Skitch Brings its Easy Image Annotation and Sharing to the iPad [Video]

Skitch Brings its Easy Image Annotation and Sharing to the iPad Our favorite capture-and-annotate tool, Skitch, is now available on the iPad with a great touch-based interface for quick and easy image-based notes.

Skitch not only brings its fancy arrows and other drawing powers to the iPad, but with it brings a built-in camera for quick snapshots, the ability to detect recent screenshots, a built-in web browser for marking up web pages, a built-in map for drawing out directions for your friends, and more. And, it all integrates with Evernote, so you can share a note with your friends or send it straight to your notebook for quick reference later. Hit the link to read more.

Skitch for iPad | iTunes App Store via Evernote Blog

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/whusnRYWZcc/skitch-brings-its-easy-image-annotation-and-sharing-to-the-ipad

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Video: An ecosystem being transformed - Yellowstone 15 years after the return of wolves

Video: An ecosystem being transformed - Yellowstone 15 years after the return of wolves

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

On the 15th anniversary of the return of wolves to Yellowstone National Park, a quiet but profound rebirth of life and ecosystem health is emerging, scientists conclude in a new report.

For the first time in 70 years, the over-browsing of young aspen and willow trees has diminished as elk populations in northern Yellowstone declined and their fear of wolf predation increased. Trees and shrubs have begun recovering along some streams, providing improved habitat for beaver and fish. Birds and bears also have more food.

"Yellowstone increasingly looks like a different place," said William Ripple, a professor in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University, and lead author of the study.

"These are still the early stages of recovery, and some of this may still take decades," Ripple said. "But trees and shrubs are starting to come back and beaver numbers are increasing. The signs are very encouraging."

The findings of this report, based on a recent analysis done by OSU researchers and a review of many other studies as well, were just published in Biological Conservation, a professional journal. They outline an ecosystem renaissance that has taken place since wolves were restored to Yellowstone after being extirpated in the 1920s.

Along four streams studied in the Lamar River basin, 100 percent of the tallest young aspen sprouts were being browsed in 1998, compared to less than 20 percent last year. Heavy browsing by elk on this favorite food had caused new aspen tree recruitment to essentially grind to a halt in the mid-to-late 1900s, when wolves were absent, but new trees are now growing again in places.

Among the observations in this report:

  • Since their reintroduction in 1995-96, the wolf population generally increased until 2003, forcing changes in both elk numbers and behavior due to what researchers call the "ecology of fear."
  • The northern range elk populations decreased from more than 15,000 individuals in the early 1990s to about 6,000 last year, and remaining elk now have different patterns of movement, vigilance, and other traits.
  • By 2006, some aspen trees had grown tall enough they were no longer susceptible to browsing by elk, and cottonwood and willow were also beginning to return in places.
  • Improved willow growth is providing habitat that allows for a greater diversity and abundance of songbirds such as the common yellowthroat, warbling vireo and song sparrow.
  • The number of beaver colonies in the same area increased from one in 1996 to 12 in 2009, with positive impacts on fish habitat.
  • Increases in beaver populations have strong implications for riparian hydrology and biodiversity ? Wyoming streams with beaver ponds have been found to have 75 times more abundant waterfowl than those without.
  • The coyote population decreased with the increase in wolf numbers, potentially allowing more small mammals that provide food for other avian and mammalian predators, such as red foxes, ravens and bald eagles.

Evidence of improved ecosystem health following the return of wolves is "becoming increasingly persuasive," the scientists said in their report, though they also note that an increasing population of bison is continuing to impact young woody plants in the Lamar Valley.

"The wolves have made a major difference in Yellowstone," said Robert Beschta, a professor emeritus of forestry at OSU and co-author on the study.

"Whether similar recovery of plant communities can be expected in other areas, especially on public lands outside national parks, is less clear," Beschta said. "It may be necessary for wolves not only to be present but to have an ecologically effective density, and mechanisms to deal with human and wolf conflicts also need to be improved."

