mongit: জানুয়ারী 2012

মঙ্গলবার, ৩১ জানুয়ারী, ২০১২

Matthew Broderick Super Bowl Ad For Honda CR-V Pays Homage to Ferris Bueller

A new Super Bowl ad (first announced last week with this viral tease) for the Honda CR-V features Matthew Broderick in his iconic role as Ferris Bueller himself.

The just-released full-length version, featuring Broderick as a middle-aged Ferris and playing hooky from work instead of school, is certainly a fun homage.

Directed by Todd Philips (The Hangover), the CR-V ad campaign encourages people to do things they've always wanted to do ... as Ferris famously advocated.

Keep an eye out for various Ferris Bueller's Day Off tie-ins below:

Matthew Broderick's Day Off - Super Bowl Ad

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/matthew-broderick-super-bowl-ad-for-honda-cr-v-pays-homage-to-fe/

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Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx review

Most of today's smartphones, especially those of the LTE-enabled persuasion, have earned a bad rap for exceptionally bad battery life, with large displays and hungry radios that suck the juice out faster than a three year-old can down a CapriSun. The race to construct the thinnest phones on the market doesn't help much either, since whittling down handsets results in less space for generously sized battery packs. The Motorola Droid RAZR is currently the slimmest phone this side of the Pacific, offering a thickness of 7.1mm at its thinnest end, and the title likely won't hold for long as new phones like the Huawei Ascend P1 S aim to knock the RAZR off its throne. But at what point do we stand up and insist on adding a little extra heft for the sake of having a bigger battery?

Droid RAZR review

Droid RAZR Maxx available now

Droid RAZR Maxx hands-on at CES

Enter the Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx. A mere two months after its predecessor was released on Verizon, this new contender came around to challenge the battery life of every single next-gen phone we've ever used. Its back end has been filled out somewhat to make room for a bigger battery, but at 8.99mm, it's still slimmer than a huge number of competing handsets on the market today. So what makes the Maxx different from the RAZR? Is it worth paying $300 with a two-year commitment -- a $100 premium over its original? Read on to find out.

Gallery: Motorola Droid Razr Maxx overview

Continue reading Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx review

Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/31/motorola-droid-razr-maxx-review/

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Pacific Mackerel Stocks That Feed Farmed Salmon In Decline

Enlarge NOAA

A Chilean purse seiner catches jack mackerel.

NOAA

A Chilean purse seiner catches jack mackerel.

Farmed salmon, that ubiquitous pink fish decorated with ribbons of fat, can thank the forage fish of the southern Pacific ocean ? like anchovy and jack mackerel ? for their calorie-rich diet. Indeed, more than 5 pounds of jack mackerel typically can go towards raising one pound of farmed salmon.

But that food supply ? and the ocean ecosystem that supports it ? may be in peril, according to a new report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. According to scientists the ICIJ spoke to, "supertrawler" fishing vessels from Asia, Europe and Latin America have contributed to a 63 percent decline in jack mackerel stocks since 2006. At the current rate of overfishing, the world's stock of jack mackerel, which is largely located off the coast of Chile, could collapse soon.

"This is the last of the buffaloes," Daniel Pauly, an oceanographer at the University of British Columbia, told ICIJ. "When they're gone, everything will be gone ... This is the closing of the frontier."

Concerns about the environmental impacts of feeding and raising farmed salmon are one reason Target has eliminated the product from its stores. Instead, the big-box chain sells wild-caught salmon in all its stores nationwide.

ICIJ says that the Southern Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization, the organization responsible for managing jack mackerel stocks, has been unable to stop overfishing. Only six countries have ratified an agreement it formulated to protect the fish. The group is holding its annual meeting in Santiago, Chile, this week.

Two Chilean fishing companies are some of the most powerful players in the jack mackerel trade ? they control 29.3 percent of the jack mackerel quota set by the Chilean government, ICIF says. And they supply 5.5 percent of the world's fishmeal.

As NPR's Kristofer Husted has reported, some scientists are exploring ways to make new fish feed using renewable sources, such as biofuel co-products, poultry by-products, soybeans and so on.

The investigation is the third in ICFJ's series "Looting the Seas," which has also looked at the black market in bluefin tuna, and how fishing subsidies in Spain have built up a bloated fleet that is partly responsible for the depletion of Europe's fish stocks.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/01/30/146083919/pacific-mackerel-stocks-that-feed-farmed-salmon-in-decline?ft=1&f=1007

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The Ecommerce Revolution Is All About You

Personal recommendations have always been a part of ecommerce, but there has been little innovation since Amazon introduced retail and product personalization 10 years ago. But with the increasing mountains of data at digital retailers' fingertips, ecommerce is about to get even more personal. The fact is that right now there is little iteration from personalized ecommerce beyond what is taking place on Amazon. So you'll see suggestions of what other shoppers who bought a certain item also purchased, or recommendations to similar items to what you have purchased, but there is a whole world of social data, and even more-in-depth purchase data that can be mined by retailers to help increase sales.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/EV7tPNRxCOY/

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সোমবার, ৩০ জানুয়ারী, ২০১২

NJ woman accused of streaming kid sex abuse cries (AP)

TRENTON, N.J. ? A New Jersey waitress cried in court Monday as she heard a prosecutor accuse her of "extreme sexual assault" on a 5-year-old girl she was baby-sitting and of streaming video of the abuse online.

Authorities say Jennifer Mahoney, 32, of Manalapan, laughed while she sexually assaulted the child, and again as she streamed the video to at least two other people. They say she confessed twice to different sets of investigators.

Mahoney has been charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a child. At a federal court hearing in Trenton, she had requested to wear a global positioning device, stay away from the victim and post her parents' home as collateral for bail. The judge denied bail on the federal charges; Mahoney is being held on $500,000 bail on state charges stemming from the same assault.

"Law enforcement has recovered a video capture of extreme sexual assault," Assistant U.S. Attorney John Clabby said. "There is danger to the public, and the risk of flight."

