Amazon Apologizes For Netflix Outage - Business Insider

Amazon issued a long technical explanation and apology for the outage that took Netflix down on Christmas Eve, without ever mentioning the rival online-video service by name.

The outage lasted all night and part of Christmas Day.

Netflix was the most notable outage, but it wasn't the only one. Amazon's downtime affected other customers, like Salesforce.com's Heroku. And Because Heroku is itself a cloud service that hosts other company's apps, this mean that Amazon's outage affected all kinds of companies.

It did not, however, affect Amazon's own movie-streaming service that competes with Netflix, Amazon Instant Video.

On Saturday, Amazon explained that human error caused the initial problem.? Someone inadvertently deleted some very important data. It promised this particular error would never happen again:

"We want to apologize. We know how critical our services are to our customers? businesses, and we know this disruption came at an inopportune time for some of our customers. We will do everything we can to learn from this event and use it to drive further improvement in the ELB service."

Because movie-watching is a big tradition on Christmas, it was Netflix's outage that created the most fuss. Netflix fielded a long string of tweets on its customer service account,?@Netflixhelps, where it noted?that Amazon was to blame.

This, of course, prompted a lot of witty tweets in response like this one:

The service was mostly restored by 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time on December 25, but it left people wondering if Netflix was wise to trust Amazon's cloud so thoroughly.

Last month, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings?said that by the end of 2013, he wants Netflix to host 100% of its service on Amazon's cloud, which would make Netflix the biggest customer for Amazon Web Services.

Don't miss: Here Are The Hot New Technologies That Will Get Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars In 2013

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-apologizes-for-netflix-outage-2012-12

jetblue jetblue michelle malkin october baby sugarland 16 and pregnant ludwig mies van der rohe

The Best Investing Style ETF This Fiscal? - Zacks.com

A debate between different styles of investing is not new to the financial world. There are various ?experts? from different schools of thought with strong arguments poised in favor of their beliefs as far as investment styles are concerned. Whether undervalued stocks have the potential to deliver high returns (value style) or overvalued stocks make for a good momentum play (growth style) or a combination of both flavors in a portfolio is a winner (blend style) has been and will be a never ending discussion.

Nevertheless, while there are pros and cons associated with each investing style, it is also true that the same strategy or style doesn?t work for different market conditions. Having said this, a look at the best performing investment style this fiscal year is prudent especially as we near the conclusion of yet another economically action packed year. (see 3 Emerging Market ETFs Protected from Global Events)

The methodology adopted was selecting nine ETFs, each ETF representing a particular investment style and a market capitalization bucket (i.e. large, mid or small). To compute the results we have assumed that an investor allocated capital uniformly across the entire spectrum of market capitalization, thereby focusing solely on the investment style and eliminating any market capitalization bias. (read Mid Cap ETF Investing 101)

The portfolio returns and risk is computed assuming that the investor allocates equally across the three types of ETF for any particular style. In other words, the weight allocated to each ETF across a particular style is 33.33%.

The following table summarizes the results obtained for each style box.

Table: 1

Capitalization	Large Cap	Mid Cap	Small Cap	Overall Portfolio	Rank
Growth	IVW	IWP	VBK
Risk	12.13%	14.94%	16.92%	14.21%
Return	10.85%	11.55%	13.18%	11.86%
Return per unit risk				0.83	2
Value	IVE	IWS	VBR
Risk	13.45%	13.72%	15.24%	13.73%
Return	12.23%	13.42%	13.79%	13.15%
Return per unit Risk				0.96	1
Blend	SPY	IJH	IWM
Risk	12.56%	15.25%	16.47%	14.25%
Return	11.45%	13.52%	9.86%	11.69%
Return per unit Risk				0.74	3

Note: Returns are computed on year-till-date basis.

Not surprisingly, the volatility tends to increase towards the small cap ETFs. Of course, this is quite expected as mid and small caps are more volatile than their large cap counterparts. This is especially true considering the volatility that we have witnessed over the past twelve months, first over the Eurozone issues and now over the impending fiscal cliff. However, the small caps have fared better in terms of absolute returns. (see more in the Zacks ETF Center)

Instead of concentrating on absolute performance, our exercise focuses on risk-adjusted performance. In other words, it takes into consideration the reward reaped by an investor for bearing up with the volatility of the investing style chosen by him/her.

The table summarizes the trailing performance of each style on the basis of their risk-adjusted returns. In order to compute this, the portfolio returns and risk were calculated, and the return was divided by the risk obtained. Based on this score the various styles were ranked.

As we can see, the value ETF portfolio has performed better, both in terms of absolute portfolio returns as well as risk adjusted returns, than its growth and blend counterparts, having a return per unit of risk score of 0.96. Compared to this, the growth portfolio has a score of 0.83 while the blend portfolio got a score of 0.74.

Also, the value ETF portfolio has exhibited less volatility than the growth and blend portfolios as indicated by lower portfolio volatility (read SPDR Files for Low Volatility ETFs).

Growth investing is basically a momentum play; this makes it a great strategy in a trending market (i.e. a market characterized by a prolonged up or downtrend). This is because stocks in the growth ETF portfolio harness their momentum in earnings to create a positive bias in the market which results in rocketing share prices. However, this only works when the broader market sentiments have a predetermined direction.

However, in the last 12 months the markets have seen movement in a quarterly up-down-up-down trend making it virtually impossible to predict a trend, at least this was the case for a good period of time this fiscal (read What Do Quarterly Trends Reveal about ETFs in Q4?). However, this doesn?t mean that growth stocks underperform during such markets.

However it does mean that they exhibit a higher degree of volatility especially compared to value stocks. This is the primary reason why growth stocks have a lower risk adjusted return performance, although in terms of absolute returns there seems to be hardly any difference between the three styles.

On the other hand, value stocks are not very susceptible to the trending markets unlike their growth counterparts. They give the market ample time to find and realize the potential of these companies with hidden value. This makes them less susceptible to the broader market conditions. This also results in a lower realized volatility as indicated by the figures in the table. Therefore in a volatile market these make for great picks for highest risk adjusted returns. (see ETFs in a QE3 World)

Nevertheless, each investing style has its own advantages and disadvantages and it entirely depends on the individual investor?s risk-return profile as to which style is best suited for him/her. However, with 2013 poised to be yet another action packed year ahead of the fiscal cliff one might think that in order to seek investments with higher risk-adjusted returns, value ETFs might well be the place to be.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free report >>

Source: http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/89432/the-best-investing-style-etf-this-fiscal

los angeles dodgers christie brinkley seattle mariners geraldo rivera supreme court health care joe oliver joba chamberlain

CloudMuzik brings Google Music to Windows Phone 8

I use Google Music for storing any playing my music collection and it?s a service I really missed when I was using Windows Phone 8. CloudMuzik had a Windows Phone 7 app but it wouldn?t work on Windows Phone 8 but they have just released a Windows Phone 8 version. With the app you can browse your full music library, play any of the songs and pin songs or albums to the start screen. There is even offline support so it will download and cache the music on your phone.

