YouTube launches broad entertainment venture

YouTube is making a bold step into original programming in an entertainment venture with some 100 content creators, from Madonna to The Wall Street Journal.

The Google Inc.-owned video site said Friday that it's launching more than 100 new video channels. The partners include an array of Hollywood production companies, celebrities and new media groups that will produce mainly niche-oriented videos.

YouTube is shelling out $100 million to producers, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The money is an advance on advertising money the videos will bring in, and Google will recoup its portion first before splitting the proceeds. Advances are as high as $5 million per channel, said another person familiar with the arrangement, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

Neither person was authorized to comment publicly on the matter.

Google declined to offer financial details of the deals, but said the majority of revenue will go to partners.

Participants include Madonna, former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal, comedian Amy Poehler, actor Ashton Kutcher, "Office" star Rainn Wilson, spiritual doctor Deepak Chopra and "Modern Family" actress Sofia Vergara. Most are creating channels through their production companies. Madonna is a partner with the dance channel DanceOn, while O'Neal plans the Comedy Shaq Network.

Lionsgate is presenting a fitness channel, and other channels will be launched by news satire the Onion, professional wrestling's WWE, online magazine Slate and news service Thomson Reuters.

The channels will roll out beginning this month, though most will premiere next year. YouTube says the channels will add 25 hours of new original content daily, with dozens of Web series debuting at scheduled times.

Ultimately, YouTube is aiming to create a new digital video platform that will rival television programming.

In a blog posting Friday night, YouTube said the channels are being developed "specifically for the digital age." The video site compared the expanded video offerings to the advent of cable television.

YouTube has tried to build a more advertiser-friendly product of professional-quality video, as opposed to simply user-created videos. Advertisers generally prefer to have their ads matched with known quantities. YouTube has also previously tried to urge viewers to stay longer with TV-like services like the YouTube Leanback, which continuously plays a personalized selection of videos.

Google is also looking to add professionally produced content to its huge roster of user-generated videos, to give users of its Google TV platform something to watch.

Major Hollywood networks such as News Corp.'s Fox and The Walt Disney Co.'s ABC have blocked their content from being shown on Google TV because the sides have been unable to come to a licensing deal that the networks believes pays them fairly. Networks also don't want to jeopardize their lucrative relationship with pay TV distributors like Comcast Corp. and DirecTV.

Google is a platform that has been adopted by set-top box maker Logitech, which makes a device called a Logitech Revue that sells for $100.

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Commonwealth leaders raise polio vaccine spending

Commonwealth government leaders meeting in Australia agreed Saturday to step up efforts to eradicate polio worldwide, despite the Afghanistan war setting back vaccination efforts there and in neighboring Pakistan.

Leaders of Britain, Canada, Australia and Nigeria, as well as billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, committed tens of millions of dollars in additional funding toward the World Health Organization's campaign to wipe out the disabling disease from the four countries where it remains endemic — India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.

All the polio-endemic countries except for Afghanistan are represented at the three-day summit in the western Australian city of Perth. The summit comprises the leaders of 53 countries, most of them former British colonies.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said he was "seriously concerned" that polio infection rates had worsened in his country in recent years.

Pakistan was the only country in the world to increase reported polio infections last year. There were 144 cases in 2010, up from 89 in the previous year, according to WHO figures. So far this year, 118 cases have been reported in Pakistan — the largest number of any country.

Gilani blamed the flow of people fleeing fighting on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, the inaccessibility of war zones to medical teams and religious "fanatics" opposed to vaccines for the failures of vaccination programs in the border regions.

But Pakistan's government remains committed to a target of eliminating polio by the end of this year, he said.

"No doubt we have a huge task ahead, but we remain determined to eradicate this and protect every child in Pakistan from the scourge of polio," Gilani told reporters.

In neighboring Afghanistan, polio infections have jumped from 30 last year to 41 so far this year.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said nations cannot accept the current situation where the world is only 99 percent polio free.

"If we fail to get rid of polio completely, we run the risk that the disease will spread back to countries where it's been eliminated," Cameron said.

Britain had already doubled its contribution to the 23-year-old WHO Global Polio Eradication Initiative for this year and 2012 when it announced in January an additional 40 million pound ($65 million) contribution.

Australia, which put polio on the Commonwealth meeting agenda, promised an addition 50 million Australian dollars ($54 million).

Gates used a video message to the Perth meeting to pledge an extra $40 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He warned that the campaign to eliminate polio forever was at a crossroads, saying recent cases in China demonstrated the risk of a polio resurgence.

China had been free of the paralytic disease for 11 years before an outbreak in the country's far western region that has paralyzed 17 people since July, killing one of them.

WHO said the polio strain detected in China traveled from neighboring Pakistan.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper also pledged increased funding to polio surveillance, but did not specify an amount.

Harper said polio eradication was a key priority of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan. He said 85 percent of Afghanistan was polio free.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said his government's increasing its funding for polio vaccinations in the African nation from $17 million to $30 million annually should result in the disease disappearing by the end of 2012.

Nigeria has recorded 49 cases so far this year — one more than all of 2010.

India recorded 44 cases in 2010, but this year has reported a single case, in January.

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The NCAA's 'sweeping reform' of college sports

New standards for recruiting, player compensation, and academics are unveiled after years of corruption and exploitation allegations

One month after Taylor Branch's damning cover story in The Atlantic about the NCAA's shameful exploitation of college athletes — which itself followed a raft of accusations of bribery and foul play — the organization that governs college sports announced "sweeping reform" this week. Changes include adding a stipend to athletic scholarship packages, holding athletes to more rigorous academic standards, and restructuring the summer recruiting model. Here's what you should know:

How are scholarships changing?
Schools can now offer players $2,000 of additional spending money along with the scholarships covering tuition, room, and board that many student athletes already receive. The $2,000 stipend is comparable to what students with non-athletic scholarships are able to earn, but which the NCAA has banned since 1972. "Some thought the total amount should have been higher," says Michael Marot for the Associated Press, as studies show that the average athlete pays $3,000 to $4,000 out of pocket to cover the cost of college. Still, the measure is a long time coming, says David Cassilo at The Daily Caller. Some NCAA conferences rake in more than $150 million in revenue from broadcast rights each year. The players deserve "a piece of the financial pie."

Are there other perks for players?
Currently, scholarships must be renewed annually, "which essentially allows coaches to fire once-recruited, now-unwanted college athletes" based on poor athletic performance or the arrival of a shiny new recruit, says Patrick Hruby at The Atlantic. So "the most important change of all," says Jason Kirk at SB Nation, is the measure allowing schools to award scholarships that are guaranteed for multiple years — and possibly for a player's entire college career.

What about academic standards?
In order to qualify for the postseason, a team must collectively meet an academic standard called the Academic Progress Rate (APR) — a figure based on the academic performance of the players. The new regulations aim to increase that standard over the next four years, says Curtis Eichelberger at Bloomberg, beginning with a 900 APR requirement and rising to 930 — equivalent to a 50 percent graduation rate — by 2015. According to that benchmark, the University of Connecticut's men's basketball team, which won the national championship last season, would not have been eligible for postseason play, because its APR of 893.

Are there new recruiting restrictions?
Coaches will be allowed send text messages to prospective student athletes, and offer paid visits to high school recruits starting in prospects' junior year, says Josh Barr at The Washington Post. Coaches can also evaluate a recruit's abilities during that visit, which was previously barred. Recruiting will also now be allowed during two weekends in April, in addition to the already-designated time in July. The idea is that this will create "better coach-recruit relationships," while reducing the "influence of third parties, such as runners and street agents," who had been corrupting the recruitment process.

What are the criticisms of these reforms?
These are small reforms that don't tackle the NCAA's biggest problem, says Hruby. Student athletes are forced to retain amateur status, but college sports are a "professional, commercial enterprise" that profit off of students' performances. It may be time to adopt the Olympic approach, and let "athletes earn what they can." And not all the changes are necessarily good, either, says Gwen Knapp at The San Francisco Chronicle. The $2,000 stipend will increase the gap between rich schools and smaller programs struggling to compete. The stipend is, after all, voluntary, and must be funded by the college itself — something that small schools won't be able to afford. They will end up "priced out" when recruiting new players.

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Why won't Mitt Romney make his tax returns public?

Rick Perry is calling for Mitt Romney to release his tax returns. Mitt Romney has never made his returns public. Why not?

Welcome to the rumble in the tax return jungle.

Rick Perry wants Mitt Romney to cough up his form 1040s (that’s the US individual tax return document). The Romney camp demurred, saying they would consider doing so next year. (Remarkably, Romney has NEVER released, even during his governorship of Massachusetts.)

Why won’t Romney do it? Speculation, from liberal group ThinkProgress and others, is that Romney pays a way lower tax rate than many Americans because of his extensive financial investments, from which income is typically taxed below that of regular income. One left-leaning analyst speculates Romney paid an effective tax rate as low as 14 percent on his $6.6 million to $40 million in income. (The range is so wide because of the imprecise nature of Romney’s very limited disclosures.)

To put that in perspective: In 2011, a married couple filing together would have to make under $69,000 to have their top tax rate be 15 percent. Uber-rich Warren Buffett says he pays 17 percent in taxes.

One point in Romney’s favor: The average federal income tax rate for all Americans was 11.06 percent in 2009. Nearly half of Americans pay no federal income tax, a point that hasn’t gone unmentioned in GOP presidential debates.