During the hearing in U.S. District Court, Mahoney wiped away tears, buried her face in her hands and cried softly as her attorney, Herbert Ellis, rubbed her back. Later, she rocked quickly back and forth in her chair, not speaking except to reply, "Yes, your honor," when asked whether she understood her rights.

Ellis, her lawyer, said he needs to speak to Mahoney in detail before deciding how to proceed. He said he wants to see her videotaped confession to authorities to determine how it was given and under what circumstances.

Mahoney has been in custody since Dec. 14, the day after three pornographic videos showing assaults on the girl were found on the computer of a 32-year-old Texas man to whom she had streamed them, prosecutors said.

That man, Robert Ramos Jr. of Austin, was charged with possession of child pornography and sexual exploitation of minors. Prosecutors in Texas say he set up seven fake Facebook accounts to solicit teenage girls to send him nude photos and videos of themselves engaged in sexual acts.

When the FBI questioned her, she acknowledged performing a sex act on the child while she was baby-sitting her, court documents say.

She also told investigators she streamed live video of one of the sexual assaults to two men using a chat service and acknowledged filming another assault with her cellphone and sending video of it to two other people, court documents say. No other mention of a second recipient is included in court documents.

Later on the day of her arrest, she gave a separate videotaped confession to New Jersey authorities, Clabby said.

Two of the videos appeared to have been made in Mahoney's bedroom, the third in the bathtub of her home, the affidavit says.

The affidavit describes the sexual assaults in graphic terms. On one, the FBI agent notes, there is no audio. But, the agent notes, "it appears that the adult female is talking and laughing during the video, and it appears that the adult female is talking to another person over the Internet via a webcam."

Ramos remains in custody in Texas. Court documents include a transcript of a handwritten statement Ramos gave to the FBI in which he acknowledges soliciting underage girls to send him nude photos but insists he never had sexual contact with a minor.

"What I have done was stupid and not worth anything," he wrote. "I am very sorry and have made some terrible mistakes."

His lawyer did not immediately return a message seeking comment Monday.

___

Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_hi_te/us_child_molestation_streaming_video

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Missing ME toddler's blood found in father's home

FILE - This undated file photo obtained from a Facebook page shows missing toddler Alya Reynolds. Investigators say they've found blood inside the Maine home where a toddler was reported missing six weeks ago. State police spokesman Steve McCausland said the blood was found in the basement early in the investigation into Ayla Reynolds' disappearance from her father's home in Waterville. The father, Justin DiPietro, said Ayla was missing from her bed when he checked on her the morning of Dec. 17. (AP Photo/obtained from Facebook, File)

The parents of missing toddler Ayla Reynolds, Trista Reynolds, left, and Justin DePietro, right, speak on the steps of Waterville City Hall during a vigil for their missing daughter in Castonguay Square in Waterville, Maine on Saturday January 28, 2012. (AP Photo/The Kennebec Journal, Michael G. Seamans)

WATERVILLE, Maine (AP) ? Some of the blood found in a Maine home where a missing toddler was last seen six weeks ago belonged to the little girl, an official said Sunday.

State Police spokesman Steve McCausland would not say how much of Ayla Reynolds' blood was found in her father's home in Waterville, where exactly it was found or how long it might have been there.

But investigators told Ayla's mother's family that the amount of blood was "more blood than a small cut would produce," according to a family-run website.

"Even in light of this evidence we are more determined than ever to find out what has happened to Ayla and we still cling to the hope that she is alive and will be returned to us," the website said. "We urge anyone that has information about Ayla to come forward now and unburden yourself of the truth."

Ayla's father, Justin DiPietro, reported her missing Dec. 17. He had put her to bed the night before and said she wasn't there the next morning. DiPietro told police she was wearing green pajamas with polka dots and the words "Daddy's Princess" on them and had a soft cast on her broken left arm.

DiPietro could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday; his cellphone voicemail was full and unable to accept messages.

Ayla was 20 months old when she disappeared. She had been staying with her father at the time in the house where DiPietro lives with his mother. Her mother, Trista Reynolds, lives in Portland.

The blood was among hundreds of pieces of potential evidence that were removed from the Waterville home as part of a criminal investigation into the girl's disappearance.

Trista Reynolds' father said the family was told late Saturday by McCausland that blood found in the home was determined to be Ayla's.

"It was a surprise," Ronald Reynolds said.

He said police did not give any indication what the discovery means.

Ronald Reynolds said he is convinced the family in DiPietro's house has more information than they have shared.

"Every day, it gets hotter and hotter," he said. "I hope they pull them back in, set them down and give them the opportunity to say something."

DiPietro, his mother and a third adult were home the night of Dec. 16, and police have questioned all three, McCausland said Saturday.

"We believe they have not given us the full story," he said.

DiPietro has said he took a polygraph test, but has declined to say what the results were.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-29-Missing%20Toddler/id-81420c0745bb41308923e32d09c4d05b

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Arsenal advances in FA Cup

updated 8:27 p.m. ET Jan. 29, 2012

LONDON - Arsenal kept its bid to end a seven-year trophy drought on track Sunday, scoring three times in eight second-half minutes to beat Aston Villa 3-2 and reach the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Villa led 2-0 at halftime on goals by Richard Dunne and Darren Bent, prompting near silence from Arsenal fans still waiting for a trophy to follow the 2005 FA Cup.

The home side got back in the game with Robin van Persie's 54th-minute penalty, tied it on Theo Walcott's lucky rebound and took the lead in the 61st on a second spot kick from Van Persie.

Middlesbrough and Sunderland will replay on Feb. 7 for the right to face Arsenal after drawing their fourth-round match 1-1.

Having avoided a fourth straight defeat, the Gunners are now just three games away from a Wembley final.

"We tried to keep focused and calm," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. "It is an opportunity but you could see today how hard the games are."

