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Football: Balotelli going nowhere this month, says Mancini

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom: Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has once again rejected speculation linking Mario Balotelli with AC Milan and admits he is struggling to add to his squad ahead of next week's transfer deadline.

The Italy striker has made just seven Premier League starts this season after a string of controversial incidents.

Balotelli, 22, attempted to take the club to a Premier League tribunal in December after contesting fines for his poor disciplinary record.

Milan vice president Adriano Galliani has told City they need to lower their asking price for Balotelli, who has also been linked with a loan move to the San Siro.

But Mancini has dismissed the prospects of Milan signing Balotelli before the transfer window closes on Thursday.

He also added that it would be "difficult" for City to sign more players themselves and stated that it is not just Balotelli that he is looking to keep hold of.

Mancini said: "For two years it's always the question. It's not true. Mario's staying here. We haven't had any requests about Mario or any other player.

"Mario has another three years on his contract.

"We don't have enough players, we are 18 players now and we can't sell any players.

"Every day we talk about Mario. There is sometimes speculation about Mario."

Mancini has also played down reports that director of football Txiki Begiristain, who joined the club from Barcelona last year, has stipulated that City will play in a 4-3-3 system and all future signings will be purchased with that shape in mind.

The City manager insists it would be wrong to attempt to copy Barcelona's playing style.

He added: "I don't know but I speak with Txiki every day and he never told me this and we have the same thoughts about football and it's not more important to play 4-3-3, 4-4-2 or 4-5-1, it's important to have good players.

"Everyone wants to play like Barca but Barca is one, like Real Madrid or AC Milan, it's impossible to play like Barca but you can win if you play different styles.

"We are agreeing about everything because we think the same about football. We are the same. We don't have a different view."

French midfielder Samir Nasri is Mancini's only fresh injury concern ahead of their FA Cup fourth round trip to Stoke on Saturday.

The former Arsenal man has been struggling with illness and may miss the game at the Britannia Stadium.

City beat Stoke in the 2011 final to end a 35-year trophy drought in Mancini's first full season in charge.

The Italian then guided the club to the league title last season but has never contemplated what might have happened to him if City had not won the cup two years ago.

He said: "I don't think about this. We wanted to win that final, to start to win and it was an important moment for us. We want to try to do this every year if it's possible.

"We have the FA Cup and Premier League this year and we want to try to win. It's important for us to try to win every year.

"I have good memories. It was a fantastic moment to win a trophy after 35 years. It was important because we worked hard and it was good for the club and the supporters. A really good moment.

"I think that not only for us, every team that goes to the Britannia has a problem because Stoke are strong, physical and every team has a problem with this but in the last two years we've played well, had chances to win and been unlucky."

-AFP/ac

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Web founder: share information, improve the world

Tim Berners-Lee speaking at the 2013 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland

(Credit:
screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

He stopped well short of saying information wants to be free, but Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the World Wide Web, said today the world would be better with some judicious liberation.

Speaking at the 2013 World Economic Forum today in Davos, Switzerland, Berners-Lee called on social-networking sites, academics, musicians, and governments to share more information online.

In earlier days of computing, people had full control over their own information because it was all stored on their own computer in front of them. Now, people store data with online services that deprive them of that control.

"They put their photographs into Flickr. The simplest thing in world, you'd think, would be to share these photos with Facebook friends and LindedIn colleagues. But you can't do that, because these social networks are a silo," Berners-Lee said. "There's a frustration that I've told it all my data, but I as a user don't have access to that."

Berners-Lee also called upon governments to release data -- not data about military sites or perhaps power infrastructure that could make a country vulnerable, but information like pothole locations and hospital health outcome statistics that can improve accountability, provide economic opportunities for companies, help the public, and enable organizations to learn what works or not.

"It's very difficult to measure. That's the difficulty. But you're making a common good that makes the world run more efficiently," he said. "It's a question of unlocking this potential we already have. It's a huge benefit for very little cost."

Berners-Lee also called for reforms that would let academic papers be copied freely and let music be distributed more easily with payments to musicians.

