Avlon: 3 things to watch for in S.C.

(CNN) -- All presidential primaries matter, but some matter more than most.

South Carolina has voted for the eventual winner of the Republican nomination since 1980. And for the conservative candidates looking to stop the inevitability narrative that has surrounded Mitt Romney's candidacy, South Carolina is a must-win state. Here are three things to watch as South Carolinians vote.

Newt-momentum again? Newt Gingrich is a political Lazarus in the midst of his third rise from the dead here in South Carolina. After a disappointing fourth place finish in Iowa and New Hampshire, many political observers thought the former speaker of the House was finished. But his strong and substantive debate performances have helped shift the winds in his direction once again.

Earlier this week, polls started showing him closing the gap with Romney, with some even showing Gingrich pulling ahead. South Carolina is a good state for his defiantly anti-PC style and political reform message.

Opponents have once again tried to go negative on his sometimes tumultuous personal life, but it remains to be seen whether those attacks are already baked in the cake. Rick Perry getting out of the race and immediately endorsing Gingrich was a huge boost. If Newt can win South Carolina, we have a real race in front of us.

Romney downplaying expectations: Roaring out of a strong broad-based win in New Hampshire, Mitt Romney seemed unstoppable. Some pundits occupied themselves with sorting through his likely VP picks. But a week is a long time in politics, and in the course of one morning, Mitt found out he had in fact lost Iowa to Rick Santorum and fallen behind in some polls. Simultaneously, questions were raised about his self-admitted (but not completely disclosed) 15% tax rate and Cayman Islands investments.

The much-vaunted endorsement of South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley might prove to be more of a national story than a local influence; she is currently less popular in the Palmetto State than Barack Obama.

A Thursday debate performance in which Romney tried to still play the front-runner and stay above the fray didn't help matters. But even as the Romney campaign downplayed expectations of a win -- and blanketed the state with robocalls (I received two essentially back to back, one from the Restore America super PAC and the other from Ann Romney, a total coincidence, I'm sure) -- Romney can't be counted out, even in this state. He still has the best organization of the bunch.

An evangelical bump? Rick Santorum was supposed to get a big bump when evangelical leaders gathered at a Texas ranch and announced their intention to support him.

It was historic and in a state stereotyped as an evangelical bastion, home to Bob Jones University, it was supposed to be a game changer. But so far, no game has changed: Rick Santorum remains stuck in a distant fourth place, according to the polls. There is still time for votes to shift in his direction, but this failure to materialize is a significant question mark hanging over South Carolina as its citizens prepare to vote.

Source

Sites back online after Anonymous attack

(CNN) -- U.S. authorities overreacted in shutting down the online file-sharing site Megaupload and seeking criminal charges against its executives, the company's American lawyer said Friday.

"We believe that the allegations are without merit and Megaupload is going to vigorously defend against the case," attorney Ira Rothken said.

Federal authorities shut the site down Thursday, the same day they announced indictments against seven people connected to the site, accusing them of operating an "international organized criminal enterprise responsible for massive worldwide online piracy of copyrighted works." Four of those charged were arrested Friday in New Zealand at the request of U.S. authorities.

The site, which traffic-tracking service Alexa ranked as the world's 72nd most visited website before it was taken down, allowed users to share and download files, many of which were copyrighted works made available for download without permission, according to authorities.

Rothken said the case demonstrates a "copyright extremist mentality" on the part of U.S. authorities and raises significant due process and consumer protection issues.

He said it was inappropriate for U.S. authorities to seize the company's servers and domain names, not to mention $50 million in assets, without a court hearing.

He also said the seizure means consumers who had stored legitimately acquired materials on sites owned by Megaupload can no longer access them.

The seizure "has essentially created a chilling effect on consumers using Internet cloud storage going forward," Rothken said.

Federal prosecutors allege Megaupload's founders "conducted their illegal operation using a business model expressly designed to promote uploading of the most popular copyrighted works."

The site's popular MegaVideo subsidiary was widely known in tech circles for its copious selection of pirated content, including recent movies and episodes of hit TV shows.

"The conspirators allegedly paid users whom they specifically knew uploaded infringing content and publicized their links to users throughout the world," prosecutors said in a statement. They also took steps to mask the presence of illegal content on the site, prosecutors said.

The company also discouraged users from using the site for legitimate personal storage by automatically deleting files that weren't regularly downloaded, prosecutors said.

Authorities said the operation had generated more than $175 million in illegal profits through advertising revenue and the sale of premium memberships.

Those indicted are citizens of New Zealand, Germany, Slovakia and the Netherlands. No U.S. citizens were named. However, Megaupload has servers in Ashburn, Virginia, and Washington, which prompted the Virginia-based investigation.

The investigation involved 20 search warrants in eight countries, authorities said. Officials seized 18 domain names from the company and its servers based in the United States, the Netherlands and Canada.

Megaupload's sudden shutdown Thursday got the attention of hackers, who quickly assembled a widespread operation to take down the Justice Department and FBI websites, as well as those for the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America and several other sites.

The Internet activism and hacking collective Anonymous took credit for the denial-of-service attacks, which don't damage computer systems but keep sites from operating properly by overloading them with spurious requests. That can slow a site down or keep its servers from responding to legitimate requests.

"It's a violation of freedom of speech," one Anonymous member told CNN of the Megaupload shutdown. "It's part of a bigger picture that's taking place ... which is a very big slide toward Internet censorship on a gigantic scale."

Most of the sites were back up by Friday morning, but the website for New Zealand police, which Anonymous also targeted, appeared to be down early Saturday.

The Justice Department and FBI sites targeted Thursday were operating normally on Friday, a law enforcement official told CNN. Investigators are "looking at forensics to see where (the attack) came from," the official said.

No data breaches occurred on U.S. government sites, the law enforcement official told CNN.

The four Megaupload officials arrested in New Zealand -- Kim Dotcom, Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk -- appeared Friday at an initial court hearing.

Dotcom, the Megaupload founder and owner, spoke briefly, interrupting an attorney who sought to stop reporters from photographing the men, according to the New Zealand Herald newspaper.

"We don't mind ... if people want to take photographs of us or cover this event because we've got nothing to hide," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

It was unclear when extradition proceedings would begin.

The four were arrested after a complicated raid that involved 76 police officers who arrived at a New Zealand mansion by helicopter and had to repeatedly defeat electronic locks in pursuing Dotcom, New Zealand's TV One reported, citing Detective Inspector Grant Wormald.

Officers had to cut their way into a safe room, where they found Dotcom near a sawed-off shotgun, the broadcaster reported.

"It was definitely not as simple as knocking at the front door," TV One quoted Wormald as saying.

The raid, seizure and shutdown comes in the same week as a widespread Internet protest over controversial anti-piracy bills in the U.S. House and Senate that would make it easier for U.S. authorities to target foreign piracy sites, of which prosecutors allege Megaupload was one.

The bills are known as the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and the Protect Internet Property Act, or PIPA.

The bills are aimed at cracking down on copyright infringement by restricting access to sites that host or facilitate the trading of pirated content. But the legislation has created a divide between tech giants, who say the language is too broad, and large media companies, who say they are losing millions each year to rampant online piracy.

Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, is among the industry supporters of the legislation.

On Friday, after numerous legislators pulled their support for the legislation in the wake of the protests, House and Senate leaders announced they would delay action on the legislation to address concerns raised by activists.

Rothken said the shutdown calls into question whether legislation like SOPA or PIPA is truly needed.

"This demonstrates the government is certainly able to act without any additional legislation," he said.

Source

Sex is safe for most heart patients

(Health.com) -- If you've recently had a heart attack or heart surgery, you might be concerned that revving up your pulse during a moment of passion could be dangerous. Rest assured: Resuming sexual activity is perfectly safe for most heart patients, according to new guidelines from the American Heart Association (AHA).

Certain patients, such as those with severe heart disease who have symptoms while at rest, should put off sex until their condition has stabilized. But if you can walk briskly or climb two flights of stairs without experiencing chest pain, abnormal heart rhythms, or shortness of breath, you're almost certainly ready to start having sex again, the guidelines say.

The authors stress, however, that all heart patients should check with their doctor before resuming their sex life. Just as important, the guidelines encourage patients -- and their partners -- to discuss any feelings of sex-related anxiety or depression with a health professional.

"Both patients and the patient's spouse or partner often have anxieties about resuming sexual activity after the patient has been diagnosed with heart disease or has undergone a heart procedure," says Glenn N. Levine, M.D., the lead author of the guidelines and a professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston. "Sometimes it is actually the partner who is more anxious than the patient."

Health.com: The worst habits for your heart

The guidelines, which appear in the journal Circulation and have been endorsed by a host of physicians' groups, are the first ever from the AHA to focus on heart disease and sex -- a subject that gets far too little attention, the authors say. Most cardiologists fail to raise the topic with their patients, and they are even less likely to ask about anxiety or depression, Levine says.

Stephen Kopecky, M.D., a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota, says many patients who have a heart attack or undergo bypass surgery become depressed, which can reduce libido and affect sexual function. To make matters worse, he says, avoiding sex can in turn worsen depression.

"That's why it's so important for us to talk to patients about this, and tell them this is not the end of [their] sex life," says Kopecky, who has studied sexual activity in heart patients but did not participate in writing the new guidelines.