Why is this brouhaha important? As Decoder wrote earlier this week, Democrats and Republicans alike could be trying to “Gore” (as in Al) Mitt Romney as wooden, politically inconsistent and out-of-touch with ordinary Americans. Paying a lower share of your income taxes than most if not all of your competitors for the presidency and a number of middle class Americans would help those attack lines along.

Moreover, if predictions about Mitt Romney’s tax situation are true, he would have to go in front of ordinary Americans at every debate, town hall and rope line saying he was looking out for their interests while paying a vastly lower amount of his substantial wealth in taxes.

Perry - who paid 23.4 percent of his 2010 income of a bit north of $200,000 to the federal government - is no doubt hoping Romney’s tax return would write the attack lines for him.

Want to dig deeper?

Check out all presidential and (and some vice presidential) tax returns back to Richard Nixon at TaxHistory.org.

Sign a petition from liberal group Priorities USA for the repeal of the “Romney Rule,” which they describe as having corporations and the rich pay less in taxes than the middle class.

Want to “Scrap the Code”? Sign the petition from tea party group FreedomWorks arguing for a “simple, low, fair and honest” tax code.

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Top 1 Percent's Income Grew 275 Percent From 1979 to 2007

The income of the richest 1 percent in the U.S. soared 275 percent from 1979 to 2007, but the bottom 20 percent grew by just 18 percent, new government data shows.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a study this week that compared real after-tax household income between 1979 and 2007, which were both after recessions and had similar overall economic activity.

While the income of the richest 1 percent nearly tripled, increases were smaller down the economic ladder. After the 1 percent, income for the next highest 20 percent grew by 65 percent, much faster than it did for the remaining 80 percent of the population but still lagging well behind the top percentile.

The changes illustrate how the better off have captured the bulk of income gains over the past three decades. The top quintile has seen its share of income rise while the other four quintiles have suffered declines in their shares, according to John Bowler, director of country risk service with the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The report states that without the growth of the top percentile, income inequality still would have increased, "but not by nearly as much." The study was prepared at the request of Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

The CBO said the reasons for the rapid growth at the top are "not well understood," though some possibilities include technical innovations that have changed the labor market for superstars, "such as actors, athletes, and musicians," changes in executive compensation, and increasing scale of financial-sector activities.

Technology creates opportunities for highly skilled workers while making some routine tasks redundant, said Bowler. The role of globalization, he added, is "controversial."

"Even some policymakers who would traditionally be in the free trade camp are now questioning the benefits of globalization to the middle and lower-income U.S. households, even if they have benefited from cheaper imported manufactured goods," he said.

Matthew Dowd, ABC News political analyst and former strategist for President George W. Bush, said while Americans have accepted income disparities in the country, they are becoming more frustrated at the perception that their economic opportunities, or that of their children, are diminishing.

"They don't feel any ability to move up. They feel stuck and don't feel there's a lottery ticket to take them to a higher class," Dowd said.

What makes the frustration worse is that Americans feel the wealthy, especially in business, receive preferential treatment by the government.

"They watch Wall Street, government bailouts and feel like the rich play by different rules," he said. "They think, 'Here I am, trying to make payments on my house with my own small business, trying to make ends meet, but if I need help, no one will help me.'"

On Wednesday, Douglas Elmendorf, CBO director, also revealed in prepared remarks to the congressional super-committee that the government spent about $200 billion, or 15 percent of total discretionary spending, on federal workers' salaries and benefits in the fiscal year that ended in September, the Washington Post reported.

Dowd said that frustration with increasing inequality has led to growing movements on the "right and left," such as the Occupy Wall Street protests.

"Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street both come from the same place: anger at a small group of people who are operating by a different set of rules," he said. "Americans always say they don't like the income gap, but they didn't mind the gap. But they just don't like that they don't have any ability to rise."

Bowler said he agreed that, traditionally, Americans have not envied the material success of others, as growing rich or at least becoming better off is part of the American dream.

"But it is one thing for successful entrepreneurs to attain great riches, another for poorly performing company bosses taking no risks with their own capital to award themselves large pay-outs," he said.

The "equalizing effect" of transfer payments and federal taxes on household income was smaller in 2007 than it had been in 1979, according to the CBO, sparking controversy in the debate over whether to increase taxes on the rich.

In 1979, households in the bottom quintile received more than 50 percent of transfer payments. In 2007, similar households received about 35 percent of transfers. Meanwhile over that period, the overall average federal tax rate fell slightly, the composition of federal revenues shifted away from progressive income taxes to less-progressive payroll taxes, and income taxes became slightly more concentrated at the higher end of the income scale.

"The effect of the first two factors outweighed the effect of the third, reducing the extent to which taxes lessened the dispersion of household income," Douglas Elmendorf, CBO director, wrote on the CBO website.

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Thai capital warned "massive" water on the way

Floods swamped a new area of Thailand's capital on Wednesday as some shops rationed food and Bangkok's governor warned of "massive water" on the way that could put many parts of the sprawling city in danger by the end of the week.

Large-scale evacuation was underway in Bang Phlad, a riverside area some way from Bangkok's inundated northern districts, as floods hit the capital on a second front, deepening anxiety in the city of 12 million people, many of whom were expected to flee before a special five-day holiday.

"Now we're at a critical moment, we need to monitor the situation closely from 28-31 October, when many areas might be critical," Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra told reporters

on Wednesday. "Massive water is coming."

Sukhumbhand said 90 percent of the northern Don Muang district was under water and Bang Phlad was in a critical situation. Fourteen city districts were threatened by floods and two more could be hit on Thursday, he said.

Thailand's worst flooding in half a century has killed at least 373 people since mid-July and disrupted the lives of nearly 2.5 million, with more than 113,000 in shelters and 720,000 people seeking medical attention.

Bangkok residents scrambled to stock up on food, but bottled water was nowhere to be seen and some shops restricted customers to small quantities of food to prevent hoarding. Bus stations were packed as thousands prepared to leave the city.

With high tide approaching in the Gulf of Thailand, Seri Supharatid, director of Rangsit University's Center on Climate Change and Disaster, said the city's fate rested with river dykes holding.

"In the worst-case scenario, if all the dykes break, all parts of Bangkok would be more or less flooded," Seri said.

The economic damage is difficult to quantify, but the central bank has revised its growth forecast for southeast Asia's second-biggest economy to 3.1 percent this year from 4.1 percent. The finance minister's projection was a gloomier 2 percent.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who said two weeks ago that Bangkok was likely to escape the floodwaters, said on Wednesday that it could be flooded for as long as a month.

"But we shouldn't face water as high as two or three meters or staying for two or three months as we've seen in other provinces," she told reporters.

INDUSTRIAL DAMAGE

Flooding has forced the closure of seven industrial estates in Ayutthaya, Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani provinces bordering Bangkok, causing billions of dollars of damage and disrupting international supply chains for industry and putting about 650,000 people temporarily out of work.

The cabinet agreed on Tuesday on a 325 billion baht ($10.6 billion) budget to rebuild the country, while city authorities and the Commerce Ministry were meeting with industrial estate operators, hotels and food producers to try to minimize the damage and kick-start a recovery.

Authorities have called a holiday from Thursday until Monday to allow people to get out Bangkok, although financial markets will remain open.

The rising tide could complicate efforts to drive water from the swelling Chao Phraya river out to the sea, putting more pressure on a city that accounts for 41 percent of Thailand's gross domestic product.

The floods are expected to take a toll on Thailand's tourism industry, which employs more than 2 million people and makes up 6 percent of GDP. Tourism Minister Chumphol Silpa-archa said arrivals could be 500,000 to 1 million below the government's target of 19 million this year.

Three northern districts of Bangkok have been under water since Saturday, with army vehicles driving at a snail's pace through 1.5 meters of water, ferrying evacuees away on roads shared by cars and boats.

Some people were being evacuated for a second time, with 4,000 sheltering in Don Muang moving to the province of Chon Buri. Evacuees at a university in Pathum Thani province also had to move on as floodwater engulfed the campus.

To tackle the flooding, the authorities have pumped an estimated 8 billion cubic meters of water daily through canals and a river around Bangkok's east and west toward the sea.

But the large volume of water flowing through the city remains a concern, with the vast Chao Phraya river at record levels and running past high-end hotels, embassies and the Sathorn and Silom areas of the city's business district.

Water has engulfed two areas, with levels climbing higher than half a meter in the densely populated Bang Phlad district near to the Chao Phraya and closer to the commercial heart.

Overloaded trucks shuttled out evacuees from Bang Phlad, gas stations were inundated and shop owners pulled down shutters and added sandbags to makeshift defense walls.

"My shop is damaged. I've prepared for this, but it's not enough -- there's too much water," said grocery store owner Vichit Pookmaitree.

As panic grew, shoppers at a central Bangkok hypermarket run by Big C Supercenter Pcl were being restricted to one packet of rice and one tray of eggs. Toilet paper was also being rationed. Bottled water had run out.

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Telstra gets most gongs at Excellence Awards

ICT leaders gather in Sydney for Frost & Sullivan's 2011 Australia Excellence Awards

The outstanding performance of companies in the Australian ICT industry was recognised at the 2011 Frost & Sullivan Australia Excellence Awards.

Now in its sixth year, 18 awards spanning three industry categories including security and infrastructure, enterprise communications and telecommunications.

Telstra took home the most awards including Hosted Contact Centre Service Provider of the Year; Data Communications Service Provider of the Year; Broadband Service Provider of the Year; Mobile Service Provider of the Year and Service Provider of the Year.