But at least in America's first national park, the return of this large predator is having an impact.

"Predation and predation risk associated with large predators appear to represent powerful ecological forces," the researchers concluded in their report, "capable of affecting the interactions of numerous animals and plants, as well as the structure and function of ecosystems."

###

Oregon State University: http://www.orst.edu

Thanks to Oregon State University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116235/Video__An_ecosystem_being_transformed___Yellowstone____years_after_the_return_of_wolves_

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Zynga's rivals welcome the social gaming IPO | VentureBeat

With the IPOs of Zynga and Nexon, the social and online game industries have their first billion-dollar public offerings. May many more follow.

That?s the spirit among other social gaming rivals, including those that have been fierce competitors to Zynga, the largest of the social gaming companies. Now both Zynga and Nexon will have an extra billion dollars to buy some of those rivals, spreading around some of the holiday cheer. And the worldwide publicity from the offerings will bring new recognition that gaming is a big business and that social and online games have mass market awareness.

As we chronicled in our 25,000-word history of the company, Zynga has come a long way since chief executive Mark Pincus (pictured) founded the company in 2007. His tale is sure to inspire other entrepreneurs to follow in his footsteps. Pincus will ring the opening bell ? virtually, from Zynga?s headquarters in San Francisco ? on Nasdaq this morning.

Nexon went public three days ago, raising $1.2 billion on the Tokyo Stock Exchange at a $7 billion valuation. Zynga priced its IPO shares yesterday at $10 a share, which will enable it to raise $1.15 billion at a $8.9 billion valuation.

?Zynga?s IPO is great for the industry, providing a focal point for many to learn and get more involved in important industry trends,? said Trip Hawkins, chief executive of mobile and social gaming firm Digital Chocolate. ?The IPO should also prove to be a catalyst for many future transactions that will help the industry.?

Hawkins is certainly no fan of Zynga, as he competes head to head against it every day. Peter Relan, chairman of YouWeb and CEO of social game firm CrowdStar, said, ?In the western world zynga is the first company to bring validity to a business model that has thrived in Asia for over a decade as exemplified by the Nexon IPO.?

Kevin Chou, chief executive of hardcore social gaming company Kabam, said, ??The excitement and pricing of Zynga?s IPO as one of the largest in gaming history shows just how powerful and fast disruption is coming to the industry.?

He added, ?Zynga is at the center of not one but three very powerful disruptive forces.? That includes the free-to-play business model (where users play for free and pay real money for virtual goods) as a frictionless way to optimize how to charge for entertainment. It also provides technology advancements to put entertainment within reach of any consumer with an internet connected device. And it enables ?social interactions that power connectivity and play.?

Chou said, ?It?s the most important event in the gaming industry in the last decade, and Zynga didn?t even exist five years ago.?

Arjun Sethi, head of social game maker Lolapps at 6waves Lolapps, said, ?Zynga?s IPO is an important validation for the social gaming market which will continue its rapid growth in 2012. Zynga?s milestone proves that companies taking a data-informed approach to their product development continue to find the most success.?

Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, isn?t allowed to comment on the valuation yet. But he said, ?It?s not a surprise that they priced at the high end of the range. I think they created a lot of demand with limited supply, and expect it to trade up due to demand.?

Alex St. John, former president of social network Hi5, said, ?I think it?s a good thing no matter what happens. If they fail it will be blamed on the bad times and Facebook dependency. If they succeed, they will define the value of hundreds of online game companies that are successful and control their own audiences.? The market will become highly educated about the online game business regardless of what happens.?

?What Zynga?s IPO does is finally put tangible metrics and evaluations within the social space,? said Jesse Divnich, analyst at game research firm EEDAR. ?Till now the forces driving evaluations have mostly been expert driven guest work.? Now we?ll have an entire public market driving evaluations to their true value.?

But Divnich said that these new IPOs shouldn?t necessarily lead to a bunch of others.

