Ultra-fast photodetector and terahertz generator

Public release date: 31-Jan-2012
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Contact: Dr. Andreas Battenberg
battenberg@zv.tum.de
49-892-891-0510
Technische Universitaet Muenchen

New applications for graphene

Graphene leaves a rather modest impression at a first sight. The material comprises nothing but carbon atoms ordered in a mono-layered "carpet". Yet, what makes graphene so fascinating for scientists is its extremely high conductivity. This property is particularly useful in the development of photodetectors. These are electronic components that can detect radiation and transform it into electrical signals.

Graphene's extremely high conductivity inspires scientists to utilize it in the design of ultra-fast photodetectors. However, until now, it was not possible to measure the optical and electronic behavior of graphene with respect to time, i.e. how long it takes between the electric stimulation of graphene and the generation of the respective photocurrent.

Alexander Holleitner and Leonhard Prechtel, scientists at the Walter Schottky Institut of the TU Muenchen and members of the Cluster of Excellence Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM), decided to pursue this question. The physicists first developed a method to increase the time resolution of photocurrent measurements in graphene into the picosecond range. This allowed them to detect pulses as short as a few picoseconds. (For comparison: A light beam traveling at light speed needs three picoseconds to propagate one millimeter.)

The central element of the inspected photodetectors is freely suspended graphene integrated into electrical circuits via metallic contacts. The temporal dynamics of the photocurrent were measured by means of so-called co-planar strip lines that were evaluated using a special time-resolved laser spectroscopy procedure the pump-probe technique. A laser pulse excites the electrons in the graphene and the dynamics of the process are monitored using a second laser. With this technique the physicists were able to monitor precisely how the photocurrent in the graphene is generated.

At the same time, the scientists could take advantage of the new method to make a further observation: They found evidence that graphene, when optically stimulated, emits radiation in the terahertz (THz) range. This lies between infrared light and microwave radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum. The special thing about THz radiation is that it displays properties shared by both adjacent frequency ranges: It can be bundled like particle radiation, yet still penetrates matter like electromagnetic waves. This makes it ideal for material tests, for screening packages or for certain medical applications.

###

The research was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Excellence Cluster Nanosystems Initiative Munich and the Center for NanoScience (CeNS). Physicists from Universitt Regensburg, Eidgenssische Technische Hochschule Zrich, Rice University and Shinshu University also contributed to the publication.

Original publication:

Time-resolved ultrafast photocurrents and terahertz generation in freely suspended grapheme. Leonhard Prechtel, Li Song, Dieter Schuh, Pulickel Ajayan, Werner Wegscheider, Alexander W. Holleitner, Nature Communications

Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1656

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Public release date: 31-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Dr. Andreas Battenberg
battenberg@zv.tum.de
49-892-891-0510
Technische Universitaet Muenchen

New applications for graphene

Graphene leaves a rather modest impression at a first sight. The material comprises nothing but carbon atoms ordered in a mono-layered "carpet". Yet, what makes graphene so fascinating for scientists is its extremely high conductivity. This property is particularly useful in the development of photodetectors. These are electronic components that can detect radiation and transform it into electrical signals.

Graphene's extremely high conductivity inspires scientists to utilize it in the design of ultra-fast photodetectors. However, until now, it was not possible to measure the optical and electronic behavior of graphene with respect to time, i.e. how long it takes between the electric stimulation of graphene and the generation of the respective photocurrent.

Alexander Holleitner and Leonhard Prechtel, scientists at the Walter Schottky Institut of the TU Muenchen and members of the Cluster of Excellence Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM), decided to pursue this question. The physicists first developed a method to increase the time resolution of photocurrent measurements in graphene into the picosecond range. This allowed them to detect pulses as short as a few picoseconds. (For comparison: A light beam traveling at light speed needs three picoseconds to propagate one millimeter.)

The central element of the inspected photodetectors is freely suspended graphene integrated into electrical circuits via metallic contacts. The temporal dynamics of the photocurrent were measured by means of so-called co-planar strip lines that were evaluated using a special time-resolved laser spectroscopy procedure the pump-probe technique. A laser pulse excites the electrons in the graphene and the dynamics of the process are monitored using a second laser. With this technique the physicists were able to monitor precisely how the photocurrent in the graphene is generated.

At the same time, the scientists could take advantage of the new method to make a further observation: They found evidence that graphene, when optically stimulated, emits radiation in the terahertz (THz) range. This lies between infrared light and microwave radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum. The special thing about THz radiation is that it displays properties shared by both adjacent frequency ranges: It can be bundled like particle radiation, yet still penetrates matter like electromagnetic waves. This makes it ideal for material tests, for screening packages or for certain medical applications.

###

The research was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Excellence Cluster Nanosystems Initiative Munich and the Center for NanoScience (CeNS). Physicists from Universitt Regensburg, Eidgenssische Technische Hochschule Zrich, Rice University and Shinshu University also contributed to the publication.

Original publication:

Time-resolved ultrafast photocurrents and terahertz generation in freely suspended grapheme. Leonhard Prechtel, Li Song, Dieter Schuh, Pulickel Ajayan, Werner Wegscheider, Alexander W. Holleitner, Nature Communications

Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1656

---

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?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/tum-upa013112.php

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On Climate Change, Weathercasters May Be Misguiding Their Viewers

If you are like most Americans, the weather forecast on tonight's evening news may be your only exposure to science all day. And there's a good chance that your trusted local weathercaster is your only regular source of information on climate change.

This seeming monopoly on the public's exposure to a critical issue has consequences, according to environmental advocates. Recent studies have found that more than half of the reporters relaying weather on television do not believe humans are the primary drivers of global warming -- despite a consensus among scientists who specialize on the topic.

"If you look at the stats over the past five or six years, the public's belief that global warming is a serious problem, or is even happening, is declining," said Daniel Souweine, co-founder of the nonprofit Citizen Engagement Lab. In fact, nearly 40 percent of Americans are not convinced that the earth is heating up, according to the latest Pew Research Center poll.

"We think that's a result of the fact that they're not getting the right kind of information about what the science says," Souweine told The Huffington Post.

