What does business auto insurance cover? | Auto Insurance FAQ

Businesses who use vehicles have a wide range of auto insurance concerns.?Get FREE auto insurance quotes today with our quote comparison tool! They may own a variety of vehicles, from cars to SUVs to light trucks to vans, and employees may also be using their personal vehicles for work tasks.

Different employees may be using the vehicles as well. These vehicles should be insured, and many states require commercial auto insurance in these cases.

Business auto insurance, also known as commercial auto insurance, will cover vehicles operated for a business. According to auto insurance laws, every state in the US requires cars, vans, and trucks to be insured if they are on the road.

Since personal auto insurance or the owner?s insurance will not necessarily cover a car used for a business purpose, business auto insurance especially if employees are using company-owned vehicles. This need applies both if companies own or lease their vehicles. Find FREE auto insurance quotes for all your needs today with our FREE ZIP code search!

Types of Business Auto Insurance

Business auto insurance will cover you through many types of damage.?These include:

Collision, the most basic type of insurance will insure your vehicle when it is in a collision with another car or with an object like a tree, phone pole, or guard rail.

Comprehensive coverage will provide protection in a variety of other circumstances, including:

• Fire, including fires in the engine or fires in the building where the car is parked
• Theft
• Storm damage, including wind , hail, and ice events that damage the car
• Flood
• Theft and vandalism

Most auto insurance companies will offer you a package that can be customized. Depending on the needs of your business, you may want to include some of the following features:

• Liability: though basic collision coverage will offer some liability protection, you may purchase additional or higher levels of this to cover expenses for your own vehicle, others involved in the incident, and items that may be damaged in a crash.
• Medical payments: In the case of a crash, medical coverage can be applied to your business?s driver as well as passengers and drivers of other vehicles and bystanders or pedestrians who may be injured.
• Uninsured motorist coverage: if your business?s vehicle is hit by someone who is uninsured or underinsured, this feature will pay for your vehicle to be repaired even if the other person?s insurance will not.
• Rental or borrowed vehicle insurance: it may be the case that your business needs to rent cars or vans, or borrow them from someone on occasion. Their insurance may not cover the driver, and likely will not cover commercial use of the vehicle. This provision in your insurance will extend your coverage to these vehicles.
• Coverage for employees: If your employees use their own cars for business, their personal insurance may not provide the full range of coverage needed for business use.

Furthermore, you likely do not want your employees to have their rates affected or to pay out of pocket for an incident that happens while they are working. Your commercial insurance can extend coverage to these employees and their vehicles as they are being used for work.

Specialized Insurance Coverage

When shopping for commercial auto insurance, providers will often offer coverage for different types of businesses that may have unique needs.

For example, many construction and contracting businesses will have their vehicles covered by basic collision and liability insurance, but additional policies will be needed to cover physical damage to the vehicle that may occur from use in the business.

Some industries with special needs include:

• Contractors: including landscaping, electricians, plumbers, and other trades
• Service industry: Janitorial and cleaning services, locksmiths, or basic lawn service
• Distribution: Business making many deliveries, such as bakeries, food distributors, vending operations, etc.
• Automotive service: Roadside assistance and tow truck operators
• Heavy construction: Vehicles like dump trucks and other construction equipment

Common Questions

The questions you should ask when investigating business auto insurance are similar to those you might ask for your own personal auto insurance policy. However, requirements are different and the needs of businesses will vary.

Here are some common factors to consider when choosing a policy:

1. Will the same people use the same vehicles? You can insure your vehicles for anyone in the company to use, but if the same person or set of people will be using a car, truck, or van all the time, you may be able to insure them only and then save on your policy cost.
2. Does your business own your vehicles outright or are they leased or on a payment plan? Depending on the situation, you may be legally required to have comprehensive insurance on the vehicles.
3. Will you have to cover the cost of products or equipment you are transporting? Some businesses will have a fleet of vehicles for employees to go on business calls, transport people, or run errands. Others will use their vehicles to transport products or bringing equipment and supplies to a job site. If the latter is the case, you may want to get coverage that will insure the value of the items you will have with you in addition to damage to vehicles involved in an accident.
4. What can your business afford? There are varying levels of coverage for business just like there is for personal insurance. Many insurance providers will customize a policy to match both your needs and budget.
5. What can you pay out of pocket? Business policies have deductibles like personal policies. You should understand what you can pay directly from your business in order to craft a policy that is affordable and provides the coverage you need.

Business auto insurance will cover businesses whether they have one or two employees using their personal vehicles for work or if they have a fleet of vehicles with special needs.

Find the right coverage for what you need with our FREE ZIP code search!

The auto insurance coverage should include?collision and liabilities, and, depending on the extensions a business needs, it may also cover value of products or equipment being transported.

Your insurer will help you build a policy with the level of coverage that meets your needs, the legal requirements, and that works within a budget. Compare FREE auto insurance quotes now with our quote comparison tool!

Source: http://www.autoinsurance.org/what-does-business-auto-insurance-cover/

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Funeral for North Korean leader amid worry about future (Reuters)

SEOUL (Reuters) ? North Korea will hold a funeral procession on Wednesday for its deceased "dear leader", Kim Jong-il, making way for his son, Kim Jong-un, to become the third member of the family to run the isolated and unpredictable Asian country.

The coming year was supposed to mark North Korea's self-proclaimed transformation into a "strong and prosperous" nation, but it faces a dangerous transition to a young, untested leader at a time when dictatorships across the world have tumbled.

The pomp, show of military might and weeping crowds at the funeral will likely mirror the 1994 funeral procession for Kim's father, Kim Il-Sung, the first of the family to rule.

Similarly, it would seem that little is set to change in a country that has staged what many analysts have dubbed a "Great March Backwards" over the last 20 years.

Strong it may be - North Korea is backed by neighboring China, has conducted two nuclear tests and has ambitions to become a nuclear power and boasts a 1.2 million-strong armed forces - but prosperous it is not.

On average, North Koreans die three-and-a-half years earlier than they did when "Eternal President" Kim Il-sung died, according to U.N. data.

The North is one of the most closed and poorest societies on earth, ranking 194 out of 227 countries in terms of per capita wealth, according to the CIA World Factbook.