I gave it a try on my 8X and it seemed to work very well, I liked being able to pin albums to the start screen, plus there is social sharing built in using the accounts you already have on the phon. The app is free and if you use Google Music it?s an essential for Windows Phone

CloudMuzik is a Google Play Music client specifically made for WP8 phones.

The application supports the following:

* Full Library support

* Full Refresh of music library

* Refresh of latest songs uploaded

* Playlist support

* Social sharing of current song

* Repeat and Shuffle capabilities

* Pinning of Artist, Album, Playlist and Genre to Start

* Background Audio

* Experimental local song caching

?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thedigitallifestyle/ian/~3/Lof5l13Dwck/

Jessica Lange NFL scores week 3 kat dennings Steve Sabol Yom Kippur 2012 Aaron Paul mumford and sons

Al Qaeda Offers Bounty on American Ambassador (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/273909531?client_source=feed&format=rss

case mccoy UFC 155 Jack Klugman weather channel weather forecast merry Christmas a christmas story

How badly will budget cuts hurt troops, DOD civilians?

WASHINGTON ? In the final presidential debate, President Barack Obama declared to the American people with unflinching certainty that sequestration ?will not happen.?

Two months later, the Jan. 1 deadline is looming, with no debt reduction deal in sight.

Now what?

How quickly and deeply will these automatic defense budget cuts totaling about $500 billion over the next decade hit troops, Defense Department civilians and contractors? And how much will they hurt?

Many experts agree: ?The sky is not going to suddenly fall on Jan. 2,? said Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank. ?In fact, we are likely to see hardly any impacts in that first week.?

But in the weeks that follow, the DOD could begin implementing the furlough plan for civilian employees that was announced before Christmas by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.

The Defense Department could hit the entire civilian workforce ? about 700,900 full-time employees ? with furloughs. In that instance, offices would not be shuttered. Furloughs would come in waves and in a rolling manner, so only a handful of civilian employees from each department would stay home without pay each month.

Harrison expects that by early spring the Defense Department will have to move to reduce its peacetime operations. For example, the number of flight hours that pilots get for regular training and the number of live-fire exercises for ground forces could be reduced. Maintenance of equipment, such as ships and ground vehicles, would be deferred.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter testified to the House Armed Services Committee in August that sequestration would allow for less training for later-deploying Army and Marine Corps units to Afghanistan and would reduce readiness of other units if other conflicts arise.

Troops also could see reductions in base support services, facility and government-owned family housing maintenance and commissary hours, Carter said. They may also see Tricare health coverage affected, with delayed payments to medical service providers. That could cause providers to deny medical services to some retirees and family members, he testified.

Harrison predicts that the first pink slips for layoffs in the defense contracting industry could go out by late spring or early summer. DOD plans to buy different weapons systems could stall, resulting in delayed contract awards and the renegotiation of contracts.

?The ?cliff? metaphor is not accurate,? Harrison said. ?It?s more like a slope and it will build from the first year, but it won?t be like a government shutdown, where suddenly at midnight, everyone stops there.?

Patrick Lester, director of fiscal policy at OMB Watch, a progressive Washington think tank, tells people not to panic. He argues that based on his nonprofit?s analysis, the politics for a deal being struck is much better in January. ?Pain focuses the mind,? he said.

The White House and executive office agencies have some ability to soften sequestration?s harshest impacts ? if it kicks in ? because the effects won?t come down immediately.

They can offset some of the pain because they have the authority to control the rate of federal spending. They could use carryover funds to help cushion cuts, redirect funds to more urgent activities and accelerate spending to avoid employee furloughs, Lester said.

?But just because they have this management authority, it doesn?t mean they?ll use it,? he said. The White House?s Office of Management and Budget declined to comment when asked whether using that authority would be considered.

The longer a deal goes unresolved, sequestration becomes a more serious issue, forcing more draconian cuts to make up for the entire fiscal year. With nearly one-fourth of the fiscal year already passed, deeper cuts will be needed to make up for rest of the fiscal year.

For instance, Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Elizabeth Robbins said DOD is looking at a 12 percent cut in funding for all accounts, except for military personnel accounts, after putting off sequestration planning for months.

?It?s too early in the process and it?s too soon to tell the effects on specific activities and programs,? she said.

Jacob Stokes, a research associate at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank with close ties to the Obama administration, said that it?s important to remember that sequestration is ?not irreversible.?

For that reason, there?s been a shift in rhetoric from the defense contracting industry. The consensus has moved from a doomsday scenario to reassurances that it?s not going to be as bad as originally thought.

The goal is to reassure financial markets, which experts say could be thrown into turmoil if the country goes off the fiscal cliff.

?It will be a lot like standing on ice that?s breaking,? Lester said. ?You can see the cracks breaking around you and eventually you will fall through the ice, so you don?t have unlimited time,? he said. ?You can manage sequestration, but every day that passes, that gets harder and harder to do.?

Lester said he believes that Congress and the president will get a deal done.

?The question,? he said, ?is when.?

tsai.joyce@stripes.com
Twitter: @JoyceTsaiDC
?

Source: http://www.stripes.com/news/how-badly-will-budget-cuts-hurt-troops-dod-civilians-1.202310?localLinksEnabled=false

Green Coffee Bean Extract september 11 adam levine 9/11 Memorial Google Docs 911 masterchef

Turning a page to 2013

?

Dany Laferri?re?s account of living through the 2010 earthquake in Haiti will be published in English next week.

Photograph by: John Kenney , The Gazette

MONTREAL ? Never having been much of an Apocalypse enthusiast, I?m glad the Mayans were wrong, for all kinds of reasons. Not least among them is that, having had a peek at some of the books to appear in 2013, it would have felt downright unfair to have been denied the reading experiences. But now that we know we?ll be around, here is an assortment of what?s in store the next three months or so. ?Pub dates,? as they call them in the business, are subject to change, so you might want to check ahead before sprinting out to the neighbourhood bookstore with your cash.

Right out of the gate, next week in fact, comes Dany Laferri?re?s The World Is Moving Around Me, the Haitian-Canadian?s account of his experience in and around Port-au-Prince at the time of the cataclysmic January 2010 earthquake. Written in a quick burst and published in French a mere 10 weeks after the quake, it now finally sees English-language publication, in a translation by David Homel, as the third anniversary of the quake approaches. Watch this column for more on it, soon.

Michael Crummey, after his extravagantly praised and popular Newfoundland historical novel Galore, does his bit to keep the Canadian tradition of the poet/novelist alive with his new poetry collection, Under the Keel. Late bloomer Peter Behrens, a Montrealer now living in Maine, is evidently still on a prolific roll; readers still absorbing his latest Irish diaspora novel, The O?Briens, now have the new story collection, Travelling Light, to look forward to. Saleema Nawaz returns in March with the much-anticipated Montreal-set novel Bone and?Bread.

