US-based oil and gas firm Noble Energy has made a natural gas discovery at the Block 12, offshore the Republic of Cyprus.
The company encountered about 310ft of net natural gas pay in the Cyprus A-1 well in multiple high-quality Miocene sand intervals.
Noble Energy said results from drilling, formation logs and initial evaluation work show an estimated gross resource range of five to eight trillion cubic feet (tcf), with a gross mean of 7tcf.
The company drilled the discovery well to a depth of 19,225ft in water depth of approximately 5,540ft.
The well is operated by Noble Energy with a 70% working interest, while Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration will each have 15% stake, subject to final approval by the Cyprus government.
From: MintLife Blog | Personal Finance News & Advice
1:23pm - December 28, 2011
Why do so many investors make the same mistakes year after year? It turns out that your brain may be the biggest barrier preventing you from becoming a stock market success.
Cyber-criminals are no longer just using Facebook for identity theft or phishing scams. Now, they are also using the social-networking platform to defraud affiliate businesses, according to security researchers.
Facebook swindlers directed their victims toward affiliate marketing sites in approximately three-fourths of scams in 2011, according to Commtouch researchers. The in-depth analysis of Facebook scams that proliferated on the site in 2011 was published in Commtouch's "Internet Threats Trend Report" released Dec. 28.
Unsuspecting users are tricked into clicking on links posted on Facebook to go to affiliate sites where they fill out various surveys. The surveys generated affiliate payments for the scammers and wind up costing the legitimate businesses that pay those fees, Commtouch said.
The vast majority, or nearly 74 percent, of Facebook attacks in 2011 were designed to lead users to fraudulent marketing affiliate and survey sites, the report found.
Affiliate marketing was a "rich source" of income for scammers, according to Amir Lev, CTO of Commtouch.
Affiliate sites are a popular form of online marketing to generate user traffic. Businesses pay sites a fee for referring visitors to the site. Popular examples are reward sites where users earn cash or gifts for completing an offer and sending more people to the retailer's site. When scammers set up affiliate marketing sites, they get a cut of the payments from the original retailer for diverting users to specific sites.
"Legitimate businesses are often defrauded of their affiliate marketing budget by having them included in these pages," the report found.
Scammers can also harvest any personal data that was entered in the surveys and used for identity theft, according to the report.
Criminals generally use one of the four main ways to set up their social-engineering tricks, Commtouch researchers found. The most common (36 percent) relied on links, often spammed by friends, promising to show videos of shocking or tragic stories, the report found. These links proliferate because they tickle people's curiosity. However, free merchandise offers, such as free airline tickets, a free iPad or even unreleased Facebook phones, were the most common tactic used in the second half of 2011, accounting for 26 percent of the scams analyzed in the report
Users are typically aware that they are sharing these links, but they may think they are being helpful by posting the virus warnings or sharing great deals, the report found.
Sensational headlines after major news events are another effective way to ensnare victims, such as links promising exclusive video footage of Osama bin Laden's death. Fake applications are also frequently used, such as the "dislike" button or applications that promise to reveal who has been viewing their profiles, the report found.
For criminals, it was not enough to just trick users, as criminals need to make sure the attacks spread and continue to trap other people, Commtouch said. They were most likely to trick users into sharing the links almost half the time, but also tricked users into copy-pasting malicious code to trigger a cross-site scripting attack or downloading malware. Rogue applications and "like-jacking"?which employs a malicious script on the page to convert any mouse clicks on the page as a "like" that is also visible to other users?were employed in about a third of the scams.
"In 48 percent of the cases, unwitting users themselves are responsible for distributing the undesirable content by clicking on 'like' or 'share' buttons," according to Commtouch.
After some talk early last month about shaking up its LCD business unit, Sony has finally reached and signed agreements with Samsung in an effort to save its failing LCD TV branch.
Sony has been in the LCD TV business for eight years, and has had eight years of losses in a row. After realizing that this sinking ship was not producing (and likely will not produce) any annual profits, Sony began negotiating with Samsung on a buyout of its 50 percent manufacturing stake in their LCD joint venture, S-LCD Corporation, which was established in April 2004.
Now, Sony and Samsung have announced that they've signed agreements to change up their current S-LCD business relationship.
OTTAWA The Bank of Montreal says Canada?s economy was the second best in the Group of Seven big industrial nations this year.
The bank says in its annual report card that only Germany, with a lower unemployment rate and a current account surplus, did better than Canada.
Italy, which is facing a major sovereign debt crisis, fared worst in the group.
The scorecard suggests the Harper government?s contention that Canada leads the G7 in economic performance is an exaggeration.
While Canada is performing better than the G7 average, Germany scores higher in four of five major categories ? jobless rate, inflation, government fiscal health and the current account balance with the rest of the world.
In the fifth category ? credit rating ? the two countries are tied with the top AAA rating.
In a separate report, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce says Canada?s economy is likely to continue to experience moderate growth in 2012. It predicts Canada?s gross domestic product will rise by 2 per cent next year, followed by a 2.6 per cent expansion in 2013 ? both numbers similar to the consensus reading of economists.
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio walks of the floor of the House chamber on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011, in Washington. The House rejected legislation to extend a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for two months, drawing a swift rebuke from President Barack Obama that Republicans were threatening higher taxes on 160 million workers on Jan. 1. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio walks of the floor of the House chamber on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011, in Washington. The House rejected legislation to extend a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for two months, drawing a swift rebuke from President Barack Obama that Republicans were threatening higher taxes on 160 million workers on Jan. 1. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D- Calif., walks of the floor of the House chamber on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011 in Washington. The House rejected legislation to extend a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for two months, drawing a swift rebuke from President Barack Obama that Republicans were threatening higher taxes on 160 million workers on Jan. 1. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., walks of the floor of the House chamber Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011, in Washington. The Tuesday rejected legislation to extend a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for two months, drawing a swift rebuke from President Barack Obama that Republicans were threatening higher taxes on 160 million workers on Jan. 1. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Stuck in a stalemate, President Barack Obama and his Republican rivals are slugging it out in Washington rather than reaching for a holiday season accord to prevent payroll taxes from going up on 160 million workers.
