Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/wCC1Z6xdvtE/how-to-stop-robocalls-once-and-for-all
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Sunday, March 31, 2013
How to Stop Robocalls Once and For All
Stock market bull is feeding on corporate profits
Four years after pushing investors into one of the deepest financial holes in a century, the U.S. stock market is now powering ahead in one of the strongest bull markets in a half century.
So it?s no surprise many investors are wondering how much longer it can last.
Fueled by growing signs that the U.S. economy is finally repairing lingering damage from the Great Recession, stock prices have been making new highs for weeks.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 index closed at its highest level in history, after rising for 11 of the past 13 weeks. The Dow Jones industrial average, which tracks just 30 stocks, broke into record territory March 5 and has been setting new highs since. (Neither index, however, has reached a new high after adjusting for inflation.)
In the last 10 months, stocks have risen nearly 25 percent, as measured by the S&P 500 index. Since August, 2010, the broader Wilshire 5000 index has powered ahead by 50 percent ? a rally that?s created more than $6 trillion in wealth for U.S. households, corporations, pension funds and other institutional investors.
To some investors still shell-shocked from the 2008 financial collapse, it?s beginning to feel like October 2007 ? just before the bottom fell out. Or 2000, when the dot-com bubble popped.
Take a deep breath. Those worries are simply misplaced, according to none other than former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who coined the now-famous phrase for the telltale sign that a stock market party is getting out of hand.
"'Irrational exuberance' is the last term I'd use to characterize what?s going on at the moment,? the retired central banker recently told CNBC. ?It's got a ways to go as far as I can see.?
To be sure, bull markets inevitably include sharp pullbacks, as some investors take profits or others have second thoughts about the rally's staying power.
But for now, the millions of investors who are pouring billions of dollars into the stock market every week seem to agree with The Maestro. Here?s why:
So what got this party started?
Much like most market recoveries, the initial stage represented a snap back from one of the worst financial collapses since the Great Depression. Markets often act like a rubber band: If they get pulled too far in one direction, they tend to want to snap back to more ?normal? levels. The 2008 crash left stocks at deeply-depressed, bargain prices. But until the recovery was solidly in place, buyers had to be willing to bear the risk that the down cycle hadn't run its course.
In the last six months, the stock market rally has entered a new phase, driven largely by good news about the economy. The housing market has now bounced back sharply from the deepest recession in generations. Rising home prices have helped rebuild much of the multi-trillion dollar loss in household wealth that was obliterated by the collapse of 2008.
To be sure, it?s not all good news. The economy remains sluggish. Europe is struggling through a recession. The unemployment rate ? through steadily declining ? remains painfully high. Not all companies are taking part in the market rally.
Sorry: What makes stock prices go up and down again?
In the short term, supply and demand ? just like a pair of Red Sox tickets on Stubhub. When there are more buyers than sellers, the price goes up. And vice versa.
Over the longer run, demand for a given company?s stock is driven largely by its prospects for becoming more profitable. As any Red Sox season ticket holder knows, there?s a lot more demand for unused Fenway seats when the team is on a roll than when they?re losing.
As profits go up, so do stock prices. But to make money, you?ve got to own the stock before the company announces higher earnings.
That?s why investors are buying now ? based on the belief that the recent improvement in the economy will continue this year and next.
?I don't think it's all that surprising that the stock market would rise, given that there has been increased optimism about the economy,? the current Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, told reporters earlier this month. ?Profit increases have been substantial. And the relationship between stock prices and earnings is not particularly unusual at this point.?
But didn'tBernanke create this bubble by pumping trillions of dollars cash into the system?
The Fed?s unprecedented, ongoing easy-money policy has certainty had a lot to do with the surge in stock prices.
Ultra-low interest rates have helped two ways. Cheap credit helps boost economic growth; the housing recovery would have taken a lot longer without record low mortgage rates. Ultra-low rates on safer investments like bonds also force investors looking for higher returns by turning to riskier investments like stocks.
It?s a premature to call this rally a bubble. The late-90s Internet craze ?went bubble? when investors began paying Gold Rush prices for companies with no profits whatsoever. They were betting ? based on wildly optimistic forecasts about future growth ? that profits would eventually kick in. But in the end, it turned out that launching the fourth-largest online shopping site targeting left-handed golfers wasn?t a winning business model after all.
Ironically, some of the trends underlying those 1990s forecasts - of a millennial boom in entirely new online products and services ? are now helping boost corporate profits today. In many cases the predictions were right. They were just 20 years too early.
OK.Butif the economy is still weak, where are all these profits coming from?
One big source is workers? wages ? which have been falling, after adjusting for inflation. As business improves, more of that cash is heading straight to the corporate bottom line.
It?s not hard to see why. With unemployment still at 7.7 percent, few workers have leverage to demand a raise. Many companies have also been able to meet increased demand by asking their existing workers to put in more hours and check their email on weekends. Globalization continues to offer opportunities to outsource work to low-wage, overseas markets.
As the job market improves, and companies continue adding more full-time workers, that added profit may begin to slow. Higher health care costs could also take a bite. But for now, much of the revenue from new orders is flowing to the bottom line with little increase in labor costs.
Falling wages are only one of the tailwinds pushing profits ahead. Just as ultra-low interest rates have helped homeowners cut their monthly mortgage payments, companies have gotten a big break on borrowing costs. Those savings have helped boost the bottom lines of the companies in the S&P 500 index by some 4.5 percent, according to financial analyst Stephen Moore.
