ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2012) ? Atomic-level defects in graphene could be a path forward to smaller and faster electronic devices, according to a study led by researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
With unique properties and potential applications in areas from electronics to biodevices, graphene, which consists of a single sheet of carbon atoms, has been hailed as a rising star in the materials world. Now, an ORNL study published in Nature Nanotechnology suggests that point defects, composed of silicon atoms that replace individual carbon atoms in graphene, could aid attempts to transfer data on an atomic scale by coupling light with electrons.
"In this proof of concept experiment, we have shown that a tiny wire made up of a pair of single silicon atoms in graphene can be used to convert light into an electronic signal, transmit the signal and then convert the signal back into light," said coauthor Juan-Carlos Idrobo, who holds a joint appointment at ORNL and Vanderbilt University.
An ORNL-led team discovered this novel behavior by using aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy to image the plasmon response, or optical-like signals, of the point defects. The team's analysis found that the silicon atoms act like atomic-sized antennae, enhancing the local surface plasmon response of graphene, and creating a prototypical plasmonic device.
"The idea with plasmonic devices is that they can convert optical signals into electronic signals," Idrobo said. "So you could make really tiny wires, put light in one side of the wire, and that signal will be transformed into collective electron excitations known as plasmons. The plasmons will transmit the signal through the wire, come out the other side and be converted back to light."
Although other plasmonic devices have been demonstrated, previous research in surface plasmons has been focused primarily on metals, which has limited the scale at which the signal transfer occurs.
"When researchers use metal for plasmonic devices, they can usually only get down to 5 -- 7 nanometers," said coauthor Wu Zhou. "But when you want to make things smaller, you always want to know the limit. Nobody thought we could get down to a single atom level."
In-depth analysis at the level of a single atom was made possible through the team's access to an electron microscope that is part of ORNL's Shared Research Equipment (ShaRE) User Facility.
"It is the one of only a few electron microscopes in the world that we can use to look at and study materials and obtain crystallography, chemistry, bonding, optical and plasmon properties at the atomic scale with single atom sensitivity and at low voltages," Idrobo said. "This is an ideal microscope for people who want to research carbon-based materials, such as graphene."
In addition to its microscopic observations, the ORNL team employed theoretical first-principles calculations to confirm the stability of the observed point defects.
Coauthors are ORNL's Jagjit Nanda; and Jaekwang Lee, Sokrates Pantelides and Stephen Pennycook, who are jointly affiliated with ORNL and Vanderbilt. The research was supported by DOE's Office of Science, which also sponsors ORNL's ShaRE User Facility; by the National Science Foundation; and by the McMinn Endowment at Vanderbilt University. The study used resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computer Center, which is supported by DOE'S Office of Science.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
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Journal Reference:
Wu Zhou, Jaekwang Lee, Jagjit Nanda, Sokrates T. Pantelides, Stephen J. Pennycook, Juan-Carlos Idrobo. Atomically localized plasmon enhancement in monolayer graphene. Nature Nanotechnology, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2011.252
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? In the age of Twitter and Facebook, many Super Bowl viewers will use the commercial breaks to go online and see what people are saying about the game. This year, advertisers want them to tweet about their favorite commercials as well.
Having spent record-breaking sums to secure the most valuable television slots in advertising, global brands from Coca-Cola to Volkwagen are looking to leverage social media to extend the buzz and reach of their ads.
According to executives from Comcast Corp's NBC television network, which will broadcast the February 5 football game, a 30-second commercial slot cost $3.5 million on average this year, up from $3 million for last year's Super Bowl, which was on News Corp's Fox station.
"The social media conversation has put more value on a Super Bowl ad, fans will discuss your ads on Twitter and Facebook and then go to YouTube to watch it on demand over and over again," said Brad Adgate, senior vice president of research at Horizon Media.
This year's Super Bowl will take place in Indianapolis, with the New York Giants and New England Patriots battling it out for the National Football League Championship. An expected 100 million people will watch the game, which is among a dwindling number of TV programs that still draw big live audiences.
NFL games are so valuable to advertisers that the league recently secured hefty pay increases that will bring in about $6 billion a year from Walt Disney Co's ESPN, broadcast networks and satellite TV provider DirecTV for rights to air games and sell the advertising time.
The average price of Super Bowl ads have risen more than 50 percent in the last 10 years, defying economic downturns and secular industry issues. NBC sold out all 70 spots around this year's game shortly after Thanksgiving weekend in November and reached a new high with one slot selling for around $4 million.
The game, including lower priced halftime slots, could easily generate over a quarter of a billion dollars in ad sales.
"The overall demand for Super Bowl spots is very high this year," said Tim Calkins, marketing professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "Prices are high. Demand is high. I think that's a very positive sign for the economy."
Consumer research forecasts that 60 percent of fans watching the Super Bowl will also be tied into a second screen such as a smartphone or tablet.
COKE Vs PEPSI ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Anheuser-Busch, which typically buys exclusivity as the only beer advertiser during recent Super Bowls, is again the biggest spender, according to industry sources.
Not unlike past Super Bowls, Coca Cola Co and PepsiCo Inc will face-off for soda supremacy. Both beverage makers have come up with campaigns that attempt to leverage social media after their commercials air.
Coca-Cola's TV commercials, which will air during the first-and second-quarter breaks, will center around its computer-generated Arctic polar bears watching the game. The bears will then be brought to life on Twitter, Facebook and on a dedicated Website doing such things as responding to fans and commenting on the game. They will even have their own Twitter hashtag --#GameDayPolarBears -- for fans to follow.
"We wanted to interact with consumers in the most simple and organic way so they would have nothing to do other than what they usually do," said Pio Schunker, Coca Cola senior vice president of integrated marketing platforms.
Fans who catch Pepsi's commercial with "X Factor USA" winner Melanie Amaro performing the Otis Redding song "Respect" will be able to download a free video of the performance by using the Shazam app on their phones to capture audio from the commercial.
There are also partnerships with online radio service Pandora Media Inc and social TV specialist GetGlue centered around the game and other free content.
"Our philosophy now is nothing happens in isolation," said Shiv Singh, global head of digital for Pepsico Beverages. "Social TV is a massive phenomenon and a critical element of our Super Bowl campaigns."
AUTOS SPEND BIG AGAIN
The biggest spender by category is the autos industry, which made a big comeback last year and was noted for one of the most memorable spots -- Volkswagen AG's ad with a young child dressed in a Darth Vader outfit believing he can control the Passat car's lights.
This year, Volkswagen's Audi is hoping to win more creative kudos with a spot that taps into the "Twilight" teen vampire pop culture phenomenon. The 60-second spot, which will air during the first break in the game, will highlight the new 2013 Audi S7 and its LED headlight technology, which has unfortunate consequences for a party of young vampires.
Audi hopes to continue the conversation about the ad via the Twitter hashtag #SoLongVampires.
NBC executives say the auto makers are leading a trend toward long-form campaigns of 60 seconds or more, allowing high-end creative concepts to be fleshed out in the commercial's narrative rather than just going for a quick gag and punchline.
Chrysler Group LLC, Toyota Motor Co, Honda Motor Co Ltd, Hyundai Motor Co, and other automakers will also be advertising during the game.
General Motors Co's mainstream Chevy brand will run seven TV commercials before, during and after the game, for instance. It will also center its overall campaign heavily around Web-based partnerships with NBC, Twitter and Facebook.
SOCIAL MEDIA HELPS SELL
With the conventional wisdom being that consumers are more likely to make a purchase if recommended by a friend or family member, chief marketing officers are keen to insert themselves in a Facebook or Twitter conversation about the products and services they sell.
Bluefin Labs, a start-up company that aggregates and analyzes TV viewer data and comments on Twitter and Facebook, has been hired by several advertising agencies with Super Bowl campaigns to help understand how football fans react to the commercials during the game.
"Advertisers don't think about the TV campaign alone anymore but as a way to reach eyeballs and then stimulate conversations about their brands," said Bluefin executive Tom Thai.