Each winner was selected based on market performance, market share leadership, revenue growth and product and service innovation.

The rest of this year's award winners: Security & Infrastructure

UPS Vendor of the Year - APC by Schneider Electric

UPS Service Provider of the Year – Emerson Network Power

Secure Content Management Vendor of the Year – Websense

Network Security Vendor of the Year – Juniper

Datacentre Services Provider of the Year – Equinix

Security as a Service Vendor of the Year - Symantec

Infrastructure as a Service Vendor of the Year – Amazon Web Services

Software as a Service Vendor of the Year – Salesforce.com

Enterprise Communications Enterprise Video Vendor of the Year – Cisco Systems

Contact Centre Applications Vendor of the Year - Genesys

Application Networking Vendor of the Year – Riverbed

Unified Communications Vendor of the Year – Cisco Systems

Telecommunications Managed Security Services Provider of the Year - Verizon Business

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3 Giant Steps Forward in Improving Network Energy Efficiency

Since the launch of Climate Savers Computing four years ago, our members and global partners have helped save well over $2 billion in annual energy costs by decreasing CO2 emissions from computing equipment by approximately 41 – 45 million metric tons. We’ve done this by increasing the use of computer power management and through the development and adoption of more energy efficient computing technologies. Now we’re about to embark on our next major milestone by readying the release of three important white papers to help organizations optimize networks for energy efficiency.

It was last year when we expanded the CSCI mission to include a greater focus on increasing the energy efficiency of networking technologies. Leading companies in the networking industry such as Broadcom, Cisco, Emerson Network Power, F5, and Juniper Networks joined CSCI to address reducing the energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions of networking equipment. Working within our Networking Workgroup, these organizations have been collaborating with other CSCI members to develop resources and best practices for the enterprise and telecommunication networking equipment segments. The new white papers mark a significant step forward in driving more energy efficient networks based on best practices from CSCI.

In the coming days we’ll release Considerations for Selecting Power Supplies for Networking Equipment and Evaluating Power Conversion Efficiency, the first paper in the series. This paper focuses on unique usage considerations found in networking equipment, and the resulting complications that affect power supply unit selection as well as operational challenges associated with system demand requirements. The paper contains information which should be of interest to a broad cross section of the IT community, but it is particularly relevant to vendors who provide power subsystems to networking equipment suppliers and system designers in networking companies who design and specify power subsystems and system power architectures for network devices.

The next papers we’ll release are Power Management for Networking Devices and the Energy Efficiency Guide for Networking Devices. While each of the three papers address different facets of the energy consumption opportunities within network equipment, together the papers will direct system designers, IT managers, and IT procurement professionals to design, purchase, install, and manage energy efficient networks. And as CIOs, CFOs and finance teams play an increasing role in driving a variety of energy saving and sustainability initiatives, they will find the new CSCI white papers to be a valuable tool for helping to reverse the negative effect of unneeded energy use on operating costs and productivity.

If you’re looking to improve the energy efficiency of networks and networking technologies, keep an eye out for news from us announcing the availability of each new white paper. Organizations implementing best practices included in the papers will see real bottom line results, and will be among leaders in driving the next generation of greener and more energy efficient networking technologies.

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Schneider Electric Canada shows off new green facility at customer day in Mississauga

Schneider Electric Canada invited customers and media to its new corporate head office in Mississauga, Ont., recently to demonstrate its commitment to the environment with its construction upgrades, and to highlight its own solutions for energy management.

Located at 5985 McLaughlin Road, the 100,000-sq.-ft. facility — 64,000 sq. ft. of office area and 36,000 sq. ft. of plant space — is home to 285 employees representing the company’s five domains of expertise — power, industry, energy, data centres and buildings. Previously, the company had multiple locations across the greater Toronto area before moving all units to the McLaughlin Road facility earlier this year.

Construction began in December 2010, and while the exterior of the building was maintained, the interior was virtually rebuilt to meet the company’s specifications. Construction upgrades include: replaced T12 linear fluorescent fixtures with energy efficient T8; installed recessed and Trac LED fixtures; occupancy sensors control lighting in offices, meeting rooms and washrooms; workstations contain 50 percent recycled content and were sourced from a local supplier; lower height workstations provide clear daylight views and incorporate occupancy sensors for task lighting; carpet tile contains recycled fibres and eliminates replacement waste; Energy Star rated appliances used in the cafeteria and servery areas; new data centre uses efficient in-row cooling and is backed by a 125-kw natural gas generator; washrooms utilize low flow toilets and motion sensor fixtures, reducing water consumption by 45 percent; extensive metering throughout the distribution system; high efficiency rooftop units replaced aging cooling units; building automation monitors energy use, controls HVAC, lighting and security; and there is designated parking for electric vehicles with on-site charging.

Schneider Electric is currently pursuing LEED certification for this site to demonstrate its commitment to the environment.

But its commitment does not end there, the company said. Along with on-site practices to promote sustainability (i.e., using washable mugs, recycled hand towels and phosphate-free cleaning products), the company said it will continue to make improvements to drive further efficiencies, including daylight-based lighting controls, energy dashboards, facility energy benchmarking and installing solar panels on the roof.

Chris Curtis, president and CEO of Schneider Electric, applauded the Canadian team for their commitment to the environment.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am of this team and how much progress they’ve made as an organization across the country, not just here in Toronto, and the kind of work that they’ve done and what they’ve accomplished and the capability that they’ve built. It’s quite frankly a standard and a real benchmark within the rest of Schneider that a lot of other countries would aspire to become. So it’s quite a success story in my mind, all thanks to the leadership and all of the people across this country in this organization.”

Curtis added that the company will continue to strive to play it’s part is solving one of the most significant problems of our time — that the world is going to want twice as much energy as it has today, with half the carbon footprint.

“We’re excited to be part of that equation. The problem is much bigger than our one company. The problem can hopefully be solved by all of us in the room. And we’ll all make our contribution. And that’s really what the message is inside this building. It’s all aimed at that two by two equation — twice as much energy required [with] half as much of the carbon footprint. That’s really what we’re all trying to work towards, and we can hopefully help you and your businesses, or help you with the customers that you work with, as a result of that.”

Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion attended the event to congratulate Schneider for their energy conservation efforts.

“It is so exciting to see how companies have accepted the challenge of the things that are so important to the future of this great country of Canada, and to the world, actually. And Schneider has grabbed that, and you’re putting it into action. And I want to congratulate you.”

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The new reality for healthcare providers: Access to data is crucial; measurement is mandatory

ACOs, CINs and the transition to a patient-centered medical home model for both prevention and treatment are making data access crucial for physicians.

As the ideas of patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs), clinically integrated networks (CINs) and accountable care organizations (ACOs) move from concept to reality, health data must be readily available, easily analyzed and effectively deployed in a comprehensive and holistic manner. Health information technology companies have responded to this growing need by developing tools that help a wide variety of stakeholders better analyze and understand their data and measure their own results against published best practices. Having more data more easily accessible gives end-users a clearer understanding of both the cost and quality of care they offer compared to national standards founded on evidence-based research. By leveraging such data, providers can gain confidence that they are delivering the highest quality care and thus are working to improve health outcomes.

The passage of healthcare reform legislation and the increasing trend toward evidence-based medicine has placed data reporting and deployment at the forefront of the healthcare industry. At the physician level, having the ability to measure their own success against national benchmarks is not just important, but mandatory, under the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) new ACO guidelines. At the same time that measurement and data access have become so important for physicians, competition for health services has never been more intense. With an older, savvier patient population utilizing more and more medical services – with the expectation that access be open and available – the need for easy access to data that measures and tracks against national guidelines has become a crucial component of a providers’ practice.

Driving the need for increased data access and quality measurement are federal guidelines that seek to create and maintain high standards of care while reducing overall healthcare costs. Two designations in particular – ACOs and CINs – require that a practice measures its quality outcomes and uses data in an integrated, comprehensive way to improve patient care. The specifics for ACO and CIN designations differ, yet in both cases a practice must demonstrate that a quality improvement plan, measurement and data use are being leveraged to gauge their own care against national benchmarks. Such reporting is making diverse datasets ranging from medical and pharmaceutical claims to individual patient and clinical data vital for all providers wishing to achieve ACO or CIN status.

Both payers and providers have significant data at their disposal. Physician groups can utilize information related to the services that they provide, and health plans offer a comprehensive view of all services that a patient has received for a variety of conditions and from a wide array of providers. All of this data can now be cross-referenced to national standards and delivered in a consolidated dashboard that allows the physician to determine what the most effective course of action is for a particular treatment plan for a specific patient when measured against national best practices.

In modern, patient-centered healthcare settings, patients, payers and providers must share responsibility for ensuring that care is being managed effectively and efficiently, that best practices are being optimized and that costs are being controlled. Quality care can only be administered if appropriate measurement is available to track outcomes against nationally recognized standards, data and goals. There is a wealth of such information available that can aid a physician group in their overall population management strategy. Until recently, however, there has been a shortage of ways in which the provider could effectively view, analyze and deploy this data in a holistic manner. Provider access to such information is crucial to achieve the goal of improving health outcomes.

The market for data standards and utilization benchmarking is growing rapidly and couldn’t be happening at a more important time for the industry. ACOs, CINs and the transition to a patient-centered medical home model for both prevention and treatment are making data access crucial for physicians. Such data is fast becoming a vital component of how healthcare providers must treat patients in order to deliver consistent, high-quality and cost-effective care that conforms to federal guidelines.