Moore figures lower corporate taxes ? which have fallen from about 30 percent of overall profits in the 1980s to around 20 percent today ? have added another 1 percent to profits.
We?d add to the list the ongoing savings from lower natural gas and electricity costs thanks to a boom in U.S. energy production.
So how long can all this last?
The only honest answer: No one knows. Including your investment adviser.
The recent recovery from a period of deep, financial malaise, though, is reminiscent of the 1980s emergence from the Great Inflation that destroyed thousands of businesses, trillions of dollars in financial assets and shredded consumer and investor confidence.
Then, for a variety of reasons, the economic storm subsided. In what seemed like a matter of months, it was Morning in America. The resulting stock market rally, which began in August 1982, was one of the longest on record.
To be sure, the over-caffeinated bull briefly passed out when a heart-stopping crash lopped 23 percent off stock prices in a single session on October 19, 1987. Four months later, though, the bull was back on his feet for another 12-year stampede that lifted stocks nearly seven-fold before the tech bubble burst in March 2000.
This bull faces formidable hurdles in the months and years ahead. The ongoing debt crisis in Europe and, worse, the bumbling response of its leaders, could easily spoil the party. So could the inevitable day, probably not until next year, when the Fed starts raising interest rates back to more normal levels. The Washington budget battle over reforming unsustainable federal spending (a problem with no shortage of viable solutions) could also knock the bull off its feet.
And if the gains in corporate profits stall out, investors could quickly lose their appetite for stocks. Until that happens, though, this rally looks like the real thing.
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Digital evolution: DNA may bring computers to life
By Tanya Lewis
LiveScience
The transistor revolutionized electronics and computing. Now, researchers have made a biological transistor from DNA that could be used to create living computers.
A transistor is a device that controls the flow of electrons in an electrical circuit, which acts as an on-off switch. Similarly, the biological transistor? termed a transcriptor ? controls the flow of an enzyme as it moves along a strand of DNA?(deoxyribonucleic acid). These cellular building blocks could be used to do anything from monitoring their environment to turning processes on and off in the cells. The findings were reported Thursday?in the journal Science.
"Transcriptors are the key component behind amplifying genetic logic," lead author Jerome Bonnet, a bioengineer at Stanford University, said in a statement. On their own, these devices do not represent a computer, but they allow for logical operations, such as "if this-then that" commands, one of three basic functions of computers (the other two being storing and transmitting information).
To make the transcriptors, the researchers took a group of natural proteins, the workhorses of cells, and used them to control how the enzyme known as RNA polymerase zipped along a DNA molecule. The team used these transcriptors to create the mathematical operators that perform computations using Boolean logic.
1s and 0s
Boolean logic, named for the 19th-century mathematician George Boole, refers to a branch of math in which variables can have a true or false value (a 1 or a 0). In a Boolean circuit, the logic gates are like traffic conductors, deciding which of these values gets transmitted. [Album: The World's Most Beautiful Equations]
For example, the "AND" gate takes in two values as input, and only outputs 1 (a true value) if both inputs are 1. An "OR" gate, by contrast, outputs a 1 if either of its inputs is 1. Combining these simple gates in different ways gives rise to even the most complex forms of computing.
The scientists created biological versions of these logic gates, by carefully calibrating the flow of enzymes along the DNA (just like electrons inside a wire). They chose enzymes that would be able to function in bacteria, fungi, plants and animals, so that biological computers might be made with a wide variety of organisms, Bonnet said.
Living Computers
Like the transistor, one main function of the transcriptor is to amplify signals. Just as transistor radios amplify weak radio waves into audible sound, transcriptors can amplify a very small change in the production of an enzyme to produce large changes in the production of other proteins. Amplification allows signals to be carried over large distances, such as between a group of cells.
The new technology offers some electric possibilities: sensing when a cell has been exposed to sugar or caffeine, for example, and storing that information like a value in computer memory. Or telling cells to start or stop dividing depending on stimuli in their environment.
The researchers have made their biological logic gates available to the public to encourage people to use and improve them.
Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter?and Google+.?Follow us @livescience, Facebook?and Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Saturday, March 30, 2013
Angry lawyer throws shoe at Pakistan's Musharraf
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) ? An angry lawyer threw a shoe at former President Pervez Musharraf as he headed to court in southern Pakistan on Friday to face legal charges following his return to the country after four years in self-imposed exile, police said.
Meanwhile, a Taliban suicide bomber on a bicycle attacked the convoy of a paramilitary police commander in northwestern Pakistan, killing 11 people, including a four month-old infant, police said.
Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in 1999 but was forced to step down nearly a decade later, is disliked by many lawyers throughout Pakistan because of his decision to suspend the chief justice of the Supreme Court while he was in office.
The lawyer tossed his shoe at Musharraf as the former military strongman was walking down a hallway in the court building in the city of Karachi surrounded by a mob of security, supporters and journalists, said police official Nasir Aftab.
The shoe did not hit Musharraf, and the lawyer was not detained because no charges were filed against him, said Aftab.
Throwing a shoe at someone is an especially potent insult in Muslim countries because the sole is considered unclean.
Local TV channels showed video of the incident, but it was impossible to identify the shoe thrower because he was hidden behind part of the corridor.
Following the incident, judges granted Musharraf an extension of pre-emptive bail in three cases against him, meaning he cannot be immediately arrested.