"There was a lot of push-back against the online world by the recording industry because it upset their way of selling these plastic things," he said, referring to compact discs. "We need to find a whole other new business model. We should develop a new payment protocol so when you're using things it becomes easy to pay."

Some of these ideas are recurring themes for Berners-Lee, who developed the first incarnation of the Web as a way for scientists to share information at CERN, the European nuclear physics lab and particle accelerator site on the border of Switzerland and France.

Berners-Lee has regularly voiced concerns about the future of the Web, notably government interference and walled gardens such as Facebook. He's staunchly opposed to "silos" where users no longer have control over their own information.

Remembering Aaron Swartz
And invoking the memory of Aaron Swartz, the programmer and activist who committed suicide earlier this month after facing felony charges for downloading numerous academic papers, Berners-Lee said legislators must realize that accessing that information isn't necessarily a crime.

"There seems to be a deep suspicion of anybody accessing a computer system," he said. There's a place for legislation to deal with the problems of cybersecurity, he said, but "what can happen is the legislation gets too strong." And that led to prosecutors' overreach, Berners-Lee said.

"Aaron was a hacker in the good sense. He used his programming to try to make a point," he said. "They ended up using the law [which states] if you break into a computer system anywhere then you are guilty of a felony. Never mind whether you were taking out too many library books or trying to destroy the infrastructure of a country."

Berners-Lee called Swartz "an incredibly ethical person who thought a huge amount about what was right and how the world should be." One action that brought unwelcome attention from the FBI was downloading public-domain court records from the governmental systems that charge for the service, then republishing those documents for free. The reason he did so: "To point out that the government ought to be doing that."

Swartz was exemplary because he could use his programming skills to change the world. Most computer users merely know how to use a word processor at best, but Berners-Lee called for more and better computer education.

"I'm not talking about a course to tell them what buttons to press. When you're told how to program a computer, you're taking a leap into an area, joining a group of people who do incredible things."

And looking at the very big picture, Berners-Lee said there's plenty more work to be done getting the Internet to change the world.

"World peace has not miraculously occurred. People still mainly talk to the people who have the same religion and same culture," he said. "It hasn't really broken down cultural barriers. Wan we develop systems that will cause that kind of change?"

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Deformed Dolphin Accepted Into New Family

In 2011, behavioral ecologists Alexander Wilson and Jens Krause of the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Germany were surprised to discover that a group of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus)—animals not usually known for forging bonds with other species—had taken in an adult bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).

The researchers observed the group in the ocean surrounding the Azores (map)—about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) off the coast of Lisbon, Portugal—for eight days as the dolphin traveled, foraged, and played with both the adult whales and their calves. When the dolphin rubbed its body against the whales, they would sometimes return the gesture.

Among terrestrial animals, cross-species interactions are not uncommon. These mostly temporary alliances are forged for foraging benefits and protection against predators, said Wilson.

They could also be satisfying a desire for the company of other animals, added marine biologist John Francis, vice president for research, conservation, and exploration at the National Geographic Society (the Society owns National Geographic News).

Photographs of dogs nursing tiger cubs, stories of a signing gorilla adopting a pet cat, and videos of a leopard caring for a baby baboon have long circulated the Web and caught national attention.

A Rare Alliance

And although dolphins are known for being sociable animals, Wilson called the alliance between sperm whale and bottlenose dolphin rare, as it has never, to his knowledge, been witnessed before.

This association may have started with something called bow riding, a common behavior among dolphins during which they ride the pressure waves generated by the bow of a ship or, in this case, whales, suggested Francis.

"Hanging around slower creatures to catch a ride might have been the first advantage [of such behavior]," he said, adding that this may have also started out as simply a playful encounter.

Wilson suggested that the dolphin's peculiar spinal shape made it more likely to initiate an interaction with the large and slow-moving whales. "Perhaps it could not keep up with or was picked on by other members of its dolphin group," he said in an email.

Default

But the "million-dollar question," as Wilson puts it, is why the whales accepted the lone dolphin. Among several theories presented in an upcoming paper in Aquatic Mammals describing the scientists' observations, they propose that the dolphin may have been regarded as nonthreatening and that it was accepted by default because of the way adult sperm whales "babysit" their calves.