Arsenal great Thierry Henry missed a late chance after coming on in the 89th for the third appearance of his loan from the New York Red Bulls of MLS, but home fans could still cheer the result.

Robbie Keane, on-loan from the Los Angeles Galaxy, provided the cross that led to Dunne's 33rd-minute opener.

Second-tier Middlesbrough led against its local rival when Barry Robson capitalized on some weak defending to smash a 16th-minute volley across goalkeeper Simon Mignolet and in at the far post.

Sunderland manager Martin O'Neill introduced striker Fraizer Campbell at halftime for his first appearance since August 2010, and the former Manchester United trainee stroked in a low shot 14 minutes later following a mistake by Robson.

Campbell had not played for the first team for 500 days because of knee injuries.

Crawley Town, the lowest-ranked side left in this season's FA Cup, was handed a meeting with Premier League club Stoke in Sunday's fifth-round draw.

Liverpool will meet Brighton, Chelsea will host Birmingham, Norwich will host Leicester, Everton will play Blackpool or Sheffield Wednesday, and Bolton will go to the winner of the replay between Millwall and Southampton. Tottenham is at Stevenage.

___

LISBON, Portugal (AP) ? American defender Oguchi Onyewu scored on headers in the 18th and 27th minutes, giving Sporting Lisbon a 2-0 win over Beira Mar in the Portuguese league.

Onyewu received a yellow card in the first minute, then got goals off a corner kick and a free kick from the right flank, both from around the top of the 6-yard box.

He has five goals this season, including four in the league.

___

ROME (AP) ? Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored one goal and set up another as AC Milan beat Cagliari 3-0 to move back within one point of first-place Juventus in the Italian league.

Ibrahimovic scored his league-leading 15th goal with a free kick in the 32nd minute, then controlled a ball with his chest to set up Antonio Nocerino's goal in the 39th. Milan captain Massimo Ambrosini scored with his first goal of the season in the 75th.

Inter Milan's league winning streak ended at seven, one short of the club record, with a 1-0 loss at Lecce. Guillermo Giacomazzi scored off a pass from Massimo Oddo in the 40th minute, Inter had two goals called back for offside. Lazio jumped ahead of the Nerazzurri into fourth place.

It was Lecce's first home win of the season and only its fourth overall.

Lazio won 3-0 at Chievo Verona with a first-half goal from Hernanes and two in the final minutes from Miroslav Klose.

Elsewhere, Roma drew 1-1 at home with Bologna to stay sixth. Roma's 21-year-old midfielder Miralem Pjanic equalized with a free kick in the 62nd minute after Bologna captain Marco Di Vaio had scored six minutes earlier.

Also, Genoa beat Napoli 3-2 with two goals from Rodrigo Palacio and one from newly signed Alberto Gilardino to get some revenge for a 6-1 loss to Napoli last month that cost Alberto Malesani his job.

___

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? David Zurutuza lasted only five minutes, but it was long enough to score a double in Real Sociedad's 5-1 rout of visiting Sporting Gijon in the Spanish league.

The 25-year-old midfielder volleyed Antoine Griezmann's cross into the left corner for Sociedad's second-minute opener, and a minute later he scored with another shot from the right side of the area after Carlos Vela had played him clear.

But Zurutuza's dream start took an ugly turn in the fifth minute when he and Sporting defender Gregory Arnolin collided face-to-face while disputing a loose ball.

Granada coach Abel Resino got off to a winning start as his team moved out of the relegation zone with a 2-1 win at Real Betis, while Getafe dealt Levante its second home loss of the season with a 2-1 win.

Malaga beat Sevilla 2-1 in an Andalusian derby 2-1 to break a six-game winless run, while third-place Valencia was held to a 2-2 draw at Racing Santander. Atletico Madrid visits Osasuna on Monday.

On Saturday, Real Madrid opened a seven-point lead with a 3-1 win over last-place Zaragoza as Barcelona tied 0-0 at Villarreal.

___

BERLIN (AP) ? Marco Reus led Borussia Moenchengladbach to a 3-0 win at Stuttgart on Sunday to keep his team within a point of the Bundesliga's top three.

Reus sent in a dangerous free kick for Mike Hanke to score with a glancing header in the 31st minute, and then scored himself in the 81st. Igor de Camargo added another three minutes later.

Moenchengladbach remains a point behind league leader Bayern Munich, defending champion Borussia Dortmund and Schalke, who all have 40 points.

Moenchengladbach's first win over Stuttgart since 2005 sent the home team to its fourth league loss in a row.

Earlier Sunday, Mainz scored three goals in the first 17 minutes to beat Freiburg 3-1.

___

PARIS (AP) ? Marseille won its seventh straight game, defeating Rennes 2-1 in the French league as Benoit Cheyrou scored the go-ahead goal from the edge of the penalty area in the 77th minute.

Rennes midfielder Tongo Hamed Doumbia opened the scoring with a 30-yard shot in the 15th, but fifth-place Marseille equalized with an own goal from defender Onyekachi Apam just before halftime.

Ajaccio moved out of the French league's relegation zone by defeating Valenciennes 2-1, its fourth straight victory.

The visitors were down to 10 men in the 73rd when midfielder Paul Lasne was sent off for a second yellow card, but substitute Christian Kinkela scored the winner in stoppage time by curling a shot into the top corner.

Also Sunday, Bordeaux goalkeeper Cedric Carrasso fouled Yannick Sagbo but saved the subsequent penalty to salvage a 0-0 draw against Evian.

___

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) ? Celtic reached the final of Scotland's League Cup for the 29th time with a 3-1 win over Falkirk.

The teams were tied 1-1 until the 56th minute after 17-year-old Falkirk midfielder Jay Fulton equalized Celtic captain Scott Brown's penalty.

Striker Anthony Stokes put Celtic back in front with a 25-yard free kick and tapped Gary Hooper's pass in the 86th to settle the match.