The United Nations, in a country program for 2011-15, says North Korea's main challenge is to "restore the economy to the level attained before 1990" and to alleviate food shortages for a third of its 25 million-strong population.

Indications from the transition since Kim Jong-il's death on December 17 suggest the father's hardline "military first" policy will continue, leading to further hardship in a country that endured mass starvation in the 1990s.

Leverage from outside, with the exception of China, is limited so all the United States, South Korea and Japan can do is hope that the regime does not collapse, nor flex its military muscle as it did in 2010, when it shelled a South Korean island.

"So far, there is little reason to expect policy changes given that the leadership hierarchy is basically the same with the exception that Kim Jong-un is replacing Kim Jong-il," said Scott Snyder, a senior fellow for Korea Studies at Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S. thinktank.

HALO FADES

North Korea was established in 1948 and under its founding father, Kim Il-sung, went to war to try to conquer the South. It failed and in 1953 a dividing line that would become the world's most militarized frontier was drawn across the peninsula.

While Kim Il-sung was revered by his people for fighting Japanese colonial rule, the halo surrounding his successors has steadily dimmed to such an extent that his grandson, the new ruler, will have to rely on people such as his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, to hold on to power, at least in the short term.

"The outlook for stability is not good, because Kim Jong-un's succession is very different from Kim Jong-il's," said Jia Qingguo, a professor of international relations at Peking University.

"Kim Il-sung was the country's founding father with an extraordinary career and a great deal of personal authority, so when he transferred power to his son, his son assumed quite a lot of authority."

Official media in the North have built Kim Jong-un, a jowly and rotund man in his late 20s, into a leader worthy of inheriting the crown, naming him "respected general", "great successor", "outstanding leader" and "supreme commander".

This year, dissident groups based in South Korea, citing North Korean refugees and businessmen working in China, linked the youngest Kim to a crackdown on business activities and a tougher policy on people seeking to flee from North Korea.

Those reports could not be independently verified, but would again suggest that further repression is more likely than an economic opening under the new man.

It also gives little hope for the 200,000 North Koreans who human rights group Amnesty international says are enslaved in labor camps over some infringement, subjected to torture and hunger or execution.

"here is likely to be a politically motivated purge and imprisonment, and it could go on for a considerable period of time," said Pak Sang-hak, who heads a group in Seoul working to support defectors, and is himself a defector.

"That is especially because of the relative instability of Kim Jong-un's leadership. There might also be persecution as a way of intimidation and discipline."

(Additional reporting by Jack Kim in SEOUL and Chris Buckley in BEIJING; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner and Robert Birsel)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111227/wl_nm/us_korea_north_funeral

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Latest Sports News: Sharapova withdraws from Brisbane

Maria Sharapova has pulled out of next month's Brisbane International because of an ankle injury, tournament organisers have announced.

The Russian former world number one is confident of being fit for the Australian Open which gets under way on January 16.

"I was really looking forward to starting my 2012 season at the Brisbane International, which has a fantastic reputation as a great and welcoming event," Sharapova said on www.brisbaneinternational.com.au.

"Unfortunately my ankle is not 100 % and I won't be able to make it this year.

"I do expect to be ready for the year's first Grand Slam and I am really looking forward to competing on court."

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Source: http://www.journallive.co.uk/pa-feeds/newcastle-sports-news/2011/12/25/sharapova-withdraws-from-brisbane-84229-30010456/

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interfluidity ? Why is finance so complex?

Lisa Pollack at FT Alphaville mulls a question: ?Why are we so good at creating complexity in finance?? The answer she comes up with is the ?Flynn Effect?, basically the idea that there is an uptrend in human intelligence. Finance, in this view, gets more complex over time because financiers get smart enough to make it so.

That?s an interesting conjecture. But I don?t think it?s right at all.

Finance has always been complex. More precisely it has always been opaque, and complexity is a means of rationalizing opacity in societies that pretend to transparency. Opacity is absolutely essential to modern finance. It is a feature not a bug until we radically change the way we mobilize economic risk-bearing. The core purpose of status quo finance is to coax people into accepting risks that they would not, if fully informed, consent to bear.

Financial systems help us overcome a collective action problem. In a world of investment projects whose costs and risks are perfectly transparent, most individuals would be frightened. Real enterprise is very risky. Further, the probability of success of any one project depends upon the degree to which other projects are simultaneously underway. A budding industrialist in an agrarian society who tries to build a car factory will fail. Her peers will be unable to supply the inputs required to make the thing work. If by some miracle she gets the factory up and running, her customer-base of low capital, low productivity farm workers will be unable to afford the end product. Successful real investment does not occur via isolated projects, but in waves, forward thrusts by cohorts of optimists, most of whom crash and burn, some of whom do great things for the world and make their investors wealthy. But the winners depend upon the existence of the losers: In a world where there was no Qwest overbuilding fiber, there would have been no Amazon losing a nickel on every sale and making it up on volume. Even in the context of an astonishing tech boom, Amazon was a pretty iffy investment in 1997. It would have been an absurd investment without the growth and momentum generated by thousands of peers, some of whom fared well but most of whom did not.

One purpose of a financial system is to ensure that we are, in general, in a high-investment dynamic rather than a low-investment stasis. In the context of an investment boom, individuals can be persuaded to take direct stakes in transparently risky projects. But absent such a boom, risk-averse individuals will rationally abstain. Each project in isolation will be deemed risky and unlikely to succeed. Savers will prefer low risk projects with modest but certain returns, like storing goods and commodities. Even taking stakes in a diversified basket of risky projects will be unattractive, unless an investor believes that many other investors will simultaneously do the same.

We might describe this as a game with two Nash Equilibria (?ROW? means ?rest of world?):

If only everyone would invest, there?s a pretty good chance that we?d all be better off, on average our investments would succeed. But if an individual invests while the rest of the world does not, the expected outcome is a loss. (Colored values wearing tilde hats represent stochastic payoffs whose expected value is the number shown.) There are two equilibria, a good one in the upper left corner where everyone invests and, on average, succeeds, and a bad one in the bottom right where everybody hoards and stays poor. If everyone is pessimistic, we can get stuck in the bad equilibrium. Animal spirits are game theory.