Sperm whales alternate their dives between group members, always leaving one adult near the surface to watch the juveniles. "What is likely is that the presence of the calves—which cannot dive very deep or for very long—allowed the dolphin to maintain contact with the group," Wilson said.

Wilson doesn't believe the dolphin approached the sperm whales for help in protecting itself from predators, since there aren't many dolphin predators in the waters surrounding the Azores.

But Francis was not so quick to discount the idea. "I don't buy that there is no predator in the lifelong experience of the whales and dolphins frequenting the Azores," he said.

He suggested that it could be just as possible that the sperm whales accepted the dolphin for added protection against their own predators, like the killer whale (Orcinus orca), while traveling. "They see killer whales off the Azores, and while they may not be around regularly, it does not take a lot of encounters to make [other] whales defensive," he said.

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New Orleans Ready for 1st Super Bowl Since Katrina

The people of New Orleans have hosted nine Super Bowls since 1970, but Super Bowl 2013 may be one of the most meaningful yet.

That, of course, is because it's the first Super Bowl in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina devastated the region in 2005.

When the San Francisco 49ers compete against the Baltimore Ravens on Feb. 3, it may rank with the 2002 game, when New Orleans hosted Super Bowl XXXVI after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

FULL COVERAGE: Super Bowl 2013

"Our home was destroyed by water," said Doug Thornton, 54, senior vice president of SMG, the management company of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. "Like many in New Orleans, we struggled at times, but have been an active part of the city. For many of us who have gone through this, there is a tremendous sense of pride to showcase our city [for those who] who may have not been here since Katrina."

The Superdome's manager since 1997, Thornton was in the Superdome for five days when Hurricane Katrina made landfall. Back then, it was called the Louisiana Superdome. It later became a shelter for thousands of displaced residents who had lost their homes.

"It's a fixture in the city," Thornton said. "You can't drive anywhere without seeing it. You can't think about going to an event unless you're coming here."

Thornton said the connection between the 37-year-old building and the local residents is even stronger since Katrina.

"We commonly refer to it as the living room of New Orleans," Thornton said.

Super Bowl 2013: Young 49ers Fan's Rap Video Watch Video

German-based car company Mercedes-Benz purchased the naming rights to the stadium in 2011, and Thornton said people embraced the new name immediately, "because we kept the word Superdome in the title."

On game day, Thornton said, he won't be able to enjoy the game. He'll show up to the Superdome around 7:30 a.m., make his rounds around the Superdome, and his day will end well after midnight.

"I've come to learn after doing these events for many years [that] there's no enjoyment," Thornton said. "You learn quickly in this business you can no longer be a fan. We're workers. This is a lifestyle, not a job. You're committed to it. It's 24-7."

The same can be said for the 5,000-or-so workers who will be in the Superdome on game day.

"It's no different than a football player getting ready for the game. You have to be ready mentally and physically," he said.

Read More: Volkswagen Uses Viral YouTube Stars in Super Bowl 2013 Pre-Game Teaser

The city has been preparing for this moment since May 2009, when New Orleans was named host of Super Bowl 47.

Jay Cicero, 50, executive director of the Super Bowl host committee and president and CEO of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, said more than $1 billion in recent infrastructure improvements were not done just for the Super Bowl, but the completion dates were moved up "dramatically" because of the big game.

The city also recently completed a $350 million renovation to the Louis Armstrong International Airport.

On Monday, the city will host a ceremony for the expansion of the historic street car line to one block away from the Superdome.

Cicero said about 100,000 people are expected to travel to New Orleans from out of town for events related to the Super Bowl, which are listed on NewOrleansSuperBowl.com.

The city is also hosting other events that sandwich the Super Bowl because of Mardis Gras 2013.

An early estimate from the University of New Orleans predicted the Super Bowl's economic impact to the region would be valued around $434 million.

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Environmental crises may threaten pensions

SAVE the planet, save your pension. A new report claims that environmental problems could bust pension funds by 2050.