Two of the cases involve the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the killing of Akbar Bugti, a Baluch nationalist leader who died in August 2006 after a standoff with the Pakistani military. Musharraf was granted an extension of 21 days in those two cases.
He was granted a 15-day extension in connection with a third case, in which he is accused of illegally removing a number of judges at the time, including the Supreme Court chief justice, said Shahadat Awan, the prosecutor general for surrounding Sindh province.
Musharraf was also restricted from leaving the country during the period that his bail was extended, Pakistani state TV reported.
Musharraf returned from exile last Sunday, seeking a possible political comeback despite the legal charges against him and death threats from Taliban militants. But he was only met by a couple thousand reporters when his flight from Dubai landed in Karachi, and analysts have said they don't expect his party to attract much support in parliamentary elections scheduled for May 11.
Musharraf seized power in 1999 when he was serving as Pakistan's army chief. He was forced to step down in 2008 and eventually left the country amid discontent with his rule and threats of impeachment by the country's main political parties. His decision to suspend the Supreme Court chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, played a key role in reducing his popularity. Chaudhry has since been reinstated.
In Karachi, a group of lawyers protested outside the Sindh High Court on Friday as Musharraf entered. They chanted slogans against the former military strongman and jostled with his supporters.
The attack on the paramilitary police commander's convoy in northwestern Pakistan occurred in the city of Peshawar. The apparent target, Abdul Majeed Marwat, who heads the Frontier Constabulary, was not hurt, said police official Dost Mohammed Khan.
The 11 dead included five members of the security forces and six civilians, said Khan. The civilians included two women, a young girl and a four month-old infant. Another 22 people were wounded, said Khan.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The group's spokesman, Ahsanullah Ahsan, told The Associated Press that they carried out the bombing because the paramilitary police "are part of a system we don't recognize, and second, they are operating against us."
Peshawar is located on the border with Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal region, the main sanctuary for Taliban militants in the country. The Pakistani Taliban have carried out many bombings in the city and other parts of the country targeting both security forces and civilians.
There is concern that the militants could step up the pace of attacks ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections.
___
Associated Press writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/angry-lawyer-throws-shoe-pakistans-musharraf-083754314.html
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George Christy Talks About The Professional Dancers Society, Mitzi ...
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?Giant footsteps ? we?ve taken giant footsteps!?? With evangelical fervor, Ben Vereen was praising the progress of the arts.? The award-winning actor, singer, dancer, an international breakout star during the ?70s with his starring role in Pippin, was honored with the 26th annual Gypsy Award during the Professional Dancers Society luncheon at The Beverly Hilton?s Grand Ballroom. ? For more than four decades, Ben?s showcased his astonishing versatility, and today he and his band are touring his one-man show, Steppin? Out.
This looked-forward-to event hosted by the Professional Dancers Society sells out, recently honoring Julie Andrews.? For $170, there?s the three-course luncheon and a whale?s worth of entertainment, including a treasure trove of film clips starring fabulous dancers of yesterday and today. ? Did you know Carl Reiner, now 91, was a shake-your-booty dancer once upon a time?
Lee Hale?s the genius behind the thrilling video/film clip segments, featuring Busby Berkeley and Hermes Pan classics, along with fabled hoofers through the decades. ? His autobiography, The Lee Hale Story, traces a childhood from Tacoma, Washington to his brilliant career in Hollywood.? Producing, writing and directing with the best of the best. ? Gene Kelly, Dean Martin, Mitzi Gaynor, Florence Henderson, Bob Hope, Rita Hayworth, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett. In 1971, Orson Welles declared, ?Lee put me where I am today in the world of music.?
Every spring, Mitzi Gaynor, the PDS president for nine years, pops the cork for the afternoon, regaling everyone with drop-dead comic timing.? The ballroom?s filled with loving warmth, and nonstop applause from the crush of dancers and friends of all ages, attesting to Sandi Johnson?s belief that ?we dancers are fun folk.?? Sandi received the Gypsy Robe this year, a tradition from the 1950s handed down from one dancer to another, each adding their personal memorabilia to Ret Turner?s raggedy-ass costume, a Mad Hatter?s ?hello, there!? hallucination.
After the luncheon of carrot soup, chicken with a mild chili sauce, and baked Alaska, underwritten by heiress Joni Berry, the big-hearted chairman of the PDS board, Michael Rooney (yes, the son of Mickey) was presented with the First Choreographers Award.? ? Comings and goings flourished, with loyalists Florence Henderson and Dick Van Dyke lighting up the stage, the best hotel ballroom stage in our town.
Mitzi had returned from Chicago, where Leonard Maltin interviewed her for Turner Movie Classics (?fell in love with him?). ? Indefatigable, she travels week after week performing her one woman show. ? ?Show business isn?t simply New York or L.A.,? she reminded.? ?It?s Muncie, Indiana and Spokane, Washington.?? We?ve never forgotten Mitzi?s remark that she was ?born to make people happy!?
Monies from the luncheon give life to dancers in need, as the Actors Fund?s Keith McNutt noted.? More than $150,000 was raised. ? ?We?re there for dancers whose talents contribute so much to our joyful memories,? says Joni,? and we?re there to help with medical expenses, low income housing and emergency concerns through our affiliation with the Actors Fund of America.?