The tax increases, as well as cuts to Medicare doctors' fees and a lapse in jobless benefits, are due Jan. 1. They are looming even though Democrats and Republicans agree that they shouldn't happen. Instead of stopping them, the factions have painted themselves into a corner.
House Republicans are demanding that the Senate join negotiations to produce an agreement within days; Senate Democrats insist no talks will take place before the House approves a stopgap measure to buy more time.
A House vote Tuesday scuttled a bipartisan Senate deal for a two-month extension of all three policies: the payroll tax cuts, jobless benefits and Medicare fees.
After the House killed the Senate measure on a 229-193 vote, Obama signaled he'll use his presidential megaphone to try to force Republicans controlling the House into submission.
"Now let's be clear," Obama said at the White House. "The bipartisan compromise that was reached on Saturday is the only viable way to prevent a tax hike on Jan. 1. The only one."
The Obama campaign promptly took to Twitter and Facebook to fight it out. With their candidate's poll numbers rising, Democratic operatives seemed almost giddy at the prospect of a prolonged battle.
Republican lawmakers relished the battle as well, though some of them are too inexperienced to know that presidents ? regardless of party ? usually win such high-profile fights, like President Bill Clinton did over a 1995-96 government shutdown or President George W. Bush did in skirmishes on anti-terror policies.
House Republicans instead rallied around a plan passed last week that would have extended the payroll tax cut for one year. But that version also contained spending cuts opposed by Democrats and tighter rules for jobless benefits.
If legislation isn't passed by New Year's Day, payroll taxes will go up by almost $20 a week for a worker making a $50,000 salary. Almost 2 million people could lose unemployment benefits as well, and doctors would bear big cuts in Medicare payments.
Whatever the stakes, there was little indication that Republicans would get their wish for negotiations with the Senate any time soon. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., issued a statement saying he would be happy to resume talks on a yearlong measure ? "but not before" the House ratifies the two-month bill and sends it to Obama for his signature.
Given Obama's remarks and Reid's refusal to negotiate, it was unclear what leverage Republicans had in the year-end standoff. It appeared likely the partisan disagreement could easily persist past Christmas and into the final week of the year.
A little-noticed element of the brawl was that the House-Senate parliamentary situation, which can be a critical factor, is all messed up. The Senate adjourned Saturday until Jan. 23 except for so-called pro forma sessions in which legislative business ? like responding to the House moves ? is basically impossible unless all 100 senators agree. That's never a sure thing.
The standoff was sowing confusion among business executives, who were running out of time to adapt to any new payroll tax regimen. Even the Senate's proposed two-month extension was creating headaches because it contained a two-tiered system geared to ensuring that higher-income earners paid a higher rate on some of their wages, according to a trade group.
"There's not time enough to do that in an orderly fashion," said Pete A. Isberg, president of the National Payroll Reporting Consortium trade group. "We're two weeks away from 2012." He wrote a letter to congressional leaders this week warning that the Senate bill "could create substantial problems, confusion and costs."
Meanwhile, Medicare announced Tuesday that, as it has in the past when doctors' reimbursements have been cut through congressional inaction, it would withhold physicians' payments for two weeks in January to avoid passing on a 27 percent cut in Medicare fees. The hope is that the problem gets fixed by then.
Going on vacation or just to someplace new and curious how to print out Maps driving directions so you can keep a hard copy handy? While the built-in iOS Maps app lacks turn by turn navigation, it does give you a visual map of your route and...
WASHINGTON ? At least two New Hampshire Republicans are accusing Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign of making illegal political telephone calls.
Jim Foley, chairman of the Derry GOP, on Friday filed a complaint against Gingrich with the state attorney general's office. Foley is not affiliated with any presidential campaign.
"I think it's a real lack of understanding, almost arrogance, in the Gingrich campaign staff about how things are done in New Hampshire. I can't stand idly by," Foley told The Associated Press.
He was joined by former state House Speaker Donna Sytek, a Mitt Romney supporter, who filed a separate complaint with state prosecutors.
Gingrich, the former House speaker, has surged to the lead in many Republican presidential polls across the country in recent weeks.
At issue is a New Hampshire law that prevents political campaigns from using pre-recorded political messages ? known as "robo-calls" ? to contact state residents on a national do-not-call list. Each alleged violation could result in a $5,000 fine.
Foley and Sytek said they had received Gingrich pre-recorded political phone calls in recent days. Both are on the do-not-call list.
Gingrich's campaign denied wrongdoing. But the issue highlights a larger challenge for Gingrich in New Hampshire and elsewhere.
He had little organization in early voting states until very recently and scrambled to hire staff in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Iowa after his poll numbers began to rise. Some staffers have been given great autonomy to run state-based campaigns, despite having little experience.
Gingrich's New Hampshire director, for example, is 29-year-old tea party activist Andrew Hemmingway, who had never worked on a campaign before being asked to run Gingrich's operation in the state with the nation's first presidential primary on Jan. 10.
"I understand that the Gingrich staff is somewhat young and inexperienced, but the rules are the rules," said Foley, who has served as the Derry GOP chairman for seven years.
Robo-calls are a sensitive issue in New Hampshire, which is inundated with political messages every four years.
Foley was among the New Hampshire Republicans who encouraged state prosecutors to go after the state Democratic Party for a separate robo-call incident last year. The party agreed to settle the matter this summer with a $5,000 fine.
"You'd like campaigns to observe the law, and the law is that you can't do robo-calls to the do-not-call list," Sytek said. "It's not the end of the world, but it just shows they seem to be making it up as they go along."
The state attorney general's office confirmed receipt of the complaints and said they were being reviewed.