A new campaign called "Forecast the Facts," begun by Citizen Engagement Lab with the support of the League of Conservation Voters and the climate advocacy group 350.org, aims to call out on-air climate deniers. Many of these base their skepticism on their own inability to forecast more than five or seven days out. If they can't forecast the weather a week from now, how then, the deniers argue, could scientists try to tell us what the climate might be like in 70 years?

"That's a statement that on first blush sounds reasonable. But when you understand the differences between the science of climate and weather, it isn't," Souweine said. As many climate experts like to say, weather tells you what to wear that day and climate tells you what wardrobe to buy. And computer models used by the two professions differ significantly.

So far, Forecast the Facts has identified 55 outspoken and skeptical meteorologists. Among them is John Coleman of KUSI-TV in San Diego. He is quoted on the website: "We're talking about the greatest hoax in history, let's understand this. There is no man made global warming. The whole thing is a phony call for quick action."

Kris Wilson of the University of Texas at Austin, a co-author of the national weathercaster survey, applauded the new campaign for recognizing the important role that weathercasters can play in climate change communication. However, he also expressed concern that the approach may end up simply "stabbing at the hornet's nest and making things worse."

Wilson's research has found that skeptical weathercasters tend to trust their peers more than other sources. "This might just build them into a stronger community," he said.

Other experts also call the effort misguided. Bud Ward, editor of the Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media, suggested that the Forecast the Facts approach could "turn off a wider sweep of the broadcast meteorologist community."

Ward hosts educational workshops for meteorologists and has contributed climate materials to the National Environmental Education Foundation's outreach, which includes online course modules and email newsletters to a self-selected group of over 200 broadcast meteorologists.

These approaches rest on the notion that the platform and respect held by weathercasters can be used for good. Dan Satterfield, a meteorologist and blogger for American Geophysical Union, shares this idea. He belongs to a growing list of broadcast weather personalities looking beyond local seven-day forecasts to long-term global climate trends -- making the effort to learn the difference and then pass that knowledge on to their viewers.

Meteorologists have a "huge responsibility" to get the science right and not mislead, said Satterfield. "What I say on the air, or in my blog, or on Facebook -- it's good science."

"If you go on TV and say something you heard on talk radio or Fox News from someone who has never published a paper, you're gonna get called out. You're gonna look foolish," Satterfield continued. Before Forecast the Facts, such calling-out of the local weather guy usually had to come from a local scientist's letter to editor, he added.

Satterfield frequently gets questions from his viewers and Facebook followers about how various weather episodes, including the rise in extreme events, might be linked to climate change. The latest in his inbox: What is causing this mild winter?

"The average person wants to assign one reason," he said. "But it's more than one thing. The answer is La Ni?a, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the fact that the planet and oceans are warmer, that we've lost one third of Arctic sea ice," Satterfield said. Given the obvious changes to the atmosphere, he added, it would be "silly" to think that "any weather event was not affected by climate change." It's only the extent of that effect that remains to be seen.

The secret to Satterfield's education of his viewers, including some now-former deniers, is limiting his comments to the science: "I never talk about what to do about the problem."

But not all meteorologists are as open to learning about climate science, suggested Souweine. "There are some that even go on air and say that the globe is cooling," he said. "At that point, there's no time for dialogue, it's time for accountability. The viewers deserve to know the truth."

Silence on the topic of climate change also concerns Souweine. This information deadzone spreads from the TV screen to the classroom, with high school science teachers avoiding addressing the issue out of fear of backlash, as HuffPost highlighted last week.

"Reporting on a record heat wave and not talking about climate change is like talking about a string of murders and not saying there is a suspect in custody," Souweine said.

Last week, Souweine attended a council meeting at the American Meteorological Society's annual conference in New Orleans. On the agenda: drafting a new statement on climate change. While the AMS had previously published a statement acknowledging humans' role in climate change, they had been called on to issue an updated, more strongly worded version.

On Friday, after the conference, Souweine sent an email to the more than 13,000 supporters who have signed on since the site's launch earlier this month. "Before we arrived, deniers in the AMS were the only ones making their demands known," he wrote. "AMS senior leadership actually read our press release aloud and said the grassroots participation 'changed the context' for the entire discussion."

The council eventually voted to delay finalization of any updated statement.

Meanwhile, last week in Portland, Ore., the state's chapter of the AMS gave three skeptics the stage at another conference.

The battle continues. Despite his reservations on the campaign's approach, Wilson of the University of Texas at Austin said that he did agree with the Forecast the Facts statement: "The weather report never mattered so much."

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/climate-change-weathercasters_n_1241779.html

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Newt Goes After Romney World (TIME)

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#TwitterBlackout: Protests brew as complaints over censorship come to a boil

Twitter on Thursday announced it would invoke the ability to censor some tweets on a country-by-country basis. Cue the global backlash.?

Twitter yesterday announced that it would invoke the right to censor messages on a country-by-country basis. In a blog post, Twitter reps said the move was necessary to abide by the laws of?"countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression." In the past, Twitter was forced to strike clean objectionable tweets on a "global" scale ? the offending message, in other words, would disappear across the board.?

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With the new technology, Twitter can preserve content in some countries, while preventing it from being seen in others.?"We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why," Twitter reps wrote. "We haven?t yet used this ability, but if and when we are required to withhold a Tweet in a specific country, we will attempt to let the user know, and we will clearly mark when the content has been withheld."

Perhaps inevitably, the announcement has been met with tremendous push-back from certain corners of the Web, where thousands of Twitter users have banded together to rage against the new policy. For most of the day, #TwitterBlackout has dipped on and off the trending topics list on Twitter ? a reference to a grassroots protest planned for Saturday, January 28.?

Up in arms over Twitter censorship? Join the blackout, and stay away from Twitter for 24 hours.?

Of course, as some users have noted, 24 hours may not be enough to get the message across. "Why boycott it just for 1 day If you really think it's wrong?" one hardliner asked, in a tweet captured by the Guardian. "[T]alk about a week or a month & I shall take you seriously." Another added, coyly: "Surprised there's not more outrage about?#twittercensorship?? although maybe there is and the tweets are being blocked."