?I do fear that Zynga?s IPO may create a surge in IPO offerings from other social and mobile game companies across the world, much like we saw in the 2000?s with the internet boom,? he said. ?At the very least, having an objective measuring stick (Zynga?s IPO) will likely accelerate acquisitions in the space. Certainly those being acquired or going public will see the benefit, but I do worry that this could be part of a bubble.?

Eric Goldberg, managing director at Crossover Technologies, said that Zynga?s IPO may actually be an impediment to more social game companies going public. Other companies will want to ride in Zynga?s slipstream and insist that they do one or two things better than Zynga. It doesn?t always follow that these followers are going to be good investments, Goldberg said.

Brandon Barber, senior vice president of marketing at social game firm Kixeye, said, ?We believe it?s good for the industry. All boats will rise. ?

Next Story: One company calls out cloudwashing?s worst?offenders
Previous Story: On heels of new funding and global expansion, car service Uber launches in D.C.?today

Tags: mobile games, social games

People: Jesse Divnich, Kevin Chou, Mark Pincus, Michael Pachter, Trip Hawkins

Source: http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/16/zyngas-rivals-welcome-the-social-gaming-ipo/

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'Teen Mom' Amber Portwood in car accident

Things started to look up for "Teen Mom's" Amber Portwood when Indiana's Child Protection Services had closed its investigation on whether or not the reality star was a fit mother, but quickly afterwards, things turned sour.

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Yesterday, Portwood was faced with the possibility of going to jail after violating her probation, and now, Leah's mom is dealing with the consequences of rear-ending a man's vehicle in Indiana.

Sigh.

MORE: Portwood: "I've Been Diagnosed With Extreme Bipolar and Disassociative Disorder"

E! News learns that the accident happened yesterday at 8:08 p.m. in Anderson, Ind. Portwood was at fault for following the 2003 Saturn S12 car too closely, which resulted in hitting the car with her 2005 Cadillac STS when the other driver decided to suddenly brake.

The report estimates the damages to the man's car to be up to $2,500.

Report: 'Teen Mom' Amber violated probation

She claimed that "the car in front of her slammed on her breaks and suddenly made a turn," also saying that the other person didn't use a signal, although he says he did.

"This guy slammed on his brakes in front of me when I was on my way to see my mom. It barely scratched the car though," Portwood tells E! News. "I wasn't even going the full speed limit. I was slowing down and boom, he slammed on his brakes. I guess they missed their turn and stopped real fast to turn. It sucks."

? Reporting by Baker Machado and Katie Rhames

GALLERY: Stars and Their Cars

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45704154/ns/today-entertainment/

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Hurd cut by Bears,?released on $100K bond

By ANDREW SELIGMAN, DON BABWIN

updated 6:21 p.m. ET Dec. 16, 2011

CHICAGO - The attorney for Sam Hurd said Friday that his client had never sold drugs to other NFL players, hoping to put any rumors to rest as the wide receiver without a team prepares to fight federal drug charges that could put him in jail for 40 years.

Less than an hour after Hurd was cut by the Chicago Bears, defense attorney Brett Greenfield told reporters that his client planned to fight the charges and wanted one thing made clear.

"Sam has asked me to address one point, with respect to the rumors that Sam has been supplying drugs to other members of the NFL, out of respect to the NFL, out of respect to teammates and out of respect to other players, he 100 percent denies that allegation," Greenfield said. "It is patently and totally false. It just didn't happen."

League spokesman Brian McCarthy said the NFL was closely monitoring the situation. Asked about a report that authorities have a list of NFL players with ties to the drug case, McCarthy said: "We are not aware of such a list."

U.S. Magistrate Young Kim ordered Hurd to surrender his passport and any firearms. Hurd is expected to be tried in Texas, where the criminal complaint was filed this week by the U.S. attorney.