ATLANTA ? The fallout from the death of a Florida A&M University drum major broadened Wednesday to nearly two dozen high schools in Georgia, where marching band activities were suspended over concerns of "inappropriate physical activity" between band mates.
A metro Atlanta school district began investigating after Robert Champion died Nov. 19. The Southwest DeKalb High graduate was found unresponsive on a bus parked in front of an Orlando hotel after a university football game, and authorities said his death involved hazing.
Another Florida A&M student, Bria Shante Hunter, who also attended Southwest DeKalb, told police she was severely beaten in a hazing ritual about three weeks before Champion's death.
Hunter, a freshman and clarinet player, said she was repeatedly hit in her legs by members of the "Red Dawg Order," a band club for Georgia natives. Authorities have said Champion was hazed, but have not described how.
Three band members were arrested in Hunter's case and charged with hazing. Two were also charged with battery.
Meanwhile, Florida authorities looking into Champion's death opened a new investigation after they uncovered possible employee fraud and misconduct at the university, according to documents released Wednesday.
The separate investigation was triggered by information investigators discovered regarding the finances of the Marching 100, according to a person in Gov. Rick Scott's administration. He asked for anonymity because he was not publicly authorized to discuss the matter.
In Georgia, Walter Woods, spokesman for the DeKalb County school district, said they were investigating marching bands at the district's 21 high schools after two problems over the summer. He declined to say whether the incidences involved hazing and said the students involved were not injured.
"Our interest is in protecting students, the safety of the students," said Woods. "We have notified schools to be vigilant of our existing policy, which is zero tolerance for harassment of any kind."
The bands' busy season ended last week with the conclusion of football season, but the Atlanta-area bands will still be able to perform in the Martin Luther King Day parade in Stone Mountain in January, Woods said. No marching bands are scheduled to perform in a football bowl game.
Decatur resident Keith Sailor, who is the president of the marching band booster club at Southwest DeKalb High School, said his son, a sophomore, has never had any problems with hazing.
"I'm pretty comfortable with him participating in the band," he said, declining further comment.
Experts say hazing has been found in students as young as 12, particularly when it involves a team activity like sports or band. Richard Sigal, a retired New Jersey sociology professor and expert on hazing, said schools need to examine whether it is happening.
"I think anytime you get a group of young people together, at some point, a tradition becomes established and that's what perpetuates hazing," Sigal said. "It's up to coaches, it's up to the principals, it's up to the band leaders to stop it."
In Florida, the state law enforcement agency sent letters to the head of the FAMU board and the head of the state university system, but they did not detail the potential fraud or misconduct, saying only that it involves school employees as well as "persons associated" with the university.
The school's president, James Ammons was hired more than four years ago as part of an effort to clear up past problems at the university. State audits found that some financial records could not be verified and there was questionable contracting. The college also could not account for millions of dollars in inventory.
Last week, the school's board of trustees publicly reprimanded Ammons after a contentious debate on whether he should have been placed on leave.
Solomon Badger, chairman of the FAMU board, said the university would cooperate with the new investigation.
"I didn't know anything about the fraud and I still don't," Badger said.
University officials have suspended the famed Marching 100 band from performances until the investigation into Champion's death is completed.
WASHINGTON ? Congress appears on track to avert a government shutdown this weekend, even as President Barack Obama's push to extend a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for another year is encountering snags.
Those hiccups in finding spending cuts to pay for extending a 2 percentage point cut in Social Security payroll taxes and jobless benefits for millions have prompted Democratic leaders to suggest just a two-month, $40 billion extension of expiring tax breaks and jobless benefits might be needed.
But the first act in clearing away a pile of unfinished business for an unpopular Congress is for the GOP-controlled House to pass a massive, bipartisan, $1 trillion-plus spending measure funding 10 Cabinet departments and U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
That vote is on track for Friday afternoon, but a stopgap bill could be needed to fund the government into next week.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters Thursday night that he was still optimistic that bipartisan talks on yearlong extensions of the Social Security payroll tax cut and unemployment coverage would succeed. But as a "Plan B," he said, they were working on a two-month extension as well, which would also prevent cuts in Medicare reimbursements for doctors during that period.
"We're still working on the long-term" bill, Reid told reporters as he exited the Capitol after a day of talks over both the payroll tax and spending measures. As for the two-month version, he said, "We'll only do that if what we're working on doesn't work out."
Reid's remarks put a slight damper on a day on which for the first time, Democratic and Republican leaders expressed optimism at prospects for swift compromise on their payroll tax standoff and a spending battle that had threatened to shutter federal agencies beginning at midnight Friday.
A deal on the $1 trillion-plus spending bill was reached after Republicans agreed to drop language that would have blocked President Barack Obama's liberalized rules on people who visit and send money to relatives in Cuba. But a GOP provision will stay in the bill thwarting an Obama administration rule on energy efficiency standards that critics argued would make it hard for people to purchase inexpensive incandescent light bulbs.
A senior White House official said the administration supported the two-month plan.
Bargainers were considering the two-month extension of this year's payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits bill because so far, they haven't agreed how a yearlong extension would be paid for, said a Democratic aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks.
The two-month bill would cost $40 billion, according to the aide. It would be paid for from a list of around $120 billion in savings that bargainers are considering, including sales of the broadcast spectrum and raising fees that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge to back mortgages, the aide said.
The two-month extension would let lawmakers revisit the measure after returning to Washington after the holiday season. That could be risky because that work would come well into the 2012 presidential and congressional election year.
Without congressional action, the payroll taxes would rise and extra benefits for the long-term unemployed would expire on Jan. 1. Doctors' Medicare payments would be automatically reduced that day by 27 percent, a reduction that could prompt some to stop seeing Medicare patients.
"Right now, Congress needs to make sure that 160 million working Americans don't see their taxes go up on Jan. 1," said Obama, referring to the tax cut extension at the core of the jobs program he outlined in a nationally televised speech three months ago.