This is a core problem that finance in general and banks in particular have evolved to solve. A banking system is a superposition of fraud and genius that interposes itself between investors and entrepreneurs. It offers an alternative to risky direct investment and low return hoarding. Banks guarantee all investors a return better than hoarding, and they offer this return unconditionally, with certainty, without regard to whether other investors buy in or not. They create a new payoff matrix that looks like this:

Under this new set of payoffs, there is only one equillibrium, the good one on the upper left. Basically, the bankers promise everyone a return of 2 if they invest, so everyone invests in the banks. Since everyone has invested, the bankers can invest in real projects at sufficient scale to generate the good expected payoff of 3. The bankers keep 1 for themselves, pay their investors the promised 2, and everyone is made better off than if the bad equilibrium had obtained. Bankers make the world a more prosperous place precisely by making promises they may be unable to keep. (They?ll be unable to honor their guarantee if they fail to raise investment in sufficient scale, or if, despite sufficient scale, projects perform more poorly than expected.)

Suppose we start out in the bad equillibrium. It?s easy to overpromise, but harder to make your promises believed. Investors know that bankers don?t have a magic wealth machine, that resources put in bankers? care are ultimately invested in the same menu of projects that each of them individually would reject. Those risk-less returns cannot, in fact, be riskless, and that?s no secret. So why is this little white fraud sometimes effective? Why do investors? believe empty promises, and invest through banks what they would have hoarded in a world without?

Like so many good con-men, bankers make themselves believed by persuading each and every investor individually that, although someone might lose if stuff happens, it will be someone else. You?re in on the con. If something goes wrong, each and every investor is assured, there will be a bagholder, but it won?t be you. Bankers assure us of this in a bunch of different ways. First and foremost, they offer an ironclad, moneyback guarantee. You can have your money back any time you want, on demand. At the first hint of a problem, you?ll be able to get out. They tell that to everyone, without blushing at all. Second, they point to all the other people standing in front of you to take the hit if anything goes wrong. It will be the bank shareholders, or it will be the government, or bondholders, the ?bank holding company?, the ?stabilization fund?, whatever. There are so many deep pockets guaranteeing our bank! There will always be someone out there to take the loss. We?re not sure exactly who, but it will not be you! They tell this to everyone as well. Without blushing.

If the trail of tears were truly clear, if it were as obvious as it is in textbooks who takes what losses, banking systems would simply fail in their core task of attracting risk-averse investment to deploy in risky projects. Almost everyone who invests in a major bank believes themselves to be investing in a safe enterprise. Even the shareholders who are formally first-in-line for a loss view themselves as considerably protected. The government would never let it happen, right? Banks innovate and interconnect, swap and reinsure, guarantee and hedge, precisely so that it is not clear where losses will fall, so that each and every stakeholder of each and every entity can hold an image in their minds of some guarantor or affiliate or patsy who will take a hit before they do.

Opacity and interconnectedness among major banks is nothing new. Banks and sovereigns have always mixed it up. When there has not been public deposit insurance there have been private deposit insurers as solid and reliable as our own recent ?monolines?. ?Shadow banks? are nothing new under the sun, just another way of rearranging the entities and guarantees so that almost nobody believes themselves to be on the hook.

This is the business of banking. Opacity is not something that can be reformed away, because it is essential to banks? economic function of mobilizing the risk-bearing capacity of people who, if fully informed, wouldn?t bear the risk. Societies that lack opaque, faintly fraudulent, financial systems fail to develop and prosper. Insufficient economic risks are taken to sustain growth and development. You can have opacity and an industrial economy, or you can have transparency and herd goats.

A lamentable side effect of opacity, of course, is that it enables a great deal of theft by those placed at the center of the shell game. But surely that is a small price to pay for civilization itself. No?

Nick Rowe memorably described finance as magic. The analogy I would choose is finance as placebo. Financial systems are sugar pills by which we collectively embolden ourselves to bear economic risk. As with any good placebo, we must never understand that it is just a bit of sugar. We must believe the concoction we are taking to be the product of brilliant science, the details of which we could never understand. The financial placebo peddlers make it so.

---

Some notes: I do think there are alternatives to goat-herding and kleptocratically opaque semi-fraudulent banking. But adopting those would require not ?reform? but a wholesale reimagining of status quo finance.

Sovereign finance should be viewed simply as a form of banking. Sovereigns raise funds for unspecified purposes and promise risk-free returns they may be unable to provide in real terms. When things go wrong, bondholders think taxpayers should be on the hook, and taxpayers think bondholders should pay. As usual, everyone has a patsy, someone else was supposed to take the hit. Ex ante everyone was assured they have nothing to fear.

I have presented an overly flattering case for the status quo here. The (real!) benefits to opacity that I?ve described must be weighed against the profound, even apocalyptic social costs that obtain when the placebo fails, especially given the likelihood that placebo peddlars will continue their con long after good opportunities for investment at scale have been exhausted. By hiding real economic risks from those who ultimately bear them, status quo financial systems blunt incentives for high-quality capital allocation. We get capital allocation in bulk, but of low quality.

Update History:

• 26-Dec-2011, 10:15 a.m. EST: Flipped around a sentence: ?You can have transparency and herd goats, or you can have opacity and an industrial economy.? becomes ?You can have opacity and an industrial economy, or you can have transparency and herd goats.?

This entry was posted on Monday, December 26th, 2011 at 1:32 am and is filed under uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://www.interfluidity.com/v2/2669.html

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Unprovoked attacks at heart of 'Knockout King' (AP)

ST. LOUIS ? Matthew Quain still struggles to piece together what happened after a trip to the grocery store nearly turned deadly. He remembers a group of loitering young people, a dimly lit street ? then nothing. The next thing he knew he was waking up with blood pouring out of his head.

The 51-year-old pizza kitchen worker's surreal experience happened just before midnight earlier this year, when he became another victim of what is generally known as "Knockout King" or simply "Knock Out," a so-called game of unprovoked violence that targets random victims.

Scattered reports of the game have come from around the country including Massachusetts, New Jersey and Chicago. In St. Louis, the game has become almost contagious, with tragic consequences. An elderly immigrant from Vietnam died in an attack last spring.