Hurd, who appeared in court in an orange jumpsuit with his feet shackled, waived his right to a preliminary hearing, meaning the next step is for prosecutors to take their case before a grand jury. Several members of Hurd's family, including his wife, mother and brother, attended the hearing but he didn't appear to look at them, even as he was led out of the room. He was later released after posting $100,000 bond.

Hurd was arrested Wednesday night outside a Chicago steakhouse, according to the complaint. He allegedly told an undercover agent he was interested in buying five to 10 kilograms of cocaine and 1,000 pounds of marijuana per week to distribute in the Chicago area.

Hurd told the agent a "co-conspirator is in charge of doing the majority of the deals" while he focused on "higher-end deals," the complaint said. He agreed to pay $25,000 for each kilogram of cocaine and $450 a pound for the marijuana, according to the charges, and then said he could pay for a kilo of cocaine ? about 2.2 pounds ? after "he gets out of practice." He walked out of the restaurant with the package and was arrested.

Hurd faces up to 40 years in prison and a $2 million fine if convicted of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine, or half a kilogram.

Teammates said they were stunned by the allegations and general manager Jerry Angelo said he was, too, as he announced the team was cutting Hurd.

"There were no facts, there were no flags, that anybody could present tangibly to say we should have known otherwise, and I want to make that perfectly clear to the public, to our fans," Angelo said Friday. "We do our homework. We do our due diligence. We did everything you could possibly do given the information that we can allocate."

The 26-year-old Hurd was in his first year with the Bears and sixth year overall in the NFL after five years with the Cowboys. Angelo said the Bears performed an extensive background check on Hurd, a San Antonio native who played at Northern Illinois, before signing him in July to a three-year deal reportedly worth up to $5.15 million, including a $1.35 million signing bonus and base pay this season of $685,000.

"We go back, we ask questions," Angelo said. "Is there something we could have done, something we should have done, in the process? Sometimes, there are glitches, but in this case, there are none. I could sit here and tell you with total transparency that we did everything we know to do in terms of our research, and there was nothing that we found that would create a flag or an alert or a real concern in Sam Hurd's case."

Asked how certain he was that other players on the Bears or around the league were not involved, Angelo said, "I can't talk about that."

"I'm certainly not going on any witch hunts about players," he added. "The one thing that we've done when there's been a wrong, we've acted. We don't justify wrongs. We've acted. We have a track record of doing that. Unfortunately, a situation arose that caught us off guard, but not to the point where we aren't going to do the right thing."

The Bears announced their contract agreement with Hurd on July 29, one day after federal authorities say he had agreed to a "consensual interview" with Homeland Security investigators over $88,000 in cash that had been seized in a car he owned in the Dallas area. The money was inside a canvas bag that authorities said was covered in a plant-like material that tested positive for "properties of marijuana."

Hurd said the money was his and that he had given the car to his acquaintance, a car shop employee, for maintenance and detail work, the complaint said.

"From my understanding, he wasn't the one that was pulled over," Angelo said. "His vehicle was pulled over. He was not the driver. That was never made public. So he was never charged with anything. There was never any record to our knowledge. And it was, from my understanding, a citation, but other than that, there was no other information that was presented to us."

Angelo would not say if the Bears would try to recoup some of the signing bonus. He also gave a terse answer when asked whether the case might affect his own future with the Bears, telling a reporter to "whistle Dixie." Angelo is under contract through 2013.

As for Hurd, receiver Earl Bennett described him as a "guy with high character who just loves to play the game of football, loves to have fun." Bennett also said he doesn't think other players are involved.

"I wouldn't think so," he said. "A lot of guys in this locker room are very high-character guys."

Coach Lovie Smith echoed that sentiment.

"We have a great group of guys," he said. "But sometimes when you're dealing with this many, it's hard to have all the players be a certain way. But you can't let that scar what else we're getting done here. It's always about the team. Every once in a while a guy will go outside what's best for the football team and there are consequences that you deal with. That's how life goes. There are life lessons that are being learned here by our football team."