Health.com: Surprising libido boosters

Heart problems during sex are very rare. Less than 1% of all heart attacks are triggered by sexual activity, Levine and his coauthors note, and the odds are even lower for people who exercise regularly. A sedentary person's risk of having a heart attack roughly triples during sex, while an active person's risk rises by just 20%.

But in either case the absolute risk is extremely small, especially since intercourse typically lasts for minutes, rather than hours. The chances that a heart-attack survivor will experience another heart attack or die in any given hour is roughly 1 in 100,000, for instance; during sex those odds increase to no more than about 1 in 33,000.

Still, the guidelines recommend that heart-attack survivors wait at least a week after their attack to resume having sex. Patients who have had bypass surgery or other major heart surgery should wait at least six to eight weeks, the authors say, although sex is generally safe several days after minimally invasive surgery to clear blocked blood vessels.

Health.com: Heart-implant shocks can make sex frightening

The new guidelines address all forms of heart disease, including coronary artery disease, heart failure, heart-rhythm disorders (arrhythmias), and valve problems.

If a heart patient's condition is at all uncertain after an initial consultation with a doctor, the guidelines recommend that he or she undergo an exercise stress test, which involves monitoring heart activity and breathing while walking (or running) on a treadmill.

Even after being cleared for sex, patients may want to take some basic precautions. According to the guidelines, doctors should advise their patients to avoid heavy meals and alcohol before sex, use a position that allows for free breathing, and avoid "unfamiliar surroundings and partners." (Most documented cases of sudden death during intercourse involve extramarital sex, the guidelines note.)

Health.com: 10 reasons why you're not having sex

In addition, patients may need to temporarily lower their expectations. "The achievement of orgasm may require a greater degree of exertion and may not be a realistic initial goal in some patients," Levine and his colleagues write.

Heart patients' concerns about intimacy are "one of those things that gets swept under the rug too often, by not only the caregivers but also the patient and the spouse or the family," Kopecky says. "I think having guidelines like this is very helpful -- to have it out there and talk about [sex] and say it is OK to do."

Source

Cruise ship's cook says captain ordered dinner after crash

(CNN) -- The captain of the Costa Concordia ordered dinner for himself and a woman after the ship struck rocks off Italy's coast, a cook from the ship told a Filipino television station.

In an interview with GMA Network, cook Rogelio Barista said Capt. Francesco Schettino ordered dinner less than an hour after the accident.

"We wondered what was going on. ... At that time, we really felt something was wrong. ... The stuff in the kitchen was falling off shelves and we realized how grave the situation was," Barista told GMA.

Schettino ordered dinner around 10:30 p.m. Friday, Barista said. Authorities say the ship struck the rocks at 9:41 p.m.

"I have had 12 years of experience as a cook on a cruise ship. ... I have even witnessed fires, so I wasn't that scared," Barista said. "But I did wonder, though, what the captain was doing ... why was he still there."

The ship hit rocks off the coast of the Italian island of Giglio on Friday night.

At least 11 people are known to have died in the disaster, and 21 are still missing, according to the Italian Crisis Unit.

Criticism from both Costa Cruises and the authorities has focused so far on Schettino, who is under house arrest and facing possible charges of manslaughter, shipwreck and abandoning ship.

Coast guard records published Thursday by an Italian newspaper pile further pressure on the captain of the Concordia and his officers, suggesting that the authorities first became aware of the crash from a friend of the mother of a passenger about 15 minutes after the ship hit rocks.

Schettino's brother-in-law defended him in an Italian newspaper Thursday.

Schettino "managed to avoid a tragedy -- it could have been worse," Maurilio Russo said in Corriere della Sera.

And he denied that the captain had abandoned ship.

"He was not running away, he came down (from the ship) to survey the damage," Russo said.

Source

Mom claims in viral blog that disabled child denied transplant

(CNN) -- Can a patient be rejected for a kidney transplant based on a developmental disability? A New Jersey mother alleges in her blog that this happened to her 3-year-old daughter, and it has sparked an Internet uproar.

Whether a person with a mental disability qualifies for an organ transplant is a decision made on a case-by-case basis, based on that patient's health, experts say.

On Thursday, Chrissy Rivera wrote in the blog wolfhirschhorn.org about her latest doctor's visit concerning her daughter, Amelia. Rivera writes in the blog that Amelia was ruled out from receiving a kidney transplant because of her developmental disability.

The blog post went viral and inspired an online petition on Change.org that had collected more than 26,000 signatures by 1 p.m ET Wednesday.

It's not possible to confirm Rivera's story with the hospital because of privacy protection laws. CNN contacted Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, but the hospital said it had no comment other than a statement posted on Facebook.

Amelia, nicknamed Mia, has the genetic disorder Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, which delays growth, development and intellectual abilities. People with this syndrome have unusual physical features such as dry skin, curvature of the spine, dental problems, cleft palate or cleft lip, and weak muscle tone that can cause short stature, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Depending on the type of Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, the median life expectancy is no higher than 34 years, according to a 2001 study published in the Journal of Medical Genetics.

Amelia has been a patient at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia almost all her life, said her father, Joe Rivera. But her kidneys are failing, according to the Riveras. Her nephrologist estimated she has six months to one year before needing a transplant, the girl's parents said.

In the blog entry, Chrissy Rivera detailed a doctor's visit on January 10. She wrote that a doctor on the transplant team and a social worker said that Amelia could not be a candidate for kidney transplant "because of her mental delays."

The doctor warned that the medications Amelia has to take after a transplant are very dangerous and could cause seizures and brain damage, the blog post said. According to Rivera, she was told that it was a different case for Amelia compared with other children, because "she is already brain damaged and mentally retarded."

Amelia's dad was also in the room during the conversation.

"I don't know how I didn't jump across the table," he told CNN in a telephone interview. "I was more in shock. I felt like I was frozen."

Rivera said they did not ask that Amelia be placed on the transplant waiting list, which has 90,150 candidates seeking kidney transplants. The Riveras wanted to see whether they or other volunteers could be a donor match for her.

Children even as young as Amelia can receive adult organs -- these body parts can be sliced in a way to fit inside a child's body.

Amelia's parents had not been tested to see whether they matched yet.

"We were going into the meeting thinking we're going to be informed on the process," Rivera said. "Instead he (the doctor) gives us a paper that said she's mentally retarded so she doesn't qualify."

His wife ended her blog post urging readers to share Amelia's story. "We are in the year 2012 and my child still does not have the right to live, the right to a transplant, because she is developmentally delayed," Rivera wrote.

Without knowing the child's medical information, it's impossible to know whether there were other factors that shaped the doctor's recommendation regarding Amelia's transplant.

On its Facebook page, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia stated that, "We do not disqualify potential transplant candidates on the basis of intellectual abilities. We have transplanted many children with a wide range of disabilities, including physical and mental disabilities."

In response to the barrage of comments on its Facebook page, the hospital wrote: "We're listening. We hear your concerns and take seriously your posts, emails and phone calls."

During a discussion on CNN Tuesday, former prosecutor Seema Iyer said, "I would love to hear from the hospital, because these hospitals are constantly in fear of being sued," and said that there could be other issues in this case.

Rivera said someone from the hospital called Sunday about scheduling another appointment.

"We never said anything about CHOP," he said. "Some of the people ranting about Facebook, we haven't said one bad thing. We love CHOP. We want things to be fixed."

There are no national guidelines over transplants involving mentally disabled patients. The United Network for Organ Sharing, the private, nonprofit organization that manages the nation's organ transplant system, does not have rules about what to do in cases of patients with mental disabilities.

Doctors can refuse to consider a patient for an organ transplant if there is another illness or complications such as a severe infection or cancer that is likely to limit the life span.

Mental disabilities should not factor into the decision making for transplants, so long as the patient has strong support from family and caregivers who would ensure that the required medications and care is given, said Dr. Raul de Velasco, the clinical ethics program director at the University of Miami.

"The mental disability should not be the reason why you should not receive a kidney," said de Velasco. The decision should come down to "a medical problem, not the value of the life of a mentally disabled person."

The issue of developmental delay is a difficult one for transplant doctors.

"It's such an unpredictable area; there's not a lot of info known," said Dr. George Mazariegos, the chief of pediatric transplantation at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, about various developmental disabilities. "Therefore these decisions are usually individualized, based on the patient's conditions, their absolute need for transplant and other aspects of the patient's condition."

All transplant recipients have to take immune-suppressing medication to make sure there is no rejection of the new organ.

"Because many individuals with disabilities have a guardian or health care provider making sure they're getting to their appointments, the compliance is not an issue," said Marilee Martens, program director of Nisonger Center at The Ohio State University.

Martens wrote a 2006 report examining the outcome of patients with developmental delays who received kidney transplants. The report published in Pediatric Transplantation concluded that the one-year patient survival rate was 100% and the three-year outcome was 90%.

In Amelia's case, it's difficult to draw any conclusions because, "all we know is what the mom reported hearing. We don't know what the physician stated," she said.

On the flip side, patients who have mental disabilities or neurological delays can qualify to be live organ donors after undergoing screening processes and consent from the family.

Joe Rivera said over the past few days, they've heard from other parents of children with developmental disabilities, who say they were excluded from transplants.