So are the new Twitter policies actually that objectionable? Well, yes and no, Jillian C. York notes in an admirably clearheaded assessment over at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

"Let?s be clear:?This?is?censorship," York writes. "There?s no way around that. But alas,?Twitter is not above the law. Just about every company hosting user-generated content has, at one point or another, gotten an order or government request to take down content. Google lays out its orders in its?Transparency Report. Other companies are less forthright. In any case, Twitter has two options in the event of a request: Fail to comply, and risk being blocked by the government in question, or comply (read: censor).? And if they have 'boots on the ground,' so to speak, in the country in question? No choice."?

For more tech news, follow us on?Twitter @venturenaut. And don?t forget to sign up for the weekly?BizTech newsletter.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/NInlfoA532A/TwitterBlackout-Protests-brew-as-complaints-over-censorship-come-to-a-boil

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Romney would rank among richest presidents ever (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Just how rich is Mitt Romney? Add up the wealth of the last eight presidents, from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama. Then double that number. Now you're in Romney territory.

He would be among the richest presidents in American history if elected ? probably in the top four.

He couldn't top George Washington who, with nearly 60,000 acres and more than 300 slaves, is considered the big daddy of presidential wealth. After that, it gets complicated, depending how you rate Thomas Jefferson's plantation, Herbert Hoover's millions from mining or John F. Kennedy's share of the vast family fortune, as well as the finer points of factors like inflation adjustment.

But it's safe to say the Roosevelts had nothing on Romney, and the Bushes are nowhere close.

The former Massachusetts governor has disclosed only the broad outlines of his wealth, putting it somewhere from $190 million to $250 million. That easily could make him 50 times richer than Obama, who falls in the still-impressive-to-most-of-us range of $2.2 million to $7.5 million.

"I think it's almost hard to conceptualize what $250 million means," said Shamus Khan, a Columbia University sociologist who studies the wealthy. "People say Romney made $50,000 a day while not working last year. What do you do with all that money? I can't even imagine spending it. Well, maybe ..."

Of course, an unbelievable boatload of bucks is just one way to think of Romney's net worth, and the 44 U.S. presidents make up a pretty small pond for him to swim in. Put alongside America's 400 or so billionaires, Romney wouldn't make a ripple.

So here's a look where Romney's riches rank ? among the most flush Americans, the White House contenders, and the rest of us:

_Within the 1 percent:

"Romney is small potatoes compared with the ultra-wealthy," said Jeffrey Winters, a political scientist at Northwestern University who studies the nation's elites.

After all, even in the rarefied world of the top 1 percent, there's a big difference between life at the top and at the bottom.

A household needs to bring in roughly $400,000 per year to make the cut. Romney and his wife, Ann, have been making 50 times that ? more than $20 million a year. In 2009, only 8,274 federal tax filers had income above $10 million. Romney is solidly within that elite 0.006 percent of all U.S. taxpayers.

Congress is flush with millionaires. Only a few are in the Romney realm, including Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004. Kerry's ranking would climb much higher if the fortune of his wife, Teresa Heinz, were counted. She is the widow of Sen. John Heinz, heir to the Heinz ketchup fortune.

Further up the ladder, top hedge fund managers can pocket $1 billion or more in a single year.

At the top of the wealth pile sits Bill Gates, worth $59 billion, according to Forbes magazine's estimates.

_As a potential president:

Romney clearly stands out here. America's super rich generally don't jockey to live in the White House. A few have toyed with the idea, most notably New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whom Forbes ranks as the 12th richest American, worth $19.5 billion. A lesser billionaire, Ross Perot, bankrolled his own third-party campaigns in 1992 and 1996.

Many presidents weren't particularly well-off, especially 19th century leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, James Buchanan and Ulysses S. Grant. Nor was the 33rd president, Harry Truman.

"These things ebb and flow," said sociologist Khan. "It's not the case that all presidents were always rich."

A few former chief executives died in debt, including Thomas Jefferson, ranked in a Forbes study as the third-wealthiest president.

Comparing the landlocked wealth of early Americans such as Washington, Jefferson and James Madison, with today's millionaires is tricky, even setting aside the lack of documentation and economic changes over two centuries.

Research by 24/7 Wall St., a news and analysis website, estimated Washington's wealth at the equivalent of $525 million in 2010 dollars.

Yet Washington had to borrow money to pay for his trip to New York for his inauguration in 1789, according to Dennis Pogue, vice president for preservation at Mount Vernon, Washington's Virginia estate. His money was tied up in land, reaping only a modest cash income after farm expenses.

"He was a wealthy guy, there's no doubt about it," Pogue said, and probably among the dozen richest Virginians of his time. But, "the wealthiest person in America then was nothing in comparison to what these folks are today."

_How does Romney stand next to a regular Joe?

He's roughly 1,800 times richer.

The typical U.S. household was worth $120,300 in 2007, according to the Census Bureau's most recent data, although that number is sure to have dropped since the recession. A typical family's income is $50,000.

Calculations from 24/7 Wall St. of the peak lifetime wealth (or peak so far) of Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama add up to a total $128 million ? while Romney reports assets of up to $250 million.

If you consider only those presidents' assets while in office, without millions earned later from speeches and books, their combined total would be substantially lower, and Romney's riches would leave the pack even further behind.

___

Online:

Forbes' richest presidents list: http://tinyurl.com/82erdyb

24/7 Wall St. on presidents' net worth: http://tinyurl.com/328qyu2

___

Associated Press writer Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_el_pr/us_how_rich_is_romney

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Haywire (The Week)

New York ? In Steven Soderbergh's new thriller, a covert operative and martial arts expert seeks revenge on former bosses who double-crossed her.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh
R

***

SEE ALSO: Who will Ricky Gervais insult at the Golden Globes? 7 likely targets

?

