Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193466278?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Video: Analysis: Romney?s early lead
>>> we mentioned our political director and chief white house correspondent chuck todd paying a rare visit to the mothership tonight. first of all about newt gingrich , we are out of the moderating business, i guess.
>> apparently.
>> he kept telling reporters all weekend, look at the national polls where i'm leading. while that may be true, these numbers are moving in florida.
>> reporter: they are. because florida is the one state where there are $16 million of negative ads against newt gingrich , you don't have that in the other 49 states. that is benefitting newt gingrich a little bit. what is interesting about this lead from mitt romney and why it seems so solid going into tomorrow, we learned among folks who voted. 1/3 of floridians voted. he leads almost 2 - 1 , 49-27. the other argument you're going to hear newt gingrich make, the conservative vote is divided. we took second choice rick santorum voters, and assigned them to who their second choice is. they broke evenly, slight advantage mitt romney , 49-33 it tells you a little bit that some of the value voters for santorum are turned off by newt gingrich 's personal history.
>> i heard gingrich all weekend saying this will be wild, woolly and we are in it all what it to the fall, which he is free to say. what is the reality?
>> nobody says they are going to get out. number two, february will be a cold, cruel month. it may be short, but it's going to feel like an eternity for him. there's only four caucuses, proper primaries, no debate for three weeks. newt gingrich lived on this media and now he is relying on some guy in las vegas to keep funding his campaign. at some point he may run out of patience and not write any more checks.
>> always good to see you. nice to have you here with us in new york. chuck todd .
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46196450/
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Philips CEO warns H1 2012 "won't be easy" (Reuters)
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) ? Dutch Electronics giant Philips will book further, unspecified, restructuring charges in the first half of 2012, Chief Executive Officer Frans van Houten said on Monday.
"The first half of 2012 will see the impact of these charges and overall we are cautious about the development of the first half of the year. It is not going to be an easy first half," said Van Houten.
Earlier on Monday, Philips reported a 45 percent fall in fourth-quarter core profit due to losses at both its health and lighting divisions, and said it was cautious about 2012 given uncertainty in the global economy, particularly in Europe.
Van Houten also said the firm is committed to achieving its 2013 financial targets.
(Reporting By Roberta B. Cowan, Editing by Mark Potter)
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Cruise ship fuel removal stalled due to rough seas (AP)
GIGLIO, Italy ? Rough seas off Italy's Tuscan coast forced a delay in the planned Saturday start of the operation to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded Costa Concordia, and officials said pumping may now not begin until midweek.
Recovery operations continued, however, and on Saturday yielded a 17th body: The woman who wasn't wearing a life jacket was found by divers on the submerged sixth floor deck, civil protection officials said.
The Concordia ran aground on Jan. 13 off the port of the island of Giglio port after the captain deviated from his planned route and gashed the hull of the ship on a reef. Some 4,200 passengers and crew endured a panicked evacuation after the abandon ship alarm didn't sound until the ship had capsized so much that some life boats couldn't be lowered.
Some 16 people remain unaccounted for and are presumed dead.
On Saturday, the body found on the ship's deck on Jan. 28 was identified as Erika Soria Molina, 25, of Peru by Doris Sotomayor, Peru's consul general in Florence.
Sotomayor told The Associated Press that the body was found in a submerged part of the deck. Soria, who was wearing a service uniform, studied tourism in Peru and was born in the Andean city of Cuzco, southeast of Lima.
The removal of the fuel aboard the Concordia is a key concern since the seas around Giglio form part of a protected marine sanctuary and are a favorite destination for scuba divers. So far, no leakage has been detected.
Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit has been contracted by the Concordia's owner Costa Crociere SpA, a unit of Miami-based Carnival Corp., to remove the fuel. Smit's divers have made the necessary preparations to begin pumping out fuel from six outer tanks that hold more than half of the 500,000 gallons (1.9 million liters) of heavy fuel oil that are aboard the ship.
The rest of the fuel is contained in inner tanks that are harder to access.
So far, divers have drilled into four of the six outer tanks and fixed valves on them: one on top, one on bottom. Hoses will then be attached to the valves and as the oil ? which must be warmed to make it less gooey ? is sucked out of the upper hose, sea water is pumped in to fill the vacuum via the lower hose.
Smit spokesman Martijn Schuttevaer told reporters Saturday that the pumping operation may not begin now until midweek since the poor weather is forecast at least through Tuesday. Officials don't want to risk the possibility that a battering of the hoses caused by rough seas might lead to leakage.
On Saturday, the choppy waters partially dislodged Smit's barge that was hitched to the Concordia's hull and had served as a staging platform for the fuel removal operation. Smit brought it back into port, where it will stay until the weather improves, Schuttevaer said.
The Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, remains under house arrest, accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning a ship before its passengers had evacuated. He has admitted he took the ship on "tourist navigation" to bring it close to Giglio but said the reef he hit wasn't marked on his nautical charts.
___
Winfield reported from Rome. Franklin Briceno contributed in Lima, Peru.
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Feisty Gingrich stakes campaign on electability (AP)
SARASOTA, Fla. ? Newt Gingrich has staked his presidential bid on the idea that he's best positioned to defeat President Barack Obama. Yet even some supporters seem to be struggling to buy that claim, an indication that efforts by chief rival Mitt Romney to undercut him may be working.
"Beating Obama is more important than everything else," Patrick Roehl, a 51-year-old computer software engineer, said at a Gingrich rally inside a Sarasota airport hangar this past week. "Can Newt win? I'm not sure. He's got a lot of high negatives. The elections are won and lost in the middle. I'm not sure he appeals to the middle."
John Grainger, a 44-year-old assistant golf pro, doesn't like Romney. But he's having trouble shaking skepticism about Gingrich.