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Adobe on track for 2012 opening

Adobe is different.

Developers have unveiled grandiose plans for northwest Lehi in the previous decade -- shops connected by a water canal where gondolas transport shoppers through an outdoor mall; a community with large wakeboard lakes, underground roadways and the tallest building in Utah -- that have remained nothing but dreams.

Adobe, however, appears well grounded in reality and is moving forward to open phase one of its new campus by the end of 2012. The company executives gave a site tour to Lehi politicians on Tuesday afternoon.

"It's coming out of the ground, it's really an exciting time," said John Bankhead, Gardner Company project representative. "We have 120 guys working 60 hours a week. We're doing really well."

The software giant is building the 230,000-square-foot campus in Lehi on 38 acres below the west foothill of Traverse Mountain. Adobe executive Jonathan Francom said they will have 850 employees moving in once the first phase of the project is complete. There are three phases planned with a maximum capacity of 3,000 employees.

"This is not a 5-year plan, this is a 10 to 20 year investment for Adobe," Francom said. "We have a long view."

Three other office buildings will surpass the Lehi plans -- the San Jose and San Francisco, Calif., and Noida, India, campuses. WRNS Studio are the architects for the massive building complex.

Francom said they hope to have the campus draw the two counties closer together and to be able to draw on employee talent from both locations.

"Adobe is looking to be a significant presence, and they are planning for this building to be a landmark for Adobe and this community," Francom said.

Adobe purchased Orem-based Omniture for $1.8 billion in 2009 and announced its plans for the campus in 2010. Choosing Utah, let alone Lehi, for a new campus was a tough sell, Francom said.

"Without the incentives and cooperation from the state of Utah and the local municipalities, we would have never gotten this done," VP of operations Mike Herring said. "I think it's really fantastic. We've been working on this for a long time."

Massive walls of concrete are molded with textures from oak planking and other natural materials are reflected in the construction of the building. Huge beams, open areas, light and views are part of the four-story structure, which straddles the boulevard leading up into the neighboring Traverse Mountain planned community. A clear glass exterior, the first 6-feet bordering the windows on each floor will be sacred, according to the planners, leaving space for air movement and light and giving every employee a view from their work space.

"It's going to be really cool," Bankhead said.

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OnOne Perfect Photo Suite 6 now available

OnOne Perfect Photo Suite 6, first announced last month, is now available for purchase. Perfect Photo Suite 6 is a collection of plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop, and, now, also for Apple Aperture and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

See our earlier story on the product's initial announcement for more details on the individual components of the suite.

A new license for Perfect Photo Suite 6 sells for US$299.95; for previously licensed users, an upgrade costs US$149.95.

The suite's component applications are also available individually—most for a new, lower price of US$99.95.

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Obama announces help for student loan borrowers

President Barack Obama recalled his struggles with student loan debt as he unveiled a plan Wednesday that could give millions of young people some relief on their payments.

Speaking at the University of Colorado Denver, Obama said that he and his wife, Michelle, together owed more than $120,000 in law school debt that took nearly a decade to pay off. He said that sometimes he'd have to make monthly payments to multiple lenders, and the debt meant they were not only paying for their own degrees but saving for their daughters' college funds simultaneously.

"I've been in your shoes. We did not come from a wealthy family," Obama said to cheers.

Obama said it's never been more important to get a college education, but it's also never been more expensive. Obama said his plan will help not just individuals, but the nation, because graduates will have more money to spend on things like buying homes.

"Our economy needs it right now and your future could use a boost right now," Obama said.

Obama's plan will accelerate a measure passed by Congress that reduces the maximum required payment on student loans from 15 percent of discretionary income annually to 10 percent. He will put it into effect in 2012, instead of 2014. In addition, the White House says the remaining debt would be forgiven after 20 years, instead of 25. About 1.6 million borrowers could be affected.

He will also allow borrowers who have a loan from the Federal Family Education Loan Program and a direct loan from the government to consolidate them into one. The consolidated loan would carry an interest rate of up to a half percentage point less than before. This could affect 5.8 million borrowers.

Student loans are the No. 2 source of household debt. The president's announcement came on the same day as a new report on tuition costs from the College Board. It showed that average in-state tuition and fees at four-year public colleges rose $631 this fall, or 8.3 percent, compared with a year ago. Nationally, the cost of a full credit load has passed $8,000, an all-time high.

Student loan debt is a common concern voiced by Occupy Wall Street protesters. Obama's plan could help him shore up re-election support among young voters, an important voting bloc in his 2008 election. But, it might not ease all their fears.

Anna Van Pelt, 24, a graduate student in public health at the University of Colorado Denver who attended the speech, estimates she'll graduate with $40,000 in loans. She called Obama's plan a "really big deal" for her, but said she still worries about how she'll make the payments.

"By the time I graduate, my interest rate is going to be astronomical, especially when you don't have a job," Van Pelt said. "So it's not just paying the loans back. It's paying the loans back without a job."

The White House said the changes will carry no additional costs to taxpayers.

Last year, Congress passed a law that lowered the repayment cap and moved student loans to direct lending by eliminating banks as the middlemen. Before that, borrowers could get loans directly from the government or from the Federal Family Education Loan Program; the latter were issued by private lenders but basically insured by the government. The law was passed along with the health care overhaul with the anticipation that it could save about $60 billion over a decade.

The change in the law was opposed by many Republicans. At a hearing Tuesday, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., who chairs a subcommittee with oversight over higher education, said it had resulted in poorer customer service for borrowers. And Senate Republicans issued a news release with a compilation of headlines that showed thousands of workers in student lending, including those from Sallie Mae Inc., had been laid off because of the change.

Today, there are 23 million borrowers with $490 billion in loans under the Federal Family Education Loan Program. Last year, the Education Department made $102.2 billion in direct loans to 11.5 million recipients.

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Top 1 Percent's Income Grew 275 Percent From 1979 to 2007

The income of the richest 1 percent in the U.S. soared 275 percent from 1979 to 2007, but the bottom 20 percent grew by just 18 percent, new government data shows.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a study this week that compared real after-tax household income between 1979 and 2007, which were both after recessions and had similar overall economic activity.

While the income of the richest 1 percent nearly tripled, increases were smaller down the economic ladder. After the 1 percent, income for the next highest 20 percent grew by 65 percent, much faster than it did for the remaining 80 percent of the population but still lagging well behind the top percentile.

The changes illustrate how the better off have captured the bulk of income gains over the past three decades. The top quintile has seen its share of income rise while the other four quintiles have suffered declines in their shares, according to John Bowler, director of country risk service with the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The report states that without the growth of the top percentile, income inequality still would have increased, "but not by nearly as much." The study was prepared at the request of Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

The CBO said the reasons for the rapid growth at the top are "not well understood," though some possibilities include technical innovations that have changed the labor market for superstars, "such as actors, athletes, and musicians," changes in executive compensation, and increasing scale of financial-sector activities.

Technology creates opportunities for highly skilled workers while making some routine tasks redundant, said Bowler. The role of globalization, he added, is "controversial."

"Even some policymakers who would traditionally be in the free trade camp are now questioning the benefits of globalization to the middle and lower-income U.S. households, even if they have benefited from cheaper imported manufactured goods," he said.

Matthew Dowd, ABC News political analyst and former strategist for President George W. Bush, said while Americans have accepted income disparities in the country, they are becoming more frustrated at the perception that their economic opportunities, or that of their children, are diminishing.

"They don't feel any ability to move up. They feel stuck and don't feel there's a lottery ticket to take them to a higher class," Dowd said.

What makes the frustration worse is that Americans feel the wealthy, especially in business, receive preferential treatment by the government.

"They watch Wall Street, government bailouts and feel like the rich play by different rules," he said. "They think, 'Here I am, trying to make payments on my house with my own small business, trying to make ends meet, but if I need help, no one will help me.'"

Dowd said that frustration has led to growing movements on the "right and left," such as the Occupy Wall Street protests.

"Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street both come from the same place: anger at a small group of people who are operating by a different set of rules," he said. "Americans always say they don't like the income gap, but they didn't mind the gap. But they just don't like that they don't have any ability to rise."

Bowler said he agreed that, traditionally, Americans have not envied the material success of others, as growing rich or at least becoming better off is part of the American dream.

"But it is one thing for successful entrepreneurs to attain great riches, another for poorly performing company bosses taking no risks with their own capital to award themselves large pay-outs," he said.

The "equalizing effect" of transfer payments and federal taxes on household income was smaller in 2007 than it had been in 1979, according to the CBO, sparking controversy in the debate over whether to increase taxes on the rich.

In 1979, households in the bottom quintile received more than 50 percent of transfer payments. In 2007, similar households received about 35 percent of transfers. Meanwhile over that period, the overall average federal tax rate fell slightly, the composition of federal revenues shifted away from progressive income taxes to less-progressive payroll taxes, and income taxes became slightly more concentrated at the higher end of the income scale.

"The effect of the first two factors outweighed the effect of the third, reducing the extent to which taxes lessened the dispersion of household income," Douglas Elmendorf, CBO director, wrote on the CBO website.

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Obama's Blunder: The Sorry Truth About Alternative Energy

Despite the hype, green energy has been a big disappointment for investors. Yet there is one sure thing staring us right in the face. And McKinsey estimates it'll soon be worth $520 BILLION...

Discover how you can position yourself to profit now!