At Obama's insistence, Congress cut the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax to 4.2 percent this year in an effort to stimulate the economy with more consumer spending. The president has proposed deepening the cut to 3.1 percent next year, but Republicans have only shown a willingness to renew it at this year's level.
Obama also wants to leave in place a system that provides aid for up to 99 weeks for the long-term unemployed. The House-passed measure reduces the total by 20 weeks, a step that the administration says would cut off 3.3 million individuals and that Democrats are hoping to soften if not reverse.
Reid indicated that a number of expiring tax breaks were on the table, as well, a list that included a provision that benefits commuters who use mass transit.
The House-passed payroll tax cut measure relied on a pay freeze and increased pension contributions for federal workers, as well as higher Medicare premiums for seniors with incomes over $80,000, beginning in 2017. The bill would also raise a fee that is charged to banks whose mortgages are guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and cancel more than $40 billion from the year-old health care bill, Obama's signature domestic achievement.
The year-end, $1 trillion spending measure would lock in cuts that Republicans extracted from Democrats in negotiations conducted months ago against the deadline of a previous government shutdown threat. It funds 10 Cabinet departments, including the Pentagon and dozens of smaller agencies, awarding a slight increase to the military and veterans' programs while trimming most other domestic programs.
SAN FRANCISCO ? Barry Bonds will remain free while he appeals his conviction for giving misleading testimony before a grand jury.
A federal judge handed Bonds a sentence of 30 days of house arrest, two years of probation and 250 hours of community service on Friday ? then delayed the sentence pending an appeal likely to take a year or more.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston also put on hold a $4,000 fine against Bonds for his obstruction of justice conviction arising from a grand jury appearance eight years ago.
Prosecutors wanted the home run king to spend 15 months in prison. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Parrella argued that home confinement wasn't punishment enough, "for a man with a 15,000 square foot house with all the advantages." Bonds lives on a nearly two-acre estate in Beverly Hills.
Parrella called the sentence a "slap on the wrist" and the fine "almost laughable" for a former baseball superstar who made millions of dollars during his career. Parrella had sought 15 months in prison, disagreeing with the judge's conclusion that the crime was "aberrant" behavior for an otherwise law-abiding Bonds who has donated money and time to charities.
"The defendant basically lived a double life for decades," argued Parrella, who said Bonds tested positive for steroids and amphetamines during his playing days. "He had mistresses throughout his marriages."
Illston said none of that had any bearing on Bonds' sentence. She agreed with a probation department report that called Bonds' conviction and "aberration" in his life. She said she received "dozens" of letters in support of Bonds and discussing how he has given money and time "for decades" to charitable causes.
Illston also said she had to remain "consistent" and give Bonds a sentence similar to those meted out to two other figures convicted of similar crimes in the same investigation.
She also noted that most obstruction cases were more serious, and often involved violence being used against witnesses.
"This sentence is an appropriate sentence for a conviction where there is no victim," said Stuart Slotnick, a former prosecutor now in private practice. "And many question the seriousness of the charges and the motivation for the prosecution."
Well-wishers hugged the 47-year-old Bonds in the hallway outside the courtroom after the hearing was over. He declined to speak in court.
A jury convicted Bonds in April of purposely answering questions about steroids with rambling non sequiturs in an attempt to mislead a grand jury investigating sports doping in December 2003. Bonds' trial jury failed to reach a verdict on three other charges accusing Bonds of lying when he denied taking performance-enhancing drugs and when he denied receiving injections from someone other than his doctor.
Prosecutors in September dropped those deadlocked charges, giving up on another trial.
His lead attorney, Allen Ruby, said Bonds will formally file a "notice of appeal" Friday.
Major League Baseball's career home runs leader, Bonds is the highest-profile defendant ? and the last ? to come out of the government's investigation of the steroids distribution ring built around the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, founded by Victor Conte.
Besides the seven-time MVP, 10 people were convicted of various charges. Six of them, including track star Marion Jones, were ensnared for lying to grand jurors, federal investigators or the court. Others, including Bonds' personal trainer Greg Anderson, pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges.
Bonds was one of two former baseball superstars to stand trial in doping-related cases this year. The trial of pitcher Roger Clemens was halted after just two days in July because prosecutors used inadmissible evidence. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton has set a new trial for April 17.
Abercrombie & Fitch is trying to end their ongoing feud with Jersey Shore star The Situation, asking a judge to dismiss his lawsuit against the clothing retailer.
If you recall, the ongoing war between Sitch and A&F began back in August when A&F publicly offered to pay The Situation NOT to wear its overpriced duds.
A month later, Sitch (real name Mike Sorrentino) sued them, claiming it ripped off his "GTL" and "Situation" trademarks on a line of guido-mocking t-shirts.
Now, A&F is trying to put an end to the back-and-forth, claiming he had no right to sue them in the first place because he doesn't own those very trademarks.
He has applied for them, but doesn't own them. Big, legal difference there.
Moreover, A&F claims The Situation's application for "Gym Tan Laundry" has actually been suspended, because MTV already owns "Gym Tanning Laundry."
The US Patent & Trademark Office thinks they're too similar. Makes sense.
Trademarks aside, A&F insists its shirts are still protected under a law that allows parody as free speech ... in other words, the shirts are a harmless joke.
Their legal argument is basically that Sitch is full of crap and can't take a joke. The Jersey Shore star has yet to respond ... but watch the Season 5 trailer:
EPHRATA, Pa. -- The mushrooms may have lacked the magic he claimed they had, but a man's attempt to sell them landed him behind bars anyway.
Jayson Hartman was trying to pass off some shredded shiitake and porcini mushrooms as the psychedelic variety when officers broke up the attempted sale last month, said police in the central Pennsylvania city of Ephrata.
Hartman alleged admitted he chopped up store-bought mushrooms then bagged them in an attempt to pass them off as the illegal variety, Ephrata police Sgt. Philip Snavely told the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era.
Investigators said the sale was broken up after police received a call about a suspicious vehicle outside a grocery store on Nov. 8. Police said they recovered a receipt from the car showing a $30 purchase of the pseudo psychedelics.