The rules of the game are as simple as they are brutal. A group ? usually young men or even boys as young as 12, and teenage girls in some cases ? chooses a lead attacker, then seeks out a victim. Unlike typical gang violence or other street crime, the goal is not revenge, nor is it robbery. The victim is chosen at random, often a person unlikely to put up a fight. Many of the victims have been elderly. Most were alone.

The attacker charges at the victim and begins punching. If the victim goes down, the group usually scatters. If not, others join in, punching and kicking the person, often until he or she is unconscious or at least badly hurt. Sometimes the attacks are captured on cellphone video that is posted on websites.

"These individuals have absolutely no respect for human life," St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said.

Slay knows firsthand. He was on his way home from a theater around 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 21 when he saw perhaps a dozen young people casually crossing a street. He looked to the curb and saw Quain sprawled on the pavement.

Slay told his driver to pull over. They found Quain unconscious, blood pouring from his head and mouth.

Quain was hospitalized for two days with a broken jaw, a cracked skull and nasal cavity injuries. He still has headaches and memory problems but was finally able to return to work earlier this month. Hundreds gathered in November for a fundraiser at the restaurant where he works, Joanie's Pizza, but he still doesn't know how he'll pay the medical bills.

"I don't remember much of what happened," Quain said. "I was hanging out with a friend, celebrating the Cardinals in the World Series. I went to the store and saw a group of kids who looked out of place, suspicious, but I shrugged it off. I got around to the library, and the next thing I remember is waking up on the corner with the mayor standing next to me. I tried to say `hi' but my jaw was broken."

It isn't clear how long Knockout King has been around, nor is the exact number of attacks known. The FBI doesn't track it separately, but Slay said he has heard from several mayors about similar attacks and criminologists agree versions of the game are going on in many places.

St. Louis Police Chief Dan Isom said the city has had about 10 Knockout King attacks over the past 15 months.

Experts say it is a grab for attention.

"We know that juveniles don't think out consequences clearly," said Beth Huebner, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. "They see something on YouTube and say, `I want to get that sort of attention, too.' They don't think about the person they're attacking maybe hitting their head."

Scott Decker, a criminologist at Arizona State, said the attacks are a modern extension of gang-like behavior ? instead of painting over another gang's graffiti as a show of toughness, they beat someone up and post a video on social media sites. The postings spur copycat crimes.

"It's adolescent and early adults, largely male, showing how tough they are. It's done to show off," Decker said.

Earlier this year in Chicago, a group of teens followed an elderly homeless man at a train station. One of the teens walked up to him and punched him in the face, knocking him out as the teen's friends laughed and mocked the man. The exchange was captured on video and posted on a hip-hop site, where it got about a quarter of a million views within two days. The teen was not arrested because police couldn't locate the homeless man to see if he wanted to press charges.

The crimes aren't limited to big cities. In 2009, Adam Taylor had just entered a parking garage in Columbia, Mo. Surveillance footage from the garage showed a group of teens following him. One of the teens attacked, punching Taylor and sending him crashing into a brick wall. A few seconds later, the others joined in, punching and kicking him as he lay on the ground. Taylor suffered bruising on the brain, whiplash and internal bleeding but survived.

Hoang Nguyen wasn't as fortunate.

The 72-year-old retired schoolteacher immigrated to St. Louis from Vietnam with his wife less than four years earlier to be near their daughter. The couple was returning to their apartment after walking to a grocery store on an April morning in broad daylight.

They took a shortcut through an alley, where they saw a group of young people approaching. Suddenly, one of them charged. Hoang was attacked as he stepped in front of his wife to protect her. The attack went on as he begged for mercy, she told police.

Hoang died of massive injuries. Elex Murphy, 18, was charged with first-degree murder and allegedly told police the attack was part of the Knockout King game. His attorney declined to comment.

St. Louis authorities are going to the source to combat further attacks. A special police squad has been assigned to focus on Knockout King, and a city prosecutor is designated for the attacks. But Isom said equally important is an outreach effort to talk to students.

"Certainly we take this very seriously and we're making every effort to stop it," Isom said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111224/ap_on_re_us/us_thrill_assaults

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Suicide bomber strikes Afghan funeral, killing 10 (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan ? A suicide bomber blew himself up Sunday during a funeral in northern Afghanistan, killing 10 people, including a member of the national parliament, a government spokesman said.

The attack occurred as mourners were leaving after the end of the funeral in the town of Talaqan, said Faid Mohammad Tawhedi, a spokesman for the governor's office in northern Takhar province. Fifteen people were injured in the blast, he said.

Tawhedi said the dead included parliament member Abdul Mutaleb Baik.

Suicide attacks are rare in Takhar province, which is located 155 miles (250 kilometers) northeast of Kabul and is considered one the nation's calmer regions.

Sayed Ikramuddin Masomi, another lawmaker from Takhar province, confirmed that Baik had died.

"The suicide attacker killed 10 innocent people and unfortunately Abdul Mutaleb Baik was among them," he said in a telephone interview.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. But over the past year, the Taliban have repeatedly struck at prominent government figures. In September, a suicide attacker killed Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former Afghan president and head of the nation's peace council.

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry said Sunday that security forces killed 30 suspected insurgents in a series of clashes around the country.

A ministry statement said army, police and NATO troops launched a total of 11 operations in the past 24 hours across the country. It said seven insurgents were arrested.

Sunday's statement said the killed insurgents were armed and that weapons were recovered in the operations.

Separately, NATO says one of its helicopters crash landed in Nahr-e-Saraj district of Helmand province on Sunday after taking small-arms fire from the ground. There were no injuries among the crew.