Dear Fellow Investor,

President Obama took a beating over the Solyndra scandal. He lost major political capital, and some $535 million in taxpayer money just went up in smoke.

But I'm not writing to argue about whether the government should be guaranteeing these sorts of loans, or about whether this was a case of "crony capitalism" as some have alleged...

Because that's not the real story! In truth, $535 million is peanuts.

Solyndra isn't the first alternative energy company to lose big money, and you can bet it won't be the last.

That's the PROBLEM with alternative energy...

Every few years, we're told of another "energy miracle." An alternative energy source that is going to boost our economy, release us from the grip of hostile Middle Eastern sheiks, and save all humanity from the impending doom of climate change...

And, of course, make a fortune for investors.

But it never pans out. For 20 years I've heard the talk, but I've yet to see one of those miracles come through.

The truth is, every alternative energy source poses substantial problems, whether it's solar or nuclear power, clean coal or natural gas. And they all lose money!

Have you ever heard of the "Microsoft of alternative energy"? Or a "green energy billionaire"? Neither have I. There isn't one!

Instead the investment losses just keep mounting...

Solyndra's just the tip of the iceberg. The U.S. government -- and dozens of venture capitalists -- have poured billions into the search...

Billionaire T. Boone Pickens spent a reported $10 billion to build a vast wind farm in the Texas Panhandle... too bad the lines to carry all that energy never materialized.

The federal government gave $100 million+ in grants to two clean-tech battery makers, Ener1 and A123, yet their stocks are still down 92% and 61% respectively, over the past year.

The state of Massachusetts plunged $58 million into Evergreen Solar, but now the near-insolvent company says it's only obligated to pay back $4 million, leaving the state with a gut-churning 93% loss.

The price tag for all these false starts may actually be in the trillions.

Not to mention the incalculable human and environmental disasters caused by our search for alternative energy...

Despite our best intentions, the disasters keep happening...

Death and destruction aren't usually included in the alternative energy story. Even so...

Areas around Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant may be uninhabitable for DECADES after the tsunami and generator failure that caused a meltdown.

In Dimock, Pennsylvania, ground zero for natural gas "fracking," residents' well water has turned brown. One well just spontaneously combusted! And no one knows why all the pets and horses are losing their hair.

Last September, a natural gas pipeline blew up in San Bruno, California, burning down an entire neighborhood... killing eight people and injuring 60.

Difficult as they may be to reconcile with the happy vision of a green economy, these failures are a part of the sorry truth about alternative energy.

What makes the situation all the more troubling is... there IS one SURE THING staring us right in the face!

It's true: A safe, viable, long-term solution to the energy crisis ALREADY exists.

In fact, it's maddeningly obvious. It's staring us right in the face!

But it's not solar or wind energy. Not natural gas or geothermal power...

It's not bio-fuel, or another hydro-electric dam...

It's none of the above.

You haven't heard it talked up on CNBC, or seen it praised in Newsweek. It's not the subject of a bunch of heated debate in Congress.

What's more, one promising little company has a virtual lock on it... as both the "top dog" and "first mover" in the space...

Maybe the most amazing thing is, you can invest in it now, cheap, and have the chance to make a fortune!

But let me say this at the outset: What this company offers is NOT a speculative new technology. Nor is it some political hot button or sexy "clean tech" trend.

And that is precisely why your average investor isn't interested -- they're too busy chasing after bright, shiny fads. (Even T. Boone Pickens, a legendarily savvy energy investor, has fallen for it! We might have expected better from him.)

Before you go chasing after some "green" fad too -- you should know why I'm so convinced this small energy company represents a truly historic investment opportunity...

One with all the upside of an alternative energy play, but none of the risk associated with the sector!

You could make some serious money by investing in the stock right now

My name is Andy Cross, and I'm Chief Investment Officer of The Motley Fool, the trusted investor resource that The Economist has called "an ethical oasis."

I am firmly convinced that this could be the investment that pays for your kids' or grandkids' college education... for your retirement... that once-in-a-lifetime trip... or the vacation home you've always wanted.

And remember, I don't see a roadblock in sight!

Unlike most alternative energy companies, this company's solution is already proven and already profitable.

What's more, this little energy company is uniquely positioned to benefit no matter whether we experience a "double dip" recession or don't...

Do you remember how I described it as both a "top dog" and "first mover"? It's true. Though it has not developed any new technology, this company IS a pioneer.

Its CEO -- truly the godfather of the industry -- was the first to develop a special, new kind of contract that guarantees his customers actually spend less on energy. It's called "performance contracting." (I'll explain how it works in just a moment.)

Esteemed consulting firm McKinsey estimates that performance contracting will be worth $520 BILLION by 2020. That means growth of more than 10X in the next nine years...

And all the signs point to this company dominating that huge market. Mark my words...

We're about to witness some truly mind-blowing growth

Just since 2001, this company's revenue has increased 28 times. (And that's organic revenue growth, not just the result of a bunch of acquisitions.)

And it boasts a five-year compound annual sales growth rate of 19%... return on equity of 21%... and even an awe-inspiring $1.2 billion backlog of orders...

Some of the analysts on my team are estimating this company will grow by 21% annually over the next five years. But I think that may actually be a conservative estimate...

Because no matter WHAT happens in the market or whether all the wild hopes for alternative energy are EVER realized, this company's energy solution will be in demand.

By now, you're probably wondering what kind of energy we're talking about...
In the next three to five years, I can realistically see this stock tripling your money. In the longer term, it's got everything I look for in a potential 10-bagger. That is, a stock that makes you 10 times your original investment.

Why?

Not only is this company "well run and sustainable" according to Forbes...

It's already providing its comprehensive energy solution to a stunning number of government clients, as well as some of the globe's most prestigious brand names...

Heck, it's even helping to safeguard the Constitution.

It's the one energy play for the rest of your life!

In 2009, this company won an $800 million contract with the Department of Energy, the largest of its kind in U.S. history, for instance...

And it's recently completed extensive work for the cities of Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Cincinnati, and San Antonio, and the state of Alaska...

Not to mention universities, school systems, and hospitals across the nation...

Plus federal agencies in Washington, D.C.... Even providing the ultra-sensitive light and temperature controls that keep the original U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence in a pristine state...

So let me ask that, for just a moment, you forget everything you've ever heard about alternative energy, and consider this...

The cleanest energy is the energy we don't use at all. The cheapest energy is the energy we DON'T use.

The biggest and best thing going in alternative energy is... energy efficiency, plain and simple.

And I mean energy efficiency on a grand scale. Not just light bulbs and boilers but whole buildings, whole cities... the whole country!

The U.S. is already vastly more energy efficient than it was even 20 years ago. Energy efficiency is in fact a dominant long-term trend... and a sure thing.

But you don't have to take my word for it...

Why performance contracting is a win-win

This small energy company devises and installs energy-efficiency measures that reduce customers' energy use. The customer then pays for the project out of their energy-bill savings. It's a win-win.

That's how performance contracting works. But here's the most important thing...

For government entities like public schools and federal agencies, there's no capital outlay.

So even in these times of gutted budgets and spending cuts... national, state and local government entities are still seeking out this company.

In fact, it's the exact same case with this company's commercial and residential clients.

Let me be clear: Because of the innovative way this company contracts its business, budgets cuts and recessions just don't matter.

So no wonder this little company saw its revenue INCREASE SUBSTANTIALLY throughout the Great Recession. It is both riding and leading a massive long-term trend that is only growing... gathering speed as we speak...
The change is coming. It's going to be worth $520 BILLION!

Here's a point about which all serious-minded people can agree: Over the long term, the price of fossil fuels is going to go up.

Here's another: We are years away from the development of an alternative energy source that could actually replace oil or coal. That is, if we EVER find one.

Energy efficiency -- the energy we don't use -- is the only viable long-term solution in existence. It's an inevitability!

So you can see now why I called my fellow analysts' 21%-per-year growth estimates for this company conservative. It's the company best positioned to meet $520 BILLION worth of demand!

Perhaps the most amazing thing is... you can still buy the stock CHEAP because everybody else is still chasing silly "clean, alternative" energy fads.

That's right. The little energy company I've just been telling you about is trading for just 13 times earnings... less than $10 a share!
It's the greatest energy stock that no one is talking about. Well, almost no one...

As usual, the media is caught up with sexier, flash-in-the-pan energy fads... and rehashing old material about peak oil...

And politicians are trying to make good on their big promises about green jobs. Like dogs chasing a bus, they're still barking after solar and wind power...

So most of your fellows, both professional and individual investors, haven't yet caught on to this company's massive potential.

One world-renowned investor HAS been following the story, however. In fact, he is the one who told me about this amazing little energy company. I think you just might recognize his name.

Eight short years ago, I witnessed this investor recommend another historic investment opportunity. One that made hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, for individual investors like you...
Quality Systems BEFORE it went up 1,815%

In 2003, Tom Gardner -- co-founder of The Motley Fool -- recommended a little-known healthcare stock to subscribers of Motley Fool Stock Advisor.

Healthcare was a hot sector then, just as it is today. So you might think Tom recommended a pharmaceutical company with a patent for a new drug or some hyped-up surgical technology company.

But that's not his style.

The stock Tom recommended was Quality Systems, a small company that makes database software for other healthcare companies. Hardly the world's most exciting product...

Of course the hot shots on Wall Street weren't interested in a piddling little company like that. Neither were the CNBC talking heads. A small record-keeping software company like Quality Systems wasn't anybody's idea of The Next Big Thing.

