Lindsay Lohan back to court for probation update (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Lindsay Lohan is due in court Wednesday to give a judge her first progress update under strict new probation requirements intended to keep close tabs on the troubled actress.

Lohan has been reporting regularly for work at the Los Angeles County morgue since being repeatedly threatened with a long jail sentence if she failed to complete the terms of her probation, which include community service and counseling sessions.

The hearing is without the usual drama that precedes Lohan's recent court appearances, which have focused on the actress' shortcomings by missing court-ordered therapy sessions and getting booted from a community service assignment at a women's shelter. The "Mean Girls" star spent less than five hours at a jail last month as part of a 30-day sentence imposed by Judge Stephanie Sautner for Lohan's continued misbehavior.

The judge is requiring the starlet to report on her progress monthly and it appears Lohan has been successful in meeting the goals of Wednesday's hearing.

"She's been doing fine," Deputy Chief Coroner Ed Winter said Tuesday, saying the actress has been showing up, working and leaving without incident.

He said he did not know how many hours Lohan had completed.

Her spokesman, Steve Honig, said Lohan has met or exceeded the terms of her probation imposed by Sautner last month.

"She's working very diligently to keep up her days so she can finish up with probation," he said.

Lohan remains on probation for a 2007 drunken driving case and a misdemeanor grand theft case filed after she took a $2,500 necklace without permission.

She has consistently struggled with the terms of her various sentences, which have included jail terms, rehab, community service and counseling.

Her appearance Wednesday comes days before a Playboy issue featuring Lohan in a mostly-nude pictorial hits newsstands. The magazine was forced to release the issue online early after photos of the Marilyn Monroe-inspired spread leaked out online.

___

Follow Anthony McCartney at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111214/ap_en_ce/us_people_lindsay_lohan

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Time magazine reveals Person of the Year 2011

Time magazine revealed the 2011 choice for its iconic Person of the Year cover live on TODAY Wednesday. The Protester is this year?s choice, managing editor Rick Stengel told Matt Lauer and Ann Curry.

?There was a lot of consensus among our people,? Stengel told the TODAY anchors as he revealed the magazine?s cover. ?It felt right.?

As it has for the past 84 years, the weekly newsmagazine selected the person (or sometimes group, or thing) that its editors deemed had the single greatest impact during the past year, for better or for worse.

Time?s Person of the Year has been a perennial topic of year-end debate ever since aviator Charles Lindbergh was chosen the first Man of the Year back in 1927 (the title was amended to Person of the Year in 1999). But the title is not necessarily an accolade; while many presidents, political leaders, innovators and captains of industry have been cited, some of the more notorious Persons of the Year include Adolf Hitler in 1938, Joseph Stalin in 1943 and Iran?s Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. There have also been more conceptual choices, such as ?the American Fighting-Man? (1950), ?Middle Americans? (1969), and this year?s choice, The Protester.

1. 1. Your ugly and funny Christmas sweaters ? revealed!

      Inspired by the TODAY talent's brave foray into holiday sweater couture, fans of all ages sent in their photos of knitted ...

   2. Rancic 'cracking jokes' after mastectomy
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   4. The 'Hunger Games' nail polish collection is back on!
   5. Toy aisle smackdown: 4 percent of parents go to extremes for the perfect present

Slideshow: Time Persons of the Year 1999-2011 (on this page)

Other candidates
Polled online earlier this week, hundreds of TODAY.com readers came up with many other nominees for 2011, including late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and SEAL Team 6, who killed Osama bin Laden.

?Gabrielle Giffords is in the magazine,? Stengel pointed out when Lauer mentioned the support for her and Jobs. "Steve Jobs is in the beginning of our Farewell section.? (The Farewell section spotlights the most noteworthy deaths of the year.)

Via Facebook, TODAY.com reader April Merenda said Jobs should be the choice ?to make up for (Time) not getting it right in 1984 as well as acknowledging his contribution to our global society and generations to come.? Reader ririjam suggested ?the three women who just won the Nobel Peace Prize? or first lady Michelle Obama, who ?has maintained grace and dignity.?