Aleksandar Hemon has established himself as one of the most vital figures on the international literary scene since emigrating to the United States from Bosnia in 1992. His work has always drawn strongly on personal experience, but The Book of My Lives marks his first foray into proper non-fiction. Hemon writes of ?learning a new city, remembering the old,? the two cities being the only two in which he has ever lived ? Sarajevo and Chicago.

Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid showed a flair for capturing global geopolitical currents in fiction form with his 2008 book, The Reluctant Fundamentalist; the title of his imminent novel, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, would seem to indicate he?s up to something similar.

Karen Russell?s 2011 family saga, Swamplandia!, a master class in the comic-macabre, was one of the bigger cult novels of recent years and a Pulitzer Prize finalist to boot, so there will be a ready-made readership for her new story collection, Vampires in the Lemon Grove.

Every season brings one or two buzz-fuelled hits from relative unknowns, and right now signs are pointing to Eleanor Morse, whose White Dog Fell From the Sky has been drawing advance comparisons with Abraham Verghese?s Cutting Stone and the detective novels of Alexander McCall Smith. If either of those appeal to you ? they strike me as being quite different, which is intriguing in itself ? proceed accordingly. Also tipped for big things is Meg Wolitzer?s The Interestings, which follows a group of gifted teens into adulthood, and arrives bearing hosannas from Jeffrey Eugenides, who likens the novel to Virginia Woolf?s The Waves.

Literati will rejoice at news that a brace of writers? writers ? i.e. brilliant talents who have never sold quite as much as they deserve ? are back with new work. Short story master George Saunders has always pulled off the rare combination of innovation, accessibility, humour and gravitas; his new collection, Tenth of December, has been extensively previewed in The New Yorker and should be nothing less than great. James Salter, whose 1967 novel A Sport and a Pastime frequently shows up on the all-time-best lists of those lucky enough to have read it, is set to publish his first novel in more than 30 years, All That Is.

A titan of 20th-century letters, William H. Gass (trivia fans take note: His On Being Blue inspired the name of Blue Metropolis), is still very much with us, returning with the novel Middle C, his first work of fiction since 1998.

Also back after a lengthy hiatus is Antigua-born American Jamaica Kincaid with her novel See Now Then.

It may be getting tempting to take Malcolm Gladwell for granted, but cast your mind back 15 years or so, to a time before The Tipping Point, and consider just how unlikely it would have seemed then that an essayist/journalist working at the frontiers of social science should become a multimillion-selling author, as bankable as any airport blockbuster purveyor. Readers of all stripes, not to mention booksellers, will be glad to know that Gladwell will be back in book form sometime in 2013 with David and Goliath, a study of power and its uses, inspired partly by the Occupy movement.

Thanks to the readers who sent in their own Hallelujah stories after my interview with Alan Light, author of The Holy or the Broken, a study of the unique journey of Leonard Cohen?s song. Light has also written a fine Beastie Boys biography, and in part of the interview that didn?t quite fit into the feature, I asked him about the response to Adam ?MCA? Yauch?s death this year, and whether he saw any affinities between Cohen and the Beasties, beyond their being Jews who embraced Buddhism. ?We?re all kind of used to the deaths of rock stars,? Light said. ?But we still assume that means something dramatic or glamorous or somehow ?special? ? a plane crash or an overdose or a violent end, things that happen to people who ?aren?t like us.? But with Adam?s passing, this was someone we had grown up with, felt common interests and common cause with, who just got sick and died, like most people do. That really struck me as a different emotional experience than what Michael Jackson fans or Whitney Houston fans or whoever else went through.?

The Beasties and Cohen share ?the willingness to evolve, both personally and creatively,? he said.

?Cohen has always been a seeker ? most obviously through his various religious experiences, but also through finding different ways to write and make music; his embrace of songwriting in the first place, or synthesizers, or even his triumphant late-in-life tours, which surprised himself most of all. Both Leonard and the Beasties have refused to repeat themselves, when that?s what their fans most wanted and expected from them. But then, I guess that?s what being an artist is, right??

? Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

?

?

?

?

?

?

Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/Turning+page+2013/7753582/story.html

ground hog day florida primary results black history groundhogs day paula abdul cinnamon challenge lou dobbs

Chinese government calls for Land Rover recall

Big News Network.com Saturday 29th December, 2012

The Chinese government has asked Jaguar Land Rover's China unit to recall one hundred and ninety 2012 Evoque and Freelander vehicles produced on June 11th this year.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has said the recall was prompted by concerns about the rear brake calipers on the vehicles, which may lead to brakes failing and sudden tyre deflation.

The agency said another one hundred and forty seven 2012 Evoque and 2013 Evoque vehicles made between October 20th and September 18th would also be recalled due to problems in their steering boxes.

Jaguar Land Rover is owned by India's Tata Motors.

Vehicles such as the Land Rover and Jaguar are in high demand in China and other emerging markets.

share this story reader comments
");

Source: http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php/sid/211659314/scat/3a8a80d6f705f8cc

maya angelou joan of arc tony robbins bon iver abraham lincoln vampire hunter their eyes were watching god lara logan

Hands-on with Jolla's Sailfish OS (video)

We recently had the chance to spend time with David Greaves and Vesa-Matti Hartikainen of Jolla and take Sailfish OS for a spin. As you might recall, this open source mobile OS builds upon Mer (a fork of MeeGo that includes Qt) and uses the Nemo framework with a custom UI. Like any decent Linux-based OS, it supports both ARM and x86 devices. The company is also behind the Sailfish SDK which is in the process of being finalized but is still open to developer feedback (the source code is available). After seeing Jolla's various demo videos and noting some UI similarities with MeeGo (swipes) and, strangely, with BB10 (peek gestures), we were eager to experience Sailfish OS for ourselves.

If you're wondering why the mobile OS is usually shown running on Nokia's N950 developer handset, that's because Jolla employs many ex-MeeGo engineers, so the OMAP-based phone was a natural fit. We were first given a walkthrough of Sailfish OS, then allowed to play with it. Many apps are still being worked on and some are still off-limits (we got in trouble for launching the camera), but what we saw was pretty solid. Take a look at the gallery below, then hit the break for our hands-on video and first impressions.

Gallery: Hands-on with Jolla's Sailfish OS

Continue reading Hands-on with Jolla's Sailfish OS (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Nokia

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/29/hands-on-with-jollas-sailfish-os-video/

purple squirrel blade runner close encounters of the third kind norovirus beyonce and jay z baby droid 4 tom brady sister

Storage Wars Texas: Jenny Bears All - 01:31-02:01AM

PREV

NEXT

NEW

Jenny Bears All

Episode: 26

Premiere Date: September 19 2012

WATCH CLIPS EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS The buyers ride out to the cowboy town of Mesquite, Texas. Mary Padian tries to impress Dr. Moe with a sleak, refurbished pool table. Jenny Grumbles uncovers a hot and steely garden item. Ricky and Bubba duke it out for a unit with some antique equestrian gear, while Victor Rjesnjansky attempts to snatch up his piece of the pie. But when Jenny suffers a blow to the head, her dreams of storage glory go up in smoke.