The late PR veteran Dale Olson made the marriage between PDS and the Actors Fund, and he was remembered, as were Billy Barnes and those performers the entertainment community lost over the year.? ? Birthdays were also remembered. ? Among them were? designer Bob Mackie, Lee Hale, and Shane Rosamonda, Mitzi?s co-manager with Rene Reyes.
Debbie Reynolds, always a presence of sheer delight, presented Ben Vereen with his Gypsy Award.? Debbie brought back our recollection from a USC Town and Gown evening when she was honored.? Arriving from El Paso, Texas with her mom, she was Mary Frances Reynolds.? A spark plug of a singer, dancer, actress. ? Happily she and mom managed an appointment/audition with Jack Warner of Warner Bros. ? Driving to the studio in Burbank, they were delayed.? For more than an hour. ? A dog called Debbie bolted headlong into a truck.? A sympathetic crowd quickly clustered, halting traffic.
Mr. Warner was not amused by the Texas latecomers.? However, he was charmed by the mother and talented daughter, complaining that Mary Frances was no name for a movie star. ? In an inspired moment, mogul Warner decided to professionally rename Mary Frances as Debbie Reynolds.? After that dead dog named Debbie. ? So help us, we were there.? In that Town and Gown audience as a Sunday dinner guest of MCA founder Jules Stein and his wife Doris, who were the Emperor and Empress of Hollywood.
Debbie?s now published her memoir, Unthinkable.? We were floored with the naughty tale about Shelley Winters during a Malibu party.? She writes that the Rat Pack?s Sammy Davis Jr. has the ?smallest ass.?
?If Jay Leno were a Jewish (or Italian) mother, he?d know how to handle NBC,? writes the New York Post?s right-on television critic Linda Stasi about the network dumping Jay for Jimmy Fallon.? ?He wouldn?t use his scathing nightly monologues or his worldwide reach to cut them down for trying to cut him out ?
?He?d use something much more deadly.? He?d use that sentence ? the one that has felled millions of mighty men and women ? the deadly bullet of guilt ?
?Repeat after me: ?That?s the thanks I get for giving you the best 21 years of my life and making you so (pick one) rich/happy ? ??
Linda Stasi continued, ?For 21 years, Leno has made NBC gazillions by delivering almost consistently the top-rated show in late night.? For 21 years, he has been the best son any network could want.?
Television?s changing at a dizzying pace with archivists recalling the launch of the The Tonight Show during the ?50s.? Host Steve Allen described it as ?a mild little show in a New York theatre that sleeps 800 people.?? For his premiere night, Steve fried 100 eggs in a gigantic frying pan.
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Friday, March 29, 2013
AP source: Barbara Walters to retire next year
NEW YORK (AP) ? Barbara Walters plans to retire next year, ending a television career that began more than a half century ago and made her a trailblazer in news and daytime TV.
Someone who works closely with Walters said the plan is for her to retire in May 2014 after a series of special programs saluting her career. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Thursday.
Walters, 83, was hospitalized earlier this year after falling and cutting her head while leaving a party in Washington and remained out of work after developing the chickenpox. Largely retired from ABC News already, her main work is at "The View," the daytime hit she created in 1997.
Her television career began in 1961 when she was hired as a writer for the "Today" show. She graduated quickly to on-air work and became the show's co-host before leaving in 1976 to become co-anchor of ABC's evening news with Harry Reasoner ? the first woman in such a role for a television network.
The pairing ended quickly and Walters settled into a role as ABC News' cajoler-in-chief, competing ferociously to land newsmaking interviews with heads of state and stars of the day. She regularly did interview specials, including an annual show with the most fascinating people of the year, and was co-host of "20/20" for two decades, much of the time with Hugh Downs.
She described "The View" as the "dessert" of her career, a regular gathering of women chatting about the hot topics of the day and interviewing visiting presidents and actors eager to reach a daytime audience. Walters appeared semi-regularly as one of the hosts.
"The View" faces a transition continuing without Walters and also the last remaining original host, Joy Behar, who recently announced she was stepping down.
Walters underwent heart surgery in 2010, turning the experience into a prime-time special, "A Matter of Life and Death," featuring interviews with fellow heart patients Bill Clinton and David Letterman.
ABC news and entertainment representatives would not comment Thursday and Walters' publicist, Cindi Berger, did not immediately return requests for comment.
It wasn't clear when Walters would announce her plans. Late spring is the time TV networks generally reveal their plans for the upcoming year so advertisers can lock in commercial time.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-barbara-walters-retire-next-201952868.html
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Serena Williams vs Sharapova in Sony Open final
KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP) ? Maria Sharapova keeps drawing a different opponent in the Key Biscayne final, and has yet to find one she can beat.
Now she'll give it a try against Serena Williams.
Sharapova, a four-time runner-up, earned another berth in the final by beating Jelena Jankovic 6-2, 6-1 Thursday at the Sony Open. Eight hours later, five-time champion Williams advanced when she beat defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska 6-0, 6-3.
Sharapova has lost the Key Biscayne final to four different players ? Kim Clijsters in 2005, Svetlana Kuznetsova in '06, Victoria Azarenka in '11 and Radwanska last year. The No. 1-ranked Williams might be the toughest matchup for her yet.
Sharapova is 2-11 against Williams, with both of the wins way back in 2004. Williams has won their past 10 meetings and their past 13 sets.
"They have been pretty quick matches," Sharapova said. "She's a tremendous athlete, has so much power, and a confident player as well. So if you have a few games where you're not stepping in and not playing the way you should be, she takes really good advantage of it."