Celtic will meet Kilmarnock in the final at Hampden Park on March 18. Celtic's 14 tournament wins is second only to Rangers' 27.

___

AMSTERDAM (AP) ? Luuk de Jong scored three goals as FC Twente beat FC Groningen 4-1 and moved into second place in the Dutch league.

De Jong headed Twente into the lead in the 14th, converted another cross from Ola John in the 23rd and completed his hat trick in the 58th with another header ? again set up by John.

De Jong then provided the cross headed in by midfielder Leroy Fer in the 66th.

Twente has 39 points, two behind new leader PSV Eindhoven, which beat Vitesse Arnhem 3-1 Friday. AZ Alkmaar lost 2-0 at Roda JC to drop to third.

John Guidetti also got a hat trick to guide Feyenoord to a 4-2 win over Ajax.

More news

Arsenal advances in FA Cup

??Roundup: Arsenal kept its bid to end a seven-year trophy drought on track Sunday, scoring three times in eight second-half minutes to beat Aston Villa 3-2 and reach the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Bragging rights

Abby Wambach and Christine Sinclair have spent the last two weeks chasing each other, chasing history and chasing a place in the London Olympics.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46182135/ns/sports-soccer/

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Thousands take polar bear plunge in Chesapeake Bay

Plungers run into the Chesapeake Bay during the 16th annual Polar Bear Plunge to raise funds for the Special Olympics Maryland Sat. Jan 28, 2012 in Annapolis, Md.(AP Photo/Gail Burton)

David Zihmer runs out of the Chesapeake Bay during the 16th annual Polar Bear Plunge to raise funds for the Special Olympics Maryland Sat. Jan 28, 2012 in Annapolis, Md.(AP Photo/Gail Burton)

Laura Hanna runs out of the Chesapeake Bay during the 16th annual Polar Bear Plunge to raise funds for the Special Olympics Maryland Sat. Jan 28, 2012 in Annapolis, Md.(AP Photo/Gail Burton)

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) ? Thousands of people clad in bathing trunks, bikinis and even some woolly winter hats have taken the Polar Bear Plunge into the Chesapeake Bay for charity.

The surging mass of bathers whooped and hollered as they dashed into the chill winter waters, monitored by safety divers in wetsuits just offshore at Sandy Point State Park in Maryland.

Some participants spent mere seconds in the water, leaving behind sandals and floppy beach hats in the rush to get out just as fast as they got in. Some wore costumes, one like "Star Wars" character Darth Vader.

Saturday's was the 16th annual Polar Bear Plunge at the park, benefiting Special Olympics Maryland. Last year's plunge raised nearly $3 million, but there was no immediate word on the amount raised this year.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-29-Polar%20Bear%20Plunge/id-7a9ef9aacf234e319c9b219118449336

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রবিবার, ২৯ জানুয়ারী, ২০১২

Gingrich says he's in 'til GOP convention (AP)

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. ? On the weekend before the pivotal Florida primary, Newt Gingrich vowed Saturday to stay in the race for the Republican presidential nomination until the national convention this summer even if he loses Tuesday's vote. Front-runner Mitt Romney poured on the criticism of his rival in television ads airing across the state.

Gingrich's pledge, followed several hours later by an endorsement from campaign dropout Herman Cain, raised the prospect of an extended struggle inside the party as Republicans work to defeat President Barack Obama in the fall. "You just had two national polls that show me ahead," he said. "Why don't you ask Gov. Romney what he will do if he loses" in Florida.

The former Massachusetts governor countered a few hours later while in Panama City. "I think we are going to win here, I sure hope so," he said.

As the two rivals made their appeals to Hispanic, Jewish and tea party voters, veterans of the armed forces and others, all known indicators pointed to a good day for Romney in the primary.

He and his allies held a 3-1 advantage in money spent on television advertising in the race's final days. Robust early vote and absentee ballot totals followed a pre-primary turnout operation by his campaign. Even the schedules the two men kept underscored the shape of the race ? moderate for Romney, heavy for Gingrich.

Campaigning like a front-runner, Romney made few references to Gingrich. Instead, he criticized Obama's plans to cut the size of the armed forces. "He's detached from reality," the former Massachusetts governor said.

"The foreign policy of `pretty please' is not working terribly well," he added. Romney said he wants to add 100,000 troops, not cut them.

If his personal rhetoric was directed Obama's way, the television commercials were trained on Gingrich, whose victory in last Saturday's South Carolina primary upended the race for the nomination. A new ad released as the weekend began is devoted to the day in 1997 when Gingrich received an ethics reprimand from the House while serving as speaker and was ordered to pay a $300,000 fine.

Nearly the entire 30-second ad consists of NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw's nationally broadcast description of the events on the evening news. "By an overwhelming vote, they found him guilty of ethics violations; they charged him a very large financial penalty, and they raised ? several of them ? raised serious questions about his future effectiveness," Brokaw said that night, and now again on televisions across Florida.

Both NBC and the former newsman registered objections. The network called on the campaign to stop using the footage and Brokaw said in a statement, "I do not want my role as a journalist compromised for political gain by any campaign."

A Romney adviser, Eric Fehrnstrom, said the campaign wasn't likely to stop running the ad. "We believe it falls within fair use," he said. "We didn't take the entire broadcast; we just took the first 30 seconds."

Whatever its impact, the ad represented part of a barrage that Gingrich could not match.

A second Romney ad said Gingrich had "cashed in" as a Washington insider while the housing crisis was hitting Florida particularly hard.

Figures made available to The Associated Press showed Romney was spending $2.8 million to air television commercials in the final week of the Florida campaign. In addition, a group supporting him, Restore Our Future, was spending $4 million more, for a combined total of $6.8 million.

By contrast, Gingrich was spending about $700,000, and Winning Our Future, a group backing him, an additional $1.5 million. That was about one-third the amount for the pro-Romney tandem.