NATO relies on helicopters to avoid using roads that are frequently mined by the insurgents.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111225/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

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As GOP candidates vie for Bush backing, Jeb hangs back (Washington Post)

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YouWeb?s MoviePal Wants To Be The Shazam For Watching Movie Trailers

A new startup is launching out of incubator YouWeb today that aims to make watching movie trailers more social. MoviePal, an iOS app, allows you to watch movie trailers and share them with friends. The MoviePal app allows watch movie trailers via your phone. The app sources trailers from YouTube, Flixster and other video sites that post trailers. But in case you don't want to filter through all the trailers available and listed, you can use a Shazam-like feature to tag a movie trailer that you are watching on TV or in the movie theatre.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/-r9DDBdmXrw/

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New spin-out company from DTU: Bladena

Public release date: 22-Dec-2011
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Contact: Sren Horn Petersen
shp@bladana.com
(45) 53-70-02-78
Risoe National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, the Technical University of Denmark

There is already a high demand for stronger and lighter wind turbine blades. The wind industry wants to construct larger turbines, which may increase the cost efficiency of each turbine and reduce the price of energy. Until now a major issue has been that the weight of the blades in large turbines is too high. The large and well-established wind turbine generator manufacturers deal with this and other issues in their own research and development teams. Bladena provides small wind turbine generator and wind turbine blade manufacturers without in-house research and development departments with a unique opportunity to utilise the latest research to optimise their blade design.

"Simply put, Bladena employs the latest knowledge and technologies from DTU to empower companies who design and produce wind turbine blades. We have worked systematically to implement all the knowledge gained in the last ten years by e.g. co-founder of Bladena, Researcher Find Mlholt Jensen during his tenure at Ris DTU. This research has now been transformed from a fault finding tool to something we can use to prevent faults from occurring in the first place", explains Mr. Sren Horn Petersen, GEO of Bladena, and adds that Bladena has already been approached by potential customers.

Besides comprehensive insight and knowledge of the structure of wind turbine blades, seven specific inventions have been transferred to the new company. Among these the so-called IKEA cross a structural element that can stabilise the blade in much the same way as the metal cross you mount on the back of a shelving unit. Increased stability of the blade results in saved materials and reduced weight. The customers will thus have a better and more reliable solution, and a more cost-effective blade.

At DTU, the principles and effects of inventions such as this have been demonstrated over the last decade funded partly by Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster and partly by Region Zealand whose aim it is to fund projects that can transcend the gap between research and commercial application.

"However, the research had reached a stage where the time had come to transfer the ongoing work to a spin-out company", says President of DTU, Anders Bjarklev, and continues:

"One of the foremost tasks of the University is to ensure that research from DTU benefits society. At DTU we engineer groundbreaking solutions, and a spin-out like Bladena is a good example of how our innovative researchers create the basis for new jobs in the manufacturing industry." Bladena will be based in Ringsted and is financed by two private investors as well as innovation funds from CAT*.

On Bladena's board of directors are competent resources from CAT and the investors, and Sren Horn Petersen, CEO of Bladena, anticipates a close collaboration with DTU in the future:

"We see ourselves as bridge-builders who can disseminate knowledge to society but also bring value to the academic world in the form of specific knowledge of real issues and needs in the wind Industry"

###

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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.

Public release date: 22-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sren Horn Petersen
shp@bladana.com
(45) 53-70-02-78
Risoe National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, the Technical University of Denmark

There is already a high demand for stronger and lighter wind turbine blades. The wind industry wants to construct larger turbines, which may increase the cost efficiency of each turbine and reduce the price of energy. Until now a major issue has been that the weight of the blades in large turbines is too high. The large and well-established wind turbine generator manufacturers deal with this and other issues in their own research and development teams. Bladena provides small wind turbine generator and wind turbine blade manufacturers without in-house research and development departments with a unique opportunity to utilise the latest research to optimise their blade design.

"Simply put, Bladena employs the latest knowledge and technologies from DTU to empower companies who design and produce wind turbine blades. We have worked systematically to implement all the knowledge gained in the last ten years by e.g. co-founder of Bladena, Researcher Find Mlholt Jensen during his tenure at Ris DTU. This research has now been transformed from a fault finding tool to something we can use to prevent faults from occurring in the first place", explains Mr. Sren Horn Petersen, GEO of Bladena, and adds that Bladena has already been approached by potential customers.

Besides comprehensive insight and knowledge of the structure of wind turbine blades, seven specific inventions have been transferred to the new company. Among these the so-called IKEA cross a structural element that can stabilise the blade in much the same way as the metal cross you mount on the back of a shelving unit. Increased stability of the blade results in saved materials and reduced weight. The customers will thus have a better and more reliable solution, and a more cost-effective blade.

At DTU, the principles and effects of inventions such as this have been demonstrated over the last decade funded partly by Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster and partly by Region Zealand whose aim it is to fund projects that can transcend the gap between research and commercial application.

"However, the research had reached a stage where the time had come to transfer the ongoing work to a spin-out company", says President of DTU, Anders Bjarklev, and continues:

"One of the foremost tasks of the University is to ensure that research from DTU benefits society. At DTU we engineer groundbreaking solutions, and a spin-out like Bladena is a good example of how our innovative researchers create the basis for new jobs in the manufacturing industry." Bladena will be based in Ringsted and is financed by two private investors as well as innovation funds from CAT*.

On Bladena's board of directors are competent resources from CAT and the investors, and Sren Horn Petersen, CEO of Bladena, anticipates a close collaboration with DTU in the future:

"We see ourselves as bridge-builders who can disseminate knowledge to society but also bring value to the academic world in the form of specific knowledge of real issues and needs in the wind Industry"

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/rnlf-nsc122211.php

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Judge tosses lawsuit over Jimmy Kimmel sketch (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? A New York court has dismissed a lawsuit by a man dubbed the "Flying Rabbi" against TV network ABC and late-night talk show "Jimmy Kimmel Live" over its use of the man's image in a parody involving basketball star LeBron James.

At a taping for the ABC show on August 10, 2010, host Kimmel told audiences that James had met with Rabbi Yishayahu Yosef Pinto to seek "business advice" -- a meeting which had in fact occurred that month, according to the website TMZ.

Kimmel then told the audience he too met with Pinto, and he showed a video of himself in a car talking with an individual dressed in Jewish religious clothing and speaking in a different language.

In fact, Kimmel never spoke with Pinto. The footage of the conversation was assembled using a video of Kimmel in his car spliced together with footage of the plaintiff, Brooklyn, New York's David Sondik, taken from a series of YouTube videos showing Sondik greeting people on the street and talking animatedly. The videos refer to Sondik as the "flying rabbi."

Sondik, described as a "neighborhood character" by his attorney Robert Tolchin, objected to the show's use of his image. He sued in December 2010 accusing the Kimmel show of falsely presenting him as Pinto and failing to seek his permission before turning him into the butt of the joke.