Greenfield said he wasn't sure whether Hurd would try to get picked up by another team as he fights the drug case.

"Sam's a football player and he wants to play," he said. "Hopefully he'll be playing in the near future with another team."

If not, the attorney said, there are other options.

"Sam's a college grad, Sam's a scholar, Sam's a very, very smart individual," Greenfield said.

___

AP Sports Writer Howard Fendrich contributed to this report.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Google says its annual Zeitgeist report, the newest edition of which is out today, shows us the pinnacle of what "mattered in 2011." If that's true, we should all be ashamed of ourselves. More »


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U.S. withdrawal in Iraq rolls into final act (Reuters)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) ? American soldiers signed over their last military base to Iraqi officials on Friday with the U.S. troop pullout drawing to an swift end nearly nine years after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

The few thousand remaining U.S. troops are scheduled to leave Iraq before December 31, closing a U.S. military venture that cost the lives of nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis caught up in sectarian strife.

Iraqi and U.S. officials on Friday signed paperwork for the handover of Camp Adder with a ceremony marked by army bugle calls and the lowering of flags. Only about 4,000 American soldiers remain in the country, down from a peak of 170,000.

"We have turned the last page of the occupation," Hussein al-Asadi, an adviser for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said at the base, 300 km (185 miles) south of Baghdad.

Camp Adder, a former air base in southern Nasiriyah province, will be one of the last few handed over as troops head south to the Kuwaiti border, leaving behind them housing units, generators and other material they cannot take along.

In the last month Camp Adder had turned into a ghost town. A yard was filled recently with chairs, tables and furniture handed over to the Iraqi forces. Signing over the bases usually happens before the final transfer.

The more than 500 U.S. bases at the height of the war have been whittled to a handful with daily convoys of hundreds of trucks and U.S. military vehicles crossing southern Iraq into Kuwait.

U.S. soldiers ended combat missions in 2010 and have already handed over much of the security role to Iraqi forces, but the last troops pull out of an Iraq that is still confronting a stubborn insurgency and political uncertainty.

Many Iraqis welcome the end of the U.S. military presence but fret over whether Iraq's government will manage tense sectarian relations, a fragile political power-sharing deal and an economy in dire need of investment.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta flew briefly into Baghdad on Thursday for a ceremony to officially end the war in Iraq, telling U.S. and Iraqi officials that the sacrifice was worth it to establish an independent, stable country.

Violence has fallen sharply since the days of the worst sectarian slaughter in 2006-2007, an uneasy political power-sharing government of Shi'ite Muslims, Sunni Muslims and Kurds is in place and foreign oil firms are helping Iraq ramp up production.

But tensions simmer close to the surface. Minority Sunnis who once ruled under Saddam are chafing against what they see as a majority Shi'ite-led government that has marginalized them outside of power-sharing.

Hundreds of police protected a provincial council building in restive Diyala province on Friday as about 500 Shi'ite protesters rallied for a third day against an attempt, by mainly Sunni politicians, to seek more provincial autonomy.

SENSE OF SOVEREIGNTY

Desire for more autonomy has been evident for years in Iraq's patchwork of sectarian, ethnic and tribal makeup, but the Diyala drive and a call from mostly Sunni Salahuddin province for more say are intensifying regional jostling as U.S. troops leave.

"The province is passing through a very critical moment with the U.S. military walking out," said teacher Talib Hassan, 35, protesting outside the Diyala council building. "The timing of this declaration of autonomy is just attempted rebellion.

In Falluja, the former heartland of an al Qaeda insurgency that suffered some of the most vicious fighting in the war, a few thousand Iraqis celebrated the withdrawal this week, with some burning U.S. flags and waving pictures of dead relatives.

Falluja became more than any other Iraqi city a symbol for the brutality of the war after the 2003 invasion. Some in Falluja still remember what they call there the "resistance" to U.S. military incursions.