Officials said the total of absentee and early vote cast approached 500,000, about 200,000 of them before Gingrich won in South Carolina last weekend.

Cain's endorsement came at a GOP dinner in West Palm Beach. The business executive led briefly in the polls last fall, then cratered and dropped out of the race after he was accused of sexual harassment and marital infidelity.

In supporting the former speaker, he followed an example set by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who bestowed his endorsement a few days before the South Carolina primary.

Gingrich seemed in good humor during the day, despite the obstacles in his way. He joked with reporters that they had missed an example of his grandiosity ? a charge that one rival, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, had used in a recent debate ? when they didn't see him hold a golf trophy on display at the PGA Library.

Gingrich also turned aside one opportunity to criticize Romney, answering a question by saying, `I want to talk about defeating Obama."

But his tone seemed to change after he said he wasn't happy with his performances in a pair of debates during the week, and was asked to explain.

"You cannot debate somebody who is dishonest. You just can't," he said, referring to Romney.

Referring to one answer the former Massachusetts governor had given, Gingrich said it was not true that Romney had always voted for a Republican when one was on the ballot.

"That in fact he could have voted for George H.W. Bush or Pat Buchanan the same day and he chose the Democratic primary, he voted Paul Tsongas, the most liberal candidate. The same year he gave money to three Democrats for Congress," he added, referring to the 1992 campaign.

"Now there's no practical way in a civil debate to deal with somebody who is that willing to say something that is just totally dishonest."

Romney poked fun at Gingrich's debate performances.

"This last one Speaker Gingrich said he didn't do so well because the audience was so loud. The one before he said he didn't do so well because the audience was too quiet. This is like Goldilocks, you know, you've got to have it just right.

"When I debate the president, I'm not going to worry about the audience, I'm going to make sure that we take down Barack Obama and take back the White House."

The two other contenders, Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, have conceded Florida and did not campaign in the state during the day.

___

Associated Press reporter Steve Peoples in Panama City contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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Lunar Base Foe Romney Endorsed By Lunar Base Supporters

Obama may have had no sex scandals, but neither did Bush if that's your criteria. As far as non-sex scandals go, there's Fast and Furious for a start. There's all the "green" energy companies defaulting on their federally guaranteed loans. I'm sure it's entirely coincidental that they're owned by Obama campaign bundlers [opensecrets.org] and supporters.

As far as Romney goes your complaints are:

1) He has too many children? Oh yes, how terrible that he has five children all of whom have bachelors degrees and four of which have post-graduate degrees. What a rotten place the world would be if everyone supported their children and instilled in them the necessary work ethic to finish college and graduate school and become doctors and entrepreneurs.

2) He doesn't pay an high enough percentage in taxes? He pays about 15%, which is higher than 80% [cnn.com] of the tax payers in the country. In 2009 (the last year that the IRS has stats up for) there were 58,603,938 tax returns filed without any taxable income. I'll take the guy paying 15% over the 58 million who are paying between -6% (yes, there are people with a negative effective tax rate, i.e. they receive a larger refund than they had withheld during the year) and 0%.

3) The average effective income tax rate for households earning over $200,000 is only 9.9%. Add in FICA and that tax rate will still just be topping 13%. If you pay higher than 15%, then either I congratulate you on your exceptionally high earning or seriously recommend that you find a financial adviser.

4) Charitable giving is opaque? Huh? If you want to know where your money is going, then charitable giving is your best bet as you have total control of who you give to and you can select recipients that have just as much transparency as you desire.

5) Only about 60% of Romney's declared charitable giving went to the LDS church. The other 40% went elsewhere. Regardless I find it amazing that you can complain about the LDS church. Sure they may be wealthy on a per capita basis, but why? It's not because they're penny pinchers as they do copious amounts of charitable works and disaster relief. Remember these are a group of people who walked out of the United States because multiple attempts to settle down and do their own thing ended up in their homes being burned, their leaders being murdered and their land and chattels stolen. They crossed half the continent and settled in the middle of the desert next to a lake full of water they couldn't drink. And still they are thriving. Why? Because they believe in family, hard work, education and self-reliance. And you don't want people to look up to that?

That's quite some villain.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/lX7CLld_w9o/lunar-base-foe-romney-endorsed-by-lunar-base-supporters

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[OOC] A Candle in the Darkness

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Nelson Leads All Challengers in Florida (Taegan Goddard's Political Wire)

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Romney is the aggressor in final Florida debate (AP)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. ? An aggressive Mitt Romney repeatedly challenged Republican rival Newt Gingrich Thursday night in the final debate before next week's critical Florida primary, demanding an apology for an ad saying he harbors anti-immigrant sentiments and ridiculing the former House speaker's call to colonize the moon.

"If I had a business executive come to me and say I want to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I'd say, `You're fired,'" Romney declared. That was just one particularly animated clash between two rivals struggling for supremacy in the race to pick an opponent to President Barack Obama in the fall.

Gingrich responded heatedly. "You don't just have to be cheap everywhere. You can actually have priorities to get things done." He said that as speaker of the House he had helped balance the budget while doubling spending on the National Institutes of Health.

The debate was the 19th since the race for the Republican nomination began last year, and the second in four days in the run-up to Tuesday's Florida primary. Opinion polls make the race a close one ? slight advantage Romney ? with two other contenders, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Texas Rep. Ron Paul far behind.

Gingrich's upset victory in the South Carolina primary last week upended the race for the nomination, and Romney in particular can ill-afford a defeat on Tuesday.

While the clashes between Gingrich and Romney dominated the debate, Santorum drew applause from the audience when he called on the two front-runners to stop attacking one another and "focus on the issues."

"Can we set aside that Newt was a member of Congress ... and that Mitt Romney is a wealthy guy?" he said in a tone of exasperation.

There were some moments of levity, including when Paul, 76, was asked whether he would be willing to release his medical records. He said he was, then challenged the other three men on the debate stage to a 25-mile bike race.

He got no takers.