Video: TIME?s editor explains magazine's Person of the Year choice (on this page)

And Time conducted its own poll last month, offering a list of 34 candidates that ranged from prominent political leaders to pop culture icons. Time?s list included Casey Anthony, Herman Cain, Kim Kardashian, Steve Jobs, and such movements and groups as ?The 99%? (and ?The 1%?), and the international hacking collective Anonymous.

Time also revealed the runners-up for 2011 Person of the Year on its website, Time.com. Coming in No. 2 on the list is Admiral William H. McRaven, who organized the raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden in May (a choice similar to the popular TODAY.com nominee SEAL Team 6).

The No. 3 choice is Ai Wei Wei, the Chinese conceptual artist and activist who helped design Beijing National Stadium for the 2009 Olympics ? and was held incommunicado for 81 days and interrogated some 50 times by Chinese authorities last spring and summer while supporters around the world petitioned for his release.

Slideshow: Why "The Protester" received the Person of the Year award (on this page)

No. 4 on Time?s list is Rep. Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican whom the magazine credits with bringing to the front of the national consciousness an issue that Washington was loath to confront: America?s ballooning national debt.

And coming in No. 5: Duchess Kate. Having captured the attention and affection of millions, the magazine says, the former Kate Middleton is now ?poised to reinvent celebrity with restraint.?

?Admiral McRaven captured bin Laden, and the Duchess of Windsor captured our hearts,? Stengel commented on TODAY. Still, he added, ?It?s not a lifetime achievement award.?

So in the end, it was the image of The Protester ? summarizing mass actions against dictators in the Middle East, anti-drug cartel sentiment in Mexico, marches against unaccountable leaders in Greece, the America-spawned Occupy movement, and dissent from the Putin regime in Russia ? that appeared on Time?s 2011 Person of the Year cover.

?There?s this contagion of protest,? Stengel said on TODAY Wednesday. ?These people who risked their lives... I think it is changing the world for the better.?

Read more about the Time Person of the Year at Time.com. Follow @Time on Twitter for more on #POY2011.

? 2011 MSNBC Interactive.? Reprints

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45657166/ns/today-today_celebrates_2011/

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Sony Pins Its Future On Gaming

Sony can't get much right these days. They've dissolved their partnership with Ericsson so they have no dog in the mobile fight and their Blu-Ray/3D TV push is, at best, an afterthought with consumers. Nobody wants Sony laptops, what with all the ultrabooks out there. The only thing that can save them is gaming. The first great Sony hope is the Vita, Sony's handheld gaming console. Designed to offer a superior gaming experience over the only other portable consoles, the Nintendo DSi and 3DS, the Vita is already selling out in Japanese pre-orders and could be next year's hot selling gadget. None of the gaming greats except for Nintendo has progressed on the hardware front in years, so the Vita might be just the jolt Sony needs to survive.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/9eOcwKWenug/

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AUTOMOTIVE - AUTOS: Dodge Revives Dart Name

AUTOS: Dodge Revives Dart Name

New U.S.-built compact with Fiat chassis and engine technology to be unveiled at Detroit Auto Show.

Dodge's new compact car will bear a once-familiar name: Dart. Based on a combination of Alfa Romeo underpinnings and Dodge style, the Dart will make its official global debut at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show in January.

Though based on Italian architecture, Dart gets the full dose of Dodge styling cues. (Photo: Dodge) Dodge is hyping the car heavily, touting performance, gas mileage and style. Powered by a 1.4-liter MultiAir turbocharged engine, the Dart could pack a good deal of punch. The Fiat-developed MultiAir technology?s fully variable valve system can extract surprising flexibility from an engine, boosting both fuel efficiency and power output.

Alternatives to the standard engine include two naturally aspirated four cylinders, the Tigershark 2-liter and the Tigershark MultiAir 2.4-liter. Three transmission choices (not yet disclosed) will be available with each engine.