Jenny Bears All

The buyers ride out to the cowboy town of Mesquite, Texas. Mary Padian tries to impress Dr. Moe with a sleak, refurbished pool table. Jenny Grumbles uncovers a hot and steely garden item. Ricky and Bubba duke it out for a unit with some antique equestrian gear, while Victor Rjesnjansky attempts to snatch up his piece of the pie. But when Jenny suffers a blow to the head, her dreams of storage glory go up in smoke.

Episode: 26

Premiere Date: September 19 2012

Source: http://aetv.com/listings/episode_details.do?episodeid=1302500&airingid=739224

Nick Foles Auguste Rodin Breaking Amish Indianapolis explosion mike brown bcs rankings jay cutler

Early cognitive problems documented among those who eventually get Alzheimer's

Dec. 28, 2012 ? People who study or treat Alzheimer's disease and its earliest clinical stage, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), have focused attention on the obvious short-term memory problems. But a new study suggests that people on the road to Alzheimer's may actually have problems early on in processing semantic or knowledge-based information, which could have much broader implications for how patients function in their lives.

Terry Goldberg, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine and director of neurocognition at the Litwin Zucker Center for Research in Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Disorders at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, NY, said that clinicians have observed other types of cognitive problems in MCI patients but no one had ever studied it in a systematic way. Many experts had noted individuals who seemed perplexed by even the simplest task. In this latest study, published in this month's issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, investigators used a clever series of tests to measure a person's ability to process semantic information.

Do people with MCI have trouble accessing different types of knowledge? Are there obvious semantic impairments that have not been picked up before? The answer was "yes."

In setting out to test the semantic processing system, Dr. Goldberg and his colleagues needed a task that did not involve a verbal response. That would only confuse things and make it harder to interpret the results. They decided to use size to test a person's ability to use semantic information to make judgments between two competing sets of facts. "If you ask someone what is bigger, a key or an ant, they would be slower in their response than if you asked them what is bigger, a key or a house," explained Dr. Goldberg. The greater the difference in size between two objects, the faster a person -- normal or otherwise -- can recognize the difference and react to the question.

Investigators brought in 25 patients with MCI, 27 patients with Alzheimer's and 70 cognitively fit people for testing. They found large differences between the healthy controls and the MCI and Alzheimer's patients. "This finding suggested that semantic processing was corrupted," said Dr. Goldberg. "MCI and AD (Alzheimer's disease) patients are really affected when they are asked to respond to a task with small size differences."

They then tweaked the task by showing pictures of a small ant and a big house or a big ant and a small house. This time, the MCI and AD patients did not have a problem with the first part of the test -- they were able to choose the house over the ant when asked what was bigger. But if the images were incongruent -- the big ant seemed just as big as the small house -- they were confused, they answered incorrectly or took longer to arrive at a response.

Patients with MCI were functioning somewhere between the healthy people and those with AD. "When the decision was harder, their reaction time was slower," he said.

Would this damaged semantic system have an effect on everyday functions? To answer this question, investigators turned to the UCSD Skills Performance Assessment scale, a tool that they have been using in MCI and AD patients that is generally used to identify functional deficits in patients with schizophrenia. The test taps a person's ability to write a complex check or organize a trip to the zoo on a cold day.

This is actually a good test for figure out whether someone has problems with semantic knowledge. Semantic processing has its seat in the left temporal lobe. "The semantic system is organized in networks that reflect different types of relatedness or association," the investigators wrote in their study. "Semantic items and knowledge have been acquired remotely, often over many repetitions, and do not reflect recent learning."

Dr. Goldberg said the finding is critically important because it may be possible to strengthen these semantic processing connections through training. "It tells us that something is slowing down the patient and it is not episodic memory but semantic memory," he said. They will continue to study these patients over time to see if these semantic problems get worse as the disease advances.

In an accompanying editorial, David P. Salmon, PhD, of the Department of Neurosciences at the University of California in San Diego, said that the "semantic memory deficit demonstrated by this study adds confidence to the growing perception that subtle decline in this cognitive domain occurs in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment. Because the task places minimal demands on the effortful retrieval process, overt word retrieval, or language production, it also suggests that this deficit reflects an early and gradual loss of integrity of semantic knowledge."

He added that a "second important aspect of this study is the demonstration that semantic memory decrements in patients with mild cognitive impairment may contribute to a decline in the ability to perform usual activities of daily living."

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Brady C. Kirchberg et al. Semantic Distance Abnormalities in Mild Cognitive Impairment: Their Nature and Relationship to Function. American Journal of Psychiatry, 2012; 169 (12): 1275 DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2012.12030383

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/GW1H2xj2IOk/121228130701.htm

law abiding citizen golden globes 2012 miss america lana del rey saturday night live focus on the family packers vs giants giants score

Indian woman dies in Singapore after gang-rape, beating in India

SINGAPORE (AP) -- A young Indian woman who was gang-raped and severely beaten on a bus died today at a Singapore hospital, after her horrific ordeal galvanized Indians to demand greater protection for women from sexual violence that impacts thousands of them every day.

She "passed away peacefully" with her family and officials of the Indian embassy by her side," said Dr. Kevin Loh, the chief executive of Mount Elizabeth hospital where she had been treated since Thursday. "The Mount Elizabeth Hospital team of doctors, nurses and staff join her family in mourning her loss," he said.

He said the woman had remained in an extremely critical condition since Thursday when she was flown to Singapore from India. "Despite all efforts by a team of eight specialists in Mount Elizabeth Hospital to keep her stable, her condition continued to deteriorate over these two days. She had suffered from severe organ failure following serious injuries to her body and brain. She was courageous in fighting for her life for so long against the odds but the trauma to her body was too severe for her to overcome."

The woman and a male friend, who have not been identified, were traveling in a public bus in the Indian capital, New Delhi, after watching a film on the evening of Dec. 16 when they were attacked by six men who raped her. They also beat the couple and inserted an iron rod into her body resulting in severe organ damage. Both of them were then stripped and thrown off the bus,

according to police.

Indian police have arrested six people in connection with the attack, which left the victim with severe internal injuries, a lung infection and brain damage. She also suffered from a heart attack while in the hospital in India.

Indian High Commissioner, or ambassador, T.C.A. Raghanvan told reporters that the scale of the injuries she suffered was "very grave" and in the end it "proved too much.

He said arrangements are being made to take her body back to India.

The frightening nature of the crime shocked Indians, who have come out in their thousands for almost daily demonstrations, demanding stronger protection for women and death penalty for rape, which is now punishable by a maximum life imprisonment. Women face daily harassment across India, ranging from catcalls on the streets, groping and touching in public transport to rape.

