HBT: Giants offer 2 years, $40M to Lincecum

We heard this morning that the Giants and Tim Lincecum were making ?significant progress? in contract negotiations. Now we have some specifics.

According to Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports, the Giants offered Lincecum a two-year, $40 million contract while the ace right-hander?s reps countered at two years and $44 million. With such a small gap separating the two sides, the expectation is that they?ll be able to get a deal done without an arbitration hearing next month. A two-year deal would cover Lincecum?s remaining arbitration seasons and allow him to test free agency after 2013.

Lincecum, 27, earned $13 million last season in the second year of a two-year, $23 million deal. He requested $21.5 million?and was offered by the Giants $17 million when arbitration figures were exchanged Tuesday. Both were record filings for a player with less than six years of service time.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/21/report-giants-offered-tim-lincecum-a-two-year-40-million-contract/related/

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'Loser' host: Joe threw away a rare opportunity

By Randee Dawn

Trae Patton / NBC

Joe?s unexpected departure from ?The Biggest Loser? last week had fans in an uproar ? including the ones visiting our Facebook page. Joe?s reasoning? That his family needed him. ?I don?t buy it for one second,? ranted trainer Bob Harper on the show, calling it the ?biggest excuse ever.?

The thing is, when you quit in the third week of something like ?Loser,? whatever reason you give is going to sound like ?This is just too hard!?

But Harper and the fans weren?t the only ones irritated by Joe?s exit?-- so was host Alison Sweeney. ?Three weeks in to make a decision like that? It was shocking, no question,? she told TODAY.com. ?It?s the first time it ever happened like that. It?s crazy.?

But it?s more than just odd, said Sweeney, who is aware on a personal level of the many challenges that come with trying to lose weight.

?It?s frustrating,? she said. ?You feel like (the show) is an opportunity so many people would love to have -- and if it wasn?t right for you, I wish you would have figured that out before you took the spot from someone who would have loved it and made the most of it.?

Spots for ?Loser? are slim, and the pool of applicants is enormous, she said. People ask her all the time what they can do to get on the show. ?Unfortunately, there are not that many spots,? she said. ?So we just hope that the people who do view it as an opportunity make the most of it.?

That said, Sweeney, who has been with the show since 2004, wishes Joe nothing but the best. ?There?s no question that Joe?s a great guy," she said. "I hope he gets help to lose weight. All of those good things.?

Should the show do anything to punish contestants who quit the game? Tell us what you think on our Facebook page!

Related content:

Source: http://theclicker.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/24/10219716-loser-host-quitter-joe-threw-away-a-rare-opportunity

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Pre-caffeine tech: Apple blather, hipster cats!

By Helen A.S. Popkin

via BuzzFeed

Our pre-caffeine roundup is a collection of the hottest, strangest, and most amusing stories of the morning. Here's everything that you need to know before taking that first sip of coffee today

Here's why Apple can't make iPhones in the United States ? Steve Jobs' deal to collect souls for Beelzebub surprisingly not one of the reasons.

Meanwhile, Apple and Microsoft's supplier chief calls his one million employees "animals." Classy.

Get an iPad, Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet over the holidays? You're not alone: Tablet and e-reader ownership increased by nearly double over the holidays, and more than 1 out of every 4 Americans now has one of the devices, according to a new study.

Despite the ho-hum launch last week, Apple's text books are off and running, with more than 350,000?textbook downloads in three days.

Meanwhile: Kim "I'm Smarter than Bill Gates" Dotcom, founder of file-sharing website Megaupload, was ordered to be held in custody by a New Zealand court Monday, as he denied charges of Internet piracy and money laundering.

Speaking of which,?digital storage services like Megaupload play a small but growing role in a broader piracy problem that continues to evolve and dog the entertainment industry.

Hey, remember BlackBerry? Takeover talk is swirling around its maker?Research In Motion as investors and analysts pondered whether new Chief Executive Thorsten Heins had been appointed to lead aturnaround of the struggling smartphone maker or prepare it for sale.

That's a lot of laughing babies: YouTube streams 4 billion online videos every day, a 25 percent increase in the past eight months, says its parent company, Google.

That's a lot of blog-to-book deals: Tumblr just passed 15 million page views (and 120 million users)?per month.