With a victory Saturday, the No. 3-seeded Sharapova would plug one of the few holes in her resume. She completed a career Grand Slam by winning the French Open last year but has never won the tournament near downtown Miami.
"It would mean so much to me," the Russian said. "I absolutely love this city. It's the first city I landed in when I came to the United States as a little girl."
Palm Beach Gardens resident Williams considers Key Biscayne her home tournament, and she was at her best before a near-capacity crowd for the night's final match.
"I'm excited because I'm in the final again. Yay!" she told the crowd. "So many of my friends are here. My family is here. I have to do well here. I can't let my friends down."
Williams broke the tournament record for victories by a woman. She's 60-7; Steffi Graf went 59-6.
Andy Murray, the 2009 champion and runner-up last year, advanced to the semifinals by beating No. 9 Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-3. Murray has yet to drop a set, and his path is made easier because Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer skipped the tournament, and Novak Djokovic lost in the fourth round.
"Obviously, if they aren't there, then you don't have to play against two or three of the best players that have played the game," Murray said. "So it's not as challenging. I always enjoy playing against them because it's good for me. It's a good test of my game."
Murray's opponent Friday night will be No. 8-seeded Richard Gasquet, who beat No. 4 Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-3. The other semifinal will match No. 3 David Ferrer against 34-year-old Tommy Haas, who upset Djokovic.
Williams had struggled in her previous two matches but played almost error-free tennis in the semifinal, using her superior power to keep Radwanska pinned deep and on the run. They played for 37 minutes and 55 points before Radwanska won a game, prompting a big roar from the crowd.
That made it 1-all in the second set, but there would be no comeback. Williams hit 12 aces, including four in one game, and enjoyed a 40-6 advantage in winners.
Radwanska, who also lost to Williams in last year's Wimbledon final, fell to 1-11 against No. 1 players.
The earlier semifinal was just as lopsided. On a sunny, mild afternoon, Sharapova won the first 10 points against the No. 22-seeded Jankovic, then hardly let up from there.
Sharapova swept seven consecutive games during one stretch, and committed only 10 unforced errors from the baseline in 88 points while breaking serve six times.
Sharapova took the Indian Wells title two weeks ago and has won 22 consecutive sets, a career best, while winning 11 matches in a row.
Williams said her final against Sharapova should be a crowd-pleaser.
"She's playing so well," Williams said. "I'll do the best I can. It'll be a good match. We love playing against each other. I love playing her and we always have a great match."
Like Williams, Sharapova survived a sloppy quarterfinal, winning despite 57 unforced errors, including 13 double-faults. She double-faulted only three times against Jankovic and won 23 of 25 points on her first serve.
"I just really thought I needed to step it up from my last match and play a little better," she said. "I was really happy with the way I focused."
Jankovic, playing for the second time in less than 18 hours, was repeatedly a step late trying to reach Sharapova's shots.
"I wasn't moving," she said. "I felt heavy on the court. I felt really tired and exhausted."
Jankovic questioned scheduling that forced her to play in consecutive sessions while Williams and Radwanska had a day off before the semifinals.
"Kind of crazy," she said. "I had a couple of hours of sleep, and then I had to be back on the court."
Sharapova looked fresh even though she has played a lot of tennis lately. She's bidding to become the third woman to win Indian Wells and Key Biscayne in the same year.
Steffi Graf did it in 1994 and 1996, and Kim Clijsters won both in 2005.
"Winning a title on its own, whether it's here or Indian Wells, is a great achievement," Sharapova said. "To be able to come back from that and recover in just a few days and come back to the final here, it's great. Physically, many years ago I wouldn't be able to do that, so I'm very proud of the way I have recovered."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/serena-williams-vs-sharapova-sony-open-final-022101800--spt.html
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Comedian Anderson still hurting from diving mishap
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) ? Comedian Louie Anderson says he's been in pain all week from a recent diving mishap during a taping of the ABC celebrity diving show "Splash."
Anderson, who weighs more than 400 pounds, was trying to do a flip from the 5-meter board when he slammed into the water, landing on his face and chest.
"If I were lying down right now, you would have to help me up," the 60-year-old Anderson said Wednesday. "It's been almost a week and it still hurts almost as much."
Anderson, who skipped diving practice Tuesday night to take the stage in Sioux Falls, S.D., for a show benefiting the Brennan Rock & Roll Academy, said he asked the "Splash" staff after the accident if he was suffering internal bleeding or damage but was told no.
"They said, 'That's your abs. You've never worked them,'" Anderson joked. "The last time I worked them was when I was struggling to get out of my mother. That was it, and I haven't worked them since."
The American version of "Splash," a surprise hit that originated in Europe, has Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis coaching a diverse cast of celebrities that includes Detroit Lions lineman Ndamukong Suh, 2012 Miss Alabama Katherine Webb, basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and former Baywatch star Nicole Eggert.
Anderson said he's not alone coming away with some bumps and bruises.
"Ndamukong Suh hit his nose. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sprained his neck," he said. "Nicole was up on a handstand and she slammed her chest and stomach into the 5-meter board and then fell into the water ? and then, two hours later, had to do the dive on TV."
Anderson, who just learned how to swim five years ago, said he decided to give the show a try after producers showed him a clip of the Netherlands version. He said it's the most exciting thing he's ever done.