While advertisers are eager to experiment with social media during a big-ticket event like the Super Bowl, there are still questions on how they measure its impact with a consistent, industry-accepted method, said Alex Iskold, founder of GetGlue, which lets TV fans share their viewing experiences by 'checking-in' in exchange for online rewards.
"Social TV engagement hasn't been fully priced yet," Iskold said. "We are collectively working to figure out the value to the advertisers. "It took years for the traditional display ad model to solidify; I don't think it will take us that long to price social TV."
(Reporting By Yinka Adegoke in New York,; additional reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles,; editing by Peter Lauria)
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) ? Oil fell below $99 a barrel Monday in Asia amid fresh concerns that Europe may refuse to grant Greece a fresh bailout.
Benchmark crude for March delivery was down 59 cents at $98.97 a barrel at late afternoon Kuala Lumpur time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 14 cents to finish at $99.56 on Friday.
Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore, said crude prices were volatile after Germany's finance minister warned that Europe might not give Greece a fresh bailout unless it can overhaul its state and economy. Analysts fear that could reignite the region's debt crisis.
European leaders were to meet later Monday in Brussels to discuss austerity measures and a tentative deal reached Saturday between Greece and its private investors to avert a disastrous Greek default on its debt.
Shum said supply concerns also weighed on the market although Iran has postponed plans to immediately cut the flow of crude oil to Europe in retaliation for EU sanctions over its nuclear program.
Iran also threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil passage, and the head of its national oil company warned Sunday that EU sanctions could push oil prices up to between $120 and $150 a barrel. The market is also awaiting report from an International Atomic Energy Agency team that is currently touring Tehran, Shum said.
"Trade has been flat. The geopolitical tension in Iran and concerns over Greece's debt default are driving oil in different directions. This has helped oil to hold steady," Shum said.
In other energy trading, heating oil rose 0.6 cent to $3.07 per gallon while gasoline futures were down 1.4 cents at $2.91 per gallon. Natural gas added 4.3 cents to $2.80 per 1,000 cubic feet.
NEW ORLEANS ? On the day the Deepwater Horizon sank in the Gulf of Mexico, BP officials warned in an internal email conversation that if the well was not protected by the blow-out preventer at the drill site, crude oil could burst into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of 3.4 million gallons a day, an amount a million gallons higher than what the U.S. government ultimately estimated spilled daily from the site.
The memo, which BP agreed to release Friday as part of federal court proceedings, suggests BP managers recognized the potential of the disaster in its early hours, and the company officials sought to make sure that the model-developed information wasn't shared with those outside the company. The emails also suggest BP was having heated discussions with Coast Guard officials over the potential of the oil spill.
The memo was released as part of the court proceedings to determine the division of responsibility for the nation's worst offshore oil disaster, which began when the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, 2010, killing 11 men about 50 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast. The first phase of the trial is set to start Feb. 27.
BP officials declined to comment on the emails late Friday.
The official amount of oil that flowed from the well was pegged at 206 million gallons from at least April 22 until the well was capped on July 15, a period of 85 days. That's a daily flow rate of about 2.4 million gallons ? two-thirds of the way to BP's projection of what could leak from the well if it was an "open hole." BP has disputed the government's estimates.
Having an accurate flow rate estimate is needed to determine how much in civil and criminal penalties BP and the other companies drilling the well face under the Clean Water Act.
In the memo, one BP official urges not to share the flow-rate projections and refers to the "difficult discussions" BP was having at the time with the Coast Guard.
Gary Imm, a BP manager, told Rob Marshall, BP's subsea manager in the Gulf, to tell the modeler doing the estimates "not to communicate to anyone on this."
"A number of people have been looking at this we already have had difficult discussions with the USCG on the numbers," Imm said in the email string, referring to the Coast Guard and flow estimates.
On April 23, the Coast Guard, relying on BP's remotely operated vehicles, reported that no oil was leaking from the well a mile under the sea. A day later, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry announced that oil was leaking an estimated rate of 42,000 gallons a day. The Coast Guard and BP did not divulge how they determined that figure.
In the second week after the spill, the official flow rate was increased to 210,000 gallons a day. The government continued to use that number until May 27.
On May 24, BP informed Congress that they had used an "undisclosed method to generate much higher figures" than official estimates, according to a report from a presidential commission investigating the spill. BP estimated that the flow rates were between 210,000 gallons and 1.6 million gallons a day, the January 2011 report said.
As the spill grew into weeks and months, and soiled fishing grounds, beaches and coastal marshes, independent scientists began to question official flow rates. Eventually, the federal government convened teams of government and independent scientists to determine how much oil leaked out of the well and came up with an official estimate of about 2.4 million gallons of oil a day on average.
FILE - In this Sept. 24, 2011 file photo, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Peter O'Neill addresses the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York. Rebel soldiers seized the military's headquarters Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012 and replaced Papua New Guinea's top defense official with their own leader, who gave O'Neill a week to step aside for his ousted predecessor. The self-proclaimed new leader of the country's defense forces, retired Col. Yaura Sasa, insisted he was not mounting a coup. But he warned that the military will take unspecified action unless O'Neill stands down and former prime minister Sir Michael Somare, is reinstated, as the national Supreme Court ordered last month. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 24, 2011 file photo, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Peter O'Neill addresses the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York. Rebel soldiers seized the military's headquarters Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012 and replaced Papua New Guinea's top defense official with their own leader, who gave O'Neill a week to step aside for his ousted predecessor. The self-proclaimed new leader of the country's defense forces, retired Col. Yaura Sasa, insisted he was not mounting a coup. But he warned that the military will take unspecified action unless O'Neill stands down and former prime minister Sir Michael Somare, is reinstated, as the national Supreme Court ordered last month. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
In this April 21, 2010 photo, former Papua New Guinean Prime Minister Michael Somare receives a traditional taiaha at an official welcome ceremony for him in Rotorua, New Zealand. Rebel soldiers seized the military's headquarters Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012 and replaced Papua New Guinea's top defense official with their own leader, who gave Prime Minister Peter O'Neill a week to step aside for his ousted predecessor, Somare. (AP Photo/New Zealand Herald, Ben Fraser) NEW ZEALAND OUT, AUSTRALIA OUT
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (AP) ? A retired colonel who attempted to take over Papua New Guinea's military and ordered the prime minister to step down has been arrested and charged with mutiny.
Police spokesman Dominic Kakas said Yaura Sasa was arrested Saturday night in a suburb of Port Moresby, the capital. A court spokesman said Sasa was charged with mutiny and appeared in court Sunday.
Sasa led a small group of soldiers in a mutiny Thursday in which the military's top commander was briefly held under house arrest. The mutiny was part of a power struggle in which Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and former Prime Minister Michael Somare claim to be the rightful leader of the South Pacific nation.
Sasa demanded that O'Neill step down within a week to make way for Somare, who appointed Sasa defense chief after being removed from office.
Kakas said the soldiers who followed Sasa had not been arrested.
Parliament replaced Somare with O'Neill in August while Somare was getting medical treatment outside the country. Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court sided with Somare last month, but O'Neill continues to have support from lawmakers.
Somare issued a statement Sunday repeating his call to be reinstated, and calling on police and the military to join him.
Whatever capabilities you associate with ink jet printers, odds are you're in for a surprise with the HP Officejet Pro 8100 ePrinter ($149.99 direct).? The one point that should match your expectations is the low initial cost.? Beyond that, it's faster than many inexpensive color lasers, offers better paper handling than many, and prints at a lower cost per page.? The combination makes it one of the few inkjets that can go head to head (or toe to toe) with a color laser and wind up as the better choice for a micro or small office or busy home office.? That's enough to make it an Editors' Choice as well.
The 8100 is basically the Editors' Choice HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus e-All-in-One ($299.99 direct, 4.5 stars) without the MFP features.? More significantly, it's also directly competitive with the Editors' Choice Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4020 ($149.99 direct, 4.5 stars), with similar print speed and output quality.? The 8100 and WP-4020 are so close in capability, in fact, that we can't in all good conscience pick one as the definitively preferred choice over the other.? Both are equally impressive, and the best choice for you will depend on relatively minor issues.