Steven Soderbergh is a master filmmaker ?whose work moves almost eagerly? between styles, said Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times. While Haywire, his first foray into martial arts, may have ?no lasting significance,? it?s still a pleasure seeing an A-list director taking the trouble to make ?a first-rate genre thriller.? To give the film?s fight scenes an extra kick, Soderbergh enlisted former mixed martial arts champion Gina Carano to star??as a black ops agent seeking revenge on former bosses who?ve betrayed her. ?Carano doesn?t do a lot of what you?d call acting?just monotone line readings,? said Bill Goodykoontz in The Arizona Republic. Yet Soderbergh makes her flat demeanor a strength, letting Carano communicate through sheer physicality. As for her fighting skills, she ?kicks butt, plain and simple.? Haywire?s fleet screenplay ?doesn?t get bogged down in psychology or humanizing backstories,? said Ann Hornaday in The Washington Post. The film ?simply gives audiences what they came to see: bruising fight sequences set up and executed with economy, skill, and one or two genuine jaw-dropping jolts.?

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20120127/cm_theweek/223771

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Amid calls for tax fairness, government report shows federal workers owe $3.4B in back taxes (Star Tribune)

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'Open for business': Ind. House OKs right-to-work (AP)

INDIANAPOLIS ? Indiana is poised to become the first right-to-work state in more than a decade after the Republican-controlled House passed legislation on Wednesday banning unions from collecting mandatory fees from workers.

It is yet another blow to organized labor in the heavily unionized Midwest, which is home to many of the country's manufacturing jobs. Wisconsin last year stripped unions of collective bargaining rights.

The vote came after weeks of protest by minority Democrats who tried various tactics to stop the bill. They refused to show up to debate despite the threat of fines that totaled $1,000 per day and introduced dozens of amendments aimed at delaying a vote. But conceding their tactics could not last forever because they were outnumbered, they finally agreed to allow the vote to take place.

The House voted 54-44 Wednesday to make Indiana the nation's 23rd right-to-work state. The measure is expected to face little opposition in Indiana's Republican-controlled Senate and could reach Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels' desk shortly before the Feb. 5 Super Bowl in Indianapolis.

"This announces especially in the Rust Belt, that we are open for business here," Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma said of the right-to-work proposal that would ban unions from collecting mandatory representation fees from workers.

Republicans recently attempted similar anti-union measures in other Rust-Belt states like Wisconsin and Ohio where they have faced massive backlash. Ohio voters overturned Gov. John Kasich's labor measures last November and union activists delivered roughly 1 million petitions last week in an effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

Indiana would mark the first win in 10 years for national right-to-work advocates who have pushed unsuccessfully for the measure in other states following a Republican sweep of statehouses in 2010. But few right-work states boast Indiana's union clout, borne of a long manufacturing legacy.

Oklahoma, with its rural-based economy that produces comparatively fewer union jobs than Indiana, passed right-to-work legislation in 2001.

Hundreds of union protesters packed the halls of the Statehouse again Wednesday, chanting "Kill the Bill!" and cheering Democrats who had stalled the measure since the start of the year.

House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer said the legislative battle has been an "unusual fight" from the beginning, but Democrats waged a noble effort against majority Republicans determined to pass the bill.

"What did they fight for? They fought for less pay, less workplace safety and less health care. This is their only job plank: job creation for less pay with the so-called right to work for less bill."

Republicans foreshadowed their strong showing Monday when they shot down a series of Democratic amendments to the measure in strict party-line votes. Democrats boycotted again for an eighth day

Republicans handily outnumber Democrats in the House 60-40, but Democrats have just enough members to deny the Republicans the 67 votes needed to achieve a quorum and conduct any business. Bosma began fining boycotting Democrats $1,000 a day last week, but a Marion County judge has blocked the collection of those fines.

The measure now moves to the Indiana Senate which approved its own right-to-work measure earlier in the week. Gov. Mitch Daniels has campaigned extensively for the bill and said he would sign it into law.

___

Tom LoBianco can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/tomlobianco

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_us/us_indiana_right_to_work

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Celeb birthdays for the week of Jan. 29-Feb. 4 (omg!)

Jan. 29: Actor-singer Noel Harrison is 78. Actress Katharine Ross is 72. Actor Tom Selleck is 67. Singer Bettye LaVette is 66. Actor Marc Singer is 64. Actress Ann Jillian is 62. Drummer Tommy Ramone of The Ramones is 60. Drummer Louie Perez of Los Lobos is 59. Singer Charlie Wilson of The Gap Band is 59. Talk-show host Oprah Winfrey is 58. Country singer Irlene Mandrell is 56. Actress Diane Delano ("The Ellen Show," ''Northern Exposure") is 55. Actress Judy Norton Taylor ("The Waltons") is 54. Guitarist Johnny Spampinato (NRBQ) is 53. Drummer David Baynton-Power of James is 51. Bassist Eddie Jackson of Queensryche is 51. Actor Nicholas Turturro is 50. Singer-guitarist Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera is 48. Director-actor Ed Burns is 44. Actress Heather Graham is 42. Actor Sharif Atkins is 37. Actress Sara Gilbert is 37. Actor Andrew Keegan ("Party of Five") is 33. Guitarist Jonny Lang is 31.

Jan. 30: Actor Gene Hackman is 82. Actress Tammy Grimes is 78. Actress Vanessa Redgrave is 75. Country singer Jeanne Pruett is 75. Country singer Norma Jean is 74. Singer Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship is 70. Horn player William King of The Commodores is 63. Musician Phil Collins is 61. Actor Charles S. Dutton ("Roc") is 61. Comedian Brett Butler ("Grace Under Fire") is 54. Singer Jody Watley is 53. Country singer Tammy Cochran is 40. Actor Christian Bale is 38. Singer Josh Kelley is 32. Actor Wilmer Valderrama is 32. Actor Jake Thomas ("Lizzie McGuire," ''AI") is 22.