But the tragedy has forced India to confront the reality that sexually assaulted women are often blamed for the crime, which forces them to keep quiet and not report it to authorities for fear of exposing their families to ridicule. Also, police often refuse to accept complaints from those who are courageous enough to report the rapes and the rare prosecutions that reach courts drag on for years.

After 10 days at a New Delhi hospital, the victim was brought to the Mount Elizabeth hospital, which specializes in multi-organ transplant. But by late Friday, the young woman's condition had "taken a turn for the worse" and her vital signs had deteriorated. It was clear then that she would not survive long.

Indian attitudes toward rape are so entrenched that even politicians and opinion makers have often suggested that women should not go out at night or wear clothes that might be seen provocative.

Other politicians have come under fire for comments insulting the protesters and diminishing the crime.

On Friday, Abhijit Mukherjee, a national lawmaker and the son of India's president, apologized for calling the protesters "highly dented and painted" women, who go from discos to demonstrations.

"I tender my unconditional apology to all the people whose sentiments got hurt," he told NDTV news.

Separately, authorities in Punjab took action Thursday when an 18-year-old woman killed herself by drinking poison a month after she told police she was gang-raped.

State authorities suspended one police officer and fired two others on accusations they delayed investigating and taking action in the case. The three accused in the rape were only arrested Thursday night, a month after the crime was reported.

"This is a very sensitive crime, I have taken it very seriously," said Paramjit Singh Gill, a top police officer in the city of Patiala.

The Press Trust of India reported that the woman was raped Nov. 13 and reported the attack to police Nov. 27. But police harassed the girl, asked her embarrassing questions and took no action against the accused, PTI reported, citing police sources.

Authorities in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh also suspended a police officer on accusations he refused to register a rape complaint from a woman who said she had been attacked by a driver.

Source: http://www.thereporter.com/ci_22279514/indian-woman-dies-singapore-after-gang-rape-beating?source=rss_viewed

arnold schwarzenegger pirate bay revenge revenge once upon a time once upon a time adam shulman

Les Miserables Matchup: Susan Boyle vs. Glee vs. Anne Hathaway!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/12/les-miserables-matchup-susan-boyle-vs-glee-vs-anne-hathaway/

match play championship the national enquirer marie colvin cm punk cm punk lint buenos aires train crash

The New Year is a 'New' Start For Better Health! |

?

We talk about food. We talk about less sugar, cutting the fat, improving cardio, taking that beta glucan and eating beta glucan-filled foods so that you live longer, healthier lives. But, what most people do not know, is that life and health is not all about food and exercise. And our friends at BetterWayHealth.com want to talk to you this holiday season about the benefits of ?drink,? so that when you reach for that glass on New Year?s Eve you will have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about.

What most people do not know in this age of constant exercise and constantly ?bashing? people about their weight ? and what and when they eat ? is that liquor is also something that allows people to live longer. When it comes to two categories ? abstainers and heavy drinkers ? we are talking about people who are leading their bodies toward heart attacks and strokes. BUT, a moderate drinker of alcoholic beverages (wine, beer and distilled spirits) is far less likely to suffer heart attacks, diabetes, arthritis, enlarged prostate, dementia, and several major cancers. This is not a new concept, by the way. This is something that even doctors will tell you, considering that alcoholic beverages help with tension, stress and even the easing of nerve endings and muscle pain. As long as you don?t overdo it ? this is a true health ?pleaser.?

Believe it or not, the medicinal properties of alcohol are mentioned everywhere throughout history; many books from various communities (including the ?Good Book?) talk about alcohol and how it cures. As early as the turn of the century there was evidence that moderate, controlled consumption decreased the risk of heart attack, not to mention huge evidence of other health benefits when it came to adding ?a drink? to daily life.

Reviews, studies, reports ? a great many things show a strong relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and the reduction in cardiovascular disease and coronary artery disease. Even the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has reported that moderate drinkers have the greatest longevity. But they?re not the only ones who report this. Health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption have existed since one of the earliest scientific studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association which appeared in 1904. And the World Health Organization (WHO) Technical Committee on Cardiovascular Disease also weighed in by saying that ?the relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and reduced death from heart disease can no longer be doubted.?

So?when the New Year comes along and the wine is flowing and the friends are smiling, what exactly is the best drink to add to the diet that will improve cardiovascular function and, perhaps, save you from heart disease?

There are no ?set? rules when it comes to the various alcohol categories, but the total calorie count has to be taken into consideration. Say you add one drink per day to your diet ? perhaps in the evening after the hard, fast job has come to an end and it is time to relax and do something for yourself! Generally speaking, a serving of wine has fewer calories than a serving of beer, which in turn has fewer calories than a serving of mixed drinks. Beer, as everyone knows, contains a great deal of carbs ? while most wines and liquors are low-carb categories. If you want to make the choice as simple as possible, go with a nice glass of wine or liquor. When we speak about liquor, however, we are NOT speaking about mixed drinks. In fact, doctor?s point out that when it comes to mixed drinks: ?It is the mixers, syrups, and sodas that get people into calorie trouble, because most drinks start with 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits that only have around 96 calories, but mixologists turn that into a beverage with hundreds of calories when special things are added.?

If calories are a concern, pick a drink that is served ?neat? and skip the extras completely. (A 1.5-ounce serving of vodka, gin, whiskey, etc., is roughly one hundred calories, which is online with a five-ounce serving of wine. Beer, of course, can cost you a little. Light beer can range from 90-100 calories per 12-ounce serving, whereas a regular beer is around 300 calories, which is a great deal to take in (even though this is still the number one choice for consumers.)

In essence, a glass of wine can provide you with all the health benefits you?re looking for, and when drinking liquor, just make sure it?s all by itself to give you better health. But if mixed drinks are your ?choice,? just make sure that you use mixers that are diet tonics, sodas and/or juices to keep them healthy. There?s always compromise when it comes to healthy/dietary foods, so drink is no different.

If you find yourself at that holiday party, just remember to have your drink then, perhaps, switch to a different, non-alcoholic drink, such as sparkling water with a squeeze of lime. This way, you can feel refreshed and not have to worry about any ?battle of the bulge? from over-consumption. If self-control is an issue (as it is most times with delicious foods), simply go for the lower-calorie and often more bland drinks. That way, cutting yourself off will be absolutely no problem whatsoever.

In the end, enjoy and celebrate the New Year ? AND also work at least one glass of wine (if possible) into the diet so that you can save your heart the stress and tension it receives from the everyday hectic life. But, above all, turn to BetterWayHealth.com in the New Year and get the advice, friendship and help YOU need to live a healthier life!

Happy Holidays!

www.BetterWayHealth.com

Source: http://bozemannewsonline.com/the-new-year-is-a-new-start-for-better-health/

michelle williams the descendants the descendants packers giants game golden globe winners 2012 ricky gervais golden globes epidermolysis bullosa

kuizslilla: Magic grass oil paintings on canvas 60x80cm and...