Dodge says it's keeping the Dart lean by using advanced materials sourced from the Alfa DNA in its design. Sixty-eight percent of the body structure is made of high-strength steel, Dodge says, which can be made thinner and lighter than standard steel.

Dodge used the Dart name for its then-compact lineup of cars from 1960 to 1976.

Despite its Italian DNA and Fiat's ownership interest, the new Dart will be built in the U.S. at the company's Belvidere, Ill., plant. The company says it will invest about $600 million to update the plant for production of the Dart and other future models.

Source: http://automotive.speedtv.com/article/autos-dodge-revives-dart-name/

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E. coli evade detection by going dormant

E. coli evade detection by going dormant

When stressed, bacteria can temporarily turn comatose and dodge germ-screening tests

Web edition : 11:04 am

Researchers think they now know why a particularly virulent form of E. coli that swept through northern Germany last May was so hard to trace: The germs responsible eluded detection by going into a self-induced deep sleep.

Two new studies show that when stressed, E. coli can turn off most signs of life. That?s a problem for food-safety officials because their germ-screening techniques rely on germs reproducing to establish the presence of live bacteria.

Microbiologists look for life by attempting to culture ? or grow ? bacteria in nutrients. But near-comatose germs don?t reproduce, explains microbiologist James Oliver of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, who did not take part in the new work. Such bacteria instead ?become viable but nonculturable,? he says, ?what we call VBNC.?

Although dozens of different bacteria can enter this state in the lab, he notes, data have been sparse about the extent to which living germs go dormant in the environment or on foods. And that, he says, points to the importance of the two new studies.

?Whenever you have a foodborne outbreak and can?t trace it, it?s likely because you had bacteria that turned VBNC,? Oliver says.

In one of the new studies, microbiologists at the Robert Koch Institute, a federal research center in Wernigerode, Germany, tested E. coli O104:H4 isolated from patients who fell ill in this year?s massive food-poisoning outbreak. O104:H4 germs don?t ordinarily produce deadly toxins or bloody diarrhea. This strain, which probably traveled and spread on tainted sprouts, did both, killing 54 people and sickening more than 3,700 others.

In the lab, the scientists stressed the germs by exposing them to copper. Within a few days, many of the bacteria entered the dormant state and remained that way unless the researchers removed copper from the germs? growth medium. Antje Flieger and her colleagues describe their findings in the December Environmental Microbiology.

Once resuscitated, the germs still had all of the features needed to be infective. For example, they had retained the genes to produce their lethal toxin and to make the sticky hairlike features that foster gut attachment. ?That?s why we speculate they should be active and allow infection,? Flieger says.

To simulate what might happen in farm fields, microbiologists at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Summerland, British Columbia, inoculated lettuce with either of two strains of E. coli O157:H7, a germ linked to deaths from eating tainted hamburger, lettuce and other types of produce.

Withholding the nutrients these bacteria would ordinarily acquire while passing through the gut caused the germs to enter hibernation. Within a few days, observes Susan Bach of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, more than half of the germs were still alive but could not be cultured. ?We showed they remained active metabolically, but at a very low level.? Moreover, even in their dormancy, the cells were a source of toxin.

Depending on the conditions, some bacteria can hibernate for very long periods, Oliver says, pointing to one study in which bacterial cells remained dormant for over six years before reawakening.

One limitation of the new E. coli studies: Neither proved that once resuscitated, the germs would still induce disease. But that?s certainly the expectation, Oliver says. His team has shown that, the Vibrio bacteria that frequently taint shellfish is still infectious ? and lethal ? after resuscitation from a chill-induced hibernation.

Such data ?show that VBNC cells may be really important in food safety,? Bach says, especially for types like O157:H7 where very few cells are needed to induce potentially life-threatening disease.

Found in: Environment and Food Science

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/336725/title/E._coli_evade_detection_by_going_dormant

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Italy would collapse without austerity plan: Monti (Reuters)

ROME (Reuters) ? Italy would have collapsed without the government's tough new austerity package, Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Monday, saying his country ran the risk of a Greek-style emergency.