In the days since Romney's loss in South Carolina, he has tried to seize the initiative, playing the aggressor in the Tampa debate and assailing Gingrich in campaign speeches and a TV commercial.

An outside group formed to support Romney has spent more than his own campaign's millions on ads, some of them designed to stop Gingrich's campaign momentum before it is too late to deny him the nomination.

With polls suggesting his South Carolina surge is stalling, Gingrich unleashed a particularly strong attack earlier in the day, much as he lashed out in Iowa when he rose in the polls, only to be knocked back by an onslaught of ads he was unable to counter effectively.

Thursday night's first clash occurred moments after the debate opened, when Gingrich responded to a question by saying Romney was the most anti-immigrant of all four contenders on stage. "That's simply inexcusable," the former Massachusetts governor responded.

"Mr. Speaker, I'm not anti-immigrant. My father was born in Mexico. My wife's father was born in Wales. ... The idea that I'm anti-immigrant is repulsive. Don't use a term like that," he added.

At the same time, Romney noted that Gingrich's campaign had been pressured to stop running a radio ad that called Romney anti-immigrant after Florida Sen. Marco Rubio called on Gingrich to do so.

He called on Gingrich to apologize for the commercial, but got no commitment.

About an hour later, Romney pounced when the topic turned to Gingrich's proposal for a permanent American colony on the moon ? an issue of particular interest to engineers and others who live on Florida's famed Space Coast.

The audience erupted in cheers when Romney said he'd fire an executive who came to him with such a costly plan, but he wasn't finished.

He said the former speaker had called for construction of a new Interstate highway in South Carolina, a new VA hospital in northern New Hampshire and widening the port of Jacksonville to accommodate the larger ships that will soon be able to transit the Panama Canal.

"This idea of going state to state and promising people what they want to hear, promising hundreds of billions of dollars to make people happy, that's what got us into trouble in the first place," Romney said.

Gingrich responded that part of campaigning is becoming familiar with local issues, adding, "The port of Jacksonville is going to have to be expanded. I think that's an important thing for a president to know." He went on to refer to completion of an Everglades project that he did not describe, then noted he had worked to expand NIH while he was speaker.

Gingrich raised questions about Romney's wealth and his investments. "I don't know of any American president who's had a Swiss bank account," Gingrich said. Romney replied that his investments were in a blind trust over which he had no control. "There's nothing wrong with that," declared Romney, who has estimated his wealth at as much as $250 million.

Earlier Thursday, it was disclosed that Romney and his wife, Ann Romney, failed to list an unknown amount of investment income from a variety of sources including a Swiss bank account on financial disclosure forms filed last year. His campaign said it was working to correct the omissions.

Gingrich also failed to report income from his 2010 tax return on his financial disclosure. The former Georgia congressman will amend his disclosure to show $252,500 in salary from one of his businesses, spokesman R.C. Hammond said.

Debating in a state with a large and influential Jewish population, Romney and Gingrich vied to stress their support for Israel rather than criticize one another.

And all four men were quick to name prominent officials of Hispanic descent who deserved consideration for the Cabinet. Gingrich trumped the other three, saying, "I've actually thought of Marco Rubio in a slightly more dignified and central role," an evident reference to the vice presidential spot on the ticket.

Immigration was a recurring theme.

Gingrich said Romney was misleading when he ran an ad accusing the former House speaker of once referring to Spanish as "the language of the ghetto." Gingrich claimed he was referring to a multitude of languages, not just Spanish.

Romney initially said, "I doubt it's mine," but moderator Wolf Blitzer read it aloud and pointed out that Romney, at the ad's conclusion, says he approved the message.

As for immigration policy, it was difficult to discern their differences.

Both men said they want to clamp down in illegal immigration, create programs to make sure jobs go only to legal immigrants and deport some of the 11 million men and women in the country unlawfully.

Gingrich has never said how many illegal residents he believes should be deported, preferring to say that the United States is not going to begin rounding up grandmothers and grandfathers who have lived in the United States for years.

Romney agreed that was the case ? and Gingrich said that marked a switch in position.

"Our problem is not 11 million grandmothers," Romney said. "Our problem is 11 million people getting jobs that many Americans, legal immigrants would like to have."

Romney and Gingrich also exchanged jabs over investments in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two mortgage giants that played a role in the national foreclosure crisis that has hit Florida particularly hard.

Gingrich said Romney was making money from investments in funds that were "foreclosing on Floridians."

Romney quickly noted that Gingrich, too, was invested in mutual funds with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He then added that the former House speaker "was a spokesman" for the two. That was a reference to a contract that one of Gingrich's businesses had for consulting services. The firm was paid $300,000 in 2006.

___

Associated Press writers Brian Bakst, Kasie Hunt and Steve Peoples contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_el_ge/us_republicans_debate

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Activists and bloggers fear Twitter censorship

This screen shot shows a portion of the Twitter blog post of Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, in which the company announced it has refined its technology so it can censor messages on a country-by-country basis. The additional flexibility is likely to raise fears that Twitter's commitment to free speech may be weakening as the short-messaging company expands into new countries in an attempt to broaden its audience and make more money. But Twitter sees the censorship tool as a way to ensure individual messages, or "tweets," remain available to as many people as possible while it navigates a gauntlet of different laws around the world. (AP Photo/Twitter)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Bloggers and activists from China, the Middle East and Latin America said Friday they were afraid that new Twitter policies could allow governments to censor messages, stifling free expression.

Thursday's announcement that Twitter had refined its technology to censor messages on a country-by-country basis raised fears that the company's commitment to free speech may be weakening. Twitter is trying to broaden its audience and make more money by expanding around the globe.

"I'm afraid it's a slippery slope of censorship," said social media commentator Jeff Jarvis, interviewed at a gathering of business and government leaders in Davos, Switzerland.

"I understand why Twitter is doing this ? they want to be able to enter more countries and deal with the local laws. But, as Google learned in China, when you become the agent of the censor, there are problems there," he added.