All kids deserve a chance, he said.

Source

From sex toys to scales at CES

(CNN) -- Connectivity was the name of the game at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, held last week in Las Vegas -- especially when it came to health-related products. From cloud-connected scales to music-connected sex toys, these gadgets rose above the rest as those that might really help you keep your New Year's resolutions.

Sleep soundly

A small, lightweight band users wear on their heads during sleep, the Zeo Sleep System measures brain waves while you're in dreamland, and will sync via Bluetooth with your smart device.

Zeo's free app plots out how many hours of quality snooze time you're getting each night. Great feedback for our highly caffeinated, tech-obsessed society, it also plots out sleep quality based on behaviors you input.

How much did those three glasses of vino affect your sleep? How about that late night fast-food run, or actual run?

Zeo gives you concrete tips for improving your sleep routine based on your habits, and will even wake you up at the optimum time in your sleep cycle. The Zeo is available for a one-time purchase price of $99. (No monthly subscription required.)

Body bands

A bevy of body bands made a splash at CES this year, among them the BodyMedia Fit and the Basis Band.

BodyMedia's Fit monitoring system consists of a small electric band the user wears on his or her arm, that works in conjunction with a software interface that's available on your smartphone or online. Users input their daily calorie intake, and the device monitors calories burned.

The band uses sweat sensors, an accelerometer and skin temperature monitors to figure out how much exercise you're doing, and for how long. It compares that to your food intake to give a picture of your daily health. The accelerometer knows when you're lying on your back for hours at a time (presumably sleeping), and adds that to your fitness picture as well.

The Fit CORE is available for $149, but requires plugging in to synch your data. The new Fit LINK is Bluetooth-enabled for wireless synching, and is available for $179. Both products require a $6.95 monthly subscription to BodyMedia's online dashboard.

Similar to the BodyMedia's Fit, the Basis Band adds real-time heart rate monitoring to the mix by using a optical engine that "looks through the skin to see actual blood flow," similar to the technology used in pulse oximeters (those little things they put on your finger at the doctor's office.)

The Basis Band is also worn on the wrist rather than on the arm, and looks more like a trendy watch than a fitness monitor. The Basis is available for pre-order, shipping sometime this quarter; and will be $199. The price includes lifetime access to the cloud service and online interface -- no monthly subscription required.

Smart medical devices

Smart medical devices abounded on the expo floor this year.

The Withings Wi-fi Body Scale, a sleek device that looks like an iPhone you can step on, connects with your iPhone, or other iOS or Android-capable phone.

The scale measures your weight, lean and fat mass and calculates your BMI almost instantaneously. To keep things simple (and less depressing), the display only shows your weight -- the rest of the information floats up to the cloud, and is available on your smartphone. The free app interface also lets you invite friends, family members or your doctor to view your progress; and it will keep track of data for up to eight users.

The Withings Wi-fi Scale is available for $159, which includes lifetime access to the web and phone service. Unfortunately, just because this scale is cloud-connected, doesn't mean you're going to be any lighter.

Withings also had another smart medical device: the iPhone Blood Pressure Cuff. Wrap it around your arm and then plug this bad boy into your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. A small compressor in the device inflates the cuff, using power from your device.

Once the reading is complete, the information is logged in a free app, and is available to send to your doctor for analysis and tracking. The cuff is available for $129 with no recurring monthly fees.

California-based iHealth Labs also brought a Wi-Fi scale and blood pressure cuff to the table; but a third product really caught our attention: the Smart GlucoMeter. As more of the connected generation starts dealing with diabetes, this high-tech tool may encourage diabetics to check their blood sugar more often.

The device is simple: Plug a pack-of-gum-sized accessory into the bottom of your Apple device, insert a test strip, prick your finger (unfortunately, they haven't been able to eliminate that step). Put a drop of blood on the strip. Within a few seconds, the device measures your blood sugar, and catalogs it for you and your doctor to track. The GlucoMeter is pending approval with the FDA, and should be available in the latter half of 2012. The price has not yet been set.

Health apps

Just as cool as some of the hardware at CES was the software. "Gamification" of health was a popular phrase on the show floor, and several companies weighed in with entries to that category. Among the coolest were ...

UnitedHealth Group's OptumizeMe is a social fitness app that lets you challenge friends and family to get healthy. The app allows users to make their own health challenges or select from a list of popular challenges. Among them: competitions to see who can walk the most steps in a day, who can be the first to run 100 miles, and who can eat their daily servings of fruits and veggies.

The app allows you to add a prize for the top dog and share your results on social networking sites with friends. OptumizeMe is a free app, and it allows you to sync fitness information with your employer's benefits plan if your company has United Healthcare coverage. (TimeWarner, CNN's parent company, is a member of United Healthcare insurance coverage.)

This app isn't a new entry into the category, but a much improved one. Lose It! is a weight-loss management tool that allows users to keep track of food and exercise on the go. The app has a catalog of thousands of the most popular foods, and all of the nutrition information for each of them.

Popular new additions to the app include bar-code scanning of your favorite prepackaged food items, the ability to create and share custom foods and recipes with your friends, and a FourSquare-like badge-earning system, that rewards users' daily entries, weight loss milestones, and sharing activities.

Lose It! is a free app, and will integrate data from many of the connected medical devices listed above into your health picture.

The cool stuff

There are a few other notable additions to the list, though they only sort of qualify as health devices.

The 4Moms Origami Stroller is so cool, it might make you want a baby! This "iPhone of baby strollers" both collapses and rebuilds itself at the touch of a button, using on-board motors that are charged when the user pushes the stroller. It also features daytime-running lights, a cupholder, and a smartphone-charging pouch (using the same charge-as-you-push technology).

An onboard LCD screen monitors the weather, battery level and whether or not your child is in the seat -- critical info if you're considering pushing the "fold" button. But rest assured, the device isn't as scatter-brained as new moms tend to be, and won't fold if your bambino is inside. The origami is available for $849.

The Nest Thermostat gives some much needed love to the oft-neglected category of home heating and cooling interfaces. This $249 piece of wall art automatically learns your temperature preferences, and your comings and goings to make sure your house is cool when you want it to be.

Users can also control the Wi-Fi connected device remotely via smartphone; and special plastic technology enables it to pick up the color of the wall it's on to blend in with your decor.

And for those of you whose New Year's resolutions included having more, uh, fun in the bedroom, the OhMiBod musical vibrators use an audio-enabled microchips to vibrate to the beat of your favorite music. The line features personal-use and partner-friendly devices; even a wearable model to take with you to the clubs. This product was a little difficult to test on the show floor, though.

Source

Fitness classes streaming online

(CNN) -- It's miserable outside. The whole world is a depressing gray color that just makes you want to lie on the couch and watch reruns of "Sex and the City."

You don't have time to pack your gym bag, drop off the kids, drive to the fitness studio, shower and change, pick up the kids and get back home before dinner.

Plus, you're really tired of floor mats that reek and that woman in the back row who always steps left instead of right, effectively knocking you down on your out-of-shape gluteus maximus.

Whatever your reason is for not wanting to hit the gym, Kristin Knee of Flirty Girl Fitness understands.

"I don't even want to go to my own studio when it's raining," she said with a laugh.

That's why late last year, she and her sister, Kerry, launched Flirty Girl Fitness LIVE, a Web service that streams three or four of their franchise's group classes every day.

Subscribers can log in at home and participate in classes like "Bikini Bootcamp" or "Hottie Body Boxing" from their living room. The classes stay online for 24 hours and then are replaced with the next day's workouts. Unlimited subscription passes are $15 a month.

Online video streaming is just starting to blossom in the fitness industry, IDEA Health and Fitness Association editor Sandy Todd Webster says. Several sites offer similar programs, including Yogis Anonymous, Connect Online Fitness, EMG Live Fitness and DailyBurn.

"It seems like the next natural progression to home fitness DVDs," Webster said. "It's another way of making fitness more convenient for yourself."

Knee was shocked by how quickly the LIVE service caught on with her regular members. People were doing classes on their lunch break at work or logging in while on vacation.

"You know you have a [workout] DVD, and it's an awesome DVD, but the girl tells the same joke every day," Knee said. "This is always live, always fresh, and you feel like you're there."

Variety is one of the reasons Joyce Wells loves group fitness classes. But when Wells moved to the suburbs from New York, she was disappointed with the caliber of local studios.

The businesswoman remembered how much her colleagues at Microsoft had loved video conferencing during meetings. Her subsequent research on online paid content revealed astonishing numbers: In 2010, the National Football League raked in $500 million in revenue from its streaming services; Major League Baseball earned $450 million. Netflix's digital revenue totaled more than $1.5 billion.

So Wells launched EMG Live Fitness, an Internet-based fitness studio that streams classes from instructors across the country. There's no subscription for Wells' site; classes are bought for $5 apiece.

In Wells' opinion, the fitness industry is dragging its feet in making the transition online. The brick-and-mortar gyms are afraid of catalyzing their current market, she says.

"It's going to be like Netflix was to Blockbuster. Blockbuster refused to let go of that model, and look at what happened to them." (Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in September 2010).

Wells' target market is stay-at-home mothers and people who are obese. But online classes appeal to anyone who's uncomfortable in a gym setting, Webster says.