"The occupiers are leaving and so do the tanks, fighter-jets and rifles," Ahmed al-Alwani, the Imam of al-Raqeeb mosque said in speech at Friday prayers. "Do you know why Falluja was first in celebrating the U.S. withdrawal? Because it was the first in resisting them."

(Additional reporting by Waleed Ibrahim and Fadhil al-Badrani; Editing by Matthew Jones)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111216/wl_nm/us_iraq_withdrawal

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Flipboard Gets Tiny, The Best Office Suite, Rate Everything, and Look Pretty [Video]

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Feds urge states to ban texting, talking on roads (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Ren Bishop is one of many American drivers who texts, tweets and talks on her cellphone while she's behind the wheel ? and thinks it should be up to drivers to use their discretion when it comes to safety.

Though she admits thumbing her phone while driving is bad habit, the University of Missouri student says drivers "are mature enough to understand when it is appropriate and when it is not."

The National Transportation Safety Board disagrees, and it declared Tuesday that texting, emailing or chatting while driving is simply too dangerous to be allowed anywhere in the United States.

The board is urging all states to impose total bans except for emergencies following recent deadly crashes, including one in Missouri after a teenager sent or received 11 text messages within 11 minutes.

The unanimous recommendation from the five-member board would apply even to hands-free devices, a much stricter rule than any current state law.

NTSB chairwoman Deborah Hersman acknowledged that complying would involve changing what has become ingrained behavior for many Americans.

"We're not here to win a popularity contest," she said. "No email, no text, no update, no call is worth a human life."

Currently, 35 states and the District of Columbia ban texting while driving, while nine states and Washington, D.C., bar hand-held cellphone use. Thirty states ban all cellphone use for beginning drivers. But enforcement is generally not a high priority, and no states ban the use of hands-free devices for all drivers.

The immediate impetus for the NTSB's recommendation was last year's deadly pileup near Gray Summit, Mo., involving a 19-year-old pickup driver.

The board said the initial collision was caused by the teen's inattention while texting a friend about events of the previous night. The pickup, traveling 55 mph, hit the back of a tractor truck that had slowed for highway construction. The pickup was rear-ended by a school bus, and a second school bus rammed into the back of the first bus.

The pickup driver and a 15-year-old student on one of the buses were killed. Thirty-eight other people were injured.

In Missouri, texting is illegal for drivers 21 and under, which means the law would have applied to the 19-year-old. But the ban isn't aggressively enforced, NTSB member Robert Sumwalt said.

"Without the enforcement, the laws don't mean a whole lot," he said.

The law didn't apply to 22-year-old Bishop when she was pulled over Monday night for swerving while texting on the University of Missouri campus.

She blames a late night and schoolwork. The officer who stopped her told her to put her phone in the back seat and sent her home with a warning.

"I definitely have the bad habit of tweeting and driving, texting and driving, and updating my Facebook status," Bishop said. "I probably shouldn't but the technology makes it too easy."

About two out of 10 American drivers overall ? and half of drivers between 21 and 24 ? say they've thumbed messages or emailed from the driver's seat, according to a survey of more than 6,000 drivers by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

At any given moment last year on America's streets and highways, nearly one in every 100 car drivers was texting, emailing, surfing the Web or otherwise using a hand-held electronic device, the safety administration said. Those activities were up 50 percent over the previous year.

NTSB investigators said they are seeing increasing texting, cellphone calls and other distracting behavior by drivers in accidents involving all kinds of transportation. It has become routine to immediately request the preservation of cellphone and texting records when an investigation begins.

In the past few years, the board has investigated a train collision in which the engineer was texting that killed 25 people in Chatsworth, Calif., a fatal accident near Philadelphia in which a tugboat pilot was talking on his cellphone and using a laptop computer, and a Northwest Airlines flight that sped more than 100 miles past its destination because both pilots were working on their laptops.

Last year, a driver was dialing his cellphone when his truck crossed a highway median near Munfordville, Ky., and collided with a 15-passenger van. Eleven people were killed.

