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UK must push on with nuclear plans: scientists

Nuclear plants remain one of the safest ways to make electricity, and Britain should not allow Japan's tsunami-provoked problems to delay its new build plans, UK scientists said on Tuesday.

According to a report by Oxford University's Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment (SSEE), Britain could save billions of pounds if it builds new reactors quickly enough to use spent fuel from its existing plants.

But the opportunity to cut costs and minimize safety risks of managing the huge stocks of uranium and plutonium that Britain's existing plants have accumulated over decades of low-carbon power generation could be missed if safety fears slow construction.

"Despite the terrible events in Japan, the economic, safety and carbon case for a new build program in the UK has never been stronger," said David King, former government chief scientific adviser and director of the SSEE.

"The renaissance in new nuclear build creates an advantageous way of using these legacy materials as fuel for new nuclear plants ... By converting it into a fuel, you offset the cost to the British public of dealing with our legacy waste. It's a massive offset."

The report, led by Gregg Butler, professor of sustainable development at the University of Manchester, estimates that promptly building a new fleet of nuclear plants to replace Britain's decades-old reactors could save about 10 billion pounds ($16 billion) by re-using the fuel that would otherwise have to be stored safely.

HEALTH RISKS

King, who as Britain's chief scientist from 2000-2007 pushed for governments around the world to do more about global warming, said the anti-nuclear reaction to the effects of the tsunami in Japan could harm the fight against climate change. He called for a reality check on the relative dangers of nuclear power and its fossil fuel alternatives.

"As far as we know, not one person has died from radiation in the process and 15,000 from the tsunami itself," he said, adding that the logical response to the disaster would be to protect human life from the far more dangerous tsunami.

"Let's put this in context -- in that same week 30 coal miners died. The generation of electricity using coal-fired power stations is far more dangerous per kilowatt hour than nuclear power generation," he said.

""Is there a safer form of electricity production historically than nuclear power? The answer is no."

Some environmentalists say nuclear power is too risky and should be replaced with renewable sources of generating energy such as solar and wind power.

(Reporting by Daniel Fineren, editing by Jane Baird)

Spy novelist Le Carre withdraws from Booker list

Thriller writer John Le Carre asked Wednesday that his name be withdrawn from the shortlist for the Man Booker International Prize, disappointing judges who said they admired his work.

The best-selling spy novelist was among 13 authors in consideration for the 60,000 pound ($96,070) literary award, which for the first time included Chinese authors in Wang Anyi and Su Tong.

The chair of the judging panel, writer, academic and rare-book dealer Rick Gekoski said he received a statement from Le Carre only 45 minutes before the announcement of the shortlist in Sydney.

"It reads: 'I am enormously flattered to be named as a finalist. However I do not compete for literary prizes and have therefore asked for my name to be withdrawn'," he told a press conference.

Gekoski said the judging panel, which includes publisher, writer and critic Carmen Callil and South African-born novelist Justin Cartwright, were fans of Le Carre's work which includes "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold".

"John le Carr's name will, of course, remain on the list. We are disappointed that he wants to withdraw from further consideration because we are great admirers of his work," Gekoski said in a statement issued later.

Authors or publishers cannot submit works for the Man Booker International Prize, which is distinct from the annual Man Booker Prize for Fiction in that it highlights an author's body of work rather than a single book.

Instead, the shortlist and ultimate winner are determined by the judges.

Le Carre is believed to be the first writer to ask to be withdrawn from consideration since the inaugural prize was awarded to Albanian writer Ismail Kadare in 2005. It was won by Nigeria's Chinua Achebe in 2007 and Canada's Alice Munro in 2009.

"Technically I don't suppose he can withdraw the honour... but I don't think you could give him the prize if he didn't want it," Cartwright told the Sydney press conference.

However, Callil responded: "Well I do."

The judges said they read widely, particularly from China, before settling on this year's shortlist, admitting that the giant communist country should have been on the list before.