Jan. 31: Actress Carol Channing is 91. Actor Stuart Margolin ("The Rockford Files") is 72. Actress Jessica Walter ("Arrested Development") is 71. Actor Glynn Turman ("The Wire," ''A Different World") is 66. Singer Harry Wayne Casey of KC and the Sunshine Band is 61. Singer Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols is 56. Actor Anthony LaPaglia is 53. Actress Kelly Lynch is 53. Singer-guitarist Lloyd Cole is 51. Guitarist Jeff Hanneman of Slayer is 48. Bassist Al Jaworski of Jesus Jones is 46. Actress Minnie Driver is 42. Actress Portia de Rossi is 39. Actress Kerry Washington ("Ray") is 35. Singer Justin Timberlake is 31.

Feb. 1: Actor Stuart Whitman is 84. Actor-comedian Garrett Morris is 75. Singer Don Everly of The Everly Brothers is 75. Singer Ray Sawyer of Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show is 75. Actor Sherman Hemsley is 74. Jazz pianist Joe Sample is 73. Bluegrass singer Del McCoury is 73. Actor-writer-director Terry Jones (Monty Python) is 70. Guitarist Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is 62. Actor-writer-producer Billy Mumy ("Lost in Space") is 58. Singer Exene Cervenka of X is 56. Keyboardist Dwayne Dupuy of Ricochet is 47. Actress Sherilyn Fenn is 47. Singer Lisa Marie Presley is 44. Comedian Pauly Shore is 44. Drummer Patrick Wilson of Weezer is 43. Actor Michael C. Hall is 41. Rapper Big Boi of Outkast is 37. TV personality Lauren Conrad is 26.

Feb. 2: Actress Elaine Stritch is 87. Actor Robert Mandan ("Soap," ''Three's a Crowd") is 80. Comedian Tom Smothers is 75. Singer Graham Nash is 70. Actor Bo Hopkins is 70. Singer Howard Bellamy of the Bellamy Brothers is 66. TV chef Ina Garten ("Barefoot Contessa") is 64. Actor Brent Spiner ("Star Trek: The Next Generation") is 63. Bassist Ross Valory of Journey is 63. Model Christie Brinkley is 58. Actor Michael Talbott ("Miami Vice") is 57. Actress Kim Zimmer ("Guiding Light") is 57. Bassist Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots is 46. Actress Jennifer Westfeldt ("Kissing Jessica Stein") is 42. Rapper T-Mo (Goodie Mob) is 40. Actress Marissa Jaret Winokur is 39. Singer Shakira is 35.

Feb. 3: Comedian Shelley Berman is 87. Actress Blythe Danner is 69. Singer Dennis Edwards (The Temptations) is 69. Guitarist Dave Davies of The Kinks is 65. Singer Melanie is 65. Actress Morgan Fairchild is 62. Actor Nathan Lane is 56. Guitarist Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth is 56. Actor Thomas Calabro ("Melrose Place") is 53. Actress Michele Greene ("L.A. Law") is 50. Country singer Matraca Berg is 48. Actress Maura Tierney ("ER," ''NewsRadio") is 47. Singer Daddy Yankee is 36. Singer Jessica Harp (The Wreckers) is 30. Rapper Sean Kingston is 22.

Feb. 4: Actor Conrad Bain ("Diff'rent Strokes") is 89. Comedian David Brenner is 76. Actor Gary Conway ("Burke's Law") is 76. Drummer John Steel of The Animals is 71. Singer Florence LaRue of the Fifth Dimension is 68. Singer Alice Cooper is 64. Actor Michael Beck is 63. Actress Lisa Eichhorn is 60. Singer Tim Booth of James is 52. Country singer Clint Black is 50. Guitarist Noodles of The Offspring is 49. Country bassist Dave Buchanan of Yankee Grey is 46. Bassist Rick Burch of Jimmy Eat World is 37. Singer Natalie Imbruglia is 37. Rapper Cam'ron is 36. Singer Gavin DeGraw is 35.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_celeb_birthdays_week_jan29_feb_4_060214720/44309930/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/celeb-birthdays-week-jan-29-feb-4-060214720.html

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Google to merge user data across more services (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Google announced a plan Tuesday to link user data across its email, video, social-networking and other services that it says will create a "beautifully simple and intuitive" user experience. But critics raised privacy concerns like those that helped kill the search giant's Buzz social networking service.

The changes, which take effect March 1, will remove some of the legal hurdles Google Inc. faces in trying to link information across services from Gmail to YouTube to the Google Plus social network that replaced Buzz.

More than 70 different company policies are being streamlined into one main privacy policy and about a dozen others. Separate policies will continue to govern products including Google's Chrome Web browser and its Wallet service for electronic payments.

The company said the new system will give users more relevant search results and information, while helping advertisers find customers ? especially on mobile devices.

For example, if you spend an hour on Google searching the Web for skateboards, the next time you log into YouTube, you might get recommendations for videos featuring Tony Hawk, along with ads for his merchandise and the nearest place to buy them.

"If you're signed into Google, we can do things like suggest search queries ? or tailor your search results ? based on the interests you've expressed in Google (Plus), Gmail and YouTube," the company says on a new overview page for its privacy policies. "We'll better understand (what) you're searching for and get you those results faster."

The changes follow the shutdown of Buzz last month. After its introduction less than two years ago, the social networking tool was ridiculed for exposing users' most-emailed contacts to other participants by default, inadvertently revealing some users' ongoing contact with ex-spouses and competitors.

Google has since made Plus the focal point of its challenge to Facebook's social network. In the first seven months since its debut, Plus has attracted more than 90 million users, according to Google. To promote Plus, Google recently began including recommendations about people and companies with Plus accounts in its search results. That change has provoked an outcry from critics who say Google is abusing its dominance in Internet search to drive more traffic to its own services.

Google and the Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement last year that forbids Google from misrepresenting how it uses personal information and from sharing an individual's data without prior approval. Google also agreed to biennial privacy audits for the next two decades.

Google said it talked to regulators about the upcoming privacy changes, which it will apply worldwide. An FTC spokeswoman declined to comment on the changes or say whether the agency was consulted.

Some critics saw Google as trying to beat regulators to the punch by setting a precedent before the FTC unveils its own framework for protecting online privacy.

Jeff Chester, executive director of the privacy group Center for Digital Democracy, said Google hopes "that by creating a one-stop shop for privacy policy it will deflect regulatory action."