But Tom saw something that nobody else did. He'd figured out the company's huge potential market and its incredible business model, sized up its smart management, dug deep into its balance sheet...

And you want to know what happened?

Quality Systems became one of the best-performing stocks of the decade. Since the day in 2003 that Tom recommended it to subscribers of Motley Fool Stock Advisor, the stock is up a mind-boggling 1,815%.

In other words, if you'd followed Tom's recommendation and put $10,000 in the stock, you'd be sitting on $191,000 today.

That's a four-year degree from Harvard, Yale, or Princeton (with change leftover)...

That's a Bentley... a villa in Costa Rica...

A year-long luxury cruise around the world...

A charitable donation that gets your name put on the building...

It may sound pie in the sky, but it's true. Tom Gardner's recommendation of Quality Systems -- a "boring," overlooked healthcare stock -- quite literally made fortunes for subscribers of Motley Fool Stock Advisor.

You could say they were bored all the way to the bank.

As one of our subscribers, Mark T. of Burr Ridge, Illinois put it...

"I have made a killing on Quality Systems ($100,000+). I bought it when Tom first recommended it, and I still love this stock. Without Stock Advisor, I never would've known it existed."

Let me level with you: Tom Gardner's recommendation of this small, under-followed energy company strongly reminds me of his Quality Systems pick in 2003...

And that's why I'm urging you to get all the details today in Tom's brand-new FREE report, "The One Energy Play for the Rest of Your Life"... including all the details about this company and how you can get invested.

Then you can decide for yourself whether this massive profit opportunity is one that you're interested in. So in just a moment, I'll tell you how to download the report, instantly.

But first, let me tell you about a few of the other home runs Tom Gardner -- and his brother and co-advisor, David -- have hit for subscribers of Motley Fool Stock Advisor, including...

BorgWarner... up 450%
Netflix... up 743%
Activision Blizzard... up 641%
Marvel (now Walt Disney)... up 1,542%
Amazon.com... up 1,412%
Priceline.com... up 1,920%

In fact, with these two remarkable investor-brothers at the helm, Motley Fool Stock Advisor has earned its subscribers an average of 16.7% per year... for the last 10 years. That's through markets good AND bad.

DID YOU KNOW that if you earn 16.7% per year, your money doubles every four-and-a-half years? It's true.

In fact, a $50,000 nest egg grows to almost $2.5 million over 25 years -- even if you never add another penny.

Right there you have the multimillion-dollar portfolio we all strive for -- and then some. So, how can you get fantastic results like this? Certainly not by chasing the Wall Street herd, or getting your stock tips off cable news...

Frankly, you need an edge... truly great advice... which is why I'm writing to tell you about Motley Fool Stock Advisor today.

Through Motley Fool Stock Advisor and those market-beating returns, Tom and David Gardner have helped thousands of individual investors secure their financial futures.

No wonder Money.com has called David and Tom "Some of the most widely followed stock pickers in the world."

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Adobe to plug Flash-related Webcam spying hole

Adobe Systems is working on a fix for a Flash-related vulnerability that could be used by Web sites to surreptitiously turn on a visitor's microphone or Webcam.

The problem is in the Flash Player Settings Manager on Adobe's servers and not with software on customer computers, Adobe spokeswoman Wiebke Lips told CNET today.

"Engineering is currently working on a fix," she said in an e-mail. "Note that this issue does not involve/require a product update and/or customer action. (In other words, there will not be a security bulletin.) It's a fix we are making on our end online, and it is going to be pushed live as soon as QA [quality assurance] has completed their testing."

The vulnerability could be fixed by the end of the week, she said.

The problem was brought to light by Feross Aboukhadijeh, a Stanford University computer science student, in a blog post yesterday that includes a live demo. The attack uses a technique that has become popular on sites like Facebook and Twitter called "clickjacking." Clickjacking involves hiding code in order to trick people, so that when they click on an area of the page they think they are doing something innocuous--like indicating they "like" a Facebook post, for instance--when the click actually results in something else happening, such as reposting an update.

In this case, someone could click on a series of buttons, ostensibly as part of a game, and instead have turned on the camera or microphone without knowing it.

For the attack, Aboukhadijeh hid the Flash Settings Manager SWF file behind an iFrame on the page, which let him bypass the framebusting JavaScript code, he said.

"I've seen a bunch of clickjacking attacks in the wild, but I've never seen any attacks where the attacker iframes a SWF file from a remote domain to clickjack it--let alone a .SWF file as important as one that controls access to your webcam and mic!" he wrote.

"Although every browser and OS is theoretically susceptible to this attack, the process to activate the webcam requires multiple highly targeted clicks, which is difficult for an attacker to pull off," he notes. "I'm not sure how useful this technique would actually be in the wild, but I hope that Adobe fixes it soon so we don't have to find out."

A similar problem arose in 2008, but that issue required Adobe to update its Flash Player software on customer computers to fix, Lips said.

Aboukhadijeh said he reported the problem to Adobe a few weeks ago. But his e-mail was sent to an employee who was on sabbatical and not to the Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team, so Adobe didn't know about the issue until his blog post came out, according to Lips.

"Adobe has to get on this one QUICK," said Jeremiah Grossman, chief technology officer at Whitehat Security, who has been warning about the dangers of clickjacking for several years. "Everyone should make sure they have the Post-IT note defense fully deployed," he wrote in an e-mail, referring to the technique of covering the Web camera lens with a scrap of paper.

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Adobe to Fix Flash Flaw That Allows Webcam Spying

Adobe is working on a fix for a Flash Player vulnerability that can be exploited via clickjacking techniques to turn on people's webcams or microphones without their knowledge.

The issue was discovered by a Stanford University computer science student named Feross Aboukhadijeh who based his proof-of-concept exploit on a similar one disclosed back in 2008 by an anonymous researcher.

Technically known as user interface (UI) redressing, clickjacking is a type of attack that combines legitimate Web programming features, like CSS opacity and positioning, with social engineering to trick users into initiating unwanted actions.

For example, clickjacking techniques have been used to trick Facebook users into liking rogue pages or posting spam on their walls by making Like and Share buttons transparent and superimposing them over legitimate-looking ones.

The 2008 webcam spying attack involved loading the Adobe Flash Player Settings Manager, which is actually a page hosted on Adobe's website, in an invisible iframe and tricking users into enabling webcam and microphone access through it.

The lure used by the exploit was a JavaScript game that required users to click various innocent-looking buttons on the screen. Some of the clicks were part of the game, while others were redirected to the invisible iframe.

Adobe responded at the time by inserting code into the Flash Player Settings Manager page that prevents it from being iframed. However, Aboukhadijeh realized that the settings manager is actually an SWF (Shockwave Flash) file and that loading it directly into an iframe, instead of the entire page, would bypass Adobe's frame-busting code.

In essence this is the same 2008 vulnerability exploited through a slightly different attack vector. "I was really surprised to find out that this actually works," Aboukhadijeh said.

He said that he emailed Adobe about the problem a few weeks ago, but got no response. However, the company contacted him after the public disclosure to inform him that they are working on a fix which will be deployed on their end and won't require users to update their Flash Player installations.

Using an SWF file hosted on Adobe's servers to modify Flash Player settings instead of a local interface is something that has generated problems before. For example, privacy advocates have complained in the past that this makes clearing Local Shared Objects (LSOs), commonly known as Flash cookies, difficult and confusing.

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Mexico tackles epidemic of childhood obesity

Anghella Torres is just 4 years old, but already she weighs 66 pounds (30 kilos) — twice what she should. Because of her excess girth, her little feet constantly hurt from bearing the extra weight.

Anghella knows she is obese and she doesn't like it. And now, even though she doesn't know how to read or count calories, she is on a diet. With the help of her grandmother and caretaker, Elizabeth Sucilla, Anghella is following a modest diet and exercise program established for her by a nurse at a local public hospital earlier this year.

"I have to stop eating candies," she said.

Her new regimen also requires her to cut down on the deep-fried potato wedges she ate every other day in the streets and spoonfuls of heavy cream she downed like yogurt.

Mexico, which claims to have the fattest children in the world, is trying to encourage others to follow Anghella's lead. Public schools have banned junk food and are requiring more hours of physical education while the federal government has launched a media campaign that invites families to enroll their kids in a public weight-loss program.

Yet three-quarters of Mexico City's 2,400 public schools don't have playgrounds or gyms for exercise. And 80 percent of the schools don't have water fountains. Experts stress the importance of drinking more water and fewer sugary drinks to prevent and reverse weight gain.

President Felipe Calderon said earlier this year that Mexico had the highest rate of obesity for children ages 5 to 19 in the world. And although he did not cite any source, University of North Carolina nutrition professor Barry Popkin, who has studied childhood obesity in many countries, agrees that it "is the highest I know of in the world."

While a large number of children in Mexico's poor, rural villages are still underweight, the country as a whole has seen the second-fastest growth rate for childhood obesity of nine countries examined by Popkin in a 2007 study, including the United States. The fastest growth rate of the nine is in Australia, according to the study, which compares health statistics in the countries over the past two decades.

The problem in Mexico is especially pronounced in the capital, Mexico City, and near the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a study by Mexico's National Institute of Public Health.

Children and teenagers make up Mexico's largest age group, representing 39 percent of the country's 112 million people. More than 28 percent of children between 5 and 9, and 38 percent of preteens and teenagers ages 10 to 19, are overweight or obese, according to statistics from the Mexican Social Security Institute.

