax and a 3.8 percent tax on investments. As well, a tax starts in 2018 on high-value insurance plans.

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OBAMA: "Because of the Affordable Care Act, young adults under the age of 26 are able to stay on their parents' health care plans, a provision that's already helped 6 million young Americans."

THE FACTS: Obama is overstating this benefit of his health law, and his own administration knows better. The Department of Health and Human Services, in a June 19 news release, said 3.1 million young adults would be uninsured were it not for the new law. Obama's number comes from a June 8 survey by the Commonwealth Fund, a health policy foundation. It said 6.6 million young adults joined or stayed on their parents' health plans who wouldn't have been able to absent the law. But that number includes some who switched to their parents' plans from other coverage, Commonwealth Fund officials told the Los Angeles Times.

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ROMNEY: "Obamacare is a job-killer."

THE FACTS: The CBO estimated in 2010 that the law would reduce the amount of labor used in the economy by roughly half a percent.

But that's mostly because the law will give many people the opportunity to retire, stay at home with family or switch to part-time work, since they will be able to get health insurance more easily outside of their jobs. That voluntary retreat from the workforce, made possible by the law's benefits, is not the same as employers slashing jobs because of the law's costs, as Romney implies.

The law's penalties on employers who don't provide health insurance might cause some companies to hire fewer low-wage workers or to hire more part-timers instead of full-time employees, the budget office said. But the main consequence would still be from more people choosing not to work.

Apart from the budget office and other disinterested parties that study the law, each side in the debate uses research sponsored by interest groups, often slanted, to buttress its case. Romney cites a Chamber of Commerce online survey in which nearly three-quarters of respondents said the law would dampen their hiring.

The chamber is a strong opponent of the law, having run ads against it. Its poll was conducted unscientifically and is therefore not a valid measure of business opinion.

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Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor and Jim Drinkard contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2012-07-02-US-Health-Care-Fact-Check/id-5069e801e9294999a7086f24f7d31046

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