"I want to be a Newt supporter," he said. "This guy's going to have the guts to stand up and speak his piece ? no holds barred." But Grainger said he wasn't quite ready to back the former House speaker.
Interviews with more than a dozen Republican voters at Gingrich's overflowing rallies ahead of Tuesday's primary suggest that many Florida voters love his brash style as they look for someone to take it to Obama. But these voters also have lingering doubts about whether Gingrich really is Obama's most serious threat.
Romney and his allies are working to stoke those doubts, and the GOP's establishment wing has started to help the former Massachusetts governor try to make that case.
Romney and his backers are highlighting what they consider Gingrich's liabilities ? consulting contracts and ethics investigations among them. They're suggesting that more baggage could emerge in the fall in the general election.
"In the case of the speaker, he's got some records which could represent an October surprise," Romney said, referring to Gingrich's consulting work and ethics allegations when he was in the House. "We could see an October surprise a day from Newt Gingrich."
An outside group dedicated to helping Romney has spent almost $9 million on Florida television advertising, including a massive $4 million investment this week alone, to make the case even more explicitly.
"Newt Gingrich's tough talk sounds good, but Newt has tons of baggage. How will he ever beat Obama?" says the new ad from the so-called super PAC, Restore Our Future.
Gingrich is not letting such criticism go unanswered. He's telling everyone that he alone can defeat Obama. He points to his 12 percentage point victory last weekend in the South Carolina primary as proof.
Exit polling there showed that 51 percent of Republican voters said that Gingrich was better suited to defeat the Democratic president.
"Their highest value was beating Obama," Gingrich told evangelical voters this past week. "And if they thought Romney was the only person who could beat Obama, then they would swallow a lie. But the minute they thought there were two people who could beat Obama, they suddenly turned and said, Well, you know, maybe we should be for Newt."
Polls suggest that Gingrich could defeat Romney in Florida, a surge fueled partly by growing support from the tea party movement and continued anti-Romney sentiment.
"He's a fighter. Mitt, I think, is too wishy-washy," said Dominique Boscia, a 43-year-old unemployed woman from Lakewood Ranch. "I like feisty people. I like people who have spunk."
For months, Gingrich has used aggressive debate performances to fuel his underdog candidacy. He has thrilled conservatives by promising to take the fight directly to Obama in a series of free-form debates modeled after the 1860 meetings between Illinois Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas.
Should Obama refuse, Gingrich says he'll follow the president until he agrees.
That gets good applause lines at rallies. But a closer look at polling suggests that a debate beat down doesn't necessarily mean Gingrich can beat the president in an election that will include independents and Democrats.
Gingrich struggled among independents in a recent Washington Post-ABC News national poll, in which 53 percent gave him unfavorable marks and just 22 percent had a favorable opinion of the former House speaker. While Romney has typically polled better among independents, the poll conducted between Jan. 18 and 22 found virtually no difference: 51 percent of independents viewed him unfavorably, compared with 23 with favorable views.
But when all Florida voters, including independents and Democrats, are asked to weigh in, Romney appears to have a strong advantage over Gingrich, according to a poll conducted by Suffolk University-WSVN-TV Miami. Romney would defeat Obama here 47 percent to 42 percent; Gingrich would lose, earning just 40 percent to Obama's 49 percent of likely Florida general election voters.
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
[OOC] order of the hawk: the edge of time
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Video: Century 21 Hopes to Score Big in Super Bowl Ad
Real estate giant Century 21 will be advertising for the first time during the big game. Insight with Bev Thorne, Century 21 Real Estate chief marketing officer.
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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46164411/
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NASA Releases New High-Definition Image of Earth
New submitter klchoward writes "Working for NOAA, I have been really pleased to see the weather data from the new Suomi NPP satellite coming into our computer models already but have been blown away by its capability to take stunning high-definition images of our planet. See the article at Huffington Post or go straight to the image at NASA's website." Reader derekmead has some images from further afield, too: these beautiful images of Mars come from NASA's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera, mounted on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Spielberg Commits to Moses Epic
After going three years without a new directorial effort, 65 year-old blockbuster maestro Steven Spielberg has suddenly become as busy (if not more so) than he was before. He just recently wrapped up production on this year?s already-buzzed-about historical biopic, Lincoln, will begin shooting the sci-fi thriller Robopocalypse before the end of 2012 ? and is on the verge of officially signing on to helm a new grand-scale Biblical epic, titled Gods and Kings.
Word about Warner Bros. wanting Spielberg to helm the studio?s expensive Moses retelling leaked out back in September 2011, but the director has been so busy executive producing seemingly every other new or upcoming TV show (Terra Nova, Smash, The River, etc.) AND actually directing films, that the studio has only now managed to get him to commit.
Similar to previous cinematic versions of the Moses story ? including Cecil B. Demille?s 1923 silent version and?his famous?1956 remake of The Ten Commandments ? Gods and Kings?dramatizes the life of the iconic Jewish prophet, beginning with him as a infant being rescued from the Nile, and moving on through to his revelation of the ten basic ethical principles decreed by God.However, according to Deadline, Gods and Kings is a far cry from Demille?s The Ten Commandments, with regards to tone. The project is instead being fashioned as ?a ?Braveheart?-ish version of the Moses Story? that will be visually realized in the unvarnished style of Spielberg?s Saving Private Ryan. In other words, this is yet another Hollywood flick being trumped up as ?dark and gritty,? by design.
If all goes according to plan, Spielberg will be mostly done with post-production work on Robopocalypse by the time he begins principal photography on Gods and Kings during the early portion of Spring 2013.