The difference in paper handling is a good example.? Both printers come with a 250-sheet tray and built in duplexing, but the WP-4020 adds a second tray for another 80 sheets, giving it a higher capacity.? On the other hand the 8100 offers a second 250-sheet tray as an option ($79.99 direct), giving you the potential for a higher capacity still.? Which printer gets the nod for better paper handling depends on whether you need a second tray, and?if so?whether an 80-sheet tray will be sufficient. ?
Most other differences are similarly subtle.? The WP-2040 offers slightly better image quality, for example, while the 8100 offers slightly better speed.? In both cases, though, the key word is slightly.
Basics, Setup, and Speed As you might guess from its paper capacity, the 8100 is pretty hefty for an inkjet, at 24.2 pounds.? Assuming you have enough flat space for its 19.5 by 18.9 inch footprint, however, setup is standard fare.? For my tests I connected it to a wired network and installed the drivers on a Windows Vista system.? You can also connect by WiFi?or USB of course.?
In addition, the printer supports Apple AirPrint for printing from iThings over WiFi and HP ePrint for printing through the cloud.? HP ePrint assigns the printer an email address so you can print from anywhere, and from any device with email, by sending it the documents to print as attachments to email messages.?
Not too surprisingly, considering its relationship to the 8600 Plus, the 8100 turned in equally impressive, and nearly identical, results for speed.? I timed it on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) at 5.9 effective pages per minute (ppm).? That's tied with the 8600 Plus and also essentially tied with the Epson WP-4020 at 5.6 ppm. ?More notably, the 8100 is faster than the laser-class Editors' Choice Dell 1350cnw Color LED Printer ($299 direct, 4 stars), at 4.9 ppm.? It also did reasonably well for photo speed, averaging 55 seconds for a 4 by 6.
Output Quality and Other Issues The 8100?s output quality isn't as impressive as its speed, but it's good enough across the board so that it doesn't lose any points for quality.? As with the 8600 Plus, the text is suitable for almost any business use, as long as you don't have an unusual need for small fonts.? The text is also water resistant, smudging very little when I rubbed it with a wet tissue.
Graphics quality is easily good enough for any internal business need.? I saw some slight banding in full-page graphics, but depending on your level of perfectionism, you might even consider it good enough for, say, PowerPoint handouts.? Photos were easily a match for what you'd expect from drugstore prints, making them more than good enough for any business need.?
One last important strong point is the low claimed running cost, at 1.6 cents per black and white page and 7.2 cents per color page.? That's a lot less expensive than most competitive ink jets or lasers.? It's also a match for the WP-4020 for black and white pages, and a half-cent savings per color page.
As should be obvious, if you're thinking about buying a low-end color laser, you should be seriously considering the HP Officejet Pro 8100 ePrinter?and also the Epson WP-4020?as alternatives.? Not only are both printers a lot cheaper to buy than comparable lasers, they're cheaper to run and faster too.? Between the two of them, you may find a feature in one or the other that makes it the better choice for your office, but they're so closely matched that most people could pick either one and not be disappointed.? Like the WP-4020, the HP Officejet Pro 8100 ePrinter is an impressive option for a small or micro office, and equally convincing as Editors' Choice.
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??? HP Officejet Pro 8100 ePrinter ??? Epson WorkForce WF-845 ??? Brother MFC-J280w ??? Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4020 ??? Brother MFC-J625dw ?? more
SAN FRANCISCO ? Bloggers and activists from China, the Middle East and Latin America said Friday they were afraid that new Twitter policies could allow governments to censor messages, stifling free expression.
Thursday's announcement that Twitter had refined its technology to censor messages on a country-by-country basis raised fears that the company's commitment to free speech may be weakening. Twitter is trying to broaden its audience and make more money by expanding around the globe.
"I'm afraid it's a slippery slope of censorship," said social media commentator Jeff Jarvis, interviewed at a gathering of business and government leaders in Davos, Switzerland.
"I understand why Twitter is doing this ? they want to be able to enter more countries and deal with the local laws. But, as Google learned in China, when you become the agent of the censor, there are problems there," he added.
Egyptian activist Mahmoud Salem, who tweets and blogs under the name "Sandmonkey," questioned in a tweet whether Twitter "is selling us out."
Twitter sees the censorship tool as a way to ensure individual messages, or tweets, remain available to as many people as possible while it navigates a gauntlet of different laws around the world.
Before, when Twitter erased a tweet it disappeared throughout the world. Now, a tweet containing content breaking a law in one country can be taken down there and still be seen elsewhere.
Twitter will post a censorship notice whenever a tweet is removed. That's similar to what Internet search leader Google Inc. has been doing for years when a law in a country where its service operates requires a search result to be removed.
Like Google, Twitter also plans to the share the removal requests it receives from governments, companies and individuals at the chillingeffects.org website.
The similarity to Google's policy isn't coincidental. Twitter's general counsel is Alexander Macgillivray, who helped Google draw up its censorship policies while he was working at that company.
"One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user's voice," Twitter wrote in a blog post. "We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can't. The tweets must continue to flow."
Twitter, which is based in San Francisco, is tweaking its approach now that its nearly 6-year-old service has established itself as one of the world's most powerful megaphones. Daisy chains of tweets already have played instrumental roles in political protests throughout the world, including the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States and the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia and Syria.
It's a role that Twitter has embraced, but the company came up with the new filtering technology in recognition that it will likely be forced to censor more tweets as it pursues an ambitious agenda. Among other things, Twitter wants to expand its audience from about 100 million active users now to more than 1 billion.
Reaching that goal will require expanding into more countries, which will mean Twitter will be more likely to have to submit to laws that run counter to the free-expression protections guaranteed under the First Amendment in the U.S.
If Twitter defies a law in a country where it has employees, those people could be arrested. That's one reason Twitter is unlikely to try to enter China, where its service is currently blocked. Google for several years agreed to censor its search results in China to gain better access to the country's vast population, but stopped that practice two years after engaging in a high-profile showdown with Chain's government. Google now routes its Chinese search results through Hong Kong, where the censorship rules are less restrictive.
In China, where activists quickly caught on to Twitter despite it being blocked inside the country, artist and activist Ai Weiwei tweeted Friday: "If Twitter censors, I'll stop tweeting."
China's Communist Party remains highly sensitive to any organized challenge to its rule and responded sharply to the Arab Spring, cracking down last year after calls for a "Jasmine Revolution" in China.
Many Chinese find ways around the so-called "Great Firewall" that has blocked social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
Nelson Bocaranda, a Venezuelan journalist, radio host and outspoken opponent of President Hugo Chavez, warned that Twitter's decision could prompt a government crackdown on critics' tweets ahead of the Oct. 7 presidential election.
"Twitter has become a weapon to preserve our embattled democracy," said Bocaranda, who has more than 482,000 followers.
Twitter is "an important tool" for Venezuelans to share information as local media resort to self-censorship as means of avoiding conflict with government officials, Bocaranda added.
Salem, the Egyptian activist, added in a tweet on his account: "This is very bad news."
"Is it safe to say that (hash)Twitter is selling us out?" he wrote.
"Clearly there is a huge user backlash against this latest move by Twitter," said blogger Mike Butcher, editor of Tech Crunch Europe.
"It was seen as one of the few platforms that was free of any kind of censorship, heavily used during for example Arab spring and even in Russia lately over protests over the elections. It is, to some extent, something that we could have predicted," Butcher said.
In its Thursday blog post, Twitter said it hadn't yet used its ability to wipe out tweets in an individual country. All the tweets it has previously censored were wiped out throughout the world. Most of those included links to child pornography.
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt declined to comment on Twitter's action and instead limited his comments to his own company.
"I can assure you we will apply our universally tough principles against censorship on all Google products," he told reporters in Davos.
Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, said it was a matter of trying to adhere to different local laws.
"I think what they (Twitter officials) are wrestling with is what all of us wrestle with ? and everyone wants to focus on China, but it is actually a global issue ? which is laws in these different countries vary," Drummond said.
"Americans tend to think copyright is a real bad problem, so we have to regulate that on the Internet. In France and Germany, they care about Nazis' issues and so forth," he added. "In China, there are other issues that we call censorship. And so how you respect all the laws or follow all the laws to the extent you think they should be followed while still allowing people to get the content elsewhere?"
___(equals)
Associated Press writers Christopher Toothaker in Caracas, Venezuela, Angela Charlton in Davos, Switzerland, Cara Anna in New York and Ben Hubbard in Cairo contributed to this story.
In this Jan. 24, 2012 photo, immigrant advocates use an image of New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez on a mock state driver's license during a rally in Santa Fe to protest her proposal to repeal a state law that allows illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses.?An Associated Press investigation has found that found that a handful of addresses are being used over and over again by immigrants to get licenses in a pattern that suggests potential fraud.?(AP Photo/Russell Contreras)
In this Jan. 24, 2012 photo, immigrant advocates use an image of New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez on a mock state driver's license during a rally in Santa Fe to protest her proposal to repeal a state law that allows illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses.?An Associated Press investigation has found that found that a handful of addresses are being used over and over again by immigrants to get licenses in a pattern that suggests potential fraud.?(AP Photo/Russell Contreras)
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) ? Republican Gov. Susana Martinez's administration told lawmakers Thursday that New Mexico has become a magnet for illegal immigrants coming from other states to obtain a driver's license and officials urged repeal of the license law.
State law enforcement officials told a legislative committee that the New Mexico licensing law poses a security risk to the state and rest of the country.
"This has never been an immigration issue. It's not about immigration. It's simply about public safety and security," said Keith Gardner, the governor's chief of staff.
But church leaders and immigrant rights advocates disagreed, saying a driver's license is critical for immigrants living and working in New Mexico, many with U.S.-born children. The push to repeal New Mexico's law is stirring an anti-immigrant sentiment, they said.
"I think it is about immigration ... it is about divisiveness," said Santa Fe Mayor David Coss. "We should stop calling people in our community illegal aliens."
The House Labor and Human Resources Committee plans to vote later Thursday, and the governor's proposal faces strong opposition.
The panel's five Democrats, who account for a majority of the votes, opposed a similar bill last year that passed the House but failed later in the Senate.
The legislation will prohibit the state from granting licenses to illegal immigrants. However, it continues to allow licenses for foreign nationals in the country legally, such as students with visa.
New Mexico and Washington are the only states that allow illegal immigrants to obtain the same driver's license as a U.S. citizen. Utah grants immigrants a driving permit that can't be used for identification, unlike a driver's license that helps people open bank accounts and make financial transactions or board a commercial airliner.
Martinez contends that New Mexico's license system is subject to widespread fraud. The state has brought charges against several fraud rings, in which brokers were paid to supplement fraudulent documents for foreign nationals from Poland, China, Mexico and other countries.
A review of license data by The Associated Press found that dozens of addresses ? including some for businesses such as a smoke shop ? have been used over and over again by immigrants to get a driver's license. The pattern suggests people are abusing the state's licensing system.
"Only two states in the country offer a driver's license to illegal immigrants, and this has generated an industry of fraud, trafficking, and organized crime in New Mexico, as people from all throughout the world have come to our state for the purpose of fraudulently obtaining our government-issued ID and leaving the state ? to places, and for purposes, that are unknown," Scott Darnell, a spokesman for the governor, said before the hearing.
Supporters of the current policy contend the state doesn't need to repeal its law to deal with potential fraud and they say a driver's license is vital to the immigrant community living and working in New Mexico, some of whom have been here for years and have U.S.-born children.
"It is important the state is enforcing the law. When the law is enforced, the law works," said Allen Sanchez, executive director of the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The AP identified 170 addresses in New Mexico at which 10 or more licenses have been issued to different foreign nationals from 2003 through August 2011. Those account for 2,662 licenses ? representing nearly 3 percent of the total issued to foreign nationals during that period. The AP limited its analysis to addresses with a high number of licenses to try to get an indication of the extent of possible fraud. Large families or frequent tenant turnover at rental property are among the legitimate reasons why there are addresses with fewer than 10 licenses over a period of time.
Democrats who oppose the governor's proposal are pushing alternatives. The Senate approved a Democratic-backed measure last year that would have increased penalties on license fraud, required fingerprinting of immigrants seeking a license and canceled current licenses of foreign nationals that weren't renewed within two years ? allowing the state to verify whether a foreign national remained a New Mexico resident.
New Mexico changed its law in 2003 to grant driver's licenses to anyone without a Social Security number, which are unavailable to people living illegally in the country. More than 90,000 licenses have been issued to immigrants, and state officials speculate that most of those have gone to illegal immigrants. However, it's impossible to know for certain because license applicants aren't asked about their immigration status.
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Follow Barry Massey on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bmasseyAP
TOKYO (Reuters) ? Japan's first annual trade deficit in more than 30 years calls into question how much longer the country can rely on exports to help finance a huge public debt without having to turn to fickle foreign investors.
The aftermath of the March earthquake raised fuel import costs while slowing global growth and the yen's strength hit exports, data released on Wednesday showed, swinging the 2011 trade balance into deficit.
Few analysts expect Japan to immediately run a deficit in the current account, which includes trade and returns on the country's huge portfolio of investments abroad. A steady inflow of profits and capital gains from overseas still outweighs the trade deficit.
But the trade figures underscore a broader trend of Japan's declining global competitive edge and a rapidly ageing population, compounding the immediate problem of increased reliance on fuel imports due to the loss of nuclear power.
Only four of the country's 54 nuclear power reactors are running due to public safety fears following the March disaster.
"What it means is that the time when Japan runs out of savings -- 'Sayonara net creditor country' -- that point is coming closer," said Jesper Koll, head of equities research at JPMorgan in Japan.
"It means Japan becomes dependent on global savings to fund its deficit and either the currency weakens or interest rates rise."
That prospect could give added impetus to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's push to double Japan's 5 percent sales tax in two stages by October 2015 to fund the bulging social security costs of a fast-ageing society.
The biggest opposition party, although agreeing with the need for a higher levy, is threatening to block legislation in parliament's upper house in hopes of forcing a general election.
Japan logged a trade deficit of 2.49 trillion yen ($32 billion) for 2011, Ministry of Finance data showed, the first annual deficit since 1980, after the economy was hit by the shock of rising oil prices.
Were Japan to run a current account deficit, it would spell trouble because it would mean the country cannot finance its huge public debt -- already twice the size of its $5 trillion economy -- without overseas funds.
Japanese investors currently hold about 95 percent of Japan's government bonds, which lends some stability to an otherwise unsustainable debt burden.
Domestic buyers are less likely to dump debt at the first whiff of economic trouble, unlike foreign investors, as Europe's debt crisis has shown.
The trade data helped send the yen to a one-month low against the dollar and the euro on Wednesday.
Total exports shrank 2.7 percent last year while imports surged 12.0 percent, reflecting reduced earnings from goods and services and higher spending on crude and fuel oil. Annual imports of liquefied natural gas hit a record high.
In a sign of the continuing pain from slowing global growth, exports fell 8.0 percent in December from a year earlier, roughly matching a median market forecast for a 7.9 percent drop, due partly to weak shipments of electronics parts.
Imports rose 8.1 percent in December from a year earlier, in line with a 8.0 percent annual gain expected, bringing the trade balance to a deficit of 205.1 billion yen, against 139.7 billion yen expected. It marked the third straight month of deficits.
Japan managed to sustain annual trade surpluses through the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s and the post-Lehman Brothers global recession that started in late 2008, which makes the 2011 dip into deficit all the more dramatic.
A generation ago, Japan was the world's export juggernaut, churning out a stream of innovative products from the likes of Sony and Toyota.