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://peekadora.tumblr.com/post/39164464162

marist south carolina primary results betty white ed reed football schedule jo paterno dead south carolina

Press Conference Held To Save West Point Lake Water Level

Courtesy of lagrangecitizen.com

(Lagrange, GA) ? Troup County Commission Chairman Ricky Wolfe and LaGrange Mayor Jeff Lukken recently hosted a press conference at West Point Lake.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has proposed a change that would allow the lake to be full (at a recreational use level of 635 feet) only from June 1st through September 1st, for a maximum of three months out of the year. Previously, the lake has been full for five months out of the year, from June 1st through November 1st. If the proposed USACE change is put into place, it would amount to a 40 percent reduction in time that the lake could be used for recreational purposes.

Such a change would have a significant impact on the local economy. Depending on how the lake is managed, it could have an annual local economic impact ranging from $153 million to $710 million.

For example, Lukken said, organizers of the BASSmaster fishing tournament (which was held at West Point Lake last year and televised by ESPN2) would like to hold the tournament at the lake again in May 2013, but nobody knows if there will be enough water for such an event.

Wolfe and Lukken asked local citizens to sign a letter that will be sent to USACE as well as the governor, U.S. senators, and state senators and representatives. The letter will be available for signature at LaGrange City Hall (200 Ridley Ave.), Troup County Board of Commissioners Office (100 Ridley Ave.), and LaGrange-Troup County Chamber of Commerce (111 Bull St.).?Sign the petition online by clicking here.

?

Watch video of the full press conference below:

?

Full text of the letter regarding West Point Lake:

TO: Colonel Donald E. Jackson, Jr., Division Commander
USACE, South Atlantic Division

Colonel Eric Conrad, Deputy Division Commander
USACE, South Atlantic Division

Colonel Steven Roemhildt, District Commander
USACE, Mobile District

FROM: Undersigned Citizen

DATE: December 2012

RE: Guide Curve Change at West Point Lake

West Point Lake is a 25,684 acre mainstream Chattahoochee River impoundment that was identified by the US Congress as a recreational demonstration project and has been in existence since 1974. The Lake was authorized by Congress for five uses: 1) flood control, 2) hydroelectric power, 3) navigation, 4) sport fishing and wildlife development and 5) general recreation.

In regards to the latter two purposes, West Point Lake offers an abundance of wildlife and numerous ways to enjoy it. When the Lake was created, a forested valley was flooded; trees and other structures were left standing to provide an excellent fish habitat. Man-made fish attractors also improve fishing at the lake. Short, mild winters and long, warm summers plus gradual transitions between seasons characterize the climate?making the project conducive to year-round recreational and sport fishing use. The Lake?s impact on the local economy ranges from $153 million to $710 million, depending upon how the lake level is managed.

However, in recent years, the USACE has dropped water levels at West Point Lake for extended periods of time. Large expanses of exposed mud shoreline, bank erosion and smaller lake surfaces have become the norm, rather than the exception. Of course, I recognize that water is a limited resource throughout the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Basin and that droughts are becoming more frequent and longer in duration.

Historically, there is some seasonal variation in rainfall with the heaviest rains occurring in the winter and the lightest during the fall. This information, coupled with the fact that the USACE acknowledges that drawdowns are detrimental to recreational use, the fishery and soil erosion, makes the USACE?s decision to propose changing the guide curve for the Lake in the late summer/early fall perplexing.

Changing the guide curve and, in essence, reducing the potential for the Lake to be used for its intended Congressional authorizations during high recreational and sport fishing season by 40% is not acceptable. This decision, on an already beleaguered lake, would have detrimental effects not only on our community?s quality of life but especially to those businesses that depend upon tourism and recreation.

I strongly encourage you to reevaluate your decision and re-establish a guide curve for West Point Lake that matches the Congressionally authorized use of the Lake.

cc:
U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss
U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson
U.S. Congressman Lynn Westmoreland
Governor Nathan Deal
Pete Taylor, USACE, Mobile District
Pat Robbins, USACE, Mobile District
Randall B. Harvey, USACE, Mobile District
Senator Josh McKoon
Senator Mike Crane
Rep. Carl Epps
Rep. Randy Nix
Rep. John Pezold

Source: http://www.heardcitizen.com/press-conference-held-to-save-west-point-lake-water-level

justified southland sopa blackout protect ip act jim caldwell internet blackout jessica capshaw

Americans from Central African Republic capital evacuated

Reuters

Hundreds protest in front of the French Embassy in the Bangui, Central African Republic, on Wednesday, expressing anger over the lack of response by the former colonial power to rebels advancing on the capital.

?

By NBC News and wire services

U.S. diplomats and other American citizens have been evacuated from the Central African Republic and U.S. embassy operations have been suspended in the capital, Bangui, the State Department said Thursday. The move came as?rebel forces?advanced on the city.

"This decision is solely due to concerns about the security of our personnel and has no relation to our continuing and long-standing diplomatic relations with the (Central African Republic)," said State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell.

Insurgents on motorbikes and in pickup trucks have driven to within 45 miles of Bangui after weeks of fighting, threatening to end President Francois Bozize's nearly 10-year rule over the turbulent, resource-rich country.

Bozize appealed to the United States and France to help push back the rebels.

---

Some U.S. Special Forces are operating in the country, trying to track down the Lords Resistance Army, a rebel group responsible for killing thousands of civilians across four African nations.?There was no indication that these forces would be used to aid Bozize against the advancing insurgents.

Earlier a senior defense official told NBC News that there were "several hundred" civilians, including Americans and citizens of close U.S. allies who may be evacuated, but comments by the State Department's Ventrell suggested fewer had left:?

"Ambassador (Laurence) Wohlers and his diplomatic team left Bangui today along with several private U.S. citizens," according to Ventrell.

The non-combatant evacuation operation transported "U.S. citizens and designated foreign nationals to safe havens in the region," according to a statement from?Defense Department spokesman Todd Breasseale. The flight out of Bangui was "wheels up" at about 7:15 p.m. ET.?

Paris said its troops would protect French nationals, but not be involved in repelling the rebels.?

Some 1,200 French nationals live in the CAR, mostly in the capital, according to the French Foreign Ministry, where they typically work for mining firms or aid groups.

French nuclear energy group Areva mines the Bakouma uranium deposit in the CAR's south ? France's biggest commercial interest in its former colony.?

Bozize on Thursday appealed for French and U.S. military support to stop the SELEKA rebel coalition, which has promised to overthrow him unless he implements a previous peace deal in full.

France: 'Those days are over'
He told a crowd of anti-rebel protesters in the riverside capital that he had asked Paris and Washington to help move the rebels away from the capital to clear the way for peace talks which regional leaders say could be held soon in Libreville, Gabon.

"We are asking our cousins the French and the United States, which are major powers, to help us push back the rebels to their initial positions in a way that will permit talks in Libreville to resolve this crisis," Bozize said.

Georges Gobet / AFP - Getty Images file

Central African Republic President Francois Bozize in 2008.