Steven Spielberg will take on the Moses story with 'Gods and Kings'
Dan Lin (the Sherlock Holmes movies) is also onboard to produce Gods and Kings. The flick is being scripted by BAFTA nominee Stuart Hazeldine (who is also a co-writer on the upcoming Paradise Lost adaptation) and Michael Green, a onetime co-showrunner for Everwood and Heroes, who owns screen story credit on Green Lantern.
That screenwriting duo reads as being somewhat mixed, but?everyone involved in the creative process on Gods and Kings?is well-versed in the art of massive blockbuster entertainment ? and none more so than Spielberg. So, if nothing else, expect this flick to be an grandiose big-screen presentation of Moses? plight that realizes the story?s iconic moments (such as the parting of the Red Sea) with impressive cinematic panache.
Therein lies the rub of having Spielberg direct Gods and Kings, unfortunately. His three most recent directorial projects (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Adventures of Tintin, and War Horse) were all very sleek and glossy productions, as is also expected to be the case with Lincoln and Robopocalypse. Hence, Spielberg might be a little rusty when it comes to making films in the truly gritty and cin?ma v?rit? style of Saving Private Ryan ? which, as mentioned before, is the plan for Gods and Kings.
Minor quibbles like that aside ? this IS still Spielberg we?re talking about here. If anyone is truly qualified to oversee a properly epic treatment of the Moses story, it?s (arguably) him. So, take all that as you will.
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We will continue to keep you updated on the status of Gods and Kings as the story develops.
Source: Deadline
Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1924384/news/1924384/
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Pharma's niche focus spurs US aid for antibiotics (AP)
WASHINGTON ? The pharmaceutical industry won approval to market a record number of new drugs for rare diseases last year, as a combination of scientific innovation and business opportunity spurred new treatments for diseases long-ignored by drug companies.
Drug companies are increasingly taking advantage of the commercial benefits of developing so-called orphan drugs, which include extra patent protections, higher pricing and a streamlined review process by FDA. Among the innovative treatments approved in the past year were the first new drug for lupus in 50 years and the first new drug for Hodgkin's lymphoma in 30 years.
But the focus on specialty drugs has put pressure on the U.S. government to ramp up its own spending on vaccines, antibiotics and drugs for more widespread health threats, which are less profitable for companies.
Since 2006, government spending on research for familiar diseases like staph infections, smallpox and botulism has increased more than 660 percent, from $54 million to $415 million last year
"Many of these are everyday, general diseases that we thought we had conquered decades ago, but we've seen some of them pop up again," said Dr. Robin Robinson, director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which is tasked with acquiring vaccines, drugs and other necessities for public health emergencies.
Since 2005, BARDA has awarded $3.5 billion to outside companies to encourage research and production of antibiotics, flu vaccines and other products that are seen as less profitable than specialty drugs.
"We have pushed the envelope more toward diminishing the risk for companies so that they'll be more interested in getting involved with us and developing things like vaccines and antivirals," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious diseases chief at the National Institutes of Health, which funds research into bird flu, tuberculosis and other potential pandemics. The government's role in developing new therapies goes beyond awarding contracts and includes offering assistance in designing trials and recruiting test subjects.
The need for such assistance stems in part from a new focus among pharmaceutical companies on drugs for rare diseases or unusual strains of common diseases.
Eleven of the 30 new drugs approved last year, or 37 percent, were for rare medical conditions, the highest percentage on record since the FDA began offering incentives to develop such therapies, known as orphan drugs, about 30 years ago. Additionally, nearly half of the 30 drugs were cleared under FDA's "fast track" program reserved for drugs that fill an unmet medical need.
"The companies are saying `this is actually a viable model.' Whereas back in the nineties they were skeptical, now they seem convinced," said Mark Schoenebaum, an analyst with International Strategy & Investment.
Analysts credit scientific advances and looming patent expirations with the spate of innovative products. Drugs worth a mammoth $255 billion in global annual sales are set to go off patent before 2016, according to EvaluatePharma Ltd., a London research firm.
The pharmaceutical industry reached its peak of profitability in the 1990s with heavily marketed drugs for common afflictions, like AstraZeneca PLC's Nexium pill for heart burn and Pfizer Inc.'s Lipitor for high cholesterol. In the last decade drugmakers managed to extend the patents on those drugs by tweaking their formulations, resulting in so-called `follow-on' drugs. But with most of those products on the cusp of losing patent protection, drugmakers have finally been forced to innovate, often turning to hard-to-treat diseases for which there are few existing therapies.
The FDA grants companies seven years of exclusive, competition-free marketing for each newly approved orphan drug, as well as tax breaks on the costs of developing the drugs. Orphan drugs also typically command much higher prices than other drugs. Last year French drugmaker Sanofi paid $20 billion to acquire specialty drugmaker Genzyme, whose products range from $100,000 to $300,000 for one year's supply.
One side effect of the focus on developing drugs for rare diseases is increased investment by the government to spur research into more common public health threats with the potential to cause mass outbreaks of illness. One such threat comes from so-called superbugs, or bacteria that have grown resistant to antibiotic drugs.
Robinson says government support is needed to spur antibiotic development because of how sparingly the products are used in medical practice. After decades of routine use, many first-generation antibiotics like penicillin are no longer effective against common bacterial strains, such as the staphylococcus aureaus, which causes staph infections. Physicians are encouraged to use newer antibiotics only in critical situations so that superbugs have less chance to build a resistance to them. As a result, drugmakers do not see a large commercial market for new antibiotics. Now the federal government is providing an incentive.
BARDA has awarded a series of contracts to encourage development of new antibiotics that can be stockpiled for use in a natural outbreak or during a bioterrorism attack.