In closing, here's 44 pictures of cats in glasses ... and one in a monocle.

?????compiled by Helen A.S. Popkin, who invites you to join her on Twitter and/or Facebook.?Also, Google+.???

?

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/23/10216233-pre-caffeine-tech-apple-blather-hipster-cats

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China vice president to visit White House Feb. 14 (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Vice President Xi (shee) Jinping who is expected to succeed Hu Jintao as the next president of China will visit the White House on Feb. 14.

The White House made the announcement Monday. It reciprocates Vice President Joe Biden's visit to China last August.

Xi will meet with President Barack Obama, Biden and other senior administration officials to discuss a broad range of bilateral, regional and global issues.

He also will travel to Iowa and California.

The trip is an opportunity for Xi to meet U.S. leaders ahead of his own elevation, as Hu nears the end of his 10 years as China's Communist Party chief.

U.S.-China relations have deepened in recent years but remain troubled by economic and trade disputes and an emerging military rivalry.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_us_china

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Issues to consider About Term Life Insurance ? ArticleZio / Dofollow ...

In terms of various life policies, perhaps the most commonly bought form of policy is an insurance coverage insurance policy. There are a selection of various kinds of term life insurance but you can find the reason why term life insurance is so typical. Basically, term life insurance is a financial bundle designed to aid people who count on your for monetary support once you pass. With term life insurance, plan holders increasingly becominga certain degree of insurance plan so that the premium you make payment for will always be in position for a number of decades.

Term life insurance policies are not for the entire course in your life these are typically set up from from 10 to 30 years. After that the passed the insurance plan plan will have to be renewed when the policy holder remains in existence and also the rates will probably change.

While there are many rewards with this type of coverage, just about the most notable rewards is that it is the most affordable type of life insurance coverage available. With insurance coverage, policy owners constantly pay out low monthly premiums as the insurance coverage top quality increases as the insured individual ages. This kind of premium will not develop funds in the same way that whole life insurance will. Even though there are a number of various life insurance coverage policies that anybody usually takes out, it?s still important to know the most basic distinction between whole life and term life insurance policies before you decide to consider buying a term life coverage.

Having a common idea of how term life insurance differs from whole life can help you be certain that you?re creating the proper selection for you and your family members. For those who have selecteda life insurance coverage policy, you will have to find the appropriate insurance agency to assist you find the appropriate insurance coverage coverage for you. As you set out to compare all the plans obtainable, it is crucial that you simply ask questions and provide the maximum amount of information for the agents as possible before you obtain your estimate to you should always be getting the right kind of coverage.

The essential details you need to supply contains age, gender and if you utilize tobacco or smoke cigarettes. It is also needed that you rate your health class. Specs on what each of these lessons entail can be found on-line or through an insurance agency. You should also know the kind of insurance coverage you are interested in, or the length of time of a term you need the plan for as well as the face amount you need that plan to be worth.

When you offer this information, it will likely be easy for you to find and look through different term life insurance policy. Every company?s policy might have different features and these should be considered prior to choosing your policy. Doing these things will ensure that you and your loved ones are getting the very best policy feasible for your needs.

Click the links in this posting if you want to get the best life insurance rates in the market and get real term life insurance quotes.

Source: http://www.articlezio.com/2012/01/22/issues-to-consider-about-term-life-insurance/

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Rap group 2 Live Crew to reunite, tour this summer (AP)

PARK CITY, Utah ? The rap group that created controversy in the early 1990s with songs like "Me So Horny" is reuniting and hitting the road.

Luther Campbell said Saturday that 2 Live Crew is back together and will tour this summer.

The rapper and producer made the announcement at the Sundance Film Festival, where he is promoting his appearance in the short film "The Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke."

The 51-year-old entertainer describes the offbeat film as "an art piece" that he did to help young filmmakers who were inspired by his hip-hop work. But his mind was on getting back with the old crew.

"I just can't wait to just start practicing," he said. "That's going to be a blast."

So will they be "As Nasty As They Wanna Be" (the title of the group's 1989 album that a judge deemed obscene, a ruling later overturned by the United States Court of Appeals)?

Not really, Campbell said.