While the NTSB doesn't have the power to impose restrictions, its recommendations carry significant weight with federal regulators, Congress and state lawmakers. But the board's decision to include hands-free cellphone use in its recommendation is likely to prove especially controversial.

No states currently ban hand-free use, although many studies show that it is often as unsafe as hand-held phone use because drivers' minds are on their conversations rather than what's happening on the road.

Bike messenger Jesus Santa Rosa, 24, says he's seen a lot of accidents that are caused by people using their cellphones while he maneuvers through the streets of downtown Los Angeles.

"I've seen people taking red lights while they're looking down at their cellphones," said Santa Rosa. "And a lot of people get hit ? bike messengers, pedestrians."

Santa Rosa says he was sideswiped by a woman who was exiting the freeway and charging onto downtown's surface streets at a high speed.

"This girl, when she stopped after she hit me, she was still talking on the phone as she got out of the car, like, telling someone she almost just killed someone," Santa Rosa said.

Still, he said a ban on hands-free devices would probably be going too far because "texting is more dangerous. They're not looking up."

Another NTSB recommendation Tuesday urges states to aggressively enforce current bans on text messaging and the use of cellphones and other portable electronic devices while driving.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported earlier this year that pilot projects in Syracuse, N.Y., and Hartford, Conn., produced significant reductions in distracted driving by combining stepped-up ticketing with high-profile public education campaigns.

Miami computer salesman Cully Waggoner, 50, agreed that texting is a danger to drivers but said enforcing bans is difficult. What may be more effective is harnessing technology to make technology safer, he said.

Perhaps phone manufacturers can be required to equip phones with a technology that disables texting and data packages if the phone is moving over a certain speed, Waggoner said.

"That would be the only way to get around to fixing anything: Go right to the technology that's being used," Waggoner said. Otherwise, "there's all kinds of laws on the books that people break every day, this would just be another one."

___

Shaya Tayefe Mohajer can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APShaya. Associated Press writer Joan Lowy in Washington contributed to this report and can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111214/ap_on_hi_te/us_drivers_texting

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Christian Bale Roughed Up In China

'Dark Knight Rises' actor barred from visiting quarantined activist.
By Jeremy Gordon


Christian Bale
Photo: ChinaFotoPress

Christian Bale intended to raise awareness about the plight of human-rights activist Chen Guangcheng — who has been under a form of house arrest since 2010 — when he invited a CNN camera crew on a trip to China.

"The Dark Knight Rises" star was there to visit the quarantined Chen when local guards rebuffed his attempt to enter the Chinese dissident's village, forcing the entire party off the premises. Chen has been under house arrest along with his family since his release from jail in September 2010. After speaking out against China's forced abortion policy, he was imprisoned in 2006 on charges of damaging property and disrupting traffic in a protest. Chen's supporters maintained that the blind, self-taught lawyer was detained on false charges, but he served the full four years of his sentence.

A CNN video captured a plainclothes guard pushing Bale around as he and the crew attempted to enter the tiny village in eastern China. Eventually, they were surrounded and corralled back to the main road. As the actor and the camera crew left the area, the guards got in a gray minivan and began to follow them.

Inside the CNN car, Bale said, "I don't feel brave doing this. The local people who stand up to authorities [and] insist on visiting Chen and his family are getting beaten up for it, and to my understanding, getting detained for it. I want to support what they're doing."

Bale first learned of Chen's plight while filming "The Flowers of War," a drama set during the Nanking Massacre. Despite pleas from U.S. officials for Chen's freedom, China's state media has given the story little coverage.

Chinese security chased Bale and CNN for more than a half hour before giving up, according to the cable news outlet. On the way back to Beijing, Bale speculated to CNN about whether he would be banned from entering the country, even as "The Flowers of War" becomes China's official entry at the 2012 Academy Awards.

"Really, what else can I do to help Chen?" he asked.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676132/dark-knight-rises-christian-bale.jhtml

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