"You hear, 'I can't go to the gym until I get in shape,' " Webster said. "This gives them privacy ... to experience it on their own without feeling self-conscious. This could go a long way to promoting compliance because it's convenient and portable."

Webster says personal trainers also use online video libraries to encourage clients to keep up with their workouts.

While on-demand fitness video libraries are nothing new, they're becoming more elaborate. Fitness company Daily Burn recently introduced HD-quality, customized video workouts on DailyBurn.com. The workouts are led by the "DB6," a team of six instructors who have a variety of areas of expertise.

DailyBurn asks new users questions about their ability levels and goals. It then uses the site's "IntelliBurn" technology to analyze and stream a personalized workout.

By adding the video service, CEO Andy Smith and his producers have turned the site into one giant personal trainer.

"It doesn't put you in a certain bucket," Smith said. "It learns about you as you go, constantly monitoring what workout you did yesterday, are you hitting a plateau. ... People really want to stay motivated and be told what to do."

Nearly 20% of all TVs worldwide will be connected to the Internet by 2016, according to Digital TV Research, which will make it even easier for online fitness videos to infiltrate America's living rooms.

Put bluntly, there are no more excuses.

"People are realizing more and more that there's not a magic pill for [weight loss]," Smith said. "You just need to get started."

Source

Twin winter storms slam Pacific Northwest

(CNN) -- Snow was pelting Seattle and accumulating on roads early Wednesday as the city was poised to see what could be one of its largest-ever snowfalls in more than 70 years.

The Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area may see between 4 and 8 inches of snow as the second of twin storms moves across the Pacific Northwest, according to the National Weather Service.

The southwest interior of Washington state, including the capital, Olympia, could see 5 to 10 inches of snow, the weather service said.

Precipitation moving in from the south and west is combining with cold air moving south from Canada to create the heavy snowfall, said Dustin Guy, a meteorologist at the weather service's Seattle office.

If snowfall amounts top 7 inches, the winter weather event will rank among Seattle's 10 worst since the early 1940s, when record-keeping began, he added. A series of severe winter storms and record-breaking cold also hit the region in the 1950s, according to CNN affiliate KOMO.

While that amount of snow is no problem in places that receive snow regularly, heavy snowfall is relatively rare in Seattle, where steep hills can make winter travel treacherous.

Nevertheless, city officials maintain they are prepared for the storm, said CNN's Thelma Gutierrez. De-icing has begun on bridges and overpasses, some emergency shelters were opened, schools were closed and some flights were canceled.

High-wind warnings were in effect along the coast, where winds could gust to hurricane force -- knocking down trees and causing power outages, said CNN meteorologist Taylor Ward.

Wednesday's snowfall in Seattle may equal its annual average, Ward said.

Mountainous areas of the Pacific Northwest will see even more snow, with the largest accumulations on the eastern slopes of the Cascades, according to the weather service. Significant snowfall is expected across southern Washington, northwest Oregon and into western Idaho.

From late Tuesday through early Thursday, 2 feet to 3.5 feet of snow is forecast for the mountains east of Seattle, Guy said. Mount Rainier could see 10 feet of snow by Friday.

However, the snow in Portland, Oregon, had changed into heavy rain Wednesday morning as warm air intruded into the area. The city was under a flood advisory because of the rain and melting snow, the weather service said. High winds were also forecast for the area.

Winter storm warnings were still posted for much of Oregon, with snow expected Wednesday.

The first storm moved into the area Monday and Tuesday. The second and stronger storm was forecast to hit Wednesday into Thursday.

"It's pretty big when you get back-to-back storms like that," weather service meteorologist Roger Cloutier said.

Winter storm warnings Wednesday touched portions of eight states, stretching into Montana, Utah and Wyoming.

Scattered areas near Easton, Washington, along Interstate 90 in the Cascade Mountains 55 miles east of Seattle, have already received 32 inches of snow, Cloutier said.

The snowfall extends south into Oregon, with as much as 18 inches forecast for the Bend area. CNN affiliate KTVZ in Bend said an earlier round of snow over the weekend gave a boost to local ski resorts but also created dangerous driving conditions that left at least one motorist dead.

Those conditions were expected to worsen.

"Expect extreme travel difficulties to develop on Wednesday," the weather service said, advising those who must take to the roads during the storm to carry a flashlight, blankets and extra food and water.

The Washington State Department of Transportation said 1,250 workers will use nearly 500 pieces of equipment statewide to treat and plow roadways.

Alaska Airlines said it is canceling 38 flights Wednesday because of the heavy snow expected to hit the area.

CNN affiliate KING reported that Seattle Public Schools opted to close all schools two hours early.

The heavy snowfall will be followed by rain in Seattle, which could produce accumulated water and urban flooding, Guy said.

"It's just gonna be a mess all around," he said of the coming few days in the Seattle area.

Cloutier said even though computer models are trending colder and colder for the coming days, the heavy snow will eventually pose a flooding threat.

"When the snow does finally melt, you can almost guarantee there will be some flooding somewhere," he said.

Source

Celebrating the Year of the Maya

London (CNN) -- The year 2012 is a significant one in the Maya calendar.

The ancient long count calendar of the Maya, a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished across Mexico and Central America from 2000 BC to the time of the Spanish Conquistadores, states that on the 12th December, 2012, the sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way for the first time in approximately 26,000 years.

And 21 December, 2012, is said to mark the end of the 13th Maya Calendar, a 144,000-day cycle or "b'ak'tun" since the mythical Maya day of creation 5,200 years ago.

Though popularly interpreted as signifying the "end of the world as we know it," scholars stress that the end of the "b'ak'tun" does not mean apocalypse.

While few Maya people still follow the long count calendar, the Global Heritage Fund is celebrating the event by naming 2012 "The Year of the Maya," with members of the Fund greeting the winter solstice on top of La Danta pyramid at the El Mirador site in Guatemala.

"Experiencing the Winter Solstice on the summit of La Danta is thought to be one of the greatest opportunities to experience the end of the 13th Maya calendar and dawn of a new age," said Jeff Morgan, Executive Director of the Global Heritage Fund.

But their celebrations have a serious side: the Global Heritage Fund is highlighting the dangers to Mayan sites such as El Mirador, which are threatened by looting and deforestation, and hoping to secure the investment to turn these neglected spots into thriving and sustainable tourist destinations.

"Tikal National Park (in Guatemala) has proven that major Maya archaeological sites are economically sustainable through visitation and with appropriate investment, can generate hundreds of millions of dollars for conservation and maintenance of both the cultural and natural heritage," said Morgan.

CNN's World's Treasures asked Morgan to compile a list of key Maya sites across LatinAmerica for Maya-enthusiasts keen to ring in the dawn of a new era sitting on the monumental steps of a temple or at the summit of an ancient pyramid.

Chichen Itza

The site of Chichen Itza is a key sacred spot in Mexico's southern Yucatan peninsula -- the settlement is believed to date back to the 5th century AD.

Its architecture is a blend of Maya and Toltec styles. It was the Toltec -- warrior peoples from the Mexican plateau -- who imposed the practice of ritual sacrifice at the site.

Covering a huge surface area, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is rich in monuments, chief of which is the stepped pyramid temple of Kukulkan, as well as a Great Ball Court, where visitors can picture deadly ball games taking place.

Tulum

Though not extensive, this clifftop site in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula is certainly picturesque, overlooking the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea.

A photo-friendly beauty spot, Tulum is a relaxed pit-stop on the itinerary. A dip in the sea should revive any temple-weary travelers.

Palenque

Also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Palenque, in Chiapas, Mexico, is nestled deep in the jungle, the tops of its many temples often wreathed in mist.

The site boasts stepped pyramids, including the impressive Temple of Inscriptions, carved stone walls and even the burial site of Pakal the Great, Palenque's 7th-century ruler.

Tikal

Tikal is set in an ecological reserve in Guatemala -- its ruins are believed to date from as far back as 600 BC, and at one point the city was thought to be inhabited by 90, 000 people.

Temples, palaces, and public squares abound: If you want to go off the main tourist beat, you can explore the many ruins lying seemingly half-forgotten in the surrounding jungle.

Not just a historical treasure, the land on which Tikal rests is a natural beauty spot, home to numerous protected species of flora and fauna.

Copan

The Maya civilization spanned much of Central America and this site in Honduras is thought to have been inhabited as far back as 2000 BC.

Abandoned for centuries, it was rediscovered in 1570 by a Spanish explorer named Diego Garcia de Palacio.

The site is another maze of temples, plazas, altar complexes and ball courts, and of particular note is the Hieroglyphic Stairway Plaza, a monumental 100-meter-wide stairway bearing a long Mayan inscription composed of numerous glyphs.

Source

Why Wikipedia is going down at midnight

(CNN) -- Go to Wikipedia at midnight, and you won't find any of the usual encyclopedia articles.

Instead, you'll be greeted with a message about anti-piracy bills that are topics of heated debate in the U.S. Congress -- stirring opposition from tech companies in Silicon Valley and support from media companies in Hollywood.

Wikipedia, one of the highest-traffic sites on the Internet, will shut down for 24 hours in protest of these laws, which the website says would make it very difficult -- maybe impossible -- for its nonprofit encyclopedia to continue to operate.