Because "Jimmy Kimmel Live" is produced and filmed in California, Sondik sued under California law -- which recognizes a common-law right to sue based on an invasion of a person's right to privacy.

But in a ruling December 14, Justice David Schmidt disagreed and dismissed the suit, holding that it must be brought under New York law because Sondik lives in New York and the alleged injury took place in the state. New York law does not recognize common-law actions based on violations of privacy or publicity rights, Schmidt noted.

In his ruling Schmidt also said New York law allows unauthorized use of an individual's image for "newsworthy events or matters of public interest."

" review of the DVD of the segment supplied by defendants demonstrates that the clip of plaintiff at issue was used as a part of a comedic (or at least an attempted comedic) or satiric parody of Lebron James' meeting with Rabbi Pinto, itself undoubtedly an event that was newsworthy or of public interest," Schmidt wrote.

The judge also dismissed Sondik's claims of defamation against Kimmel.

"Even though plaintiff is not a public figure, there is no allegation in the complaint or inference that can be drawn from the DVD suggesting that the use of plaintiff's clip was mean-spirited or intended to injure such that its use would be excluded from First Amendment protection," Schmidt wrote.

Tolchin said his client intended to appeal the ruling that Kimmel's use was protected by the "newsworthiness" of the James story.

"A story about LeBron James and Rabbi Pinto is perfectly valid, you can put that on the news," Tolchin told Reuters in an interview. "But my client is a private citizen. Jimmy Kimmel took my client's image and said it was Rabbi Pinto, which he isn't. That's a lie."

"My client was the butt of the joke and made to look like a fool in front of millions of people," Tolchin said.

Calls to an attorney and a network representative for "Jimmy Kimmel Live" were not immediately returned Wednesday.

(Reporting by Jessica Dye; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111221/en_nm/us_jimmykimmel_flyingrabbi

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Benfica says former star Eusebio hospitalized

Associated Press Sports

updated 3:10 p.m. ET Dec. 21, 2011

LISBON, Portugal (AP) -Former Portugal and Benfica star Eusebio has been hospitalized after displaying early symptoms of pneumonia.

The Portuguese club said in a brief statement on its website Wednesday that Eusebio has been admitted to Lisbon's Hospital da Luz for treatment, but gave no further details.

The Portuguese Football Federation said it had no official information.

Eusebio da Silva Ferreira, who was born in Mozambique when it was still a Portuguese colony, became a national icon after his powerful performances in the 1960s for Benfica and the Portuguese national team. He was named one of the 10 best football players of all time by FIFA in 1998, and may be best known for his performances at the 1966 World Cup, where he scored four goals in the quarterfinals to help Portugal overcome a 3-0 deficit against North Korea to win 5-3.

However, he left the field in tears after Portugal lost to eventual champion England in the semifinals, but still finished as the tournament's top scorer with nine goals.

Eusebio scored 41 goals in 64 games for Portugal. He has since been a "soccer ambassador" for Benfica and Portugal.

? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Terry to be charged over racism

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China urges others to help keep North Korea stable (Reuters)

SEOUL (Reuters) ? China, which may have received advanced notice of the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, has moved swiftly to call on the United States and other countries to help maintain stability in the reclusive state, officials and news reports said.

North Korea is in mourning since it announced Kim's demise on Monday, two days after the 69-year-old iron ruler died of a heart attack, plunging the region into uncertainty over its stability and who had control over its nuclear weapons program.

The official KCNA news agency said at least five million people -- one-fifth of the population of the impoverished state -- had paid condolences at statues and portraits of the leader and his father, North Korea's founder Kim Il-Sung.

"These places turned into a veritable sea of mourners who bitterly wept, looking up to portraits of smiling Kim Jong-il," it said.

His son Kim Jong-un, thought to be in his 20s, has been anointed the successor but it is likely power rests with a coterie of senior officials, including his aunt and uncle.

The younger Kim, along with top army and government officials, paid respects on Tuesday to his father, whose body was placed in a glass topped bier surrounded by the red "Kimjongilia" flowers named after him, television footage showed.

A leading South Korean newspaper reported on Wednesday that China, isolated North Korea's only major ally, learned of Kim's death soon after it occurred on Saturday.

JoongAng Ilbo quoted an unidentified source in Beijing as saying the Chinese ambassador to North Korea had obtained intelligence of Kim's death and reported it to the capital on December 17, the day Kim died of an apparent heart attack while on a train.

"North Korea informed China of Kim's death through diplomatic channels on the following day," the source was quoted as saying.

Top South Korean intelligence and military officials have come under criticism for failing to learn of Kim's death before the official announcement by Pyongyang.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak left on a state visit for Japan some hours after Kim's death, indicating that neither Seoul nor Tokyo -- nor Washington -- had any inkling of his death.

China has given no official comment or even hints suggesting it was told of Kim's death before the public announcement. But in the past, Beijing has had advance notice from North Korea of major events, diplomats say. In 2006, North Korea told China 20 minutes or more beforehand that it would test its first nuclear device, they said.

EXHORTS ALLIES

Beijing has moved swiftly to exhort the United States, Japan and South Korea to help keep North Korea stable.

"Preserving the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula is in the common interests of all sides," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told Japan's Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba late on Tuesday, according to a report from China's Xinhua news agency.

"China is willing to work with Japan to continue making efforts to together protect the peace and stability of the peninsula and the region," said Yang.

The Chinese foreign minister has already made similar pleas in phone calls to South Korea's Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan and to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

It underscores China's desire to avoid ructions over North Korea after the death of Kim, whose successor-son is untested and largely unknown.

With its own leadership transition approaching, Beijing would be loath to allow any form of instability on its borders and the prospect of hundreds of thousands of refugees flooding across the Yalu River.

"China's foremost priority will therefore be to ensure that North Korea's new leader, whoever that may be, will be able to rally and unify the country together," said Sarah McDowall, an analyst at IHS Jane's.

In the Chinese city of Dandong, on the bank of the Yalu River border between the two nations, mourners who appeared to be North Koreans filed through a makeshift mourning centre.

Women in their 20s and 30s wept, wailed and prostrated themselves in front of wreaths of white and yellow chrysanthemums. Some men clasped their hands in front of them and bowed deeply.