? The agency has allocated up to $64 million to Achaogen, a San Francisco startup, for development of a new antibiotic against tularemia, a bacterium that can cause pneumonia and urinary tract infections. Public health officials are especially focused on Tularemia because it could also be used in a potential bioterrorism attack. Robinson says the contract is an example a new strategy of encouraging companies to produce therapies with dual uses: as federal preparatory measures and as commercial medical products.
Achaogen has received $155 million in research contracts and has several antibiotics in early and mid-stage, though none are currently available for sale.
? Under a $38.5 million contract awarded in September, BARDA will help GlaxoSmithKline PLC test an experimental antibiotic against both bioterrorism agents and infections like hospital-acquired pneumonia.
The U.S. government has used a similar pump priming strategy to encourage investment in flu vaccines. The Department of Health and Human Services wants to be able to provide enough vaccine for the entire U.S. population within six months of a flu pandemic. To meet that goal the government has tried to boost vaccine production by encouraging more Americans to get the standard flu vaccine each year. The government's hope is that by making the shots routine for more Americans, companies will invest in larger vaccine facilities that can ramp up production in the event of a pandemic.
Last month Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG opened the first U.S. vaccine facility equipped with cell culture technology, a faster method for producing vaccines than the traditional technique using chicken eggs. The U.S. government provided half of the $1 billion investment for the facility, as part of its preparations for a potential flu pandemic.
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Nintendo sees first annual loss, cuts 3DS forecast (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Nintendo Co Ltd posted a sharp drop in quarterly profit and forecast a bigger-than-expected full-year loss, its first at an operating level, as it battles a strong yen and its games devices lose ground to gadgets such as Apple's iPhone.
The creator of the Super Mario franchise dominated the video games industry for years with its DS handheld players and Wii home consoles, but is now struggling to keep up as more versatile smartphone and tablet sales boom.
"To say that (the days of consoles) are over is likely an overstatement, but social network and Internet delivered games are growing and structurally changing the future of the industry, which is a strong wind against Nintendo," said Shigeo Sugawara, senior investment manager at Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Asset Management.
Nintendo now expects an annual operating loss of 45 billion yen ($575 million), dwarfing expectations of a 4.2 billion yen loss, based on the average of 21 analyst forecasts.
"Their time of growth (from consoles) is over, and, while I don't think the company will cease to exist, if they don't move into new categories, they will no doubt lose the great scale they've amassed," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management in Tokyo.
Nintendo cut its forecast for annual sales of its ageing Wii console to 10 million devices from 12 million, and for the 3DS handheld games device to 14 million from 16 million.
"We had higher expectations for the year-end season, but failed to meet them," President Satoru Iwata told reporters in Osaka.
Poor sales forced Nintendo to slash the price of its much-anticipated 3DS handheld games device in August, just six months after its launch.
The move halted its record of making profits on games hardware as well as software, a business model that took operating income to a high of 555 billion yen in 2008/09.
Nintendo also faces tougher competition in the home console market from Sony Corp's Move and Microsoft Corp's Kinect, and Iwata said consumers were more eager than ever to seek out bargains in the harsh economic environment.
The company plans to launch the Wii's successor, the Wii U, in Japan, the United States, Europe and Australia in the year-end season, Iwata told reporters.
But with cloud-based gaming emerging as a potential threat, Nintendo may have trouble generating excitement about its new product, some analysts say. Google is taking steps into gaming with Google TV, while Apple is thought to be preparing a new iPad and possibly a smart TV that could be game-changers for the industry.
"We think we need to consider the possibility that home consoles could become a thing of the past," Citigroup analyst Soichiro Fukuda wrote in a recent report.
"We think the direction taken by marketing trendsetter Apple will be very important and we will be watching the company's announcements at future events with interest."
PROFIT FALLS
Nintendo's profit slumped to 40.9 billion yen for the traditionally strong October-December period, compared with a consensus estimate for 52 billion yen, based on a survey of three analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The results came a day after Apple blew away Wall Street's expectations with its own quarterly earnings.
Shares in Nintendo have halved to below 11,000 yen since the beginning of the financial year in April, hit by weak 3DS sales and market disappointment with the Wii U next-generation home console, unveiled at the E3 games show in June and set to go on sale late this year. At their peak, in late 2007, the shares traded at 73,200 yen.
Last week, the stock dipped to 10,020 yen, the lowest since April 2004, before either the DS or Wii were launched.
($1 = 77.58)
(Reporting by Yoshiyuki Osada in OSAKA and Isabel Reynolds in TOKYO; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Ian Geoghegan)
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Nintendo sees first annual loss, cuts 3DS forecast (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Nintendo Co Ltd posted a sharp drop in quarterly profit and forecast a bigger-than-expected full-year loss, its first at an operating level, as it battles a strong yen and its games devices lose ground to gadgets such as Apple's iPhone.
The creator of the Super Mario franchise dominated the video games industry for years with its DS handheld players and Wii home consoles, but is now struggling to keep up as more versatile smartphone and tablet sales boom.
"To say that (the days of consoles) are over is likely an overstatement, but social network and Internet delivered games are growing and structurally changing the future of the industry, which is a strong wind against Nintendo," said Shigeo Sugawara, senior investment manager at Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Asset Management.
Nintendo now expects an annual operating loss of 45 billion yen ($575 million), dwarfing expectations of a 4.2 billion yen loss, based on the average of 21 analyst forecasts.
"Their time of growth (from consoles) is over, and, while I don't think the company will cease to exist, if they don't move into new categories, they will no doubt lose the great scale they've amassed," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management in Tokyo.
Nintendo cut its forecast for annual sales of its ageing Wii console to 10 million devices from 12 million, and for the 3DS handheld games device to 14 million from 16 million.
"We had higher expectations for the year-end season, but failed to meet them," President Satoru Iwata told reporters in Osaka.
Poor sales forced Nintendo to slash the price of its much-anticipated 3DS handheld games device in August, just six months after its launch.