Google, Facebook and other popular Internet services all want to learn as much as possible about their users so they can sell more advertising at higher rates to marketers looking to target people interested in specific products, such as golf clubs or skinny jeans.

Google says users who opt to see personalized ads are 37 percent more likely to respond to an ad than people who opt out of targeting.

The changes follow a rare letdown in revenue growth at Google's lucrative advertising network. Google's fourth-quarter earnings report last week showed the company's average revenue per click fell 8 percent from the previous year, despite robust growth in online shopping at the holidays.

Google shares, which have fallen 9 percent since the report, closed Tuesday at $580.93, down $4.59 for the day.

Ryan Calo, director for privacy at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, said Google is trying to make its policy privacy transparent instead of bogging users down with pages of legalese; the new privacy policies run about 10,000 words, down from 68,000.

But he said the company must ensure that the ways it uses data help users without revealing sensitive information.

"If it creeps people out, then they need to be aware of that," he said.

___

Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/search/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_hi_te/us_google_privacy

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Palestinian leader: Talks with Israel over

RAMALLAH, West Bank?? A low-level dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians about a future border has ended without any breakthrough, the Palestinian president said Wednesday, reflecting the impasse plaguing the negotiations for at least three years.

President Mahmoud Abbas said he would consult with Arab allies next week to figure out how to proceed now. While frustrated with the lack of progress, Abbas is under pressure to extend the Jordanian-mediated exploratory talks, which the international community hopes will lead to a resumption of long-stalled formal negotiations on establishing a Palestinian state.

Israel said Wednesday it's willing to continue the dialogue. Abbas didn't close the door to continued meetings, saying he'll decide after consultations with the Arab League on Feb. 4.

A Palestinian walkout could cost Abbas international sympathy at a time when he seeks global recognition of a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

The gaps between the leaders are vast, and Abbas believes there is no point in returning to formal negotiations without assurances, such as marking the pre-1967 war lines as a basis for border talks and halting Israeli settlement building on occupied lands. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says everything should be discussed in negotiations and insists he is serious about reaching a deal by year's end.

Though there have been talks off and on, the last substantive round was in late 2008, when Israel informally proposed a deal and the Palestinians did not respond. When Netanyahu took office the next year, he took the proposal, including a state in most of the territories the Palestinians claim, off the table.

A round started in late 2010 by President Barack Obama quickly sputtered over the settlement issue.

Visiting EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is scheduled to meet separately over the next two days with Abbas and Netanyahu to try to salvage the exploratory talks. Two officials involved in the contacts said she is trying to put together a package of Israeli incentives that would keep the Palestinians from walking away.

"We need to keep talks going and increase the potential of these talks to become genuine negotiations," Ashton said.

Under Jordanian mediation, Israeli and Palestinian envoys have met several times over the past month, including on Wednesday. The Quartet of international mediators ? the U.S., the U.N., the EU and Russia ? said last fall that it expected both sides to submit detailed proposals on borders and security arrangements in these meetings.

Palestinian officials said they submitted their proposals, but that Israel did not. Abbas suggested that exploratory talks could continue if Israel presented a detailed border plan.

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"If we demarcate the borders, we can return to negotiations, but Israel does not want to do that," Abbas said Wednesday, after talks in Jordan with Jordan's King Abdullah II. His remarks were carried by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The Palestinians are flexible on security arrangements, but would object to any Israeli presence in a Palestinian state, he said.

Netanyahu has said he would not give up east Jerusalem, the Palestinians' hoped-for capital, but has never outlined where he would draw a border.

Such a demarcation could set off a political firestorm in his governing coalition, particular among pro-settler parties, because it would spell out how many settlements would have to be dismantled at a minimum.

In the exploratory talks, Israel submitted a list of 21 issues that would need to be discussed, but didn't present positions.

The Palestinians have accused Netanyahu ? a reluctant latecomer to the idea of Palestinian statehood ? of seeking negotiations as a diplomatic shield, with no real intention of reaching an agreement.

An Israeli government official said Israel is committed to reaching a full accord before the end of the year. "We hope that the Palestinians aren't looking for an excuse to walk away from the table," the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

The two sides even disagree on how much time was set aside for these talks. The Palestinians said the deadline is Thursday, or three months after the Quartet issued its marching orders, while Israel believes it has until early April, or three months after the start of meetings.

In other developments Wednesday, the Geneva-based Interparliamentary Union protested the arrest of Hamas lawmakers by Israel in recent days. Five legislators have been arrested since last week, including Speaker Abdel Aziz Dwaik. The IPU, which represents 159 parliaments worldwide, said it is "extremely concerned" and demanded that the lawmakers be released.

Currently, 24 of 45 Hamas legislators from the West Bank are in Israeli detention on charges of membership in an illegal organization. Hamas lawmakers have been subject to arrest by Israel since the group defeated Abbas' Fatah movement in the 2006 parliament election.

Hamas alleged that the arrests are meant to sabotage presidential and parliamentary elections, tentatively set for late spring. Hamas has said it would only participate in elections if its candidates are safe from arrest by Israel.

Israel says the arrests are not politically motivated.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46128396/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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Morning Movers (MFN, PETS, URG, CBRX, TWIN) - 24/7 Wall St.

There are several stocks trading more heavily than usual this morning, and also experiencing large gains or drops in share prices. These include Minefinders Corp. Ltd. (AMEX: MFN), PetMed Express Inc. (NASDAQ: PETS), Ur Energy Inc. (AMEX: URG), Columbia Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ: CBRX), and Twin Disc Inc. (NASDAQ: TWIN).

After the first half-hour of trading, Minefinders is up nearly 26%. Volume is already more than double the daily average of about 700,000 shares traded. The Canadian silver miner is being acquired by Pan American Silver Corp. (NASDAQ: PAAS) for CDN$1.5 billion.

PetMed is up more than 14% at $12.87. Volume is already 3x the daily average of 222,000 shares traded. The pet supply company reported quarterly earnings that beat expectations.