Hartman had arranged to meet his alleged buyer through Facebook, WHP-TV reported.
Hartman was arrested Friday and charged with violating state drug law. He's being held on $40,000 bail.
Online court records do not list an attorney for Hartman.
FILE - In this Jan. 31, 1993 file picture, Michael Jackson performs during the halftime show at the Super Bowl XXVII in Pasadena, Calif. The private world of Michael Jackson, fiercely shielded by the superstar in life, was exposed in the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray. But rather than suffering damage from revelations of drug use, experts say Jackson's legacy and posthumous earning power may be enhanced by disclosures of his hidden anguish and victimization by a money hungry doctor. (AP Photo/Rusty Kennedy, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 31, 1993 file picture, Michael Jackson performs during the halftime show at the Super Bowl XXVII in Pasadena, Calif. The private world of Michael Jackson, fiercely shielded by the superstar in life, was exposed in the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray. But rather than suffering damage from revelations of drug use, experts say Jackson's legacy and posthumous earning power may be enhanced by disclosures of his hidden anguish and victimization by a money hungry doctor. (AP Photo/Rusty Kennedy, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The private world of Michael Jackson, fiercely shielded by the superstar in life, was exposed in the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray. But rather than suffering harm from revelations of drug use, experts say Jackson's legacy and posthumous earning power will survive any damage done and could actually grow after he was portrayed as a victim of a money-hungry doctor.
Jackson died before he could launch a series of highly anticipated comeback concerts in London as he tried to regain the towering status he enjoyed when he released the "Thriller" album in 1983.
But his death did breathe new life into record sales and boosted other projects to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for his estate, even as his already tarnished personal life took another hit by revelations about his drug use.
Jackson zoomed to the top of the Forbes Magazine list of highest earning dead celebrities and his executors are moving quickly on more projects designed to burnish the performer's image and expand the inheritance of his three children.
A Cirque du Soleil extravaganza, "Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour" opens in Las Vegas this weekend, a precursor to a permanent installation at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, and fans are expected to flock there for a "Fan Fest" exhibit of Jackson memorabilia.
After the trial, a judge made it clear that the defense effort to cast Jackson as the villain in the case had been a miserable failure. Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, called a reckless opportunist and sentenced to the maximum four years in prison.
Judge Michael Pastor also blasted Murray for experimenting on the pop star with the operating-room anesthetic propofol to help him battle debilitating insomnia, even though the drug was never meant to be used in a private home.
Some experts say the revelations made the King of Pop look more like a regular person coping with a difficult challenge.
"In the final analysis, not a lot of damage was done," Jackson biographer J. Randy Taraborelli said. "I think the trial humanized Michael Jackson. It presented him as a human being with problems."
As evidence unfolded, "It definitely made our hearts go out to Michael Jackson. He was a person suffering a great deal and not getting the help he needed," the author said.
Taraborelli said the entertainer's family, fans and estate executors were concerned before the trial that testimony would paint Jackson as responsible for his own death while resurrecting past accusations of child molestation and bizarre behavior by the King of Pop.
But the judge limited testimony and evidence to Jackson's final months and specifically ruled out any mention of the 2005 molestation trial.
Thomas Mesereau Jr., the attorney who won Jackson's acquittal in that case, believes the Murray trial did damage Jackson's reputation but said the impact would likely be short term.
"It certainly didn't help to have all this testimony about drug use," Mesereau said. "But as time passes, people will focus more on his music and the negatives will fade."
While Murray was ultimately shown to be negligent, the portrait of his patient that emerged during the trial was one of an aging superstar desperate to cement his place in entertainment history while providing a stable home life for adored children, Paris, Prince and Blanket.
The image of Jackson as a caring father had never been illustrated quite so vividly. A probation officer who interviewed Jackson's mother, Katherine, said she told him: "Michael Jackson was his children's world, and their world collapsed when he left."
A leading expert on the licensing and branding of dead celebrities believes the trial engendered so much sympathy for Jackson that in the long run it will eclipse negative fallout from his past.
"I don't think any tawdry revelations that may have come out of the trial will have any impact on his lasting legacy," said Martin Cribbs, who is based in New York. "We as a society tend to give everyone a second chance. Michael's legacy will be like Elvis and the Beatles. It will be his music, his genius. and his charitable works "
Cribbs has represented the estates of such deceased luminaries as Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Steve McQueen and Mae West.
He is not involved in the Jackson estate but praised its executors' efforts. Beginning with the rapid release of the concert movie, "This Is It," he said, "They have done a brilliant job of reminding us of Michael's genius."
Taraborelli also cited the film based on rehearsals for Jackson's ill-fated concerts as a spectacular move setting the stage for a posthumous comeback of the Jackson entertainment empire.
"It made you want to embrace him," said the author of "Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness."
Jackson's eccentricities and bizarre behavior often made headlines. Whether it was traveling with a chimp named Bubbles, sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber or dangling his baby Blanket off a balcony, he managed to alienate many people. The molestation trial pushed him further from the mainstream.
"That all ended on the day the news was announced that Michael was dead," said Lance Grode, a former music executive and onetime attorney for Jackson who now teaches legal issues in music at University of Southern California.
"The public decided they prefer to remember Michael as this great superstar and music prodigy and to forgive and forget any negative things they had heard over the last 10 or 15 years," Grode said. "Nothing came out at the trial that was nearly as bad as things they had heard in the past."
Grode said evidence of public acceptance is seen in the Jackson estate's ability to generate a half-billion dollars in the wake of his death.
The Cirque show, which launched in Canada, is slated for 150 dates across North America through July and expected to run through 2014 internationally. The permanent Las Vegas show is due in 2013.
The year he died, Jackson sold 8.3 million albums in the U.S. ? nearly twice as many as second-place Taylor Swift ? and "This Is It" became the highest-grossing concert film and documentary of all time.