The move halted its record of making profits on games hardware as well as software, a business model that took operating income to a high of 555 billion yen in 2008/09.
Nintendo also faces tougher competition in the home console market from Sony Corp's Move and Microsoft Corp's Kinect, and Iwata said consumers were more eager than ever to seek out bargains in the harsh economic environment.
The company plans to launch the Wii's successor, the Wii U, in Japan, the United States, Europe and Australia in the year-end season, Iwata told reporters.
But with cloud-based gaming emerging as a potential threat, Nintendo may have trouble generating excitement about its new product, some analysts say. Google is taking steps into gaming with Google TV, while Apple is thought to be preparing a new iPad and possibly a smart TV that could be game-changers for the industry.
"We think we need to consider the possibility that home consoles could become a thing of the past," Citigroup analyst Soichiro Fukuda wrote in a recent report.
"We think the direction taken by marketing trendsetter Apple will be very important and we will be watching the company's announcements at future events with interest."
PROFIT FALLS
Nintendo's profit slumped to 40.9 billion yen for the traditionally strong October-December period, compared with a consensus estimate for 52 billion yen, based on a survey of three analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The results came a day after Apple blew away Wall Street's expectations with its own quarterly earnings.
Shares in Nintendo have halved to below 11,000 yen since the beginning of the financial year in April, hit by weak 3DS sales and market disappointment with the Wii U next-generation home console, unveiled at the E3 games show in June and set to go on sale late this year. At their peak, in late 2007, the shares traded at 73,200 yen.
Last week, the stock dipped to 10,020 yen, the lowest since April 2004, before either the DS or Wii were launched.
($1 = 77.58)
(Reporting by Yoshiyuki Osada in OSAKA and Isabel Reynolds in TOKYO; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Ian Geoghegan)
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Video: Avalanche nearly buries snowmobiler alive
An avalanche in Washington State Sunday nearly buried a snowmobiler alive. Luckily, his friends were nearby and rushed to dig him out. TODAY?s Natalie Morales reports.
>> this could have ended badly for snowmobilers in washington state sunday. an avalanche buried one alive and immediately the group of friends rushed to get him out. they were able to dig out his head and grabbed shovels to dig him out completely. luckily, everyone is doing okay. that's a frightening situation. 7:17 now. back
Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/46114833/
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Off the Bench: Cutler, Cavallari are expecting
Jay Cutler is more accurate than we thought. The roller coaster relationship between the Chicago Bears quarterback and former Dancing With the Stars contestant Kristin Cavallari took another turn on Sunday when they made this joint statement to People Magazine.
?We are thrilled to announce we are expecting our first child together,? they tell PEOPLE exclusively. ?It?s an amazing time in our life and we can?t wait to meet the new addition to our growing family.?
For those keeping score at home, Cutler and Cavalleri were set to be married this past July, then broke up, then got re-engaged in November. This has all led to one of the best quotes of all time. Cutler in Dec., on their wedding plans:
?You guys probably know as well as I do, I don?t really make a lot of those decisions. I?m kind of just along for the ride. ? I hear about them in passing or if I have to possibly write a check or something of that sort. Other than that, whatever she wants to do, I?m on board.?
Source: http://offthebench.nbcsports.com/2012/01/23/jay-cutler-kristin-cavallari-are-expecting/related/
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Romney looks to hit back at Gingrich in Florida
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at The River Church, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at The River Church, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, holds a discussion on housing and foreclosure, Monday,Jan. 23, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, arrives at PGT Industries in North Venice, Fla., Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) ? Unwilling to wait for an evening debate, Republican presidential rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich got a head start on the squabbling on Monday in a campaign turning more caustic by the day.
Romney, trounced by Gingrich in last weekend's weekend South Carolina primary, began airing a harshly critical new campaign ad and said the former House speaker had engaged in "potentially wrongful activity" with the consulting work he did after leaving Congress in the late 1990s.
Gingrich retorted that Romney was a candidate who was campaigning on openness yet "has released none of his business records."
He followed up two hours before the debate by arranging the release of a contract his former consulting firm had with the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. for a retainer of $25,000 per month in 2006, or a total for the year of $300,000. The agreement called for "consulting and related services."
Despite Romney's attempts to call Gingrich a lobbyist, the contract makes no mention of lobbying.
Aside from Romney and Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul had spots on the debate stage for the first of two encounters scheduled before the Jan. 31 Florida primary.
Increasingly, though, the race for the nomination appeared to be a two-way competition between the former Massachusetts governor and the one-time speaker of the House.
After relying on allies to make most of the attacks on his rivals earlier in the campaign, Romney unleashed a commercial that went straight at Gingrich.
"While Florida families lost everything in the housing crisis, Newt Gingrich cashed in," the TV ad says, noting that the former speaker made more than $1.6 million working for Freddie Mac. "Gingrich resigned from Congress in disgrace and then cashed in as a D.C. insider."
Gingrich never registered as a lobbyist, but said he was a consultant for Freddie Mac, the federally backed mortgage company that played a significant role in the housing crisis.
It remains to be seen if Romney can effectively use his newly aggressive stance on the debate stage, a forum in which Gingrich has excelled so far. Underfunded and overmatched by Romney's massive ground game across the country, Gingrich has relied upon strong debate performances to build support.
It appears Romney has brought in outside help to improve his debate technique.
Veteran debate coach Brett O'Donnell was spotted at a Romney campaign stop on Monday. He previously advised President George W. Bush and GOP nominee John McCain and was a senior adviser and speech writer for Michele Bachmann's abbreviated campaign.
Gingrich showed no signs of backing down.
During an appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America," he referred to Romney as "somebody who has released none of his business records, who has decided to make a stand on transparency without being transparent." After initially balking, Romney is set to release personal tax records on Tuesday.