"We're going to perform the songs and everybody's going to be excited," he said. "Some of the older people of our generation will be able to tell their kids, `You're staying home tonight, we're going to see 2 Live Crew and shake our booty!'"

___

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy.

___

Online:

http://www.sundance.org/festival/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_en_mu/us_film_sundance2_live_crew

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Obama's State of the Union: Jobs, re-election time

President Barack Obama pauses before shaking hands at a campaign event, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, at the Apollo Theatre in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama pauses before shaking hands at a campaign event, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, at the Apollo Theatre in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama sings before speaking at a campaign event, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, at the Apollo Theatre in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, at the Apollo Theatre in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

(AP) ? Vilified by the Republicans who want his job, President Barack Obama will stand before the nation Tuesday night determined to frame the election-year debate on his terms, using his State of the Union address to outline a lasting economic recovery that will "work for everyone, not just a wealthy few."

As his most powerful chance to make a case for a second term, the prime-time speech carries enormous political stakes for the Democratic incumbent who presides over a country divided about his performance and pessimistic about the nation's direction. He will try to offer a stark contrast with his opponents by offering a vision of fairness and opportunity for everyone.

In a preview Saturday, Obama said in a video to supporters that the speech will be an economic blueprint built around manufacturing, energy, education and American values.

He is expected to announce ideas to make college more affordable and to address the housing crisis still hampering the economy three years into his term, people familiar with the speech said. Obama will also propose fresh ideas to ensure that the wealthy pay more in taxes, reiterating what he considers a matter of basic fairness, the officials said.

His policy proposals will be less important than what Obama hopes they all add up to: a narrative of renewed American security with him at the center, leading the fight.

"We can go in two directions," Obama said in the campaign video. "One is toward less opportunity and less fairness. Or we can fight for where I think we need to go: building an economy that works for everyone, not just a wealthy few."

That line of argument is intended to tap directly into concerns of voters who think America has become a nation of income inequality, with rules rigged to help the rich. The degree to which Obama or his eventual Republican opponent can better connect with millions of hurting Americans is expected to determine November's presidential election.

Obama released his video hours ahead of the South Carolina primary, where Republican candidates fought in the latest fierce contest to become his general election rival.

The White House knows Obama is about to get his own stage to outline a re-election vision, but carefully. The speech is supposed to an American moment, not a campaign event.

Obama didn't mention national security or foreign policy in his preview, and he is not expected to break ground on either one in his speech.

He will focus on the economy and is expected to promote unfinished parts of his jobs plan, including the extension of a payroll tax cut that is soon to expire.

Whatever Obama proposes is likely to face long odds in a deeply divided Congress.

More people than not disapprove of Obama's handling of the economy, and he is showing real vulnerability among the independent voters who could swing the election. Yet he will step into the moment just as the economy is showing life. The unemployment rate is still at a troubling 8.5 percent, but at its lowest rate in nearly three years. Consumer confidence is up.

By giving a sneak peek to millions of supporters on his email list, Obama played to his Democratic base and sought to generate an even larger audience for Tuesday's address. He is unlikely to getter a bigger stage all year.

More people watched last year's State of the Union than tuned in to see Obama accept the Democratic presidential nomination in Denver in 2008.

The foundation of Obama's speech is the one he gave in Kansas last month, when he declared that the middle class was at a make-or-break moment and he railed against "you're on your own" economics of the Republican Party. His theme then was about a government that ensures people get a fair shot to succeed.

The State of the Union will be the details to back that up.

But even so, the speech will still be a framework ? part governing, part inspiration.

The details will be rolled out in full over the next several weeks, as part of Obama's next budget proposal and during his travels, which will allow him more media coverage.

On national security, Obama will ask the nation to reflect with him on a momentous year of change, including the end of the war in Iraq, the killing of al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and the Arab Spring protests, with people clamoring for freedom. He is expected to note the troubles posed by Iran and Syria without offering new positions about them.

Despite low expectations for legislation this year, Obama will offer short-term ideas that would require action from Congress. For now, the main looming to-do item is an extension of a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, both due to expire by March.

His travel schedule following his speech, to politically important regions, offers clues to the policies he was expected to unveil.