The blackout starts at 12 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

For more on the bills, see CNNMoney's story, "SOPA explained."

Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, is among the industry supporters of the legislation.

CNN spoke on Tuesday with Jimmy Wales, a co-founder of Wikipedia, to find out exactly why the site -- long a defender of independence -- is making its first leap into the scrum of U.S. politics. The following is an edited transcript:

CNN: Tell me how you came to this decision to blackout the website for 24 hours?

Wales: Back in early December we were starting to look at the pressure that was being put on for this to be rushed through very quickly and I opened up a discussion with the community as to whether we should perhaps protest -- following after the pattern of what we did in Italy after a bad law there. That discussion took some time to come to fruition because we're a very thoughtful and deliberative community. After a long process we held a vote which was overwhelmingly in favor of protesting this law.

CNN: Who voted exactly?

Wales: The Wikipedia community. These are people who are editors of the website.

CNN: Do you know how many people voted?

Wales: We could get you the exact numbers. I'm not online at the moment. But it was hundreds of people who voted. The number of people participating in the discussion was 1,800.

CNN: This is new, right, for Wikipedia to be taking a political action?

Wales: It's quite new. The only thing that's similar to it is that the Italian Wikipedia did do something similar that was the inspiration a few months back, against a law that was proposed by the Berlusconi government.

CNN: Tell me what people will find at your website after midnight.

Wales: When they go there they'll find a notice explaining what's going on -- explaining our opposition to this and urging them to call their senator or representative. We're hoping to really drive a lot of noise in Washington so that people there will realize that just listening to Hollywood is not the best idea.

CNN: I think a lot of people are still confused by the debate over these piracy laws. Can you explain your position in a clear, succinct way? Why are you so opposed to these (anti-piracy) laws that you would blackout your website?

Wales: Within our community we're very strong defenders of copyright. We have very strict rules about obeying copyright and we don't link to materials that we know to be copyright infringement. That isn't really the issue. The other side will try to paint this as anybody who's opposed to this must be making money off of piracy or be in favor of piracy. That isn't true. The issue here is that this law is very badly written, very broadly overreaching and, in at least the Senate version, would include the creation of a DNS (domain name system) blocking regime that's technically identical to the one that's used by China. I don't think that's the right way the U.S. needs to go in taking a leadership role on the Internet.

CNN: Do you think anything needs to be done to stop online piracy?

Wales: Within the U.S. the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (PDF) notice-and-takedown provisions have worked very well. The question of whether foreign sites pose a legitimate problem is I think something that has not be sufficiently studied. It is a valid question. But when it comes to First Amendment concerns, censoring the Internet is never going to be the right answer. The right answer would be something like the alternative OPEN Act. I'm not necessarily supporting that one, but I'm saying, 'Gee, we need to take a look at other possibilities here.' We also need to take a look at whether this is the right thing to be worrying about in the first place. One of the things that we know is that spending on entertainment is actually up. So I view this as a bit of a power grab for Hollywood, crying wolf over something that's not as big of a problem as they make it out to be.

CNN: There have been some really big statistics thrown around on the side of people who support these (anti-) piracy laws. Millions of jobs at stake. Billions of dollars in revenue loss for the U.S. economy. How do you respond to those figures?

Wales: There was an academic study done by the London School of Economics that says the figures thrown around by Hollywood are wishful thinking. Wishful thinking meaning if you count every single download and pretend the person would have paid full retail for something instead of just not consuming it, then you get some pretty large numbers. But, from the point of view of an economist, that isn't necessarily the right way to measure.

So I think those figures are radically overstated, particularly as we see that overall spending is up for entertainment.

CNN: You mentioned earlier that these laws would 'censor' the Internet. How so exactly?

Wales: One of the provisions in the Senate version, which is still out there, is that under certain circumstances Internet providers would be required to block access to sites, by removing them from the DNS entry list. So if you type in the domain of a site that's been accused of being devoted to infringement of copyright you wouldn't get an answer of whether that site exists. That's exactly what China does. They do blocking at the DNS level.

CNN: Do you oppose that on a technical level or is it the philosophy behind it?

Wales: It's a little bit of both. As we look at some of the interesting work that's going on technologically for DNS security, ways of validating that this is the correct website ... This is an actual critical problem that is being solved at a technical level. Except that DNS blocking would break the solutions that are already being implemented.

The more philosophical point is (that) if you asked me where the Pirate Bay is located and I tell you the answer -- it's at this IP address -- that is speech. The Supreme Court has held that code is speech. And it doesn't matter that it's done on a computer or done face to face or done in a newspaper, reporting the facts of the world is protected speech. I don't believe the DNS blocking provisions will pass First Amendment muster, anyway, but it seems a shame to spend two years and a lot of court costs fighting something that's absurd on the face of it.

CNN: I could see some people saying that's hypocritical, to shut down a site that's all about sharing and openness in the name of supporting an open and free Internet.

Wales: Free speech includes the right to not speak. We are a community of volunteers. We have written this thing that we believe to be a gift to the world. We don't charge people for it. It's freely available to anybody who wants to (use it). We are a charity. And I think it's important for people to realize that the ability of our community to come together and give this kind of gift to the world depends on a certain legal infrastructure that makes it possible for people to share knowledge freely -- that the First Amendment is incredibly important in terms of the creation of this kind of thing.

CNN: What's at stake for you in terms of lost donations or numbers of users? I'm sure you had to consider those things in making this determination.

Wales: Actually we didn't consider those things very much at all. This is a principled stand. It comes from our community. We had this huge voting process. We just don't think in those kinds of terms. I believe our best long-term prospect for Wikipedia in terms of our survival ... depends on us being principled and making it known that, hey, Wikipedia is here to stand up for free and open Internet. I think that will drive donations in the long term. I think it will drive contributions. And, especially from what I've seen on Twitter, I think it will drive the passionate loyalty of our fans.

People feel like if push comes to shove they can count on Wikipedia, and that really matters to people.

CNN: Would Wikipedia be able to exist if these anti-piracy laws were passed?

Wales: I think it depends very much on exactly which version is passed. There's been a lot of debate and a lot of amendments -- some that passed, some that didn't. Some of these (provisions) would make it very, very difficult for us to continue. If you weaken these laws to a certain extent, it merely becomes an added expense and we would scrape by somehow.

CNN: Which versions of the site will be down and how did you make that determination?

Wales: It will be the English Wikipedia that is on strike, so to speak. Other language communities have done their own process of voting and polling. In general, I can say the Germans decided not to shut down their site but they are posting a banner in support ... Each language community makes their determination as to what they'd like to do.

CNN: But the shutdown is global for the English site?

Wales: It's global for English. That was one of the questions before the community. Should we target this to the U.S. only? Or do it globally. The decision that was made was a pretty strong majority decision ... The main rationale people gave for doing it globally is that U.S. law does affect the entire Internet. It does impact people globally. And, therefore, people felt like we should make this known everywhere.

There's also an element of this sending out a signal to governments in other parts of the world that the Internet is going to get really mad if you try to censor the Internet. It's quite ironic because the U.S. policy has been quite firmly about discouraging censorship of the Internet elsewhere. So it's a bit of a shame that we're trying to do it at home.

Source

Rivals take shots at Romney, each other

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (CNN) -- Mitt Romney's rivals put his corporate record under the microscope in a Republican presidential debate Monday, with most of his GOP opponents looking to dislodge the party's frontrunner from his perch ahead of South Carolina's primary on Saturday.

The issue of poverty also factored prominently into the Martin Luther King Jr. Day match-up where a large studio audience roared in support or disdain over candidates' stated positions.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich faced off with a debate moderator over remarks the candidate had made about the growing class of struggling Americans, as the GOP field worked to woo voters in a state where unemployment is pushing 10%.

The debate began with candidates launching a multifront offensive against Romney.

Gingrich defended his criticisms of Romney's career at private equity firm Bain Capital, saying he would not be "intimidated" by blowback from his own party.

"We need to satisfy the country that whoever we nominate has a record that can stand up to Barack Obama in a very effective way," Gingrich said.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry called on Romney to release his tax returns -- and, in a bid for a second look -- told the rowdy studio audience watching the debate that "we cannot fire our nominee in September." He said Republicans should carefully examine each candidate's record during the primary process.

"Mitt, we need for you to release your income tax so the people of this country can see how you made your money, and I think that's a fair thing," Perry said.

Asked directly about the issue, Romney appeared ruffled and said he has released information about his assets as required by law. He indicated he would likely release his tax returns in April -- though he refused to commit to doing so.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum also took aim at Romney, the winner of the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, over an attack ad from a political action committee supporting Romney.

Santorum called on Romney to publicly denounce the ads, and aggressively pressed him to answer questions about his stance as governor on whether felons could vote.

"We have plenty of time, I'll get there," Romney responded to Santorum. "I'll do it in the order I want to do."

Romney defended his records both as governor of Massachusetts and in the private sector, saying companies he helped invest in while leading Bain had eventually created 120,000 jobs.

"My record is out there," Romney said. "Proud of it."

The debate turned to race and poverty as moderator Juan Williams asked Gingrich a series of questions about the candidate's charge that Obama has been "the food stamp president" and a suggestion that poor adolescents do light janitorial work to earn money.

Taking the confrontational tone Gingrich has wielded to great political effect in previous forums, the candidate argued back and enlivened the audience by proclaiming: "Only the elites despise earning money."

He said his own daughter had done janitorial work as an adolescent.

"I believe every American of every background has been endowed by their creator with the right to pursue happiness," Gingrich said. "And if that makes liberals unhappy, I'm going to continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job and learn some day to own the job."

During a segment on foreign policy, Texas Rep. Ron Paul again stood alone as his rivals took hawkish positions on military spending and tracking down and punishing alleged terrorists.

As some in the large studio audience booed, Paul accused his opponents of "war-mongering" and urged Americans to adopt the "golden rule" regarding foreign policy.

"This country doesn't need another war, we need to quit the ones we're in!" Paul said.

Romney tacked in the opposite direction, criticizing Obama for drawing down troops in Iraq and declaring as president he would direct military leaders to track down terrorists.

"We go anywhere they are and we kill them," he said.

Source

Top red carpet stunners at the Golden Globes

(CNN) -- At Sunday night's Golden Globes, Hollywood's biggest stars dazzled in a gorgeous mix of gowns. This year's red carpet was packed with every type of dress, but these 10 all had an undeniable "wow factor" that helped them stand out from the crowd. Here are our top picks:

Julianne Moore

Presenter Julianne Moore accented her strapless black Chanel gown with a pop of color: a stunning pair of Art Deco inspired emerald and diamond tassel earrings, a matching emerald ring and a 9-carat cushion-cut diamond ring, all by Fred Leighton.

Jessica Alba

Jessica Alba was positively glowing in a pale lavender embroidered Gucci strapless gown with a simple train. She accessorized with a satin clutch and dangling Bulgari sparklers.

See all of the best-dressed stars on the Golden Globes red carpet

Charlize Theron

A vintage Cartier headband topped off best supporting sctress nominee Charlize Theron's loose curls for a soft, ethereal look. Her plunging neckline gown by Dior Couture had a cinched waist and dropped into two billowy ruffles for a dramatic effect.

Sofia Vergara

Bombshell nominee Sofia Vergara showed a softer side of her feminine sophistication in a teal curve-hugging strapless mermaid silhouette by Vera Wang and wide Harry Winston jeweled cuffs.

Angelina Jolie

Nominee Angelina Jolie went for a high-fashion look in a cream satin gown by Atelier Versace with a one-shoulder folded red accent. She accessorized with a striking red clutch and scarlet lips

InStyle.com: The 23 best Golden Globes gowns of all time

Natalie Portman

In her first red carpet appearance since becoming a mom, Natalie Portman pulled off a daring color combination. Last year's best actress winner chose a strapless fuchsia gown by Lanvin with a folded red detail. Portman picked up on the accent color with a matching garnet clutch. She also wore jewels by Harry Winston and a chic chignon.

Freida Pinto

Presenter Freida Pinto channeled Grace Kelly in a teal strapless Prada gown in a retro silhouette. Her intricately woven gold and jeweled necklace was by Chopard.

Helen Mirren

Helen Mirren exemplified the best way to dress was for every age. Appropriately daring but not at all boring, she accessorized a navy Badgley Mischka gown with Fred Leighton jewels and Jimmy Choo stilettos.

InStyle.com: Go inside InStyle's Golden Globes dinner

Emma Stone

The flowing, sheer two-tone layers of fabric paired with the cap sleeves and plunging neckline on Presenter Emma Stone's Lanvin gown have a Grecian feel. But the star of "The Help" accented her look with a wide eagle adorned belt for an unexpected tough twist. A bag by Cartier completed the look.

Jessica Chastain

Best supporting actress nominee Jessica Chastain accessorized her embroidered high-neck white Givenchy gown with over $1 million worth of Harry Winston jewelry, including pearl and diamond earrings, a diamond feather ring, and a vintage diamond bracelet. The look feels retro without feeling costumey.

Check out all of the night's top looks at InStyle.com now

Source

What caused the cruise ship disaster?

(CNN) -- The disaster that wrecked a luxury cruise liner and killed at least six passengers has left officials and experts on maritime navigation searching for answers -- fast.

But two days after the massive ship hit rocks and rolled spectacularly on its side, answers were in short supply.

Why was the ship -- with 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members -- so close in to shore in an area where local sailors say the sea bed is pockmarked with rocks? What happened in the minutes after the ship ran aground? Why was no "mayday" distress signal sent?

Costa Cruises issued a statement saying "preliminary indications are that there may have been significant human error on the part of the ship's Master, Captain Francesco Schettino."

"The route of the vessel appears to have been too close to the shore, and the captain's judgment in handling the emergency appears to have not followed standard Costa procedures," the statement added

Italian prosecutors announced plans to seize the ship's data recorders, which some refer to as "black boxes." Authorities hope to complete an analysis revealing what happened within a few days.

The ship hit rocks off the coast of Tuscany on Friday, leaving 20 people injured in addition to those killed, authorities said.

According to the Italian Coast Guard, the Costa Concordia was simply too close inland. But what authorities, and the cruise line, can't answer is why.

Capt. Cosimo Nicastro, spokesman for the Italian Coast Guard, said authorities "know what the cause" was: "The water went on board."

"Why he (the captain) went so close is why we are investigating," Nicastro said.

Schettino, who is under arrest, denies the assertion that he had steered the ship too far inland.

"We were about 300 meters (1,000 feet) from the shore, more or less," Schettino said after the accident.

There was a "lateral rock projection," he said. "Even though we were sailing along the coast with the tourist navigation system, I firmly believe that the rocks were not detected, as the ship was not heading forward but sideways, as if underwater there was this rock projection," he said.

But Nicastro insists "every danger in this area is on the nautical chart. This is a place where a lot of people come for diving and sailing. ... all the dangers are known."

Schettino is facing charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship, while passengers were still on board, according to Italy's ANSA news agency.

But, according to ANSA, Schettino says he and his crew were "the last to abandon ship."

Costa Cruises is owned by Carnival Corporation. Carnival issued a statement Saturday saying it was "deeply saddened" by the "terrible tragedy."

"We are working to fully understand the cause of what occurred," the statement said.

Carnival officials did not immediately return a call Sunday from CNN requesting further comment regarding the wreck or the safety of its other cruise lines, such as Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America and Princess Cruises.

Local authorities and residents told CNN they believe that after sustaining damage from what it struck, the ship sailed at least half a mile north, and the captain turned it around toward land, where it toppled.

Experts on cruise-ship safety say there is no way to know immediately what went wrong.

"Human error or navigational error is a real possibility," said Peter Wild, a cruise industry consultant and former navigating officer. "Those are the two most likely causes" in general, he said, noting that a combination of the two could be to blame.

But there are examples of cruise ships hitting uncharted rocks, he said.

Chris McKesson, professor of naval architecture at the University of New Orleans, told CNN that Giglio, where the Costa Concordia wreck took place, "is probably pretty well-charted. The Mediterranean has been traveled for some thousand years."

"Looking at the pictures of the damage, it almost looks as if they saw it at the last minute, and they tried to swing the ship to the right to miss... But just like when you're driving an RV or something, when you swing the nose to the right, the tail swings little to the left. If you look at the photos of the ship, you can see that the rock embedded in the side of the ship's left port side...as if exactly that happened. She swung her tail over and kissed that rock."

Cruise ships that travel on international voyages, include the Costa Concordia, are subject to the regulations of the International Maritime Organization, a U.N. agency.

"Passenger ships in operation today are subject to a vast array of regulations and standards covering every aspect of ship construction and operation," the IMO website says. "A number of incidents over the years have led to improvements in safety requirements," the site adds.

Costa Cruises, in its statement Sunday, said it "complies very strictly with all safety regulations and our personnel are committed, first and foremost, to guest safety and security.." All crew members are trained in basic safety and emergency management, and their skills are tested periodically by Coast Guard authorities, the statement said.

Survivors of the wreck, however, described crew members who appeared overwhelmed. "There wasn't anybody to help you," said passenger Vivian Safer. "I mean, the passengers were loading the lifeboats by themselves."

The industry association representing cruise lines emphasized Sunday that disasters are rare.

"Any given day in excess of 300,000 people are on board our ships, being safely carried to various locations throughout the world," said Michael Crye, executive vice president of the Cruise Line International Association.

In general, if something goes wrong and a ship starts to take on water, "You either take the ship back to a safe port, if it's possible to do that," Crye said, or "if the ship is in imminent danger there are procedures and protocols for abandoning ship."

The captain has to make a series of decisions, Crye said. He could leave the ship, if he delegates certain responsibilities, but the captain is in charge of the safety of the vessel and remains in charge until everyone on board is safe, Crye said.

As for a mayday signal, Crye said the captain is required to report to authorities any "marine casualty," a term that includes damage to the ship that can compromise its safety and ability to safely return to port. The captain "is a professional. He must at that point weigh the risks of taking one course of action vs. another," Crye said.

Taking place 100 years after the sinking of the Titanic, this disaster is "remarkably similar," McKesson said. "Titanic similarly grazed an object on her side. In her case, it was an iceberg, and in her case as the water came in, she tore multiple compartments open..

"The result of that accident in the engineering side was that we rewrote the ways that we design ships, and those bulkheads that separate the compartments run all the way up to the main deck of the ship. So, you can't get that cascading effect. And we design ships to withstand a certain number of those compartments being breached simultaneously."

Crye agreed that the damage to the Costa Concordia "appears similar to the damage of the Titanic." But "this was a grounding, not an iceberg," and "in a well-traveled area close to shore -- not in the middle of the ocean."

It's too soon to know whether any new regulations are needed to avoid a disaster like this, said Crye. But, he said, "If corrected measures are necessary, I can assure you that we, alongside the Italian authorities, will be suggesting those changes be made."

Source

Eli, Giants end Packers' repeat dreams

The New York Giants wanted a rematch with the Green Bay Packers after losing to them in the regular season.

The defending Super Bowl champion Packers, however, may have their minds elsewhere leading up to this NFC divisional playoff matchup.

Green Bay will have heavy hearts heading into Sunday's home meeting with the Giants after the tragic death earlier this week of offensive coordinator Joe Philbin's son.

The buildup for a much-anticipated rematch of the Packers' 38-35 victory at New York on Dec. 4 has taken a back seat after the loss of 21-year-old Michael T. Philbin, who disappeared early Sunday and was reported missing that night.

His body was recovered from the Fox River by divers on Monday, and preliminary autopsy results showed that the younger Philbin drowned.

"We love Michael so much and will miss him dearly," Joe Philbin said in a statement released by the team. "He loved his family, friends and life. His memory will live on in the hearts and minds of all who knew him. We are appreciative of the prayers and the support of our family, friends and the Packers family."

Joe Philbin was away from the team all week and it's unclear whether he'll be at the game.

"Nobody's expecting that at all because we know his family needs him right now," defensive lineman Ryan Pickett said. "But we miss him. Of course we miss coach, everybody misses him around the building. But we know his family needs him more."

The Giants expressed their best wishes to Philbin and the Packers.

"When we first heard this the other night, the whole coaching staff, the room went absolutely silent," coach Tom Coughlin said. "Many guys know Joe Philbin. You have tremendous empathy, but you can't (have) anywhere near the feeling that his family's going through. Just tragic."

On the field, league MVP favorite Aaron Rodgers and fellow Pro Bowl selection Eli Manning will meet in the playoffs for the first time. Rodgers threw for 369 yards and four touchdowns and Manning had 347 and three scores in last month's meeting between Super Bowl MVPs.

The Packers improved to 12-0 with that victory before suffering their only loss two weeks later in Kansas City.

Rodgers, 2-0 against the Giants, threw for 45 TDs and 4,643 yards with six interceptions and an NFL-record 122.5 passer rating this season. Manning fell 67 yards shy of 5,000 before completing 23 of 32 passes for 277 yards with three touchdowns in last Sunday's 24-2 win over Atlanta in a wild-card game.

The Packers have won 13 straight at home. This is the first postseason game at Lambeau Field since the Giants' 23-20 overtime win in the NFC title game four seasons ago, when Manning outplayed Brett Favre in his last game with Green Bay.

"I think anytime you're in the playoffs, you're playing a team who's had a great season and playing in Lambeau Field - it's going to be cold, it's going to be conditions - it should be a great environment," Manning said.

New York is starting to resemble that 2007 team, which knocked off previously undefeated New England in the Super Bowl. The Giants' pass rush has been led by the emergence of Pro Bowler Jason Pierre-Paul and bolstered by the return of fellow defensive end Osi Umenyiora two weeks ago.

After a solid effort against Dallas in a 31-14 NFC East clincher in Week 17, the Giants' defense held the Falcons' offense scoreless last week.

A New York defense that ranked 28th in the regular season has gained confidence since being shredded by Rodgers.

"We wanted to see them again, but we realized in seeing them again it would be in a playoff game like this, so obviously we wanted to see them again," defensive end Justin Tuck said. "But yeah, we felt like we let one slip through our hands.

"I am sure Green Bay is saying to themselves, 'We didn't play our best game.' All of that is in the past. We'll get our opportunity to settle all those question marks on Sunday."

The Packers have noticed the Giants' improvement.

"I thought the Giants really had a decisive victory over the Falcons," Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy said. "I think it really started up front, on both sides of the ball. I thought they controlled the line of scrimmage offensively with their run game and really gave their quarterback and their passing game the chance to play downhill."

Green Bay will use a different offensive line than the group that limited New York to two sacks in the last matchup, with left tackle Chad Clifton expected to start. Clifton practiced Wednesday along with right tackle Bryan Bulaga , who is nursing an ankle injury.

New York got good news when cornerback Aaron Ross practiced Wednesday after leaving Sunday's game with a concussion. Ross will be needed to help slow down a Packers receiving corps led by Pro Bowler Jordy Nelson (1,263 yards) and Greg Jennings (949), who is set to return after missing three games with a sprained left knee.

The Giants (10-7) will be trying to exploit a Green Bay defense that ranked last in the NFL in the regular season, although the unit produced a league-high 31 interceptions.

Green Bay (15-1) figures to be tested by a Giants passing attack that has seen Manning hook up frequently with Victor Cruz (1,536 yards) and Hakeem Nicks (1,192). New York had the league's least productive running game in the regular season before gaining a season-high 172 yards on the ground last week.

The Giants are visiting Lambeau for the first time since last season's 45-17 loss, in which Rodgers threw for 404 yards and four TDs. New York could have clinched a playoff spot, but was eliminated the next week while the victory started Green Bay's 19-game win streak.

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- With their own star quarterback and a dominating defense, the New York Giants exposed the Green Bay Packers for what they now are - former Super Bowl champions.

The Packers dropped passes, fumbled the ball and simply couldn't stop Eli Manning and his receivers in the Giants' shocking 37-20 divisional playoff victory Sunday. To the Giants' delight, a Green Bay team that had a real shot at an undefeated season less than a month ago is heading home.

And that the win came at Lambeau Field, well, that was just as sweet. The site has become a familiar launching pad for the New Yorkers. After beating the Packers (15-2) at home for the second time in four years, they only hope this trip ends the same way - in the NFL title game.

The Giants will play the 49ers in San Francisco for the NFC championship next Sunday.

"I think we're a dangerous team," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "I like where we are and how we're playing."

The Giants (11-7) have been on a roll ever since beating the rival Jets on Dec. 24, beating the Dallas Cowboys to get in the playoffs and then blowing out Atlanta in the wild card round last week.

They took down the Packers on Sunday, as Manning threw for 330 yards and three touchdowns.

The Giants are 3-4 against the 49ers in the playoffs, including their memorable collapse in a wild card game at San Francisco on Jan. 5, 2003. New York led 38-14 in the third quarter but fell apart and lost 39-38.

That probably won't be much of a worry for this year's Giants, who were oozing confidence even before they beat the Packers.

"This team knows how to win on the road," defensive end Justin Tuck said. "It seems like right now it's our time."

The Giants stunned the Packers with a touchdown off a long heave from Manning to Hakeem Nicks just before halftime, then knocked them out with a late touchdown off a turnover.

Lambeau Field fell silent as the Giants swarmed the field in celebration, with a handful of New York fans chanting, "Let's go, Giants!"

"I knew we were going to beat them on Wednesday, to be honest with you," running back Brandon Jacobs said.

The win came four years after the Giants beat a Brett Favre -led Packers team in the NFC title game. It wasn't nearly as frigid this time around, and the Packers' vulnerable defense seemed to be waiting to get sliced up.

Manning found six different receivers against a porous Packers defense. But Manning did the most damage with his throws to Nicks, who caught seven passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns.

Nicks' biggest play was a 66-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter. His score at the end of the half came on a 37-yard pass into the end zone with defenders all around.

"It was a big momentum play for them, but we were not deflated as a football team," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said.

The Giants' defense also was able to defuse the big-play abilities of Aaron Rodgers and the Packers' offense.

Rodgers was 26 of 46 for 264 yards, with two touchdowns and an interception. He also was the Packers' leading rusher with 66 yards on seven carries.

The Packers fully expected to go back to the Super Bowl, but the reality hit Rodgers quickly.

"Oh, it's real," Rodgers said. "We got beat by a team that played better tonight.

"We play to win championships. You win a championship and you're kind of at the top of the mountain, and you forget kind of how bad this feeling is. We had a championship-caliber regular season and didn't play well today."

The Packers' past problems with dropped balls by their talented group of wide receivers returned at the worst time imaginable.

And while the Packers' defense has been vulnerable all season, giving up far too many yards and big plays, they've typically made up for it by forcing turnovers.

This time, the Packers were the ones giving the ball away.

Green Bay lost three fumbles, including one on a rare giveaway by Rodgers. The Giants also sacked Rodgers four times.

With the Packers trailing 20-10 at halftime but finally beginning to look like themselves on offense to start the second half, Osi Umenyiora swatted the ball away from Rodgers, and Deon Grant recovered the fumble.

"With a 10-point lead, we're going to get after you," Umenyiora said. "And that's what we did."

But the mistake didn't cost the Packers points, and Green Bay cut the lead to seven points on a 35-yard field goal by Mason Crosby late in the third quarter.

The Packers put together another drive early in the fourth quarter, but Michael Boley and Umenyiora combined to sack Rodgers on fourth-down play in Giants territory.