Aled Jones of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK, and his colleagues drew together evidence about a wide range of environmental problems, from water shortages to atmospheric pollution to climate change. They plugged these into models used to predict the values of pension funds.

Jones ran several scenarios, varying how quickly governments and industry responded to environmental problems. The results are published by the UK's Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFA). In almost all cases the value of funds began to fall before 2100. In the worst-case scenario, where governments and markets did nothing, values dropped steeply from around 2020 and fell to zero by 2050.

"Despite strong evidence that there is a risk that resource constraints could have significant economic impacts, these risks are not being factored in by many actors in the global economy," says Peter Tompkins of the IFA.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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13 bids for Yishun mixed commercial & residential site tender

SINGAPORE: The tender for a mixed commercial and residential site at Yishun Ring Road/Yishun Avenue 9 has attracted 13 bids.

According to the Housing and Development Board (HDB), the highest bid of S$212.1 million was submitted by CEL Property - subsidiary of Singapore-listed Chip Eng Seng Corporation.

This translates into about S$8,551 per square metre of gross floor area.

The second highest bid was jointly placed by Boo Han Holdings and Far East Orchard at S$193.7 million.

URA said the other bids for the 99-year leasehold site ranged between S$55.5 million to S$182.6 million.

CBRE Research said the level of interest was "within expectations".

It believed that the residential project above the retail space should generate a fair amount of interest, going by the success of other mixed-use sites like The Hillier and Bedok Residences.

The firm pointed out that Northpoint is the only shopping mall in the area at present. Hence, the retail space that is developed in the site should be well-received by residents, office workers and students in the vicinity.

Desmond Sim, Associate Director, CBRE Research said: "This site will be the first private residential project in the proximity of Yishun MRT station and will be a pre-cursor to the next mixed use site at the current Yishun Bus Interchange, that will be put up for sale in June 2013."

CBRE Research estimates that the developer could sell the retail portion on a strata-titled basis at around S$3,000 psf to S$4,000 psf and the residential units at around S$900 psf."

The land parcel spans 8,858.3 square metres, and has a maximum permissible gross floor area of 24,803 square metres.

HDB said a decision on the award of the tender would be made after the bids have been evaluated.

- CNA/xq

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Nokia boosts hope in future as losses turn to profit

Nokia has finally turned a profit.

(Credit:
Nokia)

Nokia might be down, but it's certainly not out.

The company today reported its fourth-quarter earnings, and offered up performance that might make its doomsayers think twice. During the fourth quarter, Nokia was able to generate a profit of 202 million euros ($269 million), a massive gain over the 1 billion euros the company lost during the same period in 2011. Nokia's profit was generated amid slumping revenue that fell from 10 billion euros in the fourth quarter of 2011 to 8 billion last quarter.

On a full-year basis, Nokia could only muster 30.2 billion euros in sales, down 22 percent compared to the 38.7 billion euros it generated in 2011. Its 2012 operating profit was down to a 2.3 billion euro loss, compared to a 1.1 billion euro loss in all of 2011.

Nokia's Devices & Services operation also took some hits, with fourth-quarter revenue dropping from 6 billion in 2011 to 3.9 billion last quarter. That division's sales on an annual basis were down 34 percent.

Nokia's Devices division was boosted by a strong showing for Lumia sales in the fourth quarter, which hit 4.4 million units worldwide. However, the company's Smart Devices division could only muster 6.6 million unit sales, helping the company realize a 66 percent year-over-year decline.

More to come...

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Deformed Dolphin Accepted Into New Family

In 2011, behavioral ecologists Alexander Wilson and Jens Krause of the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Germany were surprised to discover that a group of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus)—animals not usually known for forging bonds with other species—had taken in an adult bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).

The researchers observed the group in the ocean surrounding the Azores (map)—about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) off the coast of Lisbon, Portugal—for eight days as the dolphin traveled, foraged, and played with both the adult whales and their calves. When the dolphin rubbed its body against the whales, they would sometimes return the gesture.

Among terrestrial animals, cross-species interactions are not uncommon. These mostly temporary alliances are forged for foraging benefits and protection against predators, said Wilson.