Ur Energy is up more than 7% at $1.14. Volume is about one-third the average daily volume of 368,000 shares traded. The junior uranium miner has signed a multi-year contract to provide 200,000 pounds of uranium concentrate annually to a North American utility company. The contract sales begin in 2013.

Columbia Laboratories is down more than -55% at $0.70 after posting a new 52-week low of $0.65. Volume is more than 4x higher than the daily average of about 1.13 million shares traded. The drug company?s progesterone vaginal gel was not approved by a committee of the US FDA.

Twin Disc is down more than -17% at $32.61. Volume is already 3x the daily average of 136,000 shares traded. The machinery maker reported weak quarterly results and a lower backlog of orders.

Paul Ausick

Source: http://247wallst.com/2012/01/23/morning-movers-mfn-pets-urg-cbrx-twin/

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RolePlayGateway is proudly powered by obscene amounts of caffeine, duct tape, Wordpress, Moodle, phpBB, AJAX Chat, Mantis, and the efforts of many dedicated writers and roleplayers. It operates under a "don't like it, suggest an improvement" platform, and we gladly take suggestions for improvements or changes.

The custom-built "roleplay" system was designed and implemented by Eric Martindale as of July 2009. All attempts to replicate or otherwise emulate this system and its method of organizing roleplay are strictly prohibited without his express written and contractual permission; violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

? RolePlayGateway, LLC

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/8MRt7qITQs0/viewtopic.php

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No formal bid yet for bankrupt Saab: receivers (Reuters)

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) ? The receivers for bankrupt car maker Saab are talking with several bidders and would like to sell the Swedish company as a whole, but there have been no formal bids yet, they said on Saturday.

Saab was declared bankrupt in December after frantic rescue efforts by its former owner, Swedish Automobile.

Chinese group Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile could make a fresh bid in the coming week, sources have told Reuters.

"We have had discussions with a number of interested parties. Some of them are interested in the factory as a whole and some of them are interested in parts of it," Hans Bergvist, one of the receivers, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"There have been no formal bids," added fellow receiver Anne-Marie Pouteaux.

General Motors, (GM.N) which still licenses technology to Saab, blocked earlier rescue efforts, saying it did not want help competitors.

Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri has reported Turkish private equity firm Brightwell, as well as Indian utility vehicle maker Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (MAHM.NS) are also interested.

Neither Bergvist nor Pouteaux would name any of the parties interested in buying Saab or parts of it.

"We do have an objective to sell a totality (of Saab)," added Pouteaux.

Saab hit crisis point early last year after its 2010 sales fell short of target.

Its production line came to a standstill in April and it has not made a car since then.

Swedish Automobile tried several times to line up buyers or financing, but all efforts so far have failed.

(Reporting by Patrick Lannin; Editing by Alison Birrane)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120121/bs_nm/us_sweden_saab

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Supreme Court says police need warrant for GPS tracking (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that police cannot put a GPS device on a suspect's car to track his movements without a warrant, a test case that upholds basic privacy rights in the face of new surveillance technology.

The high court ruling was a defeat for the Obama administration, which had argued that a warrant was not required to use global positioning system devices to monitor a vehicle on public streets.

The justices unanimously upheld a precedent-setting ruling by a U.S. appeals court that the police must first obtain a warrant to use a GPS device for an extended period of time to covertly follow a suspect.

The high court ruled that placement of a device on a vehicle and using it to monitor the vehicle's movements was covered by U.S. constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures of evidence.

There are no precise statistics on how often police in the United States use GPS tracking in criminal investigations. But the Obama administration told the court last year it was used sparingly by federal law enforcement officials.

The American Civil Liberties Union rights group hailed the ruling as an important victory for privacy. "While this case turned on the fact that the government physically placed a GPS device on the defendant's car, the implications are much broader," Steven Shapiro of the ACLU said.

"A majority of the court acknowledged that advancing technology, like cell phone tracking, gives the government unprecedented ability to collect, store, and analyze an enormous amount of information about our private lives," he said.

SUSPECTED DRUG TRAFFICKER

The case began in 2005 when police officers went to a public parking lot in Maryland and secretly installed a GPS device on a Jeep Grand Cherokee used by a Washington, D.C. nightclub owner, Antoine Jones.

Jones was suspected of drug trafficking and the police tracked his movements for a month. The resulting evidence played a key role in his conviction for conspiring to distribute cocaine.

The appeals court had thrown out Jones's conviction and his

life-in-prison sentence, and ruled prolonged electronic monitoring of the vehicle amounted to a search.

All nine justices agreed in upholding the appeals court decision, but at least four justices would have gone even further in finding fault not only with the attachment of the device, but also with the lengthy monitoring.

In summarizing the court's majority opinion from the bench, Justice Antonin Scalia said attachment of the device by the police was a trespass and an improper intrusion of the kind that would have been considered a search when the Constitution was adopted some 220 years ago.

The administration argued that even if it were a search, it was lawful and reasonable under the Constitution. Scalia said his opinion did not decide that issue and some more difficult problems that may emerge in a future case, such as a six-month monitoring of a suspected terrorist.

Joining Scalia's opinion were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor.

Sotomayor wrote separately to say the case raised difficult questions about individual privacy expectations in a digital age, but said the case could be decided on narrower grounds over the physical intrusion in attaching the device.

LONG-TERM MONITORING

Justice Samuel Alito wrote a separate opinion that Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan joined. He wrote that he would have decided the case by holding that Jones's reasonable privacy expectations were violated by long-term monitoring of his vehicle's movements.

Alito said in recent years many new devices have emerged that track a person's movements, including video surveillance in some cities, automatic toll collection systems on roads, devices on cars that disclose their location, cell phones and other wireless devices.

"The availability and use of these and other new devices will continue to shape the average person's expectations about the privacy of his or her daily movements," he wrote.

One law professor said those four justices were clearly concerned about the potential impact of new technologies and believed extended monitoring likely required a warrant so law enforcement should "be on the safe side and get a warrant."

"This is an indication that there are justices who are recognizing that privacy norms are shifting but the fact that people's lives take place increasingly online does not mean that society has decided that there's no such thing as privacy anymore," said Joel Reidenberg, a law professor at Fordham University in New York.