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Bruce Springsteen Announces First Leg Of Wrecking Ball Tour
Stateside portion of first tour since Clarence Clemons' death begins March 18 in Atlanta.
By James Montgomery
Bruce Springsteen
Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band had been teasing a lengthy run of U.S. shows in support of the upcoming Wrecking Ball album, and on Tuesday (January 24), they finally revealed the first leg of dates.
Kicking off March 18 in Atlanta, the first stateside portion of the Wrecking Ball World Tour sees Bruce and the Band playing arenas in cities like Tampa, Boston, Philadelphia, East Rutherford, New Jersey — of course — New York, Detroit and Los Angeles, before coming to a close with a May 2 gig in Newark. Select dates go on sale as early as Friday. For more information, check out the Boss's .
The shows mark Springsteen's first U.S. gigs since the death of founding E Street member Clarence Clemons last year. Much like the title of the tour implies, they'll be playing songs from the upcoming Wrecking Ball album, which hits stores on March 6. Just last week, Springsteen premiered the first single off the album, a surging slice of Americana called "We Take Care of Our Own," and early reports seem to indicate that the new disc may very well be a heavy, heady thing, featuring guests like Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello and Pearl Jam's Matt Chamberlain, and tackling issues like economic injustice.
The first leg of Bruce Springsteen's Wrecking Ball Tour, according to a spokesperson:
» 3/18 -- Atlanta, GA @ Philips Arena
» 3/19 -- Greensboro, NC @ Greensboro Coluseum
» 3/23 -- Tampa, FL @ Tampa Bay Times Forum
» 3/26 -- Boston, MA @ TD Garden
» 3/28, 29 -- Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
» 4/1 -- Washington, DC @ Verizon Center
» 4/3, 4 -- East Rutherford, NJ @ Izod Center
» 4/6, 9 -- New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
» 4/12 -- Detroit, MI @ The Palace of Auburn Hills
» 4/13 -- Buffalo, NY @ First Niagara Center
» 4/16 -- Albany, NY @ Times Union Center
» 4/17 -- Cleveland, OH @ Quicken Loans Arena
» 4/24 -- San Jose, CA @ HP Pavilion
» 4/26 -- Los Angeles, CA @ Los Angeles Memorial
Sports Arena » 4/29 -- New Orleans, LA @ New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
» 5/2 -- Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677788/bruce-springsteen-wrecking-ball-tour-dates.jhtml
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Police seek suspect in Huckabee relative's death
ARKADELPHIA, Ark. (AP) ? Authorities in Arkansas were searching Sunday for a suspect wanted in a homicide and kidnapping case involving a distant relative of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Police issued an arrest warrant for Donald Hux after investigators found the body of Sandy Carl Huckabee at his home in Arkadelphia, which is about 70 miles southwest of Little Rock.
Former Huckabee spokesman Jim Harris said Sandy Huckabee's father was the first cousin of former presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee's father.
Authorities said Hux abducted his ex-wife, Amy Huckabee, and their three children in Arkadelphia before he drove to El Dorado, which is about 80 miles away. He dropped the children off somewhere in southern Arkansas' Union County, which is where El Dorado is located, the local sheriff's office said in a statement. Union County Sheriff's Capt. Clark Burton told The Associated Press the children were not hurt.
Meanwhile, police in Arkadelphia learned about the situation and went to the Huckabee home to do a welfare check. They found Sandy Huckabee's body inside, but they had yet to find his wife, Amy Huckabee, as of Sunday evening.
Hux is wanted on capital murder, kidnapping, burglary and firearms charges.
He was last seen driving a tan 2005 Chevrolet extended cab truck with the license plate 487-MDZ.
No one answered the phone at one number listed for Donald Hux in El Dorado. Another number for Donald Hux there was disconnected.
Harris, the spokesman when Huckabee was governor, said the former Republican governor was traveling Sunday but had learned of the distant relative's death.
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Monday, January 23, 2012
South Carolina Election Results: Conservatives, Economy Fuel Newt Gingrich Win
By ALAN FRAM AND JENNIFER AGIESTA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON ? Strong backing from conservative and religious voters and people fretting about the uncertain economy fueled Newt Gingrich's victory Saturday in South Carolina's Republican presidential primary, an exit poll of voters showed Saturday.
The figures also showed that for the first time, the former House speaker had grabbed two constituencies that his chief rival, Mitt Romney, has captured in the year's two previous GOP contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. By slight margins, he bested Romney among voters looking for someone to defeat President Barack Obama this November, and those who considered the economy the top issue in deciding which candidate to back.
Gingrich benefited most from the campaign's final, tumultuous week, the figures showed. Just over half said they'd chosen a candidate in the last few days, and they backed Gingrich over Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, by 2-1. By a slightly stronger margin, the roughly two-thirds who said campaign debates were an important factor also supported Gingrich. There were two GOP debates in South Carolina during the past week.
In the last days of the campaign, Romney stumbled badly when asked repeatedly whether he will release his income tax returns. Gingrich endured an allegation by one of his two former wives, Marianne, that he had asked permission for an open marriage while he was having an affair with his current wife, Callista.
That accusation seemed to take only a slight toll on Gingrich. Gingrich got less than 10 percent support from people who said what they most wanted in a candidate was strong moral character, but these voters were less than 1 in 5 of those who showed up Saturday at the polls.
In addition, Gingrich did slightly better than Romney among women, and polled a bit more strongly among married than unmarried women.
Gingrich won healthy margins among the state's conservatives, who comprise more than 6 in 10 voters in the state. While that was bad news for Romney, it was even more damaging to Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who has been dueling with Gingrich to become the GOP's conservative champion and alternative to Romney.