Both Phoenix and Las Vegas have been hard hit by foreclosures. Denver is where Obama outlined ways of helping college students deal with school loan debt. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Detroit are home to a number of manufacturers. And Michigan was a major beneficiary of the president's decision to intervene to rescue the American auto industry.

Republican leaders in Congress say Obama has made the chances of cooperation even dimmer just over the last several days. He enraged Republicans by installing a consumer watchdog chief by going around the Senate, which had blocked him, and then rejected a major oil pipeline project the GOP has embraced.

Obama is likely, once again, to offer ways in which a broken Washington must work together. Yet that theme seems but a dream given the gridlock he has been unable to change.

The address remains an old-fashioned moment of national attention; 43 million people watched it on TV last year. The White House website will offer a live stream of the speech, promising extra wrinkles for people who watch it there, and then invite people to send in questions to administration officials through social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

Obama's campaign is also organizing and promoting parties around the nation for people to watch the speech.

__

AP deputy director of polling Jennifer Agiesta and Associated Press writer Ken Thomas contributed to this report.

__

Online:

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov

___

Follow Ben Feller at http://twitter.com/BenFellerDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-21-US-Obama-State-of-the-Union/id-ff88c923470f497fa4e83a24497abb70

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Italian islanders ache for cruise victims (AP)

GIGLIO, Italy ? Natives of the tiny Italian island of Giglio come from hardy stock whose distant ancestors were accustomed to surviving ruthless raids by pirates and where today many eke out a living from often perilous seas.

But when islanders gaze out on the capsized wreck of the Costa Concordia, lying lifelessly on its side just outside their port like some giant beached creature from the sea, they pray and sigh in sorrow.

"Mamma mia, please excuse me, it makes me so emotional. Mamma mia," said Ornella Monti, whose house on Giglio, near the customs police station at the port, looks squarely out at the shipwreck.

"I had it all in front of my house," a weeping Monti said Sunday, as she lit electric candles in San Lorenzo church. "Dear God, help us."

"Let's give a lot of light for this girl," said Monti, lighting another candle and referring to a 5-year-old Dayana Arlotti, an Italian girl, who along with her father, is among the missing in the Jan. 13 accident.

Many of the 1,500 islanders, a tough breed of fishermen and their families who repair fishing nets by hand in the winter and take tourists out in painted wooden boats after a night of fishing at sea, were still shaken by the tragedy which unfolded in front of their eyes.

Women rushed out with blankets when shivering survivors stepped off lifeboats or staggered up rocks after swimming ashore when the evacuation of the 4,200 passengers and crew turned chaotic. Islanders offered children milk and biscuits, and invited stunned families into their homes to warm and calm themselves.

On a table in the church where Mass was celebrated Sunday were an array of items that surviving passengers had brought into San Lorenzo the night of the shipwreck ? life vests, helmets, pieces of rope ? reminders of the precarious nature of life at sea that islanders, 15 kilometers (11 miles) across from the mainland, know well.

Monti's apology for her tears contrasted sharply with the unabashed gawking of hundreds of mainlanders who hopped ferries in Porto Santo Stefano on the Tuscan coast to visit Giglio, renowned for its crystal clear waters and beauty as far back as ancient Roman times, over the weekend. Clambering over portside rocks, they snapped photos and made videos of the wreck to bring back home with them macabre mementos.

"They called us jackals," said Silvana Pasqualetti, of the islanders after she and her family set foot on the dock to view the wreckage. With her husband, adult son, and the son's girlfriend and niece, the family set out before daybreak from their home in Viterbo north of Rome on the mainland for Giglio.

"It's something you don't see every day," said her son, Massimo Menghini, 29, as the family caught an evening ferry back to the mainland. "Your jaw drops open when you see it in person, because it's history," he said

Pasqualetti added that she didn't "feel like a jackal" because "this macabre tourism brings tourist revenue to the islanders," whom she described as "exquisite" people.

From atop Giglio's highest peak, nearly 500 meters (1,650 feet) above sea level, and aided by binoculars, spectators to the tragedy can spy stacks of lounge chairs, chained together on the deck near the ship's swimming pool and kiddie pool, emptied of their water when the Concordia pitched over some 90 degrees.