Joe Vogel, author of a new book on Jackson's music, and others said the most shocking part of the Murray trial was the playing of a recording of a drugged Jackson slurring his words while dreaming aloud about his future concert and his plans to build a fantastic state of the art children's hospital.
Vogel said the recording, found on Murray's cell phone, reveals the dark side of Jackson's world.
"Michael had a difficult life. He said once that you have to have tragedy to pull from to create something beautiful and inspiring. And that's what he did. His music has staying power," Vogel said.
Rich Hanley, a pop culture specialist who teaches journalism at Connecticut's Quinnipiac University, said Jackson had "complexities on top of complexities."
"There may be collateral damage to his reputation from the trial. His inner sanctum was penetrated for the first time," he said.
However, "his music is eternal. It brings universal joy to people and will continue as much as Elvis' work continues to attract new fans even though he's been gone for generations," Hanley said.
TAMPA, Fla. ? West Virginia found a way to win again, clinching a share of the Big East title and remaining in the running for the league's automatic berth in the Bowl Championship Series.
The 22nd-ranked Mountaineers have done it by rebounding from a disappointing loss to Louisville in early November to win three straight tight games, including Thursday night's 30-27 victory over South Florida.
Now if they can get some help from another team looking for a piece of the title, their success in their first season under coach Dana Holgorsen will become even sweeter.
"We set that goal at the beginning of the season. We could've tanked it. We could've folded the tent," Holgorsen said after Tavon Austin returned a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown, Pat Miller scored on a 52-yard interception return and Tyler Bitancurt kicked a 28-yard field goal as time expired, giving West Virginia a portion of the conference crown for the second straight year.
The Mountaineers (9-3, 5-2) finished the regular season on a three-game winning streak, beating Cincinnati by three points, Pittsburgh by one and going down to the wire again Thursday night.
With some help from Cincinnati this weekend, they will get into the BCS for the first time since 2007.
"We've figured out who we are. We're a team that plays hard for four quarters," Holgorsen said. "We get real excited. Above all else, just keep playing and you'll find a way to win.'
The Mountaineers pulled even with Louisville in the conference standings and likely will receive the league's automatic BCS bid if Cincinnati beats Connecticut on Saturday to create a three-way tie for the league title.
Louisville earned a share by beating USF last week. The Cardinals hold the tiebreaker over West Virginia if the race ends in a two-way tie. But with a three-way deadlock, the BCS spot goes to the team that's ranked highest in the final BCS rankings. That should work out for West Virginia, the only one of those teams that was ranked this week.
"I'm the biggest Cincinnati fan right now," Mountaineers quarterback Geno Smith said.
"Cincinnati is a good team. They're well coached. They don't need our words of wisdom to want to win the game and be co-Big East champs as well," Holgorsen added. "I think they'll be playing pretty hard."
USF (5-7, 1-6) finished its season on a three-game losing streak and failed to qualify for a bowl bid for the first time in seven years.
Four of USF's losses came in the closing seconds of games the Bulls easily could have won.
"You can't ask this team to play with any more passion and any more heart," coach Skip Holtz said. "I've had teams in my past with better records. I don't know that I've had a team that has probably taught me more through handling adversity and perseverance and having a positive attitude."
Smith threw for 237 yards and set up Bitancurt's third field goal of the night with a 26-yard completion to Stedman Bailey on fourth-and-10 from the USF 42. The junior from Miami also led an 11-play, 78-yard drive that Dustin Garrison finished with a 5-yard TD run to make it 27-all with just more than 5 minutes to go.
The Mountaineers, who fell behind when JaQuez Jenkins returned one of USF's two interceptions 24 yards for a TD that put the Bulls up 27-20, began the winning drive from their 26 after the Bulls' B.J. Daniels drove his team into field goal range only to have the threat end when Najee Goode forced a fumble by the quarterback.
Daniels returned from a shoulder injury to throw for one touchdown and run for another. He scored on a 1-yard sneak 5 minutes into the fourth quarter and finished 21-of-44 passing for 226 yards. Darrell Scott rushed for 92 yards on 14 carries for the Bulls.
Smith completed 23 of 35 passes and was intercepted twice. Garrison finished with 87 yards rushing on 16 attempts.
South Florida, wrapping up its second season under Holtz, lost seven of eight following a 4-0 start that included a win at Notre Dame. That victory lifted the Bulls into the Top 25 for a four-week stay that ended when they dropped their Big East opener. The third losing season in the school's relatively brief football history ended a streak of six consecutive bowl appearances.
USF went 5-6 in 1997 ? the year former coach Jim Leavitt began the program from scratch ? and again in 2003, the Bulls' first season in Conference USA.
"I'm disappointed that we couldn't get it done for the seniors ... because they worked so hard and they contributed so much for this program," Bulls linebacker Sam Barrington said. "It's just unfortunate."
Smith said West Virginia never had any doubts that it would get the job done, even after his second interception gave USF its only lead of the night.
"All three of our last games were tough. We like to challenge ourselves. I don't know why," the Mountaineers quarterback said. "I'd like to win in a blowout, but that's not how we do it around here. It hasn't always been peachy for us, but we manage to make the right plays and win the game."
Drop in carbon dioxide levels led to polar ice sheet, study findsPublic release date: 1-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Elizabeth K. Gardner ekgardner@purdue.edu 765-494-2081 Purdue University
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A drop in carbon dioxide appears to be the driving force that led to the Antarctic ice sheet's formation, according to a recent study led by scientists at Yale and Purdue universities of molecules from ancient algae found in deep-sea core samples.
The key role of the greenhouse gas in one of the biggest climate events in Earth's history supports carbon dioxide's importance in past climate change and implicates it as a significant force in present and future climate.
The team pinpointed a threshold for low levels of carbon dioxide below which an ice sheet forms in the South Pole, but how much the greenhouse gas must increase before the ice sheet melts - which is the relevant question for the future - remains a mystery.