Gingrich won among conservatives and tea party supporters by nearly 2-1 over Romney. Santorum was slightly behind.
Illustrating the sweep of Gingrich's victory over Romney, Gingrich triumphed among all age groups. The only income group that Romney won was people making above $200,000 a year ? 1 in 20 of those who voted Saturday.
Nearly two-thirds of voters Saturday said they are born again or evangelical Christians, and they backed Gingrich over Romney by 2-1 also.
More telling, 6 in 10 voters said it was important that their candidate share their religious beliefs. Nearly half of such voters backed Gingrich, while only around 1 in 5 chose Romney or Santorum.
About 8 in 10 voters said they were very worried about the direction of the country's economy, and they picked Gingrich over Romney by about a 4-3 edge.
Romney's earlier career heading Bain Capital, a venture capital firm, clearly wounded his prospects. During much of the campaign, Gingrich and others accused Romney and his company of killing jobs in the companies they bought and restructured.
Those blows showed on Saturday. According to the exit polls, Gingrich and Romney broke about even among the 6 in 10 voters who said they had a positive view of Romney's activities at Bain. But among those who viewed Romney's work negatively, half picked Gingrich and almost none backed Romney.
Underscoring how poorly Romney fared in South Carolina, only about 4 in 10 voters Saturday said they could enthusiastically back Romney should he eventually win the GOP nomination.
The survey was conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research as voters left their polling places at 35 randomly selected sites in South Carolina. The survey involved interviews with 2,381 voters and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/21/south-carolina-election-results_n_1221390.html
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Over 100,000 rally in Hungary to back government in EU row (Reuters)
BUDAPEST (Reuters) ? More than 100,000 people rallied Saturday in a show of support for the embattled Hungarian government, as it prepares to compromise in a bitter row with the European Union to secure a vital loan.
Labeled a "March of Peace" the demonstration was by far the largest rally since the government took power in May 2010, in what analysts said was a reminder that Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party remains a potent political force.
Orban's center-right government, accused by Brussels of threatening the independence of the media, judiciary and central bank, backed down earlier this week, aiming to prop up its battered forint currency and keep access to financial markets.
The government has said it will work out details of necessary legal changes by Monday after the European Commission started infringement procedures in the three areas, saying Budapest's new laws failed to comply with EU rules.
Orban is travelling to Brussels Tuesday to try to hammer out a political agreement with EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, in order to be able to start formal talks with the EU and International Monetary Fund about a loan deal.
Amid the diplomatic wrangle and market swings the government has also seen its popular support dwindle and big demonstrations against its policies have become regular.
According to a fresh opinion poll, 84 percent of people think things are going in the wrong direction, although the opposition is fragmented and Fidesz still commands the support of about 1.5 million voters in the country of 10 million.
"Those who are here, many of us also think things are not going in a good direction," Bela Petrik, a 22-year-old economy student from Budapest, said at Budapest's Heroes Square as people gathered for a march to parliament.
"But these mistakes should not lead to speculative attacks that serve the interests of nobody except the speculators."
NO COLONY OF THE WEST
The organizers of the rally, billionaire Gabor Szeles, news magazine editor Andras Bencsik and others said the rally was to show Hungary would not bow to the West.
"We won't be a dominion, we don't want to be a colony," Bencsik told the crowd. "This is our message to those abroad. "The other is we fully support Viktor Orban, and we are proud of what we achieved at the 2010 elections."
Political analyst Zoltan Kiszelly said the size of the crowd was a clear message that Fidesz was by far the strongest political force in the country.
"They have shown the political left that the street does not belong to them," Kiszelly told Reuters. "And they have sent a message to the government's partners abroad to stop trying to tell us what to do, the government is doing fine."
"The way the Italian or the Greek governments were removed will not work in Hungary, and early elections are out of the question with this kind of public support."
Judit Marcsok, a 43-year-old homemaker from Mogyorod, said she was appalled at the tone EU politicians used in their critique of Hungary.
"I was completely enraged when socialist and liberal MEP's screamed this week in Strasbourg, with veins on their necks bulging, at the Hungarian prime minister," she said. "This is no way to negotiate, this is no attitude to any country."
(Reporting by Marton Dunai; editing by Andrew Roche)
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Study finds internet addiction causes changes in brain development (Yahoo! News)
A new look at the human brain shows little difference between internet addicts and drug addicts
Is Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) real? A new study suggests it may be ? and that its effects can be seen in the?human brain.
The study asked those between the ages 14 and 21 questions about how their?internet use had negatively impacted their lives. Many of these questions run parallel to those that help diagnose an alcohol or drug problem: "Have you lied to your family members, therapist, or others to hide the truth of your involvement with the internet?" "Have you taken the risk of losing a significant relationship, job, educational, or career opportunity because of the internet?" Researchers followed up with questions to the subjects' friends and families.
Participants who were found to be "addicted" to the internet had significant differences in brain development than those who were not. These include areas of lower volume in the parts of the brain that control emotional processing, executive thinking skills and attention, and cognitive control ? very similar to the?brain changes in drug addicts. There also appeared to be disruptions in the white matter between brain cells, affecting how neurons communicate with each other. The longer a person had suffered from IAD, the more pronounced the brain differences were.
There are a lot of questions still present in light of the study. Researchers are not sure whether addiction to the internet causes peoples'?brains to develop differently, or whether the brains were already like this, making people more susceptible addiction.