On the other side of the Concordia, visible only from those approaching on boats is the gaping, 70-meter (230-foot) long gash, sliced into the hull of the ship when it sailed too close to a reef well known to scuba divers and sailors and near an isolated stretch of coast a few kilometers south of the bustling port.

___

Frances D'Emilio reported from Rome.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_cruise_aground_islanders

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The advantage of ambiguity in language

Friday, January 20, 2012

Why did language evolve? While the answer might seem obvious ? as a way for individuals to exchange information ? linguists and other students of communication have debated this question for years. Many prominent linguists, including MIT's Noam Chomsky, have argued that language is, in fact, poorly designed for communication. Such a use, they say, is merely a byproduct of a system that probably evolved for other reasons ? perhaps for structuring our own private thoughts.

As evidence, these linguists point to the existence of ambiguity: In a system optimized for conveying information between a speaker and a listener, they argue, each word would have just one meaning, eliminating any chance of confusion or misunderstanding. Now, a group of MIT cognitive scientists has turned this idea on its head. In a new theory, they claim that ambiguity actually makes language more efficient, by allowing for the reuse of short, efficient sounds that listeners can easily disambiguate with the help of context.

"Various people have said that ambiguity is a problem for communication," says Ted Gibson, an MIT professor of cognitive science and senior author of a paper describing the research to appear in the journal Cognition. "But once we understand that context disambiguates, then ambiguity is not a problem ? it's something you can take advantage of, because you can reuse easy [words] in different contexts over and over again."

Lead author of the paper is Steven Piantadosi PhD '11; Harry Tily, a postdoc in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, is another co-author.

What do you 'mean'?

For a somewhat ironic example of ambiguity, consider the word "mean." It can mean, of course, to indicate or signify, but it can also refer to an intention or purpose ("I meant to go to the store"); something offensive or nasty; or the mathematical average of a set of numbers. Adding an 's' introduces even more potential definitions: an instrument or method ("a means to an end"), or financial resources ("to live within one's means").

But virtually no speaker of English gets confused when he or she hears the word "mean." That's because the different senses of the word occur in such different contexts as to allow listeners to infer its meaning nearly automatically.

Given the disambiguating power of context, the researchers hypothesized that languages might harness ambiguity to reuse words ? most likely, the easiest words for language processing systems. Building on observation and previous studies, they posited that words with fewer syllables, high frequency and the simplest pronunciations should have the most meanings.

To test this prediction, Piantadosi, Tily and Gibson carried out corpus studies of English, Dutch and German. (In linguistics, a corpus is a large body of samples of language as it is used naturally, which can be used to search for word frequencies or patterns.) By comparing certain properties of words to their numbers of meanings, the researchers confirmed their suspicion that shorter, more frequent words, as well as those that conform to the language's typical sound patterns, are most likely to be ambiguous ? trends that were statistically significant in all three languages.

To understand why ambiguity makes a language more efficient rather than less so, think about the competing desires of the speaker and the listener. The speaker is interested in conveying as much as possible with the fewest possible words, while the listener is aiming to get a complete and specific understanding of what the speaker is trying to say. But as the researchers write, it is "cognitively cheaper" to have the listener infer certain things from the context than to have the speaker spend time on longer and more complicated utterances. The result is a system that skews toward ambiguity, reusing the "easiest" words. Once context is considered, it's clear that "ambiguity is actually something you would want in the communication system," Piantadosi says.

Implications for computer science

The researchers say the statistical nature of their paper reflects a trend in the field of linguistics, which is coming to rely more heavily on information theory and quantitative methods.

"The influence of computer science in linguistics right now is very high," Gibson says, adding that natural language processing (NLP) is a major goal of those operating at the intersection of the two fields.

Piantadosi points out that ambiguity in natural language poses immense challenges for NLP developers. "Ambiguity is only good for us [as humans] because we have these really sophisticated cognitive mechanisms for disambiguating," he says. "It's really difficult to work out the details of what those are, or even some sort of approximation that you could get a computer to use."

But, as Gibson says, computer scientists have long been aware of this problem. The new study provides a better theoretical and evolutionary explanation of why ambiguity exists, but the same message holds: "Basically, if you have any human language in your input or output, you are stuck with needing context to disambiguate," he says.

###

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice

Thanks to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116859/The_advantage_of_ambiguity_in_language

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