In Washington, officials said the United States has signaled to North Korea's new leaders it hopes for progress on resuming talks on curbing Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions and has pushed ahead with discussions on resuming food aid despite the death of Kim.

"Given the mourning period, frankly we don't think we'll be able to have much more clarity and resolve these issues before the new year. But obviously we stand ready to keep working on this," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

Nuland said the contact occurred on Monday through what is known as "the New York channel" -- North Korea's mission to the United Nations -- but she was unable to say whether it involved any political discussion of the ramifications of Kim's death.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn in WASHINGTON,Seoul and Beijing bureaus; Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111221/wl_nm/us_korea_north

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Gold to drop in Q1, far from retesting record high: Reuters poll (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Gold prices will fall below $1,500 an ounce over the next three months and are unlikely to retest September's all-time highs until later 2012 at the earliest, according to a Reuters poll of 20 hedge fund managers, economists and traders.

The bleak forecast, coming after gold has lost 11 percent of its value so far this month, is likely to fuel fears that bullion is close to ending its more than decade long bull run and entering a bear market.

Almost half of respondents predicted bullion will fall to 1,450 an ounce in the first quarter next year, with three seeing prices as low as $1,400 an ounce.

The forecasts come after a dismal performance last week when prices hit a 2 1/2 month low of $1,560 and gold lost its safe haven status.

Selling was fuelled by a scramble by hedge funds for cash to meet client redemptions at the end of a difficult year and a run for cash by European banks seeking to raise capital.

"What is surprising is that in an environment where headline risk news is bigger than ever, gold has actually fallen from its highs," said Christoph Eibl, CEO and founding partner of the Swiss commodity hedge fund Tiberius.

"We believe that, in 2012, of all metals gold will be the worst performing," Eibl said.

The market eked out small gains Friday to trade just under $1,600, but showed little sign of strength even after a small bout of short covering took other financial markets higher.

The precious metal is now heading for its first quarterly loss for the fourth quarter after its second-worst rout since September 2008 when the global credit crunch was at its height.

In another immediately bearish sign, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) figures released Friday showed that managed money in gold futures and options cut bullish bets for the second consecutive week.

DOWNBEAT OUTLOOK

The long-term outlook is no more upbeat either, with more than half of respondents predicting that gold is unlikely to stage another run to new all-time highs until at least the second half of 2012.

Four said they don't expect a new record until at least 2014.

A lack of immediate monetary easing or stimulus programs by central banks has prompted money managers to turn bearish on gold even though the precious metal is traditionally considered a safe haven in times of uncertainty.

"To me, gold is not attractive right now because we don't see any inflation threats," said Jeffrey Sherman, commodities portfolio manager of DoubleLine Capital, a Los Angeles-based investment manager with $21 billion in assets.

BREAK OUT

Gold has increasingly moved in tandem with risky assets such as equities and industrial commodities. But gold broke ranks last week with a 7 percent decline, which dwarfed a 3 percent drop of the S&P 500.

Bullion's plunge below its 200-day moving average, which it had held for nearly three years, prompted a prominent market watcher to call an end to gold's decade-long bull cycle.

"We have the beginnings of a real bear market, and the death of a bull," said veteran trader Dennis Gartman, a long-time gold bull who completely exited his bullion investments last week.

Since September, gold has underperformed commodities measured by the RJ/CRB index and the euro, while U.S. equities measured by the S&P 500 eked out a slight gain.

(Additional reporting by Claire Milhench, Harpreet Bhal in London and Rujun Shen in Singapore; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter; Josephine Mason and Andrea Evans)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111218/bs_nm/us_gold_poll

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Gingrich Takes Aim at Legal System (WSJ)

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'The Artist' speaks up with 6 noms to lead Globes (omg!)

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) ? Silent film is taking over Hollywood's awards scene. The silent-era tale "The Artist" heads the Golden Globes with six nominations, among them best comedy or musical, and acting honors for its French stars, Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo.

Tied for second-place with five nominations Thursday are the 1960s racial tale "The Help" and George Clooney's Hawaiian family story "The Descendants." Both films are up for best drama, while Clooney was nominated for best dramatic actor and "The Help" earned acting slots for Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain.

"We've all been striking out trying to make our dreams come true, and the fact that our very first studio film is being so well received and embraced is humbling and exciting," said supporting-actress nominee Spencer, an awards-season newcomer and longtime friend of Tate Taylor, the first-time director of "The Help," based on his childhood pal Kathryn Stockett's best-seller.

Also competing for best drama: Martin Scorsese's Paris adventure "Hugo"; Clooney's political thriller "The Ides of March"; Brad Pitt's baseball chronicle "Moneyball"; and Steven Spielberg's World War I epic "War Horse."

Joining "The Artist" in the best musical or comedy category are: the cancer story "50/50"; Kristen Wiig's wedding romp "Bridesmaids"; Woody Allen's romantic fantasy "Midnight in Paris"; and Michelle Williams' Marilyn Monroe tale "My Week With Marilyn."

Dujardin, who won the best-actor prize for "The Artist" in its premiere at last May's Cannes Film Festival, was nominated for best actor in a musical or comedy. He plays a silent-film star whose career nosedives as talking pictures take over in the late 1920s in "The Artist," which has virtually no spoken dialogue and is shot in the boxy, black-and-white format of the silent era.

The actor called his nomination an "incredible gift."

"To be recognized alongside such brilliant actors is an honor," Dujardin said. "The Golden Globe nomination for 'The Artist' has left me speechless!"

"The Artist" also picked up a supporting actress honor for Bejo as a rising star of the sound era. Filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius earned directing and screenplay nominations for the film, which also is up for best musical score.

Along with the Screen Actors Guild Award nominations a day earlier, the Globes help narrow down prospects for the Academy Awards, whose nominations come out Jan. 24. If "The Artist" earns a best-picture nomination then, it will be the first silent movie with a serious shot at Hollywood's top prize since the very first year of the Oscars, for 1927-28, when the silent flicks "Wings" and "Sunset" took top honors.