In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 12.5 million, or 17 percent, of children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 are obese. First lady Michelle Obama has tackled the issue with her "Let's Move" campaign, pushing for better school lunches, more access to fruits and vegetables and more physical activity. And Congress last year passed a new law requiring school lunches to be healthier.

In Brazil, a newly industrialized nation like Mexico, 19 percent of children ages 5 to 9 are overweight, and 15 percent are obese, according to government statistics. Officials did not have statistics available for teenagers.

Mexico's public health institute says the problem lies not just with children: Seventy percent of Mexican adults are overweight or obese as well. Officials have decided to target children and teens first, however, because they are the largest age group and fighting their habits now would prevent large numbers of diabetes cases and other illnesses in the future, the officials said.

"The earlier obesity shows up, the higher the risk the kid will become an obese adult and contract other diseases like diabetes, hypertension," said Leticia Martinez, chief nutritionist for Mexico's public health institute. "We see this as an emergency."

Health officials define obesity as having too much body fat. In Mexico, the U.S. and elsewhere, obesity is determined through BMI, a measure of body fat based on height and weight.

Mexico's childhood obesity spans social classes, though the poor are less informed and equipped to deal with the epidemic.

Starting this year, pre-kindergarten and elementary schools completely banned the sale of soft drinks and junk food and replaced previous breakfast programs with dishes rich in vegetables, such as squash blossoms and carrots. Middle schools are only selling sugar-free drinks, low-calorie snacks and small bags of chips that appear in new food guidelines approved by the departments of health and education.

During recess at the Republica Italiana elementary school, children run out of classrooms and form three lines, each one of which leads to a different food option.

Their choices include a turkey hot dog on a wheat bun with tomatoes and no mayonnaise; "nopales," or edible cactus paddles, with sliced peppers on a corn tortilla; sunflower seeds or a scoop of unsweetened lemon sorbet; and slices of cucumbers and carrots.

Principal Yamile Bobadilla says there's nothing she can do about vendors who still gather outside of the school gates to sell sodas, greasy pizzas and chips.

Some of the children, and even some parents, have complained about the junk food ban, she said, adding, "They see me as the witch."

The country's healthy-weight campaign has other challenges: Officials acknowledge there aren't enough dietitians in the public schools to help all of the children in need. They also note a prevailing cultural notion that a chubby baby is a healthy baby.

"Any efforts to improve the school environment are very important to combat the epidemic," said Chessa Lutter, a regional adviser on food and nutrition for the Pan American Health Organization.

Starting in the 2010-2011 school year, education officials began increasing the number of physical education hours from one to three per week based on their conclusion that some children are obese because they don't exercise. On a recent morning at Republica Italiana, several groups of kids were sent out to the school yard to run, play softball or twirl hula-hoops.

Bobadilla said some children still faint and suffer from extreme fatigue because of their weight problems.

Guillermo Ayala, who leads the food guidelines' task force at the Education Department, also heads an effort to have every child in Mexico City weighed and measured by a team of physical education coaches and nurses. Schools with a high number of children who have gained or not lost weight will face administrative sanctions, he said.

Outside the classroom, government-sponsored TV spots show kids struggling under heavy sacks of grain, symbols of the extra pounds (kilos) many are carrying around with them. The ads invite parents to enroll their children in a government-run program of diet and exercise. About 5.3 million children participate every year, but officials don't keep track of how many of them are overweight.

Anghella's grandmother Sucilla took her to a public hospital in May at the suggestion of the girl's day care providers, who said something would have to be done about the child's diet and exercise before she started school in August.

A nurse at the hospital suggested that Anghella start taking regular walks, drinking a lot of water and eating more whole grains, vegetables and fruits.

She goes often to visit the nurse, who weighs her regularly.

At home, when her small hand tries to reach for a sweet roll on the table, Sucilla slaps it and says, "You know why, my little girl."

Anghella said she doesn't like it when adults say she's fat.

"No, sweetheart. You are cuddly," Sucilla tells her. But she then adds, "I worry because I don't want my little girl to be an obese girl."

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Mosquito lab handles "world's most dangerous animals"

He keeps them in warm, comfortable bug dorms, feeds them on meals of human blood with the occasional sugar water snack and lives in awe of their killing power.

Seattle-based research scientist Stefan Kappe says mosquitoes are the most dangerous animals in the world.

Which is probably why when his laboratory colleagues slice their heads off with miniscule needle-like scalpels and squeeze them with tweezers to extract early forms of the malaria parasite from their saliva glands, he feels no concern about cruelty to animals.

Kappe has spent his working life trying to figure out how this tiny malaria-carrying insect can inflict so much death and disease on humans, and what he and his team can do to stop it.

According to the World Health Organisation, malaria kills a child every 45 seconds in Africa and costs that continent's economy $12 billion a year.

FORMIDABLE PREDATORS

Kappe, molecular biologist and expert in parasitology who trained first in Germany then the United States, has no doubt the killer parasitic disease will one day be wiped out across the world, but acknowledges it's a tough fight.

"They are formidable little predators," he says as he looks through the mesh window on one of the mosquito bug dorms at his

Seattle BioMed laboratory and insectary. A handwritten sticker on this dorm says "fed."

"They are uniquely adapted to take blood meals, and unfortunately infectious diseases have taken a ride along with this ability of the mosquito to bite you and take your blood," Kappe says.

Until this week, some of the world's best scientific minds had failed to make an effective vaccine against malaria -- or any parasitic disease for that matter -- and Kappe says eradication can't be achieved without one.

RTS,S was recognized as the first effective malaria vaccine on Tuesday when scientists released data showing it halved the risk of children getting the disease in a large Africa trial.

"Right now malaria vaccine development stands at a very interesting point because we have a partially effective vaccine in RTS,S," Kappe told Reuters.

Experts stressed that RTS,S -- developed by the British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline and the non-profit PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative -- will be no quick fix.

At around a 50 percent protection rate, the new shot is less effective against malaria than other vaccines are against common infections like polio and measles.

"The RTS,S vaccine will always stand as the first really successful vaccine that can partially protect against malaria," Kappe said. "But to eradicate the disease -- and that is our goal -- you need a vaccine that protects 90 to 100 percent. So we have to build on RTS,S."

To do that Kappe's team is taking various routes -- most of which involve breeding large numbers of these dangerous animals in warm, soupy trays in what he calls the "swamp room."

After dissecting them, modifying them, breeding more generations and then allowing them to drink malaria-infected blood from a skin-like covered cup, he sets them on brave human trial volunteers who agree to be bitten in the name of science.

Seattle BioMed is a non-profit research institute that works on research to eliminate the world's most devastating infectious diseases, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and around 500 other donors.

One of the institute's approaches to creating a vaccine centers around immature forms of the malaria parasite called sporozoites, which are carried in the saliva glands of female malarial mosquitoes and transferred into humans when they bite.

The process of infection with malaria takes a complex path, starting in the human victim's blood and moving into the liver.

Inside the liver, the sporozoites change form and then grow and divide into thousands of merozoites. These in turn burst out from the liver cells and back into the blood.

Once back in the blood, the merozoites multiply in red blood cells, again burst out and produce more parasites, eventually damaging the brain and lungs, causing fever, chills, anemia and, in severe cases, death.

DELETING THE PARASITE'S GENES

Kappe's team is seeking to interrupt this process at a critical stage and has found a way of genetically modifying the sporozoites to delete key genes from their DNA, so that while they still make it into the liver where they trigger a strong immune response, they are also genetically programed to die off there.

"What we're interested in is preventing the liver-stage parasite from completing its development," explains Ashley Vaughan, a molecular geneticist working with Kappe.

"If you have enough sporozoites going to the liver and stopping there, they will alert your immune system that your liver is seeing a large amount of malaria, which would then generate a protective response.

"So if you then get bitten by a mosquito carrying natural malaria, the parasite would go to your liver, that same response would be triggered and your immune system would kill it.

"This would mean you'd never get a blood-stage infection, and never get sick."

In tests on mice, the so-called genetically attenuated whole parasite (GAP) experimental vaccine has proven 100 percent protective, 100 percent of the time, Kappe and Vaughan said.

And in the first early-stage human trials, where six volunteers agreed to be bitten first by a "vaccine mosquito" carrying genetically modified parasites and then by one with natural malaria, five out of six were protected.

Kappe is worried by the sixth case -- where the trial volunteer went on to develop malaria caused by the parasites in the vaccine failing to stop developing at the right stage.

In the trial, the volunteer was of course immediately treated and cured with anti-malarial drugs, but for the GAP experimental shot to be developed any further down the path to a potentially useful product, the team still has much work to do.

"What we have to do now is learn how to make it safer, and learn how we would be able to manufacture it on a larger scale," said Kappe.

For the moment the manufacturing process is very hands on, and a little gruesome.

Working with microscopes in a laboratory next to the "swamp room," scientists Heather Kain and Will Betz take each mosquito at a time, soak it in an ethanol solution, slice its head off, squeeze its thorax to get the saliva glands out, and then cut open each gland to harvest the sporozoites.

For every potential vaccine dose, the researchers need around 10,000 sporozoites, and all those and more can come from a single mosquito. As Kappe says, "it's hard to imagine making millions of doses" by hand.

"On a good day I can dissect around 200 mosquitoes an hour," says Betz. "But it takes a steady hand."

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Ideology trumped science at Texas agency, two lawmakers say

Two Democratic state senators from Texas accused the state's environmental agency of letting ideology trump science when it deleted information about the implications of global warming from a draft report.