The Supreme Court case is United States v. Antoine Jones, No. 10-1259.

(Reporting By James Vicini; Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/us_nm/us_usa_police_gps

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Health Insurance Increase Okayed In Mass. For 2012 ? CBS Boston

(Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

BOSTON (CBS) ?Some Massachusetts residents will see only a small rise in health care premiums this year.

State regulators have approved premium hikes averaging 2.3% for what?s called the Small Group Market.? That includes thousands of small businesses and self-employed residents.
They go into effect in April.

Last year, people saw health care premiums rise 9 percent, and there have been double-digit increases in years past.

State officials say the lower increases reflect years of efforts to get costs under control.

Source: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/01/21/health-insurance-increase-okayed-in-mass-for-2012/

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Microsoft says it will fix Xbox color and streaming resolution issues - but not when (Digital Trends)

Xbox recently upgraded its dashboard, adopting Windows metro style UI. It was a necessary change, as Microsoft needs to align its products with its operating system. However there were early complaints that post-upgrade, users were seeing inaccurate colors and poor HD streaming quality.?

And according to EuroGamer, Xbox was ignoring these complaints from beta testers. So why would Microsoft issue an unfinished product? Consider the fact that there is building pressure for console systems to fill many voids: not only are these devices used for gaming, but they?ve becoming the digital hub of the living room, used for streaming content and watching DVDs (and in the case of the PS3, Blu-ray movies). Xbox and PlayStation don?t only have each other and Nintendo to compete with?they have smart TVs with built-in app and Internet access as well.?

The brand has also been under pressure to release its metro UI update and offer more connectivity for Windows Phone 7 users?it needs to be able to leverage everything it can for its mobile platform, which has struggled to add more apps.?

So it seems that Microsoft prematurely pushed the update, and now there is no word on when it will be fixed?just that it will be. ?We?re aware of the colorspace issue w/some Xbox video apps & are working on a fix,? said Xbox Live programming director Larry Hyrb via Twitter. ?No ETA yet but we hope to have an update soon.?

The fact that some Xbox 360 users are dealing with poor color reproduction and the inability to play 1080p content at native resolution on the dashboard player definitely puts Xbox at a disadvantage. These malfunctions have slid (somewhat) under the radar for awhile, but it?s soured by how long the company is taking to address it all and give a real timeline on when an update will be issued.?

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

More from Digital Trends

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20120120/tc_digitaltrends/xboxsaysitwillgoingtofixitscolorandstreamingresolutionissuesbutnotwhen

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Tom Bihn Cadet Laptop Bag Review

In my mind’s eye, I am the protagonist in an adventure serial entitled Indiana Jacobs and the Quest for the Perfect Gear-Hauling Bag. Of course, that I’m from Indiana (“Hoosier by Birth; Boilermaker by the Grace of God,” as the saying goes) aids in spinning this yarn, but so does my very real quest. ?The [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/01/20/tom-bihn-cadet-laptop-bag-review/

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Board Post, January 19 2012 (slacktivist)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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Potential suitors circle American Airlines: sources (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? US Airways Group (LCC.N), Delta Airlines (DAL.N) and private equity firm TPG Capital (TPG.UL) are among several parties interested in potential bids for AMR Corp (AAMRQ.PK), the bankrupt parent of American Airlines, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

These parties have been following AMR's bankruptcy proceedings closely to evaluate prospects for a merger or tie-up with American Airlines, the sources said.

The sources and airline experts, however, cautioned that any deal is unlikely to materialize before AMR is close to completing its court restructuring, which could take a year or longer.

"At this point I wouldn't take it a bit serious. But if AMR does the restructuring correctly, I think it's going to be a very attractive target," said Ray Neidl, aerospace analyst with Maxim Group.

Delta hired Blackstone as its financial adviser to assess a bid for American Airlines, one of the sources said.

REGULATORY HURDLES

Delta has conducted an antitrust analysis on a possible tie-up with AMR and concluded that with some concessions, such a deal has a good chance of gaining approval from regulators, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported Delta's interest in AMR.

Morningstar airline analyst Basili Alukos said a Delta-AMR deal would require huge concessions of gates and routes to make a merger palatable to regulators.

"I can't imagine it would happen without massive concessions because they're such large carriers, given that there have already been so many large-scale mergers in the airline space," Alukos said, referring to the 2008 merger of Delta and Northwest and the 2010 merger of United Airlines and Continental Airlines.

Alukos said it is more likely that AMR will eventually merge with a smaller carrier like US Airways, because that deal would hit fewer regulatory snags.

Neidl agreed, saying: "If I were a gambling person, I'd have to bet on a TPG-US Airways deal over a Delta deal."

Sources have told Reuters that while some assets such as American Airlines' Latin American routes could be attractive to Delta, any takeover attempt for the full company has a remote chance of winning antitrust approval.

AMR A TAKEOVER TARGET

Speculation on a possible airline merger involving AMR has been rampant since the No. 3 U.S. airline filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in November.

Neidl said it is also possible that AMR could be sold in parts, but he said it was too early to know if that is likely.

Representatives for Delta, AMR, Blackstone and TPG all declined to comment.

US Airways has consistently declined to comment on its prospects for an AMR merger. A spokesman again declined to comment on Thursday.

US Airways was formed from a 2005 merger with America West Airlines and its leaders have long advocated consolidation. Many experts believe US Airways will attempt a merger with AMR. [ID:nN1E7B01GB]

The U.S. airline industry, battered for years by overcapacity and volatile fuel costs, has found renewed stability recently because of capacity cuts and mergers.

Proponents of airline consolidation say mergers are an effective remedy for overcapacity. But AMR has long said it can succeed as stand-alone carrier.

In December, AMR Chief Executive Tom Horton warned employees in a letter that "opportunists" could attempt a merger with the airline as it restructures.

"We will have some input in the process from several interested parties, and we need to get used to that," Horton said in the letter.

(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Kyle Peterson, additional reporting by Soyoung Kim and Karen Jacobs; editing by Mark Porter and Matthew Lewis)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120112/bs_nm/us_amr

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