Egyptian activist Mahmoud Salem, who tweets and blogs under the name "Sandmonkey," questioned in a tweet whether Twitter "is selling us out."

Twitter sees the censorship tool as a way to ensure individual messages, or tweets, remain available to as many people as possible while it navigates a gauntlet of different laws around the world.

Before, when Twitter erased a tweet it disappeared throughout the world. Now, a tweet containing content breaking a law in one country can be taken down there and still be seen elsewhere.

Twitter will post a censorship notice whenever a tweet is removed. That's similar to what Internet search leader Google Inc. has been doing for years when a law in a country where its service operates requires a search result to be removed.

Like Google, Twitter also plans to the share the removal requests it receives from governments, companies and individuals at the chillingeffects.org website.

The similarity to Google's policy isn't coincidental. Twitter's general counsel is Alexander Macgillivray, who helped Google draw up its censorship policies while he was working at that company.

"One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user's voice," Twitter wrote in a blog post. "We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can't. The tweets must continue to flow."

Twitter, which is based in San Francisco, is tweaking its approach now that its nearly 6-year-old service has established itself as one of the world's most powerful megaphones. Daisy chains of tweets already have played instrumental roles in political protests throughout the world, including the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States and the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia and Syria.

It's a role that Twitter has embraced, but the company came up with the new filtering technology in recognition that it will likely be forced to censor more tweets as it pursues an ambitious agenda. Among other things, Twitter wants to expand its audience from about 100 million active users now to more than 1 billion.

Reaching that goal will require expanding into more countries, which will mean Twitter will be more likely to have to submit to laws that run counter to the free-expression protections guaranteed under the First Amendment in the U.S.

If Twitter defies a law in a country where it has employees, those people could be arrested. That's one reason Twitter is unlikely to try to enter China, where its service is currently blocked. Google for several years agreed to censor its search results in China to gain better access to the country's vast population, but stopped that practice two years after engaging in a high-profile showdown with Chain's government. Google now routes its Chinese search results through Hong Kong, where the censorship rules are less restrictive.

In China, where activists quickly caught on to Twitter despite it being blocked inside the country, artist and activist Ai Weiwei tweeted Friday: "If Twitter censors, I'll stop tweeting."

China's Communist Party remains highly sensitive to any organized challenge to its rule and responded sharply to the Arab Spring, cracking down last year after calls for a "Jasmine Revolution" in China.

Many Chinese find ways around the so-called "Great Firewall" that has blocked social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Nelson Bocaranda, a Venezuelan journalist, radio host and outspoken opponent of President Hugo Chavez, warned that Twitter's decision could prompt a government crackdown on critics' tweets ahead of the Oct. 7 presidential election.

"Twitter has become a weapon to preserve our embattled democracy," said Bocaranda, who has more than 482,000 followers.

Twitter is "an important tool" for Venezuelans to share information as local media resort to self-censorship as means of avoiding conflict with government officials, Bocaranda added.

Salem, the Egyptian activist, added in a tweet on his account: "This is very bad news."

"Is it safe to say that (hash)Twitter is selling us out?" he wrote.

"Clearly there is a huge user backlash against this latest move by Twitter," said blogger Mike Butcher, editor of Tech Crunch Europe.

"It was seen as one of the few platforms that was free of any kind of censorship, heavily used during for example Arab spring and even in Russia lately over protests over the elections. It is, to some extent, something that we could have predicted," Butcher said.

In its Thursday blog post, Twitter said it hadn't yet used its ability to wipe out tweets in an individual country. All the tweets it has previously censored were wiped out throughout the world. Most of those included links to child pornography.

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt declined to comment on Twitter's action and instead limited his comments to his own company.

"I can assure you we will apply our universally tough principles against censorship on all Google products," he told reporters in Davos.

Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, said it was a matter of trying to adhere to different local laws.

"I think what they (Twitter officials) are wrestling with is what all of us wrestle with ? and everyone wants to focus on China, but it is actually a global issue ? which is laws in these different countries vary," Drummond said.

"Americans tend to think copyright is a real bad problem, so we have to regulate that on the Internet. In France and Germany, they care about Nazis' issues and so forth," he added. "In China, there are other issues that we call censorship. And so how you respect all the laws or follow all the laws to the extent you think they should be followed while still allowing people to get the content elsewhere?"

___

Associated Press writers Christopher Toothaker in Caracas, Venezuela, Angela Charlton in Davos, Switzerland, Cara Anna in New York and Ben Hubbard in Cairo contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-27-Twitter-Censorship/id-fb37d04946634fb9ad9b70945995ed1d

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Fla. primary's 2-man fight on stage in 2nd debate (AP)

COCOA, Fla. ? A two-man fight for Florida is emerging ahead of the state's final Republican presidential debate, with Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich pounding each other over personal and professional vulnerabilities.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul will take their places on the stage for Thursday night's debate but have their sights set elsewhere and have largely stayed away from the Romney-Gingrich drama.

Public opinion polls had Romney and Gingrich in a tight race. The winner of Tuesday's primary will score something no one has yet claimed in a tumultuous primary season: a second victory. The first three nominating contest have gone to three different candidates; only Paul has not topped a primary or caucus vote.

Sharp exchanges Wednesday highlighted the stakes in the battle to determine President Barack Obama's fall challenger. Gingrich, a former House speaker, tried to paint Romney as out-of-touch by noting his Swiss bank account and another in the Cayman Islands. Romney, a businessman-turned-politician, couldn't escape questions about his wealth from others.

At a forum at the Spanish-language Univision Network, Romney was asked point-blank how much money he had.

"Well, it's ? it's between a $150 and about $200 and some odd million," he responded after trying to turn the question back on the forum's moderator. "I think that's what the estimates are, and ? and, by the way, I didn't inherit that."