The leaders of the agency, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, are appointed by Republican Governor Rick Perry, who said in a recent presidential debate that the science of climate change was "unsettled."

At issue is "The State of the Bay 2010" report commissioned by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which has come under scrutiny after Rice University Professor John Anderson said that an article regarding sea-level changes he contributed was censored for political reasons.

Democratic state Senators Rodney Ellis of Houston and Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio wrote to Perry appointee Bryan Shaw, chairman of the commission.

In his letter, Ellis said he concluded from the deletions that "the facts simply proved inconvenient to the agency and other state leadership, and thus they were excised."

The commission said on Monday it would remove Anderson's article on sea-level rise in Galveston Bay from the report, ending a standoff with Anderson over the deleted information.

Commission spokesman Andy Saenz said Anderson prematurely revealed the draft report to the media without prior approval, and that the commission did not want to include controversial implications about global warming in the report.

"Why would we include things we don't agree with? That's ridiculous," Saenz said. "We were looking at not including very controversial things that are unsettled science."

Two co-editors of the project, Jim Lester and Lisa Gonzalez, scientists with the Houston Advanced Research Center, a nonprofit research facility contracted for the report, asked the agency to remove their names, fearing their own credibility.

Lester, the center's vice president, called the deletions "scientific censorship." He said Anderson's statements in the article were not political and were reviewed by lower-level staff at the agency before upper management made its own edits.

"As a scientist, my main concern is about the availability of objective science for decision-making in agencies," Lester said.

Saenz denied the claims of scientific censorship.

"Using a word like censorship is very powerful," he said. "It isn't censorship to accurately report in our document what we believe. That's being responsible. That's being accurate."

Saenz said the agency was preparing a response to the senators. The agency, which is embroiled in a lawsuit with the Environmental Protection Agency over greenhouse gas emissions, has been working on the report for more than two years, the agency said.

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Conducting a Cloud Planning Analysis

Cloud computing can introduce new stress points that demand great robustness of the IT infrastructure.

In order to prepare, it’s important to first evaluate the viability of a cloud deployment and conduct a thoughtful cloud planning analysis. Once this legwork has been completed, cloud may be an excellent choice based on the problem you are trying to solve and the opportunity cost. For potential cloud adopters, I believe there are several key focus areas that must be accounted for as part of any effective cloud planning analysis. To narrow it down, network connectivity, security and infrastructure capability and capacity are three areas that will need to be assessed as part of a thorough analysis in preparation for the cloud.
Connectivity Counts

Network connectivity and performance can be an issue in some regions of the world, and this issue should be considered as part of the planning and analysis conducted to determine if cloud is a viable and beneficial option. The notion of a cloud, or a utility based computing model, is that the heavy computing required to achieve a strategic goal is completed in the data center hosting the cloud infrastructure. If the users to be served using cloud struggle with poor or slow network connectivity, then tying users to a solution that may be network IO intensive may not be the best option. Those evaluating a cloud deployment should keep the end user in mind, and specifically the resources available to the user population to determine the viability of a cloud solution.

Also, security is always a concern for any IT project, cloud or otherwise. In my experience, I have not found a single instance of a security issue or breach that has been any different than the issues we all face in the non-cloud world. Again, responsible enterprises that engage in the process evaluation of cloud opportunities will need to evaluate internal as well as external security standards of a would-be partner or provider. Until the various councils develop additional standards for adoption, we have what we have regarding security.
Size Matters

Infrastructure capability and capacity must be assessed regardless of whether the project under consideration is a private, public or hybrid cloud implementation. Enterprises reviewing an opportunity to engage in private cloud should complete an infrastructure assessment across the entire data center operations and facilities space from the moment power enters the facility until the power reaches the server processor. Additional assessment and understanding the impact of the initiative on all environmental capacities is key, as well as being able to use this data to determine the costs associated with the initiative. It is also important to note that those engaged in such an assessment can obtain support for these types of assessments from their existing vendors, or third party firms that provide these assessment services.

For those firms interested in exploring public or hybrid model cloud initiatives, the homework entailed is a review of the cloud vendor’s infrastructure capabilities as well as a review of the internal infrastructure to ensure security and performance levels are adequate to meet project objectives.

These three focus areas above just scratch the surface of the assessment activities that will need to be conducted as part of a thorough analysis. The good news is that there are a variety of resources available on the web or through the various cloud computing forums that will provide the listings of requirements or questions that should be addressed as part of a cloud ready self-assessment. There are also third party firms that provide assessment services for hire.

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Medium Voltage Power Transfer Switches

ASCO MVPTS have an integrated ASCO Power Control Center to improve the systems' communications capabilities and better manage circuit breaker operation. They are functionally similar to the company's low voltage transfer switches, but incorporate a pair of medium voltage circuit breakers as the preferred transfer mechanism. They monitor power and provide information about potential fault problems.

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All Against Cain: Upstart Targeted in GOP Debate

Republican presidential contenders attacked upstart Herman Cain's economic plan as a tax increase waiting to happen Tuesday night, moving swiftly in a fiery campaign debate to blunt the former businessman's unlikely rise in the race for the party's nomination.

Old animosities flared, too, as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry swapped criticism in unusually personal terms. "You have a problem with allowing someone to finish speaking," Romney declared as the two men interrupted one another repeatedly in a disagreement over immigration, one of several vigorous clashes they had.

In a bow to Nevada voters, who will be among the first to choose among the candidates early next year, no one said he wanted to open a proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in a remote part of the state.

The fifth debate in six weeks ranged over familiar and contentious territory — from immigration and health care to the economy and energy, often in antagonistic terms. The candidates engaged each other more directly and sometimes more heatedly than in previous debates.

Romney's Mormon faith also came up, and Perry said he disagreed with a pastor and political supporter who described the religion as a cult. "I can't apologize any more than that," the Texan said.

"That's fine," responded Romney.

But Cain's unlikely rise from asterisk in the polls to contender was clearly on the minds of his rivals on stage in a hotel along the Las Vegas Strip.

Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota led the verbal assault moments after the debate began, saying his call for a 9 percent federal sales tax would only be the beginning, with the rate rising later.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania wasn't nearly as gentle, citing one analysis that found that taxes would go up for 84 percent of the nation's households if Cain's proposal went into effect. "We're talking about major increases in taxes," he said, adding that a single person and a couple with children with the same income would pay the same tax under Cain's proposal.

Undeterred, Cain insisted the charges were untrue. He said he was being criticized because lobbyists, accountants and others "want to continue to be able to manipulate the American people with a 10-million- word mess," the current tax code.

Cain's proposal is for a 9 percent personal income tax, a 9 percent corporate tax and a 9 percent national sales tax.

The former pizza company CEO is the latest and unlikeliest phenomenon in the race to pick a Republican rival for President Barack Obama. A black man in a party that draws few votes from Africans Americans, he had bumped along with little notice as Romney sought to fend off one fast-rising rival after another.

That all changed in the past few weeks, after Perry burst into the race and then fell back in the polls. However unlikely Cain's rise, Tuesday night's debate made clear that none of his rivals are willing to let him go unchallenged.

"Herman, I love you, brother, but let me tell you something, you don't need to have a big analysis to figure this thing out," Perry said to Cain. "Go to New Hampshire where they don't have a sales tax and you're fixing to give them one," he said, referring to the state that will hold the first primary early next year.

The debate was the fifth since Labor Day, and the last scheduled for nearly a month in a race that is fluid in more than one way.

While polls chart a series of rises and falls for various contenders — Romney remaining at or near the top — the schedule is far from set. Florida's decision to move up its primary set off a scramble as Iowa maneuvered to make sure its caucuses are the first real test of the race and New Hampshire works to protect its half-century distinction as host to the first primary.

It was Perry who instigated the confrontation over immigration, saying that Romney had no credentials on the issue because he had once hired an illegal worker, the "height of hypocrisy."

Romney denied the charge, saying he had hired a company to mow his lawn and did not know that it had an illegal immigrant on its payroll.

The two men talked over one another, and at one point, Romney placed his on Perry's shoulder.

"It's been a tough couple of debates for Rick. And I understand that so you're going to get testy," he said.

As Perry continued to speak, Romney stopped him: "You have a problem with allowing someone to finish speaking, and I suggest that if you want to become president of the United States, you've got to let both people speak," he said.

On a more substantive level, Perry said he opposed repealing the portion of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that says anyone born in the United States is automatically a citizen.

Bachmann, Santorum and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas all sidestepped the question.

Cain found himself on the defensive on two others issues during the two-hour debate.

He apologized for earlier remarks about building an electric fence on the Mexico border that could kill people trying to cross illegally.

And he said he wouldn't be willing to negotiate with terrorists, even though he suggested he might be in an interview earlier in the day.

Foreign policy took a secondary role in the debate, and the new strain of Republican isolationism quickly surfaced.

Paul said U.S. troops should be withdrawn from Korea — where they have been stationed for more than 50 years — and foreign aid to Israel cut.

Perry said it was "time to have a very serious discussion about defunding the United Nations."

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman skipped this debate, saying he was boycotting the Nevada caucuses in a dispute over the primary and caucus calendar. He is campaigning exclusively in New Hampshire in hopes of a victory that can move him into the thick of the race.

Not only Republicans, but Obama was also critical of Cain's economic plan during the day.

In an interview with ABC News, Obama said it would be a "huge burden" on middle-class and working families.

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