"I'm at 23 feet, diving into 17 feet of water. I'm over 400 pounds," he said. "Who doesn't want to see that? I do. I'm always shocked that I can do it."
The stand-up comedian said he's glad the show is catching on with viewers.
"I didn't have any idea if it would be a hit or not," he said. "I was either going to be inspirational or a laughingstock. So I'm lucky that some people thought I did a good job."
Anderson said he's having a lot of fun, but he's also trying to win.
"I know people don't think I have a chance, but that's how I think," he said. "Why do it if you don't do it great?"
___
Follow Dirk Lammers on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ddlammers .
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/comedian-anderson-still-hurting-diving-mishap-015257832.html
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Child development: Early walker or late walker of little consequence
Mar. 28, 2013 ? On average, children take the first steps on their own at the age of 12 months. Many parents perceive this event as a decisive turning point. However, the timing is really of no consequence. Children who start walking early turn out later to be neither more intelligent nor more well-coordinated. This is the conclusion reached by a study supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).
Because parents pay great attention to their offspring, they often compare them with the other children in the sandpit or playground. Many of them worry that their child is lagging behind in terms of mental development if it sits up or starts to walk a bit later than other children. Now, however, in a statistical analysis of the developmental data of 222 children born healthy, researchers headed by Oskar Jenni of the Zurich Children's Hospital and Valentin Rousson of Lausanne University have come to the conclusion that most of these fears are groundless.
Considerable variance
Within the framework of the Zurich longitudinal study, the paediatricians conducted a detailed study of the development of 119 boys and 103 girls. The researchers examined the children seven times during the first two years of their life and subsequently carried out motor and intelligence tests with them every two to three years after they reached school age. The results show that children sit up for the first time at an age of between slightly less than four months and thirteen months (average 6.5 months). They begin to walk at an age of between 8.5 months and 20 months (average 12 months). In other words, there is considerable variance.
The researchers found no correlation between the age at which the children reached these motor milestones and their performance in the intelligence and motor tests between the age of seven and eighteen. In short, by the time they reach school age, children who start walking later than others are just as well-coordinated and intelligent as those who were up on their feet early.
More relaxed
Although the first steps that a child takes on its own represent a decisive turning point for most parents, the precise timing of this event is manifestly of no consequence. "That's why I advise parents to be more relaxed if their child only starts walking at 16 or 18 months," says Jenni. If a child still can't walk unaided after 20 months, then further medical investigations are indicated.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Foerderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung, via AlphaGalileo.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Oskar G Jenni, Aziz Chaouch, Jon Caflisch, Valentin Rousson. Infant motor milestones: poor predictive value for outcome of healthy children. Acta Paediatrica, 2013; 102 (4): e181 DOI: 10.1111/apa.12129
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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Dow jumps 100 points; S&P nears record high
Stocks closed near their best levels Tuesday, with the Dow posting a new closing high and S&P 500 finishing less than 2 points from its closing high, lifted by a handful of encouraging economic reports that pointed to an improving economy and as investors seemed to temporarily overlook worries in the euro zone.
(Read More: American Dream Is Back, So Are Stocks: CNBC Survey)
The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared more than 100 points, led by Boeing and American Express, wiping out all of the previous session's losses.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also finished near session highs. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, slumped below 13.
(Read More:Sell in May? Why it May Not Happen)
All key S&P sectors were ended in positive territory, led by health care and energy.
"From a fundamental perspective, while the dominant domestic theme has heretofore been better-than-expected economic data boosting investor confidence in the earnings outlook, despite sluggish first-quarter guidance and fears of fiscal drag, many are now beginning to lock in gains realizing that the flipside of stronger growth is that QE tapering is potentially drawing closer, Chairman Bernanke's assurances to the contrary notwithstanding," wrote Alec Young, global equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ. "After all, markets are forward looking."
In Europe, Fitch put Cyprus on rating watch negative, saying the shock from the country's banking system could damage the domestic economy and thus public finances. But Wall Street was unfazed by the announcement.
Banks in Cyprus will be closed until Thursday, and will then be subject to capital controls to prevent a run on deposits. Cyprus's Finance Minister Michael Sarris told BBC radio big depositors in Cypriot banks could lose about 40 percent of their deposits but an exact figure had yet to be decided. Banks are due to reopen on Thursday and will be subject to capital controls to prevent a run on deposits.
(Read More: Why It's Important to Keep Cypriot Banks Shut)
Still, investors seemed less fazed over Cyprus. European shares ended higher, snapping their thee-day losing streak.
"We're more optimistic about Cyprus than we were a couple days ago, but it's going to continue to be unpredictable and if nothing else, even if it does get resolved, it's a reminder of just how fragile the situation in Europe is," said Matthew Kaufler, portfolio manager of the Federated Clover Fund of the day's economic data.
Goldman Sachs rose after the financial giant and Berkshire Hathaway amended the warrants Berkshire holds as part of the lifeline it gave Goldman during the financial crisis.
Meanwhile the Federal Reserve ordered Citigroup to improve its anti-money laundering controls, after several units of the bank were subject to similar orders in 2012.
Netflix rallied to lead the S&P 500 gainers after Pacific Crest raised its price target on the movie-streaming company to $225 from $160.
Apple fluctuated after Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster called consensus estimates for the tech giant's March and June quarters too high, but said new product launches mean investors will look to the second half of the year for opportunity. In addition, Munster said he believes Apple will increase its dividend to around $14 a share from the current $10.60.