(Source)
This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca
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Huge oil rig arrives to explore in Cuban waters
An oil rig floats in the distance as fishermen work in Havana Bay, Cuba, Thursday Jan. 19, 2012. The Chinese-built oil rig has arrived to Cuba to start exploratory drilling beneath the waters off Cuba's northern coast. Cuban leaders hope the rig will bring riches to a Communist country that is sorely in need of an economic boost. Spanish company Repsol is carrying out the exploratory effort under a contract with the Cuban government. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)
An oil rig floats in the distance as fishermen work in Havana Bay, Cuba, Thursday Jan. 19, 2012. The Chinese-built oil rig has arrived to Cuba to start exploratory drilling beneath the waters off Cuba's northern coast. Cuban leaders hope the rig will bring riches to a Communist country that is sorely in need of an economic boost. Spanish company Repsol is carrying out the exploratory effort under a contract with the Cuban government. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)
In this photo taken on Jan. 12, 2012, a boy sits on a horse drawn carriage while his father, unseen, cuts grass near an oscillating oil pump operated by the state oil company Cuba Petroleos, Cupet, in Santa Cruz del Norte, Cuba. A Chinese-built oil rig has arrived to Cuba in January to start exploratory drilling beneath the waters off Cuba's northern coast. Cuban leaders hope the rig will bring riches to a Communist country that is sorely in need of an economic boost. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)
In this photo taken on Jan. 12, 2012, a man waves from his classic car as he drives by oscillating oil pumps operated by the state oil company Cuba Petroleos, Cupet, in Santa Cruz del Norte, Cuba. A Chinese-built oil rig has arrived to Cuba in January to start exploratory drilling beneath the waters off Cuba's northern coast. Cuban leaders hope the rig will bring riches to a Communist country that is sorely in need of an economic boost. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)
In this photo taken on Jan. 12, 2012, Alfonso Arias rides his horse next to an oil pump operated by the state oil company Cuba Petroleos, Cupet, in Santa Cruz del Norte, Cuba. A Chinese-built oil rig has arrived to Cuba in January to start exploratory drilling beneath the waters off Cuba's northern coast. Cuban leaders hope the rig will bring riches to a Communist country that is sorely in need of an economic boost. Spanish company Repsol is carrying out the exploratory effort under a contract with the Cuban government. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)
In this photo taken on Jan. 12, 2012, oil worker Eduardo Garcia labors next to an oscillating oil pump run by state oil company Cuba Petroleos, Cupet, in Santa Cruz del Norte, Cuba. A Chinese-built oil rig has arrived to Cuba in January to start exploratory drilling beneath the waters off Cuba's northern coast. Cuban leaders hope the rig will bring riches to a Communist country that is sorely in need of an economic boost. Spanish company Repsol is carrying out the exploratory effort under a contract with the Cuban government. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)
HAVANA (AP) ? A massive drilling rig arrived Thursday in the warm Gulf waters north of Havana, where it will sink an exploratory well deep into the seabed, launching Cuba's dreams of striking it rich with offshore oil.
The Scarabeo-9 platform was visible from Havana's sea wall, far off on the hazy horizon as it chugged westward toward its final drill site, which lies about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Havana and 56 miles (90 kilometers) south of Key West.
Spanish oil company Repsol RPF, which is leasing the rig from Eni subsidiary Siapem for about a half-million dollars a day, said it expects to begin drilling within days to find out whether the reserves are as rich as predicted.
"The geologists have done their work. If they've done it well, then we'll have a good chance of success," Repsol spokesman Kristian Rix said by phone from Madrid. "It's been a long process, but now we're at the point where we discover where our geologists have got it right. It's a happy day."
Cuba's offshore oil dreams have stirred up controversy in the United States and become yet another cause for squabbling between officials in the United States and Cuba.
Their proximity has also prompted fears that a massive spill like the 2010 Macondo-Deepwater Horizon disaster could foul not just Cuba's reefs and gleaming, white-sand beaches, but also the coast of Florida and potentially the Atlantic Seaboard up to North Carolina.
Although U.S. inspectors gave the Scarabeo-9's safety systems a clean bill of health last week during an inspection in Trinidad, Cuba would be hard-pressed to respond to a major spill on its own, and getting help isn't as simple as making a phone call to Washington.
Under the U.S. embargo, any American companies, personnel and equipment contracting with Cuba on oil must get an exemption from the U.S. government. But so far, few of those licenses have been issued.
"Of all of the resources that were required to cap the well on Macondo ... less than 5 percent of those have been licensed by the U.S. government," said Lee Hunt, president of the International Association of Drilling Contractors.
Studies estimate that Cuba may have anywhere from 5 billion to 9 billion barrels of crude offshore, though the exact size of the reserves is still unquantified and production will take years to come online.
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Hazel Jones, Woman With Two Vaginas, Turns Down $1 Million Porn Offer
A UK woman with two vaginas has captured the attention of the news world. Hazel Jones insists she has no interest in cashing in on this irregularity, however.
Jones revealed she was diagnosed with uterus didelphys, an uncommon condition which means she has two wombs and two cervixes, earlier this week.
The 27-year-old has since been approached by - who else - Vivid Entertainment about starring in an adult film for $1 million. NO chance, she says.
According to the Daily Mail (UK), she said: "I would never even consider such an offer, let alone actually do it in million years ... I just want to be left alone."
Vivid Founder/CEO Steven Hirsch, who's made similar pitches to everyone from Octomom (often) to Casey Anthony (later withdrawn), wrote Jones:
"You are obviously an extraordinary woman and I would like to make you an offer to star in an upcoming Vivid production. We would pay you up to $1 million."
"We would fly you out to L.A. as soon as you are available and provide you with first class accommodations in addition to the payment for your services."
He did not release any plot details for this potential erotic masterpiece.
Vivid has become the leader in "legit" celebrity sex tapes, with raw footage of Pamela Anderson, Kim Kardashian and others netting the company millions.
Don't look for Hazel Jones to join their illustrious client list now or down the road, though. Likely for the best. Watch an interview with her after the jump.
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