"Once you investigated what's going on in China, there they were," Callil said of Wang Anyi, whose Shanghai novels include 'The Song of Everlasting Sorrow', and Su Tong, writer of 'Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas'.

"These are not new Chinese writers, these are writers who were all born before the Cultural Revolution and they have been writing for a long time," Callil added.

"The problem, of course, is translation. These two could do with more translation."

The prize is due to be announced in Sydney on May 18.

Shortlist for the Man Booker International Prize 2011:

- Wang Anyi (China)

- Juan Goytisolo (Spain)

- James Kelman (UK)

- John Le Carre (UK)

- Amin Maalouf (Lebanon)

- David Malouf (Australia)

- Dacia Maraini (Italy)

- Rohinton Mistry (India/Canada)

- Philip Pullman (UK)

- Marilynne Robinson (USA)

- Philip Roth (USA)

- Su Tong (China)

- Anne Tyler (USA)

How an Online Game Plans to Reward Kids for Playing Outside

Charged with teaching a dozen 7-year-old little league players the finer points of baseball, David Jacobs and Steven Lerner decided to start with a simple warm-up. They explained that they would yell out the name of a base, and the kids would run to it. When they started with "second base," however, children scattered to four different bases.

Several little league practices and bus-stop discussions later, Jacobs and Lerner decided to fill the need they had discovered for a compelling way to teach kids about sports.

What they came up with, FunGoPlay, combines an online sports game world with physical sporting equipment that registers physical play and rewards it with special access codes. The "online sports theme park" will launch this Spring.

The model hits a sweet spot on several levels. Almostare obese, and video games -- an increasingly favored activity -- have long beenfor increasing this percentage. Paradoxically, at the same time,in sports is at an all-time high.

If FunGoPlay catches on, it will be both a video game that effectively encourages outdoor, active play and a way to teach sports basics that is compelling to young children -- both factors that are likely to entice parents to open their wallets.

A World of Sports That Speaks to Kids

When Jacobs and Lerner first had the idea, they took a trip to the sports section of Barnes and Noble to check out their competition for teaching kids between 6 and 11 years old about sports. They didn't really find any.

Its a huge business to teach coaches how to coach, but there was nothing that really spoke to kids, Lerner says.

In order to create that appeal, the team went to work on a "sports theme park." The park has multiple games involving soccer, basketball, baseball, and extreme sports that are populated by a cast of 15 characters.

One of the co-founders, Fabian Nicieza, has a rich background in comic books that includes writing every major character in the Marvel Universe. Presumably, his storytelling capability will help build a narrative that runs through the games. The games will also be tied together by a unified reward system, and a customizable locker or club house.

A Ball With a Brain

Virtual worlds for children have long been identified as . Disney's(a $700 million purchase), Mattel's , andare among the most successful. What distinguishes FunGoPlay's game from these sites is its physical component.

When parents buy a subscription to the online sports theme park, they'll be able to pick out the physical sporting equipment to accompany it. When kids play with it, a screen on the ball or Frisbee will give them access codes that they can use to unlock special features in the game.

But what counts as "play" depends on the sports equipment. FunGoPlay has researched the way that kids use different sports equipment and will measure activity according to their findings.

"Frisbee turns into 'lets all go and catch the Frisbee once it drops on the ground' because nobody can catch the Frisbee," Chief Technology Officer Chris Romero says. "What weve done is build a map of that into to code that basically says, 'OK if this Frisbee is activated over such and such a time period, kids are playing with it.'"

But Will It Win With Kids?

Co-Founders Fabian Nicieza, Steve Lerner and David Jacobs

If you were to put together a dream team for digital children's entertainment, it would look a lot like FunGoPlay. Huge players like Nickelodeon, Disney, Sesame Workshop, and Marvel are all well represented in team members' resumes. But will the dream team make a dream product?

The company isn't the first to run with the idea of merging online and offline play. Anyone who knows a child under the age of 12 has likely heard of-- stuffed animals with avatar components that live on the company's website. Ganz Corporation, which manufactures the stuffed animals, is privately held and doesn't release sales data. But the site had aboutat its peak in 2007. Post-craze, however,now puts Webkinz.com traffic at about 3 million unique visitors every month -- still an impressive amount, but a line that goes in the wrong direction.