"They said I was crazy to take on making a black-and-white, silent movie, but I had a feeling 'The Artist' could be something special, something magical," said the film's producer, Thomas Langmann. "I'm so thankful that audiences are taking a chance and embracing it with a spirit of adventure and love of cinema."

Clooney has three nominations. Besides best dramatic actor as a neglectful dad tending his daughters in "The Descendants," he's up for directing and screenplay for "The Ides of March." For the acting prize, Clooney will compete against his "Ides" co-star Ryan Gosling, who plays a presidential candidate's aide. Gosling had a second nomination for best musical or comedy actor as a ladies man in the romance "Crazy, Stupid, Love."

Glenn Close is also a dual contender, as best dramatic actress as a woman masquerading as a male butler in the Irish drama "Albert Nobbs" and for best song for writing the lyrics to "Lay Your Head Down," the film's theme tune.

Also nominated for dramatic actress: Davis as a black maid going public with stories about her white employer in "The Help"; Rooney Mara as a traumatized victim-turned-avenger in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"; Meryl Streep as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady"; and Tilda Swinton as a grieving woman coping with her son's terrible deeds in "We Need to Talk About Kevin."

Clooney has another pal in the dramatic actor race, his "Ocean's Eleven" franchise co-star Pitt, who's nominated for his "Moneyball" role as Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane. And Clooney also is competing for best director against his boss in "The Descendants," filmmaker Alexander Payne.

Gosling, Clooney and Pitt are up against Leonardo DiCaprio as FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover in "J. Edgar" and Michael Fassbender as a sex addict in "Shame."

Pitt's romantic partner, Angelina Jolie, picked up a nomination for foreign-language film for her directing debut, the Bosnian war drama "In the Land of Blood and Honey."

"I am forever indebted to our cast and crew, who experienced their own personal tragedies in the Bosnian war and gave me an authentic perspective into the conflict," Jolie said.

Scorsese for "Hugo" and Allen for "Midnight in Paris" join Clooney, Hazanavicius and Payne in the directing category.

"Making 'Hugo' was an extraordinary experience for me," said Scorsese, whose tale is a loving nod to the early years of cinema and French director Georges Melies. "It gave me a chance to work in 3-D, which I've wanted to do since I was young; it allowed me to make a child's adventure, the type of picture that I loved when I was young; and it provided an occasion to pay tribute to one of the cinema's greatest pioneers, Georges Melies."

Though "War Horse" made it in for best drama, Spielberg missed out on a directing nomination.

Spielberg has a consolation prize with a nomination for his first animated film, "The Adventures of Tintin." Other animation nominees are: James McAvoy's "Arthur Christmas," Owen Wilson's "Cars 2," Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek's "Puss in Boots" and Johnny Depp's "Rango."

Along with Gosling and Dujardin, Wilson was nominated for musical or comedy actor as a writer nostalgic for the 1920s France of Hemingway and Fitzgerald in "Midnight in Paris." Also nominated are Brendan Gleeson as a bawdy, rule-breaking Irish cop on a drug investigation in "The Guard" and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a cancer patient aided by an assortment of oddballs in "50/50."

Roman Polanski's domestic showdown "Carnage" earned musical or comedy actress slots for both Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet as mothers squabbling over their sons' schoolyard fight. The other nominees are: Charlize Theron as a delusional woman plotting to win back her high school boyfriend from his wife in "Young Adult"; Wiig as a maid of honor whose life is unraveling in "Bridesmaids"; and Williams as Marilyn Monroe during a chaotic film shoot in "My Week With Marilyn."

Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier, Monroe's exasperated co-star and director on "The Prince and the Showgirl," was nominated for supporting actor.

"To be recognized for portraying one of the greatest actors of our time is truly an honor," Branagh said.

Also in the supporting-actor race: Albert Brooks as a gregarious but ruthless gangster in "Drive"; Jonah Hill as a statistics prodigy in "Moneyball"; Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud in "A Dangerous Method"; and Christopher Plummer as an ailing, elderly father who comes out as gay in "Beginners."

Besides Bejo and Spencer, who plays a sassy maid in "The Help," supporting-actress nominees include "The Help" co-star Chastain as Spencer's lonely new boss. The other nominees are Janet McTeer as a cross-dressing laborer in "Albert Nobbs" and Shailene Woodley as a troublesome teen in "The Descendants."

Winslet had a second nomination, as best actress in a TV miniseries or movie for "Mildred Pierce." ''Downton Abbey" and "Mildred Pierce" tied for the most television nominations with four, with both shows competing for best miniseries or movie.

Several TV newcomers were among the nominees, including "Boss," ''New Girl," ''American Horror Story" and "Homeland."

"I feel very lucky to be part of it," said "Homeland" star Damian Lewis, who plays a Marine rescued in Afghanistan after eight years in captivity but who draws the suspicion of a CIA operative, played by Claire Danes. "Now I may even be in season 2 now."

Zooey Deschanel, star of the Fox comedy "New Girl," learned of her nomination as best actress in a comedy and also the show's nod for best comedy after waking up to find her cellphone's mailbox was full with messages.

"I don't expect to be recognized or validated. I've been doing this so long, and I've done so many movies where I work really hard and don't ever get this kind of attention. But I so appreciate it, I'm so thankful!" she said while on the way to work.

With drinks and dinner, the Globes are a laid-back affair for Hollywood's elite compared to the Oscars. The show turned a bit touchy last year as host Ricky Gervais repeatedly made sharp wisecracks about stars and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group of about 85 entertainment reporters for overseas outlets that presents the Globes.

But Gervais helped give the show a TV ratings boost, and he's been invited back as host for a third-straight year.

Before the nominations announcement, the press group's president, Aida Takla-O'Reilly, joked that Gervais is a "naughty, naughty schoolboy."

Five-time Academy Award and Globe nominee Morgan Freeman ? who won the supporting-actor Oscar for "Million Dollar Baby" and a best-actor Globe for "Driving Miss Daisy" ? will receive the group's Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement at the Jan. 15 ceremony.

___

Online:

http://www.goldenglobes.org

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Forums: Siri censored, Irritations, iPod Gaming

We’ve reached mid-week here at TiPb and in case you happened to miss out on anything from this week thus far — now is a good time to skip on back and get caught up before tonight’s iPhone Live!? You can also take a stroll though the TiPb...

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