Boeing said the first round test of its new battery system for its 787 Dreamliner went according to plan, putting the jet one step closer to returning to service.
Children's Place slumped after the kids' apparel retailer issued a downbeat earnings outlook for the current quarter and fiscal year.
On the economic front, the S&P/Case Shiller home price 20-city index soared 8.1 percent compared to a year ago, kicking off the year with the biggest year-over-year increase since 2006. But new home sales declined 4.6 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 411,000 units, according to the Commerce Department, missing estimates. Homebuilders were in the red, led by Beazer and DR Horton.
Consumer confidence index dropped in March, according to the Conference Board as Americans turned more pessimistic about economic prospects in the short term.
But durable goods orders climbed in February as demand for transportation equipment rebounded, according to the Commerce Department, topping expectations.
"It's been a mixed bag and a continuation of what we've seen all along," said Kaufler. "The key takeaway is that the economy is on the mend, but in a very slow way?it's a slow grind."
Treasurys eased their gains after the government auctioned $35 billion in 2-year notes at a high yield of 0.255 percent. The bid-to-cover ratio, an indicator of demand, was 3.27.
?By CNBC's JeeYeon Park (Follow JeeYeon on Twitter: @JeeYeonParkCNBC)
? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved
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Google selects Glass Explorers, will send invites to winners over the next few days
What would you do if you had Glass? Google asked you to share your plans last month, offering up 8,000 coveted reservations in the search giant's "Explorers" program. Now, the company has finally selected the winners, and plans to send out order invitations "over the next few days." Sadly, invite recipients will still need to hand over $1,500 (plus tax) for their very own set, and the program is currently limited to folks in the US, but this was still the best opportunity to get an early look at Glass, making it a very appealing program, despite the cost. Google received many creative applications, including a proposal from JetBlue, but only individual users will have an opportunity to make a purchase this time around -- the company says that it's "working on connecting with businesses in other ways." Congratulations to the lucky winners -- feel free to send us a tip when word finally hits your Google+ or Twitter inbox.
Filed under: Displays, Wearables, Google
Source: Project Glass (Google+)
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/26/google-glass-explorers/
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Internet slowed by cyber attack on spam blocker
LONDON (Reuters) - One of the largest ever cyber attacks is slowing global internet services and the disruption could get worse, experts said on Wednesday, after an organization blocking "spam" content became a target.
Spamhaus, a London and Geneva-based non-profit group which helps weed out unsolicited "spam" messages for email providers, said it had been subjected to "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attacks on an unprecedented scale for more than a week.
"Based on the reported scale of the attack, which was evaluated at 300 Gigabits per second, we can confirm that this is one of the largest DDoS operations to date," online security firm Kaspersky Lab said in a statement.
"There may be further disruptions on a larger scale as the attack escalates."
Spamhaus publishes blacklists used by internet service providers (ISPs) to weed out spam in email traffic.
The group is directly or indirectly responsible for filtering as much as 80 percent of daily spam messages, according to Cloudflare, a company that said it was helping Spamhaus mitigate the attack.
"We've been under this cyber-attack for well over a week," Steve Linford, chief executive of Spamhaus, told the BBC. "They are targeting every part of the internet infrastructure that they feel can be brought down."
Perpetrators of DDoS attacks typically target websites by flooding servers with messages from multiple systems so they cannot identify and respond to legitimate traffic.
Paul Vlissidis, group technical director at internet security firm NCC, said the volumes of traffic involved in the attack were having a knock-on effect on the rest of the internet.
Because many computers were involved in the attack, it was difficult to defend against.
"If you have a few computers sending large amounts of traffic you can filter them out easily. When literally thousands and thousands are involved it makes it much, much harder," he told Reuters.
However, according to thinkbroadband, an independent British information website which allows users to test their broadband speed, there appeared to be little evidence of a slowdown.
"Of course it is possible that people may be finding some services or sites they access over the Internet are performing slower than usual ... but there appears to be no evidence to say that UK broadband users have been slowed down across the board," it said on its blog.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle, Kate Holton and Michael Holden; Editing by Peter Graff)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/internet-slowed-cyber-attack-spam-blocker-185437944.html
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Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Nature versus nurture -- better looking birds have healthier babies
Monday, March 25, 2013
A female great tits' (Parus major) appearance is shown to signal healthy attributes in offspring in a paper in BioMed Central's open access journal Frontiers in Zoology. The black stripe across her breast and white patches on her cheeks correlate to a chick's weight at two weeks and immune strength respectively ? though the former seems to signal a genetic benefit and the latter can affect an 'adopted' chick's health, suggesting nurture is involved.
Taking two mothers with different patterning, and swapping their chicks, researchers from Palacky University in the Czech Republic were able to investigate the growth and health of the infants and the 'ornamentation' of their mothers. They compared the offspring's weight, size and immune strength and found a correlation between the chick's weight at two weeks and the size of black breast stripe on the genetic mother.
The immaculateness of both genetic and foster mother's white cheek patch was related to the strength of chick's immune response suggesting that this was due to both nurture and genetics. In contrast the body size of a chick was related only to the body size of its genetic mother and not to ornamentation at all.
In these socially monogamous birds both the males and females are brightly coloured, however neither the cheek patch nor the stripe in males affected the health of the babies.