In order to become an integral component of children's sports education, FunGoPlay will need to prove that its smart soccer balls and frisbees are more than just gimmicks. The plan is to market the physical components as sporting equipment rather than toys, and this plan is reflected in the company's choice of manufacturer and distributor, , which has a reputation for the former.

But no matter how FunGoPlay is marketed, kids -- needless to say an unpredictable group (remember ?) -- will eventually decide how seriously to take both FunGoPlay's physical equipment and online world.

More Startup Resources from Mashable:- - - - -

Geithner to visit Brazil as U.S. ties improve

BRASILIA (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will try to advance a rapidly improving relationship between Washington and Brasilia and find common ground on issues such as China's undervalued currency when he makes his first official visit to Brazil on Monday.

After strains in recent years over trade disputes and Brazil's cozy relationship with Iran, new President Dilma Rousseff has openly sought closer ties with the United States since she took office on January 1.

Ahead of the February 18-19 meeting of the G20 group of nations in France, both countries are seeking ways to cooperate to convince China to let its currency appreciate more quickly.

The undervalued yuan -- part of what Brazil has called a global currency war -- has posed a major problem for Brazil's otherwise prosperous economy by fast eroding its trade balance and transferring jobs abroad.

Geithner's visit is also designed to lay the groundwork for a trip by U.S. President Barack Obama in March, which officials on both sides say will signal a better era of cooperation between the Western Hemisphere's two biggest economies.

"Brazil's relationship with Washington will be driven less by ideology than in recent years," a senior aide to Rousseff told Reuters.

Rousseff, a pragmatic leftist, believes that closing ranks with Washington is one of the only avenues available to convince China to correct trade imbalances, advisers say.

"The United States is thrilled with the language the Brazilian government has been using in regards to global economic issues, in particular, regarding China," said Mauricio Cardenas, director of the Latin America studies program at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

Lael Brainard, the U.S. Treasury undersecretary for international affairs who is accompanying Geithner on the trip, told Reuters that China's yuan and trade policies will be among many common economic interests on the agenda.

"I think we'll be focusing on broad mutual interests -- on where we see the G20 agenda going, on the broader rebalancing of the global economy and currency issues," she said.

Rousseff also wants to work with Washington against France's proposal to tighten international commodity market regulations, a move it argues benefits only wealthy food importers and could stifle output by major food producers.

Brainard said Brazil and the United States share common ground on the G20 commodities agenda and want to make markets more transparent -- a key goal of U.S. financial reform legislation now being implemented -- while working separately to improve food security for poorer nations.

"The approach that we'll want to take there is to improve transparency in the commodity markets, putting in place all of the improvements of the Dodd-Frank Act," she said. "But it's with a view to making markets function more effectively as opposed to supplanting markets."

Rousseff is also reevaluating a large jet fighter deal which France's Dassault was widely thought to have won, thus reconsidering bids by U.S.-based Boeing and Sweden's Saab.

Washington will seek ways to make the G20 a more effective forum to discuss global issues affecting both emerging-market and developed economies, U.S. officials said.

Geithner, who will also meet with Finance Minister Guido Mantega and central bank chief Alexandre Tombini, will also aim to discuss shared bilateral goals such as how best to rein in government spending and rebalance global growth.

Brazil has complained that U.S. easy-credit policies were driving up its currency, the real, and complicating conditions for policymakers.

(Additional reporting by David Lawder and Glenn Sommerville in Washington; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Q&A with CNN Worldwide president

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – As president of CNN Worldwide, Jim Walton oversees the news operation's television, online and mobile businesses around the world.

A day after CNN's parent company Time Warner reported its latest earnings, Walton spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the cable network's 2010 financials, the early performance of Piers Morgan Tonight and the importance of U.S. primetime show.