France has 250 soldiers in its landlocked former colony as part of a peacekeeping mission and Paris in the past has ousted or propped up governments ? including by using air strikes to defend Bozize against rebels in 2006.

But French President Francois Hollande poured cold water on the latest request for help.

"If we have a presence, it's not to protect a regime, it's to protect our nationals and our interests and in no way to intervene in the internal business of a country, in this case the Central African Republic," Hollande said on the sidelines of a visit to a wholesale food market outside Paris.

"Those days are over," he said.

France is increasingly reluctant to directly intervene in conflicts in its former colonies. Since coming to power in May, Hollande has promised to put ties with its former colonies on a healthier footing.

The rebel advance has highlighted the instability of a country that has remained poor since independence from Paris in 1960 despite rich deposits of uranium, gold and diamonds. Average income is barely over $2 a day.

Regional African leaders, meantime, tried to broker a ceasefire deal and rebels said they had temporarily halted their advance on Bangui to allow talks to take place.

Officials from around central Africa were to meet in Bangui later on Thursday to open initial talks with the government and rebels.

A rebel spokesman said fighters had temporarily halted their advance to allow dialogue.

"We will not enter Bangui," Col. Djouma Narkoyo, the rebel spokesman, told Reuters by telephone.

Previous rebel promises to stop advancing have been broken, and a diplomatic source said rebels had taken up positions around Bangui on Thursday, effectively surrounding it.

The atmosphere remained tense in Bangui the day after anti-rebel protests broke out, and residents were stocking up on food and water.

Government soldiers deployed at strategic sites and French troops reinforced security at the French embassy after protesters threw rocks at the building on Wednesday.

Bozize came to power in a 2003 rebellion that overthrew President Ange-Felix Patasse.

The government holds little sway outside the capital, and in some parts of the country, the consequences of conflicts in troubled neighbors Chad, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo have spilled over.

This report includes reporting by Reuters and NBC News' Courtney Kube.

More world stories from NBC News:

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and

?

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/27/16193391-us-evacuates-americans-from-central-african-republic-capital-as-rebels-close-in?lite

consumer financial protection bureau casey anthony video recess appointment eastman kodak eastman kodak richard cordray shannon de lima

WEB STREAMING | DaniWeb

How to develop web streaming in php?

Authored by happygeek in the Web Development forum, this related news story currently has 4 replies, was last posted to 4 weeks ago by seomasterx and has been tagged with the following keywords: web, browser, news, google, chrome, microsoft, internet, ie, client, stats, analysis, market. It begins, ?Over the last couple of days the online media seems to have gone crazy for ...?

firdousahmad

Junior Poster in Training

73 posts since May 2012

Reputation Points: -1

Solved Threads: 3

Skill Endorsements: 0

?

Hi,

You mean video and audio streaming?

You will need to have an ffmpeg, mp4 box, flvtool2,mencoder and mplayer, ffmpeg-php capable server. You can also look into red5 media server as an option.

Additional items you would need is a reliable flash player like the ones offered by jwplayer and flowmotion.

If you have a limited bandwidth on your hosting account, make sure to have your video metadata injected with flvtool2 (flv files only), for the h264 and mp4 you can move the moov atom in the front of the video, by using mp4box. These tools will allow you to pseudo-stream your contents without translating all the media file size into bandwidth consumptions.

Lastly, you will need to know all of the basics of ffmpeg-php and the basics ffmpeg encoding commands.

veedeoo

Practically a Master Poster

616 posts since Oct 2011

Reputation Points: 232

Solved Threads: 100

Skill Endorsements: 8

?

firdousahmad

Junior Poster in Training

73 posts since May 2012

Reputation Points: -1

Solved Threads: 3

Skill Endorsements: 0

?

You will need to look for a reliable hosting company. This is the hosting company I used for developing video streaming applications.

I think they also have a ready to install FREE video streaming applications e.g. phpmotion, clic bucket, vidiscript and many others.

MORE INFO. NOT RELATED TO YOUR QUESTION
I was one of the developer of the vidiscript open-source version 1.0 to version 1.3, but that is the old version we wrote that is still being distributed by most ffmpeg hosting companies. I was able to released all the bug fixes two years ago 2010 and then it was followed by major fix for php 5.3+ in my last year release.

I wrote version 3.7 of the open source, but got really busy at my schooling, and then I have to trashed bin all of the 3.7 version because I want to write it as a video content management using my own mvc framework with an option of smarty, twig and tinybutstrong template engines. I am still on track for my projected release date by mid 2013. This will be called veedeoo scripts which is an open source.

veedeoo

Practically a Master Poster

616 posts since Oct 2011

Reputation Points: 232

Solved Threads: 100

Skill Endorsements: 8

?

Source: http://www.daniweb.com/web-development/php/threads/444164/web-streaming

whale shark duke university platypus platypus overboard east of eden weather radio

First Tennessee, BBVA unit took big Fed loans in late 2010

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First Tennessee Bank and a U.S. affiliate of Spanish bank BBVA were among the largest borrowers from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending program in late 2010, according to data released on Friday.

By far the largest loan in the quarter was the roughly $1.02 billion that First Horizon unit First Tennessee borrowed on November 24, 2010 for a two-day term. That one loan represented about 29 percent of all primary credit lending from the discount window for the quarter.

Company officials said they took the loan because of a technical problem relating to wire transfers between the bank and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Because it was the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, and the wire transfer glitches were taking too long to repair, First Tennessee agreed to take the loan as a stopgap until the holiday ended and the problems were fixed.

The BBVA unit borrowed $200 million in two transactions. A representative of the parent company in Spain said the transactions were a routine test of the discount window mechanism by its U.S. wholesale unit and said it conducts similar operations every year.

The Fed began releasing the data earlier this year, albeit with a two-year lag, under the terms of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. The central bank had lobbied to keep such lending figures private for fear it could create a stigma for emergency loans in the future.

Other small but frequent borrowers during the final quarter of 2010 were First National Bank of Jeffersonville, New York, and Grand Bank of Hamilton, New Jersey. Representatives at both banks were not available for comment.

Some 456 separate financial institutions took loans of one kind or another during the quarter.

The Fed data can be found at: http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/reform_discount_window.htm.

(Reporting by Ben Berkowitz and Pedro da Costa; Additional reporting by Ryan McNeill in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/first-tennessee-bbva-unit-took-big-fed-loans-172404407--sector.html

rand paul mark kirk florida gop debate freddie mac kristin cavallari oscar nominations rough riders

House sets Sunday session as fiscal cliff deadline nears (reuters)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/273423870?client_source=feed&format=rss

jeremy lin espn sassafras mardi gras 2012 the secret world of arrietty cee lo allen iverson jr smith

Stock Buybacks: Separating Fact From Fiction ... - Yahoo! Finance

You hear it on financial television or read it in the paper all the time: Company XYZ issues a huge stock buyback program. Conventional wisdom says buybacks are sign that the company itself thinks its stock is cheap. In theory, this would be the ultimate "inside information." The reality is quite different.