Monti spoke to foreign journalists about the 30 billion euro package of tax rises, pension reforms and growth-boosting incentives before presenting it to parliament later on Monday.

Monti's action, agreed by the cabinet on Sunday, kicked off one of the most crucial weeks since the launch of the euro more than a decade ago.

The package, dubbed a "Save Italy" decree by Monti, aims to raise more than 10 billion euros ($13.4 billion) from a property tax, impose a new levy on luxury items like yachts, raise value added tax, crack down on tax evasion and increase the pension age.

"Without this package, we think that Italy would have collapsed, that Italy would go into a situation similar to that of Greece," Monti told the news conference.

Italy, the euro zone's third-largest economy, has been at the centre of the crisis since mid-year, when its borrowing costs began to approach the levels that forced Ireland, Greece and Portugal to seek an international bailout.

Markets, primed ahead of a vital meeting of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, welcomed the measures, which analysts said should be enough to persuade the European Central Bank to continue hold down borrowing costs by buying Italian bonds on the market.

Yields on 10-year Italian bonds dropped to 6.2 percent, around a full percentage point lower than last week, while the risk premium over benchmark German Bunds narrowed to 408 basis points, levels last seen in early November.

The first comment from a European leader was also positive. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who met Monti in Rome on Monday morning, said he was "very impressed" by the package, which was also welcomed by the European Commission.

MEASURES IN EFFECT IMMEDIATELY

Most Italian newspapers praised Monti for biting the bullet in a difficult moment and for distributing the pain.

"There are times when you have to displease everyone and certainly, this, for Italy is one of those moments," the Turin daily La Stampa said.

Packed into a single emergency decree, the measures take effect immediately, before formal parliamentary approval, but Monti will have to secure the backing of legislators within 60 days for them to remain in force.

Monti, appointed at the head of a technocrat government to replace former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi last month, had been under growing pressure to come up with concrete measures to address fears about Italy's towering debt mountain.

He has held to Berlusconi's pledge of a balanced budget by 2013, despite growing signs that Italy is heading into a recession that will make it extremely difficult to make inroads into a public debt of 120 percent of gross domestic product.

Deputy Economy Minister Vittorio Grilli said the measures outlined on Sunday would allow the goal to be met despite a forecast that GDP would contract by 0.4-0.5 percent in 2012.

The package is divided into 20 billion euros of budget tightening and an additional 10 billion euros that will be pumped back into the economy in the form of measures to help companies and boost growth.

Caught between the competing needs of boosting growth and ensuring that cuts do not further depress a fragile economy, Monti's government risks growing opposition after an initial honeymoon period granted by a public fed up with the scandals of the Berlusconi era.

Unions criticized the package and in an early sign of possible opposition to the Monti government, FIM-CISL, a union representing metal workers, said it would call a two-hour strike on Wednesday.

"Yet again, the sacrifices demanded fall mainly on salaried workers and pensioners and on the weaker sections of society," the union said in a statement. ($1 = 0.7446 euros)

(Additional reporting by Philip Pullella and Alberto Sisto, Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Barry Moody and Alessandra Rizzo.)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111205/bs_nm/us_italy

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Inhabitat's Week in Green: worlds largest LEGO Christmas tree, turbine powered LEDs and a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.

This week Inhabitat got into the spirit of the holiday season as we reported that a French firm wants to transform the Eiffel Tower into a gigantic tree, we brought you the world's largest LEGO Christmas tree, and we watched GE flip the switch on the new National Christmas Tree, which is decked out with high-tech LED lights. We also spotted a seriously sweet Star Wars AT-AT walker made entirely from gingerbread, and we shined the spotlight on the amazing life-size light-up ice palaces that rise each year at the Harbin snow festival in China.

Continue reading Inhabitat's Week in Green: worlds largest LEGO Christmas tree, turbine powered LEDs and a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle

Inhabitat's Week in Green: worlds largest LEGO Christmas tree, turbine powered LEDs and a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/05/inhabitats-week-in-green-worlds-largest-lego-christmas-tree-t/

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