The Hollywood Reporter: CNN had a record operating profit in 2009, and I hear you brought in another record profit for 2010. Is that true, and how big was it?

Jim Walton: We had a really good year in 2010. We had a fantastic year, and yes, we grew up profits over 2009. It was another earnings record, so we are really pleased...I am speaking about the worldwide business of CNN.

THR: How big a profit?

Walton: As you know, Time Warner doesn't break out our earnings, so I am not allowed to either. I can't.

THR: That is several record years in a row, isn't it?

Walton: That is seven years in a row of profit growth. That's pretty good. While the journalism industry is under siege, we continue to grow.

THR: What were the main drivers of your growth?

Walton: There are a lot of men and women here who work really hard. We have a pretty diverse business that is spread out around the world. And we got multiple revenue streams - television, the Web and mobile. It's not one television network. It's a big old honking news machine.

THR: The continued profit growth seems to be in some contrast with your continued U.S. primetime ratings challenges that are often in focus. Is that just not as important a factor?

Walton: I don't want to minimize it. The primetime programming on CNN U.S. is very, very important, and those ratings are important to us. But the ad revenue generated by our primetime programming on CNN U.S. is only about 10% of our total revenues. We have other parts of our business that are as big or bigger than that.

THR: What were some of the growth drivers for CNN last year?

Walton: Over the years, as various economies go up and down around the world, we are in so many different economies that we have a lot of touch points and are not weighed down by any one thing. We also have television, Web and mobile. Advertising is a huge component of our business domestically and internationally, but the distribution business is big for us. The Web business is big for us, mobile is growing, and we are in the syndication business as well.

THR: What do you predict for your business for this year?

Walton: I'm not allowed to give forward-leaning statements on financials. What I can tell you is that I am confident that we are going to have another great year. We have some new programs on CNN. We will be launching a new primetime program on HLN. We have some digital additions that we are going to make over the next four, five months. And the international business continues to evolve. So, I am very confident that we are going to have another strong year.

THR: You mentioned new programs. How do you feel about the performance of Piers Morgan so far?

Walton: It's spectacular. I'm really pleased. He is so clever, he is really smart, he is a big personality. And he works hard and does his homework. He's been stepping into the Egypt story now. We couldn't be happier.

THR: What about ratings? Have you noticed what kind of guests and topics do better for him or whether the show does better when he steps into breaking news versus has celebrity guests?

Walton: It's really too early to put a stamp on it. Piers and his producers and Ken Jautz who runs CNN U.S. will work together and look at what happens each day, review and always try to make it better each day. I can assure you that Piers will be every bit a part of the conversation, and the interview will be the basis of what that program is. But I think it is in its early days. He has tried all sorts of different types of shows in the two and a half weeks he has been on the air. Maybe that's what it will always be like.

THR: Parker Spitzer has been on the air longer, and you have tweaked that a bit. How happy are you with it now?

Walton: Much has been said and much has been written about the program. If you look at it just on its merits, it's one of the smartest programs on television - whether cable or broadcast. It fits very much within the brand of CNN and what it stands for. And if you look at the last 10 days or so, its performance has gotten a lot better and the past couple of nights it has beaten MSNBC. It's got some momentum right now.

THR: How do you explain that?

Walton: We had a couple of folks who weren't television professionals, and now they have got some time under their belts. They are performing, and the show just gets better and better.

THR: Anything you can say about the chatter that it will be just Spitzer one day?

Walton: I have got a little saying here at CNN internally that you can't burp without somebody somewhere writing. CNN commands a lot of attention, which is great. What you can count on is that we have Dr. Drew coming on HLN in primetime soon. That's the talent focus for our company right now.

THR: You have added personalities to primetime since Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes joked last year that some time CNN may be a bit boring. Do you feel you have made real progress?

Walton: It's in the eye of the beholder. What is funny to somebody is not funny to somebody else. What is exciting to one person might be boring to somebody else. But everybody who performs at CNN in an anchor role needs to be very, very smart and be able to relate to and be relevant to their audiences. We are not trying to be funny necessarily.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant)