Monday, November 14, 2011

No aloha: Obama skips out on APEC tradition

--> AAA??Nov. 13, 2011?11:27 PM ET
No aloha: Obama skips out on APEC tradition
JAYMES SONGJAYMES SONG, Associated Press?THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES?

APEC leaders, from left, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, U.S. President Barack Obama, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera walk to the group photo during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011, in Kapolei, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

APEC leaders, from left, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, U.S. President Barack Obama, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera walk to the group photo during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011, in Kapolei, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

APEC leaders pose for the official photo during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011, in Kapolei, Hawaii. They are, clockwise from left rear, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Kittirat Na Ranong, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Bill English, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Mexican Economy Secretary Bruno Ferrari, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O?Neill, Philippines President Benigo Aquino III, Taiwanese Special Envoy Dr. Lien Chan, Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, U.S. President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard lead the group of APEC leaders away from a group photo during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Kapolei, Hawaii on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

APEC leaders pose for the official photo during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011, in Kapolei, Hawaii. They are, front row from left, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, U.S. President Barack Obama, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah, and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera. Back row, from left, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Mexican Economy Secretary Bruno Ferrari, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O?Neill, Philippines President Benigo Aquino III, Taiwanese Special Envoy Dr. Lien Chan and Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, left, and U.S. President Barack Obama, right, laugh as they brush their hair during a group photo during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Kapolei, Hawaii on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011. Also in the picture are Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, center front, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, top left, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, top center, and Mexican Economy Secretary Bruno Ferrari, top right. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

(AP) ? Chinese President Hu Jintao in pastels and plumerias? Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sporting pineapples and palm trees? It didn't happen.

President Barack Obama on Sunday chose not to continue a tradition started by President Bill Clinton nearly two decades ago.

Leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Obama's native Hawaii were photographed together in the customary, stodgy presidential wear ? neckties and dark suits ? not the casual, colorful Hawaiian aloha shirts that many were hoping to see them in.

There wasn't even a single floral lei.

"I got rid of the Hawaiian shirts because I looked at pictures of some of the previous APEC meetings and some of the garb that appeared previously and I thought this might be a tradition that we might want to break," Obama said late Sunday. "I suggested to leaders, we gave them a shirt and I promise you if they wanted to wear it that would have been fine but I didn't hear a lot of complaints about breaking precedent."

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stood out by contrast with her white jacket and reddish blouse. The leaders smiled for the quick shot for a sea of photographers amid a backdrop of tropical trees and the blue Pacific Ocean.

As the leaders walked toward the APEC photo platform, Chilean President Sebastian Pi?era Echenique even asked Obama, "Where are the Hawaiian shirts?"

"We are ending that tradition," Obama replied.

Heads of states have posed together in the traditional costumes of the host nation each year at APEC, often making it one of the lighter and memorable moments of the forum. The tradition began the last time the United States hosted APEC. In 1993, Clinton handed out bomber jackets for leaders to wear in their commemorative group photo in the Seattle area.

The custom continued through the years: silk tangzhuang jackets in China; long, flowing hanboks in South Korea; ponchos in Peru and sailing jackets in New Zealand.

To see leaders in aloha attire was a golden opportunity to market tourism-dependent, cash-strapped Hawaii. The shirts are a symbol of the multicultural history of Hawaii and widely accepted here for everyone from tourists sipping umbrella-adorned drinks beachside to bureaucrats in downtown.

Obama hinted that he would skip the shirts at a dinner Saturday he hosted for the leaders.

"Two years ago, when I was in Singapore and it was announced that we would be hosting the APEC Summit here in Honolulu, I promised that you would all have to wear aloha shirts or grass skirts," Obama said. "But I was persuaded by our team to perhaps break tradition, and so we have not required you to wear your aloha shirts, although I understand that a few of you have tried them on for size, and we may yet see you in them in the next several days."

While the Asia-Pacific leaders didn't don the shirts, there was plenty of aloha around.

The APEC host committee had more than 2,000 special APEC aloha shirts made for volunteers. Some Honolulu police officers assigned to crowd control also wore aloha shirts.

The shirts first emerged in Hawaii in the 1930s and became accepted business wear in the islands by the 1960s. Designs often carry patterns or fabrics representing many of the Asia-Pacific cultures found here and feature scenes of Hawaii.

They have been worn for decades by celebrities and politicians visiting the islands, from Elvis Presley to Richard Nixon. Hu even wore a brown and green patterned one to a luncheon with Hawaii's governor when he stopped here as China's vice president in 2002.

Obama, however, isn't the first to skip the tradition. Last year, the host nation Japan skipped the ritual for the first time. Officials cited a tight schedule, and said tight-fitting traditional kimonos might not be suitable for a photo session. The leaders instead wore jackets, slacks, and shirts without neckties to their photo.

All eyes will now be on next year's APEC host, Russia, to see if it revives the tradition and dresses the leaders in rubashka shirts or ushanka fur hats.

___

AP White House Correspondent Ben Feller in Kapolei, Hawaii, contributed to this report.

__

Follow Jaymes Song at http://twitter.com/jaymessong

Associated PressNews Topics: APEC Summit, Government and politics, Events, Summits, General news, International relations, Economic policy, Economy, Business, Government business and finance, Government policy
People, Places and Companies: Hu Jintao, Dmitry Medvedev, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Julia Gillard, Elvis Presley, Richard Nixon, Hawaii, China, United States, Honolulu, East Asia, Russia

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-13-APEC-Aloha%20Shirts/id-1ed2fa65d72e4e89a82e61bb86eb5627

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Sony's latest PS Move Bundles let you go Medieval, get your groove on

Good ol' gaming bundles can be enticing when you're on the prowl for a new console or accessory set, and we have to admit, we'd be excited to lay some motion-controlled moves down with Sony's latest PlayStation offerings. Back at E3, we had a chance to slice enemies with virtual swords in Medieval Heros: Deadmunds Quest, thanks to the PS Move's 1:1 tracking abilities. With the game releasing next week, Sony's decided to offer it in a $100 bundle, packing a PS Eye, Move controller and a copy of Sports Champions (which Deadmund shares its gameplay mechanics with). If you don't already own a PS3 -- and love getting your groove on -- the Everybody Dance bundle may be your $300 ticket to the wand-waving fun; it features a 320GB PS3 Slim, PS Eye and Move controller, along with a DualShock 3 for when Duty Calls. These likely won't be Sony's last PlayStation-related bundles to hit shelves before the year's through, but if it sounds like your kind of party you'll find more info at the source link below.

Sony's latest PS Move Bundles let you go Medieval, get your groove on originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Saturday, November 12, 2011

Deficit 'supercommittee hits rough patch (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Even as a recent good-faith swap of offers showed a narrowing of differences over taxes, a special deficit-cutting "supercommittee" seems to have hit a major snag just two weeks before its deadline.

The two sides can't even agree on who should make the next move after an exchange of plans Monday night in which Democrats scaled back their demands on taxes even as Republicans for the first time offered higher tax revenues as part of a plan to cut deficits by $1.5 trillion over the coming decade.

Democrats' most recent plan calls for $2.3 trillion in deficit cuts, including $1 trillion in new revenue skimmed off the top as Congress overhauls the tax code. Republicans countered with an offer ? pilloried by Democrats as a giveaway to the wealthy ? for almost $300 billion in tax boosts over the same timeframe.

"They rejected our latest proposal. I think it is incumbent on them to propose something," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., a member of the panel.

The top Republican on the panel says the members are continuing to plug along.

"I have not given up hope and I hope my Democrat colleagues have not given up hope," the panel's co-chairman, Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, told reporters. "The stakes are too high for the economy to hold up my hands and give up. We're not."

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the panel's other co-chair, told reporters Thursday that members are trying to be "as creative as possible to bridge the divides that face our country."

Murray said Democrats are saying that the panel's product must be "balanced and fair and has revenue, real revenue on the table. And the other side knows that and again, every one of us is trying to bridge that gap."

The glass-half-full interpretation of the GOP proposal was that it was a significant advance because even tea party favorites like Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., the chief author of the plan, endorsed higher tax revenues.

The No. 2 Senate Democratic leader, Richard Durbin of Illinois, said he considered this week's GOP offer "an honest effort" and "a breakthrough that can lead to an agreement. That's what we need."

But Democrats on the supercommittee, as well as staff operatives working behind the scenes, mounted a spirited attack on the GOP plan, which was largely depicted in the media as a big shift for Republicans.

Democrats said the latest GOP idea is unfairly skewed in favor of the wealthy because it would require new limits on tax breaks that mostly benefit middle-income taxpayers, such as the child tax credit, personal exemption and deduction for home mortgage interest, while lowering the top rate for top earners from 35 percent to 28 percent.

The Toomey plan would lower other tax brackets proportionately, reducing the 28 percent bracket to 23 percent and the 25 percent bracket to 20 percent.

An analysis by Democratic tax experts says that to lower rates so dramatically would "require eliminating virtually all deductions for the middle class."

The document angered some Republicans, especially after they traced it back to staff aides to Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., who they had previously viewed as one of the panel members they were working most cooperatively with.

Republicans said the Democratic paper didn't accurately reflect Toomey's proposal, which would claim $250 billion in higher tax revenues by cracking down on deductions claimed by people in the upper two tax brackets.

The most recent Democratic offer scaled back an earlier Democratic demand for $1.3 trillion in higher taxes, a concession to Republicans. At the same time it jettisoned a plan to slow the growth in future cost-of-living increases in Social Security benefits, a provision that liberal Democrats oppose.

The one-page proposal was handed to Republicans at a meeting Monday night attended by some but not all members of the supercommittee. At the same session, GOP lawmakers in attendance advanced a revised proposal of their own that signaled for the first time they would be willing to accept higher revenues as part of a plan to cut deficits over the next decade.

Given the unusual secrecy of the meeting and the committee's Nov. 23 deadline to produce at least $1.2 trillion in savings, it appeared that the pace of activity on the panel was accelerating. Less clear was whether there was still time to bridge enormous differences on priorities, or whether each side was laying the groundwork for trying to blame the other in case gridlock triumphs.

The committee, comprised of six Republicans and six Democrats, has been working for weeks. Evidence of progress has been scarce, with Republicans demanding large cuts in benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare, while Democrats pressed for additional tax revenue as a condition for agreeing to make deep spending cuts.

As hard feelings intensified among panel members, other lawmakers said both sides had shown flexibility on the issues that long have been at the root of Congress' inability to compromise on sweeping plans to cut deficits.

"Republicans have put revenues on the table. Democrats have put entitlements on the table," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. "They both need to put more of each on the table."

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, dismissed what Democrats had presented earlier in the week. "Right now, we are waiting for a response to what the second-ranking Democratic leader in the Senate called `a breakthrough' - and we've seen nothing," said Michael Steel.

The revised Democratic plan totaled $2.3 trillion in savings over the next decade, including projected savings in interest costs the government would realize from lower deficits, higher than the GOP $1.5 trillion blueprint.

Democrats' proposed spending on Medicare would be restrained by $350 billion over a decade, and on Medicaid, by $50 billion.

Another $200 billion would come from defense, and an identical amount from a broad swath of government programs ranging from the parks to transportation.

Democrats also called for an overhaul of the tax code that would result in an individual rate of no higher than 35 percent and a scaling back of itemized deductions.

Broadly speaking, however, the GOP plan would raise new revenues of at least $500 billion, both skimmed off the top as Congress completes an overhaul of the tax code and from proposals such as auctioning broadcast spectrum, raising Medicare premiums and increasing aviation security fees.

The plan also would cut spending by about $700 billion, mixing a less generous cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security beneficiaries with further cuts to agency operating budgets and curbs on the booming growth of Medicare and the Medicaid health care program for the poor and disabled.

Lower interest payments on the national debt would provide the remaining savings.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111110/ap_on_go_co/us_debt_supercommittee

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Cuban homes up for sale as housing law in effect

Tania Duran, right, and her husband Fernando Ramiro stand in their home which they have put on the market in Havana, Cuba, Thursday Nov. 10, 2011. A new housing law allowing Cubans to freely buy and sell their homes takes effect on Thursday. Listings on a Craigslist-style web site have mushroomed since the law was announced last week. Duran, 34, is confident that she'll find someone on the island with a wallet thick enough to pay $200,000 for her four-bedroom, two-story home, which her family spent years remodeling. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)

Tania Duran, right, and her husband Fernando Ramiro stand in their home which they have put on the market in Havana, Cuba, Thursday Nov. 10, 2011. A new housing law allowing Cubans to freely buy and sell their homes takes effect on Thursday. Listings on a Craigslist-style web site have mushroomed since the law was announced last week. Duran, 34, is confident that she'll find someone on the island with a wallet thick enough to pay $200,000 for her four-bedroom, two-story home, which her family spent years remodeling. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)

FILE - In this Nov. 4, 2011 file photo, a woman looks out from her balcony in an old building in Havana, Cuba. A new housing law allowing Cubans to freely buy and sell their homes takes effect on Thursday Nov. 10, 2011. The law is the highest-profile economic reform yet undertaken by President Raul Castro, who has spearheaded a year of economic changes that has seen Cubans go into business for themselves in unprecedented numbers, and legally rent out rooms and automobiles. A legal market for the sale and purchase of used cars was established in October. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes, File)

House keeper Xiomara Frailes cooks food at the home of the Ramiro Duran family, which is on the market, in Havana, Cuba, Thursday Nov. 10, 2011. A new housing law allowing Cubans to freely buy and sell their homes takes effect on Thursday. Listings on a Craigslist-style web site have mushroomed since the law was announced last week. The home's owner Tania Duran, is confident that she'll find someone on the island with a wallet thick enough to pay $200,000 for her four-bedroom, two-story home, which her family spent years remodeling. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)

This computer frame grab image taken from web site www.revolico.com, shows listings for properties for sale in Cuba. A new law allowing Cubans to freely buy and sell their homes takes effect on Thursday Nov. 10, 2011. The web site's listings have mushroomed since Cuba's new housing law was announced last week, with prices ranging from the tens of thousands into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, even a $1 million for an ocean side villa in the resort town of Varadero. (AP Photo)

(AP) ? For sale: 5BR 4BA tropical delight along Havana's exclusive embassy row, just steps from the balmy waters of the Florida Straits. Asking price $200,000. Foreigners need not apply.

This is the face of a brand-new real estate market that became official in Cuba on Thursday, as a new measure legalized home sales for the first time in generations, applying a jolt of free-market wheeling and dealing to one of the socialist country's most dire problems: a grave shortage of housing.

"I think this law is divine," said Tania Duran, who's offering the home in western Havana. "What I find strange is that it hasn't happened before, because it's only logical that if you have property and want to sell it, you can."

Listings on a Craigslist-style website have mushroomed since the law was announced last week, with prices ranging from the tens of thousands into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, even a cool $1 million for an oceanside villa in the resort town of Varadero.

The law is the highest-profile economic reform yet undertaken by President Raul Castro, who has spearheaded a year of economic changes that has let Cubans go into business for themselves in unprecedented numbers, to legally rent out rooms and automobiles and even to buy and sell used cars.

"This is great!" said Havana resident Maribel Diaz, who at 47 years old had never known a time when she might have legally sold her home. "We've really needed it for a long time."

But the housing bill is the one most likely to affect the lives of millions of Cubans. Residents of the capital began lining up at government offices early to seek information and process paperwork for property deeds, and their numbers increased throughout the day.

Until now, islanders have turned to black-market transactions with many thousands of dollars changing hands under the table. Now they can sell real estate openly, bequeath property to relatives without restriction and avoid forfeiting their homes if they abandon the country.

Cuba's housing crunch is acute. Many extended families are crammed into aging, decrepit houses and apartments that have been subdivided again and again to shelter more and more people. The government acknowledges a shortfall of around 500,000 homes, and some experts say it lacks as many as 1.6 million units of adequate housing.

The new law should make it easier for young couples to find their own space, and for seniors to downsize their empty nests and pocket money to fund their retirement.

Because of the new law, "I have a relative who's leaving the country and now I can take over the house," said Ricardo Montero Bravo, 40, one of dozens of residents seeking more information and help in putting property titles in order.

Economists caution not to expect too much, too soon. Much of the money for purchases is expected to come from exiles helping relatives back home, but some may be wary of investing while one of the Castros are in office. The exile community has also been hard hit by the economic recession, and may not have that much disposable income.

"Maybe the expectations are a little overblown to the extent that the situation in South Florida, where most Cuban immigrants are, is not that great right now," said Sergio Diaz-Briquets, a U.S.-based demography expert who has written about housing in Cuba.

But Omar Everleny Perez, the lead economist at Havana University's Center for Cuban Economic Studies, said in a recent interview that some Cubans do have the money: Bank accounts are concentrated among 13 percent of islanders who control 90 percent of the deposits, he said, and some are worth $160,000 to $200,000.

The new law requires that Cubans prove the legitimacy of their funds, and does not establish the right of foreigners to purchase property. There also is no mechanism for lending or mortgages, meaning the price must be paid in cash.

But many Cubans do have high hopes, evidenced by a flurry of activity on Revolico.com, a Craigslist-style classified ad website that since 2007 has been a clearinghouse for real estate transactions involving thousands of dollars changing hands, something that was illegal, until now.

Many listings are relatively modest: $11,000 for a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment in Havana's Nuevo Vedado district, or $15,000 for a three-bedroom house in historic Old Havana advertised as "needing profound repairs."

But some homes in the upscale western neighborhoods of the capital run into the hundreds of thousands. And then there's the Varadero villa, just steps from the sea, pictured as a whitewashed, red-tile roof mansion on a walled property with palm trees and a second-story balcony.

Its $1 million price tag is particularly eye-popping in a country where government salaries average about $20 per month, and a number of Revolico users doubted its legitimacy, writing in postings on the website that nobody could have come by that kind of money legitimately. There was no phone number given for the owner, and a message sent to the listed email address bounced back.

But in Havana's embassy district, Duran, 34, is confident that she'll find someone with a wallet thick enough to pay $200,000 for her five-bedroom, two-story home, which her family spent years remodeling.

Built in 1955 a few blocks from the sea, its exclusive neighborhood is home to numerous stately mansions that belonged to the elite before Fidel Castro's revolution and today are mostly in government hands or occupied by foreign diplomats. Duran's is an uncommonly well-accommodated house with gray-granite floors, wood-panel walls and stained glass interior details.

"There are people who have that kind of money and will be able to pay," Duran said. "Nobody has set down official prices anywhere. I believe my home is worth what I'm asking."

___

Associated Press writer Peter Orsi in Havana contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-10-CB-Cuba-Private-Property/id-2e4a2684c7de4291b54ce4b9260ee0b1

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Friday, November 11, 2011

Penske Automotive (PAG) Showing Bullish Technicals But Could ...

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Facebook's Zuckerberg gets Harvard star treatment (Reuters)

CAMBRIDGE (Reuters) ? Mark Zuckerberg returned to Harvard officially for the first time Monday, winning a warm welcome from the university where he created Facebook and embarked on a well-chronicled meteoric ascent.

It was clear Zuckerberg was no longer the dropout who left the iconic Ivy League institution, even if he still dresses in the classic campus uniform of T-shirt, jeans and sneakers.

If he weren't so famous, the billionaire and Silicon Valley entrepreneur portrayed as the flawed protagonist of the Oscar-nominated "The Social Network" could have passed for any one of the hundreds of computer science students who came to hear him speak.

"It didn't seem it was that different than talking to other Harvard students," said Kyle Solan, 19, a computer science major afterward. "He seemed very down to earth."

Just a few blocks from where he started the world's largest social network, Zuckerberg took part in a rare question-and-answer for students, who snapped up tickets to the event with the same frenzy reserved for favorite bands.

"We weren't originally planning this as a business or anything," Zuckerberg said sheepishly of the phenomenon that Facebook would become. "If I had a chance to do it again I would have gone to classes."

Zuckerberg's rock-star reception marked a sea change from when the entrepreneur famously landed himself in hot water for creating Facemash, a website that allowed users to rank their fellow students' attractiveness and an incident immortalized in the film.

Speaking at his usual machine gun clip, Zuckerberg appeared every bit as driven as the character Aaron Sorkin imagined for "The Social Network". But his bluntness and occasional humor in response to questions ultimately won the crowd over.

CODING THE CLASSICS

More comfortable with coding than the classics, Zuckerberg playfully acknowledged a lackluster academic career. Indeed, he said he once aspired to be a classics major, describing how he passed a course on ancient Rome while working on Facebook by building an Internet site for students to share notes.

"About halfway through the semester I stopped going to class," he said to laughter from the audience.

One day he sent around an email to other students saying: "Hey, I built a study tool for everyone. And everyone filled out all the answers of all the significance of each of the pieces of art work, and made it a lot easier to study and I passed!"

Zuckerberg's return was labeled his first official on-campus appearance since leaving in 2004, though he has been back informally. His creation Facebook has been a huge presence on campus since, to the consternation of its professors.

At least one Harvard professor, British historian Niall Ferguson, has warned students he will fail anyone he finds using the site during his class.

While Zuckerberg appeared for the most part at ease, he still lacked the polish of a seasoned executive at public appearances. Asked what books inspired him, he faltered and admitted he "stumped" by the question. When another student asked what global problems worried him, he responded only by detailing different features on Facebook.

The Facebook founder conceded he had a lot to learn.

"You have to be willing to make a lot of mistakes," he said. "The story of Facebook, we made so many mistakes and continue to, every kind of mistake. I mean I knew nothing when I was getting started. I still know so little. I mean I am so young running a company of this scale."

In response to a question about Facebook's privacy policy -- an area of constant criticism for the company -- Zuckerberg said Facebook was better than many others which gathered data on unsuspecting users to target ads.

"People share so much information, put so much stuff into Facebook that how their data is treated is super important and we're constantly working on more stuff to make that more transparent," he said.

Zuckerberg also boldly predicted that the amount of content that people share on Facebook would double annually for years to come.

"If you project forward 10 years, each person will share about 1,000 times more things per day than they are now - 2 to the 10th is 1024," he said.

(Editing by Peter Lauria, Edwin Chan and Derek Caney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111108/india_nm/india603932

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