Much like China today, Japan's bulging trade surplus became a source of friction with the United States and other advanced economies, who pressed Tokyo to allow the yen to rise more rapidly in order to reduce the imbalance.
A 1985 agreement between Japan, the United States and Europe's big economies -- known as the Plaza Accord after the New York hotel where it was signed -- pushed the yen higher against the U.S. dollar.
Many economists argue that sowed the seeds of Japan's current debt woes. After the Plaza Accord, Japan's economy weakened and its central bank slashed interest rates, which contributed to a credit boom that eventually spawned a financial crisis and led to two decades of economic stagnation.
Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said on Tuesday he did not expect trade deficits to become a pattern, and did not foresee the country's current account balance tipping into the red in the near future.
But Japan's days of logging huge trade surpluses may be over as it relies more on fuel imports and manufacturers move production offshore to cope with rising costs and a strong yen, a trend that may weaken the Japanese currency longer term.
A fast-ageing population also means a growing number of elderly Japanese will be running down their savings.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said the government wants to closely watch the trend of exports and imports.
"There are worries that the yen's strength is driving Japanese industry to go abroad," said Fujimura. "We have to create new industries ... implement comprehensive steps to boost growth. It is important to secure employment within the nation."
($1=77.71 yen)
(Additional writing by Leika Kihara; Editing by Linda Sieg and Emily Kaiser)
WASHINGTON ? Keeping the American dream alive has become "the defining issue of our time," President Barack Obama says. He's using Tuesday night's State of the Union address to draw a stark election-year line with Republicans over how to keep the United States from eroding further into a nation of haves and have-nots.
In excerpts of his speech released in advance, Obama attacked income equality and offered his own economic revival plan built upon boosting manufacturing, energy and education. He warned Republicans in Congress that he will fight them if they try to obstruct him or restore an economy gutted by "outsourcing, bad debt and phony financial profits."
Driving everything about the speech: Jobs, including Obama's own. He was essentially making his case for re-election as he spelled out where he wants to take the country.
Obama was making his pitch to a bitterly divided Congress and to a country underwhelmed by his handling of the economy. Targeting anxiety about a slumping middle class, Obama was calling for the rich to pay more in taxes. Every proposal was to be underlined by the idea that hard work and responsibility still count.
"No debate is more important," Obama said in the excerpts released by the White House ahead of the 9 p.m. EST speech.
"We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well while a growing number barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same set of rules," the president said.
BANGKOK ? Oil fell below $98 a barrel Monday in Asia as the crude market waited for the outcome of Greece's negotiations with creditors on a deal to cut the face value of its debt by half.
Benchmark crude for March delivery was down 35 cents at $97.98 a barrel at early afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $2.21 to end at $98.33 per barrel in New York on Friday.
Brent crude was up 29 cents at $110.15 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange in London.
Benchmark oil has ranged from ranged from about $98 to $102 in the past week. It has been buffeted by tensions in the Middle East after Iran's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf and the likelihood that Europe will slide into recession amid the region's sovereign debt crisis.
Iran has threatened to close the strait if the U.S. and other countries impose more sanctions on it because of its nuclear program. Many analysts doubt that Iran could set up a blockade for long, but any supply shortages would cause supplies to tighten.
Over the weekend, the representative of Greece's private creditors said the talks are continuing even after his unexpected departure from the country.
A deal in Athens would allow the country to receive a second bailout package from other European governments and the International Monetary Fund, and cut Greece's debt from an estimated 160 percent of its annual economic output to 120 percent by 2020.
That is still painfully high, but without the help, Greece will not be able to pay 14.5 billion euros in debt due March 20. A Greek default would send borrowing costs higher across Europe and could trigger chaos in the global financial system.
In other energy trading on Nymex, gasoline was almost unchanged at $2.79 a gallon and heating oil was up 0.9 cent at $2.99 a gallon. Natural gas futures fell 6.6 cents to $2.28 per 1,000 cubic feet.
1) Check all airline requirements before boarding a plane. See if your pet can travel in a carrier that can be kept under a seat in the cabin or if your pet must travel by freight.
2) Familiarize your pet with its carrier. Pets like familiarity. If you plan on keeping your pet inside a carrier while traveling, allow your pet to get used to the environment by placing it in the carrier for a few minutes each day. Gradually lengthen the time until your pet seems at ease with being placed in the carrier.
3) Don?t try sneaking your pet on the plane. Although it may seem like a good idea if your pet is small enough to fit in a carrier beneath your seat, do not sneak animals of any size on a plane. There will be repercussions for doing so. Instead, look into travel alternatives such as Pet Airways, which was created specifically for traveling with pets. Although routes are limited, traveling on pet-friendly airlines may reduce times that pets are required to be in a carrier.
4) Feed your pet no less than five or six hours before flight time. Give the pet a drink of water no less than two hours before flight. It is very easy for your dog or cat to become sick in transition.
5) Find a hotel that will allow your pet to spend the night. Most pet-friendly hotels will not allow pets to be left in the room alone, so also consider taking your dog to a nearby Camp Bow Wow doggie day care facility if you want to do things during the day. It will cost less than paying for damage incurred by leaving a dog along in a hotel room.
6) Make the animal feel at home. Use familiar dishes, blankets, toys and other items from your home to create a sense of comfort for your pet.
7) ?And If Fido can?t travel with you, leave him at one of Camp Bow Wows 100+ franchises and watch him while on-the-go, via Camp Bow Wow?s unique iPhone Application, which has a web-cam feature that is hooked up at every franchise across the country!
(Source: Heidi Ganahl, CEO and Founder of Camp Bow Wow,?http://www.campbowwow.com/)?
Oklahoma City Thunder center Nazr Mohammed (8) knocks the ball away from San Antonio Spurs forward Tiago Splitter (22) in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game in Oklahoma City, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Oklahoma City Thunder center Nazr Mohammed (8) knocks the ball away from San Antonio Spurs forward Tiago Splitter (22) in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game in Oklahoma City, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker (9), of France, shoots in front of Oklahoma City Thunder center Nick Collison (4) in the second quarter of an NBA basketball game in Oklahoma City, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Thabo Sefolosha, right, of Switzerland, knocks over San Antonio Spurs guard Gary Neal (14) as he drives to the basket in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game in Oklahoma City, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) ? The Oklahoma City Thunder became the first team to win three games in three nights during the NBA's condensed schedule this season, and they managed to make it look easy.
Kevin Durant had 21 points and 10 rebounds, reserve James Harden scored 20 and the Thunder rested their starters throughout the fourth quarter in a 108-96 victory against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday.
"I just think the big thing was not to dwell on it and not make too much out of it. It's not sometimes as bad as people think," said Nick Collison, who had his first double-double by recording season bests of 12 points and 10 rebounds.
"I'm glad it happened earlier in the year. I think that was a positive but I think we all felt fine."
The Thunder were also able to rest their starters throughout the fourth quarter on the front end of the back-to-back-to-back after leading Houston by 21 through three.
This time, they outscored San Antonio 37-21 in the third to build a 22-point cushion.
"I knew our guys were going to compete and they were going to give everything they had for the three games. You were hoping that you could win them all," Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks said.
"Fortunately for us, we did."
The Spurs, already without Manu Ginobili because of a broken left hand, played without point guard Tony Parker after he came out of the game and walked to locker room midway through the third quarter. He returned to the bench a few minutes later, and a team spokesman said Parker was fine and could have played.
DeJuan Blair also pulled himself from the game after he cramped up just after halftime. He didn't come back either.
Gary Neal, who scored a team-high 18 points, would not let their absences be an excuse.
"I just think a couple turnovers here, and their athletes were able to get out and run the lane, and the score ballooned on us," Neal said.
Parker left near the beginning of a 25-8 run that put the game away for Oklahoma City.
Russell Westbrook hit a driving layup and then set up Serge Ibaka for a three-point play to start it, and rookie Reggie Jackson's 3-pointer with 7 seconds left in the third quarter stretched the lead to 91-67.