In this edition of Investing 101, Greg Milano, co-founder & CEO of Fortuna Advisors, a company specializing in shareholder value consulting, walks us through some of the basics on stock buybacks and sheds light on whether or not they're a reliable signal to buy shares alongside the company itself.

What's a Buyback?

Simply enough, Milano says a buyback is just the "act of a company taking some of its cash or some money it might borrow, and buying some of its own shares."

Significantly, an actual buyback versus one that's just announced, are different things. Often times a company will set a buyback policy of bidding for a stock under the current prices. It's a way for the board of directors to start buying its own shares when the stock price dips.

Why Would a Public Company Buy Its Own Shares?

It's not as silly a question as it may seem. Being public means selling a portion of the company to raise cash; usually for the purposes of cashing out insiders and investing in corporate opportunities. Selling shares to the public then buying them back sounds dangerously close to trading your own shares.

Milano says there are two basic reasons for buybacks. First, the company may not have anything better to do with its cash and they view this as having a better potential return than an investment in its own shares. In other words, the board of directors simply thinks a stock is too cheap.

The second reason is to increase earnings per share. Fewer shares mean EPS reports look more impressive than they really are.

Do Buybacks Lead to Higher Stock Prices?

Milano says yes in the short term. After that, not so much.

"Over time the companies that buy back more stock tend to produce worse shareholder returns,"he says. Earnings per share may have the appearance of growth, but Wall Street sees through the illusion.

"If you're growing EPS in a way that's really just financial engineering, the market doesn't think much of that," Milano states. Investors want real growth, not a shuffling of assets.

Add it up and buybacks are a lot of sizzle without much steak. They may give a short term pop to a stock, but once the excitement fades the shares tend to give back the gains, even with the company buying alongside regular investors.

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/stock-buybacks-separating-fact-fiction-130319620.html

fidel castro rick santorum ozzie guillen castro comments phish gluten free diet barry zito mac virus

Easy resolutions to boost your family life - Lifestyle, Frontpage ...

TRADITIONALLY many of us look at January 1 as the opportunity for a fresh new beginning. We use it to quit smoking, start diets or join the gym. We see it as a tangible new start where we can set about improving ourselves with goals and ambitions for a new year that stretches ahead, filled with promise.

Resolutions are generally all about self-improvement, but for 2013, why not consider making a resolution that will improve your whole family's lives, and not just your own? From cooking to hugging to swimming, take inspiration from these 10 suggestions below.

Learn something new

Few of us are blessed with perfect students, and, for many, homework proves a real challenge. What better way to show your support then by going back to school yourself? Sign up for a class in 2013, whether it's a new language or skill like photography, playing an instrument or sewing. Let your children see that learning can be fun, and that it doesn't need to be done under duress. Better still, empower them by asking for their help when you are practising your lessons.

Go swimming together

Most parents recognise the importance of taking their children to swimming lessons. It's an essential life skill that may go on to save your child's life someday. While most children love water some dislike the hassle of swimming lessons and it can be a challenge to get them into the pool each week.

So, for 2013, vow to go swimming together as a family every so often. Rather than just drop them off at lessons, get into your swimsuit, jump in with them, dive, play, race and splash -- basically, be a kid for an hour with your kids.

Hug more

Hugs are good for us. They release a hormone called oxytocin which makes us feel more relaxed and content. In our house, we have a tradition called a Family Hug, where both of us scoop up the three kids and sing "Family hug, family hug, family hug" to the tune of "Here we go, here we go, here we go!" The kids love this 60-second bonding ritual and often request a Family Hug out of the blue. I recommend starting a hugging ritual that leaves everyone feeling warm and fuzzy afterwards.

Teach the kids to cook

Childhood obesity is a real problem and we, as parents, are the ones with the power to turn these frightening statistics around. You don't need to be Nigella or Rachel Allen to give your kids great tasting food. Whether you're a decent cook or hopeless case you should click on www.breakingeggs.com in 2013. This brilliant online cookery show is for parents and children and shows Connemara chef Cliodhna Prendergast cooking real food at home with her three young children.

Exercise more

There's more to being healthy than eating well, and exercise is key. Children follow example, so if they see mum or dad slumped in front of the TV seven nights a week then that normalises laziness. On the other hand, if they know dad goes for a run on a Saturday morning or Mum does Zumba during the week then they grow up accepting that exercise is a fun and normal hobby. Let them try karate or gymnastics or skateboarding until they find something they love. But be the first to lead by example. Make 2013 the year you commit to regular exercise and invest in your health.

Explore your county

Invest in your family's wellbeing by spending more quality time together in the New Year. Family time doesn't have to cost money, and shouldn't simply be a trip to the cinema where you all sit in the dark without talking. Take a leaf out of older generations' books and make day trips your modus operandi for 2013. From a DART trip around Dublin Bay to a trek in the mountains, a windswept walk on a favourite beach or visit to a museum or art gallery, try to enjoy a new experience every few weeks. The weather may be too cold to contemplate picnics, but as soon as spring kicks in break out the packed lunches and make your family trips even more memorable.

Get to know

your cousins

Never underestimate the value of your extended family. Emigration has, once again, torn families apart, so if you're lucky enough to have siblings living in Ireland then make 2013 the year you spend more time together. Your children will learn a lot about family and relationships by the way you interact with your parents, brothers and sisters. Sow the seeds of love now and let them see that a brother or sister is a gift for life. Give your children the opportunity to know their cousins and encourage them to build special friendships with their extended family.

Play board games

When the obsession with the new Wii, PlayStation and Nintendo has worn off, why not introduce a new family night? Once a fortnight switch off the TV, consoles, mobiles and laptops and sit down together with the family's favourite board games for some good, old-fashioned entertainment. From traditional card games to Connect 4, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, Cranium and Pop to the Shops (for the little ones), board games can provide hours of fun and laughter. If the tech-heads object to this, then it's up to you to show them how much fun can be had.

One-on-one time

Resolve to indulge each of your kids with a little one-on-one time. Pick a fun activity you know each child will love and make the day all about them. Whether it's shopping, going to a match, cycling or a trip to the zoo, let them become the centre of mum or dad's world for the day. Be sure all siblings get taken on an outing of equal appeal and try to do this a few times a year.

If in doubt, bake a cake!

Kids of all ages love cakes. Most adults do, too. If you've broken every other resolution on this list, set aside an hour and bake a cake together. (Baking is surprisingly simple, but if it terrifies you then buy a pack of foolproof cake mix) Sharing warm cake from the oven (in moderation, of course) will guarantee you Parent of the Year status for another year.

A perfect resolution.

- Jillian Bolger

Source: http://www.herald.ie/lifestyle/easy-resolutions-to-boost-your-family-life-3337963.html

heartbreak hotel don cornelius whitney houston i will always love you breaking news whitney houston carmen whitney houston last performance cpac straw poll