Gingrich faced uncomfortable questions of his own during his turn at Univision. He dismissed suggestions that he lacked standing in the mid-1990s to criticize President Bill Clinton's infidelity when he was carrying on an affair of his own, arguing that Clinton had lied under oath and that was the real issue in the impeachment of the president.

The hits for both Romney and Gingrich were coming from many directions.

The "super" political action committees backing the two leading GOP candidates have spent more than $10 million combined on ads so far in Florida, far more than their respective campaigns. The Romney-leaning Restore Our Future has spent $8.8 million in ads as of late Tuesday, bringing the total of ads supporting Romney in the state to $14 million, not counting the cash already spent on radio and Internet advertising.

As of late Tuesday, the Gingrich-backing Winning Our Future had booked $1.8 million in television ads in Florida, a check made possible by a new donation from Miriam Adelson. She and her husband, Sheldon, this month gave $5 million apiece to the group, which supports Gingrich but legally must remain independent.

Elected officials backing Romney, including 2008 GOP nominee John McCain, sought to keep the focus on Gingrich's turbulent time in Congress and lucrative consulting work after he left. Gingrich, whose crowds consistently reached into the thousands, cast the stepped-up critiques as a sign of his momentum.

"What you have right now is the entire establishment in panic mode running around saying whatever comes into their mind next," Gingrich told reporters. He amplified the sentiment a few minutes later, saying a Gingrich win in Florida would allow the news media to watch "distinguished people melt down at the thought that we would actually change Washington and they would have to learn new games."

Obama was amid a campaign-style swing of his own, pressing a populist theme of tax fairness. Republicans said Obama's call was little more than code for tax increases and charged those would hinder the economic recovery.

Back in Florida, Santorum was recognizing that he stood almost no chance to win the primary. Santorum and his advisers didn't plan any advertising in Florida and instead were emphasizing raising money and calling potential supporters in upcoming primary states. He all but gave up trying to woo a network of pastors and was scaling back his events in the state.

Chuck Laudner, an influential adviser who helped Santorum score an upset victory in the Iowa caucuses, was headed back to the Midwest to start piecing together coalitions in Missouri and Minnesota. Both states have media markets that overlap with Iowa, where Santorum proved to be the big story.

Paul has been virtually absent from Florida except for appearances built around the two debates. He was concentrating instead on caucus states where his loyal backers can carry a louder voice.

___

Associated Press writers Philip Elliott, David Espo and Kasie Hunt contributed to this report from Florida. Jack Gillum contributed from Washington.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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Martin and Yankees agree at $7.5 million

updated 6:55 p.m. ET Jan. 24, 2012

NEW YORK - All-Star catcher Russell Martin and the New York Yankees avoided salary arbitration when they agreed to a $7.5 million, one-year contract.

The deal, announced Tuesday, was $100,000 under the midpoint between the $8.2 million he had asked for in arbitration and the $7 million the Yankees had offered when proposed salaries were exchanged last week.

Martin also can earn performances bonuses.

Martin hit .237 with 18 homers and 65 RBIs last year for the Yankees, who signed him after the Los Angeles Dodgers failed to offer a contract. He had a $4 million base salary and earned $1,375,000 in performance bonuses.

He is eligible for free agency after next season.

Lefty reliever Boone Logan is the last Yankees player still in arbitration.

More news

As health goes, so go Phillies

DeMarco's Mailbag: Team will likely make the playoffs, but they'll need all their stars healthy for a World Series shot.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46123106/ns/sports-baseball/

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GOP debate spotlights commercial spaceflight

The top two contenders for the Republican presidential nomination pushed for further privatization of spaceflight during Monday's debate in Florida.

Both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich stressed the importance of space exploration for the United States, saying a strong space program helps develop key technologies and inspires young people to study science and engineering.

But during the debate, held at the University of South Florida in Tampa, neither candidate said giving NASA more money was the right way forward.

More space news from msnbc.com
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4. Mystery surrounds Air Force's secretive X-37B

Romney criticized President Obama for failing to give NASA a mission or a vision. Romney advocated creating a coalition ? including the president and leaders from the military, academia and the business community ? that would set NASA's course. [Vote Now! The Best Spaceships of All Time]

"Bring them together, discuss a wide range of options for NASA, and then have NASA not just funded by the federal government but also by commercial enterprises," the former Massachusetts governor said, responding to a question from a moderator about whether space exploration should be a priority.

"Let's have a collaborative effort, with business, with government, with the military as well as with our educational institutions," Romney added. "Have a mission, once again excite our young people about the potential of space, and the commercial potential will pay for itself down the road."

Gingrich was then asked whether he, as president, would put more federal money toward the goal of sending astronauts to Mars as soon as possible. The former House speaker said he favored spending federal money in a different fashion ? instituting, for example, a series of prizes to encourage space exploration.

"Most of the great breakthroughs in aviation in the '20s and '30s were the result of prizes. Lindbergh flew to Paris for a $25,000 prize," Gingrich said. "I would like to see vastly more of the money spent encouraging the private sector into very aggressive experimentation."

Some of those prizes, he added, might reward getting humans back to the moon, sending them to Mars, building space stations and developing the commercial spaceflight industry.

"There are a whole series of things you can do that could be dynamic that are more than just better government bureaucracy," Gingrich said. "They're fundamentally leapfrogging into a world where you're incentivizing people who are visionaries, and people in the private sector to invest very large amounts of money in finding very romantic and exciting futures."

Gingrich also implied he would trim NASA's budget, which currently represents roughly 0.5 percent of the federal budget.

"I'd like to see a leaner NASA," he said. "I don't think building a bigger bureaucracy and having a greater number of people sit in rooms and talk gets you there."

After the debate: Full coverage at NBCPolitics.com

Texas congressman Ron Paul and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum also participated in the debate, but neither one was given time to address the two space-related questions.

You can follow Space.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow Space.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom? and on Facebook.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46116852/ns/technology_and_science-space/

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