Oklahoma City outscored San Antonio 13-0 in fast-break points in the quarter. The Spurs had a 15-8 advantage the rest of the game.
"One of our keys to the game was transition defense. In that third quarter, they got started with the transition with Russell and before you knew it, it was an eight-point game and then it was a 14-point game and a 20-point game," Neal said. "It kind of got away from us."
Durant needed only three more assists to record his first career triple-double but instead kept busy in the fourth quarter by getting up to give pointers to his teammates. After Durant spent an entire free throw sequence chatting with reserve Lazar Hayward, who was in the game, he shared a laugh with Brooks on the way back to the bench.
"I gave him my coaching notes just to make sure if he wanted to finish out the game," Brooks said. "Kevin loves the game. There's so many things that we all see in Kevin every day and sometimes we take for granted, but I like the fact that players love other players to do well."
Spurs star Tim Duncan didn't play in the last period either as the deficit remained in double digits.
Westbrook finished with 13 points and five assists in under 25 minutes and Jackson ? taking over Eric Maynor's role as the backup point guard ? had 11 points and four assists. Maynor sustained a season-ending knee injury in the Thunder's 98-95 win at Houston on Saturday night that allowed them to become the first to win the first two games of a back-to-back-to-back.
"It just shows you the depth that we have on this team. We have 10 guys in the rotation, so any given night any guy can step up and make plays," Harden said.
"These three games, we really needed it and we got the job done."
Atlanta, Denver, Houston, Sacramento and the Los Angeles Lakers had all failed to win three straight games on consecutive nights this season.
Oklahoma City finished it off and even had time to rest the starters, running away after Richard Jefferson's 3-pointer to start the second half got San Antonio within 54-51.
Westbrook answered with a 3 and his fast-break layup restored the lead to double digits at 65-54 after an 11-3 burst. Parker came out a few minutes later and the Spurs never mounted a comeback.
Rookie Kawhi Leonard had 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Jefferson also scored 13 for San Antonio. The Spurs never led after the first quarter and gave up a run of nine straight points to the Thunder reserves to start the second period.
NOTES: Blair and Oklahoma City's Kendrick Perkins earned double technical fouls after a scuffle in the second quarter. ... Danny Green, who scored a career-high 24 points in San Antonio's 121-117 win at Denver on Saturday, didn't score until hitting two 3-pointers in the final 90 seconds with the game out of hand. ... During the lockout-shortened 1999 season, there were eight sweeps in the 64 back-to-back-to-back sets.
KAPALUA, Hawaii ? Steve Stricker never looked comfortable at Kapalua until he walked off the Plantation Course with the same five-shot margin that he started with Sunday in the Tournament of Champions.
Right when he felt as if he was letting everyone back into the hunt, Stricker birdied his last four holes for a 4-under 69 that restored his cushion going into the Monday finish in Maui.
Webb Simpson had a 30-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole for a share of the lead. He missed. Jonathan Byrd had a 4-foot birdie putt on the 16th for a share of the lead. He missed that one.
Stricker, after a two-putt birdie on the 15th, chipped in for birdie on the 16th hole, then knocked in short birdie putts on the last two holes.
He was at 19-under 200, five shots clear of defending champion Byrd (67), Martin Laird (67) and Simpson, who also had a 69 while playing in the final group with Stricker.
Through three rounds, Stricker now is 13-under par on the five closing holes at the Plantation Course.
"I wasn't making any birdies, and it seemed like everybody else was," Stricker said. "I knew it was going to be tough. When you're leading a golf tournament, it's just hard to keep that momentum. When you're not making birdies, you feel like you're letting things slip away. I felt everyone was coming after me, and I was coming back to the pack."
A game that had felt so easy on Saturday when he shot 63 turned into a grind. That much became clear when he missed on the first easy birdie chance, the par-5 fifth where the second shot goes over a gorge.
He played conservatively out to the left, then chose to chip from just off the putting surface and knocked it over the green, having to scramble for par.
The more pars Stricker made, the more he let other players back into the hunt.
Stricker began the third round with a five-shot lead over Simpson, and only five players were closer than 10 shots of him.
Byrd, despite consecutive bogeys early in the round that put him nine shots behind, began his rally with an eagle on the fifth hole. Laird made four birdies on the front nine and made the turn in 12 under.
Stricker's cushion effectively was gone in two holes.
After making a 20-foot birdie putt on the seventh, he ended his streak of 30 holes without a bogey with a three-putt on the eighth, missing badly from just over 3 1/2 feet.
Then on the par-5 ninth, his lob wedge came up woefully short and rolled back down to the fairway. Again, Stricker did well to scramble for par on a birdie hole.
Simpson birdied the eighth for a two-shot swing, then picked up birdies on the 10th and 12th to close within one shot.
Stricker was clearly agitated leaving the 12th tee after pulling his 3-wood into a bunker, thumping his club into the turf. For this mild Midwesterner, even that trace of angry is unusual.
But no one ever caught up to him.
Simpson missed a 25-foot birdie putt on the 13th for a share of the lead. Byrd, playing two groups ahead of them, had a 4-foot birdie putt into the grain on the 16th for a share of the lead, and hit it so weakly it never reached the hole.
And then, Stricker came to life.
He has played the five-hole closing stretch in 13-under par for the week, and this solid finish Sunday helped him restore the lead.
It started with another fairway metal onto the par-5 15th to 30 feet for a two-putt birdie.
Then, after coming up short of the green on the 16th, he chipped in for birdie, and the intensity of the fist pump showed what kind of day it had been.
Stricker added his third straight birdie with a shot into 4 feet on the 17th. And when he walked off the 18th green with a two-putt birdie from just off the green, he was back to where he started and poised to open the year with a win in Hawaii.
Newest Review:?... are the soft ground version of copa mundials which in my view are the best boots. The laces are extremely long so the best way to wear them... more
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Nicholas Cage, Idris Elba and Violante Placido are walking into a very large cave.? As they get further inside, I notice the walls and huge metal shelving units are filled with hundreds of semi-automatic machine guns, sniper rifles, and boxes of ammo.? The cave even has old-school weapons like swords and armor decorating the walls.? It?s easily the biggest arms cache I?ve ever seen, and I can only imagine what they?ll be used for.? As I take in the extremely cool surroundings, I hear director Brian Taylor say cut.? I guess now would be a good time to mention I?m standing on a soundstage about forty minutes outside Bucharest, Romania.
Let me back up a second.
It?s Sunday, February 20, 2011 and I?m sitting on a plane flying back from Europe.? A few days ago I got to visit the set of the Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance with a few other online reporters and we were treated to a really great day filled with awesome interviews and I learned a tremendous amount about the movie.? While I have serious issues with the first Ghost Rider, everything I learned on set tells me they have a much better story and a much better team of filmmakers and actors trying to bring Spirit of Vengeance to life.? For a full recap, hit the jump.
Before going any further, if you haven?t seen the new trailer, I?d watch that first.? Here?s the synopsis:
Nicolas Cage returns as Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance. In the successor to Ghost Rider, Johnny ? still struggling with his curse as the devil?s bounty hunter ? is hiding out in a remote part of Eastern Europe when he is recruited by a secret sect of the church to save a young boy (Fergus Riordan) from the devil (Ciaran Hinds). At first, Johnny is reluctant to embrace the power of the Ghost Rider, but it is the only way to protect the boy ? and possibly rid himself of his curse forever. Directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor.
Video Blog Recap
As most of you know, I often record video blogs when I do a set visit.? Since some of you prefer watching me talk about a set visit, and some of you prefer to read about it, for GR2 (Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance) I?m offering both.? Now here?s the best part.? While my video blogs are usually me and someone else talking about what we saw and learned on set, for GR2, I recorded the video with three? fellow online reporters including Jenna Busch (Zap2it, AMC and Blastr), Ed Douglas from ComingSoon, and Don Kaye (staff writer, Parallel Universe).? What you?re about to watch is a pretty lively discussion and it was recorded both before and after our set visit.? For my written report, scroll a bit further down the page.? Here?s a time index of what we talked about:
0:30 ? Talk about our feelings on the first Ghost Rider on the way to the set visit.
2:00 ? Background on the production, focusing on what Neveldine/Taylor will bring to the sequel.
6:00 ? Returning from the visit to the set with a brief overall recap and first impressions.
9:00 ? What we learned from talking to Cage.
12:30 ? Talk about the cool motorcyles we saw on set.
14:30 ? Describing the plot.
16:30 ? Discussing the planned 3D post-conversion (they had a stereographer on set).
19:00 ? Wondering how much the character Ghost Rider will appear in the film.
21:30 ? Don steps in to give his overall impressions.
23:30 ? Talk the giant sets they built including a wine cellar, an armory, and the ?exorcism room.?? We were impressed with the scope and attention to detail.
29:30 ? How the international locations will serve the story.
31:00 ? Tease about the character Blackout.
32:00 ? Final thoughts on the impressive set visit, which left us optimistic.
The Set Visit
So about the set visit: if you?ve ever read any of my other reports, you know every set visit is different.? Sometimes you arrive on set and you?re waiting around for hours, and other times you arrive and almost immediately you?re sitting in front of an actor doing an interview.? What was different about the GR2 set visit was that we started the day with interviews at the hotel we were staying at.
It ended up that both Ciaran Hinds and Fergus Riordan weren?t filming on the day we were going to set, so the unit publicist set up interviews at our hotel before we left.? Both told us about how filming had been progressing, how they landed the part, what they thought about Neveldine/Taylor and the way they shoot their movies, and a lot more.? Links to both interviews are at the bottom of this story.? After an hour or so, we boarded two buses and headed for the long drive to set.
When we first got there, we met up with car coordinator Alex King and he showed us the different bikes that were going to be used in the film.? While the comics and the previous film had Cage riding a bike with huge handlebars, his new bike is the Yamaha VMAX and the one word to describe it is ?badass?.? Unlike previous bikes associated with the character, the VMAX looks modern, sleek, and cool.? In addition, the version of the bike when he?s Ghost Rider looked burnt and melted.? Even without any CGI added, the bike looked fantastic.? I can only imagine what it?ll look like when it?s finished.? The versions we saw had red stickers in certain areas so the animators would have marks to work with.
King went on to tell us that the bikes cost 20,000 Euros each and instead of trying to get them using product placement, the production just bought them.? He explained that when you use product placement, you have to provide the company with the script and make sure they?re cool having the character associated with the item.? You have to give up a lot of control.? But when you purchase whatever you want to use, you have complete freedom.? Personally, if I were Yamaha, I?d have given them the bikes as I think they?re going to look awesome on screen and it?ll be great free publicity.
Jumping ahead a bit, when we spoke to Cage later in the day, he told us he was much happier with the VMAX?s than the bikes they used in the first film.? He said that the VMAX was easier to control and they were able to get the shots exactly the way he wanted them.? When you read the interview you can read his exact quotes.
After checking out Cage?s bikes, we walked to the other side of the room and got to see the bike that Idris Elba?s character Moreau uses and it features prominently into the beginning of the movie.? In the film, Elba?s character is a religious but alcoholic monk and he gets around using a customized 2010 Ural Solo that costs about 7,000 Euros.? King explained to us that they customized the bike by swapping out the seat, adding a blanket, a canteen, and a pouch to store things.? Looking at the bike up close, it definitely looked like something you could travel with.
After checking out the bikes, we ended up in the costume department and spoke to Bojana Nikitovic.? She told us that her goal was to make everything look worn out and said she wanted the audience to think everyone had been wearing their clothes for awhile.? Nikitovic went on to say that the goal was to make everything look realistic and not too stylized.
As we spoke in her trailer, she pulled out all the different costumes and we got to see the many outfits of the film.? Compared to the many sets I?ve visited, this was a rather small costume department.? However, it was still cool to see the suits that Ciaran Hinds wears and she explained that unlike other films that might feature the devil in an all black wardrobe, he?ll be wearing grey and dark blue suits.? She also showed us Idris Elba?s clothes, which came from a second hand store.
While talking to her, we learned a lot about Hinds character and how the reason he?s chasing the boy (Fergus Riordan) is because he literally needs his body.? As the movie goes on, we see how Hinds? body is failing him and he starts wearing more and more prosthetics to show how his decaying physique.? Later in the day we visited the makeup department and got to see some extremely cool pictures of his face in the makeup.
The next stop on the set visit was the soundstage where filming was taking place.? This was also the stop that made me really excited about the movie as we conducted some great interviews and the huge practical set blew me away.
When we first walked in, we noticed a huge structure built with foam and wooden beams that was enormous and it looked like old school Hollywood.? We were told this was the interior of Idris Elba?s sanctuary.? The structure they built was different heights and sizes and we were told that we were looking at the fake interior of a real location.? It ends up the production filmed at a very famous location in Turkey that featured these amazing geological caves that actually have people living in them.? We were told when we see it on screen, everyone will think they built the caves.? However, the exterior shots are all real.? Where the Hollywood magic comes in is the interior shots.? Saying that, the stuff they built on the soundstage was jaw dropping as it absolutely looked real.
The reason why it looked so realistic was the lighting.
For those who don?t know, the temperature of light determines color and they had it set to look like sunlight.? As we walked through the skinny tunnels that were supposed to be the interiors of the caves, they had areas where light was shining in from the outside, and it looked like real sunlight streaming through.
Then the soundstage got even better because the sanctuary had two awesome locations: the wine cellar and the weapons room.
Imagine a massive room that looks like the inside of a cave.? In the middle are beams that have been carved so it looks like people have lived there for years.? Now, as you look at the walls, it looks like each one has been turned into a shelving unit and there are thousands of wine bottles and each one has dusty and dirty. It?s like they?ve been left alone for decades.? In addition, this huge room had smaller rooms in each corner that were open without doorways.? I was very impressed.
The other location that awed me was how I started this set report: the weapons armory.? When filming took their lunch, we walked inside and got to see hundreds of weapons neatly arranged in storage units and a table in the middle of the room.? Also, as we walked in, the sides of the walls had older weapons like swords and shields that were real and borrowed from a private collector.
Due to the room being so full with props and weapons, we watched filming from just outside the location on a small monitor that was broadcasting what the camera looked at. We also had headsets which allowed us to hear the rehearsals and director Brian Taylor giving the actors some notes.? Some set visits shut off the sound between takes, but not this one.? As a big fan of Nic Cage, it was cool to hear him talk to Brian Taylor about how to play the scene.? But it was even cooler to watch him change the way he delivered his lines in every take.
Since I don?t want to spoil what transpired in the scene, all you need to know is as the three of them enter the weapons room, Cage is very impressed with the collection.? As we watched a few hours of filming, we saw the production film the scene in a master shot, then get the close-ups of every character saying their lines.? We also saw Taylor and Violante Placido try and figure out the best way for her to say her line and also how she should pick up a huge gun.? Some of the shots had her say her line as she raised the weapon, and others she said the line before picking it up.? While you might think everything on set is figured out before shooting begins, more often than not, directors and actors make adjustments along the way.
Besides watching filming we did interviews with the cast and the filmmakers throughout the afternoon.? All were really positive and enthusiastic.? It was here we learned that production was only days from being wrapped.
Here?s some of the highlights from the interviews:
Nicolas Cage (click here for the full interview)
Cage is playing both Johnny Blaze and Ghost Rider.? Which means we should be getting a huge cup of awesome
Stressed the difference between the Ghost Rider character from the first movie and Spirit of Vengeance
Promises ?freaky? moments that will ?mess with your mind?
Commented on Neveldine/Taylor?s high-adrenaline style which is prevalent in the film
Reaffirmed his love of mythology as well as sci-fi, particularly Jules Verne; would love to play Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Convinced that Yamaha makes the best bikes in the world
Director Brian Taylor (click here for the full interview)
Compared shooting location in Turkey to desert planet of Tatooine from Star Wars
Shot on location of 6,000 year old ruins
Preferred location shoots over studio shoots for budgetary reasons and originality of landscape
Throwing out the rulebook for a movie shot in 2D and post-converted to 3D. Will have a frenetic, fast-paced picture that works in 3D
Stylistically unlike anything Neveldine/Taylor have done before
95% of Ghost Rider?s screen time was performed by Nic Cage, both as Johnny Blaze and as Ghost Rider himself
This is a unique version of Ghost Rider based loosely on only Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain?s series; a darker take on the character
Taylor promises this to be one of those ?balls-to-the-wall?epic Nic Cage performances that people talk about?
Idris Elba (click here for the full interview)
Plays Moreau, a wholly original character that is a religious but alcoholic monk with a flavor of ?the most interesting man in the world?
Elba is a fan of motorcycles, but took a nasty spill on one in his younger days; he gets to ride one in the movie
Director Mark Neveldine hitched behind Elba on his motorcycle going 30mph for a shot down a Romanian trail
Moreau?s character protects Danny (Fergus Riordan) and his mother, Nadya (Violante Placido)
Ciaran Hinds (click here for the full interview)
Plays a dapper version of the devil whose vessel is falling apart, shown by a deteriorating face
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is Hinds? first time working with Neveldine/Taylor, but trusts them to handle any film regardless of genre
Was playing the role of a priest teaching about exorcism when he was offered the role of the Devil/Mephistopheles in Ghost Rider
On an evil scale of 1-10, Hinds says his Devil is a 3.5
Hinds wore five different stages of prosthetics for the film, the most involved of which took over two hours to apply; his only previous experience with prosthetics was in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
No connection between his character and Peter Fonda?s Mephistopheles from the first movie
Does not perform any differently for a film being shot for a 3D release
Violante Placido (click here for the full interview)
Plays Nadya, a street-smart character of Romanian descent who is the mother of Danny (Fergus Riordan)
Nadya is familiar with weapons and wields a very large gun
Says Nicolas Cage brought his usual ?wild stuff? to the role
Nadya has a past with Carrigan/Blackout (Johnny Whitworth)
Fergus Riordan (click here for the full interview)
Character Danny has demonic powers as the son of the devil
Danny is the vessel that the devil is trying to possess throughout the film
Could contractually be able to return for two more films
Said that most characters have two sides to them, such as Johnny Blaze and Ghost Rider or Carrigan and Blackout
Random Things Learned During the Set Visit
Carrigan is blessed by the devil to become Blackout
Blackout has the power of decay and that is reflected in the deteriorating state of his body
Whitworth, who plays Carrigan, underwent 4 hours of makeup to complete the transformation
Blackout?s character is only loosely based on the one from the comics
Christopher Lambert may play a priest, as he is covered in tattoos and the priests are known to have a lot of tattoos (provided by Tinsley Studios)
Ciaran Hinds? fifth stage of make-up has a face with a stroke-like appearance and a burst blood-vessel in his eye, which took about 2.5 hours to apply
Because of the way Neveldine/Taylor shoot, the decision was to do post-conversion into 3D as long as there was time built into post-production to allow it to be done properly
VFX crew scans each set with a special camera to create 3D models
VFX will animate more depth on Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance than many post-conversions do because there is time built in to allow it
VFX crew sees 3D more as a tool than a gag and sees a bright future for it if it?s applied that way
While Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance will have some 3D moments of invading theater space, most of it will be depth cues to give different dynamics
RealTime 3D conversion can be started even before post-production, making the process more efficient
To adjust for the darker appearance of 3D shooting, the VFX crew of Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance employs two color corrections (one in 2D and one in 3D) instead of the usual one, though many theaters still don?t adhere to their standards which negates this adjustment
Fire effects are much more advanced than on the previous film and will be used to enhance Nicolas Cage?s performance to show emotion, along with the expressions of the skull itself
Neveldine/Taylor?s use of a 45 degree ?skinny shutter? reduces motion blur during their high-octane filming, which helps with 3D conversion
Final Thoughts
While many are probably wondering if a second Ghost Rider movie was necessary, after talking to everyone on set and getting to watch some filming, I?m genuinely excited to see what directors Neveldine/Taylor are going to do with this franchise.? I also love that the production filmed on location in Eastern Europe and these real locations are part of the movie.? In addition, instead of casting Nicolas Cage and then some random second stringers, Sony landed great actors like Idris Elba and Ciaran Hinds to play significant roles.? Another thing that I?m excited about is how the film is going for a gritty natural realism and not trying to make the look hyper stylized.
But as excited as I am as I write this report, we all know it comes down to the finished product.? I?ve been fooled before when visiting a movie set.? However, based on what I saw and heard while in Romania, I really think Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance is going to be cool.? Here?s hoping this is the beginning of another great franchise.
Finally, a huge thank you to Sony for inviting me to Romania and to everyone on set for being so cool.? Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance hits theaters on February 17th.
For more on Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance:
Nicolas Cage Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance On-Set Interview
Idris Elba Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance On-Set Interview
Director Brian Taylor Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance On-Set Interview
Ciaran Hinds Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance On-Set Interview
Violante Placido Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance On-Set Interview
Fergus Riordan Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance On-Set Interview
As most of you know, I often record video blogs when I do a set visit.? Since some of you prefer watching me talk about a set visit, and some of you prefer to read about it, for GR2 (Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance) I?m offering both.? Now here?s the best part.? While my video blogs are usually me and someone else talking about what we saw and learned on set, for GR2, I recorded the video with three? fellow online reporters including Jenna Busch (Zap2it, AMC and Blastr), Ed Douglas from ComingSoon, and Don Kaye (staff writer, Parallel Universe).? What you?re about to watch is a pretty lively discussion and it was recorded both before and after our set visit.? For my written report, scroll a bit further down the page.? Here?s a time index of what we talked about:
So about the set visit: if you?ve ever read any of my other reports, you know every set visit is different.? Sometimes you arrive on set and you?re waiting around for hours, and other times you arrive and almost immediately you?re sitting in front of an actor doing an interview.? What was different about the GR2 set visit was that we started the day with interviews at the hotel we were staying at.
Jumping ahead a bit, when we spoke to Cage later in the day, he told us he was much happier with the VMAX?s than the bikes they used in the first film.? He said that the VMAX was easier to control and they were able to get the shots exactly the way he wanted them.? When you read the interview you can read his exact quotes.
The next stop on the set visit was the soundstage where filming was taking place.? This was also the stop that made me really excited about the movie as we conducted some great interviews and the huge practical set blew me away.
Then the soundstage got even better because the sanctuary had two awesome locations: the wine cellar and the weapons room.
Since I don?t want to spoil what transpired in the scene, all you need to know is as the three of them enter the weapons room, Cage is very impressed with the collection.? As we watched a few hours of filming, we saw the production film the scene in a master shot, then get the close-ups of every character saying their lines.? We also saw Taylor and Violante Placido try and figure out the best way for her to say her line and also how she should pick up a huge gun.? Some of the shots had her say her line as she raised the weapon, and others she said the line before picking it up.? While you might think everything on set is figured out before shooting begins, more often than not, directors and actors make adjustments along the way.
Nicolas Cage (click here for the full interview)
Idris Elba (click here for the full interview)
Violante Placido (click here for the full interview)
Random Things Learned During the Set Visit 
While many are probably wondering if a second Ghost Rider movie was necessary, after talking to everyone on set and getting to watch some filming, I?m genuinely excited to see what directors Neveldine/Taylor are going to do with this franchise.? I also love that the production filmed on location in Eastern Europe and these real locations are part of the movie.? In addition, instead of casting Nicolas Cage and then some random second stringers, Sony landed great actors like Idris Elba and Ciaran Hinds to play significant roles.? Another thing that I?m excited about is how the film is going for a gritty natural realism and not trying to make the look hyper stylized.