After carving up the Packers in the first half, the Giants' offense hit a lull in the second half. But they broke out of it to drive for a 35-yard field goal by Lawrence Tynes to take a 23-13 lead with 7:48 left to play.

Packers running back Ryan Grant then fumbled after catching a pass and the Giants recovered, taking the ball back deep into Green Bay territory.

Manning then threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Mario Manningham and the Giants took a 30-13 lead. Rodgers rallied the Packers for a 16-yard touchdown pass to Donald Driver , cutting the lead to 30-20 with 4:46 left.

The Packers then tried on onside kick, but the Giants' Victor Cruz recovered.

Jacobs scored on a 14-yard run with 2:36 left to put the game away.

It was an emotional day for the Packers, who welcomed offensive coordinator Joe Philbin two days after the funeral service for his 21-year-old son, Michael.

Philbin had been away from the team all week after Michael Philbin's body was recovered from an icy river in Oshkosh, Wis. on Monday. A preliminary autopsy showed that he drowned.

"I think deep down, a lot of us wanted to kind of get this one for him," Rodgers said.

Notes: Giants safety Deon Grant left the game with a head injury. ... Packers running back John Kuhn left the game with a knee injury, and wide receiver Greg Jennings sustained a rib injury. ... Driver caught three passes, giving him a franchise-record 49 postseason receptions in his career. ... Packers LB Brad Jones blocked a 40-yard field goal attempt by Tynes in the second quarter.

Source

Up next for Target: Apple, more designer brands

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Hoping to offset a disappointing holiday season, Target is relying on some tried and true designer partnerships to bring more of its core customers through the doors and testing the waters with cult favorite Apple, in an effort to attract new ones.

First up will be Jason Wu for Target, a limited collection of dresses, handbags and scarves by the young designer made famous by Michelle Obama -- he designed the gown she wore to the inauguration -- that will roll out Feb. 5. Then in May, the retailer will launch "The Shops at Target," a series of design partnerships with small boutique businesses, that will offer several more limited-edition collections.

But perhaps the most anticipated alliance is the trial sale of Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) iPhones, iPads and other products in Target stores. The rollout will initially occur in 25 stores, according to spokeswoman Dustee Jenkins, who refrained from providing additional details like when the products would be available.

Target (TGT, Fortune 500) has always been a "women-friendly store," said Britt Beemer, retail analyst and chairman of America's Research Group. That has helped boost sales of clothing and beauty products, but has significantly hindered sales of big-ticket items like electronics.

By adding Apple products to its offerings, the analyst believes it could help the retailer attract more male customers and give it a much-needed shot in the arm in the electronics category.

"Designer clothes won't fix [Target's] problems," Beemer said, but "[teaming up with Apple] is a smart strategy from the viewpoint of getting a new customer in the store."

The move couldn't come at a better time. Low margins coupled with slowing same-store sales have hurt the retailer, particularly over the key holiday shopping season.

"Target has had to discount more this year than they have in the past to get people back in the store," Beemer explained. "A top they might have sold a year ago for $10, this year they will sell for $8."

After the retail giant's holiday sales fell well short of analyst's expectations, the company lowered its earnings guidance for the fourth quarter, citing soft sales of electronics, music, movies and books.

Target has been successful with its popular collaborations in the past, so much so that other big-box stores like Kohl's (KSS, Fortune 500) and JC Penney (JCP, Fortune 500) adapted their model. But Target's last designer collection, with Italian fashion house Missoni, was a publicity coup that became a logistical nightmare.

Spiking demand for the limited-edition clothing and house wares collection crashed the company's web site. Online orders were delayed and some orders were later cancelled, leaving many shoppers unsatisfied.

"That was an unprecedented event" said Stacia Andersen, Target's senior vice president of merchandising. To ensure the company is equipped to handle the spikes in demand that generally follow the launch of a limited-edition collection going forward, "our teams have been working around the clock," she said.

Going forward, the company has said it will pursue more collaborations and limited-edition collections -- moves aimed at bringing in more of its core female customers.

But Hunter Orr, director of research Alpha Street Research, says he remains wary. "They have had to do a lot of cost cutting -- decreasing their margins to compete with Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500)," he said. "A collection is not enough to make a difference."

"These type of alliances are not selling huge volumes [of merchandise] but they will definitely drive traffic to the store," added Hana Ben-Shabat, partner in the retail practice at A.T. Kearney, a management consulting firm. But "sooner rather than later this tactic will run out," she said. "You have to come up with new strategies to keep up that level of excitement."

College, retirement or mortgage payments? Putting a rebound in income to good use.

How a former railroad conductor and his wife can maximize their retirement savings and achieve some big financial goals.

Today's featured rates:

Source

Burke: Ravens will end historic season by Texans

1. It's a brave new world for both teams.

Seeing as this is the Texans' first foray into the playoffs, every week brings a new experience. In the Wild-Card round, they picked up their first victory. Now, they'll make their first road appearance in the postseason.

And for all the Ravens' regular season success, playing in front of the home fans at this time of the year is a pretty foreign situation for them, too. Baltimore hasn't hosted a playoff game since the 2006 season -- two years before drafting Joe Flacco -- and has not won a postseason game on its home field since Dec. 31, 2000 against Denver.

After spending the last three postseasons on the road, Baltimore made it a priority to win the AFC North and secure home-field advantage this time around. The Ravens' raucous fans will be ready.

"It's going to be a lot tougher than Cincinnati," Texans lineman Eric Winston told the Houston Chronicle about going into Baltimore. "We know what their crowd's going to be like. We've got to come off the bus ready to go."

Baltimore finished the regular season a perfect 8-0 at home (compared to 4-4 on the road), including a win over the Texans. Home teams rolled through the playoffs' opening round unblemished at 4-0.

"It certainly hammered home how difficult it is to go on the road," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said of the 4-0 mark for host teams last weekend.

The Texans, of course, have never played a road playoff game since coming into the league in 2002. Baltimore hasn't won a home game in the postseason in more than a decade. Something has to give Sunday.

2. Run game vs. run game, defense vs. defense.

This game will be a test of strength against strength -- or, more specifically, strengths against strengths.

Houston finished the regular season ranked No. 2 in the league in rushing offense at 153 yards per game, behind the steady duo of Arian Foster and Ben Tate. The Texans matched that physical prowess on the other side of the ball, too, allowing just 285.7 yards per game (second-best in the league) and 17.4 points (fourth-best).

The Ravens bring a similar approach into this matchup. Baltimore wound up 10th overall in rushing (128 yards per game), third in yards allowed (288.9) and third in points allowed (16.6). The home team has a nice 1-2 punch in the backfield, too, with Ray Rice and Ricky Williams, though it's the versatile Rice who does most of the damage.

These teams look even more alike statistically if you loop in their average passing games -- the Texans put up 219.1 yards per game (18th overall) to Baltimore's 213.9 (19th).

Don't expect either team to change its approach a whole lot. Houston may take to the air a little bit more, either out of necessity or because Andre Johnson came back to the lineup last week after missing the majority of the season. Likewise, Baltimore could give Flacco a little leeway, if the Texans can limit Rice early or if the game plan calls for some looks Anquan Boldin's way in his first game back from injury.

Otherwise, it'll be an in-the-trenches slugfest.

3. Is this Ray Lewis' last run?

Back in August, Ray Lewis told CBS Sports' Mike Freeman that, "If we can win it this year, and I'm being brutally honest with you, if we win it this year, I'm gone to then spend as much time as I can with [my son]."

The long-time face of the Ravens franchise, Lewis missed four games due to injury this season and will be 37 before the 2012 season kicks off. So it's not surprising that he's thinking retirement -- especially if he can go out on top.

On the other hand, it's hard to say Lewis has lost a step, since he earned yet another Pro Bowl berth this season with 95 tackles, two sacks and seven pass deflections. He may not be the pure dominating force he was four or five years ago, but he's still an elite linebacker.

"Put it this way," Harbaugh said this week, "I think Ray Lewis has a lot of football left in him."

That might be the case, but three wins in a row from Baltimore, starting Sunday, may send the star linebacker off into the limelight.

By knocking off the Bengals, T.J. Yates became just the fifth rookie quarterback to win a playoff game in the Super Bowl era. Sunday in Baltimore, he'll look to join Joe Flacco and Mark Sanchez as the only first-year QBs to capture multiple playoff wins.

Here's a look at how rookie starting quarterbacks have fared in the postseason, before last week's Yates-vs.-Andy Dalton all-rookie matchup:

The Ravens already beat the Texans once this season, back in Week 6, when Matt Schaub was still the No. 1 QB for Houston. Three months and two quarterbacks later, Houston's back in Baltimore with T.J. Yates at the helm.

Can the rookie handle the pressure of playing on the road? He'll have to be pretty much flawless to give his team a chance. Of course, Houston will try to limit his impact Sunday by leaning on its run game and defense, just as it's done all season long.

Baltimore will counter in kind, with lots of Rice, quick passes from Flacco and an occasional shot downfield.

It's been a great ride for Houston so far this season, and even with a depleted roster, the Texans have enough to give Baltimore a battle. But the Ravens are the better team and, barring a meltdown in front of their home fans, ought to move on to the AFC title game.

Baltimore 24, Houston 10

Source