Talking about how the ornaments can have evolved to signal reproductive fitness, Vladim?r Reme? and Beata Matysiokov? who performed this study explained, "Bigger healthier babies are important to the reproductive success of individuals, because they are more likely to survive to adulthood - so it is useful for birds to be able to work out which potential mates will produce the best babies. Maintaining bright colouration uses up resources which could otherwise be invested in reproduction or self-maintenance - consequently the evolution and maintenance of ornamentation in female great tits is probably due to direct selection by males."
###
BioMed Central: http://www.biomedcentral.com
Thanks to BioMed Central for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127433/Nature_versus_nurture____better_looking_birds_have_healthier_babies
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Monday Brief: An interview with Thorsten Heins, HTC One review, and more!
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/rlQUzsXrY5A/story01.htm
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Zynga CIO Debra Chrapaty Named Nirvanix CEO, Sees Analytics Play For Storage Company, Continued Rivalry With AWS
Zynga CIO Debra?Chrapaty has a new job as the CEO at Nirvanix, the Khosla Ventures backed enterprise storage company that she expects to further compete with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and extend into the business analytics market.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/XcFZeQ3gQuw/
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Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) Comes Out for Marriage Equality ...
Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is the latest lawmaker to come around on the issue of marriage equality, in a Tumblr post this evening:
The question of marriage equality is a great American debate. Many people, some with strong religious faith, believe that marriage can only exist between a man and a woman. Other people, many of whom also have strong religious faith, believe that our country should not limit the commitment of marriage to some, but rather all Americans, gay and straight should be allowed to fully participate in the most basic of family values.
I have come to the conclusion that our government should not limit the right to marry based on who you love. While churches should never be required to conduct marriages outside of their religious beliefs, neither should the government tell people who they have a right to marry.
My views on this subject have changed over time, but as many of my gay and lesbian friends, colleagues and staff embrace long term committed relationships, I find myself unable to look them in the eye without honestly confronting this uncomfortable inequality. Supporting marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples is simply the right thing to do for our country, a country founded on the principals of liberty and equality.
Good people disagree with me. On the other hand, my children have a hard time understanding why this is even controversial. I think history will agree with my children.
In a Politico article published on Thursday, McCaskill suggested that her views were evolving. McCaskill had previously expressed support for civil unions and opposed Missouri's 2004 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
Source: http://www.towleroad.com/2013/03/senator-claire-mccaskill-d-mo-comes-out-for-marriage-equality.html
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Executive Educational Manager at China Europe International ...
Location: Greater Accra Region
Description:
Job Title: Executive Educational Manager
Job Location: Accra, Greater Accra Region
.
Responsibilities
- Developing course curricula for Executive Education Programmes
- Aggressively and effectively marketing Executive Education programmes
- Organising and spearheading the delivery of Executive Education Programmes
- Developing and maintaining an effective Customer Relationship Management system with client organization
- Other relevant roles
Qualification and Requirements
Experience & Ability
- At least 8 years professional experience, five of which must have been played in a similar role. A minimum of five (5) years is required for the Academic Service Manager role
- Proven experience in developing, marketing or managing executive education programmes in a superior academic context
- Exposure and ability to utilize Africa-wide links and networks for fulfilling the respective roles
- Ability to build and maintain effective partnership with strategic individuals and organisations
- Ability to related to individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds
Academic Qualifications
- A good first degree, plus additional relevant professional qualifications from world-class tertiary institution
Effectiveness Skills
- Excellent communication skills, both orally and in writing
- Proven leadership and management ability
- Strong IT proficiency
- Other relevant skills and ability, including language diversity
If you are qualified for this position, Send your CV to 1528@jbgh.me or click http://www.jobberman.com.gh/job/6415/executive-educational-manager-at-china-europe-international-business-school-ceibs/ to apply
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Monday, March 25, 2013
Trump shocked by 'stupid' 'Apprentice' decision
NBC
Omarosa made it through yet another episode of the boardroom competition.
By Ree Hines, TODAY contributor
Is it too soon to crown Omarosa the winner of the all-star season of "Celebrity Apprentice"? Sure, she might not be the strongest player, and she's already employed some of her signature low-blow tactics, but the reality TV villain has what it takes to make it to the end -- at least if the current boardroom trend continues.
On Sunday night, for the second week in a row, Omarosa was arguably the weakest link on Team Power, and the project manager wasn't shy about saying so. And despite that fact, for the second week in a row, the project manager didn't bring her back to the boardroom for a shot at getting fired.
What gives? Why would project manager Claudia Jordon make the same mistake that sent La Toya Jackson packing before her? Not even the big boss had the answer to that question.
"In the history of ?The Apprentice' -- 13 seasons, top show -- I?ve been surprised, really, a few times," Donald Trump said. "The most surprised ever, EVER was when Omarosa didn't get brought back in the last one with La Toya. That was shocking. I think the second (most shocking) is that you didn't bring back Omarosa (this time). ? I think it?s a stupid decision."
But that wasn't Claudia's only stupid decision on Sunday night's show. In addition to not bringing Omarosa back, she thought it would be a good idea to put Lil Jon on the chopping block -- the man executives called the star of the most recent challenge.
Ultimately, it wasn't really important who Claudia picked to stand beside her. According to Trump, it wouldn't have changed her fate.
"If Omarosa were brought back, it wouldn't have mattered," he insisted. "You're the project manager, you failed."
So Claudia was fired.
Do you think Omarosa will ever get fired on "All-Star Celebrity Apprentice"? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.
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