Matthew Huber, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue, said roughly a 40 percent decrease in carbon dioxide occurred prior to and during the rapid formation of a mile-thick ice sheet over the Antarctic approximately 34 million years ago.
A paper detailing the results was published Thursday (Dec. 1) in the journal Science.
"The evidence falls in line with what we would expect if carbon dioxide is the main dial that governs global climate; if we crank it up or down there are dramatic changes," Huber said. "We went from a warm world without ice to a cooler world with an ice sheet overnight, in geologic terms, because of fluctuations in carbon dioxide levels."
For 100 million years prior to the cooling, which occurred at the end of the Eocene epoch, Earth was warm and wet. Mammals and even reptiles and amphibians inhabited the North and South poles, which then had subtropical climates. Then, over a span of about 100,000 years, temperatures fell dramatically, many species of animals became extinct, ice covered Antarctica and sea levels fell as the Oligocene epoch began.
Mark Pagani, the Yale geochemist who led the study, said polar ice sheets and sea ice exert a strong control on modern climate, influencing the global circulation of warm and cold air masses, precipitation patterns and wind strengths, and regulating global and regional temperature variability.
"The onset of Antarctic ice is the mother of all climate 'tipping points,'" he said. "Recognizing the primary role carbon dioxide change played in altering global climate is a fundamentally important observation."
There has been much scientific discussion about this sudden cooling, but until now there has not been much evidence and solid data to tell what happened, Huber said.
The team found the tipping point in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels for cooling that initiates ice sheet formation is about 600 parts per million. Prior to the levels dropping this low, it was too warm for the ice sheet to form. At the Earth's current level of around 390 parts per million, the environment is such that an ice sheet remains, but carbon dioxide levels and temperatures are increasing. The world will likely reach levels between 550 and 1,000 parts per million by 2100. Melting an ice sheet is a different process than its initiation, and it is not known what level would cause the ice sheet to melt away completely, Huber said.
"The system is not linear and there may be a different threshold for melting the ice sheet, but if we continue on our current path of warming we will eventually reach that tipping point," he said. "Of course after we cross that threshold it will still take many thousands of years to melt an ice sheet."
What drove the rise and fall in carbon dioxide levels during the Eocene and Oligocene is not known.
The team studied geochemical remnants of ancient algae from seabed cores collected by drilling in deep-ocean sediments and crusts as part of the National Science Foundation's Integrated Ocean Drilling program. The biochemical molecules present in algae vary depending on the temperature, nutrients and amount of dissolved carbon dioxide present in the ocean water. These molecules are well preserved even after many millions of years and can be used to reconstruct the key environmental variables at the time, including carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, Pagani said.
Samples from two sites in the tropical Atlantic Ocean were the main focus of this study because this area was stable at that point in Earth's history and had little upwelling, which brings carbon dioxide from the ocean floor to the surface and could skew measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide, Huber said.
In re-evaluating previous estimates of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels using deep-sea core samples, the team found that continuous data from a stable area of the ocean is necessary for accurate results. Data generated from a mix of sites throughout the world's oceans caused inaccuracies due to variations in the nutrients present in different locations. This explained conflicting results from earlier papers based on the deep-sea samples that suggested carbon dioxide increased during the formation of the ice sheet, he said.
Constraints on temperature and nutrient concentrations were achieved through modeling of past circulation, temperature and nutrient distributions performed by Huber and Willem Sijp at the University of New South Wales in Australia. The collaboration built on Huber's previous work using the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate System Model 3, one of the same models used to predict future climates, and used the UVic Earth System Climate Model developed at the University of Victoria, British Columbia.
"The models got it just about right and provided results that matched the information obtained from the core samples," he said. "This was an important validation of the models. If they are able to produce results that match the past, then we can have more confidence in their ability to predict future scenarios."
In addition to Huber, Pagani and Sijp, paper co-authors include Zhonghui Liu of the University of Hong Kong, Steven Bohaty of the University of Southampton in England, Jorijntje Henderiks of Uppsala University in Sweden, Srinath Krishnan of Yale, and Robert DeConto of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
The National Science Foundation, Natural Environment Research Council, Royal Swedish Academy and Yale Department of Geology funded this work.
In 2004 the team used evidence from deep-sea core samples to challenge the longstanding theory that the ice sheet developed because of a shift from warm to cool ocean currents millions of years ago. The team found that a cold current, not the warm one that had been theorized, was flowing past the Antarctic coast for millions of years before the ice sheet developed.
Huber next plans to investigate the impact of an ice sheet on climate.
"It seems that the polar ice sheet shaped our modern climate, but we don't have much hard data on the specifics of how," he said. "It is important to know by how much it cools the planet and how much warmer the planet would get without an ice sheet."
###
Writer: Elizabeth K. Gardner, 765-494-2081, ekgardner@purdue.edu
Sources: Matthew Huber, 765-494-9531, huberm@purdue.edu
Mark Pagani, 203-432-6275, mark.pagani@yale.edu
Related website:
Matthew Huber Climate Dynamics Prediction Laboratory: http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~huberm/Matthew_Hubers_Climate_Dynamics_Prediction_Laboratory/CDPL.html
Related news releases:
Antarctic iced over when greenhouse gases - not ocean currents - shifted, study suggests: http://www.purdue.edu/uns/html4ever/2004/041227.Huber.Antarctica.html
Prehistoric global cooling caused by CO2, research finds: http://www.purdue.edu/uns/x/2009a/090226HuberPete.html
Abstract on the research in this release is available at: http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2011/111201HuberGlaciation.html
[ | E-mail | 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.
Drop in carbon dioxide levels led to polar ice sheet, study findsPublic release date: 1-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Elizabeth K. Gardner ekgardner@purdue.edu 765-494-2081 Purdue University
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A drop in carbon dioxide appears to be the driving force that led to the Antarctic ice sheet's formation, according to a recent study led by scientists at Yale and Purdue universities of molecules from ancient algae found in deep-sea core samples.
The key role of the greenhouse gas in one of the biggest climate events in Earth's history supports carbon dioxide's importance in past climate change and implicates it as a significant force in present and future climate.
The team pinpointed a threshold for low levels of carbon dioxide below which an ice sheet forms in the South Pole, but how much the greenhouse gas must increase before the ice sheet melts - which is the relevant question for the future - remains a mystery.
Matthew Huber, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue, said roughly a 40 percent decrease in carbon dioxide occurred prior to and during the rapid formation of a mile-thick ice sheet over the Antarctic approximately 34 million years ago.
A paper detailing the results was published Thursday (Dec. 1) in the journal Science.
"The evidence falls in line with what we would expect if carbon dioxide is the main dial that governs global climate; if we crank it up or down there are dramatic changes," Huber said. "We went from a warm world without ice to a cooler world with an ice sheet overnight, in geologic terms, because of fluctuations in carbon dioxide levels."
For 100 million years prior to the cooling, which occurred at the end of the Eocene epoch, Earth was warm and wet. Mammals and even reptiles and amphibians inhabited the North and South poles, which then had subtropical climates. Then, over a span of about 100,000 years, temperatures fell dramatically, many species of animals became extinct, ice covered Antarctica and sea levels fell as the Oligocene epoch began.
Mark Pagani, the Yale geochemist who led the study, said polar ice sheets and sea ice exert a strong control on modern climate, influencing the global circulation of warm and cold air masses, precipitation patterns and wind strengths, and regulating global and regional temperature variability.
"The onset of Antarctic ice is the mother of all climate 'tipping points,'" he said. "Recognizing the primary role carbon dioxide change played in altering global climate is a fundamentally important observation."
There has been much scientific discussion about this sudden cooling, but until now there has not been much evidence and solid data to tell what happened, Huber said.
The team found the tipping point in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels for cooling that initiates ice sheet formation is about 600 parts per million. Prior to the levels dropping this low, it was too warm for the ice sheet to form. At the Earth's current level of around 390 parts per million, the environment is such that an ice sheet remains, but carbon dioxide levels and temperatures are increasing. The world will likely reach levels between 550 and 1,000 parts per million by 2100. Melting an ice sheet is a different process than its initiation, and it is not known what level would cause the ice sheet to melt away completely, Huber said.
"The system is not linear and there may be a different threshold for melting the ice sheet, but if we continue on our current path of warming we will eventually reach that tipping point," he said. "Of course after we cross that threshold it will still take many thousands of years to melt an ice sheet."
What drove the rise and fall in carbon dioxide levels during the Eocene and Oligocene is not known.
The team studied geochemical remnants of ancient algae from seabed cores collected by drilling in deep-ocean sediments and crusts as part of the National Science Foundation's Integrated Ocean Drilling program. The biochemical molecules present in algae vary depending on the temperature, nutrients and amount of dissolved carbon dioxide present in the ocean water. These molecules are well preserved even after many millions of years and can be used to reconstruct the key environmental variables at the time, including carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, Pagani said.
Samples from two sites in the tropical Atlantic Ocean were the main focus of this study because this area was stable at that point in Earth's history and had little upwelling, which brings carbon dioxide from the ocean floor to the surface and could skew measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide, Huber said.
In re-evaluating previous estimates of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels using deep-sea core samples, the team found that continuous data from a stable area of the ocean is necessary for accurate results. Data generated from a mix of sites throughout the world's oceans caused inaccuracies due to variations in the nutrients present in different locations. This explained conflicting results from earlier papers based on the deep-sea samples that suggested carbon dioxide increased during the formation of the ice sheet, he said.
Constraints on temperature and nutrient concentrations were achieved through modeling of past circulation, temperature and nutrient distributions performed by Huber and Willem Sijp at the University of New South Wales in Australia. The collaboration built on Huber's previous work using the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate System Model 3, one of the same models used to predict future climates, and used the UVic Earth System Climate Model developed at the University of Victoria, British Columbia.
"The models got it just about right and provided results that matched the information obtained from the core samples," he said. "This was an important validation of the models. If they are able to produce results that match the past, then we can have more confidence in their ability to predict future scenarios."
In addition to Huber, Pagani and Sijp, paper co-authors include Zhonghui Liu of the University of Hong Kong, Steven Bohaty of the University of Southampton in England, Jorijntje Henderiks of Uppsala University in Sweden, Srinath Krishnan of Yale, and Robert DeConto of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
The National Science Foundation, Natural Environment Research Council, Royal Swedish Academy and Yale Department of Geology funded this work.
In 2004 the team used evidence from deep-sea core samples to challenge the longstanding theory that the ice sheet developed because of a shift from warm to cool ocean currents millions of years ago. The team found that a cold current, not the warm one that had been theorized, was flowing past the Antarctic coast for millions of years before the ice sheet developed.
Huber next plans to investigate the impact of an ice sheet on climate.
"It seems that the polar ice sheet shaped our modern climate, but we don't have much hard data on the specifics of how," he said. "It is important to know by how much it cools the planet and how much warmer the planet would get without an ice sheet."
###
Writer: Elizabeth K. Gardner, 765-494-2081, ekgardner@purdue.edu
Sources: Matthew Huber, 765-494-9531, huberm@purdue.edu
Mark Pagani, 203-432-6275, mark.pagani@yale.edu
Related website:
Matthew Huber Climate Dynamics Prediction Laboratory: http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~huberm/Matthew_Hubers_Climate_Dynamics_Prediction_Laboratory/CDPL.html
Related news releases:
Antarctic iced over when greenhouse gases - not ocean currents - shifted, study suggests: http://www.purdue.edu/uns/html4ever/2004/041227.Huber.Antarctica.html
Prehistoric global cooling caused by CO2, research finds: http://www.purdue.edu/uns/x/2009a/090226HuberPete.html
Abstract on the research in this release is available at: http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2011/111201HuberGlaciation.html
[ | E-mail | 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.
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