They could also be satisfying a desire for the company of other animals, added marine biologist John Francis, vice president for research, conservation, and exploration at the National Geographic Society (the Society owns National Geographic news).

Photographs of dogs nursing tiger cubs, stories of a signing gorilla adopting a pet cat, and videos of a leopard caring for a baby baboon have long circulated the web and caught national attention.

A Rare Alliance

And although dolphins are known for being sociable animals, Wilson called the alliance between sperm whale and bottlenose dolphin rare, as it has never, to his knowledge, been witnessed before.

This association may have started with something called bow riding, a common behavior among dolphins during which they ride the pressure waves generated by the bow of a ship or, in this case, whales, suggested Francis.

"Hanging around slower creatures to catch a ride might have been the first advantage [of such behavior]," he said, adding that this may have also started out as simply a playful encounter.

Wilson suggested that the dolphin's peculiar spinal shape made it more likely to initiate an interaction with the large and slow-moving whales. "Perhaps it could not keep up with or was picked on by other members of its dolphin group," he said in an email.

Default

But the "million-dollar question," as Wilson puts it, is why the whales accepted the lone dolphin. Among several theories presented in an upcoming paper in Aquatic Mammals describing the scientists' observations, they propose that the dolphin may have been regarded as nonthreatening and that it was accepted by default because of the way adult sperm whales "babysit" their calves.

Sperm whales alternate their dives between group members, always leaving one adult near the surface to watch the juveniles. "What is likely is that the presence of the calves—which cannot dive very deep or for very long—allowed the dolphin to maintain contact with the group," Wilson said.

Wilson doesn't believe the dolphin approached the sperm whales for help in protecting itself from predators, since there aren't many dolphin predators in the waters surrounding the Azores.

But Francis was not so quick to discount the idea. "I don't buy that there is no predator in the lifelong experience of the whales and dolphins frequenting the Azores," he said.

He suggested that it could be just as possible that the sperm whales accepted the dolphin for added protection against their own predators, like the killer whale (Orcinus orca), while traveling. "They see killer whales off the Azores, and while they may not be around regularly, it does not take a lot of encounters to make [other] whales defensive," he said.

Read More..

Majority Favors Obama's Gun Control Plan

Jan 24, 2013 7:00am

Charles Dharapak/AP Photo

Most Americans respond positively to the stricter gun control measures Barack Obama proposed last week in the wake of the tragic shootings in Newtown, Conn. – but by less of a margin than such measures receive outside the context of partisan politics.

Fifty-three percent in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll view Obama’s gun control plan favorably, 41 percent unfavorably. Strong proponents outnumber strong opponents by 38 vs. 31 percent in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates.

See PDF with full results here.

Obama urged measures including background checks on all guns sales, reinstating the assault weapons ban, banning high-capacity ammunition magazines and armor-piercing bullets, new gun trafficking laws and increased access to mental health treatment.

Support for the package is lower than it was for some of the same steps tested individually in an ABC/Post poll earlier this month. Majorities from 88 to 65 percent favored background checks at gun shows and on ammunition purchases, creating a federal database to track gun sales and banning high-capacity magazines. That included, in each case, majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents alike.

In this poll, asking about “Barack Obama’s proposals for stricter gun control,” partisan allegiances kick in. The president’s proposals are seen favorably by 76 percent of Democrats but unfavorably by 72 percent of Republicans; most on each side feel strongly about their respective positions. Independents split 51-44 percent, favorable-unfavorable.

What remains to be seen is whether the president can overcome those partisan predispositions in his efforts to encourage Congress to pass the legislation he seeks.

Among other groups, Obama’s proposals are viewed positively by 56 percent of women vs. 49 percent of men; 58 percent of seniors vs. 47 percent of young adults; 66 percent in the Northeast vs. 50 percent in the rest of the country; 72 percent of nonwhites vs. 43 percent of whites; and 73 percent of liberals vs. 36 percent of conservatives.

The survey was done by landline and cellular telephone Jan. 16-20 among a random national sample of 1,033 adults, and the results have a 3.5 point-error margin.

SHOWS: This Week

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